Tag Archive - Nashville flood

Why Joplin Matters

May 25, 2011 in church, Community, My Story, Service with 9 Comments

I was born in Tyler, Texas, but we moved to Joplin, Missouri before I was turned 1 and spent the next 26 years there. Make no mistake about it, I am from Joplin, Missouri.

I grew up in Joplin. I learned lots of ropes in Joplin. I got my foundation in Joplin. I went to 3 area schools there. I have a mother, brother, grandfather, aunts, uncles and cousins that live there. Some of my best friends live there.

The first several chapters of my story were written in Joplin. I didn’t start in Nashville. Much of how my life has evolved and the person I have become have strong ties to the 26 years I was a part of the local community of Joplin, Missouri.

Continue Reading…

 

You Make Beautiful Things

May 14, 2010 in Community, Faith, Music, Service with 8 Comments

Last Saturday, Cross Point Church organized and mobilized 1,600+ volunteers into flood-ravaged Nashville communities to serve and help families affected by the flood begin the clean-up process.  Yesterday I shared one of my take-aways from that day, and today I want to share another.

All during last week immediately following the flood, my heart was so heavy for what was happening in my city.  As such, I fully expected to be an emotional wreck last Saturday as I got the opportunity to help hands-on and be in the middle of so much of the destruction.  The first few sights I saw were overwhelming, as huge piles of debris lined the sidewalks in front of every single home.  Once we got to the neighborhood our team was assigned, we got into groups and dispersed to serve.

With each home, homeowner and volunteer we encountered, I could not escape the overwhelming sense of hope that was everywhere.  Sure there was a lot of loss, and there were plenty of questions, but there was also community and humanity.  Sprouts of hope were pressing their way through the soil of confusion that otherwise blanketed entire communities. You couldn’t necessarily see it with your eyes, you had to see it with your heart.

See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. – Isaiah 43:19

Throughout much of the day last Saturday, Gungor’s “Beautiful Things” song was running through my head. The song paints a perfect picture of the collision of loss and hope that so many are experiencing in the wake of the flood, and that I saw first-hand last week.  So, imagine my surprise (and explosion of emotions) when the worship team at Cross Point sang “Beautiful Things” the very next morning (which had been planned for WEEKS)!

Below is a video with images of Cross Point volunteers serving the flooded communities of Nashville, set to Gungor’s “Beautiful Things.” It’s a powerful video and depiction of hope in the midst of loss, hurt and confusion.

This Saturday, Cross Point is partnering with WAY-FM to once again dispatch volunteers out to serve flooded communities of our city.  If you’re interested in joining us, you can meet everyone Saturday morning at the Cross Point Bellevue campus at 9am (more information here). We’d love to have groups from your church, your office, your neighborhood, etc, come join us in being the hands and feet of Christ and serving our city.   If you can’t go, you can still give.

You make me new, You are making me new…

 

Gutted

May 13, 2010 in Faith, Life, My Story with 19 Comments

Following the horrible flooding in Nashville last week, Cross Point Church organized and mobilized a group of 1,600 volunteers this past Saturday to serve the flood-ravaged neighborhoods of our city and help the families impacted by this disaster.  I was honored to be able to serve with so many amazing folks from my church.  Each team’s goal was to remove EVERYTHING in our respective assigned homes that the flood waters ruined, as quickly as possible, getting each home as construction-ready as we could so contractors could come in and begin the rebuild process.  I actually have several observations from my experience that day to blog about, but the one I want to talk about today is one that I’m the least comfortable with.

Every house in the neighborhood looked the same… empty, with piles and piles lined up on the street in front, consisting of drywall, insulation, tile, hardwood flooring, carpet and carpet pads, furniture, appliances, personal and household items, etc. In a word, every single house was GUTTED.  When we got to the house where part of my group spent most of the day, there was a team already hard at work, pulling out EVERYTHING.  It was not pretty.  It was violent, loud and messy.  It looked like complete chaos, but it was necessary.  The new could not be built on top of the old because the old was toxic and could not support what was coming next. I knew that soon, something beautiful would be rebuilt here, but for now, it was just smash, rip, break, pry, pound, tear and pull.

As I pounded, peeled and pried away at glued-down hard wood floors with a hammer and crow bar, deconstructing this home, watching wheelbarrow load after wheelbarrow load of debris being carted out, I couldn’t help but wonder to myself… “what now? What will these people do now?”

To us, we were removing debris, but to the homeowners we were removing memories.  I heard stories about an elderly musician who wept as he let go of his decades-old record collection which spoke to who he was, as well as a war veteran who struggled to throw away the memorabilia from his time in the service, which served as a reminder of who he was, but was now ruined. I can’t even begin to imagine the identity battle waged by each and every person as they parted with each ruined item, feeling like they were losing a piece of themselves in every item that was lost… or maybe I can.

Suddenly, I could not escape the analogy happening before my very eyes…

This is exactly how I have felt for the past 4 months of my life…

GUTTED.

something got inside that wasn’t supposed to be there…
the things I’ve pursued, acquired and prized no longer have value…
the things I held so closely that I thought defined me are now toxic…
what previously decorated what I had built is now just “debris“…
pulled out… violently… put into piles on the street…
preparing the way for what will be rebuilt…
smashed, ripped, broken and torn…
knowing something beautiful will soon come from this…
wondering for months, “what now? What will I do now?”

The picture at the top of this post is a perfect depiction of how I feel but have struggled to adequately articulate…

GUTTED.

We heard several people talking about the importance of getting everything that had been exposed to the toxic flood waters out of the house immediately, before mold set in, preparing the way for the rebuild.  My perspective was rocked as I thought about the work we did on that one flood-ravaged home and how it was paralleled by the work God is doing in my life.

With all that on my heart, then reading my friend Wes’ amazing post, I am reminded that no matter where I am or what I see, I can’t allow my present perspective to block my faith view of the story God is writing. I can’t get so stuck on the deconstruction that I fail to allow my heart to understand that deconstruction is actually part of the rebuild, it just doesn’t always look like it.  It may look like violent, loud and messy chaos right now, but the perspective is 1 Peter 5:10…

“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” (NIV)

The New King James Version of this same verse says God will “perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you“.  I love that visual… “…settle you.”

So, whether you are experiencing a deconstruction in your physical home, your career, your marriage, your faith, your finances or your life as as whole, my prayer for you today is that the God of all grace, after you have been GUTTED and suffered a little while, will himself restore, perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you.

Have you ever felt “GUTTED”?

 

BOOK REVIEW: Plan B by Pete Wilson

May 4, 2010 in Books, Faith with 23 Comments

Have you ever had a dream shattered? Been disappointed? Had your hopes dashed?  Had more questions than answers?  Had to let go of your plans? Had the bottom fall out of your life?  Had a broken heart?  Of course you have. You know how I know? Because the blood is running warm in your veins.  First time author and Nashville, TN area pastor Pete Wilson has just released his first book, “Plan B” (Thomas Nelson) and he has a message for you: “you are not alone!”

I’m going to be honest with you. I read much of “Plan B” through tears.  I’ve shared various parts of my story here over the past couple months, and it would be an understatement to say that I am right in the center of my own “Plan B” situation. As I have been walking out my own “Plan B”, learning to let go of my plans and dreams for myself and embrace the story God is writing for me, I have wrestled hard with the questions… “why”, “when”, “how”, “what if”, “why not”, “now what”, etc.  If it were possible for a book to be a life soundtrack, “Plan B” would be mine.  If that sounds like I’m telling your story, then this book is for you.

Reading “Plan B” has been at times confirmation, at times cathartic and at other times a road map.  There were moments when I felt like it was a checklist, where I could look back at the milestones in my own journey and match them to the heart-process Pete described in the book.  Other moments, it was such a release for my heart, giving me permission to feel the way I feel and understand that the way I feel doesn’t intimidate God.  Then there were moments when I re-read, highlighted and collected wisdom like a squirrel gathering nuts for the winter, knowing that I would need it again very soon.

Pete’s conversational tone and writing style make you feel like you’re just talking with a good friend about working through the nuts and bolts of life.  When he talks, in chapter 6, about how “our faith must rest on God’s identity and not necessarily his activity”, it challenged me to look back over my life and remember the times when my heart was so swayed by what I thought God should be doing instead of being anchored in who God is. Ultimately, our “Plan B” is most often actually God’s “Plan A”, once He has dealt with our expectations and entitlement… what we think we deserve.

Is it possible you don’t really want God? Is it possible you just want what you think God can give you?

I’ve seen some criticism of “Plan B”, stating that while the book boldly poses a lofty question, “What do you do when God doesn’t show up the way you thought He would?”, it doesn’t deliver when it’s time for the answer.  I take issue what that argument and propose that perhaps a significant misstep of much of today’s Christianity is that when it comes to offering answers, it often over-promises but under-delivers.  Life is not full of answers, and neither is faith.  But you know what both ARE full of?  Questions.

Is it possible that we have become so accustomed to the bait-and-switch of modern evangelicalism, where the false promise of answers are dangled like a carrot before the cross, that we are afraid of actually living with the questions? Have we been so long seduced by 3-piece suit-wearing, name-it-and-claim-it Jesus pitch-men who write checks with their words that life can’t cash that our hearts are unable to fathom a God who is to be found in the balance… in the tension… in the questions?

In one of my favorite quotes from “Plan B”, Pete addresses this, saying:

Instead of an answer, God offers us something better. He offers us a solution. He offers us the cross.

While Pete reassures us of the finality of the cross as the ultimate solution, he also honestly confesses that does not relieve us, as believers, of both the opportunity and obligation to live by faith… to live with the questions.

Even as I write this and “Plan B” hits store shelves, Nashville has been hit with a historic flood that has left many people homeless, displaced, grasping for hope, asking the hard questions, suddenly and unexpectedly living their own “Plan B”.

You won’t find “5 steps to your breakthrough” or “12 ways to successful living” here. But what you will find is someone who is confident that God sits on the throne, but who also isn’t afraid to say that sometimes life still just sucks.  Is “Plan B” going to give you your answers?  Maybe not.  But it will give you permission to ask the questions.  And sometimes, that’s all your heart needs.

 

God Of This City

May 3, 2010 in Culture, Faith, Life with 12 Comments

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I live in Nashville, where we are experiencing a natural disaster of historic proportions.  We received  more rain in 2 days than Nashville historically has seen in all of May… which produced massive widespread flooding unlike anything this town has ever seen. Homes by the hundreds (if not thousands), popular attractions and landmarks and entire parts of the city are buried under water.  Historic downtown Franklin… the Gaylord Opryland hotel… scenic Bellevue… downtown Nashville… the Grand Ole Opry…  entire interstates… completely flooded. (photo courtesy of Kelsey Wynn)

The steady stream of live news, Twitpics, videos, images and media over the past 48 hours have been almost numbing.  But there is no time to be numb, because there is loss, devastation and people who need help just about everywhere you look.  I am grateful that I did not experience any personal loss, but my heart is just broken for the many who lost so much.

You can really never explain away the pain caused by this kind of destruction.  It is a sobering reminder that we are not really in control as much as we like to think we are.  In his new book, “Plan B”, Pete Wilson talks about the illusion of control, saying “the greatest of all illusions is the illusion of control.” I don’t know if I have ever personally witnessed a greater example of that in my life than right now.

Stories of complete destruction are being written all over Nashville.  But in the midst of the chaos and hopelessness, other stories are also being written… stories of redemption and restoration… stories of community… stories of survival… stories of hope.

All day today, the song “God Of This City” has been running through my head.  As I watch the constant twitter stream of images and damage reports, I find my heart singing…

You’re the God of this City
You’re the King of these people
You’re the Lord of this nation
You are

As I watch the news reports that the Cumberland river is continuing to rise even at this very moment, and people all over this city grasp for hope and ask “what now?” while others ask “how can I help?”, I’m singing…

You’re the Light in this darkness
You’re the Hope to the hopeless
You’re the Peace to the restless
You are

But as the waters continue to rise, they do not rise alone.  I cannot escape an overwhelming sense of hope that is also rising, as this city reaches out to each other, becoming the hands and feet of Jesus to the broken.  I do not pretend to know or understand what God is doing or how He is working.  But I’ll tell you what I do know… a song is also rising…

Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this city

There is no one like our God.

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