Jon Acuff's Blog, page 84
January 2, 2013
That one feeling.
A month ago, we took our kids to Disney World.
If you asked them to describe how they felt walking through the Magic Kingdom, they would have said:
“Happy, excited, thrilled, ecstatic, joyful, loud, boisterous, energetic, overwhelmed with laughter, etc.”
Their feelings would have exploded in a torrent of silliness and smiles.
I mean, look at what my three year old nephew did all on his own when I bought him a sword at the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.
That’s what you do when you experience something amazing, you express your emotions like a hurricane.
And yet, in Genesis 2, there is only one emotion we get from Adam and Eve.
They are in a land far greater than Disney World. They are in a perfect place, surrounded by perfect beauty. They are in a fresh paradise. They should be “happy, excited, thrilled, etc.”
But there’s only one thing we are told. One word we are given about how they felt.
In Genesis 2:25, we are told, “The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”
That is how powerful shame was. Of all the things that could be said about this place called Eden, the only emotional peek we are given into Adam and Eve is that they felt no shame.
What a beautiful picture of God.
The giver and creator of a place with no shame.
The owner and protector of a place with no shame.
The father and farmer of a place with no shame.
I don’t know what your source of shame is right now. I don’t know what demon dragged its’ way into the New Year with you, refusing to let you believe you’ll ever be anything but divorced, or unemployed or alone.
Ashamed.
It’s a powerful thing, but in Genesis 2 we are reminded we serve a God that will always be more powerful. A God who calls us into a relationship where like Adam and Eve we can feel no shame.
Proverbs 2
In Proverbs 2, we’re called to look for wisdom as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure.
But the truth is, most years, my New Year’s resolutions wouldn’t pass the “silver test.”
Even in years when I had a long, ambitious list, I’m not sure I’d say I was actively, aggressively looking for wisdom. So that got me thinking,
What would it look like for us to be treasure hunters this year? How would the year look differently?
January 1, 2013
January 1. SCL style.
A number of you asked if I was going to make a new SCL calendar for 2013. You’re in luck. I did make one! With a sharpie. And it’s free. Here’s January 1. Enjoy.
Your new year.
I hope you start your new year with as much confidence as this gentleman riding the roller coaster.
[image error]
Proverbs 1.
For the next 31 days, I’m going to write about Proverbs. Once a morning, I’ll share an idea about each chapter. They will be short and simple. And they start today.
Proverbs 1.
This will sound weird, but the best things I’ve ever written I don’t remember writing.
Reading through some post or page, the words jumbled into sentences don’t feel like me. There’s not a gingerbread trail of memory that leads me back to a moment when I thought something and committed it to paper.
Even if you’re not a writer, you’ve had a moment like that. Something has happened that you reacted to in an unusual way. Someone hurt you and you were swift to forgive. Someone wronged you and you looked the other way. Some opportunity presented itself and you grabbed it without fear.
You did the unexpected.
For years I didn’t have a name for it, but reading through Proverbs 1, the answer seems clear.
Wisdom.
It’s overwhelming how available it is.
In Proverbs 1:20-23 we are told.
20Wisdom calls aloud in the street,
she raises her voice in the public squares;
21at the head of the noisy streets she cries out,
in the gateways of the city she makes her speech:
22“How long will you simple ones love your simple ways?
How long will mockers delight in mockery
and fools hate knowledge?
23If you had responded to my rebuke,
I would have poured out my heart to you
and made my thoughts known to you.
Wisdom does not whisper.
She calls aloud.
She raises her voice.
She cries out.
She makes her speech.
And wisdom is not doled out.
Wisdom is poured out.
In volumes we cannot fathom, with generosity we can barely grasp.
Her heart and thoughts are available.
May the year 2013 be one in which you stop and listen in the noisy streets to a voice crying out.
9 Prayer Tips for 2013
Want to be a better prayerer in 2013? That’s not even a word. Probably should learn that first.
Once you’ve got that done though, do this:
9 Prayer Tips:
1. Know that if you have an “unspoken prayer request” people are going to assume porn.
Sorry, those are the rules. No one assumes you’re unspoken prayer request is about how much volunteer work you’re doing in the homeless community. We assume the worst.
2. Don’t disguise gossip as prayer.
If you pray for your neighbor, “Who recently cheated on her husband with that yoga instructor from Argentina,” you have not prayed. You have gossiped. Quit it.
3. Don’t be the prayer request whisperer.
Know why your brands continue to go unanswered? Because you speak so softly that even God can’t hear them. (Not sure that’s theologically true, but it feels right.) Speak up when you make a prayer request.
4. Pray with a British accent.
Want that prayer heard? Use a British accent, even God prefers those.
5. Aim for as many “prayer grunts of affirmation” as you can get.
How else will you know the prayer has been effective? If you’ve got a better prayer score method I am all ears. Especially if you are British.
6. Don’t say “let’s pray” when you mean “let’s make out.”
Maybe this is just for those college students out there, but stop doing this. You know this happens at Baptist Colleges. I mean I never did that but some sinners did. Stop.
7. Don’t make up a prayer request just because everyone else has one.
They’re not lollipops. It’s OK for you not to have one. I promise.
8. Always have background music.
You might have to carry a portable Bluetooth stereo or your iPhone for smaller prayer moments, but trust me, this is key. Right as people start praying, gently Tomlin that scene.
9. Know which meals to pray before.
Don’t lose your cool in a restaurant. Know if you should pray before or after queso. These things matter.
A 9 item list is lame. You can sense the lameness radiating off this post.
We need one more item.
What prayer tip would you add to this list?
What happens when you lose your teeth?
It’s easy to be honest when your blog has 14 readers.
It’s easy to write with teeth and say funny things that actually touch on a delicate situation when you have 10 followers on Twitter.
It’s easy to roll conversational hand grenades across the floor when you’re just writing for fun.
But something weird happens when people start reading.
You get tempted to play it safe.
You get tempted to play it careful.
You get tempted to soften your words in order not to offend. Even if they were the right words.
Fear sets in. Complacency sets in. What could be extraordinary gives in to ordinary. You lose your teeth.
That’s what happened to me.
To be honest, it was easier to write SCL when only a handful of strangers was reading it. When my picture wasn’t on it. When I was just shooting from the hip.
But then it grew. Then it got big and I started to protect it. I started to worry about things like brand and consistency.
So what now?
As we face 2013 down and our fifth year of this blog, what do we do going forward?
That’s the question I’ve been wrestling with for the last three months.
And I think the answer is we get messy again.
We let go of the sanitized ideas, the safe ideas, the easily digestible ideas.
And we open the gates and seize the day. (Newsies!)
We post more. We let go of the narrow definition of an SCL topic. I’m a Christian and like Lord of the Rings. Therefore, I will post funny photos from Lord of the Rings. I will withhold the temptation to find something deep and meaningful to blog about them.
I will post videos.
And guest posts.
And randomness.
And the truth.
When we do something whack, we’ll talk about it.
And laugh about it.
And start so many sentences with the word “And.”
Maybe you won’t even notice a difference. Maybe a post about how you’re going to change the way you post is the silliest thing ever.
But I wanted to give you a heads up that SCL is going to be different in 2013.
It’s going to be messy.
And I think that’s a good thing.
December 28, 2012
I wish every church said what this churches says in their bulletin. (#1 in 2012)
It’s easy to poke fun at some of the things churches say on their welcome sign. It’s easy to question some of the things that make it inside a church bulletin.
It’s easy to say “this is bad,” but it’s a lot harder to say “this is good.” Anyone can critique, but creating is a lot more difficult.
So what does a great welcome message look like? What does an awesome welcome message look like?
It looks exactly like what “Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Community” has in their church.
My friend attended there recently, and I got a copy of what they hand out. I posted a photo of it below so you could see what it looks like, but the image got cut off so here’s what it says:
[image error] We extend a special welcome to those who are single, married, divorced, gay, filthy rich, dirt poor, yo no habla Ingles. We extend a special welcome to those who are crying new-borns, skinny as a rail or could afford to lose a few pounds.
We welcome you if you can sing like Andrea Bocelli or like our pastor who can’t carry a note in a bucket. You’re welcome here if you’re “just browsing,” just woke up or just got out of jail. We don’t care if you’re more Catholic than the Pope, or haven’t been in church since little Joey’s Baptism.
We extend a special welcome to those who are over 60 but not grown up yet, and to teenagers who are growing up too fast. We welcome soccer moms, NASCAR dads, starving artists, tree-huggers, latte-sippers, vegetarians, junk-food eaters. We welcome those who are in recovery or still addicted. We welcome you if you’re having problems or you’re down in the dumps or if you don’t like “organized religion,” we’ve been there too.
If you blew all your offering money at the dog track, you’re welcome here. We offer a special welcome to those who think the earth is flat, work too hard, don’t work, can’t spell, or because grandma is in town and wanted to go to church.
We welcome those who are inked, pierced or both. We offer a special welcome to those who could use a prayer right now, had religion shoved down your throat as a kid or got lost in traffic and wound up here by mistake. We welcome tourists, seekers and doubters, bleeding hearts … and you!
Bravo to Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Community! That should be made into a poster and hung in church offices around the world.
I love the thought that a few members of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Community getting together and saying, “Let’s invite everyone to come meet Jesus!” And then they started writing their list.
And it got long. Why?
Because everyone needs Jesus.
Everyone changes when they meet Jesus.
And they wanted to make sure everyone knew they were invited to meet him.
