Intensity

I've been thinking a lot lately about intensity. It's a concept that I'm not sure I have an even keeled grasp on. Take for example sports. I'm not intensly focused on playing a lot of sports, but the times that I do play, I get intense. I hate losing, and I love winning. Sports make me intense. Ministry is another good example. Shawn and I pulled two all nighters working on a calendar and I pretty much up and died today at 4:30 p.m. because of it. Going to bed at 5 a.m. two days in a row and hopping up at 7:30 and 7:50 respectively is pretty intense. And it had an intense effect on me. All through the day, I was groggy and I really don't feel like I was me.

Let me give you an example: When noon rolled around, I kept answering the phone "Good morning." One person called three times in short proximity and noted that to me. It wasn't like I didn't know what I saw saying. For whatever reason, I just couldn't control myself until I really took a minute to focus and reprogram my brain. It was difficult to do that, because I was trying to address my mind and be conscious in dealing with a problem that didn't have its roots in a conscious process. Rather, it had its roots in my lack of sleep and lack of consciousness. It took more effort for me to do things with extra focus than it would have if I had simply gotten enough sleep.

As Christians, we find ourselves dealing with similar issues all the time. We want to show Christ, we want to be regenerated in His image, and we want to live like we're born again, but so often there is a disconnect somwhere in our lives. Some people say that disconnect happens when we don't read our Bibles. Yeah, I would agree. Some people say that disconnect happens when we don't pray. Yeah, I would agree. There is another step to make the analogy complete though.

Just like our spiritual life, sleep has multiple stages. There is the waking stage, in which we're sort of tense, and we lay around while sleep comes. This could really be comparable to the time in a person's spiritual life in which they're not sure exactly how to connect with God in prayer. Stage 1, or drowsiness, the next stage, is a state that people can go into and come out of without even realizing it. I'm reminded of fidgety students in a prayer circle that kind of zone in and out of prayer, and don't stick things out - when they leave, they sometimes say "nothing happened!" Well, you're right young fidgety one. Grasshopper say wait. Stage two is like stage one... except your muscles intermittantly go into periods of deep relaxation. A spiritual comparison would put stage two as the point you begin to "feel" the presence of God come over you, but you're not "bathed" in it.

Stages 3 and 4 see a person get into a deep sleep that is noted for it's continious rhythm. This is kind of neat - I see this as that place where we fall into a position where we can hear from God. We are relaxed, our minds are open, no distractions. Just a spiritual rhythm, a place of focus, and open field for God to communicate to us. But even at this point, we're not truly at the height of sleep. And it's the next stage, REM, that I want to look at in an upcoming blog. :)

Right now though, I'm gonna hit the hay with as much intensity as I can muster!

Redbull Consumption

Redbull consumption is at unsafe levels. I think I have to switch to water. A contest has emerged between Shawn and I as to who can play the most annoying music. I thought I had one with "Ridin'" by Chamilion, but he came back with a song called "Chain Hang Low."

My only alternative is to strike back with "Beautiful," by Christina Aguelera.

How many Redbulls and Tickets does it take to make a Youth Calendar?

You know, we make some nice stuff at River Valley Church. If something is worth doing, it is worth doing well. Especially if you're doing it for the Lord (and we had better have the mentality that everything we're doing is for the Lord). So, at the beginning of the summer, Shawn Roehl and I made the first professional print quality calendar the youth ministry has ever used, and had it professionally printed. It was a big hit (even though some students STILL didn't get it home to their parents and some parents STILL didn't understand how much we WANT them to know what's going on!), so now we're doing it again.

I'm somewhat nervous though. You see, it's not really coming along on time. In fact, I'm taking a break to write this. Also, last time I worked on the calendar, I left the Church at 3:00 a.m., got a ticket, and was called a liar by the Apple Valley City attorney when I went to court for my ticket and told her what I was doing ("Working on something for Church 'til 3:00 a.m.? That smacks of dishonesty!" she exclaimed when I told her). Needless to say, I've gotten more tickets this summer than I have the rest of my 6 years of driving... even though I drive far, far less than I ever have before. The cops here do their jobs, I guess. At least they do something.

But, with the grind hitting me now, my questions are: How many redbulls will it take to keep me awake, and how many times will I get pulled over on the way back to my house?

I hope I'm 2/0 when the night is over. Somehow, I doubt the redbull figure will be accurate.

World Trade Center

I've been privelaged to listen to Craig Armstrong's World Trade Center soundtrack for the last half hour or so. Needless to say, I'm very moved by it.

I've not seen the movie World Trade Center. I don't plan on seeing the movie, either. At least not for a while.

3 days from now, it sounds like we were to have Sept. 11, part II as a nice 5th anniversary present from Islamofascists based in England. Until yesterday, I hadn't really sat down and pondered that much. What is going on in the world today?

The simple fact is, we are living on the brink of a war the likes of which the world has never seen. If we don't play our cards right, we may have World War V on our hands (I consider the French and Indian War to be the first world war, and the Cold War to be WWIV).

Look at the situation in Lebanon: A war staged by Syria and Iran to unite the Arab World, provoke Israel, and prove western impotence, all while drawing focus off of the Iranian nuclear program. Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, is a populist leader in a country facing inflation that is literally just about to top 100%, with 20% unemployment, in a nation that controlls the Madir militia in Iraq and Hizbollah in Lebanon. Despite problems at home, he is bankrolling $12,000 to anyone in Lebanon who had their home destroyed during the recent war.

But it all comes back to nukes. The US and France are the boldest opponants of Iran right now. France recently surprised the world by not deploying 1,700 troops in boats off the coast of Lebanon into the nation as a part of UNIFIL. I'm not surprised. I think France is looking at this situation and seeing that it has to retain military options for Iran. Many senior US leaders have also begun to quietly push for greater US troop deployment to Iraq as well. John McCain is among them.

We are very close to a war with Iran. However, we won't go to war directly with that nation. There will be something elsewhere, a miscalculation by either us or them, that will start things going. And then God help us all. This war will, simply put, not end with military casualties. The entire world economy will be restructured and we will see a power shift similar to the one at the end of the 1940's.

As Christians, we need to pray that God would prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Flat out. I don't want a war with Iran, and I don't think that God ever wants war. Any more than he wants sickness or poverty. If Iran gets nukes though, there may well be war.

This Spray... Isn't What I Thought It Was!

Laptop makers have, for reasons known only to God and John Ashcroft, chosen to put stickers on laptops right where a users Palms are. In other words, they've chosen to put stickers where they will slowly wear away and go into ghetto janky mode.

God just blessed me (through my dad) with a slightly used laptop. At five months old, it is in great condition. Save for a janky Windows XP sticker. I wanted it off. So I took it off, and went to get what every real man uses after they take a janky sticker off of their laptop: adhesive remover. I went at it with precision and caution, spraying adhesive remover on piece of paper which I then wiped onto the area. "Man!" I thought as I wiped, "This stuff really spreads out as you wipe it!" I sprayed more on, and more, and more, and more, and more. Then I began to second guess myself. You see, the adhesive remover in the office had actually been in a black bottle, and this was a brown bottle. Come to think of it, we had some adhesive in the office that was in a brown bottle. Some really, really nice 3m 77 adhesive.

That's right, I wasn't spraying adhesive remover onto my new laptop, but adhesive. Retardo alert my friends - all hands to battle stations! Darci in the daycare helped me out with some goo gone, and no damage was done, but I've never been laughed at so heartily.

I can't help but think that for all my good intentions here, I was doing the wrong thing. I wanted to make a clean slate from something that was worn out and old. But I was just making things worse.

The Bible says in Proverbs 14.12 There is a way that seems right to a man,
but in the end it leads to death.

I don't know how many folks I've worked with in ministry whether it was in Nashville or Oklahoma City or Rockford that have come to me distraught because they found themselves doing what they thought was right - 100% - only to have everything crash and burn. My least favorite thing has been 45 year old women wanting to know why their marriage sucks. Go ask a married person, 45 year old woman. I can't really say that though.

If you're crashing and burning right now, I only have two pieces of advice for you. The first is to pray. God gives wisdom to those who man up and ask Him! God loves to see people deal with issues instead of running from them, and if you're in a bind let God be your anti-bind (and all the people that graduated between 01 and 03 yell "God is my anti-drug!"). He wants to talk to you and guide you.

The second piece of advice is to seek counsel. The Bible talks a lot about this as well, encouraging us to get advice from others we know to be wise. The sad thing is, polling has shown Americans not only feel more disconnected than they did 20 years ago, but that they feel they have fewer sources of good friendship and counsel than they did 20 years ago as well. Again, I say man up. If you want a friend, be a friend, if you want a mentor, mentor someone who isn't as far along as you, if you want counsel... there is always someone more jacked up than you!

Whatever you do, don't keep spraying stuff that doesn't work on your problems. Einstein did say, after all, that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing and expect different results!