I smiled when I read this blog over at Stuff Christians Like titled "Pastors who mess you up." In this context "mess you up" means rightly dividing God's Word or imparting some truth in a way that changes your whole life. From SCL:

I ran into a friend a few months ago. We hadn’t seen each other in a while so we did the mandatory “life summary” catch up conversation. In the midst of that, she all too casually mentioned, “My husband and I have decided to become foster parents.”

What? That’s a big deal, that’s no small thing. And when I asked her about how they came to that decision, she was quick to give me a two word answer:

“Francis Chan.”

She and her husband had read Francis Chan’s book, Crazy Love, and in her words, it “really messed her up.” And that’s true, a number of my friends have been messed up by that book. It’s no casual read. It’s a challenge and a conviction that is difficult to deny. But talking with her, I started to think about other ways pastors mess you up. Because the good ones do. They tend to snow globe shake your comfortable little world with God’s truth.

It's been true in my life. From getting married to starting a family to adopting, it was a faithful pastor who said something to "mess me up" at each decision point that affected my trajectory. Here's a brief summary of how:

Getting Married

After dating my wife for eight months with no clear direction, Senate Chaplain Dr. Lloyd Ogilvie told me I needed to "Fish or cut bait." I asked Beth to marry me three weeks later.

Starting a Family

My wife and I wanted stability before starting a family. But Dr. Mark Dever said he's counseling too many childless couples who "waited" and told us to "never put off life." We threw away the pill and my wife of five months got pregnant within five weeks.

Adopting

After waiting for two years to adopt a baby from China, we were presented an opportunity to take a sibling set of four from Ethiopia. John Piper's book Don't Waste Your Life kept creeping into our thoughts as we prayed about it. Eight months later, we flew to Ethiopia to bring all four home.

What about you? Have you ever had a pastor mess you up?

In 1983, an organization named Christian Action Council (now known as Care Net), founded with the help of Francis Schaeffer and former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, "asked President Ronald Reagan to create a special day to focus on the intrinsic value of human life." That same year, "President Reagan issued a proclamation establishing a National Sanctity of Human Life Sunday."

Here's a portion of President Reagan's proclamation the following year marking the anniversary of Roe v. Wade as "fitting ... [to] reflect anew" on our responsibility to "care for the lives and freedoms of even the weakest of our fellow human beings."

Since 1973, however, more than 15 million unborn children have died in legalized abortions -- a tragedy of stunning dimensions that stands in sad contrast to our belief that each life is sacred. These children, over tenfold the number of Americans lost in all our Nation's wars, will never laugh, never sing, never experience the joy of human love; nor will they strive to heal the sick, or feed the poor, or make peace among nations. Abortion has denied them the first and most basic of human rights, and we are infinitely poorer for their loss.

We are poorer not simply for lives not led and for contributions not made, but also for the erosion of our sense of the worth and dignity of every individual. To diminish the value of one category of human life is to diminish us all. Slavery, which treated Blacks as something less than human, to be bought and sold if convenient, cheapened human life and mocked our dedication to the freedom and equality of all men and women. Can we say that abortion -- which treats the unborn as something less than human, to be destroyed if convenient -- will be less corrosive to the values we hold dear?

We are poorer still. The 15 million "lives not led" President Reagan referred to has now grown to 50 million. And such a number can numb us into believing that nothing we do matters. But I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful because pregency center ministries like Care Net are increasing and initiatives like Focus on the Family's Option Ultrasound are making a difference. I'm hopeful because for the first time in 15 years more Americans identify themselves as pro-life than pro-choice.

I'm hopeful mainly because I serve a great God. And God can turn a nation to protect the lives of pre-born babies. Even one that has shed their blood for 37 years.

This Sunday, January 24th, is National Sanctity of Human Life Day. Please take an opportunity this weekend to consider how God may be calling you to "care for the lives and freedoms of even the weakest of our fellow human beings."

At the end of each year, as I consider what my New Year's resolutions will be, a sermon from Thabiti Anyabwile always comes to mind. It's on Haggai chapter 1 titled "Priorities." Like with many of us and our resolutions, Thabiti said that the book of Haggai is "a good example of a people who start out with good intentions but drift."

Having just returned from Babylonian exile, God instructed the Israelites to rebuild his temple. And though they began well, they soon became distracted by their own comfort, ceasing work on God's house to build their own "paneled houses." As a result, the heavens "withheld their dew and the earth its crops." From his sermon notes, Thabiti writes:

Haggai charges the people to "give careful thought to your ways." He also observed that they have "planted much but harvested little" –- their lack of satisfaction is evidence against them! Their labor was empty and vain because their priorities were wrong. There are few greater pains than those of a life marked by missed opportunities. Israel's pain is common to all those who do not have God as their highest priority.

We all have our paneled houses that will tempt us to lose focus on the highest priority. Let us "give careful thought to" our New Year's resolutions to see if our priority is God or our trappings.

Unloading that Precious Moments figurine you got last Christmas by re-giving it to a more ... ahem ... "Precious Moments" person is something that's gaining acceptance in this economy. There's even a book about how to do it properly. From The Washington Post:

Given the state of the economy and your bank account, buying gifts for certain friends and family may not be possible this holiday season.

But no need to worry if that is your situation. Surely you have nice but unused gifts stashed around your home. If so, pull them out to do what in the past might have been unthinkable -- regift.

More Americans this year are planning on regifting or passing on a gift they received from someone else, according to a Consumer Reports survey on holiday shopping. The poll found that 36 percent of U.S. adults said they would recycle a gift, compared with 31 percent last year and 24 percent in 2007.

For regifting, it appears the cliche "It's the thought that counts" has been replaced by "One person's junk is another person's treasure."

What about you? Are you planning to regift this year?

The college football season is almost over. We've only the titles to be decided through a series of conference championships and bowl games over the next few weeks.

I must say, I've enjoyed every moment so far: expert analysis, forums, rankings, expectations, all culminating into a crescendo of gridiron glory every Saturday.

There's a great article on Boundless from Stephen Altrogge that helps explain our love of sports. It's about how we enjoy excellence because it's a reflection of God's character.

When we excel at sports, we are in a very small way reflecting the excellence of God's character. This is part of the reason why we experience so much joy in playing sports. Doing things excellently is a reflection of God, who does all things with excellence. The same is true of watching sports. When we see an athlete perform exceptionally well, we're seeing a small portion of God's character.

I certainly agree. But my appreciation for sports is as much about determination and effort as it is excellence. There's excellence all over the field that'll go unappreciated if a team's heart isn't in it.

Stephen uses a great Eric Liddell quote from Chariots of Fire to illustrate his point. But I'll go with Rocky Balboa from Rocky when he said, "It's not about how hard you hit. It's how hard you get hit and keep moving forward."

That's darn right!

I'm hyper-sensitive to cursing. Maybe it's because I'm reminded of my own boorish behavior when I hear it. You see, I could weave a stream of obscenities that would make Tiger Woods blush before regeneration. Whatever the case, I notice it immediately when I'm in public places, especially if my wife and kids are with.

Such was the case a couple of nights ago.

My family and I were out celebrating at one of our favorite restaurants when group of four business men sat down at a table next to us, each with cocktail in hand. And it started immediately with a cool "f this s." Then pretty much all the biggies were said.

Right now my kids are a bit oblivious to it. But my wife isn't. And as her protector, as well as for the sake of decent society, I felt an obligation to do or say something. But after entertaining a few options in my head, I didn't do anything. I settled on the thought that my interference could evoke a visceral response that would make matters worse.

I'm not at all convinced that was the right conclusion though. So I've decided to come up with a plan since I'm certain it'll happen again. Here are the possible responses I'm considering:

1) Speak to the manager. After all, it's their job to maintain a enjoyable dining atmosphere. So it should be no problem for the manager to politely ask for the patrons to keep a civil tongue. And the establishment may be more sensitive to it in the future.

2) Confront the offender(s) directly. I really have no problem with humbly asking an individual or group to stop cursing, particularly on behalf of my wife and children. However, there's always the risk of inciting additional unpleasantness given the character of those prone to public cursing.

3) Let it go if it's not too loud. This is what I did the other night. I let it go because it wasn't overly boisterous. I'm not even sure if my wife would have noticed if I hadn't pointed it out to her. But regardless of who's offended, don't I have a civic duty to confront indecency?

I guess things like this are decided on a case by case bases. But it may prove worthwhile to have thought this through. I'll let you know how it turns out.

What about you? Have you ever done anything to quiet some barbarians?

This past Sunday I attended an Orphan Sunday event via simulcast at my church. It's was great to see the nation's leading voices on adoption seeking to increase awareness of the orphan crisis and spur fellow Christians to action.

Something that I've always wondered is why Christians need to be spurred to action on something that is so clearly mandated by God? I mean, shouldn't caring for the widow and orphan be in every church's playbook?

Doug Hayes of Covenant Mercies says the problem is that many of us are like six-month-olds who've yet to develop object permanence, acting with an "'out of sight, out of mind' mentality toward the poor."

We're pretty comfortable and typically pretty busy, so it's easy to forget that our experience is not shared by many –- even most –- people in the world. We need to develop what Gary Haugen calls compassion permanence: the capacity to remember the needs of those who are suffering due to injustice, multi-generational poverty, disease, calamity, etc., even when they are out of our immediate sight.

It's hard to argue with Doug's assessment. Dr. James Dobson said on a 2008 broadcast, "there are 400,000 churches in the United States and last year there were only 123,000 children (domestic and international) who were adopted. ... There's something not right about that."

Consider also that adoption is only one aspect of orphan care. Currently, there are over 500,000 children in the foster care system in America. One social service agent estimates that only about a third of foster care families are self-described Christians.

When the church awakens to this crisis, I believe it will provide the compassion permanence needed to fulfill its mandate to "care for orphans and widows in their troubles." Won't you join them?

I haven't researched the subject, but I'll bet infidelity has been on the rise ever since women flooded the workforce in the 1970's. It's a perfect setting for forming intimate relationships. Where else can you spend such long hours together with members of the opposite sex?

And I'm not just referring to sexual infidelity. Emotional infidelity can wreak havoc too. They're referred to as "work spouses," which are close platonic relationships with co-workers of the opposite sex.

Here are some signs from CareerBuilder.com you should consider when examining your own behavior at work:

1. You depend on a particular co-worker for office supplies, snacks and aspirin.

2. There are inside jokes that you and a specific co-worker share.

3. You can be bluntly honest with this person about his or her appearance, hygiene or hair (and vice versa). You're comfortable enough to point out that the other's hair is sticking up -- or that someone's fly is down.

4. When something eventful happens at work, this co-worker is the first person you seek out for a de-briefing.

5. At breakfast, lunch and coffee breaks, your closest co-worker knows what to order for you and how you like your coffee (and vice versa).

6. You and your co-worker can finish each other's sentences.

7. Someone in your office knows almost as much about your personal life as your best friend or real-life spouse does.

If you're sharing bits of intimacy like this with your "work spouse," it could be harming intimacy with your real spouse.