Can't complain

Well, it’s back to the ole blogstone...

I’m not going to bore you with the crazy details of my work lately but suffice it to say, I haven’t had much computer time. Thank you for your patience and I appreciate the comments I have received from friends awaiting entries. Here we go...

We have moved. We now live in a church in our own apartments that we built! How cool is that?! We aren’t settled by any stretch but we are in and it is very satisfying.

I harvested about 100 tomatoes from our organic garden yesterday and gave them out with our normal load of bread at the parks. This was fun. We read in Psalms this week that God feeds the hungry and He lets me be a part of it!

Tuesday, we helped a church group throw a BBQ for an impoverished community in our town. They raised the funds and a dear brother from their church gave us a brand new propane grill to use from now on. It worked beautifully and we had an awesome time pouring grace out on 9th St.

We celebrated a meal with our formerly homeless friend, Dave. He has recently gotten a much needed surgery on his foot and things in a nasty custody case with his daughter are looking very positive. Anytime Dave gets good news, he does this little dance and sings “We’re going to Sizzler, we’re going to Sizzler!” so we took him to Sizzler.

Some missionary friends are back in town for a visit and had our family and friends over to their host home for supper.

My boys used their hard earned allowance to buy me a present today.

My life is dripping with grace.

Wow!

So sorry folks...if you read Aaron's blog, I've got the same trouble. I'm trying to remodel our new apartment space to move in on the 25th while setting up to run a fundraiser fireworks stand and oh, we need to pack and paint and find the septic tank and install the cabinets and hook up the plumbing and pack our stuff and....

See you after July 4th!

Soda

Once again, Jones Soda is proving to be my greatest spiritual advisor. Working this month on remdeling our church into more useful space...something we thought we would never be able to do...and the money is provided, after some talk, it seems approval from the city will not be so hard, friends keep showing up to help and bring items that will help...after all this I buy a bottle of soda and the cap reads...

"There is new hope for projects you had almost given up on."

Hmm.

Mad at Oprah

Oprah makes me mad. Not really “her” but what her show does. She just did a sensational (and by that I mean “hyped up” not “really awesome”) show about child molestation. On this show, she played recordings a pedophile made while watching children load up on a school bus. Did we need to hear this? We are all well aware that there are sick people in the world, do we have to participate in their depravity by hearing all the gory details. This has become “journalism”. Oprah is this great hero who is not afraid to confront the real issues and talk about them frankly. No way.

Oprah gets good ratings and more money playing off the fears of her audience. So do all the other talk shows and newscasts. We have a national obsession with how bad it can get. TV drama that continues to explore the dregs of how evil people can be, movies that have to shock more and more with how disgusting the serial killer is, and the media jumps on any bandwagon they can. There is a kind of sick fascination with other people’s misery...talking about the latest “horrible thing that happened”.

All of this, of course. leads us to justify a society that moves farther and farther away from each other. Gated communities, vigilantes at the border, a neighborhood protesting a homeless shelter, a city shutting down a recovery house or a church wondering about men that “look bad” being around the property all come from this fear that you just never know...

Well, of course you never know. I’m not advocating we stop being wise but the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God, not our neighbor...and God says to love your neighbor as yourself. He also has a lot to say about welcoming a stranger into your home. welcoming the foreigner into your country and being good and fair to the poor in your community.

I’m not advocating that we pretend everything is sunny and nice either. Of course the world is messed up! What I’m talking about is our something nigh upon enjoying the horror. We can’t just hear that there was a shooting in the park, we have to see the blood on the concrete and the arm of the deceased sticking out from under the blanket. The camera is right in the face of a desperate, crying mother. How far will they go? As far as we keep asking them to go.

So let’s stop asking.

Books and Movies

Just spending a bit of the morning catching up on my friends posts and thought I’d add one myself.

Construction continues at the church. Most of the walls for the new apartments have been framed and I discovered on Saturday that it is really unnatural to hammer a nail into wood through a drop ceiling directly over your head while standing precariously on a ladder while having a bit of a weight problem.

I just finished “The Great Divorce” by C.S. Lewis. This book has awakened me to joy in a way that I have not thought about for quite sometime. The way we hold on to pain and hurt and smallness when God has oceans full of fish to enjoy and infinite fields of starry light and things of which we could never dream. “Eye as not seen and ear has not heard...” I would highly recommend reading it.

Also, I finished a book called “Imprisoned In Iran” by Dan Bauman. This guy is a part of Youth With A Mission and is a friend of friends of mine. The title is pretty self explanatory ... an account of the time he was um...imprisoned...er in...um...Iran (who am I to make fun of titles...my quarterly news letter is called “From the Whitlers”). Like all “YWAM” books it’s not a literary masterpiece but it is a good story told with human honesty. I really appreciate the author’s willingness to not just tell a great missions victory story but he also includes his moments of great weakness too. A good read that renewed a desire to become familiar with more missionary biographies. But next on the list is a good ole’ Steven Lawhead fantasy novel that I bought with my birthday gift certificate.

I saw “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” last week and loved it. I’m ashamed of myself that I haven’t read it...there’s still hope but it’s not likely. Josh and Sam are still singing “So Long and Thanks for all the Fish”. They loved it too and I’m proud to have boys that catch absurd humor the way they do. Looking forward to “War of the Worlds” and “Episode 3”...it’s a good summer to be a geek! Also, “Kingdom of Heaven” looks promising. We may see it today which happily is a much needed day off.

Wow, has it really been since April 14?! Oh well, guess I shouldn't make fun of other friends that neglect entries for a while. Ok, go ahead and give it to me in the comments...I'll take it.

No excuse, just a reason...we're right in the middle of a major remodeling at our church to make housing for the YWAM families and other full time (or "mostly time")church workers. It's gonna be cool and nice to live right here at the church.

We'll be building all this month and a bit of the next. Pray for us.

Part of a great company

I am Adam
Barefoot on the fresh Spring ground
Nothing but possibility in front of me

I am Moses
After freedom comes
The hard work of walking into the unknown

I am Joshua
Without my mentor
Fearful but determined

I am David
A reluctant leader
Full of poetry and fight

I am Jeremiah
Mourning for possibilities lost
Not giving up

I am Nehimiah
Making space to rally around
Not afraid to pick up a hammer

I am Joseph
Quietly accepting
That I can make a home for God's coming kingdom

I am Peter
Can't keep my mouth shut
For good or for ill

I am less than I want
I am more than I admit
I have a friendship with God

Little is big.

When a group gathers at my house, we like to talk about big things...religion, philosophy, theology and politics and how they all relate to one another. There is much dissatisfaction with the way things are in America among my friends. Many of us are weary of not knowing who to believe in the media and political arenas. Some have given up voting, others feel it a moral obligation to vote but feel it makes no difference and still others are passionate with hope that we can make a difference. When I think about war, powers at work and the game of politics I get overwhelmed.

Our last heated discussion led me to think that America is just too dang big! There is this pressure to change society...to make a difference on a national and global scale. To do something really huge. But in the end, I can’t do that. It’s too big. Most people don’t even have time to work for change...at the end of an 8 hour work day, you just want to be home resting with your wife and kids. Poverty, war, violence, drugs, gangs, global sex slave industry, abuse of political power, corruption, hunger, aids crisis, the uneducated, street kids, orphans, religious persecution and a hundred other things fade into the realm of “someone else’s problem”. It’s so big and I’m so tired and I just want to be a good Dad or Mom or student or something...

Then I read this great article by Chris Haw in the Prism e-pistle. Here’s a piece of it...


“I cannot talk about big concepts such as "changing the world" or "making a difference" apart from the tiny, mundane and seemingly ineffective actions of helping others heal. In other words, I'm wondering if healing acts can be anything but small, loving, and personal. Leo Tolstoy rings through my head, competing with the cacophony of militarism, globalization, and the calls to somehow stop them altogether, crying out, "everybody wants to change the world, but nobody wants to change themselves."

He is part of a little house like ours in Camden, NJ. It’s a small group of people living together and trying to love a neighborhood. And I think, this is where it’s at. If we’re all doing something, what we can do, where we are at, the world will change.

Perhaps just a little extra effort and sacrifice...sposoring a child through world vision or compassion international, giving up a couple of hours in the week to volunteer at something, supporting a missionary or heck, a career change and being a missionary! Maybe you can’t be president but you can be on city council or go to the meetings and speak up. You may not be able to change the plight of the poor third world farmer but you can grow your own garden or shop the farmers market or buy coffee fairly traded (they sell it now on the internet, save mart and starbucks...look for “fair-trade certified”). You may not be able to change the environment but you can recycle and compost and buy in bulk and waste less. You may not be able to close sweat shops but you can look for union made labels or shop at the thrift store first.

Little, done by a lot of people, turns into big. Changing yourself changes the world.

Faith=Risk

I’ve got to stop getting life changing advise from soda bottle caps! If you will recall, my first journal entry on the old site was about a soda bottle cap telling me to start a journal...so I did. I started this fine web journal that I love doing...although, I must admit that I feel a lot of pressure to post but not so much anymore since my friends, Aaron, Terry, Aimee and Jaime don’t feel the need to post at all lately.

Last week, we watched “Riding Giants” a good film by Stacy Peralta (of Dogtown and Z-boys). It’s about big wave surfing and the men who pioneered riding...er...the..um..giants. Anyhoo...I would recommend it. It’s a fun documentary. The question I ask when I watch these “extreme sports” people is if I am missing a bit of what they have? What is this element that makes people want to try the seemingly impossible? I don’t think I have that piece. Or do I?

One of the stories is of a kid who noticed big, 30 foot waves breaking off the coast of Half Moon Bay, California. He loved surfing and had never tried surfing big waves. He tried to get a friend to go along but no one would try it with him. So he paddled for 45 minutes and surfed these monsters in treacherous, cold water. He did this all by himself for 15 years until the big wave surfing community found out.

What a challenge! If these guys can be that passionate about surfing, how many more other, more important issues in the world are there to lose your life pursuing. Some people actually die surfing these big waves. How much more is there to die for?

The call to follow Christ is a call to death. To lay down your life for your friends. Another thing that struck me about these guys is their willingness to die rescuing one another from a bad wipe out. But our laying down our lives can include but does not always mean actual death. I must lay down my life...lay down what I want to do and the things I feel important to serve the needs of others.

I felt such a challenge by this film that I wanted to show it to our little youth group. We talked afterward about what we want to do with our life and what we want to try that seems impossible. Several shared in the group and most shared one on one after. We talked about risk and dreams and reaching out for the impossible. Then Charlie bought me a soda from the grocery across the street, on the cap it reads, “Without risk there can be no pleasure.” What a wise little bottle cap. Someone told me once that faith = risk. As the song writer said, “If my reach doesn’t go beyond my grasp, then what’s a Heaven for and for what do I ask?”

The best inheritance I can leave my boys is to live a life of faith and watch God come through for us in ways we would have never guessed unless we took the risk of trusting Him. We do have that bit in us, we all do. The part that can look at the impossible and if you take the chance, have the ride of your life.

The body of Christ

Our Easter service was one of my top three ever experienced. The first was the Easter that Amie and I decided not to go to church. We didn’t buy new clothes or lots of candy. It was our first year being married and we were living in christian community on a YWAM campus. We slept in, went to Pizza Hut and talked about Christ together.

The second was two years ago when our church joined a larger congregation for Easter in our building. Aaron and I decided not to go to church but go up on New Hope’s roof, listen to Andrew Peterson’s song “Rise and Shine” then we bought donuts and coffee and went to the park to bring Easter to the homeless.

This year, a new Christian in our body had the idea to have a sunrise service. The church leadership complied and many were afraid that no one would show up. One of the homeless guys in our congregation thought it would be nice to have a fire to gather around in the parking lot...he even found wood and cut it up so I brought over my fire bowl. At 5:45am, our little congregation gathered around the fire...most everybody came. We sang songs around the fire as the sun came up and affirmed our faith by reading the Apostle’s Creed together. We went inside for pastor Ken’s retelling of the Easter story and then we shared a breakfast together.

Here is this church that has some disfunction but the blue collar workers find grace and encouragement, the disabled are cared for, the elderly are affirmed, the homeless and cast down are welcomed in, the young leaders are released, the leadership is open minded and willing to change, the property is shared and made available, discipleship is pursued and true community, while not quite there, is developing.

How could I ask for more. I am grateful.

Boo on me....

It's one of those times again...I haven't really sat at my computer for two weeks. Have patience with me. I'll post soon.

Get on with it.

Sorry no posty in a long timey...I can’t find as much time to write here in Mo-town as I do when I’m away. It’s been good to be back though, just getting on with living life together with our friends. I had a great talk with my brother in law, Randy, in Kentucky. He’s been a worship pastor at a big ole church for quite some time.

I’ve often wondered what life would be like for him...just being in the church and solely working on music. He talked to me about the days he gets to be on call for hospital and funeral home visits. He told me they have become his favorite days of the week cause he gets the privilege of holding someone's hand while their child dies or can pray with someone who is facing cancer or can comfort someone that has just lost a loved one. His challenge to me...let’s get on with it! If we are not being Jesus to the world today in some way, the day is wasted cause that’s the only reason we’re still here. The scripture says in Ephesians 1 that the church is the full expression of Christ in the world...expressing Jesus’ nature to fill every part of everthing (or all in all as the Bible says).

He told me those days bring depth to the other part of his job. And what are we all waiting for? Are we waiting to become perfect christians before we step out? This attitude seems humble but it is really a cop out. Randy’s words...Who do we think we are? Let’s just do a little Bible study on how many people God took away their temptations and struggles so they could feel better about themselves and then be able to minister. You won’t find anyone. In fact, God says His strength is made perfect in weakness...he LIKES it that way. That way he shows himself strong and no one will be able to doubt that it was God who touched them or moved because the vessels...you and me...in no way could pull off something like God when he works. All else if flashy, emotional string pulling. There are a few shysters who can make people emotional. But there is no substitute for God moving unexpectedly through a weak, willing, humble person.

Stop waiting. Let’s get on with it.

Older entries

Just FYI, you can read older entries at my old blog...http://cwhitler.diaryland.com

Rooms and hearts

When we came home from Kentucky,it was to a warm welcome by dear friends. We got home Saturday night and my official “I should start watching what I’m eating” began right after the burrito from “Taco’s Jessica #2” down by the bus station...at 10:30pm. On our way back to our house, Jimmy and Aaron drove by the church to drop something off for a friend. They asked me to come upstairs and I protested that I was tired and just wanted to eat then sleep. Well, they finally got me up the stairs and revealed a brand new office they had fixed up for us!

New Hope has been so welcoming to us and the work we want to do, taking it on as their own. Free office space has been part of that. Our office has always been kinda cluttery and rushed. A “for now” kind of office. As in, “oh, just put that there for now.” Two years later, it’s still there.

The walls were painted, the room is ordered, everything is warm and comfortable and useful. There is artwork, a mini-recording studio set up, a nice computer area, a nice place to meet and pray. So much better! It’s amazing how being in an ordered space makes you feel so much better. Mom was right. A room is better when it’s clean and cleaned well.

On Sunday morning, Josh led worship and one of the songs he chose was “Create in me a clean heart, Oh God, and renew a right spirit within me...” It made me think about the office. It was cleaned and order and rightness restored and it made things so much better. Why are we afraid to let God do this with our life? To have our heart be clean, living and beating it’s intended purpose, to love God and others...what a gift.

Kentucky Fat

It's a good thing I don't live in Kentucky. There's so much good food here and none of it is good for you! Now mind you, I find my share of bad food out west...I'm going on a serious diet when I get home but only after I have a sweet burrito from the taco trucks! If you've never had a burrito from the taco trucks, put it on your list of things to do before you die. Carne Asada...pocito beans and rice, salsa, cilantro, cheese and sour cream...mmmmmm!

But back to Kentucky. I've been in Owensboro, a town famous for it's particular style of BBQ. There is a resturant here with an all BBQ buffet...beef, pork, chicken, mutton...MUTTON! There's pictures of Bill Clinton on the wall when he came to visit. You know it's good and awful for you if Bill Clinton likes it! To say nothing of sweet tea...it's everywhere and so addicting and there's the Cracker Barrel, White Castle, Skyline Chili...all with various combinations of prepareing meat and starch and potatoes and deep fried everything! I gotta get outta here! HELP!

Only one life...

One week ago we sold all the things left over from my parent's 40 years of living on Southcrest Drive in Louisville, Kentucky. So many people came to the sale! People were in the yard at 6am with flashlights looking through all that we had set out the night before. When we finally opened the door to the house, people flooded in, rumageing through everything. They cleared most of the attic, basemnt and cellar storage. Dad's house has always been full of paintings, frames, books, lamps, nic-naks, exotic stuff, tapestries and just plain junk that caught his eye at the thrift store. My Dad loves to find overlooked treasures but his heart was never to resell any of it...he just liked strange, old things. Now, he would talk of how much something was "worth" or play with ideas of running his own antique store but he was never really serious.

These people picking through this stuff had the glint of the addict in their eyes...jittery and compulsively going over and back over every little thing. It was wierd. $3,000 in sales later, we started giving stuff away. That's when the diggers came...looking through the picked over piles and through our construction dumpster we had rented for all the unsellable junk. Then, just yesturday, the Salvation army came to take what was left and still useful...bags and bags of books.

The day of the sale was sunny and went by quickly but it had been rainy the days before so the ground was a bit muddy. While helping one customer out with a bigger item he had purchased, my eye caught a little something trampled in the mud. It was a small, woven bookmark my Mother kept in her Bible. I picked it up, wiped it off and straightened it out...

"Only one life, 'twill soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last."

I put it in my pocket and now it's in my Bible. My Dad has let go of a lot to make his recent move. And it has been quite a load off to be rid of all that stuff. We've saved a few things but what will really be remembered of all our lives? That we had cool stuff? That we made lots of money? Of course not. It will be love, laughter, shared grief, prayers, humility, time spent, each embrace, songs, stories, pictures, words of encouragement and challenge, meals, sacrifice and generosity.

This is my inheritance, I pray I spend it well.