Driving to Kansas

My brother finished his first year of college this week. I’m driving to Kansas today to pick him up and bring him home for the summer. It’s a long drive from here to there, so I plan for the shortened week I’ll face on my return. There are things that have to get done, and time keeps ticking into the future. That’s where I spend much of my days — in the future, thinking, planning, strategizing, worrying. But I don’t believe that’s where I’m called to live.

“Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” Jesus asks. Later, he offers this advice: “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

It’s advice that makes sense, but I find it’s almost impossible to let go of my plans and petty concerns. God calls me to live in the now and experience life as He created it — one day at a time. Instead, I race ahead, looking to what comes next, concerned by my preconceived notion of what may or may not occur. And I too often miss the treasure God has created for me in this moment.

God, help me to grow up. Teach me to calm down. Guide me in your love. I desire Your peace, but I don’t know how to get there.

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Who Needs a Million?

There’s a billboard in town that tracks how many millions of dollars wait to be won in each week’s Powerball lottery. The number’s been over 100 the last two times I passed. It seems excessive. Even $1 million is more than I’m on track to make in a lifetime of work at my current salary. I’ve tried to calculate how I might spend the money (assuming I bought a ticket and won), but I tend to run out of ideas after the first $100,000 or so. Maybe I lack imagination.

But then I’m reminded of a commitment I made just over two years ago. While reading a book on simple living, I felt God’s call on my life for total surrender. I realized I’d given of my time and interests, but I had withheld my finances. Not consciously. I tithed regularly and donated as I could. But when I reviewed my expenses, I noted that close to $2 out of every $3 I earned were earmarked for costs associated with owning a home. I couldn’t remember God promising me a house or making it a priority that I have one. And I know there’s no record of Jesus — raised as the son of a carpenter — taking time to prepare a residence on earth. So I sold it.

And something interesting happened.

I suddenly had more money than I knew what to do with. I had not yet developed the discipline of giving, but God — always patient for me to pay attention — opened my eyes to genuine need in my own community. Then, this last year, God helped me take the next step, and I reduced my hours at work so I might have more time to pursue Him, to discover what God created me to be, to experiment with living.

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It's not Christmas

It’s not Christmas, so I feel safe uncovering my true feelings on most holiday pageants. They’re cheesy: recorded music, poor drama, cheap costumes.

But there’s something we love about having kids up on stage even when the presentation is less than professional. I wonder if this might serve as a metaphor for our spiritual lives and the ministry to which God calls us.

We can’t remember our lines. We get distracted and lose focus.

A boy picks his nose. A girl cries and is carried off by her father. One child plays with the ears of another child’s costume.

So many Christians are like the younger children who enjoy the songs and feel important being up front. Sometimes, there’s fighting over who gets to hold the baby. There’s a slightly older group that thinks about levels of responsibility and resents those bigger speaking parts or prettier costumes. They are impatient when others don’t do it right. And there are those who are bored and disillusioned, silently asking, “What’s the purpose? Why do we make a spectacle of our foolish immaturity?”

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Frog's Visit

Typing at my computer, I sit next to the basement window with a view of the sky and the lawn above. Sometimes, I have visitors — dead leaves from last fall, a plastic bag on the loose, bits of bright green clippings from the mower, a dandelion struggling toward the sun. And once, there was a frog.

I might have failed to notice, but he jumped against the window, gently knocked two times, then three. And as I watched, he slowly climbed the wire mesh screen, inserted tiny legs in small square holes and pulled, straining for the top. He fell and stayed so still that I lost track, went back to typing until he knocked again. He stopped and sat astride a leaf and stared in silence as it rained.

I’m not quite sure that I can do the moment justice. It seems that I too often miss the beauty of the everyday. I focus on computer screen, my link with other places, other people, other things I have to do. But God, in His wisdom, all the while is whispering in my ear to look away from monitor, just for a moment, and marvel in what He has made. In the midst of my busy-ness, God intervenes, invites me for a walk in the garden.

“But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of His divine being.” Romans 1:19, 20 (The Message)

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Mom Died from Cocaine

NAMPA -- Alysia Baxter, 14, lost her mother to a cocaine overdose almost nine years ago. But the Destiny Christian School freshman refuses to use her past as an excuse not to excel.

"I did not know at the time what the lesson of my mother dying would be," Baxter said, "but I am learning a lot of lessons now."

She credits the Nampa Boys and Girls Club for many of those learning experiences.

"They taught me my dreams were attainable," Baxter said, adding that the local club provides her an opportunity to help others.

Baxter said she first attended the club because her dad made her go. But now, she's a recognized leader at the local organization and is one of five state finalists for the Boys and Girls Club State Youth of the Year Competition slated for Thursday.

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No Time

The world never stops. Its citizens scurry from home to work and back with barely time to breathe in a frenetic freeway rush of activity. Climbing the corporate ladder requires extra hours, so even sleep is sacrificed to the gods of success. Those removed from the work-a-day world whirl through meetings and projects of clubs and causes. Or they focus their time on leisure activity, the great oxymoron of modern society.

Activity is addictive. And like any addiction, there are consequences. The symptoms of life’s staccato speed are universal: headaches, depression, loneliness, irritation, shallow relationships, mountains of debt in the frenzied pursuit of bigger and better. What will it take to regain perspective, return to sensible living? Where does rapid-fire, war-torn living end?

A doctor from Australia, now living in Seattle, suggests a solution. Christine Sine writes of a different way in Sacred Rhythms: Finding a Peaceful Pace in a Hectic World (Baker Books, 2003). And she starts with her own experience: “I was so busy being zealous for God that I did not take the time to renew and replenish my spiritual life,” Sine writes. “I ended up in the hospital.

“I spent time reflecting on what had brought me to that place and how I could have avoided it,” she continues. “The underlying cause was a viral illness, but I am convinced that my body rebelled against my fast-paced, high-stress lifestyle. I had abused my body. I had lived in a state of constant spiritual arrhythmia . . . . Now I was paying the price.”

In just over 230 pages, Sine offers a challenge to Christians in the western world. She asks them to stop for a moment, diagnose the arrhythmia of their own lives, and seek out the proper rhythm established by the Creator of life itself.

Sine recognizes that separation from the world — in most cases — is neither desirable nor possible. She insists that we need balance: “a rhythm that both paces us through the everyday and sustains us through the mountain passes.” And she spends considerable space selecting and explaining disciplines intended to restore a healthy focus to our lives and balance existence in the world with a spiritual perspective.

Celebration: “Christ is meant to break the power of the eternal winter of our souls and bring festivity and celebration to our lives.”

Prayer: “Intimacy does not develop from a one-sided monologue.”

Relationship: “We know that the darkness is dispelled and the dawn has come when we can see in the countenance of another the face of Christ.”

Sabbath Rest: “For the Jews, Sabbath is fundamental to life and to both their spiritual and emotional health. It is the culmination of the week, the day that gives purpose to all other days.”

Christ’s message, according to Sine, is not one of guilt or condemnation. Instead, God longs for His creation to rediscover the gift of life He gave in the garden. It’s not a duty. It’s not a space in time waiting to be filled by human activity. This gift of life is opportunity and only the beginning of what God has in store for those who seek Him.

Death on a Farm

I found a dead cat in the hay. It was late last summer. I was sorting boxes in the barn while my mom visited with a neighbor at the gate.

It’s not so unusual to find death on a farm. Coyotes kill the ducks, and chicken eggs sometimes fall from makeshift nests. So I wasn’t surprised. Instead, I pondered the juxtaposition of my silent discovery with the sounds of life from just outside.

I remember hearing a dog — barking from across the field — and children laughing. Barn swallow hatchlings cried for food while a sheep bleated below. In spite of tragedy — no matter how momentous — life goes on. I found in this moment both peace and encouragement.

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This morning, thinking about what it means to minister, I remembered a thought that came to me eight years ago. I was struggling with the measures we use for outreach activities in the church. We count commitments. The argument goes something like this: “We count people because every person counts.“ It sounds like a great bumper sticker slogan, but if that’s what ministry is about, I reasoned, than Christ commissions salesmen. Back then, I refused to think of myself as God’s salvation huckster. I still find the idea repulsive.

My focus must be on letting God have His way in me rather than trying to push my way on others. I’ve seen the church commercial with it’s cheap grace: “You can have all this for a quick, repentant prayer and no payments for the rest of eternity! But wait, there’s more! Act now and receive quality Sunday morning programming for your entire family!”

That’s not what I need, and it’s far from what I desire. I want to meet God. I want to know Him. I want to follow Him. I want to die to self and live in Him so that I might have life and have it to the fullest. In turn, I hope that others will glimpse Christ alive in me and begin to recognize their own hunger for what is real rather than that which is easy or cheap.

“The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be.” John 12:25, 26

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More than 100 Americans have died in Iraq this month. And suicide bombings in Basra Wednesday along with continued battles in Fallujah leave the conflict with no end in sight. Our “war on terror” is not going well, and Congress is holding simultaneous hearings on how much more we’ll have to spend as well as what went wrong. The pre-emptive strike — hailed as an operation of surgical precision — has ended in a quagmire.

In the beginning, it seemed this was the only sane method for removal of a madman. Using force to capture Saddam made sense. Now, we’re committed. Spain, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic announced they’ll withdraw their troops within the next few weeks, and Poland may join suit. Meanwhile, we have close to 135,000 fighting men and women in the region with thousands gearing up for transfer to Iraq.

I don’t know what will happen next, and I don’t have any good advice or words of wisdom. But Jesus — in His introduction of God’s Kingdom — offered us another way.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” Matthew 5:38-42

Here is a different kind of pre-emptive strike. We respond to those who would make us victims by offering more than they require. It seems like foolishness, this loving of enemies and prayer for those who persecute, and it runs counter to my personal concept of equity. But Jesus understood the weight of His words. He called us then and now to a holy revolution. And He made it personal when he instructed us to begin by loving our neighbors.

“Christ didn’t say, ‘Love humanity as thyself,’ but ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself,’ and do you know why? Because your neighbor, by definition, is the person nearby, the man sitting next to you in the underground who smells, perhaps, the man next to you in the queue who maybe tries to barge ahead of you, in short, your neighbor is the person who threatens your own liberty.” Luciano De Crescenzo

Source: Daily Dig

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I help to cover politics for the newspaper in Nampa. Today, I interviewed a local man, a profile. He seeks a legislative seat. He’s anti-tax and wants to bring more jobs to Canyon County. He spoke of education and construction and the elderly. And while I jotted notes, I thought how similar this sounds to all the rest. Each one defines his character according to accomplishments. Each list — the same — with clubs and causes, offices, endorsements. Individual aspects are accounted relative to others, a blobby shape at best. The only differentiation comes from what’s been done and what’s opposed. We have fences but no foundation.

And what about me? I too am guilty of self-image by comparison. Instead of seeking Christ’s character, I create a rubric for success, assess myself by personal performance and how much better or worse it is than that turned in by others.

This is not the way of truth.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

A metaphor. Spiritual growth, the discovery of personal purpose, can never come from comparison, one branch to another. I have tried to define my being by what I do. And all this time, I had it backwards.

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NAMPA--If students fall short of state standards on a test this week, they might get to switch schools.

Public schools that miss the mark two years in a row may be required to offer students a choice of where to attend as soon as next fall.

The standard is measured -- in part -- by what percentage of a school's students test at or above grade level in math and reading on the Idaho Standards Achievement Test. Students statewide are taking the test this week.

More than half of Canyon County schools missed the standard last spring. But local school officials said this week there is no reason to worry.

Superintendent Vaughn Heinrich said most of the Vallivue schools in question made the list because they did not test enough students last spring. He said the schools missed participation standards but met state performance requirements.

Heinrich said the district paid close attention to every student when testing this fall and has easily surpassed the state participation standard.

"I'm not feeling uncomfortable," Heinrich said, adding that Vallivue has worked to fix the problem. "It would be premature to panic."

Jay Hummel, Nampa's assistant superintendent, pointed out that even if some schools miss the target twice, giving students a choice is something the district already does.

"We have open enrollment," Hummel said, explaining that Nampa students can apply for any school in the district. "We believe in choice. We've got lots of schools. We're able to provide some options."

But there are limits. If there is not room for all students who choose to transfer to a certain campus, priority is given to low-achieving, low-income students.

But they don't have priority over students in the attendance area, so they won't bump students out of their home school.

Caldwell Assistant Superintendent Chuck Randolph said some local schools will go on school improvement plans in the fall. But he said missing state standards for adequate yearly progress does not make for a bad school.

"It would be instructive if you would take a look at our lowest-achieving school and look at the multitude of things they have going," Randolph said. He cited before and after-school programs that mean more than two hours a day of extra instruction for many students.

Randolph said these students show marked growth over the course of the year. But he pointed to Caldwell's highly mobile population, which means the district often does not have long to work with a student.

"People have to understand the deficit a kid is in if this is his third school in one year," Randolph said. "No apology, we take in (whoever) comes to the front door."

Find more at the Idaho Press-Tribune.

I log on to the Internet late at night to play chess. In between moves, I check my e-mail, read the news, and think. It’s quiet here at the end of the day. But peering through computer screen — mystical aperture — brings close the noisy conflict of a war-torn world.

Hamas vows vengeance. Warnings of a terrorist attack. 127 New York passengers injured when one train bumps another. A boy who died in an oven.

My life seems small.

I pray that God will use what I have, that I might be a harbor of peace and a vessel filled from streams of living water. I pray that I might be a friend to the afflicted, a living message of hope. I know I have no such store of good things for I, too, am impoverished. But I pray.

And I remember His words: “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed . . . nothing will be impossible for you.”

I pray for change.

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NAMPA -- When students in Business Professionals of America elected their state president this year, they didn't know his age.

The more than 1,200 high school members at the state convention chose Vallivue sophomore Kevin Tucker, making him one of the youngest state presidents in Idaho's history. And next year he plans to campaign for a national office.

Shari Webster, assistant adviser for the Vallivue program, said that is typical for Tucker.

"This student is absolutely driven," Webster said. "He's just a little bit ahead of his time, but he's able to handle it."

Tucker also placed first against all competitors at the state contest for legal office procedures.

Webster said she tried to dissuade him from entering the event because she knew nothing about the subject, and wouldn't be able to offer much help.

"I feel guilty about it now," Webster said. "He got on the Internet. He bought a book. I gave him sample exams."

And he won.

"I used a legal dictionary," Tucker said, explaining that the competition requires students to draft legal documents such as a power of affidavit. "They grade you on send-ability."

Tucker said the best part of winning the contest and being elected state president is the visibility it brings to the Vallivue club.

"My goal is to let more people know what BPA is, getting more community involvement," Tucker said. "It's one of the best student organizations."

Tucker said Business Professionals of America helps students build skills necessary for success in business with a focus on community partnerships.

Part of his job as state president includes working with other officers to create a statewide community service project.

"I'd like to do something with the Special Olympics," Tucker said.

And the student officers will plan and preside over next year's state convention.

"We've started to throw around ideas for the theme," Tucker said. "I have to make a script for everyone, what we're going to say."

Webster said that won't be a problem for Tucker.

"He has every single ingredient for a successful leader," Webster said. "His responsibilities are awesome, but he can do it."

Find more at the Idaho Press-Tribune.

I've heard the Christian myths. They start in Sunday School.

1) Christians fold their hands and close their eyes to pray. It keeps us from distractions.
2) Christians don’t run in church because this is God’s House.
3) Christians love everyone, “But don’t worry,” I was told. “You don’t have to like everybody.”
4) Christians go to church on Sunday.
5) Christians are always happy.
6) Christians don’t get angry, and they never hate, “Unless it’s the devil. You’re supposed to hate him.”
7) Christians don’t do drugs or smoke or drink. And most really good Christians don’t bowl or dance or listen to rock ‘n’ roll music either (though that’s mostly OK with God nowadays).

I started learning young, and every year, I’ve added one or two or five or ten. Until — just recently — I found a truth that didn’t fit the rest.

God created me, and He made me in His image.

The very character of Christ, therefore, is buried in the rubble of my busy, broken life. Tinged with sin and covered in the shadow of selfishness — at the center of my being — is God’s reality, the person I am meant to be.

Transformation, then, is not to something rigid and correct as myth or rule would have it. God does not give us Sunday straitjackets to limit life and force a church-day smile. Instead, He leads me into peaceful, carefree joy, more deeply myself than I have ever been. He makes me what I am designed to be, separate from the world of jump-on-the-bandwagon activity. He sets me apart in a church that too often defines itself according to the myth of comfortable conformity.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

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NAMPA -- Every year, thousands of dollars from the Mercy Community Sale help Nampa kids.

Proceeds of the sale have built a skate park, funded Boys and Girls Club programs, helped Syringa House and purchased materials for Nampa classrooms.

And kids know it. Sale organizers estimate that more than 100 local youth will volunteer at the event this year. Hundreds more have donated silent auction items and signed up to represent their schools at information booths in the Idaho Center mezzanine.

Event organizer Lynn Borud said at least 50 high school students will work through Friday to set up the sale. Saturday, Nampa High School football players will help people carry out their purchases.

After it is all over, more than 1,200 youth will take part in a free, thank-you concert for the community on Monday.

"We believe in the theme that 'all kids are our kids,'" Borud said. "We've been trying to partner with them. You can't put a value on a grassroots community campaign where people give back. They feel great about giving back to the community."

Jay Hummel, assistant superintendent of the Nampa School District, said the district benefits from the sale at least twice. The spotlight on what schools are doing is priceless.

"Teachers and kids are working really hard to do some great things," Hummel said, adding that the Mercy Community Sale provides a showcase for some of the innovative ideas in Nampa classrooms.

Schools also benefit financially. The Nampa Schools Foundation receives 25 percent of the sale's proceeds.

Jerry Jutting, chairman of the foundation, said the money goes back into Nampa's public school classrooms.

"We had 99 grant requests (from teachers) this year," Jutting said. "We were able to fund at least part of 55 of them."

The foundation has funded teacher-initiated projects, curriculum and supplies to the tune of a quarter-million dollars since its inception 10 years ago.

"A lot of teachers are asking for pretty basic things," he said. "That shows you how strapped our budget money is. We try to fill the gaps."

Hummel said money makes a difference.

"Every year, it's huge," he said. "The money comes back, and it goes very close to the kids, to the classroom level. It's a wonderful help."

If you go

The Mercy Community Sale will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday at the Idaho Center, near the corner of Can-Ada and Franklin roads. Admission is free, but organizers encourage donations of non-perishable food items. Donated food qualifies the donor for a chance to win a 1991 Ford Aerostar.

Schools and youth-serving organizations will be featured in the Idaho Center mezzanine.

A live auction will take place during the last hour of the sale.

"Teachers and kids are working really hard to do some great things." -- Jay Hummel, Assistant Superintendent of the Nampa School District

To help

The Nampa Schools Foundation receives 25 percent of the money raised at the Mercy Community Sale, but the non-profit organization also accepts individual gifts.

To make a donation, contact Reese Verner at 465-1720 or mail it to the Nampa Schools Foundation at P.O. Box 874, Nampa, ID 83653.

Find more at the Idaho Press-Tribune.

CALDWELL -- Idaho's top-ranked competitive climber placed 20th at the National Bouldering Championship in Sacramento, Calif. last month.

Caldwell resident Matt Fultz is ranked 33rd nationally among all male competitors in the American Bouldering Series.

And the 12-year-old Syringa Middle School student started climbing only two years ago on a dare from his dad.

"My dad wanted to see me climb," Matt said, adding that his father offered him $10 to ascend a 47-foot climbing wall at a local sporting goods store. "And I got hooked."

Matt said reaching the top was a big deal because he hadn't believed he could do it.

"I was scared of heights," he said. And climbing helped him face this fear. "I wanted to try it again."

So Matt started climbing regularly and then to compete.

This time of year, Matt said he practices for competitions at least three hours a day.

"Comps are coming up, and I've got to train."

The sixth grade student took 8th place in the Open Men's competition at Club Sports in Tigard, Ore. in February. A month earlier, he placed first overall in a Nampa competition. Both events are part of the bouldering series.

And in the U.S. Climbing Big Sky Region, Matt has placed first in every single event and is ranked first, overall, for all male competitors.

Steve Fultz, Matt's dad, said his son works out at home about five hours a week and climbs at the Nampa Recreation Center for three hours a day.

"He climbs in here for hours and pushes himself," Steve said. "Something's got to drive him, and it's all internal. That's something I don't see in a lot of kids."

Matt agreed that he's different from his peers. He said he's quieter than most students, and the amount of time he spends training means he doesn't have many opportunities to develop friendships with kids his own age.

"Most of my friends are in their 20s," Matt said. "I have friends at school, but my closer friends are climbers. There are not that many kids who climb competitively in Idaho."

But Matt said his personality is perfectly suited to climbing.

"I'm pretty introverted," Matt said. "I like to be on my own. No one else is really motivated to climb indoors as much as I am. I'm usually the only person climbing, and I'm there for hours at a time."

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Idaho Press-Tribune.

CALDWELL -- A local family is fighting the war in Iraq with balloons, more than 2,000 of them so far.

Dennis and Sharon Horst, of Caldwell, started sending balloons to their son when he first arrived in Iraq this January. Christopher Warren, stationed out of Ft. Bliss, Texas, makes balloon animals for Iraqi children in the Balad, Iraq hospital.

The Horsts say Warren started making the colorful creatures for his own three children.

Warren -- a radiology technician -- wrote in a February e-mail to his parents that his talent with balloons helped break down barriers with the injured Iraqi children.

"We had no way to get them to understand we were not here to hurt them since all their lives they have been told we are the enemy," Warren said. "I pulled out my bag of balloons and went to work."

Warren also told of a 14-year-old patient named Mariwah.

"She is paralyzed from the waist down from a rocket attack," Warren wrote in the February e-mail message. "When we got here and took over the hospital, she never smiled."

Warren said he taught Mariwah to make her own balloon animals.

But the number of injured children has taken a toll on Warren's balloon supply. He traveled to the country with 1,500 balloons, and his parents said they have mailed another 500 to 600.

"He sees children daily," Sharon said, adding that the work of her son proves there is more to the situation in Iraq than what most people see in the news.

"He always seems to be in good spirits," Dennis said.

Find more at the Idaho Press-Tribune.