I don't know if you have every chopped wood before, but there are a few different ways to get it done. If church planting were like chopping wood, books would be written about different axes, angles of attack, body position, you get the idea. There would be gurus on all things wood choppery. Conferences would convene everywhere telling young wood choppers how to get it done the smartest most efficient way. The coolest way even. In the end, you still have to swing the axe and hit some wood.
If you found one of these guys in the forest chopping wood, they might look pretty smart and up-to-date on all theories, but...they still have to swing, and swing often.
I have said to myself and Jesus lately that I am done grabbing for books and opinions on how to reach the lost and un-churched. I love them all and even have some en route in the mail and am not against the opinions and theories. I have learned so much over the years. Jesus has led me however to see the best way to chop wood is to be desperate. Desperate like a man trying to send a signal for rescue or bring warmth to a cold family. Conferences or not, that guy is putting a tree on the ground. Desperation and mission drive him beyond theoretics. Put the desperate guy next to book guy in a lumberjack contest, and desperate guy wins in my opinion.
My prayers keep coming back to asking Jesus to devastate me for my city. I know what this will do as I grow more and more broken for those around me. I won't be comfortable much anymore. I won't rest as much around the lost. I won't pause from wood chopping. Even if I'm not chopping wood the most efficient way, I will get trees felled. I have read so many books that if I'm not careful it will fool me into thinking I have something to bring to this city. These days I'm telling anyone who will listen that Jesus is King and the cross really happened. Young, old, interested, and not. The best thing I can do in this season is not let my reach for fresh ideas out pace my reach for a sharp desperate axe.
PS...Skinny Jeans have nothing to do with this post. Sorry.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Ode to the 8-track
Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
Job 11:7
And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven say, "Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down."
Revelation 10:4
When I was a kid, I always liked to stay at my grandparents' old farm house in West Texas during the summer. I have so many good memories of those days. My grandpa, or "Pa Paw", as I called him, was a cotton farmer, and he always made me feel like I was helping him out on the farm. In hindsight, I didn't help him out one bit, unless you count that one time that I handed him a wrench to work on his tractor. Of course, it was the wrong wrench, and he had to go get the correct one himself, but I tried.
Anyway, I have one memory of being on the farm and hanging out with my older cousin, Les. We were sitting in the car in front of the house, listening to music from the car stereo (i-pods weren't invented yet). The car had an 8-track player in it, and this was the first time that I remember seeing an 8-track player in my life. If you don't know what an 8-track is, then just Google it - I'm sure that you know what Google is.
We were listening to a new album that he bought, and I really enjoyed one of the songs. I said, "Hey Les, can we hear that song again?". Then he had to explain to me that we couldn't repeat the song. The only way to hear that particular song again was to skip back to a couple of songs before that song, and listen to them first - Then and only then could we hear the song again (cassettes weren't commonplace either). That was a problem. The other problem with 8-tracks (and just as annoying) was the fact that four songs on the album had about 5 seconds of silence in the middle of them. That always bothered me. I couldn't understand why a songwriter would go through the trouble of writing a song, getting it recorded, getting signed to a label and all of the heartache that goes along with that, only to have 98% of their song listened to on the final product. How could anyone have an album with only part of a song on it? Why would anyone agree to do that? It is a mystery, never to be explained by the sages.
I think we are all like 8-track tapes. We are a defective product. This idea could be expounded upon, but I am thinking particularly about our understanding of God and His ways - our knowledge.
Thank God - He has revealed to us everything that we need to know. However, He has not revealed to us everything that we want to know. That bothers us. We want to know. Isn't knowing important? We even justify knowing - with Holy Scripture; "My people perish for lack of knowledge". I submit to you that we are not supposed to know everything, and God will make sure to keep it that way. Isn't it interesting that the first conversation that satan had with mankind was about knowledge? He was smart enough to know that there is just something not right with creation not knowing as much as the Creator does, and we played into his hands like a Stradivarius.
One time I saw my Pa Paw reading the bible, as he did for hours every Sunday. My Ma Maw (his wife) told me that he had read it all the way through four times. I was very impressed. I couldn't even get through Genesis chapter one without stopping to look for pictures. I knew in my heart that if anyone understood God and the bible, he surely did. So one Sunday, I approached him as he read his bible, and said, "Pa Paw, you must know a whole lot about the bible, huh?". He turned to me, and very humbly said, "Chase, the more I read it, the more I realize how little I know".
This was a defining moment in my life. Ever since that moment, I have been in awe of God and His ways. They are a mystery, beyond finding out. Who can plumb the depths of God? Who can really climb His mountain?
I love the mystery of God - how He shrouds himself in the dark cloud and speaks with thunder, and then a still, small voice. He appears to a lonely man in a burning bush. He comes to you and I in a way that we could never explain to anyone in an earthly language, but we do feel His comfort in our despair.
The early church grew because they were in awe of a mysterious God (Acts 2:43). May our hearts be filled with the awe of God.
Job 11:7
And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven say, "Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down."
Revelation 10:4
When I was a kid, I always liked to stay at my grandparents' old farm house in West Texas during the summer. I have so many good memories of those days. My grandpa, or "Pa Paw", as I called him, was a cotton farmer, and he always made me feel like I was helping him out on the farm. In hindsight, I didn't help him out one bit, unless you count that one time that I handed him a wrench to work on his tractor. Of course, it was the wrong wrench, and he had to go get the correct one himself, but I tried.
Anyway, I have one memory of being on the farm and hanging out with my older cousin, Les. We were sitting in the car in front of the house, listening to music from the car stereo (i-pods weren't invented yet). The car had an 8-track player in it, and this was the first time that I remember seeing an 8-track player in my life. If you don't know what an 8-track is, then just Google it - I'm sure that you know what Google is.
We were listening to a new album that he bought, and I really enjoyed one of the songs. I said, "Hey Les, can we hear that song again?". Then he had to explain to me that we couldn't repeat the song. The only way to hear that particular song again was to skip back to a couple of songs before that song, and listen to them first - Then and only then could we hear the song again (cassettes weren't commonplace either). That was a problem. The other problem with 8-tracks (and just as annoying) was the fact that four songs on the album had about 5 seconds of silence in the middle of them. That always bothered me. I couldn't understand why a songwriter would go through the trouble of writing a song, getting it recorded, getting signed to a label and all of the heartache that goes along with that, only to have 98% of their song listened to on the final product. How could anyone have an album with only part of a song on it? Why would anyone agree to do that? It is a mystery, never to be explained by the sages.
I think we are all like 8-track tapes. We are a defective product. This idea could be expounded upon, but I am thinking particularly about our understanding of God and His ways - our knowledge.
Thank God - He has revealed to us everything that we need to know. However, He has not revealed to us everything that we want to know. That bothers us. We want to know. Isn't knowing important? We even justify knowing - with Holy Scripture; "My people perish for lack of knowledge". I submit to you that we are not supposed to know everything, and God will make sure to keep it that way. Isn't it interesting that the first conversation that satan had with mankind was about knowledge? He was smart enough to know that there is just something not right with creation not knowing as much as the Creator does, and we played into his hands like a Stradivarius.
One time I saw my Pa Paw reading the bible, as he did for hours every Sunday. My Ma Maw (his wife) told me that he had read it all the way through four times. I was very impressed. I couldn't even get through Genesis chapter one without stopping to look for pictures. I knew in my heart that if anyone understood God and the bible, he surely did. So one Sunday, I approached him as he read his bible, and said, "Pa Paw, you must know a whole lot about the bible, huh?". He turned to me, and very humbly said, "Chase, the more I read it, the more I realize how little I know".
This was a defining moment in my life. Ever since that moment, I have been in awe of God and His ways. They are a mystery, beyond finding out. Who can plumb the depths of God? Who can really climb His mountain?
I love the mystery of God - how He shrouds himself in the dark cloud and speaks with thunder, and then a still, small voice. He appears to a lonely man in a burning bush. He comes to you and I in a way that we could never explain to anyone in an earthly language, but we do feel His comfort in our despair.
The early church grew because they were in awe of a mysterious God (Acts 2:43). May our hearts be filled with the awe of God.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Hoarders of the Soul
Human beings are hoarders. Even if we're not hoarding junk in our houses like the reality TV show, Hoarders, we are likely to be pack rats of the soul. That soul junk is what fuels many of the habits and philosophies we live by. Just ask someone why they do a particular thing in a particular way. The answer at first may be, "I don't know." Then, after your prying a little you will probably hear something like, "That's the way I've always done it." If you continue to probe, you are likely to find that the reason for always doing that thing in that way or thinking that thought or having that philosophy is chained to some past event either positive or negative. This is more than simply a memory, because it is still very presently and functionally involved in this person's daily life. It is influencing decisions, effecting emotions, and shaping future plans. This is unhealthy.
It is unhealthy, because most of this soul storage is junk now. Some of it was junk then. And, though many of us are very willing to clean out our garages, we are less willing to do some deep cleaning in our souls. Thoreau has said, "It is so hard to forget what is so useless to remember." The truth is that we don't have the ability to do it ourselves. Just like the TV show, someone has to come in and do it for us. That person is Jesus. Jesus said, "All who are weary and burdened, come to me. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."
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