On Fasting

As with many things, if its good enough for Jesus its good enough for me. Fasting is a denial of self to focus on God. Giving up food, something we need, helps us to concentrate on something we need even more; the grace of God. Jesus was quoting the Old Testament when he said “Man does not live on bread alone but by every word of God.” Fasting reminds us of what we need the most.

There are several things about fasting that can be tricky. Jesus warns us elsewhere to not appear pitiful while fasting to get attention. We also shouldn’t use that time we would normally eat to be super-productive either. Many religions fast. Lots of people don’t eat simply to shed calories. What differentiates fasting from merely skipping meals is what you do instead- connecting with the Living God. Check out this quote from Thomas Merton…

"The goal of fasting is inner unity. This means hearing, but not with the ear; hearing, but not with the understanding; it is hearing with the spirit, with your whole being. The hearing that is only in the ears is one thing. The hearing of the understanding is another, but the hearing of the spirit is not limited to any one faculty, to the ear, or to the mind. Hence, it demands the emptiness of the faculties, and when the faculties are empty, then your whole being listens. There is then a direct grasp of what is right before you that can never be heard with the ear or understood with the mind. Fasting of the heart empties the faculties, frees you from limitations and from preoccupations."

Now, as someone who loves more than his share of food fasting can be tough. Part of it for me is surrendering the privileges I enjoy of being able to eat whatever I want, whenever I want it, and how much I want of it. A privilege that works to my disadvantage. I’m attached to food, not only for nutrition but for enjoyment, and often for social purposes as well. Fasting detaches me from my need and allows me to focus on God. This purposeful disruption is an ancient discipline and something that countless saints have utilized in their walk with God.

So, what do you think? Do you fast?

This never gets old

I have lots of stuff to talk about, but right now I'm at church getting ready for youth group. This ad will always be funny to me:

Ol' Bessie rides again

My trusty workcamp hat: 5 workcamps, including two trips over the
border. Smelled like it too until Sarah made me wash it.

That's My Girl!!!

Timber

First day on the job site

Here in Houston...

A survey of our first day at work: Matt finds an old bottle of booze, Dan finds a skull, Cody (our native Texan) shows us what flesh-eating plants to avoid, and zombies attack. It was a pretty full day

hard @ work

Time to go to work

Expectations

I'm currently in Houston TX on a workcamp with High School students. Right now everyone else is asleep. I am not. My airmatress slowly deflated.

Upon unwrapping and after initial inflating we discovered a hole. No big deal, patched it up, I'll inflate it before bed. Bedtime arrives. Airmatress inflated. I then discover a 2nd hole, which I taped ferociously to no avail.

So, I decided to blog before bed.

The greatest thing about workcamp is it defies people's expectations. Jesus did that a lot, that was the focus of our devotion this evening.

In our world, you work to get paid. You don't pay money to go work. The latter is precisely what we're doing. I love that.

We start at our worksite tomorrow, check lwyouth.org for mobile updates.

Our host church has been awesome. Tonight we even had a true-Texan crawfish boil!

Ok, I'm off to try and make my way to an empty couch. Peace, and sleep well!

Houston here we come

Good weather starting Monday!

Sweat Shop

30+ kids showed up to make blankets, making me feel like I'm running a
Kathy Lee Gifford child labor operation

5 Guys: Doin how they do

So, maybe its bad that my past three posts have involved food...

But a new place opened up around here, with another on the way. It's called "5 Guys Burgers and Fries". The food was really good. But what I really enjoyed was the menu:

They sell burgers. They sell fries. (now, they also have hot dogs, and I think a grilled cheese for kids or something)

But the menu is simple. That is what they do. Check out one of the FAQ from their website:

Q: Does Five Guys plan to add any menu items (i.e. milkshakes, chili, etc.)

A: Five Guys does not currently have plans to add any items to our menu. We follow the philosophy of focusing on a few items, and serving them to the best of our ability. If we were to add to our menu, then you can guarantee that we would only do so if we could serve the highest quality product possible. For example, there are a lot of great milkshakes out there, and at this point we think that others are doing it better than we could!

I find this very refreshing. 5 Guys does their thing. They're not trying all sorts of new stuff. McDonalds is not a coffeehouse. Taco Bell is not where I want to get a smoothie. Pizza Hut is not where I want to get dessert, or pasta. Dominos is a pizza place, not a sandwich place.

5 Guys is a burger place, thats what they do. They're not trying to offer everything thats trendy or cut into their competitions niche.

I'm normally not a "taking something from the business world and applying it to life" sort of guy. But this really got me thinking: As a person, how much time and energy do you spend trying to be someone else, instead of just doing what you do best?

FREE QUIZNOS

http://www.millionsubs.com/Reg.php

Stuff that is awesome

Genghis Grill. Build your own Mongolian Bar-b-que. New location opened in Ellisville, and one coming in Kansas City! The place is ridiculous. Pick your meat. Pick your veggies. Pick your sauce. Enjoy. They give it to you in these cool bowls, and I always make mine too hot but still so good when it hits your lips!

Barnes and Nobles Website. Curious to see if they had a book in stock, you can check right from the site. Then, you can reserve it. Within ten minutes I got an email saying it was behind the counter for me. Drove to the bookstore on the way to a meeting, picked it up. Bam!

Kitchen Tables. Sarah and I recently got a small little one, after replacing the one someone generously gave me. Unfortunately that table never was screwed down, so it was a balancing act. Now we can eat meals like real people and actually talk.

Speaking of tables...

The Open Table. Recently I've had a string of conversations with people really wanting to investigate more about God. About the same time I read about the open table on Don Miller's blog. Now, I totally have drank Miller's kool aid just so everyone knows. But I normally don't go ga-ga over curriculum. But this seems to be really good. Got the book and the DVD set, and plan on having some get together's using this stuff.

The Return of the Prodigal Son. By Henri Nouwen. Almost done with it. This is my first Nouwen book, and its really good. We'll be using some of his exploration for a youth retreat in September.

Danny Gokey. He's humble, he's got a heart wrenching story, he's a great singer, he's a church music director, and he rocks the glasses. Plus, factor in the blonde highlights, the last name "gokey", and he's still cool? Danny, a hero lies in you.

Burning Questions: Do only those who believe in Jesus go to heaven? Or can non-Christians be saved? Part 2

Alrighty,

In the last post on the subject (longer ago than I wish) I discussed how an "exclusive" approach to faith is not necessarily bad in and of itself.

So now the question: Does everybody besides Christians go to hell?

Most of you might know what I'm going to come with next: Jesus seems fairly emphatic that no one comes to the Father except through him. Posts like this sort of make me cringe, and so do all the times when Jesus talks about Hell in the New Testament.

*Possible Cop-Out Alert* I guess my answer to the above question, is "I hope not, and I'm glad its not up to me"

I will say this: Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism are not the same thing as Christianity. To say that all paths lead to God is, to me, insulting to all parties involved. I don't see how any one really thinks that- Buddha and Jesus do not claim the same things. So the Buddhist and the Christian should take issue to that popular statement, or some picture about blind men and elephants.

I will say this: Jesus speaks explicitly about lots of people who think they know him, but don't. I find this terrifying. Jesus also speaks of very religious people happy to get attention but not really caring about other people. I think there is a lot of Christians out there who will be disappointed that Hell didn't have a few more places reserved.

The duty of the Christian is to love. Sometimes that love might mean talking to somebody about their beliefs, and what they think of ultimate destiny. Other times that same love might compel you to be patient with someone; knowing that some discussions could wreck a trust that's been built. I will refer you to Penn's video below, where he asks: "How much do you have to hate somebody NOT to proselytize them?"

At any rate, I believe this conversation can take place in any relationship where there is mutual respect and trust. It's when those things aren't present, in my experience, that emotions escalate and love deteriorates.

"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

Stories

So my Dad's got this story he told me one time. Someone just randomly came in his office and said they had $300 they'd like to donate to whatever Dad thought the church needed. They didn't have some specific place, just had the prompting to bring it in.

Two hours later, a desperate family comes to Dad at the end of their rope, in need of...$300.

Crazy!

I'm trying to get him to send me the story in more detail, because I think it is so neat. I would love to compile stories of times we've had encounters with God, when just absolutely crazy things have happened.

So if you've got one, please send it to me! I'd love to put it up on here, or even somehow compile these into a book for my coffee table or something.

adam (dot) mustoe (at) gmail (dot com)

OUTRAGE!

IS NOTHING SACRED?

They are "remaking" the Karate Kid.

Check out more: here, here, and hear it straight from Daniel himself representing here.

Lets see, here's a list of my favorite childhood movie franchises:
-Star Wars
-Indiana Jones
-Karate Kid

THE FIRST TWO HAVE ALREADY BEEN RUINED, PLEASE, IF JUSTICE EXISTS LET DANIELSAN BE!

This is unconfirmed, but I'm pretty sure I was the first in North America to purchase the Karate Kid boxed set when it came out; I was at Wal-Mart at midnight, shocked by the lack of fanfare. I thought I was a big fan, until my co-worker Chris came in with the soundtrack today (impressive), and told me about this remake.

The Karate Kid does not fit into the trend of "recasting" series ala Batman/Star Trek. It was a magical moment in time that cannot just be pillaged by some jerk producers looking to pimp Will Smith's kid.

Heartbroken,

-Adam

Burning Questions: Do only those who believe in Jesus go to heaven? Or can non-Christians be saved? Part 1

This is another in our series of questions people ask, and its a doozy. We talked about this on Sunday and again on Wednesday. I'll try and break this up, because I know most people don't like reading long blog posts.

Here's the thing. In our culture, where most Americans take a "buffet" approach to religion; one of the most reprehensible traits is to be "closed minded" or "exclusive". By responding "no" to the question of "non-Christians going to heaven" most folks would react as if you had just used a racial slur.

If you watched the inauguration speech, you know that our country has changed/is changing, its different than most generations have always viewed it. President Obama referred to our "patchwork" society of many different races and faiths. I think this is cool, so don't hear me saying its not. At the school where my wife works they had a "passport night" where different families with different heritages set up booths about their country and the kids go around visiting the different booths- eating the food, making a craft, checking out the traditional garb, and getting their "passport" stamped. It was incredible. There was a ton of people there and from all over the world...all going to this school in suburban St. Louis MISSOURI. Missouri, a bastion of anglo-culture (you may know my stance on Branson being the white-people's Mecca) can be an extremely diverse place if you start to really look around.

Anyways, my point is that in our society to be seen as "exclusive" is one of the worst ways to be viewed. That's what makes this question so rough. "Are you going to be so arrogant as to claim that Christianity has a monopoly on truth?" So we champion diversity in our American ethos, but how else does that play out existentially? Is exclusivity really a hateful thing? I would argue that it is not, and in fact can be a very loving thing.

Our most important relationships are all exclusive. Thats what makes marriage so special. You are saying "I am not concerned with what else is out there, I choose you." Another way of putting that might be, "Sarah, you have a monopoly on my love, attention, and care." It's not up for grabs. In this sense, love is exclusive; because love is particular.

When Sarah and I were looking at dogs, we went to the mall (mistake I know, kind of sad, and definitely overpriced). Did you know that a lot of these mall pet stores have like, replacement policies? In other words, if your puppy gets sick and dies within 30 days don't worry, they'll replace it for free! Oh ya, try that one with your 10 year old: "Here Tommy, Scooter the puppy you've loved for a month died, but look, here's a new one thats just as good!" No man, its not just having a puppy that the kid loves, he loved that particular puppy that he named Scooter.

SO, idea of the day: exclusivity is not universally synonymous with hate/evil/wrong/bad.

Pot calling the kettle black, after the pot injected the kettle with performance inhancing drugs

Just read this story about Mark McGwire's brother; who's trying to get a book published about Mark's steroid use. Jay McGwire, the attempting author is estranged from Mark and says this:

My bringing the truth to surface about Mark is out of love. I want Mark to live in truth to see the light, to come to repentance so he can live in freedom -- which is the only way to live.

What a crock. Homeboy just wants to make a buck, and nobody's biting.

What is the deal with all these "whistleblowers"? Jose Conseco, Brian McNamme, Kirk Rodomski, and now Jay McGwire. These dudes come off like they think what they're doing is noble; but they are implicit in the whole process! How are you going to try and put these guys in a negative light for using steroids when YOU WERE THE ONE WHO PUT THE NEEDLE IN? Where were your principals then?
So lame.

More Bernard

I'll try not to be the guy who always talks about his dog...But I couldn't resist: