What Happened To You Starbucks?

Here is a recent “Starbucks Experience” I had from the moment I walked in the door.

Barista: Hey! I got your cranberry bliss bar and venti eggnog latte all ready for you.

Me: uhh, I just want coffee

Barista: Are you sure? How about trying an apple turnover and gingerbread latte?

Me: just coffee

Barista: Why not get a pound to take with you, and a grinder?

Me: uh just coffee

Barista: Oh well why don’t you buy a whole tray of cranberry bliss bars to take with you to work?

Me: I do not like cranberry bliss bars, just coffee

Barista: Well alright, and lets just throw a ten dollar gift card with that for a friend!

Me: Lets not, I just want coffee

Barista: Have a nice day

Me: (walking away shaking my head)

I just want to know what happened to my beloved Starbucks? We have had such a meaningful, close relationship for going on ten years, what went wrong? I guess I knew this day would come, when the shareholders would get to you and demand bigger and bigger profits, and you would foresake me for their unruly demands. Well I will miss you Starbucks as you grow up and transition into just another chain. I know this happened a long time ago but I was blinded by love. sigh.

UPDATE:  My co-workers at the seminary bookstore are funny people.  After I told them of this encounter they decided to bring me a cranberry bliss bar for lunch today.  And yes after I eating the whole thing I still do not like cranberry bliss bars.  And if you are wondering why I ate the whole thing even though I did not like it then see the name of this blog.

ryan

Richard Mouw compares Clinton to Calvin

Check out Richard Mouw’s (President of Fuller Theological Seminary) latest blog post. I love that in the first paragraph we have references to John Calvin, the PCUSA (as a reformed church mind you!), the Roman Catholic Church, and Bill Clinton.

As always, Dr. Mouw provides very interesting and thought provoking reading. Even if he blogs about as often as the Clinton’s are intimate.

matt

Is Having Children Selfish?

I read this article a few days ago and it blew me away.  I am all for being a good steward of the planet and trying to live a sustainable lifestyle but this is extreme.  Apparently this woman and some others out there have come to the conviction that having children is “selfish.”  that children suck resources and are therefore environmentally irresponsible.

Taking this point to its logical end, and engaging in a little reductio absurdum.  I would raise the question that if bringing children into existence is selfish and takes to many resources from the environment than why not kill yourself?  Honestly.  If humans are bad for the planet and you are concerned about people draining its resources the truest thing you could do to live out that value is eliminate yourself.  If you don’t and rail about children being environmental leeches you are quite hypocritical.  Of course I am being over the top here but this idea is scary and absurd to me.  Let’s care about the world, but as a means to having a healthy planet for humans to live in.

I Wish Turkey Only Cost a Nickel

this is my backyard before I left for LV yesterday

Since its Thanksgiving no one is probably going to read this for a few days. That’s alright, I am writing this mostly for my own benefit. But I did want to jot down a few things I am thankful for.

1. My wife. She is a great blessing and gift in my life. As Matt wrote about last time, she is my crown. She teaches me about grace, loves me when I am a turd, and encourages me all the time.

2. My family. Families can be messy and difficult, and mine often is, but I love them still the same. Looking back at my 26 years of existence I realize that many of the truly great and impacting memories that have formed me have come from my family.

3. Friends. I really have some great friends. In a culture such as ours it is hard to connect in a meaningful way with others. In fact I read an article this last week which talked about the number one thing Americans wish they had more of was friends. These relationships have also done more to shape and mold me than just about anything else. So to all my friends who read this, I am thankful for you.

4. Jesus. I am thankful that my Lord is willing to pursue and reconcile with me in spite of my sin. I am thankful for the redemption he has brought into my life and the joy it has given me. I am thankful for his blood stained Cross

My Crown

An excellent wife is the crown of her husband…

Proverbs 18:22

(This is Vicky and I at our favorite spot in Seattle, The Matador)

And she’s got much more than beauty. With her permission, I wanted to share a post from her private blog.

I’ve been reading a book the last few weeks called Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. It has been so good! I completely disagree with about 1/4 of it but the other 3/4 has hit my heart good and hard. One point that epitomizes what I have been learning.

We, in modern evangelical Christianity, place such a high value on being “born again”. Rightly so because Jesus said this to Zachariah. However within a few chapters Jesus tells another man that being a Christian means to “sell everything he has and give it to the poor”. And yet we don’t claim this is necessity for salvation or even promote this habit amongst ourselves.

I’m all for the “righteous rich, righteous poor theology“, but I have been so convicted reading through this book and studying through James at how comfortable I’ve gotten in my American mindset of what following Jesus and loving my neighbor really means. I know God has called me to be a wife and have a home of hospitality here in America, and I am praying and trying to process how to be obedient, within these roles, to many commandments I in large part ignore. Living well in America puts me at a level of privilege that I believe the Lord is going to hold me accountable to one day. Confessing and praying through this has spawned many ideas ranging from researching more where I shop for clothes – to the increased desire to adopt especially from a country like Thailand. Pray for me friends, that I would care more about Jesus and loving those in need than about myself and things I’m attached to in this world. Our savior says that one cannot be a friend of this world without becoming an enemy of him. How I want to mourn my friendship with this world so I can truly follow him- our humble, caring, homeless, exulted savior!!!

-Vicky

My Crown.

matt

Wisdom from John Wesley

I was reading the great preacher John Wesley yesterday and I came across some incredible wisdom he had on relationships and our tongue. In light of my last post these pieces of advice seemed to tag along and add another dynamic to how Christians should interact.

1. To hear as little as possible what is to the prejudice of others.

2. To believe nothing of the kind till I am absolutely forced to.

3. Never to drink into the spirit of one who circulates an ill report.

4. Always to moderate, as far as I can, the unkindness which is expressed toward others.

5. Always to believe, that if the other side were heard, a very different account would be given of the matter.

1, 3, and 4 are especially convicting for me and one’s I will pray for growth in. I printed this out today and taped it to my desk. May it guide my relationships and even my blogging!!

Snow Patrol and the Shelf

I have been utterly enthralled with Snow Patrol lately. Most of you are familiar with their smash hit, Chasing Cars, but might I introduce you to my favorite two songs. Set Fire to the Third Bar is just so hauntingly beautiful, and Shut Your Eyes is also wonderful.

Set Fire to the Third Bar

Shut Your Eyes

Oh yeah, THREE BOOKS I’M READING RIGHT NOW

An Old Testament Theology – Bruce Waltke
– Just outstanding. A flow of narrative, exegesis, commentary and teaching. A must have for both reference and personal enrichment. Bravo Mr. Waltke. Bravo.

The Irresistible Revolution – Shane Claiborne
– Arguably the most challenging book I have ever read. I find myself cheering on my brother, being deeply convicted by his faith in action, refreshed by his perspective of Jesus, and wincing at his lack of sound doctrine. Read carefully, but please read.

James – James brother of Jesus
– Ryan and I had a pretty good discussion about James the other night. For the second straight time, I have felt God clearly speaking directly to me through the book of the Bible I am studying. I say this in contrast to simply learning. This is a good book, it is teaching me to care less about teaching the right thing, and more about loving and doing the right thing. Also curious is the absence of penal-substitutionary atonement (note: I expect Ryan to rebut this in the comment section, but that doesn’t put it in the text. Example:if he or I were to preach James as a sermon, the other would call the other one out for missing the atonement as the central point to our teaching). I have spent many nights wrestling with this, desiring to let the word of God determine my theology.

Also, I am preaching The Parable of the Sower to High School students this weekend. I am filling in for a friend last-minute, please pray that I would be filled with the Holy Spirit.

matt

Humilty and Community

I taught last week on John 8:12-30. It is this amazing story of Jesus showing up at the second Passover of his ministry and having an old school showdown with the religious establishment. Jesus explodes on the scene and throws out a seemingly bravado laden statement of, “I am the light of the world.” To a Jew this would have brought up massive connotations that we today might miss here are a few of them.

1. Jesus is telling that he is responsible for life and creation (Gen. 1:3)

2. The light which Jesus says he is, is equated with God’s instruction and path to a righteous life (Ps. 19:8)

3. The light is God’s very identity and his holiness (1 John 1:5, Rev. 22:5).

Needless to say the Pharisees are not pleased about the statement even though the Messiah they have been longing for stands right before them, why? Well pride. Pride distorts our ability to see and often creates massive barriers between us and what we most deeply desire. The Pharisees would have claimed that the one thing they desired more than anything else was their Messianic deliverer. But when he came and stood right before them, the responded in rage and hostility because of their pride.

This is where humility comes in, John tells us later in his letter 1 John, that pride is part of our darkness and when we refuse to leave it and come into the light we are deceived. What is the prescription? Well it is to repent and come into the light, often this does not happen because we love our darkness or unwilling to be humbled and brought into the light.

All this to say that with the current infatuation with community, and missional community I have wondered why there is so little of it actually going on. I would submit it is because at the core of me and many of you is a deep rooted pride issue. So much so that the church has become steeped in an implicit culture of pride. We are afraid that others might find out our deepest darkness and depravity, so we have learned how to manage in the Christian culture. Just getting by with conversations that confirm each other is doing “good” and then moving on to penetrating topics such as the weather. I do not say all of this to be flippant but to point out that pride is the dam of community and intimacy, even though it is at the deepest level what we desire most.

So humility is the conduit of deep community and will require all those who thirst for it to come into the light, let go of hidden sin, and be humbled. This process is painful and one I know way to little about to admonish others on, but I do know that with grace there is hope for light filled, life giving, humility based intimate community. If we are to drink and quench this desire for community that our individualistic culture ironically seems so hungry for, we will have to seek humility. This means putting aside some of our rights, agendas and even feelings. Often our communities are so weak and frail that one tiff or conflict will leave all participants withdrawing and refusing to play anymore. We have become the neighborhood of kids who takes our ball and go home when something does not go our way. How sad.

Is this how it has to be?

So maybe the challenge for all of us is to find that which gives us pride or a sense of identity other than Jesus and repent (For a good demonstration in this see Matt’s Confessions series). I think I will go do that right now.

Ladies and Gentlemen Demetri Martin

Since the death of Mitch Hedberg there has been a gaping chasm in the comedy world. Well Demetri Martin has done a nice job filling it. Enjoy.

The Beijing Olympics: Legitimizing the Illegitimate

There is an episode of the West Wing that deals with North Korea, and talks to disarm nuclear bombs. This is juxtaposed to a North Korean music prodigy who tells President Bartlett he wants to defect by pretending to sign a copy of his CD. The show centers around how fickle North Korea is, and if they let this man defect, they could lose all progress in nuclear talk. At the end President Bartlett encourages this man to do what is best for both countries. He declines to defect. The next day the President is informed that trade talks were suspended due to North Korea being offended at the size of the flags for Security Council countries.

What am I getting at: attempting to play to the bully or crazy country and give them what they want (or prevent justice to appease them) doesn’t help them assimilate, it only legitimizes an illegitimate regime.

That is what we have done in giving China the next summer Olympics.

China’s human rights, and oppressive regime have been very well known by the IOC, and well, everyone for that matter. Granted there are great steps China has made to allow for forms of religious freedom. But let’s not kid ourselves here, China also allowed for various forms of private property to be held for the first time in early 2004. Anyone who assumes that China’s human rights advancements have been produced by anything other than fiscal greed and hegemonic aspirations needs to read Hobbes’ Leviathan. China is turning capitalistic, but it has nothing to do with the value of human life, it has to do with the value of the Chinese Yuan.

Think about capitalism and the United States. From a Judeo/Christian perspective, it sucks that God’s values have been egregiously married to capitalism (note to my right wing readers: capitalism tends to spit in the face of Jesus saying it is impossible to love both God and Mammon). From a Machiavellian perspective, capitalism would succeed the best when starting from a worldview that devalues the worth of humanity. Like say, China. As a Christian, I am thankful that becuase our capitalism is mixed with Christianity. It is becuase of this that there are processes and programs that still value humanity. One example of this is tax write-offs for charitable donations, or say the Bill of Rights. China’s capitalism does not have these processes and programs. China’s capitalistic movement is best described as such: Capitalism without a conscience.

Now the IOC on behalf of the “free-world” has begun the mainstream effort to assimilate this country; legitimizing the illegitimate.

Why this rant? This morning Justin Taylor pointed me to another attempt by the Chinese government to control religious freedom, not of its citizens, but rather of all Olympic participants. Now I know the argument for this. In preventing Bibles, they are preventing evangelism efforts from Olympic participants. Right, people that train their whole life for one event are going to be preoccupied with evangelizing. Not to say they won’t be evangelizing, but not at a rate that would prove detrimental.

This is ridiculous. Yet it proves that in allowing Beijing to host the summer Olympics, we are legitimizes an illegitimate government. I heard they are thinking of Sudan for the next bid.

matt

Update:

Apparently the writer of that story didn’t do his homework (what a surprise). Here is the official policy: One Bible. This being the case, I still stand behind the post.