All In

As I was watching the Super Bowl pre-game show, ESPN America ran a feature on the New York Giants and the team’s motivation toward the end of the season.

The story goes a little something like this: after 14 games, the Giants were 7-7 and in serious danger of not making the playoffs.  The team chaplain asked a personal friend to come and speak with the team, hoping to provide motivation for the challenge ahead.

The speaker chosen used a poker metaphor to inspire the Giants.  In certain forms of poker, known as “no-limit”, players can push all of their chips to the center of the table and say, “All in.”  This means the player is betting everything they have on the hand they currently possess.  If anybody beats the hand, that player loses everything, with no way of regaining it.  But, if nobody beats the hand, the reward is often quite high.

Poker Chips // Creative Commons, Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28757002@N03/

To illustrate this, the speaker gave each of the New York Giant football players a poker chip, encouraging them to be “all in”, to give everything they had to the team’s cause: winning football games.

Since then, the Giants have not lost.  And the won the Super Bowl a few days ago.

Now I don’t know everything that this speaker said at Giants’ team chapel.  The editing ESPN had done painted this as nothing other than a motivational speech, but it struck me that this metaphor could be unfolded greatly to connect to faith.

Firstly, the team aspect is an easy connect to the Body of Christ.  If you have one poker chip, that’s not going to get you very far.  But every individual on the team had a poker chip and that adds up.  Pushing 53 chips into the center of the table and saying “all in” is far more formidable than pushing one chip into the center.  So it is with the Body of Christ.  Not being alone, working together with fellow members of the Body makes our journey more enjoyable and likely to succeed.

But more than that, the ultimate example of being all in can only be God sending Jesus into our world to die for our sins.  It’s pretty much impossible to find a comparison for God’s commitment to saving His creation. The sacrifice Jesus makes in becoming human, being mocked, scorned and beaten, then dying is staggering.  And Jesus does all this for the billions of sinful human beings who cannot love God and neighbor as they should.  He doesn’t die only for the good, the righteous, the rich, or the strong.  Jesus dies for sinners, for the detestable, for sinners, for the poor and meek.

The New York Giants were able to win a handful of football games inspired by being all in.  But they were all in for themselves and perhaps their fans.  But in winning, what did they accomplish?  They made Giants fans happy and crushed the dreams of Patriot fans.  And despite what some may say, the Patriots are not evil incarnate.

God’s decision to be all in is far more powerful, far more remarkable, and far more memorable.  God changes everything by being all in.  The Giants just won a football game.

Ice Skating and Humility

Most people would probably look at me and say I’m rather adventurous.  I’ve lived in three countries, visited a dozen, and I tend to enjoy the unknown.

The fact that I am from Minnesota, the state of hockey, the land of 10,000 frozen lakes and plenty of snow  would perhaps lead you to believe I grew up driving a snowmobile in ice skates, with a hockey stick in hand.

Well, no.  I didn’t.  Before last Sunday, I had never once attempted ice skating, downhill skiing, snowboarding, or bobsledding.  I’ve also never driven a snowmobile.

I kind of wonder how this happened.

Last Sunday, the youth group at Trinity went on an ice skating event and I was the only one who had never attempted skating before.  Me, the guy who has fished on frozen lakes and wears a Minnesota Wild hat everywhere.

It was an interesting ice arena.  Home to the Löwen Frankfurt hockey team, the ice arena allowed skaters to use the actual rink where the professional team plays as well as a large outside track and two smaller rinks connected to the outside track.  

It was a busy day with many skilled skaters swooping in and out of the slower skaters.  I could tell that I was not the only beginner.  At first I stayed inside, just trying to figure out how to move without losing my balance.  I stayed close to the wall, trying not to make a fool of myself by falling in a heap on the ice.  Looking around didn’t help.  I realized that there were second graders skating faster backwards than I’d ever be able to skate forwards.

The youth kept encouraging me to go outside…but there was no wall outside, exponentially increasing the chances of Andy lying on the ice, unable to stand up.  But the youth were merciful, and one deigned to hold my hand, making sure I wouldn’t break any bones attempting to navigate the 200 meter circle of ice.  Near the end of the first lap, I was ready to stop and take some pictures.  I found myself thinking: How embarrassed should I be by all this?

We reached a reasonable exit point and I said thank you to my skating guide and the reply that came back really got me thinking: “You’re welcome.  It was actually pretty satisfying.”

Satisfying!  What kind of youth would find satisfaction in my humility?

But that is kind of how Jesus works, isn’t it?  When we think about Jesus, I think most of us picture him as he was on earth, healing the seek, preaching the good news, suffering, dying, and rising again.  If we do think about Jesus from a heavenly perspective, it’s often post-ascension, after his earthly life.  But Jesus had to leave that heavenly life to come to earth.  Jesus took on human form.  How humiliating is that?  Can anything compare?  It’s like Emeril Lagasse choosing to cook at McDonalds or JK Rowling writing for a small town newspaper only far more humbling.

In coming to earth, Jesus humbled himself beyond what we can imagine.  Why?  For us.  Because we needed saving.  To gift us with the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

Humbling yourself isn’t a bad thing.  I mean, can you imagine how boring I’d seem if I had sat in the bleachers reading a book instead of skating with the youth?  I don’t think many of them would look forward to the next youth event if that were the case.

Jesus’ example of humility is one that we can never touch.  It’s beyond how far we can humble ourselves.  But we can serve with humbleness, allowing others to take us by the hand and guide us when we are incapable of succeeded without that helpful hand.

Try not to shy away from things you can’t do on your own.  I mean think about how you feel when you get to truly help somebody who needs help.  It feels rewarding.  It makes a person feel like they are valuable.  Why take that away from a person who can help you?

Christmas in Germany

My writing has led me to a lot of other places recently.  While I am slowly working toward finishing my most recent novel, much of December has been spent writing for Faith and Geekery.

It’s a website that has really been a God-send for me.  Much of my former work was spent connecting God’s Word and the Christian faith to modern culture.  Most of the connections I made were to TV shows and movies.  I continue to do that for Faith and Geekery and while I wrote a good number of ideas connecting Christmas movies to Jesus, I have failed to explain what Christmas is like here in Germany.  It is quite a bit different.

Christmas in Germany is defined by the Christmas Markets.  I think we visited seven of them this year.  Each one a little different and each town and village has one.  We visited Frankfurt’s which was very large, very crowded and lasted for a solid month.  We also visited Stierstadt’s, our own little village, which was small, sparse and lasted for two whole days.

Christmas Markets always involve food, hot drinks and Christmas decorations.  Every Christmas Market will have gluhwein, a spiced wine served hot.  Some of the more popular markets also have feuerzangenbowle, a similar drink to gluhwein except that it it involves rum, sugar and fire.

And of course there are brats and potatoes and chocolate covered fruit and pretzels.  Some markets have carnival rides, most have giant Christmas trees and pretty lights. Decorations are a bit different too.  In the states, most Advent Wreathes are three blue candles with one pink candle or three purple candles with one pink candle.  Here in Germany the colors are always the same: four red or four white or four orange or four purple.  There is never an offset color for the third week of Advent.

The Sternschnuppenmarkt. Otherwise known as the shooting or twinkling stars market in Wiesbaden.

While all of that was very pleasant, the thing that surprised me most was how many German families decorate their Christmas trees.  They use real, actual candles, lit aflame on Christmas Eve at the very least.  Families don’t leave the room when the candles are lit and most keep a bucket of water right next to the tree, but I honestly couldn’t believe this still was a real thing.

Also, most families don’t put a star or an angel on top of the Christmas tree.  Many people have fancy stars that they hang in their windows, which are quite pretty, but the tops of trees are often bare, at least on the trees I observed.

National Novel Writing Month

November was a really busy month for Stephanie and me.  I led a lock-in the first weekend while Stephanie traveled to Paris for work.  During the second weekend, we both had extended music rehearsals, handbells for Stephanie, choir for me.  We both had the opportunity to go to Sopron, Hungary for a missionary gathering on the third weekend.  I mostly just enjoyed the conversations about ministry and evangelism, but Stephanie had a number of presentations to give about photography, newsletters, and web sites such as the Eurasia Blog.  And with the fourth weekend came Thanksgiving celebrations and the beginning of Advent, a busy time at church.

Oh yeah, and I wrote a novel.

I can’t rightly call it finished yet, but this is the third time in four years that I’ve participated in National Novel Writing Month (known to many as NaNoWriMo).  Each November, thousands of people set out on the quest that is novel writing.  The rules are simple: write 50,000 words in 30 days. And that’s just what I did.  

In 2008 and 2009, I participated in NaNoWriMo writing stories that were completely fictional with little inspiration from other works.  I simply had an idea and started writing.  The editing of those two novels has been slow and that was part of the reason I didn’t participate in 2010.

This year, my story was inspired by C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters, a story told from the perspective of an experienced demon (Screwtape) writing words of advice to a less experienced demon (his nephew Wormwood) through a series of letters.  Lewis puts forth some very thought-provoking material on how demons tempt us, what they focus on, and how they succeed.

What I found when I read Screwtape Letters was that it seemed to me to be less of a story and more of a commentary on general society.  Not to take anything away from Lewis, who I find to be extremely brilliant, but the man being tempted in the story could have been anybody.  He was not really unique in any way.

I also have always wanted to hear Wormwood’s side of the story.  Was he whiny and ungrateful?  Was he humble or arrogant?  What were his thoughts on tempting?

And so, in my story I wrote a modernized version of Screwtape Letters that seeks to tell more of the story of a specific man and includes both letters from the experienced demon and the inexperienced demon.

Oh, and the demons have upgraded to email.

I crossed the 50,000 word mark yesterday, which just happens to be C.S Lewis’s birthday, which I think is pretty interesting.

Here is a selection of what I’ve been working on.  In this letter Argasid (the more experienced demon) teaches Culex (the less experienced demon) about warping and twisting the words of the Bible into lies, much like Satan does when he tempts Jesus in Matthew 4.  Enjoy and feel free to let me know your thoughts.

Dear Culex,

Of course the Enemy Incarnate resisted our great Father because he understood the whole of the Enemy’s book.  Every normal human will not have such knowledge.  With them, you can twist the Enemy’s words from something that was meant to comfort into something that condemns.  It all merely depends on the focus.  This can be done with every verse, even the most popular.

For example, the most beloved quote of followers of the Enemy is as follows:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

At first glance, dreadfully full of what the Enemy calls “grace”, but when warped and twisted, it can become a condemnation.

One must focus on this reality: if humans had not sinned, the Enemy would not have needed to send the Enemy Incarnate into the world to die and rise again.

This verse, though filled with abominable grace, can still coax guilt out of humans.  Whisper to them the following helpful reminders:

I am a sinner.
If I were not a sinner, Jesus wouldn’t have come into the world.
If I were not a sinner, Jesus would not have had to die.
I’m so terrible that God had to be parted from His only Son because of me.
I should perish.
I don’t deserve to live eternally.
I don’t deserve to live now.

All you have done is caused them to ignore the first words of the verse: “For God so loved the world…” Without them, the verse deteriorates into guilt.  Without them, one can be convinced that the Enemy sent the Enemy Incarnate out of duty and need rather than out of love.  One can even be convinced that the Enemy did not want to send the enemy incarnate and is angry at the world for making him do so.

Remove love from the equation and humans are left to see life as an obligatory chore, not only for themselves but for the Enemy and the Enemy’s wretched son.  Such an existence leads many to despair and to rethink the very existence of the Enemy.

So, you must study the Enemy’s book, since you obviously either shirked that homework while you were learning or you had incompetent teachers who didn’t set you with such a necessary study.

If I were your teacher, I’d suggest starting with Matthew, the tax collector gone wrong, but you do not have such time to study in an unfocused manner.  You must sneak away again when you can and discover what readings from the Enemy’s book will be used for the worship the boy will be attending each day.  Read over that passage and bend a few words to change the tone from love to fear and you should begin to see your man slumping his shoulders in no time.

Send me a few of the selections and your ideas on them.  Remember, removing love and focusing on guilt is always helpful.

Your affectionate Uncle,

Argasid

Sardines vs. Hide and Seek

Last weekend I was blessed to lead a lock-in at church.  To say it went well would be an understatement.  The youth and their parents have been talking about how fun it was with frequency.  That makes me happy, blessed.

While few of the youth had participated in a lock-in before, only one had ever played the lock-in classic “sardines”.  For those of you who are unaware, sardines is like reverse hide and seek.  While in hide and seek, everybody hides and one person seeks, in sardines, one person hides and everybody else seeks.  Upon finding the person hiding, the seekers must hide with the original hider until everybody finds the hider.  The last one to find the hider is the next person chosen to hide.

Sardines // Creative Commons, Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrea_nguyen/

It’s a game of great fun in a big space like a church.  Lights go out, people get scared easily and it’s just an all-around good time.

A thought struck me this week as I considered sardines and hide and seek.  They both serve as metaphors for one’s style of mission.

In hide and seek, after the seeker finds a person who has been hiding, that person comes along and helps to continue the search, making the searching easier.  As more people are found, the search party becomes large and finding the final people goes quickly.

In sardines, upon finding the one person who is hiding, a seeker tries to cram themselves into the hiding place and does their best not to be found by any of the other seekers.

Do you see where I am going with this?

When Jesus came into this world, he came to seek and to save the lost.  He was the one seeker.  Yet, He was also hidden; His true identity veiled in flesh.

Jesus sought people.  He found Peter and Andrew, James and John, Matthew and all of the other disciples.  They all continued to search together with Jesus and found more people and even after Jesus death, resurrection, and ascension, they continued to search for more people and nearly 2000 years later, here we are, still searching for more people to join in the giant game of hide and seek all started by Jesus.

Or are we trying to play sardines?

Are there followers of Jesus hiding together, waiting for people to simply find them by accident and then hopefully join them.  Certainly, that’s part of how sardines works, once the group hiding is big enough they can be seen from almost anywhere.

But Jesus didn’t come into this world to hide; He came to seek.  Peter and Andrew didn’t find Jesus; Jesus found them.  Jesus was playing hide and seek, not sardines.

While I think sardines is the better game on the whole, I don’t think it is the style of ministry Jesus intended.  I think Jesus was serious when he told Peter and Andrew he would make them “fishers of men” or show them how to “catch people” or perhaps we should simply say: “seek and find people”.

Are you seeking or are you hiding?

Mr. Potato Head and the Body of Christ

For the past couple of weeks, I had a Mr. Potato Head doll on my desk.  Every once in a while I would pick it up, rip out an arm or an ear and place it back in, but mostly, it just sat there.

Why was it on my desk?  I’ll get to it.

At Trinity, the church I work at, we have Kids Church once or twice a month.  Partway through the Sunday morning worship service, the kids are dismissed to have a service that is more kid friendly.  We still follow an order of worship complete with songs, Scripture readings, prayers, a message, memory work and a fun activity.

I was asked to lead Kids Church and some searching led me to this video.

So I decided I wanted to focus on the Body of Christ and of course I needed a Mr. Potato Head.

As the kids came in for Kids Church, one of the more energetic boys sat next to me.  He immediately took my Mr. Potato Head and began to deform him, sticking ears where eyes should be and arms where a tongue should be.  It struck me as I was welcoming the kids that this young man was giving me a piece of connection I had not thought of.

When I finished the welcome, I took Mr. Potato Head and simply asked the question, “Does this look right?”  To which all of the kids laughed and said, “No!” except of course the young man who created the deformities.  He thought it was all right.

I put Mr. Potato Head back together, removed a part here are there and asked, “What would happen if you didn’t have any eyes?”  And we talked about the importance of having every part and how we are all a part of the Body of Christ.

Kids Church went well.  The kids especially like the Mr. Potato Head video, but as time has gone on, I’ve been thinking about deformed Mr. Potato Head.  I wondered how God must see the Body of Christ here on Earth.  Are the feet in the right place?  Are the hands?  Is anything the way it should be?  I don’t even know if I’m a hand or foot or ear or elbow.  Do you?  How can I be in the right place if I don’t know what I am?

When I look at the Body of Christ, I often see a mess.  Feet arguing with feet.  Hands slapping other hands away to be noticed more.  Voices shouting over one another.  Ears becoming mouths.  And many parts saying to other parts, “I don’t need you” (1 Corinthians 12:21).

But what I see and what God sees are two different things.  And which one do you think is right?  Paul says, “But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be” (1 Corinthians 12:18).  We don’t need to question if we are the right part or not or if we’re in the right place.  God has placed us all in the right place as the right part and equips us all with what we need.

Also, much like the young man who created the deformed Mr. Potato Head, God sees perfection where we see deformity.  God sees His Son, Jesus at the head of the body and with Jesus at the head, the rest of the body falls into place at God’s touch.  Not only is God our creator, but through Jesus’ death and resurrection, God is also our re-creator.  While God certainly sees our mistakes and our faults, God also sees Jesus’ death and resurrection which wipes away our sin.

Sadly, I had to give Mr. Potato Head back to his rightful owner.  But his presence and the creativity of that rambunctious boy stirred some interesting thoughts in my mind and for that, I’m grateful.

Sports and Jesus

Jesus was a storyteller.  Much of his ministry was spent teaching through the art of storytelling and parables.  One approach that Jesus used in storytelling was to tell stories related to the culture of the day.  In Jesus’ setting, agriculture was what most everybody knew, so many of Jesus parables involve seeds, weeds, growth, sheep, shepherds, bad fruit and good fruit. 

Nearly 2000 years later, the number of people who understand agriculture and farming is not as high.  And the number of people who understand the agricultural practices of 2000 years ago is even lower.  Most of us have an idea of what is going on when Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) But the depth of Jesus’ teachings has been lost to many of us as the culture we live in is vastly different.

One of my joys is creating modern-day parables or metaphors – stories that connect to people’s lives and culture here and now.

I’m not saying Jesus was a bad storyteller.  Quite the opposite.  Jesus was a great storyteller!  I’m also not saying we should disregard the Bible because it is full of old metaphors.  We should indeed study the Word and the culture of the time more deeply to fully grasp the greatness of Jesus storytelling.

But I think a large difficulty, especially for youth and young adults today, is the ability to clearly see how their life, their activities, their joys and their culture are easily related to Jesus and His saving work of dying and rising for us.

In youth Bible study we recently discussed how Jesus could be connected with modern-day sports.

We first discussed if there were any sports mentioned in the Bible.  We decided there weren’t very many – only running, wrestling and swimming. (If you know of others, please share!)

Then we discussed sports in general, what they all have in common.  We came up with such things as rules, a referee or umpire, penalties, a goal or aim or objective, and competitors.  Some have a team, others do not.

Already we were well on our way to some pretty good metaphors.

One metaphor that is common throughout most sports is Jesus as the biased umpire or referee.  Using baseball as a reference point.  Imagine you are batting and you hit a ground ball right at the shortstop.  The shortstop throws the ball to first base in plenty of time to get you out, but upon your reaching the base, the umpire calls you safe.  So it is with Jesus.  Even though we fail to keep God’s commands and should be called out, Jesus calls us safe.

And what is our response to this biased umpire’s grace?  To say, “No, I was out” and walk back to the dugout?  Of course not!  We stay on first, accepting the grace, seeking to move forward, remembering we would not be where we are if not for Jesus, the biased umpire.

This type of metaphor can also be used for sports with penalties.  Jesus, the biased referee, doesn’t penalize us when we make mistakes, nor when we break the rules.

A similar metaphor can be used in hockey and soccer: Jesus, the ultimate goalie.  The slogan “Jesus Saves” has been made into t-shirts and greeting cards, but they don’t really make use of a metaphor, they are simply trying at humor.

But the metaphor is certainly there.  Imagine you’re playing in a soccer or hockey match and a player has a clear lane to the net, so you illegally tackle that player, preventing them from even having the opportunity to shoot.  The referee awards a penalty shot, as the rules say.  The player takes the shot, but Jesus, the ultimate goalie, saves it, saves you.

We often forget who our goalie is.  We often forget that Jesus is with us, on our side backing us up.  We don’t need to take things into our own hands.  Jesus has it.  With Jesus, we have victory.  Without him, we fail.

There are dozens of other metaphors relating sports and Jesus.  I just thought I’d share a couple that I found helpful.  Do you have any?  Feel free to share.

Oktoberfest? more like Septemberfest

When Americans think of modern-day Germany, some thoughts that typically come to mind are: beer, sausage, and maybe Martin Luther.

Anyone wanting to travel to Germany probably wants to come for one of the three aforementioned reasons.  Luther tours are quite popular for those of a Lutheran background.  Beer and sausage are available almost anywhere, but to get beer and sausage at their best and most abundance, Oktoberfest tops many people’s lists.

Well, let me tell you a little bit about Oktoberfest that I have only just learned.

Stephanie tries on a traditional dirndl while pretending to hold six beers.

1. Oktoberfest is only in Munich.

Sure, there are other festivals modeled after the one in Munich and you can drink beers claiming to be Oktoberfest around the world, but the only true Oktoberfest beers are only those brewed within the city limits of Munich and they are the only ones allowed to be served at the real Oktoberfest.  There is actually a registered trademark on “Oktoberfest” beers, so look out American breweries!  Make sure you’re spelling your stolen name the English way: “Octoberfest”.

2. Oktoberfest is already over.

Oktoberfest is annually set to end the first Sunday in October (exceptions are now made when that first Sunday is October 1 or October 2, allowing for an extended Oktoberfest because October 3 is a federal holiday – German Unity Day).  The festival is 16 to 18 days long; therefore, even when the first Sunday of October is October 7, there is still more festival in September (nine days) than in October (seven days).

3. Oktoberfest is not that old.

2011 marked 201 years of Oktoberfest.  Sure that seems like a long time to Americans who are surrounded by buildings that are mostly less than 50 years old.  But in Germany, where the village church right out your window is 700 years old, 200 years seems like a pretty new tradition.

4. Oktoberfest is the world’s largest fair.

5. Beer prices range from about 8.00 to 9.00 Euros ($10.50-$12.00) for one liter (33.814 ounces).

Andy samples an Oktoberfest tradition - one full liter of beer.

These prices aren’t too raised from the norm.  Most festivals in Frankfurt sell one liter of beer for 7.00 Euros.

6. Oktoberfest seeks to celebrate Bavarian culture.

While Germany isn’t a huge country, it does have a number of sub-cultures that can be quite different from other sub-cultures in Germany.  From food to language to thought process, sub-cultures are all unique.  Bavarian culture is marked by food and drink as well as by traditional clothing, especially the dirndl and lederhosen.

7. They eat oxen.

No joke, nearly 200 units of oxen are consumed each Oktoberfest.

While Stephanie and I didn’t have the opportunity to attend Oktoberfest this year, and we don’t know what the future holds for us, we may need to stay in Germany until at least next September to go to Septemberfest…I mean Oktoberfest.

Racing. Thriving.

As some of you may know, I briefly trained for a marathon back in 2007. Due to life happening, I dropped out of the training and marathon. After that, I never registered for another race. Other than PE classes in high school and health classes in college, I haven’t run in a crowd of people.

Yesterday, I ran a race and it was so much more than a check off a personal bucket list.

The Susan G. Komen “Race for the Cure” is well known event in many US cities, whatever your feelings about it. I was quite surprised when we arrived in Frankfurt, Germany to learn that our new church had a team put together for the same organization’s race in Frankfurt. I signed up almost without thinking. My choices were a 2K walk or a 5K run. With almost as little thought as before, I marked myself down for the 5K. (What? Why did I do that? I still don’t know.)

Our team met at the church for a short devotional before we all traveled downtown together to the event grounds. If you’ve ever been a part of a Komen race, you know that while most people wear white shirts, the pink shirts indicate survivors. In our team, there was a survivor. This was my first shock of the day, regarding survivors. How little I know the people I see every week.

After seeing the 2K-ers off at 10:45am, my boss and I (the only runners on our team) tried to understand what we were supposed to be doing since all the announcements and signs were in German. I remarked that as long as there was a “10-9-8” countdown in German, I’d know when to go.

Sure enough, just as the clock hit 11:15, we counted down in German and off we went. Oh my, my first race! As anyone who has run a race knows, just because the race starts doesn’t mean you do. I was mid-pack, watching the layers of people in front of me start running while I just bobbed up and down in place, waiting for my turn and the room to run.

A few things were on my mind during that run:

“Frankfurt has a lot of bridges. Why aren’t we crossing back over that one?”
(The race started by crossing the Main River on a bridge, running between the river and downtown Frankfurt, crossing back across another bridge and finishing the homestretch along the other side of the river. The starting line and finish line were in the same area. I marked my progress by which bridges I passed.)

“The sun is hot.”
(That morning was a chilly 45 degrees when we left our apartment. By the time the race started, the sun was high, quite warm and most of the race was in the sun.)

“The women in the pink shirts are passing me like it’s no one’s business. I’m complaining about bridges and the heat. They survived breast cancer and are kicking my butt.”

Those women were an inspiration to me. Their pink shirts were a vivid reminder of how precious life is, their ability to run so much faster than me spoke to not letting cancer keep you from living life, from thriving. Other people had pink tags attached to their white shirts with handwritten names. As much as I could gather, the tags were “in memory of”. I spent much of the race behind someone running in memory of “Angela’s mom” and “Lisa’s dad”. The pink tags stick out as much as the pink shirts as reminders of how much work there is yet to do. As the calendar turns to October and Breast Cancer Awareness Month, think beyond the pink products. Think about what breast cancer could mean in your life and how you can help to “race for the cure”.

Our team, post-race, post-walk.

48 Hours

When I was a kid, growing up on the farm, we lived right next door to my grandparents, who also lived with my great grandpa, Frank.  I would often spend an hour or two up there every evening.  As my parents finished milking the cows, some combination of my grandma, grandpa and great grandpa were tasked with babysitting the kids.

I spent a lot of time in their house, especially before I started school.  They always seemed to love watching TV.  I remember watching The Price is Right, Wheel of Fortune, Matlock and Murder She Wrote with some frequency.  I also remember they enjoyed watching 60 Minutes and 48 Hours and being very confused by the titles.  Well, 60 Minutes made sense, but I didn’t understand how a TV program could suck up two whole days of programming.

48 hours, two entire days.  When I taught English in Turkey, our courses were 48 hours of class time spread over four, six, or eight weeks.  By the end of each course, I generally felt like I had been able to build a relationship with each of the students.

I’ve been in Germany now for six weeks, the typical length of one of those 48 hour classes.  I have begun to wonder how long it will take before I spend 48 hours with any of the youth.  If the only time I spend with them is on Sunday morning for one hour of youth Bible study, I will reach the 48 hour mark somewhere around Thanksgiving 2012.  No joke.  It will take over a year.  Even with normal events and activities, which might take three or four hours, reaching 48 hours by Easter 2012 still might be difficult.

Isn’t that interesting?

Doesn’t that speak to the usefulness of a church lock-in?  Or a retreat of some kind?

I’d like to invite you to just think about how long it would take you to spend 48 hours with different people who are in your life – your spouse, your kids, your parents, your friends, your co-workers, your grandparents, your Godparents, your pastor, your teachers, your youth leader.

Some of us are at a big time disadvantage when it comes to building relationships, yet relationships are one of the most important parts of vocation for pastors, youth leaders, Godparents.

When I was a kid, I could spend 48 hours with my grandparents in the span of two weeks.  In the two months we were in the states most recently, I spent as much time as I could with my grandparents.  Thinking back, I think I made it up to about 20 hours with my dad’s parents (the ones from the farm).  With my mom’s mom, I might have made it up to four hours.  It makes me feel terrible and very guilty that if you added up all of the time I’ve spent with my mom’s mom over the past 10 years, you might make 48 hours.

How we spend our time is important.  It reminds me of this clip from Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

The time we have, has been gifted to us as an act of grace.  How much time are you spending with the one who gifted you with the time you have?  It’s hard to say, isn’t it? Time with God seems to come in short bursts for me, 30-second prayer here, a five-minute study of a Bible verse there.

I invite you to re-evaluate how you are spending your time and who you are spending your time with.  Who or what are you giving your time to?  Who or what needs your time, but isn’t getting enough of it?  When you say, “I don’t have time.”  What do you mean?

Thank you for giving your time to read this.  I hope it was encouraging.  I hope we can spend more time together in the future.