When you don't know where home is

I oftentimes find myself lost in a Hallmark movie daydream.  Quiet little quirky town with streets lined with beautiful Christmas lights.  Little shops where the owners have been there for years and know you by name, your momma by name, and your grandmomma by name.  It is a place where every tension is neatly solved by the end of the time frame allotted for this little escape from reality.

What I quickly realize is the role I play in this reality is the newcomer, the outsider, the kid in town that no one quite knows what to make of.  While not a villain, just the misunderstood stranger.  I would love to say that life is full of happy Hallmark endings, but that would just not be true.  Sometimes the tension remains and remains and goes unchanged, unresolved.

As that lost highway traveler, I have often picked up my bag and headed to the next quiet small town. While with every move I hope for a different outcome, it always seems to end the same, another place to lay my head, but no place to call home.  My existence as a vagrant continues and carries on.  No place to call home.

What is the affect of not knowing where home is?  What is the result of the individual who has worn the holes in shoes and in his soul?  I often see that picture in the looking glass of my life.  Maybe all the searching, maybe all the people who have come and gone in my life, maybe what I am looking for is home.  Maybe home is not the quiet little village with Joe's Bar & Grilll and Cuties Bakery on the corner.  What I really believe I looking for is a place where I am me.

Home for most creates an anchoring point, a reference that reminds you where you are from, where you have been.  Home for most is place of returning that allows for a proper reflection of the person you have become balanced against the person you were.  What I seemingly have is suitcase full of momentary polariod memories of places I have lived. Each had a house and family and people I called friends, but none of them are home.  Life has been much like a two-man canoe trying to sail in the ocean.  It is the wrong craft for the environment being faced.  The little boat cannot handle the waves that overtake you.  There is no anchor to keep you in place.  And fight and fight as you will against the tide, it just carries you further and further away from where you have been...the previous place you tried to call home.

The constant beating of the waves just leaves you weary and lost with no anchor to drop.  What you realize is you have no idea where you are, where you are going and not really sure that where you have been is where you were supposed to be in the first place.

When you don't know where home is you end up anywhere and everywhere all at the same time, you end up someone, but no one.  When you don't know where home is you never seem to gather the truth about who you are but live with the constant shifting of becoming who you think everyone wants you to be.  You shape shift into to the person you believe everyone will accept you as.  And with each different version of yourself you become, the person you were intended to become gets filed down as some sculpture that was intended to be a masterpiece, but is simply a mimic of several other works of art.  Too many hands have grabbed hold you and reshaped and reshaped the clay of your life into what they want you be.  In hopes of becoming something great, you let them. You become a quilt of leftover patches from other peoples hopes and dreams for your life.  The seams are crooked, but secure enough that they keep you sewed into the image they place on you, all when you don't know where home is!

The Price of Rice in China

My mama used to say this expression when I was a kid "what's that got to do with the price of rice in China."   That expression made about as much sense to me as whatever it was that I had said that obviously did not make sense for my mom to use that quizzical expression.  For one I only liked rice with my Sweet N Sour Chicken and two I did not know the price of anything, let alone rice in China.

Really this blog has nothing to do with rice or the price of it in China or anywhere else.  But this expression brings to the forefront an interesting idea.  Do we really know what we say?  Language has always intrigued me, maybe that is why I moonlight as a part-time blogger.  That being said I have been just as guilty as everyone else of loosely tossing around expressions that I have no idea what they mean or where they come from.  Or worse yet, just dumb expressions.  There was one summer in high school that everything I said started with the words "Dude, man..."  I wish I was kidding about that but no.  Literally the first words that left my mouth before anything intelligent or even semi-coherent were pre-fixed with "Dude, man..."

Maybe it is the season that we are in that drives my thinking right now.  It is Presidential election season.   What I have always found most disheartening about this whole process is the fact that we have to cut someone else down to build the other up.  In this battle for the world's most powerful office, it is never about how good the candidate is and why you should vote for him.  It is mostly about how much the other guy sucks.  I guess I am a little like my mom, "what's that got to do with the price of rice in China?"  When has my dislike for the other option been the deciding factor in my pick on anything?  Oh I hate Taco Bell, I better go to McDonald's.  Thanks McD's for reminding my hate for Nachos Grande and leading right to a Big Mac. This thinking only make sense in the political realm.  

Okay, off my soapbox and onto something more beneficial.  So here is the thought that centers this whole thing, because it is true does it have to be said?  At what point do we place a guard on our tongue at the benefit of guarding another's heart?  Mama also said "loose lips sink ships."  In my day I have sank my fair share of battleships. Maybe as we watch others sling mud and launch missiles we should become more aware of our words.  Just maybe the price of rice in China is more important that I ever realized.  

The Man I Hear When I Laugh

It used to be a scary thought.  It was the one thing I did not want to be when I grew up.  That one thing was...my dad.  I am sure I don't stand alone in this world as the only rebellious son that wanted to push against the very image of who his 'ole man' was.  It's the Christopher Columbus or Neil Armstrong in us all that desires to chart our own course, go where no man has been before, set out on our own adventure.  The one thing in life we don't want to be is our dad.

To be honest, my dad is a great guy.  Hard working to a fault.  Faithful in every sense of the word -- despite his split decision on being a Reds and Cubs fan.  Conservative and generous.  He is a great guy!  Yet, as a young man, he was the one thing I did not want to be.  And maybe it is the human nature of boys to push against the grain.  Maybe it is the arrogance of youth to believe you can do it better.  But whatever it is or was, it was the one thing I was trying to avoid.

But the other day it happened and has happened more and more.  I hear my dad when I laugh.  It is a loud, short chuckle kind of laugh.  When I first noticed I nearly subconsciously turned to see if my father was in the room.  Which upon the briefest moments later I realized was next to impossible as he was hundreds of miles away.  The next time it happened I tried to fight it, I tried to laugh differently.

I think it eventually happens to all of us sons, the one thing we have spent most of our lives running from, eventually catches us.  Charles D. Pitts' DNA courses through my veins.  It is unavoidable.  So what I have learned to do is embrace it.

While there are pieces of his life that will teach where not to tread, there are also pathways he has carved that lead me to being a better man, a better husband and a better father.  For sure, we have not always seen eye to eye, but that does not mean I did not look up to him.  While he faces his own struggles, he does so with grace, humility and an honor I could learn from.

When I hear the laughter of my father in my laugh, I become thankful the man that taught me to ride on two wheels and play catch.  And I realize that possibly one day my sons, will hear me in their laughter...my hope is that they are grateful for the man I have raised them to be.

Thanks dad!

Walking in Circles...

Sometimes a shout, sometimes a whisper, and at other times dead silent.  That voice that has been called intuition, conscience, or even Jiminy Cricket is the voice of God, the Spirit of Jesus.  It is the voice that leads us into and out life's decisions.

For me I am an outside thinker.  I have to audibly say something for my brain to soul to catch up with my brain or maybe really it is the other way around.  Either way I have to make verbal sense of the seeming nonsense swirling inside.  I have taken to a habit based on a book I read and teaching series we have done at church.  I have begun walking in circles.  Yes, literally walking in circles - around the things that I long to see God do in my life.  In this case, it is the building that I desire a job in.

God's promise is not the job.  I never heard that voice whisper or shout "this is your job".  But the promise came in an overwhelming assurance from God that there would be an end to our struggle.  For years, in all honesty, our finances have been a roller coaster - times we have been making progress on paying off bad financial choices and times of struggling having more month than money.  So I have circled the promise of God's provision and placed my faith into action by literally "circling" the specification of how I believe God wants to answer that promise.

Truth is, I may not get that job, but it doesn't change God's promise of provision.  It simply changes the specifics of how he fulfills it in our life.  Either way...I will keep circling.

the sleepy bear

It has been way too long since my fingers have raced across the keys to punch out some seemingly thought that to no one else makes sense but me.  While I steal a minute away from my life I wanted to see if I could unearth some thought in me that has been hidden in the recesses of my heart and mind just dying to be exposed to the light of the blogosphere.

While I am really starting with no ending place in my (dangerous, I know), I at least have this thought bouncing of neurons in my brain: it is funny how passions can be de-passionated by our lack of use or involvement in them.  If you look back it has been nearly "forever" since I last posted to my blog.  Here is the question: did my passion for writing go away or did I just fail to fuel the passion?

Let me give a life example.  I grew up playing baseball.  That may be understated, I played baseball all the time. I played summer league, I played in the neighborhood, I played with tennis balls and tennis racquets, we played wiffle ball, I played imaginary games where the Cubs seemingly won the World Series every year and I either hit the walk-off home run or was the shut down closer.  Baseball was my passion.  Somewhere around 17 that stopped or at least faded away.  Sure I followed the Cubs on Sportscenter, I even attended a few games, but that passion for the grand ole game was not the same...until I had boys.

Two summers in to my sons' little league experience and I find myself not only oiling their mitts, but my own.  I not only am teaching them the fine art of hitting, running and fielding, but am finding my desire to sharpen the skill set (just in case this is the year I get drafted, in terms of baseball).  What lied dormant has been breathed new life on.  It is like the hibernating bear - sure the bear is asleep, but it is still a bear with all the power and fierceness of a bear.  And if you awaken that sleepy grizzly you will see all the power and fierceness come to life.

So the question then becomes: what are the hibernating bears in our life?  I realized I will never play professional baseball and for the most part understand it is a long shot for my boys.  But I have enjoyed awakening the bear.  But there are other bears in our lives that have gone to sleep...the bear of our marriages, the bear of our spiritual lives, the bear of a friendship or relationship with a family member, the bear of gift or talent that we use to give back to others.  In all of our lives there is something that has fallen asleep that when awake has a great passion to inspire us and move us.

The challenge is to awaken the bear...this post is me poking a stick at the writing grizzly asleep in the cave.

Spiritual Real Estate

Have you ever had a conversation with someone and then walked away with the perfect thing you should have said?  That happened to me last night.

While working I got engaged in a conversation about faith and religion(s).  The entire conversation hung around one principle: how are you sure that other faiths are not right too?  While we cordially conversed sharing thoughts and opinions on the topic, what seemed to keep arising was an us/them language.  For whatever reason as people we love dichotomy - right/wrong, black/white, Cubs/Cards.

What I realized is God does not see sides.  The verse popped in my head where Paul declares that we are the buildings of God.  The image that polluted my mind's eye was that we are all God's buildings.  Each and every one of us was designed and built to be the inhabited by a loving God.  The truth is that agnostic, Islamic, Buddist, or whatever faith group that the "them" of our conversation exists in, does not change the fact that they are spiritual real estate designed and constructed to be inhabited by a living and live-in God.  The "thems" might be looked at better as abandoned or empty buildings, space God is looking to purchase with the price of the cross.  Maybe our view of the "thems" is not as opposition but space that God desires to live in.

To take it one step further, we are not space for lease.  We do not let God just occupy the space as a renter but we surrender ownership of heart and life to God.  I remember as a teenager kicking God out from time to time so that I could turn my building into whatever I wanted it to be - brothel, nightclub, cigar shop.  That is not God's plan.  Faith in Christ is giving over all ownership rights to Jesus, who is designer, engineer, contractor, constructor of who you are.  Who better to own the building than the one who out of love designed it, built it and paid for it.

Who lives in your spiritual real estate?

Tuesday Tune Mat Kearney

I remember the first time I heard "Undeniable" on the radio and thought "that is amazing".  Mat Kearney has an amazing craft for spinning a lyric that is delivered uniquely in the form of spoken word or smooth vocals.  His story telling ability over the top of sweet melodies soothes the soul and is as unique as can be found.

Mat hails from the great northwest of Eugene, OR which is mentioned in more than one song, but currently calls Nashville, TN home.  Kearney has been dubbed one of the up and coming songwriters in Nashville.  He has pulled a double feat by having a single currently airing on the pop charts with "hey Mama" and another one climbing the Christian charts with "Down" both off the his latest release "Young Love".

Today's tune is a two for one, featuring Renaissance originally from Nothing Left to Lose LP, but featured here off Acoustic EP. Hey Mama, freebie for the week, is off Mat's latest release.  Enjoy one of my faves!

Spring Break at 35

University students have just finished their week of rest, relaxation and unruly behavior.  My kids are a week away from a week's vacation to nana's house.  Which leads to the absurd, but brilliant question of my four year-old daughter.  "Daddy, when do you get spring break?"  My initial reaction to her questioning was adults don't have spring breaks or summer breaks or winter breaks.  And the more I thought about it, we don't often get breaks at all.

At the ripe age of 35 (or nearly that) my spring breaks are not Panama City Beach parties, nor are they the week long high school baseball trips, nor are they even 7 days of riding bikes and sleeping late. Okay sure we have weekends.  Which are usually filled with work of another sort -- working in the yard, working with our kids, working at the church, working at whatever else fills our schedules that are already full.  Maybe a spring break is not such a bad plan after all.  Now must of us cannot afford to take a week off of work and spend it on the beach or even at nana's house, but maybe we need to be more aware of our need for breaks.

God took six days to create the earth and everything in it and then he rested.  A better expression is he stopped or paused.  For most of us the day to day grind multiplied with the weekend of non-stop on the run scheduling keeps us from the one thing we may just need the most, a Sabbath, a rest, a stop, a spring break of sorts.  This spring here is the challenge take a day or a weekend and stop everything or at least as much as you can.  Find time to be refreshed, to be renewed, to recharge because if you do everything else will benefit from it.  You will become a better spouse, parent, employee, boss.  Take a spring break!

The Quiet Life

My house is filled with the noise of the warring sounds of two televisions airing  Nickelodeon and Disney, a little girl singing songs she makes up, a fight over which Kickin' It character is which and small whimper about hating homework.  At this moment my life is filled with the white noise of other peoples conversations and carts bounce across a tile floor moving from one building to the next while NEEDTOBREATHE fills my earbuds.  Later tonight shouting and hollering and cheering for two boys as they swing for the fences and hustle around basepaths.  Only to be followed by the religion that is UK basketball that comes with hands raised, knees bents, shouting a pinstriped shirts and possibly weeping if things do not go well.

Life is noisy.

In the midst of the plan of this day is the challenge of what I read as a stole a moment away to find quiet.  (Take your guess where that was.) I ran across the verse that said to live a quiet life.  This tidbit of insight is tucked away in the first letter to the church at Thessalonica.  Paul was not addressing the outside noise, but the noise we make a Christians.  The challenge was to let your life speak on your behalf in order that those who do not know this God we serve will respect the way we live.

This got me thinking about all the times my faith has been noisy for no purpose other than just to make noise.  Now I believe, as believers, we need to take stands for justice and mercy.  But how often have we just been noisy to those who have no understanding of the noise we make?  How often has the noisiness of our faith been more of detractor than and attraction to those who do not know Christ?

"Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before.  Then people who are not Christians will respect the way you live..."  I Thess. 4:11-12

I would love to hear your comments on this question: Is your life too noisy?

Tuesday Tune - Give Me Faith

Oftentimes when we think of faith, we think that the opposite is simply a lack thereof. While simplified the answer is yes, if we dig deeper what we find is that a lack of faith leaves us with an abundance of fear.  Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC released a song tied to a teaching series and book by lead pastor Steven Furtick entitled "Sun Stand Still".  The song title is simply a declaration and request of God to "Give Me Faith".

In recent days this has been an anthem of my heart as I have personally looked to overcome the fears of my life with the faith God gives. If your life has been overrun with fear and you need a double shot of faith in your life let your ears and heart be made glad with this week's Tuesday Tune:

Madness, "the shot", and lessons learned

I quickly opened a can a worms via facebook by making a suggestion to fans of Kentucky basketball that they resolve some unhealed wounds, namely "the shot".  If you are unfamiliar with rich history of March Madness and NCAA Tournament, 20 years ago an underdog Kentucky squad battled heart and soul, blood and sweat to take the highly favored Duke University team to overtime.  And then with 3 seconds left Shawn Woods for Kentucky hit a huge bucket to give Kentucky a 1 point lead. This set the stage for "the shot".

Grant Hill in bounds and throws a long football style pass to Christian Laettner, who at the time was considered the best player in college basketball.  Laettner catches the ball at the free throw line, turns, fires and drains the winning shot.  In regard to my friends here in Lexington, I know reliving stings.  You can send your counseling bills to UPS for replaying it over and over during this years tournament.  It's termed March Madness for this very reason.

While I was not intentionally taking a stab at my UK basketball loving friends, I was insensitive to their feelings and for that I apologize.  For me it was Sean Higgins put back with 1 second left in 1989 that shattered my 12 year old heart as my University of Illinois, Flyin' Illini were bounced out of the Final Four by an Underdog Michigan squad coached by an interim Steve Fischer.

Yet there are life lessons here to be extracted.  For me, maybe sensitivity training is needed.  There is still, 20 years later, a hatred for that moment and that individual in the state of Kentucky.  It makes me wonder in bigger picture sense, are there more places in our life where for years we have harbored hurt, unforgiveness and bitterness?  Oftentimes, sports is the stage for drama that unfolds in life played out within the rules of a game. So this makes me ask even myself is there a real life "the shot" in my life?  Is there a someone, a something, an event that at the very mention makes me burn with fire and anger?

While sports are the venue that allow us to express that hate towards and opponent or rival without real consequences, in real life, it is less acceptable to publicly displayed such hatred, so in our hearts it remains.  I love a passage of scripture that says that God throws our iniquities into the sea of forgetfulness.  Our faith is the life long endeavor to become more like Christ, who no longer holds our hurts against us.  We are challenged to do the same, to release those that have harmed us.

The unique thing about holding on to unforgiveness is that the person it hurts the most is the person still holding on to the real life "the shot". So take a look deep down, examine your heart and ask yourself is there someone out there who hurt you and that you are still holding on to?  Is there a real life "the shot" that replays over and over in your life and still stings that you need to find some healing on?  All basketball references aside, there is God that longs to heal your hurts, give you peace and free you from the pain that you hold onto.  His name is Jesus, he loves you and died for you to find healing from your hurts.

The Measure of a Cup of Coffee

In the midst of our last LifeGate staff meeting,  this statement was made "for the first time we went through an entire pot of coffee on Sunday".  Now you have to understand, we have a commercial size, industrial coffee pot.  This baby makes a ridiculous amount of coffee.  So I have some theories on why we are drinking more coffee:

1) It was Daylight savings time and everyone needed a little more Java to get going.  This is a worship leader's secret weapon on this Sunday.

2) Our church has become more "mature" and "mature" people drink coffee, moving away from the Capri Sun pouches. respect the pouch

3) This theory is the one I tend to gravitate toward.  I once heard Len Sweet (church futurist) say that people are just more comfortable with something in their hand.  Here is my belief that LifeGate is becoming more interconnected.  Nothing says comfort to me like a warm cup of Joe in my hand.  My belief is that those that gather on Sundays at LifeGate are connecting to one another over the comfort of coffee.

Now we may never move how much coffee we drink into an official KPI (Key Performance Indicator) category.  But I don't think it tells more than we just need a second pot.  I think it tells of growth on two levels. One we are reaching more people, two those people are reaching each other.  I'll take mine with one cream, two sugars please.

Tuesday Tune (Wednesday edition) Ben Rector

I like to be the guy who is first in discovering and liking a musical act before they have hit it big time, but more times than not find myself more of later adoptor than early.  I must confess again, I first discovered the smooth vocals and driving piano melodies of Ben Rector via Pandora.

Ben Rector, a Nashville based artist, falls in line with the likes of Colbie Calliat, Matt Barnes and Matt Wertz.  Rector has had songs featured on TV shows such as One Tree Hill, Pretty Little Liars, and Modern Family.  Ben is currently tour buddies with my favorite band NEEDTOBREATHE who will make a stop through my current hometown, Lexington, KY in April.

Let me introduce to those of you late on the bus to Ben Rector:

Sticks and Stone and other things that hurt

So as children we were taught this little phrase to retaliate to those that picked on us: "sticks and stones may break my bones, but your words will never hurt."  Here is what happened to most kids that quipped that on the playground 1) they ended up hiding and crying the in the principals office or 2) got hurt with sticks, stones or fists.  At some point in our childhood development, probably pretty early on, we realize that sticks and stones hurt for awhile, but words smart for a long time.  While the pain from a kickball to the face eventually subsides, sometimes the wounds from someone's words last a lifetime.

Last night we sat and challenge the young adults how come to our house to pretty get fed once a week on this principle found in James 3 about controlling our tongues.  One of the resounding walkways from our discussion is that most of us are so unaware of the words we use and how we use them.  I think a lot of us would be astounded if we knew how much damage we did with what we said.

There is one point is the passage where James compares our tongues to deadly poison. While I have never given arsenic to anyone, I did kill some mice that were terrorizing my garage.  They were chewing through everything - garbage cans, kids toys, anything they could find.  They had to be dealt with and try hitting a fleeing mouse with a stick or stone was next to impossible.  So I set out some poison.  The little mice feasting on the blue pellets of the deadly cocktail, soon no more mice.  I wonder how many of us our serving deadly cocktails to those around us.  I wonder if the poison we spread through what we say might leave us with no more friends, no more spouse, no more children, no more co-workers to eat lunch with.

What are we serving others with our words?  Is it kindness, love and grace?  Or is it a deadly poison?

Question: When was a time words did more damage than sticks or stones?

Tuesday's Tune Scotty McCreery

Scotty McCreery

Say what you like about American Idol nowadays, I could really take it or leave it.  But I did get the chance to see Scotty McCreery while on tour with Brad Paisley and The Band Perry.  Scotty gave his usual soulful deep baritone vocal performance that won him American Idol.  In the middle of his set Scotty belted out his current single "The Trouble with Girls".

Okay, so here is why I love this song so much, it might just single handed be the most descriptive lyrics for my teenage years.  The chorus comes to close with this line "the trouble with girls is that nobody likes trouble as much as me."

Brad Paisley @ Rupp Arena

Brad Paisley @ Rupp Arena

Songs I wished he had played:
- Little moments
- Who needs pictures
- When I get where I am going
- Half the dad he didn't have to be

Not a Fan

We are launching out into a new series at LifeGate Church called follower. No, this not challenge to grow our twitter accounts, while we have used it to encourage tweeting in church.  It is a challenge for us to be true followers of Jesus.  Some of the language that has shaken out of this series is the statement that we have to "not just fans but followers".


I understand being a fan.  I have cheered and cried over life's simpler pleasures and treasures, namely athletic teams starting with C and from the Windy City.  But I digress... Being a fan is not difficult especially when times are good.  Being a fan is easy in the world of Charlie Sheen when you are always "WINNING".  But the test is being follower over a fan is if you stick with it once it gets hard.

There was a moment in the ministry of Jesus where he foreshadows the events of the cross with a challenge to fans and followers to eat his flesh and drink his blood.  The outcome a lot of those who had been following the show - feeding the 5000+, healing blind and sick, raising the dead - suddenly were no longer interested.  As a matter of fact the bible states that they deserted him.

This brings us to the question of our own faith: have we been fairweather fans?  Are we all good with Jesus as long as things are all good?  Or in the difficult moments of faith where God digs deep in us to uproot some things that we have not given over to Him do we keep following the one that tends to the garden of our soul?  It is easy to wear our Team Jesus apparel when life is winning.  But do you proudly clothe yourself in the things of God when everything feels like a loss?

Followers go past being a fan.  Followers respond as the disciples did that day "where else are we going to go?  You have the words of eternal life."  The challenge is to be "not a fan, but a follower."

(Thoughts bootlegged off Pastor Ashley Wilson - LifeGate Church)

Youth Pastor's Unite

Okay, so maybe this is not a revolutionary as I think it is, but right now it is my own personal mantra. We have since left the world of full-time ministry some two years ago to be a part of an exciting adventure of church planting with some friends.  The life sold to me in my undergraduate education preparing me to go into ministry is to work my way up the chain to become some big shot with a comb-over in an office with some title of bishop this or that.

What was never revealed to me is that following God into the great unknown does not as neatly work as the climbing the ladder of ministry success presented in my college classes.  In the real world no one really cares how many kids showed up to your "Big Night" (insert cool and relevant title here) event.  Or even the really important things like how many young people's lives were forever changed by the gospel of Jesus cannot land you a job outside the bubble of the church.

Even the church does not help with this.  As presented so well on facebook lately is all the pictures that tell the story of what others think we do and what is actually done by a pastor, youth pastor, or worship pastor.

We are more than pizza eating, retreat taking, X-box playing, funny storying telling pranksters.  We have real marketable skillls.  A lot of us oversee 10's to 100's of volunteers on a weekly basis.  Some of us organize major events or large scale fundraisers. We plan, organize, and pull off major trips.  We are master communicators to an audience that has the attention span of gnat. We put in looonnnggg hours and then after we get home from that our phone rings with another counseling session that cannot wait.  And we are given responsibility for things of great importance - some else's children.  

So whether you are still battling in the foxholes on the battlefield for students.  Or you are like me a veteran of the battle who has taken on a new war.  You are more than a youth pastor.  You are someone's hero, someone's teacher, a life-changer.  You are capable of great things - even in a place not called the church.  Know that you are more than the label laid on you and that you are an invaluable asset to the place that pays you for your services.

Youth Pastors Unite!

Starting Fresh

Today at LifeGate, we opened the doors to our new location at Veteran Park Elementary, at least in a public grand opening service.  It was a simple reminder of what we are doing.  At the close of the message, my good friend Ashley gave those there the opportunity to make a fresh start with Jesus.  At least 6 hands went up.

How big was the party?  The bible tells us over 1 lost person angels in heaven celebrate, so how big was it today with six lives transformed by God's loving grace.

This runs in perpendicular with the rest of my life.  While our church is starting fresh in a new location, lives today are starting fresh with Jesus, my life seems to continue down the same road.  Still in the same job, despite my best efforts to make a improvement and move up.  Still in the same financial battle of trying to move the needle on youthful decisions of taking on debt.  Still, still and still...at least that is how it feels.

The one thing I do remember from high school geometry class is this: two lines running perpendicular to one another eventually intersect.  What this means is that my road full of stills will eventually collide with God's road of new things.  The prophet Isaiah jotted down these words from God - "see I am doing a new thing, now it springs up. Do you not perceive it?"  My hope is at that intersection of my still and God's new is something unlike I have ever known.  Isaiah goes on to say: "I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."

A lot of us live in the still...still struggling to make ends meet, still fighting and discontent in a marriage, still working the same passionless job.  My hope for you is that road intersects with God's pathway of new.  At that connection is the potential for discovery of fresh start God is preparing for you.

Time for Tebow

While everyone else in the world is putting out their two cents on the Miracle Man Tim Tebow, I thought I would join the party.  I am really not sure where this blog about the QB leading Denver is going to go, but this much I am sure of, there is a 10 year old boy in my house who has found a hero. Now Drew just sees the tough runs, come from behind victories and the overtime 80 yard bomb that sunk the Steelers.

As a parent I see the post-game news conference where Tim comes off awkwardly charming and sincerely genuine, incredibly out spoken about his faith and love for Jesus.  While the half world is taking shots at his arm angle, orthodox throwing style and his lack for being a true QB and the other half argues if there is a place for faith in football and sports in general, I see someone that for my boys is worth watching.  And not just between the lines.

I grew up emulating Ryne Sandberg.  I knew nothing about his character or him as a person.  I just knew he played second base for the Cubs and that is what I wanted to do when I grew up. #23 was the number on my jersey and number in my heart.  I defended him as nearly perfect, the best second basemen the game ever had.  I love that my boys love a winner on the field.  I love more that my boys love a person who is a winner off the field and in life.

Tim Tebow may, but possibly won't win a Super Bowl or an MVP, but he has won over my kids and as a parent that is just fine by me.  Sometimes we need to measure a winner by not only the wins and losses on the field but the man he is off.

So Go Broncos, at least Go Tim.  (Still and always will be a Bears Fan)

Leaving Athens

Today was the first day of the 2012 at least in terms of LifeGate Church.  We have taken residency of Veterans Park Elementary School and looking to be a light into that immediate community.  Tucked in the message of my good friend Ashley Wilson was a statement that was as much a side note as anything, but it stood out like a flashing light blinding my eyes.

Ashley mentioned how the Apostle Paul worked and toiled in Athens to plant a church with very little success and he left Athens for Corinth.  It got me thinking about the Athens in our lives.  Athens is the places that we have labored, toiled, sweat, blood and tears poured out only to find little success.  Funny how Paul never mentions that Athens was a worthless venture, only that his work bore out little success.

Could it be that the Athens in our lives are preparations for the Corinth's to come?  In the sacred text of the good book we find two letters to the church at Corinth.  Those two books are filled with some wonderful praises for that group of saints and some pointed corrections for that same group of saints.  Yet we find no letter to Athens, no further mention of fledgling fellowship.

I have had Athens in my life.  Blood, sweat and tears and little success found.  Although Corinth might have been the 1st Centuries Las Vegas, Paul found success in the hearts and lives of those people.  The lights of the strip of Corinth could be blinding, but Athens has prepared my for what is ahead.  May the days ahead bring great fruit as we leave Athens and move to Corinth.