OTHER STUFF
Random things I think about
You’ve Told Your Neighbor You Go To Church…Now What?
Jul 7th
The summer is off to a great start! You’ve already gotten burned to a crisp by the sun, swam in nice clean pools and disgusting lakes or oceans and generally allowed yourself at least a few moments of relaxation. You’ve grilled meat, worn flip-flops and weeded the flower beds. Yes, everything is going great…until you make a grave mistake.
You see, summertime is that time of year when people actually venture outside – you know, into that green carpet-looking stuff around your house. And, inevitably, one day you’ll be out in your green stuff and your neighbor will also be out in his/her green stuff and you’ll make eye contact. Now, the sensible thing to do would be to close your eyes, run inside, pull all the shades and pretend you’re not home. But you’re not a sensible sort of person, so you acknowledge the guy who lives 10 feet from you and ease your way into a conversation.
You know the kind of conversation I’m talking about: “Hey.” “Hey.” “Hot out!” “Yeah.” If you’re lucky, the interaction doesn’t stray far beyond the known facts of temperature and season, but for those less fortunate, you might find yourself with a “talker” on your hands. The problem with the talker is that they tend to draw stuff out of you that you would never share voluntarily. You find yourself talking about your kids, your spouse, your 3rd job out of high school. And then, out of sheer desperation (perhaps to make them go away or to find some excuse for jumping in your car and speeding off) you mention “your church.”
Your church. Not “a church” or “the church down the street,” but your church – a phrase that indicates that you go there on a regular basis. You’ve let the cat out of the bag. This person who, despite your geographical nearness, knows almost nothing about you suddenly knows that you go to church! Now, everything has changed. Suddenly, you think back to that nasty letter you wrote to the home owner’s association about your property line. You think about the trash that sticks out of your trash can and what it says about the activities of your weekend. You think about some of the things you’ve yelled out the back door to get your dog stop eating his own poop.
Yes, all of those somewhat trivial matters come flooding into your brain now that you have identified yourself as one of “those church people.” So, what are you to do? You’ve told your neighbor you go to church…now what?
Well, for those of us who believe that you don’t have to be perfect in order for God to love you, the answer is simple. You be yourself. You see, though we need to hold ourselves to a high moral standard, when we lose the artificial expectations of what “church people” are supposed to be, we allow ourselves considerable freedom to be what followers of Jesus are supposed to be. Suddenly, we can open up our lives in ways that we may not have ever done before. Our love of people and our authenticity begin to shine through. In short, we become “real.”
In doing so, we find that our neighbor has an annoying, poop-eating dog, too. We also find out that he has an affinity for craft beers, can’t stand the home owners association and, by the way, always thought church was full of goodie-goodie, finger waggers. “Nah, if my church will take me, they’ll take anybody,” you find yourself saying, followed by nervous laughter. And maybe the conversation ends there. Maybe you never talk to that neighbor again, or maybe you become lifelong friends. Whatever the case, you’ve told him you go to church and he’s watching you – not for what you’re doing wrong (the other “believers” on your street will take care of that) but for what you’re doing that makes you and your family like him and his family.
He may even say to you one day, “You seem like a pretty normal guy, but you go to church, right?” Or, even better, “I don’t know too many church people like you.” Great! That is, if you’re here to rewrite the landscape of what it means to follow Jesus. You see, we’ve got centuries of erasing to do before we can get anywhere close to restoring the vision of Jesus for the Church. And so, if my neighbor thinks I seem different from his perception of other church people, we’re moving in the right direction. And, if I’m enough like him that he could see himself checking out my church one day, even better.
Food, Fun and a Flight of Stairs
Feb 19th
Opportunities for service are around every turn, but so often, we fail to simply open our eyes and see them. Today, as the incredible people of Trinity Vineyard Church (OK, I’m biased, but I LOVE these folks!) threw a party for the residents of a local community, one such opportunity presented itself.
We were about an hour into our party, complete with carnival games, great food, pumping music and lots of laughter. The place was jumping and the kids were having a blast. Then, around the corner, I noticed some people who weren’t enjoying the festivities. Instead, they were engaged in the dreaded task of moving furniture into an apartment. Having moved somewhere around 15 times in my adult life, I know that this probably wasn’t their best day.
As I walked up to the truck, I could see that they were just beginning to unload and already looked tired. Since there were only three of them (and one had an injured hand) they had a long afternoon of work ahead of them. That’s where open eyes come in handy. I asked a simple question, “Do you guys want a hand?” When they said yes, I ran off and grabbed some other guys to help.
10 minutes later, we had the truck unloaded. 5 minutes after that, our new friends were over at our party grabbing food and drinks with big smiles on their faces. A simple gesture, a helping hand and some nourishment. I’m sure it made their day better, and it was pretty rewarding for us as well!
Remember, those opportunities are right in front of you. Just keep your eyes open!
Runaway Brain
Jan 26th
Ever have one of those nights when your brain refuses to shut down? (Now that I’ve got that old Soul Asylum song, “Runaway Train” stuck in my head, my night may have just gotten even longer.) I have them often. My runaway brain nights are typically A.) when I am thinking about the past, B.) when I am dreaming about the future, or C.) when a creative writing or songwriting bug hits and I can’t shake it. Tonight, it’s kind of all three.
As I sit here about to embark on some new adventures in my life, I can’t help but think through all of the details and all of the possibilities that come with each new thing. What will come of this initial trip to Kenya? How is the first course of my new college career going to go? How in the world are we ever going to pay for this new adoption? What about Lucy’s adoption? (I must admit, there is still a lot of anxiety in that one and there will be until the day it’s finalized.)
And yet, even as I look forward, I’m also looking back. At the encouragement of a friend, I am writing out the complete story of how Melody and I got to where we are now. I will be posting it in a series of blog posts on our new adoption blog. And, what reflection I’ve done up to this point (I’m up to 2001) has brought back a flood of incredible memories and set my mind to wondering about some of the people we encountered along the way.
All of this, the looking forward and looking back (and now I have a Paul Abdul song in my head…great) has spawned a little creative monster in me. He creeps up now and again and REALLY doesn’t want me to sleep! But sleep I must, because I have a 14 month old who will wake up early tomorrow whether I want to sleep or not. So, I’m hoping that a little bit of writing here will calm that little monster down. Here goes:
Journeys longed for; adventures sought
Joy experienced, but pain brought forth
Forged by skilled hands, I stand alone
Unique among creation, just like everyone else
My story, not so unusual as to be remembered
Not so drab as to be left untold
Seemingly enjoyed by my Father
As he reminds me of its arc
Yet, once again, my particulars,
Not singularly spectacular,
Amass in strange ways
Which seem, somehow, to matter
Matter, at the very least
At most, perhaps, to shape
The course of another’s destiny
A story not my own
Would that one day a great he or she
Would put pen to paper and write
Not of my life or deed
But of that which by some divine plan
I have imparted
New Adventures
Jan 21st
It’s been about a million years since my last post, but it’s 2:30am and I should be sleeping…so here we go!
You know that feeling when you’re on the verge of something really exciting and you can barely stand the anticipation? That moment at the top of the roller coaster, just before that last car breaks free? The last breath you take before leaping off the cliff into the lake below? You know that feeling? Yeah, that’s kind of my entire life right now.
As we continue to inch ever closer to the finish line on our adoption of our daughter Lucy, everything else in life seems to be in warp mode. Just to catch you up, here are a few things going on right now:
1. My missions involvement has really picked up in the last 6-8 months, with my primary focus being in two areas – Kenya and Central Asia. I leave for Kenya in just over a week for a series of meetings to discuss how we can best partner with local Kenyan churches to reach not only their country, but also the predominantly Muslim countries to the north as well. It will be an exhausting trip, but I know that God has incredible things in store!
2. Also on the missions front, I’ve been having a series of conversations with some incredible individuals about how we can support and play a role in the work that God is doing in Central Asia. There are incredible things happening in that part of the world that you just don’t hear about in the news. I can’t wait to see what happens there.
3. I’m going back to school! Only one other time in my life have I been excited about going to school – my freshman year of college – and I think that had as much to do with being several hundred miles away from home as it did anything else. This time around, I’m pumped to know that at 32 years old, I have some idea what I want to do (and more importantly, what God wants to do) with the rest of my life. I don’t have all the details, but I know the general direction. That’s a lot more than I could say at 18!
4. I’m really excited about where our church is headed. Over the past 18 months, we’ve seen a ton of new faces come through our doors and many of them are plugging into our community in exciting ways. I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God is working in the lives of the people in our church community and I also know there is so much more yet to come. I love being able to share life with these people and am so thankful that God orchestrated our arrival at Trinity two years ago.
5. Lastly…well…I can’t tell you. There will be a big announcement coming from the Mosley household very soon. Melody and I have been hard at work putting the finishing touches on our efforts to communicate about this new adventure to our friends and family, so you probably won’t have to wait very long. However, I will simply say that once again, God has called us to embrace what He has for us, regardless of what we think is possible, and to trust in Him for the strength and provision to see His work through.
I think 2011 is going to be a whole lot of fun…if it doesn’t kill me first!
Mark Driscoll Thinks Stay At Home Dads Are Weak
Apr 7th
Thanks to Nicole Wick for directing my attention to this video. Visit her blog at nicolewick.com
OK, I realize that this is an old clip and perhaps Mark has changed his mind on this subject, but today was the first time I viewed this clip and it drew and immediate response from me (and from my wife who also viewed the clip). For those of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you saw my first reaction (yeah for unfiltered tweeting!). Here’s the thing. As a general rule, I think Driscoll says a lot of stuff to get a “rise” out of people. Most of the time, it’s the traditionalists that are up in arms over his statements. In this video, however, Mark seems to have his feet firmly planted in a very foundational, fundamentalist reading of scripture and, despite his objections (“I’ve read the whole book”) I suspect that Mark has added quite a bit of his own personal philosophy about what a “real man” looks like.
James, a friend of mine who stays at home with is kids (but also goes to school and works a part time job) asked me for my thoughts on this subject and here is my reply.
Here’s my thought. Driscoll has spent several years telling us to be more “manly” and I guess that’s fine. But here, he equates “providing for the family’s needs” solely with working outside the home. What if what the family needs isn’t income from dad, but, instead, for dad to stay home because mom has a solid career?
He seems to give no credence to the idea that a particular woman may be more suited for the workplace than to be a domestic goddess. I think it’s great if a woman wants to be a stay at home mom. However, I don’t think the bible dictates that, nor do I think it rules out the idea of a stay at home dad.
In the times and culture in which the bible was written, I’m sure the idea of a stay at home dad wasn’t even a consideration. That doesn’t make it wrong any more than, say, driving a car, which also isn’t mentioned in the bible.
It fascinates me, given Mark’s loose interpretation of other portions of scripture, that he is so hard nosed on this issue. I wonder what his “church discipline” would be for me. I work two jobs to support my family, but I also “stay at home” (work from home) 3 days a week to care for my child. Does that mean I’m 3/5ths worse than an unbeliever?
I just think his statements are ridiculous and completely out of touch. I could understand them if we were talking about lazy or deadbeat dads (which is what he seems to think a stay at home dad is), but there are so many situations where that simply isn’t the case. To make the kind of statements he does in this clip based on generalities and stereotypes is either incredibly irresponsible or it’s simply malicious.
That pretty much sums up my thoughts on the issue. Some may disagree and that’s fine. I don’t have to agree with you on everything and welcome discussion on the matter. However, I went on to reassure James that he and other stay at home dads are more than welcome at our church.
