A world away...

I have lived a world away for some time now, like many of us have. We fear the influence of a world that does not claim to know our God, a world that does not live through the same filters that we do. I have feared this world, a world that is different than me, a world that is weird to me, a world that I have all too often declared as wrong or bad or evil. So to this evil world I have pointed my finger, declared their lack of value and then ran away to my own little world. Ran away to a little subculture, a place that plays and lives by my rules, my filters, my ideas of good and beauty. Then, when someone in my world doesn’t play my way, I kick them out. I shun them.

This is how I have lived in the past, but this is not how we were meant to live. This is not how God designed us to live. The “other” world, that bad one, is not all bad. Yes, there are some bad things, and evil is very real, but there is also great good, even good that may not put itself in the “Christian” camp. We often allow the bad we find to dismiss the good that is still there. Do you want to know why I believe there is great good in the world? Because God created it, and he declared it good. The people in it are not all bad either. Why? Because God created them and declared them good.

Good. Not evil, weird, or wrong, but good.

God declared them good. I declared them bad.

Although the expression of the image of God, the goodness of God from creation, is marred by the effects of living in a world that has been broken by sin, it still resides in each of our hearts. God’s beauty and goodness still rest in them. I may have to push past some sinful expressions before finding it, but the good is still there.

God runs to them. I ran from them.

God longs to know them. I have tried to ignore and marginalize them.

Yesterday when my brother-in-law and I where running some errands together, he shared how he was frustrated with a friend who told him that “if someone was not interested or willing to be a Christian then he did not want to waste his time to know them or be around them.” What a horrible thing to say! That type of language makes be deeply angry. Words like that are what drive culture to declare Christians as bigots, judgmental, and a long list of other things that we’re anti-.

That type of language drives our worlds apart. It drives the Kingdom apart.

God declared that he would return and restore his kingdom on this earth—not my make-believe, safety-bubble world, but this one.

I’m trying to move out of the “Christian” world into God’s world, and as I do I realized that what I believed to be the Christian world was really just a part of the rest of the world the whole time, that in reality it’s all God’s world.

So, as we move from 2007 into 2008, may our use of categories to divide, sacred and secular, holy and evil, Christian and non disappear. May we live in this world, in today, and may those of us who have experienced grace, redemption, peace, truth, forgiveness, love and all the other “good” things of God quit running to our subcultures. May we embrace our neighbors. May the Kingdom of God that we have the privilege of ushering in be brought closer not only to the hurting, the wondering, the ones looking for God, but also to the those who are not interested in God, who could care less, to those who are haters of God because even if they do not desire to know him, he desires to know them and they, because they carry the image of God, deserve to see the Kingdom of God here on earth.

Maybe if the world around me could see the good that I am for, instead of the bad that I’m scared of or against, maybe then they would want to hear about the kingdom to which I belong.

Christmas and my heart

I’ve got to be honest, I absolutely love the winter, I love snow, the crisp air, the frost on the ground, but what really makes me love this time of year are the rituals that drive us near to people we love. When Fall comes we connect with Family and look at the leaves, we do hayrides together, we drink hot cider on a cold night, then we move into Thanksgiving where we come back together eat till we just can’t move anymore, sit together, laugh together, take naps together, watch parades together, go shopping together, then Christmas finally roll into town and we celebrate together, wrap gifts together, have more parties together, celebrate some more, eat some more, and be together some more.

I think these are the reasons why I love winter; cause winter holds the rituals that bring us together.

But I’m realizing that this is not the norm across America. This morning I read a poll asking

Holidays…
A - Break your heart
B - Stress you out
C - Mess you up
D - Make you sentimental
E - Energize you
F - Cause you to dream
G - Focus you
H - Give you nightmares
I - Draw you near
J - Infuse you with hope
(more at www.intersectcommunity.com/blog)

The answers amazed me. No one said the holidays infused them with hope, draw them near, or give them nightmares. But 1% did say that the holidays caused them to dream, energized them, or made them sentimental, 2% said they messed them up, 3% reported it stresses them out, but the kicker, the one that really amazed me was that 93% said that the holidays break their heart.

93% that percentage amazes me, just for integrity I’ll let you know that only 153 have responded to the poll as I write this, but the percentage is still something to think about. What makes me stop and listen to this number even more is the fact that the vast majority of conversations I’ve had lately echoes almost verbatim what this tiny poll is saying. (Now I don’t believe that 93 % of America is heartbroken at Christmas but I am starting to wonder if my joyful view of the holiday are far from the norm.)

The young adults I’ve been talking to as of late have finally gotten to the place where they are old enough to realize just how dysfunctional their families are, just how trivial the arguments are, just how stressful it is to be at the “right places at the right time” and that now all those amazing gifts under the tree actually cost money, which they don’t have much of.

But Christmas is not lost.

Christmas does not have to be a time of heartbreak. Christmas is deeply rooted in joy, peace, and love and I must believe that the Christmas that I know, the winter season that I love, can still be had, that young adults can turn the tide of what they have grown up with, and that future polls will reflect high percentages of hope, love, dreams, refocusing, and joy.

I must believe what I know, others can as well.

But how…?

But until then, here are some pics from my time with the fam.


PS. Merry Christmas

I judge you.

I judge people. Really I do. I mean I don’t start off trying to size people up or rank them, but somehow or another I can slip into this mindset of calling their shots as good or bad, smart or stupid, wise or way immature. I don’t mean to do this, but it’s kind of like when saying good bye to someone and you get into that annoying back and forth game of goodbye, blah blah blah, goodbye, blah blah blah, goodbye, and you take 10 more minutes to actually leave; know what I mean, does anyone else do that? Well judging for me is often like that. I hate doing the “goodbye dance” but there are times I get sucked in, and judging is the same way.

Here’s why all these thoughts are happening. The other day Pearl and I needed to go help someone and I didn’t want to. The person didn’t need us to give an organ or anything; they just needed a ride, A RIDE, nothing big, just a ride from the airport. We had nothing keeping us from doing it, our schedules where free, all it would have cost me was not getting to sit my sorry butt on my comfy coach and watching mind numbing TV, but if I came up with one excuse I had 40, and my excuses where so good that they actually put blame on who should be doing this instead of me. I felt good about my debating skills, I had the case won, I knew my wife would have to fold under the insurmountable weight of my argument, but she didn’t fold; she just pulled my plug, she deflated everything I said in one little sentence, “Matt, stop judging them, you don’t know all the details and this is not right.” (Enter sound of a gavel slamming down)

She was right

I tried to deny it

But she was

I was caught red handed, I was guilty…

I had passed up an opportunity to bless someone, to love someone, to help someone out and instead had decided put myself first, to make more of me then them, to judge someone and in the process make myself look like a total a*# at the same time.

May I learn a lesson from “the Pearl” and hold my comments, suspend my judgment, and put others first, even if I don’t understand the big picture.

God, thank you for my wife and her ability to swing a big gavel of truth

PS – it’s rain/ice/snow ING outside, have I said lately that I LOVE the snow!

Old traditions...new meaning

Snow.Rain.Snow
I love snow! I don’t know if it’s cause I’m from the south and we associate snow with normal life standing still, buying all the milk and bread you could possible think of, and camping out in the living room waiting for the power to kick back on or if I just like the white stuff. For you Northerns, we had to wait for the power to come back, not because of our massive snow fall but because instead of snow storms we would get ice storms, but when you’re a kid snow and ice are about the same, they both get you out of school! But needless to say it snowed this past week and I absolutely loved it!
But all things must go away, the rains came and the snow has slowly been disappearing.
Today was just a great day! I love my church and am so proud of what is happening with in this community. God is working and moving and it’s so cool to watch and be a part of. This morning Pearl and I where late to the service (like usual, we’re never early to anything) and had to set in the nosebleed seats. We usually don’t sit up high, but when we do it’s a visual treat. We normally sit closer to the stage, but when you’re up high you are able to see everything, all the screens, lights, staging, and my favorite everyone else. Today as we expressed our love of God through music, one of the songs really hit me. This song is not new and to be honest I’ve been singing it literally most of my life; but as we sang this song I realize that I may never look at it the same again. The song was the Christmas carol “O come let us adore Him.” I’ve always enjoyed this song but I picture it being sing next to a live nativity, or Christmas play, or portrayed by a Norman Rockwell painting. But today as I stood in the nosebleed seats and joined in with another thousand people singing our lungs out, the words took a new meaning. This song is not only about a baby in a manger and some sheep, but it’s about broken people, people who’s lives are full of stories of pain, regret, shame, disappointment, and a list of other adjectives. It’s about families, students, senior citizens, divorced couples, golden couples, engaged couples, singles, and all those in between. It’s about heterosexuals, homosexuals, pro-war and anti-war advocates, it’s about musicians, and those who serve the world by keeping their mouth shut.

It’s a song about all kinds of people, from all kinds of backgrounds getting the fact that the God of the universe loves us so deeply and longs so hard for us to know him and for us to find pleasure in each other. As this sunk in, I stopped singing and just watched, as people from all over the spectrum said yes, let’s come together and adore Him. Let’s adore the one worthy of our affections. It was a cool moment, then I felt something in my pocket, a camera, so I sunk a picture, and went back to adoring.
Last couple of thoughts
We had a wonderful lunch with some dear friends, Clay and Lindsey. They grilled out and I ate up, I have a weakness for grilled meat. We had a ton of fun reconnecting and swapping stories about life but the center of attention was not the four humans in the room but the year old Rottweiler and 4 month old Coonhound (who look like twins)
playing their hearts out.
I think Zuri now has a life long friend, but needless to say shortly after coming home she found a bed and crashed.
Blessings to you and your house, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and that you find new meaning in old traditions.

the heart of Christmas

Well, here’s the next set of thoughts and pictures.

I downloaded the pictures from our camera and found two shots form up in the UP that I felt where worth sharing. The first is of Zuri sitting in the snow and the second is of Pearl’s street.




But it’s nice to be home and back in our own world. This past weekend we where able to help a friend who has really helped us in the past, it felt so good to be able to tangibly return through physical labor a little bit of the blessing they have been to us.

The house officially kicked off the holidays this weekend. We picked out a tree,



put up the lights and



had a wonderful dinner together.



Christmas is one of my most favorite times of the year. I love having the world slow down a little, taking the time to look one another in the eye and smile, I love to see neighbors and homes show beauty through their decorations, I love to see families come together, just to name a few.

I guess these are some of the things in life I love the most.

But Christmas as American’s know it is just a system we’ve put into place over time, it’s just another day, with the same amount of hours, seconds, and minutes as every other day of the year, but the amazing piece to the 25th of December is the heart that has been attached to this day. This heart is attacked every year by the materialist pleas of our TV’s, magazines and world, but this heart is not so easily defeated. The Heart of Christmas, the piece that rings true and good even in the darkest of Scrooge’s heart, is the piece I long to hold close. To let this nugget of truth become a part not only of my December 25th rhythms, but apart of the Rhythms I live with day in and day out.

So what is the heart of Christmas for you? What is beautiful and good about this day in your world?

As I answer those questions for me, and as I set the patterns for my life and home, may this heart not only be found on the 25th but everyday till next 25th.