Beer Makes A Terrible Savior

Beer Makes a Terrible Savior

So it's grad season. And that means one thing to many different people. For parents it means their kids are finally leaving home, off to college, summer jobs and backpacking trips. For teachers it means seeing all your hard work and homework walk out the schools for quite possibly the last time.

But for youth, it means a party!

I'm sure that college prep, your own apartment, summer family vacations and jobs at bible camp all thrill you beyond any conceivable notion. Which is why there are fun loving adults ready and willing to get your under aged grad party the most important part of the night.

The hooch!

You know who I mean, held back grad who can buy and supply, funny right?

Alcohol is a funny thing, not because of the dumb things you do while under its influence. But because of its wonderful relationship with our savior. We know Jesus drank, we know he even produced drinks, but what did teach us about our brews and vintages and shrewdly marketed koolaid and vodka's in the underage market.

Well.

He taught us about who he was a savior, a king, and God. And you wouldn't think that words like worship would enter into this post. But as humans we are built to worship, the question is what we will settle for.

You see I've never had a problem with teens drinking. I know that it's not the liquor that kills in drunk driving, not the booze that put's condoms on in back seats and bush parties, not hooch that throws wild hay-makers at other drunk peers in misunderstanding and drunken courage.

It's worship.

I don't condone these things but I know these are just results of a previous and existing condition. And that condition is worship.

On grad night you're finally you, you're an adult, you're a graduate, a soon to be member of society (productive or otherwise). But you have been since before the foundation of the world a being who was made for God's own worship. So on grad night at the parties and dances, your eyes will be dangerously focused on you!

You and me and us and we are terrible worshipers, because we turn to such puny saviors like beer, sex and fun. None of these things will bring us what we ask of it without giving us what would never ask of it as well. Getting really drunk will always be fun, until your hungover, injured, pregnant or dead, then it sucks, for you and everyone around you. And why did you turn to that beer in the first place?

Because tonight was about your good time, and beer helps.
Because tonight was about your achievements, and beer helps
Because tonight you we're the most important thing you could boast about. You earned the right to let loose and help yourself to some beer... Right?

"though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead."

Philippians 3:4-11 (ESV)

The honest truth about your parties is that they can easily become worship services, at most you'll be sacrificing your modesty, tolerance and stomach contents, or at the very least tithing to a god that is always empty at the end of its church.

Do you want to celebrate where God has taken you?

Buy good alcohol which isn't necessarily strong alcohol. (John 2:6-10)

Surround yourself with family and friends (Matt 26:27-28)

And remember all the blessing Jesus has is and will give you. Celebrate Jesus in your graduation, not the things that He created, celebrate what Jesus did this year, not what you can do without him.

Celebrate Jesus, because beer makes a terrible savior.

Fictional Pain and Youth Pastors

Well, I did it. I took the plunge like everyone else and watched 13 episodes of a show I knew damn well was going to hurt me like every time a read a john green book. (He’s so good at that.)

13 Reasons Why did exactly what Netflix does best and drew me into a binge-watching frenzy like so many other shows. But instead of being inundated by my favorite Sci-Fi show's geekery, or re-watching Sherlock for the 14th time hoping the fourth season will get uploaded soon.

I sat down for 13 hours of sheer and utter pain watching a girl slowly describe the knife of society and culture entering her heart.

And God damn it!

Damn the world that so accurately reflects the tragic beauty that this show projects.

Damn the rapist's that get away with it hiding behind drunken party antics.

Damn drunk drivers and how they can be our best friends prior to killing themselves behind the wheel and bottle of their choices.

Damn the gossiping hypocrites who trash the perfectly mundane lives of people who made mistakes like we all do.

And damn the 4-5 inches of plastic, glass, and metal that enables a tweet or an Instagram to embarrass and crush the social standing and heart of anyone below the age of majority. One even I, a 30 something man with a family and a savings account still seek approval from in my shame.

So then as I fought back the tears that usually only come out in the back end of a Pixar film, I realized God did damn everything I was mad at. In this terrible piece of beautiful fiction.

That like the pages of this tragic story, we are books just as worn and broken, ripped at the seams and tattered by the sins of others and ourselves. Written in the blood of our sins and their consequences. In need of something to make us clean again. To clear our tapes.

Nothing shone clearer, in 13 Reasons, than the darkness left in the wake of a film directed without the light of Christ to redeem and repair the brokenness inside its scenes. Jesus was horribly absent along with his youth pastors and sponsors from a school that was all too real. He was referenced by only one character in his admittance of being catholic. While grace was spoken in vain prayers for the food to bless the character's bodies, as their souls were being slowly destroyed.

God help me for the felt rage as a former youth pastor at just how far, some of these fictional characters, fell through the cracks of the adult’s care that was fictionally not there.

So if nothing else as you question whether or not to watch this monstrosity because it is, it’s a monster that rips at your heart and sensibilities, find a teen you have influence with.

Find a teen from age 10 to age 20 growing up in a world so booby-trapped by the online world and so broken by sin's stains it needs a savior.

And love them. Like Clay Jensen wishes he could have.

 “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John 13:35 (ESV)

Our Big Hero

I Went to see Big Hero Six on the weekend with my boys and was not ready for the quality of the film that appeared on screen as the pre-show commercials stopped. My Boys and I had been waiting for this film to come out all year, as all the trailers and sneak peeks spoon-fed to us by Disney marketing are comedic gold. But the movie itself was something different. For those of you who care there will be spoilers in this post so please be aware before reading as you are going to want to see this movie spoiler-free.

The movie starts us off with Hiro, a Boy who’s too smart for his own good. Hiro is an overconfident and overachieving child genius who has a thing for fighting robots. “Which in its own right would be an awesome movie” but Pixar does what it does best, destroy your parental calm with emotions. That’s right you know what it means to be a dad in a princess movie or a mom watching the silence-filled story that precedes “UP”. And this movie was right in line with the heartstrings. Hiro’s parents are deceased, he then loses his inspirational brother, his hopeful new boss, and verges on the edge of vengeful acts of murder, all before the poor guy hits puberty. At least according to the best part of this film. BAYMAX

BAYMAX is the healthcare robot that Hiro’s brother Tadashi was in the process of making that exists for one purpose and one purpose only. To help people feel better.

BAYMAX by his design and programming is only ever concerned with the injured. He is activated by hurt and will not deactivate and stop caring until the patient claims to be satisfied with his care. Hiro stumbles upon him literally by stubbing his toe and saying ow. And throughout their cinematic adventure, BAYMAX concerns himself only with the recovery of those in his care, even when temporarily incapacitated by Hiro’s vengeful reprogramming. He returns with the sole purpose of healing the broken.

As a dad and a former pastor, I found it hard to simply sit by and watch this film. It’s drowning in messianic metaphors like a cannonball in the deep end. At almost every significant plot twist of the film you see pictures of selfless care and concern with intent to fix that which is broken, physically, and emotionally as well.  And while it’s a grossly simplistic comparison of the similarities between an inflatable savior and an omnipotent one, Jesus bleeds out of this movie.

Of all the pseudo bible verses this movie placed there intentionally or not, the one that hit me as most clear was Luke 19:40. Here we read of our messiah being rebuked in his glory by the religiously confused, looking for a savior but not seeing their king. And what does he say, If the people are kept quiet that the stones would cry out? When I saw this movie I recognized it for the stone it was. If God is sovereign then Pixar is not out of his control, guidance, and usefulness. And while Big Hero 6’s directors and producers may not have intended for their story to be used for the gospel, I could not look at it in any other way. The robot literally breaks its own body to save Hiro and Callaghan’s daughter and then is resurrected /rebooted when Hiro finds his programming chip in the hand that saved him. If that’s not a stone crying out then what could be. Maybe it’s the trouble in the life of a co-worker's family that gives us the opportunity to share the gospel, or the shared experience of loss that brings two people together for a moment where sharing the gift of Christ becomes an option. Even a movie that a dad takes his kids to and shares with other dads at work. The world we live in is filled with stones to stand on and share the gospel, filled with rocks to build bridges for our faith. They cry out for the creator that made them we need only speak up and use the opportunities given to us to know Christ and to make Him known.