Why Do...

Why do:

...3-prong electrical outlets look like block heads who are appalled, or scared, or dead? And why do we have to stick prongs in their face? Is there a group out there, like PETA, who looks out for the electrical outlets? What about PETO? Who's on board?

...People misspell/misuse words on commercials? I can understand we are not all perfect and not all English majors or grammar freaks, but if you are spending big money and hiring people to help, shouldn't there be a standard of excellence we are upholding? For example, I saw that commercial the other day where a girl walks by and the guy uses his camera phone to zoom in to see her and the girl across from him texts him and says, "...YOUR a pig!" For all you grammar wizards out there, this should actually be "...YOU'RE a pig!" Grant it, we are in a texting and IM world, but like I said, where's the standard in the professional world?

...TV stations put full episodes online for people to watch? Don't they know that this is the very reason people get addicted to shows? Ok, so this one is actually awesome. Sonia and I have been watching Lost and are addicted. They have seasons 1, 2, and 3 online and since we missed all of that, we are starting from the beginning. If you can spare a couple weeks of your life, catch up on this show or any other online show and you won't regret it.

...good deals have to come with a catch? The new iPhone is coming out in 12 days. You may or may not have heard that the cost of the phone has been cut in half and is supposed to be twice as fast on the internet (if your area has the 3G network). Awesome, right? Wrong. They are increasing the cost of the REQUIRED data package by $10, which means an extra $120/year. So, in all actuality, you will be paying MORE than the people who bought the original iPhone for high cost. I guess with newer things, you have to expect more money, but why tease and manipulate the common folk by saying it's half the price and twice as fast? It's probably twice as slow... And yes, I'll probably still get one, damn it...

...quality cars break down and crappy cars continue to last and get crappier? Sonia's car is a Buick and seemingly in pretty good condition. Mine is a Geo and looks like it's going to rust into nothingness. Her car continues to have costly and annoying problems, while mine keeps running and rusting. I really don't think it's because it's a Geo. It is kind of ironic, though.

The End.

Walking Wisely in a Fool's World

"so watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times! Don't live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants." ~ Eph. 5:15-17 (The Message)

"Walking wisely in a fool's world" was the theme of the week of camp that I was just at last week. A good friend of mine and I went to a Christian camp in western Illinois to lead worship for a 5th and 6th grade week. All I can say about that week was that it was AWESOME! There were some downsides (like the fact that my lovely wife was not able to go and I had to suffer without her and tornadoes were a probable threat some nights and seemed scarier after the tragedy at the boyscout camp in Iowa), but for the most part it was good. We learned a lot about walking wisely in a fool's world -- making wise decisions, choosing good friends, etc.

Now some would say that me and Chip (my friend who played drums with me that week) were fools for spending a week with 5th and 6th graders; teaching them about Jesus, worshiping together, and investing in their lives. Some would say it is foolish to follow a God that we cannot see and who seems non-existent when disaster strikes. However, this week only affirmed more that we were indeed making a difference in a fool's world. While there were times during the week where I could not take much more insanity, it was one of the wisest choices Chip and I could make. We were able to learn a lot and hopefully teach these kids a lot just by our example and being there to serve them. I had a blast working alongside my good friend Keith Ehresman and learning from him as well.

And so, live for Christ and walk as if every day was your last. Choose wisely as many will call you foolish and worse names. The reward for the persecuted and those who choose Jesus daily will be more than worth the verbal (and sometimes physical) punishment we receive here. Our God is a God of love. Walk wisely brothers and sisters as we strive toward the same purpose and aspirations...

Finally, here's some funny quotes from kids and such during the week. Classic stuff.

- "What size shoe do you wear? I wear about a 36." ~ Kyle (a 6th grader with normal feet)
- "Did you guys see the comet? It was heading for Japan. I'm glad it's heading for Japan." ~ Kyle
- *A girl pokes me in the stomach* "That's not fat, those are ABS!" ~ a 5th grade girl
- "You guys are the best band EVER! You're even better than Green Day!" ~ Ryan
- "Chip has to chug this mustard and...why don't you chug the ketchup, Aaron?" ~ Keith (after Chip got a package and had to do something funny to get it)
- "Belly flop! Belly flop! Belly flop!" (followed by a belly flop from me and Chip) ~ evil chant

It's Time For a Happy Post...

I've been looking back at some of my older posts and realize I've had a lot of complaining and deeper posts. It's time for a happy post.

Without further delay, here are the random thoughts of life that are making me happy:

1) The weather is getting consistently warmer, the sun is shining, house and lawn projects are getting done, and we are finally getting "settled" into our new house.

2) I sold my XBOX 360 for a number of reasons and that made me sad. But then I rekindled my love for the Super Nintendo and great games like Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball, Donkey Kong Country (1, 2, AND 3!); and hopefully I can find Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles somewhere. Classic system...classic fun.

3) The Cubs are in first place and have been consistently staying there (more or less). What else could I ask for?

4) I realized that I can now do drywall stuff which may come in handy someday. I feel proud of myself.

5) Of all the high gas prices in the country, ours have mostly stayed under $4, and that's okay with me (I'm an optimist)...for now.

That's all. It's been a good past few months. We have really been enjoying life and I couldn't feel more blessed with a great wife, great job, and great community to continue encouraging me.

Let's hope the next post isn't a sad one...

Pretending to Make a Noise

Relient K has a song called "Gibberish" and it literally is a song full of gibberish. Sometimes we all talk gibberish, or nonsense, or whining, or begging, etc. The chorus of the song repeats this line over and over: "Stop talking gibberish and just stop talking." That says it all. And so does the picture.

Not only did my mom and grandma say this many times to me, I'm pretty sure James warned us about this in James 3 when he personifies the tongue as a flame, a rudder, a horse-bit, an un-tamable beast, a wild killer, and a confused spring, tree, and well.

"It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell."

I am a huge fan of positive noise. I couldn't be more against people who pretend to make a noise. When the noise is rightly placed, it can sound beautiful, encouraging, and empowering. When a noise is wrong placed, it is simply...a clanging gong. I've met both types of people. The thing about the posers is that there often is no solution to the whining, complaining, discouraging, and power-sucking. Now those who know how to make noise, know how to solve problems and offer tangible and realistic solutions. The saying, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" applies because it offers a solution. When someone comes to me and complains because the communion table was moved and blames others for "moving God aside," I have to wonder where the solution is. Usually their solution is move it back or I'm going to REALLY raise some hell about this. I have always been a solutions person. Let's not worry about how we got there; let's worry about where we got in the first place and then evaluate.

Of course, before you make a noise at all--positive or negative--you have to decide if it's willing to even say anything at all. Are you ready to fight about simple aesthetics while people are starving outside our doors for Jesus and healing? What battles are you willing to die fighting for? And that is for a whole other blog post.

So what type are you? Do you make noise because sometimes the "room" is too quiet; or do you pretend to make noise and hurt peoples' ears (and morals) with a clanging and hurtful gong? I would hope I am the first, but I'm sure, as a drummer, I've made some pretty crappy noise in my life. God forgive me for pretending to make a noise and sucking the life out of so many people and situations.

"And none of us is perfectly qualified. We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you'd have a perfect person, in perfect control of life."

S.W.O.B. - Learning From Our Weaknesses

Today, I'm in an all-staff, all-day, all-mind-zapping, planning day! Yay...

Seriously, my mindset coming into this was not necessarily positive. I have been to school and classes and lectures and conferences and all-day events tend to drain me. Also, the overall outcome is usually boredom. We started the meeting with prayer and devotion (which was a great way to start this day), and then moved right on to an evaluation time.

Let me step back a few years. In 2006, I went to an awesome conference called Catalyst in Atlanta, GA. It is a conference packed full of great speakers (Christian and non-Christian) to help empower church leaders throughout the world. The line-up this year is pretty cool as well (www.catalystconference.com). Anyway, in 2006, there was a speaker named Marcus Buckingham. And yes...he's British. Marcus is a businessman and spoke to us as if we were businessmen. He preached of using our weaknesses to make us strong. Today's society, he argued, is telling us differently. We use our strengths to make us stronger and we try to push our weaknesses aside and get over it. It's all about being better.

And so, today, I sit here amongst great people -- the staff of this church and we evaluate ourselves. We are using a formula called S.W.O.B. to help us be honest. That acronym (not the strep throat test) stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Barriers.
Then, we take four areas and apply them to this acronym: Mission, Worship, Spiritual Formation, and Community. The questions are how effective are we at these four areas. The presumption was that it would be easier to talk about our strengths than our weaknesses. Amazingly, we have been filling the board with weaknesses, while our strengths are overwhelmingly strong. Now, the easiest thing to do would be to draw the line at strengths and weaknesses and see that we have more weaknesses and hate ourselves and say we suck. The great thing is that Marcus Buckingham and this S.W.O.B. method allow for more than that. The opportunities allow us to look at our weaknesses and act on them. The barriers allow us to know what might get in our way. This doesn't mean it will, but it might.

I'm actually loving this. We are planting seeds as a leadership to build strength from our weaknesses. When we are honest with ourselves, we learn more about ourselves. Humility is more important than greatness. We will truly grow from this as a church, a staff, a people, a community, a city, a world, a Kingdom.

Pray for us for the rest of this day as we continue to dream, expect, and act. May you learn from your weaknesses to grow your strengths. We will always fall short, so let's not ignore that. Let's learn from it.

The Chick Flick Formula

Alright, I promised my wife I would post this, so here it is. It's nothing new; I've heard it used before. However, I told Sonia about it a month or so ago and she claimed I was insane and even had the tenacity to tell me I was wrong. :) Since then, she has not been able to prove her point and I have...multiple times.

Here's the deal...there's a formula when it comes to chick flicks. I have to admit that I can handle a good chick flick from time to time (as long as she watches Braveheart with me). However, it gets very predictable after time. Take the following list as an example.

In my opinion, for a movie to be a chick flick, it has to follow these guidelines and qualifications:

1) Two separate stories with bad relationships or botched relationships in the past.
2) By some freak accident, event, coincidence, etc., these two stories collide and it's love at first sight (even if they don't "show" it at first e.g. 10 Things I Hate About You).
3) Through time spent around each other, things start to click.
4) As they start to get close and you think nothing could go wrong (except for Meet the Parents), something goes wrong (Murphy's Law?).
5) They fight and split ways and spend the next few days or hours crying, splurging, drinking, etc.
6) An epiphany happens either through self-reflection or friends or mothers and the girl or guy has to go win the other back.
7) Cue the cheesy music and the couple reunites with tears in the eyes. The one who screwed up apologizes profusely and begs to take him/her back.
8) With jubilee, they embrace, make out, and go home and make babies...or something like that.

It happens again and again in chick flick after chick flick. I told Sonia about this and she agreed but decided to make it her mission to prove me wrong. Basically, still waiting...

I'm so putting this up on Wikipedia for the "Chick Flick Formula." I bet that wouldn't get edited at all...

Tradition Is A Cult

The title of this post came from a man I respect fully and have gone to with many problems I am wrestling with--my father-in-law, Bob Marshall. I am wrestling with this thing called tradition right now. To be honest, I've been wrestling with it for the last 8 years or more. I grew up in a Lutheran church and tradition is what it was built upon. We stood when we were told to stand, we knelt when we were told to kneel, we spoke when we were told to speak. You get the idea. The organ took up half the church and banners, robes, and pews identified this church. By about my freshman year in high school, some of these things didn't make sense to me and bored the crap out of me. I looked for something different and found it in a little church down the road from where I lived. Little did I know then, I wasn't much further from tradition as close-minded thinking, comfortability, and power-driven elders defined them.

I'm sure we've all seen tradition in one form or another in churches around us. If you're like me (and I'm not saying you are), these churches probably make you shudder and run the other direction. After talking to Bob Marshall some more, he told me, "People's faith lie in tradition." Of course this upsets me because I know it's true. I know that people's faith SHOULD lie in Christ alone. Isn't that what Christ would want from us?

Now I have been known to "rock the boat" from time to time. If there is one thing I can't stand...it's tradition. The problem the Pharisees had was their tradition. Their faith was soaked in it. When Jesus came along and rocked the boat, they fought with a vengeance to defend their "faith." Bob explained further, "If you rock people's tradition, you rock their faith." It's too bad it comes to that. I hate that it comes to that. When I meet people who are Pharisaic in thinking, I want to just slap them and tell them to grow up. Nonetheless, I think I need to turn the slapping hand back toward myself.

I find myself putting my own tradition in non-tradition. All of a sudden, if someone wants me to change the way I think about things, I will defend it with all my life. I guess I'm more of a Pharisee than I thought at times. The real challenge is to find the balance. I'm not talking about a blended thinking, but a balanced thinking. Jesus didn't come to establish a new religion. He came to establish a new thinking about religion. He didn't want people's faith to lie in tradition. He wanted their faith to lie in Him. When we're doing this, we find it's no longer about what we want. It makes things a lot easier. If a church is going to try to reach people for Christ, they need to put themselves aside--along with their traditions--and put Christ in front--along with His teachings. Jesus never wanted us to be traditionalists or non-traditionalists. He wanted us to be Christ-followers.