where has jesus gone?

so, in my daily web searching, i generally check a few "regulars." One is a site I recently referenced in a blog called ASBO Jesus. If you don't know what ASBO means, here's Jon's descrpition:

btw. for the non british among you… an ‘asbo’ is an ‘anti-social behaviour order’… the courts here 

award them to people who are deemed to be constant trouble in their neighbourhoods… 

presumably according to their neighbours!

So, long story short, I think it's some REALLY great stuff. This one really caught my attention though, the one at the top. And its got me wondering, where has Jesus gone? Let me go ahead and make sure you know I don't think Jesus moved out of the neighborhood or anything like that, just that I don't know where we see Him anymore. I wonder if this response in the cartoon is too real, and we meet Jesus and don't even know it. If we meet a poor or homeless guy and he says life is so hard, and we tell him he needs Jesus. What does that mean anyways? "Believe in Jesus and you'll have all the money and love and stuff you'll ever need!" Is that really the offer? Because I think I could believe in the lottery and pull the same thing off.  

This cartoon inspires me really. In the line of work I'm in, we don't exactly roll in the cash. Not without going to a seminary and becoming a "professional" at least. And I don't live in poverty at all, but I don't live in a house I own either, or a fancy, dressed up neighborhood either. And I kind of like that. I don't mean that in a snobby way, I just like that I don't live in a place where everything is so clean and wrapped up in a bow. I think life is messy, and to try and live otherwise is like trying to stop a wave in the ocean. Very Stepford, if you will. But there are days that I would love to leave it all and go make a crap ton of money, drive a nice new car (this or this would be fun for around $50K-$124K) and work in a trendy glass covered office and go home to some cool place in OkC. But then I see something like this in my own life, and I realize that this isn't how I'm going to live. And I'm really pretty okay with that. 

So for me, I hope and long more to be made into the image of Jesus. And that the things that would make him weep for a thousand years are the things that make me weep too. And I feel like in all of this, that by trying to be in that place, that I'm close to God. And that He is close to me too, that He lets me be close and be a part of the things on His heart. And THAT is the thing that I want more than anything. I don't feel like I'm always close to God like I want, and honestly, my heart is really broken because I feel like God wants closeness but I can't find where He's hiding out. 

In my search though, the thing I find true is the need for simplicity. For things to not be so complex, mostly because things are naturally messy. I don't need more things to do, more places to go. All I need to is to know who I am, Who's I am, and to be that person. For me, that means loving Jesus, loving my wife and my son, my friends, and having deep friendships with everyone in that list. And to be on mission to see where God is at work, and to do that work. I've found a place in town, and a place or two overseas. I just want to see more of this though. That is where my heart is. Looking for God's.

live deeper.

random tuesday...

I feel like I've been off the radar too long. There's a lot stirring in the waters, but I don't think I'm really up for talking much. So, I leave you with this to ponder in the mean time:

Oh, and let's make this a poll, good idea or complete stupidity? Seems like you should know where wind originates, and it's not underwater.

seems true

thanks to asbojesus for the great work. these both feel appropriate right now. 

i'm curious what your thoughts about either are. mostly the church one though. 

thoughts?

the end?

saw this on the news today, guess we're all doomed?

sorry i've been off the radar in the blogosphere, but hey, I just had a baby 7 weeks ago, what'd you expect? : )   They aren't kidding when they say having a baby changes everything. 

So, funny story from starbucks the other day. This lady came in, and wanted "that coffee/slushy thing." Generally we get that once every couple weeks or so, and we know they mean a frappucino. So we explain that to her, and she says it can't have sugar in it, which it does. So, we recommend the "creme based" frappucino, as that is dairy based and has splenda in it. She quickly fires back "I can't have splenda." So, after discovering she doesn't want sugar, and can't have splenda, we talk her into an iced coffee with cream. No big deal right? Well, right before she pulls out of the order window she yells back at us, "yeah, I can't have splenda, it gives me... diarrhea! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" and then pulls off to the window to pay. Then she asks me when she gets there if that was too much info. Trying to be nice I say, "well, we didn't exactly see that coming," and try to affirm that I've heard weirder things. I said she'd fit right in on the barista line jokingly, to which she says, "great! i'll bring you more stories next time." Then as I hand her drink to here she says, "yeah, nothing's worse than being out shopping with your friends and not knowing you've had something with splenda in it until it hits you all of a sudden." To which I think to myself, THIS moment might easily be worse than that moment.

Sorry,you get to share in the misery/awkwardness. 

Hope we live past Wednesday!

baby pics!

Photobucket Album

update to yesterday's post...

so, update to yesterday's post. apparently they've changed the ar-15 they were giving away to a shotgun. I suppose that makes more sense, since you can "encourage" someone so much easier with a weapon that will for sure murder them at point-blank when you ask them if they want to accept Jesus. 

oh, and I skimmed through the 30 minutes of the highlight video from last year, and apparently I was pretty spot on about the "soul-winning blitz." don't even get me started about how sad it is that they are only concerned about the "number of souls you win." 

it's SOOOOOOO like Jesus camp too. The video is terrifying.

In a completely unrelated string of thought, someone told me today that I look like Luke Wilson from "The Royal Tenenbaum's." when I wear a headband, which I've been doing at work because we have a new drink at work.

weird eh? I don't see it.

oh it makes my head hurt...

Wow. So I had zero intention of blogging today at all. It's been a bit of a frustrating weekend (you don't want to know), and I'm really tired. I had my full week at church (40+), and I managed to rock like 30+ hours at starbucks at the same time. Side note: if you ever go work for starbucks, try to not open one morning (thursday), close that night, open the next morning (friday), open again (saturday), and close at a totally different store that night. I tried that last week. Stupid, but it is going to get me cheap insurance, so it'll be worth the stress in a month or so. And I won't have to do that again I don't think, so that'll help.

Anycrap, all my sleepy-crabby-annoyed self aside, I just have to tell you how embarrassed I am about living in Oklahoma when crap like this pops up on national news websites. It's on other sites too, like yahoo, cnn, etc. If you'd like to see their website, here it is. It doesn't even look like a youth website. This creeps me out a lot too. It feels very Jesus-camp-ish.

What's really funny about the whole thing is the website. You should look at it. All I have to say is, if you invite me to something with "red HOT preaching, multiple games, skits, activities, and MUCH more" I'm probably going to try and not snicker while you invite me. And what exactly happens during a "Soulwinning Blitz?" I'm guessing you go around and blanket the neighborhood in teenagers who ask people if they were going to die tonight, do they know where they're going? Followed by a really "great" tract on how to believe in Jesus. Team with the most converts wins extra chances at the AR-15. That's right, they're giving away an AR-15. I don't know, maybe they offer to show them where they're going via the AR-15.

Here's where I get lost though, the big drama from these guys is their AR-15 giveaway. They advertise on their website more than once about the "AR-15 giveaway," and then they say this:

 "Although the shooting competition that was to take place during the Youth Conference had been canceled, due to false statements^* made by the Oklahoma City TV Channel 5 (KOCO) and subsequently reported also by media outlets across the country, an AR-15 was donated last Saturday so that the competition could go on as planned. 

If Congress, back when our country was fighting for its independence could give engraved muskets to the fifteen or so eleven year old boys that their teacher, Mr. Akins, led into battle against the British, then we can give away a firearm still today, especially since our Supreme Court just re-emphasized our Second Amendment rights."

Like I said, it makes my head hurt. And it kinda makes me ashamed of Oklahoma. Fortunately, they aren't the majority, otherwise I would probably look at a non-neighboring state as my new place to live. 

Who exactly donates an $800 assault rifle to a church anyways? Don't even get me started on the implications of this stuff. That's like it's own blog post itself, but one I won't write, because it would be a stupid long rant of stuff you probably know already. Things like "Jesus seemed to prefer non-violence" and "I didn't know the Bible and the Constitution were interchangeable in church settings." 

If you are looking at the website, check out "Crunch Revival" boy there. He's scary, but not in a chuck norris kind of way. That's for sure.

I'm sorry WHBC, I think I'll have to skip your youth conference. You can keep your little "Soulwinning Blitz" and I'm going to keep my $45. 

Guess I should look into a flak jacket soon too. Who knows when one of these kids may stop by to catch me during the blitz? Hope it isn't last year's winner, packing his AR-15.