"unless you change and become like children..."

Jesus says these words in Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 18. He finishes the statement, "...you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me ." I had the opportunity of spending a whole week with children, 5th & 6th graders (10-12 yr olds), at church camp. What an experience!

For me, it was a reminder of God's love. So many children have stories of parents' divorcing, and be abandoned by one or the other parent, but yet these kids had a wonderful time praising God and enjoying their time at camp. It was a reminder to me, of how humble I need to be before God and other people.

It's so easy for me to think of reasons why I'm better than somebody else, and that makes me feel good about myself. But Jesus challenges us, the Gospel challenges us, the Bible challenges us, to be humble. In Matthew 18, Jesus forgets what is socially acceptable and interacts with a child. He then tells all of the "important" adults that this is God's chosen. Jesus chooses NOT the biggest, NOT the strongest, NOT the smartest, NOT the highest class; but Jesus chooses the little, innocent child, and says that this is who I choose to be in my kingdom. This is who I choose to participate in a new way of living that is marked by self-giving love to others, instead of love of self taking-from-others.

God makes this point in other places, like the annointing of David in 1 Samuel 16. God tells Samuel to annoint, not the first-born, not the biggest, and not the strongest, but the smallest and youngest...little David.

This is a reminder to me, that if I try to look at my own accomplishments, and how I am "better" than other people to feel good about myself, then I'm missing out on the kingdom of heaven. Rather, what reading these scriptures, and ministering among kids at church camp has reminded me is that I am nothing without God's sustaining, redeeming love. And at my worst and weakest, God can make me good and strong--not to be better than or dominate other people, but in order to love people as God has loved me.

Our example of love is Jesus Christ, "who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:6-11, emphasis mine)

First Fly Fishing Trip, etc.

For Memorial Day weekend Shelley (my wife) and I headed to Table Rock Lake the Wednesday before the holiday. Thursday was the big day, where my friend Jim taught me to fly fish for trout near the Shepherd of the Hills hatchery at Taneycomo, just below the Table Rock Dam. I had a fun time learning that day, and Jim caught two nice looking rainbow trout. I'm glad Jim was patient with me and kinda let me learn on my own. It was frustrating because I could get the line to go where I wanted it, and get it to drift downstream the way it needed to. So the first day I was shut out. So I decided to go back on Friday morning, this time without Jim. And after just 20-30 min. of being in the water I caught my first rainbow trout (sorry there's no picture). It was a great feeling because it happened on a cast that was perfect (for me). Usually, you don't have to cast just right as long as you get the drift right, but everything went swell, and sure enough I hooked one and kept him on the line until I could get him in. I fished for probably 3 more hours that day and never could catch another one. I think it was becaue early in the morning the sky was cloudy and the air was foggy so the fish couldn't see my line well. Then as the day went on the sun shone brightly on my line that was too heavy. I was using 5x tippet, and I guess on a day like that I should use something smaller. But, the whole trip was worth it, just to catch that one fish, and now I'm ready to go again in another week or so. We had fun the rest of the weekend too. We visited our new church in Columbia and met some of the students in the youth group I'll be serving. That was an exciting experience too. A neat feeling came over me that assured me this is where God is calling me to serve. I'm excited, but my first official day isn't till July 1st. So we'll keep praying and packing as we get ready to move.

True Colors

I guess when opportunity presents itself, your natural insticts shine through. The other day I stopped at a gas station, and as I'm walking out the door to leave the convenience store, I see this lady in a 90's model Nissan sedan backing out of her parking spot and yelling repeatedly, "HEY!" at this tan-colored full-size beat-up van because the person in the van is backing it right into her. The gal is able to back up more rapidly in order to narrowly avoid getting hit, BUT THE VAN KEEPS GOING. So I look up to see why this guy isn't stopping his van, and...to my amazement...there's no one there!!! So in a split second I see that it's headed straight for a gas pump and whatever else might be in its way, and I run to the drivers door, which I fortunately found unlocked. I reach my long leg in the door and slam on the breaks, and nobody and no-thing gets hurt by this runaway vehicle. The keys are still in it, the motor is running, and according to the dash display it's in Park, but I reach over to move the shifter up, and it clicks into Park. So now I'm thinking, "Do I jump in and put it back in the parking spot where it came from, and take a chance on looking like I was trying to steal it? or do I wait here with it and see if the driver shows up?" Fortunately, the guy caming running out before I had time to make a decision. I said, "Is this yours?" He anxiously replied, "Yeah man...did anybody get hurt." I was like, no. He tried to hand me a $5 bill, but I pushed it back at him, saying, "No big deal, just get right with God." He said, "You know that's right," and jumped in the van and pulled it back into the parking spot, put it in park, turned off the engine, and removed the keys. I walked over to my vehicle, got in and left. That was all the excitement I needed for that day. The moral of the story: always make sure your car is in Park, and use the parking/emergency brake even if it's an automatic transmission; oh, and do a good turn daily.

Identity continued

So, after my last post, I spent some more time reflecting, and discovered that maybe I could focus my question a bit better. I was a little too broad, covering more than one topic, but in my mind all these things are connected, weaving in and out among each other. ANYWAY...I think my real question focuses on identity. I believe we (humans) are all created in the image of God, but there's a struggle because that image does not always show through because of being corrupted by sin. My culture says that I'm free to be whoever I want to be...There's no one I'm supposed to be, I can make myself who I am.
However, I read scriptures like Gen. 1:27 that God created humankind in God's image; and Jeremiah 1, where God says he knew the prophet before God formed him in the womb (this also occurs in Psalm 139). And throughout scripture it seems that God creates people for a special purpose or "calling." This is also connected to the idea of God's providence, that God has a plan that will prevail. And I think also predeterminism (and predestination) could come into play here as well, which would suggest that God has already determined what's going to happen, which in turn denies the existence of human free will. So let me be clear about where I stand.
I think part of being created in the image of God is creativity and free will. So obviously, I'm not too keen on God predetermining things before they happen. But God still has a will too. Scripture describes it as God's "good and acceptable and perfect will" (Romans 12). And somehow God's will can become my will too. Although I imperfectly perceive that will and still act against God at times, eventually all creation will be renewed and "perfected" in the image of God. So, to sum up, God's will is imprinted deep inside of us by virtue of being created in God's image, AND God's will is continually discovered through an ongoing process involving revelation by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's my line of thinking.
Now, to get back to identity and hedonism, etc. I do not think that hedonism is part of the image of God in which we are created. Sure science and common sense tells us it's natural to pursue pleasure and flee pain, but who decides what's pleasurable and what's painful?
I am challenged by scriptures like Matthew 10:39 where Jesus teaches, "Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it." And of course the example of Jesus provided in the gospels where Jesus does just that--gives up his life for others. Throughout the New Testament there is this notion of "love one another," which involves selflessness and sacrifice, but yet the honor and satisfaction of love.
I think what my problem is feeling like there's some expectation out there of who I'm supposed to be and feeling like a failure if I don't meet it. I think all of this reflection has lead me to realize that this process takes faith, that is, trust in God that who God is making of me, is good, acceptable, and will one day be perfect.
What do you think? I feel like a teenager yelling at God as a parent, "You can't tell me what to do or who to be!!!" What I'm finding is, that's not what God does, so I can quit yelling at him and enjoy the discovery of who I am in the image of God.

Who Am I?

Who are you? Identity is a strange thing if you reflect on it deeply. Am I the sum of all my behaviors, experiences, characteristics, and qualities? Am I constant, or do I change based on my surroundings? Do I seek to please other people, and therefore have no genuine identity? Do I have a God-given identity that I'm striving to be? (i.e. like Christ) What does it mean to be created in the image of God, and yet be unique from everyone else who also is created in the image of God?
Dr. Tony Campolo recently spoke at my seminary and mentioned (as he does in at least one of his books, Speaking My Mind) that people are given the season of youth not for pleasure (I think this would be called hedonism) but rather youthfulness is given in order to be heroes.
This to me is convicting because when I look at my daily life, most of it involves my pleasure, and not seeking to be a hero for someone else. So again I ask myself, who am I? At the depth of my heart I long to be a "hero" (in the true selfless sense), but yet my lifestyle shows otherwise. How can I break out of our American hedonistic culture?

ROYALS WIN!!!

I enjoyed the baseball game yesterday in KC as the Royals swept the Cleveland Indians in front of nearly 25,000 fans (which is good considering it was a mid-week day game). It's hopeful to see that yes, we can win, and most importantly WE NEVER GIVE UP! The team was able to come back from either a tie or being behind two or three times. That shows some resilliance. Of course, it would be better if we could just get a lead and keep it...but we are talking about the Royals here.
I also learned that pitching a baseball is hard. I don't see how anybody could throw as hard as those professional guys do. The best I got on the radar gun at the ballpark was 63 mph. To throw any faster seemed impossible to me, yet these pro-pitchers' off-speed pitches are in the 80's. Crazy!

What's in a name?

So I'm having trouble being creative ... what's a good name for my blog??? I figure it makes sense to wait and see what it becomes then name it. Why don't we do that with our children? Anyway...let me know any suggestions you have. And here's a pic of me at my first opening day baseball game. Too bad we lost, but we'll get better.

My first post

Okay, so maybe I'm a little slow, but I finally have a blog, and this is my first post. I'll probably post stuff I'm reflecting about regarding life, theology, church, ministry, etc. So check and see what's up.