What do you care about?

I am a recovering, at time still struggling, sports fanatic. Sports used to consume my time, cares, and passions. I would watch sports all day long, follow each major sport closely, and get emotionally involved in the games. I know, it sounds ridiculous. I once had 3 tears stream down my face when the Phoenix Suns lost to the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals. I remember that night because that night was the night the I realized I had a serious problem. I cared way too much about sports. At times, I still do.

There are so many things that are more important. This is going to be a bit of a rant, but there have been a few things that have been on my mind lately. Why don’t we care about things going on in this country that are seemingly not good for us? I look at things that we put up with, or do not know about, or just plain don’t care about, but I think we should.

For example, I read this short blog post about student loans tonight. Incredible that in our country we have so many young people going into debt for an education. My wife and I began our marriage with over $100,000 in school loans. Not exactly the way you want to start a life together.

How about the issue of the food that we eat and the state of our countries health problems. Again, I am living this right now. My mom has been diagnosed with lung cancer, and my family has been ravaged by cancer. My wife and I watched the documentary Fork over Knives and we have had to rethink the way we eat and look at food. Why don’t we know about some of this information that is presented in this documentary? The main idea is that we are a society that lives on an animal-based diet, but that we really need to be on a plant-based diet. It may sound like a hippy thing to be talking about, but I strongly encourage you to take a look at the documentary and decide for yourself.

I still am disgusted at our worship of the celebrity. We love us some celebrity here in America. Actors/Actresses, rock stars, athletes, models, and other wealthy people. We want so badly to know what they are doing, eating, wearing, you name it. We pay them loads of money for entertainment purposes. Millions upon millions. Think about that. We pay them millions to act. To play a game. Meanwhile our teachers aren’t able to afford a standard house payment?

I don’t trust anyone in Washington. Granted, I don’t know any of them personally, and I am by no means a political junkie. I don’t follow politics too much, I never know who to trust and listen to. I guess my hesitation comes from really being curious if anyone in Washington actually has the interest of the people in mind. I mean really cares about the person. There is too much lobbying going on, too much special interest, too much other stuff going on. Show me someone that is really concerned for us, and I may give you my vote.

I believe that we have to make some serious changes in our country to make some head way on these issues. I can only start with me and my family. I want to care about this stuff more than a sports score. ( I am typing this as I watch game 6 of the World Series, ha)

So… What do you care about?

This post can be broken up into 8 other posts, but I have had some of this stuff on my mind lately. There is more, but for the sake of keeping this shorter than a short book, I will stop here.

What do you think? Do any of these eek you at all? How do we make some changes?

Beautiful Disruptions

I want to preface by saying that this is not an original thought of mine, but I am sure I have heard it before from someone, somewhere.

Tonight I just got home from a great weekend at the National Youth Workers Convention in San Diego. I love that conference. There are so many brilliant minds and a ton of people that LOVE students there. I love that I can surround myself with people that love students. Anyways, back to the point of this post.

I came home tonight from a long weekend away from home. I missed my wife and kid like crazy, and when I say crazy, I mean it. I really missed them.

Five minuetes after I got home my son woke up, crying, and obviously not very happy. So, I had a beautiful disruption. A disruption is something that is not planned, not on the schedule, and typically an annoying sort of interruption into our lives. I did not plan on seeing or holding my son tonight. I knew he would be long asleep when I arrived home around 9p (2 hours after his bedtime). But here I am, five minutes into my arrival, going upstairs to hold my son and comfort him. This is the beautiful disruption that I longed for after a week away from home.

It happened twice tonight. He woke up, allowed me to hold him, and then he fell asleep on my chest. I could tell there was some sort of comfort that I was home, there was an unspoken peace about me holding him. It was the BEAUTIFUL.

That got me thinking… when else do I have beautiful disruptions? When else do things unplanned happen, and do I ever take a second to step back and try and see the beauty in that situation? I can tell you that I probably miss a bunch of beautiful disruptions.  I am more concerned with the tasks at hand or my own desires at that moment. How about when someone just needs someone to talk to? They need human interaction, a real person to comfort them, listen to them, acknowledge them. Am I there for that, or am I too preoccupied?

How many times do I let little things with very little significant value get in the way of significant things? Like relationships with people?

How about you? When do you miss the beautiful disruptions?

Tonight I had the chance to sit with my son. I held him, cuddled him, and prayed for him. I got to pull him close and I am sure that in that moment he knew that daddy loved him. It was the best disruption, you could call it beautiful.

 

They are Watching

Our kids are watching us. Every move we make, every word we say, every interaction with friends, foes, and family. They are watching.

I think we sometimes want to think that we can live by the motto “do as I say, not as I do”, but we all know that doesn’t work. Wait… we all know that, right?

As parents and as adults we have a responsibility to demonstrate to our kids, our friends kids, and our general population of youth what it looks like to be a part of a larger community of people. We are given the responsibility to show them how to treat other people, how to speak to them, how to make wise choices, how…. and the list can go forever.

I work with students, that is my job. I have the privilege and honor of being given a voice in the lives of students on a weekly basis. I try and understand the weight of responsibility that I am given in that I am an example. My job is to pastor and shepherd students, but along with that comes the fact that I am going to an example of what it looks like to follow Christ and what it looks like to be an adult in everyday life. My students are watching me. When I speak to our facilities guys, they are watching. When I talk about politicians, they are listening. When I am put in awkward situations ( I work with jr. highers, so this is pretty regular), they are watching. Kids spit out what they are fed. If we are feeding them garbage, they are spitting it back out. If we feed them positive stuff, they too will spit that back out.

I often hear people say things like: “these kids today have no manners”, “kids today are rude and disrespectful”, “our future is in trouble”. Well… they learned it from somewhere, right?

So… the charge, the responsibility, the weight, is on us. We have to show the next generations how to love, live, and act. We have to put on display what it looks like to treat people with respect. If we don’t agree with someone, we must show them how to handle that situation in love. It truly does take a village to raise a kid. I just hope we have a decent village to do it in.

I talked a little bit about what they looks like in our family here.

What do you think? What is your experience with kids/students?

The Big D

 

So this is a cheezy title, and no I am not talking about Dallas, or divorce (referring to the country song). I am talking about Discipleship.

Discipleship is one of the most important aspects of being a Christ follower. Jesus himself gave us to perfect example of what it look like to invest and care for disciples. I think of Jesus and what He did with His disciples. He said to Peter, “Come follow me, I will make you a fisher of men”. Come and follow me. As one who is doing the discipling, Jesus says to follow Him. He will lead the way. He will give the example. Jesus had 12 men who followed Him, lived with Him, watched and studied Him, and trusted Him.

As one who believes whole-heartedly in the discipleship process, I want to look at this model and make sure I am emulating it. Both as one who disciples and one who is discipled.

There are some cool things happening in the Barton household. I am thinking specifically of this arena of discipleship. Tomorrow morning my wife is beginning a bi-weekly meeting with 3 young ladies (college age). She is doing this all with the idea of discipleship in mind. I will be following suit on Sunday night with 5 guys that I already care for deeply. I have the privilege of meeting with 4 of my leaders, and 1 husband of a leader on a weekly basis.

To some extent I don’t think Liz and I really know what we are signing up for. We both are stoked, but we both may be a bit naive. Naive only in the sense that this is a great responsibility. We are embarking on a journey that is hoping to make disciples so those men/women can now go and make disciples as well.

Recently I read a great book, Radical, by David Platt (review coming soon). In the book, David Platt talks about many things, one being the process and idea of discipleship. One of the last things Jesus says is to go and make disciples. So Platt gives much attention to this command. Here is a quote that I love, and I find encouraging for me as I head into this new venture of discipleship.

Making disciples is not an easy process. It is trying. It is messy. It is slow, tedious, even painful at times. It is all these things because it is relational. Jesus has not given us an effortless step-by-step formula for impacting the nations fo his glory. He has given us people, and he has said, “Live for them. Love them, serve them, and lead them. Lead them to follow me, and lead them to lead others to follow me. In the process you will multiply the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Go make disciples.

E

So every few months or so you will see a new post about Ethan. You may think, you just did a post like this. Here is the deal, this blog will serve as a memory for Liz and I, and for big E to look at one day. I want to capture as much as I can of the lil’ man. So this is my outlet. You just get to follow along if you like. So, without delay.

Well… Ethan is about to turn 16 months. That is hard to even type, because the time has flown by so fast.

Right now a typical day for me (monday thru thursday) consist of not setting my alarm. My alarm is E. If he gets up at 5:45a, then I am waking my butt up. If he sleeps til 7:25a, I am getting to “sleep in”. Here is the routine: I go get him out of his crib, I change his diaper (1/2 the time it has some poo in it), then we go in our room. The best thing is that Ethan loves going into mommy and daddy’s room in the morning. He will start to look around and try to find his morning milk. When he spots it, he starts to laugh and point. It’s like a little game to him. I throw him on the bed and we usually wrestle and play for a good 1/2 hour. Then we start getting ready for the day. After that I take him downstairs, and he plays while I get everything else ready for the day. He just started doing this: “bu, bu, bu, bu, bu, bu”. This is his attempt to imitate the beginning of the Veggie Tales opening song. He LOVES his veggie tales. Meanwhile, I try and get breakfast ready for both of us. Then… I leave. By this time it is around 8:10 or so, and the babysitter has already arrived. I LOVE MY MORNINGS WITH E.

Ethan is a total momma’s boy right now. Sometimes he gets upset if I come into his room to comfort him. Like UPSET. This is what he is saying in his head, I am sure of it ” Daddy, don’t even think about it, you got nothing to offer me right now. I want momma, nothing less. Your stupid humor is not funny right now, so stop making those lame jokes that I typically will give you a pity laugh at. I need the pretty woman to comfort me. Dad…stop.”. Yep, that’s what goes through his little head.

Ethan is saying: dis (this), pppp (up), momma, ball, aaaaawaa (agua), dis ( he says this one a lot), and that is mostly it at this time.

He knows a few signs. He knows please, more, eat, phone (holds his hand to his ear), up, brush my teeth, drums, and pointing. He knows where his toes are, and where his “ponza” (tummy) is.

Ethan loves to play outside. He loves outside. He goes to gymboree twice a week right now. He loves his Nana. He absolutely loves playing the drums. He always just wants to play the drums when he comes to MISSION. I love that he loves that. He also loves to play ball. He just wants to carry a baseball, or bouncy ball around and occasionally throw it. He has a little slide that his Abuela bought him. He loves to go down that too.

There are only a few things Ethan hates. #1 haircuts. Wow. #2 Daddy taking something away from him #3 Mommy leaving. Those are the 3 big ones right now.

Overall, Ethan is a complete joy. His little life has been the source of so much joy. I love my little man.

After writing this post, I realize that we have not been taking enough photos of the little guy. Look for some updated photos coming!

what am i doing?

So yesterday was tough. Today is going to be hard too. I just want some coffee. A cup of Joe in the morning is always a good thing.

Yesterday I thought about just not doing this whole Lent thing. I want it to be hard, but I don’t like the no coffee. I wanted to just turn on the TV and watch some mindless sitcom. Or just the news.

So this morning I am going to just set my mind on how good the Lord is. I am going to let the truth of who Jesus is soak in to my soul. I am going to run the songs we sang last night through my mind and let the words sit. That is the point of all this after all, right?

It is tough. But the truth is that whatever I do pales in comparison to what Christ did for us.

The Journey of Lent

Lent is a new thing for me personally. It was not a part of my childhood, or even my first few years of following Jesus. I have some mixed feelings on Lent, but ultimately I think it can be something that can be very special in the life of a follower of Jesus.

Last year was my first year of really partaking in fasting leading up to Easter Sunday. That is what Lent really is, a time of self-sacrificing in order to focus in on what took place on Good Friday and Easter Sunday nearly 2,000 years ago.

Last year I decided to drink water for 40 days. No other liquids entered my body. Not juice, not coffee, that one is worth repeating, NOT COFFEE, not soda, not beer, not wine… nothing but H2O. It was incredibly hard for me. I wanted to quit time and time again. I would have quit if it weren’t for my buddies, Mookie and Wes, that were doing the same thing. I can’t tell you how much that kept me accountable.

Here is the thing… I gave up what I thought was a lot…but I didn’t have this life-changing experience with the Lord due to my abstaining from all liquids outside of water. I thought that by simply doing that, I would grow closer to Jesus and have this sweet relationship with God. This did not happen. I don’t think God is looking for us to do more stuff like that. He is not impressed with my drinking only water. Can you imagine what Jesus would say “WOW, that Josh Barton said no to that Coca-Cola AGAIN. Each time he says no I am more and more impressed with his self-control and faith.” Nope. Pretty sure he isn’t impressed with that.

Last year I tried it. It was good. I learned a lot. BUT, not because 0f my goodness, but because I learned in spite of my works. I learned that no matter what I am doing, eating, drinking, whatever, if I am not seeking the Lord actively then I am not going to grow closer to Jesus.

So this year… Same thing… kind of. Nothing but water on Monday thru Saturday. Sundays I can drink whatever. No TV for the Barton household. All of this because I want to grow in my walk with Jesus. In case you’re curious, I have thought about the whole telling others about your acts of righteousness thing. When Jesus gives us instruction in Matthew 6 on how to act while giving, fasting, and praying. I am writing all this not in hopes of receiving praise or pats-on-the-back. I am just wanting to fall in love with Jesus, and I understand that these things in and of themselves do not accomplish that.

So… here we go. H2O.

Jimmy Fallon

Typically I don’t blog about TV, the celebrity world, or entertainment. BUT, I am loving the Jimmy Fallon show. Seriously the dude and his producers are so creative and funny. I love that he is not too good to have a good laugh at himself. His skits and musical bits are hilarious. I really only get to watch the show a few times a month, mostly because I am sleeping before 11:30 rolls around, and without DVR we don’t have the option to record the show.

This summer I am hoping to get some tickets to his show with some friends that love his show too. I have said time and time again that this guy has the best late night talk show out there. Here was a funny clip tonight with Brian Williams from NBC Nightly News. The fact that he can get that guy, whom I respect, to come on his show and do a R&B clip is sweet. Enjoy.

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon – Slow Jam The News: Wisconsin Protests (3/2/11) – Video – NBC.com.

DNA of Barton

Liz and I have been having some good conversations lately. They are tough, but very good. We are talking about what we want our families DNA to be. I have been thinking a lot    about what I want our family to look like in the future. What     are we going to spend our time, money, and talents on? I have high hopes, big dreams, and a few fears.

I want my son to know what it looks like to follow Jesus, but not because we are always telling him what to do, but because he  sees what it looks like because of our lives.

We put others before ourselves. We serve with a joyful spirit. We have deep friendships with people we love. We love each other well. We bless others when we can. We laugh a lot. We play hard. We eat together. We hurt for people who are hurting. We celebrate with people that are celebrating. DNA.

These are the things I hope our families DNA  is made up of. I told Liz that I want this to be who we are, not the things we do. It is easy to do things for one reason or another, it is harder to be someone.

We so desire to be a family that loves Jesus, and because of that love our lives are different. This weekend we were in Colossians 2 at Mission, and we talked about identity. Bottom line: I am a child of God, a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. May this be our identity.

What are some of your families goals? What DNA do you hope to have?

No podcast in Africa

It has been over 3 months since I have been home from Malawi. DANG… it seems like forever ago. There was 1 story about my trip that I have kind of held back, mostly because it was embarrassing and I want a do-over. Can I get a do-over?

So…wanna hear the story? Let me give you a snapshot.

One of the reasons that I went on the trip was to be able to talk with, encourage, train, and love some of the youth in Malawi. I had a few specific times and opportunities to teach the youth of some of the villages. The do-over really comes on my last full day in Malawi. Here it is.

On this Thursday morning, about 200 Malawian youth from all over the surrounding villages came to one place, for one purpose… to hear this American guy teach them. Some of these students came from up to 15 miles away. Not that big of a deal right? They walked. Some without shoes. Most had to skip school. Some missed a day of earning a wage to help their families. All came to hear me. YIKES.

So, I didn’t really know this was going to happen for that long. I think they told me on Wednesday night that I might be teaching on Thursday, but they certainly did not mention how many students and from where they would be coming.

I did have a message prepped. I talked about King Josiah. King Josiah was a young king, 8 when he took over, and inherited a kingdom and a legacy of people that were running from God. Living directly in opposition to God and His ways. But… King Josiah changed that. He began to turn and pursue God and His decrees. He changed a culture. He began to lead the way, and he was a young dude. Probably a teenager when all this started to go down.

In Malawi there is a HUGE population of young people. The AIDS crisis is rampant in Malawi. Poverty is everywhere. The answer? The youth. It has to be. We have to look to these young people and train them, give them resources, and turn them back to the ways of Jesus. Hence me teaching about King Josiah. It is time for this generation of young people in Malawi to turn.

After I hit King Josiah, I went to 1 Timothy 4:12:” Do let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, love, in faith and in purity.” I then talked about each one of these areas: speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. It was OK. Can I let you in on something? I kind of winged this part. I am not ok with that, but on this day, it is what I did.

Sounds decent, except the winging part. Well… I dropped the ball. I spoke for about 35 to 45 minutes. A long time for our students here in Arizona. But then again our students don’t walk 15 miles to hear me speak. Not only did I go short, but I am not sure that I completely had them. I was speaking without confidence. Here is the crazy thing. I was teaching from the Word of God. How can I not have confidence? AAAAAHHHHHH

I walked away…sweaty…discouraged…wondering if I connected with any of the students…sad that I sold the gospel short…sad that I didn’t allow room for the Spirit of God to guide me. AAAAAHHHHHHHH

I really was sweaty too. To top it all off, they really love doing Q&A’s, but nobody mentioned that to me, so we walked out. No Q&A. AAAAAAHHHHHHH

I want a do-over. I still get sad and upset when I think about it. Tonight I thought about it.

Luckily, there are not podcast in Africa.

Here is a video of the students that I had the privilege to teach that day. This is a video taken right when we walked in. Singing their hearts out. I miss this.