Thoughts from Europe

I just spent two wonderful weeks in Europe. My first destination was Riga, Latvia. Then I spent six days in the beautiful historical city of Prague. It was an amazing time for me in these two nations. There were a lot of thoughts that i had. So i will try and communicate some of them in this blog...and I hope that you will read it to the end.
While I was in Latvia I realized a lot of things about myself that were so refreshing, encouraging and inspiring. I realized why when I was growing up, all the way until very recently, my dream was to be in the ministry. I have often asked myself how is it that I could have had that desire. Going back made those desires seem so real again. Being in the ministry over there is so different than it is here in Nashville. Yes there are some amazing people here that are in the ministry and there are so many great leaders of our religion in this city. Yet the longer I have lived here the more that desire has faded. When I went there and saw how being in the ministry is really about two things. Two things that our entire life should be about anyways: loving god and loving people. There was such a refreshing sense of trying to help people find God. Such a sense of trying to help people walk through life as a shepherd to their soul and their spiritual, physical, emotional, and relational well-being. I even found myself feeling the rumblings within my own soul to do ministry again.
Another thing that I realized as I was there was how much we (myself, friends, and community) have lost the dream of reaching people for Jesus. We are all dreamers. Dreaming huge dreams to make the world a better place. But for some reason we have become humanistic in our desires to better mankind. We want to help people and give people a voice. However, we have taken Jesus out of the picture. We seek to share god's love without ever mentioning god. We seek to better mankind without ever mentioning its only true help. I dont know why we have become like this. We try not to "over-spiritualize" things. We try and create art that is relevant and creative but shy away from, no even mock those who use the name of Jesus and His gospel. That was something that was honestly very convicting to me while I was there. People there burn, weep, crave for the salvation of peoples souls. They live to see one more life come to Jesus. There is no shame of His name, no shame of his message, and no shame of being bold enough to say that He and He alone is what I can offer you. I realized within my own heart how much I had become deliberate about doing things that were humanitarian, and effective but that eliminated Jesus. Of course you know that I very much want to be creative in how I share the gospel, create art, and live life. But someone said to me there, "I want to be radical for him. I want to be able to get to the place where I can be like Paul in saying, let me be damned if it would mean saving Israel." I thought wow...give me a heart again to see people come to Jesus. Not just better their outward live, but to preach the gospel to those who need Him. And let me run to you...yes be radical for you. I saw that when christians are friends there, they dont just hang out, have a good laugh and go home. Their spiritual lives are intertwined. They are striving together. Fighting for each other. But what made it so inspiring is that it is so not about them. It is about the dream. The dream of finding god. And the dream of reaching a world for Jesus. We WERE once like this...
One other thing that I realized while I was there is how beautiful it is to love one's country. I came to firmly believe the more I was in Europe how each person from their own country should protect their culture, land, and people. There are a lot of things that are happening in Europe that are detrimental because as a continent they have tried to implement a philosophy of open borders. There is something beautiful and extremely necessary about protecting your nation from those things that you do not want there. I talked to some people from Spain while I was in Prague, and they told me how much they were tired of people coming to their nation and living there and losing Spanish culture. I heard these same words from a Latvian man in Riga. Yes we should be open to other cultures, and visit the world. We can learn from many cultures. But there is a line that we must draw in the sand and say that this is our property. Just like we have our own houses and we dont just let anyone come into our homes or we dont all just share one big community house. And we must be patriotic of being who we are. IT is a beautiful thing to love one's country, and love one's countrymen.
So those are some of my thoughts....so many more...maybe i can write more sometime

Donkeys and Fish

Donkeys and fish don't go together
Neither should we have peace forever.
Frustration comes like a hunch
Or a fighters ugly right punch.
How many Americans have had a dream?
Millions of them other than Martin Luther King
Donkeys and fish dont go together
Just like if horses had a feather.
Sit down and watch the fireworks,
Sing with a bunch of disillusioned jerks.
Then hear the knocking at your door,
And you ask what was all that crap for?