Hospitals are not Bed and Breakfasts

So late last night after studying statistics for a few hours at a local coffee shop, my chest began to hurt. It was a long sharp pain that worsened when i breathed. Thus, I was having a very difficult time breathing. I have felt this pain before and usually it doesn't last long and goes away with basic pain meds, but last night was different. The pain was agonizing, worse than I have ever felt before. I was scared to think that I, a twenty-year-old might be having a heart attack. My girlfriend (the sweetest girl ever, as decided by my previous post) took me to St. Mary's hospital. I did not want to go. My mom tried to convince us to call an ambulance, but I know what goes on in those torture vehicles (I promise I'm no conspiracy theorist, just scared of needles and other things. Plus the ambulance people are usually tough men without much sympathy and stick you good and hard. The nurses at the hospital are sweet and call you baby and honey and tell you what a good job you're doing breathing as they load an I/V into your arm). So she drove me to the ER. Throughout the course of the night about 5 different medical personnel asked me the same questions 1) what brings you here tonight, 2) can you describe your pain 3) how long has it been hurting 4) all sorts of medical questions...

Molly says "you would think they would communicate better so that they didn't all have to ask you the same questions." I believed that they do that to rule out lying and hypochondria, i.e. to see if I stick with the same story or if I'm trying to manipulate them into giving me drugs.

Well, props to Nurse Nina who took my blood without me even knowing it, and put me on oxygen. She was very sweet, but unfortunately her shift ended at 1 am, so Thomas, also a cool dude, filled in. He was the one who gave me the pain meds, so I liked him. Jim, a nigerian man, took my x-rays. Kathy asked all of the important registration information like insurance, religious preferences... let me just say that that freaked me out because I am openly a Christian, but i thought she was implying that I was going to need someone to make final peace with. I said my Pastor's name is David Wood. She didn't really care. It was just a simple question... My Dad showed up to take care of me and all the insurance stuff. He drove an hour without any idea where this hospital was. I believe the Holy Spirit led him once he got to athens. Once he got there I gave Molly the chance to leave and go to bed since we both had class to go to this morning, but she didn't. She stayed the whole time. Aunt Les, she is a keeper! Dr. Berman was a short creepy kind of man. He scared me. He also didn't seem to be much help in fixing the problem, just ordering me meds for the moment. He was nice though.

After so long they came back and told me what they thought was going on. The EKG did not show anything abnormal so it was not a heart attack (Praise God!). [BTW, EKG stands for -electrocardiogram. Why they have a 'K' and not a 'C'? Dont ask me! They're the professionals] My breathe rate was very fast as my breathing was quick and shallow and my heart rate was up. So what's wrong with me? We all were in suspense and wanted know. Dad joked about it being gas. Ha Ha. No. Apparently, there is some inflammation that is making my organs and my ribs push together causing all of that pain. They prescribed me some anti-inflammatory drugs and sent me home. Now we wait... I have not gotten the drugs yet, so I am still in pain, though no where near as bad as last night.

A Barista's Eyes: the sweetest girl ever!

So this post is a simple shout-out to my girl Molly. She frequently visits me at work, hangs out while i'm working and makes it fun! All of co-workers love Molly, especially Mark and Imaad. I kind of think she has a crush on Mark ;) Just Kidding... I hope. Sometimes I work the crazy shifts where I have to wake up before the crack of dawn to make tired people (uh me too!) their coffee. Well 5:30 am is a bit early for her to come and visit, but promptly at 5:20 I recieve a text message from her wishing me a great day at work and reminding me that she is praying for me. She sets an alarm to do this and then goes back to sleep (could you blame her?). 

I told my co-worker Erica about this early morning text and she said "aww she is the sweetest girl ever!" I could only grin and agree. So there you have it, the sweetest girl ever is my girlfriend. I am blessed beyond any fathomable degree of measure.

Wise Folly: Stewardship and Resource Management

Biblical and Practical Leadership Part 1: 

"Remember how short my time is!" Psalm 89:47

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
 a time to be born, and a time to die;a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal;a time to break down, and a time to build up;" Ecclessiastes 3:1-3

"Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." Ephesians 5:5-17

"Keep this...appointed time from year to year" Exodus 13:10

This comes from a learning college student who understands the fruit of this particular issue, though not a well seasoned expert on resource managment...

I believe that as you study the Bible you will find great wisdom about many a thing including leadership. Great leadership is not about power and authority. Leadership is not about being in the spot-light. What does it take to make a great leader? Here are three things that I will discuss in basics about Biblical leadership, which proves to be quite practical for even you skeptics: Servant-hood, example leadership, and stewardship and resource management.

I choose first to talk about the last, stewardship and resource management, because it is probably the biggest practical issue we all face. How do I cram so much into so little? Time and money being the biggest resources to be allocated. Let me start by saying that this is a biblical principal. Resource management is Biblical! I am not speaking as an expert, just as someone who has figured out the hard way in college that it is necessary. When you have 3 tests to study for, 2 projects to do, teenagers to teach, a job to do, and friends to hang with you have to learn to manage your time otherwise you could end up screwing up the most important of your priorities. Yes, that's rights priorities. You must prioritize. Seriously, start every week with time set aside to budget your time for that week. Let's face it, hanging with friends isn't as important as acing that Greek test, and even that is not as important as spending time for spiritual propulsion.

Scripture also talks about organization. God is not a god of chaos! Why should we let our lives be chaotic? Be organized. Be prepared. The practical illustration goes something like this. You have a jar that represents the totality of a specific resource, say time. Anything that can fit inside the jar you have the time to do. You have rocks, pebbles and sand representing your priorities, rocks being the largest represent the main priorities (time with God, work, studying), pebbles represent the lesser, and sand the least (playing wii for five hours). If you start with your jar full of sand you cannot get the rocks in the jar, let alone the pebbles. However, if you carefully place each rock into the jar, and then let the pebbles fall in around them you still have room to pour the least important sand (all of it if you measure carefully). In fact, you can then even take water and pour it in slowly. This common and simple illustration shows that we are poor managers of our resources. Take financial budgeting for instance. If we do all of our fun and frivilous spending at the beginning of the month we will have to scrounge together the money to buy groceries, pay and bills, and tithe. But if we prioritize, put God first, then pay our bills, and even give others an opportunity to recieve from our generosity, we will better manage our resource of money.

The leadership application. It's simple you can't lead others effectively if your resources are ill-managed. You just can't! It is bad both in practice as you give time  to your areas of leadership (if you mismanage something important and vital could be neglected) and in the example you set as a leader (which will be a whole 'nother segement of Wise Folly). Time is a very limited resource. We cannot, no matter how hard we try, add more time to our days. Our time is short and precious. We cannot waste it. Paul even says in Ephesians 5 that to not understand this is to miss the will of the Lord. Biblical Leadership.

Here is the "exception". Leave space in the margins.

Plan your whole day, week, whatever, hour by hour, minute by minute if you have to. But leave the margins of your paper (figuratively and literally) empty. This means that you have extra "down time." This is kind of like planning for spontentaity, but not that extreme. The margins allow you to be spontaneous yet still aware of your obligations. You can be a little off schedule every once in a while if you have a margin to fall back on.

And don't forget about the sabbath principle. Every body needs a day of rest...

A Barista's Eyes: There is no 'short-cut' to God

Co-workers are always interesting. We have all heard our fair share of complaints about people that other people work with. "Suzie keeps such a disgusting cubicle" or "John is so annoying with his endless questions, how is he keeping this job?" or "can you believe Jeff? He got a raise, and for what? He is the laziest person..." We all know crazy co-workers with habits or beliefs different than our own who either grate on our nerves or leave us scratching our heads thinking "Did that really just happen?" I myself have worked with some very interesting people. Maybe one day I will tell you all about each character, but today I want to talk about one man whose name I will change for his sake: Carl (this is all true except for the name change).

While we were working together, Carl approached me with a loaded question about God. He asked about the history of mythology "christ-like" stories that existed in mythologies before the time of Christ. I answered him with more specifics than he gave me about the stories, such as Isis, Horace, Dionysis, etc... Anyway, the details don't matter too much except to say that the myths of these stories contain "virgin birth" and resurrection. My response was three-fold. 

1) the reality is that some of these stories were changed to be more messianic immediately after the time of Christ to protect the Roman state religion (which was directly adapted from Greek mythology and was common practice along with the speaking of the Greek language) as well as during the Romanization of Christianity and acculturation of it as the Roman empire spread. Basically they took the Christian stories and melded them with local religion to accomodate all parties. This resulted in a Horace who was virgin born, a dionysis and hercules who resurrected, etc... (Originally Dionysis and hercules died and their spirits went to live among the gods for their valiant heroism and demi-god heritage, but later there are some resurrection stories)

2) keep in mind the historocity of the stories. The Greek, Roman, and Egyptions myths are stories without any valid historical references or supporting contexts. Even the followers of those state religions believed them only to be myth. Jesus however, is undeniably a historical figure and though many people hate to admit it, there is too much proof of his resurrection to deny it as a historical event. The number of eye-witnesses, the multitudes of changed lives who lived and boldy stood and died for what they saw. For more about this historocity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, check out the work of Gary Habermas.

3) I am not a pluralist by any stretch of the imagination. I believe that faith in the sinless life, vicarious substitutionary death, and glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ for our redemption from sin (not just its penalty!) is the only way to God. However, I also believe that the innate belief of spiritual things by all people, including the people who first wrote these myths and then those who followed them, points the fact that there is indeed a God. Of course there is so much more ground to be covered to testify that that God is the God of the Bible, but the apologetic argument and proof uncannily exist.

Well as it turns out Carl really like the logic of my response. He said "too many Christians hide behind faith to cover up their ignorance, but you seem to have at least thought through this." 

Carl is not a Christian, he does not call himself a Christian, but he believes that he believes in God and Christ. Rather, not that he has faith, but that he knows undoubtedly and therefore cannot have faith as faith has the implication and possibilty of doubt. Please follow with me and don't yet jump to conclusions.

About ten years ago, Carl left his parents christian "religion" and identified as an atheist. Then, in a set of strange circumstances was brought to a south-american shaman. basically a cult witch doctor. This WD put together a special "tea" (as it was called, but Carl described it as more of a putrescent liquidious paste). Carl and a few companions consumed the tea and got very sick. Carl says he was vomiting for hours, and then when he believes all of his impurites were gone, everything around him disappeared and everything was silent for a moment. Next what he experienced he believes to be the mind of God. "I was in the mind of God!" he said "it was incredible the thoughts and wisdom and greatness." Carl cannot describe anything specific, nor can he truly recall the feeling of what he experienced. He swears it was not a hallucination (previously in his life he did a lot of drugs so he says he would know if it were. I still believe it was). Carl calls this his short-cut to God. He no longers has a "need of faith" he says  as he "knows God exists and knows Christ exists" as he has "been in God's mind and experienced his thoughts." 

Carl was very serious in telling this to me. He trusted me not to mock him, so i did not (though I had some concerns with his theory that i expressed to him). He truly believes that he experienced a short-cut to God. No doubt, drugs are tied into spiritual things, but not God. There is spiritual wickedness out there seeking to decieve and corrupt the people God would save. Also remember Jesus said "no one comes to the Father, except through me" (John 14:6).

Tell me what you think...

A Barista's Eyes: Don't I know you?

In case you all did not know, I work as a Barista for Starbucks coffee. I have for over 2 years actually. Well in this line of work its more than delicious beverages and jolly times, this is a line of duty where you can meet some very interesting people, to say the least. Some people are crazy about their drinks (what they order, the way they order, etc...), some are complainers (which I loathe when it is done for its own purpose), some are mean, some are super nice, and one insists that she knows you! 

So on an average night during the summer our store tends to be slow of business. Tonight was an average night. My co-worker Imaad and I were having a good time talking while we worked. Imaad and I have many stimulating conversations about pop-culture, politics, philosophy, religion (Imaad is a Muslim so these conversations are straight up insightful, not inciteful), and crazy moms.

Around 9:40 a girl comes in. She doesn't order anything, but comes up to the counter to talk to Imaad. She asked him where he was from and what high school he went to because she was convinced that she knew him. Well, the high school thing wasn't it. She then began to go through what seemed like her whole life story to see if he fit anywhere in it. Did you ever go to this place? Have you ever eaten at this restaurant? Have you ever heard of this company? Have you ever been to this state, or that country or flown on this airway? Did you go to a wedding about two weeks ago in Duluth? 

To all of these questions the answer was no. While all of this was going on, I was minding my own business cleaning and making drinks. The five customers in the cafe were all aware of the hilarious interrogation going. They were whispering and staring and laughing from  time-to-time. In my mind I was thinking "maybe you know him because you came in here three hours ago and he made you're drink?" Apparantly there had to be more...

Finally, as if this wouldn't have been the best place to start, she says "you know, I work for Starbucks too!" Hmm. Interesting. 

"Well where do you work?" asked Imaad

"Oh, all over. Lots of different stores," she said as she proceeded to list off a few. As it turns out they were stores near stores that both Imaad and I were familiar with. So the interrogation continued. "Do you know this person? or that person" "No" 

"Have you ever worked at this store or that?"

"No, but my brother did for a while"

"Oh does he look like you?"

We both shake our heads as Imaad says "haha no"

"Well one night I will wake up in a cold sweat remembering where I know you from" She finished

 finally she left, giving us her card to call her if we had any hours to give away (which we dont! We are all struggling as it is!)

Once she had passed through the front door and everyone heard it close it seemed like everyone in the store synchronized said "Oh my God!" including Imaad, a girl and two guys at a table, a funny old asian man, and myself (with the euphomized 'Gosh' replacing God) and then they all laughed.

The girl was straight up crazy and wasted so much of our time! We went on the rest of the night to joke about these things and others. My thoughts? Well i think she just wanted Imaad really bad and couldn't bring herself to leave.

Grace, forgiveness, and restoration

Have you, Christian and non-christian, ever seen a family on the brink of disestablishment, about to be torn apart because of the unfaithfulness of a parent and spouse? Yes, I believe that affairs followed by divorce are growing in their commonality within our culture. It hurts! so much it hurts! It cuts to the deepest places of our heart and soul and leaves wounds and scars that serve as a reminder of the diservice done. These wounds and scars seem to have a very appropriate place within our lives and I have a hard time not justifying them, but two days ago I got to experience healing.

Grace Baptist Church is a family. We go through hardships along with our joyous moments. We praise together and we mourne and weep together because that is what families do! Well this past Sunday, a dear friend came back. He came back to our church and back to his family. After a long time of playing cat and mouse in councilling and seeking repentance (let me just say that God works and just because things don't turn around on the timeline we want God is still powerful) he apologized to our whole family (church) very specifically. He asked his kids for forgiveness, he asked his wife for forgiveness, he asked our pastor for forgiveness, he asked our whole family for forgiveness. I wish I could accurately verbalize what we experienced. I believe it is a glimpse of the truth and promise of Freedom!

Yes, we were all crying. Tears of grief and sorrowful joy. I love this friend. Don't let anyone tell you that their choices don't affect anyone else! That is the farthest thing from the truth. My sin hurts everyone around me, especially those who look up to me.

We had the blessed opportunity to open the scripture and seek God's encouragement in this difficult and joyous situation.

"Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it (righteousness) my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it on my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way..." (philippians 3:12-15)

God's grace is so awesome! We need to see that. And when we see how awesome God's grace and forgiveness is to us (I deserve what? eternal damnation because of what I do to God and everyone else every day of my life. I lust. I'm dishonest. I cut you down with wicked words) we can give it to our brothers and sisters who need it. After all " if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (Matthew 6:15).

When you open your heart to forgive there can be restoration, reconciliation and healing. We are not there yet, but we are on our way...

"Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness... Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:1,2)

The happiest moment I have had in a long time was when this brother and I embraced and cried, he in my chest and I on his shoulder. And in fact I am crying again as I write this...

Summer Lovin'

The following is encouragement to all of us out there struggling in sin and temptation. Our brotherhood is endeavoring to gain freedom from our deepest struggles and one particular brother has issued us a great challenge. The following is my response:

Regarding the challenge Brian has issued on acountability for our brotherhood this summer. We are indeed facing much temptation, but as we all know from scripture as well as experience 

"there has no temptation taken us, but such as is common to man." 

Yeah we all face the same things, and our temptations and failures are nothing new under the sun. And thank God for his promise that 

"he is faithful and will with every temptation provide a means of escape so that we will be able to bear it."

 How many times have we seen these provisions of escape come and go, as our flesh learns to ignore the spirit and push us into sin? Too many. Embrace the spirit's provision. Every time you are about to fall into your same habitual sin, whether it be sexual or not, listen for the name of God, a scripture that comes to your heart, the vision of your mother or girlfriend being disappointed in you... Sometimes God's way of escape are more blatant, like a roommate knocking on your bedroom door to ask if he can eat your oatmeal right as you are about to give into temptation. 

Also remember, Our Lord Jesus is our high priest and we have are blessed that our advocate knows every struggle we face in a very real way. Remember Jesus was a man! Jesus never sinned, but I believe the reality of his manhood caused him "to be touched with an understanding of our infirmities" and yet "he was tempted in all points like as WE are, yet without sin"

The best [sin] council i ever got was from my Pastor who said, "just stop it! Have you ever read Romans (the same passage that Brian pointed out to us)? You DON"T have to SIN ANYMORE! So STOP!" 

What a truth! Stay encouraged men and keep fighting. As that very cliche disney movie says "we're all in this together!"

With Love as Deep (and deeper)and as salty as the Dead Sea,

Rob