reyes-chow :: FAITH

Thoughts on a Texas Football Game

 [image: fotomoe]

JJ Baskin, whom I only know virtually, challenged some folks to work this ESPN story into a sermon.  I didn't look at the story until this AM but after reading it felt moved to reflect a little bit on the impact of such an act of compassion, hope and challenge.  As I read this story about a school's coach thinking more about the emotional and spiritual well-being of the other team, I was moved.  I can't imagine what this would have been like in such a football state such as Texas, but I imagine the gesture was that much more powerful. Basically, this was a game between Grapevine Faith and Gainesville State School: Faith, a seemingly well-off school and, Gainesville, a school from a local youth correctional facility. [READ FULL STORY]

This all started when Faith's head coach, Kris Hogan, wanted to do something kind for the Gainesville team. Faith had never played Gainesville, but he already knew the score. After all, Faith was 7-2 going into the game, Gainesville 0-8 with 2 TDs all year. Faith has 70 kids, 11 coaches, the latest equipment and involved parents. Gainesville has a lot of kids with convictions for drugs, assault and robbery—many of whose families had disowned them—wearing seven-year-old shoulder pads and ancient helmets.

So Hogan had this idea. What if half of our fans—for one night only—cheered for the other team? He sent out an email asking the Faithful to do just that. "Here's the message I want you to send:" Hogan wrote. "You are just as valuable as any other person on planet Earth."

I can't imagine the seeds that were planted in so many hearts that day and beyond.  Sure, some will go back to their day-to-day realities and continue on as if it ever happened, but I can't help but to believe that there will be moments, small for some and huge for others, where one human will see, treat and engage with another with a new set of eyes.  Where there was fear and unknowing, surely now there is hope and knowledge. 

After the game, both teams gathered in the middle of the field to pray and that's when Isaiah surprised everybody by asking to lead. "We had no idea what the kid was going to say," remembers Coach Hogan. But Isaiah said this: "Lord, I don't know how this happened, so I don't know how to say thank You, but I never would've known there was so many people in the world that cared about us."

In a world that so often discounts small gestures from unknown places, this is just one example of how we all need and are able to live this grace that we have been given.  With gratitude we are moved and compelled to participate in this wondrous and often upside-down journey that God as called us to and in amazing moments we are allowed to be part of these glimpses of God in the world.

Thanks be to God.

A different kind of generosity this year

[image: norma desmond]

As many of you know this was the first Christmas since the tragic death of my brother-in-law, Brian.  The family continues to covet your prayer and amazing spirit of support from all corners of our diverse communities.

Needless to say this Christmas was different, but as the family begins to live through the transitions and realities of a new reality without Brian, this uncharted waters was something to move through.  We continue to grieve as we always will and each person will feel the effects and handle them differently, but how we move through these times I believe give glimpses of how we may be in the long run.

In the midst of all of this, there is a face of generosity that has emerged for me in new ways: a grateful, comforting and transforming generosity of Spirit.

We used to always tease Brian for the seemingly disproportionate "value" of the gifts he would give.  He would give a printer, we would give a picture drawn our kids.  He would give some amazing trip to Asia and we would give some rock we thought looked like Elvis*.  In the midst of years of teasing, there was never any resentment, because at the heart of Brian's gift giving was a DEEP generosity that came with no strings, no judgment, just a very real response to the blessings in his life that he wanted to share with the family, his community and yes, often times the stranger.  As over the top as they might have been at times, his generosity was fitting for his personality and his deep gratitude for God in his life.

This year a different kind of generosity was needed and I think will always be needed, not just in our family, but for a world that is hurting in so many ways.  As I walk through the holidays with new lenses on the day, I was moved by the emotional and spiritual generosity that allowed for folks to be real, a generosity grounded in overall thankfulness, a generosity that allowed us to rest in the unspoken nature of family, a generosity that I hope inspires hope, healing and new life.

Our world needs us to engage in a life of this kind of grateful generosity if we are going to experience and inspire some moments of peace in such a complex and hurting world.  As people of Christ, we must live truly as if we understand that our eternal lives have been gifted to us for a reason.  Like Brian's gifts, this generosity is not to be lived in order to elicit obligatory gestures of gratitude, but quite the opposite, we must respond to the blessings of God in our lives so that each of us and the world may be internally transformed and healed in ways that lead towards external expressions of grace.

The world is full of pain, brokenness and suffering.  And while we need to be in those places as long as we need to be there, ultimately our God is a God of hope, new life and healing.  Those moments of grace will come differently for each person, but I do rest in the assurance that some day, that day will come.  And when it does, this grateful generosity becomes real again and again and again and the world is transformed.

Thanks be to God.

*He never gave anyone a trip to Asia, but I cannot with certainty say that we never gifted a rock that we felt looked like Elvis or some other celebrity ;-)

Life is fragile

[image: joka2000]

These days I think about the fragility of life a great deal.  With Brian's death, the recent attacks in Mumbai and my own life-threatening experience of 5 years ago there are plenty of obvious places to remember the precious nature of human life.  This says nothing of the countless millions of people who's lives go largely unnoticed as they face death every day through no fault of their own, but have been caught in political, cultural and economic systems which make longevity of life the exception and not the norm. 

Now this is not anything that we all have not struggled with when it comes to death in our world.  Some of us turn away in avoidance and disbelief while some of us dive in and go directly to places of pain.  I think most of us just try to cope: cope with the overwhelming nature of people who struggle for life every day, cope with the seeming inability for us to affect change and cope with the very things we must give up in order to bring some kind of healing to one with whom the only thing we share is our humanity. 

These are natural reactions and I think honest ones.  But then what? What do we do?  How do we affect change and bring/save/honor life?  While there are plenty of tactical and strategic things we can do, one of the first things we must do is simple acknowledge the very precious nature of life.

I don't think we do that enough. 

Human beings are a hearty lot, most of us usually power through sickness and struggle and so at some level I think we often blame the afflicted for causing their afflictions . . . even their own deaths.  This is a dangerous place to stand and a place that flies in the face of God's amazing spirit of life and breath that is gifted to us every day.  Sure, there will be times that we do need to power through struggle because most things will NOT kills us, but those times should not drive us, the fragility and gift of God's life given is what drives us.

Life is fragile, yet God's strength to care for that life is not.

Thank God.

A moment to let go just a little bit more

Yesterday Eldest and I hung out a bit at the cafe before she had to go to summer camp.  As we sat there, she with her grow-up sized peppermint hot chocolate and reading the paper, I had one of those "Our baby is growing up, and I don't like it!"  moments.  It took all my will power not to tear up and break into my own rendition of Butterfly Kisses ;-)   She really is growing up into such a wonderful young lady.  As these moments are bound to happen more and more, I am reminded that God walks with us into the world with the hopes that we make faithful choices, always remember God, respond to grace with gratitude and ultimately grow into every intention that God has for us.  And as I fight the urge to freeze in time each of my baby girls, I too am reminded that we too must have the same hopes for our own children.  And in the end, we, in many ways, must learn to let them go.

And as we wallow in our own struggles to let her and her sisters grow into who God hopes them to become, I remember that in the letting go it is not about my own difficulties with watching my children grow up, but it is about how we always, always, always, must encourage them to remember who's they are over and above our own needs to keep them bound by our own expectation and hopes. 

They are God's and God will never let them go.

Thanks be to God.

Theological Elevator Pitch Challenge

A few weeks ago, I was tagged by Doug over at Prog(ressive)Nostication as part of his Theological Elevator Pitch Challenge.  The rules are pretty simple:

Choose a theological concept and write an elevator pitch for the concept. The elevator pitch should not be longer than 50 words, and should be as short as possible if you go over the 50. It should express what you think is the core of a theological concept, and be easily understandable by the average 8th grader.

on Gratitude in 47 words.

Every morning I wake up. 
I breathe. 
I remember that it is God who gives me this life to live.
I thank God. 
I live in the world as if this life gifted to my care matters to God.
I rest and do it all over again.

Not easy, but yet it should be.  Our faith is so simple and yet so complex.

Just take your day off already

TODAY - my theoretical turned hypothetical day-off -  I am not:

• plugging in
• engaging in moderator stuff
• thinking about MBCC
• working at my kids' school

Today is for ME ME ME ME ME ME!

I was in a meeting this week and the devotional question for us was, "What relationships in your life have you been neglecting because of your busyness?" 

Get in line.

I am not complaining.  I have made my choices and I like the pace I have been at the last few months.  I have been able to stay just this side of crazy and it has been incredibly energizing and joy-filled.  But . . . the next few months will only intensify as the Moderator journey heats up, MBCC finalizes its facility situation and, oh yeah, the family needs tending ;-)  In the midst of it all, I know that the relationship I have neglected the most has been my relationship with God.  I used to slip in a movie, tackle a home project, and generally make good use of the flexible pastor schedule.  Lately there has not been the easily identified Sabbath moments, so I guess I have to rip some Sabbath time from the claws of the accomplishment monster and rest.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, You have heard this before when I tried to unplug for 24 hours and then tried to justify the way my time is scheduled, but this time it's for real, at least for this week, God is-a calling and I am-a answering.

So after a movie, some yard work, a little reading and a big ol' nap - see you on Saturday!

Oh wait, how do I find movie listings again?

Darn "rib"

I was going to use this video this Sunday as we look at the Creation story, but we are focusing on the first Creation story where humanity was created in the likeness of God.  We will will deal with the "rib" issue next week, but with the kids in worship probably won't use this one.  Be sure to watch to the very end.  FUNNY.

Thou shall not have power . . . cord

Obviously God wants me to be unplugged on this vacation more than the combined spirit of flickr, typepad and my wife want me to have internet access.   As the Spirit* would have it, I just discovered that my power cord was left behind - not in a rapture kind of way, but just left on the table at home - so I will only be able to be on the interwebs for about 2.5 hours of battery life.

So after hurriedly cramming in those things that I so intentionally left out of the pre-vacation preparation craziness, I am good to go.  I have a precious few minutes to twitter and download photos, so other than that really important stuff, I'll be off the matrix until Sunday night ;-)

But seriously folks, if there are any MBCC pastoral emergencies and you can't get a hold of any of the other staff-types, please feel free to call me on my mobile and we'll get someone in touch with you ASAP.

* This could also be a case of the children wanting to make sure dad was not always "working."  If this is the case, my money is on the middle one ;-)

Forgiveness on ER

While I have up on ER about the time the Ebola infected helicopter crashed into the hospital where the docs were being held hostage by a terrorist group holding our for a heart transplant for the leader's son, I never did see this clip. 

Not commenting on it's truth or relevance, but you know this one will be used.  Whatcha think?

[h/t: Theological Edge]

I like my live

We found this doodle as we left our hotel after vacation.  Pretty sure it was the 1st grader.   "Live" is good these days!