Thanks and Giving

My daughter is the coolest prayer I know. She's three and rocks conversation with God harder than her pastor father.

Aswesome.

Here's what I love about how she prays, she only ever thanks God for stuff. Even while she's asking for things she's thanking God. Somehow I've learned that in pryaer you say everything you're thankful for, and then you move on to the point of the prayer. Like how you might compliment someone, or say some nice pleasantry, before asking them to make a pie for the bake sale or watch your kids for the weekend. There's the order of thanks first then request. It's a universal law isn't it?

But my daughter only has one mode: thanks. 

Here's an example of a few of her prayers to illustrate this:

While dropping Sheena off at work, "God, thanks for good day mom will have at work."

Or at dinner tonight, "Dear God, thanks for the food. Thanks that dad will have a good meeting tonight. Thanks for the good time at preschool. Amen."

There's always this jumble of past and present and future thanks.

It's beautiful. I hope it never changes.

I can't help but wonder if this is what Jesus was talking about when he was talking about faith like a child: just thank God for it all. 

Praying for the Ill

I think I pray for the sick wrong.

It sounds wrong to say, because there shouldn't be a wrong way to pray for someone else. (Well, unless you don't pray at all.) I mean, aren't five word prayers of "God, help ______ get better." better than no prayers at all?

Well, yes.

But today Iv'e been challenged that a better way to pray exists.

I read this morning about some spiritual disciplines, and among those listed was "praying for the sick."

If praying for the sick is a spiritual practice I have to admit that I don't feel very spiritual doing it.

When praying for the sick I am almost always no where near them. I don't mean sick people are across the room, I mean they are across the town, or country, or world.

I don't have a lot of contact with sick people unless they come to church. Then I'm usually sitting there thinking, "Why on earth did they come to church this morning? They're going to get everyone else sick. If I get what they've got, I'm going to be some mad."

So I began to ask, what if praying for the sick really is a spiritual practice? And what if praying for the sick wasn't meant to look anything like the way I pray for the sick? What if prayer was supposed to look like something else?

I remember the very first hospital visit I went on. I was fresh out of college, but was totally clueless about what it meant to be a pastor.* I was working with a church and one day the pastor told me we were going to visit a man in the hospital. He was loosely connected to the church. He wasn't a regular attender. I don't even know if he tithed. But the pastor knew him and that was enough.

I don't remember his name. But oddly I remember that he had very bad pneumonia.** (Is there good pneumonia?)

And I remember one other thing. I was beyond awkward. He had weird wires connected to his chest. And tubes coming out of places I don't ever want to have tubes coming out of. I thought, "surely this guy wants to be left alone."

We didn't stay long, but we sat, chatted, and prayed.

All while he had an ECG done.

Before we left the pastor prayed for him.

I think this is the spiritual discipline of praying for the sick.

Praying for the sick will involve, on some level, knowing the person in their sickness: coming close, or in contact with the sick them, and walking with them through the sickness.

And, I hope this doesn't sound biased, you don't have to be a pastor to do this. I think this type of prayer is for every believe to practice. Ever believer has it in them to visit the sick, begin to know them in their illness and pray through it with them.

That doesn't mean I won't pray when I get those emails from people I barely know to pray for some person I've never heard of who has a disease I've never heard of. I'll pray then, but that prayer is a different prayer than one offered while holding the hand to the ill.




* I'm still very much clueless only I can confidently say that in these 11 years I've learned approximately 3 things about being a pastor.

**that's right spell checker had to help me with this one. To my delight I was only one letter off from spelling it correctly on the first try.

On Leaping and Jumping...

I was reading Acts chapter three recently.

I've read the book of Acts numerous times. As a child I enjoyed many of the stories it holds, but it wasn't until I was a freshman in college that I fell  in love with the book. I remember one evening in the student lounge reading the final chapter and desperately wanting to know what happened to the characters. I was desperate to know more: to have a sequel.

In Acts 3, a rather out of the ordinary thing happens: a crippled man is healed. Maybe today it's more ordinary: we have surgeries for that.* My wife sees patient after patient go from crippled to walking. It's common today, but not so much back then.

So, a man, crippled from birth, is carried to his favorite begging spot. And where is the favorite begging spot? The temple door. Or, the church door, if that rings more true for you. He sits outside the place of worship to ask the faithfully religious for cash.**

I'm not sure how many people gave to him that day. We have no record of it. All we know is that two men were going into the temple, and they were asked, as we assume many others were asked: "brother can you spare a dime?"

Now, apparently he asked the wrong guys, because they were broke. Or at least, by their own admission, they have no silver and gold. But they are far from broke. they have something far more valuable:

They know a guy.

And, this guy, thought not anywhere to be seen, heals the crippled man.

The unseen one is named, the men speak his name: Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And when even the most remarkable, unimaginable things are spoken in this name they happen. People who have never walked, begin to walk.

Peter, the one who spoke the name gets credit for the healing, for he doesn't deserve it or even accept it.

There are two things in this story that are really speaking to me right now.***

1. He began praising God. There is a song about this story that tells us he was leaping and jumping and praising God. Well, we don't see him leaping and jumping here, but perhaps he was in his heart. He was, none the less, praising God.

It's understandable that he has much to praise God for.

He can now praise God that he is no longer employed. He can wake up the next morning and begin looking for something else to do with his life.

In his rare case, this is a very good thing.

God has just changed everything about his life. But maybe that's not so rare.

I then begin asking, what in my life has God changed? What areas has he touched? Have there been transformations in me?

You better believe it.

I've never been crippled. I don't know what it's like to lack the physical strength to walk. But God has done, and continues to do, wonderful things in my life. I look at my family, I hug my daughter, I feel kicks coming from within my wife's uterus, I savor an afternoon sitting by the lake tossing stones into the water, and realize the everything in my life is as much a gift as that man beginning to walk.

And have I ever, do I ever, go around leaping and jumping and praising God?

Not nearly enough.

There are things every day that I need to praise God for: that I need to jump up and do a dance of joy for.

2. Peter, the one the people try and credit for the healing, asks the crowd a telling question: "Why does this surprise you?"

Am I surprised that God healed this man? Am I surprised by God?

Or more accurately of myself, do I ever ask God for over the top things: things so big only God can do them?

Why?

Do I think God can't do it? Do I think he won't? Why don't I ask God?

I bring God petty things all the time. Why no outrageous things?

Am I trying handle them on my own? Or am I seeking nothing outrageous?

The crowd recognized this guy. They recognized that he used to beg outside the temple. They must have been passing him by for years. I wonder if anyone ever stopped to ask God to heal him. I doubt it. Surly Peter wasn't the first one to pass by without cash. Why does he seem to be the first to ask God to heal him?

What huge, massive, outrageous things might God be doing around me that I'm missing out on?

Why am I surprised?  Why am I not asking God?

Is this true of any of you?

Why not go read Acts 3 and see what stands out for you?


*I'm sensing an apple app spoof with the tag line: "There's a surgery for that."

**As a side note, I wonder what would happen if on Sunday morning there was someone homeless, or crippled, or someone who can't find work for a variety of reasons, perched outside of our church asking for donations. What would I do? What would our church do? What would your church do?

***Besides my curiosity about whether or not anyone who gave to the crippled man wanted their money back. I wonder this very much, and maybe one day I'll get an answer. Perhaps this curiosity speaks more about me than anything else.

Been Readin'

I hope you've all had a great start to 2011.

I spent much of the past few weeks reading. I read a book reminding readers that Jesus loves them, half a book on church history which I'll post a review of once finished, many reviews of guitar gear, some magazines, and a book on evangelism.

To be honest, much of what I've read has been long forgotten.

However, two things have stood out that are worth mentioning.

First, go read "And Now a Word From Our Sponsor" over at The Church of no People. Matt Appling writes an appeal for the Church to get back to creating great art. I especially love the line near the end: "What we're doing isn't cutting it... We need to spend some of that money that we spend on buildings and shows for ourselves, and hire real artist to help us communicate with people we don't know how to communicate with."

As you may know, or have guessed, I'm not an artist. I suck at art. No reasonable person would ask me to create beautiful artistic expressions of the gospel story. Yet, we live in a world that consumes visuals: a world where people speak through art. We need someone to communicate love, hope, grace, peace, and Jesus in a visually compelling way.

So let's get on that already.

Secondly, I finished up a book on evangelism by Matthew Paul Turner called "The Coffee House Gospel." I love Turner's writing. I read his blog often, and I have one other book of his on my shelf. I'm not a "crazy let's stalk him online and ready every word every written by him" kind of guy, but I enjoy his writing none the less.

If you read this book hoping to find a defense for your personal belief that a Grande a day will save your soul, you will be disappointed. If you read it hoping to become the world's most famous evangelist, you should know that this is not a how to book.

It's more of a, "Hey, did you know that when you talked to your neighbour about your mutual displeasure of waking up to a foot of snow needing to be shoveled off the driveway, you were creating future opportunities to share with them the hope you have of being saved from eternal damnation because you were building a relationship with them and are not hoping to one day say: 'Walking on snow is like walking on frozen water. Hey speaking of walking on water, my friend did that once. Maybe you've heard of him, his name is Jesus.'? " kind of book.

There are now many underlined sound bites in my copy of the book, and here's one I'd love to share with you:

"I've realized that sometimes I have found myself to be so cold towards non-Christians. Not that I'm mean to them, but I just simply don't feel the weight of the void in their lives." 

I think this really jumped out at me for the simple reason that I've been a Christian as long as I remember.  I remember being told as a kid that inside everyone's heart there is a God shaped hole. I don't have any idea what that means anymore. I mean, I know the concept, it's just not personal to me. I have no idea what it is like to feel a void that only Jesus can fill. I feel no void. And I don't know that I ever have.

Plus, given my incredibly lush Canadian lifestyle, I have no idea what it's like to have a void in my life, period. Like many people I avoid voids.* I struggle to relate to any concept of void. Yet, perhaps there are people who sense a void and just don't know how to put their finger on it. They can't name it and have to live in the discomfort that causes.

I'm speculating now.

I just don't know.

And that's why these words jumped out at me. Turner pointed out to me that perhaps I struggle to relate to my neighbours because they live with something I don't. He shares that he would pray for God to make him aware of what that feels like. I wonder if he still prays that way. I also wonder if I should be praying likewise. Perhaps it would be a greater motivator to reach across the fence.

This book was not only an encouragement to share my faith, but to also strike up conversations with strangers, because any conversation can become an opportunity to share the difference that Jesus makes in my life.

*And you read that right. I was not referencing this game or advertising campaign.

Phone Pics

For being a low quality camera, the camera in our phone captures some pretty great moments. I thought I'd share a few today. 

Here's Makiah learning to shop by following the example of her mother. 

And here she is, last night, at her very first hockey game. While she didn't watch the puck all that much, there was plenty of action for her to check out. Of course during the game all I could think of was something I read earlier in the day from Owl Cit's blog. He recently posted The Top Ten Ridiculously Cool Advantages of Being a Hockey Goaltender. I recommend checking that out.  

And I found this on our holiday in Oregon. I don't know why a picture of Jesus is in the fantasy section. I think this demonstrates the difficulty people have with categorizing Jesus. Or someone is trying to be funny. 

More From Acts 19

If the whole dirty rags part of Acts 19 wasn't really your thing, then get ready, because Acts 19 is about to get weird--well, weirder. 

I've never been beaten up.

The closest I have ever come was when two guys in college chased me around campus* then tackled me and began giving me the tickling of a life time, which, for some reason, including patting my belly.

This happened repeatedly.

I'm still recovering.

Like many things, my expertise in the realm of beat downs is limited to what I've learned from watching television.

So naturally, I like to think that I know the ins and outs of getting smacked around.

This is because I like to think that watching something on TV makes me an expert at it. That's why I attempt golf, try to solve complex physics problems on white boards, tell the quarterback who's open down field, think I'm the funniest man alive, and am considering trying to catch bullets with my teeth.

Now, on TV, when guys get smacked around it either ends very horribly for them, or very comically. We're about to read about one that ends rather comically.

Acts 19 says this:

Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, "In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out." Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day, the evil spirit answered, them, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and over powered them all. He gave them such a beating that hey ran out of the house naked and bleeding. (Acts 19:13-16 NIV)

Let's break this down a bit and help you get the picture that's in my head.

Let's start with the seven. These were sons of a chief priest. We might call them Pastor's Kids. So here we go again with another story about pastor's kids gone wild. What are they up to now?

But I think these guys are actually trying to do some good. Okay, so maybe their motives weren't the most pure, we can't say for certain but it is possible they were trying to heal people in order to become famous. However, they were trying to do good. They were trying to drive out spirits. That is commendable.

Let's move on.

They just went about it wrong. They traded knowing God, for knowing God's name.

I can't help but think that their attempt at casting out a demons was something like trying to diffuse a bomb because you saw a guy do it once on TV.

And sure enough, this one guy, like a bomb when the wrong wire is cut, goes off on them.

I'd love to see a picture of what this one guy looked like. Was he a tiny guy, unintimidating, but with a whole lot of fury pent up inside of him? Or should they have known better because when Goliath says "I have no idea who you are" you better start running?

I hope he was a little pip squeak.

I hope they never saw the beating coming.

But then again, I love to root for the underdog. And in this case part of me is glad that the underdog won, even if he was demon-possessed.

Because what happens next seems really funny to me.

Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. (Acts 19:16 NIV)

One would think that the seven guys could handle the one.

How humiliating must that have been.

I bet when they told their buddies the story the guy had 13 demons.

And 33 inch biceps.

And absolutely repulsive b.o.

And horses instead of legs.

All so that he could balance on one of the horses legs while simultaneously kicking all seven brothers.

It would make sense for seven guys to be running through the street, bloody and naked, when a mob is after them. But there's just one guy. One guy severely annihilated the seven.

And that's kinda weird.

But what gets even more weird, and by that I mean abnormal, is that a demon speaks rather truthfully.

We're often told that Satan is a liar, which is true at times, so we would think that every word from one of his henchmen would also be a lie. But we have here a demon making plain an obvious truth. He's calling them out--calling out their hypocrisy.

And then teaches them a lesson.

But let up enough for them to get away.

And yes the guy had an evil spirit help him out.

But I think God was in the middle of it all.

He was, at the very least, aware of it.

I think it might be easy to pick on these brothers because they tried the run around on God. But God used the situation to build his church. Consider the results in verse 17 & 18:

When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. 


Here's how I see this:

We've got an opponent of God's work calling out some fakers, then a whole lot of truth breaks out.

The community stopped faking it.

Somehow the demon made sense of the situation before the chief priest's boys did. And once the truth is made known a whole lot of people begin fessing up.

The community stopped faking it.

Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds.


Maybe this was purely motivated by a desire to avoid future humiliation at the hands of evil spirits. But before the honesty there was a newfound reverence for the name of the Lord. And that makes me think that when their honesty was well intentioned.

They didn't want to fake it anymore.

They didn't want to fake a perfect life when in reality their lives were filled with evil deeds.

They didn't want to fake knowing God.

They didn't want to act like they knew God when really they only knew his name.

I wonder how often we go around faking knowing God.

To be honest it seems rather unspritual to have to admit that there is a whole lot about God I don't know--especially as a pastor.  It would be easy to pretend to have God all figured out. And I wonder if that's why there is so much religious turmoil. Becuase we, as Christians, pretend to be experts in something we aren't. We pretend to think that God has a certain view or opinion on a matter when we can't say for certain: even though we speak very certainly about it.

Don't get me wrong, there is much we do know. I'm merely saying that maybe we don't know as much as we like to think.

I think there is so much of God that we don't know.

I need to admit that I'm not a God expert. I'm a God pursuer. My life is about getting to know God more and more each day. And that pursuit will take all of eternity.

I think we need to be more open about our lack of knowledge. More willing to say: "I have no idea what I'm doing even though I've seen it done on TV."

We need to stop faking it.

We need to pursue knowing God instead of only knowing his name. I know lots of names. That doesn't mean I know lots of people. There is a difference there that our society struggles with today.

It's bad enough to act like I know Paul when I don't. I don't want to make it worse by acting like I know Jesus when there is so much more to learn.


*it should probably be said that due to the small size of our college campus, I didn't have far to run. It was one building. I just wanted to say something more grand than, "chased me around the room."

To Be a Gate or a Gate Crasher?

Lately I've been reading a book aimed at helping the church, meaning the people who make up the church, be better at fulfilling its purpose. This book has been an encouragement, especially in all the areas I see our church aligned with his ideas, and a challenge when I see we have a ways to go in being more effective.

One thing stood out to me in my reading today.  Brad Powell writes this: "As we've seen, Jesus promised that He will build His church and that the gates of hell will not prevail against Him (Matthew 16:18) In other words, He wants his church to be on the offensive. Gates don't attack; gates are attacked."

Matthew 16:18 says this in the NIV, "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it."

This idea of the church standing up against the gates of hell is nothing new to me. I'm familiar with this verse. However, what struck me for the first time today, was that gates don't move.

Gates don't attack.

Gates stay where they are built.

Gates wait for an attacker to come.

Too often I see churches that think they're the gates.  We use language that speaks of being able to stand up against the gates, but we speak as if they're going to come and attack us. We get dug in and defensive waiting to be attacked.

We speak as if we're gates secured in a rock.

But maybe Jesus is saying we're a rock that needs to roll through some gates. Maybe we need to, as a church, rush the gates, rattle them good, and watch them crash.

I wonder what our world would look like if hell began to fall apart.

I wonder what our world would look like if the church was on the move.

A Big Ol' Cat Fight

I was reading chapter five of 1 Peter today. And verse 8 jumped out at me.

Here's 1 Peter 5:8 "Be self-controlled and alert. your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."

I don't have a lot of experience with lions. I saw the circus as a kid, and I think I remember lions being a part of it. I've been to the zoo. Actually, I was at a zoo just a couple years ago and I saw some lions there. But most of my experience with lions is all wrapped up in the Lion King. I've seem that animated classic dozens of times.

However, I suspect there's more to this lion business than the film lets on.

I grew up in an area that has a high population of Mountain Lions, or cougars as they are known locally. I've never come face to face with one because the generally leave people alone. Sightings, and attacks on people, are becoming more common. Now and then you hear of a good man versus cougar story. There was an older gentleman who, when attacked by a cougar, fought it off with his pocket knife. He was badly injured, but was able to appear on the 6 o'clock news from his hospital bed to show off his favourite pocket knife.

There was another story of a woman out camping with her family when a cougar attacked one of her children. The story goes that she grabbed a cooler and began beating the cat with it. The cougar ran off and the child suffered no long lasting effect.

These are great stories of man triumphing over large Feline.

We were taught as kids that if you spot a mountain lion, it's been watching you for a long time, but if you make yourself really big, stare it down, and show no fear, you can scare it away. Mountain Lions, so I understand, are chicken.

I am uncertain if the same thing goes for the non-mountainous lion.

I don't know why, after reading this verse many, many times, this image of the Devil being like a lion stood out to me, but as I read it my mind immediately diverted to another lionly image in Christianity: Jesus.

Sometimes Jesus is called "The Lion of Judah" with Biblical support for this name coming out of Revelation 5:5.

And it occurred to me that we are living in this world with two lions--one ruling bringing life and justice and redemption, and one fighting bringing death and destruction.

But that isn't Peter's point in calling the devil out.

In verse nine he tells us to "Resist him, standing firm in the faith"

He is resistible. We can overcome.

I think that if I were staring down a roaring lion I would be filled with a bowel moving fear that causes one to forget all sorts of survival tactics. Meaning, I would poop myself and run. Which is the exact opposite of what to do in the moments before a mountain lion attack.

Yet Peter is telling his readers to stand firm in the faith--that holding onto ones faith is overcoming this lion-like devil.

Hold on to your faith in the midst of the devil's opposition.

Hold on to your faith.

Grab that cooler.

Clutch your trusty pocket knife.

Stand firm.

Resist him.

He may be like a lion, but, so what, lions can be overcome.

What Are You Waiting For

My Birthday* gift is under my bed.

I didn't know it was there until a couple weeks ago when Sheena asked me to vacuum under the bed. Now I know where it's hidden.

I've known what it is for even longer. We were out shopping across the border a month ago when we found a great deal on it. So we bought it. I say we because, when you take the item that is supposed to be a gift for yourself through the check out, you are basically buying your own gift.

So yes, I know what I'm getting for my birthday. And now I know where it is hidden.

And yes, it is torture.

For days after its purchase I begged and pleaded for it to be hidden away, somewhere where I would have no knowledge of it: somewhere where I would possibly forget all about its purchase and pending delivery.

Fortunately I've been blessed with a forgetful brain. I don't think I'd be able to sleep at night knowing that my gift was merely inches beneath me.

In the store, as we were discussing the purchase of this item, I suggested that Sheena give it to me right away, and then find something small to surprise me with on my birthday.

I'm still hopeful that, any day now, Sheena will say that I've waited long enough.
I think I've still got two weeks to wait.

Most years, as Christmas approaches, we know full well the day of Christmas. We know when we will awake to gifts, and family time, and the fun that is Christmas. We know when Christmas is coming. What we don't know, is what we are receiving. We don't know the gift.

I was going over the story of Simeon again last week. I love his testimony in Luke 2. Here is a guy who knew full well the gift of God. And he waited for it patiently.

He knew that God's salvation was coming.

He just didn't know when.

How different would Christmas be this year if you told everyone what they were getting, but didn't tell them when?

Simeon held on to two promises: 1. He knew that the gift, "the consolation of Israel," was coming; 2. He knew he would live to see it.

There's a big difference between the two approaches to waiting for Christmas: between knowing what is coming but not knowing when, and knowing when but not knowing what.

This advent season, how are you waiting for Christmas, and ultimately for the fulfilment of the promises of God?

Are you waiting expectantly for the day, knowing that when it comes it will be a truly glorious day. Or are you trying to rush the process along, and with impatience get what's coming to you.

I'd like to have the joy and patience of Simeon. For I suspect that joy can come in waiting and that perhaps waiting is part of the gift.


*It is probably helpful, in understanding why I'm talking about Birthday Gifts like this, to know that my Birthday happens to be on Christmas day. That's just how I roll.

My Sweet Jesus

I stumbled upon this web site the other day.

It scared me a little.

To view the website go to http://www.mysweetjesus.com

Here is a brief list of everything that scares me about this Jesus:

1. He speaks in the third person – His chest says “Jesus loves you” not “I love you”

2. Jesus cost’s only $22 – forget any notion of a priceless Jesus or even free Jesus. This Jesus costs $22

3. This Jesus is only available to those in the US or Canada – maybe that’s okay, because no one else wants it, but doesn’t the whole world need Jesus?

4. The kid seems to be a bit afraid of it and can’t get away from it quick enough. Either that, or he’s just mad at Santa because he asked for a G.I. Joe

5. Jesus comes gift wrapped – I wonder how Jesus feels every time we put a nice little bow on Him and tell other’s he’s safe and pretty

6. My Sweet Jesus is made out of the same stuff as a stuffed animal

7. If you find the picture of Jesus by the window it appears as though he’s floating on a cloud. That’s not supposed to happen until the end of the world.

If you’ve read their list of 7X70 reasons why you should own a My Sweet Jesus doll let me add a few more

1. My Sweet Jesus Doubles as a traffic cone

2. The heart that reads, “Jesus Loves You” is sewn on and can be replaced with a speech bubble, to help keep your kids in line, that reads, “I’m watching you”

3. Coming soon from Cote Creations “The Sheep and The Goats Play Set.” When used in conjunction with the My Sweet Jesus doll your child can play “Judgment Day” and share with their friends what will happen to them.

There’s so much that could be said for their list of reasons for having a My Sweet Jesus doll. Each reason is pretty much an “insert joke here _____” moment, but I’ll refrain. Except there is one that I can’t let go of. Reason #9 “You (or your child) probably don’t have a Jesus doll.” What? There are other Jesus dolls out there? Why do I need one? Why is my life not complete without a Jesus doll? Isn’t it far better to have the real thing in my life?

I guess my concern, and part of the reason this doll sets me off so much, is that we often get confused and grab onto something fake instead of holding fast to what is real. As much as they claim this doll helps you have a relationship with Jesus, or helps you get out of bed and go to church on Sunday, or provides comfort in troubled times, it is not a substitute for a real relationship with Jesus. He’s so much more than a fifteen-inch tall doll we carry around with us. My concern is that we forget that. Or even worse others around us forget that too. They see the doll and think that’s all there is to our God.