Crying and Whispering Part 1: "The World's LARGEST PRAIRIE Dog!"

Yes...umm... skip the sightseeing on this thing

Silence. This, in a word, could be the best way to describe driving across the endless miles of…well…nothing that is otherwise known as Kansas. You know that you’ve truly reached rock bottom of the tourist world when you start to see signs urging, no…pleading would be a better word, for you to stop and see “the world’s LARGEST PRAIRIE DOG!!” Yes, you read that correctly… they want me to stop and see a large, flea bitten, disease carrying, cousin of a rat. And the sad thing is you’ve been driving for so long that you actually consider it. However, all humor aside, there are aspects of driving through vast expanses of nothing that I enjoy, chief among them being the time to think. Recently, as stated in previous posts, one of the topics that has been pressing on my mind is how living the Christian life should look on a day to day basis. Which led me to think about someone who DID indeed live everything that he was called to be by Jesus. The person I am speaking of was incredible. In fact, it would not be stretching the truth at all to say that he was the greatest man to live besides Jesus himself.

"A voice of one calling in the desert,
'Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.'”


Those who know this scripture know that I am referring to John the Baptist, and those that don’t…well, now you do. Anyway, John is always someone who I’ve wished to meet in person. I’ve always wanted to sit down at Starbucks with him, share a venti-sized, locust-flavored frapp (extra honey), and ask him about his preaching. Here is an excerpt I’ve always wanted to ask him about:

“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father. I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

"I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

Umm… yeah. Not exactly what you’d call a ‘seeker friendly’ message huh? But, I do really wonder what we all would think if someone like John the Baptist would come to our culture and be preaching the way he was? I think that personally I would really have a hard time with that, just based on his appearance alone. And yet, Jesus said of him:

"...a reed shaken by the wind?"

“What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are dressed in splendid clothing and live in luxury are in kings’ courts. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written,



‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way before you.'



And prepare he did. John shook the entire region of Galilee and eventually even Herod heard of him. And I know if I had been John I would have thought “Great! Now everyone knows about me and if I play my cards right I can probably even use this interest that Herod is showing to further my message into every part of his jurisdiction. Sure, I might have to turn a blind eye to the whole stealing-your-brothers-wife thing, but… just think of all the good I could do”. But John didn’t do this. I think the reason he didn’t is because he knew something that I think we’ve pushed to the back of our minds because, well…it’s uncomfortable. He knew that to truly prepare the way for Jesus, it was going to cost him something…Maybe everything. And guess what? It did. He was beheaded by Herod because of his outspokenness on Herod’s taking his brother’s wife.

This seems like such a horrible end for a man so honorable…so truly great. And yet, it occurred to me, he prepared the way for Jesus in every way possible, even by his death. And is there really any end greater than that? John showed that the kingdom that was coming was not going to turn a blind eye to sin… and that it WOULD cost something to follow the calling that Jesus gives each of us.

So my question to you and to myself is this: “What is it costing you?” What are we doing on a day-to-day basis to accomplish what God has given us. Now I know some might say that they don’t know what God has given them to do yet. But you can find out! Start searching and studying. I didn’t know for several years but it was by getting out and serving and following the example that Jesus left here on earth that I found what God has given me a passion for. And it’s not that we never have moments of doubt. Even John had those. When he was in prison he sent his followers to Jesus to ask if he was really the one that they had been waiting for. Do you remember what Jesus answered? He didn’t just say “yes I am”. He pointed to his ACTIONS…which is something that should always accompany our faith in Christ. I can just picture Jesus, eyes kind…perhaps even sad at the thought of what John would soon endure, but also full of passion and love…much as John’s would have been as he had been preaching to prepare the way. “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.” And then, I can just feel the love in his voice as he added one last encouragement, “…blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me”. Jesus knew that John needed encouragement and strength to not fall away in his last days and He knows that sometimes we need that too. So let’s ask Him. We must ask Him to reveal His purpose for our lives and to encourage us to remain faithful and strong just as John did. That is my earnest prayer and I hope that someday I can finish my race just as John did.
So what is following Jesus costing you? What is it costing me? James reminds us that supposed “faith” without works is dead...how alive is your faith?

Loving the way they lie about teenage dreams

“I can’t tell you what it really is… I can only tell you what it feels like…and right now it’s a steel knife in my windpipe…”

I don’t often write about popular culture but the irony of what has happened the last few months with the chart topping hits by Eminem and Katy Perry is something I cannot let pass without comment because I think it shows just how desperate and lost the youth are in our society today.

I have a heart for young people and have seen (and to some extent have experienced in my own life), how some relationships in middle/high school greatly damage them…sometimes forever. This is why I felt it necessary to write about these two songs and try to draw the parallels between them. If we understand the culture in which we live I think it’s one of the first steps to helping to change it for the better.

The lyric that I started this post with is from Eminem’s song entitled: “Love the Way You Lie”. It highlights the pain of love and the confusion that so many face. It is a message that I think many young people who have thought they were in love, especially when they were young, could identify with. Love, or thinking you’re in love with someone, can be very difficult to describe… much less deal with. Many could describe it as Eminem did:“…when it’s going good it’s going great…but when it’s bad it’s awful” . And while you could analyze the correctness of his thoughts or the ideas he’s trying to get across, the main message seems to be about being stuck in a relationship that is destructive but not knowing how (or perhaps not really wanting) to get out because of the occasional moments of connection you feel with that person. True? Maybe…maybe not, but the point stands that the song was definitely not your “feel good” song about love, dreams, or enjoying being young. In fact, it’s rather depressing and you can hear the pain and hurt in the singers voice as he cries “… life’s no Nintendo game. But you lied again. Now you get to watch her leave out the window…guess that’s why they call it window pane” (beautiful play on words there). Ouch. Who would want to listen to that? Probably not going to be a really popular song right? Wrong. Very, very wrong. What’s shocking (or perhaps not shocking depending on if you have your eyes open) is that young people actually liked it. In fact, they LOVED it…so much so that it spent 8 weeks as the number one most requested song in the country. Why? I would argue that many of people, youth especially, are searching for answers in a broken system of pain and destruction that they don’t know how to get out of and for someone (insert your name there) to tell them about a better way.

Enter Katy Perry. Many of you might remember her, she was the Christian singer who turned secular and then achieved worldwide fame with her controversial (yet fictional) song called “I Kissed a Girl”. She recently came out with her follow-up album called “Teenage Dream”. This song (Teenage Dream), soared shortly after release, eventually culminating by knocking Eminem’s song to number two. Are you ready for the ironic part? For EIGHT WEEKS people had been listening to the pain of love gone wrong , being stuck and not knowing why, and desperation of not knowing a way out. Then…Teenage Dream comes along. Here is the chorus: (I’ve highlighted parts that stand out to me)

“Let's go all the way tonight
No regrets, just love ( <--- really?? Are you kidding me?)
We can dance, until we die
You and I, will be young forever

You make me feel
Like I'm livin' a
Teenage dream
The way you turn me on
I can't sleep
Let's run away and
Don't ever look back,
Don't ever look back
My heart stops
When you look at me
Just one touch
Now baby I believe
This is real
So take a chance and
Don't ever look back,
Don't ever look back”

Ok umm...so maybe it’s just me but does there seem to be a major disconnect going on here??? It sounds like a cycle to me. People follow the message of Katy Perry and it leads to the pain in Eminem’s song. To prove my point, guess what song was back at number one after just a couple weeks? You guessed it, Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie” regained number one shortly thereafter because I think people realized IT DOESN’T WORK to think you’ll be “…young forever… so don’t ever look back”.

We’ve got to do something. As Christians, we have the answer for the stationary wheel that so many young people (and sadly, many lost Christian young people) are running on today. We have to get involved in their lives and tell them. Maybe you volunteer, maybe you actually start to lead those kids at your church that look up to you, or maybe you develop eyes to finally see that kid that always seems down when you see him come home from school. But please, do something. Christ sacrificed everything to save us. We should be sacrificing to save others as well.