an idea whose time has come

I recently purchased Glory Road on DVD. It's in the middle of a line of inspirational, based-on-a-real-story movies put out by Disney, that seems to be a trend now. That's fine because I like them quite a bit. This particular one is about how a coach named Don Haskins took a little known school called Texas Western (now UTEP) to win the NCAA championship and legitimized black basketball players in the NCAA, who up until that point had been discriminated against in this area.

Because of this discrimination, Coach Haskins plays only his black players in the championship game against Coach Rupp's University of Kentucky. This game was one of the greatest upsets in NCAA history and one of the most important games in the history of basketball. An interview with Pat Riley (one of the Kentucky players) showed how the true importance of that game wasn't seen until later on when history started talking about it. Of course blacks were/are competent enough physically and mentally to play in the NCAA.

All of this to introduce the topic. You cannot stop an idea whose time has come. "God chose an interesting venue to take care of this problem," said Pat Riley in the same interview. It wasn't until later that they realized the game was about more than just a college championship. You can say the same thing about several things in America's history. One is the automobile roughly 100 years ago. And now there is the internet, and how much that has become and will be a part of our lives.

Are you a visionary? Can you see the trends? Can you see what is right (as in the case of blacks playing in the NCAA)? Or are you like one of those people 100 years ago who said, "An automobile?! Nobody is going to want that!" Let's all learn and grow together.

what's your mission statement?

As some of you know, I was at a leadership conference recently in KY. So much speaking- but really good. One of the speakers, Chuck Goetschel, who I admire a lot, gave one of the most meaningful talks that weekend. He first listed a bunch of words and told us to circle the six that meant the most to us:

integrity
influence
love
justice
success
spirituality
friendship
truth
authenticity
wisdom
legacy
peace
power
wealth
joy
happiness
recognition
family
career
fame
status
(there may have been a couple more words but I missed them)

Next, he told us to cross out three of the six we circled that don't mean as much. Ones that we could do without more than the other three. Then we ordered the three that were left- 1 being the most important one to us. We then set goals by defining what each of those three remaining words meant to us personally.

This is one way of writing down your life's mission statement. What is most important to you? Most people won't write this down, which is why most people don't fulfill their life's purpose. I hope all of you do this at some point.

It doesn't stop there. We then have to set priorities on the things we do and choices we make daily. Every choice should be bridging the gap from the present to our future destination determined by the goals we wrote down. The way Chuck set priorities was with ABCs. A's are things we absolutely have to do today because it is in line with my mission. B's are things that are somewhat important. There are some consequences if I do not accomplish them today. And C's have no consequences if not accomplished today.

Finally, we have to stay the course. Don't stick with doing the things not in line with your mission. Stephen Covey compares the combination of things that are/are not important and urgent:


1) important/not urgent
2) important/urgent
3) not important/not urgent
4) not important/urgent


Most people stay focused on #4, doing not important, urgent things. We should really should be spending more time focused on #1, doing important, non-urgent things. Of course there will be times when urgent things come up, whether they are important or not, and we can do those. But our main focus should be on what's important.

I encourage you to at least start off and find the words that mean the most to you and define what they personally mean to you. Mine were love, justice, and integrity. If any of you do write those down, please let me know. I'd love to have a conversation with you.

The Gods Aren't Angry Tour

Last night I saw Rob Bell on the opening night of his new tour, The Gods Aren't Angry. It was a sold-out crowd at the Vic. Lots of young adults, but others as well. I met my friend, Jill (who came into town), Kim, and her roommate (also named Kim) before the show. There were a few others who I knew were going that I didn't get to see there at all.

Those of you who have read Rob Bell's books and/or seen him speak know that he does both in a similar fashion. He has a way of putting things into context that you don't hear too often, which is why I've read his books and heard him speak. He mixes a good bunch of history from other religions, personal stories, and Christian faith into great messages.

This tour was like that, first introducing us to numerous gods from other cultures. Wherever you go, you end up sacrificing more for them. Here's why. You are dependent on these outside forces or gods to provide the right amount of sunlight and rain to grow crops that you eat. If conditions didn't provide enough crops, you felt that you had not pleased these gods enough, so you sacrifice more. If the conditions provided an abundance of crops, you gave more to show your appreciation to the gods. And there were plenty more gods you would depend on for other needs and wants. But they were up there doing their own thing.

Along comes Abraham. He is in this system of sacrificing gods and depends on them. He relied on his father to know this system in the region he lived in. Then all of a sudden, God speaks to him and tells him to leave his family. What? God is someone who is not only in touch with what is happening on the earth but actually speaks to a human? And leave the system of gods Abraham is familiar with to an unknown place? The idea seemed crazy.

Travel ahead several years when God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, up in the mountains. At first glance, this is a story of God testing Abraham's faith. Why was their no resentment or questioning on how to do it? Maybe because it was a common practice. But who in their right mind would sacrifice their firstborn? I've heard it said multiple times that this story is not necessarily about Abraham's faith. One pastor said it was about showing faith to his doubting family that thought he was crazy. Rob Bell suggested it was to show a glimpse of who this God is, since he stops Abraham from killing Isaac. Why is this significant? In a history of gods that demand (or atleast seem to demand) sacrifices, this God stops this sacrifice and provided a way out.

Bell went on to around the year 30 A.D. The main temple (in Jerusalem?) had a huge altar. During Passover, there would be thousands of animals slaughtered for sacrifice on this altar. In entered Jesus, and he claimed that if you tear "this temple" down, He would rebuild it in 3 days. Sure...it took us some 46 odd years to build this temple (and still not finished yet) but you will rebuild it in 3 days?

But the main idea here, just as with the story of Abraham and Isaac, is that we are following a God who provides. A God who has ideas of being close to His people that are way ahead of its time. A God who does not follow the ways of lower case gods.

In Hebrews, the writer calls every sacrifice before that of Christ was not desired by God, nor was He pleased with them. But it was required by the law. A few verses later, that Christ's sacrifice made us holy once and for all (Heb 10:5-10).

Are these gods gone today, or do we merely call them different things? As usual, Bell had plenty of personal stories to share about those with depression, attempted suicide, went through face surgery, faced burn out, felt shame, guilt, and so on. These gods aren't gone. They can control our lives, if we let them, or seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.


That's basically what I remember about what he said, with a couple of other thoughts in there. If he is coming to a town near you, go see him! If not, pick up one of his books, Velvet Elvis or Sex.God., or one of his Nooma DVDs.

What's in your basement?

***Here's a blog I wrote awhile ago that bears repeating about age and pursuing goals.

What's in your basement?
Current mood: bored
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

I recently saw Rocky Balboa with my buddy Luke. He's quite the Rocky fan and I'm certainly a fan also. Besides this new Rocky movie, I hear he's doing a new Rambo movie too. We'll see how that goes. This new Rocky movie is pretty decent though. Sylvester Stallone had a big hand in the creative process- writing, directing, and starring in the underdog role again.

Stallone has become quite public with his beliefs too. He did a lot of promos and interviews for Christian media. He keeps saying that Rocky Balboa is not a boxing movie. The strong themes, including perseverance and fighting the good fight, are what the movie is really about. There is quite a lot of Christian marketing material for the film too. In fact, the same company that did Chronicles of Narnia. It's funny because they keep making the point that it's not a Christian movie- which I could write a blog about in itself, but I won't.

There's a point in the movie where everybody is questioning why Rocky wants to come back and do a boxing match. Among the reasons, Rocky says there is something more in him, "in his basement," that he needs to get out. "What? You haven't peaked yet?" asks Paulie. At first, it sounds a bit weird and maybe childish. But let's compare him to a biblical character named Caleb:

10 "Now then, just as the LORD promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! 11 I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. 12 Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said." (Joshua 14:10-12)
Mark Gorman, a speaker I like very much, talked about this passage once. Basically, he opened up saying, "Here's a guy, 85, willing to pick a fight." Despite the differences, I see two men here with very similar hearts- Rocky and Caleb. Rocky, in his late 50s (pushing 60 shortly) wanting to get back into the ring. Caleb, not weary from battles and just plain wandering around in the desert for 40 years, at age 80, ready for battle.

I always tell people that age is a mental state of being. And that I would not tell people I feel old until I'm atleast 80. Well now with Caleb in the picture it looks like I have to wait until I'm atleast 85. When my friends tell me they are getting old I just laugh at them because it's ridiculous! 45 years since he surveyed the land, Caleb claims he is still as strong and ready to fight for it.

So what's in your basement? The day you quit battling for something, you're dead. So what should you fight for? Find what you are passionate about. Find wherever God wants you to serve and whatever God wants you to fight for. Because when you stop fighting, you might as well "lie down and pick out what flowers you want," as Mark Gorman says. Don't settle for mediocrity or status quo. Learn who you are, what you are called to do, and fight for it.

blessings

***Reading through this again, I clearly needed to hear that last paragraph again. Please pray for my heart and actions to change at work and the rest of my life.

out the box

Disclaimer: I am not putting down any experiences or groups that I have experiences or been a part of. These are just ideas I would like to see materialize.


I've checked out a few young adult groups the past several months. They have generally been good. Great worship music. Passionate speaking. Definitely encouraging. But painfully familiar.

Anyone who knows me knows I hardly like to do the same thing in the same way. As great as these young adults group are, I feel like they don't really make me come alive nearly often enough or as much as they should. Part of that reason is that a lot of them are pretty much the same. Worship music time. Prayer time. Speaking time. Hang out and fellowship afterwards. Again, nothing wrong with that but I have been going to church programs with the same format since high school, probably even jr. high. What if young adults could come together in different ways, different settings, but still fully devoted to Jesus Christ?

I thought about this for a bit tonight and I always have thought about it every now and then. For example, why not have bible study in a coffee shop or a bar? Getting together at a secular music show? Why not rent out a room at Vision night club and have fun there. Pray with people from the group there. Perhaps meet new people and offer to pray for them too?

Obviously some of these ideas don't really have the room to get very intimate with the Lord or deep into prayer. First off, a lot of prayer should be done beforehand. Second, one needs to make judgement calls and be accountable for certain decisions. If someone has an alcoholic problem, certainly they need to be held accountable should they choose to be at such a venue with a young adult group.

This is really just the first time I'm writing these ideas down so there will probably be more in the future. I'm sure there are some people, some groups that are doing stuff like this. They are just harder to find. Any thoughts?

faith like a child

At the church I work at, I sometimes sit in with the kindergardeners during their Chinese school time. Although I have only gone a few times, two different boys have done actions that remind me what faith in God should look like. The first boy just came up to me and gave me a kiss on the cheek at various points during the class. The second boy (a different day) came up and gave me a hug. Then he came over to sit on my lap during various times of the class.

Keep in mind, these are boys that I just met on those mornings. Yet they showed love and trust to me. Sometimes I wish my love and trust in God was more simple and pure like that. No gimmicks or inner complexities. Just a child who feels comforted in the hands of the Father. Think about that. And listen to "Like a Child" off of Jars of Clay's first album.