Daily Buffet » Nashville

Field Trip – Yeah

Jason — Mon, 17 May 2010 10:19:57 +0000

Today I will board a bus with 60 fourth graders and ride up to Nashville to tour the Capital and the home of Andrew Jackson. I have decided to spend one of my 700 days off ( I figure that’s about all I get in my working career) not because I am such a political history buff that I have a great desire to see these historical landmarks again. I go to impact the children that I have been given. To me this is part of that whole leave it day to impact people thing.

So today, I leave too much work undone, and head off into the land of elementary education. Sharing my day with a bunch of over zealous fourth grade boys, hopefully impacting them in a way that helps turn them into men, and in a way that leaves some moments that they will talk about about the high school reunions which will come all too soon.

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6 (NIV)

Stuck

Jason — Mon, 03 May 2010 11:53:08 +0000

Yesterday a good friend on mine was traveling back to his home is Nashville and was temporarily unable to find any passage through to his home. He posted on Facebook that he was stuck, cut off from his home.

My mind is that way this morning, stuck and unable to work out some of the thoughts that are floating around in there. I am really still debating this whole concept in Luke 14, about what it means to be willing to give up anything for the cause of Christ. More and more I am realizing those are not just empty words – expect to see a more crystallized thought on this topic in the future ( no promises as to when!)

Anyway, my friend was eventually able to find a back road that was “safe” to travel and made it to his house. However, I would ask you to remember that city. The flooding there is really nasty and it’s not anywhere near complete.

So today feels like a day for a little Lamentations – but a hopeful section – maybe a break from any lamenting that you are experiencing today.

²¹ Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:

²² Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

²³ They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

²⁴ I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”

²⁵ The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him; Lamentations 3:21-25

Donuts and Debate

Jason — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:28:12 +0000

Many years ago – many years ago, when I was in college in the great town of Nashville, TN, several of my roommates and team mates worked at the best donut shop in the world, The Donut Den. When we were tired of studying or needed a break we would ride over to the Donut Den and hang out in the kitchen talking with the guys making the donuts – and learning how to ourselves. (Eventually, I had a job there making the muffins several nights a week – Yes, I am the Muffin Man) There was another classmate of ours that worked there on some of the same nights. His name was Aaron, or ‘Aaron the Liberal’ as we called him. Aaron was always up for some good political debate – which I found fascinating as Aaron had vastly different views then the rest of us. However, those donut debates were fun, and free and although sometimes full of frustration, they were never full of hate. Just people discussing topics of importance to them. I think Aaron influenced several of us, and I am sure that we had a small impact of him. Last week, I mentioned that I have been turned off from politics, but posted on entry that teetered on the edge of political a little. The next day, another one of my college classmates tweeted about an article in Relevant Magazine entitled “Can’t We All Just Get Along?”

This article really hit the nail on the head as to why I am frustrated with the political machine. Its not as much Clintons’ sins, or Bush’s decisions, or Obama’s agenda. I have become tired of the right screaming and yelling, and the left name-calling and using condescending tones etc. Its all the way around. And that just doesn’t jive with the words I read in the collection of 66 books. This op-ed is a ringing indictment on followers of Christ and how we engage in political debate. I think its worth a read by all of us. Just to stop and make sure we are treating each other, even in disagreement, with the love and respect demanded of us by Christ.

Anyway, consider it, and as you approach others today, no matter what the conversation is, remember to do so with love. ( Not the sissy kind) But the real, I care about you, love that Jesus showed us and that he begs us to show to each other. Also, don’t be afraid to talk about ideas – you may grow yourself, and you don’t know the impact you will have on others.

1 John 3:11-24 (New International Version)

Love one another

¹¹This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. ¹²Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. ¹³Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. ¹⁴We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. ¹⁵Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

¹⁶This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. ¹⁷If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? ¹⁸Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. ¹⁹This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence ²⁰whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

²¹Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God ²²and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. ²³And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. ²⁴Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.