Lessons from 2009

I stopped making New Year's Resolutions a long time ago, but, looking backward, here are nine things I learned in 2009:

1.) A family of nine produces a heck of a lot of trash.

2.) The prospect of losing everything wonderfully clarifies the mind.

3.) It's good to have a spouse who watches your back.

4.) Tuesdays at Carmella's is best before 5:30 pm.

5.) An ounce of authentic friendship is worth a pound of exciting stage ministry.

6.) Responding to enraged critics is like stepping in dog doo.

7.) Having young children is like watching the Sermon on the Mount.

8.) The faithfulness of Jesus has saved my skin.

9.) We're all natural screwups who start things that go nowhere and stop things that are working, but somehow God helps us bear fruit anyway.

Extraordinary

It all started with a poor couple giving birth to a poor baby in the dirty straw of a stable. It smelled like a barn that night and it was cold, but the stars were glorious. He grew up to make all of us rich who say Yes to Him with our lives.

It started in the Middle East among the poor and grew as a movement among the poor. Before the story reaches its conclusion, it's going back to the Middle East and the eyes of the world will be on what's happening. Fire and blood and Jerusalem. The still point of the turning world is going to stand up from His throne. He's coming back with angel armies and will hold a feast after he deals with His enemies.

People get ready.

Watching the Student Awakening

I woke up today feeling like I had a hangover without the alcohol; underslept from an involuntary nightwatch on Tuesday, then up late last night with friends talking about a mission trip & watching their slides. My third cup of coffee isn't helping yet.

We Americans are watchers. We watch movies. Watch conferences. Watch the internet. My family, friends, & I are all watching the webstream of the Student Awakening at KC. It's really refreshing, even not being there. Who cares if people chicken walk, shout Oh and WHOA a lot, or shake, rattle, and roll any way they want? Jesus is encountering His people. I'm stirred to seek the rain of the Holy Spirit, to live in the nearness of Christ and make my decisions out of the reality of being filled. I haven't experienced anything like it since I got caught up in the Toronto outpouring of the mid-90s. I wouldn't mind more Azuzu.

But the awakening has to move on. It is reminiscent of Toronto, which was great but happened in a decade of shrinking churches and very few conversions which the outpouring did nothing to reverse. The KC leaders want the awakening to move on, just as the Toronto leaders did (and do). But unless there is an intentionality to get out of the meeting room and preach good news to the poor, watching and experiencing will, over time, go the way of charismatic religion.

Kind of like being forced to take a 5-hour walking tour of your own living room where everything is always the same. We like our living room, but there is more to life outside its walls. Stay with me for a minute & don't tune out.

The places I'm familiar with that experienced the Toronto outpouring via satellite meetings have been back to business as usual for a long time. The Holy Spirit moved and blessed: but missional churches didn't happen. Unbelievers avoided the meetings and stayed unsaved. Cities stayed untransformed by the gospel.

It's good to welcome the awakening, get filled -- and also remember that Jesus chose to hang out in the bars of His day, befriending sinners, drinking their wine and even picking up the bar tab. Shoot, it even seems that he avoided living in a "Holy Room Musical Worship" culture. It's really uncool and even non-PC to say that, except that the gospel records say it.

Bottom line: God has a macro plan for what is happening in KC IHOP. He's thinking way bigger than renewing believers. He wants to release good news on the lost and start new communities of faith around the nation. Meanwhile, I'm glad for the wine of the Spirit.

Wise Graphic Designer

Starbucks posted an interview with young graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister, who explains why he takes off work every 7th year. Simple: he needs a sabbath year to rejuvenate & reinspire himself.

What about us? An informal poll of some friends showed that we barely take off a real week of vacation a year. Vacation time generally goes to projects, if we take any at all. Meanwhile, those darn Europeans take 4-6 weeks a year in the mountains or at the beach or something like that.

Feeling flat, burned out, worn out, under slept, uninspired, uncreative, faking the happy clappy, or just plain tired? Go figure. Then go rest, and make fun in God's backyard.

Peace in the Hood

We have a rumble in the jungle in our house almost every day. Our four year old is pushing back the boundaries to establish himself in the way all youngens do at his age, right on the heels of our six year old, and they irritate our older children at least once before supper.

Our teenagers meanwhile have their own intraturf battles going on which at times look like cat fights in the making. These things are part of growing up but remind me of the turf wars and relational disruption which have been features of the extended Christian community in our neighborhood ever since we moved here. At times it has been hard not to conclude that believers behave worse in relationships than non-Christians.

In looking up a verse on "peace" last night, my concordance laid out a boatload of NT references that kept me thinking and praying for a while. God of peace. Pursue peace. Perfect peace. Jesus is even the prince of this amazing commodity called Peace. It must be pretty important. It reminds me to guard my heart from resentments and any sense of injustice. Peace and resentment mix like oil and water.

Coping With Emergency

Mark Driscoll's Acts 29 church planting network, aka The Resurgence, just lost a young planting pastor to suicide, and is also digesting the unwelcome news that Matt Chandler, a major godly voice in their movement, has a brain tumor.

While reading about all this online, my family and I had just plowed through the first dvd of Spike Lee's 3-disk documentary on Hurricane Katrina and the failure of government to prepare for the needs of New Orleans' poor.

Goes to show you there are times when no dude can help you but Jesus, using what means He chooses. In the months and years to come, those who get this from the inside out will be some of the most encouraging voices.

When It Gets Hot

Sometimes life transitions get hard. There is much incentive to dial out of what matters and set the cruise control button for our comfort zone. Except the comfort zone keeps acting like a slippery bar of soap. Then all you have left is ... to ... press ... in ... to ... God ... and ... pray.