This week I had the incredible opportunity to accompany some of my favorite people in the world on a trip to Chesapeake, Virginia for World Changers. If you don't know what World Changers is, it is a mission trip in which you do construction among other things as a gateway to share the gospel amongst a neighborhood.
It was a trip I was completely excited about the moment I heard it was happening but one that made me nervous. While I've been able to share the gospel and teach sports with students in Monroe, Georgia for the past five years during Sports Camp ,doing construction was a completely different ball game. I'm used to helping my father build things like chicken coops but working on houses is a little different especially when we've only got four days.
Another thing is working with strangers. When I do Sportscamp I know who I will be working from with Bayside. World Changers is completely different. You don't know who your crew will comprise of until you get there. The way it wound up everyone had at least someone they knew on their crew at least with Bayside. The crew concept was my biggest worry. I prayed pretty much from the day Eric Dill talked about how the crews worked that Haynes, Hannah, or Brittany would be on my crew with me. I was sure that without them I wouldn't be able to figure out the week because unlike them this was my first World Changers but I hope not my last. God had other plans.
None of those three were on my crew. In fact except the group leaders on my crew I was the oldest member. I was really confused at first why the crews had worked out the way they had. Thankfully God didn't leave me alone with a bunch of strangers. He put three of the Bayside students with me. One of those being Gage's brother Brady whom I've had the pleasure of knowing and watching grow for his entire middle school career. He starts his junior year of High School in a couple of weeks which still blows my mind. Those three students worked their tails off this week and I love them very much because without them our project wouldn't have finished.
It didn't take until the first work day to realize why God had placed me on a crew without my best friends. Without them I had to step up. I had to lead, which is something that over the past year I've been getting more used to doing. Though so far it has taken on the form of teaching in the College Small Group or the Young Professional Bible Study. Being a leader of any sort is a generally foreign concept at least outside of middle school. I do not exude the qualities that most famous leaders possess. I am not particularly outgoing. In fact I'm more comfortable with my nose in a book than I am in a crowd of people where I'm expected to talk. I find it practically impossible to insist that my personal agenda is met if it means others do no get their way. Telling people what to do isn't something I'm comfortable with (unless those people are under the age of seven). Even teaching is strange because it means people are focusing on me and that means attention which is something I'd rather avoid.
I found myself with Brady in control of the the living room of our house. What was done was up to me, how it was done was my choice. We were told what needed to be done and then I got the job of making sure that it did. Our crew chief was focused on the outside of the house that involved the building of a porch railings and replacing doors (neither of which I had experience in.) Brady and I painted, caulked, and sanded so much that the skin on the fingertip of my right index finger has a nice hole in it. Although I should probably say that Brady did most of the painting, I mostly sanded and caulked. Brady is quite a bit taller than I am and with an extension handle on a roller he was able to paint the living room without a ladder.
I quickly came to the conclusion that the inventor of wallpaper was a horrible person. The house we worked on happened to have a border of wallpaper on the top of the walls. The walls were also layered with paint under a layer of wallpaper that had been painted over already. For the new paint to stick we had to remove the border which wound up peeling the plaster from the walls because the house was more than sixty years old. In case you were wondering caulk works wonders for filling in missing chunks of plaster once you smooth down the edges. You can paint over it with no problems and the walls look completely normal. I'm fairly certain I'm a master caulker now because of this.
All of this to bring me to my second point of what I learned;Gratitude.
Our homeowner wasn't what I would consider grateful for our work. She was in fact quite angry and nothing we did most of the week was right. Thankfully God put some of the most resilient people on my crew that I've ever seen. They exemplified Colossians 3:23 "Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than man." In the beginning this made me mad. I didn't understand why she couldn't see that these people, myself included had traveled hours to do dirty, sweaty work for a complete stranger and be thankful. That verse in Colossians came to mind and after that I ignored her complaining and just worked. I was there to physically meet a need of the woman but I had come there to serve my God who'd given me the opportunity to learn a very important lesson. I'm just like that woman.
There are times when my life isn't going like I want it to and I complain. I'm ungrateful for the many blessings that I have and would rather complain about what I think is wrong rather than focus on what I've been given and remember that God is sovereign and knows what He is doing. It was a sobering moment and I'm thankful for the reminder even if it did come ten hours away in a strangers house while I was caulking.
We met every night as a church for group devotions. Each night it seemed like someone had a really cool story of how God had brought people to them to share the gospel with or invite to the community night Thursday. Cue the green monster of jealousy. We saw three people when our crew went out. Well technically two of them were groups but none of them had time to talk at all beyond being invited to community night. Not one time did I get the chance to share the gospel. That bothered me at first. Here I was listening to story after story and none of that was happening with me. Eric Dill reminded us every night that God was in control. Eventually I understood that. My trip up wasn't about talking to stranger after stranger. My trip was about serving and being pushed outside of my comfort zone. I was made to step up and lead and trust that God was going to work through me because I sure wasn't used to telling people what to do on a worksite. (They made it easy because none of them told me no. To be honest I really just focused on directing the Bayside students and let the others work on the kitchen part of the house. Whatever I asked them to do they did, without complaint and they did it well.)
Despite the obstacles we faced including getting materials late and trying to please a finnicky house owner we did something that is impossible without God. Not only did we complete the project early we worked the entire week without a single problem from the crew. No arguments or breakdowns or complaints about how hot it was outside while we worked or inside without air. (I'm not actually sure we lacked air conditioning but it sure felt like it.) Those people had truly come to serve God and weren't going to let anything hinder that goal. They did it well and I'm glad to say I was a part of it.
It was a week I will never forget and I'm forever grateful that I was allowed the opportunity to experience it.
That being said I have one final remark;Shut Up Bucky
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Obedience:It Matters
Where you go, I'll go
Where you stay, I'll stay
When you move, I'll move
I will follow you
Who you love, I'll love
How you serve I'll serve
If this life I lose, I will follow you- “I Will Follow”-Chris Tomlin
If you’ve not heard this song you need to go listen to it.
Being obedient isn’t always easy. Neither is it particularly fun all the time. There are times when doing something God calls you to do will move you from your comfort zone. You’ll do things that you never could have imagined. It’s possible that in the end you will enjoy it and depending on what it is find a new ministry to serve Him in. Other times you’ll do it and despite being grown will not want to do that particular thing again.
That is the thing about obedience; we aren’t promised that we will enjoy it. We are just called to obey. It’s tricky sometimes because you don’t always want to do things instantly but the problem with that is delayed obedience is disobedience. That comes with consequences.
One of the many mind-blowing and incredible things about God is He knows what we need even if we don’t. What might seem like a horrible experience is a blessing in disguise. Why? When you get uncomfortable and do things you don’t want to do you are forced to rely on God. That is how you grow. Anytime you are put in a new situation or just one that makes you uncomfortable you realize that in all the uncertainty you are in the hands of the God who is sovereign over everything. Being reminded of that fact is never a bad thing. We rely so much on what we can do it is far too easy for us to lean on God only when things get so bad we don’t know what to do anymore. He is the last resort when he should be the first.
When he calls us to do something whatever it may be we have to rely on him. The key here is to remember that even if it seems like a small matter obedience is still needed. That is where the beauty in the situation comes from. We are doing things that we don’t like or are horrible at but we know that when all is said and done we are going to be that much closer to Him. Our faith will be made stronger because we have put our trust solely in Him.
You will do things that will be hard. You will do things that in a million years never would have crossed your mind if it was your choice. You will be grown up and you will be stretched until you don’t think you can possibly be stretched any farther. Sometimes it will hurt but in the end it will be worth it.
The whole point of highlighting that chorus is to say this; being obedient to God means doing many different things. You could be called to move halfway around the world. You might even be called to stay exactly where you are at until He calls you to something. Waiting patiently is often an incredible test in obedience in and of itself. I’ll be honest right now that is where I’m at. Trying to plan everything out for myself is getting me no where but my flesh still craves that desire to have things planned out and to be doing something.
Maybe He wants you to love someone that you’d rather not get close to for a myriad of reasons. But the great thing about God is if you rely on Him and not yourself you can do far more than anything imaginable because Holy Spirit is working in you. That encompasses even loving someone that you didn’t think possible. Serving like Christ can be hard because He was amongst the people. He didn’t stick with those who could pay him in return or those who were clean. Jesus was found amongst the sick and the needy. I realize that serving doesn’t just mean those things, there are many different ways you can serve those around you, but don’t let fear of helping those you’d never thought of get in the way of being obedient.
That final line is a big one. It is so powerful because Christ himself was obedient to the will of his father even to the point of death on a cross. Literally, I’m not going to say that God is going to call you to serve somewhere that you are going to do die for it. It’s a definite possibility; there are certainly plenty of people who do so. However, we are called to die to ourselves daily. That daily death is what allows us to be obedient. Is it easy? No, but it has to happen if we are going to follow God like we are called to do.
Where you stay, I'll stay
When you move, I'll move
I will follow you
Who you love, I'll love
How you serve I'll serve
If this life I lose, I will follow you- “I Will Follow”-Chris Tomlin
If you’ve not heard this song you need to go listen to it.
Being obedient isn’t always easy. Neither is it particularly fun all the time. There are times when doing something God calls you to do will move you from your comfort zone. You’ll do things that you never could have imagined. It’s possible that in the end you will enjoy it and depending on what it is find a new ministry to serve Him in. Other times you’ll do it and despite being grown will not want to do that particular thing again.
That is the thing about obedience; we aren’t promised that we will enjoy it. We are just called to obey. It’s tricky sometimes because you don’t always want to do things instantly but the problem with that is delayed obedience is disobedience. That comes with consequences.
One of the many mind-blowing and incredible things about God is He knows what we need even if we don’t. What might seem like a horrible experience is a blessing in disguise. Why? When you get uncomfortable and do things you don’t want to do you are forced to rely on God. That is how you grow. Anytime you are put in a new situation or just one that makes you uncomfortable you realize that in all the uncertainty you are in the hands of the God who is sovereign over everything. Being reminded of that fact is never a bad thing. We rely so much on what we can do it is far too easy for us to lean on God only when things get so bad we don’t know what to do anymore. He is the last resort when he should be the first.
When he calls us to do something whatever it may be we have to rely on him. The key here is to remember that even if it seems like a small matter obedience is still needed. That is where the beauty in the situation comes from. We are doing things that we don’t like or are horrible at but we know that when all is said and done we are going to be that much closer to Him. Our faith will be made stronger because we have put our trust solely in Him.
You will do things that will be hard. You will do things that in a million years never would have crossed your mind if it was your choice. You will be grown up and you will be stretched until you don’t think you can possibly be stretched any farther. Sometimes it will hurt but in the end it will be worth it.
The whole point of highlighting that chorus is to say this; being obedient to God means doing many different things. You could be called to move halfway around the world. You might even be called to stay exactly where you are at until He calls you to something. Waiting patiently is often an incredible test in obedience in and of itself. I’ll be honest right now that is where I’m at. Trying to plan everything out for myself is getting me no where but my flesh still craves that desire to have things planned out and to be doing something.
Maybe He wants you to love someone that you’d rather not get close to for a myriad of reasons. But the great thing about God is if you rely on Him and not yourself you can do far more than anything imaginable because Holy Spirit is working in you. That encompasses even loving someone that you didn’t think possible. Serving like Christ can be hard because He was amongst the people. He didn’t stick with those who could pay him in return or those who were clean. Jesus was found amongst the sick and the needy. I realize that serving doesn’t just mean those things, there are many different ways you can serve those around you, but don’t let fear of helping those you’d never thought of get in the way of being obedient.
That final line is a big one. It is so powerful because Christ himself was obedient to the will of his father even to the point of death on a cross. Literally, I’m not going to say that God is going to call you to serve somewhere that you are going to do die for it. It’s a definite possibility; there are certainly plenty of people who do so. However, we are called to die to ourselves daily. That daily death is what allows us to be obedient. Is it easy? No, but it has to happen if we are going to follow God like we are called to do.
Sunday, July 6, 2014
The Hero Complex and the Common Man
While watching Spider-Man 2 this evening I realized something. It wasn’t anything ground breaking or a new idea that hasn’t been thought of yet. That something happens to be the need for the male gender to be the hero. Think about it, we’ve got superheroes and action movies where one man saves the world as a secret agent of some covert agency. There are movies that depict real heroes like soldiers or first responders but when everything is stripped away there is one thing all the genre’s share; they all center on a hero. Be it human or superhuman we flock to theaters to see the next great adventure. Millions of dollars are spent on children’s toys and costumes as young children play out fantasies where they become their favorite superhero and take down the bad guy.
Grown men (me included) go see these movies. I have no children so I don’t have the excuse that I want to relive my childhood with my kids as Spider-Man slings across the big screen. Maybe part of it is a desire to be nostalgic but I don’t think that is all of it. It seems to me like we are just born with the desire to be the hero. Whether it’s a desire to be praised by the public for heroic deeds done or just wanting to be a hero. Some people consider it a savior complex. A lot of your superheroes’ fall under this category, the need to always be the hero, to save the day and put the bad guy behind bars. But I find it hard to lump Soldiers, Policemen, and Firemen into that particular category. They are just normal people wanting to do good things. What pushes them to do what they do goes far behind a label.
Honestly, I don’t think children have a savior complex. They emulate what they see and what they see is a man or woman, imaginary or real who helps people and the world loves them. That makes them feel good. Imagine being a five year old and watching your favorite superhero knock the bad guy out. What you see isn’t a cartoon, it is real. So far as you are concerned people can fly and throw cars like baseballs just as easily as they can walk. Besides superheroes always win, the bad guy always loses. Real life isn’t so black and white. People don’t fly and it’s a rare occurrence when a person can pick up a car. I’ve yet to hear of one being hurled like a ball, even when someone is full of adrenaline.
So why do men never really grow up? I’m twenty-four. I’ll be honest, if you haven’t already picked up on this fact; I very much enjoy superhero movies. Actually I enjoy movies where the hero always wins and justice prevails. I’m not five even if I spend a great chunk of my time with people around that age so there is not that excuse to lean on. I don’t have kids so I’m not really being nostalgic. I’m one of those guys who on some level desires to be the hero. Not so much to reap heaps of praise but to know that for one moment I wasn’t simply ordinary. Superheroes aren’t normal people; they’ve got powers and skills that enable them to be for lack of a better term super. They are extraordinary individuals who push the bounds of our finite human bodies and do things that we can’t.
Perhaps we are just wired that way, designed to want to save those around us as we were designed to lead. Maybe it is in our genes to want to save the day. Not as a source of pride or some selfish gain just a desire to be useful. For a single moment in time we gain the chance to reach deep within ourselves and summon the courage we never knew we really possessed. Every hero has an origin story, they all start somewhere. And maybe, just maybe we men seek that moment to prove to ourselves that we can change things, we can make a difference when given the chance. That without some super human ability we can be heroes. I’m certain there are probably professionals out there who would deem me a man who can’t let go of his youth. They’d likely say such thoughts are the desires of a man who doesn’t understand how the real world works. I promise I know how the world works. People don’t have super powers. I can also assure you that this is not me saying I want to be thrust into such a situation. Just an honest reflection on the male psyche. I feel pretty confident in saying such things because I am a male.
I’m surrounded by legitimate heroes who don’t happen to wear capes. I know what makes a hero. I just happen to be incredibly interested in why we as men are enamored with such things. There’s got to be a reason for it. I’ve already stated my opinion, it’s just the way we were made. We were created to lead families so it isn’t so far fetched to say that perhaps we were wired to want to be a hero for the simple fact that as a father or a leader you need the courage to sacrifice yourself, to do things you never dreamed of or thought possible for the betterment of those around you.
Sometimes that courage is quiet and is found in the day to day activity of a man providing for his family. Other times that courage roars as it faces gunmen or blazing fires.
Grown men (me included) go see these movies. I have no children so I don’t have the excuse that I want to relive my childhood with my kids as Spider-Man slings across the big screen. Maybe part of it is a desire to be nostalgic but I don’t think that is all of it. It seems to me like we are just born with the desire to be the hero. Whether it’s a desire to be praised by the public for heroic deeds done or just wanting to be a hero. Some people consider it a savior complex. A lot of your superheroes’ fall under this category, the need to always be the hero, to save the day and put the bad guy behind bars. But I find it hard to lump Soldiers, Policemen, and Firemen into that particular category. They are just normal people wanting to do good things. What pushes them to do what they do goes far behind a label.
Honestly, I don’t think children have a savior complex. They emulate what they see and what they see is a man or woman, imaginary or real who helps people and the world loves them. That makes them feel good. Imagine being a five year old and watching your favorite superhero knock the bad guy out. What you see isn’t a cartoon, it is real. So far as you are concerned people can fly and throw cars like baseballs just as easily as they can walk. Besides superheroes always win, the bad guy always loses. Real life isn’t so black and white. People don’t fly and it’s a rare occurrence when a person can pick up a car. I’ve yet to hear of one being hurled like a ball, even when someone is full of adrenaline.
So why do men never really grow up? I’m twenty-four. I’ll be honest, if you haven’t already picked up on this fact; I very much enjoy superhero movies. Actually I enjoy movies where the hero always wins and justice prevails. I’m not five even if I spend a great chunk of my time with people around that age so there is not that excuse to lean on. I don’t have kids so I’m not really being nostalgic. I’m one of those guys who on some level desires to be the hero. Not so much to reap heaps of praise but to know that for one moment I wasn’t simply ordinary. Superheroes aren’t normal people; they’ve got powers and skills that enable them to be for lack of a better term super. They are extraordinary individuals who push the bounds of our finite human bodies and do things that we can’t.
Perhaps we are just wired that way, designed to want to save those around us as we were designed to lead. Maybe it is in our genes to want to save the day. Not as a source of pride or some selfish gain just a desire to be useful. For a single moment in time we gain the chance to reach deep within ourselves and summon the courage we never knew we really possessed. Every hero has an origin story, they all start somewhere. And maybe, just maybe we men seek that moment to prove to ourselves that we can change things, we can make a difference when given the chance. That without some super human ability we can be heroes. I’m certain there are probably professionals out there who would deem me a man who can’t let go of his youth. They’d likely say such thoughts are the desires of a man who doesn’t understand how the real world works. I promise I know how the world works. People don’t have super powers. I can also assure you that this is not me saying I want to be thrust into such a situation. Just an honest reflection on the male psyche. I feel pretty confident in saying such things because I am a male.
I’m surrounded by legitimate heroes who don’t happen to wear capes. I know what makes a hero. I just happen to be incredibly interested in why we as men are enamored with such things. There’s got to be a reason for it. I’ve already stated my opinion, it’s just the way we were made. We were created to lead families so it isn’t so far fetched to say that perhaps we were wired to want to be a hero for the simple fact that as a father or a leader you need the courage to sacrifice yourself, to do things you never dreamed of or thought possible for the betterment of those around you.
Sometimes that courage is quiet and is found in the day to day activity of a man providing for his family. Other times that courage roars as it faces gunmen or blazing fires.
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