Zacchaeus

Wow, last week was hectic. As a result I did not have a lot of time to prepare for the Wednesday night youth meeting. I have been reading through Luke and was up to chapter 19 which begins with the story of Zacchaeus. This story is taught so much in childrens' classes, and songs, and books that I figured most of the youth had heard of it. I thought maybe there would be some sort of nostalgic attraction that would interest them.

I think I was wrong about that. However, God is so vast. In the couple of hours I had to study for the lesson I learned a lot about this passage that I was unaware of. Even while I was teaching and afterwards God was showing me things. It was cool.

One thing that we know but really tends not to sink in, I think, is the joy and sacrifice with which Zacchaeus responded to Christ. Zacchaeus found acceptance and forgiveness in Christ and immediately and cheerfully decided to give away half of what he had to the poor. What a service, what a sacrifice!

Contrast this with our responses today. Many Christians see going to church on Sunday morning as a sacrifice (and in fact this becomes the biggest sacrifice they make in response to God). Don't get me wrong, worship does involve giving ourselves to God and the Bible recognizes praise as a sacrifice. But, rather than come gladly to worship and enjoy being with other believers and recharge our spirits, we come as if it is some huge, difficult thing that God should give us lots of brownie points for. What should be a highlight of our week is a chore and when its over we feel we have done our duty and the rest of our time and money belong to us.

Is it any wonder that Zacchaeus had so much joy and Christians today often do not?

Go Speed Racer...

Isn't it funny how people rush to get from one red light to another?

I'm sure there are a lot of analogies we could make between this phenomenon and the Christian life, but at the moment I don't have time so I'll let you do that on your own. Feel free to put your ideas in the comments section and we can have a nice little discussion.

Stuff I realized a long time ago...

In a galaxy far, far away... or not.

-I realized that chocolate is really, really good.
-My favorite kind of food to eat right after a multi-day backpacking trip is pizza.
-Baking bread is a wonderful smell.
-As a whole Americans own way too much clothing; but tend not to wear enough of it at one time.
-Jesus is everything.
-I don't really like being too hot, but I'd rather be too hot than too cold.
-Grammar is a pain in the neck.
-Its usually easier to know what the right thing to do is, than to actually do it.
-My wife is the best.
-Nature looks all clean and serene, but its really dirty and full of conflict. Although, its still a nice place to visit.
-Whatever size battery I need in a given instance will be the size that we have none of in our battery drawer.
-Country music isn't.
-I had an extremely happy childhood. (Thanks Mom and Dad and K.)
-As badly as I want to give my kids a happy childhood, its more important that I work harder to train them to grow up godly rather than happy. Hopefully the Lord will grant both.

That's enough for now, Maybe I'll have more of this another day.

Recent realizations

You know, the word 'blog' sounds like something Charlie Brown's teacher would say.

It seems that 96.9 per cent of all the youth pastors in the United States and Canad have blogs. Some of them have information that is highly useful to other youth ministers and volunteer youth workers. Some of them have content that would interest a wide variety of folks. Ironically, it seems that few of them say things that teenagers would really be interested in reading.

Speaking of onomatopoeia, "blog" and "blogging" also sound like something bad that happens in the bathroom after you've eaten chicken salad that was just a couple days too old.

Wow, my office is a mess.

I promised random thoughts. I never said they would be interesting, or good, or even nice.

To Do Lists

Do you use "to do lists"? I went to a conference this summer and one of the speakers was talking about the nuts & bolts of carrying out an education ministry. Several times he said to use to do lists. He talked about how well they worked for him and how everybody should use them. Apparently he is not a procrastinator.

I've tried to do lists. I've got a to do list on my desk. Well, actually it is about three lists. Each started about a week apart and none of them completed. The first one is about four weeks old. I've got a to do list on my refrigerator. It has about 20 items on it. About one third or so of them are marked off. I put that list there approximately three years ago.

To do lists do not work for procrastinators.

And now, my personell commitee wants my to do list for the next year. They are calling it a list of "professional objectives." Sure, I've got time to spend making a list of stuff that is going to be obsolete in a couple months. That will be productive for everyone...not.

You know, I'd like to finish this post but I've got four phone calls to return, a curriculum to research, a Bible study to work on, check the weather report, make some reservations, an e-mail to send...

Y'all can start a pool on if I'll ever get it all done or not ;-)