“Fluff, Don’t Stuff”

A few years back I was visiting a McDonalds in the south suburbs of Chicago where I lived. I placed my order, and immediately was drawn to a sign on the french fry warmer that said “Fluff, Don’t Stuff” in large capital letters. The first thought I had was, “Why is this sign in a place that the customers can see that they are ripping us off?” What they were essentially saying was, “Put less fries in, but make it look like they are getting more than what they are by fluffing them up.”

I immediately told the employee helping me that I wanted stuffed fries, not fluffed fries. After all, I wanted my monies-worth of artery-clogging goodness!

I am not sure what brought that back to my mind a few days ago. What is worse than remembering, is that I cannot get it out of my head, hence the reason for this post.  Maybe it will go away once I push “Publish!”

Anyways, the reason it has stuck with me is because I think many churches and up doing the same thing. There is a lot of talk and hype about how great the church is, how they are reaching people and how God is changing lives, but it is actually fluff. The church is deceiving itself into thinking that something good is happening, when in reality they are not growing, not reaching, and not seeing people’s lives changed.

You see, if you actually looked deeper into the church, you would see that no one has given their life to Christ in a long time (outside of kids in Jr Church), there is no community outreach at all, and really, no one has seen anyone that has gotten so close to Jesus that their life has been changed: No marriages restored, no relationships mended, no attitudes adjusted… nothing.  Life change has been equated to attendance at Ladies Meetings and the number of people that are in counseling with the pastor.  Not that either are bad mind you…

Life change is what happens when Jesus gets a hold of you, and you no longer are who you used to be, but God’s love and mercy are evident in your life and poured out to others through you.  Life change is what happens when people come face to face with the God of the Bible and realize that He loves them and that the love He has for them is all they need.  Life change is me becoming more and more like Jesus and sharing what I have with others so that their lives can be changed too.

This can be uncomfortable for a church because it means at times we have to admit that we are not seeing much happen, and then we have to address why.  it is easier to be comfortable, sit back and hype the next activity as a life changing event.  But that just does not work.  Look around you.  Is God working?  Really working.  If not, ask Him to start by changing and using you.

Forget the fluff…

“But to me the notion that spirituality is separate from the rest of life does not allow for a practical approach to living a life that has extraordinary quality.”

- Tony Robbins

How many times do we compartmentalize our lives into boxes that never touch one another?  That is a great issue for many Christ-followers with their faith.  It is easy to get in the mind set that if I go to church once a week that I am good.  If I am really good, I will read my Bible every day.  But that is the end of it.  It really has no bearing on anything else I do.  Ask yourself this question: “If my faith has no influence or impact on the other things I do in life, what good is it, and why do I need it?”

If we want to live a life that is full and has abundant joy, then our faith must leave its mark in every area of life.  We cannot keep it in a box… it affects everything we do and every area of life.

• Tony Morgan talks about the “5 Benefits Of Going on a Test Drive.”  Loved it!
• Seth Godin had some great insight in two posts this week: Do You Have The Right To Be Heard, and Validation Is Overrated.  I feel a blog post of my own coming from each of those… maybe this week.
• And the last one for the week is an awesome post by Jon Acuff called Wanting Wisdom Without The Walk.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

“It is the mark of Christian maturity, that when you stumble and fall you run to Him (God) and not from Him (God).”

When you were just a little child, this made sense.  You would fall and hurt yourself, maybe skin your knee or scratch your arm, and you would run to your mom or dad and just a simple kiss or a band-aide would fix it all.  You actually ran TO them when you fell and there was comfort and healing.

Somewhere in our pre-teen and teen years, that was no longer the first response for us.  We were fine to try and pick our selves up and do what we could to fix things on our own.  We no longer ran to our parents, but many times, depending on what happened, we actually ran from them.  Things would have been easier if we had gone to them, but we think we can handle it on our own.

That thinking of handling things on our own permeates our spiritual life as well.  We either try our hardest to keep the law and other man-made rules that we will never be able to keep, or we try and live apart from law and cast off all restraint to live a life of so-called freedom that enslaves us instead of frees us.  We fail to keep the law, we fall and stumble, and then we live with the feelings of defeat and our inability to measure up; or we do whatever we want, living in so-called freedom and end up living with the guilt and heaviness of heart that we are breaking God’s commands and hurting the relationship that we have with Him.

We can find ourselves in a never ending cycle to fix things ourselves when all God wants is for us to run to Him when we fall, not run from Him.  And just as our parents would grab hold of us, love on us, clean us up and make things right, God will show us that same attention.  He will forgive us and set us back on the right path in our relationship with Him.  And even though there will still be consequences to our actions, the healing will have begun and we can take our next steps with Him, instead of away from Him.

• I loved what Donald Miller wrote in The Absolute Power of An Apology.  He also had some other great thoughts in Were We Designed To Be Mastered, and another post about infinite comlexity
• Perry Noble says Don’t Let Your Past To Be Your Prison.  He also had some great words in It’s Not The Product… It’s The Service, Part One and Part Two.
• Scott Hodge writes on Apologizing Well.  Good stuff!  I have had a lot of “apologies” that were… not really!

That is just a few for the week… gotta run!  Have a great weekend everyone!

Save us from these comforts
Break us of our need for the familiar
Spare us any joy that’s not of you
And we will worship You

Have a great week!

Twenty-one  years ago I married my best friend.  I thought that I loved her SOOOO much the day I married her.  Little did I know, I had only scratched the surface of my love for her that day.  Here we are, twenty-one years later, and I am amazed at this woman that God has allowed me to spend my life with.  I married up BIG TIME!  She is my best friend, a great wife and mother,  and my partner in ministry.  Happy anniversary Jennifer!

Prov 18:22 “A man’s greatest treasure is his wife— she is a gift from the Lord.”

The goal of faith is not the elimination of risk. There is no such thing as risk-free faith.

– Craig Groeschel

Many times when we think about faith, we think that having faith means that God takes all the risk and potential for failure out of something.  I am not so sure I believe that.  Without risk or the potential for failure, where is the need for faith?  Where is the dependence on God? It is not there because we can handle things on our own.  Risk and failure bring out dependence and a hunger for God’s power in your life.

Our walk with God requires risk.  Churches require leadership that is willing to takes risks.  If you are not a risk-taker as you lead your church, you will be a care-taker and eventually an undertaker.

Tom Hall – Sept. 19, 1928 – June 1, 2010

Today I had the honor to speak at a memorial service for a hero of mine.  He happened to be my Grandfather as well.  I only had about 20 minutes to speak, which was not near long enough to say all the great things that could have been said about him. He was one of the godliest men I have ever known!  Here are a few of the comments I made this morning:

When this life ends, will it have really mattered?

That is a question that a friend of mine posted on Facebook yesterday.  I am not sure if it was because she was thinking about my Grandfather or not, but it drew several replies from people.  I suppose this question has been asked for thousands of years and by every generation.  The truth is, we probably have all asked this question in one way or another.

If you were to answer that question out loud, what would you say? I wonder (knowing what he now knows) how my grandfather would answer that question?

We all sit here today and have memories of my Grandfather.  We all have stories we could tell.  Why is that?  Because he left a mark on you.  He left a legacy.  He was a brick layer – He built buildings – Even churches

But that is not what I am talking about.  You see, those buildings will all fall apart.  In fact, some have probably already been torn down.  They do not last.  A name on a building is not a legacy.  It means very little to anyone that ever walks into a building named after someone.

What I am talking about is something so much deeper.  It is the thing that leaves a mark on someone so that they never forget who you are.  But it even went deeper than that for my grandfather.  Sure, we will NEVER forget him.  If you met him and knew him at all, you will remember him.  He was unique.

I am talking about something so different though.  You see, my grandfather was:
loving
kind
honest
compassionate

There is a lot more that we could say.  But he was all those things.  We will remember him that way.  But even in all of those qualities, there was still something more.  You see, he may have been all of those, but I watched him, and he did not just obtain all those qualities.  Those qualities grew in him his whole life.  He may have been loving, but he was growing in his ability to love.  (as well as his kindness, honesty and compassion)

He left me that type of legacy.  But he did more than that.  He left more than just him becoming… he left me the REASON he was becoming those things.

Jesus.

Grandpa was becoming more loving, compassionate, and kind because he was allowing Jesus to transform his life every day.  There was never a time that I talked to Grandpa that he did not mention the Lord. Really.  He loved God so much. It was evident over his life as he served at the Nursing home and in the Gideons and at his church.  But it was really obvious just in who he was.  He loved the Lord!

He left a legacy, not just of who he was, but of the power of God that was transforming him in his life.

Ps 71:17-18
Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.

That is why everyone who I have talked to about my grandfather has never spoken an ill word about him. That does not mean he did not sin or have a bad day.  Just ask Grandma or his kids.  I am sure that Grandpa had his moments…  But as he grew older he became even more loving because of his relationship with Jesus.

He loved people so much.  He rarely talked about himself. But he often talked about reaching people with the love of Jesus.  He talked about reaching the next generation and how change was needed to do that.

He was that way because of God.  Because of Jesus.

Some men want to leave a mark for people that they will never meet.  People that quite honestly, will never care about who they were. Buildings and businesses will never leave a mark on a person.  They do not leave legacies.  Your relationships with people will.

Grandpa loved people.  He marked me.  I know he marked you that are here as well.  We will never forget him.  What a legacy he has left.

The greatest legacy that anyone could leave another person is helping them realize that they matter to God.  They are important to Him.  That God desires to have a relationship with each and every person and that relationship is made possible through the death of his Son Jesus Christ.  That was done for you and for me.  It was done so that a way could be made to a right relationship with God.  Once that relationship is established, God will begin to change you, to make you into the person He wants you to be.  Just like He did Grandpa.

If my Grandfather was here and able to speak, the last words that he would want to say would be that God loves you, and made a way for you to come to Him through His Son Jesus.

After today, I will never get to speak to this same group of people.  We are here to honor my grandfather.  So, to honor him, I would say to you.  God loves you.  Jesus died for you.  And that us the only thing that will change you forever.  Just like it did my grandfather.  That is how he was able to leave such a legacy.

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