Not a Winner

NOT A WINNER

Listen my friend, 

Let me begin by sayin’ at the front end 

That our American bent to win every competitive event  

And intent to end at the pinnacle 

Is a tendency that’s clinical

It’s so subliminal yet downright criminal 

such an abysmally nonsensical trend

That we all should be tryna end 

Why are Christians so itchin’ to win?

Cause it’s my sense this pent-up ardent penchant for power and 

enchantment with champions,

this not so hidden obsession with winnin’

obeying that inner thirst 

to end up first 

is a disturbing swirling blend 

of ambition and sin

“I’ve read the end of the book’” the preacher spouts

“We’re the head and not the tail,” the believers shout 

So I’m not surprised to turn our eye inside 

and find this desire to rise high 

is a guise that in reality bites

and belies haughty eyes ogling triumphs prize,

and hides our outsized like for might 

inspired by entitled white American pride 

Bigger, better and bold - it’s the same old same old 

gotta go for the goal and lay hold of the gold

But no matter how many the wins that we now hold,

we just can’t fill the hole 

Whether it’s all that land we boldly stole from first peoples 

or all those slaves coldly bought and sold 

so long ago amidst our church steeples

When it’s all told 

someone else will shoulder the load 

While we from God’s special fold enjoy the spoils of the mother lode 

Even though it leaves others out in the cold, you scold, we shouldn’t hold it over those old soldiers who warred and won, and if there’s been injustice done, well, son, we’ve got a winning record to uphold 

So raise the chorus,

God must be for us

Even if those smaller and weaker nations deplore us or adore us 

We’ll keep taking more and more for us 

We’re consumers at our core, that’s so sus 

Running over others like a relentless china shop Taurus

Stop and count the cost before us, I implore us

throwin’ in our lot with the haves, not the have-nots 

we gotta win the coin toss and hit the jackpot

so we keep keep pulling the slot and beating the snot

showin ‘em who’s boss, win at all costs  

Can’t bear to wear the loser’s label, we’re just not able 

to NOT win it, see

Or else it’s such a loss of our fragile identity 

Us saints, we love a winner, 

but shoot, do we hate those sinners -

Oh, I mean the sin

Yeah that’s the spin

unless of course it’s immoral women 

or men who love other men 

cause they’re for sure undeservin deplorable vermin 

Gotta predetermine to shut our ears to that mountain top sermon

We’re religiously educated but not spiritual learnin

That’s  how you defend your conscience  against 

Confessing to your own not so hidden sin 

of arrogance and benefiting from unbefitting systemic racism 

That’s engendered a demonic fascist “us and them” 

When is this moronic nationalism gonna come to an end?

Can I get an amen?

Man O man, are we driven! 

Mano a mano to go for the gusto 

In lust over the power we crave 

Evading the loss of the cross and its costs 

to too quickly get to the empty grave 

Isn’t it all about triumph and standing strong and defiant?

Isn’t David the hero slaying that Goliath giant?

Our guy must win the election, 

guard against all party défections 

We’re infected with a hefty quest for conquest over the radical left 

but after a heart inspection  

it’s all just left us bereft of affection 

When Jesus decried power and position 

And laid down conniving ambition

to lose his life and meekly die for those bound for perdition 

He asked for follower not leaders

Cause He’s needier of those who know failure,

And don’t hide their warts, more bonified bleeders 

Than polished performers, born winners and champion breeders

Indeed He denied fame and fortune, 

As He accepted his portion 

Of a lower proportion and posture

So he who claims his Name but doesn’t do the same 

is just a cheap imposter

You know the Church has always done her best work from the margins and edges  

Not running for the Senate to win it 

but pledging to stand with society’s dredges 

Inviting to the party those in the byways and hedges 

Saving those tempted to leap from window ledges 

So why are pastors so preoccupied chasing political privileges  

We barge into school boards barking and ranting with bullhorns about book banning  Always fanning the flames of partisan games while planning grander churches, expanding budgets, bigger staffs and church mergers,

Chasing attendance surges and larger splurges that have only serve our baser urges  

Can we just refuse this ruse 

of choosing to use the Almighty as an excuse 

for the abuses or wrong uses of our flag and our troops, 

and not stoop to embrace this crazy notion 

He might somehow slight other countries in favor 

of our somehow more favored nation? 

The very values we feel are under attack  

In fact we lack living out in their defense. 

Hence, we’ve forfeited a generation to win the culture war’s assualt 

We exalt in MAGA  or whatever you call it to a fault

and it doesn’t make any real kingdom sense 

We rail against reprobates and rebels

Fearing we’re nearing becoming the minority 

In our wistful thirst and drive to regain

some sort of lost majority 

selling our soul to win congress at the cost of our priorities 

To turn our cheek to love the least of these, 

to bless our enemies, 

and submit to Christ’s authority 

What a novel notion it is that the Gospel is for losers 

For liars, cheats, food stamp users, habitual boozers and drug abusers

Our Jesus came to heal and save the sick

Not to bless the rich and powerful, the chic, the savvy or slick 

We want to wear the Christian label but can’t seem to make it stick. Ick! 

We need to distance ourselves from  a stance of arrogance, 

And look askance at our pernicious romance with dominance 

It’s repentance from our hesitance to address power imbalance and deplore our pride more and more 

That will move your hand of favor

Make us more like you, Lord, 

You didn’t filet your detractors or slay the bad actors

Your forgave your enemies after 

‘cause position and ambition didn’t factor 

You were the Infinite who came as an infant - 

it figured to you little that you left as a pitied criminal 

You eschewed the lofty path to meet wonderers and wanderers on the liminal 

Lord, help us to be the people you always intended 

And not the cynical, judging, competing kind who are so easily offended 

I want to choose to lose when, in fact, I could win

‘Cause in the end 

that’s the kind of people we always should have been.

Europe Together 25 - Sibenik, Croatia - Opening Night Slam

You Never Know What God Can Do

This is it

the minute we begin kickin’ off this Europe shindig in Sibinik, 

another 3 years in, and we’re back at it again, 

sittin’ with our AGWM colleagues and friends 

Hey, since it’s time to commence  

Why don’t we end with the suspense 

And let’s get on with this 

We’re here fixing for more than just kickin back near a snack shack 

relaxin on the Adriatic sand, like suntan addicts 

Chattin’ and catch-in’ up over cappachinos 

Itching for social mixing

Chilling and spilling tea over whatcha know -  

so don’tcha just go and blow 

off this holy moment

Cause we’ve flown in from Berlin to Limburg and landed from Hamburg and Birmingham

hey man, 

I urge you as we converge on this version of Europe Toge-ther 

let’s learn to work to observe

the SURE purpose all this serves and deserves, 

‘Cause in this first service?

We’ve got the burdened and the burned out, 

Those nervous over what hasn’t turned out, 

others with deep hurt, spurned by various persons 

Or some feeling unCERtain, unnerved  and disturbed by

unde-zerved personal worries,

under-served ser-vants in urgent need of an encouraging word 

A few of our slew of issues includes fleeing feuds in the pews, 

Or confused, and abused by some pesky Budapest dude with a rude attitude 

Or feeling fatigued and defeated

depleted from the steady beat 

of rejection play’n in our minds on repeat

But those beautiful, beautiful feet of yours 

have been crossing borders to obey God’s orders - in order 

to pay it forward and please the Rewarder 

of those who go door to door

And choose to Lose Themselves to bring the Good News

To cool places like Liverpool, Ljubljana, Turin or Toulouse 

Man we’ve paid our dues

Just view our hidden bruises - plus our hands and our shoes?

all earthy and covered with the dirt 

of white-ripe mission fields, 

Certain of this burden we bear 

together 

That whether 

the sickle we wield 

Ever garners little gains or bigger yields, 

The Lord of the har-vest knows how hard it’s been

and especially deep down….., how you feel  - 

so can we just keep it real?  And allow this little spiel

I’m dealing bring it’s healing

speaking hope to break the spell spun from hell 

that’s been leaving you reeling 

Telling you you’re just spinning your wheels 

or really not a very big deal 

A mere weary plower or a dreary, bleary-eyed sower 

doing a whole lot of waterin’ over and over -

Well lemme give you a little reminder of this mind blower

Remember you’re NOT the stayer, ………you’re the goer! 

And so at this hour 

God wants to shower 

you with affirmation and empower 

you with a dose of His inspiration, 

give you signs and a confirmation,

That He’s decreeing  over you this declaration- 

there’s a breakthrough coming for the churches in your nation!

No matter what you’ve seen or have faith to believe, 

you never know what God can yet do through 

the sowing of one single, little seed. 

What maybe you deemed to be

just speaking out meager words 

or eking out feeble deeds,

Be it in Wiesbaden, Nice or Aberdeen. Indeed 

Though the seed seems mustard-sized, 

if we don’t compromise , do You realize 

Surprise! - what’s gonna grow is gonna be super-sized

Rising high like a Sequoia, don’t ya know ya 

Can’t quit because God wants to show ya

A vision that renews your hope like a massive metanoia

Boy ya - don’t need to go do it all - or be a know it all - 

all you need to know

Is the all-knowing 

one and only 

Holy One, 

He’s wonderful and full of wonders,  

and His abundant works fully outnumber 

a milli-on of our biggest blunders 

He’s the only One 

who needs just one seed to supersede the impeding things you’re facing 

as He comes in great guns blazing , still seeking and saving 

he’s the amazing 

only Son who still has so much He’s left undone

that He’s still gonna yet do through 

his daughters and sons

Cause you NEVER  know what can grow 

When you go and sow more o’those moments alone

on your own before His throne 

you’ll be showin’ up with that shekinah glory glow 

Like Moses showed us 

in the story of Ex-o-dus -

Putting Pharaoh on notice 

And boasting more power than even POTUS

So just keep bending low and throw that seed And God will surely show up and meet every ….. single …..need

To speed what’s sown in faith indeed 

To reap the harvest he’s been longing to bestow on ya 

from Dijon to Bologna, from Cologne to Barcelona

Don’t ya 

know,——yup, 

things are gonna start to blow —-up, 

So the onus is on us,to own up like grown-ups , and just keep showing—up

Cause if the results seem far less than you first guessed 

and your best efforts in Bergen, Bregens or Zagreb left you with regrets

Don’t let it be messing with your head - instead

keep bettin’ on better blessings yet ahead. 

don’t be forgettin’ my friends,

whatever’s happened, 

Be it in Athens Bath, or Essen 

Just do the math lesson 

Cause dili-gence plus obedi-ence

Equals  a God-sized big impression 

So when the goal looks the farthest, and the wind blows the hardest 

and when you’ve played your last card it’s 

then you’ll hear again 

the pitter-patter of a LOT of latter rain harvest  

And you’re gonna garner and gain what’s promised - 

I’m being honest - Our God - He’s got this

For all you faithful planters and  farmers 

armed against harm wearing spiritual  armor, 

don’t be alarmed 

by the murmurs and rumors of Lucifer, 

that old snake-oil charmer, 

don’t linger and langour in his anger 

and please let’s humor him no longer , 

I’m insistin’

Don’t listen to this sinister serpents persistent hissing any more 

or you’ll be missing what our God’s got in store, 

Don’t ignore 

the loud heavenly roar 

of the cloud of witnesses 

Gone on before 

Listen in to THAT crowd more

wishin’ your mission blessing 

and calling you forth

So even though we’re foreigners and out of towners

We can never count out any down-and-outer we encounter, 

because the everlasting Father and  Founder 

of our faith is the true final counter of those

Whose bountiful sins will be washed and drowned 

in His mercy and power 

So tonight if you sense you need more resilience 

just step on out in childlike obedience 

And keep investing your best amidst the resistance 

of secular men’s and women’s passive disinterest 

whether it’s in Florence, Utrecht, Brest or Bucharest, 

Just place the rest in his hands and 

Take your stance to put your trust in His plans

Cause right on cue, ……He’ll come through for you 

enduing you with power and doing in this hour 

what only He can do

He’ll come to our rescue

So let him have the best of you 

His emerging version of the European church 

will start to surge at just one word of the true King’s urging, 

furthering His king-dom 

and slam dun-king on that dumb un-king  

of the powers of the air,  

defeating him by the Blood of the martyrs, Our victory imparter, 

He’s gonna cover the earth like sea waters, 

with his presence poured out on His  sons and His daughters 

To bring an end-times harvest  

whose LARGE-NESS

is more on par 

With a God of such glory, 

And it’s then that our Great Author

will put a period on the end of HIS-STO-RY.

So now To the Ancient of Days 

who’s so perfect, just and good in ALL of His ways,

We make it our aim to gaze upon His amazing face 

And together raise this anthem of our never ……ending …….PRAISE

The Star of Christmas

Starlight, star bright 

First star I see tonight

Staring at the glare of dazzling paparazzi lights,

Starstruck at some Hollywood darling

A starlet on whom we start

casting our sights 

Our hearts marveling at larger than life czars of the arts.

But the part I want to get to

is the matter's heart

Please tell me - 

Where for heavens sake did all that really start? 

It's odd we give such a nod to these modern goddesses and gods 

who seem impressive from afar

Starring in roles, applauded and lauded 

making bank for the plays' parts they play in

that in order to take in - 

we payin' - Netflix and Pathé 

But we're being played cause that's not who they really are

Go closer, look deeper and farther. 

You'll see they're far from being on par 

with the real Superstar  -

the original birthday boy of Decem-bar 

The One who's called the Bright and Morning Star

He's the one whose raw star power 

should really draws the oohs and ahhs

'Cause His star hung 'round that little town of prophetic renown

Long after what we now know

went down in Bethlehem 

among the sheep and the cows

Astounding astrologers, star gazers 

and sages all around,

their heads crowned, 

wearing fancy threads and royal gowns.

They bounded headlong with their bounty  over countless valleys 

and surrounding mountains 

Counting it nothing if somehow

they could bow low and bestow honor to the real Star

Because everyone knows that Christmas, y'all, this is His show

Its not really about Father Christmas, snow or Santa

You can recall why we get the 25th off, can't ya?

Is it just sipping hot wine outside from from a plastic decanter?

Cause then after, you gotta go gulp down some Mylanta

Yeah we big on amassing 

vast amounts of classy foie gras 

afta midnight mass 

where we break our fast 

and gorge on a massive repast

But we wonder, alas, 

why the sweet rich taste don't really last.

Yo, it's not about mistletoe 

and where you gonna go 

plant ya lips 

for that kiss 

from your special miss or mister

It's more than exploring Sephora, shopping Dior, or 

buying a Michael Kors  

getting poorer as you splurge 

at store after store

Over- pending more and more 

until we ask ourselves,

"Whats it all really for?"

Don't misinterpret or be missin' 

on the real history lesson

you're messin' with God's big mission 

If you write Xmas 

it's such a big omission

Cause it's certainly not about Rudolph, Donner or Blitzen

But Christ is front and center 

of this big holiday tradition.

Far better than that guy named Clause

He's the greatest gift giver 

that there ever was

It should give us pause

makin' our jaws 

drop open in full-on awe at his cause

Which was 

That as pure Love,

He descended to spend his life  

better than any man ever did,

bending under the penalty 

of our unending self-centered binging,

surrendering to suffering unrelenting 

While defending us 

against the pretender  

upending the dominion over us 

by our our enemy and all his minions

This incredible life, in my opinion, 

ended in winnin'

And that, ladies and gentle-men

Is the no-frills noble story of Noel 

we need to be spinning

To the end  all the way from the beginning.

Well, my friends, 

we've come is this ditty's end, 

sent to your heart 

from my pen. 

Amen. 

Hold That Call

Walk down a major historic downtown street in Grenoble and you will likely notice an open concave brick and mortar structure about 7 feet tall and 3 feet wide. It’s pointy top and finished concrete at first invite an curious glance from the unaware tourist. I wonder what this could be?

One could imagine it a steam-punk style, sci-fi portal to another part of the city.  Or Its relatively ornate design might cause you to mistake it for a very old telephone booth. While you might not be too far off by associating it with a type of “call”, its very prominent public location belies its rather private purpose.  

This puzzling piece of green grating is called a pissoir (prounounced “peese-wahr”) and now I am sure you can guess what it is. Especially if you stared at it long enough to observe some male pedestrian on the sidewalk duck in and immediately strike a recognizable pose of relieving himself.

The fact that it would be a man is obvious due to the structure’s empty interior design that is large enough to accommodate one standing person. Which begs the question - no, not  “Is there anything on the wall to read?” but rather, “Does the city think that only men have the need to respond to the call of nature?” The public roadside pissoir’s minimally hidden privacy designed for dudes who have had a few too many drinks after work is so representative of what is still alive and well in modern France - the vestiges of archaic male privilege and preference.

What is obvious by their design covered by green corrosion is that the  pissoirs of Grenoble are quite old. In fact, they were first introduced to France in 1830. They often are used as a convenient place for the plastering of posters and handbills. At certain moments in the day, however, you may not want to take a second look at that advertisement that initially caught your eye. What does get my attention, though is that here in the 21st century, an unhygienic distasteful relic such as this endures. I guess to the urgent modern male of 2018 that may still be a great relief.

All of this is just another example that modern society is not the place where anyone is going to learn self-control, whether it is in the public excessive displays of road rage and racism, or debauchery and immodesty. But I am thankful that the place I learned self-control was in church.

My pastor-father was determined to teach his boys that a house of worship is a place of honoring God. He emphasized with words (and worse) that we were to learn to control our need to laugh, talk, run or even to smack our gum in the church meeting so that we would never detract attention of those around us from being focused exclusively on God. This included all trips to the restroom once the service started, no matter how urgent the need. In our little Pentecostal church, my shaking and rocking was a lot more desperation than inspiration. Speaking in tongues was a necessity because I needed all the supernatural power I could get to not wet my pants before the last amen. Let’s just say the fear of the rod and reproach after the meeting was greater than the urgency to go to the men’s room.

Church is still the place where we can learn self-control. Through the instruction of God’s word, the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the example and encouragement of the community of faith around us, we can find the secrets of how God helps sate our hungers, damper our drives, and gives the rest and relief found in His power rather than in obeying our every impulse or in search for immediate satisfaction of our urgent needs.

I can say today that I gained at least one thing from my upbringing beside a bladder infection. I have learned that I can endure longer than my selfish desires tell me I can. I suppose this is why I am utterly amazed and more than a little annoyed at observing some indiscreet man on the side of the highway or turned toward a public wall who just cannot seem to wait another minute.  I have learned through experience, that you can endure longer than you think, and that if you stop telling yourself you can’t, you’ll find that you can. Yes, sir, you really can hold it. A little self-control makes it easier on everyone, instead of subjecting civilized eyes to rather uncivilized behavior.

I have no need for the pissoirs of Grenoble. But I still need the lessons first learned as a boy in God’s house.There are some things far more important than my immediate convenience. Whatever I feel I just have to say, just have to do or just have to possess, the truth in a #MeToo society is that we need more men of modesty and self control who have learned to just hold it.

Whirlwind - A Slam

A wind blows, tries to bowl me over
Billowing over me, around me, surrounds me.
A scorching east wind sent towards us to strip us and torch us.
It’s a swirling storm of lists to do whose doing I missed
That never quits.
Pressures, not pleasures, that distress me,
because success is so hard to measure,
Stealing away life’s true treasures.
Like a smile on my daughter’s face, my mate’s embrace,
And time in the quiet place
Have all been replaced by what I’ve made first place.
It’s such a sad state and a waste to always have a full-plate and yet be left with an empty taste.

I’ve been chasing after the wind
And what I’ve sown has made me so winded that
I’ve reaped the whirlwind
Whirled and warped by the world – its words of wisdom
And ways of warranting worth
Are worlds away from the truth and not the last word
Because THE Word, breathed by the Spirit
Whispers to me and bathes me in a breath of life
Calling me to a life-style.
A pleasant pleasurable stroll that restores the soul
from a rat race with a relentless pace
I’m phat with all that peace, and now walk, slower, more whole.

There’s something like a rushing wind, a mighty sound from heaven,
Waves gushing over me.
I catch my breath as the Ruach that abounds and bounds over every barrier
Comes to carry my weary soul.
It doesn’t spin me or spend me but descends on me
like Elijah’s whirlwind.
It turns and sends me closer, returned to Sender.
And I catch this wave of God’s glory instead of the same old same old
Story of wind at my back, working me over, and over-working to the point of heart attack,
chasing after dreams with a false sheen that are deemed elusive
and never ever what they seem.
Carry and lift me, whirlwind of God.
Fill my sails and take me above all that assails me, these sad pursuits that always seem to fail me
Are now so far below me cause this God-wind just blows me away,
chasing all that was insignificant, elusive, and actually abusive,
Erasing the gaping hole that existed between my existence and God’s intended goals.
And it’s in this holy whirlwind that I am carefully carried by this caring Creator
Who fully pursues me, renews me and infuses new life in me.

(Gen. 41:27; Eccl. 2:11; Nah. 1:3; Hos. 8:7; 2 Ki. 3:11; Acts 2:1-2)

Hope Killers

1 Cor 13:13 - Three things will last forever - faith, hope, and love

After twelve years of marriage and seven years of trying to have children Dalene and I had given up. We had lost hope.

Hope had died somewhere in between the uninterrupted regularity of Dalene’s monthly cycle, and the whispered “what-ifs” we kept hearing in our heads.  What if I’m flawed? What if God doesn’t want this? What if we are being punished? What if it’s our fault?

But just as we had all but abandoned hope, we were met with a promise. It came in the form of an unexpected word over our lives from a pastor friend who asked if he could pray for us. He then declared with assurance that Dalene would be pregnant within a year. That was in February 1999. By the next January, a pregnancy test we had bought with not much expectation had turned positive and set us dancing on top of years of pain.

I am reminded this season of how Herod tried to kill the hope and promise wrapped up in the birth of the Messiah. It took a word from God through an angel to keep the promise alive.  

Who is a hope-killer in your life,  personally assigned to discourage dreams and give everyone an overdue dose of reality?  It could be a teacher, coach or spouse who felt they were doing us a favor by saving us from disappointment if we just set our sights a little lower. It could even be us as we convince ourselves it is safer to not hope than to hope and be disappointed.

In our world there is always someone or something in the spirit of Herod that would attempt to snuff out the hopes of the world just as soon as they are born in our hearts.

But a hope that can’t be killed is a hope conceived in a promise.  Jesus was promised to the world in the form of prophecies communicated a couple of hundred times in scripture.  The odds of even ten of those predictions from different individuals at different moments in history coming true in one person has been estimated by mathematicians to be 1 in 10 followed by 17 zeros.

Retelling the Christmas story again and again every year reassures us that the hope sown in our hearts by a promise from God is a hope that we can hold on to even when hope killers want to tell us to turn our backs on the impossible.

When I was a young boy, I had hoped to be a famous musician or a professional baseball player.  These hopes were killed, not just by a dose of reality when I saw there were so many other more talented shortstops or guitar players than me. The problem was that my hope was not conceived through a direct promise from God.

However, when God spoke to me His plan that I would be a missionary to Bangladesh, hope never died that we would end up going or even staying there - even when faced with the seeming impossibilities of securing visas, raising budgets, or weathering secret police investigations.

Sadly, a hope conceived by a promise can be aborted before it is birthed. The way to carry our hopes to “full-term” then, is to understand where our hope really lies. It’s not in figuring out the what, when and how of the promise’s fulfilment, but rather the Who. The promise of a messiah culminated in the birth of a real person - Jesus.  For us, the seed of hope becomes a reality nothing can kill when we realize it  is wrapped up in a living person who will never die.  

If we are lacking hope, then what we really need is a direct promise from God. It can came through Scripture, a word given by someone else or the direct whisper of the Holy Spirit to our hearts.

If we are losing hope in a promise we used to believe, we can can find our hope restored by changing our focus from the specifics to the Savior. He is the one who can direct us where, when and how. Hope is restored through the discovery that I need Him more than I need any promise I am hoping for.  

All our future promises are truly wrapped up in Him. He truly is the only hope for the world and for our lives.

A Questionable City

“You take delight not in a city's seven or seventy wonders, but in the answer it gives to a question of yours.” ― Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

Cities are an interesting phenomenon in that human characteristics, like personality, character and reputation can be attributed to them. Paris could be described as at once charming, snobby, magical and gritty. The city where I live, Grenoble, has a reputation of being polluted, crime-ridden, beautiful and liberal.  Sometimes what we think we know about a city is replaced by what we experience after having lived there for a while. I know a number of people who traded the easier pace and natural beauty of this alpine capital for the seduction and stereotypical allure of “living the dream” in Paris. However, the true character of the city, according to their now informed opinion, didn’t live up to the reputation.

Don’t get me wrong. Paris is indeed a wonderful city - to visit. But residing there is another thing altogether. High cost of living and astronomical rent turn many infatuated and aspiring Paris residents into disillusioned suburb dwellers. They went to the City of Lights thinking it would be a life of quaint coffee shops and quiet strolls in the Luxembourg gardens. Instead, reality turned out to be hours upon hours spent among silent, sober and crowded metro cars each day, commuting from one of the affordable, immigrant-filled outlying suburbs to a job of some sorts in a very gray and often cold metropolis. Paris gets on average only 1662 hours of sunshine per year. That means it is sunny only 40% of sunlight hours.

So you never know what you might get out of living in a city until you start living there long enough to allow the veneer to wear off. When it came to France’s presidential elections last week, no one was really sure  what the results would reveal lying in the underbelly of the world’s number one tourist destination. What we thought we knew about Grenoble’s  character would be proven by a very crucial and divisive political vote. Many people I think, held their breath, as the possibility of a misjudgment would only be revealed by that evening’s vote tally, and depending on the result, possibly exposed as well by the illuminating glow of hundreds of cars being set on fire in angry protest throughout many of the city’s troubled neighborhoods.

As it turns out, Grenoble’s longstanding reputation for solidarity with immigrants and foreigners once again shone through. A whopping 83 percent of Grenoble’s residents voted yes for Emmanuel Macron and a resounding no to the xenophobic and fascist National Front party echoed from the surrounding  verdant hills and craggy mountains.

Grenoble’s reputation remained intact. A city that has in its history been progressive, tolerant and welcoming to Protestants, Jews, and a host of other immigrants, once again rose to the occasion and defeated hatred and fear.  We thought we knew what we were getting when we moved here and entered into this relationship with Grenoble. And she didn’t let us down. She is at her core a place of refuge and reconciliation. And that is what we as His people, are all about in this crucial hour of suspicion, hate-mongering and tribalism that is polluting our world.  

Thanks for not letting us down, Grenoble. I talk to you as if you have a personality. And as it turns out, you do. And a pretty dependable one at that.

Nameless but not Unknown

The season has begun for the best sport ever created. I love baseball for so many reasons - some  practical and others nostalgic. And I have been a fan of the San Francisco Giants from my childhood until now. Something unique about the Giants that they share with only two other clubs, each of them as storied a franchise as the other, is the fact that when they play their games at home, the names of the players are not on the backs of their uniforms. I suppose the idea is that when you play for those who are your fans, they already know your name.

Being nameless is not always easy, though. Just ask the guy who let Jesus borrow his donkey so He could make his famous Palm Sunday trek into Jerusalem. That procession with  its thronging, adoring crowds is something that Christian churches still commemorate all over the world. Yet this event would not at all have been possible without this man’s generosity. And we don’t even know his name:

“Jesus sent two of them on ahead.  “Go into the village over there,” he said. “As soon as you enter it, you will see a donkey tied there, with its colt beside it. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone asks what you are doing, just say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will immediately let you take them.” (Matthew 21:2-3)

Two things stood out to me as I read it this week. The phrase “just say ‘the Lord needs them’” and the word immediately. I’m so impressed by this individual whose selfless and generous devotion to his Master only required a “Jesus needs it” and not only is it given no questions asked, it is given no minute squandered. It didn’t matter that the donkey could have been a primary source of income that day, what with all the visitors in town for the approaching Passover. Don’t worry about the fact that the colt was probably bred with care and not a little difficulty. Jesus is asking for it - so in return there’s no questions asked.

But what is ironic to me, is that this livestock owner’s demonstration of sold-out loyalty to the Savior in a crucial moment of His destiny did not warrant a mention of his identity in the Gospels. The Holy Spirit certainly could have brought it to Matthew’s otherwise limited memory or lame capacity to pass on credit. But we will never know his name.

Just like another key figure in the passion week story. I’m thinking of the landlord of the upper room. This time the disciples sent on ahead to make preparations are told they will find a “certain man”. And all they had to tell him was “The Teacher says my time has come and I will eat the Passover meal at your house”(Matthew 26:19) and it was better than done. What he gave, no doubt, were utensils, plates, basins, copious amounts of special food, lamb with herbs cooked until tender, and the best wine. And what did he get in return? Water on the floor from twelve pairs of dirty feet having been washed, a table strewn and stained with crumbs, slopped wine, gnawed bones as well as guests hastily departed to leave behind lots of messy dishes, and a room in disarray. And again, no name is recorded.  He too has remained anonymous to this day.

Both these stories beg a question.  Is what I have completely at Jesus’s disposal, all so He can both penetrate the walls of a city and the hearts of its inhabitants? Or so he can have a place prepared for his purposes to unfold? It may never result in my fame, but as long as it results in His, then it’s worth whatever I have to give up. Because in the end, my sacrifice always pales mightily in comparison to His.

God’s prophetic plans are continually unfolding, even today. So He quite often needs followers whose resources are immediately available. Who knows if one of His many important moments has come in our lives or for those around us. He may need what we have to get to a new place or to have a resting place. But regardless, we can be sure of this: He knows our name, even if the crowd doesn’t.  He is your biggest fan. And he never forgets what you forfeit. After all, it’s His applause we should be playing for anyway

Global Student Movement: A Slam

Tag Line
It's a global student movement
A powerful enduement
We're speaking to the nations with a message that is proven
A cause that's meant to move ya
'Cause God is speaking through ya
Either sending us into the world or bringing the world to ya

Our generation
We're so mobile
From Mobile to Guyaquil to Grenoble
We're over being selfish loners or home owners
Blindly ogling more bling and just staying put,
Prone to put down roots
rooting for the home team’s touchdown,
But down in our hearts we're not touched by much stuff anymore
Just down on everything and everyone who don't happen to be hometown.


We can't be patting ourselves on the back
if we keep putting on the back burner
the urgent need of the world
while we only think of how to splurge

like bigger and better bread earners and spurn
the fact that we were called to act and not just stand pat

Stuck in tit for tat
Never straying far from where our friends are at
What I'm saying is that
like stray cats
We're pilgrims made to roam and move and be going places that may lack a welcome mat
That's in fact where some of us need to be at

The call doesn't encompass poor cop outs
Where we  camp out on our campus quad outcrop
planning how we're gonna pass the weekend
or pass our next exam. Us?
God wants to amp us up to lend a hand,
our good works like a light set out on a stand. Understand
that our vision should be more than a canned rehashing
of the same old stagnant plans of man
that can't fulfill us like planting a church in Afghanistan can
Cause if it's all just about going through the motions
to get a paycheck, then hey you better check
your motives, man.

Are we capable of being deeply moved in our emotions
by owning up to the notion
that our future just might include people who live across the ocean?
OK, then let's shun the self-promotion
Cause It's not about me -o man
That's what's all the commotion
Is about. It's  way bigger than that. See

It's global.
As God's spirit blows across the globe,
It'll so both mess you up  and muster new hope
So don't have have the gall
To go and blow off this urge to go
your ego making you go and lowball
the Heavenly Father's higher call Acting like a know-it-all when all I know is
the cry of the lost bellows to us who are all here below to give our all so all can know the all-knowing One

Sure His plan has been moving slowly  but surely
but it doesn't mean I get all surly
Cause God doesn't owe me an apology or explanation
for why the nations are in the state the'yre in -
but surely Goodness and Mercy
are gonna follow us if we set out to be all about
winning for Him this entire world that's been spinning
since he first spun it in the beginning.
He's all about sending us out to be spending
ourselves for what he's planned as an incredible ending

A bonus to a life with a greater purpose he has shown us
So we own up that even though we're mature grown ups here
he's the true owner of us
and of all we dream and do
The onus is on us y'all, it's true

Only cast a glance at the planet
and if you can imagine the plan every woman and man it has on it
That's the tonic. And it's ironic how our narcissism is so chronic
that we care more how look through the lens of a Nikon
than through the eyes of God
emulating shallow pop icons
Our worship of self is at its root demonic
The Internet, we're always on it
Though we've sworn off it
We're like a dog returning to its vomit
hoping someone will like us on Facebook
Look, face up to it, we always show our best face
Unable to face up to our true selves
I can con you but it's unconscionable to conceive that you can
Even contemplate conning the incomparable Creator. Come on, man!

Take a minute to envision this: we need to have a strong sense of conviction
about the immense future he has for us without limit
which has to include the winning of lost souls in it
And it's infinitely better than we could ever imagine
or can have planned it. And it
is a plan
that's always managed to fashion from among mankind
ample examples of passionate
Christ followers fulfilling God's long-standing
goal that his people refined like gold
wouldn't gloat or self-promote nor admire how much we glitter
but liter-ally
be living letters for all to read with clearer understanding

Creation is groaning for our revealing
While the chic and powerful of this age ignore us
The long-gone cloud of witnesses gone before us implore us
To gain the prize, not being wise in our own eyes
but with a gaze galvanized on Christ
And not on the throw-away plans of a life
where we strive to be liked
Right, like don’t settle for more what’s like discipleship light


This up and coming generation.
It's time to get pumped up about what's coming up.
It should  give us holy goosebumps to know we are not just lumped
together with umpteen generations of students and teens
but we're unparalleled and unique!
God's end times go-to group. This genre of WhatsApp and GoPro gals and gents
bent on capturing  life on the go
Pro-moting the Savior
And acknowledging the call to go to all who don't know
That's something we have to do.
It's too urgent not to, bro.

God will give us the know-how
to make him known as we live sold out and solely for His renown.
That's what's going down.
So no, man, do I plan on napping when God is mappingout so many amazing things that are about to be happening.  Now.

Eat and Wake Up

Christmas budgets are most likely a bit higher in France than other places in the world. Not because shopping at FNAC, which is France’s answer to Best Buy, is any more expensive to purchase that iPad or bluetooth speaker. It’s because while other people are putting out only cookies and milk for Santa on the night of Christmas Eve, the French are spreading the table with some of the most expensive stuff you can find in the grocery store.

When the clock strikes twelve and a lot of the world is hunkering down under the covers to get a few hours of shuteye before the kiddos rouse themselves at the crack of dawn, in France, the party’s  just getting started. The Christmas Eve meal is the culinary highlight of the year for most French families. This is when they celebrate Le Reveillon, meaning "awakening" or "wake up", because it starts sometime close to midnight and normally goes on until the wee hours of the morning.

The whole family is expected to come together (historically after the Christmas mass - back in the day) to slowly and methodically plow through course after course coming out of the kitchen. And they really know how to flash their gastronomical savoir-faire, those French. A sampling of what eventually makes it’s way onto your plate before the night is done would be:  

Appetizer: caviar and oysters;

First course: foie gras (think really expensive and unbelievably fatty Underwood liverwurst spread)  and lobster;

Second course: escargot and scallops (also known as Coquille Saint-Jacques - just because it sounds more cool);

Main course: roast turkey with chestnut stuffing and some other type of wild bird; (like goose, pheasant, quail or guinea fowl);

Cheese course:  a variety of expensive and beautifully aged bleu, hard, soft and goat cheeses served with bread and nuts; and

Dessert: Buche de Noel - the traditional Christmas dessert which is basically a rich chocolate cake wrapped up into the shape of a Yule Log

If you ask me, finding a roll of Tums in your stocking late Christmas morning might be a necessity after a meal that rich. But it’s also true that good food and great memories go hand in hand in the land of Oh la la. And I think they may have got something right here.

A meal that long and that diverse is bound to have all sorts of great conversations, laughter and memories attached to it. It can maybe even bring a greater and truer satisfaction than any floor strewn all too quickly with ribbon, torn boxes and hastily shredded wrapping paper. In other words, big budget or not, it’s probably worth every penny (or sous, as the case may be).