carbonated joy

The Bible tells us that “Jesus wept”.
But nowhere does it say “Jesus laughed”.
It seems like he was a pretty serious dude, right? I mean, he went around turning tables over and being all sacred.
When we were the pastors of a really small church in Dallas, I was approached by a well intentioned, angry man. He was very upset and offended because I was trying to make church fun. He informed me that Jesus was a man of constant sorrows and we should reflect his constant sorrow.
It’s sad that many think following Jesus should be sad.
Over the years I’ve been sternly rebuked by a lot of very serious people who feel like faith should never be fun.
I, on the hand, think it a gross sacrilege if faith isn’t fun.
God created laughter. It is medicine, it brings healing, it brings life.
Jesus was the type of messiah that got invited to parties. Only fun people get invited to parties!! On at least one occasion, he kept the party going.
His closest friends were burly misfits. The kind of men who likely found bodily functions hilarious. “Hey Jesus, pull my finger!!” Jesus spent three years with these guys and they followed him wherever he went.
Children liked Jesus. They wanted to hang out with him, kids don’t like to hang out with jerks. Kids are predisposed to fun.
Jesus said things about squeezing camels through the eyes of needles and people with planks in their eyes. That is some funny stuff!
When the Creator designed us, He engineered our bodies to make some pretty…ummm…interesting sounds and odors. Maybe…just maybe, that’s meant to be a built in reminder to not take ourselves too seriously.
He has created so many things that should unleash wonder, joy and giggles.
Things that should help us get over ourselves.
We are surrounded by things that should make us smile…
Toes…
The duck billed Platypus…
Kiwi fruit…
Jello…
Puppies…
Four year old humans…
Ear hair…
Bubble wrap.
I really don’t think God would give us so many reasons to laugh if he didn’t want us to actually laugh!
The gift of laughter, when handled correctly, is a pure form of worship.
I think there is a special kind of sacred that is only released by silliness.
The joy of the Lord is our strength.
The world is a sad place.
There is sorrow.
But joy is a superpower that helps us get through the sadness.
It’s a joy that we can’t manufacture or fake.
It is the joy OF THE Lord.
He is the source of tangible joy.
OUR joy is on loan from HIM.
God is the manufacturer of pure merriment.
I think Jesus laughed, I think he still does.
I want to do things everyday that make Jesus laugh out loud.
He amazes me, I want to amuse him.
I want to live with the laughter of heaven buzzing through my soul.

In 7th grade I took the plunge into politics.
I decided to run for student council
Despite the fact that I was an actual student, I was woefully unqualified.
Sadly, that didn’t stop me.

I’m pretty sure I ran because of a need for attention or acceptance or popularity.
I wanted people to think I was cool and important (I’m convinced that those are some of the same reasons that people run today.)
I drew campaign posters with a very flattering self portrait. If memory serves I had a very catchy slogan: “VOTE FOR LUKE AND YOU WON’T PUKE” (it actually rhymes if you read it fast).
On Election Day, we gave speeches in front of the entire student body.
We gathered in the gym. The air smelled like sweat and democracy.
I was wearing my nicest Welcome Back Kotter t-shirt.
Everyone else made nice speeches about social responsibility and school spirit.
They talked about changing the dress code or cafeteria menu (less mystery meat, more tator tots).
I got up and made some jokes, including one zinger about growing a beard. (Prophetic irony?)
I got some laughs and I got elected.
It was a middle school miracle.
I learned a couple of things that day.
I learned I REALLY love making people laugh.
I also learned a powerful lesson about the American political system.
You don’t have to be the right person if you can be the loudest person.
You can avoid all the questions about qualification if you can stand out…
If you can say what others aren’t saying or won’t say…
If you can entertain or distract…
You will probably get elected.
It’s pretty superficial.
Politics has become more about surface than service.
Culture trumps character (no pun intended).
Politicians dance around and make big hairy promises.
They play to prejudice and tell us what we want to hear.

I didn’t have an impressive student council career at all.
At the time, i wasn’t interested in social responsibility or school spirit.
I just wanted people to think I was cool.
The only thing I managed to accomplish is to really annoy the other student council officers (all of whom were 8th graders)
I quickly learned that I wasn’t cut out for politics.
Too many meetings.
Too many mind games that I wasn’t equipped for.
I wasn’t concerned about the issues, I just wanted to get invited to some parties.
But, a political party ain’t really a party at all.

The primary thing (pun intended) is that we have to choose substance over sound bite.
Social responsibility and school spirit might be a good place to start.
Then we could do something about tator tots!

I’m 5 feet tall.
Yup, I’m a full grown man who grew to be the size of an average 5th grader.
I’m a short dude in a culture where height is a really BIG deal.
I’m actually alright with that.
Because, as I’ve gotten older I’ve come to realize that height and stature are two TOTALLY different things.
I’m a short guy, but, that doesn’t mean I have to be a little man.

Height and stature are two totally different things.

BIG men come in all different sizes.

BIG men know who they are, they have nothing to prove or push.

Little men come in all different sizes.

You can recognize a little man by the BIG chip on his shoulder.
They are constantly trying to prove their worth and importance.
They often do this by trying to make others small.
Little men belittle.
They bully.
They have a funhouse mirror distorted image of manhood.
They define strength with weak expectations.
Their insecurity or arrogance make them feel a need to get BIGGER.
They think they can be a BIG deal by making others smaller than them.
It’s really sad.

Somewhere along the line, some people stop growing on the inside.
(The inside is where the most important growth happens.)
Maybe, they stopped growing because someone stopped believing in them.
Then, they stopped believing in themselves.
Belief is the building block for BIG.
We need to believe in a BIG God who does BIG stuff with the smallest things.
We need to know that others believe in us, just the way we are, or we will never change.
We need to believe in ourselves.
We need to believe that we are beloved or else we will belittle.

BIG men have nothing to prove.
BIG men come in all different sizes.

God doesn’t seem to be super impressed by height:
“The Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)
The BIGGEST men are willing to do small things to make others BIG.

As a BIG man, I should imitate THE BIG man, Jesus, who became small so that we could live BIG:
“Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8)

BIG men come in all different sizes, stages and stories.

Be BIG.

How to be a better human in three uneasy steps:

1. Live with honesty.
2. Live with humor.
3. Live with heart.

Live with Honesty…
WHAT? Wait a minute, You’re not perfect? WHEW! Me either!
The sooner we admit that the better.
Our refusal to just be honest about who we are is honestly killing us.
There is no normal.
There are just different shades of interesting.
We are all a little crazy.
We are all beautifully weird in our different ways.
Perfection is a facade, it’s a lie.
We need to value authenticity over appearance.
We all fall, we all fail.
We are blemished, we are broke.
The first baby step toward becoming a better human is to admit that you are, in fact, a human.
There is a tangible hope that is only reserved for the human.
There is a perfect hope that grows out of being honest about our imperfections.

Live with Humor…
Why so serious?
There is healing in learning to laugh at ourselves. It is a great medicine!
Do something everyday to crack yourself up.
A really fun part of being human is the tendency to say and do goofy stuff, embrace that, enjoy it!
Smile at self.
I don’t think it’s accidental that your body makes giggle inducing noises and smells, go with it!
Choose silliness over cynicism.
Get over yourself.
Look for the fun all around you.
There are so many things designed to make you snicker…
Llamas, linguine and looney tunes!
Look for the laugh.
Laughter is life giving.
The ability to find humor in the midst of hardship is one of the greatest gifts ever.
Make it a life goal to die with a face full of laugh lines.
Don’t take life so seriously!

Live with Heart…
An ingrown life never goes anywhere.
One of the earliest (and hardest) lessons we learn is to share.
We need to remember that!
Don’t be a jerk.
Don’t be rude.
Treat other people like you want to be treated.
Treat strangers like friends.
Treat friends like family.
Don’t be a bully.
We’ve already established the fact that you aren’t perfect, maybe you shouldn’t expect others to be perfect either.
Give grace.
Look for crazy ways to make life better for others.
Unleash a little kindness every chance you get.
Throw it around like confetti.
Give it away like its free.
Make compassion your passion.

We’ve treated being a human like it was all about biology. But, maybe it’s more art than science.
An uneasy art that is a chaotic collage of honesty, humor and heart.

Remember, when you were a kid and the entire world was within walking distance?
Those were simpler times…right?

We lived out in the country, four miles east of civilization…we liked it out there in the wild.
We had a bunch of rocks down the road from our house that we very creatively called “the rocks”.
We had a small swampy patch of about a dozen trees that we called “the jungle”.
There were dirt roads, ranches and land fills all within walking distance. The world was waiting and we could grab it.
We spent hours in “the jungle” building forts and daydreaming about escaping certain danger (lions and tigers and ticks, oh my!)
If we wanted far away adventure, we just hopped on our bikes and rode.
We made elaborate bike ramps out of boards and cinder blocks.
We spent whole afternoons popping wheelies.
We stomped around in muddy creek beds catching craw dads and tadpoles.
We were card carrying citizens of a nation called imagine.
And imagination took us wild places.
All within walking distance.
We went to space on a rusty swing set, narrowly escaping the planet tetanus.
We fought dragons and evil knights in a overgrown garden.
We were reckless pirates digging for treasure in a cow pasture.
We were Evel Knievel flying over snake river canyon on garage sale Schwinns (with banana seats).
It seemed that we heard a secret song undetected by grown up ears.
It was a song of promise and play.
We joyfully hummed along.
But, at some point the world gets bigger and more complicated.
You wake up and you realize that you haven’t popped a wheelie in decades.
You wade through a different kind of jungle every day and it’s dangers are real.
instead of space, you dream about getting out of debt.
You quit your day dream and start your day job.

But, what if the world has really always been a pretty complicated place?
What if we were just better dreamers back then?
What if we were just better at allowing imagination to take us beyond complication?
What if we could rediscover that nation called imagine.
What if we could hear the music again?
Maybe the secret to survival with our feet on the ground is to get our mind in the clouds.
Imagination is all about vision.
It’s seeing the unseen.
Where others see a small patch of sickly trees, you see a jungle.
Where others see an old two by four, you see a bike ramp.
Where others see obstacles and chores, you see opportunities for adventure and fun.

The world is waiting and it’s closer than you think.
But it’s best if you see it through the eyes of a child.
Reignite your imagination.
Let it take you to wild places!
See the unseen.
Take time to pop some wheelies.

I’m a LOUD dude.
I really can’t do anything quiet.
It’s how I’m wired.
That really bugs some people.
I’ve been hushed all of my life.
I figured out pretty early that there are people who try to turn life into a library.
They are self appointed noise monitors, their favorite word is “SHHHHH!!”
Hush is a weapon and volume is the victim.
I’ve been told…
Keep quiet…
get in line…
settle down…
Curb your enthusiasm.
But the problem is that sometimes,
you just gotta get LOUD.
Sometimes, you gotta get a little wild.
Excitement was never meant to be contained.
Joy was never meant to be controlled.
But the noise police don’t like that.
They declare a need for decorum.
They shout “Turn it down!!” (Irony at it’s loudest!)
The decibel deputies strut around with a need to judge joy and shut down sound.
The problem is we are created with passion.
And passion is rarely dignified.
We get LOUD about the things we love.
things like faith, family, food, friends or football.
Passion, by definition, must be proclaimed.
The noise police make sure things aren’t getting undignified.
But, when we spend all our time trying to control the volume of others, we lose our own voice.
We get LOUD about the things we love.
It’s important to acknowledge that LOUD looks different for all of us.
We all make our own kind of noise.
Personality paints passion.
We all have our unique expression of exclamation.
But, the point is that we got to give and have the freedom to express.
Be yourself OUT LOUD!
LOUD living is simply perfecting the art of being yourself.
It’s finding your voice, rather than stealing or snuffing someone else’s.
Love is kind, but it’s seldom tidy.
It’s LOUD!

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!
ALONE is an unnatural concept to the Eternal One.
It turns out God is a social butterfly.
The Creator is a relational being.
He has ALWAYS been WITH.
Father, Son, Spirit…ALWAYS TOGETHER.
Never ever alone…
UNTIL the cross.
The cross was the first (and last) place in the history of FOREVER that God ever experienced ALONE.
That is why it was so shockingly saddening.
The Son cried out “WHERE is my WITH?”
Christ experienced ALONE so that we can experience WITH.
Because He once felt the crushing despair of ALONE, He has promised to never leave us ALONE.
He created people to be WITH.
Not because He needed to, but because He couldn’t wait to share WITH with you!!
In Him we find ALWAYS TOGETHER.
He has ALWAYS been WITH us.
Any feeling or thought that we are ALONE is a lie.
We have to live with an awareness of WITH.
We can always choose to try to live WITH out.
God doesn’t force friendship.
Real friendship must be given with open hands. No agenda, no manipulation, just…you are my friend, let’s do life together.
we need to constantly remind ourselves that He is WITH us.
We tend to forget.
We fall back into feelings of ALONE.
We need to continually turn and trust.
Turn our face towards His.
Trust Him when He says, you aren’t ALONE, even when it feels like we are, especially when we feel so hopelessly ALONE.
We live faith to face with the Eternal One.
You have never been ALONE.
You never have been.
You are WITH.
Listen to the One who forged a friendship that is stronger than death with his own blood…
He whispers a promise to your lonely soul…
“I am WITH you always, even to the end of the age.”
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PLEASE REALIZE…
YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!

With the Panthers going to the BIG game, I hear a lot of talk about bandwagons.
People are upset with the sudden supporters and Instant fans.
Evidently, fandom is color coded and the true blue fans are upset that there are green fans. (by the way, I actually have a Panther tattoo, does that make me a violet fan?)
It made me think…
Why wouldn’t you jump on a bandwagon?
It’s a lot more fun than a runaway train!
What is a bandwagon anyway?
I looked it up, a bandwagon is “a usually ornate wagon for a band of musicians especially in a circus parade”.
What’s not to love about that!!
Why wouldn’t you jump on a bandwagon?
The music is always better on a bandwagon!
There is color, there is confetti!
It’s fun, it’s exciting.
There’s usually a guy with a tuba…A TUBA!!
you never know what is going to happen!
It’s a party in motion, a good time that is going somewhere.
You get the best view of the parade!
Why wouldn’t we want to be a part of that!!
Why would we keep others from experiencing that?
Why wouldn’t we want everybody to hop on board?
When you act like you own the parade, it kills the party.
If you REALLY believe in a team or cause wouldn’t you want as many people as possible in the parade.
We have to be more concerned with invitation than initiation.
We lose a little control, but it IS a circus, right?
C’mon people!!
Join the parade!
Jump on board the bandwagon!!

“I wish that I could be like the cool kids
‘Cause all the cool kids, they seem to fit in
I wish that I could be like the cool kids
Like the cool kids” – Cool Kids by Echosmith

Sometimes it seems like high school never ends.
No matter how old you get, the laws of the lunchroom are still in effect.
It seems like there is always going to be the cool kid table.
The cool kids…
They make the rules and get invited to the best parties.
They never show up with food on their shirt, or trip when everyone is watching.
We mere mortals hunger for their approval and hang onto their every word.
We laugh at jokes that aren’t funny and try to emulate their every move.
We compromise chunks of our true self in hope that they will notice us.
They seem invincible while we feel invisible.
It never ends.
In every workplace or social environment it’s pretty easy to spot the cool kids.
The pretty ones, the popular ones, the ones who seem to have their act together.
They fit in, while the rest of us try to find our place.
They take center stage, while the rest of us look on from the background.
They live a charmed life, everything seems to go their way, right?

There are always going to be cool kids.
They got the memo that we didn’t get.
And so they walk alike, talk alike, dress alike.
It’s all very ALIKE.
The secret seems to be conformity.
Be ALIKE.
Choose cosmetic over character.
Walk the straight line.
Play the game.
If you MUST stand out, be sure that it is because you are superior in your ALIKE-ness.

But, what if the cool kids don’t have it as together as we thought?
What if they were a little more like us than we thought?
What if ALIKE is slowly snuffing their soul?
What if the plastic posturing leaves them with anatomically incorrect expectations and dreams?
What if they have the same hurts, doubts and insecurities that we do?
What if their masks are just prettier?

Maybe, just maybe, being a true cool kid isn’t about ALIKE, but LIKE.
Learning to LIKE yourself, and learning to LIKE the things that make you UNLIKE anyone else who has ever lived.

Maybe, the cool kid table is different than we thought.
Maybe, there is a spot for ALL of us at the cool kid’s table.
We just need to be ourselves,
and LIKE it!
What if the coolest thing we can do is realize that there is no us and them.
There is just a big multifaceted US, designed to be deliriously beautiful in our UNLIKE-ness.
That is cool!!
We take our seat at the cool kid table by learning to LIKE ourselves. (Some days that is harder than others!)
We also need to spread the LIKE to the people who are UNLIKE us.

DON’T WORRY ABOUT ALIKE,
LIVE LIKED!