State of the Heffren Address

I would like to begin this post with a quotation from a blog post that my good friend Charlie wrote in May:

I secretly have a "Blog War" with David Heffren. He doesn't know about it(well, he might not if he reads this post like a good friend would). I saw that before tonight, we both have posted 11 blog posts so far this year, and as I walked into our dorm room, I saw him writing a new post. I can't let him write more blog posts than me, so I decided to write one. I know that people usually write when they have something of importance or meaningful on their minds, but I am competitive by nature. So I guess you could say this post was born out of spite for David Heffren. So take that four-eyes.

This is now my 43rd blog post of 2010, whereas Charlie has only written 40 of them. He made a good showing, but he just couldn't handle me down the homestretch.

Right now I'm in Boise, Idaho because my friend Ryan (and my roommate last semester) is getting married tomorrow afternoon. When I first met Ryan, I never would have thought he would have gotten married before me. Actually, that's a lie. This guy was just too fashionable. You can only hold him down for so long. So far, Idaho is a pretty killer place. When we landed, we could see a mountain from snow all over it, which was a nice change from just looking at dead trees and the Jehovah's Witness church out my back door. Plus, we had some delicious Red Robin for the rehearsal dinner last night. Not a bad way to end the year.

At the end of each year, I like to write a blog post to review the previous twelve months in my life, picking out the most notable events. So as I look back on 2010, the first thing that comes to mind is when I went to New York City in January for a class. I had never really been to NYC before, and it was a great time. I met Mike Ditka, which is a story that I'll never get tired of telling. I ate lots of pizza. I tried on $6000 jackets. I talked with a crazy guy at Starbucks that told us how he passed out for PCP. I ate free dessert from the Italian restaurant manager that somehow remembered Ray. All in all, a successful trip.

2010 was a year of transition. Not so much because of things changing a lot in my own life, but more because of so many of my good friends graduating and going of to bring real life. April and May were kind of weird months, because of the the upcoming graduates would want to get in all of the time they could with their friends, so it felt like people were wanting to hang out all the time. This was a shift because I'm used to people not wanting to hang out with me at all. Graduation was a pretty sad time, but it was still exciting to see all of the incredible things that my friends are doing in ministry, and I truly consider myself fortunate to have spent a few years rubbing shoulders with them.

Probably the most noteworthy part of my year was my summer spent in Corvallis, Oregon where I did a student ministry internship with Suburban Christian Church. If you've been an avid reader of my blog from the beginning, you may know that I spent a month in the Northwest while I was on camp teams, and I was anxious to go back. The people at Suburban were great, and I couldn't have asked for much of a better summer. Granted, I had to struggle with driving a stick shift for three months, but once I stopped being bothered by all the other drivers flipping me off, I could settle in and really enjoy myself. Oregon really is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. I always say that you can get to every biome of the world in a two-hour drive. I'll be heading back to Corvallis a week from today, and I'm pretty stoked for that. I just hope the people there remember me.



I think I have written this before, but my time since getting  back from Oregon has been a bit of a blur, so I'll just summarize it all here in a few sentences. I'm still at Ozark. I preach now at a little church in Commerce, Oklahoma. It's challenging at times, but still going great. Connor and I went to Indiana to visit our lost friend Charlie, and it was a great trip, except when Charlie's car broke down at a gas station in Louisville. My intramural volleyball team got second place, thanks to our average height of about 6'2". I went to a lot of weddings (Ryan's tomorrow will be the fifth one in the past four months). And....that's about it.

As far as looking forward to 2011, I guess the only thing I know for sure is that I'll go to a wedding tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I'm going to graduate this year, but I don't want to count my chickens too much. After that, the year is pretty wide open, which is exciting in a way but a little scary in many more. Have a great New Year's Eve. I'm going to spend my time stealing some kisses from Charlie (Hershey's, that is).

100 Posts and We Haven't Broken a Hip Yet!

Today is a special day. I've been looking forward to it for some time, in fact. Maybe a month or two ago, I noticed that I had written over 90 blog posts since I started A Chicken in a Cage with a Ferret two and a half years ago. Because of that, I've just written garbage for the past few posts so that I could get to this one. Welcome to (drumroll......) my 100TH BLOG POST! This probably ranks somewhere in the top 43 accomplishments of my life, for sure. There are so many people out there that I want to thank: my 17 followers, my five readers, the Starbucks guy that made my chai latte today, Don Miller for providing my blog title, my once-upon-a-time co-writer Caitlyn, Charlie for name-dropping me in his blog, and, most of all, I thank myself, just for being you. Go get 'em, Tiger. One hundred is an important number. I remember that when I was little, I was so impressed by how my older sister would stomp on empty soda cans and smash them, and I wanted to do it too, but she said that I would be unable to until I weighed 100 pounds. I was so distraught. As excited as I am about having 100 blog posts, however, I sometimes wonder how my life might be different if I had spent all the time it took to write all of this working out in the gym instead. I would probably get my lunch money stolen way less often.

Do you ever feel like you're always just waiting for the next thing? I do, and I think that the same is true of many people. For example, Christmas is over now. I remember how, when I was a little kid, the day after Christmas I would think, "Holy cow. Now I have to wait an entire year for Christmas to get here again. I would feel so down about the prospect of having to endure another 12 months of days not getting presents. Normal life is so drab when you compare it with Christmas, after all. We look forward to and wait for other moments in life, too. I wanted to go to Ozark for college since I was a freshman in high school, and I was often frustrated by the fact that I had to graduate high school before they would take me. Other people just can't wait for their wedding day once they get engaged. A good friend of mine is getting married this Saturday, and I think his fiance has probably been counting down the days since April.

These sorts of things happen all the time. Personally, I feel like I am always unsatisfied with where I am and what I'm doing at the moment because I am constantly looking forward to the next thing. There is a danger in this. We can spend so much energy focusing on some point in the future that we miss where we are now. I had lunch with my sister today, and we talked briefly about how dang old we are getting. I'm going to be 23 in a few weeks! I have no business being 23. People that age are supposed to have some sort of handle on life. I didn't really even own any long-sleeved shirts until yesterday. I'm obviously not prepared. The thing about getting older is that it doesn't wait for you to be ready. In school, you have to pass one grade to move up to the next one, but with age, you get older every year no matter what. They're no tests. You're just expected to keep up. Time is one cruel master. And yet, as I continue to age, I worry about what kinds of good things I have missed in my life so far because I was so concentrated on what's next. Conversations I could have had, laughs I could have shared, weddings I could have crashed.

It's all a pretty tricky practice. It's like we need three eyes. One to reflect on and learn from the past, one to be paying attention to what's going on in the present, and one to be planning for and looking forward to the future. We run into problems when one of these eyes starts doing all of the work. When we focus too much on the past, we get stuck in regrets and are unable to move forward in life. When we focus solely on the present, we make foolish mistakes and are ill-prepared for what might meet us in the future. And when we are too focused on the future, we miss out on what good things are happening in our lives now. It's not an easy thing to do, especially with people who as poor vision as me. So in this, my 100th post, my encouragement to you is this: Find out which of these eyes you need to give some special attention to, and try to work some balance into your life. Learn from the past. Live in the moment. Plan for the future.

When a television series films their 100th episode, I think they usually get a giant cake and have a big party for all of the cast and crew. And I wanted to do something similar, but I can't really bake, and I would be a big fatty if I made a whole cake for myself. So I did the next best thing--I bought a double-decker taco from Taco Bell to celebrate. Hooray a-for me!

And now here's your chance to join in the celebration. For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while, I'm curious if there is a specific post that you've especially liked. I want to know this for a couple reasons. First, I'm proud and arrogant and like to be patted on the back. But also, if I know what good things I have written, maybe I can do a better job of emulating those posts in the future. Plus, I have to know which ones to include in my book. If you leave a comment, I'll pay you with 100 high-fives (or "knucks", if you prefer), or I will give your greatest enemy 100 punches in the face. Your choice.

Tradition

It's Christmas Eve. It's funny how different Christmas feels compared to when I was a kid. Christmas used to be the highlight of my entire year, and I would could down the days till Christmas beginning in November. And then, the day after, I would think, "Dang, now I have to wait an entire year for Christmas! I can't do it!" Nowadays, the holiday just sort of sneaks up on me until one morning I wake up at the break of noon and realize it's here. This year, I don't even have a blizzard or power outage to signal that it is indeed Christmas. If it weren't for everyone putting Christmasy statuses on their facebook profiles, I would probably miss the whole thing.

What do you first think of when you hear the word "tradition"? Many people associate traditions with Christmas. (Or, they might associate it with that song from Fiddler on the Roof, which is not a very good Christmas movie at all.) In fact, Christmas seems incomplete for some families without their traditions. They eat certain foods, watch certain movies, wear the same sweaters, etc. I was thinking tonight about whether or not my family has many traditions, and I came to the conclusion that we really don't. We eat dinner. I think that's about it. And every year I try to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas, but I think that's just me. Not everyone in my family appreciates it as much. If you want to hear about some Christmas traditions, you can read this.

Tradition is not only important for celebrating Christmas, but it is also important in the Christian life. The concept of tradition shows up quite a bit in the Bible. In some instances, tradition is viewed as a negative thing. Jesus condemns the religious leaders for holding to manmade traditions at the cost of obeying God (Mk. 7). In these passages, tradition is set up against God's word, and the reader is warned against placing "the way we do things" on the same level as divine command. In other instances, however, tradition is valued as the teachings that were handed down in the church. That's what tradition means--something that is handed down. In this sense, Paul tells his readers to "stand firm and hold to the teachings (tradition) we passed on to you" (2 Thess. 2:15).

That's what our faith is. It's a tradition. It's something that has been handed down for centuries. It's not something that sprang out of someone's imagination. It's root is in the historical events surrounding Jesus, and eyewitnesses passed it on to others, who in turn passed it on, all the way down to us today. The church today finds its origins in this tradition. And that is a comforting thing, I think. Traditions unite a family. They are markers of identity. That is why families value their holiday traditions so highly--those traditions remind the family of who they are. In the same way, the Christian tradition brings unity to the church. The gospel is the story that binds us. Along with this, we have other traditions and church practices that unite us. We celebrate Jesus' birth through Christmas. We take the Lord's Supper to remember Jesus' sacrifice. We baptize to join in Jesus' death and resurrection. All over the world, Christians engage in this tradition of the Christian life. It brings us together, so that I can know that I am following Christ, not by myself, but alongside Catholics in Ecuador, non-instrumentalists in Nashville, house churches in China, and Pentecostals in Africa. We are the church, formed and directed by the tradition handed down to us.

I hope you all have the merriest Christmas imaginable and that Santa gives you anything you could want. I also hope you catch someone under the mistletoe. Now there's a tradition that needs to be taken full advantage of.

Stuff I Like

There won't be much material of substance in this post. I suppose that's a pretty terrible way to get you to continue reading. Eh. Recently I was thinking about how I tend to be a complainer. It's a lot easier for me to focus on what I don't like about a given situation than it is to focus on the positive. And so, I thought it might be good for my personal health to list some things that I truly like. It is Christmas season, after all. Isn't this the kind of thing people do for the holidays? I mean, besides overeating and watching stop-motion movies. I guess I'll just keep listing things I like until I either run out or get too distracted. Or until an attractive female calls me up and wants to go get pancakes.

-I like seeing the people at the mall that are getting those Chinese massages in the little chairs. It seems like the most awkward place in the entire world to have that done.
-I like watching a couple Homestar Runner cartoons every day. Even though I've seen them all a hundred times, they serve as little reminders that the world is still pretty good.
-I like winter because the long nights make me feel reflective.
-I like that I'll be going back to Oregon in  21 days.
-I like observing other people's terribly awkward, uncomfortable situations. I even sort of like my own awkward situations.
-I like this commercial.
-I like to listen to my Friday playlist and hope that someday, somewhere, by some freak set of circumstances, I'll be a good dancer.
-I like to look at all the books on the shelves when I'm in someone's office or dorm room.
-I like people who comment on my blog posts. They're my best friends. Everyone else is not.
-I like the word "voluminous."
-I maybe, sort of, kind of like a few Superchick songs a little bit. Please don't think less of me.
-I like Coca-Cola, and I like when my friends' fiances keep the fridge stocked with two-liter bottles of it.
-I like being in a crowd, like in a mall during Christmas season or walking the sidewalks of a big city. Not that interact with anyone in the crowd. I just like being there.
-I like reminiscing about the "good old days" of freshman year when I played pool every afternoon, ate pizza every weekend, and took a nap every other hour.
-I like video montages, like the ones they show at the end of the Olympics or during the college football national championship.
-I like when people who write the blogs on my sidebar write a new post. Hint hint.
-I like Alumni jokes.
-I like listening to Flobots, pretending I know something about politics, and feeling like I'm sticking it to the man.
-I like intramural basketball. Especially when my teammates let me start the game when we play a team that's not very good.
-I like the Christmas gift you're going to give me.
-I like writing my sermons in coffee shops. It makes me look so cultured, I think. Now only if I used an iPad from the pulpit....
-I like the cover of the Sonic & Knuckles game for Sega Genesis.
-I like that the Cincinnati Reds finally had a winning season this year.
-I like when I make an allusion to Freaks and Geeks or Arrested Development, and someone knows what I'm referencing.
-I like going to the bank in Joplin on Tuesdays.
-I like spending the weekend at Ryan's apartment. It makes me feel like I can do whatever I want, even though we all know I'm not going to do anything I wouldn't normally do.
-I like the feeling of waking up, thinking it's time to go to class, looking at your clock, realizing it's only 2:42 a.m., and rolling back over to go to sleep.
-I like to break out into random beatbox sessions, even though I'm about the worst beatboxer I know.
-I like when girls wear glasses. I also like that glasses are becoming fashionable as a rule, and I like to think that I'm the reason.
-I like to make faces in pictures, except there are only about five that I do. I guess I should work on some new ones.
-I like lil' smokies. Actually, "like" isn't strong enough of a word. Love? Adore? Am infatuated with?
-I like bowling. Except when a girl beats me. Or Charlie.
-I like reading all the Facebook posts wishing me a happy birthday and thinking, "Gosh, that's awful nice of that person. Especially after we haven't talked in four years."

So as you can see, I like a lot of things. Feel free to comment with your own (hopefully shorter) list, and have yourself a merry little December 18th.

Potentially Christian America

I think I may have mentioned this in a previous post, but this semester I have been taking a class in the General Epistles, where we have been studying the books of James, 1 Peter, and 1 John. This has been one of the most thought-provoking, applicable classes I have had at Ozark. One of the best things about the class has been the books that we have read for it. One of them that I read about a month and half ago is Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon. I thought the book was great, as one can tell by the frequent highlighting throughout. I had been planning to write a blog post about the book when one day I noticed a book on the New Books spinner in the library. The book is called Death of a Christian Nation by Deborah J. Dewart. After scanning the synopsis on the back cover of the book, I realized that this book may be just about the complete opposite of Resident Aliens, so I thought it would be fun to compare the two.

Both Resident Aliens and Death of a Christian Nation begin with the same issue: America can no longer be considered a Christian nation, or at least is losing its status as a Christian nation. Hauerwas and Willimon use a story of how, in 1963, a movie theater began to be open on Sundays. For these writers, this is evidence of the end of Christian America. They write, "Whether we are with Pentecostals, Catholics, Lutherans, or United Methodists, we meet few young parents, college students, or auto mechanics who believe that one becomes Christian today by simply breathing the air and drinking the water in the generous, hospitable environment of Christendom America" (16). Similarly, Dewart looks at legal cases from the past several decades and concludes, "If modern liberal activists have their way, the phrase God Bless America will ring hollow because our Christian nation will be dead" (6). Both books recognize that American life has changed and that our country is becoming more and more "unchristian." However, the two books respond to this situation is vastly different ways.

But before we get to that, maybe we should ask if the United States was every really a Christian nation in the first place. Many Americans, perhaps even most Americans, would not even question this. They point to the faith of the founding fathers and to the biblical principles that undergird the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Dewart's first chapter beings, "In the beginning, God blessed America. Christianity was the bedrock of this country." She provides a number of quotations to show that America was Christian from the beginning. For example, she quotes Thomas Jefferson:

And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis--a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the fit of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that  God is just: that His justice cannot sleep forever. (4)

It all sounds very good. However, just in the case of Thomas Jefferson, we may need to examine his Christian convictions a little closer. It is not unknown that Jefferson produced his own version of the gospels, in which he removed any hints of miracles, Jesus' divinity, or the resurrection. His version ends thusly: "Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was man never yet laid. There they laid Jesus. And rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed." And that's it. We might be able to ask Jefferson whether the doctrines of a faith can be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis--a conviction that Jesus was God and rose from the dead. What we see in Jefferson (and, though I'm certainly no expert, I would assume we might see in several others among the founding fathers) is a deistic, antisupernatural worldview that discredits a great deal of Scripture and strikes at the heart of Christian faith. Maybe early America wasn't quite as Christian as we have been told. (We might also want to remember that the colonies started a war in large part because they didn't want to pay taxes. Doesn't seem to fit with Rom. 13 very well.)

So then, how do Dewart, Hauerwas, and Willimon deal with all of this? For Dewart, the situation demands that we do everything we can to keep America from losing its Christian identity. She writes:

American Christianity is under attack. From shore to shore, cases are legion. Believers need knowledge. They need to know how fellow Christians are suffering for their faith right here in America. They need to know how current laws impact their ability to apply biblical principles in the workplace. They need to know their Bibles. They need to know where to turn for help. Without this knowledge, our 'Christian' nation will die." (xv)

To Dewart, the greatest danger threatening the contemporary church is that America will cease to be able to call itself a Christian nation. She claims that if this happens, it will severely hamper the church's ability to carry out its mission. She continues, "Moreover, our freedom to preach the gospel is rapidly diminishing, and preservation of that freedom is vital to the church and its mission" (xv, emphasis mine). And, although I have only skimmed Death of a Christian Nation, it seems like Dewart's solution to all of this is that Christian be knowledgeable about their "right" and be able to defend those rights in the public arena.

On the other hand, Hauerwas and Willimon paint a very different picture. They too see that "Christian America" may be eroding. However, instead of making a plea to the church to preserve that system, they see it as a good thing that will allow the church to function as it should. They write, "The demise of the Constantinian world view, the gradual decline of the notion that the church needs some sort of surrounding 'Christian' culture to prop it up and mold its young, is not a death to lament. It is an opportunity to celebrate" (18). This is due to the fact that, when the church and state become wrapped up together, it is typically the church that loses its identity. Instead of the church shaping the state, we find nationalistic ideals molding the church. Instead, the church is called to be "a social alternative that the world cannot on its own terms know" (18). The church stands separate from the state because it is its own entity. We may like to think that, at least in its original condition, American government was buddy-buddy with the church, but this may not be the case. Hauerwas and Willimon write, "The story which comprises American capitalistic, constitutional democracy and the story which elicits the church are in greater conflict than these Christian transformers of culture know" (155). The church functions by its own politic, and it certainly doesn't need the support of the government or judiciary to carry out its God-given mission.

Something we American Christians struggle with is that, our entire lives, we have been so attached to our "rights." We believe that preservation of our rights is required if we are to live the Christian life. However, that doesn't seem to be the image that Jesus gives. Instead, he predicted that all men would hate his followers (Matt. 10:22), and he knew that Christians would be beaten and killed (Mk. 13:9). Meanwhile, we Americans are terrified that our churches might lose their tax-exempt status, or we worry that out workplaces won't let us wear Christian symbols on our jewelry. And yet, in spite of the very unchristian environment of the first-century Roman empire, the church expanded, and what started out as a little mustard seed grew into a tree. For a more recent example, we might look at the church in China, which is growing like crazy even though preachers don't have the politically-sanctioned right to stand on a streetcorner and tell people about Jesus. Oftentimes, it is when the church faces its greatest hardships that it is able to most exemplify what it means to follow Christ and it carries out its mission to the greatest extent. So maybe the loss of Christian America really isn't too bad. Maybe it's just what is needed to help the church be what it was made to be.

What do you think? Is the United States a Christian nation? Is it the church's responsibility to maintain (or recapture) America's Christian identity?

Seeing People

Tomorrow is the last day of class for the semester, and then we have finals next week. I am pretty excited about this fact. I'm sure I've written this before, but finals week is always my favorite week of the semester, and I would not be at all disappointed if this final week was like last semester's, when we played Killball (or as you Northwesterners call it, Smashface) a couple hours every night. It blows my mind when I think about how fast this semester has gone. I think this is because this semester has not had as many "defining aspects" as some of my others semesters--some TV show to watch on the projector with the guys, or some girl to turn me down. These are the markers of my seasons of life, but this semester has probably been more constant. I guess that's what happens when you get older--life begins to meld into some ambiguous blog, and before you know it, you're eating breakfast at Bob Evans when you realize, "Holy moly! I'm an old man!"

I feel like I need a break. (Bear with my complaining for a moment; I promise I'll try to make it redeeming). I was thinking about this a while ago. I feel like I have not really had a true break since maybe last March. Almost as soon as I got out of school in May, I went to Oregon to do my internship there, and then a couple days after I got back, I came back to school. So I spent my entire summer teaching every Sunday morning and organizing events and such, and since then I have been preaching just about every week and trying to keep up with school. It feels like I need to be doing something every moment of the day, and I feel guilty if I even take a short nap or run out to get some Burger King. And I'm tired. I so much long for a week that I can sleep and watch basketball and not have to be concerned with all of the different responsibilities on my plate, and the problem is that I can't foresee that happening anytime in the near future.

But then I read about Jesus, and I realize how petty I can be sometimes. In Matthew 14:13, Jesus learns that John the Baptist has been killed. It's difficult to determine exactly what the relationship between John and Jesus was like, but every indication seems to point to the idea that there was a special bond between them. Understandably, Jesus is upset, so "he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place." For a little while at least, Jesus just wants to get away. For a moment, he tries to get away from the crowds so that he can grieve, but the multitudes aren't easily dodged. Instead, when they see Jesus in the boat, they run to meet him at the opposite shore. That's when Jesus does something that puts me to shame and silences my little complaints. "When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick" (Mt. 14:14).

Jesus had a special ability (understatement) of seeing people. Really seeing them. He perceived their needs, and not only that, but he loved them and had compassion on them. He didn't see them as an obstacle, an interruption, or an annoyance getting in the way of his rest. He saw them as his beloved, so he changed his plans in order to heal and feed them. I can't imagine that. There may not be a time when it is more acceptable to not do ministry than when grieving the death of a loved one, but Jesus continues to serve. How was he able to do this? Because he saw the bustling crowds as people created and loved by God.

Sometimes I stop and ask myself why I should keep going. I look for a reason not to quit. It would be so much easier to just push everything aside and do only what I want to do. In those times, it's imperative that I think about people. I have to make it less about the task and more about the people. If I just focus on my sermon itself and think about all of the research and writing and practicing that lies ahead of me, I feel burdened. But when I think about the people, when I focus on Vernon and Pauline and Bill, I am reminded that there is a reason to it all. Or, when I focus just on my homework and stare blankly at the stack of books on my desk that need reading, I find it difficult to be motivated to do much of anything. But when I turn my attention to how my preparation now will benefit the church I serve in the future, there is a new umph behind my tasks.

There will be times when we feel fatigued and worn down, and we would love nothing more than to crawl into our bed and forget about everything we have ahead of us. There will be times that we are far from home, living in a new community, missing our friends and family, and we would give anything to jump on an airplane and fly back. And there will be times when, after years of ministry, we begin to wonder if our entire lives have been in vain. In those moments, we might just need to step back, take a breath, and look at Jesus, because when we do that, he'll turn our attention to the faces of people. And that just might be the push we need.

Enjoy the Christmas music, Chuck.