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A Little Rain Must Fall

June 29, 2006 By Leave a Comment

Last night it rained here in Savannah. It was pretty heavy at times with lightning crashing all around and lots of wind. The kind of rain where the National Weather Service keeps breaking in on the radio to tell you about it and warn of potential hail on the pocket change scale. Fortunately they weren’t comparing it to fruit. Hail on the fruit scale can be pretty scary.

As I’ve said before, I like rainy days. I even like the bad storms. There is something awe inspiring about watching the uncontrollable power of an intense storm. I especially like sitting someplace dry like a screen porch and watching the storm rage around me.

On Deck of Container ShipYesterday I got to be right out in it. And that’s not so bad when you are dressed for it. Unfortunately I wasn’t. When I went up onto the ship it was sunny and a steamy 95 degrees. Sure there were clouds in the sky. And I’d even heard the NWS break into the radio once as I was heading out to the port. But they were talking about stuff a couple counties away from where I was. And I distinctly heard them say something about very little apparent motion to the storms they were talking about.

But then you can’t trust the weather guessers, can you?

There I was huddling out on deck under a container trying to keep dry without so much as a jacket. I’d make dashes out into the deluge to snap a photo or two and then right back under cover. Then the water started collecting on deck and I found myself standing in a small river.

Rain at the Container TerminalI don’t even mind so much getting wet, especially when I know I can go straight home after the job to get dried off and a change of clothes. The digital camera and the cell phone don’t deal with it so well, however. Funny, that they weren’t even what I was worried about. My paperwork was far from dry. Nothing like a little downpour to make your notes bleed all over each other.

During the job was not so bad because I could sort of camp under cover. The real trick was getting back to my car. It was a bit of a hike. And there was no cover. In the end I was pretty soggy.

Jesus gave us an interesting perspective on the weather. He said this about God:

He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Why is that profound? Well for one thing it doesn’t matter who you are. The weather that’s happening is going to happen to you.

It also means that God is no respecter of persons. He is going to give all of us the balance of rain and sun that we are going to get regardless of what we might “deserve”.

In the end there is still nothing we can do to control the storm when it decides to rage.

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How Do You Relate to God?

June 24, 2006 By 9 Comments

I’m having another long discussion with Dan Traube back at my Class Warfare in the Church post. We pretty much disagree (again) but that’s OK. The whole discussion has got me thinking.

How do we relate to God?

Most religions are about connecting people to God. When I think about some of the major religions such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Shintoism, I see that they are all very different.

Yet they all have one thing in common that I can see. Each of them have some sort of set of rules or guidelines that a person must follow to reach spiritual fulfillment. There are things a person must do and others that they must not do if they are going to “make it” in these religions. Many Christians do the exact same thing.

But Jesus completely tossed out this idea of rule keeping.

The biggest conflicts he had were with the religious leaders. They were the best rule keepers and really didn’t like what Jesus had to say. In fact Jesus made them so angry that they conspired to have him killed to shut him up.

What sorts of things did Jesus say that got the religious leadership so worked up? Here’s one example

I assure you, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.

Jesus said it was a simple
two step process.

  1. Listen
  2. Believe

That’s it. According to Jesus, that’s all it takes to be acceptable to God. There’s no special sacrifice required, no long pilgrimage, no heroic deeds or great quest, and no list of rules to follow.

A lot of people don’t like that. They want it to be hard so they feel like they’ve accomplished something when they get there. That’s the only reason I can figure so many Christians have added on such an overwhelming list of rules to the basic things Jesus said.

But the bottom line is that Jesus taught that we don’t relate to God by keeping a list of rules. We relate to him as a person relates to another person, by hanging out with him and having conversation and dialogue.

And by doing that doesn’t mean that we are being disrespectful of God or reducing him to our level of an ordinary person. Just like we can converse with a King or a President and still respect and honor his position, we can relate to God on a personal level through the person of Jesus while still honoring and respecting him.

In one way, rules are easier on our end. With a list of rules we can measure how we are doing and figure out where we stand in our relationship with God. We can feel pretty good when we pretty much are keeping to most of the rules.

Did you know that God does allow for folks to relate to him on the basis of rules? It’s true. The down side is huge, though!

First the standard is absolute perfection in keeping those rules. For your entire life, past, present and future. And it covers both thought and action. If you ever break any of the rules once in the tiniest way then, “buzzzz. You must leave the island.”

There are no second chances and no allowances under the rule system. Either you are perfect or you are out. Oh, and you have to pick the right set of rules, too.

The standard is impossibly high. But you are free to go that way if you like.

OR you can do it Jesus’ way:
Listen and Believe.

It sounds ridiculously simple. What’s the catch?

The catch is that when you choose to do it Jesus’ way, you will find yourself able to follow the rules on an ever improving basis because the change will come from the inside out.

We blow it completely when we try to change from the outside in by forcing ourselves to follow a set of rules to change our behavior. The results from the rules first approach are always far less the results from Jesus’ way.

And that is doubly true when we try to get other people to change by following a list of rules!

So here’s my question:

How do you relate to God?

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Finding Hope

June 22, 2006 By 2 Comments

Yesterday traffic was backed up on the way into work because of an accident. A red Monte Carlo had deposited itself wheels up in the median. For me it was a very minor inconvenience. I work weird hours anyway so no one even noticed that I got to the office 10 minutes later than I planned.

But for whoever was in the Monte Carlo I’m sure it was a pretty big deal. The whole thing probably messed up their day pretty badly.

It is amazing how quickly things can change in life. And unexpectedly too. I’m sure that driver didn’t wake up and think, “maybe today I could upend my car in the median. That would be a trip!” Yet he ended up dangling from the seat belt a bit before 9 AM just the same.

The truth is we don’t know what the day will bring. The Bible says that it isn’t our place to know (as much as we want to!) James tells us

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

Life is a fleeting thing. That’s a good motivation to make the most of today. But it could also be pretty stinking depressing. I mean how are we supposed to go on with the knowledge that it all could turn to disaster at any moment?

Is our only hope to adopt Chuck Noland’s philosophy?

“I know what I have to do now. I gotta keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. And who knows what the tide could bring?”

That’s the way most folks look at life. They think that if they keep breathing long enough, they might get lucky and something good just might happen to them. Maybe fate will smile at them one day. They invent some hope to cling to. Otherwise life would just seem too pointless to carry on.

The good news is that life doesn’t have to be that hopeless. We can have hope for a fulfilled and meaningful life. Even though the uncertainty remains, we can know peace. Jesus said

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

If Jesus overcame death and walked out of the tomb they buried him in, then He has the authority needed to offer us actual hope for a life full of meaning and purpose.

And that is a genuine encouragement whenever we find ourselves hanging upside down in the median of life.

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Class Warfare in the Church

June 18, 2006 By 19 Comments

There seems to be a simmering class warfare between Christians these days.

On one side there are folks who say that God wants you to be rich and healthy. “Come follow Jesus and leave your pain behind!” they shout as they gather followers like a kid hunting Easter eggs. They pull verses out of scripture like Proverbs 10:22

The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.

The God-wants-you-rich crowd tends to look down on poor people because they believe the poor must be far from God because they don’t have His material blessings.

On the other side are the folks who say that the rich are just greedy and selfish. “Don’t you know?” they holler, “Jesus said it is hard for a rich person to get into heaven. Give all your stuff away and that will prove that you are on the team because God loves the poor.”

So which side’s right?

The short answer, for those of you with short attention spans (and want to skip past a long explanation), is neither extreme is right.

But didn’t Jesus say that stuff about rich people and heaven? Yep. He sure did. But let’s look at the scripture passage in context.

The story that the God-loves-the-poor-and-hates-the-rich crowd clings to so much is actually found three different times in scripture in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It is repeated three times so it must be important. Let’s look at the story in the book of Matthew.

Jesus just had an encounter with a rich guy who wanted to know what he needed to do be acceptable to God. He was asking Jesus how he could be good enough to get into heaven on his own merit. At the end of the conversation Jesus tells him to sell everything he had, give to the poor, and then follow after Jesus. The guy wasn’t willing to do that and went away sad.

Apparently he was very rich.

Now let’s pick up the story in Matthew 19:23-26

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is very hard for a rich person to get into the Kingdom of Heaven. I say it again–it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”

The disciples were astounded. “Then who in the world can be saved?” they asked.

Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.”

In each of the three versions of the story Jesus repeats the line about it being hard for a rich person to get into heaven. That makes at least 6 times the bible records Jesus saying it. The idea must be important!

On the surface it sounds a lot like Jesus is firmly in the poor, God-hates-the-rich camp. But that quick superficial look misses Jesus’ point entirely.

The people Jesus was actually speaking to at the time had a slightly twisted view of God. They were at the extreme end of the God-wants-you-rich spectrum. They firmly believed that wealth was proof that people were favored by God. They looked at the whole of scripture through a lens like the example from Proverbs I mentioned. Through out the gospels you see time and time again that the followers of Jesus had that view of God.

Jesus had to do some radical communicating to break through all of their misunderstandings. It wasn’t time for pruning back the branches. He had to cut down the tree all together.

He completely removed financial status from equation as far as what it took to please God. His point was not that being rich is bad in God’s eyes. His point was that being rich (or being poor) was totally irrelevant and completely missed what was important.

What God wants is for people to put Him first. The rich guy Jesus was talking to right before that story wanted to keep all his stuff ahead of God. Jesus said that didn’t cut it. Jesus was crystal clear throughout his teaching: God first. Everything else comes after that.

When he was asked what the single most important thing was for people to do, Jesus could have answered, “Sell all your stuff, give the money to the poor and become poor yourself.”

But he didn’t.

Instead he answered, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.”

That’s it.

You do that, Jesus said, and love other people as much as you love yourself, then you are covered. Everything else is secondary.

All the junk that Christians bicker over is incredibly petty. Rich or Poor? Makes no difference. Christians need to get over themselves, their need to be right, and get out of God’s way.

The bottom line is simple. Do you love God? Do you love others?

Where do you stand?

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Persecution is Alive and Kicking

June 6, 2006 By 2 Comments

Most of us have head the stories about how the early followers of Jesus were persecuted. Tradition holds that all sorts of nasty things were done to believers throughout the first few hundred years after Jesus walked the earth.

The Bible even records how the Apostle Paul, before he changed his name from Saul and converted to follow Jesus, went around arresting believers in an attempt to destroy the church.

But did you know that followers of Jesus are still being systematically persecuted in all kinds of different places throughout the globe today?

Let me take you on a little tour around the world to give you a taste of what can happen to you today in some places simply because of a choice to follow Jesus. The tour is compliments PersecutionBlog, which is the blog of The Voice of the Martyrs.

Just last week a house church was brutally attacked in Vietnam. Imagine getting together for a work day to do some much needed repairs on your church and having a mob show up and attack you. The police stood by for a while before arresting 11 of the believers and hauling them off for a few more hours of beatings and interrogations. Oh, yes. Then the mob partially tore down the house that the believers were trying to repair in the first place.

Last month a mob stormed a church in India, beating believers and breaking furniture. Then they hauled off the pastor to the police station where he was immediately arrested.

Then there’s Somalia where believers are beaten and killed by people who are taught that killing a follower of Jesus is a sure ticket into heaven. Believers can’t even register in refugee camps because of their religion. Or you could be a western relief worker and get murdered in front of your family by a mob that then burns your house and forces themselves on your wife after you’re dead.

Be glad you are not in a Pakistani prison where you might get tortured simply for holding a Bible study with your fellow prisoners and then locked in solitary confinement.

Or maybe you buy into the Myth of Chinese Religious Freedom. Apparently it doesn’t matter if you register your church with the government or not. The Chinese Public Security Bureau surrounded and raided a church that was registered with the government, and arrested several of the leaders on the grounds that theirs was an “illegal evil cult” meeting.

Have there been horrible things done by people claiming to operate in the name of Jesus Christ? Unfortunately the answer is yes, and way too many.

But I thought you should know that in many parts of the world today the cost of following Jesus is much more than simply getting dressed up for an hour a week while you try to stay awake during some preaching.

Think about that.

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What is Peace?

June 5, 2006 By 2 Comments

I’m having an interesting discussion over on Reddit with someone who objects to my previous post on the grounds that the only reason I could have experienced a peaceful moment is because I am not living in abject poverty.

People make that mistake a lot. We often think that peacefulness comes from an accumulation of wealth and things and if we could just get that raise or be able to buy those new things then our problems would be over.

If that were the case then there would be a whole lot fewer celebrity suicides. We’d also find that psychiatrists and counselors would be out of work. Wealthy people would not need their services and poor people who would need them wouldn’t be able to afford them.

The truth is that personal peace is not at all related to the amount of wealth a person has. Wealthy people can be peaceful or tormented. People living in abject poverty can also be peaceful or tormented.

I did an 8 part series on Peacemakers a couple months back. Part 6 looked at the source of spiritual peace.

Here’s what it boils down to:

Peace comes from a closeness to God. It has nothing to do with how much stuff we have or don’t have.

Am I always close to God? Nope. I often go wandering off on my own because I can be stubborn, willful, and feel I need to be in control. That’s why moments like last night are so precious and get my attention.

But here’s the best part. In spite of how screwed up I am, God still makes the effort to get close to me just like He makes the effort with you. God took concrete steps to make a close relationship with us possible. He cared so much about you and I that He traded His most precious possession for us.

He willingly gave up the life of the one closest to Him, His own son Jesus, so that we could experience that peace.

There is nothing I can do to either add to or subtract from that. No matter how much wealth I accumulate or even if I gave it all away and became dirt poor I would still not find peace unless I got close to God. Because it’s not about me, it’s about Him.

Peace!

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All is Right in the World

June 4, 2006 By 5 Comments

There are occasional moments when I have this overwhelming feeling that all is right in the world.

Now before you get all hot and bothered, I know there is still war, murder, starvation and all kinds of evil and suffering happening. I don’t live in la-la land.

But every once in a great while I just know that it is going to be OK.

This evening Gorgeous had a conference call so I went out to the store to get some milk, eggs, and other needful things. As I walked out the door to the car there was a surprising absence of gnats. I could hear the chuk-chuk-chuk of sprinklers in the neighborhood as the sun was starting to go down. A lawn mower was running a few blocks away.

It was peaceful.

It was like God was telling me, “Everything’s under control. Enjoy your evening. Have a good night’s rest tonight. I’ll keep an eye on things. In the morning we’ll talk.”

Gorgeous and I still have the same stresses in our lives. We still tons of problems and gobs of unknowns.

But it’s like God told the prophet Jeremiah

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Life is messy. Jesus himself said that we will always have problems. I like the way The Message puts it

I’ve told you all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace. In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties. But take heart! I’ve conquered the world.

It is reassuring to know that God has a plan. And if He’s the planner then I bet it’s a pretty stinking good one! Couple that with the fact that Jesus conquered the biggest problem I can ever face when he came up out of that tomb that first Easter morning and you begin to see why I can say it.

All is right in the world.

Enjoy!

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What is Life?

May 24, 2006 By 7 Comments

Yesterday in my talk about heroes I mentioned that Jesus told us we have an enemy whose only purpose is to “steal and kill and destroy.” Did you click on the link to the verse where Jesus told us that? If not, take a look.

The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness.

Jesus said everything He did – the teaching, miracles, healing people, his horrific execution, and world changing resurrection – was for one reason only: to give people life.

That statement begs a question.

What is Life?

Only three little one syllable words, yet the question is huge. So big in fact that I’m not going to pretend to give a definitive answer to it. And I want to hear what you have to say about it. Go ahead and leave a comment at the end of this post with your thoughts.

At the same time, if this is really a blog of “practical life philosophy,” then we ought to look at the question of Life, eh?

Is life simply the sum of our biological function? I mean Jesus did heal a whole bunch of physical maladies. Even so, that seems like a pretty small view of the term. I’m sure the theologians would holler, “Wait! Wait! There’s more to life than that.”

The thing is we humans seem to somehow be “aware”. We know we exist, and yet we question that existence. What other living thing on this planet does that? Why are we different that way, then?

Why is it all of us deep down have a similar craving to be healthy, happy and rich? Is that what it means to be fully alive?

I recently had a conversation where I said that I believe communication is one of the fundamental keys to life. Because without communication there are no relationships. Without relationships life is pretty pointless.

But is Life simply the sum of our relationships? That may not be the whole enchilada, but I really think we are on to something now.

It makes sense in terms of what Jesus said about His motivations. Did he come to help us with our relationships? Was He kind of like a cosmic, all knowing version of Dr. Phil?

While that question is a bit simplistic, and may even be seen as blasphemous by some, I don’t think it is all that wide of the mark.

Read through the things that Jesus has to say. He is consistently beating the same drum. He talks almost exclusively about our relationships, both with God and with each other.

Jesus summed up what was most important to us this way:

Jesus replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Jesus said the Life He came to give was all about relationships.

That’s my take. Share yours. Leave a comment and let us know your thoughts.

Enjoy!

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Finding Truth (Why I’m not God)

May 2, 2006 By 2 Comments

Last night a group of us had a little discussion about truth, weighty stuff to be sure. But having a frame of reference, a fixed star to guide your life, a core truth to filter our understanding of the world around us makes this journey of ours simpler and more fun by helping us make good choices.

We talked a little last night about the analogy of a compass. It is only a useful tool for navigation as long as the needle is pointing north. Imagine trying to get somewhere following a compass that is constantly swinging all over the place. How do you know which way to go? How would you ever get to your destination?

Obviously you wouldn’t. You’d just wander aimlessly.

It’s really the same with truth. Unless we hold to a core truth, a steady reference outside ourselves to regularly compare where we are going, we’ll wander aimlessly all over the map through life.

Me, I use the Bible as my standard of truth. I know it isn’t the only source out there. But I’ve asked my tough questions, looked at the other options, and I’m content that it’s a good choice.

No. To be honest, I feel it is the best choice. But hey, I leave open the possibility that I may find one day that there is a better option. Until that time, though, (if it ever comes) I’m running with what I’ve got.

But what if I decided to look inward instead of outward for my core guiding truth? What would that look like?

Here’re some of the things you would have to deal with if I were the source of truth:

  • Coffee and chocolate would both be their own food groups.
  • Sleep would be a pleasant option instead of a hard requirement.
  • Computers would naturally do what you wanted them to, not what you told them to.
  • My driving techniques would be only right way to operate your car.
  • Lawns would be self manicuring.
  • Gnats would cease to exist.
  • Every guy could afford to shop here.
  • The internet wouldn’t be in danger of being hijacked by the high speed providers.
  • Stupid people would have no rights (by my constantly changing definition of stupid, that is).
  • Exercise really would be for the birds.
  • Scaring cats would be a national sport.

And I’d be just getting started.

But I think you get the point. If I didn’t look to some external source to filter my choices through, I might very well believe that I’d be right to work toward some of the things on that list.

And that’s why truth is so important.

Jesus said, “And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Obviously he thought truth was pretty stinking powerful.

So I’ll agree with him on this one. And I’ll be glad I’m not God!

Enjoy!

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Important Visitor

April 26, 2006 By Leave a Comment

We were told at the very end of the day yesterday that the President of our company will be at our office first thing today. Hello! It sure would have been nice to get a little advanced notice to spruce the place up a bit.

Oh, there are so many lessons in this situation. Here’s just a few:

Keep your space tidy. You never know who might be popping in for a visit. Having your desk (house, car, etc.) cluttered or dirty doesn’t put your best foot forward when you host the unexpected guest.

Communicate with your team. I’m sure the president’s flight wasn’t booked yesterday afternoon. Someone must have known he was coming but the information didn’t trickle down to the trenches until the last minute. People appreciate being in the loop, especially about unusual circumstances.

Be flexible. There are times when you just plain have to rearrange your day to accommodate the goings-on around you.

It is amazing the extra effort we often go through to accommodate an “important person”. In truth we should treat everyone as though they were important. Because the reality is people are very important.

Jesus gave us some great examples of this principle in action. He was chronically criticized by the cultural establishment for hanging out with the wrong crowd. “He’s a friend of sinners” was one of the slanders they used. Reading through the gospel accounts I see that even His disciples didn’t get it right away.

Over and over we see the disciples trying to “protect” Jesus so that He wouldn’t be “bothered” by some kids, or a sick person, or (gasp!) someone who was not Jewish. Jesus responded each time by making time for the culturally little people.

I think we could easily miss the take-away here. We could easily think that the “important people” don’t rate special treatment and we should just treat them just like everyone else. But that misses the point.

The real lesson is this: We should treat everyone just like we would treat the important people. Don’t lower your standards of treatment for the VIP’s in your effort to be “no respecter of persons”.

Rather raise your standards for how you value everyone else.

Jesus summed it up this way:

“Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them.” (Matt. 12:7)

Enjoy!

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