Been working on this one for awhile, sorry it's so long.
I love Christmas more than most. I love being with my immediate family, I love seeing family I only see once a year, and I love pinching my great-gradmother’s butt while she giggles and tells me to stop. I love Christmas songs (AFTER Thanksgiving…), I love Christmas trees and stockings and reminiscing on Christmas’ gone by while pulling out ornaments. I love drinking ginger bread lattes and ragging my dad about how gross ANYTHING with eggnog in it is inherently disgusting… I love that feeling on Christmas afternoon of total contentment that comes only through knowing the One true God – and the assurance that He knows me. I love candle light services and wearing red and green anything together – I really, really, really love Christmas. But, as is happening more and more regularly in my life, God is pushing me to say and do things that frankly make me uncomfortable, and He makes me ill until I share them. So, here goes.
I can’t count how many times I’ve heard “Christmas is MORE than presents and Santa!” Or “remember WHO this season is really about!” Or, even more in recent years “keep Christ in Christmas!” How true each of these statements! We know these are true, we know that there is more to Christmas than getting presents (say it with me – it’s more blessed to give than receive), we even know that we have more stuff than we actually NEED. But don’t you think that greed and selfishness are two big elements (detriments?) of the Christmas season…
Let me take a quick moment (quick? Wayne? C’mon…) to explain that recently God has been ruining me. He is pressing me with Scripture to say things I don’t really like saying – challenging me to believe AND live tough Truth, and to tell others when He gives the platform (check out Jeremiah 1 to see why I haven’t been sleeping much lately). I am not the Holy Spirit, nor do I fancy myself some spiritual guru. If my challenges don’t resonate with you, that’s awesome!
So back to the issue at hand: what is a Christ Follower’s response to Christmas when so much of what makes up the holiday are anything but Christ like? Drum roll please:
1) Don’t be a jerk. Check out Colossians 3:23 – if this is true (it is true) then you should shop as unto the Lord.
2) You have too much crap…Seriously, I’m sorry for saying it this way, but it’s true. Your children have too much crap too. Check out Philippians 4:11-13 and ask if your trying to get more stuff to be more content. I’m NOT saying you can’t and shouldn’t give and get presents this Christmas, just check the motivation
3) Be aware of what you’re buying. Two rules: don’t buy so much this year and there ARE some stores are better to buy from than others. Matthew 25 continues to perplex me, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to be held responsible for serving the least of these. When you buy stuff this Christmas, check out some of these sites (all use free-trade or better, slave-free labor, etc.): oxfamamerica.org, worldvision.org, uncommongoods.com, wishingfish.com, or relevantstore.com. They aren’t perfect, but they’re better than most.
4) On Black Friday, take cookies. Seriously, this has to be the meanest day of the year (well, every four years, election day is pretty nasty), so please IF you’re going to participate in this savings free-for-all, BE THE KINDEST, MOST HUMBLE PERSON WHEREVER YOU GO. Read all of Philippians 2 as a way to focus before heading out
5) Find one family in your community that is struggling financially and give them Christmas. Buy them presents, make them dinner, serve it to them live and in person – and then stay in contact with them afterward.
6) Be thankful.
7) Read lots of Scripture to your friends and family.
OK, that’s pretty much all I got. I don’t apologize for the Scriptures I’ve referenced above, but I do apologize if I wrongly taught from them. If you have any thoughts in addition to this I’d love to hear them! If you think I’m missing something, I’d love to see hear about that too – thanks so much, take care.
Much love
Wayne
Philippians 4:8
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Every now and again
Every now and again I get to do something that is just too amazing for words.. God blesses me way beyond what I could even think to pray for, and this happens in a lot of ways that only I will see - you know, things like discernment in decisions, wisdom in the little things, prayer requests for strength, etc. But, other times, like this weekend, God blessed me in a unique way that most folks wouldn't even really be too thrilled about: I got to hang out with the Florida basketball team behind the scenes, the coaches and team managers, INCLUDING Billy Donovan. Incredible. Basically, I was an 8 year old boy with a billion dollar credit at Toys 'R Us.
Check out this from Piper's blog today. Very encouraging if you ask me.
How do you wrestle with John 6 and Luke 14? It's tough..
Much love
Wayne
Ephesians 4:29
Check out this from Piper's blog today. Very encouraging if you ask me.
How do you wrestle with John 6 and Luke 14? It's tough..
Much love
Wayne
Ephesians 4:29
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
The Resurrection, recruiting trips, and fidelity
After my last, lengthy post, I feel like I may have set myself up for two things with this blog: 1) they will all be 9,000 word dissertations, and 2) they will all be serious and heavy. These two things MAY be true on occasion, but they are not rules. You've been warned.
I teach a group of middle school fellas on Wednesday nights. This is probably my favorite thing I get to do, outside of one on one discipleship. These middle school (so 11-14 years old) fellas and I have been going through Colossians verse by verse for 5 months (thank you Matt), which is amazing that they've hung in there with me for so long. Well two weeks ago we started talking about baptism and therefore the Resurrection. They had a ton of INCREDIBLE questions! They were gracious enough to let me have a couple weeks to prepare (and we finished up Colossians last week), but tonight we are talking about the reason we have hope, we have the opportunity to know God personally, the death of Death. Pray for me.. But as an encouragement, have you meditated on the Resurrection lately? We talk about the cross often (and with good reason!), but withouth the resurrection..Jesus would be another hollow prophet..but He DID rise! That empty grave meant we have access to a God who we had been so distant from; it meant that we - small and broken, insignificant, unable to clean up our own act - had RELATIONSHIP with a Holy God. Incredible. (Take a few and catch up, Matthew 28:1-20)
I'm going home this weekend! Me and two kids from my youth group are going to go spend some time checking out UF; one of my two students is a bit of a basketball stud and so he is in the season of taking unofficial trips to schools (unofficial means he's paying for the whole thing - plane ticket, food, housing, and not the school) and Florida is one of those. Being a bit of a Gator fan I volunteered to help my buddy out by showing him around. What a sacrifice, right? It's going to be amazing.
This Sunday our church is diving into the concept of fidelity - the idea of being pure and holy in our relationships with spouses, and the idea of being pure and holy in the preparation for marriage. Any thoughts on how this should be conveyed to middle and high school students? Hutch and Meg are leading the discussion, and will do a tremendous job, but I thought it'd be neat if you had any thoughts.
Much love
Wayne
Matthew 12:33-37
I teach a group of middle school fellas on Wednesday nights. This is probably my favorite thing I get to do, outside of one on one discipleship. These middle school (so 11-14 years old) fellas and I have been going through Colossians verse by verse for 5 months (thank you Matt), which is amazing that they've hung in there with me for so long. Well two weeks ago we started talking about baptism and therefore the Resurrection. They had a ton of INCREDIBLE questions! They were gracious enough to let me have a couple weeks to prepare (and we finished up Colossians last week), but tonight we are talking about the reason we have hope, we have the opportunity to know God personally, the death of Death. Pray for me.. But as an encouragement, have you meditated on the Resurrection lately? We talk about the cross often (and with good reason!), but withouth the resurrection..Jesus would be another hollow prophet..but He DID rise! That empty grave meant we have access to a God who we had been so distant from; it meant that we - small and broken, insignificant, unable to clean up our own act - had RELATIONSHIP with a Holy God. Incredible. (Take a few and catch up, Matthew 28:1-20)
I'm going home this weekend! Me and two kids from my youth group are going to go spend some time checking out UF; one of my two students is a bit of a basketball stud and so he is in the season of taking unofficial trips to schools (unofficial means he's paying for the whole thing - plane ticket, food, housing, and not the school) and Florida is one of those. Being a bit of a Gator fan I volunteered to help my buddy out by showing him around. What a sacrifice, right? It's going to be amazing.
This Sunday our church is diving into the concept of fidelity - the idea of being pure and holy in our relationships with spouses, and the idea of being pure and holy in the preparation for marriage. Any thoughts on how this should be conveyed to middle and high school students? Hutch and Meg are leading the discussion, and will do a tremendous job, but I thought it'd be neat if you had any thoughts.
Much love
Wayne
Matthew 12:33-37
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Politics
I will not talk about politics very much on my blog, nor do I talk about them very much in general. Here's the line I live by when asked about politics: I serve a King in Jesus who was not up election on November 4th, and whoever is in the White House has far less affect on me than the One who leads my life every day.
I think politics CAN be fun to chat about with: 1) folks who are really passionate and are easy to get riled up, or 2) with folks who have a healthy perspective of where politics fit into every day life (which, let's be honest, no one really knows where they fit in every day life..). Anyway, with that little preface out of the way..
It seems like folks who have a candidate that wins get arrogant to the point where they, well, check out on personal responsibility because that's what they elected their candidate and party for. And folks who have a candidate who loses turn bitter and take a pity party approach to where they say they can't do anything about it, can't do much good because their candidate or political party is not in control (A quick side note: I am speaking generally; I KNOW not everyone fits into these two incredibly broad categories..) I don't like either of these ways of thinking. Can't you do the good you know you ought (for the Christ followers, that's James 4:17) whether your candidate won or lost?
This could look very different for everyone: I have a good buddy John who is part of the office of a republican Lt. Governor and while he's bummed that Obama won, he 's not checking out of life, realizing he still has work to do, good that he's still called to take part in (Ephesians 2:10). If you're fearful that pro choice legislation will increase, voluteer with Crisis Pregnancy Center AND get intouch with your state government officials, your congressperson, and your senator. Whatever you do, do something (James 1:22), and please don't be limited because a political candidate won or lost.
If you're candidate won, congrats, but don't check out! Just because you anticipate change, don't let someone in Washington do all the work - serve, serve, serve, not because it's legislated, but because you're supposed to (John 13:15). I guess my main encouragement is to make sure you know who (or, hopefully, Who) is motivating you to action.. And don't let yourself check out because you're guy lost OR won.
Anyway.. Florida had a nice, big 'ol win over Vandy! Vandy always plays us tough, so putting them away early is a bonus. Tebow has got to be back in the top 3 or 4 for the Heisman - he's putting up stupid numbers again, he's leading the team and making everyone else better, and he's put us back in the SEC title game.
As for the BSC title game: Florida is in if we win out, including over Alabama in the SEC title (doesn't that sound amazing? That's an old school matchup that I love, by the way). No way you can keep Florida (who will be number 3 in the BSC on Monday) out if we win the last three and then beach 'Bama (who should be #1 going into the SEC). Still though.. we should NOT have lost to Ole Miss. I'm still mad about that.
Church time tomorrow - I LOVE my church, have I mentioned that lately?
Off to bed, stay awesome
Much love
Wayne
Colossians 4:2
I think politics CAN be fun to chat about with: 1) folks who are really passionate and are easy to get riled up, or 2) with folks who have a healthy perspective of where politics fit into every day life (which, let's be honest, no one really knows where they fit in every day life..). Anyway, with that little preface out of the way..
It seems like folks who have a candidate that wins get arrogant to the point where they, well, check out on personal responsibility because that's what they elected their candidate and party for. And folks who have a candidate who loses turn bitter and take a pity party approach to where they say they can't do anything about it, can't do much good because their candidate or political party is not in control (A quick side note: I am speaking generally; I KNOW not everyone fits into these two incredibly broad categories..) I don't like either of these ways of thinking. Can't you do the good you know you ought (for the Christ followers, that's James 4:17) whether your candidate won or lost?
This could look very different for everyone: I have a good buddy John who is part of the office of a republican Lt. Governor and while he's bummed that Obama won, he 's not checking out of life, realizing he still has work to do, good that he's still called to take part in (Ephesians 2:10). If you're fearful that pro choice legislation will increase, voluteer with Crisis Pregnancy Center AND get intouch with your state government officials, your congressperson, and your senator. Whatever you do, do something (James 1:22), and please don't be limited because a political candidate won or lost.
If you're candidate won, congrats, but don't check out! Just because you anticipate change, don't let someone in Washington do all the work - serve, serve, serve, not because it's legislated, but because you're supposed to (John 13:15). I guess my main encouragement is to make sure you know who (or, hopefully, Who) is motivating you to action.. And don't let yourself check out because you're guy lost OR won.
Anyway.. Florida had a nice, big 'ol win over Vandy! Vandy always plays us tough, so putting them away early is a bonus. Tebow has got to be back in the top 3 or 4 for the Heisman - he's putting up stupid numbers again, he's leading the team and making everyone else better, and he's put us back in the SEC title game.
As for the BSC title game: Florida is in if we win out, including over Alabama in the SEC title (doesn't that sound amazing? That's an old school matchup that I love, by the way). No way you can keep Florida (who will be number 3 in the BSC on Monday) out if we win the last three and then beach 'Bama (who should be #1 going into the SEC). Still though.. we should NOT have lost to Ole Miss. I'm still mad about that.
Church time tomorrow - I LOVE my church, have I mentioned that lately?
Off to bed, stay awesome
Much love
Wayne
Colossians 4:2
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Reasonable expectations
So I'm back at the blogging thing. Not sure the inspiration, but I put it on my phone alarm to remind me to update regularly, so I'm going to. I'm going to blog about a whole bunch of things, but the main three: 1) Jesus, 2) sports, 3) music. If you're interested in any or all of those, then I would love for you to give me feedback from time to time. There is always a danger that I will spend too much time on sports, but I will do my best to balance it well.
But let's start with something I had the privilege of preaching about with Hutch a few weeks back (you can hear our sermon here): the importance having a relationship - a real, dynamic, messy, connected, growing, PERSONAL relationship - with God through His son Jesus Christ, and how that relationship will (or should..) lead to what John records as fruit in chapter 15, and what James calls works, deeds, actions in, well, his whole book.
I wonder if maybe I too often get hung up on getting ready for something? Getting ready for taking the time to mentor or challenge one of my amazing middle or high school students but never actually doing it.. praying for the chance to share the message of hope, salvation, freedom to someone who desperately needs it, but not acting on the every day opportunities He so readily offers.. I'm not the Holy Spirit, so my words cannot and should not convict you. John 15:1-17, John 17:3, Matthew 28:16-20, Ephesians 2:10, James 1:22, James 2:15-17, James 4:17 - that's what should be convicting. Let's be doers of the Word. I will not tell you what that looks like for you - but I know Scripture is clear with those verses I just jotted down, so if you need some suggestions, I'd start there.
And sports: MY Atlanta Hawks are 3-0! I can't even believe it.. Who has body snatched Josh Smith and put someone who can shoot an 18- 20- 24- footer in his place? Flip Murray making legitimate contributions? Beating the Hornets on the road? Nobody pinch them please.
And yes, the BCS is screwed up, but I'm the loudest, most obnoxious Gator fan in the world, and here's the deal: WE SHOULD HAVE BEATEN OLE MISS. We beat Ole Miss, none of this playoff biz is even on Gainesville's radar (or LA's or Norman's or Austin's or Happy Valley's). So yea, I think an 8-team playoff would be great, but don't blame the BCS if we (the Gators) don't make it.
OK, great job reading this far, I'd love to hear your thoughts
Much love
Wayne
Colossians 4:2
But let's start with something I had the privilege of preaching about with Hutch a few weeks back (you can hear our sermon here): the importance having a relationship - a real, dynamic, messy, connected, growing, PERSONAL relationship - with God through His son Jesus Christ, and how that relationship will (or should..) lead to what John records as fruit in chapter 15, and what James calls works, deeds, actions in, well, his whole book.
I wonder if maybe I too often get hung up on getting ready for something? Getting ready for taking the time to mentor or challenge one of my amazing middle or high school students but never actually doing it.. praying for the chance to share the message of hope, salvation, freedom to someone who desperately needs it, but not acting on the every day opportunities He so readily offers.. I'm not the Holy Spirit, so my words cannot and should not convict you. John 15:1-17, John 17:3, Matthew 28:16-20, Ephesians 2:10, James 1:22, James 2:15-17, James 4:17 - that's what should be convicting. Let's be doers of the Word. I will not tell you what that looks like for you - but I know Scripture is clear with those verses I just jotted down, so if you need some suggestions, I'd start there.
And sports: MY Atlanta Hawks are 3-0! I can't even believe it.. Who has body snatched Josh Smith and put someone who can shoot an 18- 20- 24- footer in his place? Flip Murray making legitimate contributions? Beating the Hornets on the road? Nobody pinch them please.
And yes, the BCS is screwed up, but I'm the loudest, most obnoxious Gator fan in the world, and here's the deal: WE SHOULD HAVE BEATEN OLE MISS. We beat Ole Miss, none of this playoff biz is even on Gainesville's radar (or LA's or Norman's or Austin's or Happy Valley's). So yea, I think an 8-team playoff would be great, but don't blame the BCS if we (the Gators) don't make it.
OK, great job reading this far, I'd love to hear your thoughts
Much love
Wayne
Colossians 4:2
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