Lay down the ax, Take up the cross

Sometimes those of us who are deeply committed to the body of Christ can also become the church's harshest critics. In my own journey I've found myself wanting more for the Church. That longing for more has often led to frustration and sometimes cynicism.

A while back I wrote an e-mail to a friend, confessing to him that I'm way too harsh on my indictment of the Church. Perhaps you've struggled with being too harsh on Jesus' body too. If so, I hope this challenge nourishes you today:


"I've been guilty recently of being too harsh and cynical of the church. Sometimes, I wonder if it hurts Jesus when I am so frustrated and sick of his Church. It is HIS body after all. And he still loves her...with all her quirks, failures, imperfections and ugliness. It's easy to be critical of the church and its problems, until I realize that one of her problems is . . . me!

I want to look at broad brush strokes and sweeping trends in the culture of the American church and criticize her accordingly. But rarely want to do put my own life through such a candid analysis! As I look in the mirror I am mindful of how little I spend time in prayer and fasting and weeping on behalf of Christ's body, and am floored at the realization that this is precisely what I condemn the universal church for not doing.

One of the verses of Scripture that has provoked me deeply is Paul's mysterious words in Colossians 1:24. He writes, 'Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, which is the church'.

Instead of throwing rocks through at a glass church that is feeble and frail and such an easy target of criticism, Paul realizes that his own life is no way divorced from the life of the church. So instead of analyzing the gaps in the church as a whole, he looks at his own life. He concludes that his own blood, sweat and tears are somehow helping to fill in the gaps of what's still lacking in this suffering, struggling gatherings of people that God has named 'the body of Christ'. Instead of dishing out blows towards the church, he is willing to receive blows on her behalf, realizing that the weight of his own suffering is in some mysterious way being used by God to make the church stronger and more whole.

Perhaps God is calling me to lay down the ax I have to grind and pick up the cross I'm called to bear. In this text, Paul seems to be responsible for Paul. The responsibility of the Church at large. . .well, Paul leaves that in the hands of Jesus.

So, throughout my day today, I'll continue to wrestle with a church flooded with American consumerism, entertainment-based faith and individualistic Christianity. I'll deal with people with deep pockets but shallow hearts, believers who are apathetic towards things that break Christ's heart and saints who are lost in their cynicism. Yes, this is the American church at her worst...and perhaps in some cases at her best. But, I don't want my life's legacy to be a cranky critic who played a good game of arm-chair theology about all that's wrong with the church today.

Rather, I aspire to be like Paul. A man able to respond to a church still lacking, by believing that IF I give my all, Jesus will use my life towards the greater good of his Church...even if tangible results are not seen in my own lifetime".

Jesus gave His body for our lives. May we give the best of our lives for His Body."

A Summer's Resolution

Several years ago I remember taking Jackson, who was about 3 at the time, down to Minneapolis. Destination: Camp Snoopy in the Mall of America.

We arrived Friday night at my in-laws house in Minneapolis around twilight. During the last hour of daylight Jackson and I decided to explore a small playground down the road from the house. As we made castles in the sand, discovered ant hills together and played on an old swing I couldn't help but think how much more fun tomorrow would hold at the amusement park. As we headed in for the evening, hand in hand, I remember thinking, "If you thought this night was fun buddy, just wait till tomorrow. You'll be in heaven."

Hell might have been a closer metaphor. All those rides. All that junk food. All those people. And to top it all off a three-story statue of snoopy. None of it seemed to satisfy my son that day. Over-stimulation. Over-saturation. Over-kill. And he was overcome. So was I!

As I carried my tear-filled, snotty-nosed, fatigued son through the mall towards the car that day I thought about the simplicity of the playground the night prior. How much more fun we had playing in the sand than conquering lego-land. On the drive home, I thought a lot about MORE and LESS and how they relate to our contentment as people.

Then it occurred to me. It's simplicity, not saturation that's the gateway to gratitude.

Whether kids or adults, we get duped into this lie that the more we have the more content and more grateful we will be. Actually, just the opposite is true. It's in simplicity that we become more grateful. Often when we have less, we learn to appreciate and to be content with the Father's gifts. Simplicity, not saturation is the gateway to gratitude.

During this summer season, I encourage you to be done with the saturated life of MORE. Stop attempting to quench your thirst by drinking out of a fire hydrant! Look for fresh splashes of the clean and refreshing water of God's gifts. And, those droplets of living water are usually organic and ordinary, appear in the mundane aspects of everyday life and come to us free of admission. They might look like a deep soul-talk with a friend, enjoying the juicy taste of a fresh cantelope, sharing a belly laugh with family member or enjoying God as he paints a sunset at the end your tiresome day.

One author expressed a key truth when he confessed, "Contentment is not having all you want. Contentment is wanting all that you have." As we move from saturation back to simplicity, we'll discover that we already have all we need and find deeper contentment and abundance in our lives. For many the thought of living more simply equates to living with less. And, in one sense, that's true. Sure, simplicity means less stuff jammed into your life. But within simplicity we also discover a great Biblical paradox that less is more.

Lord, in these next few months of summer let me release saturation and embrace the simplicity of a child. In that simplicity, allow me to see your world afresh by loving deeper and living richer. Help me to truly want those precious gifts that you have already given to me. Teach me to lean into all that I have at my disposal. And, guard my heart from the lie that I need more to be content. As I inhale the practice of simplicity this summer, may I exhale a heart of abundant gratitude. Amen.

Why safe isn't enough

On my way into work this morning I was listening to a local Christian radio station. Within a five minute period I heard two advertisement for the station. In both of these short marketing jingles, the primary word used to describe the distinctive element of this particular station was "safe". Safe? Songs invoking our great God to act and fulfill His will with His people and remake this world over. . .Safe? I think not.

Okay. Okay. Of course, on one level, I understand that for marketing purposes words like "safe" and "kid friendly" are very appealing in light of the overall decadence of our culture today. And, I'm sure that Christian radio is trying to attract new listeners, and people today are looking for safe, kid friendly, family-oriented things to listen to. That makes sense and is practical. I get all that.

But, let's think about this on another level. Maybe using the word "safe" when referring to Christian worship is actually very, very dangerous. Dangerous because people begin to equate songs that invoke worship of the God as primarily safe, tame, nice, kid-friendly stuff. If we dare to take time to meditate upon the God whom we serve and the name we invoke when we casually sing tunes about our holy God on our way home from work. . .well, there is nothing safe about this God or our worship of this God. "Let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our "God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:28-29).

Christian songs that invoke worship are not merely safe alternatives to bad music. Songs written about God are not great because no curse words or sexual inuendos appear in the lyrics. No. God-music is great because the One to whom we sing is great. It is never safe, because the One we give homage to cannot be tamed, managed or ever safe. Consider a loyal subject approaching the royal chamber of a king. As he approaches the throne, he may feel many things as he bows before His Lord. Reverence. Honor. Loyalty. Joy. Fear. Respect. But, safe? What would a King be like whose greatest adjective is "safe". Not much of one I suppose.

After the second jingle this morning, promoting the safeness of the station, the DJ ironically played Chris Tomlin's thought-provoking song aptly title "Indescribable". The lyrics go like this:

Indescribable, uncontainable,

You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.

You are amazing God

All powerful, untameable,

Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim

You are amazing God

Certainly no safe God is presented here. Oh, that our hearts would connect with a God that is indescribable and untamable and powerful! Not simply a God whose essentially a nice alternative to sex, drugs and rock n' roll. No, there's nothing tame or safe about our God or our worship of Him.

I'll end this muse with one of Annie Dillard's famous quotes dealing with how we have tamed God and over-sentamentalized His church.

"Why do people in church seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute? … Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us to where we can never return.”

—Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters (New York: Harper & Row, 1982), pp. 40-41.

Jesus' World

“Jesus’ good news about the kingdom can be an effective guide for our lives only if we share his view of the world in which we live. To his eyes this is a God-bathed and God-permeated world. It is a world filled with a glorious reality, where every component is within the range of God’s direct knowledge and control—though he obviously permits some of it, for good reason, to be for a while otherwise than as he wishes. It is a world that is inconceivably beautiful and good because of God and because God is always in it. It is a world in which God is continually at play and over which he constantly rejoices. Until our thoughts of God have found every visible thing and event glorious with his presence, the word of Jesus has not fully seized us.” (Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy).

Our apprenticeship to Jesus goes deeper than simply mimicking Jesus’ actions. WWJD (what would Jesus do) is incomplete. You see, discipleship goes deeper than behaviors. Discipleship is sharing Jesus’ worldview. It is all about altering our sin drenched reality and embracing the reality that “in Him we live and move and have our being”. Jesus view of life and reality is counter-cultural simply because where God is juxtaposed. To Jesus, the Father lies at the center of all things. However, we are not prone to putting God in the center. He often lies within our reality, albeit at the outskirts of our self-saturated worlds. But to Jesus, the good and glorious presence of the Father lie at the core of all reality. Jesus’ world was a world where the Father was central to all going on in this big universe. . .and central to Jesu's own life. The Father is at the source, all else lies in the periphery.

As I reflect on this, I’m thinking that worship must have exuded out of Jesus’ heart and his mind continually. His life must have been wave upon wave of joy, peace, goodness and gratitude towards the Father each and every moment of his existence. What an uplifting person Jesus must have been to be around. To have talked to Jesus and spent the day with him must have left people with a feeling of unspeakable pleasure and delight. Oh, to have spent the day with Jesus. . .it would have been like spending the day with the Father himself.

Today the world is in need for that God-bathed presence that Jesus brought to the world. And, we are called to be that Jesus for the world. As his apprentices we were dubbed “Christians” in the book of Acts . . .a term that simply means “little Christs”. Oh, that when people spend time with you and I they walk away as though they have immersed themselves in a different sort of reality. . .a reality saturated by the very presence of the living Trinitarian community! Bathed in the presence of the Father, Son and Spirit. These thoughts convict me, because sometimes my mind and heart are so disjointed from “my Father’s world” and His reality.

His presence is within His creation. And, his presence is within us through the great gift of His son. Yes, indeed, God’s redemptive activity and loving presence is all over this world defaced by sin. He is everywhere. If only we are able to see what Jesus saw and embrace the God Jesus embraced. I’ve been praying to see the world through fresh lenses. .through the eyes of Jesus.

I’m guessing that Jesus himself whispered in His own way and to his own tune the lyrics of Maltbie Babcock’s glorious hymn “This is my Father’s World”. It would do us well, as we walk the dark realities of a seemingly godless world, to remember what Jesus continually knew and mouth these lyrics as we go on our way:

“This is my Father’s world, O let me ne’er forget
that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world: The battle is not done;
Jesus who died shall be satisfied, And earth and heav’n be one!”

Discipleship at Turtle Pace

As the pastor of discipleship at Hayward Wesleyan, I am mindful at how painfully slow people's pilgrimages to the cross are! It seems that we are a people who are perpetually in a hurry. Yet the one destination that cannot be rushed, manipulated or short-cutted is the cross. People must take up their own cross in their own time. There are no programs, curriculum, sermon series, or other well-intended ideas that can do it for people. Perhaps the fact that there are no quick-fixes to become like Christ is what makes the journey so undesirable to so many. Whatever the case, I know one thing. . . what we have been given from God, we MUST offer to others! As disciplers we cannot force anyone to become like Jesus. But, you can take up your own cross and encourage those in your sphere of influence to take up theirs too. You can call people to the journey, and offer them pathways towards transformation. You can let your light shine, and invite others to let their lights shine too. Yes, discipleship is a painfully slow process, and often pretty messy too. It was no different for Jesus as he invested in the twelve. Yet, it's out of this slow, messy process that sons and daughter of God are born and real transformation in Christlikeness becomes possible. So, I invite you to reevaluate the progression of discipleship in terms of decades instead of days. Decades? Yes, decades. Think about a person whom you have invested in, prayed for and wished God's best for. Where are they today compared to ten years ago? Sometimes looking at a soul's long haul provides proof that transformation IS indeed happening. But, it is a process...and we are impatient people. The simple reality is that discipleship is a painfully slow process. Eugene Peterson dubbs discipleship "a long obedience in the same direction". It's all about putting one step in front of another one mundane and ordinary day at a time.

Often transformation is subtle and seemingly invisible. It's like a turtle's pace. Is that discouraging? For me it often is. But, I'm reminded that there is no other way to do it than Jesus way. Believe me, I've tried short-cuts. They don't work. We'll have to trust that the path He laid out, albiet slow, is the only one worth walking. In the event of discouragement remember the tortoise and the hare. Moral of the story? The slow and steady pace wins the race.

Upcoming Class

I will be jumping into a conversation on the book of Ephesians on the 23rd of May during our Sunday spiritual formation class at 9.40a.m. So, there's my plug Hayward folks.

My recent research on Paul's visit to Ephesus reminds me of the direction that the gospel desires to take us as we journey through life.

Ephesus was one of the top three cities in the Roman empire. And, presence of the gospel in this city can be attributed to a few humble, yet gutsy men who didn't side-skirt the city and stay on the safe peripheral edges frequenting tame religious gatherings and sipping tea with church basement ladies. Rather, Paul and his entourage, who were not ashamed of the gospel went straight for city-center. Acts 19 gives us a virtual tour of Paul's travels in Ephesus. We might think of it as a Spirit-guided GPS. Let's see where he is led.

The text says Paul took the "interior road" that went directly into this great city. Notice, he doesn't take the exterior road, skirting the outside of this city of close to a half million inhabitants. He takes the interior road and goes straight for the juggler. He enters the mess. And, I don't even like driving on Main St. in Hayward (population 2,028 .5 in the summer!)

Once he hits the city, he moves straight to the synagogue. Which is the equivalent to walking bare-backed into a angry hornets nest. And, Paul knew this since one of his former past-time kicks was to tracking down Christians and throwing rocks at them.

After getting booted from there, Paul ends up in the public square conversing about Jesus for two years in "the lecture hall of Tyrannus". The lecture hall of Tyrannus would have been like the Greenwich Village of Ephesus. An eclectic marketplace of art, philosophy, ideas and religion. They had it all when it came to art, eduction, philosophy and culture. And, Paul brings the gospel here. He discussed and devoted himself to the message of the cross. And, in so doing reminds us that the gospel of Jesus is not preserved by being packed away in a sacred container we call "church". Rather, is to be preserved by his Church (a people, not a place) who daily take Jesus with us into the marketplace of ideas as we discuss and devote ourselves to the message of the cross.

Later in the chapter we find Paul at a public bon-fire held in the name of Jesus where converts were burning their idolatrous paraphernalia and sacred scrolls...which, by the way, doesn't' help Paul make any new friends in a city whose economy was based on the sale and purchasing of religious relics to false gods.

By the end of the chapter we get this amazing finale'. We find that the presence of Paul and his friends at a riot in the theatre of Ephesus...the riot was based on the fact that Paul had "led astray large numbers of people" which had disrupted the economy of the temple cult to the great goddess Artemis, known by the Romans as the goddess Diana, whose temple was one of the seven great wonders of the ancient world!

Image it. A few homeless guys walk into this city with no power, no money, no prestige...nothing. Knowing nothing as Paul puts it, "but Christ crucified". And, by the end of three years, arguably the most religious and most powerful city in the Roman Empire is up in arms over a Jewish rabbi named Jesus whom they had never even heard tell of three years prior! That's power of the gospel. And, the courage to be a conduit of that power by moving into the place that sometimes we fear the most.

Yes, Paul left his mark. The Spirit-guided GPS does not lead Paul outside the metropolis. No, that's not Jesus' style. The way of Jesus is to penetrate deep into the middle of godless confusion. And, the truth of Jesus is to bring His message to places that deem it irrelevant, uncool and unfashionable. And, the life of Jesus is a life that is unmistakably seen. It is a life that has the power to transform and turn entire cities inside out.

The Grandeur of God

In light of yesterday's post, this old poem came to my mind. One of my favorites because in this small prose is the big story of creation, fall, redemption and renewal. Despite all the toxins, pollutants and sewage in our world today, He still is remaking this world. God will not be mocked. What God accomplished on the cross is coming to fruition. It is that deep down reality that He is active within this world, making all things new. That might seem like a long-shot to the faithless, but to we lovers of God it is a present reality. He who has eyes to see, let him see.
Enjoy.


“God’s Grandeur” (1877)
Gerald Manley Hopkins

The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed.

Why do men then now not reck his rod? Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent; There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs— Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

And We Groan

One of the inescapable realities of being sons of Adam and daughters of Eve is that we perpetually pollute this world that God created and called "good". We point fingers at one another and shake our heads in disgust at the ways and means that others pollute this beautiful planet...and all the while justify the ways in which we bring our own trash into this world. All have sinned. Which is a theological way of saying that we all pollute. We all bring garbage into this world, albeit, in different ways. Yes, we trash this world daily. It is just a matter of what poison we choose to pollute this earth with. Choose your poison. We may dispense our poison through power, money, sex, security, materialism, self-ambition, apathy towards others or indifference towards the created world. And, don't think for a second that your contamination is just "personal" as if you are only trashing your life. Nothing in this world is merely "personal". Personal pollutants have universal implications. The poison of our lives has a way of emerging beyond valves of our hearts and moving outwards, bringing untold damage to people and things we could have never foreseen. . .even those we love.

Human life alienated from the life of God is a life that will continue to regurgitate toxins of its own making creating disaster on ourselves and one another and the world we live in even when we, ironically, have good intentions. As a result, the apostle Paul reminds us that both we humans and the creation itself, as we see in the picture above, groan. We groan over a world full of toxins called sin...recognizing at the same time, that these toxins are not only contaminating the world, but us as well. The Romans text reads, "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. No only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." All of God's creatures and creation knows intuitively that all is not right. And, we live unified by this truth. Beneath the surface, we are all together on this...this world is not at all is not the way it is supposed to be.

Lord willing, BP and the gang will find a solution to the gulf oil crisis. And, hopefully, their patch-up efforts will prove effective in the end. And, in these situations, Christians, I believe, should reach out with good-will towards those impacted (the people, creatures and environment) by this tragedy because we should seek to honor and protect "Our Father's world".

Yet, situations like this also give us ample time to reflect that outside a relationship with our Creator God, we are a people of pollutants. And, no simplistic patch-up job (be it technology, more education, world peace, etc.) will clean up the mess we are in. Our mess goes much deeper than that. Like a disastrous oil leak deep down, humanity will keep spewing and erupting hazardous waste until we latch on to a remedy that goes deep enough. We are in need of One whose rescue-mission that is powerful enough to rescue us from our contamination without being contaminated in the process. That one is Jesus Christ.

The Biblical text tells us that our Creator incarnated Himself in the person of Jesus Christ and sought to rescue us from ourselves and to turn these toxic souls into life-giving fruits that feed the stomachs and quench the thirst of a world groaning and grasping for life. This clean-up mission is accomplished not by our power or efforts, but by the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel message is clear: We are more polluted than we ever dared to believe. And, simultaneously more loved and cherished than we ever dared to hope or dream.

I actually believe that today. I believe it with all my heart. He has been the only relief worker that has ever gone deep enough into my polluted world to save me from this world...and from myself.

For Thy Pleasure

In eighth grade my class took a field trip to the Baltimore Aquarium. Growing up near the shore, I thought that I had a pretty good idea of the plethora of aquatic life that pulsed upon the ocean floor. But, I had no idea. As I walked from one aquarium to the next on eye level with these beautiful and sometimes bizarre looking creatures, I found myself captivated by a submersed symphony of sea-creatures who seemingly were putting on a show just for me.

I specifically remember this one part of the aquarium that was completely in the dark. I was told that some oceanic creatures live at such depths that they have never seen the light of day. In fact, exposure to any amount of light would do them harm. So, as I entered into their dark domain, I felt as though I was walking into a dark room in a photography class. Not an ounce of light anywhere. I wondered momentarily how we would see whatever was in this room. And, then they came alive. One of the most fantastic displays of movement, color and creativity that my eyes have ever gazed upon. These small fish began illuminating like light-bulbs as they swam. The vast array of iridescent colors darting around, lighting up at will, made any 4th of July grand finale' pale in comparison. The scene was nothing less than brilliant.

I sat mesmerized, subconsciously praising God for the privilege of seeing something so spectacular. Then, I stopped mid-thought. I wondered, why would God create something so beautiful and set it loose in a dark and lonely abyss? Why place such a rich concoction of color and creativity so far down and so far removed from human human enjoyment? As I left the aquarium that day,these thoughts went with me.

Many years later I sit here having grown in my understanding of God. I used to think that God created good things entirely for our pleasure. That is, He created the world simply for us to enjoy it and to explore it. But, I've gradually have come to recognize that God has not created primarily for MY good pleasure, but for HIS good pleasure. Revelation 4:11 states this. It says, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."

I was so confused on why a Creator would create amazing fish that no eye could enjoy, and all the while failed to realize that these fish never escape the eyes of our God. He has been enjoying them since the day He created them! These little flickering pixels of blue and green neon that glow in the dark bring great delight to the One who created them. They dance and flutter for His delight.

Dallas Willard, contemplating on the created world writes some insightful words from his own experience of being "overcome" on a breath-taking beach in South Africa. "Gradually there crept into my mind the realization that God sees this [His creation] all the time. He sees it, experiences it, knows it from every possible point of view, this and billions of other scenes like and unlike it, in this and billions of other worlds. Great tidal waves of joy must constantly wash through His being. It is strange to say, but suddenly I was extremely happy for God and thought I had some sense of that an infinitely joyous [life that He leads] and of what it might have meant for Him to look at His creation and find it 'very good.' We pay a lot of money to get a tank with a few tropical fish in it and never tire of looking at their brilliant iridescence and marvelous forms and movements. But God has seas full of them, which He constantly enjoys" (Divine Conspiracy, 63).

"Undoubtedly, [God] is the most joyous being in the universe. The abundance of His love and generosity is inseparable from His infinite joy. All of the good and beautiful things from which we occasionally drink tiny droplets of soul-exhilarating joy, God continuously experiences in all their breadth and depth and richness" ( Divine Conspiracy, 62).

In Honor of Mom

Most who know me, know that I'm rarely at a loss for words. I find ways to articulate the deepest things inside of me...and it usually comes to me without effort...and flows like a waterfall...or a leaky faucet. Either way, words and I go together fairly well.

But, when it comes to finding the right thing to say about my own mother, I'm speechless. Very few things in my life have made such a profound impact that I'm at a loss for words. But, with mom, the right word never seems to do her justice. And, those of you who know and love my mom, simply know that to be the case.
The only word that comes to me this moment is. . .blessed. I'm blessed to be her son. I'm blessed to have been nurtured and love by such a wonderful person.

Some things transcend words. Most of those things are divine. . .one is entirely human. That one is my Mother. Thanks mom for all that you are to me. I love you!

Aleah's poem

Hanging out with my friends the Heyworths today. Aleah (11),Josh and Jessica's oldest daugther is going to post a poem she wrote about God. Thanks Aleah!

KING OF ALL CREATURES

The snake is the king of the deserts and sand,
Where mice and rat meals are always at hand.
He slithers around saying “I’m the king here,”
“Feel the sting of my poison if you come too near”

The elephant's the king of the grasslands and fields,
He eats vegetarian for all of his meals.
By lifting his trunk up high in the air,
He’s telling the animals “you'd better beware.”

The lion's the king of the jungle green,
He’ll always lick the platter clean.
His mighty roar gives it away…
It is never time to play.

So the bee might be king of the flowers,
The ant the king of the hill.
But God is king of all creatures
And he loves us still.

Redefining Sin

Growing up there was a phrase thrown around "Don't drink, smoke or chew, or go with girls who do." A moralistic view of sin believes sin is simply bad things that we choose to do with our lives. This view is fundamentally flawed. One of the reasons it is flawed is because "badness" is usually erected and defined by our specific culture. For the conservative, fundamentalist badness is smoking and taking on an Aerosmith concert. For the liberal it might be littering that cigarette and judging rockbands by their cover. Both sides religiously have erected standards that categorize and thereby minimize a true nature of sin. Neither conservative or liberal definitions and categories of sin go deep enough to actually get at what is wrong with the world.

Sin in the Scripture is not simply an arbitrary list of things rendered "bad" by God or anyone else. In the Scripture sin is defined as anything that seeks to decoy itself and/or substitute itself for the Creator God. Pastor Tim Keller puts it like this. . ."Sin isn't only doing bad things. it is more fundamentally making good things into ultimate things. Sin is building your life and meaning on anything, even a very good thing, more than on God. Whatever we build our life on will drive us and enslave us. Sin is primarily idolatry" (excerpt from "Talking about Idolatry in a Postmodern Age" ).

If we want to find out where sin is in our lives, we have to look at our idols. An idol is anythingthat we seek to find ultimate security, satisfaction or significance in other than God. We tend to think of Baal or Aphrodite when we think of an idol. But, with this working definition of idolatry, an idol can be really bad things like Meth, illicit sex or greed...or very, very good things like the United States, a Mocha, a spouse or even ministry!

If we desire to grow in our spiritual lives, we begin to dismantle our personal idols and in so doing, will uncover the fact that our sin is not primarily about breaking rules. It is about broken relationship. In toppling our idols we will recognize how these idols held out the promise of security, significance and satisfaction apart from our loving and gracious Creator. And, often we will discover that the "sins" that emerge from beneath the idols of our heart were actually really good things that subtly became ultimate things.

But, keep in mind that the fruit from the tree in the garden was also a creation of God rendered "good". God himself declared it so. But, that goodness was never meant to replace the Creator Himself. And, that's precisely what happened in the garden that day. A simple act led to a monstrous substitution and the created world has never been the same. Adam and Eve are a lot like you and I. They tried to get something ultimate out of something good, and in the process led the human race in a place it was never intended to go.

Your sin and my sin...probably isn't sinister and evil. Truthfully, most of my sins are lathered in good intentions. But, good things are not ultimate things. Means never replace the End. The created order was never intended to replace the Creator. Any attempt to do so. . .whether intentionally or unintentionally. . .whether for good or for evil. . .is ultimately sin.

Chewing with our Hearts Open

"And, on His Law he meditates day and night."

Meditation gets a bad rap in contemporary Christian culture. We have been so thorough in our repudiation of any word, concept or idea that might be confused with another religion, that we have done great harm to the commandments of God in the Scriptures. I have read Christian authors who are so phobic of being "new age" that they have killed every Biblical practice that incidentally uses the same verbiage.

We must keep in mind that much that is written about meditation is not new age, but old age. It dates back three thousand years to a man name David who wrote much about the importance of setting the mind on the LORD and his Word. As Christians, we may need to re-define and refine terms we use so as to be thoroughly Biblical and not be confused with the practices of other religions. However, to repudiate these terms simply because they have been borrowed by other religious traditions is ridiculous.

In my reading of the Psalms the word meditate pops off the page often. The Hebrew word for meditate has connotations of "ruminating" or "chewing on" God's law. The word picture here might be one of letting God's Word sink inside the mouth of the mind and not simply taking a quick taste, but chewing on it. Sucking the flavor, the significance, the meaning and the personal application out of it. And, keeping that God-food in our mouths long enough for it to begin to digest deep down inside our person bringing life, wholeness and direction into our lives. If we are feasting on the Word in this way, I believe we've begun to learn how to meditate.

In a fast food culture where our own tasting, chewing and eating habits leave something to be desired, I assume that our meditative habits need some reformation to.

How do you meditate? When do you meditate? Do you see this as a counter-cultural practice in an "eat and run" society? I'm interested to hear your reply.

Disbelief, Doubt and Mystery

I'd like for you to chime in on some musings I've been pondering.

What's the relationship between disbelief and doubt? Are they one and the same? Or are they separate entities?

What kind of doubt is appropriate/part of the human condition and what is not? For instance, if I am doubting God's goodness or his love, is that the same as not doubting that he will give me the new car that I have prayed to him for? Is one kind of doubt worse than the other?

Is simply the acceptance of the way things are (i.e. I have cancer and am dying)a faithless act and a form of doubt? Some believe so. I know of a family whose mother died of cancer and there was a consensus amongst some friends and family members that even attending her funeral was a form of doubting. They had faith that she would be resurrected. So, why attend the funeral? Needless to say, her resurrection has yet to come. Although we have hope that in the last day it will.

Then there is mystery. Sometimes people want to exercise faith by naming it and claiming it (whatever the "it" may be....could be faith in a healing, a new car, a better job or the healing of a relationship). Of course, God wants us to come to Him in faith for our concerns. But, he wants us to come to Him like children. No pretence. No pride. Without a desire to control or coerce His goodness. But, faith saturated with unfiltered naming and claiming seems. . .well, it seems like a really spiritual way of controlling God to get what you want. Sort of like using faith as a crow-bar that we use to pry and gain leverage over God. What ever happened to the mystery of God? If God is simply a cosmic candy dispenser that gives ME what I put in (assuming that what I put in is the the right thing)?

We may ask then, where does His sovereign will fit into my faithful prayers? I would argue that they do fit. But, any human attempt to figure out how this fits is futile. The bottom line is that we must trust God. We have faith. We pray, but ultimately God ways are still a mystery to man.

Sometimes it seems that people lose faith when they claim that they do not see nor understand God and are frustrated because they cannot nail him down. Yet, should not a large part of our faith assume that I will not see or understand the ways of the Creator? Shouldn't faith remind us that even in such confusing moments where there is no trace of Him, that He still is. That he still loves. And, He still is working to renew all things. . .including my present reality. Is our faith big enough to live within the mystery that is God?

As Friedrich Buechner put it, "To say that god is a mystery is to say that you can never nail him down. Even on Christ the nails proved ultimately ineffective".

If God cannot be nailed down either physically or spiritually, perhaps our faith should not be as much about mastery over Him, as humbly embracing the divine mystery that is Him.

Lost: A Tale of Two Sons

About a year ago I picked up Tim Keller's book entitled "Prodigal God" and haven't been able to put it down. I'm three weeks into a four week sermon entitled "Lost" which is a series highlighting the two kinds of lost-ness that we see in the elder and younger brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son. And, I'm highly thankful for Keller's contributions and exegesis of this text. Keller pulled some of his material together with the help of middle-eastern and Biblical scholar Ken Bailey. Bailey's book "The Cross and the Prodigal" is both powerful and enlightening.

Some people suggest that Biblical scholarship is the stuff of ivory towers and college auditoriums. But, I continually find that good Biblical scholarship helps me to unpack in a deeper and more real sense who Jesus is. So, I'm thankful for the ways these two texts combined with dozens of readings of the parable itself have opened my eyes up to Jesus' radical message within this parable that challenges me daily.

Check out either of these two books. Both are well worth the read.

Your Smiling Face

There's this amazing four year old in my life who can melt my heart with her smile. After posting yesterday about my boys, I was reminded while exercising last night how this song below just makes me think of Kate and smile. A true smiling face is ultimately birthed in love.

And, no matter how challenging my day is, Kate's smile does something to my world to turn my frown upsidedown. This song reminds me that sacred music is not simply religious music. Here's an irreligious tune that serves as an instant pipeline into the sacred. A sacred glance that only can exist between a Father and his daughter. This song, like Kate's smile puts me in a grateful mood.

Think of a loved one whose soul makes you smile as you listen. . .and praise God for the wondrous gift of family and friends.

Parenthood and the Ticking Clock

(I jotted these thoughts down a while back. But they are as true today as when I penned them.)

It’s 9:17p.m.

I just got home from a meeting and have to get my boys down, return a phone call, look over some mail and hopefully catch a few minutes of TV to unwind from a hectic day.



Already 17 minutes past the boys bed time and I haven’t even begun reading yet. As they recognize my familiar footsteps nearing their bedroom, I hear the all too familiar mantra: “Daddy, Daddy, read to us!” Tonight, reading is the last thing I want to do, and I’m racing against time. I’ve got more stuff to do tonight, so I better get right down to business.


As I enter their room I’m greeted with simultaneous bear hugs. Instead of returning the hugs and meeting them eye to eye, my gaze is fixed elsewhere. The bookshelf. “Hmm, what’s the shortest book in here” I wonder. “If I pull this off right”, I think to myself, “I can have the lights out in 13 minutes”. Within seconds I’ve yanked the skinniest book in sight off the shelf and have begun reading. To meet my goal I realize that I’ve got to pick up the pace of the reading and give them an edited version (which of course, they never fall for). As I continue my speed reading, I throw in a monotone voice hoping that if the confusion doesn’t get them more tired, the sheer boredom will certainly cause them to doze off to sleep. “With some luck, maybe I’ll be out of here before 9:30”, I internally scheme.


The clock is still ticking, and I’m reading like a man possessed. “As I flip to page 12”, I think to myself. “Only 24 pages more to go. Haven’t we read Go Dogs Go about 786 times anyway?” The boys interest begins to wane and their eager eyes turn to blank stares. My strategy is working. “Maybe if I skip a few pages, the boys won’t notice.” With each page I become more and more emotionally detached from their little souls and am seemingly unaware of the fact that I am missing a golden opportunity to be their dad tonight.


As, I reach the final stretch, the boys too have become uninterested in the story, and truth be told, uninterested in their dad as well. Needless to say, I'm secretly glad when they doze off before our prayer time because it leaves more time for me to unwind tonight. I turn off the lights and quickly scurry out of their room without a hug or a kiss (after all, why risk waking them, right?) Mission accomplished. And all of this before 9:30. Well, I got want I wanted tonight. I beat the clock. . .and loss something sacred in the process.


I’ve found in my own life that saturated-living often robs me of sacred-living. Saturated-living is a life driven by the stuff of life, overcrowded schedules, random events and the thousand miscellaneous things to get done.
These days I must often remind myself, that my kids are not just another "thing" to get done...they are little, unformed beings created in the very image of God. My highest calling is to love them, nurture them in Christ, and to simply be present with them in and through the ordinary events of everyday life. This is sacred-living.


The clock is ticking. And, soon the day will be gone when I have this wonderful opportunity to lie alongside my boys in bed (do you realize this is a sacred privilege?), read to them about the Lord and pray for them as they cuddle with their dad. Today my oldest son Jackson, if he reaches with his tip-toes, can almost touch the foot-board of his bed from where he lies at night. It seems as though just yesterday he could barely climb into that big bed. God has entrusted parents with an appointed amount of time to pour into their little lives. The grow up too fast.
Very soon our kids will be lying in their children’s beds reading stories to their own boys and girls. And, they will have become a certain kind of person because of us. Their life will either resemble a saturated-lifestyle marked by its tendency of being filled and flooded with stuff, or a sacred-lifestyle characterized by intentional investments in deep relationship with God and others.


Time is fleeting. So, I am attempting to become more and more the kind of person who embraces the sacred life by intentionally nurturing my kids hearts in the way of Jesus. For me, this begins in the bedroom at night where I have the opportunity to look into bright eyes and open hearts and to tell ancient and modern stories about good and evil. . .to kid around and to laugh. . to share my day with them. . .and to whisper strength into their open, attentive hearts.
This is the stuff of parenthood and of embracing sacred-living. So, my encouragement as a fellow parent and a pastor is to be committed to becoming this kind of person to your kids. It’s a big responsibility, but is fleshed out in small ways like simply reading and praying with your children. And, the time to begin is tonight. After all, the clock is ticking.

A Must Read Article

Last night in our Embracing the Story class, Mark Jalovick read a stirring article that convicted me deeply. It's a quick, yet powerful read serves as an wake-up call for our American, over-consumerized faith and allure us back into the reality of the person and work of God Almighty within "the cruel edges of the world".

The Rabbi in the Room

"We are all members of one another, and one of us is Jesus Christ."

-Austin Farrer

There is one who attends your group. He sits and listens and makes himself available each week in your small group community. His name is Jesus Christ. He wants to take your small group some where. He's always led communities. And, he wants to lead your community too.

Too often leaders mistakenly think THEY must take the people of God some place. So as leaders we panic or fret over issues, needs or the direction of the group. We convince ourselves that unless we "run things" correctly things may fall apart. I remember one small group gathering several years ago that could only be described in one word: grueling. It was one of those nights where I would have just as soon stayed home at watched a PBS documentary on scrap metal than have gone to group. Driving home from group, I looked over at Ann and bluntly said, referring to the night, "What was that???" Annoyed by the shallow responses, the lifeless stares, and the luke-warm coffee, I felt frustrated and alone. Where is the sense of God's presence? Where is discipleship? Isn't this supposed to be the community of God's redeemed? I remember crying out to God, "Lord, if I don't hold this community together, who else is going to?" In the moments of silence that followed over the next few days I gently recall the Lord reminding me, "I will hold it together. I will."

It is Jesus who holds the community of God together. Jesus teaches that where two or three are gathered together in his name, he is there, right in their midst. Ultimately, our small group leadership is really about follower-ship. We must remind ourselves that the Rabbi is in the room. He is always in communion with the Father, and he desires communion with us. He wants to lead our groups into a deeper, more spiritually minded, unified awareness of the Father. But, in order for this to happen, we must follow His prompting.

Leaders must learn to follow before they can truly lead. Learning to follow Him can come in many forms. However, for those of you who are leading this week, I suggest this simple prayer to prepare yourself for your small group:

Jesus, remind me that you are a member of our group.
You want us to follow you and to experience all that you experienced with the Father.
Help our group to follow where you want to take us.
Protect my heart from anxiety, frustration, agendas and expectations.
Prepare my heart for your leading
And open my eyes that I might see You in our midst tonight.

Amen

The Peace of Wild Things

"When despair grows in me and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with fore thought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting for their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free".

~Wendell Berry~


Wendell Berry has been significant source of encouragement for me in recent years. He's a poet, a prophet and a philosopher. Most of all, I find in him in a kindred spirit. The stress of last week brought to mind this simple poem. It's reminiscent of Jesus' teachings on the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. I was reminded that there is a "grace of the world" crafted in creation. If only we have eyes to see and the hunger to embrace it.

What Solitude Accomplishes 3

Solitude teaches me to listen to my body.

Great athletes listen to their bodies. They know when to work the body and when to let it recover. They realize that over-usage often leads to under-performance. In the same way, solitude allows us to flip our “on” switch to “off” for a while so that we can learn to sit and listen to what we really need. In I Kings 19 Elijah is so juiced up that he believes he needs a coffin. “I have had enough LORD, let me die.” But, in solitude God reminded him of what he really needed. A nap and supper. Often I have no idea what ails me until I permit myself to do nothing and waste time with the Lord.

Are you panting uncontrollably? What are you it need of? Rest? Laughter? Friendship? Silence? Hearing God’s voice? Without solitude you might never know.

What Solitude Accomplishes-2

Solitude helps me maintain a proper perspective on life.

The faster we move the blurrier life becomes. Remember those rides at the state fair that were essentially merry-go-rounds on steroids? Round and round faster and faster. In such moments reality quickly becomes blurred and we lose perspective of where we are and what’s going on around us. All you can do is simply hold on and pray for the ride to end! For many of us life is just spinning way too fast. We think we have perspective, but in reality do not. Recently, after a few long days of non-stop activity I was hit by what I thought was a tidal wave situation. The following day I spent some time alone in prayer and got a full night of sleep that evening. Much to my surprise, the next day that tidal wave situation became a mere ripple. The situation had not changed, but my perspective had. Solitude benefits our lives by placing our body in a posture of stillness and refreshment long enough to get a clearer, healthier perspective on life.

What solitude accomplishes

We've been discussing the great need in our world today to combat busyness and hurry through the spiritual discipline of solitude. So, what does solitude accomplish? While this is by no means exhaustive, when I go into solitude with the Spirit leading me here's what it has taught me:

I am NOT the sum of my relationships or achievements.

Henri Noewen writes, “We remove our scaffolding in solitude”. That is, I no longer allow the things of this world to “prop” me up giving me a distorted view of who I really am. In solitude, I let everything down. I go into a quiet place with nothing other than, well, . . .ME. And, in doing so, I am reminded I am God’s child, not by way of merit, popularity or charm, but because I am his created work. Because Jesus accepts even me. I learn as I still my soul, to differentiate myself from my achievements. I am liberated from the notion that we are the sum of my to-do lists and the sum of my relationships. I embrace the ME that Jesus has already embraced. And, on most days, that's not easy. But it is freeing. And, solitude will impress this kind of freedom upon you.

The "Driven" Life

A few years back we went through a series called “The Purpose Driven Life”. And, while the focus of the series was all about discovering our purpose, I couldn't help but notice the word “driven”. . According to Webster, the word driven means to “keep in perpetual motion” or to “forcibly move onward”. The word driven is language of the modern era. It speaks to us of mechanization. Of rapid velocity and high octane performance.

Fortunately, people are not machines. But, the era in which we live breathes the oxygen of movement, performance and velocity. And, the technology that promised to make life easier, leaving more time for relationships, has strangely and paradoxically made us less human and more mechanized than ever before in human history. Think about it. If we are nothing else today, at least we are in motion, right? When we ask someone how they are, the typical answer. . . "I'm Busy." Busy has become synonymous with importance, competence and efficiency in our time. And, we value busyness. Perhaps we should actually sit back and assess to what end in all this busyness and drivenness is leading us?

Is the abundant life that Jesus speaks of compatible with the busy life that we give so much homage to? It does not seem so. Too often, a body charged with driven-ness and busyness is a body that is continually fighting stress, fatigue and dissatisfaction with life. Certainly, a driven body is one who resists God’s commandments of Sabbath; rest and be still. Moreover, there are a plethora of emotional and physical symptoms that serve as reminders that our body's have become too driven-oriented. Richard A. Swenson M.D., author of “Margin”, points out that the psyche is the point of entry for the insidious stress virus. A few of the symptoms include: depression, withdrawal, mental fatigue, anxiety, negative thinking, paranoia, impatience, apathy, confusion and anger and hostility. And, they told me H1-N1 was bad...

Well, if two or more of these symptoms are characteristic of your life, chances are you got the virus! And, the pain you are experiencing are God's internal indicators that something is off kilter. Listen to what you body.

Solitude, ample time spent alone doing “nothing”, is a great remedy for the driven-virus. Now, right away us driven folks will utter, “I’d love to get away alone, but I have so many things to do!” If you find yourself nodding your head right now and completely agreeing with this statement. . . you got the bug. It's pulsing through your veins.

Remember, Jesus found ample time to be alone. Solitude was his immunity to hurry-sickness. And, remember his mission and task was exponentially greater and more stressful than yours. So, there’s no good reason you can give for not getting time away. It can be done. The important key to remember is that solitude teaches a hyped-up, driven body lessons that it cannot learn elsewhere. We all need down-time. It is a gift from God to our body and our soul.

In tomorrow post we'll muse over three things we learn in solitude that cannot be learned elsewhere.

Down Time

Several years ago I purchased my first hunting dog. She was a bird dog. An English Setter, sired by Havelock Blacksmith a national champion pointer out of North Dakota. I named her Maggie, but called her a lots of other things in the three years we had her (things I better not put into writing here). She could have been the poster canine for a magazine entitled “Gun- Dogs Gone Wild”.

I quickly realized that pointers as a breed, and particularly English Setters, are unique dogs. Their insatiable desire to find birds combined with their unending desire to please their owners create a powerful hunting concoction that often results in great days of hunting, yet at the same time, can be disastrous to the animal. Believe it or not, in some cases, these dogs are so driven they will literally run themselves to death in hot weather.

Consequently, many a gun dog owner set limits on their dogs and build in ample “down time” during the hunt because these animals strangely seem unable to set a healthy, sustainable pace. Can you imagine being so “on”, so hyped up, and so driven that you lead to your own demise?

I can. I have a feeling that English Setters aren’t the only breed that struggles with exhausted bodies that are left gasping for breath at the end of the day. I can say with certainty that the need to achieve in my own life and has left me panting and licking my wounds on multiple occasions.

I encourage those of you who are out in the field of life running and panting far more than you should to build in some much needed “down time” in your life. Most likely your body, conditioned for activity, may initially resist and even detest the stillness of solitude. You might feel the way Maggie felt when I locked her in the kennel for her own good. That’s okay. Lots of good remedies taste bad going down the pipe, but given time and patience, do their work well.

Take my advice. Practice solitude. Just do it. Find time to get away. Bring with you no projects, no to-do lists, no i-pods, Cd's or Sudoku puzzles. Most of all, bring no agenda for what you are supposed to "get" out of this time. Simply go with God. Alone. Still. Together. As your life slowly ceases from activity, you soul will begging to uncover itself to you.

My next few posts will focus on why solitude is God's primary means of grace, ever at our disposal, to restore health and sanity back into our lives.

Have you experienced the power and potency of being alone with God? If so, I would love to hear what you have personally learned in solitude.

Cash on Resurrection

I like what, my Pastor, Mark Wilson posted today. If you like Johnny Cash and follow Christ, you're in for a treat. Enjoy.

http://revitalizeyourchurch.blogspot.com/2010/04/aint-no.html

A Good Friday Meditation

I was pondering today Jesus’ second to last words. “It is finished.” Jesus went all the way to completion. These words convicted me of when I would have called it quits.

Tonight at our Good Friday service, I asked our congregation to meditate on this prayer that I wrote as I thought of my failures and his completion. Picture yourself in Jesus’ situation and be reminded that what Christ accomplished and went through went he uttered these words..

Lord, you were sold and betrayed by your close friend, and deserted by all your disciples in your hour of need. You were cut to the core by those closest to you. I would have given up. But, in solitude you pressed on

Because all was not yet finished.


Lord, you were given a mock trial where injustice ruled the hearts of treacherous men in the night. I would have screamed “unfair” and lost heart. But you did not utter a word to your accusers

Because all was not yet finished.

Lord, soldiers took you and had their way with you. They whipped you, slapped you and spat upon you. Worse yet, they mocked your royalty by dressing you in a crown of thorns that they violently pressed upon your bleeding brow.

I would have sought revenge in that moment to crush them and render them impotent. But, you. You willingly received their torment. Instead of retaliating you endured the pain of rejected love

Because all was not yet finished.


Lord, they placed a heavy wooden beam on your bruised back. They herded you, like an animal, to the place they had assigned for you. The insults and murmurings of the crowds. The soldiers insults…roughly goading you onwards. You stumbled and fell and rose again.

I would have given in. I would have given up. But you, You got back up and pressed on to the place of the skull

Because all was not yet finished.

Lord, they stripped you naked. You were stripped of your dignity, stripped of your honor, stipped of your diety…They stripped you too of your clothing. Any act of decency and humanity gone. Must they take everything? You layed bear before the world.

Had they taken everything from me. I would have given them something in return. I would have offered insults at all the on-lookers, I would have cursed and screamed damnation on them. But, you, you forgave your oppressors further leaving yourself vulnerable to those who would strip the King of Kings

Because all was not yet finished.

I would not have made it to where you did Lord. I would have said “It is finished” long before you. I would have said it in defeat, in disguist, in disappointment, in despondency. But you O Lord, went all the way to the end. In that last sacred moment, when all had been given Lord and nothing more could be expended as you gave your life you uttered

It is finished.

You are Jesus the Christ. You God’s servant.
You are the one who accomplishes what I could not and can not
You complete what is lacking in me…you complete what is lacking in us.
You have finished what we started.
And, brought resolution to our calamity.
We praise you Christ!

Because of you our faith begins not with a big DO, but a big DONE.

You have done what we could not do for ourselves. You became sin for us. Once and for all our sins are atoned for and we are reminded today that it is not what we do Lord, but what you have done and what you accomplished on our behalf when you cried the words,“It is finished”.

Amen.

Why? The Question of the Passion

The first time I heard this song was at Eastern University as a freshman college student. I had myself always pondered the many "why" questions related to the inhumane treatment of Christ. Michael Card's song doesn't unravel all the mysteries related to the atonement...that's not his intention. What he does do in this song is help us understand that the mystery of Christ's passion makes sense only within the context of a larger mystery called LOVE.

Meditate and associate yourself with His sufferings as you take in this song.

The Small and Local

If we desire to make wide sweeping change in the world, I think we must begin in the small and local. In today's global society we have become so enamored with the elephant-size agendas and global-change that we foolishly dismiss change at the local level as unimportant and insignificant. Nothing could be further from the truth!

If you look at the Scripture you'll quickly recognize that the seeds of God's global work almost exclusively begins in the small and local.

The world redeemer was born in a manger and raised in an unimpressive villiage called Nazareth. Conceived in the small and local.

A handful of men from the same local fishing village called Galilee, called by Jesus, would spear-head a movement that eventually changed the world. Conceived in the small and local.

A small group of men in England (the Wesleys and Whitefield) who met regularly for personal change were used by God to usher in sweeping change over the landscape of 18th century England through arguably the worlds most significant revival movement. Conceived in the small and local.

Our world today is bored and utterly unimpressed with the small and the local. But, God's ways indeed are conceived in the small and local.

The pulse of the gospel beats (I'd argue most powerfully) in the ordinary, the small and the local. When Jesus forged for us God's greatest desire for humanity, he did not call us to far-reaching global change, he commanded that we love our neighbor as ourself. Of course, within this "small and localish" sort of statement, rests Jesus' brilliant philosophy of global change. All global change, according to Jesus, must begin with personal love in the locality of my own small world. Want to think globally? Then act locally. It can be no other way.

Maybe God has called you to change the world. Maybe he has not. Either way, one thing is certain. All global change and subsequent transformation must start within the sphere of your own little life. Within your own heart. In your own home. With your neighbor. If change is to happen at all, it will begin in small and the local.

Everyday we have an opportunity to "embody the gospel" in these small and local ways.

Want to kill injustice? Love the neighbor who is taking advantage of you, melt his/her heart and gain their trust.

Want to see world hatred come to an end? Practice intentional acts of kindness directed towards those people who God has placed on your heart.

Want to put to death rampant individualism and the lonliness epidemic in American society? Take a young person going through a difficult time out for a coke, listen to their heart and model loving presence to them.

It really is simple. You see, if the kingdom of God is to flourish anywhere in your life it will, according to Jesus, not look like the cedars of Lebanon, but more like a small mustard seed.

Sort of takes the pressure off....the realization that I don't have to change the world, just do my part in being Jesus in the small and local. May you set your sights on those small and local opportunities that face you today. Act in the way of Jesus with those matters and let God take care of the sweeping-global changes.

Tjhe Absurdity of it All

Each year around this time we reflect and re-remind ourselves that Christian orthodoxy has at its core the belief that our God's greatest victory was bound up in His demise. His greatest act of heroism was His humiliation. How absurd.So absurd that the Romans of the 1st century could hardly take such a teaching serious. This crude depiction of a crucifix is historically the first known representation of Christ on the cross. It dates back to the late first century and comes in the form of anti-Christian graffiti. Etched into the Palatine, the chief of Rome’s seven hills, the caption reads, “Alexamenos worships his God”. The artist reveals the absurdity of this so-called
"God" named Jesus by giving him the head of an ass. You see, the Easter story really is absurd, even ridiculous. After all, what kind of king would suffer death on a cross? What sort of transcendent being would allow Himself to be beaten and spat upon and slapped and scorned by mere mortals? The way of the world screams in unison, “absurd”! Only a fool. . . only a jack-ass would willingly suffer such a fate.

But, we are called not to rely on human wisdom, but a deeper, mysterious wisdom sourced in the loving way of God himself. Drink in the rich insight of Paul's words. “For the message of Jesus is foolish to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ."For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the absurdity of what was preached to save those who believe. . ."For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the impotence of God is stronger than man’s strength. . .”

(I Corinthians 1:18, 21, 25).

This Easter let’s embrace the absurd humiliation that Jesus experienced because of love.
His love is so amazingly absurd! And He beckons me to live more a life marked with the same loving absurdity.

Poise

It's March madness time. NCAA Men's Basketball tournament is in full swing. And, judging by my last glance at Sports Center a lot of games this last week have won or lost on poise. The most successful basketball coach in NCAA history, John Wooden, listed poise among the top virtues in his famous "Pyramid of Success".

Poise. It's a weird word and definitely underrated. Don't hear many folks speak of it these days. So what is poise anyway?

Poise is the ability to keep one’s head when all those around are losing theirs. It is the ability to keep a larger, stabilizing perspective in mind when our little worlds seem to be collapsing . Men of Scripture often acted with poise. Daniel defied an empire and spent the night with lions with poise at his side. David’s steady hand carefully selected five smooth stones with poise written all over them. Jesus’ eye to eye showdown with Pontius Pilate…”You would have nothing if the Father had not given it to you” was done with the calm authority of a man who exuded great poise.

Poise. We live in anxious times. We live in a nerve-racked, unsettled culture with a media that offers a thousand new flurries of fears daily. We can let these nerve-racking flurries settle deep inside us, creating an anxiety avalanche in our soul. Or, we can choose to live with poise. We can choose to live guided by the confidence that God is with us, "to whom shall I be afraid?"

As you see a nervous player at the free-throw line this week sweating bullets under a load of stress, be reminded of how often life puts us in the same situation. And, before you shoot aimlessly take a breathe deeply, relax and remember God's in control.

The Compelling Vision

Our staff has been thinking about our vision statement for Hayward Wesleyan Church. In pondering our specific statement, I spent some time musing over God's vision. What is God's greatest vision for this world? What is his primary dream for His universe? While the mind of God is ultimately unsearchable and any desire to place our fingers on the totality of God's vision is an exercise in futility. . .I do think from Scripture we get at least some insight in the vision of God. I think Dallas Willard sums up that vision in a holistic and imaginative way. Read this basic vision slowly and meditatively three or four times. Think, ponder, imagine and envision this statement as a reality. And, in doing so, God will unveil himself to you in a deeper more tangible way.

“ The aim of God in human history is the creation of an inclusive community of loving persons, with himself included as its primary sustainer and most glorious inhabitant.”

On My Blog

I need to clarify something. Many of the thoughts and ponderings that will appear in this blog emerged over the course of the last year and a half. I'm a journaler by nature. I find solace and often sanity through the practice of writing. The confusing maze of life, oddly enough, makes most sense to me with pen in hand.

My journaling is intensely personal and was not written with some impersonal "blog site" in mind. However, due to some prodding of a couple faithful friends, I have decided to wade through these entries and share those thoughts, insights and ponderings that I feel might be helpful to others.

So, the postings I offer may not be the thoughts of today. They might be the scratchings of a journal entry last year, last month or last week. I had to laugh. I met with a friend on Thusday who, after meeting with me, went home and read my last blog which discussed in detail this strange funk I was going through and the rotten day I had. Of course, her thoughts were "Well, thanks a lot Heath. Glad I made your day." After laughing about it, I explained how I'm penning this blog, and reassured her that my funk actually took place months prior to our meeting and that my day on Thursday went quite well!

Small Group Leadership-Jesus style

Jesus started a small group. For three years his group rode the tumultuous ride of life together. The twelve he chose were marked often by confusion and failure. There is this scene in Mark where Jesus shakes his head and asks, “Do you still not understand? Do you have eyes but not see? Do you have ears, but do not hear?” Sound familiar? Of course, any of us who have sought whole-heartedly to see others grow in discipleship share the same frustration. People commit, yet do not follow through. They put on the yoke of discipleship and instead of finding it easy and light, believe that they have been shackled with a load too difficult to carry. People are given to failure. How many times have we muttered under our breath, “think I’m just wasting my time with _________” (you fill in the blank).

We discover as we look into the eyes of our Master that his way with others is unusually patient. His discipleship of the 12 is marked with more failure than success, yet he never gives up on them. At times they are indifferent, confused, terrified, slow to see, and show little faith. But, perhaps the greatest failure of all was that when it was all on the line “they all forsook him and fled.” Not long after this scene, Christ’s own body would collapse on the Dia Valorosa taking up the cross that he bid his disciples to carry. They refused; so the incarnate Son of God took hold of the beam and forged the way.

Perhaps that’s the role of a mentor, a discipler. To model with our own life, at our own expense, in both times of success and times of failure, the way to God. It seems that Jesus’ example is more transformative than his words. "I am with you as one who sacrifices on your behalf. So, love one another". "I am one among you who washes your feet like a slave. Go, serve one another". Jesus asked His disciples to follow nothing but His own example.

So often I want my leadership of others to be based on my keen insight, unique giftings, and personal potency. However, Jesus’ leadership of the 12 is framed through the lens of follower-ship. The secret to Jesus’ leadership is his unswerving desire to follow. His followership, not his leadership, transformed his small community. This too will transform our communities.

Your investment in lives of people might seem like its yielding little to no results. Perhaps the people God has placed in your life are slow to see and they just can’t get on board with you. If so, take heart. Remember your Master. He drove his way into your life by means of the nails that pierced his own.

Successful discipleship for Jesus didn’t come fast or easy. It was slow and agonizing for him. Why should it be any different for you? Bear patiently the cross you have been called to bear, praising God all the while. "Do not grow weary in well doing, but remember you will reap much if you do not give up". Do not be consumed with the mantra “lead them”. Rather, listen to what the Master commands. “Follow Me.” Follow Him and you will lead others to Him in the process.

One of those Funky Days

We all have those kinds of days where we are just in a funk. I had one of those days today. One can’t rightly reckon why or how these sorts of day occur. In fact, it’s hard to actually describe what’s wrong…maybe it’s a lack of sleep, or a crook in the neck, or whiney kids, or just an itch to be ornery. I swear, sometimes we just seem to get out of bed with a notion to prove to the world that natural depravity does indeed exist. For the life of me I can’t figure out why these funks occur or how to avoid them.

And, don’t go quoting Scripture to me at this point and preaching to me that the righteous don’t have funks, or those who read their Bible’s and pray everyday don’t have “off” days. I’ve lived long enough to know that whether I’ve done my devotions or prayed or taught a theology class, these funks still come over a body. And, I think any attempt to figure out precisely why we get into these funks is an exercise in futility. We human beings are simply too whole, too integrated, too terribly complex to pin down what specifically ails us.

I’ve found that I can’t always find a good reason for what ails me. Why I don’t know the cause, I do know the cure. Today I went out for a 45 minute snowshoe hike in the woods. I brought my funk with me into the woods. I shared my frustration and today’s failures with God. I didn’t hear a direct answer, but encountered a beautiful gulley tucked away in the woods that I hadn’t noticed before. I followed a fresh blanket of new snow into an inviting pasture. I listened to my breath quicken as a marched up a ridge. At the top, I stopped and rested hearing nothing more than the rustling of a gentle breeze through a nearby pine. I sat in silence and in reverence of the beauty around me and was reminded that there is One who sustains and fills voids with beauty, even in the cold, lifeless seasons of existence.

Sitting there, I came to the realization that all the world is in its own strange funk. Even creation itself groans and awaits the day that it can be released from its own bondage. A cursed creation and sinful mankind form a perfect concoction for one gigantic ailment. Given this simple truth, I’m surprised we’re all not in funks more often!

Perhaps we should realize that being in a funk isn’t all bad. Maybe being in a funk every now and again is God’s way of reminding us that all is not yet well. That this world is not alright. And, maybe this realization brings us towards a hope of One who is at work sorting out all this mess. One who presently at work amidst my pain, setting all things right and making all things new.

The Gravy Cup...Summer 2009

The Gravy Cup. . . Summer 2009

This year's Hayward United Soccer Camp shows that some things that cost very little to us...are to others....absolutely priceless. Ed and I scavaged the local Thrift store and were able to put together a make-shift trophy for the "player of the day" award. Here is Ali, the player of the day lifting high a $1.24 carefully concocted peice of scrap medal. To us it was some extra change...to a young impressionable athlete...simply priceless. Take time to go the extra mile. Very little output with the right motives behind them, make for some really valuable input in someone's life!

Biking with Jackson

Life in Hayward is good. Today Jackson and I pumped up our tires and hit the bike path that begins close to our home. We soaked in some rays, waved to some friends along our trek and two miles later arrived safely at Hayward Primary School. Some of my fondest childhood memories were riding my bike to school with my friend Donnie. I hope that these rides become moments that Jackson and I can both tuck away in our minds and reminisce over together some day. I've never made a memory with my child behind the wheel of my car. All I ever made in a car was good time. Today I didn't make good time (we were 10 minutes late for school...oops!), but we had a good time.

The Paradox of Life

"Life is the destiny you are bound to refuse until you have consented to die."

-W.H. Auden, "For the Time Being"


This is a quote I found in one of Richard Rohr's great books entitled "Adam's Return: Five promises of Male Initiation. What really hit me in this quote is how much it echoes Jesus' paradoxical call. Jesus taught us that if we really want to embrace life, we must lose our life. Life is the destiny that we so often refuse. . .Do we truly recognize that we refuse to embrace our God given destiny when we hold dearly to our life as we know it? Are we willing to believe that letting go, releasing, surrendering, offering up our life is the pathway to life?

I'm not sure that 21st Century American Christianity has embraced the paradox that Jesus and Auden teach us. We stake claims in Jesus, but refuse to carry the load of the cross. We convince ourselves that we live the "good life", yet refuse to undergo death.

The difficulty with paradox is not that they are confusing. They are more than that. They are contradictory, counter-intuitive and even absurd. So, our God calls us to follow the absurd? Absolutely. Jesus followers embrace paradox because it was what He embraced.