The Sad Truth about Water

Water is a luxury that we (Americans/the Western world) take for granted.  Showers, dishes, drinking water, car washes, toilets, washing machines, swimming pools, water fountains, ice cubes, decorative fountains---all things that take water, whether or a lot or little, that we don't bat an eye at.  Water is plentiful---for us.  In the majority of the world, clean water is scarce.  Do you realize just how scarce it is?  Check out these facts from Compassion International:

*50% of the world's hospitalizations are due to water-related illnesses such as cholera.

*One in five children (TWENTY PERCENT OF ALL CHILDREN!) worldwide die from diarrhea---that's more than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined.

*Poor people living in the slums often have to pay five to ten time more per liter of water than wealthy people living in the same city.

*2.5 million people do not have adequate sanitation facilities.

*800 MILLION PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO CLEAN WATER.

*1.5 million children die of water-borne illnesses every year.

These numbers are absolutely staggering.  I can't even comprehend the suffering that is happening worldwide.  Life is cozy and safe here.  Kids aren't dying because they don't have water.  People aren't begging in the streets for clean water.  We are isolated from this worldwide epidemic.  We can choose to not be isolated.  There are ways to help.  Blood Water: Mission is a ministry that our family supports that builds wells for impoverished areas of Africa.  Check out this video to learn more about what they do and how you can help.

Our friends the Palms have a heart for Uganda and particularly an unsanitary holding area for orphans that lacks clean water.  Read their story here and get involved by giving $20 to their cause.

We all need to do something.  Please, get involved and save a life.

Music: The Avett Brothers- Various Songs

Sometimes, we need to appreciate art because it's beautiful, and good.  If every good and perfect thing comes from God, then we can definitely find God in art and music.  As I was watching the Avett Brothers rock it tonight, I was reminded of how creative God is and how creativity is such a reflection of who he is. We are made in the image of the Creator God, so our creativity comes as a result of being made in his image.  Long story short, I really appreciate the Avett Brothers music and I'm posting it because it is art and not because of some deep spiritual teaching (not that I am saying I provide that here, but you get my point).   Enjoy some of my favorites.

"Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise"

"I and Love and You"

"The Ballad of Love and Hate"

"I Would Be Sad"

"If It's the Beaches"

Music: Jon Foreman- "Revenge"

I really enjoy this song and have heard multiple intriguing explanations of the meaning of some of the writing.  What do you think?

Righteous Indignation

Maybe it shouldn't make me proud to hear my students expressing some righteous indignation, but I admit that I felt that way today.  Righteous anger can sometimes really be nothing more than pride not-so-subtly rearing its ugly head, but it can also be a sign of maturity.  So, let me explain what happened and why the attitude of my junior and senior Bible class encouraged me that they are growing.

Today, we had a speaker come into our chapel to share about the 30 Hour Famine ministry of World Vision. (http://30hourfamine.org/) He actually seemed like a really solid, humble guy and I enjoyed his presentation on social justice stemming from Micah 6:8.  I want to be totally clear here and state that I think the work that World Vision does to create awareness about hunger and to raise funds to feed the needy is wonderful.  The purpose of the speaker's visit was to encourage students to attend a 30 Hour Famine event at a local church.  (To summarize this event, students get pledges for every hour that they don't eat during this teen-centered event.  They do some community work during the night and a lock-in is held where kids hang out and fast.)  I think it's a good way for kids to become aware of a need in a tangible way, so I support the kids participating.  What I found a little off-putting---and I later found out ruffled my students feathers as well---was that after a great presentation the students were encouraged by the speaker to attend the event because they would have a "sweet juice bar" and several great bands for the kids to listen to.  Now, it probably sounds like I'm just picking everything apart and being a jerk.  I'm not.  I just know that my kids don't need that kind of incentive to help others.

Later, when I talked to my class, they were quick to mention how they felt a little patronized by the incentives to participate.  One student said, "I don't need all that to do what's right..."  Another commented that it didn't sound like "suffering if I get a juice bar."  Sometimes, I think, we don't give teenagers enough credit.  We assume we have to put together a cool event or flashy worship service or attractive youth room in order to get kids to be willing to do something "Christian."  This isn't true.  Kids are spiritually astute enough to know that something is missing in their lives when God is not there.  They are hungry for significance and wholeness.  They aren't opposed to considering Christ as an answer to the void in their lives.  When you get a solid group of Christian kids like we have at VCA, their hearts are already moved towards helping the helpless.  They need awareness.  Awareness IS the incentive to act.  


These principles apply to adults too.  People know they are missing something.  If what we provide is more about aesthetics and less about authenticity, we will find people quickly becoming unamused and moving on to the next form of entertainment.  If we're really the Church, we don't need the bells and whistles to be moved by the Spirit.  That goes for our kids too...

Music: John Mark Macmillan- "Death In His Grave"

If you're one of my students, this song is nothing new to you. Since I was practicing playing it tonight (yeah, I'm picking up the guitar again after about a year of not playing), I thought I would share it with those who haven't heard it...I love hymns and this is a modern-day hymn of sorts. Jesus has defeated death and this song is a celebration of that struggle and victory. Hope you enjoy it!

Now We See in Part...

Recently, I heard something so simple that it shouldn't have been profound...but I've had a hard time shaking it the last couple of days so maybe it's more profound than it seems at first glance.  Basically, it was said that our attempts to explain God (think of the water-ice-gas comparisons) consistently fall flat because "God isn't like anything else."  Well, that makes sense, doesn't it?  I'm not sure why something that simple has never occurred to me, but boy have I tried to explain God to people over the years. 


As I think about this truth, I am drawn to Paul's words to the Corinthians.  He writes, "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." (I Corinthians 13:12) In all my best efforts to understand God (much less explain him)---all the books I read, the conversations I have, the conferences I attend, the church I align myself with---I will never see any more than in part while I am flesh and bone.  I can't even begin to comprehend the heights and depths of who God is.  He isn't like anything else I have experienced, am experiencing, or will experience.  My humanity can't offer me anything that is even comparable to who God is and what He offers me now and eternally.  In fact, Paul says that what I think I see now is just a poor reflection...my vision of who God is now is poor, despite my good intentions.  One day, we will see Him face to face and experience the surpassing greatness of his love, a love that knows no boundaries.  I know that love in part now; one day I will be completely overwhelmed by the fullness of that love.   And just think, God knows me fully now!  There is nothing about me that God doesn't know.  He knows my every thought, my deepest secrets, my most difficult struggles, my most embarrassing sins, and the depravity of my heart.  Yet, God's love is bigger than my falleness.  He knows me completely and loves me completely, one of the all time great miracles.

So, as I think about how little I really know about God---how little we all know---it sure does slap my critical heart in the face.  Who am I to think I have things figured out when God has made it very clear that I am only seeing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Him?  I'm seeing in part.  Yes, I see some and He continues to reveal more to me as I look to Him.  But I'll never know it all, and neither will any of you.  And that's okay.  But let's allow the truth of Paul's words to gently remind us to approach the Church humbly and with loving kindness as we work together to piece together the biblical vision of God's kingdom on earth.

Do You Live in a Christian Ghetto?

For some of you students who are reading this, ghetto may not mean what you think it means.  Well, it might mean "gangsta" or "hood" in your venacular, but I'm using it a little bit differently.  A ghetto is a place where a particular group (sometimes stereotypical) lives, and it's usually not a very desirable place to reside.  Most of us are familiar with the socioeconomic sense of the word or perhaps the historical sense of the word (i.e. Jews being herded into ghettos during 1930's and 1940's)...but, in recent times, the term "Christian ghetto" has surfaced as a hot topic of conversation amongst progressive evangelicals.  So, what exactly is meant by "Christian ghetto?"  Well, the idea is that many evangelicals have retreated into holy huddles in which every area of their life is saturated with Christian "stuff"---everything from people to programs to concerts to t-shirts.  We go to church on Sundays.  We belong to a life group.  Christian conferences are hot social events.  Our kids go to every youth group outing or camp we can possibly get them into, and if we can afford it they're in Christian schools.  If we can afford the time, they may even be home schooled.  We love to go to Christian rock concerts ("If you love Secular Rock Band X, you'll love the Christian Alternative Rock Band X!") Why read a great "secular" novel if there is a new Francis Chan book to read?  (Mind you, I really enjoy Francis Chan's books and highly recommend you read them...just read some other stuff, too.)  Consider your life---who do you spend the majority of your social time with?  What events or groups do you participate in?  What music and movies entertain you?  If all of your answers include "Christian," "church," or "Bible" as an adjective, you probably are living in a Christian ghetto.

You are probably wondering, "What's so wrong with any of these things?  Shouldn't we want everything we're involved with to be Christian?"  In and of themselves, none of these things are bad and most are actually really good things.  But, when we get sucked into a Christian bubble in every area of our lives then we are missing the mark.  Jesus spent the majority of his time with his inner circle of believers, and you should do the same.  However, he also encountered his culture without insisting on a spiritual adjective being attached to everything.  He touches a leper, dines with a tax collector, hangs out with a prostitute, and isn't shy about pushing back against a religious establishment that was on the wide path.  I'm not sure the residents of the Christian ghetto would have let Jesus move into town.  If Jesus were living in our culture today, I honestly don't think he'd be at many Christian events.  You would find Jesus in the dark corners of the world searching for the sick and broken...after all, they are the ones who need a doctor, right?  He understood a very basic, logical concept that most of us choose to ignore most of the time---if you want to reach the lost, you have to spend time among the lost.  You have to be in this world and not of it.  So, we are left with a choice...we can remain immersed in our Christian ghettos and we can be very ineffective in reaching the world and making disciples.  Or, we can move out of town and bring light into darkness.  Just so I am clear, you need to stay in Christian community to do this.  You will fail miserably without the encouragement, teaching, admonition, and love of brothers and sisters in Christ.  You just have to be intentional about moving into community with those outside of the faith so that Jesus can reach them through you.

What would Jesus do?  He wouldn't live in the ghetto.