Friday, July 31, 2009

Within Arms Reach (Picture Included)

I said I would share some adventures from our vacation, here's one.

Part of our vacation, I had the opportunity to stay with a college friend from Seattle Pacific University, Jason and his wife Emily. They are superb people. They were so hospitable to us, and took great care of us while we were there. I am sure I gained weight while there because of the scrumptious food.

Jason's Dad has a boat, so they decided to take us out in it while we were there. They live in Encinitas, right out side San Diego, and the place they took us was in San Diego Bay, right off Coronado.

Jason, his dad, and I went down early to the boat launch to ensure that we would get some prime parking, so to waste some time while waiting for the rest of the family, we went out to the open ocean through the bay.

What's interesting about the mouth of the bay, is that you can be a mile from shore and the water is only about 30 feet deep. While we were out there, we spotted a pod of dolphins! Man, it was so so cool! There was about 5 or so of them swimming together, so we drove the boat up to try and get closer to them.
We got so close that our boat was actually right on top of them, I was laying down on the bow of the boat and there were two dolphins on either side of the boat under the water just a few feet. It was exhilarating to see two fantastic creatures in the wild! I had never been so close to a dolphin before in my life!

Jason did his best to maneuver us close to the dolphins, and as I was laying on the bow of the boat, with my arm fully extended in the the water, I came about 6 inches away from touching the dolphin!! I was literally screaming with excitement! It was one of the neatest experiences of my vacation.

As we were coming back into the bay, I was thinking to myself how awesome it was to see such a beautiful animal in the wild. To watch them swim and jump with each other and think how God wonderfully made these creatures. It occurred to me, how is it possible that people think that there is no God?

To me, there is no possibility that we are a random organism that evolved out some green ooze. Viewing those dolphins brought to my mind the fact that God created them, and us, and that's a beautiful thing.

Remind yourself of that today. You were created by God. So were the dolphins.

be blessed today
matt

here's the pic I took with my phone when we were coming up on them.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

It Don't Matter If You're Black or White

My son has a new found love of Michael Jackson music. I admit, I may have contributed to it somewhat. When I got Gabriel his mp3 player, I put 2 MJ songs on there, 'Wanna be startin' somethin' and 'Billie Jean'. Two epic MJ songs.

Well, through a weird coincidence, MJ died a few months later, and my son has now become very interested in his music. I updated his mp3 with some Jackson 5, Bad, Dangerous and of course Thriller. We were on YouTube the other night watching videos of MJ. Pretty cool.

So my son walks around the house singing MJ songs all day, and yesterday he was singing "It don't matter if your black or white". It really got me thinking about race a bit. Its been quite an issue in the news the past week, with the whole Cambridge Police vs. Gates/Obama thing. I'm not sure why that is, but it seems that this race thing is something we can't seem to get over.

No matter what you're race is, I'm sure that at some point you were treated a certain way because of your race. Its sad, but true. There are still people out there that make decisions based on race. It shouldn't be that way, God never intended it that way, but its the way that it is for a lot of people.

Here's my thought- God doesn't care what skin tone someone is, and we shouldn't either. God is going to deal with us on the heart level, and to us, we are called to do one thing- love. That's it. Nice people, bad people, funny people, dumb people, tall, skinny, fat, ugly, pretty, smart and dumb. No matter what, we are supposed to LOVE people.

One of my favorite Bible verses is from 1 John, it says "whoever does not love, does not know God, because God is love". That's our calling. That's our mission. To love with the passion that God loves us.

As ol' MJ says, it doesn't matter if you're black or white, and it doesn't. Truly doesn't. If we would love people, all people, this race thing wouldn't be such an issue.

Go love someone today.

Matt

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

How to Cope With Loss

I told you I wanted to share some of my stories from our vacation, and today is the first one.

On our vacation, we went to Disneyland. Yes, we went there again. I know, some of our friends think we're crazy, but we love Disneyland. Its a great place for us.

While we were there, our daughter, Faith, wore a cute little pink visor almost every day. It said, "25% cute, 25% sassy, 25% something, 25% something (I forget), 100% princess". Its a cute visor. And she loved to wear it.

Well, at the end of the day, after we had been at the park for about 15 hours, we had to get on that train/tram thingy and ride back to the parking lot to get our car. As we were riding, Faith became aware that she didn't have her visor, and became quite upset. Apparently, she had set it down somewhere in the park, and forgot to pick it up.

Obviously, this did not sit well with her, and she began to cry a little bit. I know, its only a visor, but she's 6, it was a long day, and she was hot. Crystal and I tried to console her, to no avail. And then, it happened. My 9 year old son Gabriel offered his wisdom to the situation- "Faith, if you love something, set it free".

Then she really started to cry. I'm not sure if it was because of what Gabe said, or because of our uncontrollable laughter, but she wailed, and we laughed harder. It was so hilarious to hear that nugget come out of my sons mouth.

I know the blog title is about coping with loss, but on some level I think this story illustrates a truth about all of our own condition. We all have things that we love and cherish, and at times we lose them. Its not easy, or fun, but it happens. It may be something big or small.

Gabe's truth has an encouragement for us all. Sometimes, when we relinquish our own need to control and possess that which we truly love, we show our ability to truly love it, by setting it free. In a Christian connotation, it could be manifested by giving something over to God. Its hard. Its not easy, but sometimes its the best thing we can do.

Is there something you need to set free today? Something you need to let go of? A thought, a pain, a person? Let it go to God today and put it in his hands and watch what he can do with it.

Oh, and we bought Faith a new visor.

Blessings
matt

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Why You Can't Live On Vacation

I'm back from vacation. It was a great two weeks. We had a fantastic time. We've been pastoring for 6 years now, and have never taken 2 weeks off together as a family, so it was a real treat for us to be able to do it.

We started our vacation on the Oregon Coast, drove down the 101, saw the redwoods, went to Monterey, San Diego and Anaheim (Disneyland). Met people, visited people, and had a ton of fun.

There are some great stories from my vacation that are going to be blogs over the next few weeks. I don't want to use them all up on the first day back. That wouldn't make sense would it?

Vacation is what it is, its a vacation, from things, from people, from responsibility, but the reality is that when you come back to reality, you have to realize that is not the way that life is. You have to work, you have to be connected, you can't eat bad food every day. There has to be some sort of order and continuity to your daily life.

There is a certain comfort found in routine. Sometimes you have to break it, but its nice to come back to it.

Maybe you're in your routine right now. Perhaps you're stuck without being able break your routine, and that's okay. We honor God with our routines, or at least we have the opportunity to. We can decide, in the midst of our daily grind, to realize that we honor God, our families, and ourselves with the daily things that we do.

Here's to having a great week. I've missed writing the blog. It will take a bit for me to get back into the 'swing', but it will be good.

Keep watching this week for more from vacation!

bless you
matt

Friday, July 10, 2009

How Can You Jam, if You Can't Hear It?

Yesterday, a guy from my church and I went to Guitar Center in Tukwila to get the Church's guitar fixed. We've only had it for about a month, but it was acting up, so we wanted to take it back to see if we could exchange it, or at least get it fixed.

We got there at about 955am, because we thought it opened at 10, but no, it didn't, it opened at 11am, so we spent some time roaming around the mall, looking at shoes and inhaling the pungent cologne smell that wafts from the Hollister store.

We got back to the store, and were sitting in front of the door, when one of the employees came up to get in for work. We had been talking to another guy, who asked him if he was the manager, and the guy said that he was the guitar repair guy.

In good Matt fashion, I asked him about our guitar, even though the place wasn't open yet, and he wasn't on the clock yet. We opened our trunk, and showed him the amp and guitar, and he said, "more than likely you've got a bad cord".

When the shop opened, we went inside, and sure enough, the guy was right. The cord that we had that connected the guitar to the amp was no good. It was a real easy fix, all we had to do was buy a new cord.

I meet alot of people in my travels. As a pastor, what I hear alot of people tell me, is that they want to grow closer to God. To grow spiritually. To get back on track, to learn more about Jesus. It comes in different statements, but its all the same, they want to be somewhere spiritually, that they currently are not. And the big question is how.

Yesterday's adventure at Guitar Center illustrates a point. If we were guitar, and we wanted to connect with an Amp(the amp representing God, because an electric guitar without an amp is useless), we would need a good cord, to make a good connection.

What would this cord be made of you ask? Its simple,once you know who God is, you maintain that connection with a braided cord of prayer, scripture, worship at church, service, and giving. People want to know the way to get connected, that's it.

Its quite simple actually.The concept of connectedness with God can be understood in the simplicity of a braided cord. You just have to make sure you're using one that isn't broken, or else you'll never make that connection.

Get connected and stay connected. You'll grow spiritually.

Bless you
matt

Thursday, July 9, 2009

All We Need Is.....

Love. Seriously. Its been something that has been on my mind a bunch this week. People in my estimation, are not loving enough.

When I say not loving, Its actually a double meaning. I don't think that people internally are loving on the inside, as in "She's a loving person". I also think that people are not loving in their actions, as in "I'm going to go show them some love".

Have you ever seen someone on stage that says "Show em some love" before a performer comes out, and then the crowd erupts in applause? That's not love. Have you ever heard someone call someone "love", say at a diner or place of business? That's not love.

Love costs. Love hurts. Love puts itself out there.

Love is the antithesis of selfishness and unforgiveness. Love is against pride and hurtful attitudes. Love, as the Bible says, "covers a multitude of sins".

There is nothing more important in any relationship than the amount of love that someone is showing in the relationship.

How loving are you? Do you forgive easily or do you hold a grudge? Do you allow yourself to be inconvenienced for the sake of love? Do you put yourself out there and put yourself in a position of possibly being hurt for the sake of love?

There's a great scripture passage from the Bible that talks about love. Its in 1st Corinthians chapter 13 (The Message version), it says,

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

Challenge yourself on the level of love you have today. And make the choice to love some more. God will honor you for it.

I Love you
Matt

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Is There Someone Living in Your Attic?

Interesting story out of Pennsylvania. Apparently a family had a 21 year old man living in their attic for a week without their knowledge or consent. He had been evicted from a neighbors living area, that had a shared attic. He was also taking things from the house when they were at work.

Pretty interesting. I wonder what that guy was doing up there all day. Especially in the summertime. My attic gets real hot up there, even on moderately warm days. With no air, refrigeration, or television, what did that guy do to occupy his time while he was up there? Dress up in Christmas decorations? Make sculptures out of insulation piles? Pull-ups on the trusses? What a life.

Makes me wonder, why would someone live in an attic, and most importantly, how did this guy pull this off without the family knowing for over a week? Was it possible that their house was so loud that they couldn't hear a cough or a walk over the ceiling? Was their life so hectic that it was impossible to notice a creak from above or to recognize that something had been taken from their house? Its a weird story about the guy, but to me, its even weirder that it went on for a week with no knowledge of the owners of the house.

I guess to realize that there may be someone living in your house that you may not know about or want may not be the easiest thing. Maybe their house was never quiet, or orderly enough to recognize that something was different. Perhaps the television was on too loud all day long, or they spent more time talking than listening. Its completely possible that they may have heard something and were afraid to investigate, or denied that there may be something wrong.

Is there something living in your attic? Literally or figuratively? Has your life become so hectic that you've allowed something to start living in your house that you don't want there, or shouldn't be there? Is your life so loud, fast and disorderly that you've lost the ability to realize that something may be living with you that you don't need there?

Take a spiritual inventory today. Sit in your house, be quiet and listen to what's going on. You may find that there is some stuff in there that shouldn't be there that you should get out of there. Sure, you may realize that there is some weirdo living in your literal attic, but you may also find that you've got some univited guests in the attic of your mind, or the spiritual rafters of your house.

You don't need the uninvited guests of worry, shame, fear, guilt, or anger anywhere near your house. It takes some silence and reflection to allow God to reveal them to you. After reflection, if you find them, get them out of there. They'll steal more from you than any attic dwelling nutcase will.

Be blessed
matt

here's the news story

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

I Can't Believe I Dyed My Hair (Pic Included)

Well, I did it. I dyed my hair blond. Well, at least I tried to get it blond. Its actually more reddish. I did this once back in college when I was on spring break, and for some reason, I had a fond memory of the experience. It was fun, and very "California" (which happened to be where I was that Spring of '97). Crystal and I and the kids are planning a California Vacation for 2 weeks starting Friday, so we thought it would be 'fun' to dye my hair for the vacation.

I'm not sure how 'fun' its going to be. I was going for more of the Guy Fieri (The dude from Diners, Drive-ins and Dives) look, but ended up more with the guy who bought a bottle of the cheapest stuff at wal-mart who was trying to look like Guy Fieri look.

I went on my walk this morning and wore my hood on my head. I was completely aware of the fact that I have a head of hair that now looks like a landing beacon. What was I thinking? I'm not sure. I guess this is what makes life exciting at 34 when you're married with two kids. Except now my daughter frowns when she sees me and my son wants an earring. What a great example that Pastor Matt has set for the children.

Here's the nugget- over the next few days and weeks, I'm going to probably get some reactions about my hair. More than anything, I'm sure people I know and don't know are going to make assumptions about me simply because of the new appearance of my hair. Its sad, but true. People make up their mind about people because of something to do with their look. The truth is, this shouldn't' be the case. I'm the same guy I was yesterday when I was a brown headed guy. I still have the same brain, the same heart, the same thoughts. The only difference is the package that its coming in for the next few weeks.

In the Bible, there is a story about a young shepherd boy who would be king of Israel, a man is sent to go and look for him and is told "Do not consider his height or appearance, for these are the things that man looks at. Man looks at outward appearance, the Lord looks at the heart".

Challenge yourself today. Do you judge people based on how they look? Do you make assumptions about what kind of person they are? God looks at the heart, and we would all do well to use that as a means of understanding who a person is, not what they look like.

Be Blessed,
matt

Friday, July 3, 2009

The Blood Of Freedom

Tomorrow is the 4th of July. The day that we as Americans celebrate our Independence. It's one of my favorite holidays. I like the food, the family, and the flag. Here's what I like most. The fact that we are free, or at least a form of freedom.

When we declared our Independence from Britain, it sparked the revolutionary war. About 25,000 Americans died in that war. Over two hundred years later, we still have American soldiers that are fighting in wars, so that we can be free. Wars and the shedding of American blood has provided our freedom. We should remember that. We should honor that.

Our freedom is somewhat limited by the form of Government that we operate in, but its still the most free government around. Most people don't appreciate it, or enjoy it because they are oblivious to the fact that there were people before them that paid the price for their freedom.

The greatest battle that was won with blood, was the battle for your soul. It was won by Jesus Christ on the cross. His blood paid for your spiritual freedom!

Today as you're preparing for your weekend, or spending time with family, remind yourself that the freedom that you have was provided by two people- the Savior of the Universe, Jesus Christ, and the American soldier. Honor them both by remembering the price they paid for your freedom.

Ask yourself if you're honoring them with your life.

Have a blessed fourth. Be safe.

Matt

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Have You Ever Been Duped?

Billy Mays died this week. Do you know who he is? He's that famous pitch man from TV that got his first infomercial fame with the product "OxiClean". There is a funny rap remix of the product "Kaboom" that you may like here. It has nothing to with the blog, but I like it.

So anyway, when I was a kid, and I would be sick and home from school, I would lay in bed and watch TV all day.

When my mom would come home from work, I would literally greet her with a hand written list of all the products that I had seen on television that day that I thought that we should buy. Of course, she would say no, because she knew that probably 80-95% of the products were bogus, and wouldn't live up to their claims.

I was young, I didn't know any better. And apparently she didn't think that we needed to cook an egg faster, chop our food better, or get our windows cleaner.

What I should have known is that most people have mental filters that they use to determine what is real, trustworthy, and legit. As a child, those filters are not usually in place, so its easier to get duped.

Do you have good filters in place to ensure you're not getting duped? Do you believe every email forward you get? Do you agree with every person that comes into your life? Do you watch the news, or read the paper, or a book and believe it is all complete truth?

I am not saying that you should live your life as a skeptic as much as I am saying that at times it is beneficial to dig a little deeper into somethings to make sure that you or your family is not getting taken advantage of by someone or something that appears to have all the answers to you problems. Whether it is soap scum or spiritual development.

Check your filters today. Make sure they are clean and ready to use. Filters are what the Bible calls discernment. I like Proverbs 3:21 "My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight".

Use some of that grey matter between the ears today. Make sure you're not getting taken advantage of, or believing everything you hear.

Be blessed
matt

PS- We got one hit from Wyoming and South Dakota! Thank you! Now we still need Kentucky, Delaware and Rhode Island! Anyone got someone out there?

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Asking God The Tough Questions

I got a call yesterday from someone in our church who just got through beating cancer. She was at the doctor yesterday and found out that there are some new lumps in the other side of her neck. She's having surgery this Monday to have them removed and to determine if they are cancerous.

It's devastating. For her mostly, but also for me.

I believe that God heals people. I believe that God blesses people. I believe that God doesn't put sickness on people. I believe that God has a plan for everyone. But here's the difficult part- knowing all of that, how do I make sense of something such as cancer?

Where does it come from? Why does it exist? How does it fit into God's plan for humanity to have something that is apparently within all of us, that shows no mercy to anyone and can attack at anytime?

Here's the three most faith-filled words again. The words that get me through alot "I Don't Know". I wish I did. I wish that as a pastor when I get calls like that I had an immediate answer or scripture that provided instant comfort or relief of the pain of something as scary as cancer.

I think with alot of things like cancer, or other forms of evil that people can use it as a reason to not believe in God, or question if he exists or not. It doesn't really do that for me as much as it solidifies his existence in that in times like these I long even more to reach to something more powerful than I am. That knows the answers that I don't. That has the ability to see things that I may not understand and comfort me in the times of distress.

The big question that I think this raises is, does God make everything in the world happen, or does the world operate on its own freewill devoid of divine intervention? It's a tough question, I know, but its an honest one in times like these.

Sometimes the comfort is in knowing that he knows the answers, not knowing the answers myself. We all have a need to know, and in times like this I think its a feeling that is even stronger.

Pray for her today. I don't need to tell you her name. God knows it. She is a wonderful woman who loves God and people. She got through it before, she'll get through it again.

Don't be afraid of asking God tough questions. He can handle it. You can handle it. It doesn't change his nature, it doesn't mean He isn't love. Sometimes things are just beyond our comprehension.

Be blessed today.
matt