So we went to Myrtle Beach for our Vacation this summer, the one week of the year that we could get the whole family together.  Our first time there, got a condo cheap off e-bay, right on the beach, a property that had like 20 pools.   Had a great time in the pools with my boys, the girls mostly suntanned, but Jake and Josh and I had dunking fights, holding-your-breath-underwater contests, handstand-underwater contests and so forth.  So…when I ran across this youtube video — Things You Cannot Do If You Are NOT in a Pool — it reminded me of our vacation, and made me laugh.

…and the Lord takes away, but occasionally I am reminded that He gives far more than he takes.  Pictured here are a pair of $142 Oakley sunglasses.  I want to make sure you know that I have NEVER spent $142 on sunglasses.  Not saying that’s right or wrong, but I lose/break/go through sunglasses like most people eat — regularly and consistently.

So I usually buy sunglasses in Florida, at the flea market, while on vacation.  We didn’t go to Florida this year, but we went to Myrtle Beach and they happened to have a flea market.  So I bought a pair of $6 knock-off sunglasses — choppers.  They looked about as cool as a pair of six dollar sunglasses could look.  (I could’ve gotten 2 for $10 but neither of my sons would buy a pair — which highlights the low cool factor of the glasses.)

So there I was at the beach the next day, in the waves, with my sunglasses on.  The family told me to take my sunglasses off before a wave took them off.  But I didn’t listen — I told them that I would be fine.  I wouldn’t lose them so quickly.  Next thing I know I am being attacked by a giant wave with a surf all it’s own, a wave that had evil intentions upon my sunglasses.  I did a half somersault under the water and came up — that’s right — eyes naked to the sun.  Luckily the family didn’t notice and soon went up to the condo.

So… I decided to look for my glasses.  Yep I was looking for metal framed, six dollar sunglasses that were somewhere on the sand in 4 foot deep water stirred up by 4 foot waves.  Frankly I didn’t want my family to know that I had lost them after not listening.  So there I was walking in the water parallel with the shore back and forth, praying… “God if you want, you can put my foot right next to those six dollar glasses so that I can get them back.”   No sooner had I prayed than I looked down and there was a black pair of sunglasses floating waves, bobbing up and down, inviting me to pick them up and clothe my eyes.

I picked them up — Oakley’s.  I’m thinking cool $6 Oakley knock-offs, but I had an Oakley expert look at them — $142 real-deal Oakley’s.  So if you don’t see me with my Oakley’s, it’s either because I lost them, or Lynn won’t let me wear them.  By the way, after I found the Oakley’s, I searched another 20 minutes for the knock-offs.

Why do we do that?  God takes something away and gives us something infinitely better, and we keep looking for what we lost?

Okay so it’s not like it was hard.  But here is the short version of what took place in the last 18 days.

• Family Vacation to Myrtle Beach.
• Lost my $6.00 sunglasses when a wave crashed over my head.
• Found a $142.00 pair of sunglasses floating in the surf.
• Got beat jogging with my son on the beach — that’s my 8th grader Josh — Jake won’t race me.
• Ran out of gas on the way home from Myrtle  — yep that’s right, ran out of gas.
• Moved my daughter Sarah out of her room into her apartment downtown — Sr. Year at PSU!
• Turned 46.
• Took my daughter Katy out to Bethel in MN to start her sophomore year.
• Hung out with my mom and dad and siblings in South Dakota for 2 days.
• Visited my nephew Riley in the hospital in Ann Arbor for open heart surgery.  He got out in 4 days!
• 27 hours in the car on the way home from South Dakota via Minneapolis and Ann Arbor.
• Catching up at Calvary.

It was a good 18 days — but I am so glad to be worshiping with the folks at Calvary this weekend!

This last Wednesday — August 5th — was my Dad’s 70th birthday.  I remember when I was a kid, the only relatives we had in town were Oscar, Anna and Clara — three old Norwegians who were my grandpa’s siblings.  In my mind they are stuck somewhere around 75 and that seemed so old.  But now that I’m 46, 70 seems positively young.  A couple of years ago, my mom did a retirement party for dad.  I went, prepared to say a few words about my dad, but then he didn’t want any words, so I didn’t speak.  But today (Sunday) mom is doing a surprise party for dad, and I can’t be there so I figured I would get my words out now.

So I’m going to share 10 reasons why I’m glad dad is my dad.  I have more reasons but the next appropriate title would be “70 Reasons I’m Glad Dad’s My Dad” and that would make the blog way to long.  So here they are:  Top 10

10)  Growing up dad was easy to satisfy, but hard to please. What I mean by that is that he wasn’t a hard taskmaster.  He wasn’t a coach who never celebrated your wins, but he had expectations that were reasonably difficult to meet.  In other words, he helped me stretch.  Whether it was in sports, academics, or relationship with God, he wouldn’t let me settle.  He pushed me.

9) He had an alcoholic father who wasn’t always there for his family, but dad broke the cycle. I can’t even begin to know how important this was to my life.  There are probably few greater gifts that a father can give his son than to break difficult generational cycles and start a new generation of blessing.  My dad got alcohol abuse out of the system and was always there for us.

8) He had fun. Whether it was wrestling in the living room, riding a beat up old snowmobile, cooking breakfast by a river in Yellowstone, going swimming at Brandt Lake, or tricking me into touching an electric fence when I was young, there are so many memories that bring a smile to my face — (Haircuts at Hef’s is not one of those memories.)

7) He walked with me through rites of passage. Hunting.  Building a fire.  Working on the International pick-up.   Giving me a job.  Talking to me about girls.  I don’t even know if we/he knew that’s what they were at the time, but I know they were steps in my journey to becoming a man.

6) He taught me how to work. My dad had an incredible work ethic.  It wasn’t just about working long hours, it was also about taking pride in whatever you did, even if it was scooping pig poop out of the pig pen.  It was about giving more than you got paid for…and it was about doing well.  I can’t think of a single job my dad had where he didn’t succeed.

5) He loved my mom more than he loved his mom. I loved my grandma, but she had a habit of thinking that her kids spouses were not quite good enough for her kids.  On a number of times my dad’s example in dealing with this, showed me more about marriage than most books I’ve read.  When he said “I do,” he meant it and lived it.

4) He was a generous man. When I was young, the thought never crossed my mind — we are poor.  And we weren’t but we didn’t have a lot of stuff.  We didn’t have a big house or the nicest cars, didn’t go out to eat a lot — (I tell my kids it was once a month, either McDonald’s or Dairy Queen) or go on fancy vacations.  But I’ll never forget as a kid learning that my parents were the most generous givers in our church.  Our church gave everyone a secret number and then publicly posted what each number gave and one year I discovered our number.  My parents shaped my heart for generosity and as a result God has blessed my family richly.

3) He was involved in my life. I guess this one is similar to 8 and 9, but it bears repeating.  He didn’t miss many games of my sports career, even when they involved travel while I played at Bethel.  His voice was the one voice I could always hear at a game.  In fact there was a time or two when maybe his voice was all the refs could hear at my games.  :)  But it wasn’t just sports, it was hunting, it was work, it was school, it was snow days, it was vacations, and it was my life with God.  From birth till now, his fingerprints are all over my life.

2) He was a man of wisdom and integrity. My dad was not a man of many words, but when he spoke his words had value, because they were backed up by His time in the Bible and His life.  If he ever told a lie, he did it so well that no one — except maybe mom — ever found out!  A promise-keeper before the word was fashionable and a great love for the Word of God.  Perhaps the best thing I could say as an illustration is that If he lived near me, he would be the first person I would ask to be on my church leadership team.

1) If you were to say, “I see your father in you,” it would be a great compliment. Far too often I find myself seeing or hearing my dad in me.  It might be the way I stand, or walk — (especially when my body is sore, I’ve got that same hobble) and of course some of the things I hear myself say to my kids — and the thought goes through my mind, that wasn’t me, that was my dad!  Some of those things — I told myself when I was a kid that I would never say that to my kids!  :)   But in a far greater way, he helped to shape my heart for God, family and the church.  I don’t know if I can put the other 9 reasons in order of importance, but there is no doubt that I put this one number one.  It’s all about values and priorities.  When it comes to values my dad’s life always made it clear that God came first, mom came second — followed by us kids as 2a’s — and then came the church.  Even when dad worked long hours, I wouldn’t question the importance of those three in his life.   Besides my mom — there is no other single person who is more responsible for me being a Jesus-follower, a family-man, and a pastor.

I realize that my top 10 list primarily uses past-tense verbs.  My dad is very much alive, but as I was writing this, I was thinking backward with gratitude, not forward with hope.  But when I think forward —

Dad, it is my hope that when I turn 70, my kids will feel the same way about me, that I feel about you.  It is my hope that you have many more years to pass on to your grandkids, what you passed on to your kids. It is my hope that you know that God has worked through you in great ways through the years and still has a plan to do so in the years to come.  It is my hope that God opens the windows of heaven to pour his blessings on you because of your generosity through the years.  It is my hope that you have many more hunts left in your life and even a few fishing excursions.  It is my hope that you still find that occasional thrill of finding something new in God’s Word.   It is my hope that your time with mom will continue to be a great model for Lynn and I. 

And it’s my hope that you know that I am glad that God saw fit to make you my dad.

Love, Danny.

(And to the 5 or 6 of you who read my blog — don’t get any ideas — no one else calls me Danny.)

Lately it seems like everywhere I go I keep bumping into a two word message from God.  Be Humble.   Last weekend at Calvary we pondered James 4:1-10, where it says stuff like, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” and “Humble yourself before God and he will lift you up.” But it’s everywhere I’ve been going lately.  Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount — the beatitudes part — “Blessed are the poor in spirit (a phrase meaning humble) for theirs is the Kingdom of God.

Then it popped up again in our LifeJournal reading, the beginning of August, Isaiah 66:1-2.  “Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool.  Where is the house that you will build me?  And where is the place of my rest?  For all those things my hand has made and all those things exist,” says the Lord.   “But on this I will look: On him who is humble and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word.”

It’s like God is saying that everything else is old hat for the one who made the heavens and the earth.  Facilities will not impress him.  Building campaigns do not get him excited.  He is not constantly on the search for the next great sunset; he can set that up whenever he chooses.  Every great strategy and project, every grand dream and vision every conceived is ho-hum, compared to this one thing.  He will not rest until he looks upon a person who is humble and contrite of spirit, a person who will listen with awe and respect.

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking more of God.  Humility is taking yourself out of the center so that you do not end up alone in the circle.  Humility comes when I view all of life through the lens of God.  Humility is strength under control.  It is soothing medicine and a gently breeze.  It is speaking truth with grace.  It does not get defensive and it is always patient.  Humility is servanthood in secret.  Humility is taking myself not so seriously but taking God very seriously.

And when I humble myself before God — he lifts me higher than I could ever imagine.  So how is your humility?

Last week at Calvary we looked at the heart and soul of the book of James — chapter 4:1-10.  But here is the part that I’m still pondering.  James writes in vs. 3-4

You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Don’t leave these words too quickly.  I think God inspired them with grief in his heart and I think James wrote them with tears in his eyes.  When you read these words you must imagine an e-mail from a  husband to a wife whose having an affair.  Imagine a conversation between two people meant to lay down the line — point the one and only pathway to reconciliation in a broken love relationship.

What if I came to Lynn and said — “I have a confession to make.  I’ve been having an affair.  But it’s really not that big a deal.  I mean it isn’t all the time — and in my heart I still love you, I just love  someone else too… but oh man — I really love those chocolate covered rice krispee bars — could I get a pan of those every once in awhile…?”

I’ll be honest, it sounds disgusting coming from my mouth to my ears.

I can’t imagine Lynn saying, “Okay no problem Dan.  I’m good with that — let me stop what I’m doing and make you a pan now.  Anything else I can do?”  I can imagine her getting a baseball bat to clobber me over the head, but not a pan of bars.  Can you imagine the audacity of a husband who has left his wife, is having an affair but every once in awhile comes around to have his laundry done.   Or the audacity of a wife who has left her family, is having an affair, but once a month comes arnd for rent money?

More than anything this is the crux of the problem for James’ readers.  They still love the gifts of the giver, but they don’t want to be committed to the giver of the gifts.  They want to play the field.  James is not directing this to people who have committed adultery against a spouse, it is directed toward people who have committed adultery against God.  They are having an affair with the world. Seeking pleasure without commitment.  Or even worse they are treating God like the other woman.  Sometimes I think that perhaps we just want to have an affair with God.  Come to Him for moments of pleasure on our terms — when we want — commitment free satisfaction.

But the only problem is — God will not be the other god.  That’s what James is saying.  We can’t have it both ways.  One heart, one love, God will not take second place.

So before we come to God and ask him for goodies, we better make sure we’ve gotten rid of the other gods.

I shared this in my D-News Update, so if you get that, you already got this…but if not, just some cool stuff going on around Calvary.

1)  We baptized 13 people two weekends ago — 5 at 1250 and 8 at Grays Woods.  I love doing baptisms.  It is a thrill and a privilege to hear people affirm their confession of faith in Jesus and their commitment to follow Jesus wherever He leads for the rest of their lives.  What a cool deal to have our first baptisms at our Grays Woods gathering.  Way to go!

2)  Our  mission teams in Estonia and Rwanda got back last week.  I’m already starting to hear some of the stories and get my heart pumped by the pictures.  Meanwhile this summer we have already had a team go to the Dominican Republic and another one go to Rwanda.  And this is just the teams, we also just sent a young lady back to Iraq to teach English and serve two congregations.  I love Calvary’s heart for people all over the world.  One related random thought — God has us living in a place where we don’t have to leave home to have a heart for people from all over the world.  Look for an opportunity to serve someone from another country — here.

3)  Every Friday this summer, pastors from around the community have been getting together to pray.  If you think about it, pray that more join us.

4)  Almost two years ago, Calvary helped to start a Bible school in Myanmar.  Last year the school had about 10 students, we thought this year there might be about 15.  There are 30!  90% of these students have expressed God’s calling to either be a missionary in Myanmar, start a house church in Myanmar, or start an orphanage in Myanmar.  If you would like to sponsor one student for a year.  It’s just $550.  Let me know.

5) Spoke this week on James 4:1-10 — James has the antidote for the poison that is killing our hearts.  If you want to listen click “reCalculating Prayer.”  Down below.

I had a grandmother.  She was a little grandma.  In fact that’s what I called her, little grandma.  You might use nana, mima, mimi, gammy or gamma to distinguish one grandmother from the other.  In our family we used the creative titles, Little Grandma and Big Grandma.  If you would haven known them you would understand.  I have known and loved all my grandparents…but little grandma was a favorite.  I remember when I was just a kid and we would make trips to California, she would take us to Thrifty’s for an ice cream cone.  She always got us the discount tickets to go to Disneyland and then would usually spend the day there with us.  I remember sitting at her counter as she would special-order cook my breakfast.  She was full of love and life and patience.  We had good talks.  It was always good to go to little grandma’s house because it was always good to be with her.

But then she got Alzheimer’s — way to early.  I was in college when she started getting bad.  Grandpa refused to put her in a nursing home.  But as he took care of her, she kept getting worse, mentally and physically.  A few years before she died, they moved to a new home — the one in the picture — right next to the house I grew up in.  During those years, in that house, she was there, but not really.  She couldn’t communicate, I’m not even sure if she was aware of what was going on around her.  Not only were her cooking skills gone, she couldn’t even feed herself.  She was bed-bound.

It was always interesting to watch my kids when we went to Little Grandma’s house to visit.  They never  really know her — not like I knew her — they never had the chance.  But they always wanted to see her.  They would go into the bedroom and touch her hand, say hello and then after a few moments they would go and play.  When they left the bedroom, it was almost as though, she had left the house — out of sight, out of mind.   I and Lynn would talk to her a bit longer.  She wouldn’t respond.   After a few more moments I would go.

And the rest of the visit, it was as though she wasn’t there.   It was her house but nobody asked her to be the host.  It was her kitchen but nobody asked her to cook or even what she wanted to eat.  Oh there would still be occasions when someone would seek her out, usually my mom.  Some occasions where someone would talk to her as though she might respond.  In fact there were times when I could even work up the faith to think that if I would talk long enough, perhaps a glimmer of recognition of her Danny might come back.  But for the most part, once the ritual greetings took place, rarely did she cross my mind, until it was time for the ritual goodbyes.

It was her house, but it was easy to be there and never be aware of her presence.

It’s kind of like church can be if we aren’t careful, isn’t it?

Once upon a time, we knew He was there. We consulted Him with our decisions and asked for His help often.  Sometimes we would just sit and talk and it was good to be in His house, because it was good to be with Him.  But now we have our ritual hellos and our ritual goodbyes and the rest of the time…

Well It’s His house, but if we aren’t careful, we could be there and never be aware of His presence.

The only difference is…  He’s not Little Grandma.  He doesn’t have Alzheimer’s.  And He will not be ignored.   As John Piper loves to say, “God is an important person; he does not like being taken for granted.”  I know it’s also true that God does not need a house made out of hands, but just for the fun of it, for the awe-full joy of it, this weekend when you go to church, be aware of His presence.  When you pray, assume that He heard and listen for His response.  He might surprise you.

I won’t make fun of the fact that they were Swedish…or blond. I guess it could happen to anybody. A Swedish couple vacationing in Italy wanted to experience the tropical charms of the island of Capri. So they programmed the GPS of their rental car to direct them. But they miss-typed and ended up going 400 miles out of the way to Carpi. Capri – Carpi, just one letter in the wrong place. 

They didn’t realize their mistake until they stopped in the town square of Carpi and asked where to find the famous Blue Grotto – a scenic system of caves located on the famous island. Bewildered employees at the tourist office told the wayward couple that they were, in fact, in Carpi, located 400 miles on the opposite end of Italy.

Now, aside from the fact that they were somehow not aware of the fact that they had not crossed a bridge, or used a ferry to get to an island; and aside from the fact that it never occurred to them that the sun was simply on the wrong side of the road; all they did was put one letter in the wrong place. One letter in the wrong place — they typed in Carpi instead of Capri. One “r” in the wrong place and they were headed to an industrial town in northern Italy instead of the beautiful isle of Capri.

So here’s my question… how far off course do we get when we put the “I” in the wrong place? Put “I” in the center of the universe and your we end up on the wrong side of life. In some ways, the essence of being a Jesus follower is simply putting the “I” in the right place. I need to get my self out of the center so that I don’t end up in the circle alone.

Where is your I….?

No.  Not Save our Souls.  Not Survivors on Shore.  Not Save our Ships.  Summer of Service.  Every year for the last few years, Calvary’s youth team has led the charge to call youth from congregations throughout the city to serve.  It’s a pretty cool summer camp experience.  For more info you can go to Stacy’s blog Stac’s Place for a recap and then click SOS 2009 to watch a cool video.

So why Summer of Service?  If you remember your science history, it was about 500 years ago that Nicholas Copernicus challenged the scientific and religious status quo but suggesting that the earth was not at the center of the universe.  That in fact the earth revolved around the sun.  Do you know how difficult it was for people to accept this paradigm shift — that we were not the center of the unvrse?

His ideas were denounced by the Pope, John Calvin and Martin Luther.  His books banned almost 200 years.  It is ever so difficult for us to walk willingly out of the center of life, isn’t it?  None of us, or at least most of us would never let the words, “life is all about me” come out of our mouths, but secretly we think it’s true.

If we want to be wise James 3:13-18 says that we need to make a Copernicus recalculation that takes me out of the center of the universe.  Think you are wise, prove it by good deeds done with humility.

I agree with Mark Batterson, a pastor in D.C. when he says,

I think one of my primary responsibilities as a parent is to make sure my kids experience a Copernicus revolution.  In other words, at some point, it is my job as a parent to stop caring for their needs and make sure that they start caring for the needs of people around them.  They come to a point in their life that they realize the world does not revolve around them.

In his book The Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster suggests that one of the greatest exercises in the pursuit of humility is service.  That’s why things like Summer of Service have never been optional for my kids.  That’s why we’ll give up Christmas and all sorts of cool vacations and stuff in order to take our family to Myanmar to serve at an orphanage.  Because service is the pathway out of self-centeredness  and into the humility that comes from wisdom.

God’s wisdom isn’t all about getting ahead.  God’s wisdom isn’t about getting insider information that will keep us from all the difficult paths of life.  God’s wisdom is relational.  It’s all about taking my self out of the center, so that I don’t end up alone in the circle.  What does your wisdom look like?