I Wish There Weren't Issues Like This To Write About...

It’s been awhile since I’ve had some time to write on here, and you’re not going to get spiritually fed with this one, but here’s what’s on my mind…:)

It’s no secret by now that each year, millions of people are dieing in sub-Saharan Africa due to HIV/AIDS and other diseases stemming from malnutrition and unclean water.

But what’s absolutely inexcusable is that there are resources available to prevent or at least treat these problems.

Problem #1)
When it comes to fighting HIV/AIDS, malnutrition, or even poverty in general, many of the resources that have been sent over (whether money, food, or drugs) simply aren’t making it to the people. Corrupt governments and leaders keep the money or food for themselves and the people in sub-Saharan Africa remain stuck in a poverty trap.

Problem #2)
As a result of the first problem, many developed nations have stopped giving aid altogether, demanding that regimes change before any further aid will be sent into the country.

Problem #3)
Unless forced to do so because of a declared “state of medical emergency,” large pharmaceutical companies refuse to allow these impoverished nations to buy cheaper generic drugs from countries such as Brazil and India. Malaria can be treated for less than a dollar and the generic drugs used to treat HIV/AIDS cost less than $2 per person, yet these large pharmaceutical companies threaten to refuse to sell these nations ANY of their other drugs if they don’t buy their (more expensive) medicines for these illnesses.

This is absolutely ridiculous…close to a million people die from malaria each year in sub-Saharan Africa yet it’s not considered a “medical emergency”, thus, these large pharmaceuticals can get away with this…

I kind of wonder if any of the people making these decisions for these companies have ever been to Africa and seen the poverty and suffering first-hand that could easily be prevented should they ever trade in their selfishness for a little bit of compassion. I’m not saying AIDS or malaria would cease to exist, but it’d be a step in the right direction…

Praise God for people like Bill Gates and Kojo Benjamin-Taylor that are sick of watching the developed nations of the world sit back and watch from a distance as millions of Africans die from preventable or treatable diseases.

While most politicians are content to blame poverty on bad politics and even others otherwise in favor of private aid like Jeffrey Sachs wait for the middle class to become empowered and overthrow the government, both Gates and Taylor are actually DOING something and going DIRECTLY to the people.

We can watch and wait for regimes and governments to change all we want, but in the meantime, entire generations of people in sub-Saharan Africa are being wiped off the map.

You got it together? 'Cause I don't...

As I was walking home from class today I was thinking about a conversation I had with a friend at lunch the day before about how sometimes we look up to people as if they have everything all together, when in reality, they’re just as messed up and confused as we are.

…and I realized that a lot of people this weekend probably got the impression that I have it all figured out.

Senior guy. Bible study leader. In the band. Beard.

…which kind of makes me want to get in front of everyone at Primetime and simply say:

“There is absolutely NOTHING in my life that I have completely figured out.”

But I think that’s right where God wants me.

In less than two months, I went from having “everything figured out” to being completely back at square one. Humbling.

If I know anything, it’s that God has a funny way of changing our plans or stripping them away completely. But that doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t be at least a little helpful to be given a hint as to where He might want to take me, say…within the next year or so.

That’s kind of rapidly approaching…might be helpful.

In some ways I feel like you could take my constant complaining about my lack of direction and plug in this verse from 2 Corinthians 12:

“My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.”

Do I really believe that this place of vulnerability is right where God wants me? Do I believe that by me being “weak,” His “dunamis” power is able to do miraculous, mighty works?

…or do I simply believe that He is able only to “get me through” these times of weakness? That His grace is sufficient to lend a hand until I’m able to get back on my own two feet and figure things out for myself again?

Seeing how my plans have fared lately, I guess I’ll try and find comfort in the fact that it’s in someone else’s hands this time...

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

Sometimes I Wish

Sometimes I wish my life was different, a little easier maybe.

I wish that I could just go to class, study, and waste numerous hours playing video games, watching movies, and playing guitar instead of feeling like at any moment, my last ounce of strength is going to expire as I tirelessly do my best to make Christ famous.

I wish that I could pursue MY dreams and MY goals instead of what God has planned for me.

I wish that I could get a degree in business or something practical, settle down, and get a job after graduating so that my friends and family would acknowledge and be proud of my “success” instead of feeling like I never live up to others’ expectations for what my life should look like.

But God’s called me to something bigger. Instead of being just another ordinary guy leading an insignificant life, He desires to use me to do EXTRAORDINARY things and to lead a life of SIGNIFICANCE.

So I’ll continue to press on. I’ll continue to do my best to lay down my ambitions and give up my desire for approval from others. And in the end it will be worth it. I only get one shot at this, so why leave anything on the table?

Panic Attacks and Puking

It’s become abundantly clear the past couple weeks as I talk with fellow seniors that NO ONE has any idea what they’re going to do after graduation.

This, however, was apparently of little comfort to me as over the past several weeks I had been having minor panic attacks as I began to try to process through what the heck’s been happening in my life and what I’m supposed to do a year from now. This was accompanied by several terrible dreams and nervous knots in my stomach that made me want to puke, something I’d never experienced in all my years of performing and playing sports. The panic attacks, dreams, and knotted stomach have all subsided, but let’s just say I still don’t have things figured out…

I admit it’s ridiculous that I allowed myself to get so stressed out about all of this and put that much pressure on myself. Instead of being excited about the fact that I can literally do ANYTHING I WANT after graduating, I allowed myself to become preoccupied with just how I was going to find my way to the end goal that I have in mind for my life.

In 1 Timothy 6:17, Paul tells the rich to surrender their love of money to God and to put their hope in Him instead. As I read this, the story of the Rich Young Ruler quickly came to mind. Much like the Rich Young Ruler declined to give up control of his wealth to Jesus, I’ve been doing the same with…well basically, my life.

In my mind I think that I’ve gotten into college and through the past three years of my life completely by my own doing and that upon graduating I’m going to have to take some HUGE step of faith because that’s where God’s control of my life really begins.

But back in 1 Timothy 6, Paul goes on in verse 19 to explain why surrendering their wealth to God is so important; “SO THAT they may take hold of the life that is truly life.”

“The life that is truly life” doesn’t seem very specific, yet it jumped off the page at me as I read it. Unfortunately all too rarely do I get my clumsy self out of the way and allow God to fill me with “the life that is truly life,” but I have become an expert in what “the life that is truly life” is not.

It is not lying in bed every night worrying about how this, that, and the other thing are going to work out.

It is not becoming so overwhelmed and preoccupied with how my future is going to play out just the way I want it to that I have a hard time breathing.

And it is certainly not becoming so concerned about the end goal when I’m 21 years old that I want to throw up and completely miss out on what God wants to do in my life RIGHT NOW.

Instead, I think it maybe looks a little more like this:

“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered ME faithful, appointing ME to his service.” -1 Timothy 1:12

God could probably care less about what career I choose or what organization I end up working for. As far as I know, when I meet Jesus face to face, He’s going to be more concerned with how I lived my life for Him and used the talents and abilities that He gave me to further His kingdom than if I made my living as a plumber, airline pilot, or rapper.

In no way did God intend for me to feel the weight of what I’ve felt and concern myself with the things that I’ve concerned myself with. He instead offers me strength and the affirmation that I long for in preparing me to find life in fellowship with his Son and in doing the work that He has prepared for me to do.

It blows my mind not only that God considers ME faithful to carry out his work, but that I don’t have to worry about what I should do with my life.

If I follow close to Him and concern myself more with daily pursuing Christ than figuring out where I want to be in 20 years, I will undoubtedly find the good works that God has had in store for me since before the beginning of time.

That being said, I think I’ll take a deep breath and enjoy my last year of college. It’s going to be a good one…

No Perfect People Allowed

So this will be short, but I wanted to recommend the book “No Perfect People Allowed: Creating a Come As You Are Culture in the Church” by John Burke to everyone. (Unless your name is Marc Nettleton and you think that the name of his book disqualifies you from going to Burke’s church! Kidding…)

John Burke is the pastor of Gateway Church in Austin, Texas, the church that most of his stories and experiences in the book come from. Before becoming a pastor in Texas and his work on staff with Willow Creek, Burke was involved with campus ministry in California (more on this in a second) until he decided that it wasn’t for him.

Although he never explicitly states it, it is obvious that the ministry he was involved (and on staff) with was Campus Crusade. He talks of using “neatly outlined four-point booklets” to share the Gospel, initiative evangelism, and through his many stories uses several metaphors and ideas that anyone familiar with Crusade would recognize in an instant.

What is interesting to me is how the training and teaching that he has received from Crusade has meshed with his heart for the Church and his desire to see the Body of Christ generously dish out grace and the opportunity for community in the post-Christian, post-modern culture of the United States. Though he’s traded in his Four Laws booklet for the chance to usher people through their spiritual journeys by teaching from the pulpit, he still continues to use much of the training and experience that he’s had from doing initiative evangelism on campus in a church atmosphere that is consistent with the emerging Church in America. That is, showing people what it means to have a relationship with Jesus through a welcoming community and exploring the Scriptures rather than having one-time, 15-minute conversations with people using a booklet.

I’m in no way knocking Campus Crusade or saying that one way is better than another (in fact, both methods overlap considerably) and I’m certain that Burke would not do so either. I’m even encouraged by the fact that though initiative evangelism has taken a backseat to what he’s trying to accomplish through Gateway Church, his experiences in college ministry have aided him in better explaining the Gospel in the relationships with the drug addicts, homosexuals, feminists, atheists, and other churchgoers that Gateway has attracted due to their welcoming, relational church culture.

Everyone is seeking community, whether in Austin, Texas or as freshmen at the UW, a fact which John Burke and Gateway Church embraces, and when we recognize the fact that all of us are messed-up and it’s going to take more than a short, persuasive presentation of the Gospel to bring people back to a right relationship with God, we can move beyond “tolerance” and start utilizing the Church’s greatest and most attractive weapon: grace.

Consuming Church

On most Sundays, unless I happen to be on one of the worship teams that week, I usually walk into church a few minutes before it starts, talk with friends that I see all week for a few minutes, take part in the worship service, and talk again with the same friends that I see all week. I can count on one hand the number of interactions I’ve initiated with someone at church outside of my circle of friends, probably only because someone onstage told us to do so.

I didn’t really see a problem with this until I went out to Boston and spent my summer with a church plant where on any given Sunday, a majority of those in attendance are college-age students and young twentysomethings.

They would come, talk to their friends, take part in the worship service, talk to their friends, and leave.

I had always heard people say here on campus that “I just go to church for the teaching since I already have fellowship with students on campus,” and have even said similar things myself.

* * * * * * *

In his book Confessions of a Reformission Rev, Mark Driscoll recalls the history of the Mars Hill Church plant in Seattle. Let me preface what I’m about to tell you by first acknowledging that many people have thought of him as an insensitive jerk (or far worse I’m sure) at times that is not afraid to be truthful, blunt, and push the envelope…sometimes making for an interesting combination. (Donald Miller refers to him in Blue Like Jazz as “cussing Mark.”) But love him or hate him, and most people will do one or the other, he is very passionate about Jesus.

At one point along their journey to eventually becoming a mega-church, the leadership of Mars Hill sent out letters to all of the members of their church stating that some of them were coming to church on Sundays and leaving without helping out financially, volunteering, etc…they were “consuming” church.

They then proceeded to tell the members that weren’t contributing that they should either step up their involvement as members at Mars Hill or leave because the church needed people that were going to be “on mission” with their goal of bringing Seattle back to a restored relationship with God.

I’m not going to discuss whether or not I agree with this decision (though they must have done something right since following the sending out of these letters, church membership declined by 100-200 people but then eventually exploded), but there is something at the core of this one church’s decision that got me thinking…

* * * * * * *

While parachurch ministries (i.e. Campus Crusade, Navigators, etc) have certainly had immeasurable eternal impact, they were never meant to stand alone or take the place of the local church. Often times, at least in my opinion, these types of ministries have very SPECIFIC roles that they are trying to fulfill within the Body of Christ and are not always all that wholistic.

That’s where the local church comes in. As my eyes have been opened to in the past few months, they offer far more opportunities for SERVICE and for fulfilling the social aspects of the Gospel. I’ve also gotta believe that the Apostle Paul would turn over in his grave at the thought of Christians trying to pursue the Lord and to live up to God’s potential for their lives without the fellowship of multiple generations.

See where I’m going with this? It may be true that we have great fellowship back on campus but that doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be more for us to “doing church” than simply showing up and consuming the product that they’re offering us.

It was scary to me when I came to the realization that I was one of those people that simply shows up to church and for the most part, gives nothing back to contribute to the mission that they’re on.

But as much as we might think that our local church is missing out because we’re not contributing as much as we maybe should be, WE’RE the ones that are really missing out.

God is much bigger than our campus at UW-Madison that we sometimes confine Him to. I want to see and be a part of what He’s doing in the city of Madison and throughout the world through the fellowship of a small community of believers that show up to worship together on Sunday mornings and try to help each other to become more like Christ be they 10 years old or 100.

I want to see how He’s working in young families and couples in the local church and to soak up whatever wisdom and knowledge they might be able to offer about marriage and raising kids.

I want to sit down and have coffee with the twentysomethings that are struggling to transition into the real world after graduating college as they generously open up about their lives with the hope of preparing me for what’s to come. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll have something to offer or be able to be an encouragement to them as well.

Let’s not be the typical college students that show up somewhere, consume everything that’s being offered, and not give anything back. Do that at home, not at church! We might just find that the more we invest ourselves in the local church, the better our church experience will become.

More Than Enough

“Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. You will increase my honor and comfort me once again.” Psalm 71:20-21 (emphasis mine)

Just about nothing irritates me more than hearing people talk about Christianity as a cure-all to their problems. “If I just believe in God, have enough faith, and please Him, He will keep me from having to go through hard times, keep me from suffering, and give my perfectly healthy family nice things.” The verse from Proverbs, “In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight,” is often misinterpreted to mean that God will make our lives easy and that we will eventually die on a yacht after a lengthy retirement.

The “Health, Wealth, and Prosperity” gospel is not the Gospel at all.

If this were all true, we would expect that Paul and Peter would eventually settle down with their wife and kids and live like kings in a mansion with a 2.5-car garage until the Good Lord takes them away at an old age.

But my Bible tells me that they both faced hardships in the form of lashings, being beaten with rods, being stoned, being ship-wrecked, and being lost in the open sea. They were never able to settle down in one place for long, they experienced thirst and hunger, and were left cold and naked at times. Paul likely died in a prison cell and tradition has it Peter was hung upside-down on a cross because he would not allow himself to die in the same manner as his Master and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Sound like the Health, Wealth, and Prosperity gospel?

God never promised Paul or Peter that they would lead safe, prosperous lives in the worldly sense, and He doesn’t promise us that either.

Something tells me that wouldn’t have been fulfilling for Paul or Peter anyway.

What He does promise us is that even after all of the hardships and sorrows that we’ll face, be they “many and bitter” as the psalmist describes, He will never leave us or forsake us.

When life falls short of sustaining us, He tells us that He alone is enough.

Now I’ve sung the songs before saying “You are more than enough for me” or “All I need is You…” but when I stop and think about what this really means, do I really believe that Jesus alone is enough for me?

I had a dream last year during a pretty intense stretch in the summer that a friend of mine was in a horrible car accident and had lost his legs and been paralyzed from the neck down. I began to think about whether God’s love and grace would really be enough for me in such a situation where pretty much all the earthly things that I find my joy and worth in would be completely stripped away. My Hendrix-esque guitar shredding, my unparalleled athletic ability, and my rugged good looks…all gone. I’m kidding…I can’t really play the guitar like Hendrix. ;)

But if I’m honest, I can’t really answer yes to that question.

In our verse from Proverbs, the verb “acknowledge” means “to know intensely.” This same verb is even used at times in the Old Testament to describe a sexual relationship between a man and a woman. If we “know God intensely,” He will make our paths straight.

I don’t know how Bible scholars interpret this verse and I don’t really care either. To me, this is not a promise that God is going to make everything easy, but rather, if we know Him as intensely and are as consumed by His character as this verse suggests, everything else, all other paths, become drastically less important and we are able to sprint straight ahead towards our Father who offers exceedingly more than enough than we will ever need or be able to comprehend.

When we start to believe that this is true, that living a life following ruthlessly after Christ is the best possible place we could be in, our paths will continue to become increasingly straight.

But that’s hard sometimes when it feels like you’re doing everything you possibly can to follow after Christ and it still feels like you’re walking through a tangled maze.

That’s what’s so amazing about Christianity and the Cross of Christ, which I’m seeing more and more clearly each day represents the totality of the Christian faith, theology, and doctrine in one single act.

Though life is hard at times (and there will be plenty of hard times), there’s always a Light at the end of the tunnel. It’s going to get better.

“You’re not the only ones plunged into these hard times. It’s the same with Christians all over the world. So keep a firm grip on the faith. The suffering won’t last forever. It won’t be long before this generous God who has great plans for us in Christ – eternal and glorious plans they are! – will have you put together and on your feet for good.” 1 Peter 5:9-10, The Message (emphasis mine)

The sick are healed, the blind given sight, and the deceased raised from the dead. It’s going to get better.

Through a relationship with Jesus Christ, we are offered hope and fullness of life no matter our situation or circumstance. He took on death (and it doesn’t get any worse than that!) and arose victorious so that even when we face death ourselves, we will be able to spend eternity with Him where He will most definitely be more than enough!

Dear Friends

Welcome to this new website everyone! I hope to use this to write more often even if not everything is as equally profound or well thought-out. This is just me trying to process through life and the journey that God’s placed me on…

The following entry has taken the past week to kind of piece some different thoughts together so I apologize if it’s not completely coherent, but here it is. (I’m also no longer in Boston just in case you were wondering!)

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Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed…if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name…
(1 Peter 4)

It’s 1:20 in the morning out here in Boston and even though I should be making full use of all four hours of sleep that I’m entitled to tonight, something’s telling me that writing would be a better idea…a decision I’ll certainly regret when my alarm goes off at 5:30 and all I’ll be able to think of is the first opportunity I’ll have to take a nap.

I can’t help but think of the fact that in a little over 48 hours, after being in eight different states and on seven different planes in almost exactly two months, as I head back to Madison for the second time this summer, much has changed since I left.

Most of us at some point in our lives have felt somewhat invincible…everything seemed perfect, life couldn’t get much better. Some people reading this maybe even feel like that right now. Others are somewhere on the opposite end of the spectrum and they’re just praying that the junk that’s continually being heaped on them eventually lets up.

As I got onto the plane to come to Boston I felt a lot like the invincible person. I was really excited about the possibilities that awaited me in Boston; school, ministry, and relationships had all finished up well in Madison and I was expecting BIG things from God for my summer. I had things pretty much all planned out.

But things turned out much differently than I had envisioned.

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One of the coolest parts about being out here and perhaps the aspect of the summer that I will continue to value the most long after I leave has been getting to spend time with my two little cousins, Miles who’s almost 2 and Aidan who’s just shy of 4, and seeing my cousin Mike and his wife Karen care for them and for each other.

Miles absolutely LOVES playing the guitar. If he sees you or hears you playing, watch out, he’ll be on your lap in a matter of seconds plucking (or sometimes slapping) away at the strings with not one, but both hands. When you let him play, he will be your BEST FRIEND. But when it’s time to put the guitar away, watch out…chaos!

It’s times like these where sometimes I think, “Thank God I don’t throw a fit every time I can’t get exactly what I want, when I want it. I’m glad that’s something you grow out of…”

But I think I’ve realized that I might be more like that than I care to admit…

When the joy in our lives is dependent upon the presence of material blessings (or things going “well” for us), we miss the point. If this is the case, what are we to make of the fact that Jesus continually speaks of the lowly, the poor, those who mourn, those who suffer, those who are facing trials, those with disabilities and illnesses?…the list goes on. He even tells us that “In this world you will have trouble.”

If I didn’t know any better, I might get the impression that the Son of God is actually telling us straight up that life is going to be hard.

A lot of crap has happened in many peoples’ lives this summer, there’s no getting around that. Pick up a newspaper and we’re flooded with headlines about the Virginia Tech tragedy, the plane crash in Brazil, the bridge collapsing in Minneapolis, and some things that have hit especially close to home with friends that have died in car crashes or disappeared from State Street only to be found weeks later in a marsh. This doesn’t even include other personal struggles that we may be burdened with on any given day like problems in relationships, trying to find a job after graduation, family issues, health ailments, financial instability, and so on.

In times like these, instead of questioning God and how He could possibly work through such situations, the Bible tells us to do something else. Let’s look at the rest of that passage from 1 Peter 4:

So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

It seems more than appropriate here that the Greek word used for “commit” can also mean “to set before” or “to lay down.” I can think of several times this summer and in the past few years of my life where I’ve just needed to find an empty room and physically fall face down before the Lord because life has been too overwhelming or I simply didn’t know what else to do other than trust that the God that I’ve come to know tells me that He’s faithful and has thus far not proven to be a liar.

When I read this passage, here’s what I hear Peter telling us: Sometimes in life God will allow us to go through things that we can’t even begin to comprehend. We try to figure out to the best of our finite abilities how God could possibly work through this tragedy or screwed up situation in our lives, when really, all He asks us to do is trust Him and to lay ourselves before Him when everything else seems to be coming unglued because He is faithful and will see us through.

For better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, and in sickness and in health, the only One that will truly remain at our side through all that life throws at us is Jesus Christ who hung on a tree, knowing every despicable thing we would ever do in our lives, just to prove this very point to us. He will be my Rock and my Foundation because He has already proven his dedication to me that He would die for me some 2000 years ago. I may not be able to tell you why good people are taken away from us way too early or why God chooses to work in some of the ways that He apparently does, but I will still strive to glorify Him because He has nothing left to prove.