Hola Ninos!

I'm gonna be in the land down under (Mexico) for a week or so. I've got a few good ideas for blog when I get back. I'll try and get one posted before I leave, but don't hold out on that. More to come true believers!

(jake)

Comfortably Dead

I have been learning guitar. My fingers hurt pretty bad while typing the last blog, but now they just don't feel at all. I kind of hate that, but I am really convicted that God wants me to play guitar, because I think it will make girls love me, and I think that God wants that for me. I also buy lotto tickets and pray over them. True story.

Bible classes now consume my life. The good news is that I love the Bible, so it's been a pretty good semester so far. One thing I have noticed in my scholarly pursuits of the Old Testament is an interesting trend with the people of Israel. See, early on in Israel's career as a nation, they were just a loose group of tribes, who were constantly harassed by other nations. God always bailed them out, and that was the system. Trust God, live well.

Eventually, Israel decided they'd had enough of that, and asked for a king. Without posting the whole verse, in the book of 1 Samuel God essentially declares that the Israelites have rejected him as their king. Then, he goes on to declare that the king would be horrible for them, and ruin them. He says that this king will turn their hearts away from God, and that he will lead them to destruction. But they want it, so he gives it.

Skip ahead. Ignore a couple centuries of history. Israel now wants a temple. Specifically, the aforementioned king wants to build a temple. Again I will leave the scripture out, but it's in the reign of Solomon that the temple is built, and during David's reign that the idea comes about, which is in 1 Kings and 2 Samuel respectively. But God's not too keen on the temple thing either. He's more than happy to live in a tent, and to dwell among his people. Still, he gives them what they want.

So where does this lead? Why exactly where God said it would! See, king after king after king continues to bring in pagan Gods, and destroy the worship of Yahweh, the true God of Israel. And as the Temple becomes more and more important, the Hebrew nation begins to forget the real purpose of the ceremonies, of the sacrifices, all of it. They eventually become comfortable in their faith, revelling in the security that their kingdom and religion have given them.

Then God gets mad.

In Isaiah, the Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.

God is ticked! God sends these nasty guys called the Babylonians to kick butt and take names. The entire nation is destroyed, eventually the temple is ransacked and trashed, the king sent into exile, and for all of her safety and comfort, Israel is reduced to a pile of rubble.

Then things get fixed.

The amazing thing about the story of Israel is that it is in exile, in suffering, in the most horrible and shameful experience of its history as a nation, the people of God rediscover just what it means to serve Yahweh. With the protection of the king gone, with the religious security of the temple gone, Israel is finally stripped down to bare bones and forced to turn back to the God who loves them enough to send them into exile.

I am not blaming God for our struggles, nor am I suggesting that church buildings and appointed leaders are evil. (Thought about it, but decided against it.) I am saying that in the end, it is not the comfortable times that I remember God from, it is the painful ones. When I look back on my life, the most precious moments shared between me and my Lord were the ones where I was hurting the most.

Sometimes it takes suffering to break us down and expose us to God's glory. In exile, we rediscover who we are, and what God intends for us. I pray that whoever may read this will be blessed with the wisdom to see through their suffering, to the glorious work that God is preparing them for.

(jake)

Of Eye Pokes and Tooth Fairies

Tomorrow morning I will do something terrifying. I will drive an hour and a half to southern Nebraska to preach to people I have never met before. I am told that this is a great honor, that people enjoy hearing me speak. Rather, I just think God is making me wander all over Nebraska like some sort of wilderness until I'm ready to do his work. Another blog for another day I suppose.

Us against them. It's a mentality that permeates our society, our very way of life. Race, gender, economics, religion, heck, what side of the cafeteria you sit on, it's all one big way of deciding whether you're with us, or with them. I wonder a lot how we got to this point, if there's something encoded in us post-Eden that makes us need an adversary of some kind. Even our view of God is affected; a lot of times we give Satan way too much credit by picturing him on the same playing field as the Almighty, simply because we assume God has to be fighting someone, he has to have some sort of enemy.

I say all of this to make myself look less sinful when I admit that I am in fact one of the worst about this. When I was young, I was surrounded by a very dogmatic form of Christianity, and it was all us against the other denominations. As I got older and began feeling ashamed of that line of thinking, it became us against people who hate other denominations. Then it was us against pharisees, because that sounded better, then it finally settled into us against the non-Christians. It's really very sad to be honest, and I hope you'll accept my apologies on behalf of all humanity.

Having confessed that, I have a story to tell. It happened last semester, and remains one of the best nights of my life. I was going to Lincoln with a bunch of friends, and as I was driving through the labyrinthine parking of O Street, I saw a few other friends of mine standing on a street corner screaming at some people holding signs.

Let me back up.

There is a guy in Lincoln, or it might be a couple of guys working in shifts, who carries around a cross. He stands on O Street, a busy party-type street, and shouts at people walking by. He screams at them that they're sinners, that they're going to burn in Hell, and accuses them of things they probably have never done. At least I've never done any of the things he's accused me of. (Baby killing being primary among those. I've also never had any kind of romantic entanglement with another man. He accused me of both. No lie. It's the bald head. SCREAMS infanticidal Nazi homosexual.)

So occasionally, this group of people come out to defend homosexuals. Primarily homosexuals. I think they just don't like Cross Guy, but they seem to especially hate that he's down on the gays. On this particular night, they were holding signs that said things like, "Homosexuals are People," and were handing out a pamphlet accusing God of being a bad guy who murdered people. Now I'm not saying I agreed with the pamphlet, but the signs weren't really that offensive. I happen to think that homosexuals are people too. Remember, raised by an ex-hippy.

Anyway, I manage to park (5 blocks down!) and walk back to the corner, happy to see my friends still locked in a shouting match with the Humanists. (That's who I later found out they were.) The humanists were very adament that we were very foolish for believing in God, and that if God really loved people he wouldn't hate gays or bomb abortion clinics. My friends were very upset and began shouting at these guys that they were just ignorant and were going to Hell. Really ugly scene, gotta be honest.

I say all of this to tell you that God works through broken vessels like me. That night, with one faithful friend sticking with me, the rest either running or shouting, I managed to preach the gospel to about 15 people on a street corner. It was exhilirating, unlike anything I had ever experienced. I raised my voice and began to speak loudly to the Humanists, explaining to them that Cross Guy was no more a Christian than they were. That the will of God was more about loving people than it was about stopping gay people from getting married. I explained to them that God wants more than for us to stop sinning, he wants us to start loving. And I told them that by showing up to love some sinners, they had done the will of God without even meaning to. By the time I stopped to take a breath, I realized that there was a small crowd growing.

We walked away that night friends. I shook hands and even hugged a few of them. (Except the fat chick with cartilage piercings who blew cigarette smoke in my face. Can't win 'em all.) Did they drop to their knees and beg to be baptized on the spot? No. But they left knowing that Cross Guy doesn't represent me, and he certainly doesn't represent my God.

I guess the point I'm making here is that if God can bring those people into my life and teach me about his love through Secular Humanists, then he can certainly teach me something through traditional right-wing Christians, through alcoholic athletes, elitist nerds, or any other opposing social group I've labeled as a "them". There is no them guys. It's just one big us. And if us don't start looking out for each other, then none of us will ever find any kind of heaven.

(jake)

Banana-Flavored Faith

That's right, after a few months of absence, I'm about to strike back like the Empire! A few people have mentioned that they liked these, and my brain is flowing at normal speed again, so here we go again. I was going to save this until after next week because it was going to be my devo, but Greg's tonight was both fantastic and a lot like this, so I decided instead to make this a blog and the devo will be changed.

I'll go ahead and say it; I love my life. I have a great life's story that I really feel would make a good movie or book. Several other people think so too, so that makes it fact. My life is really the final act in a series of stories about some fantastic people and how they overcame their own challenges; I basically like to think of myself as the climax of several stories. (Literature nerd, I know.) The person I want to focus on is kind of the one who started all of this, my grandmother, or as we called her, Nanny.

I've talked about my grandmother a few times at school, but to bring everyone up to speed, she was hands down the coolest old lady alive. She was going to be a nun until she met my granddad, but by the time I came along she was essentially the definition of a "tough old bird." Granddad left her for a younger lady, but left her a nice chunk of money to live on in return. Nanny didn't bake me cookies but once (best cookies ever, the standard by which I still judge all subsequent cookies.) and she never knitted me anything. She did however teach me to keep score on a Cubs game, and explained to me that even when you're watching at home you have to get up and sing along when Harry Carray leads Take Me Out to the Ball Game. One of my favorite things about her house was the fruit; Nanny had great fruit, and my favorite was always bananas.

Whenever I eat a banana, I get swept away in nostalgia, remembering Nanny cussing at the announcers when they insulted Sammy Sosa, or how she used to take care of that nasty black cat I was so scared of. I can even remember the smell of her house, a good catholic house; cheap wine and cigarettes. But you know what? Banana-flavored candy isn't the same. This may seem like a no brainer for you, but for me it's shocking. Banana flavored taffy, runts, whatever, none of it invokes the same memories. It's fake, false, a substitute, and it fails to remind me of that tough old lady who taught me so much.

I guess I feel like our faith is like that. I don't mean for this to be one of the many rip on America posts out there, but the fact is that Christianity in this country is so screwed up. Sure, it's kind of like what Jesus wanted, but how is it any different from the other things out there? What I mean is, maybe the reason people aren't flocking to churches is because we're offering the same thing they can get at any other social club, like boy scouts, or scrapbooking circles, or book clubs. Are we really any different, or are we one more imitation that offers something similar to the real thing?

Faith is more than just a set of political beliefs, and it's a lot more than just sitting around with people who think like you do. True faith is to love people unconditionally, to sacrifice ANYTHING for other people, the same way Jesus did. I tried to find a verse that summed this up, and then I realized, it's all over the whole freaking Bible! The thing is full of it! If we were really offering that authentic flavor of faith, I think people would be way more interested in us.

So the point? No, it's not to go rage against the machine and burn the mother down. Leave your churches standing, they're full of good people who love God. The point here? Let your faith be real. Study the bible for yourself and see what God really wants. Find someone to love. Find an unlovable person, someone not deserving or not receiving unconditional love, and give it to them. That my friends is real faith. None of this bullcrap, "Keep the gays from marrying!" faith-flavored junk.

(jake)

Stickyfeet

Well I'm beginning this back in my apartment. The good news is that it's still a pretty artistic place, eccentric at the very least. I'm watched over by Optimus Prime and Bob Marley, Spiderman and Dr. King. It's the kind of place a genius child would hang out, or at least that's what I like to tell myself when I wake up and adjust the action figures on my desk.

I'm still in the gospels. I can't get enough of it, for real, one of my favorite things about scripture is that the older I get the newer it feels. It's like reading it for the first time and it's really amazing. That being said, let me tell you what I noticed this time through.

Luke tells a story of Jesus eating at a Pharisee's house. I like this image because I picture this like when James Bond eats dinner with Blowfeld right before their big showdown, both of them pretending to be civil, but knowing that this is really about a conflict that's been long coming.

So there sits Jesus, eating what I'm sure was a much nicer meal that he normally got. When I travel I eat a lot of fast food, so I can only imagine the horrors Jesus ate on the road between desert cities. So even if it was just sandwiches, I'm sure Jesus was pretty pleased to be eating something more substantial than a scorpion taco. Anyway, dinner probably goes pretty well, that sort of cold respect emanating everywhere as Jesus and Simon the Pharisee dine together. All of the sudden in comes this sinful woman, and everything changes.

The bible tells us that she was a sinful woman, which I suppose means she was some sort of prostitute because that's what most people think of when they hear sinful woman, but it also points out that she had lived a sinful life in that town. I've wondered a lot over the last few days about her backstory, if she had a happy life as a respectable young lady once in another place. I like to imagine that she was once very happy and liked by the people around her, but I suppose that might not be true.

So anyway, this woman annoints Jesus' feet with both perfume and tears, which strikes me as kind of a messy combo, but it is of course the thought that counts. Simon the Pharisee is clearly upset by this, since he's a respectable guy, and he tries his hardest not to associate with "sinful" people. Ignoring the obvious lessons be learned from Simon's reaction, I find something beautiful in Jesus' response. First, he defends her with a clever story, which I like, then he turns to her, and with nothing but love he says, "Your sins are forgiven."

Now lets consider this; whatever her past, this woman's present is bleak. It's dark, sinful, and painful. For whatever reasons she decides that the best course of action available to her is to literally crawl to Jesus and wash his feet with her hair. But the key here, the very vital point to all of this is that Jesus chose to love her unconditionally.

For those who don't know, I work at a treatment center for kids with behavior disorders. One thing that I've noticed in the last 8 months working there is that the kids who recover the quickest are the ones whose parents are invested in them, loving them regardless and showing up to help them. These kids with the most terrible pasts, and yet because of the love of a parent, they're able to overcome. I think that that's pretty typical of humanity. I can't really speak with any certainty about anyone else, but I know that a lot of what I do is motivated by the need to be loved by someone or something.

It seems to me like a lot of the problem with the human condition is that we are missing the love and/or acceptance of someone. Donald Miller, one of my favorite authors suggests that this is the love of God we're missing, and I've got to say that he's probably right about it. I say all of this to bring us around to a revaltion I've had recently.

Jesus didn't spend time trying to convince people to join his new religion. He never once told people to subscribe to a certain religious belief. Rather than preach at people about a new system of rituals, he simply gave them their heart's deepest desire; love.

It sounds cliche, but truth usually does, since it's really old and we all tend to find it piece by piece over the years. I've got to just say it, for the longest time I've seen evangelism the wrong way. It's not about convincing people of anything, it's not about selling them something, it's not even about eternal life. It's quite simply about offering them the love that they so desperatley crave, the kind of love Jesus would offer people.

It's really no wonder the Pharisees weren't receptive to what Jesus had to say, they thought they already had all the acceptance and love they needed. My challenge to you? Find an unloved person and give 'em some lovin'. There aren't many better ways to connect with Christ than to follow his example.

(jake)

There are Worse Ways to Get Superpowers

A few months back I took an Eharmony.com personality test. The matches it gave me were a joke, but the test itself was pretty insightful. One thing it insisted upon was that I am an artistic soul. I have always wanted to be an artistic soul, so I was pretty pleased to find that I already am one. Being artistic of course requires a lot of you, so I did some research, and here I am, filling my niche nicely. I woke up from my nap today, put on some torn up sandals, 2 bracelets, one hemp, one from an activist group, put on my favorite jeans with the left leg held together by safety pins, and headed off to a coffee shop. Not a Starbucks, but a locally owned coffee shop where I can better fight the man.

I rather like being artistic, because on my way in, 2 girls waved at me. I think that they could tell I was an artist, and from what I understand, girls eventually grow out of the athelete-liking-phase and grow into an artist-liking-phase. It's good to know I'll get to be some girl's phase soon.

I've been reading the Gospels a lot lately, both because I want to know Jesus better and because I'm in a class right now on the first three gospels. I recently got the chance to read through one of my favorite bible stories, and I noticed a few things about it.

We all know the story, and if we don't, we need to read it. It's in Matthew 14, and it tells the story of Jesus walking on the water. Now this is really neat, I always love reading about Jesus' superpowers, because I like the idea of Jesus as this superhero in disguise. So Jesus walks on the water, and Peter being Peter decides to get gutsy, and he asks Jesus to call him out. I like to imagine that Jesus loved this, and that he was thrilled to call Peter out, although I suppose it's possible that he was totally emotionless like I used to imagine him when I was younger.

So Peter does the obvious thing and gets out of the boat to walk on the water. But when the waves get pretty intense, he looks away from Jesus, and boom, starts to sink. So Jesus of course pulls him out, but what I kind of want to focus on is just the simple fact that Peter got great power by just looking at Jesus. I love this aspect of the story, that he gets his power from focusing on Jesus.

I suppose I write this because I feel like in the world around me we have looked away from Jesus. All of you at York, you know what I'm talking about. Don't get me wrong, I love York College, and that's why I say this to hold us all accountable: Whether it was coaches, administration, presidents, teachers, students, whoever, at some point we made the mistake of putting our faith in something other than Christ. To be blunt, I feel like we put our faith in the financial power of athletics, and I find it rather ironic that the result was us losing at a lot of sports. Don't hate atheletes, just calling it like I see it.

So where's this going? Well to be honest, it's simply an acknowledgement. As previously stated a few months ago on this page, I feel like a problem becomes a crisis when it's ignored, so here I go pointing out what we all know but don't want to say. Things are on their way back to healthy, but it'll take a concious effort from us the students to make sure that the higher-ups carry through on it.

The moral of the story is simply this: We may have sunk a little last year, but just like with Peter, Jesus is overjoyed to reach out and pull us out of the water. The catch? We're going to have to shift our focus back on him. As atheletes, as students, as people, it's our responsibility to look to Christ, whether you're a freshman or a senior, a trustee or the president, look to Christ, and see what kind of superpowers he gives you.

(jake)

What I Learned This Summer, by Jake Owens, age 21

I've been on the road for a while, and then I had to move, but the dust is finally settling, and I'm back at last, so here I am, to plague you with more nonsense.

I have good news. Jesus was a human. I know, you've heard it before, but let's do some considering here. I spent the last two weeks teaching the book of Hebrews to high school kids up in Wisconsin, and I'm pretty convinced that I got a lot more out of it than they did. I have weeks worth of blog material, but I want to focus on this first. Let's have a look:

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin." Hebrews 4:15

First of all, I'm not going to directly quote scripture again in this blog, but I will be referencing it, feel free to look it up and check my sources. That being said, re-read that up there. Jesus Christ was God incarnate, and yet he was tempted in the same way we are. That's a verse that never meant a lot to me, because the reality is that Jesus was God, and it never occured to me that he was actually tempted. But consider a few things.

First of all, to quote Nate Cleveland, Jesus was on a different pay scale than the rest of us. To be tempted with money or lust probably wasn't a big deal for him. But when Satan tempted Jesus, he went straight to the top. He promised Jesus the world. Now me, I wouldn't worship someone to rule the world, because we all know that a Jake-ruled world would implode on itself very quickly. Don't believe me? See my new bedroom.

But Jesus was seriously tempted to take this! Think it over, if Jesus came to Earth and there was no risk, if there was no chance that he would fail, then this salvation thing is not what we think it is. For this to work, there had to be a chance that Jesus would give in and would bow down to Satan and take the world. When I think about it, it makes sense. Jesus Christ, praying in the garden was begging God to find a different way to save the world. When Peter offered to make Jesus a king, Jesus rebuked him and yelled at him, he fled from people who tried to give him a crown, Jesus Christ was genuinely tempted to take an Earthly throne and try to save the world his own way!

Now consider that: I don't for one second think that Jesus ever considered going to the Dark Side and doing bad things, I think that he considered different ways of saving humanity, ways that wouldn't suck nearly as much as being nailed to a death stick. But the reality is that in the final moment, in the greatest temptation, in the garden, Jesus Christ answered the question once and for all by saying, "Not my will, but yours be done."

My sins have never been so major as to consider screwing up God's great scheme to save the world, but I think I can sympathize with Jesus. At the end of the day, all of my sins basically boil down to the fact that I am completely convinced that I know better than God, and I'm deciding to do things my own way, not his. My prayer for myself and for anyone who reads this is that we can be possessed by the same spirit of wisdom that Jesus was, and that we can have the foresight to give God his way. He knows better.

(jake)