HIGHER POWER

John 4:22-24
22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."



I work at a facility called Adolescent Center for Treatment (ACT) and we deal with drug and alcohol addicted teens. We teach many groups with the clients in attempt to lead them through treatment and most of these groups are developed around a 12-step program. We teach each kid the 12 steps and how to implement them and we encourage each kid to get a sponsor and we try to walk the clients through these steps on their way to recovery. As some of you may know, the 12 step model for recovery is very spiritual. It deals with many spiritual ideas and mentions God in over half of the steps, while every step focuses around getting right with God and getting right with people. (sounds an awful lot like Luke 10:27 huh!) Well, one of the groups that I teach is called “Upward Pathways” and it deals with coming to identify a “Higher Power” as they say in AA and NA groups. As I have talked with many students about identifying a Higher Power and the importance of that step in recovery, I have heard a confusing and disturbing response from several students on several occasions. The response is this; when being asked about who they would identify as their Higher Power many students have replied saying something to the effect of…”Well, I believe in God and all, but I wouldn’t call Him my Higher Power, I would say that my Higher Power is probably…” That shocks me every time, because in essence what they are claiming is that they truly believe that there is a being out there somewhere in the cosmos that is big enough and powerful enough to create this world in which I live and even create humanity and that this all powerful being is out there wanting to know them and be their “Higher Power”, to be their help, and they’re saying, “nah, I want my help, my “Higher Power” to be my sister or my boyfriend, or I have even heard one of these God believing clients say that their’s was their dog. I leave thinking, how can these clients make statements like that. I mean it makes no sense. I have actually put quite a bit of thought into this phenomenon. What I have come to realize is that these client have been told for years that thee is a God, a creator, or maybe through their own thinking and fathoming about our universe, our world they have come to conclude that there must be a creator, but they have never come to understand who God is. They have probably put very little effort into attempting to understand who God is. Their perception of God is that he is this great big magic character out there somewhere that created our universe and that there are theses weird people on earth that know some magic code and jump through all sorts of crazy hoops and follow all sorts of strict rules and so they kind of know God. That’s it! That is their understanding of God, which couldn’t be further from the truth about who God is. I truly believe with all my heart that if we could strip away all that we know or think or have seen from so-called God followers and strip away all that we think we know of God, and begin afresh with a true understanding of who God really is we would not be able to respond to him in any other way than to worship Him. Worship Him in spirit and in truth.

wwwooorrrrrryyy

Why do we tend to be worrisome and stress ourselves out? or, maybe it's not a we thing, but a me thing. All I know is that I find my self getting worried about stuff all the time and it is so stupid, because all it does is mess me up and make me faithless and irritable and impatient and selfish. It makes me so unproductive. Isn't it crazy that when we prescribe to worry it is in response to some pressing issue that we are unsure or stressed about getting resolved and yet this very common response to such issues, disables us from actually resolving the issue at hand. It is so counter productive. That is why the master of wisdom (Jesus) said in Matthew chapter 6:
...25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

There is also a song by a band called PAX 217 called "Free to Be and that song just soothes my heart and my mind when I feel stressed. I just put that song in and pump it out and say a prayer and I am on my way. The song is all about the idea that we are free to be with out worry. Like we wear worry like a set of shackles, yet we don't have to. We actually choose to imprison ourselves and hinder ourselves with worry. It doesn't make any sense, but I still do it almost every time there is any kind of dilemma in my life.
Not now though! I a, done worrying for today and hopefully for a long time and with the issue at hand, well, I am just going to have to trust and make sure that I do everything that i can to help resolve it. Worrying about it sure wont help. It just makes it worse! So, as my lovely wife would say, "EFF YOU Worry!.

In Christ,

No Haters... -Yo!

This week I was talking to my wife about other people using blogs as a venue to bash others and how I dont want to be like that. I dont want to be a "hater" by "hating" on the "haters", but I just dont want to use my energy and time to complain about what I can identify that is bad or wrong around me, I would rather be the type of person that that uses my words, and my thoughts to indenify and point out that which is good and right. Well, anyways, with all that said, I caught myself several times this week complaing about others and things and even bashing on things that I really didnt know very much about. I dont want to be like that and it is so typical that as soon as I take the time to be like, "I hate it when people are always bashing on something and when they use blogs to be a platform for their hate and their complaints" I then start catching myself being the same way. I guess that just goes to tech me that I ought to be more occupied with myself and my behaviors that are innappropriate than with others. Jesus said to the Pharisees when they were trying to bash on God's people who werent quite godly enough, "Before you point out the splinter in your neighbor's eye, first remove the plank fron your own eye" Of course those Pharisees didnt believe that those unworthy and lowly followers of a man named Christ were even worthy of being called their neighbors, so they were okay with judging them. Or so they thought! Anyways, I guess I just write this to share with you how God works in my life. Maybe it will someday resonate with somebody, maybe not, but I'm gonns just try to keep looking up and trying to be open with God and with others.
-- SEEK GOD!--
- Geoff

REAL

Real stuff is so cool. This past week at //epidemic we just had a few kids because the weather was bad on Sunday Morning. Anyways, I just kind of struck up some conversations and let them rum with some stuff, and next thing you know we stripped away all barriers and these kids were having real honest conversation. Kids talking and being honest about what kind of things they have done and what kind of things they see their peers do and where they draw the line and why they draw that line. Kids were actually being honest with their youth pastor with no shame about times they drank and did other stupid things. And it was so cool, the more I and the others didn't condemn and just listened, the deeper they went and the more honest they all got.
It was so awesome foe me because I have rarely had experiences like that. For some reason people have always had inhibitions about being open and shameless with me. Kids, especially, always seemed to hold back like they were afraid of what I would think or say to them and about them. In all honesty I guess that was all on me. I mean, I always said I was non-judgemental and I always felt like I was understanding and non-condemning, but there must have been something that was saying otherwise to the people that I talked with if they were afraid to be honest with me. Or, actually, now that I think about it, maybe it was because i always worked at churches that had a culture of hypocrisy and condemnation, and no matter how open or understanding I was as long as I was in the setting of those churches, that culture superseeded myself. Whatever the reason, all I know is that I didn't have it then and i do have it now and I like it alot!
All of us should strive to experince such freedom and honesty and openness in our conversations and relationships with others. We should try to develop and be a part of an atmosphere of honesty and acceptance. I ahve truly learned that people love when other people are REAL, but people will only be real when they know that their real self is going to be more than adequate for the person that they are interacting with. It is just so awesome to be apart of a community of people where this is a reality and not just an ideal, as it was in previous experiences.

fear...

"Inside my skin there is this space... Ittwists turns it bleeds and aches. Inside my heart there's an empty room. It's waiting for lighting, it's waiting for you. I am wanting, I am needing you here inside the absence of fear. Muscle and sinew, velvet and stone... this vessel is haunted it creaks and moans. My bones caal to you in a separate skin. I make myself translucent to you in, for I am wanting, I am needing you here inside the absence of fear. There is this hunger this restlessness inside of me and it knows that you're no stranger, you're my gravity..."
that is an awesome song by Jewel and it speaks so clearly about what I have been thinking about so much lately. How many things can I identify in life that I am to some extent discontent with, sometimes insanely discontent, and sometimes appropriately discontent, that I leave unchanged. Things that I let go and let grow because of FEAR. I am afraid of the work and the pain and the potential offense to others that might ensue if I take action and try to change those things with which I am discontented.

God, give me the courage and the strength to overcome my fears and make the necessary changes in my life...