Rick Nier...Woo!

Have you ever been part of a panel? I'll bet you have. I imagine you've done something impressive enough in your lifetime that someone has asked for your opinion to be shared with others. Maybe it was a panel on grocery store couponing, or the best practices of educating your children on the finer points of dressing themselves, or even a panel on solar panels. I'm not sure what that last one would be like. This may come as a surprise, but I have never been part of a panel. Until now. I received an opportunity to be part of the YouthWorker Journal  panel review. I know, it sounds glamorous. You know what it means? I read a book. The book is called Nelson's Youth Minister's Manual . It is part of their series of ministry books. This one was written by Theresa Plemmons Reiter, a 30-year youth ministry veteran. She's seen and done a lot of stuff and decided to go back and write about it. It's a short book, just over 200 pages, making this a handy resourc

Tomorrow is February 29! Woo hoo! I don't remember what I did last year on February 29. Or the year before. Or the one before that. If you're on to me, you know it's because it only comes once every 4 years. But to tell the truth, I don't recall what I did 4 years ago on the last February 29. I suppose if I was one of those people who celebrated a birthday only once every 4 years, it would feel different to me. But it's not different to me. I celebrate my birthday every single year. It's pretty much me taking off from work, eating cake and soaking in all the joy of everyone being focused on me. (Yeah, I struggle with center-of-the-world syndrome on my birthday.) But I see February 29 coming and I feel like I should do something special with it. It's a gift. I know, I know every day is a gift, but this one is rare. It only happens once every 4 years. I look at this like those rare days when there is nothing on my calendar and nothing on my to-do list. Whe

Whenever we hear stories of sacrifice on the part of people, we marvel. We admire their ability to give up something for the sake of another. Obviously, the bigger the sacrifice, the more we revere that person. It's nice when someone gives up a seat for another person. It's really nice when one gives up a kidney. Yeah, I think I'm ok with that last line. Giving up a kidney is nice. I wrote that nonchalantly, as if you can just call someone up and borrow a kidney like you might borrow a cup of sugar. Does anyone borrow sugar anymore? If they do, have you heard of them measuring out a cup in return? I'm a little off topic by now, but here's my point. In our world, where newscasters say 'Good evening' and then proceed to tell you why it's not a good evening, we like hearing stories of people helping one another. It reminds us that the bad news is not, in fact, all the news. But Jesus did this long ago, in a fashion that is beyond words. By doing so, h

Ah, the Bible. A useful tool for teaching, correcting, rebuking and training in righteousness, right? Just don't assume it should always make you feel better. The other morning a bird flew right into our bay window. My wife commented that the window must be too clean and that the commercials are correct. My two young girls, 10 and 5, both started crying. We looked as the bird just dropped to the ground and sat there. Its neck was a little to the left. Anything could have caused that, right? Just because it wasn't moving didn't mean anything. It was right before we were leaving for school, so I didn't want them leaving upset. So I was trying to think of a soothing scripture to share. So I said, "You know that God saw that too, right?" My 10 year old looked at me with tear-filled eyes and didn't say anything. She had to wonder what kind of robot monster I was to implicate God in the death of this bird. Thus I figured out another way we use scripture in

If you take time away from TV and internet at all, you can find people that talk about how not staying connected constantly affords them a lot of extra time to get things done. Yeah, I get that. But you can also find lots of people on the internet saying the same thing. And as I take a close look at certain Bible stories, I  can see the truth. Let's look at Exodus 19 as an example. Moses and the Israelites have left Egypt and come to Mount Sinai. Look at what happens. Exodus 19:3 - Moses goes up to the top of the mountain and receives a message from God. Exodus 19:7 - Moses goes back down the mountain to give the people the message. Exodus 19:8 - Moses goes up (one would guess to the top) to tell God what the people said. Exodus 19:14 - Moses goes back down the mountain to prepare the people for when God will come to the mountain in a way that all the people can see. Three days pass. Exodus 19: 20 - Moses goes up the mountain to meet with God. Exodus 19:21 - God tells Mose

There is so much name-calling in our world. It might be ok if they were nice names. But sadly, as my childhood would attest, they are not. It might even be ok if we left such things behind as children. But sadly, again, we do not. Whether it is the more subtle way we, as adults, barrage each other with names, or the way each of us chooses to live in response to those names, we live the results of these names. As children, we lack subtlety. The name calling is cruel and with no concern for feelings. If a child sees it a certain way, he calls it out. Big noses, facial blemishes, funny smells, awkward laughs; children will notice it all and identify one another by those differences. And as much as we'd like to think we mature, our calling out of political differences, awkward mannerisms and choices will be called out. Then we identify and distinguish and place people in boxes that we don't often or easily let them out of. Even in the church, we wield our judgments like we ho

This picture always cracks me up. Every time, without fail. But it hits me that this is the exact question everyone is asking, not just Lionel Richie. We want to know that someone, somewhere is looking for us. It is our felt need to be needed. The good news is that God came looking for us. Ever since the fall of Man, when God asked where we were, He has been the One seeking us. We get this confused and assume it is the other way around. It's not. If you look, you can see it in God's eyes. Once we answer this, we can get over ourselves. Instead of looking for some sign that people find us significant, we can turn our attention to the only One who can truly find us...oh, and show us how significant we are to Him. Now I believe you know just what to do.

Guys like Chuck Norris and Bruce Willis have done us a dis-service. I say that, though I enjoy the Chuck 1-liners and Bruce's movies. But what they have done, along with others like Stallone and Schwarzenegger, is to give us an idealized picture of being alone. Let's look at the facts. One guy with a limited arsenal takes out an entire army whose sole purpose for 2 hours is to rid the world of the 1-man show. Never mind that the loner can only shoot so many people at once. Never mind that it would appear that every terrorist army is made up entirely of people who couldn't hit a barn, much less a huge, hulking warrior. We're also supposed to believe that these mavericks are all witty and have extra time to charm a lady. It doesn't work. Even if it did, we seldom look at this from the other side. A recent story, which I found here , brings the other side to light. It appears that an entire town, Sodeto, Spain, bought lottery tickets for a Christmas lottery known

I love my children. I think what I love the most is the opportunity I have to pour knowledge and compassion and common sense to them. In this way, they won't be stupid like the majority of people driving on the road. Wait a second, what was that I was saying about compassion? I do enjoy the ability to pour knowledge into my kids. Things like logic don't come automatic with these little ones. Perhaps it does, but they haven't taken the time to think through everything just yet. That's where I step in.  'Did you do what I asked,' I'll ask. 'Not yet,' they will respond. Aha! Then you have not done what I asked. I like logic. Until you enter college, logic is simple. It works. It makes sense.  We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This

Not every time in the car with my kids is spent trying to have a teachable moment. But sometimes the teachable moments find you, smack you upside the head, then leave you feeling dizzy. Last week I had one of those mornings. I was driving my 3 children, all under 10 years of age, to school. We live 5 minutes from school, so what could possibly happen. On this particular morning, the kids were chatting away while I listened to Mike and Mike in the Morning  on ESPN Radio. Since it was about 10 days from the Super Bowl, they were discussing the players in the game, including one Tom Brady, quarterback for the New England Patriots. *Background note (in order to understand the story): Mike and Mike are humorous when it comes to sports. One of the things they do is create songs for certain athletes, to reflect their personality or sports prowess. The songs are all remakes of other popular songs.  Back to the story... On this particular morning, they were allowing fans to vote for a s

Among the other rabble we mostly know as heroes of the Bible is a questionable character by the name of Jonah. Does that sound a bit harsh? How would you put it? Let’s look at his life briefly. Jonah disobeyed a direct command from God. He was told to go right, he went left. He endangered others around him. When he finally does what God tells him to do, he finds success to be an unhappy occasion. In fact, the story ends with Jonah more concerned with his own comfort while waiting for the people of Ninevah to be destroyed. And who doesn’t like to be comfortable when watching death and destruction? So, for those of you keeping track, we have a prophet that doesn’t want to actually be listened to. I imagine some of the other prophets might have put a beat down on Jonah, only wishing their audiences listened as well. A prophet wanting to be ignored is like a musician wanting only to sell his art to the deaf. Perhaps, if we were to go back in time, we would find that Jonah never wanted t

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete. ~1 John 1:3-4. I'd like to personally thank whoever decided that February, the month that contains all that gushy love stuff, should be the shortest month.It's not like I have a heart of stone, but I do think it gets played a little over the top. If anyone shows this to my wife, I believe she'll answer with the standard, 'I'm so lucky to be with him.' She gets me. Reading through a small letter like 1 John, one can forget that the author was a burly fisherman type. Well, now you remember, because I just reminded you. So if a big guy can talk about love, I guess we can too. Just like John, our job is to talk about it. That's what we do. We proclaim. We talk about what we have seen and what we have heard. We do this because there is nothing better bein

As I scroll around the blogosphere I see ideas that I think I might like to emulate. Yes, one of those things is using big words like 'emulate'. Another is doing interviews of people that might have something to offer to the reader. Unlike other blogs, I have no one of great significance that has even heard of my blog, but we may still learn something from him.  Without further adieu, I bring you 'An Interview With An Idiot (Otherwise Known As Me)'.  Rick Nier...Woo!: Welcome to the blog, Rick. Thanks for stopping by. Rick Nier: No Problem. I'm a big fan of your blog. Rick Nier...Woo!: Please, you embarrass yourself. So, speaking of embarrassing, I hear you had a somewhat interesting adventure this week. Rick Nier:  I did. I swallowed a guitar pick. Rick Nier...Woo!: Was it a dare? Rick Nier:  Uh, no. Although the nurse at the ER asked the same question. Rick Nier...Woo!: So, hmmm. The questions how  and why  come to mind. Rick Nier: I wish I kne

I recently went through an intriguing novel by Mark Mynheir called The Corruptible . The story centers on Private Investigator Ray Quinn, a retired police officer, taken out of the force before his time due to injury. The story begins when Ray gets a case with a very wealthy client. Stolen information and murdered suspects draws the reader in fairly quickly. Twists and turns keeps the pages turning. There are a few points when the individual spiritual needs of Ray seem forced into the story. But let's face it, when you're distracted by life, your spiritual needs can often seem forced in. It also seemed to jump at points, but that could be my mind working slowly as well. Over all, this was an interesting story, teaching me to trust nobody. Is it possible that everybody did it? You'll have to find out for yourself by reading the book. I received this book for free from my good friends at Waterbrook Multnomah. They help me add stuff books to my Kindle, asking only tha