Which “Saved By The Bell” Character Are You?

Go, go, go! If I had found out about this conference ahead of time, I would be going myself. I’m going to look very seriously at going next year. Catalyst is a conference put on in Atlanta by InJoy Ministries. It features some of the best young speakers in the country including Erwin McManus, Andy Stanley and even Don Miller, of Blue Like Jazz fame. Wow, I wish I could be there. This appears to be a dynamite conference!

Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb! This makes me mad. I can’t help but wonder why people would be this insensitive and ignorant. Good grief, this is embarrassing for the name of Christianity.

After all the communication that we’ve had recently I thought I would mention the only emergent church that I’ve come into contact with. Jacob’s Well Church is actually here in Kansas City and serves as one of the benchmark churches in the Emergent movement. Their pastor, Tim Keel, seems like a really amazing guy. I differ somewhat with his philosophy on preaching/delivery/preparation but his commitment to Christian community and the fostering of spiritual growth is outstanding. He’s on the board of Emergent Village which is an interesting group of ministry thinkers. Finally, and maybe the single coolest aspect about the church, is that Waterdeep calls Jacob’s Well home.

Every year, usually in October, Tracy and Grace take a 2-3 week trip back home to Graceville/Dothan. They spend a little time with my mom and dad and a little time with her parents. This morning at 9am I took them to the airport so that they could “Fly the Friendly Skies” and I left pretty bummed out. I love that they get to spend time with our families, especially since we live so far apart, but it is tough for me. I’m really pitiful when I’m by myself. I don’t really like it at all! But, I love my wife and I love my family and the fact that this is really important to them makes it worth it to me, that and the feeling I get when I get to see them again is pretty unbeatable! Tracy, I hope you and Grace have a blast over the next couple of weeks! I love you babe!

Tracy and I love Burkina Faso. When you see the country for the first time it doesn’t look very lovable. We certainly didn’t love it at first. For six long months we hated the country. We hated the smell, the heat, the noise, the lack of privacy and most of all the separation from our family and friends. Then amazingly, God spoke clearly to us about learning to trust Him in the desert (literally) and we learned to love Burkina. It’s really hard to describe how we often find ourselves aching to go back. Some days it even physically seems to hurt. I would give a lot to go hang out under our mango tree again and make some hot tea with Pasqual, Tite and Raymond. I would dance so hard if I could go back and worship with them as they play the drums and sing loudly with each other. There is so much that is unlovable about that country, but there is so much that is lovable about the people and about living in a place where you are completely trusting God. It’s funny how we think we’ve got it made in America when I really wonder if maybe we don’t. Maybe our so-called freedom is in reality bondage. Bondage to Satan is what I often think is going on because I just can’t trust God, mainly because I don’t have to trust God. We talk about being willing to do anything for God and yet most of us, myself included, are scared to death to sleep under the stars in the middle of the African bush if God were to ask us to. God free me from my freedom, help me to learn to trust you again. Give me some more”africa” so that I might follow you.

“I was talking to a homeless man at a laundry mat recently, and he said that when we reduce Christian spirituality to math we defile the Holy. I thought that was very beautiful and comforting because I have never been good at math. Many of our attempts to understand Christian faith have only cheapened it. I can no more understand the totality of God than the pancake I made for breakfast understands the complexity of me. The little we do understand, that grain of sand our minds are capable of grasping, those ideas such as God is good, God feels, God loves, God knows all, are enough to keep our hearts dwelling on His majesty and otherness forever.”

Well, I did it with my blog and so now I’ve tried to do it with my website too. I’ve never been happy with my site so I took my blog and modified it and coupled that with some Adobe Photoshop magic and came up with my new website. I’ve still got to add a lot of material but the main frame is up and ready for business. Let me know what you think of it.