I've come to learn that prayer is a discipline I am in need of appreciating more.

I've never been so much of a prayer warriar as a prayer jester.  I may perform it, but how much of it can be taken seriously?

How much of what I pray is a contrived attempt at gaining the favor of God?  Or worse, man?

What I have found though, is in moments of deep, intense anguish or pain, I always resort to praying.  Always.  Almost by accident even. 

In those moments, my prayers are unintelligible and incoherent.  Much of what I say could not be understood by the ears of man, nor would I want them to attempt.  It's rather embarrassing, even when one considers I'm completely alone when this happens.  It's not speaking in tongues, but it could very well be mistaken for it. 

What it is though, is an attempt to put into words that which is beyond my own scope of expression.  The language of humanity does a great disservice when uttered into the ears of the Almighty.  Words can rarely give full meaning to that which we are feeling and wish to convey.  This, perhaps, is the reason I mumble when praying. 

And yet, I feel as if God accepts it all the same. 

That through the rambling, incomprehensible babble I call "words", He understands what I am saying.  He feels what I feel. 

He gets it.

How shameful of me to think that I could ever pray in a different manner, one that would be loftier in its use of elegant prose and poetic imagery!  That to mumble the words of my heart before He who contains it would be far better than anything else is an almost preposterous notion to give in to, yet as followers of The Way we are given to preposterous thinking.

With these things in mind, I have some stuff I need to go mumble about.

Jar

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It's true.

No matter what facet of ministry you are involved in, there is an element of inconvenience that will at one point ruin your day.  That's the price we pay when engaging in ministry.

The problem for many, especially myself, is that we haven't mastered the art of being inconvenienced. 

I can easily become frustrated, angered, and annoyed with changes in plans.  While I'm more a "fly by the seat of your pants" kind of guy, I still find great comfort and ease when there is a routine or expectatant action.  When obstacles come in the way of that routine or expectation, it's difficult for me to relent on the things I want. 

That's detrimental to ministry.

So if you're working with squatter parks in Africa, or youth groups in Manchester, Indiana, be ready for the inconvenience of it all.  It's going to happen.  Trust me. 

The real test is how we respond to it. 

Jar

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1.       I

2.       Will

3.       Not

4.       Do

5.       The

6.       25

7.       Random

8.       Things

9.       About

10.   Me

11.   List

12.   Because

13.   I

14.   Think

15.   It

16.   Is

17.   Stupid

18.   And

19.   A

20.   Complete

21.   Waste

22.   Of

23.   My

24.   Precious

25.   Time

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Oh no!

Are you telling that we are in danger of no longer seeing oversized inflatable versions of Spongebob and Hello Kitty?!?!?!questionsmarkexclamationpoint

FOXNews deems it so...

If there is any inkling of truth to this, then we're sadly letting the terrorists win...

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...there is beauty to be found in the dead of winter when you live in a midwestern state...

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I just got an email telling me about a new site that serves as the Christian alternative to Facebook.  I would give you a run down of what Faithout.com says it is, but [*plants tongue firmly in cheek*] there is apparently a flood of traffic on the site, so it's currently encountering some load problems. 

I suppose that just like the music industry, social media network market was not immune to being flooded with cheaply made Christian knock-offs. 

I didn't even realize Facebook was so evil. 

Jar

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Don't worry.  I cleaned it up.

Jared

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One of the things I've been learning lately is that I haven't learned much.

This has been intensified by the fact that I spend more time doing other, trivial things than I do spending time reading God's Word.

Things like surfing the internet, playing video games, reading good, but not as important books, playing the Wii, etc. 

I would venture to say that this probably isn't a good thing.  Now I'm not saying that in order to truly be learning and growing as someone who follows Christ, you have to spend eight hours a day with your nose in your Bibles.  Of course, that probably wouldn't hurt you too much, but it still misses the point. 

The point is that if I truly believe Christ is my rock and comforter, why then do I not spend more time studying the words He spoke to you and me? 

I'll spare you whatever righteousness I may seem to have in saying all of this with this little information nugget: I have probably spent, on average, .04 minutes a day reading Scripture this past year. 

So, if there's anybody that needs to start picking up the slack, it's me.  That is why I'm adding another goal to my resolutions for 2009: spend more time reading the Bible each day, than I do other unimportant tasks.

Now, what tasks are to be considered unimportant, I'm not entirely sure yet.  But I do know that I fill my day with plenty of them.

Jar

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With 2008 coming to a close, it's time for my 2nd installment of New Year's resolutions!

If you're curious to see how the past year has treated me, then you should probably check this out.

WIth no further introduction needed, let the egocentrism begin:

• It would be considered a blessing if I didn't hear the name "Michael Phelps" more than 3.2 million times.  "What?!  That's so un-American!  Let me guess, you don't support the troops either?" you're probably saying.  Rest assured, I enjoyed the Fishman's swim through the history books, but after continually hearing how his body was genetically perfect for his sport time after time, there's only so much I can take.  We get it, he's like a freaking cheetah!  But in the water.  Similar to a dolphin.  A cheephin?  (Oh, and the troops have my full support.)
• Figure out why my car makes that screechy noise.  A fairly simple task, you might think.  But when Jared Murray is involved, nothing is rarely that simple.  You see, taking care of this would actually involve me driving to a garage, make myself willing to lay down some cold, hard cash, and trust what the mechanics have to say.  If you're a mechanic, I'm sorry, but I think we're just natural enemies. 
• Complete a translation study of Romans.  Dr. Wes would be proud to see me attempting such a feat, even though I am horirbly terrified of this book.  Paul has a tendency to hit a little too close to home with me, and Romans and I have thrown down in fisticuffs a couple of times. 
• Quit biting my fingers/nails.  I don't even know what made me start this stupid habit in the first place, but it has done a number on my digits. 
• Formulate a book idea.  This doesn't mean I'm actually going to write it this year, but I've always had what I thought were good book ideas, and seeing myself actually attempt to follow through on one would be entertaining, to say the least.
• Reach 700 followers on Twitter.  Is this just to feel more popular?  Perhaps.  But it's more of a goal to see how connected I can become in the social media market.  If you have Twitter, @ me and let's take over the world together. 
• Get my hands on a Macbook Pro.  Still trying to keep up with the Jones'.
• Rediscover my ministry calling.  I never lost it, I just set it aside for a brief period of time.  That which is without rest will not endure, right?  Right.
• Help this one girl raise money for her 7 month stay in Africa.  Truth be told, I'm going to miss her while she's gone, but that doesn't mean I can't give her all of my support, and encourage others to as well.  If you're interested in the cause, check out her blog page (she'll update it more frequently, I promise), or ask me and I'll give you some direction.
• Finally, make compassion my greatest export.    Nothing could be greater than this.

My prayer for you is that 2009 brings more joy and continued blessings.

Jar

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If there's one thing I can tell you for certain about this world, it's that you will not get very far on your own.

Though I'm someone who is fairly independant, it's becoming increasingly evident to me that I can not, and should not, try to do it all on my own.

What is "it", you may ask? 

"It" is life.  Living.  Doing things like work, friendships, family, and love. 

All of these things take other people, whether we like it or not.

I often wonder why God made it so we would have to rely on others, but then I end up smacking myself in the head when I realize that wasn't it at all.

He has set it up so that we have nothing truly great to rely on besides Himself.

I wrestle with that.  I'll admit it, I struggle with believing, living like, and convincing myself that God is really all that I need in this world. 

Unfortunately even more so, I will sometimes find myself relying too much on people.  This isn't to say that I think it's a bad thing to rely on someone else; obviously if you read the beginning of this post, you'd see that's not what I'm trying to say here at all. (Forgive the unwarranted defensiveness.  It's late, and I'm tired.)

But when my relationships with other people become the center of my universe, it is the Creator of that universe that gets shoved aside.  How sad of a thought is that, that I would do such a thing to the One who loves me more than I can even imagine?

For me, I think the biggest reason is that I yearn so much to be loved.  Affection, whether it is of the physical nature (i.e. hugs, kisses, a pat on the back, high fives, etc.) or of the verbal nature (i.e. words of affirmation, encouragement, etc.), is how I tend to gauge my worth.  As a result, those things that are tangible to me, people, as opposed to the One I can not see with human eyes, have been my primary source of comfort and love.

Writing this out makes me realize more and more how tragically flawed I am. 

I was created to find my sole joy and purpose in God, while everything else, including relationships and community, was just meant to be a bonus. But I instead search to quench my hunger in the icing, while I let the cake just sit in the open air, getting all stale and dry.  (Figure that analogy out and you win something special.)

I realize that I am making generalized statements here, and that there is immense value to be found in our earthly relationships.  But I have to keep reminding myself, and allowing myself to be reminded by others, that if all I hold dear to me were to crumble to pieces in one night, God would still be there to help me pick them up in the morning. 

I can rest easy knowing this, and my prayer is that you can too. 

Jar

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I'm watching Larry King interview Joel and Victoria Osteen, and something has struck me. 

Joel just explained that he thinks the purpose of the Gospel is to inform people that Jesus Christ came and died for our sins so that we may have salvation.

Nothing wrong there.  This is something I've heard countless times, and have believed most of my life.

But the thing I'm struggling with is that we focus so much on His arrival and departure, but not as much on His duration. 

Why don't we say He "came, lived, died, only to live again, so that we might do the same"?

We seem to skip over the details and examples of Jesus' life, and as a result, I think we miss out on a crucial portion of His ministry. 

During exceptionally rough times like today (by American standards, at least), I think there is much to be taken from the descriptions of His life.  Of course, even if times weren't like they were, that would still be just as true. 

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I was just cut off by some guy driving a shiny new Jeep. Obviously I would get ticked off for a number of reasons here:

1) I was just freaking cut off.

2) He has a really nice car, and I'm very jealous.

3) There are about five different forms of Christian bumper stickers/decals/paraphenilia stuck to his vehicle.

I live my life by one rule, and therefore humbly expect every one else to do the same: no Christian decals unless I'm willing to act the part.

I know, nobody's perfect, therefore we shouldn't expect them to act perfect, right?

Well, if you're going to boast about your spiritual awareness through $2 pieces of sticky paper on your $35,000 car, at least try to honor your investment.

After all, Jesus calls us to be good stewards, right?

*steps off the soapbox*

Jar

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When some dude decided to use one wheel instead of two, I'm pretty sure he didn't have something as awesome as this in mind for the future of his invention...

I can hardly do half of that on my feet...

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