So I know this guy…a tribute

So there is this guy, who I met through strange circumstances. His girlfriend was reading Donald Miller in a coffee shop where I was hocking lattes. Her parents went to my church so I struck up a conversation. She told me about her super cool boyfriend who gave the book to her and I thought, “Well, that’s nice.” She arranged a sort of man-date the next time he was in town and we went to see X-men (or was it Batman?) and she was right; he was pretty cool. We started hanging out and one time I got on his case because he didn’t tell us about his girlfriend’s birthday. I balled him out about letting us know about stuff like that as he sat there silently. On his birthday.

So there is this guy, whose girlfriend seemed to move on the most inconvenient days. You know the kind when no one could show up to help. And not only that she would move up and down huge three story apartment complexes with two jack-knife stairwells. I am not sure if I have ever been as tired as the day me and this guy single handedly moved a three bedroom apartment with an office and a sectional sofa by ourselves. And yet, as terrible as it was, I remember that day with fondness. And then I remember moving her out of that apartment; we had more help.

So there is this guy who helped me out while I was pastoring teens in Tampa. He lead worship at camps and at this guerrilla worship service we put together. What I remember most about those times was this certain something about the way he led worship. I have been to his church recently and he still has this jenesiqua, what the French call, well even the French don’t know what to call it. The only people who have a word for the way that this guy leads others in worship of Christ is the charismatics. They call it an “anointing”; they are right. When this guy leads worship, the room around you melts away and you sense that you have been lifted into the throne room of the great God above all gods. Every time I have the chance, I love to worship under this guys leadership.

So there is this guy who was kind enough to ask me to stand up for him in his wedding. I watched as loved his fiancé. I marveled at his self-control abroad. I remember grabbing bagels just days before the wedding and talking about what it is like to be married to a lioness. I have watched this guy quietly and gently lead his bride. I have learned so much about humility and grace from this guy as a husband. I know that the only way that he can lead his wife in this way is because his heart has been led by Christ. This guy is the model for me and so many others of a man who is strength wrapped in tenderness.

So there is this guy and I am blessed to call him my friend. Even though we live 9 hours away from one another, we can always pick right back up where we left off. We never miss a beat and his friendship is something I enjoy more than most things.

I know this guy, and his name is Nathan.

 

Hold Fast: wrong-headed thoughts on endurance

When it comes to trials, most Christians act like sailers and tattooist. One of the classic maritime tattoos is the words “Hold Fast” across the knuckles. The idea goes back to the days where mariners would fight back their urges to abandon ship and give up their mission. In the face of these struggles, their fist cried, “Hold Fast”. When a greenhorn sailor would cower in the face of an impending storm, the weathered vet could flash as strong message with his hands.

Hold Fast.

Most of the time, our response as believers to trials and hardship in our lives is close to the same. When work gets tough, when our marriage is hard, when our kids won’t behave, when money runs out: Hold fast. Just keep hanging on. Just keep going.

Sometimes, if we are thinking spiritually, we endure our trials by thinking ahead to heaven. We think ahead to a time when our troubles will be gone. Just imagine heaven. Just think of the day when this will all be over. Hold fast.

The deep and abiding trouble with this is that My focus is being, ever so slightly, directed in the wrong way. I am being told to hold fast to hope in heaven. Hold fast to the idea that this will all be over some day.

In reality, this is a form of idolatry. It is clever, religious idolatry. It is evil because it ultimately directs my attention off of Christ and onto a blessing he is giving me. I am worshiping the gift and not the Giver. Ultimately anything, even any good thing, that takes our eyes of of Christ is idolatrous. Any gift, any misplaced hope, any thing that we seek comfit in apart from Jesus is idolatry.

So then our prayers and approach to trials should not be one of “Father get me out of this”. Rather we should pray like Christ, “Now my soul is troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father save me from this hour?’ But for this purpose I have come. Father glorify your name”. I trials are for His glory and He has given us the resources to walk through them.

What we need is not less trials, but more Jesus.

Tunesday: This Will Destroy You

Last week I mentioned how much I love good “roots” music, but if I am honest I tend to play another style more. A lot more. I listen to a ton of post-rock. To most people, this sounds like the ambient noise in the background of movies. I love to listen to this as I study and as I work in the office. There is just enough going on to keep my mind moving. Some of the better post-rock bands have been featured on some great TV shows and movie soundtracks. All of the background music in the TV show Friday Night Lights was by a band called Explosions in the Sky.

Last summer when the full length trailer for Moneyball came out, I was hooked. The song in the background was by a band called This Will Destroy You. I fell in love and got all of their albums. They are in heavy rotation along with the soundtracks to Inception, Batman: The Dark Knight, and Tron.

Here is a sample of This Will Destroy You:

 

Monday Matines: A Prayer for Apocalyptic Pastoral Ministry

So I was reading some Eugene Peterson today and I stumbled across a chapter on “The Apocalyptic Pastor” He suggest that one of the things the church needs more than anything else is apocalypse. By this he doesn’t mean more “End-Times” preaching, but more imaginative preaching. Here is how he puts it:

Apocalypse is arson – it secretly sets a fire in the imagination that boils the fat our of an obese culture-religion and renders a clear gospel love, a pure gospel hope, a purged gospel faith.

This dove tails with what James K.A. Smith has been talking about the past few years when he writes on cultural liturgies. This is hard work. How do we create striking and provocative language that carefully reflects the truth of scripture to a culture that is blind to its blunt demands and claims?

God, who walks amidst the prayers of your people that rise up like smoke all around you,

We pray today that you would enliven the imagination and language of your people.

Lord we pray that our worship would see the beautiful and terrible throne room;

That we would see created order singing your praise around us and gather them into your courts.

We pray that we would see our idolatry as wicked and detestable as a whore,

That we would see through the veil and find our culture to be as dangerous as a dragon.

God who makes all things new, we pray that we could see your plan is golden and your future as brilliant.

Father, our minds are dull and our tongues are weak. Help us to have a fire inside of us that sees you for who you are.

Terrible and brilliant, like a meteor shower that crashes through the sky all around us. Amen

 

Sermon: Psalm 73

When we are frustrated, we often ask, “Why do bad things happen to good people”. Implicit in this argument is our own goodness. If we allow ourselves to think about this, another question may come to mind:

Why do good things happen to bad people.

The Psalmist addresses just such a question in Psalm 73. This sermon explores the message of the Psalm and uses Hector and Achilles from The Illiad as an iillustration. Click here to listen.

Tunesday: The Vespers

I will freely admit, I am a sucker for roots music. If tapes still existed, my Mumford & Sons would be worn through. If records were still around, my Nickel Creek would have ruts in it. A few weeks ago, Noisetrade sent me an email recommending I download a few songs by a band called The Vespers.

I swooned.

The Vespers are two sisters and two brothers who play rootsy folk mixed with indy vocal sensibilities with a dash of spirituality to boot. I bought their new album and I am in the process of playing the files so often that they will somehow wear out. I like these guys that much. You can hear one of their better songs below, or you can go to NioseTrade and download it there.

 

http://noisetrade.com/service/sharewidget/?id=777af564-ac4a-4edd-ac29-fa5ea35b1eeb

 

 

The 10 Other Commandments for Young Adults

So I have been thinking a lot about Generation X & Y recently. I have been thinking about what some of our blindspots are. And by that I mean I have been thinking about my own sinful tendancies. I thought I might make a list of 10 Commandments for us that address areas where we as a generation struggle.

1. Thou shalt not believe that you are the what your LinkedIn Profile says you are: Far to often we as young people think that we the sum of our accomplishments. We think that what can be posted to our LinkedIn account or what our Facebook profile says or what our Klout score is defines us. It is not. God is doing things in us that will never show up in cyberspace. We serve a God who is more concrened with our formation as believers than our accomplishments as people. He is still working on us, even if we have hit a glass ceiling.

2. Thou shalt not put your hope in your Inbox: That email from the company that you applied for, from the customer who is considering buy tons of what you are selling, from that family member you have been talking to, from whoever is causing you to impetuously check your smartphone is not as big of a deal as you think it is. We are so accustomed to being connected, that we have no place for slowness and stillness. It is in stillness that we are formed for the rest of life. It is stillness that is the we find a God who loves us so much, he waits. Remember Lazurus? Jesus loved him and his sisters so much, he waited and let Lazurus die. Don’t ask why God is responding in your timeframe. Ask what he is trying to teach you by waiting.

3. Thou shalt take God seriously: God intends to touch all areas of your life. We know this, no one denies it; but functionally we don’t act like it. We don’t take it seriously. God’s influence of what you eat and drink, the purchases you make or avoid, the jobs you take or pass on should be colossal. Treat God better than you treat your iPhone.

4. Seriously, keep the Sabbath, and that doesn’t mean just watch football: You need to stop working. Full scale Sabbath. You need to take Sunday’s off and go to church. Talk to old people. Smile at children. Worship. Listen. Serve. Connect to people you would never hang out with on a Friday night. It is far more important than you think. Don’t watch football by yourself; do it with your brothers. You will burn out far quicker than you think if you don’t.

5. Respect your elders, and not just because they can promote you: Every generation thinks that older people are crazy. Every generation thinks that younger people are terrible. Ask Elvis about being a sex symbol. As Jackie Robinson about being a liberal. You need to age and wisdom from previous generations more than you can think.

6. The silence button can be an indicator of your heart: We are far to tech savvy to hate someone outloud. We see their name come up on caller ID and we simply silence the call. How often do we silence someone because they are awkward or incovenient. Because they are needy or bothersome. John tells us that the way we feel about our worst enemy is the way we feel about Christ. (1 John 3:10 and 4:8)

7. The Internet is a dangerous place, for everyone: Guys, I am not sure if you know this, but the internet is a dangerous place; tread carefully. There is porn, cynicism, and self-righteousness to be found in spades all over the internet. Ladies, I am not sure if you know this, but the internet is a dangerous place; tread carefully. There is emotional seduction, busyness, and comparitive-righteousness to be found by the ton all over the internet. Be vigilant.

8. Your Media choices matter: Most of us grew up in an age where throwing away certain music and movies was a sign of spiritual maturity. (I am pretty sure that I owned no less than 4 copies of a Smashing Pumpkins album.) We have grown up beyond that an become culturally saavy Christians. This doesn’t mean that anything goes. We need to apply our Christian faith to what we listen to and watch. And not only that, did we buy that album or torrent it? Some of these distinctions probably matter a little more than we want to admit.

9. Word is bond: Your word and by extension your reputation is more delicate than you realize. Our generation is notoriously flakey. This is a problem. Stop canceling hanging out with people becuase something better comes along. Honor your commitments, even if it means sacrificing what you would rather do.

10. Thou Shalt not Keep up with the Kardashians: We have a desire to have what everyone else around us has. We have an incredibly warped sense of normal. We have skewed perspectives on wealth and poverty. If our friend gets a new iPad, we want one too. We have consumed more media (TV, movies, Internet, and whatever) than any other generation; and in doing so we have bought a lie about whats normal and what we deserve. Stop emulating what you see on TV and start focusing on what the Word of God tells us is true and normal.

 

Easter Sermon

As I mentioned on Monday, I was called in on short notice to preach Easter Sunday here at Surfside. I was grateful for the privilege and amazed by what the Holy Spirit did. I had about 13 hours between the phone call and the sermon. And I had to squeeze a “nap” in there somewhere. I had no text. No idea. But I did have a good God. The Lord was gracious and I was able to find a text and put this sermon together with some sleep in between. Christ is faithful. You can listen to the sermon by clicking here.

*The Link is now fixed and active.

Presenting Keynote Presentations on iOS Devices

Last week, I wrote about the apps that I use on a regular basis on my iOS devices, my iPad and iPhone. This week I would like to tell you how I present using these same devices. When I tell people that I have ditched my laptop and gone to just an iPad, they often ask what I do about presentations. For around $50 you can turn your iPhone/iPad combo into a very solid presentation setup.

First, you need to purchase a few things. You’ll need a VGA adapter (or HDMI, depending on your projector/TV). Apple makes just such an adapter here and you can pick them up at Best Buy as well. Additionally, you will need Keynote for iOS and Keynote Remote. Using this cord and these apps you can not only create, but also affectively present multimedia shows.

I typically begin on my iPad where I create my presentation. The iPad’s screen is a bit bigger so it is a better choice for creating the Keynote. I also utilize the “4-finger swipe” function to jump between places I am to copy and paste.

I then use Apple’s built in iCloud functionality to sync the presentation to my phone. I plug my phone in to the TV or projector using the adapter. Then I open Keynote Presenter on my iPad. This setup has a couple of advantages. First, the processor on my iPhone 4S is far superior to my iPad 1. Second and more importantly, I often make notes to keep me on track on my presentations. Using the phone renders these notes way to small and unusable. The application is note optimized for iPad, but even as a “double size” iPhone app, it is much better than the lilliputian iPhone screen. [Incidentally, Apple I am sure I am not the only guy who uses this setup, where are you on this, Cupertino!] So here is a diagram of my setup.

 

The only real limitation I have found is in imbedding media. But imbedded multimedia is so 2008.

Tales of a Failed Triduum Fast

For some reason, fasting is like Fight Club for Christians. The first rule of fasting is, you don’t talk about fasting. The second rule of fasting is, you don’t talk about fasting. I understand where this comes from. When Jesus talks about fasting in the sermon on the mount, he says:

And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Ok, fine. It seems that Jesus point here is that we sould not be fasting for the approval and praise of man. He doesn’t seem to indicate that we should never know when someone else is fasting. We can still talk about fasting. After all, just a few verses before, Jesus tells us to go into the closet of our room to pray. Does this make our prayer meetings sinful? What about the prayer meeting in Acts 12?

Ok, I digress. I am going to brake the seemingly cardinal and qualitatively unbiblical rule that you shouldn’t talk about fasting. I attempted the Triduum fast this year. The Triduum fast goes from communion on Maundy Thursday to after church on Easter. All said and done it is about a 60 hour stretch with only water to drink and nothing to eat.

I made it about 24. After a semi-busy day on Friday, taking care of the boys and running errands, I was out of gas. I broke the fast and ate some dinner. I (weakly) decided to call the whole thing off at this point. [Hindsight, being what it is, I am glad I did. I received a call late on Saturday evening. Our Pastor was sick and I was needed to preach on Sunday morning. I am glad I had a full stomach to work off of.] All that being said, I thought I would write out some things I learned from day I fasted.

1. Fasting is hard, but having something to focus on helps. From Thursday evening until later Friday afternoon, anytime I got a hunger pang, I thought about where Christ would have been at that moment years ago. This was in and of itself a pretty profound experience. I was amazed as I contemplated how long Jesus was at each “station” of the Cross. I was especially moved as my hunger grew and I kept looking at the clock; Jesus would have been on the cross for a long time. The fast put the weekend, and especially good Friday into a perspective I had never had before. After the time when Christ was taken down off the cross and burried, I had a much harder time finding something to focus on. Not coincedentally, this is when I broke my fast.
2. I am really not hungry for God the way I should be. Peter Leithart pointed out in a post about Lent, that our hunger during Lent points to our lack of hunger for Christ. I get it. By about hour 20 all I could think about was food. I can’t think of a time in my life where I was that focused on Christ and the Gospel.
3. Turning hunger into prayer gave me a chance to really pray about some things. I really need to make fasting a more regular part of my spiritual disciplines. I have often done a solids fast, where I would only have things I could drink through a straw. This is nothing like a water only fast, and I need to do this sort of fasting more often. Do you have any sort of rhythm to your fasting? It’s ok to talk about fasting, remember?
4. Having Holy week fall on Opening Week of baseball was definitely a struggle. Being reasonably thoughtful and somber regarding Good Friday when the Rays are hitting walk-offs is difficult. Probably some idolatry in there…
5. This last thought comes from the “I-Don’t-Believe-in Coincidences-but-I-am-not-sure-how-these-things-are-related” department. As I mentioned earlier, I got a call at 8:30 Saturday night that I would be preaching on Easter. I haven’t preached on Easter in 5 years. I have no “go-to” Easter text. And yet, my text and sermon came together in a way I can only describe as divine. I read a text I had never thought hard about and the sermon almost felt like it was writing itself. Even as I read that last sentence, I am skeptical of myself. And yet, I don’t have any other words to describe it. The fact that this happened the day after my fast seems strange, and I am not completely sure they are related. But at the same time I am not sure they aren’t either.