Cannonball wound ointment and ministry tension

Brian Regan has a bit about going to the doctor and being given a small handout about how to get the ailment for which he was going to the doctor.

"I know how to get it!"

He exaggerates it as though he were going into the doctor with a cannonball wound and getting a pamphlet describing how to get cannonball wounds.

"I have a cannonball wound! Do you have a tube of cannonball wound ointment?"

Am I the only one who feels like they are not super-sure of what to do in an area or ministry they were once knew exactly what to do?

Ministry has me in a place right now where I am saturated with information about the culture I am reaching, but all the information is heavy on the problem and light to lacking on the solution.

My heart is a bit weighed down with a sense of confusion and burden. It is as though my mind is full of the statistics about this generation, this culture, this demographic. I have an ear to ground, and I hear far more than the local church hears, yes, but I feel like I am without  solutions to the ailments. I feel, in this, a lot of pressure built up in my heart as it fills with more and more insight to the problems and descriptions without the release of solutions and steps for change.

It would seem enough pressure builds without release explosion is impending. (and I'm not even sure I know what that would look like either)

I am in the doctor's office with a wounded heart for a generation reading pamphlet after pamphlet about the generation my heart hurts for.

Something has to change, and I am always willing and ready for change, but...

what do you do when you simply do not know what changes need to be made?

Wrecked Journal: coffee spill

I am currently on these two pages. I found myself with a predicament (not wanting to waste my delicious nectar). I lightly flung a bit at first, and then I started to doodle tiny pictures that the blotches inspired me with.

At one brave point, I was sitting in my office and decided, "I’m just gonna pour what little coffee I have left in this cup" (its okay! It was only workroom swill). So I just went for it.

The Gospel According to Jesus - A Review

In recent months, I have been saturating myself with reading focused on Jesus. When I was offered The Gospel According to Jesus in exchange for a review for Thomas Nelson and Booksneeze, I jumped at the possibility of extending my recent repertoire of the lost centrality of Jesus Christ in our gospel.

This book is not a 'Jesus book' in that it is not a break down of the person of Jesus. In an overly blunt description, this book is about righteousness.

It is not a historical breakdown of Jesus or his teaching, but this book is still necessarily soaked with Jesus Christ as it reminds us of the true understanding of righteousness and justification as only Jesus has defined for his followers.

This is the first reading of Chris Seay for me, and I was able to really follow his writing. At the end of each chapter, he documents a conversation with various Christian leaders including Don Miller, Alan Hirsch, and Mark Batterson. It was a refreshing icing at the end of each chapter to blow each conversation wide open.

A short section of artwork in the middle is a pleasant touch, but not necessary.

If you do not have a strong understanding of righteousness, as it is not a topic we spend an ordinate amount of time to study, this is a great book to pick up. It will walk you through the misunderstanding of righteousness most of us have or have had, and it reveals the true wholeness (shalom) which comes with an accurate understanding of the righteousness which is only gift from Jesus Christ.

Cornel West Week: leftovers

In the spirit of Thanksgiving being yesterday, here are a few leftover quotes from Dr. West.

"Interrogate your hidden assumptions."

"To be a Christian is to live dangerously, honestly, freely--to step in the name of love as if you may land on nothing, yet to keep on stepping because the something that sustains you no empire can take away."

"I cannot be an optimist but I am a prisoner of hope."

"You can't lead the people if you don't love the people. You can't save the people if you don't serve the people."

"Love is a steadfast commitment to the well-being of others."

Cornel West Week: young people

"You can't develop and sustain leaders unless you get motion and momentum on the ground among ordinary people, especially young people."

"Young folk are shaped by what older folk present to them." "If young folk have access to a vast array of courageous and great examples, that will serve as the foundation for their judgment."

Cornel West Week: cracked vessels

"We are all cracked vessels; trying to love our crooked neighbors with our crooked hearts."

There is a paradox which few human beings have learned enough to enact. Power is found in humility. Authority is found in humility.

Humility recognizes that I am as broken as you if not more so. It recognizes the outrageous crooked heart within myself. It regrets my own crooked heart more than it hates a crooked person.

The paradox is in the misunderstanding that humility = weak and cannot understand that humility is power.

It is the power to see that the crooked heart in me loves the crooked heart in you.

It is the power to  recognize that a cracked vessel waters the flowers along the path.

It is the power to truly love.

Cornel West Week: faith

"There is a difference between 'rational certainty' and 'blessed assurance'; blessed assurance is stepping out on nothing and landing on something."

This week I will be highlighting a few quotes from Dr. Cornel West; one of today's most provocative thinkers. He is a champion for racial justice as well as a strong advocate for the poor and marginalized.

The quote above is a favorite of mine as it truly strikes at the core of faith. It is a reminder that one of the absolute ingredients of faith is risk. Faith is a trust, and to trust anything or anyone there must be a risk you are willing to take. You have to step out on something. If you have not taken some sort of risk, it is not trust. It is not faith. You have to step out on nothing to land on something, and once you land on something you get the assurance and affirmation of that trust. But it does not happen in the opposite order.

Dr West also said,"There is always an element of doubt in your faith because it is not always all about you. You are acknowledging something greater than you."

Jesus said the greatest commandment before us is to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Wonder and awe are love languages of the soul. To have faith is to acknowledge that God is bigger and beyond you. It is to acknowledge that he does not fit into the constraints of your ability to comprehend with your left brain logic. It is to step out with our right brain imagination and wonder.