Getting Crunk for Christ

Hey folks,

Hope everyone is preparing for an awesome weekend. Down here in Miami we're preparing for an awesome three day weekend (thanks Fall Break) full of rain and wind due to Hurricane Sandy. Considering a Hurricane is going to hit us, it'll probably be an extremely uneventful three days.

This is quite unlike last weekend. I meant to blog about this earlier in the week, but, you know, whatever. As I referenced in my last post it was homecoming week for us, which meant an FSU home game and a concert, which just happened to be one of my favorite rappers, Lupe Fiasco. I also had the pleasure of seeing the Christian rapper Lecrae down at the Fillmore in South Beach, so it was a crazy three days of fun and aching knees (I think I stood up more than I sat down from Friday to Sunday). 

I could talk about how fun Lupe was and how horrible the FSU game happened to be (don't ask about it), but I would bore you quickly. I try to make this blog as less about me as possible. What really captivated me, however, was seeing a few thousand Miamians of literally every culture and social status pack into a trendy South Beach venue to worship God in seeing Lecrae perform live. If y'all don't know who Lecrae is, he is one of the most popular Christian rappers in the game today; he's been featured by XXL Magazine in a article of the 40 best budding or indie rappers (Christian or not--Mac Miller was on the list) and his latest album, Gravity, has sold over 100,000 units since its release on September 4th. Basically he's becoming a big deal in all rap circles.

I had never been to a Christian concert before. I have to admit when I used to think about these events I pictured a bunch of people with both palms in the air speaking in tongues or something. I think these things get a bad rap to tell you the truth. Most people (even Christians...actually, mostly Christians) see people worship, whether in church or at a concert, with their hands or bodies and laugh (or at least smirk fairly noticeably). I dunno, maybe they picture that scene for Borat or something (which regrettably is no longer on YouTube. All I could find is a picture). 

The truth is raising your hands towards God while singing is just as natural as folding your hands together while praying or putting up Longhorn fingers while at an AC/DC concert. Funny thing is, most of our society doesn't find these things weird or funny.

What amazed me about Lecrae's concert was it wasn't about him. He's a popular guy, and his music is actually very good. I was expecting jumping up and down and singing all of his songs like I did at Fiasco's concert. Rather, in-between songs instead of a bunch of high University of Miami students chanting "LUPE LUPE" or some variation of "F*** THE SEMINOLES!"  the crowd would "merely" chant "Jesus! Jesus!" 

What an amazing, selfless concept. Not only did Lecrae not bring any attention to himself (actually, his five opening acts had just as much stage time as he did) but his crowd and fans (and they were killer fans, trust me) didn't either. Everyone was there for one reason--to shout and praise the One who brought them all there. 

Now I don't mean to Jesus Juke you folks...but why is it OK for us to scream and shout for our favorite football team, musical artist, or Justin Bieber but it is somewhat socially taboo to give some vocal chord props to the Big Guy Upstairs? To tell you the truth I was more inspired not by the fact that there were thousands of Christians in Miami at a Lecrae concert (wooooaaaahhhhh) but that those thousands of folks were getting LOUD for God. 

If I had some advice for y'all, it's to get yourself to a Lecrae concert. Or to Toby Mac or Hillsong U or Crowder or another Christian artist. The crowd atmosphere is just as good, if not better, than at a Jay-Z, Coldplay, or Aerosmith concert (all of which I've gone to). No joke. 

Have y'all ever been to a worship concert? Seen Lecrae live? Share your stories below. Am I crazy? I hope not.

Love y'all,

Ty

P.S. As always, subscribe to my blog on the right hand side of your screen either by email or by an atom feed. Share this post with a friend (or all of them)! Y'all are the best, as usual, for checking out what's going on with me and Miami and God and all that good stuff. I wish I could express my appreciation more! Peace

Random Tidbits

--I was listening to Shad, some rapper from Canada, today in the car. His song Rose Garden had an interesting line--"Can't cower when the rain falls/And it falls whether you're Gandhi or you're Adolf". I found this to be fairly interesting. Rap Genius tells me it means that life treats good and bad people the same. Yet if we were looking at it from a Christian spirituality perspective, we can see rain as a metaphor for grace (as Christians like to do) and learn the lesson that our God showers us with grace whether we're as good as Gandhi or as bad as Hitler. Don't spin this the wrong way. I don't need to go into detail on the horrors of Adolf Hitler. But his actions don't disprove the fact that Jesus died for everyone who walked or will walk on this earth. He loves and has loved everybody--yes, that includes Hitler. Now that's some big and unconditional love. I dunno--the verses just enabled me to really feel the magnitude of the big guy upstairs today.

--I watched the presidential debate last night. I thought I'd be able to say at the end of this whole thing that I would get by without watching one. I blame it on my roommate Kevin. He turned it on. Anyway I didn't learn much. If you were following my live tweets last night (@tycoondog, and I apologize if you were) you'll know that I wasn't too enthusiastic about either candidate. I seriously hope people don't base their votes off of those things. Especially the Town Hall debate. What garbage.

--It was funny because I got my absentee ballot today in the mail asking me to vote for a President and a mosquito control head honcho in North Naples. I might seem at times apathetic towards politics (I try not to be), but I do encourage everyone to find out a way to get out a vote (my way was my mother remembering to get an absentee ballot sent to me--thanks Mom!). I don't know who I'm going to vote for yet, but I was pleased to see that you're allowed to write in a name. I think I'm going to vote for Dan Marino. If God's Right Arm can save the Miami Dolphins than he can save America's economy, I think.

--Otherwise there's not much else going on around campus lately, besides for homecoming. So I reiterate: not much going on. It's around midterm time so people are actually being somewhat quiet and using the Richter Library. Midterms and finals are the only times of the year that the Richter has inhabitants. And I really do mean inhabitants. People sleep there. I think those people are mostly pre-med.

I wish I could report more, but if I had to add commentary to midterm weeks I'd say this--it all makes me roll my eyes. I think exam weeks bring out people's main purpose for being in college--grades. Basically  people cram gratuitous amounts of information they'll forget after a couple of nights binge drinking  and intersperse preparations for homecoming events that they think will look good on their resumes. Talk about spending the entirety of your week over things that don't matter.

I'm not going to go on about how people worship their grades. It's not worth it. Just wanna say that while I'm going over hundreds of pages of books and dozens of pages or notes I've got other stuff in my life that I'm taking taking care of and that's much more important. And I'm not saying that in an elitist way whatsoever. I'm saying that because I care about things in my life that matter more than things that only matter for a little bit (or a little bit). While you feel the drudgery of midterms and eventually finals find something else that you can dedicate your time to during those weeks that have an impact on people and "do love". You'll enjoy the process so much more.

So that's all for my tidbits. It's #BeatFSU week so I'm very pumped about that. If we win Saturday, I will dedicate an entire post to the glory of the Miami Hurricanes and you will all read it. If we lose...well then I'll have to come up with something else to write about. 

Much love,

Ty

**As usual, y'all are the best. This blog is officially averaging 200 page views a post (after 3) which makes me feel awesome inside. Keep the word spreading! Leave comments, subscribe via email or atom (on the right hand panel of your browser), share my blog on twitter and/or facebook, and tell one friend this week about my blog. I will return the favor, of course--talk to me! Peace everybody** 

I Suck and Other Things I Learn At Retreats

I just came back from a CRU retreat this weekend. It was in downtown Miami at a Hilton with lots of pretty colors and dogs running around homeless people in neighboring parks. So pretty much it was a lot like Miami. It was a lot of fun and, more importantly, a community of believers was being formed and re-formed in preparation of a return to campus, which is awesome.

I go into retreats always assuming I'm going to learn something new. "Oh, God, you are so great. You send me to, like, a billion retreats, functions, seminars, community meetings, and church events a year and I learn something different at every single one! At this rate I'll know everything and be HOLIER THAN THOU in, like, 4 months!" I tell God, who listens with one of those apprehensive looks that my dad gives me when I tell him I'm having so much fun AND, oh yeah, doing well in school. I'm such a good Christian.

This year, God laughed at me and taught me about community. So I went through the weekend pretty bummed. I was all like, "God, c'mon bro. I KNOW about how I need community. Acts 2:42 man! Plus, I just taught about community in both my college AND my high school small groups that I co-lead this week. THE EXACT SAME THING! Why in the world are you speaking to me about forming community?"

Yesterday after taking the metro home and sitting down on my couch (the cable was out so I couldn't watch the Dolphins game, thanks Comcast) I realized what God was trying to teach me. In reflection and prayer and came out with two extremely valuable lessons: that I suck and that my community is not my safe haven.

I Suck

It's hard not to get full of yourself sometimes. When your faith is the most important thing in your life, when you co-lead bible studies and small groups up the wazoo, or when you volunteer 10 hours a week or more to ministry, it's easy to fall into the mindset that everything is peachy and God is soooooooo very proud of me.

The speaker at the retreat this weekend was really smart, some multiple PhD guy or something. He had a huge impact on everybody at the session on Saturday morning when he challenged us to ask ourselves what we fear. This could be a very scary question. The fact of the matter is I think some of my insecurities came about and next thing I knew I was fairly emotional about the fact that I don't have it all together.

I'm getting into my next point a bit but Jesus didn't hang out with priests and holy people and whatnot. He associated with tax collectors and beggars and prostitutes and other people that I myself probably wouldn't want to hang out with, sadly. As the rapper Cy Hi Da Prynce says in the G.O.O.D. Music song Sin City: "I know who Christ is/And he never hung with the Saints/It makes no sense to save the righteous"

Jesus hangs out with me today not because I'm awesome or because I pray a lot or because I listen to worship music sometimes. He hangs out with me because I'm broken and because I need Him. He hangs out with me because I suck.

My Community Is Not My Safe Haven

I thought I knew about community--I literally spend half of my ministry pounding it into people's heads that they need a Christian community to support their faith and find the acceptance that humans are wired to search for. But I learned (or re-learned) that my Christian community is not the place I run to to feel the most comfortable about myself. It is not the place that allows me to escape all of my problems: it is the place that my problems are confronted and I am reminded that I suck and that Jesus knows that I suck and that He loves me anyway.

A lot of people use the fact that Jesus hung out with all these lower class peeps for their argument to be in a community with non-believers rather than other Christians. I think of it this way: everybody in our Christian community are the tax collectors and the prostitutes. If that is the case, why do we assume that we're safe? Is it because we don't listen to rap music, we tithe 10% to the church, don't curse, and don't drink alcohol or smoke whatever makes us feel good? Because that's not the picture a Christian community should be. A Christian community is a gathering of people who know they're screwed up and accepts the fact that Jesus forgives us for this.

A verse that we discussed in both my high school and college small group this week was Hebrews 10:24, which reads: And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works (ESV). The largest part of the discussion rested on the phrase "stir up one another". God doesn't tell us to just affirm each other, be kind to each other, or keep challenging ideas and beliefs under the table for peachy community. He tells us to stir one another up: in other words, for us to truly love each other, we must bring about discomfort and really challenge each other in our faiths.

Where I thought my community in CRU at the University of Miami was for feeling more comfortable and accepted for my faith and to escape the temptation of non-believers, the true reason God gave it to me is for me to be bring up all those things that make me suck so I can be affirmed and forgiven. We are a relational people--the concept of grace is meant to be brought upon us between more than one person. We cannot grow in our faith on our own; we must look to people to truly care for us and are willing to help us heal.

So the moral of the story here is this: Christians don't have perfect morals, don't live perfect lives, and don't share perfect community. The fact that all of these parts of our being are NOT perfect is what makes Christians Christians in the first place. So stop thinking that you've got it all together, stop thinking that you've found a group of people (Christians or not) that are there to make you feel better about yourself, and stop thinking that we are better than anybody else. It's time to realize that true love is not easy; it’s difficult and challenging and COMPLETELY rewarding. It might seem counter-intuitive but try it; I promise it works, I've seen it in action.

Think about this: why do you turn to the community you are a part of (whether it’s Christian or not), and what do you look to get out of that community? Have you ever considered that you were designed to be a community that knows you who really are and loves you anyway despite that?

As always, I love you all for checking out my blog. You are the best. And, as always, let me know what you think. Lay it on me folks. Also, subscribe to my blog. It's on the right panel. Thanks! Much love peeps.

--Ty