My favorite teacher growing up was
Mr. Deane (pronounced “dee-ah-nee”), bar none.

Oh, I had several wonderful and even inspirational teachers through the years, but for so many reasons, Mr. Deane stands head and shoulders above the rest. It was in his class that I learned so much about life, while having no clue as to the true power of what he was teaching. He was the warmest, kindest, sincerest teacher I ever had and while I was not a stellar student, he made me believe that my potential was uncontainable. I will always love Mr. Deane and he’ll always hold a very special place in my heart.

It was in Mr. Deane’s 6th grade class (6th grade was still elementary school in our district) that I began to really notice girls. Let me restate that: one girl. But alas, she never saw me. We went through the entire school year in the same room and I still don’t think she looked at me once.

6th grade was also the year that I ran for Vice President of Student Council. I don’t want to talk about that or how my campaign speech in front of the whole student body went when I almost fell off the stage. So drop it.

6th grade was also the year I learned what a cool walk was. Jason DeFalco showed everyone the walk all day everyday. I still haven’t mastered it.

6th grade was also the year that I played for the Lakers basketball team in the school league. We were the champions that season. Impressed? Don’t be. I never touched the ball once. But I wasn’t the only one inept at basketball. John Magill wore cleats to a game. Cleats. How did we end up as champions? Two words: Matt Magaffney. He was an NBA star trapped in a 6th grade kid’s body. He carried the rest of us, and our cleats.

And I’m pretty sure 6th grade was also the year I threw up during one of our concert band performances.

But there’s one lesson I learned that year that dims all those other stories. Mr. Deane had created a system of penalties and rewards where the “Deane Dollar” was the currency. If you missed your homework, you got a fine put up on the fine board, a bulletin board at the side of his classroom. If you wanted to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water, that’d cost you a Deane Dollar. If you got above a certain score on a test, you’d be rewarded with Deane Dollars. If you turned in your homework, more Deane Dollars. If your homework was done sloppily, that’d cost you Deane Dollars. You get the idea.

But the powerful life lesson that I learned within those 4 walls was one of redemption and forgiveness. I truly believe that it would ultimately help me see how beautiful the grace of God really is.

Enter Todd Bienke (pronounced “bin-kee”). Todd Bienke was a really good friend of mine in 6th grade. Maybe even my best friend that year, whether he knew it or not.

Being the mediocre student that I was, I often found myself with outstanding fines on the fine board in Mr. Deane’s class. And outstanding fines meant one thing: no recess at the end of the day. Yep, anyone with an unpaid fine when it came time to go outside and play was sentenced to time in Mrs. Rattwiler’s room. I’m not kidding. Her name was Rattwiler. A more horrid punishment you could not imagine. So, while the class was outside playing, those with unpaid fines would sit in Rattwiler’s room.

But Todd Bienke was my friend. Not only that, but Todd Bienke was a much better student than I was. And it seemed that Todd Bienke always had Deane Dollars to spare.

You can see it coming, can’t you?

So, when recess time came, I vividly recall more times than I can remember Todd Bienke walking over to that fine board, pulling the fine with my name on it off the board, placing his own Deane Dollars over it, and handing it to Mr. Deane. I almost get teary-eyed just thinking about it. I meant enough to Todd Bienke for him to spend his own Deane Dollars to pay for my recess.

You mean enough to God our Creator for Him to spend the blood of His one and only Son to pay for your freedom. On the cross, Jesus walked over to your fine board, took down all of your offenses, covered them with his blood, and handed them to the Father.

Now, enjoy recess!

Just this morning I logged onto my Facebook page and found that one of the high school students in my small group, Rachel was asking people to share a Scripture verse that was meaningful to them. Some have used the phrase “life verse” to describe that kind of Bible verse. One verse in particular sprang right to mind.

For many years now, you might say that I have had my own “life verse”; a verse that I hold dear as a centerpiece, a recentering verse, and an aspiration to reach for. That verse has been Philippians 1:21.

But a couple of months ago, I was reading in the book of Galatians and came across a verse that has since then replaced the Phillipians verse. It sums up the entirety of my life; all my goals, all my dreams, all my aspirations…it’s all I want to be and do. It’s found in Galatians 1:24.

“and they praised God because of me.”

Every day of my life is found in the two words “because of”. It doesn’t matter to me who “they” happen to be, I simply want every person who sees me or knows me to give praise to God “because of” something they see in me. I want my life to cause my wife to praise God. I want my life to cause my kids to praise God. I want my life to cause the teenagers I love and serve to praise God. I want my life to cause anyone who cares to notice to praise God.

And this not some ego-driven goal. This is so much not about me or my life. I only want every breath I breathe to be so drenched in God’s presence that any person who speaks to me or hears me or interacts with me at all knows that I have surrendered my life to God. And let me be quick to echo the words of the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3:12 when he said, “Believe me, I know I haven’t arrived, nor have I become perfect; but one thing I do: I press on to what is ahead so that I can lay hold of that for which Christ laid hold of me.”

I don’t mean to be overly dramatic. I really don’t.
And I don’t consider myself as someone who complains…and I’m not.
I’m a “roll with the punches” kind of guy.
I’m a “ya take the good, ya take the bad, ya take ’em both, and there you have…” kind of guy.

BUT…
I’m in day 10 (maybe 11) of a sinus situation that has honestly–don’t laugh–made me think more than once about Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 12:7:

“To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.”

Now before you think that I think that I’m some Apostle Paul, let me confess to you that I’m not. I can just relate to the idea of something bugging you to remind you of your humanness and complete reliance on God. And we’re never really told what the issue with Paul was. Some have suspected it was perhaps a case of the gout; a foot issue. Some have seemed to figure out that it was a problem with his eyes/sight. But no matter what it was, it was something that he sought the Lord’s help with. The next verse (8) tells us that Paul pleaded with the Lord 3 times (truth be told, I’ve only asked God to help with my sinuses once so far) to remove the “thorn” from him. God’s answer to Paul is a statement that has echoed through the ages, bringing strength, hope, and stability to the bleakest of situations–of which mine is not. He said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

DID YOU HEAR THAT?!?
DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT THAT MEANS?!?
HAVE YOU ANY CLUE WHAT KIND OF RELIEF THIS BRINGS?!?

Losers, rejoice! All you “not-quite-good-enoughs” stand and shout praise! Any of you “ain’t-got-it-in-me”, bless the Lord! For the throngs of all you wimps getting sand kicked in your face–give glory to God!

GOD IS FOR THE WEAK!
GOD IS FOR THE SICK!
GOD IS FOR THOSE WHO AREN’T ENOUGH.
GOD IS FOR THOSE WHO KNOW THEY FALL WAY TOO SHORT.
GOD IS FOR LOSERS.
GOD IS FOR REJECTS.
GOD IS FOR ME!
GOD IS FOR YOU!!!

When we embrace our shortcomings, our weaknesses, and our failures, and we come to God plainly and boldly with our pile of insufficiencies, God in His grace and power says to us, “You’re never going to be enough….but I’m always more than enough.” He kisses you on the forehead and says, “I see your weakness….now see my strength!” His arms embrace you and He whispers, “Let me show you all I can do in light of all you can’t.”

But we must come honestly. We must come plainly. We must come transparently to Him with all we are and all we’re not. And we say to God, “Here’s my pathetic underqualification.” And in His might, triggered by our confession He says, “Watch me do what you could never hope to. Watch me work in ways you can’t imagine. Watch my power fill you so full that you find that the weaker you become, the stronger I become.”

So, I glory in all my weaknesses today. Because my bold confession of my shortfalls is my invitation to God to be great and mighty in my life. And in one fell swoop, I am relieved of being good enough, strong enough, smart enough, or anything enough. All because HE is more than enough.

And Paul wraps up this section in a celebration of sorts–a wonderful declaration:
“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

It might sound silly to you, but after 10 days of poor sleep, difficulty breathing, countless tissues, hundreds of pumps from the hand sanitizer, and a myriad of medications, I can rejoice in weakness. I can rejoice in less than 100%. I can say to God, “I can’t do it today.” And with loving eyes He says, “Good.”

Just heard about a church in NC (my apologies to my home state and all the other not-so-whacked-out churches that pepper its beautiful landscape) that is planning on a good ‘ol fashioned book burning. Actually, the only people who might connect nostaligically with this are Hitler and any Nazis that are left.

Take a look at the pastor’s plan:

Yikes. Now, I know that I don’t know all there is to know–but I’m pretty sure burning all Bibles except the KJV is pretty radical. And when I say radical what I really mean is, well…insane. And wrong. And insane. And to throw in the flames books by Warren, MacArthur, and Graham?

My take on it? Publicity. Pure and simple.
And by golly, snap my overalls, he got his publicity!
Good job, pastor!

My plan is to give good ‘ol Pastor Matchlight a call when its all said and done to see if he got any visitors from the event—
—or did he burn them too?

When I was young, I watched a TV show called “Doogie Howser M.D.”. It was a show about a teenage prodigy who was a practicing physician, while still juggling the more typical demands of the teenage life. And true to sitcom form, each episode was wrapped up with a nice bow; the problem that was unveiled in the first half of the episode was neatly resolved in the second half. But Doogie concluded each day in a unique way. He’s sit down at his computer in his bedroom and summarize the day’s lesson in a brief quip. The close of every episode found us watching a blinking cursor make its way across his monochromatic screen.

I wish that I had the kind of life that warranted such entries, and furthermore I wish I had the discipline to sit down each night and record my thoughts as I look back over the past 14-16 hours and the activities they held. But sadly, I don’t. So, you’ve got a blog here that is hit-and-miss, more off than on, and pretty much a roulette as to whether I’m going to post anything.

And I suppose that I enjoy hearing from people when I don’t post for an extended period of time. And I’m not just talking about my Mom. Hi Mom! But I think today’s event, though not exciting per se, were worthy of reflection.

My wife just walked in with nasal decongestant. I’m not kidding–for one of them, she had to sign her name for it, swearing she won’t use it to start a meth lab. I’ll be right back.

Okay, I’m back. My day began in the darkness of 5:50 a.m. when my watch alarm went off, awakening me to get showered and ready to go. I was the invited speaker at a men’s breakfast which started at 7 a.m. They asked if I would come and speak to them about connecting with the next generation. I started off by sharing 8 distinctives of the current youth culture. If you’d like to read my notes containing my observations on today’s young people, just email me. I’ll get them to you. That went great and triggered a lot of wonderful discussion with the men present. At about 8:30 I headed back home, feeling tired (wonder why?) and decided to climb back in bed. I should mention that I’ve been a bit under the weather–hence, the nasal decongestant.

Speaking of said nasal decongestant: it’s been less than 5 minutes and I can tell a marked difference. Whew. That stuff works. No wonder you’ve got to sign for it! But I digress.

So after a failed attempt at a morning nap due to incoming texts and phone calls, I got out of bed for the second time and worked on the message I’ll be delivering tomorrow morning at The Mixx at our Courthouse Road campus. I’m excited about that. We’re in week 3 of a church-wide series called “Living Large”. It’s a deep and bold look into the life of Joseph. This is my first time delivering the Sunday morning message since the series began. So, it felt good to get that done after Steve, my partner in ministry crime, got me the outline.

By then, I felt like it was early afternoon, but wasn’t yet 11 a.m. I had some leftover pizza for lunch and then we headed out to our kids’ school fall festival. Merritt and I had volunteered to work a couple of the booths. I manned the huge inflatable slide for an hour and she tackled the pie eating contest table. Fun, fun. All in all, a pleasant afternoon with a huge crowd of people, despite the sprinkling rain.

Then back home we came for a lovely family dinner before plunkin’ down on the couch with the Hotness for a melange of romantic comedy film and non-effective nasal inhales. Throw in a pile of tissues and you’ve got a rip-roarin’ good time.

And that was the most recent event in my day. After the movie, I put the kids in bed while Merritt executed a “covert op” at Walgreens…and scored BIG with this unbelievable nasal spray. Yep, the meth lab stuff.

And it was while she was gone that I was reflecting on my day, all that it held, and Doogie Howser M.D. And just like Doogie, here I am wrapping up my day with a blinking cursor.

If you know this Doogie of which I speak, and you’d like to hear the soothing sounds of that synthesized theme song, have at it.

While reading in the book of Haggai this morning, I came across an interesting phenomenon. The situation in Haggai was that God’s people had been allowed by Cyrus back into Jerusalem after their Babylonian exile in order to rebuild the Temple that had been destroyed. They came back with fervor that turned out to be quite short-lived. It wasn’t long before the Temple got put on the “back burner” and instead God’s people had turned their attention to their own homes, and not His.

And this was because God’s people didn’t think that it was time to rebuild the Temple (1:2). But then God did something peculiar: He changed their desires.

Huh? What about free will? What about you and I living a life where we are free to either embrace God and His will or reject God and His will? What are we, puppets on His strings?

There’s no way to give a fitting explanation to the relationship between God’s graciousness that allows our choice and God’s soveriegnty that has everything in the palm of His hand. It’s just too other-worldly. But still something must be said about how God is operating here in Haggai.

God desired His Temple to be rebuilt. In fact, He said clearly through Haggai that the rebuilt Temple would outshine the first Temple. This had nothing to do with God being some cosmic task-master, or some ego-maniacal bully. Why was God so determined to get His people back on the Temple-building track?

Plain and simple: God desperately longs to be near His people. His promise of blessing on the rain, on the crops, on the supplies, on the gold, on the silver, on all the necessities, and on the people screams His desire to be near His beloved and chosen people. God says in 2:19, “From this day on I will bless you.”

The name “Haggai” has as its root “hag” which is the word for “festival”. In today’s vernacular, we’d say “party”. God had instituted regularly scheduled “parties” for His people to enjoy with Him. Why? I’d dare say it was in preparation for eternity. It seems to me that everything that God does, allows, and effects is in preparation for our eternity with Him. Our problems arise when we lose sight of God’s view on things: eternal. Stressed? It’s temporary. Worried? It’s about temporary things. Burned out? Temporarily. We experience these emotions when we stop considering eternity as more prominent than temporary.

With eternity as the backdrop of every conflict, every problem, every uncertain situation, every unanswered question–we find things managable when we remember that God resides in eternity and none of the things of this world will last, but all of the things of this world are preparing us to reside with God in eternity.

And so our desires become what God desires; all in preparation for a never-ending reality with Him. This is why God was calling His people, through Haggai, to take their focus off of temporary homes and instead return to a focus on His dwelling, and dwelling with Him.

I lead a new small group on Sunday nights. Last night was our 2nd meeting and we were studying the “almost” murder of Joseph in Genesis 37. We decided to record the re-enactment we did. Enjoy!