I'm spending time unpacking Matthew 6:19-24 in preparation for a message/sermon/talk I'm giving at Loyola on Tuesday. Some of this came out of a study we did in our house group, so a tip of my hat to anyone who contributed thoughts that evening. By the way, if anyone has feedback - good or bad - I'd love to hear it in the comments or by e-mailing me.

"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" - Matthew 6:22-23

In short, this passage tells me that if I trust God, things will be clear, and if I don't, things will be blurry, even dark.

I've read that 'If your eyes are good' is a Jewish way of saying "if you are generous". When we are generous we become more like Jesus and we experience what it feels like to put our treasures into Heaven. Jesus says that if our eyes are good, our whole body will be full of light, but if our eyes are bad, our whole body will be full of darkness. Since we're in metaphor-land, I think it's safe to pull in the idea that God is light. Here's how I break down the other part:

If we have bad eyes, things get blurry; It's hard to see the road ahead. The times in my life that have felt the blurriest often involve money and security - when I have relied on a job, a paycheck, at-will employment, capitalism and a free market, things never seemed secure. I'd find myself asking questions like "Do I make enough money? Do I have enough money if I were to lose my job tomorrow? Am I saving enough?" In college, I'd ask "Is this the right major for me? Do I have enough contacts? Do I have any contacts? Is my resume lacking? What happens if I fail this class?" Now I ask questions like "What if we get pregnant? What about retirement? Am I saving enough to plant a church?"

Those questions, in and of themselves, are healthy, worthwhile questions. But you can see where the downward spiral begins. I've watched people (including myself) get into a hopeless place by letting these questions consume them. Letting those questions guide your life can lead to a black place. Some words I've heard people use in correlation are hopeless, confusing, darkness and depression.

If there is no light in us, if everything is black, that's a hard place to live. It's hard to see a way out when all we can see is looming debt and more stuff we don't have and less job security.

But if our eyes are good, we see clearly. When I've relied on God for my future, when I've listened and responded to Him, things have become clear. A feeling of security accompanies it, even in the face of overwhelming doubt and despair.

So Jesus says that if we are generous, our whole body will be filled with light. When I'm letting go of my money and trusting God, it becomes easier to trust Him in so many other areas. I experience the sense of peace and surrender that goes along with trusting God with that area of my life. It opens me up to scripture that tells me that God has a plan for me, that God will provide, that God will invite me into His story and give me meaning and fullness in ways that only my creator can.

Labels: Favorites, Jesus

I'm going to spend the next few days unpacking Matthew 6:19-24 in preparation for a message/sermon/talk I'm giving at Loyola on Tuesday on our calling. Some of this came out of a study we did in our house group, so a tip of my hat to anyone who contributed thoughts that evening.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." - Matthew 6:19-21

Since I don't know how to wire-transfer my money to Heaven, I want to explore the here and now applications of this passage. When I see Heaven in the Bible, I associate it with Heavenly things: God, Jesus, freedom, life and hope. And despite the whole earth being filled with God's glory, I see this world, earth, as a place that is not inherently free and not inherently filled with life and hope, at least not yet. So I don't think it's a stretch to substitute those thoughts here - store up for yourselves treasures in God, Jesus, freedom, life and hope, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in an steal.

What are our treasures? Money, to be certain, is a treasure we possess. I can put my money into Heaven on Earth, by giving generously and spending/saving wisely. But I don't think money is the only treasure we possess. If God provides my money, then my treasures are the things that God provides - my gifts, my talents, my energy, ability, creativity and my life. Who God made me to be is a treasure. If we reach back into the 'called' study, then my calling, the feast God is inviting me to, is my treasure.

Jesus is telling us to put the things we do, the way we act, what we are becoming into Heavenly things: Things that bring life, freedom and hope, things that show others who God is, things that make us more like Jesus. We should be willing to protect these things from thieves that steal.

So I need to ask myself some questions:

What things steal me away from becoming who God made me to be?

What things cause the way I want to live to decay and rust?

Am I willing to protect myself from these things?

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

When I've given my money away, I've watched my heart follow. When I've horded money for myself, I've watched my heart be filled with the need for more money, more stuff (I'll unpack that idea more fully in the next post). The same should follow then that if I fill my life with things that make me more like Jesus, things that put me in tune with my calling, my heart will follow.

Labels: Favorites, Jesus

A couple months back a wise woman I know named Theresa Decker (who also happens to be my mother-in-law) preached a message that is still swimming around in my heart. I was going to mold this into my own thoughts, but instead I think I just want to put her words out there for everyone to think about. So without further ado...

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? - Romans 8:35

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardships or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? That's a weird list until we read about what'’s happened in Paul's life:

Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn? - 2 Corinthians 11:24-29

That was Paul's list. He'’s speaking out of what he knows.

Here's my list. What will separate me from the love of Christ? Will grief or loneliness or disappointment or failure or depression or illness or death? What is your list?

Labels: Favorites, Jesus

Good reading material, some short, some long.

In the best essay I've ever read on the topic, Stan Gundry talks about women in ministry: Women in Ministry: Can We Change? via JesusCreed.org

Scientists are studying why music gives us the chills at LiveScience.com

People can't accurately predict what will make them happy via The New Yorker

And if you've never read it, take some time to study what it meant to be a disciple in the first century by Ray VanderLaan at FollowTheRabbi.com

Labels: Other

Here's my confession: Almost every time I preach or write something that is heard or read by others, I feel like I am auditioning to be a pastor. I feel like if I nail it, people will approve of God's giftings and calling on my life, and if I blow it, I will be seen as a fraud, unfit to plant a church and lead a community of believers. Even just now, I wrote "community of believers" three or four different ways to make sure that I didn't say it wrong and therefore disqualify myself in the eyes of all of you. I feel like if I am to follow Jesus, I need to be able to compete with the writers and preachers who I respect and the ones that America puts on the cover of magazines.

Here's another, more obvious confession: That's exhausting, unsustainable, and it has nothing to do with God's calling on my life.

"All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." - John 14:25-27

How does the world give its peace? From what I understand about the first-century, Casaer created peace by decimating countries and making them conform to his rule. Maybe Jesus is saying that his peace doesn't come by way of losing everything, or having to constantly be perfect.

Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit, revealing His words and empowering us to do His works. John Wimber, Vineyard founder, defined ministry as "meeting the needs of others using God's power." He calls us disciples and says that we are capable of doing everything He did, and even greater things than Him!

Jesus didn't seem to care what the powers that be thought of Him. He spread the message God told Him to spread. He obeyed God's commands even when there were more attractive options. He created miracles in a world that wasn't always receptive of Him creating miracles.

Jesus gives me peace. He gives me reprieve from driving myself crazy trying to guess what everyone thinks of me. He allows me to hear His life-giving voice. He gives me a clear path and purpose: to do His works and proclaim His kingdom. He gives me parameters on my life that allow me to experience life in the full, knowing all of the destructive paths I would wander down otherwise. He gives me permission to be myself and follow the calling on my life and let Him take care of all the rest.

And for that, I'm thankful.

Tomorrow: My list.

Labels: Jesus

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. - Romans 8:29

God made me to be like Jesus, in mind, body and spirit. His will for my life isn't that I'm happy and secure, but that I am conformed to the likeness of His Son. He calls this life to the full. There is joy and peace and security in it that transcends what the world tells us gives joy and peace and security.

What does it mean to be more like Jesus? Jesus loved God and loved others. Jesus heard God's thoughts, spoke God's words and created God's works. Jesus set prisoners free and gave the blind sight, He released the oppressed and proclaimed the Kingdom of God.

He gives us the Holy Spirit, allows us to hear God's thoughts, understand and speak God's words and through them create God's works, whether that's miraculous healings or life-giving conversations, or anything else that brings Heaven to Earth.

Our church places a high value on the power of the Holy Spirit to move in people's lives in supernatural and natural ways. The Vineyard founder, John Wimber, described ministry as meeting the needs of others using God's power. Wimber, who seemingly spent his pastoral life soaked in the spirit of God, watching God move powerfully in people's lives said something else that I keep close to my heart:

"The test of spiritual maturity is not the ability to speak in tongues, prophesy, or memorize scripture. It is the ability to serve God and others through good works. It is in learning to love and serve the unlovely, the less fortunate, the downtrodden, that we fulfill our purpose on earth. But unless we know whom we are in Christ - blessed with all the resources of Heaven - we will always lack the power, love and victory to change the lives of others."

Tomorrow: Who we are in Christ.

Labels: Favorites, Jesus

Is November half-over, or do we still have half of November to go?

Anyway, I forgot to post a playlist this month. The playlist is at iTunes, but if you're savvy enough (e.g. you know what Hype Machine is), you can find most of this on the mp3 blogs around the interweb. Here's the link.

Anyway, here's some highlights of what I was listening to in October and into November - in alphabetical order cause iTunes isn't letting me post them in a specific order.

1. Brightblack Morning Light - "All We Have Broken Shines" - Brightblack Morning Light
2. Can Joann - "Indecision's Way" - Hurt People Hurt People
3. The Cardigans - "In the Round" - Super Extra Gravity
4. Cold War Kids - "We Used to Vacation" - Robbers & Cowards
5. Fat Freddy's Drop - "Dark Days" - Based on a True Story
6. Feist - "When I Was a Young Girl" - Let It Die
7. Goldfrapp - "Slide In" (DFA Remix) - DFA Remixes Ch. 2
8. Interpol - "Say Hello to the Angels" - Turn on the Bright Lights
9. Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros - "Get Down Moses"- Streetcore
10. Pixeltan - "Get Up / Say What" - DFA Records Compilation #2 (Make sure not to get this on iTunes. You can find it used for cheap, and it includes a third disc that's even better than the first two. iTunes only has the first two.)
11. Ray Lamontagne - "Three More Days" - Till the Sun Turns Black
12. Robbers on High Street - "The Fatalist" - The Fatalist & Friends EP
13. Rodrigo y Gabriela - "Tamacun"- Rodrigo y Gabriela (this is going to be high on my year-end chart)
14. Scanners - "Lowlife" - Violence is Golden
15. Vetiver - "You May Be Blue" - To Find Me Gone
16. Voxtrot - "Trouble" - Your Biggest Fan EP
17. The Walkmen - "Wake Up" - Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Dead
18. Yo La Tengo - "Autumn Sweater" - I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One

There were a few tracks that iTunes doesn't have yet that I really wanted to turn you guys onto, so head over to the afformentioned Hype Machine and do a search for:

Ned Collette - "Laughter Across the Street" - Jokes & Trials - This is available at cokemachineglow.com and this album is one of my two or three favorite albums I've heard this year. I want to wake up to this song for the rest of my life. More at MySpace. This album is not yet available in the states, and to import it is going to cost around $25, but you can purchase the MP3s at a high bitrate for about $17. That's more than I'm usually willing to pay for an album, but this is worth it.

Peter Bjorn and John - "Young Folks" - Apparently this was on Grey's Anatomy at some point, but I don't watch that show and therefore may be behind the times. Anyway it's a fun track.

Cabins in the Forest - Additional Sillhouette - A band out of Africa, courtesy of The Muso

Plaid - "Ladyburst"
and Telograph - "Eye for an Eye"

Happy listening.

Labels: music

It's been a while since I posted something of substance, for which I apologize. I'm working through the Lazarus stuff but there are pieces of the puzzle that are missing, and I'm waiting till they turn up before I post. So maybe I'll come back to that later (soon though) which would allow me to post some new thoughts. That's the plan then.

It was my birthday on Monday, and as I do every year I took stock of where I was and how I felt about that. For the first time in years, I felt pretty across-the-board good. I'm working through my stuff in healthy and sustainable ways, I'm happily married, I like my job, I'm good at my job, I'm happy with where I'm at in ministry (although I miss leading a house group, I've been given ample opportunities to practice the gifts I'm most excited about in teaching and facilitating elsewhere), I'm in a group where I feel supported, I have good friends, I'm rebuilding old friendships and I accomplished a lot of what I hoped to during this time last year.

During the next year I have many goals, which I'm not going to list here (I want to be transparent, but there's only so much the site visitors in Argentina need to know) and I'm looking forward to working towards them, and that's probably what I'm most excited about right now - I'm looking forward, but am happy with where I'm at.

Listening to: Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
Watching: "Battlestar Galactica" on DVD
Browsing: The Muso

Labels: Other

My love of sports is somewhere between average fan and fanatic. I read a lot about the sports I like, I watch games when I can, I play some sort of fantasy sport for each of the three big sports in America. I even watched the World Cup and thought about making soccer a regular part of my sports diet.

However, since 2003, my unquenchable fire for the Cubs has come dangerously close to being quenched, to the point where I think I watched a sum total of about 12 innings of regular season baseball this summer. Granted that I was also planning a wedding and getting married for the bulk of that time, but that is a significant drop from watching close to every game in 2003. I assume I'll follow the Cubs more closely next season, but I wonder if I'll ever follow baseball with the fervor of my college and immediate post-college days.

My misery with the Cubs opened the way to spending more time learning about another sport, and to my surprise, basketball slowly but surely became my sport to obsess over. The only problem is, I don't have a team. I grew up in Iowa but my mom is a Chicago-native so I was at least a casual Bulls fan growing up, but I was borderline fanatic about Sir Charles Barkley. I enjoyed watching this (relatively) short, small, stocky dude get the best of all the massive centers playing the game. He was a jerk but it was fun to watch him go out there and show everyone that he was king. My interest in basketball wained after the Suns-Bulls finals where the Bulls pulled off a miracle finish to end the Charles Barkley MVP season with a whimper (and I still maintain that they fouled KJ on the last play, and maybe he would've missed the free throws, but it would've been nice to have had the chance). However, in the last two years I've watched more and more basketball and it's been refreshing to watch the team play, solid fundamentals and exciting young talent after the thug-era of me-first play and egos bigger than the stadiums they played in. After following every piece of news during the off-season and having enough information to have an opinion on almost every major player and team in the NBA, I'm safely calling myself a basketball fan again.

However, I don't have a favorite team, which is going to be necesary to actually care about what happens every season. There's only so far head-knowledge can carry you in competitive sports. It's fun enough to watch games and guys playing their hearts out during the smallest of games, but at the end of the day I need a team to follow and cheer for. I was at least a casual Bulls fan, but it was mostly residue from being a rabid Cubs fan and from spending lots of time in Chicago growing up. There was a period where B.J. Armstrong was playing with Jordan and Pippen, and everyone from Iowa (happily) became a Bulls fan to watch the Iowa grad share that stage. But since I actively rooted against the Bulls in the aforementioned Suns series, I feel like I'm a fraud if I start calling them 'My Team', especially given that they are a bandwagon favorite this season. But, since I live in Chicago now and I didn't growing up, I'm just going for it and hoping I can both celebrate a Bulls win and acknowledge that I didn't fully appreciate what happened in the 90's in Chicago basketball until recently. I have some level of regret from not getting swept away by the million-peat Bulls (my brother did, and his championship Bulls posters always made me jealous) and I still think KJ was fouled and deserved his free throws, but I'm ready to be sworn in as a card-carrying Bulls fan.

And then there's football. I hate football, but until tonight I couldn't figure out why. I love playing fantasy football, I like the talent, I'm even known to mark out the occasional evening to take in a football game. That doesn't sound like someone who hates football. So I've tried to figure out why I hate football. I originally thought it was because I didn't have a team. We were a baseball household growing up, and it was the Jordan era so our house naturally watched basketball, but no one showed much more than a passing interest in Bears football. But that didn't stop me from loving basketball, and since I just claimed the Bulls, I assumed I could do the same with the Bears.

Then I watched the second half of the Patriots-Colts game tonight and I realized why I hate football. It's not a new revelation for me, but it is different than what I would've guessed. I hate the announcers. I get annoyed with their obvious statements, I get fed up up when they take sides with one team depending on who is winning at the moment and then contradict what they said later on in same game (the best recent example of this was the Bears-Cardinals game) and I really can't stand that they never shut up. These guys talk for hours on end, sometimes about nothing. On radio that's helpful, necessary and even entertaining. On TV it's infuriating.

I'm sure few people agree with me, but I really think football would be a bigger part of my life if there was a channel where I could keep the sounds of the game, the crowd, even the players mic'd up for NBC's benefit, and mute the play-by-play team. I feel like they're trying to compete with the players in the game for who the people at home are tuning in to see. And I guess they should earn their (unreal) paychecks, but I wish they'd give it a break, at least when something was going on worth focusing on. The announcers may even be just as bad in other sports, but I don't notice it for one reason or another.

And it seems like the camera shows the announcers far more than they used to. I don't see this happening a lot in other sports. Show me the coaches, or the players or even the fans, but why do I need to see the faces of the voices that are ruining my enjoyment of America's new pastime?

It has nothing to do with football, yet because of it I can't enjoy a game. So that's why I hate football.

/rant

Labels: Other

My wife's friend sent this to us and I hope you will all log on and vote for Dolce & Anna at USC. Check out the video for more information. Today, Friday, November 3, is the last day to vote!

One of our students at USC was picked by Chevy for a Reality-web promo to win a free car, but she is going to donate the entire cash value to the Adom Partnership in Ghana.

Dolce was so moved that she's decided to give the cash value (close to $30,000) to the school there if she wins. You can help by going to the website and voting for the USC team. (You can only vote once a day through Nov. 3). Here's the link.

They also made a video explaining what they're doing.

Peace to you,

Jon

P.S. Here's the Adom Partnership website if you want to know more.

Labels: Jesus