Monuments & Memories

Ok, I plagerized the title of this post from one of my favorite bands, Incubus...it's the name of their latest album. However, this title seems fitting for what's rattling around in my head and heart today.

Today marks our fifth wedding anniversary as a married couple. Bonny & I are going to celebrate with lunch out, a favorite dinner and perhaps some time down by the river with the kids.

As I began reflecting even yesterday about our anniversary, my mind immediately shifted towards my spiritual journey with Christ. I started to recall instances of triumph and failure; moments of celebration and sadness; mystery and wonder. The more I began to digest these parts of my life, the more I was drawn to a desire to remember and to celebrate my own personal spiritual journey. Wedding anniversaries mark a day each year on the calendar when, as a married couple, you can pull away and celebrate your relationship. These days should be filled with memories, stories, monuments and more. It's highly important to the health of your marriage relationship to take time to celebrate together. I think it's just as important, if not more so, to take time to celebrate in our spiritual lives as well. I know that I am sometimes hesitant to share with others about the miracles that God has done in my life for fear that I may be seen as a know-it-all or self-involved. But I think this hesitation is just another attack we face from Satan and his crew aimed at destroying the joy and celebration of faith in Christ.

We need to share our stories of hope, life, failure and love. We need to celebrate together in the richness and goodness of God's grace. We need to share out of the intimacies of our own lives about the power of Christ in and through us.

Maybe some of you can't recall a day when your relationship with Jesus began, and that's ok. My relationship with my wife began long before our wedding day. But our anniversary gives us a moment in time, a monument to remember and to celebrate God and each other.

Take time to celebrate who you are becoming in Christ. Focus on the moments and create monuments that remind you of His goodness and mercy. Living a life to the full should mean living a life full of celebration.

Relevant

I'm learning more and more about what it means for us as followers of Jesus to be relevant in our world today. I'm not talking about being influenced by the world or by culture, but simply to be in-tune with it and to be the influencers instead of the influencees!!

Faith that is relevant is faith that is active. Each of us should consider on a daily basis what we can do to live out our faith, our love for God and love for others, in a way that begins to shape the world around us.

The moment I think I've grasped what it means to have a relevant faith is the moment that I learn there is so much more for me to learn and to accomplish through God's mercy and grace working in and through my life.

I'm learning to lean; I'm learning to give and I'm learning to trust. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Action

I think action is my favorite movie genre. I love a good story...I like seeing the good guy triumph over evil, and if some stuff gets blown up along the way...BONUS!! :)

I've been reviewing my faith journey lately with all that has been going on in my life, and I have come to the conclusion that action is my favorite part of spirituality and following Jesus. Action means that I need to get my hands dirty, I need to get involved in life and in love and in learning to walk in the steps of Jesus by embracing his values, rhythms and graces for myself and for others. Action flies in the face of 'couch-potato' or spectator Christianity. Instead of observing life and faith from a distance, action demands an intentional response and commitment to learning and to doing.

Watching my kids grow and develop has taught me even more about this biblical principle of putting faith into practice. When Saydie was a newborn, the public health nurses were concerned that her tongue would need to be clipped because they believed she wasn't able to stick it out far enough in order to latch on for feeding properly. They suggested that we teach her to stick her tongue out as far as she could by holding her in our lap and sticking our own tongue out at her. I remember doing this the first few times and feeling like quite the idiot...sticking my tongue out a my little baby girl. Saydie would just stare intently at my face and try to figure out what was going on. After a couple of weeks, Saydie begin to mimic our behavior. When we would stick our tongues out at her, she would stick her tongue out at us...stretching it and helping her to learn to create a more effecient latch for feeding.

I think a relationship with Jesus is all about learning to copy His actions; doing what Jesus did. We can read the Bible to see and hear stories of how Jesus lived, but sometimes the most profound influence of Christ in our world is the Christ that is found in us. When other people can see how Jesus has shaped the way we live, in our actions and in our words, I believe the gospel is proclaimed. Evangelism isn't about articulating a perfect theological response to a probing question. Evangelism is about walking in faith every day and allowing others to see into the very core and fibre of your life; it's letting your actions do the talking.

What would happen if Christians decided to speak with their actions and change the world through walking in faith? I think we can see a glimpse of this radical way of life in our world even now...

My life matters. Your life matters. My kids' lives matter. The significance we have is in how we choose to live. Action is rooted in identity; and as Christians our identity is found in Jesus. In Jesus we cannot help but fall into active, radical faith living.

Is love alive?

Ok, so I'm a closet So You Think You Can Dance fan. My wife and my daughter are really into the arts...especially creative movement!!

Not only has SYTYCD introduced me to a variety of new dancing styles, it has also been a showcase for new musical artists as well. One such artist, Sara Bareilles has captured my attention...at least momentarily!! One of the lyrics from her song entitled 'Winter Song' as performed by herself and Ingrid Michaelson has literally blown my mind lately. This lyric asks a simple question, is love alive?

When I think about love being alive I think about the church and those who claim to be followers of Jesus. I think this is perhaps the most profound question we can ask ourselves to gauge our spiritual health and relevance as the body of Christ. Is love alive? Are the arms, the hands, the feet and the heart of Jesus alive and active in our world? Recently, there has been a renewed passion and vigor to engage the world around us with compassion, mercy and hope. Our quest to partner with God's act of restoration in our world is exactly the answer to this simple question that we need to own. If we truly desire to the world around us to change for the better and perhaps for the eternal, then I would like to suggest that love needs to be the guiding force behind what we do and why we do it.

It's a simple question, but one with profound ramifications. Is love alive in your life? Is love alive in mine? My hope and prayer is that as I experience the love of my Heavenly Father in greater ways, I become inspired to be an agent of love in the lives of others.

Love is alive because Christ is alive. Christ in me and Christ in you will change the world in which we live for the better. It's a revolution baby!!

Change & You

Sometimes to wind down at night I'll put in a favorite movie flick after the kids have gone to bed. Right now I'm working my way through the Lord of the Rings trilogy once again. Last night I finished up the Fellowship of the Ring. As I was watching the movie for the umpteenth time I caught a line that I had never heard before that sparked my interest.

"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future."

I love the idea that the future isn't set in stone. Biblically speaking, the beginning of time and the end of time are written, but I believe that the middle is left up to us to co-author with our Creator. I believe that the choices we make affect not only ourselves, but the world around us. For example, if you choose to recycle, I believe you choose a brighter future for our world. If you choose not to participate in recycling, you choose ignorance, but your choice is still affecting the future, this time it's only in a negative fashion.

There are many theologians and people in our world that would argue that the choices you and I make don't really affect the world or God at work in it. While that may be true in some cases, I refuse to believe the gift of life is nothing more than an illusion. If the way we choose to live here on earth didn't matter...why bother giving us the gift of life in the first place??

The truth is that even the smallest person can change the world. Take my son Cannon, for example. He came into our lives at 4lbs 9oz. This little man changed our lives and our world for sure. And his life represents the opportunity for more change in the future.

As a dad I believe that my children have the power to affect change in our world. As a man, I know that I have the opportunity each day to engage change and direct hope in the world around me. I have a choice each day to wake up and influence life and the world for good, influence it for the worse, or fall into the trap of ignorance.

One thing is for sure. God trusted humanity with the truth about His love for the world. And part of this truth includes the power to change and to partner with God's rhythm and design for life.

Stop thinking the world is too big to change and begin believing that even the smallest of us can affect change. Our world needs some help...it's time to change.

Gotta Love Water

Today we took the kids to Elbow Falls...the place where I proposed to Bonny, asking her to be my wife and begin a family with me. Five years later and our family has doubled in size. It was pretty cool to share this spot with our kids, eventhough they probably won't remember it. Hopefully we'll be able to visit it again when they are older and share the story of how our family came to be.

I love Elbow Falls because of what it means to our family, but also because of what it means for my faith. When I have the chance to enjoy nature, specifically water (running rivers, falls, or the ocean), I find myself drawn to the heart of my Father. There is some sort of deep connection and heart's cry that I experience in these type of settings. I absolutely love it!!

I think each of us has these types of things that propel us forward and inward in our relationship with God. I'd love to hear what some of these things for each of you!!

Tradition vs. Jesus

I stumbled across this little interaction between Jesus and a group of Pharisees during my devotion time while leading a team on a short term humanitarian relief project in Mexico. A group of Pharisees approach Jesus and try to trap Him with a line of questioning regarding His disciples not adhering to the tradition of the Jewish law. The tradition they were referring to is the man-made interpretation of God's law handed down to the people of Israel by Moses. The verse that has rattled around in my heart and in my head since then is this: "Thus you nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down. And you do many things like that." (Mark 7:13).

I think sometimes that tradition, or routine, gets in God's way. Think about this for a second. You're sitting in church going through the regular run down of a service...there's some music, the offering, perhaps a prayer and the sermon of course. Maybe there is some sort of video response or other 'activity' you're invited to participate in to make things seem more interactive than they really are, and then you might close the service with more singing. Sometimes I wonder if we need to punt what we have planned and follow where God is leading in a service, or any other part of life. When God beckons you to follow Him, He often doesn't give you a ton of pre-prep time...He simply calls out to you.

Think of the very first disciples who chose to follow Jesus. Simon (Peter), Andrew, James and John were fisherman. They were doing what they normally do to get ready to fish on the day Jesus strolled by and invited them to journey with Him. And what did they do? They left their nets and they followed after Him.

Tradition = convenience. It's so much easier to know what's coming in life. It's easier to plan ahead and to define our future than it is to embrace God's leading and calling in your life. And what's even more insane to consider is that we are planning ahead when we cannot even see beyond today, or even right now. I think it is important to have a plan, but when the plan trumps Jesus, then the plan is the problem.

The Pharisees let their tradition trump Jesus. The sad part of this story is that it's one that happens far too often in our world and in our lives today. Tradition is only beneficial when it is steeped in the very presence of Christ. Without Jesus, we don't have anything anyway.

Does tradition get in the way of Jesus in your life?