Talk about gift cards, my girl’s got em

 

Last Christmas, I Gave You My Heart

Lately everyone’s talking about Christmas gifts: how much to spend or not to spend, what to give, what definitely NOT to give. At my household, we’ve also been planning our Christmas gift list. We decided to go with fewer, more meaningful gifts and my little boy has been wild with ideas.This year, there are many babies and toddlers among our friends and family members. There’s a lot of room to play with when giving to a baby. After all, what does a baby really know about his/her own likes or dislikes? You’re basically starting with a clean slate.

So, my son comes up to me and says, “Hey, Mom! I know what I’m going to give Metroid for Christmas!”

Okay, the baby’s name is not really Metroid, but that’s Beaux’s favorite name these days and he applies it to everything from the neighborhood stray cat to his future (currently non-existent) baby sister, so I’m substituting it for the sake of anonymity.

“Oh, really? What are you going to give Metroid?” I said as I stood at the kitchen sink with my arms up to the elbows in hot, soapy water.

“Just a minute, and I’ll show you!” he said, and then pounded down the hall to his room.

I immediately had this strange and overwhelming feeling that I knew exactly what he was going to get. I felt that fluttering in my chest that I get when I’m about to do some hard-core protesting, so I wiped my hands off quickly knowing that I would need them to yank the thing away so he couldn’t even think about giving it for Christmas.

He came back, and when I saw that faded giraffe teething ring in his five-year-old hands, I remembered seeing it in those same hands when they were first learning to purposely grasp something instead of just doing it out of reflex. When his mouth started going on about how he was going to wrap it, I remembered how that same mouth, minus a bunch of teeth, would drool all over the thing. I remembered how it was the first thing his eyes really noticed. The first thing he liked to laugh at. The only thing that would keep him from really wailing on long trips.

I couldn’t give that away.

I was almost angry inside as I took it gently from him. Not angry at him, but just the very thought of giving that thing to someone who wouldn’t appreciate just how much it meant to me because of what it had meant to him. I laid it on the counter, saying, “That’s really thoughtful of you, but this is special to Mommy, so let’s think of something else to give Metroid for Christmas.”

I finished the dishes while he went foraging for another gift. He got distracted and came back out dressed like SpiBatterman (a morphed Spiderman and Batman). I was relieved. I was glad that we wouldn’t be discussing Christmas gifts any more.

I watched my fast-growing boy as he tried to hit our refrigerator magnets with his Spideyweb and thought again about that giraffe teething toy. I quietly took it into another room and as I squished the soft giraffe face between my fingers, a powerful mental image hit me.

I thought of Mary, Jesus’ mother. Jesus’ mommy. In my mind’s eye, I saw her reminiscing over some memento left over from Jesus’ childhood. Something special that would have pained her to give away. Maybe it was just a soft rag that she’d fashioned into a doll or something, but special to her nonetheless. I imagined that she cherished it long after He was gone.

I thought of God the Father.

It troubled me to realize that God never foraged among His things to find a gift. He didn’t hold an internal debate over giving some special memento, some teething ring that bore the marks of His Son’s affection. He gave His Son.

He gave the precious little hands that had played with that childhood toy, the toothless mouth that had drooled on it, the new eyes that had noticed it for the first time, the laughter, the wailing. He gave the gift that pained Him most to give.

Suddenly, that sweet-faced giraffe shamed me. What a fraud I am. I like to think that I would do anything for anyone and it’s just not true. I felt humbled.

Jesus was once asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

Mark 12:29 Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. 30 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’[g] 31 The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[h] No other commandment is greater than these.”

This time next year as I begin my Christmas planning (and being the cheesy person that I am) I want to be able to say, “Last Christmas, I gave you my heart.” I don’t have to care whether it means as much to others as it means to me, I just have to give.

-Lanie Barrett

You’re Probably Not Going to Change the World… Get Over It

Guest post Andrew Hamilton’s blog, “Backyard Missionary”

I remember as a youth pastor that I had a fair swag of ‘you can change the world’ sermons in my kit bag. It was a regular theme in my own communication and in most of the talks that I heard other youth speakers give. I even got pretty good at it!The basic gist was that God wants to do extraordinary things in this world thru you. And if you were in touch with him then you would be able to be a ‘history maker’ or a ‘world changer’ or a ‘person of prominence’ or…some other equally wanky term.

You know the deal?

I remember when I was giving those talks I really believed what I was saying to be true. However today I am less inclined to believe that I or you will actually tilt the earth on its axis one way or another. In fact chances are that God doesn’t want you to be a Martin Luther King or a Nelson Mandela. Chances are you will live a life of indescribable ordinariness and apparent insignificance….

And I’d like to say ‘that’s ok’. Most of us are ordinary people, living ordinary lives in ordinary communities and it is extremely unlikely we will ever be world leaders or superheroes.

The problem with the rhetoric of ‘you can change the world’ is that if you don’t, then you can feel like a failure - like your measly suburban life really doesn’t count for much at all and you are a nobody in the scheme of things, or maybe you have missed ‘God’s best’ for you. (just to keep the jargon rolling )

“My pastor told me I was made for greatness… that I could change the world… and all I do is change people’s sprinklers…”

When we speak about people like David or Gideon or Paul, or other biblical heroes and suggest that it is our responsibility to live lives of similar consequence then - while I would agree that it is a possibility some of us will be world changers - I would also suggest we disempower people from fully living the life they have been given.

When we suggest that God has a destiny for us that is much greater than humble suburban living we inevitably finish up with people who live perpetually dissatisfied with life as it is right now and who are constantly waiting for their ‘moment’, when the planets align, when they are ‘called up’ by God and when they get to shine.

In the mean time life - real life - goes on and passes us by… and if that day never comes we wonder what all the fuss was about… all those prophetic words we were given…

My message these days is that God does want to use your life in all of it beautiful ordinariness and simplicity and while you may never be written up as a hero of faith, you will get to live a life of great meaning and significance if you can view your weekly endeavours thru a different lens.

See original post here.

-Andrew Hamilton
image via Steve took it

Guest Post: Historic Day

“I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

These are the words that have been spoken by every President Elect since April 30th, 1789. When in New York, how could have George Washington known just how far reaching these words will echo in history?

And, friends… Romans… country men…. we are living History today.

No matter your beliefs, no matter what side of the Political Fence you find yourself on… no matter your faith or your religion… or your family and your state in life… I hope, that if for just one day, we can all be honest with ourselves and say, “Life, our country, our world, is never going to be the same again.”

We are barely 50 years removed from police dogs at civil rights marches, from little black girls being blasted by fire hoses in Alabama, from a religious man, an educated reverend, being shot on a balcony in Memphis. We are barely outside of Rodney King and the violence and ignorance it sparked… on both sides. 

And, yet somehow… someway… here we are! I have never been prouder to be an American than I am right now. Obama may, or may not, win today. But the fact that he could run, that he could force it to be this close, the fact that his intelligence and eloquence outshines the color of his skin tells me that the America that I believe in isn’t just a False Hope. It tells me that we are making moves in the right direction. It may be slow… but, at least we are trying.

And, one day… one very fine day… the America that I love so much will be the America that, once upon a time, a group of middle-aged farmers got together in Philadelphia, knowing full well that their actions meant Treason and possible Death, and they declared to the entire world… to the entire world…

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. - That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

I don’t care who you voted for. I don’t care if we agree on all the issues. 

All I know… and all I care about… is that after today… no matter the outcome of the election… after today… Race is never going to define who we are as a people.

And, that is Historic. And, as hard as the last few months have been on Americans coming to terms with who they are… the war of Political Thought… may today be, finally, the last battle of the American Revolution.

-Mark Brett
image via radiospike photography

Election day thoughts

Well, today is the big day. Campaigning has reached a frenzied pace, the attack ads have been hitting over the weekend. Some pastors have been preaching why Obama is God’s selection and other pastors have been preaching why McCain is God’s selection. Either quite a few pastors are not hearing God correctly or God was wrong, not sure which one the wrong pastors will go with at the end of the day.

I am very excited about voter turnout, looks like records are going to be shattered. It’s about time the people of this country decided to vote. What I’m not so excited about is the rhetoric being tossed about by both sides. To demonize either party isn’t the way of Jesus. Loving your enemy seems to not apply when supporting candidates, specifically parties.

I decided to gather a few links for you all to peruse, good and bad thoughts for future elections.

James Dobson, please don’t write another piece of fiction like this. (link downloads a PDF file)

Here is the rebuttal to James Dobson’s letter.

Relevant Magazine’s fantastic site had a fansasticer (I don’t think that’s a real word) post about Shane Claiborne & Chris Haw’s journey across the USA asking Americans to think about their vote.

Happy Voting Day everyone!
-Rex Barrett
image via niznoz

Sometimes, It’s Okay to be Catty

I was parked in front of a friend’s house and ready to get out of the car when I noticed the old lady across the street. She came slowly out of her house dressed in her nightgown with thick, blue socks rolled down around the tops of her clunky black shoes. A hard scowl pressed her wrinkles into an expression that wasn’t altogether inviting. She stooped to peer at something under the overgrown ferns at the edge of her porch, and I wondered what poor animal was about to get ousted from its comfy spot.

It was a cat, and it wasn’t getting ousted. It twined its soft body around her thin ankles as she laid down a tiny dish of water, spilling only a little when her hands shook. From somewhere came another furry body and that’s when I noticed there were five cats striking various poses of laziness all over her porch.

After seeing the brittle expression on her face, I’m not sure I would have had the nerve to go say hi. I don’t think her lips curved into anything resembling a smile as she greeted her cats. Somehow, though, I don’t think the cats noticed and they greeted her hard grimace with soft, gentle caresses and wrapped their soft tails around her wrinkled legs while she stood there with them.

I thought about that after I left. The old lady didn’t seem to reciprocate the affection she received wrapped in loads of warm fur, but the cats gave it anyway. I remember the times I’ve chosen not to say hi or smile at an elderly individual out of fear that it wouldn’t be welcome. I decided I don’t care if it’s welcome or not, because obviously looks can be deceiving. I decided that sometimes, it’s okay to be catty. I’m going to practice being catty as often as I can and maybe I’ll challenge others to be catty too. Maybe it’ll be someone like you.

-Lanie Barrett
image via cloud_nine

End of the Age, Part 3

I usually hear a couple of questions when I talk to people about the importance of a proper interpretation of the End Times: Why does it matter? Won’t it all pan out? Questions like these, however, undermine the need for diligent study of difficult Biblical passages. We wouldn’t ask those dismissive questions after reading about the resurrection of Christ or Paul’s conversion. I don’t believe we should ask those questions of Apocalyptic passages either. Instead, we should study!

Two crucial issues are at stake: Biblical interpretation and the duty of Christians today.

Careful study of the End Times is very important because our view of the End has a direct correlation to how we live our lives in the here and now. Any view of the End carries with it presuppositions of how we as Christians interact with the world. If we are to believe the way most evangelists teach about the End Times, the world will get progressively worse, the antichrist will take over and Christians will have to be raptured out before they all get killed. This type of teaching carries with it an air of hopelessness for Christian outreach. After all, if we know how it’s going to end, there is little incentive for outreach. Thankfully, this hopeless ending is not what Jesus taught. In fact, what we find is the Kingdom of God will continue to grow on earth.

The clear teaching of Scripture reveals that the Kingdom of God was inaugurated with Jesus’ first coming, will grow continuously and be consummated and finalized at Jesus’ final appearing at the end of history when sin and death are finally dealt with.

Jesus himself compares the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed. It starts off very small yet grows into one of the largest garden trees. He also compares it to dough with a few pieces of leaven. When those nuggets of Truth get lodged in our culture, like leaven, the culture will rise! (13) When the 70 returned to Jesus telling them of their success in spreading the Gospel, Jesus tells them “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” (14) Satan was dealt a fatal wound when Jesus came to earth the first time. Are we to believe that Christianity will progressively fizzle out until the end of history? No! In fact, as the Scriptures show, Jesus himself says his kingdom will start very small and become very large! And look, it started with 12 disciples and has grown now into billions.

This is important: If we as Christians claim to have the Truth then we should expect nothing less than the Truth to CONTINUE to be spread throughout the world! Truth, by it’s very nature, spreads and overcomes lies and darkness.

So, let’s put away the End Times pessimism that is so rampant in Christianity today. As Adam was told to be fruitful and multiply, the Christian’s responsibility is to do likewise for the Kingdom of God. Isaiah 11:9 says that the “earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea!” Colossians 1:13 says that “Christ has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins!” We are to pray “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

As the Body of Christ, we have our work cut out for us. We are not to hunker down hoping for the best, but expecting the worst in a world that needs Christ. We are to stand up and spread the Good News!

So, let’s get the Word out! When Christ does come back, he will come to an earth in which the Gospel has been progressively spreading not shrinking! While Satan still has some power, he was dealt a huge blow with Christ’s first coming. When Christ comes back at the end of history Satan will be dealt with finally and fully. Sin and death will be done away with. Christ will usher in a new heaven and a new earth! How beautiful!

13. Matthew 13:31-33
14. Luke 10:18

-Luke Barrett
image via Ozyman

A Little Blood and Guts Does a Body Good

One Wednesday night a month, The Paseo Gathering commits to some sort of community outreach, and this past Wednesday we made our first visit to Grace Living Center, a local nursing home. When I made the arrangements with the Center’s activities director, she recommended an agenda for the evening and said she was looking forward to it.

We arrived at the nursing home lugging bottles of soda and fingernail polish and a small selection of movies; all the makings for a cozy movie night complete with popcorn. From my home collection, I had picked a couple of movies that I figured would be perfect for those nice, sedate, elderly folks who had entered their twilight years and were happy to shoot the breeze until their “time” had come. I couldn’t help feeling that feeling; the one that says, “I’m going to make someone happy, and that makes me happy.” (I’m still not completely sure how to “do good” without feeling a little proud that I’m doing good. Quite a conundrum, I know.)

One of the women who joined with me also brought along a few movies, and I must admit, I thought mine would go over a little better with the residents. I laid all the movies out for the activities director and she took a vote. “If you want action/adventure, raise your hand,” she said, and I saw a few wrinkled and slightly tremorous hands go up. Then she said, “If you want blood and guts, raise your hand.” Like little children a fraction their age they didn’t really bother with lifting their hands, they simply shouted eagerly for blood and guts.

Let me just say, I am not the one who brought the blood and guts.

I tried not to feel too disappointed that The Saint had lost out to Alien vs. Predator. I have seen both movies, and as cute as that Predator guy is, Val Kilmer beats him hands down. As the movie began, and I went from person to person taking drink orders, I felt two dry and weathered hands grasp one of mine. I stopped thinking about, “Would you like Diet Coke or regular Coke?” and sat next to the woman still holding my hand. She leaned into my side and said, “Thank you so much for coming. This means so much.”

Suddenly, it didn’t matter that I felt good about doing good; the only thing that mattered was that spark of happiness I saw in her eyes. It was just some blood and guts with a little nail polish. It wasn’t anything elaborate or costly and it wasn’t exactly what I planned or envisioned. I realized something that should have been obvious to me before last night: Jesus didn’t do “elaborate or costly” either. He hung out with people and spent time with them on their terms, not His. I don’t know how He felt about doing good, but I like the Man’s style. I’m excited to spend more time with the men and women in that nursing home, on their terms, not mine.

Another thing. Apparently a little blood and guts does a body good, because every person in that room left with a smile on his or her face. Sorry Val.

-Lanie Barrett
image via Helal Al-Helal

HURRICANE GUSTAV RELIEF NEEDS

Brad Lomenick of Catalyst posted this on his blog and is now asking the blogosphere to repost everywhere.

Hurricane Gustav missed a direct hit on New Orleans, but trounced Baton Rouge pretty hard. Supposedly, the worst hurricane damage ever in Baton Rouge.

Our great friends at Healing Place Church, who for the last three years has been doing incredible work in Katrina relief efforts, are now in need of your help. Dino Rizzo and the team at Healing Place are asking for BLUE TARPS for the relief efforts from Hurricane Gustav.

Our road trip team was there on Friday and saw the damage first hand. Power is expected to be out in parts of southern Louisiana for 4-6 weeks. Many people in the outer parts of the bayou have yet to be reached. We asked how we could help. Their answer:

They need BLUE TARPS!

Please send as many blue tarps as you can to Healing Place Church.

Here is a BLUE TARP Link where you can purchase a CASE of blue tarps.

Here is a BLUE TARP Link where you can purchase individual blue tarps. The shipping address is below.

ONE (1) BLUE TARP
Healing Place Church
19202 Highland Road
Baton Rouge, LA 70809

225.753.2273

You can also visit the official Hurricane Relief website set up by Healing Place Church for more information and other ways to get involved.

Thanks for giving and helping our friends in Baton Rouge! And please post this on your own sites as well and forward to friends.

Let’s jump in on this ProjectOKC! Click the links and order up some tarps. After you do it, encourage others by posting in the comments. Let’s do some good! Go ahead and give up a couple of nights out to eat this month.

-Rex Barrett

Fighting for the evangelical vote

This year’s election drama has been hotter than any soap opera I’ve ever seen. We have racism, sexism, ageism, pregnant teens and a long legged VP. It really can’t get any better, can it?

One interesting thing I’ve noticed is a shift in how the democratic party has been speaking. In the past there seemed to have been a distinct line drawn that separated church and state. Sure there have always been Christian democrats, but let’s be honest here, the white evangelical vote hasn’t ever been up for grabs… Until now.

We have a candidate in Obama who can talk Jesus with the best of them and a guy in McCain who seems a bit more reserved in his relationship with almighty God.

“When working as a community organizer with other churches, helping to build struggling neighborhoods, I let Jesus Christ into my life. I learned that my sins could be redeemed,” -Barack Obama

I’m sure we all get the political advertisements in the mail. Typically when a republican sends the slick mailer it has “Conservative Christian” plastered all over it. The democrat’s card normally doesn’t mention faith at all. This year though Obama is blatantly advertising that he is a card carrying Christian and McCain rarely speaks of it at all.

When McCain was getting all religious on us a few months ago he partnered with guys like Rod Parsley and John Hagee, ouch. I’ll let you research their stances on the Jews and Islam yourself, a quick Google will suffice. That’s not to say that Obama didn’t have his pastor problems though. Two words, “Jeremiah Wright”. Oddly enough, it seems the pastor issues canceled each other out and the race is on for the white evangelical vote.

For years the issue has been about being “pro-life”. This year it seems to be about having an ethic of life. Meaning being pro-life in areas other than the just unborn. I think people are asking broader questions like: Which candidate is pro-life for Iraq? Which one has an ethic of life regarding health care? How about an ethic of life for those in prison or on death row?

In 2004 President Bush got a whopping 78% of the evangelical vote. Right now McCain is hovering at about 60%. Obama is being aggressive for that final 40%. He’s starting an outreach program that incorporates service projects and shilling at Christian concerts.

If I were McCain I wouldn’t count on the Christian vote just falling my way. The lines aren’t as clearly drawn and this soap opera is just going to get hotter!

-Rex Barrett
image via ShellyS

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