Gavin Dickey & Trusting God

I went to the Florida State vs. Florida baseball game last night. It was a good night...for my son Josh. He's a Gator fan. It was not a good night for me. I'm all 'Noles all the time. He was talking a little trash on the way to the game. I told him to save it for after the game. He must have been tired. He didn't rub it in too bad after the Gators pretty much had their way with the ‘Noles 9-2. We did sit in the Gator section so he did get a taste of how obnoxious SOME Gator fans can be. I'm not stereotyping because we do have the Animals of Section B. Not exactly a model of non-obnoxious behavior.

Seeing Gavin Dickey playing left field for the Gators caused my mind to wonder. How does he handle his current circumstances? This kid was Mr. Everything in high school. He's from Tallahassee. He won two state titles here at Lincoln High School. He was considered one of the top 4 QB prospects in the country. He signed with Florida...and so did a kid named Chris Leak. Leak's doing alright for himself and so Gavin finds himself No. 2. That can't be easy for a kid that was Mr. Everything. Worse, he and Leak are in the same year. IF Leak goes pro after his junior year that will give Gavin one year at best to shine. I just wonder how he handles all that. I wonder how I would handle it. Right now my circumstances are pretty good. I have a great family, a job I love, good friends...life if pretty good. What if that changed? What if my circumstances crash? Sometimes we don't know what's really inside of us until we have to go through the really tough stuff that life offers. God, help me to trust you when things are good...and when things get tough.



tags: God Spirituality Gators baseball football

Switchfoot Tickets & Archaic Communication

Swithchfoot tickets for Wild Adventures go on sale today. As we speak I'm hitting redial for the 99th time trying to get through to buy a pair. Anybody else going? That's a dumb question. That's why I'm still hitting redial. This seems soooo archaic in the internet age to be sitting here trying to get through a busy signal. I wonder if this is how church feels for some people who don't go often. Like they have stepped back in time. Like everything is so archaic and out of touch with the rest of their world. The message we have is ancient that is not the same as archaic. It has been around since the beginning - God loves us and has gone to great lengths to demonstrate that love. Our methods of communication should be current. Jesus did not teach in the style of Solomon just because Solomon was such a great teacher. He taught in the style of Jesus - he loved stories and so he told stories. Paul taught in the style of Paul - he was a lawyer so he made his case in legal terms. Luke was a doctor & loved details - so he gave us a lot information that would have been lost if he did not teach from who he was. Our message becomes dull and archaic when we try to present it exactly in the same methods we have seen others present it in. Let's be fresh. Present the gospel...out of your life not just your head. I'm still hitting redial.

Developing...

tags: Ministry Communication Youth Ministry

Taking Easter for Granted

I first began to realize how easy it is for me to take Easter for granted when talking to my son on the way home from church yesterday. We were having a typical Sunday afternoon conversation, “What did you guys talk about in class today”. “Nothing”. “Northing?” “Well, you know the resurrection and all that. Stuff I already know because I’ve heard it a million times”

This was a wake up call. Not for me to lecture him but to reflect on my own attitudes. As I approached Easter yesterday I must admit…much of my attitude was the same as his. I did not anticipate a deep heart felt reminder of what it means to be set free by the power of His resurrection. I expected to see people I haven’t seen in awhile. And I did. I expected the crowd to be up a little. And it was. I expected people to be dressed a little more formally than they typically are. And they were. I did not expect what I really needed…a reminder of the depth of love God has for me…A depth of love that took Him to the cross. I did not expect what I really needed…a reminder that the same power that moved Him from death to life lives in me through His Holy Spirit. God forgive me for low expectations.

And than I read Deuteronomy 8:11 this morning… “Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the LORD your God”. This was no longer a wake up call this was an all out smack in the face. How easy has it become for me to forget... Not intellectually. I work in a church after all. But emotionally - deep down in my heart how often do I remember all that Christ went through so I could be set free? We definitely have ‘the plenty’ spoken of in this verse. Not just ‘plenty’ in the material sense but plenty in the fact that God’s grace has been so abundantly poured out on us. Have I begun to take this for granted?

God remind me of all you did to set me free and help me, even in the abundance of your grace, never to take that for granted.

tags: God Spirituality
Christianity

Redhills 2005

Today was the Redhills '05 Triathlon. It was different. It was the first triathlon I've run when I didn't know a soul who would also be running it (I found out after the fact that Wiley Meggs ran it also). Bucky was out of town, John got sick so it was just me, the water, the road and the trail. It was really strange. It was almost a training event. None of that pre-race hype or excitement. Just the thought of, oh good I get to spend the next 1hr 46 minutes swimming, biking & running. With that said the lack of adrenaline was evident from the beginning. I knew within a few minutes of being in the water (64 degrees) that it wasn't my day. I've never struggled so much in the water. It was my slowest swim ever. I actually thought a couple times I may not make it out of the water. I saw some guys doing the back stroke and actually contemplated it. I swam off course by a good 25 yards (that's not good for your time). That was disappointing. My bike and run time improved which gave me an overall better time than last year but I would have felt a lot better if I had a better swim. Oh, well. Maybe next time.

Anyway, some lessons from Redhills '05.

1. Everything is better with teammates by your side.
2. Competition inspires achievement.
3. Don't eat Chinese food the night before running a triathlon.

tags: triathlon

Authenticity without integrity is lethal.

Every once in awhile a books comes along and brings words to all of the vague feelings and thoughts that have been rattling around in my head and just am not quite smart enough to put to intelligible words. Erwin McManus has been doing that for me lately. His book Uprising has been a daily slap in my face. It has been a daily opportunity for God to say to me…Wake up Todd. I find myself lulled into so many old and often times bad patterns of living…most of the time focused on what I think is right but also often based on what is best for me and not necessarily for those God has placed around me. This book has caused me to take a look inside myself and ask, ‘What is it that is driving me?’ We live in a society that is in your face. If you feel it...you should say it. If you want it...you should get it. Everything is to the extreme and everything is fueled by emotion...rational thought be condemned. I can be like that a lot. Fueled by what I want and what satisfies me. Erwin McManus says it like this in his book Uprising...

In recent times in our culture we have put an increasing value on authenticity and a decreasing focus on integrity…If to be authentic means to be who we really are or to express what we really feel, then in most cases I’m going to vote for hypocrisy. Our prisons are filled with men and women who acted on their feelings and impulses. If authenticity is about being true to your self, these individuals should be our models of inspiration…Our claim that we are committed to being authentic can actually be a façade for self-indulgence. If we’re not careful, authentic can be the new word for arrogance…This perspective frees us from any concern for the feelings of others…Authenticity can establish a self-righteousness that justifies abuse. Is it really OK to do something because you want to, to say something because you feel it? Authenticity without integrity is lethal. (Uprising: A Revolution of the Soul. Erwin McManus p. 66-67)

McManus than goes onto to describe what real authenticity is. It is similar to what John Eldredge writes when he talks about the new heart. Real authenticity is being who God created you to be. It is living out of our new heart and suppressing our old flesh. So yes, I want to live from the heart as Eldredge has inspired us to do but I also want to be very careful that I am living out of the new heart that God has placed in me and not just using my freedom as an excuse to indulge in old fashioned self-centeredness. God help me to be authentic. To be who You have created me to be. Help me to live out of the new heart you have placed in me and give me the wisdom to recognize when it is just my old selfish nature that is driving me.

tags: God Spirituality Books Christianity

RELEVANT magazine :: GOD.LIFE.PROGRESSIVE CULTURE.

This is a great article. Seems to hit us where we live. In our youth ministry and church as a whole. We've done the criticism thing. Let's move on toward solutions. grace...Todd

RELEVANT magazine :: GOD.LIFE.PROGRESSIVE CULTURE.

Degrees of Anonymity

Oh, how the hit count mounts. I've heard radio hosts talk about this. If you want to increase your audience - stir up a little controversy. The irony in this is I have chosen not to participate in the online blog/comment wars. I prefer the old fashion way...in person. So I'm not sure what has caused the upsurge. Maybe somebody just hoping I'll jump in. Sorry. Not my style. Don’t consider this jumping in. Just putting a little Biblical wisdom on the otherwise Wild Wide West of the World Wide Web.

With that said much of what I see stirring people is the rightness or wrongness of a person commenting as the infamous anonymous. In reality there are always degrees of anonymity. Even when you leave a name the mere fact that you are commenting in the privacy of your own home, on your time at a safe distance without the fear of immediate reaction is degree of anonymity. People leave me anonymous comments all the time. Not just on the blog. They make statements to a person in order to communicate a message to me. It’s in person; just not directly to the person they ultimately want to communicate with.

The internet gives us that same sense of anonymity. We want our cake and we want to eat it too. We want to express our emotions as strongly and clearly as we feel so inclined but we don’t want the accountability that goes along with a personal encounter. Is that right or wrong? Depends. I know one person who reads many of the ‘Northwoods’ blogs regularly. They are a person looking for their faith back. Wanting to be reminded of what of what they once knew as their community of faith they are taking a peek into ours and to trying to rediscover it. Oops. I think they took a peak and caught us at a bad moment. They did not want to say, ‘hey my name is John Doe and I used to love Jesus but not I’m struggling’. They simply wanted to say, ‘hey, body of Christ, people are looking at you to figure out if this Jesus thing is real or not. Wake up and be responsible.’ So it may feel like anonymous is judging us and our comments…in reality they may be judging for themselves whether or not this faith thing is real.

Jesus said in John 13:35 says, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” In other words…we will be judged by others according to how we treat one another. We can complain about it. We may not like it. But that is the way it is and will always be. It may be a good time to take a look inside and judge ourselves and ask ourselves the question…Am I following Jesus closely? If I am I will be loving the other followers he has placed me in community with.


Ephesians 4:29 gives us the standard for all communication. Person to person, computer to computer or broadcast for the world… “Don't use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.” Next time you go to type, speak or communicate in anyway ask yourself…is it good, it helpful and will it encourage somebody? That’s the kind of community I want to be a part of and that’s the kind of community that will draw people to Christ.

Blogging - Worth it?

Is blogging worth the effort? We all know and have experienced the down side of blogging - being misunderstood... being ripped up by an anonymous commenter... going days with nothing really interesting to blog about (o.k. for some of us it's may have been more than days). But even with the risks and caution that must be a part of any public expression I believe it is worth it. By every means possible we should be getting the word out that we are a community of people loving God and loving one another and inviting people to become part of a community like that. With that said here's a portion of an e-mail I received from a friend who at least in a small way is reminded of her faith because of the encouragement she is finding in your blogs.

My friend said...
"Often times I'll look at the Northwoods Youth website and read all those kids Blogs online (including yours) and its amazing to me the faith those kids have (not to mention I know a handful of them) and I can not for my life figure out how to get MY faith back. I remember back in the day when I would get excited over a great passage or Bible verse, I just miss it. So much."

So keep blogging. Share your heart and fill the world wide web with words of encouragement that lift up the name of Christ.

Happiness

David pretty much sums it up in Psalm 128:1 - "How happy are those who fear the LORD-all who follow his ways!" He makes it sound so simple.

And yet... Such a simple concept to understand with the the head and yet it is probably the hardest thing to convince myself of deep down inside. I still find myself trying to solve my own problems and do things based on my comfort zone instead of the ways he has so clearly given us in His Word and through His Spirit. Why do I think happiness is living in a comfort zone? God get me out of my comfort zone and in the center of your will.

One Thing We Don't Have to Experience

In Numbers 14:34 God told the Hebrews, 'You will discover what it is like to have me for an enemy'. What a horrible place to be. Aren't you glad we don't ever have to be there? Once we are in Christ we are no longer enemies of God. Christ took that punishment for us. He was separated from His Father, for awhile, so we don't ever have to be again. Romans 5:1 says, 'Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.' God is for us. He is not against us. He is fighting with us and for us. He is no longer our enemy. When God disciplines us it is not as an enemy...it is as a loving Father who knows what is best for his children. Whatever happens in our lives we can always know that it is part of the process our loving God is taking us through because of the tremendous love He has for us and the purpose He has for our lives...to make us like His Son.

What if God Always Gave Us What We Asked For?

Numbers 11:18-20

Garth got it right. Sometimes we need to thank God for unanswered prayers. Have you ever asked God for or at least wanted something really badly and realized later that it was really a good thing you didn't get what you asked for? Sometimes God's grace means he protects us from our own desires.

Anyone who is married can attest to that - the girl that got away only to leave you available when the right one came along. Seniors can give you testimonies - college applications that didn't pan out only to be accepted to the school that turned out to be a great fit. In 1999 I was on staff at a church that was deciding to go from three part time staff members to one full time person. I remember praying that God would change those plans. He didn't. The result was the catalyst I needed to complete seminary and ultimately the opportunity to serve at Northwoods. The other two part time guys that lost their positions in the transition landed in great places as well. God knows what He's doing. God is for us and knows what is best for us...even when we do not.

So the next time God doesn't give you something you really want...thank God for unanswered prayer. After all you could be eating an awful lot of quail.

Speechless

I feel a little speechless today. I guess that's what community is all about. Today's just not my day but rather than feeling down and full of self pity the beauty of being in a community is I can look around and rejoice with those who are rejoicing. So, with that said I want to use this space to rejoice with a couple of people who have had possitive experiences in recent days.

1. Special K - read all about it on her blog.

I can not tell you how refreshing this blog was to me. How often do we hear anybody say, "You know what? I was wrong". I know I don't hear that very often and say it even less. Thanks Special K - that was great. And your right about Alec. He was right on track. I'm sure he got everybody's attention when he said, "here's something you can choose and their's nothing your parents can do about it." I know he had mine.


2. Kayla - You touched on something that is so hard for me to get. When I heard Nasser going there I thought, "great, this is going to hard to take". And it is. We do want it to be all about us. Kayla's comments follow. Read them. They're right on target.

Todd,
This weekend was pretty awesome, I thought I'd let you and some other
people know what I learned. Why does love take us in? Love takes us in not
because we are lovable, not because we need love but simply to glorify the
creator himself. We should do his good works not to win his favor but b/c he has
given us his favor. It really encouraged me when he said every single day, the
one thing that is consistent in his life is his inconsistency. Its one thing to
be foolishly inconsistent but I think he was talking about a perfect image of
consistency, and how even though we can never be perfectly consistent we can
always come back! We should be an extension chord for his mercy and grace that
he has showed us. When we get out our "paint brushes" we shouldn't just paint
over our barns again and again we should help to paint someone elses barn.
Something that I dwelled on was---We should not be becoming to do, we should be doing to become.I have so much given to me, and I need to give his blessings
back to him. I'm a saint!!!!!!!!!!!
Kayla :)

Hope you enjoy these two wonderful young ladies and the wisdom God is showing each of them in such differnet ways.

Apologies, Random Phone Calls, Chik-fil-a and an urgent need for prayer

Today has been a puzzle - puzzle that was solved by the end of the day. It began with an e-mail from an old friend. Well, actually it didn’t begin there but we’ll back up later. The e-mail was an apology from an old friend of mine. A friend I had not seen in several years although I did speak with him briefly a couple of months ago -more on that later as well. Along with the apology was a request for prayer. My friend is going through some major stuff in his life and asking people to pray for him and his family. As you think of it please pray for him. The apology was basically, hey sorry I was so rude to you on the phone Saturday morning. The problem was I did not talk to this friend on Saturday morning. Did he dream it? What was he talking about? About six hours later it dawned on me.

Saturday morning at SL Tour my cell phone rings. I miss the call so I call the number on my missed calls list. Looking at the number I thought it was our bus driver. It was loud in the building so I couldn’t hear much of what was said just enough to realize that whoever had called had done so mistakenly and did not intend to talk to me. I dismissed it and really didn’t give it another thought. Until today when it dawned on me that this was the call my friend was e-mailing to apologize over. He had hit the wrong button and his cell phone called mine. He had not intended to call me. I still don’t know what he said that he needed to apologize for like I said - the room was loud.

How did a friend I hadn’t talked to in years have my cell number programmed in his? Back up around two months. Its lunch time and Scott B. asks if I want to go to lunch with him and his wife Lisa. That’s a no brainer. No. Who wants to be a third wheel? This is typically a pretty easy decision. But for whatever reason I decide to tag along and join the Bonnell family outing to Chik-fil-a. While standing in line I see the brother of my friend (the one in the beginning of this lengthy blog). Now, he does not live in Tallahassee but happened to be in town on business and stopped by Chik-fil-a to get a bite for lunch. I ask him about my friend and he says, ‘I’ll dial him up and you can talk to him’. So he calls him and we talk briefly and exchange contact information.

That is how my phone number wound up programmed into his phone which led to him accidentally dialing my number which led to the apology e-mail which led to him being able to share a deep need for prayer that he is experiencing in his life. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

My Prayer for Student Life Conference

Many of us will be going to Student Life Conference this weekend. Here are some of the things I'll be praying for. Will you join me?

Revival generally. I sense many of our hearts need a fresh experience with God. We have allowed a lot of stuff, some good and some bad, to pile onto our hearts and clog the relational flow between us and God. God give us hearts of repentance and let us experience your forgiveness and blow away the clutter has that has come between us and you. Convict us of the sin that is in our lives. Show us where our lives are not in line with your desires for our life. Make Your desires our desires.

Unity in our ministry. We have become a ministry of subgroups. Some at are at odds. Some are not but apathy can be as bad as aggressive disunity. Disunity breaks God's heart. God use the time we will spend together this weekend increasing our love for one another. Break down the walls that separate us. Give us compassion for and understanding of one another. Help us to see each other the way you see us. Help us to love one another despite the faults that we all have. Break down our tendency to be so self-focused that we don't make the effort to see the needs in another person’s life. Forgive us for blaming our own life situations on others and help us to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.

Leadership. God will you call some people out this weekend that will be examples to your flock. Will you lead some students to dedicate themselves to walking so closely with you that they will serve as an example for others who need to see what it looks like to be a students deeply in love and deeply committed to following you?

Things I don’t even know how to pray for. God you know us better than we know ourselves. We see things on the surface. You see deep down. God reach down and meet our deepest needs. Reach way deep down into our hearts and do major surgery. Heal us in places we don’t even know we are sick.

Most of God we simply want to experience You. If we can come home knowing we have had an encounter with You than we will come home changed. God give us that.

The Junction - Where People Come Together! 

Dare Yo to Move

Redemption does have stories to tell...what's your story?

Dare You To Move
by Switchfoot


Welcome to the planet
Welcome to existence
Everyone's here
Everyone's here
Everybody's watching you now
Everybody waits for you now
What happens next?
What happens next?

I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened before

Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
The tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be

I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened

Maybe redemption has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here

I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself
Lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened
Today never happened
Today never happened before