I spend more time reading Internet comments than is probably healthy.  There’s some sick pleasure about going to a random YouTube video and seeing how the comments quickly descend into inane arguments about Obama, Miley Cyrus, the Illuminati, or good ol’ racial slurs.  Who says the Age of Enlightenment is over?
I’m especially intrigued when the comments circle around matters of faith.  Sometimes, people present well-reasoned, thoughtful questions while other times, people just start talking about a flying spaghetti monster and insult your mother – and those are the so-called Christians!  But I remember one comment that distinctly stood out to me.  The commenter said, “How can Christians read the same book over and over again and not go crazy?  That is the definition of insanity.”
The commenter did have a point.  While the definition of insanity isn’t necessarily rote repetition, I can understand why someone might view doing the same thing over and over again fruitlessly as a sign of dementia.  But the key word in that statement is “fruitlessly.”  While I’ve read the entire Harry Potter series probably over a dozen times and the Lord of the Rings series nearly 20 times (as I’ve mentioned before, I was really popular in high school), none of these books have ever bettered my life, changed my heart, or helped me love my God and people more.
As Christians, we believe the Bible is the living Word of God – that God literally speaks to His people through the words written on these pages.  And I can personally testify to this truth – the times that God has spoken reassurances and peace to my heart through His promises in the Word, the times that God has revealed His heart to me through stories of His interaction with people throughout history, the times that God has challenged me and made me open my eyes to His truths.  Even reading the same exact verse but at a different time in life, I can hear God speaking different insights that I never had before.  This is the living Word of God.  This is how we draw nearer to our Father and grow in understanding of His character.  But we rarely seek out God’s word with that in mind.
My son loves the Disney movie “Cars” more than anything in this world and has about 100 toy cars to prove it.  He sleeps with cars, takes baths with cars, needs to have a car to ride in the car (how meta), will only eat with cars on the table next to him, cries for his cars when they’re not near.  And when you turn on the movie?  Oh boy, get out of his way.  Even though he’s watched it more times than I’ve read Harry Potter and the Hobbit combined (again, I did have friends in high school), he still loves it and never gets bored. In fact, he can watch the same scene over and over and he’ll still react the same way he did the first time he saw it.  I believe the reason my son can do this is because he really and truly loves “Cars.”  Randomly walking around the house, I can often hear him muttering to himself “I love cars.”  This is not a joke!  And this is why he can watch the same movie again and again – and not be qualified as insane.
If we had the same enthusiasm for Jesus as my son did for “Cars”, we would also approach the Bible with the same kind of excitement and joy we did when we were first saved.  Instead of approaching our quiet times or our Bible studies as something we “have” to do or an obligation to fulfill for the day, what would our spiritual lives look like if we loved the Word as much as we say we love our God?  If we truly believed that the Bible is God’s living Word to us, then reading it every day isn’t an exercise in repetition – it’s visiting with our friend and Savior, and seeing what new truth He has to say to us today.  So, call me crazy if you want, but I want to read my Bible every day.  Harry Potter will have to wait.

From Pastor David’s Heart
September 28, 2014

There are certain darker, more uglier aspects of our society that as a parent I would rather shield my 10 year-old son Julian from for as long as I can. For example, we want our children to grow up in a healthy safe nurturing environment so naturally we’re careful about what movies and video games they’re exposed to. But I’m not naïve enough to think that I’ll be able to shield him from every little thing. My son loves sports and lately even with that ESPN is depicting some pretty serious issues of domestic violence and child disciplining. Even matters of subtle racism will rear it’s ugly head from time to time, which is unfortunately what we encountered a couple weeks ago.
We recently attended a summer camp open house down off the North Carolina coast. Families were invited to visit the camp over the weekend and partake in all the camp activities. There was a zip-line, archery, target range, tennis, golf, motor boating and sailing etc. It was pretty neat- lots to see and do and experience. (although having to sleep on bunk beds in the non air-conditioned cabins that time of year was brutal for us adults).
Although the interaction and conversations with other families during meals and activities were polite and pleasant enough, we couldn’t help notice that we were literally the only non-white family among the hundred or so families there. No other asian or black families whatsoever. Everything seemed fine though. But there was one particular incident my wife Jennifer later shared with me when she and Julian were standing in line for the zip-line. Ahead of them in line were a few girls, about 8 or 9 years old. They were all uttering “ching-chong-ching” loud enough for my wife and son to hear. Jen could hear them making this obvious racial gesture even though Julian probably didn’t notice or realize what they were doing. He’s still naïve and innocent enough at his age thank God.
Jen was pretty offended by this but to her credit she didn’t say anything or make an issue of it. But that’s pretty brazen for white kids to tease not just towards some asian kid but to also do that to an adult. When my wife later told me about it she asked me if I thought she should’ve said something to them or told their parents or staff. In my opinion it wouldn’t have made any difference telling their parents since I would assume this kind of attitude is fostered by the adults.
So now this minor little incident places us in a different context of enrolling Julian in the summer camp next year. We didn’t create that situation but now we’re confronted by it. I can’t be sure how far something like this could escalate when he’s in camp by himself. It could be potentially devastating to him. It’s the kind of thing that I know I’ll have to talk to Julian about. Not sure what he’ll completely understand about it. Part of me resents having to even bring it up in this day and age.
I have to resist my personal reaction from my own negative experiences growing up and the subtle racial undertones I observed around Julian even in MD. But as a Christian parent how do I discuss this kind of thing in such a way as to not embitter him and thus defeat him, but inform him as to the messed-up way the forces of this world seeks to tear one another down? Showing that level of grace towards each other is a major challenge for adults let alone children. I have to trust that God will continue to watch over his heart and mind and allow him to emerge as a light to this darkness. To that I say amen.

From Pastor Mark’s Heart
September 21, 2014