Dude, if one more thing goes wrong...!!!!!!!!!

Have you ever had one of those days where if one more thing went wrong, you just might loose your religion, snap someone’s head off and make a small child cry for no reason other than to wield power over something for once today? Man, have I ever had one of those days. On May 28, I was at work trying to do some meaningless paperwork that someone whom I’ve never met thought one day would be a good idea to make us do so that we can have a reason to feel over worked and underpaid. I happened that afternoon, about an hour before clocking out time, to run out of those wonderful documents. So naturally, I head to the copy machine to make more so I can finish the day without any stragglers for the next. I put the paper in the machine and hit start and it tells me I’m out of toner and cannot complete my job until it is refilled. So I head upstairs to use the other machine and I tell the Business Manager that the machine is out of ink. She hands me a box of toner and says if I have any questions, to call and she will come down when she gets off the phone with FedEx. So, back at the copier, I open the box and examine its contents. Not too scary. I look at the instructions. Here was my first mistake: I thought that I, being a college graduate, having studied Greek and Hebrew with some facility, would be able to interpret the all too simple looking pictographs on the box. Instead they turn out to be ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics! And I just don’t understand Egyptian Hieroglyphics. So to make a long story short, around picture #5 is where things get interesting. Needless to say, the toner didn’t quite make it into the copier the way it is supposed to. There’s toner in the copier, just not they way the manufacturer dreamed it would be at the end of picture #8. Oh, and there is copier toner on the wall, the floor, the table and my shoes. It looked like the black smoke monster on Lost sneezed all over the room and left me standing there in the wake. I was never so mad at myself in my entire life. All I could do was stand there in amazement, looking at a pound or two of black powder falling to the floor like a blanket of snow across a plain. If only I had called upstairs the first time I tried to interpret picture #4, I could have saved myself some grief, some ribbing and my company a service call to the dealer who will undoubtedly have to charge us since this isn’t the first time someone has gotten the pictures all wrong. As I think back on the incident, I’m reminded that Jesus often told his followers that if we would just seek him out when things get sketchy and the pictures just don’t make sense, then we’d have better outcomes and more successful completions of our goals. Jesus taught us that if we want the things we do to have a positive outcome, then we need to make sure we seek out the advice of the one whose been down that road before. I thought I could accomplish the simple task of adding toner to a copy machine. What I didn’t expect was to be called on the carpet because I didn’t look at the whole picture and ask for help when I got confused.

Is there a doctor in the house?

I am amazed at how much better I feel today than I did yesterday. Easter morning for me was kind of rushed. I had two projects going at once. All day Saturday I prepped for the Pancake Breakfast. A couple of adults and a couple of students helped me fry bacon. We cooked 18 pounds of bacon! By the time we were through, I was wishing I was a vegetarian. Needless to say, I had a zit pop up on my forehead bright and early Sunday morning. By the time I got to church Sunday morning the Sun was just beginning to peak over the ridges that surround the church. The dark sky and the cold wind hurried my steps as I finalized the directions for the leaders and students doing the rest of the Pancake Breakfast. I then was able to turn my attention to the other project: Sunrise Service! I am so glad we did this! I was amazed at how much talent a 13 year old can have playing guitar or another standing up and reading out loud in front of the church. I am pleased that those guys were able to do what they did.
Then the hard part came. After the Sunrise Service, I went to the Pancake Breakfast. I stood there amazed at the buffet of pancakes, bacon and peeps! I did the unthinkable! I ate pancakes topped with strawberries, whipped cream and syrup and yes, M&M's! I think I began to crash mid way through the reading of the Creed at the 10 o'clock service, but it was worth it! If you didn't get to enjoy the breakfast with us go ahead an plan for it next year. I look forward to topping what we did this year. Next year however, we may need an in house doctor just in case I go into a sugar coma.

Where's my finger rocket?

If you've been to the Presbyterian Youth Summit in the past, you may or may not have had a good time. From what I hear among our students and other students at Summit this year was that previous years were lacking in substance and style. This year, however, was very impressive. From inspiring messages from the speaker to the ever popular Finger Rocket Olympics, the entire weekend was well put together and planned to succeed. My favorite part of the weekend was the Finger Rocket Olympics. I am sure some of you may be wondering what a finger rocket is, but you can't know until you've shot at a bowling pin or a teammate on a slide with one. The most important part of this weekend wasn't the frivolous games or the silly skits, although they were awesome. The most important part was Sunday Morning, when about 150 students and their adult sponsors engaged in what I consider the apex of the weekend. This crowd of young people and adults joined together in communion. To me this beautiful exchange of bread and wine (it was grape juice for you parents who may read this) tied the whole weekend together. Our speaker's series for the weekend culminated in the common meal of our Lord and as he emphasized, it was a meal of unity and justice. At the Last Supper as it is commonly known, Jesus broke down social and ethnic barriers associated with the first century's dinner party etiquette. When Jesus broke the bread, he not only symbolized the body broken for our sins, but he broke the barriers of class separation. As he raised the common cup and instituted the new relationship between the Divine and the Human, Jesus demolishes the separation of the peoples. In a singularity of purpose Jesus offers everyone who thirsts the common cup from which we must all drink. In this moment of common unity, or community, we are bound one to another and are indeed made responsible to one another to bring about growth and sustenance. As we feed our spiritual selves from one plate and one cup, so we are responsible to feed the whole body with spiritual food and spiritual wine. There is one meal, one faith, one tie that binds all together. It is this unifying meal that makes our finger rockets and skits worth the time, effort and energy. Without unity and common purpose, we are nothing but a distraction to the world.

Excuse me, but where's your bucket?

If you attended worship services at First Presbyterian Sunday, then you heard Pastor Kerra’s sermon titled “Stupid Questions”. From the story of the “woman at the well” Pastor Kerra described to us the importance of understanding the differences between the cultures that make up the modern landscape of American religiosity. The woman’s response to Jesus’ request for water causes one to examine the often unquestioned tenets of faith. “Where is your bucket, how can you draw water?” The woman’s response not only states the obvious fact that the well is deep and this new “water” Jesus is describing is a foreign concept to her, it also identifies a very important aspect about her “faith”. Water for this woman is always deep inside the well and has been a laborious task to consume. Daily or weekly she would have to carry heavy clay pots and bowls to and from the well to get what she and her family would need to survive. To the woman, the whole world revolved around her well, both in its history and it sustainability of the people she cared for most. To be offered “new” water that never needs drawing again intrigues her and she begins to question Jesus by asking “how does this work?” “Do I need to get you a bucket, Sir?” she might have asked. At the mere offer of forever water, the woman was taken by the good news that is the Gospel: that once you’ve tasted the true water, you will never desire any thing more. The message of Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well is the same conversation I’ve had with Jesus on several occasions. In the past two years, I have been on a faith journey that has led me from wells of constant labor and heavy containers to a place where I am beginning to put my clay pots down and look for that water which will never need refilling. You see, I have been poisoned by religiosity in the past. I thought that if I did the right things then when I went to the well, God would grant me a small token of his gratitude. But once I left, the burden of carrying these treasures grew heavier and heavier. Soon enough, I was so tired I stopped going to the well altogether. Why should I work so hard and get so little that last only a brief while? Then one day I had a stupid question moment. I was presented with the proposition that I have been drawing from the wrong well all this time. Sure, the water I had satisfied for a while, but always needed to be replenished and restored. So I would drag myself to the well, dig deep for some sustenance and beg God to allow me a little more as long as I promised to be good. So there I was face to face with the fact that I didn’t have to labor like this, that Jesus’ had already done all the drawing and pumping of water that I would ever need. And it wasn’t just regular water, it was good water, fulfilling and deeply restoring water that invited me to drink to my fill. Now I was in her shoes, the woman’s question filling my mind: Ok, so how do you get me that water? there is no bucket! Even after seeing and tasting that this new water was satisfying and good for me, the old ways of doing things still flashed through my head. I knew no other way to be satisfied than to pull the water to myself with what ever tools were available. Then one day I heard the Holy Spirit say to me in response: “Buckets? We don’t need no stinking buckets!” Jesus had finally set me free from the bucket brigade. That meant I was free to drink my fill and no longer be consumed by the constant need to fill the bucket.

Am I relevant or just relatively speaking?

One of the greatest fears of any student minister is the fear of irrelevancy. I am constantly reviewing who I am and what I'm saying to make sure I still have a message that my student's will be receptive too and hopefully be encouraged by. Fear has a way of motivating people to do things they would normally not do. The fear of irrelevancy has led many youth ministers to change who they are as they begin to age before their ever youthful flock. I think this is why many student ministers (male one's anyway) grow goatees and attempt to stay current on the latest fashions and trends in culture. Although I feel it is important to be aware of the "who what when where and why" of cultural influences bombarding our students, it is important that we student ministers keep a watchful eye on our own relevancy. Many of us have a tendency to change the intrinsic nature of who we are for the brief prize of being relevant to a constantly changing culture of teen melodrama. Because of this desire to “fit in” many student ministers exchange the eternal message of the gospel for an uneasy fit with our students. The damage that often occurs due to such strivings can increase the dangers of student minister relativism. We tend to speak in relative terms because standards are often blurred in pursuit of being relevant. What we do is not about us fitting in with our students, but about us fitting our students with the tools they will need to embrace the hope of the gospel and the fullness of their faith.
It is important for us as leaders to take the occasional look back at the places from which we have traveled and understand that we have histories and stories and experiences that have shaped who we are today. Personal inventory will allow us to look long and intently at our plans and determine if we are being relevant or just relatively speaking. It is important that we package the eternal truths of our faith in such a way that the modern student will be captured by its value or relevance in their lives. However, we must all be careful that we do not attempt to be so much like our students that we forget the individual God created and destined us to be.

How do I Live?

The words from the song "How do I Live?" reminds me that each of us have attachments and investments in our lives that we find irreplaceable and absolutely necessary to our survival. These attachments are so deeply engrained in our hearts and minds that the mere mention of separation is cause for trepidation and fear. Anxiety and anguish often accompany the one who must answer the question of loss: "How do I live without you?" How do we live when life becomes unfair and all of our intentions fall to the floor and shatter into a million pieces of brokenness and despair? Each one of us has experienced loss. Whether it is the loss of a love or loved one, a prized possession or prized memory, we all know the bitterness of the cold reality that life will never be the same afterward.
We all have stories of trials and triumphs, temptations and masteries, but no one truly understands one's pain until the loss is experienced for themselves. I didn't know the pain of divorce until my parents’ marriage broke apart in flames and fury. I still don't know the true pain of loneliness, although I have been abandoned by friends and family in the past. I have fought the ugly shroud of depression at the loss of love, the pain of living and the uncertainty of existence. I have found that no matter how well things are going, I will suffer loss at some point or another in my life. And indeed we all will. So how do I answer the question, "How do I live?" How do I live when life hurts: when each breath is more painful than the last, when each waking moment has the potential to be harder to live than the previous? There is only one reason: "I know that no matter what I suffer, Christ has suffered with me!"
That is an amazingly comforting thing for me. You see, God, when he was seated in heaven, before he created the universe and instituted life on this planet, knew not the plight of the people he was about to create. For eons, humanity suffered under the occupation of darkness. In this life, we felt the full weight of our chains. It wasn't until God himself, in the fullness of his Son Jesus appeared upon the scene of despair and entered into the bonds of humanity did we have an answer to our question, "How do I live?" You see, the God of all the universe entered into the plight of his own creation, subjecting himself to be bound to the curse by which we are all bound and became subjective to the darkness of death. Our God can identify with the searing pain of loss associated with death, the shocking consequences of the best intentions of misguided friends and the passionate pouring out of the self for the benefit of the other, without any intention of gain.
In this Lenten season, remember that it is Christ who has suffered and it was God the Father who had to ask himself "How do I live without you?" God our father could not bear to watch the painful display of his own wrath on his son, which was the only way we could find peace and freedom. How do we live? We live because he lived and lives still!

Vintage21.com [1-4]

This video describes my impression of church and religion for a long time!