Chris's Musings

Did you know that the return of Jesus is scheduled on May 21, 2011? No? How did you know, you may ask me? I saw it on a billboard on I-10 in Louisiana. And you know, interstate billboards like much of the internet, can't be wrong. Well, you know that roadside marketing and internet blog pages (not this one, mind you :) ) are full of interesting stories, and you can't believe everything you read. But, just because I was curious by the fearless prediction and the fact that some person or some group of persons thought it was important enough to spend money to advertise on a billboard, I decided to Google "May 21 2011" just to see what was going on with this, and which "prophet" or group was propagating this thing.  Turns out, like the whole "2012" Mayan calendar thing, someone had done a "Biblical" calculation based on some scriptures pulled out of context (my opinion), young earth theoretical dates, and some extrapolation of ra...

Another Christmas has come, and will soon be gone.  Another season of feasting and celebrating with family and friends.  Another day of the eager and giddy ripping open of presents from Santa and from loved ones. Another season to manically rush through the busyness of celebration. Another season to wonder "did I get the perfect gift?" Another season to pause.   And in that pause, I hope that we reflect on the reason that we're celebrating this day in the first place.  It's easy to get lost in our culture, our hustle, and all of the expectations of the season that one day about 2010 years ago, give or take... something happened in a marginalized part of the world, to the most unlikely cast of characters, in a very inconvienent set of circumstances... that changed the course of history and if we fully embrace the promise that comes with the coming of Christmas, the course of our lives.   On that day, a baby was born.  That baby was Christ the Lord.  Who...

First of all.. Merry Christmas! It's been really fun this year to celebrate this season with a lot of different groups of friends, in many different settings.  The Christmas season is always a great time to see old and new friends and catch up in many ways. You know, at a lot of these events I see people from church and in a "party" context you see them in a different context then you see them at church.  It's not about what they're consuming, but more about the character of what's flowing out of their actions when I see them.  I say this and hope that I'm speaking with integrity on this because I know that I'm not by any means a perfect follower of Christ myself, but it's almost as if I'm seeing a person that has left Jesus at Buckhead Church and leaves Him at the door and does their own thing at the party.  In many cases, I'm actually a little shocked because I've heard some of their stories and believe with all my heart that God ...

As the college football season finishes off, and Cam Newton wills Auburn back to life once again and Boise State ruins the hopes of all of the "non-AQ" fans that want a party crasher to the BCS championship game. As long as Auburn and Oregon keep winning, there should be no beloved controversy to bring debate back to killing the BCS, but if the Beavers or the Gamecocks get lucky next weekend, let chaos ensue: Because your options are: - TCU, they are undefeated BUT they played a schedule of cupcakes all season, including a 5-5 Oregon State team. - Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Michigan State - Three one-loss Big Ten teams in the top 10 of the BCS standings.  This may be the best "top three" of any conference in the nation, and none are, currently, ranked in the top 6 in the country. - LSU, who won't even win it's division of it's conference, but only has one loss, to Auburn - Oklahoma State, a one-loss team assuming they beat OU in Bedlam and Nebra...

I have just got home from a work trip to Boulder, and am still awake.  My brain hasn't shut down, and I imagine that my tying on this blog isn't helping matters any. This was an incredibly busy week work-wise, so there wasn't much margin to go out and have fun.  However, it was the opening week for a lot of ski mountains out in Colorado and with my knee being healthy for the first time in 2 ski seasons (I was getting ready for, and recovering from miniscus surgery last season, so no trips) the talk around the office about skiing got my engine running.  I want to go back, badly. It also got me thinking, now, about a "40 things I want to do before 40" list that is in my head but not on paper.  Ambition does that, it makes you think about "what's next" and gives you something to shoot for.  Ambition can be a bad thing, if it's all about boosting ego, but ambition itself isn't a bad thing... it's what propelled Paul to go out and reach the...

Tonight, I did something a little crazy. I missed fusion (the singles gatherings that my church holds for community)...  a fusion group that I really enjoy the people at... and attended a small group leaders' training event at my church.  Okay, that's not quite crazy but what was crazy was this was the session designated for the MARRIED group leaders.  There's a good reason for this, and it's because when they were holding the sessions a couple of weeks ago for me and my fellow singles group leaders, I was out in L.A. running some crazy race (one that I'm very happy about running in case you missed any of the medal pictures :-) ), and this weekend was the only one available for me to pick from. And I was the ONLY single person in the room. Actually, that was a great thing for me tonight.  First off, being newly unattached after dating a really good girl for five months, being in an environment where no one was even remotely working the room was neat and relaxi...

For whatever reason, I found myself for a brief moment somehow in a somewhat awkward conversation (for me) on the subject of drinking games.  It was awkward for a few reasons: 1.) The conversation was in the context of a gathering where we asked that no one drink, and because of that I'm sure that it wasn't just awkward for me. 2.)  As much as I tried to steer the conversation in an "intellectual" tone, I wasn't driving the conversation and didn't really want to get in a debate with anyone at a social gathering where the emphasis was on community and having fun (and that was definitely accomplished :) ). However, I do want to say my peace... The Bible does not condemn drinking in moderation, and in some passages actually talks positively about wine and relates it to joy (Jesus did, for his first miracle, turn water into wine at a party).  It does, however, have a lot to say about getting drunk and especially the habit of continuously seeking to get dru...

This past weekend I got to hang out with my B-school buddy Derek and run the LA Rock  'n' Roll 1/2 Marathon.  The race was good.  I survived 13.1 miles with a bummed ankle (achilles tendinitis being the official diagnosis) in 2:32, which is not a bad time considering :) But, what I hadn't realized until this weekend was how much D likes to "rank" things (and I like to follow suit), so a few "Fave Fives" in honor of Senor Lim. Fave Five Views 1. View of Mt. Kilimanjaro from the Amboseli National Wildlife Park in Kenya 2. The Cliffs of Mohr in western Ireland 3. Pick your view from Yosemite National Park (personal favorite is the view of Half Dome driving up) 4. Lit of view of the Golden Gate Bridge and SF Bay in the twilight from Coit Tower in San Francisco 5. Sea to Sky Highway in British Columbia I did get to see a few amazing views in SoCal this weekend (the hotel being one of them... definitely top ten). Fave Five Races I've participa...

Lyrics by Hillsong United...  Open our hearts, To see the things That make Your heart cry, To be the church The You would desire. Light to be seen. Break down our pride, And all the walls We've built up inside, Our earthly crowns And all our desires, We lay at Your feet. So let hope rise, And darkness tremble In Your holy light, And every eye will see Jesus, our God, Great and mighty to be praised. God of all days, Glorious in all of Your ways. Your majesty, the wonder and grace, In the light of Your name. With everything, With everything, We will shout for your glory. With everything, With everything, We will shout forth your praise. Our hearts will cry Be glorified, Be lifted high, Above all names. For You our King, With everything, We will shout forth your praise.

I am getting prepped for my small group study today; which is about the life of Jesus as Luke has investigated and documented it in what we now call the Gospel of Luke in the Bible.  This week, we are in Luke chapters 4, 5, and 6, and I gotta tell you that there's so much that we could go over about what Jesus did and said that would take the whole week... in summary I've just gotta say "wow."  If you want to know how the Son of God did life, this is a worthy list of great things to be admired... 1.) He faced down the strongest temptation at the point where he was the weakest (Luke 4:1-13) .  Beyond going 40 days without food, you'd think that'd be temptation enough.  And then if that's not enough, the Devil himself goes after him... most of us can pretty much tempt ourselves without any demonic influence... but Jesus, being God in the flesh and perfect in every way, had Hell bring their big guns out... and he struck out against Jesus over and over again...

30 days from today, I will be standing at a starting line in Los Angeles, California ready to start my first half marathon.  To say this has me a little emotional, especially considering the path that I have taken to get to this point.  It's been a path that God has used not only to stretch me physically but also shape my faith in Him.  To choose a different, or easier path, while I would have preferred I would not (at least given if I finish the race :) ) trade in. I have not really always been a "runner" - I kind of resisted this whole thing growing up because I equated "running" with punishment... more specifically the PE coach's tendency to make my fat butt run laps when I wasn't following orders (I didn't really like PE growing up, if you can tell).  I liked to play sports, but I didn't really like practice and discipline.  Needless to say, I played a fair amount of  pickup, intramural, and "church league" sports but didn't r...

Usually at this point in time, I am packing myself up from LDR to head home after a stomach-satisfying breakfast at the Donut Hole in Sandestin... but alas I did not make LDR this year (can't wait to hear how it was), so I ran in the US 10K Classic this morning (which has the opposite effect of eating at The Donut Hole :) ) I finished the race in 59:59 (yes, I sprinted to finish in under an hour), despite chilling at a few water stops and getting stuck behind a bunch of walkers and non-starters at the beginning (at least that's my excuse for not doing better :) ), and enjoyed grabbing some Publix swag, listening to some music from this local band that was playing at the afterparty, and checked out the chiropractic tent and to my surprise got my neck adjusted.   But the most interesting thing to me was that when I was going back into the main area from the concert stage, there was this guy trying to get past security that obviously wasn't part of the race crowd.  By look...

I read ahead a little in my quiet time this morning, and the verse I read ahead to caught my attention... "When he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour" - Revelation 8:1 Don't ask me why I'm doing my devotions in Revelation... I'm loving it.  This book is one that adds context to the world we live in, because it shows that God's plan triumphs admist all of the life we face. It also gives us a glimpse into the reality that we don't see.  The reality that in light of eternity, is more important than the one that we can. And in Heaven, there is... Singing Awe Loud shouting Worship Unbridled adoration of our God and Savior The first set of revelations are of seven seals, each being opened reveals something new about the ushering in of God's ultimate close to history.  Each of these seals is increasingly more awesomely broken than the other.  And in fact, the saints had to be sealed before the final...

I have recently seen a couple of posts, comments, etc. from some friends of mine concerning our new march toward socialized medicine in the U.S. (known as:  "Health Care Reform," "the Health Care bill," "Obamacare," etc.), and feel a need to reply, but simply putting a 160 character sound bite on someone's Facebook wall really doesn't do what I'm thinking any justice.  So, to anyone who cares what I think about the state of healthcare, "the bill," or whether the government should tax (more) to provide universal coverage, I give you my musings. First, the bill is done and signed.  It is law and for now the process has started down the path, so there's really no more debating at a national level as to whether we will have a law in place, now it's a matter of figuring out what to do with the law we now have.  By all means is this not over... I do believe that the mandates it places on the States and the expansion of Federal pow...

Then... 1.) Go and see it, and then 2.) Come back and read this blog post. I went out to see Inception last night - and it was by far the best movie I have seen all year.  Definitely the most original.  Now, if you really haven't seen it and you've ignored my warnings here, then I won't spoil anything.  But... It got me thinking about Satan.  And his greatest strategy for destroying our lives. I'll explain. If you have a thought or a belief that keeps running through your mind.  A thought that is ingrained in you.  Something that is honestly, not beneficial and may I dare to say destructive?  A thought like... I'll never be worthy of love I can never overcome {fill in the blank} I'm stupid I'll never amount to anything I have to have {fill in the blank - something other than God} to be fulfilled and happy I'm a failure I'm not good enough. I'm a mistake I can probably name a few more, but you get the gist.  Think about it, wou...

During my recent mission trip to Kenya, we conducted our devotional studies over the book of Nehemiah. Finishing up, I presented our thoughts on the final three chapters as we left the Ngaamba community for the last time. What was interesting about studying Nehemiah in Kenya was the parallels that the story of Israel rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem had with the story that was being written during our mission trip (not to mention, we were helping our friends in Ngaamba build a wall).  A community of people galvanized by a godly leader, hardship, resolve... the whole deal.  It's a very inspirational story... at least until you get to chapter 13. In this finale to the Nehemiah story, Nehemiah has to eventually leave Jerusalem to go back to the service of the King.  He serves there for a while and later asks permission to return to Jerusalem, and he does not find the people in a great spiritual position... the priests and temple are not being supported, Jews a...

I am 15 days away from hopping on a plane to serve in Kenya.  I am both excited, nervous, and expectant all at the same time. Excited:  I have never been to Africa before.  It's an entirely new culture, an entirely new environment, and as my shot record will show an entirely new set of germs.  I love newness. Nervous:  One of my biggest prayer requests I shared during my support/dinner party a few weeks ago was that God would "prepare me to be unprepared" for what I would experience.  It's been a long time since I will have "tasted" poverty like I'm expecting to see in Ngaamba.  And honestly, I don't even think the trips I've had to Piedras Negras with the Aggie BSM in college (Piedras is on the Texas border) will even prepare me emotionally for the conditions I'll see there.  I pray that God will break my heart, that He will stir me, and that I'll never be the same after this trip. Expectant:  Maybe this has something to do with ...

There are two aspects of this mission trip that I don't look forward to.  I mentioned the first one in my last post :).  However, since I'm going to a country that has strange (to us Americans) diseases, I went out for the second less desirable "trip prep" deal last week... the immunizations :) You're probably either thinking: He's crazy.... or, He really loves God. Because I really hate needles. It's mostly the second, but voluntarily taking needles would probably require a little bit of insanity too :) this would be me before shots (happy) This would be during shots (freaked out)

Today, for the most part, has been all about Kenya.  My team met for the third time today and I'm excited that we are really gelling as a group as we start to enter the "home stretch" in our trip preparation.  We are having our team retreat two weekends from now and I'm looking forward to hearing everyones' stories. It was also a day where I filled a number of envelopes and mailed out letters.   Today was a 410 Bridge support deadline... which I hadn't met at the time I'm writing this blog (no fun).  Ah, yes.  All of us that have gone on mission trips know the feeling of the support raising exercise.  I am one of those that don't like fundraising, I'll admit.  However, during every trip the group that sponsors us both strongly encourages us and requires us to do this, so here I go again :-).  Honestly, I do get why I do this... meaning the painstaking work of raising funds and prayer support for being sent out on these missions.  And I want...

I'm about to turn 29 again in a week.  I can't tell you how many times I've turned 29, but I can tell you that I'm turning 29 again in a week ;-) It seems to me that birthdays and New Years are good times to reflect on your life over the past year and assess where I am, where I want to be, and what I would like to change.  It also marks another year of growing into maturity and wisdom, which I hope that I can look back at the last 29 and say that I grew wiser and closer to Christ in the process. But I never want to "grow old."  I think that there's a difference there.  Growing up is maturing, learning how to make wiser choices, reflecting more of who God designed me to be.  Growing old is settling, thinking that I've learned it all, experienced it all, and have no more need to grow.  This is pretty undesirable for me... and honestly I can't imagine that it'd be very desirable for anyone. For starters, we are living in a world created by a...

Last Thursday, I was out at Taco Mac with a buddy of mine watching a little hoops action  It's the opening weekend of "the dance" as you know, and Thursday was a great day to see a slew of upsets.  Because it was a "school night," we didn't watch any of the late games, but made sure to see the end of Washington vs. Marquette. At the end of the game, the entire place erupted when the Huskies put in the game winning basket with less than 3 seconds left to play.  We were pumped.... and for most of us it wasn't likely even OUR team (I'm watching MY team play in a few hours). After getting my juices going from some great basketball action, this thought popped in my head... You know, this is what worship looks like. A few weeks ago, the kids in UpStreet learned about the story where David danced before the LORD when they brought the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem.  King David made a fool of himself, not a kingly thing, because in his heart h...

This week preparing for small group, I read something that Francis Chan said in his book "Crazy Love" which really got me thinking, in addition to some thoughts from my Theopraxis class a few weeks ago. The thought is this:  If I was trapped on a desert island, and all I had to feed my thinking and my knowledge of God and life was the Bible.  No commentaries, no other books, no teachers, no systems of theology.  All I had was what was written in that book... and I read it without anything anchoring my thoughts... what conclusions would I come up with? Add another thought:  If I read Paul's letters as if I was a citizen of Ephesus, Rome, Galatia, Phillipi, etc., and did not have a systematic theology to break apart what Paul was saying (it may not be too hard to get that idea... watching Spartacus or Gladiator may be enough to at least put your mind into that of the late 1st Century Roman world) and I didn't have the letter broken up into chapters & verses (be...

I just got my CDs from the Passion 2010 talks this last week - I have started to listen to a few of them and I am completely stuck on this one story that Francis Chan tells during his session talk... He tells this story about a time when his oldest daughter comes home having just gotten an "F" on a test in school.  Like in my growing up, bad grades were unacceptable for her and the news of failing a test would bring unfun consequences.  So after Francis gets home, she shows him the test and asks what is going to happen to her.  And during what was probably an ultimate in teachable moments in her life, her dad (who is recounting this story to us) says.... I'm going to take you out to dinner... Then we'll go out to a movie. Then I'll take you out for ice cream. Because I want you to experience... grace. Quite unexpected, huh?  Francis told us that when she got to school the next day that she told the story and her friends responded like any normal kid who ...

Had to share the song that we finished up at Buckhead Church on Sunday... good song & great message. Lyrics: Why are you striving these days Why are you trying to earn grace Why are you crying Let me lift up your face Just don't turn away Why are you looking for love Why are you still searching as if I'm not enough To where will you go child Tell me where will you run To where will you run And I'll be by your side Wherever you fall In the dead of night Whenever you call And please don't fight These hands that are holding you My hands are holding you Look at these hands and my side They swallowed the grave on that night When I drank the world's sin So I could carry you in And give you life I want to give you life ---------------- Cause I, I love you I want you to know That I, I love you I'll never let you go And I'll be by your side Wherever you fall In the dead of night Whenever you call And please don't fi...