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My Life in Boxes

Well, we survived the move.

Mostly.

We’re making good headway at getting settled into our new house and getting familiar with a new city. Moving is always one of those strange times in life. There’s the sadness of leaving a familiar place yet the excitement of discovering someplace new. It’s leaving one part of your life behind and beginning the next part. It’s an end and a beginning all in one.

And then there are the boxes.

My entire life – my clothes, my cookware, my books & dvds, my photographs & memories – all boxed up and loaded into a 22 foot truck.

It’s inevitable. Try as I might to pack boxes of similar items from the same room in order to make unpacking that much easier, by the end we were just throwing all sorts of randomness into the next freshly taped box. Kitchen, bath, living room, and master bedroom paraphernalia all sharing a moving box together which gets marked “garage.”

We all have boxes in our lives. Psychologists call them schemas. You can think of them as habits. But we have a box for school. A box for work. A box for home life. A box for friends. We even have some boxes for random items that don’t really fit anywhere else.

This is not a bad thing. In fact, if it weren’t for my morning routine box, I wouldn’t be considered functional most days. It’s just how we live, interact, access memories and make decisions.

But most of us end up having a box for God. But what makes God – God – is his inability to be boxed. He does not fit any category other than his own and nothing else fits his category. God, by his nature, is uncategorizable. He is infinitely other. That’s called holiness.

So as I continue to unpack my life from my boxes, why don’t we all try to unpack God from that box we’ve been trying to shove him into. He’s too big for it. And it’s just better that way.

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Resurrection Changes Everything

There in the ground
His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth
In glorious day
Up from the grave he rose again!


“And if Christ has not been raised then your faith is worthless and you are still in your sins.” 1 Corinthians 15:17

Just take a moment this weekend to reflect on how different the world would be if Christ had not raised from the dead. Christianity itself would not be a major world religion. We would have completely missed the BC/AD cross over. And death would have won.

Sacrifice we understand. From the beginning God required death to atone for human sin. But now Christ has died once for everybody. It is impossible for the blood of animals to erase sin for good. It had to be taken to the next level. Yet if He had stayed dead, then we would need more sacrifice.

The resurrection means that not only are our sins erased for good they are also erased forever. “[T]he blood of Christ Jesus…continually cleanses us of all sin.”

What’s most amazing about resurrection to me is that we have the very same power living in us right now! Resurrection power is not just experienced after you die. It is alive and working in you right now, this moment. Paul says in Romans 8 that the Spirit which raised Christ from the dead is in us!

The only appropriate response is to surrender our lives to the one who has the power.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday. A time when the Christians around the world pause to reflect on the defining moment in world history. Yet every Sunday should be remembered as the Lord’s day, the first day of the week on which Christ arose. It is the day on which God said, “Let there be light.” It’s also the day on which the true light overcame darkness once and for all.

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Update

Hello all,

My family will soon be moving to Moline, IL, where I will begin work as the youth and family minister. That being the case, my blog postings may be few and far between over the next few weeks as we make the move and settle in. But I hope to continue this blog as part of my ministry in the church.

We would appreciate your prayers as we make the transition. We are very excited about this opportunity, and we feel like God is leading us on an awesome journey. Thanks for your continued support.

Grace and peace,
Daniel

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Easy Green Tip of the Week

Plastic Bags

I know there is a big push to get rid of plastic grocery bags, and rightly so. They are a nuisance when they are allowed to be blown around freely by the wind. AND they inspired an annoying Katy Perry song…ugh.

So yes, when you can, I highly recommend switching over to the reusable bags.

The only problem is that we often forget about them until we are walking through the automatic doors. “Oh no! We forgot the bags…Oh well.”

So if you find yourself with a small mountain of plastic bags shoved inside other plastic bags all shoved in your pantry, here are some tips to reduce, reuse and recylce!

1. Encourage the bagger to fit a few more items per bag, and don’t get bags for some larger items (like milk jugs)

2. Use the bags as small trash can liners

3. Scoop up pet waste (i.e. litter box clumps) into plastic bags (Just make sure they don’t have holes in them)

4. Take your lunch to work or school in one – fashionable? Nope. Cheap? Totally

5. Use spare bags as packing material for breakable items

6. Once a month or so, take all leftover bags to your local grocer and find their recycle bin

If you like Target as much as I do, now the retail giant is taking further steps towards helping the environment by increasing the amount of recycled materials and reducing the overall amount of packaging. They even tell you specifically where their recycled products go. For instance, their recycled bags are converted into composite decking, which in turn reduces the number of downed trees. You can check out more at http://hereforgood.target.com/environment/recycling/

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Christianity and Technology

I may have blogged about this before, but it’s been on my mind again recently. It seems to me that the church is lagging behind in this technological age. There have been so many advancements, especially in the area of global communications (HELLO!), that it almost seems like many congregations choose not to keep up.

What worked in the ’50s and ’60s works today, right? Maybe to an extent. But we need to start doing a better job at reaching people where they are.

Facebook has over 400 million users. There are over 25 million on Blogger alone, not to mention WordPress, Tumbler, etc. Twitter has grown exponentially in the last 2 or 3 years.

And most churches can’t even figure out how to make a decent website.

Recent research has shown that more than 2/3 of first time visitors will visit a church’s website long before darkening the front doors. Wake up call, anyone?

But you may argue that the gospel message spread across the world centuries before the internet came along. You would be right about that.

But the first Christians did make use of the latest and greatest technologies available at the time. They used the fastest ships and the nicest roads. They adapted local customs and beliefs to be used in such a way that the gospel became more applicable and relevant.

Christians were even at the forefront of arguably the single greatest advancement in human history: the book. The earliest form of the book came on the scene in 1st century Rome. It was called a Codex, and it was to the scroll what the iPad is to the typewriter. It was cheaper to make, easier to use, and much, much more portable – which comes in handy when you are fleeing persecution.

So when churchgoers today argue that we don’t need all this technology in the church and that it’s not an important part of the Great Commission, just remember that the earliest Christians would beg to differ.

Maybe we should try harder at imitating the earliest Christians by using all available means of spreading the gospel to as many people as possible as quickly as possible.

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High Five Thursday!

Have you ever been reading a story in the Bible and thought, “Man, if only I could have been there!”

Top 5 Biblical Fly-On-The-Wall Moments

Elemental Escape (Exodus 14:15-31)

How awesome would it be to be standing in the crowd with God on one side in a blazing column of fire while Moses is on the other side blasting an interstate highway through the sea? The chaos, the terror, the power, the elemental forces being tamed and manipulated right before your eyes.

It gives me chills just thinking about it.
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Now You See It… (Joshua 6)

There one minute; gone the next. The impenetrable walls of the mighty Jericho stood before the Israelites in all their pride and glory. After some lovely afternoon strolls around the city, a bit of yelling, and some Louis Armstrong, Jericho was reduced to a pile of rubble and ashes. Well, except for that one brothel.

Americans can’t get enough of destruction films in which the White House, the Capitol Building, and the Empire State building are destroyed by natural (or unnatural) forces, e.g. Independence Day, Deep Impact, 2012, etc.

This would be better than any of them.
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The Original 300 (Judges 7)

Long before Leonidas and his merry band of Spartans held off hordes of Persians, ninjas, and rhinos (???), there was Gideon. He was chosen by God to lead Israel’s armies in a counter strike against the evil Midianites, all 150,000 of them. Israel turns out 32,000 recruits to defend their nation. Even with that they are outnumbered 5-1. Through a series of questions (Are you afraid?), and grueling physical challenges (drink from this stream), basic training narrowed the field to 300 men, armed with nothing more than a pot, a torch, and a trumpet. Sounds like they got their battle strategy from the latest issue of Martha Stewart Living.

Anyway, the part of the story I would love to overhear and see is the conversation between God and Gideon as he explains his whole plan of attack. A saner man would have just walked away, but I guess Gideon was just crazy enough to believe that God knew what he was doing.
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The True Underdog Story (1 Samuel 17)

This is the story to which all other underdog scenarios are compared. The battle of David and Goliath.

We all know the story. The little shepherd boy (who for some reason always looks about 9 on the flannel graph) musters up the courage to fight the giant in a head to head (or head to waist) battle. One little stone goes up, up, up, and the giant comes tumbling down.

The part I wish I were there for is the part we don’t talk about in the children’s songs or Sunday school. After Goliath falls, David runs up, takes Goliath’s ginormous sword and beheads the not-so-friendly giant. Like a boss.
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Seeing is Believing (John 20:24-29)

This scene has always fascinated me. We know that Jesus experienced a physical resurrection, yet his body no longer seems to be bound by the laws of physics. He still eats and drinks, he still walks and sits down, but he can also walk through walls or something. Not quite like Casper, but somehow able to appear and disappear in the blink of an eye.

Well, the apostles are all gathered together behind closed and locked doors (rough neighborhood?), but this time, Thomas is with them. As if on cue, Jesus appears and shows Thomas his battle scars. I’m not so interesting in seeing the resurrected Christ. I don’t need to see to believe. I’m more interested in the physical, spiritual, and emotional response given by Thomas. His is the most sincere and profound confession in all the gospels. “My Lord, and my God.”

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Father

For you did not receive a Spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” Romans 8:15

This has been one of my favorite verses for quite some time. I love the contrast between those who cry out “Abba, Father” in this verse as opposed to those who cry out “Lord, Lord” in Matthew 25.

But I have been a father for just over 6 months now. And let me tell you (just as any new parent would) that having a child of my own has illuminated this view of God. My son cries out, I come to the rescue. He hits his head, I comfort him. He smiles at me, and my heart melts.

This is how God is with us.

Jesus repeatedly refers to God as “Father,” not just in the sense that he was literally God’s Son, but in the sense that God is the Father of all those who would be his children.

I can empathize with some of the fears, doubts, and frustrations that a new Christian might face. But God is not looking to catch them red handed when they mess up. Instead, God is there to nurture them like a Father cares for his newborn son.

I know this is nothing new in thought. But it’s a completely new experience for me.

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Easy Green Tip of the Week

Since having a kid, it seems our laundry has increased many times over. Which is fine now, but a few months ago, it was driving us crazy! Which leads me to this week’s eco-tip:

Clean Out Your Dryer Vent

Our dryer was broken. Or so we thought. It was taking close to 2 hours to dry a load of wet clothes! It was frustrating to no end.

Then one day I got the bright idea to check the hose. It was fine. But the vent was being choked up by about an inch thick layer of lint. Doh!

Long story short, it took about ten minutes to correct a problem that had been driving us crazy for months. We were just a couple laundry days from going all “Office Space” on that dryer.

Crisis averted. We are no longer wasting loads of energy and loads of time just to dry a load of laundry. You can have all the energy stars you want on your dryer, but if the vent is clogged, it won’t make a lick of difference.

Now that the weather is starting to warm up, take ten minutes to check your dryer vent. It’ll save you energy, time, and potential trips to a psychotherapist.

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Presence

I’ve started reading the book God’s Pursuit of Man by A.W. Tozer. The first chapter is called “The Eternal Continuum.” In it, Tozer points out something that most Christians take for granted, really to our own spiritual demise.

We get that God is the eternal I AM, as he told Moses back in the day. He was and he will be. He is self-created, self-sustained, and all-powerful. He always has been, and he always will be.

This is easy for most of us to get. We can look into the past and see what he has done. We can see how he pulled us through that struggle or that hardship. He healed a grandparent, he protected our neighbor from the storm, he provided when there seemed to be zero resources. It’s easy for us to retroactively see how God works in our lives.

It’s also easy to have faith that he will work in our lives again. He will get me that job, he will bless that mission effort, he will take us where we want to ultimately end up. We have no problem dreaming up a future in which God is an active reality.

The trouble comes when we are unable to see what God is doing in the present.

Yes, God has always been and always will be. But more than that, he always IS. He’s the I AM. God is always a present reality.

It’s a good exercise to remember the ways in which God has worked in your life previously. And it’s highly commendable and appropriate to envision God’s work in your future plans. But it’s much more critical to be able to stop for a moment and live in the present.

This moment.

This breath.

This heartbeat.

This is the only true time we have in which to experience God. Right now.

Take some time throughout your day to reflect on how God is working in the present. Through that movie. Through that book. Through this friend. Through Facebook. Through your coworker. Through the words on this screen.

Why has God brought you to this place at this moment? What is God doing right now?

God is eternal. This life is not. But the kicker is that the present is the only point at which the eternal intersects this finite world.

What is the Great I AM doing in your present? This moment is the only time in which you are guaranteed to fully experience the power of God.

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Jesus Called Them One By One

My wife and I were talking the other day about how to make the Bible more relatable to teenagers. The go-to Characters seem to be Joseph, David, and Timothy. These three started out their journey with God early in their teen years. But after awhile, these stories tend to lose their novelty and their impact.

Then we got to thinking, what about the apostles? Most of our lives, we have viewed Jesus and his apostles like this:

Not only are they white (??), but they’re all old. Two even have gray beards!

But really, how old would the first disciples have been? Probably between 17-25. Barely old enough to have beards, much less gray ones!

Peter and Matthew were probably the oldest, given that Peter was married and Matthew was an established tax collector. But the others were probably not much older than high school seniors when Jesus called them. Jesus himself was only about 30. Why would he go calling disciples as old or older than he was?

Even Paul was probably not much older than 25 when he was called.

Granted, a 17 year old in 1st century Palestine was not exactly the same as a 17 year old in 21st century suburbia. But the simple realization that many of the disciples and many of Jesus’ friends (Lazarus, Mary, Martha, and others) would have been in their late teens or early twenties makes the story of Jesus that much more accessible.

Yes, Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me.” But he also called teenagers and young adults.