My apologies to my friend Eric for any pain after your Steelers were taken out of the playoffs.  Perhaps this will soothe the wound.

1. Don’t get mad about the so-called “Tebowing” as a reference to prayer.  So what, big deal.  I doubt that God is getting all worked up over someone bowing their knee and not calling it by the right word.  Someday every knee is gonna bow anyway, it just looks like some are getting in some early practice.  My advice: stop getting offended over minor things.  It will save you a lot of ulcers and stress.  Besides, for those who are doing the whole thing in a mocking fashion, there are bigger problems for them (Galatians 6:7).
2. Don’t read too much into things like Tebow’s stat line from a big improbable win.  By all means, have a little fun with it if you want, but don’t start looking for signs in a box score or stat sheet.  God has communicated pretty effectively without resorting to Tebow’s QB stats or passing yards.  But there is no harm in being amused or even thankful that so many people are checking out John 3:16 yet again thanks to Timmy.  Since no one is holding up those cute banners at games anymore that I have seen, this is the next best thing. 
3. It’s OK to pull for Tebow.  I enjoy watching someone do what no one says can be done.  Mark Gungor has jokingly said that he should be the “patron saint” of marriage because he just never gives up.  I kind of like that.  It is fun to root for a guy who just won’t quit trying.  I think we can all relate to that a little bit.  I am not a Broncos fan.  I never really liked them at all.  But more and more, I think it would be fun to see them win the Super Bowl this year just because it would make a lot of people’s heads virtually explode at the incongruity of it all.  Besides, my Cowboys (whom everybody knows is America’s team even if God is currently smiting them) are out of it anyway so who else would I root for at this point.

There it is.  In typical pastor fashion, I have given you three points; now for the poem.

Roses are red

Broncos wear blue

Tebow wins games

What will you do?

P.S. This blog was intended as light humor.  If you are offended by this post then you have utterly missed the point.  Try rereading point number one again.  Rinse, read, repeat as often as necessary.

Humility is occupying our proper space, neither too much, nor too little.

I have given this a lot of thought over the last few weeks.  My initial thought was that I struggle with pride, but the more I considered this, the more I think it is the opposite.  I am uncomfortable taking pride in the talents that God has given me and the gifts that he has blessed me with as well.  I took stock of the times that I can remember when people have commented on these things and I have developed some “stock answers” that are essentially holy sounding deflections to avoid the issue.

I realize that I am not the first person to grapple with this concept.  Maybe there have even been songs written about it.  I am not sure what this word will look like for me in the year ahead.  But I am ready to embrace it. 

Anavah

It shows up in this passage from Zephaniah 2:3:

³Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land,
who do his just commands;
 seek righteousness; seek humility;
perhaps you may be hidden
on the day of the anger of the LORD.

The word humility in this verse is the Hebrew word, anavah, and we are told to seek it.  So that is what I plan to do this year, seek anavah and what that looks like in my life of faith on the journey following the Master.  Thanks for sharing in it with me.

I have several posts in the hopper in various states of completion also, so there should be some more content coming soon.  I pray that you are all having a wonderful start to the new year and that you all had a wonderful holiday season as well.  We had more blessings than we can count around here.  But that always seems to be the case.

Well, more to come soon.

It was just a word at the start of the year that stuck out to me.

Could have been more about change – but it wasn’t

Could have been about just maturity – but it wasn’t that either.

So much has played into this idea that I am not sure where to start.  Do I feel like I have grown in the last year?

Yes.

And I will continue to grow as the years pass on, but I will spend this post looking at some things that I can see specific growth in in the past year.

Growth as a father: Being a dad is one of the biggest challenges of my life.  Being an example is not an option, it is a given.  I am keenly aware of the ways in which my life will shape the lives of three young people that God has blessed me to look after.  It has been a growth process this year as I have tried to be more intentional in the ways that I raise up my children to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind and strength.  I have found great encouragement and purpose in learning to lead by example more.  I have grown as a father and I will continue to walk this path with humility and God’s grace and grow year by year as my children grow into men and women of faith and character.

Growth in ministry: Opportunities to minister were abundant and I found myself growing and stretching in this area more than I would have expected.  Having finished work to be certified as a Disaster Relief chaplain through the SBC, I figured it would be a while before I could put most of this training and skill set into real world practice in a disaster.  Family and church commitments were certain to keep me from going too far from home for disaster situations and yet I got the chance all the same.  Flooding on a historic scale in Minot brought me face to face with keeping a commitment I had made – to go and serve as a DR chaplain if it was nearby.

There are so many ways that I have grown as a result of the experiences in Minot this summer that it would be impossible to catalog them all.  A passion for DR work that I didn’t even know existed has been found and I am now considered the “point man” for our DR response in the North Dakota side of the DBC.  This included a trip to Alpharetta for training so that I can train others to be a DR chaplain as well.  I am excited to see how God will use this in the future.

I also continued to have the opportunity to fill the pulpit and minister to another church here in town.  I was asked to stretch and grow in this area as well.  It was a privilege to preach and minister in a wholly different context than what I am normally used to being in and it has been a growing experience for me.

Growth as a blogger:  I set several goals for myself this year as a blogger and some of them were directly related to this particular thing.  In doing so, I learned something about myself along the way.  I have a strong tendency to “jump in with both feet” before I stop and consider the cost or the ramifications.  This is kind of a dangerous thing is some places and it is something that Jesus cautioned about as well.  Blogging is not my life.  In a way, my journey through this year has helped me to grow in such a way as to put blogging in perspective.  I no longer come by and check the stats everyday here or at my other two blogsites.  I have actually missed the occasional comment for a day or two before noticing it was there.  I plan to be a little more intentional in my blogging in the coming year to be sure, but I am already a lot less obsessive about it.  And as for arguments on the comments of this blog and others: well, I really have better thing to do with my time.  This isn’t to say that I am not up for a good discussion.  Discussions and even disagreements keep life interesting and keep me learning, and that is enough for me.

Growth in my personal health: I mentioned this area more than once and as the year comes to a close, I figure I am at a standstill in this one.  I took up some efforts to run, but those met with setbacks due to physical issues (there are my flat feet getting in the way).  I haven’t given up on that quite yet, but running isn’t a realistic thing around here this time of year either.  I eat better overall and I am still making adjustments in my diet.  My weight is stable, but I still want to take it to a little lower number in the coming year.  If there is one area where I didn’t see “growth” in the way that I expected and hoped to, this is the one.

Growth – the final word:  There is probably more that I could write and might even want to write.  Growth doesn’t get confined to a season and never return, even though it is often seasonal.  Growth isn’t always realized in ways we expect or even want it sometimes.  It does come hand in hand with living.  Living things grow.  Often in ways that are easy to see as well as ways that are imperceptible.  That which ceases to grow, dies.  So may we all continue to grow and may God bless you to grow in the likeness of His Son above all other growth.

The problem of course is that it isn’t in my purview to be able to give anyone a pass; and furthermore, this isn’t all a person has available to truly know the Bible or Jesus unless a person willfully chooses to be ignorant of the things of God. There is no excuse when a Bible is readily available to all of those who are reading these words even now. The person of Jesus Christ is easily discovered and knowing who He is and what He is like is open to anyone who would like to sit down and read the gospels for themselves. The Gospel of Mark is probably a quicker read than perusing every word of a given week’s edition of this paper in a single setting.

Should Christians be Christlike examples and people of character? Certainly, that is the goal. But the Bible also is patently clear, and human experience tells us even beyond that, that we humans are a very fallible lot. If you place all of your trust in some prominent Christian, whether they be a national celebrity or a pastor in your local church, it is unfortunately misplaced. We fail too. In fact, I am always dumbfounded to find that there are some people who think that their pastor (and this has happened to me before) is perfect. My greatest hope is that I am following Jesus closely enough that you can see right through me to where He is at work in my life. But by all means, get to know Him for yourself. Follow Him yourself. Don’t depend on Pat or Rob or me or any other Christian to be the perfect Christ for you. It probably won’t end well.

I anticipate being able to write more now that colder weather is curtailing my outdoor activities (namely golfing) that keep me running at least some of the time.  That should give me more time to blog again.  I haven’t even been particularly able to keep up with the conversations over at SBC Voices as much of late, but I plan to get more involved over there again as well.

In the meantime, I figured I would post up a couple of the columns I have written this month as I have done in the past and hope to get to regular blogging in a short time.

On a completely different front, I ran across a blog that had an atheist review of a movie I hadn’t heard a thing about that was interesting all of the same.  Some of you may be familiar with the idea that Hypatia in ancient Alexandria was a “martyr for atheism.”  Apparently the notion was popularized by Carl Sagan and I will admit to having been ignorant of the whole thing.  Of course, it turns out that I hadn’t missed much anyway as the whole notion is bunk anyway.  This atheist blogger does a review of the film, called Agora, and spends a good deal of time debunking the atheist myth with hard facts only to be insulted and impugned in the comment thread by “irrational atheists” who prefer to cling to their mythology.  I found the whole thing very entertaining in a way and figured I would share the fun with those of you who might be interested.

There is a whole new reason being put forth for why we should combat global warming.  I don’t know if you have heard of it yet, but this is a biggie.  I might have to rethink my whole stand on AGW now.  If we don’t, the aliens may kill us all.  We seriously need to get these NASA folks back to work on some kind of manned spaceflight before they catch some kind of space madness or something.

Perhaps they could make bulletproof skin that is actually, you know, bulletproof, instead of merely bulletproof if it is hit by slower bullets.  Could these be the safer bullets we heard about all those years ago?

Finally, in political and media news, perhaps the reason that so many in the MSM have trouble remembering Ron Paul’s name is because he hasn’t written any books they like or things they can market on their website.  It does appear that Dr. Paul has a good sense of humor about the whole thing though.

Have a wonderful weekend and keep smiling out there.

I may have forever lost my chance to get a NAMB appointment this past week and I might have to turn in my Baptist credentials or something. I drank every drop of the contents of the can you see on the right here and I enjoyed doing it (I also took this photo in a Lutheran church so who knows what is happening to me). I am writing a little tongue-in-cheek, although some may take me too seriously to be sure. This little can of water got me thinking this past week. I would like to share some of those thoughts with you.

There is often a great deal of discussion about alcohol on this blog and I am not about to open that can of worms again (if someone tries to derail this comment thread with another alcohol argument I will delete the comments myself, unless Dave beats me to it). Suffice it to say that I cannot find a single verse that says something like “thou shalt not make beer.” I don’t drink beer or any other alcohol for that matter as a point of personal preference and conscience, but I have to hand it to the folks at Anheuser-Busch for the work they do getting drinking water into disaster areas.

I spent four days last week serving as a Disaster Relief Chaplain in flood-ravaged Minot, ND. We were asked to come in by the Red Cross in order to provide some care and calm in the shelters they are currently administering for those who have been displaced by flooding in and around the area. By all accounts, our ministry has been of great benefit already in meeting that need and I am looking forward to going back in again during the coming weeks as I have opportunity (most likely this week as well). During my time there, I saw these cans of water at the shelter. I have heard of them before (notably after Katrina), but unless you are in a disaster area where water is needed desperately you may never see one in person. I have to give props to SBC Disaster Relief as well. Since very early in this disaster we have had folks on the ground offering all kinds of help: water, clothing, personal items, food and so forth. The first trip I made to the area almost four weeks ago was with a mission team to deliver a trailer full of bottled water and other supplies in fact.

After seeing the cans, I was reflecting on the words of Matthew 25, so much so that I preached on that passage this past Sunday. It strikes me that the folks who came up with the idea of doing this at Anheuser-Busch are exactly like those who are mentioned in Matthew 25. When told that they saw the King thirsting and gave Him water to drink, these people are befuddled. They never even realized what they had done. Frankly, it probably doesn’t occur to some of us religious folks just how stunning this passage is until we put it in a context like this.

There are lots of believers who take this kind of thing to heart and heed the words of Jesus, but we have to be completely honest. There are also those who claim to be believers who never give a second thought to passing out some water to those in need or meeting the needs of those around them. And that brings me back to the stunning image that Jesus’ words evoke. I imagine these are the folks who will be completely shocked on that day, when Jesus says well done good and faithful servant to a guy or guys from Anheuser-Busch and tells the “believer in their own mind” that He never knew them.

P.S. Just so you know, the water doesn’t really taste great (it is kind of metallic from the can), but I am pretty sure it is less filling. And the Lutheran church referenced above is housing a few of us SBC disaster relief workers in their facility just north of our church where the command post is located.

Science writers Carl Zimmer (who blogs at Discover) and Peter Aldhous (from New Scientist) each donated a swab, and while Aldhous’ sample failed to yield bacterial colonies, Zimmer’s sample was apparently flush with life. Some species in his microbiome have previously only been found in the ocean, he writes. Another one, a species called Georgenia, has only been found living in the soil in Japan. Zimmer has never been, he writes.

I will leave to science the great mysteries of how a Japanese bacteria gets in the navel of a scientist who has never been there.  I suppose that it will take a lot of navel gazing to unravel these abdominal mysteries. But enough with the puns.

Now, on to the category of irony can be so ironic.  I seem to remember the American version of this show, but the Netherlands iteration of “Worst Driver” had a rather more dubious result.  If you run over the show’s host, do you automatically win the competition?

In similarly ironic lines, part of California is trying to secede from the rest of the state.  Frankly, I would be happy if the whole state would stop trying to foist all their gibberish on us in the rest of the US.  The last good thing to come out of California was probably Ronald Reagan (no offense Steve).  If memory serves, our good friend Steve from theoldadam resides in the section of California that wants to secede.  Good luck with that out there.

Now for the cool band geek fun.  I found this the other day and I just love it.  A group of musicians who each play a part and get blended together to form a single piece.  This is way cool.  I think I might have to see if I can get a part in the next one.