BST's Blog

Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don't. When you're me...it's usually the former. Someone stuck this picture on my door from Camp last year and it made me laugh. The picture says it all.

There is much to blog about today. Some of you might want to tune out a little later in the blog. First, I wanted to mention something about Ash Wednesday. Last night at the Emergent service they celebrated Ash Wednesday. People put ash on their foreheads and everything. The stations were really, really cool. Great night all the way around. The ZOE rehearsal went well too.

A few years back I went to the Grammy's in NYC. I am a voting member, but that year I went with a good friend (who was a groomsman in our wedding), Jeff Gregg. Jeff is an agent for the Creative Artist Agency and is in charge of Christian acts and country acts and was able to get us better seats. Turns out, the president of Reunion Records ended up sick so we got to use his tickets which also came with a pass to the after Grammy party--that's a whole different blog full of nuggets. (At one point I pulled a complete BST in talking to a woman Jeff kept referring to as "Bob's wife". Finally, I said..."Ya got a last name, Bob's wife??" She politely answered, "Carlisle.")

Back to the point--we landed in NYC that Wednesday and I swear I thought I was in the twilight zone. All these people were walking around with weird smudge marks on their foreheads and seemed completely oblivious. I really thought we'd been abducted by aliens or something. Finally, in the elevator of our hotel, I asked this woman standing next to us dressed in a beautiful fur coat if she knew there was something on her forehead. She looked at me with a priceless expression and told me it was ash. DUH!! I had never-EVER seen that. Who knew? I had to think of that as people were leaving with ash on their foreheads last night. It is really a great reminder of what Jesus did for us.

OK--I need to just vent for a moment. I am so sorry to subject you to my venting lately and thought about not saying anything, but it made me hotter to think of NOT saying anything. Last night we watched "Wife Swap". It's interesting, if you've never tuned in. Last night they swapped this very "conservative, wealthy, Christian, Republican" woman with a "liberal" woman living with her lesbian partner. (Is this sweeps week or something??) The program began by showing the Christian woman praying with her family, reading the Bible, talking about respecting people and treating people with kindness, etc. You all know where this is going. The short of it is...they swapped and the "liberal" woman seemed to care about the Christian family--in spite of their differences. She seemed unassuming and very friendly and helped the family enjoy each other and laugh a little. Meanwhile, the "Christian" woman came in like a bull in a china closet. She was nice at first, but then took full advantage of the "rules change" to order them around and completely overwhelm them with her self righteous attitude. Sheryl and I kept cringing. Finally, in the end when the couples all met, the Christian woman went off on the lesbian couple calling them freaky and depraved, saying they are only shacking up, that they didn't constitute a family unit, and that the woman who had traded with her not only "Brought nothing worthwhile to our family" but that she was immoral for even coming into their house where there was a teenaged girl (suggesting that she might sexually abuse her or something).

At this point some of you are wondering where I am going with this. Maybe I should leave it hanging. I am reminded of the famous Tony Compollo story where he was speaking to a large group of Christians saying something like..."Most of the world is dying from starvation and disease and you all don't give a sh*t" Then he said, "And besides that, most of you are more concerned with the fact that I just said sh*t than the statistic".

In Sheryl's and my opinion, what happened last night on national TV was an embarrassment to everyone who follows Jesus. She was more concerned with her own self-righteousness than loving those people. She had way more fun wagging her finger than serving them. She kept referring to the word of God and what it said about them. Nevermind that she had just bragged about her own wealth and loving the 9 carrot diamond on her finger. She informed them that they were depraved and going to hell. Maybe they are. But, she should go on a serious camel-style diet if she's planning to fit through the eye of a needle.

My mom has this really cool lamp in her living room. It's very ornate with these wooden squares that have a design on each square and then are connected with wire to made a really cool lamp shade. It looked awesome in the store...very beautiful and put together--even ornate. Trouble is, we got it home and the thing doesn't give off much light. It was a great idea someone had. Just not practical. The little squares are all so tightly woven together that the purpose of the lamp seems to have been overridden. Even at night, it puts out little to no usable light. Hmmmm. I wonder how many of us are like that lamp?

I am not making any statements in support of their lifestyle or living situation, but when true colors were revealed last night, the one claiming Jesus revealed a very ugly pattern of self-righteous, mean spirited colors. Hollywood loves to portray us that way. Trouble is, they're more right about us than we'd like to admit.

Look for people in your path today who need the love of Christ--the LOVE of Christ. Think about how scandalous it was for Jesus to spend time with some of the prostitutes, tax collectors, etc. How can we put that love into action today? How can we be a light that makes a difference--not just a useless ornamental lamp that gives off little to no light?