A friend finds me in the elevator

It’s Wednesday, February 9th, 2005… It’s a normal Wednesday. From about 8-10 am, I study Hebrew in the main classroom building with my great friend Jeremy Gross. We share another class in a couple hours so we usually hang out for a while or get some other work done in between classes. We were getting on the elevator when another friend jumps on and says, “You need to get a hold of you wife…….she’s bleeding and headed to the OB/GYN.”

Immediately I rush to my car and call Amber. We meet at the Dr.’s office a few miles from school. After a quick exam, without hesitation, our Dr. tells us, “I’m calling the squad, they will transport you to King’s Daughters, your wife is in pre-term labor.”

Recall from a previous post, my wife is pregnant with our son, and he’s not quite 26 weeks in the womb…. We are……terrified. We are terrified because we’d already lost a son about a year prior and dangit, this couldn’t be happening, we’d been through enough tragedy.

With tears in my eyes and after a verbal confrontation with the EMT Driver (funny story you could ask me about later), we begin our drive to Norfolk to stop the labor. I call our parents and our life-long Pastor back in Ohio. We knew prayers would be forthcoming on our behalf within moments.

We get to the hospital and get checked in. They take us straight to a delivery room and begin giving Amber meds to stop labor….

It’s Wednesday, February 9th, 2005 and labor has stopped for the day… We begin night one of this journey we hoped would end about 12-14 weeks later with a healthy delivery of Isaiah.

Below is the first picture taken of Isaiah… You can see how tiny & fragile he is.

SuperBowl 2005

I believe the Patriots & Eagles were matched up for this game. We hosted a party at our house for the big game. My wife was especially cute, carrying our son Isaiah in the womb. He was about 25 weeks gestation and things were going normally….. I believe Amber even started “showing” a little bit with the help of some extra yummy food from our gathering…

Things are going well…… check back in a few days and see where the story goes… in the meantime, below is a picture of Isaiah, just a few hours old.

Emotional Week Ahead

It’s SuperBowl weekend…….and if you know me, I love football and I love the SuperBowl. I’m excited about this game because I respect each of the two teams. I’ll be rooting for the Colts this game but either team’s win will make me satisfied….

but this isn’t the reason I’m going to be emotional. In one week from today, we celebrate Isaiah’s 5th birthday. In the upcoming days, I will chronicle our week and post numerous pictures of Isaiah during his 5 month stay in the NICU in Virginia.

Whenever I doubt God, I look at my sons, especially Isaiah. A tear or tears usually fill my eyes… With sadness, I’m filled with joy and can say that I trust you, I trust you God.

This week coming up, I’d like to share his and our story so you too, can trust God in your circumstance and believe in the hope that Jesus gives…

Check back often this week.

A proud father…

Christians & Media Part 3

Finally, the most important part of this series (to me). Yesterday I wrote about how we tend to focus more on the secondary. Today I’d like to challenge & inspire us to move our focus to the significant.

Paul writes to the church in Ephesus:
“So be careful how you live; be mindful of your steps. Don’t run around like idiots as the rest of the world does. Instead, walk as the wise. Make the most of every living and breathing moment because these are evil times. So understand and be confident in God’s will, and don’t live thoughtlessly. Don’t drink wine excessively. The drunken path is a reckless path. It leads nowhere. Instead let God fill you with the Holy Spirit.” (The Voice)

In this admonishment, Paul tells the believers to not drink excessively (possibly a later blog topic) but I wonder if we could change that to our culture and it read, “Don’t facebook or tweet excessively.” I mean after all, those things can be done in a positive manner and can do numerous meaningful things. Yet when we overdo it, we then focus on the wrong things in our lives.

But the most important part of this writing, to me, is he tells the group, “Make the most of every living & breathing moment…” Make the most of your life. Enrich & cultivate meaningful relationships; don’t be wasteful or excessive with your life.

So what should we focus on?

God – we read about Jesus – all divine – yet intentionally and repeatedly he withdrew from the multitudes in order to seek, worship, and pray to the Father. Jesus – all powerful – was intentional with this – so too should we. This is something I have struggled with in the past, or put it on the backburner of things. This is something I am, and must be more intentional about.

Family & Friends – this seems cliché – but the more we focus on our selfish things, the more we lost out on family & friends. I told the story about after the first week with our new phones, I was ignoring my kids. My youngest son kept tapping my leg and I kept ignoring him…..then it hit me….and I realized family first.

Friends stick closer than brothers….pure & good friends that is. But if we don’t attempt to develop those friendships, then we’ll never have them.

Others – Paul tells the community of Philippians to not “become indifferent to the plight of those around you.” There are people who are in need, who need hope, who need love, who need grace & acceptance. They are right in front of us. We pass them on a daily basis and like the climber of Mt. Everest, we pass them by because we are busy with unimportant things. Be intentional about connecting with those who are less fortunate.

Christians & Media Part 2

Our western culture is media driven, image driven, instant information driven. We’re connected to everything at the click of a finger, yet we find ourselves often disconnected from the important things in life. This part of this series will focus on the secondary things that we focus on which causes us to focus less on the significant relationships in our lives.

During the teaching, I said that pixilated images are everywhere, meaning that at every turn, media (social media, TV, internet) is right there for us whenever we want it. Let me paint a better picture of that for you.

There are 350 Million facebook users – a crazy number to really think about. In a given day, half of those users log-in to their account. Nearly 55 Million will update his/her status on a given day. And the average user has 130 facebook friends. There are more than 5 Million people that use twitter, there are more than 50 Million bloggers…..and 99% of American households have a TV in their house – and the average person watches 4 hours of TV each and every day… That’s 2 months of TV-watching every year, 1/6th of our lives consumed by television.

What’s the big deal? Yesterday I talked about the powerful ways we can use technology to further the love of Jesus and to help those in need. All true – yet when our lives are overwhelmed by so much connectivity to these mediums, then we lose focus on the important things in life. Our focus shifts onto how many tweets we can have per day, or how clever we can be with them. We feel as if what we have to say is so important that everyone needs to know what’s going on in our lives – so much that it seems that the majority of tweets are about what people eat for lunch & dinner (I’m guilty too)… as if that’s important.

Another thing that media, or our focus to media causes to do is become selfish, prideful, even narcissistic. Let me explain. When I was young and a young church-goer, I respected several adults for their wisdom of theology, scripture, and culture. And being younger, I found that my opinion didn’t matter or carry much weight. I thought that if I attained certain degrees & education that I would automatically be thrust into the circle of heavyweight thinkers. So I began blogging with this attitude of, “now I’m smart therefore you must listen to me.” My ego ballooned and I wrote without consequence of people’s thoughts, perspectives, and opinions. It soon became my way or the highway. (I’m still guilty here).

We do the same with facebook and twitter – we feel like we now have a platform on which to speak and we believe we have some authority now given to us. IE Pride.

Paul warns the church in Philippi to not become invested in selfish ambitions. He writes,
“Here is one thing that would complete my joy – come together as one in mind and spirit and purpose, sharing in the same love. Don’t let selfishness and prideful agendas take over. Embrace true humility, and lift your heads to extend love to others. We will get nowhere if our motives spring from selfish ambition or from indifference to the plight of those around us.” (The Voice)

I read a story about a man climbing Mt. Everest and at some point up the hike, he became exasperated and exhausted. For all intents and purposes, he passed out. Other hikers, one by one, passed him by…….one after another…….

I read that and wondered, when I am blogging, when I tweet, when I become invested in myself and my vanity, am I passing other people by? Am I neglecting the important things in my life for my own gain?

Myths Christians might have about media

The next three blogs will basically be a teaching I gave to our Centerpoint crowd January 24th. We’re doing a very challenging & inspiring teaching titled the Art of Elimination. The primary focus or challenge is: what can we eliminate from our lives that would then add more meaning to our lives. We talked about fasting and money and I had the challenge and opportunity to talk about Media and what happens when we’re overwhelmed with our use of certain aspects of Media (TV, email, blogs, facebook, and twitter).

As background, I want to focus on some positive aspects of Media and how we can use media in significant ways. To set this up, I discussed three myths in regards to media

#1 Media is evil
I believe this to certainly not be true. Like money, if we focus our attention on money and it drives us, then we are losing out and our love of money consumes us. But money isn’t evil unless our love for it is greater than other things. Media can be viewed in the same light. Media (Film, TV, social media) are not evil things, though they can be used in evil ways. Example: Lifechurch.tv developed the YouVersion application for Iphone users which has granted access to the Bible in various translations. This has opened the door for people to read the Bible who never before had done so. There are dozens of testimonies.

#2 Jesus-Followers should abstain from using Media
Now I do believe this can be a personal choice. The reason I first suggest that is because some people for good reasons should abstain from certain things. As an example, if a person struggled with internet pornography, then by all means, if you’re only solution is to abstain, the please do it.

But from a Christian perspective & evangelical one, I do believe we should engage, embrace, and use many aspects of Media. We say at Centerpoint often, we will do anything short of sin to connect people to Christ. Paul writes this to the Church in Corinth: “In the same way, I’ve made a life outside the law to gather those who live outside the law (although I personally abide by and live under the Liberator’s law). I’ve been broken, lost, depressed, oppressed, and weak that I might find favor and gain the weak. I’m flexible, adaptable, and able to do and be whatever is needed for all kinds of people so that in the end I can use every means at my disposal to offer them salvation.” (The Voice)

Now Paul is not saying to freely do whatever you want. He is not saying the only way to reach a drug addict is to become an addict yourself. However, what He is saying is, whatever means necessary within the freedom of the law, go for it. Paul engaged the Gentile culture anyway possible – so too should we engage our culture. (as a side note, this doesn’t mean we create our own subculture)

So I believe quite the opposite – Christians should use Media to enhance and advance the Gospel message. As another powerful way to use Media, World Vision & the Red Cross took technology to a great level by partnering with cell phone companies to enable people to text a donation for the people in Haiti…

#3 The Bible says not to do it
Clearly this is an overstatement as facebook, twitter, and TV were created well beyond the ancient text, but some people might scoff and say, “Jesus wouldn’t twitter.” The reality is, we don’t know. My personal belief is that he wouldn’t let it consume him but he would use it to advance his message. Jesus engaged the culture, used stories from within his culture to teach lessons, so I don’t think he’d be different in that aspect of life. Again I certainly don’t think he would let those connections consume his life like we often do in our day.

More tomorrow…

discontent over politics

Background.
I grew up in a conservative, Republican home.
I got an undergraduate degree in Political Science from a fairly liberal-minded school.
I got a graduate degree in Government (and MDiv) from a certainly conservative school.
I did an internship in a state office under a leading Republican.
I interviewed for an internship for a nationally known Republican.
In a nutshell, one would argue, politics intrigues me.

Purpose.
I don’t enjoy politics. Okay there is still a side of me that enjoys poll numbers, exit interviews, and blue/red maps.
But I don’t like what politics, current politics (current defined: most of my lifetime.)
Politics is a game, it’s competition, it’s my way or the highway. It’s you win, I lose. If you’re on this side and I’m on that side, then we aren’t friends.

Story.
A dear friend & I had a somewhat-public debate about a somewhat-off-color joke (the joke is irrelevant). I don’t like that certain words can be so divisive, I know, it’s a fantasy world I dream of, but I don’t, I don’t like what politics does to you and me.

Intent.
Can we redefine, culturally speaking of-course, what politics means. I know the realities, we can’t give up our political system bc it’s the system, and frankly it works. But daggone-it, it shouldn’t drive wedges between people. It shouldn’t bring forth animosity. I agree, we can disagree, but let’s be friends afterwords bc at the end of the day, I still trust that the other side cares about people. And therein lies the problem, we believe bc we disagree with the other side, that the other side doesn’t care about people or our county. And that’s sad. Even though I don’t agree with all things Democrat, or all things Republican, I must at least agree that, for the most part, the other team deeply cares about people and our country. It’s time we quit believing Democrats want to rid our great country. It’s time we quit believing that Republicans are arrogant elitist living in the Cold Age.

It’s time we rise up & realize what’s important now & into the future. That by working together, even through our differences, that we can bring hope, peace, and love to the world. It’s time a generation rises up & says enough of the way it used to be; let’s forge a new way of politics, one where we work together, not for the integrity of the system, but for the love of people.

jealousy

Do you ever find yourself jealous or envious of the things other people have? Or perhaps you wish your life was more like that of a friend? Or when someone you know gets to do things that you don’t, does that make you sad or depressed?

From time to time, we all deal with that. Whether it’s a better job, or taking better vacations, or having a different life altogether, we’ve likely, all experienced that one time or another.

Paul tells us to be content in all things. Granted that’s a different context & meaning, but the principle applies. The book of the law tells us not to covet thy neighbor’s wife. Again different meaning but principle applies.

I find that Jesus wants us to live our lives now & in the present. Sure we need to celebrate and reflect on the past. And we need to strive for things in the future. But the only promise in life, is right here & now. And it’s in the here & now that we are asked to live life to its fullest. The moment we begin wishing we had this possession or that car, or got to do other things, it’s then that we don’t live here & now. It’s here when we quit listening to God and become selfish. It’s here when we forget about others and only concern ourselves in sorrowful pity.

May you enjoy your life, may you embrace each moment, may you celebrate the past and strive for the future, but may you come to listen to what God has for you right here & now and may you live the life you have right now to the fullest.

accountability

this morning, I and four other guys embarked on a running journey that will hopefully get us to an April 17th half-marathon. None of us experts at this, but inspired to be challenged physically, we jumped right in. While thinking and talking about this accountability – that we will all do our best to ensure we are present for one another each training day – I wondered, man, if we had this sort of accountability in each facet of our life, how better off would we be?

momentum

Tis the day that everyone swears off bad eating habits and plans to remake themselves into their former years. I, not being one easily swayed by the seductive voice of changing myself with the beginning of a new year (only b/c I like all, have failed) have decided this will be a year of continued momentum.

FAMILY: Our two boys are growing so fast and with each day, there are more ways to partake of the profound love we share. Isaiah will start kindergarten this year. Noah is rapidly developing a funny, yet shy personality and has become quite expressive. My wife & I begin another year together and our love grows with each year.

CENTERPOINT: So many new faces in the last 2-3 months. So much excitement. Life change is happening. People are getting connected not only to centerpoint, but to God.

FRIENDS: We are blessed with so many close friendships that exist not for what we give each other, but because the love & vision we share.

In a word: momentum. May each of you find ways to continue the momentum in your lives.

AND BE SAFE!