But On A Serious Note...

A Pick-Me-Up Monday

2011-08-22T10:59:00.000-07:00

I love Jr. High students. Yes, they sometimes don't wear deodorant and they forget to shower regularly. Yes, they can be very awkward. And yes, their small attention span makes it hard to keep their attention longer than 30 seconds.....but....I love them! I don't know why God has wired me this way, but I'm glad He did.

We had our kickoff for fall programming yesterday, and it was awesome! There was a lot of energy and a lot of students! We had a biggest crowd ever, the students were excited to be back at LIFT. Cody (the youth pastor) and I decided to start the year of with a little bit of vision casting for our students and what we want our student ministry to be about this year. As we thought about what to name our series, the term WEIRD came up. It just seemed perfect for our students and what we want to accomplish. We want to create an environment where students can come and feel like they belong. The way we presented it to our students is that the normal thing to do in life is to surround yourself with people just like you and can offer you something in return. The weird thing is to let everyone in your circle of friends no matter who they are!

Yesterday after I was able to talk to our students about this idea of us being "Weird," we had them break out into groups and come up with ideas to make new students feel welcome in LIFT. We gave each group a poster board and a sharpie and told them to write down their ideas....and here is a list of things we got from them....I guess this is what we get for giving middle schoolers a sharpie and blank poster board. Remember, these ideas were supposed to make students feel welcome at LIFT.

- Say “Ello’ Governor” and run over them with a British taxi.

- Throw them out a window.

- Creepily stare until they talk.

- Beat the living snot out of them

- Taco

- Hold their hand

Now if these were the only ideas we got from our students, I would say we would be in big trouble (and so would anybody who decided to visit LIFT), but these were the minority. I just had to write them down because they made me laugh! I have another list about 5 times bigger with great ideas about making first time visitors feel like they belong.

Its a Monday, and so that means you just try to get through it the best you can because they drag on forever! I hope this helps a little and gives you a quick laugh like it gave me. Love you guys!

Shunned by a Sixth Grader

2011-08-03T08:26:00.001-07:00

Last Sunday was our last Jr. High program for the summer. We tried something a little different than last year with our middle school students. Last year, we canceled programming altogether to give our leaders a break, but this year we decided to just do a scaled down version of our regular program. We didn't have worship or small groups. All we did was play a couple of games, taught a lesson, took communion, and did some group discussions. We called this summer program LIFT Remix. From an outside perspective, someone might think that Remix failed, because we only had about 50% of our students attend. But to be honest I thought it went pretty well!

Even though our number of students were down, we had several new students that started attending during the summer. That isn't the weird thing...the weird thing was that they kept coming back! Our usual students were doing a great job of befriending new comers and it was really cool to see.

I tell you all of this because we had one student our last week named Moses or Mo for short. He was a shorter kid and didn't talk very much. He was probably the youngest student we had there that Sunday because he hadn't moved up to 6th grade yet, but he still came. I tried to connect with him by asking his name, what school he went to, and if he knew anyone at Remix. Quietly he said no, and then just walked away. During Remix we had a time where we wanted all of our students to stand up and high-five ten people. As I was going around high-fiving like a mad man, I saw Mo so I went straight for him. I lifted my hand in the air...I had perfect high-five form and said, "Hey Mo! Give me some!" He looked straight at me and turned around and walked away. He shunned me in front of everyone. I was standing on stage when this happened and everyone saw a tiny tween totally ignore me....how did I recover? I stood there with a blank look on my face and then realized what I looked like. I shook it off and said to the other students, "Eh...that happens sometimes." We laughed about it and moved on.

I always tell people the reason I love Jr. High ministry is because even though I'm weird they still think I'm cool. The other day, I felt like the most uncool person in the world when Mo shunned me in front of everyone. Later I tried talking to Mo but he never opened up...but I didn't give up. I kept prying and prying for him to just talk with him. I really hope I didn't come off really creepy and annoying but I just wanted him to feel like he belonged. After about 10 minutes he finally said something to me, but what he said took me by surprise. I always thought that some students were just "loners" (students who go off by themselves and they don't like being in social circles. They like to be alone) and they liked being that way. Mo was a typical "loner." You could see it from a mile away, but what he said threw me. After playing some air hockey with him, he looked up to me and said, "I hate being the new guy." Then he did his usual and just walked away.

It killed me when I heard those words. This semester in our ministry we are making a big push for our students to make people like Mo feel welcomed and like they aren't just "the new guy." In Ephesians, Paul talks about how Christians have been adopted in God's family, and in a family people are (well they are supposed to be) loved and a part of something bigger than themselves.

This is kind of a random post, but it is just something that has been on my mind so I thought I'd share it with you guys. I guess the question for us is, "Are we making people feel like they belong in the family?" Who is your Mo that feels like "the new guy"?

The Answer

2011-07-30T13:43:00.000-07:00

I know when you first saw the title of my blog you thought I was going to write an in-depth article on Allen Iverson, the former basketball player. But if I were to write about Iverson, I would title it, "Practice?" Or maybe you thought I was going to write about our nation's debt problem and my 7-step solution to recover 60% of our losses. Perhaps for you "The Answer" was going to be a blog post about a dieting program for those of us who still like to eat our sweets. Unfortunately none of the above will be discussed here, but I'm going to be talking about Batman and Robin...you know...scholarly stuff.

My whole life I have always felt like the second person. I've felt like a back-up. Being the oldest child in my family, I'm supposed to be pretty outgoing and have a lot of leadership qualities, but I'm not that way. In fact, my brother, who is one year younger than me, possesses all of those qualities. In high school, I was literally the back-up. I was second string quarterback my entire varsity career.

When I was in college, I lived in a dorm on a floor with about 30 other guys. It was great part of my life that I'll never forget. I loved those guys! One time some of us guys were hanging out in someone's dorm room, and the question came up, "If we lived in the wild west, what would each guy on the floor be?" For instance, we decided that Eric would have been the sheriff. Robert would have been the cool barber that everyone knew but didn't want to get on his bad side because he always held a razor so close to your neck. When I asked who I would be, they all laughed and agreed that I would be the boy in town that always wanted to join the fight but was always told no because I was too young.

Another time my buddies and I were talking about what each guy on our dorm floor would be if they were a superhero. Some guys were superman others were spiderman or the Green Lantern. I piped up and said i would be Batman, but they also didn't agree and said I would be Robin instead...I would be the sidekick. I've always felt like I should be the sidekick or the back-up, but to be honest with you I hated it. I wanted to be the star. I wanted to be the sheriff. I wanted to be the answer.

I think I have taken the same mentality into ministry. Because of how people have always viewed me as the sidekick, I have wanted to do better and be better. I've wanted to be the student minister that was fun and outgoing. I wanted to preach great sermons and be so good relationally with students that they would come flocking to me. I wanted to be their answer.

A couple of weeks ago we took our high school students to Panama City, Florida for a week-long conference. It was great. We stayed at a hotel right on the beach, got a tan (well I got pretty sunburnt), and learned about some godly men and women in the Bible. Christine and I were in charge of a small group of students the whole week. Basically, we were with them for about an hour each morning. That time was a time to get to know our students and to be able to teach them some different stuff. As the week progressed, I started to get really frustrated because we hadn't seen any fruit from our students. They would all just nod their heads in group and talk every once in a while. Don't get me wrong, our students were amazing, but for some reason I didn't feel like it was clicking with them. Right away I concluded that I was doing a horrible job at teaching them or not pouring into them enough...I wasn't being the answer.

On the second to last night, we had worship on the beach. It was dark outside and you could see hundreds of stars in the night sky. There was a couple playing guitar and singing worship songs, and it was just an awesome time to worship God. When Christine and I went down to the beach we just walked. After a while I started letting everything come out. I told her all about how I felt like I failed the students and that I wasn't enough. Christine did what she always does...she listened to me and then encouraged me. She reminded me that I am not the answer to the student's problems. I am not the answer. I let that sink in for a while...and to be honest...I felt like I was set free. For a long time I always tried to be the the funniest guy or the most welcoming guy thinking that if a student didn't connect it was my fault...all of the burden was on my shoulders.

I sat there in the sand next to Christine just talking about how we aren't the answer. Yes, God chooses to use us, but we can't expect to be the answer to all the students problems because we will come up short every time. Because I've always dealt with the problem of being second or being the sidekick, I started to tell myself that I needed to be THE one, but what I didn't know is that I was trying to take the place of the One.

That night on the beach was great for me, and the next day God showed me how he has a funny sense of humor. The very next morning after the night on the beach, a student in my small group came up to me and said he wanted to get baptized! I sat there and talked to him about it for a while, and then I asked if he wanted to pray. First you need to understand that this student is a great guy! He is a lot of fun and easy to talk to, but he isn't big on praying in front of people (which is a lot of students). When he bowed his head and started talking to God, I sat there in awe. He was praying one of the most heart felt prayers I had ever heard in my life. His prayer was so authentic and so real. And the truth is......it wasn't because of me. It was all because of what God was doing in his life. Later that day I was able to baptize Hayden with his friend Chandler, who first invited Hayden to come to our church.

So am I willing to be a sidekick for the creator of the Universe? Oh yea. God can do everything, and I can do nothing without Him. I am not the answer but He is The Answer.

Freedom isn't Free

2011-07-04T06:34:00.000-07:00

Freedom is a great thing. Freedom is being able to do what you want when you want. Of course there are some exceptions. I can't go kill some right now because I have an itching for murder. There are certain laws of the land to keep order and safety for the people. But Freedom...freedom is something people die for. Martin Luther King wanted African Americans to have the same freedom and rights as white people. He ended up being killed for the freedom he so eagerly sought. King Leonidas of Sparta and his 300 men died at Thermopylae to protect the freedom of his people from King Xerxes and the Persian Empire. There is story after story of men and women giving up their life because they want to attain and maintain freedom.

In the United States, the word Freedom is thrown around like a frisbee in a park. Everyone talks about it, but we really don't understand the meaning. We don't feel the significance. I say "WE" because I struggle with this just like anyone else. Now I know there are some people out there who know and feel freedom because they have had a loved one die overseas trying to maintain our freedom, and I want to say a huge thanks! There are also some people who have had a family member or friend die here on our soil because they were upholding our freedom as a policeman or fireman. I think you guys understand freedom a lot more than we do. I tell you all of this because I think Freedom is worth dying for.

Today I'm celebrating Freedom on two levels. First I'm celebrating the United States' Independence day, and our victory over Great Britain to become a Free country! But secondly, and most importantly, I'm celebrating my freedom from death! On July 4th, 1999 I decided to get baptized. I have officially become a Christian for half of my life...12 years, and I can say that I am free because Jesus thought that I was important enough to die for. He thought my Freedom was worth dying for.

Galatians 5:1 says, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free." Jesus thought it was important enough for us to be free from death and sin that he died for us. I think the next verse is really cool too which says, "Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Paul is telling us that Jesus has set us free, so don't go back to death and sin (living your old way of life). This sounds crazy to us. Why would anyone go back to being a slave after being free? But we do it everyday. In the Old Testament, the Israelites lived in the land of Egypt for 430 years, and for most of that time they were the Egyptians' slaves. They worked tirelessly for the Pharaoh. It was so bad that the Israelites cried out to God and asked for Freedom. God heard their prayers and sent Moses to set them free. After some time and plagues, the Pharaoh agreed to let the Israelites free. The people of Israel were no longer slaves, but they were free! But after time passes and the Israelites are traveling through the desert we hear them crying out to Moses, "Let us go back to Egypt!!" Tough times had landed on the Israelites, and they were hungry and thirsty, so they wanted to go back into the life of slavery. Crazy! So Paul tell us..."stand firm and do not become slaves again!"

Another passage jumps out to me when I start thinking about freedom and dying. It is Philippians 1:21 which says, "To live is Christ and to die is gain." One of the hardest things to do in a Christian's life is to die everyday to self and to live for Christ. This means saying "no" to your own personal wants and pleasures and saying "yes" to freedom in Christ. And let me tell you something really cool...when you die to to yourself, you gain freedom! You gain a freedom from carrying your burdens all by yourself. You gain a freedom from living this life without a purpose. You gain a freedom from death!!!!! If we die to ourselves on this earth, we get to live free forever with Jesus! Freedom will be worth dying for.

So today as I sit here writing this I am so happy for my freedom as an American Citizen, but I'm reminded of a greater freedom that I have found in Christ. This freedom isn't free...it cost Jesus His life, and it costs us our own personal desires and wants. But I promise that it is worth dying for, because when you die to yourself you can really start to live a life of a freedom. I hope this makes sense for you guys. Love you all and Happy 4th of July!!!!

Hospital Visits and Jr. High Boys

2011-06-10T09:45:00.000-07:00

I always hate starting out a post this way, but I just feel the need to apologize for not writing more. I wish I could give you guys a good excuse why I haven't blogged in a while. I wish I could tell you that I was climbing a mountain or that I was writing the foreword to Francis Chan's new book coming out on Hell. Unfortunately I can't tell you anything like that...all I can say is that haven't made time to blog. Before you start throwing erroneous things out like, "Charlie has blogged because he doesn't care about us" or "Charlie must be backsliding in his faith, so he hasn't written anything," let me update you on my life!

I am moved into my new apartment even though there are still boxes kind of scattered throughout my bedroom. I am in charge of our jr. high program this summer called LIFT Remix. I got a haircut about 2 weeks ago. I just got done drinking a Sprite, and I gelled my hair this morning. I'm a busy guy. I tell you all of this just to say, "I'm sorry for not making time for you, blog nation."

But on a serious note, this week as been a really good week. I've got a lot accomplished for LIFT Remix, and I was able to hang out with students two days this week. For some reason, anytime I get to hang out with students it re-energizes me. I just love doing life with students. Recently I started meeting with 3 Jr. High boys once a week. We hang out and have fun, but it is also a time for me to be able to pour into these guys. What is really cool is that I am already seeing results! The 3 guys I've been able to hang out with have great potential for leadership, and we have been talking about what it means to be a leader. Well last week at Remix, one of the guys really stepped up and was leading his group during a time where other groups were just goofing off. Now to you that might sound normal, but this kid is usually the student who is goofing off the most. It was really neat to see that my time with them is already paying off, but I can't take the credit. God is moving in their lives, and he is allowing me to help.

Another thing that I was really encouraged by this week was an encounter I had with an older lady named Helen in a hospital. This week we had 4 staff members out of the office on vacation and 3 of them are ministers that make hospital visits, so when this lady needed someone to come pray with her there was no one available...except me. I have never made a hospital call before, so I was pretty nervous. When I got to the hospital, I nervously walked down the hall to her room and knocked on her door. She quietly said, "Come in," still tired from her surgery that morning. I walked in and introduced myself and asked how she was doing. We ended up talking for about 15 minutes, and she told me about her life how her surgery went. As I grabbed her hand to pray with her she said, "Oh...you have nice warm hands." Then she smiled and prayed for her.

I usually hate going to hospitals because it always reminds me of my grandpa, but this time I was smiling as I left. It was so encouraging to be able to just sit and talk with Helen. I hope something has happened to you guys this week that has reminded you of how much God cares for you and how involved He is today. Love you guys!

God's Report Card

2011-05-17T19:55:00.000-07:00

I just set up my online account to start giving money to the church every two weeks. To be completely honest, my stomach is a little uneasy just thinking about it. I've never officially tithe before. I use to just throw a couple of dollars in the offering plat when it was passed, but that was only if I had enough money leftover in my wallet to buy a couple of cheeseburgers for lunch.

I'm not proud of the way I have handled my money in the past. Its been all about me and what I want. I remember one of my first days at Ozark Christian College as a freshman. There was a worship service on campus I attended that first Sunday I was in Joplin. When it came time for offering, I thought I should put some money in the plate that was being passed for the fear of someone noticing I didn't put any money in the plate thus making me less of a Christian. I opened up my wallet and put in what I thought was a $10 bill. You see, I am a spoiled guy. My parents gave me $400 every semester to spend on myself, and they usually gave me four $100 bills or a check. That day I also had other bills in my wallet, so I grabbed the $10 and put it in the plate. When I got back to my dorm room I noticed a hundred dollar bill missing from my wallet and that my $10 bill was still there. Then it hit me...I accidentally threw in the $100 bill instead of the ten. My stomach dropped and my face went pale. I thought to myself, "I just wasted one hundred dollars."

Looking back at that moment, I am not proud of myself, and yet today I have that same feeling in my stomach. I think it all comes down to faith. Do I have faith that God will use the money I give better than the double cheeseburgers I would but if I kept the money? Do I have faith that God will provide for me even though I have less money? Do I have faith?

Right now I don't think I have the faith I should have, but this will be good for me. Malachi 3:8-12 talks about how we should test God in our tithing and giving. Malachi 3:10 says, " 'Test me in this (tithing),' says the Lord, 'and see if I will not throw open the flood gates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.'"

I'm excited to see my faith grow, because I guess I am testing God in my finances. I think the odds are in my favor, because God has never failed a test. Of course I need to have the right perspective on this. The way God provides might not be the way I want Him to, but He always provides whats best for me. So does this mean next a $100 bill will show up on my doorstep? Probably not. God might just give me a content spirit or joy to be able to make it through tough circumstances. Whatever it is, I know God will pass the test...He's a straight A student. I think...I know he will pass the Test.

God Dreams

2011-05-14T19:05:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the big day. I'm moving into my apartment. Right now it is about 10 o'clock at night, and my room at the house I've been living at the past year still looks the same. I haven't packed anything, and to be honest I think I'm going to wait until the last minute to do anything. It is just hard leaving a place where you have gotten so comfortable. The family I'm staying with has been awesome. I'm so lucky to have had the privilege to stay with the Lincks.

I remember this time last year, I was about to make another big move. This time instead of moving about 30 minutes away, I was moving 9 hours away...from Kansas to Indiana. It was the hardest thing I think I ever had to do. I remember the night before I left. I was sitting in the kitchen with my mom and dad just talking a little bit. All my things were packed in my car, so I could leave early the next morning. When all of a sudden, I just broke down. I started bawling like a baby, and I had no idea where it came from. My dad actually walked outside to our backyard and my mom came over to comfort me as tears were flooding down her face too. She just rubbed my back and told me everything was going to be okay. I believed her, but it was just so hard to picture life without my family close by. A few minutes later my dad walked back inside wiping tears from his face. It was such a tough time. It was a sad time.

But I sit hear one year later as happy as I hav ever been. I'm marrying my dream girl in November. I get to work with the same students and student ministry team for another year, as I accepted another year-long internship with the church. And I'm moving into my own place. Who would have thought this would all happen to average ole Charlie? Not me! Especially as I was sitting at the dinning table with my mom and dad that night as we said our goodbyes and crying, I would have never dreamt this for myself.

I have leanred a lot of things in my life. I've learned how to color inside the lines with my crayons. I've learned to make scrambled eggs, and I've even learned how to make a loud popping noise with my knuckles by slapping with my finger. But one of the most important things I think I have leanred is that God's dreams are bigger and better than my dreams. Why even waste time dreaming for your life when God has the perfect dream waiting to become your reality? God is the mastermind behind this plan. He is the designer of my life. I'm so excited to see where God takes me, because I could never possibly dream what God has in store! Are you going to let God dream for you?!

Finally I Become a Man

2011-05-03T14:08:00.000-07:00

"April showers bring May flowers." This is the saying I always heard growing up. With the showers we had in Indiana this April, there should be a forests of lilies and roses popping up everywhere. It rained so much here. There was a two week period where it rained nonstop. In the office there were a couple of people complaining about it, and someone said, "Do you think Noah complained?" And if I was a gambling man, I would say Noah probably threw up a couple of complaints to the Big Guy. But the rain from the clouds has finally ceased here in Indiana. Unfortunately I haven't quit making it rain from my billfold....i just got an apartment.

That's right. Charlie is getting ready to go through yet another rite of passage. First it was growing armpit hair, then it was getting his driver's license, and now it is getting an apartment and living by himself. This will be the first time I have ever lived by myself. After graduating high school, I lived in a dorm with my good friend David, and for the past year I have been living with a family that has graciously taken me in...but now I must grow up and live by myself.

I'm going to be honest...I'm a little nervous. Here is a quick list of the reasons I'm nervous.

1) I don't know how to cook. The only things I know how to cook is frozen pizza and hot dogs. Last time I checked, man cannot live on frozen pizza and hot dogs alone. So I better get my Emeril on...soon.

2) I have never spent this much money on a consistent basis. I am now obligated to pay rent every month for an entire year! I think the last time I paid money on a regular basis towards something was to fix my sweet tooth in high school. Every day I spent 50 cents to buy a pack of nutty bars at lunch. Unfortunately my rent is going to be a little more than 50 cents.

3) There is a good chance my apartment is haunted. My apartment is actually in a mansion that was built in 1870 for widows. The person who built this house was named Colbertson, and he also built another mansion just down the street from where I will be living. And that mansion actually has had reports of a haunting. I hope urine repels ghosts because I know I will pee the bed if I ever see/hear anything freaky.

So there are a couple of reasons why I'm nervous to live by myself. Are they valid? Oh yea. But I'm also pretty excited to have my own apartment. It will be nice to go home and not have to worry about anyone...plus I can walk around in my underwear. But on a serious note, I think this time will be really good for me. I will learn stuff about myself that I would never learn if I never ventured out and lived on my own. So I guess you could say I'm nervous and excited!

Have you guys every lived by yourself? If so, what did you learn about yourself?

Don't Forget

2011-04-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

As I sit here writing this post, I'm reminded of the famous philosopher Charlie Sheen when he said, "I'm bi-winning. I win here. I win there." You see, tonight I am going to play some basketball with some friends, and there will definitely be some winning. Will I win? Probably not, but someone will win. Also, another win for me today...I get the day off! Tomorrow is Good Friday and the offices are closed, but my day off is usually Friday, so I get to take my day off today! Its going to be a "winning" weekend. I'm going to color Easter eggs, make rice crispie Easter eggs, and take Christine to the driving range for the first time (she might not win that one). But all I know is that it is going to be a winning weekend.

As I said earlier, tomorrow is Good Friday, and two days later it is Easter! I remember when I was younger, my brothers and I would get so excited to get up Easter Sunday and look for eggs! *Disclaimer* *If you are under the age of 8, please quit reading for your own good* *Disclaimer* My parents were really good at hiding eggs! There were always 1 or 2 eggs we never found because my dad had found too difficult a hiding place for us to find them. But I used to have a great time on Easter. And what kid doesn't like Candy?! That is what Easter is all about, right?! But now that I am older, Easter eggs and candy are not the first things to come to mind...

Every Sunday at LIFT, our middle school program at church, we have a time where we take communion. Usually Cody or I get up in front of the students and give a little spiel about communion, and this past week it was my turn. As I was trying to think of what to say, I was reminded of what Christine's dad says to her when she is getting ready to leave. Rick, Christine's dad, quickly says the words, "Don't Forget" before Christine leaves to go somewhere. When I first heard this saying, I thought she had to go pick up something at the grocery store and her dad was just reminding her not to forget to pick up some cereal. But after time I started to notice that he said, "Don't forget" almost every time she left the house. Finally I asked Christine about it and she said, "Oh, he wants me not to forget that he loves me!"

As this story played in my mind last week before communion, I could hear Jesus saying to me, "Don't forget..." Every week we go to church and we eat this stale, small piece of bread (unless you go to Carterville Christian Church in Missouri...best communion bread ever!) and drink a small cup of grape juice that is barely enough to get the stale bread taste out of your mouth...why? So that we "Don't Forget."

Tomorrow is Good Friday. I sure hope we don't forget about it because without Good Friday there would be no Easter. Without Jesus dying on the cross on Friday, He could not come back to life on Sunday. So tomorrow as you are going about your day, and for the rest of your time on earth...Don't Forget. Don't forget that he died for you and that He loves you.

My friend Adam, Christine's brother, wrote a blog Post about this a while back, and I don't do it justice compared to him. I Hope you guys have a good Easter holiday this weekend. Love you all!

Lessons From Plastic Army Men

2011-04-09T12:39:00.000-07:00

When I was younger I used to love to play with my little plastic army men. I would go out in my front yard and build forts out of tree bark, leaves and sticks. For hours my friends and I would build the best and strongest fort we could. Then we would take turns throwing bombs (small rocks) at the other person’s fort, and whichever fort was left standing won.

Unfortunately now that I am older I don’t play with plastic army men. I have resorted to going to coffee shops and living a boring, mature life. But I think a lot of Christians live like they are the army men I used to play with getting bombarded by rocks, so they create this fort to protect themselves. They have this plastic army men fort mentality when it comes to living in the world.

I think it all comes down to how we want to respond to culture. Will we barricade ourselves into a fort so we don’t’ interact with culture? Will we just go with the flow of culture? Or will we drive culture?

Lately I have seen a lot of the first option. Christians are barricading themselves into their holy huddles so that they don’t interact with the culture around them. Instead of trying to escape culture, they actually create their own culture. This takes the shape of Christian t-shirts, Christian businesses or Christian music. I have heard of churches having a MORP. This is the opposite of the Prom. They dress up, bring flowers, take pictures and sit in church listening to Michael W. Smith. Some Christians think that culture is evil. They feel the need to create their own healthy version of culture.

But I don’t think this is the best way to go about it. Tom Shefchunas is the middle school pastor for North Point Christian Church and in his blog Coach Shef, he talks about this idea of Christians driving culture instead of hiding from it or creating their own culture. He says that 75 years ago, Christians were the ones driving culture, but things changed. In his blog he writes,

For most of Christian history that is exactly what we did (drive culture). It wasn’t until the last 50-75 years that we started to quit thinking offensively and started getting defensive. We gathered our flocks and went and hid behind our walls. We now longer sponsored Woodstock…we made our own little own Christian Woodstock. We stopped proclaiming truth through our art and talents and started pointing out what we didn’t believe was art.

What if we stopped making Christian music and created great music that proclaimed truth? I found this WEBSITE for Christians who want to listen to secular music but want the Christian alternative. It is just sad, because Christians aren’t driving culture. We are trying our best to look like culture, but we are just creating something that isolates us from the world we are trying to rescue.

What if Christians stopped getting offended and we became offensive? What if we stopped having the plastic army men fort mentality when it comes to living in the world? What if we started to drive culture again?

Follow Friday

2011-04-01T15:38:00.001-07:00

I started my blogging journey in August 2008. When I first started But On A Serious Note, I didn't realize how popular it would become. Everyone was reading my blog...and by everyone I mean my mom and my best friend. But when I first started this thing, I really didn't read anyone else's blog except for David Heffren's blog. I didn't know how many people blogged! But now I sit here typing this almost three years later, and my ignorance of the blogging-sphere has changed. I just wanted to share with you guys a couple of the blogs I follow, and I hope you guys find them helpful for you!

First of all, I use a website called iGoogle to follow my blogs. For instance, if I want to follow the blog of Charlie Sheen (that would be an interesting/crazy/mind-numbing/inappropriate/time-wasting blog to read), I would put in his web address into my iGoogle account. Then from that time on, every time he posted a new blog, it would pop up on my iGoogle! It is very handy, and I would recommend to anyone who wants to start following people's thoughts on the internet.

Second, remember that these blogs are on the internet so people can post whatever they want. So be careful who and what you follow, because there is no accountability to what people are writing. They could be writing total nonsense, but they have no one making sure what they are saying is legitimate. Be sure to keep this in mind when deciding who to follow!

Now here is a list of blogs that I have found to be interesting, insightful and...(oh, what is another "i" word), intelligible.

TonyMorganLive: Tony Morgan writes about the church and more specifically about leadership.

Stuff Christians Like: Jon Acuff uses Christian satire to point out funny things about the Christian faith. I have found this blog to lighten up my day!

Michael Hyatt: Michael Hyatt's blog is all about leadership. I have found this site to be one of the most practical blogs on leadership.

Donald Miller: Before Donald Miller writes a book, he writes about his ideas on his blog. He places a lot of importance on story, and he focuses on the Christian walk. Good stuff.

The Resurgence: This is Mark Discoll's blog, but he collaborates with several other writers. These guys focus on the theological side of the Christian faith, and it is very insightful.

Coach Shef: Tom Shefchunas is a middle school pastor for North Point Christian Church, and his blog a great resource for someone who focuses student ministry!

There are different blogs I follow too! There is David's Blog andAdam's Blog. These guys are two of the wisest guys I know, and I'm glad they blog! I hope this list helps you guys. What blogs do you follow?

Africa

2011-03-29T14:17:00.000-07:00

March is almost over...less than 8 months until I am getting married!!! I am very excited, and I find myself trying to ignore the calendar so that time goes by faster. You know when you have a big date at night or there is a big game on TV later that day, and you are so excited to watch it that time just seems to move slow throughout the day? Well, I'm experiencing this phenomenon. Unfortunately, it is not for one day but for 8 months! I just want November to get here fast, but sometimes I forget to live in the moment. I need to enjoy where I am right now in life, and I hope you are doing the same.

Now that I'm done with my random outburst for the day, I guess we can get to my Africa trip. This is going to be my last post about my time in Kenya, but these posts in no way have been able to describe my entire experience....these are just blurbs. I hope you have enjoyed them!

Friday Night

"Kuna Kita Leo Nyumbani Mwababa." This means "There is something today in the house of the Father" in Swahili. One of my friends I have made here taught me this. Her name is Anne and she loves to sing!

Today was another great day in Kisumu, Kenya. However, I'm getting pretty homesick. I miss Christine! one of the pastors we are traveling with has a wife and her name is Christine. Today I tried to explain to him how I am engaged to a beautiful girl named Christine in America. This pastor's name is Francis, and we have made a good connection. Today while we were talking, he told me not to forget him when I'm back in America. I told him to do the same for me. Tomorrow we are exchanging emails so we can stay in contact. Also, we held hands! In the Kenyan culture, it is a sign of friendship to walk down the street holding hands. So Francis and I held hands while walking in the slums.

My time in Kenya today was a blessed day. This morning we went to hangout with the street children, and it was a blast! We played cards, soccer, volleyball and just talked to them. The kids were older than I thought they would be. We had 3 10-12 year-olds and about 18 eighteen year-olds and up. I got the chance to talk and pray with a 19 year old named Kevin. His parents divorced when he was young and his dad left him with the mom. The mom remarried and Kevin lived with his mom and stepdad. As time went by, Kevin's step dad started beating him, and Kevin finally ran away. Now he sleeps and lives on the street. It was a tough story to hear, but I prayed for him and then ate lunch with him. As I am writing this at night on my bed, I can't help but think where Kevin is right now. Which street corner is he sleeping on?

Besides Kevin, I met Jameson, Victor, Collins, Joseph, Victor and another Joseph. The last Joseph was 12 year old but he looked like he was about five because he was so malnourished. As we were playing "Go Fish" with him, we noticed something was on his forehead and in his hair. When we asked him what it was he wouldn't answer. Jameson, an older kid, told us it was glue. You see, street kids drink and sniff glue to get high so they don't have to feel the pain of living without parents and family. Joseph had been sniffing glue. It was just really sad, and it broke my heart.

Our time with the street kids came to an end at 2 o'clock. From there we went house-calling. The first lady we called on was a widow named Helen. She was probably in her 30's and had a boy named Joseph (different Joseph from the previous story) who was 9. She has a business where she sells goods, but her business isn't going very well. She can barely make enough money to put Joseph through school. I asked her about how she copes with her troubles and she said, "I can pray. That's all I can do." I have just been blown away on how much people believe in prayer and its power in Kenya. I want to pray with the zeal and fervor of the Kenyans.

After Helen, we visited a woman named Grace. Grace's husband left her twenty years ago and then came crawling back to her when he got sick. He ended up dying shortly after coming back and once again Grace was by herself with the children. She now supports her family with her semi-successful coal business. She sells coal, and when I say successful I mean she might make $5 a day. Grace is also putting 4 children through school, so that can get really expensive!

Next we visited Marguerite (Christine's middle name! I'm waiting to meet someone with Berry as a name now). Marguerite is 70 years old and has 5 children currently living; the other 4 have died. Marguerite was the most joyful person I've met her in Kenya! She was always making jokes and laughing. It was awesome to see her smile.

Linnett was the next widow we went to visit. She was very young, maybe 22, and she had a 4 year old. Linnett had a fruit business and she was doing very well for herself and little boy.

It was such a blessing to be able to go in and talk and encourage these four ladies! God is so faithful to His people. It just stinks that I had to see faith in these people before I could see God's faithfulness, but I rejoice in the fact that God showed himself to me through Helen, Grace, Marguerite, Linnett and Kevin.

Also, on the way back from doing some house calling, we rode bikes. Now we didn't drive the bike, we just rode them. A man named Stephen was my driver and I got to talk to him a bit. I found out he was a born again Christian and had a family! I asked him if I was the heaviest person he has ever drive and he said, "yes." Thinking he had only been driving for a short while, I asked him how long he had been driving, and he told me he had been driving for ten years...I guess I am fairly husky. But after he dropped me off, he asked if I could pray for him. I did, and it was good to meet a brother even though I'll probably never see him again.

I'm so thankful for my time in Kenya, and I'll never forget what God showed me. I hope you someday have the chance to visit Africa and to see God's church outside of the United States!

Asante Sana

2011-03-19T08:15:00.000-07:00

I don't know how to start this blog post, so I am just going to jump into it. This is another journal entry while I was in Africa. This is probably my favorite journal entry while I was in Kenya. I remember that whole day, I couldn't wait to get back and write about it. I wrote this the Thursday night I was there, and I talk about some cool people I met and how the Africans pray!

Thursday Night

Asante Sana! Asante Sana! This means "Thank you very much" in Swahili. I am so thankful right now for my day in Kenya. We just spent all day in Kisumu with members of LIA and local pastors.

First, we met at the LIA Kisumu office and learned about what they were doing in the Kisumu area. They noticed a big need for the kids. I guess HIV/AIDS has tragically effected the Kisumu area, so a lot of people have died because of this nasty disease. Unfortunately, most of the people who died left behind children, and these kids end up on the streets with no one to take care of them. So LIA decided to do something about it. They wanted to empower churches in the area to serve their community in a wholistic manner. This entails spiritual, physical and emotional nourishment. They also started a program for street children to get reconnected with families or teach them a skill so they can support themselves. LIA is doing great things.

After meeting with the LIA team, we went to a church to meet with 5 local pastors and their staff (more like serious volunteers). At first it was really awkward , but then we split up (1 Pastor and staff with 3 of us) and we ate lunch and got to know the pastor and his team. We were with Crispin (pastor), Ellie, Francis, Anne, Wilson, and Mary (LIA team member). We made small talk during lunch, and then finished eating. Then we went with the Crispin and his team to go to visit his house.

As we left the church I noticed we started walking into the slums. The houses, I don't even know if you can call them houses, were small. Some were made with cement and others with mud and tin. I started to think that the pastor decided to switch our plans and now we were going to make house calls to people in the congregation instead of going to his house. It didn't hit me until we walked into an 8x8 house and Crispin said, "welcome." I leaned over to Anne, and I asked here whose house we were in. She quickly said, "the Pastor's home." I was blasted away. I don't know why I thought it was weird for the pastor to live among the people he was leading, but it took me by surprise. When we all entered Crispin's house, they asked one of us to pray for the pastor's home. After a long awkward silence, I volunteered to pray. I was a little nervous.

Now I need to take a break and talk about the Kenyans and prayer. Their prayers are indescribable. The Kenyans pray with so much power, so much zeal and authority. Before we left Nairobi, a man named Paul prayed for our trip. We grabbed shoulders, and I happened to be standing next to Paul. As he began to pray, he was quiet and he paused often to gather his thoughts. Then as he began to pick up speed, his voice grew louder and louder. He was squeezing my shoulder as he prayed with intensity. It was awesome! Tonight during our debrief time one of the LIA team members summed up the relationship between the Kenyans and prayer. Efontez said, "Prayer means a lot to the people here, because it is the only thing we have." Now do you understand why I was a little nervous to pray for my brother Crispin?

Our time with Crispin and his family was a blessing. I learned that he is married and has 4 kids all under the age of eleven. Crispin does live in the slums, so he doesn't make much money. Most of the people in his church, Pentecostal Deliverance Church, make under $1 a day. I've heard that statistic, but I had never seen it...until now. We talked for a while longer, and then it was time to leave. But before we left, we asked Crispin about any prayer requests he might have. He explained about different hardships (injuries, money, family), but the first thing he asked for was peace. I was blown away! He didn't ask for healing or money but peace! Christians in Kenya have a different perspective on life. They don't see life as a way to advance themselves, but they want to advance God's kingdom.

We finished up with our time in Crispin's home and walked to Wilson's home. He is a single guy, probably about 28 years old. He also lived in the slums. His house was smaller than Crispinn's, but he was ashamed at all. I could tell you all about or time with Wilson, but I would be up until Midnight writing. We left his home encouraged, and then we took a taxi (a three-wheeled small motor car) to Francis' house. Still in the slums, we went inside his house and talked about the chruch and his family. When it came time for us to pray for Francis he asked for one prayer request, and it was simple. He wanted us to intercede for him and to ask God to make him help the needy. I had to do a double take. I wanted to say, "You are the needy, Francis! We should be helping you." It is very humbling to see the attitude and perspective of the Christians in Kenya. I'm loving this trip. I just hope I'll be able to share it with everyone back home. Tomorrow we are going to play with the street children! I'm so excited!

I am so thankful for the opportunity God gave me to meet new people in Africa. I'll never forget the relationships that were forged in Kenya. One of the last times I saw Francis (he is the one in the yellow tie in the picture above), he told me never to forget about him. Francis, I'll never forget about you. I'll never forget about Africa. Asante Sana.

My Reason for Mondays

2011-03-14T10:59:00.000-07:00

I love Jr. High ministry! Right now we are in the middle of a teaching series on love and dating. Its called the "Love Shack." Someone people think this title is a little questionable, because it came from a song that is about having, as Bill Clinton puts it, "sexual relations." But the whole purpose of this series is to talk about how our view of love is skewed and misguided. As imperfect people, we often tend to reside in a run-down, dirty shack instead of a strong, stable house when it comes to love. Basically, we are just trying to teach our students about healthy relationships and God's love.

Yesterday we had a question and answer session with our Jr. High students about dating. We sat them all down and talked to them for about 10 minutes about healthy relationships, and how our relationship with God has to be the number one thing in our lives. Afterward we gave them each a piece of paper and asked them to write down a question they have about dating and relationships. Here are a couple of questions we received:

How many girlfriends do boys have on average?

Is it wrong to smack your boyfriend?

Why are girls so complicated? They ask so many questions!

(this one is more of a statement) Why kiss so many different people? God has already picked the one for you. Oh and by the way, I can't date until I am married.

If you have a wedgie is it okay to pick it on your date? Or should you excuse yourself??

Are there more girls than boys?

Why do teens have sex knowing they may have aids?

These are only a few of the questions we got, but I just wanted to share with you guys why I love Jr. Highers! Mondays are sometimes hard to get motivated for, but I just love looking back on Sunday and seeing why I come in on Monday. Middle School students make me laugh and smile all in the same moment. They are in this stage of their life where they are becoming who they are for the rest of their lives. They're bodies are changing physically and emotionally, and it is amazing to see them change spiritually. This is when their faith is no longer just their parents faith, but they start to grasp this idea of God on their own.

This is why I come into work on Mondays. Why do you get up on Monday?

Redefining "Blessed"

2011-03-09T16:31:00.000-08:00

I have already been back from Africa for a full week. Time is flying by! It just seems like yesterday I was in Kenya hanging out with leopards and elephants drinking Coke and singing the Lion King theme song. But since I have been back in the States, I have had some time to process everything I saw in Kenya.

For those of you that don't know, I had the great opportunity to travel to Kenya and see what God is doing overseas. We partnered with an organization called Life in Abundance (LIA) that goes into an area and partners with local pastors to help create a wholistic ministry in their churches. They help to educate these pastors on what it means to minister to people spiritually, physically, and psychologically. At the end of every day I wrote in my journal so I could remember everything when I went back to America. For my next couple posts I'm going to share with you guys those journal entries. Enjoy!

After that first night in Kenya, I had a real hard time with the word "blessed." I don't know if you have ever caught yourself calling yourself blessed, but I catch myself all the time. We throw the word blessed around so much that we don't realize exactly what it means. When Jesus uses "blessed" in Matthew 5, he doesn't connect it with happiness, material possessions, or family. He connects blessed with those who mourn, those who are meek, and those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. While in Africa, I came to the conclusion that the people I saw in Africa were blessed way beyond anything I could imagine. I think it is our American mindset that the more stuff we have, the more God has shined his favor upon us. Or I know I have thought that just because God allowed me to be born in America, I am blessed. But maybe it is more of a curse than a blessing? We could write a whole post about how hard it is to have a faithful walk in America, but we don't have time for that. Now I am not saying that the people of Africa don't have struggles and that I hate living in America. I love the United States, but we can all agree that we are not blessed just because we are citizens of the U.S.A.

Wednesday Night

My first full day in Kenya is complete, but we really haven't interacted with many Kenyans. This morning after breakfast, we heard from the LIA team, but first we heard from Julius, a local pastor. He gave us a word from John 17 on Jesus' 9 "I Have" statements in his prayer to God. It was hands down one of the most encouraging, challenging message I have heard in a long time. Julius said these 9 "I have" statements were Jesus' commitments on earth. It was great.

After Julius we heard from Paul and James, leaders for LIA. They explained what their ministry was all about and how they were advancing the kingdom. These people are so full of humility and the Spirit.

We then ate lunch and jumped in a couple of vans that had little space to move. We drove for 6 1/2 hours to Kisumu where we are going to be for the next 5 days. On the ride up here, I was able to see a little part of Africa. I saw beautiful mountains, one of the most beautiful sunsets I had ever seen, miles and miles of tea plantations, and lots of zebras! I also saw four-year-old kids walking all by themselves down a busy highway, houses made from mud and tin, men just laying down on the ground, and many other disheartening things. As I was taking all this in I found myself saying,, "I am so blessed." But why am I blessed? Just because I have a lot of crap in my house doesn't mean I'm blessed. Just because I was born in the United States doesn't make me blessed. I'm blessed because I have Jesus. When Jesus said, "I have come to bring the good news to the poor," he doesn't mean those who don't have a roof over their heads. He came for the spiritually poor, for those who don't know Him.

After that first night in Kenya, I had a real hard time with the word "blessed." I don't know if you have ever caught yourself calling yourself blessed, but I catch myself all the time. We throw the word blessed around so much that we don't realize exactly what it means. When Jesus uses "blessed" in Matthew 5, he doesn't connect it with happiness, material possessions, or family. He connects blessed with those who mourn, those who are meek, and those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. While in Africa, I came to the conclusion that the people I saw in Africa were blessed way beyond anything I could imagine. I think it is our American mindset that the more stuff we have, the more God has shined his favor upon us. Or I know I have thought that just because God allowed me to be born in America, I am blessed. But maybe it is more of a curse than a blessing? We could write a whole post about how hard it is to have a faithful walk in America, but we don't have time for that. Now I am not saying that the people of Africa don't have struggles and that I hate living in America. I love the United States, but we can all agree that we are not blessed just because we are citizens of the U.S.A.

I think it would be smart for all of us to make sure our definition of "blessed" is correct. Seeing the people of Africa really helped me to redefine my view of "blessed." I guess I'm just trying to save you a trip halfway across the world in order for you to see that we aren't as blessed as we think we are...but if you do have the chance to go to Africa, GO!

Ms. Macaughlen

2011-02-15T14:36:00.000-08:00

There are several older guys at the church I work at that go around the building and fix things. If there is a hole in the wall, you let Geep know, and by the next day it is all fixed. If the drain in the baptistery is clogged, Geep will have it flowing again by Sunday. Geep is a real handy man. He can fix about anything. But then there is Wayne.

Wayne is about 70-something. He always wears denim overalls with a plaid t-shirt underneath. Wayne is a little overweight, so he tends to wobble more than he walks. He comes to the church about 3 times a week willing to do whatever needs to be done around the building. When Geep is wiring lights and building something for the children's ministry, Wayne is taking out the trash. You see, they don't give Wayne the important stuff. He is always doing menial tasks like taking out the trash or moving a chair from this room to that room...never anything too major.

Everyday Wayne comes to help out at the church, he always makes his way into the office. He might say a couple of words to me, but he usually bypasses me and heads straight to Mandy's desk where he will proceed to tell her some corny joke. As he walks away, you can hear him quietly chuckle to himself as he goes to do some small chore.

Up until today, this is all I have ever known about Wayne. While I was rearranging a classroom this morning for the college bible study we have at our campus, Wayne decided to pop his head in to see what I was doing. After telling me a joke I had heard him tell Mandy about five times, he just stood there and watched me move some chairs out of the room. Then when it came time for me to move some tables out of the room, he came over and helped me. He didn't do much. All he did was hold on to the tables to make sure they didn't fall over. But then he said, "One time I heard a Baptist preacher tell a great story. Want to hear it?" I told him sure and continued with my work.

He went on to tell me a story about a lady named Ms. Macaughlen...

One day a deacon in a baptist church went up to his preacher and said, "Pastor, a lady by the name of Ms. Macaughlen died yesterday, and she left a note saying she wants you to do her funeral." Thinking out loud, the preacher said, "Well, her name doesn't ring a bell. There are 1,500 members in this church." Then he asked the deacon, "Tell me some things about her so I'll have something nice to say about her during the funeral. Was she a sunday school teacher?" The deacon didn't think she was. "Was she in the choir?" the preacher quickly asked. The deacon once again replied in the negative. Quesiton after question the preacher asked the deacon about how Ms. Macaughlen might have served at the Baptist church, but they couldn't think of anything she had done besides that she attended every Sunday. The preacher thought to himself, "Regualr attendance is a good start. I'll be able to throw something together for her funeral."

The next day happened to be Easter Sunday, and the Baptist preacher was preaching a great emotional sermon. However, when he reached down under the podium to grab his glass of water to relieve his dry throat, he found nothing. No glass of water. He abruptly ended his sermon because he didn't have any water, and he walked off the stage. After the service the deacon walked up to the preacher and said, "Pastor, you were preaching a great sermon. Why did you end so quickly?" The preacher replied, "I didn't have my glass of water under my podium that I have ever Sunday." Then it hit the deacon. He said, "Oh, yea. That is what Ms. Macaughlen does every Sunday. She gets you a glass of water.

After telling the story, Wayne said in his raspy voice, "You see, the preacher never realized that Ms. Macaughlen filled up that water for him every Sunday. It is those little things the really count...Those small things that people do that matter."

I just sat there amazed at the simple story I had just heard from this old, simple man. I was currently moving table and chairs, something I have to do every week and I sometimes complain about. Wayne doesn't have beyond a 5th grade education, but that old guy has more wisdom then this Christian college graduate typing this post. Thanks Ms. Macaughlen. Thanks Wayne.

First name Just. Last name Intern

2011-02-02T15:40:00.000-08:00

A lot has happened since I last posted. My Kansas Jayhawks lost their first basketball game. Riots have erupted in the Mideast. My mom and dad both turned 50. Puxatony Phil didn't see his shadow, so spring should be getting here any day now. I think that's about it...oh, and I got engaged!

I proposed to Christine on January 22nd. Now there are rumors flying around that the only reason I asked Christine to marry me was because it was my good friend's birthday, but those rumors are false! I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with Christine. I honestly thought I might spend the rest of my life single once I graduated Ozark not dating anyone, because who graduates Bible college single? Most of the girls who go to a Christian college go there just to find a husband, right? But thankfully God had a girl in southern Indiana picked out for an awkward boy from Kansas. So if I had to sum up how I feel right now in one word it would be: IamSoExcitedToMarryChristineBerry.

Besides finding out who I'm going to live with the rest of my life, I also found out what I'm doing after my internship is over in May...I'm going to do another year-long internship at Southeast! I really love the students and sponsors. It would be so hard to leave them, and after Cody talked to me about the possibility of doing the internship again, I knew Southeast was the place I could best serve God this upcoming year. So I guess I'll be just an intern again...but I'm completely fine with that. Honestly, it will keep my head from getting to big. It's important to remember we are "Just" a person who God has chosen to further His Kingdom, because he could do it without me.

Sorry this was a short post. I guess you could call it an Umpa Lumpa post.

Knowing

2011-01-19T18:44:00.000-08:00

Metamucil.

This is fiber supplement older people often take to help with their…um…bowel movements. Since I’m not much of a trendsetter, I have decided to start a new trend. I’m going to start taking Metamucil. I’m not doing this out of necessity or because I want to be more regular. Just want to start a trend…please believe me. The last time I tried to start a trend it didn’t work out so well. I tried to bring back “courting.” But every time I asked a girl if I could court them, they walked away. Another time I tried to make skip racing popular again. Back in the day, people would skip all the time. Then I thought to myself, “I’m competitive. Maybe I should race someone in skipping.” So I did, and I won. But it didn’t catch on. Maybe Metamucil will be more successful.

Now there really is no way of knowing whether or not I’m going to be successful in my attempt at making Metamucil a daily habit for 20-something year-olds, but there is one thing I do know. Humans have this longing sense to know. We want to be in the “know,” or we butt in conversations because we want to know what people are talking about. If you are every around little kids, they are always asking, “why?” They are so curious as to how the world around them works. Or they want to know the reason for why people do what they do. I remembering growing up I would always ask my parents “why” after they told me to do something. They would always quickly reply, “Because I said so!” After living in almost 23 years, I still want to know! I went to college and paid tons of money (well, my parents paid….thanks mom and dad!) just because I wanted to KNOW! I honesty think that we just never quit wanting to know.

In his book, Knowing God, J.I. Packer gives a great metaphor about how you can know something. He says that inanimate things are very easy to know. You can study it, and you can tell people what it looks like. You know the object. But it gets a little trickier when you try to get to know a living object. For instance, it will take you a little longer for you to know a horse. You would have to study its behaviors until you could finally tell someone that you know the horse. It gets even more complicated when it comes to knowing a human. Unlike a horse, humans can keep secrets and things hidden. You can know someone for 10 years, and they could do something totally out of the ordinary that you wouldn’t expect. So you really don’t know that person. In this instance, the ability to know a person falls on to the person who is getting known. It is up to them if they want to divulge knowledge about themselves. Are you following me? I hope so because this is very similar to our relationship and our pursuit of knowing God. The first thing we must understand that is that God has allowed us to get to know him. Jeremiah 24:7 says, “I will give them a heart to know me…”

I am humbled and very thankful that the God of the universe has allowed me to get to know Him! I hope I never miss the opportunity to get to know Him more and more each day.

Not so Noisy in Boise.

2011-01-02T12:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was privileged to be in my good friend's wedding. Ryan and Tasha got married on January 1st at 1 o'clock in Boise, Idaho. So their anniversary will be 1/1/11...smart move on Ryan's part. He should never forget that date, right? I think I'll probably get married on 4/4/44, so I'll never forget my anniversary. I don't want my wife beating me with her walking stick.

When we first landed in Boise for the wedding a couple days ago, I started making this joke about how we are going to get crazy while we were in Idaho. At the airport I said, "Let's get noisy in Boise!" Then this older man over heard me and said, "Boise isn't noisy. New Orleans is." Then he walked away. What a kill joy. Despite the Old man's warnings, I still tried to make it noisy in Boise...

On the flight from Denver to Boise, I was reading a chapter out of Pete Wilson's Book Plan B. The whole chapter dealt with something that I am horrible at dealing with. WORRY. If you are close to me at all, you know that I don't handle stress very well, and all the stress is directly connected with worry. I don't know about you guys, but I always tend to worry about really dumb stuff...stuff I can't control. Motivational speaker Earl Nightiingale said that 40% of the things we worry about never happen. He adds that an additional 30% are things that happened in the past and can't be changed anyway. Needless concern about our personal health occupies 12% of our worries, and 10% of our worries are petty, miscelaaneious items. In other words, according to Nightingale, 92% of our worries have no substance at all. Only about 8% of our worries are legitimate matters worhty of our conern! I know this is very true in my own life. I always worry and stress out about stuff that I have no control of. I met a guy named Seth at the wedding I was in yesterday, and he is one of the most laidback guys I have ever met. Besides being sick the past couple days, he had to travel about ten hours back to Oregon rigth after the reception because he had to teach on Sunday morning. When I asked if he was freaking out about it, he shrugged his shoulders and said, "There is really nothing I can do about it...so no worries." Man I wish I could respond to worries like that.

Even though Seth did admit that he might be a little to lax when it comes to worry, I still wish I could be more Seth-like instead of totally freaking out and getting worked up. Can I ask you a question? Well, since I just did, let me ask you another. Do you like watching birds? My friends sometimes make fun of me because I love just sitting out on the back porch and watch birds with my parents. I just love watching them interact with each other and eating from bird feeders. They live a pretty simple life. Besides living a simple life, did you know that most of the birds' brain space is taken up by their eyes? So they are not the brightest animal in the animal kingdom. Matthew 5:26 is Jesus talking in the Sermon on the Mount and he says, "Look at the birds in the air. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, but your heavenly Father feeds them. And you know that you are worth much more than the birds." So despite their seeming lack of purpose and intellect, Jesus says God takes care of them.

In the previous verse Jesus plainly states, "do not worry." So is Jesus saying not to worry at all? Does he not want you to be concerned about your parent's pending divorce, the tanking economy or a dying love one? Absolutely not! I think Jesus just wants to give us a different perspective. This new perspective gives us a better understanding of what is truly important: Life! The fact that God has blessed with the ability to live for Him is truly the best gift we could ever ask for.

So the next time I start worrying, I need to take a breath and think to myself, "Is this just something that fits into the 92% of worries that is meaningless or do I really need to be concerned at that moment? Right now, I'm sitting on chair in a living room in Boise, Idaho. After the wedding yesterday, it really hasn't been so noisy in Boise. Just a lot of sitting around doing nothing. At first, I was really stressing out about this because I knew I could be at home with my family instead of sitting here doing nothing. But I really can't change that because my flight doesn't leave until tomorrow, so it does me no good to stress out about it. I don't know if you struggle with this stuff like I do, but if you do, let's focus on that 8% instead of the 92.

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T22:45:00.000-08:00

My last fact of 2010: I had more blog posts than David John Heffren.

But on a serious note, 2010 was a great year! Here is my quick list of my review of 2010

- I went to New York City at the beginning of the year. I went to a broadway show, saw the Empire State Building, ate New York pizza, and shook Mike Ditka's hand.

- I graduated from College in May. I was the first Landis to graduate from College!!

- I took an internship in southern Indiana. I still have 5 more months left, and I'm pumped to see God move in the Jr. high and high school students.

- I met an amazing girl named Christine

- Walked into a girl's bathroom.

- Got my passport.

- I went to Atlanta for Catalyst, a conference for church leaders. It was a blast!

Basically what I'm trying to say is that God has blessed beyond anything I could ever imagine. There will be a lot in store in 2011, and I can't wait! Next year, I'll be going to Kenya, finding a full-time ministry, and who knows what else 2011 has in store. I love you guys and have a great new year!

A year of Constipation

2010-12-31T21:34:00.000-08:00

It takes Food seven minutes to get from your mouth to your stomach.

Too bad food doesn't travel that fast from my stomach to my colon to the toilet...for me anyways. I know a lot of people who have very regular bowel movements. I am about to announce to the blogging world something I have kept hidden from you guys for so long...I have constipation from time to time.

On a brighter note...it was just New Years in the Midwest for you central timers! Enjoy your sparkling grape juice.

Number Forty-Two

2010-12-31T20:45:00.000-08:00

This next Fact is dedicated to my brother Jim. Since a very young age, my little brother has detested feet. If you are feeling a little daring, I dare you to try and put your feet on him.

Anyways...did you know that a pair of human feet contain 250,000 sweat glands? Me neither. So the next time you think about your feet just think, "Wow. I'm standing on a lot of sweat glands."

7 Minutes until New Years on the East coast!

Post #41

2010-12-31T10:00:00.000-08:00

David said that he was going to beat me in blog posts for 2011...He has 43 and I only have forty. So be prepared for 3 more blogs before Midnight.

So because these next couple posts will be pretty shallow, I will drop a serious bomb shell on you guys....Donald Duck was first banned in Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

Since I'm in Idaho New Years doesn't come here for another 2 1/2 hours...so for those of you on the east coast, Happy New Years in just 30 minutes!!!

What do you get when you put an alzheimer's patient, a colonel, and gothic girl together? The World's Longest Blog Title...and Charlie's Life

2010-12-24T19:03:00.000-08:00

Since I haven’t been blogging as much lately, I have quite a few stories I could share. I have never really seen myself as a good storyteller, but here recently I have had several people tell me that I am pretty good at telling stories. This is really encouraging for me, because I think people love to hear stories. Stories are what give me fuel to do what I do in student ministry. To really know if I’m helping make an impact in a student’s life, I want to hear a story. Stories are what drive millions of people to spend a ridiculous amount of money at a movie theater. People love to hear stories.

Right now I have so many stories I could tell you about. I could tell you about how I went to an old folks home with a couple of other college-age students and sang Christmas carols. While we were singing in the Alzheimer’s wing, one of the ladies stood up right in front of us. I honestly thought she was just going to walk out (because 100% of the guys that went were tone-deaf…myself included…I am a guy. I promise) because it was so horrible. Instead she just stared at us for a couple of minutes.

I could tell you all about my flight home from Indiana to Kansas for Christmas. I was pretty scared to fly by myself for the first time. Also, I barely made my flight in Atlanta by three minutes because my first flight from Louisville was 30 minutes delayed. When I finally got on the plane, I sat next to a retired colonel. We talked the entire flight to Kansas City. Turns out he has two grandchildren who play competitive baseball for a team that I used to play against when I was their age. I hated that team, but I didn’t tell him that. We also talked about family and my upcoming trip to Kenya. During our whole conversation I could see an affair brewing in the seats in front of us. There was a lady who was talking to some guy she just met on the plane. She was talking about how on the weekends she goes out and has fun while her husband just stays at home. You could tell the guy she was talking to really wanted something to come out of this conversation on the plane. Maybe it was how he was listening so intently or how he grabbed her and sat her right down on his lap while she was getting up to go the bathroom. I’m not sure what gave away his intentions. Maybe it was him yelling “lap dance.” I’ll never know for sure what those two were thinking or planning to do, but I’m sure her boring husband who patiently waits at home for his wife to come home wouldn’t like it.

Another story I could share with you could be about a gothic girl named Kendra. I met Kendra a long time ago in middle school. She always wore black with a dog-like collar around her neck. She was in my science class in 8th grade, and I had decided to start talking to her about Jesus. I remember one time, we were making marshmallow castles for some reason in class, and she named her castle, “Satan’s Fortress.” Kendra was something else. Slowly, I would start bringing up Jesus in conversation, and she would quickly talked about how she hated Him and that she was an atheist. I can distinctly remember one time when we were talking about God, and she lashed out on me. She said, “If you ever bring up God again, I will scratch your eyeballs out.” So I pulled an Elijah, and ran away. I don’t know where she went to high school, but I never saw her again after middle school. …until yesterday. My mom and I were at the grocery store getting stuff for our Christmas dinner, and we stopped by the coffee shack that was inside the store. I asked for a hot chocolate, and guess who is there to make my hot chocolate…Santa Claus…not really. It was Kendra. She was dressed normal. No dog collar or black eye shadow. As I am writing this, I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t ask her how she was doing. I didn’t really say anything to her besides, “Please” and “thank you.” But I didn’t bring up God, and I didn’t get my eyeballs scratched out.

I could tell you all of these stories, because people love to hear stories. The question is, “Are you living a good story?” If you don’t have any good stories to tell, get out and make one! If you have to go fly on an airplane to make a good story, go do it (but I’m not paying for your ticket)!

I love all you guys and have a great Christmas with family and friends!

No Urinals No Love

2010-12-01T15:14:00.000-08:00

Last week I attempted to eat a blazin' wing from Buffalo Wild Wings. You see, Blazin' is the hottest sauce B Dubs has to offer. One of the campus pastors ordered 12 Blazin' wings, and he asked if I would try one. Soon the entire staff was urging me to eat one...and since I usually don't give into peer pressure, I ate one. It was one of the hottest things I had ever eaten. My eyes started to water, my lips were on fire, and my throat closed up for a second. I thought I was going to die, but I survived the Blazin' wing. A couple minutes later, I realized I had to go the bathroom, so I got up from the table and made my way to the men's restroom. As soon as I opened the door to the bathroom, I noticed that there were two women washing there hands at the sink. Also, there were no urinals in the bathroom. Because I was still messed-up from the stupid hot wing, I stood there in the doorway for a couple seconds until it hit me. I was in the ladies bathroom. One woman actually had to say, "This is the women's restroom," before I moved. Oops. I blame the wing.

I have finally recovered from the bathroom debacle and have vowed to never eat a Blazin' wing again, but in the meantime I'll continue to live life on the edge.

The past couple of weeks has been kind of crazy. I have been able to preach to the Middle school students on Sunday mornings, and I have been given more responsibility with the whole middle school program. Also, my girlfriend's grandfather passed away. His name was Tom Alvey, and he lived a long, fulfilling life. There were several things that stuck out to me about Tom. First, he must have had a lot of patience because he had 6 daughters and 1 son....SIX daughters! I've been able to get to know all of his daughters (Christine's mama and aunts) and they are awesome ladies. I've never been around a family that has so much fun. Second thing I learned about Tom was that he LOVED his wife, Kitty. I only had a couple of conversations with him, but every time he brought up how much he loved his wife. They had been married for 61 years, and it was just so encouraging and refreshing to see how much they loved each other. Tom would often make jokes about how Nana (Kitty) had to put up with him, but you could tell that wasn't the case. Tom had open heart surgery about 8 or 9 weeks ago, and he never really recovered from it. He spent his last 2 months in the hospital. He wasn't always conscious, but the family was always there at the hospital.

Right after his surgery, he didn't wake up for a little while because the amount of anesthesia they used with a combination of his age. But one time when he wasn't really responding to anyone, Nana gave him a kiss on the cheek and his heart rate went up. It was just really cool to see how much he loved his family and how much they loved him back. It's really neat to see love at work.

Unfortunately, not everyone experiences this kind of love. Two weeks ago at our High school youth group, Cody had a time where students could come up and share what God was doing in their lives. There were some encouraging stories of students who have decided to start following God despite their pasts and how God is giving them strength. Then a girl named Haley stood up and shared her heart...or her broken heart is more like it. Her dad and mom divorced when she was younger, so she has always split time between the two. Just that week she went over to her dad's house, and he looked her straight in the eyes and said, "I don't love you. I haven't loved you for the past 7 years." When she said that, my heart broke for her. I can't imagine whats it like to go through life knowing someone who you care deeply about doesn't care if you were to take another breath.

Why does this happen to a great girl like Haley? I don't know. In the Bible, there is a book called Ecclesiastes. Its all about how Solomon goes through life trying to find fulfillment in wisdom, work, pleasures and riches. However, none of these things can fulfill Solomon. He finds that nothing in this world can fully satisfy the cravings of the human heart. What is interesting is that the very next book in the Bible is Song of Solomon. This entire book is about love between a man and a woman. This entire book talks about love and how much it satisfies him, and it is written by the same person who wrote Ecclesiastes, Solomon.

In Scripture, the love between God and humanity is depicted as a love between a husband and wife. Ephesians 5:25 says, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her..." So I think it is safe to say that Love is the answer to Solomon's quest in Ecclesiastes. Love is the only thing that can truly satisfy the human heart...pure, unadulterated love.

This is the time of the year when it seems to be easy to love people. Everyone is happy because of Christmas, time off of school, or maybe they are getting a Christmas bonus. But just remember that there are some Haleys out there...What can you do to love on someone this Christmas season?

Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T07:39:00.000-08:00

News Flash: They lip sync at the Macey's Thanksgiving Day Parade. This information could be life altering, so be careful with who you share this information. I remember when I first found out that Santa Claus wasn't real. It was right before Christmas, but I HAD to know. So I went up to my mom while she saw doing laundry (I still remember this very vividly), and I told her that I needed to know whether or not Santa Claus was real. She dropped the bomb shell, and life was never the same. Luckily, Santa still comes to the Landis household. Every Christmas Eve, we go to sleep with our stockings empty, and the next morning they are filled to the brim with little goodies! Also, Santa comes in the night and drops off presents wrapped in all red wrapping paper with special hand writing. So am I upset about the lip syncing going on at the parade today? Not really. Am I upset about Santa still coming to visit even though I'm 22-years-old and can grow chest hair? Never.

I just wanted to write a quick blog about different things I'm thankful for. It is nothing to elaborate...just a quick list.

THE REASON FOR THANKS IN THANKSGIVING
- My internship at Southeast Christian Church

- The Lincks (my family away from home)

- Q-Tips

- Christine, I'm berry thankful for you

- Friends who help me strive to become a more mature follower of Christ

- My brothers who I love hanging out with. I can't wait to celebrate future thanksgiving with all of our families...its going to be so fun

- My mom and dad who have never stop supporting and caring for me.

- And most of all, the blood of Jesus!

I love you guys, and I hope you are all having a good thanksgiving day with your family and friends. And tomorrow you will now be allowed to listen to Christmas music. Yay!

Drowning in Jeans and a Sweater

2010-11-23T14:06:00.001-08:00

Right now I'm typing in an environment that is hectic. There are bullets flying, claymores are being planted, and AC-130's are in the air. You might think I'm on the front line of a battlefield, but I'm actually in my basement. I'm playing Modern Warfare with my brothers at my house in Topeka! Yesterday I left southern Indiana at 5:30 in the morning to drive about 9 hours to good ole Kansas to hangout with my family for Thanksgiving. I'm so excited to be around family! Even though I got up early and drove 9 hours, I was re-energized when I hung out with my brothers. I ended up staying up until about 2 in the morning just playing x-box and talking with Jim and Sam. Its good to be back in Kansas.

Often when I tell people that I'm from Kansas, the person will quickly say, "I hate driving through that state." Usually, I apologize for the boring-ness of my state's geography and quickly bring up the fact that Wizard of Oz was set in Kansas to try and leave a positive thought about Kansas in the person's mind. But no matter how flat and boring it might be to drive through it, I will always love Kansas!

In my previous post I said that I carried my Driver's License with me where ever I go, and I said I would discuss this in a later post. Well, here is the later post. My girlfriend, God bless her, has a very morbid outlook on life. After typing that I feel like I picture Christine as some kind of girl who dresses in black all the time and mopes around contemplating death all the time. This is not Christine at all. She always smiles and is one of the most optimistic people I know, but she does think about death a little more than the average homo sapien...which isn't a bad thing.

On one occasion she told me her three tops ways NOT to die. Personally, I just think about how I don't want to die, but Christine likes to take it a little farther. (Drum Roll Please) Christine's #3 way not to die is......Suffocation! Honestly, I think this would be a horrible way to kick the can. Number 2 "Way-Not-To-Die" for her is being caught on fire. Death by fire kind of makes me sweat just thinking about it. And her number one way not to die is the exact opposite from death by fire. Christine would hate more than anything in the world to die by falling into a large body of water and drowning. But that isn't it...she has told me that she would hate to drown while wearing a sweater and jeans. Why? I have no clue, but Christine is terrified to go out that way.

But that is not all. One time we were getting ready to go somewhere, and Christine said, "Hey...hold on. I need to go get my I.D." As she was getting out of my car, I realized I was driving and she had no reason to have her I.D. with her. When she got back in the car, I questioned her about my observation and she quickly replied, "I need my I.D. so that in case I die, they can identify my body." Who thinks of that? My beautiful girlfriend.

But on a serious note, even though I make fun of her for her heightened sense of death, I think Christine is on to something. When I brought up this whole thing to her she gave a very insightful answer. She said, "I think life is precious. I just know I am not guaranteed a certain amount of time, and I need to be ready." Life is so precious! God of the universe has decided to breath life into these bodies that came from dust, so why not be careful and realize how good we have it? Now I like to make fun of Christine about this whole death thing, but I agree with her. We really do not know how much time we have on this earth.

Christine might sound a little morbid (but she isn't!) but in the New Testament, James calls us mist. James 4:14 says, "What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." James says our lives are very short and we can't take it for granted, because we might not be here tomorrow. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that my girlfriend and the half-brother of Jesus agree on that life is very short and that we shouldn't take it for granted. So just remember that you are mist...and be happy about it!

Also, I just realized I used 8 hyphens in this post. If I don't watch out, I'll turn into the Message.

What If...

2010-11-11T16:27:00.000-08:00

A scholar of culture once said, "Mo money Mo Problems." I have to agree with Notorious B.I.G. on this one. I'm currently in a stage of my life where I am making money, and I don't have to pay bills or rent. Unfortunately, like Biggie Smalls says, the bigger my bank account becomes, the bigger my problems. About 2 months ago, my 2001 Grand Am needed a new fuel pump. That one cost me almost $600. This past weekend, I wrote my friend a $470 check to repay him for an airplane ticket he bought me. And for some reason, my ignition switch decided to quit working. There goes another $350. Now please don't mistake this for complaining...I'm simply stating facts. To be honest, the only things I'm really spending money on is gas, grub, and girlfriend. But I actually think all three of those things are worth every penny! Gas gets me to where I need to go. Grub gives me energy...and well the Girlfriend is just awesome! I was thinking the other day about all the ways in which Christine has improved my life. This list is in no way exhaustive but it will do the job (I don't think she even knows these things).

1) I now put a napkin on my lap when I eat.
2) I have started to wash my hands more frequently
3) She helps me pray better
4) I now carry my I.D. with me every where I go (more about this in a later post)
5) I eat more Mexican food
6) I always leave a "way out" with my car when stopping at stop lights

So I guess I tell you all of this because the "mo money" the "mo problems," but if you get a girlfriend *cough..David...cough*, your problems won't seem to bad.

But on a serious note, this past week I was able to hang out with the student ministry team over at the main campus in Louisville. We were able to just kind of take a breath and relax, and I had my first ever cinna-crunch bagel from Panera that morning. After doing some casual chatting and bagel-eating, Matt Reagan (the Lead guy over the student ministry department) sat us all down and said, "What if..." He went on to explain how sometimes we get so caught up with how things are currently going that we never take the time to just say, "What if." So we broke up into groups of about 4 people and we all asked ourselves that question. During the meeting I couldn't think of any "what if's" for myself, but after doing some thinking I think i have a couple.

What if I started to get to know students on a more intentional level. Instead of just the casual "hello" or "whats up," what if I got to know their stories?

What if I decided to memorize the book of James?

What if followed Jesus everyday instead of following Him when it is comfortable for me?

What if I depended more heavily on the Holy Spirit?

What if I started exercising?

What if I would have taken a ministry out of college instead of this internship?

What if God was one of us? (Sorry...I had to)

What if my family was not as loving and as encouraging as they are?

What if something terrible happened to me? Would I keep my hope in Jesus my main focus or would I focus on the bad?

I want to encourage you to come up with your own "What If..." list. The good thing about this list is that I can take away the "what if" on some of them and make them a reality. Someone once said, "A man aiming at nothing always hits his target." I think we all need to have goals in order for us to strive towards something...and I think a "What If..." list is perfect for this. If you do go ahead and make a list, please let me know what you thought of it. I thought this exercise was very healthy and encouraging!

It ain't easy being a Polygamist

2010-11-02T14:19:00.000-07:00

There is an epidemic sweeping across America...or atleast Utah. Polygamy is a form of marriage in which a person has more than one spouse at the same time, as opposed to monogamy in which a person has only one spouse at a time. Typically in polygamist marriages, the man usually has multiple wives. I can't imagine living with more than one wife. I've lived without one for about 22 years and counting, but the idea just confuses me why any man would ever do that.

The reason I bring this up is because recently I was watching a show on TV called Sister Wives. It follows around a guy named Kody Brown who has three wives...scratch that. He just married his fourth wife, Robyn. As I was watching this show with my lovely girlfriend (that is singular, not plural), I began to wonder...Could I ever thrive in the plurality lifestyle? The answer came very very quickly. Yes. Just playing! Of course I could not live in a polygamist marriage. But then I began to think of reasons why plurality is not for me. I was able to quickly think of 5 reasons. And just remember that this is in no way a comprehensive list. Just something to start with.

5 Reasons Why Polygamy Ain't for Me

(For the sake of this list lets say I'm married to Rachel McAdams, Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson, and Anna Kornikova)

1) Lets say I'm hanging out with Rachel one night. Jennifer, Scarlett, and Anna will all become jealous because I'm with Rachel. This jealousy does not foster healthy relationships. Of course, all 4 ladies want to be with me, but scientists have not perfected cloning yet. So jealousy is sure to ensue during the marriage(s).

2) As stated in reason #1, one of my wives would get jealous, and they would ask me to send one of my other better halves (or better fifths) away. For example, pretend Jennifer bears me 3 children and Scarlett only has one child with me. My relationship with Scarlett is a lot better than the one I have with Jennifer, so Scarlett secretly asks me to get rid of Jennifer because she is just so jealous that she can give birth to more children. This would be a major dilemma for me and would not be kosher. (this example is not far fetched by the way...its biblical. Check out Genesis 16)

3) There is a saying that goes like this, "Hell hath no furry than a woman scorn." Basically, when a woman is mad...she is really mad! I cannot imagine having 4 women mad at me at the same time.

4) Its against the law. Instead of having 4 wives, in prison I'd have four....ah...nevermind.

5) I would always mix up my wives' names. When talking to Rachel, I would call her Anna. Then once again, reason number one would occur.

I know all of this far fetched, but I feel like its important to know why you believe something is right or wrong. I've tried to lay out my reasons. What are some reasons you would or would not be a polygamist? This is something every person is going to struggle with during some point in their life, so I just thought I'd help to get the ball rolling.

Charcoal is better than Propane

2010-10-25T17:51:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been told by a lot of people that I look really tired. Now I learned from a very young age that you should never tell a girl that she looks tired. I guess it makes them feel ugly or something. But I guess I have been kind of tired the past couple weeks. I have constantly been on the go. Whether its a retreat, an over-nighter or preparing and giving a message, I feel like I have not been able to get enough rest. Now please don't understand this and think I'm complaining. I love what I'm doing! And I know you guys out there are can get tired too!

Like I said earlier, I have been able to preach a little at LIFT (the jr. high program at our campus), and I know those Jr. highers are tired. I don't know if it is because my non-engaging lesson or that they just don't get enough sleep the night before, but there is bound to be some middle school student snoozing during my sermon. I've spoken 3 times at LIFT and the first time I spoke one little guy actually started to lay down across some of the chairs to get more comfortable for his mid-morning nap. So I did what any responsible youth minister would do...I called him out in front of everyone and told him to wake up! But this got me thinking. I know there will be a few sleepers at every sermon, but did someone fall asleep during any of Jesus' sermons? There is that instance in the garden where the disciples fall asleep while Jesus is praying alone, but that is not a sermon. So during Jesus' sermon on the mount, was it possible that while Jesus is saying, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall (and Jesus definitely used the term 'shall') not commit adultery'..." that little Bartholomew (not the disciple b/c he only falls asleep during prayers) started dozing off? I think it is likely. Heck, someone even fell asleep during a sermon given by one of the Christians ever, the Apostle Paul! If you don't know the story, a man named Eutychus fell asleep while Paul was preaching late into the night. You know what happened to him? He fell out of a third story window and died. So what is the moral of the story? Don't fall asleep during a sermon or else you'll die! Now the story goes on to say that Paul raised poor young Eutychus from the dead, but I'm no Paul so I can't raise you from the dead...just don't sleep during my sermons!!!

But on a serious note (I haven't used that segue in a long time), this past Sunday we finished up our series on grace called, "Friday Night Lights." The tag line for it was, "What if a moment could change everything," and it dealt with this whole idea of grace. First of all grace is really hard to teach to middle school students. Their brain hasn't fully grasped abstract thinking, so it is really hard for them to understand the concept of grace because it isn't very concrete. But the final week of this series discussed Peter's denial and his reinstatement.

If you don't know the story, let me give a quick rundown. Jesus has been arrested and now all of his disciples are on the run. They are all scared and confused because their teacher and intimate friend had just been taken away to be executed. In John 18, Jesus is taken to different political and religious leaders for questioning. During these trials, Peter and another disciple ventured into the courtyard to see what would happen to Jesus. While standing there, a servant girl asked Peter if he was a disciple of Jesus, and Peter replied, "I am not." This was the first of three times Peter denied knowing Christ. What is unusual about this first denial is that after Peter denies knowing Jesus, John adds verse 18. Out of no where John adds, "It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fare they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself." Now why would he add that verse?

You see, John uses specific words in his Gospel for a certain purpose. For instance, John uses the Greek word logos to describe Jesus as the word. In John 13 when Jesus is washing the disciples feet, John says that Jesus "took off " his outer clothing so he could wash the feet of his disciples. The Greek word for "take off" is theologically jam-packed! The word by itself is ordinary. It means, "lays aside," but John only uses this word 3 times in the entire Gospel. The first time he uses it in conjunction with Jesus' first miracle with turning water into wine. The second instance is very important when dealing with John 13. John 10:11 says, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd LAYS DOWN his life for the sheep." John uses the same word to describe Jesus laying down his life in order to cleanse the world as he uses for Jesus laying down his garments in order to cleanse the disciples. Why does this matter? Well, John specifically uses LAY DOWN in John 13 to foreshadow Jesus' ultimate cleansing on the cross just by using a certain word.

I tell you all of this just to say that John uses certain words for a specific purpose, and I think that is what he is doing in John 18:18 with fire. The Greek word John uses for fire is anthrakia. Not Anthrax. Anthrakia. This word means a charcoal fire, and he only uses this word twice in his Gospel. First here in John 18 where Peter is warming himself by a charcoal fire after he denies knowing Christ for the first time. The second time the Disciple whom Jesus loved (this is the title John gives himself in his gospel) uses anthrakia is in John 21. Lets take a look...

Jesus has been crucified and buried in a tomb. Evil was rejoicing, but then came Sunday. The tomb had been rolled away and Jesus' body was no longer there! When the disciples heard this, Peter and John ran to the tomb and saw for themselves the truth of the empty tomb. Then the resurrected Jesus appears to the women and then later to all of the disciples, but there is no interacting between Jesus and Peter. Here is where John 21:15 picks up. Peter and six other disciples are fishing, but they catch nothing. However, Jesus appears to them (the disciples do not recognize him) and tells them to throw their nets to the other side. The disciples listen and catch 153 fish! Then John realizes who it is standing on the shore talking to them and says, "It is the Lord!" Peter then does what Peter does best...he gets out of the boat. He swims to Jesus and he sees an anthrakia...a charcoal fire.

I think Jesus used a charcoal fire on purpose. Have you ever been around a charcoal fire? They have a particular smell. It is said that smell is the best trigger for memories, and I can just imagine Peter walking up to Jesus. He is dripping wet from jumping out of the boat to swim to His Savior, and he has a big smile on his face, excited to see Jesus. Then a strange smell comes to his nose. A charcoal fire. Instantly his mind jumps to that cold night where he cowardly denied his Lord. His smile quickly fades and excitement turns into embarrassment. The rest of the passage is great. Jesus asks Peter three times "do you love me?" just like Peter denied Jesus three times. It is simply beautiful how Christ tells Peter, "I forgive you, but now its time to get to work."

Jesus reminded Peter of his past by using that fire. He did not allow Peter to forget about what had happened, but he used his past as a conduit to catapult him toward his future. I think it is important for all of us to realize this simple truth of not forgetting our past...even if it is ugly. We have all been formed by our past, and God wants to use it for his glory. I'm not saying we need to go around boasting about our sinful pasts, but we must not forget it. Just like a fire reminded Peter of his failings, we need to be reminded of where we have come from so God can use us for His future. Love you all!

Water Fountain Evangelism

2010-10-18T17:18:00.000-07:00

For some reason here at the Southeast Indiana Campus, I have become known as a good story teller. I am not exactly sure how this came about. I told a couple stories involving poop and me kissing my dad, and then I became the next Dr. Seuss. This past Sunday I had the great opportunity to talk to our middle school students about grace. Right before I came up to speak, Cody (the youth pastor) said, "You guys get the great privilege of hearing Charlie speak to us today. If you know anything about Charlie, you know he always has great stories for us." As I was walking up to speak, it hit me. I had no stories in my sermon...

Talk about not fulfilling expectations. But I thought the sermon went over pretty well besides talking too fast and burping into my mic. I always tend to downplay my ability to communicate. I get really nervous about speaking in front of students, but I think it is pretty healthy. Handling God's word is a pretty hefty task considering it has eternal ramifications for the listeners, and I realize I'm not as gifted in the area of speaking as some people. But I tend to use that as an excuse.

As I said before, I was able to preach at the middle school worship service yesterday. I was given the text in John 4 where Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman. There are several angles you can preach the text, but I was to talk about how the Samaritan woman went back to her hometown and told everyone about Jesus. I remember going to a session during CIY with my good friend David Heffren (I swear I mention this guy in every other post...so if you are a single lady reading this, get the picture. This guy is cool. Date him.) that talked about evangelizing in your schools. The guy talks about the Samaritan lady in John 4 and how Jesus asked her for a drink at the well, and he made this joke that we should just start standing by the water fountain at school. When someone would go to get a drink from the water fountain, we were to say, "Can I have a drink?" Let me just save you the trouble and let you know that this strategy of bringing people to Christ does not work. You'll only receive weird looks and people just start using the water fountain on the other side of the hall...trust me.

So when preparing my message, I strayed away from "water fountain evangelism," but I did find something that I had never noticed before. After the woman goes back to her hometown to tell everyone about this Jesus guy, everyone comes out to hear Jesus for themselves. Then we are told that everyone living in the Samaritan town of Sychar believed in Jesus because of the woman's testimony and Jesus' words. When I read that information I didn't think much of it, but then I continued to read the next section just to get an idea of the context. The very next section deals with Jesus going to His own home area in Galilee, and they have a completely different reaction to Jesus than that of the Samaritan people. They wanted Jesus to perform these great miracles in order for them to believe in what He had to offer. Jesus even says in John 4:48, "Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders, you will never believe."

After I read this it hit me. The Samaritans (who were considered "half breeds" by the Jewish people because they inter-married with Pagans) believed in Jesus because of his words. They did not need great miraculous signs and wonders; they wanted to hear the truth. The true blue Jews in Galilee needed something big and grand to have faith. This just blew me away because so often I feel like I need to have a great illustration or an emotionally driven story that makes everyone cry in order for them to respond to the Gospel. I feel like I need to have the perfect outline and all these fireworks to go with my message to make it effective. But after seeing the Samaritans' response to Jesus' WORDS and the woman's testimony, I realized that I just need to just tell the students about the Truth and the Holy Spirit will work in the students' hearts.

I have seen this play out in the past couple weeks. I am by no means a great speaker. I speak, so I guess that makes me a speaker, but the last two weeks I spoke to the Jr. Highers about grace and yesterday 3 students came forward afterward to say that they wanted to be baptized! I'm taking absolutely zero credit for their response to the Gospel, because all I did was relay the grace I have been given to these students.

So the next time you have a platform to tell someone about Jesus, don't worry about putting on a big show with awesome sermon bumpers and artwork (even though this stuff is cool!). Just speak the truth and let the Spirit do what it does best...work in the hearts of men and women!

Bowls

2010-10-09T19:32:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I last posted, but I've been pretty busy lately. I was actually going to write a new blog about prayer a couple days ago, but as soon as I logged in to write, I saw that my good friend David Heffren had just blogged about the same thing. So I decided not to look like I plagiarized him and didn't write anything. But I'm here now and David didn't steal my new idea.

I want to bring something to your attention if you haven't noticed yet. There are two tragedies going on in the United States right now. These things are slowly killing and eating away at what it truly means to be an American. Yep, you guessed it....Music Greeting Cards and Redbox.

I'm not going to say anything about those music greeting cards, but Redbox is really starting to singe my hair, boil my plasma, and mess with my medulla oblongata. It is nice to be able to pay for a rental movie at a decent price, but I would rather get a movie I went. The selection at Redbox is horrible, and it is killing movie rental stores. Now the death of Blockbuster is sad, but folks...its okay. There is hope. There is Netflix.

Even though these days have been filled with gloom and despair because of the popularity of Redbox and the annoying tunes coming from greeting cards, I did have a great time Thursday and Friday. I was able to spend some time in the ATL (I can legitimately call it the "ATL" because I've been to Atlanta now) at the Catalyst Conference. I heard some GREAT speakers, and I was blessed to be a part of some amazing worship.

Andy Stanley spoke the first session on Thursday morning, and it was a great message. He simply conveyed the story of Jacob and Esau in Genesis 25 where Esau sells his birthright for a bowl of stew. Andy explained how as humans we have many appetites (food, sex, popularity, etc.), and the only word our appetites know is more. So when Esau was hungry, he sold away his entire future to be satisfied until the next meal. When it all comes down to it, we cannot sell our future away for a temporary pleasure or else we could lose out on so much. He then asked us the question, "What is your bowl."

Personally, I have no idea what God is going to do through me, my children, and my grand children. I don't want to sell all of that away to fulfill an appetite for a short time only to be left feeling empty and wanting more. I know what my bowl is....what is your bowl?

Seasons

2010-09-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

What is the first thing that comes to mind when I say, "Catch Phrase?" Studies show that 86.3% of people's minds will go straight to the ever-popular game titled Catch Phrase, but my mind drifts to another answer: Seasons. Since I am no longer a college student, I can now use Wikipedia in my writing (for some reason professors thought a website that could be edited by anybody in the entire world was not a legitimate source...weirdos). Wikipedia says that a catch phrase is a “phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance.”

Here is a list the ten most over-used Movie Catch Phrases that I found

10) "You had me at hello." - Jerry Maguire

9) "I'm the king of the world." - Titanic

8) "Say hello to my little friend." - Scarface

7) "Run, Forest. Run!" - Forest Gump

6) "Show me the money." - Jerry Maguire

5) "You can't handle the truth!" - A Few Good Men

4) "May the force be with you." - Star Wars

3) "Houston, we have a problem." - Apollo 13

2) "...Bond. James Bond." - James Bond

1) "I'll be back." - Terminator

I don't know what is more disturbing: the fact that I cried in three of those movies or that Tom Cruise appears more than once in this list. But anyways back to catch phrases. Lately I have been hearing the catch phrase SEASONS around Southeast. I guess it is more like a catch word, but nonetheless I have heard people describing the life of a Christian as going through different seasons. And since the Fall Equinox begins tonight around 11:00 (the beginning of the Fall/Autumn season), I thought it would only be fitting to tell you guys about the season i am in right now.

I'm currently 1/3 the way through my year long internship with Southeast Student ministry under Cody Walker. It just blows my mind to think about how fast the time has gone by these past four months. A couple weeks ago, Cody asked me if I felt like I could lead a youth ministry.
Rather hesitantly, I squeaked out, "Um...I think so." In this season of my life, I feel like I struggle with so many things, but the biggest struggle is my sense of confidence. I really don't know why I am in this constant battle of thinking I won't be able to measure up . After speaking or interacting with students, people tell me that I do a great job. But I don't think accolades from people is what is going to cure my lack of confidence. Because when it comes down to it, I am not trying to please those people. I'm trying my best to glorify God in the way I lead students, and that scares me.

To be honest, I had no idea what I was going to write about in this post. I knew it had something to do with seasons, but this whole post is me thinking (or typing) out loud. When it comes to my confidence, I guess I've never realized why I lack so much of it until now. I know it cannot be because I can't get the job done, because I know I can. I have so many people in my life (Jim and Christine lift me up so much!) that tell me that I am doing a great thing, but I still come up short in feeling like I can accomplish what God has called me to do. Why is this? Because I fall into the temptation that a perfect God will not use an imperfect man like myself. Oh how wrong I am. Scripture is bursting with example after example of God using messed up people to fulfill His purpose. Lets count real quick how many imperfect people God used in the Bible. One, two, three...wait a minute. Everyone in the Bible except for one man (Bartholomew...oops. I meant Jesus) were unholy, not able to live up to God's standards.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that sometimes I feel like God can't use me to bring Him glory because of my many (may I stress MANY) imperfections...and this is why I have low confidence sometimes in my ability to do student ministry. But I need to understand that God can and will continue to use the weaknesses of man to show His strength and glory. And I'm so thankful to be one of countless people God is using.

Oh, and as we are talking about seasons. What is your favorite season? Is Fall the greatest season? It is the only season that can go by two different names. Just something to ponder.

Jesus: the Seven Star General

2010-08-31T17:05:00.000-07:00

There is a certain phrase you will hear most Christians say sometime in their lifetime. I'm not talking about the occasional, "amen!" or the spur-of-the-moment "Hallelujah." I'm talking about, of course, the phrase, "This is my favorite worship song." Now people can have all kind of favorites. My favorite ice cream is Cookies-And-Cream. My favorite season is Spring (with Fall coming in a close second). And my favorite Spice Girl is Ginger Spice. I'm sure all of you have different kinds of favorites out there, but can someone really have a favorite worship song? If I'm not mistaken, the whole purpose of worship is to give glory to God...not to bring us enjoyment because of a song's lyrics or rad bass line. Now I know this really is not a big deal, but every time someone says something about how a certain song being their favorite worship song it just makes me think. Maybe a certain song can be someone's favorite way to express to God their feelings and thoughts to Him, but I think we should be hesitant to say a certain song is our favorite. And I am not excluded from this. For those of you that know me personally, I LOVE Hillsong's With Everything. It is a very powerful worship song, but I don't think I should elevate that about any other worship song, because in the end the song is for God, not me.

The reason I bring this up is because the other day we had a high school gathering at The Block (Southeast's crazy youth building). Ryan Post and Matt Bayless led worship for everyone and they played my favo...I mean a great worship song called With Everything. As we were walking out, I heard one of the students say, "Man, they didn't play my favorite worship song!" I then went on to ask which song he was talking about, and he told me it was Mighty to Save. I nodded my head and went away thinking, "He is just so confused. He doesn't know what he is talking about. His favorite song should be Mighty to Save." Okay. Okay. I made up that last part, but the student was literally frustrated because they didn't play his favorite worship song!

That same night, Mark Moore spoke and he paralleled the life of a Christian in school to the battle front for a soldier. He went on to explain the importance of the Phalanx the Romans used to conquer much of the known world. Basically, the Roman soldiers would march in a rectangular formation into battle instead of the lining up like they did in the movie Braveheart. This was the perfect fighting formation because if the first line of soldiers died, there would be someone right behind them to kill the enemy. Mark's whole point was that we as Christians need to fight for our school in Phalanx where we have each other's backs.

This whole idea of Christianity and military reminded me of something one of my professors once discussed in class. He talked about how awesome of a military leader Jesus would be, so I thought I would kind of expand on that. In John 6:15, Jesus has just fed the 5,000 people with just 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, and then is says that Jesus knew the people intended to make him King so that He would overthrow the Roman rule. Now, if you think about it, these people are smart because Jesus would be an excellent General. The following are statements that point to that very truth.

1) Jesus could feed Hungry Soldiers.

When his army would be surrounded by the enemy, they would cut off all food supplies. The soldiers would not know what to do because they would soon run out of food. However, if you have Jesus as your leader, there is no need to worry. He could take the last couple crumbs of bread and wave His hand over them and voila...Texas Roadhouse bread appears with a side of honey butter! And you know soldiers can get kind of low in their spirits because fighting can be a little depressing...so what would leader Jesus do? He would turn the water into wine to cheer up his fighting men!

2) Jesus could maneuver natural barriers.

Ever heard of the saying "Faith can move mountain"? Well, you are just in luck if your commander-in-chief is the Savior of the World. We are told by Paul in the book of Romans that we must have faith in Jesus Christ. And who has more faith in Jesus than Jesus himself? So lets say that your army is chasing a foe and comes to a Huge mountain, but it would take days to travel around the mountain giving your enemy days to run away. But Jesus just moves the mountain on pure faith and then you are right on their tail! Or maybe you need to forge a river or stream, because your enemy is on the other side. Forget about trying to take days to find a part of the river where it is able to be crossed. Jesus just walks along water building a make-shift bridge as he goes! Jesus would be the ultimate General when it came to natural barriers. Yet there one more skill of Jesus that would be especially helpful for a military leader.

3) Jesus could bring dead soldiers back to life.

Have you ever played Halo or Call of Duty on x-box or playstation? If you have not, let me fill you in. Basically, you play as one person and you try to go through the story line the game has plotted out for you. If you die, you get a chance to start all over. It is not like if you die, you can't play ever again. Now think about if this was real life! As soon as a soldier peels over dead, Jesus walks up behind them and they rise back up to fight some more. This would be worse than any massive zombie attack. Zombies do seem relentless, but you can cut off there head. If you cut off the head of one of Jesus' men, he just sticks it back on, and then you have one mad soldier coming at you. And if someone loses an ear...just ask Peter.

4) Jesus has twelve legions of Angels on stand-by.

I'm not going to spend too much time on this point. Jesus says in Matthew 26 that he could have twelve whole legions of Angels at the snap of his fingers. Just to put that in persepective, a Roman legion probably had about 4,000 soldiers an 300 soldiers on horseback. So that is roughly 52,000 angels. Now if we look back to Isaiah 37:36, we see that only one angel of the Lord killed 185,000 Assyrians. So that means Jesus would have 52,000 heavenly soldiers who could kill around 9,620,000,000 men! That is the entire population of the earth plus about 3 billion people. So forget Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, or Caesar...Give me Jesus!

I have now laid out the reasons Jesus would make a great king or army general. So it makes so much sense why the people in John 6 would want to make Jesus king. He would be unstoppable! But we all know that Jesus did nothing of the sort while he was on earth. He told his followers to turn the other cheek and to not be served but to serve others. Jesus sacrificially died on the cross for us so that we would not have to endure the four things I just listed out. Because at the end of time, Jesus will totally wipe out everything evil and that includes that lying dragon we call Satan. So I can't wait to see Jesus, the seven star general, totally demolish every evil at the final battle!

I'm Changing my Last Name

2010-08-13T08:43:00.001-07:00

Can I be transparent with you? I love money. The reason I know I love it is because every time I have to depart from it, it makes me cringe. Okay, I'm a little prone to hyperbole, but to some extent I think this love of money is true for a lot of people. Those little slips of paper and small coins determine whether or not we will have our next meal, a shelter over our head, or a fuel pump and fuel filter for you 2001 Pontiac Grand Am. You see, this past Sunday my car decided to quit working in the parking lot of the Meijer Grocery Store. I tried to start my car after buying some food for a 6th grade swim party, and it just wouldn't work. So come to find out $400 later, I need a new fuel pump and fuel filter. Oh Money...you little root of evil...I feel like we are always going to be departing, so I guess I'll just have to get used to you leaving me. *sigh*

*sigh* again for dramatic effect

Believe it or not, I have had a great week. Last week I had the great pleasure of listening to a man named Dann Spader on Wednesday for about 7 hours. He is the president of an organization called Global Youth Initiative (GYI). GYI is an alliance of organizations and strategic leaders around the globe who are passionate about seeing this next generation reached and mobilized for the cause of Christ and the fulfillment of the Great Commission. This vision statement for GYI flows from Dann's DNA and his philosophy of disciple making. I took about 10 pages of notes so I am going to give you some quick bulleted points that Dann said.

"A real disciple is one who makes disciples."

Dann bases his ministry philosophy after the way Jesus made disciples, specifically his interactions with the Twelve.

He calls his ministry philosophy/strategy "Movements of Multiplying Disciples." It is a 5-phase process that closesly lines up with Jesus' 3 to 3 1/2 years of ministry on earth.

"It is wrong to compare Jesus to us. He was more like Adam before he sinned. We are sinful. He is sinless." -- Dann discussing the Phase #1 and Jesus' 30 years of preparation.

He gave new insight into Matthew 28:18-20. There are three verbs (going, baptizing and teaching) and two imperatives. I was always told there was only one imperative (Make Disciples), but the Greek word for "Surely" actually means something like, "keep your eyes on me." So as we are making disciples, we need to keep our eyes on Jesus...we need to see how he made disciples if we want to make biblical disciples

Jesus only performed 2 miracles in his first year and half of ministry (Water into wine and one healing). Most of this part of his ministry was spent in the wilderness with not that great of a following.

"Jesus was focused on reproducing reproducers."

"When Jesus said make disciples, he did not separate evangelism and discipleship."

If you do not have a system to help your students share the Gospel, you are not making biblical disciples (Philemon 6)

In Luke 10:21, we see that "Jesus was FULL of joy." This is the only time Jesus was said to be full of joy. In the context, Jesus had just sended out the 72 disciples, and was so joyful because he was making disciples who were making disciples.

We are are not involved in discipleship, we are invovled in disciple-making. Basically, a real disciple is one who will make disciples out of others. There is an input and an output. Discipleship can tend to be inward focused.

When everything was over around 4:00, my mind processing so much information. Everything Dann had to say was so rich. There was nothing exciting about the way he presented the information; he was just full of Jesus and wisdom. He changed the way I look at youth ministry. I guess all along I knew it was about making disciples who make disciples, but I did not emphasize it as much. So according to Dann, a way to gauge your youth ministry's healthiness is to see if your students are bringing people to Christ. Is your ministry healthy?

Dann Spader had some great insight. He dug real deep, I am so thankful for his words and insight. But thinking back on the whole meeting, I shouldn't have expected anything less. I should have known he was going to Dig deep...he last name is Spader. So his last name literally means, "One who digs." Weird. I think I am going to change my name to Charlie Moneymaker.

The Clearance Rack and Zombies

2010-08-13T07:30:00.000-07:00

Last October I wrote a blog about never seeing a shooting star. I can officially say that my drought of 22 years of never seeing a shooting star is now over! Last night I went out in the backyard about 12:15 a.m., laid down, and watched the Perseid Meteor Shower. They say the best time to watch the Meteor Shower was between midnight and dawn, so I stayed up to catch my first shooting star! Apparently, you are allowed one wish every time you see a shooting star. So I wished for...sorry, I can't tell you because then it wouldn't come true.

Besides picking up astronomy, I have been doing some thinking on women and shopping. (IMPORTANT: MEN ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT)

Well men, I have some insightful information for you. If you are of the female persuasion, please stop reading.....I mean it. Go stalk someone on facebook or go surf the internet for nice aprons or cooking utensils.

Alright guys here is a secret I have luckily tripped upon while hanging out with Christine. Have you ever been shopping with your lady friend? It is nice to be with her, and you are glad you are able to spend time with her....but...she takes 20 minutes just to look at the first rack she sees. Then as soon as you think you are going to leave the store, she says, "ooohhhh....look at that." Then like a zombie who sees a weak human and in a trance walks over to him or her to devour it, the girl goes to check out the clearance rack.

Well, I have found a solution to our shopping problems. You make sure you guys go shopping during a time for a meal. You tell them you will get something to eat while you are out...but you pick her up late. Then she will say she is hungry and wants to go shopping afterward. However, you tell her that you really want to go shopping first. Then as you are going through the stores, you begin to notice that she is spending less and less time looking for good deals, because she begins to hear her stomach grumble. Then finally, you are the hear those blissful words, "I'm done." And as the angels in heaven sing an immaculate chorus, you leave the store to go eat.

Guys, this is not always a guarantee. Actually, she will probably begin to catch on to your antics about the 2nd time, but I think it is well worth the try. Please let me know of your success. And we all know women cannot say "No" to food. I mean, look at the first woman. She couldn't say no to an apple. Now we have great things like Chocolate and P.F. Changs. Good luck men.

Thus Far...

2010-08-09T08:14:00.000-07:00

2 months and 1 week.

This is not the duration of time since the Royals last won a baseball game, even though that would be a good guess. This is actually how long I have been on my internship. I am about 1/6 the way done, and it is flying by. I just wanted to take some time to write out some things that I have learned for the first time and other things that I have been reminded of while working at Southeast. This list is not exclusive...it is just what I can remember on a Monday morning.

Volunteers can make or break a youth ministry. I called my brother, Jim, the other day just to catch up, and this subject came up. During his internship in Oklahoma, he also was confronted with this truth. Here are some qualities that make up great youth leaders:

They are selfless. They are not in the ministry to for themselves but for the students. A lot of people begin to help out with a ministry with an agenda, but it is so great to have a person who serves for the purpose of giving glory to God and not for themselves.
They work hard. When I think about how I get paid to serve God, it blows my mind how fantastic youth leaders are when they serve for the soul purpose of serving God. I'm not in the ministry to make money, if so I'm in the wrong profession. But volunteers who work hard are great assets to the ministry.
They are good people. It is never fun to work with people who you don't like. When you are able to recruit leaders who are good at working with students and love Jesus PLUS they are good friendly people, your ministry will just take off. Jesus said that unity is the pathway that leads to evangelism in John 17:21, so when the students see the unity and closeness of the youth ministry team it leads to a healthier ministry where evangelism can occur.

I pray for guts to live like Jesus. This might sound a little odd. I am not literally praying for the bowels and entrails of God's Son, but having the fortitude to live my life the way Jesus lived His life on earth. He did not give into the ways and temptations of this world, but he was focused on completing the will of God. I am reminded daily the need to live like a man of God in a world corrupted by sin, and I cannot do this by myself. I need God's Spirit and strength the have the guts to live like Jesus.

Be Me. I am working with so many gifted people here at Southeast Christian Church. I work with a guy named Cody Walker who is one of the most relational guys I have ever met. He can walk up to a complete stranger and strike up a conversation. Matt Reagan has a lot of confidence in what he does, yet he is one of the most humble guys I know. Jon McCallon is so creative. He is bursting at the seams with creativity. I look at all of these guys, and I envy all of them. They are doing great things for God in the field of youth ministry, but they all do ministry differently yet they are all successful. I just need to be reminded to by myself when it comes to serving God in youth ministry. I can't pretend to be Matt Reagan or Cody Walker; I just need to be Charlie Landis.

Definition of Success. The youth minister I'm working under gave me a great definition of success. He said, "Success is living faithfully to God." I know I could easily get caught up in the numbers in my ministry or the amount of pats on the back, but the true test of success is to see how faithful you are being to God in your ministry. What does this success look like? I think it looks different for different ministries. So I think it is important to always be asking the question, "Is our ministry successful?"

Deflect Glory to God. I love working with little kids! I was actually going to go into children ministry before I decided at the end of my sophomore year to go into student ministry. I have been working in the nursery the past two weekends, and I had about four people come up to me and tell me how great I am with kids. There are other situations where people tell me that I am good at this or good at that, and it is such a huge temptation to get a big head. But I've learned to start deflecting the glory to God, because everything I do should be to His glory...not my own. I still struggle with this whole not-hogging-the-glory-thing. I can be so selfish, but I've learned that I could not even do ministry if it wasn't for God's sustaining power and love.

Importance of Leadership. I have always that leadership was not the big of a deal, especially in ministry. I actually had to take a class at Ozark called Leadership in Ministry, and I paid no attention at all in that class because I did not see how it was relevant for me. I really did not see myself ever becoming the head pastor at a church, so I didn't think it was important for me to be a leader. Oh, how I was greatly mistaken. Leadership is an essential to a successful youth ministry. A youth minister needs to be able to lead his youth sponsors and the students in a direction towards Christ. If there is no leadership in the ministry, it is just a bunch of programs and dollars wasted. I have tried to become more educated on this whole idea of leadership, so I have started to read some blogs and books. A guy named Tony Morgan has a great blog on leadership, and I have found it to be very helpful.

Stay tuned for my next post. If you are a man, you will definitely want to tune in. I will be discussing a method us men can begin to use to decrease women's desire to shop. Until then, live easy...and die hard.

Derbies and Shake-Ups and Carnies, Oh my!

2010-07-27T06:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I experienced my first county fair. To be more precise, I attended the longest running country fair in the state of Indiana! Here is a list of my accomplishments (and yes, I'm calling them accomplishments) for the night:

1) Rode ghetto carnival rides. I went with Christine, and she was telling me about how usually she sees duct tape on the rides. This year there was no duct tape, so I decided to "man-up" and go on three rides. She wouldn't let me go on the dinosaur ride though...probably because I would intimidate all the little kids on it. But I did ride two rides that went really fast in a circle and a Ferris Wheel.

2) Drank a Lemon Shake-Up. Do you like lemon when you order water at restaurants? Well, I do not. However, it seems that most of the time when I order a water, the waiter/waitress shows up to the table with a lemon in my drink. Last night though, I tried this drink where they shake up freshly squeezed lemon with some water and sugar. It tasted more like lemonade than lemon water, and it was really refreshing!

3) Watched a Demolition Car Derby. Nothing can really beat bumper cars...except bumper cars with no bumpers! I never thought I could get so excited about seeing cars run into each other time and time again until their car quits working. There were people above me that were having so much fun that four policemen had to come settle them down.

4) Watched People. Okay, I know this sounds a tad creepy, but everyone does it! People watching is America's 2nd Pastime (next to Baseball, of course). I'm going to try and not sound mean...but there were some interesting people out at the fair! There were three categories of "The Fair People": 1) People who live for the Fair; 2) People who live and go to the Fair; 3) People who make a living at the Fair (a.k.a. carnies). My personal favorite group of people to watch is group number one. These people wait all year long in anticipation for the week-long festivities. As Christine pointed out, these people probably pick out their outfit for the night in the dark with their eyes closed. I would like to think i fit into group number two. Now I would like to point out that there is no hierarchy of "The Fair People." So just because I am in group number two, it does not make me better than #1 or #3 people. With that said, I can move onto the last group...The Carnies. There was a vast array of people working at the fair. For instance, there was a cranky old man who was in charge of the Ferris Wheel. He almost bit off Christine's head because she was being to "slow" getting into her seat. There was another man sitting at a booth that was selling swords that lit up. He kept yelling at people to move away from his tent because they were blocking his customers...I didn't see one person buy one of the swords all night. Then there was the skee-ball man, who unfortunately, had a microphone. He would try to encourage people to try his game so that they could win a prize, but his voice was a little different. The best I can describe it is the voice of Jim Varney, who played Ernest (i.e. Ernest Scared Stupid, Ernest Goes to Camp), but in a higher pitched voice. All in all, the people watching was stupendous

5) Watching a Lawn Mower Derby. Earlier i said that there is nothing better than bumper cars without bumpers. Well, I would like to recant my earlier statement and replace it with watching guys in a lawn mower demolition derby is the best. And by guys, I actually mean girl, because the lone female entry in the derby won! Basically, the point of the derby was to disengage people off of their lawn mower, and the last person standing (I mean sitting) wins! One lawn mower even caught on fire, and a bunch of firemen rushed into the arena and put it out. It was amazing!

So as you can see, Going to the fair is probably one of the smartest decisions I have ever made. And if you have never been to a county fair, I strongly suggest you get up out of your seat and drive to the nearest fair. It is that awesome.

Hooray for Louse Day!

2010-07-22T07:32:00.000-07:00

There was a day in my childhood that I looked forward to going to school. When i was in elementary school, I actually hated to go to school. I don't know if it was because I wasn't as good as the other kids at reading or because I loved being at home, but whatever the reason, I would do anything to stay home from school. However, there was one day of the year that I looked forward to with great anticipation. I would jump out of bed with a smile on my face, shove 2 brown sugar cinnamon toasterstrudels down my throat, run to the bus stop, and wait not-so-patiently for bus number 46 to take me to McEachron Elementary.

So what could possibly get 8-year-old Charlie so excited to go to school? It wasn't the annual Halloween parade where all the students would parade throughout the school showing off their costume (I'm pretty sure I was a vampire 3 out of my 5 years there). Nor was it the school carnival, talent show, pancake feed, or a field trip to the Topeka History Museum. It was...Lice Check Day.

There are three things I love in this world unconditionally: Jesus, Mom (this includes her homemade chocolate chip cookies...and the rest of my family), and Lice day. Let me take you through the Lice-checking process. First of all, Lice (or the singular version, louse) are small wingless insects that are scavengers of human skin and other debris found on the body. There are three different types of lice that live on humans, and the one they check for in school is head lice. So back to the process of checking lice at school. The school nurse would dismiss each class one at a time, and they would line up right outside her office for his or her turn to be checked. I can remember sitting in my classroom watching students walk down the hall to the nurse's office and being very jealous and anxious for my turn. Finally, it would be my class's turn, and I, of course, would run to the front of the line to lead my classmates.

As I stepped in the nurse's room, I would sit down on a stool and wait for the magic to begin. With gloves on her hands, the nurse would grab something that looked like a baton a conductor would use to lead a symphony. And I can almost swear that I heard beautiful music playing as she gently began to orchestrate with her baton a search through my scalp looking for any disgusting louse (remember...this is singular for lice). It was a moment of ecstasy that was over as soon as it began, as I hear her say, "He's clean. Next." I'm proud to say that during my entire elementary career, those were the only words I ever heard on Lice Day, but i think i secretly wanted her to say, "Uh oh. We got a code red." Then for the next hour she would have to just go through my scalp with her baton looking for lice...that would feel so good. But that isn't probably how it would go, so I'm grateful I was lice-free.

Looking back on Lice Day, I remember looking forward for something that wasn't going to last long. So here is the moral of the story: We all need to build time machines so we can go back into time once a week and do Lice Day.

Oh, and I here is a great sermon by Kyle Idleman on sexual temptaion...listen to it!

I am trying to "Let Go My Eg(g)o"

2010-07-18T18:45:00.000-07:00

Well I have been pretty apathetic when it comes to writing a new blog in the past week. I have literally opened up a window to write a new blog about 3 times, but I have never actually written anything. So here is my feeble attempt to get something written.

The name of the dad at the house I am staying with this year is Pat. He is quite a guy. He leads his family by example, and he will be the first to tell you that it wasn't always that way. When he first met his wife, his heart was hard towards God and refused to live for Him. However, Jesus grabbed a hold of his heart (and wife did a little tugging herself) and Pat is a completely different man now who loves his God.

Every Sunday night, Pat plays basketball in his backyard with a couple of his buddies. He has been doing this for about 30 years! He calls it his "mission field." You see, the types of guys that come out to play are just like the kind of guy Pat used to be thirty years ago. These guys cheat on their wives, they live for worldly pleasure, and Pat still loves them. Of course, there is the occasional "That wasn't a foul!" or "Your foot was on the line," but Pat still shows them Christ's love through conversation. He is always asking them how their families are doing or what is going on in their lives. And there is only one rule..."No Cussing." However, that rule is not always followed to the "T".

The first guy that always shows up is a man named Mike. He is about 58 years old, and he can straight up play basketball. He actually played for Coach Rupp at Kentucky University, and he went on to have a short career with the Indiana Pacers. The county prosecutor also shows up to play some basketball. There is a sixty-year-old guy who is nicknamed "Shake." I still don't know what his real name is...There is a man named Gary, who is deaf. He is not actually allowed to play any more, because he was playing too physical. So now he just comes for the community and watches everyone play. There are other guys who come to play too. There is Don, Steve, Wes, and still others.

I just thought I'd share with you guys what I do on a Sunday night. Its pretty simple and good exercise. Most of the guys that play are older and pretty good at basketball, so I guess you could say my ego gets a good dosage of humility every Sunday night on the court.

Listening to Christian Music out of Guilt

2010-07-10T07:06:00.000-07:00

(This is a Blog post I just submitted to Stuff Christians Like Blog)

Christian music from the 60's and 70's was...okay. Nothing can beat great hits like Larry Norman's "I wished We'd All Been Ready" and Petra's "Judas' Kiss", right? Wrong. The secular music industry with The Temptations and The Beatles were sitting atop the throne of music during that era. Living almost two generations later, I can see that nothing has changed. The Christian music industry is still chasing behind those darn secular musical groups.

I bring this up because Christians love to secretly listen to secular music, and then out of guilt switching the station to the local K-Love. I have a co-worker who is a great Christian lady, but she loves secular music. She just doesn't enjoy listening to Christian music, and I judge her from time to time. I yell things at her like "Pagan" or "Heathen," but she knows it is all in good fun. This lady feels no guilt. Unfortunately, I cannot live life the same way. Every time I get done listening (and dancing...another Christian faux pas) to Black Eyed Peas or Justin Timberlake, this overwhelming guilt looms over me and urges me to listen something Spiritual and Christian.

I have a friend, who as a little child, who experienced this very thing. She had a small radio in her room, and she would listen to Britney Spears and The Back Street Boys. Her mom would come into her room and reprimand her for listening to ungodly music and make her turn the radio to a Christian station. After a little bit, my friend began to understand the system. She would be dancing (its okay...she has been saved since then) to the "bad" music until she heard her mother's footsteps. Quickly she would change her radio to the Christian station, and sit down in front of the radio just bobbing her head with the music.

What my friend learned when she was younger, I have failed to learn at the ripe age of twenty-two. The location is not my room but my car. When I am by myself in the car, I listen to the secular radio station, and I usually remember to change my radio to the Christian station before I get out of the car to make it appear I'm holy in my music listening. However, I forget from time to time and I get some weird looks, and I know what they are thinking in their heads..."you, Pagan" or "This guy is a Heathen."

I know guilt should not be the sole reason for listening to Christian music, but it is great motivation. Forget Katy Perry, Eminem, and Lady Gaga and bring on David Crowder and Chris Tomlin...at least until there is no one around.

And just to let everyone know...I am listening to Hillsong right now as I write this.

A Collision into Collide

2010-07-05T15:27:00.000-07:00

Today, my good friend Cody Walker shared with me some important information. As we were watching The A-Team in the theater, he leaned over to me and showed me what someone had tweeted. The tweet read, "In 'Back to the Future,' Doc sets the clock in the DeLorean to a day 25 years in the future. Today is that day." Interesting? Oh yea. Besides learning about Back to the Future, I received some revelation after watching The A-Team. If the bad guys would just learn to aim when they were shooting, theatrical productions would only last about 5 minutes. But I thought the movie was pretty interesting, so I'm glad Liam Neeson and Rampage Jackson seemed to dodge the bad guy's bullets with ease.

I just got off the phone with my good buddy, David Heffren. He is spending the summer in Corvalis, Oregon. From what he has told me, it sounds like he is having a great time in the Northwest. The other day I was reading his blog, and I noticed that he had changed up the background of his blog, so I decided to do the same. I might not envy his curly hair, glasses or guitar playing skills, but I do covet his writing ability. He doesn't know this yet, but I am writing the foreword to his first and fourth books he is going to write. So check out his blog...it is worth it.

But on a Serious Note, I love God and the way He moves in students' lives. I just got back from CIY's Move conference in Holland, Michigan. It was blast getting to know the 29 high school students and six leaders I was able to minister alongside. The week was full of 12 inch ice cream cones, sunburns from the beach, sore arms from playing Red Rover on the beach, learning God's word, and lots of laughs.

You can learn somethings about a person by hanging out with them once a week, but it is something totally different when you spend an entire week with that person from 8 in the morning until 10:30 that night. There is just something to laughing and crying with someone that really accelerates the process of friendship. And this week past was full of crying and laughing. The high school group at Southeast is called Collide. I have only been at the church for about four weeks, so I have not had the chance to get to know these students that well. So I guess you could say that I had a collision with the Collide group this week.

I had the blessing to hangout with high school students for the week, and I met some awesome students. I met a kid named Nick who would not quit trying to take me down with some wrestling move. The first day of the trip, we went to Cedar Point, a huge roller coaster park in Ohio. I'm proud to say that I actually rode 4 different roller coasters! But the day was kind of sad because it rained off and on all day, and because of the rain, puddles accumulated on the walking paths. During the afternoon, Nick asked if he could have a drink of my pink lemonade, and I handed him my cup thinking I was doing something very nice for this young guy I barely knew. As soon as I handed him my cup, he throws the lemonade all over me. He thought this was pretty humorous, but I found it to be a little uncomfortable. So i thought I would make him feel uncomfortable, and I picked him up and threw him into a puddle. Its been a blossoming friendship ever since.

I also was able to get to know another guy that was in my small group throughout the week. His name is Shane, and he reminds me a lot of myself when I was his age. He is pretty athletic and all the ladies like him. Okay, the only thing we have in common is that we are athletic. But Shane's honest heart was very refreshing this week. We were able to talk throughout the week, and I had so much fun hanging out with him. He knows he tends to let his pride get in the way of his relationship with Christ, and he wants to be able become less so Christ might become more in his life. At the end of the week, he came up to me, and he asked if I would mentor him this next year. This blew me away!!! I am humbled to be asked to mentor Shane, and I cannot wait to see how Christ works through me to mold this young man's life.

There were so many other great students I got to know on this trip, but there is not enough time to tell them all to you. There was Jabriel, a.k.a. Mr. Alright; Emile, who shared the most insightful and genuine comments all week; and Nicolette who wouldn't quit smiling even when she threw up :( Like I said, I love all of the students I met, and I'm sure I will be posting more stories about these guys the more I get to know them. I love my Collide Family!

Kisses and Losses

2010-06-23T06:05:00.001-07:00

Last post I told you about how I'm a tid bit awkward. Well, I have had friends tell me that I need to share more awkward stories with you guys because my serious posts are boring. So here is my feeble attempt to increase my readership.

No one was harmed in the making of the story. The only thing that was harmed was my pride. My senior year of high school was altogether a little weird. I tore my ACL, so I couldn't play football. I won "Most Dreamed About" for the senior class.....a mystery still to this day, and I gained 40 pounds because I couldn't run or play sports for the first semester because of my bum leg. However, I was able to play baseball in the Spring. I was hardly at 100% though. I hadn't fully recovered from my ACL repair. After limping through the entire season with a measely .230 batting average (150 points lowers than my junior year!!!), it came time for senior night.

This special night that commemorates senior baseball playes was like any other night, but before the game they had every senior baseball player walk out into the middle of the field with their parents. When they called my name, I leaned over and gave my mom a hug and a kiss. Everything was fine up to this point, but awkwardness was soon going to smack me in the face...more like smack me in the lips. After I hugged and kissed my mom, I turned to my dad to give him a hug, but somehow I did not stop their. I preceded to give him a big wet one right on the lips....in front of everyone. Now there is nothing wrong with a little boy giving his dad a goodnight kiss, but it is totally different when a 18 year old gives his dad a kiss whle standing on the pitcher's mound in front of a crowd of his peers.

Now I am probably making more of this than it really is, but I have recovered from the "awkward kiss." I am now a single 22 year-old living near Louisville, Kentucky sitting in my cubicle looking at picture of a small puppy that is saying, "Yes, your bum looks fat in that."

Quick little fact about my baseball career in high school. I accomplished a feat that no other player had ever done in the history of Topeka West Baseball. I lost two games in one day my sophomore year. I pitched for Junior Varsity team and picthed 6 innings and got the loss. Then I came up to the Varsity team, and came in to pitch relief in extra innings and gave up the winning run. Sadly, I didn't get to see much time on varsity my sophomore year after that incident.

Taking My Hands out of My Pockets

2010-06-20T13:24:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, I wrote a post about how I am Awkward.

Much of this post encompassed the friendly gesture of hugging. I am proud to announce to the blogging world that I am still pretty bad at giving hugs, but they are becoming less awkward! Here in Indiana, there are a couple of people who love to hug, so I guess you could say I have been practicing, and I am getting better! So watch out world...the only difference between Brad Pitt and Charlie Landis is that Brad can hug slightly better...but not for long.

(Insert transitional statement here).

Today is Father's Day! I have always felt bad for people who can't celebrate father's day because they don't have a dad in their life. If you think about it, Luke Skywalker couldn't celebrate this holiday. There is Luke, 20-something, and he is fighting some bad guy who has asthma to the max. When all of a sudden, Vader drops the news, "Luke, I am your Father." I can't even imagine what goes on in Luke's fragile mind. But I know he was still bitter about spending all those Father's Days all by himself. And when he finally finds out who is father way, the guy dies.

Now my dad doesn't have asthma or masquerade in a black helmet with a cape. My dad is an ordinary guy who loves steak and college football, but he is an extraordinary father. I cannot recall the many lessons he taught and the examples he set as a strong, caring, loving man of God. I am just so thankful and blessed to have Tim Landis as my dad. In Joshua 24:15, we see Joshua renewing the covenant between God and man, and he makes this exclamation, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!" My dad has tried to do this the best that he can, but he will even be the first person to tell you that he isn't perfect. But he is the perfect dad for me.

Last night at the Post, the college age service at Southeast, Kyle Idleman preached over Genesis 3. He discussed how we always tend to blame women for bringing sin into the world. Many believe the first sin of mankind was disobedience (Eve took a bite from the fruit from the tree they were forbidden to eat from), but the first sin was most likely Passivity. You see, Genesis 3:6 says, "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband,who was with her, and he ate it. Adam was the responsible person for keeping God's law. It was in Genesis 2 where God first tells Adam not to eat fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil...Eve was not ever around yet. It was Adam's responsibility, and apathetically said, "Sure, I'll have a bite."

There were so many good points Kyle made last night, but one quote I had to write down. Talking about masculinity, Kyle said that men love battles. We love blood, and we love action. Kyle said, "Most men love action, but they love watching it from the coach." What man does not love Gladiator or 300? We love watching guys on a football field get hit so hard they are literally knocked out, but when it comes to leading on the spiritual battlefield, we somehow lose our go-get-'em attitude. We become like Adam, and shrug our shoulders and say, "Sure. Whatever." We need to take our hands out of our pockets and lead that way God made us to lead. We cannot afford to be passive in our relationships. This includes our relationship with our wife, girlfriend, and even our God.

Being a single guy, it took me sometime understand how I shouldn't be passive in my life because Kyle talked about being passive in our romantic relationships. Of course, I'm totally going to take this information and use it in my future relationship, but what does it look like for me today? And the best I could come up with is that I need to be violently in love with My God. I need to be actively pursuing a relationship with my Maker.

I'm going to start taking my hands out of my pockets when it comes to following my God and my Savior. Will you join me???

Beware the ME Monster

2010-06-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

I hate my pride.

There are times in life when you do something pretty dumb or stupid, and you can just shrug it off. For instance, you might see a pretty girl in the cafeteria that you have never talked to before. You have enough courage to sit at the same table as her and her friends, but you keep silent for the most part, only making conversation with your buddy who is there for support. As everyone is done eating their roast and mashed potatoes, the girl stands up to put up her tray, and you cunningly follow her to do the same. You want to talk to her really bad just so you can hear that sweet voice of hers. You quickly try to think about something to say to her, but the only thing that comes to mind is how good the dinner was that night at the cafe; so you blurt out, "Yum. Those taters were good." She tries to force a smile and nods her head. After throwing away your leftovers along with your pride and confidence, you walk back to your dorm and thinking to yourself, "Taters? Really, that's the best you could come up with?"

Now if this story was true...I'm sure you would just feel stupid for a little bit. Unless you have horrible friends who bring that story up every chance they get, you'll be fine. But there are other times, when I do something dumb that is harder for me to shrug off. When I allow the pride I try so hard to suppress loose, there is nothing more humiliating and shameful. Brian Regan calls this the "Me-Monster." Regan makes light of the pride some people struggle with, but in reality, it is no laughing matter.

In Middle School, I was a proud pimply faced boy who played sports and chased the girls. I would do or say anything to make myself look better; even if that meant putting down my friends in front of girls just to show them how awesome I was. I look back at how I was in middle school, and I am embarrassed at the way I treated other people and my high view of myself. Now there is nothing wrong with thinking highly of yourself, but if you look down on other people because you believe you are somehow better, pride is showing its tremendously ugly face. C.S. Lewis has a great quote on pride. He says,

"A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you're looking down, you can't see something that's above you.”

In our pride, we become the greatest being in our world. No longer is God Lord of Lords and King of Kings in those moments. This is exactly how the devil became the devil. In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis says that is through pride that all other sin stems from. He says that pride, "is the complete anti-God state of mind."

The reason I say all of this is because that I am in a constant struggle with pride. The other day I was talking with a student about Jesus' crucifixion, and he said Jesus was completely naked. And I told him that could have been the case, but they didn't always crucify people nude. Sometimes they had a small loincloth on too, and during that time, people considered the person to be nude when they only had their undergarments on (And I was probably wrong anyways). The high school student then said, "Have you even studied crucifixion? You probably just watched Passion of the Christ." After he said that, I quickly released the Me-Monster. I just looked at him and said, "Are you serious?" Then I looked over to one of my buddies and said, "This kid just asked me if I knew anything about crucifixion!" I wanted to tell him that I did a couple of research papers on crucifixion and how I attended Bible College for 4 years, but I didn't. I just looked at him like he was stupid.

Right away, I knew what I had done and couldn't me more disappointed with myself. This was a couple days ago, but I still get a knot in my stomach when I think about it. I look at that situation and I can't help but feel embarrassed and full of shame. No matter how much it seems I try to keep the Me-Monster inside and caged, it always comes out roaring like a lion. Pride is something we are going to have to struggle with for our entire lives. We have to continually pray for humility and pick up our cross daily. I hope that we can all echo Paul's words in Galatians 6:14,

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Follow Me as I follow Barbie??

2010-06-12T10:39:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I am watching a soccer game. The USA/england soccer game is getting ready to begin. NOthing is more boring than watching a soccer game than watching an hour long pre-game show about a soccer game. There better be 20 goals in this game, but I highly doubt it

Yesterday was a tough day. First, I woke up at 12:20, and I slept for a total of 12 hours. Second, I went swimming for about an hour and then jumped in the hot tub. I ended the day by taking second in a poker tournament...Man, yesterday was tough. Do you feel sorry for me yet?

(England just scored a goal)

Friday and Saturday are my days off from the office, and I took full advantage of it yesterday! I had a great day just relaxing. So far my time in southern Indiana has been very good. This upcoming week is going to be a little tougher, because I have to get all the materials ready for our CIY trip, and finish planning a Jr. High Over Nighter. I'm pretty excited to get going with everything....and the guy I am working with is going to be gone all next week, so I get the office all to myself!!!

Lately Jesus has been everywhere for me. You might be saying to yourself, "Well, he is omnipresent...duh!" But I am talking about the idea of us allowing Him to be the center of our lives. He needs to be everything to us, so that we might be able to be something for Him. This whole idea of Jesus being everything to us is imperative for us to be light in a dark world. If we want to be true disciples of Jesus, we must emulate who he is. Our main purpose on this is earth is to bring God glory, and we can best do this by making disciples of all nations (Mt. 28:18-20).

So I guess it all comes down to discipleship. There are a lot of books out their on how to disciple young Christians, but I think the best (and shortest) advice is by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:1 which says, "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ." A lot of people idolize other people. When I was young, I wanted to be super strong like Popeye, so I decided to try spinach for dinner one night. My mom told me i wouldn't like it but I insisted. It was one of the most disgusting things I had ever tasted, and I came to the realization that I would be weak the rest of my days. Heidi Montag, who was made famous by The Hills idolizes the Barbie Doll. She is going to go through x-amount of surgeries so she can somehow replicate Barbie's appearance. People will do crazy things just to become someone or something.

I think it all comes down to this? If we are supposed to bring glory to God by evangelizing the world and making disciples, what are your disciples emulating? Its not a question whether or not you have disciples, because most everyone has someone they are pouring into. If you are in a leadership position, there is no question that you are discipling other people. If you are not radically following Jesus, the Lion of Judah, then you are greatly doing the people you are pouring into a disservice. And I am not just speaking to you guys, because I am talking to myself more than anyone. I need to start following Christ in every aspect of my life, so that I am not giving students a watered-down Savior. I do not want to be giving a declawed version of Narnia's Aslan to people, so I need to get to know the Jesus of the New Testament ad the Messiah of the entire World!

(USA just scored a goal!)

Well, it is pretty hot outside, so I think I am going to go jump in the pool! Poor me.

Everyone give a Tim "the Tool Man" Taylor Grunt!

2010-06-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

I am a man. *insert manly grunt

Just in case you didn't get that...I'll type it again but in all capital letters. I AM A MAN. **insert two grunts

I don't know if it is because this is the way God made us, but guys always have this need to exclaim their masculinity. I always have this urge to pull out my "man card" when people are talking about love or romance. If someone brings up the Notebook or A Walk to Remember, I walk away grunting because I am a man and I don't need to hear about that love stuff. Well honestly, I watched A Walk to Remember when I was in high school, but I only did it ONLY because a girl made me. Therefore, that adds to my manliness because I was hanging out with a chick.

Crying is another issue where some guys draw the line at manliness. Personally, I think it is okay if a man cries in certain situations. If a man's dog dies, crying is perfectly acceptable. Crying is permissible if a relative passes away. When Bubba dies and Forest is sitting there holding his now dead best friend, tears can acceptably fall from man's tear ducts. Crying does not always make a guy less of a man.

The reason I bring up this whole idea of "manliness" is because lately it seems like I have been bombarded by this idea of love and romance. It all began about six months ago at Carterville Christian Church where we went through a Marriage series called "The Vow." It was a very insightful sermon series that looked at how couples can connect their relationship with God to their relationship with each other. During this time, I was actually called out twice from the stage because I was single and hadn't found my "better half" (So if you are out there "better half" please come introduce yourself. That would be ideal). Then we did a short series in chapel at my school, Ozark Christian College, about guys and girls and our relationships with each other. And now as soon as I arrive in Indiana, I go to the Post (the college age ministry at Southeast), and they are starting a series called, "The Story of Us." I'm not exactly sure what this series is going to be about, but the first night dealt with love and romance. Right away I wanted to tune out but just screaming "I am a Man!" at the top of my lungs, because I have heard so much on this subject lately that I feel like I could co-write the next Twilight movie. But reluctantly, I held in my screams and listened to Kyle Idleman as he preached through the first chapter and half of Song of Solomon.

Kyle did an excellent job of connecting the bridge of the author of the Song of Solomon to college students in the 21st century. One key thought that really stood out to me was that in chapter 1 verse 3, Solomon's lover says, "Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder maidens love you!" Our culture places way too much on image and physical attraction. The lover in this verse doesn't bring attention to Solomon's physique but to his name. In that culture, a person's name embodied that person's whole being. So if a person was full of integrity and lived an honest life, their name would be a good thing. However, if a person was just evil and was not a likable person, their name would mean nothing. Kyle just kept bringing out certain truths like this one throughout the entire passage and it was refreshing to read Song of Solomon with a new perspective.

There were many more truths Kyle brought to our attention, but I was a goofball and didn't have anything to take notes on. That is one thing I am going to start doing...I'll bring a notebook and pen to every sermon I hear so I can actually remember what I'm learning! I want to leave you with this one truth....Men can learn about love and romance and still be a man. Now if they start reading romance novels, then their masculinity might be brought into question before the great Board of Men (BOM for short), of which I am the head honcho.

The Office: Indiana Edition

2010-06-02T12:01:00.000-07:00

Presents are nice to receive! Sometimes the presents are fun and practical and others are just...well, practical. When I was younger, I was sort of a ladies man. If you have ever hung around me at all, you know that my glory days were in 8th grade. In 8th grade, I was dating a girl, and my birthday was coming up so she decided to give me a present. Knowing I love the Kansas Jayhawks, she bought me a cool hat with "KU" right across the front. A year later, I was dating a different girl, and she gave me the exact same Kansas hat. So I did what was noble. I told her thank you with a huge smile on my face. Later I ended up giving that hat to one of my brothers, so I guess what I am trying to say is that some presents aren't practical at all.

But when I graduated from Ozark, my parents gave me a GPS. My Global Positioning System is the epitome of practical. My trip from Topeka to Southern Indiana was made so much easier because of that small rectangular thing hanging from my windshield. My grandma gave me a briefcase for graduation. At first, I was a little skeptical about it. But when I took it home, I saw my initials on it and pretended to be important by carrying it around the house pretending to be on the phone with important people. So I have come to the conclusion that the brief case is a win.

This is the part of my post where I make an awkward transition from my introduction that has nothing to do with what I really want to talk about. So...(transition).

I am almost done with my second full day of my internship at Southeast Christian Church in Indiana. From the very first time I pulled into the youth minister's drive away to attend a staff cookout to a 2-hour long meeting I just got out of that just focused on volunteers, I can see the great chemistry this staff has at this church. There is rarely a moment in the office where someone is not laughing or just talking with another staff member. Some might think that this means that a lot of work does not get done, but that is hardly the case. When things need to get done, they get done. But I just love the atmosphere the office has here in Indiana. You can really tell that these people have the Spirit working in their lives.

Probably my favorite TV show on the air today is The Office. If you do not know what I am talking about, please do yourself a favor and go to nbc.com and watch a couple episodes. But basically, this show is about a paper company that is being followed around by a video crew that is producing a documentary. The Office is full of different people who all come together to work in one office where anything and everything occurs. From Michael Scott's inappropriate behavior to Stanley's crossword puzzles to Dwight's "Schrute Bucks" to Pam's beautiful face, all of the people in the office all have a good camaraderie and relationship. Sometimes Dwight will try to undermine Jim's authority, and Creed will steal something from somebody. But at the end of the day, usually (or by the end of the episode), everyone walks to the cars happy that they are part of a great team.

The reason I bring up The Office is because the office here at Southeast is very similar to the TV show. I am telling the truth too! For instance, there is an episode where there was a Bat in the office that was flying around. There is a bat in the closet here at the church, and no one will get rid of it...I guess we don't have a Dwight. But the camaraderie in here in the office is fantastic and I cannot wait to get to know everybody even better! And even though I am sure there are some disagreements, at the end of the day everyone walks to their cars knowing they are a part of a great team here at Southeast.

There might be an END in FriENDships but...

2010-05-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

When people do great things, they are often asked, "What does it feel like?" I'm sure after scoring 100 points on the New York Knicks, Wilt Chamberlain was asked that question. In 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the earth's moon, and I am positive he was asked the question. Now that I have graduated college, I've been asked that very question time and time again. Personally, I think dropping 100 points in an NBA game and being the first person to be on the moon are way more impressive than graduating from college. If you think about it, only one person has ever scored that many points in any level of compeitition of basketball, and only a handful of people can say they have been on the moon. Thousands and thousands of people graduated from college this year alone. So should I feel so accomplished from graduating from Ozark Christian College? I think so, but it is not because of a piece of paper with my name on it that i received from OCC for completing a four year degree. It is becaue of the many relationships I was able to build while being at Ozark that I can honestly answer the question, "What does it feel like?" with a resounding, "GREAT!"

Now I am no Wilt "the Stilt" Chamberlain or Neil Armstrong, but those guys could not have had better friends than the people who I have called family for the past four years at Ozark. There are way too many brothers and sisters that made an impact in my life to bring up in this post, but if I don't mention you its not because I don't love you...it is because you probably never bought me lunch or let me borrow your umbrella when it was raining.

Connor.

Connor, how do I even begin to describe our friendship? Our freshmen year, I just knew you as the kid that had a collapsed lung. I think everyone on our floor visited you in the hospital except for me and David. As time went though, we started to hang out, and I soon realized that you were probably one of the funniest people I had ever met. As our freshmen year came to a close, we started the infamous band, Worthy Prisoners. Six words to describe the worthy Prisoners...Too Much rock for One hand. I loved just sitting in our dorm room writing songs about Jonah or the Book of Acts. I know my junior year, we were not as close but I think we made up for it our senior year. I had such a blast with you my last year at Ozark. Whenever I needed to laugh or just feel better because I was in a horrible mood, you were there to crack a joke and make me smile. But our whole friendship wasn't based on laughter, we could have our serious conversations too about life and I really appreciated that. Connor, You are going to do great things whenever you graduate Ozark. If it is in Russia, I know you'll find a russian lady who just wants to use you for an easier access to American citizenship. Just Kidding! I love you man, and i will always cherish our friendship and I hope it continues for many more years.

Caitlyn.

Oh Caitlyn. Our friendship began in the food court of the mall in Joplin in an awkward way and awkwardness has not departed from a friendship ever since. I have to say that are one great baker. Your cookies were delicious, but you never had to bake us any goodies for us to love you (just in case you thought that was the case). I am sorry we didn't get to hang out as much our senior year, but the times we did hang out, I had a blast. I loved playing cards with you and always having awkward moments. I think my favorite memory with you was our trip down to Albuquerque. Going to the balloon fiesta was one thing I will never forget. You are a great friend Caitlyn, and I sure hope we get to cross paths again someday. And you are going to have so much fun this summer at Camp...you better let me know how it goes!

Blake.

This picture basically sums up our relationship Blake. I can only guess the background to this picture. I probably antagonized you somehow (all I am going to say is...Space Jam), and I tried running away but first you grabbed me and put me in the cradle. One of my first memories of you was when we were walking up the hill from a one of our first meals on campus during orientation, and I remember thinking to myself, "Man, that guy has some weird eyes." Blake, you are a great guy who I look up to spiritually. YOu are going to be an EXCELLENT youth minister, and wherever you end up going, I hope those kids understand how lucky they are to have you as their youth minister. I also want to thank you for putting up with my laziness when it came to working out. I know I ended up leaving you hanging with running in the morning, but you were always there to encourage and push me farther. As our college career came to an end, I felt like I was in your room everyday discussing the future and asking for your wisdom and guidance. Those talks we had were amazing, and we better connect later in life. And don't forget...The Landis Park Church will be the next mega-church.

Kinsey.

Oh Kinsey. I know that we have not been friends as long as the people I have already talked about, but our friendship is just as important to me. People have said that we are the exact same person, just different gender, and i think I would agree with them. We have so much in common that it is a little scary! I had such a great time getting to know you these past couple of years. Whether it was playing cards, playing paper football, or just sitting down and talking in the student center, there was never a dull moment. You have such a great heart and it was awesome getting to see how much you care about people (especially your Asian babies!). I just want you to know that you are going to awesome in Maryland. You are a beautiful woman who I know God will use in great ways if you just have confidence in yourself and in Him. You will always have a friend in me and if you ever need to talk, I'm here for you. I love you kinsey!

David.

Dear Best Friend, I cannot top what you wrote about in your last blog about our friendship. We have done everything together since 7th grade, and now that is all going to change. As I was sitting in my seat during graduation, I finally came to the realization that you were not going to be with me next year. I do not know if I have ever told you this, but you are the reason I went to Ozark. If you had not gone to OCC four years ago, I probably would have wasted my life at Kansas University playing for their football team. I have never met someone with such great discipline in their walk with Christ. I have learned so much from you by living next to you for four years. I honestly have no idea how I am going to be able to make it this next year in Indiana without you. You let me know when I am being stupid and when I need to lighten up. We have so many inside jokes, and now no one is going to laugh at my stupid jokes. But I like what you said in your blog..."For the average person, his best friend in middle school isn't much more than a casual acquaintance by the time they're in high school. His best friend in high school only gets an occasional facebook message when they're in college. And his best friend from college is nearly forgotten by the time they're 35. I hope to be the exception to that. I understand that people come and go and relationships change. But I have little desire to have another best friend. I'm pretty happy with the one I've got." I cannot put it any better than that my friend, so I'm just going to say, "ditto." I love you bro and I thank God for blessing me with your friendship.

Once again, there are so many more people that made an influence in my life. I'm so thankful for my experience at Ozark, and I sure hope that I will be able to continue the many friendships I made while at that school. While last Saturday might have been the end of my college career, I sure hope that it wasn't the end of the many friendships I created. I love you guys.

Good News for Chick-Fil-A

2010-05-16T22:21:00.000-07:00

"Rise and Rise Again Until Lambs become Lions."

This was the saying Robin Hood's father coined to try and portray his idea of equality between the nobility and peasants. I went and saw Ridley Scott's portrayal of the hooded vigilante, and I thought it was a really entertaining flick that was filled with action coupled with background information on Robin Hood. I would say it is Gladiator-esque; but since Gladiator is the greatest movie of ALL time (therefore receiving 10 out of 10 stars), I would say Robin Hood receives a solid 7 stars. It was a little slow in the middle of the movie, but it was just building up the plot. So go watch it!

So I have seen 4 movies in the last two weeks for a grand total of only $20! Two of the movies were only 3 dollars a piece because i went to the drive-in theater, and the other two were matinees so they were a little bit cheaper. I don't know about you guys but every time I come out of the dark theater from watching a 2 hour movie, I feel like I enter a new world. It feels like I have been in my own little world for 15 years. Sometimes I come out of a movie and I think to myself, "Who is the president?", "What year is it?"..."Have my twinkies reached their expiration date yet?" The dark theater can play tricks on your mind but don't be fooled...Its 2010 and Obama is president and Twinkies will never expire.

Speaking of food, I do not think there is anything better in the world to bring people together. More specifically, I think it can be said that food brings about the most genuine, intimate time of fellowship. If you think about it, every family gathering is centered around the table. For family reunions, there is usually a potluck or barbecue. You might get together with your families for holidays like 4th of July or Christmas. Now even though there are extracurricular activities going on (shooting fireworks and opening presents), there is a meal that is shared that brings the family together. And if you are at the Landis house on Christmas, you get two great meals...A great breakfast and an amazing dinner.

I think the best conversations I have had with people are at the dinner table in the cafe. Of course, all of those conversations have not serious. Actually I am willing to bet only a handful of them were serious, but intimate fellowship is not always serious. It is about being involved in the presence of other people through conversation and life experiences. If you are not enjoying any fellowship of any kind, you are like superman without the sun, like Doug Funny without Patty Mayonnaise, or Jennifer Aniston without Charlie Landis. Fellowship is a necessity for humans. This can easily be seen in Genesis 2 when God says, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Now in this specific context, God is going to make woman to fulfill Adam's desire for fellowship, but this is a great example of how important it is for people to be in fellowship with other people.

Now getting back to one of my favorite things in life...food. The correlation between food and fellowship goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Just like food brings people together in the most intimate fellowship, food was the reason fellowship between God and man was crippled. It was Eve that ate FRUIT (or as a man from my home church so eagerly argues, "Its a pomegranate, and if you teach anything else, it is wrong!") from the tree of knowledge of good and evil that hindered God's presence with man to no longer be what it was before. Their fellowship was broken. But when you look at the New Testament, we see a different picture when it comes to God and man with fellowship and food.

Jesus, the God man, came to earth to restore that broken fellowship between God and man that was destroyed when our first parents ate the fruit. Jesus restored the possibility of fellowship between man and God when he died on the cross, and it ultimately becomes man's choice whether or not to come into the relationship with true fellowship. But when Jesus was walking on the earth about 2,000 years ago, he often used a meal to develop fellowship. The most intimate meal Jesus shared with his disciples was the Last Supper in John 13. Jesus knows his time to die is soon approaching, so what does he do? He shares a meal with his close friends. After he resurrects from the grave, Jesus appears to Peter and what does he do? He has a meal with Peter that reinstates him as the Rock (Mt. 16:18).

Jesus also pictures heaven as a great fellowship meeting around a meal. In Luke 14, Jesus tells the parable of the Great Banquet where a master told his servants to round up all the guests for his banquet but all of them had poor excuses, so the master invites everyone else to his table and says, "I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet." Jesus is giving us a picture of heaven, and he describes it as a meal.

The last place I want to look at in the New Testament is Revelation 3:20 where the Apostle John is writing down the words of the Resurrected Jesus to the seven churches. To the church in Laodicea, Jesus says, "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens my door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." Jesus WANTS to fellowship with these people by having a meal.

Now all this talk about food is music to my ears. I love food...probably a little too much, but I just think it is great how food can bring people together. So the next time you are sitting around a group of people sharing some Chick-fil-A fries or eating a home-cooked meal (Only 5 more days until no more cafe food!!) just remember how awesome and important that fellowship can become.

Oh yea, I am graduating in 5 days...AHH!!!

My bad!

2010-05-12T11:42:00.001-07:00

"My bad." My French teacher, Madame Stull, in high school hated when I said that phrase. Every time i mispronounced a word and had no clue what she was talking about, I would habitually say, "my bad!" Madame Stull would say something in French to me that I couldn't understand, and she would then say, "You make no sense when you say 'my bad'!" Well I didn't learn to quit saying "my bad," and I most definitely didn't learn any French...except for the one phrase, "Je ne suis pas fromage."

so to my readers, My bad! My apologies on my last blog. I really did not mean to sound so pessimistic and bothered by growing up! I had just happened to be talking about the whole idea of growing up with David that day and decided to write it down. I am pumped for the next stage in my life, and I cannot wait to see how I am going to glorify God. So I guess what I am trying to say is that please don't stop reading my blog because I sound like a Debbie Downer. I am thinking about becoming an Ursula Upper.

I Can't Believe its Not Butter...Its Cinna-Butter!

2010-05-09T21:55:00.000-07:00

I secretly have a "Blog War" with David Heffren. He doesn't know about it(well, he might not if he reads this post like a good friend would). I saw that before tonight, we both have posted 11 blog posts so far this year, and as I walked into our dorm room, I saw him writing a new post. I can't let him write more blog posts than me, so I decided to write one. I know that people usually write when they have something of importance or meaningful on their minds, but I am competitive by nature. So I guess you could say this post was born out of spite for David Heffren. So take that four-eyes.

As my collegiate career is coming to an end, I have unfortunately just now discovered two important truths. First, the cinna-butter (a delightful combination of brown-sugar cinnamon and butter) that is in the cafe is very tasty. I spread that stuff on my toast, and it is a great dessert item. Apparently, the cinna-butter has been in the cafe my entire four years at Ozark, but I just now discovered it. The second discovery has also been around my tenure at OCC...the drive-in theater. For only $6 I saw Date Night and Clash of the Titans. I went with my blog-foe, David Heffren, and two other friends Kinsey and Lindsay, who we call "Doo." We all sat in some lawn chairs and enjoyed the movie. It was a great time.

I'm trying to hang out with more people before graduation on May 22nd. For instance, right now I am sitting in a room writing this post on my laptop. There are 5 guys in here, and we are just taking turns playing Call of Duty on X-Box. Earlier tonight, I played some cards with people and afterward we went to the Bell. As I was in line waiting for my scrumptious 5-layer burrito, I thought of my life and the many rite of passages I have undergone. I also realized the similarities between my life and the three hour drive from my house to Ozark. You see,the first hour of my trip involves different turns and exits while the final two hours is just one straight shot to Joplin. That is just like life. At the beginning of our lives, we go through many rite of passages. At the age of 5, we go to school. When we are 13, we enter the world of teenagers. Our 16th birthday brings car keys. When someone is 17, R-rated movies can now be seen in the theaters. Smoking and voting is now legal when some becomes 18 years old. Twenty-one is the age when young boys and girls can now OFFICIALLY drink. Renting a car is now possible for those who turn 25. And if you are very eager and motivated, you can run for presidency at the ripe age of 35. And the final rite of passage that everyone is looking forward to: Senior Citizen Discounts.

You should kind of see a trend. The older you get, the less Rite of Passages and perks you get. Just like at the beginning of my drive from my house to school that includes many turns and exits, the younger we are the more exciting and rite of passages that are present. I'm sure this is all kind of confusing. What I'm trying to say is that I'm on the second leg of my "drive." The final two hours of my drive is just kind of boring and monotonous. Basically, all i have to look forward to is rental cars and senior discounts.

I know this might all sound pessimistic and for that I am sorry. But I guess I just realized that I am on that 2 hour part of my lifelong road trip. I can make the most out of this time or I can feel sorry for myself and just live life to die. Personally, I think I will choose to live life to live it to the fullest.

I Can't Believe its Not Butter...Its Cinna-Butter!

A Tale of Two Psalms

2010-04-21T19:21:00.000-07:00

Someone once said, "Golf is a game where guts and blind devotion will always net you absolutely nothing but an ulcer." If this doesn't explain the game of golf, I'm not sure what does. I went golfing this afternoon for the third time so far this year. I have to practice on my game because there is a tournament coming up where the professors are playing the students...I'll be sure to let you guys know who it ends up. But in the mean time, I'm getting ulcer after ulcer.

So now that I am graduating from Ozark, the powers at be made me take a Bible exam to see if I had learned anything while attending OCC. I first took this test when I was a freshman, and after the test I left the room feeling like a moron. I actually began to question whether or not I should be at a place like Ozark because I barely knew any of the answers. I'm proud to say that after taking the exam for the second time, I feel a little better about how I might have scored. Anyways on the exam there were questions that dealt with the Psalms. A question might go something like this: "What Psalm discusses 'They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing'?" Then there were 5 different Psalms listed that I could choose from that correctly answered the question. There were two Psalms that kept reappearing on the test that stuck out in my mind...Psalm 22 and Psalm 91. To be honest, I didn't know what each Psalm was talking about exactly but I knew they were important. Now I took this Test about a week ago, and tonight at youth group during worship, I decided to sit down and read those chapters for some reason.

First, I read Psalm 91. Key verses in this chapter would be "I will say of the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust'." The psalmist also writes, "If you make the Most High your dwelling--even the Lord, who is my refuge--then no harm will befall you." The whole theme of this Psalm is that God will protect and take care of anyone who dwells with God.

Then right away I decided to read Psalm 22. The verses that stick out in this Psalm are "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Then King David goes on to say, "O my god, I cry out by day, but you do not answer." The tone of this Psalm is drastically different than Psalm 91. Psalm 22 expresses agony and despair, and Psalm 91 expresses ecstasy and jubilation.

After reading these two passages that had extreme emotional differences, I reread Psalm 22, and then it hit me. No person could ever speak such words in Psalm 91 if it wasn't for Psalm 22. You see, Psalm 22 was written by King David, but the contents are screaming for a crucified Messiah. Because Jesus voluntarily died on the cross, the Psalmist can rejoice by saying, "I will say of the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust'." There are so many parallels between Jesus and Psalm 22:

- v.1 "My God, my God, why hav eyou forsaken me?": Jesus cries out in a loud voice while being crucified on the corss, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mk. 15:34).
- v.7 "All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads.": As Jesus was being crucified "those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads" (Mt. 27:39).
- v.8 "He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue him.": Those who passed by hurled insults at Jesus while he was hanging on the cross. even the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him by saying, "He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him" (Mt. 27:43).
- v.16 "Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.": This is how crucifixion took place. They would nail the criminal by the hands and feet to wooden posts.
- v.18 "They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.": John tells us that while the soldiers were crucifying Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them (Jn. 19:23).

I know all of this stuff might be elementary to some of you, but it was so refreshing just to be able to recognize the power and hope in times of darkness. When we realize that Jesus Christ endured the cross for our sake and what he saved us from, our Psalm 22 moments can quickly become Psalm 91 moments.

I Miss Ignorance

2010-04-15T12:11:00.001-07:00

I feel more like an adult everyday. I am pretty sure that I have nose hair growing, I am graduating in a little over a month, and I just filed my taxes today. I miss the days of not caring about anything besides whether or not there were any cherry Popsicles left in the freezer or if the foursquare spot would be taken up during recess. I miss ignorance!

I remember the first time I actually thought about the whole concept of "missing ignorance." Of course, I had no idea what the term ignorance meant at the time, but I clearly recall thinking to myself, "Man, I wish I would have never learned that." It was when I was in 5th grade. No, I'm not talking about the "sex talk" that every young boy and girl receives from the public school system (I actually missed that day because I had to go to a funeral). The Horrific thing I learned that day...was...the existence...of killer bees.

I'll never forget the terror that shot through my 11-year-old body as the narrator of the Discovery Channel Special on the threat of Killer Bees in the United States spoke. He went on to explain the history of the Killer Bee. The African honey bee was brought over to Brazil to develop a new kind of Bee that would produce more honey and be able to adapt to the tropical climate. The man in charge of this operation had a queen African bee in a cage that only allowed smaller European honey bees to enter the cage and mate with the Queen. The offspring of these bees became known as Africanized Bees or more commonly "The Killer Bees." Unfortunately, the owner of these bees accidentally let the bees go, and now they were migrating north to the United States through Texas.

Living in Kansas, you wouldn't think that I would be to afraid of this news, but what I failed to mention earlier is that my family was planning on going to San Antonio, Texas that summer for vacation. I was so scared about getting attacked by a swarm of Killer Bees. Kill was in their name and I didn't want to mess with them at all. I constantly talked to my parents about my fear of the bees, but they assured me that I would be okay.

I stand, actually I'm sitting, here today to tell you that I survived my family vacation to San Antonio. I don't think I even saw a bee the entire time I was in Texas, but I lived in a constant fear of those darn bees. If only I had never watched that dumb documentary on Killer Bees...

Oh, how I miss ignorance! I miss not knowing about federal and state tax. I miss not knowing that April 15th was Tax day, but sadly I'm growing up and I get to experience paying taxes. I have a friend who said, "The IRS is proof that Satan has dominion over the earth." And I couldn't agree more! But I'm free from stressing out about taxes for another year, and in the mean time I would urge you guys not to watch any documentaries on Killer Bees...or the IRS.

I'm a Twit...but not a Moron.

2010-04-04T21:39:00.000-07:00

Don't think less of me, please. I swore that I would never do this as long as I live, but unfortunately I caved. No, i didn't commmit murder or paint my fingernails. I started a twitter. I blame no one but myself...well I kind of blame Blake Park. He forced me to get one. It's all his fault.

Twitter is basically a network where you tell the world what is on your mind. I'm still getting use to the terminology of the twitter world. If you post a twitter, its called a "tweet." If you are in the act of posting a tweet, you are "tweeting." And I'm not sure if this last one is true or not, but if you are a person who is tweeting, you are a twit. Okay, I think I made up that last word but if thats ture then I am a twit.

As I was looking at my twitter page online, I was looking at all the people's twitter I follow. I follow my friends, athletes, and many different other people. One person I follow is Mark Driscol. He is a pastor at a church called Mars Hill up in the northwest, and even though I don't agree with everything he says he is a brilliant servant for the Lord. Earlier today, he tweeted, "Today, Jesus got out of the grave. I think you can get out of your house and come to church." Well today I got out of my house I went to church, but not because Mark told me to but because Jesus did in fact without a doubt get out of the grave about 2,000 years ago. I believe the Apostle Paul says it best in 1 Corinthians 15:17 when he says, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile."

It is great that Jesus died on the cross. In fact, its AMAZING! But if the body of Christ was found in a tomb somewhere in Jerusalem tomorrow, this is all for nothing. And I would be a moron because I have devoted my entire life to following this man named Jesus. Christianity is built upon the fact that Jesus Christ is Lord. If He is Lord, then death cannot conquer Him. Luckily...not luckily but divinely, Jesus walked out of the tomb Sunday morning so that His followers would have hope in life after death. Later in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul goes on to say that if Jesus really did not raise from the dead, then Christians should be pitied by all men. Many people have given their lives because of Jesus' resurrection. It said that the Apostle Peter was crucified. Another Apostle named Barthalomew was said to be skinned alive because of his faith in the risen Lord Jesus.

Now today was a beautiful day. The skies were blue and I went to church to worship with the Body of Christ. I ate ham with my grandparents and little cousins. The easter bunny visited us and brought us Buffalo Wild Wings gift certificates. I was even blessed to look for easter eggs with my brothers. But nothing was more important and more vital than when Jesus "got out of the grave." I am no moron....just a twit.

A Frostbitten Spring Break

2010-03-21T18:01:00.000-07:00

Webster's Dictionary defines depression as sadness; gloom; dejection. Another way to define it is a condition of general emotional dejection and withdrawl; sadness greater and more prolonged than that warranted by any objective reason.

Well I do have an objective reason to be depressed. Actually I have two of them. First, the obvious one is that my Kansas Jayhawks were upset in the NCAA basketball tournament by Northern Iowa University. To make matters worse, I have about 20 people text me about the game while I am full of sadness; gloom; and dejection. These are some of my closest friends. I'm reminded of Job in the Old Testament. His entire world had crashed down on him, and he had three friends named Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite. These three men had good intentions to comfort their friend, but they did more harm than good. God eventually rebukes them for their stupid words of discouragement. So If you were one of the people who made fun of me because Kansas lost, watch out because God is probably mad. The second objective reason for me to be depressed is because as soon as I get home for SPRING break, it snows 6 inches. I am so tired of winter and coldness. I'm just depressed.

And to make matters worse, I'm getting older. I had my 22nd birthday this past Thursday. Now don't get me wrong. I was able to hang out with friends, and David Heffren even bought me dinner. I also had another friend, Jake Wiemelt, buy my lunch at Chick-Fil-A. It was awesome to be around people you love, but unfortunately, I heard a song yesterday that brought everything back to earth. Five for Fighting has a song called "100 Years," and in the song there is a line that goes:

I am 22 for a moment...

The song keeps going on and the singer just keeps talking about how he gets older and older. He says things like,

Another blink of an eye
67 is gone
The sun is getting high
We're moving on...
I'm 99 for a moment
Dying for just another moment.

Basically, life goes by quick and you keep getting older until you die. Here in about 2 months, I will be off my parents insurance...not cool. I'll have to start paying for all of my own stuff and cooking my own food. My Jayhawks lose to a Missouri Valley League team, and I'm supposed to be getting a tan outside instead of frostbite.

As I was complaining to my mom about the Jayhawks loosing and it snowing during my spring break she said, "Charlie-Bear (thats my nickname she gave me a long time ago), soon fans of 63 other teams will be feeling the same way you feel right now, and spring will be here to stay." My momma has always seen the good in things, and I admire that about her. Sometimes it is just so hard to see the light in times of darkness.

I know all of these things I'm complaining about really aren't that bad. If i put all my stock in a dumb sport team, I would say that I have greatly misplaced all of my priorities. If i get upset about how I leave Joplin, Mo when its 70 degrees and open my car door in Topeka, KS and it is 40 degrees, then I just need to move to Southern California. I guess what I'm trying to say is that our "dark" time maybe aren't so dark. I'm graduating in May, and God has allowed me to do a year-long internship in Indiana. I am so excited! The snow is already kind of melting, so by Tuesday or Wednesday, everything will be back to normal. And I don't know if there is anything good about the Jayhawks loosing, but at least I won't be stressed out not knowing if we are going to win a national championship? Yea, I really can't see the good in that one. But here is my advice to you, be like Momma Landis not like Charlie Landis.

Go Baylor.

More than a Waffle House

2010-03-01T08:31:00.000-08:00

Its time for a game! Word association. Ready? Waffle House. What is the first word that comes to mind. It the word that just jets out of your mouth probably isn't "clean." Most likely it wasn't "perfect" either. The word that I think of first when it comes to Waffle House is "dirty!" I still enjoy the waffles though. It is just kind of a grungy place. I mean it is hard to keep a place clean that is open 24 hours a day, but the atmosphere in Waffle House is not the most appetizing.

Last night I went to Waffle House with a couple of friends. It was a fun time, and we ate waffles! Our waitress was named Rene, and she was trying to memorize Romans 6:15-18 for a bible study she attends. In that passage Paul is instructing Christians not to become slaves to their sin, and Rene said she was memorizing it because she wasn't doing the right things when it came to her body. She was just being real and honest. She acknowledges that she doesn't have the cleanest life.

I have come to the conclusion that Life isn't clean. The more I think I am getting somewhere the more I realize I am going no where. When I finally feel like I have my life in control and living the life God wants me to live, I come to understand I still have a long way to go. I am the farthest thing from perfect. This isn't some new revelation. Just something I have been reminded of while reading Leviticus.

Leviticus is like an instruction manual for the Israelites and their interactions with God. Moses gives the rules for different kind of offerings and sacrifices the people should adhere to when it comes to their worship of God. Something that really just stuck out to me was God's strict restrictions for cleanliness. He wants his people to be a clean, pure people. Here is a list of things that God talks about when dealing with the Israelites spiritual and physical purity:
- What they are eating
- Childbirth
- Skin diseases (serious and not-so-serious)
- Clothing
- Houses
- Bodily Charges (eeww!)

Many of these things seem kind of pointless. For instance, who cares if you eat an animal has a partially split hoof and doesn't chew the cud? Why is it a big deal if a person eats a winged insect that walks along the ground but doesn't have joined legs? Or why does a woman have to purify herself for 66 days after giving birth to a girl? All of the rules God gives to Moses seem a little bit OCD. God cares an awful lot about the small things, but why? I think the answer is found in Leviticus 10:10 which says

You must distinguish between what is sacred and what is common, between what is ceremonially unclean and what is clean.

This is the definition of holiness! We are supposed to be clean and sacred. We are not to be common and ordinary. When Paul writes to one of the most disturbed churches in the first century when it came spiritual pride, sexual sin, and worship, he begins the letter, "To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be HOLY..." As people and children of God, we are to be a holy priesthood. We can see in Leviticus God's will to make us Holy in every aspect of our lives. He wants to make us more than a Waffle House. If someone were to play the word association game with your name what would be the first word that would come to their minds? Would it be dirty and unclean? Or would it be Holy and clean? Don't be a Waffle House!

Short, Chubby Toddler with a Weapon

2010-02-19T07:13:00.000-08:00

Well I survived the day of love. Luckily I didn't get shot in the butt with one of Cupid's arrows..this is a good thing because I was hanging out with mostly guys all day. I think it is humorous how one fellow described Valentine's Day when he said, "I don't understand why Cupid was chosen to represent Valentine's Day. When I think about romance, the last thing on my mind is a short, chubby toddler coming at me with a weapon." I couldn't agree more.

I have never fancied myself a romantic. When I think of someone who is romantic, I think of a person who can creatively portray their emotions (hopefully good)to someone whom they care about very much. As my friend David Heffren talked about in his title in his last blog, I think romance is eating a heart-shaped pizza together with your loved one. Okay, I'm exaggerating a little bit, but for the most part I am not full of romance. But someday I am sure something will just click and I will be Romeo.

Besides thinking about Valentine's Day, lately I have thought about learning. I'm taking an online class called Creative Bible teaching. The class teaches a person how to creatively teach the BIble to students, and I have learned a couple of things. One thing in particular has really stood out to me while taking this course. Its the idea that a person can never stop learning, or they fail to live.

Socrates once said, "The unexamined life is not worthy living." We cannot go through life just living. There has to be some point of examination and thinking. If you are not examining and thinking, you are not learning. We must have this certain attitude- the attitude that we have not yet "arrived." We will never fully understand everything there is to know, so we must be in a state of continual-learning.

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the Holy Spirit and His role in the Christian's life. I have a lot of quesitons, and I have been praying to God that he will continue to open my eyes to the Spirit's power and leading. I don't know all the answers to my questions, but I'm trying to find them. I'm reading a book called Forgotten God by Francis Chan, and it is a very insightful book. I guess my question for you is what are you learning about? Are you examining your life? Because as soon as you stop learning, you stop living....You will also stop living if a real toddler shoots you in the heart with a real arrow. Just be careful.

Strong Biceps

2010-02-09T13:09:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-04T12:56:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-19T18:30:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-06T21:24:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-01T09:32:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-26T11:17:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-22T20:29:00.000-08:00

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?

The Fight

2009-12-10T17:23:00.000-08:00

Winter is officially here...I went to unlock my car today and the doors were frozen shut! If any of you know me personally, I HATE the winter. I really don't think i would mind it too much if it wasn't for the constant 20 m.p.h. freezing wind blowing in my face. You know the kind of wind that makes it impossible to breath?! Yea, i dislike it with a passion.

Lately, I have been thinking (weird,right?) a lot about the dualistic nature of man. This really is not very complex. Basically, there seems to be a good side and a bad side to all human beings. It is as simple as that, but to understand the fact and master it are two totally different things. I preached about this to my home youth group in Topeka, Kansas. Unfortunately, i feel that i might have been talking over their heads. I wrote a paper about Christianity and dualism for philosophy. And the struggles in my own life have really heightened my sense about the dichotomy within my own life.

There are two entities that have control of my body and will. The first is the flesh or the "Self." This part of us is the seat of our passions and desires. The second part is the "Spirit." This is the seat of our willingness to do good or the part of us that is spiritual. This idea is best illustrated in the old looney tune cartoons that have bugs bunny or some other character on screen. This person is at a cross-roads...and has to choose between doing right or wrong (like eating poor tweety bird). All of a sudden an angel and a devil appear on the person's shoulders. The angel tries to convince the person to do the good, and the devil urges him to do the wrong. This is what happens to us when we come to a temptation; unfortunately, we aren't blessed with two small "mini me's" that pop up on our shoulders at the exact moment.

Lately, I have really seen this fight between the self and spirit in my life. My flesh wants to do whatever it can in order to please my sinful nature while the Spirit wants to please God and do what is right. I really hate this struggle, because when I use to believe that when I became a Christian, these temptations would stop coming and everything would be perfect. Sadly, this isn't the case at all! I struggle with giving into temptation has much as the next person. Even the Apostle Paul struggled with the same thing

Romans 7:15 says, "I do not understand what I do. For what i want to do i do not do, but what i hate i do."

Paul knows exactly what all of us are going through, because he often gives into the self's passions and desires. So what hope is there for us? YES! The very next chapter, Paul says, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." And he goes on to explain that through Jesus the law of the "self" has been destroyed and and the law of the "spirit" has set us free! This is great news people...Jesus has fought the battle for us once and for all eschatologically. However,until his 2nd coming we still have to engage in this fight between the "self" and the "spirit" on a daily basis. Its our choice whether or not to fall into sin.

Paul writes in Galatians 5:24-25, "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." Christians need to kill the "self," and we need to live by the "spirit." We partner with Christ in this battle to defeat our selfish sinful nature. So my question for all of us is, "Who are we letting win the fight for control of our lives...the self or the Spirit?"

Oh, and if any of you want to buy me a Christmas present. Write to Santa, and I'm sure the big fellow will forward you a copy of my wish list. Thanks!

Campus Craziness

2009-11-19T11:33:00.000-08:00

It seems like every year there is some new debatable issue on our campus. Last Year's controversy was whether or not Jesus could have sinned if he had chosen to do so. Some people believed he could not sin because he was 100% God, and God cannot sin. Still others viewed that Christ could have sinned because he was also 100% man while he was on this earth, and 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." Personally, I feel like Christ had the ability to sin if he wanted to, but he didn't...end of story. That was my junior year. My sophomore year's topic was a little less theological. What girl was going to date David Heffren? It seems unimportant, but all the girls on campus thought it was a big deal. David was even mentioned in a journal kept by one of the Girl's dorms and how he deserves some hot nice Christian girl (For more research on this topic see http://dheffren.blogspot.com/2008/11/bystander-effect.html). Unfortunately, David is still single and the debate rages on.

Now in my senior year, the campus is buzzing with the latest controversial topic...Pacifism. A few days ago in Chapel Terry Bowland, a New Testament/Evangelism Professor, spoke on a name of God found in Scripture. This name is not discussed very often. In fact, I had no clue what it meant. Lord Sabaoth. This name for God carries with it the meaning of Warrior or power. It is found mainly in the Old Testament, and it describes how the LORD is the Lord of the Heavenly Hosts, angel armies. Bowland's main thought of his sermon was that God is not a Pacifist. And no matter if you think war is good or Christians should or should not fight, you cannot disagree with the fact that God is not passive. God is going to unleash his wrath and anger against the evil in this world.

During Bowland's sermon, several students just got out of their seats and left. Terry Bowland is a great guy, and he has certain opinions that he isn't afraid to be made known. He let everyone know at the beginning of his sermon that he was not a pacifist and God was not either. He also said something along the lines of "Pinko fascist commies" in regards to pacifists. He was obviously joking and most people laughed it off. Along with his remark, Bowland also had a picture on the overhead of Jesus with a machine gun in hand. This apparently offended some people, and they hastily grabbed their backpacks and walked straight out of the chapel. I will admit that the picture was a little out of line, but Bowland did not mean anything wrong by it...he just wanted a couple of laughs.

I tell you all of this because people on this campus are making a big deal out of his sermon. Professors are writing blogs in response. Guys are in the dorms staying up late in the night debating whether or not pacifism is correct. Personally, I grew up in a very conservative home, so I have never questioned war. I always thought pacifism was for panzies who were picked last in dodgeball. Now the purpose of this blog is not to debate pacifism, because I'm sure there are other students who are doing that very thing. I just want to say that I think healthy debate is great, but it is wrong when disrespect enters the arena.

Many people got up in the middle of Terry Bowland's sermon and left. That equals disrespect. This man has two Master degrees and a Doctorate degree. He has done more things for the Kingdom than me, and he is more learned on the Bible than myself. Who am I to walk out on his sermon? I just want to say that I love everyone here at Ozark, even if we disagree on some issues. Some of the people who were outraged by Bowland's sermon also have no respect for the Government. These people bash the United States over and over again. And granted, the United States is not a holy nation that always follows the directives of God, but we are told to respect the government and its authority (Romans 13)

I guess it all comes down to this: We should obey the authority of our government as long as God remains the ultimate authority. The people who disagree with me...i still love them, and I don't think this issue is something that needs to divide the church. We already have enough problems as it is. So will this debate ever be settled? Probably not. But ladies there is one debate you can put an end to...and that is the David Heffren situation. You can do it. Please.

Philosophizing

2009-11-13T11:33:00.000-08:00

I would not consider myself a philosopher. Philosophy simply means "love of wisdom," and this semester I am taking this class. I have learned about a lot about different philosophers, but what sticks out to me is that all of them are known for one of their sayings. They all have some thought-provoking idea that puts them on the map. So I started to think...I am almost done with one semester of philosophy. I need my saying. I need a thought-provoking idea. I need something that will boost me to the top of 21st century philosophy.

But first I just want to share with you the most famous philosophers and their popular sayings.

Socrates is famous for, "Know thyself" and "The Unexamined life is not worth living!" Both of these are pretty good. Straight forward and true. Oh and by the way, Socrates often when around in the nude speaking. He was just so carried away in this thoughts that he would forget to dress himself.

Rene Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am." I guess this is pretty insightful because almost 400 years later, it is still being studied. But this comes from a guy who would habitually sleep-in until noon everyday. Then he would just lounge around and be lazy. When he finally had to start waking up in the morning (he started tutoring the Queen of Sweden), he got sick and died. Descartes was a pretty lazy dude. The way he came up with his famous line was by sitting in a Sauna! The guy just liked to think.

Another philosopher is Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He really isn't known for any popular proverb, but I just want to point out the ridiculous-ness of him. He is known for writing a book on child development titled Emile. However, this man never married, but he had tons and tons of illegitimate children. It was actually not uncommon when a baby was dropped off on the steps of the orphanage for the workers to say, "Looks like Rousseau is at it again." I just thinks its interesting that some much scholarship is given to a man who writes on raising children, but never wants to raise one himself.

Leibniz is a German philosophy who said that you need to have, "the best of all possible worlds." Sounds pleasant.

John Locke is known for his Tabula Rasa, "blank slate." Basically, a child is born with a completely blank slate in his or brain, and they learn through experiences imprinting on their minds.

The final philosopher is George Berkeley who said, "To be is to be perceived." This man is a Bishop of a church, but without meaning to he begins the notion of placing empiricism over rationalism. This leads to the view that the only knowledge possible is the knowledge of ourselves and our perceptions. There is no way of getting outside this. So here is a man, a Christian, who accidentally opens the door for criticism in the way the Bible is to be understood...not good.

All of these men are smart intelligent men. Some of them are lazy. Some of them prance around philosophizing in the nude. And still others innocently tear down the very thing they are trying to build up. So what can I provide to the world? Its really nothing on the scale of the men i mentioned above. I actually thought of this when I was in high school.

When you want to succeed, all you have succeeded to do is want.

Basically, if you want to succeed at something, go do it! Don't just want and yearn. You will never accomplish anything if you just think about it. If that is the case, you have actually only succeeded in thinking about doing something. You have to go out and do it!

Writing off Senioritis

2009-11-07T13:54:00.000-08:00

Senioritis is not a fun thing. I remember when I was just about to graduate from high school, and I had a bad case of senioritis. I didn't want to do my homework or even be at school. Everything seemed so pointless because I already knew what I was doing after high school. I had already made up my mind that I was going to attend Ozark Christian College, and totally "checked out" by the time November hit my senior year.

Here I sit four years later, the same time of year, but a different situation. Next year I am not going to another school. To be really honest, I have NO clue what I am doing after I graduate in May, and it scares the poop out of me. I could either do a year-long internship somewhere (preferably out West), or take a youth ministry with a church. I could also just be a bum at my parents' house, but I've already done that for 18 years of my life. Basically, I'm freaking out!!!!

To add to everything else, the church I attend just finished up a sermon series titled "The Vow." They went through four different vows every married couple should be committed to fulfilling. For instance, the first vow was "God is my #1 and my spouse is my #2." There were three other vows, but this one is probably the most important. Without fulfilling this vow, the rest of them won't fall in line. I say all of this to say that I am as single as it gets! Out of the four weeks of this sermon series, I have been called out by the 2 different preachers about being single. Just today, the preached was talking about how he was friends with his wife for a year before they started to date, and he proceeded to say, "That means there is hope for all of you...that includes you Charlie Landis!"

It was actually pretty funny, and I love and respect the guy who said it. But it really got me thinking. I am graduating in a little over a semester, and I am single. There is NOTHING wrong with being single; in fact, I respect people who graduate from Ozark single. However, some churches won't hire a young youth minister who is single. I was joking about this with one of my friends the other day, and he said I should pretend to have a girlfriend who lives in Europe or something so that a church will hire me. I really don't blame churches for being careful who they hire, because there have been those instances where a young minister has succumb to Satan's lies and deception with someone in his ministry. I guess what I am trying to say that there are a lot of open-ended options in my life.

We all conclude different parts of our lives. There is that time in your life when you are about 5-years-old and you are done being a baby and you go to Kindergarten. When you turn 11, you are finally potty-trained. After your 13th birthday, you are now a teenager. Your 18th birthday brings about a new sense of freedom. But what about my life now that I am almost done with College? Shouldn't it mean that I have reached full maturity because I have my life planned out? David Heffren in his blog www.dheffren.blogspot.com, says, "maturity is something more than seemingly having life figured out." He goes on to explain that true maturity is found in wisdom and the proper application of knowledge. My friend makes a good point: maturation does not equal figuration. I do not have my entire life figured out, designed, and planned out.

I am writing the conclusion to my collegiate career, but I have not even began to start writing the introduction to the next section in my life. So what? I do not know what I am doing when I graduate. I do not have a girlfriend. But all I can do is be prepared to start writing. I am going to have a pen in hand ready to write a new chapter in the life of Charlie Landis...and you never know...this chapter could include a hot chick.

Taking Off the Mask

2009-11-01T21:44:00.000-08:00

Halloween is officially over. Sad day. Growing up, Halloween was always one of my favorite times of the year. For one day, I didn't have to be Charlie Landis. I could be Count Dracula, Superman, and ,regrettably so, a woman. I finally had a good reason to wear my mom's dress out of the house.....please see the sarcasm. But I really did enjoy dressing up in a costume, not to mention the free candy. I have inherited a lot of things from dad: large calves, brown eyes, a receding hair line, and a sweet tooth. Now you can understand why Halloween was so dear to my heart growing up.

Someone once said, "Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional." This year I went back to my roots of my childhood...I wore a costume for Halloween! There were many suggestions on the table of what I should be, but I ended up on being Tweety bird.

This isn't one of my proudest moments. I didn't even win "Best Costume." As you can see, I had a big Tweety Bird headpiece that engulfed my entire head. It would get really hot in there, so I would take it off and put it back on. As I was doing so, it got me to start thinking about something profound (and you know that doesn't happen very often).

The Greek word for "hypocrite" in the New Testament is hupokrites. During the 1st Century, this was a term used for an actor in a play. These people would put on masks to show their role in the production. They would often play multiple parts in the play, so they would have to switch out masks in order to convey another character. This is where we get the meaning of this word today. A hypocrite is simply a person who pretends to have a virtuous character. Basically, this kind of person pretends to have it all together, when in actuality he doesn't.

Jesus rebuked the Pharisees in Matthew 23:27-28. He says,

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."

Wow! Jesus unloads on the "virtuous" people of His day. The Pharisees were men who strictly followed the Law given by God, and they sought after righteousness. However, Jesus calls them out and calls them graves! Some graves nowadays are pretty nice. If you go to the cemetery in Topeka, Kansas, there is a fairly good size building that pretty marble. It has designs on the side, and the overall appearance of the grave is beautiful. Jesus says, "Yea...you guys look pretty on the outside, but on the inside you are like rotting corpses!" Ouch!

My last post I talked about the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting I attended, and I came to the conclusion that we all need to understand that we all do not have it right. This post is just piggy-backing off of the same idea. I know i can come off as if i have everything together, but the truth is I don't. I struggle with temptation. I sin. I fall time and time again in the daily struggle of overcoming my selfishness and pride. So what do I do? I put on this mask. My mask has a pretty smile to cover up my mistakes and a halo on the top to distract from my imperfection.

But its time to take of my mask and live an honest life that depicts the real Charlie Landis. I'm not saying that now I need to just let everyone know that I am this horrible guy, but I need to start living up to what my mask is showing. I must try to live a virtuous life, so that one day I will not have a need for any dumb mask to cover up my mistakes and selfishness.

All I Need to Know I Learned from AA.

2009-10-28T19:02:00.000-07:00

Looking across the room, Jim looked like an average guy. Sure, his beard was a little untrimmed, and he was missing a couple of teeth. But Jim has a disease, and he isn’t afraid to admit it. As soon as he sat down, he exclaimed, “Hello. I’m Jim…and I’m an alcoholic.”

I attended an alcoholic anonymous group called “2nd Chance Group” to fulfill a requirement for my Crisis Counseling class. Before attending the meeting, I felt very tense and worried. I was not sure how they would accept my presence at their meeting. However, a man named Jim, the leader of the group, offered me his hand and a hot cup of coffee as soon as I had walked in the door. Soon, I had met almost the entire group before the meeting even began. The people in the group were very inviting and welcoming. It was very interesting to observe the members of the group interact with each other as they walked in the room. Everyone was greeted with a smile, hug, and a pat on the back. Even first time visitors, who were nervous and felt out of place, were welcomed the same. I would say that the overall atmosphere of the group was that of acceptance, love, and community.

There was a very large difference in age between the members of the group. There was an 87-year-old man who had been sober for over 40 years, a 49-year-old man who was drunk at the meeting, a 30-year-old man who used to be involved in church leadership and several women in their fifties. There were about 15 people in the entire group who were dealing with alcoholism.

Going to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting was a real eye-opener. It was amazing to see the acceptance and love found in the 2nd Chance AA group. Their willingness to come forward and admit that they have a disease that they cannot deal with by themselves was truly extraordinary. Sometimes in the church, people try to pretend that they are perfect Christians, and they ignore the fact that they are messed-up people in need of a Messiah. I think that is were AA gets it right. They know they need help, because they have a problem they can’t seem to shake.

The MESSiah came to enter into our MESSES and bring us hope and healing. To even suggest we aren't a mess really implies we have no need for a MESSiah, and you are slapping Jesus in the face and spitting on his sacrifice.

If Christians began to mimic Jim, as mentioned at the beginning, great things would happen. I think we all need to join with Jim in saying, “Hello. My name is _______…and I’m a sinner.”

Darn You, Kink in the Neck!

2009-10-20T16:45:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen a shooting star? If I had to guess, I bet 99.995% of people have seen one. Unfortunately, I am a part of that .005% that has never witnessed the awesomeness of a shooting star. This past Sunday the college group I am a part of had a bonfire where we ate some hotdogs and had a worship time around the fire. During the singing, I leaned back in my chair, and I just stared into the dark sky. As I continued to just gaze into the expanse of darkness, stars began to appear. One after another, they popped up. First they were dim, but over time they began to get brighter and brighter until it seemed like the entire night sky was stringed with constellations made from tiny beautiful balls of light.

It was awesome in its purest since of the definition. I don't know if you have ever taken the time to just sit back and look at the night sky, but I strongly encourage you to. If you live in the city, take a road trip 20 minutes outside the city. Park and lay down on the roof of your car and just stare at the sky on a cloudless night. It is truly indescribable. Sunday night after staring into the sky for about 5 minutes, it seemed like the stars were literally lowered enough that I could reach out and grab a cluster of them. I even found myself reaching out to try and grab one, but some girl started staring at me so I played it off like I was stretching.

When the girl finally quit staring at me, I went back to star gazing. While I was looking up in the sky, the guy doing worship started playing a song with the lyrics,

I want to know you, I want to hear your voice,
I want to know you more.
I want to touch you, I want to see your face,
I want to know you more.

When I was singing those words, I feld like God was answering my prayer right in front of me. I could see his artistic masterpiece, and in turn, I felt like I knew him better. It is really good to be reminded of God's creativity and his creation. I'll be the first to tell you that I am not an "outdoors man." I know that is contradictory to every book ever written about manliness, but I really enjoy the comforts of air conditioning and accessible toilet paper. But I really enjoyed seeing this side of God. It was beautiful.

Oh, and by the way, I never saw a shooting star that night. There were several of them, but everytime one shot across the sky I was trying to get the kink out of my neck from staring straight up in the sky. Bum deal if you ask me.

Jim the Golfer

2009-10-06T19:52:00.000-07:00

Today I went golfing with my good buddy Ryan Hicks, and he ended up beating me by one stroke! It came down to the last hole, and I totally blew it.

I love golfing, but at the same time I freakin' hate the sport! It is one of the most frustrating things to do in life. Think about it...you are trying to a hit a small white ball that is 1.6 inches in diameter into a small hole that is only about 4 inches wide. And you are doing this with a stick. From about 120 yards away, you are supposed to make this tiny ball fall into the small cup with a stick in just 3 shots!! I think this is Preposterous.....but I'll still pay an outrageous amount of money to play the sport.

About a month ago, I was golfing with my brother, Jim, at a place in Topeka. We started off playing with just the two of us, but around the fourth hole a forty-year-old man behind us asked if he could join us. He was quite a bit better than me and my brother, but we said if he was willing to put up with our poor play we would be glad to let him play with us. We came to find out his name was Jim as well and he too was a big Kansas Jayhawk fan.

After talking a lot about Jayhawk football and basketball and playing nine holes, my brother decdied to call it day. He had to get home and take care of some stuff, but I still wanted to play. So I asked Jim if it was okay if I joined him on the final 9 holes while my brother quit. He was fine with it, and chuckling he asked if we were going to play for money. Knowing he was way better at golf, I smartly declined.

We continued to play, and he continued to kick my butt (as you can tell, everyone beats me). I found out that Jim worked at the local casino. He also had a girlfriend with whom he had 2 children, and he planned on marrying her in the spring sometime. As we were nearing the end of the golf course, he opened up to me about his past relationships and how unhealthy they were. I felt the Holy Spirit urging me to talk to him about Christ and how much He loves him no matter where he had been. At first I just ignored the Spirit's tugging, but it began to grow stronger and stronger. But I never said a thing. All I could do was shake my head in acknowledgment of how crappy his life had been. A nod? Is that all I could offer Jim?

I totally wasted my chance to share the good news with Jim. Instead I apathetically took the easy way out and chose to ignore the Spirit's tugging.

Jim, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for basically spitting in your face and telling you that you weren't worthy my time or my pride. I was too afraid of what you would think of me if I brought up my Savior and my Lord. I want him to be your Lord too. I know I probably won't see you again, but if I run into you again on the golf course, I pray that I love you enough to tell you about my Jesus. I'm sorry Jim the golfer.

Am I being to harsh on myself? I don't think so. I shouldn't have wasted my opportunity to talk to Jim. Ephesians 5:15-16 says, "Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil." Who is your Jim?

Awkward.

2009-09-28T13:27:00.000-07:00

I am going to come right out and say it...no clever introduction, no joke, not even an illustration to try and prove my point.........I am an awkward guy.

For some reason, the word "awkward" has always been associated with me. I really haven't thought about it very much, but it is true. Awkward and Charlie go together like Cookies and Cream, like Doug Funny and Patty Mayonnaise, like Kansas City professional sport teams and losing. There is no escaping that I'm awkward. I just got a sermon back from my expository preaching class and what do you know...the letters "A-W-K-W-A-R-D" written out on the front page about one of my main points. I really don't like being an awkward guy, but i guess i can't escape it!

Ever since I can remember, awkwardness has followed me wherever I went. I'm sure there are many stories from my early childhood about me being awkward, but I have a terrible memory.

In middle school I was dating a girl named Amy Cortez. She was in the 8th grade; I was in the 7th grade....enough said. I would probably consider Amy my first "real" girlfriend, not that I had a bunch of imaginary girlfriends running around, but she was the first girl I liked. My 5th grade girlfriend, Candace Pahmamie, was more like a friend. I think the reason I asked her to be my girlfriend was because my best friend liked her, so I did what was noble....I asked her to by my lady via a note with a "check-yes-or-no-box." Back to Amy, I had not previously had a "real" girlfriend, so that means I have never hugged a girlfriend...simple logic. One day when school had just let out, I was standing by her locker and we were planning what we were going to do that Friday night, so we finally agreed to go to the cornmaze with some of her friends. As she was leaving, she leaned in the for the hug. We embraced, and I gave her three pats on her back. Quickly she moved away from me exclaiming, "Am I your grandpa or something? Do you not know how to hug a girl?!" Embarrassed I shrugged and told her I would see her that night.

When it was coming close to the time Amy was going to pick me up to go to the cornmaze, I decided to go down the hill to my friend Alex's house. Luckily, Jonathan was at his house too. You see, Jonathan was and still is a ladies man. Actually, he is A lady man...he is married to a Godly woman named Kylee. But the reason I went down to Alex's house was to learn how to hug before the cornmaze which would inevitably end up with a good-night-hug. As I was walking back up to my house, I finally worked up the nerve to ask Jonathan how to hug a girl. By this time it was dark outside, and we were standing in the middle of the street. He told me how to hug a girl (which is still a mystery to this day for me), and finally he told me practice with him. We embraced and right in the middle of our hug, a car pulls up the road with its lights shining right on us. We both sprinted in opposite directions embarrassed that it might have been someone we knew. Unfortunately, I don't remember if I ever hugged Amy that night, but I do know that it was awkward learning how to hug in the middle of the street.

Another awkward moment in my life was about a year ago...remember there are many awkward moments in my life. I dated a girl for a while. It started in my high school years and it bled into my college years. Well, we both thought it would probably be for the best if we were no longer together. I was sitting in her car, and we just got done talking about the break-up. We decided to have one last hug. As I went in the for the hug, I let the loudest and stinkiest fart rip right in the middle of our hug. That....was awkward!

Seeing how these two stories of my awkwardness are both related to hugging, I think it is necessary to bring up my philosophy on the awkwardness of all hugging. Did you know that there are 5 different possible options when hugging a person. Your arms can be either on top, on the bottom, diagonal (2 ways), or a side hug. Besides this, you both have to decide what position each of your arms are going to be in. And you can't ask this question..you both have to basically read the other person's mind in order to execute a perfect hug. I don't know...this might not make sense to anybody else. Hugging is just an awkward process.

Well I don't know if i will ever be able to escape the awkwardness that is Charlie Landis. I really hope I do because I don't know many ladies out there looking for an awkward guy.

Redemp(adop)tion

2009-09-23T12:43:00.000-07:00

I really haven't been writing much in my blog this semester...I'm not sure if it's because I don't have enough time to or if I don't really have anything to write about. Either way, my blog has been practically non-existent so I apologize!

This past weekend I went home for my church's annual golf tournament. My team consisted of a 70-year-old man (my step-grandfather), and two other 20-something-year-olds. When we finished our round of golf, our team was sitting at (-4). Basically, we were four strokes better than the average score of that golf course, and I was almost positive we were going win. Well, it ended up that the minister's team "won." He always seems to end up with the best players on his team......coincidence? I think not.

Besides play golf, I also had a chance to watch my little brother win his first football game of the season. For those of you who don't know me, I am always bragging about my brother, Sam. I practically live through him, but he is a really good guy and I love him to death! He is the starting middle linebacker for the school and is a beast on defense. He ended up with like 15 tackles, a forced fumble, and a sack! My parents and I watched the game together, and it was just great to spend time with my family. I love my family!!!

I just finished writing a sermon for my preaching class over a passage in Ephesians. In this passage, the Apostle Paul is talking about our Spiritual family. Ephesians 1:5 says, "In love He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will." A lot of people get all tangled up on the word predestined, but for this blog posts sake, I won't even begin a discussion on that. But the word that really jumped out at me was the term "adoption." When I was younger, I was never big on the whole adoption idea for a family. I told myself that I would have a family of all boys that had the same DNA as me cause thats how I roll. However, I totally realize how ignorant and stupid that sounds.

In light of Ephesians 1:5, Paul is writing to several churches in Asia Minor. In this area, and especially Ephesus, there was a custom among the people for families who did not want to keep their children. If a child was born to a family that was either unwanted or disabled or defected in someway, the parents could take the children outside of the city gates and leave them there to die. In Ephesus, the people would walk up the mountain right outside of the city and place these "defected" children in a certain spot (can be called the "Circle of Infants") where all these kinds of kids were to be left. The Ephesians knew where this spot was, and very often, people would go up to that spot on the mountain and "adopt" or take one of the children for themselves. Under Roman law, these adults were given full custody of the child. Unfortunately, more times than not, people would go up to pick up a girl to raise up so they could fill the brothels in Ephesus. Other times, infant boys were taken to be raised as slaves. Heck, why not? It was cheaper than paying for a slave. But there were those times, when a Godly person would choose a little kid who had been left and abandoned. These kids were "adopted" into their new loving family.

This is the exact same kind of adoption we find in Ephesians 1:5, "In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ." In the previous verse, Paul says that God, "chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless." The Greek word for "blameless" means to be without defect. God has chosen us who were defected to become blameless and holy! God has redeemed us from the so-called "circle of infants." Redemption is ours. We are God's adopted family. Because in the middle of redemption, you will find adoption.

Caked-up in Make-up

2009-09-07T18:08:00.001-07:00

Does anyone else think its interesting that we usually don't do any "labor" on Labor Day? I guess I did labor a little bit when i put coals in the grill, so my family could have our annual Labor Day cookout, but for the most part....I was Labor-free. My mom on the other hand didn't have to go into work today because it was Labor day, but she still labored over my laundry (I love my momma!)

This Labor Day weekend I went home to watch my little brother's high school football game and hang out with my parents. It was a great weekend! My little brother scored a touchdown, but he also separated his shoulder twice in the game so he will be out of football for a couple of weeks. Also, when I got home I found out that one of our neighbors had mysteriously left. A couple days before I got home, I guess a huge moving van and policemen were at her house making sure she left unharmed. My family was clueless as to what was happening, but we got a letter the next day in the mail detailing the situation.

Inside the letter contained 3 pictures of this lady. She had a cut underneath her eye running down to the corner of her mouth. Her bottom lip was swollen and was bruised black and purple. It appeared that her nose had been broken in several places, and blood was stained all over her white shirt. Besides the 3 pictures, a two-paged letter was included describing an incident that happened between her and her husband. The letter was addressed to her husband, and it was a "Good-Bye" letter. Strewn through the entire letter were four-letter-words, and her attempts at telling him how much she loved him. She was leaving him because he was a drunk. One night he came home drunk as usual and sat down in his recliner, and he began to get even more plastered. A fight broke out between them, and he ends up smashing her face with a vase.

As I read this letter, my heart broke. I couldn't put into words what my heart was feeling...I have had several days to think about the letter and the pictures and my neighbors. I still can't quite explain the feeling of brokenness I have for them. But to be perfectly honest, I didn't know them that well. I guess you could say my heart broke not just for my neighbors for all of those people in the world who are afflicted by the weight and crap of this world.

Going to school at Ozark Christian College, I am in a perfect-Christian-bubble. Everything is rainbows and butterflies. I'm getting ready to graduate in a year, and I think my view of the world has been distorted. Don't get me wrong...I know the world is messed up, but I haven't had something so disgusting and messed-up hit so close to me. My world is caked-up in make-up. Everything is so pretty, and there are no blemishes. But the world outside of my pretty little perfect bubble is not pretty. Its real. It is hurting.

This time next year I am not sure what I'll be doing, but I know that I will be in a world that isn't masked with Bible College Classes, small groups, youth groups, and 20 guys on a dorm floor that will do anything for me. I'll see the "real" world and what she really looks like. I just got a piece of it in a couple of pictures and a letter. I guess my purpose in writing this is just to ask you if your world is covered in make-up?

Shamoo's Splash

2009-08-10T15:13:00.000-07:00

Amazing! That is what I have to stay about my summer internship in Derby, Kansas. I love the kids in the youth group so much. It really hurts knowing that I won't be able to see them every week, and to be able to talk and laugh with them. I was so blessed to be able to learn under the youth minister, Nick Pannone, and the rest of the staff at First Christian.

While we were at CIY, I went back to my room one night and began to write what I was feeling. This blog is basically what I wrote that night.

Today was a great day! It was draining, yet a day of great celebration. This is the third day at the MOVE conference in Cleveland, Tennessee, and the Holy Spirit was moving in the Derby youth group. I say it was a draining day in that I had conversations with multiple people that just suck the lift out of you, but it was also a day to celebrate in that I was able to talk one-on-one with a student about baptism!

This internship has been one of the best things that has happened to me. I am so thankful to God for placing me in Derby, Kansas at First Christian Church on the corner of Market and Debry Street! The relationships I've built with students have been incredible, and the many ministry lessons I've learned are very valuable. Youth ministry is something that has become very important in my life. I see students who are slaves to sin and they don't even see it! Students' morals don't even come close to lining up with Scripture. And many kids think Acts is just a verb. They have no clue that it is a book in the New Testament. Its just a culmination of all these things that fuel the fire in my heart to lead students to Christ.

Tonight Jim Johnson spoke about how the Israelites were stuck beetween an army (the Egyptians) and a Sea. The Israelites were cornered and were hopeless with no way out. So what does Moses tell the Israelites to do? Be still and know that God will deliver them like he always does. Somewhere in the middle of his sermon, Jim was talking about how the cornerstone of everything God does is to show his Glory. He went on to explain that we often get in the mindset that God cares most about us and not himself or his Glory. But if he did care and love us more than Himself, that would be Idolatry on God's part and therefore making us God...not Him. Everything God does is to show his glory. Then Jim said this amazing quote,

"God is like Shamoo. He is playign and dancing in the universe,
and we have the joy of getting splashed."

Basically, God is doing all of this amazing stuff displaying how Great He is, and he graciously allows us to partner with him in showing his glory....we get splashed!

I can't thank God enough for blessing me with this internship and allowing me to parnter with him in sharing his glory to students in Derby! I can't wait to see how God splashes me next!

"I had them Ladies rollin'!"

2009-06-16T14:45:00.000-07:00

Vacation Bible School is here at First Christian Church in Derby! From 9 a.m. until noon, there are kids ranging from preschool to 5th graders roaming all over the church building making crafts, playing games, and learning awesome VBS songs.

Shonda, the children's minister, was so kind as to give me the job of heading up the game station. I like this for two reasons....first, I get to play games! Second, I get to meet and hang out with all of the kids. One particular kid cracks me up! His name is Austin, and he is a gangster in a little white boy's body. He is around 8-years-old and has blonde hair. The first day of VBS, Austin is the first kid in line at the game station, and he has a name tag on that says "AUSTIN" in all capital letters. So i say, "Hey Austin, are you excited for the game station?" He turns around to his friend and says excitedly with his eyes wide-open, "That dude knows my name!" I couldn't help but start laughing, but I gained my compsure and began to introduce myself and the rest of my game crew members. Then today as VBS was coming to a close, I asked him if he had a good day, and he said, "Man....I had them ladies rollin' today." He went on to explain that he was a funny guy who was good with the girls. And when he was leaving with his mom I said, "Goodbye Austin. I'll see you tomorrow." He then turns to his mom and says, "He knows my name!" I love kids!

So what did I learn today at VBS besides that everyone seems to be a ladies except for me? Children, no matter how much they test your patience, are honored and loved by God. Jesus tells adult men and women that unless you become like a child, you cannot enter the kingdom of God (Mt. 18). Kid are very dependent. Survival is dependent upon other people. Jesus is telling us that unless we become humble and depend on God like children depend on their moms and dads, we will never understand what kind of relationship we must have with God. We must depend on God for our strength to live in this dark world. We must depend on God to get through tough times. We must depend on God just to get through the monotonous daily routine of daily life.

So we must all be like Austin and have a life defined by dependency on God!

Don't Let Life Put You in a Corner

2009-06-06T20:36:00.000-07:00

Sometimes life just forces you into situations you don't want to be in........just playing! This blog has nothing to with life and nothing to do with a corner. "Don't let life put you in a corner" is just some cheesy line i heard at a middle school church camp this week from a hilarious video called "Edwin's Corner." Camp was awesome! Not only did i get to know the kids a lot better, but it was really cool to be reminded of God's grace.

There were a couple of kids that went to camp that I got to hang out with a lot. There was Chase, the ladies man, Luke, the hypochondriac, Austin Thrailkill, who just has an awesome last name, and many other kids.

I'm a pretty seasoned veteran when it comes to church camps. Last summer, I traveled to 7 different church camps in Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Ohio, and Indiana. I thought I had been through it all, but I hadn't! I think it was Tuesday Night about 12:30ish, and Austin Thrailkill (I am so jealous of his name...unfortunately, the kid really doesn't live up to his name) said he wasn't feeling well. He was on the top bunk bed and i was on the bottom bunk, so I tell him to go to the bathroom just in case he was going to throw up. I get up and start walking towards the bathroom in front of him when I hear "it" start traveling up his throat and into his mouth. I started running but by the time i got to the bathroom door to turn on the light for Austin, I felt some chunky substance all over my feet. It was NASTY! But luckily, Austin felt better afterward and went right back to sleep. Unfortunately, my towell got all disgusting from cleaning up and was thrown away.....moment of silence........okay moving on! So after Austin lays back down to bed, Luke, the hyperchondriac, wakes up and starts freaking out because another kid told him that Austin threw up. Luke then beliees he is going to throw up and says he is going to start getting hives. Remember, this is all going on about 1:00 in the morning. It was crazy!

The kid named Chase, the ladies man, also gave me some insight into camp but it had nothing to do with getting sick.....it was all about how to pick up the ladies! I asked him how he got all the girls to talk to him and he said, "Man, all you got to do is go up to them and tell them that you forgot how to spell a word and ask them to spell it for you. AFter that, you are in!" Needless to say, I didn't try that one out at camp becuase it was full of middle schoolers but watch out ladies...when school starts in the fall, I might mysteriously forget how to spell.

Looking back to last week and camp, I have nothing but good things to say about the middle school kids and more importantly, God. He is so faithful and patient with a people who do nothing but turn our backs on Him again and again. One of the worship songs we sung was the old hymn Amazing Grace. I have sang that song so many times that I cannot count, and sadly, I just sing it...I am not telling God.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.

Wow! I forgot what I was singing about...GRACE! I can't express how thankful I am for God forgiving me, a sinner! I hope that i never take for granted the grace God has graciously granted me.

Humble Acceptance

2009-05-27T18:56:00.000-07:00

So the last time i wrote in my blog....people had no clue what the Swine Flu was, and the Kansas City Royals were not below .500! Other things have changed since then too. I am living in Derby, Kansas for the summer for a youth internship at First Christian Church. I'm staying with an awesome family....Dan and Jessi Stang. They have a 11-year-old son named Ryan that cracks me up! He is one smart little dude, and he makes miniature Ferris wheels and picture frames out of duct tape....really cool kid.

I'm going to keep you guys updated throughout the summer about whats going on in my life and in my head. To be perfectly honest with you...I am really nervous about this summer! For those of you that hang out with me, you know I can be outgoing when i hang out with you guys, but it is a different story when it comes to big crowds of people i don't know. The youth group I'm helping out with has around 50 kids in middles school and about 50 in high school. I'm used to an entire youth group being about 30 kids! Its a little overwhelming.

Last night was the first time I was able to meet some of the kids. They had a middle school swim party at someone's house, and there were about 40 kids there. I found myself kind of shying away from some of the kids, and I didn't know why. As I thought about it some more, I came to the conclusion that i wasn't confident in myself and my ability to get to know them. Confidence is something i never had a problem with when I was younger, but now it seems like confidence is hard to come by nowadays. I hate that about myself and I want to change!

What was really weird about this whole situation was that I just read Matthew 3 where it talks about John the Baptist and how Jesus wanted to get baptized by him, but it says that John tried to "deter" Jesus from that happening. The Baptist thought he wasn't worthy enough to tie Jesus' sandals, let alone baptize him! However, he humbly accepts Jesus' request to baptize Him. Sometimes we make excuses to why we don't fulfill what God has planned for us. For instance, I know without a doubt that God wants me to work with youth and bring them into a saving relationship with Him, but I make excuses like, "I'm not cool enough," or "I'm not outgoing enough for kids to like me." I need to quit making excuses and humbly accept Jesus request like John the Baptist.

I guess my question to you is, "What excuses are you making that are stopping you from humbly accepting Jesus' request in your life?"

The Grave is the Beginning

2009-02-23T08:42:00.000-08:00

About a month ago, I was at baseball practice taking fly balls in the outfield, and I dove for a ball. Unfortunately, I rolled on top of my right wrist when I was diving, and I injured some ligament in my wrist. A few weeks went by and it was still bothering me, so I went to some doctor. He told me that I probably just sprained it, but there is a slight chance I tore it. If it was torn I was done playing baseball for the season!!!! He gave me some anti-inflammatory medicine which I finished that last dosage last Friday, and my wrist still hurts! So this is probably not a good sign for my baseball career. I really hope that it gets better because our first game is in one week from today. If I can't play I will be upset because I LOVE baseball, but that is not why I am here at Ozark. I will be content whatever my situation and continue to glorify God in my studies.

With all that sad stuff out of the way, its time for the good news.......or at least it should be.

Jesus has been crucified and has been laying dead in the tomb for about a day and half when we pick it up in Mark 16. We see three women walking to Jesus' tomb bringing spices for the body of Jesus, because by this time the body is rotting and beginning to smell. As I read this passage I began to ask myself, "What are these women thinking? How are they feeling?" People usually aren't really excited about death and the grave. For the most part, the grave represents the end of things. People try to do so many things before they die, because they cannot do them once they're dead!

The Apostles and the women probably thought the very same thing. The grave ended Jesus' ministry. They a good run at it. For three years they devoted themselves to this mans teachings and ways, but now that death has come into the picture, it is all lost. The plans they were hoping of restoration to God's people were no longer possible. But luckily God had something else in mind.......His plans were different.

Lets take a break from that story, and see what Jesus thought about death. In Luke 9:23 says, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." How did Jesus die? O ya, on a cross! Apparently, Jesus wants everyone who wants to follow him to die? Yes, in a "spiritual" sense. Now some of the Apostles literally did take up there cross and were killed, but for 21st century Christians it means self-denial, complete dedication and willing obedience to Christ. This type of death also scares people, because it does mean the end of our plans. We will no longer be able to fulfill our selfish pleasures and wants.

Back to Mark 16. The women and all the believers thought that plans of Jesus were over. His promises of a new life of love and peace went with him to the grave, but when the women arrived at the grave they found it empty! The Grave couldn't kill Jesus or God's plan. After Jesus meets with the Apostles post-crucifixion, he stays with them for forty days and then ascends to be with God. The church then explodes! Peter gives a sermon during Pentecost and about 3,00o people were added to their number that day (Acts 2). God's plan of salvation didn't die with Jesus' death on the cross. His plan actually just began.

Sometimes people believe that the grave is the end of our plans, but in reality the grave is the beginning of God's plans. When we die to ourselves and pick up our cross daily entering a "spiritual" grave, God can finally begin to use us to fulfill His will. So I plead with everyone....we must die to our selfish desires and wants, and die to ourselves so God can begin his plan for us.

Plastic

2009-02-14T09:24:00.001-08:00

Today is the day of love. Valentines Day is upon us, and is smacking every single person in the face. It seems to me that Valentines Day is being advertised more than ever. I don't know if it is because this is this first time in a long time I haven't had to celebrate it so I noticed it more, or our economy sucks and they want people to spend money. Whatever the reason, Valentines day is here.

This morning I went to the grocery store with my parents to buy some snacks for the KANSAS/kansas state basketball game. I used to work at this store, so I know a couple of people who still work there. As I was walking through the produce section, I saw a guy that has been working at the store for a long time. We used to talk a lot during our breaks, and he could always crack me up.

As he was putting the yogurt in their places on the shelf, he began to tell me what was going on in his life. He had divorced his wife a couple of years ago with whom he had a seven-year-old son. His wife accused him of child molestation, child pornography and many other cruel accusations. She ended up getting custody because of these insane lies, and he doesn't get to see his son that much anymore. This guy has recently been remarried with a woman who already has 3 daughters, and together they have a two-year-old son. To add on top of all of this crap, he never graduated college, so he doesn't have a degree where he can make good money. He is barely getting by with his pay from the store. According to him, his "life sucks."

When I walked away from this guy, it hit me. I am living in a fallen world. This fallen world has people who are blind and have nothing but letdown after letdown come into their lives. People are searching for some stability and purpose, but their search comes up empty. This world was created as a perfect place where man and God could live together in love. Unfortunately, sin entered the picture and things have not been right since.

I hate seeing people like my friend from the store hurting. This is REAL life. Going to Ozark Christian College, it is easy to get in the "Ozark Christian College Bubble." By this I mean, we don't see the pain and hurt that goes on in the world, because we are surrounded by other Christians who appear to have everything figured out. But I don't live in a plastic world where Barbi and Ken end up happily married for the rest of their lives. This is REAL life!

My friend who's "life sucks," needs someone to show him the light in a dark world. This light gives stability in the midst of instability. It gives hope to the hopeless, and it offers love where there is hate. I do not live in plastic world, but I do live in a world where REAL people are lost in the darkness.

Hurting

2009-01-30T11:14:00.000-08:00

The Spring Semester is in full swing! Three weeks have come and gone, and papers and tests have arrived. I have always enjoyed starting a new semester, because it gives you the opportunity to start things on the right foot. I always vow to be more studious than the previous semester, but for some reason I end up getting stuck in the root of mediocrity. You know? Just doing enough to get by. However, so far this semester I have been true to my vow about my studies. I am actually on top of all of my required reading and homework! This semester is looking good.

Not only are the academics on all four cylinders, but also the athletics. I play on the Ozark Baseball team, and we have been working out for the past three weeks. We run, lift weights, throw the ball around and hit in the cage. Sometimes it gets pretty depressing knowing that we still won't play a real game for another month, but all of our hard work will pay off when the season rolls around. Besides playing on the baseball team, I play on an intramural basketball team called the Gamophobes (the fear of marriage). We had our first game last night, and we played very good! WE won by 18 points, and we upset the #1 team which catapulted us to the top of the rankings.

But on a serious note, sports are not everything. They have always played a huge role in my life, but I do not live for sports. I am not attending Ozark so I can play sports. I am at OCC so I can better equip myself to lead teenagers to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Since high school, I have known that I wanted to go to Ozark, but I never really felt a strong passion for youth ministry. I guess I was just doing it, so I could have a plan for my life.

But this semester has really opened my heart and my eyes to what youth ministry is about. It is not an occupation but a mission. I am reading a book for my Counseling to Youth class called Hurt. This book takes a look inside the world of today's teenagers. Personally, I look around and I see kids who have no purpose. They try to find worth in friends, sex, and material objects. Their search never ends because nothing will satisfy them. I want to....I NEED to help the youth of America find that they do have purpose and love in their life. Even if they can't find it in their families or friends, Jesus has what they need. Teenagers need to know that they are loved by an all-powerful God who would do anything to have them in his family. He would even go so far as to kill his own son.

Before I felt like I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my life, but now God has instilled within me a passion for teenagers. I Hurt for the kids who have not met my Jesus, and I want to show Him to them. What are you hurting for?

The Great Romance

2009-01-12T12:45:00.000-08:00

I am like most people on this earth...Not only do I breathe oxygen and I poop, but I love movies! They are so entertaining. I like action-packed films, movies that have plots thickened with mystery, and the occasional happy-go-lucky movie that makes you want to smile and change the world. However, I will watch a chick-flick from time to time. I'll even squirt out a couple of tears to appease the females in the room. Then they can finally confirm their thoughts..."wow...Charlie really is a cool guy who appeals to his emotional side...I should date him."

But on a serious note, these "chick-flicks" are full of romance and love. Women love these stories of true romance when a man will fight to the end for his beloved, even if it costs him his life. There are other movies like "A Walk to Remember" that just shows a guy's pure motive for chasing after a girl...love. Why do girls like these types of movies, and dream that they too may one day find that type of love? Because the real world does a crappy job of displaying pure, selfless love.

The truth of the matter is that the Greatest Romantic story was not made in Hollywood, California but on a wooden cross 2,000 years ago. That is The Great Romance.

This break I read a book that outlined what The Great Romance looked like. It was a fictional story, but it really opened up my eyes to how great the love of our God is. He died for us, because we are not willing to die to ourselves. To be completely honest, I did get a little teary-eyed when I finished this book. I felt so stupid, because I believed that ONLY girls could like romance and love stories, and here I am blubbering over something called The Great Romance!

No one is too tough and manly to accept God's love. He is in love with everybody...even guys. It has just been kind of hard for me to acknowledge and accept this love because I seems so un-manly to be loved and romanticized. But God's love is the greatest love story on the earth, and I do accept it and cherish, and I hope you do the same.

O......and happy new year.

Stop Drinking Poison!

2008-12-30T21:14:00.000-08:00

Things I have learned this Christmas Break, so far:

1) There is no greater relationship a person can have on earth than that with family.

2) Santa Claus isn't real.

3) Young married couples are very hospitable, but very nauseating using terms of endearment for each other like "Big Daddy" and "Sexy Momma" in front of everyone. (I love you James!)

4) You know you are getting older when your best Christmas present isn't a toy. (depressing)

5) A dog really is a man's best friend. They are always by your side even though you've already fed them...unlike Satan's creation the cat.

6) Apparently, I am going to live in Topeka for the rest of my life. (I took a quiz at www.findyourspot.com...Its pretty fun, you should try it!)

7) Ted Dekker is an amazing author...read him!

8) Losing to your Mom in picking who wins the NCAA football bowl games is very humbling....and embarrassing.

9) Boredom is an ever-present enemy waiting to take hold of you!

10) God is very patient.

Now I will admit that most of these things are pretty shallow but a couple of them have some depth to them. For instance, number nine is very true and real! Boredom is the best word to describe my Christmas break. Basically my days consist of waking up, watching college football, and reading. Here and There I have gotten out of the house to play some basketball or hang out at someone's house, but mostly it is just being by myself at home.

I just looked up boredom in my Macmillan Dictionary for Children and it says that it is the condition of being tired or restless by being uninteresting and dull. Someone once said that "Boredom is the deadliest poison." I could not agree with this statement more. Having been gulping this poison down for about 2 weeks now, I realized it is my own fault. How can I become "tired or restless" with this life God has given me. Of course there will be moments when we feel bored with things in this life, but we should NEVER be bored with our God-given lives. How can something as beautiful as life be considered "uninteresting and dull?" If we are dying from boredom, it is our own fault. There are many things we can do to make our lives full of purpose and anti-boredom. Instead of trying to entertain ourselves, we should strive to entertain others. This can come in many forms, but i think the best thing we can do is just to give other people our attention and focus by listening and talking to them. If we are bored with our own lives, then why not take the focus off of our own lives and try to dive into someone else's life? It sounds like a great cure to boredom to me, so lets stop drinking that deadly poison called boredom and live life!

Falling Bricks

2008-12-22T19:46:00.000-08:00

Wow! I am hurting big time. I just got home from playing basketball at the church, and my knees are killing me! I had ACL surgery on my left knee about four years, but instead of fixing my ACL I think they just replaced my entire knee with one from a seventy-year-old. However, I can't blame my poor shooting tonight on my knee...that blame will go to the slippery gym floor. You could say i threw up a couple of "bricks." (I think thats gangster for a bad shot, but I will ask Jim later)

In life there are people you love, people you hate, and people you just put up with because you have to. Open Gym for Basketball at my church brings in a plethora of people. There are fifty-year-old man and there are teenagers. There are preachers and there are people who just got out of prison. There are Black people and White people. There are people easy to love and there are people how make it hard for you to like them. All of these people come together every Monday at Town and Country Christian Church to play basketball.

There are two particular people that play basketball who would be in the "people who make it hard for you to like them" category. All they do is whine about how they always get fouled, but they never foul anyone. Every time they get the ball, they either shoot it, or they drive to the basketball screaming "FOUL!" as they are going up to shoot. Tonight was particularly bad and annoying for these two guys. I finally had enough and whispered to a guy who used to be an elder, "I really don't like these guys." He replied with a quick, "Yea, me neither." As I walked to the other end of the court, it hit me like God had dropped a brick out of heaven to hit me right on my ignorant big head. These guys don't know Christ, and they are going to hell if they don't know Jesus. Open Gym on Monday night is not for me to come work on my jump shot and run up and down the court. It is a ministry to get them in the church, and then to bring them to Christ somehow.

Ironically, earlier today before basketball I went to lunch with David, Jim and one of my friends from K-State Rachel. We went to Subway, and all of us men got a 5 Dollar Foot long (I love those commercials)! Rachel wussed out and got a 6 inch, but I'm not holding that against her. Anyways, we sat in Subway for about 40 more minutes discussing discipleship and evangelism. It was an awesome conversation and great encouragement. Someone brought up the point that it isn't right how some people evangelize. Some people come off as door-to-door salesman trying to "sell" Jesus. Their motives are selfish and ignorant. They try to bring people to Christ because they feel like if they don't, God will strike them down with leprosy or something. We all came to the conclusion that loving God and loving people should be the only reason we try to evangelize. If we are not loving people, we become salespeople who try to sell a Savior.

How come I had a great discussion with my friends about loving people and bringing them to Christ, and then turn around six hours later talk about how I hate two guys who might be going to Hell because I am too lazy and apathetic to show them Jesus? I have no clue, but I am thankful that God had a brick handy to wake me up from my stupidity.

Hope Not Fatalism

2008-12-17T19:22:00.000-08:00

I love my brothers! I can't think of anything better in life than staying up until one in the morning laughing, talking, and dancing with Jim and Sam. I don't know what I would do without them here. I would probably go crazy from boredom, and I would just end up hanging out with David all the time...So I just wanted to let you know how thankful I am for my bros!

Lately, I have been reading a book by Ted Dekker called Blink. It is a very good fiction book that intertwines the life of a Saudi Princess and a genius named Seth Border. I don't want to give too much of the book away because I recommend that you read it, but something from the book has really stuck out to me. The plot deals a lot with the future and the character's choices to change the future.

This idea of changing our future made me start thinking about how some people have a fatalistic view of their future. They believe that no matter what they do, their future is set in stone. I, for one, was once guilty of this way of thought. When I was younger I remember settling into the belief that I was a sinner and there was no changing it. I knew that a guy named Jesus with a last name Christ died for me and my sins, but I thought to myself, "Hey, I am a sinner and will always be a sinner. I shouldn't have to change anything because there is no use." O, how ignorant I was!

The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 5:17, " Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation the old has gone, the new has come!" God is love, and love does not force the issue of love. Therefore, God does not force us to love him. He gives us a choice. We have a choice to love God and become a new creation. If we choose God, our outlook on the future changes. We are no longer stuck in a cemented future mixed with agony and death.

So, can the future change with the choices made by an individual? Yes! So I encourage you to choose to become a new creation in Christ, and your future will be full of hope not fatalism.

Hindsight Only Favors Good Vision

2008-12-07T18:06:00.000-08:00

Its that time of the year! Everyone is happy and excited about the Christmas season. People are buying gifts for their loved ones, and humming their favorite Christmas songs as they walk from class to class. Overall, its a very joyous time for people!

I want to be completely honest with you guys. It really hasn't been all that joyous for me lately. For those of you that know me best, I haven't been myself. I have been thinking about a lot of things, and I guess I just don't know how to express them. Confusion would probably best describe what I am thinking. I thought I had my whole life planned out. Everything I thought was going to happen is not going to happen. Things are going to be different.

Today, I was coming back from church with my two favorite people, David and Jim, and we were talking about what we were going to do this Winter Break. When asked if we were going to do something in particular, David laughingly quoted James 4 when he writes,

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."

This got me thinking about what I have been doing lately. I have basically told God, okay this is what I am doing and when I am going to do it. Fortunately, God decided to shake up my life and plans. I am hurting now, because I decided to follow my own plans without pursuing his will.

The Classic Crime has a song that says, "Hindsight only favors good vision." I have had many people tell me that things are going to get better, but they are not in my spot. However, it is hard for me to see things getting better anytime soon...I don't have good vision right now.

Good vision is God's vision. Things ARE going to get better, if i pursue God's will for my life. I am trying to get better at this, and I am thankful for God's reminder. Through this rough time in my life, I am striving to come out with God's vision, not my own.

Would Jesus be a Christian?

2008-11-26T00:12:00.000-08:00

Tonight was a pretty good night. I went to a KU basketball game in Kansas City, but they lost to Syracuse. Even though the Hawks didn't come up with the win, it was a great experience. There were a couple of drunk guys who got beat up by some cops. Another guy bought a $10 hot dog, and my little brother spent about 75% of the game staring at his cell phone texting random people, probably girls. Overall, the night was awesome. The atmosphere of 16,000 fans screaming and cheering for their respective teams is amazing and indescribable!

As I was laying in bed reading Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller, a thought crossed my mind. It was more like a question than a thought, "Would Jesus be a Christian?" I know this questions is redundant, "Would Jesus follow Jesus?" But i think it is a question that needs to be addressed.

First, the term "Christian" should be defined. A Christian literally means a follower of Christ. There are great mature Christ-followers that i know. There are people like Robin Sigars, Bill Westling and Dave Kiger who i respect tremendously for their relationships with Christ. Unfortunately, there are people on the other side of the spectrum who have no business calling themselves Christians. I am not one to judge, and I am far from having a mature healthy relationship with Christ. But today in general most Christians in America can be categorized as nominal. They do not live out their faith. They are self-absorbed and live to please themselves. So how would most Americans define "Christian?" They see Christians as people who are normal people who live like everyone else, but they have religion in order to make their consciouses feel better.

So with this definition of "Christian", would Jesus be a Christian? NO WAY! Jesus did not teach self-absorption but self-abnegation, not selfishness but selflessness. So what can we do to change the definition so Christ would want to be part of his own following? I believe John the Baptist said it best, "He must become greater; I must become less." Before we can become selfless, we must first realize our lives do not belong to us. God has given us life, so we have no reason to go through life looking out for ourselves but for others. If God was human.....wait he was 2,000 years ago, and what was his life devoted to? It was devoted to helping others. Jesus became less in order for God to become great. So what kind of Christianity would Jesus belong? Christianity where selfishness does not exist, but true devotion to others.

Friends Will Never Leaf You Alone

2008-11-19T14:26:00.001-08:00

Have you ever said yes to something without knowing completely what you are getting yourself into? Usually this doesn't happen to me, but yesterday was an exception. It started plainly enough. I got up early, so I could eat some bacon and eggs before my 7 o'clock class. As I walked through the breakfast line, the lady serving the eggs said that she had heard that i was looking to rake some leaves (the day before, I had asked Laverna, another cafe lady, if she needed her yard raked. I was looking for a service project my 8th grade guys small group could do, but she said she didn't have many leaves in her yard). With hesitation, I shook my head yes, and by the end of the conversation I had made a date to rake her yard that afternoon. Unfortunately, most of the guys in my small group wrestle for the school, so they couldn't help me...I was all by myself!

Later, I asked a couple of my friends if they could help, but they couldn't because they had too much homework to do. Then I thought to myself, I'll ask Blake Park...he is a hard worker and we are pretty close. Luckily, he said yes and by 2:15 we were on our way to 2611 S Oliver to rake this lady's yard. In my conversation with her that morning, she said her yard was kind of big, but nothing that a small group of guys couldn't handle. Blake and I pulled into her drive way and saw barely any leaves! We thought it was going to be a piece of cake, but we hadn't seen the back yard! As she took us around the house to the backyard, our eyes opened wide with fear of what laid before us: Several hundred square yards of leaves! To make matters worse, the rakes we were going to use were from the civil war era, my rake ended up giving me several splinters.

Blake and I looked at each other without saying a word and got to work. About twenty minutes later, I said, "Blake...my bad! I had no idea." He just shook his head with a smile and started raking again.

(The yard went past the shed.)

Blake is just one person I am grateful to have in my life. There are many others, and I thank God for those people he has placed in my life. These people build me up, and knock me down when I need it. They laugh with me and laugh at me, but no matter what...I know they love me. True friends will be by your side in the tough times. They will be there in the joyous times. But best of all, they will be there for you when you get into something that is way to big for you to handle all by yourself...like raking leaves!

Cutting in the Milk Line

2008-11-16T18:42:00.000-08:00

School is beginning to wind down, and the school work is starting to slow down as well. I have four projects due Tuesday and Wednesday, but it will be smooth sailing after I turn those in for my classes.

Today I was getting some cereal in the cafe for dinner. I tried some cinnamon granola cereal which was surprisingly good and filling. As I went to pour some milk into my bowl, I realized I had cut right in front of somebody. Apologetically, I prompted her to go before me. She poured some milk into her glass, and as she walked away she said, "Thank you for acknowledging me." That statement blew me away.

As life gets tough and busy, it is really easy to focus on ourselves. School work piles up, and we start focusing on our tasks and our wants. We tend to block everyone else out. This evening with the girl i cut in front of, this truth hit me smack in the face. I have been told that I am really selfish, and there is no way getting around truth. But I want to be able to notice people in this world that never get anyone's attention. Jesus was great at this. He would often reach out to the outcasts, even if people judged him. For example, Jesus called a tax collector to become his disciple. Levi, the tax collector, was looked down upon by the Jewish people. He was not only a liar and a cheat (tax collectors often charged people more for taxes so they could pocket some of the money), but he was considered a traitor working for the Roman Empire. However, Jesus noticed Levi and brought him under his wing.

This world is a fast paced place where people can get lost in all the commotion. I urge you to take time and stop looking out for yourselves and realize people who are lost and lonely, because there are people who never receive love or attention.

Paul and Socialism

2008-11-10T13:12:00.000-08:00

A couple days ago I posted a blog concerning the Christian community. I came to the conclusion that we are supposed to love everyone in order for real community to take place. Well, I was just doing some research for a paper in my 1 & 2 Thessalonians class, and my topic deals with idleness among Christians. Paul writes,

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."

I have always been opposed to the idea of stealing money from the wealthy and giving to the poor. I know Robin Hood's motives were good, but in today's society, I have felt like people get what they deserve. If they don't have money, it is because they don't work hard enough. When I first read this passage in 2 Thessalonians 3, I felt like my viewpoint was correct, but i started looking at what Paul is actually saying, and I have come to a conclusion...I have been wrong all these years!

Earlier in his letter, Paul taught the Thessalonians to be generous with those who have need. He didn't require them to sell their houses and lands (as in Acts 4), but he did require the church to be committed to sharing with those who needed help. Each member should work at whatever occupation they could, so as to contribute to the welfare of all; and all should care for each...Does this sound like something to you? It did to me! SOCIALISM!! AHHH! Everyone is scared to death right now, because they believe Obama is trying push socialism into the American economy, but is really that bad? Paul seemed to be a fan of everyone contributing to the needs of the community.

Is this a bad thing? Not at all! The early church was committed to working for the community. In a perfect world, socialism would be great. Unfortunately, there are people like Paul talks about in 2 Thessalonians. These people are do nothing, and they feed off of the generosity of other people. In today's context, there are many people in the United States who cannot afford health insurance, because they honestly have no way of paying for it. For instance, Jayne told me the other day of a mom who had three kids. She works a couple of jobs, but still does not have the funds to pay for medical insurance. What would happen to her in the first century church? Believers would help pay for her insurance, so her children do not die from a sickness that easily could be cured through antibiotics.

Ashamedly, I have been a fan of not giving free health insurance to people, because it might mean i won't be able to go to Taco Bell three times a week or buy those new pair of shoes for myself. I also thought that a lot of people would take advantage of the system, and this will happen no matter what as Paul talks about in 2 Thessalonians 2:6-15. But is it not better to help the majority of people who honestly need help, than to not give them support so that the small minority of "do-nothingers" will not take advantage of the generosity?

What I guess I am trying to say is that Paul promotes the welfare of the community before promoting personal gain. Socialism would work in an utopia, but we do not live in a perfect place. When Christ died on the Cross, he knew people would take advantage of his grace, but he still died. So we too must die to ourselves fully knowing people will take advantage of us.

Community is spelled L-O-V-E

2008-11-08T10:23:00.000-08:00

Today is Saturday, and you know what that means....COLLEGE FOOTBALL. Today I am rockin' the Faux Hawk for the Jayhawks. Their football game isn't on TV today. It is only on pay-per-view, so me and and a couple guys are going over to a Doctor's house to watch it on a Big-Screen TV! Prediction for the game: Jayhawks 35, Nebraska 24.

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to preach at my home congregation in Topeka, Kansas. It was a great experience. The best thing about the whole situation was not that I made it through the entire sermon without peeing my pants or running off stage from embarrassment, but it was the encouragement and support that people were giving me.

For example, minutes before I was to go on stage, Bill Westling put his hand on my shoulder and prayed for me. Bill is one of the greatest Christian men I have in my life. His example and the heart he has for Jesus really shows me what a man of God looks like. Bill was my Junior High Sunday School teacher, and will always be my friend.

The night before my sermon, I received a text message from Josh Reed, a friend from school. He simply wrote, "throw down tomorrow Chuck." Just to know that people were thinking about me made me realize how many people care about me. Josh is a great guy, and I know he will do awesome things in ministry, because he has a heart for people.

There were many other people supporting me through the entire situation. Jayne sat through my sermon a couple times as I practiced it in the Sanctuary Saturday afternoon. She also came to both services, so I would always have someone by my side when I got off stage. I love her, and I am so excited to see her heart for lost people, especially for teenage girls. She is a blessing, and I am thankful for God placing her in my life.

I tell you all of this to say that I am amazed when Christ's Body functions as it is supposed to. The Christian community is supposed to establish an environment where love and care thrive. In Acts 4, we find the early church sharing everything they had so that there were no needy persons among them. From the very beginning, the foundation of the Christian community was love. They loved each other through their generosity, and the people I talked about earlier loved me through caring and encouragement. My question to you is...How are you loving Christ's body?

Being a Patient of Patience

2008-11-05T19:28:00.001-08:00

I wrote this a year and a half ago at a church camp. I was a counselor for the 5th and 6th grade week of camp, and I wrote this early one morning.

Patience...something I have not really had to deal with in my life. Sometime I have trouble being patient with people or objects, but for the most part I can be patient. Lately, patience is something I have been lacking. Here at 5th and 6th grade camp, I have met some great kids! CJ loves God and wants everyone around him to feel good about themselves. Just yesterday a couple of kids, including CJ, and I were playing Slap Jack. The game ended with one boy never slapping a Jack, and I didn't think much of it. As everyone walked away from the table, the little boy stayed in his seat with his head down. CJ noticed he was upset so he took the deck of Cards and found a Jack. He flipped the Jack over on the table, and said, "Here! Here! Its a Jack!" The boy raised his head with a huge grin on his face, and he slapped the Jack as hard as he could.
There are many other kids like that here at Camp Solomon. It is the other types of kids that push my patience. Everything was fine until Tuesday morning. I woke up about an hour before the kids so I could take a hot shower. All of the kids had taken a shower the night before, so I had plenty of time and HOT water! As I walked to the bathroom, I saw a sign on the entrance of the men's restroom that read, "NO SHOWERS TODAY." I couldn't believe it, and I went to go see the man in charge of the camp grounds. He told me that a water line had busted so their 500 gallon tank of water that supplied the camp was empty. That lovely piece of information did not make me very happy to say the least! I was ried, sticky from sweat a day old, and now they have the nerve to tell me I can't take a shower?! AAHHH! My patience was beginning to thin. To make matters worse, I forgot to bring my phone charger, and my phone had just died.
So back to the word I started out with...Patience. It is something I will need in the future for sure, But I wished I had it now. Ironic? Its very funny becuase i want something so bad but I'm not trying to make myself learn patience by just wanting it. This is a good saying, "If you want to learn something, all you have really done is learned to want." If i want to receive patience, I need to practice everyday...even if it means I have to go two days without a shower!

Its been a while since I have written this, but I still struggle with patience. Patience is a lifelong process that I'm trying to achieve. I need to be more patient with my fellow man, because God is every so patient with me.