Thought John Piper raised some great challenges for us to think about in our current political scene.

What do you think?

I'm sure a lot of you already heard this story - but it is truly sad and a telling commentary on how ridiculous the 'Holiday' season is in America. Thanks to Ragamuffin Soul for posting it.

I know these pic's are gross, but this story is amazing.

Apparently the owner of this BMW was crusing down the autobahn in Germany at 140 mph when he hit a deer - the deer then disappeared. Which left two options, either the deer vaporized or was now lodged inside the engine - the ladder is obviously the outcome.

CRAZY! Crazy GROSS!

Today I'm thankful for my Jewel and our relationship.

I'm also thankful for my monkey - also known as Micah.

I'm thankful for my buddy KK or Kaiden.

Even though it is boring, I'm thankful for my job.

I'm thankful for the awesome church community we are a part of.

Very thankful for all our friends and family!

I'm thankful for my home and all I've been blessed with.
You can think it's dumb, but I'm thankful for the Broncos - I love 'em.

What about you?

After Prop 8 passed in California, banning same sex marriage, Mission Gathering put this billboard out as an apology for the actions of Christians.

Thoughts?

Took a few days off from the blog world, but didn't really get to relax much either.

This past weekend flew by, my blackberry crapped out, laptops and internet were fighting, Sunday was so busy I can't really remember what all we did (but we did have dessert at Chili's which was awesome) and then it was back to work in the turbulent times of the auto industry.

We took Kaiden in for a swallow test yesterday at Detroit's Children's Hospital - we are trying to figure out why he chokes all the time. So they strapped him to a chair, fed him food and shot radiation through his little bod - Julie got to watch the whole thing, said it was really cool. Anyway, turns out he has 'Oral Motor Dysplasia,' which is a fancy way of saying he has a lazy tongue or more accurately he doesn't swallow correctly.

So we are starting the OMD foundation for kids who can't swallow correctly - just kidding. Nothing a few physical therapy sessions won't cure for the little guy.

And in the end it is almost time to celebrate Turkey and all I have to be Thankful for, with the bonus of a few extra days off! Can't wait.

On another blog tour reviewing this new book by Steven Scott - it essentially is a concordance of all the recorded words of Jesus from the bible. It has been enjoyable to review and add to my library of resources. It is a great tool for study and a cool way to collectively read Jesus' words.

It's Sunday, Thanksgiving is in just a few days and in the spirit of being thankful for all we have, even our shoes we should keep in mind the less fortunate. For only 5 bucks you can give 2 pairs of shoes to help lesser fortunate children in the world.

Join Ann Jackson and Soles4Souls as they work to give 50,000 pairs of shoes in 50 days.

2 Ways You Can Help:

1. Make a one time $5 donation and purchase 2 pairs of shoes. It is that easy to make a difference in someone’s life.

2. Use this link and help spread the word by emailing your peeps or adding a banner to your blog, MySpace or FaceBook.

This is a shout out to my wife - Julie - on her 25th Birthday. Happy Birthday Jewel!

My wife is awesome and my life would not be complete without her. She is still my best friend and I love sharing our lives together.

She is also one rockin' mom to my boys. I couldn't have married a better partner for this journey in life - she makes me a better person, she challenges me, loves me and supports my crazy antics and dreams.

...is that stupid people have the same right.

As much as the election of Barack Obama has shown progress in closing the gap of the racial divide, it has also shown us how far we still have to go. Here are just some of the post-November 4th incidents that prove our country still has a ways to go in judging a person by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin;

• University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston said a poster of the Obama family was ripped off her office door. A replacement poster was defaced with a death threat and a racial slur. She stated, "It seems the election brought the racist rats out of the woodwork."
  

• Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, N.J., and Apolacan Township, Pa.

• Black figures were hung by nooses from trees in Mount Desert Island, Maine

• Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted "Assassinate Obama!"

• Racist graffiti was spray-painted on two dozen cars in New York and a high school and skate park in Texas
  

• Swastikas, racial slurs and "Go Back To Africa" were spray painted on sidewalks, houses and cars in Los Angeles
  

• At Standish, Maine, a sign inside the Oak Hill General Store read: "Osama Obama Shotgun Pool." Customers could sign up to bet $1 on a date when Obama would be killed. "Stabbing, shooting, roadside bombs, they all count," the sign said. At the bottom of the marker board was written "Let's hope someone wins."

• In the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying "now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house."
  

[these sound a lot like headlines from the 60's]

If only we could revoke the speaking rights of stupid people who still hold an archaic worldview that separates on the basis of skin color. But their unfortunate (and in some instances illegal) expression of conviction does serve as a reminder to both the minorities and the majorities that we still have work to do.

Following all the discussion about the last two days posts, it reminded me of the huge statue I saw of Jesus this summer. This sweet piece of art and monumental tribute to our Lord and Savior is brought to you by Solid Rock Church in Monroe, Ohio. This was designed and built by the same guy who sculpted the huge Neptune at Ceasar's Palace in Vegas (top notch). It is some 65 ft in the air and right off the highway as you head in or out of Cincinnati.

I get that they mean well and had only genuine intentions in constructing this, but...

...isn't this a lot of money that could have been spent doing something a little more productive? Is it me, or does this seem ridiculous to those outside our faith? How many people have come to know the Way of Jesus because of this freaking huge sculpture of him? I'm all for art and expression and creating things that make the world say, 'Wow!' but I don't think this is it.

Thoughts...

I could only handle 30 seconds of this - again I submit, this is not a way to bridge the gap between church and culture. It's a lot like Napoleon Dynamite meets Joel Olsteen live on stage in Branson, Missouri.

I'm all for bridging the gap between church and culture - I submit this is not the way.

We are excited to be hosting the 1st annual Walk With Love today. I'll post some pictures when we are done, but a bunch of our awesome friends here in Michigan pitched in to help raise money for Mike and Candice McGarvey.

Groups in Georgia, Colorado, New Jersey and Florida joined in as well (they did a 10k - but we were too cool, so we voted 5k). Mike and Candice work for an non-profit called Teen Challenge, which is a drug and alcohol recovery program. My own father is in one of their 1100 centers.

It isn't too late to help out if you would still like to make a donation - email me and I'll hook you up with the info.

If you already donated and/or participated - thank you so much for joining the cause!

[I need to preface 3 things; 1st, if you don't know who Ted Haggard is - just google it, you'll get more than you wanted. 2nd, if you do know Ted and you remember what happened 2 years ago, you probably just said, 'Crap, 2 years ago already?' - yeah, life is going too fast. 3rd, my own wife doesn't even agree with the entire contents of this post - so I won't be offended if you don't because our journeys have been different. All I ask is no anonymous stupidity.]

Ted Haggard returned to the public spotlight for the first time in 2 years when he spoke at a church in Illinois this past weekend...news I celebrate.

As a Pastor-been-fired-for-messing-up myself, I not only know what Ted has gone through (much smaller scale obviously) but have also felt the sting of church judgment. It brings up thoughts of second chances, God's enduring love and the frailty of human beings.

It is a powerless feeling to know that you can never change the perception that others have of you when your screw-ups become public knowledge. It is unfortunate that church culture has created socially acceptable tiers of sin. Though the impact of Ted's sin was widespread, the sin itself, the mistakes were no different than the gossiper, the glutton or the lustful thinker. He missed the mark, he fell short, he acted outside the God-set boundaries he believed in, just like you and I do all the time.

I think there are 2 major lessons from Ted that we can learn.

1. We are all human. Just human. Pastors and Christian SuperStars will never be more than human, which means they are completely capable of failure - just like you and I.
2. We should stop pretending we are so right and just live out the redeeming story of Jesus with humility. We should live in such a way that when we fail and when our leaders fail it only reinforces the powerful story of God's grace in our weakness.

The week following Ted's mistakes becoming public, Bill Maher said this,

"The legacy of the Religious Right will be that: Despite all their Holy pretenses, they made politics not cleaner but dirtier, because when you're so sure your right, you wind up acting so wrong."

I don't agree with much that Bill Maher says, but this has a stinging truth to it. Ted was outed by the prostitute after openly (on air) condemning homosexuals leading up to the elections in 2006. The Christian voice and the Conservative Right have become synonymous with hypocrisy. A hypocrisy made more potent when a Holy pretense of perfection clashes with the frail reality of human brokenness.

So, for those that are followers of Jesus, may all of our failures only reinforce the beautiful story of faith we subscribe to, as we live humbly.
And for those that do not follow Jesus, may you begin to see God outside the hypocrisy of human failures and see Him for who He is in the complexity and perfection of His creation.

John Roscoe Wells was a great man and he was also my grandfather.

He was just Poppy to me and will always be remembered as the gentle man he was. He was at every significant event in my life until he passed away almost 5 years ago. I only wish my boys could have met him - he would have made an awesome great-grand dad.

He served our country for over 27 years in the Army. He served in the last few years of WWII, in the Korean War, through Vietnam and was station everywhere from Columbus, GA to France and even India.

Veterans day is an important day in the American calendar and as it came and past this year, I found myself missing Poppy. I miss his stashes of candy around his house. Those that know me, know I eat a lot of candy - Poppy can be thanked for that. I would also not have the profound appreciation for Road Runner and the entire Looney Toon's clan if it wasn't for Poppy. I remember many a Saturday mornings watching cartoons with Poppy.

Anyway, in addition to being an awesome grandpa to me, he was highly decorated in his service to our country. Upon his passing we went through the boxes of medals and awards he received from his time in the military. We found all these medals in a dark corner of his closet - things he never talked about, never wanted recognition for and I never want to forget. They represent the life of a hard working American hero.

He met my grandma (Nana) while serving in Germany and she immigrated here to the States with him after the war. I'm proud of my family's history and the service of my Grandfather. He has inspired me in my life and was such a honest and simple man. I love him. Below is a picture of him on December 9th, 1969 on Hawk Hill in Vietnam - it reminds me of M*A*S*H.

This is a re:post from the Out of Ur blog - great blog if you don't follow it. These are the thoughts of John Ortberg, one of the Out of Ur contributors. I thought it was a fitting follow to yesterday's post about anonymous hatred.

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“Seven Deadly Sins of Evangelicals and Politics.” ~John Ortberg (full article here).

Messianism. The sin of believing that a merely human person or system can usher in the eschaton. This is often tipped off by phrases like: “The most important election of our lifetime” (which one wasn’t?); or “God’s man for the hour.”

Selective Scripturization. The sin of using Scripture to reinforce whatever attitude toward the president you feel like holding, while shellacking it with a thin spiritual veneer. If the candidate you like holds office, you consistently point people toward Romans 13: “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.” If your candidate lost, you consistently point people to Acts 4:10 where Peter and John say to the Sanhedrin: “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God.” It’s just lucky for us the Bible is such a big book.

Easy Believism. This is the sin of believing the worst about a candidate you disagree with, because when you want them to lose you actually want to believe bad things about them. “Love is patient, love is kind,” Paul said. “Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth.” But in Paul’s day nobody ran for Caesar. There was no talk radio.

Episodism. The sin of being engaged in civic life only on a random basis. The real issues never go away, but we’re tempted to give them our attention only when the news about them is controversial, or simplistic, or emotionally charged. Sustained attention to vital but unsexy issues is not our strong suit.

Alarmism. A friend of mine used to work for an organization that claimed both Christian identity and a particular political orientation. They actually liked it when a president was elected of the opposite persuasion, because it meant they could raise a lot more money. It is in their financial interests to convince their constituents that the president is less sane than Jack Nicholson in The Shining. Alarmists on both sides of the spectrum make it sound like we’re electing a Bogeyman-in-Chief every four years. I sometimes think we should move the election up a few days to October 31.

One Issue-ism. Justifying our intolerance of complexity and nuance by collapsing a decision into a simplistic and superficial framework.

Pride. I couldn’t think of a snappy title for this one. But politics, after all, is largely about power. And power goes to the core of our issues of control and narcissism and need to be right and tendency to divide the human race into ‘us’ vs. ‘them.’

What might happen if the world were to see those of us who claim to be the church vote, and speak, and campaign, and respond to the results in a humble and repentant spirit?

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Thoughts?

Below is a comment I received over the weekend that is hilarious. Enjoy!
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I came across this blog by chance. You enlightened 20-something, so called Christians, crack me up. "Wrestled with your decision" - You didn't wrestle with anything. Be honest your mind was made up long ago. It’s obvious with the orgasm you’re now posting about Obama. All that matters to you is that the "Black" guy won. You excuse “life” for “other issues”. Do you even have a clue what his issues are? Did you even research what the guy wrote in his book? He’s an admitted socialist. He’s pro gay marriage, pro infanticide on a botched abortion, he voted 44 times on legislation to raise taxes: His racist pastor, his ties and sympathies to terrorism, his hatred for the Jew whom you all claim to serve. – the fact are there. They’re in prin. They’re in his books & writings. Well I’m not going to try and convince you bunch of dopes just how blind you are. Because you want to be blind. You want to want to trade a real messiah for this one. I hope you get everything you deserve.
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Why so angry? It made me laugh and I continued to find humor in how some anonymous person who won't put a name to their thoughts is questioning the legitimacy of my faith. I didn't know I was having an orgasm for Obama either. I was just excited that our country has taken a huge leap in bridging the civil rights abuses of our past.

I guess by re:posting this comment I'm giving Mr A props he doesn't deserve and yes I assume he is guy - girls aren't that stupid. Right?

Mr A you should calm down, stop assuming you know me and stop pretending like random comments like this are accomplishing anything. No one needs your anonymous hatred.

I think everyone has a few of these, they are verses of God's word that consistently echo in your head and speak to your spirit. Some of these were epiphanies for me as I grew in my understanding of God's design for my life. Some spoke right to where I was at a certain moment in my journey and continue to remind me of how far God has brought me.

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Jeremiah 15:19 -
"And if you extract the precious from the worthless, You will become My spokesman."
Matthew 26:41 -
"Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."
Mark 8:38 -
"If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."
John 4:23 -
"But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth"
Hebrews 10:20 -
"a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh"
1 Thessalonians 2:8 -
"Having so fond an affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives"

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Do you have any?

The first annual Walk With Love is only a week away, but it isn't too late for you to join in and help out.

We will be running/walking/riding/biking a 5K next Saturday in downtown Howell to benefit Mike and Candice McGarvey. You can find out more about these two good friends of ours here, here, here and also here.

If you would like to just donate, email me at kevin@thethirdplaceonline.com and I'll give you the info needed.

And if you donate you get your very own Walk With Love t-shirt!

Don't be shy, they need YOU to help out - even donating just give 10 or 20 bucks will help out tremendously.

I joined on for another blog tour with Random House publishing for a journal called 'Me, Myself & I AM.'

This was the first time I wasn't able to completely finisth the book before reviewing it - but I am enjoying it. Here's the summary...

A new experience of God comes one question at a time in this fun and provocative journal. Made up entirely of insightful, profound, and occasionally ridiculous questions, Me, Myself, and I AM invites you to open to any page, open yourself to God, and be the author of your own story.

Questions range from spiritually intriguing—

You overhear God talking about you. What do hear him saying?

to thought-provoking—

You are on a long car trip with a close friend who is not a Christian and the conversation turns to faith. What is your biggest fear about what your friend will ask or say?

to challenging—

Do you believe that all of Jesus’s followers have a responsibility to tell others about him?

to just plain fun—

If your life before you became a Christian were a movie, its title would be:

Animal House

As Good as It Gets

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

It’s a Wonderful Life

Me, Myself, and I AM will entertain, inspire, and get you thinking about your spiritual life from brand new angles. Whether you use Me, Myself, and I AM as a reflective tool, a way to start conversations with friends and family, or as a spiritual time capsule to look back on years later, their own words will create a powerful journey of self-discovery.

If we could wear our faith like a Letterman Jacket, it would look quite different; quite different in the unusual usual way of Gods upside down kingdom. A faith whose power stems from the foolishness of man, from the innocence of a child, from the humility of broken people and from the boasting in ones weakness not strength.

If we could wear our faith as a statement of who we are, it would be so different than others. Our world endorses the perceived power of ones own ability. Our society accomplishes itself by consuming to no end, in a world that believes success is defined by how much you own. Our culture gives lip services to the ideas of character and generosity that merely scratches the surface. Our worlds idea of sacrifice is to give in proportion to what you'll get back, absolutely strings attached and does more for your sponsors and your own PR.

Our culture adorns it's Letterman in what man has conquered, in what man's athletic ability has achieved, in what power man's intellect possesses. The American culture letters in physical beauty and medals in fictitious standards of size, shape, color and style. We commit to being lifetime Letterman of consumerism, medalist in the square footage of our homes, the sportiness of our cars and the number of unused toys in our garage. We know it doesn't bring happiness, but the bigger our TV's are, the more channels we have access to, the more gadgety toys we possess, the better we feel about ourselves and our lives (and we have the mortgages, the car loans and the credit card bills to prove it).

But if we could wear our Christian faith, like a Letterman, it would counter our cultural ideals with humility and simplicity. We would adorn ourselves in how often we've failed and how our God's faithfulness is written through out those failures. We would medal in being more child-like; learning, asking and enjoying the world God has created. We would speak not of what we have done, but rather of what God's grace has accomplished in our lives. The Christian Letterman would not put on the facade of perfection as so many other jackets do in our culture, but would whole-heatedly admit to the fragility of our broken human condition and the greatness that lies in the story of Jesus.

But maybe the real question does not revolve around if we could wear our faith, but rather if we could more accurately follow our faith?

Saw this, loved it and now I'm reposting it. Putting politics aside for the moment, I love what this picture says about our countries past and it's future. I'm a big fan of Dr Martin Lurther King, Jr and he is who I was thinking about as I watched Barack's speech Tuesday night.

I love that we've been able to come this far. I love that through peaceful demonstrations MLK paved a path that lead to this moment. I feel indebted to all of those, both black and white, that struggled for this moment in our history.

And now I hope this is another big step in bridging the racial divides of our country.

But does it?

Is faith ridiculous, irrational and stretching at times? Yep, which is exactly why it is called faith.

I don't have to be ashamed of my belief in creation, God or Jesus, because the evolutionist, the scientist and I all have faith in something. Some have belief in a Big Bang and that belief fills in the gaps between eternal matter and chimpanzee's evolving. Others have faith that God created all we know and that He has a design for each individuals life, and that belief fills in the gaps of a love and a greatness we can't wrap our minds around.

One's faith is atheist and says there is no God.
Another's faith is agnostic and says there might be a God.
Other's faith says there is a God or many gods or Allah or Budha or Self or...

We all have faith in something. All of us. So faith isn't an option, it's a recognition and a struggle between our minds and our hearts. Faith is a marriage of our soul and our mind that brings us, all humanity to an application of that reality. What will it look like for me? How does my faith change me, make me better, make this world better?

Is my faith scientific, non-committal, religious, based on past hurts or based on a relationship with a greater power that seems to be at work holding this world together?


It's Personal - A Former Atheist Speaks from dewde on Vimeo.

This picture made me cry laughing - don't know if it does it for you, but it sure did for me.

So after much internal debate and questioning I'm headed to the voting booth to cast my vote. I have wrestled with not just the 'issues' we always talk about, but also the system as a whole.

I'm proud to say that I'm voting for a whole-life perspective and not just the typical pro-life approach. I believe there are a lot of issues that need to be address in our country, but with a clear conscience maintain that my faith and hope is in Jesus alone - not Obama or McCain's victory in this election.

So, here's to tomorrow as our country moves on with it's life and here's to the change we all want, though we don't agree on the approach.

This is a good lead into some thoughts on faith that I want to share this week. Thanks to Matt Gaw for re:posting it from some other guy. If you don't know Matt, he is a cool guy from my home state and a missionary to the Ukraine - check him out.

Exactly one year ago I checked off a life dream of mine - to enter a ring and box somebody and survive. I posted the actually footage here and it explains more of the why. I remember telling people that I was going to do it and so many people thought it was dumb. The first time I spared someone, I too thought it was dumb. But when the actual night came, I was in shape, I had been trained, my family and good friends were there and it was an amazing experience. It felt like I had whip-lash for a week, but is a night that I will never forget. A night when I did it because I wanted to. And now I know 'I couldn't have been a contenda.'

Pursuing your dreams in life is a fun and crazy ride.

...and thank God for it. I'm ready to move on with our lives here in the States and hopefully start to see change in the many issues brought to the foreground during the election process.

With the election in 2 days, I wanted to share some thoughts from a great article by Shane Claiborne on the God Politics blog. You should read the whole thing, but here are some good insights and questions for you:

• Jesus was far too slick to get boxed into any political camp.
• One of the ways the Religious Right went wrong was telling folks what to do rather than stirring people to think for themselves.
• The decision we make on November 4 is an important one — perhaps no more important than how we live on November 3 and November 5 — but important nonetheless.
• As a follower of the enemy-loving God, it is difficult to vote for a commander in chief of the largest military in the world, especially when no candidate seems to be preaching “blessed are the peacemakers” or creating a plan for turning swords into plows.
• No candidate or party fully embodies the values of God’s upside-down kingdom.
• Perhaps a good answer when folks ask if you are a Republican or Democrat is: “On what issue?”
• One way for people of so-called “privilege” to act in solidarity with the poor and marginalized is to ask folks in poverty who we should vote for. Another experiment for white folks in this election might be asking people of color who have suffered so much historically whether we should vote or who we should vote for — and to honor their struggle by submitting our voices with theirs.
  
• One way to look at voting is that it is damage control -– not so much voting for something as it is voting against something worse.

After hearing about the 'Letter from 2012 in Obama's America' from my #1 commenter Ryan Billings, I'm joining Jim Wallis and other bloggers of faith asking Dr Dobson to apologize for the ridiculousness of this letter.

Even though Ryan and I don't see eye to eye on issues of faith and politics, we have been friends since Jr. High and he has a way of keeping me grounded (and as a side note, he has yet to actually post something of his own, his blog is mad boring).

Anyway, let me be clear that I'm not a hater on Dr Dobson or Focus On The Family. I grew up in Colorado Springs and have many friends who worked there and have heard him speak numerous times.

However, this is the exact reason I hate Christians excersizing their voice in our Democracy. We have an unfortunate tendency to be just as polarizing and demonizing as those who don't share our faith. And the unfortunate part of doing it in the name of religion is that we further the divide between ourselves and the 'others' who don't agree with us. This letter comes across ignorant and offensive, and I'm a Christ follower. This letter paints us exactly how so many 'others' see us, as irrational, un-intelligent and blind fools following a religion.

That is not me, that is not my faith and this letter is wrong. So on behalf of Christians who seek a higher ground in America and political involvement, I'm sorry - we're not all this way.