"Too Familiar" with Jesus?

God's timing is sometimes pretty frustrating. And sometimes its pretty amazing.
This morning's lesson in our High School class was from Matthew 11, where Jesus speaks of the cities that did not repent even though they saw Him do wondrous miracles and Matthew 13 where He speaks about a prophet having no honor in his hometown. After reading the two passages, I asked the teens the question, "Can we become TOO familiar with Jesus?" We likened it to knowing someone before they become famous. No matter what great things they do with their celebrity, we only see them as "just that kid" who used to do this and that.
Do we see Jesus as "just that guy" who used to do this and that? Do we see Him as just a character in a story that we read about when we were kids? In light of my previous post about getting bored with the facts...do we know all the "facts" about Jesus yet not really know Him at all?
Here's what we came up with in our class discussion - If we only know the facts about Jesus, then we are like the people in His hometown that only knew "about" Him and did not know His purpose and reason for being here. But if we only try to "know" Him without knowing about Him, then we are like the cities that saw all His miracles and considered Him a magician of sorts, yet did not listen to His teachings or let Him change their life.
You can't really come to "know" Jesus and have a relationship with Him if you're not going to learn the facts about Him. But if that's all you do, then you will never truly "know" Him as your Savior. You have to have both the facts and the applications.
So I guess we're keeping the boring classes! ;)

But I Don't Want to Learn!

Over the past couple of months, I've been trying to spend some One-on-One time with each teen in the Youth Group. I simply set up an "appointment" or whatever to meet the kid for lunch or pick them up after school and just go sit and talk about random topics. For some of the kids I'll have a few specific things that I want to try and bring up, but for several of them its just been a "so how are things going?" kind of talk. They've all gone really well, and I only have 10 left before I've done one with each UYG teen. I'm already looking forward to doing it again soon.

One of the recent ones I had was with one of our High School girls, and one of the questions I asked her was how she thought the Youth Group was doing. This question is one that I've asked most of the teens and its been really interesting to see the 32 different perspectives that I've gotten. When I asked this girl the question, she had great things to say about the group itself and all the fun activities we do, but when talking about our classes she said, "Classes are just so boring, though."

This surprised me a little, because most of the comments I've gotten from the other teens have been pretty complimentary of our classes & teachers. Most of the teens have really loved our discussions (especially on Wednesday nights) and the lessons that the teachers have been sharing. So I asked this girl to tell me a little bit about why she thought the classes were boring, and her response was one that I just did not know how to react to. She said, "I just don't understand why we have to keep learning new stuff all the time. I mean, when are we ever going to need to use this?" I honestly had to look down at my french fries and try not to laugh at the response out of shock that it came out of a High Schooler who has been in the church all of her life. Has she just not been paying attention? Have we just not done a good enough job of teaching the applications? Have we been too focused on the "facts"? Is that even a bad thing?

So, I'm interested to get your opinions whether you're in Youth Ministry, have teens of your own, or don't even go to church. Why do we have to keep learning this stuff about the Bible and God? Is that just an immature response, or does she have a point?

Looking forward to hearing from you about this!

Who says?

Who says its hard to do little things like post a blog entry when there's a new baby arond? Especially when the baby is THIS cute?!?

More posts coming soon, I promise.

Early Morning Daddy Time

As Shiloh and I have been trying to figure out schedule things that work for us and little Ms. Addison, one thing that has worked out really well is that I take Addie downstairs after her "first" morning feeding...usually around 6:00 or 6:30 and we hang out together until about 8:30 or 9:00 so that Shiloh can get a good stretch of sleep before she has to wake up for real.

This is probably the best part of my day, because Addie is usually pretty content to just lay in my arms and sleep. I've realized that I don't know many lullabys, so I just end up making up songs to sing to her and laugh at the silly faces she makes.

I call the following pictures, "Progression of a Nap". Check out the awesome poses. While Addison was still in Shiloh's belly, the doctor told us she was going to be a breakdancer because she was basically "spinning" on her head. I think these pictures confirm that assumption.

A Different World

At the university down the street from our church building, there is a BAR inside the CAMPUS CENTER.

It probably says a lot about me that I am so surprised by this.

I am really wishing I was headed to Abilene today for ACU Homecoming. It is Shiloh's 5th Reunion year, and lots of my friends' 10th Reunion year. And it would be great to show off Addison. Oh well. Maybe next year...and definitely the next year for my 10th Reunion.

2 years ago...1 week ago

About this time two years ago, Shiloh and I went up for a drive through the mountains. Seeing the aspen leaves as they change color from green to bright yellow, red, and orange is one of Shiloh's favorite things to do in the Fall. We found a spot just outside of Estes Park that had a huge cluster of aspens that were just beautiful.

It had only been about a week since Shiloh and I had found out that Shiloh had had a miscarriage. Taking that drive through the mountains and looking at the aspens was a really healing experience for both of us. I like this picture because of all the colors and beauty, but also because it reminds me of that healing that we both felt.

It has been a hard two years for Shiloh and I. A few months after that picture was taken, Shiloh experienced another miscarriage (this time an ectopic pregnancy) and we were again feeling so much pain.

Yesterday, Shiloh and I drove up into the mountains and took this picture.

All I can say is something that I haven't been able to bring myself to say very often these last couple of years..."Isn't God good?!"

Addison is here, home, and happy!

Sorry I haven't posted since the "Addison's on the way" post...she got here, and I've been a little busy since then. Here are some pictures, and in the next day or so, I'll share the lessons that I've already learned after 4 full days of being a professional Daddy.

Only a few minutes old, and I'm already wrapped around her finger

Our happy family

Getting ready to go home

More later...time for a quick nap before the next feeding time!