A broken record player sings to an almost empty room
"I never meant to break your heart, to do those things to you."
The receivers of the noise can feel it coming like a heat
But the needle skips like always, that line is on repeat
'Love' is a word that always gets thrown around
I wish I could write those four letters down
As it stands, all I have is my single shallow line
Spread to feed the masses, just words to pass the time
"Just tell me what went wrong," she said. "The complete and honest truth."
Well, truth these days is a commodity and there simply is no use
to try and look at the ins and outs of what caused our flame to die
I'll just grab my line off the shelf and try to avoid your eyes
Monday, July 27, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Chapter 1
"Dismantle me down...repair."
Well I'm pretty new to this whole thing. Actually I'm completely new. So bare with me, please.
I think I'm just gonna ramble a bit about my life. I just got home from a mission trip in San Fransisco. Our team did a lot of work with the homeless and it was an incredible experience. In the Bible, Jesus tells us to serve the least of these. Homeless people are the least of these and getting the chance to go out and give them clothes, hot chocolate on a cold night, or just a conversation with a person who truly cares about them was such a fulfilling experience. I feel like God called me to go on that trip and through it he taught me how to live with a servant's heart. Our team called it Mission Trip Living. We had a cool little equation for it. It went like this...
MTL = GC + GC
Mission Trip Living = Great Commandment + Great Commission
The Great Commandment is love your God and love you neighbor. And the Great Commission is Jesus telling his followers to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. Mission Trip Living is a pretty simple idea...yet, most followers seem to ignore it or not think about it. We are supposed to live our lives like we are on mission every single day. People don't realize that a mission trip isn't the only time we are supposed to go out and serve people. God wants us to live our lives on mission regardless of where we are. Whether it be at school, home, or with friends...we are supposed to serve people and do all things to glorify God. I really like that idea and I hope I can always remember to live on mission.
So I have an idea to help me always remember it. I think that generally tattoos are a stupid idea. I mainly think this because people get tattoos for no reason...like a chain link fence around your bicep. That's idiotic. What's it mean? Nothing... But I am all for tattoos if they have a meaning behind it. (The whole "meaning" thing applies to many aspects of my life; I'll share more about that later.) My friend Adam, who has greatly inspired me in life has "faithful" in Hebrew tattooed across his wrist. I like that. It has meaning. He also has a empty circle below his palm on one wrist and a full circle below his palm on his other wrist. He says that they remind him to put God in His place. I like that tattoo also. So here's my idea.
Put your left hand in front of your face. Yes, right now. Put it so your palm is facing down and your hand is parallel with the floor. Now make your hand into a fist. See the skin in between your thumb and first finger? Well, I want to get the letters "MTL" tattooed right there. During the trip, some of us kids would write that on our hands there in sharpie so we remembered it. I thought that was such a good idea I should just get it permanently inked there. So I think I will. Hopefully my mum won't mind. Technically, It doesn't matter whether she minds or not because I'm 18 and can get a tattoo by myself but I'd still rather have her approval. So please don't tell her about this, I will tell her eventually.
Anyways, back to the tattoo itself. Other than being a constant reminder to live my life on mission, the tattoo would also serve other purposes. One of these would be a "Jesus conversation" starter. I imagine someone who doesn't know asking me what my tattoo means. That would open up the perfect opportunity for me to share my story about my walk with Christ. Normally you have to work to get those opportunities. That way I could tell someone about Jesus, share the gospel and get a chance to ask them where they are in the walk, or if they are even in that walk at all without being an "offensive in-your-face christian." I really don't like people like that. I feel like those people are trying to "sell" Jesus. They tell someone about all the good things about Jesus, how we will benefit from being with him and how, if they don't accept him, they will go to Hell. That's not how I think we should do things. That is called talking the talk.
I think that God wants us to introduce him into people's lives by doing what he did for us. Show them love. I don't want to be the christian who goes up to people and gets in their face about what they believe and how they need to believe what I believe. I'd rather be the one who genuinely cares about someone and show's them God through loving them. Through truly caring about their story. Through actually listening to what they have to say. I think if you earn someones trust by loving on them enough like God would love on them, they will open up to you and share their story. Then you will be able to share your story with them and you will have your chance to bring up Christ and what he has done in your life. That way instead of "selling" them Jesus, you are teaching them how much He loves them and helping them enter into a relationship with him.
Now don't get me wrong, I know that the most important thing is sharing the gospel and helping people accept Christ in their lives, but hear me out. Mission trip living involves the great commandment (love your neighbor) and the great commission (share the gospel.) You can't live your life on mission with only one of these, you need both. Some people try to and maybe that's why christians have such a bad rap. Everyone should learn to love people and share the gospel, not just the latter.
If you go up to someone and tell them about God's love and how Christ died for them without actually portraying Jesus in your life do you really think they will just believe you? Especially one of the least of these. How could someone who has no home, family, money or food believe that God is good? But if you go up to someone and see them with God's eyes and love them like Christ would, maybe..just maybe, they could see a sliver of how much God really loves them. I think that instead of telling someone how much God loves them with no action behind it is so much less effective than actually showing someone how much God loves them through compassion and caring. And love. That is called walking the walk.
That's the kind of pastor I wanna be. I want to be a pastor who walks the walk and teachers people to walk to the walk. I don't want to be a pastor who is always talking negative about people and peoples beliefs. Even if they are wrong. Please don't think I want tolerance, because I don't. That's not what I'm getting at. What I want to do is love people like God would love them. God doesn't hate homosexuals and he doesn't hate people who have abortions. He doesn't hate liberals either. God loves them. All of them, no matter what they believe or have done. Obviously, He knows that they are wrong if they are wrong and will rebuke them...but if God doesn't hate them, why would I? I want to be a pastor someday who teaches people to love everyone and through that compassion and caring shows them how much God loves them. But that's just me and maybe that's wrong. If it is, someone please tell me and help me to understand...but I just can't stand to see so called "christians" hating or bashing on people for not believing what they believe.
Would Jesus do that? Or would he simply show them love?
Well I'm pretty new to this whole thing. Actually I'm completely new. So bare with me, please.
I think I'm just gonna ramble a bit about my life. I just got home from a mission trip in San Fransisco. Our team did a lot of work with the homeless and it was an incredible experience. In the Bible, Jesus tells us to serve the least of these. Homeless people are the least of these and getting the chance to go out and give them clothes, hot chocolate on a cold night, or just a conversation with a person who truly cares about them was such a fulfilling experience. I feel like God called me to go on that trip and through it he taught me how to live with a servant's heart. Our team called it Mission Trip Living. We had a cool little equation for it. It went like this...
MTL = GC + GC
Mission Trip Living = Great Commandment + Great Commission
The Great Commandment is love your God and love you neighbor. And the Great Commission is Jesus telling his followers to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. Mission Trip Living is a pretty simple idea...yet, most followers seem to ignore it or not think about it. We are supposed to live our lives like we are on mission every single day. People don't realize that a mission trip isn't the only time we are supposed to go out and serve people. God wants us to live our lives on mission regardless of where we are. Whether it be at school, home, or with friends...we are supposed to serve people and do all things to glorify God. I really like that idea and I hope I can always remember to live on mission.
So I have an idea to help me always remember it. I think that generally tattoos are a stupid idea. I mainly think this because people get tattoos for no reason...like a chain link fence around your bicep. That's idiotic. What's it mean? Nothing... But I am all for tattoos if they have a meaning behind it. (The whole "meaning" thing applies to many aspects of my life; I'll share more about that later.) My friend Adam, who has greatly inspired me in life has "faithful" in Hebrew tattooed across his wrist. I like that. It has meaning. He also has a empty circle below his palm on one wrist and a full circle below his palm on his other wrist. He says that they remind him to put God in His place. I like that tattoo also. So here's my idea.
Put your left hand in front of your face. Yes, right now. Put it so your palm is facing down and your hand is parallel with the floor. Now make your hand into a fist. See the skin in between your thumb and first finger? Well, I want to get the letters "MTL" tattooed right there. During the trip, some of us kids would write that on our hands there in sharpie so we remembered it. I thought that was such a good idea I should just get it permanently inked there. So I think I will. Hopefully my mum won't mind. Technically, It doesn't matter whether she minds or not because I'm 18 and can get a tattoo by myself but I'd still rather have her approval. So please don't tell her about this, I will tell her eventually.
Anyways, back to the tattoo itself. Other than being a constant reminder to live my life on mission, the tattoo would also serve other purposes. One of these would be a "Jesus conversation" starter. I imagine someone who doesn't know asking me what my tattoo means. That would open up the perfect opportunity for me to share my story about my walk with Christ. Normally you have to work to get those opportunities. That way I could tell someone about Jesus, share the gospel and get a chance to ask them where they are in the walk, or if they are even in that walk at all without being an "offensive in-your-face christian." I really don't like people like that. I feel like those people are trying to "sell" Jesus. They tell someone about all the good things about Jesus, how we will benefit from being with him and how, if they don't accept him, they will go to Hell. That's not how I think we should do things. That is called talking the talk.
I think that God wants us to introduce him into people's lives by doing what he did for us. Show them love. I don't want to be the christian who goes up to people and gets in their face about what they believe and how they need to believe what I believe. I'd rather be the one who genuinely cares about someone and show's them God through loving them. Through truly caring about their story. Through actually listening to what they have to say. I think if you earn someones trust by loving on them enough like God would love on them, they will open up to you and share their story. Then you will be able to share your story with them and you will have your chance to bring up Christ and what he has done in your life. That way instead of "selling" them Jesus, you are teaching them how much He loves them and helping them enter into a relationship with him.
Now don't get me wrong, I know that the most important thing is sharing the gospel and helping people accept Christ in their lives, but hear me out. Mission trip living involves the great commandment (love your neighbor) and the great commission (share the gospel.) You can't live your life on mission with only one of these, you need both. Some people try to and maybe that's why christians have such a bad rap. Everyone should learn to love people and share the gospel, not just the latter.
If you go up to someone and tell them about God's love and how Christ died for them without actually portraying Jesus in your life do you really think they will just believe you? Especially one of the least of these. How could someone who has no home, family, money or food believe that God is good? But if you go up to someone and see them with God's eyes and love them like Christ would, maybe..just maybe, they could see a sliver of how much God really loves them. I think that instead of telling someone how much God loves them with no action behind it is so much less effective than actually showing someone how much God loves them through compassion and caring. And love. That is called walking the walk.
That's the kind of pastor I wanna be. I want to be a pastor who walks the walk and teachers people to walk to the walk. I don't want to be a pastor who is always talking negative about people and peoples beliefs. Even if they are wrong. Please don't think I want tolerance, because I don't. That's not what I'm getting at. What I want to do is love people like God would love them. God doesn't hate homosexuals and he doesn't hate people who have abortions. He doesn't hate liberals either. God loves them. All of them, no matter what they believe or have done. Obviously, He knows that they are wrong if they are wrong and will rebuke them...but if God doesn't hate them, why would I? I want to be a pastor someday who teaches people to love everyone and through that compassion and caring shows them how much God loves them. But that's just me and maybe that's wrong. If it is, someone please tell me and help me to understand...but I just can't stand to see so called "christians" hating or bashing on people for not believing what they believe.
Would Jesus do that? Or would he simply show them love?
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