TJ Lawson

Five years.

As I sat on the stage last Sunday morning, I felt I was a part of something amazing, something note-worthy. It was the fifth anniversary of the EF-5 tornado that leveled the town I now call home.
From the stage I could see all of those who gathered together to worship and to hear God’s word proclaimed. God has been, and is present here. Seeing all of these people come together to praise, to pray, and to listen to God reminded me of that.

God is active. He is active in what he has done here to help the rebuilding process.  He is active in those who come here to serve and volunteer alongside us. He is active in the people who call this place home. He is changing us, his people, to help bring about a new place, his Kingdom—the Kingdom of God.

Are you a part of that? Are you being changed? What milestones have you marked?

I have been aware of Invisible Children for years. They have been a ‘cool’ non profit in college age and Christian circles for coming up on ten years now. They spent lot of time traveling, showing their films, and speaking at colleges around the country. Their stated mission has been to raise awareness of the use of child soldiers in Uganda.

Less than ten days ago they released a video. It exploded in a way that could not have been predicted. No one puts a thirty minute video on youtube and expects 75,000,000 views in less than ten days. In general, they have received a great deal of support. But they have also drawn some criticisms as well. I want to step into the fray speak to some of the criticisms they have drawn.

First criticism: They are not an aid organization.

This is mostly correct. It is true that they don’t have a primary focus to build schools, clinics, water wells, or any number of other things that aid groups do. They do some of this, but they are primarily around to raise awareness of an issue that most of us in the West are not aware of. This they have done very well, the success of Kony 2012 can not and will not be replicated. They are an awareness organization.

Second criticism: They are miss using the money.

This does not seem to be the case. Again, they are not an aid organization. They spend money on help to raise awareness of issues, so to say they only spend 1/3 of their money on the ground in east Africa is to show that spend much of the rest trying to fulfill their stated mission. From what I can tell they don’t draw huge pay checks or live in fancy houses. If you look at other large Non-profits based in the US can this be said. (Try googling CEO pay for the United Way or the Red Cross.)

Third criticism: Kony is not in Uganda anymore, so this video is pointless.

I feel like they make this fairly clear in the video, I am not sure why people seem to misunderstand that. Yes, he is not in Uganda anymore. But that does not mean he does not need to be stopped.

Fourth criticism: The issues in Uganda are more complex than made out in this video.

This should have gone without saying. It is a thirty minute video about an long, drawn out, and highly complex situation. It is going to be simplified. Uganda is a different culture with a history that most of us don’t know. To say they don’t have enough background is a given. Even a full length documentary would not really give you the full picture.

There are many things more that could be said, but I am not an expert on this so I won’t try to address these here. So why am I taking the time to address this? Because of sin in my own life. I am cynical. I know that cynicism can be a good thing, it makes you question and think, but it is so dangerous. Through our cynicism we can end up crushing work that people are doing to better the world. Do I financially support Invisible Children? Nope. Am I going to order a action kit? Nope. But the desire to crush anything that isn’t perfect is not going to fix our broken world. In fact our cynicism is hurting us. I think there is some value in conversations that are taking place around this. Before Kony 2012 when was the last news story that covered this? When was the last time someone even talked about Uganda and the on going struggles there?

As the church we should not let our imaginations be directed by callous cynicism that fights against good work. Would that God would shape us to be more like him. Would that we as the church would allow the Spirit to invigorate our imaginations with resurrection hope.

Great Links:

A Nonviolent Response to Joseph Kony -Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Thoughts on KONY2012 - Travis Curtice

Sorry for the delay. It is easy to get caught up with dozens of things it takes to get ready for Sunday and forget that you have a nail biting contest going on over at your blog. But bright and early Monday I sat down with my lovely wife and showed her the picture. I read all the captions that were submitted each one, she said, ‘oh thats cute’ or ‘oh thats funny.’ But when it came down to picking one she couldn’t. My wife is a very nice person and even though she didn’t know to whom the captions belonged, she knew someone would be getting left out. So she asked, ‘can’t we just give them all a book?’ Which the answer to that is clearly NO. If everyone gets one then nobody won. And where is the fun in that?

That is where random.org stepped into save the day. And it choose, or randomly selected, Number 2. So Ryan McCracken is the winner of Clark Pinnock’s book Flame of Love. Will be dropping that in the mail today. Thanks for everyone who jumped in.

In our increasingly postmodern world in which truth is always up for debate, it is refreshing to find dependable axioms that we can rely on.

• If a woman says, “Don’t get me anything for Valentine’s Day” she does not mean it.
• It is impossible to be underdressed at Wal-Mart.
• never get involved in a land war in Asia
• If you spill even a seemingly insignificant amount of water onto your computer, it may be ruined.

I have recently discovered that last one, which partly explains my hiatus from blogging. But being without a computer has taught me some thing.

I still need help. I needed a lot of help from other people to be ready for this last Sunday. Had it not been for their willingness to share the load and pitch in things would have been pretty rough.

I need a computer. While it is theoretically possible to work without one, it is hardly the same. I know many pastors are old-school pen on paper & printed page kind of people. I am not one of them. In fact when I do work that way, it is hard, unpleasant, and very frustrating. So don’t expect me to cash my computer in for artisanal paper & cloth bound books anytime soon. Though I do enjoy my field notes.

Here are some suggestions for you:

1. Check out this post by my brother on the canon (the collection of books we call the bible) & it’s role in the formation of New Testament theology. It’s challenging and enlightening.
2. A great post from Micheal Defazio about the what the church is.
3. Look at this picture of my son. Really look at it. He’s adorable, I know. I want you to come up with a caption for this photo. Post it below as a comment. Next Friday, I will ask by talented and attractive wife to pick her favorite and that person will be sent a FREE BOOK. I am giving away a copy of Flame of Love. I have two copies, so I thought that I should share. I will also invite the winner to participate in an informal online discussion (probably via Google Docs) of the book with my two brothers and I. We are reading through it together for Lent. So, get out your creativity caps and spread the word.

I will back in the saddle with a more substantial post next week.

During the first week of January my two brothers (Nathan & Stephen) and I got to spend a few days in the woods on a short hike. For me this is the culmination of a several year long goal. Not so much hiking during the first week of January with my brothers, but just hiking over night at all. The next several entries are going to recount some of the things I learned during this experience. 

We started our journey out late in the afternoon. Thanks to a tip from a Park Ranger we were able to jump on the trail only about 4 or so miles from a great campsite. We just had to cut over a small section of service road to get to the trail—a trail marked by blue diamonds. Seems like an easy enough task. Follow this laid out path and just keep your eyes peeled for the blue diamonds. But, of course, you know where this is going. As the sunset gave way to dusk which gave way to dark, we were lost. We weren’t far from the trail with no where to go, we were among a series of trails that were laid out in a pattern similar to that used for the mythic Labyrinth. We ended up having to double back three different times. Eventually, we each walked down separate trails and called out to one another in the dark. After all of that, and we still didn’t see any blue diamonds, we knew it was much harder than it first seemed.

The Christian life is like that. At first seems to be an easy path. Jesus even says something to lead us to believe this at one point, “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28). What happens to most of us, though, is that it is heavier and harder than we first thought. We stumble and fall, we have to double back, we find ourselves yelling to each other in the woods just trying to find our way. It is harder than we expected. This isn’t what we signed up for.

Yet I believe this is where Jesus wants us. We have to go it together. Had it just been me out there in the woods that night alone, I would have made my way back to the car and gone back to the closest Holiday Inn Express. I would have dropped my card on the counter and slept in hotel comfort. In the morning, I would have gone straight home and probably made up a story about why I quit (maybe a bear attack),  but I wasn’t alone, I was with my brothers. We were trying to find our way.While it may have been hard, it was worth it.
The next day was easier. We could see the way of the trail better with full sun light on us, and it was easier to see those blue diamond trail markers. But to call it easier is not to say that it was easy. We still got off trail a few times, and had to double back to get on course again. But when one person was in front charging ahead there was someone walking behind him and watching the same trail, someone to yell “off trail” when the leader missed the blue diamond.

This is the Christian life–helping to keep each other on the trail. We are able to enjoy the journey because it is not on us alone. There was one point on the trail where a large tree that held the blue diamond had fallen down. We missed it, and only found it one we doubled back. So we took the time to stop, get a couple of tools out and pulled that diamond off the fallen tree. We fastened it up where future hikers would see it and know this way is the way to life.

While the journey may be easier walking down a trail than trying to blaze a new one, make no mistake about it, it is still a long road. But you are much better for walking it. A journey that brings you closer together as brothers, closer to who God has called you to be.

Are you helping to make the Christian Life easier for those who are following you?

Are you walking the trail with others, or are you trying to go it alone?

During the first week of January my two brothers (Nathan & Stephen) and I got to spend a few days in the woods on a short hike. For me this is the culmination of a several year long goal. Not so much hiking during the first week of January with my brothers, but just hiking over night at all. The next several entries are going to recount some of the things I learned during this experience. 

I didn’t know that I was one of those people. You know, those slightly creepy people who go on and on about God’s creation. The people who seem to have a desire to thank God for each and every raindrop individually in their prayers.

As it turns out, I am one of those people.

I’m someone who needs to be outside. Someone who is connected and inspired by nature. I’ve been this way since I was a kid, but I figured that it was just childhood. What kid didn’t want to spend most of the summer playing, eating and even sleeping outside?

But I thought I had left that behind. Until a few months ago when my wifeJulie and I took the Sacred Pathways test again.  ‘Sacred Pathways’ is a book by Gary Thomas that lays out the ideas that different people connect with God in different ways. It sounds cheesy, I know, but I have found it very useful. I knew that I connected with God as an intellectual, through study, thought, and great conversation. That was how I connected to God. Julie and I took this test to see where we stood and to help us understand each other better. And I was… well taken aback by the results.

I know that people change, but surely I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t give up the great title of being an intellectual, a man who connects with God through study. Like Luther and Augustine before me, I was a man of  great thought and depth.  Yet here was this test staring me down, reminding me how much I love to be up to watch Kansas sunrises and sunsets and how big of a deal it is for me to get out near a lake, or by a river. So I had to face facts. Face who I was becoming. So Julie and I have made some changes, spending more time outside and making walks a bigger part of our life.

So in January when Nathan, Stephen, and I stepped out on to the trail I could feel myself drinking it in. The woods, hills, and trees. The puddles of frozen water that were caught between rocks on the trail. And as we made our way in the dark toward our campsite I could feel myself almost skipping and running across the rocks that were strewn across our trail. By the time we got to the campsite it was black outside, so we made a fire and pitched our tent in the dark. That night we crawled into the tent and I found myself enjoying the freezing, crisp, clean night. We could hear the howl of coyotes bouncing around in hills around Devil’s Den.

The next morning I woke up with the first bit of light that started to break through. The soft glow that is the predawn. I stoked the fire and made myself a cup of coffee and got to watch the sun rise from atop the bluffs we had camped (we didn’t know how close we were to the edge the night before). It is amazing how God’s creation cries out for him. It was an wonderful sight to see. It reminds me that I am still not done learning what God has to teach me.

Psalm 8:1, 3-4 (ESV)

“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? “

During the first week of January my two brothers (Nathan & Stephen) and I got to spend a few days in the woods on a short hike. For me this is the culmination of a several year long goal. Not so much hiking during the first week of January with my brothers, but just hiking over night at all. The next several entries are going to recount some of the things I learned during this experience. 

Planning for a trip like this is harder than one might think. Making sure you have everything; food, clothing, and gear. You certainly do not want to be about to sleep and realize that you forgot your sleeping bag or mat when it’s 25 degrees at night. Can you image how cold your hands would get without gloves? That extra pair of socks is going to really come in handy. So how do you keep track of all that stuff?

Enter the checklist. 

There are few things more powerful than a good checklist. A list that lets you know you have everything. That you are ready to go—that all your bases are covered.

There was a time I would have turned my nose up to checklists. “You can’t remember to grab 8 things when you walk out the door?” What’s wrong with you? You can’t remember to grab a few simple things? Are you that busy? That in a hurry? Then I read this article back in 2009 about how checklists save lives in surgery. So I have been using them more and more since then.

This whole issue has been made much more practical and daily for me since having a child. Going anywhere with a child is like moving a small army. Jed has a lot of accessories. All of them are  are essential. Food, extra clothing, diapers and assorted creams, toys, blankets, bottles, water cups. If you forget to bring that extra change of clothing, chances are really good that is the one trip out you are going to need it.

Without a checklist that brief trip into the woods would have been much harder. I didn’t bring a sleeping pad. Not because I forgot, but because I chose not to buy one. It was on my list but I made the choice. While it was a bad choice, I wasn’t mad at myself or anyone else. I wasn’t frustrated that it had gotten left behind. I just know now that next time it is not an option. I am sure without my checklist I would have forgotten and left behind more gear than I did. My list is better now too. Next time I go out the list is ready to go. And next time my list is more robust. My list for Jed is getting better with each trip.

Checklists may not be a biblical mandate but they sure are a good idea.

Have you found checklists to be helpful? Where in your life do checklists make the biggest difference?

A few weeks ago a friend had a great blog post about taking your life seriously. In it he mentions breaking his favorite mug, a mug he made himself that had two images and a verse on the inside that has helped to shape his life.

What struck me about that is a few months ago, right after I turned 30, I was carrying my son in one arm and my favorite mug in the other.  As we were getting out of the car he reached for it and got ahold of the rim and pulled.  Down to the floor of my garage it went. I have yet to clean it up, because, to be honest, I am a bit heart broken. (It is good to know that I am not the only one that morns the loss of a mug.) Why?

It was my favorite mug but it certainly wasn’t special.  It wasn’t personalized, it wasn’t rare. It was a small brown mug with thick sides. A mug that is found in hundreds of truck stops across this country. Not the nice new franchised truck stops, the old ones. The old ones in small towns that don’t see a lot of traffic anymore but still manage to serve a lot of coffee. The mug design hasn’t changed since the 70‘s. I’m sure you have seen one like it. Why would I be worked up to lose something so plain?

Because it is a piece of me. It’s not that my life is like a truck stop that is leftover from the 70’s. (Though there may be some truth to that.) That mug is so much more than a mug. It is about the many friends and conversations I have had with those mugs around. The time spent working life out. In places like The 24, the Smokey Valley, or that truck stop in Winchester, Kentucky that smells like fish. That mug was given to me by a friend with a great beard and a large heart. It is a piece of the life I have had up to now.

Jed knocking it to the floor is a reminder of the fact that it is not going to be the same anymore. It is time to stop figuring it out. Stop making a plan and start living. It is time to take my life seriously. To move forward. It is not that my past doesn’t matter or that those friendships mean less than they once did. It certainly doesn’t mean that I am going to quit going to crappy truck stops to drink bad coffee with good friends. It means that life has to be taken seriously. That life can’t be lived looking backwards. Not if you have a son in your arm. Not if you have your hand on the plow.

As New Year’s Day approaches it brings with it resolutions. These are not resolutions to any troubles we are currently having but rather that resolution to better yourself. Lose weight, eat better, read more. As Christians we sometime take that hard, even awkward, turn toward Jesus and say, “My resolution is to be more Christ-like.”
Which sounds great, the trouble is what do you mean by Christ-like?
Homeless?
Jewish?
Virgin Born?
Or do you mean Loving?
Teacher?
Generous?
Disciplined? So my challenge for you and for myself is tying everything we do to Jesus, including your new year resolution.

This year I am going to work on, blogging more. Which means writing more, which is hard for me. If you know me you likely know that I am very dyslexic. Yet if I understand blogging and writing as part of mission, which it is, then it gets to be a bit easier. It is a way to teach and proclaim the gospel. So I will blog at least once a week in 2012.

In 2012 I will continue running. While it may seem weird to say that exercise is part of mission, I think it most certainly is. When I run, I am connected to God in a deeper way. There is just something about being outside that brings Him into focus. I also think more clearly when I am running on a regular basis. So for me it is a question of doing what both helps to connect with God and help my thinking about God. It is a win win. So in 2012 I will make a point to run a couple of 5k’s and 10k’s.
What are your resolutions? How do they connect with Jesus?

2011 is nearly here. I am not really ready for it, but I don’t think you are ever ready for the arrival of your first child. I am excited, a bit nervous, but I will face it with my best bravado. That is really all you can do when you face an unknown like fatherhood. But the beginning of 2011 means that 2010 must come to a close.

With the end of a year coming it brings all the best of lists out. 2010 wasn’t a banner year for music, yeah Spoon and Josh Ritter came out with new records. But Justin Bieber and Lady GaGa kept making records so I think it was mostly a wash.

There is one thing that I think most folks let slip past them in 2010. The arrival of The Bad Revue. The Bad Revue is a project headed up by Isaiah Muller and Ryan Harvey, of The Winetree fame (keep your eye out for the Kentucky reissue with Hello Destroyers in 2011). The Bad Revue is a collection of singer/songwriters that write a new song for a different theme every few weeks. It is an amazing collection of creativity, I have not been able to stop listening. It is the playfulness and fresh approach that keeps me coming back. It is worth your time. These songs will help carry me into 2011, and may just make those long nights up and down with a new baby a little more bearable.