Category: Different Learning

Posted in Different Learning, Different Thoughts, Uncategorized

Puppets & Jellyfish

Posted on by Wick

Last week I sat down to watch “Galaxy Buck: Mission to Sector 9″ with my kids, and I was kinda blown away. Here, condensed into a 40 minute children’s puppet movie (with quite a bit of humor), was a potent message. Not just a good message. I mean – take all the current spiritual living, devotional, God/Christ-centered literature that has come out in recent years – this movie will summarize a large percentage of it.galaxybuck

(spoiler alert)

Buck works in a call center for a large ministry, and is discontent because the poster on his wall constantly reminds him “God wants you to do BIG things!” He feels like he’s not accomplishing what God wants, and gets excited when there seems to be a chance. Things go awry, and he finds himself bummed again. Then, in the subterranean levels of an alien planet, he meets someone who rips his goal apart. Literally. He takes Bucks’ poster, and rips it so that the words left read, “God wants you.” I asked my 10-year-old daughter the next day what the message of the movie was about, and she answered clearly the same thing: “God doesn’t want you to do big things, as much as God wants YOU. You’re not a shark, you’re a jellyfish caught in the flow of God’s Love.”

The obvious push-back to that is: “That sounds like an excuse for laziness, and not trying anything.” Certainly it could be manipulated into that. But when we allow ourselves to exist fully in the flow of God’s Love – we have to trust that WILL call us to be actively offering ourselves fully toward the mission of lives, community and creation transformed.  But our activity doesn’t begin with us setting a goal of “accomplishing great things for Jesus”.  It begins with us relinquishing control of everything in our being, into the great Love of God.  That may mean we accomplish great things by the measures of this world, or that mean we lose everything and all noteriety for His sake.

The first step?  Allowing the truth of that ripped poster to sink in.  “God wants YOU.”  Not because of your gifts or talents.  Not because of your heritage.  Not because you’re specifically poised to accomplish what no one else could ever do.  Not because of your purity.  But because He Loves you.  Fully and completely, and without reserve.  Just as much when you were making horrible decisions as He does today.  Most of us have been loved wrong by a human in our lives, and it messes up the kind of love we even see as possible.  So let the love of God sink in a bit, and then release yourself to it.  There is no greater place to exist, or calling to walk forward with…

For more on covenanting with God to do/be whatever He wants, check out this modern version of the “John Wesley Covenant Service” I’ve written for use in a church setting.

For a few words on God simply desiring/loving you as His child, here’s a Spoken Word I recently recorded.

Posted in Different Learning, Different Thoughts, Uncategorized

Enough.

Posted on by Wick

image116I remember working at Youth Haven Ranch as a teenager.  Waking early to shower, and walking on my own to the giant red barn, a new addition to the campground since I’d attended as a camper.  The dew on the grass competing with the beauty of the steam rising out over the field in the distance.  The birds calling out to welcome anyone willing to rise early enough to wish them good morning.  Coffee was not yet in the vocabulary of my palette.

With difficulties at home, it meant the world to have the confidence of Kyle, Mike, Bob, Dave, Joe, Scott and the others.  These men who were leaders of the camp, placed me in oversight of the “Petting Farm” for the entire summer of 1998.  Each morning I’d rise early to great the midwestern Michigan beauty that exists as an island between streams of somewhere in the sprawling farmland, otherwise known as a “campground”.  I, neither “city kid” nor “country boy”, but rather a conglomerate of “raised by church-going single mother” and “growing up on a highway”, would open up the barn every morning.

Thomas Merton echoed the Psalmists who spoke of all creation having special knowledge of God, and an awareness of the divine.  The personified versions of these animals knew not only God, but could have significant discourse with me on passages of scripture, drama from home, or the latest girl counselor I might be crushing on that summer.  Norma, the cow, was particularly wise and would share her insight with me – providing I allowed her to escape to the grassy fields before Jack – the lone donkey.  As you might expect, he was little help anyways, always laughing when I’d ask his opinion.

The exuberance each animal met the dawn with, running out of their stalls to stretch, run, and snack, was equaled each week by new sets of young people – each eager to pretend for a week – that life was simple.  It was a campground for economically and socially disenfranchised kids.  Shedding the fear, the instability, and the harsh climates of home – by the 3rd day most kids understood they were safe and loved here.  The animals knew the same as I entered the barn each morning, to care for their stall and feed them.

I attempted to begin most mornings, once the animals had been let out and immediate needs cared for, soaking in the silence of the big red barn.  Breathing slow at the start of the day, I would go over the schedule of what groups would visit, and read some of the scripture from a recent message at the chapel times.   I was experiencing for an entire summer, what many of the children there tasted for only a week – the desirable simplicity of life.   To understand sabbath was less a day of the week, and more an invitation to rest and be content.

I want my kids to know that contentedness.  Shoot, I want the world to know that contentedness.  In my best moments today – I have it.  The contentment Mary and Joseph felt when they laid their firstborn son in an animal food-trough, surrounded by the sights and smells of the barn.  The breathing slow.  Not knowing what tomorrow might look like, but holding enough in this moment to outweigh any anxiety that may threaten to surface.

There is so much to hold in this moment.  You are beloved.  You are enough.  You are capable.  You are able to contribute to the lives of others.   Your smile can be a candle-light in the dark day of another.

There may be weeds growing – but there is so much wheat.

May you discover how it grows even today.

 

Posted in Different Learning

Story Stix…etc.

Posted on by Wick

Of course, whenever a big brown box with daddy’s name on it appears, we all get excited.  Even I couldn’t remember what package I was expecting, then I opened it to realize the product I was going to review for a company called “Buzzplant” must have sent me a couple other things to check out with it.   Sounds fun, so here we go….

The products all come from a company called “Hotline to God”, who I’d never heard of before.  .

The primary product I was asked to talk about were “Story Stix”.  You know those kids’ books at Wal-Mart that have a thing on the side where you can press buttons that make fun noises to go along with the story you’re reading?  Now imagine instead of a book attached, they’ve just taken that strip of buttons and thrown all the text into there.  Then have the text recorded by a well-spoken, but not very soft voice of an older male.  There ya’ go.

They sent me four different stories, and our daughters played with them for a few minutes.  Maybe if we were in a car on a long imagejourney, it would have lasted longer.  They pretty much wanted to hear each button once, and then once they heard the story they moved on to the next thing.  Granted, I gave them to my 5 & 6 year olds.  The “Story Stix” say “For ages 3 and up”.  Maybe a 3 year old would cling longer?  I listened to each story with them, and thought they were okay.  The buttons each held only a short summary of that part of the story, so that kids wouldn’t completely walk away from the man talking.  I realize it’s Biblical, and so they probably put a lot of work/thought into having some great God-like male orator record the stories…but I feel a softer male (think Morgan Freeman), or a friendly female voice would help the product.  Then it might feel less like listening to a lecture, and more like story-time.

Still, our 5 year old has a toy Disney cat (you know the one that says something different every time you push the button). She’s memorized not only everything the cat says, but the order of the sayings.  This makes me realize that having something Biblical at push-button response could be a great idea.  But maybe a story-telling Grandpa Turtle, or Grandma Camel, or something like that…rather than a “Stix”…so that kids want to play with them more.

As in the next product I reviewed…the actual “Hotline to God”.  Apparently the company’s flagship product.

I laughed as soon as I saw it.  It’s an actual model of an old-school rotary phone, with gold trim on the receiver, and says “Hotline to God” in the middle of where the numbers would be.  Immediately, my girls wanted to play with this one (and eventually asked if it could become part of their “play house”).  Pressing the button plays one of 25 pre-recorded Bible verses.  Same voice as the Story Stix, but it’s okay this time, because it’s supposed to be portions of scripture from God.  I still think a softer voice would help, but at least it wasn’t King James.  Side note: Turning the volume all the way up, the phone becomes loud enough for the whole room to hear.  My kids loved playing with this one, and I was even asked to leave the room when asked a question, because I was “interrupting God”.  Again here, it’d be kinda cool if our daughters ended up memorizing scripture simply because they played often with this pretend phone.  Although I might recommend a product re-naming.  Something like “Bible Phone”, instead of implying this is a special “Hotline to God”, but all God wants to do is recite random scriptures at them.  “Hotline to God” might be more fun to use phrases of encouragement/love from scripture….places where God or Jesus actually says things to his people.

They also snuck one last product into the box.  Something for the adults to enjoy, since the first two were obviously going to be played with by the kids.  It was a “Serenity Prayer Keychain”.  No frills here, just a little white square with a “praying hands” symbol on it, and a button.  Push the button, hear the Serenity Prayer.  Guess what?  Same voice as the Story Stix and Hotline to God.  Either they really love his voice, paid a lot of money to get him to narrate, or he’s the owner of the company.  It was loud enough to be a bit awkward anywhere you might play the prayer audibly around others.  But I imagine if someone’s got a really big rage problem, it could be a good button to try before pummeling someone.  In any case….this made a great gag gift to a friend for his birthday.

So would I buy any of these products myself?  I doubt it.  The Story Stix are $10 each, Hotline to God is $25, and the Keychains are $9.  These are the kind of thing and older person from our church might buy our kids as a gift, and we’d smile and say thank you.  I could see Grandparents whose children don’t attend church giving these gifts to their grandkids, hoping it will sneak God into their lives.  But even that would be a lame substitute for grandparents actually spending time reading Bible stories to their grandchildren.   The phone is the coolest thing they’ve got going here, but it needs new recordings.

I will admit…we had a giant birthday party with tons of friends/kids over yesterday, and my daughters shared around the Story Stix and Hotline to God.  Story Stix seemed to grab a child’s attention long enough to push each button once.  The Hotline to God garnered Fisher-Price-Classics-Chatter-Phone--pTRU1-8176908dta sort of “Really? This exists?” response from parents.  Main conclusion here?  Spend much less money on an actual Bible.  Read it to your children.  Then buy them a toy rotary phone….cause they love playing with that. Might even consider the “Hotline to God”, because there aren’t many toy rotary phones out there without red receivers and moving eyes.