patent pending...see God for details

after spending a week in san diego it was a relief to get home; back to what's familiar. isn't it funny that we look so forward to getting something or going somewhere, then when we finally get there, we want to be back where we started. don't get me wrong, i really enjoyed san diego, but there's just something about home...

actually, home was someplace i thought a lot about down there in california. not my home here in seattle, but my home in heaven.

i'll never forget the words my uncle said last christmas when our family was just sitting around talking. he was looking at a magazine with a lot of pictures of birds and mountains and all that beautiful stuff. we were looking at a picture of a pond with the sun going down and he said "i can't wait for heaven."

wait...come again?

this kind of talk wasn't anything new to me. i've been around christians all my life, and we all talk the same. 'did you spend time in the Word today?' 'we are sanctified with christ' 'the blood of jesus covers me, and i am saved.' 'are being held accountable?' most of you know what i'm talking about.
so my uncle's comment about being home was nothing out of the ordinary; but his tone was.
he was dead serious, yet joyful. i was totally blown away, and immediately began thinking about why he'd say something like that. uncle has a beautiful family, and a lot of reasons to stay here on earth. but that wasn't the point.
the funny thing is, i hardly ever consider that life here is just a temp job, there is nothing permanent about it.
that verse 'seek first the kingdom of God...and all this will be given to you,' it makes sense and its hard to ignore. but i'm a pretty good ignore-er (new word i just made up)

down in california, i spent a lot of time just sitting on the beach staring at the water, watching dolphins jump in the sunset, and pelicans dive at the great mass of freezing water. oh believe me, it was picture perfect.
it kind of reminded me of those peachy folders we had in grade school. the girls had ones with unicorns and rainbows and dolphins all doing there thing in what looked like space and the ocean combined. they were very creative. i think i had one or two myself.
that was the kind of picture i was looking at. very magical, except this was real.

anyway, as a sat thinking, and praying, it occurred to me, 'dude, this is nothing, NOTHING!' 'do you really think that God is going to reveal all of His glory here on earth? heaven is going to rock!'
now i realize that that is kind of a weighted sentence, because God did reveal His glory on earth through Christ...but thats not the point, not of this discourse anyway.

so the moral of the story is, why in the world do i persue earthly treasure with such reckless abandon and almost demonic zeal?
is there really something here worth having?

up to this point, i'd say no.

i mean, do i really live like heaven is coming? do people stop and look at me like i'm some kind of spectacle because i'm so stoked to be heading to a place like heaven? my uncle turned my head, not because he was trying to, but because he was being real, and heaven truly was his joy. how much more can we turn the heads of those who are not yet saved?

i think most of us can grasp the point of what i'm trying to say.

i think i'm going to head up to the mountains now. i need another dose of creation.

peace

beacons of the helpless

as i sit here typing for the second time today, i am listening to the mellowdramatic and circular sound of a helicopter. it's not a movie, nor is it a compilation of special effects. it's an actual helicopter; its been flying overhead for about an hour now.

the reason the helicopter is circling overhead, over and over, is because of the giant bonfire blazing away at the side of the hill that my neighborhood is located on. don't worry, its not a threat to any of the houses, or even to the wooded area it is burning near; its not a fire for destroying, its more a beacon for signaling.i know what you're thinking. 'josh, why is that you know so much about this fire? did you have something to do with it?' i assure you i did not...not intentionally anyway.
the fire was lit (and i admit, this is all circumstantial) by a young man about my age, who is desparately trying to find himself, or find something that he can associate himself with. currently he's associating with the rebel pyromaniac crowd, hense the buge (big+huge) fire.

his name is doug, and i have known him since the fourth grade.

doug, to begin with, needed a friend, and as far back as i can remember this was my first experience intentionaly trying to minister. i became doug's friend because he was new to my school, and because it was my job as a christian to meet new people and make sure they felt loved for the duration of recess, and that they new a whistle from the lady with the umbrella meant sit on the wall, and not to play on the tires by the road. at that time, i was pretty sure that that was how being a christian worked. but this isn't about me or christianity. this is about lost souls seeking peace and hope and acceptance...ok, so it is about christianity.
anyway, that's a brief history of my relationship with doug. i had good motives, but nothing to back my motives with other than some hollow, legalistic, childhood view of what 'good christians were supposed to do.'
doug went on to excell in such areas of life as juvenile hall, prison, and most recently, the forest just beyond my house. and even more recently, doug has put into physical form what christians call 'a cry for help.' a giant bonfire which can be seen from the freeway. (i know this because i saw it from the freeway)

the ironic thing about this cry is that we all have it, and we are all trying to pretend like we really don't.now you're thinking 'whoa, josh old buddy, thats quite the generalization there...take it easy with the "we all have's" after all, you don't know that.'and maybe doug is trying to roast the biggest hotdog this side of chicago.

its true. we are all screaming for significance, meaning, and hope. after all, why do you spend so much time in front of the mirror in the morning?
whats even more ironic about this cry, is as a culture, we try and pretend its not there, we try and stifle it.we try and smother out the deep need we have for something that matters. and we're all trying to put out the giant bonfires that mark us as vulnerable and virtually worthless.

we all are hiding in the woods right now trying to avoid being associated with our beacons of helplessness, avoiding those who would point out our offense.
but Christ comes and sits with us by our fires and says 'i see your need, and it has been fulfilled. I am personally watching you.'

i pray that i might get to share those words with doug someday.

Deep breath...

I recently read an article that talked about how 'love is a verb.' I was stuck by the fact that this a most basic principle, and yet we forget it.
When I was in high school I participated in the school's speech and debate team. I wasn't any sort of genius when it came to debating, and I certainly wasn't great at giving speeches; but under the encouragement of my dad, I joined 'for the practice of speaking and being in front of people.' It certainly served its purpose, I gained a huge amount of knowledge about public speaking. But we're not here to talk about that at the moment.
While giving a practice speech in front of our class one day, my instructor had me stop right in the middle of my dialogue. I was a little angry, because I knew it was going to be hard to get the train started again after being thrown off like that. But then my coach gave me some advice about speaking that I won't forget.
"Josh" he said, "you need to breathe."

Come again?

"You're not breathing. Every time you say something, you hold your breath while you're saying it. Have you ever seen a fish out of water?"

I felt like an idiot, but he was right. Even as I stood there I began to notice that my breath was shallow and short, like I'd just run the fastest mile of my life or something.

It was funny that this little comment had so much truth wrapped up in it. As I learned to speak and to breathe at the same time, I saw myself getting better. My heart and mouth began to work together, instead of separate in unisen instead of against each other.

Christians sometimes forget that love is a verb. Love is something you do, not something you say. We need to learn to live and love together. For many people ministry is the 'other part of life.' It isn't the way of life. The two are separte, like me trying to breath and speak at the same time. And when we separate the two, they become less effective, and less fun.
Christs disciples lived life and their faith together, there was no separation.

Learn to speak and breathe.