Wherever you are, be there...

"Wherever you are, be there" is something I heard somebody say once.  I think it was Rob Bell, but I'm sure he got it from somewhere else and they got it from somewhere else and so on and so on.  Anyway, it's an idea I've been pondering this week and TRYING ever so hard to apply.  

Do you know how hard it is though in today's world?  It seems like every activity is setting up for the next activity or preparing for some activity down the line.  Whenever I'm doing almost anything I'm thinking about something else.  When I'm preparing a message I'm wondering about that email I didn't get yet.  When I'm having a conversation about coffee I'm thinking about the next kind of coffee to try.  When I'm reading a book I'm thinking about Drew.  When I'm in a meeting I'm thinking about ANYTHING else (can you blame me about that one, meetings stink). When I'm writing a blog I'm thinking about me not having my message totally done...It's a never ending cycle.  

Maybe I'm crazy...or scarier...Maybe I'm normal

In our over media saturated world it is SO hard to be where you are.  I think we all have a case of self-imposed ADHD.  Maybe it's due to our cable boxes that can switch channels quicker than ever.  Maybe it's due to the quick hit news instead of digesting the newspaper.  Maybe it's due to a fast food,  1 minute or less, text-message-conversation life.  Who knows.  Whatever it is it makes it hard to be where you are.  

I'm preparing a message, amid all of this going on in my head, about Acts 17 and this guy who wherever he was, he was there.  He was always fully present, always focused on the task at hand, always satisfied with his company, himself, and the life he was living.  I think that's hard, but I think it's the way it's supposed to be.  We are to be fully immersed in the places and the people that we are with at that particular time.  

I mean when you are pouring yourself out to a friend who likes it when their phone rings and they take the call?  Nobody.  Here's to a lifestyle that isn't looking to the next thing, but to the thing right in front of it.  It's the way we're supposed to live, and if you are a believer in Jesus it's the way you're supposed to evangelize.  We're going to be talking about this in greater depth tomorrow night at a worship gathering I lead called Saturday Night.

If you're available, stop by we start at 6:30pm.  

Wherever you are, be there...

All by myself...don't wanna be all by myself...

Alone

Nobody wants it.  Nobody likes it.  Think about it like this: in prison (a place of punishment) in order to punish you further they put you by yourself for some period of time.  Then when you have met their requirements they do not release you from prison, but from solitary confinement. 

Now, I need my alone time just like anybody else.  I need time to think, I need time to reflect, I need silence, and that doesn't usually happen in a room with 100 people in it.  I like alone time, as long as it is the exception and not the rule, as long as it happens once a day and not everyday.  

Whether we know it or not we all desperately crave community.  We all want to know and be known by people.  To borrow something from iRobot (a movie starring Will Smith, which I am embarrassed to say that I own) we want to gather together.  We don't want to be off by ourselves.  We don't want to do life by ourselves.  Community is vital and essential to our growth.  

Most of the New Testament is not written to individuals, but to churches as a whole ("To the saints in...").  It is in these letters that we find the means of spiritual growth.  Let me suggest that we could be missing something by reading and applying them solely to our personal lives and not to our community lives?  

Let me say it like this: Those letters were written to gatherings of believers not study by themselves, but to work out collectively.  

Or like this: spiritual growth happens can happen individually, but MUST also happen in community with other believers.  

There it is written into the very fabric of the New Testament, the very way it is written, is our need to do life deeply with each other.  Growth happens on a limited basis individually, but for it to deeply transform us to be more like Christ we must do it together.  

So what does that mean?  Great Question!

It means that we do like Jesus said in John 13.35 and let the world know who we are by our love for each other.  Practically, it means when there are needs you provide for them.  Practically, that means that you don't wait around for needs, but (in a non-busybody way) you go looking for needs that you can solve.  You help, you serve, you listen, you love.  

Love is sometimes hard because it calls us to do uncomfortable things.  Like for example if you see a brother or sister overtaken in sin you don't throw down the "Dwight Schrute Shun Shield".  You come alongside of them, let them know you love them, and walk with them out of it.  You don't run from them, you run to them.  

It also means that you (and I) need people that we can be totally open, honest, and genuine with, people who will help meet needs, people who will listen and not talk, and people who love you enough to tell you when you're wrong.  

Incidentally, this is what we are talking about this Saturday (10/4/2008) at 6:30 at a worship gathering I lead at our church called Saturday Night.

The Crandalls are Okay

All, Allie, Drew, and I are fine.  We evacuated to San Antonio on Thursday and are safe. It looks like Pearland got the direct hit of the storm after landfall.  The good news is that it seems that everyone we know is alright.  The bad news is that there is damage everywhere.  Keep praying for Galveston/Houston area.  Will update regularly as I hear about it.  

OUTCAST

I’m a pariah.  I’m an outcast.  I’m hated by all those around me.  Nobody likes me and nobody wants to be close to me and my wife.  Why you may ask?  You seem like a nice enough guy.  You seem funny, or at least you think you are.  Why do people hate you?  I’m traveling,..in an airplane with…a baby.  Everywhere else we go people look at him and say things like

“He’s such a sweet baby.”

“He’s so cute.”

“Does he always smile?”

“Wow he laughs a lot, he is such a happy baby”

A quick aside: I realize all parents think their child is the best, the cutest, the smartest, etc.  In my case though it is the truth.  Jason Andrew Crandall Jr. (Drew) is the sweetest, cutest, happiest baby that any young parents could ever ask for.  I’m sure we are being lulled into a false sense of reality, but as of right now, other than a HUGE lack of sleep, our baby is incredible. 

Back to the point

We hear this all the time from friends, family, and strangers.  That is true in EVERY place with the exception of two places: the airport and the airplane.  As soon as you walk into one of these places with a baby you are the redheaded step child.  Business travelers after a long week of work in a strange city, small hotel room, and being away from their families are ready to eat you.  Single people look at you and swear to themselves that they will never have children and if they do then they will never subject others to them until they are much, MUCH older.  Young married couples, the ones without kids, look at you and think: “what is the matter with them?”.  The only looks of neutrality (I do mean merely neutrality) are from those who have gone before on this crazy venture of traveling with an infant.  They look, shake their heads (remembering a time that was much harder), and walk on or go back to whatever they were doing while turning up the volume in their iPods or on their computers or really trying to engross themselves in their book.

All this to say the looks are like laser beams piercing through you, no wait they are more like the teeth of sharks slowly ripping your skin from your flesh.  The feeling is awful.  The feeling is overwhelming.  The feeling is shared by someone:

“He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

Disfigured, beaten, torn, and battered.  He was shunned by the world, by his own people, and, when on the cross, even those closest to him.  This is Jesus.  This is Messiah.  This is my Savior.  This is my king, now more beautiful than could ever be understood or comprehended.    

So what’s the point of this blog entry Jason?  Is it to make us feel sorry for you traveling?  Is it to make us think about those poor paents with young children and maybe turn our heads instead of stabbing them in our minds?  Is it to make us think about Jesus and what he had to endure?  I guess the answer to all the questions would be yes.  But the big thought is this: who do we look at like that?  Who are those people in our paths who we walk by without thought or care.  Or worse yet - despise, shun, and ignore?  The company they keep now may be undesirable.  The position they are in may be unthinkable, but they share something in common with the creator of all life, of all matter, and…everything else. 

By the way, Drew is napping next to me right now.  He hasn’t cried at all (did you hear that weird European sitting in front of me who keeps staring at all the babies on the plane?) and we are rapidly approaching our destination.  Maybe that outcast isn’t all that you thought they were.

Confession: Boasting, Bragging, or Whatever You Call It.

I’m a proud person. It’s something that I’ve known about myself for a long time. It’s something, since I’ve been saved that I hate about myself, but it’s something I haven’t worked very hard to get out of my life. Today I caught myself doing it again. My mother-in-law and I like to play around with stocks. We talk about our picks frequently and what they’ve done. Lately, I’ve been on a bit of a run. My picks have gone well and it’s looking like Drew might be able to go to college.

I was about to email my mother-in-law and let her know how well my stuff is doing when I looked to my right and saw the Don’t Waste Your Life - Group Study Kit that I’m reviewing to use for our small group. I’ve read the book by John Piper and God brought to mind the verse that he springs from for the book. Galatians 6.14 - “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

I’m boasting in stock picks. Stock Picks! What is the matter with me? When was the last time I boasted in Christ? When was the last time I boasted in the death of Christ on the cross for my sins? WHEN? Maybe the last time I preached, but that isn’t what the verse is about. The verse is about my daily life and in my daily life I boast about stock picks and Halo 3 scores (which I’m not even that good at) and how much I know about whatever particular subject. How ridiculous of me. None of that has lasting value. None of that matters when it comes down to anything.

Dwight (from The Office) said, “Here's my card. It's got my cell number, my pager number, my home number, and my other pager number. I never take vacations, I never get sick, and I don't celebrate any major holidays.” It’s a funny quote from a funny scene. I love The Office. I just think that is how dumb we sound though when we brag or boast in anything but the cross. I mean who really cares what we are able to do. Our lives are vapor and stock picks and halo and whatever else are just VERY small things.

The cross is where my real life began. The cross is where my bragging should begin and end. Old and wooden, splintered and stained is where my life must remain. May I keep that the center.

Heart Wrenching Screams & Other Things That Are Good For Us

Today I took my 4 month old son to the doctor's office for his 4 month checkup and his shots. Everything was going fine.  He was a little fussy, but we weighed (14lbs. 6oz.) and measured (26in.)  him.  They looked in his ears, nose, and mouth and he was fine.  The doctor checked his tummy that checked out and then the doctor left the room and a nurse entered with a silver platter of needles.  All the vaccinations are necessary and all of them are good for him, but as she started to go rapid fire with the needles, the shriek of our precious 4 month old baby boy could be heard by my maternal grandparents (both passed away and in Heaven).  I don't know much about the mental development of infants, but I felt as though he was saying, "you tricked me!"  My eyes began to well up with tears at the scream of my boy, the pain he was in, the shock to his system.  I almost wanted to stop it, but it was good for him.  

I imagine that is much the same with our Heavenly Father.  He will put us through, what at the time, seems like excruciating circumstances.  We scream and we cry and we wonder why things happen.  We beg for answers and sometimes God is silent as to why.  We are left with a promise in 1 Corinthians 10.13 - that we will not be tempted beyond what we are able to endure.  In the midst of what seems like a lonely fire He stands there watching, knowing it is good, but paining him just the same to see his children in pain.  

Christ does not offer us the pleasure of knowing Him without the pain that goes along with it.  He does not want bratty children who were not denied anything.  He does not want children who aren't healthy because they have not had their shots.  He wants his children complete and growing.  Pain is hard, but pain brings strength.  

Watching my son get his shots was painful, but knowing that he will be vaccinated against disease helps me endure it.  

Till Next Time "I guess, all things considered, I was lucky Dwight was there. And Roy was lucky that Dwight only used pepper spray, and not the nunchucks or the throwing stars"

A Discovery: Arrested Development

Arrested Development is amazing! I had never seen it until today and I think I've watched 12 episodes in a row. I've become a huge fan. The only show that's better...it's still The Office. If you have the chance check it out.

An Old Friend Coming Home (or over for dinner)

The shouts of excitement were coming from my house on Thursday when finally, after long last, a new episode of The Office was shown. There were shouts, but not during the actual show, during the show we had the quiet game going on so that we wouldn't miss any of this first new episode since October.

Only a few things surpass this feeling.

1. Knowing Christ
2. Marriage to Allie
3. Birth of Drew
4. Others knowing Christ
5. New Episodes of The Office
6. Fresh Brownies
   

It really did feel like an old friend coming home. I missed it. We celebrated with some students, friends, and fresh brownies (#6 on the above list). We watched every moment, laughing through the whole thing (that was the only sound tolerated during the quiet game). The episode started at 8 and ended at 8:30 with the obligatory commercials thrown in. It was great, but at 8:30 I was left feeling like my old friend left too early. It was great, but not fulfilling or like a line from Rounders "I was so unsatisfied". I wanted more.

I think it points to something. I think it points to my insatiable appetite...and yours...and every humans for that matter. We can never be completely satisfied by what we crave because that thing we crave has limits. That is of course unless that thing we crave is limitless, unless that thing we crave is eternal, unless that thing we crave is alpha and omega, beginning and end. Only then are we going to find satisfaction because He goes on and on, as deep as we can go He is infinitely deeper. He is the great God, the limitless one who is a "fountain of living water" (Jeremiah 2.13).

The Office is great, our God is greater.

"If you don't have plans you can come over for dinner tonight, you don't have plans you just said so a minute ago." - Michael Scott (To Jim)

CSI: Pearland & Other Exhausting Things

Today is the culmination of a lot of work for me, but especially our students. We are doing a Murder Mystery Fundraiser tonight to benefit the students going to camp and potentially a missions trip in late August or December. We've been up there almost every night this week working on it. I've been up till 1AM with non-Drew related incidents the last 4 nights as well CRAZY...

PRAY FOR ME! (I told you I'd do it)

WHOLE JOY

I've recently been pretty convicted over my lack of a plan for memorizing Scripture. Since college I just haven't done it much. So for the last few days I have been working on 1 John 1.1-4 (from the ESV).

That which was from the beginning which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life - the life was made manifest and we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life that was with the father and has been made manifest to us - that which we have seen and heard we proclaim to you so that you may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

How was that? Are you impressed? I didn't look, or just copy & paste. I'm not writing to brag, I'm writing because today I worked on verse 4 and I was intrigued (an aside: while on missions trip a couple weeks ago the kids were talking with someone and they got this hotline for pickup lines. Our favorite was "I think you're ugly, but I find you intriguing", just thought I'd share that with you all out there).

Back to verse 4. I started thinking about all that the apostles had seen and all that they had heard and what they had touched and what they seen for 3.5 years and how that must have been overflowing out of them. It reminded me of when I was about 8 or 9 years old in Detroit, MI. Cecil Fielder was on this crazy home run tear and that year he ended up being the first guy in a long time to hit over 50 home runs. I think he also set a record for the number of times he struck out, but oh well. I remember that year going to try to get his autograph in front of a KMart. We got there right on time, but the line was so long and he only stayed for a couple hours so I didn't get the autograph, but I did see him get into his limo that pulled up very close to where I was standing. . I think my parents felt like I would be disappointed for not getting his autograph, but I had seen this guy who was my hero. I went home and told all my friends about how big he was and how strong he was. I was amazed by just being in His presence for a few seconds. I'd been in the presence of what I considered greatness and was overflowing with praise. I had to tell people, there was something about telling people that made the whole thing complete.

Today Cecil Fielder is washed up, fat, and a gambling degenerate I think. But that moment lives in my mind still. How much bigger must those years have felt for those guys in the presence of the Word of Life who was from the beginning who has no end and had no beginning? I think they would be busting at the seems with excitement, especially since there is no danger of Jesus becoming a washed up, fat, degenerate gambler. They had to write, they had to speak, they had to preach, they had to endure suffering, not because THEY HAD TO, but because IT MADE THEIR JOY COMPLETE! They did it for Christ and they did it for their own joy (maybe a little Christian Hedonism if you catch my drift).

That's all for today. Travis, our children's pastor is wanting to go to Buffalo Wild Wings. It's lunch time. Until next time "break me off a piece of that fancy feast...ya that's it" - Andy (from the Office, my Office joy will be complete on April 10th, oh how I miss it)

Crandall Returns to the Blogisphere

It's been a LONG time since I've blogged. I posted back in December I think, but I didn't really write it, just a copy and paste to make me feel better about what I'm doing... Pretty lazy and lame I admit.

I am returning to the blogisphere, inspired by my friend Mike Mathews, a guy in his 60s, who thinks more than most people in their 20s and 30s. I am also responding to Kris Hokanson who wants a little more contact with my mind (insert corny joke here). Thanks Kris, the world thanks you as well.

The reason I started this blog in the first place is because there are things that make me want to rant (usually Christians concerned with being more religious than missional), there are things that I rave about (usually stuff in the Bible, John Piper, the Office, intriguing books, the Colbert Report, or anything that really makes me think), and I am completely indebted to a Savior who has redeemed me (I do mean COMPLETELY INDEBTED because there is NOTHING I can do to repay Him).

Further on that last sentence (this is a rant, a rave, and joy in redemption) there is A LOT of bad theology out there that says things like I have been saved by Jesus now live for Him in order to pay Him back. I know Romans 12.1 ("I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."). I know what it says, but we have some straight up AWFUL interpretations of that verse. I mean where in there does it say ANYTHING about paying God back for sacrificing the ONLY perfect person who has ever lived, not to mention that person is His only Son.

The idea that we can pay God back is madness. Look at the verse again ("I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.") As a result of redemption in Christ we don't pay God back, we die to self and give up our lives in worship. That isn't repayment of the debt that was paid, that's subjecting yourself as a slave to the God who gives you grace to go on taking your next breath, to play with your children, to making your life mean something, etc. Salvation = Slavery, but not the kind that this country was so famous for in the 18th and 19th centuries and that William Wilberforce fought so hard to vanquish in England. This slavery is real freedom, freedom to live and breathe the way God intended. This slavery is actually being made an heir with the Christ who redeemed us. We are to be sacrifices and that is worship and that is what God wants from our now redeemed lives.

That felt good...I like blogging again.

BTW, I make NO promises about the frequency of this blog. I will try to do it daily, most likely, I'll do it weekly, but I'm sure there will be those CRAZY months where there might be one post that says something like "pray for me...".

Until next time stay classy San Diego