This is the 2nd part of the Nostalgia Trilogy. I had previously mentioned the danger of expecting your worship time to mysteriously transport you to a time when you felt close to the Lord. But there can also be a nostalgic danger in sanctification: the work of God’s free grace where we are made more like Jesus.

Nostalgia can pop its ugly head when we wish to return to the feeling we had during a retreat. At other times, we may simply wait for that feeling to return to us before we press on in our spiritual disciplines like bible reading, prayer, fellowship, etc…When that feeling returns, I’ll get back “on board.” But Habakuk reminds us that by faith we have to choose to rejoice in God as opposed to waiting for situations and feelings to return (Hab 3:18).

A final danger of nostalgia I’ve noticed is the constant tendency to compare. When we don’t compare ourselves with others, we often compare ourselves with ourselves in the past. For instance, we might despair when we realize that we struggle with the same sins we’ve always struggled with. Or we might look back and feel we’ve gone “backwards.” We might feel discouraged when we struggled with different stuff earlier in our journey and now we struggle with things we feel are “bigger.”

The apostle Paul lays forth a healthy dose of present reflection (on how far he hasn’t come), yet tempers it with a forward focus. For instance, he admits near the end of his life that he feels as though he is the “foremost” sinner (I Tim 1:15). That’s a far more self deprecating title to describe himself than earlier in his life and ministry. But he still presses on toward the goal of finishing the race (Phil 3).

It is helpful to recognize how far we haven’t come. But that is only for the purpose of relishing God’s grace and to receive encouragement to press on. When that backward glance becomes nostalgic, making you wish you could just become that person you once were, you can rest assure that thought has the smell of smoke. Because it doesn’t come from these parts, but instead from down below. Way below.

Today our presbytery’s missionary to Haiti Esaie Etienne picked up some clothes and other stuff like books, computer, and a mattress from our church. He’s distributing them to his family and countrymen in Haiti. I asked him about other sister PCA churches’ involvement in this “drop-off.” I was really wanting to know because I felt convicted about not giving enough and was hoping the shorts I had worn the previous day could serve as a donation for another drop-off time.

But he told me that really not much had been done by some other larger churches in our presbytery. The one’s participating were the smaller churches. Now perhaps the big dogs are running just a bit behind or they already gave graciously by shipping stuff. So I’ll reserve frustration, table my “verdict” for a bit, and maybe ask some of them in person.

At the same point of discouragement, I was encouraged as well. You see, there are a number of smaller churches in our presbytery. Some of them may die off some day. And that may not be a bad thing. Yet, the churches responding were all quite small. What they lacked in size, they made up for in passion to help those less fortunate. And by this passionate giving they will be assisting Esaie in bringing Jesus’ Kingdom to a place ripe for its reception.

Some of these churches, including ours, acted like Jack Russell Terriers. Small but full of life.

After 31 years of life, I’m beginning to see the need for structure. For instance, take prayer. If left to pray without any direction, I will pray about the trinity of Me, Myself, and I. I’ll not pray globally. I’ll not pray for missions. Even when I want to pray for missions, I’ll often find myself praying generic prayers I assume would apply to all missionaries.

Not that God doesn’t hear those prayers and respond, but I’m ignoring a ton of personal stuff such missionaries actually are requesting. Not only that, but I can only pray generically for so long before I feel like a broken record. Without some direction, some structure, I can quickly lose interest. I can quickly lose passion. Who would have thought, without some structure, plan, or direction, I could actually lose passion?
Structure and direction enhance my joy and freedom in prayer. They don’t kill it!

So in order to “spice up” my prayer life, to get Amy and I on the same page praying globally, and to unite with our church, our denomination, and hopefully anyone else who wants to join up, I’m committing to pray through the “31 days of prayer” MTW (our denomination’s mission agency) has constructed. It allows us to focus our prayers on people we wouldn’t normally focus on. It also gives info on HOW to pray. Info like how to pray for persecuted believers in Egypt and church planting in Mexico. I would highly commend this opportunity to you. You can download and print out this calendar here under the post entitled “Missions.” I think you will find it helpful to you and your family, so take advantage of it or something similar.

I was watching Dallas Cowboys’ receiver Terrell Owens fielding reporters’ questions today. As is usually the case, he was not responsible for his team’s loss to the Redskins. According to the most selfish wide receiver in football, the Cowboy’s needed to throw the ball to him more. It was thrown his way 17 times yesterday, and he ended up with only 7 receptions. He needed more touches.

The funny thing was that he “touched” the ball more than 7 times. Since this interview wasn’t live, ESPN juxtaposed video of several of his dropped passes. Passes that normal wide receivers are supposed to catch. So while he was blaming the coaches for not giving him the ball more, they simply looped “highlights” (at least they were for me!) of him dropping simple passes. His mistakes. He looked ridiculously ignorant of his own stuff.

It reminds me of how prone we all are to ignore our own problems, our sins, our own junk that we “bring to the ball club.” If only we had a “highlight” reel to see our own “dropped passes” in life, in our relationships, in our churches, we might blame, criticize, complain and hold grudges far less. But since we don’t have that technology just yet, we need to take a better look at the cross. For when we look upon the cross, we see the price Jesus paid for our sins. And He did so, that we would be mindful not to make others pay their debt to us (Matt 18:33).

Last night I had a little time a bit of the USC-Oregon St. game. One of the commentators of that game was Jesse Palmer. You may remember him as former quarterback of the Florida Gators and back-up for the NY Giants. Then again, you may remember him as The Bachelor. Yes, he was actually on the show “The Bachelor.”

It’s hard for me to take him seriously after going on that show. And it’s even hard for his fellow play-by-play buddies and analysts to forget that low point in his life (not that he would necessarily see it that way…). During the first game of the season, after making a decent comment, an announcer said, “Jesse, good point. I’ll give you a rose for that.”

And that reminded me of the gospel. In the gospel, we are promised new life without any condemnation. We are completely forgiven and our stupid decisions will not be used against us. Our sins have been removed from us and are as far as the East is from the West. So we can literally begin each day freshly reflecting on God’s mercy toward us (Lam 3:22-23). Those sins of yesterday (literally) or yesteryear need not/cannot be atoned for by myself.

My sins pretty much ruined my evening last night because I was trying to atone for them. Finally I got home, confessed, and began to feel the weights drop from my shoulders. I had a fresh day today.

Now I’ve never been on “The Bachelor,” but I’ve done lots of things a lot worse. And I’m thankful that I need not fear comments like, “Wow, good point, you get a rose for that!” That’s freedom. Maybe I should “forgive” Jesse for going on The Bachelor…..

Before there were “boy bands” like N-Sync, there were band with boys who looked like girls. Pictured to my left is Poison, one of my childhood favorites. Which of course causes some nostalgia.

I’m now going to start a trilogy, or perhaps a quadrilogy on nostalgia. While nostalgia isn’t completely bad in and of itself, it can have harmful effects on a number of different key areas of our faith. First of all, I want to address its ill-effects on worship.

The other day Amy and I were watching a TV ad for a Time Life CD compilation of 70’s-80’s power ballads with bands like Journey, Foreigner, Styx, Boston, 38 Special, etc… The collection was absolutely unbelievable. I thought, “There goes Amy’s birthday present.” Until the price flashed on the screen. So I settled for the leather bible. Probably a good decision.

Amy and I were deeply moved by the songs. By the lyrics. By the melodies. The songs brought back memories. Not memories of “better days,” just good memories. The music really took us back.

But should worship take us back to pondering the “glory days” of our faith? No, not at all. Worship is supposed to move us forward. We press on toward the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus (Phil 3). Worship ought to move us forward to delight in God, in who He is, and what He has in store for His children. It is not designed to give us sentimental feelings about when we first came to faith or when we grew spiritually.

I don’t want to specifically sing songs that I sang in college so that I can remember a time when I may have felt really “on fire” for Jesus. If I sing them, great. If I don’t, great. I’m not trying to get back to that place. But I do think many are hoping for just that in a worship experience. To get back that “happy place.”

Many times I would rather sing songs I know. Most people would. But I don’t think that desire is devoid of unhealthy nostalgia. I think that new songs and new tunes add a forward focus to our worship. I’m not saying having familiarity with tunes and songs is bad. I’m not saying old tunes and old songs are bad. They belong as well. But even old tunes and old songs must not move us to nostalgia and sentimentality. Yet I know such feelings often drive our desires.

The Time Life CD commercial was hosted by some burnt out rocker and another woman wishing to relive that decade. I don’t want to be “that guy” or “that girl” in my worship of Jesus.

This is my last post on The Shack, hopefully. I’ve composed a review of the book highlighting some positives and exposing some dangerous thoughts presented. All in all, I’m not fearful that it will become the next Pilgrim’s Progress, as one author hinted at. It will eventually pass and the next trendy book will eventually take its place. I try not to be another angry person reviewing the book. I also don’t want to be another undiscerning evangelical lemming either. So without further introduction, you can click here to link to and open my review.

While staying with my in-laws (brother/sister-in-laws that is) this weekend, I was greatly blessed by their ministry to their children. Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it,” immediately came to mind.

As I was eating breakfast on Saturday morning, their oldest son, a third grader, was praying silently before consuming his victuals. His parents taught him that when the whole family couldn’t eat together, each child had a responsibility to thank the Lord for his food. And I got to see that “training” play itself out. At the time, I had forgotten to say thanks for my food and was reminded by this third grader. Oh, the faith of a child.

Then on Sunday morning I overheard my brother-in-law talk about tithing with his boys.

“Thomas, your allowance is 3 dollars, so that means 30 cents.”

“Ryan, your allowance is 2 dollars so that means 20 cents.”

I can imagine that they’ll do the same thing with their kids, since it was done so with my brother-in-law by his parents.

Amy, Connar, and I flew to Virginia last night, and have been enjoying seeing her family. Flying with an infant usually isn’t too fun, especially when that infant is Connar. Connar is actually Gaelic for “hates to ride in car seats.” So naturally we weren’t looking forward to flying with him. However, he slept during take off, fed an hour later, and was great for the landing. We didn’t even have to get up and walk with him. Our prayers answered. I’m really hopeful now that he’ll like boats. We usually stay away from trains.

I did learn a valuable lesson yesterday evening though: know a little about who you’re talking to. Here’s what I mean. We let all of the other passengers get off the plane because we’re just so stinkin’ nice, and we had too much stuff to get down from the overhead bin.

So a tall African-American gentlemen was passing by me, waiting for someone else to remove his stuff. Since he was wearing a VCU jacket, I asked him if he was a coach. Then I asked him what it was like to work for Jeff Capel. He said, “I dont’ know, Jeff Capel is in Oklahoma.”

Incredibly embarrassed, and thinking it couldn’t get any worse, I followed with, “Who is the head coach?”

“I am,” he said.

“Well, what’s your name?”

“Anthony Grant.”

I felt like an idiot. Sports are something I probably know too much about. But this time not enough. I had completely forgotten that Jeff Capel had left a few years earlier. Coach Grant is beginning is third season at VCU.

Like Bono sang in Where the Streets Have No Name, “I want to run, I want to hide…” Not an option though. Next time I make small talk, I hope to think a little more…..

We had the opportunity on Monday night to see the Tampa Bay Rays battle their deep rivals, and until this year, thorn in their side (of course most every team was a thorn in their side), the Boston Red Sox. With a chance to really do some damage, the Rays gave up 11 runs in five innings before Amy, Connar, myself, and my in-laws called it a night. 11-1 just doesn’t make for good baseball. Although Connar didn’t mind, since he slept through most of the the drubbing.

Different teams fans have different reputations. Lately USF fans have been getting a bad rap, and deservedly so according to several reported instances and some of my “insiders.” Eagles’ fans have a tendency to get a little bit too rowdy, as evidenced by their (I don’t know if they have one at the new stadium) having an actual judge and court within the stadium. There probably is some objective difference in the levels of “annoying-ness” or “obnoxiousity,” though I haven’t developed anything to measure that. Yet.

But it is true that many fans of sports teams do much that goes against what that organization or school stands for. And yet when an outsider looks at that fan, he lumps the fan in with the team. And he/she will hate that team, simply because they don’t like the fan.

In reality, with some exceptions, I think I would probably like some of the Red Sox players. They are probably nothing like their fans.

I think the same thing goes with the church. People have had bad experiences with people in the church, and so they want nothing to do with it. But people can be swayed to pull for other teams, even those they didn’t grow up pulling for, provided their fans are winsome. I found myself pulling for the University of South Carolina because of a winsome South Carolina fan. I would NEVER have done that while living in South Carolina because of their fans. Never. But it only took one “contagious” fan to point me to them.

The same thing goes for the church. If people begin to have good experiences with those in the church, they’ll often give it another chance. If people begin to see good neighbors, those who are hospitable, those who are not arrogant, those who repent, those who are real, I think we’d be surprised that folks who were once Anti-church, might even be open to visit, or at least dialog. God uses such “good fans” to build His Church. “Annoying” fans have only one way to build the church: make babies. Certainly a way, but it can’t be the only way we seek to do it.