Travel, Tiredness & Tax Collectors...

So the weekend was as expected - long, encouraging, yet tiring.

For the uninformed - I spent Thursday, Friday and Sunday at Roanoke College and Washington & Lee meeting with key leaders, speaking with Greek students and talking at their respective large group events. It's interesting to consult with other schools on what the most effective Greek strategy is because schools are soo different than what I like to deem the frattieness of Carolina and Indiana. Not to say it's a bad different - it's just different. So that was interesting, encouraging, and draining at the same time.

In between Kim and I got to check out some Virginia wineries - 3 around Charlottesville and one near Lexington. Despite what you may have heard Virginia really does have some great wines and wineries. My favorite winery from the trip was the Rockbridge Winery near Lex - good down to earth folks, with some great wines - especially the Meritage and the Cab Franc. The house red was pretty great as well. The best wine was near Charlottesville at the King Family Winery. We snagged an '05 Meritage that we plan to age 5 years and enjoy on our 10th anniversary. The question is whether or not I can let a bottle of wine sit on the shelf for 5 years (although we do have a bottle from our honeymoon cruise that has been sitting there for almost 5, although it is a white).

Anyway - o the tax collectores.

The topc I was asked to speak about at Roanoke and W&L was that of our posture in prayer and in the community around us. I spoke from Luke 19 - the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. It's amazing to me how any Pharisees are alive and well in our Christian sub-culture today, even though Jesus spent many a New Testament word warning against them.

In the parable the Pharisee is thanking God that he's not like the guy next to him, or like other folks who do bad stuff. Sound like people you know? Folks who are happy to be in the holy huddle and have no space for those who are not. Great model of evangelism, by the way.

The 2nd character is a tax collector - a dude who probably has ripped the livelihood out of a lot of peoples hands. His prayer is simple - "Forgive me - a sinful man."

Jesus' response is classic:

"the tax man, not the other went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to fall flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself."

What a statement and what a call. But do we really make space for tax collectors in our lives? And are we really in a place to live out those words of the tax collector? Are we willing to admit that we need that forgiveness too?

I've been extremely lucky to be surrounded by tax collectors all my life - both repentant tax collectors like this guy, and just straight up tax collectors. I've also been lucky and unlucky to live on both extremes of this story - on the side that thanks God I'm not like that guy, but also on the side that is doing all the stupid stuff that the Pharisee just mocks.

I'm encouraged to know that Jesus' heart is in the middle, though - in the righteousness and wisdom-seeking of the Pharisee, but in the humilty, honesty and repentance of the tax-collector. Because that sure is a freeing place to be.

Encouraging....

So I randomly decided to check the stats today and noticed that indeed folks are checking out and reading this blog. Thanks for the encouragement. It is with that knowledge and edification that I promise to put forth a greater effort to sharing my thoughts and updating the other randomness of this site...............starting Monday.

Unfortunately I'm about to run out the door to Virginia for the weekend. Hopefully I will be able to meet some Greek students at Roanoke College & Washington & Lee, challenge some undergrad students on whether they are the Pharisee who thanks God he's not like the others, or the tax collector who is just thankful to be anywhere close to God. That's a good post for another day unto itself. In between I will be joined by my wife and we will attempt to soberly navigate the central Virginia wine country.

Sounds like a doozy! Check back for more early next week (or Friday if I find time in my day).

Adulthood...

If you haven't been there yet, or if you're there and just refuse to live there - being an adult is tough. In fact, it borderline sucks. Especially if you are caught in between those near impossible years of being a post-college grad and a parent.

Do you go for the money? What do you go for the money for? Is it for good things? Selfish things? Is God behind it or does he really (as some would have you believe) have some master plan that you're either in full-time ministry or continuing the human lifecycle.

It's a tough world out there folks.

The last few weeks have been tough. Kim has been wrestling with what a "post-buyout by a 40,000 employee company" looks like to a rising star in a compay of 60, I have struggled to balance my campus passions with my overall Greek ministry passions with my business-planning-success passions. It's just been tough. Who gives what and what gives where?

But at the heart of it God lives. And I think that Kim and I discovered tonight that at the heart of strife and at the heart of conflicht - Jesus is there.

Why? Because what Jesus and what God are truly looking for are fighters. Not what the typical Christian church has put out enmasse over the last 15 years - conformists or at least cultural comformists - but fighters.

I believe that the Christ wants a person who will fight for his faith. Who will struggle like hell for his faith, but ultimately will fight for that.

What does that look like? a great question....Probably why Dave Matthews in his famous (at leat to me) but not necesarily theoligically accurate song "The Christmas Song" (if you want to hear go to www.greekimpact.net/christmas.htm "drinkers and smokers, all soul searchers like you and me".

Whether Dave believes or doesn't he hits at the heart of the matter - all soul searchers. Are we searching for our souls and for Christs souls for us - or are we just drifting?

Personally - I've drifted for too long. And it ends now. Sure ministry can be good, life can be good, business can be good. But what about your soul? How is your soul doing today? Because all those things can provide you a good, or even great facade, but it's your sould that will ultimately be layed bare - maybe not till heaven - maybe tomorrow.

So what are you living for?

That is a questionn that I will be asking myself and students I talk to this semester both at Chapel Hill and across the region. More on that later.......

But what are you living for?