Everybody Has a Story--The Prequel

Everybody has a story, and several years ago journalist Steve Hartman set out to prove it. Sometime early in the week, he would grab a dart, go to the corkboard that had the map of the United States on it, face away from the map, and toss a dart backward over his head, and see where it landed. Wherever this dart landed, he went to the nearest town to that dart, no matter how large or small. Then he would flip open the phone book, and much like some of choose what Bible passage to read during our private time, he randomly pointed to a phone listing. Then he would interview these people, find out what their life was about, and do a 5 minute segment on that person’s story for the evening news on CBS.

One of the things that surprised me, and it probably shouldn’t have, was how biblical the stories that Hartman told felt. It seemed like with everyone he met, there were these life-changing moments that before which they were one person, and after which they were in a different point in their life. In other words, much like we are reading about with Paul today, they were stories about some sort of calling or conversion.

One such story that captivated my attention was the story of Gloria. Gloria’s story initially caught my attention as I was channel surfing because I was living in Montana and it mentioned a woman from a small town in Montana. As I began to learn more about the story, it intrigued me more because it was a woman from Ekalaka, Montana. Now Ekalaka is a small town, and the only reason I had heard about it was that my friend and 70-something junior high youth leader June was from Ekalaka. Ekalaka is a remote town of 395 souls and 10 times as many deer south of Glendive, MT. It is very close to the North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming borders. In other words, it was in the middle of nowhere. The nearest town of over 10,000 people is an hour away.

Gloria tells the story of being a young mother and sneaking over to the neighbors to get something while her child was taking a nap. She forgot she had left her oven on when she left and looked back and saw smoke billowing out of her house as it caught on fire. She made it in the house just in time to hear her son Phillip breathe his final breathe. She was devastated. Where would she turn? How could she deal with such tragedy? Eventually she turned to the only place she could turn. Feeling very guilty and ashamed she turned to God and begged for help and the ability to cope with her overwhelming grief.

Everyone has a story. Some are like Gloria’s. Others are like the Apostle Paul’s. You see, Paul’s story is really a story about a person who seems to do everything right. He went to the best school, and studied under the best teacher. He was on the fast track to success. He knew the most powerful people in all of Jerusalem. He had a job that allowed him to travel, and allowed him to be well known as someone that is a defender of the Hebrew faith. Since he was part-Gentile, he also had Greek citizenship which allowed him a lot of privileges as well. At the time we begin to get to know who the man then known as Saul, and later known as Paul is, we see that he is headed to Damascus to chase down Christians and capture or kill them. Military leader, pastor, and politician—Paul was a young leader with a lot of potential. Yet still, as Paul would later say in the book of Phillipians, and as Ecclesiastes reiterates, all of the success, money and power in the world can be at your fingertips, and it can still feel like something is missing or that your life is somehow incomplete.

I recently talked with a friend who has made a decision to follow Jesus in the last few years. He grew up in a Christian home with parents who were faithful churchgoing folk. He ran away from church. Then he came to the conclusion that he believed the story of Jesus as a good thing. It seemed true and made sense to him, but he kept his distance from this powerful and mysterious Jesus that he had heard about since he could remember.

He came to a point where the friendships and relationships that he had built his life upon seemed to crumble underneath him. And this Jesus that had haunted him and tenaciously loved him since he was young all of the sudden offered him hope when he needed it most. As he shared his story with me he said something that profoundly touched me and made me think. He said, “Most people I heard about who became Christians came to Jesus because they were afraid of what was going to happen when they died. I came to Jesus because I came to a point where I was afraid to live.”

Everybody has a story. We all come here with our own stories. Stories full of triumph and accomplishment. Stories of survival and hope. Stories full of doubt and despair. Stories of sheer boredom.

And, as we will see, when we truly and honestly meet Jesus, our lives have the strong possibility of being thrust in all sorts of new directions.

Hand Me Downs

As I was thinking about giving certain things away in my home, I started to think about how many things that I have are really hand me down gifts.

The microwave I have is from somewhere in the 1980's, when they built them almost as large as a bus. It was a hand me down from an inner city elementary school teacher's lounge when they decided to update their microwave about 10 years ago. I am wondering if I will be fertile after using that microwave for the last 10 years or so.

The kitchen table was a gift from another pastor in Montana when her and her hubby (now Provost at Montana State University) decided that they needed to get a new family table.

Much of my golf clubs are hand me down clubs. I have one club that I have bought in my bag, a putter that I recieved in trade for my junior clubs, some clubs that I was given by my mentor in the Big Brother program that are probably from the early 70s, and some other clubs that a friend had a hard time selling at a garage sale so they were given to me. I think I could take a stroke a hole of my golf game with better clubs.

My endtable, nightstand/dresser, and tv stand are all hand me downs from churches I served that were trying to clear out storage space.

I dont drink coffee at home, but many of my coffee cups, and cooking utensils were hand me downs from Bethel neighborhood Center when I served there. When I graduated many of them did not have money to buy me gifts, but wanted to give me something, so they gave me things like can openers, wooden spoons, etc. I still have many of them.

And lets not talk about all of the books that are gifts from retrired pastors, from people I serve here to Eugene Peterson's garage of junk books or dual copies (I have a Hans Kung book from there).

What is the point of this? I dont know? Maybe that I spend a lot of time redeeming the junk that other people had that they cannot use?

Racism and ol' Sigmund

When I lived in Montana my final year I had a small group of freshman boys. Some of them were popular. One of them I had to drive home from church everytime he came to youth group. His name was Jim. His parents lived in a trailer. His dad was a trucker. Many would have considered them rednecks.

Thus, when I was driving Jim home one night I almost had to pull over due to uncontrolled laughter when Jim and I had this conversation:

"Clint," Jim said

"What are you thinking?" I answered

"You know after we had this conversation about racism and how it was wrong and all that," Jim relplied (Our teaching for that week corresponded with MLK Jr. day)

"Yes," I answered trying to focus on the winter road in the dark and look out for deer.

"Well...I have this theory....I think racism is stupid...and I think all racism is penis envy." Jim said animatedly.

I didn't really have an answer for him. I was laughing to hard to say a word

A new blog

One of the kids I used to work with in Montana sent me this and told me "welcome to the addiction" when I began a my space site.

Even more interesting is that I am accessing free floating wireless internet technology from home now. And I am enjoying that a lot.

March Madness

I want to be at HOME watching TV all day long! But poor me, I cannot do that. So I am trying to think of a place where I can work from my computer and actually get work done while watching march madness. I am thinking about going back home early and working at the clubhouse on my computer.

Here are interesting pics.

Upsets: UW-MIL, Wichita St., Southern Ill., Texas AandM, Bucknell, San Diego St, and Air Force (go Mt. West!)

As Planned: I see Oakland going 1-4 into the sweet 16

Who I have to win it all: UCLA (which suprised me, but that is how it played out)

So far after checking halftime scores, I am not too far off!

Update:
On day one I am 13 of 16. I missed Illinois, Indiana, and Montana (hangs head) winnning.

I called upsets by Texas A and M, Alabama, and Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

This weeks college picks

I was 10-5....much better than last week and I think I could have beat a coin this week! WOO HOO!

Oklahoma 6-3
Texas Tech #21 8-2

Texas Tech wins this one


Virginia Tech #7 8-1
Virginia 6-3

Virginia Tech wins this game!




Boston College #23 7-3
Maryland 5-4

Maryland wins this in an upset.



Kentucky 3-6
Georgia 7-2

Georgian wins and rolls into the SEC Championship




Ohio State #9 8-2
Michigan #17 7-3

Michigan wins this one at home, and dashes any OSU hopes for the BCS



Syracuse 1-8
Notre Dame #6 7-2

Once again OVERATED Notre Dame trounces a vastly inferior opponent.


Alabama #8 9-1
Auburn #11 8-2

Auburn takes this game as well.



Penn State #5 9-1
Michigan State 5-5

Penn State secures a conference championship and a BCS berth.




Oregon State 5-5
Oregon #10 9-1

Oregon wins in a game that is closer than most expect, and hopes others lose to make way for them to get an at-large bid to a BCS bowl.



Clemson 6-4
South Carolina #19 7-3

South Carolina wins this one, and Bowden JR gets fired soon after.



Georgia Tech 6-3
Miami (Fla.) #3 8-1

My dreams would come true if Chan Gailey could pull this one off, but it is not goig to happen, especially with the ethics stuff happening at GT.



LSU #4 8-1
Mississippi 3-6

LSU wins this one and waits to play Georgia in the SEC Championship




UAB 4-5
Texas-El Paso #24 8-1

UTEP wins convincingly here, and moves up in the polls.



Fresno State #16 8-1
Southern California #1

Fresno State makes it closer than most expect, but loses to the best team in the USA.

Montana v MSU

MSU wins, of course!!!!

College Football Picks for the Weekend:UPDATED!!!

Rutgers v Louisville
I want Rutgers to win, but I think Louisville is on a mission right now. Louisville wins.
LOUISVILLE WON 1-0

Northwestern v Ohio St.
Northwestern wins this game in an upset.
OHIO STATE KILLED THEM 1-1

Texas Tech v Oklahoma St.
Will Texas Tech win by over 50. I think it is possible.
ALSO was way off here 1-2

FSU v Clemson
Clemson could get an upset here. But I think FSU pulls it out
MISSED THIS ONE TOO! 1-3

Michigan v Indiana
Michigan wins
I WAS CORRECT 2-3

Florida v South Carolina
SC in an upset
HEY I CALLED THIS ONE! 3-3

Notre Dame v Navy
Notre Dame continues to be overrated after this win.
GOT IT! 4-3

Georgia Tech v Virginia
Georgia Tech wins this and aims toward Miami in a couple of weeks
MISSED THIS 4-4

Wisconsin v Iowa
Wisconsin wins
MISSED THIS 4-5

Cal v. USC
USC will destroy Cal in this game. I will give anyone 25 points in this game
USC won by 25. 5-5

Miami v Wake Forest
Miami wins
I WAS RIGHT 6-5

LSU v Bama
Wanna choose Bama, but I think LSU wins this one.
Picked this upset 7-5!

Colorado v ISU
Iowa State wins this one, upsetting the balance in the Big 12 North
UPSET Picked again! 8-5!

UCLA v ASU
Arizona State wins this one
GOT GREEDY! 8-6!

UNLV v TCU
TCU wins
ANOTHER WIN 9-6

Georgia v. Auburn
Auburn in an upset.
ANOTHER UPSET PICKED 10-6

Oregon St. v Stanford
OSU wins this in a close one.
PICKED WITH HEART INSTEAD OF HEAD 10-7

Arizona v Washington
Arizona wins their third in a row
LOST 10-8

Montana St. v Eastern Washington
MSU wins this and sets themselves for another showdown for the conference championship with the Grizz.
LOST 10-9

Montana v Sacremento State
Montana wins this.
WIN 11-9

Oregon v Washington St.
Oregon will win this and be alone in 2nd place in the conference going into the the game with Oregon St.
DUCKS WIN DUCKS WIN!!!!! 12-9.

The New (well maybe not so new) Racism

The KKK was well known for putting on bed sheets and white hoods as they walked around and subversively practiced the evils of violent racism. Today, people put on different covers to guise their racism, but if you closely thier sheets of patriotism are pretty thin.

Who are these racists you ask? They are the minutemen and other people our nation that are trying to end any immigration from the border to our south.

Think about this for a second. At least half of California, most of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona were taken by millitary force from the people of Mexico. We talk about "sending people back" to Mexico that were Mexican immigrants, and it was their country to begin with. After all, do you know what language the names El Paso, San Antonio, Santa Fe, San Diego, El Centro, and Los Angeles all have in common. Thats right, they are all Spanish names for cities.

Many of these people are saying that our border to the South needs to be protected, in order to keep terrorists from infiltrating our country. Yet, which nation has a higher proportion of fundamentalist Islamic folks in their population, Canada or Mexico? Canada by far. Why are we not proposing to build a fence across Canada? Because the majority of their population is white, and most of them speak English.

When talking about racism with a redneck kid that lived in a trailer like modular home with a lean to attached at my church in Montana, this gun-totin' son of a trucker had a very interesting response.

"Most racism is penis envy," he said.

And of course I had to pull over the car for a second because I was laughing so hard at this 8th grade boy in the middle of small town Montana coming up with this.

I am not sure that he is literally correct, but I think he is in a broader sense. The anti-immigration, make a law that requires everyone to learn English crowd is a group that feels threatened. Their small towns are becoming multicultural. Their political power is being eroded.

Now do I think that we should have no border control--of course not. Do I think that illegal aliens that commit crimes should be sent out of the country. Yes. Do I think that we should fund emergency medical care and offer educational opportunities to the "strangers in our midst". Yes I do.

But lets stop pretending all this anti-Hispanic immigration is about national security. It is about racial and social prejudice. Plain and simple.

The Desert is part of the journey

Being as I am using the lectionary for my devotional and my source for BUBBAS BIBLE BLOG, I have been thinking a lot about what it means to walk with God in the desert.

For at least the last month, the lectionary has been challenging me to read and think through the journey of the children of Israel through the desert. The wilderness between Goshen and Jericho seems to be a frustrating place. A place full of fear, the unknown, and complete and utter dependence on God for all of the day to day stuff of life. Part of me gets mad at the Israelites for muttering and being so rebellious; however, another part of me empathizes with the Israelites a lot.

In many ways, the last year and a half has been a desert time of my life. I feel like I have been kicked around a lot. I miss being close to family more now than I ever have. I feel more gifted to lead than at any point in my life, and have less opportunities for leadership than at any church I have been at.

Yet, like the Israelites, I can look back at these days at this place and feel like I have learned valuable lessons and have been blessed regardless. I have lost weight. I exercise at least 3-4 times a week. I have learned more about "working the system" and being a "professional" here than I ever would have in Montana or in Kansas. I have developed better "PR" skills than I ever had before. I have become a more polished speaker in many ways. And although I don't want to go through the last year over again, I can definitely see God's hand in it.

Now if I can just trust him for the next year!

New Additions to my blogroll

There are two new additions to my blogroll.

One is Michele, who fell of the face of the earth for several months while moving. Now she and her family are in their new log cabin, and have a computer up and running again! This is great news, since their home was supposed to take a summer to build and has instead taken over 3 years. They had been living as a family of 5 in a small 2 bedroom apartment. She blogs her life as a homeschool teacher, a mother of 3, and being the wife of a fireman. Michele lives in the Springhill area of the Gallatin County, and was a youth leader and member of my church I served in Montana.

The other is Insomniac. Insomniac is a somewhat crude, sarcastic young man that blogs about his struggles and joys of faith. The crude, sarcastic and witty stuff is what makes his blog irresistable.He lives in Orlando, home of Campus Crusade for Christ.

Coming soon in this department...
THE BLOGS OF LEADERS I RESPECT

Blog buddy review

Every once in a while I like to introduce you all to some of my friends in blog land.

I think I will start with people I have met:

Becca is a classy, super-intelligent friend of mine from Montana. She also seems to have a consistent case of vocational ADD. But, she has been doing youth ministry and planting a youth center in Bozeman for the last two years or so. She is also embarking on her Masters Degree at Bethel Seminary in Minneapolis--St Paul.

Tim is a first year professor at Bethel College in MSP (although he has taught at other colleges). He is also a very intelligent man as well, and shares a lot about what he thinks and what he reads. His blog also has a link to his story about Charlie Parker.

Amy is friend of mine from college. She is working on a Masters degree in cross-cultural communication. One of the most fun and playful people I have ever met, she contiunes to wow all of us with her zest for life (except when she is working on her Masters Thesis). Amy is also attending Bethel College in MSP, although Tim, his wife Nicole nor Becca have ever met Amy.

Sarah is Amy's little sister, and she lives in Denver. Sarah just tried out for American Idol--and she blogged all about it. She also talks a lot about her nights out with friends (like Brea). Sarah has got several of her friends into the blogging circut as well, but we will talk more about them later. Her OLDER sister Amy is still trying to figure out the proper use of the phrase OH SNAP! which is the title of Sarah's blog.

Traci was a student that I met through camps and youth gatherings for a number of years in Montana. She is now student teaching in her hometown of Roundup, MT and attending Sioux Falls University in South Dakota.

Emily is a high school student of mine that has made on entry on her blog on a day that she thought it was cool that I had one. She soon decided that the phone and instant messaging her girlfriends is much more interesting. She lives in the Springs, but her hometown with most of her extended family is in McPherson, KS.

The Bubba's Bible Blog is my irregular attempt at a devotional website.

Escaping Family Values and never fitting in

I got in trouble today. The new youth pastor at the church I used to attend gave a sermon on family values. Very informational.

In the message he mentioned something about the evils of the Simpsons, which I happen to love. In fact, I have a key chain of Homer. Which as I went to graduation parties everyone seemed to notice. So I was trying to hide Homer.

It seems no matter where I go, I have a hard time fitting in. I am too liberal for Montana, but too conservative for the staff at my church in Colorado. I am getting too old for a lot of the video games and trends that go around, but too young to embrace frumpiness, although I can do tacky well.

Oh well.

Sometimes I wonder if I will ever really fit somewhere. Then I wonder if I will ever really want to.

Travel Log

I am on vacation these days up in Montana, seeing the large class of kids that I worked with while I lived here.

Some small observations.

You know Wyoming is a rural state when a town called Chugwater has 2 exits.

Listened to Bill Clinton's MY LIFE on CD. The biography part is interesting. The memoir of his presidencey is not.

Have a great day. Hope to post more later.

POMO MUSINGS

I have been reviewing some of the literature that I have on the transition from modern to postmodern culture of late. In particular, I have been rereading Crossing the Postmodern Divide by Borgman.

Now, Borgman is a professor at University of Montana, and since I lived in Montana, a lot of what he is talking about seems to make sense to me. Especially as he uses the metaphor of crossing the continental divide for understanding cultural change. It is amazing what a barrier those mountains are! And how 3 hours to Kansas from Colorado Springs does not seem near as far as driving three hours from Bozeman to Missoula. And it is interesting how people's way of thinking changes depending on which side of the mountain you are on.

Anyway, I wanted to share a few of his insights and see what you all out there think

First he characterizes the current state of our American culture with two characteristics:

1. Sullenness--a sense of wounded melancholy

2. Hyperactivity--more busy doing more things going more places than ever before.

Characteristics of modern life

1. Agressive realism--The objectification and commodification of the world around us

2. Methodological universalism--a desire to come up with universal rules, methods, and definitions for everything, and to put everyone in the same boat

Postmodernism is then

1. A critique of this type of realism

2. A reaction against the type of universalism that generalizes things into absolute truths instead of putting everything in context.

3. A critique of the individualism that these two things produced by isolating our lives, perspectives and view of truth from community. (This Borgman seems to say later, still needs to work itself out. Currently, he posits, we are more hypermodern than postmodern in this regard.)

4. Most evident (says Borgman, and I had not remembered this) in the field of economics. Especially with the advent of the computer, and how that radically changes our economic future.

So what do you think? What changes do you see around you....

I-70 is the Red Light District of the Bible Belt.

As you get to North Central Kansas, in a place where the only form of elevation is the overpass for your local neighborhood small town, a new type of business has been popping up in the middle of nowhere. YOUR LOCAL NEIGHBORHOOD ADULT SUPERSTORE. The one that amused me most was the one that had the giant billboard deterent right in front of it that said "Jesus heals and saves". Immediately behind it up the hill was XXX Adult Superstore. There were three or four in this conservative Bible belt area of Kansas.

It is even worse in between Independence and Columbus, MO. When I drove through there in 2003 there was a drive through porn booth to park semis in. All through there are lots of advertisements, most that have a discount for people with CDL liscences.

What I find funny is the places that most folks would think of as more permissive that I have lived in the West, have a lot less of this sort of thing. Of course, there are ads in Montana for the Strip Clubs along the highway in major city, but it seems much different than the Neon Light Visible from miles in any direction at the top of a hill thing we saw in Kansas. So interesting, funny and sad at the same time.

Charasmatics as Functional Hindus

Grace is recieving what we don't deserve. Simplified, Karma is getting exactly what we deserve. I take grace over Karma anyday.

Perhaps that is why I struggle with a dominant strain in Charasmatic circles of what I call functional Hinduism. I especially encountered this in Montana. Several times at ministerial prayer meetings I heard the phrase, "every physical and mental problem has a spiritual root." Meaning, if you are stuggling with depression, than you are somehow less spiritual and ungodly. Or if you have health problems, it is because of generational sin or a curse that you have taken on. It is like salvation is limited to its economic metaphors, and then the rest is works righteousness. I started carrying my Institutes around to Ministers Council meetings to remind me of God's grace. Well that and I wanted to piss off all the openness theology bullies in the room. (I am a little bit of a rebel that way)

In Scripture, if you buy the JEPD theory anyway, there were people who were grounded in Dueteronomic theology. Everything was about blessings and cursings. If you were rich, it was because you were more righteous. If you had problems, it was because you did things wrong and God was cursing you. Then came the prophets, of which the theology of Jesus more closely aligns, who said a "yes....but" to these people. Sometimes we reap what we sow, they might say. But life is life. Often the poor are not poor because they deserved it, but because they were being pushed down or oppressed. Job had problems and he never understood why. Jeremiah was doing God's will, but he seemed very unhappy most of his life. And as rebellious as the Israelites were, they were not any less righteous that the Babylonians and the Romans.

The way of Christ teaches us that the spiritual life is all about grace. It is by God's grace that anything we have has come our way. It is by God's grace that we have any manner of goodness in us. All is gift. We always get better than what we deserve. And God's work and God's grace are mystery than mathematics or scientific method. I am not a functional Hindu. As U2 says, "Grace travels outside of Karma."

Clint's Blog Friends and Faves

In light of the recent EVANGELICAL UNDERGROUND BLOG AWARDS I wanted to share a few links to friend's blogs and fave blogs

FRIENDS

Phil Teintze--a college man in touch with his feelings in Butte, Montana

Michelle Grabbe--For a courageous struggle of faith with long-term illness

William Hale--for another college man in touch with his inner poet in Seattle

Timothy Yenter--the cultured philosopher-theologian

Traci Mertens--The thoughtful college student/soon to be teacher in Sioux Falls

Becca Syme--The brilliant sage and writer

FAVE BLOGS FROM EMERGENT CHURCH MOVEMENT

Doug Pagitt from Solomons Porch in MSP

Tony Jones author of Postmodern Youth Ministry among other books

Tim Keel from Jacob's Well Church in KCMO

Karen Ward from Apostle's Church in Seattle (Freemont)