Nothing Rhymes With Orange

I have a friend named Jill. Jill is a singer and 1/3 of the greatest band on the planet. She’s also soon to be a mom and she’s a nurse. Jill has a lot of jobs.

Jill often throws out tidbits of information that she learned from nursing and the other day while talking about post-operative protocol she says something that I think may be incredibly profound.

“If you’ve pooped, you can go home.”

Apparently, the criteria for whether or not you can leave the hospital after a surgery is whether or not you’ve gone to the bathroom. At first glance, maybe that sounds a little weird, but it got me thinking, “maybe there’s a parallel there.”

In ministry you spend a lot of time around people who say they’re one thing and turn out to be another. People pretend a lot in church world. I think the more I’m around ministry and church people, the more I’m convinced that it’s what’s inside that counts.

If you’ve pooped you can go home. What’s happening on the outside is not as important as what’s going on inside. If you’re right on the inside, the outside takes care of itself, but if something’s wrong on the inside you could be in real trouble.

So what’s going on inside?

Is everything ok with your heart?

Are you holding in anger or ill-will toward someone?

Is there a secret that you’re working way too hard to cover up?

If you’ve pooped you can go home. What matters most is what’s on the inside. Take care of what’s inside and the outside will be just fine.

I put my trust in Jesus when I was a senior in high school.

At 18 I realized I wanted more and connected with God through a church that my best friend went to. His dad is the pastor and when I walked in I was greeted with hugs and smiles. People were excited I was there. I saw people worship for the first time and was amazed at the sight of people who had a genuine love for God and showed it in the way they sung and lifted their hands. I was changed.

The problem was when I went to college I didn’t know how to walk with Jesus. I knew I wanted to be a christian and that I wanted people to know that about me, but I had no idea what that looked like.

Then I got involved in Campus Crusade for Christ (now Cru) and I was changed again. I learned why I believe what I believe and I stepped out in faith in ways I never had. One of those faith steps was a Summer missions project to Ocean City New Jersey.

I was surrounded by staff and students from all over the country. We lived together, worked together and shared our faith with thousands of people. It was there that I heard life lesson number 2; a truth that has stuck with me for the last 10 years and will probably be with me for the rest of my life.

Spiritual maturity is simple truths taken deeper.

Carrie Walker, a Cru staff member said this and it changed everything. Growing in my relationship with Jesus was no longer about outward appearances or an exhaustive knowledge of the Bible. It was no longer being able to solve complex theological concepts like the trinity or predestination.

Spiritual maturity became about how much I understood that God loves me.

The degree to which I know and internalize and live out of that truth is the degree to which I can and will grow.

The degree to which I understand that grace is given to me freely and that there’s nothing I can do to make God love me any more or any less is the degree to which I can sit and breathe and rest in His grace.

Spiritual maturity is simple truths taken deeper.

Do you know that you’re loved?

Do you know that grace is yours, given to you by God?

Do you know that you can have real intimacy with God through Jesus?

Maybe it’s time we stop trying to figure out all the big stuff and start living out of these simple, beautiful truths.

I’ve been thinking about my life recently and all of the experiences I’ve had; the mentors who have poured into me, the difficult times that have helped shape me and the amazing family and friends that I’ve gotten to share it all with.

I’ve thought about some of the things I’ve learned along the way and how I’d like to pass them on to my kids and to others as I go. To do that I needed to start categorizing these things and thinking through them a bit more. This is a process that I’m doing here on the blog. I’m calling it Life Lessons and my hope is that these are helpful to you as they have been to me. Some are really significant and some are funny, but these are all things that I notice coming up in my life over an over again.

Life Lesson #1: Reality is your friend

One of the great mentors in my life is a guy named Mike Berk. Mike helped me grow in my faith when I was a brand new Christian, he challenged me to put that faith into action and delivered the most significant message I’ve ever heard while I was on a summer project in Ocean City, NJ.

One of the things that Mike has always said to me is that reality is your friend. Before you can know where you’re going or even make a plan you have to take a realistic look at where you are. Having big dreams is important as those dreams push us forward in a great way, but in order to take an initial step in making those dreams happen you have to look at reality.

Reality is not always fun. Reality is rarely exciting. Reality can be a real pain in the neck, but reality is your friend.

We all have things we want to do; lose weight, find a dream job, climb Mt. Everest, whatever, but to get there we have to look at what’s realistic. Reality is your friend.

I love stage design.

I used to be afraid of Home Depot, but stage design has given me opportunities to face my fears and now, believe it or not, I kinda know how things work…some things.

So when Monday morning rolled around and it was time to start our new stage design I was psyched!

I had all the materials ordered, the tools were here and my team was assembled. As I pushed the man lift into the auditorium I thought to myself, “this is going to be great! This set change will go off without a hitch.”

A few moments later I was underneath a man lift, my hand wedged between the 400 pound lift and a chair. My leg was pinned underneath and I was dazed to say the least. 4 guys rushed over and lifted it off me.

I should mention here that I wasn’t trying to lift the man lift; I’m not a moron. I wasn’t trying to impress anyone with my herculean strength. I was told by someone how to use the machine and tilt it into a position where multiple dudes could lift it easier. I should have had help and should have listened to my gut (which was saying, “why are you doing this?”), but I honestly wasn’t trying to be a hero.

My friend, Micah took me to the emergency room and an hour later (believe it or not) I had 4 stitches in my right hand and a lot of people telling me it could have been a lot worse. They are right. At the risk of being super spiritual I’ve been praying for the last two years that no injuries or accidents or illness would come into my family and this could have been a broken hand at least and maybe worse. 4 stitches is pretty minimal.

I learned a couple of things from this process:

• Don’t underestimate the scope of your project
• safety really should come first
• no one thinks you’re awesome because you can move something heavy
• Asking for help means the job gets done quicker and nobody dies

For those of you who like awesome stuff I have included some pictures below.

If you don’t want to see it, look away.

(Before)

(after)