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Chris on Campus Last 10 Entries

  • The Grass Has Grown!
    Last Wednesday night, continuing the "You Asked for It!" series, we raised some questions about the use of profanity. I ended the last post stating a few principles to take home in learning to honor God with our lips. The first one was to realize that transformation happens slowly and only over time.

    After class (and in class) several students talked about being unable to control the words that come out of their mouth instinctually. The examples mentioned were moments when there was no time to consider what they said. They crush their thumb with a hammer. Someone scares the living ...uh... daylights out of them. Or they fall off a chair or down the stairs. In these moments, they told me, there is no way to avoid using profanity.

    I thought about myself as students were telling me these things. Does profanity even come to my mind during these instinctual moments? While I struggle to know what verbal response I typically have, I have a hard time remembering the last time profanity crossed my mind in those moments. Other moments (like when I'm angry) bring those thoughts out for me.

    "How did this happen?" I kept asking myself. I know profanity used to be the norm for me almost all the time, especially in moments when I was reacting on instinct! How could I even forget that these moments were a no-brainer when it came to moments I would certainly cuss?

    My answer: Transformation.

    Last Wednesday night was one of those moments when I looked at the grass (so-to-speak) and noticed that it has grown to be rather green! It seems like yesterday the grass was just seed in need of germinating. Meaning: I too thought it impossible to transform instinct. Yet, my instinct is changed!

    How did the grass grow? I happened slowly...and over time. One choice here. Avoiding that word there. Exploring creative ways to express myself differently. "Gina! The monkey has caught my brain instead of the banana and turned the sucker upside down right before my eyes! Things are backwards! Yet, the kingdom grows with each choice."

    It takes time to transform a mind! And there are no shortcuts! It takes intentional work. Hard work. Work that you sometimes forget about. Then you remember. Then you forget again. And then someone reminds you of how things used to be for you...on a Wednesday night!

    God is in the business of transformation! And He is amazingly patient as the grass continues to grow as he designed it! Grow grass grow!

  • Psalm 137 and Lament Teams
    In my opinion, we had a FANTASTIC conversation this morning! Thanks to all you who offered great insight.

    Reading Psalm 137 (especially the last verse) confronts us with a reality that we generally ignore when we are in church. Created in God's image, we have a wide range of emotions going on inside us. Yet we sometimes feel as if we have to keep all the negative ones bottled up inside to ourself.

    Who would ever say publicly in church something like, "Happy is...he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks!" What!? I can hear someone respond instantly by asking, "How could we even think something like that!? We are supposed to love our enemies!"

    Well...an unspoken assumption in most of our corporate worship times is that the only legitimate expressions of worship are positive and joy-filled. Thus, in class we explored the appropriateness of LAMENT in our gatherings. Instead of just having conversation about a praise team, what if we also worked to have a lament team?

    Even though this brings a little bit of laughter, I wonder how (and when) we could seriously entertain the idea of encouraging lament among us.

    QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
    1. What would it look like to have a corporate lament service? Have you ever experienced this?
    2. Based on a closing question in class, do we need to reconsider what we do in our funeral services? How so?
    3. Why do you think most people are so uncomfortable with sharing any discontent about God with others in church?
  • Dang Gina!
    Profanity. What counts? How do we honor God in our language? Where do euphemisms fit in?

    Last night we had a great discussion in our "You Asked For It" class where we are addressing various questions raised by our students. At the end of class I shared a few helpful principles to keep in mind as we learn to honor God with our lips. Here are the things I shared:

    • Realize that transformation happens slowly and only over time
    • Realize that our language both expresses and influences our heart
    • Recognize in yourself the situations when you struggle most in honoring God in your language
    • Develop a plan of action for those situations ahead of time
    • Understand that small decisions to refrain from certain words (even if you still think them) are signs of real progress
    Over the next few blog entries I will go into more depth to explain some of these things. What do you think about these things?
  • Rated 'i' for Ignore
    Have you ever been truckin' along in your Bible, come across a passage of scripture that you had no idea what to do with it, and rather than pause a second to make some sense of it just kept right on going? That is me more than I'd like to admit! There are some passages of scripture that are just straight up confusing! Why is that in here? How am I supposed to apply this?

    Even more, sometimes I feel like I'm unable to actually say that in church! It is as if I know better than to ask why that passage is in there! I'm somehow already supposed to know how that applies to my life!

    Well, I'm wanting to create a little safe space where we take a look at some of these passages, passages that we'd like to ignore. Some passages I have NEVER heard preached! Some passages are mentioned only in passing without any depth. And some passages should only be talked about in appropriate places!

    This 10-week class series is entitled "Rated 'i' for Ignore: 10 Biblical Passages We'd Like to Ignore." Beyond looking at specific passages of scripture, I hope also to see more vividly the human element of God's divine word. The Bible reveals stories of God in perfectly messed up lives!

    In the end, I hope that we can be more realistic and honest about our own "messed-up-ness" (since that is a real word)! These passages have something to say to us who humbly recognize our own inadequacies before the Almighty God who forever reigns above all!

    You can bookmark the series link to peek into our conversation.

  • Encouraging Start
    Yesterday was an encouraging day, and the KFC Building was open for only half of it! Campus has life again as SHSU started classes, our cleaned floors were received incredibly well, students came by with renewed excitement, prayers were offered by and for me, we had a great first Bible study of the semester, and my productivity was higher than normal! I praise God for His encouragement.

    Lord, at the beginning of the day today, I ask you for the focus you need in me to extend your kingdom one encounter at a time! May excellence compel me forward in your service. With all the new pieces of information that will come my way today, Holy Spirit, teach me your ways in those decisions. So much is before me that I could easily be overwhelmed today. May your strength, Jesus, and faithfulness work in me today. Amen.

    "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks find; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." Luke 11:9-10
  • Z2 Aroma
    Z2 Convergence was an incredible experience this year!

    The weekend had an aroma of Christian community lived out. We came ready to welcome other students we'd just met! The fragrance of grace filled the weekend even as collisions occurred. We connected with each other and offered ourselves for the others' sake. The scent of reverence lingered over our worship. We offered our sacrifices of praise in a variety of forms throughout the weekend. Praise the Lord!

    Here is the video that I put together late Sunday night (and well into Monday morning!) to show Monday morning at breakfast as we left.


    I will certainly be processing the weekend more and putting up other completely awesome videos as they become available. You can see all the Z2 Convergence posts here.

  • Prayer for Punkinsaw
    My 4 year old son, Tyler, has a hilarious way of bringing things together with his goofy words and keeping our family prayer times light-hearted! Last night, while he was praying before bed, he asked God for a safe trip to Punkinsaw. I had just prayed for a safe trip to Pine Cove for the Z2 Convergence, and Tanya had been talking on the phone about students coming from Arizona, all around Texas, and Arkansas! So Tyler prays for all of those in just one word: Punkinsaw! Amazing! We busted out in laughter as we finished our prayer time together! It was awesome!

    God stirs our lives with the salt of laughter! I praise Him for Punknisaw!
  • Imitation Moment
    In the book Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis there are times when he teaches through a hypothetical conversation between Christ and a disciple of Christ. I love this didactic strategy because he invites me in to identify with the disciple and to consider the words of Christ in a new way.

    All the craziness associated with pulling together all the last-minute details for the Z2 Convergence that we begin tomorrow forces me to pause for a second to consider an interesting conversation between a disciple and Christ!

    Disciple: Where are you, Lord, when I'm overwhelmed with all these details and all this stress?


    Christ: I'm here with you, as you know already. I wonder what is overwhelming you to the point that you only now turn to me?


    Disciple: I recognize that you have been here the whole time. At the same time, as my tasks continue to come at me with amazing vigor, my thoughts entertain the ever-present mountain called "things-still-to-get-done." I write them down "here" and "there." I forget about "this" or "that." I actually remember "the other thing" and manage to crank out pieces of randomness to add to the little hill called "finished." Are you just sitting there watching me? Waiting for something? What is going on?


    Christ: Sure I see all that, my child. Actually, I feel how overwhelming it is for you. You take on so many things! I love that about you! I remember creating you like that on purpose. I also remember creating you to take delight in me, to experience peace in me. I see times when your faith in me alone carries you beyond this thing you are calling a mountain. You let go and sit at my feet as you breath your next breath, learning from me the way you must go. I love those moments that you are even unaware of yourself and so sensitive to my moving that it is as if I were directing your path according to my word. You do that so well, my child. Keep it up.
  • Hide-and-Seek
    Opportunities patiently wait for us to discover them today! For some reason they like to play hide-and-seek all the time...and they are good at finding hiding spots! I know some kids who are excellent, top-notch, olympic-gold-metal-level hide-and-seek players, and these opportunities I'm talking about beat these kids all the time!

    What is amazing to me is to watch them play. Even though the opportunities' hiding spots are incomparable, sometimes they like to toy with people. I occasionally see an opportunity, tired of hiding so well all the time, stand right out in the open ready to be "it" next round (wanting to be "it" even once), and someone just walks right past it as if she never saw it!! I am floored every time!

    Well, today is going to be different for me! An opportunity told me to close my eyes and count to ten, and we all know what that means. I'm playing hide-and-seek today! It is going to be awesome.

    You need to join us! Those opportunities have nothing on us! Ready or not, here we come!
  • Spiritual and Mundane
    Spiritual and mundane
    They intersect I know
    Maybe I miss it
    Eyes aimed too low

    I look up during one to find
    A legitimizing prayer or song
    No way this is spiritual
    Too mundane. And wrong?

    I look down during fun
    Food and Mexican train
    Did God make all of us
    Odd, weird, even mundane?

    Spiritual seems different than this
    Yet the activity connects
    God's people are nourished
    Energized as He directs

    God is one
    Also three
    Spiritual and mundane
    Word and tree

    We are raised to heights
    Of spiritual connections
    When we image God
    In mundane reflections

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