A Drought of Progress

How often do you go through a period where nothing seems to be progressing in your life? Personally, I'm in a serious drought of progress right now. I have many fields planted and tilled, but nothing is happening with any of them.

- My job is slower than it has ever been - several possible contracts have fallen through or been delayed, and we've been without "real" work for several months now. All of our time is spent preparing quotes and working on design changes for potential projects or new concepts.

- My current home has been on the market for two full months. We've had many showings and have received generally positive feedback, but no offers. It really is beginning to feel like we're never going to move forward in this area.

- My evening classes in culinary school are still going well, but I still have anywhere from 2 to 5 semesters remaining, depending on whether I try to pick up a second degree simultaneously. As such, the end of this is well in the distance. And as an added bonus, we're barely a third of the way through the semester, and I'm already feeling drained and over-tired.

- Because of my class schedule (evenings, 4 nights a week), there are several other community service/personal activities that I've had to sacrifice or put off indefinitely. As such, my time is devoted almost entirely between a job that isn't progressing, and a courseload that, while it is progressing, the end is still far afield.

- Life with the missus is fulfilling, but we, too, are in a little bit of a lull while we deal with the house sale, the new house being built, and other marriage-y issues. We can't really even try to plan anything long-term because of these uncertainties. As such, the marriage, while happy, also seems stuck in neutral at the moment.

For those of you who know me, particularly if you have ever been in my car while I'm driving, you know that I'm not a particularly patient man. Yet every one of the above items requires me to sit patiently and rest in faith that fulfillment will ultimately come on God's schedule. I'm doing all I can to maintain a cultivated field for every one of these areas. But in the end, I'm trying to accept that nothing will grow until He sends the rain. And while I certainly understand the truth of that statement, living it out is a whole other matter.

For everybody else who is sitting through a drought of activity in some aspect of your own lives, I hope that you are able and willing to rest peacefully, knowing that God will send the rain when He is ready to see your field grow.

Dude Perfect

Here's something interesting for you today. Check out this group of (basketball) trick shot masters.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Video-World-s-longest-basketball-shot?urn=nba,191193

A group of college guys who collectively nicknamed themselves Dude Perfect manage to make a shot by heaving a basketball from the third deck of Kyle Field to a hoop set up at field level. This is a crazy crazy shot. I've seen these guys' work before, and I'm about 99% certain that it is real.

I'm not normally the type to engage in e-mail forwards, link-throughs, or the like. For this particular site/link, I want to make an exception. I do so for three reasons.

1 - This is a seriously cool shot, as are many of their other videos. I encourage you to revel in their impressive body of work.

2 - These guys are (current, former, I'm not really sure) students at A&M, and a lot of their trick shots occur in and around College Station.

3 - This one was the clincher that earned it a spot on this page, so all 6 of you who like to read my meanderings can hear about it. One of their videos, "Camp Edition" is connected to a special cause. For every 100,000 views they receive of this video, they will sponsor a child through Compassion International (I've been thinking through another blog post about this subject, so stay tuned). Also, I noticed in "researching" this post that these gentlemen affirm their faith in Jesus on their website, http://www.dudeperfect.com/. Combine those two, and you've got a sure-fire linkable phenomenon.

So click through and enjoy.

'Invite your neighbor to church' day

**Writer's note - I started writing this Wednesday am, got frustrated by the topic and stopped. I considered attempting it again that night, and had the same frustations. This will be my third and final attempt. I have a tough time discussing this without becoming agitated toward the earnest, but misguided folks who this is about.**

So last night (Tuesday), as I was driving to class, I was listening to K-Love. During an information update, there was a segment about a "national invite your neighbor to church day", or something of that nature. As far as that part goes, I am completely on board, though I would hope that any Sunday could offer the same opportunity. The snippet from the interviewee was all about making your church more welcoming to these 'unchurched' neighbors. They suggested hanging banners, preparing special sermons/lessons, and a variety of other tweaks to your normal routine to make the invitees feel more welcome and comfortable.


This brings to mind a few very important questions. Why do so many in the Christian community feel that it is necessary to "change" or spruce up our churches in order to lure outsiders in? Is the problem with the message, the presentation, or the deliverers? This is an area that greatly frustrates and grieves me. God's word and the Gospel of Jesus are immutable, yet we so often want to hide or "package" it to make it more palatable to those who do not believe.

This brings to mind something I occasionally encounter in culinary circles, particularly when dealing with small children. Parents will often try to mask healthy ingredients into dishes in order to get their children to eat it. They usually do this either because the children refuse to eat the good item based on poor past experiences, or out of assumption that the child will reject the item out of hand.

Not having any children myself, I find this practice amusing. The interesting thing to me is that in preparing these alternate versions, some of the nutrients that make the food healthy can sometimes be lost - either through pureeing/blending, removal or specific elements of the food, or other methods. All of this is to say that in trying to fool the child into getting their healthy needs met, they actually strip away some portion of what they are attempting to pass along.

Something to consider - by changing the normal routine and message for these visitors, you will likely accomplish one of two things. Either you will clarify your message, thereby moving closer to presenting the Gospel Truth, or you will obfuscate it in the interest of putting on a good show.

If you accomplish the former, then why is this not your norm? Figure out what was improved, and continue to pursue that. If your result is a further clouding or muddying of the message, then what is accomplished? Even if you do gain some new attendees, under what pretense are they joining? What is gained by attending your church if the Message is lost amid the programs, glitz, and glamour?

My prayer in this matter is that those who are following this dangerous path do not lose sight of the Truth in inviting their neighbors to their church. I pray that the message delivered is clear and compelling, and that all who hear it, current churchgoer or invitee, are swayed to follow Christ with great conviction and a full heart.

10-YO homeschooled child sent to public school by court

I read about this story this afternoon. A 10 yr old is being remanded to public school by a judge in New Hampshire based on her 'strict adherence' to Christianity.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/04/home-schooled-christian-girl-ordered-to-join-publi/print/

This is the only "mainstream" media article I could find directly about this case. Everything else came from Christian and homeschool news sites, which would naturally tend to support the mother and daughter's side. As such, I was seeking something that might attempt to present a fuller account of the other side of this argument.

That being said... I can see no merit for the Judge's ruling. New Hampshire law appears to be pretty clear that the only way that the judge could make this ruling is if the girl's present environment is clearly detrimental to her physical, mental, or emotional health. Given the entirety of the evidence - the girl is at or beyond current educational levels, she is involved in extra-curricular activities, she is socially adept and well adjusted - this is clearly not a case where her well-being is at risk.

I tend to be the type to hesitate at drawing attention to Christian persecution, as a number of cases strike me as "persecussionists", banging their drums to draw attention to perceived slight when little to none intentionally exists. I don't like to see persecussion performed in any arena, whether it is done on grounds of religion, race, gender, or several other common areas. In this case though, there seems to be a clear bias exhibited by the court against the mother and daughter based on their Christian faith.

I hope and pray, and honestly expect, that an appeal to a higher court will reverse this poor decision. I also hope and pray that mother and daughter are able to learn a positive lesson from this, and don't retract into a shell of anti-government distrust. You never know, maybe Amanda will look around at all of her lost schoolmates and convince her mother to let her stay for the purpose of witnessing to a generation in need of it. God can work all things to the good, if we will just let Him.