"What Do You Want?" and other simply complex questions

The above image is a shout out to all the Halloween candy I ate this week from my kids candy stash. Sorry ladies! :()


This week at Crossroads I get to preach on the first words Jesus utters in John's Gospel. They are not what you'd expect (something like "peace" or "repent" or "hey, look at me!" is what I was looking for). Instead, what Jesus says to a couple of guys who are following him at a distance is, "What do you want?"

What do you want? What I love about his question is that it is not a statement of personal transcendence, or a show of power, or even a bit of heady, complex theology. Instead, he chooses to ask the most basic question you can ask (and one that I ask my 6 month old regularly even if she can't answer me yet). In essence, it is a question that strikes at the core of what God wants to do and be for us.

What do you want?

It seems to me that more often than not, Jesus chooses not to wax eloquent on the profound (although he does that from time to time) but to ask and answer core questions.

What do you want?
Do you want to be healed?
Which one was the true neighbor?
Who do you say that I am?


It is these sorts of simply-complex questions that make me admire Jesus more and more. I could stand to ponder each of them in my own walk.

Ok this is just funny...

This is real stuff apparently. I found it when I was looking for Presbyterian images doing a Google search. Remind me never to use this slogan for a church ad campaign...

Being a Pastor's Kid

I think one of the weirdest things in the world is to be a pastor's kid. I personally am not a pastor's kid, but I get to watch 4 of them every day. Here are a few things that help you know if you are a pastor's kid...(unfortunately, these are all real life examples)

Top Ten ways to know if you are a pastor's kid...
1)You come to funerals just for fun.
2)You baptize your baby sister in the back seat with rain water from outside.
3)You call the Sunday night service "the most fun you've had in a long time."
4)You can say the words of institution by heart and perform them perfectly for your dolls.
5)You ask what kinds of cookies they are going to have at the wedding and gauge whether it is going to be a worthy event.
6)You know that it drives your dad crazy when you say "Our Mother" instead of "Our Father" when you say the Lord's Prayer at night.
7)Your favorite thing to do when friends come over is go "explore the church."
8)You think the gym across the street at the church is actually your gym.
9)You are used to having lots of people know you at the grocery store.
10)You are often enlisted to lock up all the doors around the church at then end of the day.

What a life! I'm thankful for my 4 beautiful, wonderful, perfect (ha!) kids. Thank you God for them!