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.

Been A While

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to write a quick note and apologize for no blogs last week. It was a little crazy. I performed a very close friend's wedding last Friday and it was a very busy week getting ready for and being a part of that. We also had a hectic weekend finishing some stuff up for this Church Planting Assessment we are almost done with.

I'll pump out a couple blogs this week. Thanks for your patience.

Aaron

Cultural Band-Aid

A few weeks ago I had an awesome opportunity to meet with John Caldwell before his last Sunday at Kingsway Christian Church as their Lead Pastor. We talked about a wide range of topics and he had all kinds of wise things to say. He said one thing in particular that has really burned in my memory.

John Caldwell Quote - "Have our lives radically changed for Jesus?" John was talking about the challenge of leading a church in the midst of a growing suburb. Many of us have been born and raised in suburbs and I read a quote recently from a book, ironically titled Death by Suburb: How to Keep the Suburbs from Killing Your Soul, "The space around us sets up living patterns that condition our behavior." In other words, what's around us may not start out as sacred, but because we live around it for so long, it becomes important to us. Many times, it becomes our idol i.e. "god".

For example, when we had our 2nd baby boy, Will the Thrill, he wasn't that great of a sleeper. I was up many times (as was Karrie) holding him during the night. I found out quickly there are two TV stations that don't have "paid programming" at 3am. One is ESPN and the other is HGTV. Well, you can only watch Sportscenter so many times before you get sick of it, so I would routinely check out HGTV. I know what you're thinking and yes, I've already self-revoked my Man Card. I'm a pansy.

Anyway, after a month or so, all of a sudden I was looking at our home with a different perspective. I looked at our walls and thought, "Wow, we really need some good thick crown molding to make this room look complete." I looked at our Master bathroom and thought "We really need to raise the countertops, get a framed mirror, and a cool light fixture." I looked at our flooring and thought, "Some wood laminate flooring would make this look so much better."

In other words, something had become sacred to me because I was conditioned by a TV show to believe it. It was a load of crap, but how many of us in Suburbia fall into that trap?

Seriously, none of that stuff fulfills me. It either makes me envious and slightly unhappier because I can't afford it. Or I spend money and time on it, forget about it a short time later and start thinking about the next big expenditures I "need" to make to catch up with my neighbors. It's a cultural band aid.

What's a cultural band aid? For me, it's mainly chocolate chip cookies and Seinfeld re-runs. If I'm in a bad mood and want to feel better, those are my cultural band aids. Slap those babies on and life is good. What I'm referring to is whatever we use to cover up stress, pain, exhaustion, etc. Nothing like 2 hours of Seinfeld and a full batch of Pillsbury Break N' Bakes to lift my spirits. For you? I don't know. Maybe it's the mall, or a new car, or chiseling your biceps, or Chinese take-out. The point is, the cultural band aid eventually falls off and the hurt, the envy, or condition is still there.

How has culture conditioned you to live?

How has Jesus conditioned you to live?

Do they clash?

Most likely...yes.

What John Caldwell meant by his question, "Has my life radically changed for Jesus?" is a scary, yet exciting thing to ask ourselves. I would say, "My life is radically changing for Jesus." It's never a completed project and working on it is SO much more adventurous, exciting, and harder. But I'm beginning to use less band aids.

So answer the questions above for yourself. The big question is, do you have the guts to let Jesus change you?

Wise Words From Great Leaders

I shared on here previously that my wife Karrie and I are pursuing a thing called "Church Planting". Basically, that means I am starting a church. I'm working with a church planting organization and we have our final assessment in the 1st week of August. After that, there are a lot of unknowns, but we are going to do it. I've been doing a lot of studying, praying, journaling, and reading in preparation of church planting.

With that, I have felt a clear call to plant a church. You can scroll down to the blog post "Fasting - the end of the story" to check that out. As for the location, we still aren't completely sure. It could literally be in any city across the U.S. However, I have a burden on my heart for the west/south side of Indianapolis. These are the communities I have spent most of my life in and God is laying a vision on my heart for this place and I'm chomping at the bit to get started.

Another thing I've been doing is praying for Godly leaders to come into my life that I can learn from. I've sought out 3 men in particular and some of the wisdom they have shared has amazed me. Many times they have said a sentence or shared a thought and my jaw will drop because of the magnitude and importance of what they just said. I've written a lot of their words down and want to share some of their insights over the next 3 days. These are men that are all Lead Pastors and have a combined 67 years experience in leading churches.

Trent Renner (Lead Pastor at Parkway Christian Church in Surprise, AZ) said this to me last night, I'm paraphrasing, "Aaron, I'm willing to bet in the past year or so you have experienced a lot of heartbreak. That's good. You need that because being a lead pastor of a church means you will constantly experience heartache and you needed the practice."

Karrie and I both agree that the past year of our lives has been the hardest for many different reasons. We experienced an enormous amount of pain, frustration, and loss. I'm sure many of you reading this have experienced heartache. I'll bet, like me, you asked God or yourself (if you're like me I talk to myself a lot), "Why did I go through that? What was the point? This sucks and I don't understand!" I've uttered those phrases many times in the past year or so.

And last night, for the first time, I felt complete peace about the past year. To quote a favorite author of mine (Donald Miller), Trent's words were like "water to my soul." Even though I don't completely understand every circumstance and struggle, I do know I needed to go through it. I read a verse in Malachi 3:3 about God, "He sits as the refiner and purifier of silver". I know God has been refining and will continue to do that. I got a cool email one time explaining the process of "refining silver" and you can view the contents of that email here.

Specifically, I have learned a lot about working through forgiveness and heart-wrenching loss this past year. Is it a coincidence that some of Jesus's last words on the cross were, "Father forgive them..." while God looked on and felt the heart-wrenching loss of His Son? No. God has layed an awesome vision on my heart and refining needed to take place before I could lead it. How could I possibly lead His church effectively if I could not relate to God's loss and Jesus's forgiveness?

How is God refining you? What are you going to do with it?

Check back tomorrow and Thursday for some more "wise words from great leaders".