And I'll blow your house down...

Wow, that last week blew by...literally. Last Tuesday (Jan 9th) my wife and I were driving back from Chilliwack BC in a huge windstorm. I had been to an eye doctor's appointment and we were hurrying back for a basketball practice that I was supposed to run. Our kids were with Ang's sister, Cyndi. As we pulled into Hope it was clear to see that the power was out all over town. We turned down Cyndi's street and an eerie unrest began to settle in our van. As we approached their house we could see a powerpole leaning across the street. What was most alarming was the ambulance sitting just by Cyndi's driveway. We quickly realized that something horrible had happened. Here's what we would piece together over the next 36 hours.

Of the 5 kids home with Cyndi, 3 were downstairs. Cyndi was upstairs with the other 2 watching the amazing wind storm through their living room window. Suddenly, the power went out. The girls downstairs freaked out (as little girls often do when the lights go out) and started up the stairs. At that same moment Cyndi realized that this was no ordinary windstorm and was shuttling everyone downstairs to a safer spot. They all met somewhere on the stairs and began the downward trek together. At that very moment, a huge gust of wind lifted the roof off of the rear deck of their neighbor's house across the street. This huge chunk of lumber and tin flew over the top of the neighbor's house, across the street, and slammed into the front of Reid and Cyndi's place, causing the front door and the 4 foot x 4 foot window above it to explode into the front entryway/stairwell. The door blew completely off its hinges. Cyndi took the brunt of the impact, which undoubtedly saved the lives of the children, and the whole group of them were thrown to the floor. The 5 kids got up screaming and hurried into the downstairs laundry room, terrified. They didn't know what had happened. They'd heard a loud boom, been sent flying to the ground and had seen glass flying through the air. My 8 year old Kaitlyn thought that robbers had broken into the house. As they looked out the laundry room door, all they could see was their Auntie Cyndi lying in a heap at the bottom of the stairs, covered in blood and not moving. They all thought she was dead. They paniced, screamed, tried to figure out a plan. Maddie (my 10 year old) and Phoebe (Cyndi's 10 year old) ran out the laundry room door to find a neighbor for help. The wind literally blew them from the carport into the alley, terrifying them so much that they returned to the laundry room. Becca, my 12 year old (almost 13) took the bull by the horns and ran out to check on Cyndi. She tried to find a pulse. Then she heard voices outside. She rushed up the stairs to see neighbors in the street. She called out for help. They arrived and phoned 911. In no time at all the kids were taken around the corner to our close friends, who "co-incidentally" had both come home early that day. That is where we found them -- shaken, scared, and yet safe. When we first saw them, Bethany (our 6 year old) burst into tears saying, "You're alive! You're alive!" In her mind this had happened everywhere and she thought that we were dead. Cyndi, meanwhile, had been taken to the local hospital. A trip to Vancouver and a CAT scan later confirmed that she had suffered extensive injuries (6 broken ribs, 2 cracked vertebrae, a broken shoulder, bruised lungs, and numerous cuts and bruises) but nothing life threatening.

It's interesting that my last entry had to do with living in this imperfect world of suffering. Little did I know that I would see that again first hand within 12 hours of writing that entry. I saw power and desolation and fear to the degree that I hope I never see it again. But I also saw much more. I saw a church community rally around my family with unconditional, over and above love and support. All our needs were taken care of. The phone rang off the hook. Our kids were cared for, loved, prayed for. I saw people reminded that stuff is never as important as people. I saw people giving of themselves. I saw God take a horrible situation and bring something beautiful out of it.

I'll tell you more about this later. I hope to post some pictures, including one of a 6 foot 4"x4" post that flew from the back yard across the street and into Reid and Cyndi's house. But for now I just wanted you to hear what's been happening here. And to realize once again that life can change in seconds.

Love is the Reversal

Sometimes I whine and worry too much. One of the things that bothers me most is what I see as the lack of any spiritual substance in Christian Youth Culture. It often seems as if Jesus if just an add on to make sure that everyone is having a good time. Not so with the recent album from the group STARFIELD. Here's a group of young guys who write and sing songs with some substance.

One example is "Love Is The Reversal". It speaks about something that I see every day. The world is broken. Life is not as it should be. That's why Jesus came. He created the world (and us) for a perfect purpose. We walked away from that and are reaping the results. We live, as the song says, "...in between the was and the could be..." Yet there is hope. Love is the reversal. As we surrender to Jesus and His call to love God and love others, both we and the world are transformed.

I love it when people package profound truth in a way that amplifies it instead of hiding it. This rekindles in me the "secret longings" that tell me that I'm not at home...yet.

Here's the lyrics to the song as well as a link for a Real Player sample...

Welcome to the worldwide train wreck
Welcome to the come undone
Welcome to the big rejection
Welcome to the hit and run
Where mercy cries for everyone

Chorus: Yeah, nothing is as good as it should be
'Cause this is the rehearsal
Yeah, in between the was and the could be
Love is the reversal

I believe we're underwater
I believe the engine's blown
Yeah I believe our secret longings
Tell us that we're not at home
But grace reclaims what the world disowns

Song Sample (for Real Player) here

This is cool...

For all you google earth lovers check out Bible Map.

Holy Smoke...

Compliments of Benedictine Baptist...just the idea I needed to help keep people awake on Sunday mornings.

See Mike Davis...look at what fun you could have.

Don't waste your...(fill in the blank)

Being a pastor has caused me to love some things more deeply. But it has also given me a hate for some things. At the top of the "hate list" is cancer. I have watched many families as they agonized through a struggle with cancer - sometimes rejoicing with them in victory, and sometimes grieving with them as we planned a funeral. One of the hardest things for me in those situations is understanding what God is doing. I say very little, usually I just try to be with them in their pain. Cancer is something that you have to earn the right to speak about...and the only way to earn that right is to experience it.

That's why I was so excited to find an article by John Piper about his thoughts on his own cancer. He calls it "Don't waste your cancer". I warn you, it's not a light read. I don't post it to minimize the pain anyone feels as they walk through cancer in their life. I was just so encouraged to read John's experience of a loving powerful God in the midst of his pain. Here's an excerpt...

I write this on the eve of prostate surgery. I believe in God’s power to heal—by miracle and by medicine. I believe it is right and good to pray for both kinds of healing. Cancer is not wasted when it is healed by God. He gets the glory and that is why cancer exists. So not to pray for healing may waste your cancer. But healing is not God’s plan for everyone. And there are many other ways to waste your cancer. I am praying for myself and for you that we will not waste this pain.
1. You will waste your cancer if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.
It will not do to say that God only uses our cancer but does not design it. What God permits, he permits for a reason. And that reason is his design. If God foresees molecular developments becoming cancer, he can stop it or not. If he does not, he has a purpose. Since he is infinitely wise, it is right to call this purpose a design. Satan is real and causes many pleasures and pains. But he is not ultimate. So when he strikes Job with boils (Job 2:7), Job attributes it ultimately to God (2:10) and the inspired writer agrees: “They . . . comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him” (Job 42:11). If you don’t believe your cancer is designed for you by God, you will waste it.
2. You will waste your cancer if you believe it is a curse and not a gift.
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). “There is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel” (Numbers 23:23). “The LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11).

It's a heavy read, but one that is throughly Biblical and has reminded me of God's ability to bring beauty from ashes.

And it reminds me not to waste my pain this year.

Read the rest here.

Stuck or Blessed...

Interesting comment the other night as I shopped with my family in Chilliwack. The clerk at the store asked me how I got "stuck with four girls". I resisted the urge to say, "Now that's a dumb way to say it...". Choosing the higher road I responded with, "Actually I've been blessed with four girls." And that's the way I see it. It's an interesting life, being the only male in a household of females. Even our dog is a girl. And it does make life different. The store that we were in when this conversation occured was Ardene's - a cheap store filled to the brim with girly stuff. Which brings us to the reason for this post.

Hair to me is a nuisance. I find it a waste of time and have happily chosen to have it cut short. No fuss, easy to keep up.

I, however, am the only one who feels this way about hair in my housefold. Today was a big day as my 10 year old, Maddie, got her hair cut.


Here's the before...




Here's the after...




Is she happy with the result? You be the judge.



No, I'm not stuck...I'm blessed.

Sweet Home Alabama

Several months ago my Leadership Team at GBC offered me a 3 month sabbatical. I loved the idea and felt that this was something God might have for us at a very necessary time in our lives. The dilemma was that due to the nature of my job (the line between work and relationships is very, very fuzzy) to truly "get away" we would need to leave town for the 3 months. I tried for a few weeks to win the 649 lottery (just kidding) in order to finance it, but had had no luck...until...I came across a program of the Resource Center for Pastoral Excellence at Samford University (see picture). They facilitate pastoral sabbaticals and even provide grants to cover expenses. I applied and much to my surprise was accepted.

So for the months of April, May, and June of 2007 the Kuhn family will take up residence in Birmingham, Alabama. We're very excited and will be sharing details with you as the planning progresses. Just wanted to let you know the good news...

What I really value...

The past year has been a challenging one for me in many ways. The difficult times always form us - they remind us of who we are and who we want to be - they clarify what should be really important. As I've gone through the challenges of 2006 one thing that has been made abundantly clear to me is that the decision I made almost 15 years ago to marry Angela Davies has been the second best decision I have made in my life. (The best was to follow Jesus...but if you're a Calvinist you may not count that one as mine...)

God has blessed me by giving me a wife who completes me. I am a better me because of her. He uses her to encourage me, to challenge me, and to give me rest. For those of you who don't know Angela, she is a unique person. She has an ability to give "life" to any situation that she enters, and a freedom to be herself in every context. She exudes passion and joy. She relates to people from any sphere of life and she honestly loves them just as they are. I guess what I'm trying to say by all this is that I don't know where I would be without her.

As I have told her several times in the past year, she is my island of sanity in the middle of my ocean of chaos. So I wanted you (the two people who read this...one of whom is Angela) to know how much I value my wife.

He who finds a wife finds a good thing. I have found a good thing.

My companions...

...on this journey into 2007. Looks like it should be a pretty fun ride.

A thought for 2007...

Well...

It's been a long time since I posted. Lots of reasons, I guess. But I'm back...I think. I found a great quote from Archbishop Oscar Romero and figured that if I was coming back to blogdom that this would be a great first step...

"It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view. The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us. No statement says all that can be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection, No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the church's mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything. This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. That enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results. But that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are the workers, not the master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own. Amen."

Can the Bible be trusted?

How can we trust the Bible? How do we know that it really is solid and true? That’s a great question, and one that deserves consideration from any thinking person. Many Christians are quick to say, “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” While I can appreciate their confidence, the question still remains, “How do we know that ‘God said it’?”

The answer to this question has been the subject of thousands of books over the last couple of hundred years. The authors of these books have spent countless hours of research and study to set out logical proofs that support what I believe to be true, the Bible is the Word of God. And while I am thankful for their time and effort (and have bought and studied many of their books), I find it interesting that Paul didn’t use logical, academic proof when he was reminding Timothy of the truth of the Scriptures.

"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (II Tim. 3:14-17)

What did he base their reliability on? He told Timothy that these "God-breathed" Scriptures were trustworthy because Timothy had seen them lived out in the lives of his mother and grandmother ...

v.14 – “…you know those from who you learned it…”

...and Paul himself.

v.12 – “…You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life…”

Paul said to Timothy (in the Jeff Kuhn Version),

“Timothy, you know that this is solid cause you have seen the fruit of Scripture in the lives of those around you.”

Why am I making such a big issue of this? Maybe we spend too much time trying to logically prove to people that the Scriptures are the Word of God; that they can be trusted in our search for truth. Maybe our words are just words. People hear thousands of words everyday when they watch TV commercials. They are inherently skeptical of words that promise something. They’ve been burned before. But what really catches people’s attention is visible proof. It’s not a commercial that sells a product, it’s the fact that their neighbor used the product and they saw that the product worked.

Perhaps we would testify to the truth of Scripture more effectively if we built our lives on the truths contained in it and then let the fruit of our lives speak. Maybe our words need to take a back seat to our lives. Maybe what we need to do is not defend the Bible, but apply it.

A metaphor for my life...

Yes, it's me. And as I looked at the picture I realized that this picture is a metaphor for where I am in life right now. An exciting experience or hanging on for dear life? Exhilarated or dreading the shock of cold lake water? Enjoying the view or questioning my own sanity? You be the judge.

I'm away from the blog right now...

I'll be here until September 6th... And odds are I won't be online. That sounds pretty good to me right now...

My job as a pastor

According to Eugene Peterson (who I agree with fully):

"The biblical fact is that there are no successful churches. There are, instead, communities of sinners, gathered before God week after week in towns and villages all over the world. The Holy Spirit gathers them and does his work in them. In these communities of sinners, one of the sinners is called pastor and given a designated responsibility in the community. The pastor's responsibility is to keep the community attentive to God. It is this responsibility that is being abandoned in spades."

Read the rest of the quote here.

The Journey

A couple of years ago when I started this blog I called it "The Journey" because that has been for me the most meaningful metaphor for my own spiritual life. Just today I spent time reading a Newsweek article about Billy Graham called Pilgrim's Progress and I was reminded once again that we need to allow God to shape us for the whole journey. We never arrive, but are in a constant state of "arriving" as we allow the Holy Spirit to illumine the dark recesses of our hearts and call us to transformation. As a young man I thought that I "got" this Christianity thing. I knew the Bible, the answers, and anything else that you could imagine. I was quick to offer solutions. Christianity/Faith was a system to be mastered. The goal was to be spiritually mature and then to help others do the same. But as I have actually matured, I've realized that I often thought I knew a lot more than I actually knew. (My sister-in-law writes a perceptive blog entry on this idea here) I realize that it sounds like a cliche, but the more I learn the more I realize how little I know. I guess that's why I felt in good company today when I read this quote from Billy Graham:

"Much of my life has been a pilgrimage—constantly learning, changing, growing and maturing. I have come to see in deeper ways some of the implications of my faith and message, not the least of which is in the area of human rights and racial and ethnic understanding."

He talks about learning humility. That's a lesson that seems to be hitting me in the face all the time. I think one of the best explanations of "the journey" is something that I read by Brian McLaren in his book Finding Faith. He talks of four stages of spiritual belief. Daniel Clendinin writes about them saying...

In his book Finding Faith, McLaren suggests four stages of faith development, not as a linear movement from one to the other, but as an "ascending and widening spiral"— simplicity, complexity, perplexity, and finally humility.

When we first come to Christ we often enter into a stage of simplicity. Everything is simple. God loves me, Jesus died for my sins, and now I'm on my way to heaven. There is great confidence in these truths, as there should be. Everything is black and white and simple. The big question for the practice of our faith in life is simply. "Is this right or wrong?" But eventually, as we begin to weave following Jesus into everyday life we enter into "complexity". There are some questions that aren't so cut and dried. Sin seems to have complicated this thing that we call life and we realize that maybe our faith is a system that needs to be figured out. We look for pragmatic answers in Jesus in order to make life work. As long as we work the plan it will all work out okay. That seems to be okay for a while, but the Jesus moves us on into a place where we are forced to be honest that there many things about Him, His teachings, and how they relate to the world that we live in that we just don't understand. Welcome to "perplexity". It is often triggered by meeting someone who has no interest in Jesus and Christianity, but is living a moral life, filled with peace and fulfillment. At times this individual may be bearing more "fruit of the Spirit" than you are. All of the sudden you are confronted with the fact that maybe what you believe is only something that helps you to cope. In perplexity you often become so overwhelmed with trying to reconcile faith in Jesus and life in the world that you come close to the point of abandoning the entire process. And that's okay. Perplexity is were you grow. It's where your spiritual roots dig deep into the soil that is Jesus. It's a vital part of moving you onto "humility". Humility is the place where you acknowledge that Jesus is to big for you to completely grasp, but He is so true that you can completely trust. McLaren reminds us that this isn't a one time process and that it may be repeated several times in different areas of our lives.

I've seen it happen in mine. I wrote about it here, here, and here. And it looks as if this is what has happened in Billy Graham.

Following Jesus is a journey. And we have a more than capable guide. The important thing is that we keep following. Even if you haven't committed your life to Jesus yet, keep seeking. Humble patience is what is needed to keep moving in the right direction.

A little child shall lead them...

My sister-in-law Cyndi writes about something that my kids were a part of here.

The joy they found in doing this was an inspiration to me...and I hope will be to you as well.

Most Creative Music Video Ever...

No fancy camera angles, no pyrotechnics, no computer graphics, just good old fashioned creative entertainment in the form of a music video here. (Real Player required)

P.S. The band is called OK Go. Don't know anything about them, but their site is here.

Either/Or or Both/And

I've been reading alot by Parker J. Palmer lately. In his book The Courage to Teach he quotes Niels Bohr saying something that has challenged my thinking.

"The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth."

Now maybe that doesn't strike you like it does me, but let me tell you why I think that this is such an important idea. Far too often in our hurry to defend the Christian faith we kill the mystery that is God. The reality is that God is bigger than us (and we really should be thankful for that - I wrote about that here) and that often two aspects of His nature may seem to us to be opposites, at times even contradictory. In our struggle to eliminate the tension between two profound truths we often deny things that are visibly true.

These discussions have been seen lately regarding the natural disasters we have been confronted with in the world. The question always seems to surface - "Did God cause these hurricanes/ earthquakes?" Automatically we jump to God's defense. We assume that if He is a loving God that these types of things must come from some other source. And maybe they do. But I'm just not sure that we can assume that everything that we think is good comes from God and everything that we think is bad doesn't. One of the things that I'm "re-learning" recently is that we have to be skeptical of our own assumptions. I talked a bit about this in my sermon yesterday - one of my "subpoints" was that we need to learn to question our questions and stop accepting our assumptions as infallible.

Maybe when something difficult or "bad" happens in our life our first reaction needs to move from questioning where it came from to seeking how God wants to use it to make me who He is calling me to be. Maybe it's an opportunity to show forgiveness to someone else. Maybe it's an event that allows you to visibly show the compassion of Jesus. Maybe we need to begin to consider the possibility that God can transform even the most horrible of events into something beautiful and amazing. Maybe somehow He encounters the evil, soaks it up and transforms it into good. Seems like I remember something about an innocent man and a cross...

The more I understand the more I am aware that I really understand very little. But that's okay. The realization puts me in a place where I am slow to speak for God but hungry to listen to God. And maybe that's where He wants me to be anyway...

You have to read this book

I love books. I read a lot of them, sometimes up to two a week. And I recommend books. I think they are very important to stretching our thinking, exposing us to ideas that we need to be shaped into the person that God is making us to be.

And while I always recommend books, I usually do it with a disclaimer. I usually tell people that books are much like shoes. They are made to fit. At times in your life you may pick up an excellent and worthy book, but for some reason it just doesn't fit you at that time. I always tell people not to stress about that or feel bad that I loved a book and they didn't. Reading is often a matter of timing.

But today I'm throwing all of that into the wind. I just finished a book that you have to read. It's called Same Kind of Different as Me, and you have to read it...as soon as possible. I'm not kidding. This is an amazing book.

Amazon says this about it...

A dangerous, homeless drifter who grew up picking cotton in virtual slavery.

An upscale art dealer accustomed to the world of Armani and Chanel.

A gutsy woman with a stubborn dream.

A story so incredible no novelist would dare dream it.

It begins outside a burning plantation hut in Louisiana . . . and an East Texas honky-tonk . . . and, without a doubt, in the heart of God. It unfolds in a Hollywood hacienda . . . an upscale New York gallery . . . a downtown dumpster . . . a Texas ranch.

Gritty with pain and betrayal and brutality, this true story also shines with an unexpected, life-changing love.

And I say this...

This book is a beautiful picture of the Kingdom of God as it moves into the hearts and lives of several individuals, setting them free, making them more like Christ, taking them places they never thought they would go, and proclaiming a powerful, real, and captivating Jesus to a world who needs to know Him so desperately.

You need to read this book.

Three quotes that bring some perspective...

The miraculous is not extraordinary but the common mode of existence. It is our daily bread. Whoever really has considered the lilies of the field or the birds of the air and pondered the improbability of their existence in this warm world within the cold and empty stellar distances will hardly balk at the turning of water into wine — which was, after all, a very small miracle. We forget the greater and still continuing miracle by which water (with soil and sunlight) is turned into grapes.
- Wendell Berry

If Spring came but once in a century, instead of once a year, or burst forth with the sound of an earthquake, and not in silence, what wonder and expectation there would be in all hearts to behold the miraculous change! But now the silent succession suggests nothing but necessity. To most men only the cessation of the miracle would be miraculous and the perpetual exercise of God's power seems less wonderful than its withdrawal would be.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes - The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning