Digging Deep

As kids in Sunday school, so many of us sang a song about the wise man and the foolish man. The former building his house upon the rock, and the later building his house upon the sand.

Was this any of you? Do the actions for the song almost come as muscle reflex even now as the tune plays in your head?

The song draws its basis off of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 7:24-27. This morning I was reading in the gospel of Luke, chapter six. As I was reading, verses 46-49, the song came up in my head. This is Luke’s account of the same parable. But, for the first time, the lines of the song didn’t fit with what Jesus was saying here. Here in Luke there is an action of the “wise man” that is added in.

In verse 48, the text says: “he is like a man building a house, who DUG DEEP and laid a foundation on the rock” (NASB, emphasis my own).

“Dug Deep” there is no action for that in the song! Rains coming down, floods coming up, but no a shovel digging into the ground action. Does this mean that there is work involved in finding the rock? That we need to dig deep before we build? What does that look like in our life? Does this mean that a “foolish man” is one building on the same plot of land, but who has not dug through the sand to get to the rock?

There are lots of deep implications and questions that come from these two little words (pun intended). Implications for us personally, the church, ministries that we are apart of, etc. This makes the issue so much more that just picking a spot of land and setting up a house, even if it APPEARS to be solid rock (wow, think about that one before you pick out a church).

Dig in so that you can weather the rains coming down and the floods coming up.

How are you digging down, before you build up?

The Drip Before the Flood?

“Forget about the flood for now; focus on the drip!” What does that mean? Hang with me on this one…

I just today got a email from a blog I read, about how to blog (totally nerdy, and I say as I write about it on my blog!). The email discussed how bloggers can get in a rut if they try to drag ideas out to complete thought with long paragraphs and stuff (a many of my posts have been). Instead, the article talks about writing short posts over time. It adds the quote…

“It is almost always about the accrued power of a thousand drips, drips that accrue, drop by drop until they overwhelm the status quo and break through, starting a flood.” – Seth Godin, marketing expert.

So why post this to anyone who is reading this, the majority of which could care less about writing their own blog? Well, as I read the two quotes I have mentioned, I thought about how this seems to transcends into other areas I am wrestling with in my life. So many times I want the flood of change in an area of my life, but by thinking about the flood, I often get overwhelmed and change never happens. But what if I focused on a “drip” of today, a “drip” tomorrow, a “drip” the day after, etc. How would this affect? Like an IV drip, would change and healing come? Maybe I need to be asking the Lord to walk with me through the drips each day.

What areas of your life would you like to see a flood of change? What is the drip that the Lord has put before you today?

Twitter & The 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon

This morning, with my morning coffee, I have been thinking about way I can use twitter as a huge resource in ministry with college students. Of course there are so many ways to use twitter, but this was I little bit different idea (though I don’t know that it is new).

With the popularity of twitter in today’s culture, twitter allows us in ministry (and people in general) to see the heartbeat of culture through the “trending topics” that appears on our twitter home page. This is a list of the top ten most popular topics at that moment. So, if we can see the top topics of right now, how can these be of benefit to me and anyone? …By using this list as a tool in the 6 DEGREES OF KEVIN BACON, of course!!!

The 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon is an idea that any topic can be connected within six relationships to Kevin Bacon. However, on our campus we have subbed out Kevin Bacon and practice at going from anything topic to the gospel within six relationships. An example of this would be using the word coffee (a favorite word of mine), the flow would go like this (you will see this could be made shorter):

Coffee…
Coffee is served in coffee shops,
Coffee shops are on many street corners in cities,
Many street corners also have churches on them,
Churches often have denominations,
Many denominations believe the core Christian message is the gospel of Jesus
What do you think about Jesus?

…while this is a little bit of a “cutting out a lot of small talk” process, it gets us to thinking about how anything can be directed at the gospel. So, as for twitter, what if we were to start looking at the trending topics and start preparing our mind for how to relate those things to the gospel? If those are the topics that are being tweeted about, then those are presumably the topics that will come up in our conversations with people. As I write this, the topics “Teen Choice Awards”, “Red Sox”, and “Hell’s Kitchen” are on the list. Could we find ways to connect the gospel to these?

If you really want to see power and the reality of why twitter topics, as well as other popular internet media, can be such a tool for us, check out the video below. It’s pretty good.

Some people I know laugh at the tech stuff that I am getting into and am trying to learn about. But more and more I am seeing that not only is this the way our culture is going, but that if we can harness these forms of media we will be able to see God’s Kingdom grow.

Soul Song

I just recently finished Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz, and in the last pages there was a question that was interesting. I’ll get to that in a second, but first a comment or two for those that haven’t read this book.

If you get a chance, Blue Like Jazz is worth “giving a go” (as they say here in Australia). If you are thinking “not practical enough”, ok you are right. If it’s not theological enough, this is probably true too. But, the purpose to pick this one up (it’s a quick read, unless your heart really gets caught up in reflecting on what is going on in your life) is because I think that Miller is earthing out some thoughts/feelings that are often in my head/heart (and possibly yours too) that are often too hard to vocalize. If you think that you won’t get ANYTHING out of this, you than are probably one who needs to read it, and let yourself at least listen to the voice of a man that I think is opening up with some interesting thoughts.

So, as for this question. In the last chapter Miller wraps things up in a few ways (though I don’t know if all of his lose ends are tied-up here). Don, as I have been calling him the last few days, explains the idea of the Christian Spirituality being like Jazz, it is something we feel. While, I am not totally sold on the analogy and still processing through it (there is a whole lot of fact and thought in our faith as well), I must admit that there is a whole lot of feeling in our faith that we often don’t think about. Things like love, isolation (emotionally and physically); faith, church, etc. are all things that emotionally I don’t know that I check in with enough. Or with these emotions, as I did a lot of learning last summer, and as see Don pointing out a lot, we oppress them often with our minds. I’m not talking about getting rid of fact, but when we have a strong emotion towards something does our mind say “that’s bad, shameful, embarrassing, don’t talk about it, and for sure don’t embrace it!” That can often be the case for me. So that’s where Don’s other wrap-up, his question got me to really think.

The very last paragraph of the book, Don asks the question: “What song will you sing when your soul gets set free?” There is a lot of the book that needs to be read in order to fully understand this question. Much of it has to do with Jazz and how he and his friends are all singing a song, not the same exact song, but songs that are about knowing Jesus. But it has really made me ask a further question, a question that I want to be honest in, not artificial, not superficial, and one that will at some points sound like the blues. The question is: What is the song my soul from Jesus, what is it singing right now? Often times I go though the hours of the day, and I don’t even think about this. I need to; hopefully tomorrow this question will resound in me that I might look to my heart for the answer.

What about you? What is the song in your soul from Jesus, what is it singing right now?

Motivation?…a question for evey situation!

So here is God calling me on something. In the last week, I have been talked to by two of my teammates on my affirmation of people, or lack there of. And then there is Tim Keller’s second morning talk at Campus Crusade’s CSU ’09, which God spoke some questions to me about.

This is not an easy blog to think through and write out, but I have the desire to write while things are still fresh in my mind, and heck, I am joyful to share that God is working and convicting. Amen to that…

The question: “what is my motivation?” is one that I am seeing I will need to continue to look at, work on, trust God with, etc. With my teammates, both asked the question “Why is it that, after someone says something, [I] am so quick to share another story or say something else that does not affirm what the person says?” It’s true, I know I do this, its something I have thought about and don’t care for. But, this has really made me think about, what is my motivation for anything that comes from my mouth? With family, friends, teammates, or how about people I share the gospel with (oh, now there is a big one!…and did Keller hit a heart string in his CSU talk).

Keller spoke from Luke 10, with the idea that this chapter describes our: mission, message, motivation, and method, as Christ followers. Jesus sends out the 72, then they come back. What is it that they say: “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name” (verse 17, NASB). If you emphasize the word “us” Jesus response takes on new meaning (at least for me). Jesus says in verse 19-20 “Behold, I have given you authority…over all powers of the enemy…(19). Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven” (emphisis added). Pertaining to motivation, Keller talks about how we make it about US, and while this was in reference to sharing the gospel, I had to listen and apply it across the board in my life.

What is my motivation in saying: “Here is MY story…”, “This is what I think…”, “Guess what happened to ME…”, and so many others. Is my desire to look at me, or is the desire to care about people? This applies, I believe, because in the next part of Luke 10 Jesus talks about the Good Samaritan, and being a good neighbor. When someone shares their story with me. Am I being a good neighbor? If motivation is a driving force behind being a good neighbor, in that split-second between their story and my response (whatever it will be), I need to ask WHAT IS MY MOTIVATION HERE???

I know that I will have to work on this tons in the days, weeks, lifetime ahead. And I know there are some people that are already doing much better than I am at this. But, what if we asked about our motivation a little more? What if we thought about it, and decided (as Jesus tells us to), to rejoice that our “names are recorded in heaven, as opposed to responding about US?

***Thank you to those of you in my life who have been bold enough in my life to trust the Lord and lovingly discuss this with me.