A Joyce Slap

if you know me you know I’m not a big fan of most the big name ministry stuff—but don’t worry this isn’t a bitter rant and rave.  In fact, the opposite.  Of anyone who has a big profile ministry with multiple millions of dollars coming in, etc etc, Joyce Meyer is probably the one person I respect the most.  She just strikes me as someone who is legit…like she somehow flies under the radar with a humble, honest, real nature about her and avidly avoids the entrapment of pride amidst her success; quite unlike the thorn & wheat mixture many in her league sadly develop (ok, that’s my only blurp against that I promise).

But tonight, Joyce managed to reach her hand through the t.v. and slap me.  Fo’ realz yo’.  She was talking about all the times in her life when she allowed things to really get her down, sometimes for a long period of time.  Some of them were major things, other were minor.  And you’ve likely seen her on t.v. or heard her talk at some point, so I don’t even need to explain her nature (southern bell accent, impersonation mannerisms of herself and others in a strongly sarcastic way, crazy jokes and the likes) to you…but needless to say it was funny, transparent, and annoyingly bringing things up to my conscience.  What was it that allowed her to get over all the stuff that bothered her so much?  In her words, “GET OVER IT!”  I think she also told the crowd (me) stuff like “stop being a wussy” and “don’t give up that easily” and the like…

Again, I could elaborate much more on this.  But, point being is that I was soon after this pondering a lot of very personal things…and realized I’ve let way too many things and way too many people say or do things to me that have robbed me of joy.  I’ve actually kept a list this year (not kidding) of all the things that have flat out sucked.  And I remind people of those things often, thinking that “woe is me” will somehow bring comfort to me….funny thing is, no matter how much I vent on my friends, no matter how much I hear people say kind things about how “you didn’t deserve that” etc etc…none of it fulfills and I am essentially left to continue my slavery to any word or deed someone has said or done against me.

But tonight I think Joyce slapped some sense into me.  And, I’d really like to try to be more joyful, and let go. If you’re my friend, I invite you to go on that journey with me and help me do that.  Call me out if I’m being a pessimistic punk. I don’t know that it is as easy as just wish it & want it and it’s yours, but, I know that at the least trying to be optimistic sure won’t hurt.  Cheers to that, with a half-full glass…

p.s.  soon after this Joyce butt kicking, I listened to “There Will Be a Day” by Jeremy Camp about 100 times (I’m really not exaggerating).  I’ve never bought much of his stuff before and don’t normally care for it…but I’m telling you, it will be the best 99 cents on iTunes you’ve spent in awhile.  Complete, total hope just gushing from that song.

Questioning God & Unanswered Prayers

I’m going to try to keep this short (compared to what I’d like to say anyhoo), because I’d be really interested to see what people say.  I’m a big fan of being able to blog and import into notes on Facebook, so, I hope to maybe stir up a group convo.  And really I’ve got more questions on this subject than I do answers.  Plus, it’s about 2 am.  I can’t help but want to blog at these hours.  I just got in from a really good night where a bunch of us met in a house to express our worship and to have a beautiful chat with one another about what we were going through and it was one of the more raw, honest, and transparent nights I have participated in.  Some people, such as myself, expressed their time with God lately has been more  like being in a ring with Hulk Hogan than a date with Jessica Beil (if ladies get to have the typical Brad crush that is irrevocably my choice).  I was brewing some of these thoughts during a 1 am phone call the other night with a best-bud of mine, so…

Here goes: is it okay to question God on things?  Choose your answer wisely.  Even if you go by the book on this, Jesus questioned God, and, questioned whether or not he would follow through with that whole extreme torturous death thingy he had to do (can’t say I blame him).  I would even say that almost 50% of the psalms are questions, not answers.  Read ‘em and weep.  I’m just saying if you do answer this, please don’t be textbook and say neither of two extremes: A (I imagine this in a high pitch voice for some reason) “No, no, I would never, ever question God.  I just love Jesus way too much.  He’s so good.”  B. “YES!  I question Him!  Life is miserable!  The sky is falling, it’s falling!  The economy is crashing!  Life is horrible!” I guess what I’m saying is take maybe 10 seconds and then answer.  Think about your roughest days ever…your mistakes…etc…think about 911, the Holocaust, & the 3rd world today…but also think about ice cream, bacon, and yes, Jessica Beil.

OK, my other question / comment is why do so many prayers go unanswered?  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then let me poke a little again.  So, if you’re a charismatic / pentecostal person, have you ever been with someone who has said, “Oh God, let us see your face”??  Did they see it?  Just a question.  Have you been in a group of people where a long prayer for the sick was prayed…where prayer for someone in a wheelchair did not rise and walk…where a tumor remained…Maybe the other way to ask that is have you ever actually seen physical healing take place immediately or relatively soon?  I already here the textbook response: “well, you just need to have faith.”  My sub-question then, is faith blind to reality and simply a spiritually good outlook on life?  Example:  Peter walking on the water.  Did he have to say to himself, “I’m walking on cement.” Nope.  He was likely pretty sure the bottom of his feet were wet.  So, in order for answers to our prayers to come, do we need to say something very optimistic, like “it’s going to be all right” or “God is about to bless me / you” in order for that thing to come about?

Can we present the world a message based on a book with supernatural things but not have any supernatural  events taking place in or around us?   Is that a contradiction in terms?  Or a bad mis-representation?  Why is power so absent?

If you believed you were supposed to pray that a certain leader got elected president, but another one got elected, was that somebodies fault for not praying enough, or, was that because God did not answer your prayer?  (that’s not for the sake of politics as I’m sure we all want a breather, but, a lot of conservative types were assuming that only one of the two candidates was the will of God, and, their choice was not elected—yet they prayed, but, their prayers did not get the candidate they wanted to be elected.  Why?)

These are, I promise, harmless questions.  I’m not asking this because I doubt God but because I believe that  having a non-religious / relational approach to Him means that I can ask Him stuff like this.  And, if I can ask Him, and He still likes me, I hope I can ask you.

Comments, anyone??????????????

Romo, Romo, where art thou, O Romo?

I’ve been a Dallas Cowboys fan since I was in 5th grade.  Sure, at the time, I caught a ride on the bandwagon express.  But, I’ve managed to stick with my Boys through thick and thin…though there have been some years I admit that I couldn’t handle the pain of watching them suffer between the era of greatness in the 90′s with the greats like Troy Aikman, Emmit Smith, Michael Irving, Deion Sanders, & Jay Novetcheck, (to name a few) and our current potential era of greatness with newfound heroes in Marion Barber, Felix Jones, Jason Witten, Roy Williams, Terrel Owens, and the one guy we’ve been waiting for a month to get healthy again from a finger injury on his throwing hand: Tony Romo.  (And I may add this paragraph is written at least in part to remind my friend Eric that I am not a “fairweather fan”, as he labeled me after our Boys killed his Pack awhile back).

So, tomorrow I head to Buffalo Wild Wings with my friend Noah to go get some good saturated fat in our guts (yes that means I’m probably loosing even worse to WP) and (hopefully) enjoy the game (which depends, well, upon us winning).  We’ve been in a slump the past month or so, with exception to a low scoring game which essentially was a great defensive win a few weeks back.  If we pull of this win, and if the Philly Eagles (also in our division) don’t soar into success, we will be (tied for) 2nd place in our division(the toughest one in the NFL may I add) and earn some respect in the NFL again.  To have to be so hopeful shouldn’t even be necessary with a team that 8 weeks ago was looking like SuperBowl favorites with a stacked roster deeper than the Pacific.

And I’ve heard lot’s of angles on this game, but really, we are needing our stud-star QB Romo to come back and razzle-dazzle us once again into becoming a playoff contender.  OK, and if TO catches the ball, shuts his mouth and lets his game talk, that’d help, too.  But football is perhaps the only good thing to be found in 30 degree weather (which I passionately hate, esp. after 4 years in FL & almost 2 in Africa).  Bleh.  So, Romo, O Romo, throw it hard and deep my man, and help me salvage some fun out of the next few months with hopes we may make it into the playoffs.  Please!!!!!!!!

hot old people

I got this from a friend on FaceBook.

Blog #1: NS vs. WP

Ok, so, I’m not even in a blogging mood at the moment.  But, my buddy Will challenged me via his blog to write, so, here I am.  Him and I are having a friendly competition to see who will loose 15 pounds by the time he gets back next month.  I’ve managed to gain, loose, re-gain, and re-loose the same stinking 10 or 15 pounds for a few months now.  In fact, 2008 has been my healthiest year in terms of consistent workouts and I’m crossing some new thresholds there in terms of my physical health.  However, my wanna-be 6-pack is somewhat of a 2-liter right now and so WP and I are gonna go at it, and looser takes the other out.  Will has managed to loose over 120 pounds so far on his health journey and inspired me to do similar things in my respectively parallel journey.

So in a month hopefully we look like this guy: