Homelessness and Suburbia

this past year has been a year of God getting my attention for the broken people and places in the world (meaning Local and Global).  I have played tag, soccer, and held children dying of Aids, I have seen poverty that is etched in my brain, I have also witnessed racism and unfairness albeit needed health care, or education, or fair wadges towards my brothers and sisters that have come into the country illegaly, in all of these places I have seen Jesus and been caught up in the ecstasy of laughter and Joy not with “them” but united as brothers and sisters.  Jesus has a funny way of getting our attention.  the experiences mentioned above have shaped me drastically, but there is still more…..

I really believe that the bible teaches the Church that God is bent on reconciling and redeeming the broken and hurting in our world.  If we look at Jesus we see God’s love ooze into the dirty bars, the shelters, the casino’s, brothels, Enron, White houses, Churches and other sinful stinky places and out of those places Jesus sees people and raises them up as his people no longer defined by prostitute, gambler, addict, drunk, ceo, but now as His kids who belong to a radical God who loves as we are dirty/messy/unclean in ways that can never be completely realised or even spoken about due to his awesomeness and our lack of such.  we are In Christ!

With this in our minds…. For some time God has been bringing this Idea of loving Justice being held in the same breath as loving God  Mathew 22:36-40 says it best “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” the Gospel is that God loves us that He died for us and that He is redeeming us.  We can’t do this but he can.

this discussion and conviction has been excelerated thanks to friends, seminary,  and a project that I had to complete.  I had to spend some time in a homeless shelter that was five mins away from my house to call it a shelter is an understatement.  it is a place where Jesus runs wild and is helping people get back on their feet but more importantly he is a friend.  my assignment was to hangout with people and it was a powerful experience.

a month and a half age my community the lab went to choc the place where I volunteered months ago for the class and we spent time listening and befriending the people there at Choc.  we spent time with people who felt called to be homeless, guys that were forced out of there house because they were unable to make mortgage, people who lost jobs, people who had mental illnesses and more.  the highlight for me was watching a 19 year old homeless kid play the guitar with a kid with us who has a home.  and to watch the joy shared between the two.  circumstances no longer made any difference they were friends defining music together instead of being defined by where they live.  it was powerful.  the residual effect of this music was smiles and singing and dancing all around.  it was beauty that could not be defined by words………

more recently just a few weeks ago i went to NYC and spent time with all kinds of people and different ministries that go on in the city.  it was amazing, to see people caring for people is contagious and it brings joy and sorrow all at the same time.  i think that what happens is you experience sorrow because you want to do more but joy because you know that you are making some kind of difference as you watch a dying woman receive a healthy cooked meal.  you find joy in the conversation with the man without a home who can laugh with you about the crazy things in life.  sorrow when you (as a white suburbanite) feel like a minority for the first time and you then realize how you have acted in ignorance for so many years.

all these things were incredible experiences that have helped me bring all the colors into the painting that God has called me to paint but I was still lacking a what to paint……

until last night…….

last night Mear and I went to the suburban homelessness forum at the well in feasterville(great chruch) and we heard county officials, salvation army leader, pastor, former homeless lady, and a housing official talk about the problems in Montgomery and bucks county.  all of them said that homelessness is a problem and we need to find solutions, they gave us staggering statistics and stories that made your heart weep.  but they also cast hope.  there are homeless people and Jesus says that there will always be poor and some Christians write the problem off and say things like Jesus said it will always be there so we don’t need to worry about them.  but as the people of God we are called to act and holistically engage people.  here is where I really appreciated what was said by pastor Kork Moyer he said we don’t minister to the poor we minister with the poor.  this is a shift for alot of people including me.  this brings this whole thing back to realizing that people are people and people are created by God in his Image and we as Christians who get that are to act like that and not just see people as a new project but as friends and those we love and fight for.

I am not sure completely what the painting will be but I have the colors, I have the brushes, the canvas and the creativity with my community to engage the things that Jesus heart is bent towards.  things like justice, compassion, love, mercy, and hope.  so I started painting this picture yesterday.  My first step is to keep my eyes open and ears open to the voice of the Risen King.  come help me by dreaming with me through Jesus and lets unleash the risen Christ in our community.  bring the Ideas, the crazier the better.

Please Check out these web sites

Choc

PFF

the Well

hospital rooms and things to break

Life is unpredictable all the time.  some of us have had great Jobs and are now unemployed, some of us fell in love that would last forever and are now heart broken and alone, some of us had hoped so much in one thing and now we are devistated and jaded.  Life is unpredictable.   In the midst of the uncertainty there seem to be very few moments of clarity.  I am envious of the people who know exactly what they want in life from young ages.  People who know that they want to be a doctor and do what they need to do to get where they want to be.  This has not been me or my case.  I have kind of been all over the place thus far in my life.  but one that has always been constant in my life is my Job as a youth pastor.  I love what I do, I work with students who actually believe that Jesus can and will heal the brokenness in the world.  they dream and hope and get mad at other people who don’t get it including me at times.  I have this big heart that sees these students as my kids…..

So last night I got the call that every youth pastor dreads.  The “there has been an accident and _____ is being rushed to the hospital” call. thankfully our friend and longtime babysitter of my children Nicole was okay just a bit banged up.  but what a scare.  when I got the call my heart was racing and it felt like my through was closing up.  I kissed my wife and headed up to reading to see Nicole.  and thankfully she was okay, she had some cuts and bruises and was sore but she was in tact, laughing about things and in a stylish neck brace.

it was so cool to be there with a family that was afraid that they lost their girl but the story was different.  the story that could have ended in serious Injury or death was actually a story of another chance, another day,  and life.  there are all these different things bouncing in my head that I want to express but I don’t have words to do it now.  but what I can say is this God is God and we are not, i don’t understand how sometimes things work out, and sometimes they don’t but I do know that God is always good come what may.  I am rejoicing in the fat that my friend who in my mind was lost now is found, was dead but is now alive.

Radical Faith

&#$98723 is one of my favorite people she is quite and reserved most of the time but is always internaly thinking and moving.  she is a part of our community that I belong to called the lab.  I have known her for about 10 years and I have watched her grow in amazing ways.  these past few months we have been discusing what it means to have faith or to live by faith and I have watched &#98723 wrestle and think about the word that defines religion of all kinds.  she has said things like “shouldn’t we be different and willing to do things that just don’t make sense.” and i should be able to trust God with bigger things.  a few months ago she was told that her job was on the fritz and i watched her trust God.  but the coolest thing was when I got an email  from her a week ago that informed me of her desison t go and spend 5 months learning and applying missional living at Ywam.  She has radical faith….  I need to trust God like that.

ramble on

there has been alot going on in my life over the past few months, I said goodbye for now to a really good friend, I started going solo again at work, we picked up an intern, I spent a week in New York City being responsible for 56 other people, had an emergency hospital visit, went to to the beach twice, and about 8 graduation parties, a lock-in, wrote 6 papers, finished my first year of seminary, work 50 to 60 hours a week, am part of 3 different ministries, full time husband and father, and have been doing p90x with mear.  all that just starts to scratch the surface of my busyness.

at the end of the day though I find myself restless.  and i don’t know why….. maybe it is because i am too busy and my life has become passionless?  or maybe it is because my priorities are off?  in thinking about this stuff I think it could be a combination of both.  yes i think the busyness of life has burned some of my passion and yes i would say that some of my priorities are off.  so is there a remedy for this?  is there something that will magically fix me?  i have come to the conclusion that the only thing in life that brings passion and priorities is Jesus.  He leads me to places where I am uncomfortable with me and that starts a changing process inside……

Jesus was a busy guy people wanted to be around him and everyone had questions but 2 things I know about Jesus he always made time for kids, and he frequently got away to recharge.  so I have decided to do the same spend more time with my kids and wife and get away to places where i can hear God speak.

I’ll keep all of you posted about what he is saying.

Great day…… Adventure starts tomorrow.

Hey all,

So today I celebrated the 4th with a last min. change of plans and a bbq at my house with friends and family.  I also spent most of the morning splitting wood, fun right?

so tomorrow starts my journey to NYC,  I have decided to not bring my laptop and hence there will be no posts this week I was up in the air about it but frlt as if it was one more thing that I just didn’t need to take.

but here are my thoughts….

I am excited.  I have no Idea what God is going to do while we are there.  I hope that I encounter Jesus in the most random places and it totaly changes everything about who I am and how I live my life.  the other part which I know will happen is that I am challenged to act, not just to think.

I am nervous, I have this feeling that I am going to be awkward during this trip with nothing to say>  that scares me but i think it will be a good thing.

so on the train at 8 tomoorw with intern cody and 54 other brave fairviewians…… i’ll be back in a week.

windows

This blog as a window.  I hope that this will help give people that I love an oppertunity to look into the window and see what is going on in my life.  from my perspective I am always or almost always right so I am open to be challenged on any and all of my posts.  it helps me think and grow as a person.

the ptter patter of little feet

My daughter just turned 2.  She is a beautiful little girl who loves to smile, dance and hold babies.  In my opinion there are no kids as cool as my own.  so I am speaking from a biased perspective when I talk of my kids.

Every morning my baby girl wakes up around 6 6:30am my wife and I are night people so these last 2 years with Kiley have been a challenge.  night owls and morning persons can get on each others nerves and  she is a morning person however she is cute so she has that going for her.  it is like clockwork for her as soon as there is any light in her room she is out of bed and we hear her little feet which sound like cannons going off walking towards us.  after a few moments of silence we hear a ma or da and we look over and see this little girl who looks like cindy loo who with blankey in hand and thumb n mouth.  the second we look at her she smiles and then jumps towards the bed which she can’t climb up cause it’s to high.  then one of us has to go and start either a barney or elmo movie and just hang out with her.  I am grateful to say that it is normally my wife but on the days that I go out I find my self sitting in the dad chair with my head back and this beautiful little girl on my lap and sucking her thumb and playing with her blankey.  usually by the time the barney theme song is over I am out.  I wake up most times to the sound of the fridge opening and a little voice calling out for juice.  I begrudgingly get up from my slumber and get her juice and then she comes back and sits with me while drinking her juice.  by this time my son is up and has a crazy look in his eye while he watches barney and friends against his will.  We sit there as a family just being together watching barney all quiet all close.  those are some of my favorite times.

Last night we found a new family favorite time.  all of us on the hamock outsde looking at the sky.  it is amazing to just sit there and hang out.

All of these things have got me thinking about my relationship with Jesus.  there are times when I hear His feet coming closer and I begrudgingly get out of where I am to meet with him sometimes I fall asleep but His presence with me is like something I experience nowhere else.  even when I don’t want to do anything and just be alone I find Him invading my space and pursuing me.  Why would God want to pursue me?  I honestly can’t tell you.  I am grumpy, cynical, sleepy and can be a real jerk sometimes.  I have a hard time following rules and I can be irritable.  and to think that Jesus knows that and more that I dare not put on this page but yet he still loves me and still comes to me!  I mean what the heck?  I guess I am finding that His love for me is like nothing I can ever experiece and I am afraid that If he really finds out he would fire me or leave me.  but that is just the thing he already knows and he still calls me.  wow!

Death and all of his friends

These past few months have been up and down.  Seminary has been taking it’s toll on me and my family as I have been finishing up my first year.  I find myself tired but really excited most nights.  Tired because I am up late reading and writing, excited because of the nature of what I am studying.  I have found a place where people get me and are able to take and wrestle with difficult things and feel okay to not have a full conclusion.  but live in tension.  This tension for me was made very clear earlier this week.  I attended a funeral on Wed.  the last 4 funerals that I went to I have been a part of in some way.  this one was different I sat and mourned, laughed, and cryed with the people there.  What an experience.  Bob Eberz was a great man.  I am blessed to have known him.

I wanna be like Bob

A few weeks ago I was preaching about God’s Love for the world, and what it means to be a community shaped by the Gospel.  I was saying how the Gospel is bigger than you the individual and is not for some place far away in the future but it impacts today.  you now things like that.  I had us sit in silence before we celebrated communion… well my good friend Bob who has been a huge part of my life for like 10 years now.  left right after the sermon unnoticed by everyone.  I saw him later that night and we talked for a bit…. and here is some of the conversation to the best of my memory

Bob: you know how you had us just sit in silence for a while.

Me: Yeah

Bob: well the Lord told me to go see Sam so I got in my car and drove over to his house….

Me: what?

Bob: yeah I saw him earlier in the day and I said hey miss ya things like that.

Me: wow

Bob: yeah so I knocked on the door wanting to tell sam that he is loved by God but he wasn’t there.  his Dad came to the door and I came in and said who I was and I noticed that sam’s dad was limping and asked him about it…… He said he has a problem with his nerves and can’t feel his legs.  so I asked him if I could pray for him and I did….. it was like God had me there for something that was bigger than me.

Me: your the man Bob! I wish I had a faith like that.

So here is the thing I want to be like Bob.  He embodies everything that is beautiful about being shaped by the gospel.  he hopes like a madman and he does crazy stuff like go to a kids house and prays for his Dad.

maybe we could all use a bit of Bob in us…………  and the thing is that I know Jesus wants to do this with us all…. Bob is just crazy enough to listen.

am I?

Are you?

making your fun, or living in the resurection.

One thing that I admire about Vermonters is that they know how to enjoy the outside.  they are blessed with really good winters where the lake freezes and the mts have snow.  they engage in Ice fishing, Lake hockey, curling, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, sledding, skiing, cross-country skiing, snowboarding and the list goes on and on.

the smiles on people faces in small town VT beats the pants off our Ipods, Xbox, and other mind numbing activities that give us “Virtual fun” they get that God is big and we need to play inside of him and his creation although most are not christians, they get it more than we the church do.  there is a deeper sense of worship there.  off my soap box now.

Philadelphia is a funny place we get the inbetween stuff that makes up winter, we always have a chance of getting subtancial snow but it is usually small in comparison and is either preceeded by Ice or ended with ice.  when we get snow we have to make our own fun.

lets go back a second I am one of those guys who believe that the best life is lived in balance tipped towards recreation.  people that spend time enjoying the outdoors, community, and time not working live longer and are happier…  nuff said.

back to making our own fun.

a buddy and I decided that we needed a way to enjoy the snow so we built a jump in my parents back (they have a really small hill) yard we spent ours shoveling snow into one area and then more hours shaping a launch ramp and jump.  it was spectacular!  But we needed more SPEED so we could get higher, simple phisics really! We then met up with our friend Houseal who my son loves and he had thi great Idea……..  HE Got scaffolding and made our launch ramp 6 feet higher and about 10 feet longer.  we got faster and higher it was great..  My son owned the jump on his sled, and we went to town dialing in what little tricks on our snowboards we know.

most people hate the snow around here it becomes a problem and stops work and school.  for me it is an opportunity to play.  so here is too the crew; My son Caleb, my buddies Chip, Houseal, Jorna, Matt i tat tat, Ditti, rae rae, anna, and the Grandes you enjoyed and cheated winter for a few more days than it wanted to hold on.

the culmination of our work of beauty was thursday night, a night that I missed.  Chip had like 10 kids come and hang out at night being idiots on a simple jump.  the laughter that took place that night is still being heard in 2 day old conversation.  it is life giving.  fun is an important part of being a follower of Christ.  and what is better it is a picture of the resurection……..

things that seem to bring death actually bring life.  the unwanted things become welcomed and embraced.  people hate snow so we take it and create something pretty and fun.

that is my rambling.