Head over there right now for 3 brand new blogs covering our summer discussions on sunburns, souvenirs, and summer blockbusters. Share the blogs with your friends. Comment. Ask questions. And bookmark the new site. And be sure to follow The Hill Youth on Facebook for the most up-to-date info! See you at the new site!

Summer is here, and we want to make it The Biggest Summer In The History Of Summer at The Hill Youth! Click the link above to check out a full calendar of all of our THY events and start making your plans to join us at each and every one.

You can get full details on each event as they get closer by checking out our Facebook page. Just search for The Hill Youth and like the page if you haven’t already to get the most up to date information on THY. We’ll post the time and cost for each event there as they approach, plus we’re sure to have some spontaneous adventures and service projects that arise as the summer sun shines, so you’ll want to stay in touch with all of that. Head there now!

We want you to dream big and dream on and on about this summer. The summer holds so much potential, especially this one. Make the most of your free time. If you have any ideas for events or service projects, contact Alex so we can turn your dreams into reality. DREAM ON!

It’s funny how people get so attached to a brand, even going so far as to tattoo themselves with their favorite drink. This past Wednesday at The Hill, every student claimed to have a preference between Coke and Pepsi and that they could tell the difference between the two. Yet when our students tried a blind taste test, only half correctly guessed which soda was which.

Pushing the experiment even further, we then conducted a triangle taste test on the half of the students who were successful in the first test. In this experiment, each person was given three cups – one with Coke, the other two with Pepsi. The goal was to correctly guess which soda was different than the other two. Out of this experiment, only one student was able to correctly distinguish the drinks.

What do these experiments tell us about our brand loyalty? We say we prefer Coke or Pepsi, but really we can’t even tell the difference between them. (Don’t believe me? Try the experiment yourself. Have a friend give you a blind taste test. If you get that one right, try the triangle taste test. I think you’ll be surprised by the results.)

So if it’s not the taste that connects us so strongly to Coke or Pepsi, what is it? I think it has to be the branding.

Coke and Pepsi are responsible for some of the most recognizable and memorable commercials we have ever seen. You can probably list off 3 or 4 for each product just off the top of your head. Their logos and cans are also instantly distinguishable. These are two of the top brands in the world when it comes to marketing and brand awareness.

It’s no accident that the Coke and Pepsi brands are as well established as they are. These two sodas have done such a good job of weaving their brand message into our everyday lives that many of us are absolutely convinced that we have a favorite soda when in reality most of us can’t pick out which drink is which.

Branding is a vital component of any thriving business. I’ve been thinking a lot about branding in recent weeks as I’ve been tasked with helping to redesign The Hill’s website. As you can see, it’s in dire shape and it has been for a while. I have no idea how to design a website myself, so I’ve been meeting with other local companies to gain ideas and estimates on who can best perform this task for us. One thing in particular that I’ve been thinking about is our brand as a youth group.

A lot of church youth groups have catchy, trendy names for their group. The Hill’s youth group used to be called The Well, which is where the site name for this blog came from. I’ve never really cared for those type of names, so I’ve always just called our group The Hill. But as I’ve been doing so much research on branding lately I started to consider that maybe we could use a logo or some type of branding that we could use on a regular basis. Something that people could see and recognize. Something kind of like this:

The Hill Youth, aka THY. I was just playing with the name The Hill Youth and it struck me that if you put the initials of those words together you get another word, thy. Thy is a simple word, but it holds a powerful context in the scripture. When I, and I think when most of you think of the word “thy”, you think of this passage from Matthew:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done here on earth just as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:9-10)

It’s important for any brand to have a message, and to understand that message. Coke and Pepsi do it remarkably well. I didn’t want to just create a catchy logo or name for The Hill Youth without any message behind it. But I think having the letters THY, and the connotation that the word brings along with it, is a powerful message. Jesus tells us that we should pray for God’s kingdom to come, and God’s will to be done. The word “thy” is a way to say the word “your”, and the “your” in this passage is God. I want The Hill Youth to give ourselves completely over to God, to tell him every day that, “we are Yours”. I want The Hill Youth to see the word THY in our logo or in the bible and have it be a call to give ourselves completely to God.

What separates a good brand from great brand is a brand that takes itself seriously. A brand that is not distracted. A brand that does not send mixed messages. A brand that understands who they are, what they represent, and what they want people to think when they see their logo or hear their name. Think about Apple.

Apple is a company that has established itself as the higher-end, cool, hip brand in personal computers. Even though their computers are more expensive than your typical PC, young people crave, even obsess over Apple products. Whether it’s the iPod, iPhone, iPad, or Macbook, everyone thinks they need to have an Apple product rather than their cheaper equivalent. But are Apple products really that much better than Microsoft or any other brand, or is it just because of the marketing and branding?

Think about how well Apple has branded itself in recent years. They have great commercials that establish their product as a high-end, superior product. You see Apple products strategically placed in many films and television shows. But not just any shows or movies. Apple products are primarily placed and used in shows like “The Office” and movies like “The Social Network”. Movies and shows about smart, upper-class, trendy, hip, fashionable people. You don’t see Apple computers in movies like “Wild Hogs”, and there’s a reason for that.

Apple is very careful about what shows or movies they let their product be seen in. The goal for Apple is that when people see an iPod or Macbook in a movie, they will associate Apple with the financial or popularity status of the person using the product, and thus think that if they have said product, they too can achieve that status.

Apple puts a lot of work, time, and effort into establishing what their brand will represent and what it says to see that glowing Apple logo on your tv screen. Have you ever took the time to consider what it is that you represent? What do people think about when they see you walk across their path? What sort of brand message are you sending?

Whether you realize it or not, the way you live your life sends out a message to all those who know you. So like any good brand, it might serve you well to figure out what sort of message you’re sending – what is your brand? What makes up the product that you send out to the world?

You see, I am the least of His emissaries, not fit to be called His emissary because I hunted down and prosecuted God’s church. Today I am who I am because of God’s grace, and I have made sure that the grace He offered me has not been wasted. I have worked harder, longer, and smarter than all the rest, but I realize it is not me – it is God’s grace with me that has made the difference. (1st Corinthians 15:9-10)

I think this passage that Paul wrote speaks to who we are as God’s people and what we represent as a brand. We don’t deserve to be God’s workers, but we are able to be just that because of God’s grace. Our brand should be a humble one, that is working harder, longer, and smarter than any other brand in doing God’s work of love. That ought to be the brand message that people recognize when they us, and I hope it will be the brand message for THY.

Some people take their commitment to their brand more seriously than others. You can see this in the tattoos at the top of the page. How committed are you to being branded by your faith? What are you doing to advertise and cultivate your brand message? Moses once gave a marketing and branding message to the Israelites, encouraging them to focus on the message they were sending:

“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on a journey, when you are lying down and when you are getting up again. Tie them to your hands as a reminder, and wear them on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 7:4-8)

The term brand comes from the mark that farmers put on their cattle and other property. Their specific brand logo would distinguish their animals from anyone else’s, in case they were ever stolen or ran away. The people at the top of the page are so passionate about Coke and Pepsi that they have branded themselves with their favorite soda. What are you passionate about? Is God’s word marked and branded on you?

What do people think of when they think of you? What do you represent? What is your brand message? What do you want it to be? Take some time and write it out. If you want your brand to make an impact, you must take your brand message seriously.

I sure felt like a loser when I had to move back home a few years ago. I first moved out of my parents’ house in 2007. For one year I lived with a good friend of mine in my first apartment. It was the first time for both of us to be out on our own, and we had a great time getting our first experience of adult life. Sure there were struggles, times when we ended up eating peanut butter for dinner because we’d spent too much of our money on dvds and video games, times when I wished my mom would come clean up after us, etc. But after getting that taste of living out on my own, I never wanted to go back to being under my parents’ roof. One year later, though, the dream was over.

My roommate was quitting his job to focus more on school, and I didn’t have a job at the time, so we weren’t able to keep up the rent for the apartment. Only a year after moving out I was back unpacking my boxes in my old room. Mom and Dad were great about it; they had no problem taking me back in. And there were certainly some nice parts about coming home – the food, the cleaning, a nicer shower, the ability to save up some money. But I couldn’t help but feel like a failure. I felt like since I was coming home I must be a loser. I wasn’t able to succeed out on my own.

I think Jesus might have felt this way during his final days on earth. God sent Jesus to earth to proclaim his love for mankind and to rescue use from our sin. During his 30 or so years here Jesus lived a full life, not to mention a fully human life. What I mean by fully human is that he experienced life the way we do. He made friends and relationships during this time. He ate food with other people, he shared experiences, he listened to jokes (and maybe even told some). He formed bonds with others. Do you think that Jesus might have been sad about leaving all this behind when his time came to go back to be with his father on that Good Friday?

You can sense the pain and despair in Jesus’s heart when you read about his final hours. When we see him praying in the garden before he is arrested, he cries out to God asking for another way to accomplish God’s will. Jesus wants to serve his father, but he’s not overjoyed about being taken away from his friends and disciples, and he’s certainly not overjoyed about the way he knows he is going to go out. I don’t know if Jesus felt like he was losing by going home, but I think part of him wished it didn’t have to go down the way it did. I think part of him hoped he could succeed in another way.

I think Stephen felt the same way. In the 7th chapter of Acts, Stephen was taken in front of a council of nonbelievers and forced to give account for his actions in supporting Jesus. Stephen was a devout follower of The Way, he was a believer in Christ, and he had surrendered his life to the early movement of spreading Jesus’s message. The 7th chapter of Acts is Stephen’s testimony, and it’s a thing of beauty. Stephen boldly proclaims the message of God’s love for all people in front of the doubters, knowing that his life is on the line. Indeed, it’s the last testimony that he will ever give as upon hearing his message he is stoned to death by those who don’t want to hear it. Do you think he felt like a loser, knowing that he was losing his life and thus going home? It’s hard to say. I think Stephen was faithful that he was doing the right thing. But I know for me there’d be some tinge of regret, some thought that I had done something wrong by risking my life. Some thought that I’ve thrown away years of my life that God could have used by risking my life this way. It would be hard not to entertain the thought that I was losing by going home.

The magic in the stories of Jesus and Stephen is that what looks like losing to most people is actually winning. When Jesus died upon that cross, it looked to so many of those watching like he was losing his battle. The broken body of Christ drooping on the splintered wood looked like the end of his battle to the naked eye. Looks can be deceiving. In reality Christ’s death was a victory over sin. His resurrection showed that the life that God offers conquers death. Without the loss of Jesus’s life, we could never experience the win of eternal life.

Stephen’s story of going home is also a secret victory. Though his testimony did little to sway those he knew he was talking to, it did have an impact on a certain person he may not have even realized was around. Acts 7 ends with Stephen’s body being torn and his clothes being ripped and laid at the feet of a spectator. It’s like a scene from a movie: the clothes are tossed toward someone’s feet, and the camera slowly pans up to see a smirk upon the face of someone we know is going to be an important character. The man’s name is Saul.

Saul is still a villain in this part of the story. He is part of the group who wants Stephen dead. He is one of the people who wants Jesus’s message extinguished. But just a short time later Saul is converted. He becomes a believer. A new faith is born within him. He becomes a new man. And Stephen’s death, what looked like a loss to so many others, is part of what speaks to Saul. Stephen going home is a win, not a loss, in that it helps Saul become the man who would do so much in spreading God’s love.

What looks like losing is not always what it seems. What looks like losing to you may really be a win in God’s eyes. A loss is not always the end of the story that God is telling. Going home does not always equate to losing. Going home for Jesus and Stephen was a winning thing for both of them to do. Going home can be a victorious moment for you as well. Just as the prodigal son did, each of us must stop thinking we can do things on our own and go home. Each of us must recognize that we don’t have to do things on our own, and that there’s no shame in going home to his loving arms. God’s strength and God’s love for us are good and powerful things, and we should embrace these things rather than run from them.

I don’t always feel like I’m in winning in my job. I struggle with doubts and insecurities as I minister to students, children, and families. I wonder if what I’m doing truly has any impact. I question if I’m really doing anything right. My office is a mess. I’m bad with money. My plans often fall through. My messages feel more like strike-outs than home runs. But I trust that God is working on another level than me. I trust that he is doing something beyond what I can see. I have faith that even though I feel like I’m losing, God is in control, and he is winning. He is always victorious. Every day I must come home to that victory. Every day I must rest in those comforting arms and rejoice in his promises. Every day I must recognize that I can’t do things on my own, and that there is no shame in coming home to my Father. The sacrifice of Jesus makes it all possible, and I take comfort in that. My prayer is that you will do the same.

For 20 years I’ve dreamed of the day that Wrestlemania would take place in Georgia, hoping that one day it might really happen. Now that it is I’m overwhelmed with excitement. I’ve been watching all the 26 other Wrestlemanias day by day in anticipation. But even as my excitement level increases by the hour, I can’t help but feel a tinge of sadness as well. For 20 years I’ve dreamed of going to Wrestlemania in Atlanta, but I kind of always hoped that by the time it happened I would be on the card and not just in the audience.

When I was in elementary school we did a project called a dream jar. I think my mom still has mine packed away somewhere. Inside the glass jar we were told to create a diorama of sorts of what we dreamed of being when we grew up. Mine looked a lot like this:

I think it was this exact picture of Ric Flair and Randy Savage that made it into my dream jar (of course the picture I placed on Ric Flair’s body didn’t have a beard back then). The goal I had in the third grade was to make it to the main event of Wrestlemania.

That’s where I thought my story might go. Obviously that’s not going to happen any time soon, and it’s no real surprise to me to realize that. But having wrestling on my mind more than ever these past few weeks, my failure to realize my dream has been constantly on my mind. At times I’ve felt myself questioning God, wondering why it is that my story hasn’t gone the way I expected it to, asking him if he really knows what he’s doing, if I’m stuck in the wrong story.

Have you ever felt like you were a character in the wrong story? Or maybe you’ve felt like the story you’re living with your life isn’t going exactly as you thought it might. Kind of like Buzz Lightyear in the very first “Tory Story” movie, who thought he was a real-life space hero and had a hard time grappling with the fact that he was “just a toy.”

I think we’ve all been confused by the story that God is telling with our lives at some point or another. For the entirety of time, God has been telling the story of humanity redeemed. He has been telling a love story, a story about rescuing his creation. He has been telling a story of a love so strong that He is willing to sacrifice his son just to be with us.

Some of us, I think, don’t feel like we belong in a story like this. Some us feel like we don’t deserve all of this love and sacrifice. Some of us feel guilty that God gives so much for us and we have so little left to give back in return.

Others, I think, don’t feel the guilt. There are some of us who accept all of this grace. People who get what God is trying to do, who understand that we don’t deserve God’s love but accept that He wants to give it freely. Often these people who accept what God is trying to do are wondering when exactly He’s going to come through. People who wonder where exactly all of this love and joy and peace and happiness is that God has promised. Maybe you’re one of these people, someone who feels like God isn’t a man of His word.

If you’ve ever identified with one of the two groups of people above, if you’ve ever felt those emotions, than you can empathize with one or both of the two sons in the story Jesus tells in Luke chapter 15. (Rob Bell does a great job of breaking down this story in his new book Love Wins, and I highly recommend that you check it out for a deeper discussion).

In this parable Jesus tells the story of a father’s love for his two sons. The younger son is greedy. He does not want to wait for his father to die to receive his inheritance. The young son wants his money now. The father, being a gracious and loving father, gives his son what he asks for.

Taking his money and running off to the city, the young son blows his inheritance quickly on parties and women and temporary pleasures. A short time later he is reduced to working on a farm in the lowliest of jobs, cleaning the troughs where the pigs dine. One day, as he’s cleaning out the slop, he has a moment of clarity.

So he had this moment of self-reflection: “What am I doing here? Back home my father’s servants have plenty of food. Why am I here starving to death? I’ll get up and return to my father, and I’ll say, ‘Father, I have done wrong – wrong against God and against you. I have forfeited any right to be treated like your son, but I’m wondering if you’d treat me as one of your hired servants?’” (Luke 15:17-19 The Voice)

The young son feels guilty. He wants to come back to his loving father, but he does not feel that he deserves his father’s love. He feels like he must come on his knees and beg to serve for his father to even have a chance to be allowed back home.

When the young son finally heads home, his father is there to tell him that his mindset is wrong.

So he got up and returned to his father. The father looked off into the distance and saw the young man returning. He felt compassion for his son and ran out to him, enfolded him in an embrace, and kissed him.

The son said, “Father, I have done a terrible wrong in God’s sight and in your sight too. I have forfeited any right to be treated as your son.”

But the father turned to his servants and said, “Quick! Bring the best robe we have and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet. Go get the fattest calf and butcher it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate…” (Luke 15:20-23 The Voice)

The father tells his young son that he is wrong. In fact, he practically ignores the son’s apology, runs to meet him in the road, and begs him to come inside for a party in the son’s honor! The father isn’t looking for apologies, he just wants to shower his son with love and affection.

The older son is a different story. The older son has been nothing but obedient to his father. He has always obeyed his father’s commands, always put family first, always worked hard out in the fields.

When the older son, who was no doubt ashamed of his younger brother’s actions, hears about the homecoming his brother is receiving, he loses his cool.

Now the man’s older son was still out in the fields working. He came home at the end of the day and heard music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what was going on. The servant said, “Your brother has returned, and your father has butchered the fattest calf to celebrate his safe return.”

The older brother got really angry and refused to come inside, so his father came out and pleaded with him to join the celebration. But he argued back, “Listen, all these years I’ve worked hard for you. I’ve never disobeyed one of your orders. But how many times have you even given me a little goat to roast for a party with my friends? Not once! This is not fair! So this son of yours comes, this wasteful delinquent who has spent your hard-earned wealth on loose women, and what do you do? You butcher the fattest calf from our herd!” (Luke 15:25-30 The Voice)

The older son is understandably upset. He has been a model son for years, yet it seems he’s never received the kind of celebration his screwup of a younger brother is getting just for coming home and coming to his senses. The older son feels unloved, that it’s unfair that his brother receives the finest calf on his plate while he’s never been given so much as a little goat to eat with his friends.

In response, the father tells his eldest son that he’s right. His love toward his brother is unfair. But so is the love he gives to him.

The father replied, “My son, you are always with me, and all I have is yours. Isn’t it right to join in the celebration and be happy? This is your brother we’re talking about. He was dead is alive again; he was lost and is found again.” (Luke 15:31-32 The Voice)

The father explains to the older son that he could have had everything the younger son is receiving if only he would have asked for it. The older son expected everything to be handed to him, that simply being a good son would be enough. If he would have just opened his eyes and realized how much his father loved him, the older son would have seen that he could have had it all as well.

Both brothers are characters in stories they have created for themselves, but neither are characters in the correct story. Both brothers are missing the magnitude of their father’s love. Both brothers see themselves as victims, when in reality their father is openly giving them everything they could ever dream of.

This parable shows that Jesus died for our past, our future, and our present. He died so that our mistakes in the past, like the younger brother’s greed, could be forgiven. He died so that our future would be taken care of. And He died so that we could live life to the fullest now, today.

Sometimes, like the two brothers, we try to write our own twisted, dissatisfying, warped version of the story God has laid out for us. We cast ourselves as the main characters, victimized by the world around us, undeserving of God’s love, ungrateful for all that He offers us. Why do we do this to ourselves? Why can’t we see the story God is creating instead?

I think I identify more with the older brother in this story. As I’ve been wrestling with my notions of headlining Wrestlemania, I’ve found myself frustrated with God, wondering if He’s really a man of His word. I’ve been asking God, “If you love me so much, why am I not doing what I always dreamed of? Why am I not a pro wrestler? Why am I 25, still single, without the family I though I’d have, without the money I thought I’d have, without the job I’ve always wanted since I was a kid?”

As I read through this story of the prodigal son again, and as I read Rob Bell’s breakdown of it, my eyes were opened to the father’s words to the older son: “You are always with me, and all I have is yours.” Perhaps, amidst my greed and jealousy, I was missing something special that God was giving me.

And then it hit me.

Part of my preparation for Wrestlemania has been changing my Facebook profile picture every few days. On my computer are countless pictures of my friends and me at various wrestling events through the years, dressing up as wrestlers for halloween, and filming our own backyard wrestling movies. As I was flipping through these pictures to find the best ones to feature on my Facebook page, I began to see a different story that God was telling.

These pictures tell the story of these wonderful people that God has placed in my life. The story of my closest friends. The story of family members loving me enough to indulge my silly obsession. The story of the countless memories we’ve shared together watching wrestling, talking about wrestling, playing wrestling video games, trying to meet wrestlers, trying to be wrestlers. The inside jokes. The bonds that have been built over a spandex soap opera. The bonds that are so much deeper than wrestling, that have grown into the most important relationships in my life.

All this time I’ve been upset about my story. I’ve been frustrated that this character I’ve created is stuck in the wrong story. In reality God has been with me this whole time. All the love and joy and happiness he has promised has been right there in these relationships and memories.

Each one of us has a choice. The choice to live life as a victim, or to celebrate each moment. Will we try to write our own story, thinking we’re not good enough to receive God’s love or wondering where God’s love is? Or will we take the advice of the great editor, who reassures us time and time again that, “You are always with me, and all I have is yours”?

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