Friday, November 14, 2008

Animal Head, Human Body

So I've just recently discovered that I have some sort of affinity for pictures of animal heads on human bodies. I realized this after The Creek last week. The title of the message was Human Hippo. The background I used looked something like this...

Upon further review I found a background for another message that looks something like this...


It's like I've got the Island of Dr. Moreau in my head. I don't think I'm ever going to wear a suit again...I should probably just do a message series called Animal Head, Human Body. What do you think?

Friday, November 7, 2008

God is...

God is awesome. He is bigger than my problems, my fears, my anxieties and my weaknesses. He can make my crayon scribbles an artistic masterpiece. He can take the pittance I give him and turn it into a tsunami of blessing in my life. He can take my distracted heart and love me with all his perfect and neverending might. I don't deserve him. He definitely doesn't deserve me, but he loves me. How did it ever work out that THE GOD - who made the universe, who made dandelions, who made the color blue, who made chocolate - loves us? We are a speck on a planet that is a speck in a solar system that is a speck in a galaxy that is a speck in the universe. I don't get it, but I'm glad he does. So glad.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Show Me Change

It's officially over! Barack Obama is our new president. It has been a historic election, and he is a historic candidate that represents not only the positions of the people who voted for him, but the power of the American ideal that says success is available to all Americans no matter their race, gender or religion. I think it's pretty cool that, regardless of political ideology, America has taken a giant step toward closing the book on stained portions of our history by electing an african american as our president.

I still see the yard signs for Obama that say, Show Me Change, and every time I do they make me think. I still have romantic notions that a political figure will be able to sweep in and change our country for the better, that one man will have the ability to unify us under the ideals that our nation stands for. But the truth is that while I hope for change in our country, I will have to see it to believe it. Politics is politics. You make promises to get power, and what you do with it is often a different matter.

But change is available for all of us regardless of the man leading our country. There was another man who brought change to the whole world. He didn't promise freedom from high taxes or from wars, but freedom from the the prison of our own guilt. He didn't promise to give us a more prosperous life, he promised to give us eternal life...abundant life...life as it was meant to be lived with purpose and destiny. He didn't promise to make our circumstances better, but to give us perfect joy no matter what our circumstances are. You want real change? Jesus is the only one who can give you that. He changes who you are. He changes who you will be. The old you us gone and a new one is waiting to take shape. That's change I can believe in.

He doesn't need my vote to change the world, but he has it anyway.