Out of town

I won’t be blogging for a week or so.  I’m out leading a backpacking trip.  See you then.

God’s weakness or man’s strength?

I have been thinking quite a bit about power this week.  What is power?  What does it mean to be powerful?  Am I powerful?  That is, am I a strong person or a weak person? 

Do you consider yourself strong?

Do you consider yourself weak?

Why?

I just got off of Wikipedia, the definitive source for reliable and trustworthy (umm…. yeah) information on the internet.  I went to the article on “Power (sociology).”  Fascinating.  It names ways in which people can hold power including authority, social class, charisma, expertise, persuasion, knowledge, money, force, moral persuasion, application of non-violence, and tradition. 

It also lists types of power including based on force, resources, persuasion, personality, material resources, or inherent in an organization.

Again at the end it lists another sociologists understanding of the bases of power as power from position, from persuasion, expertise, rewards, or coercion.

But no where did it mention… love.

True, self-sacrificing love.

What is power after all?

Is there a kind of strength in this world that is actually powerless in some ways?

What can and can’t we control in other humans?

There is this author, Victor Frankl, who survived the Nazi Prison camps and went on to write the book, “Man’s search for meaning.”  He wrote about, among other things, the ability of one human to control another human.  He realized, however, there is one thing that no one else can control in us.  That other people my strip us of every freedom but one.  That is, how we will respond in our hearts. 

He says it this way, “Everything can be taken from a man but …the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

Its true isn’t it?  All the so-called power in the world, money, position, authority, force, manipulation, all of it, cannot control a human heart.  You could have a million man mercenary army and destroy and kill and rule nations, but you couldn’t force one person to love you. 

This is a problem if you are God. 

You see, God is quite powerful in the whole, “able to create and destroy entire universes,” sort of way.  Being God, he is the most powerful being there is.  If there was a more powerful being, well… that would be God.  Quite powerful.  But the one thing God is most interested in, a person truly loving him, is the one thing his power cannot deliver.

God cannot make you love him.

All that we consider strong, the ability to crush mountains, ruin nations, raise up leaders, create empires, win wars, dictate laws, and more… all the strength of this world, cannot turn one heart to love. 

There is this story in the book of Exodus that brings this to life.  Moses and the Israelites are at Mt. Sinai.  God has lead them out of Egypt and is going to give to them his laws and commandments for them to live by.  “On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast.  Everyone in the camp trembled… Mt Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire.  The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder.  The Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.

When the people was the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the smoke, they trembled with fear.  They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, ‘Speak to us yourself and we will listen.  But do not have God speak to us or we will die.’” 

If you are God, and you have this awesome power at your fingertips, how do you convince people to love you and not run from you in fear?

Maybe what we (humans) consider strength is powerless to do the very thing that counts the most in truth?  Win a heart in love.  Maybe what we consider weakness, has a power that we have never before considered?

For thousands of years, followers of Jesus have claimed that something like this was going on in his mission on earth.  That Jesus himself was somehow one and the same as the God that appeared at Mt. Sinai.  That Jesus fully revealed what God was and is like.  And that he did it all in something that appeared like great weakness.

Jesus wrote no books. 

He left no buildings. 

He won no battles. 

He began a community of friends, but left no organization or company. 

He died in his early 30’s.

No children.

Abandoned by his closest friends.

Rejected by the thinkers and power-brokers of the day. 

He ends up flogged, body ravaged, publicly humiliated and mocked, spit upon, nailed to a wooden cross beam, until he gets to point where he says, “I am thirsty.” 

He can’t even get himself a drink of water.

He needs the help of another person to even wet his mouth.

Total… complete… helplessness…

The early Christians believed that somehow Jesus was God, and God had actually come to earth as a God-man, set aside his awesome power, and had become weak.  And this weakness had culminated on the cross, where God himself, instead of crushing and destroying all evil and sin and in the process necessarily crushing and destroying all humankind, instead, God bore the brunt of evil and sin himself.  Our punishment, his death.  His suffering, his weakness.  But the possibility of winning hearts to love him.

A weakness that accomplishes that which “strength” never could.

The early Christian missionary-thinker Paul had this to say on the subject, he said this demonstrates God’s love for us.  In this act, God opens up his heart of love to humankind. 

Paul also said, “the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”

God’s weakness or man’s strength?

You see, force and control can never win a heart in love.  What looks like strength to man, is actually powerless in this way.  And yet, self-sacrificing love, can win a billion hearts.  And it ends up, that what looks like weakness to man, is powerful in this way. 

Its my opinion that we live this out in a myriad of ways in our lives. 

Parents can control their children, they can manipulate and force their kids behavior while they live at home.  Perhaps, with enough guilt trips and shame, they can even somewhat control their kids behavior after the kids move out.  But when the parents are gone, or aren’t watching, or are in another state, the children live as they please.  Because a child controlled is not a heart won.  It is only through the self-sacrificing love of a parent that a child’s heart is won. 

Not through strict discipline.

Not through guilt trips.

Not through withholding attention.

Its through love, sacrificial love.

That’s not to say parents shouldn’t set boundaries for their children.  Of course they should.  But rules will not win a child’s heart. 

A low level employee in an organization yearns for the day that they have more authority and, “people listen to them.”  Authority.  Power.  Perhaps a boss can force employees to act a certain way or perform a certain task, but that is different than true influence.  Yes, people will ”obey” to their bosses, those in authority.  But people will only “listen” to those whom they know truly care for them.  Authority is not true power.

There is that family member who for years now just won’t act they way you want them to.  And we try to control them and it just won’t work. 

Or when your brother is on your final nerve, or your sister said it one too many times and you just want to lash back, because that would feel so powerful…

Or when you know what they said about you, and it hurt so bad, but you have any even juicier tidbit about them and all you have to do is turn to your friend and say…

And your ego is hurt but you know all you have to do/say is ________ and it will hurt them even more.

Or you know your agenda is the right way for the church, school district, government, etc. and all you have to do grab the reigns of power and drive the opposition aside and then you will have won.

Won what?

What are we trying to accomplish in all this?

What can man’s strength (force, control, threats, manipulation, guilt) really bring us?

What counts?

Because if hearts turned to loving God count, if hearts turned to loving neighbor count, if these are what ultimately count….

Man’s strength is actually quite… powerless.

And God’s weakness is actually quite powerful.

True, self-sacrificing, self-giving, love.

love.

This week may you know what counts.  May you know the heart of God for you.  May you know what man’s strength is powerless to do.  And may you know the true power of the weakness of God. 

 

Art frustrates me

Or maybe I should say modern art frustrates me. 

I absolutely don’t get it.  Some people do get it, I am very happy for these people.  I am not one of them.  I went to the Denver Art Museum this past weekend.  There was a trashbag on the floor in one room with a sign next to it that said “Trash Bag Number Seven.”  Art.  A boar’s head in formeldahyde.  Art.  A giagantic ash tray full of old cigarettes.  Art.  The largest, I’m talking huge, 30 feet tall, painting of a naked obese woman you can imagine.  Art. 

I didn’t know what was art and what wasn’t.  It was quite confusing and a bit disorienting.  We went out on the roof at one point.  I said, “Are those sculptures or air conditioning units?”  My wife and I decided they were air conditioning units.  That is, until we walked all around them and realized there were no moving parts, they were box metal sculptures.  I didn’t sit down all day in there, my back was killing me, but I didn’t want to mistake a famous peice of art for a chair to be used by the public.  Modern art.

I don’t understand. 

I wish I got it, but honestly, I just don’t get it.

Oh yeah, and I took this art quiz this morning and got 3 out of 8 right.  Sheesh.  Can you do any better?  You have to be able to tell if its the work of amazing modern artists or children, convicts, mental patients and blind people.  Good luck.  Click here. 

James 1:19 – 20

Continuing our look at James…

“My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”

Quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. 

Some of the best advice I’d ever received concerning relationships, specifically marriage was this:

Seek to understand before being understood.

So often I am trying to drive my viewpoint into another person’s head while they are trying to do the same to me and neither of us make any ground at all.  Especially in marriage, when arguments begin, I find myself trying so hard to communicate why I am right and why I was hurt before I stop to listen and understand my wife.  This is not wise.  Wisdom is for me to first seek to understand my wife and her hurt, fully understand it and make amends for it before I communicate my point of view.  In my experience I have found this both incredibly difficult and incredibly healing.  It is so hard for me to set myself aside on behalf of another.  And yet when I do, I find the road to healing. 

Full-time ministry

Being in full time ministry myself, these stats were like a slap in the face… in a good sort of way.  A warning that I need to be reminded of.  I am thankful that my senior pastor regularly reminds me that my wife is the only member of the congregation who will still be with me when I move.  What is below is directly from Mark Driscoll’s Blog.

2. How healthy are pastors and their families?

At our 2006 Reform and Resurge Conference in Seattle, my good friend Pastor Darrin Patrick from The Journey in Saint Louis (www.journeyon.net) spoke frankly of the burden that pastoral ministry is. He presented the following statistics, which he gathered from such organizations as Barna (www.barna.org) and Focus on the Family (www.family.org).

Pastors

• Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout, or contention in their churches.
• Fifty percent of pastors’ marriages will end in divorce.
• Eighty percent of pastors and eighty-four percent of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastors.
• Fifty percent of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.
• Eighty percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.
• Seventy percent of pastors constantly fight depression.
• Almost forty percent polled said they have had an extra-marital affair since beginning their ministry.
• Seventy percent said the only time they spend studying the Word is when they are preparing their sermons.

Pastors’ Wives

• Eighty percent of pastors’ spouses feel their spouse is overworked.
• Eighty percent of pastors’ spouses wish their spouse would choose another profession.
• The majority of pastors’ wives surveyed said that the most destructive event that has occurred in their marriage and family was the day they entered the ministry.

Real Life or just living? Embrace suffering.

No one lives a life free from pain. 

Pain and loss are unavoidable.  I’ve been thinking about loss this week. The loss in my life and the losses of people around me.  I have a dear friend who was left by his wife and ended up being divorced by her this past year.  I’m 27 and this is actually the second good friend of mind whose wife has left him.  Several close couple friends of our really would like to get pregnant and have had miscarriages in the past year.  I don’t really have any idea what that would be like, but speaking with them, it seems as if it has been deeply painful, especially for the women.  I know friends whose closest circles of friendship have been torn apart through affairs.  I’ve hear stories of growing up with alcoholic fathers.  I’ve sat and talked to guys who have shared about sadness and loneliness that simply won’t go away, that is always just beneath the surface.  I’ve seen the affects of incest within families.  I’ve talked to friends desperately waiting for their adoptive baby to come and live with them.  Engagements being broken off, watching loved ones die, depression, physical abuse, emotional abuse, rape, firings, moving away from friends, and friends moving away.  1 in 4 girls is sexually abused before age 18.  1 in 6 boys are.

We all experience loss. 

I moved from Indiana to Michigan between 2nd and 3rd grade.  One of my first friends in 3rd grade in Michigan was George.  We drew aircraft carriers during class, played football at recess, and rode bikes and played Nintendo after school.  We stayed friends throughout middle school and into high school, and my junior year in high school we were part of a group of 5-7 guys who were pretty good friends.  Winter of my junior year George died of a heart valve that was pointed the wrong direction.  He had it since birth.  It was undetectable.  It’s funny too, because George was a great athlete.  He played some varsity football his sophomore year in high school.

I remember thinking that my heart would always hurt, that I would never enjoy life again, that my future only held pain. 

I cried a lot. 

I mean, what are we supposed to do with loss, pain, the screwed up hurtful stuff in our lives? I’ve been meditating on Jesus’ teaching this week that whoever wants to be a disciple of his must renounce himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Jesus.  I’ve been haunted by Eugene Peterson’s translation of the phrase “take up your cross.”  He says in The Message, “Don’t run from suffering.  Embrace it.” 

Embrace suffering? 

Why?

It reminds me of what Jesus teaches in his Sermon on the Mount (Talk on a hill, creative title).  He is pronouncing blessings, we call them beatitudes today.  I’m not sure why.  I think we religious people tend to prefer to put things into confusing language.  Maybe it makes it seem more special or holy or something.  Any ways, Jesus is saying blessed are these people and blessed are those people.  We don’t really have any direct equivalent to the word ”blessed” Jesus was using here.  It carries the meanings of being blessed, fortunate, and happy.  Some might say, “Lucky are those…” or “Jump for joy when…” Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” 

Fortunate are those who mourn?

Embrace suffering?

I was directed by a couple friends to a book this week as I was thinking on the topic of loss and suffering.  It’s called, “A Grace Disguised,” by Jerry Sittser.  When Jerry was around 40 years old he and his family were in a head on collision with drunk driver.  His mother, wife, and one daughter were killed.  He and his three other kids survived.  He wrote the book years after this event, not so much to tell his story, as to share what he learned through it.  To share his reflections on his loss.

Not long after the accident he writes about having a dream, he says, “I dreamed of a setting sun.  I was frantically running west, trying desperately to catch it and remain in its fiery warmth and light.  But I was losing the race.  The sun was beating me to the horizon and was soon gone.  I suddenly found myself in twilight.  Exhausted, I stopped running and glanced with foreboding over my shoulder to the east.  I saw a vast darkness closing in on me.  I was terrified by that darkness.  I wanted to keep running after the sun, though I knew that it was futile, for it had already proven itself faster than I was.  So I lost all hope, collapsed to the ground, and fell into despair.  I thought at that moment that I would live in darkness forever.  I felt absolute terror in my soul.” 

We are terrified of pain and loss aren’t we? 

I am. 

We run from it using busyness, alcohol, television, shopping, pornography, a new relationship, food, video games, anything but sitting and feeling the hurt. But we know the hurt is still there, it doesn’t just disappear because we distracted ourselves from it.  We avoid it for a time, but we don’t experience comfort.  Jesus said those who mourn will be comforted.  I don’t believe he was making a statement about the experiences certain people have, that some people will experience loss and these will be comforted and others won’t.  I mean, everybody experiences loss.  The question is rather what will we do with the loss. 

Will we mourn?

Will we embrace the suffering that comes to us?

Will we enter the darkness?

Sittser writes, “I decided from that point on to walk into the darkness rather than try to outrun it, to let my experience of loss take me on a journey wherever it would lead, and to allow myself to be transformed by my suffering rather than to think I could somehow avoid it.  I chose to turn toward the pain, however falteringly, and to yield to the loss, though I had no idea at the time what that would mean.”

No more distractions, just embracing the pain.

 Why?

…for they will be comforted.

That there is an aspect of God, a stretching of our souls, a depth of relationship with the Holy that we would never taste if we choose the route of distraction.  The great poem-prayer writer David wrote this about God.  “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.”  He is near to the broken hearted.  The Hebrew phrase from broken hearted here is a combination of two Hebrew words.  The first means heart, as in the center or middle of a person, her deepest innermost feelings.  The second is a violent word.  It means to burst, break, rend, tear, hurt, be wrecked, or be shattered.  We use the phrase broken heart so much in our culture I think it loses its power. 

The Lord, YHWH, is near to those whose deepest parts have been shattered. When we are shattered, genuinely broken, we find the Lord is near.  As we enter into our loss, embrace suffering, mourn, the God of the universe draws close to us.  He is near.  Paul writes about this to the Roman church and paints a picture of the Spirit of God right beside us in our moments of great pain.  That when we don’t even know what to pray for and can only get out groans, the Spirit is with us praying for us to God the Father.  It’s like, at this lowest of moments, God doesn’t leave, but he draws near, and begins to carry our weight.  His ear is near our mouth as we sigh and groan, he listens to every word, he steps in where we run dry and intercedes with the Father on our behalf.  And there is an intimacy with God that would not be known if we had run away from the darkness. Embrace suffering. Only those who truly mourn can be truly comforted. 

We must enter the darkness. 

This is following Jesus. 

The scriptures describe him as, “despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering… he carried our sorrows.”  Jesus knew tears.  He wept on multiple occasions.  He knew pain, his life ended with the cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”  God does not comfort us out of his stoicism, he comforts us out of his suffering, his sorrows. We enter the darkness and He is with us. He has gone before us.

He is with us. 

And because he has gone before and because he is with us, we have hope.  Not happiness, not shiny smiley faces. But we do have hope of redemption.  Resurrection.  After Paul finished writing to the Romans about the Spirit’s interceding for them when they are in great pain, he writes this, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.”  Paul doesn’t make the silly statement that everything is all good.  No, evil and pain and hurt and suffering and real and are not good.  But, he knows that the God of reality is able to bring good from any evil, that God is always at work to bring redemption and new life in every single situation for those who love him.  And so we have hope.  The hope of resurrection, life from death, both at the end of time, and in small ways every day in our lives.  The hope of forgiveness, renewed joy, restored relationships, intimacy with the Father, the hope of gratitude.

 I’d like to leave you with the last few pages of Sittser’s book:

Yet the grief I feel is sweet as well as bitter.  I still have a sorrowful soul; yet I wake up every morning joyful, eager for what the new day will bring.  Never have I felt as much pain as I have in the last three years; yet never have I  experienced as much pleasure in simply being alive and living an ordinary life.  Never have I felt so broken; yet never have I been so whole.  Never have I been so aware of my weakness and vulnerability; yet never have I been so content and felt so strong.  Never has my soul been more dead; yet never has my soul been more alive.  What I once considered mutually exclusive–sorrow and joy, pain and pleasure, death and life–have become parts of a greater whole.  My soul has been stretched.

Above all, I have become aware of the power of God’s grace and my need for it.  My soul has grown because it has been awakened to the goodness and love of God.  God has been present in my life these past three years, even mysteriously in the accident.  God will continue to be present to the end of my life and through all eternity.  God is growing my soul, making it bigger, and filling it with himself.  My life is being transformed.  Though I have endured pain, I believe that the outcome is going to be wonderful.

Lynda, Diana Jane, and my mother Grace have gone to death before me.  Someday I too will die, as will Catherine, David, and John.  As long as I remain alive, I want to life as joyfully, serenely, and productively as I can.  My heritage has set a standard for me, and I feel honored to uphold it. 

The supreme challenge to anyone facing catastrophic loss involves facing the darkness of the loss on the one hand, and learning to live with renewed vitality and gratitude on the other.  The challenge is met when we learn to take the loss into ourselves and to be enlarged by it, so that our capacity to live life well and to know God intimately increases.  To escape the loss is far less healthy–and far less realistic, considering how devastating loss can be–than to grow from it.  Loss can diminish us, but it can also expand us.  It depends, once again, on the choices we make and the grace we receive.  Loss can function as a catalyst to transform us.  It can lead us to God, the only One who has the desire and power to give us life. 

Lynda and I planned our wedding with a great deal of care.  We paid more attention to the meaning of marriage than to the details of the wedding, and this fit Lynda’s personality well, for she was always more interested in depth of ideas than in appearances.  We chose to sing one hymn, “Be Thou My Vision.”  I chose that same hymn for the funeral.  It captures what we believed when we were married, what I believe now, and what I will continue to believe until I go to the grave.

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;  Nought be all else to me, save that Thou art; Thou my best thought , by day or by night, Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Riches I heed not, nor vain, empty praise, Thou mine inheritance, now and always; Thou and Thou only, first in my heart, Great God of heaven, my treasure Thou art.

Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my true word; I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord; Heart of my own heart, whatever befall, Still be my vision, O Ruler of all. 

The disguise of life

Last week I wrote about the teachings of Jesus, particularly dealing with life, and what a life best lived looks like.  I mentioned the book, The Secret. 

The Secret is fascinating to me because of its central claim of the Law of Attraction.  Essentially this Law states that thoughts in this universe, are magnetic.  That is, we can bring about certain realities in our lives, ‘attract’ them to us, so to speak.  Through positive thoughts focused on a certain house, car, job, potential date, or ideal weight, we can get the car, be asked out on the date, or even maintain a weight regardless of what we eat or if we exercise. 

Its fascinating to compare the claims of The Secret with that of another book I’ve been reading this week, The Progress Paradox. The central assertion of this book is that nearly every objective measure of living standards in the west are rising and continue to rise.  Crime is decreasing, life spans increasing, purchasing power increasing, house size increasing, quality of food increasing, time available outside of our jobs increasing.  People in America, however, are not getting any happier.  Let me say that again, our houses are twice as big as 50 years ago and the number of people in America who call themselves happy has not budged.  In fact, the percentage of people who are very happy has decreased and the percentage of depressed people has increased ten-fold. 

Here’s the thing, getting our wants met has not brought happiness. 

It has not brought more life.

Not more life for our nation.

Not more life for our families.

Not more life for ourselves.

Maybe we don’t even know what to want, what will bring us life…

Maybe we struggle to find life, because life wears a disguise.

In the physical world we can see where life comes from.  For example, the sun is the main source of energy for this planet.  I’ve been doing a little research on the sun this week.  The sun creates energy by a process called nuclear fusion.  At the center of the sun, hydrogen atoms, atoms with a single proton, collide together and form helium atoms.  Helium’s atoms are basically four hydrogen atoms joined together.  Here’s the strange thing, four hydrogen atoms weigh more than one helium atom.  You see, when the four hydrogen atoms combine a small amount of mass, of matter, is destroyed.  It turn into pure energy.  It ceases to exist as matter and becomes pure energy.  In fact, about 4 million tons of matter ceases to exist as matter every second in the sun.  That’s 11 Empire State buildings worth of matter ceasing to exist as matter every second.  This destruction of matter is the energy that drives our planet.  Its like in the physical world, energy (life) is born of destruction (death).

Life coming from death.

Our how about the biological world?  Everything we eat, everything that nourishes us is something that has died.  Last night I had grilled vegetables and hotdogs for dinner.  Now some of you might say, “Hotdogs aren’t food!”  You would be right, I had three of them nonetheless.  But the vegetable are legitimate food.  The green pepper I ate, it once was connected to the vine (stalk, root, tree? I don’t know), and was alive, but it was severed from the vine and was slowly dying when I bought it.  For it to bring life to my body, it had to die. 

Life coming from death. 

Or how about in our emotional worlds?  What do the movies Braveheart, The Lion King, The Passion, Life is Beautiful, Armeggedon, Titantic, Narnia, The Green Mile, The Fellowship of the Ring, Ladder 49, and World Trade Center all have in common?  The idea of sacrifice, or one person sacrificing and giving their life for another, or for many others.  Why does this move us so?  Why are we so affected by the idea of one person sacraficing their life for another?  How in the world can a movie like Armegeddon choke us up?  Its sad, yet its life giving.  Its not a sense of a wasted life that we have.  Its a sense of a life well used.  Its inspiring.  It doesn’t drive us to depression, its drives us to carpe diem.  It drives us to sacrifice for others.

A death which brings life. 

Life… disguised as death.

In the spiritual realm, we see God acting in the same manner.  Paul wrote in Romans 5, that Adam brought death into the world through his disobedience to God but Jesus brought grace and life to the world through his obedience (sacrificial death) to God.

Peter said it this way, “Christ died for sins once for all, the Righteous One for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.”

Jesus died. 

We have life.

Life born of death. 

A living that looks like dying. 

I would like to continue exploring a teaching of Jesus that I wrote about in the blog entry entitled, Fear.  This particular saying of Jesus was recorded more times by his followers than any other teaching.  It occurs in one form or another in all four gospels and occurs twice in both Matthew and Luke.  Let’s look at what Mark records…

“If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.  Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

Renounce myself?  Some translations have “deny himself,” another reads “forget about yourself,” a third says “you’re not in the driver’s seat, I am.”  Jesus isn’t speaking about some kind of self-hatred here.  He also isn’t referring to deny yourself certain pleasures.  He is talking about renouncing any claims to dictate the terms of your own existence.  He is talking about your dreams, goals, and methods to get them.  He is talking about your plans for the future.  He is talking about every decision of every day.  He is talking about the possibility of only heading in one direction at one time and either we are following him and his path or we are following the path of our own choosing.  And it seems pretty clear by the whole take up your cross (an instrument of humiliation, torture, and death) business that his path and our path are not going to just happen to be headed in the same direction. 

And he promises that this is the path of Life.  True Life.  Being fully human, fully alive.

Real Life. 

Life from death.

Life disguised as death.

Its like, the more we live for ourselves, the more selfish and self-centered our living becomes, the less Life we actually have.  Our realities get smaller and smaller and smaller, because eventually, our lives will only be about us.  And there is no real life flowing into us because we have shut everyone else out, all there really remains is meaningless pleasure.  And the life that remains is small and shriveled. 

Its like the more we live for Jesus, for others, the more our lives become about things and people outside of ourselves, the more Life we actually have.  Our realities get bigger and bigger and bigger, because you and you and you are all reasons I am living for and even the infinite God himself and loving and serving him is a reason I am alive.  And since Jesus is now included in our sphere of living, he is continually pouring life and love into us.  And life is overflowing with purpose and meaning.  And we shine.

 The writers of the New Testament began to unpack this idea in all sorts of different ways.  Paul writes about marriage in his letter to the Ephesians and says that wives should submit to their husbands and that husbands should sacrifice for their wives.  Wives should submit, that is, give up certain opinions, plans, goals, for the sake of their husbands.  Husbands should sacrifice, that is, give up rights, goals, time and energy for their wives.  So whatever else the Bible has to say about husband/wife relationships at the very least wives should be dying in small ways every day for their husbands and husbands dying in small ways every day for their wives. 

Have you ever seen a marriage where this is authentically taking place?  Where both spouses are giving themselves to loving and sacrificing for the other?  These marriages are just oozing life, joy, and love.  The wife spends extra time cooking for the husband, so he buys flowers for her the next day, so she calls him at work and tells him how thankful she is for him, so he comes home early and does the dishes, so she makes sure to pick up a copy of the newspaper for him on her way home, and on and on…  If you even get within the orbit of relationships like this, the love and joy just starts to rub off on you.

Each spouse, dying.

Life from death.

Right before Paul talks about marriages, he actually speaks to all followers of Jesus and says, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”  Submit to one another.  All followers of Jesus, looking for ways to put other followers of Jesus ahead of themselves.  Renouncing themselves for Jesus’ sake.  Dying to themselves.  In his letter to the Philippians he says it this way, “Think of others as more important than yourselves.  Don’t just look out for your own good.  You should also look out for the good of others.”  For Paul, followers of Jesus ought to be continually setting aside their own wants, time, energy, plans, and goals for the sake of Jesus who says to love others.  Followers of Jesus ought to be dying to themselves in small ways every day.

Imagine one church where everyone was only focused on their own paychecks, vacations, cars, home improvement projects, jobs, their own marriages, families, and plans.  Imagine little sharing, few genuine questions of concern, and repayment silently awaited for favors done. 

Imagine a second church where people spend time everyday thinking about others in the church.  Where they made phone calls to catch up and ask how things were going.  Where money, time, and energy was sacrificed regularly just to care for another in the church.  Where generosity and sacrificial love were the norm…

Which church would you rather be part of?

Which church are you creating?

Wouldn’t a place where all the members were setting themselves aside, wouldn’t that be the most vibrant place you could imagine?

Life disguised as death. 

Let’s go one step farther.  This is why, as the church relates to the world, the church is at her best when she gives herself away.  I mean churches aren’t so different from individuals.  They can spend their time, money, resources on themselves if they want.  But when they do so they shrink, they shrivel, they become more and more turned in on themselves.  Or churches can give themselves away.  They can give up on what might feel fun to them, and spend themselves on the world, the sick, the lonely, the poor, and the weak.  And they shine. 

When churches renounce themselves, when they die…

Life happens.

Jesus said, “You (plural) are the light of the world… Let your light shine.”

May you, this week, be filled by the life that Jesus offers.  May you know the dying that brings life.  And may you shine.

Real Life or just living? Risk.

We just posted a talk I gave this past weekend based on a previous blog I wrote entitled “Fear.” 

You can find it on The Gathering’s website here. 

Love to hear any feedback you may have.

 ”Preaching is truth speaking through personality.”  –Phillips Brooks

James 1:12-18

Continuing our look at the book of James…

Blessed-  Interesting word, makarios in the Greek.  It is a term used frequently in the Jewish wisdom tradition James is drawing upon and of course also by Jesus (Mt. 5).  It carries connotations of present and future rewards. 

Crown of Life-  What kind of crown is James referring to here?  In James’ day, a crown was either a victor’s crown, an ornament of honor, or a royal crown.  It seems less likely that James is writing about the beleiver’s attaining royal status or victory over someone (who?) as much as simply receiving honor.  Another interesting reference to a crown is found in Sirach 6:31, where the writer speaks of wisdom being a crown of gladness.  Could the crown of life not simply be something a believer receives after death?  Could it be the very wisdom that leads one through trials (James 1:2-8) and results in eternal life?

In verses 13-15, James goes on to give a clear picture of the source of evil in our lives.  It is not that God tempts humankind.  Rather, humans choose to respond to certain situations by giving into evil desires which leads to evil actions and evil results. 

If God does not send temptations, what does he send?  Every good and perfect gift (1:17).

In verses 16-18, James paints a picture of a God who is above all things, creator of all.  He gives good gifts to his world.  He chose to draw believers to himself, giving birth to them in truth.  And God is the unchanging one believers can trust in a world of temptation and trial. 

In this section we are given a image of two different approaches to life.  This “two ways” motif is common in wisdom literature. 

The first path is of misunderstanding and blaming God.  This path leads to evil, sin, and death. 

The second path is believing in a good God, a creator God, who is in control and unchanging, who blesses us with spiritual life and truth.  This path leads to becoming the fruit of God, becoming fully alive human beings living out of God’s truth. 

Thank you James for a clear picture.  So often in our lives the first path can seem so right and enticing and the second path so boring and narrow.  May we see with the clarity of James this week and we choose the second path. 

Fear

There is a new book out that I’ve been hearing a bit about lately.  Its called The Secret.  Apparently its about this secret principle of the Universe where by which you can attract events an objectives to oneself by simply thinking about them.  Need a parking spot right up close?  Visualize having a parking spot right up close and presto!  Now, first, I think its a brilliant title to the book.  The Secret.  Everybody wants in on a secret, especially if the secret is a great mystery to the Universe.  Second, the book seems to make a promise that I think everyone is looking for.  It promises to fulfil our desires.  Fulfillment.  Full life.  Now, I would think that the books authors would agree that what people aren’t ultimately looking for are parking spots or new cars, but rather what we believe those things supply, i.e. peace, love, joy, happiness, etc.  In other words, abundant life. 

Followers of Jesus believe that this is precisely what he promised to his followers.  Full life.  That somehow by following him, one experiences an abundant life, the type of life that we all long for.  In fact, Jesus spoke about this sort of thing all the time.  He was always talking about how to live, what life was rally about, how to see our live, and where God fits in with our lives.  And followers of Jesus believe that in him and his teachings one can discover full life. 

There is one teaching or saying of Jesus that appears more times in the Gospels than any other.  It occurs in all for gospels or accounts of Jesus’ life.  In fact, Matthew and Luke both have Jesus saying it on two separate occasions.  Its one of those teachings that scholars who doubt much of the gospels look at and say, “Jesus for sure said that, nobody would have ever made that up.” 

In Luke 9:23-25 its recorded this way: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.  What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?”

Its one of those brilliant sayings of Jesus that both is completely counter-intuitive and rings true at the same time.  I mean, we experience this in life all the time.  One time, I was hiking in Europe with two buddies of mine, Mike and Andy.  It was late in the afternoon and we decided to try and run up a near by ridge to get a better view of the surrounding area.  At the top of that ridge we decided to go up the next ridge just a little higher up.  Before I know it, things are getting steeper and steeper and we are free climbing cliffs that we certainly should have had ropes for.  Mike and Andy are above me and make it to the top of the cliff.  As I near the top I get stuck underneath a protruding boulder.  I look down at the 70 feet fall beneath me.  I look up and remembering saying, “Mike, I’m scared.”  It was at this place where the only way to survive was to risk dying, I had to swing out around the protruding rock to make it to the top.  To stay put would have meant death.  To risk death meant life. 

We see this all the time, risking hurting a friend with truth is the only way to keep an authentic friendship.  Risking financial failure is the only way to follow your dreams of starting a business.  Risking great pain and loss is the only way to fall in love. 

I was reading an account about Jesus in the book of Mark this past week that struck me as quite odd.  Jesus is sitting in the Temple across from the treasury watching people give money.  This widow comes by and gives two lepta.  Basically a lepta was the smallest most worthless coin in circulation in Israel in the day.  The story says that these two small coins were all the women had to live on.  And she gave them.  And Jesus was so completely impressed by this he dragged his disciples over and told them all about it and it was passed on and remembered until it was recorded by Mark in his gospel.

Why did Jesus let this woman give the last of her money away?

Why would God be pleased with this woman giving her grocery money away?

Is there something deeper here going on that I don’t realize?

Jesus points out that she “put in everything.”  She went all in.  Everything.  Nothing held back.  Gambled every last cent on obedience to God.  Risked it all.  On God. 

Could it be that by giving away her last human means of taking care of herself, she made space in her life for divine action that could not exist any other way?

Space for divine action. 

God space. 

Does our stuff, that props us up, that we rely on, take up space that God would otherwise be acting in?

What keeps up from letting go of those things and allowing God in?

Fear?

Fear of not having dinner?  Fear of what others might think?  Fear of failing?  Fear of losing him?  Fear of the family never being the same?  Fear of loneliness?

How much mental space to we give to fear, worry, anxiety?  How much energy to we use up simply being afraid?  How much of our lives to we spend on fear?

Short change of topic.  The Bible contains a lot of commands.  Do this.  Don’t do that.  Really don’t do that.  There’s a story about Moses coming down from the mountain after receiving commandments from God.  He says, “Good news and Bad news.  Good news is, we got his down from 40 to 10.  Bad news is, adultery is still in.”  Isn’t that how we think of the commands of God?  Rules to make life a bit less fun, because maybe if we are bored and miserable enough God will believe we are committed to him and let us into heaven. 

What command it given more than any other command in the Bible?  Be good?  Do not sin?  Be holy?  Don’t swear?  What command is given more times to more people than any other?

Do not be afraid.

Fear not. 

Do not fear.

 There is this absolutely great story about David when he was trying to escape the current king Saul and Saul’s soldiers who were trying to hunt down and kill David.  David is on the run and flees to the neighboring country Philistine, to one of its major cities, Gath.  David thinks that perhaps he can find refuge there as a mercenary for the Philistines.  Well, no such luck.  The Philistines had heard of Israel’s great warrior named David and imprison him with the intent to kill him.  Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire.  But the best part of the story is this: David gets out of the situation by acting insane.  Seriously, the Bible says he was drooling all over himself and scratching the walls.  The Philistines were like, “Sure you’re the great warrior David, you probably think you’re Michael Jordan and Napoleon too.  Get outta here crazy man!”

While David was imprisoned in Gath, he wrote a poem prayer to God.  Its recorded as a Miktam psalm.  The Miktam psalms were all written by David while he was in danger, and some scholars postulate that they were essentially silent prayers, Poem prayers by David while he was in situations too dangerous to speak aloud. 

David writes this as recored in Psalm 56:3-4, “When I am afriad, I will trust in you.  In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afriad.  What can mortal man do to me?”

When I am afraid, I will trust in you. 

I will put my trust in you. 

If David was declaring that he would put his trust in God, where does that imply his trust was before?

In himself?

Its only after David puts his trust in God is he able to say, “I will not be afraid.”

Fear begs the question, Where is your trust?

Where is your trust?

I think sometimes we get this picture of faith in God as something a Christian does at the beginning of his our her faith journey.  Like its this mental agreement a person does to get in the club.  What if faith only begins there?  What if our biggest steps of faith are not in our past but in our future?  What if faith isn’t some mental, sign on the dotted line thing we stick in our pockets and carry with us, but a choice of living, a step made in our lives, a choice we will face again in the future? 

Is faith a noun or a verb?

Am I the only one here who loves the movie Aladdin?

You know that scene at the very beginning of the movie where Aladdin and Jasmine and running from the guards?  They get to the top of this building and it looks like there is no way out, Aladdin looks at Jasmine and asks, “Do you trust me?”  And he takes her hand and they jump off the side of the building. 

I think that maybe that’s bit like what faith is like in real life.

And Jesus hold out his hand and asks, “Do you trust me?”

Do not be afraid.

Today its jumping off a building, tomorrow giving our last ten bucks, next year… who knows.  But faith may be more than a spiritual piece of paper we carry in our pockets.  Our biggest lessons of faith may be ahead of us. 

The apostle Paul, most Christians would agree, was this spiritual giant.  He wasn’t perfect, but he followed Jesus well.  Later on in his ministry, while he was writing to a group of Christians in Corinth we shared this snippet from his life.

In his second letter to the Corinthians he said, “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.  Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death.  But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.”

Fear. 

Trust. 

In the God who raises the dead. 

I need a faith that isn’t so much in my past as in my future.  Because there are cliffs I am going to get stuck on in my future.  And I am going to get scared.  I need a way to true life, and not something that will keep me living half a life stuck on the side of a cliff, imprisoned by fear.  Jesus says to me there and then, “Do not be afraid.  Risk it all on me.  Trust in the God who raised me from the dead and will raise you as well.  Know that this is the way to real life.”

May you hear God say “Do not be afraid,” the next time you are stuck on a cliff.  May you risk it all.  And may you find true life on the other side.