Don't you hate it when you work pretty hard on something and then the end product doesn't seem like it was worth all the trouble? Last year in my Strategies for Teaching class, I had to make a model in a box of a Sunday School classroom. This isn't my kind of assignment. I can write research papers or give presentations, but please don't ask me to do anything artsy-craftsy. I spent hours cutting construction paper and shaping pipe cleaners, trying to make miniature tables and chairs. And when it was all said and done....my model looked like a kindergartner had made it. It's just not the sort of thing I'm good at. So I turned it in, and when I got it back later, I carried it directly to the dumpster in front of my dorm. My hard work just wasn't enough to make a very good model.
At times, I think we can feel the same way when we do other things too. For example, I feel like I work pretty hard at school, but it can be hard to see what I gain from that. People could say, "Well, it helps your grades," but those are really just letters on paper. Sometimes I wonder if my life would really be any worse if I didn't work as hard, and I'm not sure that it would be. Actually, it would probably be better in a lot of ways. We can feel the same way in ministry, too. We might work hard for hours and days; we may stay up late into the night in order to serve those under our care, and it seems like nothing ever changes. We could dig into research and pour ourselves into our sermons, but our listeners still zone out. We might dedicate years to pastoring a congregation, but that church never grows and never acts like it really wants to. Today I was with my friend Sy, and he said that sometimes it can feel like you prepare a gourmet meal, but everyone just nibbles at it.
And that's a frustrating feeling. We wonder why we should keep at it. Maybe it would be better if we didn't care so much. If we put up a little less effort. Is it really worth it?
I don't think there are many easy answers to these questions. It may be that our response is simply to remain faithful. We continue working hard because we believe that God will do something with it. We stick with what is correct even when it feels like it isn't. That's what faith is, in a sense. It means that we don't just quit when it seems like our effort is without result. We believe that God will bring about fruit when we remain faithful and serve him with what we have. I have heard people say that our goal as Christian leaders should not be to be effective, but to be faithful, and I think that is a good way to think of things. We do the best we can, and we trust God to do something with it.
In my last post, I had a contest, looking for suggestions on how I can increase readership of my blog. Only two people commented, which shows me how important these ideas may be, but it also shows me that it might be a lost cause anyway. In any case, I've decided that Charlie wins the contest for two reasons: 1) He gave a wide array of ideas (none of which will probably happen) and 2) Caitlyn doesn't like Taco Bell, so there is little use in me buying her a taco.
So tomorrow is Halloween. Today, I know of four of my friends that dressed up as geeks. I'm not sure if I should be honored or offended that people use Halloween to look the way I look every day.
I read a story today about a guy who has been the first person to gain 500,000 achievement points on XBox 360. I don't really know what that means, other than that this guy plays a heck of a lot of video games. You can see the story here. Now, I assume that the picture with the story is this guy and his girlfriend. And my question is this: How the heck did a guy who has spent the last five years playing video games for that many hours get a girlfriend that looks like that?! And people wonder why I'm cynical.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Super-Senior Lessons
For the last 15 minutes or so, I have been sitting at my computer agonizing over what I should write about. I want to write something funny, but not pessimistic, and that is a very hard line for me to walk. I'll try my best to make this post fit the bill. However, I've already ruined it. Here's an important principle to remember in all of your social interactions: Never begin a story with "Here's a funny story..." or a statement with "Here's something interesting...". You're only setting yourself up for failure. If you preface your anecdote with a promise of humor, you create an expectation for laughs, and if the story proves to not be funny, you only leave your listeners disappointed. Instead of introducing a story with something like that, just begin your story. That is all just a free tip from your friend David.
So I guess instead of writing the previous paragraph, I should have just written: "Here's a post. Read it."
I'm getting old. This year is my fifth and last one at Ozark, which means I have been here longer that just about everyone. Most the the students I came in with as bright-eyed freshmen have left and are doing all sorts of things all over the place, but I'm still sitting at the same desk I have had since 2006, with the same posters on my wall. Really the only thing that has changed is that I have a roommate who doesn't mysteriously disappear when it's time to clean the room for room checks. We are already halfway through the fall semester, and now that I have a good amount of my fifth year under my belt, I thought I would share a few lessons I have learned about what it means to be a super-senior.
1. You get slow and out of shape
Don't get me wrong, it's not like I was ever freakishly fast, as I am not the posterchild for athleticism (as much as a surprise that might seem to many of you). Nevertheless, I did come to the realization that my prime days might be behind me during intramural frisbee season this year. I have been playing with basically the same team for the past three years. The season started off great. We won our first game on a clutch score near the end of the game, and we were riding high with visions of frisbee domination for the rest of the season. Unfortunately, that was the last game we won. Not only did we lose all the rest of our games; we were decimated in ever facet of the game. What we finally concluded was that, while other teams recruited freshmen and sophomores, we had remained the same. So while everyone else got younger and faster, we got older and slower. The result? An already fragile ego being smashed to bits. Thankfully, intramural season started last night. Let's go Stoop Kids! 1-0, baby!
2. You're not as influential as you think you should be
When you're in high school, everyone knows that the seniors run the school. They are the ones who have been their longest, and they have, well, seniority. They are the ones who set the tone for the year. But that isn't how it works at a college like Ozark. The truth is that the freshmen and sophomores steer the ship in many ways. For one thing, there are just so many of them, and for another, so many of the older students have bailed out and now live off campus. Of course, maybe these reasons are just an illusion, and the true reason is that I'm to passive and apathetic to have more of an influence, but I don't really care to find out for sure.
3. Your weekends are spent attending weddings
I remember when I used to spend my Saturdays doing things I really wanted to do--sleeping in, watching movies, taking a nap, shooting stuff with Nerf guns. These days, however, weekends mean that I actually have to take a shower, because they mean that I have to go watch someone get married. This weekend I will be attending my third wedding of the semester, and as much as I love to put on a tie and dance the night away, I do miss college football.
4. Your romantic life is probably over
While I am on the topic of weddings, let me share with you some information that my roommate Ryan was kind enough to read to me right before I went to bed a couple weeks ago. In their book Creating a Successful Christian Marriage, Cleveland McDonald and Philip M. McDonald write this about Christian colleges:
5. You're not as fun as you used to be
Like I said before, I did all kinds of fun things my first couple years at Ozark. Ryan and I often reminisce about how, our first semester, we went to the student center after lunch every day and played a few games of pool with Charlie. It felt like, in those early days, I was always playing games and ordering pizza and going on late-night food runs. Here are some statistics that help illustrate the change: so far this year, I have played ping-pong twice; I have played basketball once; I have played cards once; I have watched one movie on our projector; and I have not played pool at all. Somehow, I have gotten so serious about things these days, and I miss the days when I didn't feel like I needed to work as hard and when I laughed more. Before long, I'll be one of those crotchety old men at the nursing home, and some kid will ask me to play checkers with him, and I'll tell him no because I would rather....do whatever crotchety old men do. Think about broken hips or something.
6. You're expected to have some sort of handle on life
On an almost daily basis, I ask Ryan, "What are we doing with our lives?!" It seems like the closer I get to graduation, the less able I am to answer this question. A few years ago, I had it all figured out--I would graduate and then look for a year-long youth ministry internship, and then after that I would look for a youth ministry at a mid-sized church in the Northwest. Nowadays, the answer is much more vague, and is something like, "Well, I might go to seminary....if I can afford it....but if I can't....I guess I'll do.....something....." Since I was a freshman in high school, I pretty well had the next stage planned out, but now that I am getting closer to another transition, I am on less secure ground, and that is a scary thought. That's why I occasionally make a threat to just work at Domino's. I do love pizza, after all.
CHECK THIS OUT!! YOU COULD WIN!!
So I've been trying to think of ways to increase the readership of this blog, because I feel like not a lot has changed in a long time, and I'm never going to be offered a book deal at this rate. I suppose the best way to get more readers would be to write more posts worth reading, but that sounds like more work for me. And so, I propose a contest (which is in itself a way to increase readership): Leave a comment and give me a creative suggestion on how to increase readership, and whichever idea I like best, I will buy that person a taco or something.
So I guess instead of writing the previous paragraph, I should have just written: "Here's a post. Read it."
I'm getting old. This year is my fifth and last one at Ozark, which means I have been here longer that just about everyone. Most the the students I came in with as bright-eyed freshmen have left and are doing all sorts of things all over the place, but I'm still sitting at the same desk I have had since 2006, with the same posters on my wall. Really the only thing that has changed is that I have a roommate who doesn't mysteriously disappear when it's time to clean the room for room checks. We are already halfway through the fall semester, and now that I have a good amount of my fifth year under my belt, I thought I would share a few lessons I have learned about what it means to be a super-senior.
1. You get slow and out of shape
Don't get me wrong, it's not like I was ever freakishly fast, as I am not the posterchild for athleticism (as much as a surprise that might seem to many of you). Nevertheless, I did come to the realization that my prime days might be behind me during intramural frisbee season this year. I have been playing with basically the same team for the past three years. The season started off great. We won our first game on a clutch score near the end of the game, and we were riding high with visions of frisbee domination for the rest of the season. Unfortunately, that was the last game we won. Not only did we lose all the rest of our games; we were decimated in ever facet of the game. What we finally concluded was that, while other teams recruited freshmen and sophomores, we had remained the same. So while everyone else got younger and faster, we got older and slower. The result? An already fragile ego being smashed to bits. Thankfully, intramural season started last night. Let's go Stoop Kids! 1-0, baby!
2. You're not as influential as you think you should be
When you're in high school, everyone knows that the seniors run the school. They are the ones who have been their longest, and they have, well, seniority. They are the ones who set the tone for the year. But that isn't how it works at a college like Ozark. The truth is that the freshmen and sophomores steer the ship in many ways. For one thing, there are just so many of them, and for another, so many of the older students have bailed out and now live off campus. Of course, maybe these reasons are just an illusion, and the true reason is that I'm to passive and apathetic to have more of an influence, but I don't really care to find out for sure.
3. Your weekends are spent attending weddings
I remember when I used to spend my Saturdays doing things I really wanted to do--sleeping in, watching movies, taking a nap, shooting stuff with Nerf guns. These days, however, weekends mean that I actually have to take a shower, because they mean that I have to go watch someone get married. This weekend I will be attending my third wedding of the semester, and as much as I love to put on a tie and dance the night away, I do miss college football.
4. Your romantic life is probably over
While I am on the topic of weddings, let me share with you some information that my roommate Ryan was kind enough to read to me right before I went to bed a couple weeks ago. In their book Creating a Successful Christian Marriage, Cleveland McDonald and Philip M. McDonald write this about Christian colleges:
There is no better place for a young person to find a mate with similar beliefs, goals, and values; and a multitude of happy Christian marriages have resulted from courtships on Christian campuses. If a man or woman leaves the campus without a mate or prospective mate, he or she will never again have such a wide selection of possible mate choices. There may be eligible bachelors and single women back home in the local church, but the opportunities will be much fewer than they are on campus. (119)The McDonald brothers(?) go on to write that many students do not date because they are shy [insert: they sit in their rooms and write blogs instead of speaking to actual human beings], and that they need the Holy Spirit's help to overcome their undeveloped social skills. I certainly don't want to undervalue the work of the Holy Spirit, but it sounds like the McDonalds are telling people like me that once we get to May and are still single, it's going to take a miracle to change that. Or, I guess I could get a tattoo of a cross on my arm. I heard that works.
5. You're not as fun as you used to be
Like I said before, I did all kinds of fun things my first couple years at Ozark. Ryan and I often reminisce about how, our first semester, we went to the student center after lunch every day and played a few games of pool with Charlie. It felt like, in those early days, I was always playing games and ordering pizza and going on late-night food runs. Here are some statistics that help illustrate the change: so far this year, I have played ping-pong twice; I have played basketball once; I have played cards once; I have watched one movie on our projector; and I have not played pool at all. Somehow, I have gotten so serious about things these days, and I miss the days when I didn't feel like I needed to work as hard and when I laughed more. Before long, I'll be one of those crotchety old men at the nursing home, and some kid will ask me to play checkers with him, and I'll tell him no because I would rather....do whatever crotchety old men do. Think about broken hips or something.
6. You're expected to have some sort of handle on life
On an almost daily basis, I ask Ryan, "What are we doing with our lives?!" It seems like the closer I get to graduation, the less able I am to answer this question. A few years ago, I had it all figured out--I would graduate and then look for a year-long youth ministry internship, and then after that I would look for a youth ministry at a mid-sized church in the Northwest. Nowadays, the answer is much more vague, and is something like, "Well, I might go to seminary....if I can afford it....but if I can't....I guess I'll do.....something....." Since I was a freshman in high school, I pretty well had the next stage planned out, but now that I am getting closer to another transition, I am on less secure ground, and that is a scary thought. That's why I occasionally make a threat to just work at Domino's. I do love pizza, after all.
CHECK THIS OUT!! YOU COULD WIN!!
So I've been trying to think of ways to increase the readership of this blog, because I feel like not a lot has changed in a long time, and I'm never going to be offered a book deal at this rate. I suppose the best way to get more readers would be to write more posts worth reading, but that sounds like more work for me. And so, I propose a contest (which is in itself a way to increase readership): Leave a comment and give me a creative suggestion on how to increase readership, and whichever idea I like best, I will buy that person a taco or something.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Small Prayers and Small Faith
My favorite class this semester has been my General Epistles class. In the class, we're studying the books of James, 1 Peter, and 1 John. It isn't like most of the exegetical classes I have taken at Ozark. It's very laid-back and application-centered. It seems like every few minutes, my professor, Doug Welch, asks, "So what does this mean for how we live in the church?" Our goal is not just to discover what the biblical writers were saying to the first-century audience, but also to find what God is saying to the contemporary Christian church through them. In order to do this, one of our assignments is to give a short oral presentation about what each particular epistle says about some ministry in the church. A couple weeks ago, my friend Kylie gave a presentation on what James says about prayer, and it got me thinking about a few things.
I don't pray very well, and I've written about that before. I do believe that it is an area I have grown in a lot over the past year, but when I look at the E.M. Boundses and Brother Lawerences of the world, I see that I still have a long way to go. In James, we see how closely prayer is related to faith, which suggests that my faith is not where it should be because my prayers aren't where they should be. For example, in James 5:14-16, James instructs the sick to call for the elders so that they can come and anoint them with oil and pray for their healing, and he writes, "And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up." Of course, praying for the sick is a common (and good) practice today, but how often do we honestly believe that our prayers will be answered in miraculous ways? Kylie pointed out that when we pray for the sick, we often say something like, "God, please help Grandma Biddy and heal her of her sickness, but we just pray that your will be done." It's like we work an escape clause into our request. We're afraid that God won't heal Gradma Biddy, so we use a vague request that God's will be done as a safety net. Then, no matter what, our prayer is answered as we asked--if God heals Grandma Biddy, that's great, but if he doesn't, then that must mean it wasn't his will. (Granted, Jesus instructs us to pray that God's will be done [Matt. 6:10], but I don't think he meant this as a way to "back him up" so that he doesn't fail in answering our requests.) Not only that, but we often don't even pray that God will directly heal a person, but instead we pray, "God, please be with the doctors and work through them to bring about healing." As if the God who gave sight to the blind and raised the dead is unable to cure a case of cancer on his own.
All of this is a demonstration on how we format our prayers to insure that God doesn't "fail." We're not sure how to deal with it if we pray big and bold and God doesn't come through, so the safe thing to do is to pray for something that will happen anyway. Many people, when they pray before a meal, will say something like "And please bless this food and let it nourish our bodies." Is this much of a prayer? Isn't food designed to nourish us? Am I praying in faith when I say, "Let this ham sandwich give me energy for the next few hours"? I certainly don't mean to criticize those who pray like this, because since I can remember, I have prayed that same thing before every meal. There has to be something more powerful and significant about prayer, though.
Again, it all relates to faith. Do we really believe that God will answer our prayers. In James 5:17-18, James references Elijah, who was "a man just like us" who prayed that it wouldn't rain, and so it didn't rain for three and a half years. Then he prayed that the drought would end, and down came the rain. That kind of prayer is a lot different than me asking for my dinner to do what it does anyway. Elijah prays a prayer that changes things; I often pray prayers that maintain the natural order. Instead of having faith and then pulling up my prayers to match that faith, I end up pulling my faith down to match my petty requests. If I could pose the issue in a way that makes sense to all you World of Warcraft fans out there: if I have a Level 8 faith but am making Level 3 requests, I make my faith a Level 3 instead of making Level 8 requests.
When James is writing about how the unwise person should ask God for wisdom, he writes, "But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the win. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does" (Jas. 1:6-8). We need to be praying prayers that stretch our faith, not ones that shrivel it up. So let's boldly and unapologetically offer "big prayers" to God. Let's pray for things that will require for God to actually act. "You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures" (4:2b-3). We shouldn't ask for things out of selfishness and personal prosperity (cars, money, popularity, etc.) but we shouldn't be afraid to ask God for things that seem impossible or crazy, remembering that he is the Father who loves to give good gifts (Matt. 7:11).
Is this a scary proposition? I think so. We become afraid that, if we pray big and God doesn't answer how we want, then our faith will suffer. But we need to learn to continue to pray boldly, not being deterred just because we can't see what God is doing (Lk. 18:1-8). Unanswered prayer doesn't need to damage our faith, and it shouldn't be an excuse to water down our prayers.
This last Sunday, Mark Driscoll preached a pretty good sermon on prayer, so if you have 55 minutes to spare, you should get it on its podcast and check it out.
Unrelatedly, today I heard a song on the radio by Bruno Mars called "Just the Way You Are." It's all about how he thinks that the girl he's singing to is beautiful just the way she is. She sometimes doesn't feel like she is, but he loves her just as she is. How nice of you, Bruno Mars. As I was listening to the song, I became curious about something, so I went and watched the music video on Youtube, and my suspicions were confirmed. The girl in the video is very attractive. Not just to Bruno Mars--any single guy would probably jump at the chance to spend time with her. I feel like the point of the song would be better communicated if the actress in the video didn't look like a model. Of course you don't want her to change when she looks like that, Bruno. They should have casted a woman that was a little more "normal" looking: maybe a little pudgy, with slightly crooked teeth and and oddly shaped nose. But I guess that's why no one hires me to direct music videos.
Today (Wednesday) is the first time that the Cincinnati Reds will play in a postseason game since I was seven. I hope you're all as excited as I am.
I don't pray very well, and I've written about that before. I do believe that it is an area I have grown in a lot over the past year, but when I look at the E.M. Boundses and Brother Lawerences of the world, I see that I still have a long way to go. In James, we see how closely prayer is related to faith, which suggests that my faith is not where it should be because my prayers aren't where they should be. For example, in James 5:14-16, James instructs the sick to call for the elders so that they can come and anoint them with oil and pray for their healing, and he writes, "And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up." Of course, praying for the sick is a common (and good) practice today, but how often do we honestly believe that our prayers will be answered in miraculous ways? Kylie pointed out that when we pray for the sick, we often say something like, "God, please help Grandma Biddy and heal her of her sickness, but we just pray that your will be done." It's like we work an escape clause into our request. We're afraid that God won't heal Gradma Biddy, so we use a vague request that God's will be done as a safety net. Then, no matter what, our prayer is answered as we asked--if God heals Grandma Biddy, that's great, but if he doesn't, then that must mean it wasn't his will. (Granted, Jesus instructs us to pray that God's will be done [Matt. 6:10], but I don't think he meant this as a way to "back him up" so that he doesn't fail in answering our requests.) Not only that, but we often don't even pray that God will directly heal a person, but instead we pray, "God, please be with the doctors and work through them to bring about healing." As if the God who gave sight to the blind and raised the dead is unable to cure a case of cancer on his own.
All of this is a demonstration on how we format our prayers to insure that God doesn't "fail." We're not sure how to deal with it if we pray big and bold and God doesn't come through, so the safe thing to do is to pray for something that will happen anyway. Many people, when they pray before a meal, will say something like "And please bless this food and let it nourish our bodies." Is this much of a prayer? Isn't food designed to nourish us? Am I praying in faith when I say, "Let this ham sandwich give me energy for the next few hours"? I certainly don't mean to criticize those who pray like this, because since I can remember, I have prayed that same thing before every meal. There has to be something more powerful and significant about prayer, though.
Again, it all relates to faith. Do we really believe that God will answer our prayers. In James 5:17-18, James references Elijah, who was "a man just like us" who prayed that it wouldn't rain, and so it didn't rain for three and a half years. Then he prayed that the drought would end, and down came the rain. That kind of prayer is a lot different than me asking for my dinner to do what it does anyway. Elijah prays a prayer that changes things; I often pray prayers that maintain the natural order. Instead of having faith and then pulling up my prayers to match that faith, I end up pulling my faith down to match my petty requests. If I could pose the issue in a way that makes sense to all you World of Warcraft fans out there: if I have a Level 8 faith but am making Level 3 requests, I make my faith a Level 3 instead of making Level 8 requests.
When James is writing about how the unwise person should ask God for wisdom, he writes, "But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the win. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does" (Jas. 1:6-8). We need to be praying prayers that stretch our faith, not ones that shrivel it up. So let's boldly and unapologetically offer "big prayers" to God. Let's pray for things that will require for God to actually act. "You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures" (4:2b-3). We shouldn't ask for things out of selfishness and personal prosperity (cars, money, popularity, etc.) but we shouldn't be afraid to ask God for things that seem impossible or crazy, remembering that he is the Father who loves to give good gifts (Matt. 7:11).
Is this a scary proposition? I think so. We become afraid that, if we pray big and God doesn't answer how we want, then our faith will suffer. But we need to learn to continue to pray boldly, not being deterred just because we can't see what God is doing (Lk. 18:1-8). Unanswered prayer doesn't need to damage our faith, and it shouldn't be an excuse to water down our prayers.
This last Sunday, Mark Driscoll preached a pretty good sermon on prayer, so if you have 55 minutes to spare, you should get it on its podcast and check it out.
Unrelatedly, today I heard a song on the radio by Bruno Mars called "Just the Way You Are." It's all about how he thinks that the girl he's singing to is beautiful just the way she is. She sometimes doesn't feel like she is, but he loves her just as she is. How nice of you, Bruno Mars. As I was listening to the song, I became curious about something, so I went and watched the music video on Youtube, and my suspicions were confirmed. The girl in the video is very attractive. Not just to Bruno Mars--any single guy would probably jump at the chance to spend time with her. I feel like the point of the song would be better communicated if the actress in the video didn't look like a model. Of course you don't want her to change when she looks like that, Bruno. They should have casted a woman that was a little more "normal" looking: maybe a little pudgy, with slightly crooked teeth and and oddly shaped nose. But I guess that's why no one hires me to direct music videos.
Today (Wednesday) is the first time that the Cincinnati Reds will play in a postseason game since I was seven. I hope you're all as excited as I am.
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