What are you writing?

I came across a post on Tentblogger today about notebooks. He lists 10 of his favorite writing notebooks and that got me thinking about the pages I've used over the years. As a kid, I missed out on the typical black and white composition notebooks (which are number 10, by the way) because we were always well stocked with those really inexpensive spiral notebooks - the ones you see the cheap frugal moms lugging around at Target at back to school time for like 17¢ each or something (like my wife). I didn't know what a Moleskine was until just a few years ago (and still wouldn't mind a good debate about the proper pronunciation of that brand), but I have at least seen most of the options on the list.

Though the usually smashed spiral inevitably made page turning a little tricky, I was at least privileged to write almost exclusively in college rule notebooks. This was necessary mostly because I write tiny (not small - tiny), which some handwriting expert will probably tell you indicates a lack of self confidence or an introverted and academic personality. I hated Big Chief, with his cocky wide lines and paper that was impossible to erase without burning a hole through 3 pages. I secretly looked down on teachers that accepted assignments on wide rule. How could they be at peace with such sloppy arrogance?! Ok, maybe that's exaggerating a little bit...

I've never been a die hard journal keeper, but have filled more than a couple notebooks with what would pass as journal entries. Someday, someone is going to read them and say, "Wow, I always thought he was  more well adjusted than that." That's because my journals are often filled in mildly distraught moments of prayer - pouring out to God what I don't think I should dump on others. A lot of people don't notice the rougher edges of me because I've learned to tuck them away in writing that doesn't usually see the light of day. I can imagine my grandkids finding an old box of my stuff and thinking, "Grandpa was really weird and moody. With all those years being unhappy, it's no wonder he's so grumpy now!" Part of what may make me seem well adjusted (whatever that means) is that I don't go around spewing all my garbage because I've found a better dumping ground than in your lap.

The thing is, what I write in notebooks can be easily misunderstood, especially since it's because a sort of salvage yard of my broken pieces. If parts of it are taken out of context and the rest of it ignored, those parts don't really accurately represent who I am. Whether it's a song (which are mostly written upside down from the back of the notebook for some reason that still escapes me), a prayer, some sermon or lesson notes, a rant, or just a catchy line I wanted to remember... you can't know me fully from just that piece. If you only know me from this blog, you see me only through the limited lens this blog affords. My private writing gives an even less illumined view.

This leads me to how we treat the Bible. There's no doubt in my mind that reading God's Word can help a person get to know Him. (And yes, I realize the Bible is much more than God's personal little journal.) But we will not get to know God fully by taking our favorite bits and pieces of Scripture and divorcing them from the context of the rest of Scripture. We won't even get a very full picture by reading the whole text year after year. The Bible isn't a compilation that's meant to only be read and discussed - it's meant to be done. It's meant to be lived. It's meant to be demonstrated by His kids.

It's only when we act on the Word that we really understand the Author. Write that down in your hand-crafted Ciak or your bamboo Writersblok...  scribble it into your spiral bound cheap-o college rule... maybe even scrawl it in your Big Chief (use a crayon)... but don't forget what James wrote, "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." God doesn't just write in notebooks - He writes in you for all to see. What's He writing?

Bio?

I was asked to write a bio a few months ago for an online youth ministry publication called Youth Ministry Today that wanted to post an article I'd written. Writing a bio of myself seemed kind of like writing my own obituary, only I get to keep breathing! I was happy to have something I'd originally posted here published for a wider audience, but it was kind of awkward writing a really short bio of myself. I'm not really sure why - maybe I think too much of myself, maybe too little (or maybe both). Now I need to provide another bio for another youth ministry site that I may be writing for regularly (Youth Ministry Ideas), and I'm faced with the same dilemma:

How do I sum myself up?

Here's what I wrote:

Sparks Fly!

Last night with our small group, we shared some of the ideas that are being birthed in our group regarding moving forward after last week's experience at Catalyst West. These aren't fully formed yet and some may take a while to become functional ideas, but here's a quick list of what may be...

-Writer's Group - Many students believe the wrong story about who they are. This could be a way to help some of them understand the meaning of their story and more effectively share those stories. When I started talking about this as a thing for high school students, the group quickly pointed out it could be a great thing community wide for adults as well. So true!

-Mission Trip to Arizona - Hi Tory! What could we do at Christmas?

-Pastor's Wives Group - What can we do to connect the wives of local pastors? Pastor's wives are incredible (especially that WestWay youth minister's wife!); what awesome things could God be doing in our area if this group could be drawn together for support and inspiration?! Hosting ladies for Lori Wilhite's web conference later this year can be a good starting point.

-Housing - We'd like to help with the local Habitat for Humanity again, and also interested in the possibility of working with something like Casas por Cristo in Mexico.

-Foster Care/Adoption - How many kids are in foster care in our community? What agencies handle foster care? How can we help them - not only housing kids, but offering respite for foster parents... "Does God want our family to adopt a child?" Don't forget to ask that question.

-Denver Rescue Mission - What could we be doing to help there (the largest city close to us)?

-People of the Second Chance - What are we doing to offer grace, hope, and help to people needing to be restored to wholeness? Recovery Groups/Redemption Groups

-Lots of us Blog and others are considering it - How can we leverage our blogs to best serve the kingdom and help people in our community see God at work around them, especially those who haven't noticed Him before? Maybe a Scottsbluff area aggregate blog or something similar? Tie-in with a new church website?

-Hospitality for visitors - Lots of little touches could be done in our facilities to help people feel more at ease/at home when they come to our building. i.e. shelves in restrooms, less empty wall space, signs within the building to help people find their way, signs in town to compensate for unfortunate building location (outside of most of the community's flow) - but also remembering a sign or wall hanging will never take the place of the personal care we provide as individuals who collectively are the church.
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Those are some of the ideas that were sparked by last week's conference. We're still kicking them around and obviously we can't tackle them all at once. But God is at work in our hearts and stirring some incredible thought. If you're a part of WestWay and have some thoughts about how these ideas can be fleshed out, give me a call or comment below and let's see which of these sparks we can "fan into flame" together!

A Rambling Route to Goals

Running has been a cathartic experience for me. I enjoy the time when my phone is nowhere near, my e-mail doesn't exist for a while and whatever I may have in my 'to read' pile is shoved aside. A great time to think and pray about what I've already read, experienced, and seen lately. It may sound odd, but for all the churning and puffing that's going on physically, this is often a time for me to mentally "be still" and know God.

During the first mile today, this question kept coming to mind: Are you called to be a chaplain to church kids or an ambassador to the greater tribe of students that surrounds you? One of the greatest difficulties that I've seen youth ministers have is feeling called to one of these roles, but hired for the other. This may be a whole topic for another post, but the bottom line is that there are elements of both these roles that I need to embrace.

Another thought that struck me was just the thought of how my running time has become a meaningful prayer time. Before the specter of spiritual pride came up though, I heard this: "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." As I thought about this verse, I wondered if my heart has been truly full of His word so much that its overflow keeps me from sin. It's so easy to neglect the Word of God - to skim, relying on recall of what I've previously read rather than asking for fresh revelation as I pore over what He has had to say...

Later in the run, I began to think of goals. Today's 7 miles brought me to just under 97 miles in the last 29 days. 29 days ago is when I signed on to a 100 miles in 30 days challenge. I'm going to make my goal. I like that. I remember when I first started playing soccer and read somewhere that a soccer player should be able to run continuously for 60 minutes. I thought that sounded crazy but figured lots of people played soccer, so lots of people must be able to do it. If lots of people can do it, surely I can do it, too. When I first started training for a marathon, some people saw it as further evidence of my lack of mental acuity. While they may be right, I was too stubborn or too stupid to know that 26.2 miles is too far - so... I finished a marathon. The funny thing about goals is, you can achieve a lot - if you'll forget what you can't do.

I don't like to come up short in anything I attempt - it feels like failure. I don't want to fail. Sometimes that keeps me from setting clear goals, but this running experiment has showed me how I need to do better at that. Maybe it's the 'bucket list' phenomena, but over the past several months I've seen a number of leaders sharing about life-goals. A list of "100 things to do before I die" or a "40x40" (40 things to do before I turn 40)...

As I thought about it, here are some random goals I've had throughout my life: (due to the contemporaneous activity, there may have been a slight running slant to the list)

-Graduate HS with 4.0. I figured a college degree was a college degree regardless of GPA, but in HS I wanted to make sure to get the 4.0.

-Run a marathon. completed and amended

-Run a marathon in under four and a half hours. Hopefully this May.

-Stay married until 1 of us dies. Still in progress - and loving it.

-Run a six minute mile again. This is where being specific... hurts (and may not be medically wise).

-Send my 4 kids into adulthood knowing fully that they are loved - by God and by their parents.

-Visit every inhabitable continent (Antarctica can take a pass.) 4 out of 6, so far with Africa and Australia to go.

-Take LuAnn to see some of the places in Germany that I visited in HS.

-Hear "Well done - good and faithful servant."

-Graduate students every year who are intent on taking life to the dying and who refuse to settle for a normal life.

-Finish my Master's degree. This may not be so much a goal, as it's just that I'm a nerd and like being in class.

-Write something worth publishing. 1 magazine article so far, but this is more of an ongoing thing (though set aside lately) than a one time shot.

-Have a book published. Currently working on something that would be more of a self-published thing for our youth ministry team here, but it could develop into something more...

Well, those are some of my goals. What are yours? And how can I help you reach them? (That's another one of mine.)

Alltop Inclusion

My blog will now be included in alltop - a news site that lists "all the top news" for a lot of different categories. I'm listed in the Christianity topic. Basically, whenever I post, alltop shares it with everyone who uses alltop.

Not sure exactly how the various sites are listed or ranked. I think right now, my blog is like the second to last one at the bottom of the page, hanging out below Eric Bryant (one of the leaders at Mosaic). Not sure if the positioning is static or how exactly that's decided.