we will remember

I want to send my prayers and thoughts to be with anyone who was affected by the fire in NC this past weekend. I didn't know any of the victims personally, but just being a student here on campus produces a great deal of emotion for the lost students.

there's not a whole lot more to say. it is always terrible when we lose people, especially when they are so young. probably none of us understand why it happened. and while the media tries to give us every reason to blame someone for what happened, I would encourage people to look to the only One who does know why. believe it or not, God is in control. I know at times like these, hearing that will probably either be strangely comforting or ridiculously irritating to hear, but He is. none of us are gonna know why this happened, and why it happened to the people it happened to, but that's okay. I'm sure there are a lot of times when God wishes for a second he could fast forward and show us what He is doing or preparing us for, but the most we can do is put our faith in Him.

in joy and pain,
sun and rain,
You're the same
You never let go

regardless, now is the time for family and friends to help more than ever. find someone to talk to, just as I am about people I don't even know, and tell them how you feel. as tragic as this all is, I'm sure the last thing these seven students would want is for another tragedy to befall the USC campus because someone couldn't take the pain of them being gone.

other students not directly affected by this tragedy (if there are any such students), show some love to people all around you. if you are a believer, show them Christ's love. if not, just let people know you are thinking about them, sympathizing with them. this is a huge hurdle right now, but it's no bigger than God, it's no bigger than love, and it's no bigger than the spirit here at USC.

We can see that our hearts are hurting
We can see that our soul it aches
We can see that it seems we're failing
but we will overcome

We love you and miss you.

9-18-07

awesome.

Last night was baptism at the Coop. I'm gonna do my best to give you a general idea of what it felt like to be there, but in all honestly, you should probably just drive to columbia next time there is one. awesome doesn't even begin to describe it.

For starts, pastor Dustin Willis made a point to describe to everyone present that this was THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING that the church does. He told us after the baptisms that a lot of churches spend a lot of time organizing a mission statement, a vision, and core values to guide them, but he says when people ask him what his vision is for his church, he gives them the date of the next baptism. twenty-five people were baptized last night, and Dustin only baptized 5 of them. the awesome thing was that the other twenty were baptized by either their Christian friends, their brother/sister, their camp counselor, or their parents (this is ridiculously scandalous to many I know, but definitely not unbiblical). to me this gave a whole new meaning to baptism, considering I was baptized by someone I didn't really know all that well.

And the celebration that followed was unreal. And when I say celebration, I'm not necessarily talking about everyone cheering as loud as they could, or even a social gathering that followed. All that was great, but I'm talking about the celebration that you could see in each person's eyes that came out of the water. There was no denying that Christ had done something amazing and each one of their lives.

I got to see Antionette, a high school friend of mine baptized and she was literally glowing for the rest of the night (see picture). After the baptism, the band led us in some of the most celebratory worship I've ever heard, ending with us singing at least 15 times:

O praise the one who paid my debt
and raised this life up from the dead

and honestly, I can't imagine a more excited look on someone's face who had literally been raised from the dead. there are no words to describe what took place Sunday night at the Coop or the God who made it happen, but here's a few that come as close as I can get:

Our God is an awesome God
He reigns from heaven above
with wisdom, power and love
Our God is an awesome God

my church is better than your church

DISCLAIMER: THIS BLOG CONTAINS SOME GRIPE

You know, you hear a lot about the "problems with Christians today" or the "problems with the church" today, and I'm not saying I haven't ever contributed to that stuff, but I really think I've found the root of the "church's problems." The problem being that no church truly realizes that they are on the same team as the church across town. I realize that organizations like the Southern Baptist Association and the Association of Evangelical Churches would lead you to think otherwise, but let me ask you this: when is the last time you saw a church in a community partner with another church to accomplish something for Christ. Whether it be a simple Sunday morning service, an outreach event, or anything else, it is very rare that you see something like that. And why?

I had a conversation the other day that would provide one answer. When another church in the Columbia area got brought up, someone's first comment was "there is too much fundamentally wrong about that church." Wow. What a profound statement, coming from a human who descends from the lineage to whom the Fall occurred. Let me ask this: with statements like the Great Commission as our guide, doesn't the mere fact that we haven't reached "all nations" with the message of Christ prove that there is something "fundamentally wrong" with every church? When I asked what fundamentals this church was violating, all I got were several (unbiblical) traditions that this church didn't strive to hold up. I worry that sometimes the line between traditions of the church and what the bible says about church is getting blurred.

And maybe a reason we can't reach people in the multitudes we want to is because this is what the rest of the worlds sees when they think about church: a group of a hundred different denominations that can't even bring themselves not to dispute with each other, much less the outside world. Well, either that, or they see that we need to put a spokesperson on CNN to tell everyone that we as the "conservative Christian" demographic are having a crisis because we don't have a political candidate yet. To me, in a broken world like ours, there HAS TO BE better ways of spending our time as a church than concerning ourselves with crap like that.

I've never been one to think we need to modify our behavior as a church or as Christians to "appeal" to non-believers. But I don't think it's a coincidence that when we do something as un-Christlike as endorsing a political candidate and competing amongst ourselves, that we end up turning people off to the message of Christ.

This message is a very relevant one. I don't think we have to try to make it relevant to people; people need hope. If we can stick to the truth without embellishing it with what WE think is best, it will work 100% of the time. But the problem is when we start creating our own fundamentals, and turn our focus on making our way the best rather than cooperating to reach an empty world.

I find the church very worldly in the way that we joined the competitive corporate world. The more "customers" we can get, the better off we'll be. I can't help but think that the real reason we won't work with other churches and organizations is the same reason you don't see Pepsi and Coke teaming up to "refresh the world." Each is afraid their product isn't strong enough to withstand such an effort. As the church, we have Someone strong enough (but isn't a product--more on that another day), we're just really worried that someone else is packaging it better than us. Let's be the exception to the rest of the world, for once, please. Isn't that what He was?

God vs. Psychology

Once again, this post is about something that has been bothering me lately, so here's your chance to stop reading.

Sweet. Thanks. I promise to try not to get too negative. I had a conversation with a new-ish Christian the other day. She said that was having a problem--and here it is, ready? She felt like having Christ in her life was just making her feel really good. That's all. She explained by saying that she felt like, when she accepted Christ, that there was something deeper. She expressed that all she felt now was pretty much the equivalent of how you feel after successful sessions with a psychiatrist. She said that when she looked to God, she did think that it would make her feel better, but also thought that that relationship would be much more than that. I can't help but say that's the problem I have with a lot of Christians today. I hear stuff all the time like "I feel so much better about my life now that I believe" or "it's like nothing can phase me now" or "God is making me feel really good about myself." And it's not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just that that is a very tiny part of your walk. You know I wish I could find a passage of scripture where Jesus says "all who follow me will be perfectly content with their life, they're struggles will be no more, and they will be completely free from problems." If there was scripture that said that, we could probably just throw out most of the rest of the Bible. There would be no reason to read that other stuff about trusting Him and struggling with sin would there? I mean that would make the choice to lay down your life and follow Him a no-brainer wouldn't it?

Unfortunately, He never said that. And just from my general understanding of who He is, I would bet that there's a reason for that. I don't think Jesus wants to be our Great Psychiatrist, giving us solutions to all our problems and making us feel better about ourselves. A promise like that would require very little faith to accept. What he does want to do is make our faith stronger, and give us hope. One passage that defines what I think is God's way of dealing with us in trials is one that almost everyone has heard: when Jesus walked on water. Peter has a couple problems, it sounds like to me: (1) He wants to know if the man he sees in the distance is indeed Jesus, and (2) the only way he can find out is to walk out on the water to Him (a feat not easily accomplished by most people). And when Christ told Peter to step out onto the water, I doubt He was thinking, "here is a way I can show Peter that he can walk on water." It seems to me that he was trying either show Peter what little faith he truly had in Christ, or simply to show the power of faith. The same goes for us. When we run into a problem, I have to think that God gets tired of us praying for an answer. I have to believe that He would much rather us believe that He has it in control, and instead of looking for an answer, look at what He is trying to tell/show us in the meantime. Often times for me, what He is trying to show me is that my faith is nowhere near what it should be.

And so that is one of the problems I have with the way the Bible has been treated lately: as a self-help book with some rules in it. I get the feeling sometimes that when we read it, we want the answer in plain words to anything we are struggling with at the time. No doubt the Bible was given to us as a form of guidance, but when you condense a passage of God-breathed scripture into a few bullet points and methods to solve your day-to-day problems, it tends to make me feel that we're missing the point.

And here's the other thing. Jesus never intended for us to be saved so we could be happy all the time. In I John we are told that "those who claim to live in Him must walk as Jesus did." And if you think that Jesus never struggled with anything and was 100% happy all of the time, I'd love to read you some scripture. I just feel like they're are plenty of people and ways to make yourself happy with your life. You can turn on the TV and find Oprah or Dr. Phil, or go talk to any psychiatrist to find a way to do that. Or even turn on Joel Osteen for that matter and find "your best life now." There's only one Jesus, and he promises a lot more than happiness...

robbie seay band and other goodness

So I'm gonna try to keep this post to a minimum since I have a finance test to study for (making great progress as you can tell), but I just want to tell my vast blog-reading audience that if you haven't heard the robbie seay band, you need to. I'm gonna sound like a commercial I know, but listening to this CD is the only thing that is keeping me in my room long enough to do the little studying I have done tonight, and so I have to tell someone. I don't care if you like worship music or rap, or what you believe, I guarantee there is at least one song on here for you, specifically. These guys are on to something. Kinda sounds like Derek Webb's voice meets the Fray-type instrumentation. I'm doing my best to get them to play a show around here, but for now do yourself a favor and either go out and buy the CD, Give Yourself Away, or go to myspace and search for them. You won't regret it. Check this out.

Keep on dreaming of the day when it all will change
believe in the end love wins
if you're waiting for the time when the sun will shine
look above 'cause love wins

These guys are awesome. I'm serious, go listen to them--now. And in the meantime, stay classy, San Diego.

weekend stuff

Okay so our Gamecocks couldn't quite pull us through. I told my friend Peanut that the Vandy game would be the test: either we would show up as the team that stomped Georgia and Kentucky, or we would be the team that almost lost to UNC. I think it's pretty clear which one showed up. I think we even saw Spurrier move PASS the visor throwing phase. In the third quarter, that thing was flying left and right. In the fourth, I think he was in such disbelief that all he could do was put his hand on his hips and give it that Spurrier smirk of his (which, by the way, is never a GOOD thing.)

On a brighter note, tailgating was amazing as usual, and today was Free College Lunch at Shandon. And since it was Parent's Weekend, a lot of parents came to bible study and lunch. Steve, the college minister, chose a very interesting topic this morning. He spoke out of Luke 14. The passage that talks about how we as disciples and followers of Christ should hate our fathers and mothers compared to our love for Christ. (Pretty funny choice for Parents Weekend huh?) I thought it was awesome because that is one of those passages that tends to be ignored, or otherwise downplayed by the church a lot of times because of it's harsh truth. We tend to say, "well, that's not exactly what he means for us today. It was more of a metaphor-type thing." Steve decided that not only would he not ignore it, but he would speak on it for PARENT'S WEEKEND! Kudos, Steve.

All in all I realized that I do not love Christ enough. I mean what a tremendous love that must be. I absolutely love my parents and family, even if I don't tell them near enough, but to say that that love looks like hate compared to my love for Christ!? Quite frankly, I'm nowhere close. As I mentioned in an earlier post, our love for Christ is evident much more in the things we do for Him than in how many times we tell him that we love Him, and lately, I feel like I have done little more than tell Him I do. That same passage in Luke talks about hating one's own life and carrying your own cross--suffering and sacrificing to further the kingdom of God. We discussed at our table about how it is easy for us as Americans to say that we WOULD suffer for Christ, simply because we know we will probably never have to. For example, many people would think of tithing as being financial suffering for God, but the cold truth is that backing ourselves into a corner with the way we manage our finances, only then to find it difficult to give back to the Giver, isn't exactly the "suffering" that Jesus spoke of. The other table members and I came up with a general rule of thumb: if you have to say out loud or otherwise convince someone (including yourself) that "it's a sacrifice," chances are it probably isn't.

To summarize: this week I'm gonna start trying to find new ways to pick up my cross, despise my life (comparatively), and follow Him. Amen. Have a safe trip home parents, and remember, we only hate you compared to God. It's not that bad of a deal, really.

bad t-shirts designs, yelling, and other ways to show people what Jesus WASN'T like

haha, I knew that would get your attention. Today is one of those days you're gonna have to put up with a little griping from me. Me being a college student at a large university in the South, I frequently have the pleasure of seeing street preachers, ati-abortionists, and other interesting people of the like. Apparently, we (meaning college students) are much more subject to sin than the rest of the world, and these people feel have felt called to spend a lifetime informing us of that. Let me clarify here, I'm not talking about college ministers, or counselors of any kind. They spend time helping students. The people I'm talking about do nothing but yell, wave hateful signs in the air, and wear really bad and unbiblical t-shirts.

As many people may know, Gay Pride Week took place about a month ago, and that's when these people really showed up. Every day that week, a preacher would gather in the middle of campus with a megaphone, and inform all gay people on campus that they are going to hell (which doesn't agree with the bible he holds in his hand on many different levels, but stay with me.) Every day, this guy would acquire a gathering around him, mostly made up of the hell-goers he speaks of, doing nothing but yelling back at him. I can't help but wonder what either side of this argument thinks they are accomplishing by this.

But more than anything--more than the hate he is spreading, more than the despise of anything "Christian" is he encouraging in the hearts of the surrounding people, more than the embarrassment he is causing me as a believer--what bothers me most is the hypocrisy of it all. He holds a bible that teaches that one of the greatest gifts given to us is the ability to love, and he shows none of it. I would encourage this guy to read 1 Cor. 13, to see just how many times he is butting heads exactly with what God says. Secondly, he wears a t-shirt that says, in big block letters, "If you have sinned, you WILL go to hell." (Kind of clever on his part for not including the scripture reference to that, seeing that there isn't one.) How could you wear a shirt so blatantly untrue, much less one that forecasts such a dreary future on yourself?? Thirdly, a sign rests behind him reading "God hates homo sex and baby killers." I'm not even gonna begin to describe just how incorrect that is. And lastly, on his wrists are three different colored bracelets, all containing the letters "WWJD". All I can come up with is that this guy must be talking about a different Jesus, seeing as how my Jesus hung out with tax collectors and prostitutes, who from what I understand, were frowned upon much more back then then homosexuals and people who have had an abortion are now.

To me, I find it a little amusing that street preachers like this are called "conservative," or maybe "ultra-conservative." Pardon me while I borrow loosely from Donald Miller, but as far as Christianity goes, wouldn't a "conservative" be someone who sticks to the Word in the strictest sense? Believing and acting on just what it says, rather than letting his/her prejudices get the best of them? From what I understand, this guy seems like he's on the other side. Taking what you like about the bible, and leaving out what doesn't align with your feelings, to me, is the definition of a "liberal." Gross--I don't even like those two words, it's just something I'm a little confused about.

Anyway, I want to say that in no way am I trying to convey a holier-than-thou attitude by writing this, nor am I saying that me posting this will necessarily help anything. But if you are out there reading this, and you have been on the receiving end of a person like the street preacher or the sign waver, please know that none of that has anything to do with Jesus, and I would love to tell you about what does.

sushi is amazing

well it is. I think I have effectively formed a habit of getting sushi for lunch every tuesday and thursday. I started all because of convenience. Apparently everyone on campus goes to Russell House at the exact same time as me for lunch on those days, and every line ends up being crowded except for the sushi line. Don't know why. But that's how it began, and now I can't stop.

I read a book a while back by David Crowder called "Praise Habit: finding God in sunsets and sushi." And I can honestly say I have seen God in many a sunset. And while I can't say I've found Him in the sushi yet, I feel like the sushi has definitely shown me something deep, maybe even spiritual. Today it was the tempura roll, which is totally worth the 3 dollars price difference between it and the other, less holy rolls.

Here's the thing. Whenever I eat sushi, I have to eat it outside. And whenever I eat outside I feel the need to put in the iPod earphones (because I am obviously a social recluse and try to avoid contact with other humans as much as possible). And whenever I eat sushi outside with my earphones in, I like to pick something deep to listen to, so maybe it's the music as much as the sushi, but the sushi is where it starts (I promise to get to the point here soon). Today the selection was Mutemath. Great band. I usually try to stay away from a band's most popular songs, but today the shuffle landed on "Typical," and I let it play.

When I eat sushi outside, I'm really bad about watching and analyzing people, and more and more lately, I keep getting this feeling from doing that. This feeling that life is about something so much bigger than what we see (very cliche, I know), and that about 85-90% of the people I am seeing walking around don't know that. And if my tendency to think these things weren't bad enough already, here's what Paul Meany of Mutemath put in my ear today:

I know there's got to be another level
somewhere closer to the other side
I'm feeling like it's now or never
Can I break the spell of the typical?

And that's kinda how I feel. That even though I don't quite have it together/figured out yet, there is another level, and that a lot people are never gonna realize it. Switchfoot must also be big sushi fans:

Stars looking at our planet watching entropy and pain
and maybe start to wonder how the chaos in our lives could pass as sane
I've been thinking about the meaning of resistance,
a hope beyond my own
and suddenly the infinite and penitent
begin to look like home

So the moral is, there is something bigger. And apparently the people who don't eat sushi or listen to Mutemath aren't gonna get it the way I did. So I'm gonna figure out someway that I can make somebody get it. And in the meantime, maybe I'll leave my earphones out of my ears.

Love isn't a feeling, it's an ability

So I saw a special sneak preview of the new Steve Carell movie, "Dan in Real Life," tonight. One of the few remaining benefits of being a student here at USC. You now must skip class, blow off work, or otherwise rearrange your life in order to be at the Russell House before 10 a.m. on Mondays to obtain a free ticket to the football games, but you get a free sneak preview at a movie every once in a while.

I don't plan on spoiling the film for anyone (but it is awesome if you're trying to decide to go see it), but a line was spoken that didn't really hit me until after the movie. At some point, a minor character speaks the words "love isn't a feeling, it's an ability." Now as far as earthly, boy-girl love, I'm not sure this idea holds true. To me, both times I've been (or thought I've been) in love, it was very much a feeling, rather than an ability.

I can't help but thinking, though, that our love for God is a lot like "an ability," rather than a feeling. Now the ability I'm speaking of isn't like a skill, like most people think of abilities. I don't mean that some people are born with or have acquired the SKILLS needed to love God, and some people aren't. It's more that our love for God can be much more clearly defined and displayed by things we do, rather than emotions we feel. I think this is one of the major ways our love for Him differs from our love of a family member, spouse, or boyfriend/girlfriend.

With the direction modern/post-modern (I'm not sure what the correct adjective is now) churches and worship music is going, it is easy to compare our love for Christ to "earthly" love. There was a whole movement of worship songs several years back where you would sing to God exactly as if you were singing a love song to a significant other. And if this helps you connect, then great, but personally I can't help but think that our love for Him should be at least a little different from that. When you "fall in love" with someone, I large part of it, I think, is emotion. You feel love for that person.

With God, that "feeling" seems to only scratch the surface. You love God, but saying that you do seems to come second to the way you speak to him, worship him, seek him, and love his creation. I guess my point is this: generally speaking, You could open the car door for your signicant other, help them through rough times, make them dinner, take their car to the shop for them, write them letters, and talk to them on the phone, but if you never speak the words "I love you," they might never know whether you loved them or if you were just a super nice person. On the other hand, I get the feeling that if I communicated with God throughout every day, showed people love the way He would have me show them, and lived a life in keeping with Him, but simply forgot to remind Him by saying "I love you, God," he would not wonder if I truly did.

I may have read a little too much into this and/or let a movie get the best of my "emotions," but I think I may be onto something here, or at least I landed on some scripture that somewhat agrees with me. It seems like God finds "loving Him" and "keeping His commandments" to be very much related, considering He says virtually the same thing numerous times. (Ex. 20:6, Deut. 5:10, Ecc. 12:13). And in Mark 12, I think it is most clear: "Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." And to me, there might even be a certain reason for the order of this verse. After all, it seems like it starts with the heart--with a feeling. But the more important thing is what you do with that feeling (how you show it with your mind and your strength, for example).

The whole "light under a lamp" idea makes me think that if we feel affection for Christ, but then never do anything but let ourselves be in love with God, we've gone wrong somewhere.

Shine your light and let the whole earth sing,
we're singing for the glory of the risen King

I can't believe I did this

Let me start by saying I am (or was) the guy who said I would never do anything like this. I have always been one to say that "I don't care what other people are thinking, so they probably don't care what I am thinking either." I even quit getting on instant messenger that much because I got tired of people putting up away messages like this:

"gone to work, then to class, swinging by my house for a quick lunch, back to work, then to my AIM-anonymous meeting, then dinner on campus, by the grocery store, some homework, and then to bed."

I mean--seriously. A stalker would be in paradise. I don't see any reason random online friend #1 would need to know all of that. I just never understood how anyone would care about all that stuff, much less this whole blogging idea.

I stand corrected. In the past few weeks, I have somehow gone blog-crazy. I've become addicted to reading blogs like David Crowder's, Needtobreathe's, and numerous other well-known people. Then I started getting into normal people's blogs, like Cliff, my friend and pastor back home. (Or at least we like to think he's pretty normal). So I figured since I have already violated the first part of my principle (that being that "I don't care about what other people have to say"), I might as well give this a shot too.

Just as a preview/disclaimer, should you choose to join me on this journey (if anyone does), you'll probably hear a lot of stuff you care about, and a lot of stuff you don't. But I promise that everything I talk about will be something that I care about. So you will inevitably hear a lot about Christianity: both about its awesomeness, and about some people that I wish I could apologize for because they're getting it all wrong (according to the Word, not according to me). You'll also hear a lot about things like music, how I think I'm a sorry excuse for a business major, how sleep is probably one of my favorite things ever, and probably a lot of Will Ferrell quotes. Sorry. Thanks for listening.