The TV show Modern Family makes me happy. I love good comedy and quick wit, but I wouldn’t consider it a true source of joy in my life. Happiness and joy are not the same thing. Happiness is usually the result of a gift or an experience that eventually fades away. Joy is constant, it is found in the presence of God in my life.

This weekend in junior high we are talking about how the Good New of Great Joy entered our world in the midst of so much pain. 400 years of silence, God’s chosen people lost and confused, oppression by the Romans…where is God? Nazareth accusing Mary of adultery, the embarrassment of Joseph, the pain of being different…where is God? Bullying from peers, divorced parents at home, academic pressure from school…where is God?

Joy is born into turmoil and among the broken.

The gospel is known best in the midst of pain, abandonment, chaos, silence, and fear. Christmas is not the beginning of our story, but the major turning point when God provided a savior from the line of Abraham for the broken of our world.

In our loneliness there is a poor traveler from Nazareth, a rejected preacher with a heart for the meek, a man who demands our life.

I tend to expect God to interrupt my life with thundering noises and flashes of brilliant light, but what we learn in Christmas is that joy is found in the smile of a baby, the innocence of new life, the savior of the world.

I have some birthday money sitting on my bedside table that is tormenting me.  What should I buy?  What do I want?  I can’t waste it, I only get extra money once a year!

The problem is our society is built on a system that says, “you earned that money, spend it how you want to!”  Because we live in America we think that the more money and possessions we have, our happiness must be directly correlated.  But the American Dream is not the church’s dream.

We are starting a 3-week series this weekend about Materialism and how it impacts our responsibility as Christians.  Here is an overview of where we are going:

• Week1: I want vs. I have
• Week2: I deserve vs. I receive
• Week3: I hide vs. I give

My hope is to begin a conversation that encourages us to follow the gospel instead of the American Dream.  Satisfaction is knowing that you have enough and you don’t need more, let’s make that decision together every single day.

…Satisfaction from Brian Hurst on Vimeo.

You and I are not the coolest people in the world to a junior higher. High schoolers are.

High school students are the most in-touch with what they are going through, they recently made it out alive! We are too old, we didn’t have cell phones in JH, we weren’t dealing with the fear of academic excellence, and we weren’t worried about global terrorism. High school students are able to connect on a deep, authentic level that will resonate with people within their same generation.

High school students can communicate better than us. I try so hard to speak in the same language as JH kids, but I don’t speak Beiber. High school students have the ability of walking in the middle of theological concepts but are up to snuff on the cultural slang (unlike me).

This weekend we are starting a two week series where two high school students are talking about how to survive our world. The message will be relevant and biblical and make more sense that anything i have ever said. Our junior high students will come home with a bit of wisdom you and I only wish we could accomplish.

PS. If you know where the title of this post comes from, you are awesome.

Is faith in God enough? I’m not sure we are experiencing the fullness of God if we neglect serving others in our world. In partnership with Outreach Weekend, junior high ministry is starting a series called Actions Speak.

The church spends most of the teaching year emphasizing a personal relationship with God that involves reading, prayer and worship. We will dive into the first chapters of James and challenge our conventional, personal faith.

I encourage you to read James and join our conversation. I am approaching this series humbled and convicted in my own personal faith. My hope is to step outside the “faith framework” I have built and begin a journey towards the fullness of God. The beginning of that adventure is Actions Speak.