Faulty Jeans

Not As I Do

2009-01-14T10:19:00.000-06:00

I’m so sick of Christianity.

My loyal reader(s) should already be familiar with the saying “do as I say, not as I do,” which is the hypocrite’s creed. Unfortunately, it’s slowly evolving into the Christian’s creed. Brennan Manning, a Christian author and speaker, famously put it this way:

The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.

We see this happening everywhere. For example, on Facebook, people will write glowing things about Jesus in the “Basic Info” portion of their profiles, but will openly disregard his teachings via their pictures, status updates, and messages on other people’s Walls.

I won’t argue with people for wanting to set their religious views to say “I Love Jesus,” and it’s not my place to condemn everyone who updates their status to boast of having sex after homecoming or prom. But if you have both on your Facebook profile, this post is for you. Pick one or the other—either the religious views or the hints about your current lifestyle—but if you wanna send a message to the world that you are undisciplined and immoral, don’t do it on God’s rep.

If you know that I “got ya” in this post, I have an ultimatum for you. You can change the religious views portion of your profile to “atheism.” Bring down that belief system, not the one that is supposed to be an example to the world (as stated in Matthew 5:16). Or, even better, you can change your life.

If you take option 1, you can continue to live in disgrace as you take advantage of His grace, and I won’t be the one to stop you. But if you take option 2, please know that God will help you every step of the way and that I, too, support you 100%.

Walking By Faith

2009-01-11T09:25:00.001-06:00

One of the biggest problems I see in Christians right now is the inability to walk by faith. Normally, when I see this kind of problem, I try to offer solutions. However, faith isn’t something that can be taught... the only way to learn it is to experience it. But what I can offer to you is an explanation of what it really means to walk by faith. This is a true story I heard from my dad:

When my family lived in Tulsa, we went to church with a man whom we shall call Jimmithy and his wife whom we shall call B’tilda. (Yes, they’re back!) Jimmithy had recently lost his job and couldn’t afford to stay in the house he had been living in. His wife’s parents were on an extended vacation and weren’t using their home, so they opened it up to Jimmithy and his family. But Jimmithy and B’tilda knew that if they didn’t force themselves to move out by a certain date, they would never move out. So they prayed and felt like God was telling them to move out by November twelvtieth (or something). So on November twelvtieth (or something), they invited a bunch of people from the church to come help them load their stuff in a U-Haul truck.

Part of walking by faith is simply a matter of total obedience. Jimmithy and B’tilda had no idea where they would be staying on the night of November twelvtieth (or something), but they did their part by moving out of B’tilda’s parents’ house when they did. And the story doesn’t end there.

Everybody who helped load U-Haul trucks naturally assumed that Jimmithy and B’tilda knew exactly where they were hauling their stuff... until someone decided to ask Jimmithy where they were going. Someone else, who was only in town by fluke, overheard the conversation and heard about Jimmithy not knowing where his family would live while they looked for houses. He told Jimmithy about a house he owned and had been trying to sell for months, and offered free rent until Jimmithy could find a permanent solution.

If Jimmithy hadn’t obeyed God on that one day, he would have never gotten the offer for the temporary house. This is how God works. But, like I said, you can’t truly understand faith until you’ve experienced it first-person. So I want you to be looking for opportunities to act on faith... try it for yourself and see what you think. Join the millions of other satisfied customers today? This is a difficult post to end...

Religious vs. Spiritual

2009-01-09T10:21:00.004-06:00

Here I am, making my glorious return to the blogosphere. After being away from it for the last month, I bet you can imagine how inspired I had to be to come back. The inspiration for this post came from a bumper sticker I saw at work recently, which said “Spiritual people inspire me. Religious people frighten me!” True to its purpose, this sticker made me start thinking about the differences between being spiritual and just being religious. Here are a few of the key differences I found:

RELIGIOUS PEOPLE...	SPIRITUAL PEOPLE...
...quote the Bible	...apply the Bible
...talk about God’s love	...demonstrate God’s love
...see Sunday morning as a chance to worship	...see their life as a chance to worship
...give money to God	...give time to God
...believe that their Christian lives can be “good enough”	...constantly look for ways to grow closer to God

Which one are you? Being religious is not enough. God created us to be spiritual. It’s our job. If you follow the job description on the left, you have the wrong idea about Christianity.

What Makes a Great Gift?

2008-12-01T17:39:00.002-06:00

For my 15th birthday, my best friend and co-author of this blog, Justin, gave me a shirt that said “I live in my own little world... but it’s okay, they know me here.” I consider this to be one of the best gifts I ever got. As we start shopping for Christmas presents, I want to explain how to give a great gift.

1. Don’t give cash
Everyone loves getting cash for Christmas, but that doesn’t make it a great gift. The shirt that Justin gave me probably cost around $10. If he had given me a $10 bill for my birthday, I probably would have put it in my ever-empty lunch account, effectively making my birthday present be M&M’s, a Twix bar, a Gatorade, and a pizza. This is what happens with cash... it gets spent. Granted, in larger amounts, cash has a different effect. For example, I used a lot of money from graduation to buy a nice case for my laptop (though I deposited the rest in a savings account). But I’m aware that the bulk of my audience won’t be able to spend more than $50 on anyone, making cash a no-no.

2. Give something that your friend wouldn’t think of
It’s always nice to give someone what they asked for... but since when do people know what they want? The only time I remember staying content for a long time with a gift I specifically asked for was in 2005 when I got my iPod nano. If Justin had asked me what I wanted for my 15th birthday, I would not have asked for a shirt that would forever alter my personality. I’m not saying that Justin knew that the shirt would propel me into becoming a more outgoing person. But the gift still worked perfectly.

3. Give something that feels natural for you to give
For my birthday a few years ago, my grandpa gave me a tool kit. I appreciated the tool kit and I still use it frequently. But what if I had gotten it from Justin, and Grandpa had given me a funny t-shirt? Would I be any less grateful for either one? No. But fixin’ stuff is already something I associate with Grandpa, and I already associate Justin with laughter. Even if Justin had given me a tool kit, it would hardly ever remind me of him when I used it. And a shirt would hardly remind me of what a wonderful grandpa I have. So, in a sense, it’s good to be somewhat selfish when you go Christmas shopping... if you know what I mean.

Naturally, the best gift anyone can get is Jesus, and I don’t intend to take away from that fact by writing about how to give material goods. This post is strictly written from a relationship perspective. With that much being said, though, I hope that everyone can now give a gift that says “I love you” rather than simply “I thought of you.”

What Kind of Ship Was I Looking For?

2008-11-02T16:17:00.000-06:00

I recently wrote about my discontentment with Preston Ridge Baptist Church. But today, at a church that I was visiting, I saw a video that caused me to question my motivation for “hopping churches.”

I know that I’m needed at Preston Ridge. For the last three weeks, though, I’ve been visiting different churches. I was right to say in my last post that I was surrounded by poor influences while at Preston Ridge... but maybe God’s intention is for me to influence them. And even though it’s true that I won’t be as spiritually engaged there as I am at Liberty Church in Tulsa, I still have opportunities to grow outside of Sunday morning church. These are the realizations I make when I choose a church based on where God needs me, not what I think I need.

Something Jesus Never Promised

2008-10-20T16:10:00.001-05:00

Jesus never promised that the Christian life wouldn’t be stressful. There’s a really good reason for that. Right now, I’m in the middle of a very stressful church transition that only God could have started.

I’ve been attending the same church for the last seven years. I still stay loosely connected to Liberty Church, though, the church I attended when I lived in Tulsa. Back in May, I was invited to Liberty for their graduation service. Their youth minister, despite having never met me, presented me with the book How to Stay Christian in College and wrote some encouraging words in the front page. Last month, I decided to actually read the book. The most important lesson I took from it was not about sex, politics, or apologetics, but rather about me. Now that I have a type of independence I’ve never had before, I can’t rely on Mom and Dad’s relationship with God anymore. I need to pursue my own. For Preston Ridge Baptist Church, that realization was the beginning of the end.

I started paying closer attention to the sermons on Sunday mornings. For the first time, I really tried to get something out of what I was hearing. I would go home thinking “that was interesting.” Then, a couple of weeks ago, I visited Liberty Church again to see my cousin’s baptism. I listened to the message there... and I was blown away! The sermon was thought-provoking and spiritually engaging! Nothing against Preston Ridge, but I just didn’t see that happening there.

The following weekend, I went on a middle school retreat as a small group leader at Preston Ridge. Because the Internet is the wrong place to say anything specific to tear down other members, I will just say that I “somehow” discovered that my church peers were not very good spiritual influences on me.

You’d think it would make sense to just abandon Preston Ridge and start looking around. But if it were that simple, this post wouldn’t be about stress.

As a small group leader, I learned how much influence I have on the kids (in a youth group that is desperate for positive influence). One of the kids in my group was notorious with Sunday School teachers for being disruptive, but by the end of the weekend, I was getting deep spiritual thoughts out of him. Knowing that I am so good with the kids, it would be a sin for me to just get up and leave at a time when I’m needed more than ever.

With most of the stories I’ve posted, this is where you could expect to find the happy ending. But this story does not yet have a “happy” or an ending. I still have so many questions. Do I search for a new church family but continue to volunteer my time in the old youth group? Is there another church that needs me more? Is God really calling me to leave Preston Ridge at all? I feel like my stress is overpowering me, which is especially difficult because it all seems to be coming from God. Like I said, Jesus never said that our walk with Him wouldn’t involve stress.

Downloading Firefox

2008-08-08T08:52:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, my little brother tried to do something intelligent by installing Firefox 3 on his computer. He doesn’t know much about computers, especially compared to the great Ryan T. Wilson. So to him, the site firefoxmozilla3.com seemed perfectly legitimate. But I’ve spent enough time on the Series of Tubes to know that there was nothing legit about it. I noticed several flaws from the beginning. For example, if the website was official, “Mozilla” would have come before “Firefox” in the domain name. All of the paragraphs are written about Firefox 2. And every download link requires you to “join,” which I know the real Mozilla would never require you to do. If I had seen the website on my own, my first question would be “Who do they think they’re fooling?”

I didn’t figure it out by knowing what a fake site should look like. I knew what the real thing was like. It’s the same way with the Bible. We won’t know that Satan is luring us into a trap just by knowing what Satan does. He can come in a variety of forms, each more deceiving than the last. God has only one path for each of us. We’re better off learning His will for us and knowing what He would want.

Case in point: reading your Bible is just like surfing the Series of Tubes.

Holidays, Gratitude, and Everything In Between

2008-07-29T16:52:00.000-05:00

When I first started this blog, a new post was something that you could expect every week. Now it’s like waiting for Christmas. Can you imagine what it would be like if updating my blog became a special occasion for everyone? The Faulty Jeans Bunny would hide flash drives and wireless network routers in plastic eggs. Car dealerships would have a “Ryan Updated His Blog” sale. Kids would line up at shopping malls to sit on the laps of escaped convicts dressed up like Ryan T. Wilson and Justin Venezio.

To my knowledge, nobody has ever reached such a high status from making a blog post every two weeks. But I’ve always wanted to become cool and famous on some level. I tried to use the music industry as the outlet for my last attempt at coolness. I wrote a rap that I could only memorize one line of... the line where I said that “when you give me a microphone, I’ll give you a show.” Although I quickly realized that rapping is not for me, I did stay true to my promise a month and a half after the church no-talent show. At Vacation Bible School last week, someone let me use the microphone in the crafts room.

Craft time was not the same the rest of the week.

Everyone told me I should be an announcer one day, citing that I “have the voice for it.” I feel like I turned an otherwise boring activity into entertainment for the kids. Who cares if furniture prices aren’t discounted when I make a blog entry? I’m cool on a smaller level... a more personal level. As long as I’m appreciated by someone, I’m happy.

That brings me to my main point. I know that nobody read that and thought, “Wow, a guy who wants appreciation... how strange.” We all want someone to express genuine appreciation for what we do. Keeping that in mind, maybe the best way to make people happy is to show some sort of gratitude to them. Not something over-the-top and unctuous... when I was vacationing in Alaska, I gave my mommy a hug and thanked her for taking the family on that trip. I know that her day was brightened. A hug can really mean a lot to someone.

Closing thought... if my loyal reader(s) want to declare October 3rd “Faulty Jeans Appreciation Day,” I’ll show up at parties to sign autographs and criticize everyone’s English skills. But first, I have to go set up for the Standing on the Ceiling Appreciation Day party I’m holding tomorrow.

What Did You Do With Your 2008?

2008-07-16T19:36:00.001-05:00

Don’t ever think in terms of what you did in 2008. Forget 2008. It’ll be gone forever in 168 days.

Statistically speaking, even if all 100 thousand Frisco residents made New Year’s resolutions, the people who stuck with them for a year could not even pack a game at Pizza Hut Park... not even with free admission and a national TV audience. That’s because New Year’s resolutions are easy to give up on; if we don’t achieve our resolution this year, we stop trying... courtesy of the rationale “there’s always next year.”

There’s NOT always next year.

It’s time to abandon New Year’s resolutions. It ends up being a limitation rather than a goal. If you want to change something in your life, change it now! Don’t sit around waiting for January 1st. It may not come for you. Use the time that you know you have. As long as you’re alive, you can make your life better.

Three Things I Learned In June

2008-06-26T13:21:00.000-05:00

June 6: Sometimes, less than my best is enough
Right before my graduation ceremony, my German teacher from the last three years pulled me aside and asked me to be a German tutor this coming school year. Even though I didn’t give my best work in that class, she said that I performed brilliantly in the area of sight reading and comprehension, which is what German 1 students need the most help with. Even though I was not on top of all my homework, I still did well enough to impress my teacher. And she asked me personally to be a tutor for her students! Sweet dog, you know I’ll be taking that offer. I get to practice teaching!

June 7: Sometimes, my best is less than enough
My girl buddy broke up with me. I felt somewhat insulted. I did everything the best way I knew how, and, despite my lack of prior experience, I have come to discover that overall, I was a pretty good boyfriend. Although she was right to say that my lack of experience was detrimental, I still never felt like she valued me on the level that I valued her. It wasn’t fair that she broke up with the only one who tried to make the relationship work. But if life was meant to be fair, we’d all burn in hell. In cases like this — when you invest your best and get little return — the best thing you can do is try to improve on what your best is. In this case, I can use the lessons I learned about what kind of girl I’m looking for. And, just as a side note to the girl(s) who read this blog, take a lesson: unless your boyfriend blows up your car on a Friday night, don’t break up with him on a Saturday morning.

June 16: I’m not the same man I was a year ago
On June 16th, I was at Camp WOW, the youth camp my church has gone to during the last three summers. I had a lot of stories I wanted to blog about, but I don’t have time to type all of them out, so I picked out my favorite one: me against the trapeze.
At the camp, there is a 30-foot pole known as the power pole. After putting on a harness, one climbs to the top of the pole and stands at the very top, which is comparable in size to a bagel. Upon standing on top, the climber is to turn around and jump toward a trapeze that is suspended in the air about 5 feet away. On the 15th, I climbed but fell off before I reached the top. But I tried it again, waiting in line for 90 minutes under the unshielded sun with an already painful sunburn. And this time, I made it to the top and I caught the trapeze.
I used to be a quitter. My dad once told me that he constantly noticed me trying something that didn’t work the first time, then giving up. Phone calls, scholarship applications, job applications... you name it, I’ve given up on it after failing once. But that’s not me anymore.

Whack-a-Mole

2008-06-05T21:05:00.001-05:00

I have posted time and again about problems I have in life, and they don’t go away. Today, when I was sitting in my room, I was thinking about some problems I’ve been having recently with one of my friends in particular. When I was thinking about my problems with her, I made a connection to the stupid whack-a-mole games at Gatti Town and Six Flags.

When the game first starts, you can whack each mole that comes up, and you can beat them all down easily. As the game goes along, they start coming up faster and in greater numbers. Eventually, no matter how skilled you are, it becomes impossible to hit each and every one. My problems are the same way. At first, there were only a few of them, and they were easy to manage. Now they come more frequently and they’re harder to manage. And this game of whack-a-mole is slowly becoming impossible for me to win.

Then it dawned on me. Maybe what I need is a bigger mallet... like God, for example.

Patience

2008-05-17T12:47:00.000-05:00

In my aptly-named post “Super Bowl Post,” I let my loyal reader(s) know that praying for patience doesn’t result in just becoming patient, but rather tests of patience. I would soon find out just how right I was.

I prayed for patience after I made that post, and just 9 days later, my uncle was found dead in his home in Alabama. That same day, the worship director from my church in Tulsa died on the operating table. And later in the week, I had relationship issues and a near miss on the road that could have turned into a fatal wreck. But in the end, it all worked out. The lessons I learned from that week have started paying off.

Prior to the worst week of my life, I thought I was ready to have a girlfriend at any time, and I got a bit hasty. But in retrospect, it’s a good thing my first attempt failed... because it opened up the door for my current girl buddy. She’s already the best thing about my senior year (if not the only good thing about it). None of the other girls I had my eye on in the past would have improved me the way Kristi has... in just three weeks of dating for that matter! For example, I wrote a nice note to my English teacher last week when a student was giving her a hard time. But I wouldn’t have even thought about it if I hadn’t gotten a note from my girl buddy. It was a great example to follow, and because of her, I made someone else’s day.

To sum it all up, I learned how to be patient and why it’s important. The “how” is simple: just pray. You’ll likely lose something you hold dear to your heart, but God probably won’t tell you that He doesn’t want patience from you. The “why” is a pretty simple concept, though it can be a tough pill to swallow. God has a plan for every single one of us, and we don’t know what it is until it’s over. Sometimes, when things don’t go the way we planned, we need to just trust that it’s God’s way of making room for something even better.

A Song I Needed to Hear

2008-04-20T22:56:00.000-05:00

Everybody faces tough times in life, and most Christians have asked God “why” during a difficult situation. The other day, when I was driving home from Wal-Mart, I heard a song on the radio that spoke to me in a way no song has ever been able to. The song “Whatever You’re Doing” by Sanctus Real does an outstanding job of addressing issues from a Christian perspective.

The chorus says this:

“Whatever You’re doing inside of me,
It feels like chaos but somehow there’s peace.
And it’s hard to surrender to what I can’t see,
But I’m giving into something heavenly.”

I have no idea why God does what He does half the time. I still have a few questions about why my grandmother died of cancer two years ago. Needless to say, I’m only beginning to understand the death of my uncle two months ago. Neither death seemed fair. They were both very stressful times in my life, as you can imagine. And when I was moved to Frisco in 2001, I didn’t have a clue what God was doing in my life. But this part of the song, by using the word “whatever,” supports the idea that we don’t need to understand God’s plan. And as long as we understand that we aren’t meant to understand God, we can find comfort in the chaos. The chorus goes on to confirm that it will be difficult to trust God, and believe me, this is so true.

But I’m giving into something heavenly.

Just Thinking In...

2008-03-31T22:16:00.005-05:00

I was just thinking, while I was driving, why do we say...

I...am going, am doing, am...

We are only thinking about ourselves when we say "I". The Bible talks about marriage and how the couple should work together on making decisions as one. Now, just because your not married doesn't mean you shouldn't follow this. It can be when your on a team, you have to work together and make decisions together. So, this applies to everyone.

So, like I said we are only thinking about ourselves when we say "I". Why don't we say "We are going"...

We = You, as in the human body God gave you, and Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

When you say "We" then that means you are doing it or going somewhere in God's name.

By now, your thinking why would it mean that, or why would I say that, it sounds weird. Did you not accept Jesus into your heart? If you did, then you are one with Him, He lives in you, and you should make decisions together, and if you can't...You should NOT be doing what your doing or going to where ever you go. So, next time, your going to do something, take a minute to ask God if it's okay, and then, say, "We made the decision not to," or, "We are going/doing this."

The first time you say this to someone, they are going to ask, "Who's we." It gives you one of the best opportunities to share your faith. So don't hesitate. Say "We!"

The Limit

2008-03-17T20:47:00.001-05:00

I turned 18 two days ago. Now that I’m 18, there’s a lot more I can get away with legally. On the way home from a weekend in Oklahoma, I asked my mom if we could stop at the gas stations so I could buy cigarettes. I asked if we could stop at the casinos... because I can legally gamble now. You don’t want to know what I asked when we passed the adult video store. Now, being a Christian, I know that just because I’m legally allowed to smoke, gamble, and watch certain movies doesn’t mean it’s okay. Even though I was just pretending to “see what I could get away with,” there are many times that we really do push the limit.

Because I am a math geek, I feel compelled to illustrate with the graph of y=x^-1. Calculus nerds automatically look at this graph and see that there is a limit of 0 as x approaches ±∞. In other words, the line gets closer and closer to the x-axis and the y-axis, although it technically never touches. It gets infinitely close the farther you stretch the graph, but it will never intersect the lines x=0 or y=0.

This is sort of what we do. We get pretty close to all kinds of sin. I’ve seen people pretend to flip people off with their ring fingers. Some people make the word “shoot” sound like something else. And, in the halls before school one day, I even saw a guy touching his girlfriend really close to her “no-no square.” We can say that flipping the bird is only obscene if we use our middle fingers. We can tell people that we’ve never used the actual b-word after calling someone a “beeyotch.” And that guy I saw at school can say he’s never groped his girlfriend... or at least not while I was watching. But the truth is, when we do so much as flirt with the line between what’s accepted and what’s frowned upon, we’re still dishonoring God.

Just Blogging In...

2008-03-15T23:59:00.013-05:00

So you may be wondering 1 of 2 things, or even both...

1.) Where is Ryan? We love Justin, but more than one post in a row from him... well... let’s just say it’s too much to handle. And now he has three in a row... let’s go on strike! Ryan. Ryan! We want Ryan! I’m here to tell you it was his birthday today, and he has gone on vacation (which he will tell you about when he gets back) for spring break. HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN!

2.) Why is Justin back so soon? Well... I have a message... It’s about religion.

I was just viewing random sites on the internet when I decided to Google religion... Wow... 321,000,000 results for religion. Not one of them says anything or seems to believe anything like what I am going to say to you. In today’s society, religion is defined as “a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.” This definition was found on dictionary.com.

As Christians, this is not or should not be just a belief. Therefore, religion does not define our lives. If it did, we would live by only beliefs and not truth or facts.

When someone asks you...

What type of church to you go to?

And then you answer them with...

Baptist.
Protestant.
Catholic.
There are lots more, I am just giving examples. Sorry if I left yours out.

Some people get these mixed up as, that’s my religion. It is not, each one of these is just a way of teaching the Bible... teaching Christianity. When I looked up Christianity, it was definied as a religion, which, as I expained earlier, religion is defined as a set of beliefs. Is what you believe in a set of beliefs or is it fact? If Christianity is a religion, then the Bible is just a set of beliefs, just another religion, just like the rest of the religions, nothing more. So next time someone asks you...

What religion are you?
What religion do you believe in?

What are you going to say?

I am going to say I do not believe in a religion or just a set of beliefs, I believe in Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life.

In John 14:6 Jesus stated, “I am the way and the truth and the life...”

Just Staying In...

2008-02-09T00:29:00.000-06:00

So, I figured while I’m here I might as well “stay in” for more than a minute. I don’t want to be rude and just disapear again... Although I am very sorry, but I have a very bad habit of doing that.

Well... the real reason why I’m staying here is because I want to ask you to pray for the game. I think Satan is atacking whoever works on it or thinks it’s a good idea. I have a really good feeling that if I get this game out in the real world, it will sell, and I have been fighting with Satan since I started on the game. He doesn’t want it out there, I can feel it. Things have happened in my life which have limited the time and money it takes to build it. Those of you who read my last post can see why. It’s completely about God and his GRACE. So please pray for the game and the people who work on it. Thanks.

Just Popping In...

2008-02-09T00:02:00.000-06:00

So... Remember me? I’m the one that seems to be an Administrator to this website, but I don’t seem to be very involved with it. I mean July 29! Did I mention 2007?! Yes, that was the day of my last post. It’s a new record... So, I’m “Just Popping In” to make sure you didn’t forget about me.

Well... actually, the real reason I am here is to tell you about the new game my Grandpa and I are creating. My Grandpa should have all the credit; he created the idea and designed it, 19 years ago... All I’m doing is putting it on the computer. We have a series of ideas called “The Chase Games.” The first one is called “Steeple Chase.” The idea of the game is:

Every player is a recent graduate of a Seminary. With schooling behind, each player’s ready to serve in a church as an ordained Pastor. Having graduated together all players move to the same town looking for a call to a church. The town of _____________ (we haven’t named the town yet) consists of 49 churches of many denomminations. Each player must successfully pastor 2 churches, growing them in both membership and budget. Upon recieveing a call, each new Pastor will discover his or her goals in these two areas. While playing the game you, as Pastor, will grow in grace. Your growth will be registered by receiveing “grace gems.” This will be your most important accomplishment. The game ends when a pastor successfully pastors 2 churches helping them attain their growth goals. Once your second church reaches its goals, you announce to the other pastors that “God has called you home.” Here, the most amazing thing happens. Jesus returns and everyone is called home for Reward and Judgements. The winner of “Steeple Chase” is not the first to be called home, but the Pastor who has grown most in grace. Count your grace gems and you will discover the winner. In God’s sight growth in grace is much more important than numbers and money.

What do you think?

By the way, in case you don’t remember, my name is Justin P. Venezio.

Super Bowl Post

2008-02-03T23:07:00.000-06:00

If you watched the greatest Super Bowl ever, then you saw the amazing helmet catch by David Tyree. It was completely obvious that Tyree did the work to make the catch... Eli Manning did not run down the field and catch it for him. Manning did, however, give him the opportunity to make the play.

People tend to think that when we ask God for help, He’ll just do our work for us. But that’s not how God rolls. If you pray for patience, you won’t roll out of bed the next morning and say, “Wow! I feel patient!” Most likely, God will give you a chance to be patient. Note that this could mean being rear-ended in the parking lot. It could mean being broken up with. Heaven forbid, it could even mean getting stuck having to wait for six months for any activity on your favorite teenage Christian blog... with no apologies whatsoever.

Think about that the next time you pray for something and don’t get it. Maybe God’s plan wasn’t to keep you from having what you want, but rather to let you go and get what you want. If you don’t think your prayers are being answered, maybe you need to look for the ball. Chances are, it’s somewhere in the air behind you, and all you have to do is grab it and hold on. And the truth is, maybe the pass isn’t being thrown your way. But always be ready, because you never know when you’ll have the chance to make a huge catch on a proverbial 3rd-and-11.

Reframing

2008-01-29T20:57:00.000-06:00

There is more than one way to look at everything in life. In Teen Leadership, we call this principle “reframing.” A picture can look really ugly by itself, but every picture can look good in a beautiful frame. And any situation can look good from the right perspective.

I auditioned for my school talent show last week. It should be no surprise to my loyal reader(s) that I brought stand-up comedy to the stage. But I didn’t have much of my material memorized, and I couldn’t get it printed out in time. The lines I could remember kinda stank. I didn’t make the show.

But the Frisco High School talent show is not the only opportunity I have available for stand-up comedy. There’s sure to be a talent show at the church in May, where my material would still be fresh. And, even if my comedy is no good, I also have a recently uncovered talent for rapping. Beyond all that, maybe the judges knew what they were doing. (Imagine that!) If my comedy was as pitiful as they suggested, then they saved me a lot of embarrassment by keeping me off the stage during the real show.

Getting rejected for the talent show line-up is one nasty picture. But knowing that everything worked out for the better makes for a gorgeous frame!

Minneapolis, Pugslyville, and Heaven

2007-08-02T19:31:00.000-05:00

In Minnesota last night, a bridge on I-35 collapsed over the Mississippi River. Nobody could avoid the fall... whoever was on the bridge at the time was lucky to see anything ever again. Something similar happened in eastern Oklahoma about 5 years ago over Memorial Day weekend.

On a VeggieTales episode called “The Toy that Saved Christmas,” a toy and some cute little penguins were able to save Bob the Tomato, Larry the Cucumber, Junior Asparagus, and Wallie P. Nezzer from falling off the broken bridge to Pugslyville. Makes some people wish that penguins were native to downtown Minneapolis or rural Oklahoma, you know?

Everyone who grew up in a Baptist church has heard the bridge illustration before, so I won’t even dive into making Jesus look like a short little penguin or a Buzzsaw Louie. But the bridge and penguins and shop-tool-armed toys are useless to someone who doesn’t know Jesus... at least in this illustration. It’s our duty to share Jesus with people who haven’t met him yet, and Ezekiel 3 says that we will be held accountable for the opportunities we pass up to do so.

MISSION ARLINGTON

2007-07-29T04:10:00.000-05:00

Mission Arlington was a blast!!!

If you don’t believe me just ask... “Big Bird”... BB was one of the main leaders of all the fun... BB said many things... “put it in my haaand...” Well, I won’t bore you any longer with the group’s inside joke for Mission Arlington...

We were by far the hardest, most willing, visiting, working... group at Mission Arlington (MA)... And we were definitely noticed... but that’s not why we went...

We went there to be God’s tools, with a willing heart to serve the people in Arlington, and with that in our hearts, God had a successful trip to Arlington this past week...

We shared our love for God with many different people...

We had our share of work, that’s for sure... Moving 89-inch TVs (seemed like it...), refrigerators, furniture, anything you could think of, we moved it... but we kept going because we were having fun doing it...There is no better way to know, than to come with us next year.

(edit) We might go for a Saturday here and there, so I will let you know... :)

Compasssssion - 2 of 5

2007-07-08T12:51:00.000-05:00

I’m running out of creative intros and it’s only part 2. Without further ado, let’s roll.

1. Smile
2. Spoken Word
Quite simply, a friend that never says anything encouraging isn’t a friend. Therefore, a huge part of compassion is centered around the words we speak. I sat down recently and made a list of my favorite qualities of my best friends. One of the first things I listed was encouragement during good times. A “Good job, man!” following a perfect shot in basketball. Telling someone how well they did after their news interview. Even just thanking someone can be pretty big.

It’s also critical to use uplifting words when times are rough. In 7th grade, I tried out for the basketball team, gave it my best, and failed miserably. To put the word “miserably” into perspective, 30 people tried out for 24 spots (3 teams of 8). The best 8 players made the gold team, the next 8 made blue team, and the next 8 made white. Out of the remaining 6, 3 were told they would be used as backups. After all of that, there were three left over... including me. When Dad picked me up after try-outs, I anticipated “That’s too bad, but maybe next year.” But what he said to me instead was that even though the coaches think I’m one of the three worst guys that tried out, I still tried out, and therefore he was proud of me. Even four and a half years later it still upsets me that I have such a lack of basketball talent no matter how hard I try, but if it weren’t for my dad and his words, depression would have set in.

By the way, while we’re on the topic of kind words, happy birthday to Kristin, this blog’s top commenter!

Compasssssion - 1 of 5

2007-07-01T14:03:00.000-05:00

What makes us effective as Christians? There are a number of different vital things such as staying in the Bible and being able to confront spiritual battles. But compassion is central. What makes compassion? That’s what I plan to answer in this series.

1. Smile
I don’t literally mean you have to smile all the time. Barbie dolls smile all the time. Barbies creep me out, man. You don’t have to be a Barbie. Please don’t be a freaking Barbie. Actually, that’s not a request, that’s an order. Have you ever had one of those days where nothing seemed to go right until someone smiled at you? I have. If you had one of those days and nobody smiled for you, please understand that I am not trying to rub it in your smiling Barbie face. When I describe compassion as smiling, I mean in the context of smiling for someone who has had a bad day. That’s one way to make someone’s day... show your happy face.

But not like on the movie Elf. Okay for Will Ferrell. Not okay for you.

And spelling compassion with 5 S’s as a corny joke. Okay for me. Not okay for you.

That’s How I Roll

2007-06-26T22:44:00.000-05:00

My favorite board game in the world is undoubtedly Yahtzee. I’m not necessarily the best at it, though I usually do well. It’s a game of chance, but it requires a lot of skill. I have absolutely no control over what dice I roll. Maybe I’ll roll something bad, like a 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6. No points there. I could get something like a full house or small straight, which is quite good. If I’m really lucky, I might get five matching dice on the first throw. But no matter what I roll, there is strategy involved. Even the most pitiful rolls can be turned into a ton of points. And even if they can’t, then there’s always next time.

It works the same in life, and I’m not talking about the one created by Milton-Bradley. Nobody will get something perfect every time. Some people will never get the set of dice they want. But the dice we roll won’t be what will count when we die. It will be what we did with those dice. “Bad dice” could be something like losing a grandmother to cancer. That can be scored under either “complain about the unfairness of life” or “be grateful for my new step-grandmother.”

Everything that happens is part of God’s plan, whether it’s good or bad at first. Being upset is okay, but it is downright stupid to let obstacles get in the way of being an effective Christian.