Author: Adam

I heard a concept the other day that I really like. It was in the context of an organization. The leader of the organization shared with me that when he assigns a task out to another staff member, he’ll wait a day or two, and then come to them and ask, “Do you own this?”

When you own something, you take care of the details. You think through the results of actions. You take responsibility for the entire job (or whatever). Nobody has to check up on you to see if you’ve remembered details.

I want to “own” things I’m responsible for. Of course there’s other things that I DON’T own, I’m just helping with. But the stuff where “the buck stops at Adam,” I want to “own” those things — in the sense of responsibility, not necessarily in task.

I hate lies. Sneaky ones, especially.

The sneaky lies are ones that might be, possibly, in a certain way, perhaps, if thought enough about, potentially, maybe could not be considered a lie at all. Sort of.

We have a name for this . . . its usually called deception. It’s sometimes called manipulation. Using these big words doesn’t change what it really is: a lie. But somehow I think we’ve blurred the line to make ourselves feel better about lying. We don’t lie… we just manipulate. That’s a sneaky lie. But still a lie.

Last week I was at an arts conference at Granger Community Church in Granger, Indiana. One of the breakout sessions was specifically about worship. I was sitting at a table right next to an older lady about 65 years old. Granger Community Church is known for its progressive arts (i.e. their music rocks the house).

The session leader was discussing the types of songs to use in a service. He discussed hymns, and he said, “Hymns have rich lyrics. Don’t just throw away the hymns. But at the same time, never do a hymn without extreme caution and reservation.”

I happened to glance over to the notepad of the older woman next to me. She wrote something down. It was the only thing she wrote down during the entire session: “DON’T THROW AWAY THE HYMNS OF THE CHURCH!” She’s going to go back to her church and claim that Granger Community Church wants everyone to sing hymns. That’s not what he said. Not even close. But that’s what she heard.

How often do we hear selectively? Do you know people who hear selectively; only comprehending what they want to hear and ignoring stuff that they don’t like? I think we need to always listen to what people are really saying. A lot of times we just listen to what the words they said but we ignore what they are REALLY saying. It’s like if someone says, “Do you want to borrow my car?” they are not just offering their car, they are REALLY saying, “I trust you.”

So the blower on my car’s air conditioning system hasn’t been working. It started acting up when I was in Tulsa. But its worked less and less frequently, and its starting to get pretty cold so I wanted to get it fixed. So today I took it into the dealer to get it fixed.

So here I am sitting in the waiting room. Blogging. It’s pretty crowded in here, actually. There is this mother and young 3 year old daughter that came in a few minutes ago. The daughter said something, and the mother said, “Do you need to use the toilet?” The little girl said, “Yes” and then got a really funny look on her face. The mother replied, “Did you just go? Did you go in your pants?” The girl shook her head affirmatively. I laughed inside. Really hard. You have no idea.

As they were heading to the bathroom, the little girl took real wide steps; walking really funny – sort of like Joe Dirt in the movie. As the girl was leaving, she looked at a random woman in the waiting room and declared in a matter of fact tone, “I have wet pants.” The mother and daughter proceeded to the bathroom.

A few minutes later the mother and daughter came back into the waiting room and sat down. A moment’s silence was broken when the girl declared to the entire waiting room, “I couldn’t poop.”

Ah, a child’s trust and openness. At what point do we stop trusting people? At what point are we concerned about what other people think about us? I read a great quote last night, but I forget who said it:

When you’re 20, you’re worried about what other people think about you.
When you’re 40, you don’t care what other people think about you.
When you’re 60, you realize that people weren’t thinking about you anyhow.

I just tested a piece of equipment that didn’t work anymore. This thing has served my church for YEARS. Like 20 of them. And its dead now. So sad.

Most of the time, my blogging is done on my laptop while sitting in my bed (including right now). I get so comfortable and relaxed. You know that feeling when you get real relaxed? Like if you sit in a nice chair or lay down in bed — you just get really comfortable and you don’t want to do anything except selfish things like switch the channel or drink a Mountain Dew.

But that got me thinking, is it a very priority of God for us to be “comfortable?” No, I don’t think so. At least not in our relationship with him. I think God wants us to actually be UN-comfortable. Check this out: Since Jesus went through everything you’re going through and more, learn to think like him. Think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way. Then you’ll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want. (1 Peter 4:1-2 MSG).

Here’s how I see it. God doesn’t want us to be comfortable. Face it, sin is a pretty comfortable thing; it’s EASY to sin. God wants us to be UN-comfortable! We are to be ready to suffer, even physically, for God. Most of us Americans will never be beaten for simply being a Christian — but our Christ-like suffering should persist all the more. We should be very UN-comfortable every single day as we suffer by saying no to our sinful desires.

People use the word “casual” to refer to a lot of things. A “casual dresser” is someone who doesn’t dress up very formal. A “casual drinker” is someone who occasionally drinks alcohol. A “casual attender” is someone who attends only sometimes. It most uses, “casual” has come to basically mean “half-way.”

Casual is okay for a lot of things. But I don’t think its okay to be a “Casual Christian.”

God doesn’t want us to just be casual in our relationship with Him. God wants us to go after Him with everything we’ve got! If we really want to find God, we’ll go after God like Moses did in Exodus 34. In the story, Moses repeatedly asked for more of God. Finally, God allowed Moses to see His glory. And you know what happened? Because Moses kept seeking God, God showed Moses His glory. And when Moses was done his face shined so bright that he had to wear a veil over his head.

Don’t be a casual Christian. Go after God with EVERYTHING YOU’VE GOT!

Christian Comedian and Songwriter Aaron Wilburn has found much success with his “bless his heart” joke. According to Wilburn, in the southern culture of the USA, the phrase “bless his heart” basically means, “what an idiot.”

Jim went bankrupt. Bless his heart.

Billy got an F in Physics. Bless his heart.

Everyone in this video. Bless their hearts.

That’s funny, right?

Why do we find humor in other people’s misfortune? Why do we enjoy seeing other people miserable? Perhaps its because we’re glad its not happening to us. Perhaps it gives us some sense of revenge of a past wrong-doing. Maybe we remember going through a similar incident ourselves and laugh because we do know what they’re going through. I don’t have the answers on this one. Maybe you do.