I have 2320 "friends" on Facebook.
That is not a stat that is to sound popular, to sound insignificant or for you to compare yourself to me and think, "man, I am so much cooler than JR..." or to think just the opposite, "man, I am nowhere near as cool as JR..." I am fully aware that there are folks out there who have thousands of Facebook friends.
I know that some of them are genuine friends. I know some of them are family. I know some of them are friends from back-in-the-day that you just got reacquainted with. I know that some of them were added simply because they were wearing a bikini in their profile pic. I know that some of them are there because you are "supposed" to be friends with them. I know some of them are there because they requested to be your friend and you can't say no to folks. And I know that this list could go on and on.
The reason I point this out is because having friends and having friends are two totally different things.
I feel like my wife and I are pretty swell individuals. We have lots of friends, we have lots of close relationships with people, we are not too shabby to hangout with, we can crack a funny joke every now and then (my wife is hilarious actually), I am good to go play ball with or frisbee golf, we love having heart-to-hearts with people, and we have almost 4000 friends combined on Facebook.
But all that being said, do you know how many invites we got this weekend for 4th of July festivities? How many invites we got to go to the lake or to come over for a BBQ?
One...
One invite.
Now, let me assure you that this is not a "feel sorry for me" post. If you are hearing that then please stop. We have no problem with our lack of popularity this weekend. We had a great weekend together and she's my best friend in the world so getting to hang out with just her is no consolation prize by any stretch of the imagination. I could kick it with my boo 24/7 and love my life.
But, it did get us thinking...
If we have almost 4000 Facebook friends, if we have tons of people we feel close to, if we have plenty of friends we hangout with, if we are not "unpopular", and yet we only got ONE invite for the weekend to do anything at all, then how many people out there spent this holiday, as well as many many others, with ZERO invites from anybody, to do anything?
And how many of those didn't have their best friend of a wife to kick it with?
How many of those spent it completely alone?
And you might be asking yourself, "What's this got to do with me JR?" And to be honest, I have been asking myself that same question.
What does this have to do with me?
Is it my responsibility to befriend folks who don't have friends? Is it my duty to love on folks who don't really have many folks who love on them? Is this my problem to fix? Am I supposed to actively be a part of the solution? Am I supposed to be inviting those out there on the ZERO invite list to a BBQ at my house? What is my obligation to this?
In the Gospels, Jesus seems to touch on this very idea saying things like, "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you?" and then again with, "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?"
There seems to be this call to reach out to those who are on the ZERO invite list. There seems to be a call to love those who don't have folks loving on them, who are awkward to love, and just maybe, are simply hard as crap to love.
By no means do I have this figured out and by no means am I anywhere close to having this thing perfected, but it is something that I am wrestling with these days.
How many of us ever reach out to those who have nobody? How many of us befriend those on the ZERO invite list? How many of us talk to "those folks" any place aside from church? And sadly enough, how many of us don't even talk to "those people" at church?
Quit only loving those who love you.
Quit only doing good to those who do good to you.
Quit only greeting your people.
How frikkin' great would it be to get as many people off the ZERO invite list as possible??
I guess that's why it's called The Greatest Commandment, huh?
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
too many grape Christians...
Anyone ever had a Purple Herman?? What's a Purple Herman you ask??
It's a delicious, purple, grape-flavored candy in the Tangy Taffy world. This was something that was introduced to me during my seminary days, by one of my best friends. We seemed to always have to snag a Purple Herman on our way to Tonkawa, Peacock Lane or to any one of our many sacred spots.
Well, one day, as I was munching on a Purple Herman, I also happened to have some real grapes on hand, so I was snacking on them as well. I have no idea why I was snacking on a giant stick of taffy while munching on some grapes, but this is what was happening. It was in this moment that I realized something...something that seemed extremely profound to me. Get ready to have your mind blown...
Grape flavoring tastes nothing like real grapes...
Holy cow!! How about them apples? or grapes?
So I began thinking about it, and everything "grape" that I had ever experienced tasted nothing like real grapes. Whether it was Big League Chew, grape sno-cones, grape soda or a good ol' Purple Herman, none of them tasted anything like the real thing.
I continued to think about it and guess what? This same thing applied to most flavors.
Watermelon Jolly Ranchers taste nothing like real watermelon...and they have ZERO to do with ranching, ranches, rustling cattle, or anything like that...but that's a different blog.
Strawberry Laffy Taffy tastes nothing like real strawberries.
Orange Sunkist tastes nothing like real oranges.
And I could go on and on...
The truth is, I don't know of any "fruit flavors" that actually taste like the fruit they are supposed to be representing. But at some point in time, somebody decided to call this flavor grape and this other flavor watermelon and this other flavor strawberry and it just became accepted as reality...even though they have ZERO resemblance to the real thing. And what's nuts is, when someone wants to make a new product, say a new type of candy, and they want it to be grape flavored, what do they try and make it resemble? Real grape flavor?? No sir...They just follow what everyone else has done, they copy the grape flavor that has been accepted as "grape flavor" and they replicate that. It's like they've totally forgotten that there's even another grape flavor out there...the real one.
Sadly enough, this is what happens to the Christian faith much of the time. Folks out there who claim to be "christian" start living life a certain way, start believing certain things, start claiming certain "truths" and at some point, it just becomes accepted as reality...even though a lot of the time they have ZERO resemblance to the real thing. And then what happens when new folks get interested in Christianity or become Christians? They just end up copying the manufactured, artificial "christianity" that has been accepted as reality. People lose sight of the real thing and they don't realize that the true Christ is still right there, waiting to be followed, waiting to be copied, waiting to be replicated.
There are way too many grape Christians out there...let's get real.
It's a delicious, purple, grape-flavored candy in the Tangy Taffy world. This was something that was introduced to me during my seminary days, by one of my best friends. We seemed to always have to snag a Purple Herman on our way to Tonkawa, Peacock Lane or to any one of our many sacred spots.
Well, one day, as I was munching on a Purple Herman, I also happened to have some real grapes on hand, so I was snacking on them as well. I have no idea why I was snacking on a giant stick of taffy while munching on some grapes, but this is what was happening. It was in this moment that I realized something...something that seemed extremely profound to me. Get ready to have your mind blown...
Grape flavoring tastes nothing like real grapes...
Holy cow!! How about them apples? or grapes?
So I began thinking about it, and everything "grape" that I had ever experienced tasted nothing like real grapes. Whether it was Big League Chew, grape sno-cones, grape soda or a good ol' Purple Herman, none of them tasted anything like the real thing.
I continued to think about it and guess what? This same thing applied to most flavors.
Watermelon Jolly Ranchers taste nothing like real watermelon...and they have ZERO to do with ranching, ranches, rustling cattle, or anything like that...but that's a different blog.
Strawberry Laffy Taffy tastes nothing like real strawberries.
Orange Sunkist tastes nothing like real oranges.
And I could go on and on...
The truth is, I don't know of any "fruit flavors" that actually taste like the fruit they are supposed to be representing. But at some point in time, somebody decided to call this flavor grape and this other flavor watermelon and this other flavor strawberry and it just became accepted as reality...even though they have ZERO resemblance to the real thing. And what's nuts is, when someone wants to make a new product, say a new type of candy, and they want it to be grape flavored, what do they try and make it resemble? Real grape flavor?? No sir...They just follow what everyone else has done, they copy the grape flavor that has been accepted as "grape flavor" and they replicate that. It's like they've totally forgotten that there's even another grape flavor out there...the real one.
Sadly enough, this is what happens to the Christian faith much of the time. Folks out there who claim to be "christian" start living life a certain way, start believing certain things, start claiming certain "truths" and at some point, it just becomes accepted as reality...even though a lot of the time they have ZERO resemblance to the real thing. And then what happens when new folks get interested in Christianity or become Christians? They just end up copying the manufactured, artificial "christianity" that has been accepted as reality. People lose sight of the real thing and they don't realize that the true Christ is still right there, waiting to be followed, waiting to be copied, waiting to be replicated.
There are way too many grape Christians out there...let's get real.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
let's get this thing rollin'...
Remix for life, huh? What's that even mean? Glad you asked...
A remix of a song is taking something you've already heard, already seen, already experienced, etc., and then adding something to it in order to bring about something fresh and new. Now, you don't just toss the old stuff to the curb, as if it weren't valuable or important to the new mix to come, nor do you just keep listening to the same old tune, over and over again. What you do is you evolve and you use the beautiful bits and pieces of it all, to make the best new mix possible.
You see, I feel like this is essentially what life is all about. We all enter today with an entire life full of things we've heard, things we've seen, things we've experienced, and what we do with all of that stuff is what makes all the difference. You can choose to toss to the curb, all those experiences both good and bad, or you can just sit idle in life, playing the same tune over and over again. But, if you truly wanna get out there and experience life, what you do is evolve and you take all those beautiful bits and pieces of the life you've been living and you turn it into something fresh and new.
Today is your chance at a remix...
And the best part of all of this is the fact that each and every day, each and every moment to each and every day, is a new shot, a new chance, a new opportunity to mix-it-up. My life is a constant remix of the life I've lived up until now, and I have no idea what tomorrow is gonna look like, but I can guarantee you that I'm gonna try and make it tighter than today.
What's your remix gonna look like? It's completely up to you...
A remix of a song is taking something you've already heard, already seen, already experienced, etc., and then adding something to it in order to bring about something fresh and new. Now, you don't just toss the old stuff to the curb, as if it weren't valuable or important to the new mix to come, nor do you just keep listening to the same old tune, over and over again. What you do is you evolve and you use the beautiful bits and pieces of it all, to make the best new mix possible.
You see, I feel like this is essentially what life is all about. We all enter today with an entire life full of things we've heard, things we've seen, things we've experienced, and what we do with all of that stuff is what makes all the difference. You can choose to toss to the curb, all those experiences both good and bad, or you can just sit idle in life, playing the same tune over and over again. But, if you truly wanna get out there and experience life, what you do is evolve and you take all those beautiful bits and pieces of the life you've been living and you turn it into something fresh and new.
Today is your chance at a remix...
And the best part of all of this is the fact that each and every day, each and every moment to each and every day, is a new shot, a new chance, a new opportunity to mix-it-up. My life is a constant remix of the life I've lived up until now, and I have no idea what tomorrow is gonna look like, but I can guarantee you that I'm gonna try and make it tighter than today.
What's your remix gonna look like? It's completely up to you...
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