the    sides

It’s snowing today and for the first time since we moved here….I miss Colorado. I miss stealing a day skiing with friends. I miss the first lift up, the squeaking of powder underneath my skis. I miss the way the sun hits the foothills in the morning and the last peak of orange before dinner.

For some reason, it’s hard to stay focused today and I find my thoughts continually drifting West. When I hear people complain about the snow here, I smile and nod. I understand that in can be a nuisance. It makes our cars dirty and it’s impossible to get the Christmas lights off the house. (I promise I’m trying…sort of.) It slows things down – you can’t drive as fast, stop as fast, get to where you are going as fast, or get ready to leave as fast because of the layers you have to dress in. But that’s another reason I love the snow. It slows me down.

And when I slow down, I remember things. Namely, I remember Camber wrestling with this feeling when we first moved here. I learned much from her watching her deal with moving. Last semester I had one of those moments that I’m convinced God orchestrated for my benefit. Cammy walks into the living room, plops down besides me looking down. I asked ‘You okay?”

She passionately told me that she loved her new school, her new friends, her new church, her new house and if only she could get new siblings to go with it, her life would be perfect. As it stood – it was not going to be perfect until they all moved out. I thought to myself – if we’re lucky they’ll all move out. “You think they might just feel the same way at times?”

She looked at me like I was from Mars. And I asked her at the risk of it blowing up in my face – so you don’t miss Colorado anymore?

“Oh no. There are days I do but there’s room for more than one favorite in your heart, isn’t there?”

I sat dumbfounded at the depth and wisdom of my quirky, funny, off-the-wall middle child. “Yes, Camber. You are absolutely right.”

So later today, I’ll be fine and I’ll see Camber and she’ll make me laugh.

But for a few moments this morning, I wish I could see Pike’s Peak.

So the first post really didn’t have the comments I was hoping for – which is okay because that just means I’ll make the decision. Since I’m always right about things concerning the NFL, this is better anyway.

NFC.

Wildcard Weekend:
Panthers vs. Rams
Rams win this contest going away. Rams just suck and there really isn’t much hope on the horizon because as good as Suh is, he can’t block, run, throw, kick, and cover DB’s.

Seahawks vs. Bucs
This game went to OT. The Seahawks got a late game push to lose (win) this game by the hiring of Pete “What NCAA violations?” Carroll. How close was this game? The home city weather pattern and uniforms were the deciding factor – giving the Seahawks the win…which is really a loss. Confused yet? It’s harder to be a fan of the Seahawks than the Bucs and the Seahawks unis are just atrocious.

That sets us up for the Division weekend and the matchups look like this:

Divisional Weekend:
Redskins vs. Rams – another game in which Rams are heavily favored to win…which is really a loss.

Lions vs. Seahawks – Winner (which really is a loser) of this game might just be the favorite to represent the NFC in the Loser Bowl. Oh wait…I forgot about the Rams. Never mind. Slight edge to Lions but it will be another close one.

AFC

The cream of the crop – which is really the bottom of the barrel – is in the AFC.

Wildcard Weekend:
Chiefs vs. Jaguars
Chiefs win (really lose) this one easily. The Jags put a couple of players in the Pro Bowl, they have hope, and they have talent. The Chefs – (misspelled on purpose) not so much in the talent department. But their coaching got better…which is not really going to help either but that’s another story.

Broncos vs. Browns
As it normally is when these two teams meet, it was a back and forth affair. Holmgren and Cribbs made the difference. Or better said, McDaniels the Hun couldn’t work it out with his incredibly gifted and stud DC Mike Nolan who lifted that D from 31 to top 15 in one season with the same players!!! What the HECKKKKKK is going on — sorry, my journalistic integrity was interrupted for a second. Denver won (lost). Looking to compete with Raiders at this point.

Divisional Weekend:
Bills vs. Broncos
Another close game. Mike Geer will have plenty to say about this matchup. Will look to him for advice and insight as he is a Bills fan, I’m a Broncos fan. Hard sharp metal objects from us this week.

Raiders vs. Chiefs
Is there really any doubt who is going to win (which is really lose) this game?

Okay, both of you – let me hear your thoughts.

I completely stole this idea of the sermon series from Mark Batterson over at NCC. Here’s the trailer for the series we will start on February 21st. Come experience it with us.

Rick Stones said that if we got 20 comments on this post, he’ll sing a Gregorian Chant for us during the series.

Noah’s story is NOT a kids story. Every children’s bible I’ve ever seen has it in there with cute little pictures of bears, elephants, and giraffes. I’d love to know how many kid books have been written on Noah. It has to be the most retold story in scripture.

As I stated this past week, I’ve yet to see a kid’s story deal with the 3 core difficult pieces of this story. Who exactly were the sons of God? What does it mean that God grieved and was sorry he had made mankind? By destroying the entire human race (save Noah) and the land animals, Did God call into question His goodness?

The Flood can be interpreted in two very different ways. It was the reaction of an angry, hurt, disappointed God. That mankind deserved this and God wanted a do-over. Somehow the killing of all of those people and animals appeased him. The rainbow stands as his apology of sorts that He won’t ever do it again. Noah somehow was the best of the worst and was ’saved.’

Or maybe the Flood was just God bringing to the forefront the natural consequences of the choice humanity was making at that time. If the end game of all sin is death and something innocent dies with sin. If the utter reality of all sin is the ambushing of the human spirit and soul, God just brings the inevitable to the forefront with as little suffering as possible – relatively speaking. If every inclination was evil, death was the conclusion. The Ark then becomes a story of redemption.

How we view the story really hinges on how we view sin. Is it as bad as scriptures say it is or is just a flaw, a minor bother? Is sin really deadly or more of a nuisance?

Sherri was our artist for these pieces. Sherri has both learning and emotional disabilities that make expressing herself difficult. Art has given her a venue to show the rest of us what she sees and feels.

The story of Cain and Abel disturbs me on many levels.

The idea that sin is out to ambush Cain…on purpose…with no remorse…to destroy him…that’s disturbing enough. That’s reality though, a reality I’m afraid that so few of us take seriously. Sin’s end aim for humanity is to kill and destroy. I learned in the Army that ambushes weren’t designed to have survivors and the best way to deal with ambushes was to avoid them all together. It’s hard at times to see my sin in this light…but it is whether I believe to be true or not.

But God’s words to Cain that he MUST, he CAN master it are equally disturbing. I’m pretty sure Cain didn’t feel that way. I’m pretty sure I don’t feel that way at times. It doesn’t FEEL like we can MASTER it but it is MASTERING us. God’s formula of mastering it – ‘do what is right’ – sounds both so ridiculously simple and difficult. Just do it. Don’t do what you feel, do what you know is right.

There’s the not-so-secret formula for avoiding ambushes and spiritual transformation in general – do what is right in spite of how you feel. That was Cain’s downfall – and mine at times – he let his emotions win, not his mind. He felt downcast and rejected because his offering wasn’t accepted by God. It wasn’t accepted because he did not do what he knew was right. God gave him the chance to fix it. When Cain didn’t, Sin pounced. The pattern is there in my own life — the feelings trump the facts, God doesn’t get the last word and when God doesn’t get the last word, sin does and sin always kills something innocent.

The 7 hands (can you find them all?) depict the 7 deadly sins (can you name them all?). I like the idea of the hands. It’s our hands that carry out the directive…we put ‘hands’ to the thought. I think there is something deeper at work here as well – that is there are no faces. A face would make the sin more deadly and therefore harder to dismiss and rationalize. Without the face, we can blame others, diminish the seriousness, ignore the victims, fall into a false sense of security that maybe the deadly sins aren’t really deadly. They aren’t. It’s just easier to justify living with them without faces.

What is Cain looking at? His past? His future? Why is he even given the opportunity to look in the first place? Why did God spare his life? Was allowing him to live but outside the presence of God really ’sparing’ him? Sure Cain got to live but not really live – a wanderer, constant fighting with the land, the mark a constant reminder of his failure, not able to reconnect with the lover of his soul. It’s another layer of disturbing – God doesn’t avenge Abel. Grace wins again? Yet Cain’s banishment is the definition of hell – living outside the presence of God.

This Friday night (February 5) at Warehouse 414 (map, facebook), the entire Origins series will be displayed and auctioned with all proceeds going to Circle of Friends. As to how this all got started, you can read that story here.

The auction will start at 5.30 pm on Friday night but Warehouse 414 is going to extend the auction throughout the entire month of February. After Friday, the art will be back on display at Western Hills for our services on Sunday then back to Warehouse 414 on Monday for the rest of the month. On February 28, the auction will close and the paintings sold to the highest bidder.

There has been quite a buzz generating throughout the city about this. In fact, Warehouse 414 published the following article to their art followers:

Students involved in Circle of Friends were given a blank canvas and the opportunity to tell one of the stories of ORIGINS found in Genesis. All of the pieces are available for silent auction with all proceeds going to Circle of Friends at Washburn Rural High School. The following is an interview with Grant English lead pastor at Western Hills regarding this show:

The result of all of this? Stunning. Art has always inspired and provoked. With this project we also get to be a part of the healing.”

So if you are in Topeka this Friday night, come see me at Warehouse 414 and see these incredible pieces.

Last month we looked at Mark 10. This month, Mark 11:1-26.

These were some of the thoughts shared this morning…

The same people that sang praises and Hosannas would sing Crucify in 6 days. Easy to blame fickleness on culture but these people weren’t just ‘culture.’ They were ‘believers’ of a sort, believers that Messiah had come and the time was now. Their expectations obviously weren’t met, hence the rejection of Jesus later in the week but the temptation to ‘revolt’ when my expectation isn’t met is there for me as well. Sometimes…often times…it is a good thing my expectation isn’t met. In the words of C.S. Lewis – I dream too small at times.

Jesus’ first order of business after the hype was the Temple Courts, not Pilate. This had to be the ultimate failed expectation of the crowd – Jesus going to clear the Temple Courts instead of the governmental office, Pilate, and the army. The Temple was home of worship, ‘good’ leaders, ‘moral’ leaders, their only sacred space in a world that had been taken over by the Romans. Why pick on the Temple leaders? Revolution was going to be different, not political or exterior but interior, spiritual, deeper, more dangerous than just kicking out Rome.

Jesus knew what he was going to do but waited one night before He did it. He curses the fig tree (more on that later) then goes to the Temple, sees that it was late and decided to come back in the morning. So Jesus whipping the Temple Courts into shape wasn’t a reactionary moment but a planned, thoughtfully bold move to rebuke and teach.

The cursing of the fig tree was visible reminder to the disciples of what is expected of them as leaders. Produce fruit. Doesn’t matter that the tree was in season or not, it was supposed to have shown some kind of hope to bear fruit. The Pharisees are linked to this tree – looks aren’t important – fruit is. The only way to produce fruit is to stay connected to the vine.

Faith and forgiveness are linked…somehow. Why does Jesus link his teaching on faith that moved mountains to forgiveness? What is the connection? Do our prayers lack power not so much because we lack faith but because we haven’t practiced forgiveness? As leaders, we will constantly deal with people failing to meet our expectations as well as us failing to meet theirs. Only way that situation is redeemable and fruit can be made in the middle of it is we have a culture of forgiveness. Maybe my prayer as a leader lacks power because I haven’t let go of some ‘injustice’ or failed expectation.

There is a time to be thoughtfully bold. Jesus moved boldy but not recklessly. It was a calculated risk. There was no other action he could have done to better communicate the kind of revolution he was really starting – one of the heart, not of policy. There was no better course of action to completely and utterly shatter the expectations of those following. Three things that strike me about clearing the Temple Courts. First, it was timely. Start of Passover Week, high crowds, high teaching moment. Second, it was bold.

But those two alone aren’t enough. It was morally right. That’s the key – it was the right thing to do, knocking down unnecessary barriers for those to get to God.

Loving this journey with the crew.

I gotta be honest…Kurt Warner’s retirement bums me out a bit. He has played outstanding football the last two years, resurrected his career again in Arizona, and once again took a laughable franchise and made them formidable. You know the numbers right? 1 Ring, 3 Super Bowls, 2 MVPs, top three passing yards games in Super Bowl history.

Did you know that he and has family have a tradition that when they go out to eat, they pick out another family in the restaurant and pay for their meal? True story – his family was eating out during Super Bowl week last year and they picked this family, paid for their meal. Soon afterward, a very large black man came over to Kurt and said “I can’t believe you’ve done this. You are so gracious. I really look forward to playing you on Sunday.” He was a player on the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The point I’m trying to make is this – it’s not just about the system, people matter. Can you imagine the state of the Arizona Cardinals without Warner? Leinart running that same team is a complete disaster. The Cardinals become the Seahawks without Warner and unless something major happens between now and the draft – like say McNabb moving in – the Cardinals can enjoy the bottom of the NFC West again.

And Warner did this with two franchises – made them better because he was there. There is a certain coach in Denver that I hope gets this — the system will only be as good as the players in it. And the same is true for any organization. The system is only as good as the people.

I’ll miss Kurt. He was one heck of a competitor.

Christian popular culture is like a reflection of regular pop culture through a funhouse mirror. In Christian-World, Kirk Cameron is a huge star, Jars of Clay is a hot music group, and sending money to strangers who browbeat you on TV is a rational decision. From G4tv.com.

So starts the review of a new video game coming out this year – “Left Behind.” Generally, I’m a positive person and enjoy sarcasm and the well placed barb with the best of them. For some reason this morning, this all hit me wrong…on multiple levels.

I was offended by the writer. I wondered if he had ever read C.S. Lewis, Donald Miller, or a host of other writers who are creative, thoughtful, insightful, and funny. I wondered if he was just as guilty as the “Christian sub-culture” – staying inside his particular world, never straying outside it to give the other side a fighting chance. I wondered if he had ever even met a real, thoughtful, Christ-follower.

But more than those feelings, there was another set rising in me. Why release a cheap, less than excellent video game? Why make corny, cheeseball movies that make everyone feel awkward and think they are watching a middle school production? Why scream and holler and generally make stupid comments of how God hates people? Why do all of these things then blame Jesus for it? And we tolerate it – we meaning the Christ-following subculture.

The gentleman at G4tv.com closed his article with this:
I’m not mocking Christians, the Bible, or Jesus. I’m poking fun at the man made junk that surrounds Christianity. The terrible cartoons, bad movies, half-***ed video games and obvious hucksterism is funny, no matter who you worship. … I wish Christians were being served with Art that is as great and formidable as their religion. With the exception of Mel Gibson films, the Christian entertainment I’ve seen is simplistic drivel.

I agree with him. The man-made junk that surrounds Christianity – I think Jesus’ reaction in the Temple gives a clear picture as to his opinion on the matter. I too desire Art that is as great and formidable as our faith. I’m hopeful the tide is turning – The Blind Side, The Book of Eli, and How To Save A Life all are movies that I think are great and formidable.

For years this was true – the masterpieces of Art that hang in museums around the world were done by people who loved God or were commissioned by the Church to paint them. In a world that valued military conquest and intellectualism, the Church for centuries was the only place that protected and elevated the arts.

I hope we’ve done this at Western Hills through this series. That wasn’t the goal…the goal was to create an experience for people to connect with God. I think ‘great and formidable’ art does this. I think it stretches us, demands more from us. I think it can take us to these thin places where God is easier to connect with.

I think if we – Christ-followers – would continue to uphold and demand this kind of art, Jesus would be easier to find. And the man-made junk that surrounds him would be easier to dismiss.

Not sure why this hit me this morning…but here’s my list. Over the next few posts we’ll play this out just like the NFL Playoffs. What makes a team hard to be a fan for? Win-loss record is part of it. Overall direction and stability of the team, sizzle factor. Example – Carolina Panthers have great stability and that might be the problem plus there is no sizzle on that team. Nothing that makes you want to watch them for 3 hours.

I’ll start with the NFC.

Division Winners:
NFC East: Redskins – no contest in this division.
NFC West: Rams – close call with the Seahawks but Rams beat them out.
NFC North: Lions – obvious call but Bear fans MIGHT have legit shot at this next year.
NFC South: Bucs – tightest race with Panthers in the running.

Wildcard Teams: Panthers, Seahawks

Wildcard Weekend:
Panthers vs. Rams
Seahawks vs. Bucs

Commentary
You can make your vote in the comments but some things to consider in the Rams/Panthers matchup. Rams have new coach, new lifeblood and opportunity to get better faster. Do the fans of the Rams buy it? Are the fans of Panthers fed up with the Fox way? I’m leaning towards that it is harder to be a Panther fan than a Ram fan. So I’d vote for Carolina.

Seahawks/Bucs – new coach vs. new QB? Seahawk fans are generally more depressed than Tampa fans due to weather. If Seahawks tank a season, not a lot to look forward to as opposed to Tampa.

AFC

Division Winners:
AFC East: Bills – and the latest hire really didn’t help.
AFC West: Raiders – I mean really…was there any doubt?
AFC North: Browns – they command this division, which is hard to do seeing that Cincy is in here as well.
AFC South: Jaguars – I thought about putting the whole city of Houston here. Which team do you root for – Texans or former Oilers/Titans? Texans for not getting in playoffs but so close? Titans and the drama at QB? Jags and their complete lack of a QB and creative game plan? Ultimately, Jags won the division by the slimmest of margins.

Wildcard Teams: Chiefs, Broncos
It’s no contest that right now if you are an AFC West fan, it pretty much sucks. Chargers pull their post-season chokefest. (And when you can explain why Norv got an extension for going 13-3 and losing in playoffs and Marty got fired for going 14-2 and losing – let me know.) The Chiefs…well, they’re the Chiefs. And the Broncos have put in McDaniels the Hun at coach.

Wildcard Weekend
Chiefs vs. Jaguars
Broncos vs. Browns

Commentary
I’m seeing an AFC West sweep this weekend. Jags are historically pretty solid and if they do draft Tebow this year, the fan base will go nuts. The Browns have some winning, have Holmgren, and have Cribbs. Basically…they have hope. The Chiefs are looking better with new Coordinators hires. Broncos are tanking. 2-8 to finish season, Cutler, Marshall, fired Mike Nolan, Scheffler, lost Dennison and Turner to Redskins…I could go on. Time to find sharp metal object.

Put your comments and votes to good use here. We’ll play through the weekend and then move to the Divisional Round.