Have your burger, and drive off of it too?

As Oil Prices Soar, Restaurant Grease Thefts Rise (NYTimes, 5/30/2008)

Great article. My question... does it make your car smell like a hamburger or fried chicken? And is it bad for your cholesterol levels? Or is this actually the good kind of cholesterol?!

Considering the criticisms that Biofuels have received as of late, is it possible that this provides a great alternative?

For the first time ever, is it possible that you can have your cake and eat it too?

Or in this case, eat your burger and then drive off of its refuse?

I assume that...?

I love assumptions.

"she wouldn't want to..."
"he'd think it was silly..."
"well what they really mean must be..."
"everyone thinks that..."
"he must be that way because..."

Now, let's be frank: most assumptions are based on some form of logical rationale. That rationale might be as weak as "Well, he's male, and I'm female, ergo, he must be flirting with me when he says 'hello' when he answers the phone!" But typically, there is some basis of truth for our assumptions. The problem is that the truth is typically only half-truth, and our assumptions also come with two detrimental side-effects:

1) They limit the person about whom you are making the assumption.
2) They limit you in your ability to relate to the other person.

Let me give you two examples...

I am currently in the process of doing support raising for my job, which means that I often have to sit down with potential donors, and ask them to join my support team, supporting me in prayer and financially if possible. There are often very loud voices in my head that say "They don't want to give. You're offending them by asking." Now there is some basis of truth in that mental accusation: money is a touchy subject. Sometimes people don't want to give. But more often than not, my donors are really excited to support the ministry with InterVarsity. Often times, they are waiting for me to invite them into partnership. If I operate based on my assumptions, I limit my donors' generosity, and I limit the depth of my own relationship with them. I place them in boxes that are perhaps not accurate.

Secondly, let's talk about men and women. All too often I see both men and women making assumptions about the other person's behavior... and either getting wigged-out or uncharacteristically excited... "I think she likes me!" "I don't know if I can co-lead with her, because I'm afraid that she'll get a crush on me!" "I can't hang out with him, because he might get the wrong impression..." "So because he did ____, I know that he meant ____!" Again, there is some basis of truth: men tend to be attracted to women; women tend to be attracted to men. However, when we automatically assume that there is sexual tension in any cross-gendered relationships, we severely limit our ability to relate across genders... we sell ourselves short of the other person's friendship... and we lose our ability to relate wholly to the other person.

So can I offer you a gift?

Take this week entirely assumption free. Give yourself the freedom, especially cross-gender, to relate to the other person as a friend, without worrying about sexual tension, flirting, or anything else. Instead of insinuating and hoping the other person "gets it," speak truthfully and say what you mean! Allow the other person the freedom to define themselves, rather than limiting them with your self-imposed boxes...

And this is the promise that I will make to you in return:

I will always tell you what I mean.
I do not play games.
I try to operate assumption-free.
When I am in doubt about what you mean, I will ask you, rather than assume that I know.

There is great freedom in operating without assumptions. Try it. You'll like it!

beauty for ashes... and beauty for ashes.

the great exchange.

created. designed. molded. made. whole.
and yet broken.
somewhere along the way, shards of sin
penetrated both the penetrator and the penetrated.
yet it did not touch the source,
leaving hope for healing and
an entirely convincing sense that
things are not right.

sexuality. trading our beauty for ashes.
life-giving exchanged for death and dying.
the acronyms are overwhelming.
AIDS. STD.
the words at times even worse:
rape. disease. lust.
addiction. apathy. incest.
to be summed up in one word: broken.
inside, outside, shattered.
fragments of what the LORD intended.
same sex, opposite sex, self, others:
shards of glass, mini-mirrors
reflecting broken relationship and image.
how do we even begin to imagine...
....wholeness.

"it is good; very good" quoth He
in the garden.
male and female he created them.
good, very good!
and so, in this restoration revelation
do i dare believe that God can
yet again
begin to redeem, restore, ransom
giving beauty for our ashes,
wholeness for our brokenness,
and celebration for our desolation?

the spring, the source, the origin,
is untainted.
therefore, from that well
must we draw for our healing.
receiving beauty for our ashes.

A boy named God

A friend of mine teaches English in a non-English-speaking country...

As students enter the program, they are asked to select an English name, which will be their name for the duration of their stay in the program... and the students can choose whatever name they desire, and choose how to spell it.

Currently my friend has an unintentional jungle theme going on in her class... several of the students have elected to name themselves "Tiger" or "Bear" or "Lion"... She also has a student named "Rick" who has elected to spell it "Rikk" because he thinks it's cooler that way... and we thought Americans gave their kids strange names... just imagine what could happen if the kids were to name themselves!

But the name that struck me the most, was the student who elected to name himself "God."

No, not a joke. This is actually his English name, and has been for the last three to four years...

"God, would you please come up to the board to diagram this sentence?"
"God, do you know what the answer is?"
"God, did you do your homework?"

... ah the possibilities are endless! It's a good thing I'm not his teacher...

But friends, here's the take-home...

When we detach the name "God" from an understanding of who God is... what He's done in the past, what He's doing in the present, what He says He will do in the future... His power, His authority, His glory... His desire to be known... when we divorce His name from His identity and character, then it ceases to be anything except a name... and for this little boy, that is all that it is...

So, the question for you and me is... when we say that we believe in God, do we knowingly worship "I Am" or are we merely giving lip-service to a name which means very little to us? Are we worshiping the Lord, at whose name"every knee shall bow and every tongue confess" or are we merely reciting the title of an unknown being?

Who is your God?

*caveat* I am not at all saying that we should be flippant with the name of the Lord. But the reason that we're not flippant is because we know who He is...

Cuz, I'm leaving, on a jet plane...

As I was flying home from Boston last Friday, I journaled the following in my 3x5 journal, just small enough to fit in my pocket...

Sometimes I think it's easier for me to express myself in pictures rather than words. Words are a high form of art, not to be tampered with, whereas pictures, I expect to butcher...

I am on my way home from Boston visitations and my thoughts are so incredibly muddled... yet at the same time, clear. It's like... if you've flown 5 gazillion times... when they read the safety information, you don't really listen, so it's kind of fuzzy in the background, but at the same time, so unmistakably clear, understood, and fully know.... I felt very at home easily in Boston, and excited about the prospect of moving there and working there... but at the same time, there is a certain "yikes! this is real!" sensation."

As many of you know, I have been wrestling for several weeks with the decision of where to go for InterVarsity staff next year... A few months ago, I was asked to consider going out of my locale, finally narrowing things down to either Baltimore or Boston. After visiting both, meeting staff in the respective areas, and much prayer, I finally made the decision less than 3 hours ago to accept the position in Boston!

While it is with great sadness that I will say goodbye to UNC, the LORD has had me here for a really good season! I will miss the campus, the students and the staff dearly, but I know that God is calling me to new things which will both challenge and stretch me, as well as truly bless me. I'm super excited to get to move to the Boston area, start learning the language (quite literally in some ways!) and start meeting the students.

Today, as I have been finalizing the decision, I have repeatedly been reminded of the verse in Psalm 139:5 which says of the LORD, "You hem me in-- behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me." While this move will be a huge change, I am confident that the Lord goes before me, behind me, and walks alongside me!

Remember

We all have memories....

... our first time at the zoo, and how BIG the elephants were...
... our first kiss...
... the last time we saw each other...
... what he said then, that made all the difference...
... the time when we ____...

Some are funny, some are sketchy, some are sad, some are life-changing, others are mundane moments that became monuments for us... all of them are permanently glued in our minds by our memories.

The Bible also talks about memory many times. The word "remember" appears in Scripture 233 times... Repeatedly, God reminds his people to remember what he's done for them in the days gone by:

Exodus 3:15
God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.

Nehemiah 4:14
After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."

Even outside of the direct wordage of "remember," God repeatedly identifies himself with things done in the past, when calling the Israelites to something in the future:

"I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob..."
"I am the God who brought you out of Egypt..."

Why? Why is it important for the Israelites to remember?

• What do you do when you're in a relationship that you're committed to, but that's going through a rocky spell at the moment? You remember the days when it was good. You cling to those in the hope that the future will likewise hold something good.

• What about when you're picking a doctor for a major surgery? You look at his track record, to see how he's done on surgeries like this in the past.

• What about when you're interviewing someone for a job? You call their references, past employers, and friends, to see if in the past they have been reliable.

• Even when you're buying a used car... you go to one of those cheesy "Am I buying a lemon?" websites, to see if the past track record has been good...

See here's my point: I think all of us hit points in our lives when it is difficult to believe that God has got our best interests in mind... when it is difficult to believe that God is good... when it is difficult even to believe that He exists.

And in those moments, the unchanging God of the universe, the great I Am, reminds us to remember. To remember his faithfulness to us in the past, as a reminder that He will continue to be faithful in the future. ..

• To remember that He is the God who brought us out of Egypt, and He will again bring us out of captivity, even if it takes 70 years.

• To remember that He is the same God who was faithful to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he will continue to be faithful and good to us.

• To remember the time when God met you... when you felt his fingerprint on your life and knew that He was good... to be reminded that He continues to have your best in mind.
  

Sometimes it's hard to see God's faithfulness in the present tense, and in those instances, God reminds us to remember: to look at His track record, and to rest in the assurance that I AM does not change. He who has been faithful in the past will continue to be faithful in the present.

We remember as a foundation of faith, as an act of faith, and as a hope for faith.

Beauty

culture.
custom.
unity.
conformity.
majority.
the only way.

solidarity.
culture.
awareness.
choice.
clash.
beauty.

the ultimate dilemma of feminine beauty:

it's the only thing she's ever known;
beauty in long necks, small feet.
does that automatically make it wrong?
does that automatically make it right?

what about us?
skinny? fat? plastic surgery?
anorexia? bulimia?
corsets all over again?
let it out?
cover it up?

what cost is it worth in the end?
do we sell our souls in search of our selves?

but "for everything else, there's MasterCard."