Don’t worry. This isn’t going to be touchy-feely. That wouldn’t really be appropriate since neither my grandma or I are touchy-feely kind of people.

Grandma was born in the Netherlands and her fist name is Jacoba. However, she just shortened it to Coba. My mom told me that when she first met my grandma, when she and my dad started dating, she thought her name was Cobra. That’s funny.

Grandma has the fastest mind of anyone I’ve ever known. She could think and speak so quickly, most of us didn’t know what hit us. I remember on my wedding day, when I brought her a piece of wedding cake, I asked her how long Amy and I should wait to have kids. Without waiting a heartbeat she was responding, “Oh, about 9 months.”

She is the only person who can consistently beat me in an argument. She is just so fast. And even when she “lost”, she still won by ending what she had to say with a “huh”. (This is not actually the word “huh”. It is two beautifully intoned Dutch gutturals created in the back of the throat which a phoneticist would write as ʕuʕ. Ask my brother to do an impression for you sometime. He’s mastered it.)

My grandma always ran a tight ship. She worked hard. Her house was always clean and well organized. This could sometimes be intimidating for other people when she came to visit. Although it was never a problem for my mom, I remember once visiting a family friend for a party they were throwing. My grandma was going to be arriving later and the friend was frantically cleaning the house repeating the phrase “Coba is coming! Coba is coming!” She was just the sort of lady you wanted to impress with a spotlessly clean house.

My grandpa and grandma came to visit Denver for my graduation from seminary. While I was giving them a tour of the campus, a student flung open a door and knocked my grandma into a bench. She broke her hip. We didn’t know she had broken her hip but I could tell she was in pain. As she was pulling herself into my parents car, I was wincing on her behalf. She grabbed her leg that was still dangling out of the car and yanked it inside! Then she gave me a wink and a smile. My grandma was tough.

Grandma suffered a stroke a couple of years ago and her health has been slowly declining since then. When we said goodbye to her before we left for Mozambique, we knew it was likely we were saying goodbye for good.

I will miss getting to visit her when we come home in a couple of years. I wonder if there will still be Dutch windmill cookies in my grandpa’s cupboards and 7up in the fridge. No one is left to complain about my long hair or to tell me to take off my hat. The world isn’t the same without my grandma, but I know she is excited to be out of body that stopped working well, and that she is happy to be with the God she loves.

If I were to stop by your house tomorrow after work and ask if you want to come with me, you would of course ask me: “Where are we going?” The strangeness of the Christian faith is that our Lord says follow me, and then just keeps moving. He never really arrives anywhere.

And I think that our need for a destination is one of the reasons that Christianity has become so unattractive to many people over the years. We try and insert a destination into Jesus’ instructions: Follow me… to a better life. to holiness. to a stronger family. to the Holy Lands to destroy the Moors. to spiritual enlightenment. to personal happiness.

But the only destination that Jesus seemed set on during his life on earth was the cross. And although he led his disciples there, they didn’t follow him. So he went alone with his mom and a couple of others there to watch.

It is hard to hit a moving target. It is hard to follow Jesus because Jesus doesn’t stand still. So often we just want to know where we are going so we can take the 3 easy steps to get there (regardless of whether we would walk with Jesus). But Jesus doesn’t tell us where we are going. He just asks us to follow him.

So at the end of 2011 I came to 2 important realizations. First, I need to reread more books. I have read too many good books to think that just because a book is new it is better than one I have read. And my second realization is that I need to ensure a good balance to the books that I read to make sure I am reflecting on different roles in my life.

So I have compiled a list of 12 different “roles” that I have and have assigned at least 1 book I would like to read each year for that role. Although I am fond of many of these books, I am always up for a suggestion on a better book for any particular category. Let me know what you think.

Human
Power of Full Engagement
Ordering Your Private World

Christian
The Critical Journey

Man
From Wild Man to Wise Man

Husband
Love and Respect
His Needs, Her Needs

Father
Parenting with Love and Logic

Leader
Lencioni
Collins

Businessman
Getting to Plan B

Teacher
Teaching to Change Lives
Made to Stick

Missionary
Spiritual Biographies
Oswald Chambers
Hudson Taylor
Jim Elliot

Clergy
The Soul of the Apostolate

Investor
Payback Time/Rule #1 Investing

Landlord
Accidental Landlord

Jesus had something very pertinent to say to all of us who would engage in political dialogue: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” This rule should guide EVERY political conversation we find ourselves in, and every political statement we would make. Here’s a couple of applications I thought of, feel free to suggest others. I am simply listing the way I would like to be treated, and so these are my pledges of how I will treat others.

1. I will listen, without interrupting to what other people have to say.
2. I will read, thoroughly, what a candidate has written, not just what the media chooses to share about them.
3. I will try not to be sarcastic.
4. I will critique ideas, not attack character.
5. I will give people the benefit of the doubt.
6. I will not believe elaborate conspiracies.
7. I will not pretend that a bumper sticker or facebook post can properly summarize my political thoughts, and I will not hold others to their summarized rants and raves.
8. I will pray for all my elected officials, whether or not I voted for them.
9. I will focus on the positives of my thoughts, not the negatives of others.

And there is a something about this scene that is very missional to me. If the gospel is like music, too often we think that spreading the gospel is like having a concert. And of course, that is part of it. There is nothing wrong with packing a concert hall or stadium to “play our song” as Christians. Billy Graham and Jesus spoke the gospel to very large audiences with amazing effects. But there is something very different when a musician comes into your home and plays. It is intimate and raw. Even though the songs are the same, the music penetrates us differently.

The same is true of the gospel. When we tell the stories of our faith, when we talk to each other about the history of God’s people in our homes, when we talk about the resurrection on a car drive, or when we take communion together over dinner, we play our songs best.

By no means am I opposed to concerts. I am just a fan of “music” in the home as well.

We have several friends here in Mozambique who work with boys from the street at a place called Masana. Usually these kids end up on the street because their parents can’t afford to keep them at home, or for whatever reason the kids just want to run away. So they go to beg and live on the streets. Masana has a great reputation on the streets as a place to get a meal and also get cleaned up (drugs and alcohol are a major problem for street kids). They also lead dozens of boys into the Kingdom of God.

Today, in addition to witnessing the aftermath of a relay race that involved eggs and milk, I got to witness something spectacular. A boy was preparing to go back home.

Every time a boy chooses to go home, the staff at Masana spends time preparing the boy and his family. They don’t just pat him on the back and say good luck.

There is a special ceremony at Masana’s center. All of the boys get together. Someone retells the story of the prodigal son. And then the team at Masana presents the boy with a new soccer jersey (new robe), new Nike flip-flops (new sandals) and a ring. Then they have a feast, just like in the parable (except usually not a fattened calf).

In addition they provide a whole suitcase full of items for the returning kids, and enroll them in school. They pay the school fees, buy the uniforms, and help the family with several months of food. They check in with the boy every week for the first 6 weeks, then every month after that.

On the wall in the main room of the house is a picture of each of the dozens of boys they have helped return to their homes! Today they added one more photo! Praise God! Praise God! Praise God! A son who was lost is now found! It doesn’t get any better than this! I love this job!

(p.s. I am cooking up some REALLY exciting things with Masana if you are interested in partnering with them in the future. Stay tuned!)

The other night, as we were discussing the merits of the arguments for and against predestination (a conversation I find a little old and tired, but am happy to allow others to initiate), I thunk a new thought.

Background
I believe God gave Adam and Eve a real choice. They were not predestined to eat from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They could have chosen to stay away. They were real humans with a real choice.

However, I also believe that one day, those of us who follow Jesus and are members of the Kingdom of God will be resurrected. And when we are, we will be perfected. The Greek word translated “perfect” can also be translated “complete”. In a way, I think Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden incomplete. They certainly hadn’t sinned yet, but they weren’t perfected. Are you with me so far?

So God allowed the Tempter into the Garden. Why? Because he doesn’t love Adam and Eve? Of course he loves them. God allowed the Tempter into the Garden to “perfect” them, to help make them complete.

New Thought
You see, when we resist temptation we grow. When we persevere through testing, we develop. I believe that God’s ideal for Adam and Eve was for them to resist the Tempter and grow and develop. Then one day, when they were mature and complete (“perfected”), I think God would have probably removed the tree from the Garden.

I’m sure this thought isn’t original, and there will be plenty of theologians who disagree, but it is what has been noodling around in my head recently.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:2-5 NIV 2011

One of the interesting side effects of this connection is how safe people feel venting to us, or sharing secrets. As a pastor, I was regularly entrusted with quite a few secrets and confessions over the years. However, this feels different. Regularly when talking to someone who needs to get something off from their chest they will say, “Well, I suppose it is pretty safe to talk to you since you are half way around the world…”

It’s true. We are half way around the world. And I guess that makes me your virtual missionary bartender. You can pour out your sorrows and secrets knowing I will take them to the grave…and there is very little chance I will run into anyone who cares about them.

Lord’s Prayer
Great Commandment
Fruit of the Spirit
Psalm 23
1 Corinthians 13 (love chapter)
John 3:16
Proverbs 3:5-6
1 Samuel 12:24
1 Corinthians 16:13
Isaiah 26:3
Ephesians 4:32

How did the church in Acts help the poor?

In the very early history of the church, seen in the earliest chapters of Acts, there seems to be a common pot of money from which the believers share. That is why Luke is able to say that there were no needy persons among them, because they were all pooling their money. People laid their money at the disciples’ feet and it was distributed as people needed it. However, that system doesn’t last very long, as the church expanded outside of Jerusalem.

There are several references in Acts to almsgiving/benevolence which is just an old fashioned way of saying: giving directly to the poor. Tabitha and Cornelius were known for their benevolence to the poor (Acts 9 & 10). However, what is not clear is exactly how this money was given to the poor. Clearly, there were beggars in the days of the early church (Acts 3), but I don’t see any reference of whether or how Christians should give money to beggars. Peter and John had the chance to give to a beggar in Acts 3, but they claimed not have any money, and instead just healed the man who was begging. (I would love to follow this model, but I’m not ready yet)

Then I came across this verse towards the end of the book: “After an absence of several years, I came to Jerusalem to bring my people gifts for the poor and to present offerings.” Acts 24:17

This passage is from Paul’s trial. What we translate as “bring my people gifts the poor” is the verb for almsgiving/benevolence giving. On first glance, that may seem like Paul is talking about handing money out to beggars. However, these gifts for the poor were not monies set aside to be handed out to beggars, but money that was collected in churches throughout the Gentile world to help the poor at the church in Jerusalem.

What I find interesting is that Paul uses the term “almsgiving” for this action. In his mind, pooling money from other churches for the distribution at the Jerusalem church is almsgiving.

How our family chooses to give to the poor

So following this model, our family thinks the best way to give to the poor is through the local church. We regularly give a portion of our salary to some of the churches we work with, and those churches distribute the money to people in our community who are in the most need. This money isn’t for the regular operations of the church, but specifically to help those in need. But because we give through our church we have never given money to those who beg.

If your church has a special fund for helping those in your community who are in need, you should contribute to it. However, I would also encourage you to look into supporting organizations that work with the poor outside of the United States as well. My very favorite organization that specializes in poverty relief and works exclusively through local churches is Compassion International. Sponsoring a child through Compassion is the easiest and I’m convinced, one of the most effective ways of giving directly to the poor around the world through a local church.