Rick Nier...Woo!

It is our sense of individuality that pushes us to pursue our own dreams and desires, sometimes at the expense of others. I had a group of teens together for a few days. Among other things we went to meals together. But since we had both guys and girls in this group, there was waiting involved. Waiting by guys. Waiting for girls. That's when one of the guys, Warren Lampkin*, decided enough had been enough. Warren: I'm going to breakfast. Me: Don't you think we should wait for the girls? Warren: No, I'm an independent butterfly. I'd never met a guy prior to this who referred to himself this way and decided that it was a good moniker, but Warren did. And Warren walked. Fortunately for the girls, Warren doesn't walk that fast and we were all able to catch up with him. But I think his point had been sufficiently made. I suppose we all have a little independent butterfly in us. It can be good if we want to be inspiring and sing Celine Dion songs, but on second though...

As a youth pastor I pretend to be able to keep up with teenagers. Admittedly, this was easier 10 years ago than it is now. I know I'm not alone. For instance, I can remember a time when I did not have to keep track of what was said on Facebook and what was said IRL. Don't be confused by my use of text-talk. IRL is one of three abbreviations of which I know the meaning. The other two being lol (which I refuse to use) and rotflshidmt (which is simply ridiculous). My inability to text proficiently aside, teenagers continue to be a group that grab my heart, while at the same time confuse and frustrate me. A better example is the youth group game. I have rarely, if ever, been successful in getting an entire group of teens to play, much less enjoy, a youth group game. And sometimes what I find stupid they find amusing, for hours on end. Such was the case a few weeks ago when one of the teens suggested Tree Ball. What's tree ball? Simple. Teens climb a tree while the leaders take...

With appreciation to Dan Kimball and his work on They Like Jesus, But They Don't Like the Church , I have to say that this may have been one of the most difficult sermon series I've ever been a part of. I've found out first hand that people didn't like hearing this. It was almost as if people wondered why Jesus had so many fans. After all, what did He really ever do for people? Perhaps one of the reasons we tire of hearing that people like Jesus and hate us is because we are arrogant in our lifestyle. We assume they don't really know Jesus. We claim they don't really know us. We start to get all out of shape when someone attacks our beliefs, our standards, our church, our book, and especially our Savior. So it becomes extremely disarming when someone likes what we stand for but doesn't like us. We don't even know how to respond to that. Why can't they see our meager efforts and be changed by it? The bottom line is that God's Spirit will change th...

Despite the natural outcome of my nature to imagine itself to be more than what it really is, I enjoy looking at pictures of outer space. I say despite because it can only lead me to one conclusion. I'm small. But it doesn't matter. I still like to view pictures of outer space. I like to take pause during my day and look up in the sky. And although my telscope would like to see farther and more variety than the Indiana sky, I do enjoy seeing what I can see. There is such beauty and vastness, it is nothing short of awe-inspiring. But then I ran across this article while cruising the information superhighway. “The Planck telescope was sent by Europe into space to take pictures of the entire universe to try to understand the origin of the universe and how stars are formed.” (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/7872190/Planck-telescope-reveals-universe-image.html) I didn't italicize anything on purpose. I want to be sure you are paying attention. They sent a telescope into...

Recently one of the teens dropped this one on me, rotflshidmt. I don’t use most of these simply because I have not received a copy of a text-to-English dictionary. I’d rather just type it out. But something this ridiculous is just begging to be used. It stands for 'Rolling on the floor, laughing so hard I dropped my Taco.' There are obviously many problems with this. Do you really want to be on the floor of a Taco Bell? Who actually has friends that are this funny? Do you realize how hard it is to clean up a taco off the ground? There is so much filling that it will take forever. But it did get me thinking. Are there things in my life that have distracted me from other, more important things? Sure, maybe I’m having a good time in life. But what am I missing? This isn’t about wanting more just to have more. But I would hate to be guilty of Jesus’ warning to gain the whole world and yet lose my soul. The Bible actually talks quite a bit about remembering and not forgetting and k...

She seems cute and innocent, right? Well, she is cute. But she is far from innocent. I have two other children (her older siblings) all too willing to throw her under the bus when it comes time to place blame. Just this morning I had my 8-year old describe in detail how Jerica (pictured) ripped a toy shopping cart from her grasp. The 8-year old wanted me to retrieve it for her. 'I'm not going in there,' was my reply, 'not if she can overpower people twice her size.' No more than 20 minutes later, my 6-year old son showed me how his 4-year old sister was strong-arming him and throwing him up against the wall, as if she were some insane member of the Mob telling a cohort exactly how it's done around here. (By the way, there is not much funnier entertainment than watching your son reenact this event by grabbing his own collar and throwing himself up against the wall.) I didn't buy it. After all, this little girl was idly standing by practicing her perfect princ...

I feel somewhat like Alfred, butler to the Caped Crusader. This is due, in part, to the fact that being a butler is probably the closest I will ever come to being a superhero. The other reason is that I took my kids skating yesterday. And... well,... there was a lot of falling. This was the first time that my older two had been on real roller skates, as opposed to the plastic deal that fits over your shoes. My 4-year old still had those and she had a blast. But the older two looked like Goofy on skates, all while wishing out loud that they could have skates like their younger sister. And why not? Have you seen little kids with these skates? The only time she fell was, I think, more of a pity fall for her older siblings. She is used to imitating them, so if they fell, it must be fun. But the rest of the time she clodded along as if doing her best impersonation of Forrest Gump running when he first loses the leg braces. After kissing the hundredth boo-boo from my other two who simply ref...

I would not call myself a parenting expert. I thought I had a few tricks. One of those tricks involved giving our children options so they had the appearance of control. For example, that could be as simple as picking between two different shirts for school, or as deceptive as choosing between them eating their veggies or me eating their cookies. I didn't say the choices shouldn't be obvious. But we have found that for many instances there is less fighting when we give them options. Then it was used against us. We were walking by the park this past Saturday, when big Bounce Houses were also being set up for 4th of July festivities. Walking by meant walking through, as we weren't planning on staying. This met with disapproval from all our children, but most vocally from our 3-year old. She said, 'Mommy, you can let me play on the swings or let me play in the bounce house.' Ummm....I guess if a 3-year old can pick up on a parenting trick, it's not all that tricky,...

Recently I filled in at a church where I have filled in at in the past. To my amazement, someone remembered my sermon from my previous visit, which was well over a year before. This is in comparison to teenagers who frequently forget what I've said before I'm even finished saying it to them. I'm certainly not to be modeled in this area, for my wife has to repeat whatever it is she's saying to me numerous times. Even my young children have come to me, asking what mommy's directions were. When i realize I have no idea what their mother was saying, I respond with, "You should have been paying better attention. If you can't remember, I'm not going to tell you." Have you ever wondered if God feels like this with us? After all, look at how much repetition there is in the Bible. How many times does God have to repeat Himself? He reminds them of His identity over and over again; while He is making covenants with them, while He is reminding them of covenant...