Category: Life

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Runners and Soldiers

Scripture portrays life as a follower of Jesus as running a race. In 1 Corinthians 9:24, Galatians 2:2, Galatians 5:7, and Hebrews 12:1, we are told to run a good race with discipline and perseverance. Alan Knox has a post on his blog titled, “It’s a long, hard road, but we’re running together,” in which he writes about a group he is a part of that runs trails together. In this post, Alan tells how each member of the group watches out for each other member as they navigate the hazards of running trails. There are roots and rocks that can trip an unsuspecting runner, and the results can be painful or catastrophic. Since trail running can be so dangerous when done alone, running in a group is a necessity. Alan writes of a runner in their group who had knee problems and at one point needed to walk. The entire group walked with her rather than leave her behind.

We are also given the picture in the Bible of being a soldier. Philippians 2:25, 2 Timothy 2:3 & 4, and Philemon 1:2 speak of being a soldier and Romans 13:12 and Ephesians 6:10-13 exhort us to put on our armor. A characteristic of a good army is that they do not leave any of their number behind. Men will risk their own lives to rescue a fallen comrade and bring him back to their lines. When soldiers go to war, they have to know that the person fighting alongside them will give up their lives for them if need be. On the flip side of this, the Church has been called the only army that shoots its own wounded. This should never be.

In our fellowships, we need to remember that God brings people into our lives for a reason. They are there for us to serve them and be a blessing to them, or for us to be served and blessed by them. We are in this race, this war together. We are all at different stages in our spiritual journey. All of us are wounded, some more than others. Some can run a long time at a sprint, while others tire easily and have to walk a lot. Sometimes those who can run faster and longer must adjust their pace to stay with the walkers. Sometimes we may be called on to sacrifice ourselves in order to rescue a fallen brother or sister. Jesus said that the greatest love we could have is the love that causes us to lay down our lives.

We must walk this walk, run this race, fight this war together. If we don’t we give our enemy a foothold to steal, kill, and destroy, and we fail to show the world what God’s love is truly like. God help us to live in love for each other.

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For My “Little” Girl

27 years ago, God blessed us with a little girl. She came into this world the day after I coached a basketball game, and it seemed like she grew up in the gym. This little girl was a whirlwind of activity right from the start, and I’ve always maintained that she was put on this earth to have a good time, and to help others have a good time as well.

It has been an absolute joy and wonder to watch this little girl as she entered school to begin her education, as she entered the teenage years and I was blessed with the opportunity to coach her, as she went to college and began to mature into a young woman, and as she struck out to make her own impact on this world (although we still wish she wasn’t all the way across the country). It has been wonderful to watch how God has worked in her life, and how he continues to work.
Jennie, we are extremely proud of you. You bring joy into our lives simply by being who God made you to be. We pray that your heavenly Father will continue to bless you and hold you in his arms. We love you.
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Doing Great Things For God

When I was growing up, I heard a lot about doing great things for God. In Bible college we were regaled with stories of those alumni who had gone on to be senior pastors in large churches, or youth pastors with large followings, or presidents of Bible colleges. These individuals were held up as the standard. As a teacher and coach in Christian schools, I told my students to dream of doing great things. I dreamed of winning state championships, of having former students and players go on to be leaders. I even dreamed of becoming a college coach and having a huge impact for Christ with my players, all while winning a lot of games.

Fast forward a few years. I now work as a paraprofessional in a middle school and an assistant basketball coach at a local high school. Over the years I have sent out a whole lot of resumes, added to my educational credentials, and done everything else I could to do something great. Nothing panned out. There have been many times when I felt as if I had missed my chance to do great things, to make an impact for God’s Kingdom. I would look at others who did what was considered great, and wonder why it wasn’t me. I felt let down, by God and by myself. I tried to soothe things by being “humble.” You know, the whole “I’m just one of those folks that just tries to serve God any way I can” schtick. I would venture to say that there are a whole lot of Christians who have felt the same way.
Over the past couple of years, through Scripture and the encouragement of my family and close friends, I have come to change my definition of greatness. John Wooden used to tell his teams at UCLA that true greatness consisted of doing the best you can all the time (I know that’s a rough paraphrase, but you get the idea). I believe that is also true in our walk with God. The Father does not expect us to “do great things,” especially as the world defines greatness. He simply asks us to be faithful to the task he has given us. The funny thing is, that actually is doing great things. As followers of the King, and citizens of his Kingdom, we are involved in what C.S. Lewis called an invasion. We are representatives of a King who is in exile, and we are called to bring his Kingdom to bear in a world that is controlled by our enemy. That makes everything we do as followers of Christ significant. We are part of a great story, the story of the restoration of Creation. Jesus said that even giving a cup of cold water in his name was a great thing. Wow. That really changes a lot of things.
Don’t let anyone sell you short. Don’t buy the lie that you are insignificant, and the things you do don’t matter. You are a child of the Creator of the universe, and God’s Spirit lives in you. Your heart has been, and is being transformed. The Father has given you gifts and talents that he wants you to use to bless others. Even if the “only” thing you can do is love others as Jesus has loved you (and that’s really pretty doggone huge when you think about it), you are playing a role in the greatest story ever. You are doing great things.
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In the book, In the Name of Jesus, Henri Nouwen wrote of the temptations faced by leaders in the church, and by the church as a whole. Those temptations are relevance, popularity, and leading.

The first temptation is to be relevant, to be able to do things, to fix things, to take care of things. All of us, individually and corporately, are called to minister to others. It is easy to think that we have to “make a difference” in the lives of the people we serve, and to fall into the belief that that they need us to change them. This is a trap that I have fallen into more than a few times. Nouwen writes that the way to change this thinking is to spend time contemplating the love of the Father for us and learning to grow in our love for him. Instead of worrying about positions on issues of the day, or trying to figure out how best to solve the problems of other people, we “must be rooted in the permanent, intimate relationship with the incarnate Word, Jesus, and they need to find there the source of their words, advice, and guidance.”
The next temptation is to be popular. We all want to be thought well of, to accomplish things that will make folks look at us and applaud. If we were honest with ourselves we would have to admit that a great deal of what we do individually, and a great deal of what is done in the church, is to attract others to ourselves. The answer to this temptation is to remember that “We are not the healers, we are not the reconcilers , we are not the givers of life. We are sinful, broken, vulnerable people who need as much car as anyone we care for.” We all need to remain open and vulnerable to those we serve, keeping in mind that what they need is the love of God. We are simply to love God, and let him love others through us.
The third temptation is the temptation to be powerful. This is possibly the temptation that the church has succumbed to the most. The early church had no political, economic, or cultural power; and it turned the world upside down. Since then the church has bought into the philosophy that the way to change the world is through power. While the church has continued to do great things through the centuries, I wonder how much more good could have been accomplished for the Kingdom if Christians had remembered that our power is from the Spirit of God, and that our warfare is spiritual not physical. As someone who has been in a position of authority over my students and athletes over the years, that temptation has been hard for me to overcome. I still struggle with the tension between loving those I work with and exercising authority when needed.
None of us likes to be powerless. We have been taught to not be weak, or even be seen as week. I appreciate what Nouwen says about powerlessness: “Powerlessness and humility in the spiritual life do not refer to people who have no spine and who let everyone else make decisions for them. They refer to people who are so deeply in love with Jesus that they are ready to follow him wherever he guides them, always trusting that, with him, they will find life and find it abundantly.”
In my own journey, I am learning more and more to love Jesus, to trust him to guide me and give me that abundant life. May we all realize that we are not the ones that change the lives of others. We are simply the vessels that the Father chooses to flow through.
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Hypervigilance

In Gracias! A Latin American Journal, Henri Nouwen told a story of a nun who was visiting in a poor section of Lima, Peru. She had been warned to be very watchful of other people because they would “…grab your money, your purse, and your watch.” She was told to “…take your watch off and put it in your purse and hold your purse tight under your arm.”

The nun did exactly as she was instructed. While riding on a crowded bus, she had to keep a tight hold on the handle to keep her balance. As she was jostled, she noticed her watch on the arm of a young man next to her. As the story goes, she very aggressively took the watch away from the man, only to later find her watch still in her purse. She had stolen an identical watch from the young man on the bus! Her paranoia had caused her to rob an innocent person.
How much of the time are Christians like this nun. We’ve been told that we need to watch out for those ___________________ (just fill in the blank), because they will ________________. They are either a threat to Christianity, to our way of life, or whatever else you can think of. We go through our days afraid, afraid of being corrupted or hurt by others. We have done a good job through the years of holding our life tight and hiding things away to keep them from being “stolen.” In the end, we end up being the thieves.
When we hide the Source of our life away by separating ourselves, or by loudly proclaiming our opposition to the bogeyman of the day, we rob others of the message that there is a God who is a God of grace, who has become one of us so we can be like him, and who is redeeming this world and will put all things right. We rob them of the love that Jesus told us to show to all we come in contact with. We rob them of the opportunity to see people who have been transformed by God’s love and grace, people who are truly different. Like the nun, we steal from others, and then find out later that they really weren’t out to get us.
Jesus gave us the commission to go. We are called to be in this world. Jesus gave us the example when he ate and drank with sinners, so much so that the religious leaders called him a glutton and a drunk. Doesn’t exactly sound like one who was being careful to not associate with the wrong crowd, does it? One of the big differences I see between the church of the first century and the church of today is the church today seems to more known for what it is against, and the early church was know for their love for each other and for those around them.
May we hold our lives more loosely, and freely share the treasure that we have been given.
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New Ways of Community

Bob Edwards left a comment on this post, wondering about a more contemporary expression of community beyond the “going house to house” of the first century church, especially for those with limited mobility. He made the point that we can be blinded to new ideas by trying to hold on to a form that doesn’t necessarily work as well in the 21st Century. I believe that the form is not as important as having devotion to Jesus, and to one another.

Here is the question. What other forms of community are possible, that can meet the needs of different groups of people, and remain true to the ideal of devotion to Christ, and to one another ? Please weigh in.

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Sin

Sin is a popular topic in many Christian circles. Some constantly preach against it. Most agree that it is a problem, and it is. I see a problem with the way a lot of Christians see sin and our relationship to sin. Some believe that we are “just sinners saved by grace.” Many others believe that there are two natures living in us, and that the one we “feed” the most is the one that is stronger. I believe Scripture shows us a different way of looking at sin.

Sin is the force that ruled us before we came to Christ. We were indeed, sinners before we came to faith. Now though, we are a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). We have become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). We have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16), we have a new spirit (Rom. 8:16), and the Spirit of God is in us (1 Cor. 3:16). We are God’s workmanship (Eph. 2:10), we belong to God (1 Pet. 2:9), and we are dead to sin (Rom. 6:11).

Yes, but we still sin! True, but that doesn’t change who we are. Sin is still a force that remains in us, but it is no longer part of our nature. Before we came to Christ, sin told us what to do, and those ways of thinking and seeing the world were ingrained in us. When we become a child of God, sin still dwells in us (Rom. 7:17). It is still there, whispering in our ear and seeking to influence us to act in a way that is incompatible with who we truly are. When we sin, it is not because we are still sinful, but it is because we still sometimes do things according to the old way of thinking.

If I am angry with someone and continue to dwell on that anger and not give it up to God, it is not because I am an angry person, but is because I am acting out of an old script in which I was an angry individual who did not forgive and held on to my anger. I need to realize that kind of anger is not compatible with who I am as a child of God. I need to allow the Spirit to transform my thinking in this area.

When I am proud and think that I am better than others, when I fail to see others as God’s image bearers, when I am selfish in my interactions with others, it is not because I am sinful. It is because I fail to see these sinful actions as not fitting with who I am in Christ. Again, I need to have my mind renewed. The same is true when I fail to trust the love and goodness of my Father. Any time I sin, it is because I have not taken my thoughts captive and run them through the filter of my identity as a child of God.

May the Spirit renew and transform our minds so we increasingly live as the new creations we are!

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Wisdom of Pooh Bear

The other night, Jan and I went to the $2 theater and saw the new Winnie the Pooh. We thoroughly enjoyed it, because we are longtime Winnie the Pooh fans, and because it was a well done film. As usually happens when watching a movie, the wheels started turning in my brain.

What struck me while sitting in the dark was the way the characters related to each other. In the Hundred Acre Wood, there is a wide variety of personalities, with accompanying idiosyncrasies. Each character brings something different to the table, and each has strengths and weaknesses. In spite of all these differences they all get along. As the story unfolded, there were misunderstandings, miscommunication, and a lot of times when one character would do something that would cause a huge disruption. Through all of the coming and going, no matter what happened, the entire Hundred Acre Wood community was characterized by love, grace, and acceptance. No matter how many times Tigger bounced into a scene and created havoc, there were no harsh words spoken. Even though Owl was a pompous windbag at times, no one was critical. Every time there was potential for conflict, it ended with grace and forgiveness. In the end, each of the characters contributed from their strengths and the goal toward which they had been working was reached.
I know that Winnie the Pooh is a children’s story, and some may say that it presents an idealistic view of how things could be in order to teach. Think about it. Jesus said that we enter the Kingdom by becoming like a little child. In the Kingdom, we each bring our weaknesses and quirks, as well as our gifts. We are told to let our relationships with others be full of grace and love. We are told to forgive without end. We are told to look out for each other’s interests ahead of our own, as Pooh did when he put his hunt for honey on hold to help rescue Christopher Robin. We are told to lay down our lives for each other.
Winnie the Pooh may be a children’s story, but I believe there are a lot of lessons there.
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Forgiveness and Wholeness

The readings this week in the Mosaic Bible are on forgiveness. In one of the selections, Bill Senyard writes:

“Think about this. If the victim and the perpetrator are both, by faith, made whole-
imagine the new dynamics between them and with others. The result is a new creation-
a community that looks strangely fearless, vulnerable, and intimate. Of the present fruit
of the passion of Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:18), I would suggest that this is one of the most
neglected.
Many Scriptures describe what redeemed relationships could now look like in Jesus
Christ – husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and workers. If each party is
redemptively healed, then relationships take on a radical trajectory – for no one needs to
steal, to use, to abuse. In the end, only forgiven people are free to give to others with
abandon.”
I agree with Senyard that the most neglected, even forgotten, part of forgiveness is reconciliation. We are taught, rightly so, that God forgives us our sins, and therefore God will not punish us. That is true, but I believe that God’s forgiveness does more than take away our guilt and punishment. According to 2 Corinthians 5:18, God has reconciled us to himself through Christ. One of the aspects of our forgiveness is reconciliation with God. Our relationship with him is redeemed and we are healed. We are made whole.
Because we are forgiven, we are to forgive others. As Senyard writes, only the forgiven are free to give to others with abandon. An important part of forgiving others is reconciliation. If I am wronged by someone, and I don’t seek to be reconciled and see both of us made whole, am I truly forgiving? Am I whole if my relationship with others is not whole? Some who wrong me may have no desire to be reconciled. I believe that I should still go to them and make the attempt. If they do not wish to be made whole, then I have no further responsibility, but I can at least try. In that attempt, I believe healing will take place in my own heart.
Another part of seeking wholeness is making sure that we are blameless in our relationships. Sometimes we are guilty of sinning against others. Either we truly don’t know about the offense, or we are so wrapped up in ourselves that we don’t recognize what we have done. If my relationship with my wife is strained, and I don’t go to her and find out what the problem is and seek forgiveness and reconciliation, can I really say that I love her? By the same token, if my relationship with a brother or sister is strained and I have even an inkling that I may have sinned against them, I am to go to them and do what I can to make it right. If I don’t, can I really say that I love them?
Jesus gives both parties in a relationship responsibility to maintain the health of that relationship. In Matthew 5:23-24, he teaches the responsibility of the one who commits an offense. In Matthew 18 Jesus gives us the responsibility of one who has been wronged. In the passage in 2 Corinthians, Paul states that we who have been forgiven and made whole have been given a ministry of reconciling others to God. I believe that part of that ministry is bringing wholeness to our relationships with others, which brings wholeness to us and to them.
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Qualities of a Learner 4

This is the final post in a series on qualities of a learner. In part 1 we looked at being caring and principled. Part 2 was about being open minded, a thinker, and knowledgeable. In part 3 we looked at being reflective, inquiring, and a communicator. This time I want to look at the qualities of balance and risk taking.

A learner of Jesus should be balanced. This is another dirty word for some. Some see balance as being wishy-washy and not passionate about anything. That is not how I see balanced. Someone who is a follower of Jesus is going to be seen as unbalanced by many in the world. The source of our passion in life is Jesus, and our wholehearted devotion is to him alone. I see balanced as being able to experience all of the myriad ways God blesses us, and the ways we worship him. It can be easy for someone who is an active, serving individual to neglect and even disparage contemplation and study. It can also be easy for a contemplative to neglect action. There are many ways for us to relate to the Father and to draw near to him, and we should be open to those at different times in our lives.
Lastly, the learner of Jesus must be a risk taker. Considering what Jesus said about what would happen to his followers, we should realize that simply throwing in our lot with Christ is taking a risk. We risk when we tell those around us that we owe allegiance to the King of Kings, and no other. We risk when we don’t go along with the powers that be. Those actually may be somewhat easy for some. What many of us find hard is the risk taken in loving others and laying down our lives for them. That is risky because relationships can be messy. If I am not willing to risk rejection and pain, then my relationships will never be as deep as my Master desires them to be. It is risky for me to go to a brother or sister and ask their forgiveness, because they may refuse. It is also risky to go to another and tell them how they have sinned against me. They may well turn that around and hurt me further. My responsibility is not to change them or win them over. My responsibility is to trust my Abba to take care of me and throw myself on his love and grace as I seek to be reconciled. It may not turn out the way I want, but the One who created the universe can redeem any situation, no matter how hard.
Jesus, help those of us who are your followers to be caring, thoughtful, open minded communicators who are principled in our lives. Help us to not fear to take risks, to be knowledgeable inquirers who take time to reflect on you. In all this give us the balance that comes from living in your presence.