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The first of many years that is. Today Hillary Shelton and I are celebrating our one year anniversary of dating. Also. I proposed to that girl today, and I’m happy to report that she said yes. Here’s some things I’ve thought about today:

1. We’ve hit the year mark. I love Hillary with all my heart…but now that we’ve hit the year? We don’t have to celebrate every month. I know that sounds petty, and I’m not even saying there won’t be some recognition of each month more that passes, but I think we all know how crucial those month-to-month anniversaries are in the first year.
2. We’re engaged. This week I’ve had to be a little mean to throw her off the scent of an engagement ring. I don’t have to be mean anymore. I’m really excited about that. It’s no fun. And? We get to start the [long] process of planning a wedding. I’m not so much excited about this because of being excited about it…but because she’s excited about it. Make sense? Good.
3. I’ve thought back on this last year a lot. Last year and a half really, because she was a stinker about not dating me for a while. I’ve thought back on it, and am incredibly thankful for it. Hillary has been one of the best things to ever come into my life. She has shown me what it means to try and love sacrificially, what it means to chase after Jesus with all your heart, what it means to be kind, what it means to truly care for others. She has loved me with all of who she is. She has shared her heart, her dreams, her hopes, her fears, her sillies, her crazies, and here seriouses with me unashamedly, and has continually encouraged me to do the same with her. She has changed the man I am and the man I’m becoming, not because she set out to, but because I want to be a man worthy of her heart.

Grace & Peace,

Stippick

Though I’ve tried here, there are no words to truly express just how much I love you Hillary. No words to express how thankful I am that God saw fit to bring you into my life. You’re the best, smartest, most beautiful woman I know. I look forward to spending many, many, many years with you! Oh here, I wrote you a letter.

All My Love,

David

Last November I talked about The Brick Coffee House. It is the coffee house that the church I work for started up as part of our college ministry.

I’m not going to lie to you. In the really early days (last semester) I honestly wasn’t sure if we’d make it. I know. That’s not a good thing to say probably. But I wasn’t.

Clearly though, we did. And I couldn’t be more thankful. This is one of my favorite things we do, and it’s turning into something that students love. One of my favorite things about it is how little I have to do. I don’t mean that from the perspective of myself being lazy; I mean it in the sense that anytime you can hand off ministry, it’s a win. That’s what has happened here in a big way. I still book our Live @ The Brick acts for Friday Nights, and run things one of the four nights we’re open, but that’s about it. We have two volunteers who love what we’re doing, and run things the other nights with some other volunteers. I can think of few things I’ve experienced in ministry that bring me more joy than watching them make this place happen night after night.

This is never more true than Friday nights. On Friday nights we have a band come play for what we call Live @ The Brick. It’s one of my favorite nights of the week, because we generally have a really good turn out. Our volunteers KILL IT in the kitchen taking orders and making drinks for a line that can get ten people deep (if not a little more), and handle the whole thing like CHAMPS! While they do this, I may be making an iced drink, bringing a drink to someone, or rounding up empty glasses, but they allow me to just spend time talking with people, building relationships, and being goofy on the microphone between sets. I can not express enough my gratitude to these volunteers for everything they do, but I do my best to try.

Over the summer, our church family decided to make some drastic changes over here to make this part of our building more like a coffee shop. When I came in and saw it, it was like a brand new building! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Again, there are few words to describe how thankful I was to my church family for making the time/money/man-power investment into making those changes. It was a big confirmation to me that we are moving in the direction that God wants us to, and about how committed this church is to serving the college students of Howard Payne University. They truly desire to have a relationship with the students there, and have the opportunity to love on them, and they’re willing to do what it takes to make those things happen.

I love The Brick. I love what goes on here. I love the people it lets us connect with. I love the people who make it happen night after night. I love the people who made it possible to happen at all. It is one of my favorite places to be, and I am glad that God allows me to be part of the ministry that goes on here.

Grace & Peace,
Stippick

On the car ride home from the wedding I was at this weekend, my friends and I found ourselves in a conversation about context.

We started pout by talking about how common it is for younger girls to call their closest friends things like b******, and s**** in an “endearing” way. These same girls can turn around less than a minute later and use the same word to describe girls they don’t particularly care for. As a culture, we’ve taken those words, and so many others and decided that they mean different things in different contexts. The girl who was with us said that she doesn’t like to be called those things when they’re used in their correct context (Disregarding that we’ve taken a word that was used to indicate a female dog, and decided that it is better used to describe a female who may be particularly rude across the board).

Then we shifted into a conversation about all of the things we contextualize. As a culture, and yes that includes those of us who follow Christ, we’ve decided that it is all kinds of okay to take something that is not okay in most situations, but here, here, and here it’s ok, it means something different. Most frightening of all is that we’ve allowed this attitude to infect the gospel.

There are times when we must contextualize the gospel to help others understand it, but when we begin to allow brothers and sisters in Christ to pick and choose which parts of the gospel apply to different parts of their lives, we do them a disservice. It is not a message meant to be picked apart and applied at our discretion. It is a message meant to transform lives and hearts.

I truly believe that the end of the pick and choose culture lies in our words. James tells us that the tongue is a fire, and warns of all of the dangers that come along with it. If I hope to see this change in any of my peers, I must start with myself. I am guilty of this all the time. I won’t change this myself, it requires me to allow the Holy Spirit to make that change. It requires me to submit that part of my life completely to Him.

What words do you use carelessly that if they were used towards you, you’d be hurt or angry? Think about that this week. Cut those words from your vocabulary where they aren’t being used correctly. Allow the Holy Spirit to make a change in your life.

Grace & Peace,
Stippick

There is this idea that has been around for a while that a lot of us have bought in to. The idea is that new is better than old. That new replaces old. New makes old obsolete.

To an extent, a lot of us have adopted this idea as far as our faith is concerned. Specifically where the Bible is concerned. We like to believe that the God of 2011 is the God of the New Testament books. The God of love, mercy, grace. Not counting the agony his Son went through so that we could receive that love, mercy and grace. We’ve led ourselves to believe that when Jesus got here it mean that God was all rainbows and butterflies, despite His claim that He didn’t come to change all that, but to fulfill it.

There are those of us believers though, who believe that the God we know today is only like the God of the Old Testament. If this is the case, I’m a few hundred animal sacrifices behind. These people believe that God is a God of wrath, justice, and judgment. They believe He works all things to punish those who haven’t yet picked Him.

Today on my way to work, I realized that Rich Mullins said it best in his song “Awesome God”. He says this:

Judgement and wrath He poured out on Sodom
Mercy and grace He gave us at the cross
I hope that we have not
Too quickly forgotten that
Our God is an awesome God

The first two lines there combine God’s attributes. God does justly judge when He deems the time has come. And He gets to! He’s the creator of everything ever. He has the right. But He also hands out grace and mercy to us like grandma used to do with candy.

It’s not a middle ground; it’s not an in-between. God is all of those things. And we struggle to grasp that, because the people, we know are so black and white. For the most part, they’re either/or, not both/and. There is the problem though. God is not a person. He is not a human. He is so far beyond what we can comprehend. It’s when we try to contain Him by what we know of people that we get confused about His character.

God in 20011 is the same God who was in the beginning, and the same God who offered up a free gift of salvation through the death of His son on the cross just so that we can spend eternity with Him.

Grace & Peace,

Stippick

From time to time, I send these posts out to a few people to get their feedback. A while back, I made a fairly casual reference to Jesus, and one of these friends challenged me to think strongly about how I actually see Jesus in my day to day life?

Is He our homeboy, or our savior?

It’s a valid question. I’d treat each of those people differently. Extremely differently.

The Jesus who is my savior is worthy of my respect, and healthy fear. This Jesus is one who can speak into my life, and demand change. When I’m with this Jesus, my actions, thoughts, and words reflect who He is. I am loving, I speak kindly, I continually seek to know and spend more time with Him because I know there is something different about Him.

The Jesus who is my homeboy is treated with little respect from me. In fact I probably make fun of Him for this or that just so I can feel better about myself. He certainly doesn’t have the right to call me on sin, and call me to correction. More than likely he is helping me to justify whatever it is I’m feeling guilty about. Because I see no difference in Him, there is likely no difference in who and how I am.

There’s a fine line. Jesus is absolutely the savior of the universe. But He desires, even longs for our friendship. Not because He’s lacking without it, He lacks nothing, but because He loves us that much. So the question becomes how do we respond to this Jesus who is both savior and friend. I don’t have the answer. I don’t even know where to begin thinking of how this might work. I know that I’m to love Him with all that I am, and do the same to others. In that love, I must listen when He calls and corrects, In that love, I must serve who He instructs. As my savior, He wants to spend eternity with me (and you) in heaven. As a friend, He wants to see me (and you) live life to the fullest with and through Him here in this life.

What are your thoughts? How do you treat Jesus the majority of the time? Do you need to change something to have a better balance?

Grace & Peace,

Stippick

I’m going to be honest with you. I’ve never attempted something so many times with the same horrible results that I expected to be different eventually. No, the Wal-Mart Express Lane gets me every time.

It’s the word “express” I think, that does me in. I just think, “Oh yeah, this will be quick and easy, I only have two things, so I’ll be done in seconds.” Such is rarely the case. Why? Because of cheaters. You know who I’m talking about. Those people who have 48.6 items in the 20 items or less lane. I mean. It’s clearly marked folks. And the employees? You can’t really count on them to hold the standard. As for the rest of us? It’s too socially dangerous to call shenanigans. We’re at Wal-Mart for crying out loud, I saw an 8 year old with a mullet in there last year. No telling what those folks are capable of.

So, I find myself standing behind an individual who has decided that the 20 items or less means everyone but them. And THEN? Then you realize that jut to screw with the quick shoppers a little more? They put the employee who scored horribly on their cashiers test on the Express Lanes. Those tricky devils…they know you want out, so they tack an extra 7-24 minutes to your check out experience.

I know what you’re thinking though, “Stippick. Why don’t you just use self-checkout?” Two reasons:

1. You can’t do anything tax exempt from the self-checkout, and I frequently find myself at Wal-Mart making purchases for one church or another.
2. The Wal-Mart in Brownwood, where I now live 9 months out of the year, has no self-checkout. Let’s not even get me started on the absurdity of the Brownwood Wal-Mart in and of itself.

So please. If you have more than the 20 items that define the express lane? Use the other lane. I know the express lane is short. That’s because those of us who are following the rules only need 1.3-4.7 minutes at the check out. Tops. You take up 10-15. Easily. So just. Stop it. We’re not taking it anymore. We’ll call shenanigans.

Grace & Peace,

Stippick