Tim Clark’s Blog

2^nd Annual Tech Break

This is the second year of what I think will become a yearly habit: Personal vacation time also means vacation from a majority of my technology. Once again, since 3 weeks in July is vacation, I’m declaring all of July “freedom from internet-addiction month.” That means no Facebook, no Twitter, no blogging, no mindless web surfing and radically limited email use.

This gives me a month to unplug, quiet-down, reflect and listen to something other than the constant stream of input that comes from every side. I still think technology is a wonderful tool and a great gift when used right, but I want to fast from this resource regularly to remind myself that it serves me; I don’t serve it!

And I want to remember that not only don’t I serve it, I don’t really need it to engage the most important things in life. In fact sometimes technology can get in the way of those important things like focused and uninterrupted time with my kids, or my friends, or my wife…or my Lord.

So, goodbye! I’ll catch you all in August! And if the Internet does something really cool while I’m gone, someone call me; OK? I’ll probably still check my voicemail every once in a while! (LOL)

Last week I took my family to see the movie Toy Story 3. The kids (9, 7 and 3) loved it! My wife loved it, and it made her cry. I loved it and was grateful for the long credit sequence after the movie which gave me time to pull it together and wipe the tears away. In short, the Clark family gave the movie “two thumbs up”.

In the film one of the toy characters tells the other toys that they are nothing but a bunch of plastic and garbage destined to be thrown away. The toy believes this about the others because he believes it about himself. And he displays no value for anyone else, because, we discover, he feels totally valueless because of past pain and rejection.

Now switch gears with me: A few years ago the school I worked for was getting rid of an ugly, out-of-date, too-heavy furniture set that had regretfully been painted over with black lacker. It had been found abandoned in a basement of a downtown building that belongs to our denomination. Once it got to the College, it was evident that it wasn’t going to serve the purpose it was brought over for…so it was going to be tossed.

But it just so happened that I needed a desk. And my very handy, retired, and imaginative dad saw it and suggested it for my office. He said that he and my uncle (both amazing craftsmen) could work on it and make it look really nice. I was scared. I believed with everyone else that this thing was way beyond redemption, but I finally agreed to let Dad do it with the agreement that if it didn’t turn out, I didn’t have to use it (and an agreement with the College that if it did turn out, I could keep it after I left since it was going to be trashed anyways).

Three months later, my dad and uncle brought in one of the coolest and most gorgeous old-school, solid wood, leather top, desk, file cabinet and credenza I had ever seen. Now they are sitting in my study at home. Every day I’m blown away by the beauty and artistry of this stuff. And I intend to use it for the rest of my life as a reminder that what most people think is worthy only of discarding can be wonderfully used if the right artist gets their hands on it and restores it.

Now back to Toy Story 3. The toys were in peril because another toy was convinced none of them had value. We often treat others poorly because we ca’t see our own value. We look at ourselves and others and consider that our lives are unusable and fit only for the junkyard.

But that is not how the Savior sees us. He not only saves us from being delivered to destruction, but He painstakingly takes whatever time necessary to restore the true beauty that He created us with and knows is there. None of us is beyond redemption and restoration. That should influence the way we see ourselves and should impact the way we see others, too.

I led worship this week on Sunday morning for the first time in years. Though my technical skills are a little rusty, I really enjoyed it. Worshipping (and leading worship) is one of the things that tap into my passion.

While I was leading (and destroying) some of the songs, there was a sense of breakthrough in our congregation. One of the best worship leaders I know, my friend Caleb Quaye, was visiting this week and later, over coffee he confirmed that God was doing something very powerful.

But it wasn’t because of the quality of music (he confirmed that too) and it wasn’t because we sounded “like the CD”, or because we designed the set just right.

What I needed to remember was that our songs in worship are simply a vehicle to an encounter with the living God. Too often in our church culture we look at songs as if they are a destination: Get the ‘band’ to play them just right, nail the transitions, build to an emotionally satisfying crescendo, and end big and right on time, and we feel that we just had an amazing worship experience.

As good as that might feel, the target is more musical and emotional. What we need is a spiritual target. When I am told of the churches where the Holy Spirit was moving so powerfully in the 70′s I hear that they sang simple songs without great transitions and often with little more accompanying them than a Piano or Organ. But worship was powerful. People got saved and healed and baptized with the Holy Spirit every week. Folks walked into the room and said “God is truly among you”.

And it wasn’t because the music was amazing. The songs were decent and true, but they were simply a vehicle to real worship where God moved in and through the praises of His people. I fear that we now have become so enamored with the songs themselves that we worship the worship, and not the God that the worship is designed to get us to meet (for more about what God thinks of that kind of worship, read the Old Testament book of Joel).