"Last" day of summer

Sitting in my office this morning, working on my extensive to do list, I'm watching campers from the final week of youth camp leaving with their parents. Where did the time go? Summer camp is OVER!

Unbelievable.

Starting tomorrow, a week of Urban Camp, followed by WAFS "Burn Camp," and then we start training the 2010-11 class of LCM interns for our fall outdoor ed season.

It's a slippery slope - was that a snowflake I saw?

Time's slipping by so fast! In 3 weeks I'll be moving into my first house. How'd that happen? A couple weeks ago, Jen & I tossed out the "what if" concerning home ownership...less than two weeks later we've already got an accepted offer & have a closing at the end of the month.

Ever want to call a cosmic "time out?" Seriously, if God could answer Joshua's request to stop the sun over Gibeon (Jos 10:12), He can give me an extra week in here somewhere. Lord?

Ok, not that God couldn't pull that off again, but I have to admit that my circumstances, though seemingly frantic from my vantage point, are probably not exceptional enough to warrant a divine pause. So, what is this teaching me?

Love God, treasure my family, and live for today, resting in the knowledge that my steps are ordered by Him and not to lose sleep over tomorrow.

Preach it, brother!

Read a great series of posts from a fellow Elim graduate. Check it out!

What I Hate About My Job
http://theylookliketrees.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/06/what-i-hate-about-my-job-part-1.html

Jennifer Knapp

For those of you who haven't heard by now, Jennifer is back in the music scene, with a newly released album ending a 7 year hiatus...and an announcement that she's gay.


Here's a link to an article in Christianity Today.

Now, I'm not going to talk about homosexuality & what the Bible says about it. Read it for yourself. What I am going to touch on is the troubling response to her announcement on the part of some Christians & Christian retailers. Turns out some stores are pulling her Grammy nominated Christian albums from their shelves in the wake of her coming out. Anybody gonna yank her CDs from your collections & burn 'em in the Weber grill?


John 8:7, folks, hang on to your stones!


Now, I know I'm painting in broad strokes here, but I'd bet there's a bit of pride going on here... proud that they're "not like her," proud of their own spirituality, proud to take a stand, etc.


Know what the Bible says about the proud? They're pretty much screwed! (I'll let you look that up for yourself as well, but there's a lot of stuff regarding God's thoughts of the proud...and frequent use of the word ruin.)


I love the apostle Paul's reference to himself as the "worst" of sinners in 1 Tim 1:15, and vs. 16 in The Message, "...someone who could never have made it apart from sheer mercy. And now he shows me off - evidence of his endless patience - to those who are right on the edge of trusting him forever."


Jennifer is a sinful human being in need of Jesus Christ. Plain & simple. And so am I! I can be selfish, prideful, judgmental, all things that apart from salvation through Jesus Christ justify an eternity in hell like any other sin. There are times that I feel like the "worst of sinners," and I'm inexpressibly grateful for the endless patience God continues to show me. 


Pray for Jennifer, and don't forget me while you're at it!


UPDATE: Thanks to all who provided feedback regarding this post. In response to some, though it wasn't necessarily the focus of this post, let me be abundantly clear that, as unpopular this is nowadays to say (bracing myself), homosexuality is sin (in Great Britain, I just got arrested for offending someone with my "hate speech!"). In the passage in John mentioned above, Jesus confronted the Pharisees & religious teachers, challenging the one without sin to throw first. It's speculated that the words Jesus wrote in the dirt while he waited were the names & associated sins of those ready to kill the woman caught in adultery. I can picture them, one by one, leaving with rocks in hand, heads hung low.


Jesus didn't stop there - as Jesus wasn't above getting down in the dirt, I can picture Him kneeling before this woman, lovingly helping her to her feet, asking where her accusers went, and telling her to go and "leave her life of sin." 


'Nuff said. Already thinking of future posts...

New design

Hey, I've got a few minutes before I have to run out & set up rappelling at our climbing tower - camp's in full swing, after all! Logged in to my blogger account this morning & saw some significant changes to some of the blog features, including new templates. I've never been big on some of the generic cookie-cutter templates available in the past, but some of these new ones (including what you're seeing now) are pretty nice. With a little tweaking, I'll truly make it mine.

Six minutes until my staff arrive... later!

Where have I been?

Where has the time gone? Hard to believe thedavewave has been without a Dave for over two months. To all my faithful readers out there, my apologies.

Where to start... the picture. It was taken this past weekend at Devil's Lake State Park. Got to run climbing and rappelling for a couple Timber-lee groups. My reclining on the rock before the groups got there was well earned. I was awake by 5:10am and climbing the bluffs by 6:00am to ensure we got the climbs we wanted. Good times later that morning with guys from the Father/Son Retreat and youth from First Presbyterian Church of LaCrosse.

Our outdoor education season is winding down. Only 1 1/2 weeks left before summer staff training and 10 weeks of summer programming. The year is flying by!

Olivia and Hattie are a handful, with Olivia turning 3 last April and Hattie turning 1 a couple weeks ago. When do they start college?Seriously, I love my girls! Jen's got a few more weeks before she's done teaching for the summer.

I've got more on my mind, but I'll save it for later this week. Gotta keep you coming back for more!

Why do people hate change?

Get it? Change?

Sorry, but I thought it was funny reading some of the angry comments left on a coin blog (yes, there are blogs for pretty much everything) regarding the redesign of the back of the 2010 Lincoln cent coin. Some folks are outraged - "It's ugly!", "should've left it the way it was," etc.

People don't like change.

I actually collect Lincoln cents. I've got one from 1909 (the first year Lincoln was on the penny), steel pennies from 1943 when World War II demanded copper for shell casings, the switch in 1959 from "Wheat" pennies to ones featuring the Lincoln Memorial on the rear face, and on through the present day.

I can imagine there were similar thoughts with each of these changes, but we survived. We weathered the storm of the different, persevered, and came out the other side relatively unscathed...with new pennies.

Admittedly, in the grand scheme of things, the penny change is insignificant (hopefully for you it's not a big deal!) But why is it, that as Christians, we sometimes get all bent out of shape when change is thrust upon us. A move, loss of a job, illness, standard of living, etc.

GOD, WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?!
(Why did they have to change the penny?)

Now, let me back up a bit to clarify something - just because you're a Christian doesn't meant difficult things don't affect you, like you're inside some fluffy, pink, cotton candy-filled bubble of denial, 'cuz...that's just weird. Jesus, our ultimate example, wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus before raising him from the dead. Take a good look at the apostles... beaten, jailed, stoned, crucified, etc. 

Peter writes (1Pet 1:6 NLT) "So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even though it is necessary for you to endure many trials for a while."

In The Message, vs 7 "Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine."

The Message in 1Pet 4:12-13 "Friends, when life gets really difficult, don't jump to the conclusion that God isn't on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner."

I've been reading "Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God" by Francis Chan, and he spends a decent amount of time trying to paint a picture of the enormity, the eternal nature of God, a God who spoke not just a few stars into existence, but countless galaxies, populated by billions of stars, with planets orbiting these stars...all because He could! He created caterpillars with 300 muscles in their necks alone...all because He could.

And He loves US!

As Christians, we're not immune from life's changes, trials, and tragedies, but thank you Jesus we have hope! Each difficulty we face is an opportunity for change, for refinement, one step closer to that finish line that Paul talks about in 2Tim 4:7 ("the only race worth running" in The Message...hmm, how many different races do we sometimes find ourselves...sorry, little attention deficit creeping in, topic for another day!)

"You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don't see him, yet you trust him - with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you'll get what you're looking forward to: total salvation." (1Pet 1:8-9 MSG)

How cool is that? Now, go enjoy your new pennies!

Social networking fast

Ok, I told you I'd write about my experiment in cutting the technical "cords" for a weekend. To be honest, it really wasn't that bad. The inspiration for my fast came from an article I read from a former editor of a well-known blog, chronicling her experiences (both good and bad) in living a life both on & offline.

I have to admit, it was tempting to check my facebook, or post updates to Twitter, especially for the first day or so, but then it kinda wore off. Maybe it's because I grew up in the days before email, MySpace, etc. Social networking back then involved physically getting together with people. Maintaining relationships required actions beyond a few keystrokes from miles away.

Don't get me wrong, I love technology (and most other things shiny - my iPhone is a part of my everyday life,) and it's allowed me to stay connected with friends, relatives, etc. in ways that were unimaginable 25 years ago...but we need to be careful that the people that are important to us aren't reduced to profile pictures on a computer screen. Go out for coffee, why don't ya!