What the Wiggles Taught Me About Life

Chances are, if you were a child in the last ten or fifteen years, you've heard of the Wiggles. Comprised of four men, a strange flower-eating dinosaur, and a pirate that tickles people, the popular kids' TV show, The Wiggles has been entertaining children and driving their older siblings insane for years.

Before last night, the Wiggles was pretty much the bane of my existence. The thought of hearing "toot-toot chugga-chugga big red car!" or "fruit salad... yummy! yummy!" again made me want to bang my head against a wall over and over again.

Levi and Evan, however, do not share my feelings. In fact, Levi adores the Wiggles. He even has an Anthony doll (it's even creepier than it sounds). So you can imagine our excitement when someone gave us tickets to see their live show at the Ryman. Our excitement for Levi, that is. I had no interest in seeing the Wiggles live. Actually, if there's such a thing as negative interest, that's what I had.

Even I didn't quite know what I was thinking when I said I wanted to go. I was surprised at myself. I couldn't' quite believe I was voluntarily putting myself through hours of the Wiggles. My best guess is that it really had nothing to do with the Wiggles themselves, but rather with Levi. I was excited to see his reaction, to see how happy it made him.

So last night, carrying a red backpack, and holding one small, but very excited hand, I walked into the Ryman with Levi and Dad to see the Wiggles live.

I don't know that I've ever seen Levi as surprised and excited as he was when the Wiggles came out on that stage! He was dancing and clapping and singing and yelling. He was a very happy boy.

But never so happy as when Murray Wiggle came up to the balcony to collect the roses that some members of the audience had brought for the strange flower-ivore dinosaur. I was praying with every fiber of my being that Murray would even walk past us, just so Levi could get a glimpse of him up close. I nearly lost my breath when Murray came right up to Levi, gave him a high-five, and told him he liked the guitars on his t-shirt. Levi was overjoyed! "Murray, Murray!" he kept saying over and over.

Truly, there are few times that I remember being happier. Seeing the joy on Levi's face just nearly burst my heart wide open! I teared up. Yes, at a Wiggles concert. A Wiggles concert is the last place on earth I thought I would cry, but there you have it.

My respect for the Wiggles, especially Murray, skyrocketed. And, would you believe it, Murray deliberately sought out each and every one of the special needs children in that balcony and talked to them. My heart was so full. When I got home, I wrote Murray Wiggle a thank-you note. I don't know if he'll ever read it, but it was well worth writing it.

What struck me the most about the whole thing was Murray's intentionality. He intentionally spent time with those kids who had special needs because he wanted them to feel special.

How often do we forget to be intentional in our lives? Focusing only on how other people treat us instead of how we treat other people? How often do we neglect to be intentional with our friends, our families, and those that look up to us?

I've had the incredible opportunity to help mentor a group of rising ninth-grade girls this year at my church, and intentionality has really been brought to the forefront with me. I remember being their age, and having a "big sister" who was an older girl in the youth church. I remember how special it made me feel when my "big sister" would seek me out and ask me how I was, or take me to go get coffee.

I've realized that regardless of whether I continue leading these girls or not, I need to be intentional with them. I want them to feel as special as I did when my "big sister" took me to Starbucks. I want them to feel as good as I did when my summer mentor texted me to see how I was. I want to be that for them.

More than that, though, I want to be that person for everyone in my life. I don't want to be the person that waits on other people to come to me. I want to be there for them. So that they know that they are loved, they are special, they are worth my time and energy. Because God thinks they're special, that they're worth it. And if they can see just a tiny glimpse of who God is through me, any amount of time, energy, money, or anything else will have been completely and totally worth it.

A Christian's Bread and Butter

In your day to day life, there are things that you can't seem to live without. Microwaves, cellphones, a car, etc. But then there are also things that you really can't live without. Food, water, rest.

These are the essentials of life, the "bread and butter" of our existence.

As Christians, though, we have a different kind of bread and butter. Necessities to a prosperous spiritual life that I think perhaps much of the church goes without, and so are spiritually starving.

Prayer and the study of God's Word.

It seems a simple answer, but it really isn't. Most Christians can go to church on Sundays, say a prayer at the dinner table, and hold their hands up during worship. Bust most don't really know how to study God's Word, or how to pray.

Prayer shouldn't be five-minutes of recitation at dinner every night and before bed. It shouldn't be a chore for us. Prayer should be a continual conversation between you and God. Just as you never cease to think, you should never cease to pray. Just as you never cease thinking, you should never cease praying. When you're not doing the talking, you should be listening. Your ears should always be open to hear a word from God.

Prayer shouldn't be one-sided either. If you went to coffee with a friend and the whole time you were there, you simply talked and talked and talked, never letting them get a word in, and, worst of all, most of your talking was asking your friend for favors.

If I found out this description was of me, I would be mortified. What a terrible friend! And that's the sickening part, this is a description of me. It's a description of you, it's a description of nearly all of us! God is our best friend in the entire universe and we won't stop talking for even two seconds to let Him speak to us! How shameful, how rude, how utterly inconsiderate.

We, as Christians, need to step up in our prayer lives, or perhaps rather step down. We need to be still and listen and allow God to speak to us instead of allowing the constant flow of chatter to come from us.

One of God's most useful tools, in fact His very words to us, lie in His Word. The Bible. Thinking of the Bible as a Living book can be a little terrifying, but I think it's time we were a little more awestruck with it.

How many times has your pastor preached on a single Bible verse? Or a few different verses from different places in the Bible? Did you look up the verse when you got home to make sure that what was taught is really what God says? Did you read the context to make sure that one verse would still mean the same thing? Do you even know what the words mean?

The reason the church has lost its passion is that we're being spoon fed baby food. Many of today's church leaders teach us what the Bible says without even encouraging us to go to the Bible and learn for ourselves! The Bible was not created so that God could speak to you only through a pastor. God's Word was created and put together so that God to talk to you directly through its pages!

Reading the Bible for yourself, sitting down and analyzing it and studying it for yourself, learning truths from it that you discovered for yourself will give you such joy, such communion with God! And the best part? The truths you learn for yourself from the Bible cannot be taken away from you.

If one preacher says something and a different preacher says another, how will you know which to believe? If you simply compare the two, you will go with the one you like the best or perhaps the one that "sounds better". But what's to stop one of them from convincing you that the first pastor you heard was wrong and this one is right? What if neither of them are right? How much more grounded you would be if you knew what God himself says about it. You know the truth of what God said because you read it and studied it and discovered it for yourself.

The church is dwindling. Our passion is burning out. We need more than entertainment, than feel-good music, more than pastors spoon-feeding us. We need God. We need the bread and the butter to fill us up. We need prayer and devotion and study.

I beg of God to raise up a church that is grounded in Him. A church that has such deep communion with Christ and such passion for His Word that nothing can stop us, nothing can deceive us, nothing can lead us astray. And He can do it, if His people are willing.

The Power of Words

God has given words incredible power. It was words, when God spoke them, that brought the earth and everything in it. I give you today, messages that have incredible words. Allow God to speak to you through them. Allow them to seep into your heart and teach you. Allow them to change you. Watch a few of them. Watch all of them (trust me, they're worth your time). Watch one of them that looks interesting to you. This is a reference for me, of all my favorites. I hope it can be a reference for you as well.

"Run" by Carter Conlon




"Prayer" by Leonard Ravenhill, E.M. Bounds, and Charles Spurgeon




"The Manly Stuff" by C.T. Studd




"Come" by Paris Reidhead




"Go" by Jackie Pullinger




"The Glory of God" by Paris Reidhead




"A Call to Anguish" by David Wilkerson




"Battle Cry" by William Booth




"This Is War" by Paul Washer




"Judgment Seat of Christ" by Leonard Ravenhill




"Christ's Call to Follow in His Footsteps" by K.P. Yohannan




"And They Crucified Him" by Art Katz




"Obsessed" by Stephen Manley




"The Spirit Is Willing" by Eric Ludy




"The Call of God" by Steve Gallagher




"The Call of Christ" by Danita Estrella




"Salvation" by Ian Thomas




"True Beauty" by Leslie Ludy




"Intercession" by Eric Ludy




"Three Questions" by Leslie Ludy




"Seek My Face" by Richard Owen Roberts




"Depraved Indifference" by Eric Ludy




"The Gospel" by Eric Ludy




"I Will Veil Myself in You" by David Wilkerson




"The Ancient War Cry" by Eric Ludy




"Asking the Tough Questions" by Eric Ludy