losing familiarity

As a homebody, I am irrevocably attached to whatever is familiar.  And whenever I lose a piece of my wonderfully familiar world, it makes me sad.

My brother got married yesterday.  I know I haven’t lost him, but I did lose something familiar. No worries, I’m happy for him, and I know that he is very very happy now which makes me vicariously happy too.  I’m just hoping that this new unfamiliar bit of “my world” becomes a better familiar bit in time.

Oh, and something entertaining for you all.  I led my mom up to the altar to light one of the two candles candles bordering the central unlit unity candle.  But I was confused and almost made my mom light the unity candle, in fact I aggressively prompted her for a solid 5 seconds before the stares of an alarmed congregation made me realize what I was attempting to do was horribly wrong.

congratulations Jon and Carol.

May your marriage be awesome.

Growing into Greatness

The Scripture says that the human condition is one of “alienation.”  As a race, we are tragic and broken. We are not what we were meant to be, and we see it in our sin and our self-disgust.  One of the most poignant observations ever made, came from the mouth of the wise king, Solomon.  He once wrote, “He (being God) has placed eternity into man’s heart” and followed that statement with these words “…yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”  In simpler terms, God has made man distinctly aware of his finitude, by fashioning an appetite for infinitude within his beating heart.  The point being, Man was meant for greater things than this material life.

That is the premise.  Hold on to that thought while I start unwinding a related thread.  Young people, adolescents, teenagers, for the most part all go through a stage of mental, emotional and physical change.  ”Puberty.”  It’s an awkward topic, no doubt about it, and it is appropriately so, for it describes an awkward process that makes for awkward changes resulting in awkward situations. But despite all the awk, there is a lot of grace in the midst of it.  You see, one of the most beautiful things about this phase of development, is the nascent bud of that divine appetite, which I mentioned just a moment ago.  As boys become men, and girls become women, there is an ember of hunger for greatness that begins to glow.

I have heard it often before, and I expect I will hear it much more in the next few years as I continue doing youth ministry. The phrase, “Nobody understands me.” or some variation of it, seems to be the ongoing theme for this stage of life.  Maybe you’ve heard it too, (we have all known our fair share of emos). However I’d like to propose that the spoken phrase is unfinished.  What’s really being said is “Nobody understands me in a deeper way”.  See, I suspect that when young people begin to develop a taste for the deeper realities of life, they also develop an awareness of the depth that is within them, a depth that was for them hitherto previously unattended, and unnoticed by others.  But having stepped into that wonderfully illumined place called adolescence, they suddenly feel strangely neglected, and maddeningly misunderstood.  What they need, is someone, or some word, that speaks to the deep within.

Souls were fashioned to contain eternal truths.  This should help us determine what to teach young people.  Surely, appealing to hip teenage superficiality is not the answer to reaching this generation.  What we need is a deep and satisfying draw of Eternal Truth.  So that, as these young people grow into their bigger bodies, their souls also grow into this unseen reality, called Greatness.

Endurance at 24

coming soon.

- Heb 12:1-2

i promise

i will write soon.  I know there are people wondering if my blog is dying. the answer is, no.  it is only sleeping. heavily. but will soon awake in power and glory.

this is just a midsleep rustle.

hope you are all well and enjoying the grace that we call life.

I wish

Life was simpler and that I was better at it.

I also wish my blog had music playing on loop.

The precarious ledge of Relevance

I think I’ve been academically raised up to be afraid of that word.  Not because it’s anything bad, but because so much is often loss at the cost of trying to gain more of it.  Now of course I believe that the Scriptures, though deeply aged are never antiquated, and that the notion of relevance is in the message rather than the medium, so long as the medium is sufficient to carry the message.    However, relevance is something that I’ve been learning to engage because you must engage it if you are aiming to talk to kids and teens alike.

What do I mean by relevance? Certainly, I am not speaking of a watered down gospel, an entertainment centric approach to people, nor a flash bang altar call accompanied by cathartic ccm melodies for the hormonally melodramatic.  When I say relevance, I mean, how do I speak the deepest most core truths of the Scriptures and teach them in a way that even the youngest junior higher finds breathtaking?  If I am boring the kids, I am either failing at communicating the glory of God, or I am failing to communicate my own passion about it.  I need to speak with a relevant voice, with relevant words, and in a relevant attitude.

Now hold that thought.  This generation of youngsters relates to one thing: Passion (at least for the most part).  And what makes it difficult for the older generation teaching them, is that so many messages that stir up the kids are based on vague or hodgepodge Scriptural reference with a whole lot of creative bungling.  In other words, hip pastors delivering sermons with amazingly little substance packaged and / or illustrated in a very cool and creative way.   Throw in a story about rhinos charging and mushrooms sprouting, add a dash of testimonial from gangbangers turned Christian, and you get a big crowd of kids, frenzied up into a mindless christian-esque passion.

But what if you want to teach those very same kids the timeless truths of sanctified living, of God’s plan for Israel and the church? or even the core concept of imputed righteousness in Justification?  These are Biblical teachings that call for us to not be creative with the text, but rather to be faithful with it.  The pulpit is not High school English class after all.  And yet… this is the very point where relevance must be claimed.   Yes, Amen,  we must never forfeit the accuracy of doctrinal teachings for the gimmicks of teen-centric youth-speakers, but we must fight to gain the attention of youths too.  To put it more tersely we are searching for Relevance without Rhetoric.

I am still waiting for the day when the youth of today’s churches cry out to their pastors, “Do not bring us your Creative Writing paper! brings us a Sermon!”

The fault in Default

One of the things that I absolutely love to see in people is that precious desire to learn the lessons of life and godliness, day after day.

Generally speaking, It is my belief that most people (in this country) are passing through their lives on Default.  In other words, their existence become a constant and may I say boring, flow of stimulus and established reactions.  No real changes there.  It’s quite rare to find someone who considers daily how and where within their personal lives, they can grow towards becoming a better person (all nuances of “better” entailed).  And the tragedy of this is that there is a sort of unspoken finality to the Default mindset in people.  Once people pass through those precocious teenage years and step over the quarter life mark, something interesting happens.  People suddenly begin to see themselves as a set package of traits that have become fixed like a finished puzzle, its pieces rigidly locked in place.

But that is not how it should be.  People grow physically, until they die.  So I ask why can’t we aim and strive to grow spiritually and emotionally too?  We are not a set package of traits.  The puzzle continues beyond the horizon.  A reticent thirty year old can still become a gregarious forty year old.  And who is to say that the man who treats women poorly cannot turn his life around and learn to respect them?  But enough preaching. This is not a message to be told from one man to another, rather it is a principal to be repeated within the individual.  And with this, we all must recognize that we have not yet reached what we will become.  And thus what we should become is still within our reach.

(concerning the resurrected and thus perfected life) “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

*******

On a seperate and completely unrelated note.  I would also like to mention that I think Music is one of those few things that express the human soul and disposition far better than simple prose.  Is that obvious? There are times when I agonize over how to communicate my awe or internal trembling over some truth or epiphany, and only when I hear a song, or an appropriate melody do I feel those secret words and elusive phrases, which were so frustratingly pent up,  released as notes and cadences.  I don’t know if I’m alone on this, but sometimes I think I understand why JRR Tolkien wrote the creation account of Silmarillion as a majestic and holy Song.  Because of course the world would find its meaning and significance borne upon the shoulders of a melody. Who could imagine otherwise? Because even though Words can touch the depths, Music can carry us into them.

music genres

okay.  so clearly there is a problem with genre names.  They just don’t describe the genre at all. That said, I would like to relabel them for myself.  I provided an example of each:

  1. Smooth Grit: John Mclaughlin – Amelia’s Missing
  2. Soft Funk:  Dave Barnes – Someday Sarah
  3. Dance Funk: Chromeo – Bonafied Lovin’
  4. Carefree / Nonchalance: Chairlift – Bruises
  5. Somehow Significant : Sara Bareilles – One Sweet Love
  6. Black Depressing Music: Brian Mcknight – 6,8,12
  7. White Depressing Music: John Mayer – Slow Dancing in a Burning Room
  8. White operatic singers with glamorous hair: The Darkness – I believe in a thing called Love
  9. Epic Teen anthems: 3eb – god of wine
  10. Kids Bop: The Click Five – Angel to you devil to me
  11. Male Hippie: Glen Hansard – Say it to me now
  12. Female Hippie: Regina Spektor – Samson
  13. Talented Christian: Future of Forestry – Twilight
  14. Non-talented Christian: Rebecca St. James  – every single song
  15. British Builds and hooks: Coldplay – Politik
  16. British Non-Builds and hooks: Travis – Side
  17. Black people saying stuff in a cool way: Lupe Fiasco – Hip Hop saved my life
  18. Black people trying to sing: Kanye West – Love Lock down
  19. Jay Chou: Jay Chou – Black Humor
  20. Jay Chou Imitators – Yida – How Long
  21. Non Jay Chou imitators: Khalil Fong – Love
  22. Broadway: Wicked – Defying Gravity
  23. Jazzy instrumental – Bill Evans: Waltz for Debby

Just bored I guess…anyways, on to the rest of the day!

A tribute to Honor

It’s hard to describe, but we all know it, and deep inside of us, we all appreciate it.  But despite its many portrayals in movies and novels alike, Honor is rarely if ever displayed in our personal lives.  That’s a real tragedy.  I  believe that Honor  is something that men and women of every race and creed long to know.  And when they lose sight of it, due to various circumstances, they lose a piece of themselves in the process.

Life is mundane. But Life spent for things beyond ourselves, kindness, charity, integrity, humility, selflessness, loyalty, generosity,  chivalry, brotherhood… things that we cannot quantify, and yet things that add so much meaning to our lives, transform the mundane into the meaningful.

New things New things

yes yes, there are a great many new things in my life.  new job, new transitions, new places, new people, new ministry.

But the most important out of all of these is…

I am now a fan of Taylor Swift.

Yes, this 24 year old asian male loves to listen to adolescent country girl music.

More seriously: Life is hard, but in pain and brokeness, there is grace to be experienced.  Even through adversity, God’s grace teaches, and makes Christ more and more the strength of my heart.  In a world full of opinions and voices, thank God, for the unchanging, uncompromising, Scriptures.  Year after year, He remains the same.   Faithful and True.  Whew.

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