Lessons from Home Depot (Part 1)

I took my daughter with me on a quick run to the Home Depot this week to pick up some paint and a few other odds and ends for a project.

As I was waiting at the paint counter, she lost interest and began wandering over to the checkout counter.

She is a candy freak. She could sniff out a Skittle in the center of a 10' thick block of concrete, so finding candy on an end cap at her eye level was a given. She also managed to grab a 20oz. Sunkist from the refrigerator right next to it.

She took them over to the checkout all by herself and she handed the items to the young lady behind the counter. The lady looks at me as if to ask, "Do you want her to have these?"

I nodded to the lady that it was alright and gave her the finger........you know, the I'll be there in 1 minute finger.

Once the paint was ready I went over and paid for everything, including the pop and candy.

I'm a sucker.....and she knows it.

My daughter is only 3.

She has no source of income. She is flat broke. No matter what she did or how hard she tried, there is no way she could pay for the pop and candy.

But none of that matters. She got the pop and candy anyhow.

How is that possible?

Because my daughter has an ace in the hole.....her daddy.

I paid the cost for something she couldn't.

Because I love her.

We live in a fallen world. When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, sin entered the framework, and it has driven a wedge between us and God ever since.

So how do sinners like ourselves get into the presence of a Holy God?

We can't do it by ourselves. We don't have the resources.

Someone else has to pay for our pop and candy.

Jesus paid for our sin the day he was pinned to the cross.

Jesus paid for our pop and candy.

And just like my daughter, all we have to do is accept the gift.

My daughter took the pop and candy, smiled at me and said, "Thank you daddy".

That was good enough for me.

It is good enough for God too.

Holy Ship

Christian-

We have all seen them before.

The ship in the bottle. Some of them are pretty amazing.

Do you know what I noticed after looking at them over the years though?

The bottle is insignificant in the big picture. Sure it holds the ship, but nobody is looking at the bottle.

The sailboat inside of the bottle is what’s so amazing.

The detail of the ship and the awe of how it got into the bottle is what lures people in.

Now, I want you to pretend for a moment the the bottle was opaque.

Close your eyes for a second and imagine that all you can see is the bottle and not the contents.

The bottle sucks doesn't it.

It’s boring.

Nobody gives a rip about the bottle.

It’s just a freakin’ bottle!!!! There is nothing special about it.

Christian-

When we made the decision to allow Jesus to be the leader of our life and the forgiver of our sins, our boring opaque bottle was filled with something magnificent.

Something alluring and attractive and full of awe resides in us.....in our bottle.

Did you know that we have control over the opacity of our bottle?

We do.

We can either choose to let the opaque color give way to clarity and reveal Jesus dwelling inside of us, or we can pretend the boring opaque bottle is what people want to see.

Thank God, I am no longer the person I once was. People that knew me a while ago are still trying to figure how something so awesome got inside of my bottle.

But they wonder it because they can see the ship.

Christian-

There is a ship in our bottle

Can people see it?

Does the way we live our life allow people to see the ship?

Reveal the ship and your neighborhood will change!

Reveal the ship and your city will change!

Reveal the ship and your country will change!

Reveal the ship and your world will change!

Reveal the Holy ship!

Inviting the other ones

So my middle child (Caiden) was working on a list of people he wanted to make sure he invited to his birthday.

My wife handed it to me when I walked in the door from work.
"Look at your son's birthday invite list", she said.

In order, it went like this:

God
Jesus
Angels
(And a boy from his class that I will call Joe)

I was blown away by his desire to invite the God to his birthday. I was so proud of his little heart that I got choked up. I don't think I ever invited God to anything.

Perhaps that is why I have made so many mistakes in my life.

So I ask my wife, "Who is Joe"?
She answered, "Joe is the special needs boy from Caiden's class".

Even as I type this I fight back the tears.

"I thought Caiden said that Joe spits on him all the time (an issue that comes with Joe's disability that my son interprets as dislike for him.)", I said.

"He does", was my wife's response.

So I went to my son before bedtime and I asked him, "Caiden, why did you invite Joe? I thought you felt like he didn't like you because he spits on you from time to time, and he is the only kid you have on your list".

Caiden: "It's easy to invite people you like and people that like you. We are supposed to invite the other ones too though".

Yeah.....we are.

You might not like your neighbor.
They might dislike you.
Either way, they are a child of the King just as you and I are.

This world changes only when you and I invite the other ones.

Tonight, my son the student became the teacher.
And I am thrilled to be in his class.

M.E. (Merely Existing)

Do you exist?
It's a crazy question isn't it? I mean, certainly if you are reading this….you are alive, you are able to function……you exist.

The real question is, do you exist to other people?

Are you real to other people or are you just like an extra in a movie, walking around in the background, not really contributing to the main story, just offering some random movements from time to time.

Or

Are you living your life in such a way that if you had to move to a different state, that when the moving trucks pulled away, there would be tears shed by every household on your old street?

Do you matter to those around you?
Do you invest in the lives of others that you have contact with on a daily basis?

I am not saying that our goal is to leave people sad when we move on, but I am saying that the way we live should produce that by-product.

Are you making a difference in the lives around you?

If someone received a package on their front porch with no card claiming who it was from, would you make their list of people who might have left the gift?

When the snow hits while your neighbor is out of town and they come home to find their driveway shoveled, would they automatically assume that it was you who did it?

Is the most important word in your vocabulary, M.E.?
Are you just merely existing?


If you're not now……..start existing to others.

Junkyard Jesus

Have you ever been to the junkyard?

I was at the landfill in a neighboring town the other day and right next to the landfill was a huge junkyard. Every kind of car imaginable is there.

It looks like a scene from The Book of Ely. Rusted cars, gutted cars, demolished and compacted cars. Some appear to be intact but there is nothing under the hood. For the most part, the cars are just shadow of what they once were when they were created.

When those cars came down the assembly line, they were beautiful. They were in mint condition. Painted to a high luster finish. All of the parts were in perfect place and the smell......oh yeah. That new car smell.

Then something happened.

Somewhere between the time that awesome new creation came off of that assembly line and the day I saw them at the junkyard, something went wrong.

Some were in accidents, some were vandalized, some just got old and the elements had finally taken their toll on them. Either way, they no longer have value.

Or do they?

There are people that frequent junkyards looking for spare parts. They search and search for the right make and model in the hope that when they find the car they are looking for, that it still has the component they need.

So there is still value in those old broken cars.

Did you know that Jesus loves the junkyard.

It's true.

We all started off in life as infants. Carefully crafted in the womb, unblemished and innocent.

However, somewhere between that birthday and today, something happened.

There is damage.

Some of us look like we are in great shape, until you look under the hood.

Some of us have just been demolished and it's extremely evident.

Some of us have been beaten down by the elements. Some have been physically abused, some have been raped, drug addictions, eating disorders, cutters...........outcasts.

Some of us have just found ourselves in the junkyard.

But there is hope.

Jesus loves the junkyard.

He loves to spend time looking for makes and models that have been stripped and tossed aside for scrap because He knows there is value there.

If you have gone through life feeling like you have been outcast, if you have been demolished by people or life's elements, I just need to tell you something...

You are valuable to Him. He specializes in damaged goods......

And He is looking for you.

Effin' changed

This post may be a bit raw. It's supposed to be, so if you're offended easily then don't read it.

Last week I was sitting in a room with this guy about my age.

He has spent the last 20 years of his life addicted to Crack and alcohol.

20 years.

I get frustrated when I struggle with something for 5 minutes. I can't even wrap my mind around 20 years of trial. This guy has seen his friends die from overdoses. He has seen his family destroyed from the effects of the drug abuse, and had been in and out of rehab facilities more than 15 times.

About 6 weeks ago, he walked into the doors of our church campus (which happens to be located in a bar). He revealed to me the night I sat down with him that the only reason he came to check out the church was because he was hungover and he thought he might be able to get a Bloody Mary during service. He was a little disappointed to find out that we didn't serve alcohol during church.

He described to me in detail how over the weeks following his first visit to our campus, that his life has done a 180.

These are his words......

"My life was a f***ing mess"

He began to well up with emotion and he paused.

"Something happened to me when I stepped into the church.......I have never clapped to a worship song before. I never really focused on a message before.......I even gave some money in the offering plate for the first time ever."

We laughed for a minute.

"Jesus has changed me and I don't have to feel sh*tty anymore."

"I am getting my sh*t together and I'm going to help other people find help and hope."

"I'm Effin' changed"

This guy was a Christian in the most raw form. Too young in the faith to care about his word choices. Too excited about what Jesus was doing in his life to care if his word choices offended me. Basically he lacked the artificial facade that some of us seasoned Christians have developed over time.

.......AND I LOVED IT!!!!!

Now......I don't swear, and if I am in a room of people throwing around swear words like it's going out of style, it usually doesn't take long for them to recognize that I'm not participating.

It's easy to get prideful about it too, so last week made me think to myself......

Would Jesus rather be in a room with me carefully selecting my words, or....

Would Jesus rather be fielding uncensored f-bombs from the excitement of the transformation that He alone is responsible for?

Reflection on this makes me want to thank Him that I am Effin' changed.

Walls

I remember in 1987, watching President Ronald Reagan speak from a podium and challenged Russian General Secretary Gorbachev to "Tear down this wall".

That was one of the most amazing speeches I have ever seen.

Walls are built for several reasons.

The Berlin was was built to keep East Germans from leaving for the West.

The Great Wall of China was built to keep the the Mongols out.

Dividing walls, retaining walls, walls, walls, walls.........

You and I build walls too.

Internal walls.

These wall are erected around our heart and we design them for keeping people out, for keeping our true selves in, and for separating us from things that quite possibly could damage our heart.

Those people in communist East Germany lived quite differently on the other side of the wall than the West Germans did, but in November of 1989 that all changed when the wall came down. There was a fresh beginning and free people began chipping away at the wall and pouring over it, culminating in a giant impromptu celebration that anyone alive at that time remembers.

When we keep our walls up, we rob ourselves of total freedom. You don't let people completely know you and you will never know people completely without tearing down walls.

I know it's difficult. I know it's hard to open yourself up to possibly being shred apart by someone that you let into your heart, but isn't it lonely inside of those walls?

Go ahead. I dare you. Put yourself out there. Open yourself up to possible rejection or humiliation. What's the worst that can happen?

"Mr. or Mrs. _________ ........Tear down those walls!!!"

Freedom is on the other side.