For years and years, I obeyed and followed Jesus because I was afraid of Him. Looking back on it, I’m not sure what I was afraid of because I could tell you what grace and mercy were and I could quote a lot of the Bible and I had a great family that showed me Jesus’ love in really deep ways. My past is not marked by physical or sexual abuse causing spiritual amnesia a split soul like some of my friends have experienced. I’ve been immersed in all things Jesus and church for what seems like forever.
But about five years ago, I began to come to the realization that I was terrified of God. What if he found out the kinds of things I was doing in secret? What if people at my church saw how I talked to my wife when it was just the two of us? How would I keep God on my side if He ever found out how often I didn’t follow Him? And to make it worse, I was a pastor. If anyone should have had it together, it should have been me.
I can remember sitting in a dark hospital room while Christy slept one night and wondering if God felt what was going on. I knew that God knew what was going on and He had everything under control and He was still on His throne and He is sovereign and all that jazz, but I wanted to know if He actually felt anything.
It was then that I realized that He wondered the same thing about me.
He knew that I knew that I loved Him and obeyed Him (usually, anyway) and that I was a pastor…but did I ever feel anything.
I had always equated submission and obedience to God with a need to separate me from myself, to step outside of the ugliness of who I was in order to do what He wanted. Why should I do what He wanted? Because He’s God and if I don’t do what He says, He’ll smite me.
Now don’t get me wrong, a deep part of that is true. Why obey? Because He’s God and what He says goes. At the end of all things, falling back on that is OK. The only thing is, that as a person grows up in Jesus, there comes a longing to know the Father more deeply than that, just like a child who is growing up. I have three kids, ages six, five and three. Because of their lack of growth and maturity – an inability to think and process abstractly – they must obey and I must ensure that they obey because my posture toward them is good, or at least it should be, and usually is – and their obedience to my will as it lines up with God’s will is the greatest highway they have to the face of Jesus.
And that’s the key to this whole obedience and following thing…that the heart of the Father toward His children is good. As my kids grow and mature in life, they will begin to experience me on new levels. Their questions of “Why?” are actually places that my heart and their heart can connect. A pre-teen or teenager initially pushes against her parents because they are the only standard by which she has to judge herself and her ability to be who her parents are forming her to be…a young lady on a road to her own destiny.
Submission and obedience to God is not about His control over your life.
The question of who is in control has an obvious answer.
God does not need to prove His ability to dominate you,
His sacrificial love is His domination.
God does not need your obedience to validate His existence.
He created and sustains everything.
God does not need your submission to love you.
His grace initiates this relationship.
God’s identity is so rooted in Himself and His Trinitarian nature that He is able to stand completely outside of His creation and be at joyful peace and rest in His own glory.
When your identity is rooted in Jesus and His loving nature, you can stand outside of yourself and be at joyful peace and rest in submission and obedience to His will, because it is His will that brings Him most glory, and God’s rest in His own glory is the most loving thing He can do for His children and the world.
The most freeing thing about all that stuff is that obedience comes as a fruit of being in Christ rather than a system of earning His love and favor. God’s love and favor rests on You because You are His child. He desires submission and obedience because it’s the only way He can love you to the depth that you were created to feel His love.
The more you submit and obey out of identity rather than fear, the more you feel the Father’s love. The more you feel the Father’s love, the more you feel the joy of obedience because obedience is who you are in Him.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
33 Days Later: The Choice Has Been Made, This Battle Is Finished
"Suffering Servant" by Marcella Paliekara
Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.
Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
33 days, 172 dead
"So fear the Lord and serve him wholeheartedly. Put away forever the idols your ancestors worshiped when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord alone. But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”
The people replied, “We would never abandon the Lord and serve other gods. For the Lord our God is the one who rescued us and our ancestors from slavery in the land of Egypt. He performed mighty miracles before our very eyes. As we traveled through the wilderness among our enemies, he preserved us. It was the Lord who drove out the Amorites and the other nations living here in the land. So we, too, will serve the Lord, for he alone is our God.”
Then Joshua warned the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy and jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you abandon the Lord and serve other gods, he will turn against you and destroy you, even though he has been so good to you.”
But the people answered Joshua, “No, we will serve the Lord!”
“You are a witness to your own decision,” Joshua said. “You have chosen to serve the Lord.”
“Yes,” they replied, “we are witnesses to what we have said.”
“All right then,” Joshua said, “destroy the idols among you, and turn your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”
The people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God. We will obey him alone.”
So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day at Shechem, committing them to follow the decrees and regulations of the Lord. Joshua recorded these things in the Book of God’s Instructions. As a reminder of their agreement, he took a huge stone and rolled it beneath the terebinth tree beside the Tabernacle of the Lord.
Joshua said to all the people, “This stone has heard everything the Lord said to us. It will be a witness to testify against you if you go back on your word to God.”
Then Joshua sent all the people away to their own homelands.
The people replied, “We would never abandon the Lord and serve other gods. For the Lord our God is the one who rescued us and our ancestors from slavery in the land of Egypt. He performed mighty miracles before our very eyes. As we traveled through the wilderness among our enemies, he preserved us. It was the Lord who drove out the Amorites and the other nations living here in the land. So we, too, will serve the Lord, for he alone is our God.”
Then Joshua warned the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy and jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you abandon the Lord and serve other gods, he will turn against you and destroy you, even though he has been so good to you.”
But the people answered Joshua, “No, we will serve the Lord!”
“You are a witness to your own decision,” Joshua said. “You have chosen to serve the Lord.”
“Yes,” they replied, “we are witnesses to what we have said.”
“All right then,” Joshua said, “destroy the idols among you, and turn your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”
The people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God. We will obey him alone.”
So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day at Shechem, committing them to follow the decrees and regulations of the Lord. Joshua recorded these things in the Book of God’s Instructions. As a reminder of their agreement, he took a huge stone and rolled it beneath the terebinth tree beside the Tabernacle of the Lord.
Joshua said to all the people, “This stone has heard everything the Lord said to us. It will be a witness to testify against you if you go back on your word to God.”
Then Joshua sent all the people away to their own homelands.
Friday, June 08, 2007
Key Principles Part Two
Obedience may be the doorway to intimacy, but it's not intimacy. Jesus says in John 14, if you love me, obey my commandments. He does not say, "if you love me keep my commandments and then you will be loved." Our relationship with Jesus is based in His work on the cross and through His resurrection. We obey because it's who we are, not in order to be loved.
If I bring my wife flowers and she asks me, "Why did you get these for me?", and if I respond, "Because I know you expect me to do that for you from time to time," that's a quick road to no intimacy. I get her flowers because I love her. I get her flowers because it's who I am -- I am her lover and flowers are the "obedience" that I live in because I love her. The flowers are an extension of my identity and open the doorway for intimacy which I define as spirit to spirit connection. Intimacy is primarily spiritual. Certainly there are emotional and physical outgrowths of that, but if we try to connect through either emotion or physicality first, it will always fall short of what it was meant to be.
If I bring my wife flowers and she asks me, "Why did you get these for me?", and if I respond, "Because I know you expect me to do that for you from time to time," that's a quick road to no intimacy. I get her flowers because I love her. I get her flowers because it's who I am -- I am her lover and flowers are the "obedience" that I live in because I love her. The flowers are an extension of my identity and open the doorway for intimacy which I define as spirit to spirit connection. Intimacy is primarily spiritual. Certainly there are emotional and physical outgrowths of that, but if we try to connect through either emotion or physicality first, it will always fall short of what it was meant to be.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Lego Gospel
Here's that link I mentioned this morning about the Bible story told through Legos. It's even better than I remember!
www.thebricktestament.com
Thursday, May 17, 2007
10 Years Deep...Only Going Deeper
Today is our tenth anniversary. We're on our tenth anniversary trip in Denver. Sweet place for an anniversary trip. The pic is from our trip to the Denver Art Museum yesterday at a very cool bubble art project.
I could go on and on about all the things I love about my wife, and I guess this would be an appropriate venue to do that, but we've had those conversations over the last few days and that's not where we ended up in our thought process...with how great the other person is.
Rather, we marvel at the depth of ten years as opposed to the starting point. We did our pre-marital counseling with the pastor I grew up under, Pastor Shirey, and he told us that this is how it would be. "You love each other deeply now, but you will realize that it is nothing compared to what it will be five, ten, twenty, fifty years from now," he said.
And he was so right.
Deeper...that's the best word for it. Other words and phrases are fitting: stronger, tougher, sexier, sacrificing, more complete, more solid, more trusting. But deeper was the consensus. The deeper I plunge the depths of Sheri's being, the more beauty I see, the more light there is, the more Jesus is present, the more oneness we experience. And the same is true for her.
One-flesh-ness is about so much more than sex. It's about the depths of the other person's body, soul and spirit and finding and calling out their design in those places. For as much light as we have found in one another, we have found comparable darkness -- but that's part of the depth. Our goal is not to comprise a list of expectations for the other to conform to and then guage the health of our marriage based around those expectations -- although that's what I see in so many couples today in the worlds in which I live. Our goal is to seek out the depth of the other's design and calling in Jesus and love them for who they are becoming so much more than loving them for who they now are, because who they now are may suck. It might be a point of some ugly darkness, but that is part of the depth, and Jesus has light to shine on that area and that light will primarily be released in the other party of the one-flesh-ness.
We love each other so much more deeply now than before and we can't believe that the future together holds even more depth of love. But we can't wait to go that deep.
What a journey it's been...
What a journey it will be.
It is easier to sail across the sea than down into it,
But now that the world is mapped --
Where's the risk in that?
And if love is not risk,
Then it is love that is dead.
We choose to plunge the depths of the deep.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Top Five Favorite Fictional Characters -- Literature
I haven't made a list in a while and I'm on a trip with my wife, so no ministry posts for a while. I did make a statement on Sunday that sparked a need for a list though. I said that in my opinion, Aslan, from the Chronicles of Narnia series, was the finest literary fictional character. Here's a list of the top five.
1. Aslan -- The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Anthropomorphism (giving human characteristics to any animal or object) isn't the right niche for Aslan. He goes way beyond that -- it's actually the other way around. The lion speaks to the humanity in this regard. In the obvious allegory of the Narnia series, Aslan is Jesus and the ferocity, anger, resolve and wrath of the Aslan is perfecly balanced by his gentleness, kindness and meekness. He is the picture of the marriage between the Jesus seen in Revelation and the Jesus seen in John.
"'Safe?' said Mr. Beaver...'Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe, but he's good. He's the King, I tell you.'" -- Mr. Beaver, speaking of Aslan
2. Kerbouchard -- The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour
"The name has a ring to it!" Scoff if you will at this creator of wild west tales of chilvalry and justice, The Walking Drum is quality literature. Set in middle ages Europe and the Middle East, Kerbouchard, a Celt by birth, wanderer of the world and seeker of his father's justice lives an adventure that takes him from slave on a ship to adviser to kings. War, intrigue, romance, betrayal, friendship -- all are inherent in the Kerbouchard's DNA and story. But more than anything, he is a learner, a seeker of truth, always learning and never arriving. It was Kerbouchard who sparked my interest in classic literature and sold me on reading and adventure. A man's man.
"It has seemed to me that each year one should pause to take stock of himself, to ask: Where am I going? What am I becoming? What do I wish to do and become? Most people whom I have encountered were without purpose, people who had given themselves no goal. The first goal need not be the final one, for a sailing ship sails first by one wind, then another. The point is that it is always going somewhere, proceeding towards a final destination." -- Kerbouchard
3. Billy Colman -- Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
I first read this book when I was ten or eleven. I think it was the first classic piece of literature I ever read and the first book I ever cried about. Billy is a the main character of the story -- a complex yet simple boy with an insatiable desire for adventure growing up in the Ozark mountains. He wants to be a coon hunter, so he works and saves for two years to buy two hound dogs, Old Dan and Little Ann and they become a champion coon hunting team. Living all kinds of adventures together, the story ends with the death of the Old Dan and Little Ann protecting Billy from a mountain lion ("devil cat of the Ozarks"). Billy had heart and guts. He chopped down a huge tree in order to get a coon out of it and win his dogs' trust. So I got my grandad's axe, headed out into the woods and began chopping down a ridiculous tree. Took me five days to fell it -- but I wasn't about to not be like Billy. Heart and guts.
"Lying back in the soft hay, I folded my hands behind my head, closed my eyes, and let my mind wander back over the two long years. I thought of the fishermen, the blackberry patches, and the huckleberry hills. I thought of the prayer I had said when I asked God to help me get two hound pups. I knew He had surely helped, for He had given me the heart, courage, and determination." -- Billy
4. Gandalf -- The Lord Of The Rings Series by J.R.R. Tolkien
Power. Wisdom. Humility. Shadowfax. Establisher of kings. Leadership. Sight. Forward-thinking. Glamdring. Stubborn. Re-born. All things I deeply long for. At this point in my life, Gandalf is who I long to be.
"I threw down my Enemy and he fell from his high place and broke the mountain-side where he smote it in his ruin." -- Gandalf
5. Josephine "Jo" March -- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Let me say right off the get-go here, that every movie made about this book is horrible. Do not watch the movies, read the books. It is not a primer on feminism, it is a primer on relationships, priorities and beauty. Alcott is a relational genius when it comes to writing. I loved the book Little Women when I had to read it for an English assignment in high school. I didn't have the guts to say so at the time, but I've read it three or four times. And in doing so, I developed a major crush on Jo. Without knowing it, Jo became my picture of the perfect girl, and eventually the perfect wife. She was not even close to perfect, but she embraced life, love, heart, and imagination with beauty and enthusiastic grace. And I definitely married a Jo. Sheri is all of those things, but obviously without the fictional twist. The confident beauty and grace with which she embraces life is a dream come true for me. I can't believe she's mine.
"Wouldn't it be fun if all the castles in the air which we make could come true and we could live in them?" -- Jo
1. Aslan -- The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Anthropomorphism (giving human characteristics to any animal or object) isn't the right niche for Aslan. He goes way beyond that -- it's actually the other way around. The lion speaks to the humanity in this regard. In the obvious allegory of the Narnia series, Aslan is Jesus and the ferocity, anger, resolve and wrath of the Aslan is perfecly balanced by his gentleness, kindness and meekness. He is the picture of the marriage between the Jesus seen in Revelation and the Jesus seen in John.
"'Safe?' said Mr. Beaver...'Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe, but he's good. He's the King, I tell you.'" -- Mr. Beaver, speaking of Aslan
2. Kerbouchard -- The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour
"The name has a ring to it!" Scoff if you will at this creator of wild west tales of chilvalry and justice, The Walking Drum is quality literature. Set in middle ages Europe and the Middle East, Kerbouchard, a Celt by birth, wanderer of the world and seeker of his father's justice lives an adventure that takes him from slave on a ship to adviser to kings. War, intrigue, romance, betrayal, friendship -- all are inherent in the Kerbouchard's DNA and story. But more than anything, he is a learner, a seeker of truth, always learning and never arriving. It was Kerbouchard who sparked my interest in classic literature and sold me on reading and adventure. A man's man.
"It has seemed to me that each year one should pause to take stock of himself, to ask: Where am I going? What am I becoming? What do I wish to do and become? Most people whom I have encountered were without purpose, people who had given themselves no goal. The first goal need not be the final one, for a sailing ship sails first by one wind, then another. The point is that it is always going somewhere, proceeding towards a final destination." -- Kerbouchard
3. Billy Colman -- Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
I first read this book when I was ten or eleven. I think it was the first classic piece of literature I ever read and the first book I ever cried about. Billy is a the main character of the story -- a complex yet simple boy with an insatiable desire for adventure growing up in the Ozark mountains. He wants to be a coon hunter, so he works and saves for two years to buy two hound dogs, Old Dan and Little Ann and they become a champion coon hunting team. Living all kinds of adventures together, the story ends with the death of the Old Dan and Little Ann protecting Billy from a mountain lion ("devil cat of the Ozarks"). Billy had heart and guts. He chopped down a huge tree in order to get a coon out of it and win his dogs' trust. So I got my grandad's axe, headed out into the woods and began chopping down a ridiculous tree. Took me five days to fell it -- but I wasn't about to not be like Billy. Heart and guts.
"Lying back in the soft hay, I folded my hands behind my head, closed my eyes, and let my mind wander back over the two long years. I thought of the fishermen, the blackberry patches, and the huckleberry hills. I thought of the prayer I had said when I asked God to help me get two hound pups. I knew He had surely helped, for He had given me the heart, courage, and determination." -- Billy
4. Gandalf -- The Lord Of The Rings Series by J.R.R. Tolkien
Power. Wisdom. Humility. Shadowfax. Establisher of kings. Leadership. Sight. Forward-thinking. Glamdring. Stubborn. Re-born. All things I deeply long for. At this point in my life, Gandalf is who I long to be.
"I threw down my Enemy and he fell from his high place and broke the mountain-side where he smote it in his ruin." -- Gandalf
5. Josephine "Jo" March -- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Let me say right off the get-go here, that every movie made about this book is horrible. Do not watch the movies, read the books. It is not a primer on feminism, it is a primer on relationships, priorities and beauty. Alcott is a relational genius when it comes to writing. I loved the book Little Women when I had to read it for an English assignment in high school. I didn't have the guts to say so at the time, but I've read it three or four times. And in doing so, I developed a major crush on Jo. Without knowing it, Jo became my picture of the perfect girl, and eventually the perfect wife. She was not even close to perfect, but she embraced life, love, heart, and imagination with beauty and enthusiastic grace. And I definitely married a Jo. Sheri is all of those things, but obviously without the fictional twist. The confident beauty and grace with which she embraces life is a dream come true for me. I can't believe she's mine.
"Wouldn't it be fun if all the castles in the air which we make could come true and we could live in them?" -- Jo
Friday, April 13, 2007
The Abyss
I'm starting in on Revelation next week. These pics have everything to do with the abyss, which have everything to do with Revelation.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Key Principles Part One
At Cornerstone, we've been speaking lately of three key principles. The first is: Obedience is the doorway to intimacy.
What goes on between us and God is a relationship and there are certain things that are true in that relationship because of the parties involved. God is God and worthy of worship because He is God and He is capable and right in telling me to do whatever it is He would like to that is in line with His character. I am a receiver of unconditional, underserved love and grace and have been redeemed and placed in Christ and named a son of God and co-heir with Christ -- a prisoner set free indeed. My identity has been changed from an enemy of God to a friend of God, I am made completely new.
And God is still God. Never changing, unshakable, the same today that He has been since eternity past. I am His son. He is Father. What He says is motivated by Father-love I obey because I am His Son. It is my identity to obey.
Too many Christians obey God so that they may feel significance. The idea is that if I pick myself up by my bootstraps and obey God, then I feel good about myself -- and what's more -- I look good to those around me. This makes me feel important and more acceptable to God. And on the darkest but truest level, I believe I am worthy of God's love. I offer these steps of obedience to God and actually expect Him to step into a relational contract. I obey, He loves. It gets darker when the contract reads, I obey, He blesses.
The reason why this is so dark is because it robs God of the true depth of his goodness and love. On some level, my obedience is my offering to God and His return to me is love, blessing -- significance.
The point of John 15 is that an apple tree bears apples because it's an apple tree, not because it works hard. The tree's job is to be a tree, God bears fruit. I obey God because it's my identity, not because it buys me significance or standing with Him. He loves me, Billy Graham, Martin Luther, Britney Spears and Donovan McNabb with the same level of love and passion. A love and passion deep enough to sacrifice His Son. I am significant because God loves me and I am His, not because I obey well.
Next post: Obedience is the doorway to intimacy. Obedience is not intimacy.
What goes on between us and God is a relationship and there are certain things that are true in that relationship because of the parties involved. God is God and worthy of worship because He is God and He is capable and right in telling me to do whatever it is He would like to that is in line with His character. I am a receiver of unconditional, underserved love and grace and have been redeemed and placed in Christ and named a son of God and co-heir with Christ -- a prisoner set free indeed. My identity has been changed from an enemy of God to a friend of God, I am made completely new.
And God is still God. Never changing, unshakable, the same today that He has been since eternity past. I am His son. He is Father. What He says is motivated by Father-love I obey because I am His Son. It is my identity to obey.
Too many Christians obey God so that they may feel significance. The idea is that if I pick myself up by my bootstraps and obey God, then I feel good about myself -- and what's more -- I look good to those around me. This makes me feel important and more acceptable to God. And on the darkest but truest level, I believe I am worthy of God's love. I offer these steps of obedience to God and actually expect Him to step into a relational contract. I obey, He loves. It gets darker when the contract reads, I obey, He blesses.
The reason why this is so dark is because it robs God of the true depth of his goodness and love. On some level, my obedience is my offering to God and His return to me is love, blessing -- significance.
The point of John 15 is that an apple tree bears apples because it's an apple tree, not because it works hard. The tree's job is to be a tree, God bears fruit. I obey God because it's my identity, not because it buys me significance or standing with Him. He loves me, Billy Graham, Martin Luther, Britney Spears and Donovan McNabb with the same level of love and passion. A love and passion deep enough to sacrifice His Son. I am significant because God loves me and I am His, not because I obey well.
Next post: Obedience is the doorway to intimacy. Obedience is not intimacy.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
I'm Back And I'm 30
It's been a while.
I turned 30 on February 27. To me, 30 was always the threshold of "old". Somewhere, probably in a box in my parent's basement is a list of things I would like have done before I turned 30. I wish I had that list. I made it when I was around 15 and I can remember a few things on it:
1. Get married (accomplished)
2. Travel to Europe (accomplished)
3. Play semi-pro soccer (not accomplished)
4. Be a missionary in a Muslim country (not accomplished, my wife was though)
5. Learn guitar (accomplished)
6. Skydive (not accomplished)
7. Run a business (accomplished)
8. Be published (accomplished)
9. I'm pretty sure that "Meet Alyssa Milano" was on there too (not accomplished)
I realize that the amount of change that has happened in the last fifteen years is hard to fathom. Heck, the amount of change in me in the last six months is hard to fathom. I think that the only thing I am going to put on my list of things to accomplish before I am 40 is to keep changing. One of the major things I've learned is that there is always more to press into, particularly in my relationship with Jesus, Sheri, my kids, my friends and my church. It's a constant changing, a constant moving. Satisfaction is not an option. Stagnation is unacceptable. Resting in Jesus is important, but even that produces significant change in me.
A lot of people say that they desire stability, something to be constant. I think there is only one unchanging thing: Jesus. Maybe there's another unchanging thing: Jesus' ability and desire to keep changing me. What I'm finding is that while the change often hurts and takes me places that I'd rather not be, I've never been more fully alive than I am right now. And I'm 30. I think that's saying a lot and it's all an act of His grace in my life. So far, I don't mind being 30 and 21 days because I know Jesus better now and have been changed more by Him than I was when I was 30 and 20 days. Getting old used to worry me, and I did pull my groin while playing basketball the day after I turned 30 which made me feel really old, but I don't think there's any better way to know and love Jesus than to just keep being changed by Him as I live my life everyday. And one day I won't be here anymore and I'll know and love Him better than I ever have.
I turned 30 on February 27. To me, 30 was always the threshold of "old". Somewhere, probably in a box in my parent's basement is a list of things I would like have done before I turned 30. I wish I had that list. I made it when I was around 15 and I can remember a few things on it:
1. Get married (accomplished)
2. Travel to Europe (accomplished)
3. Play semi-pro soccer (not accomplished)
4. Be a missionary in a Muslim country (not accomplished, my wife was though)
5. Learn guitar (accomplished)
6. Skydive (not accomplished)
7. Run a business (accomplished)
8. Be published (accomplished)
9. I'm pretty sure that "Meet Alyssa Milano" was on there too (not accomplished)
I realize that the amount of change that has happened in the last fifteen years is hard to fathom. Heck, the amount of change in me in the last six months is hard to fathom. I think that the only thing I am going to put on my list of things to accomplish before I am 40 is to keep changing. One of the major things I've learned is that there is always more to press into, particularly in my relationship with Jesus, Sheri, my kids, my friends and my church. It's a constant changing, a constant moving. Satisfaction is not an option. Stagnation is unacceptable. Resting in Jesus is important, but even that produces significant change in me.
A lot of people say that they desire stability, something to be constant. I think there is only one unchanging thing: Jesus. Maybe there's another unchanging thing: Jesus' ability and desire to keep changing me. What I'm finding is that while the change often hurts and takes me places that I'd rather not be, I've never been more fully alive than I am right now. And I'm 30. I think that's saying a lot and it's all an act of His grace in my life. So far, I don't mind being 30 and 21 days because I know Jesus better now and have been changed more by Him than I was when I was 30 and 20 days. Getting old used to worry me, and I did pull my groin while playing basketball the day after I turned 30 which made me feel really old, but I don't think there's any better way to know and love Jesus than to just keep being changed by Him as I live my life everyday. And one day I won't be here anymore and I'll know and love Him better than I ever have.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Martin Luther King Jr
"Everybody can be great because anybody can serve...you only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love." -- Martin Luther King Jr.
"Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the ugly as beautiful and the beautiful as ugly and to describe the true with the false and the false with the true." -- Martin Luther King Jr.
I deeply respect people who are willing to put their back against a wall and not back down from what they believe. Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther, Susan B. Anthony, Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill, Jim and Elizabeth Elliot, Martin Luther King Jr -- all people I admire because of their great courage and strength of heart.
Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglas, Medgar Evers, Elizabeth Jennings...all the great civil rights leaders walked down a path that was very much like Jesus. They fought against hatred and bigotry for the cause of justice, love and equality. Situational ethics came very much into play as the question of "Who do I obey -- God or government?" was very real. And many of them died for their cause.
Martin Luther King Jr is a great holiday. We as a nation do well to stop and remember what it is he fought and died for, which in a word, is freedom. There's no more Jesus-like concept than freedom. "It is for freedom Christ set us free." I think MLK would have been great friends with George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Benjamin Franklin. They were all revolutionaries -- and, it seems to me -- he was great friends with Jesus, the greatest Revolutionary of all time.
A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr is a fantastic book.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Troop Surge
I'm not happy about the president's speech on Wednesday night. I think this it is a very unwise move to completely ignore the Iraq Study Group's report as well as the greater portion of the American public (62% at last check). There's a fine line between strong leadership/public servanthood and maniacal stubbornness (maybe it's not that fine at all). I think President Bush is approaching that line.
There is an Old Testament principle that applies here, I think. When a king did not know what to do, he would call for chief counsel: a prophet. It was the prophet's job to go to the Lord on behalf of the king and return with the Word of the Lord for the given situation. When this would go down, the king had better obey the word that the prophet received for him. To not follow it was to invite defeat. I hope that is not what is happening with this situation -- not that the Iraq Study Group is prophetic or anything -- just that the principle seems present.
I read a great quote today: "Mountains appear more lofty and majestic the nearer they are approached. Great leaders resemble this quality not at all." -- Meyers S. Cooper
Thank you for listening to a bit of political rambling on my behalf. I picked this pic up on the Web. It cracked me up. Check out the TV listings on the major networks immediately following Wednesday night's speech.
There is an Old Testament principle that applies here, I think. When a king did not know what to do, he would call for chief counsel: a prophet. It was the prophet's job to go to the Lord on behalf of the king and return with the Word of the Lord for the given situation. When this would go down, the king had better obey the word that the prophet received for him. To not follow it was to invite defeat. I hope that is not what is happening with this situation -- not that the Iraq Study Group is prophetic or anything -- just that the principle seems present.
I read a great quote today: "Mountains appear more lofty and majestic the nearer they are approached. Great leaders resemble this quality not at all." -- Meyers S. Cooper
Thank you for listening to a bit of political rambling on my behalf. I picked this pic up on the Web. It cracked me up. Check out the TV listings on the major networks immediately following Wednesday night's speech.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Thoughts For The New Year
In my estimation, two words are key for this coming year, both personally and corporately as Cornerstone.
Birth.
Beauty.
This Sunday is Vision Sunday, lots more about Birth then.
So, on to Beauty.
I'm colorblind. Have been my whole life. It makes for interesting situations, particularly in the realm of personal fashion. I can see all the colors a normal person can, I just get them mixed up. I think my parents first learned of my "condition" when I was in the first grade. Color-by-number was not my forte. So I was given one of those colorblind dot tests. If you've never seen one, you can check it out here. I only see a 25. The rest are just dots.
Here's the point: because I'm colorblind, I used to think that beauty on a visual level was something that I could not really get or create. Other vantage points like music, writing, and building stuff were all OK, but never anything like painting, photography or drawing.
There's a fundamental flaw in that mode of thinking into which even non-colorblind people step. It is an assumption that beauty is about anything other than a deeper revelation of who God is and that how I interact with beauty has something to do with whether or not something is beautiful.
Don't get me wrong, beauty is subjective -- but also objective. It is both at the same time.
Beauty is objective because God is the source of beauty. Sin, death and Satan are objectively responsible for ugly. Everything God makes is beautiful, and much of God's beauty is as terrifying and/or dark as it is comforting and/or light. For example: an animal sacrifice system, the ocean, fire, the sun, a lion, wind, dirt, caves, boulders, mountains, a Lion (repetition intended), the human brain, the human body, or His Son being tortured and murdered.
Beauty is subjective because how we interact with it is filtered through the lens of our life narrative. How we were raised, what our key temptations are, personal senses of taste, abuse we have suffered, addictions formed, people we like or dislike -- all of these things can tell us something about a beauty experience we are having.
Here's the thing I love about beauty: I don't believe it can be repressed. I believe that beauty is rooted in the character of God and everything He has made and is making bears His stamp, especially people.
About three weeks ago, I went to see Damien Rice in concert. He's one of my favorite artists. Damien is the most honestly real artist I've ever heard. He sings about torturous situations in his life, in deeply emotional, often dark ways. Every concert he releases himself to be re-tortured again. It was one of the most intense, beautiful concert experiences I've ever had. After his last song, he came out for a three song encore -- and I swear, I felt like he was trying to take the audience to a dark, depressing place and leave us there because he sang three of the darkest songs he's ever written. But he couldn't do it. God's beautiful image in Damien Rice was so strong and so real, that there was only beauty. There obviously was not a full release of the beauty that could be there because there was no Jesus in him, but Jesus was definitely there. And it was beautiful.
So, that was a long way of getting to the point that I think Jesus has a lot of beauty for us to learn and experience in 2007. I am praying God will show us more deeply what it means to worship Him "in the beauty of His holiness".
The picture at the top is the most beautiful thing in my life.
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