Blog by Cy

We like surprises.

I think the best part of a surprise, at least for me, is that fact that someone was thinking of me without me being present with them. I think that is what gives us the “awwwwwww” feeling when we are surprised. All these people were thinking of me. That is awesome.

But the problem with surprises is two fold. They don’t happen often enough and once you have had one type of surprise it really can’t be repeated with the same impact. Not because the thought isn’t as genuine but since we have experienced it, our reaction is impacted by our past experiences.

The reason surprises don’t happen often enough for us is because who has enough time? Who has enough time to be thinking of others all the time when life is happening at full speed? No one can possibly be working on a surprise for you all the time. Because you can’t possibly be working on a surprise for someone else all the time. If you can’t do it then no one can do it for you.

Surprises are exciting because of their lack of frequency. Would our love of surprises change if they happened more often? Probably. Just like people who live in the mountains grow tired of the horizon or people who live in Hawai’i grow tired of the beach; we would grow tired of surprises.

I want to challenge you though.

There is someone who spends everyday thinking of ways to surprise you. He knows how to get to you and He is working on it all the time. He knows one day it is going to work and you are going to be surprised off your feet.

God thinks about you all day everyday. His thoughts are consumed with you, because He made you and He loves you more than you can imagine. Everyday He surprises you with something beautiful and amazing. But rarely are we in awe of what God is doing in our lives. Often it is because what He is doing isn’t what we had in mind. His plan isn’t our plan, so we aren’t in awe, we are angry.

Why not let God surprise you today? You might like it.

Do you find yourself making something important that really isn’t important?

I am unbelievable at this.

I used to scope out a website, steep and cheap, to see what deals are out there. Mostly what it did for me was cause unnecessary emergencies. Like, I really need a new set of trekking poles and these are only $70. What a deal. And the deal is only going to last a few more minutes, I better jump on this now before they are gone.

I’m not sure if you are aware, but trekking poles are not life and death for me. I don’t currently have a pair. I don’t really need a pair, but they were made important by an outside influence. I brought on the outside influence by constantly checking out this website that’s main goal was to create urgency in my life so I would buy something out of desperation. Usually something I have no use for.

This happens all the time.

The Grammy’s and the Oscar’s aren’t a big deal. They really don’t matter. However, they are made important to us by how they are covered in the media. We yearn for exposure to celebrities and getting to watch them all together is a joy for us, for some reason. Our lives aren’t impacted if Brad Pitt wins an Oscar or not. Nothing changes in our lives if this happens. Nothing changes if it doesn’t.

But how many of us will schedule our Sunday night activities so that we can be home in time to watch acceptance speeches from people in movies we have never seen?

One of my favorite sayings is: Keep the main thing, the main thing.

I’ve been struggling in this area recently. I’ve been drifting from the main thing. And when I drift from the main thing, I usually don’t drift to the second most important thing it is usually to something totally worthless.

My reading, prayer and worship have been suffering. Because I have made something else “important”.

Help me stop the madness.

What’s important today – that hasn’t been important before? Call it out for what it is. Not the main thing. Today, let’s all strive to keep the main thing, the main thing.

Is God anti-smoking?

I have no idea. I don’t recall it being addressed specifically in the Bible (I’m sure someone out there has found God’s opinion in the Bible…).

On Sunday I talked about surrendering something to the Lord so that we can grow in our relationship with Him. I used addictions as an example because I believe addiction replaces God with a substance or image or whatnot. God doesn’t like when He isn’t # 1. That I know. So if smoking for you is something you have to do. It’s something you wake up thinking about and you go to bed thinking about. It’s an issue and it is keeping you from a relationship with God. How do I know?

Deut. 6:4 – 7

Basically this says to love the Lord our God with all your heart, soul and strength. Talk about Him with your children. Think about Him when you are at home and when you go out. He should be the last thing you think about when you lay down and the first thing you think about when you get up.

If it is something else that you think of, maybe that is what you should surrender. It might be smoking. I understand how difficult addiction is to conquer. I also know you will not conquer it if you don’t try.

Step one – give it to God. Step two – throw away your cigarettes. Step three – don’t buy more.

Give it a shot.

We are taught from an early age to never give up or quit or surrender. And in a lot of facets of life, that is a good thing. It is good to not quit when things are hard or not going how you think they should.

However, there are actually times when giving up or surrendering can be a good thing, a very good thing in fact.

For instance, in Mark 8:34 – 35, Jesus asks us to surrender to Him. Give up our lives for His sake and the sake of the Gospel. Sounds extreme doesn’t it? Maybe the next big extreme sport could be surrendering to Jesus and God’s will for your life. Oh the crazy places that will take us.

It’s hard to do and some of us don’t know where to start. So here is a safe experiment.

Lent starts tomorrow. It’s a 40 day period leading up to Easter (not including Sundays). The idea traditionally for lent is to give something up during this time and focus that energy on Jesus. Let’s say there is something keeping you from surrendering to Jesus (for most of us there are lots of things in our way), you could use this 40 day test period to surrender something to Jesus to see how it goes.

It might be a destructive relationship. An addiction, alcohol, drugs, pornography, food, technology, etc.; you choose. It might be an attitude. A lot of us just decide to not believe in Jesus, regardless of what truth is, we just won’t believe. Maybe we lay that down just to see what God might do.

Give it 40 days, and see if your life changes at all in that time. It isn’t permanent. You can grab right back ahold of whatever you have laid down after 40 days if you still want it. It’s not all in, it a little in with a shoe string attached to that portion so you can pull it back after 40 days.

What do you say? Who’s in?

These days we are great at input.

In a world where most humans carry an infinite “connection” to the world wide web of information in their pocket (a “smart”phone), input is easy to come buy. You can get updates from everyone’s facebook and twitter accounts. You can get blog feeds to your phone. You can check a news outlet’s website. You can get your emails. You can check out movie reviews, music reviews and book reviews.

We can get tons of information. We input a lot into our heads, minds, etc.

We take in a ton of information.

Then what?

When we aren’t outputting at least at the same rate we are inputting, eventually there is going to be an issue. We have infinite outlets for disseminating information, but that isn’t the same as output.

Output means you form something, you put some effort behind a thought or a piece of art or a photo. Regurgitating isn’t the same as using inputs to create an output. Retweeting something isn’t output, it’s moving forward someone else’s output.

We are created to be creative beings. We have more access than ever to things that could inspire new outputs of creativity. But I think our lack of output and our continued inputing has stifled us. We are being choked by our inputs so that output seems impossible.

God created us to create. God is more creative than anything, anyone we have ever encountered. Just look around at what he has created. We can’t match God, but can’t we be as free in creating as He is?

If you keep inputting and never output it won’t get well for you, physically or intellectually.

Let’s get creative. Put all your information to good use. Create something. Use your mind to make something. Otherwise stop inputting. At least for a while.

I tried reading this book about a year ago and I just couldn’t get into it. But I got the book for my birthday and now I am marking up all the pages. It’s called the Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. This time through it is reading like a book of quotes. It seems like nearly every paragraph has a epic quote.

Here are two that I think are worth talking about.

“The church is not a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners.” Morton Kelsey

“Our approach to Christian life is as absurd as the enthusiastic young man who had just received his plumber’s license and was taken to see Niagara Falls. He studied it for a minute and then said, ‘I think I can fix this.’ Anthony DeMello

Let’s look at the first thought first. Ponder the difference between a museum and a hospital. I’ve been to a handful of museums. In Ottumwa we have a Radar O’Reilly, MASH museum. What do we know about museums? At best they are busy during school field trips and on the occasional Saturday. You have to want to go to a museum. They truly aren’t for everyone. They are usually quiet and determined to keep them that way. If something is moved from it’s ordinary spot, that could create chaos. Order is the rule of the road at a museum. The artifacts are more important than the customers.

A hospital is a bit different. It exists to serve people. If people weren’t sick and hurting there wouldn’t be a need for hospitals. People in the hospital are more important than any of the stuff. When a person comes to a hospital they are served, sometimes by many people all at once with blatant disregard for the furniture in the room. They have their rules and order that must be kept but for the most part the goal with those are to protect and serve the people who are around. The hospital is loud, busy. It works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A hospital reaches out into the community as it picks people up who need them in the ambulance. You rarely find people more real than in a hospital. All the facades come down when you are in a hospital.

God, if our church isn’t a hospital shut it down. I don’t want to serve “artifacts” hung on a wall. I want to serve your people. Your hurt, sick, crazy, sinful, destroyed and disastrous people. Let’s get so messy we want to wear surgical gowns to serve.

Can I get an amen?

How is your memory?

Mine isn’t very good. I can remember names usually. I do pretty good with that. I can remember numbers.

But I can leave the bedroom heading toward another part of the house and before I get to my destination have totally forgotten what the mission was to begin with. I’m sure I have some horrible disease or I just don’t pay any attention. Either way, I’ll survive until I don’t. Do you know we aren’t the only ones with short memories?

I’ve been studying in the book of Mark to get ready to preach this Sunday. And I came across this curious verse. Mark 8:16:

“At this they began to argue with each other because they hadn’t brought any bread.”

Now if you were headed out on a three or four day road trip with no cash and no food, you might get a little angry about the situation. That would be understandable. These guys were rolling with Jesus. And not only were they rolling with Jesus but they were rolling with Jesus from the place where He had just fed 4,000 people with 7 loaves of bread.

So Jesus response to they squabbling was understandable, “What the crap?” (paraphrasing the original Greek there…)

Didn’t you all just see me give bread to 4,000 people? Didn’t we have left overs? Don’t you think I could do that again? Why are you worried about food? Don’t you get what this is all about?

Unfortunately the answer then was no. They didn’t get it. They didn’t understand that their comfort wasn’t the purpose of Jesus’ mission.

Unfortunately the answer now is the same. I don’t get it. I forget often that my comfort isn’t the purpose of my life here on earth. Having no bread shouldn’t be on my radar screen. Having no faith should be. Not loving neighbors should be dealt with, the paint color in my basement probably not as crucial.

Is Jesus going to make sure we have bread? Yes.

Does He want us to live a life that glorifies Him? Yes.

Does that include worrying constantly about ourselves?

I hate answering the why question. Why did this have to happen? Or why did that happen that way?

I don’t know. Most people probably don’t know. And we probably never will. Is that a good answer? I answer the “why?” question quite a bit with “I don’t know”.

Why did a 16 year old die last night? Why does that young mother have breast cancer? Why did that 10 year old die?

All of the above are realities for families in and around my sphere of influence in the past two or three weeks. I am not about to be that guy who quotes Romans 8:28 to the families that have lost their children. I want to grieve with them. I want to pray over them that God would protect them and hold them up because I’m guessing they can’t stand on their own.

We can ask why. I’m all for asking why. But let’s stop trying to answer that question. Let’s ask God the question and let God answer it.

Tragedy is never far from us. We shouldn’t become mechanical and spout off about celebrating life. I think we should mourn wholeheartedly next to the families who are hurting. Call out to God, scream why, and for once, let’s just wait and see how He answers.