caffeine, please.

Love your neighbor

This is what love looks like:

When my husband and I were engaged, we planned our wedding in 3 months.  One afternoon we were sorting out the next twenty tasks to complete.  He hadn't called the bakery about the cake, and he still hadn't finished the guest list.  With annoyance dripping out of every pore, I cut into him with all the shame and blame I could conjure up.  How dare he drop the ball and ruin my afternoon.  Now I would have to pick up after his incompetence! 

After my verbal assault, he sat quietly with disbelief and pain in his eyes.  I expected he would scold me for my tirade, but he didn't.  Al he said was, "Jonalyn, is that how you talk to yourself?"  I was silent, stunned.

Then, slowly, I nodded and began to weep long and hard, realizing that this wasn't the good life, it wasn't the abundant life Jesus offered.  But it was the only way I knew to be a model Christian woman planning a model wedding.

It was the first time someone took time to notice the person behind my judgmental words.  He saw the state of my soul.  He swallowed his own pain long enough to see that there was something self-destructive eating me.  To get anything done right, to be holy, to stay pure, to walk the straight and narrow, I condemned myself into obedience...

Dale was the first person who saw my mess and refused to demand an instant cleanup party.  He saw where I was.  And he still married me, not to rescue me, but to join me in this journey into abundant life.  (UnChristian, p. 203-204)

"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her..."

"Love your neighbor as yourself..."

The power of sleep

Last night as I was snuggling my almost 9 year old son, I said to him, "buddy, I wish I could go to sleep right now too." 

With simple clarity he said, "why don't you?"  Very difficult to argue with simple clarity.

So I did (go to sleep, that is).  It was 9:15.  I haven't not seen 9:16pm in quite a long time. 

I woke up this morning feeling, as my friend Nate quoting Kramer says, "mossy!"  I felt alive, refreshed and with a totally new outlook. 

I'm an avowed "6 hours a night" guy.  But sometimes, especially as I am in the middle of training, a good nights sleep can do wonders.  As I prayed over my kids before walking out the door to my day, I felt fueled with a renewal of faith and joy. 

Old school

During the summer we do some sort of family outing every Friday.  Its called "family day" (big points for name creativity, right?) and the goal is to make memories and enjoy time together. 

This Friday we headed over to the Lombard Roller Rink.  For Gil and I this was like walking through a time tunnel back to our elementary and junior high school days.  And one of the first songs we skated to yesterday was "Billy Jean" by Michael Jackson.  Is it 1985 or what?!

After 2+ hours of skating, Gil and I are pretty sore (a sure sign that it is not 1985) but we all had a blast.  We're already scheming on an Old School Skating Party sponsored by the church.   I think we'll need to tie in an 80's fashion theme.

(note: the jostle at the end is where I almost ran over a 10 year old. whoops.)

2 Chapters

I like clarifying questions.

Questions like, "if you were marooned on a dessert island and could only have 2 things, what would they be." 

I asked myself a similar question recently.  "If I could only have two printed chapters from the entire bible for the rest of my life, what would they be?"  Hmmmmm. 

Its not a fair question and probably not a very realistic one either, but it is a helpful clarifying question.

My two chapters, if I was forced to decide today, would be Colossians 1 and 1 Corinthians 15.  (I admit that John 11 is in a virtual tie with Colossians 1 but the tiebreaker is that I could reproduce John 11 from memory more readily than Colossians 1.)

• Colossians 1 because it makes the most succinct and clear statement of Jesus as fully God and great above all else.
• 1 Corinthians 15 because it clarifies the heart and soul of the Gospel, the resurrection.  And because it honestly says, "either you believe the resurrection is true and all the rest of the Bible and following Jesus matters, or you don't and none of it matters." 

As I asked our men's group on Wednesday, what would your 2 chapters be?

Don't be that guy

Tyce and I had a "Don't be that guy" (DBTG) date last night.  I had to run to the Lincoln Park building for a couple meetings in the evening so he and I grabbed our ball gloves and went a bit early to play catch.  On our way we accomplished the "DBTG" portion of our date.  (The general point of DBTG is for people to look at our strange behavior and say, "don't be that guy.") 

With the Proclaimers "I'm Gonna Be (500 miles)" blaring and the windows down we were loudly singing the "dadadalada, dadadalada" part to everyone we passed by.  This kind of behavior is not normal to Lincoln Park before midnight and minus alcohol so I'm sure we had some strange looks.  

Olivia talks about wanting to go on a DBTG date all the time.  I suppose I'll need to take her soon even though technically she's not "a guy"--but I suppose we can still satisfy the spirit of the date--acting like a fool in the eye of the public.

At some point I suppose I'll be able to make a spiritual application to the DBTG dates.  For now though, we're just having fun being fools.

Tears

Spent some time in tears today.  Its become more common for me lately.  Also spent time today with a man who shed tears--he's dealing with a cataclysmic life change and was sharing the fears he has about his future.  

I was talking with a ministry friend a few nights ago and sharing that I believe God is inviting me to welcome tears, even to seek Him for tears.  Never really thought I'd say that.  Seeking tears? 

Thoughts about tears brought me back to a chapter Watchman Nee wrote in Spiritual Authority entitled Tears.  I remember him saying that tears are essential to the life of any man of God.  I remember dismissing that at the time.  I don't anymore.

I'm not going to lay out a theology of tears right now but I think I need to figure out one.

Apparently I'm trying to compensate...

...for the departure of Ebert and Roeper by becoming a lame movie critic.  just noticed two movie reviews in a row.  ahh, well.

Dark Knight

If you are keeping score at home, Dark Knight is currently ranked ahead of every other movie ever made on the ubiquitous imdb.com.  Your average movie-goer loves this film.  So does your average critic (with the exception of my favorite contrarian, Nick Digilio.) 

Frankly, I think 9.5 out of 10 is too high.  It feels like a hype wave.  "This movie is GREAT because we ALL keep saying its so great." 

I saw the movie and it is a solid 7 or 8.  The story was well written, Heath Ledger is as advertised, some of the themes are provocative and the featuring of Chicago is a big plus for this movie watcher.  I wanted it to be great but for me, it was good, not great.

Here are some of my takeaways:

• "We thought we could be decent men in an indecent time."  That's a great line from Harvey Dent.
• The Joker is a very provocative type of Satan.  His only real motivation is chaos with destruction.  He has no interest in anyone, including it seems, himself.  He simply wants everything to be wrong.
• I love Michael Caine as Alfred and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox.  These two characters provide wisdom and direction to Bruce Wayne that is often truly profound.
• One of the things running through my mind as I watched the film was the similarity between Gotham and the tone of the book of Judges.  In fact, Batman reminds me of the flawed heroes of the Judges.  I want to explore this more to help people appropriate our Judges series this Fall.
• The idea of Batman as the anti-hero who absorbs the anger of the people for the greater good reminds me that all great stories draw from biblical themes of sacrifice and redemption.  I think these grand themes are embedded in us through the image of God and that is why people write such stories.

One final note--this movie is fairly dark and violent.  Kids should not be seeing this movie. 

A compelling take on WALL*E

This post from Kamp Krusty is a take on WALL*E that has the ring of truth.  I encourage you to take a read...

Finished?  Great.

It reminds me of the fact the powerful and great art can tell True Story without having to whack people over the head and insult their intelligence. 

Dude

Living in my house is like living in a Budweiser beer commercial.  (Wow--we could go in a lot of different directions at this point in the post so let me land this quickly...)  My wife and I have settled into this shorthand with each other and with the kids:

"Dude!"
"Dude?"
"Dewdddd!!!" [our Belgian attempt]
"Doooood."

I'm not proud but you get the picture.

Fear

I'm reading unChristian.  As I've said before, a must read for anyone who wants to understand what the culture is thinking about Christians and their churches. 

As I'm reading the chapter called, "Anti Homosexual" about the pervasive perception that Christians are against homosexual people, it strikes me--why are Christians so often defined by our fears? 

We are supposed to be people who aren't ruled by our fears.  A people of courage.  Hebrews 11, anyone?

Yet every time I get an outlandish or ridiculous email about the latest thing to fear, its coming from a Christian friend.  And the people who seem to be inordinately popular among supposed Christians on radio and TV seem driven by fear--"if so-and-so is elected, chaos will ensue".  Anti-homosexual feelings and expressions also seem, at least to this observer, to be driven by fear--"If I get to close to gay people, I might catch homosexuality."

If "greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world" is true, then it seems to me that we should not be so disproportionately defined by fear. 

Shouldn't it be our fearlessness that we're known for? Fearless to love people who know one wants to be near?  Fearless to face pain that no one else will face?  Fearless to implant ourselves into places that no one else will choose to live?  Fearless to sacrifice ourselves in ways that no one else will sacrifice?  Fearless of the future in faithful confidence of the one who holds our lives and the future in His hand?  Even fearless about death itself?

In the word association game, when I say "Christian" shouldn't you say, "fearless"?  A reputation of "they know God is with them so they never seem to be afraid of circumstances or people"? 

J.B. Phillips entitled one of his books, You're God is Too Small. 

Maybe he's right?

Back in the saddle

Between vacation time, vacation catch up time and a desire to be a little less wired this summer, I've been obviously quiet in the last 14 days.  But as Gene Autry sings, I'm back in the saddle again.  (Actually, he sings, "I'll be back in the saddle again" so I probably shouldn't say, "as Gene Autry sings" since I'm messing with the tense of his verbs.  What a dilemma.)

To make up for it, here's Gene Autry, back in the saddle.  Yippee Kai Yai Oh.  Enjoy.

Your mission: deliver groceries

Tomorrow Gil, the kids and I will be doing grocery delivery with Lakeview Pantry.  10:30am to about noon. 

This is one of the newer ways that we are doing Missio Dei as a family.  Lakeview Pantry is a non-religious org that provides help to people in need of food.  Doing grocery delivery is kingdom infusion--followers of Jesus working shoulder to shoulder with whomever serving whomever. 

If you want to join us, bring a car and a co-pilot and meet us tomorrow at the pantry at 10:30am.  Feel free to email me if you want a few more details.

WALL*E

Took the kids and my nieces to see WALL*E tonight.  You've probably heard that the film has very little dialogue, especially in the first 30 minutes.  On the way home I was commenting to my wife how impressed I was with storytellers who captivate without using any words. 

"That's how I think of animators, though.  That's their gift--to tell stories through pictures," was Gil's reply.  And she's right (and succinctly insightful, as usual).  But its not my gift--telling stories without words--so I remain impressed.  Its a good film for anyone to see and part social commentary.  Makes you shudder at the rapid advancements of "convenience".  Kind of like the "Feed Bag" news piece from the Onion a few weeks ago.

During our down time in MI I'm plowing through a couple books--UnChristian and The Shaping of Things to Come.  UnChristian in particular seems like an important book.  Both seem to follow naturally (if accidentally) from this past Sunday's Secrets of the Kingdom message, Mission Dei out of Matthew 13.  I think the Parable of the Weeds has just moved to the front of the pack of my favorite parables--right pasthe parable of the unfaithful steward.

Men and mission

This morning was our third men's leadership small group gathering.  One of the highlights of my week!  These 15 men who gather at 6:30am are hungry to grow and are really appropriating the group material in their life. 

Last week I had them complete an online leadership assessment.  One of the men brought his assessment results to work and reviewed them with his entire staff team--how's that for transparent leadership!

A wife came to me the other day and thanked me for the group because the scripture memory component has provoked her and she's joined her husband.  She's excited that they're memorizing the bible together.

I guess I'm rediscovering that men respond to challenge.  Early mornings.  Homework.  Scripture memory.  High expectation to grow.  Missional prayer time.  A good recipe for men.  I'm praying for 3 men's small groups to rise out of this one group.  I'll probably lead one of them and I'm asking God for two other teams to lead the other two groups.

I'm convinced that men must assume roles of missional leadership if the church is to be a force that makes a difference in the world.  My heart has been refocused on that fact through the group. 

Developments

Two to share...

1. Our www.newlifechicago.org website redevelopment has a schedule and a quality QB keeping us moving.  Rolland Sue who developed and manages the Willow Creek Association website among others is at the helm.  This site will be a major upgrade from our current site.  Details and dates as we move forward.
2. The Multi Site Exposed (www.newlifechicago.org) conference in September is coming up fast and we are close to publishing breakout and mains session titles and doing some heavy promoting.  Really praying for a big turnout, especially from the city, at this conference. 
   • If you are a church staff member or pastor in Chicago and need a price break, drop me an email.
   • If you are a New Lifer who would like to use a vacation day to volunteer on either September 15 or 16 (and attend the conference for free), drop me an email.  (link is in the left margin)

Reflections

I'm playing catch up today--its been a busy couple days. 

• Jaley came back from camp Saturday--really great to see her again after 7 days away.  She was bug-bitten and ready to go back again next year.
• Saturday Gil and I ended up playing "emergency coordinator" for a group of people traveling with her mom.  (The van coming to pick them up at O'hare had broken down on the Tri-state by the Stevenson so the group was stuck out at the airport.)  We helped them navigate a repair facility for the van and did some shuttling around.  Side benefit--a brief visit from Gil's parents.
• Sunday, 7am, I made the call to move our "church in the street" service indoors.  It had just rained and rain was predicted for the rest of the morning.  We ended up with beautiful weather from 7am to 2pm--of course.  Bummed that I made the call to move inside but glad that we ended up having a great worship gathering anyway. 
• Sunday afternoon New Life Lakeview softball team coughed up a game to DOC.  Ahead 10-4 going into the bottom of the last inning and we gave away 7 runs and at least that many outs.  I was a main culprit--dropped a routine fly ball.  I hate losing.  Argh.  Honestly, though, I'd rather me be the one responsible for a loss than someone else be responsible for a loss.  At least I think that's what I'm supposed to want;-).
• Several people responded to an invitation to surrender to Jesus this Sunday.  I've learned that invitations are best when Spirit-led (shocking).  That's why I don't give them every Sunday.  There are some worship gatherings where I am convinced that God is saying, "invite" and others where there is no unction to invite.  I prefer to go with the unction than to simply invite every time.
• Monday our pastoral team had a great team-building day on the lakefront.  I got sunburned (what's new), we ate great cookout food thanks to John Palmieri and we had great connect time playing the manly sports of whiffle ball and ultimate Frisbee.  Being a part of a team that works, plays and prays together is a privilege I will never take for granted.
• Last night we had a combined membership class for Lakeview and Lincoln Park. I love hearing people's stories--my favorite part of membership class.  Jesus knits together a strange and wonderful group of people when He builds His church.
• Looking forward to some R&R the next few days.  Our family really needs some "getaway together" time.  I've been out too many nights and I can sense the wear and tear of it all.