Christ and burgers…

So, Re:Hope had this great idea…Jesus Christ and burgers.

 On this past Thursday and Friday (20th and 21st) we, Re:Hope, found oursleves ministering alonogside five other churches and the Christian Union at Glasgow Uni. Again, the plan was simple…Jesus Christ and burgers.

 And so…with our amazingly complex plan in place we set out and spent nearly 6 hours from start to finish for two whole days straight doing nothing but chattin’ up University students from all over the world, cooking hamburgers, slicing buns, incessantly reminding people, “no, you can’t have more than 10 burgers and yes, sharing the gospel to a renowned Godless University from their inner courtyard in the heart of their campus.”

 Re:Hope had done outreach like this before (bbqs) but this was different. We were virtually impossible to avoid as we were blatantly proclaiming with burgers in hand the good news od Christ. 

All in all the two days were certainly productive…but more than that, they were a wlll designed bridge between culture and Truth for a student population who notoriously are indifferent to faith, all though exceedinly intrigued by religion.

We ate, and chatted about God, about life, and just let them knkow that yes, while we would love every knee to bow to Christ (and it will whether they choose to or not) we can also Love on them by simply caring about them as people wanting to know what was going on in their life.

And so, now we wait…hoping that hundreds of dollars of burger and bun led to a handful of students considering this whole Christ thing. It was an amazing opportunity that Christ bestowed on us to be able to sit in the heart of the UK, in the heart of hungry minds, in the heart of an anti-Christian environment, and just enjoy food and fellowship.

Thank you to all those who are praying for my time here…it certainly inspires me further to know that God hears such prayers and responds in the ways that He does.

So, the lesson here…God bless Scotland, and God bless bbq’s. 

p.s. We already gained a semester faithful follower who joined our church as of last week. His name is Clement and is a Chinese native who has been studying in Australia for the last 3 years. Haha, I know…so feel free to add Clement into your prayers as he is going through a bit of a culture shock…truth be told, Clement is amazing, so much so that he ends being the culture shock.

Will sing for yogurt

So, I, being the ever clumsy secretary that I barely manage to even suck at being, showed up an hour early for our 10:00Am meeting this morning in Glasgow. I was trapped in the rain, without keys to get into my church…so… what does one do?

That’s right, he races, guitar in hand, to his nearest Starbucks.

I set up shop right in the front window nook, which meant I was technically priviledged to three spots worth of room, seeing as how no one’s going to sit with a total stranger, especially not one with his bible open and worship music rolling off his lips.

And then it happened…a random, rather pleasant looking lady went walking by…smirked, stopped, grinned, stared, and then made her way in from the sidewallk, around back into where I was sitting, all the while allowing one of the slowest moving smile I’ve ever seen to still be taking shape on her face…until she was hovering over my shoulder with the words.

Well, bless your heart. I realized what had happened. She couldn’t see the Bible from the sidewalk which means she came in from outside because I was playing guitar. She moved slowly enough to get to me allwoing herself about a good 10 seconds to hear me play…I was singing “Dearly Loved” by Jimmy Needham.

She then saw my bible on the table…and so…apparently the combination of my rudmentary guitar and the bible was enouh to have her give me her newly purchased yogurt.

Think of the possibilities…I could play guitar and earn milk, eggs, celery stalks, mangos, sourdough bread…

I just thought it was important that everyone knows how I now plan on shopping.

God bless the Scottish.

forever He rains

“Chance of sunshine taday…pure brilliant if yer lookin’ fer a not-so-wet day out’tha hoose.”

Not even 10 minutes old, and my morning was already being entrusted to a total stranger. Through swollen pillow-eyes and the unavoidable morning breath that we all fall prey too, I sat allowing my ears to be tickled with the sounds of science’s best attempt to soothsay mother nature. I feel like being a weatherman in Scotland would at least allow for the possibility to gage nature’s next move with relatively reliable accuracy…I mean, c’mon, it’s Scotland, the forecast will always call for the good chance of rain, or of threatening clouds overhead. So yeah, for some reason my morning reporter tried to get all fancy and defy every other network’s prediction by claiming sun was a “good chance.”

Needless to say it freakin’ poured like cats and dogs…and walruses, and perhaps an elk…and other large awkward animals that if imagined falling from the sky would humorously denote massive Scottish raindrops! The rain literally makes love to the wind on its way down here in Scotland…it ends up blasting upwards from the ground as if all the water were slingshot toward our trampoline streets to bounce back at us like wild eyed kids.

 But there I was, walking down the quiet streets of Irvine after a long 11 hour day in Glasgow…and then it came…gentle at first almost like messenger drops…and then some of the more skilled assassin droplets, sneaking into places like the raindrop sized opening between your neck and jacket…amazing little guys. And then, as if all the pipers in the country called it forth with one giant breath…it just came…endless, streaming, slightly to the side-like rain.

It was glorious and soaking!

I hid my guitar beneath a nearby awning big enough for me and my six stringed friend, but immediately, as if someone had yanked on my backpack and thoughts all at once, I stumbled back into the rain on purpose. And so, as if the sandal wearing, cargo short sporting, U.S. Air Force sweatshirt wearing American didn’t already stand out enough in a baltic “sunny” Scottish day, I made a complete fool out of myself as I stood in the rain. I stood there until the rain grew tired, protesting with little kid abandon and pride… the way we would almost rather pass out rather than give up our “tunnel breaths.”

At first the rain ran down over me much like the last time I had committed this act…but my senses had long since forgotten this dance, and I moved into …I spilled into its every way, tripping back and forth across my closed eyes, hands held out, head lofted to the grey sky above. The rain tasted delicious…Scottish rain should be the first thing you taste upon entering the country.

And so, as I sat there not having a care in the world, which I know had to be somewhat true because the shuffling of footsteps slowly passing me by made me realize in my rainy moment that nearly a dozen people had had to maneuver around me on the small European sidewalk. Haha, I think a bus might have stopped too…maybe that’s where all the people came from (grin). Too bad I don’t care about appearances, save for what my King sees His kid inspiringly led to do.

God had allowed Satan to fill that weather man in the morning and spread his lies to get me to this exact moment. Okay, so maybe not something that theologically intense, but I was here at providence’s bidding nonetheless. There was something He needed to tell me in only the way I can ever truly allow something between Him and I to go unhindered and without hesitation to my heart…in His wild creation sitting as nothing more or less than a little boy, watching and listening.

While I didn’t have a Damascus experience, with the booming voice from above, this was more of a ‘mountain top’ experience, whereby I had God communicate His simplicity and Love to me in the most majestic and tailor-made way imaginable. He is so relentlessly romantic sometimes…and easy on the eyes too.

…I didn’t die for you to try and Live for me…you either Love me enough to Live or you Love me so little that you still want to hang on to something…anything. The simplest of wisdoms to my heart repeatedly pour forth from His heart to mine…

“Just let go…I only said you could borrow your problems anyway…so, do you Love me, or not?”

Thankfully I did not deny him thrice…and no rooster crowed. What did happen was Christ, through thousands of little reminders splashing on my face, made me look at Him…I looked into His deep eyes longer than our fleeting attention span for a blog entry… especially one of my boring ones…longer than it takes to send a text… longer than it takes to check your myspace… and yes, even longer it takes most of us to pray…I just stopped my supposed “life” and abided, on the spot, in the rain, like a follower/fool.

I cried so quietly, and secretly with the rain…no one knew I was streaming along with the sky. I can’t remember the last time I cried without feeling shame as an instigator. I recommend it highly!

I love Jesus Christ more than I will ever endear any woman to my heart, (save my close second of a wife) more than I will ever commit to any dream, even those come true… and yes, He is even something I will Love more than myself, which is something, while I do ran the gamut of insecurities, I’ve managed to all but devote myself to.

So, next time it starts to grey up outside, and you feel like you and all musical instruments should be nowhere near the pending “sunshine” to come… consider that the clouds above might have been an intimate post-it stuck right before your eyes from God, simply trying to get your attention… not just to slow down…but to stop everything you’re doing… and just listen to Him. I pray for everyone’s spontaneous courage to act like fools to the world in this way… 

stop everything we’re doing…everything we think is important..

and simply… taste the rain/catch handfuls of it/listen to Him/mix your tears in it/pray/get soaked/Live  

Forever does He rain!

forever sorry my Lovely

Transgressing my Heart out… 

I walked, wide eyed, with gentle steps into the small darkened room. It smelled of forbidden vanillas and thick cotton from carelessly flung sweatshirts. Tucked everywhere was a hopscotched arrangement of candles…some flickering high along the wall, while some awkwardly snuck around the height of kneecaps. The light in that room was intoxicating to my juvenile senses sending them into darkened agenda and distraction. I felt fear trickling up and down my spine, collecting in a small awkward swirl of heat around the small of my back. I barely find the courage to shift my weight unnoticeably left to right, and then back left again…nothing…not even quiet courage to perform any of the mundain physiological wanderings that I had mastered in my sleep. Without even enough warning to remember that I was confused and afraid, she takes my hand in hers. Her blue eyes scour my face, pleased with the safety she has come to expect in my arms. I hold her for what feels like the longest breath ever held on record.  

The lights are talking to each other now, politely shaking in the draft that invites itself in under the door. As she sinks even further into my arms, she gently shifts, now resting her cheek on the inside of my shoulder. It’s hard to breathe now…I am so torn and tense…for in the deepest parts of me, war is waging for my purity.

a child’s vow

Ephesians 6:10-12

Finally, be strong in he Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Our church has officially been re-introduced to the supernatural!