Wisdom from Bob Dylan

I love this song more and more the older I get. 
May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung
May you stay forever young.

Such a great prayer for future generations. Working with youth and college students now for more than a decade has taught me that young people have a way of looking at faith that can be a model for those of us who are older, usually in age and faith. They remind us to trust God in all circumstances and to totally rely on him. Sometimes as adults that can be a challenge because we rationalize and categorize our faith in so many different ways that we emasculate it to warming a pew and perhaps a Sunday school chair on Sunday mornings and nothing else.

My prayer for the students I work with now and the ones I have known through the years is that they would stay "forever young" in Christ...keeping that absolute trust and faith in Christ no matter what happens.

New School Year

Towards the end of the summer I was ready for school to start partly because my girls needed the structure and partly because that means that the students I work with are back into their routines and thus I see them more regularly at church. Well school is only 2 weeks into the year and I am worn slap out! This whole being a responsible parent and getting your kids to bed at a decent hour, up, dressed for school, hopefully with their teeth brushed and breakfast is insane! I don't remember it being this difficult when I was going to school! I don't even remember it being this difficult when Cyd and I were in seminary and both had to be up, dressed decently, fed, homework finished and pulling out of the driveway by 6:45 for our hour commute to campus. Call me crazy but I am already ready for summer to be here.

On the other hand, the girls have loved school, although getting up in the morning is not their favorite thing. They do move quicker when bribed with Chick-fil-A! I'm sure that part of the weariness so far for me has been the hectic schedule at work the last few weeks.

We have shown our house to potential buyers twice this week, so that's another positive about school starting.

Pubs?! Dying?! Church?! Dying?!

I came across two thoughts from very different thinkers on pubs...that's right pubs (as in the English version of your local neighborhood watering hole, bar, etc.).
James Emery White offered some interesting thoughts, penned in the pub he mentions no less.
Walter B. Shurden, Minister at Large, Mercer University included some comments about this article on the death of pubs in The Economist, in his most recent edition of his preaching journal. To the article's comments Shurden added, What a definition of the church:"The preserve of a flower arranging few." God help us! What a definition of a pub: "the beating heart of a community."

Oh, that the church would cease to be the preservative of life and ministry of years gone by and increasingly become a place of community that finds it's center in the Christ event of Good Friday and Easter Sunday!

What is God's Will?

That is an age old question for many people. Men, women, boys, and girls are all asking, "What does God want me to do with my life?" What am I supposed choose for a career? Who am I supposed to marry? Should I change jobs to spend more time with my family even though it means less income? Where does God want me to go to college? Who am I supposed to date?

The great question is what is God's will or purpose for my life?

After working with teenagers since I was a teenager myself (roughly 13 or so years) I can't count how many times I have heard this question or some variation of it.

In reading John Stott's The Radical Disciple, says "Christlikeness is the purpose of God for the people of God" (31). No matter our station in life, our career, our relationship status, our achievements...no matter what we do, where we go, our purpose in life as Christians is ALWAYS Christlikeness!

To Love and Be Loved

I had a conversation this week, with someone I consider to be a friend although life finds us at vastly different stages of our faith and life journey. As he was sharing his thoughts about a few things he remarked that we (humans) have this innate desire to be loved and to love. Jesus reminded the religious expert what the sum of all existence was in Luke 10, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.  And love your neighbor as yourself." Mark Heard, a pioneer in Christian music said, "All she ever wanted was to love and be loved."

How are you and I doing with these two things in our individual lives? What about our churches? What about our small groups/Sunday school classes? What about in our marriages and our families?

Perhaps when we realize that the greatest thing we can experience in life is God's rapturous divine love, expressed most clearly in the cross and the empty tomb can we begin to live life as God intends for us to. To love our God and to love others...deeply!

Losing a Friend

This week I learned that a dear friend in Alabama passed away. Todd Chambers was the dad to two of my students at the church I served while Cyd and I were in seminary at Beeson. The Chambers family quickly became close to our hearts, partly because Todd was the College and Career Sunday school teacher, which was the class that we went to if we weren't teaching ourselves.

There are many things I remember about Todd...he loved to ride motorcycles, in fact he and Renee would go on weekend trips together just riding on their Harley-Davidson. Todd worked for Alabama Power, which meant he often got called out when there was severe weather in the area. I also remember his quiet, gentle style of leadership. He was an incredibly humble person, who always thought of others, especially his family and church family before he thought about himself. Todd was a gifted teacher, though he never really thought that himself. There are few teachers that I have sat under in Sunday school class that have made a significant impact on my life, but Todd Chambers was one of them. He wasn't flashy, but he studied, prayed, and prepared like he was speaking to 90,000 people at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa. He was faithful to scripture and faithful to life. He didn't always know the answers to all of life's questions (and in my experience anyone who does is usually fooling themselves and others)but he genuinely believed that those answers could be found in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

One of the things about Todd's life that impacted me the most wasn't any of the things mentioned above...rather it was a deep love and affection for his wife, Renee and their two girls. Todd was a great source of wisdom for me in my own marriage and as I began those early days of fatherhood. The model that he set for others was truly a testimony to how he had grasped God's love for him and the necessity to pour that same love out into the lives of the people around him.

Cyd and I wanted desperately to try to make it back to Clanton for Todd's funeral but we just couldn't make our schedule and the girls schedule work. In fact, the Chambers were among the last people we spent time with at our home in Alabama before we moved to Statesboro. We still have pictures of all of us sitting around talking and playing with Claire in our den that pop up on the computer from time to time when the screen saver comes on the monitor. My mind has been utterly preoccupied with his family the past few days... I hurt for them and with them. Todd was a man who touched many, many lives for the sake of the Kingdom!

Todd, thank you for your friendship, your encouragement, and your example of a godly life, a godly husband, and a godly friend. You will be missed!

Church and Culture Blog

One of the blogs that I get email updates from is James Emery White's, Church and Culture. It is a great site that offers great commentary and stimulating thoughts about life, faith, and culture. As long as I can remember, I have been drawn to the dialogue of the intersection of faith and culture, so I am always looking for pastors, authors, musicians, and theologians who help illuminate the discussion. The most recent entry is worth checking out for any Christian who wants to be serious about taking the gospel to the world around them.

You Don't Have to Live Like a Refugee

Tom Petty
Refugee
Listen, it don't really matter to me
Baby, you believe what you wanna believe
You see, you don't have to live like a refugee

Somewhere, somehow, somebody must have
Kicked you around some
Tell me why you wanna lay there,
Revel in your abandon

Honey, it don't make no difference to me
Baby, everybody's had to fight to be free
You see, you don't have to live like a refugee
No baby, you don't have to live like a refugee

Tom Petty has always captured my attention with his barely whispered, gritty vocals and devil may care attitude. I was listening to one of his discs recently and this song stuck in my head for a few days. I couldn't move past the fact that as humans we choose to live like refugees when we live alienated from God and keep him at arms length. The good news of the gospel is a reminder that we don't have to revel in our brokenness and our sense of abandonment when the world casts us aside...truly we have the greatest hope, the greatest love, the deepest awareness of grace in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are declared righteous in God's sight no longer bound to flounder in chains of sin and death but liberated to live in community with God and his people.

Listening for God

Exodus 3 (The Message)

Exodus 3
1-2 Moses was shepherding the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the west end of the wilderness and came to the mountain of God, Horeb. The angel of God appeared to him in flames of fire blazing out of the middle of a bush. He looked. The bush was blazing away but it didn't burn up.

3 Moses said, "What's going on here? I can't believe this! Amazing! Why doesn't the bush burn up?"

4 God saw that he had stopped to look. God called to him from out of the bush, "Moses! Moses!"

He said, "Yes? I'm right here!"

5 God said, "Don't come any closer. Remove your sandals from your feet. You're standing on holy ground."

6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father: The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob."

Moses hid his face, afraid to look at God.

What was your burning bush encounter with God like?

Hell on Earth

I'm still working my way through No Man is an Island by Thomas Merton and this week I came across two selections that have been gnawing on me. My previous post dealt with the business that is life lately for us.

There are times, then, when in order to keep ourselves in existence at all we simply have to sit back for a while and do nothing. And for a man who has let himself be drawn completely out of himself by his activity, nothing is more difficult than to sit still and rest, doing nothing at all. The very act of resting is the hardest and most courageous act he can perform: and often it is quite beyond his power. (166)

Jesus established a pattern of regular periods of rest for himself. A pattern that is necessary for anyone to truly be human...in the fullest since of the word. I find in my own life that regular periods of NOT doing, what the Bible calls Sabbath rest are necessary for me to be the Christian, husband, father, friend, and minister that I am supposed to be.

The Eagles have a song that says "I was thinking to myself, this could be heaven or this could be hell." What I have been reminded of is that if I don't take time to simply BE rather than DO then I cheat myself and God out of my best. In addition to that I create my own prison in which I feel the need to do stuff all the time based on pressure to constantly look busy and feel busy and a drive for productivity. What I really need to do is break that cycle and find contentment in periods of non-doing.

Merton also had this to say, "Music is pleasing not only because of the sound but because of the silence that is in it: without the alternation of sound and silence there would be no rhythm. If we strive to be happy by filling all the silences of life with sound, productive by turning all life's leisure into work, and real by turning all our being into doing, we will only succeed in producing a hell on earth" (171).

Are you helping to create heaven on earth or hell on earth?

May You Be Filled With Joy

Colossians 1:9-14 (New Living Translation)

So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.
We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

I read this passage about a week ago and was reminded of a couple of things:

• I need God's strength and power so that I can have patience and endurance
• I long for my life to always be filled with joy, which it usually is
• I was once a slave to sin and the powers of darkness but now I am set free by the power of the cross
• I always want to grow and push others around me to grow
• No matter what we go through or experience God is always with us and at work in our lives as Christians

The interesting thing is that I have had literally countless conversations and/or encounters this week with people and this passage would pop into my mind. It's almost as if God has made this my prayer for people this week...I can't seem to move past the thoughts that Paul has in mind here. I can't believe how God breaks through the ordinary and mundane of our lives to give us a glimpse of his goodness and glory!

Marriage and Parenting Conference

First Baptist Church Statesboro hosted their first Marriage and Parenting Conference this weekend with Jerry and Bayne Pounds, professors at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. It was a great weekend for Cyd and I to get to know other couples better, learn how to improve our parenting skills, and work on our relationship with each other. We were truly challenged and blessed by this weekend! We topped the weekend off with dinner at Vandy's BBQ, a Statesboro tradition!

Help! My Little Girl Started Kindergarten!

I can't believe that Claire started kindergarten this week! She is at a great school with a great teacher, but I still can't believe my little girl is old enough to do the whole real school thing. It scares me to death to think about how she will grow and change over the next 13 years...and thrills my heart at the same time. She has been so excited to start school all summer! The kicker was that she got a stomach bug and had to miss two days of school the first week! The bad thing about this is Monday will be like starting over for her. I pray that God will continue to grow and develop her into the woman he has created her to become!

Johnny Cash: An American Icon

While we were visiting my parents last week, I stumbled upon a of biographical/documentary of Johnny Cash, so Dad and I were in a trance for about 2 hours! As I watched the film, I was reminded of the endearing nature of Johnny Cash to much of pop culture in America. The reality is that Cash was in many ways the proto-type version of rebels for decades to come, yet his life was as integrated with faith as his music. He oscillated between the sacred and the profane like many of the people who followed his trailblazing path in country music. Indeed, American music (Blues, Country, folk) capture the contrast of light and dark, good and evil better than any other type of art form!

Cash was influential and well respected to say the least, but the thing that owned his life was a recognition of his identity as "a child of God" and the need to remind others of the compassion, mercy, healing, grace and redemption found in God.

A song from his renewed career at the hands of producer Rick Rubins in the late 1990s until Cash's death was part of the documentary. The song, entitled "Redemption" was one I had never heard before but it was a deeply moving song for me that night. The lyrics are below:

From the hands it came down From the side it came down From the feet it came down And ran to the ground Between heaven and hell A teardrop fell In the deep crimson dew The tree of life grew And the blood gave life To the branches of the tree And the blood was the price That set the captives free And the numbers that came Through the fire and the flood Clung to the tree And were redeemed by the blood From the tree streamed a light That started the fight 'Round the tree grew a vine On whose fruit I could dine My old friend Lucifer came Fought to keep me in chains But I saw through the tricks Of six-sixty-six And the blood gave life To the branches of the tree And the blood was the price That set the captives free And the numbers that came Through the fire and the flood Clung to the tree And were redeemed by the blood From his hands it came down From his side it came down From his feet it came down And ran to the ground And a small inner voice Said "You do have a choice." The vine engrafted me And I clung to the tree

The clip from the film showed Cash playing in a small singer/songwriter type venue with people of all ages around him who came to hear some of his legendary songs I'm sure, but even their he spoke of the theme of redemption in his own life and how his story had found meaning in the grand story of God's redemptive plan for all of creation.

The Search for God and Guinness

I have seen a couple of reviews from friends, magazines, and online about Stephen Mansfield's book, The Search for God and Guinness so when I was in Barnes and Noble recently I asked if they had a copy and dove into it quickly. The book is an intriguing history of "the beer that changed the world." I have read a book about George W. Bush that Mansfield wrote a few years back and enjoyed his biographical writing so I thought this would be interesting as well, plus the book was published by Thomas Nelson, a Christian book publisher.

The title alone was intriguing for me on a couple of levels. Guinness is essentially the official beer of Ireland, since I am part Irish and love celebrating St. Patrick's Day with family and friends I was curious about how this brewery had "shaped the world." As a minister, I am naturally drawn to people's quest for God!

I learned a great deal about the history of beer making and the history of Guinness. What struck me most was the faith of particular members of this family who has been the keepers of one of the most recognizable brands in the world. The founder Arthur Guinness was devout man of faith who was spurred to excellence in his trade, brew master, because of the Reformation influenced faith that he embraced. He was greatly influenced by contemporary preachers of his day like George Whitefield and John Wesley. In addition to that, his descendants were tied to other great preachers and missionaries of the last two centuries, men like Charles Spurgeon, D.L. Moody, Hudson Taylor, and David Livingstone. The Guinness clan spawned many missionaries and other members of the clergy in addition to men and women who did not take their privilege, wealth or position for granted but used it to better others in need and poverty all around them. There really are too many stories to relate here, rest assured the guiding principle in the company was to give back to others be it employees, orphans, and any one else in need.

Historians have described The Protestant Ethos, the notion that anything a person puts their hands and mind to can be viewed as their gift, their offering to God, not just a minister or clergy, in great detail. It seems that Arthur Guinness and many of his descendants truly believed at the core of Christianity was this affirmation that workbenches, ledgers, blacksmith irons were just as much sacred tools as the lectern, the liturgy, and the prayers of ordained clergy. Thus they sought to offer their best efforts and promote the most good for their culture that could be found.

Don't misunderstand me or the Guinness family for blindly endorsing alcohol in general or beer in particular! What a tragedy to miss out on the story of this family and the lives that it impacted for the good, even for the sake of the gospel through it's two hundred plus years!

The Guinness Brewery was light years ahead of providing health, leisure, and educational benefits for its employees and their families. They valued and treasured family like few institutions did or even do now. At the core of their company is an unflinching belief in investing in people because they are who God has fashioned in his image.

Along the way they also impacted pop culture, The Guinness Book of World Records was originally a promotional move by the brewery as a trivia book for pubs and patrons!

Mansfield ends his fascinating account of the Guinness story by offering 5 maxims that the reader can draw from this family.

1. Discern the ways of God for life and business.
2. Think in terms of generations yet to come.
   
3. Whatever else you do, do at least one thing very well.
   
4. Master the facts before you act.
5. Invest in those you would have invest in you.

Perhaps those are some helpful lessons for anyone, maybe even churches...

Books, Music, Love

This is one of those long, rambling type posts, so my apologies up front, but it is late and I've been up since 7 AM on this glorious Saturday thanks to my sweet children...

I finished Flannery O'Connor's short story collection today that I had been working through. She owns me like no other writer of fiction! Her dark, shadowy characters and settings paint a real-life picture to me. Her incredible ability to shed the light of the Gospel on the mundane, ordinariness of life captures my attention with every page. As I read these stories, I was reminded that I really prefer short stories to novels, which is a lesson I hope to take into my preaching and teaching. Honestly, I am a minister and have several years of theological education, if I get bored or disengaged in a sermon at the half way point, when is every one else tuning out? I am not the best at saying exactly what I want to say in succinct ways, but I am working on it.


The music of Bill Mallonee, especially his solo stuff reminds me of Flannery O'Connor's body of work in some way, shape, form or fashion. As I was doing yard work this morning, I heard this song from Mallonee.

I Will Never Be Normal (After This) Year: 2003 | Run Time: 5:31

Written by Bill Mallonee for CyBrenJoJosh (BMI) ©2004

now most of my friends
they have bailed out long ago
and they've all got their stories
for the paths that they have chosen
see for some their family's love
felt like a boxer's blow
now they spend their days feelin' small
wherever they do roam

but hey there are drugs to help you see God
and there are drugs for when depressed
and there are drugs that make you harder still
for when you get undressed
and there's drugs for the guiltiness
so you'll feel one with the universe
but girl you were the only one
to ever break the curse

yeah it could have been your eyes
but i suspect it was your kiss
honey i will never be normal after this

now everyone's a junkie
and since daylight's such a pain
we're all looking for some darkness
to stick into our veins
for some of us it's lust
for others it is power
for some of us it's playing songs
and drinking after hours

yeah you've gone and upped the ante
in this game that we all play
gotta wake up and believe
that love's the better way
and people can really be healed
there are even some of 'em you can trust
but first you gotta take a risk
and tell 'em where it hurts

what if it's for a purpose
what if we used our battered faith
they say God He doesn't make junk
and Jesus never makes mistakes
He has never given up
on anything that He has made
He will chase you like a lover
right through heaven's gate

There's definitely a lot to dissect in this song from a theological perspective! What struck me though is how much it captures my sentiment about Cyd. My life has not been the same or normal since I met her many years ago, yet it has been amazing!! She never ceases to astound me with her beauty, her wit, her wisdom and her perspective on life. She has a window to my soul that is only eclipsed by my Creator. She has a passion for life that is invigorating! I am so thankful to have her as my wife, I have certainly "never been normal since."

Reflections from Donald Miller

I recently finished reading the revised copy of Donald Miller's Searching for God Knows What as part of my Booksneeze agreement with Thomas Nelson. I wanted to share a few lines that especially caught my eye before I post my official review.

"I realized Christian conversion worked more like falling in love than understanding a series of concepts or ideas" (xiii).

"Our formulaic, propositional, lifeboat-territorial methodology has crippled the kingdom of God" (190).

"As for me, I'm somebody who repeats what I learned in Sunday school using fancier language. It may pay the rent but it isn't original thought" (199).

"The ever-overquoted C.S. Lewis said it this way in his book Mere Christianity: 'Most of us are not really approaching the subject in order to find out what Christianity says: We are approaching it in the hope of finding support from Christianity for the views of our own party. We are looking for an ally where we are offered either a Master or-a judge'" (200).

"There are many religions, and many religious sects within the faith of Christianity. Do I believe some are more scripturally faithful than others? Yes. But none of them matter in the slightest if formulas replace a personal relationship with Jesus. He is the authority we need. He is the God we must cling to for salvation. And He is a Person, not a list of ideas, not a theology" (206).

"I began to wonder if what we were really doing in evangelical circles, then, had more to do with redeeming ourselves to culture than it did with showing Jesus to a hurting world, a world literally filled with outcasts" (209).

I'm not sure I completely agree with Donald Miller on everything, even everything I quoted above, but he has a way of shedding fresh light on shop-worn ideas that make a person stop and reconsider what it is we believe and why!

The Weekend

Claire's dance recital was this weekend and it was such a great night. My mom turned 39 on Friday so we celebrated her birthday on Saturday before the recital. Claire was so excited, she could hardly stand it. I was so proud of my little girl as she danced and "pixiedusted" her way across the stage. She really did a great job!

In addition to all those fun activities, we scrambled to get the finishing touches in place for VBS this week. Day one, is over and done, thank you Jesus! It really was a great day! I have the best group of teachers I have ever had working with me this year too!

Sonny Stroud, 40 years of Ministry and 60 years of Life

Friday evening Cyd and I had the opportunity to spend a special evening honoring the work of God through Sonny Stroud. Sonny was our minister of music when we were in middle school and high school and was an important person in helping to shape our lives. His wife, Dana, planned a surprise party to honor him for 40 years of ministry and 60 years of life and asked us to come, I also got to say a few words of reflection. It was a wonderful evening all around with fond memories, good food, great fellowship...an evening truly infused with the Holy Spirit. Cyd and I had a great time recalling memories of The Living Christmas Tree, Choir tours to Jamaica and Chicago, and everything in between.

We enjoyed the quick trip to Jacksonville and back on Friday not just for the event for Sonny but for some time together in the car! I forgot how much I miss road trips with Cyd, we don't make near as many as we use to these days, so it was a fun day all around, especially after having a visit from the stomach bug at our house last week. We are so grateful for the opportunity to be a
part of such a great evening.

Date Night!

Friday Cyd and I got to enjoy a rare treat, a date! Life has been crazy for us the last four months for obvious reasons and lately we have both been some consumed with ministry, that we needed a break in order to invest in each other. So I asked our friends Kate and Keith if they would babysit for us so we could go out. The only problem with us is that we aren't movie people so we didn't want to spend 2 hours together sitting in silence nor did we want to chunk out money to see Tim McGraw who was in Statesboro Friday night, so we headed to McAlister's and enjoyed conversation and dinner without two precious little girls, indeed a very rare treat.

I absolutely love spending time with my wife and my girls! So to get to have a few hours of just Cyd and I was amazing! I still get that feeling when I am in her presence that the chaos around me can go you know where because I have the one person I love and care about the most by my side. Of course, it is next to impossible to spend time together if you don't have great babysitters! Thanks Keith and Kate!

"Tell me why
I love you like I do
Tell me who,
Can stop my heart as much as you
I don't have the answers
I don't have a plan
I'm Mad About You Baby
So let's take each others' hand
As we jump into the Final Frontier"

Mad About You Theme Song
written by Don Was