Wakeskating the Rice Terraces of The Philippines

Posted on January 28, 2014 by scottytang

Redbull and Brian Grubb team up to make some of the most scenic wakeskating shots anyone has probably ever seen.

One thing that I love about action sports, is that it has this natural tendency to redefine and give things new meaning and purpose. When Brian Grubb began to wakeskate on these rice terraces, the potential of these things were brought to a whole new level, and took on a meaning and a purpose that the natives of these areas never would have thought possible. And this redefining that is so prevalent in Action Sports is such a good picture of what happens when God gets a hold of people, for 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and behold, the new has come.” Brian Grubb showed the natives of the Philippines that these rice terraces could be used for so much more than just cultivating rice, but for awesome and beautiful artistic expression, things that they never could have imagined. And when God get’s a hold of us, our lives take on a whole new meaning that we too, never could have foreseen would happen. Myself and many other people that I’ve talked too, have been able to experience, be a part of, and accomplish so many great things that we never could have imagined because we gave our lives to the Lord and allowed him to work in us and through us. For so long I looked for adventure in partying, skateboarding, girls, and a few other things, but none of it compares to the adventure that I have experienced since day 1 of giving my life to the Lord. Be wise friends, if you are looking for adventure, go to the source of it, the one who created it; and if you are looking for meaning and fulfillment, you’ll never experience it to the full capacity till you go to the one that created you.

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Skateboarding is my Religion

Posted on December 16, 2013 by scottytang

scotty06

Growing up as a skateboarder, skateboarding was all I cared about. I would skip school to skate, which made my grades suffer because I was too busy skating to worry about school work. I would sacrifice attending family gatherings because going out skating and filming for the weekend was far more important. I would stop hanging out with certain people because I felt like they were holding me back from progressing, and I would befriend or spend more time with other people because I felt like they helped push me forward. Girlfriends as well had little appeal to me because I saw them as something that would just get in the way of my skating. And my future plans (like where I would live and what I would do after High School) were all based around, “how can I skate the best stuff, skate as much as possible, and become the best skateboarder I possibly can?” When it came time for me to start brainstorming about college or a career when I was at the end of High School, my thinking was, “if I don’t go pro and get paid to skate for a living, than this life isn’t really worth living.” Everything I did, and everything I hoped for, was all built around skateboarding. All that mattered in life was skating as much as I could and becoming the best I possibly could. Skateboarding was my religion, I made sacrifices for it, I cut people out of my life for it, and I got all of my meaning and purpose in life from it.

I read an interview from a pro skater in “The Skateboard Mag” the other day that said, “I am happy to donate my body to skateboarding, because it is what I love to do.” What is interesting about this quote, is that skateboarders love and resonate with stuff like this so much that I saw this get reposted all over Instagram and Facebook. When I read or hear skateboarders say this sort of thing, and see how others respond to it with such joy and acceptance, it fascinates me that we don’t think of skateboarding as a religious practice. The quote above is almost identical to what Paul says in Romans 12:1 in relation to what a Christian should do for Christ: “I appeal to you brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Both reference giving our bodies to something, the former is to skateboarding, and the latter is to God.

“To present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,” looks a lot like what a skateboarder does for skateboarding. We make certain sacrifices in our lives for God and do whatever it takes to keep us moving forward in our relationship with Him. We will cut certain people out of our lives that our holding us back, we will refrain from dating certain people, and everything we do and plan for will be based around, “how can I love and serve God to my greatest potential?” To make sacrifices for God and offer ourselves to Him as a living sacrifice is to cut out the people and things that hold us back, and replace them with the people and things that will help us grow and move forward. Sometimes it is skateboarding that is holding us back. Skateboarding is not something we ever necessarily need to stop doing once we become Christians (unless you really feel like you need too). But the priority of growing in the Lord and serving Him should always be above our priority of becoming the greatest skateboarder we can. For our ability to skate hangs by a thread. There are multiple things that can happen to our bodies at any moment that can keep us from skateboarding. It is crucial we don’t put our hope and faith into something that can be lost. As C.S. Lewis said, “Don’t let your happiness depend on something you may lose.”

One day our ability to skate will come to an end, and if God is what we have given ourselves too, it won’t be that big of a deal, for our life is wrapped up in something bigger than skateboarding, something everlasting. But if our God or religion is skateboarding, than once our ability to skate comes to an end, we will have nothing left to live for. Our life will be left to meaningless despair. So I encourage you to build your life around something that it was meant to be built around, something that was meant to give you all your meaning, purpose, and complete joy. As King David says in Psalm 16:2, “I say to the Lord, ‘you are my lord, I have no good apart from you.'” No matter how much we love skateboarding and give ourselves to it, it will never love us back or reciprocate any of the feelings and passion we give to it. It is important we give that love and sacrifice to someone that will return it back to us and will actually take care of us. It is the only way our joy and meaning will be stable and not tossed to an fro like the waves of the Sea. The beautiful thing about this is that Jesus is the initiator in this relationship, for he showed great love and sacrifice for us when he took on human flesh and went to the cross for us, something skateboarding will never do for us. It is greatest act of divine love that the world will ever witness, and how foolish for us to give all our being to a piece of wood, rather than to the only deity that will ever express such a deep love for humanity. Giving our lives to Christ is the wisest decision anyone will ever make.

Reflection Questions:

Have you ever thought about what you would do if for some reason you were no longer able to skate? What it would be? A good test if we have made something our religion is can we give it up and be happy? Do we hold it with an open hand or a close fist? God holds us and we hold him with a close fist, anything else that is held in that way has taken the place of God and has made us bound for ruin. It is good practice to meditate on what life would look like without skateboarding. How can you still have joy in your heart without it?

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Ridiculous faith

Posted on December 6, 2013 by scottytang

Coppers

One of the hardest parts about skateboarding is trying to skate on the streets. Security guards always kick us out, cops get called on us, sometimes we get tickets, and occasionally even arrested. My worst experience with this happened when I was 15 when a couple friends and I were skating inside an elementary school called Brentwood where I grew up in Victorville, CA. There was no skate park to go to when I was growing up, so the streets was all we had. Our skate parks were schools, churches, shopping plazas and whatever else we could find. Brentwood Elementary was a bit known for having the cops show up unexpectedly, but we couldn’t resist the precious 3 block on the inside that we loved to flip our boards down. As a bunch of 15 year olds that didn’t know any better, anytime the cops would show up, we would always take off running. Most days we would get away, but this time we were not so lucky. There were seven of us at the school this time, and as soon as we heard the cops coming, (as our usual routine was) we took off running. Unfortunately though, this time two of my friends and I happened to be the unlucky ones that got caught. Getting caught by the cops after running is bad enough, but it just so happened that we had to get caught by the worst cop that has ever put on a badge. He gave us all full, intense searches, so much so that I kept fidgeting because he would get a little too close for comfort in the crotch area. He showed his displeasure with me when he yelled, “If you move one more time I’m going to slam your face into this f***ing car,” and after he searched us like we had just robbed a bank he put us in the backseat of the cop car. Keep in mind that as a couple of 15 year olds, we had no idea what was about to happen, we weren’t sure if we were about to go to the police station, go to jail, or what. But fortunately all he did was call our parents to come pick us up while we waited in the cop car. When our parents got there he accused us of vandalizing the bathrooms, tagging up graffiti all over the school, and stealing things out of the classrooms. He told us that if anything get’s reported in the next seven days then we would get blamed for it, which thankfully never happened. Luckily my mom understood that all we were there to do was jump down some stairs, and not to do any gnarly vandalism or theft, so my mom kind of laughed off the whole matter and thought the cop was a little crazy. A huge sigh of relief.

As crazy as this cop seemed to be, I can see why he would be so quick to accuse us of theft and vandalism. For people that don’t understand skateboarders, all they see are kids trespassing onto school property, and when things get vandalized or stolen, their thinking must be, “well it must have been the skateboarders that we always see in there.” A thief or a vandal though, is not going to want to hang out inside of a school for hours and make a bunch of noise. It shouldn’t be hard to distinguish between a skateboarder and a thief or vandal. Someone that does understand skateboarders, like my mom, can distinguish what a skateboarder is inside a school to do between a thief and a vandal. The cop couldn’t, so as a result, we got treated like criminals, not like a group of kids that were just trying to have some fun on some stairs. I have dealt with many understanding cops as a skateboarder, and getting kicked out by those cops is always a much more pleasant experience than with one that doesn’t. When people don’t understand something or someone, that misunderstanding is usually always met with ridicule and persecution.

As a Christian, we too will get ridiculed and persecuted by the people that don’t understand us. Partly because we are different from the rest of the world, and partly because we get lumped into the same category as in-genuine, hateful, judgmental people. They see people like the Westboro Baptist Church that feels like they have to be at every LGTB Pride event to make sure that the community knows how much God hates them for their life choices. They are also notorious for protesting at funerals of fallen soldiers demonizing the soldier. And then there are those that picket outside of planned parenthood that feel the need to make sure everyone who steps in there knows how much they are disappointing God. The world sees behaviors like this and comes to conclusions that all Christians are like this: judgmental, coldhearted people. So just like the cop couldn’t distinguish between a vandal and a skateboarder, the world has a hard time distinguishing the genuine Christian from the in-genuine.

It is also common to be ridiculed for being different from popular culture. For the secular person, all they see is just some weird person who bases his or her whole life around something they can’t see, or someone with morals they don’t understand, like not having sex before marriage. Every time a Christian is portrayed in the mainstream media, they are always weird, socially awkward, or demonized. People will always ridicule and persecute people that they don’t understand, and the ridicule of the world is not something that should surprise us. As 1 Peter 4:12 says, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” One of the beauties of having to go through the ridicule and persecution, is that it has a reward. Jesus says in Matthew 5:11-12, “Blessed are you when others revile and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.” If skateboarders can stay strong and keep going into those private properties after being kicked out and harassed over and over again, than how much more the Christian in staying strong in their faith? A skateboarder will always be persecuted for skating in the streets, and a genuine Christian will always be persecuted for living a life that is contrary to popular culture, but there is always a reward awaiting those who stay strong and prevail.

Reflection Questions:

How can we point out the error in someone’s life choice that may have them headed down a destructive path in a way that is not coldhearted or judgmental?

Romans 2:24 says, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” How can we make sure we are always a part of the solution and not a part of the problem when representing God?

No matter how loving or accepting a Christian may be, the world will always to an extent think we are weird, if we are in fact going to stay true to our convictions. For there will always be things that popular culture at large accepts as a good, normal way to live that we do not. How can we make sure we stay in the balance of loving and accepting people, without watering down or weakening the power and message of Christ?

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Fall Well

Posted on November 22, 2013 by scottytang

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Failure is something that has always been hard for me to deal with. I remember when I first became a sponsored skateboarder, if I went to a skate park and had a bad day, or went filming and was too afraid to try a trick that I knew I could do, I would get really discouraged and tell myself that I was a terrible skateboarder and that I shouldn’t be sponsored. A sponsored skateboarder has a brand that they are representing every time they get on a board, and when people hear that someone is sponsored, they expect to be impressed with their abilities. If I felt like I wasn’t living up to people’s expectations or representing the company in a way that I felt like I should, then I would think to myself, “well I obviously shouldn’t be sponsored.” These expectations and standards that I felt like I constantly had to uphold and live up to drove me nuts and made me want to quit the company every time I became discouraged. The owner of the company I ride for (Embassador Skateboards) had to constantly assure me that I was good enough to ride for him and make sure I didn’t quit because of my lack of being able to deal with failure. This whole experience taught me a lot about how important it is to be able to deal with failure and not get discouraged when we don’t feel “good enough.”

One thing I’ve noticed about skateboarding, is that people that are really good are always good at falling. They know how to fall in the right way so they don’t get hurt, and they are able to take a hard fall and get back up and try it again. What has allowed them to get so good is that they have learned how to work through the failures in order to get them where they want to go. Sometimes it takes hours to do something new, and if a skateboarder can’t fall well then they will never be able to give those tricks the necessary amount of tries that it takes to do it. They will just always be giving up as soon as they take a fall and would never grow as a skateboarder. Great skill in landing tricks, is always coupled with a great skill in falling.

As Christians, there is also a lot that is expected of us. Christ says in Matthew 5:48, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect,” and in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven.” The worst part about that verse is the “before others,” for that is where all the anxiety stems from. A sponsored skateboarder has a brand to represent and market to skateboarders, and a Christian has a God to represent and market to the world. The things that we are expected to uphold can be very heavy and burdensome, and as a new Christian, I tended to stress out over the things that were expected of me. Every time I fell short I would feel terrible and feel like I wasn’t fit to be a Christian, and was somehow blowing it for everyone and giving Christianity a bad name. But Paul says in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” and in Romans 8:1, “There is no condemnation for those that belong to Christ Jesus.” As a Christian and as sponsored skateboarder, I had to learn how to fall well – to not get discouraged when I failed to live up to the expectations. All God asks of us is to give Him our best efforts, and his grace covers us when we fall short. Something that really helped assure me in this was Micah 6:8, “He has shown you O man what is good, and what does the LORD require of you but to walk justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” When Jesus says, “you must be perfect,” he is setting a high standard to aim for so we never settle for mediocrity, and he gives us verses like those in Romans and Micah to assure us that He doesn’t ever really expect us to reach perfection, just to never settle for mediocrity; to keep in mind that we should always be growing and improving. Frank Chavez, the owner of Embassador always tells me, “it is better to aim high and fall a little short than to aim low and reach it.” To fall well as a Christian is to understand that Christ expects us to always push ourselves to be better, but that he loves us enough that we don’t need to get discouraged and loathe in our failure when we mess up. The great paradox of Christianity is that we are loved and accepted just as we are, but at the same time are expected to always be working on ourselves. It is crucial that we learn to fall well in every aspect of our life, for otherwise we will never have the skill to deal with failure, and without that, we will never become good or able to develop in anything.

Reflection Questions:

How can we grow and develop in our skill of falling as Christians?

I heard a quote from someone anonymous once that said, “the biggest cause of atheism in the world today, is christians.” It was quotes like this that gave me a lot of anxiety as a young christian. How can we be mindful of this, but at the same time not beat ourselves up over our failures?

Throughout Church history there has been a lot of tension and debate of how we reconcile both Ephesians 2:8-9, “It is by grace we are saved through faith, not by works,” with James 2:20, “faith without works is dead.” How do these two compliment each other instead of being at odds with each other? Think of the great paradox of christianity that is mentioned above.

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Fearful Commitment

Posted on November 5, 2013 by scottytang

Kid skateboarding

Commitment is the most crucial part of skateboarding, and it is also the scariest. There are times when there is no doubt at all in my head that I can do a trick, but for some reason I am too afraid to commit to it. I end up rolling up to the stairs/rail/obstacle over and over again and won’t even try, or I end up throwing myself down the thing with a bunch of half-hearted attempts that don’t really get me anywhere; popping my board off the stairs in an attempt to maybe commit and just kicking it away. There are times when my useless attempts are a part of a process that can lead to an eventual try where I can fully commit, and there are others when it doesn’t and I have to leave the spot feeling like a coward. Until I can fully commit to the trick, all my useless tries are just a waste of time and energy, and I am just bringing pain to my body for basically no reason. Sometimes I’ll have those days where I feel a little more fearless than usual and I can try things with full commitment right away, and I’ve noticed that not only do I waste a lot less time, but I usually walk away in a lot less pain as well. Commitment is the root of all progression, without it, we are either wasting our time with half-hearted attempts, or we are just being cowards and not even trying.

One of my favorite parables of Jesus, is the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1-23). In this parable Jesus describes four different responses that people have when they hear the word of God. The first response is with contempt and they ignore it completely, which is the equivalent to the skateboarder that can’t even work up the courage to attempt the trick; the second and third are similar, they respond with joy and give Christ a try, but their efforts end up being half-hearted with no solid commitment, and they end up losing heart and are unsuccessful. These two are the equivalent to the skateboarder that just gives half-hearted attempts hoping that it might turn into a fully committed effort, but it never does. The last response in the parable is a response of full commitment that leads to the person growing in Christ at an incredible rate and begins to accomplish a lot for the Kingdom of God. The skateboarders that find it easier to fully commit to those new and scary tricks are the ones that end up becoming the professionals and are the ones that progress at an incredible rate. It is the same thing for the people that choose to follow Christ with all their heart and are fully committed everyday. If we want to accomplish a lot and become a “professional” of sorts, we have to fully commit every time there is an opportunity to progress and push ourselves. The harder we push ourselves and the more we are able to commit everything we have and overcome our fears or whatever is holding us back, the more we will grow and be successful.

For a lot of people, fully committing to Christ can be way scarier than the scariest trick they have ever tried to do on a skateboard. My eventual full commitment to Christ looked a lot like when I have to give those new/scary tricks a bunch of half-hearted attempts before I can finally fully commit to one. Confidence and commitment seem to be a big problem in humanity, and no where is this more obvious than at the skatepark. Everyday I see people trying, or wanting to do something that all their friends know they can easily do if they would just commit, but for some reason they have such a hard time working up the confidence and courage to do it. Our commitment to Christ tends to have this same problem, we know we want too, and we know we can, but for some reason we just can’t get ourselves to do it. We either can’t work up the nerve to even try it, or we have to give it a bunch of half-hearted attempts before we can finally commit. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “Indeed, the right time is now, today is the time of salvation.” If you are one of those people that wants to commit to Christ, but just can’t seem to work up the courage, then I hope and pray that you can finally stop wasting your time and energy on a bunch of roll ups and useless efforts. If you know you can do it, and want to do it, then please ask God to help you finally commit everything you got; get with someone that can help you work through those confidence barriers that keep you from fully committing. Every time I go skate and try something new, I wish I could just fully commit from the start and not make it harder and more painful than it has to be; and I wish I could have done the same thing with Christ. I wasted a lot of time and brought a lot of unnecessary pain upon myself with my half-hearted efforts, or my lack of any effort at all. When we know we can do something, and want to do something, but for some reason and can’t get ourselves to do it, the mental torture of that is almost worst than any physical pain that may came from the actual try. “Today is the day of salvation.”

Reflection Questions:

Has committing to Christ ever felt like rolling up to a stair set over and over again that you and all your friends knew that you could do, but couldn’t get yourself to go for it? How can we overcome these moments?

I have noticed that when I am skating by myself, it it ten times harder to do things that scare me. What does that say about the importance of having people around us that believe in us and want to see us succeed? How can people help us grow in Christ in this same way?

In the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1-23), has there ever been a time when we were more like the the first three responders? How can we make sure we always respond like the fourth person? Does the people we surround ourselves with play a role in how we respond?

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Pain Is Beauty

Posted on October 30, 2013 by scottytang

Sheckler Beyond Reason

Skateboarding can be a pretty painful thing to get good at. Before we experience the good feeling that comes with rolling away from a new trick, we usually have to put ourselves through lots of pain and sacrifice. We often find ourselves in a situation where we are throwing ourselves down flights of stairs or some other type of obstacle over and over again to the point that heels, hips, ankles, and other parts of the body are getting painfully worst with every try.  We know that every attempt will cost us greater pain and discomfort, but for some reason we continue to throw ourselves down it in a hope for victory. As soon as the trick gets landed though, and even better if it gets on film, all the pain that we had to go through becomes worth it and is turned into a joyful occasion. Skateboarding demonstrates a pattern in humanity that the best things in life come out of pain and hardship.

Moving forward in life will always have those moments where we just want to give up. Progression is always met with resistance, and it takes lots of fighting and determination in order to push through it. As skateboarders, it is a battle every time we get on a board and try to learn a new trick or do an old trick down something new. But the joy and satisfaction of landing that trick, and that feeling of accomplishment it is well worth the cost of the battle. It is the progression and the development that comes through the battle that keeps us skating and makes it so addicting. Moving forward as Christians is no different, Jesus says in Mathew 7:14 that “HARD” is the path that leads to life, and in John 16:33 He says, “In this world you will have trouble and suffering, but take courage, for I have conquered the world.” As skateboarders and as Christians, the next painful trial is always right around the corner, but so is the growth and development that follows it. C.S. Lewis said, “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” We cannot ignore pain, which is why it produces the most growth in our lives. The way that leads to life is hard because God intends every bit to grow us into something magnificent. When you see a skateboarder who is really good, you can guarantee that it took him many great falls and a lot of pain to get him there. The Christian life is no different. It will cost many trials and hardships in order to make us wise, humble, loving, generous people. Pain will come regardless if we are serving Christ or not, it is just a matter if we would like to suffer like Judas or John. One ended in agony, one ended in glory; our choice is just in how we want our trials to shape us. 1 Peter 4:15-16 says, “Let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that Name.” No matter how we choose to live or believe in this world, we are going to suffer. So the big question we have to ask ourselves is, are we going to suffer for doing good and for serving God, or for doing evil and serving ourselves? If we choose the earlier, God will be constantly shaping and forming us through our pain into something more beautiful. All the greatest times of growth and development comes through pain; it is true in skateboarding and it is true in the everyday.

Reflection Questions:

Can you think of a time when you went through some painful experience that produced something good that you were thankful for?

Can you think of a time when you suffered for doing something silly that you wish you didn’t do? For example getting trouble with the law or at school?

How can we make sure we are suffering for good reasons instead of bad ones?

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The Cost of Love

Posted on October 2, 2013 by scottytang

Cost of Love

I have had an unfailing love for skateboarding for the vast majority of my life, and as I look back on this love that has been such a big part of me, it is obvious that this love has cost me a lot. I have spent thousands of dollars on product and accessories – skateboards, shoes, skate videos, etc. It has cost me countless scrapes and bruises, a whole lot of rolled ankles, and a torn ligament in my knee. Although this is the case, since day one I have paid this cost with a smile on my face because I love it so much. Through all the toll on my body and my finances, I have learned that all love comes with a cost. From a love for something like skateboarding to a romantic love, none of it is real or authentic until we have paid something for it, either with our money, our comforts, or our health.

The Bible says in Jeremiah 31:3, “I have loved you with an everlasting love,” and Zephaniah 3:17, “The LORD your God is in your midst… He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing.” It is easy to tell someone that we love them, but one thing that we should always keep in mind when we say or hear those words is what did it cost? As we have seen in the pattern above, all love comes at a cost, and without it, love is not real or authentic, so if this God means what He says in these verses, than what did it cost Him? And the answer for the Christian God is obvious, it cost Him leaving His place of comfort and coming down to our level, taking on human flesh, and then to be gruesomely crucified by His own creation. There are a lot of beliefs and religions out there that are competing for our faith and devotion, and whenever we come across one of them, we should always ask ourselves, “does this God profess to love and care for me? And if so, what did it cost Him?” When we ask these questions, we will quickly realize that the Christian God is the only one that has ever demonstrated a love that came at some cost to Him; the only God that has ever demonstrated a real, authentic love for people.

Love needs a cost in order for it to be genuine, and this is obvious in every pattern and type of love in humanity. The Christian God is the only God that has ever paid the cost of love for people. As His followers, we should be able to return that love back to Him and to all people. Jesus says in John 15:12-13, “this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” Christ is the example we follow of what it means to love. To love and follow Christ costs us something, but it is really no different than any other kind of love. Love is not love if there is no cost, and that goes for every form that word takes on. Whether it is love for God, a significant other, a friend, a hobby like skateboarding, it all comes with a cost, and when we truly love it, the cost is hardly felt.

Reflection Questions:

What would be a cost we would have to pay in choosing to love Christ? Are any of these costs a burden? Is it a cost we gladly pay like we do with our bodies when we are skateboarding, and with our finances in buying product for skateboarding?

How does the costly love of Christ influence the way you love people? What would be an example of laying down our life for our friends? Think of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37

Pop culture believes nowadays that religion and faith are causes for conflict, brainwashing, and corruption, and advocate that all religion and faith needs to be thrown out. If Jesus’ life consisting of inspiring people to lay down their life for others, where is the conflict? Doesn’t this only improve the state of our world? Is there any validity in these assumptions from pop culture in light of this topic? If people are using Christianity to cause conflict, wouldn’t we agree that they are not doing it right? And that it should be corrected, not thrown out? How can we help correct this assumption in the world in love and without being hostile?

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Frustrated Maniacs

Posted on September 23, 2013 by scottytang

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Skateboarding is a really fun activity, but it is something that can also be really frustrating. There have been times that I’ve seen people (myself included) turn into complete maniacs because of the overwhelming frustration that they are feeling because of their skateboard. People will throw their board everywhere, scream and yell, and get angry at people for getting in their way over something that they love. I was at a skate park the other day watching someone act like this, and I asked myself, “why would someone that skates everyday and has a passionate love for skateboarding act in such a way that makes them look like a maniac?”

Frustration is a common emotion in life that usually comes from an unfulfilled or unrealistic expectation. A skateboarder that starts to throw their board and yell at kids that get in their way, does so because they expect to land all their tricks immediately and to skate in peace without anybody ever getting in their way, which is obviously an unrealistic expectation that would almost never happen. They would never say out loud that this is what they expect to happen at a skate park, but their reactions show it. People get frustrated when their car breaks down because they expect it to be indestructible, people get frustrated with people because for some reason they expect them to be perfect and to never do anything wrong. To live a peaceful life, we need to be sure to have realistic expectations, a skateboarder should expect to have days where he or she can’t land anything and should expect kids to get in their way at a skate park.

It is obvious that the world is imperfect, but for some reason, our expectations say something different. People will sometimes expect perfection so much that they will start to act like maniacs because they don’t know what to do with themselves when they are faced with the reality that things are not perfect. These patterns in humanity make it obvious that there is something wrong or fallen about our world, and every person desperately seeks or expects it to be different. For reasons that we don’t always understand, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden brought imperfection into the world, and since we are all descendants of them, we inherited this imperfection. Whether we see it in biblical terms or not, all of humanity knows that the current state of affairs is not perfect and that we long for a world that is. Our expectations and frustrations portray this clearly. Part of the good news of following Christ is that there will come a day when we can expect perfection, as it says in Revelation 21:4, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” A perfect world is coming for those that want to be a part of it by knowing and following Christ (Matt. 7:21-23), but in the meantime, we can expect to have imperfect days where we can’t land our tricks, people to annoy us, and things to go wrong. Jesus, and a realistic expectation is the remedy for the unrealistic ones that cause us to act like maniacs or expect things from ourselves and others that don’t make any sense.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Unrealistic expectations put us in this category. How many times have we gone skating and subconsciously expected to land everything, only to be let down and become angry? Or expected imperfect people to never do anything to upset us? That is insanity. Expecting perfection in an imperfect world classifies us as insane. I hope we can be aware when are expectations are unrealistic and live a more peaceful life that is steeped in reality.

Reflection Questions:

If you expect things to go wrong and to not always go according to plan, would it change the way you responded when things didn’t go the way you wanted them too? Would you be less frustrated and less upset?

Does being aware of our own imperfections, as well as those of others and of the world help to maintain a sense of peace when we would normally get upset?

C.S. Lewis said, “If I find myself with desires that nothing in this world can satisfy, my only conclusion would be that I must be made for a different world.” How do you think this connects with what we are talking about here?

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Beautiful Unity

Posted on August 16, 2013 by scottytang

Israel has been in constant skirmishes with its neighboring countries since it became a nation in 1948. The people live in constant fear of being bombed, and most the people in its neighboring countries are not fond of Israel. In 2006, during the Israel/Lebanon war, Nathan Grey made a documentary called “Sour” that was intended to portray skateboarders in Israel and its neighboring country Jordan. Nathan Grey is a skateboarder and like most, he is fascinated by the unity and instant connection that tends to take place within it. He wanted to see if skateboarders in Israel and Jordan could keep this same kind of instant connection and unity with each other during a time when tensions were at some of its highest points between Israel and its neighbors. And to his surprise, they were. The common people in the two nations hate each other and want to see the other in pain and anguish, but the skateboarders just want to be friends, to skate and have fun together. Psalm 133 says, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity.” The unity that Nathan Grey was able to document in Israel and Jordan is nothing short of a miracle that can move people to tears.

Sour photo

When I hear about this sort of thing, I often wonder, is there something deeper taking place hear? Something beyond skateboarding? Does the unity that tends to be in skateboarding point to something greater? We often read in the Bible about God being like a loving father, and if that is true, then we should see God working in ways that builds unity amongst his people, agreed? For any loving father would not enjoy to see his children fuss and fight with each other. So what if skateboarding was a gift from God that He gave to his children in order to diminish the conflicts that seem to plague the human race? The Bible says in John 3:27, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven,” and in James 1:17, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of lights.” I’m sure we can all agree that skateboarding is indeed, “a good and perfect gift.” When we bring God into the equation, it gives the unity we see in skateboarding much more significance. God gave the world skateboarding because he loves us and wants to see us have fun together, not to fuss and fight. Jesus says in John 13:35, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another,” and 1 John 5:7-8 says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God; anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” We see in these verses that God is always pushing for love and unity amongst his people, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that God would give us something like skateboarding that accomplishes this very thing. Skateboarding is a gift from God that points to a loving Heavenly Father that desire’s to see his children live in peace and harmony with each other.

Reflection Questions:

If skateboarding is a gift from God, does that change how you skate, interact with other skateboarders, and perceive skateboarding as a whole? Does it deepen your understanding of skateboarding and give new appreciation for it?

How can we be better stewards of God’s gift and make sure we are not taking it for granted?

What is the primary focus when you are out skateboarding? If skateboarding is a gift from God, it should cause us to look outward, at the people around us. Are we focused on ourselves or the people around us?

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Redefined purpose

Posted on August 12, 2013 by scottytang

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Craig Stecyk, the very first prominent writer of skateboarding said, “Skaters by their very nature are urban guerillas: they make everyday use of the useless artifacts of the technological burden, and employ the handiwork of the government/corporate structure in a thousand ways that the original architects could never dream of.” Skateboarding, by it’s very nature redefines and gives new meaning to things that would otherwise have little significance. A set of stairs to the average person has a very boring and mundane purpose, it just helps them get from point A to point B, but when a skateboarder comes across a set of stairs, the stairs takes on a whole new meaning, one that is full of life and artistic expression. The set of stairs becomes a playground, a place where creative ideas flourish and possibilities become endless. Skateboarding gives architecture new meaning and new life.

Paul the apostle says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and behold, all things have become new.” Just as the skateboarder sees a piece of architecture and redefines it and gives it new meaning and new life, so does Christ when he comes to humanity and begins to work in them. Paul also says in Ephesians 2:10, “We are Christ’s workmanship, created in Him for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” The word for “workmanship” in the original language is the greek word poema, which is the word we get for poem. The word implies that we are something of an art project, continually being made into something more beautiful. When Christ begins to work in someone that person becomes an endless work of art, always increasing in beauty, potential, and capabilities. God took Moses, a man with a great sense of inadequacy who was afraid to speak to people because he was “slow of speech,” and made him into a great leader that became the instrument that lead the Israelites out of slavery. His life was given new meaning and purpose and became the greatest prophet of God that ever lived. To push God away, is to limit the possibilities of the impact we can potentially make on this earth. As Jesus says in John 15:4-5, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me… For apart from me you can do nothing.” Architecture needs a skateboarder to realize it’s true potential, and people need Jesus, the great God and savior, to realize their true potential.

 

Reflection Questions:

What does it look like to become a “new creation in Christ” in your own life as is mentioned in 2 Corinthians 5:17?

How does being Christ’s “workmanship,” his endless work of art, affect how we view ourselves and others? Does God’s creative nature change how we see Him and others?

Are there any ways that you are limiting what God can do and wants to do in your life? Are you holding your self back at all from becoming a new creation in Him and becoming His workmanship?

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