Good News

As I work with students who are preparing to share the "good news" (gospel) at  youth group the next couple weeks, I have find myself drawn to what seems to be the closest attempt at defining the "good news" in the entire New Testament.

Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you--unless, of course,  you believed something that was never true in the first place. 

I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Messiah died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. ...

In fact, Messiah has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone died because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Messiah will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection: Messiah was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.

After that the end will come, when he will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having destroyed every rule and authority and power. For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. For the Scriptures say, 'God has put all things under his authority.' (Of course, when it says 'all things under his authority,' that does not include God himself, who gave Christ his authority.) Then, when all things are under his authority, the Son will put himself under God's authority, so that God who gave his Son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere. - 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, 20-28

I pray my life would continue to be shaped, formed, and directed by the good news preached by the apostles, received by the church, and passed on through the centuries.

Come King Jesus, Come.

I Love to Like Things

I love to like things.

Publicly liking things can be tricky. I like things for lots of reasons: if it sparks my interest, if it causes me to stop and think, if it makes me instantly lol, if it represents one of my beliefs well, if it a friend posted it and it is obviously meaningful to them, and so forth.

If you publicly like something, are you approving, condoning, encouraging, or advertising the content of your like? This is a question I struggle with.

In fact, just this week I didn't like a very likeable and highly liked video that's been running through Facebook News Feeds. What's not to like?

The Odds of Death Are Ever In Their Favor

"May the odds be ever in your favor."

I love this phrase in "The Hunger Games." It reminds me of the gauntlet of quaint platitudes and meaninglessness we run through every day.

I love that a book for teenagers has (at least so far) dug surprisingly deep into the complexities of poverty.

The characters from District 12 are slaves to an unbreakable system of poverty. Many have adapted so as to survive. But the odds of survival are certainly not in their favor. This is what makes the oft-repeated slogan, "May the odds be ever in your favor," a mocking slap in the face of all who live in District 12.

Yet, this is reality. How many of these types of sayings do we have about the supposed equal chance and freedom for ALL Americans to achieve the American Dream?

The author's choice to use a phrase that highlights the mathematical realities of the situation is interesting. She could have used a saying that attributed success to "luck" or "faith." But by using the word "odds" we are confronted with mathematical truth. The odds of being born into a part of the world where you won't have the option of "succeeding" because you will have to fight just to survive is in your favor. If the odds have been in your favor, the odds really begin to work for you. If you're one of the 80% who will make less than $10 a day, the odds get even better that you won't have access to basic health care, that you'll be without basic education, that you'll experience real hunger, and that you will die before adulthood. Now in some of these Districts (regions) where your odds for early death go up, there are still those who do survive and even those who surpass survival mode. But these odds are not in your favor.

It is a mathematical game.

When we say "good luck" to someone who needs a royal flush just to make it through the day, we mock them and contribute to their poverty.

I think this is what James was telling us when he said, "Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, 'Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well'--but then you don't give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?"

We may believe God blesses. But if we refuse to be the hands through which God blesses, we mock God and his beloved creatures.

The math works out. There is enough for everyone. But as long as those who say, "May the odds be ever in your favor," but never do anything to actually even the odds, we will continue to watch (with mathematical certainty) the poor disproportionally die from things that are certainly in their favor.

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A New Day, A Renewed Promise, A Renewed Heart

Today was a good day.

But this good day ended in spectacular fashion. Doug Hardy, one of my professors and a leader of the church I serve, led us in the famed Wesley Covenant Service tonight. The service follows a written liturgy and we were directed appropriately toward the end of our worship, where we would pray these words:
I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for you or laid aside for you, exalted for you or brought low for you; let me be full, let me be empty; let me have all things, let me have nothing; I freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you are mind, and I am yours.

Can you pray this tonight?

Do you long for these words to express the desires of your heart?

Is your life heartily yielded to our blessed God's pleasure and disposal?

I pray you might draw near to Christ this night. I pray you would seek the deep friendship and love with the Father that allows these words to be made true in you. I pray you might be sealed as His, marked by the Holy Spirit.

Amen and Amen and Amen.

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Round Two of "Hunger Games" Quick Hits

I can't guarantee how many times I will post about "The Hunger Games," but I'm officially intrigued.

I finished the third chapter this afternoon, and I have concluded that if this book continues on its present trajectory it will become one of my favorite novels ever.

Quick shift that I promise has to do with "The Hunger Games." You know how some people will sort their food into little, separated piles that cannot under any circumstance touch and others fling food onto their plate like they know its all going to the same place? That's how I am with my food and my favorites. Why enjoy one flavor when you can experience the explosion of taste resulting from the magical combination of all your food? Why allow your favorite things to remain lonely and isolated from one another?

"The Hunger Games," three chapters in, has effectively begun to pique my curiosity by doing just this.

Politics: favorite (non-ministerial) field of study

Survivor: favorite reality T.V. show

"The Lottery": favorite short story (at least most memorable)

Integrating some interesting political theory into a spicy narrative for teenagers, mixed with the ultimate form of Survivor-to the death, finished off with huge dose of the most haunting short story I've ever read, equals sweet goodness.

Overhearing conversations about "The Hunger Games" tonight has me wondering if I am missing something. Either there is far more to come or I am a cold, heartless man. I have yet to find anything compelling about any of the relationships. Perhaps this will come with the development of the story. Or maybe it won't.

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Hunger Games or Hunger Politics?

I've been listening to people (my wife included) talk for months now about "The Hunger Games" and heard little to nothing about its political elements. It may just be that I'm a super nerdy political science major, but when I started listening to the first book today, I was immediately intrigued by some of the political elements that leaped to my attention.

Now I'm hardly more than a chapter in, but from what I've listened to so far, "politics" is not a peripheral issue for the book or this author, it is a major theme.

Since I haven't heard others mention the political aspects of the book, I'm intrigued as to whether these stood out to others.

If you've read "The Hunger Games" I'd be interested in hearing what you perceived to be the political "agenda" or "narrative" of the books. Or are the politics of the book simply a device to tell the story of the characters?