Tony’s Blog

April 16, 1994 we pulled our Hertz-Penske moving truck into Chattanooga and we have never been the same since. We are starting our 13th year of ministry (our personal Baker’s dozen) here in this region and I couldn’t be happier about where God has me serving. I love this city! It has become a habit in our family to say the phrase…“I love this city” when we are coming over the ridge-cut and seeing Chattanooga spread out before us or as we cross the Tennessee River going north from downtown.

I never imagined God would have established in my heart such a love for this city when I left Atlanta 12 years ago. But He has and “I love this city”, even though that phrase was not what I was thinking when we first drove over the ridge-cut in the pouring rain with 5 month old twins in the back seat in route for my interview as the director of the Chattanooga Youth Network in March of 1994.

May God continue to enlarge my heart for this region and His purposes here.

The other day I sat across the table from a stellar Junior in High School. Our conversation led to how he could make a significant difference in his final year before leaving high school. This guy is a sharp, compassionate, follower of Christ…makes a mother proud. But, he has the same problem many of us have…he is a nibbler. I’m referring to one of the most powerful quotes ever to be quoted…

“If you do not feel strong desires for the manifestation of the Glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world that you are stuffed with small things and there is no room for the GREAT!”

It was ten years ago when I first read this quote while standing in the Christian living section of a local Christian bookstore. It was on the back cover of “Hunger for God” by John Piper and the moment I read it I knew…That’s Me…I am a nibbler and stuffed on small things.

This realization started a me on a quest. I began to realize that in all of my nibbling there was one constant…I was pursuing satisfaction, pleasure, and happiness with every step I took and was coming up short. I had no room to “Taste and See that the Lord was GOOD”. From that day forward I have been engaged in a fight…the fight of faith to believe that God can and will satisfy my heart and soul. It is a fight because everywhere I look there are the promises of the world that I can be satisfied apart from God. My friend and I must examine our lives and with each activity we must ask ourselves if this is a snack to be nibbled on or the main meal to be feasted upon. Our hearts and souls crave the Great…main meal… and yet, we are far too easily pleased as C. S. Lewis has stated so clearly in the “Weight of Glory”.

Join me in feasting on the Great!

This morning I was reading a dead guy…which tends to be enlightening and reliable because we know how they finished the race. Today’s dead guy was Thomas Brooks who wrote “Precious remedies against Satan’s devices”. The thought was concerning making the most of what we read.

“Remember, it is not hasty reading, but serious meditating upon holy and heavenly truths, that make them prove sweet and profitable to the soul. It is not the bee’s touching of the flower that gathers honey, but her abiding for a time upon the flower that draws out the sweet. It is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most, that will prove the choicest, sweetest, wisest, and strongest Christian.”

Since I am a man who loves valuable information and can move from one piece of info to another…this quote is an important reminder for me. I must walk slow and hover over the deep truths and by God’s grace I may become the man whom God intends.

The other day a youth pastor called me with a great question. It was a great question because it has the potential to powerfully focus your thinking.

The Question: “What three books would you give a new youth leader in the following categories? Leadership, Spiritual growth, and Youth Ministry.”

So how would you answer the question? Let’s make it a little easier. You can suggest 3 books for each category.

What would you say?

I spoke for a middle school retreat this past weekend in Pigeon Forge, TN, the home of Dollywood. A great time was had by all. I personally was struck by the contrasts of sensory overload with lights, banners, billboards, mountains and rivers. We did wrestle with some big issues in our 4 sessions, after all that is why middle schoolers come on retreats…to go to the teaching sessions. Well, anyway, one big thought came from an advertisement for the great theological journal…Runner’s World stating “It’s what we Love that defines us”. When I saw this insightful thought, I immediately thought of Henry Scougal who wrote the little book “The life of God in the soul of man” in 1677 and said “the worth and excellency of a soul is measured by the object of it’s love”.
Runner’s World and Henry Scougal…who would have thought.
The key question that flows from this is…if someone was writing a definition of my life…what would they say I love?

The fact is we pursue what we love. Blaise Pascal said that “All men seek happiness, this is without exception”.