Bono, lead singer for U2, gave the president an iPod and the book “The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language” by Eugene H. Peterson valued at $440.
Bono, who has met with Bush at the White House, has campaigned for erasing the debts of poor countries to help fight poverty.
Category Archives: Ministry
No Commentary Today, Just Read
A girl is to become Britain’s youngest mother after becoming pregnant at 11.
The girl smokes 20 cigarettes a day despite being eight months’ pregnant. She conceived aged 11 when she lost her virginity to a boy of 15 on a drunken night out with friends.
The 15-year-old has since been charged with rape by police, and is due to appear again at Edinburgh sheriff court on July 10.
Her 34-year-old mother, who gave birth to her youngest child eight months ago, said she was ‘proud’ of her daughter.
She will be 12 years and 8 months when she has the child next month. Jenny Teague, Britain’s youngest mother until now, was a month older when she gave birth in 1997.
The youngster, who lives near Edinburgh, says looking after her younger brothers has prepared her for motherhood.
But the girl admits she “panics and cries” when babies are unwell and does not feel able to bathe them.
The mother-to-be, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had unprotected sex with the teenage boy, who also cannot be identified, while drunk last August.
She told the Sun: “I didn’t think I’d get pregnant because it was my first time. But I’m really excited and looking forward to being a mum.
“I can’t wait to take the baby swimming and out for walks in the pram. I think I’ll be able to cope as I’ve had lots of practice looking after my brothers. I know how to feed a baby its bottle and I can change nappies. But I panic and cry if they’re sick and I don’t like giving them a bath because I’m a bit frightened. It’s good to know I’ll have my mum here to help me if I need her.”
Concerned she might be pregnant, the girl visited a GP three times but tests proved negative. She learned the truth after buying a home-testing kit from a supermarket.
After the device displayed two blue lines, indicating she was pregnant, she pleaded with a female relative to break the news to her mother. The girl, who has been suspended from her first year of secondary school for fighting, said: “I was paranoid about what my mum was going to say and just frightened about being pregnant too.
“I knew straight away that I couldn’t have an abortion because that’s something I don’t believe in. I was upset and so was my mum, especially as she’d just had my wee brother. We had a big argument and I ended up locking myself in my room and running away to a friend’s. It was really hard but it’s brought me and my mum closer, which is good. I knew my mum would stand by me no matter what, but I told her straight away I was going to keep the baby. The social worker suggested I got rid of it but I’d never do that.”
The girl, who has shoulder-length dark hair, began smoking at nine and started drinking tonic wine and vodka cocktails at ten. She claimed her cigarette habit was not harming the health of her unborn child.
She said: “I can give up smoking at any time, but I don’t find it affects my pregnancy.”
The girl, whose parents split up several years ago, said she would like a baby boy – and may call him Leo.
She is currently being educated at a local community centre but knows she must return to school.
She told the Sun: “My mum has said she will look after the baby so I can go to school. I don’t know what I want to do with my life when I leave. I used to want to be a nursery nurse, but now I’m not so sure.”
Her mum said: “I’m not ashamed of my daughter at all – in fact, I’m proud of her for keeping the baby. I know she’s worried what other people will say but she can walk out there with her head held high. At first I wasn’t too happy about becoming a gran. But now I’m used to the idea. I’m really looking forward to having another baby in the house.”
A Change of Perspective
Dill: I think I’ll be a clown when I get grown. Yes sir, a clown. There ain’t one thing in this world I can do about folks except laugh, so I’m gonna join the circus and laugh my head off.
Jem: You got it backwards, Dill. Clowns are sad; it’s folks that laugh at them.
Dill: Well I’m gonna be a new kinda clown. I’m gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at folks.
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird has had a profound influence on me since the first time that I read it. I remember wanting to be as good of a man as Atticus Finch was: A man who stood up for those who are forced to sit down. However, I often find myself more like Dill, throwing my hands up in the air and making a cynical comment about life.
As I have prepared to move I have been thinking about the pain and frustrations, joys and triumphs, great people and the not-so great, patterns of conflicts, organizational habits and overal ministry ethos that I have experienced in my first full time ministry. What am I going to take with me to Texas?
No doubt I will take the memories of the students who have shared their lives with me but what else will make that 10hr journey?
I Corinthians 9:24-27
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
In the long marathon that is ministry the wisdom, resolve, discernment, and courage of someone like Atticus Finch will keep you in the race. Dill’s cynasism in a recipe for burnout.
Buy This Music
I am pretty finicky about two things: food and music. On the food side, I tend to avoid jams, jellies, butter, tomatoes, fish, bacon, and cake. I like cheese pizza and vanilla ice cream because you can’t mess those up.
On the music spectrum though I’m all over the map. I only have one rule. If it’s out there and if it’s good, I’ll listen. However, there is one type of music that I tend to avoid like a plague- accapella pop.
You all remember the group Rockapella right? Every time their coffee commercial came on I couldn’t turn the channel fast enough.
It just wasn’t a genre that my ears tune in to. Accapella pop seemed cheap and goofy. I hadn’t listened to it since college and hadn’t planned on listening to it since. Like Nathanael I found myself asking, “Can anything good come from accapella pop?”
Along came Eric Gwin. Eric and I have been attending church together for the past three years. Eric and I hit it off pretty well because we both have a passion for great music. Although, I only listen to great music, Eric makes it.
The Calling is, flat-out, a great album. Where most accapella albums sound over dubbed (all parts are reproduced vocally), The Calling sounds natural. Where most accapella lyrics tend to give me cavities because of their sachrine sweetness, Eric’s lyrics pour forth from a heart tuned to worshipping Jesus Christ. You can hear the truthfulness of this man because the music compliments the lyrics. This is real music.
The quality of this album matches anything you’ve heard. I played some of Eric’s stuff to a group of teens. I placed my favorite track, “The Light”, in a playlist consisting of artists like TobyMac, Matisyahu, and Third Day. The students didn’t miss a beat. The accapella music held its own. Students bobbed their head, tapped their feet, and drummed on the table. The only thing that they noticed about the music was that they liked it.
You know what, I not only liked it, I loved it. I have found myself reaching for the CD time and time again. I know you will too.
So if you find yourself asking, “Can anything good come from accapella pop?” my answer to you is a resounding, “Come and see! Come and see!”
Cut To The Heart
Adam Ellis over at Adventures In Following Jesus had this to say about leadership today:
I am discovering that there is a fine line between being “a prophet” and self-appointed, useless living pseudo-martyr. I believe that being prophetic is a calling from God. I also believe that it is easy to lose your vision when circumstances aren’t exactly what you think they should be. When that happens, you can become consumed with frustration and self-pity. In this condition, and in the absence of vision, you lose the ability to influence. The tricky part is that a realization that “things aren’t as they should be” is necessary for one to be prophetic. Another component is an actual vision of how it could be…how it should be. However, these two things are simply not enough. As Andy Stanley points out, this simply makes you a dreamer, and dreamers can become increasingly despondent as they recognize the disparity between the “real world” and their dream. The prophets…the visionary leaders are the ones who are willing to pour their lives and resources into partnering with God into making that dream a reality. Without that momentum and focus, you become a despondent dreamer. Prophetic, Visionary leaders believe in the dream enough to put their lives behind it. People follow passion, not hopeless complaining. Lately I’ve caught myself trying to slip into the martyr role. God has used many people and Andy Stanley’s leadership books (I continue to be astounded at the wisdom in Stanley’s stuff. I know I may lose emergent cool points over that, but it remains true.), to show me that I was headed down that path and point me back to the path I need to be walking. Join the revolution.
I don’t know what prompted Adam to write this but I find great comfort and inspiration in his words. I am a huge Andy Stanely fan and I recently finished his latest book, It Came From Within. Truly fantastic. Thanks for your words Adam.
God’s Time
The second part of my triste on Starbucks and the Church is coming. Until then enjoy this little story.
When I was in third grade my favorite thing to do was ride my bike all over my school. The private school that I attended was built on an old college campus so there were ample sidewalks and hills for me to peddle up and down, over and around. Since my father worked at the school my sister and I had to stay on campus nearly everyday until he finished coaching. On days where the elementary dismissed early we would beg our dad to take our bikes up to school so we could have some fun while we waited on him. After class we would walk across campus to the high school parking lot, climb into the back of his truck, and grab our bikes. Often the first place I would head toward was the ECLC.
The Early Childhood Learning Center was built on the top of a good hill. A long, straight sidewalk jutted out of the back of the building down the hill. The sidewalk conected to the major walkway of the campus but if you kept going straight ahead you could fly down another small hill, streak across a small little field where we would play during recess, and barrel down yet another hill. It. was. AWESOME!
On this particular day I was ready to break a record. For my birthday I had recieved a new bike. This new bike was grey and had a great big red TURBO button. As you peddled you could hit this button and shoot into turbo mode. I was bound and determined that I was going to catch some righteous air that day. Nothing was going to get in my way.
I took off down the sidewalk. About halfway down I hit that red button. Turbo mode baby! Nothing was going to stop me. Not even my friend Curt who was standing at the bottom of the hill in the middle of the sidewalk.
To this day, Curt believes that I maliciously hit him on purpose. When he tells this story he likens me to the Witch as she hunted down poor, little Dorothy. Duh-dut-da-dut-da-duh-da-dat, Duh-dut-da-dut-da-duh-da-dat, Duh-dut-da-dut-da-duh-da-dat.
I swear. I didn’t see him and I couldn’t stop.
Curt ended up riding the front wheel of my bike down the remainder of the sidewalk, down the hill, across the field and down the other hill. It was a ride he will never forget. It was an event I will never forget.
To often in this life, we have our own ideas and agendas and we couldn’t care less about whether or not anyone around us gets hurt. Our wants and desires out weigh our concern for others. We want something, we want it now, and we are going for it.
Whenever I am reminded of this story I am reminded about our attitudes. Paul tells the Ephesians that their attitudes should mirror the attitude of Jesus Christ.
If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care– then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death–and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion.Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth–even those long ago dead and buried–will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.
God cannot be honored when we are running each other to get what we want. Let’s slow down, look both ways, and begin to trust that God doesn’t need our help to get us where we need to be.
Latte, Bees, Life, and the Gospel
Akeelah and the Bee is the inspirational story, co-presented by Lionsgate Films, 2929 Entertainment and Starbucks Entertainment, of a precocious eleven-year-old girl with a gift for spelling. Despite objections from her mother, Akeelah enters various spelling contests, for which she is tutored by the forthright Dr. Larabee (Laurence Fishburne) and the proud residents of her neighborhood. Akeelah’s aptitude wins her a spot in the national spelling bee, and her determination instills all those who help her with a sense of neighborhood pride as they witness the courage and inspiration of one amazing little girl.
Did you catch that? This new movie is co-produced by, of all companies, Starbucks. While this might come as a quirky fact to many of you, it doesn’t surprise me in the least.
As I sit here at my desk typing this, the radio in my office is tuned to the satilite station XM 75: Hear Music. The mood in my office is always rich and smooth, just like a certain hot beverage. The soothing voice of the on-air personality wispers, “The sound of Starbucks” as the latest David Grey tune gently begins and I feel like I’m right there at the coffee shop- sans the sounds of coffee grinders and foaming milk, of course. Then, when I hear a new artist or a great new song, I can just pick it up at the register the next time I’m ordering a tall White Chocolate Mocha.
The bottom line for Starbucks is that it is first and foremost selling coffee but they are more interested in selling a lifestyle of laid back, hipster cool. And guess what? It works. It works because it seems to be a natural occurance. Starbucks isn’t trying hard to force you into buying their coffee and then thrusting the lifestyle on you. It happens almost organically.
You walk in to buy a cup of joe. The atmosphere is warm and inviting. The cashier asks for your name and scribbles it on to your cup. While you wait for your Carmel Machiatto you peruse the CDs, mugs, coasters, and brewing machines. You walk out with your drink, a tumbler with “Starry Night”, and that ultra-cool Sam Cooke compilation. You climb into your SUV and flip the channel to 75. Tracy Chapman sings to you as you travel to work where you can buy a cold frapachino from the vending machine near your cubicle. That night you head out to go see the latest flick with your favorite actor, Larry “Cowboy Curtis” Fishburn. On the way home you pop that Sam Cooke compilation in the dash and smile. What a day.
Starbucks not only sells Coffee but Music, Movies, and Mood. Starbucks is branded as a lifestyle more than a beverage. And that got me thinking…
Part 2: Salvation and Lifestyle Are Not Mutually Exclusive
And I Will Sing, Sing a New Song
As a minister, one of the single most rewarding things about your calling is visiting people in the hospital or comforting them as they go through a season of illness or pain. When you stand with a family and pray with them in the middle of a hospital room or in the waiting area you have a tangible idea that you are making a difference in their lives. You are truly helping them and walking with them through a difficult valley. You are helping to point them toward the Son. You are serving them a cup of cold water. I am honored everytime I get to serve people in this way.
That is why last fall when one of my students was extremely sick, in and out of the hospital, I found it deeply disturbing that I could not get out of bed to visit him and his family.
I found myself lying in the dark all alone night after night after night. I was averaging 12 and 14 hour nights and struggeling to get up the next morning. I finally had to admit something to myself:
I was profoundly depressed.
My wife told me that she felt that the depression had begun a few years back while working security. I had been one of the first on the scene to help a young man who had tried to commit suicide. I had trouble sleeping after that and the late nights turned into insomnia which turned into who knows what. I still don’t know the direct cause of my depression. All I know is that the aches and pains, physically and emotionally, were tearing me apart.
As soon as I admited that I really could be depressed, I began to awake from this walking coma that I had been in. It was a struggle but with the help of my loving wife, supportive friends and my Lord and my God, I have come along way since last fall.
My depression affected everything around me. Now that this season has passed, I am thankful for that time. I don’t ever want to feel that way again but I now know what to look for and how to help others who may be struggling as well.
Praise be to the Father of all good things!
I waited patiently for the Lord
He inclined and heard my cry
He brought me up out of the pit
Out of the miry clayI will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new songHow long to sing this song
How long to sing this song
How long, how long, how long
How long to sing this songHe set my feet upon a rock
And made my footsteps firm
Many will see
Many will see and hearI will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new songHow long to sing this song
How long to sing this song
How long, how long, how long
How long to sing this song
40
U2
War
Everybody’s Workin’ for the Weekend
I can’t think of that song without seeing Chris Farley shaking his moneymaker.
I digress, I have been so swamped during the weekends it isn’t even funny. Between traveling back and forth from here and my future employment in the Dallas/Ft Worth area, traveling to New York City, and working behind the scenes at school events I am beyond tired. I am even traveling this weekend. However, it’s all good.
Tomorrow I will step onto the beach in Destin, FL and preform a wedding ceremony in my bare feet. How cool is that?
Spacejunk Comin’ in for the Splash
Have you ever wondered what the iPod would be like if Microsoft created it? Well wonder no more.
All joking aside, this video made me think about how we package Christianity for the world. We have been given the greatest Message in the cosmos. It needs no dressing up; no additives. Yet we attach all of our theological mumbo-jumbo (read: our own agendas) all over it so that it crowds out the original simplicity and beauty and takes away from the powerful impact that the Message originally had. We had good intentions(?). We wanted people to be informed and to completely understand but what we create sometimes only takes away. What we create sometimes looks like everything else out there. The uniqueness of the Message is lost. Let’s get over ourselves and get into what God is all about. I’m tired of “Lookin’ for baby Jesus under the trash.”