I'm Better Than You

If I had to think of my best ability, one that I do better than anyone else, it would have to be my humility. I dare you to find anyone more humble! I'd kick anyone's butt in a humility contest! I'm the humblest person alive today!

Of course someone that says this doesn't seem very humble at all. But if this isn't humility, then what is? Often, the picture of humility that I hear people paint is one of convincing yourself that you are worthless. A humble person is supposedly one who has convinced themselves that their skills aren't as good as they are. If you're really good at basketball, in order to be humble you shouldn't play it otherwise, you're "showing off."

"Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom." - James 3:13

This verse turns that notion on its head! It seems that God doesn't want people with abilities like wisdom and understanding to cover the abilities up, but "Let him show it..."! Show your abilities through a good life! And have that good life by doing deeds in humility that comes from wisdom!

What then is the difference in an able man, and a humble able man? C. S. Lewis puts it this way from the perspective of Screwtape, a demon. "The Enemy" he is speaking of is God.

"The Enemy wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world , and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another."

This is a hard thing to do. Lets say Elevation somewhere down the road had 100k in attendance. I'd be bouncing off the walls and giving all the credit to God! But lets say some other church did it first. I can imagine myself getting a little sour about it, and that isn't what God wants. He wants glory, not just Elevation brand name glory. Rejoice in kingdom advances regardless of the servant God chose.

To Do List:

These are some random things I want to do at some point.

1. Buy a brand new car (don't really care what kind) and take really good care of it (mechanically, not necessarily cosmetically) and put 1 million miles on it.
2. Get a puppy and train/raise it myself. I've had dogs, but always got them in the post puppy stage. I'm thinking golden retriever or labrador.
3. Memorize a few books of the bible.
4. Witness man landing on Mars.
5. Get my pilot's license.
6. Skydive. (hopefully not from the plane I'm piloting)
7. Visit every continent.
8. Teach myself guitar and piano.
9. Run a marathon.
10. Find my wife. (although I probably won't have that much of an active role in doing this)
11. Learn Spanish, German, and Japanese.
12. See Elevation have 100k in attendance.
13. Start playing trombone again.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~
INTERMISSION
~~~~~~~~~~~~
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've just now returned from a 1.5 hour hiatus due to a stranger knocking on my door and telling me I have a dozen escaped cows dancing in the highway. Luckily my father (who is recovering from major eye surgery and can't see in broad daylight, let alone utter darkness.) was still awake and in quite the chipper mood. After dashing through the wooded night for a good 30 minutes, I began to wonder: Could I strangle a bovine with my bare hands if it came down to it? Luckily it didn't, but I must say I am leaning on the "yes" side of the table.

They are all back in as best as I can tell, and the fence is repaired; and oh yea, I startled a skunk while I was repairing the fence and it sprayed about 50 feet away.

I consider myself a lucky guy. Even if the glass is only 10% full, at least it's not 90% empty.

Legitimacy

This is probably the biggest difference in the last two job opportunities I've had. It's kinda nebulous for me to think about, so probably the best way to explain it was one was all talk and no walk and the other didn't need to talk because its walk did all the talking for the company.

Legitimacy usually refers to the authority of a given organization or person. Most western governments are considered pretty legit. Mr. Policeman can tell you to get out of your car. You will probably do this because you know he can get you in trouble if you don't; plus he has a gun. (but not everyone does this.) Then after you flip him off and call him a pig, he will continue to ask nicely for you to get out of the car for what seems like a completely unreasonable time. (I would have maced you long before I ask you the 10th time, methinks) Then, finally, after you have resisted his authority for WAY too long, he has the delightful assignment of tazering you until fall out of the car. While this can be VERY funny, it also teaches us several things.

1. Tazers hurt.
2. 3rd party people usually can see when you're pushing the limits.
3. The more authority someone has, the more you should listen to what they're saying. (I'd listen more to the supreme court than a meter maid)
4. Tazers really, really hurt.

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." - Matthew 28:18

That is quite a bit of authority. Maybe we should listen to him. Jesus has big tazers. He is even more patient than the policeman, but I wouldn't push it, He's got a big gun. And He is legit.

I really have no idea how this morphed from a talk about my job to Jesus tazering people out of vehicles, but I think it's all good.

Cage Fight

So these two Shane guys are pretty much the bomb diggity with a bag of chips. I saw them for the first time at a concert tonight. That being said, elevation's worship leaders could totally take them in a cage fight. I imagine they would be kinda slow but pack a punch. However Chris looks like he could out run them while Wade uses guerrilla tactics to slowly nibble their ankles into submission. One of them has facial hair so you may think he's really good at fighting, but he actually sings the high part, so that pretty much negates any chance he had. Plus, our guys look like underdogs at first. Wade is pretty tiny and Chris has fashion sense, both common factors of really bad cage match contenders, but herein lies our advantage! Wade is SO tiny they won't be able to track him and Chris' striking good looks will make his competitors introspective of their own ill tastes in clothing. They will then be demoralized and react slower. This slight edge we will have to exploit at every turn and victory will be ours!

I would pay at least $15 to see this.

A Case of the Mondays

For me, Mondays are the low point of the week. First, I'm still lagging from Elevation's weekly triple header super Sunday extravaganza. (Which was awesome this week with 2812 in attendance, a 400 increase in 1 week, and 23 salvations.) And second, I realize I gotta wait 6 more days for the next one. Plus, NOTHING is ever going on on a Monday night. Except for Younglife, which Billiam Eyecandy informed me of today. Yes, it's for high schoolers and no, I'm not one of those creepy guys. I'm soon to be starting a high school small group and I figure a little head start may help out. So take that, Mondays!

Longevity

I'm realizing more and more that I really, truly desire longevity. Not so much for my body, (that may interest me later) but for my patience on God. I have placed all my trust in Him, and I'll do whatever He says as long as I'm certain it's Him that's speaking. But it seems that after I agree to wait on Him, like a little impatient kid, I'm asking, "Are we there yet???" and "Ooh how about we go this way???" Now don't get me wrong, I'm very thankful for the advances He's helped me make in this area. Formerly, if I got impatient, I would do the equivalent of opening the car door and jumping out instead of asking if we were there yet, with usually equivalent physical/spiritual injuries. I now completely surrender to His will, I just think I must annoy the crap out of Him with all my silly suggestions. He's the one with the freaking map! He's got google maps memorized! What the heck am I even basing my suggested alterations to my path on? (Sorry I ended a sentence with a preposition there, I don't care.)

I just wish that the peacefulness that's associated with relying on God had a little more, well, a lot more longevity. But, of course, if we were on autopilot like that, we'd feel we didn't need God so much anymore. Where we live, where we work, who we marry etc. are just details that represent the process we went through of learning to trust God. The process is the point! (I didn't intend on this turning into a thievery of pastor's previous sermon point, but it just came to mind.) Now that I mention it, I think I'll start thanking God for keeping me unsettled. It helps me remember to go to Him, and draws us much closer.

Good talk.

Panera

Some people half comically say that they are convinced of the existence of a graceful God because there would be no other way to end up with a spouse as good as theirs. I'm single, so my half comical proof lies in the existence of Panera. People WAY cooler than me came up with this idea that if you build a restaurant like it's the brainchild of really hip people (with laptops) then people will flock to it. I'm not really sure if they're making up the names to all these bread types (I don't really care) but I do know they make me feel savvy at something, I just don't know what yet. I'm so uncultured that Panera taught me what a baguette was. (Shut up! I know, I know) It's like the Starbucks of solid food. I'm actually posting this from Panera right now in Matthews. It's really funny that the 95% of people without laptops stare continuously at the 5% with laptops imagining all the important white collar business work we're doing. Ha! It's really all youtube and facebook surfers! But at least we look cool.

Boast in the Lord

This is a phrase that's been going around Elevation a lot recently. I think it's most commonly brought up in defense of the church's actions of what some might consider showing off. Many have this sense that a church should be hidden in a corner somewhere and not step on anyone's toes or boast.

My soul will boast in the LORD; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. - Psalm 34:2

I agree it would be wrong for a church to boast about how great their pastor is, or how cool the music is, or how many people they have... if they gave credit to these accomplishments to anyone but God. You don't put a lamp under a bed, you put it on a lamp stand in the middle of the house so it fills the house with light, not because of how cool the lamp is, but because of what the lamp contains. There are also people that say churches should be more low key. They should scrimp and save in every way to give the money to the poor. Some may be turned off by large extravagant churches, but if the church is solidly grounded in the fact that it's not their doing, but the Lords, then it stands as a monument to the Lords ability.

Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages." - John 12:3-5

The church is the body of Christ. There is nothing wrong with anointing it for the purpose of God's glory.

Why?

What is the point of me starting a Blog? No one is gonna read it...yet. I don't have all the answers for anyone. I don't even like writing. However I've recently become aware of the huge asset that a blog can be to someone. I hope to amass a huge collection of entries that I can look back on in the future and reflect; kinda like a journal, but with a more public intended audience. (I also started a journal yesterday and my debut entry was 4 freaking pages long.) I view my journal as a place to spill my guts, but this arena more along the lines of a long, drawn out introduction of me to whoever. Do I intend this to be pure, raw "what I'm thinking"? No. Do I intend this to be fake? No.

So what does all this abstract reasoning add up to? What is the answer to why I'm starting this? Ultimately, I do it for the glory of God. I believe He can use this format to bless me and others in ways I can't even imagine yet. Whether it simply will be a supplementary vehicle of reflection to my journal, or something I say influences someone in a positive way, or someone calls me out on something stupid I say and helps me with it, it's all good. I trust that He will use it as He sees fit.