Review and Preview

Fail! July was the third month of this year in which I posted nothing at all. So much for the consecutive months streaks of 07 and 08...

This is interesting to me because I've had more to think about this year in terms of sheer volume of information and importance of major events than I've had in many years, perhaps my whole life. Multiple events this year have certainly been milestone marking, if not life changing or life defining. Yet my writing, in real life pen-and-paper as well as cyberspace, doesn't have as much to show for it as previous years. Awesome.

I've got all these thoughts and words and ideas inside me, below the surface, that need to and will come tumbling out eventually. Hopefully I can channel them creatively and coherently into something worth writing, reading, and remembering. (Wow that sounded New Age...sorry about that. still definitely orthodox biblical Christian here.) The the point is I need to process everything that's been put into my brain, and for me that happens through writing.

So, look for a series of post on media (theory not practice) forthcoming soon to a blog near you. These are inspired by the recent attendance of the amazing ECHO conference, and will include a discussion of media as it relates to culture, the Church, and missions.

Also prone to tumble out and interrupt any resemblance of an orderly series are thoughts stemming from two weeks at the Summit. Over eighty (yes, 80) hours in the classroom discussing what it means to have a Christian worldview and think Christian-ly about everything provides much material to process.

Oh, and I'm going to summer camp this week, which will definitely be theologically intense - not your average church camp. So I'll probably be processing that too.

Ultimately, the goal is to process all these thoughts before heading off to Summit Semester in just over a month, because there I'll get enough information to require a lifetime of thinking and processing, quite literally.

So. Stay tuned to this space as I attempt to make the rambling fragments of my brain coherent and useful.

Depression and Perspective

I was seriously discouraged and depressed this afternoon. There are times I get so frustrated with the state of the Union right now I want to drop kick my citizenship as far as I can. Talking about the latest assault on American rights and freedom in the form of the passage of the Cap and Tax bill and the devastating effects it will have on the economy over dinner was extremely discouraging to me.

My heart's not in America, anymore, and that doesn't really have anything to do with the current administration or the destruction of the Constitution. It has everything to do with the Kingdom and what God is doing in the earth. I could really care less about America. Keep your change and hope and Gitmo terrorists and health care and education and mandatory volunteerism and your global warming and ethanol. I'm easy to please, just give me a passport. That's all I want.

Yet I know I'll be here at least two more years, and those two years seem like a long time. I struggle with not wanting to be here in America, yet knowing I am here for this season. And I don't really know what to do. Politically, I don't think America will rebound, not the way I'd like it to. Spiritually, I don't know what to think of the American church, except that we're failing miserably. Economically, things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.

In the midst of my depressed state, my mom spoke three words that brought perspective.

"First century Jerusalem."

(She actually expanded that thought, but those words snapped me back to True Reality.) The church Jesus left on earth was small and without great resources. (Most of them were ex-fishermen who gave up their whole livelihood to follow Jesus!) They were living under an extremely oppressive government who demanded heavy taxes. The political leader to whom they had to submit, who claimed to be deity incarnate, opposed everything their True King stood for.

And yet the gospel flourished.

God will accomplish what He says He will. Isaiah declares: "Of the increase of His Kingdom there will be no end." God isn't surprised by any of this, but instead He is working it and orchestrating it to accomplish His plans and His purposes in the earth.

How often I forget that.

How desperately I need to remember it.

Of the increase of His Kingdom there will be no end.

I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills His purpose for me. Psalm 57:2

It is a dark and stormy night...

And I can't sleep. Which is really annoying cause I went to bed early and everything. Forgive the fragments, I'm tired. And can't sleep.

Therefore, I started a new blog, devoted entirely to missions mobilization. http://missionsmobilization.blogspot.com

I intend to keep this blog going for more personal and random thoughts, whereas the new blog is obviously for the purpose of exploring missions mobilization. I hoping it will be of value both to me, as I learn and write and process, and to others - a yet undefined audience.

So feel free to tag along and join the journey. I'm planning to post several times a week on missions mobilization, and I can't promise anything about the frequency/spontaneity/sporadic-y of this blog. However, I will go out on a limb and promise that normal/correct grammar and vocab will return next time...

Waiting Game...take two

It seems like waiting has been a constant theme for the past year or two, probably cause its a constant theme in life. We walk by faith, not by sight, and thus we don't always know where we're going. It's part of the Christian life - waiting on God, keeping in step with the Spirit.

But its kind of a new experience to be on this side of the waiting game, knowing the direction I am to take and having peace about it, just waiting on the timing. It's not to say I enjoy this, but in some ways it does seem to be easier than the former task of waiting for insight, direction, and peace. I think the struggle for peace over worry is always an issue, to some degree, and there are new challenges. Rather than feeling stranded and confused with no direction, I'm experiencing a time in which I know what I am called to do, and I wait, restraining the passion within me for the time and situations God will appoint. Kind of like the guys walking to Emmaus, I feel like my heart is burning within me, as God has shown me His word and His plan like I have never seen before.

We're more than halfway through this year, and while the time has flown by (prompting a blogging-leave-of-absence), it's exciting. I wrote six months ago that "I know 2009 will be a time of change and transition, and I'm not sure I'm ready. But my God is faithful." God is faithful, and He has brought me thus far. I'm excited about the little I see of His coming plan and I know that now, as I wait, He is preparing me, even as He prepared me for what I have already experienced this year.

So I'm waiting, but I'm at peace. I'm excited for what God is doing. I'm resting in His faithfulness and seeking His face. There's no better place to be.

This Is Home

March has been an intense month. A lot has happened, and I have a lot to process. I can't help but wonder if I'll look back on this month as a milestone, or perhaps a springboard, into what God has planned for me.

Following up to yesterday's post, "This Is Home" by Switchfoot has been running through my head lately.

I’ve got my memories
Always inside of me
But I can't go back, back to how it was
I believe You now
I've come too far
No I can't go back, back to how it was

Created for a place I've never known

This is home
Now I'm finally where I belong, where I belong
Yeah this is home, I've been searching for a place of my own,
Now I found it, maybe this is home
Yes this is home

Belief over misery
I seen the enemy
And I wont go back, back to how it was
And I got my heart set on what happens next
I got my eyes wide, it's not over yet
We are miracles, and we're not alone

And now, after all my searching
After all my questions
I'm going to call it home
I got a brand new mind set
I can finally see the sunset
I'm gonna call it home

Hebrews 11: 10, 13-14
Abraham did it by keeping his eye on an unseen City with real, eternal foundations — the City designed and built by God. Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true Home.

Or as my friend Will Netherland sings: "I live for a City of unordinary people. I live for a City where the servants are the served. I live for a City of unashamed freedom. I live for a City where the tears are no more."

Home

I went to the grocery store a couple of days ago. It was quiet, bright, peaceful, and kind of surreal.

Preface: my nine days of spring break were spent overseas in Asia. My last market experience was typical - all the senses are assaulted at once. Color and chaos is everywhere, smells and sights range from tropical fruit to animals being slaughtered to the satisfaction of the buyer, and a perpetual cacophony accompanies.

I miss it.

It is so different than home. And in a million ways, I'm so glad to be home. But for the first time in my life, I've recently entertained thoughts that "home" may be far from my beloved Texas.

I couldn't be happier with my home as it is right now. I'm not looking for a one-way ticket to Timbuktu or anywhere else. But my heart longs for Home, and deep down, I know my allegiance is first and foremost to that Place, to Him who makes it Home, and not to geography or ideals or people.

Meaning, I know I will have to be in whichever place He decides is most necessary for His glory and the good of all those who may one day call His presence "Home."

And as much as I would like it, His description of His Home doesn't look much like Texas. When I see it with His eyes, it is much more beautiful.

There was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the Throne and in front of the Lamb. Rev. 7:9

That. Is. Home.

I don't yet know how I'll get there, or what this home will be like until then. It could be a stone's throw from where I'm sitting now. It could be a couple hours away. Or it could be halfway across the world. I don't know.

And I don't need to know right now. He knows. God will reveal His plan in His time. As the Message translates Moses' words in Psalm 90:

God, it seems you've been our Home forever; long before the mountains were born, Long before you brought earth itself to birth, from "once upon a time" to "kingdom come"—you are God.

Growing up

But when Perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish things behind me.

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.