We came across this great office building that houses the company that created the mechanical liver (we’re in Berkeley, California). However, the entire upstairs is open which would make a great meeting space for worship and other activities. It has been vacant for a while and there are no takers, so the realtor suggested we offer a fraction of what they’re originally asking.

So we did…

Our realtor met with the owner to see if he would entertain our almost offensive offer. In the meantime, I’ve been praying that we would get this. Have you ever prayed that you would get something? Or have you even been in the trading business with God?

“God, if you do this, then I will…(fill in the blank).”

But what if favor doesn’t look exactly like we think it will?

What if what we see as advancing the Kingdom of God with a good cause and pure motives is something that could wound or delay it?

What if we don’t know what’s best?

It’s funny how sometimes God opens your eyes to the bigger picture when you pray.

Buildings for worship are a necessity and are dangerous. They are necessary because people need a place and a means for coming before God to worship Him. Buildings can be dangerous because no institution can claim to house God.

Have you ever thought you knew what was best and because you were a child of God you thought that you were entitled to it? This is called ‘Name it—Claim it’ theology.

And if this is true, then it’s true that the homeless guy that sleeps in the alley at the bottom of the building we’re asking for did something to deserve to be homeless. His sin is so bad he’s earned his spot in society.

Solomon, at the dedication of the first temple ever, almost apologizes to God, whom neither heaven nor earth can contain.

In time people give more authority to ministers at the temple than their character can handle. This is a place where servants become officials and ministers become religious authorities.

Gradually, a beautiful place and its witness to God can lose its way.

Sometimes the favor that we can receive from God can rob us of our innocence.

And if that’s the case, we don’t need this building. It’s not failure that scares me; it’s success. Success is so much more difficult to manage than failure. Failure drives us to our knees and helps us understand we need something or someone more. Success can, overtime, drive the illusion that we did it all by ourselves.

The owner accepted our offer.

We have a new place to worship God.

The important thing is to remember where it came from.

May you have just enough failure in your life to make you truly successful.

It started when Mark Batterson asked the room full of church leaders if they had ever known anyone who no matter what their circumstances were they always had something negative to say?

I totally related with that.

I am that.

Even though nobody ever talks about postmodernism anymore it’s residue still lingers in the culture of the Millennials.  The good thing about the generations culture is the ability to artistically cultivate and creatively weave ideas together.

The bad thing about postmodernism is that in a culture that values thinking for oneself we can become incredibly critical.  So when we observe something or are a part of something and our first thoughts turn to judgements of disproval that is bad.  It is toxic, and this toxicity is contagious.

It’s much easier to be negative, than it is to be positive.

It’s less challenging to judge than it is to be appreciative.

We see what we want to see.

In psychology there’s something called the focusing illusion, or focusing effect.  This is a cognitive bias that occurs when people place too much importance on an aspect of an event, causing an error in accuracy on the portrayal of a situation.

Now, I believe it’s important to be realistic about reality.  Living in a cloud of mindless optimism can (I’m convinced) cause a lot more harm than good.  However without the proper balance we become a pessimistic prophet of doom spreading death instead of life.

According to this… what we assign our attention to is directly connected with our thoughts, emotions, and perspectives.

Your focus determines your reality.

The power of spreading life and death lies with where your focus is.

The question is where is your focus?

You see what you want to see.

(appeared first at 360church.net)

Well, almost everyone…

Spike Lee was quoted saying it is “coonery bafoonery” (talking about Tyler Perry’s movies and television shows).  He explains that this type of entertainment is taking us [African Americans] backwards, as we now have a black president and we’re [film makers] going back to the stereotypes of black people. He said he is “tired of seeing these films who do not give any love to us [African American society].”

When confronted about the criticism in an episode of 60 Minutes, Perry said, “That really pisses me off. Yes, I’m insulted. It’s attitudes like that that make Hollywood think that these people do not exist, and that’s why there’s no material speaking to them, speaking to us.”

Recently a reporter from RELEVANT magazine interviewed Tyler Perry about his newest film and asked if he ever gets any flack? Perry said he was sick of hearing about Spike Lee. He said, “Spike can go straight to hell! You can print that. Spike needs to shut the hell up…”

Proverbs 18:19 says, “A brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city,
 and quarreling is like the bars of a castle.” Great care must be taken to prevent quarrels among relations and those under obligations to each other. Wisdom and grace make it easy to forgive; but corruption makes it difficult.

Some people love Madea.

Some people don’t.

It’s really easy in situations like this to listen to the conflict and be a judge; you pick a winner according to who you would pick sides with. Because everyone has opinions.

Everyone has a view or judgment formed about things. Everyone thinks that their opinion is right. Otherwise they wouldn’t have that opinion. Now, the danger comes from when we think that our opinion is so right that everyone should have the same one.

When you think that your way is the way and the only way…you become haughty.

If you are easily offended, then maybe your identity doesn’t rest in what it should.

Even if you are Spike Lee and talk badly about what other people do or you are Tyler Perry over-reacting in response to someone’s negative comments or you are someone reading about this kind of news online…

May we keep the faith.

This is about Madea. But it’s not.

This is something we’re surrounded by on a daily basis. This is where we find out what we’re made of. In the small stuff. May we keep the faith. May we keep keep a pure heart in all things. Because everyone is a work in progress.

Even an argumentative six-foot, six-inch, elderly African-American woman that is willing to threaten people with her gun.

(appeared first in theomag.com)

United States President Barack Obama announces that Osama bin Laden, the Saudi extremist whose al-Qaida terrorist organization killed more than 3,000 people in coordinated attacks from Sept. 11, 2001, is dead following a military operation in Pakistan and the U.S. has recovered his body.

“Justice has been done,” the president declared as crowds formed outside the White House to celebrate, singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “We Are the Champions,”

U.S. officials say that U.S. Special Operations forces carried out the attack on the al-Qaida compound, killing bin Laden when they shot him in the head during a firefight.

A man ordered our own planes to crash into our own buildings killing a lot of our own innocent people.  Our military was ordered to shoot him in the head.  Sounds like a normal reaction. Especially for a world super power that needs to send a message.

After facebook’s homepage erupts with clever one-liners on the topic from all varieties of people I start to wonder who that message effects more.

Us or them?

As I read every comment I wonder who’s side I’m on.

I don’t know how to feel.

Some people seem joyful that justice has been ushered in.

Some people are glad that an evil man is dead, and want it known that they receive great pleasure knowing that he’s burning in hell.

Some people act as if this was a terrible thing that had happened and may thought that it would’ve been better if the man who was declared a terrorist had been given the right to a fair trial.

I still don’t know how to feel.

Do I feel guilty for being happy?  Do I feel guilty for not being happy?

More importantly, I wonder how the soldier felt that pulled the trigger on the weapon that cracked a bullet to travel at thousands of feet per second until it pierced Osama bin Laden through his skin and into his skull?  Like a hero?  A legend?  Is that how we’re supposed to feel?  Is that why multitudes gather outside the gates of the White House and sing “We are the Champions?”

Are we?

Thousands of people still died.

Thousands of families still have an empty seat around the dinner table.

The Bible says, “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles”.

I’m still not sure how to feel.  But it seems certain that God is continuously concerned with the condition of our hearts.  It would seem good to me and the Holy Spirit that our love and compassion for the broken-hearted always be greater than the hatred we brew inside toward our enemy.

May we be motivated by love rather than hatred.

If not, then what makes us so different?

(first appeared on theomag.com)

I sit in one of the big lounge chairs that are surrounded by big potted flowers and plants.

She screams, “Daddy!  Daddy!  Are you watching me!?”  And she screams this right before her barely 4 year-old legs jump off of a concrete ledge into a plateau of soft grass.

My first thought is… this is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

Then, by the sixth time it starts to get annoying.  The little girl had just the right pitch to  make teeth clench and and knuckles cringe.

This is the real-life version of Mad T.V.’s character ‘Stuart’ and his favorite line, “Look what I can do!”

Pretty soon I start to think negatively of a four year old, “You’re not that special, anyone can do that.”

Then a couple old ladies with canes come walking from around the corner.  Clearly they wouldn’t be able to do that.

I am humbled.

I was humbled and I started to realize that if someone is trying to get their father’s attention by showing off, it isn’t any of my business… even if it is annoying.

The fact is I’m jealous.

She screams because she can’t stand for there to be anything interfering with the relationship between her and with the one that brought her life.

She starves for the attention of her father.  She aches for his approval.

She reminds me of the shame that I feel when I don’t.

It was a lot of fun.

I met a lot of new people.

Sometimes meeting new people is fun.

This fun I speak of was recorded with a camera. Pictures were taken. Meeting new people… making relationships, friendships, sharing our lives together, and having fun.

These pictures captured the essence of what it looked like to genuinely connect with people on their turf and to create bonds with them.

Today I received a text from my girlfriend while sitting in a movie theatre watching a less than great Bruce Willis movie. It was a text of caution. A text of circumspection.

She informed me that among the life-sharing party pictures that were posted in the internet there was an beer bottle in one of the pictures. She indicated that maybe it wasn’t good for the ministry. And she was right.

This was a warning.

This was a premonition.

But why?

Protection.

She wanted to protect me.

But from what?

The question isn’t from what; but from who?

Them.

Christians.

After rushing online and deleting this photo I wondered why I had to in the first place. It was this idea that we as Christians live these lives with no gray areas. Which sounds great and even looks great if you can live an imitation of life where there is never anything questionable. Just one problem: it’s not real, it’s an imitation, it’s not real life. You see, I believe that sometimes we (followers of Christ) end up violating the very thing that we try to protect.

Our mission.

What is our mission?

Unfortunately Christians might have all kinds of different answers. A true follower of Christ has a simple clear mission: to save lives.

Who is the one who needs a doctor; the sick or the healthy?

Jesus was known for spending most of his time at parties. When questioned about his behavior he responded by telling a couple stories. One of which funny enough was about wine.

He explained that no one puts new wine into old wineskins because the skin would burst and be destroyed while the wine spilled out onto the floor. New wine is put in new wineskins.

Jesus is telling people to change the way they’re thinking. Not just to keep the same system and add him [Jesus] to it… but to renew their entire thought process.

Renew their entire thought process.

The reality is, that beer bottle represented more than just alcohol… something that was lost. And I was so quick to hit the delete button on something that was lost because I was afraid of my image to the assembly instead of setting the unashamed example. I was more concerned with the 99 than I was with the one… which I fear is how sometimes we handle people who are lost. Because sometimes unless they come at our mercy, on our turf…

Delete.

Sometimes we end up violating the very thing that we are trying to protect.

There’s a problem when my girlfriend and I are worried about what Christians think if they find out we hang out with people who aren’t Christians.

This is called a cult.

My question is if you’re only spending time with people who are Christians… are you really a follower of Jesus?

In college I purposely didn’t date anybody until the tail end.  I wanted to observe other relationships and evaluate them until I discovered key ingredients.  Needless to say my science experiment left me high and dry with no real answers except the ‘what not to do’ stuff you could figure out by watching any sitcom on Nick at Night.

After hearing from my disgruntled colleagues their opinions as to why their passed relationships didn’t work I felt like I had an advantage.  I could see everything from the outside looking in.  Learn from their mistakes.  I learned what not to do. Knowing this I thought I had the whole husband thing figured out.  I knew everyone had real work with their relationships but I thought that I was the exception to the rule.

I thought that because I was in touch with my feminine side, I was a really good listener, I like shopping, and would rather share feelings than fight or watch football that I was a step ahead of everyone else.  I was wrong.

It’s funny because just learning what not to do wasn’t good enough.  All I knew was what not to do and even though it’s priceless information and makes for great character disciplines…

it’s only half of the puzzle.

And anything that’s only half… isn’t whole.

People sometimes think following Christ is memorizing ways how not to screw up.

By learning a list of things I shouldn’t do I end up playing defense in whatever situation that I have.  I learn how to keep the orange cones in the proper boundaries so that I don’t screw up too bad.  Keeping the net from getting scored on is a good thing.  But it doesn’t make you win the game.

Life is more than setting up orange cones. It’s like a friend of mine says: “You can do nothing wrong and still do nothing right.”  In order to win the game, it’s not enough just know how not to act.  Even more important than that is knowing how to act.

And before you know the ‘how’, you have to know the ‘why’. Because at the root of any healthy relationship it’s always driven by knowing what it’s really all about at the core…

whether it’s with a College Girlfriend who eventually becomes your wife or a Creative Godhead who becomes your whole life.

1 john 5.2-3

A crutch is a device for helping people who are wounded.

It helps them to function and to heal.  Once the person has healed, they no longer need the crutch.

When turning your life over to God becomes a long stick with a crosspiece at the top used as support under the armpit sometimes you can get an inaccurate picture of who God is.

A couple days ago one of my wife’s friends was driving with her husband, they have a little girl that was being watched by grandma.

One patch of ice, one tree, and her husband was killed.

In seconds from loving wife, to 25 year-old widow.

With a little girl who turned 3

today.

Today is also the wake for the deceased.

The raw widow confirms with another close friend using religion as a crutch.  They agree that God uses us for a mission and when we’re done wherever we are he takes us home.  Even if it means crashing into a tree leaving a little girl fatherless on her third birthday.

When turning our life over to God becomes a long stick with a crosspiece at the top used as support under the armpit we can get an inaccurate picture of who God is.

There is a whole world of fatherless children who will be dependant upon us to know and tell the difference between crutch and crux.

james 1.26-27

People wander the streets that are filled with little pieces of discarded paper with pictures of naked women on them.  The souls of everyone’s sticky shoes reek of beer and urine while people gather with friends into massive casinos where they will give lots of money to the establishment based upon how bad they are at predicting the future.

Women will dance on bars in degrading ways which they will keep a secret to their not-born-yet kids because of the embarrassment.  Guys everywhere will drink just enough of a toxic substance until they lose control of their judgement and paralyze their short term memory.

And everyone does this with smiles on their faces.

Because what happens in Vegas…

stays in Vegas.

Most people premeditate doing things in this certain place that they would never want certain people to know about.

People are looking for a place to let go, a place to release.  People are looking for somewhere they can abandon the monotony and desert the mediocrity.  People hunt for excitement when their lives aren’t exciting.  People find ways to please themselves when they feel the pressure.

When people think the best way to break up the boredom of their repetitious life is by giving hard-earned wages to a life-stealing machine and supporting the degradation of women all while practicing short-term amnesia something is wrong.

When people are looking for something more and they turn to a city of sin something’s not right.  Most Christians will recline in obtuse postures as they point their fingers and shake their heads at all the sinners and heathens.  May I suggest that maybe the fingers shouldn’t be pointed outward…

but inward.

If people turn to sin to make their lives more exciting, then they haven’t been properly introduced to the most exciting, pressure-releasing, mediocrity killer of all.

May we fit into culture like we care about people, and may we stand out like we have something culture can’t offer.

I was at Union Square in San Francisco on the fifth floor of a Macy’s Department store (where the Starbucks is located) when I felt the call of nature.  I momentarily departed from the over-priced coffee chain to use the restroom.

A zigzagged escalator and a few stairs later I reach the restroom.  Like a museum, the bathroom was large with two sides containing long rows of urinals and stalls.  No sooner than a moment later the worst thing that could happen to a man happened…

A middle-aged man walks in this lonely massive restroom he stands at the porcelain bowl mounted right next to mine.

Awkward.

Guy code rule number one: a man must always be at lease one urinal apart from other men, unless (in scarce situations) there is a line for the restroom.

I already feel uncomfortable with the lack of space between us in a room of great size, but then he looks at me.  He looks at me until I look at him and then his eyes scan me as they shift down… and then looks back at my face and smiles.

There aren’t words that can describe how that made me feel.  My blood shot through my veins like water through a garden hose and my fist engaged in clenched mode.  Logical thinking became disconnected from my mind for about 2.5 seconds and all I could envision was me pounding this guy in his face as hard as I could until his nose bleeds with justification.

Then I thought this probably isn’t the way to start off the day.  But that didn’t change the way it made me feel.  As I walked away I felt less and less angry and more and more… disrespected, unclean, disgusting, self-conscious, filthy… and violated.

I felt violated.

Is this how women feel when they sense guys looking at them rating various parts of their bodily structure?  All of a sudden this degenerate person appeared less pathetic and I became more sympathetic.  Jesus didn’t call me to be Homophobe, just a loving Homo sapien.

The Bible says that all people are created in God’s image.  How we behave towards people indicates what we believe about God. When we honor the image of God in others we protect the image of God in ourselves.

So this guy is just trying to spread what he thinks is the best way to live life for him.  He’s trying to engage with me and invite me into the ultimate thing that brings him satisfaction.  All of a sudden he starts to look more like me and less different than me.  There are moments when the adversary becomes just like me.  When a pervert becomes a pastor.

The hand that clenched a fist, became the hand that wiped a tear because I realized in everything we do and say we make the world either better or worse.

The people that I had been sent to save were suddenly the ones who saved me.