Extreme Home Makeover

It's been an interesting week in Gainesville because Extreme Home Makeover has been building and filming here. It has been even more interesting for us because we know the family that is getting the new house.

Yesterday a waitress made a comment to a friend and me that has stuck with me (and seems to be a common sentiment around town). She said, "I just don't think they deserve it." The reason many feel this way seems to be that they are not poor enough. As far as I know they are not overly struggling to pay their bills, their house wasn't falling apart, etc... The show seems to have picked them because they run a non-profit music school that aims to get their students to give back to the community through music.

Now, on one hand, I can certainly understand the feelings of those that think a family "more deserving" should have been awarded the new house. But the comment has stuck with me because who really is deserving of such a thing? Does "being poor" make a person deserving of a brand new, expensive house? What about giving selflessly back to the community? Does that really make someone deserving of such a gift? No, the truth is that nobody deserves such a gift.

I wonder if this same sentiment plays out in our thoughts and ideas on religion. Maybe as a society we've come to believe that the poor deserve to be rich. And we are all poor, spiritually speaking. Revelation 3 says:

"you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked."

Or maybe we don't believe that we are spiritually impoverished. Those are who the chapter in Revelation is really talking to. So, assuming we are spiritually poor and bankrupt, do we, like the waitress believe that we somehow deserve to be rich in God? That our spiritual state means that we should not be left there? Well, I believe the Bible teaches that we deserve nothing more then to be left in our spiritual poverty. Indeed, when we obey ourselves above all else we are in enmity toward God who demands we obey him and walk in righteousness. No, we do not deserve this gift.

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

And that is good news my friends.

communion

I was sitting in church this morning and was a little too distracted by the people around me and having a hard time entering into the Lord's presence. When we finished singing, one of the pastors stood up and led us in receiving communion. I was so thankful for that time as the reality that Jesus gave his body and blood for me became real and I was able to see God's goodness and worship him. When the communion plate was passed to me I noticed that one of the cups had a little wafer floating in it (dropped accidentally I presume). I thought, "here is a way to serve those who will go after me" and I took the cup with the floating wafer. Immediately my mind began to think about communion mishaps and the impact on a view of transubstantiation they would have. But thankfully, my mind didn't stay there long and I resumed my contemplation on the cross and my sins forgiven.

It was a really good moment. One of clarity.

Now I didn't want to be a distraction in case someone sitting next to me saw the floating wafer so I tried to stealthily snatch out the wafer from the grape juice cup. I was successful! But a moment later as I was listening to the pastor and trying to hold both cup and wafer in one hand it happened.

I spilled the grape juice, not completely, but probably half of the little cup. The rest was on my hands and a small spot on my pants. And then it hit me. I am completely unworthy of the sacrifice that was made for me. I can't even hold the cup that symbolizes the blood that makes me clean. And with grape juice all over my hands I continued to worship.

idolatry

I was going to sit down and write a post about idolatry. (a subject I wish I wasn't an expert in)

But then I saw that I just wrote a post a couple of months ago about idolatry.

thinking while driving

On Friday I was driving and had a couple of good conversations with friends on the phone and at one point I just started thinking about the love of God. I was thinking about the implications of the fact that God loved us enough to let his only Son die in our place. Now that wasn't a completely new thought but it was really meaningful to me at the time. I was thinking about what that says about our value to God. What we're worth. That he would let Jesus die so that we could have a relationship with him. I mean, why would he do that? What do we have to offer him? It doesn't seem like a very good trade to me. And then it hit me. The thought I haven't recovered from yet. God traded his Son's life for ours, and he can not be called a fool.

longing for significance?

I've been thinking some lately about a perceived desire for greatness that I've identified in myself. I often have conflicting feelings about this realization because on one hand I think a desire for greatness can be fuel to do great things (hopefully for God). But on the other hand striving for greatness is a pursuit fraught with danger, both for my own soul and probably for others.

Then today I was reading a book by an author I trust and he talked about 3 basic human needs that God the Father met for Jesus in the account of Jesus' baptism. The needs for identity, security, and significance. Ahhh, significance... maybe that's what I've been searching for!? So, now I am wondering if it's really significance that I'm looking for, or if it actually is greatness, and whether one or both are good or bad or neutral. I'm confused.

thoughts on idols

For a long time the idea of idolatry confused me. I would read about idolatry in the Bible but I didn't know anyone who made a little idol and bowed down to it to worship it. How did the idea still have relevance to us today?

Slowly over time I've begun to see that the warnings against idolatry have huge implications for us today. We may not fashion a little figurine from stone or wood but essentially an idol is anything that we put our trust in instead of God. And I and almost everyone I've ever met puts our trust in a lot of things instead of God. Of course the big an obvious one is money. I need to constantly remember that a job that pays, or money in the bank, or retirement savings, or whatever is not what provides for me. It is the Lord. Many of us have been reminded that money and jobs are not as reliable as we thought during this recession.

But there are lots of other things we're tempted to put our trust in (idols) out there. We put our trust in family and friends for happiness, we trust in health insurance and doctors for health, we trust in clothes, cars, houses, and vacations for status. The problem with idols is that they cannot deliver. They are dead to provide us with what we really want and need. I ran across these verses in Psalm 115 this morning:

vv.3-8 (italics mine)
Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.
But their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands.
They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see.
They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell.
They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk, nor cant they utter a sound with their throats.
Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.

These verses make sense of Jesus' confusing words in Mark 4:9-12. Jesus basically quotes Isaiah 6:9,10 and says that many who hear his words will be like those who see but don't perceive, who hear but don't understand. If they did they would turn to the Lord and be forgiven.

Psalm 115 is saying that we become like the things we put our trust in (idols). And Jesus is saying that when we trust in other things we become like those dead things we trust in. We have eyes but can't really see and ears but can't really hear.

I heard recently that one of the primary tasks of anyone who preaches the Gospel is to point out and speak against the idols of the culture they're preaching in. I wonder what some of our other idols are?

Granddaddy's passing

Last week I traveled with my family to the Eastern Shore of Virginia for my grandfather's funeral. His passing was completely unexpected and has forced me to think about the inevitability of death for us all. I've thought before and wondered about the effects of a society that hides death in many ways. Though we are spared the uncomfortableness of death we slowly forget that our time really is short and tomorrow is never promised to us. Especially those of us who are relatively young.

It was really good to gather with family and celebrate the life of Granddaddy. He was an amazing man in so many ways. A father of eleven children, a husband for almost sixty years, a veteran, a farmer. He gave back to his community and traveled around the world sharing his expertise in farming to developing countries. He was committed and active in the church to the very end. And yet he always seemed to have time to play a game of Gin Rummy when I asked. He used to give me a quarter if I could cut the deck to exactly the 21 cards needed to deal a hand of Gin. We shared the same name. He was Thomas Berry Long, Jr. and I am Thomas Berry Long, IV.

Everyone who knew Granddaddy will certainly miss him but there are good things that come when someone we know and love passes away. I was comforted the morning I heard the news by the verse in Psalm 116 that says, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of those faithful to him." Granddaddy was certainly faithful to the Lord and he is now present with him. It is precious indeed. He is now in the presence of the one who truly gives life. He has a new body, a body not touched by corruption, disease, or weakness in any way. What a wonderful thing! I can't wait for that reality to be extended to all of creation and to everyone in right standing with God.

But there is another thing that is good that comes from an encounter with the reality of our mortality. It gives focus and direction to our life. When I pause to reflect on the truth that I have but a short time in this life it makes me want to live more intentionally. To make my life count for something whenever my time is finished. To be more present to my family and friends, to enjoy the good things in life, and to work with purpose for things that will last. In days past it was much more common to wake up in a house where someone had passed away. The reality of death was much closer to home then it is today where most people (in our country) die in a hospital. We've lost something as a society in that. But in light of eternity, I want to live out my days in a way that will count. I'm so thankful to the Lord who offered me eternal life and forgiveness for the sins that separated me from him. In light of that, and with the reminder that my time on earth will pass, how could I not gladly offer my life back to the Lord. To run the race of life with endurance, fixing my eyes on Jesus, being cheered on by the faithful, like Granddaddy, and not losing heart.

How many times do I have to learn?

This morning I read in Psalms 103: "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him"

It reminded me of something that happened to me in Haiti on this trip:

We had been working for a couple of days, digging ditches and laying pipes to bring water to people's houses from the community well. I was swinging a pick axe to break up the ground so that someone could come behind me and shovel out the dirt for the ditch. Once, as I brought the pick axe up over my head before bringing it down I felt the all too familiar pain in my lower back that has come to precede a major bout of back pain. Typically, after something like what I felt by the next day I will be immobilized in pain and unable to even walk correctly for at least a week.

I put down the axe and moved to side of the road and began to think about how I was going to navigate the rest of the trip once my back stiffened up. Graciously some members of the team surrounded me, laying hands on my back, and began to pray for God to heal it. At first I was grateful for their compassion but as they prayed I began to feel more and more uncomfortable. I began to protest their praying because I was becoming aware of all of the pain, hunger, and brokenness of the people in the village we had come to serve. It felt wrong to pray for my needs when there were so much greater needs around us 24 hours a day.

I believe a spiritual battle was being waged at that moment. Nick, an InterVarsity staff colleague said some words in response to my protest that I believe were directly from the Lord. He said, "Even in the midst of the poverty and pain of these people the Lord cares for you as well." That my needs, no matter how small, are not insignificant in the eyes of the Lord. I realized in that moment how much I struggle with God's love, especially when I'm in touch with how unworthy I am. But that is part of receiving God's grace and it is truly hard for the proud. And sadly, I am still a very proud man.

(Amazingly, in spite of me, the Lord took away my pain that day and though it didn't go away 100% it never hindered me from working or moving around for the rest of the trip. In the moment of the injury it felt exactly the same as previous times when I've been immobilized for a week. Call it what you want, but I believe it was the healing grace of our Lord.)

Haiti

I returned yesterday from 9 day trip to Haiti. What InterVarsity calls a Global Plunge. Fifteen InterVarsity students and three staff traveled to the village of Neply in Haiti on the Leogane plain. We were about an hour due west of Port-au-Prince.

The people and land of Haiti both captured and broke my heart. It is a beautiful land, with sugarcane fields spanning the plains and rising into mountains, but much of the land, like it's people has been stripped and left impoverished. On our trip, we got to come alongside a group of men who have banded together to seek the betterment of each other and the people of Neply. There are a fraternity of sorts and if you're interested you can check out their site here.

We walked twenty minutes each day from Neply to another small village called LaSalle where we brought running water to the front yards of ten homes in the village. Previously there was one well in the center of the village that every household had to travel to multiple times each day, filling up buckets or containers with water and traveling back to their homes in order to cook, do laundry, and for all their water needs. The look of pure joy on the people's faces as they turned on a water spigot in their front yard made all the work and effort worth it. God is good and the faith of many in Neply challenged ours greatly. The question of what is needed in a place like Neply has left me with more questions than answers.

I hope to post some more reflections here in the days to come. For now, I'm enjoying being home with my family and wrestling with some of those questions the trip left me with.

having kids can help your social life

Today my wife and I went to go watch a kids soccer game. We loaded up our four kids in the mini-van and traveled the twenty minutes across Gainesville to where the game was being played. I held my ten month old son for awhile but put him in his stroller after my arms started getting tired.

A couple of minutes later my wife looks over at me and asks, "What's that?" I look down and sure enough, there's a poop stain two inches in diameter right on the front of my shirt.

How glad I was to be twenty minutes away from my house.

irresponsible environmentalism

This morning around 10:30am I started to get hungry while I was at work. My office is in a local Presbyterian church here in Gainesville and the space they let us use is at the end of a long hallway where, honestly, not many people ever come. Anyway, I was getting hungry and luckily I had a banana in the office. A little more ripe than ideal, but hey, when you're hungry, a few brown spots aren't that big of a deal. So I ate it.

Afterward I was presented with a dilemma. I didn't want to throw the banana peel in my garbage can because it takes me a long time to fill up a can and it would be sitting there for weeks in all likelihood. I'm imagining bad smells, fruit flies, etc... and I didn't want any part of that.

So casually, I roll up the window next to my desk and slip the banana peel out the window and behind the shrubs. I go back to work thinking, that's fine, the banana is bio-degradable right? It will become nutrients for the shrubs. It's a good thing.

How quickly my tune changed when ten minutes later I see the pastor of the church walking behind my office coming straight for my window. He's walking with another guy (nobody ever comes back here) and they seem to be talking to themselves. Then to my horror, he stops across from my office and goes straight to the water spigot under my window. There's nothing I can do now, I'm sitting at my desk, pretending to work and not notice him but he had to reach within 12 inches of the fresh banana peel that only I could have left there. He couldn't have missed it. And I have to decide whether I will look him in the eye or pretend I don't notice him...

a labor of love/hate

here are a few pictures of my home improvement project, a new patio in the backyard. who knew that an offer of free concrete pavers back in August would turn into such a long drawn out saga. I have been traveling a lot recently but every day I've been home I've spent all the daylight hours after work on this. finally, I'm nearing completion. here's a few of the steps along the way:

overheard at the Long house

a quick story from the Long household tonight...

I'm getting my youngest daughter out of the tub and I'm drying her off and she asks me if she looks like Mary. This is because I've often said that to her when the towel is wrapped over her head like a headdress when I'm drying her hair.

So tonight, she asks me, "do I look like Mary?", and I say, "yes, you do." I then walk her into her bedroom to get her pajamas on and she nonchalantly says, "Mary is hot."

what is a father supposed to say to that?

Jesus is Hard

This is from a former Southeast InterVarsity staffworker who passed away this year. It struck home when I read it today...

---

Excerpt from Lessons, Prayers & Scripture on the Faith Journey by Pete Hammond.

Jesus is Hard

I seek comfort – He invites me to join in his suffering.
I like acceptance and approval – He calls me to be counter-cultural.
I assume my right to safety – He calls me to personal risk.
I desire financial security – He encourages generosity.
I cherish privacy – He invites me into community.
I yearn for personal significance – he made himself “of no reputation.”
I hide for fear of being judged and rejected – He knows me fully and loves me.
I really like my pillow – He had no place to lay his head.
I want to prolong a healthy life – He calls me to die daily.
I hide in macho male bravado – He weeps for others.
I love good regular meals – He feeds others.
I ponder doctrine – He practices love.
I crave success – He wants me to oppose evil at all costs.
I seek out important people – He befriends the despised and rejected.

Jesus is hard to enjoy,
But what I find deep within me is much worse.

“Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus,
Who though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God as something to be explited,
but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness, and being found in human form,
he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.”
(Paul to the Philippians in Philippians 2:5-9)

Lord, help me make choices in my journey that lead
to becoming like Jesus;
by breaking the hold of sin and evil within me,
resisting my appetite for comfort, popularity and worldly success,
so I can find real joy in Jesus!

the interesting thing about memorizing parts of the Bible

So, I (along with some of my friends) have undertaken a goal to memorize the Sermon on the Mount. [Don't congratulate me, I haven't gotten very far.] One thing I'm finding that is very interesting is how the whole process is opening my eyes to old and familiar scriptures. I'm not sure how others' brains work but as I set about the task of memorizing a particular verse it is easy for me to grasp and remember the main concept of the verse.

For example, today I am trying to commit Matthew 5:18 to memory. My first attempt to recite it without looking went something like this:

"Truly, until heaven and earth pass away, the smallest letter or the least stroke of a pen will not disappear until everything is accomplished."

Not bad... I think it is pretty true to what Jesus said, but here is how my translation (TNIV) reads:
"Truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished."

So, what I am really enjoying is learning all the small details of this sermon Jesus gave that modify and clarify what he was trying to convey. Often I find it in the things I forget on the first run. Here is something I missed the first time around today:

• in the last clause Jesus modifies his statement that "nothing will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished" by saying it will not happen "by any means".

This strengthens what he is saying incredibly. They will not disappear by any means! I missed that every time for the first 31 years of my life until I tried to memorize it.

Plumbing Problems

Last night after I finished giving my son a bath surprisingly the bath tub did not want to drain. I tried various common techniques last night to get the drain to unclog. I used my humble little 1/4" snake from the the bathtub, from the toilet, and from under the sink. All to no avail. I also tried to use it from the clean-out outside but seemed to get stuck. I gave up for the night.

This morning I didn't want to deal with it but what choice do you have when you have a toilet that's not flushing and a sink that seems to work until you realize it's filling up the bathtub in the other room. So, this morning I had a couple of other ideas to try. I tried snaking from under the kitchen sink (and at one point got the snake inside the walls). I tried going up on the roof and snaking through the vent stacks. But I never got the sense that I had reached the blockage with my snake.

After lunch, I was about ready to try my last move before calling a plumber. The ole' Drano method. I had not yet used any kind of Drano product because I don't believe they really work for serious problems. But a $5 bottle of Drano is worth a shot if it can save a $200 plumber visit. I also had a sneaking suspicion that my "snake" (1/4" auger) was inadequate. So I went to Lowe's to get my Drano and check out the other options for freeing drains. While there I was looking at various methods but they all seemed hokey and unlikely to work. Then a Lowe's employee came up and asked me if I needed help. (I honestly don't think this has ever happened before.) He suggested I consider buying a more heavy duty snake. There was a flat-wire option and a 1/2" coiled wire option. I went with the coiled wire option because you could still spin it to help break through or grab debris and the flat wire is just for pushing through. I picked up some Drano as well.

I came home with renewed optimism and hope for a solution without calling a plumber. I took my new big auger and went to the clean-out on the side of the house. As I shoved it through the clean-out and the central waste line I had a good feeling. The 1/2" cable just felt more substantive and like it could do something. Eventually I felt it hit the blockage. I had never felt this with the smaller auger. I tried pushing it through but didn't feel like I was getting through. I tried spinning it to free the blockage. I wasn't sure if it was working. I pulled it out to see if there was anything on the tip that would indicate progress. And I checked inside but the toilet still wasn't flushing right. I prepared myself for defeat. The $28 solution wasn't such a solution after all. But I decided to give it one more shot. I put the auger back into the clean-out and when I hit the blockage I spun it until it felt like something changed. Unfortunately the auger must have coiled up on itself because it seemed to be stuck. But I unwound it and it seemed to free up. I gave it one more chance and this time I broke through. I was able to push the auger further into the house. Was this my solution?

I went into the house almost scared to hope that it had been solved. But sure enough, when I flushed the toilet it drained properly. To finish the job I poured the bottle of drano down the kitchen sink and gave it 20 minutes to hopefully clear out the rest of the blockage. We'll see how long this lasts but tonight I couldn't be happier. It was really rewarding to do this all by my unprofessional self.