I just want life to easy and sandy beaches and chill music and good whiskey.

Its February and its cold and winter and I'm apathetic. I'm restless for something. I have a Macbook, iPad, iPod, cell phone, Netflix, mortgage, multiple vehicles, kids, a dog, and job, and I somehow feel restless.

There will always be the next big thing and I'm really tired of the next big thing. I'm really tired of the pursuit of romanticizing the idea of financial freedom and an open schedule.

Its crazy that I become weary of all the things I desperately chase after. Its counter-intuitive. Maybe I'm overly analytical or no one voices it, but how do people go about the same business everyday and not go crazy? How do people spend 51 weeks/year in the same 51 mile radius when there is a whole world out there?

Do people need structure and order or do we need open spaces and freedom to be happy? Maybe it depends on the person?

Oh, and just to be clear, my life is going well. I just hate that I must be entertained or I get bored.

I feel like I'm strapped to a merry-go-round lately. I'm in a rut and I'm just blah. I don't even want the "turn to God" answer even though I need it. I just want life to easy and sandy beaches and chill music and good whiskey.

Following Passions

These days, I'm noticing that I'm quite driven. I've got several goals that I'm working towards and that our family is working towards. They play a huge part in my life and a lot of what I do revolves around those goals. I'm excited because I can see noticeable progress towards those goals and others can too. I also notice how fulfilled I feel, knowing that the activities I engage in are meaningful, life enhancing, activities.

This got me thinking about how its so easy to passively float through life. We watch hours of football, play hours of call of duty, or spend hours shopping online. While none of these is naturally bad, a lot of it is. We're such a consumer society and so used to being entertained, that we've been tricked into believing that ultimate entertainment is the best thing in life. Yet, obviously, its not.

I'm finding that the more I pursue my passions, the more fulfilled I am. And, while my passions center (sort of) around Jesus and his Kingdom, I think this would be true for any person. In my opinion, we were made to follow our passions. I'm wired to be a problem solver and deep(ish) thinker. So, naturally, I gravitate towards fixing motorcycles, aspiring to build a tiny house, and building non-surface level relationships. These give me so much life. For me not to do these things would be such a waste.

I'm not sure I can fully articulate why I feel so strongly that more people should follow their passions more than they do, but I just do. Its strikes a tremendous chord in my these days.

What are your thoughts?

Guest Post - Living Simply

A week or so ago, a good friend of mine asked me to write a guest post for her blog. Her theme is entitled "Living the Kingdom at Home" and I decided to write about living simply. She's an editor and so my words sound a lot better when she edits them. The edited post is below. Her blog (which is awesome) is http://manysparrows.me/

____________________

People say money drives everything. But maybe more accurately, it’s our massive addiction to stuff that drives everything.

In the 1950s, the average home size was 983 square feet.

In 2007, the average home size was 2,349 square feet.

And average family sizes have dwindled.

Advertising and marketing is an extremely lucrative industry. We’ve been convinced that we need things to fit in — things that people in the ’50s never dreamed of. Stuff is more accessible than it ever has been. Smart phones and laptops make it impossible not to know the latest fashions, electronics, and trends. The accumulation of toys, furniture, appliances, electronics, vehicles, etc… has grown substantially in the last 50 years.

Anyway, I don’t really want to convince you that society is addicted to the accumulation of stuff. I’d rather point to Jesus and share my experience in recognizing and managing our addictions to stuff in my own family.

As I think about the life of Jesus, I realize that while he didn’t have access to an iPhone, he must’ve lived simply. He traveled, on foot, for much of his life from 30 to his crucifixion at 33. He worked as a carpenter and lived to carry out his passion with the rest of his time. He probably carried a change of clothes and maybe a few carpentry tools. He told the rich young ruler to sell all he had and give it to the poor. He basically regarded material things as not having much value. I have to believe that if Jesus were alive today, he’d live very much the same way.

About 3 years ago, my wife and I moved into a house. As recent college grads, we did what everyone else does — worked big boy and big girl jobs. Being a math teacher, I immediately became alarmed with the amount of money it took for us to meet our monthly budget. I began to ask myself how we’d ever have kids when we had very little extra money. So, we started identifying ways that we could trim. And, I can happily say that 3 years and 2 kids later, we’re living on less than we did then.

What’s the difference?

The difference for us: We’re using a more Kingdom-minded approach to our home. Remember how I said that Jesus lived to carry out his passion? It looks different for everyone, but for us, it has involved adopting our two kids and building relationships with our neighbors/college community.

• We adopted our two kids from Uganda about a year ago. This took a lot of financial sacrifice and a whole lot of leaning on others for support. But, this is one of our passions and God doesn’t give us passions not to have us follow them. (That would just be mean, right?)
• Secondly, our front door may as well be a revolving door. Our kids have their neighbor friends over a lot and we host a weekly meal for college students and young adults in our area. We also have random people over during the week and a college student lives in our basement. To do this, we had to simplify our space in our house (to accommodate/have a college student live with us) and simplify our budget (to afford our relationally driven life-style).

While I’m not saying that you should adopt a child (although you should), I do think God gives us all unique passions and abilities. I also believe the biggest hindrances to using those passions and abilities is societal pressure. Pressure to have everything that the media and world tell us we need to have.

Your stuff is a means to accomplishing Kingdom results. (I know the Jones’ have a 2013 Escalade, but maybe you could settle for a 2005 minivan and afford to get involved with something you’re passionate about.)

Hebrews 12:1 says “…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

Our stuff can be a hindrance. Once we figure out which things hinder us, are we able to “throw those things off (away)?” In my experience, it’s a difficult thing to start, but once you do, it gets easier and feels better. A lot of the time, I miss the SUV that I used to have. But, I obsess much less over the minivan that we have now. It works better for our family and helps us accomplish Kingdom results better than the SUV did.

When we use a Kingdom lens, the things that matter and the things that don’t become much clearer.

So, here’s the action step: What are the things in your home (or budget) that hinder you from doing Kingdom work?

Mediocrity: the enemy of growth.

Mediocrity is the enemy of growth and fulfillment, yet everyone seems to be pursuing it.

We (including me) are so scared to do anything outside the status quo, that we go on doing the things we complain about and don't really like doing. We work our jobs we sort of like, we attend family and church functions with people we don't really know, we buy expensive houses and cars just maintain and obsess over them. Basically, we spend our whole lives trying to fill a hole within ourselves with nothing that will actually fill it.

If we're all asked to take a survey, most would respond that money is not the key to happiness. It would show that our top priorities do not include our jobs and we're not attached to the bigger physical items we own. But, then we obsess over how much money we make, complain about our jobs (yet spend the majority of our time there), and spend our weekends cleaning houses and waxing our cars.

We say "Oh, that's too bad that that person has cancer" or "those orphans in Africa sure have it rough." We silently judge those who are poor, have broken families, no college education, and live on that side of town.

The majority of folks I know are professing christians and the majority of people I know rarely do anything beyond give a little money to the church they attend. There is physical, emotional, and spiritual poverty everywhere and I don't think we believe Jesus when he talks about helping 'the least of these.' We pass our silent judgement and we're on our way - back to our comfort zones. We focus on Iowa football, who we're partying with this weekend, laying low and grinding our way through the work week. We have the thing in our lives that we should be most passionate about - Jesus. Yet, we just aren't.

I know it starts with me - the only person I can do anything about. And that's half my frustration, I am the person that I complain about. But sometimes, I can't help but vent about the rest of us. 

Jesus doesn't live in a closet.

This guy preached a couple of Sundays ago and said something that I thought was rather significant.

He was talking about resting in the Love and Grace that God extends to us. Then he said, "God does not sit around, thinking about my sin. So, as a result, but not a goal, I find myself sinning less."

It makes sense to me this way. I usually try to pull myself up by my bootstraps and do everything myself, including be a 'good' christian. In doing this, I find myself constantly frustrated because I can never measure up to where I feel like I should be.

Instead, God wants us to bask in his love and grace. When we really start to get a grip on how much God loves us and how much grace he extends to us, everyday, I think we start emulating Jesus. We start reaching out to people, asking for direction from the Holy Spirit, and thanking Jesus for making such a huge sacrifice for us. Essentially, we start focusing on God and Jesus' work on the cross and stop focusing on ourselves (and our own shortcomings).

We stop practicing closet christianity because how could we keep such amazing, life-changing news all wrapped up inside of us? We don't love our neighbors and love God because we feel like we have to. Heck, we don't even love our neighbors and love God because we want to. We love our neighbors and we love God because true understanding of his grace and love is so moving that we literally cannot have any other response.

So, STOP TRYING TO BE A GOOD CHRISTIAN and just focus on God's love and God's grace. That's all he ever wants us to do.

crazy people, part 1.

Matthew 1-4 documents Jesus' birth to the beginning of his ministry. I've read it before, but these days, there are a lot of "crazy" things going on around me. I began to notice a theme I hadn't noticed before...

Everyone worth mentioning was, by my standards, completely crazy.

     1. Mary gets pregnant by the Holy Spirit.
     2. Joseph does not leave her because ... he had a dream/vision.
     3. He marries her anyway and Jesus is born.
     4. The Magi don't return to tell King Herod (a ruthless man) where Jesus is because ... of a dream.
     5. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus leave and go to Egypt because ... of a dream.
     6. Herod slaughters all boys in Bethlehem 2 years old or younger.
     7. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus move back to Israel because ... of a dream.
     8. John the Baptist, probably a crazy, homeless man, proclaims Jesus and baptizes him.
     9. Peter and Andrew drop their entire lives and follow a guy telling them crazy things.
    10. James and John drop their entire lives and follow a guy telling them crazy things.

So, here is a possible outline for Matthew's account of the first thirty years of Jesus' life:

     - God entrusts his only son to a set of parents who are open to getting direction through dreams.
     - God prepares the way for Jesus using someone who seemed like a homeless man.
     - Jesus enlists the help of uneducated men who were willing to leave their jobs and follow him.

It occurs to me that all through the bible, the crazy ones were the ones worth mentioning. These were the people who could be described using words like "faithful" and "righteous." The Pharisees were keepers of the law, much like many christians then and today. They weren't bad people. In fact, they were pretty good people.

Being a "keeper of the law" is a category I most often fall into. I'm a good, responsible person. I love my kids and wife, I go to and give money to the church, and the list goes on. However, I'm not being called crazy for doing these things. While I'm not saying God doesn't call some people to do non-crazy things, I am saying that too many of us are "keepers of the law." It stands out to me that the people the bible chooses to talk about are the crazy people.

Clearly, God creates people to both little and big things. A person who doesn't get mentioned in the bible is not necessarily doing anything wrong. Likewise, a person who does get mentioned in the bible isn't necessarily doing everything right.

However, I do think God wants us all to grow and the only way to grow, is to be spiritually stretched. Those that continually allow themselves to be spiritually stretched are the biggest difference makers in the kingdom of God.

So, while being crazy isn't mandatory, it sure makes me stop and think whether I'm fully sold out for Jesus, or if I'm just trying to live a comfortable, moderately devoted christian life.

Manufactured Homes

Why don't more people live in manufactured homes (mobile homes)?

Maybe in other parts of the country, people do. Some of the research I've done seems to indicate that there are places where many people live in them. However, around here, they seem to have a negative stigma. And, I'll admit, the ones I've driven past aren't kept up too well. However, there are pockets of manufactured houses that are quite nice; much nicer than the house I currently live in. Manufactured homes are often a fraction of the price of a conventional house and can offer many of the same things a house can.

They don't hold their value, they are poorly constructed, you don't own the lot. These seem to be the top reasons for not owning a manufactured home (other than the negative stigma issue). If a family were intending to buy something to live in for the long haul, I would think they could find a quality made one. Also, since the mortgage would be paid off much sooner, the overall cost of owning one would be much less than that of a house (little or no property tax as well).

So, am I missing something here?

Derek