Why We're Hoping to Open Our Home This Summer

I was 22-years-old. I had accomplished everything on my life's to-do list. 

Play college basketball. Check! Graduate college. Check! Get a job revolving around sports. Check! Get a car. Check! Get an apartment. Check! Get every color of retro Bo Jackson Nike Cross Trainers. Check! 

 And I knew there had to be more than life. I felt empty. 

Thankfully, I had a cousin Pede. He and his wife April  opened their home to me and others. For me, the timing of that group could haven't been better! It came during a season of my life when I was really trying to figure out the meaning of life. I wasn't ready to head back into the church - I hadn't been connected to one for the four years I was in college - but I wanted to talk about spiritual stuff. 

So, week after week, I was in my cousin Pede's home. With a great group of people. I laughed - and got laughed at - and I learned. God really used my time in my cousin's living room to help me understand who Jesus was and what He was all about. 

It changed my life. 

For July and August, my wife and I have prayed and dreamed about doing the same thing: opening our home for people who would be interested in having similar conversations in a home among friends. 

We were thinking about Sunday nights at 8 p.m. We want to hear from anyone who would be interested in coming, and we also need to know any needs you would have. For instance, if you'd like to come but you need babysitting, let us know. 

We'd love to hear from anyone interested in coming. 

Chris Lassiter is a Christ-follower, a husband to Emily (read her blog here), a father to five crazy kids and an author of the book You're Grounded, which you can read about here. 

The Question Jay-Z never answered: What's the meaning of Life?

Note: Read this blog to the end. I'll treat you to a lunch or a cup of coffee if you take the challenge at the end! 

Hip-hop purists remember Jay-Z before he was a business mogul and pop culture icon. 

One of his first songs was called In My Lifetime, a song where Jay-Z raps about why he can't settle for a mediocre lifestyle. The underground hit also featured the In My Lifetime remix. In the remix, a female vocalist asks the same question repeatedly in the chorus. 

"What's the meaning? What's the meaning of life?" 

The curious thing about the song is that Jay-Z never attempts to answer the question during the song. However, it's hard to blame him. The meaning of life is a big question, and it's a question that's not easy to answer. 

In fact, ask yourself what you would say if someone were ask you what is the meaning of life. 

Follow up by completing this statement. I would be completely happy if ... 

The way you fill in that statement will show you exactly where your hope is in this life. 

I have a friend who wrote an amazing song about this. The lyrics to Phanatik's song Driven go something like this:

We long for timelessness, may if our accomplishments

ever delivered what they promised, if 

life's pleasures were everlasting then I'm additin' 

This might bring God some competition

But everything is short-lived; 

forget about the fortune, forgive the sportsmen and

the actor, slash rapper, entertainer

for making us think that money can sustain us

There are things in life that money can buy

For everything else, an empty shelf inside

Ask the rich man, "Which hand, right or left, 

with which hand do you carry your treasures to life after death?" 

There's a book in the Bible called Ecclesiastes. In this book, the writer goes on a search to see what in life has meaning apart from God. It's a fascinating study. Part of what makes the book so fascinating is the writer's unique qualifications to search out this question. Imagine a man that is:

• wealthy like Warren Buffet
• surrounded by more women than Hugh Heffner
• More wise than Socrates and the great philosophers

The search for meaning is the subject of  The "Meaningless" sermon series at Holy Cross PCA in Staunton. The series preached by my pastor and friend Rick Gilmartin is well the listen, and you can find the link here

In fact, I think the series could be so life changing for you that I'll issue you a challenge. If you choose one of the sermons and listen to it, I'll take you our for coffee or (a very cheap) lunch to discuss it. 

I write these blogs as conversation starters. I would love to hear how you define the meaning of life. 

Chris Lassiter is a Christ-follower, a husband to Emily (read her blog here), a father to five crazy kids and a freelance writer for HipHopDX.com, JamTheHype.com, Young Life Relationships and other publications. Moody Publishers released his first book in July of 2013. You can read about You're Grounded here.

Hope for the hurting... How an American Elm Tree Survived

In his book Why Do I Love These People?, award-winning author Po Bronson tells a story about an American Elm Tree in the town of Beulah, MI.

Keep reading. I think it will inspire you like it inspired me.

Bronson explains that in the 1950s, an iron chain surrounded the trunk of the elm tree, as a farmer kept a bull chained to the tree. Over the years, the tree developed a deep gash. It was a gash so severe that many people thought it would eventually kill the American Elm Tree.

That farmhouse eventually became home to a boy, who Bronson writes had an equally deep emotional scar. The boy's mom and sister had been killed by a drunk driver. When the boy's father remarried, according to Bronson's story, the father left the son at the farm with his grandparents. 

As time went by, Dutch Elm Disease began killing all of the American Elm Trees in Beulah.

But not this particular tree.

Experts from Michigan State University came to see why only this particular American Elm Tree survived. They reached an interesting conclusion.

"The university crew had only one theory to offer. Somehow, this scar, this chain – which for years everyone thought was going to kill the tree – instead had saved the tree’s life. They suggested that by absorbing so much iron from the chain, the tree had become immune. To the boy, this offered a powerful metaphor. Perhaps his scar was not going to kill him, either. Perhaps someday, when everyone expected it to destroy him, it might save his life." (1)  (Read the full story of the tree here.)

Recently, I've had my fair share of gashes. I have a bunch of circumstances that I wish I could change. It's been tough. Not only that, I've had conversations with a lot of other people who have been deeply gashed by life as well. 

The good news for the Christ-follower is that when life gashes us (which the Bible promises will happen) it's never just random. God has a purpose in allowing what He allows. It's never arbitrary. It's not because God is powerless. And it's not because God is asleep on His throne.

The apostle Paul reminds us that God is working all things (even the really tough circumstances that gash us) out for our good. For proof of this, we need to look no further than the cross of Christ. God works out a plan of redemption for us through an extremely unjust and painful crucifixion of His Son.

You may be hurting deeply now (songs like the one in the video I posted above tend to help me in those times) but don't give up!!!!

I try to write these blogs as conversation-starters. I would love to hear how you relate to the story of The American Elm Tree. 

Chris Lassiter is a Christ-follower, a husband to Emily (you can read guest blog post here), a father to five amazing kids, and a Young Life leader in his hometown of Staunton, VA. He has written for The News Leader, Rapzilla.com, VIBE, HipHopDX.com, Young Life Relationships and several other publications. Recently, Moody Publishers published his first book, You're Grounded, which you can read about here. 

 1. Bronson, Po, The Tree, pobronson.com, http://www.pobronson.com/WDILTP_Tree.htm, (accessed Oct. 29, 2013) 

How I became just like Tim Tebow and three things I learned from it

No, I didn't become muscular or win a Heisman Trophy. I didn't engineer an overtime touchdown drive in the NFL playoffs. I can't claim part to any college football national championship.

But I can relate to Tim Tebow.

Not in the success, but in the struggle.

I became like Tebow when I became unemployed.

 

Lots of people are looking for employment,but here's what make Tebow and me the same. 

We may be jobless, but we're not hopeless.

For the past decade - longer in one case - I have worked bi-vocationally as a journalist and a youth worker. I loved both jobs. But, as a father of five, I surveyed what my wife and five needed from me, and I knew it was time for change.

The transition hasn't been an easy one.

The job search is taking longer than I would have hoped. Money has been tight. And the uncertainty has forced me to put other things in my life on hold until I figure it out. In the midst of the uncertainty, however, here's what I do know to be true. It's the same truth Tebow tweeted out after being released by the New England Patriots.

I don't know that the future holds, but I know Who holds the future. 

These are not circumstances I would choose, but the Lord has been faithful to teach some things along the way. Here are three.

•  God is God. I am not. During the times I have been discouraged, it has mainly been because I feel like God should have answered my prayer a certain way. I wanted God to deal on my terms, and I wanted to use prayer as a way to twist God's arm into doing what I wanted. While we could and should ask the Lord for our requests, the true purpose of prayer is to walk with the Lord to develop a friendship. I knew my heart was wrong, because when God didn't answer my prayers the way I wanted him to I lost the desire to pray. My motives were wrong from the beginning. 

•  God's timing is not my timing.  Being a husband and a father to five kids really reveals my impatience. I want my kids to finish their homework fast. I want everyone at the dinner table to finish their stories fast. I want God to open up a door for a job fast. I'm learning - slowly - that the Lord works things out in his own time and not when I am ready. 

• In uncertain times, there's still reason to be thankful.  I usually try to start my prayer time by reading Psalm 100, a chapter on thankfulness. Then I try to thank God for everything I can be thankful for that day. The chief of the those reasons is the gospel;  that Jesus Christ would exchange my rebellion toward God for His perfect standing before God. And there are have been countless reminders during this difficult season that God is still incredibly kind to me and my family. If I only remember one thing from this season of life, I hope that it's that God is good apart from all of my circumstances.

What about you? What is your Tebow moment? Where did you go from success to struggle? And what did you learn from it?

Chris Lassiter is a husband and father of five. He has written for The News Leader, VIBE, Young Life Relationships, Rapzilla.com and HipHopDX.com. He is the author of You're Grounded, which you can find here.