Searching for Meaning and Purpose...

After my harsh rhetoric yesterday, I'm left thinking about what matters most. I am no better than the worst and the worst is no better than the best. Sound odd? It should, because it goes so counter to what we know, feel, think, and desire. We naturally group people and things into categories and classify. It is human nature to compare people and classify where we stand in relation to them. I look at Hitler and say he's so horrible because of what he did, while I look at Mother Teresa and say she was so great that I can't compare. Yet, the essence of Christianity is the dichotomy/paradox of grace. Grace says that we are forgiven and made something else. Instead of being an Adolf Hitler, I am told that I am a Mother Teresa. How can that be? Simply trusting and believing in the fact that someone perfect took my place... That belief is what defines Christianity! If there is no substitutionary atonement (meaning that someone took my place!) there is no hope for me. ...

So I'm going a tad political. Not saying anything but having some fun. Miniclip has always been good about having something fun involving elections, but this time it's a tad bit better than average. What's better than a classic smackdown involving Hillary and Barack? Check out this game:

I'm embarking on a season of self reflection. This will be a time of intense scrutiny as to my real intentions, my real purposes, and the real meaning of my life. Today I'm looking at why I live. Has anyone ever asked you the question, "Why do you live?" or more commonly phrased, "What do you live for?" Both questions hit the core question of our human life making us think about why we are here, what our purpose is and why we have the chance to even think about it. I have so much information to pull from: my philosophical training gives me answers and more questions, my theological training provides all the answers I should ever need, and my experience shows both to have valid answers and the questions to remain... But, as Socrates said, "An unexamined life is not worth living," so I am taking some time to look at my life. The purpose behind what I do and why, is what I really am looking for. Yeah, I have the easy answer that I wish I could ...

I keep wondering if spring is actually going to show up this year. We keep going from nice to nasty, nice to nasty, rinse, repeat, annoy the crud out of me! Talk about fun, we were even supposed to get snow last night after being in the 70's Saturday and a warm morning into early afternoon Sunday. My knees are not happy. Every winter I reach this point where I just cannot stand the cold, bleak, dark days any more. I reach the end of my rope and need something different. Not only that, but I need the new to arrive. I cannot sit around and see the death that strikes nature every year without the glimmer of hope, otherwise life degenerates into meaninglessness. But, the joy, the hope that I see is new life. It isn't just a guess, it's a promise. We know that the flowers will bloom, the trees will bud, things will become green and life will continue. We know this to be true, yet while we're here in the bleak, winter landscape it's hard to see beyond that to th...

As we move into a new day, it dawns on me again how thankful I should be for another chance to breath, think, live, and be. It's also a new day to see what God has in store for me as a minster and for my students. Not only that, but as we embark on citywide youth adventure number two (737 at the Middle School too, not just the High School) I am excited! The new song from Passion, God of This City, has me so stoked. The refrain comes around: "Greater things are yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city..." That resonates with me on so many levels. First is the fact that it is about this city, not just First Presby, or First Baptist, First Christian, or New Life, or First United Methodist. I work with a phenomenal group of youth workers who are passionately driven to see God's kingdom come here in El Dorado. They are SO not driven by personal kingdom growth (meaning their church and their youth group) and it is such an awesome thing to see ...

It's a funny thing going back "home." After a visit to our old stomping grounds in Hutchinson this weekend, I realize again how temporary things can seem to make enormous change in our lives. Today I experienced the loss of something, an undefinable longing, that made no sense to my mind, but was nonetheless palpable and real. It was the sense of looking for a permanent anchor, the sense that things are not the way the were, combined with the people who still care so deeply for me and my family (although some didn't realize we had even moved! They assumed we were going to one of the other 6 services throughout the weekend...). But, the longing for home (even though Hutch was only home for a few years) was still there. The desire to find what we had thought would/could be permanent, when it was only temporal. To return to the church we thought needed us so deeply, only to realize again that it was we who needed the church. Most interesting of all (and deeply fri...

I know I'd been doing this series of posts on "Problems with God" but, as life has a way of doing, it interrupts our best laid plans. My interruption wasn't pretty, nor has it been fun, but it was something that made me think, a lot. Our lives are filled with interruptions, but it's how we respond that makes us who we are. Some interruptions are good things: marriage, kids, good news, church, etc. Other interruptions are bad things: our screw ups, others screw ups, death, sickness, grief, church, etc. But, each interruption leads us to a place where we must change. When our life is interrupted, the path we were on can be returned to, but we will not be the same because of that momentary (or momentous) interruption. We'll unpack some interruptions and where they lead as well as Jesus' response to life's little interruptions. First, the interruption in my life most recently dealt with someone else's screw up. Yeah, that screw up affected me, b...