In the Zone

Tonight, we're doing something different. Instead of a pre-planned game and a carefully constructed youth lesson, we're going to kick back, eat some pizza and just talk.  No agenda.  No prepared topic we're attempting to land on.  Just adults, teens, food and conversation. Every once in a while in youth ministry, it's great to just pause on the talks and the lesson plans and let students drive the discussion.  Tonight is about putting students in the driver's seat and steering the conversation. I have no idea where it will go.  I don't know what topics we'll cover.  I don't have a clue as to the theological points we'll wander upon.  It's exciting. Every once in a while I do this with my youth group.  I call it "Brown-Table Discussions" because I don't have any round tables and all the tables we do have are brown.  It's a way for us to talk about our faith and our lives and how those two things connect.  It's a free-

Undoubtedly you've heard that Icthus, the largest and oldest Christian music festival in America (and located in Kentucky), closed up shop.  Economic pressure caused the cancellation and closing of the festival after over two decades of operation. I never took a youth group to Icthus, but I know it has impacted many churches around the country.  It was a staple for years on the Christian music scene.  Often called the "Christian Woodstock," the biggest names in Christian music (and the biggest speakers) made regular stops in Ausbury, Ky. each summer for Icthus. In recent years, attendance has been declining.  Finally, last week, they announced Icthus would close down for good.  There will be no festival in 2013. How did this happen?  Allow me to ponder. Six year ago, while serving in Northern Kentucky, we regularly took our students to Christian concerts. TobyMac, Third Day, Casting Crowns and MercyMe were all concerts our students attended.  We usually went to tw

I've struggled with the news today. 27 people dead in a Connecticut elementary school. 20 of them students. My wife is a teacher in an elementary school. My daughter is 4 years old and just a year younger than some of the victims. My high school experienced a hostage situation featuring an armed killer. All of that converged on me today as I became gripped by the news of this tragedy. I felt instant compassion for those parents and that community. I sensed fear and concern as I thought of my wife, even today, teaching young children in a supposedly safe environment. I felt a kinship with the surviving students and mourned the loss of their innocence. I couldn't watch the news coverage. I decided to take the night off and spent it with family. We went to dinner and looked at Christmas lights. We needed that time together. I needed it. As I think about today, I remember something I read in the book Wild at Heart. It basically said why do we try to find blame or a r

I'll never forget Christmas 2000.  It was six months before my wedding.  It should have been a happy and festive occasion.  One last Christmas with my family before I became a family man of my own. It should have, but it wasn't.  You see, my mom had already announced she was divorcing my dad once the new year began.  We all gathered - my mom, dad, brother and me - one LAST time as a family that day.  We exchanged gifts and pretended to have a normal family Christmas.  It was anything but. Tension filled the room.  Each gift was more like a last request than a joyous Christmas present.  It felt more like a funeral than a Christmas gathering around the tree.  True to form, about a week later my mom officially divorced my dad.  The next morning she gathered her things and moved to California.  I didn't see her again until my wedding. Divorce hurts.  It destroys.  It consumes.  Nothing is left untainted by divorce.  It affects the children, the family, friends, acquai

My eyesight is extremely important to me. Everyone in my family wears classes or needs to wear glasses.  My parents, my brother, my aunts and uncles, my cousins and my grandparents all wear glasses.  Somehow I got the recessive gene because I have 20/15 vision.  As such, I am the only person in my entire family that does not require glasses or contact lenses. I value my eyesight.  I get nervous when an object or a finger gets too close to my eyes.  I don't want to compromise my eyesight because I know what a hassle glasses can be. So when Jesus says in Matthew 5:29-30 that if your eye causes you to sin you should gouge it out, it causes me to pause.  My eye has caused me to sin many times.  The thing I hold dear sometimes ensnares me in sin.  Should I gouge out my eyes? Of course Jesus doesn't mean that scripture literally.  He also doesn't mean we should cut off our hands.  What he does tell us is that nothing should be more precious than our relationship with hi

Lust is the dirty little secret of American advertisers and society. In advertisements, everything is for sale. Coca-cola makes you happy. Budweiser makes you popular and cool. The right investment firm will take care of your wants in your senior years. Drugs can provide your every need and heal any ailment. The right cell phone can finally put your life in order. Yet all these commercials and advertisements count on one thing - your lust. Every beer commercial has beautiful, scantily clad women to entice you to drink. Drink Budweiser and these women can be yours. Your lust for women leads to you believe that drinking beer will help you attain them. Forget diet, exercise, manners and personality. Just a case full of Buds and your lust can be satisfied. Or how about cell phones. Again, we don't see ugly people in these commercials. Handsome young men and beautiful young women laugh as they exchange texts, status updates and pictures of the "oh-so-hot" person on th

It's Thanksgiving Eve.  That means, starting tomorrow, Christmas season will be in full gear.  Last year I waited until late in that season to put out this list, but decided this year to put together this particular post a little early.  What will follow is simply a list of books I've read over the last year.  It won't be exhaustive.  I will just hit the highlights.  Included with each book will be a link to Amazon as well as a brief review and/or description of the book. I want you to see what I've been reading, but I also want to provide a list in case you have a reader on your Christmas shopping list.  I hope this list helps you with a few Christmas presents this year. (By the way, as an aside, I got about half of these books for free on my Amazon Kindle.  You just have to keep an eye on the top 100 free books list.  I got three Francis Chan books for free over Easter weekend.) Happy Thanksgiving and an early Merry Christmas. The Christian Athiest by Craig

When I was a child, I had these extreme cramps in my knees.  Every so often, when I slept, I would wake up in excruciating pain in one or both of my knees.  I couldn't go back to sleep it would hurt so much. My mom called them "leg aches" and said they were just growing pains.  They'd come and then go and recur every once in a while.  Eventually, as I got older, they went away.  I guess they really were growing pains after all. I vividly remember laying in my room at night, cradled into a fetal position and clutching my knee under the covers.  I'd rub it, thinking warmth would be the answer.  I'd try to flex it, hoping to shake loose any pain.  A few times I even blew hot moisture onto my hands and placed it on my knee, thinking it might bring relief.  Nothing ever worked. Those pains kept me up many a nights.  In those moments, it never occurred to me to thank God for my leg aches.  It never crossed my mind to be thankful for the pain shooting through m

I love the show Quantum Leap. Yeah, I'm a science fiction geek and a bit old-fashioned, but I love the story of Dr. Sam Beckett going back in time to make right what once went wrong.  In the show, Sam Beckett is trapped in time, forced to live other people's lives until he can fix the thing that went wrong.  Once he does, he "leaps" into another life, having made his host's life significantly better. I've always liked the idea that mistakes can be fixed and that errors can be mended by simply looking back and fixing the past.  Unfortunately, that's just a television show.  While the idea is a nice one to ponder, it's not reality.  No one is going to "leap" into my life and correct the major errors I've made.  No one is going to reconcile broken relationships in my life.  No one is going to take back harsh words. Instead, that's my job.  I have to make right what once went wrong. In Matthew 5:25-26, Jesus warns us to sett

I love Thanksgiving.  It's my favorite holiday of the year. Some like Christmas and all the music and presents.  Some, oddly enough, go all out for Halloween.  They have a flavor for the macabre. Personally, I've always been a Thanksgiving guy.  It combines three of my favorite elements:  Jesus, football and food.  It's the perfect holiday.  You pray, give thanks, watch a big game and stuff yourself silly with turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes.  (And in my house, green bean bundles.) While Thanksgiving has been commercialized (what American holiday hasn't?), at its core, it's a day of celebration, thanking God for all his provisions.  He provides for us, even when things aren't going well.  In fact, it's just as important to thank him during the dark times.  He may be the only light we have. However, we sometimes take Thanksgiving too lightly.  It has a tendency to become more about the foods, the games and the traditions than thanking Jesus for a

As an American and a believer in Christ, I'm concerned for my country. Election results in Colorado, Washington, Maryland and Maine have given me pause when I see the American landscape.  For the first time I can remember, I am truly not proud of parts of my country.  In fact, I'm frightened. In Colorado and Washington, voters approved the legalization of marijuana.  Let that sink in.  In Colorado and Washington, you will see be allowed to legally obtain an illegal drug (according to the federal government).  Forget the war on drugs, Colorado and Washington voters decided to wave the white flag and surrender. In Maryland and Maine, voters approved same-sex marriage.  It was the first time a popular vote ballot initiative on same-sex marriage has passed in this country.  These four election results scare me.  When a country is void of morals and values anything goes.  When we erode core family values, it opens the floodgates to all sorts of issues and problems.  What&#

Last week, we took the youth to a judgment house. To those who are uninitiated, a judgment house, for lack of a better term, is a Christian haunted house.  Instead of ghouls and ghosts and goblins chasing you and screaming in the dark, you witness a drama presentation where teenagers die.  Ultimately, the drama climaxes with a scene of judgment, followed by a viewing of the consequences - a scene in Heaven and a scene in Hell.  Someone then shares the gospel with your group. I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of judgment houses.  I don't like to scare people to Jesus.  I'm always afraid of manipulating a student's fears into a false decision in Christ.  I take my students because they enjoy the experience, and especially the dinner out afterward.  It's a great bonding moment. However, one thing is vitally true about the judgment house presentation:  Hell is a very real place. We don't like to talk about Hell often.  It's upsetting, and we try av

I will never forget what happened on May 25, 1994. That's the day I learned one of my classmates - a guy I had partnered with on a school project and sat next to in English class - was a murderer. Clay Shrout got up that morning, murdered his parents and two younger sisters, took a girl hostage and held a class at gunpoint.  It made national news.  If you Google the name Clay Shrout, you can read about the entire story.  (I found this article a particulary good read.)  While researching for my message this week, I read those stories - some for the very first time - and the memories came flooding back. Perhaps someday I'll share my thoughts on that experience.   Re-reading those stories, it surprised me how much emotion still lingers over that day and that experience.  It was a profound moment in my growth from teenager to young adult.  However, one thing I will say is this:  I know a murderer.  I know his name, his face, his voice.  I remember just where he sat and w

I've been reading the book The Christian Athiest by Craig Groeschel.  In the book, Groeschel examines areas where our Christian beliefs and faith don't match up to our actions.  In other words, it's believing in God, but acting like he doesn't exist. Chapter 5 of the book is entitled:  "When You Believe in God, but You Don't Think He's Fair."  It goes on to detail people who are deeply wounded, yet God-fearing people.  He talks about the victims of cancer, sexual abuse, and even natural disasters.  What do you do when it seems like God is unfair? In the chapter, Groeschel makes a bold statement that caused me to pause and consider his words.  On page 101, he writes, "If you're like me, when something bad happens, you often feel like your pain is unjustified.  It's just not fair.  I'm a good person.  I didn't do anything to deserve this.   There is one major problem with my defense:  I'm not good.  But the good news is t

Light is a powerful thing. Do you realize that light ALWAYS overpowers darkness?  When it is pitch black, one light interrupts that darkness.  Even a faint light will allow you to make out shadows.  In the battle of darkness and light, light always wins. Jesus is the light of the world.  He brings hope and direction to a darkened place where sin rules.  His light always overpowers the darkness.  Jesus always wins. Here's the cool thing:  Jesus places that very same, powerful light inside of us when we commit our lives to following him.  In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus calls his followers the light of the world.  Just as we are to be salt, flavoring the world with Jesus and preserving his teachings, we are to be light, shining a bright glow of Jesus on a darkened world.  We are to show others the hope that Jesus gives us.  In dark room, we wouldn't cover up the light.  We're not going to turn on a lamp, then immediately place a dark covering over it.  Just the same, we&#

I'll admit it.  I like salt. Just ask my wife and she'll tell you I salt just about everything.  (And in her opinion, I put too much salt on my food.)  I salt my french fries, corn, potatoes, stews, casseroles and green beans.  I like salt on my food.  Salt adds flavor.  It makes bland corn taste better. French fries have a little extra zest when salt enters the fray.  Jesus says in Matthew 5:13 that we are to be salt in the world.  We are to add flavor to where we are.  When we leave a room, people should sense the presence of Christ.  That's what salt does.  It leaves the food tasting, smelling and appearing different.  Jesus wants us to make places feel different - to feel like Jesus. But flavor isn't salt's only purpose.  Salt is also a preservative.  I'm reminded of this every week when I buy groceries at the store.  My wife, for a while, read labels of food before buying them.  Almost everything I bought for my lunch (be it a microwave meal or ju

In 10th grade, I took on authority. The National Day of Prayer was coming up.  I wanted to lead students in a prayer around the flagpole.  I was told "no." My principal called me into the office.  He gave me all the reasons they couldn't allow this sort of thing.  Then, he told me something that scared me.  If I went out of the building and gathered around the flagpole, I could be suspended from school. It was probably a threat, but for a naive sophomore, it scared me.  I wasn't a troublemaker.  I didn't get disciplined very often.  I didn't want to be suspended. After talking with some adult leaders in my church, I made the decision to go anyway.  I remember sitting in the cafeteria until 7:55 a.m., and then marching out to the flagpole.  Amazingly, without being able to announce it over the intercom or hang up posters (and I'm old enough that this was pre-Internet), other students joined me.  All total, about 30-40 students came out and prayed

One particularly dark night, during a church bus run in Eastern Kentucky, I happened upon another car on a very narrow road. This isn't unusual.  It happened quite a lot.  This time, however, the driver didn't want to back up to a wider spot.  Instead, he expected me to do so. I must mention that this narrow road had a huge drop off to one side.  The church bus easily covered the width of the road, which curved behind me.  With students on the bus, I didn't feel confident in my ability to safely back the bus to a wider spot in the road.  I could barely see a few feet behind me in the mirrors. With neither vehicle willing to move, we had a standoff.  He sat there flashing his light.  I sat their drinking a 20-oz Coke.  After five minutes of impasse, the other driver slowly backed his car down the road to a wider spot.  I proceeded to move forward and go around. As I got near the car, the driver angrily motioned for me to roll down my window.  He wanted to "cha

A while back, I ventured to Owensboro, Ky. to see the NCAA basketball national championship trophy. (That's me behind Coach Calipari and next to Coach Joe B. Hall.) University of Kentucky coach John Calipari took the trophy on a "tour" of Kentucky, making stops in all parts of the state.  Owensboro, where my wife has family, was the closest stop on the tour to my house.  So, we drove up to Owensboro that weekend.  My wife saw her family.  I waited for about two hours to see a trophy and a coach. Why?  I don't know.  I figured how often in life will I get to be up close and personal to a national championship trophy.  The next time I see it (if I see it) it will be behind glass and inaccessible to me.  This was an opportunity to see it and be near it. Some things you just have to see to experience.  I don't know if being there for the trophy tour counts, but I was determined to see it. Jesus says, in Matthew 5:8, that blessed are the pure in heart for the

"I'm sorry." That one phrase has a variety of meanings depending on the context. When someone dies, we say "I'm sorry."  In that instance, we expressing our remorse and identify with another person's grief and loss. When someone speaks and we can't hear, we may say "I'm sorry?"  In that case, we want them to repeat what they just said. Yet, the words "I'm sorry" are meant as a way of showing our remorse at our behavior or language.  It's about seeking forgiveness and righting wrongs. Those two words, in such instances, are so meaningful.  When I say "I'm sorry," I want to reconcile the relationship I've have hurt by my comments or my actions.  I don't want there to be anger or bitterness.  I simply want to restore our community together. We use "I'm sorry" so often that many times it loses its meaning.  If we are always "sorry," then we never truly are.  Words

Don't worry, be happy. Yes, I might be showing my age, but when I was younger, this song was popular.  Bobby McFerrin, the song's writer and performer, had a wide and varying career.  However, he will forever be remembered for that song. Why? Because, deep down, as Americans and as human beings, we just want to be happy. Don't believe me?  Look at any commercial on television.  All of them have the exact same message:  buying this product will make your happier.  This new car is what you need to be happy.  You need a new kitchen appliance to make you happy.  You're pet needs a new toy so he (and conversely you) can be happy. Happy sells.  No one wants to be unhappy.  We have terms for people like that.  We call them "party poopers." Yet, Jesus tells us that pursuing happiness - despite what commercials, businesses and culture tell you - is not the point of life.  He clearly states in Matthew 5:6 that we should "hunger and thirst for righteou

I've always been stubborn.  Just ask my wife. None more so then when I learned to ride a bike.  I only had one younger brother, but I lived very close to my older cousin.  I got his hand-me-downs for clothes.  I envied his older stuff.  I even tried to hang out with him and his older friends.  In this case, that was my undoing. I got my first real bike (not a big-wheel) and, of course, it included training wheels.  My cousin and his friends had all mastered the art of bike-riding.  No training wheels attached for these guys.  So, a couple of times I went riding with them.  All they did was make fun of my training wheels, and I didn't like it. After a couple of these adventures, I go to my dad and ask for the wheels to be removed.  Being a dad and being smarter than his snot-nosed punk kid who thought he knew everything, he refused.  I didn't take no for an answer.  I declared I would not ride the bike again until the training wheels were removed. My dad used thi

I've been very fortunate in life.  I've never really had to face death. Both of my parents are alive.  My grandparents are still with us.  Even my aunts and uncles are all around.  I never attended a funeral until I was in college when my great-grandmother passed away in her 90s.  I loved her, but we weren't super close. The only time I ever experienced death was when we had to put my dog, Dude, down.  He was an old dog.  He lived a full life.  I owned him for 16 years.  When we took him to the vet that day, I broke down several times.  We went on a cathartic shopping spree we couldn't afford to mask the pain. It was a difficult few days. I mourned for him. Mourning is different for everybody.  Everyone grieves in their own ways.  Mourning, though, is not exclusive to pets, people and loved ones.  We mourn when we lose something we love.  Some people mourn when their favorite player retires.  Others mourn the completion of their senior year of high school.

Sometimes you never really know how poor you are. When I was a child, I remember eating peanut and butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner.  I didn't think anything of it.  I just thought it was cool eating PB&Js for dinner. What I didn't know was at the time we didn't have any other food.  We couldn't afford it. While Timmy down the street enjoyed roast and carrots, we were munching on peanut butter, jelly and bread.  My mom didn't even eat dinner, just to make sure there was enough food to last the week. Now, we were never destitute.  I didn't go homeless.  We had television and telephones and electricity.  However, at the time, I didn't know how poor we really were.  My parents did a good job of protecting us from that knowledge. Jesus asks us to examine our own depravity in Matthew 5:3.  The first beatitude we encounter is "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." If you are poor, you are without reso

Today is a guest blog from author Rick Lawrence.  He's written a new book entitled Shewd .  I'm reading it now and will soon have a review for you to consider.  Learning From Serpents A Guest Post About Shrewd:Daring to Obey the Startling Command of Jesus -By Rick Lawrence Five-or-so years ago I was locked in what felt like an all-out war over a dream that was in danger of dying, because a man who was much shrewder than me was bent on stopping it. One day, in my grief and fear and anger over what was about to happen, I felt God sort of “sit me down” and challenge me—it was clear that my “frontal” way of dealing with this situation was not going to work, and He was asking me if I was going to have the courage to move more shrewdly. In the nicey-nice Christian culture that is promoted and perpetuated in most churches, shrewdness is anathema—worse, it’s entirely off the radar as a spiritual practice. So, in an uncharacteristic spirit of desperation, I asked Go

A few days ago, I took my family to a local ice cream shop for dessert. Amongst the wonderful flavors of sugary goodness I beheld, I noticed something else.  As we walked in the door (about an hour before closing time), one of the veteran workers asked a younger worker if she wanted to try taking our orders.  With a mix of fear and excitement, she nodded her head and approached the counter. Over the next few minutes, we debated our order (which you must do if you have a three-year-old in the mix), then we kindly recited our desires to the young lady at the register.  Carefully, she punched the necessary buttons, pausing every few seconds to glance over her shoulder at the veteran worker to make sure she got it right. My wife and child scurried over to find a seat while I stayed behind to pay the bill.  A few minutes later out came our ice cream treats, all made to our exact specifications.  We sat for a few minutes and ate our cones while the workers started to clean the store.