Less of me, more of HIM

• 2012-04-06

  For Josh, For JESUS

  The embodiment of living, for adventure, for God, Josh wasn’t fearless (although he seemed to be), he actually had a lot of fear, but he knew the devastating effect of succumbing to fear. I think he got bored if he wasn’t scared, so he did what scared him. He trusted that when he reached the end of himself, he would find Christ, and Christ was faithful every time.

  Josh was a thinker. I’m not sure how many people know that about him, he thought a lot. He had a great mind, surpassed only by his heart for people. More people would know of his great mind if he weren’t so humble. It blows me away, he worked so hard to develop well-rounded opinions on the tough topics, he knew where he stood, but it didn’t matter to him if he didn’t have the chance to voice his opinion. To voice his reasoning for why he thought what he thought. He developed his opinions in the pure pursuit of truth. He sought after God’s heart in all venues of thought and life.

  He wasn’t purely a thinker though; his thoughts drove his actions. He wasn’t crippled by knowledge; he was empowered by it. He had a methodology. You would never know it from simply seeing him, but what you would know is his heart. To say he wore his heart on his sleeve would be an understatement. He loved people, he found his joy in the joy of others, and he tried in any way to see that joy brought about.

  He was a friend during the first week of school when I didn’t know anyone. He was a body to hug when I had my worst day on campus. He was a mind to discuss, debate, and reason thoughts with. He was a spiritual giant, making Kingdom impact visibly from afar. He was a stick to whack me on the head when we both knew I was doing something wrong. He was an amazing musician, with the sole purpose of creating music for God’s glory. He wasn’t perfect, and he never thought he was. He was a realist, a realist of hope, a realist with his eyes fixed on the cross. He was laughter. He was joy. He was a brother. He was a friend. He was loved immensely by us, imperfect beings in a world that was not his home.

   

  He IS home, he IS in the best place imaginable, beyond imaginable, above imaginable. The grace-filled rays of the radiant King shine upon his face, presenting him pure and faultless as a child of God. His body IS redeemed; he IS adopted as a son. He IS made whole in image, spirit, and soul by the all-sufficient Savior. He was bought with a price, and he IS where Christ bought him to be. He was blessed, he is blessed. Eternally blessed. To give him one more hug from any of us on earth would be an insult in comparison to the full embrace he is receiving from his King. From our King. We mourn, for he was a great more-than-conqueror of this earth. But we celebrate, because HE IS HOME. Heaven has never seemed more real than now. We will see him, more than that, WE WILL SEE THE ONE BY WHOM HE AND WE ARE SAVED. Joined in holy, eternal matrimony. A gift above all else, prepared by a God whose feet we are not fit to wash. 

  So we remember him, not in a false hope that he is in a better place, but with the concrete promise that he is. We mourn with hope, we mourn in hope for what we have not yet, waiting patiently for it. Waiting patiently to smile with Josh as we unite with He who is above all else. I can hear him now, with his goofy Minnesotan accent, “Hunter, this is what we’ve been waiting for, welcome home.”

  But as you read this know, our work is before us. The hope we have in Christ is our battle cry in this dark world reigned by the opposition. We will fight, we must fight. God is the victory, souls are the battlefield: our friends, our family, anyone we can reach. God is for us, who can be against us. There is no way of knowing what comes next. Don’t waste your life. Josh didn’t, we cannot.

  So watch out Satan, flee in fear. Not from our power, but from the power of Christ in us. Flee, for the death of one saint has awakened the hearts of thousands more. We will not stand silent, we will move, Christ will move through us. Tremble in fear, for the body of Christ is at work, it is awake and it will move. We stand resolute, knowing what is at stake, and knowing how this story ends for us, and for you. Flee.

   

  “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your joy in CHRIST JESUS will overflow on account of me.” Philippians 1:21-26

  In the words of Sammy 2: We Roll.

  
  

• 2012-03-26

  Villains for Heroes

  We like movies. We like movies a lot. Why do we like movies? I believe it’s because we like to see good triumph evil. Good always wins in the movies I like, in some way, hope always prevails. The hero gets the girl, wins the prize, kills the bad guy, and overcomes all odds and adversity to reach the goal.

  I’d like to address 2 recent movies: In Time, and, the better known, The Hunger Games. Both protagonists (Will Salas and Katniss Everdeen) fight the established government to attempt to reach equality for those being oppressed financially. Thousands, possibly millions were dying in poverty yearly and Will/Katniss are presented with the opportunity to make things right, and they act. In the end they both achieve their goal, overcoming all adversity to create a better future. But what future was being created?

  When truly considered, both movies, as well as many (most?) others, were fighting for equality of resources. In Time converted money to minutes to live, and Will fought against the establishment of rich living forever and the poor dying young so that all could live long, fulfilling, and equally distributed lives.

  The Hunger Games took an even more literal view of fighting for equality, with the world specifically divided into different “Districts” and as the Districts increased in number they decreased in economical health. Katniss’s District was almost unbearably poor, with people running the risk of death from starvation daily. So, Katniss, with help from friends, leads a revolution to restructure the world so that all Districts can live equally sufficient lives.

  We like this, we like to see the hero win, but if Katniss or Will where in our world, with our established global economy, what would they think? What would they be fighting? What would the role of the Capitol translate to? If we’re being honest with ourselves, I would say it would be us. For the 370 million people that occupy the US we take up much more than our fair share of land. For the amount of wealth the “middle-class” American has, it is embarrassing to know that over half the world lives on less than $2 per day. We cheer for the hero, but is it possible that we are the villain?

  It’s a short step to take to see the minutes of life in In Time transfer to money, because honestly the more money you have, typically the longer you live. Why do we soak up these movies for the action but refuse to see what the authors, directors, and producers are so clearly trying to convey? I understand that I am clearly the largest of hypocrites. I’ve never had to beg for my food, or fight to survive anything greater than strep throat, but we need to step back and take a good hard look at the global institution we find ourselves in. We either need to hate these movies, or ourselves.

  In the search for truth and conviction,”may the odds be ever in your favor”.

• 2012-03-21

  Truth Must Spread

  I was reading a book, “Desiring God” by John Piper, and the last chapter was on suffering. JP fearlessly proclaimed the need for true suffering to develop the Kingdom both in our personal walk with Christ and in the growth of the church. He stressed how the “church has always grown in soil drenched by the blood of the martyrs” (paraphrase).

  I couldn’t agree more with what John had to say, but an interesting question also arose during my reading. Is there an inequality in what we know and how we live? JP is completely convinced of what he wrote on how we need to “choose suffering”, but he is pastoring a church in the middle of America. I am not trying to say that he hasn’t experienced suffering, having gone through cancer and countless different intricate catastrophes that any church might have I cannot even begin to compare my life to his. He has suffered. My question is more addressed toward the hundreds, even thousands, of Christian books that proclaim the hard task of evangelism with little to no experience on the part of the author. How can we write about what we haven’t lived? But simply because we haven’t lived it, does that mean it shouldn’t be written?

  I have been thinking a lot about the pattern of hypocrisy in preaching, teaching, writing, and discipling. It’s simply impossible to teach only what you live, for we are far from the prize; but it is equally difficult to teach what you know to be right, because you are tortured by the hypocrisy of your own life. My hope is that in teaching, discipling, maybe even writing and preaching, I will be transformed by my offering, just as I hope others are. If I am truly seeking after Christ, then words formed should be of Him, which are hard words fighting against my calloused heart. So I pray that as I teach those words, they will fight inwardly against my flesh as they do outwardly against others. His words, working and moving, regardless of the source, despite the hypocrisy, truth must spread.

• 2011-09-14

  Regardless of the Circumstance

  This one goes out to my brothers and sisters in Christ at a public university.

  During faculty chapel last week the keynote speaker talked about Christian liberal arts education. He talked very highly of Taylor, not surprising considering he works here, and said that we were all “where we were supposed to be.” Although I don’t argue that I was brought to Taylor by God, and am where He wants me, I do argue the implications he emphasized during his “sermon”.

  He suggested that a public university is not where a Christian student should be, because they are not being grounded in their faith through study. He said that it studying the liberal arts in college was “essential to Christ-likeness.” I could go on, but for the point i am trying to make I think this will do.

  I want to let you all know that THIS IS NOT TRUE. I want to let you know that Christ would not be at Taylor University. I want to let you all know that you are exactly where God placed you a very specific and divine reason. I know in my heart that where you are right now is where Christ would choose to go to school.

  I also want to encourage you by letting you know that I have not seen some intensified form of spiritual maturity in the student body. The people here aren’t any better than any of you. In fact, all of to whom I am thinking about when I write this could teach Taylor students a thing or two about walking with the Lord, including me. Especially me. I know that a personal walk with the Lord does not apply to circumstance but heart. There are people here at Taylor who are wasting their time thinking that they are growing closer to God, but their hearts are not in the right place to apply their learning to their faith.

  You are the true warriors, who can sit in a semester long class based solely on evolution and still walk out with a rock-solid faith, in many cases more solid than it was previously! I know that I am blessed to be here at Taylor in that I have access to a lot of tools that can strengthen my faith, but the tools that you all access have the potential to have so much more value because you seek them out and long for the strengthening of your mind and faith.

  You all have access to so many more witnessing opportunities and, thus more opportunities to interact with the Holy Spirit. God needs you all exactly where you are so don’t ever be ashamed or lackadaisical about your faith because your faith is what brought you to where you are! Stay strong and continue to walk in Spirit and in truth. I love you all deeply and I know that you are capable of handling everything through Christ who strengthens you. Shalom in your homes!

• 2011-08-21

  Thank You

  I am just starting to pull out of being sick. I went to the doc on thursday and I ended up getting strep throat. Now I know this isn’t anything that is life threatening or even severe in respect to a lot of different kinds of illnesses, and I’m not claiming that it is. But it sure has put me on my butt for the last couple of days. It has also taught me a lesson that I am so blessed to have learned, especially at this time in my life.

  It amazes me just how quickly I can be put in my place. As soon as I feel like I’m in a place where I can handle things on my own, God drops me like a rock. One day I’m jumping off of cliffs, the next I’m lying in bed, to pathetically weak to get up and make myself something to eat. I can’t remember having strep before, but it freakin sucks. It hurts to breathe, swallow, or talk. And these are typically 3 things that are useful. Even drinking some water feels like torture. And that’s not even the whole thing. It also wipes you out. It hurts too much to eat, so you don’t eat. Then you are weak from not eating, but you still aren’t going to eat because it hurts too much. Needless to say, I was hopeless.

  Clearly this is one of those lessons of God teaching me how I am helpless without Him. How I am too weak to even function without His constant grace and blessings. But this particular lesson showed me exactly what I have been overwhelmingly blessed with.

  Family and friends.

  Now I know that this is the cheesy realization that everyone has when they head off to college, but I was just so blessed to literally feel the extent to which my family and friends have been and continue to be there for me. You realize just how blessed you are when you can’t even get food for yourself. When you can’t even talk to the people that you really want to talk to, or visit the people you want to visit.

  My parents have always been, and continue to be amazingly loving to me. I told mom I felt sick and she scheduled an appointment to the doctor in 5 minutes flat. She then took off time from work so that she could go with me. She also picked up the prescription that would help me feel better, when I went home to bed. She got me a milkshake, Starbucks, and mashed potatoes, because these were a few of the things that i could bear to swallow. She made sure I was taking the medicine when I needed to, just to ensure I got well as soon as I could. She even sat next to me and watched a romantic comedy with me, no joke (i like them, and I’m not ashamed to admit it).

  Dad, meanwhile, let me lay in his bed for 3 days, knowing that I was sick and might slobber on his sheets while he was at work/kings island. He was completely fine with it, since everyone in the family lays on his side of the bed when we feel sick. Literally every time for as long as I can remember. He got me drinks and picked up Tropical Smoothie for me when I was sleeping away. He made me scrambled eggs when I realized I hadn’t eaten all day. Ha, and he patiently waited as mom and I finished our movie.

  Micah and Krista came over. I haven’t seen Micah all summer and I was really looking forward to seeing/hanging out with him. But I felt so sick that I don’t think I said more than 10 words to him and Krista combined. But Micah didn’t seem to care at all. He just said to get better and kept on keeping on. He made sure to say bye before he left, and yes, i was just laying around in bed.

  Mallory, Courtney, Jessie, and Hayli were at Ball State as this all went on. My family, Krista and Micah included, was going up to visit Friday. I was planning on going and was even showered and sitting downstairs on the couch. But when I decided I was too weak to go, they were more than graceful to me. They just told me that they were praying for me and to get better soon.

  Gabby had a couple of soccer games today, and I was planning on watching. But I couldn’t do that either and she seemed completely cool with it. She even didn’t have friends over tonight because I was sick.

  And then there’s everyone else. Niki who stopped skyping with me because I was too hoarse to talk. Paige who kept texting and asking how I was doing all the way from Washington. Matty Bennett who prayed for me. Adam who came over and prayed over me…

  This might seem like an overreaction to a little bit of help that I received from a not-too nasty sickness. But to me it is just the way in which God showed me the true friends and family that He has blessed me with.

  Im sure there are more people who I’m leaving out and stories that I probably mixed up, but I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you so much for being the support group that really cares about me and my well-being. I just needed to say thank you because God brought this realization to my heart and I didn’t want it to go without me thanking you all. You are all very special people in my heart and I will be praying for you all. Thanks again,