Monday Musings
November 23, 2009Its been a few weeks since I’ve sat down to reflect on the previous week, so I’ve got a few weeks to think about right now. The past few weeks have been crazy.
Joel Ariza. The Friday of our October HS RIOT I learned of a former student in our HSM who had disappeared. Joel had been a part of our group for a number of years. We called him “Animal” for his insane abilities on a bike. Apparently Joel and a buddy went out on his new boat and the boat capsized. His buddy made it to shore but Joel never did. To my knowledge, his body still hasn’t been found. Tammy and I went to the memorial service for Joel and had a chance to talk with his dad a little and offer some words of encouragement and comfort, I hope.
Vacation. Our time up in the Poconos was incredible. While the nor’easter was crashing down on the coast and causing some cold and wet days here, we had perfect weather up there. Got some great reading in, a lot of rest, and some riding in. Tam and I went for a 20 mile ride on the mt. bikes down the Lehigh Gorge Trail. Much fun together.
Fifteen Years. The reception last Sunday was great! We are so blessed to be a part of AUC and to work with students like you guys. God has done and is doing some great things in the student ministry and it is just amazing to be a part of that and go along for the ride. I am so thankful for all of our leaders – past and present – who really are the reason why everything goes so well and why I’ve been able to make it for fifteen years. I am so blessed.
The Boy. Dean started playing basketball for the Aldan Boys Club. So far he’s loving it. Funny story about The Boy. Thursday I took him up to school and as we got to the blacktop where they line up, about 5-6 boys in his class start chanting Dean’s name. Then Friday as I brought him up, one kids saw him, yelled his name, and then got the attention of all the other guys who, in unison, yelled a loud “Deeaaannnnnn!” I’m nervous.
The Infamous Fork Story. Well, yesterday, Jack walks in with a woman next to him. After some curious thoughts run through my head (Is this one of his sisters? Does Jack have a girlfriend? he doesn’t have a computer so eHarmony is out…), I get introduced to Jack’s sister. I had to ask the question – Are you the sister that he stabbed with a fork? She smiled and said, “Yup!” I’ve been smiling and chuckling since. She has no idea just how famous she is around here.
Servant Hearts. I stand amazed and all of you guys. You MS students were incredible raking on Saturday. I am so proud of the way you all worked so tirelessly and so hard. You HS students – I stand amazed every month when our Servant Teams come together and I watch you all working and making meals, doing bulletin boards, filming video, practicing music, doing the grunt work of setting up and tearing down and operating sound systems. I am blown away! You all are amazing!!! This is what it is all about!
Date Night. Took Alyssa out on a date Friday night. We went to get dinner and then went to the movie theater to see the new Disney Christmas Carol in 3D because it is supposed to be so awesome. We buy our tickets and walk into the Granite Run AMC only to realize then that the 3D version is not being shown everywhere and is not being shown there. A great night with my daughter. A disappointing night not being about to see the movie in 3D.
Football. My Pittsburgh Steelers are killing me! The only solace from yesterday is that the Bengals also lost so we didn’t lose any ground in our division. Ugh!
HS Turkey Bowl XVI Week 3 Promo Video
November 23, 2009Hey all, the week 3 Turkey Bowl promo video is up. Now you can watch all three again as you prepare for this Friday’s 16th annual Turkey Bowl!
TB Videos
November 16, 2009The first two weeks of Turkey Bowl promo videos is up on the website – www.aucyouth.net. Week 3 will go up on Sunday or Monday next week.
Don’t Miss the HS RIOT on Friday Night!
October 28, 2009
Don’t miss our RIOT this Friday night from 7:30-10:30.
Music, air hockey, pool, foosball, video games (including the new Wii Resort), friends, and hanging-out.
A festive Fall menu will be in place including: hot dogs with or without chili and cheese and onions, fries, apple cider, and dirt.
HS Summer Mission Trip
October 27, 2009“If we’re not careful, eventually our comfort zones become cocoons and then coffins.” – Jon Achuff
Monday Musings
October 26, 2009Sunday Sports. It was a good day for me yesterday – both the Steelers and Yankees won. Makes Rich happy. Speaking of the Yankees . . .
World Series Time. The baseball season is winding to a close with what I think is going to be an epic series. Looking forward to the Phillies & Yankees. Our home is evenly divided so it should be fun. At breakfast this morning, Dean said, “This is great! We can start talking trash at each other now.” Not sure how it will play out in the series. Phillies are hitting much better than the Yankees right now, despite the Yankees having a string line-up, in my opinion. Starting pitching looks pretty evenly matched. Bullpen – I think the Yankees are stronger, at least on paper, but the game isn’t played on paper, now is it? I think the Phillies have the edge, in all honesty. The invincible Yankees have stopped hitting this post-season and you can’t win if you don’t hit at least a little. I don’t know. Looking forward to it. I’m ready. Let the dance begin. :)
Love. I’ve got to tell you, nothing warms my heart the way watching you all demonstrate real love does. I loved watching what you all did for Jack yesterday with his birthday. The roars at UG in the morning when his birthday was announced, and the party and gifts last night. You guys rock! The sacrifice in time and money to show love back to a leader who you all know loves you so much – amazing and awesome. I love watching it! It makes my day. I’m so glad to have a front-row seat to watch the Holy Spirit’s continual transformation of so many of you.
Jack. Speaking of Jack, even though I know he’ll never see this (he still doesn’t own an answering machine nor will he take a free one!), his dedication, love and commitment to our high school students and this ministry is unreal! I hope that we all realize that. Take a moment to thank God today for Jack and his love for us.
Lessons From Saul & David. I’ve been reading through 1st Samuel in my devotions and right now I’m reading about Saul and David and the relationship that they found themselves in. Quite interesting. Over the next few weeks I’ll share some insights from their lives. I’ll begin with a simple one today. JEALOUSY WILL EAT YOU ALIVE. This is so apparent in the life of Saul. He starts off loving David and then being grateful for David. But as soon as David gets some credit for something (which Saul empowered and enabled him to accomplish by giving him permission to go fight Goliath), Saul allows jealousy to creep up in his life. His subsequent and constant attempts to kill David become the theme of the following chapters. The jealousy eats at him and eventually devours him. It is all-consuming in his life. And the same will happen to us if we allow it to even creep in a little bit. It’ll take over and consume you.
Great Follow-Up to Elevation Message
October 22, 2009Read this yesterday and it is such a good follow-up to Sunday’s Elevation message, “The Many Faces of Mr. Potato Head.”
Asking “Is It True?”
by Jon Achuff
This is going to come as a shock for many of you, but I wasn’t popular in high school.
I know, I know, given the unibrow, constant braces, and tap dancing lessons, you would think that I would have been homecoming king. But that wasn’t the case. I was a bit of a loser. And by “bit” I mean “big” and by “big” I mean “wicked big.”
I just wasn’t popular and although I’ve committed to raising my own kids as dorks, I was taken aback when my daughter confessed something the other night at dinner.
L.E. is in kindergarten. After three years at a small local church preschool program, she’s started her journey through the public education system. And last week at dinner she told us, “Mary told Janice that I was a big, fat loser.”
She just threw that sentence out on the kitchen table in between forced bites of vegetables. And it sat there for a second, with my wife and I not knowing quite what to do. With big blue eyes, L.E. looked back and forth at as, silently asking a loud question …
“Is it true?”
She didn’t use those words, but that was at the heart of her confession. Someone had called her a big fat loser so she asked the people who have known her the longest, “Is it true?”
Am I big?
Am I fat?
Am I a loser?
Although my wife and I tried our best to talk through the situation with her and assure her it was not true, 10 minutes after we had conversationally left the subject, L.E. burst into tears at the table. She wouldn’t talk about it. When we asked her what was wrong she laughed it off and hid her face in her milk glass, desperate to hold it all together, but the question “Is it true?” kept pushing tears out.
That’s a tough question and I wish it was one that we all left in childhood.
But it’s not, is it?
If I’m being honest, I ask myself “Is it true?” sometimes when I get a negative comment on this site or a hateful email. Someone tells me I’m a horrible writer or a horrible Christian or a horrible anything, and I start to wonder, “Is it true?”
Have you ever asked yourself that question?
Has someone ever told you that you were fat? Or untalented? Or unqualified? Or hopeless? Did a divorce try to tell you that you were broken, a job loss tell you that you were worthless or a parent that you were less than the child they hoped for?
Have you ever found yourself asking the question, “Is it true?”
We all do at some point and the challenge is that we often try to find the answer to that question in the wrong place.
When I feel wounded or hurt, I often feel tempted to ask Google Analytics, a web traffic tool, if I’m any good. I want to open up my statistics and look at all the pageviews and say, “See, that’s not true. I’m not worthless, look at all the countries that have read this site.”
And maybe if you don’t have a blog, you go somewhere else for the answer to the question, “Is it true?”
Maybe you go to a memory, and try to relive a time in your life when you felt popular or loved.
Maybe you ask a new car or a new pair of shoes or a new anything your question.
Am I old? Is that true sports car?
Am I ugly? Is that true new outfit?
Am I dumb? Is that true new laptop?
And we ask and ask and ask, but regardless of the answer, regardless of if our loved ones provide a temporary salve to a question that hinges on our true identity, something gnaws at us.
The only thing I think we can do in that moment is ask the only one who really knows the answer to the question, “Is it true?” And that’s God.
He, unlike your friend, unlike your boss, unlike that shiny new toy you purchased to try to beat back the feelings of inadequacy, He knit you in the womb. He knows you like no other and He loves answering questions like, “Is it true?” and “Who am I?”
The Bible is riddled with verses where God gives us glimpses of who we are, but one has stuck out to me over the years. I’ve written about it before and I’ll write about it again because I heart this verse. It’s Isaiah 30:18. The first half of the verse says,
“Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion.”
I love that idea, because it loudly answers, “Is it true that I am unloved” by saying, “No, God rises to show you compassion. He longs to be gracious. He gets up in the morning with compassion in His big God heart for small feeling you.”
I don’t know what in your life might have caused you to ask the question, “Is it true?” but I hope today, that you’ll think about a new way to answer it.
Regardless of why you’re asking that question, the answer might be:
“No, it’s not true. You are not that word, that thing, that label someone or even yourself is asking you to wear. Showing you compassion is the reason God gets up in the morning. That is what’s true.”
What have you been asking “Is it true?” about lately?
Sobering Thought
October 21, 2009I’ve just started reading Francis Chan’s latest book, Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit. Chapter One hits with a question that is a sobering. Take a look at these words and allow them to sink in a few minutes.
And this is the question I just can’t get around: If It’s true that the Spirit of God dwells in us [Romans 8:9 -- You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ] and that our bodies are the Holy Spirit’s temple [1st Corinthians 6:19-20 -- Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.], then shouldn’t there be a huge difference between the person who has the Spirit of God living inside of him or her and the person who does not?
This may be a silly illustration, but if I told you I had an encounter with God where He entered my body and gave me a supernatural ability to play basketball, wouldn’t you expect to see an amazing improvement in my jump shot, my defense, and my speed on the court? After all, this is God we’re talking about. And if you saw no change in my athleticism, wouldn’t you question the validity of my “encounter”?
Eyes Locked
October 20, 2009Eyes LOCKED! by Perry Noble
I took Charisse to her crib the other night–but before I put her down I decided to spend a few minutes with her in the rocking chair. I am not even sure what I was saying–but all of a sudden she opened her eyes really big and just stared at me.
To be honest–I got lost in that moment. She didn’t look away–she didn’t even hardly blink–she just stared right at me and I nearly melted right there. There is NOTHING that pleases a father more than when he has the undivided attention of his child. I will have to say that up until this point it was probably the most special time I have had with just she and I…and I felt SO connected with her.
Walking out of her room down the steps I felt the Lord whisper to me, “Hey Perry, that is what I want with you! Not some ritual…but an intimate connection.”
From time to time I get caught up in “having a quiet time” just to say I had one? Sure, a verse or two will stand out to me…but if I am not careful I will forget that my time with God in the mornings isn’t about a spiritual to do list–it is about a connection…a connection that I need and God wants.
God doesn’t want our lip service–He wants our undivided attention. And that is SO hard in today’s society–everything competes with our time with Him…ESPECIALLY technology. I just know that what I experienced with my daughter was REAL…and the Lord used it in my life to show me that I need to take my walk with Him to the next level!
Then I was reminded of Jesus–the Bible says in Luke 5:16 that He often withdrew to lonely places and prayed–translation–He got alone and LOCKED EYES with His Father…amazing! We see this again in Mark 1:35 where the Bible says that the first thing in the morning Jesus went to a solitary place to lock eyes with His Father…and the result was direction and power. (See Mark 1:36-39)
BUT–I believe the most intimate and challenging time Jesus had with the Father was in the garden of Gethsemane where we see Him praying in Matthew 26:36-45 one of THE most unselfish, sold out prayers EVER recorded in history. Translation–when we LOCK EYES with the Father there is NOTHING that we are not willing to do for Him!
My prayer lately has been that I will have my eyes LOCKED–focused on Him! It blows my mind that He wants that–and I know I need it!!! I never want to merely offer God lip service–He knows my heart. My desire is to LOCK EYES with Him and then to do whatever He asks…how about you?
