Hey everyone,
I just wanted to say I’m sorry the site was down for a couple of days. Had some technical difficulties. We’re back up and running and feeling strong! Yippie!
Author: Shay
A little bit, a little bit more.
Thanks to my wife for showing me this on Yahoo’s Movie Page today… I’m flippin’ stoked.
Categories
Meeting Family
Today is one of those days I just need to write.
I met some of my family for the first time on Sunday. Without going through a long, drawn out explanation, it really wasn’t the first time, but it might as well have been. It was probably one of the largest sibling gatherings that I have seen, other than my grandpa dying. It was nice to visit with them without the death of our grandpa looming over our heads. Plus, I think I was 16 when that happened, so being a few years older helped. Nevertheless, the night was enjoyable. We ate a great meal that one of my sister’s made, played foosball with my nephews and brother, and got to talk about what has happened in the past ten years.
I didn’t grow up knowing some of my family. It’s not a choice that I made, nor do I think it’s any one person’s fault. But I feel that experience has skewed my view of what family looks like. That’s definitely an area where marriage has helped. I have been able to see and be apart of my own family, as well as see the inner workings of my wife’s family. Sure, every family has their quirks, but family is probably the quirkiest. But for about two hours, last Sunday night, I sat in a room with three sisters, one brother, one step sister (sort of), and at least five of my nieces and nephews.
After my wife and I left, I called my dad. Of the children he has raised I am probably the closest with him, and I wanted him to know what had occurred. My hope was that it would encourage him — that it would bring joy to his heart to hear of his children being together. I believe it did. His initial reaction was surprise, which then lead to realization. We talked again on Monday, and he was still in shock. He said he sat in his easy chair for a few hours after I called him that night and just thanked God for what had happened. Hopefully that gives you an idea of how big of a deal this was.
You see, I want to know my family, but I’m scared at times. Though these people have the same blood as me, I don’t know them anymore than I know the President of The United States. But the Lord has opened a door for me. In fact, it’s wide open and I feel like I just took a step in and looked around a bit. It still seems dark in this room. I can barely make out the faces, but I know they look familiar. Maybe if I step in all the way, and grab a flashlight I might be able to make contact with those dimly lit faces. Nevermind, just flip the light switch…
Categories
A Lot Like Christmas
I got really excited when I saw this on my computer this morning. No, it’s not my town, but it’s where I’ll be spending Christmas this year with my wife and her family. Oh man… I need hot chocolate!
Categories
When Things Don’t Look Right
Every now and then I take a photo and it doesn't look like what I saw in my viewfinder. I mean I point, focus, and then click the shutter and I don't get the result I wanted. Most of the time it's because I didn't focus correctly, or didn't adjust my aperture or shutter speed properly, but either way it's not what I had originally desired. That's exactly what happened in the photo above. Though there is a bit of aesthetic value in the image, it just doesn't really hold up against great photography.
At times the church has this problem. They point, focus, and click, but what they thought was going to be a great picture of the church turned out to be something quite different. Or at least that's what I think happens. I wasn't even really planning on talking about this tonight until I came across a church youth website. Honestly, I was looking at some web design company and noticed they had a youth ministry in their portfolio. My first thought was, "how the heck did a youth ministry afford a professional website?" so I had to check it out. These were the first words I read:
"Oneighty is open Thursdays 6:15pm to 9:15pm for High Schoolers, grades 9-12. Featuring billiards, basketball, Xbox and PS2, foosball, food, experiencing God, and discovering who you were created to be."
Maybe you read that and thought, "sweet, sounds cool." If you did, that's probably what the leaders were going for on this one. But that's not what I thought. My mind triggers on how things are worded and where things are placed. Words mean something to me. Sentence structure also means something. We don't just use our language to communicate information, we can, and do use it to communicate a message. The message I got from those two sentences was this:
“Come on in! We’ve got everything you can do at home and more!…. and if we get around to it, we just might try to explain what ‘experiencing God’ means.”
Call me harsh, but let’s be honest — putting “Xbox” and “experiencing God” in the same sentence doesn’t really make much sense. If given the option, I’m sure just about every average high school student (male or female) is going to choose “food” or “billiards” over “experiencing God.”
The church doesn’t need to be another place to plug in, play pool, or eat junk food, it needs to be the church. It needs to be the church as defined in Scripture. We don’t need youth who are committed to Halo, we need youth who are committed to Christ. It just gets under my skin. I don’t understand where we thought this was a good idea. I only include myself because I am a part of the global Church. These people may be genuine followers of Christ, but I think they need to rethink their platform for ministry.
The reality is, I love the church. But I don’t understand why we need to dress her (the church) up like the local burger joint to talk about Christ. I’m not trying to judge the hearts or intentions of the people of the unnamed church I am talking about, but I think it’s simply dangerous. May I quote from Derek Webb’s song “Nobody Loves Me”:
the truth is never sexy
so it’s not an easy sell
you can dress her like the culture
but she’ll shock ‘em just as wellbecause she don’t need an apology for being who she is
and she don’t need your help making enemies
so i don’t care if…nobody loves me, nobody loves me
nobody loves me but you