One of my ministries as a “bad Christian” is to make you feel better about yourself as a Christian. Today my sacrificial gift is to make you feel better about yourself as a human being. I am going through a stretch of amazing stupidity. I am serious. I am talking Guinness Book of Records stupid. However, I have adopted the philosophy that if you will laugh about something a year from now you might as well start today. So here is my stupid week in review. In one calendar week I lost my drivers license. Twice. That is not a mistype. Recovered both times thanks to honest citizens. I went to retrieve a toy from the pool for canine friend Maggie. You guessed it. I slipped and fell head over heels into the water. I surfaced to the curious looks of my Labrador who had decided the pool was too cold for swimming. Oh yeah, I hurt my back in
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The use of Hump Day to describe the midweek turning point has been around for awhile. It became a bigger part of the national lexicon thanks to a commercial and a camel. I wish I was mature enough to say I was only mildly amused by the Geico commercial featuring the overbearing camel wandering through an office. I can’t. I stopped whatever I was doing every time it came on. The hope of this humble rambling each Wednesday is to provide a little hope to get you to the weekend. This is how hope is defined as a verb by dictionary.com. …to feel that something desired may happen. Example: I hope that the Cleveland Browns will play in a Super Bowl before I die. It is interesting that the next meaning of the verb hope is noted as archaic. …Archaic. to place trust; rely (usually followed by in) Call me archaic (my sons and workmates often do) but that
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Last night may or may not have been good for you politically. I am hopeful that real change can happen in this country. Just know that I do not put my hope in parties or political action groups or rising political stars. Been there, done that, using the t-shirts to wipe up messes. My hope is in revival through grace inspired communities that serve and love and make a difference. In a recent article I touched on how a bunch of disadvantaged and essentially powerless believers truly changed the world with a new movement called Christianity. An article about the early church from Christian History Timeline had some answers. The earliest Christians did not have church buildings. They typically met in homes. (The first actual church building so far found is at Dura Europos on the Euphrates, dating about 231.) They did not have public ceremonies that would introduce them to the public, and they had no access to the mass media of their
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This week has had some challenges. That hardly makes me unique. I remember my Grandmother saying “Mercy me!” when she encountered something difficult. I had a variation of that response today. I cued up some MercyMe. I would guess that many of you who have stumbled onto my blog are familiar with the uber successful Christian band MercyMe. Their signature song, I Can Only Imagine, is a compelling ballad about Heaven and what it might be like when we see Jesus someday. But I am praying that their legacy will have really started with the release of “Welcome to the New”. This new album is the most amazing, encouraging, moving and upbeat packaging of grace and identity in Christ that I have ever discovered. My favorite track on the album is Flawless. Here is a sample of the lyrics. Could it possibly be That we simply can’t believe That this unconditional Kind of love would be enough To take a
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The Hump Day Hope comes from two of my favorite grace rabble-rousers. My friend Ed Underwood wrote an excellent piece about our innate mistrust of grace. The title alone was enough to generate deep thought. Before You Decide that Grace is Too Radical: Who Thought of Grace? Religion is about control and performance. Jesus changed the dynamic completely and made it about relationship. Ed’s writes that the idea of grace does not come from the heart or mind of man. If you leave human beings to themselves and ask them, “If there’s a God, what do you think He’d demand from people if they wanted to have a relationship with Him?” the answer is always the same, “Be good enough for Him to accept you!” Grace says you can’t be good enough to earn it. Grace says you can’t be too bad to receive it. Grace gives up the need to control. Grace gives up the requirement to perform for
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