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Today I celebrate twenty years of working full-time at TreeHouse.

In 1989 I walked onto the deck of the Brooklyn Park TreeHouse and there was Anne Marie Bovie.  “Hi,” she said, “who are you?”  I feel in love with TreeHouse, a home away from home for thousands of teens and parents.  Each person is expected to “help make this a safe place and to build community,” and they do.

When people join our community they find an caring environment with consistent values.

Our Values

* Spiritual Vitality
* Multidimensional Personal Growth
* Caring Relationships
* Service
* Teamwork & Collaboration
* Community
* Accountability
* Innovation & Growth

Last night as I sat in a TreeHouse support group I was awed with the humility and accountability of the teens present. They listened patiently and compassionately.

Directly and indirectly each teen reminded the other that “this is a safe place.”

Each teen who wanted caring support received it. And, remembering previous concerns, teens asked one another about issues and concerns that were mentioned in previous groups.

Without breaking confidentiality, similar questions include “How’s it going with…?”, “You said that…?”, “Wait, did you…or didn’t you?”

Loving God includes being willing to allow the bright light of God’s word shine in your life. While, from personal experience I know how scary that can be, it truly is freeing to live with integrity. It’s scary living in the fear of God, but it’s amazingly freeing to rest in an awareness of your own imperfections without pretensions. It’s then that we can truly experience the wonderfulness of God’s love.

Today when asked to describe me in one word Jocelyn “Jozey” Wichterman described me as passionate. While I humbly smirked when I read it, she’s right, I am passionate.

Yesterday’s tragic death of Avenged Sevenfold’s drummer The Rev [James Owen Sullivan] drives my passion into a flame.

Chains

Several years ago while having lunch with Heather Crimmins she introduced me to Avenged Sevenfold. Over the years I realized that Avenged Sevenfold’s lyrics spoke to people; they touched wounded souls:

“Tormented young with no souls, haunting me
Pain in their lives all they know is misery
Take these chains away that are holding me down” [Eternal Rest]

If Facebook reorganized and posted a job opening for Facebook Czar — the Head Honcho, the Top Dog — would you want the job?

No more need for you to join the “MEMBERS WANT THE OLD FACEBOOK BACK!” group!  No more frustration that you can’t send feedback!  You won’t care that is IMPOSSIBLE to contact anyone at Facebook regarding problems — unless YOU want to address them!

No one would get their account disabled unless YOU wanted them to!  Hate someone’s comment?  Gone!  Hate someone’s song?  Gone!  Hate someone’s hate group?  Gone.

Would YOU like to be the Facebook Czar?

Have you ever met a celebrity?  A favorite band?  A compelling author?  A poet whose words changed your heart?  A doctor who changed your health?  A therapist who changed your mind?  A minister who changed the direction of your soul?  A friend who help heal your wound?  A lover who helps heal your aloneness?

Do you like to name drop?

You might be impressed if I said I play basketball with Lebron, play guitar with Rodrigo, or sing with Christina.  You might want to sit down and have coffee with Jimmy Carter and me.

I have what you want!

It’s my birthday and I have what you want! And I want you to have it!

I know you may be thinking what’s he got? Does he have that 700 hp Shelby I saw on the Speed Channel? No, I don’t. Does he have my mortgage payment? No, sorry nope. My tuition? My future spouse? My health? My hair back? My fantasy football title? An iPhone? Sorry, none of those either.

I do have a copy of The Truth About Chuck Norris that I’m gonna give away tonight at TreeHouse. But you can buy your own copy.

Have you ever been handcuffed? Even for fun? It’s limiting, restrictive and a bit intimidating.

That’s how I feel about fear. Fear limits, restricts and intimidates me. And it limits, restricts and intimidates you. Doesn’t it?

What causes your fears may be different than what causes mine, but we feel the same way. God wants to free us from the handcuffs that bind us. God wants to free us to be who we were created to be:

“Do not fear, for I am with you;
Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God
I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,
Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’” [Isaiah 41:10]

Honesty is a culturally threatening virtue. So threatening that few people make it a constant choice. It’s counter-cultural to choose to be honest.

Cultural Corruption

People joked about cheating on their taxes – “it’s okay unless you get caught.” People make “little white lies.” They cover up the truth “to protect the other person.”

“Everyone lies” and “everyone lies some of the time” are routinely used to justify the choice to be dishonest. That’s if the choice to be dishonest is ever challenged.

“You love evil more than good and lies more than truth”, says the songwriter.

Our Pandemic

“While the H1N1 virus has sickened tens of thousands of people and closed summer camps in a season when there should be little flu activity, it has killed far fewer than the 36,000 Americans who die from seasonal influenza each year. ”

I had not idea — no idea — that the “flu” was so deadly. I was blind to the pain and suffering that people experience.

In order to protect themselves many people defensively protect themselves with masks.