Jared's Blog

Writing attempts

A Village called Morality

In all this spare time between raising 4 small kids, moving from Nashville back to Colorado Springs, and starting construction on a house, I have picked up the old book called Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. No, not Paul Bunyun, the American folk-tale logger with a blue ox. My mom read the children's version to me as a kid called "Little Pilgrim's Progress". I've since started reading it to my kids but found myself wanting to read ahead, so I figured I'd plow forward in the old version.Old stodgy English yet potent in language and vision, its a story of Christian who has a book in his hand and a burden on his back. He is in search of how to get rid of his burden. Evangelist tells him to "Fly from the wrath to come" and meet the king who will relieve him of his burden. His first trial is in the Slough of Despond "for still as the sinner is awakened about his lost condition, there ariseth in his soul many fears, and doubts, and discouraging apprehensions, which all of them get together, and settle in this place; and this is the reason of the badness of this ground." He runs into Worldly Wisdom right out of the Slough who tells him the quickest way to get rid of your burden is to go up the high hill to the village called Morality. "There dwells a gentlemen whose name is Legality, a very judicious man....that has skill to cure those that are somewhat crazed in their wits with their burdens." "And if he should not be at home himself, he hath a pretty young man to his son, whose name is Civility, that can do it as well as the old gentlemen himself."The greatest distraction to communion with God is the form of Morality and Civility toward God. I'm running into this with the raising of my children. I can either chase the rightness of their behavior so that they make me look good in front of everyone else, or I can chase the communion of intimacy and presence of their hearts. My home can become a village called Morality or an oasis on the path of the pilgrim. My ministry can easily become a modern feat of catchy, uplifting protocol and spiritual psychoanalysis or a messy feast of baptism, death, and resurrection. So long, village.

Feeding Lyla

Our youngest daughter Lyla is 6 months old this week. We've just started her on baby cereal and it's so fascinating to watch a baby learn to eat as opposed to suck, which is how she stays alive right now.She hasn't learned how to open her mouth and receive the weird substance that is on the spoon attached to my hand. She just leans forward to put her lips near the stuff and then gets frustrated at the process. Then she starts crying and its only when she starts crying that she opens her mouth, and that's when I get the food in there.So it made me think..............maybe its when we ticked off that God actually gets an opportunity to reveal Himself. We're so busy being around the stuff of salvation but don't let it in until we're a mess about it.Just read this morning in Luke's version of the Sermon on the Mount:Blessed are you who are poor/Woe to you who are richBlessed are you who hunger/Woe to you who are well-fedBlessed are you who weep now/Woe to you who laugh nowBlessed are you when men hate you/Woe to you when all men speak well of youI want to be a mess about salvation.

the Power

I've been looking at a few Christian artists' websites trying to get ideas on how to make mine better. I came across one that had a video of the artist on the homepage, and I clicked on it. This guy has been around for a while and by the media that you see most you would think he's aging pretty well, but this video was a little too candid perhaps. That split-second "Blink" impression while watching this video was that he is aging a little weird.And by weird I mean inconsistently. In particular, the things that you can cosmetically control like hair and teeth look awesome. The things that are not cosmetic like eyes, demeanor, and overall aura felt much more mature.Contrast that with this. My wife commenting to me today about an elderly Indian woman that walks in our neighborhood, always clothing in traditional Sari attire. (The US headquarters of Nissan is just up the road so we have a fair number of internationals in our community.) This woman does not speak any English but was motioning to my wife regarding our children. Her teeth are rotting, her feet are calloused, her skin is leather, but her eyes and her smile are so intense and alive.This got me thinking about our cultural veneer. I'm asking myself how important are appearances? Does caring somehow hide or sap the actual life that is in me? Maybe not right now, but 30 years from now. The Scripture that Paul writes about "having a form of Godliness but denying it's power" comes to mind. As Christians we are supposed to reveal the invisible to the world. We of all people should be the least concerned about veneers. And maybe we are. Posturing is such a natural tendency for our culture, and yet it's the thing we despise the most. We hunger so deeply for the pure and the real and yet we trade it so easily for pleasure and convenience. It is Adam inside us looking for fig leaves when he hears the voice of God.God, help me let go of the security blanket of pride. Lower to the ground my need to appear my best and lift up my eyes to your invisible appearance all around me. Forgive me for helping myself to you like a foolish son. Help me to stand confident in you alone.Amen

Carry Me

This is a picture of Katie Erie and Tia Wilson. We met Katie at our neighborhood Memorial Day barbeque. She is a college student who also works at a daycare. She's lived with her youth pastor's family since she was 14. They have three boys. One is handicapped. She helps a lot with them. We, being only two houses away, new to town, and having three kids under the age of 5 and one child on the way, were keenly aware of potential babysitters. Katie agreed. Our kids fell in love with Miss Katie. The family Katie lives with have been in the process of adopting Tia from an orphanage in Haiti for almost a year. They've made half-a-dozen trips down there and leaving her in Haiti gets harder every time. It's a slow process with lots of red tape. Katie decided towards the end of last year to go and work at this orphanage where Tia is. Mike and Missy, the family she lives with encouraged her desire. She plans to go for 7 months. 7 days after she arrives the earthquake shakes the nation of Haiti. The orphanage is right at the epicenter. Katie and all the orphans made it out safe (43 in all). A school nearby with 400 children were not so lucky. Mike was on a plane the next day to Haiti. Katie made it back to Tennessee Saturday night. Mike stayed in Haiti petitioning the embassy and the government to let Tia out of the country. Mike and Tia flew in early Tuesday morning. Wednesday afternoon Missy, her boys, and Tia walked down to our house to let the kids jump on our trampoline. I'll never forget that moment. Only 24 hours earlier she had left all she's ever known in Haiti for a chance at a new life with a family that loves her in America. And to think someone from the earthquake is in my backyard. Check out www.jaredanderson.com to hear the song "Carry Me" dedicated to Katie and Tia. Also, click on the link and donate to help the orphans still in Haiti get relief.

You cannot see the top

I lead worship at a youth retreat this weekend in New Mexico. It was so great to run after God with a group of teenagers who have no history that would make them nostalgic, though they have an acute smell for what is slick and overly prepared and distinctly "not fresh". It made me dig a little deeper.Saturday afternoon I bushwhacked my way up a small summit. In Colorado we would call it "Mount" something or other. A little more than a hill, not quite a mountain. Regardless, I was hiking through trees, bushes, cactus, brush, and rocks. I could see the view behind me but I could not see the top or the summit. I didn't make it to the top. I had my fill, turned around and went back.It got me thinking. We often speak of life as climbing a mountain which is true in that there is resistance and the further you go usually the better view you have. There are usually people behind and others ahead. But since we are eternal beings there is no summit. That is where the analogy ends.I often think of people that have something I don't have and refer to them as "at the top". I am in error. There is no arrival, just a kingdom waiting for me to participate. Blessings waiting for me to receive them, a heavenly dwelling waiting for me to clothe myself in it. Mortality waiting to swallowed in life.There is no top to the mountain. There is an end to my body, but no end to my life.2 Corinthians 5:1-41Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

Daddy had the baby blues

So........I posted a blog yesterday morning and deleted it last night. My wife Megan read it to me and it made her sad. I read it again and it shocked me. That's when I deleted it.It was called "Torn to Pieces" and it was about how having a child turns your life upside down. How having her is great but other great things were now gone. Like having a routine and sanity and other stuff. When I read it at night, it scared me because it sounded like I was sad that we had our little Lyla. I deleted it cause I didn't think I was sad when I wrote it, and I don't want to write out of an emotion that I'm not aware of. That would be too artistic. For this anyways.Now, look at that picture and tell how one could be sad to have that little muffin added to your family. That's called the baby blues. Usually moms get it. Not dads. Oh well...This morning Lyla laid in my lap half asleep. She must have been dreaming. Her eyes were moving like crazy underneath her eyelids. She would smile and her eyebrows would go up. Her eyebrows would then go down and her lips would pucker as if she were upset. All this while asleep. Does it get any better?With every child your heart gets bigger. More joy, triumph, warmth, action, drama, humor, romance, fear, horror, bewilderment, victory, ecstasy, fulfillment, eternity, soul pleasure, intimacy, and..........life.As it says below, I must break up the unplowed ground of security and parameters in my heart to make room for the showers of righteousness that God has brought me through this little life that will live forever. Forever a proud papa,jaredHosea 10:12Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.

The Who

We are three days away from having our 4th child. How do I know this? Because it's on the calendar. Thursday morning we will arrive at the hospital at 5:30AM where the fish tank that my daughter has been swimming in for nine months will be drained and my wife will labor for several hours until her body produces this child into the world. This miracle will change my life forever. This miracle will also happen approximately 200,000 other times elsewhere in the world this coming Thursday. If there's anything I've learned about being a father its that no one really knows what they're doing. Some people have just been at it longer than others. I used to believe that some people somewhere had answers to my questions. But what I discovered is that certain people are just asking better questions that others.Science predominantly asks the question "how". Philosophy "why". But the conclusion i've come to is that eternity is about the who. Whoville. Life is about who you know. I'm not really into their music but I can't think of a better band name than The Who.Where is this going? Wrong question. Eternity is not a place or a state of mind or another existence or a set of values. It is a person. What do I do with that?Get closer. How?Through love mostly expressed in faith and belief. Like anticipating a child that I've never seen that swishes and contorts around like an alien in my wife's stomach as I stare at it every night for the past week. I have no idea what she looks like whether she'll be healthy or a vegetable. She may grow up to ruin my life and cause me the deepest pain I've ever felt. Or she may bring me the greatest joy I've ever known. She may be my heaven or my hell. Most likely some of both. I'm her father regardless of her acceptance or rejection. My relationship will only go as far as her acceptance of me. She will never be able to accept me as much as I accept her, but I will chase her with my love till the day I die.Dang-it, that's scary. Yes it is but like anything it gets easier the more you try it.

the altar of our audience

Recently I was in an airport where CNN was blaring (which seems to be most of them). A representative from MTV said this, "MTV has always worshipped at the altar of our audience." This caught my attention and my initial reaction was "Don't we all." I began to apply this thought to churches, and my criticism kicked in. We use the gospel of Jesus to woo followers and then pacify them to keep the machine running. But how foolish of me......I do worship at the altar of my audience. Just so happens that my audience is invisible and I keep confusing the people around me for my audience. The people around me are my co-laborers with Christ. Jesus said in John 14:10, "Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing the work." Christ's command is that we love one another. We must KNOW the Father and LOVE one another. I've often labored in my mind to KNOW my audience.....meaning those people I serve. If I will only commit to KNOWING the Father, then I will truly reveal the Father to those He has given me.Thank you, MTV representative, for teaching me the ways of the Kingdom.

the ABC's

My kids are little. Everett is 5, Beckett is one month from 4, and Francie is 2 1/2. They all know the ABC song. Songs are great ways to learn a sequence like the alphabet, the Presidents of the United States, the state capitals, even theology through worship songs.Everett is just starting to sound out words and learn to read, but he's known the ABC song for quite a while now. The process from the song or sequence to the mastery of words and sentences is quite a journey.I feel this same analogy applies to worship and discipleship. There's a process in people from learning how to sing the songs to developing mastery in applying the power of God and His truth to their lives. We learn the concepts often introduced by song or by teaching in hopes that it sinks past the experience and memory into actual transformation. This is a mysterious process.Calvin Miller is quoted as saying, "Mystics without study are only spiritual romantics who want relationship without effort." Woe to me as a worship leader if I teach songs and romance but do not model, explain, encourage, challenge, urge, pursue the mastery of relationship with Jesus, power of the Holy Spirit, and oneness with the Father.In the end, I want an A for effort.

Don't drink bottled water - dig a well

There's some crazy statistic I heard that America alone consumes 1.4 million bottles of water every hour, which means there's 33.6 million empty plastic bottles going into landfills unnecessarily every day. It was quite a shock to me and makes me think twice when I reach into the closet on my way out the door. A couple months later the analogy came to me that churches can become bottling companies for the Spirit of God. We plan a service, harness what the Lord is doing in our lives through what He's spoken to us or through others we may have read or encountered that week, package it, distribute this word, message, or overall sense of urgency to our people, and send them on their way. Of course, this is only enough to last them through the week or till Wednesday's small group meeting where members will then again be refreshed with whatever it bottled for the event.This is not discipleship but rather co-dependence. We tell people to go but train them to come. What if church were a water park of wells? Where water is dripping not only from the stage but all through the room. Where the gathering of believers is a truly that.........a gathering, not a one-way street of delivery trucks to parched mouths. We must train people to engage the Spirit of God for themselves and have a personal relationship with the living God and become as invisible as the living God himself. What a joy it would be if people forgot my name, couldn't remember who lead the service that weekend. What if the usher at the door stood out more than the preacher on the stage?What a beautiful day that would be.

Upper Michigan

Tonight I'm in Calumet, Michigan which is on the upper peninsula. Canada, for all intensive purposes. We're staying at the AmericInn which is the last chain hotel on your journey northward. After this its all mom-and-pop motels.My wife's grandparents on her mother's side grew up here. The family reunion is tomorrow. Today we went to the old family cottage, hung out at the "Church Lot" (a secluded beach owned by the New Apostolic Lutheran Church), saw where great-Grandpa Aloys's old house used to be before it was burned down, and saw Grandma Millie's house that had a sauna used religiously every Saturday in the Finnish tradition. They get more snow up here than I care to think about, but what I do find myself thinking about is how much times have changed and what my generation might be leaving behind in exchange for short attention spans with all-you-can-eat information buffets. I guess I just wonder what my life would be like if I turned my back on progress and sorta became a redneck. Would life be any sweeter? If I built a sailboat with my own hands and learned every species of fish in Rice Lake would God be just as glorified as when I lead worship and write songs?Interesting question to go to sleep to.

The Narrow Road

I wrote a song almost two weeks ago that will not stop "shaking my nation" as it were. I don't usually write something that I burn for when another person is involved. But my friend Jason and I stumbled upon this idea of the narrow road as we were discussing life, and on our way to lunch I began singing this line "The narrow road is the one I'll travel on/The narrow road is the one I'll travel on" over and over. I attempted to call myself to leave a message with the melody on it but was saved from that "hassle" by Jason's IPhone that has as recorder built in. Silly me!The verse quotes the Scripture, "Wide the gate/Broad the road that leads to destruction/Small the gate/Narrow the road that leads to life," and the chorus is simply the line mentioned earlier about choosing to travel on the narrow road.What does traveling the narrow road mean? I used to think it meant settling for the "Christian thing." And more recently I've had to wrestle with the question: Is the "Jesus" thing and the "Christian" thing the same "thing"?This tends to add another layer to the onion, which has quite honestly stressed me out lately. I'm so utterly confused by what I see around me and in myself and so desperately wanting to be like Jesus that I'm left in a haunted house full of questions. What this has done is made it hard to trust others because I wonder if they want to be on the narrow road like I do.And this is not the way of Jesus. Jesus says "Man up! If this world can do you no harm, than it can also do you no good." Eternal sunglasses. Unshakable strength. Resilient flesh. Spirit powered by rocket fuel. A nose for the glorious. A taste for the unthinkable. A stomach for the mediocre. A kidney for the mundane. And lungs like a horse. I want to man up for the narrow road. 

Wilco and Jesus

The new Wilco record is amazing. Any friend of Wilco is a friend of mine. A friend of mine invited me to their live show, and it changed my life. The first song on this new record is so interesting to me because the lyrics remind me of radio and television ads made to market churches. Instead of Wilco, we say Jesus.Are you under the impression, This isn't your life, Do you dabble in depression, Is someone twisting a knife in your back, Are you being attacked, Oh, this is a fact, That you need to know, Oh, oh, oh, oh Wilco, Wilco, Wilco will love you Baby, Are times getting tough, Are the roads you travel rough, Have you had enough of the old, Tired of being exposed to the cold, The stare of your stereo, Put on your headphones, Before you're exposed, Oh, oh, oh oh, Wilco, Wilco, Wilco will love you baby, So many wars that just can't be won, Even before the battle's begun, This is a man with arms open wide, A sonic shoulder for you to cry, ay, ay, ay, on, Wilco, Wilco will love you baby, Someone twisting a knife in your back, Are you being attacked, Oh this is a fact, That you need to know, Oh, oh, oh, oh Wilco, Wilco, Wilco, Wilco, Wilco will love you BabyIt is true. Jesus will love us regardless. But as Christians living in a culture of consumption, receiving comes easier than giving. You must have both. I don't want to thump the message of "Christians need to get off their butts and save the world", but I want to learn sonship. How to be a son in the Kingdom, receiving from the Father and co-laboring with Christ. This will involve work, discipline, heart surgery, maturity, silence, a secret life with Christ, and a beautiful disinterest with the temporary.Oh for grace to trust Him more.

Prophecy games

Had the most interesting experience last night. Went to a young adults service at a church here in Tennessee. I really enjoyed the time of worship. Went for about an hour. Kind of a "soaking" style. just what i needed. Great prayer time as well.Then there was a talk on prophecy followed by a prophecy game. This freaked me out at first, but as he talked i could hear where he was coming from. God wants to speak to us and through us all the time. He's madly in love with people. We can be part of this process if we choose to be. All that holds us back is our faith and our obedience. Let's open our mouths and ask God to fill it.Here's how the game works. Four people stand in a circle. one person stands in the middle. There's four categories: word of encouragement, scripture, Bible character(you are like a.......in the Bible. God wants to use you to do x,y, and z), and one other (can't remember). Each of the four people has 30 seconds to give a prophecy to the person in the middle. Then everybody rotates.(Obviously, word of encouragement is the easiest spot)The boundaries are that each word has to be positive. God wants to bless people. Be a blessing to people. And it works better if you don't know the people in your group (hmmm.......)Anyways, I can't quit thinking about this. It's like speed dating. It's like drama practice. It's like Nazi rhetoric. This whole experience shocked me in the best way. I've been living in the land of church that has countdown videos, 23 minute worship sets, video announcements, and sermons made for itching ears. I've been sniffing for something radical for a while now.But this can't be it.....How does this train people to do what Jesus did? This trains people to have all the trappings, the phrases, the confidence to talk to people they don't know, the form. But does it really teach people how to walk in the power of God? But then we couldn't call it a game...........bummer."Christianity has not so much been tried and found wanting, as it has been found difficult and left untried." G.K. Chesterton