Your Future Plants Will Succeed

You just gotta love fortune cookies. Most of the time, the "wisdom" they offer is so random. Other times you question whether or not what is on the paper inside is actually a fortune...maybe a proverb but not a fortune. And are they ever really specific...the ones I always get seem to be so generic...empty platitudes to wish me joy and prosperity.

The above title was a "fortune" I received a few weeks ago. I'm not sure if it is a sign that I might have a future career in the farming industry or if they knew about my wife's lack of a green thumb. For some reason I think it was intended to communicate something else to me. Today, I got a "two for the price of one" special as there were two pieces of paper in my cookie. The "mysterious" thing is that they were both similarly applicable. One offered this nugget "You will enjoy doing something different this coming weekend." The other simply said, "Do something unusual tomorrow." This cookie must have had some inside sources because after all tomorrow is the "live" show of the Charity League Follies, and it is both unusual and different for me! Hmmm....

Sometimes I wonder if as Christians we attempt to offer people the "good news" equivalent of fortune cookies. We've been trained to say and do certain things when we encounter people that what we end up sharing with them is as generic and out of place as a fortune claiming "Your future plants will succeed." We offer them empty sayings that don't provide any more depth or meaning than a shallow "do something unusual tomorrow." Does what we offer connect with where they are right now...in the valley of darkness, in the depths of despair, in the frustrations of making ends meet, or in the anxiety of approaching the end of their rope? I often laugh at the humor in random fortunes. But what does the world around me do? How do people see me? Do they laugh at the "out-of-touch randomness" I offer or do they see a fellow human being who simply understands the grace of God and longs to invite them to swim in its depths?

Much more than just a generic piece of paper in a cookie, may I daily look for opportunities to connect in deeper ways with people who are looking for the love of God. And much more than any empty fortune, may those around me see a Christ follower, a forgiver and a friend!

I Follies and I Can't Get Up

Slow blog time for me lately. The main reason...my brain, legs, arms and voice are tired. For the past two months I've been involved in a musical performance called the Charity League Follies. It's a fund-raiser they do every few years to benefit the Easter Seals program in town. I've been singing, dancing, and learning my lines and I'm about ready for this whole "out of my box" experience to be completed. I've enjoyed parts of it and I hope the actual performance will be fun. But, so much of it has been stressful, overwhelming and time-consuming. We've had Dress Rehearsals all this week and they will continue tonight and tomorrow with the live show on Saturday night. I have fun on stage but I have to take the long road to getting comfortable and confident in order to do so. We'll see...

Sara's dad came in for a "brief" visit last week and one of the things he was trying to do while he was here was sell one of his bird dogs to a guy in Tennessee. Well, Dennis had to leave early so I had to complete the sale and drop-off the dog. This dog is the son of a Grand Champion and so just his name and that fact alone get a lot of people interested in him. He is a very well-trained animal or so I've been told. Because I learned while watching him for a day that it doesn't matter how well-trained a hunting dog (or any dog for that matter) is if you don't know the right commands. Let's just say I learned rather quickly that he doesn't respond real well to "Come back Copper!" I guess I got a little exercise out of the deal though.

Then I met the "buyer" at Cracker Barrel in Calvert City. The funny thing was some people from church saw me there, in a different vehicle (a truck), with a dog they had never seen before and I was passing this dog off to another truck next to me and receiving something in return. When they came up to say hello and ask what was going on I immediately started to think about the rumor possibilities..."in order to make ends meet, local minister dabbles in dog-dealing on the side!" Just another example that often in life, there can be more to circumstances than what meets the eye...

Jesus Calling

Somewhere around six weeks ago I attended a leadership retreat with Sara. The presenters at that retreat gave each couple who participated a devotional book entitled "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young. The book is designed to share a few thoughts each day as if they were the spoken words of Jesus to me and you. Occasionally I plan to share an entry from this book and reflect on the message God has for my life as I listen for and rest in the words that reveal the heartbeat of Christ...

Rest In My Radiant Presence. The world around you seems to spin faster and faster, till everything is a blur. Yet there is a cushion of calm at the center of your life, where you live in union with Me. Return to this soothing Center as often as you can, for this is where you are energized: filled with My Love, Joy, and Peace.

The world is a needy place; do not go there for sustenance. Instead, come to Me; learn to depend on Me alone, and your weakness will become saturated with My Power. When you find your completeness in Me, you can help other people without using them to meet your own needs. Live in the Light of My Presence, and your light will shine brightly into the lives of others.

I think it is easy to agree that the world around us spins faster and faster. When we live in the midst of that spinning it doesn't take long to find ourselves dizzy from the experience. We search for a way to regain our balance, to reestablish equilibrium. But often the hard part is finding our way to the "cushion of calm" at the center. I wonder though if it is difficult because more often than not I try to go to the world for sustenance--for rest, for relaxation, for peace. What would it be like if I learned to depend more on God and less on myself, less on others, less on the comforts of the world? I desire in my heart to have the power and presence of God "saturate" my life...but what does the order and direction of my life communicate about that desire?

God, help me to see I am complete in you. May I slow down long enough to find you at the center of a fast-paced, me-first, spinning kind of world and may my light shine bright enough for others to see as they too travel through the world's dizzying fog...

The Full Mickey Transformation is Complete

We had a wonderful time on our cruise. It was great to get away for even just a little bit. And the experience on the ship was so much better than I expected. There were plenty of things to do like shows, performances, karaoke, games, swimming, eating and sleeping. For some reason the gentle swaying of the ship throughout the night made sleeping incredible. Best sleep we've gotten in a while. Nassau wasn't quite what I was expecting. It was a little too touristy for our tastes although it was good to say I've been there and experienced it. Castaway Cay, Disney's own private island in the Bahamas is the place we really enjoyed. It was what I imagined a tropical island experience to be like. Sara and I laid out on beach chairs relaxing and reading books for most of the day just staring out at the beautiful clear blue waters. It was great!

My favorite exchange of the trip came when we were inching our way through the Straw Market in Nassau. It's kind of like a flea market type atmosphere. Everybody's got something to sell you. As you walk down the crowded isles women will be calling out "let's make a deal." One lady got even more persistent with a female tourist. She really wanted to make a sale. She held up a custom-designed tank-top dress kind of thing (obviously hard for me to explain) and said to the lady..."Don't you like this? You want to buy it? It's your size." The tourist responded by saying "how do you know my size?" And the woman countered by saying, "It's 3X." Not exactly the marketing approach I would choose. Well this woman tourist is shocked by this other woman's words. "What are you trying to say? I'm not that big?" This is where it gets classic. To sweep in and close the sale she proclaims, "honey, you're not fat...you're just fluffy!" Well let's just say a business transaction never took place.

The whole trip was a great experience. Until I woke up Sunday morning. The last day of the cruise. I often joke around doing the voice for Mickey Mouse and I think I can do it alright. Well by Sunday morning the whole Disney experience wanted me to leave as Mickey Mouse. I didn't have a normal voice. The only way I could talk was in a very high-pitched falsetto. It was pretty funny. However, what followed wasn't so funny. The full Mickey transformation from a Disney saturated weekend was just the beginning of my next sickness episode. Ever since we got back late Sunday night I've either been in bed or in the recliner in the living room miserable with something bordering on the flu. Today is the first day I actually felt like I might be able to make it to work for a little bit.

I think in the future I'd prefer to just stick to impersonating the mouse. And leave it at that.

Why I Love Hotel Baptistries

When it comes to enjoying hotels I have two things working against me:

1) I'm a home-body. I like being in my own home, in my own room, in my own bed, etc.

2) I worked at a hotel for a little over two years and had about all I could take of a lifetime's worth of hotel experiences

But even I can admit that hotels can be nice from time to time. Especially when they have certain amenities. In most cases I like to have my ESPN. I prefer places that have FREE wireless internet access. Some of the nicest places I've stayed charge a fortune for using the internet. But I like the nicer places because they usually have quality mattresses and some of the best pillows I've ever allowed head to rest. But one of the amenities I have come to value the most, especially when it comes to youth trips, is a quality baptistry...or an indoor pool to most of you!

This weekend at Winterfest we were privileged to participate in another baptism. There is something so special and sacred about friends and family going into the waters together and surrounding the person who is about to be buried with Christ and raised to new life. Those who chose not to get into the pool gathered around its edges and witnessed the amazing transformation of choosing to live the Christ-life. In some ways it's the closest thing I've been able to experience that hints at what it must have been like for believers in Acts.

Maybe I'm bias to baptisms in pool contexts. After all I grew up in Florida and our mindset was... who needs baptistries when everyone's got a pool. I know it's not any less meaningful but somehow it doesn't proclaim the same message when we do it in the small "bathtub" baptistries. When everyone is in the water together there is beauty in the expression of community. It communicates on a whole other level that we as fellow believers are here to walk beside you, to share in your death, and to rejoice in your new life! It's hard really to even explain it adequately in words...but I believe it's a sacred moment that leaves God's fingerprints upon all our lives.

There weren't thousands of us, just 54. It wasn't Jerusalem at Pentecost, just the Ramada Inn at Winterfest. There wasn't a special formula or magical words on our part, but at least for those few moments...that hotel couldn't have been any more holy!

You Are What You Shampoo...

Winterfest really ended up being a wonderful weekend! Although often it doesn't feel wonderful to me. I think it is because the ultimate responsibility for 54 people falls on my shoulders. I find myself constantly concerned about various teens, about making sure people are in the right place (and not lost), about safety, about schedules, and about everyone's enjoyment of a weekend trip. I still am able to have fun but I'm a little on edge most of the weekend with a heightened sense of awareness and responsibility. I am grateful to both my chaperones (who were wonderful) and my teenagers (who are always respectful, responsible and well-behaved) for another memorable Wintefest!

Once we arrive home though I feel like I can finally breathe. I can feel the burden removing itself from my shoulders. Sara and I made sure everyone had a ride home from the building and then it was time to head over to the kennel to pick up Topaz. When we got him in the car it didn't take long to realize he smelled awful. So it was decided that as soon as we got home Topaz was receiving a bath.

We got him into the bathtub and began looking for the dog shampoo. It wasn't in its usual place on the back edge of the tub. We quickly found it though on the upper shelf in the shower. Hmm...odd place for it...we don't usually put it up there. Then we remembered that we had guests stay with us last week who were without power at their own house. Sara and I both burst out in guilty laughter. Turns out our friend Kevin mistook the dog shampoo for one typically best suited for humans. I thought I noticed him itching a little more the last couple days.

Needless to say it was a good way to release the stresses of a long weekend! And of course, when I saw Kevin yesterday, I made sure to bark a little! He was less than thrilled, but his bark is worse than his bite...

Be the Possum...

...and Die that You Might Live! Along with the help of a few short clips from the movie "Over the Hedge" that was the message of my sermon on Sunday. Here are a few of my favorite lines from it that impacted me...

"After all death isn't exactly something we typically look forward to. It’s hard to picture any of us longing to sit down and have a cup of coffee at Starbucks with the Grim Reaper…we often fear it, do all we can to avoid it, and rarely are we truly ready for it. Death often creates grief, sadness, despair, even loneliness. It doesn’t make the Travel Channel’s list of Top 10 vacation destinations yet it is exactly what Jesus calls us to…"

"...when we are buried with Christ we come up out of the waters with new garments on…the wardrobe of compassion, kindness, humility, discipline, peace, and love. They are clothes that may not compare to the latest trends or create considerable buzz in fashion circles, but they are Christ’s clothes and God longs to tailor us that these clothes might continue to fit as we grow."

"The ironic (even crazy) thing about it all is that we live in ways that allow our fear of death to shackle us, when all along Christ’s message of dying to self would truly bring us freedom!"

"Sometimes our dying to self is nothing more than a performance for others to see. However, the last thing we should want to do is make it about putting on a show for others because in the end it’s still about us. We haven’t really died to self. We haven’t fully done away with our old way of life. We can’t stand by and allow the world to run us over and flatten our witness!"


Dying to self is something I have to continually work on each and every day. It can be very difficult and painful but the life that follows the death is worth the struggle. I only hope that as God works on this piece of clay more and more, I too can share in Paul's words..."My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me."


May Christ's life be evident in mine as I continue to learn how to die!

A First Time for Everything

This afternoon I was provided with a unique opportunity. I had the pleasure of witnessing a baptism. Just the three of us. Although that wasn't the unique part. The unique aspect involved who the person was...we'll call him Johnny. I'm not certain how old Johnny is but if I had to guess I might say somewhere in his sixties. He is a resident at a local nursing home. This morning we received a call from someone who works with Johnny on a regular basis who informed us that after several conversations between the two of them over a period of time, Johnny had made up his mind to be baptized. So this afternoon the two of them made their way up here to the church and together we ushered Johnny into new life with Christ.

It was a sweet moment really. See, Johnny has some limitations. He is mostly confined to a wheelchair because of problems with his legs. We had to struggle to help him up the stairs to access the baptistry. His friend Will playfully joked that it could be his therapy for the day! We got him to the top only to attempt the descent down into the waters. We made it halfway down the stairs into the baptistry when Johnny turned them into a water slide and slipped the rest of the way in. It was hard for him to manipulate his body in the ways needed to fulfill his heart's desire. But by the time he made it in you could see the excitement in his face. He went under an older, broken, physically limited man but came up a new creation with the joy of the LORD as his new strength.

Beautiful. Sacred. Intimate. And I was allowed the privilege to participate in the moment. When I first heard about it earlier in the day I was a little taken aback. I had never been asked to witness a baptism under these circumstances. But by the time we finished sharing the God-moment together...it was worth feeling uncomfortable and awkward...because here was a man who despite his age, despite his limitations, despite his lot in life...understood the simplicity of dying to self in order to be raised to life!

Special. Powerful. Humbling.

God be praised for another first!

The Tempting Pull of Perfection

Genuine. My grandma was a pretty genuine person. In most cases she was the person everyone saw her to be. She was straightforward to the point of blunt, a little rough around the edges but she had a beautiful caring heart for people. Whether it was received positively or negatively she wasn’t afraid to speak her mind, but in all of it she was honest. Honest about herself and about others. She didn’t seem preoccupied with what others thought of her. She wasn’t perfect, she made her share of mistakes but…she was pretty authentic.

I try to be authentic. But it’s not always as easy as you think it would be. Expectations get in the way. Selfishness interferes. Pride surfaces. Fear creeps out from behind the corner. Sometimes I’m tempted to be real only to the point that it becomes uncomfortable. Then I retreat a little bit back into the shadows of the mystery, back to the place where I feel safe because fewer people know my faults and weaknesses. I don’t think we set out to be fake but I wonder if it’s kind of like convincing ourselves that we’re not lying when we strategically withhold part of the story. Why do you think we feel the need to do that?

Who are some of the most genuine or authentic people you know? When I think about those people I start envisioning how I might be more like them. Being around genuine people is infectious. The way they live invites you to cross over into the authentic side. Authenticity isn’t simply being an open book, but knowing the appropriate time to share a few deeper paragraphs. The more genuine people I know embrace both their strengths and their weaknesses in ways that bring honor and glory to God. They are authentic because they live in the freedom to walk beside me through this life as together we share in the peaks and the valleys and the journey back and forth between the two. They are real because they know life is not about what they can do but about what God can do through them.

The authentic are not perfect, they simply seem to recognize the tempting pull of perfection as she softly beckons us to live as hypocrites…and they turn a deaf ear. Sure at times they may listen, but more often than not they walk forward in faith trusting the One whose love for all of us defines authentic!

Yoga-ing Break for Education's Sake

The only Yoga I knew growing up in school was the furry friend of BooBoo, who enjoyed swiping "pic-i-nic baskets" and "terrorizing" park rangers. But today is a new day and apparently there is a push for some in the school system in other parts of the country to begin to incorporate yoga into the class schedule. The reasoning? Student's lives are so busy that a daily dose of yoga could do wonders to help students better cope with the stresses of their hectic lifestyles. The hope is that this meditative outlet will not only foster greater learning opportunities because students can be more rested and focused, but that it will also help students become more balanced and disciplined people along the way.

Now, Yoga may be a helpful tool to combat the extreme busyness that plagues both young people and their families, I don't know. I'm not trying to say that yoga is a bad thing here. But what strikes me as ironic about this whole conversation is that our society is so caught up in the routine of busy lifestyles, that even when we talk about ways to address feeling overwhelmed and fatigued we don't talk about removing activities from our lives but adding one more thing to help us deal with it all! Are you kidding me? I'm afraid that as a people we are fooling ourselves into thinking we can control this "runaway freight train" lifestyle which says the more you can fit in to a day, a week, a month...the more productive or successful you are. I think it's a false truth...one that ultimately will lead us to crash and burn in a pile of physically and emotionally exhausted rubble.

What's more is that I'm not sure we as Christians do a great job of dispelling the lie either. Our lives are just as full, our schedules just as busy as those around us. The irony for us is that even though we read and know the words of Jesus we fail to believe them, let alone live by them...

Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me--watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.

Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message)

Life can already get pretty hectic for me and I don't even have kids yet. I don't know how that variable will add to the busyness equation for me one day. But it seems like this is one area that must make us distinguishable from the world. Even the life of God was lived out in the appropriate ebb and flow between work and rest. We have good news to offer people...it's a real possibility for our lives to dwell in the rhythm of God's rest!

Yet somehow I don't think yoga is exactly what God had in mind...