Dan Cooley's Blog, page 29

Packing for Haiti!

[image error]Thursday we leave!  Well, Lord willing.

We are packing:

Two, count them TWO trampolines - a 12 footer and a 14 footer!
Car parts
Swimming pool parts
Zillions of toothpaste, diapers, shampoos, food, etc.
12 people going means 24 50lb bags of luggage.

Hopefully the plane will get off the ground.

Please pray for safety, being able to share our stories, and that we can be a real help to Maranatha Children's Home.

My job is to:

Help with their website. It's set up on the same framework as danielcooley.com and cottonwoodchurch.com, so that helps.
Get their old Isuzu Trooper running. It would put the Trooper in the same league with Lazarus - a resurrection! Unlike Jesus but like Lazarus, I'm confident this old diesel will die again - but hopefully not for a while.
Dig septic lines for the overflowing tank in the back yard. Oh boy!
Go to Pierre Brizare, a town where we would like to put in a well. An individual in our church from Haiti is from that town and his dad has donated land for a town well. We are trying to raise the $10,000 needed, and I'd like to meet with the well committee, including a UN representative helping us to get the project off the ground. For more information, or to give to the project, click here.

Now, it's back to packing. Ever try to get trampoline poles into an airline approved duffel bag?

 

 

 

 

 

DON'T READ THIS BOOK!

[image error]If the movie is as good as the book, this will be awesome!

If it's not, it will be awful. Lets go with awesome.

Blue Like Jazz isn't a book I ever imagined becoming a movie, but it is one of my favorite books of the last 10 years. It just didn't seem like a movie book. However, Donald Miller is an author like few others. Read this and you will want to read more of his books. But, if you haven't read the book, DON'T.

Instead watch the movie first. THEN read the book. It will be even better. Trust me on this. No matter how good the movie is, it will be a let-down after this book. So, movie first, book second.

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/in...

 

 

 

Washington vs. the Church

[image error]Without getting all political here, I have a simple question. How do we know when we have dumped our principles?

This has absolutely nothing to do with my little website, but it's a question as a Christian I've been wrestling with as I watch the current Washington/Catholic church struggle. Maybe you can help.

As I understand it, the heat between the administration and the Catholic Church is increasing. Religious groups are now mandated to offer plans that cover both birth control and the ella abortion drug through their insurance policies. The church may not have to pay for it, but the insurance company will, and of course they will have to pass that cost back to the church, who will then be paying for what they believe is sin. But, does that mean they need to close up shop because otherwise they are dumping their principles?

We already pay for a lot of things we don't agree with. Our tax money often pays for art or abortions or wars in which we may disagree or flat out believe are sin. Surely that has been going on for years.

So I wonder, at what point does "submitting to the authorities" (Romans 13) become a dumping of our principles? Is there some kind of line in the sand we can draw so we don't become the "frog in the kettle?" How do we make a black-and-white out of  "obeying God and not men" when it all seems so gray?

If you were a "Catholic Church USA Dictator," and you were him/her,  what would you do?

 

 

The 3 Most Important Things to Remember

[image error] "I had set myself an unattainable ideal. I felt  the suicidal despair of all who longed to do what they couldn't. No achievement was ever finite. There was no absolute summit. No peak of Everest to plant a flag on. Success was someone else's opinion."

This is one of the most descriptive quotes I've heard describing the tension one feels in being a pastor. Shoot, it's a great quote about life.

Only it's fiction.

The quote comes from a painter in Dick Francis' book To The Hilt. But it embodies how I twisted I can become as a pastor and a writer. It taught me there are three things I/we must remember...

Everest will come. We will one day plant the flag - just not in this life.
There is One opinion that matters.
No other opinion matters.

 

 

Maple Urns

[image error]This is my favorite article ever. Sadly, Leadership Journal turned it down. I hope you will read it and pass it on.

How Real Men Walk

I was shocked. Steve couldn't die. The guy was the picture of health - young, with two teenage boys at home. Shoot, the guy was a geologist who practically lived outside. How could he be dying?

But the doctor with a bunch of initials after her name wasn't pulling any punches. Friday Steve came home early from work with a bad headache. Sunday he had a seizure. Monday he went into the hospital for tests. Thursday we heard the results. Three inoperable tumors at the brain stem. They gave him eight to nine months. I had no idea what to say, how to pray. Sermons you plan for. Friends dying blindside you.

 

A Common Connection

A few years ago, Steve and his wife joined a small group of us for an 8-week Bible study. We met at our house over chocolate-chip cookies, coffee, and Bibles. During this time I learned that Steve and I had more in common than Cottonwood Church.

Steve was fun. He had a first-year 1985 Toyota MR2 sitting in his garage. We talked about getting it running – I was a mechanic before putting down my torque wrench for a pen. He and his wife Janet had dated in that car. The brown trim matched her eyes and they just couldn't sell it. But Steve was frugal and didn't fix it either.

Steve grew up a pastor's kid. His parents went to Moody Bible Institute, and his dad went on to pastor General Association of Regular Baptist Churches (GARBC). This made for a rigid upbringing. In his home there was no going to movies, playing cards, listening to rock-and-roll, drinking, smoking, or fashionable clothes. "Come out from among them and be separate," meant "if they are having fun, you need to be separate." Like all pastors, his dad went through some grief in church, and like most preachers' kids Steve grew a bit cynical about church life.

My parents met at Moody. After the war my dad was a church planter, bringing all his churches into the GARBC. We snuck out to see movies, hid our cards and cassettes, drank ice tea, saved our Halloween candy cigarettes, and looked like dorks. Steve never could figure out why I became a pastor. "God was manipulative," was my standard, and honest answer. We became good friends. And he died.

 

An Uncommon Prayer

At the hospital I told Steve I didn't know how to pray for him. I was sitting there, dumbfounded, with my brain stuck in some sort of curser freeze. I could and would pray for healing. But honestly, I had my doubts. "The problem with miracles," a friend told me, "is that they are so unpredictable." Too true. So, not knowing what to pray, I asked Steve, "How can I pray for you?"

I was shocked by the readiness of his answer. "Just pray I will walk the walk God has for me." Steve never asked for healing. He didn't mind us praying for it, but he seemed to know that wasn't the path God had for him. Like most of us, Steve didn't fear death. He feared dying. He was afraid of the difficulties cancer and its treatment can require. His greatest desire was that he would "walk the walk." He wanted to leave a strong legacy for his boys. He left one for me too.

 

Crying Driving

We recruited a few guys to help bring Steve to his radiation appointments in the following months. My day was Tuesday. I struggled with how to talk about the future, about his boys and wife, about the process of leaving. Knowing I'm better at fixing cars than diving into awkward conversations, Steve helped me out. On the first drive he went through the list of songs he wanted at his funeral. The next week was downright bizarre. Janet was driving; I was sitting in the back seat.

"Hey Dan, know what I found on eBay?"

"No idea."

"Urns. The coolest urns ever. I found a guy in Washington State that makes them out of Maple. Beautiful. They are half the price of what a funeral home charges, and you can specify how you want them made. I think I'll order two, so Janet will have one too."

Janet was balling and Steve was just rattling away. The next week Janet took Steve to radiation alone. I fixed the MR2.

Steve had a favorite passage during this time, one that was new to me. Isa 57:1 (NIV) The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. 2 Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death. So far, he was walking uprightly. This was his prayer.

Steve Preaches

Steve was diagnosed in September. In January we started a sermon series on the life of Christ. In March I had a friend in church, Clay, speaking for me on Jesus the Healer. I thought Clay, as a hospital administrator, was well equipped to tackle this topic. He was equipped more ways than I expected. Clay called me up with an idea.

"Hey Dan, I've got a proposal for my Jesus the Healer sermon coming up next month. I wanted to run it by you."

"Sure, what is it?"

"Well, I'd like to interview two people for the sermon. First, I'd like to interview someone, who through answers to prayer, was healed. Second, I'd like to know what you think about me interviewing Steve. We don't know what will happen, but I'd like to get his take on what has happened since September, and what he thinks about his life going forward, and how he might deal with not being healed."

I never would have had the guts to interview Steve about this. But Clay did. They recorded the interviews and showed parts of each, during different parts of the sermon. Steve quoted Isa 57:1-2, and stated that his goal was to "walk the walk God had for him, be it healing or death." (my paraphrase). Steve died in May.

The Last Song

The night before the morning Steve died, I was in his room, again not knowing what to say. After praying with him I went into the bathroom where there was a post-it-note stuck on the mirror. In Janet's writing it said "I give all to God for Steve's best path."

Four days later we had Steve's memorial service. Thanks to Clay's interview, we were able to play a video recording of Steve telling us what was most important to him in his dying days. He talked about being proud of his boys, and of Janet. He talked about being proud of following God in finances – that Janet had a house and cars paid off with financial security. He said, "That's what men do." I felt guilty.

His boys were able to hear their dad say what was most important in life was to "walk the walk God has for you." And that "Those who walk uprightly enter into peace." We didn't have to carve RIP on his stone. He was already there.

On that last night, before reading the note in the mirror, we decided to put some of his favorite songs on his ipod, to play in the room with him. For some reason when I grabbed the player, I was curious to hear what the last song was he had been listening to.

I heard Van Morrison, in the middle of a song, singing, "…Standing in the sunlight laughing, Hiding behind a rainbow's wall, Slipping and sliding, All along the water fall, with you, My brown eyed girl, You my brown eyed girl. Do you remember when we used to sing, Sha la la la la la la la la la la te da…"

I turned around and there was Janet with her big watery brown eyes.

 

The Walk

Sermons you plan for. Dying can blindside you. When the diagnosis came we were all shocked, but Steve wasn't blindsided.

Steve was a bit cynical about church life, but never about Christ. He had been walking the walk throughout his life. His family was provided for. His boys loved Jesus and wanted to follow their dad in his faith. The house was paid off. His wife was walked with him through the hardest walk in his life. They demanded nothing from God but instead surrendered totally to Him.

I realized if I am to "walk the walk," I have a lot of catching up to do. Steve set the bar high. But then, that's how real men walk.

All I want to do now is to "walk the walk," so I too can rest in peace.

danielcooley.com

 

Dug Down Deep The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

[image error]Interesting, fun, engaging, funny... doctrine? Inconceivable! That word, I do not think it means what you think it means.


The Good:
Dug Down Deep IS engaging, fun, interesting – and about doctrine. Joshua Harris has a gift taking dead, dry doctrinal bones and giving them new life. Some of his chapters or chapter descriptions are:
1.    God is utterly different from me. And that is utterly wonderful.
2.    Ripping Burning, Eating (on the Bible)
3.    God With a Bellybutton (on Jesus)
4.    How does redemption accomplished outside Jerusalem give life to a young man on a California beach?
5.    The invisible made visible (on the Church)
6.    And his best chapter of all, on Sanctification is titled: Change, Changing, to be Changed.

The Bad:
I hate to leave a section blank. Any section. But, there wasn't anything I could label bad about this book. Maybe some pictures would have been nice?

The Ugly:
His drawings. Like and extremely ugly dog however, they are so ugly as to be funny/cute – and extremely helpful. They are in what was my favorite chapter, Change, Changing, to be Changed.

I  will be recommending this book to our college/young adult groups at church. It's the best doctrinal study for that age group that I've seen – ever. Way to go Josh!


I'd like to thank WaterBrook Multnomah publishers for providing me a review copy of this book. DanielCooley.com

Could YOU Last In The Wild?

[image error]Guys – have you ever wondered how long you would make it "in the wild?"

You are bored in church and image getting kidnapped. Your friends pay a trillion dollars in ransom, and still the bad guys plan to dump you out in the middle of the desert.

They throw you in the truck of their '75 Impala and head out. On the way you sneak some random stuff out of the trunk and under your clothes. 

Then they stop. You are pulled out of the trunk, thrown in the wash and shot.

The bad guys leave and you see where the bullet went through your shirt and lodged in the book you took out of the trunk. What are the chances? Now you are out in the middle of nowhere, with a book, a tire iron and you wits.

Will you live?

I flat loved Into the Wild - a true story written by Jon Krakauer about a young man who gives away his money, hitchhikes to Alaska, hikes into the wilderness with some rice, a .22, and a book. Here's the shocker.

He dies. But I didn't give anything away.

Jon Krakauer does an amazing job retelling the story and keeping up the suspense in spite of telling the end at the beginning.

Enough said. You can read over a thousand reviews of it on Amazon. Literally.

Better yet, you can buy it for under 2 bucks! Or rent the movie, but I don't know if it is good.

And this Sunday, pay attention for a change. You won't make it in the desert.

2 CS Lewis Thoughts on Evil

[image error]Three of us are reading Mere Christianity together. We read a few chapters and head to Starbucks to talk about what we learned. Great fun. Here are two passages from chapter 4, Morality and Psychoanalysis (a chapter title taht didn't make we want to read the chapter!) I thought you would enjoy:

1.    Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you... into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God… or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God…

Does that mean that on some level, hell and heaven begin even while on this earth? I wonder, do we keep changing for the better and the worse after we die?

2.    … the right direction leads not only to peace but to knowledge. When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good; a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right… Good people know about both good and evil; bad people do not know about either.

Have you ever known someone this bad? I can think of times I've been bad without knowing it...

If Michael Scott was a Youth Pastor

[image error]Watch mistake here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79TNNpBH43w&feature=related

This guy should have just given up.

It's like when we use to have slides for our worship. Our secretary would type them up, we'd take them in to have slides made, then use them on Sunday.

The lyrics went "feed me till i want no more," from Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah.

Only our secretary typed "feel" instead of "feed."

It's amazing how one letter can change a service.

I guess this goes to prove that writing can be as dangerous as speaking.

Hope you enjoyed the video.

Have any good ones for me?

If Michael Scott Did Altar Calls

[image error]How NOT to do an altar call - watch it here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoPMoczHPrQ

I can so relate, especially to his sigh at the end.

One reason I like writing is it can be edited.

One reason I struggle with speaking is there is no "undo" button.

I'll post a few of my favorite blunders, conveniently leaving myself out.

Hope you enjoy them.