All In

Poker might be one of the most interesting games in the world to play or to watch.  In recent years, the only poker I will play is Texas Hold’em.  It is a fun, drawn out game where (at least with Texas Hold’em) you have 7 cards with which to make the best 5 card hand.  Every player has 2 cards in hand, and then by the end of each hand, everyone at the table is sharing 5 cards that are open to everyone.  I myself have been sent home a number of times by the dreaded “5^th street,” or “the river.”  It is such a fun game, and on any given night, you can have the best or worst of luck.

I have also played this game with a number of different characters.  Each one has their unique way to play.  There are one or two who I play with who will nickel and dime their way to winning it all.  Another plays as if he knows what every single player has, and talks like it on every hand.  Another guy bets wildly, many times without looking at his cards at all (and I am sad to say he wins that way pretty often).

I think poker is fun for so many of us, because it is distinctive in the way you play and win.  Most games people play involve competition that is out in the open, with all the facts at hand.  Take a minute and think about some of your favorite games.  Most games allow you to know where you stand and where your opponents stand at any time.  You know what properties they own in Monopoly, you see how many goals everyone has in soccer, you know if a team can catch up on you in Taboo.  Games like this have competition, but not a lot of mystery.

Poker is very different.  At any point in the game, you know exactly what you have, but you have no way of knowing what is going on behind the scenes for the other players.  There has been more than one time where I have had pocket Kings (the 2 cards in my hand were Kings), and I have bet strong, only to find out there was actually someone who landed pocket Aces.  It is a game that requires you to operate with a bit of risk, moving without knowing every bit of information.

The same is true for basically every aspect of following Jesus.  I can’t tell you the number of times I have looked at what He dealt me and thought “victory is in sight” only to realize that I hoped in the wrong things.  Yet, there have been other times when I look at what He dealt me and thought “there is no way anything good can come from this” and suddenly I am walking away with so much more than I could have hoped for.   Following Him constantly requires me to re-risk the things I have gained for the sake of the pay-off (more of Him).  Sometimes it requires you to go “All-In” and put everything on the line for the sake of what He is calling you to.  In the beginning of the book of Joshua, God actually calls the entire fighting army of Israel to go “All-In” and believe that it will pay off.

The truth is that I enjoy playing games this way, but life this way is so much more complicated.  I look at the story of the Israelite army, and I wonder if I would want to re-risk it all again and again.  Through those wrestling’s, we must come back to the basic fact that God is fully allowed to ask us to risk it all for the sake of following Him into the Promise Land.

The journey has already started, it is our turn now, and the response at the table should be a clear “All-In.”

Not all who wander are lost…

Latest reading has me journeying with Moses and about a million other people in the desert.  It is a pretty intense story of God’s faithfulness to a group of people He picked to be “His people.” 

They are slaves; He influences a major world-leader to let them go. 

They are chased as they leave; He wipes out a whole army as part of their rescue. 

They are hungry in their journey; He rains down bread from the sky. 

They are thirsty; He causes water to spring from a rock. 

 

God is fully for His people.  It is so easy for us to get distracted from this fact, and begin to believe that we are alone.  We have a short attention span, and forget that we are cared for, provided for, and placed in communities with people we can relate to. 

 

It is funny to me when I read this story about Moses, because at the moments when God is telling Moses all the details of His involvement with the people, the people are looking for a new God.  The LORD is giving details to Moses, to help the people remain in relationship with their creator.  The people are giving gold to Aaron to create a new god so they have someone to attribute affection and complaints when good and bad occur.

 

How quickly we forget the good of our lives!  How easily we wander from the things we know to be true, because we don’t feel like they are true today.  The people knew and experienced the truth of God’s presence and care for them, but it was easy for them to forget what they had already experienced.  In the same way, I have noticed it is easy for me, and all those that I know, to experience the hand of God, living and active in their life, but then forget that He is with us and at work around us.  When we feel God with us, our life feels like a journey towards our eternity…towards purpose and importance.  When we feel like God is not around, we allow a journey to become a wandering through a desert.

 

Sometimes in can feel that we have moved from a journey to wandering.  It can seem as though we have no direction, no guidance, and that perhaps the voice of God is no longer around.  Everyone goes through these times; it is a basic part of the human experience.  We must somehow remember that not all who wander are lost.  God does not cease to be real, personal and active just because our life seems to have become a wander, instead of a journey. 

 

Though I still have reading to do, I know that the next part of the story for Moses and the people with him is an experience of wandering in the desert for many years.  It would make complete sense to think that God just left them and was no longer a part of their lives.  I bet they even felt like that, spending day after day just trying to figure out “what next?”  What is true is that the wandering was very important for them.  They were never lost in the desert, though God did allow them to wander.  There was purpose in the wander, and there is purpose in ours. 

The next Twitter

Every once in a while I find myself sitting and wondering about how some of the most amazing creations came to us.  Though my calendar might not reflect it, my days are filled with email consistantly able to get to me through my phone, about 10 different moments during the day when I open up Facebook to see what is happening…and well…I am addicted to Twitter.  These things have changed the way I interact with almost everyone around me.

Last night I came across this great video, which is an 8 minute talk by Evan Williams.  This is the guy who created Blogger (blogspot.com) and Twitter.  Needless to say, the guy seems to have an ability to come up with some culture-changing ideas.  This video might not interest all of you, but for some it might mess with your thinking for the rest of the day.

Whether you like Twitter or not, what you have to know is that it is helping to change the way people interact with one another…and from this video we can tell that it is helping in ways the creator couldn’t even have first imagined. 

Everything in our culture moves so fast, so I have no doubt that in the years to come, something new will emerge as the next great thing.  I, with many others, are waiting for the Web 3.0 revolution.  I wonder how you, my friends, are engaging with these new mediums of connection?  Do you have some site or service that you are finding is revolutionizing the way you do life?  I’d love to hear what else is out there, what the next Twitter might be…

Influence

I have a few cool new thoughts floating around in my head, but the one I really want to dialog about is the idea of influence.  These days, especially for a college-aged person, there are so much information to be gathered around the idea of influence.  It is an important subject…we know it matters who we influence and how we influence them.  One of the most classic (and now parodied) examples of influence is this memorable 80’s commercial…

Still cheesy as can be, but totally communicates the the reality that parents help shape and influence the attitude and direction of kids.  Another fun way to look at the idea of influence is to look into the music industry.  There are a few people in the industry that (in my opinion) have helped shape where we are heading in terms of music in the years ahead.  Like him or not, Kanye West has influenced what we hear on the radio (or download on iTunes) in many of the different genre’s.  Just for fun, lets remember what the Kanye influence was like a few years ago…

So clearly, we are a people who are influenced.  In fact, all the ways we learn and grow have to do with influence. Your education is decided by who you let influence you to read and learn. If you decide to play a sport or learn an instrument, it is because someone has influenced you towards it. The lifestyles we live are based on the influences around us, and which of those influences we actually listen to.

But, we are also a people OF great influence.  I was reading earlier about a man who dared to sit and debate with God about the fate of a group of people.  For some reason, this man had the access to influence how God would handle a situation.  Does that seem shocking to anyone else?  In the Bible, there is the story of Abraham.  Whether you go to church or not, you have probably heard of this ancient figure in history.  What you might not know is this story of Abraham influencing God.  As the story goes, God is going to destroy an area (the areas of Sodom and Gomorrah) and Abraham challenges God and asks if He is really going to do it even if there are still people there who follow God.  This slipper slope debate ensues until Abraham has convinced God to spare the entire group of people if just 10 followers of God exist there.

What is it about this man that gives him such access to God?  He clearly had God’s favor on his life, but why?  It wasn’t earned, but it appears that there were certain things which were true of him which made God desire to hear him out.  Some of these character traits are…

1)Humility (Understanding who God is and who I am)
2)Commitment to God’s Glory (He put God’s fame and importance above his own)
3)Practiced faith that was unrealistic (He banked his life on the fact that God will do what He says He will do)

This thought is still very much in process, but one thing should be obvious…if there is a way that we can have this kind of access to God, we should be pursuing it.  If these character traits are key in knowing God that intimately, then they should become the bedrock’s of our lifestyle.

Heaven sprung a leak

So I was reading this morning about the ultimate water-leak from heaven.  I am trying to read thru the Bible with a little more attention to detail, asking God what I have ignored or overlooked in the past.  Today I was reading about a time early in my history, when God was so grieved by humanity that He thought it would be better to just end it all and start over.  Then there is one guy who God thinks actually has his heart set on seeking and honoring his Creator.  So, since this man (Noah) seems to be known for following God, God gives him a massive task.  He asks him to create a big boat…big enough for a few people and a bunch of animals. 

Now if you are like me, I am sure you have at least a few questions about this whole scenario.  It is a pretty odd picture, and has some interesting things to observe (for instance: aside from the people on the boat, God wipes out all mankind and all of the animals of the earth.  But, what about the sea-creatures?  Have you ever thought about that?  It says that, “Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died“…but what about all the creatures that live beneath the surface?  What about dolphins, and hammerhead sharks, and jellyfish?  Weird thought, not majorly important at the minute).

Among all the questions about this part of our history, I was struck today by the time it took Noah to honor the call of God on his life.  Let’s look at this two ways…

1)Proportions – If you consider the overall length of a person’s life, consider the fact that in Noah’s life, the most obvious and huge “call” on his life from God didn’t come til the second half of his life.  He had to learn how to delight in God and serve Him for many years before he was able to enjoy a tangible “calling”

2) Length – The Bible highlights a reality that in the early days of humanity, people were probably a lot healthier, and lived a whole lot longer.  Most of the people we read about in Genesis lived anywhere from 600-900 years!! That is so crazy…I wonder if that mean High School was about 40 years long?  Anyway, we are told Noah lived about 950 years.  It was about the time he was 500 years old that God called him to build the Ark and prepare for a major change in his life.  It was around the time he was 600 that it was ready for Noah’s family and all the animals to board the boat.  That means Noah spent about 100 years working on one simply project, day in and day out, it order to honor God.  Fulfilling his calling took every bit of that 10o years, and I wonder if it is any different for me and my 75+ (hopeful) years on this earth.

I imagine the quality (not the quantity) of Noah’s years was measured by his willingness to be completely faithful to the daily call of God on his life.  That daily faithfulness added up to a lifetime of God favored moments…not to mention the whole family line of humanity.

Reset

It is the beginning of a new week, and the early phases of a busy season for me.  It is times like these that seem like the perfect moments for a reset.  There are lots of different resets around us all the time.  Every morning, once the night has gone, the sun begins to rise, giving the signal of a reset for “today.”  All that is yesterday has become out of reach, and all we have to put our hands on is today.

There are other types of resets.  You can reset a watch or a timer.  Whether you are cooking or racing or doing any sort of activity that is set within a specific time, once you are done you have a chance to reset and try it again.  (Even as I typed this blog, my computer froze, and I was forced to “reset” and re-write all that was erased…irony that isn’t too funny).  The most successful time in any sort of competition can be wiped away with a simple press of that reset button.  In that same regard, a poor, unimpressive time in a competition can also be cleared out by a press of that same reset button.

Reset has a way of taking us back to a beginning, before accomplishments or failures made their first showing.  This thinking started this morning by taking it back to the beginning…like the very beginning…like “In the beginning”.  Reading in Genesis 1 and 2 sparked a lot of thoughts on this idea of reset, and going back to the start.  Random thought – what if you could go back to your beginning?  Would you want to?  Given the chance to go back and start over, erase all the mistakes you have made…and with it erase every good moment, every precious memory…would you make that choice?  It is a weird dynamic to think about.  Would you want to try and live your life over again, so things could be a little different?  To be able to go back and act differently in relationships that are now bruised or broken…but at that same time to forget every precious memory of friendship, of holding the hand of the one you want to be with, of laughing without restraint.  To reset and be able to re-learn so many of the things you have missed along the way, but to also be put through the process of having to re-learn everything.  The power of reset is both wonderful and frustrating.

I think reset may be one of the most important things we do every year, month, day and so on.  When I look back at the beginning, and the work of our Creator, I am struck by the reality of His rhythm of reset with creation…and we are part of that creation.  I can look and remember the way in which He created me…I came from dust.  BUT, I can also reset and remember that He created ME!  This creator brought me up from dust, but He specifically worked to form me…giving attention to the smallest details of me. 

It is in light of this Creator and His reset that I am inclined to allow myself to reset.  Each morning, I have a chance to allow the regrets and frustration of yesterday to be just that – “yesterday” -  and learn to move on into today.  Those same moments mean saying goodbye to all of the good things of yesterday, because they are memories of realities past – but reset allows me to fully experience the memories to come, from today’s realities.  Reset brings a sunrise, and a zero-ing of the clock, to freshly experience new work, new mercies, new love.

Press Thru

Many would long for the standard, Americanized type of life that we picture as kids.  It involved big houses, standard size families, enjoyable 9-5 jobs and all a whole scattering of other things we think we want or deserve.  It is a life of Status, that shows we are successful.

I don’t think I ever thought I really wanted that.  I am not sure that knew exactly what I wanted, but I am pretty sure it wasn’t that.  That is too popular, too overdone, and lets face it – too empty.  Most people have to decide whether they want to pursue the life of Status or the life of Meaning.  Very few people (these days) think they want the life of Status.  Maybe they want it in small subtle ways, but with our words we declare that we have rejected that empty dream, and are pursuing a life of Meaning.  We can decide to chase after a life and lifestyle that has deep meaning, but few of us understand the implications of our choice.

A life of Meaning is a life that is leveraged to bless others, to find out what you can give – not what you can get.  Meaning is found in the pouring out of ourselves, not the building up of ourselves.  This is the most costly choice you can make.  To pick the life of Meaning is to make daily decisions that put yourself in the path of pain, frustration and heart-ache.  Suffering will enter, and you will be forced to have some face-to-face conversations with God about the purpose of your pain.  Through experience and story, I have learned that to choose the life of Meaning is to choose a life that will bring you pain, and that pain has deep purpose.  It allows you to remember the human condition, and gives you new avenues to relate, connect and bless those around you.  Perhaps God will allow deep wounds to come, so that you could understand deep healing, and in the future speak of true redemption and restoration with something of experience and authority.

The life of Meaning doesn’t give too much room for you to ache for what you lack, but to celebrate in what you have been given.  This life doesn’t allow you to sit in hurt for too long, but pushes you to ask, “how is this hurt going to help me serve others in the future?” 

The great news about this life of Meaning is that you can jump into it at any time.  Whether you are 18, 30 or 60…you can decide that the measure of your life will be what you give, not what you get.  It is the life we have always wanted, but every day you will freshly discover that it is not at all what you thought it would be.  It is different, it is harder, and it is so much better.

Playing with a Rubber-band

Wow, it is crazy how easy it is to go months without posting on here!  The truth is life has been crazy, and I guess it doesn’t really show signs of slowing down.  When you get right down to it, who actually has a life that slows down in you mid twenties?  Life only keeps going and growing and getting more complicated.  In the growing complication, one of the things that fell in the past few months was my creativity.  Original thought (or God prompted thoughts) were what drove me to this blog to get ideas out.  When I look back over the last half of 2008 (and specifically look at where blog posts should be) I realize that creativity gets choked out when the pressure is on.  A lot of things can get choked out when there is high pressure, which brings me to my thought today:

I think adulthood is like a rubber-band.

Playing with a rubber-band is all about tension.  The fun of a rubber-band is managing the tension in your hand.  If you try to use the rubber-band without allowing any tension, it is actually kind of useless.  If you try exerting too much tension and pull too far, it will break.  The usefulness of a rubber-band has to do with its ability to work with tension.

As a person grows up, I think our joy and our work, our fun and productivity (both of which are important) are actually just the managing of tensions all around us.  The life we actually want exists with a push and pull of:

-Wants vs. Needs
-Safety vs. Danger
-Fun vs. Work
-Rest vs. Just a little more
-Hope vs. Reality
-Life vs. Death

The lesson I am learning today (Thanks to Jesus and a good book from a mentor) is that tensions are not problems to be solved.  It is easy for me to feel the tension of the rubber-band and think that I need to do something about it.  There are problems to solve, but there are also tensions to live with…and maybe the life of an adult is learning to manage those tensions well.

Gun’s Don’t Kill People

Do you remember the bumper stickers and slogan that was going around a few years ago?  “Gun’s don’t kill people; people kill people.”  I don’t know why that was brought back to mind this week.  I was walking around in a neighborhood delivering bags for the Hallows Eve Diversion (shameless plug!) and it came back to me.  I loved the controversy people made around the phrase.  I mean think about it, truly a gun in itself doesn’t kill a person.  It takes the intent or heart of one person to pick up the instrument, pick a target and pull the trigger.  To shoot a person, it takes a person.  Now gun’s have been known to randomly go off on their own…but even then it is because someone first messed with it.  To harm someone with a gun, first there must be a person who has decided to pick up and use the gun.  (Whether in a fit of passion or in a pre-meditated condition)

The gun itself is just a tool.  HOWEVER, the gun is THE tool.  The reason people fight so hard for gun control is because to kill someone with a gun is a whole lot easier than to kill with any other instrument.  People kill people…but often the instrument of choice is a gun.

I want to submit to you that at the heart of the fight against poverty and injustice, this same concept is true.  You see, I believe that there is a God who looks at poverty and injustice and says “This should not be.”  I think He cares for all who suffer in this world.  Truly, I think where any person sits in suffering, the God of Heaven sees and is filled with compassion.  When He sees brokenness in our world, He desires to create wholeness. 

In the gun situation, it is true…people kill people.  In the same regard, when it comes to poverty and injustice, God is the one who fights hardest and desires to end these social ills.  What many people fail to realize is we are like the gun.  A person may have it in their heart to kill, but the action doesn’t take place until the instrument is in use, serving the purpose of the person holding it.  Our God has it in His heart to fight against poverty, to fight against human trafficking, to not allow injustice to continue.  While that is true, there is a chosen instrument that God likes to use to fight these things.  We, the people on this earth, are the chosen instruments God wants to use. 

Gun’s don’t kill people, people kill people.

Poverty and Injustice don’t just stop because God wants it to, God stirs us to action, and we become His chosen tool for change.

26 and counting

I am attempting, as best I can, to have a relaxing day…an ideal day for me.  I guess that is kind of funny, cause I am still trying to figure out what an ideal day is for me.  I am trying to debate if cleaning my bathroom on my birthday is an okay thing to do.  (Before you answer, you should see the bathroom…I might just be giving myself a birthday gift by cleaning that thing).

I am extremely introspective, so like most birthdays, I am taking time today to look back over the past year, and look towards the years to come.  This past year has been the hardest of my life.  The hard part of life isn’t over, but I think things are hitting a turning point.  God placed this year in my life for very intentional reasons, His pursuit of my heart is so intentional.  He has spent this year crucifying many things within me, and forming me to be the man He created me to be.  A few things stand out to me…

1) Because of my role in Cause and Affect, October 31st (and the 5-6 weeks leading up to it) will always be a high intensity marathon in my life.  God, in all His wisdom, knowing the pieces of my future, allowed me to be born in the middle of October.  This birthday in the middle of my crazy season will always force me to slow, rest and breathe.  He created me to be a driver, and He put a speed-bump in the middle of this season to make sure I know how to pace myself and enjoy the life around me.  My God is so intentional.

2) I think today is a meeting of 2 seasons in my life.  What was and what is to come.  It has been kind of known to me for the past few weeks that this would be the case.  I think for the next few weeks (or however long), I will be like Jacob.  There is much that I believe God has for me, and this is kind of a “grabbing onto Him and not letting Him go until He gives me my blessing” sort of thing.  If He does not go with me, I would rather not go.  There is no reason to stand out to the people around me if it is not because of your Spirit’s work in me.  So we are starting a wrestling match.  I already I know I will win, but it is only because He is going to let me win, but I don’t know how many rounds He will want to go.  What a loving Father.

3) If the best is yet to come (and I believe it is) then I cannot imagine how great it will be.  The years I have experienced so far have been so amazing, I cannot imagine what greater things will look like.