Fall writing

I would maybe call this a poem. I’m pretty sure I took an English class that said poems didn’t have to rhyme so lets call it one. Heck, I haven’t written it yet so I may throw some rhymes in there. I was just walking to the store and felt like writing.

Fall
It is by far my favorite time of the year.
Things slow down from summer
Things speed up from summer.
The ground has a blanket of brown leaves
That have fallen surrendered from their trees
Pumpkins on porches develop mischievous faces
And the smell of crisp air
Is found in all places.
Put on your jeans, zip up your hoodie, lace up your shoes
And you’re off
Listening to the rhythm of your soles on the sidewalk
You feel a small chill but you really don’t mind
Zip up your hoodie a little bit more and you will be just fine
The sunset reflects all the bright colors around you
Red.
Yellow.
Orange.
You march onward and enjoy the cold on your nose
The crunching of leaves
Taking deep breaths that burn your lungs
With winter just around the corner
Enjoy these walks these natural colors
When God shows us that he’s a magnificent painter
And these beautiful brush strokes
Show of that He is maker
So before things speed up for the winter
And slow down for the winter
Enjoy Fall
By far, my favorite time of year

2012-2013 Football Picks

Here we go! Feel free to argue!

• NFC EAST
• Eagles: 10-6
• Cowboys: 10-6 (win division)
• Redskins: 5-11
• Giants 9-7

 

• NFC NORTH
• Bears: 12-4 (Win Division)
• Lions: 12-4 (Wild Card)
• Packers 11-5 (Wild Card)
• Vikings 5-11

 

• NFC SOUTH
• Panthers: 8-8
• Saints: 8-8
• Bucks: 3-13
• Falcons: 10-6 (Win Division)

 

• NFC WEST
• Seahawks: 4-12
• 49ers: 14-2 (Win Division)
• Rams 4-12
• Cardinals: 3-13

 

• AFC EAST
• Patriots: 12-4 (Win Division)
• Jets: 8-8
• Bills: 11-5 (Wild Card)
• Dolphins 3-13

 

• AFC NORTH
• Bengals: 6-10
• Steelers: 12-4 (win division)
• Ravens: 11-5 (wild card)
• Browns 2-14

 

• AFC SOUTH
• Titans: 8-8
• Jaguars 2-14
• Texans 12-4 (win division)
• Colts 4-12

 

• AFC WEST
• Chargers: 7-9
• Broncos: 10-6
• Chiefs: 10-6 (win division)
• Raiders: 8-8

 

I will release my playoff picks on friday! I will also be tweeting and posting my weekly picks on thursdays. Tonight I have the Giants over the Cowboys 🙂 

Now its your turn! Tell me how wrong I am or what picks you agree with 🙂 also share with your friends and tell me your thoughts on twitter #WazReport or @djwaz

Dreaming With A Broken Heart

There has been a lot of Christian lobbying going on recently. The two most prevalent are the issue with Chic-Fil-A as well as Israel and the Olympics. A quick rundown for those who are not familiar with these situations:

• Chic-fil-a recently stated it does not support or agree with homosexual lifestyles. This isn’t a new stance, but for some people this was quite the shocker. Many people have chosen to boycott the company while others have decided to go out of their way to support them. There is a national “support Chic-Fil-A day” on August 1st, which I will be going to for 3 reasons
  • I agree with their stance
  • Even if I didn’t, many companies have “come out” with their stance on homosexuality such as Starbucks, so I believe Chick-Fil-A has that same exact right.
  • Their chicken is so stinking delicious
• The second has to do with Israel and the Olympics. Many countries thought that during the opening ceremonies, the Isreali athletes that were murdered 40 years ago during the Olympics should be honored. The Olympic planners decided to go with a smaller honor, away from the opening ceremonies. Many people boycotted the opening ceremonies because of this. I believe they should have been honored, but I also believe that’s the host country’s call.

Now comes the “weird” part of the blog.

   I am very very careful with words like “God told me” and “visions”, not that I don’t believe in these things, but I’ve seen enough God said you were going to marry me in a dream cases to be careful. But I want to share a dream I had about this topic.

   It was some sort of family reunion on top of a large, grassy hill. In the dream I knew that we were family but none of us looked related. It was sunset and everyone was enjoying food and drinks and making small talk. Out of the blue, one of my dream relatives asked if we had learned about The Controversy

   (yes that’s what it was actually referenced as in my dream)

   Everyone was appalled about The Controversy. How could others be so left wing and sinful? An old black woman (think the old female witch doctor from The Princess and the Frog if that helps) joined the conversation. It was obvious she was our “grandmother” and everyone focused on her. She looked at a tall man in the crowd who was sipping his drink and holding hands with one of my relatives. My grandmother asked him what he thought of The Controversy.

   It was obvious that he was uncomfortable. He knew he was not a part of the family and was an outsider.  He said he didn’t really know why we were upset about The Controversy. His family had always believed in what The Controversy stood for and didn’t know why our family was so upset about it.

   We tried to explain why The Controversy was bad, but it just didn’t click. Finally, Grandma asked one of my young cousins to sing. He began singing a beautiful Celtic song and we all looked to the horizon. Out of nowhere a gorgeous light display appeared with the sunset.  It looked like the northern lights. Rich colors of blue and red and green filled the sky. Strong winds rushed around us and the sun, even though it was setting, warmed my skin. We all sang along with my cousin and enjoyed the moment. A few of us looked over at the outsider and he looked more confused than ever. He explained he did not see or feel anything and thought we were strange. Many of my relatives were mad at him and complained that it was because of The Controversy.

   But I felt broken for him.

   It was that kind of feeling when your chest feels totally empty. I wasn’t angry at him, I wasn’t angry at The Controversy, I hurt for him. I wasn’t mad because he didn’t see the same way I did, I was sad because he didn’t get to experience the amazing feeling that I was. I just stared at him standing there, confused and lost while others yelled at him.

   And then I woke up.

   A lot of times we see someone who goes against God’s will and we get upset. We boycott, we protest, we make Facebook pages against them and lash out over twitter. I feel that God is challenging me to take a step back and see them how he does. Lost.

   We experience the almighty God on a regular basis and get mad at those who don’t. Yes, stand up for what is right, and good, and holy, but also understand there are many people who do not know what those things are. They see us attacking their gay cousins, hating on their Palestinian brothers, condemning their atheist mothers. What they should see is brokenness for their gay cousin, brokenness for their Palestinian brother and brokenness for their atheist mother.

   So in standing up for what we believe in, let’s not get angry at people but let God give us a burden for them to be able to experience the love and joy that we get from him, and that he longs to share with them too.

Happy Waz Day! Waz Report 07-27-2012

Love Does

I’m an idea person

I love to inspire, create and imagine.  I love to think about how to do things differently. I think brainstorming sessions are the best part of any task.

Where I fail is actually doing things.

This is one of my biggest flaws. I like to plan the big event, I don’t like to set up chairs for the event.  I like to design a cool flyer, I don’t like handing them out on my day off. I like to pray for your ministry, I don’t like working to get it running.

But I want to.

I recently read the book “Love Does” by Bob Goff and I loved it. He talked about just living life in the moment. So often we worry too much about the details of life that we forget to truly enjoy it. If you haven’t read it, go read it.  One of my favorite books i’ve read.

The biggest takeaway I got from the book was exactly what the title states: Love DOES.

Which lead me to one of the more interesting parts of my summer.

I had just read a chapter in the book where Bob tells a story of when one of his youth leaders packed up his stuff and went on an adventure with him.  I won’t give too much away but the amazing part was, the youth leader knew the plan was dumb, he knew it was an inconvenience but regardless, he said “I’m with you.” It was inspiring!

So I blame Bob for my temporary moment of insanity.

The day after I had read this chapter my friend Aaron Koon called me up and asked “Hey, do you want to drive to new mexico and back with me?”

My first thought was of course, no.  I had just worked all week and he wanted me to spend my weekend driving in a car. No thanks.  But I had just read bobs book and got back from Catalyst conference. Be Present! Be Engaged! Love Does!

So I said yes.

The plan was to leave in 2 hours.  Apparently a girl had to work at New Mexico Youth Camp and had no way of getting there and Koon had offered to drop her off and I was going to be his wingman.  I called my boss Brandon to ask for sunday morning off.  He asked who we were taking, and I told him I had no idea. He said it was fine as long as I was back by monday. 

We decided it would be best to not leave then, but early on saturday morning. I packed a change of clothes, my laptop, and my ipod in a backpack and got some sleep. My alarm went off at 4am and I slowly got out of bed.  Koon picked me up and we were off to get the girl.

I finally learned the girls name was lyndi and went to school with us.  After a quick sendoff from her parents, loading up the car, and grabbing coffee we hit the road.

Lyndi slept most of the way, and I can’t blame her.  If you have ever been through west texas, you can understand.  If you haven’t….you’re not missing anything. Koon and I listened to music, had great talks and at times just stared at the miles and miles of highway in front of us.

We eventually made it to New Mexico, helped Lyndi move into her room and within an hour were back on the road headed back to Dallas. I drove most of the way home, since Koon had driven most of the way there. We stopped in Roswell, NM for lunch/dinner (see above photo) but for the most part we just drove.

Around 1 am we were driving down a two lane highway.  It was pitch black since there were no cities for miles, and I saw one of the coolest things I have ever seen.  There were wind generators that were a mile or so in front of us.  On the top of each one was a single flashing red light to warn off airplanes.  This made a line of red lights floating in the sky flashing on and off in unison.  It was even cooler when we actually reached them.  The red lights would shine on and turn off together.  We were surrounded by bright red lights for miles in every direction, then complete darkness, then red light filled the skies again. accompanied only by the whooshing sound of the windmill blades and the tires on the road.

And as I drove I thought, “and I would have been sleeping right now.”

Not in a complaining way, but in a I would have missed this way.  I could have easily said no to the trip and had a relaxing weekend.  I could have even prayed for him to drive safe or bought him snack food for the journey.  But instead I went on the journey WITH him, because thats what Love does. Because I chose to engage in someones adventure instead of just supporting it, it became my adventure. And pulling into the driveway at 3am sunday morning I was glad that I did.

If we truly love people we will do stuff that does not benefit us or do stuff we may not even like.  We will get past the spiritual cop out of “I’ll pray for you” and add on “Let me come with you.” You never know, you may get to stop and see aliens, get to know a friend better, or see a light show. Don’t miss it because you wanted to be sleeping.

If Your House Was On Fire Would You Save The 1992 or 2012 Dream Team?

 

Who The (Bleep) Wrote That On My Feed?

My twitter and facebook news feeds need to have their mouth washed out with soap.

     If you were to read what my friends post you would see the words (bleep) (bleep) and sometimes even (bleep) if someone was having a really bad day. My mom would totally ground my news feed for a month.

     Surprisingly, I am actually happy that the occasional off color word or remark comes up on the status updates of my friends.  Not happy that they said it, but happy that those people are my friends. Let me clarify, the majority of these words don’t come from Christ followers who are upset, but more often come from people who don’t believe in a Christ at all. This, in my opinion, is how my feed should be.

     I think that if something that does not agree with your theology does not appear on your news feed every so often, you may need to reevaluate if you are doing this christianity thing correctly.

     Like we should do with most of the things in our life, lets parallel this principle with the life of Jesus.  If Jesus were to log on to his twitter to tweet the good news, what would his friends be tweeting.  There of course would be people tweeting bible verses, the occasional hillsong lyrics, and even He would probably get game invites that he would politely decline. But he would also have people who were cursing his name, talking about how they were enjoying breaking his laws and some people not accepting his friend requests or following him back.

     Jesus loves the sinner. Not just the idea that they could be better, but the actual person.  We can not reach the lost if we are not first engaged with the lost.  We can not just be surrounded by “biblical yes men” who agree with everything we say without question and never have dialogue with people who don’t.

     Now am I saying dump all of your christian friends and surround yourself with only atheists? No. We need the Church.  We need each other, just as God intended it.  We need to be engaged with the culture and people who are outside of the Church without letting their actions dictate who we are. If all we do is talk with fellow christians and exclude those who disagree with us is that what Jesus did? Engage with people for who they are, love them before they ask to be loved and be friends with those the “church” would not be friends with.  Because if we are only talking with other christ followers and not pursuing the lost, then what the (bleep) are we doing?

    What do you guys think? Do you struggle with connecting with people outside of the Church? Do you have any helpful tips to engage with the lost? What are some struggles or successes you have had when dealing with friends who don’t believe in God? Leave your comments below or tweet me @djwaz

Cruising From Columbus: Waz Report 7/6/12

Camp Stereotypes

Over the years I have been to a lot of youth camps.  I’ve been to campgrounds in Michigan, Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico.  I have noticed that regardless of where you are, there tend to be the same people at every single camp.  Here are a few that I have seen:

• The Evangelist: Normally has a dress shirt with wings on it.  Talks about how he has ADD and drinks a lot of red bull. Hair is well groomed and says he wont speak long.

• The Joe Cool: Normally a Junior or Senior.  He wears bright colored plaid shorts, a cut off shirt, big plastic sunglasses and a flat brimmed hat.  He is too cool to be involved in anything and normally has 2 or 3 camp girlfriends
• The MVP: A guy or girl who has come to camp to show all the 6th graders how to dominate camp games.  Normally wear  long socks with flip flops on so they can easily switch into their cleats.  The girl always has a ponytail and headband and the guy has some sort of under-armor shirt on that is intentionally a size too small.  Another sure sign is if they are wearing a sweatband on their forearm.
• The Man Child: This is a youth leader who wants to be liked, but I normally don’t.  Normally a big guy, who likes sports, has facial hair and wears polos.  He talks during service and cracks jokes that probably should be left to himself.  He’s the guy who runs over a 6th grade girl to score the winning point in a game and yells at the rec. crew because his team didn’t win. Fohawk optional.
• The Super Christian: His hair is either super well kept, or very very different. He tucks his christian shirt into his denim blue jeans.  He always has his bible with him, and has a waterproof one for lakefront time.
• The Emo Couple: This is actually a compound person.  You will not find one part without the other.  Its a guy who’s long dark hair is always covering his eyes and the girl on his arm who’s straight hair covers up her own mascara black eyes.  The boy will wear baggy dark pants with chains and a Slipknot shirt while the girl will either have a similar band shirt or a strange kids shirt she got from hot topic. They are actually very nice but will act like you just don’t understand every hour or so. They are eternal soul mates for all of camp.
• The Ms. America: This girl is the camp crush of every guy. Is either super sweet or will not give you the time of day.  She has 3-5 outfits for every day.  She has a small group of girls follow her around who emulate everything she does. Having the name Brittany, Tiffany or Claire is encouraged.

     I have always been horrible with names.  It is not a skill that I naturally have.  A few weeks ago I was recruiting for The Oaks School of Leadership at Kansas camp and I decided to make a deliberate effort to learn the name of everyone I met.  It was rough but I learned a crazy concept:

People like to be known.

     Weather it was Sadie (favorite food is apples) or Josh (favorite team is the Jayhawks) or Ellie (favorite color is pink) they loved when I could remember their name.  One girl would ask me every day “Hey Waz, whats my name?” and I would always answer “Its Caitlyn. Don’t worry, I won’t forget.”

     So often in ministry or in life we can just see it as another camp, another student, another person we have to interact with.  We need to see people as more than stereotypes and how they fit into our pre determined categories but as another person we get the opportunity to bless and be blessed by.  The odds of running into the people we do everyday are 1 in billions.  We get to intertwine our stories with theres and we cant take that for granted.

     A name is an identity.  It communicates who we are to the rest of the world.  Lets be intentional about learning to know each other and being a part of each others stories. Remember names, they may not say it, but it means the world to some people that in the age of 1,000 facebook friends and twitter handles, that you remembered their name and they have value in your eyes.

     What are some interesting camp stereotypes that you guys have seen? Do you have trouble remembering names or are you super great at it? What are some tricks you have learned that help you remember names better?  Leave a comment down below or tweet me @djwaz 🙂