Here is another article I wrote for Chill Magazine...It's called Extreme Good for Nothing...

Have you ever seen the TV show Extreme Makeover Home Edition? This reality saga has become one of my favorite all time TV shows. Typically I cannot stand reality TV. I admit, I may be one of the only souls on earth who has not watched American Idol...sorry...but Extreme Makeover Home Edition is different. Every week the Disney network chooses a family to be on the show. These families each come from a variety of backgrounds, life experiences, and situations but they do have one thing in common...extreme hardship. These families have often had to deal with a myriad of troubles that tend to be rather grave. These range from sickness, a death to a loved one, or handicapped loved ones requiring special care. Life for these folks has become extraordinarily difficult. As a result of the various difficulties, the chosen families are living under severe financial hardships that have often crippled the home.

Once a family has been chosen, the show begins with a description of the hardship that the family has come under. Then, it is on! A herd of folks gather early in the morning in the family’s front lawn. Ty Pennington (the show’s host) gets out of a massive trailer that just pulled up and starts yelling through his now trademark megaphone, “Good Morning ____family...” Now that’s a wake up call!

As the family piles out of the house to see what the racket is, they realize pretty quickly what is happening. The series of emotions, complete utter shock, relief, and then humility shows on their faces. This is so incredibly heartwarming to watch. After Pennington explains to them that they have been chosen for a home makeover (and tissues are handed out to each) the family is sent on a fantastic vacation, like Disney World for a week, or some other destination that they would never be able to afford.
While they are away, it’s go time on the home front!

Now here’s what so cool. Tearing down a house and rebuilding one takes a lot of time, a lot of people, and a lot of money. Local crews each week volunteer all the manpower and materials. Then these people will work twenty four hours a day for the next seven days! Remember, this is 100% volunteer labor.

The show builds (yes I like cheesy puns) to a climatic point that is “the great reveal” in reality TV. The family certainly knows that they are about to receive a fantastic gift upon their return from the vacation. What must that be like? Remember being a seven year old on Christmas eve, unable to fall asleep the night before in expectation of the next morning? Knowing you’re receiving a new home would be like Christmas morning n steroids. What is it going to look like? What am I going to say? This is the moment when I prefer to be watching this show alone. It is really kind of an ego thing as I tear up every time. I can’t help it. Can you imagine receiving a gift so huge? A life giving, desperately needed, gift. A gift that has expiration date. A gift that, let’s face it, cannot be compared to any other gift ever given or received.

The family is set behind a huge bus so that they cannot see the house. The hosts says a few words and then he, the family, the crew, and all the onlookers shout “Hey bus driver! MOVE THAT BUS!” And then it happens. They see the gift. They cry. The crew cries. The host cries. My wife giggles as I cry. How can I not? Watching someone receive such a fantastic gift is awesome!

But here’s the real deal...

This gift I’m referring to...it’s not the house. I know I know, the house is the gift but truly the gift that the families receive is the gift of free unconditional love. They have received a good, or house, for nothing. These families feel so overwhelmed with free love that all they are capable of doing is simply crying. The house is great no doubt, no one would argue that! However, houses and material items cannot effect the heart and the soul for the long term. Only love given with nothing expected in return is capable of that. It is the kind of love that costs nothing that is felt and it is this very love that brings about tears of joy...theirs as well as mine and others who witness the power of this love.

Which brings me to my point...

We should all do this. No, I don’t mean buy houses for each other! I had a great friend who was fond of saying that when he was growing up, he was often told that he was good for nothing. Just a no good kid. A nobody. And so what happened? He grew up and believed that to be his truth. He became good for nothing. He ran the streets. He broke laws. He went to prison. He was truly good for nothing.

Years later he learned a secret that helped him turn his life around. He started to go throughout his day doing good...for nothing. He would simply do good things for people and expected nothing in return. That’s when the miracle happened. When he started to do good for nothing, he found out that he no longer felt good for nothing.

Let’s try this. Go about your day. BUT, when the time comes, and it will if you look for it, do someone some...good for nothing. I’ll bet that at the end of the day, if we all do just one good thing for nothing every day, there’s a chance that many will go home no longer feeling that they are...good for nothing.

Now this is interesting. I saw this morning that the Pope has made an update to the list of the deadly sins. He decided that Catholic church should have a more modern spin on the age old sins. What was added was the sin of pollution, the sin of using drugs, and the sin of genetic experiments. To best understand what the Pope has done here, I think it is important to go back to the first list of sins that were revealed to us (the church) by Moses.
When the Israelites were making their trek from Egypt to the promised land, God revealed the 10 Commandments to Moses. These "do's and don'ts" were to be the first set of rules if you will. What is interesting in all this to me is that these "rules" were not made out to keep individuals in line per se. The whole point of these rules was to keep the new community of God or church in order and safe. Let's face it, not killing each other and running off with each other's spouses is probably a good thing when it comes to cohesion in a group setting!
Fast forward to today. It sure seems like we as the community of Jesus followers have taken this idea of sin and "rules" and made them personal guidelines for living. We have a personal relationship with Jesus and our personal walk with the Lord. Everything at some point in time has turned very personal away from communal when it comes to how we relate to God. Why is this? I think much of it has to do with the individualistic nature of people who live in the US for one. We don't like being told what and what not to do, especially from the church. Life is easier when we simply narrow down the relationship between the Holy God and ourselves to a personal relationship instead of a corporate one.
Maybe this is what the Pope is trying to slowly bring back into our conscienceness. The sins he listed, pollution to the environment, drug usage, and gene experimentation all effect the community as a whole. Lets focus on the environment. We all live here, so to take pollution in all it's forms and make it a sin brings about a communal sense to the equation. For me to harm something that you breathe, live in, and utilize is sinful, whether or not I believe this set of scientists, that set, liberal or conservative. Drug usage is effecting the entire community. We cannot turn our backs on people who simply choose to to recreationally use as they certainly DO effect us all. I don't have to be a rocket scienctest to connect these dots do I? Genetic experiments are also very communal in their very nature of effecting individuals who become part of the whole.
While this is all very controversial in parts, does it not make sense as a whole? I think that the most important lesson to take from here is not the new list of sins. I think the most important lesson to take is that sin is communal. My personal relationship with Jesus is irrelevant when it comes to the community relationship. When taking this attitude, all of sudden much of the Bible and God;s actions in and throughout history begin to be read more clearly. Now when I see God acting in a way that seems mean or spiteful (like hitting the smite button) I can see where He is acting for the good of the whole. Yes, we as individual should are loved and important, but the community of souls, His church, is far greater than I ever will be.