The Incorruptible Hero

I just watched the final Harry Potter film this week. I'm not going to lie, it was a really exciting movie. Well written and well cast for sure. There have been positive things have come out of the Harry Potter moral arena, and we would be ridiculous to ignore them.
Harry being the hero already catches audiences attention as to his moral character, the decisions he makes, and the presence of his morality within those decisions. Any contradiction herein bellows cries of hypocrisy and the established hero becomes more ordinary and fallible. This is not to say that in order to be a hero one must first be infallible but rather that the audience already has preconceived notions about what a hero is, his nobility, his daring, his loyalty, his dedication, and his sacrifice all must remain intact for him to truly maintain his status as hero.
Potter does not always make the right decision. He doesn't always say the right thing. This makes a connection with the audience on a more human level, a sympathetic level. This leaves viewers in a cliffhanger mode hoping that their hero will triumph over evil and personal flaws. All to find out that much of the evil living inside himself is a living responsibility of the evil dark lord he is fighting, Voldemort. Again, very exciting and catchy.
Finally in order to rid himself of his evil he must face his fate straight on and accept the consequence of having been raised for this purpose. A purpose that can only be fulfilled upon his death. Harry had to die to himself and to the world of evil in order to survive this ordeal.
It is only at this point where his truly incorruptible character gives him truer life apart from the evil inside of him. His victory also brings him the most powerful weapon in his world, the elder wand. This he proves his character by destroying.
We as Christians can only find the truest of life at the moment of our deaths, both to ourselves and to this world. Once we die to self we can truly, genuinely become the Followers of Jesus that we were made to be. And upon our death bed when this body of sin is finally destroyed we are then perfectly separated from the evil inside us. The evil of this world and the evil within are dealt with by Jesus alone, and can be found through Him alone. No magic, no religion, no opinion, no law, and no weapon can do this for us.
So really, our truest incorruptible hero is Jesus.
"Oh what a miserable man I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Chist out Lord." Romans 7:24-25a.
Sorry Harry, even in death we cannot escape the evil inside us without Jesus.

Slow Down

Lately it seems like there's no time to slow down. No time to sleep. No time to fuel my relationship with God let alone take time for my family. Just...no time. It's funny when I stop and think about the fact that God is outside of time. He isn't bound by the same rules, the same time constraints, or windows of opportunity. I wonder if that's why He always has a plan, and it always works out. Hmm...funny how that kind of works. If you're reading this then it was part of the life God planned for you. Give this a shot: Just stop and give God a minute or two and see what He tells you. You'll be surprised how massive He can impact you in just a short time. Give it up!

Longest Year

Exactly one year ago today my boys were born. I have a been a proud father, homeowner, and minivan driver for over a year now, and let me tell you that life can't get a whole lot more interesting. I never thought I'd be where I am today at the ripe old age of 23 but here I am awaiting the next big thing.
Today we are celebrating the boys' birthday with all the family that can make it. Somehow I have to accommodate nearly 20 people in and around our house. It's going to be hectic, but it was worth it. My boys are so AWESOME. Avery is the older and Micah the younger but believe me when I say there is no shortage of competition between the two of them for anything. It could be a random toy or time on my lap, they'll squabble. I'm pretty sure this will last for the rest of their lives.
Wow it seems like I don't have a lot to say about the longest year of my life. Well, I guess that's because I like things short, sweet, and straight to the point.

My first REAL Date

Well, it was a great many moons ago now. Charity and I had been group dating a few times and I was brave enough to orchestrate a real date in which we met up in Mount Pleasant, MI watched a movie, and had dinner. Little did we know this would turn out to be the only thing we would call "dating" for the next 8 years of our relationship. I believe the film we wanted to see was going to start too late and I had to be back in town to be Jesus in our Easter Cantata practice. So we sat on the side of the road and made fun of the funny people walking by in the college town, which made us look more like hicks than anything else. Well, time came to pass and we were hungry so we took our extra money from not having watched a movie and went out to the Red Lobster. This too was the beginning of a beautiful trend of habits for us and our dating lives. I ordered one of my old fav's the fried shrimp combo with a double portion of the fried shrimp. Charity on the other hand had a full order of the shrimp linguine alfredo. I couldn't finish my meal, but to my surprise Charity put that alfredo away like it was water and she'd been walking in the desert for a week. This did not bother me, but like I said it was the beginning of long line of repeated favorite dates and she has yet to stop surprising me.

The Chase

Last night I dreamed of being chased. I wasn't quite sure what I was running from but I knew it when I saw it. I noticed a few different things while in this dream. The world was enslaved by fear. Everything they did was under strict control of what was chasing me. They knew me when they saw me, and yet they functioned as if I had nothing to do with them. Occasionally the dream would shift and I would try to perform my normal pastoral activities like having youth group or youth events in the area, but these were all under close watch and we were all careful about what was chasing us. We were careful in the sense that we were aware, but the chaser didn't come anywhere near our youth group. Instead it sent people who were still under his control, the slaves, to try to disrupt what we were trying to accomplish. Long story short the chaser caught me trying to get someone from among his slaves and soon I found myself fleeing for my life because I knew the truth. Right before I awoke I dove behind some brush to hide myself from the people searching the house I had ducked into. I no idea where I was running to, but like I said I was being chased because I knew the truth.

The Failure Weapon

How often do we feel like failures? How often should we feel like failures? Is there ever an appropriate time to indulge in failure? The truth about failure is that we have this insatiable desire to be successful. For pastors like myself success is full of pressures. The pressure to convert millions of people, the pressure to fill seats on Sunday morning, the pressure to produce messages that will make people want to stand and applaud upon its conclusion. So the real question is not should we ever feel like failures when we have obviously failed to measure up, but should we redefine the ideaology of success?

Failure and success though antonyms by nature march hand in hand as a weapon of the enemy. Neither should be a problem for Christians, and yet we daily, moment by moment, measure ourselves by some misguided sense of success and failure. Most of our encounters with failure seem to revolve around our goals. Sometimes we don't even realize that a goal exists in our hearts until we missed it and we are stricken by the failure seizure.

The realization of failure is like an epileptic episode where the individual it seems is frozen in time. Now endowed with the innate ability to perceive the past with crystal clear vision, the consequences that are so often associated with failure also start to come into view. This moment of suspended animation is a moment of complete terror longing for the chance to make it up and change the past in order to avoid the defeat and disappointement to come. Painful as it is, the failure seizure passes when reality strikes, goals are lost, and despair attacks full force. Failure is a weapon that the enemy uses to try to diminish self worth, and without self worth the indiviual is blinded from his or her purpose for living.

What we need to remember is that God knows we have already failed, it's how we were born. He also knows what needs to be done in order for us to defeat failure. So instead of us needing to be successful, He just takes all of our self worth, our goals, our dreams and puts them on his shoulders. He then holds out his hand and asks us if we would like him to carry our burdens. If we are ready to admit that we are failures He's ready to show us how to succeed.

My wife, the Pastor

All to often people assume that the man who is called to ministry is the bearer of the calling and his wife is called in accordance to his calling to be his wife and minister at his side, etc. I have in the last been challenged multiple times with multiple pieces of supporting scripture in this individual's argument that women are not to be in the position of "senior pastor", which would put her as head of the ministries in that church and thus head of the men. This initially appears to be contradictory to scripture and has caused enough ruffles in feathers to actually create animosity between God's people. This is an internal conflict which are the most dangerous to the cause of the church in general.
I was so bothered by this "cornering" as it were, that I began to pray about the subject with no certainty that the answer would come quickly. There was an unrest in my spirit about he whole matter. I thought to myself,"God has not separated us in eyes as children, so why am I supposed to separate us in ministry?". Keep in mind that this was a friendly debate strung out over the summer months with one gentleman in our breakfast church conversation time, but he's not the only one who holds the same opinion about the matter that attends our church.
The conclusion of the matter as it stood in our time of debate was that the scriptures clearly state that Christ is the head of man, man is the head of his house thus over woman, and that this was the order that God had intended since the Garden of Eden events.
I was then faced with the question, "What if God called my wife somewhere and not me?" Is this a matter of her misunderstanding her place? Am I at fault for not listening better to God? Neither of these questions is going to generate a "fair" answer that will not fall in favor of both sides without one or the other submitting. Does God really intend to generate favor unequally in our marriage? Is he trying to teach one of us a lesson of humility? This is all possible, but let me share what I feel consistent prayer over a long period of time (at least long for me) has produced.
We were driving through White Cloud, MI during fall of last year. The debate had recently rared its ugly head once again the Sunday prior to this trip, and once again my spirit was so uneasy about the conclusion drawn from the very scripture I read that I was beginning to question whether or not I was being influenced for evil rather than good. Up until this point I had been acknowledging the uneasiness but not acting upon it, just in case it was not from God.
During this first half of the trip the conversation with my wife occurred and we had began to analyze everything we could consider from the scriptures and also from our personal experience with our callings and how God has always given us identical or cohesive callings. I was at my whits end, and ready to conclude that we needed to adhere to this teaching. My heart was so uneasy about that decision. I had no peace, literally.
Suddenly it came to me like a warming adrenaline rush moving faster than my brain had time to process. It occurred to me that we both work for the same God. We both answer to him on equal levels. We both are held to the same standards and requirements. So our only real difference is gender. Therefore we are the same creation answering to the same Creator, the same master. If he should call one, what position in the order of creation do any of us hold to question the will of the Creator? So is God contradicting himself by calling women into leadership and senior pastoral ministry? Do women have it all wrong, and can they be held responsible for this misunderstanding?
"One of you will say to me: 'Then why does God still blame us? For who can resist his will?' But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? 'Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?" Does no the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?'"
I am no one to question the call of God on someone's life. If it is a man or woman. I cannot question my Creator, it is contrary to scripture.