As I stated last time, I work at a hotel in downtown Nashville. The job isn’t bad, but it isn’t what I went to school for either. My undergrad degree is in Theology and the Master’s degree that I am working on is in divinity. I want to teach and talk about my faith, to talk and write about what I see God doing in the world and give hope to people who lack enough to even make it through the day.

It is this desire that has lead me to become somewhat disenchanted with my job at the hotel. Again, it isn’t a bad job, it just isn’t what I went to school for. Recently, however, a brief conversation left a memorable impression on me concerning my current place of employment.

One of the things my job includes is security of the hotel, and so, I routinely patrol the hotel property. On occasion, I have to ask homeless people to leave the property for loitering, panhandling, or being disruptive. This has more than once tugged on my heart’s strings; I feel a tremendous amount of guilt as a Christian in having homeless people arrested for having nowhere to go. Sometimes, the Police are very necessary when dealing with a homeless person, such as someone who may hurt themselves or someone else, but more often than not, I have to call the Police on someone who just wants to use the bathroom or get a drink of water. That bothers me.

So, about a week ago, early in the evening around 6pm, I walk out the front doors of the hotel and find that it is raining. Sitting calmly and quietly under the hotel sign was a man who was obviously homeless; his clothing and hair that lead me to that conclusion. I decided not to say anything to him, after all, he wasn’t bothering anyone and he just wanted shelter from the rain.

As I began to turn around and walk inside, he spoke to me. “Hello, sir. How are you?” he asked. His voice was sincere and genuine, something I haven’t encountered often when I might have to call the Police. I responded that I was doing well, and asked him in kind how he was doing. Again full of sincerity, he gave his retort, “I’m doing well, thank you for asking. I don’t mean to be any trouble, I just wanted to get out of the rain. I promise I won’t bother anyone.”

I was moved by how humble this man was; I couldn’t help by find myself wanting to talk to him more. We talked for a couple minutes about the rain, which eventually moved to the weather in general and about how hot it was.

He then said something that hit me right at the core of my being. “Well, at least you’re in an air conditioned building, wearing a nice suit. You look like you’re doing well for yourself, for a man of your age.”

I immediately felt convicted that I had ever complained about my job, my responsibilities at work, or the pay I make. I’ve begun to think that I am blessed in a way that many people aren’t right now. I have a job that pays my bills. I have food to eat and a roof over my head. That should be enough.

Sometimes it just helps to have someone say something to help but things in perspective, regardless of where that spoken word comes from. Thank you, sir, your words helped put things in perspective.

Hebrews 13:2

I’ve been contemplating what to do after graduation. Graduation day is on May 7, which is not very far away, and I am starting to doubt all of the plans that I had laid out before me.

I had planned to stay in Nashville over the summer to work and begin grad school in the fall. I have loved my time here at Lipscomb University and I was looking forward to continuing my studies by pursuing my Master’s Degree in Divinity. However, I am finding it difficult to find a place to live with the money that I make at my job. I wouldn’t say that I make bad money, but it is not enough to live on my own, and even with a roommate, I worry about making enough money to pay for my share of the bills, the bills that I have currently, and with paying for graduate school out of pocket. I have acquired too much debt while here at Lipscomb, and tuition continues to increase every year.

On a bit of a side note, my job is not bad. I am a “manager on duty” at the Sheraton Hotel in Downtown Nashville. It is a pretty title, but a bit misleading. I am little more than a glorified security guard. I handle guest complaints, lock doors, escort workers to their vehicles, handle the hotel lost and found, and collect door hangers at night. In retrospect, I don’t think the job was represented to me very well, but I am grateful for having a job right now when so many people are still struggling to find work in this economy.

My job is a great college job. It has decent pay with good benefits. Yet, it is still just a college job. It reminds me every time I go in that I don’t want to be there permanently. I desire to teach. I know that has shifted somewhat over the last couple of years, but I think maybe I have always wanted to teach and I simply didn’t know it yet.

The idea of being able to do what the Bible faculty here at LU has done for me gives me great and tremendous joy. The professors here have challenged me spiritually, lead me to question my theology constructively, and have matured me in my faith more than any number of years in my life combined. I long to continue my studies and to learn as much as I can about this very passionate subject in my life, but I seem to coming up on some sizeable road bumps in the near future.

I have always believed firmly that God takes care of those who are doing and pursuing His will. I don’t mean a version of the Health and Wealth gospel; what I mean by that is God being faithful when you are faithful to Him. Take Moses for example, or just about any other Old Testament figure for that matter. God called Moses to a specific task and role in his life. At first, Moses resisted, but he eventually submitted to the will of God. When Moses listened to God’s call, God was there with him doing wonderful and amazing things. God called Moses to lead his people out of Egypt, and God worked around Moses and with Moses to make it happen. Moses was faithful and God worked. Same with Abraham, Noah, Daniel, Jacob, Rahab, Joseph. They were faithful and God worked.

I am not struggling to be faithful to God, but I am struggling to see past the obstacles and focus more on what I know the Father has called me to do. I have passions in my life that I know have been placed there for a holy purpose, but I am just a man who worries about paying the bills and where I will be living in the mean time.

These are the kinds of things that keep a person up at 3 in the morning, when an 8am class is quickly approaching.

Today in Theology of the Church, Dr. Lavender said something that I have had on my mind all day. “Is what we are doing in our everyday lives evidence of kingdom living?” The phrase “kingdom of God” refers to God’s justice in the world and had a great deal of political weight to the first century audience that heard it.

I’ve always had a short temper; this by itself is dangerous enough, but when coupled with an overdeveloped sense of justice, I can be downright mouthy sometimes. I often say things such as, “He needs to be punched in the face.” I know this isn’t very Christ-like, and I struggle with trying to come to grips with my want for justice / revenge and how God’s mercy works, because in my thought process, shouldn’t justice be swift against chaos and disorder?

By all rights, God should have long burned this world to the ground, but He chooses instead to allow us to go our own ways and make our own choices. It is true that some people’s choices directly affect the people around them, and some decisions even have dire, malicious consequences, so why does God allow us to just do whatever we please, whether good or bad? In one of the many books I am reading for classes this year, this topic is brought up.

“Why could a good God put the creatures he had created for relationship, his own image-bearers, at risk? Because he is love. Love, by definition, must be free. A forced love is no love at all. If there were no alternative to following and loving God, then our responding love would not be authentic, and Christian spirituality is all about authentic loving relationship with God.”

God lets us because He loves us. I have often pondered on the purpose of our relationship with God and what it means for this world; I believe it is to emulate Christ’s behavior, to help push this world back to the way it was meant to be. We are called to be patient, embrace peace and mercy and to love as Jesus loves, and while sometimes it isn’t exactly the easiest thing in the world to do, it is the right thing to do.

What Dr. Lavender meant by his statement was not, “Destroy the forces of evil.” But, “Are you a reflection of God’s love through Jesus?” “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

There are leaps in logic and a laundry list of verses, theology and biblical principles that are forgotten the moment someone’s child comes into the mix; I realize that my statement maybe rebuffed because I have no children of my own, that I “just don’t know what it is like being a parent”, but I do know pride, judgment, barbarity, spitefulness and bitterness when I see it.

Now, before we get off subject, let me be very clear. I love both of my parents very much, and while we had moments when our relationship was strained, I, in wisdom and hindsight, am very thankful that they cared about what I did, who I was with, where I went, and that they corrected me when it needed to be done. This included getting a spanking and, on only one occasion, being slapped.

To be short and to the point, I have amazing parents who while still keeping a watchful eye on me, allowed me to grow and to find the myself and my place in the world. They let me make my own decisions on people and places, knowing full well that making me swallow their doctrine without consideration would only lead me to rebel against them later in life. Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger.”

There comes a point in time when parents have to acknowledge that it has nothing to do with them, that their children are going to make choices in trying to build their own lives and it has nothing to do with honoring or dishonoring their parents.

For pity’s sake, get over the idea that you are perfect and know what is best for your children in every single instance. You are not perfect, and in the same way you can politely disagree with any other person alive, you may have to act like that with your children, complete with mercy and grace just like God has with you.

There has been a continuing movement in our country to make men the blunt of all of our jokes. Now, I am certainly not saying that women have ever had it easy by any means, but if it isn’t a commercial about how men never ask for directions or that all men drool at pretty, scarcely-clad women, it’s that every lead, male character on t.v. is an overweight, unintelligent oaf. When did we as a culture decide that it was so wrong to be male or that there ever needed to be a dumb male to be the butt of many jokes?

Seriously, give some thought as to how many times men are shown as being completely incompetent in life, only to be saved by their female counterpart? The Simpsons, Family Guy, Seinfeld, Yes Dear, Grounded for Life, The King of Queens, and an endless slew of commercials just to name a few.

Where did equality of the sexes go? I am offended at it all. I am an intelligent, motivated man, and I find it degrading to have my gender relocated to the point of a buffoon. There is nothing wrong with being a man, nor is it wrong to enjoy things that maybe considered “less-refined”. I don’t like little dogs in purses, I think tabloid magazines a gossipy pieces of trash, I think 300 year old, sparkling vampires are pedophiles for hitting on 16 year old girls, and I don’t think Lady GaGa has innovative fashion sense. None of these opinions moves me back down the social order to the point of caveman.

A couple years ago, I hated where I was in my life. In my depression, I looked to make myself feel better in the form of physical conquests. It is something that I’m not proud of and during the process, I hurt a lot of people’s feelings and put some scars on my own heart, but I have felt for some time now that God has called me to be open about that time in my life and use it to help influence teenagers and college students for the better. I strongly believe that one of the most important things missing from ministry today is relationship and the ability to connect with your audience, to sound less like you are preaching and more like you are conversing.

As I mentioned earlier, I have had the past on my mind the last couple weeks and from those experiences come some of my more entertaining stories. To be rather forward, most of them are embarrassing, but yet there is a point to the silliness and laughter at my expense; embarrassment and heartbreak are the kinds of thing that happens when you step out of God’s plan for physical intimacy. God knows what is best for us and this is why He gives us Scripture to follow, not simply as a set or dos and don’ts, but as rules for a better life for yourself and amongst your fellow man.

How awesome is it that God can take the the brokenness and restoration of a person to heal and direct the life of another, to spare them of the same heartbreak. I firmly believe that experience is most often the best teacher, but you cannot argue with the experience of someone who has “been there and done that.”

“You have turned my mourning into dancing…” Psalm 30:11

Last year, spring semester 2009, I had a class entitled Intro to Ministry. It was in this class that I met an adjunct professor named Dean Barham. Dean is the preaching minister at Woodmont Hill Family of God here in Nashville and I have been extremely impressed with him, not only his preaching but with his ministry as well. His previous career was that of a business lawyer, but he left his practice to pursue full-time ministry. It was through many of his experiences that he spoke to our class; he was open and honest in a way that I have rarely seen a person who preaches. He has no mystique about his person; Dean is straight forward and honest. His insight to scripture is marvelous and I have been moved by his preaching like I have been by no other, but it was something that he said to me today that has had me pondering for several hours.

Dean and I met today for coffee. We met for no real reason other than to catch up as we haven’t had much interaction this school year. I have stayed occupied more so than normal with the loads of school work I have been assigned, causing me to not be as free and as social as I would like to be, so getting together with Dean was something that I had been looking forward to all day.

I refer to Dean as one of my “Pauls”, someone who is older than I that I can confide in or converse with and get good advice rooted in his life experiences. He has been places in his life that I am in now and it always helps to have an older brother to talk to when you have questions. We talked about everything from his preaching style to my summer mission trip to Honduras, from the situation in Haiti to the new freshman Bible class he will be teaching next year, and it was at the end of our hour long meeting that he said something that caught me off guard.

As we were leaving, he shook my hand, looked me square in the face and said, “Thanks for meeting with me, you inspire me.”

At the time, I replied with a simple, “No problem, I’ll talk to you soon,” but the more I thought about it, the more I found myself surprised by the idea of inspiring anyone, especially someone whom I think so highly of in the theological circle.

After spending most of the day in thought about his statement, I have come to only one simple conclusion. God uses broken, imperfect people to do His will and to speak to other people.  While my life, to me, seems almost silly in some places and a little vanilla in most, there are people who are always watching me to see what I cannot, to see the things that God is doing in and through my life. This is by no means an isolated incident; God works with all people and has a history of using people whether they know it or not to do His will, but how ironic is it that a God of infinite power and strength can move so soft and subtle as to not even make His presence known to us.

Dean has inspired so many people in his time as a minister, so I find it strange that according to him, I have helped him in the creative journey that is his ministry. I was humbled, but those words are not enough.

One of the many classes I am taking this semester is a course called “Communicating the Gospel”, and it is designed to focus on the actual physical preaching aspect of ministry. I often refer to it as a Public Speaking course for Bible Majors. The class is taught by a man named David Fleer. Dr. Fleer is a tall, voicestrus man with a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and a long history of experience in the art of Preaching. Our class meets only once a week, on Tuesday from 2:45pm to 5:20, and while our class is small, I feel that we have been not only very forward but very honest with one another. I genuinely feel very close to everyone in that course and I think it is because of that openness that Dr. Fleer shared with us a very personal story.

We had been speaking about the different types of preaching styles and one of which is called the story-teller. This arch type, as you might have guessed, tells stories to better communicate the point he or she is trying to make, very much in the same way that Jesus used parables to teach in the New Testament. Dr. Fleer then assigned us a sermon from a lady by the name of Barbara Brown Taylor. Her sermon was personal, touching and relevant; it is one of the best sermons I have ever experienced and in the very middle of it, she told a story about herself as a child waiting to see a movie on a hot summer day. The story made sense, it fit and it was easily understood by everyone who listened to it, or read it in the case of our class. After our class discussion, Dr. Fleer told us that, on occasion, as he is pondering some thought or reading some article, he will day dream. He recalls a time when he is younger, a time when his mother, who has been dead for some 20 years, is still alive and able to sit and talk with him for great periods of time. He said sometimes, when he is sitting at his desk, he will day dream that his mother will walk into his office and ask him a simple question, “David, would you like for me to tell you a story?”

It seems silly for an educated, adult male to want to hear a story as though he were some child that needed to be entertained while falling asleep, but for Dr. Fleer, the idea is so much deeper than that. He dreams of a time where he can have one last story told to him by his beloved mother, someone who offered him love and strength during a very turbulent family life in his early years. I’m oft the sentimental type, and I became teary eyed in class, even now recalling him telling the story brings tears to my eyes. The simple story of his impromptu sermon touched my heart and I related quickly to what he was saying in his simple yet elegant message: enjoy the time that you have with your loved ones.

Later that night, when I was finished with the events of the day and I had plenty of time to devote my full attention to a phone call, a called my mom back home in Georgia. I didn’t want anything in particular, in fact, I was satisfied that she picked up the phone and answered it. Dr. Fleer’s day dream concerning his mom made me miss my mom and dad, and sometimes, even an educated, adult male needs to be entertained by his parents.

Don’t worry Mom, I’ll be home in two weeks for Thanksgiving =).

Our president, Barack Obama, is refusing to allow his college records to be released to the public, something which every president since JFK has done. He refuses to do the same with his birth records, which has also been the common practice of many of his predecessors. Now, I am not one for conspiracy theories. I, however, do think it strange that with the rumor mill aggressively circulating the beliefs that President Obama is not a natural-born American citizen and that he was a foreign-exchange student in some of his college days, that he would not quell the rumors by simply releasing some inconsequential records for public viewing.

I also find it thought provoking that while the main criticisms for “W”‘s presidency were the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the 900 billion dollar national deficit, President Obama still has us in Iraq, is increasing troop support in Afghanistan, and has already increased the deficit to 1.7 trillion dollars. These three things, as well as many other empty political promises, were what he spoke about consistently in his campaign, promising to pull us out of both countries and reduce our national debt in beautifully written speeches designed to stimulate the masses. I recall nothing but scathing coverage of President Bush in the media, and yet no one will dare say anything bad about President Obama.

Further more, why is no one talking about the fact that President Obama was the lawyer for ACORN, an organization responsible for potentially thousands of counts of voter fraud and giving advice on how to be better prostitutes to earn more money. His camp was also involved in an $800,000 campaign payment to ACORN, but again, we are given no media coverage that the president was ever affiliated with this group. I will make the bold assertion that if this where a conservative, republican president, he would have long since been crucified by the media with questions and documentaries from everyone of the major news organizations.

I was also a little ticked off at President Jimmy Carter trying to imply that most of President Obama’s criticism comes from racism. I myself didn’t like the idea of President Obama being elected because not only does he have no experience, but he has surrounded himself with crooked politicians, including the recently deceased Ted Kennedy. Now, I typically will support my fellow Georgians, as President Carter hails from Plains, but he was a horrible president. period. end of story. The reason we are having problems right now with Iran are directly related to Carter’s botched foreign relations and his aiding the removal of the Shah of Iran which allowed Ayatollah Khomeini to return to Iran after being in exile. I don’t want to hear him make any comments to the defense of President Obama; presidents with his level of failure simply need to be quiet and not be involved in the current politics of the day.

I have had some  of this sitting on my mind for about a week now, and I needed to vent about what I view is the unfair preferential treatment of a politician simply because he happens to be the first black president of the United States. I have no problem with a black president, in fact, I had hoped Colin Powell would have run for office in opposition to John McCain’s nomination, but I refused to buy into the chants of “hope” and “change” that came from someone who was no more qualified to run the country than the mayor of Plains, GA.

As I once told this person, God is all about harmony and relationships, and I’m glad that He has seen fit to restore this friendship. Hebrews 13:5