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What’s with the attitude… I like it

So here’s a thought, what if God  isn’t so much interested in changing you as He is in using  you?

Don’t get all uptight and assume I’m saying what I’m not. We are sinful and broken and through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ we become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). I’m not talking about our sin nature (seriously, that  has to change), but more along the lines of our personality.

I’ve been a believer, and church staff member for more than a couple decades now, and I’ve seen a  universal assumption emerge. People assume that when Jesus forgives your sins He also requires a total ‘nerd’ over. A hyper-spiritual, KJV makeover if you will.

I don’t know when it got communicated, but somewhere in our ancient Christian past a rumor got started that eventually became accepted as truth. The rumor was that God not only wants to save your soul, He wants to give you a spiritual lobotomy.

I don’t think that’s the case. In fact, I am pretty sure that confessing Jesus is Lord does not require a mandatory follow-up of throwing away all your music and listening only Christian worship elevator tunes, replacing your entire wardrobe with sweater vest ensembles, and learning to say “ Well, praise the Lord!”  at the end of every sentence you use.

Continue reading “What’s with the attitude… I like it”

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Shootin’ the rock

I’d like to introduce you to a friend, fellow minister and brother blogger. Dave Rutler is a church planter at The Crossing Wichita.

I asked him for permission to republish one of his posts and he obliged, so, please enjoy this gift to our crosseyedlife.com community.

I follow his blog regularly (and you should too), but this particular post was really exceptional and I loved the basketball analogy. Dave’s take on the fundamentals is exceptional. Take a few moments to read and a lifetime to apply.

Thanks Dave for your friendship, the many games of b-ball we shared, the incalculable cups of coffee consumed and the gift of your ministry.

Shootin’ the Rock
Posted on November 2, 2010 by Dave
I had a great time watching my kiddo practice basketball yesterday. She is pretty new tothe competitive style of play and is learning at a pretty rapid clip. Yesterday was a skills workout, where they were focusing on fundamentals.

It was pretty cool watching the coach start and stop the drills to get them to pay particular attention to their footwork, ball placement and body position. She explained the reason for being picky. She pointed out the benefit of doing it right and the drawback of doing it improperly, or sloppily. As expected, some kids focused hard, slowed down and tried to get it right. Others continued to run through the motions thinking they already knew what they were doing and their play was sufficient.

It made me think about how we, as Jesus followers, live out Christianity. I think we spend a lot of time free-styling, doing the moves we are comfortable with. It is sad to think that many “so-called” mature believers think they are no longer students; that they have nothing to learn. The outcome is a bunch of sloppy play that ends up in losses.

Basketball is a team sport with individual contribution. A good team requires not only individual dedication and talent but also a team mentality. I wonder how effective we have been at fostering this mentality in the church? There are too many people that have lost sight of the basics. They consider them rudimentary and no longer of value. So, instead of paying attention to where their hands are and the placement of their feet and how they handle the Gospel, they are just shooting the rock from downtown.

One drill had the coach putting the kids in position to square up and take a shot. They were positioned to take a bank shot. She explained that it is not the prettiest shot and certainly not the most glamorous shot; but it is the most high percentage shot. She asked the question, “Do you want to look pretty or do you want to score points?”

I wonder if we have gotten caught up in making our lives look pretty or if we are more concerned with taking the high percentage shot. The high percentage shot for a believer deals with being in the right place and doing that which is effective for the kingdom. It means being less concerned with what the crowd thinks about the shot and whether we make the ESPN highlights.

It means focusing on fundamental basics and doing what Jesus called us to do. He was pretty critical of those who added to his message, to those who made it into some kind of show. He was not very happy about the way the Pharisees prayed in public for all to hear when they weren’t praying with a heart to hear God. He wasn’t very happy about the fact that they bragged about keeping the Sabbath but wouldn’t help a desperate and hurting person on that day. They were more concerned with strapping on the Nikes and lofting one from three point land when they had an easy lay up under the basket.

The point is simply that we spend too much time adding frills and thrills to a pretty simple Message. We are playing a pretty sloppy game because we think the basics are for beginners. If we would spend more time concentrating on the basics of loving God and loving people we would score more points, so to speak.

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The Power of Mentoring

I have a nearly indescribable feeling that I would like to, well… describe to you.

I am refreshed, energized, challenged and at peace. If you don’t know much about we preacher types, that’s unusual for a Monday morning. In fact, I have preacher friends who have a ritual of writing their resignation letters every Monday, praying over them and then throwing them away.

I thank God I don’t get that kind of grief every weekend, or at least that I’m too thick in the head to notice it… please don’t point it out if I am. I’d like to stay blissfully unaware.

The reason for my Monday morning glee is that I just spent two plus hours with one of the two men I consider to be my mentors in life and ministry. In the course of that time we talked about what we have been reading, what we have been experiencing and what has us dumbfounded.

Funny, I talked the most during that last part…

Over the years I have established a relationship with these men that allows them to be honest with me, even when I am both ignorant and stupid. There is a difference between those two you know?

Ignorance is when you do something stupid, but didn’t know you were doing something stupid. Stupid, is doing something when you’re already pretty sure whatever you’re doing might be stupid.

Continue reading “The Power of Mentoring”

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Get with it!

When it all comes down to it… It all comes down to it.

Sometimes we just lack the discipline to do what we needs to be done. We have lots of excuses, rationalizations and outs to cover us… But, the reality is that when stuff needs done, we need discipline.

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Knives, Throwing Stars & Parenting

No idea how this happens, but it seems like at least twice a year a major cleaning up of the garage is needed. Or, you have find someplace else to park car.

So, after a few hours of shuffling around what goes in the garage sale stack versus what gets “organized” in the keep bins, I wasn’t feeling all that sentimental.

Hit me anyway.

We have on old, particle board dresser we keep for storage. In the top drawer are all kinds of pads and gloves for various sports. Second drawer is for racquetball junk. Third is for hiking stuff. But, the fourth has been my favorite for years.

In this drawer are things that predate my boys, even my marriage. They stretch far into the wayback of my life. Back to the grade school and junior high days.

There’s an assortment of throwing stars and nun chucks from the time in which Chuck Norris was my hero. I have no martial arts skills anymore, but I do have a sweet Chuck beard.

There’s my one and only bb gun. A handheld CO2 pistol. Awesome.

Then there are the dozens of pocketknives, boot knives, throwing knives and anything sharp and dangerous that a teenage boy who spent way too much time on the shelter belts had to have!

At least that’s what used to be in the bottom drawer. But, opening it up to hideaway a pocket knife, I was startled to see it was almost empty… basically just the bb gun remains.

I paused, thought and teared up a little. I guess I haven’t pondered it much, but over the years as my boys have grown I’ve been dolling these things out to them one at a time.

We will watch a movie and see some ninja do something too cool for words, and then I take them out to the garage and show them a bit of my past (trying to lead them to believe I was once a ninja myself… without saying it, of course). The response is usually, “that’s awesome!” and then I pass along a bit of the Addi family heritage to them in the form of some cheap, semi-dangerous, all boy commodity.

So, now the drawer is nearly empty. It’s a good thing.

I hope they grow up like me. I’m not perfect, I have lots I am still working on, but as I press into 40 (wait for it… not there yet), I’m hoping I have a lot of the basics down.

I want them to be stable. I want them to love family. I want them to not give up on marriage. I want them to make a difference. I want them to risk big when the time is right. I want them to hold tight to the things that should never be risked. I want them to love the Lord more than anything else in this life, or the next.

None of that happens naturally. You have to intentionally open up the drawer and give it away.

It’s our job as men, brothers, fathers and mentors in the church to live our lives in a way that we pack items away like faithfulness, passion, discipline, hope and love. Only then can we offer it up to our kids and the young ones of the next generation.

Deuteronomy 6:3 Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you. 4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.

It’s time for us to unpack the most important things in life. While you’re teaching them how to throw a curve ball, why don’t you talk to them about handling the ones life throws at you.

While you’re straightening up the house, why not remind them it’s a Godly man who keeps their house in order.

When your teaching them to grow up, make sure it’s not just how to look good, but be good, righteous, strong in the Lord.

The next generation is waiting for you to open up the drawer…

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Why Pray Anyway?

Have you ever made a purchase only to be disappointed?

I am always trying to warn my kids, that what they see on TV commercials is almost never what they will have when they get it home.

I sure wish I’d listened to my own advice.

I have an iPhone and iPad, so, I’m constantly looking through the App Store trying to find the latest and greatest stuff to make my life “easier.”

You read the reviews, ask a few people who might know about such things, then lay down the cash and make the purchase.

I’ve been trying to find a way to make my iPad more interactive with our weekend services, and I found this software that sounded like it might do what I needed it to do, possibly, maybe, sort of.

But, when I bought it, it did everything it said it would do, just not what I wanted it to do. So, I tried to manipulate my computer, or projectors and messed with every setting I could find.

Within 24 hours, I had requested a refund for the software purchase and was rebuilding my entire laptop because what I tried to do had destroyed it… I am an idiot.

Continue reading “Why Pray Anyway?”

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Where am I?

So, have you ever been lost? I mean flat out, turned around, no clue, GPS wouldn’t help lost.

I remember driving from Great Bend, Ks, to some secluded mountain park in Colorado that I couldn’t get you to today if you paid me a million dollars. I was an early grade schooler with the family at an annual family reunion.

At some point in the afternoon the kids were getting hungry and restless, but dinner was still a couple hours away. That’s when my step dad and uncle decided to take the kiddos on a little mountain hike.

You know, something just long enough to distract the kids and be back in time for the big ol’ potluck.

It was fun at first, and as a kiddo, I wasn’t keeping track of time, but even a mildly ADD child like myself could tell we’d been out there too long.

So, I started paying attention to some details before I made the discovery:

  • Step dad and uncle kept having us rest while they stepped aside for a ‘whispered’ argument
  • Uncle took off his T-shirt and started tearing strips off and tying them to trees
  • The look of terror on their faces when we kept finding those pieces of his shirt

It all lead to my conclusive discovery: there was no denying it, we were lost!

Though the adults never admitted it, all the kiddos new we were lost when we emerged from the tree line just after dark and all the mommas lost it.

Lots of hugging’ and cussin’ (the former at the kids, the latter at the men).

It’s a painful thing to be lost. It’s a scary thing to be lost and not know it.

Still, lostness is one of the dominant issues of the gospel.

  • The story of Genesis describes the beginning of our lostness.
  • The Old Testament chronicles a people of lostness.
  • The Gospels find the answer to lostness.
  • The entirety of the New Testament is manual for lostness recovery.

In fact, Jesus gave His personal vision/mission statement in Luke 19:10 when He said, “The Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost.”

That’s what Jesus is all about, the reason He came and the purpose of the cross and the grave. Lostness is a condition that is curable, and Jesus doesn’t have the answer, He is the Answer.

I don’t think there is a Christian alive who denies the centrality “lostness” as a biblical theme. We are even grateful, awestruck and worshipful about it. One of the church’s favorite songs includes the line, “I once was lost but now I’m found.”

The problem isn’t with our own appreciation for being found, forgiven, rescued and redeemed. The problem is the disconnect for those who are still lost.

Pastor Perry Noble has said, “Found people find people.”

Pastor Ed Young, Jr, echoed, “The radically rescued, rescue radically.”

We need to rekindle an urgency, a passion, a fire for reaching the lost!

It is our responsibility.

Our church is about to start a series called LOST focusing on the 3 parables of Jesus concerning lostness. We often see the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son as messages of grace and mercy for those who have wandered and squandered in life.

But, if you read closely, Jesus had a deeper meaning. Obviously, grace and mercy extended to the lost is an appropriate application of these stories.

However, the fact that Jesus told all three stories in a row, to an audience of the over-churched (known as the pharisees), in response to church people talking smack about the lost gives these three stories a much dire inference.

Jesus wasn’t talking to the lost… He was talking to the found. He was making it very clear that found people find people, the radically rescued rescue radically and that if we are going to be like Jesus we have to be about His mission: to seek and save the lost.

So, here’s what we are going to do: pray for those you know who are not going to church, invite them to services with you (again and again and again), serve them in whatever ways you can that will draw them to Jesus, and talk to them about what Jesus means to you.

By the way, on that last one, you can’t really mess up your own story… it’s your story, so, have no fear.

Whatever church you attend, make sure that you are on a mission. This weekend, bring someone with you because if you are going to be like Jesus, you have to make your passion, mission and desire seeking what He is seeking.

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God WILL give you more than you can handle

I love watching Mythbusters. Tackling urban legends and misconceptions, putting them to the test with high speed cameras, hands on testing and real science… it’s an Addis family favorite.

Can you save yourself by jumping upward in a crashing elevator? Is it possible to fly using a lawn chair and helium filled balloons? Can ninjas really catch arrows shot at their head?

Now that’s some high quality entertainment!

One of my favorite parts of that show is the fan (or ‘not so much’ fan) letters they receive. It’s crazy to me how some people will dogmatically hold to a belief in something that is undeniably proven BUSTED. Or, how some will completely refuse the reality of something that was crowned PLAUSIBLE and has 60 minutes of video footage to back it up.

“I don’t care what the Mythbusters say, you can pop popcorn with your cellphone… I’ve seen it on YouTube!”
Continue reading “God WILL give you more than you can handle”