The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Month: May 2009 (Page 3 of 4)

In Praise Of Mom

May 8, 2009 / / 0 Comments

“God could not be everywhere, so he created mothers.” 

  ~Old Jewish Proverb

On a literal level, we certainly disagree with the proverb. God is most definitely everywhere. But in a symbolic sense I dearly love what the proverb proclaims. For we do see our God in our mothers.

In Praise of MomWhen our mothers cook for us our favorite meals, sew the patch in the knee of our blue jeans, and slip us the cash for the movie, they are reflecting the provision of our God who always meets the needs of his children.

When our mothers hold us closely through the thunderstorm, watch us as we cross the street, and insist on meeting all our friends, they are mimicking the protection we’re promised by our Father.

When they wipe away the tears and apply the band-aids and force the cough medicine down our throats, they are In Praise of Momshadowing our God, the Comforter and the Healer.

Our mothers love us unconditionally, despite the messes we make and the trouble we cause. Even when we don’t listen and we don’t behave, mom’s love never wanes. She disciplines us when we stray from the path. She forgives us when we wreck her carpet or her drapes. And she encourages us to be everything our God has created us to be.

In Praise of MomOur mothers teach us right from wrong. They listen inexhaustibly. They rejoice in our success. And our setbacks cause their hearts to break. They know what we’re going to say before we say it. Our mothers brag about us to their friends and defend us to our peers. They believe in us even when we don’t believe in ourselves. They lead us from in front and they push us from behind.

And there’s nothing that could ever separate us from their love. Ever.In Praise of Mom

Yes, our God is everywhere. But so too, it seems, are our mothers.

As an old Spanish proverb says, “An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.”

I’m not touching that one.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Allan

Diversions

May 7, 2009 / / 0 Comments

KeithMost of you already know how proud I am of my brother, Keith, a Bible professor at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. He teaches church history and New Testament theology and he is the world’s leading scholar and expert in the thought and theology and writings  of Jacobus Arminius. Keith’s first book, Arminius on the Assurance of Salvation, was published two years ago. You’d need a small loan to purchase it. Most of you (us) would need a brain transplant to read it. It’s heavy. Deep. Profound. And very, very important. It’s meant for reading and research in theological libraries. And I know our mom has a copy. But John Mark Hicks has recently read the book and posted a wonderful review on his website, John Mark Hicks Ministries. You can read his review of Keith’s book here.

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And would you please do me this favor? It’s kinda cheesy, I know. Indulge me, though. Please. This will take a grand total of ten seconds. It’s a total of two clicks.

Randy RoperRandy Roper is the family life minister at the Edmond Church of Christ. We called Oklahoma Christian University basketball games together in 1988-89. I did play-by-play. Randy provided the color. Colorful color. Road trips. Late nights. Triple overtime playoff losses. We’ve got a bit of a history together. If you know Randy, ask him about Swampman’s Dunk, mayonnaise, or the stink bomb in the Eagle’s Nest during a game against SNU. (Don’t ask him about our halftime comments during crazy hat night against Oklahoma City University.) On a whim, he recently entered a contest in which the winner gets a free trip to New York City to accompany Oklahoma City Thunder officials for the 2009 NBA Draft Lottery.

The Thunder is the NBA team in OKC.  It’s the old Seattle SuperSonics franchise thatThunder Logo moved to Oklahoma two years ago. The set up here is to know that the team and its fans call their Thunder T-shirts and Thunder caps and Thunder sweatshirts and jerseys “Thunderwear.” It’s catchy. It’s clever. I like it. My brother-in-law and their two boys are always talking about their Thunderwear. We got them Academy gift certificates for Christmas last year so they could buy more Thunderwear.

The contest Randy entered is a slogan contest. The winner is determined by on-line voting. His slogan is “Gonna wear my Thunderwear in Times Square.” It’s down to three finalists. And right now, Randy’s leading the voting with 46%. “Thunder Loud and Oklahoma Proud” is next with 44%, so it’s close. Do me a favor. Vote for Randy right now. The voting ends at 2:00 CST this afternoon. Today.

Here’s the link to the site:

http://www.nba.com/thunder/news/lottery_challenge.html

The three slogans will pop up on the left. Click in the circle next to “Gonna wear my Thunderwear in Times Square” and then hit the “submit” button right under it. Again, it’ll take less than ten seconds max. Thanks. I owe you one.

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RangersThe Rangers are in first place this morning. They’ve won five straight. I’m not going to say anything about it. Don’t want to jinx anything.

And we’re down to one goldfish after two more kicked the bucket overnight. They’ve named him Spot. I think he’s in trouble.

Peace,

Allan

Revenge

May 6, 2009 / / 6 Comments

I will avenge the deaths of these goldfish

I don’t know who put the children’s wading pool in the back of my pickup truck last night and filled it up with water and several dozen goldfish. But I’m impressed. The effort. The creativity. The expense in money and time. The calculated taking of innocent animal lives. Admirable.

GoldfishPrankThe one person I believe to have perpetrated this act against my personal property denies it fully. He’s got motive. He’s got the children who would love to help. He’s got the history. Recent history. But he’s also got strong alibies. I’m not sure I believe him. But I can’t prove anything. There’s no evidence but two empty plastic fish bags from Wal-Mart and my garden hose unreeled all over my front yard. The other person I believe is capeable of this elaborate prank has no motive. At least, none that I’m aware of.

I was laughing my head off this morning when I saw it. The girls were flipping out. Carrie-Anne was just shaking her head. Carley wants to keep all the fish.

I managed to save eight or nine. Four or five of them don’t look like they’re going to make it through the day.

I’m glad I checked the back of the truck before I took the girls to school this morning. C-A takes the truck to TWU in Denton nowadays. I would have hated for her to discover all this as she was running late to class. Or, worse, for her to take off and not realize the situation. Just imagine the little blue Ranger cruising down 114, dead fish flying out of the back, smashing into the windshields of other cars, causing a three-car-injury-colission. Carrie-Anne cited by local police and DPS and state game and wildlife officials for illegally transporting fish across county lines during a swine flu imposed quarantine. Not good.

Just know this, whoever did this to me: I will find you out and I will exact revenge. Just like Bill Cosby’s routine about the PoolOFishsnowball and Junior Barnes (look it up, it’s a classic), I will wait until July if that’s what it takes. I will find you out and I will wait. And wait. I will make you my dearest and closest friend. I’ll laugh at all your jokes. I’ll bring you an orange soda while we play on my front porch. And then, at the moment you least expect it, I’ll get you.

Juuuuunior Baaaaarrrrrrnes. Where are you, Junior Barnes? Ohhhhhhh, Junior Baaarrrnnnes.

You Gunkie!

Kids' Church

May 5, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Why Do I Have To Go To Church?

Involving Avery in our worship assembly at Legacy this past Sunday (see yesterday’s “Waiting On One Another”) is just one of the many ways we’re trying to be more intentional here of making our times together more interactive, more participatory, more inter-generational; something for every member of every age and life circumstance to grab, to own. We have a long, long way to go. But we’re trying.

As for the kids — our youngest young people — we need to be just as concerned with giving them a larger and more interesting view of God’s splendor in our assemblies as we are with our older folks.

I know a lot of the battle with a lot of our parents today is getting their kids into the worship assemblies to start with. Sometimes, they just don’t want to go. Most of you have heard it from your kids, “Why do I have to go to church?”

It’s a legitimate question that deserves real answers. It deserves much more than just “because I said so” or “because it’s good for you” or “because God wants us to” or “because we’re supposed to.” Our children deserve more than that.

Marva Dawn, in her excellent A Royal “Waste” of Time, supplies readers with ten answers she gives to the child’s question, “Why do I have to go to church?”

1)  We’re not going to church; YOU are the Church — and we go to worship so that we learn how to be Church.

2)  We need you with us in worship because those who are old and tired need your smiles and vitality.

3)  The congregation cannot get along without you. Just as your body needs every single part — like your eyes, your nose, your mouth, your hands and feet — so the church needs every single person to make it whole. Perhaps some Sunday some persons will need you to be eyes or hands for them.

4)  You need the gifts of worship because you will learn things there that will make sense later. Almost every week I learn something that comes up in the days to follow.

5)  If you pay close attention to the words of the songs and the Scripture readings and the liturgy, you will learn all kinds of new things about God. Since God is infinitely incomprehensible, all of life is an adventure in getting to know him better, but worship is especially rich with his presence.

6)  Attending worship will teach you skills for your Christian life — skills like how to pray, how to sing, how to sit quietly in God’s presence, how to study the Bible.

7)  I need you to come to worship because I have cancer and am taking chemotherapy, which makes me too sick to sing, so I need you to stand beside me and sing for the both of us.

8)  The congregation needs the talents you bring to worship — your singing voice in the hymns, your ability to learn new songs quickly, your ability to read the Scriptures well, your help with the ushering, your warmth and friendliness in the “Passing of the Peace,” the answers you give during the children’s sermon, your modeling of reverence for the other children.

9)  When I preach, I need to watch you to see if what I am saying is understandable to people your age. I need you to give me critiques when the worship service is over.

10)  Most important, God needs you there because he loves to be with you among his people.

Hmmmm. Come to think of it, those reasons work equally well with us older people, too.

Peace,

Allan

Waiting For One Another

May 4, 2009 / / 0 Comments

I am so proud of our congregation.

Yesterday one of our wonderful ten-year-old boys, Avery Caddell, led us during three of our songs. Avery won a gold medal in song leading at last month’s LTC event at DFW. One of Avery’s dreams is to someday be a worship leader in God’s Church. He talks about it a lot. And Lance pretty much decided that someday was yesterday!

And I’m so proud of our congregation.

Lance introduced Avery right at the start, told the church Avery was going to be leading us in three of our songs, and then handed him the reins. (He already had a microphone.) And I was so nervous for him. I was grinning from ear to ear — and not just because Avery and Lance were wearing almost identical striped shirts (coincidentally, I’m told). But because I was nervous. I thought back to my very first times to lead singing, lead prayers, serve on the table, and read Scripture in front of the whole church. Just about at the same age. And I got the butterflies all over again. For Avery.

And I’m so proud of our congregation.

We sang our hearts out with Avery. Our God, He Is Alive! He is our God, the great I AM!

Have I mentioned yet how proud I am of our congregation?

It was during the second song Avery led that I was moved by our church family. See, Avery paused between verses during Our God, He Is Alive. It was just a couple of beats or so, but it was a definite pause. It caught all of us off guard. We didn’t really start the verses together because most of us were singing a very familiar song in a very familiar pattern. But by the second song, He Lives!, we started waiting.

As a congregation. All 858 of us. Together. Waiting for Avery to lead us.

You ask me how I know he lives? He lives…………(breath)…..within…(pause)…my heart.

Beat-one-two-three. Wait.

In all the world around me I see his loving care….

It was beautiful. It was amazing. It was moving.

We weren’t just singing with Avery. We were also singing for Avery.

All 858 of us. I didn’t see a single soul not singing. And not singing loudly. And we were all smiling. Smiling big. And focused on Avery. Really tuned in. Zeroed in singing with and for Avery. And waiting on him.

He’s ten-years-old, right? So of course, without exception, every single person in the room is intent on encouraging Avery, supporting Avery, doing everything in our collective power to make sure Avery’s experience is a good one. There’s not a person in the room who would ever criticize Avery or say anything that might discourage him. The whole church body was determined to lift him up. Oh, we exercised such grace. Such patience. Such love. Such encouragement. Such acceptance. Such….

What if we showed that exact same grace and patience and love and encouragement and acceptance to every brother and sister in our churches? What if we focused on lifting one another up? What if we absolutely refused to ever criticize? Ever? What if we concentrated on encouraging everybody? What if we each totally zeroed in on making sure I worship in a way, and respond to everybody in a way, that guarantees the people around me and up in front have a great experience?

We do it for Avery, we wait on him, because he’s ten-years-old. We support him and encourage him and love him and are patient with him and we shower him with well-deserved praise because he’s ten.

What makes us think the 53-year-old among us doesn’t need and deserve that exact same level of kindness and love? Don’t you believe the 19-year-old and the 61-year-old brothers and sisters in our churches need support? Don’t they need encouragement, too? Aren’t we required to treat every single person the same way we treat Avery? Isn’t it demanded of Christ’s disciples?

I know it’s mostly out of context, but I couldn’t help thinking yesterday and into today about Paul’s admonitions in 1 Corinthians 11. He got on to the church in Corinth because they refused to wait on one another. “Each one of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else.” At the end of the chapter he encourages them, when they come together, to “wait for each other.”

I am so proud of our congregation.

Yesterday we waited on Avery. Today, a lot of us are learning to wait on one another.

Peace,

Allan

A Word In Season

May 3, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Wash Your Hands!In light of the inescapable newspaper and radio and TV reports, yesterday’s community health fair here at Legacy, advice from friends and relatives, everybody’s minor level of anxiety, and our shepherds’ statement sent to all of us over the weekend by email, a couple of passages come to mind:

“They shall wash their hands…so that they will not die.” ~Exodus 30:21

“Wash your hands, you sinners.” ~James 4:8

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