“Steven Curtis Chapman’s youngest child died Wednesday afternoon after being struck by a car driven by her teenage brother in the driveway of the family’s Williamson County home.
Maria, one of the Christian singer’s six children, was taken by LifeFlight to Vanderbilt Hospital, which confirmed the death, according to Laura McPherson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol.
The 5-year-old was hit by an SUV driven by her teenage brother, she said. Police did not give the driver’s name.
The teen was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser down the driveway of the rural home at about 5:30 p.m. and several children were playing in the area, McPherson said. He did not see Maria in the driveway before the vehicle struck her, she said.” excerpt from The Tennessean
This family has been a symbol of hope and grace to so many millions, and now I pray that they would find themselves surrounded by ministering angels and wrapped in the incomprehensible covering of the peace of God that Steven has faithfully stood on and sung about for so many years. In the middle of what is undoubtedly great sorrow, great pain, great hurt, great confusion and possibly even great anger, we pray the covering of God’s great peace over the Chapman family.
i am a people dude. i absolutely love people, love engaging people in meaningful discussion, love learning people’s stories, etc. as such, i also love movies about people… people’s struggles, people’s lives, the fight to overcome obstacles and the passion to live in spite of what life throws at them.
the film stars ryan gosling as lars lindstrom, “a lovable introvert whose emotional baggage has kept him from fully embracing life.” lars has a delusion which is causing him to believe that his new “friend” whom he met online is real, when in fact she is a life-sized doll. what follows is an emotional, and quite funny, journey for lars and everyone around him as everyone in his life commits to going along with it in an effort to help lars get better. it is a powerful portrayal of the power of relationships in our lives.
i saw it twice in dallas last fall when it was in limited release and loved it! it is on dvd now and i recommend checking it out if you haven’t already. it’s quirky and fun, but most of all it just might challenge you to take a look at the people in your life and find creative ways to serve them right where they are.
“this be the realest thing I ever wrote for sure, after this a lot of folks wont like me no more…” - lyfe jennings
the dictionary defines ‘jaded’ as “tired, bored, or lacking enthusiasm; typically after having too much of something”.
yep… i’m jaded, alright. this is going to be a mind dump, so bear with me…
“i wonder if the gospel of love has become the gospel of being right” … dan merchant (author/writer/director of ‘lord, save us from your followers’)
i grew up in a horribly dogmatic and legalistic abomination, i mean denomination. =) i spent the first 25 years of my life surrounded by people who had a warped view of the salvation experience and who were quick to send a lot of people to hell if a strict religious code was not adhered to. they were so concerned with being convinced they were “right”, that in the process they weren’t really loving anybody. i left that church a little over 8 years ago, but in a lot of ways, and for a lot of reasons, i am still coming to terms with various aspects of that whole experience and continue to try to reconcile it with where i am in my life today. religion sucks.
before i go any further, i want to say that i am not angry, and i am not bitter… but if you will indulge me being totally honest here on my blog… i am tired.
i love Jesus and i want my life to reflect the character of Christ to those around me. i want to be an instrument of the grace that I so desperately need every day of my life. the ‘body of Christ’ is beautiful, man! i have been blessed to travel extensively and have met some of the most amazing and beautiful disciples of Christ all over this country and all over the world. so don’t get it twisted… i love the church… but “church”? yeeeeeaaaah… i’m pretty much not feeling it at the moment.
i’m not the only one. i often have these conversations with a few close friends of mine who are also on the same page. “church” isn’t cutting it for our generation. we desire to be a part of a thriving faith community that is making a difference in the lives of those in our respective spheres of influence.
to be fair, i do know that there are churches out there who are doing it… they are doing exactly what I am talking about… they are the hands of feet of Christ, love and justice in action that is the heartbeat of Jesus. but sadly enough they are few and far between.
i believe that the heart of God is for real live faith, love and community in action. however, in my life, i have seen a lot of people whose lives revolve around the sunday morning experience as if it were the apex of what it means to be a christian in america… who are satisfied to be “church people”… but outside of their sunday morning gloriously euphoric spiritual expression, they are having zero effect on the world around them once they walk out the doors.
the great christian paradox seems to be this… that we are quick to go to great lengths to profess our christianity, but yet do so little or nothing to act on that profession. i must wonder, when did we trade in being disciples of Christ for being “christians”? when did we trade in talking with people for talking at them? when did we trade being the church for doing church?
i am not a pastor, a priest or a theologian. i am simply someone who loves Jesus and who legitimately struggles with whether or not my life is a consistent enough reflection of the new life that i have been freely given. i don’t have all the answers. in fact, by comparison i probably have very few of them. i’m just saying something’s missing… i love Jesus, i’m just not sold on all the stuff that we’ve put in between him and us… so yeah… jaded.
i just finished watching an advance copy of “lord, save us from your followers”, a documentary by dan merchant and it got me on this page tonight. it releases june 13, and i am sure you will be hearing a lot more about it very soon. i watched the last 30-40 minutes of the film through tears, thinking “my God, people are hurting, and we’re… in church…”
you can stream the entire film online for $6.99 now. if you are a pastor, show it to your congregation. if you are a parent, show it to your children. challenge those around you… get the dialogue going where you live. be the catalyst to get the people around you off their ass and into the real world… living, loving and looking like Jesus. part of me was a little afraid to post this, but you know what? i’m tired of acting like i don’t really feel this way… tired of acting like i’m not tired. so, let the discussion begin…
i traveled to jamaica this week with the group, and during our group devotions before we went on stage in montego bay we were talking about fear. 2 timothy 1:7 was referenced (”for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind”). basically, if God has empowered us with this ‘power, love and a sound mind, why then do we still fear what it is that we fear?
after some discussion about the ‘fear factor’, the question was posed to everyone “what would you do differently if you didn’t have the fear barrier in your life?”
wow.
as we went around and shared about the fear in our lives, some spoke of public speaking and personal evangelism while others talked about things like family issues and bugs. =)
when i was asked the question, my answer was that i would act upon and make life decisions much quicker and easier, without fear of what the outcome or results may be. regardless of how it may appear, i am someone who tends carry things a little too heavy at times, and can tend to live in the ‘what if’ zone a little too much… ok, maybe a lot too much. i’m not there all the time, but sometimes it’s quite the struggle to stay out of that zone.
what if they disagree
what if it’s not popular
what if it doesn’t work
what if it ends up like last time
what if i fail
what if i am misunderstood
what if it looks bad
what if it’s not enough
what if i’m not ready
what if i am regarded with contempt
what if, what if, what if… all these what if’s!!!!
it is my experience that trying to move past these type of paralyzing thoughts without understanding where they are coming from is like spiritual shadowboxing, and we do a whole lot of ‘resisting the devil’ type stuff, but don’t focus a lot of attention on the fact that we have indeed been enabled and equipped with power, love and a sober, sound and vigilant mind… but we’ve got to use it. being able to move past this kind of fear involves a clear understanding of the authority and sovereignty of God in your life and being able to lean more on that than on the ‘what if’s’, and lean a little more every day…
i certainly don’t have it all figured out, but i am piecing it together every day… learning to stand more on the perfect love and security that Christ gives than on the false foundation of fear that is so easily focused on.
what is the fear factor in your life? what is it that you can see yourself doing if you didn’t have to contend with the fear barrier that you crash into with unsettling regularity? and what are you doing about it?
When the world welcomes us in,
We’re closer to Heaven than we’ll ever know.
They say this place has changed,
But strip away all of the technology
And you will see
That we all are hunters,
Hunting for something that will make us okay.
Here we lay alone in hospital beds,
Tracing life in our heads;
But all that is left
Is that this was our entrance and now it’s our exit,
As we find our way home.
All the blood and all the sweat
That we invested to be loved
Follows us into our end,
Where we begin to understand
That we are made of love,
And all the beauty stemming from it.
We are made of love,
And every fracture caused by the lack of it.
“You were a million years of work,”
Said God and His angels, with needle and thread.
They kissed your head and said,
“You’re a good kid and you make us proud.
So just give your best and the rest will come,
And we’ll see you soon.”
All the blood and all the sweat
That we invested to be loved
Follows us into our end,
Where we begin to understand
That maybe Hollywood was right:
When the credits have rolled and the tears have dried,
The answers that we have been dying to find
Are all pieced together and, somehow,
Made perfectly mine.
We are made of love,
And all the beauty stemming from it.
We are made of love,
And every fracture caused by the lack of love
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