Magnificat

I'm a little behind the ball here, I know. Pray As You Go is a great resource for daily prayer and meditation. Today's reading was from Luke 1:46-56, which is Mary's Song, The Magnificat.

Mary has been prominent lately. Scot McKnight has released The Real Mary. Marko blogged about Mary, wondering if our thoughts have been right about her.

It struck me as I read her song and spent time letting it sink in (how many times have I read that passage before?), that the language is strong concerning God's justice, deliverance, and fulfillment of his promises. The lowly are lifted up. The hungry are filled with good things. The rich go away empty, and the powerful are overthrown.

Powerful stuff, if you let it get into your heart.

According to wikipedia, during the 1980's, people in Guatemala were not allowed to read the Magnificat in public. It would seem that the revolutionary tones of the Song of Mary was pushing the right (or wrong) buttons.

This Christmas, may your buttons be pushed by the Divine Revolutionary.

it's not about pancakes

My friend Mav was in town today. Mav was one of our first volunteers with Team XStream, way back in 1998. He's on staff at the International House of Prayer, where he spends the hours of 10 pm-6 am praying. You heard me--praying.

He's one of the people who feed my soul.

Lots of people have great ideas that they never pursue, dreams that never get lived, or plans that never leave the drawing board. They might say, "Great idea. Someone should do that."

I've been that person. Too busy or distracted or dis-passionate to do the thing that I know needs to be done. I don't like that about myself. I don't think that I'm like that in every area of my life, or that I'm like that all the time. But it has happened enough that I can track it.

Mav is the kind of guy who gets an idea, conviction, or direction from the Lord, and then begins to work on how to make that a reality in his life.

Kind of like the guy who was walking through a field and found a treasure. He got so pumped up that he sold his other stuff, found the owner of the field, and bought the field.

Identifying priorities is a good thing. Living according to the things that I determine to be most important is not as easy as making a list of the important things.

But, today I got to spend time with Mav, and that makes it a good day.

scars are souvenirs you never lose...John Rzeznik

I was looking at my face today. You know, getting ready to shave. Anyway, as I stared at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, I noticed the crescent shaped scar between my eyebrows. It's a continual reminder of the day I shot my brother-in-law's rifle for the first time. It was also the day that I was meeting a new church to talk about being their youth pastor. Who knew?

I have lots of scars, and each one has a story. The one on my ankle from the wipe-out on my bike on the way to school in 9th grade (didn't see the sand on that long, steep driveway.) The one on my forehead is from the kid in my neighborhood who displayed his displeasure at being "it" for the next round of hide-and-seek by clobbering me with a 2x4.

Scars stick with you, reminding you of your past. Some are visible for everyone to see. Many are under the surface, hidden in hearts, revealed only as relationships grow.

I am thankful that God is in the business of wiping away tears, healing hurts, and mending broken places.

Contrary to cliche, time does not heal all wounds. But healing is possible.

And yes, the church offered me the job. But no, I didn't take it.

We're #1! We're #1!

No, I'm not claiming that our student ministry is #1. But our team of volunteers is right at the tippy top of the heap!

Last night we had our team Christmas dinner at our (Kim and I) favorite restaurant in State College--the Tavern. After a great meal, we exchanged gifts.

A few years ago we started the tradition of making gifts for the exchange. My standard gift to make has been a prayer journal, but this year I went off the map. I drew my wife's name, and I wanted to do something special. Kim D helped me make earrings and necklaces for my wife! How cool is that?! And they turned out pretty nice, if I do say so myself.

The gift that got the biggest "oohs" was a gingerbread house all decked out in icing and candy, made by Cory for Ryan. It looked great, and Cory was pretty pumped to give it.

I love our team. It's been a good year, but a different kind of year for our team. Since splitting into 2 teams (middle school and high school), relationships aren't as close. We keep getting bigger, which adds new personalities and makes communication tougher. But we are seeing God move through our team, and that's what we're after.

Praise God for men and women who give their time and lives to invest in students' lives. We are truly blessed.

Like Father, Like Son

I took our 11 year old Levi to see the allergy doctor today. They pricked his back a bunch of times with stuff that he might be allergic to--animals, trees, grasses, weeds, dust. He was pretty brave. Then we waited 10 minutes to see if he'd have an allergic reaction. I taught him to play solitaire while we waited! The nurse came in, read his reactions, then administered higher concentrated shots of the things that he didn't react to in his arms.

How fun is that?

I went through the same thing when I was his age. I ended up getting allergy shots until I was 18, and never built up enough immunity to finish the cycle.

Levi is allergic to some trees, grasses, dust, cats, and guinea pigs.

I think we'll keep the cats, but the pigs are history. Anybody want 2 barely played with guinea pigs?

Herschel Walker is ESPN's #1 College Football Running Back

Growing up in GA in the 80's, it was a pleasure to watch Herschel Walker run over opposing defenses, all the way to a National Championship for the Silver Britches in 1980. He won the Heisman Trophy in 1982, and probably would have repeated in 83 had he not turned pro.

I was in Mrs. Wilkerson's 9th grade geometry class when our principal came on the school intercom to announce Herschel's signing with the New Jersey Generals. There was a stunned silence, broken only by the sound of Mrs. Wilk's choked crying.

What a day...

I've been trying to move this blog to the new Beta Blogger, but seem to be running into difficulties. Oh well..

This guy is amazing. I can't solve the thing with my eyes open.



My Maw Maw gave me the Chex Mix cube for Christmas one year. Levi (my 11 year old) got one this year. pretty funny.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

There's a light dusting of snow, the temperature is hovering around 20 degrees, and the radio is feeding us a steady diet of Bing, Nat, and Brenda. Must be Christmas. I love this time of year.

My wife does a wonderful job of making our house a warm, homey kind of place. I have but a few jobs in this decorating process:

• hanging the lights from the gutters/roof (done!)
• getting the Christmas tree set up (Monday)
• putting lights on the tree (Monday)

We go out each year in search of the perfect Christmas tree from a local tree farm. A few years ago we stumbled onto the Concolor Fir. It fills the house with the scent of oranges! How cool is that?

I want to do a little shopping, but not too much. We're wrestling through the consumeristic battleground, trying to honor God with our resources while expressing our love for others in the giving of gifts. It's real easy to drop a lot of cash on stuff that's going to end up lost, broken, or unwanted in a few weeks.

But for now, I'm off to spend some time praying through the Christmas story.

I was reading Luke 2 the other day while I was waiting for a deer to walk by me (she did--but that's another story!). I think I want to know more about Simeon...

Journal or blog, that is the question

I'm noticing that when I'm posting more regularly to my blog, my journal suffers. I think I need to find a way to balance that out. I suppose that I could re-hash my journal stuff here... I use a moleskine large squared journal, and it's great. I write with a fountain pen (Sheaffer PFM) my uncle sent me.

I've got a thing for family stuff. I have a few other pens that belonged to my Paw Paw, and a few pocket knives. Anyway...

Rocky's coming out with a new movie, and it's being pitched to churches. I got invited to join a conference call with Sylvester Stallone a few weeks back. I passed. I think that'll do it for today...

kids get it
I was asked to speak to the children's ministry this weekend (Saturday night, Sunday at 9:15 and 11). A few weeks back I spoke at church about Matthew 25 (Jesus talks about Sheep and Goats), and the leaders of the children's ministry wanted the children to hear the call to action.

Our children's ministry is great. We have a dream team of leaders who pray and plan for our children. They work hard to make sure that our children are encouraged to follow Jesus each week, that the life of Jesus is held up as the standard. One of the leaders took the message of Jesus about sheep and goats and ran with it. The result: our children are partnering with Blood:Water Mission to raise money to dig wells for villages in Africa.

How are the kids raising money? By asking their parents to NOT buy them one gift that they want for Christmas. Instead, they are going to ask for the cash, which they will bring in to the Kids' Zone, where they will place it in water jugs headed for Blood:Water Mission. How revolutionary is that?

What will our student ministry look like in a few years when these students arrive? What kind of adults will these children grow up to be? Hopefully, they'll be the kind of adults who see a need, realize that they have the resources to do something about the need, and then go out and do something.

Of Prayer and Justice

Jesus tells the parable of the Persistent Widow in Luke 18. One of the applications that he cites is this: So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly!

I'm not sure that I get it. I am becoming more and more aware of the injustice in this world. From people dying somewhere in Africa because they don't have access to clean water to folks in State College getting pushed out of their mobile home park to make way for Krispy Kreme Donuts or apartments that produce more income for the owners, it's plain to see that injustice is prevalent.

Jesus appears to be saying that if his followers will pray, and continue to pray, that God will bring justice to those in need--and quickly.

I believe in prayer. I believe in God's faithfulness. My time-frame and God's time-frame are probably vastly different. I guess that I'm wrestling with how this all fits together. All this injustice certainly flies in the face of God's mercy, and his command for us to be compassionate.

One of the ways that God (who is not an unjust judge at all) works to combat injustice, need, and other societal ills is through his people. We who have resources must jump in to help.

Jesus told the rich man to sell everything he had and give to the poor. That's how the early church did things (Acts 2:45 and Acts 4:32-35)

Our 8th grade girls are buying gifts for a girl who needs things tonight. Our children's ministry is putting together a project to raise money to build wells in Africa for people living with HIV/Aids through Blood:Water Mission.

Justice. Mercy. Compassion. Prayer.

I think there's a tie-in here with something else that my wife and I have been talking about: selfishness vs. sacrifice.

Perhaps there's more to come...