Last weekend I had the privilege of sharing with Dayspring Ministries for their church anniversary.  I talked about desperation and heroes. Seems a bit strange to talk about desperation at a celebration, but God is drawn to hopeful desperation. In his most famous sermon, Jesus first statement was, “Blessed are the poor in Spirit for their is the Kingdom of God” Or we could use the words, “Blessed are the broken… blessed are those who have come to the end of their rope and have no where to turn, but turn to God… the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them.. all the resources of God are within their grasp.

You understand it’s not desperation all by itself…desperation without hope leads to death. Desperation with hope leads to initiative. It’s like one of my favorite heroes…from the movie Dumb and Dumber… I can’t remember if it was dumb or dumber but Jim Carey is chasing this girl who has no time for him, and he finally corners her and asks her if there is any possibility that she might ever have feelings for him. She says, “It’s about a million to one.”   He says, “So you’re telling me I’ve got a chance!”

That’s hopeful desperation and in the Kingdom of God, hopeful desperation gives birth to heroes.

Let me ask you a question that Jon Ortberg asks in one of his books,  “What do you think is the most dangerous object in your home?”

Larry Lowden is a professor of philosophy at the University of Hawaii and he’s written a whole chapter on household dangers.  460,000 people a year are injured by kitchen knives.  Manual and power saws get another 100,000. And this is a statement, a quote directly from the book. Lowden writes, “Annually, some 4,000 of us seriously injure ourselves on pillows.”  How do you do that? A really rough pillow fight?  Poke your eye out with a feather while you’re dreaming?

But that’s not the most dangerous item in the house for a hero.  I think the most dangerous object in your house is a chair, a special chair, an easy chair.  Easy chairs are kryptonite for heroes, because it is the antithesis to hopeful desperation.  The easy chair is all about comfort.  It’s a laz-y-boy chair, not a “go-be-a-hero chair.”  We sit in our lazy-boy chairs we snack on some comfort food.  Got the remote control nearby so we don’t have to exert ourselves in a dangerous way…as we watch the game.

See if my life is primarily devoted to maximizing my comfort — minimizing my stress — and hiding from my problems, I won’t take the risk of hopeful desperation when the opportunity arises.  The danger is not what I do while I’m in my comfort zone. It’s what I miss.

John Ortberg writes,
It’s the relationships we never take a chance on.
It’s the people we never serve.
It’s the great urgent, desperate prayers we never pray.
It’s the noble thoughts we never think.
It’s the battles you were called to fight, that you never fight.
It’s the laughter you never laugh and the tears you never weep.

It’s the great adventure of life with God that you were made for that you never go on. You were made to do something more with your life than to try to arrange it to maximize comfort, security and safety. You were made to spend your life in a risky partnership with God.

We all understand the importance of first things. First kiss, the first year of school, first impressions, first day on the job… it’s all about getting a good start. Isn’t that why we put so much energy & attention into weddings? We want a good start to the marriage.

But let’s take a moment and ponder what is at the heart of a wedding. What elements are absolutely essential for getting that good start in your marriage? And what is optional?

For example…expensive clothes… the bride wears a beautiful dress that costs somebody a lot of money in the hopes that it will never be worn again… The groom wears a tuxedo… but generally he only rents it because it costs less money and frankly nobody really cares how the groom looks… The groom’s tux is optional. Frankly I’ve done a few weddings where it almost seemed like the groom was optional. Clothes are not optional but beautiful clothes are not essential.

Then you have receptions…all sorts of receptions, right?  Some receptions include full meals, dining and dancing… some reception are held in exotic places like Barns with Clem’s bbq served. Receptions are not essential to a good start….they are optional.

So many different elements that u could have in a wedding.  Ring-bearers, flower-girls, unity candles, bridal party, communion, music.  I did a wedding a few weekends ago that had none of those elements.  I’ll do two this weekend that have most of them.  But it’s all optional.  Even I the pastor am optional.

It’s interesting.. I’ve done dozens of weddings and in most weddings… incredible amounts of time are put into planning so many optional elements… but often a fairly small amount of thought goes into the one essential element of every wedding…

The heart of a wedding….is the vows.   A wedding is a vow…everything else is disposable.  Marriage begins with a promise and the heart of a wedding is the vow.

I remember my wedding day.  I wasn’t nervous at all. That morning, I was riding a cross-country motorcycle and jumping from a 30 foot bridge into a river — not nervous. I got dressed and went to the church — not nervous. I stood out on the platform and watched Lynn come down the aisle — pretty calm. We even sang a duet together, no problem.  But when the pastor said, “Please repeat after me…”  It hit me, on the scale of big decisions — this is huge. With God’s help, I am committing everything I am to this woman standing beside me.

Now if you know Lynn, you know that except for the day I committed my life to Jesus it was the best decision I’ve ever made.  I didn’t question whether marrying Lynn was the choice of a lifetime.  I was simply pondering the fact that I was making a whole-life, whole-heart kind of commitment. I do. As in all of me, forever, no matter what, with all my heart I do.   And I’m so glad I did.

The heart of a wedding is a vow… so I couldn’t help passing on these beautiful vows that John passed on to me… enjoy!

On July 4th all the Calvary gatherings came together to worship with Midtown at the South Auditorium.  Near the end of our first morning worship gathering I felt that God was putting it on my heart to take an offering for Discovery Road Church.  I knew that in a few weekends I would be preaching at Discovery Road and I felt that God wanted us to take the opportunity to bless them.  So we took a spur-of-the-moment-on-our-way-out offering and you gave around $3500.

See here are two convictions that I have…

1) God did not call me to State College to merely pastor Calvary, He called me here to pastor the city.

2) I can’t shepherd a city on my own…it takes a team.  It takes the church of the city.

For simply that means that I believe that the church of the city needs to work together to impact the city.  We are all one body of Christ…when one part of the body hurts, we all hurt.  When one part of the body excels, we all win.  We will make a greater impact on the city if Discovery Road — a newer church plant — thrives.

So I went there a couple of weekends ago, gave them the check and shared a message from Isaiah 62 — Married to the Land.

A few days later Jorn sent us this greeting and thank you…  listen to it and then take a moment to pray for Discovery Road.

So here’s a question…  Did you ever someone who was always joyful?  There was lady at our first church in Minnesota, her name was Patty. She was always smiling, when we were leaving Minnesota to move to State College, she and her husband were helping us pack…and we had this really nice mirror on our dresser in our bedroom.  She came out of the house with a sweet smile on her face. “O Lynn, you know that beautiful mirror you have in your bedroom. We broke it.” Lynn thought she was kidding. “O Patty your such a joker. “No Lynn,” she said — with the smile still radiating — “We broke it.”  I don’t know if Patty was always joyful, but she was always smiling.

Did you ever know someone who was always joyful? We tend to call them naive or newlyweds. We say, just wait. Joy is not a very cool word. It’s only three letters. It doesn’t make the top 100 baby names. The only time you hear it in a song is at Christmas. But joy is a key Biblical theme.  In fact it would be easy to argue from the Bible that joy is at the heart of God’s plan for humanity.

Psalm 16:11 You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever. Psalm 19:8 The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. Jesus words in John 15:11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!

Recently in a blog post, Seth Godin was talking about emotions.  (Places We Go)  He made the following comment…

Occasionally we encounter emotions at random. More often, we have no choice, because there’s something that needs to be done, or an event that impinges itself on us. But most often, we seek emotions out, find refuge in them…

He goes on to suggest that we can actually choose the emotions to which we run… that emotions are not only thrust upon us, that emotions are not only a by-product of our circumstances or our perceptions, but that we can actually choose our emotions.  And in fact the more often we choose to run to a particular emotion, the more “addicted” we get to that emotion.

Can we choose joy?  Paul writes in Philippians 4:4, Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say it, rejoice!

I’m working on this one.  I have to be honest, if it is possible to choose joy — and I believe it is — I don’t always do it.  I almost always tell my children that they choose their attitudes, but I don’t always choose joy.  Sometimes I choose anxiousness.  Sometimes I choose to be moody or dejected.  Sometimes — but rarely — I even choose cynicism.  Sometimes I choose joy, even when it’s difficult choice, but not always.

Two things that help me choose joy are practicing the discipline of gratitude and reminding myself that in the end my story is good news. (See Bad News Good News).

So…try it out this week…choose joy.

So the family took me (let me go) shark fishing for my birthday — and Father’s Day combined — present.  Not my birthday yet, but it was the only way we could fit shark fishing into our vacation budget.  And yes…I caught the first one…pictured here.  I was trying to figure out a way that we could make it look bigger — a little camera magic — but the hand holding it was a dead giveaway that it was indeed the world’s smallest shark.  Yes indeed I am the great light shark hunter.  Sucker was smaller than the bullheads that I caught in Sought Dakota when I was a kid.

But they got progressively bigger — two more sharks and a stingray… the whole family reeled on that one and Jake almost got it into the boat, but then the line broke.

It was a good night.  Beautiful sunset.   Lynn with a beautiful smile on her face.  A few dolphins.  A great guide and captain.  Nice boat, lots of water.  Sarah and Katy squealing about touching fish — but then catching and touching fish.  Jake reeling like a mad-man.  Josh making us laugh — laugh like crazy.  Like the moment a seagull swooped down to snatch a fish head off the top of the water.  The seagull missed and Josh said… “Well that’s embarrassing.”  His comment when the bigger shark started thrashing, “Oh it’s an angry elf.”  And the best exchange of the night happened when our captain and guide was bringing the largest shark into the boat.  Josh heard a noise and said, “Was that a fart?”  The captain said, “No it was the shark.”  Josh said, “Yeah I know I thought the shark farted.”  “Oh” the captain replied, “I thought you were asking if I farted.”

If you aren’t laughing now, I guess you had to be there.  But it will be one of those exchanges that get brought up around the Nold dinner table for years to come.  Not just because it was funny, but because it was family.  Those moments make my heart sing.  They are moments of play and laughter, moments of sibling rivalry and sibling friendship.  They are moments when I am very aware — not just of the presence of God, but — His smile.

You don’t have to go shark fishing on Hilton Head to have those moments.  But you do have to take the time.

So it started with our passion for family vacations.  I had resigned myself to the first summer in decades of no family — as in the whole family, as in all my kids — vacation.  (Bad News) Sarah is immersed in her first job.  Katelyn has a friend home for the summer and that combined with a summer job made her time with us iffy… so I figured it would just be Lynn and I and Jake and Josh.  

But then we came across a place on Hilton Head Island that we could get last minute for 9 days instead of seven — and a good price.  Which meant that maybe somewhere within those nine days maybe we could fly both Sarah and Katy in for enough days to make it worthwhile.  (Good News)

But it required Katy getting off a couple of days that she wasn’t sure she could and it required Sarah getting a vacation day her first couple of weeks in — neither of them thought that would work.  (Bad News)

But it ended up working for both of them — meaning both Sarah and Katy could find 4 days…the same 4 days to come to HH.  (Good News)

So I started working on flight details.  I found Sarah a round-trip ticket using frequent flyer miles — Pittsburgh to Savannah.  Left Pitt at 7:30pm so she could get in a full Friday at work.  Got into Savannah at 11:35pm Friday, meaning she would have all day Saturday with the family.  Then I found Katy a ticket leaving State College, — one way because she could go back with us — to Savannah.  It got into Savannah at — guess what — 11:35pm on Friday night.  In fact Sarah and Katy would be on the same USAir flight from Charlotte to Savannah.  (Good News — two in a row.)

The fun started Friday afternoon.  First call came from USAir.  Sorry flight 800 from Philadelphia to Charlotte is delayed.  (Bad News) Katy’s flight, delay of one hour.  No problem she can still make the connection in Charlotte. (Good News)  An hour later a second call from USAir, “Sorry Flight 800 from Philadelphia is delayed another 90 minutes.”  Wow Katelyn won’t make her connection.  She’ll be stuck in Charlotte.  (Bad News)  Wait, I just found a flight from Philadelphia to Charleston.  (Good News) It gets in at 11pm.  It gives us about 2 hours extra driving and it will mean that Sarah will have to wait in Savannah till about 1am, (Bad News) but we can make it work.  (Good News)

So Lynn and I ditched our eat-out-at-a-nice-place plans, (Bad News) grabbed a chicken sandwich at Chick-Fill and headed to Charleston.  On the way there, we received a third USAir call, Flight 1065 from Charlotte to Savannah has been delayed due to weather.  (Might seem like bad news but actually Good News because now Sarah wouldn’t have to wait at Savannah.  We could pick up Katy — two hours away in Charleston and drive the two hours back to Savannah and end up at the Savannah airport just minutes after Sarah landed.)

We picked up Katy at Charleston and headed toward Savannah to pick up Sarah.  Meanwhile we had a series of calls from Sarah letting us know that her flight was progressively getting pushed back.  Latest report her flight would leave at 1:15am and get into Savannah at 2:15am which meant we would beat the flight by about 90 minutes.  Oh well, not quite bad news yet.  About an hour from Savannah we received a final call from Sarah.  The flight has been cancelled.  USAir is given nothing for food or lodging — as it’s “weather related” — and the earliest they can get her out will be 2:55pm on Saturday.  (Bad News)   (Actually the flight ended up being delayed on Saturday to 3:55pm.)

So Lynn and I made an immediate decision.  We’re headed to Charlotte to pick up Sarah.  Not real interested in having her spend the night in the airport and ultimately spend almost 20 hours of her four day vacation in the airport.  So we headed to Charlotte — three hours away.  At 3am we picked up Sarah in Charlotte and headed home.  At 7am after 11 hours of driving, we made it back to our apartment in Hilton Head.  At noon, the whole family was headed to the beach on our bikes.  (Good News)  

The last two days have been excellent family vacation days and tonight we go shark-fishing.  (More Good News.)

Moral of the story.  If the story ends with good news…it’s all good.  If it ends with bad news, even the good that was good doesn’t hold up.  The really really super good news?  When it comes to the story of life with Jesus…no matter what happens now, I know the ending will be good news.  Which means bad news will never be the story of my life.  That’s good news!

Maybe you read the recent news about the missionaries killed in Afghanistan.  They were part of a medical mission — International Assistance Mission — a Christian medical mission focused on eye care.  They were on their way back from an eye clinic in rural Afghanistan when the Taliban robbed and murdered them.  A Taliban spokesman revealed to a news agency that the Taliban killed them because they were Christian missionaries.

It’s a statistic I have heard often and used on occasion, “More Christians died for their faith in the 20th century than in the 19 centuries leading up to it.” But in the words of one organization keeping us informed of the stories of persecuted Christians around the world, “As bad as the 20th century was, the 21st century is starting to make that look like a Sunday picnic.”  In every corner of the globe, Christians are being killed, imprisoned, even tortured for their faith.  Pastors are being marked for assassination.  Churches are being burned to the ground.  Homes and businesses are being destroyed.

Even in nations where Christianity is “allowed” strict anti-conversion laws have been passed and Christians deal with discrimination, ridicule and lawsuits.  One would have to ask the question, Is Christianity the most persecuted religion on the plant?

I can’t count how often I will  hear someone pray — including myself — “God thank you for the opportunity you give us to worship with freedom…”  It is good to be grateful, but the reality is that world-wide there is one body of Christ and if one part of the body hurts, the whole body hurts.  Today all over America, Christians took the time to enjoy the freedom given us to worship.  Perhaps this afternoon, we might click the countries below, read the story and use our freedom to pray for those in our family of faith who are hurting.

Afghanistan

Pakistan

Russia

Nigeria

China

Eritrea

“In a show of unprecedented generosity a band of 40 american billionaires have pledged to give at least half of their fortunes to charity” — so begins an article in today’s USA Today newspaper.  (You can read the article here Band of Billionaires). Pretty inspirational — in spite of the fact that if you give away 1/2 a billion, you still have 1/2 a billion — so far 40 people have signed the pledge.  (See The List here.)  Some names are familiar, some are not.

It appears the challenge is being sounded from Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett, so far they have contacted 70-80 of the richest people in America, in the coming days they will be spreading their challenge to India and China.  Those who say yes will be asked to contact others, small dinners around the country will spread the challenge.  Who knows how far this might go…

There is so much that I love about this challenge giver’s club.  I love the challenge.  I love the sense of community that is apt to form amongst these 40-50 people.   I love the generosity.  But I have to say I’m also a little bit bummed…

The church should be getting these headlines.  Not that it’s all about publicity, but remember that Jesus did say that our good deeds should cause people to praise Father God — for people to praise, they have to know.  From the beginning God determined that his people would be known as the people who bless others.  Prosperity theology has it half right — God does want to bless us — but the other so-important-half is “so that we can bless others.”

Consider this: In 2010 almost nine million children under the age of 5 will have died from preventable poverty conditions. Oh but there’s nothing we can do about that…the need is too great… did you know that if members of historically Christian churches in the United States were giving an average of 10% of their incomes in 2010, there would be an additional $160 billion given through church channels. (Check out www.emptytomb.org)

It’s estimated that it would only take $5 billion to end most of those 9 million deaths. Another 7 billion would be enough to educate all those children. That 70-80 billion a year would eradicate the worst of world poverty. I know — for those of you who will argue strategy — money is not all that’s needed to solve these problems. In fact sometimes just throwing money at the issue cause more problems. Though even good strategies require funds, my desire is that we would simply ponder what might happen if the church started a giver’s challenge.

On the average, at Calvary, we give 3-4% of our income to Calvary, we have a budget of over $1 million with $300,000 given to missions. If we all upped our giving to 10% our church alone would have another $3 million/year to help the under-resourced in our community and around the world.

Who wants to join the 10% Giving Club?

Imagine if every congregation in State College had one?

If you have ever visited The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., you may have had the opportunity to browse through some of the personal belongings found on Abraham Lincoln the night he was assassinated.  If you did browse through those personal belongings you might have noticed a well-worn newspaper clipping lauding Lincoln’s achievements as president and describing him as, “One of the greatest statesmen of all time.”

Now if you know even a bit of Lincoln’s story, you know that he was by no means a egomaniac looking for an opportunity to pull out a headline to wow the person standing next to him.  In fact, Lincoln battled self-doubt throughout his presidency, especially during the Civil War when friend and foe alike heaped criticism upon him.  Lincoln carried that clipping around as an occasional personal encouragement.

I don’t know about you, but knowing that a President and national hero like Lincoln needed encouragement, helps me to admit that encouraging words spoken in the right time have great value.  I have an e-mail folder that is simply labeled “Encouragement.”  It contains every e-mail I’ve ever received that is an encouragement to me.  Some of the e-mails are messages from someone saying thank you for a sermon, or for a moment of time given.  More of them are stories of God@work, which for me is a great encouragement.  Some of them contain critiques or admonition because when viewed with the right perspective, even admonition can be an encouragement.  In effect it is saying… “I know you can do better.”  That encourages me.

But here is the thought I’m pondering at the moment.  I can’t control the words of encouragement I hear, but I can control the words of encouragement that I speak.  When’s the last time you looked for an opportunity to encourage someone?

In Ephesians 4:29, Paul wrote these words,

Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.

As some one who has been on the receiving end of a word of encouragement well-spoken… each of us has the power for good in our words.  Look for an opportunity to encourage someone this week.

Jake, Josh and I biked down to the beach this evening — yep I’m on vacation, not in State College — and here is what I saw:

• – A little girl making tiny sandcastles — oblivious to anything more serious than her play.
• – A father running down a tide-pool and then throwing himself in the water on his belly to land in front of his 3 year old son who laughed with great abandon.
• – Three families playing bocce ball.
• – Four groups of people flying kites.
• – My boys playing lax.
• – A Father and his daughter shifting through shells.
• – A Grandfather carrying pails and shovels, telling his young grandson how much he loved digging in the sand with him.
• – People fishing, riding bikes, walking, and sitting in chairs laughing.

Play.  What I saw was people playing and many, many smiles.

Last weekend at Calvary we talked about making a mark on our marriage and one way to leave a mark on our families is by making play a priority.  (Watch the video here Marriage).  Think about play…about fun and games.  So many times when I go out to play with my kids…like I’ll go across the street to play basketball with Jake & Josh…and seconds into play.. I turn into super-coach… because of course I just want to help them grow and become better basketball players.

But they can only take so much coaching and pretty soon, I start hearing, “Dad can we just play?”   When I put the coach aside and just play… it’s like I’m saying… I just love being with you. It’s not just about making you better.  I just get a kick out of playing with you.

Don’t underestimate the power of play.  When God decided that “sabbath” should be a part of every week, he was setting a whole day aside for play.  It was his way of saying, “It’s not just about making you better.  I just love being with you.  I want to play with you.”  There’s just something about playing together.  When plays with you, it’s like saying you belong.

Play is missing in far too many of our families, far too many of our marriages.  Play is missing from too many of our lives.  We’re so busy making a living that we don’t take time to play and enjoy the live we are making.  You don’t have to go on vacation to play or to appreciate play.

Oh yeah, before we left the beach, while I was cooling off my feet, listening to the waves, I saw the most incredible sunset.  God plays too.