Wrestle for Salad

The movie Nacho Libre, staring Jack “Cheeelllooo” Black was on the other day…and fortunately I got sucked in. Go ahead and get sucked in yourself!

“I ate some bugs, I ate some grass, I used my hands to wipe my tears.” Awesome, huh? I thought so too.

Anyways. The plot of the story revolves around the athletic endeavors of the monk, Ignacio (Jack Black’s character), to enhance the quality of the orphanage and monastery he serves. He is a chef and disregarded socially and financially. This doesn’t stop his desire to offer the orphans more than slop each meal.

Ignacio has a secret though, he loves professional wrestling. To pursue this would be to betray his vow to the monastery. His dream to wrestle drives him to disguise himself and compete under the identity of Nacho Libre. After a discouraging defeat, while sitting in the locker room, he is given an envelop of money for participating. An unexpected surprise to say the least.

The next day Ignacio, the lowly monk, whips up a healthy serving of salad, with all the fixings, to all those in the orphanage. It is a day of celebration. The celebration occurs because they didn’t have to eat crap anymore, which was the result of Ignacio using his wrestling reward to benefit others.

What do you love to do?

How can you benefit others by doing it?

The Bible is full of stories and teachings instructing us to live in such a way that others benefit by our efforts. Jesus modeled this in the ultimate manner by loving people enough to leave heaven to serve and save those on earth.

I usually do the things I love for my benefit. I’m motivated by my enjoyment. I drink coffee because I like it. I serve others because it feels good. And I write this blog to boost my ego. When the motivation behind these things is flipped others lives can actually be impacted.

Why do you do what you love?

How could others benefit by you doing it?

I have a good friend who plays drums, because he loves to, but he does it along with a band so teenagers can engage in worshipping God. Another friend of mine just participated in a bike race, which he loves to do, that took place to raise awareness and funds for cancer treatment. Another friend of mine loves basketball so much that for years he couldn’t help coach and train others to become better players. Their love for something extended beyond personal benefit.

Basically, how can we wrestle for salad?

The Bible takes this idea a little bit further, “Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” This was the true motivation behind Jesus’ mission on earth. Though His mission – to rescue men and women from the bondage of sin – benefits those who receive it, ultimately it exalted God above all.

This challenges me as I drink coffee, serve others, and write this blog. I am directed to do these things not just because I love them, or to benefit others, but to glorify God.

This puts some parameters around those things we love doing. There are plenty of people who love getting high, gossiping, and throwing eggs at people’s cars. And people will try to tell you they can be done for the benefit of others, in some twisted way, as well. The difficult issue is, how can we honor God by doing what dishonors Him?

On the other hand, it actually gives us a lot of freedom to do the things we love to do. It’s easy to think, because it’s in the Bible it means all we can do is go to church, play organs, wear maroon colored choir robes, be a priest or pastor, and respond to every situation with cheesy church answers. The verse mentioned above is actually giving us permission to do the things we love with a divine motivation. So, surf, rock climb, play guitar, write poetry, roll sushi, make pottery, parent, own a dog (which is one of the hardest ones for me), breakdance, bird watch, program computers, take photos, design clothing, scuba dive, and even wrestle. Do it to please God, and if you have the opportunity, do it to benefit others as well.

I hardly ever think about it, but next time I brew a cup I’m going to try to do it to honor God; and let me know if you’re interested and I’ll brew an extra cup for you.

:: The French Pressed Four ::

: Fish Tacos :: Give them a shot this week

:: Yo Gabba Gabba :: Weird educational programming

::: Voltron :: Bumped into an episode on YouTube

:::: Forgotten God :: Francis Chan’s new book

A One Night Stand With God

God wants gives us what we desire.

People are consumed with two longings. One of those longings, love, is most obvious. Doesn’t it suck that the very word “love” has become cliche? Anyways, the second longing, in my opinion, is a desire for a committed, lasting, dependable love. To simplify, people long for love and faithfulness.

We send this demonstrated all around us. It takes place in our relationships, marriages, dating, friendships and families. It is mused over in the movies and TV shows we watch, the music we listen to, and the books we read. We are all looking for the definitive relationship marked by love, but a love that is there, not just when all is breezy, but more importantly when everything hits the fan.

We are all pilgrims on a journey in search of love and faithfulness.

Many of us have claimed to set our eyes, hands, hearts, and feelings on it. But when we pick up the most recent copy of People or hear those words, “It’s over,” or subject to

Breakups

Betrayal

Abandonment

One night stands

Divorce

we’re hit with the hard reality that love and faithfulness remains unreached.

In an attempt to attain love and faithfulness we brave a lot of hurt and heartache. Our efforts to achieve perfect love are disappointed over and over by imperfect people. Psalm 117 nudges us towards God to discover what we all desire, “great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.” God defines love and faithfulness. But before we get there, many of us need to allow God to redefine love and faithfulness for us.

Rick Warren, in the Purpose Driven Life, tells us that pain is megaphone God uses to get our attention. Many of us have given God our attention in these moments and cry out for His love and faithfulness only to be disappointed with what surely sounds like silence and feels like absence. How often do we have a one night stand with God? We give Him a try but leave in the “morning” because He’s not what we intended Him to be – He didn’t provide what we demanded. One night stands never live up to their publicity.

Psalm 139 says something that has always intrigued me, “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.” God is always thinking about us? Sounds like something that motivated a song by the Police. Truth is we like when people think about us. We want to be the only one on our boyfriend or girlfriend’s mind. In other words, this is not abnormal. The end of the verse is what catches my attention. When we wake we are still with God? I’m not gonna lie, or claim that this is a spot on interpretation, but that sure does sound like an intimate sleep over that ended positively.

I’m not implying that God’s thoughts toward us are sexual or we can have sexual encounters with God. What I’m getting at is that in our searching for love and faithfulness maybe we’re the one’s who left the morning after. Are we the one’s who left perfect and fulfilling love and faithfulness with the hopes of finding perfect love and faithfulness elsewhere?

God gives us what we desire, but you won’t find it in a bedroom but on a cross.

:: The French Pressed Four ::

: 410Bridge :: If you’re interested in a clean water movement let me know and I’ll give you some more details.

:: BigStuf Camp :: Sounds crazy but 5 days in Daytona with 60+ middle school kids was awesome!

::: The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis :: The most simplistic beat down I’ve ever received

:::: Harry Potter 6 The Movie :: And I haven’t even seen it yet!

The Figment of Emotional Stability

I put too much confidence in my emotions.

I make decisions, daily, based on how I’m feeling at a particular moment. I’ll choose ‘avoid it’ over ‘should do it’ simply because I don’t FEEL like it. ‘Should’ should dominate and drive my decision, but when feelings take the wheel I’m feeling good checking out the scenery.

This happens all the time when I watch movies. After seeing Marley and Me I left feeling really bad about how I treat our dog Zeke. I told Abbey that I was going to treat him better. But after about the 2nd time (yeah pathetic) he wiped his slobbery mouth on my clean shorts, my feeling bad turned to feeling mad and I was done with the ‘being nice’ bit

When I’m following my emotions, responses and reactions will vary from one situation to the next. Living life and making choices off feeling like it or not affects my relationship with Abbey, Allen, the students I pastor, emptying the dishwasher, getting out of bed, kicking the dog, reading, watching TV. But ultimately it can really influence my relationship with God.

I will join rank with all those who get upset with God when difficult things happen to us, our friends, or to the world at large. A lot of the time it doesn’t make sense and ‘why?’ seems to be the only proper response. Our emotions will always get jumbled in the mess as well. It’s times like these that I begin to believe that my emotions are telling me the truth about what’s real about life, the future, relationships, as well as God. When my emotions tell me ‘it doesn’t feel good for things like this to happen’ I, and most people, allow feelings to influence the validity of God’s faithfulness. If God is faithful my emotions remind me that He’s faithful at messing up my life.

In Psalm 77 the writer details his frustrations and doubts about God’s presence, involvement, and work among His people. He questions whether or not God has forgotten and deserted His people, “Has his unfailing love vanished forever? Has his promise failed for all time?” Ever feel like that?

At one point, as in a moment of clarity and boldness, the writer determines to reflect not on what God isn’t doing now, but on what God has done in the past – remembering His great works, miracles, and presence, “I will remember the deeds of the LORD.” Remembering His faithfulness. It’s as if he resolves to rely on God’s faithfulness over his emotions. As God has been faithful in the past He will be faithful in the future.

Emotion is a wonderful thing. The emotions experienced as Steve Smith scores a touchdown are exciting. Graduating school is full of emotions that display our feelings of joy and sadness. Finding a wrinkled 5 dollar in my ski jacket causes unbelievable emotion inside of me. Emotions can even lead to a deeper connection with God. But when we trust our emotions over the faithfulness of God we are allowing the uncertain to define the constance of God’s character.

Give Psalm 77 a read this week and place yourself in the midst of the issues the writer contemplates. Try praying about this as well. What would your prayer be if motivated by the reality that God is Faithful?

:: The French Pressed Four ::

: One Prayer :: http://2009.oneprayer.com/the-messages

:: Basketball + GymNasty :

::: Hey Mambo! :: Thinking about quitting my job to toss pizza for a living ::

:::: Jay Leno’s Farewell to Late Night :: That was emotional! (Check it out at Hulu.com)