What's in the way?

I was a youth pastor for 5 years and a high school teacher for 3 years. I've been around teenagers A LOT. And I loved it. There was literally never a dull moment. Some of my favorite moments as a youth pastor were the trips to camps, conferences, or retreats that we would take. All the youth leaders would get together before a trip and go over the game plan for the trip. Our biggest hope was that lives would be changed. And we also knew our biggest challenge would be distractions.

Here were some of the major distractions we knew would get in the way:

1. Horny Guys- There's no other way to put it. Teenagers hormones, especially the dudes, shift into overdrive on trips away from home where there are plenty of girls. I would compare some of the guys I took on trips to caged, rabid animals. Taking them away from home (their cage), was like releasing a wolf amongst sheep.

2. Love struck girls - girls are in full search of "the one". They are looking for a boyfriend who is husband material. It's a scary thing and always leads to some Real Housewives of New Jersey type moments. DRAMA.

3. Sleep Deprivation - Jr. Highers in particular like to pack 72 cans of Red Bull, drink 30 of them on the bus ride up to camp, stay up all night farting and giggling, and then slip into a coma when you actually want them to be awake.

I bring up all the distraction stuff because it is fresh on my mind. On my last post, I asked the question, what cultural tendencies get in the way of you following Jesus? That can be a hard question to answer.

It's hard because it is not easy to be self aware. I know I'm not. Thank God I married a woman who actually has some discernment and wisdom and is willing to share it with me.

I have a burden for you who don't follow Him. I want so badly for you to experience throwing your life into Jesus's story. There is such freedom in it. This freedom, shock, and awe is a natural reaction to an encounter with Christ. Read the story of Jesus healing the blind beggar in John 9. The blind man couldn't explain it. All he could say was, "I don't know...all I do know is I was blind and now I can see!"

I think some of you have drank the "cultural Kool-Aid" for so long you can't even identify the things that distract you from following Jesus. By "cultural Kool-Aid", I mean the distractions, myths and the lies you believe. These distractions, myths, and lies were identified and predicted by Paul in 2 Timothy 4. Read it.

Lack of faith has nothing to do with your reasons for not following Jesus. You have faith. Everyone does.

I have faith in doorknobs. When I turn it, I have faith that the door will open. Lack of faith is not the issue.

Along with faith, we all worship. We just don't all worship the same thing. Some people worship everything except Jesus. Do you worship your job and make it your identity? Do you worship your kids? Just go to any little league game and listen to the parents in the stands who think their kid is the next Albert Pujols. Do you hover over your kids so much that they distract you from any kind of consistent commitment to Jesus? Do you worship the next big life event? Whether it's the weekend, the bar, having a child, a vacation, or a job promotion? Is your life lived waiting for the next exciting event?

We all have faith and we all worship something. Doorknobs, jobs, little league all star teams, children, weekends, alcohol, politics, etc. In about a week, I will fall into my insane idiotic faith in Notre Dame football and that they will actually be good this year.

Are you putting your faith in the truth? Or in a lie?

Are you worshipping Jesus? Or yourself?

My hope is that more of you who aren't following Christ would choose to follow.

What are the cultural tendencies distracting you from becoming a part of His story?

Greek vs. Hebrew

I had a discussion last night with some friends and we were talking about the differences between Greek culture and Hebrew culture. Americans are Greek thinkers. Our culture stems from a Greek mindset. The Old Testament is written in Hebrew and most of the New Testament was written by Jewish writers (Hebrews), although they wrote it in Greek.

There are many HUGE differences between Greek culture and Hebrew culture. And if we let our cultural tendencies control us, they can get in the way of us understanding Jesus, God, and Scripture.

Here's an example of our culture getting in the way of our understanding of the Bible. When reading the Bible...

Greek culture (Americans) have an attitude of "what you see is what you get". We love bullet points, outlines, directions, and steps. We think logically and everything should be explained before we believe it. So when we read the Bible, we expect to know everything. We want the Bible to fill in every detail, answer every question, and tell us every thing we WANT to know. We want all of this before we believe.

We want every movie to come together at the end and get ticked when something isn't explained.

When we buy something, we want very clear steps and instructions for assembly and cuss regularly if something is not clear and easy to understand.

How do we solve problems? By reading books, listening to doctors, and watching TV shows that give us "7 steps to happiness" and "3 steps to financial freedom". We want to know exactly what the journey looks like before we step foot on the path.

Hebrew Thinking - When they see words or numbers, they see depth, meaning, imagery, and symbolism. Rather than bullet points, lists, and everything spelled out for them, they like stories and poetry. For an example, look at Jesus. Many of his teachings were stories in which the audience had to figure out the meaning. Much of the story of creation in the book of Genesis is a Hebrew poem.

Truth is unfolding.

Faith and belief are not abstract nouns, they are concrete actions.

Following God is a story, not a self-help step program.

So how do my cultural tendencies get in the way?

There are a ton of examples that come to mind, here is one, and I'll bet you can think of more.

1. We naturally resist change. We love to find our comfort zone and stay there. We want things to be orderly, neat, and rational. But that comfort zone becomes a rut quickly because truth is actually unfolding. If we decide to follow Jesus, we are deciding to be in a story. And stories have ups and downs, scary parts, happy parts, and climactic events. The Hebrew God is a God that asks us to live in His story...and it is an adventurous and irrational one. Think about some of the guys in the Bible who chose to dive into the story.

Noah - built a boat as big as the Titanic in the middle of the freakin' desert and it had never rained before. People didn't even know what a flood was. That's irrational!

Peter - was making a living in the family business of fishing and made the decision to "drop his nets" and follow a Jewish carpenter for the rest of his life. This decision cost him his life. His life changed dramatically by entering into God's story.

So when you're reading the Bible, and reading stories about these people who chose to enter God's story, ask yourself these questions:

What cultural tendency would I push aside in order to get deeper into Jesus's story?

Am I willing to do something irrational for Him?

What comfort zone does He want to pull me out of?

What's a church plant?

For the past 4 months, Karrie and I have taken the first steps and started preparing for church-planting. As a pastor and as a couple, we've been under assessment with a church planting organization called Stadia.

So many people I've talked with look at me sort of cross-eyed when I throw the term "church plant" out there. And trying to look at it from the outside, I can see how those words sound really weird together. If you're wondering, "What the heck is a 'church plant'?" let me explain.

Churches all over America are on the decline. Churches are shutting down and closing their doors in record numbers. Why?

I don't necessarily consider myself an expert on the "Why churches are closing" topic, but I've been reading about it for quite sometime. Here are some basic reasons I've put together from what I have seen and studied:

1. Many churches are ignoring culture change. Many churches are more interested in preserving traditions than reaching and connecting to people in our postmodern, ever-changing culture. Some churches are stubbornly clinging to traditions like pews, hymnals, the use of any instrument other than an organ, and other human traditions. For many people, church has just become irrelevant, boring, and old. I had a great leader tell me recently, "It's a sin to bore someone with Jesus."

2. Many churches have ceased to be revolutionary. While many are adapting to culture, they aren't leading culture in revolutionary ways. Many churches that are on the decline have adopted new traditions and methods to try and keep up with culture, like "contemporary worship", the use of video and media, the senior pastor dressing more casual, etc. But they have done it with their heels dug in, stubbornly letting culture drag them into new methods against their will. It's almost like these churches are angrily and pridefully saying, "Fine, we will get rid of the hymnals and use video instead!"

This attitude will just lead to a slow death for a church. It's like trying to put a band-aid on an artery that's been cut. It's not going to solve the problem, it will just slightly slow down death.

3. Many churches are stagnant. These churches are not driven by reaching people, but by keeping people once they walk through the doors of the church. Their entire philosophy is driven by their passion to please people and their fear of losing them.

Everything about these churches says, "Yes! We are a cool church!" because they are doing everything they can to appeal to the consumer, an attempt to get you in the doors and keep you from leaving. When you come, you will be treated with snacks, coffee, funny videos, good music, and an engaging speaker. The speaker will tell you funny stories for 20 minutes about the week's topic. It will be something like "Worry", "Financial Security", or "Raising your kids", with random Bible verses splashed in so that the message looks like it came straight from the Bible. Aside from the weekend services, these types of churches have a program and events for everything and clubs for everyone. They are using newer, more contemporary methods. Your kids will love the programs they attend because of the cool games, toys, music, and videos.

Some of you may be thinking, "Hey, that sounds like my church and I love my church!". Are all these things bad? No. They are good intentioned methods. It's the heart, the mindset, the driving force behind the methods that can be bad. If it's something other than Jesus, then the church will ultimately die.

All of these types of churches have good intentions. They've been doing good things for a long time, good things that once brought the results they were looking for. They have good people in leadership who love God and believe they are doing the right thing. But with all their good intentions and all the 'good' things they're doing, they're missing something.

What's missing in the 3 different church types described above?

Jesus.

Jesus is getting lost in everything they are doing.

Here's where I think Jesus is missing in each church example:

1. Many churches don't change methods because their methods become sacred to them. People worship pews, hymnals, dress code, and their style of music. In some cases, those things become more important to them than actual sacred things like The Bible, Jesus, and God.

Being relevant to cultural happenings, trends, and needs was vital to Jesus. Think about it, his first miracle was at a wedding party. They ran out of wine and Jesus hooked them up. How many people would invite their Senior Pastor to a party that lasted for a week? How many people would admit to their Senior Pastor, "Uhh, we thought we had enough wine to last us for the week but we drank all of it. Can you get us some more?"

There were groups of people in the Bible who were called the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They were religious, arrogant, and didn't like Jesus. They accused Jesus of being a drunkard, glutton, and got after him for hanging out with the riff raff. Check out this verse.

Jesus didn't ignore culture, He engaged it.

2. Jesus did some controversial and radical stuff to connect with people in His culture. Read John 4. He crossed into Samaria, talked with a Samaritan woman, and showed concern and care for her. This was a major social no-no. In that day, Jews would avoid traveling through Samaria and would instead walk around the entire country, just to avoid the Samaritan people. Jews did not like Samaritans. No rabbi would ever talk to a woman alone, especially a Samaritan. Most of the religious leaders of the day would have demanded she be put to death because she was sexually impure.

Jesus didn't have to be dragged across cultural boundaries, he shattered boundaries in shocking fashion. His methods blew people away. Churches need to be excited to use radical methods to connect to people in our culture. This is how Jesus did it.

Jesus didn't try to catch up to culture, He led culture in radical and revolutionary ways. He did stuff no one had thought of before. He was original.

3. Re-read #3 from above again. Notice anything missing?

Jesus!

These churches use Jesus in parts of their church. He's talked about and acknowledged. But he's not the foundation or the focus.

Churches that operate with fear, and not with an unconditional love for Jesus will die. Why would a church be more inclined to please people than please Jesus? Because it's safer. Jesus is a polarizing God and He asks us to do some radical stuff. Some churches are dying because they are being led by weak men and women. Hey Parkway people, your pastor would call this "the wussification of the church."

So that was a long introduction to the questions, "What's a church plant and why are they needed?"

A church plant is the start of a new church. Statistically, church plants are reaching and connecting with people who don't know Jesus and have never been connected to church. Church Planting is a pretty big and imporant phenomenon right now. Basically, there are hundreds of churches being planted all over the nation.

With so many churches dying, church plants are NEEDED.

Why are church plants succeeding?

Mainly because they are completely, utterly, and passionately focused on Jesus. And when a church does that, since the church is the bride of Christ, the church will succeed.

Just like Jesus, churches will engage culture, radically lead culture, and be obedient to his teachings and The Bible

So last week, Karrie and I spent 3 days at the Church Plant Assessment Center with Stadia, other current church planters, and potential church planters. It was the most grueling 3 days of our lives. We were put through many different tests, initiatives, exercises.

And the great news is Stadia affirmed our call to plant a church. Having Stadia back us and want to partner with us is a HUGE step. This is the starting point of a very exciting journey. We are excited to be a part of the future of reaching people for Jesus as part of this vast, scary, and exciting adventure that is church planting.

Church Planting Assessment

I was going to write something explaining what Karrie and I are up to this week. But Karrie already did so I'll just copy and paste what she wrote. I'll blog again when we get back this weekend...

Aaron and I have both mentioned our plans in our blogs in bits and pieces. We've not been 100% clear about our plans and have not given any real details, due mostly to the fact that we've still been putting them together! Though I still don't have a ton of info to share yet, I think it is safe to share our intentions and a little bit of our plan for our family.

After much consideration, prayer, research and the start of planning, Aaron and I have decided to plant a church. What this means, really, is that we're starting a church, with a team of course, and Aaron will be the Lead Pastor. The whole endeavor is just as difficult, crazy and complex as it sounds, so this is something that will take a long time and a great amount of support to put together.

Crazy, huh? Believe me, we're still trying to figure out how God thinks a goofy, crazy hooligan like Aaron and a space-cadet like me have the business to lead a church. At the same time, we've been blown away by seeing God's hand on our lives in preparation for this adventure. Just in case it isn't obvious, we both feel called to do this. And I wouldn't be the sap I am if I didn't share that I'm so proud and confident of my husband who I feel has the DNA and makeup to be a great, great leader and teacher for God.

Part of our preparation over the last three months has been getting ready for an assessment with a Christian church-planting organization called Stadia. (You can read more about what and who Stadia is by clicking here) They have an assessment process for people considering to take part in church-planting as done through another program called CPAC (Church Planting Assessment Center). Endorsement through this program is vital to receive support from Stadia.

The first chunk of the process is completing an enormous amount of paperwork: surveys, various personality profiles, and the beast of all applications in which I felt like we were writing out every thought we've EVER had about God and the meaning of life. That wasn't necessarily exactly what they were looking for, it just felt like we wrote A LOT. We had to individually fill out these lengthy questionnaires in which every single answer was an essay. Aaron, of course, had more to do than me. We also had to have several references fill out evaluations on us personally and on our marriage.

All this paperwork was preparation for the 4-day interview/assessment that we are physically on our way to as I type this! It is the end and the culmination of the assessment process and we are so excited the time has finally come for it. We've been waiting for it for months! So, after kissing and hugging our boys 800 million times, we left them in the care of Grandma, Papa, Uncle Nate and Grammy for the next four days. I already miss them, but I'm so excited and ready for this week. We are praying and are confident that it will be revealing and confirming.

Thank you to all of you who have been so helpful and encouraging through these last few months. There are some people in our lives that we have been so blessed by and, as cliche as it sounds, we would not have been able to do some of the incredible and insane things we've done had it not been for God's provision through you. Thank you, more than anything, to our families - you've been AMAZING and incredibly supportive and helpful since the day we left for Arizona and entered a life of full-time-ministry over five years ago. This summer you've been no different, and we are so grateful.

To all of you, we humbly request some of your prayers. Pray with us as we go into this assessment and ultimately endeavor the adventure of starting a church. We are hopeful that through every facet of our lives it is God who is at the center and not us... and that is precisely what we are praying for with this church-planting/starting endeavor.

What story am I getting caught up in?

I love getting caught up in a good story. We all do. Whether it be a book, movie, sporting event, or real life personal event, it makes life exciting and more interesting. There have been some really cool stories to get caught up in lately...

1. The movie Inception. Karrie and I went to see this the other night and it was amazing. It blew my mind...literally. I have to go see it again because I'm not smart enough to keep up with stories this brilliant and creative.

2. Did anyone else get caught up in the World Cup? This guy did. It helped that I was jobless. I was the 2010 version of George Costanza in June. "The Summer of Aaron!" I sat around during the boys nap time eating entire wheels of cheese, not wearing any underwear, and watching the World Cup.

I was totally caught up in the U.S. soccer team and cheering them on. If you didn't catch it, the U.S. did pretty good. In their last group game, they HAD to score a goal to advance. If they scored, they would win their group (1st time since like 1932). If they didn't score, they would go home. Unlike The Hills, The City, and The Bachelor...this drama was real and not manufactured. Well, a soccer match lasts for 90 minutes plus just 2 or 3 minutes of extra time added on at the end. The U.S. hadn't scored and it was desperation time. 2 minutes into extra time, it looked pretty bleak, and then in the span of literally about 15 seconds, the Americans went the entire length of the field and scored a goal. I went bananas! I was screaming, ripping my shirt off (remember I already had my underwear off), and running around. I scared Ty so bad he didn't stop crying for 20 minutes. It's always fun to see people getting caught up in a story. Check out these really cool videos of people watching the goal being scored. Turn up the volume, it will send shivers down your spine.

Checkout the guy in the bottom left corner with the white jersey on. He throws a beer all over everyone. I've always wanted to be "that guy" in the bar who gets away with it.

Complete Pandomonium

Another one of my favorites simply because the guy holding the camera is thinking, "Hey, now that everyone is distracted I can get a nice shot of this girl's butt standing in front of me."

Those videos fired me up. Some of you guys are Colts fans. Remember when Marlin Jackson intercepted Tom Brady to seal the AFC Championship a few years ago? My brother was there and he said the building literally shook from the collective explosion of sound when he caught that ball.

3. I have to give an example for the ladies since I've totally lost them. They are thinking, "Inception was too long and I didn't get it." and "Soccer is boring." Well ladies, I'm sure you remember getting caught up in a story like The Notebook. Honestly, I'm not real sure why women could get caught up in that movie. I know Karrie doesn't understand why I yell at the TV when Notre Dame is playing. So I asked Karrie, "Why do women like The Notebook." She said, "Because every girl wants to fall in love. And it's in the 30's, and they eat ice cream together, and ride bicycles, and kiss in the rain...you know, romantic stuff."

I know every woman doesn't like The Notebook. But ladies, you do have stories you get caught up in.

Or maybe you did get caught up in The Notebook and you're waiting for a bearded, chiseled, craftsman like Ryan Gosling to come along and sweep you off your feet. You might get lucky and get one of those characteristics.

My wife got "bearded". I think I could fall into the category of "chiseled" if I could use "massive pecs" to describe my chest instead of "man boobs".

Anyway, there's one last story to talk about.

4. God's story. It's happening whether you want to recognize it or not. There are actually a lot of stories of God floating around out there. I'm caught up in the one where the main character is Jesus Christ. It's a great story and it's a real story. And the entire story is told within this thing called The Bible.

My first instinct right now is to get cynical and judgmental. I want to rip into certain people, churches, denominations, TV preachers, and other religions. I would love to jump on my soapbox and I've got plenty of material...but that's not the story I want to get caught up in. I've done enough of that.

There are enough Christians out there doing enough of that.

Rather than trash other stories (for an example of "trashing other stories" please see bullet point #3), there's one in particular I love SO much and I want other people to love it too. The thing is, it's kind of like watching a movie, T.V. show, or sporting event. You can't force someone to like Inception, The Hills, or Notre Dame football. They have to discover it themselves. They have to individually choose to get caught up in that movie, that show, that team...that story.

In the past 5 years especially, I've made a mental shift in regards to the story of Jesus. 5 or 6 years ago, I had a lot of doubts about this story. I believed in God and I knew a guy named Jesus existed, I just didn't know about The Bible. Is it true? Is it perfect? Is God who He says He is? What is Jesus really like? Is he a freakin' lunatic? Is he a liar? Or is he really the Son of God?

I started asking some REALLY hard and potentially dangerous questions.

And for those of you who are not sure about this whole "God thing" and getting caught up in the story, start asking some hard questions. Don't be lazy. Don't say stuff like "Jesus was a good guy." He wasn't. He was a crazy liar or He was God. Pick one. (If you want some resources, email me aaron@lifeasathomas.com)

I spent a lot of time studying historians, archeology, and books and my faith in God and in Jesus was strengthened. I got more caught up in the story than I ever had. My love for this story is still growing.

So Christians and/or people who believe in God, I got one thing to say regarding the story of Jesus and getting others caught up in it.

Live the story.

Remember God is not merely part of our story, we are a part of God's story.

I see so many "Christians" who live their dreams and their lives and they make room for God by going to church on Sunday mornings and reading the Bible and/or praying when they need His help. Some of you expect God to get caught up in your story.

How about try getting caught up in His? How about a life change? How about some radical life change? Remember Jesus's disciples? Ten of the 12 were murdered because of their choice to follow Jesus and one of them committed suicide.

Getting caught up in Jesus's story SHOULD change your life. It's a great story and I hope you get caught up in it.

Q and A

I had a friend ask this question to me and post it on her facebook. I'm a dork and like researching things like this so I thought I would post my response. Scripture inspires questions and there's no such thing as a dumb question about God. It's a good thing there are a lot of smart people out there...in particular the dudes that wrote the Bible.

Question:

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul" (Deut. 6: 4-6)...which one of these is harder, or more important? I have been thinking on this for well over a year....this is deep..seems easy...but is it? The heart and mind are connected...which is more of a struggle to control?

Answer:

I did some reading up on this and found some good stuff.

Here's the dealio...

1. I looked at www.scripture4all.org to see the actual Hebrew translation. Turns out that verse, Deut. 6: 4-6 says, "you love Elohim of you, in all of heart of you, all of soul of you, and all of utterly you." The word "mind" is not in the original text. The end of that verse, "all of utterly you" sums it up best because the answer to your question is they are basically all the same thing. None of them takes precedence over the other.

2. I found a good nugget of wisdom regarding the "heart, soul, mind, and spirit" in this book called "The Faith Once For All" by a professor named Jack Cottrell. His body of work is awesome and he's my favorite theologian. He's a Restoration Movement guy (like Trent). I also think it would be wise to look up some Reformed theology guys like Mark Driscoll, D.A. Carson, Dallas Willard, N.T. Wright. But...I'm positive they would all come to this conclusion. Here's what Cottrell wrote...

"The 3 key words for the spiritual side of our nature are 'heart', 'spirit', and 'soul'. The words for heart (leb, lebab, and kardia) are used hundreds of times, almost always in the spiritual sense equivalent to soul or spirit. (Exod. 35:21, Ps 73:26, Eccl. 11:10, Ezek 44:7, Rom. 2: 28-29, Heb. 10:22, 1 Pet. 3:4). The functions of the heart include all those we associate with personhood and the mind, e.g., intellectual activity (thinking, reasoning, understanding), volitional activity (decisions, desires), emotional activity (joy, sorrow, fear), religious activity (receiving God's Word, faith, repentance, obedience, worship), as well as sin and unbelief. We should note especially that in the Bible there is a total absence of the common distinction between the head as representing reason and the heart as representing feelings. What the Bible calls the 'heart' refers to both 'heart and mind'. It refers to the inward person as a whole."

3. Our spirit is not divine or part of God. It is the aspect of us that is most like God. See Genesis 1 for that, "we are created in God's image". We are "like" him, not "part" of him.

So, to answer your question, the heart and mind are not only connected, they are one and the same. They are synonyms of each other.

Hope that helps! Miss having these fun conversations with you,

Aaron

How close can I get?

Last week, I performed the wedding of a long-time close friend, Brandon Wagler. We had a great few days leading up to the wedding. I had about 2 straight days of hanging out with the boys. We pigged out, played some poker, played golf, made fun of each other constantly, and told ridiculous, exaggerated stories from our pasts. However, the funniest moment we had together was just a couple hours before the wedding.

The wedding took place in the old Union Station in downtown Indianapolis. The groomsmen, myself, and Brandon were all upstairs getting pictures taken around this balcony. There were rooms on this balcony and my brother Matt went exploring into what looked like an empty apartment that had a door standing open.

After a few minutes, he came scurrying out like a scared little girl because he walked into one room of the apartment and found a dude sleeping on a couch.

We thought he was lying, of course, so a few of us went in to check it out. The transformation in maturity from the point we decided to enter the apartment was profound. 30-year-old men suddenly regressed in maturity by at least 15 - 20 years. We were tip-towing in, giggling like school girls, and pushing each other to the front position (no one wanted to go first). Matt showed us the way to the room while hanging near the back of the pack. A few of us pinky sweared to enter the room at the same time. Well, we didn't pinky swear, but none of us wanted to go in alone. One of the groomsmen, Chris, took the lead and I was right behind him.

Sure enough, we turned the corner and saw some feet. Next thing I know I hear Matt yelling, "Get outta there!" and I shoved Chris as hard as I could toward the couch as sort of the sacrificial lamb in case this guy asleep on the couch turned out to be a violent sociopath.

Turns out he was just a homeless guy that had found a way to get inside the air-conditioned building, discovered an open door and an old couch and was pretty content until a group of jack-asses awakened him from his peaceful slumber.

He sat up and we went scurrying out of the apartment giggling and laughing. And our adrenaline was definitely pumping.

As I think back on this story, questions pop into my head regarding human nature...

When facing an unknown outcome, why are we hesitant or even scared to "go first" and lead the way?

When we get caught, even if we aren't really doing anything wrong, why do we run and hide and try to cover up our actions?

The biggest question that came to mind was this, what is it about pushing boundaries that gets our adrenaline pumping? We like to see how far we can push something or how close we can get. It's in our nature. Why do we do this?

Even though we were just having some innocent fun, well mostly innocent. One of the groomsmen got his corsage ripped off and broken during the mad scramble to escape. We were clutching and grabbing each other trying not to be the last one out and apparently the corsage was a victim of this.

It's in our nature to push boundaries. Some of you are thinking, "Not me. I have no trouble following rules." Or maybe you are obsessed with rules and you take the boundaries of OCD to new and scary levels. But chances are there is some boundary you push against because all of us do that.

1. Ask yourself, what boundaries do I love to push?

For example, being back in the midwest reminds me of the incredible social pressure of keeping up one's landscaping. People push the social boundaries of landscaping all the time. How long can I go without mowing my lawn. How can I cover up weeds with mulch rather than picking them?

To many of you "green thumbs" this is a lame example, but for those of us who despise landscaping and love to rebel against "the man" (aka the HOA), it's a legit boundary we push.

If it's not HOA boundaries, what social boundary do you love to push?

2. What boundaries are good to push? Bad?

Example: How about the boundaries of right/wrong? People are testing these all the time with certain acts of disobedience. Maybe it's my 3 year old Ty throwing food at the table or maybe it's someone robbing a convenience store. Are you one of those people who ask for water at a fast food restaurant and then get soda?

3. Have I gone past the boundary? What were the results and consequences of that choice?

4. Why am I pushing this boundary? Is it for a good reason? Or a selfish reason?

I'm hoping these questions open up a giant can of worms (which I love to do). I would love to see you share some answers to those questions. It could be a serious story or a funny one. It could be about you or it could be about our culture. Let's see what you got. There are definitely a couple cultural answers I'll address, but let's here from you first.