Strong Biceps

I have never really been the type that just goes down to the gym to workout. I don't mind getting sweaty while playing some kind of sport, but I just feel like like it is a waste of time to get sweaty while working out. Maybe it is because I am really impatient. I workout one time, and I expect to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Sadly, that isn't how it works out. Apparently you have to work out multiple times in order to see results. Well, one time I decided to go to the YMCA and workout with my little brother (the dude is a stud when it comes to working out), and we were doing a bicep curl exercise. For this particular exercise, you get the curl bar and place a 10 lb, 5lb, and a 2.5 lb. weight on each side. You do ten reps and then take 2.5 lbs. off after each set. You end up doing about 90 reps, but by the end you are only doing the curl bar because you have taken off all the weight. Well, I was on my last set of 10 and I was just just curling the bar (which is like 15 lbs.). As I struggle with the last couple of reps a very good looking girl walks in the door. As I look up, still continuing to struggle with just the bar, I make eye contact with the gorgeous girl. Embarrassed I finished up my reps of just the curl bar hoping that the girl didn't think I was as strong as a 5-year-old girl.

Sometimes all of us feel really weak in one aspect of life or another. In my case, I looked and i stress LOOKED weak when it came to lifting weights, but I think weakness is not always a bad thing.

In Luke 9:12-17 we find the feeding of the five thousand. It reads:

Late in the afternoon, the Twelve came to him (Jesus) and said, "Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here. He replied, "You give them something to eat." They answered, "We ahve only five loaves of bread and two fish- unless we go and buy food for all this crowd." (About 5,000 men were there.)
But he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each." The disciples did so, and everybody sat down. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

This is a great story about Jesus' miraculous power and compassion for people, but this weekend at Believe Conference the Speaker for the weekend brought to light for me a new perspective of this passage. As the disciples told Jesus about the crisis, wouldn't it have been a lot easier for Jesus to have just called manna down from heaven? Or why didn't he just snap his fingers and POOF a carriage full of food for 5,000 people all of a sudden comes up over the horizon? But he didn't do either of those things. Instead he asked his disciples what they had? It wasn't much...just five loaves of bread and a couple fish. They barely had anything to offer Jesus, and I think He did that on purpose. You see, when it seems like we are weak and having nothing to give our Lord, he can and will use it to its maximum capacity in order to glorify Himself. But we still have that duty of offering whatever we have to him.

Looking through the pages of Scripture, it is easy to see the continuous theme of God using people who had weaknesses for His purposes. David was just a boy when he defeated the giant Goliath. Moses couldn't speak clearly, but God used him to lead His people out of Egypt. In the New Testament, Timothy was to lead a church in an immoral city even though he was timid and weak. God was born a nobody in a city that had no significance. The Apostle Paul really sums this whole idea up in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10:

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

God uses people with weaknesses because if he used people with all kinds of strengths, then they would take all the credit for themselves. That is why God tells Gideon to fight a humungous army with just 300 soldiers. Without God, we could never do anything of significance for his Kingdom. Now I know that I am physically weak when it comes to lifting weights, but I also acknowledge that I have certain weaknesses when it comes to ministry. I am not the best speaker. I am not the most outgoing guy. I can't sing or play the guitar. But I know that when God does use me for his Glory, it won't be because of anything I did...For in my weakness, God is glorified.

MARVE-lous

Don't trust Subway Sandwiches...I thought I would never hear (or see) myself saying (or typing) that statement. What is there not to love about a $5 footlong meatball marinara? Nothing. At least that is what i thought before Monday night. I will spare you all the details, but lets just say that I was pretty sick Monday night from Subway. Sad day.

My last post I wrote about my experience at the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church in New York, but I didn't spend all of my time at the church...that was only one night! Another night we went and saw a show on Broadway called "Finian's Rainbow." It was really good! It was about how an Irishman travels to America and buries his gold in hopes that it will multiply and make him a very wealthy man. However, the gold was not the Irishman's gold in the first place. He stole it from a leprechaun, and the this little leprechaun comes searching for his gold. I won't tell you the rest of the story, because you need to see it sometime! But after we watched the show, a couple of us went into Time Square and went to Starbucks.

While David and I were waiting for Camille and Ray to get their coffee, we met this guy named Marve. He had just gotten some coffee, and we later found out that he was homeless but he was lucky enough to get some money from a man at church that night so he bought some coffee since it was cold outside. This guy literally had us laughing the entire 20-25 minutes we were with him. First our conversation started friendly enough with some small talk like, "What's your name?" and "What are you drinking?" But our conversation quickly changed!

First, Marve thought that Camille and Ray were dating. So when some random guy started talking to Camille, Marve became pretty upset. He kept saying "Camille, get over here girl. Get over here." When she wouldn't listen to him, he started talking to us guys about how girls are always playing games. After convincing him that Camille was not some flirtatious floozy, Marve went on to explain his wild escapades with women in Atlanta. We didn't let him get into much detail but he did start off with saying, "When I went to Atlanta...I had a shawty the first night!"

Then we went on to talk about nicknames for people. Marve didn't like it that we called our friend "Ray." He thought it would be more appropriate to call him Raymond. Then I told him that people called me "chuck" from time to time, and Marve proceeded to say "WHACK!" I guess he didn't think that was a good idea either. Then David told him that people sometimes call him "D-Heff." With some crazy eyes, Marve paused for a few seconds then exclaimed, "WHACK!" The moral of that story...don't have "whack" nicknames.

As our time with Marve was winding down, he finished with a story. He said, "One time while I was in Atlanta I was eating all of this food, and I passed out!" Kind of perplexed, we all waited for a couple of seconds and then I asked, "You passed out because you ate so much food?" Then Marve said, "Nah, man...from PCP!" Moral of the story...don't eat a lot of food and take PCP. You could pass out in Atlanta.

I know this post does not give the full effect of the real-life Marve, but i can only hope that you find some enjoyment out of it. This guy was hilarious! He was also really friendly and nice to talk to. My New York experience would not have been the same without meeting him. I didn't even mention that fact he called me a chipmunk and grabbed my cheeks. He also said I had a "body." I'm not exactly sure what he meant by that but I took it as a compliment. So if you are ever in New York City in Time Square in the Starbucks and you see a black homeless guy, tell MARVE that I said, "Hey...and I think your name is WHACK!"

Taking a Bite of the Apple

Its official...I am now a cultured young man. I have been to New York City, and I have flown on a plane! The City was amazing! Never have I ever seen so many different people in such a small space. There were New Yorkers, Europeans, Asian, Hispanics, and Africans. There were poor people and rich people. The reason I went to New York was for a class that taught us how to exegete the city. Basically, we learned how to observe, understand, and adapt to different cultures, specifically those found in large cities.

Not only did I learn about exegesis, I would say that I learned 3 important facts about New York city:

1) I am not skinny enough to live there. Everyone is soo tiny! I once heard a statistic that 67% of Americans are overweight. The 33% that aren't overweight seem to all live in NYC. But there are reasons for this. People walk everywhere! Not everyone owns a car, so they rely very heavily upon the Subway and Bus transportation. This often involves walking a long way just to get to the Subway Station and places of living and work.

2) I am not beautiful enough. Now I'm not trying to play the pity party by saying I am an ugly dude. I am just saying that New York City is a place full of beautiful people! Of course, there are 8 1/2 million people who live there so there is a greater chance for more attractive people, but I still NYC has a higher attractive rate among its inhabitants.

3) I can pass gas in public, and no one will ever know. The city is a loud place, so no one can hear it. And it doesn't have most pleasing aroma either, so anyone can get away with the occasional passing of gas. (However, I give one warning: Do not do this on a subway.)

But on a Serious Note, I really did learn a lot of amazing things while I was in the Big City. Probably the most influential, life-shaking truth that I did come to learn is the fact that God is the God of all peoples. For as long as I can remember, I have always had this mentality that God belongs in this certain socio-economic style church...and of course this church is in the Midwest. One night while I was in NYC, our group went to a church called The Brooklyn Tabernacle. It was definitely not the socio-economic climate I was used to. There were black people from all over the world worshiping together. Mixed in were Hispanics and a few white people. But as I was singing, I realized that there was only one race...Christian. Just like when Adam and Eve realized their nakedness and shame after they had taken a bite from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, my eyes were immediately opened to my parochialism (this is a word I learned that week...it means a narrow way of thinking) and shame. My entire life I thought God was my God...basically, God was a God for middle-class white people. And I am going into ministry so that I might share MY God with people who were less privileged than myself. But when I entered through the doors of that church in Brooklyn, NY, those people shared their God with me. People were praying with eachother and praising God in the midst of their troubles. They sang to God with such vigor and passion that I had never seen before. They literally repeated the same chorus over and over again, but you would have thought that they were singing it for the very first time.

Shame on me....shame on me for ever thinking so arrogantly in myself and erroneously about the LORD. God is Lord for all peoples everywhere, and I, by the grace of God, have been chosen to take that message to those people.

Soldier

Well it is officially a new decade! Here is a list of things I have accomplished already this new year.

1) Acquired a cavity.

2) Eaten a "Five Dollar Footlong" from Subway (I have some inside information that I probably shouldn't be sharing over the internet...but heck, why not? I have just found out that the Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki Sandwich for Subway is going on the $5 footlong list February 5th. Spread the Word).

3) Saved America from being destroyed (Modern Warfare 2 on X-box...)

4) Shoveled snow off of 1/5 of a driveway.

5) Beat both my brothers in NCAA football

6) Finally, and most important...i learned how to make mashed potatoes.


This isn't a long list. In fact, it represents my entire break. I really haven't been doing anything of significance. My laziness in my actions have also bled into my thoughts too. My good friend, David Heffren, and I were talking about this the other day. I just feel like I am not thinking about anything of importance. Basically, the only thing I think about is when and where my next meal is going to come from......this isn't a good thing considering I don't live in Africa (not trying to make a poverty joke...please don't hate me).

However, this whole break hasn't been all laziness and vegetation. I had the opportunity to hang out with my long-time friend. His name is Ryan Adams, and he is an airborne infantry scout for the Army. He was back for a short break before he had to head back to Fort Hood in Texas. I have known this guy for as long as I can remember. He has always been the crazy guy who lived across the street. I always used to give him a hard time his sister was hot. I'm going to be honest...I really did think she was beautiful, but not to the extent I led him to believe. Ryan and I have had good and bad times. There was a time during middle school when we almost got in a fight, but he scared me too much, so I ran away. I don't remember what we fought about, I probably made fun of his hair (we always used to call him "beaver pelt." We always use to say that his head resembled a beaver's pelt. It sounds stupid now, but we used to laugh about it all the time). I will always be thankful for the friendship I have and will continue to have with Ryan.

As I stated earlier, this break can be defined by less than heavy thoughts. But this was not the case one time I had the chance to hang out with Ryan. We were hanging out with our other friend, Jonathan, in his basement, and we were reminiscing about the good ole days like always. But then we started talking about life and how it is just so hard sometimes. Ryan is a great guy, and I will vouch for him as a person any day anywhere. But he isn't perfect, and he will be the first person to tell you so. He spent some time in Iraq the past year, and he told me about his experiences there. Not only are there no Christians among the Iraqis, but there were basically zero Christians at his base here in America. Basically, it was hard for him to be light in such a dark place, and he slipped from time to time.

I think it all came down to this. Ryan said, "Even the best Christian man will fall if you put him in the right situation." And I think there is some truth to his statement. Certain people have certain crosses to bear. For someone it might be drinking. Others it is lust or gossip. I couldn't help but think to myself, "What situation in life would make me fall so far as to make me start questioning my faith?" And I think this a question everyone needs to ask themselves. I have an answer for myself, and it really scares me...but luckily I know I have someone on my side who knows what I'm going through.

Hebrews 4:15 says, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin."

I love Ryan, and I want him to succeed in all aspects in life. He is heading over to Afghanistan in November...and my whole family wish he could just stay in the States or go someplace like Germany! But Ryan doesn't complain about any of it. He knows it is his duty. If I could tell Ryan one thing, it would be:

Ryan I love you and I want you to know that you have Someone on your side that understands everything you are going through and will ever go through. You can defeat the Enemy...Satan, but only if you rely on our God.

Chocolate and Chapstick

A wise man once said, "Life is like a box of chocolate. You never know what you're gonna get." This year I have gotten the good chocolate. You know the kind that has caramel? But I have also received the bad chocolate, the ones with coconut in it! But let me assure you, the good totally outweighs the bad!

Just a little overview of the past year...

Last spring I played on the Ozark Christian College baseball team. I think our final record came to 8-22 or something like that. It wasn't the prettiest season, but i learned a lot. Regrettably I let some pride issues get in the way in the middle of the season, and I flipped out on my coach. Now I have always respected authority figures in my life, but ignorantly I decided to ignore my usual ways and began arguing with my coach in the dugout before our game. That was easily one of the times in my life that I have never been more embarrassed/ashamed of myself. After a few minutes of trying to justify my actions to myself, I quickly apologized for my insolence and disrespect. Bad Chocolate.

In may, our baseball team went to the national tournament as the #8 seed (we were the last seed because we received an "at-large" bid. Basically, we got really lucky and we were invited to the tournament). In our three games we played, I had never seen our team come together and play as well as we did that week. First off, we were beating the #1 team in the nation 4-1 in the 4th inning, but ended up losing. Then we won our next game by a large margin, and I was lucky enough to be able to pitch that game! Sadly our season came to an end when we lost to the #2 seed in extra innings by one run! It was an awesome experience that I will never forget. Good Chocolate.

About 2 weeks after school got out, I headed down to Derby, Kansas for my summer internship. (Here is the blog post that explains more in depth about a GREAT my summer was at First Christian in Derby...http://butonaseriousnote.blogspot.com/2009/08/shamoos-splash.html). In short, I met soo many great people...too many to name in this post. I will always be thankful for the leadership and guidance I received from Nick Pannone, the youth minister. Also, all the youth sponsors and students that I met and were able to hangout with this summer are AMAZING people. My summer in Derby would not have been the same without them. Good Chocolate.

This past semester was a good semester. I noticed something different about myself this last semester. I will be honest, usually I start to get kind of crabby as the semester wears on. Most of the time it takes about 10 weeks until I start turning into Mr. Hyde <----reference to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde! But this year, I didn't turn into mr. crabby until the end of the semester if at all. And I think this is due to the fact of my friends! Every Monday, a few of my closest friends and I go bowling. I know it sounds a bit lame, but these times were really relaxing and I found myself looking forward to Monday nights. I awesome friends that I will miss dearly when I graduate (if you haven't noticed...I talk about graduating a lot :( I'm going to miss everyone so much!) But I will always cherish my weekly bowling outings at the 4th Street Bowling Alley. Good Chocolate.

These four memories from the past year are just 4 overwhelmingly impressionable occurrences, but they do not over shadow everything thing else that happened to me. I'm grateful for all the new friendships I made and many experiences I had in 2009. One quick thought that in no way ties to my post...Have you ever noticed that you never reach the end of your chapstick? I'm almost positive that I have had the same Burt's Bees chapstick since October...it just won't end! Or you wash your chapstick in the wash because you left it in your jeans. Or, the unthinkable, your dog finds it and eats it. At least I can sleep at night better knowing Bonnie won't be going around with chapped lips.

Well here is to a year full of Good Chocolate and Dogs without chapped lips! Bring it 2010!

364 days and Counting

Favorite Christmas Present: A book chalked full of game ideas for youth ministry.

Favorite Christmas Moment: We were at my Grandma's house on Christmas Eve and my little 1-year-old cousin started playing with a Santa Claus. This Santa Claus dances and shakes its booty, and Noah started dancing. But this wasn't just any kind of dancing. He was dirty dancing! He put his hands on his ankles and started backing it up. It was the funniest thing I had ever seen!

Favorite Christmas food: My mom's homemade turtle cheesecake...delicious!


Christmas was amazing! Even though a blizzard knocked out our electricity for about 4 hours on Christmas Eve, we were lucky enough to have power by the time we woke up. We had our usual cinnamon rolls and scrambled eggs for breakfast, and then we opened up our presents and were lazy the rest of the day! Nothing special happened...it was just a great time to be with family.

But unfortunately Christmas is over. Only 364 more days until new Christmas! Relient K has an awesome Christmas CD called, "Let it Snow, Baby...Let it Reindeer." One of their songs has a verse in it that says:

Take it all down
Christmas is over
Do not despair but rather be glad
We had a good year. Now let's have another.

I hate taking down all the Christmas decorations. I hate not listening to Christmas music for another 10 months (okay...I don't listen to Christmas music in October, but some people do...I think there should be a law against playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving). But Christmas is a good capstone to a good year. Now I am not trying to down play the importance of celebrating Christ's birth. I am just saying that Christmas is a great thing to end the year. Its like the cliche, "You always save the best for last." But this capstone is a transition for a beginning. Right around the corner is a new year that is full of possibilities and question marks. And I can't wait to see how God is going to answer them.

A Landis Christmas Eve

Today I worked out for the first time since thanksgiving break.

Today I remembered why the last time I worked out was thanksgiving break.

To be perfectly honest, I really dread the idea of working out (ask my friend Blake Park). This is actually really weird. In high school all I did was work out for sports and nothing else. But it never fails...after the workout I feel really good about myself and I promise to start making work outs a regularity in my schedule. And it never fails...I don't show my face in a gym for another month.

Besides loosing my breath after 2 minutes on a treadmill, I have been getting stoked for Christmas! I love everything about it...the songs, the decorations, the cheesy movies, and especially the mistletoe. Okay. Okay. I like the idea behind the mistletoe because its a cheap way to get a kiss, but I am not sure if it really works. Someday I will let you guys know....hopefully.

But since it is the Christmas season I just wanted to share with you guys a typical Christmas Eve at the Landis household. Before I go any farther, I need to confess something. Santa still comes to our house. Yes, the youngest family member is a senior in high school, but "if you don't believe in Santa, he won't give you any presents," so says my momma. Now I don't know if that is true or not, but I'm not willing to risk the presents.

Each Christmas Eve begins with us kids bringing down the presents and placing them under the Christmas Tree. These presents are from our parents and usually consist of articles of clothing and books...remember, Santa doesn't come until the night so the good presents aren't there yet. About 4:30 in the afternoon, everyone starts getting ready to go to my grandma's house. While at my grandma's we usually meet my uncle's new girlfriend (it seems like he has a new one every year), play around with my nephews that are 1 and 4, and then eat dinner. My great-grandmother-in-law-once-removed is always there with a glass of wine in her hand, and by about the 3rd glass she is really fun to talk to.

After exchanging presents with the family members, we go to the Christmas Eve service at my church. This usually consists of me and my brothers dripping hot wax on each other from the candles they pass out to everyone. This is followed by my dad giving us a "stern" look of disgust, but we keep doing it anyways. Once the the service is over, my family goes back to the house to get ready for Santa's arrival. We used to put chocolate chip cookies on a plate for the Jolly Elf, but lately we have been setting out oatmeal cookies (my dad's favorite...I'm still not sure if there is a correlation).

After getting everything ready for the morning, its time to open one gift! Our parents always allow us to open one gift on Christmas Eve, but they get to choose which one we open. The gift is always something we can use that night. For instance, one year we received robes. Another year, we got really nice pillows. But my all-time favorite was last year's Christmas Eve's present. We all opened matching red-silky boxers trimmed in white cotton (like Santa) and our own Santa hats. I am excited to see what we get this year, though i doubt it will outdo Santa boxers.

Well, whatever your Christmas Eves consists of, I hope you get to spend it with family because that is definitely the best part! And please wish me luck on falling asleep on December 24th...it is always so difficult to go to sleep because of the excitement! Who says you need to grow up?