The Overflow
Last night, one of our small group leaders, who is a professional photographer and takes a lot of pictures here at journey as a service to our community of faith, brought me this picture he took of my wife and kids.
It was taken one Sunday for Mother’s Day here at Journey a few weeks ago. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a better pic of the berrytribe. I asked for him to get me a huge mounted copy for my office.
Where is this post coming from? It’s in part how I felt after reading Shane Claiborne’s Irresistible Revolution about a year ago when he speaks of finally meeting a “real Christian” who actually believed Jesus and truly sold all he had and lived among the poor in Calcutta. It’s also how I felt after stumbling onto this blog today.
The real truth is I’ve been wrestling with what it means to love God and serve people, especially in the area of finances for a while now. We actually even spent all our small group time today talking about how we cannot claim to be Godly and then not give a rip about those who are less fortunate than we are. We talked about how to do this practically today and what it was like to live under the constant tension between enjoying the things God’s given me and not doing so at the expense of not serving the needy. I really don’t want to be American Christian who hides behind luxuries and throws a bone to the Lazarus’ of the world.
But I’m tired of reading stuff- satirical or otherwise- that implies or outright states that Godliness comes from those who live in the city. I think it smells of elitism and legalism under the disguise of piety and faith.
We had taken into our home a former teen from one of my small groups who had hit some very tough roads. His life started kinda tough by being basically abandoned by his drug addicted parents when he was 8. Since then, he had been into drugs, alcohol, and women and then had his whole life turned upside down with a major tragedy several months ago that left him suicidal and confused. This eventually led to him being kicked out one night in a fight with his relatives and he called my cell with nowhere to go. Shannon and I took him in and he lived with us for the next 6 weeks before he left, in a rather messy state, with a lot of unfinished work to be done. As much as I wanted to help him “clean up his life”, it is a messy process to help people. Messy for me. Messy for them. Messy.
He was- and still is- knee deep in rebuilding his life spiritually, emotionally, mentally, relationally, physically, and every other kind of “ally” you can think of. This meant helping him do everything from file his taxes, learn to do laundry, get a job, fix some stuff with the court and get a drivers license, get some clothes, open a bank account, get a counselor, get a car and a bike, clean up his myspace, and a bunch of other stuff.
But it was messy.
So in the middle of that time, I wrote this article which posted today.
SIDE NOTE: it’s been interesting writing these articles cuz a professional editor reads them and “fixes them”. So every time one posts to the internet, I pull up my “original article” to see what was changed and what mess I made he had to fix. I hope I’m becoming a better writer because of it. I’m trying to learn to self correct so the editor gets to just say, “post it.” He doesn’t make a ton of writing changes as it is, but some have more than others.
For what seems like forever, I’ve wanted to join the CORE team from Youth Specialties. Initially it was because of a pitch I heard at the National Youth Workers Convention where Mike Yaconelli said they were going to be creating a 3 year curriculum called the CORE and then training teachers from those who went to all three years. But in the coming years, the Core went through some changes and that plan never really panned out. I’d pretty much decided that it would probably not be a reality for me, so I let it go and moved onto other things. Then about 6 weeks ago I got an e-mail asking me if I’d like to “test” and be considered for joining the team.
I sat at my desk shocked. I didn’t know whether to believe it or not.
Then last Saturday, I co-taught (or tested) the Core with Crystal Kirgiss in Los Angeles and it went really good and I had so much fun. After Crystal’s review was given, I got another e-mail today officially asking me to join the team for a year of teaching the material. If that all goes good, then I’d be on the team indefinitely.
Today I asked my senior pastor if I could do this in light of the Friday’s I’d miss from church as I traveled to teaching locations and he gave me the OK assuming I didn’t miss too many Sundays. Shannon and I talked and prayed it over too. We were trying to consider the commitment, which involves about 6 Saturdays a year, and some pre-trip training days and such. Ultimately, I think we decided that our family could do this and that this was an opportunity I didn’t want to pass up. I think I will end up passing on a lot of other possible speaking engagements instead.
So, I’m gonna say yes. I think this means I’m almost officially a part of the CORE team. That’s gonna take some getting used to. I’m still not sure it’s not a dream. I think I’ll wait until my picture is alongside the others before I really believe it.
A few weeks ago TJ won an award for Student of the Year at his school and landed himself a $50 cash prize. He was nominated by the 5th grade teachers and the principal at his school to win the award. It was sponsored by the local Masons Lodge who pass out this honor to one kid from every school in the county. So last week, on back to school night, we swung by the Masons Lodge to watch some old dude dressed up all weird hand TJ a certificate and $50. TJ was so shocked and so surprised. We then cruised over to catch the end of back to school night at their elementary school. TJ got to show his award to the principal who was so excited for him.
Yesterday, TJ and I went to the bank cuz he decided that he wanted to open up his first savings account with the money. So, his first $50 is now in the bank. We’ll see how long it stays there or what gets added to it in the weeks/months to come.
Husband. Dad to 5. Student Ministry Pastor. Follower of Jesus. Yatta yatta.
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