Within Reach... Yet Unreachable

I went for my walk this morning and went past some construction that is being done on a nearby major intersection. As i walked by this morning it looked so desolate; dry, dusty, lifeless, vacant. The businesses that were there looked the same way. Numerous of them were closed, and one of them had sprayed on the window that it was for sale. There was no one there, and it seemed as though nothing worth seeing. Overall, it looked like a small wasteland.

In the construction zone on the other side of the street was a dusty, dirty, old truck. The truck was white with very little writing on it. On the back of the truck in big black letters that said "Water" on it. It struck me that that image very much defines our society, our youth, and our families. It's very desolate. Young people, families, lives, all empty, dry, desolate. All without life. Meanwhile, the very thing needed for life, is just sitting there all bottled up and out of reach of everything. There is such potential, the ground and the world around it is screaming out for it, yet it is unreached / unreachable unless it is released.

This is us. This is our families. This is our towns & cities. This is our country & world. All of these things reaching out, wanting and needing what is sitting there all bottled up within easy reach. Yet it is completely unattainable unless the water is released. So now what?

Now obviously, this is a construction zone, and everything that is going on, the desolation, the dirt, the water truck, all have a reason, and all have a purpose to play. The road will be completed. Hopefully the business and people will return. Life, of sorts, will return at the right time. In the end, that purpose will be played out.

However, the image will stand. The image of the dry & desolate land reaching out for something that is right there within reach, yet completely unreachable. Something that is needed, but that needs only to be released.

What do Young People Need?

Our youth and young adults need more than just to be treated as bigger children. They need to be challenged. They need to learn. They need to understand 1) who they are, 2) that they have a purpose & direction, and 3) what that direction and those purposes are. They need to have something to show for their results, something they can hold in their hands. They need something that they can put their name on, grasp ahold of, and make (of) themselves. They need to succeed, and they need to fail. Young men need a question to ask that will consume them, whose answer is so unattainable that they can spend their lives seeking that answer and never reach it. Young women need a love that they reach for that is so much bigger than them, that they reach for it and can never become it.

God has created our young men and young women to be so much more than they are, and to go so much further than where they are being led.

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Youth: People With a Passion & a Purpose

What is my passion?  This question is so big that it's difficult to answer.  It's like asking the question, "How big is the ocean?".  

My vision is for our society and culture to do a 270 degree turn.  To turn the complete opposite way and then some.  Right now in our culture our youth are treated like children.  They act like children because they are expected to act that way, and they are not trained to do anything else.  Their primary education is done by the government, at the expense of their parents.  At best they are taught to excell in subjects, which is not the same thing as life.  The class generally learns at the rate of the weakest "average" student.  Their primary defining influence is usually 1 person, their teacher.  Many times they are taught the basics reading, writing, arithmatic, and other subjects but have no idea how to do anything with that information.  It is worse than useless information, it is barely useful.  

Meanwhile, for the most part, our youth are not taught how to take care of themselves.  How to succeed in life or find a career that is worth their time and effort.  They are not trained to be men and women.  To be husbands and wives.  They are taught subjects with no knowledge of how to apply that to life outside of the educational system.  As a result we have young adults and adults who leave high-school, undergraduate programs, and graduate programs with no idea as to how to be anything more than students.

Young people find that when they rebell and cause trouble they gain attention, and when they gain attention other people follow them.  Thus by rebelling they become leaders.  They are not taught or challenged to become leaders any other way... wow this is getting long, and i have only scratched the surface.

I guess that you could say that this a round about way of saying that my passion is for youth to become more than they are.  It is a passion and vision to see society, youth, the church, embrace youth and give them a vision for something more than themselves.  To give youth more than just subjects and useless information.  To challenge them to be and become people with a passion and a purpose.

It Makes All the Difference in the World...

What is the difference between the geek who constantly gets picked on and the cool kid? I wasn't really thinking about this so much on my own, but i had a dream that really started to make this a little more clear.

First off, a little background. I was a geek growing up. I didn't have a ton of friends and the places that i excelled were in my classes. The more i am working with youth the more i see young people that remind me of me at a younger age. Obviously i want to help them to get over the things that are holding them back and be a support to them. It's been difficult because i want to encourage them, but i don't want them to rely on or cling to me. That would be counterproductive. So it has been something that has been sitting in the back of my mind for a little while. I have had the answer sitting on the tip of my mind for a little while, but i have had a little bit of a difficulty piecing it together.

This morning as i was sleeping i had a dream. As with any dream alot was happening but what really stuck out was a point at which i was walking through a store and saw a couple of little kids there. They were maybe 6 or 7 years older. As i was walking by i could hear laughter. The kids were laughing and so was the store clerk. This one skinnier boy was being shoved and hit by another girl who was a little bit bigger than him. She wasn't so sure that she wanted to do this, but the other kids were egging her on and she was getting positive attention as a result so she kept going. Meanwhile, the boy seemed to not quite know what to do. He seemed to hesitate like he wanted to retaliate, but something held him back. Whether he knew he wasn't supposed to hit girls, or he was just too afraid. He hesitated and didn't do anything. I was really annoyed with the store clerk for laughing and encouraging the girl, but i was even more annoyed with the boy for just standing there.

I wanted to take the boy by the shoulders look him in the eye and ask him if what she was doing was actually physically hurting him. Obviously the physical pain wasn't really an issue. So i wanted to tell him to push her right back. He didn't need to hurt her. He just needed to do something to show her that he couldn't just be pushed around. If he did that there wouldn't have been an issue any more. He might get into trouble for shoving a girl, but it would have solved the problem. Instead of doing that, i kept on walking.

I woke up a little further into the dream and thought about what had happened. I realized that the issue wasn't that he didn't want to fight. You shouldn't hit, and especially guys shouldn't hit girls. The issue is that he just stood there and did nothing! I began to realize that that makes all the difference in the world. I look at the geeky kids and teens that i know and i realized that one of the major things that sets them apart from everyone else is that instead of doing something they do nothing. Even if they did something and made a fool of themselves it would have been better than if they had done nothing. Living life hesitating instead of doing makes all the difference in the world. That's the difference between the geek and the cool kid.

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The Desires of Our Hearts

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." When i was younger i read that verse and thought that it meant that if i seek the Lord, He will give me what i want. I still think in reality many times that is true. When we delight ourselves in God many times he gives us the things we desire. What i came to realize quite some time ago is that this idea/concept has nothing to do with this verse. I don't know if this was something that i heard from a pastor's teaching, or if it was something that God showed to me in my daily time. This realization that changed my whole outlook... my whole way of thinking is that this desire of our hearts is not the completion of a physical desire, but rather the passion of our lives. Think about it for a minute..........

This isn't a promise that i will get what i want. In fact contrary to that, we may never see this desire fulfilled in our lifetime. It isn't a promise of completion. It is a promise of desire. It is a promise that when we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will give us a desire or desires for our lives. We will have a passion and a purpose for our lives above and beyond ourselves. That passion may be to reach out to those in desperate need. It may be to help the homeless. It may be to bring hope to those whose lives are falling apart. It may be to help a person or ministry grow and succeed. It may be any of these things or more... more than you or i could ever imagine. That is the promise of Psalm 37:4. When we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will put in us a passion and a desire that is beyond anything we can do alone. He gives our heart a passion and desire that exceeds us. We go from a lifeless robot to a person with a passion.

Working off of that thought. How many of us have really had a passion and a desire for our lives? How many lose or have lost that passion over the years? How many of us right now are not doing anything in our lives to fulfill or complete that desire? It amazes me to see how often i have gotten so wrapped up in doing everything that i was supposed to do that i lost grip of the passion and desire that defines (or should be defining) me. Living the right life interferes with fulfilling that passion and desire. Oftentimes when i seek what is "best" i just end up with the rest. Why? Because so often what we think of as being "the best" is nothing more than a fading desire. It is a lost cause that has no lasting purpose. Because so often what we seek in our daily lives is contrary to God and the passion that He is giving/has given to us. We lose sight of this passion and end up only being part of the person God has created us to be.

Something so Simple!

It's a funny thing about prayer. My undergraduate work was in Bible and Youth Ministry. While i was in Bible college i got myself into this habit of getting up an extra hour and a half to two and a half hours early to pray. Most everyone else was still asleep, but i was up in the prayer room studying, praying, and worshiping. Going to bed early and a well needed nap were necessary at the time in order to make it happen, but they were doable. Since then i have not been as faithful. I still get up early to try to spend the time, but it's not nearly as much.

I'm not trying to toot my own horn or to say that i'm this great guy or anything because i'm not. What i do want to do is that when i say what i'm going to say i want it to be clear the impact of this. I have a very difficult time praying. I struggle with it in so many ways it's difficult to imagine it as anything but a struggle. I can't stay awake. When i am awake i have such a hard time staying focused i may as well not be praying. When i am in public in front of people i can pray in ways i could only wish that i could in private. You would think (at least i know i would think) that after 15 years of (usually) daily prayer, praise, and Bible reading and 3 years of Bible college, that someone would be able to at least pray. Yet for me, day in and day out it is the most difficult things that i do in the day.

It's difficult because, if i pray out loud i'm likely to wake up the girls. If i pray quietly i get distracted and lose focus. If i kneel down to pray i fall asleep. If i sit everything else going on in my head distracts me. If i stand up everything around me distracts me. It's like i'm fighting a battle with the wind, and the wind keeps winning. Yet this should not be such a struggle. You would think that something so simple as prayer would be... well simple! So much for that idea.

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"As Long as it Doesn't Hurt Anyone Else..."

One of the problems that comes with our focus on and demand for individuality, self-reliance, and independence is that every decision that we makes affects not only us, but everyone around us. We are not an island in and of ourselves. We are not self-sustaining nor are we simply self-affecting. It's easy for us to look at our lives and our world and try to convince ourselves that we are only responsible for our own actions. Our mentality becomes one in which it doesn't matter that i do what i know is not right it only affects me. As long as it isn't hurting anyone else i can do what i want.

This is a concept that really frustrates me and gets me upset. It very much reminds me of the the Beatles song "All You Need is Love". That song practically became a motto for a generation. It's a beautiful concept that brings lots of warm fuzzies. People applied it to their lives, their marriages, how they raised their kids, etc. In the end living by that motto and mentality destroys us. Love is a whole lot more complex than an emotional reaction. Love (the way our world sees it) in itself does not and can not sustain anything. Our love fails, and when our lives are built on this concept, they collapse as well.

The same concept is true of this mentality of being able to do what we want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. It is becoming the motto of a generation, unfortunately it is even more destructive than the last. The reality is that there is nothing that we do that does not affect those around us. Everything that we do affects and defines us. Our hidden thoughts and actions are the seeds of our lives. A person who in their alone time sits down and looks at inappropriate pictures and watches raunchy videos is going to have a very difficult time having a healthy relationship. As is a person who sits and reads books and watches tv shows and movies in which the relationships are scripted to draw out our emotional reactions and have no real resemblance to what a healthy relationship should or does look like. These things develop in us views and mentalities of who we are, who others are, and what a relationship is that in turn create cracks and weak areas in us which ultimately destroy us our relationships and those around us. Yet the view is that as long is it is not hurting anyone else, it's all right.

I think that what surprises me the most (or maybe it doesn't) is that there are people out there that actually believe this concept. It doesn't take a philosopher or a theologian to recognize the problems with this view. All it takes is a 12 year old with two minutes of dwelling on it to to put more holes in it than swiss cheese. Yet time and time again we either knowingly ignore the holes to our own destruction, or we don't even take the two minutes needed to recognize that there is a problem with the very philosophy and foundation that our lives are based on. Then somehow we are either surprised that our lives are falling apart, or we think that that is the way it is supposed to be.

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What is the Cost of Technology?

There are so many things that we have lost with the advance of technology in our modern and post-modern age. So many things that are key to our success and survival. Our views and mentalities have changed, and as a result we are slowly losing parts of ourselves. There is so much of who we are that is linked to the past. Yet the past is being discarded in the face of the future.

So many times technology embraces the new at the cost of the proven. How many people's lives are easier as a result of the advances in technology? It seems to me that instead of our lives becoming better, technology has simply made our lives faster. Instead of it giving us more free time, technology has required us to get more done. It has made it so that we invest more in doing and less in becoming.

"When we sacrifice on the alter of technology we gain productivity but it comes at a price. What is that price, and is it worth it?"

What do you think?

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Vision to Reality - Facing the Giant

So now what? This is the difficult part. I see and for the most part understand the problem. That's the easy part. It's what to do next that is the difficult part. The problem exists on so many levels in our society that it is nigh impossible to tackle it all. It deals with institutions and views that are ingrained into our society and that have been a part of this culture and environment for over a century. How do you break the backbone of a century's old view and mentality that pervades an entire culture, society, and world? How do you tackle something that is so far encompassing that it invades us in every area that we live? It is defined in how we work, what we do in our "spare" time, how we live, how & what we eat, what we teach our kids, how our kids learn, our own expectations, what we see and invades our home. How does one even pretend to tackle this problem without being destroyed by it?

There are individuals, families, and even entire communities that have seen these problems for a long time and instead of fighting it have separated themselves from the problem and the society that it pervades. At times they have become outsiders looking in critically and rejecting our society as a whole, or they just don't even care and would rather be their own entity and allow the rest of society slowly destroy itself while they go on living their own lives. I can understand it, and in a way it is a very awe inspiring view to see the battle against the onslaught of outside forces. However, it does so little to actually create the change that needs to occur.

So how do you fight a battle that is so much larger than yourself that you can't even see & comprehend the vastness of it? How do you fell a giant that encompasses a planet in the face of a people that doesn't even recognize that the giant exists, that may only see a finger or toe of the giant and attempts to fight only that part, or that don't even understand that the giant is a problem? The answer is that one person alone can't... but then we never really are alone, are we?
II Kings 6:1-23 especially vs. 16 "And he answered, Do not fear, for those with us are more than those with them."

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Redefining the Vision

It's nice to not be feeling miserable all the time. Now i just need to get past the complete exhaustion phase and the massively stressed out one. Anyways, that's neither here nor there.
I think it's time to reiterate and refine my vision, and to look at what i am doing and needing to do to bring that vision to fruition.

What is my vision? My vision is to have youth and young adults prepared for adulthood, trained to be adults and able to handle healthy relationships with their peers and those of the opposite sex. To mature and grow in their relationship with God as well as to become leaders and successful as people.
So, what does that mean? That's a good question. I'm glad that you asked. It means.............. Um, could you repeat the question please? Oh, yeah. What it means is that we need to prepare youth to be adults. Instead of just expecting that one day youth will be adults and will act like adults when they mature enough, we need to be helping them prepare and grow into adulthood. Unless youth are trained and expected to act like adults, chances are they are not going to.
Where has this vision come from? Our society has created this idea, this concept, that youth are kids and not adults. They are not supposed to act like or become adults until they are at least 21. The time between 17 or 18 and 21 is the ramp up stage in which they put their childish ways behind them and prepare for the real world. Prior to that is the adolescent stage in which youth rebel against authority and begin to become their own person. Adolescence is a troublesome time in which youth begin to "find themselves" and define who they are by standing against authority. The problem that i see is that these are modern and very unhealthy concepts. Traditionally, prior to the industrial revolution and the modern educational system, children were raised to become adults. When they were young, children were expected to help out and be involved where they could. As they grew they were given more and more responsibility until they were around the age of puberty (much older than puberty hits now, usually around 15-18). At that time they went through a rite of passage and became adults. As adults they were expected to act like adults, and to be able to provide and take care of a family. Which, with some help from family and the community, they could do since they spent their lives training and preparing for it. Now, however, even after 12+ years of "formal" education and many times 4 years of post high-school education, young adults still don't know how to be adults and take care of and provide for their families.
So, what now? That's a good question that i don't have enough time to get into right now. Check back tomorrow when i want to deal with plans, purposes, and steps to take.

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Help & Hindurance

I have been working on a lesson for the Jr. High youth this past week. I am finding that curriculum's over all to me tend to be more limiting than necessarily helpful. They have some good ideas for games and such, but when it comes to the lesson, especially in this one we are using right now, it tends to be a little simple minded and milk minded rather than meat minded. It's the kind of lesson i would expect from or for a pre-school and elementary level youth, or for someone who is brand new as a Christian. Not necessarily what is appropriate or best for those in the stages of becoming young adults.

The lesson that i was given for this week talks about the part of the fruit of the Spirit that is faithfulness. As soon as i was assigned to this topic, in my mind i put some ideas together as to what i wanted to touch on. When i read the lesson in the book my reaction was that half of the youth could do this lesson from years of experience in Sunday School. It's a simple concept, Christ is faithful. He is faithful to us as evidenced by scripture. Don't get me wrong. It is a very true and real concept, but at this stage in their life, the youth should be working on applying and bringing these concepts into fruition not just learning that Christ is faithful. If anything, at this age the young adults should already know how to do this and be teaching others to do the same. Yet the core of this lesson is; Christ is faithful, so what does that mean to you?

I guess that this bugs me because it simply reinforces this concept that Jr. High youth are nothing more than bigger kids. Sure they act like little kids quite a bit, but they have so much untapped potential that with a little bit of hard work and effort, they could easily become spiritual powerhouses... well, maybe not necessarily "easily" since becoming a spiritual powerhouse is far from easy, but you get my drift. If they are not trained at a young age to become powerhouses, chances are they may not reach that potential. I guess that this kind of thing just really frustrates me because i see it as being more of a hindrance than a help.

The Other Side

I think i'm beginning to understand things on a completely different level. I don't really like my job a whole lot. I basically work the job to pay the bills and have the insurance so that i can come home, spend some time with my family, work with the youth, etc. Last night, however, i began to see a little better how the other side lives. All my life i have spent in a Christian environment. My family growing up was involved in the church. I was always involved in the church. That continued on into my high-school and college years. There was a time that i rebelled and "turned away" from God, but i knew better. I knew that that was not going to work. My relationship and connection to God were too strong for a time of rebellion to really stick. It's like when you get really mad at the best friend you have had for years. You argue, you fight, but you are too heavily invested in each other that a stupid fight really can't destroy what you have built over the decades. So i have done the party scene, and the drama, and everything related to that before.

Last night however opened my eyes a little bit more. My work had a big celebration. We had reached a significant milestone that had taken a great deal of work and dedication by most everyone to achieve. So with a limited budget the management team put together a celebration. There was karaoke, hor d' ovures (i don't know how to spell it), and a pay bar. So my wife and i went. I'm never really that comfortable at these kinds of parties, but it was a chance to get away without the little ones which is nice sometimes. So the festivities began. Most everyone was drinking, hanging out and talking, and either singing or making a fool of themselves, or just watching it all.

I began to realize, "This is their life". So many of my co-workers work so that they can pay the bills and on the weekend get together with other coworkers and/or friends, go out to the bar and do exactly what everyone was doing last night. Get drunk, make fools of themselves, and complain about something or other. Others, instead of drinking, spend their weekends watching sports, getting lost in movies, whatever. This is the highlight of their week! There is no passion. There is no purpose. There is no direction or real desire... other than getting their weekend fix. It's no wonder everyone is always so miserable. Couple relationships have no solid foundation as a result they fall apart on a whim. Work, well work is just work. Depression is rampant. A big part of it is that for my coworkers, there is no real purpose other than to simply escape on the weekends. Where there is no vision the people perish. Where there is no purpose, there is no hope. There is only depression, escapism, and/or addiction.

I think i'm starting to understand a little bit better...

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One Little Thing... continued

Please be aware that this post is a continuation of the previous week's post.

In my mind there is no doubt that Adam recognized a difference in his wife when she offered him the fruit. One cannot go from a perfectly made human being to much, much less than that without it being clear as day. Sin creates a separation, a gap, a chasm between that which is holy and that which is not. As a result, Adam's choice to take the fruit was exactly that, a choice. He recognized that as a result of taking and eating the fruit there was something different about his wife. She had changed and not for the better. A major gap/chasm had formed between them, and he knew the source.
So i'm convinced that Adam went into eating this forbidden fruit well aware, much more aware than his wife, of the command as well as the consequences of his actions. He was not deceived into considering that the fruit was good for food. He could have cared less if it was pleasing to the eye. The desire to make one wise may have had some pull, but ultimately i believe that even that desire was overwhelmed by seeing the consequences of Eve's actions. So when Adam made the choice to take of the fruit he knowingly made the choice to turn away from God for the sake of his wife.
As a result, Eve's sin was a blind sin resulting in part from deception. Adam's sin, however, was a sin with open eyes. There was no deception. He recognized and made the choice to turn his back on God. He loved God dearly. God created him. God gave him everything he had and wanted, but he desired his wife and unity with his wife even more. So he placed his wife before God. He chose his spouse over his source. That which was created from him over He whom created him. The rest, as they say, is history.

Wow, i just realized what a comparison and contrast this incident and choice are to what happened to Abraham and Isaac when God tested Abraham; asking him to sacrifice his only son whom he loved.

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One Little Thing Can Make All the Difference in the World

"She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate."
Genesis 3:6

I really have to wonder what was going on in Adam's head when his wife Eve gave him the forbidden fruit. I have already commented about what the text states here; that Adam was with Eve at the time. When researching this word it appears that by Adam being "with" Eve he was in the very near vicinity if not right next to her at the time. Chances are pretty good that he knew what had happened long before she ever gave him the fruit, but then again he may not have. He may have been nearby and not privy to the conversation. Either way, when the fruit was given to Adam there is no doubt in my mind that he knew what that fruit was. It was the one thing that he had been forbidden from partaking in. It was the only thing that he knew and understood, beyond the shadow of a doubt, was wrong. So the decision that he made had to be a conscious decision.

One of my professors, Dr. Fount Schultz, at one point brought together some thoughts in relation to this topic. When God created man, did He create an incomplete person? Did he design man to only use a part of facilities? I don't believe that He did or would have. If He didn't create man to fully utilize His body and mind why would He have created them as He did? Currently as human beings we only actively use around 10% of our brain. I have heard that if our brains were utilized to their full potential, what we would be able to do is unimaginable. I know that for me there are days where i can't think or focus to stay on task and read and understand even light reading. Other times my mind is so clear and undistracted that i can get most anything done. On those kinds of days, reading a scientific paper and seeing problems and flaws as well as the potential and possibilities is in easy grasp. I can easily understand theories and concepts that the day before had my mind spinning before i even got past the first couple of sentences.

That change in our mental capabilities would have occurred at the fall of man, at the eating of the fruit. If/when that was the case, Eve taking the fruit and eating it would have changed everything. Adam would have been able to see immediately the difference in his bride. It's like working with the moderate to severely developmentally disabled. You don't need to be a genius to recognize the difference immediately. So when Eve took the fruit there is no doubt in my mind that Adam knew what had happened. So for him to make the decision to eat the fruit would have had to have been a conscious choice. So seeing the consequences why would he have done it?

More on this next week...

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