'you should know what to do by now'

Voice mail prompt messages are a funny thing, as I recently was made aware of. The current manifestation of the prompt for my cell voice mail is a good point. It merely says, "Hi, this is David. You should know what to do by now, so just do it." When I left it, I was merely trying to leave a prompt that was different than the typical, "Hi, this is David. I'm not here right now, so please leave your name, your message, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can" sort of message. While I didn't want to spend too much time being creative, whatever that all means, I did want something different, yet not so crazy as to confuse people. Hence, my current message.

But how interesting to discover that a friend, in trying to reach me, discovered some deeper, hidden meaning in the words of my prompt. In leaving me his message, a friend of mine replied something to the effect, "hey, this is a bit of a prophetic message. I should know what to do by now, so just do it? Hmmm. what are you trying to tell me?" And then he left the rest of his message (which has little to nothing to do with this blog). Perhaps this friend was merely in a very thoughtful mood. Then again, maybe the prompt struck him in his heart regarding what was going on his life at the time.

To me, the question begs to be asked, of myself, others, perhaps of you, 'do you know what to do?' Many of us claim ignorance as to why we don't 'do' something. We think, perhaps, that the sin of omission is far better than a sin of comission. Yet rather than a mere voice prompt, my friend heard not so much a digital recording of my voice, but more aptly a prompt from the Holy Spirit (no, I'm not confusing my voice with God's!). In hearing, 'you know what to do by now, so just do it,' maybe my friend's own spirit was pricked by words that spoke to his own [internal] struggles. Maybe we need to hear those words afresh. Maybe we need to reexamine our own hearts, and ask the Lord to show us, and speak into, those same hearts. What do you think?

Are You Praying?

Some people see prayer as a waste of time. "It doesn't do anything," some say. But the reality is, prayer does work. Even modern medicine has concluded that those patients who regularly prayed generally had easier times of healing and recuperation than those patients who did not. But that's not the point here. Prayer, for all of its mystery, for Christians, is a direct link to God. We do not need to burn incense and utter meaningless incantations in hope of getting God's attention or manipulating Him to come down to our level. Instead, Jesus taught us how to pray (see Matthew 6), and that when two or three other believers are gathered in His name, He is there with us (see Matthew 18).

Jesus taught a lot on prayer, and the importance of it often in the gospels. As Christians, we have something of a responsibility to be in prayer. Through prayer, we have fellowship with God, we worship God, we are nurtured by God, we depend on God, we open our hearts to God, we listen to God, we are led by God, and we grow in God.
Yet there are some who do not pray. They don't "see" any changes in their lives. They don't get what they want. Well, with an understanding and practice of prayer like that, I tend to agree, except to word it like this: prayer that's based on my own selfishness, and my attempts to manipulate God don't work. Prayer is ultimately about our own humility. When we pray to God and bear our hearts before Him, we humble ourselves. We are admitting that we need Him. We are admitting that we don't know something. We are facing the fact that He is God, and we are not. Prayer is also humbling in another way. When we pray, we are putting our trust in God's goodness. This is probably the hardest part of prayer. This means that even when we have brought something of great personal importance, and are praying with an extreme personal bias, we must trust that God is in control (He is sovereign!), and that He knows what needs to happen. It means God has a plan. In prayer, we make ourselves available to the plans of God.

If you're struggling to pray (and believe, I know what it's like!), try this...use the acrostic ACTS. Adoration - spend a few minutes just praising God for whatever comes to mind. I always try to praise God for the beauty of His creation in all of its many forms. Confession - spend a few minutes confessing to God the sins you done (committed yourself), as well as those things you should have done (sins of ommission). This is usually far easier than I wish it was! Thanksgiving - spend a few minutes just pouring out your thank you's to God for all He has done - for you, for your family, for your friends, for the world. I always give thanks to God for each and every day, for another day of life, as well as for my great wife, and my wonderful kids. Supplication - this is an old word that we don't use much any more, but it simply means the requests we bring before God - prayers for ourselves and for others. One important thing that this acrostic does leave out is that we need to learn to listen for God in prayer. I'm not necessarily talking about hearing the audible voice of God, though I know of some who have heard God's "voice". Rather, I'm talking about hearing God in your heart, in a mysterious way that you just know. But often this only happens when we make ourselves be still and quiet before God in prayer. Another thing. It's always good to test what we receive in prayer with what the scriptures say, or with other, more mature and godly believers. Sometimes Christians will think that God is calling them to do something, but after checking with other Christians, or looking in scripture, they discover that what they thought they were "hearing" from God was not in line with what we know about God and His character. St. John says to "not believe every spirit, but test to see whether or not they are from God" (1 John 4:1).

When we pray with our focus on God and His heart, we will see changes. What they will be is anybody's guess. Maybe the answers will indeed be a "yes" to the particular request we've brought before God. Maybe it will be a "no". But I believe, that when you take a step of faith, and you pray to the Father in the name of the Son, your own heart will be changed. That's the ultimate purpose of prayer - to affect our hearts toward God. Keep praying!

feeling down

I'm feeling down today. I just can't kick it. Maybe it's because the day started off cloudy. Maybe. Honestly, I think it's because I received a harsh email from one of my students this morning. It was one of those critical, run-on sentence filled, mean-spirited emails that makes you want to respond back, "double-damn you." But you don't. I didn't.

Some might ask, was the attack justified? were the charges true? Is that why it smarts so? The fact is that I've been having a back and forth discussion with this student. This student thinks I'm being stubborn and 'holier than thou.' The words hurt. Are they true? Well, I can be stubborn. You don't last in youth ministry long if your not stubborn in some way. Am I holier than thou? Let me put it this way. The only time I've been called that is when what I'm saying to someone is hitting them square in the heart, and they don't like it. As a youth pastor, you're called to seek God on behalf of your students, their families, your leaders, heck, everyone. But you're also called to speak prophetically sometimes, probably even more than I do. The point is, this student is self-destructing, won't accept it, and doesn't want to hear it. More over, this student wants to turn around and make this an issue about my personal problems. Hence the criticisms.

I feel down. But rather than scream back, I prayed as I emailed. Not consciously, but hoping that every letter and word that I typed would speak God's truth in love. I had to apologize for a couple of things, but I also said I wasn't going to take ownership of their problems. I feel down, because I hate when things get negative between myself and my students. But praise God, at least this student is still emailing me - for now!!!

It's a funny thing, you know. Here I was feeling down about myself, and suddenly, it's like heaven's flood gates opened up. First, I received a phone call from a parent who has worked with our ministry to youth and their families. He was to the point: "you're doing a great job. Remember, we aren't responsible for moving the rock. We're just responsible for showing up and faithfully pushing." The second was a phone call from a fellow youth minister, who was visiting this site, and aside from some ministry business to pass on, he wanted to thank me for my faithfulness to God in being at the same church for almost ten years. The third was a letter from one of my former students, who's at UCONN. She wanted to catch up, let me know what's going on with her. She wanted to just share that the year is off to a good start, and her faith is alive and well. She said she feels comfortable and well equiped, "which I think is really due to [youth group] and you. Thank you so much for giving me that environment."

I'm still struggling with the earlier email. But I praise God, because He heard my heart's cry, and in ways that He knew I would understand, He sent me word that He thinks I'm doing well. That's the kind of God that holds the world together, even when buildings collapse, cities flood, and nations war. That's the kind of God I want to give my life to, because He's the kind of God who has already given His life for me.

safe to struggle

is it safe to struggle in life? is it safe to be honest about one's struggles in the church? can one expect compassion, or should one steele themself for judgment? do we consider one's situation, listen for the right words of brokenness and contrition, and penitent response? or do we automatically challenge, label, and create space?

sin kills. blatant tolerance and a blind eye, ignorant acceptance, and self-righteous justification only numb the death.

grace and love bring life. grace and love reclaim what was once dead. grace and love raise those killed and being killed by sin over and over again to a life that is hidden, rooted in God. grace and love allow honesty. grace and love allow struggle. grace and love see perfection in the process. grace and love see the difference between accountability and judgment.

grace and love say it's safe to struggle. but I'm not so sure that people are listening. people, even God's people, rush to either condemn or accept; both wearing the blindfold of self-righteous ignorance. sin misleads us into one extreme or the other. grace and love allows the struggle, discounts rejection, yet allows accountability, but all within the context of grace and love.

let's make it safe to struggle in our churches. let's let grace and love abound.*

* the context for this thought is scripture, which by no means turns a blind eye to sin, but speaks to the sinner in the loving voice of God Himself, saying, "is there no left to condemn you? then neither do I. go and sin no more."

Hurricane Relief and It's Problems

I've been watching terrible pictures, and heard terrible stories out of New Orleans. All of us our saturated with the raw footage, and we are torn with having it so easy while so many have it so bad. Today's storylines, though, seem to be more about finger pointing, particularly partisan blame placing. 'Race', 'poor', 'urban' - all epitaphs thrown around today to describe the reasoning behind the particularly slow and seemingly ineffective relief efforts. Interestingly, the complaints about how the poor and urban (be they black or white) seem to center on how governments coulda, shoulda, woulda done more prior to the hurricane hitting the gulf coast, and how it's entirely unfair and wrong that all of these people are trapped in down town New Orleans. After all of the talk, I've got a question. What about the responsibilities of these people to live with their decisions to stay putt in the face of terrible odds? What I hear, when it's all said and done, is that these poor souls are the victims, not of a natural disaster, but of someone's political agenda, victims of someone else's classism and racism, and how if the government really cared about all people, they would've been taken care of before the storm even hit.

Now, let's get one thing straight. I agree that the relief efforts have seemed paltry at best. Heck, even the President realized he had to criticize the efforts today, even as he prepared to visit the storm stricken areas. But it's not just the national government's problem. What is the mayor of New Orleans wagging his finger at anyone, when he could've moved all sorts of resources, not to mention people, out of the city before the levees broke? Why didn't the Governor of Louisiana have the National Guard standing by with all sorts of resources and relief aid, when they knew this was going to be the mother of all storms? Why didn't they just order the complete evacuation of the city? Yes, these people are victims, but me thinks that there's fair blame to spread around to the local and state leaders well before we get to el Presidente.

One last thing... with regard to the people who are stuck in the city... what about their own responsibilities at choosing to stay? I'm not trying to point the finger back at them, but it seems to me to be the unasked question. They need a lot of help. And the Federal and State governments need to do as much as is feasible and maybe then some. But the bottom line is, as much as the different levels of goverment knew the crap was about to hit the fan, so did the people. They chose to stay. These people need our compassion, but they don't need us treat them as if they are merely stupid victims of someone else's dislike for poor, urban people of color. The real people who are causing problems here are the ones who are treating these people as if they were stupid for not realizing the danger, for being stupid enough to have to wait for the local government to tell them to leave. I think that's far worse than any other 'ism' I've heard leveled so far. God created government to take care of its citizens, but before that, He created us to take personal responsibility for our own being. The people of New Orleands deserve our compassion and tears, and anything we can do to eleviate their suffering now is the least we can do. But I hope after it's all said and done, someone will have the guts to ask and pursue the question of, "Why didn't you get out when you heard it was coming?"