Some Thoughts on Voting (Jesus for President)

I don't vote. And in reality in the states I'm in my vote wouldn't really matter. That's a philosophical stance I have. Theologically, I tend to hold an Anabaptist stance towards interaction with civil society, but that would take a book to explain. Which I will recommend the two that have influenced this stance I hold Artists, Citizens, Philosophers:Seeking the Peace of the City and Jesus for President. When people ask who I'm going to vote for I say "Jesus." Which gets me some sanctimonious and strange looks.

I do believe in working for the good of society, but I think that should be accomplished through the efforts of the church, not the government. I don't believe in legislating change or morality; I think those things should be lived. In a way, misplacing our hope political process instead of Christ is our way of copping out of our responsibility as a church. Like anything, this is my opinion, but I want to link you to a couple interesting thoughts on voting and political engagement. Blessings.

David Lipscomb on Voting

Why Vote?

When You're Pissed at God.

I realize that some of you may not like the word "pissed," but I don't think mad or angry really describes what I felt a week ago. A week ago, I learned that the five beautiful children who had been in the care of Breaking Chains (The homeless ministry in Honduras Michael works with) were removed from their custody and put in the care of IHNFA (Honduran CPS). Four of these kids were in Michael's care for the last two months. You can read the details from her post: Searching for God.

It's moments like this I struggle with God. I cry out. I cry out at the injustice, the injustice of children being removed from a home where they were loved and opportunities to thrive for a better life. To be candid, I yell out. I yell out in my pain, my loss of knowing these kids, who I plan to have a future role with, are in a difficult, confusing, scary situation. 

I hear the words that "God is in control." Yet the injustice of it all doesn't sit right with me. I feel like the writer in Psalms 88. Or maybe the story of Job is more fitting, which brings up a whole lot of other uncomfortable theology with God betting on the faithfulness of Job. But there is something that does bring me some comfort. 

Job who has experienced so much has his friends try to comfort him and cries out in his own way. Then God answers: Job 38-40:5. When I read this poetic angry answer from God calling Job out; I stop. I get this scary peace if that makes any sense. The words "Shall the faultfinder contend with the Almighty" rings in my ears. And I do as Job, I spoke once and now I will shut my mouth. I will trust, I will persist.

God challenges Job and then Job says "I know that you can do all things, and no purpose of yours can be thwarted." Maybe this is where I get the most peace. To know that this may be one ugly, long, painful process, but not to sound cliche; things are in God's hands. And he is close to the brokenhearted. And in that uncomfortable, helpless position I wait and pray, and Michael waits and shows up to visiting hours over and over to be rejected repeatedly. But in this place close to God, we pray, fight and wait.

God's Football Team

This morning I had a thought about the functioning of the church, and Les Rose really pushed my thinking this way as I listened to him give a devo. In some ways the church is structured like a NFL football team. There's the players on the field who are similar to the church/ministers of the church. The coaches on the field (who are often former players) are like the elders of the church. Then the General Manager who acts is some ways similar to God, they have a lot of power and ability to control the functioning of the team.

Like any athlete who performs on the field I think it is important for Christians to be prepared. Athletes exercise their muscles and we too need to exercise our muscles of prayer, service, patience, love, etc. Likewise, practice for teams is critical for building unity and preppring each other for the time on the field, and worship is a fantastic time for Christians to do the same thing. Each player and coach on the team has a different function and purpose that they contribute. Just like so many Christians are call to different jobs and ministries within this world. It's an encouraging thing to see each member of a team functioning to fulfill its goal.

So today, I encourage you to continue on in your role and position, doing, loving, and serving as you go. Don't forget to practice and exercise your faith everyday. And most of all be encouraged by interacting with the Christian community you know.

Death and Remembering

I first met my friend Haymond nearly 4 years ago, and I immediately thought the world of him. And I’ll never forget the moment I heard he had passed away. In my short years in this world, I have met few people who are as kind, as caring and as genuine a person as Haymond Butler. Anyone who knew Haymond, knew that he had his quirks. I and others often simply referred to him as “Wolverine,” and he often introduced himself as Logan (Wolverine’s real name). He gave those around him different character names for the X-Men; for me I was the leader, Professor X. I don’t know why, possibly because of my receding amount of hair. For this reason he had a deep devotion to me, at times I would have to calm him down before he went off on someone who would be messing with me.

I have not been called by my real name by him in years, I answered to Professor like it was my own name, and he answered to Logan like it was his own. I looked forward to seeing him on Sundays and receiving his patented strong hugs, and on days when my back hurt I dreaded the extremely firm pat on the back. And now my Sundays will be incomplete without those hugs. Haymond was a smart person, he graduated with honors from High School. At times, he would be like Rain Man when it came to math. Many people never knew this about him, his playful awkwardness in social situations disguised his genius. I know he would have gone on to do really great things in life.

He fought with his siblings like everyone does, but only because he loved his family deeply. In every way, he showed DeAndre and Brittany what it meant to be a good brother. He became the man of the house, when his older brother Andre passed away tragically, and he looked out for mom and family with his big heart. He missed Andre so much when he was gone and listening to him talk about how great his brother was made me hurt so bad for him every time.

It hurt so bad to be out of the country when my friend passed. I take some solace in knowing that he has no more pain and no more seizures, and knowing that this is not the end. That someday we will rise up again and we will be together with Jesus. But for now and as long as I live, I remember my friend for the sweet, caring person he was.

We Fed Him to the Lions

They’re good lions I tell my intern, Dawn. “Maybe this will straighten him out,” I say. We had just taken one of our graduated seniors to his probation officer that he had been avoiding for at least two months. The hope was that we could somehow advocate for him to have a second chance. Dawn and I both knew there was the possibility that he would be arrested there, but we certainly weren’t prepared when it happened.

Apparently, he had screwed up so bad that there was not going to be a conversation. His probation officer brought us back and out stepped two officers and she said “You’re going to have to go with these two gentlemen.” They slapped the cuffs on him and we all went down together and watched him get put in the car and taken downtown. It was a surreal moment, I wasn’t shocked, but there was an eerie feeling inside me as the realization that I may have just gotten someone locked up for 2-3 years washed over me.

It was needed, they were going to find him anyway, and he does need to straighten his life out. He had been shacked up with his girlfriend for weeks, and lying to her mama saying he’d been kicked out by his mom. Not to mention he had lied over and over about things he was doing to his mama, and everyone at church. He was doing his best to manipulate us all to his advantage. The sad part was, his mom and I talk regularly and I knew all he was up to and he still wanted to keep lying to me even when I called him out on his lies.

If you can’t tell already, this was my first time getting someone arrested, which was difficult enough. Now Dawn and I needed to take his phone and stuff to his mom and tell her. In probably any other situation, I would have been terrified to tell a parent this, but as much as we had to deal his lying and other junk I figured she would be understanding. She was, we let her vent, we vented, and we prayed. I prayed for peace, and “that this kick in the butt, would wake him up to the reality of life and that he was not living it right.

Maybe that is something we should all pray for, a “kick in the butt.” I’m betting though for most of you reading this you don’t need one because you’re headed on a path to prison. But maybe you need a “kick in the butt” to live out your faith every day or maybe you one so that you will do something about a form of injustice in your community. Whatever it is, I pray it happens. 

Wilderness Trek Adventures

Two weeks ago, 13 High School students and 4 adults from Impact embarked on a spiritual journey up Mt. Hope in Colorado. It is a wonderful experience which breaks the kids down and gives them a chance to rely on God and each other. Below are some pictures and two accounts of the experience the kids had.
                            

My week was so fun and exciting her Wilderness Trek. The guides were so caring towards us and throughout the entire week they showed their love to us. The first day we got there, the guides were real excited to see us it was the best welcome ever. Going up to low campsite was easy, but I got tired and real exhausted. Once we got there to low camp we saw some houses that were historical monuments. It was real awesome and amazing. The next day we woke up real early to get to high campsite as soon as possible so we can rest and eat. Even though most of us had struggles we all helped each other and we all encouraged one another. I was real tired and I was also sick, I got real pale at least that is what I was told and I also blacked out at one point. I got better after I ate and rested a little at high camp. 

Once we got to high camp everybody was tired but happy at the same time because we had finally made it there after 7 hours of hiking. The next day we had “Solo Day” as they call it which gives a time to be by ourselves with God. I had time to read the Bible, pray, and meditate on my mistakes and relax a bit. We played a bit afterwards with an aerobie which is like a Frisbee. It was so fun playing aerobie up there on the mountain with our guides. 

The summit day came and we were all relaxed and not tired any more. We were ready to reach the top already and everybody was trying to have fun with each other and helping each other. Even though we didn’t get to the top of the mountain because of the weather, we all had a great time anyway. We came back down and went to relax in a hot springs pool. I’m so excited to come next and see all those cool guides if God lets us.

-Enrique Gonzalez

My week for the trip had been like Dr. Pepper because it is so awesome you can’t even describe it. Hiking onto Mt. Hope was a challenge because I thought it was small enough to hike, or something like that. Living in the wilderness makes me feel like I’m in the Hunger Games, but instead, we were working all together to reach the summit of the mountain. There were times when I should’ve given up because I could see myself sweating and begging for a thirst of a break, but I kept going because I was hoping the natural pain killers would kick in. 

When the big packs were packed on me, I wasn’t really used to the weight because when there were steep hills, I slowed down because the weight kept pushing me down. When we were nearly at the summit, it was a beautiful view because even though it was freezing cold, I felt accomplished. The one activity I liked was finishing my book on the Glass Castle because it taught me a lesson of together we stand, divided we fall. When we were hiking back to the vans, my luck just came in because many bad things happened, but I moved along with it. Lastly I felt like a zombie because I wanted to drop dead gorgeous on the vans.

-Edward Herrera

I get such a kick out of getting my kids out of their element and challenging them spiritually and physically. At the end of the week, they decided they would wash their guides' dirty nasty feet since it is a important thing for them to have good feet. I truly have the best job in the world, not because I get to take cool trips to the mountains of Colorado and the beaches of South Padre every summer, but because I get to see the growth of so many sweet kids.

Grace & Peace.
John

Why I Avoid "Father God"

Some days I have brilliant moments, moments like scheduling this post so that the person I'm writing about doesn't see it because they're on a mountain with me this week. But most of the time, things just happen and I wonder why I was so stupid. This Father's Day I avoided a stupid moment and replaced it with a smarter moment. I'm going to tell a story about a kid, a sweet teenager, who constantly makes me laugh and challenges me to think. I'll call him Sammy since I don't want his identity to be know.

After church on Father's Day, Sammy and I found ourselves walking over to my house to kill some time before going to play soccer with some interns. I opted to play some games while Sammy decided to watch "Surviving the Cut" and another survival show. It's his obsession. So I gave him my military survival manual to read, and he skipped past the survival parts to read all about the necessary combat moves, which didn't surprise me. 

The mistake I almost made was calling my dad. I know that sounds strange, but it really would have been insensitive. Most of our kids, do not have a father in their life. Some have walked in and out of their lives, some have died, others were never there to begin with. A painful reality we, at Impact, deal with every day. In this case, Sammy's dad died in Honduras. Sammy tells me gang violence led to his dad and uncle being beheaded which may or may not be true. Regardless of whether it is true or not, celebrating my dad with him nearby would be cruel. 

Throughout my years of being involved at Impact, I have slowly filtered out things like "Father God" from my prayers. I don't want the kids to immediately connect God to a deadbeat dad and write him off. I want them to gradually see that God is not that father, but is a loving one. 

So today, I'm thankful for my dad more everyday I work here. We may have had our spats and we may be totally different people, but he is a good dad. And I love him for that. Thanks Dad! So my charge to anyone who reads this is that you seek to love those without fathers in your life. I believe the lack of good fathers in this country and world is the cause for a host of problems, and the church can make a difference in this. And be thankful if you do have a good dad.  

Death and Mourning

Lately, I feel I've been surrounded by death. And it's certainly not the first time, nor is it the first time I've experienced death at a young age. As I entered into ministering and befriending people in the inner-city of Houston and Honduras, I knew I would likely experience a tragedy. There's nothing that can prepare anyone for this. Death, this time, feels different. This time it's way too personal. Yet there are some things that give me solace, specifically a song. 


Dealing with my grandmother's death was doable, even the face of dealing with a difficult tonsillectomy. I've had a lot of peace in her passing due to her long suffering from Alzheimer's. It was hard to see many in my family, who did know her really well, upset at the funeral; in fact, it was the first time I had see some of them cry. What I wasn't prepared for came next.


Some of you may know I went to Honduras last Christmas, and was able to participate in Christmas celebration with Breaking Chains Homeless Ministry (where my girlfriend works) on a beach island in the Pacific. This celebration required 40 or so sponsors. I decided to sponsor 17 year old, Jose de la Cruz,  whose story you can read here: http://livingoutmyfaith.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/in-need-of-healing/. I'll never forget the joy I saw in his face as he opened his presents and got new shoes. I'll never understand how powerful and right that moment on that beach felt, and the gratefulness he showed to me.


I'll also never forget the moment I was told that he and another BC Honduras boy had been shot to death Sunday night. The punch in the stomach it was, and the way life felt so unfair. I must begin to heal at some point, but his young death is not right, it's not how his story should end. And because of that fact, I find peace in this song. 

1 Thess. 4:16-For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

Hope Lives Across the Street

     Well it certainly has been too long since I have posted last. The demands of Spring Break events, Garage Sale, and schoolwork have dominated my time. Another most stressful event was moving this past month from where I lived 20 minutes away to a literal 178 steps away from Impact. I call this house I rent, "The Peach House," which can be seen below.

I have some dreams for the Peach House; that it can be a place where the people of Impact and the surrounding neighborhood can find a person to pray with or share their problems with. A place where kids can be tutored and brownies can be eaten. A place where prayer, and video games can happen in the same room.

    All of this is intentional, I have heard much talk about reaching the people in our neighborhood and I decided that the best way was to be a good neighbor. It has been awkward at first, but I have met some people. People like Hope who lives across the street and has an inordinate amount of cats that she feeds. But maybe, just maybe through being a neighbor, and showing love when I can, Hope will realize there is a church around the corner who is there to love her.

     Also, the toilet, tire, and now recently tub garden has begun! We have gathered up things that have lost their purpose and turned them into planters for beans, tomatoes, peppers, and other veggies.

     We've also begun to compost the unused scraps from the kitchen and the Distribution Center to recycle them into good soil that can be used for our garden and others' gardens. There is a lot of things to be excited about around here!

Grace & Peace to you all!

I Don't Want to be a Bad Storyteller Part 3: Our Story

    I could tell you that I wanted so long to post this 3rd part to build up your anticipation, but I'd be lying. It's been a busy time for me lately and will get even busier soon. So without further ado I left the last post hanging with a question, what's my story? The better question is what's my story in relation to my context here at Impact? How are our stories interacting with each?
   Impact has been around a little longer than I've been alive and now I feel like it is on the cusp or at the climax you could say of its story. For a long time Impact has been really good at reaching the poor and marginalized of the community, but now our neighborhood has changed and will continue to change. Slowly over the last 10 years town homes that sell for over $250,000 have popped up all through the neighborhood. In these homes live young professional types who want to live closer to downtown rather than driving in for work. Eventually, all of this neighborhood will consist of this population.

   This group of people is not one that Impact has had a lot of success in reaching in the past, and to some people of Impact they are fine with not reaching these people. I am not. I think that Impact should be a church for all people, no matter their situation; rich, poor, black, white, latino, homeless, young, old, everyone should be a part of this community.
  There's been a lot of dreaming lately about how to reach this demographic of our community. Lots of ideas have been thrown around, and I want to share one of mine. A garden. You would be surprised how many people are into gardening in Houston, the big thing is community gardening. So with my high school kids we have been looking at places and ways to do this. And the beautiful part is that we want to do it with things from the communities we live in and bring in the thrown away toilets and tires and put soil in them and let them be a part of creating life. To me that's such a redemptive and restorative image.

  Most importantly, I need to take hold of being a person who seeks to reach this group, because I am in that age bracket, I understand them better than most of the staff here I hope. So I'm writing a part of my story here, and I have to take hold of it. And that's scary sometimes. This garden may fail. But I will not fail. Because I am going to continue to serve a God that never fails. And that may mean writing the story in a different way, and I'm ok with that.

I Don't Want to Be a Bad Storyteller! Part 2: The Story

When I was a freshman in college, I decided that I would read the Bible from cover to cover slowly and methodically. Lots of times I would take any questions that popped up in those readings to Chris Benjamin and we would discuss the intricacies of the text. The more I read, the more the entirety of the Bible looked like a story of divine and mortal characters interacting. There's lots of stories within this large collection of books, but it's all centered on the love story of God with His creation.

It starts with a garden. A garden where everything is ok, where life abounds. God hangs out with the humans in this garden. Life is good. In reality, it doesn't get much better than this, who doesn't want to hang out with God all day? I also think we neglect this first part of this story in our churches today, we don't talk a lot about how things were in the garden rather we talk more about what comes next.
The Fall, that fateful tale of a serpent tempting and mankind making the wrong choice of going against what God said, and that ill attempt to try to be like God. If this is a movie, this is the sad part where things seem like they're going to go south. A lot of our theology and conversations take place Genesis 3 and onward which is the next part of this narrative. We're more concerned with the Fall of man rather than how things were originally created.

Then we see different kings and prophets come on to the scene of the story and the different things they do, some good and some bad, and we see God's workings with them and through them. Yet it's still not right, it's not redemptive enough. Then the divine invades the earth it created, and Jesus comes onto the scene. This is the part in the movie, where hope arrives, this is when a hero shows up with resolve. Jesus lived and worked and showed what the life God wants us to looks like. He served, He healed, and He loved the people He created. Then He dies, and as the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world. But this part of the story does not end here...

He rose up. Jesus has redeemed death into life. He charges the church with His work as He leaves the Earth and ascends to Heaven and we are a partners in restoring the world back to the way it should be.

I outline this story of creation, despair, redemptive hope, and restoration to ask a question. As a person who has partnered with Jesus is restoring this world back to the way it should be, what's your story in all this? We all have our little mini-stories that we're writing with our lives, how does that story emit the power of Christ that shines in us? These are thoughts about the big story that we're a part of. In part 3, I'll try to answer these questions for myself.

I Don't Want to be a Bad Storyteller! Part 1: A Prequel to The Story

     As I mentioned in my last post I've done some traveling as of late, starting with Tegucigalpa, Honduras. There I got to work alongside my beautiful and fantastic girlfriend as she seeks to alleviate and change the poverty situation in so many lives in Honduras. Her efforts include tutoring and mentoring students as director of the Shine program that seeks to bring kids out of poverty through education. She also works with a group of soulful people in the Breaking Chains Homeless Ministry. This ministry provides a shelter for over 40 people that includes families and teenagers. While there, I got to be a part of taking this whole group of people three hours out of town to a beautiful beach (Many of whom had never been to the beach or out of Tegucigalpa), and celebrate Christmas with presents and wonderful food.

     I journeyed back to the States, and immediately turned around and went to Daytona Beach, Florida (Which has an inordinate amount of tattooing among its people, especially neck tattoos) to attend the National Conference on Youth Ministries. I heard many speakers, but the one that stuck out the most was Donald Miller. Many of you probably recognize his name from his bestseller "Blue Like Jazz." In his talk, he spoke a lot about the movie that was made over that book and his role in it, along with the art of storytelling.

    Storytelling is something that I have been working on getting better at for a few years now. It is an artform that I find riveting. Miller pointed out the elements of a story; which are setting, conflict, climax, and resolution.   Every story has a setting, a long part at the beginning which identifies the characters, what they want in the story, the atmosphere of the story, and the beginning details of the plot. Eventually, every story encounters a conflict, there's no escaping it. The real issue when the conflict arises is what the characters in the story do with the conflict.

    Some characters shy away when conflict comes, but the truly amazing characters push through the conflict to reach what they want. Can you imagine William Wallace in "Braveheart" just going home after the English kill his wife? Of course not! That would be the worst movie ever. What happens with the conflict decides whether the story is climatic or anti-climatic. And what part the characters of the story play in that climax. After the climax, the highest point of the story, comes the resolution. Now the resolution is the part of the story where everything comes together. This is where the couple rides off into the sunset, where the boxer wins the match, the good guys win, and everyone goes home happy.

   So, here we sit as people who are writing their story, everyday, one day at a time. The questions I've been asking are, What's my story? What's the story of Impact? What story can my sweet girlfriend write in Honduras? And how does the story of the Gospel fit into all of this? I don't know the answers to all of these, so I guess I'll keep exploring.

Christmas Break Is Over

As many of you probably have noticed, I've been off on some adventures in Honduras and Florida. I'll be posting some reflections on my travels in the coming week. My time in Honduras was amazing and you can see some of my adventures at Breaking Chains Homeless Ministry's facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/BCHonduras.

In Florida, I was blessed to listen to many great speakers and teachers at the National Conference on Youth Ministries. I got to hear the likes of Chris Seidman, David Fraze, and Donald Miller. They enlightened me to new ways of thinking about things in youth ministry and church as a whole. Donald Miller especially blew my mind and I will go into his thoughts more in depth soon. So for now I leave you the trailer to his particularly compelling book, "Blue Like Jazz," I'm not sure when the movie actually comes out. I got to be a beta-tester with all the other ministers, I enjoyed it and found it inspiring.

Grace & Peace to you all!