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You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling

God is love.

That’s a statement most of us seem to take without much thought.  But, what does that mean?  It seems to stand in stark contrast to a God of judgment, justice and a world of evil.

Yet, straight from scripture we get these words:

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.  God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. (The Holy Bible  : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (1 Jn 4:16). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.)

I must admit, it all does seem a bit confusing.  If God is love and I am even remotely tight with Him, then what’s the deal!  Because I am not feeling the love. Continue reading “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling”

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K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Saints)

Well, here we are at camp once again, but this year is extra special for me. My kids, who I have been dragging to camp for years are growing up, and this year Noah has come to camp as a camper for the first time (add sniffling sounds here).

It’s a strange mixture of joy and feeling very old all at once. Kind of like carnival ride induced nausea (sorry, it’s the best analogy I could come up with).

One of the fun camp activities is the blob which most of our kiddos (and some of our sponsors in need of medication) conquered.

I’ve included it because my son Noah is the first one on the video and he makes his daddy proud. Continue reading “K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Saints)”

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Saddleback, the conference begins


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Believe it or not, these conferences are not all about facilities and numbers. There is actually a lot of solid teaching and instruction that goes on here.

So, let me just drop a few pearls of wisdom for you. I’ll try to include some things that are cool enough to translate across several fields of interest and not just pastoring. These are ideas/quotes from any number of the presenters that spoke during today’s sessions: Continue reading “Saddleback, the conference begins”

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Suffering for the Lord

 

 

This week I’ll be perpetuating a problem.

Several of the staff from our church have come up with a nickname for myself and our executive Pastor Rod Sims.  Apparently, we work together a lot which, makes sense since his position was created out of mine as the church grew.

Anyway, they affectionately (and it better be affectionately) refer to us as RANDY whenever they see us together.  Honestly, it makes me kind of uncomfortable and I am trying to express a little less PDA in public…  that was a joke.

Well, the RANDY jokes should be flying back in the office this week as Rod and I headed for a weeklong trip to the sunny state of California for a conference of Saddleback Community Church. Continue reading “Suffering for the Lord”

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Is this God’s will or Indigestion?

Here’s an easy one for you. A friend of mine recently asked me about a major life decision for her family. The problem is that there really are no easy decisions, period.

By the way, if you end a sentence with the word ‘period’ follow by the punctuation mark also named as such, is that officially redundant?

OK, there may be a few easy decisions out there, but they are never about major things.
Where are we going to eat tonight?
Does this dress make me look fat?
What’s on TV?
These are all questions that we either already have the answers to, or really don’t need the answers to.

But, the major decisions of life; the big ones that come along about jobs, love, life, kids, money and all that other high stress stuff, those decisions are never big fat slow softball pitches over the middle.

Those decisions are always tough ones. Why couldn’t the choices be more like these:

  • I could stay at this job that I hate, or move to my dream position for three times the cash and the beach house…hmmm
  • I could stay single and searching, or I could marry this drop dead gorgeous supermodel with the morals of Mother Theresa who keeps throwing herself at me… hmmm
  • I could continue to wander spiritually wondering what to do with my life, or I could open up this glowing letter with the return address marked Heaven that has been floating in my living room for the last month… hmmm Continue reading “Is this God’s will or Indigestion?”
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Power Tripping

I am desperately seeking a Playstation 3. I know that PS3s are not hard to find, but I need to get a hold of the 60 or 80 GB version because they are the only ones that are backward compatible, and believe me… the Addis’ have invested in Playstation history.

So, I have been on a hunt. As a modern man I am not driven to grunt out an existence hunting caribou on the tundra plains with my fellow tribal herdsman. Instead, I just hit the Spangles drive-thru.

So, to pacify all of the testosterone driven energy inherent to all males of my species to hunt and provide for the clan, I turn to the only outlet known to our kind: the procurement of high-end electronics.

Me hunt long time. Scour plains of internet for weeks. Brave dark caves of pawn shops. Learn ways of the classified paths. Even cry out to fellow warriors of KWBW Partyline, but there no answers be.�

I know everything there is to know about these machines. I know they were made for only a short time, that they are not longer in production, I know their specs, ups, downs, ins and outs.

That’s probably why I went over the tipping point last week when I stopped into a Gamestop in McPherson on my hunt. I asked the teenage cashier behind the counter, “By any chance, do you guys have a Playstation 3, 60 GB version.” Continue reading “Power Tripping”

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BrontosaurusBurgers

When I was a kid I knew what I want to be more than anything else in the whole world, Indiana Jones. 

Actually, when I found out the same guy was also Han Solo, I really just wanted to be Harrison Ford. I mean, how much cool do you have to have in your DNA to be that guy?

By the way, when the new IJ movie comes out this summer I’ll be there with my boys at the midnight showing with the rest of the freaks, wearing my fedora. Oh, yes I will.

Anyway, I really thought I wanted to follow in the footsteps of good Doctor Jones for a while as an archaeologist. That is, until I realized they spent most of their time digging up nasty old bones and sifting through ancient garbage and NOT dodging ancient booby traps and outrunning huge boulders in jungle caves.

Who knew?

Yet, even as a pastor today, I am amazed how much archeology and bone digging is required in this profession. Continue reading “BrontosaurusBurgers”