I love a good dad

I love a good dad. There is almost nothing to me that is as beautiful as seeing a man step up into the role of a loving father. The more I’ve met with students and entered into the lives of students, the more I’ve been able to see the effects of a good dad. In a way it seems like the identity of an individual is often built into the role of the father-figure in their life.

Have you ever seen a dad apologize to a child? That moment may seem trivial to some, but consider the beauty in it. Consider the way the child is shown that they are more important to their dad than their dad’s pride.

Have you ever seen a dad discipline a child? I’ve met so many people who just want someone to lovingly correct them; someone to be an example, someone to set boundaries. A dad who disciplines a child with love and patience implants integrity and character into their children.

When I worked at the Old Spaghetti Factory this dad and son came in once a week. Once a week they sat on the same side of the booth together. Once a week he didn’t pull his cell phone out. Once a week they ate together. Once a week this kid new that their was nothing more important in front of his dad than him.


I love a dad who takes his responsibility seriously. I dad who sees that God in many cases in the Bible is described as a father.
I love a dad who takes the time to do whatever it takes to not mar his children’s view of God.

I love a dad who thinks through his actions with love, who doesn’t speak impulsively, who doesn’t avoid conflict, who doesn’t back down, who holds his child after disciplining them, who daily speaks value into his children.

I love a dad who admits when he messes up, who sets an example by loving his wife, who encourages his children, who serves whole-hearted, and who values others.

I love a dad who recognizes his incredible responsibility and prayerfully admits that he is not prepared or qualified for this responsibility. I love a dad who leans on God because of this and lifts his children up in prayer.

I love a good dad

Book Quotes: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

Pg. 38-If you aren’t telling a good story, nobody thinks you died too soon; they just think you died.

Pg. 60- I wonder…if when people say life is meaningless, what they really mean is their lives are meaningless.

Pg. 86-I like the part of the Bible that talks about God speaking the world into existence, as though everything we see and feel were sentences from his mouth, all the wet of the world his spit.

Pg. 88-So I started obeying a little. I’d feel God wanting me to hold my tongue, and I would. It didn’t feel natural at first; it felt fake, like I was being a character somebody else wanted me to be and not who I actually was; but if I held my tongue, the scene would play better, and I always felt better when it was done. I started feeling like a better character, and when you are a better character, your story gets better too...And when I learned to hold my tongue a bit, the Voice guided me from the defensive to the intentional. God wanted me to do things, to help people, to volunteer or write a letter or talk to my neighbor. Sometimes I’d do the thing God wanted, and the story always went well, of course; and sometimes I’d ignore it and watch television. But by this time I really came to believe the Voice was God, and God was trying to write a better story. And besides, nothing God wanted me to do was difficult. Until…(Little tease Here for people to get this book and read it)

Pg. 89-I told God no again, but he came back to me and asked me, if I really believed he could write a better story—and if I did, why didn’t I trust him?

Pg. 103-We knew it would end well, but you don’t feel that when you push a chracter into his story. You only feel what he is feeling at that moment.

Pg. 107-Perhaps one of the reasons I’ve avoided having a clear ambition is because the second you stand up and point toward a horizon, you realize how much there is to lose.

Pg. 113- It made me wonder if the reasons our lives seem so muddled is because we keep walking into scenes in which we, along with the people around us have no clear idea of what we want.

Pg. 118-There is a force resisting the beautiful things in the world, and too many of us are giving in.

Pg. 160-We teach our children good or bad stories, what is worth living for and what is worth dying for, what is worth pursuing, and the dignity with which a character engages his own narrative.

Pg. 167-I asked Bob what was the key to living such agreat story, and Bob seemed uncomfortable with the idea he was anything special. But he wanted to answer my question, so he thought about it and said he didn’t think we should be afraid to embrace whimsy. I asked him what he meant by whimsy, and he struggled to define it. He said it’s that nagging idea that life could be magical; it could be special if we were only willing to take a few risks.

Pg. 180-“You didn’t think joy could change a person, did you? Joy is what you feel when the conflict is over. But it’s conflict that changes a person.”

Pg. 186-Part of me wonders if our stories aren’t being stolen by the easy life.

Pg. 204-Paul says Jesus is the hope that will not disappoint. I find that comforting. That helps me get through the day, to be honest. It even makes me content somehow. Maybe that’s what Paul meant when he said he’d learned the secret of contentment.

Pg 204, 205-I worshiped at the altar of romantic completion…I think that’s why so many couples fight, because they want their partners to validate them and affirm them, and if they don’t get that, they feel as though they’re going to die. And so they lash out. But it’s a terrible thing to wake up and realize the person you just finished crucifying wasn’t Jesus.

Pg. 206-When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are. And when you stop expecting material possessions to complet you, you’d be surprised at how much pleasure you get in material possessions. And when you stop expecting God to end all your troubles, you’d be surprise how much you like spending time with God.

Pg 208, 209-When we look back on our lives, what we will remember are the crazy things we did, the times we worked harder to make a day stand out.

Pg. 214-I think God wanted his people to build altars for their sake, something that would help them remember, something they could look back on and remember the time when they were rescued, or they were given grace.

Pg. 236-A good storyteller doesn’t just tell a better story, though. He invites other people into the story with him, giving them a better story too.

Pg. 246, 247-It’s interesting that in the Bible, in the book of Ecclesiastes, the only practical advice given about living a meaningful life is to find a job you like, enjoy marriage, and obey God. It’s as though God is saying, Write a good story, take somebody with you, and let me help.

Pg 247-I don’t ever want to go back to believing life is meaningless…I wish people who struggle against dark thoughts would risk their hopes on living a good story.

Memorable book quotes from: In the Name of Jesus

Pg 30- the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self.  That is the way Jesus came to reveal God’s love.

Pg. 34-Feeling irrelevant is a much more general experience than we might think when we look at our seemingly self-confident society.

Pg. 37-But: Are you in love with Jesus? Perhaps another way of putting the question would be: Do you know the incarnate God?  In our world of loneliness and despair, there is an enormous need for men and women who know the heart of God, a heart that forgives, cares, reaches out and wants to heal.

Pg. 40-The radical good news is that the second love is only a broken reflection of the first love and that the first love is offered to us by a God in whom there are no shadows.

Pg. 41-He cries out in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me! Let anyone who believes in me come and drink.”

Pg. 41- The desire to be relevant and successful will gradually disappear, and our only desire will be to say with our whole being to our brothers and sisters of the human race, “You are loved.”

Pg. 58-I need my brothers or sisters to pray with me, to speak with me about the spiritual task at hand, and to challenge me to stay pure in mind, heart, and body.  But far more importantly, it is Jesus who heals, not I; Jesus who speaks words of truth not I; Jesus who is Lord not I.

Pg. 61-  Laying down your life means making your own faith and doubt, hope and despair, joy and sadness, courage and fear available to others as ways of getting in touch with the Lord of life.

Pg. 61, 62-We are sinful, broken, vulnerable people who need as much care as anyone we care for.  The mystery of ministry is that we have been chosen to make our own limited and very conditional love the gateway for the unlimited and unconditional love of God.

Pg. 78-The temptation of power is greatest when intimacy is a threat

Pg. 81-But Jesus has a different vision of maturity: It is the ability and willingness to be led where you would rather not go.

We have something Disneyland doesn't...

Every child longs for Disneyland.  When I was little Disneyland was the epitome of heaven to me.  The scenery was incredible, there were cartoon characters walking all around me, the rides were unreal, and churros were available on every corner.  What could be better. 

I have been thinking a lot about ministry and the purpose of youth ministry and I ran across something that ignited my thought process.  Doug Fields, youth ministry guru, once said at a conference I went to that what we (youth ministries) have to offer is something that Disneyland doesn't have.  I never left disneyland feeling extra loved or extra cared about.  We have the ability to love students.  The truth of the matter is the students never actually leave youth ministries, they leave leaders. You see youth ministry is not about a cool room, cool lights, great sermons, rockin music, or even disgusting games.  Youth ministry is about significant relationships.  Youth ministry is about loving students where they are at.

 We have something that Disneyland doesn't. We have the ability to love people.  To anybody who has devoted time, energy, money, or love to youth ministry I just want to say thank you for offering something that many youth don't have the opportunity to feel or experience, legitimate and unconditional love.  The truth is Disneyland does not have Jesus to offer, the people there are not called to particularly care for the condition of peoples' hearts.  Yet, youth ministry is about exactly that.  Teenagers need an adult who likes them.  They need somebody who legitimately cares for them.  We have something to offer that Disneyland does not.  

There is this new song out by Michael Gungor that has gotten me thinking. It simply says, "You make beautiful things out of the dust...you make beautiful things out of us."

Look closely at the creation of man in Genesis 2:7 and we see a God who is creative and perfect. This creative God takes the dust of the ground and creates a human. But the most powerful part comes next when the text says that God breathed life into him. I haven't been able to move from this thought. The God that created us breathed into us...in a sense we could say that God is our lifeline, but in another sense we must say God is our lifeline in the sense that he instills us with that necessary element to live.
Look at what God says about us in Genesis 1...He says we are made in his likeness, in his image. He says we are good. God has made us beautiful originally and he continues to make us beautiful. First Corinthians tells us that in Christ we are a new creation, the old is gone and the new has come. God takes this filth, this broken and hurt humanity and turns it into beauty, but really we knew he could do this. He used the dust to create us, he used the dust to form us and than he stepped down and breathed into us. I hope the significance is sinking in. God is intimately involved in our lives, and is constantly making us new. I don't know about you but there are times when I feel too dirty and unfit to be loved by God, but Ephesians says we are God's workmanship....We are God's masterpiece.....We are God's. For some reason that ceases to be enough for us, but please consider the gravity of that statement. We are God's. I am God's. You are God's. He created man from dust. He formed you in your mothers womb, He did not mess up.

Now we have been broken and hurt and cut and torn...I was looking at one of those dandelions that you can blow the seed off and they fly out the other day and thought of God's creativity. Of all the flowers it seems this one has the saddest fate, it seems it's purpose is simply to be destroyed. It is easy to blow the seeds off, it is breaking the flower, but out of that brokenness God incites life by having those seeds to go and bear life...

Yet, isn't that the beauty of our God, that he makes beautiful things out of the dust.....

That he makes beautiful things out of us....

Set Apart

Christians are called to be set apart, to be different. Yet too often I think Christians blend in far too well with society. We are in the world, which were called to be, but we were called to stand out. There is supposed to be something in the way we live that sets us apart, that makes us holy. Honestly, when I am hanging out with my friends I hardly feel holy. I feel like my standards are a little different, I feel like where my friends are making bad decisions I am with standing, I feel where I choose moderations many of my friends choose loosing self-control, but I really don't feel like there is always a noticeable difference in this aspect of my life. We were called to be a city on a hill, but often times it feels like we are not standing out but rather disconnecting. I think the radical message ofthe Jesus is that we are supposed to live different, move different, be active, but the way religion has moved us is to a place where to follow Christ is not to act rather than to act. We try not to do this, say that, wear those, watch that, or listen to that. And while I do feel we should stand out by what we choose to avoid, we must not use that as our way of living out the faith that we hold so firmly too.

We are followers of the light of the world. Light does not take away from the darkness, but overtakes it. Honestly, is the life of the Christians you know, or maybe your life, shining bright. Being set apart has nothing to do with trying to make others feel inferior, but rather quite the opposite. What if people near us found life. When people lived the way we live, if even for just a minute, they should find life and not feel as if they are loosing life. Jesus had the incredible ability to make people feel important. He rarely tried to impress people by what he refrains from, but rather chose to live in a way that the actions he made and the people he hung out with would bring their own questions? Do you ask more questions when people don't do something you do or when people do something that you just don't understand? I want to live a life that is constantly getting questioned. Why do you always talk to the loners? Why do you constantly buy food for homeless people? What is it like talking to people at their lowest points? Why did you drive all the way out here for me? You really do care, don't you? I want to be surrounded by these questions because for many people we really are the closest thing they will see to Jesus Christ in their life time. Silence is deadly. A spoken word poet that I listen to says that if we walk by the hurting without saying that Christ loves you, we might as well stop and tell them how much we don't care about their life and where the end up.

Being Set Apart, being Holy is not necessarily about pulling away from the filth, but overtaking it with love. In fact, it is in that love and hurt where God is most present. Are you living loud? Are you living light?

I do know many amazing followers of Jesus Christ who are shining bright and who are loving loud and living intentionally. I just feel like it is time that some of us choose to join them. Let's be Holy.

Mexico Day 8/Recap- Parting is such sweet sorrow

I’m sitting in the DOL right now, and somehow it seems like the perfect way to contrast coming home to spending my last week gallivanting through the streets of Tijuana. So now I’m surrounded by a stupid amount of American’s wanting to renew licenses and stuff like that. However yesterday morning I was standing on a dirt road in Mexico starting the day like I had ended the last one. God had me wake up pretty freaking early cause he wanted me to start out the beginning of my 21^st year with him and I’m not one to say God did this or that very easily, but I do feel he wanted me to start this year resting in him. It was so cool as God just challenged me to thank him for all he had been doing in my life and all that I still need to hand over to him. Have you ever had that opportunity? It was pretty cool just to re-cap my life with God and see where he has taken me and what he has allowed me to see and do. The rest of that conversation was pretty personal so I’m obviously not going to go into detail, but let’s just say it was a cool way to start the year.

Right after I got done writing my last blog, I came downstairs and snuck into a room full of the younger boys and one boy Ricardo was up laying in his bed and I sat down next to him. In his hands he was clutching an envelope and inside it were pictures he had drawn for Mackenzie, Carly and myself and little trinkets he was going to give us. (He had no idea I would be coming down, which is why it was so surprising and sweet that he would be clutching this envelope while lying in his bed.) It was one of the sweetest things I had ever seen. Here is a picture of Ricardo.

The next morning I went into the room and all the boys had pictures or letters for me. The littlest boy, Oscar, that wasn’t in the baby house gave me a Dish Network add that had superman on the front and told me I was superman. Than moments later he tried to give me his Spongebob stuffed animal that was bigger than him (although it may have been the boys whose bunk was above him), and than he tried to give me a toy truck, and than he tried to give me more and more toys (all of which I would not let him give me, he was three…and seriously he had already given me the dish network card so I felt super special. Check out how cute Oscar is.

When I went to visit the baby house I got to see my favorite kid in their, Lucy. Lucy is a toddler and kinda waddles around and she is freaking adorable. For 5 or 6 of the days I was there I would go in and pick her up, through her around, dance with her, sit in the rocking chair with her, get besos (kisses) on the cheek from her, and just show her love that she doesn’t get consistently from parents (but she does get love from the orphanage worker, but they have 16 other babies to share love with so its not what it would be). I was getting ready to leave the baby house for my last time and Lucy followed me through an open door into one of the crib filled rooms and grabbed my shirt tail and reached up to me and said “Papa.” WHAT! Papa….that melted my heart and I picked her up and never wanted to let her down.

I bonded most with a boy named Moises. He is a fourteen year old kid who has had to grow up way too early. Two of his brothers ran away from the orphanage and I’m not sure if his parents are alive, but if they are they are completely abandoned from his life. He’s one of those guys who is craving for a positive male influence in his life and I pray that I began to play that role. Every morning this trip he would come to my window and whistle to wake me up. We spent hours playing card games, trying to teach him how to jump high enough to touch their 9 foot basketball hoop, fighting, cleaning up after meals, and struggling through conversations. I guess I see more and more why my heart is youth ministry and the potential that teenagers have to influence others. He lived in the shadow of his Jesus-junior brother, and was just trying to find his place in this world. I will always be thinking of Moises.

Well this is the end of my Mexico blogging. I pray that it made a difference in your thought process somewhere along the way. I pray that you think differently about the needs in the world, about the way God cares for you, in who God is, and in the call for the church. I will be blogging sporadically but Thanks so much for your prayers for our trip to Mexico