I recently finished reading Palmer Chinchen's book where he shared stories about taking pieces of heaven to places of hell on earth...
I loved the read as it was full of stories from places and peoples and moments in Africa...and it reminded me how much my life feels incomplete not having been able to travel there these past 2 summers...
Here's a few thoughts from the book that resonated with me as I read them:
PIECES OF HEAVEN...
*when you enter the grime of a city dump to wash children, you take a piece of heaven with you...
*when you hold a child orphaned by AIDS until she falls asleep in your comforting arms, you take a piece of heaven...
*when you take a mosquito net to the hut of an African family, you take a piece of heaven...
*when you give a barefoot man a pair of shoes, you give a piece of heaven...
*when you buy groceries for a family whose father has lost his job, you give a piece of heaven...
If places of hell exist, then in the name of Jesus, take a piece of heaven there.
SHALOM...
Let me tell what this world would be like if we all lived to share God's shalom and make the world just a little bit more like heaven:
*shalom means men would stop their cars when they see a guy pushing his car uphill...
*shalom means babies in Africa would sleep under mosquito nets...
*shalom means mothers in Haiti would make cookies for their children with flour instead of mud...
*shalom means husbands would never hit their wives...
*shalom means women in Ethiopia would no longer be sold for sex...
*shalom means women and children would never be chained to trees...
*shalom means girls would never be raped...
*and shalom means junior highers would never again sit alone at lunch...
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
The Cross and Suffering
As I have been struggling with the sudden loss of my good friend and spiritual formation ministry partner Ryan Davis, I ran across these words I read a few years back from John Stott, who acknowledged that suffering is "the greatest single challenge to the Christian faith..."
I could never myself believe in God if it were not for the cross...In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? In my imagination I often turn to the lonely, twisted, tortured figure of Jesus on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside His immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings became more manageable in light of His. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering. 'The cross of Christ...is God's only self-justification in such a world' as ours.
I could never myself believe in God if it were not for the cross...In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? In my imagination I often turn to the lonely, twisted, tortured figure of Jesus on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside His immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings became more manageable in light of His. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering. 'The cross of Christ...is God's only self-justification in such a world' as ours.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Three Secrets to Developing Students Today by Tim Elmore
One of the latest pieces from Tim Elmore on seeking to help this generation of students grow and mature through meaningful learning methods and experiences...
Kids today belong to a generation that’s never known a world without hand-held and networked devices. According to author Anya Kamenetz, “American children now spend 7.5 hours a day absorbing and creating media, about the same amount of time they spend in school.” What’s more, because kids have grown up multi-tasking they can cram 11 hours of content into those 7.5 hours. That’s more than a day at a full-time job. The truth is, it’s a new day. We have to figure out how to use this new world to develop a new generation.
Let me remind of you of something. Back in the 1960s, people bemoaned the vices of television. The American public became aware of how much time can be wasted in front of the tube, and worse, how damaging the violence, language and suggestive behavior can be to children. Eventually, however, some smart people began creating shows like “Captain Kangaroo” then “Sesame Street” and later “Blues Clues.” Based on research, producers recognized there were virtues in what many assumed was an “evil” medium. From “Sesame Street’s” debut in 1969, it changed the prevailing mindset about a new technology’s potential. People began to realize TV is neutral. It can be used for destructive or constructive purposes. Bingo. The same is true for today’s new technology. Handheld devices are at the same turning point, with an important distinction: they can be tools for expression and connection, not just passive absorption.
Take the “Smartphone” for example. It is a handheld device that’s simple to use and engages kids in their own learning process, at their own speed. Anya Kamenetz continues, “For children born in the past decade, the transformative potential of these new devices is just beginning to be felt. New studies and pilot projects show smartphones can actually make kids smarter.”
I have a question for you. Are you still teaching students the way you did five years ago? Whether you are a faculty member teaching a class of 300 freshmen college students, or a youth pastor with 20 kids in your youth group—you must be committed to engaging today’s student in a new way if you plan to flourish.
Case in point. In 2010, the U.S. Department of Education earmarked $5 billion in competitive school reform grants to aid pilot programs and evaluate best practices. Major foundations are zeroing in on handhelds for preschool and primary grade students. The students, as young as six, pick up the devices and immediately engage in solving the math games on them. When the application is in a foreign language, they’ll group up in communities of three and help each other figure out the menus. Kids actually begin teaching themselves. Teachers can track student’s progress through software on their laptops. Everyone wins. It’s a virtual “pocket school.”
“What’s at issue is a deep cultural shift, a fundamental rethinking not only of how education is delivered but also of what ‘education’ means, writes Kamenetz. The very word comes from the Latin ‘duco’ meaning ‘to lead or command’—putting the learner in a passive position.” It’s still teacher centered. We’re the active ones.
1. Problem Based Learning
PBL is brilliant because it incentivizes students. Growth doesn’t revolve around a lecture or sermon, but solving a problem. Dr. Galen Turner, at Louisiana Tech, has changed the way they introduce students to engineering. Faculty ask them to look around the world and choose a problem. Then, they must invent something to solve that problem. All their learning revolves around addressing a real-life issue. Suddenly, any lectures they hear are relevant.
2. Student Driven Learning
This is where education is going. SDL engages students because their progress centers around their own speed and ability. Karl Fish teaches freshman algebra to ninth graders in Aurora, CO. He switched how he leads his class. He puts his lectures on YouTube, since students are on that site each night anyway. His class is now more interactive, as he helps students with their homework, helping them think about how to solve problems. Karl calls this switch the “Fish Flop.” It’s working.
3. Experiential Learning
The term isn’t new, although most schools and churches still don’t practice it. Today, students need real, three-dimensional experiences in their learning process. The flat screens they interact with on their phones, computers and TV require authentic experiences with real people in real time to produce authentic maturity. In 1985, David Kolb provided helpful insights into what makes experiential learning so powerful: Experience, Reflection, Abstract Conceptualization, and Experimentation.
Kids today belong to a generation that’s never known a world without hand-held and networked devices. According to author Anya Kamenetz, “American children now spend 7.5 hours a day absorbing and creating media, about the same amount of time they spend in school.” What’s more, because kids have grown up multi-tasking they can cram 11 hours of content into those 7.5 hours. That’s more than a day at a full-time job. The truth is, it’s a new day. We have to figure out how to use this new world to develop a new generation.
Let me remind of you of something. Back in the 1960s, people bemoaned the vices of television. The American public became aware of how much time can be wasted in front of the tube, and worse, how damaging the violence, language and suggestive behavior can be to children. Eventually, however, some smart people began creating shows like “Captain Kangaroo” then “Sesame Street” and later “Blues Clues.” Based on research, producers recognized there were virtues in what many assumed was an “evil” medium. From “Sesame Street’s” debut in 1969, it changed the prevailing mindset about a new technology’s potential. People began to realize TV is neutral. It can be used for destructive or constructive purposes. Bingo. The same is true for today’s new technology. Handheld devices are at the same turning point, with an important distinction: they can be tools for expression and connection, not just passive absorption.
Take the “Smartphone” for example. It is a handheld device that’s simple to use and engages kids in their own learning process, at their own speed. Anya Kamenetz continues, “For children born in the past decade, the transformative potential of these new devices is just beginning to be felt. New studies and pilot projects show smartphones can actually make kids smarter.”
I have a question for you. Are you still teaching students the way you did five years ago? Whether you are a faculty member teaching a class of 300 freshmen college students, or a youth pastor with 20 kids in your youth group—you must be committed to engaging today’s student in a new way if you plan to flourish.
Case in point. In 2010, the U.S. Department of Education earmarked $5 billion in competitive school reform grants to aid pilot programs and evaluate best practices. Major foundations are zeroing in on handhelds for preschool and primary grade students. The students, as young as six, pick up the devices and immediately engage in solving the math games on them. When the application is in a foreign language, they’ll group up in communities of three and help each other figure out the menus. Kids actually begin teaching themselves. Teachers can track student’s progress through software on their laptops. Everyone wins. It’s a virtual “pocket school.”
“What’s at issue is a deep cultural shift, a fundamental rethinking not only of how education is delivered but also of what ‘education’ means, writes Kamenetz. The very word comes from the Latin ‘duco’ meaning ‘to lead or command’—putting the learner in a passive position.” It’s still teacher centered. We’re the active ones.
1. Problem Based Learning
PBL is brilliant because it incentivizes students. Growth doesn’t revolve around a lecture or sermon, but solving a problem. Dr. Galen Turner, at Louisiana Tech, has changed the way they introduce students to engineering. Faculty ask them to look around the world and choose a problem. Then, they must invent something to solve that problem. All their learning revolves around addressing a real-life issue. Suddenly, any lectures they hear are relevant.
2. Student Driven Learning
This is where education is going. SDL engages students because their progress centers around their own speed and ability. Karl Fish teaches freshman algebra to ninth graders in Aurora, CO. He switched how he leads his class. He puts his lectures on YouTube, since students are on that site each night anyway. His class is now more interactive, as he helps students with their homework, helping them think about how to solve problems. Karl calls this switch the “Fish Flop.” It’s working.
3. Experiential Learning
The term isn’t new, although most schools and churches still don’t practice it. Today, students need real, three-dimensional experiences in their learning process. The flat screens they interact with on their phones, computers and TV require authentic experiences with real people in real time to produce authentic maturity. In 1985, David Kolb provided helpful insights into what makes experiential learning so powerful: Experience, Reflection, Abstract Conceptualization, and Experimentation.
Friday, May 6, 2011
ONE.LIFE--A Few Thoughts from Scot McKnight's new book
A couple pieces I loved from chapters 2 and 8 on Kingdom and Church Life in ONE.LIFE--Jesus Calls and We Follow, a new book worth your read by our graduation speaker at CU this year: (he's also an alum!)
WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN?
A Christian is one who follows Jesus by devoting his or her One.Life to the kingdom of God, fired by Jesus' own imagination, to a life of loving God and loving others, and to a society shaped by justice, especially for those who have been marginalized, to peace, and to a life devoted to acquiring wisdom in the context of a local church. This life can only be discovered by being empowered by God's Spirit.
KINGDOM
Jesus means this when He speaks of the kingdom:
God's Dream Society on earth, spreading out from the land of Israel to encompass the whole world.
God's Dream is UBUNTU...God's people living before God and with others in a way that embodied the will of God in a new kind of society...
*Kingdom is an interconnected society
*Kingdom is a society noted by caring for others
*Kingdom is a society shaped by justice
*Kingdom is a society empowered by love
*Kingdom is a society dwelling in peace
*Kingdom is a society flowing with wisdom
*Kingdom is a society that knows its history
*Kingdom is a society living out its memory
*Kingdom is a society that values society
*Kingdom is a society that cares about its future
WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN?
A Christian is one who follows Jesus by devoting his or her One.Life to the kingdom of God, fired by Jesus' own imagination, to a life of loving God and loving others, and to a society shaped by justice, especially for those who have been marginalized, to peace, and to a life devoted to acquiring wisdom in the context of a local church. This life can only be discovered by being empowered by God's Spirit.
KINGDOM
Jesus means this when He speaks of the kingdom:
God's Dream Society on earth, spreading out from the land of Israel to encompass the whole world.
God's Dream is UBUNTU...God's people living before God and with others in a way that embodied the will of God in a new kind of society...
*Kingdom is an interconnected society
*Kingdom is a society noted by caring for others
*Kingdom is a society shaped by justice
*Kingdom is a society empowered by love
*Kingdom is a society dwelling in peace
*Kingdom is a society flowing with wisdom
*Kingdom is a society that knows its history
*Kingdom is a society living out its memory
*Kingdom is a society that values society
*Kingdom is a society that cares about its future
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
An End of the Year Note to CU Students...
A little note I wrote to be posted at the CU Facebook site:
Can you believe that it is May and another school year is finished at CU? I’m sure it has been a year filled with all sorts of things in your life and your time here in Grand Rapids…lots of group activities, research papers and exams, late-night events and conversations, a basketball national championship title, and hopefully the building of some great friendships and creating of life-long memories that are defining your college experience…
We have loved the privilege of being part of your Cornerstone experience as a team of servants all over this campus, and we love the reality that this is a place where God has started and is even building some remarkable dreams for your life…as another year at CU draws to a close know that there a few things we want you to know we will be praying for you all as you head into the summer of 2011…
*We pray that this summer will be a time of rest and renewal where you experience the presence of the God who made you and loves you…
*We pray you will have experiences that deepen and stretch your faith as you discover more clearly your role in God’s Kingdom work…
*We pray for God’s provision and protection and healing in your life in all areas…physical, emotional, spiritual, and even financial…
*We pray you will experience great joy in relationships with family and friends…
*And we pray you’ll know how much you as students are appreciated and valued by all of us at CU!
We will be counting the days till we see many of you back on campus next September, and we can’t wait to hear all that will happen in your lives as followers of Jesus in the next 4 months…we really do believe that the best is yet to come at CU and in your life as well!
And please, please keep in touch with us over the summer…we always welcome your phone calls or emails and would love to catch up in person if you are ever back on campus!
CHIP HUBER
Dean of Student Engagement
PHILIPPIANS 1:6… And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns…
Can you believe that it is May and another school year is finished at CU? I’m sure it has been a year filled with all sorts of things in your life and your time here in Grand Rapids…lots of group activities, research papers and exams, late-night events and conversations, a basketball national championship title, and hopefully the building of some great friendships and creating of life-long memories that are defining your college experience…
We have loved the privilege of being part of your Cornerstone experience as a team of servants all over this campus, and we love the reality that this is a place where God has started and is even building some remarkable dreams for your life…as another year at CU draws to a close know that there a few things we want you to know we will be praying for you all as you head into the summer of 2011…
*We pray that this summer will be a time of rest and renewal where you experience the presence of the God who made you and loves you…
*We pray you will have experiences that deepen and stretch your faith as you discover more clearly your role in God’s Kingdom work…
*We pray for God’s provision and protection and healing in your life in all areas…physical, emotional, spiritual, and even financial…
*We pray you will experience great joy in relationships with family and friends…
*And we pray you’ll know how much you as students are appreciated and valued by all of us at CU!
We will be counting the days till we see many of you back on campus next September, and we can’t wait to hear all that will happen in your lives as followers of Jesus in the next 4 months…we really do believe that the best is yet to come at CU and in your life as well!
And please, please keep in touch with us over the summer…we always welcome your phone calls or emails and would love to catch up in person if you are ever back on campus!
CHIP HUBER
Dean of Student Engagement
PHILIPPIANS 1:6… And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns…
Friday, April 29, 2011
Broken Bread Meal...and A Drive to a Turf Soccer Field in Grand Rapids
Last week at CU we had a little different kind of dinner in a season of end of the year parties and banquets...we ate the meal that people around the world eat when they are able to find food distribution from an NGO or USAID program in the midst of hunger and poverty...
It's called the Broken Bread meal and several folks from our ACTS campus chapter and other globally concerned students ate this simple porridge in paper bowls on the floor in our student union...to be completely honest, it was prepared a bit thicker than it probably should have been, and for almost everyone in the group it was pretty tough to choke down...a lot of spoons were mixing it up over and over again as we read stats about the vast numbers of people dealing with malnutrition and the direct correlation between rising oil prices and food costs in the third world...it is honestly a pretty sobering and guilt-inducing time when you realize that you are caught in the struggle that you are used to food tasting good and wanting to be thankful as others are around the world for whatever God has provided...
As we sat eating and pushing our food around, I flashed back to a day a couple summers ago where I spent a morning at a little pre-school in rural Zambia...we spent part of the morning mixing porridge with some local women from the village who were selling it to the school to support their families and taking care of orphans of their own children who had passed away in the AIDS pandemic...and then we poured out good sized portions, honestly bigger than the ones most of us took last night, into plastic bowls that we hand-delivered to a packed classroom of 2-4 year olds...over the next couple minutes, we silently watched almost every single child devour the food put in front of them...in fact, most of them abandoned their spoons and licked the bowl clean as they finished eating the porridge filled with the nutrients their bodies craved...the image of the remnants of this meal on these African children's faces has stayed fresh in my mind over the last few years...
I also couldn't help but think of my own kids and my friends' children reactions if they were served this meal...I am more than certain that the bowl wouldn't have been clean...in fact it most likely would have been greeted with strange faces and cries of disdain when they tasted it...in reality, they are the outward expressions of the internal feelings we had sitting around on the floor the other night, even as people who do have a real concern for those who are hungry all over the world...
These African experiences and memories can often seem removed from every day life in west MI...unless one gets connected with kids who live differently even here in Grand Rapids...this past Saturday our soccer team here at CU hosted a clinic for some kids who are part of Sabaoth Ministries, one of our urban partners for our first year experience program at CU...there is a group of Hispanic kids who love soccer and play on an abandoned cement lot in their neighborhoods who are regulars in their after school program...as we thought about our end of the year team banquet, we wanted to do something different...this has been a season filled with unusual challenges, disappointments, and times of growth through difficulty...athletic banquets in general tend to highlight victories and stroke the egos of those who are most physically gifted on successful teams...in many ways, we long to be a different kind of program, and hope we'll do some things that demonstrate those values when we have a chance...
So we decided as a coaching staff that this year's banquet day would have a different feel...we'd still honor our best players, thank players who worked hard to improve as athletes, and thank our seniors for their investment in our program over the last four years...but we'd include some kids who might not have been to a banquet before, or owned a pair of soccer shoes, or ever stepped on a turf field in our celebration, with the hope that it would become more of a day that reflected how Jesus might view how we think about the gifts we've been given to play this game we love and how He might want us to throw a party...
(I was thinking about Luke 14:1-24 as a backdrop for this decision...)
So I had a couple guys meet me and we drove our cars down to the Sabaoth ministry meeting spot in south Grand Rapids...we each took several kids with us as we headed off to a local indoor soccer facility our team regularly practiced at...as I was driving my little mini-van east to Kentwood I quickly picked up that many of these kids hadn't been to this part of town before...and it wasn't like me where I had just moved into the area and was still getting thru the list of places to eat and visit across the community...we saw planes getting ready to land and I heard that they'd never been to an airport before...it was kinda fun for me to be able to point out things to them as we drove...maybe I was playing the guide role for one of the first times in west MI, to be honest...
And then we got to the MVP soccer facility...and we had a great time playing soccer games, running them thru some footwork drills, watching them play small-sided games, and getting to teach and play the sport we love to and with them on a surface that I heard some of them comment was "amazing"...and I thought of how I have spent hours and hours and hours evaluating and protecting and complaining about the grass and turf surfaces my teams have played on in literally thousands of practices and games over the last thirty plus years...and I was taken back to the first time we played as a high school team on field turf and how much we adored that night...I still have pictures in my head of these kids in sweater vests and jeans and old tennis shoes playing soccer with joy that simply put I don't usually see in the kids I regularly coach with new adidas gear from head to toe...and the hour of time we'd been able to secure ended way too quickly for the ten year old kids and the 20 year old college players...
We then drove back to our campus and almost 20 Latino pre-teenagers sat at banquet tables with parents and college players...and ate their hearts out...to be honest, eating for students on our campus is often an exercise to complain...the food isn't what they'd like and they are sick of seeing similar choices...and all of us who talk like that are more than little out of touch in reality...I watched these young kids devour the food out on the buffet table...and go up more than twice to get their fill of that which seemed like a pretty amazing spread from their perspective...
We presented each of the kids with a ball signed by each of the guys on our team...and despite the fact that I doubt any of our signatures will earn any of them big money on EBAY in the days ahead, they loved receiving an Adidas ball with names on it from some of the most advanced soccer players they've ever gotten to meet in person...and the after banquet pictures with our guys mixed all in with them defined for me what I hope our program will do to serve the local community through the use of our gifts in the months and years ahead...
So what did a Saturday lunch and a Monday dinner remind me as another school year draws to a close? It reminded me of how those who hunger physically and spiritually are crying for me to respond...the voices are far, far away and within a short drive...And I was reminded once again that very few things engage my spirit more and give me Kingdom joy than being with those who are hungry...hungry for what their body needs and hungry to show me what life is really like and how much I need to be in relationship with those who God calls BLESSED all throughout the Scriptures...
As this year ends I look forward to some rest and will be dreaming of the days next year when kids from south Grand Rapids play soccer at halftime on our lush game field on the CU campus...and I share a porridge meal with the kids in Africa who love the very same game we do as we all hunger and thirst for the Bread of Life and Living Water Jesus longs to provide for all of us...
MATTHEW 5:6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
It's called the Broken Bread meal and several folks from our ACTS campus chapter and other globally concerned students ate this simple porridge in paper bowls on the floor in our student union...to be completely honest, it was prepared a bit thicker than it probably should have been, and for almost everyone in the group it was pretty tough to choke down...a lot of spoons were mixing it up over and over again as we read stats about the vast numbers of people dealing with malnutrition and the direct correlation between rising oil prices and food costs in the third world...it is honestly a pretty sobering and guilt-inducing time when you realize that you are caught in the struggle that you are used to food tasting good and wanting to be thankful as others are around the world for whatever God has provided...
As we sat eating and pushing our food around, I flashed back to a day a couple summers ago where I spent a morning at a little pre-school in rural Zambia...we spent part of the morning mixing porridge with some local women from the village who were selling it to the school to support their families and taking care of orphans of their own children who had passed away in the AIDS pandemic...and then we poured out good sized portions, honestly bigger than the ones most of us took last night, into plastic bowls that we hand-delivered to a packed classroom of 2-4 year olds...over the next couple minutes, we silently watched almost every single child devour the food put in front of them...in fact, most of them abandoned their spoons and licked the bowl clean as they finished eating the porridge filled with the nutrients their bodies craved...the image of the remnants of this meal on these African children's faces has stayed fresh in my mind over the last few years...
I also couldn't help but think of my own kids and my friends' children reactions if they were served this meal...I am more than certain that the bowl wouldn't have been clean...in fact it most likely would have been greeted with strange faces and cries of disdain when they tasted it...in reality, they are the outward expressions of the internal feelings we had sitting around on the floor the other night, even as people who do have a real concern for those who are hungry all over the world...
These African experiences and memories can often seem removed from every day life in west MI...unless one gets connected with kids who live differently even here in Grand Rapids...this past Saturday our soccer team here at CU hosted a clinic for some kids who are part of Sabaoth Ministries, one of our urban partners for our first year experience program at CU...there is a group of Hispanic kids who love soccer and play on an abandoned cement lot in their neighborhoods who are regulars in their after school program...as we thought about our end of the year team banquet, we wanted to do something different...this has been a season filled with unusual challenges, disappointments, and times of growth through difficulty...athletic banquets in general tend to highlight victories and stroke the egos of those who are most physically gifted on successful teams...in many ways, we long to be a different kind of program, and hope we'll do some things that demonstrate those values when we have a chance...
So we decided as a coaching staff that this year's banquet day would have a different feel...we'd still honor our best players, thank players who worked hard to improve as athletes, and thank our seniors for their investment in our program over the last four years...but we'd include some kids who might not have been to a banquet before, or owned a pair of soccer shoes, or ever stepped on a turf field in our celebration, with the hope that it would become more of a day that reflected how Jesus might view how we think about the gifts we've been given to play this game we love and how He might want us to throw a party...
(I was thinking about Luke 14:1-24 as a backdrop for this decision...)
So I had a couple guys meet me and we drove our cars down to the Sabaoth ministry meeting spot in south Grand Rapids...we each took several kids with us as we headed off to a local indoor soccer facility our team regularly practiced at...as I was driving my little mini-van east to Kentwood I quickly picked up that many of these kids hadn't been to this part of town before...and it wasn't like me where I had just moved into the area and was still getting thru the list of places to eat and visit across the community...we saw planes getting ready to land and I heard that they'd never been to an airport before...it was kinda fun for me to be able to point out things to them as we drove...maybe I was playing the guide role for one of the first times in west MI, to be honest...
And then we got to the MVP soccer facility...and we had a great time playing soccer games, running them thru some footwork drills, watching them play small-sided games, and getting to teach and play the sport we love to and with them on a surface that I heard some of them comment was "amazing"...and I thought of how I have spent hours and hours and hours evaluating and protecting and complaining about the grass and turf surfaces my teams have played on in literally thousands of practices and games over the last thirty plus years...and I was taken back to the first time we played as a high school team on field turf and how much we adored that night...I still have pictures in my head of these kids in sweater vests and jeans and old tennis shoes playing soccer with joy that simply put I don't usually see in the kids I regularly coach with new adidas gear from head to toe...and the hour of time we'd been able to secure ended way too quickly for the ten year old kids and the 20 year old college players...
We then drove back to our campus and almost 20 Latino pre-teenagers sat at banquet tables with parents and college players...and ate their hearts out...to be honest, eating for students on our campus is often an exercise to complain...the food isn't what they'd like and they are sick of seeing similar choices...and all of us who talk like that are more than little out of touch in reality...I watched these young kids devour the food out on the buffet table...and go up more than twice to get their fill of that which seemed like a pretty amazing spread from their perspective...
We presented each of the kids with a ball signed by each of the guys on our team...and despite the fact that I doubt any of our signatures will earn any of them big money on EBAY in the days ahead, they loved receiving an Adidas ball with names on it from some of the most advanced soccer players they've ever gotten to meet in person...and the after banquet pictures with our guys mixed all in with them defined for me what I hope our program will do to serve the local community through the use of our gifts in the months and years ahead...
So what did a Saturday lunch and a Monday dinner remind me as another school year draws to a close? It reminded me of how those who hunger physically and spiritually are crying for me to respond...the voices are far, far away and within a short drive...And I was reminded once again that very few things engage my spirit more and give me Kingdom joy than being with those who are hungry...hungry for what their body needs and hungry to show me what life is really like and how much I need to be in relationship with those who God calls BLESSED all throughout the Scriptures...
As this year ends I look forward to some rest and will be dreaming of the days next year when kids from south Grand Rapids play soccer at halftime on our lush game field on the CU campus...and I share a porridge meal with the kids in Africa who love the very same game we do as we all hunger and thirst for the Bread of Life and Living Water Jesus longs to provide for all of us...
MATTHEW 5:6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
A Closing Prayer for LENT
May we bless the world with comfort. Comfort when a child is suffering and no parent can help, so that we may become the arms of a God who heals. Amen
May we bless the world with peace. Peace for the persecuted and those who struggle to provide, so that we may become the feet of a God who brings good news. Amen
May we bless the world with love. Love for the ones who only encounter the demons in others, so that we may become the heart of a God who feels every human affliction. Amen
May we bless the world with wisdom. Wisdom to pass wisdom, so that we may become the mind of a God whose dreams become reality with the breath of a word. Amen
And the blessing of God, who provides comfort, peace, love and wisdom, be upon us and all that we love and pray for this day, and forever more. Amen
May we bless the world with peace. Peace for the persecuted and those who struggle to provide, so that we may become the feet of a God who brings good news. Amen
May we bless the world with love. Love for the ones who only encounter the demons in others, so that we may become the heart of a God who feels every human affliction. Amen
May we bless the world with wisdom. Wisdom to pass wisdom, so that we may become the mind of a God whose dreams become reality with the breath of a word. Amen
And the blessing of God, who provides comfort, peace, love and wisdom, be upon us and all that we love and pray for this day, and forever more. Amen
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