"Those potholes are so huge – why doesn't someone fill them?"

"I'll never get these books read."

"I don't care for this music…. it's too loud/soft/fast/slow."

—–

The litany of complaints never ends.  It is a self-fulfilling prophecy that what you complain about with words but refuse to take action on will never be resolved.

Instead you stew, you vent, you get red-faced. And in the end you look like a clown: your face is discolored, your actions are animated (looks like you're juggling), and you might even shoot steam out of your ears.

Paul once wrote on the subject to the Christians in Philippi, "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing." -Philippians 2:14-16 NIV

I have learned that merely complaining never fixes anything.  I used to be a big complainer – to waitstaff, to 800-number customer service reps, to my friends, to family, etc.

I learned that in all those wasted breaths I accomplished nothing – it was as Shakespeare wrote, "sound and fury, Signifying nothing."

Instead of complaining, I choose to make a difference.  So where I see injustice – I seek justice.  When I am confused I pray for clarity.  When I am lost I seek guidance.  When I see that something needs to get done – I do it.

Funny thing is – when you become a person of action – you feel healthier because you're doing something about the situation.  Others however, get jealous very quickly and say, "What's so special about him?"

The answer is – nothing special.  Except for being fed up with being the clown. You can do this – it's easy.  Instead of problems focus on solutions.

May you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life!

Fire up your favorite desktop publisher, word processor, or presentation software.  Select “default” for everything and see what you get.  Rubbish.

That’s because default is easy, known, and standard.  Of course it’s not always the best solution, but it’s certainly easier than having to think, be creative, and ask questions.

Dictionary.com says default means, “a course of action that a program or operating system will take, when the user or programmer specifies no overriding value or action.”

So basically when I choose default, I’m a robot, and automaton.  I make no decision other than what the computer tells me is best.  Why think?  It’s done for me.

Default is boring, repetitive, and unhelpful in nearly every application because it doesn’t care what the end result is, it simply follows the path of least resistance.

The opposite of default? 

“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  – Romans 5:8 ESV

In retrospect I believe he was saying they would bore me to death!

As I reflect on the last four years of post-graduate study in theology I have come to understand a bit of what he was talking about.

I don’t think education itself is the problem. However, many are setup for failure because higher education is intrinsically esoteric.

Yes those are both 5 dollar words that I probably gained outside of the academy in my insatiable appetite for books. And yet therein lies the problem.

Concepts and words that are meant for a few are problematic for the seminarian that seeks to be missional. For a missionary’s primary task is to see that Jesus Christ is accessible to the given culture surrounding them.

Esoteric education becomes a subculture in and of itself that teaches lofty words and philosophies that are inaccessible to the everyman.

In my mind this serves only to create a further divide in the laity – clergy relationship. And it leads to what can be considered abuse (either in power or spiritual) by those that hold the knowledge power over others.

A recent post critiquing worship leader Chris Tomlin’s music illustrates proficiency in rhetoric and failure in humility, grace, and charity.

My hope is that those considering higher education and those that are involved in it will realize the danger behind the “ivory tower” and keep one foot solidly in reality while exploring their disciplines.

My personal prayer has always been to keep my passion, learn all I can from everyone I can, and apply the learning to my actual life as much as possible.

I was thinking tonight about how I am no longer told I can’t have cookies before meals by my mom. I have complete freedom to live my life! Or do I?

Unfortunately so many times when we as adults are still told no – we listen to it!

• No, we can’t do that!
• No, we don’t want to serve there.
• No, we don’t want that kind of publicity, let’s just be quiet.
• No, we’re not going on that mission trip it’s too dangerous.
• No, we’re not going to attempt that outreach project.
• No, we might fail so let’s just sit and do nothing.
• No, we might succeed so let’s just sit and do nothing.
• NO!

When you hear these kind of statements they just wear you out. But instead of constantly listening to this perhaps it’s time to evaluate what “we” you’re a part of and join a new team that says, “Yes! we can try that/do that/attempt that.”

William Carey, often credited as the father of modern missions, said in 1792 before the Northampton Baptist Association, “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God!”

This sounds like an attitude listening for, “YES!” so when God crosses your path today, please say YES!

I opened my Sunday newspaper to an alarming sticker plastered across the front page advertising a “First Anniversary” at a local donut shop.

As I quickly looked at the ad I was struck by a couple of items:

• I’m not sure if this is a donut shop or an all-you-can-eat buffet – baked potatoes? salad bar? soups & chili? Not generally items I eat at a donut shop.
• Then the “FREE DONUT” obviously caught my eye as a pastry connoisseur, but oh wait fine print – you have to purchase a Baked Potato first.
• WAIT THERE’S MORE: This was Sunday, March 1st’s paper – apparently the only day to use the coupon which as of this morning is now invalid and null.

This really speaks to the issue of relevance in our marketing. This ad is so confusing I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry, but I can guarantee you I’m not clipping it to get a free donut with my baked potato.

This is a classic case of doing too much and not doing any of it well. Sure the logic is there: “If we offer a little bit of everything maybe someone will buy something!”

Churches often try to accomplish this. I recently spoke with an urban church of around 700 in worship that is struggling with their old committee structures. I asked – how many committees do you have? The answer was 157!

Quick math tells me that 88% of their church must be on a committee. And yet their numbers have been in steady decline for over two decades.

Everything from puppet ministry to committees for each separate van in the church. They exude the idea that there’s “something for everyone” at our church!

In reality, yes, there might be something for nearly everyone. It’s just a crummy experience for everyone because nothing is done with excellence when everything is attempted with mediocrity.

I like how Craig Groeschel said it in his book It – “if you chase two rabbits, both will escape.”

How true for our churches today – we’ve got to decide on our churches’ unique calling and explore that niche fully before trying to do too much and failing to do anything great.

We were seated in a private room downstairs of the main establishment which posed a unique problem for me. You see this aging facility has a tiny, dimly-lit staircase leading to their basement dining room.

And this goofball was horribly thirsty at dinner and generally every other dinner. But there was no drink station downstairs, no water, no iced-tea, nothing.

And I was very thirsty.

So I wove through the crowd, up the stairs, and down again a total of three trips (four if you count my napkin run for the tables).

I’m afraid this isn’t a very convincing business model – making your customer die of thirst – or at least providing such a good obstacle as to make the inconvenience of it not worth persisting.

Then of course I saw the correlation between a discussion comment I left earlier this week based on my study of Hebrews 6 for this week’s message. I said over at Ed Stetzer’s “Rethinking Discipleship” post:

“One concept a mentor once taught me was that it’s possible to stay true to the Word of God and still put the cookies on a shelf that everyone can have one.”

How many folks do we have that are spiritually dying of thirst and how many obstacles have we removed that they might access the Living Water of Jesus Christ?

I know so many times I’m guilty of “church-ese” using big words that mean much to me and little to the lost. When I catch myself (either live or in watching the video) I usually beat myself up for a few days about it.

I work hard to teach depth while still making Jesus Christ accessible to the biblically illiterate and lost sheep. This is nearly an impossible task.

What would it look like to evaluate everything like the fellowship supper, bulletin, morning message, dress of church members, attitude, youth group meeting, etc. – in light of what kind of obstacle it might pose to the spiritually thirsty man or woman just trying to navigate the dark stairway, push through the big crowd, and discover Jesus?

“Part of it is that we have to recognize that we’ve created the system that we loathe. I don’t think the reason 15 percent serve is because 85 percent are lazy. We’ve created a system that glorifies the clergy and marginalized the laity. We got the outcome we created programs for. We’ve become “clergified.” There’s a 3-tiered structure: laypeople, clergy and missionaries.”

Ed is right on and those that value Baptist traditions should realize the idea of “clergy” is foreign to our faith and practice. We distinctively believe that all Christ followers are ministers and missionaries that there is no such thing as “laypeople” for even the pastor is a layperson.

There is but one unique, high-priest and that’s Jesus Christ. Makes me wonder, what could we accomplish if the member took their rightful place as a minister and the pastor could return to the pastor-teacher highlighted in Ephesians 4:11?

Lovitz came to mind tonight as my three year old appeared at the top of the stairs and in the saddest little voice said, “Dad you forgot my story!”

Call it the Sunday night post-sermon distress syndrome or the pre-Monday morning blues – but I outright forgot the nightly fictionalized story my son requires I generate after our nightly prayers.

I may never say, “ACTING!” but I surely play as good of a character as Lovitz as each character’s persona comes through in the nightly story.

For someone who rarely reads fiction I can hold my own in these brief bedtime vignettes. Commonly I employ a review of the day’s activities, albeit with a bit of comic embellishment accentuated by a big tickle finish. Stephen always gets to be the hero of the story and commonly a full on parade is held in his honor which leads him to say, “Good story, the end.”

But not tonight, tonight I forgot.

Our nightly ritual spurred my mind in this vein: Why has the process of story become so important to my son each day? What is the power of review combined with story that helps each day matter for him?

I have a sense that while Macbeth felt, “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” – my son feels differently.

Somehow the review makes life more than a shadow with the triumphs of the day becoming larger than life and the coming day full of hope. The story gives context to my son in which all of a sudden life makes sense.

As I read Christ’s parables, it appears to me that He employed this same process. By telling stories Jesus helps people with real needs, hurts, and fears put their lives into context. Jesus helps ordinary folks like you and me make sense of life.

“So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” - Luke 15:3-7 ESV

Jesus doesn’t want you to know more, color in the lines, or jump through hoops – Jesus want you to come home – and the ticket is repentance. Don’t forget this story.