EXALT Youth Ministries: March 2009

We rent. I kind of like it.....purely for lazy reasons. I don't have to mow the lawn. When something isn't working right...I don't have to figure out how it gets fixed.

Well our shower has been a problem for awhile now. Not a big problem...but our landlady (who is SUPER COOL for having to live next to our noise) is getting it fixed. Basically everything got ripped out and they're throwing up new stuff.

That begins said, there have been guys walking through our house all week long (which I'm not a big fan of as you can imagine)

So the other morning Corban looks into the bathroom and sees what you see above. He said something like, "Dad are they fixing our tub?" "Yeah it should be done in the next couple days." Then he said, "But why did they break things if they're fixing it?" Without totally thinking what I was saying, "Well sometimes things need to be broken before they can be fixed the right way." For some reason he was OK with that explanation.

As the day went along and I walked past our broken bathroom, I contemplated what I said to my son. I wonder if we're not often too proud to be broken. I don't like admitting that something's wrong. That I need to be fixed. I'm fine just the way I am. Status quo. I'm good to go. I can point to some major periods of my life where I wanted nothing to do with brokenness. My ego and my pride got in the way.

Pastor Mike teaches a lot on reconciliation and forgiving one another. I am constantly challenged by that. As the worship leader I try to select music that goes along with the general theme of the week. Can I just tell you that there are tons of songs about forgiveness and repentance as it deals with us and God....but very little (or I'm looking in the wrong places) the deal with forgiveness between ourselves. [I've joked with him recently that I'm just going to start writing songs about forgiveness so I have something ready for our fellowship next time he preaches on it]

I've never broken a major bone in my body. My understanding though is that the doctor has to "set" the bone just right so that it will heal properly. I've also heard of a doctor needing to re-break the bone because it's not healed properly. From what I've read, if the bone heals wrong, it might be very problematic, or possibly not useable.

If we're brutally honest with ourselves, we don't want God to point out problem areas in our lives that need ripped apart so we can get it fixed properly. If we're brutally honest with ourselves we don't want to ask forgiveness of people because that would also admit that we have problems in our lives. We're willing to let the bone set even if it's at a funny angle. We don't really want the dust and clutter of someone walking through our living room to fix the job the right way. We'll just let the mold and mildew rot areas of our lives out.

Please hear me when I say that this is self-examination, not condemnation. I'm not pointing fingers. I'm saying that far too often my pride hinders the needed brokenness in my life.

How about you? Am I off base here? Also, do you know any good worship songs/hymns that deal with person to person forgiveness and repentance?

~ Pastor Aaron (Pleasant Community Church / Time 4 Revolution Dude)