a child's worldview

a few years ago i had the opportunity to spend a week in a seminar at yale university with one of the most renowned christian anthropologists of our day. the experience was one of those that will forever change how i see life and missions. one of the myriad things i learned from dr. whiteman was that most of us form our view of life (worldview) and reality by the time we are five years old. unless something dramatic takes place in our lives,  like a personal encounter with christ, this understanding of life will guide us till the day we die.  if a child feels loved and important, the adult will feel the same way; if a child feels abandoned and isolated, the adult will too. if a child feels like the world is his/her oyster, the adult will to; if the child feels grateful, the adult will also feel grateful.

ever since my children were very little we have always done service/mission projects as a family. everything from kidzrap to the rock creek 10K to partnering with an inner city church. 

this past week our family took our first foreign mission trip.  we traveled 6,000 miles to florianópolis, brazil. gavin (our 5 yr old) carried school supplies his class has collected. gavin and zane (our 9 yr old) handed out the supplies to kids in the slums of frei damião. the boys were amazed at how excited the kids were about getting a ziplock bag with an eraser, two pencils and a few crayons. zane commented on how these kids were as excited about these school supplies as he would be if we got him a wii game. 

 

zane and gavin may not fully understand the magnitude of the impact they had on the kids of frei damião; mom and dad may not either. however, all four of us returned to the usa thankful that we could again drink out of water fountains and say "hi" instead of "oi." in gavin's case he was excited to find urinals that didn't hit him in the chest!

this afternoon our family heads for kidzrap ... another chance to make a difference ... another reminder to be grateful for the little things in life.

Dear God ...

it was a typical school day ... boys up at 6:00 in order to play ... cuddle time with mommy at 6:45 ... baths ... dad prepares and serves breakfast ... dad makes zane's lunch ... boys eat breakfast as they watch cartoons ... mom reads the newspaper as she drinks her coffee.  dad, the clock nazi, announces it is time to pray and leave for school. mommy puts down her newspaper, zane mutes the tv, gavin gets on his knees, bows his head and puts his hands together.   

dad begins to pray ... "help the boys in school ..." as i pray, gavin walks over to me and whispers in my ear: "you forgot to say 'dear god.'" he walks back to his position and as he walks i begin again, "dear god ..."  i wrap up the prayer with a solid "amen" and, as i look up, there is gavin looking at me ... a smile on his face, a thumbs up sign, an approving nod  and a wink for a dad who sometimes lets his schedule get in the way of his relationship with god.

Trip to Ukraine

This was my first trip behind the old "iron curtain." It was also the first time in recent years that I have been in a place where I did not speak the language, recognize the alphabet nor understand the culture. what I got to do was experience first hand what others experience when they travel with me to countries they have never visited before.

Needless to say I took hundreds of photos. I was intrigued by the architecture, the food, the transportation, and the way in which people never make eye contact with you unless they know you.

You always take your shoes off when entering a home; none of the churches have bathrooms in them and you give an odd number of flowers if it is a happy occasion and an even number if it is a sad occasion.  In the course of 5 days I ate more dumplings than I have eaten in all my life. We stayed in the homes of some incredibly gracious and hospitable families. 

The history of the Ukraine is stained with blood. I was shocked by the millions of people who were starved to death or sent to the front lines with one weapon for three soldiers. The people of the Ukraine have been through so much because of their strategic location and vast natural resources. They are a people who have suffered much.

I believe that part of the success of the churches I visited has to do with the Ukrainian's history of suffering.  Suffering is a given for them. To sacrifice for Christ only makes sense.

One church of 300 members in the city of Vinnitsa ( a city of 400,000 about 4 hours south of Kiev) has a vision of starting 3 new churches a year. The pastor, Vladimir, believes that for every 100 members a church has it should start one new church a year. As evidence of this Vladimir has 30 missionaries who go out each weekend to oversee churches they have started. 

We met with these 30 missionaries. I listened to their stories and then dialogued with them about missions strategy.  They were very receptive and had a lot of questions. What amazed me was the sacrifices they were making on a regular basis. Not once did I hear a complaint about "sacrificing"their weekends. For them, imagine this, missions was a privilege not a sacrifice!!!!

Is it any wonder that God is at work in the Ukraine? Imagine what it would be like if a church of 5000 determined that they should start one church for each 100 members? What if we believed that to follow Christ is to sacrifice? I wonder what impact that would have on our world?

from the mouths of children ... Psalm 8:2

i expect god to speak to me through the people who are a part of my life ... i have seen it time and time again ... my wife, lana, is one of god's favorite spokesmen.  another is my 5-year-old son gavin.

the other night i was putting gavin and his 9-year-old brother zane to bed. i was asking them how their day went: did they make anyone smile? did anyone hurt their feelings? did god say anything to them?  gavin leaned over on my chest and tapped my cheek with his finger and said, "dad, can i tell you something?"  anytime gavin starts a conversation with this phrase i get ready to hear from god.  so gavin said, "dad, did you know that we don't always get what we pray for?" he then says, " but god always gives us what is best for us!"  next he sits up, begins to wave his hands and says, "that's scary!!!"

as a father i felt like all my prayers and family devotions were paying dividends! amazing how a little 5-year-old was able to understand what so many adults will never understand:  that god can be trusted even though it can be a "scary" experience to do so.

i know from personal experience that it is "scary" to trust god. i also know that it is even more "scary" to not trust him. gavin and i are banking our lives on the fact that "god always gives us what is best for us!"  what about you?  

  

A Piece of the Puzzle

 i was at my sister's house over labor day weekend eating my brother-in-law's famous smoked ribs. my sister loves to put puzzles together. on her dining room table she had set out the pieces for a 2000-piece puzzle. i could see how she had started by putting the "edge" pieces together. she would randomly place loose pieces in the middle of the puzzle. these pieces were not connected to any other pieces ... they were just there waiting for another piece that would fit.

what i found interesting about this was that my sister did not spend much time trying to find out exactly where that piece should go. in time she knew she would find the place for this piece.

when it comes to god's will this approach can save us a lot of heart ache. as you seek god's will pieces of the puzzle will surface from time to time. you know god is trying to tell you something; you just don't know what. you get anxious and immediately try to figure out what he is trying to tell you.

a better approach would be to place this piece of the puzzle on the table and continue to work on the edges. in time you will discover where this piece goes. for the time being focus on the edges.

bible study olympics

"Phelps lends a new spin to the phrase "Breakfast of Champions" by starting off his day by eating three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise.

He follows that up with two cups of coffee, a five-egg omelet, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar and three chocolate-chip pancakes."

this is the first of three 4000 calorie meals michael phelps ate daily in order to keep his energy levels high during the olympics. understandable considering he swam 17 times over 9 days of competition.

believe it or not, this got me thinking about how we read the bible ... i know i'm nuts ... always have been; always wiill be.  anyway, every so often i hear someone complain that they are not being fed enough at their church. what they mean is that the preacher is not getting deep enough in to the bible. my first thought when i hear someone say this is, "what are you doing with the bible 'scoop' you are getting?"  

people tend to forget that bible study is not an end in itself; it is preparation for impact...for making a difference ... for joining god on mission.

my point is this:  if you want 12000 calories of bible, you better be ready to join god at whatever pace it takes to burn those calories.

do you study or live christianity?

i came across this quote from soren kierkegaard that speaks volumes to the state of american christianity:

the matter is quite simple. the bible is very easy to understand. but we christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. we pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. take any words in the new testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. my god, you will say, if i do that my whole life will be ruined. how would i ever get on in the world? herein lies the real place of christian scholarship. christian scholarship is the church's prodigious invention to defend itself against the bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good christians without the bible coming too close. oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living god. yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the new testament.