randalevan's blog

jesus makes us bigger

a friend and fellow pastor, liz milner, recently completed an internship at a local jail and the experience stretched her faith a lot. as i read her personal evaluation, i felt encouraged to see people in a different way, to believe that jesus is present even when our world feels like it is falling apart, and to face my fears with more courage. i have copied her evaluation below.

a pastor's dilemma

A friend of mine and fellow pastor, Sean McMasters, made an interesting post on his blog recently that I would like to share with you.  Here's a brief quote.  (*If you would like to read more, click-on the link below.)

"Pastors are caught within a wonderful dynamic: On the one hand I need to be an example of what it means to be a successful follower of Christ; on the other hand I am not, & never will be totally successful. What makes this more interesting is the never-ending appeal of religion; Those who do good are--gooder & I am the gooderest of them all. Right? However, I'm not good.

What is the role of a pastor? To create the "That's it" image? I need to teach Saints & non-saints how to be: Broken, angry, forgive, sexually appropriate, depressed, frustrated, etc. However, do I teach them from the position of: "When I used to..." or "Last week when I..." Don't I have a pious image to uphold, since no one wants to follow a loser? Especially a pastor who wrestles with sin. No doubt there are limits to my involvement with any sin & it's ability to control me vs. my ability to yield to the Spirit. However, we can so easily create a theology of leadership, which says, "Follow me as I follow Christ" because, "I've arrived," vs. "I've been working on this for years, & I'm still walking."

To read more, please go to:

http://offthewahl.blogspot.com/2009/09/pastors-are-caught-within-wonderful.html

"I must contrive to make money so that I may live to work."

I read something this morning at Dana Street Roasting Company in Mountain View that I really liked.  It is from the book 

Callings: Twenty Centuries of Christian Wisdom on Vocation, by William Placher. The chapter that I enjoyed was by a British writer by the name of Dorothy Sayers.  (*For more on her life, go to: http://www.sayers.org.uk/dorothy.html.)
The chapter title is, "Vocation in Work", and it was written in 1942...in the middle of WWII.  I would like to share with you what Sayers wrote about a certain group of workers who "have never...altogether abandoned the divine conception of what work ought to be."  Although she is writing about artists, I, too, identify with this group of workers.  As a pastor, I have always felt like "I must contrive to make money so that I may live to work."

local teacher is a hero

We have an incredible story of courage in neighboring San Mateo. (*I recently made a post praising the courage of Corey Aquino.  *See August 5th, 2009.)

A former student of Hillsdale High School, came to the campus yesterday morning with 10 pipe bombs strapped to his military-style vest.  He apparently blew-up two of the bombs.  (*No one was hurt.)  When people either hid in their classrooms or ran for cover, an unidentified teacher ran toward the explosions, tackled the former student, and kept him on the ground until others could come to his aid.  The student still had 8, live, ready to be detonated pipe bombs attached to his vest.

This teacher's bravery, coupled with the work of both the school's principal and local police, saved the lives of many students.  Wonderful!

(*Here's a link to the article in the local paper: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_13193327?source=most_viewed)

why are palo alto kids killing themselves?

There have been three, local teens who have killed themselves by stepping in front of an oncoming train the past four months in Palo Alto.  (*For the latest suicide, check-out this article: http://www.mercurynews.com/topstories/ci_13195853?nclick_check=1

How can this be?  What could possibly motivate a 13 year old girl to end her life?  How did we all fail this young, "all of life before her" teenager?  It seems to me as a member of this community that we aren't helping our neighbors to discover and live a life that's worth holding onto, even when we are going through a hard time.

Whenever I hear an official spokesperson say something about the suicides, they say something about learning to watch for the early signs of depression.  OK, so why are teens depressed?  What are they putting their hopes in?  How are their parents helping them?  Their teachers?  Their friends?  If they go to church, their fellow churchgoers?  How do they spend their time?  What are the messages they are hearing about what is important in life and who is it that imparts these values to them?

If we don't do something about the way that we live, and the way we teach our kids to live, there will be more child suicides.

A Model of Courage

Last Saturday morning I took a quick look at the newspaper before continuing my preparation to teach at our church the next morning.  My topic:  courage.  There was an article that stood out to me about the former president of the Philippines, Cory Aquino.  I was unable to find it online, but found another article by Reuter's that wasn't bad: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE56U6IB20090731?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true

I may have more to say on courage later in the week.