I Wrote This During a Class I was Bored In

We don't like to talk about death.
It scares us. But I think it also perplexes us.
This notion (better yet, this fact) that one day it all just stops. Those of us who are still in some sort of school may feel like there is no end in sight for our degree; those of us who are single may see no light at the end of of the tunnel; if you're a Detroit Lions fan the crappy seasons don't seem like they will ever stop. But life doesn't fall into the same category. It will end - we can be certain of that.

So what the heck are we doing?
Why do we live our lives as if there is a reset button? Kinda like when you're playing a football video game and if you're getting demolished you hit the reset button before the loss can be saved to the memory card.
There is no reset button in life.

Stop pretending like you're gonna live forever.
Stop pretending like this world is all there is.

Make decisions for eternity.

It sounds cliche but maybe one day we'll all wake up and realize that most cliche's we were so afraid to find on our lips were right. Sentences don't become universal mantras unless there is at least an iota of truth in them.

If you have read Tolkien then you know that his stories feature elves and elves live forever. And in one of his works he writes that the Creator gave to elves gifts that men envied - strength, tireless energy, beauty and not the least of which was immortality. But to men the Creator gave what Tolkien called a strange gift - it was the gift of death. Because when men looked to the elves they thought of immortality being associated with eternal pleasure and experience and failed to realize that it also meant eternal sorrow and pain. Where there is no death there is no escape from the world and all of its sorrows and mess. The elves may live forever but they were bound to an earth that decayed and didn't age with the same grace they did, whereas man had the hope of one day escaping it all.

Augustine in the City of God poses the question of why men who have been saved by Christ from sin and its ensuing curse which was death still must eventually be subject to death. Why aren't believers in Christ conferred with the gift of immortality upon conversion? Augustine's response is interesting. He says that such a reward would nullify faith. The gratuitous gift of instant immoratality would make faith like some sort of lottery jackpot - who wouldn't become a Christian? But having to still be subjected to death and having the reward of eternal life lay behind the curtain of death requires great faith - it is a reward you can't see and a reward that may lie at the end of a road paved with suffering.

Just throwin it out there.

Keepin' It Real

One of the most rewarding aspects of youth ministry (especially Jr. High) is taking the big, grandiose spiritual concepts and reducing them to their most basic form, making them manageable for the adolescent mind. Let’s face it – so often we get caught up in trying to so intellectualize our faith, to state it in the largest theological term possible, to make it so big and lofty that it loses its original potency or at least doesn’t resonate the way that it used to. Sometimes we try and slice and dice an aspect of our faith so much that we lose sight of its original simplicity and beauty. The great thing about working with kids is that even if you wanna do this, which I am usually inclined to do, you just can’t. Jr. Higher’s aren’t impressed with fancy words (unless they’re four-lettered or describe a body part) - keep it simple and don’t apologize for it.

The last couple of weeks I have been teaching through John 3 and 4 with our Jr. High students, really hammering home the simple gospel due to the fact that many of our kids are lost or unchurched, and it has been most refreshing. Tonight I talked on John 3:16. That’s right, John 3:16. The verse that Christians and non-Christians alike know, the verse that we have known since the womb, the verse spray painted on posterboard in the stands at football games. I kinda actually forgot it is in the Bible – and that not only is it in the Bible but that it is remarkably beautiful and remarkably simple. God…World…Sacrificial Death…Belief…Life…it’s the Gospel. I hope I never tire of talking about the Gospel – the plain, life-changing Gospel. There is a balance though as in all things. We can make the Gospel over practical and lose sight of its original intention and power reducing it to self-help or therapy or feel-good positive thinking but we can also over philosophize, over theologize, over lexicon-ize, over analyze, over rationalize and forget that at the end of the day Christ came into the world to simply save sinners and that’s what people need to hear.

It’s funny when you look in the New Testament – Jesus didn’t give any preaching seminars to his disciples, they obviously observed their master and picked up things along the way but Christ doesn’t really ever sit them down and say, “…so Pete, after the 5 point outline remember three things: make sure all of your points start with the same letter; make sure you throw in at least one fancy word to impress the audience; and always preach for at least 30-45 minutes.” Maybe he gave them a crash course and we just don’t know it but you’d think it would be recorded – I mean these were the people who had been entrusted with founding the universal Christian church from the ground up – seems preaching would be important. Instead we see Christ speaking pretty matter of factly with people, we see Christ use a lot of word pictures and stories, we see the apostles in Acts preaching unbelievably directly and simply. We do hear of a really long sermon given by Paul at one point but a kid fell out of a window and died during it – I’ve had kids point to their watches while I speak before but someone falling out of a window would definitely be interesting.

I dunno. Just throwin’ it out there. I think a lot of times preachers just like hearing themselves talk and I’m guilty of this. I think a lot of times we unintentionally but also sometimes intentionally try and make the Gospel more dressed up than it is – we put the Gospel in slacks when I think it really wore jeans. I think sometimes the most powerful sermons are the most simple. Sometimes the most lingering are the shortest. The Gospel is simple and powerful and wonderful and Christ said that the kingdom which the Gospel was building belonged to little children.

Rutgers, Foam Fingers and the USA

One of my favorite ways that fans respond in sports is the frantic waving of the index figure into the camera. We all know what it means: "We're Number One!" The funny thing though is that in most collegeiate sports where there is a rigid ranking system their is only one team who can technically claim to be number one at a time, thus really only they have the right to frantically wave that index finger. However, this hasn't stopped other teams from doing it and continuing to do it forevermore. The other night I was watching Middle Tennessee State play and after scoring a touchdown every person on their sideline who the camera did a close-up on was jumping up and down, yelling and frantically waving that figure into the camera: In their mind MTS was Number One...In reality most people don't even realize MTS is a school, let alone a school with a football team.

I think all too often we bring this type of thinking into our politics. We as Americans are so eager to raise that index finger, wave it around and loudly proclaim: "We're Number One!" We are so used to having that powerhouse, undefeated, championship type attitude that we are the best and most untouchable nation on earth. And quite honestly we have been the most powerful and dominant nation on earth for the majority of our history and still could probably claim to be "Number One!" But we must remember two things. First, we flat out have not really stood the test of time yet. We are a young nation when compared to the scope of history and so far no nation has ever been able to claim the title of invincibility. It's like when Rutgers upset Louisville last week in football - sure Rutgers proved to be talented, pulled off a huge win, but there are still a lot of games left, you haven't been in the spotlight all that long - be careful how brazenly you wave that finger in the air.

Secondly, while America may be the last remaining "superpower" on earth, the gap may not be what it once was. Once again lets look to the sports world (hey, I'm a guy - I fish, hunt and drink beer from a dixie cup - actually none of that is true except the first part). The gap between the bigtime universities with bigtime sports programs and smaller "mid-major" universities has steadily closed each year. Gonzaga U (a Jesuit school in Washington with less than 5,000 students) is a perennial basketball powerhouse; George Mason university went to the Final Four last year; just this week in college football Wake Forest blew out Florida State at home; teams like Rutgers, Louisville and Boise State are some of the nations best teams - the point is made: the talent pool in sports has begun to level off, the term powerhouse may soon become obsolete.

Can the same soon be said of world politics?

I have no doubt America is still the "powerhouse" in the arena but could we maybe admit the gap is closing? It was just reported that our naval technology isn't what it once was - at the end of October a Chinese submarine had tracked one of our aircraft carriers in open water for days, being dangerously close before our ship even picked it up. The submarine had no ill intentions but the point was made - even our military may not carry the invincible tag any more - the technologies we once boasted above everyone else may soon be commonplace.

It is trendy in evanglicalism right now to put a liberal slant on things and to criticize the conservative right so don't misunderstand me. I am proud to be an American. I have no desire to live anywhere else on earth. I love this country and want to see it defended and to succeed. Furthermore, I believe as Christians here in America we have privelege and freedom not to be taken for granted. A democracy truly is the most condusive form of government in allowing the spread of the gospel. But as the war on terror continues to rage, as political power swings back and forth between parties, as leaders come and go let us always remember our hope, security and faith ultimately do not lie in a country or in a political party but rather in a heavenly city and in a king, who has indeed prepared a house with many rooms for us, but such a house is not found on Capitol Hill.

All Aboard

Stop this train
I wanna get off and go home again
I can't take the speed it's movin' in
I know I can't
But honestly won't someone stop this train

There are many sublime qualities about music. One of them is the way your psyche grabs certain songs during certain periods of your life and clings to them as an anthem. Another is the way a good lyricist can say a lot with only a few words.

John Mayer in the song mentioned above accomplishes both in my mind - truly this song has become an anthem for me.

I am on a train that is speeding into the night.
Where is it taking me?
Do I want to go there?
Does it have to go so fast?
Can't it slow down a little?

I just need time to think.
Does life allow that?

I'm not living I'm reacting.
I stepped off the platform and jumped onto the end of the train because thats what I was supposed to do

gaining speed
going faster
going somewhere

Fastball

Sometimes Life tells us to throw a curveball.

But if you're a fastball pitcher throw the fastball.

The fall of 2003 when the Marlins won the Series was so much fun for me. I went to games that year all season long and so when the Marlins made the Series I felt like a true fan because I had been there when they looked all but dead just a few months prior. That October was phenomenal. I remember leaving work early to make the game on TV, sitting up late into the night with roommates anxiously watching every pitch, calling friends across the country and saying, "Can you believe this?" I yelled at the TV, wore a rally cap in my living room, laid in bed after games analyzing, played catch in my yard between innings.

During this year's Series I thought back a lot to the Year of the Fish in '03 and once again revisited in my mind one of my favorite memories:

A single at-bat between Josh Becket and Sammy Sosa in the NL Championship series.

I don't remember all the details but any baseball fan will recall that this was when Sosa was still one of the game's most feared hitters. He had cracked the 60 homeruns in a season mark 3 times in 5 years. Between 2000-2002 he had hit more than 150 homeruns. '03 was another 40 homerun season for him. He was rapidly swinging himself into the Hall of Fame. Beckett was the Marlin's young fireballer. Beckett had no big league experience but was making a name for himself with his fastball and his gunslinger attitude. Sosa had made a living hitting fastballs out of the park for years.

And so when the two faced each other one night in Wrigley late in the game something had to give.

Beckett threw fastball after fastball and Sosa hadn't yet caught up but he had been here before.

Sosa had 2 strikes against him.
Sosa was the face of the team.
Sosa at this point was one of the greatest living hitters.

The crowd was rallying behind their feared slugger.
The hopes of a city rode on this man's bat.

Surely Beckett had been lucky, he now would throw an off-speed pitch and get Sosa off balance right? Beckett's good but in the Major leagues you gotta mix up your pitches - the hitters are too good. This young pitcher wouldn't challenge such a devestating hitter in a game this big right?

Sosa did his batter's box ritual.
Beckett took a little more time than normal glaring at the batter.
It was a battle of wills.
Neither man uttered a word but you could see in Sosa's eyes he wouldn't be outdone on his homefield by some young punk.
You could see in Beckett's eyes he had no fear.

And so when convention would tell him to throw a curveball,
throw something out of the strike zone,
don't press your luck with a hitter like this,

Beckett threw a fastball right down the middle.

Sosa swung and missed.

Beckett is a fastball pitcher.

This world and this life tell you and me to be a lot of things.
To look a certain way.
To like certain things.
To have a certain job.

Be yourself.
Be no one but yourself.

If the world tells you to throw a curveball but your a fastball pitcher.

Throw the fastball.

If you get burned who cares?

At least you were yourself.