Valentine's Mush

Today is Valentine's Day. The day of flowers and candy, paper hearts cut out at school, cinnamin candies, and dinner for two. Or maybe on the other end of the spectrum it's a day of just being made that much more aware that you're having dinner for one. And if you're a girl that dinner for one is probably a bucket of chocolate ice cream. The guys usually go for the cereal meal. My preference is mini-wheats. The maple flavored ones.

It's funny how we take a day that is focusing on love, and make it all about the specific romantic, guy and girl, warm fuzzy, kissy, baby-talk kind of love. That kind of love is great. It's very needed. The world would eventually grow old and the human race would go extinct without the babies that come from that kind of love. So hurrah for the ooshie-booshie love. But I think on a day like today we could celebrate more than that specific type of love. I think we could celebrate love in whatever context it may be. A single mom and her baby. Two war vets who have kept contact for 60 years. High school friends. A brother and sister. God?

Lately, the topic of love has been brought to my attention a few times. How nothing else is really worth the value of love. If I'm super smart, but not loving, I've missed it. If I'm really talented, but not loving, I've missed it. If a lot of people like me, but I don't love them, I've missed it. If I do nice things for other people, but don't really truly love them, I've missed it. If I give money to the church, but don't love Jesus, I've missed it. If I have all sorts of spiritual insights and gifts, but not love, I've missed it. Love is the most excellent way. How to be a loving person is the greatest legacy I can pass on to my children. (I don't have children, but when I do ... ) I'm thankful to my parents and extended family for modeling how to be a loving person. I think I've gotten the best upbringing I could ask for. A loving one. I hope I can pass that on.

Thanks to you all who have loved me and loved others when I was watching you. Happy V-Day.

Safe

Some lyrics I'm encouraged by today:

Even though I walk through the valley
Of the shadow of death
Your perfect love is casting out fear
And even when I'm caught in the middle
Of the storms of this life
I won't turn back I know You are near

And I will fear no evil
For my God is with me
And if my God is with me
Whom then shall I fear?

Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Lord You never let go of me

And I can see a light that is shining
For the heart that holds on
A glorious light beyond all compare
And there will be an end to these struggles
But until that day comes
We'll live to know you here on the earth

Matt Redman

An apology

I'm sorry!

I just discovered all the posts that people have been writing and I haven't been moderating and accepting. Just so you know I didn't know you had written anything!!! It's my sweet computer skillz coming through again. Thanks to all who care enough to say hi - it's motivating to write more! But I believe I shall be on top of this blog again soon ... and I have time today, considering it is dumping snow again today as it was during my last post. I've been in a local coffee shop for almost five hours now waiting for the snow to stop but ... I've decided that it's not going to. Ever. I'm disappointed because tonight was to be the first night of clccyouth.com in 2007. But alas it was not to be. The snow has made an end of that.

But the people I've seen in here today coming through are very interesting:
1.) Two very cheerful guys who have special needs. One guy sat beside me just laughing for about 10 minutes. God is so creative.
2.) A guy who made a scene coming in "out of the cold!" to use the washroom and then another scene when he discovered he had to get a key from the cashier for the aforementioned washroom break
3.) Various computer users and book readers (myself included)

Anyways, I hope I can find my car when I leave.

adios

Holy discontent Batman!

I'm feeling contented today. There is a white world of blowing snow outside (yes, November in Abbotsford BC is usually a little warmer and wetter this time of year) but I am burrowed inside my apartment with slippers and jogging pants. Aahhh. Life is good.

Contentment is cool because its more a state of mind than circumstances. I could be upset that my car didn't make it up my driveway yesterday and now I have to walk down to get to it today in the cold. I could be inconvenienced that I really can't drive anywhere because of the roads. But contentment chooses to be at rest despite circumstances. It's been said that "godliness with contentment is great gain" (1 Timothy 6:6)

This weekend I heard about the concept of "holy discontent". The idea behind it is that there are things that you have been wired to be annoyed by, but in a good way. This idea says that through your experience, there are injustices or needs that stand out especially to you, and bring you to the point of saying, "That's it! I've had enough - I can't handle that anymore - I need to do something!" And these things aren't just felt by you, they are felt by God too. It's the place where your heart and God's heart are "wrecked" for the same issue, people-group, injustice, need, brokenness, etc.

I think my "holy discontent" areas are 1.)unaccepted people who are socially outcast, 2.)young people who don't find Jesus as an anchor for their soul, and 3.)poorly led corporate worship that doesn't allow people to connect spirit-to-Spirit with God.

What's your holy discontent?

Dirty Floors

I live in an apartment building. It has linoleum floors in the kitchen and when I moved here almost 2 years ago, I found that there were some irremovable stains on them. Not that I tried to remove them of course, but they had that irremovable look to them. The kind that seem to be a part of the flooring, like they were made like that. A sort of "used" look.

Anyways, because of the already "used" look of my floor, as well as my bacheloresque skills, my kitchen floor has tended to collect more, well, "used" features. I'm not sure what got into me today, maybe I just had time on my hands, but I got down to some serious cleaning. I was sitting at the kitchen table and noticed the stain under the corner of my fridge. There was a distinct line where my "swiffer" couldn't reach any further and a stain was growing. "That's gross" I finally decided. And got on my hands and knees with some cleaner and paper towel and went to town on that sucker. And from there I had to keep going. Like a man possessed I followed the crack where my floor meets the cupboards and now I can proudly say my floors are clean. Minus the irremovable ones.

I just got thinking of how things can go a while and we get used to the stains we always see. Maybe its because we don't the time to actually stop and look underneath, behind, in the corners and cracks. But it gets really gross. I think that's like our hearts too. When I don't stop and really look, I collect stains and junk. I can get used to how it looks and forget about the great experience of a short account with Jesus. So here's to confession. Here's to repentance. Here's to letting God's Spirit speak into the cracks and corners of our inner selves. And here's to actually doing something about what we hear. Oh yeah, and there's no such thing as an irremovable stain with Jesus.

Famamily Reunion

Langerud is my name and gathering in large groups of other Langeruds and eating a lot is my game. Or it was this past labor day weekend. The Langeruds were together again, or most of us, that is. Uncle Henry and Auntie Ruth and their clan didn't make it out as well as some beloved cousins from our family too. We still managed to have a lot of fun and share some good memories. We celebrated a 30th wedding anniversary with renewal of vows included. We also celebrated God's faithfulness to us, and how 4 generations ago, my great-great-aunt shared the story of Jesus with the rest of her family as a little girl. I really admire my grandpa and his brothers and sister for showing us younguns how to give back to God by serving others and by being passionate about the Story that changed the framework of our family forever. Here's a few pics of the weekend:

1:37 in the AM.

Sometimes I can't sleep.

I have blamed it on my bed for a long time, and I still hold to that to some level. I think tonight I'm just not in the zone for sleep. I'm a little wired after youth tonight. So I'm up eating Breyers Double Churned Extra Creamy Natural Vanilla ice cream. I think that's about as vanilla as it's going to get. My dad would be proud.

My mind is mulling over all the events of the day and the coming events of the fall. Youth ministry brings a lot of thoughts this time of year. (I'm such a veteran :)ha!)I have this anticipation building up inside of me as I see our group molding together and things coming together for this school year ahead. And I love the people I do youth ministry with. 5 of us just stayed after all the students left tonight and played hide and seek, and with the lights off it turned into a big game of "throw stuff at each other". If I could say one thing to someone asking about how to work with a team of leaders, it would be "have illegal amounts of fun together". Especially a youth ministry team.

Before I sign off tonight I want to recommend to any church/ministry leaders reading a book called, "Practicing Passion: Youth and the quest for a passionate Church" by Kenda Creasy Dean. It's really energized my thoughts lately. The author's guiding conviction is this:

If the church is going to make sense to adolescents, then our ministry must be predicated on passion - the Passion of Christ, the passion of youth, and the passionate faith that is made possible when these two things come together.

The author says that for long the church has stifled the passion of youth by not involving them in the mission of the Church, and not taught them a theology of dying. That Christ's Passion was to the death, and that the faith we want is one that we would die for. So yeah check it out - it reads like a text book with deep insight into scripture and the practices of youth ministry in history.

Welp, I'm signing off here. Maybe sleep will come ... adios!