Merry Christmas!

What a tangled weave we weave when a championship we can’t receive…

Writing a Christmas letter in December and looking back to January is quite a challenge, but the first thing that stands out is the Razorbacks’ horrific loss to LSU last month which knocked them out of contention for the National Championship game. It was just yesterday (last January) that Sam and Jeff flew to New Orleans to see the Hogs drop another clutch game in the Sugar Bowl against Ohio State. They were blessed with tickets by members of our church who also sent our worship leader, Cody, with them since he was an OSU fan. He didn’t rub it in too much. That was the big event for the first week of January 2011.

The first few months of 2011 were tough ones as well. Carolyn had a double mastectomy and reconstruction surgery as a result of breast cancer coming back. Boobs became a household topic and provided Jeff with an endless source of humor that helped keep things light. Sam and Adelyn were incredibly gracious and a source of encouragement during this time. We are so grateful for the continuous love and support we received from our church family here and friends and family from all over!

The early months of 2011 were spent bundled up. It’s COLD in Blacksburg during the winter, but that didn’t stop us from catching several VT basketball games! With the Hokies getting left out of the NCAA tourney for March madness, we got to see them in the first few rounds of the NIT which were hosted at VT’s Cassell Collosseum.

Sam tried out and made the JV baseball team for Blacksburg High School as an 8th grader in March. It was great experience for him. Carolyn’s brother Jeffrey came to see us in Blacksburg, but we were unsuccessful in hooking him up with any VT gals.

In April-May, we spent many a chilly afternoon at ball parks, with Adelyn engaged in softball (on top of her continued dancing and guitar lessons). Our church’s Volunteer Appreciation Dinner was western-themed, which provoked Jeff and the staff to make some insane videos. Our worship leader got bucked off a horse, and then he and Jeff performed the “My Little Buttercup” dance from The Three Amigos movie dressed in full costume. Scary. Sam took an overnight trip to DC on a field trip, and he and Carolyn planted a garden on the side of the house.

Adelyn’s dance recital was at Radford University in June, and Carolyn’s folks (Pa & Memaw) were able to join us for that extravaganza. Sam got to ump some of the younger kids’ baseball games in June-July, and we were blessed to be able to travel with a team from our church to San Sebastian, Spain. It was our first mission trip together as a family, and the Lord provided every dime we needed! The Nobles came to visit in July, and we took them all over SW Virginia where they experienced Jefferson’s Monticello, UVA campus and Abingdon’s Barter Theater. On the way to Abingdon, they learned their house had been burglarized and their TV stolen. They were good sports, and Gayle began to scheme about how to get a 3D HDTV.

We spent a week in San Angelo, TX in August at Carolyn’s family’s lakehouse. It was HOT! Even Jeff’s iPad was sweating. Temps ranged around 105-110 each day, but we drank plenty of iced tea and had a blast watching all our kids on the jet skis, fishing and card games. Carolyn’s folks were incredible hosts – there were 18 of us, including kids all together for a week. School started that month, and Adelyn began 7th grade, while Sam moved to Blacksburg High to enter 9th.

Our church exploded in August, and in the span of four weeks, we grew from one service to three services. We were so excited about God’s work in our midst. By the end of the year, Jeff had baptized almost 40 people – only one under the age of 12. Adelyn began helping lead worship for the younger kids at church, and Sam began volunteering to run the media for the worship songs for the evening service.

September-October were truly blurs. Even now, we wonder where they went. Carolyn and the kids traveled to Arkansas for a week for a doctor checkup for Carolyn (all clear), and they all got to spend time with dear friends in Monticello. Adelyn turned 12, and she got interviewed by a Roanoke TV station at school about an iPad app that VT had developed for use in schools and was featured on the news. Carolyn and Jeff went to see Bill Cosby at VT for an early birthday present for Carolyn, and they laughed their heads off. (Of course, Jeff still claims that he’s funnier.)

In November, VT quarterback Logan Thomas agreed to come share his faith story at a college outreach event our church hosted. Sam got to meet him and now really looks up to him. (Of course. Logan is 6’7″.) Carolyn continued subbing at schools. She has really enjoyed serving special needs children as an aid. Jeff did several weddings this year, and Carolyn went with him to all them. She took pictures for one of our church couples at a beautiful outdoor wedding in Pennsylvania the 2nd weekend of November. Our church partnered with a new church start in Radford, and since they needed help with worship leadership, Adelyn began helping with some other musicians from our church. We all went to Little Rock to see Jeff’s parents for Thanksgiving and enjoyed the down time. Sam and Jeff slipped down to Monticello for a day. Sam went deer hunting with our long-time friend, Jeremy Woodall. Jeff’s too-short morning was spent reminiscing with a few friends.

Snow flurries began to tease us in November, but so far, December has been relatively mild. Sam has gone hunting here with one of the Cru staffers that goes to church with us, but he hasn’t killed a deer yet. We walked in the Blacksburg Christmas parade alongside our church’s float (which won 1st place!), and we celebrated all that the year has given us – both good and challenging. Just this week, we worshipped with Shane & Shane and Phil Wickham that Northstar brought back to town for a community Christmas concert. Jeff’s sister Amy came to visit and was able to watch Adelyn perform in the Nutcracker at Burruss Hall.

It’s been a wild, wonderful, worshipful year for the Nobles. It’s been so full of experiences, and we’re amazed. This letter can’t contain our gratitude for the blessings and yes, even, the trials we’ve encountered. From cancer to Christmas, from New Orleans to Spain, from Hogs to Hokies, from pictures to baptisms and from quarterbacks to coffee shops, we have seen and testify to the vivid reality of Jesus Christ’s presence in our lives. We yearn for you and your family to experience His deepest blessings and favor this Christmas.

He is the baby given. He is the King reigning. Merry Christmas, one and all!

Tebow Time

This weekend may be Tim Tebow’s biggest test as the quarterback of the Denver Broncos. He’ll lead his worst-to-first AFC West team (8-5) against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, the AFC East’s best team (10-3). Tebow has converted critics into fans in his astonishing 7-game winning streak that has featured six, count-’em, six 4th quarter come-backs. He is 7-1 as the Broncos qb this year.

The vitriol and venom that has been spewed about Tim Tebow has been nothing short of astonishing this season. He’s been demeaned and ridiculed for more than just his football skills. It’s his vibrant and in-your-face faith that has upset the apple cart and shown us the depths to which political correctness and inverted tolerance have infected even the sports world. In our culture’s strange way of labeling, “Tebowing” has become synonymous with praying in American slang this year.

I’ve not read a better post than Jen Engel’s Why the heck do we hate Tim Tebow?

From his advocacy of abstinence to his infamous “You will never see another team play this hard” speech at Florida, it is like he is too good to be true. He is too nice, and thereby we want him to trip up so we can feel better. We want him to be revealed as a hypocrite, and when that fails to happen, we settle for gleefully celebrating his failures on the football field. And why? Because he dares to say thanks?

She continues:

I could not figure out what was causing this onslaught of venom for a guy almost everybody claims to like, and I finally decided it is more about us. He makes us uncomfortable. He is a reminder that the blue-red, liberal-conservative fight over taking God out of everyday life is intellectually dishonest. He is too good.
Tebow is proof that God goes comfortably into whatever arena of your life you wish to take Him.

Engel notes that Christians, in Tebow’s defense this season, have often been as nasty and little as Tebow’s critics. It does not help to glorify the God that Tebow lifts up when we do not demonstrate love.

Christians, of all people, should be used to criticism. After all, the Christ we follow promised us that we would receive it if we were genuinely following Him. The problem for many of us is that we receive criticism justly. When we are maligned unjustly for living holy and authentically good lives, that is one thing. However, we ourselves malign the character of God when we act in ways that deserve criticism.

Tim Tebow is walking the walk as he’s talking the talk these days. I can’t imagine the immense amount of temptation and attack he must be under. Rather than arguing our cases about Tebow, can Christians resolve to simply pray for him and for those who are made uncomfortable by his vocal faith?

Don’t be surprised by how God can use anyone surrendered to Him. Strange things happen when ordinary people commit to live lives of faithful obedience and joyful love.

The following video is a funny look at how dramatic and surreal this season has been so far for Tim Tebow.

Another video with Tebow’s testimony:

By the way, I’m rooting for the Broncos this weekend!

Live like those who cannot die

I recently started Beth Moore’s new Bible study on James. James is the one of the half brothers of Jesus, and she begins her study looking at how that difficult familial relationship evolved from doubt to faith.

We know from John 7:5 that there were long years when “even his own brothers did not believe in Him.” However, somewhere between his final earthly days and His post resurrection appearances to the disciples, Jesus’ earthly family surrendered their hearts in belief.

Soon after, James became a leader in the growing early church. When Peter was arrested and then freed by an angel from prison in Acts 12:1-17, he instructs those gathered at Mark’s house to tell “James and the brothers about this.”

Beth (we’re on a first name basis) posits what may have been going through James mind when he heard the news about Peter’s deliverance. Keep in mind that James the apostle had already been killed by Herod before Peter was arrested. All this happened around the time of the Passover, and it may have been the first Passover after Jesus was betrayed (the one year anniversary of that event).

This thing we’re doing is deadly. Terrifying. I feel sick. I feel exhilarated. He said not to fear those that can kill only the body. Think past the pain. What about our families? What does all this mean? I feel like hoards of demons have been unleashed on us. There are angels. Real, live angels – and some of them appear in beams of brilliant light. We may be captured, but we may be rescued. We may see horrors, but we may see wonders. We may lose our heads, but we cannot lose our souls. The stakes are up. The fire is lit. It’s time to live like those who cannot die.

She concludes with the thought, “Welcome to the life of those called Christians.” (The believers were first called “Christians” in Antioch – Acts 11:26 – as a derogatory term meaning “little Christs.” This would been an aspersion along the lines of calling them junior messiahs, or saying something like, “They think they’re little gods.”)

Instagram

The last week in pictures:

You can follow my Instagram feed here or view the pics here.

Resisting terror: the VT shooting of December 8, 2011

I was at lunch with a friend when I got a text. It said simply:

“Stay at the LH – apparently there were gunshots.”

My BBQ sandwich was right in front of me, but it seemed like a slow fog descended on the table. I read the text to my friend, and then did something that has become a habit for news and information. I checked Twitter.

It was crowded with reports of a gunman on Washington Street in Blacksburg. There was one person shot. Washington Street? That is where our church’s office is located, and it’s about 150 yards from the Virginia Tech basketball collosseum.

Then my phone began vibrating with texts:

“REPORT OF GUNSHOTS NEAR COLLOSSEUM!”

“Shooting on campus.”

“Possible suspect on VT campus who fired some gun shots in Cassell parking lot..”

Lunch was over. I called Carolyn to let her know I was OK and then began trying to call Cody, our worship leader who had last been at the church office when I left. He didn’t answer his phone or the texts that I sent him. Within minutes, there were reports of a second shooting and another body.

Source: The Collegiate Times of VT

There was a fist that began clenching my insides into the size of a golfball. I said a hasty goodbye to my friend, who had driven in from Salem for lunch and headed for the church office. My imagination and scattered thoughts were running faster than Seabiscuit.

Before the day concluded, we learned with the rest of the nation that the person shot on Washington was a VT police officer. The second shooting death (at the time of this entry) had been reported by many news agencies as the suicide of the gunman.

Cody returned to the Lancaster House (office) a few minutes after I arrived to find it empty. He had left his phone in his car while running errands. We spent the afternoon inside the locked house, tying Christmas cards on candy canes for our church’s float in a local Christmas parade. We listened to the police scanner and followed the Twitter feed. At one point, a stream of police cars, marked and unmarked, as well as a SWAT van and other rescue vehicles roared past our office headed to Squires Student Center where there reports of more gunshots. (Those turned out to be false. The scanner soon buzzed with the police demanding someone to tell the VT waste disposal folks to quit emptying dumpsters. That may have been the sound folks heard.)

News outlets ran far behind Twitter, another powerful example of the website’s influence in the transformation of our information avenues. As an example, VT’s student newspaper, The Collegiate Times, saw their Twitter following grow “by more than 18,000 — to more than 20,000 from 2,000 just before the news broke. The growth shows just how Twitter can amplify a single message, or a single account, even if that account is a college newspaper without a local following.” (Source)

But it wasn’t the power of Twitter or social media that taught me another lesson today. It was the power of God’s Word. This past Sunday, I preached from the gospel of Luke in chapter 21, verses 5-38. The message title was A Bright Hope in Dark Times. (podcast and notes here) In the middle of the confusion, fear and angst of the day, it seemed that a recognizable voice reminded me of one particular verse:

“…do not be terrified…” (v9)

The context of the chapter is Jesus’ prediction of terrible times that were to come on the world and on Israel itself in the future. He urged His followers to not allow the darkness of the times to keep them out of the light.

It was easy today to get caught up in the heartache and drama of another tragedy in Blacksburg. I felt the fist in my stomach clench and release several times over the course of the afternoon. Cody and I prayed diligently for our campus and community, and for the families of those who had died.

Yet, the voice from Luke 5 beckoned quietly. It wanted my attention. It wanted my obedience. Jesus told His followers, “Do not be terrified.” It has been said that the Bible contains more than 350 commands for us to not be afraid. That’s a difficult imperative to obey in the midst of confusion, evil and death. Yet Jesus affirmed this other-worldy confidence in Matthew 10.28:

“..do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.”

I hunted down a conversation I vaguely remembered in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Rings between Frodo the hobbit and Gandolf the wizard:

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

Profound words. We all live in dark times. Sometimes the darkness and evil is much closer than our hearts can stand. At times like today, it’s just down the street. But I take great comfort in the words of Jesus, and I encourage anyone who finds their courage faltering to consider them:

“Do not be terrified.”

God will supply all we need in dark times to shame those who love the darkness. He supplies courage to face tragedy with an unconquered spirit. He also supplies the very tears we shed over the brokenness and rebellion of this evil-stained world.

Let us mourn. Let us grieve. Let us heal. But let us not fear. Fear will forever cripple those who allow it to grip them. Let those of us who have experienced the love of God gently but determinedly display it when darkness seeks to swamp our faith with fear.

VT students are gathering tonight and tomorrow in candlelight vigils around the memorial to the students killed in the infamous April 16, 2007 shooting. Their lights urge us to remember lives cut short. Their lights also are a visible rebellion against darkness.

Let us rebel with them against the darkness of fear and the war it wages on our spirits.

“Perfect love casts out fear.” (1 John 4.18)

Christmas basketball shot

By now most of you probably know that Sam and I enjoy setting up unusual basketball shots. When we were putting the wreaths on the house earlier this week, we couldn’t resist.

Blacksburg Christmas parade

Our church had a great float in the community Christmas parade tonight!

Check out the other pictures here.

Review: Switch – How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

If you’re looking for a extremely practical book about how to experience change, influence change or lead change in either your personal life or organization, Switch is the book for you. It’s not a dry, textbook or monotonous business book either. Brothers Chip and Dan Heath weave stories together in a very Malcolm Gladwellish way to produce a fun read that will also have you underlining and talking to others about what you’re learning.

They use an illustration that includes an elephant, a rider and a path throughout the book to make complex motivations and change resistors not only understandable but entertaining. Essentially, the rider represents a person’s rational intellect. The rider is motivated by facts, information and logic. If you can explain something to the rider, he will change.

The elephant represents the emotional side of a person or organization.

Analytical arguments will not overcome reluctance… The sequence of change is not analyze – think – change, but rather see – feel – change.

The Heaths point out that in many cases, we may know the facts, but it still doesn’t motivate change in our behavior (i.e., think about medical professionals who still smoke).

Trying to fight inertia and indifference with analytical arguments is like tossing a fire extinguisher to someone who’s drowning. The solution doesn’t match the problem.

Image from "Are Going Mental?" Click for article.

So how do you change or lead people to change? The book shares thoughts about changing ourselves, others and organizations in extremely manageable terms and gives one practical tools to use.

The third piece of the illustration is the path. It’s not enough to provide reasons (for the rider) and inspiration (for the elephant). For effective change to happen, there must be practical, doable steps to take toward that change. Too often, we default to negativity when we’re not experiencing desired change. The status quo suffocates us, and while we know we need to change and desire to do so, we can’t see our way to the change.

We also assume the worst at times about the people or situations in our life that seem to be blocking change.

A good change leader never thinks, “Why are these people acting so badly? They must be bad people.” A change leader thinks, “How can I set up a situation that brings out the good in these people?”

When we begin “tweaking” the environment (situation), we are able to help others build new habits. After new behaviors come into play, one begins to see change happen, and after a while, the herd is rallied, according to the Heaths, and the real transformation begins.

I’d highly recommend Switch for church leaders. Filter the book with scriptural principles, of course, but it has some dynamic material that will aid thinking theologians in becoming spiritual change agents for their churches and ministries.