Well, since I am passing along silly addictive games… I found this one the other day on the Veggie Tales site. 🙂

Read the information on the link as it’s a bit more involved than slapping a penguin with an ice bat. 🙂

Click the image above for a demo.
Click here to play!

My sister passed this game along to me. You click the abominable snowman to get him ready, then a penguin drops from the cliff and you hit him as far as you can. Your distance is displayed with a little flag stuck through the penguin when you’re done.

Click the image above for a demo.
Click here to play

We rented VeggieTales: A Snoodle’s Tale recently from NetFlix and I can’t get the Silly Song out of my head! It’s soooo funny! It’s a couple of yuppies in their nice sweaters doing their mundane tasks in their 4 x4 sport utility vehicles. The song is great! They are quite creative those BigIdea guys…

Here’s a link to a clip… but you have to get the whole video to really appreciate it.
VeggieClip

I just remembered I had another story I wanted to share related to my blog this morning titled, Peace.

I realized as I was thinking about where I had placed my trust, that I was not what I thought I was. Now, this is not self-flagellation for past sins. I understand that to the best of my ability I have been letting God lead and trying to understand how to trust him more. And it was a big leap to go from our first real paycheck to NEVER asking for money. Never. When people asked what we charge, I would say, “Nothing. That’s up to you. Whatever you are able, that will be perfect.”

And God provided through that in so many amazing ways. It was not always easy. He certainly never promised it would be. Just, asked me to trust him by not setting up a minimum fee.

And I think I did trust him. But again today I just wondered if I had been misdirecting my trust. My self-sufficient ways are re-surfacing, and I am feeling the burden of it. One thing I noticed was my heightened tension due to an “empty” calendar. See, even though I had no idea what money would come in any given week… I could see the dates on the calendar. And, when we had 3, 4 or 5 events in a week… I “knew” money would be coming in. Yes, I was trusting God to provide it… but I think today I realized that a good bit of my trust was in my full calendar, and not in Him.

I trusted him to provide THROUGH things (my gigs, my work, my whatever) instead of just trusting HIM.

He is helping me know that, and as I see him work every day in my life, I know I will trust him more. I praise him today for the things that make me complain. When I complain, I am still worried about me. When I realize that, I think he is growing me into more of who I was made to be.

I have been asking God for peace lately. I just haven’t been feeling it. Stress from changes in life, too much to get done in too little time, various normal stresses in our family and of course, financial stress.

For some time now, I have almost been complaining. “God, why won’t you give me peace?” I go over all of the ways that he could give me peace… a little more money, a little easier work load, kids who behave so their mom is less stressed, slow down the flow of bills to our mailbox… 🙂 There is no shortage of ideas here. And, when none of my ideas seem to be listened to, I complain about that.

Today I woke up and began to think about the week; what bills were due, what money was coming in, prioritizing jobs by which would pay this week. And as I sorted these out in my head, I don’t know if it was God in me or what, but I just thought, “I don’t have peace because I don’t trust.”

It seemed that simple. If I could somehow believe that he really loves me and trust that he IS (not will… he IS) working things out for me… in HIS WAY… I would find that peace.

Think about it. What could cause you stress if you weren’t thinking about yourself anymore? If I didn’t have to make the money to pay my bills, but just trusted that God will bring it in when the time is right – there would be peace. If I didn’t have to try so hard to maintain peace in my relationships, but just allowed Father’s love to flow into and out of me into others, there would be peace. If I could just live for today, instead of being dominated by a calendar of looming events and deadlines – there would be peace.

Is peace something that I can achieve? Or is it a natural by-product of trust? Perhaps once my focus is off of my needs and my life and my problems, then I can know the peace. Peace might be at the end of my resigning control to the One who is actually able to control life. And who loves me more than I probably love myself. He loves me, and he loves my family, and he knows what we need, and for all the years I have known him, he has never – not once – left us in need. Never.

So why do I continually take back the reigns? Why do I shoulder the burden I was not meant to carry? Why do I pass up the peace I so long for?

My eyes are on me, and not him. Maybe I just forget that he wants to. Maybe I can’t believe that he wants to. Maybe I don’t think he should want to. But, he does.

Matt 11:28

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Peace comes from knowing him, and trusting him completely. And complete trust not only brings peace, but freedom as well. When I am no longer the source of my life ? my prosperity be it financial or otherwise ? then I am free to just be his. To do stuff that might not make sense like spend time with someone who needs a friend when I should be getting work done so that I will get paid.

God takes care of us. He promised.

Matt 6:31-34 | Read Context

“So don’t worry about having enough food or drink or clothing. Why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs, and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.

“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

How long does our stuff last? Just a thought before I hit the hay tonight.

How long did that fire for studying the Bible in the mornings with God last? How long did you keep praying for those missionaries every day? How long could you keep doing the good you wanted to do, or not doing the bad you didn’t want to do?

In our personal lives, fires come and go. The passion ignites, and drives for a time our desire to build something good. To do something with our lives.

At times, that translates to something outside of ourselves. Sometimes we have a good idea, and we run with it. Say perhaps a Bible study with friends. Every Wednesday night. We gather, we read, we study, we share, we can’t wait till next week. And then, after several good weeks, something else comes up and one person can’t make it, but the meeting goes pretty well. Then, after a few more absences, and an unspoken restlessness … like something’s not quite right… something has “changed”… eventually, the whole thing just falls apart.

This happens with most everything we try and put together. I play basketball with some guys on Wednesday mornings. Started out with me and another friend on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We were there each of those days. Every week. But, that changed to Thursdays. In the meantime I added Wednesdays with some other guys. Last year, that was GREAT. We were there all the time. Playing hard. This year? I have been at the gym by myself on quite a few Wednesday mornings. Sometimes the other guys just don’t show up… sometimes they are busy elsewhere. Not really an issue, just a furtherance of my point.

If you build it… it will fall apart.

Whether it’s a basketball schedule, a Bible study, a small group, a church, a program, a sports league, an annual convention… eventually, it will die. Some things maintain their existence a bit longer, but is it really worth it for the church of 10 people to continue to expend time and money to maintain a building for them to meet in every Sunday? Is it really necessary to get a preacher to speak to them every week?

You see, for some reason we don’t understand that things are for a time. Solomon spoke of this in Ecclesiastes. “To everything there is a season…” It’s true. And the grand orchestra conductor is not me. Nor you. It is our Father who guides and directs all things in perfect harmony. Perfect unison. He knows what is next, and for how long.

I feel like I am in a different chapter of life right now. I don’t think that I was building something that crumbled. I think God is changing our circumstances for a new chapter. The old is not thrown away, but built on. The new is still not my idea, but something that He is leading, and providing.

I am not trying to make universal statements of truth tonight… just observations.

When we build it, it will usually – perhaps even always – fail. But, on the contrary, when HE builds it, it is beautiful and freeing and life-giving… and succeeds wildly (even if only for you).

And then we move on.

Life changes. He does not. Help me God to not place my trust in the things I build, but to watch and follow you as you build into and around me the things that you want to.

The weight of my financial burdens is threatening to crush me once again. All of my simple trust that “things will work out” and that my Father loves me have become dim and blurred by the passing of due dates and the nearly empty bank account (and the shortage of forseen income). And all of this while we face the loss of a significant amount of regular income at the end of this month.

It’s been a little rough around here in that arena.

But today it’s kinda like God opened my eyes again. I was able to see again how much work I currently have in the world of web and graphic design and how I can barely keep up. And then I was reminded that I did not procure any of said work. It came to me. I did nothing to initiate it.

I know that he takes care of us. I know that he loves me, and knows what I need. I know that I do not need to bear the burden. But… I still do. A lot. I am just insane. (Once heard that term defined as doing the same thing and expecting different results… so, I guess I qualify. Break out the straight jackets…)

Thank you God for knowing what I need, and for taking care of it, even when I try and take that role from you. Please help me to have peace as I learn to trust you more. Thank you for providing in your perfect timing, and please forgive me for complaining and thinking that I have a better plan. I know that I do not.

But you do. Thanks for the reminder today.

While discussing my recent post on Focus with my wife, we found ourselves discussing the importance of worship. Expressing your heart through music to God. (That is our most common understanding of “worship” these days, I’d say.)

We mentioned how meaningful that has been for us at times, and just fun, too! God made music to help us express ourselves more than mere words are able to do. We spoke of how worship can even be just a couple people using just their voices to express their hearts to God.

But from there, we thought, perhaps add a guitar for flavor. But then, you really need to have someone who can really play. That enhances the whole experience when it’s actually GOOD music. 🙂 So, then once you have a good guitar player, or some good vocalists, the next step is always a few more instruments… eventually forming a BAND! And with a band, you definitely need to rehearse! So, someone has to lead the band, and rehearse the songs, arranging a layout of each song of course. And then, once you have arranged this musical portion, you probably need to get someone to oversee the whole flow of the time that we are together, perhaps even plan some other pieces of the worship time – art, drama, even video for the tech savvy…

Do you see what happened? From the simplistic offering of heart-felt worship – a heart expressed to God – to an organized mega church in three simple steps! It’s not always as quick as the steps above, but it’s what I have now deemed the Babel Syndrome.

Do you remember the story? The people of the world had one common language. They were united in their effort to achieve all they could be. There was arrogance and pride in their hearts. They were not living to know their Creator, they were trying to reach him on their own. They wanted to build a tower to the heavens. God knew this was not good for them, and so confused them by giving them all different languages. Their organization was thwarted.

It is our way. We take everything that is good, and we want to improve. We want to make it the best it can be, and that takes organization. Administration. Planning. Building. Structure.

The bane of humanity is our desire to be in control. To manipulate our surroundings to produce the finest we can produce. By itself that is not bad. Striving for excellence is to be commended. But what happens is our focus drifts off of the offering and onto our achievements. We take the joy of spontaneous expressions to our Creator and package them into something that ends up receiving (in effect) our worship. Our time, our effort, our focus, our energy.

It becomes our tower of Babel. Our greatest accomplishment. Our driving force. Just a thought, but seems to fit a lot of the stuff we do. We are always striving for bigger and better. What improves on something? To add more, of course! If we had two guitarists last week, let’s add drums this week. If we had drums last week, let’s add a stand-up bass and cello. Always improving by pulling out all the stops and making the tower bigger.

Obviously, this does not stop with worship. We know we need to “fellowship” so we create small groups. We create a structure by which we can ensure maximum participation in such groups, so as to produce maximum fellowship. Even our church buildings are a result of this syndrome. We justify exorbitant spending on such edifices by extolling them as tools to reach more people, or just to handle all of the families that God has already blessed us with.

We are always trying to build bigger and better, instead of relishing the simple life of knowing and living with the Creator. Sharing the joys and pains of life with those he has surrounded us with, and not trying to herd them in any way into any pattern of living we might think “best” for them.

It is our way. From Babel to now.

Christian Denomination Selector

This is too funny. Had to put it up here. 🙂

Thanks Chris!

(it said I was Seventh Day Adventist, by the way… followed by Assemblies of God and then Church of Christ. Go figure.) 🙂

I touched on the idea of a misplaced focus a couple of posts ago… I was then speaking of the emphasis we place on reaching the masses. The attempt to reach as many as possible as efficiently as possible, and thus the large group settings.

Well, another side of the focus coin became apparent to me today. Again, it’s not all that new, but came freshly to my mind again today.

We are off this weekend – not singing anywhere – and even have a break from the kids, while they are with Grandma. So, sometimes when a free weekend presents itself, we will enjoy the quietness and solitude of home when we would otherwise be “working” on a weekend, leading worship in various locations. Today, though we both really wanted to join our friends at Cross Creek Church in Palmyra. When we heard songs that they often do, we thought of them. We thought of how long it has been since we have seen many of them, since outside of Cross Creek, our lives do not connect. We just had a longing to be there.

So, thanks to a last minute phone call with a friend this morning where we were reminded of the new meeting times… 🙂 We made it! And it was great to see everyone! It had been a long time, but we got a sentence or two in with most of the folks we know… at least a handshake and a genuine “hello”. It was wonderful.

As I was preparing for that this morning, looking forward to seeing everyone, I remembered a brief conversation with a pastor friend of ours. We were talking about how I really get the most out of times I get to connect with friends, other believers who are there for the morning meeting. We catch up on life, what God has been or is doing in their life. How the family is doing…. what’s new… all of that sort of stuff. A real connection that seems hard in between the scheduled goings on, and is impossible as I sit quietly on my duff placing my attention on the happenings in the front of the room.

When I mentioned that was what meant the most to me, he quipped with a sarcastic smile, “Why don’t you just go join the moose lodge?!” He was not telling me I should leave, just revealing the focus that he places on our large group gatherings. They are the time we come to learn, to “worship”, and to focus on God – not each other. It’s a vital piece that we do it together, as the family of God… but it’s not the focus.

That is where I beg to differ. I think that “worship” is not a time or a place (as Jesus told the Samaritan woman in John 4) but something we do with every breath. (A popular song uses just those words, “With ev’ry breath I’m praising you…”) So my main reason for going to a large group gathering of believers then is not to worship, since that is something I do every day all the time anywhere.

But what about the teaching? Surely that is a reason to attend such a gathering? Absolutely! While I do not deny that so much can be learned from the great teachers who can present clear and understandable truths about the Kingdom from their study and their experience and walk with God, that still is not my main focus for attending such a meeting. Again, I submit that throughout the remainder of each week, my mind and heart are filled with great thinkers thoughts on the Kingdom be they in books, web pages, MP3s, radio programs… what have you. There is such a wealth of great teaching available to anyone and everyone today that the Sunday morning gathering is certainly not my primary source of such teaching. And, aside from all of the “expert” teaching we receive from the so-called “professionals”, I enjoy learning from my neighbors… the way they interact with my Father. I enjoy listening to God’s voice through the experiences of friends who may not think themselves teachers, but by sharing their lives with me take on that very role in my life.

So again, at least for me, the reason for attending such a meeting is not to worship – that happens all week long, all the time – nor is it to “be fed” as we like to call it. It is not for the teaching, as again, there is no shortage of that in my life.

Is it perhaps the specialness of the place? No. I mentioned that already, too. Jesus said that worship is not a located thing. There is no place we can go to be closer to him as he now resides in us. In us! WE are the temple of the holy spirit! That is too deep to go into here. Perhaps another blog…

So that leaves me with… the other believers! The reason that I want to attend such a meeting has nothing to do with anything that is planned, though that is always nice – and helpful – I could get that anywhere. The reason for me is to connect with other believers – especially ones I would not otherwise connect with. To share some piece of our current journey together. To feel and see the bigness of God’s family. So much larger than me. So much larger than my small group of friends. He is real and central in so many lives other than my own. And I love to know Him through them.

Unfortunately, if this is the main reason for Christians gathering in large groups, you’d never know it. The focus certainly seems to be on the events planned for that day. Even today, I was told when to stand, when to sit, and what would be happening next. Nothing out of the ordinary… that’s what we do. But, if the greatest thing we have as we gather is each other, it does not seem like that element is being emphasized or facilitated in any way, does it? Do we make that a priority in our gatherings?

Some churches do this well. While maintaining a priority on the up-front events, they carve out a decent amount of time for people-connecting. Cross Creek is one such group. There is a time in the middle to get some coffee and just say hello to everyone. Theirs lasts perhaps 5-6 minutes. There has been a church or two along our path who has taken as much as 15 minutes for such an event. That’s great! But again, usually it is much less than 10% of the time we are together. MUCH less. Often there is a bit more time in the parking lot or the lobby after the scheduled portion of the meeting is over, but too frequently, everyone has other things they need to get on to.

Please do not think I fault only those responsible for planning the church gatherings. I do not presume that they have so much influence over an entire culture. Certainly a good portion of the blame for a misplaced focus rests on those who “attend” these meetings. Arriving late (due to rousing and preparing a family of small children at such a time of the day, no doubt…) and getting everyone to their respective rooms, entering the main room just in time to sing the last song with everyone. Then sitting through the remaining portion of the show, taking notes and attempting to hear God’s truth for their personal life packed into about 45 minutes of one hour. As it’s over, the rush to pick up the kids ensues. After collecting them all, their tiredness, and crankiness overtakes your desire to connect with other believers, and you rush out the door to get home, or to do whatever else might be planned before you can go home.

Life these days is certainly a rush. That’s why we try and pack so much into a “worship service”. We “only have an hour a week to reach them”. That is the mentality in some circles. At least from the leadership position. Perhaps there is an equally sad mentality from the seats… “You only have one hour to reach me, God… so say something meaningful… and quick!“

So while we go expecting to give to God, and him to us… we miss the joy of community. We miss perhaps the greatest part of “the church”. Not the building, the time, the meeting, or the organization. The people whom God has called to himself. From out of the world, into His Kingdom. The Believers. The Saints. The Called Out Ones. His Church.

Acts 4:32
All the believers were of one heart and mind, and they felt that what they owned was not their own; they shared everything they had.

Everything was about the oneness. Everything was about the togetherness. They loved being together. They shared everything. All the time. Acts 2 says they even went to the Temple everyday to worship (as was their custom). They ate together, prayed together, shared meals together… even shared money. Life was about being together. And why not? The rest of the world hated them. The persecution was on a level that we can not comprehend in 21st century America. We have not, and perhaps will not experience such hardship. So to join together was an oasis in the desert. It was the living water of Jesus – his very body – together as one. How could they come together but once a week and then only to sit and listen to a presentation, with minimal participation, organized and performed by a select few? Where was the sharing of everything there?

No. Their focus was not on the schedule of a planned meeting. It was on each other. On their joys, on their hardships. On their shared journey with an amazing Father. That is where I find joy – even in as little time as is allotted for such – that is where I find joy when gathering with other believers.

Perhaps that is just me… the way God made me? Or, perhaps our focus is slightly shifted. What if we re-focused? What if our gatherings were not as much about the individual and God, but more about his children encouraging and exhorting each other? Wouldn’t that be as much (or more?) worship than listening to a carefully and wonderfully crafted hour of events?

Well, that’s how it looks through my lens.