Huffy Money

This was written by an “urban outdoorsman” friend of mine named Bob. He shared this with me at lunch on Sunday. I felt it was worthy of being shared with people beyond my dining room.

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I sometimes fly signs. Not just for money though. Sometimes I fly them just to see the different reactions that I can elicit from people.

On this particular day my sign only had one word on it. I flew it for about four hours when a snazzy car pulled into the parking lot there on the corner.

A tall, statuesque beauty stepped out of the card and was followed by two adorable little girls. The girls were hopping around and begging their mom for a dollar each, to give to me. All mom said to them was hush, no, and stand still. However, they continued to pester their mother. In a huff, she stood up and walked over to me, extended her hand, and haughtily said, “Here!” She gave me a dollar and stomped off.

The two little angles were dismayed and pouted because mom had ruined, what so far, was going to be the highlight of their day.

The word on the sign…Compassion. I gave the only dollar I made on that sign to someone begging change. I couldn’t keep it because it wasn’t given to me in the context asked? for.

P.S. Lady, you shoulda given them the dollar.

Book Review: Why We Love the Church (5 Stars)

Kevin DeYoung’s latest book, Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion, is his second collaboration with fellow author and good friend, Ted Kluck. Both collaborations have received Christianity Today’s “Book of the Year Awards” so the duo is rapidly gaining attention as two of the finest authors in the Christian market.

What makes this book special is its balance of scholarship and accessibility. Few books today prove themselves to be so well thought out from a historical, cultural, and Biblical perspective while at the same time mixing in genuine humor and relatability (this may or may not be a word) at the layman’s level.

As with their previous collaboration, Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be), DeYoung and Kluck alternate chapters with DeYoung providing the pastoral angle and Kluck bringing the “I grew up in the church and work a job and am raising a family just like everyone else and I still really love the church” perspective. In my opinion, there is not a single boring page in the entire book (including the acknowledgements at the end), and each topic is presented in a memorable and graspable manner.

The book is essentially a response to the recent wave of people who are leaving the church to find Jesus. The book addresses many concerns of today’s church-leavers and offers honest, balanced, and Biblical responses to them all. The book is careful not to gloss over the many short-comings of the church, all the while patiently pointing out that the church has never been perfect and never will be until Jesus returns. The point of the church and Christianity is not that it is or ever has been comprised of perfect people assembling themselves together to comprise faultless churches. In fact, it’s just the opposite. And regardless of the church’s many flaws, it is nonetheless the bride of Christ and Jesus is its head and chief-cornerstone, and for those reasons it is to be loved and never abandoned.

I really could go on, but I suggest that you read the book yourself. I give it my highest recommendation.

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Here are some quotes I enjoyed that will, perhaps, persuade you to go buy the book yourself.  – Don’t try to burn your friend’s copy. It’s not like a cd; it will only turn to ashes. Ok, the quotes:

“Church isn’t boring because we’re not showing enough film clips, or because we play an organ instead of a guitar. It’s boring because we neuter it of its importance (102).”

“Churchless Christianity makes about as much sense as a Christless church, and has just as much Biblical warrant (164).”

“Christianity is not whatever we want it to be. It is, whether we like it or not, organized religion. And the church is what gives its organization shape and definition. That’s why people don’t like the church. Sure, she’s old, stale, and sinister at times. But the other reason -the main reason, I think- people don’t like the church is because the church has walls. It defines truth, shows us the way to live, and tells us the news we must believe if we are to be saved (178).”

“It’s more than a little ironic that the same folks who want the church to ditch the phony, plastic persona and become a haven for broken, imperfect sinners are ready to leave the church when she is broke, imperfect, and sinful (211-212).”

“What we need are a fewer revolutionaries and a few more plodding visionaries. That’s my dream for the church – God’s redeemed people holding tenaciously to a vision of godly obedience and God’s glory, and pursuing that godliness and glory with relentless, often unnoticed, plodding consistency (222).”

“So I guess this is my final advice: Find a good local church, get involved, become a member, stay there for the long haul. Put away thoughts of revolution for a while and join the plodding visionaries. Go to church this Sunday and worship there in spirit and truth, be patient with your leaders, rejoice when the gospel is faithfully proclaimed, bear with those who hurt you, and give people the benefit of the doubt. While you are there, sing like you mean it, say hi to the teenager no one notices, welcome the blue hairs and the nose-ringed, volunteer for the nursery once in a while. And yes, bring your fried chicken to the potluck like everyone else, invite a friend to church, take the new couple out for coffee, give to the Christmas offering, be thankful someone vacuumed the carpet, enjoy the Sundays that click for you, pray extra hard on the Sundays that don’t, and do not despise ‘the day of small things’ (Zechariah 4:10).”

Just Give ‘Em a Fighting Chance (pt. 1)

Craig Redd is the founder of Strong Tower Ministry, a local church centered ministry assisting prisoners as they transition into life on this side of the walls. The ministry gets its name from Proverbs 18:10 which says, “The name of the LORD is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and are safe.” Craig was recently released from prison following a nine-year stint in a Colorado correctional facility and has been attending Providence Bible Church (my church) ever since. While in prison, Craig was a chaplain’s clerk and a very involved member of the church within the walls.

The Strong Tower Ministry re-entry program is much needed in Colorado, since the state currently is experiencing a 10% growth rate in prison population (4.3% national) with a total prison population of 34,000 inmates as of 2008. 50% of these prisoners come from Denver and three of its surrounded community. Statistically speaking, 70% of these men will return to prison within 3 years of being released. [The big word term for this is “recidivism.”] These stats are not good, no matter how you look at them.

The ministry is still in its early stages, but it keeps Craig busy full-time as he meets with prospective donors, speaks to area churches, and works to secure housing, employment, mentors, and a Christian local church community for ex-offenders as they are released. Many of these men were saved while in prison and became friends with Craig there, meaning that for many of them, he is the only Christian they know on the outside.

Many of these men leave prison without any money, any place to stay, and without any healthy, constructive relationships on the outside. It is common for them to have burned all their bridges so-to-speak living their old life that sent them to prison in the first place. Godly mentors and people who will help give these men a fighting chance to succeed in life are hard to come by, especially when all you have to your name is the clothes on your back and the tracking bracelet latched onto your ankle. It wasn’t the crowd they typically ran in before, and it’s not generally the crowd that is running to meet them the day they’re released either.

Wendy, Craig’s fiancé is also a former inmate. As she tells it, back in 2001, she was married and had two young kids. The marriage was unhealthy and led to fighting and, in her case, fighting led to drinking. In March 2001, Wendy and her husband had a big fight and she left the house around 11:30 PM to go to hang out at a friend’s house and get drunk. The weather was nasty that night, with much of the Denver area experiencing blizzard-like conditions. Wendy said she doesn’t remember what happened next because she was drunk, but she has been told what happened next through reading the accident report. She ended up driving the wrong way (against traffic) for 3 miles on the interstate before hitting a car head on. Wendy was cut out of her car with the Jaws of Life and rushed to the hospital where doctors determined that she suffered from a broken neck in two places, a brain injury, and a broken femur. The man whose car she hit did not survive.

Wendy was in recovery for two years before the legal process got around to arresting her and she still cries as she tells her story, obviously heartbroken by the heartbreak that she caused in so many others as a result of her actions. But Wendy also sees God’s hand in this tragedy. One blessing was that she was able to go to the top-rated hospital in the country for brain related injuries. Because of this, she has experience a significant recovery, although she will always carry with her some visible symptoms of the internal injuries. A second blessing is that while in prison, a woman taught her about the Lord and Wendy because a Christian. She was incarcerated for 4 years and 7 months and has now been out for 3 years, this October. She met Craig while in prison through a friend who was a pen pal with him. When Craig was released almost a year ago, Wendy met up with Craig to seek counsel on spiritual matters and to get advice on some relationship problems she was having. Yup, the rest is history (see: “Wendy, Craig’s fiance”).

Wendy says that her caseworker essentially told her there was no hope; that she would end up on in a homeless shelter and would certainly get no social security. God had other plans for her, and now Wendy believes that her role in the Strong Tower Ministry will be to touch the hearts of women getting out of prison, not as an uppity-up peering down her nose as these women, but as a woman who’s been there.

A woman named Kathy was also in attendance Sunday night and shared about her experience in prisoner re-entry programs. Kathy has been involved in the work since 1996 and said she initially got involved “because no one else wants to do this.” Wendy’s husband has been in prison from 34 years now and most likely will never be released. Her mission is to help men who get out, to be able to stay out. She gets around 30 letters a week from prisoners and ex-cons seeking her assistance. She regularly sits in on the parole hearings of men who request it, drives men to job interviews if they need transportation, serves on the boards of two different prisoner re-entry assistance organizations, and works with six different prisons, one of which is the Sterling Correctional Facility. This is where she met Craig. She was the only person to sit by his side at his parole hearing and is now thrilled to see all that he is doing on the outside.

When asked about the apparent dangers of what she does, Kathy says that these men are commonly viewed as the scum of the earth, and that while some people might think that she will inevitably be raped and murdered by one of these men, her experience speaks otherwise. She says that ex-offenders tend to be very appreciative of the help she provides and treat he with respect.

Kathy was also asked to dispel the top three myths about the prison re-entry program. Here’s what she said:

1. “People in prison are all violent criminals and will never change.”

According to Kathy, a lot of prison staff would allow ex-cons live next door to them if that were allowed (I’m not sure if it is) and they ever got out. She goes on to say that many men are in prison for crimes that would make you say, “You got sent to prison for that!?”

2. “All sex-offenders are going to snatch your children off the playground.”

Kathy says that people need to be educated on what a sex crime actually is. It’s not just men abducting and doing terrible things to young children. Getting busted for public urination can qualify a person, legally, as a sex-offender. Trying to pee at a park behind a try and getting seen by a child might be a stupid move, but it hardly qualifies someone as a sick-o. A 20-year-old man who has consensual sex with a 16-year-old female results in the same. Again, not the decisions we’d like to see happening, but a far cry from the stereotypical sex-offender image that typically enters a person’s head.

3.”Criminals are just going to break into your house the moment they get out.”

- Remember, prison isn’t fun. Men don’t want to go back. They might break into your house, but it’s really not likely.

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Stay tuned for (a much shorter) Part Two.

Rules for Talking Trash During Football Season

5. Don’t ever run up and ask me “Did you see the *insert my favorite team* game on Saturday/Sunday!?”

They’re my favorite team. That means I either a) watched the game or b) caught the highlights on ESPN – thereby saving 2 hours of my life and still seeing all the parts you want to talk about. That is, unless you want to talk about the tremendous number of 4 yard passes out of the backfield my favorite team’s running back caught. But I doubt you want to talk about that. Good, I don’t either. An appropriate, beginner-level conversation starter would be, “Wow, Saturday’s game was great!” That way you don’t insult me and, simultaneously, do start the conversation on a positive note.

4. An undefeated preseason does not constitute grounds for prophetic claims about “turning it around this year” (see: Detroit Lions, 2008).

Bragging about winning in preseason is like bragging about hanging out with your “super-hot cousin for like, 3 hours on Saturday.” It really doesn’t say anything for your ability to compete with the big boys and, more importantly, makes everyone else question how well you understand the system.

3. You can’t talk trash if your team hasn’t had a winning season in the last 5 years. Attention: Raiders, 49er’s, Rams, Bills, Lions, and Texans (via @aaron_solomon).

For those who cheer for perennial losers, the more you get excited about your “near win” in week one or your 2-0 start this season, the more you point out how bad your team has been and most-likely will be again this year.

2. Don’t console me for losing over the weekend. I did not lose. The team I cheer for lost. Please don’t accuse me of losing.

Do not walk up to me on Sunday or Monday and say, “I’m sorry you lost, dude. That sucks.” Know why? Because I didn’t play in the game. I sat on my couch and ate Doritos. That means I won no matter what the final score was. Furthermore, I view this type of team-identification as an insult to those NFL players who worked hard for 3 years in college to cheat in class AND accept booster monies without getting caught AND be a full-time athlete. I never juggled that many responsibilities.

1. If you choose not to cheer for a particular team, you are also thereby choosing to forfeit your right to talk trash when the team I cheer for loses. [Necessary political parallel: This point is the same for politics; If you don't vote, don't complain.]

Self-explanatory.

Try to Not Wet Your Pants

It’s called “Contact Juggling.” Check it out…

Bad Break Ups and Eating Fish

Sometimes I learn things. Not as often as I’d like, but it does happen. And when it does happen, it’s usually in way that either hurts or comes about as a result of me hurting someone else.

The other day I tried to encourage someone who had experienced a nasty break-up in the past. My attempt at consolation was to say that the person-from-the-past had turned out to be a good person in the present and now had their life in order (all things considered, of course) and had married a nice person of the opposite gender, had a few kids, had a job, etc. Here’s what I learned, that my consolation could also be perceived as rubbing it in. As in, “The person-from-the-past now has a good life and your life still hasn’t panned out how you had hoped. Chew on that.”

Yup, I came across as a jerk. But I learned. I learned that good intentions don’t always bring about good results. That good intentions can hurt people. And that sometimes there’s nothing you can do about it.

Eating a fish also taught me this lesson, only with better results. I have some refugee friends from Africa who are really cool people and I would never intentionally offend them. But they’re African. Which means they think like Africans. And this is good. But it can make things difficult when they live in America. Surrounded by people who think like, well, Americans.

In Africa, two things are very important (There are more than two things, but two that pertain to this post). One: never show up at someone’s house empty handed. Bring a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread. Something. Just don’t show up with nothin’. Two: never reject an African’s offer to cook for you. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t hungry. You say “yes” when they offer and then eat what they cook. Benson told me that because he knows these things. He would. He grew up in Kenya. But he’s not important here, other than being the one to tell me those two very important things.

So back to my African friends. I’ve been to their house before, empty handed. Oops. Benson (the guy previously referred to as unimportant but who keeps popping up in the story) said I can get away with it because I’m white, but to not do it again now that I know better. So I went to their house last week with some food and my guitar. The family loves music and they taught me some songs in Swahili – their native tongue. I borrowed some Swahili song books when I left two hours later and promised to return them the next day.

After dinner the next day, I pedaled my bike to their house to return the books with the intention of doing it the American way: Knock, knock. Here’s the books. Thanks. Gotta go. Bye. Yeah, didn’t happen. An hour after showing up, I was sitting at their dinner table drinking a Coke and learning about the Congo and Tanzania waiting for dinner to be served. This was dinner:

A plate of little Smelt fish and some ugali (oo-gah-lee: think "corn bread meets pound cake"). I didn't take a picture of the ugali because it would be a boring picture.

And the wife cooked me this too:

Tilapia. With the head on it.

I ate as much as I could (remember, I had already eaten dinner at my house) and had a great time with the family talking about Africa and church and professional wrestling. I got to hold their baby and see pictures from their homeland. They taught me some Swahili phrases and laughed as I butchered them. And we became friends. When I finally left, two hours after showing up, I received hugs and promises to “see you Sunday.”

So I learned something. That eating a fish can mean that world to someone. That learning about someone can help prevent good intentions gone bad. That grace can cover those good intentions gone bad. And that I have a lot more to learn.

How to Tell a Librarian from a Prostitute

I recently took these notes while listening to a sermon from the late Colin Smith – one of my favorite professors from college.

Proverbs 7:1-8

1 My son, keep my words

and treasure up my commandments with you;

2 keep my commandments and live;
keep my teaching as the apple of your eye*

3 bind them on your fingers;
write them on the tablet of your heart.

4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
and call insight your intimate friend,

5 to keep you from the forbidden woman,
from the adulteress with her smooth words

6 For at the window of my house
I have looked out through my lattice,

7 and I have seen among the simple,
I have perceived among the youths,
a young man lacking sense,

8 passing along the street near her corner,
taking the road to her house

*“The apple of your eye” – Whatever someone is looking at is reflected in the center of his or her eye. The idea here is to focus relentlessly on the teacher’s teaching.

Proverbs 1-8 are the “My son” Proverbs. They are speaking as a mother or father to their child teaching him what he needs to know to succeed in the world.

One of the recurring themes in speaking to a son is to keep him from the wrong kind of woman. This was especially important in the Old Testament because the people of God was continued through physical birth.

How does one pick a good spouse? That kind of discernment is not inbred. Discernment is the kind of wisdom and that allows one to see the difference between two or more things that look very similar.

God gives that kind of wisdom through His Word – and that’s what Proverbs is about.

Many people who grow up in the church grow up thinking that telling the difference between good and evil is as easy as telling the difference between a librarian and a prostitute. And typically the distinction is made even easier because the pastor tells us what’s good and bad.

But experience and the Scriptures tell us that the difference isn’t always that simple to detect.

Proverbs 9:13-18

The woman Folly is loud;
she is seductive and knows nothing.

She sits at the door of her house**;
she takes a seat on the highest places of the town,

calling to those who pass by,
who are going straight on their way

“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
And to him who lacks sense she says,

“Stolen water is sweet,
and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”

But he does not know that the dead are there,
that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

**It was customary for women to stay indoors. Women who said in the doorway were typically very promiscuous.

The seductress in this text goes to great lengths to make herself known and seduce the simple one – the one who is naive and lacks the discernment that comes with maturity.

The chapter has a chiastic structure to it, meaning that the latter part of the chapter intentionally parallels the beginning. So here is the parallel text:

Proverbs 9:1-6

Wisdom has built her house;
she has hewn her seven pillars.

She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine;
she has also set her table.

She has sent out her young women to call
From the highest places in the town,

“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
To him who lacks sense she says,

“Come, eat of my bread
and drink of the win I have mixed.

Leave your simple ways, and live,
and walk in the way of insight.”

Both foolishness and wisdom are targeting your soul. And they both can sound the same at times.

The reason many college freshman question/leave the faith upon entering secular universities is because they have never been taught discernment. They have only been told in a black and white manner, “This is right. That is wrong.”

The world quickly makes it obvious that life isn’t that simple.

And that’s what the writer of Proverbs knew. Evil often imitates good, or uses enough good, to appear as good. And a regenerated heart of discernment will be what allows us to tell the difference.

Principles of Discernment

1. You can tell by the pitch; by what’s being sold.
- stolen water/secret bread – v. 17 (that which appeals to the flesh but is sinful)
- “I know it’s wrong, but…”

2. Wisdom is as readily available as folly, but it must be searched for.

Chiastic structure points to the center verse of the chapter:

9:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”

Two levels of wisdom in Proverbs:

1) Seeing how the world operates

2) Seeing the God behind how the world operates

The flesh puts man at the center of the universe. Wisdom puts God at the center.

Two levels of wisdom in this text:

1) Teaching a boy how to choose a good woman.

• There has never been a woman born, who doesn’t automatically assume that when it comes to women, men are stupid.
• A man can easily be deceived by the wiles of a woman – and women know it.
• Proverbs 7:6-24

2) Teach a boy how to seek wisdom

• We live in a world where people show what they think other people want to see in order to get what they want.
• To learn discernment, it starts with the fear of the Lord.