Never trust a Christian who...

A quote I read a few days ago by Alan Chambers says, "Never trust a pastor who does not walk with a limp."  The quote was fantastic.  His point was that pastors should be the first to share their vulnerabilities and transparency.  I agree with that statement, but I would further the challenge to say, "Never trust a CHRISTIAN who does not walk with a limp." As we desire to reach out to the world and culture around us, we may do this when people truly know us.  Nobody wants to have a relationship with someone who seems perfect.  Look at the more "successful" ministries and churches in our country.  They are commonly those who foster an environment of openness, honesty, vulnerability and struggle.

Though I agree this has to be modeled from the top down, the challenge still remains for the other members of our communities.  As we desire to go out and reach the world and culture around us, there has to be a certain honesty and vulnerability.  That openness is what draws people into a relationship.

Never trust a CHRISTIAN who walks without a limp.

Jesus is wrecking everything

Ozzie Chambers writes, "Have you ever heard the Master say a  hard word?  If you have not, I question whether you have heard Him say anything." I am reminded today of how destructive and abrasive the words of Jesus should be to our lives.  Most of Jesus' words and commands should be wrecking our lives.  We are to obey a drastic call to be counter-cultural.

We in America are rich young rulers (Luke 18), and we are being called to many things that are going to be very hard for us to obey.  They are difficult because these are not things we are used to and comfortable with.  Many of the pursuits...MOST of the pursuits of our culture are not as Jesus has called us to live.  Jesus intends to wreck our lives...as they are.

Most of the time, I am a rich young ruler, and I walk away sorrowful because I cannot bring myself to fully follow Jesus.  Jesus never comes running after me begging and pleading.  Another day my desire will bring me back to Jesus; he will challenge me to something that will require a sacrifice on my part, and I will be faced with a difficult decision as to whether or not to do it.

Some days I follow Jesus; other days I walk away from Him and His command on my life with my head hung low because, once again, I am unable (unwilling) to fully obey and follow.

Jesus has not quite wrecked my life, but He's always trying.

What Tylenol has to do with compassion

Dr. Paul Brand wrote a book called The Gift of Pain.  He has had exposure to great pain and has learned a great deal about it.  He has seen several different cultures and their response to pain and how that affects those within the culture.  I found his perception of American culture and its response to pain very interesting. “...a society that seeks to avoid pain at all costs.  Patients lived at a greater comfort level than any I had previously treated, BUT THEY SEEMED FAR LESS EQUIPPED TO HANDLE SUFFERING AND FAR MORE TRAUMATIZED BY IT.” (EMPHASIS mine)

We are one of the only cultures in the world, which avoids pain at all cost.  The pain relief industry in America is a more than $63 billion A YEAR industry.  What has been the result of that avoidance?

Because of our exceptional avoidance of pain, we have continually made ourselves more and more unable to handle suffering.

What I have challenged myself with as a Christian is to try and understand what compassionate love is going to look like with this information.

The Latin break down of “compassion” is “com” + “patti”, which ends up meaning “to suffer with”.

As a Christian, I have been called to compassion toward those around me.  I have been called to SUFFER WITH those around me.

Now as an American Christian, this is going to be a greater challenge.  For me to be compassionate I will need to suffer with others; but in order to suffer with others, I will need to give up trying so hard to avoid pain.

It is no wonder being compassionate is so difficult!

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“I learned that pain sends a signal not only to the patient but to the surrounding community as well.  Just as individual pain sensors announce to other cells in the body, ‘Attend to me! I need help!” so do suffering human beings cry out to the community at large.” – Dr. Paul Brand

Lost in Translation: my new column

This last weekend was the pilot release of a quarterly magazine called The Compass. I was asked to contribue an ongoing column in the magazine about faith and culture. After several brainstorms and edits, the column is entitled Lost in Translation. I am excited to present to you the online version of the pilot issue.

The unsafe Christian community

Bonhoeffer describes our Christian community with a disappointing accuracy. "He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone...The final breakthrough to fellowship does not occur, because, though they have fellowship with one another as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners.  The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner.  So everyone must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship.  We dare not be sinners.  Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous."

It is difficult to read on one level, but on a greater level I read that with a sense of relief. What if our churches were communities where it was safe to be imperfect?

One might say, "It must be safe, because none of us is perfect, and the Church still exists."

Just because there are imperfect people in the Church does not mean it is safe to be and present ourselves as imperfect.

Where would this safety come from?  What would it look like?

Psalm 32 is a great presentation of the benefits and joy of confession.

Verses 3-5 read:

"When I kept silent my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.

Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.

I said, "I confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the guilt of my sin."

Could you imagine a community where we lived like the Lord?  What a freedom and safety!  We are all sapped by our sin and the weight of its guilt, but I long for a community where my honesty and my confession would actually find forgiveness of the guilt; where I would be surrounded and could surround others in unfailing love. (vs 10)

But I know the band!

Attending a university with an excellent music business program meant there are several friends who eventually started being people I now hear all over the radio. So I thought I would mention a few of those here. 1. Sidewalk Prophets [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8BBCYFAYRI&w=560&h=315] 2. Jon McLaughlin (and his band) [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcDdso4rzXc&w=560&h=315] 3. Tenth Avenue North (one of the guys) [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwtcwQwgdsA&w=560&h=315]

You're Welcome: Tebowing

Every once in a while you come across a website that just steals your attention right from under you. You may not even know why, but you find yourself just mindlessly clicking through because you just have to see one…more…post.

These will be things I find to share with you; things before you thank me for showing, I’ll just say, “You’re welcome!”

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Planking is so outdated. If you do not know what planking IS, you completely missed it already. There have been several phases come and gone (planking, owling, etc.). Now if are ready to "get down on one knee and start praying, even if everyone else around you is doing something completely different"...or look at several pictures of other people doing this, then you need to get in on the newest craze sweeping the country at tebowing.com

You're welcome!

The mystery of intimacy

Intimacy with someone has a certain place for holding some things back; not telling the person all about you right away.  I will explain. God has created us in his image, and we all know that is very mysterious.  That has a lot to do with our finite minds trying to conceptualize an infinite God; so of course He will appear mysterious to us.  But think of it this way; God could reveal to us everything about himself if he wanted to (and if we could handle it), but he does not.  For this reason, my relationship with God is always new and exciting. My intimacy with God consists of me attempting to know a mysterious God, and that means moving from discovery to new discovery, from surprise to surprise.  My relationship with God does not grow stale unless I am discontent with the mystery.  My relationship with God is intimate and exciting when I embrace the mystery and look forward to the next new discovery about the heart of God.

If God revealed everything about himself to me in one moment I would have nothing left to desire; I would have no level of intimacy having known everything I needed to know.  My relationship grows stale because the excitement of new discovery is lost.

Now, created in the image of God, our relationships with one another are very much the same. Perhaps we are intended to live with a healthy level of mystery.  Within every relationship we have there should be some varying degree of mystery.  Even within the most intimate relationship two humans can know, marriage, there should always be some level of mystery.

Many people would likely disagree with me, saying that marriage should be the one human relationship where you know everything about the other person. I think that is the very reason so many marriages grow stale so quickly.  As human beings, our great need and desire is to know and be known.  Now many married couples are asked to “get it all out” as soon as possible so that you may know each other and everything about each other, and we call that ‘intimacy’.

Realizing we are all created in the image of God, we have to realize this is certainly NOT in the image of God.  Intimacy is found in a level of mystery.  I cannot explain the thrill I get when my relationship with God reveals some new face of God I have never known before.

I also cannot quite explain how thrilling it is to learn something new about my wife I had never known before.  There is excitement about seeing my wife in a new light.  THAT is embracing the image of God in Tonya, the mystery of my wife.

Embracing the mystery of another person for the sake of intimacy does not mean hiding everything; it simply means a random new and exciting discovery (or revelation) here and there.  Tonya should be learning new things about me for the rest of our lives, and that should excite her. I should be excited to learn new things about my wife.

“I never knew that about you; thank you for showing that part of yourself to me.  I am closer to you now than I was before you showed me.”

Most marriages, friendships, relationships are driven by this “share everything” type of honesty, and that appears to be a great intimacy…for a short time; until you realize there is nothing left to give or show.  You have ruined the mystery.  You have ruined the excitement of discovery.  You have ruined the mystery of intimacy.

Favorite Poet[s]: Commoners and Kings

I love the written and spoken word. I try to soak up as much of it as I can. A while ago I came across Commoners and Kings on a podcast I frequently listen to. I was unable to find a lot on them to share, but recently I revisted their facebook and found a stream of videos they call "Street Series" of different impromptu poets they film performing on the streets of Southern California. This is one of the videos which happens to be one of the Commoners and Kings. Enjoy!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1JC5skwRsw&w=560&h=315]

Reactionary Bear Love

"bear with one another in love" (Eph. 4:2). 

We are told to bear with one another in love, but what does that look like. That needs to jump off the page, out of cliche and into some sort of action for it to really matter.  What would it take for us to really bear with one another in love?

It requires making the CHOICE to love each other, and continuing to make that choice.  Now this is not as easily done as it is written.  Why? Because we come to make love a REACTION instead of the ACTION that it is.

The reason so many of us struggle to bear with one anyone in love is because we have made love a reaction, and we will only love when loved.  We will only love when given a reason to love. Love has become a reaction to us, and bearing with one another will never happen as long as love is a reaction.  The cycle will only continue and no one will choose to love as we are all waiting for the other to love us so that we can love in return.

Love is not a reaction, it is an action.  Love is a choice.  Love is INTENTIONAL.  In order for us to truly bear with one another in love, it will mean choosing constantly to GO and love.

When one person goes with intentionality of loving someone, they break the cycle of reactionary love.

Love is not a reaction.  It is an action.

Persecution: don't flatter yourself

Many Christians will say the Bible tells us people will hate us for being followers of Christ.  They will use the words of Jesus telling us we will be persecuted because of his name.  People use this part of scripture to attempt a validation of THEIR actions.  When their actions anger people, they all but shrug their shoulders and say, "Well the Bible tells us people will hate us when we speak the gospel in Jesus' name." I am not entirely sure people today are angry with the gospel OR Jesus.  I am not convinced that people are angry because we have really represented Christ to these people or our culture.  In fact, I think most people are great with Jesus but angered by his followers' actions.

I am not sure people hate the gospel as much as they do the Christians.  I am not convinced that our culture is frustrated with the gospel, Jesus, Christianity or its message as much as they are with the the followers' actions in the name of the gospel, Jesus, and Christianity.

There WILL be persecution for those who are followers of Christ (that much is promised) but there is a fine difference between persecution and deserved disappointment and frustration with poor examples of Christ, the gospel, and love.