One of my former interns, Dylan Hope, used to greet me when I came off stage with a funny little recap of my message he liked to call, “Why Runks, Why.” Sometimes it was serious, sometimes it was hilarious but it was always fun and every once in a while it was productive. So I’ve decided to bring a revamped version of “Why Runks, Why” to the Runks.com experience by expanding it from a recap of a few minutes on stage to a recap of my events and experiences on the road.
So join me now for the first installment of a little thing I like to call, “Why Runks, Why.” – March 14, 2010
-Cross Training Weekend • First Baptist Church • West Memphis, AR
-Wanting to cancel and stay home with Nick after his car wreck last week.
-Going anyway because I knew God wanted me to.
-Ministering to two students dealing with some deeply painful junk and leading them from hopelessness to hope.
-Making a “quick” Starbucks run with the seniors that turned into a trip to another state and an encounter with a gangbanger fond of inappropriate gestures.
-Student Pastor Matt Neyman a.k.a. “Cracka Wit Attitude”
-Crosstraining man????
-Taking care of business with a quick trip to Graceland on the way to the airport.
-A bunch of teens getting saved!
-God moving powerfully. Students ministering to students in the most genuine way I think I’ve ever seen!
-Sharing with parents about Nick’s wreck and challenging them to love on their teens and never take them for granted.
Sometimes I wonder if it would be easier to die on a cross than it is to die to myself. Not to belittle in anyway the brutality Jesus endured for us on the cross but sometimes it seems like it would be a lot easier for me to take up my cross and follow Jesus if somebody would just nail me to it. The sad fact is that I don’t really have a problem taking up my cross, I have a huge problem with laying it down. Denying myself, taking up my cross and following Jesus (Luke 9:23) is way too often traded in for indulging myself, crawling off my cross, and following my own selfish desires. Bottom line, I love Jesus with all my heart and I follow after him as hard as I can but I’m just not very good at it. The key is to not beat myself up for a week when I lay my cross down but confess my sin, climb back up on my cross as quickly as I can, and try again.
I doubt very seriously anybody is going to nail any of us to our crosses any time soon so we’re going to have to get better at getting back in the saddle every time we fall off. For that to happen takes a strength much greater than we have so we must daily not only take up our cross but also learn to live weak by daily recognizing our weakness, choosing to trust in God’s grace, and absolutely depending on God’s strength and not our own. We still have to climb back on but we are not alone, and never without help.
My son Nick, aka @BigRunkDaddy in the twittosphere, and I are on our annual Thanksgiving week deer hunt. We’re sleeping in a ratty old camper, eating insanely unhealthy food, and having the time of our lives! It is one of the coolest blessings of my life that my 15 year old son wants to spend a week in the woods with his Dad.
Having a shared passion with your teenager is one of the greatest parenting tools any parent can have. It gives you the opportunity to have the “quantity” of time required to open the door for “quality” time to happen. I think the old adage, “quality time is more important than quantity time” is a load of bull because you can’t just decide to have quality time and magically make it happen. If you want to have quality time with your kids you have to make the effort to spend a ton of “quantity” time to get there. That’s why a shared passion is so important.
When I was a teenager I always thought my Dad was the biggest dork on the planet except when we were hunting together because we both loved it so much. Somwhere in the middle of all that “quantity” time in the woods the walls would come down and “quality” time happened. Some of the most important talks I ever had with my Dad during my crazy teen years took place over the hood of a pick-up in the middle of nowhere. Now I’m having that same experience all over again from the other side of the pick- up. As cool as I like to think I am I’m almost certain that Nick thinks I’m an idiot most of the time but when we’re out in the boonies sharing our passion for hunting I’m still his hero and that has opened the doors to some pretty awesome life changing conversations.
If I have any parenting advice to offer its this: include your kids in the passions of your life. Never leave them at home when you go do whatever it is you love to do. Figure out what they’re passionate about, get passionate about it, and get ready for some awesome, life changing experiences with your kids. Trust me, it is so worth the effort for them and you!!
Now, I’ve got to get out of this deer blind and go help Nick clean the hog he just shot. Maybe we’ll get to have a talk about life while we’re at it.
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