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I saw a movie the other day that took place after a great war that destroyed much of the world. Few people were left alive and much of modern convenience was lost. The biggest loss, however, was the availability of water. During massive nuclear war, I guess most water gets contaminated or dried up. I can’t say for sure because I have never experienced this sort of event.

One of the main characters was younger and had never experienced life before the war. She asked an older man who had lived before the fallout what life was like back then. One of the things he said really struck me, “People had more than they needed. We had no idea what was precious and what wasn’t. We threw away things people kill each other for now.”

There are countless precious things in our lives that we totally take for granted. For instance, I don’t think there has ever been one day where I was legitimately concerned about getting food. I have always had a roof over my head. I have an incredible wife. I actually love my job. Sometimes we grow to think we deserve those things we experience with frequency, but really they are all precious gifts and deserve or admiration.

I saw this video about what life would be like in America without our most important resource: clean drinking water. It is pretty chilling, but definitely worth a minute of your time. Here we go…

I am going to close with two things. First, I think it would benefit all of us if we spent some time everyday actually thanking God. I don’t mean going through the motions, I mean literal, thoughtful thanks. Doing so will give you greater appreciation and joy in life. Second, something big is going to happen related to all of this in a couple of days, so stay tuned. When I say big, I mean the biggest thing this cheesy blog has ever been a part of.

Anyone out there want to express some appreciation?

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I just finished reading C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy and really enjoyed it. Lewis is one of my favorite authors and the Space Trilogy is a good example of why. He is a brilliant writer who is able to write incredible stories that are full of theological truth. While I cannot get into a full book review now (although I would love to), I do want to talk about a half page that really stuck out to me. If you have never read the books, don’t worry, this is by no means a spoiler.

Two characters, Arthur and Camilla Denniston, are having a conversation with another character named Jane Studdock. They live in England and it is, not surprisingly, a foggy day. The Dennistons are explaining to Jane that they love all kinds of weather: fog, snow, rain, whatever it may be. She tells them that she can try to like crazy weather, but, “I don’t think I should ever learn to like rain and snow.”

“It’s the other way round,” said Denniston. “Everyone begins as a child by liking weather. You learn the art of disliking it as you grow up. Haven’t you ever noticed it on a snowy day? The grown-ups are all going about with long faces, but look at the children–and the dogs? They know what snow’s made for.”

“I’m sure I hated wet days as a child,” said Jane.

“That’s because the grown-ups kept you in,” said Camilla. “Any child loves rain if it’s allowed to go out and paddle about in it.”

I think Lewis makes a brilliant point in this brief dialogue. For some reason, we lose some of that zeal for life that was so prevalent as a child. Maybe it is because we have more responsibilities or because we have lost more of our trust for the world. Maybe it is because we become too worried about what others think or because of some misguided notion that adults just shouldn’t play too much.

I, for one, like the idea of maintaining my youth. I am not, by any means, saying I want to disregard my responsibilities. I do, however, want to live life with enthusiasm. I want to trust God to handle the big things that are beyond me and not spend my life worried. I want the faith of a child. I want to ignore the criticisms of people who are not enjoying life and are therefore prone to criticism of those who are. I want to have fun!

Some of my favorite memories are in the rain (read about the time I fell in love with Morgan here). I still love playing in the snow too. Granted, it is a pain when one gets stranded somewhere without a change of clothes or a tooth brush, but that sort of thing would be amazing for a kid to experience. Life is an adventure, and we have to choose whether or not we will take on the challenges with gusto, or spend our time complaining and rob ourselves of the joy of life.

What do you think? Is it a good thing to take on life’s challenges with the heart of a child?

If you are interested in the Lewis Space Trilogy, you can get them here: The Space Trilogy

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Day 5 of video week!
Every week our youth group does something we call Infusion. We go to some local apartments and share the love of Jesus. This past Wednesday we gave away about 200 book bags full of school supplies that had been donated by the church family at Grace Fellowship. Most of the bookbags were also graciously donated by Boosterthon. It was really fun giving the kids their supplies for the year and they really had a great time. Here is a 2 minute video of it all:

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A while back I mentioned AW Tozer’s book God’s Pursuit of Man and how God convicted me about the importance of foundational truths. You can read it here if you missed it. Anyway, I read the quote that really God used in my life the other day and was very impressed by the word use in it. The quote is actually by a guy named Coleridge whom Tozer was quoting (we all have our heros).

Here’s the quote: “Truths, of all others most awful and interesting, are too often considered as so true that they lose all the power of truth and lie bed-ridden in the dormitory of the soul, side by side with the most despised and exploded errors.”

Using my current ability and effort with words, my version of the same quote would probably be something like: “Things that are true and important can sometimes feel so true that we begin to ignore them or think they are bogus.”

Now you tell me, which one of the above makes you think more? Which statement cuts deeper? And which one is bereft of engrossing language?

It is for this reason that I am pledging to increase my vocabulary and think more deeply about which words I choose. In order to increase my vocab, I am signing up for a daily vocabulary word e-mail and will attempt to use that word in a conversation everyday. Today’s word is “plutocracy,” and it means “government by the wealthy.” I guess I will have to start a political debate or something. In order to think more deeply about my words, I suppose I will just have to spend more time thinking.

Anyone have good suggestions for vocab words? Anyone else want to subscribe to daily vocab words so we can have conversations and feel smarter than we really are? After all, the plutocracy is filled with intelligible people…

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Today I read a really cool verse in Exodus 28:3. It says, “You shall speak to all the skillful, whom I have filled with a spirit of skill, that they make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him for my priesthood.”

Now before you get excited about me starting my own clothing design business, let me explain why I think this is an incredible verse. People often wonder if Christians should participate in the Creative arts or if there is a place for the arts during a worship service. This verse shows that creativity is a gift from God and that we can and should use that gift for His glory! “The spirit of skill” comes from God, and any gift that comes from God should be given to Him and enjoyed.

Some people argue that production should not be a part of worship services. They don’t think that lights or videos do anything to glorify God, but I disagree. Something that really appealed to me when I cam to Grace was their philosophy about the role of production in worship services. In the Gospels, Jesus would often preach to loud crowds. When he addressed them, he would either stand on a hill or a boat out on the water. This is because hills and water act as natural amplifiers of sound, and it allowed more people to hear and understand the message.

We believe that production in worship services is just like the hills and water in Jesus’s day. We are not giving the message, we are simply amplifying it. Good sound and video allows more people to see and hear the message, good lighting helps people see the message, and good videos or testimonies can help illustrate the teacher’s message like Jesus did with parables. During worship songs, creative lighting can help people enter a reflective mood or help lift their spirits. Inspiring backgrounds can remind them of the awe of God’s Creation. The lights and the sound and the video should never be the primary focus of the participants. God should be. Production elements should only help bring people into His presence.

Some would say funny videos have no place in worship services,
but I think something like this one helps people see and believe deeper truths
(in this case, facebook friends cannot replace authentic relationships)

Production can be a place that is easy to get arrogant in (at least for me). Production people get to use cool and expensive equipment, they get to see results almost instantly, and people are more likely to compliment a funny video than a challenging sermon. But if you view your job as being an amplifier of the message, it is much easier to maintain humility. After all, the hill and the lake were always at the feet of Jesus, and were never the spotlight.

Lastly, I think production has a place in worship services because the person running lights can run them as an act of worship. The videographer can edit for God’s glory. The mic man can monitor frequency and honor God as He does this. God filled these people with the spirit of skill, and they have just as much right to use their gifts for His glory as a guitar player in a worship band or a preacher uses his gift to teach.

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Being married is awesome for a lot of reasons. One of those reasons is how much it teaches me about my relationship with God. I plan on writing some posts about that, and this is the first.

Morgan (my hot wife) is a teacher. I love summer because I get to see her so much more. During this past school year, she worked over 50 hours a week and spent about 10 hours in Masters classes. This meant that there were some days where she would leave at 7AM and I would not see her until after 9PM. It was not fun.

During those days I would always try and send her a text or a short e-mail to let her know I was thinking about her. Obviously, our relationship would not work well if that was our only way of interacting, but it was a nice way to remind each other that we were in love. When we could actually hang out again for real, it was always more exciting for her to see me because she knew I had been thinking about her (and more exciting for me too).

I think it is important for us to send God little shout outs throughout the day too. Since we cannot be in the Word or singing praises 24/7, it is vital to let Him know we are thinking about Him as we go about our day. We may not be able to text Him or e-mail Him, but we can look up towards Heaven and say, “Hey God, hope you’re doing well. Just thinking about you and wanted you to know I love you.”

Not only does this let God know we love Him, but it reminds us that we ourselves love Him! It is so easy to get distracted by all the craziness in the day, and I think giving God a shout out helps keep us grounded. While it should not be the foundation of your relationship with God, just like it should not be the foundation of my relationship with Morgan, it is a nice supplement. So it doesn’t matter if you are driving, or riding an elevator, or stressed out about school or work, just give God a shout out. You won’t regret it.

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A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post about how we tend to pursue things that are easy instead of memorable. I recently taught a seminar where the whole idea of being memorable was discussed. One of my points about living memorable scenes was to “live on a whim.” To illustrate that, I told the following story of when I knew I loved my awesome wife (who was my girlfriend at the time).

We both went to college at the University of Georgia. Every year UGA plays this little team named Florida in a town called Jacksonville. We made the journey down to Florida with about 20 other college students and stayed in a hotel in the city. Like most college students, I was in a room with about 7 other guys and she was in a room with 7 other girls. Our hotel was overlooking the river that flows through Jacksonville and we went to dinner on the other side of the river one night.

After dinner (where they charged us for water, which was an outrage to us college students!) Morgan and I decided to walk back to our hotel. There is a really cool bridge that has blue lights on it (you know what I am talking about if you have ever been to Jacksonville) and we basically had to walk across it. A couple minutes in, we got a call from a friend who informed us that it was about to rain. He asked if we wanted a ride, but we decided to just live on a whim and walk anyway.

Sure enough, the rain began to pour down, and we got soaked. We then proceeded to do cartwheels and jump in fountains and have one of the best times of our lives. Now for several months leading up to this event, I had been considering whether or not I loved Morgan. I had written pages and pages in my journal, trying to understand what love was and whether or not I had it for this girl.  I had prayed about it and poured over scripture, and was pretty confidant in my love, but wasn’t positive and did not see the need to rush things. When we went running through the rain in Jacksonville, that sealed things for me.  The exact moment occurred when we were in a grassy field in front of the hotel and she straight up tackled me. So not only was I wet, she got me muddy too. I’m not sure why, but at that moment I was sold. I knew then and there that I was in love with her hand there was no getting around it.

When we got back to the rooms one of my guy friends made an attempt to make me feel stupid for running through the rain (like I said, most of the time we choose easy over memorable. It would have been much easier to drive and not get wet and have to shower and deal with smelly clothes, but not nearly as memorable). In a sarcastic voice he said, “bet ya feel pretty dumb for walking in the rain, huh?”

I replied, “no, that was actually fun.” To which he said, “yeah, but your going to have to take a shower now! That stinks doesn’t it?” I just smiled and said, “not really,” and in my head I was just thinking about how awesome the experience was, and that he just couldn’t understand.

While it may not have been easy or convenient, it was certainly a memorable experience. Now whenever I go through Jacksonville, I remember this moment and my heart jumps a little bit. The memory is one of the reasons I am married to the best wife in the world, and I would not trade it for anything. I’m not saying that every time you do something memorable or play in the rain you will fall in love. I would even say that it is very dangerous to create moments that you believe will make you fall in love, those moments should happen on their own and after a lot of thought and prayer. What I am saying is this, there are a lot of things in life that are easy, but they are not always memorable. Choose the memorable as much as possible.

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I am beginning to realize more and more memorable things are not usually easy. For instance, I can make a cheap, funny video in about 90 seconds, but it won’t be truly memorable unless I take the time to do lighting, mic everyone, stage it properly, and edit well.

Life is like that too. There are so many times where I am tempted to just lay on the couch instead of going out and doing something exciting. Yes, laying on the couch can be nice, but it is not memorable at all. When I look back on life, I want to have some good memories! But being memorable is hard. You have to think of something to do, you may have to spend money, you may have to get tired, and you will definitely have to get off the couch.

In my experience, however, it is always worth it to get off the couch. Those times when I followed a whim and went out and played frisbee or played in the rain or went for a drive were some of the most fun things I have ever done. Every week Morgan and I try and go on a date, but sometimes we consider having our date being just a movie night in. These are OK, and sometimes we need that, but for the most part we have both agreed that it is important for us to go out and do something. Even if that something ends up being lame, it is more memorable than another night in front of a tv screen.

I think it is helpful to come up with memorable ideas. That way, you’ll be ready when the moment arrises.

- Strawberry Picking- We just did this the other week. It was a lot of fun, we picked 2 gallons of berries. Funny how we are now paying to do things that other people did to survive 100 years ago.

- Whiffle Ball- Easily one of the best games of our youth, whiffle ball still holds true. Call up 65-7 other people and make it happen. Throw in a cookout and you have one of the best days of your life.

- Playing in the rain- This can’t be beat when it comes to being memorable. Every time it rains I think how annoying it will be to get wet, but when I start hitting mudslides I realize how wrong I really was.

- Go downtown- I live in the Atlanta area. Only problem is, it takes 40 minutes to get to Atlanta. However there are plenty of memorable things down there: Aquarium, Centennial Olympic Park, unique restaurants, and of course the Braves.

- Make a video- Get some people together and make a funny video. It is quite enjoyable.

- Go Hiking- The outdoors are awesome.

- Disney World- This has been a long time goal of mine. Drive all night to Orlando, sleep a few hours in a Wal-Mart parking lot, spend the day at Disney, sleep a few more hours in Wal-Mart, and drive home. Crazy? Yes. Memorable? Without a doubt. The journey is half the adventure.

I need comments here. What are some other memorable ideas people have out there?

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I have been working on a collection of testimony videos that will go on Grace’s new Website when it is finished. We will be adding more as time goes on, but here are 3 out of the 6 that will be going on.

The first is from Paige Knudsen, who has an incredible story and perspective after losing her husband to cancer while she had 3 daughters under the age of 5. You should share this one with people you know because Paige does such a great job.

Here is one from Debbie Forbes, a woman who has been battling Ovarian Cancer. She talks about how she she has been cared for and now wants to care for others who have Cancer.

This next one is from Rusty Maddox and his story takes a little bit longer, but I am posting it here because it is a good example of God can use some really bad stuff in our life for our good.

Hope you enjoy them, I hope they give you some hope, and I hope you have a great day!

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Well I am a little behind posting this on Wednesday night, but I thought I would recap last Sunday morning when I had the privilege of speaking to our College and High School groups on the second half of James 2. If you are not familiar with the passage, you can read it by clicking here.

It is a pretty interesting passage and some people even think that it contradicts the Bible. This is not the case however, and James actually compliments the rest of scripture very well. These were my main points:

1) Works are not the cause of salvation, but rather, they are the result of it.

2) Faith, by definition, requires works. If you claim to have faith, you are saying that you believe God is real, and that He is who He says He is. God’s qualities include all-loving, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, etc. If we go against God, we are either saying we think we are smarter than God (not good faith!) or that God is not good (also not good faith!)

3) Faith in a loving God also includes loving Him in return. If we love Him, we will obey His commands (John 14:23). This is obvious. For instance, I love my wife and because of that I actually want to serve her.

4) If we focus too much on doing works, we will miss out on God and end up with an empty and cold religion.

5) Instead, there is one thing to focus on: living life in Jesus’s presence (Luke 10:38-42) We tend to get caught up and distracted by the details, but when we focus on God, works will naturally begin to happen in our life. When you experience and see the love God has for you, works will naturally come from the overflow in your life.

So thats it in a nutshell. I am not the best speaker in the world, but if you want to see the whole thing it is online at TrueNorthTimes.com. I hope that helps your understanding of James!

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