Yes, You're Reading This Post Title Because There is, in Fact, a Post That I've Written.

Hello y'all!

Woah! He-hey there! Is that you? Is this me? It's weird being back here. Right now I feel like I do whenever I return home from Miami or after I buy a new box of Oreos--its a heart-warning, long-awaited return to familiarity. I have to admit that I kinda dropped the ball on this one. The readership, support, and conversations sparked from this blog meant a whole lot to me, and I feel like I made a small little dent of an impact to like 4 people, which is pretty cool. Not that I feel like I let anybody down, but more so I've felt like I let myself down. I love to write, and while I've still written other things, I've abandoned the medium that brings me back to who I am. So there's that.

Regardless, here's a quick explanation as to why I haven't been on here in multiple months, after writing an entire blog post on how you should write regularly: schoolbusinessworkbusinesssportsbloghardshipsspiritualapathyhavingagirlfriendwhatfamilyvacationsandlackofdirection. That should make you content.

But anyway, here's a quick rundown of where I'm at. Basically, I've finished my sophomore year of college with a fairly decent GPA and have decided to stay in Miami for the summer. This is exciting for a number of reasons, but mainly I'm pumped to continue to spend time and build relationships with the high schoolers that go to my youth group. My friend Sean Foster wrote a nice post on the importance of showing people, especially kids in their tender teenage years, that you care. So any prolonged period of time that I get to do that without the burden of schoolwork is a blessing. And I'm stoked about that.

Speaking of youth group, the youth pastor at Crossbridge and good friend of mine Eric has been gracious enough to let me speak a couple of times on Friday nights. Well, gracious probably doesn't do it justice. But telling Eric of my desire to possibly work in youth ministry one day and him supporting me all the way to allowing me to preach to the students is one of the reasons why I love the guy so much. Interestingly, however, I think I love him the more I screw up (or screw him over).

Have you ever experienced feeling more appreciation and love for a person after that person has shown you grace? For example, I have a girlfriend now (gasps of shock and applause later, please), and whenever we have a disagreement or I do something stupid (like, I dunno, act like myself), her forgiveness always furthers my appreciation of her. Similarly, I love my dad each a tiny bit more every time I break something on the boat.

Obviously, I also experience this with Eric. The reason I bring this up is because in the midst of this preaching opportunity I was scheduled to preach on the subject "What is the Gospel?" two Fridays ago. This is obviously a big and important topic, and understandably, Eric called me Monday to remind me and offer me help. When I hung up the phone, the thought of speaking, youth group, kids, Eric, being a youth pastor, being responsible, nor being intelligent, did not once enter my brain until 3:30 Friday afternoon, about four hours before my scheduled appearance.

I don't think I could type enough words to fully express what happened here. In fact, I don't remember much other than immediately picking up the phone, calling Eric, and laying out a wide and creative variety of unrepeatable expletives followed by: "I got nothin."

Completely screwing up and being ridiculously nervous giving a talk is one thing, and completely understandable. The first time I spoke was about a month ago and it was a wreck. I could barely string a sentence together, my topic was murky, and I don't think I made eye-contact with anything other than my shoe laces once. But that was all fine. Completely forgetting to prepare and give a sermon to an entire youth ministry is not OK. For future reference.

To make a long story short, Eric basically said "you're preaching," "meet me at the church in an hour," "prepare a sermon," "nice job," and "you're speaking again in two weeks." Yes, I was as dumbfounded as you; in fact, it was at that moment for the first time I seriously doubted Eric's ability to be a competent youth pastor. You want me to do what? Preach? Preach again? Still be on this team? Still be a breathing, productive human being? This was madness. Not only did Eric show me enough grace to forgive me, but he spent the next three hours of his night helping me prepare while at all the end of it all requesting that I do it again (with preparation next time, of course).

As foreshadowed, and without sounding redundant, my love for my good friend Eric went through the roof after my universal screw-up. Not only did he pull the whole "yeah I forgive you, I love you, whatever," BS that I would probably pull, but he showed his true grace through his actions: helping me prepare, supporting me, and giving me another chance. More than I would probably do.

The coolest part about this whole thing (and probably the only cool thing, since not much about that night was very cool) was that it was a total God moment, like everything in life. I think this feeling over increased love is parallel to the love we feel from God's grace. If it is true that we are only saved by Jesus' sacrifice and not by what we do, then why do followers of Jesus act differently than the rest? Why would we do anything good, then? Besides for the verses that call us to imitate our creator and our transformation by the Holy Spirit, a lot of the times the Christ-like things that I do, I find, come from mere gratification of my Lord. We are thankful that God has saved us; therefore, we do what he calls us to do: “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." and "love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:36-40). And while most of the time I feel guilty for my sins, by the same token preaching the gospel to myself over and over again just furthers my never-enough love for God. Go ahead--think about all the times you've messed up bad. Now, think about how that has been forgiven and that God loves you despite that. Yeah, makes you want to love Him too, huh?

Grace is something we learn when we first come to Christ, or are saved, or whatever. But it's also something that we hammer down into our little pea brains over and over so we can actually understand what God's doing in our lives. Yeah, my semester has been pretty tough in terms of school work and not feeling very, well, spiritual. But sometimes it's just looking around or going through adversity (like flubbing a sermon) to see God working the gospel in our life. And that gives us hope.

I hope all of you come back and appreciate at least just a sliver of what I have to say. I can't promise that I'll be regular on here, I just can't. But I do want to revive WCWJ. I want to see it grow and foster in my life, and in yours. I want to build a community. I want internet-affirmation.

Go ahead and share this on Facebook or tweet it or email it or memorize it in its entirety to recite to your friends over lunch. Also, please comment and let me know what you think. Definitely comment, email, Facebook  or text me any related stories you might have to this, or something that has furthered your love for someone, or God. Oh yeah, and I'm preaching at XB Youth this Friday. Pray that I don't forget.

Love y'all. Go Heat.

End It

Hey folks, back after another hiatus from posting, mostly due to winter break laziness, the holidays, and attending Passion 2013, a Christian conference in Atlanta that happened to raise over 3.1 million dollars this past week to aid in the fight to end modern-day slavery.

I could bore all of you with how amazing the speakers, the worship, and the community was at Passion, but all I really want to tell you guys about is the 27 million people (80% of which are women) today who are enslaved and working in brothels, coal mines, cigarette factories, fishing boats, and other industries around the world from Manila to Atlanta and everywhere in between. While Passion was about 60,000 college-aged students from around the world uniting as one for their God, the conference also, and mainly, had a mission--to compel this generation--our generation--to be THE generation that puts an end to slavery.

What's amazing about this social issue, more than any other, is that it is relatively unknown. With the United States being one of the last countries to make slavery illegal in the 19th century, the horrid industry has been put on the back-burner ever since. It's striking that 27 million people around the world don't have the freedom, true freedom, that the rest of their earthly citizens enjoy, nor the hope that their situation can change. Thankfully, with the help of organizations such as the International Justice Mission and people like you and me, these men, women, and children can hopefully see a brighter tomorrow in being rescued and given a new life.

Even if you know about this issue (hopefully some of you will have heard of it for the first time here), still people may think that they don't have much of a say if they're not working in the field for one of these organizations that work tirelessly to save those who are not free. Thankfully, this is just not true. Obviously, our donations help immeasurably (it has to be a God-thing that "poor" college kids could muster up 3.1 million dollars in four days for the cause), but even without your money you can help in the fight just by being aware, and by raising awareness. Here are a few simple things you can do to help:

1. Sign the petition to voice your desire to end slavery by going to enditmovement.com and join the movement.

2. Share your desire to end slavery with others by mouth, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or whatever social network you can use to spread the word. Share this blog post with others. Get others to know that you care and that you want them to care, too.

3. Give to the cause. At the bottom of the enditmovement.com website there are a list of unbelievable organizations that you can give to. Also, if you go to Passion2013.com there is a button on the left that easily takes you to a place where you can donate. Any amount helps, and no dollar amount is worth the human freedom that we all deserve.

4. Be aware. This isn't just a social issue that you learn about and then quickly forget a few weeks later. Keep an eye out for ways you can help fight slavery, such as buying products that aren't produced in some step of the production process by slave labor. Go to Slaveryfootprint.org to find out how much slaves impact your own life.

5. Be a voice. Be active. Be socially conscious. And more importantly, have a heart for every single one of those 27 million souls. The more you care, and the more that others know you care, the more that can be done. Yes, you as a single person have a voice and an impact.


At the conference we were shared a story of a young girl who was trafficked for sex in the Philippians as a young girl to be rescued and restored after being freed with the help of IJM and the police; her story, of which I won't elaborate too much in fear of not doing it justice, was heart-wrenching yet also inspiring. Amazingly, she made it to Passion to receive a standing ovation from the crowd and probably a good amount of gallons of tears. Her story probably compelled many in the Georgia Dome that day to share the End It Movement on Facebook and maybe even to donate, but honestly I don't think you need a personal account for your heart to be saddened by the knowledge that 27 million people in the world today, in the 21st century, are slaves.

I believe that Jesus freed us from our own spiritual chains so we can free these people from their literal ones. God is big enough to completely end this terrible injustice--the question is, will our generation be the one that wakes up and allows Him to work through us? Or will we ignore it like we do most every other social issue that pops up every once in awhile (when was the last time you tweeted about Kony?)?

So please, share this post or one of your own with everyone you know. Be a voice. Be apart of the movement. End it.

Love y'all,

Ty

Write? Right!

Hey folks,

Sorry for the long time in between posts. Granted, I should be sorry for myself--not updating regularly is one of the main causes of lack of page views. Honestly, I feel like this guy. But I've been pretty busy lately with hell week (the last week of classes in which most final projects and such are due--btw, I looked up "hell week" on Google Images and just got pictures of military guys. I guess I should stop calling this hell week), Thanksgiving break, and a huge dose of writer's block. Yes, I've been busy with writer's block.

So instead of just succumbing to this mental blockage of the brain, I've decided to write about it. But that got boring. So instead I'm going to talk about writing for a bit.

Honestly, starting this blog has been one of the better decisions I've made in awhile. Not only have I gotten my words and thoughts out there to my small little circle of friends and family, but I've also been able to reconnect and start conversations with people that I would never think would contact me in the middle of a random school week. The opportunity to share what Jesus does and the beauty and importance of writing is amazing.

So really instead of talking about myself I want to implore all of you to write. I'm not saying to start a blog (actually, I'm asking y'all not to--because then I'll feel obligated to read all of them and frankly I just don't have the time), but rather to devote some time each week to writing. It's important for every human not only to improve on their writing ability but also get their thoughts, feelings, and opinions on paper to better process through them all. Saying what I believe on paper has really allowed me to articulate what I want to say and think in real life. Which is helpful since I think internet life is cooler.

Don't think this is possible? Too hard? Too boring? Here are some easy tips to start writing:

1. Find your medium. Blog, word document, post-it note, back of your electric bill, whatever. Find out which medium helps you best express yourself and keep you focused on putting words on the paper.

2. Write what you enjoy. I blog, write screenplays, write novels, tweet, and post on sports forums. Yes, I'm a loser. But it doesn't matter what you write for, whether it be fiction, sports, news, your life, etc., as long as you write. And trust me--if you don't write in the genre that you enjoy, you won't keep it up.

3. Find an audience. This works best if the audience is yourself.

4. Write 500 words every day. I'm not sure if this works or not. My friend Lex told me to do it. He's a hipster.

5. Tell people about it. Or don't. Whatever you feel more comfortable.

6. Find a happy place. I write this blog during work, because it dials the stress level down a bit. I write fiction in my room or somewhere outside on the University of Miami campus. Write in a place that promotes happy vibes.

7. I don't actually have a seventh suggestion. I just wanted to end on a lucky number.


So yeah--get out there and get your head on white-and-black. And send it to me (you'll have to mail me your post-it notes, unless you're good and scanning things)--I really want to know what y'all have to say (even--especially--if it's fiction).

Much love,

Ty

P.S. shout out to my good friend Tyler Neely, who took my advice before I gave it and started a blog. It's pretty cool. Go check it out.

Where Are You?

Hey folks,

I meant to write this awhile ago; this topic was preached about at Crossbridge, my church in Coral Gables, by our pastor Felipe a good amount of weeks ago. Luckily, despite my lack of iPhone notes to remind me, I didn't forget about it.

I think the question "Where am I?" is one that we don't think about that often, probably because we blow it off as something so simple. I'm fairly certain that I am currently at the home of the kids I tutor, in Coral Gables, Florida, at a dining room table swapping sentences with hope on math homework (as I finish this one, for example, I hear "I don't get this"), but I don't think about it that much.

But I don't think we as humans often think of the significance of the places we are currently at. We can look at this specifically or in a broader sense--why do I live in the city that I live in? Why do I reside in the neighborhood that I do? Is it for my job? My schooling? Is it a better socioeconomic area than another nearby city? Does my family live here? Does my family not live here?

Why do you live where you live? I understand that the majority of my absolutely wonderful readers (who also happen to be friends and family, mostly) are most likely currently in college. But I challenge my college-aged peers to question themselves in this: do you feel as though you live in the city of your college, or do you feel like you live within the compounds of your college?

A lot of University of Miami students would admit the latter, sad to say. Not many students here feel as connected to Miami as students from, say, FIU or MDC would. Miami, in itself, is a very transient city. Residents seem to always be on the move--college students are there for four years only to get out and never return; young adults work in the city on the way to bigger and better things. I don't necessarily blame them. Miami's not for everybody--it's a busy, stressful, diverse, and complicated city that struggles to have an identity or a mission. Look on the side bar of the screen at some of the problems we see here everyday.

But why is that an excuse for me to say "well, I'm here for school, so I'll just live in the UM bubble for four years and ditch out"? Why don't I instead say "I'm here for a reason, and God has put me here to make a difference, no matter how long I'll stay"?

I think people tend to ask their city to give them too much. Living in Naples, the common phrase of high school-ers is "Naples is soooooooo boringgg", or something to that effect, posted on a popular social networking site near you. I think that rather than putting into their city, the younger generation of the glorified retirement home of Collier County ask their city to give them too much; instead of going out and being active, making a difference, or taking advantage of the things that Naples offers, such as beaches, that most places don't, they expect something to be given to them.

Same thing with Miami kids. A lot of the time we try to take so much out of Miami--an education, networking opportunities, spiritual growth, life preparation, the beach, the nightlife, the sporting events (the 2012 champion Miami Heat--welcome to the bandwagon, folks). But how many people give back to the community? How much community service do we do? How much ministry and aid to we give to the neighborhoods? How often do we support local business? How much exploring have we done downtown or in the surrounding neighborhoods?

I think it's time to think that God puts us in the city we are in for a reason. Whether He wants us to be there for a short period of time or a long period of time, we need to put time aside and focus instead on how we can make the most of our opportunity to serve. So whether your travelling or planted, please, please give back. And who knows--maybe you'll have a new idea of where you want to live in the future.

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." --Matthew 28:19-20

-Ty


*Thanks again for your time reading my blog. You guys seriously mean a lot to me. Please let me know how you feel! Text me, facebook me, comment here, write me a letter, send me a telegram, morse code, patronus, whatever. And sorry for the long time in between posts--I will be better in the future!

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