The Love and Hatred of Tim Tebow

I have looked my cynicism in the face and I don’t like it. Let’s be honest - I love sarcasm, love cynical commentary, love the way my generation thinks most of the time. The search for the authentic, the desire to question everything, the true pursuit of truth, I love those things. The desire for things that are not flashy or gaudy we want real… those are the things that I value, the things that “x’ers” value.

Enter in Tim Tebow. We hate him. I know there is a love/hate affair with him right now, but I bet if you polled Christian leaders in their 30’s, at best most would roll their eyes at Tebowmania. I get it, he prays during the football game. I mean, the whole game. Tebowing is a “thing” cause that really is what he does on the sideline. Come one, everyone knows that God doesn’t care who wins a football game… and it appears that he is praying for his team to win (and he may be). I get it. I think the same thing – repeatedly. He comes off as goofy during his interviews sometimes… it’s like he’s scripted it, “First, I want to thank Jesus, and my teammates, etc. “ I guess we mix that, with the fact that he has some shortcomings at QB, and the fact that he’s everywhere we turn, cause us to dislike the man.

Why? I have a suspicion that the reason is because we realize that right now he is the face of evangelism… and he’s not like us. He isn’t parked in a coffee-shop, doesn’t have the cool glasses, isn’t calling every Christian leader into question, and he doesn’t seem to care to prove he’s better than his critics say he is. We hate Tim because he’s not like us, yet he represents us.

I have to tell myself to get over it. The man is a bit over the top, yes, but he is using his platform to represent Christ the way he knows how to. No, his faith and techniques of evangelism may not be as “mature” as mine, whatever that means. However, it seems as if, as much as I hate to admit it, that it is authentic. Win or lose he thanks God. Win or lose he is gracious. Win or lose he thanks the Lord and his teammates for allowing him to get paid to play a child’s game. The same shtick… for the last 6 or 7 years. Talk about consistency, talk about authentic, he is. I guess my problem has been he is not “authentic” the way “I” would be. Lord, have mercy on me.
The man built a hospital in the Philippines for Cure. Cure helps sick children in countries where there is no one to help, where when women and children get sick, they die. The man does thank God for the ability to play a game, sometimes well and sometimes not well, every time. He desires to hang out with those “less fortunate” than him – the sick, the handicapped, the broken. He does turn the other cheek when people speak out against him, and he seems to fight the urge to “repay evil for evil.” And he does try and use his platform to further the Kingdom.

So, I guess what I am trying to say is that against my very nature, I am a Tim Tebow fan. I will root for him (unless he’s playing my bucs) for as long as he is able to play. And yet I realize that he is human. He is fallible. He is fallen. His image right now is “squeaky” clean, yet he is still a sinner. Hopefully not, but there may come a day when he is caught up in sin publically. I guess my hope is that I won’t take that as my chance to say, “Aha!” and scoff with the scoffers. I guess if and when he falls that may be the time that I should root for him the most.

Jr. High Youth Group

We had our first Jr. High Youth group of the fall last night. It was fun, I bought a new blender, and put someone in charge of our first dollar challenge. He may have really outdone himself, as there were all kinds of people running to the trash can!

It's weird, my methodology really did not change too much from Jr. High youth group in Newburgh...

Oh well! We had a good time!

Block Party: A dream realized.

This is the invitation I received inviting me to the block's party:

I made it out there about 6, with Banana Creme Pie in hand

The guy in the yellow shirt there is our unofficial Block Mayor (Kind of like Assistant to the Regional Manager).

The city brought out barricades to block off our street (for a fee of course), Daniel brought out tables from the church and they were placed in the middle of the block .

Daniel and Emily (music minister and wife) manned a "match the dog with the correct house" contest. Daniel made up some pretty slick color posters for this, and the winner matched all 9 pets to people's homes. There was also a trophy for best yard (go figure, I didn't win) and a 50/50 raffle.

One of the guys on our block has a bunch of DJ equipment, so he set up an awning and DJ'd the event.

Before dinner was served, some fire-fighters came out and taught the children of the block fire safety, and showed off their truck. They stayed and ate with us! 
Here is my plate of food. There was a huge spread! Several different kinds of The GBC (Green Bean Casserole, my favorite) and pulled pork, and all kinds of dessert. The west side brought desserts and the east side brought sides. We had a 90% block turnout, so that equaled a lot of food!

After dinner there were some presentations. I was introduced as the new guy on the block, and the winners of the contests were announced. I won the 50/50 raffle, 37 large!

After that, people volunteered to give some tours. Last year 7 showed their homes, and this year 2 volunteered theirs. It was nice to be in your neighbor's homes and be able to meet them where they are.

So what's the point? I think for me, the point is, that there is no point. Daniel was thanked for all the work that he did, and it was mentioned from the announcer that he worked at the church a block away. I was mentioned as the new guy on the block, and that I worked there as well. That was pretty much were that talk ended. I think it is amazing to be able to live in community with your neighbors, to be in their houses, to eat and share life with them. One hopes and prays that at some point, there will be a chance for some conversation to happen that will share the very words of life to your friends, but until that time comes... simply living and loving your neighbors is more than enough. It's what we are here for. 

1 We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

24and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. 25Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

Some Updates:

I pulled my hamstring last night at a Jr. High swim party. It hurts a lot.

Today is my block's party!

This video is funny!

I know, I am boring!

Update

Hi guys! I made it to Kenya safe and sound, Today was our first day doing our health clinics - Laura and I saw and treated 45 families.

All I can really say is that I am completely overwhelmed. I was fine all day and then I sat down on the bus and had to literally get up and walk around to stop myself from weeping. There just is so much to do - soebs knows the song by rich mullins - where it talks about the morning coming so soon and being so tired but so much work left to do... I am completely overwhelmed.

But I am blessed - blessed beyond belief. I was able to give such simple simple medications that literally saved some little kids lives. I was able to set up and entire family to get them started on antiretroviral drugs for HIV - it's been amazing.

Funny story - this family had 3 sets of twins and all the twins had the same names with the number 1 or 2 after! So I saw Kevin 1 and Kevin 2 today! :)

I will try to keep in touch - lots of love to you all.
SoeYun

I know, I am so behind the times!

But Wentz just showed me this guy! Funny stuff!

Off to see the giraffes!

SoeYun is off to Kenya today. She is going with a team of doctors and nurses with her church to go serve Jesus! Her favorite animal is the giraffe, and I hope she glances up and gets to see one as she saves people's lives and tells them about the love of Jesus! I am so proud of her, and extremely jealous!

If you remember, please pray for her!

Thanks God!

There are some times that God tells you... "You know, here is a little gift for you. Just to let you know that you are on the right track."

God has given me a few of those lately. Today in staff meeting, we had a discussion... on block parties.

If you know me well at all in the last few years, you have heard me talk about block parties. I have talked about how we need to be doing them, we need to be intentional about them, etc. I don't mean block parties out in the church parking lot, I mean block parties that you organize with people, *gasp*, on your block!

Today in staff meeting, one of the issues that was on the agenda was block parties. Obviously, I was curious about what they would say about them.

Currently, there are two staff members that are talking about them. Our music minister's block is having one, and our senior minister is wanting to do one. John's block does them quite frequently. The discussion today was about how to take church money and support them.

We are talking about letting them use tables and chairs for free, we are talking about using outreach budget to furnish some things, like bounce houses and food. We are talking about doing outreach with the express purpose of reaching out to our neighbors, regardless of whether they go to our church, the church down the street, or if they even go to church at all!

There have been several God moments already in the last couple weeks that I have been here. Thanks God for talking... I am trying to listen!