Missional Living

"As long as Jesus is one of many options, He is no option at all."

-Robert Browning

Yup. As long as Jesus is one of your options, go on and knock yourself out with the others. If you can take Him or leave Him, it might be better to leave Him because He won’t be taken half-heartedly.

If you know anything about me, you know that music continues to be a major part of my existence on this little rock. It can express more in 3.5 minutes than many evangelists I know. It can elevate, inspire, energize, …or bring tears. I don’t subscribe to the idea of ‘christian’ music vs. ’secular’ music, because most people, IMO, really mean ‘christian lyrics’ when they have that conversation (i.e. does the song actually say ‘Jesus’? Or is he singing about a girl? And to me, that’s a little….stupid. But that’s for another converstation if you want it.)

But how many times have I been involved in leading worship and the music was just awful? How many times have I played somewhere and felt like I completely bombed…only to have someone genuinely say they were really touched? I’ve even seen the great EJ perform several times, the first of which he admittedly had a ‘very off night’….but his off night changed the way I approach my guitar playing.

Several of us in By Design have commented that when we blow it musically, people still connect with God through the Spirit. I can feel horrible about the musicianship of a worship experience, yet our students and adults still connect with the Living God. Does that give me license to slack off? No way. Do I settle for mediocrity? No way.

In an interview with Guitar World 17 years ago, Joe Satriani said this:

"Maybe what the audience really hears is what the music is triggering inside of them, as opposed to what’s actually happening on tape or onstage. The music is a catalyst for the internal music that each person experiences, as opposed to sitting back and taking in all the notes…"

I think ‘Ol Satch is on to something there. While we do, in fact, take in notes, lyrics, rythm, meter, etc. as it’s presented, music is the emotive catalyst to our internal rhythms. It connects. It speaks. It moves. It stirs the pot. And what I feel and experience goes much deeper than what I hear. Experience is in no way limited to my five external senses, but also must include the sum total of my perception–everything from my family experiences to personal struggles to the simple fact that I skipped lunch. It’s much more holistic than that.

The beauty is that the Spirit uses all of those things to connect me to something huge. Tangible yet intangible. Vast yet intimate. Universal but Unique. It’s what helps me ’see through the glass darkly’. Can anyone else relate?

After a week of Beach Break with our high schoolers in South Padre, and a week of surviving VBS, I’m beat. My eyes are dark. I haven’t run in over two weeks. I’ve battled the shakes of too much Starbucks and Monsters. And I’ll be able to have a short Sabbath rest in 13 minutes…

On Tuesday, our oldest son and I were playing a game of ‘crab ball’ (envision tennis or badminton, but with a stuffed toy crab as the ball…). We were trying to get the hang of a less-than-aerodynamic flying crab when Darien says to me, "Daddy…I was thinking about something… I could be a missionary when I grow up. "

"Yeah…that would be pretty awesome" I reply.

"I could go to places where people don’t know about crab ball and teach them how to play it. Then, after I beat them, I could tell ‘em about Jesus."

Perfect. Through the eyes of a child.

A day or so later, I received this quote from GK Chesterton, via Scott M. :

"A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of
life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in
spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and
unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does
it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong
enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough… It is
possible that God says every morning, "Do it again," to the sun; and
every evening, "Do it again," to the moon. It may not be automatic
necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every
daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that
He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown
old, and our Father is younger than we."

Do it again, Dad.

Each sunset on the beach.

Each time our 3 year old giggles.

Each time the breeze blows cooly, or the sun shines warmly.

Each spring when the rains come and the flowers bloom.,

As Shae mentioned to me, perhaps God is truly more like Alanis Morisette in the closing scenes of Dogma, than we realize.

At our men's retreat over the weekend, I used the following quote as a springboard.

            “Guys are in trouble these days,” says Garrison Keillor. “Years ago, manhood was an opportunity for achievement and now it's just a problem to be overcome. Plato, St. Francis, Leonardo DaVinci, Vince Lombardi—you don’t find guys of that caliber today. What you find is terrible gender anxiety, guys trying to be Mr. Right, the man who can bake a cherry pie, go shoot skeet, come back, toss a salad, converse easily about intimate matters, cry if need be, laugh, hug, be vulnerable, perform passionately that night and the next day go off and lift them bales onto that barge and tote it. Being perfect is a terrible way to spend your life, and guys are not equipped for it anyway. It is like a bear riding a bicycle. He can be trained to do it for short periods, but he would rather be in the woods doing what bears do there.”

-Garrison Keillor, Sunday New York Times

The feminization of society (and, consequently, the church).

The 70% of men in prison who didn't have a father at home.

The 40% of male teens who went to bed last night without a dad at home. 

The generation of men raised by women.

All of these things have contributed to this widespread adaptation of males adopting one of two identities of manhood: chauvinism or feminism. Just as God is outside of time but has both revealed Himself and created us within the scope of time for our sakes, God is also outside of gender, but has both revealed Himself and created us within the scope of gender roles. And without a Biblical understanding of manhood, we adopt a chauvinism or a feminism…either of which seem to be a perversion of what is reflected in scripture.

I'm pretty convinced that we (men at large) still don't have much of a clue as to what those look like…but after the weekend, I'm encouraged. I'll throw out some of the details as the week unfolds and we can dissect them and compare it to scripture. 

"When I started I had this idea that the films I did defined me, and that my life would be interesting based on the characters I'd chosen. I dont' feel that way anymore. I'm a father now. There are other things that are important to me. I was chasing something that wasn't fulfilling. I caught myself on the phone the other day…and I found myself saying, 'I want to play more of a man.' I got off the phone and i thought, 'No. Live like a man, and the movies will follow."

-Actor/theolog Brad Pitt 

(Source: Newsweek, Jan 29)

…Maybe I should send Brad an evite to our men's retreat in a few weeks, where we'll be discussing everything from porn to politics … and trying to discern God's plan for us to 'live like a man' and let the rest follow.  

"Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts."   - Steve Prefontaine

On Saturday, I officially registered for the Cap 10…along with nearly 30,000 other people. After a Spring Break full of Sea World, the Rainforest Cafe, Mexican food cafes on the Riverwalk, and all the indulgences that San Antonio and my boys have to offer, I had to commit. And commit FAST before comfort sneaked up on me in the middle of my siesta. 

It'll be my first time at the Capital 10k. Some run it for fun. Some run in costumes. Some serious runners use it as their 'Sunday morning warm up'. For me, I'm burning a vacation day and running a chip-timed 6.2 miler as part of my journey towards a half- (then a full) marathon. And I'm finding out that Ann Trason was right: "It hurts up to a point and then it doesn't hurt anymore." Of course, it takes guts to stick it out to that point. Especially for an old guy like me. But the zen-like trade off for the perseverance of reaching your goal is worth it…hands down. In fact, I have a goal time I'm trying to finish in…but we'll see how that turns out. 

A guy named Paul mentioned something in a letter about beating his body into submission. That's what I'm in the process of. With all this talk about being a 'light to the world', how about having the opportunity to shine your light for 20 or so extra years? How about shining your light by taking care of your temple and lowering your cholesterol, blood pressure, and your risk of heart attack and diabetes? (…not to mention your waistline…) How about being around to see your grandchildren get married? Or your great-grandchildren graduate from college?    

This week, I'll log some easy runs to maintain my cardio and stay away from injury. I'll eat a little extra pasta Friday and Saturday. But, the fun part will be picking up my race packet on Friday and then joining nearly 30,000 of my brothers-in-kicks downtown next Sunday. Any joiners? 

Since today is Quotable Monday (which keeps me honest in my reading, knowing that I'll have to post something earth-shattering on Monday)…..here are some things I've run across while reading Leonard Sweet's "The Gospel According To Starbucks".

On art, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680): "Art should create stupor in the beholder." 

LOVE it.
 

On church, T.S. Eliot (uber-poet of the twentieth century) liked to tell of a sign outside a baker's shop advertising bread for one dollar a loaf. "A man enters the shop, hungry for bread, and imagining the fresh smell of bread hot from the oven, only to find that inside the shop all that is for sale are copies of the sign advertising bread…..the Church today is much like that shop." 

Put those in your latte and let 'em brew. If you've got thoughts, I'd love to hear them.