Not So Super Size?

So did you ever see the documentary that made you never want to set foot in a fast food restaurant again? I mean seriously, I couldn’t even picture a Big Mac without having that little reflex of acid slide up my throat… ok sorry. The “Super Size Me” documentary took us all on a little journey that left us with a pit in our stomachs. Actually it felt just like well… like what you feel like after you would eat their food believe it or not. Amazingly enough, this gorilla style documentary/reality show brought conversations of reform to all the major chains and seemingly some level of change (as long as the nutrition facts are true :).

I grew up loving McDonalds. What 80’s child didn’t? It was a staple to my childhood entertainment. What could compare to a day trip with Grandma to Kmarts (ya’ll know there was an S on the end of it in some parts, or so the locals had grown to believe) for some new velcro kicks or a blue light special outfit followed by the amazing Micky D’s. Absolute bliss. The happy meal. I mean, wow. Sheryl Crow wrote it in the ‘90s, ”if it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad”… right? The cheap toys in the cellophane you could hardly open, Ronald McDonald anything, the Monopoly game that no one has ever won, movie themed collector cups, the “playland” and who can forget Hamburgler? I remember holding my breath when traveling with my parents as we would pull up to a McDonalds. You’d see the big tall freeway golden arches and just couldn’t wait to see if that window-clad structure would be dominating the front of the building.

Funny thing is… in the midst of McDonalds’s marketing and “create an experience” success, they forgot they were a restaurant. They serve food. The whole reason people came there in the first place was to be fed (and food that wouldn't kill you if it was all you ate). Without the need for food, wasn’t Micky D's just a mini amusement park that you would have visited maybe once a year rather than once a week? Even crazier is that it only took one man, a few cheap cameras and a decent amount of spare time to expose that fact that they had forgotten who they were and what they were actually offering. The very foundation of their success, which was to serve the best quality (nutrition and taste) hamburger around, had been abandoned.

I’ve been a Christian all my life. I actually remember in 1983, at the age of four, longing to know who God was and asking God to show Himself to me. God would speak to me as a child and I pursued him with everything I could. I’ve kind of been around the block of Christendom if you will… As a ministry family, we moved a lot. My parents have fathered three start up churches and we visited or rather, “fellowshipped” hundreds of churches over the years. Working in full time ministry and community outreach facilities most of my adult years thus far, I’ve encountered thousands more of believers who represent the attendees all the way to leaders of their respective churches. I’m extremely thankful for these experiences and encounters. I’m thankful because it’s given me a broad exposure to what we’ve created as the church. I love the church with all my heart. I believe in the purpose and I want it to succeed.

To The Employees:

Unfortunately for a lot of people, their experience with the church has been more amusement park and less food. The western church (organization and body) has really done a great job of packaging things like never before so that people would sense the efforts to be “relatvent”. But my question is this: what is it exactly that we’re packaging? So we’ve lifted our excellence in our delivery, but what happens when they receive it? What did they receive? You think the dog that chases cars, actually knows what he’s going to do once he catches the car he chases? What now? Isn’t the point of our spiritual journey, to lead people to experience the creator? What if it’s intended that every time someone encounters a believer that it should be a life changing experience? Anyone who encountered Jesus had exactly that.

Well, I believe we have the world’s attention. We’ve caught the car. They’re coming to see our playland, eat our happy meal etc… I think the times of the world are drawing many people to question and search for purpose and life and what are you (as a believer who has access to the very throne of God) offering? Are you willing to offer something that is undeniably of God or are we so caught up in our “happy meal” toy we’re giving away to the first 50 visitors that we didn’t feed them good food. The world is looking for something life changing. Love motivated. Hope Giving. Something that lasts a lifetime. Let’s not forget who we are as believers and what it is that had gotten us here. We have good news for everyone and they need to hear it then SEE IT, from YOU!

To The Patrons:

I pray you encounter a person who knows God in a way that is undeniable and that the character of who they are would be so impacting, that it draw you to a place of wanting to know more about who He is and the wonderful life that is available thru a relationship with Him.

..:: 4th and Goal ::..

It’s funny how much of a bad rap marriage gets. I guess i can understand when we see how poorly executed it has been by those before us. But our generation isn't on the the golden road either. We are a “commitment-less” generation of people coming up the ranks. Our parents decided to shake it up and make love free in ’69 and for forty years we’ve been walking in the wilderness of selfish me first relationships, bound to have a not so pretty ending. So where’s the love? Ya know, true love? The kind that lasts a lifetime? The kind that satisfies the greatest desire?

Well, I’m a hopeful person. I asked for a Lions Jersey last Christmas and wouldn’t you know that’s one of the few things that landed under the tree with my name on it. (Thx Scooter and Lolo ☺) This was the beginning to a bold declaration that I was no longer going to be a closet Detroit Lions fan, but have a little faith in their future. This little hope that I have doesn’t come from thin air, there’s actually been a radical change in the direction of the organization/players and some of the things they’ve shown have been inspiring to believe that something is different. We might have a future in our relationship as players and fans.

I’m a hopeful person when it comes to love too, but beyond that, I know love works. No new jerseys needed here to show it, although my wife wearing my Calvin Johnson (#81) jersey could have a very happy ending. ☺ sorry… I got distracted for a moment… … jokes aside, I emphatically choose it. Not feel it. Not hope i fall into it. I choose it, cause Love is a choice. Everyday I reinforce my love for her with considering her in all my decisions. What is sacrificed in commitment (let’s be real, relationships are hard work!), is more than gained thru companionship. The need for love is so powerful. It’s in our DNA. God designed us with love as the single most conscious and subconscious need that we have. Some would argue that money or knowledge would be contenders, but isn’t the drive of those things there simply to build the perception of those around us as higher? (we really do care what people think). It still comes back to receiving varying versions of love from those around us healthy or unhealthy aside.

Back to football… Watching the Lions vs. Bears in their week one opener was really inspiring. The bears had pretty much had their way with pushing the ball down field and had arrived at the 1 yard line. After three attempts to get the ball in the endzone and failing, they decided to go for it on fourth down. (if they don’t make it, they lose the ball and it’s a potential game losing decision as well) The OLD lions would have just laid over and let them score. The NEW lions had somethin’ to say. NOT IN THIS HOUSE! The players had a mindset change and stopped them from scoring. While they lost that game anyways, these small victories are paving the way for a winning future. A change from thinking about who they used to be as a losing organization to really focus on who they can become as a team but even beyond that- what if they were thinking about who they were playing for? I think it really resonated with fans because for many years they’ve been in a “football wilderness” so to speak. As a losing franchise, fans have waited for the chance to be proud to wear a jersey, ball cap or maybe even go to a game and cheer them on. That’s a novel idea. Needless to say, these small victories are paving they way that the team really wants to make this relationship with fans work. They need the fans. The fans need them.

Over the last 8 years of my marriage to Melissa, there were times I looked back to the history of learning how to love selflessly and making incomplete decisions with myself in mind more that anyone else, and was discouraged to believe in my future. Honestly speaking… I woke a few mornings and asked myself “What did you get yourself into?!” It’s funny how our emotions can try to intervene and eliminate the foundation of love which is commitment. Commitment affords you the chance to see that love (when supported with selflessness) is still alive! It can always be cultivated, if we choose to do it. Maybe if we chose to do this more, our fans (spouses) would wear our jersey, ball cap, or who knows… maybe actually show up to the game to cheer us on. That’s a novel idea. I need my wife. She needs me.

Watching football as cheesy as it may be, was a great reminder of the NEW choices I’ve made over the last few years and that was to believe in my future because of what it’s intended to be. Marriage or even love in general was intended to be good. That means there is a way that makes it work and have a great ending. It’s God’s way. It starts with thinking differently about our future, and then investing accordingly. Here a little and there a little. In football small victories (like stopping them on 4th and Goal) yield winning attitudes, in love small investments of selflessness yield winning relationships. The bible says the two shall become one flesh. When your spouse wins, you win. If you make them lose, you lose.

It’s 4th and Goal and it takes two to tango right? So why not give your spouse something to cheer about? Be selfless, be committed… be conscious of your companionship, the need you have to be loved and your companions ability to fulfill that need. It’s possible. Who knows… it may even work for the Lions.

Show Me Generation

Kari Jobe wrote and delivered a song entitled "You Are Good" on Gateway's Wake Up album. No, this isn't the Israel Houghton down tempo remix by Ms. Jobe either... (nobody get any ideas either, lol... it's time for NEW songs) This song is either a simple chorus for you to sing, or as it was for me... a revelation and an experience. The first verse says…

Your kindness leads me to repentance

Your goodness draws me to your side

Your mercy calls me to be like you

Your favor is my delight

About the same time I heard it (about 1.5 yrs ago), I was also being exposed to some thought provoking teaching as well. It was the perfect marriage or even collision in some cases. Collision only because it began to really challenge a lot of my thoughts of what and how i perceived God at it's core.

In the amplified bable, uh I mean Bible… it says: “4Or are you [so blind as to] trifle with and presume upon and despise and underestimate the wealth of His kindness and forbearance and long-suffering patience? Are you unmindful or actually ignorant [of the fact] that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repent (^[a]to change your mind and inner man to accept God's will)?” ROM. 2:4

In the NKJV, it replaces kindness with goodness and I can’t figure out which one is better cause I like both of them! But my thoughts get taken to the fact that simply put, it’s His kindness/goodness that initiates change in our thinking.

We’ve been thinking wrong. The western church’s thoughts toward repentance have always been initiated out of fear, shame and condemnation and yet the word says that none of this exists when we’re in Christ.

I come across so many people who have been shown and taught a very distorted, incomplete version of who God is. Our understanding of what God is like is one of the most important anchors to our relationship with Him. If we don’t believe in the entirety of His character, how will we know how He feels about us in regards to who we are and what out future looks like? And beyond that, what if we just really don’t know who He is?

Kari continues to sing in the bridge of her song:

Your kindness is forever

Your goodness is forever

Your mercy is forever, forever

I want to show others the kindness and goodness of God that lasts forever. Not Judgment. There’s no life in judgment. God is kind, gentle, full of joy and laughter, peace, rest and compassion. If we don’t KNOW this though, how can we walk in it? And better yet, how can we give it away? Our generation is tired of people telling them things. We’re over solicited, over marketed, over sold and completely under delivered. We want to see Him. It’s a show me generation. Unless someone is introduced to God thru what they see, I don’t believe they will respond. You are what they see.

So my final thought is this… What are we showing people? There are people that need the love of God to complete them and as Kari Jobe has reminded us thru the scriptures given by Paul, it’s the kindness of God that will lead them to the place of repentance, to think differently. We are the channel, the video, the movie, the song of kindness that will inspire them to want to know him and believe that their lives can be different. Let’s show them who HE is. Take a risk. Ask God to lead you to those that are ready to be shown and then offer yourself completely. See what He will do thru you.