This is a devotional I wrote for the staff a few months ago... I thought I'd pass it on to you:

I have been recently watching the show 'superstars' which is a stupid reality show with celebrities matched up with professional athletes and they are competing in really tough, physical races (3 injuries so far took out competitors).

Anyway, the last one I saw (I'm behind) had them matched up in a basketball shootout. They could go for a three pointer, two pointer, or one pointer depending on what they thought they could make. One of the competitors was a WNBA player (She didn't win).

They were timed so most of them ran out there and started throwing up shots left and right. They looked foolish. They couldn't make anything. Most of these folks (especially the athletes) are really talented, but couldn't make a basket.

It seemed the more they pushed it, the more they flailed and missed the shots. The more they rushed, the more tired they got, the more they missed.

It was the ones that cooled down, had a game plan, and took their time that won.

Here's my point:

I do stupid things when I'm tired.

I make life and ministry worse for myself.

I cause things that I later have to clean up.

I do things I regret.

Today, I didn't want to do that or to harm myself.

I got up at about 7, talked with Suzi a bit, kissed my little girl (the other was on a sleep over) and went to the gym. I had nothing.  I hadn't eaten good since lunch yesterday (my dinner last night was a banana split at Mel's Diner because I was in a semi-bad mood).  With no fuel in my system, I couldn't lift anything and ultimately I went home early.

When I got home I saw all that was piled up to do.

I took an hour nap.

I got up, showered, went to It's a Grind in Folsom and kicked out more in the following three hours than I would have accomplished pushing through my tiredness for twice that amount of time.

As leaders we tend to run on empty.

Don't do that.

It creates extra work.

It damages along the way.

I know it feels like wasting time to rest, but dang it, we need it.

It's our job to take care of our bodies.

We are a complicated, cohesive, bio-system and eco-system. What happens to us physically affects our mental aptitude.

In other words when you're tired or burnt, you do stupid things and are less productive.

Make sure you take care of yourself.

it will make you a better leader.

When we are tired, everything is heavier.

When we are rested, we see the light.

I hope this helps.

Your friend and pastor

Lance

I thought I would drop a couple of thoughts for ya this week to chew on. A few weeks ago I met with a guy who was 76 years old and very active. As we talked he gave me some advice, which didn’t particularly apply to what we were talking about but it was really profound. He said that he lost his wife in 2002 and was crushed.  After a bit, while he tried to reconcile what had happened, he felt the Lord asked him to sort out a question. ‘Why was he better off without his wife?’  What an odd question, he thought (and horrifying to all the Romantics in the world). So, he began to write down things that were ‘better’ without her (he didn’t name what they were). He came up with a list of 50 things.  

Why did God have him go through this exercise?  Because He wanted him to ‘look for the gift.’ Buried in all the pain and loss was still Jesus working in his life. If God allowed this to happen and he was a child of God, then it wasn’t likely that Jesus would merely leave it as pain and loss. He would do something with it.  Next time trouble strikes, perhaps we should ask, ‘why am I better off now that this has happened?’ Maybe we need to wait a bit to ask the question, but I think it’s a valuable question.  Ultimately what I took away from his comments was this...’look for the gifts of God along the way.’  It’s true that hardship comes, but buried in there are gifts from your heavenly Father.

Speak well of everyone as much as you can.  Too many times I have mentioned something about someone only to have a conversation with them later and regret what I said, or how I said it.  Little by little I have tried to root this completely out of my life. It’s easier, and more interesting to trash someone, but unfortunately that will bite you. Anyone that hears you say something about someone else, automatically knows that when they leave your side and situations change, you will say something about them.  We want to be people who consistently build the reputations of others. We want to be people who are peacemakers. It’s hard sometimes.  Sometimes you have to dig down to find something good about someone, but it’s worth it.  I would hope that for all of us here at Bridgeway, people would know their name is going to increase in our hands, not diminish.

And finally, did you know that the first name of bubble gum in 1906 was ‘blibber-blabber gum.’

Love you all,
Lance

I just wanted to drop a note to you that was kind of a devotional for the week.

Recently I was in our backyard and thinking about our drip system (sprinkler system). I realized that if all the water that poured out from the main source hit any of the plants it would blow them away and destroy them. Instead the huge power source is distributed to all the lines and all the specific drippers and sprinklers that are set for each group of plants. Some lead to sprinklers that spray on 3 or more plants. Some small drippers are individual and gently give a sensitive plant what it needs. It takes a master gardener to know what each plant needs and how to distribute it’s life-giving water. 

Imagine what would happen if God intensified all of His power on someone.  Then imagine if God distributed his glory and power through all of us.  Each of us has a different capacity which depends on where we are to water.

As Christ followers you tend to be the sprinkler sort, but every once in a while someone just needs a little drip (because they can’t handle any more).  We all get water from the same source and no one sprinkler/drip is better than another.  Without us distributing God’s love and power, the world dries and dies.

We are doing the right thing.

Take a moment today and thank the Lord for your incredible blessing of serving Him.

Take a moment to thank Him for the incredible things He’s blessed you with.

Cultivate a thankful heart.

And lead with all grace and power.

Thank you all for what you do.

1.) I believe it is our responsibility as believers and United States citizens to vote. I believe that we must, and that God works thru His people being responsible in this method.

2.) I believe that Christians should be involved in politics. If we aren't there, whose going to help shape America, from Christ's point of view??? I am excited to know that we have a ton of people at Bridgeway that are heavily involved in the political arena, on both sides of the ticket.

3.) Politics are complicated and multi-faceted. It's not just the people running for President or the two-major-party system (although I will be speaking to that issue a lot). Technically speaking, politics can affect all things that 'run other things.' It involves a lot of stuff that Jesus was involved in, because it dealt with people. However, I am going to use it in a narrow, biased way, when I talk about it.

And now it's my turn to irritate a bunch of you,

And just so you know (one last disclaimer) many of you will likely disagree with my reasoning (just know that I have tons more to say but I can't type it all or my fingers would fall off).

Alright, let's get on with this...

I was asked about politics in an email the other day, by a new, great, kind, gentleman at our church. He is very involved in politics and wanted to discuss politics and Bridgeway (specifically 3 issues: will we set up as a polling place, will we hand out voter packets, & will we be informing our congregation on Prop 8?).

Well,...unfortunately, he caught me on a bad day. I had already had a million emails and discussions about this stuff, so I kinda blew up on him. That was completey unfair and I am publicly apologizing and admitting I'm a jerk. But, what the email did, was allow me to formulate a few of my thoughts on what's really bugging me about each political season and what happens around here at church. So, I'm going to cut and paste my email reply in process, for you to read (altering it only slightly to protect the innocent)...

"First of all, we don't get involved in politics as the church. I get involved a little as a personal representative of my nation and yes, I will be voting...and yes, I will personally vote to get marriage defined back to what God intended it to be. However you will rarely hear me mention politics from the pulpit or see it at church. We have tons of folks that want to do what you just mentioned you would want to do (offer Bridgeway as a polling place, register folks, pass out voter packets, etc.), but that's not likely going to happen.

I feel that not only is our political system broken and frustrating just as an American, but I feel that politics (as it stands today - in the two-major party system) has done tremendous damage to the church. We actually have whole denominations and people groups (usually predominantly white) thinking that Jesus is a Republican, for crying out loud! Are you kidding me??? And we have whole denominations and christian people groups (...have you seen stats on African-American Churches vs. Caucasian Churches?...) thinking that Jesus is a Democrat!! What??? Jesus is neither. But unfortunatley it's another line we can draw in the sand and fight over. It's another thing that we allow to divide us. It's another thing that makes one group feel superior to another. And it drives me insane.

And yes, we have been bombarded by Prop 8 information, weekly, sometimes daily. I get it. No, we don't have our heads in the sand. Yes, we have discussed it many times in our elder board meetings, but what is not being promoted is that there is a ton of protection language written in for churches in the legal language that already exists! We did tons of homework on it and there's a lot of panic for nothing. Yes, could we be dragged into court on something like this? Sure. In fact, we expect it to come in the future. But, we have solid ground to stand on and yes, we are going to put language in our docs that show clealry what we stand for as far as marriage is concerned as good stewards of our local church. But, really is this going to solve the problem? No. Am I happy about a rogue court screwing it all up??? NO, of course not. But if they did it against the votes and American popular vote then what makes people think that voting again is going to 'solidify the issue' again? No, we just walk calmly into the future and respond with what we have.

Do I encourage people to vote? yep. Will I continue as we approach the day? Yep. But that's about it.

The world already has us tagged as right wing radicals and going crazy and panicking, and launching literature wars is only going to deepen the problem. So, I have decided to take a bit of a different pathway, which is one of talking about the deeper issues of Christ and hoping that 'worldview' formation will take care of examining issues and making right choices when it comes to politics. Christ talked about the deeper issues instead of the political issues of the time (for the most part) and I want to follow in those footsteps.

If you consider our church as a microcosm of the greater community you see that...we have hardcore Republicans (very involved), and staunch (very involved) Democrats. Mostly things work well because no one is completely clear on what I am, some think I'm a Democrat, some think I'm a Republican. So, instead of making people feel marginalized, it has opened healthy discussion...I have people close to me who even in their marriage are opposite parties and for years it strained and damaged their marriage until they found a way to dialogue in a healthy way...praise the Lord!

Unfortunately, I feel that the current system is flawed so I'm having a hard time tackling what I'm personally supposed to do in light of modern-day politics. I don't like party line voting, because the Republicans are just as whacked and secular as the Democrats, so I try to focus on issues. But unfortunately to get elected, candidates can't state clearly what their stand is, so it's all a lot of fluff and double-speak trying to please the most people. Therefore, I can't even narrow it down. besides, the minute you win with one view (Rep. ex. pro-life), you lost on other parts of the ticket (ex. big business greed).

Sorry to sound so negative, it's just that I'm inundated with poltical stuff and panic from Christians about the election. Luckily I have lived long enough to panic through enough elections (i.e. Clinton v. Bush) only to realize it was one relatively lame duck after another with, yes, some major hits in the Supreme Court...and some policies..., but then the system rights itself again, all the while slowly slipping into more of a secular nation. Pessimistic? perhaps."

And then I tried to wrap it up apologizing for exploding on him and trying to be nice.

Listen, the thing is, is that my job is to help hurting people, and people are being hurt by the most common form of politics. In our very church, people are being offended and backed into corners because they don't view things like most of the other people. I hate that. Why can't we have polite, healthy, respectful discussions about issues and admit where we are wrong or ignorant (heck, I'm ignorant on a ton of stuff)?

On top of that, in a church, our goal is to minister to the deepest level of a human and we already have tons of obstacles to overcome. What we don't need is pre-conceived political notions adding to the divide.

It's not that we fear separation of Church and State or anything ridiculous like that. We would gladly fight that battle if we felt that there was a mandate to do so. So, it's not that. It's that it's not where we need to be battling. There are many places in the world where these battles can rage, I don't want Bridgeway to be one of those.

The main question for us is that we have limited time in a day, and limited emotional capital and access with our flock, what are we to be about, and what should we focus on. We have felt called to go a slightly different direction.

Ok, now I'm bored with myself. Moving on...

Lance.

I get asked a lot about where people can plug in or serve around here and right now we have a really great need for folks, in a fantastic area, that requires a little less demand on your schedule than some areas.

Here's the deal, it's back in the booth, that kinda runs the show for services. We have desperate need in both the sound ministry and the slides ministry ("Click-it").

Here's the thing.  At Bridgeway, we place a high importance on two key areas for our weekend service, Worship in song/prayer and in the preaching of the Word of God.  Neither one of those things happen without a solid team back in the booth.  One ministry is putting up slides so that we can all worship corporately together, and cue-ing up videos/testimonies.  The other ministry is making sure that people aren't distracted during the sermons and the worship, by controlling the sound.  I can't emphasize how crucial these ministries are.  Have you ever been to a church that has a bad sound or visual team?  Holy Cow!!!!

So, what I need from you is some willingness to step up, if you aren't already involved in another ministry around here (heck, it seems most people are involved somewhere since we have so much ministry going on).  Will you be willing to be trained to do sound?  Will you be willing to run the slides on a given weekend, or two-service set?  Sound is a little trickier than the slides (which is mostly about being a servant and wanting to facilitate worship without a tough demand or learning curve), but we train for both! We're not going to leave you hanging!

So, if you are considering plugging in, this is a GREAT way to do it!  Just contact either Rachel Clark at rachel@bridgewaychristian.org, or for sound contact Brian Lisk, at brian@bridgewaychristian.org, and let them know you are ready to roll.  I can't thank you enough!!!

Lance.

I'm in the middle-end of the book 'The Shack' and I have to say I'm enjoying it (oh, yeah, if you are afraid I'm about to spoil the story for you, I am so stop reading if you're worried about that).  I was very skeptical going into it, (as any believer would be walking into a story written about the Trinity from a guy you've never heard of or don't even know if he's a believer), but I have to say I'm liking it.

So l brought it up in our Ministry Team Leader's Meeting and found that many had already read it and had lots to say about it.  Everyone hand's down enjoyed it, but they all did so with a caveat.  here's the thing...

It's out there.  Heck, The Father is a large black woman, the Holy Spirit is a small Asian woman and Jesus is an unattractive male Jew.  And any time someone personifies God there are going to be debates flying about what he's really saying, or what he's really insinuating.  And no, I'm not going to say that I agree with all his points or his theology. But it's a wonderful book to get you out of your 'purely academic' mindset when it comes to thinking about God.  It puts 'skin on Him' and allows you to dream what it would be like to walk with God on earth. 

The main reason I picked up the book was because I am seeing people read it publicly all over the place. It seems that non-believers are reading it just as much as religious folk.  So, don't you think we should be prepared to talk about it, when the conversation comes up? When else is your non-believing neighbor going to read a book on the Trinity? If you don't clarify then perhaps someone else (who doesn't know the truth) will.

And another thing, children being harmed is not my thing. In fact, it's a widely known fact that it's the one subject (as well as harming animals) that Pastor Lance 'doesn't do well with.'  And this book begins (and carries thru four or five chapters) with child abduction and it's really hard to read about.  The purpose, of course, is to put the main character into pain and at odds with seeming injustice and anger with God.  But still it's really hard to read.  Keep that in mind and prepare yourself.

As you read it I'm interested in your take on it. Did you like it?  Did you not like it? Why? What stirred in your heart?  What insights did you gain?  How do you think about God differently now?

Anyway, I just hadn't blogged in a while (busy ya know) so I thought I'd drop ya a line.

Lots of love to all of you,

Lance.

Gosh, I miss you guys.  As fun as it was, and it was fun, I really look forward to seeing all of you this weekend.  Even just two weeks being gone tweaks my spirit and makes me miss all of you.

So, instead of answering the question a million times (which I know a lot of you ask just to be nice and couldn't care less about the answer) I thought I would give you all a quick lowdown on the vacation time.

I was gone for two weeks and that included the first four days of prepping to go to So. Cal and then three days when we got home to kind of milk the vacation thing before returning to work. 

So, to be honest, the days before we left were rough.  I am the type of guy that likes to do things at the last minute, I hate getting somewhere early and just waiting around. I don't like planning and mapping and brainstorming possible things or making a million lists of things that we can do, should do, or must do prior, during or after a trip. Dang it! Can we just go and figure it out on the fly?

Praise the Lord, I'm married. Suzi is the one that made sure we had the house in order before we left (giving me lists of honey-do's so I ran around like a little kid following mommy's orders), she's the one that made sure the kids had snacks in the car so they didn't die.  She's the one that made sure we got the right groceries when we got down so we didn't eat out all the time and spend money we didn't need to spend. She's the one that packed all the condiments so that we didn't need to re-buy the wheel (ketchup, mayonaise, butter, etc.) just for one week.  So, yeah, God blessed me.

However, I strained under the first few days mumbling that this is no sort of vacation, packing and prepping and drawing it out over three days.  But once we fired off and headed down there it was awesome.

Even the ride didn't kill us. Remember, I have a four year old and a seven year old, a 7 hour ride is brutal for them, especially in car seats/booster seats.  Luckily we decided to leave on night early and got to my dad's for the night to break up the trip for the kids. He lives just north of Fresno about 45 minutes (Chowchilla), so we got to see him and his wife and have a wonderful night and let the kids knock 2 1/2 hours off the trip, so the next day would be more pleasant.  I think that was Suzi's idea too.  Hmmm, I'm seeing a pattern.

I had bought last year, a portable DVD player on sale for the car for $45 bucks at Fry's for another trip, where we never used it. So I broke it out, charged it up and let the kids watch movies on the way down there and plugged it into the car lighter.  That helped a ton.

Once we were down there, I found that the first few days my body carried a lot of anxiety and I wasn't sleeping good and had some panic issues.  Mostly that's due to the element of my psyche that doesn't do great away from home (even though my personality loves it and thrives in it!!!), and the fact that I hadn't gone to the gym in four or five days and my life isn't exactly sports driven or active. Heck, I'm sitting at this stupid computer right now typing to you folks.  Anyway, two days into it I decided to go to the little gym there every day and it helped a HUGE amount. I was peaceful and relaxed. We laughed a lot and had a great time.

We had purchased a week of timeshare online from a guy in Utah, at the Newport Coast Villas. He cut us a deal. This is the same place Russ & his family went with us to last year as families. It's a wonderful location. If you can get in, it's stellar. It's very geared for kids and it's beautiful.  It has two bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen so we could make sandwiches to bring to the beach and make dinner. We didn't eat out a lot for cost savings...Okay, now I'm bored, sorry.

We went to Disneyland one day which was out best trip there ever. Little Andie (just turned 4) apparently just turned 40 inches this year so she stood up as tall as her little body could to touch that measuring stick on the rides and was able to go on every ride but one (Indiana Jones is 46" - so I broke my back alone with Jillian).  It was a fun-filled day of 8am to 8pm Disneyland.  I'm not a Disneyland freak (like some of you) so that was plenty for me.

Two of the days we went to the beach (Corona Del Mar - from a recommendation, which by the way apparently is trying to set a record for how crowded it could possibly get; and Laguna Beach).  At the Laguna Beach we were all playing in the waves when a huge pod of dolphins swam buy just outside the waves, probably 15 ft from some of the swimmers and about 50 feet from shore or less. The whole beach ran to the water's edge to see it and they swam parallel to the shore, the whole length of the beach. It almost looked like they were hired to do it (although I'm sure the Dolphin Local Union would have charged a pretty penny for that).  The kids had fun in the waves and sand.  Jillian boogey-boarded for the first time and loved it, until she got rolled twice.  Oh well.

When we finally got home, I took some time to do some more fishing (and actually caught my first big fish as an adult - after a million hours of trying and study) and went to see (by myself, not for kids), the new Batman movie, which was great.  And Suzi and I took the girls to go see a Rivercats game with tickets that someone gave us from the church! 

So, all in all, I was spoiled and all of you should hate me.

But I'm back now and ready to preach too long this weekend.

hang on to your seats, because here we go!

Lance

Again, I'm listening to another teacher on a CD and he starts talking about what Christ did on earth. All of sudden I get hit (like the old V8 commercials) with the revelation of what the body of Christ should do.

When Christ was on earth, He had a body, right?  Right.  And what did His 'body' do? It walked around in the world, crossing boundaries, blasting 'isms' (like sexism and racism), it touched people for emotional healing, it miraculously healed sickness, it cast out demons, it spent time with people, it taught about the kingdom of God, it rested, it partied, it laughed, it cried. Literally.

What are we to do as the 'body of Christ' as the Church?  I guess we have our answer.

I know, I know, not revolutionary to you.

But this is my blog.

I have a quick question for you that I really want your feedback on. I am designing some things for our church and your feedback will help me develop it more accurately and bring greater blessing to everyone, so dig deep and let me know...

Pick one of these to answer as they are all ways of saying the same thing:

1.) How do you best express to God that you love Him?

2.) How do you best express to God that He matters to you?

3.) How do you demonstrate to God that He's great?

It's easy to start answering these and end up answering the question, 'how do I connect with God,' but that's not what I'm asking. I want it to be God-focused, not self-focused. On this question it's not about how you feel toward God, but what you do for Him as an act of worship (maybe chew on Mt 2:2; Jn 4:24 or Rom 12:1 in prep).

Thank you so much, I can't wait to see your replies. They don't have to be long. One sentence is fine, I'm just lookin' for ideas.

Pastor Lance.

When answering the first, I said something to the effect that it's likely that silence in prayer is likely an effect of the Fall of mankind.  In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve got very intimate interaction with God that was free flowing and easy as a conversation with a literal person in front of them (and indeed God was, as He came walking through in the cool of the day - which by the way where was He coming from?  Why not just teleport over there?  Oh well, that's another blog).

But then when mankind said no to God by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, things changed. They didn't just change in our soul and spirit, they didn't just change in the curse of the world, but things dramatically changed relationally with God and in a sense God pulled back and grew more quiet.  It went from walking and talking together to seeming random comments from up above (i.e. talking to Cain about killing Abel - clearly God didn't fully talk back and forth about what kind of sacrifice to give, becaue Cain got it wrong, and yet it seemed God was very clear about the killing of his brother).

So, perhaps the distance that we feel with God is all part of that process. Perhaps the silence of God and the sensation that we are having a one way conversation is part of the frustration that was forced by our rebellion. Perhaps God is just as frustrated that He had to pull away in order to show proper boundaries and not enable our sinfulness.  Perhaps it's just as irritating to God to not speak freely with us as He desires to in His heart.

Perhaps God is in an essence saying, "My child, I want to talk with you freely as much as you want me to talk with you freely, but right now it's not proper.  Know this, I have not abandoned you. I have said many things through the years, things that you must know for life and godliness (in the Bible). I have shared with you the basics of our relationship, but for now I will be quiet.  However, due to my desire to be with you freely, I have shortened our 'distant time' to about 85 years (life span avg.).  This short span is irritating for both of us, but eternity is long and full.  We will have forever to talk freely. I long for that time.  Until then, know that I love you and know that I am with you always.  Know that I'm listening to your cries. Know that my silence does not indicate my involvement or care.  Know that my love for you doesn't wane. Know that my eyes are upon you.'

In my second conversation I found myself coming up with a totally different perspective.  Praise the Lord that I God reminds me to seek HIm freshly with each new conversation because rarely is the last answer I gave appropriate for my next conversation.  Anyway, here was my thoughts the next time...

"God refuses to encourage our ‘speed spirituality pathway’ where we want Him to run at our level and periodically check in with Him to get what we need and then we are off again (kind of like the runner in a marathon who wants someone to run alongside to give them a cup of Gatorade which they guzzle down and throw to the side, never slowing down).

At some point, God will say ‘sit down, shut up and wait’ – because what I’m about to say and what I’m teaching you right now is only able to be absorbed in the slowness.”  It's not a rude thing, it's not a situation of anger, it's about reality and demanding humility.

In our busy lives I believe that we sacrifice spiritual growth in a significant way.  I believe that there are some things (like the transcendance and power of God) that can not be obtained by us being in control of our schedules.  I believe that there are things (like humility) that cannot be obtained on the run.  I believe, honestly, as much as it irritates me too, that God withholding His voice and not being our Genie, is intensely beneficial and actually vital to our spiritual growth.

So, what is the real reason that God is silent at times, and generally quiet to HIs kids?  It seems that a good Father communicates.  If I talk to my kids tons and guide them all the time verbally (and we are a verbal being), then why do I picture myself as 'dad of the year' when God gets the 'runner up' award?  What am I missing?  Is it rude?  Is it disconnected like it feels?  Do we lack the ears to hear?  Is it an effect of the Fall of mankind?

Hmmm, someone much smarter than I will have to answer that...

"I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

Now, I've spent tons of hours through the years learning, dissecting and debating what the Lord meant by saying 'on this rock I will build my church', so I'm not going to talk about that part. In fact, after all these years I'm kind of bored talking about that part.  But it's the next part that I'm recently re-fascinated by...the idea of the gates and keys.

First of all I'm confused by the phrase 'Gates of Hell.'  Here are my questions: 1.) Hades is a synonym in the Bible for 'Hell,' not 'Sheol' as the NIV commentary says.  Sheol is a combo place of the dead that housed paradise and Hades (that's a whole other blog).  So, this is the bad side, the side of death and many times associated with the enemy/Satan/the devil.  But is that right?  Is it just a way of saying that death won't overcome because of everlasting life and salvation?  Is it a way of saying Satan's influence and power?  Does that mean that Satan won't be able to overcome believers due to the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit? 

2.) Why are they gates?  Gates are for protection, they don't go anywhere. If we are talking about an advancing army, then we have a lame metaphor.  Gates just stand there.  So, is it saying that Satan already runs the show down here on earth and this is his 'hold/fortress/location'?  And is it saying that due to Christ and what He did on the cross, the 'strongman' (Mt 12:29) is bound (Satan) and therefore His stronghold can be broken into?  Is this the concept of 2 Corinthians 10:4 which says that we have the power to 'demolish strongholds?'  So, is it saying that Satan doesn't need to advance his army but just hold his ground since he is already the 'temporary owner of earth?'  Is it different after the cross? And if the Spiritual Warfare passages of Scripture seem to focus on believers 'taking a stand' (1 Cor 15:48; 16:13; Gal 5:1; Eph 6:14; 2 Th 2:15; Jas 5:8) or holding their ground, then isn't the war down here just two armies standing their ground with no combat (heck, the church is on the rock, rocks don't move)?  That's boring.  Or is it that each team has a fortress to protect and they go out to storm each other's castles and fight in the middle?  Hmmmm.

3.) Gates are used for protection, what are Satan's gates protecting? What does he have of value?  What is he shielding?  This Bishop said that Satan's gates are protecting all the stuff that he stole from believers.  I'm not fully buying that, but it's an interesting point and he sure got a reaction from preaching it (positively).  But really, what are they protecting?  Is it that Satan is trying to hold on to earth from the incredible power of Jesus setting people free.  The Bible talks a lot about 'bondage' and the 'chains' that come from sin and the enemy, perhaps this is another metaphor for all the ways that Satan tries to keep believers locked down.

4.) What about the keys?  Clearly keys are for opening things, usually gates/doors.  So, there's an obvious reference to believers/the church having victory and the ability to get in to Satan's domain and get stuff (steal it back? Get it for the first time?).  So, what are we getting back?  Our freedom? The freedom of others? People? Stuff? And what are the keys specifically? Are they new perspectives of the victory of Christ? Are they means of gaining ground with the enemy?  I remember hearing Tony Evans preach that for every lock/gate/stronghold, there is a corresponding key that Christ gave the church. That's pretty cool, I agree with that.  Is this all just a metaphor for spiritual growth? Is it all truly done at Calvary and we don't really use the keys any more? Are the keys something that we aren't currently using, and must learn how to access them? Are we missing something? Should we be doing more 'storming of the gates' like a lot of Charismatic ministries?

5.) What about the 'binding and loosing?' Is this another reference to keys and gates?  Do we have the ability to lock things down with our own gates? Do we have gates for binding?  I understand that loosing is about setting something free and you can do that with a key opening a prison door.  Was this power only for the Apostles as things were getting laid down, or does the church still have the power to alter heaven and earth and bind Satan willingly?  I have done a number of things in battling the occult and I have used the authority of Christ to pray through binding the power of satan and demons, but I was not focusing on myself having any power to bind them with keys, but just that Jesus Christ has all authority and He's letting me use it. Perhaps it's another way of saying the same thing.

Anyway, usually I will blog on my thoughts of different matters of life, but this time I wanted to get this thought of Scripture down for all of us to wrestle through. I don't think it's only academic, I think it's about spiritual life and victory.

I don't know, what do you think?

Lance.

I can handle an awful lot of heat.  I can handle an awful lot of pain. I can handle a pretty heavy load, but there is one issue that is kind of a hot button for me and when it pops up I want to throw my hands in the air and say, 'I'm out!!!'  Why is it a big deal?  I don't really know. Should it be that big of a deal? Probably not.  But it is.  I've received three of these in the last week and a half.

Here's the scenario...around Bridgeway we work our tails off to meet the needs of our spiritual family, the flock of God. We put ourselves on the back burner and give and give and give.  Most of the time we go way above and beyond the call of duty, because we not only give far too much time, but our hearts are 'all in.' 

When one of those scenarios turns on us, it's a bit more than I can handle.  When someone that we have sweated over, cried over, poured out resources to, stressed with, brainstormed over, personally met with, sent leadership to, counseled, met their needs,...when they turn around and leave the church (or mention that the following in a complaint, without actually leaving, usually saying it as a veiled threat) and say that we are not loving enough or we have not done anything to meet their needs...well, I'm not going to use profanity, but I really want to.  Are you kidding me??!!!!!??? It's okay to leave, but really???? Do you really believe that???

Hold on a second, no, no, no, I'm not going to tell my staff that sweat great drops of blood for someone that they didn't cut it. No, the person didn't fall through the cracks, they just assumed something beyond human. I know that when someone is in pain they can't see clearly, but must we be sacrificed in the process???

I realize that there are some lofty expectations on a church, but there is a point when it's entirely unhealthy.  I know I use words like 'family' and 'flock' on purpose and that creates expectations, but at some point we need to realize that some things are just not possible.  No, we aren't going to read minds. No, we can't make follow up calls to check on everyone's situations (as important as they may be to you and to us).  Those types of personal and deliberate contacts are only something that are handled in a 'small group' setting.  There's no way that with all the real life pain that we deal with (sheer volume) that we would be able to meet everyone's expectations, but more than that, we actually shouldn't. That's not the way church is designed.  Some of that kind of follow-up and care has to be done in friendships, some of that is done in literal family, some of that is done in marriage, some of that is done in small groups. Leadership in church is just one element of your support system, not the whole thing.

Do we need to do a better job taking care of the proverbial 'widows and orphans', meaning those who don't have anyone to look after them???  Yes, we do. I admit we are less than stellar on that, but we are working dilligently behind the scenes to fix it.  Do we need to be more proactive in general, rather than reactive?  Perhaps, although I can't see how.

Why is it that no one seems to get upset when their doctor doesn't call to see how they are doing (and he/she only has a few patients at a time)?  Why do we not get angry when our secular counselor doesn't call us to just check up on us?  No. why?  Because of expectations. Where did we get the idea that leadership at church is going to personally follow us around and meet every need.  That can't be!

In my personality, I would love to meet every need, but that would be unhealthy and enabling.  Sometimes the responsibility must reside with the individual to see that the proper care is sought after. The power to build a support system and friends is not something outside people can do for us, we must do it ourselves.  Only you and I possess the power to connect and be near enough to other people so that they know your needs. 

Heck, I know my family extremely well and I am unable to meet all the needs of my own mom, my nieces, my dad, my brother, my sister, my wife and my kids.  No, I can't get back to all their calls in a timely fashion. No, I can't respond to all their emotional emergencies.  But that doesn't mean I don't love them. Love has nothing to do with it. Attention has nothing to do with it (I'm aware of their needs I just can't get to them like I want. I'm thinking about it and praying about it).  It's about possibility and limitations of a human.

Think for a moment about how Jesus ran His ministry on earth.  There is not one mention of Him checking up on those He healed or doing follow up visits (except for further teaching like the paralyzed guy) that I can think of.  Does that mean He let things fall through the cracks, or not do His job?  Does that mean that He didn't love the people He was with?  Did that mean He was ministering to too many people?  No. It meant He played a role in their life and that was accomplished.

I just get so discouraged when we do all we can and it's tossed aside as inadequate.  If it was really inadequate I probably wouldn't have a hard time. But when it's clearly more than most receive, and it's still tossed aside...that's when I go mad.

And finally, let me say this...God has empowered all of our staff and congregation as the priesthood of believers...just because I didn't personally call you or visit you doesn't mean that Bridgeway doesn't get credit for reaching out.  We love you to death, but unfortunately if we did it to the degree you are expecting, it would result in just that...for us.

Frustrated but clinging to hope...

What's that all about? Do we really have the power to shape other people's lives through 'blessings?' Isn't it a bit like speaking prophecy?

Here's where it ties into my job...Have you noticed that in many churches today and many faiths today the head leader is called upon to 'bless' the people. Moses did it, so why not the local leaders of today, they may say. So, at the end of many services, something is said to the effect, 'go now in the power of the Lord and may God give you the power to demolish strongholds and preach the gospel to all nations...' But, in the mind of many of the people and the leader, this isn't another way of saying, 'My hope is that God smiles upon you,' but an actual commanding of something to be.

Do I have that calling? do I have that authority? Do I have that power? Because I am the senior pastor of this flock, is the responsibility and power given to me to say, 'bless you my child' and speak things into existence for the congregation? If it is, I don't do it. should I?

There's something incredible when you realize that God allows certain men and women to carry around a tremendous amount of power. consider for a moment the power of a missionary. consider the power of someone sharing the gospel. Consider the phrase in Scripture when Jesus tells the disciples that what they forgive is forgiven and what they don't forgive isn't forgiven!!! (Jn 20:23, cf Mk 2:10) Holy cow! (by the way are you seeing where the Roman Catholic Church is picking up on some of these concepts?). Heck, it's like a Father giving his two year old a gun and sending them to school. Will they protect the other students at day care, or will they haphazardly take little Timmy out?

The closest thing I do to giving a prophetic blessing is in child and baby dedications. Do you remember that part? The part where I pray over them and speak into their life a character trait? Where do you think I got that idea from? From the Bible! And it took me a lot of mental wrestling just to go that far. Yet, I believe to a great degree I am not exercising much of the power and authority God has given me as an under-shepherd of his flock, the Church.

But is this all nonsense? Would God really give mankind the ability to do things that alter eternity? Well, depending on your theology, He may well be doing that with allowing man to engage personally with salvation. Is it possible that we can make eternal decisions with limited, finite, selfish minds? Would God let that happen? Would He bestow such a power on man? Hmmmm

I'll close by saying this...I believe that we are only scratching the surface in using the authority and power that Christ has given to His body the Church. Where we are lacking and what we are not exercising, I'm not clear on. I just know that we are handicapping ourselves.

Maybe you disagree.

Don't get me wrong, I find it horribly creepy and wrong, for a number of different reasons, what I'm trying to do is separate out why I think that way and why others seem to indicate the same.

Is it really the fact that they are underage 'brides'?  Is it because it's a multiple marriage situation?  If those are the case, let me throw something out there to think about.  Why is it that we don't seem to care about the fact that tons of tribes in other continents are doing both, right now?  And whose to say what's too young to get married?  Aren't we just making the age cut off, randomly anyway?

We all seem to just kind of giggle at the idea that Mary the mother of Jesus may well have been 14 or 15 years old according to some traditions.  What about that?  Whose to say what the age of responsibility is?  I can't recall any specific ages given in the Bible for marriage.  I know there are tons of traditional ages in Jewish history that define certain roles, i.e. 12-13 for young men becoming 'sons of the law'.

Or is it the fact that these 'marriages' are 'forced?'  I think this hits my heart strings more than anything else.  Any thought of someone being force to marry some creepy older guy makes my skin crawl.  But what if your whole culture buys into it?  Our culture buys into the 'fact' that we are okay to get married around 18.  What if another culture came up and called us creepy for letting our 'kids' get married so young?  What would we say?  If the whole culture buys into it, then is it 'forced?'  Maybe the young 12 year old girls are hoping to turn another year so they can finally get married. Just because they buy into it, does that make it right?  I hope not.  And isn't any 'arranged marriage' kind of forced, regardless of age? What about that?  We get tense about it, but understand it.  Somehow, the combo in this situation is just too much.

And another thing that's driving me crazy in this situation is that America seems to be up in arms about this, when at the same time they are demanding tolerance for every oddity and perverse lifestyle or religion.  So, which is it?  If we called ourselves a 'Christian Nation' and really want to be that, I can see the point in standing against this cult. But if we are no longer wanting to be a Christian Nation, then who cares?  Each religion that steps on this soil is going to have a totally different view of right/wrong, acceptable/unacceptable.  If we don't start on a solid foundation of a given religion or morality in agreement, how are we going to make these kinds of decisions?  Secular society craves for 'openness' and fights anything Christian, but the minute something doesn't line up with their feelings of acceptable, they suddenly want to cite Christian principles as the reason.  that just bugs me.

Oh well, just some things to think about.

This is how it's going to go.  About 2-3 x's per week I'm going to share different thoughts from my brain to yours.  I can't guarantee that they will be either brilliant or funny all the time.  But, considering I fascinate myself (helps when you're lonely) I'm going to enjoy it consistently.

I've just started podcasting as well on a podcast call 'Mental Musings'.  These are additional and extended verbal rants I have on various subjects.  Again, not always incredible, but dang it, I like em.

You can find the feed/podcast online, at http://www.bridgewaychristian.org/mediafiles/lances-podcast.xml.  We'll let you know when we get it up on itunes.

When you read the blog or hear the podcast, give me a response, comment, or whatever so I know you are out there and it's not just my dog reading this stuff.

See ya soon,

Lance.

Israel?

What's kind of funny is that I first intended on going to Israel during my sabbatical, but it was closed! Closed? How do you close a whole country? Well, it wasn't really closed, it was just kinda closed to me. You see, September and October is the dry season over in Israel and with the dry heat and winds everything turns brown and ugly so tourism slows down. I tried to design my own tour with seminary professors but all were going in the Spring. I tried to tie in to Jerusalem University, but they just get back in session in September and don' do any excursions until late October (not to mention due to the high conflict of the time, all excursions to the Sea of Galilee area were shut down too), and that just wouldn't work with my schedule. The only way for me to go was to go alone on an air-conditioned bus, staring through the windows at the Holy Land and visiting all the tourist traps. I wasn't about to do that. I was going to hold out until I could go properly.

So, now what? My Israel trip was sunk, so where should I go? I know I wanted to travel to a land of the Bible so I could understand Scripture to a greater degree and immerse that knowledge into my teaching to make it richer and fuller. Well, I've already done a study tour to Greece and Turkey and followed the footsteps of Paul's Missionary Journeys about 4 years ago, so what was left? Any other option would have to be a bit more specific to a more remote location, so I began to look around. My options seemed to be areas like Egypt, Saudi Arabia or Iraq, which didn't seem totally safe at the time. Or, I had the option to get extremely specific with islands like Crete or Malta. But then it dawned on me, Rome! Paul spent time in Rome, Paul died in Rome! That's it, Rome is the place!
Rome-Bound

So, I'm locked on Rome and all that's left are the details. Now, you have to remember, I'm not a huge traveler (being afraid of flying and all) so if I was going to go that far I was going to make a whole trip out of it (at least two weeks). And I certainly didn't want to go alone (not with my personality, I'd drive the locals nuts). Suzi, my wife, didn't want the kids alone that long (or be away from them), so I thought of going with my dad, but the walking would have really been difficult for him. But then an offer came to go with my brother, and I jumped at the chance (more on him later).

So I begin the travel plans. We hooked up with an AAA travel agent to put all the specifics down on our general plan. I asked my brother what he wanted to do and he said he was along for the ride, so I took charge. I decided that along with the study in Rome I wanted to see as much of Italy as I could. So, I checked all the travel books on Italy and came up with a rough outline. I knew I wanted to go to the beautiful location of the Cinque Terra (five towns), thanks to friends and travel guru Rick Steves. And, I knew I wanted to visit the leaning tower of Pisa and my brother dropped serious hints about visiting Florence, so where else? Well, I've always had a dream of going to the little country of Monaco and seeing the famous Monte Carlo hotel and casino (James Bond thing), so we added that. Also, I had always heard of the majesty of the Tuscany region so we added that too. After some adjustments and cutting out Milan and Venice we were locked and loaded.
Getting Started and Getting My Brother (Sept 3-5th)

I finished preaching the weekend of September 1st and 2nd with all the services and I stayed late to get all the loose ends tied up and then I was headed home to start this extended time off. It was weird, to be honest. I never take all my vacation granted to me at any given year, much less take extended time off. I love my job and it's demanding. If you add the responsibility I shoulder it's just not easy to get away, but this time I was going to do it with style. I needed it and my family needed it.

The first few days was pretty much a blur trying to get everything organized for travel of this magnitude. I was heading up to Reno, Nevada, where my brother lives to partner with him and start our journey. My brother, who we call Chris (middle name), even though his name is Bruce, works for the D.A's office of Reno (Washoe County). He's a prosecutor who works on intense crimes, we'll leave it at that. He's about eight years older than me and growing up we never really grew up together. Not only are we different personalities, but when he was sixteen, I was eight. When I was sixteen he was long gone out of the house. We never really personally connected or developed a close relationship. I always loved him as my brother and looked up to him and couldn't wait to laugh and joke with him, but we didn't really know each other. I had no idea what spending twenty-four hours a day, for two weeks with him was like, but I was about to find out.

The day came for our departure and I drove up to meet my brother and we went to the Reno airport. We had lunch, talked about plans and then headed out. You would assume that the only thing on my mind was dreaming about the trip and figuring out what I was going to do on all the flights from here to France, but honestly, if it wasn't for the joy of getting to know my big brother, I would have been a nervous wreck about all the flying. Can you imagine that? A pastor, afraid of flying? How absurd! And yet, it's me.

So, where did this fear come from you ask? Well, I didn't grow up with it. As a matter of fact up until about five years ago, I thought flying was pretty cool. But then September 11th happened. That got the ball rolling. Then I had an incident on a plane the spring of 2002, coming back from Athens, Greece that flipped a switch in my brain. I don't have time to tell you the whole story right now, but the simple fact is, I developed a fear of flying. It's more of a phobia, probably, since it's not really based in fact (I understand the safety statistics and realize it's silly), but no matter what I do I have a deep-seated fear. And don't ask me to explain why I would have a fear of death if I'm a believer, that's an even longer answer. Let's just say this, I'm not afraid of going to heaven, I'm not really afraid of death. I'm just a bit uncomfortable about the process of getting there and what I leave behind. Enough said.

Anyway, we lifted off from Reno airport and flew to San Francisco. If you want to ask me why we didn't just leave from San Francisco, or why I didn't meet my brother there and leave a car, I don't really know. I guess my head was so full of other plans, it sounded good at the time. Honestly, I can't do better than that. From San Francisco we went international to the airport in Munich, Germany. From there we flew to Nice (pronounced '“ 'neese'), France, which is on the bottom right corner of the country where it borders Monaco and Italy, along the seaside.
France

Can I just admit that I'm stupid at the beginning of this, and save us a bunch of time? Well, not stupid, but ignorant sometimes, especially in areas of travel. But, hey, I don't travel much so cut me some slack. Anyway, as an example, let me share my first interaction with the French folks.
We fly into the airport in Nice and know that we have to get to the 'metro/Euro-train' (subway system of Europe) to get to Monaco. So, we hop on a tram to the bus station. Well, all the trains are retarded, no really, 'retarded.' That's not a comment on mental status, it's what the incoming train board said, 'retarded.' They were held up, late, and people are all over the place. When you walked in to check the board the air was thick and smelled a bit like a high school locker room. We waited outside.

After an hour we realized that the retarded trains were going to remain retarded for quite some time and we decided that we had to find another way to get to Monaco, which was merely fifteen to twenty minutes up the road. Surely, we could take a bus there, right?
So, we get back on the tram and go back to the airport. We check all the schedules (in French, which we don't speak) and finally figured out that one of them was heading to Monaco. Oh, by the way let me say one more thing in my defense before you say anything. When I went to exchange my money in the United States, the exchange rate was almost one dollar, fifty ($1.50), for one 'Euro' (European currency), which I found out later is a record lame rate. Anywho, I'm totally convinced that Europe is going to be really expensive and we are in a bad bargaining position. Alright, back to the story.

So, we wait for the bus to come, but it doesn't come. After an hour we decide that we have to ask someone, so I go in to the ticket counter. There's no one there, but then a guy watching soccer in the waiting room gets up, goes behind the desk and asks if he can help (hey, he spoke a little English, I was happy about it). He tells me that the bus does go to Monaco and that I can pay the driver of the bus, not him. I walk back outside and tell my brother that it's coming. We wait longer.

And then, glory of glories, the bus arrives, and I get stupid. My brother watches the bags, while I go to buy the tickets and discuss the matter with the bus driver. And yes, I'm about to reinforce the stereotype, so just keep your mouth closed. I ask the French lady bus-driver how much it is to go to Monaco for two tickets and she says, and I quote, 'one seventy, euro.' I'm flabbergasted. I don't know how far it is, but wow, going from one country to another is way more expensive than I thought. Not only that, I'm thinking the transit system here is really, really expensive.
I reach in my wallet and hand her a hundred euro bill. She looks at me like I'm a moron and I repeats her line, 'one seventy, euro.' I feel like a dummy and realize that it must be one hundred euro and then an additional seventy euro, so I reach in my wallet and hand her another hundred euro (now mind you, that's equivalent to about three hundred U.S. dollars). She's about to give me the line again when an American speaking guy in line says, 'its one euro and 70 coin.' Are you kidding me? You're telling me that it's about $2.25 for two tickets and I'm handing this woman $300? Oh, goodness this is going to be a long trip.

So we arrived in Monaco late that night. The bus driver didn't seem to notice that he was erratically driving, or that people were swerving around him on the narrow windy road, because he spent most of his time looking backward at his friend who he was talking to. But, we go there alive. We got dropped off and I we looked at our map for our hotel. We found the cross streets and started walking. We each brought two bags a piece. Mine happened to be loaded with bricks, but hey I'm a big guy.

We walked up and down streets trying to find our hotel and nodding to the nice people that were eating their dinner at this unholy hour. I felt pretty awkward. But eventually we found it, a small hole in the wall, two-star hotel called Hotel de France. But we're in Monaco now. I don't get it. Anyway, we checked in and walked a lot of stairs up to our room. It was a tiny, one room, tiny bathroom, two little bed place. It was clean and neat, but I swear that if I stretched out, I could touch two of the walls. Apparently only dwarves live in Monaco, Princess Grace, and her seven dwarves. But nothing was better than the shower.

In the morning I got in the Lilliputian bathroom and turned on the shower. When I tried to shut the shower curtain, it was so small that my other arm hit the faucet and it turned freezing cold! When I corrected the water, my other arm opened the curtain. Don't even ask about me leaning backward to wash my hair.

But after I dried off with my washcloth-sized bath towel and got ready we were ready to hit the town. We pretty much saw the whole country in one day. You see, 'œMonaco is the world's most densely populated country and second-smallest independent nation; with a population of just 32,410 and an area of 1.96 square kilometres (485 acres).' I love Wikipedia (Internet Encyclopedia). It may not be totally accurate, but it's fast and easy.

I won't bore you with detailed accounts (too late) but here are the highlights. First we went to the famous Musee Oceanographique (Oceanographic museum). Its world famous mostly because it was ran for years by Jacques Cousteau. Although it was small, it did have some cool stuff. It had an underground aquarium that was fed directly from the ocean through pipes. It had a skeleton of an enormous blue whale (and a narwhale, which was my favorite). It had a small-replica of the Santa Maria (Columbus' ship) on display and a replica of the world's first submarine, which was made of wood and levers. It had an eclectic assortment of weird sea stuff (like a power sugar spoon from the 1800's made from a sea-shell with holes in it) that was fun to look at, and a stuffed polar bear. What does this have to do with Jesus? Nothing, the whole first part of the trip was about relaxing, sight-seeing and spending time with my brother. We'll get to the Jesus part later in the story.

Then we walked around the harbor which housed some of the biggest and most expensive yachts in the world. Each one was millions and millions of dollars. They had just finished having a yacht show the week earlier and some were still there to walk through, but I passed. We headed over to the Monte Carlo and as we were walking we saw a gym, with a pool, right out on the harbor in the middle of everything. Lots of folks were working on their tan, some just didn't want tan lines. We kept walking. Then we saw our first Smart Car. Have you seen these things?

They look like a little robot car for a dwarf. I kid you not. The cars over there are all small. Heck, if you see a regular-sized car it looks like a giant decided to descend on the Smurfs. This smart car made me laugh out loud and I took a picture of it. Of course they are popular all over the world and totally normal, but to me it was hilarious. By the end of the trip I wanted one. The only problem was that I would look like a giraffe with my head sticking out of the top, where I would have to cut a hole.

We went over to the Monte Carlo and just walking up to it felt expensive. For those of you that don't know, the Monte Carlo is a world-famous casino for high rollers and was highlighted by a James Bond film. It's where millionaires from all over the world (sheiks, etc.) go to play high stakes. I just wanted to go in and stare at all the rich people. Remember, I put this place on the map of our itinerary just to come here.

So we walk around the front, and I look at the sign. It shows a bunch of pictures and one of them is a dress coat and tie. I start to panic. I'm wearing linen pants and a button down, but I don't have a suit and tie. I though I could just look in during the day. But then I saw a couple try to walk up the stairs and go in and they were rudely shooed away but a prissy doorman, and I thought to myself, call it pride, but there is no way that I'm going to let that snobby little doorman shoo me, I'm not going in. I don't care if I traveled a million miles, I will not be humiliated by some punk. So, I didn't go.

Later, after we left the country I found out that I could have gone in, but it just didn't open for another forty-five minutes, and they were cleaning the steps out front waiting for it to open and the people were walking on their clean floor. I didn't need a suit and tie until the evening. Oh well, there's always next time. So, we walked around the streets where they hold the Formula One racing, got some food and just strolled around. It was kind of funny seeing a huge group of bikers there hanging out as a gang driving through on their Harleys. They looked really out of place, but what do I know, I'm a stupid American.
Cinque Terra

The next morning we got on a train and headed down the coast, along the Mediterranean Sea, to a small part of Italy known as Cinque Terra. It is arguably the most beautiful area of Italy. I wouldn't argue with that. Cinque Terra means, 'five lands' and it's named so because it's a collection of five little towns nestled on the sea's shoreline. It's located in the region of Liguria (Italy is broken up in large regions) and in the province of La Spezia.

This area remain quite and remote for a long, long time. At one point it was so remote that the towns weren't even able to communicate with each other except by a scary donkey ride. Families grew, lived and died without leaving town. Each town is rough the size Old Town Sacramento, or perhaps a little bigger. In order down the coast they are named: Monterosso (where we stayed), Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. We had the blessing of seeing all five of them, although we only saw Vernazza from a boat in the ocean.

I could go on and on about the beauty, but that would just get irritating. Take my word for it. Each little town was a colorful village tucked away in the rock cliffs of the ocean, almost all having a small harbor where a boat can pull in. They are still rather remote, but about ten years ago a widely known travel guy (Rick Steves) wrote about it in his book and on his TV show and now tons of people flock there every year. They've even changed their travel in the area to accommodate the popularity that he brought.

We stayed in a bed and breakfast in the largest of the five towns, Monterosso. We walked the whole thing, through the windy narrow streets that were too narrow for cars to travel. Everyone was on foot, or on bike and small cafes were everywhere. We ate the best food and were treated like kings at the bed and breakfast (Albergo Marina). They served breakfast each morning on a rooftop, lemon-tree garden. During the day we walked, took pictures and laid on the pebbly beach and stared at the aqua-green water.

We were there for a couple days and were able to take a boat all the way down to the end to Riomaggiore and walk backward to Manarola (easiest trail '“ called 'Lover's Lane', I kept telling my brother not to hold my hand, but I did play the mandolin a bit), and then on through to Corniglia (the only town not accessible via boat). When we were finished it was dark and we had to get home, so we headed to the small train station in town. Our train was cancelled so we waited around for the next one, the last one leaving town that night. After a while we got sick of waiting and we just decided to take the next train out of town and hope it stopped in our town. We risked it and it paid off and we were back at a decent time.

The next day we grabbed our bags and took the train along the coast down to Pisa. I think everyone knows Pisa, with the leaning tower and all. And no, I didn't take a picture of me holding it up with my hands, I hate those people. But yes, I did take a picture in front of it with my brother (actually the only picture of both of us together that we took the whole trip, I'm going to cherish that one).
We checked our bags at the train station so we didn't have to carry them around the city and set out to find the leaning tower. Little did we know that the tower was going to be great but not the most impressive part of our Pisa stay. Don't get me wrong, it's really amazing and beautiful. Its 183 ft high (8 stories tall) and looks like a stacked wedding cake (there are eight layers). It leans at 10% (they straightened it a bit a while back to make it secure).

But what amazed me more than the leaning tower, was the church and the baptistery that was next to it. You see, the whole tower and church area is enclosed with a medieval wall (keep the bad guys out). In that enclosed square (Piazza del Duomo) is the tower, an enormous church ('duomo' = medieval cathedral) dedicated to St. Mary of the Assumption, and a huge domed building (Dedicated to John the Baptist) which housed the baptistery (where they would do baptisms '“ 351 ft around). I cannot emphasize the size of the church (328 ft long and 164ft, or 16 1/2 stories high!). Well, just consider that the leaning tower of Pisa is merely it's free-standing bell tower! In fact all over Europe the sizes of the ancient churches were absolutely astounding.

The Baptistery doesn't seem to be used for anything these days other than a tourist attraction and after seeing how ornate it was, and how huge it was when we were inside (not to mention the incredible acoustics inside which made a whisper sound like a shout, just imagine chanting or songs sung there), I stopped to talk to the Lord about what I was seeing. Now, I don't pretend that when I pray God answers all my questions audibly so lets not be silly. But I have conversations with Him sometimes. I don't know if the answers I receive speak more about what I think of the situation or His view point, so I take them lightly. But I sat down and prayed.

I asked, 'Lord, is this what you desire? This immensity, this grandiose building? Are you pleased with this extravagance? Is it honorable to you? Should we do more to honor your name in architecture? Is this what you want?' And I listened. The first thing that came to my heart was this response, 'What do you hear?' I sat and listened. 'Nothing,' I replied (because they had a guard down below that shouted, 'Silencio!!!' any time someone made a sound, you weren't allowed to talk inside). 'Do you hear the sounds of praises?' He seemed to ask. 'No,' I replied. 'Do you hear prayers?' No, I said. And He left it at that. I took it to mean that those are the things that He desires, the praises and prayers of the saints in His home, not merely an empty building. Whether or not a beautiful building is honorable to Him or not, filled with worshipers we didn't get into, but I heard what I wanted to hear. Was it God? It sounded like Him, but I can't be sure on that one.

From Pisa we headed via train across Italy, to the middle, to the city of Florence. Florence is famous for a bunch of things, namely their famous artists and the works of art that it contains ('œIt is said that, of the 1,000 most important European artists of the second millennium, 350 lived or worked in Florence.' Wikipedia). It was here that Michelangelo wanted to be. It was here where Rafael did his masterpiece painting, where Leonardo da Vinci created, where Donatello sculpted. In fact the tombs of Galileo, Michelangelo, Machiavelli and Dante all lie here.

Some of the greatest works of art in the whole world are housed in the 'Uffizi' here, a world-famous gallery. My brother and I got tickets, months in advance, to skip the three-hour wait to get inside. Once inside we went from room to room, through this magnificently designed building which is jammed full of Renaissance art. What's so comical is that although I tried to be mature about it, and tried to be an adult, walking from piece to piece and standing there looking at it with my hand on my chin in feign wonder, I was bored out of my mind. I'm sorry! I know I should have been more grown up. But when a teenager walked by me in the hallway with his hand beating his head saying, 'boring, boring, boring, boring' out loud, I wanted to scream, 'yes, my brother, I feel you!!!!' Oh, sure if I knew what I was looking at and why it was so important I would have been mesmerized, but all it looked like to the untrained eye was, 'oh look, another dead renaissance guy,' and 'oh look Madonna and child'¦again.'

So, on another day we went to the Accademia, the other world-famous gallery of artwork in Florence. It is here that Michelangelo's most famous statue of David, stands. Although there are at least five statues of David around the city, this is the only original one. It's 17 feet high and it's supposed to be the biblical patriarch of the Jews, just before he does battle with Goliath. But guess what, it's not. How do I know? Well, let's see, although the guy has a sling, his face and body are typically Greek in design. Although he has curly hair, he has a glaring error for being David of the Bible. He's uncircumcised! Embarrassing that I noticed, but when he's 17 feet tall, standing above you, and naked, it's kind of difficult to miss. And if David is the epitome of Jewish, a forefather of Christ, the Messiah, don't you think of all people he would be circumcised? Yeah, me too. Everyone knows that Michelangelo was just creating and making something amazing and the only way to sell it and be accepted in his day and age, was to say that it was something biblical.

Anyway, one other funny thing that happened was that while we were in the Accademia, was that as my brother and I walked around together, just outside the room that held David, a lesbian couple caught my brother's eye and gave him the nod of approval for being with his gay partner in public, me. Oh well. We got a good chuckle at that.

Florence is also known for its architecture and statues that are open to the public, displayed outside. In a world-famous square, Palazzo della Signoria (also made famous in the movie Hannibal, not that I'm recommending a movie about cannibalism), there are some of the most famous sculpted, marble statues, such as 'the Rape of the Sabines,' 'Perseus with the Head of Medusa,' and the fountain with King Neptune, among many others. We had lunch here and people-watched for a while.

The only other two landmarks that I will mention (due to time) are the 'Ponte Vecchio' and 'Santa Maria del Fiore.' The Ponte Vecchio is a world-famous bridge over the Arno River that has shops built in all across the bridge. Built in the medieval times, it was later covered with stone and shops were built on it. Due to the rulers of the time (Medici family) being hated by the people, they built a corridor above it, extending the width of the bridge so they didn't come in contact with the people. Since it usually housed butcher shops, it smelled all the time, so the Medici family banished the butchers and gold merchants settled in. From 1593 to today, it housed only goldsmith shops and sells high end gold (seems to be just highly marked up gold, but hey what do I know), allegedly the best in the world. It looks like something out of Pinocchio (which by the way is an Italian story set in the city of Livorno and his name is really pronounced 'Pee-knock-ee-oh').

The Santa Maria del Fiore is another enormous church (at one time the biggest in Europe, with room for 30,000 people. Inside the church is 502 feet long and 124 feet wide.). The only difference is that it's intensely ornate and almost totally white. As I looked at it I kept waiting for little puppets to pop out and sing, 'It's a Small World After All.' The dome up on the top is 37,000 tons! Designed by Brunelleschi who was helped by Donatello, the whole church stands about 375 feet tall from ground to top of the dome!

Florence was my favorite city. We didn't stay in the best hotel (Boboli Hotel), but it was clean. Some of the lack of love for the room was their fault, some our fault and some was, well, just stuff that happens. Their fault was the bathroom. Unfortunately it didn't have a shower curtain designed in so when you took a shower you just pretty much showered in the bathroom and the water just showered down on you and the toilet next to you. Our part was that in order to get fresh air we left the windows open (we were on the third floor) and mosquitoes flooded in and waited on the ceiling for nighttime, only to descended on my brother en masse during sleep (I didn't get bit once'¦shows who prayed harder). And the other issue, well, it has to do with soccer fans.

Due to my internal clock being out of whack (Italy is nine hours ahead of the West Coast here in America), I woke up every night, for the first week, at 1am and stayed awake until 3 or 3:30am. Well, at about midnight I heard out the window some young men singing to their hearts content as they walked home, either from a bar or a soccer event (since public intoxication is a strict no-no, in Italy, I'm going to assume they were cut slack by the soccer game). I knew they were drunk by their singing and the one guy trying to hold down the falsetto girl's part. They were probably six blocks away when I first heard them (our window was open a crack). I prayed for them to just hurry by so I could get my one hour of sleep and then wake up again. But as luck would have it, they walked down the street, stopped in front of our building and proceeded to party in our lobby. Oh, goody.
Sienna

On the morning of September 14th my brother and I took the bus downtown in Florence, hopped off and dragged our bags to the rental car store (actually we went to the wrong one, waited in line for a bit and then realized our mistake). We picked up a little fiat (once again, dwarf sized), and headed down to the Tuscany region. Due to some poor navigation skills (can't blame it all on the map and directions we received) we ended up bypassing our rendezvous point so we decided to make a day of sightseeing in the incredible town of Sienna (south of Florence).

Although Sienna didn't have a ton to do and I probably won't go back there, I have to say it was probably one of the most impressive looking cities, from the outside that we saw. It looks like a huge medieval castle city with high walls surrounding huge portions of it. It has one of the largest town squares in Europe and we sat and ate Gelato. Oh, yeah, and we went into the Torture Museum there too (boy was that creepy) which chronicles all the various forms and instruments of torture throughout the centuries. I know, I know, that's totally weird, but what are you supposed to do when your gelato is finished and the Torture Museum is right in front of you??? Walk on by? I hadn't thought of that.
Il Murrice, Greve and the Tuscan Countryside

After finishing with Sienna we drove back up towards Florence and right in the middle we hit our destination, Il Murrice, the bed and breakfast we were looking for. I have to tell you a bit about the Tuscan countryside before I go on. Have you ever been to Napa Valley? Okay, imagine that, with all the grapevines and agriculture and then put it on steroids! Now, you have Tuscany (it's just like that movie, Under the Tuscan Sun, not that I'm endorsing 'chick-flicks'). Tuscany is a massive Napa Valley with little castles all over the place. Many of the homes and castles have turned into working farms with bed and breakfasts (called agri-turismo, which means part working agriculture farm and part tourist housing). We stayed in one of those.

Il Murrice, the bed and breakfast where we stayed, was ran by two middle aged guys who we thought were a couple. Then again, people always thought my brother and I were a couple, so what do I know. But they were really, really nice and hospitable. Each morning one of them would cook breakfast for each guest (toasted cheese & ham sandwich, yogurt, coffee and such). They had four rooms in the main house and a bottom floor studio (partially underground) that my brother and I shared. They owners lived next door in a separate addition to the house, separated by a gate.
Although our room was beautiful, as fate would have it, it would not go without incident either. One the first night we settle down there, my brother commented on all his mosquito bites from Florence. Surprisingly enough, I had just the thing in my bag. Prior to leaving I was turned on to a miracle, natural remedy for ailments and bug bites, called Tea Tree Oil. Tea Tree Oil is apparently God's way of solving all the world's problems in the opinion of those that sold me on it. Unfortunately, God had to make it smell like Hades.

So, I show it to my brother and he puts it on his bites and we settle in our respective beds for a little sleepy-time. In order to have easy access, my brother set the bottle of Tea Tree Oil on the small table between us, with the cap unscrewed. It was about 1 am when the fateful event occurred. In his drowsiness, he flopped his arm over to put it under his pillow and whack, down went the Tea Tree Oil, which bounced on the floor and scattered its contents all over the place, under the beds, on the blankets and the Lord knows where else. Shocked awake by my senses, we scrambled to mop it up, and then the laughter started. We were laughing so hard, that even after it was mopped up we couldn't get back to sleep, not to mention breathe. Apparently the oil got down into the grout of the tiled floor and smelled to high heaven, for the next three days (with the windows open constantly).

Out front of our room was the patio area with a table where each night at about four in the evening all the guests would come out and have cheese and wine and mingle and talk. We met some of the nicest people there. One couple was from Santa Rosa, CA, imagine that. We ended up ministering a lot to those folks and went to dinner twice with the couple from North Carolina and sharing the Lord with them (non-intrusively and more conversationally), as well as me acting as the relationship counselor in their marriage (by the way my brother was on fire going around and talking to everyone, totally out of his personality, and wanting to start conversations about Christ, I was so proud of him). Everyone thought that it was funny that the brothers were a pastor and a lawyer. They said it was like good and evil mixed together.

The second day we were there, I was honestly too tired to keep going. My brother wanted to head on out into the countryside and take a look around and he headed to the town of Castellina and I said goodbye and went the swing out front and sat down. I literally stared into the distance for about an hour and a half. Then I laid down on the (free-standing porch-type) swing for another hour and almost fell asleep until one of the guests, a single gal from southern California (there on business) came out and we talked for a while. I was able to minister to her too, as well as listen to her story.

Later that day I did some drawing and napping until my brother came back and we went to dinner with some other folks. The next morning, we ventured out to the town of San Gimignano (we called it 'Jiminy Cricket' or 'chimichanga' because we kept forgetting how to pronounce it) and the nearby town of Greve. The whole regional area where we were is called the Chianti region. So, most of the towns have the phrase, 'in Chianti' following their title. So, we actually visited Greve in Chianti and Castellina in Chianti, but I think you get the picture. We took photos and drove around. Nothing too much to report here, just sightseeing.

On the morning of September 17th, we packed our bags, drove up to Florence to return the rental car, got on the train and headed down to Rome. It was about a two and a half hour trip, but a very nice train (in 1st class). I fell asleep for a portion of it and read for the rest and the next thing I knew we pulled into the train station in one of the most historic cities on earth, Rome!

Little did we know that when we booked the trip it seemed like a good idea to have a hotel near the train station (easier with the bags, not having to take a taxi, etc.) and it probably was, but in order to do so we ended up staying in 'ghetto-land' of Rome (keeping costs down we only went for two-star hotels). There were burnt out ruins and graffiti everywhere. Walking back home each night was interesting. We just kept out eyes on the gelato in front of us and kept walking.

My time in Rome is kind of a blur. I can't remember for the life of me when I did what, or what order I did what, and honestly, it doesn't matter at all. So, as I'm describing the things I saw just remember that it might be out of order. If I don't care, you shouldn't care.
Coliseum

I do know that one of the firs things that we saw was the world-famous Coliseum! Right down the main drag, amidst the buildings and power lines, there it was, the place where thousands upon thousands of people lost their lives, many of them Christian martyrs. It was big and I mean, really big. What we found out later was that it used to be bigger, but all the marble was stripped off of it to build other stuff so it lost a lot of the outside sections and it's only 2/3 of the size that it once was.

We were instantly approached by a saleswoman selling English speaking tours and we willingly agreed after looking at the line to get in. With no tour, it would have been cheaper, but a lot longer line and I wouldn't have had a clue what I was looking at. Our guide wasn't the best, but it was better than nothing. Walking in there was like walking onto the set of Gladiator, the movie (not that I'm endorsing a movie about killing). The original floor of the stadium was removed in excavation and only partly replaced so that all the underground corridors are exposed for viewing. That was the place where the gladiators were housed, where the wild animals were housed. It was lit with torches, stuffy and dark. They would lift up the animals and people on pulleys and levers and they would pop out of the ground to the awaiting audience.

One on side was the seating area for the Emperor (whoever he may have been from time to time) and across from him was the seating for the Vestal Virgins (a group of young girls, chosen for beauty, around age nine or so and vowed to serve in celibacy for thirty years, whose only job was to keep a flame alit continuously to the goddess Vesta, and just look good. They were the only female priesthood in the Roman world.). You had to imagine in your mind what it must have looked like with shining white marble covering everything, because to this day it's merely brown rock.
Roman Forum

Just adjacent to the Coliseum is the Gate of Constantine (a massive archway dedicated to the Emperor Constantine) and the Roman Forum. The Roman Forum is an open air area which housed not only the great temples of the time to the various gods they served, but housed the Senate and the seat of power of the whole Roman Empire that ruled the world for centuries, including the world situation in which Jesus lived on earth and the early Christian church was born! Now, the Forum is just ruins and as you walk around you have to imagine what it all looked like. Only a few facades of buildings remain. We had another tour guide (an excellent young lady) show us around as a group and I learned a ton.

Just an example of things that you can see there, let me share with you a brief story of the Temple of Romulus (named after Emperor Maxentius' deceased son, 'the best preserved pagan temple in Rome'). It's one of the only temples that are still standing. So, we walk up to the front and my first thought was, 'who in the world was their decorator, this place looks hideous.' Can you tell there's not enough testosterone in my household? The front doors of the temple are huge and they're an ugly green color. On each side of the door was a purple pillar. No one in their right mind matches green with purple on a building, everyone knows that, it clashes (you realize I'm joking, right?). And then I learned a thing or two from the tour guide.

The bronze doors are the second oldest doors in the world (built in the 1300's, over 1700 yrs old) that are still original and operative. Over time bronze turns green, but when it's melted down and remade the bronze gets darker each time, eventually turning almost black in color. These doors are bright green because they are the original doors and they were never melted down or refashioned at any time. And once a year they are opened to an audience on their original hinges! Now that's craftsmanship.

And what about the ugly purple columns? Yeah, they are called Imperial porphyry (or Phrygian purple marble) and this particular marble is only found naturally in one place on earth, a mile high mountain in Egypt. Around AD 18 it was found and in AD 29 Rome used slave labor to mine it out (purple was the royal color) over 300 years and haul it back to Rome where now, almost all of the porphyry in the world is housed (although some is scattered around the world). That makes it one of the most expensive and precious materials on earth! So much for the decorating faux pas.
Mamertine Prison

After walking and studying the Roman Forum we began our search for the one location that I absolutely had to find, the Mamertine Prison. This was the prison that housed the Apostle Paul and where it's believed that he wrote 2nd Timothy from during his second imprisonment in Rome. We looked on our map and couldn't find it. Then we checked another one and went out to locate it. Well, after three long laps around the whole area, we were still just as lost as the beginning. We checked another map along the way and it said that it was at another location. Who thought that this would be so difficult? We came to find out that the reason that it was hard was that it was so unimportant to anyone other than Christians and it was not a big enough deal to highlight on some maps. Well it was a big deal to me so I resolved to find it.

And find it we did. After taking a flight of stairs we saw a small plaque on a rock wall. Even though we couldn't find an entrance we took some photos in front of the plaque and thought that perhaps that was going to be the end of it. But then we walked further down the steps and low and behold there was a huge entrance of an ancient church that had been built on top of it and it said clearly in Roman style letters, Mamertinum, right there for the world to see.

So, we went in. Now, you have to understand a few things about Rome these days. The Apostle Peter gets top billing on everything. Peter beats Paul out in a heart beat. Paul is almost a no name when it comes to discussing apostles in Rome. As you may know, the whole concept of the modern day (and ancient) Pope is that he is in power by direct succession to Peter, the Lord's disciple. Due to the passage about Jesus handing the keys of the kingdom symbolically over to the disciples and the fact that Jesus says, 'on this rock I will build my kingdom', right after he called Peter the rock, they believe that the whole church worldwide would be based on Peter's ministry (cf. Mt 16:13-19). So, from that day forward many believed (and now Catholics world-wide are taught) that all authority must come through the line of the pope which descends down from Peter himself.

Anyway, back to the prison. Although anything having directly to do with Peter receives top billing and is usually costly to get into, the prison that housed Paul, was merely a tiny shoe box that you toss a coin into if you wanted to. I did, and continued inside. The place was deserted. Once inside I found it to be a semi-circular room about 20 ft by 20ft with an altar on one side and two phones that tourists could pay to listen to an explanation. It was originally built during the period of the 'first sack of the Gauls' in 386 BC. It was a special prison during Paul's time and only popular prisoners or head's of state were housed there. It was a sort of 'death row' as they were to await their impending death, usually you were just killed instead of ever being imprisoned. On one wall there was a large stone plaque that listed all the famous martyrs that were killed there.

After listening to the simple message I learned that they believed that not only was Paul there at one time, but Peter was with him at the time. Are you kidding me? Paul can't even be alone in jail, Peter has to be involved (actually the altar was adorned with the two heads of Peter and Paul). As a matter of fact there was a frame on the wall that said the indention of the rock wall was the result of the guards slamming Peter's head into the rock and it caved in, so they framed it and put up a memorial sign. Oh, please!

I learned as well that the area I was standing in was actually the upper level, and Paul would have been housed in the lower level beneath me. I looked down and saw a round hold in the ground covered by a wood grate. Looking up I saw a corresponding round hole in the ceiling with a similar grate. Apparently that was the method of communicating and transporting from level to level (Through the holes). I looked to my right and saw a small flight of stairs descending to the lower level. My brother and I walked down the stairs.

Down below was another circular chamber that I measured to be 12 feet in diameter. It was dark and cool, almost moist down there (cf 2 Tim 4:9-13). There was a small alter that depicted Paul (and Peter) doing ministry with an upside down cross on it (for Peter upside-down crucifixion death which occurred later), and a column that allegedly Peter was chained to. There was nothing more to see except another hole in the ground, which seemed to be for drainage or water source (although a legend says Peter made a spring come up from the ground in prison so he would have water to baptism his converts there). According to the materials, the prisoners were thrown down the hole into the lower chamber which was pitch black and only lit by candles (The ancient historian Sallust said it was 12 feet below the ground and "neglect, darkness and stench make it hideous and fearsome to behold." Sacred-destinations.com). The staircase was actually built hundreds of years later for people to visit.

Down there in the dark I took time to pray to the Lord and I prayed this prayer among many others, 'Lord, what if you called me to this? Would I be ready? Would I fail you? Could I handle it?' I received no answers, probably because it was more rhetorical of a question and perhaps a way of me to sort out my thoughts. I thanked the Lord for all He's done and thanked Him for my ministry. After some more up and down examination and some photos I took, we headed out to see some other sights.
Other Amazing Sites

Through the week we visited more of Rome's richest and most amazing sights. We saw the massive monument to Emmanuel II (which is bigger than you can imagine and houses absolutely nothing, it's just a building, about a guy, not useful at all). We saw the Pantheon (the ancient pagan temple built to all the chief gods of the time, later made into a Christian church), which by the way has a domed ceiling that is open to the elements. It rains right down into the church onto the marble floor (there are holes built for drainage), and one year it snowed! When the snow piled up in the middle of the church, the Pope was asked to come down and give a blessing, weird huh? And we saw the Spanish steps (a bunch of steps) and the Trevi Fountain (now that was impressive). Ask me the story of the Trevi Fountain one day, it's great. Now, that I think about it, the Trevi Fountain may well have been one of the most impressive and surprising sights I saw in Rome. But, let's keep moving, shall we?
The Vatican

Our trip to the Vatican was fascinating but much different than I imagined. We paid for a tour to get us in there (again, allowing us to bypass the four-hour line to get in). After about 30-40 minutes we were inside and it looked and felt like going through security at the airport (metal detectors, guards and scanners). Up a flight of escalators our journey began. We began in a open-aired square just outside the Vatican Museum. What's funny is that I had no idea that some of the most famous things in Rome are located in Vatican City, not just the Pope (it was said that if you stopped for one minute in front of every piece of art in the Vatican museum for one minute, you would be in there for 8 years!). Did you know that Vatican City is its own independent state (sovereign city state) within Rome? It was declared so in a treaty between the Catholic Church and the country of Italy on February 11, 1929 (it's a long story).

Apparently we went to the Vatican on the busiest day of the year. Well, not really, but it felt that way. I do know that all the cruise ships were in port and our tour guide wasn't very happy with them. Anyway, our trip through the Vatican felt much like how cattle must feel as they are being corralled around. We just all lined up and kept moving. Luckily we were inside because it was the only day that it rained in Italy while we were there.

We saw all kinds of statues and busts of famous people, and paintings, mosaics, tiled floors, fancy ceilings, tapestries and much more. The most notable things that we saw were the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. The Sistine Chapel was at first less than impressive. It was dark, so the paint on the walls wouldn't be harmed (no pictures allowed inside), cramped (standing room only), and stuffy feeling (no speaking allowed). I stood there for twenty minutes until our tour guide returned to give us the information. The paintings were impressive but until you hear the stories behind them and the ceiling by Michelangelo, you don't get the full impact. You can ask me sometime the story behind the chapel and I'll tell you. It's too long to write down here.

Bottom line is that it took Michelangelo four years (he was in a hurry) to paint the ceiling (1508-1511), on ladders, scaffolding and on his back, which are nine separate paintings about the creation of the world. Then he was brought back to paint the main picture behind the altar (The Last Judgment) which took him five years to complete (1537-1541). He hated every minute of it and let them know it. All the rest of the paintings in the chapel are painted by other famous artists of the time and they depict the life of Christ on one side and the life of Moses on the other (showing the parallel of the two).

St. Peter's Basilica is absolutely awe-inspiring. Built between 1506 and 1626, it's the biggest church I have ever been in (610 ft long, 717 ft long if you count the front area; the ceiling is 151 ft high in the main sanctuary and 390 feet tall up by the altar into the dome). It covers 5.7 acres and can hold up to 60,000 people. It's importance all surrounds the tradition that Peter's tomb is buried there (under the altar). Therefore, many popes have thus been buried there as well. Much of the marble from which it was built was taken from the Coliseum and paid for by monies gained by the looting of Jerusalem by Titus in 70 AD. The dome of the church was designed by Michelangelo. The courtyard out front, where you usually see all the people stand to have the pope deliver an address and wave, is absolutely massive. All in all it was staggering to behold.

Pompeii

On one of the days in Rome we decided to take a day trip to Pompeii which is just outside of Naples, Italy (south). It was a decent train ride down there and everyone we talked to said that Naples wasn't exactly a good area, so make sure to come back before nightfall (that inspires confidence, huh?). So we took off in the morning and headed on down.

On the way there we understood what they were saying as it even the outlying towns were graffiti covered and seemed rather rough. But once in Naples, if you can judge anything by the area around the train station (consider Sacramento's train station or bus station area), it wasn't a friendly place. But we hopped onto a local train that was headed to Pompeii. It was not very far away but there were a lot of stops.

Once we got off we had lunch and took the short two or three blocks to the city of Pompeii (very near the exit). We bought tickets and decided not to pay for a tour (I regret that now). We grabbed a map and headed on in. I expected a small archeological dig, boy, was I wrong!
Pompeii is a whole city and it's really big. Although it's been unearthed and the majority of it looks like ruins, there are special finds everywhere. I was most shocked (surprised) by this location, than almost any other on the trip (due to expectations). We walked it for about 3 ½ hours and didn't nearly see all of it.

What was so amazing is that it's AD79 frozen in time! That was Paul's era. He would have known many people from here, perhaps traveled down here at some point (although there's no mention of it in Scripture). But it still held the same look and feel as a city that stood in Paul's day. The streets were the same, the design was the same, and here and there you could see remnants of streets signs and murals and shop names. It's still under excavation (found and started in 1748).

If you don't know the story, a nearby volcano (Mount Vesuvius) erupted over a two day period, August 24-25th, 79 AD and covered the city of Pompeii (a vacation city with about 20,000 people) and its sister city Herculaneum. Thousands of people were buried under the pumice and ash. They were buried until uncovered in excavation, many in striking poses. Although most of the best preserved items from Pompeii have been removed to the museum in Naples (which we didn't know about earlier or visit), such as the buried woman and child, or the day to day items of the city, there were still about 15 or so people (whether real or plaster-casts, I don't know) in plexi-glass cases scattered around the city, frozen in ash and pumice, mummified to look at (and yes, it was really creepy).

All my life I thought that the people were buried alive and that it was so instant that they didn't have a chance. I thought that they were running and were caught by the sheer weight of the volcanic ash descending down on them. But after this trip, I learned a thing or two. My brother and I were walking around when we happened to stop and listen in on a tour guide talking about this very subject. What he said was fantastically interesting (is it accurate in total? I don't know, the details are speculation, but it seems mostly true).

He began by making a shocking announcement. He said that they found thousands of bodies of people all over the city, yet they only found one dog (chained up) and three donkeys. Now, how do you suppose a city of this size only had four animals? They didn't. So, what happened to the animals? They all got out and ran for safety (imagine my relief as an animal lover, totally not thinking about the people for a moment but only the little doggies). How did they get out and thousands of people not get out?

It seems that when a volcano erupts the first thing it spews out, before the ash and pumice and lava, is a noxious gas. It happened in the Mount St. Helens eruption in Washington State in 1980. The gas shoots out into the air and it would eventually cause people to grow tired and asphyxiate. But they all had fair warning and could have all gotten out of the city. And then the man speculated upon what they found next. He said that in almost every case of finding a buried body, there were riches nearby that they were either stealing or protecting. But he said, they didn't have to lose their lives, they chose to go back in, or remain on their own accord. The animals had no such attachment.

What made the city so personal was seeing the frescoed walls in people's houses and walking around seeing how they lived and almost feeling like you were intruding by walking through their bedrooms and living rooms. The ceilings, walls and floors were beautifully decorated and it sure seemed to be a wealthy city. Ancient graffiti was etched in the city street walls, to show the normal street life. The surprising abundance of erotic art found showed that there was a form of phallic worship going on, so this was a rather sexual city as well.

Ostiense & Paul's Tomb

On the second to the last day in Rome, I was determined to go to see where Paul the Apostle was buried. It was not in the city of Rome, but outside the city in a nearby town named Ostiense. I wondered if I could find it, because although I read that he was beheaded outside the city walls, in a place later named the Spring of the Three Fountains (where legend has it that when his head hit the ground, three springs erupted from the ground), and an Abbey (monastery) was built over it, I couldn't find the location on many maps. So, I wondered if I could even find the church where he was buried. So, I asked around.

The train guide told me that it was not far out of town and that if I took the subway there, there was actually a stop just for St. Paul's Basilica. I took his advice, my brother joined me and we headed out of town. A few stops down we got off at the St. Paul's Basilica (hey, at least he got his own bus stop) stop. We walked two blocks and there it was. It's called, Basilica di San Paolo fuori le Mura (or the church of Saint Paul outside the walls)

Although it was huge and beautiful, it was notable to mention that Peter gets the Pope, the museum and thousands upon thousands of visitors a day at his church, Paul's was relatively quiet and empty. Don't get me wrong, it's really big and the frescoes above the altar are breath-taking. What was most interesting (other than my camera running out of battery right when we got inside) was that they have Paul's tomb exposed to look at from the side. It's buried under the altar in the church, but you can walk down two steps on the side and it's hewn out of the rock so you can see the side of it. In the small museum next door there is a replica model made of it, which I thought just said, Apostolo, but a book told me that it said, Paulo apostolo mart(yri) (to 'Paul the Apostle and Martyr') as well.

In 2002-2006 they did excavations around the real tomb under the altar and held a press conference about their findings in December of 2006. However, they still have not opened the lid to look inside to see if there are human remains. So, they don't know if Paul is in there or not, perhaps they are afraid to find out. Regardless it was great to be that close to his possible tomb and take time to pray and thank the Lord for using Paul and for Paul's ministry for the kingdom.
We're Outta Here

The next morning we packed out bags and hiked back to the train station through the ghetto and got on a train for the Fiumencino airport. We flew out, back through Munich and back through San Francisco, to Reno, where we arrived at midnight. I was exhausted and stayed at a hotel locally that night just to catch up and shake off the nerves from flying.
Onward to Dad's!

The next day (Saturday) I got up and headed down to the central valley to my dad's house in Chowchilla, CA (45 minutes north of Fresno). I was down there to spend time with him and his wife Pam and to do some speaking for his church down there, Cornerstone Community Church. We all caught up that night and I rested a bit. It was so nice to be back on American soil and not worry about flying, or so I thought.
The next morning I was up bright and early and on my way to church. I was scheduled to preach that morning in the pulpit. I had prepared my message ahead of time so I just did some finishing touches (blew the dust off two messages I taught at Bridgeway some years ago with a few adjustments and blending). They were incredibly friendly to me and the pastor was very encouraging (he was there, but just opened the pulpit for me to speak after being asked to by his men's group).

I preached on being in the will of God and the danger of being too focused on efficiency, and the need to some 'wasted' time in ministry that allows God to work on you. It was well received. It was kind of a teaser for the men's steak night that was going to be held the following night. They got a few more sign ups.

That night my dad had all the men's leaders and servers (for the steak night) over to his house for dinner. I shared the full message that I was going to give the following evening to them, because each year they are so busy working and serving that they never get to hear the speaker themselves. I allowed time for questions and shared my message passionately. They enjoyed it immensely.

The next morning I was notified that some of the men wanted to treat me and my dad to lunch at Harris Ranch down in Coaling, CA (near Bakersfield area). As a treat they had hired a guy they knew to fly me and my dad down in a private plane (six-seater). I didn't want to fly any more, but heck, I'm not going to pass up an opportunity to go to Harris Ranch (I had never been there before but always wanted to go). So, we jumped in a plane and flew down.

The pilot was a really, really nice man that my dad knew, and he flies constantly. He's a crop duster by trade and said that he normally flies about 4-6 feet above the tree line in order to do his job, mostly at night, and under the telephone wires. Holy cow! Thankfully there were no loop-d-loops, and he was kind enough to talk to me the whole time explaining things we were seeing and what the plane was doing. It was honestly, the most comfortable plane ride of my life. What a treat!

That night I spoke at their Men's Steak Night Event (huge steaks and a speaker for five bucks!). I spoke on being a leader in the home and being a leader at work (a similar message to the one I spoke at SunHills' men's retreat I did last year). The prior year they had about 120 men and this year they sold 300 tickets and the room was packed! It was a great time and many men were moved. My dad is still getting stopped on the street and hearing comments about that night. It was a huge blessing to me as well.

The next day I drove home and tied in with Suzi, my wife and we had a lunch date. I gave her some presents and she let me know that I couldn't see the girls yet, because they were planning a surprise party for me at home after school so we had to stay out until they got home and 'Grammie' helped them get it all decorated for me. Isn't that cute?

For the next three and a half weeks, I was home. And when I say I was at home you need to understand what I meant. Many times I was just at home being with my family, but a majority of that time, while the kids were in school, I was actually at my mom's home office doing some writing and Seminary homework. I had an Ethics Class that I needed to do some intense reading for and homework for. I got that done, and also was able to work on some books I have in the works. I don't want to take the time to talk about the books and bore you to death, but one is fiction (kind of a Heroes, meets the X-Men, meets spiritual gifts, etc.) and the other is a fiction book about Christian Issues. Both are very edgy, we'll leave it at that.

But, I was able to get some honey-do's done, counsel my extended family through some rough times, be at the soccer games and practices for Jillian, take Andie on dates, be with my wife, spend time with my mom, take the kids to Six Flags Marine World and do all the things that are healthy and balanced. It was a wonderful time, but boy, it was very busy. I wish I could say that I was coming back bored out of my mind and lethargic from sleeping, but I was doing so much boredom never entered the picture, and sleep was just healthy, not overkill.

I did have the opportunity to visit two different churches while I was gone (Suzi and the kids faithfully went to Bridgeway and I avoided it like the plague). I went to Oak Hills Church in Folsom and heard a great message on the basics of spiritual discipline and spiritual formation (right down my alley). I also attended Lakeside Church in Folsom, with Pastor Brad Franklin on the very weekend that they were having their 20th anniversary and he was so happy to see me (it was accidental on my part, but God knew). Lakeside was very strategically involved in getting Bridgeway started (at that time it was called Roseville Hope Church) many years ago and we owe Pastors Russ and Mark to Lakeside's ministry. I was able to honor them and get fed spiritually as well.

All in all it was a healthy, full, wonderful time. I was the dad my girls loved me to be, the husband I wanted to be, and the son and brother that I needed to be. It was such a great idea to do the sabbatical, I just wish I thought of it, thanks Russ (or should I thank Intel who gave him the idea). My time off was almost over, but there was one more thing to do, and it involved more flying!

About a year ago a pastor in our congregation (who will go unnamed so as not to embarrass he and his wife) who was in between ministries, came to me and offered me a week of his timeshare. He just wanted to do it as a gift to me for the way my ministry blessed he and his wife. I was shocked. He said I had about 10 locations to choose from, four of them were in Hawaii. I've never been to Hawaii, but it's always been on my list. I chose Maui on recommendation and I'm glad I did.

After all the time that had transpired and no contact from the owner of the timeshare (God took him into other ministry with his wife), I didn't even know if it was going to still be on, but it was and we headed out on Friday, Oct 19th. Unfortunately you can't drive there and it's too long to take a boat there, so sure enough I'm back on a plan to fly to Honolulu (Oahu) and then another plane to Maui. Add to the normal nerves my wife who is nervous about leaving the kids and what if we die together and they are left alone, I was a wreck to start with. But once things got going, it worked out great. All flights were smooth and wonderful.

When we touched down in Kahului at the airport we rented a car at Budget (reserved '“ and boy were they fast) and drove down the center of the island to Kihei where we were staying (the Maui Schooner Resort). Through the center of the island is major road construction as they are putting together a highway that will make things faster (apparently not until 2030 and we have flying cars). So along the way there was traffic, the smell of farming, and the gnarly smell of the sugarcane factory. I hadn't hit paradise yet.

Kihei

When we arrived in Kihei we got some groceries and went to our place. The place was not super fancy, but it was very clean, had a pool, great room, view of the beach and tennis courts. The next morning we headed out and were shocked again when we realized Kihei is kind of 'drifters central.' Everyone we met had just moved there and they moved there and didn't really want to work. Lots of scary bikers, lots of folks that had never heard of sunscreen (or the 90's, much less a new Millennium) or a comb, and cars on peoples lawns didn't exactly give me the Fantasy Island feeling.

Wailea Beach

We headed down to Wailea, where the snobs are and it felt much better. It was not until two days later that we learned the blessing and beauty of Kihei. Although we spent all our beach time down on Wailea beach (in front of the Grand Wailea Resort '“ too rich for my blood), we learned that Kihei was not only charming but it had the best weather on the whole island. Did you know that Maui has at least seven different climates on one island? Kihei is about 84 degrees year around and gets less than 10 inches of rain per year. On the other hand, the mountain (Haleakala volcano '“ 10,023 ft high) is freezing and almost constantly covered in mist, and Hana on the other coast is a rainforest. What a weird place.

Rafting/Snorkeling Trip

The second day we were there we took a tour on a rafting trip. It was one of those big military looking rafts that go really fast. It was designed as a snorkeling (never done that), sea caves and dolphin sighting trip, and it was just that. Five times dolphins swam alongside us (and under us and in front of us). They were spinner dolphins and would jump up and twirl around right in front of us. They took us down the bottom of the island to the sea caves (not really worth it, but it was kind of fun). And then we went snorkeling in 'Turtle town' and saw a huge turtle sleeping on the ocean floor. The fish and coral were beautiful. We snorkeled one more time before heading out to Molokini a dormant crater of a volcano. We snorkeled the front side and back side of Molokini and headed back.

Wailea Luau

The third day we did some beach time and went to a luau at night. We were told that the one at the Marriott down in Wailea was best so we went to that one. It was called Honolua'ua. It was great. Not only was the dancing great, but they had a gal do a Cirque de Soleil-type show hanging from just long ribbons dangling from a palm tree. They also had the three time (last three years) Fire Dancing champion of the world end the show. The food was terrific and we met really nice people (one couple was from Fresno at our table, how weird is that?).

LaHaina & Ka'anapali

On the fourth day we went to a timeshare presentation in LaHaina merely because it saved us $180 dollars off our excursions we were going to do. I can't stand those presentations, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was only slightly irritating. We left and headed out for a day in Ka'anapali and LaHaina (Northwest side of the island). We had great food and a long walk along the beach with all the huge resorts.

Pa'ia

That night we had reservations at what is now my favorite restaurant in the entire world, Mama's Fish House (just outside of Pa'ia, the hippy town '“ North side of the island). Two couples from the church had bought us a gift certificate to eat there, again I was blown away by the generosity. When we walked up it looked like paradise. It's nestled in its own private cove, with palm trees. It's so beautiful that a wedding was taking place right there on the beach. We were given a front row seat looking out over the beach, just Suzi and I, and we had the best dinner I can remember.

Hana

The next morning we got up bright and early (that wasn't hard since Hawaii is 3 hrs behind the west coast, so we kept waking up at 4 or 5 am) and got ready to go to Hana. We had purchased a tour package that would pick us up from our resort and take us all the way to Hana (far East side of the island and most remote) stopping along the way to see the waterfalls and rainforest. We stood out in front of the resort, met the other folks going and waited for the bus. When it arrived we were notified that our ticket was actually for the next day and they pulled away with us standing there alone. The trip-planner had told us the wrong day. Dang it, now what?

We made a day of the beach with it and cancelled the package. We didn't want to spend the last day on a tour bus. We went to the beach and just relaxed. Surprisingly enough we ended up going to Hana ourselves the very next day. It was an all day trip and we went from hot to freezing over and over. We tried to hike to waterfalls but the rocks were as slippery as'¦well, they were slippery and Suzi fell and hurt herself. Not only that but in anticipation of the harrowing, winding 5-hr drive to Hana, I had loaded Suzi up with two Bonine (motion sickness medication), and she was drugged into a stupor and couldn't keep her eyes open, poor girl.

We finally made it to Hana Bay and we took a nap in the car. Then we drove back sick of the rainforest. Was the trip worth it? You have to do it once. If I wouldn't have done it I would have regretted it and thought that I missed out. By going, we were able to have seen the whole entire island of Maui. But would I do it again (52 winding miles, 600 curves, 54 one lane bridges)? Nah, but I'm glad I did it.
Back Home

The next morning we work up late, packed out bags, got Starbucks and headed to the airport. Two fights later we were back in Sacramento and home. We got home so late the kids were in bed. We got a good nights rest, and the kids woke up at the crack of dawn and ran in our room. For the next three days we did things as a family and spent time together. On Tuesday, October 30th, I was back at work, and that night I blew out my knee. But that's a whole other blog.

If you read all of this, thank you, and let me be the first to let you know that you don't have a life.