R3: radical, revolutionary, different

There’s no question that sometimes God doesn’t move as fast as we’d like him to.  Maybe we’re waiting for a friend to be healed, or a family member to be encouraged, or sometimes we just don’t have the strength to keep fighting.  It’s in those moments that we can’t understand where God is, and why he hasn’t “shown up.”  And so fear and doubt begin to creep into our minds.  But God’s perspective is different than ours, and that means he sometimes sees things differently than we do.  He hasn’t forgotten us, or abandoned us, we just need to be patient and trust him.

Patience - or “Why I hate sitting at red lights”

God - help me to be more patient.  Help me to trust you more.  Because I certainly don’t wait for you like I should.  I want to always be going, and never have to slow down or stop.  I don’t want to wait, because I’m in too much of a hurry.  Help me to understand that sometimes the reason I need to wait is that I’m not ready for what you’re going to do.  That I need time to grow into someone who can handle the amazing ways you act.  Remind me when I’m impatient that maybe the reason I need to wait is for my own good, for my own safety.  And that by waiting for you, you’re making sure I’m not hit broadside by something unplanned.

<comments are open, feel free to add your own prayer for patience>

I tend to be one of those “data driven” types.  You know the kind - they only believe what they can experience.  Which means I have a hard time believing outrageous stories.  So despite all the evidence, despite all the eyewitness testimony, I simply couldn’t believe the stories I heard.  But now I can assure you, it’s all true.  It really is that difficult to switch your cable TV package.   (All it took was talking to 8 people to get my cable working.)

Every time I was blindly transferred to someone it made me think the cable company was more interested in forcing me to talk to certain people and agree to certain things than serving me.  Each time I repeated my phone number to some new person I found myself wondering: do we make church like this?  Do we make getting to know Jesus such a challenge that people lose interest?  Do we chase away people who want to know God because we make them jump through hoops?

Lets face it - no one enjoys talking to the cable company.  It’s not fun to get indirect answers and insincere promises from a business.  So what makes us think someone would like being treated that way when it comes to church?

Now I don’t think most churches (or cable companies) really want to make life more difficult for people.  It’s just kind of what happens.  For companies it’s easier to put in automated phone lines than pay people to answer the phone.  Sure it causes frustration to the customer, but it saves on the bottom line.  Which means they have a decision to make: do we streamline customer support?  Or do we save money?  The way a company answers those types of questions determines the message they send.  It shows the world what they consider a priority. 

Churches aren’t any different.  Maybe we require people to dress a certain way, or talk a certain way, or believe a certain thing before we’re willing to spend time with them.  It’s unintentional for most churches.  But it still happens.  Every time we choose worship style over Jesus we’re telling the world where our priorities lie. 

We’re telling them that it’s not God that counts, but our religion.

Somewhere along the way a handful of churches decided that clothing was next to Godliness.  While another handful decided that loud rock music determines our “commitment” to God.  What started out as our individuality in Christ became our definition of Christ.  We’ve started sending the message, “if you don’t like it, then maybe this isn’t the place for you.”

That doesn’t sound like Jesus to me. 

Our differences are important.  Our passions make us unique.  But maybe it’s time we all decided that it’s more important to connect people to Jesus than to make them jump through the hoops of our differences and passions.  Maybe everyone doesn’t have to agree on all the details, as long as we agree on who Jesus is and what he means for our lives.  Maybe church doesn’t have to be so complicated.  Maybe it’s time to serve first, and ask questions second.

Or maybe we should just get into the cable business.

Imagine what it must have been like for Israel on the verge of entering the Promised Land.  They had been wondering in the wilderness for 40 years, and now God was just about to fulfill his promise.  But before they could enter the land, Moses had some final thoughts for them.  In that speech Moses laid out where they had come from, why they were there, and where they were going.  He wanted them to understand just how important the next part of their history would be.  It would have been an exciting time to have been an Israelite.

And in that speech Moses told the Israelites was to “Observe [the laws] carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people’” (Deuteronomy 4: 6)

In that one sentence Moses really captures a lot about how to live a life of faith.

• Wisdom is not simply knowledge but action - the Israelites not only had to know the law, but live it.
• Talking about living a life of faith is entirely different than living a life of faith.
• Following God is the surest way of “proving” that he exists - when our lives are filled with God, people can’t help but wonder why we’re so different!

People respond to God when they can see him in our lives.  It was true 4,000 years ago, and it’s still true today.

Have you ever stopped to think about the amazing things people have created?  Just look at the skyscrapers we build, the planes we fly, and even the computers we use.  It’s simply amazing.  We can easily draw the conclusion that what God needs is more of our success.  More of our brilliance.  And more of our strengths.  (e.g., Deuteronomy 9)

Yet that’s not really what God uses to change the world.  Instead, he uses our weaknesses to show the world his strengths.

weakness is our strength

God - it’s easy for me to get wrapped up in my own ideas of brilliance, of what I think I need to do, and what I need to provide.  But you don’t need any of that, because you specialize in taking the weak to humble the strong.  Help me to see that it’s in my weakness and humility that you do the most radical things.  Help me to never lose sight of this, so that I am never afraid to take a risk for you. 

I don’t need to be perfect, because that’s not what you ask me to be.  You simply ask me to be faithful, and trusting.

<comments are open>

One of the best parts of R3 is when I hear from readers.  And today was no exception.  Last week I wrote about the importance of community, and Beth Lorow of ex(PR)essed - the best named blog on the internet - added her thoughts to that: 

You know…my experience with community is that the church, or at least what it’s supposed to be, provides community no matter the location. I certainly didn’t feel a sense of community right after I packed up and moved to Harrisburg. But, eight years later, and I’m starting to feel those bonds. And it’s ok that it took that long because for many years it was just me and God. And that was ok too. He prepared me so that I would really savor/relish/embrace community once I found it.

I never know what to do when I meet someone who is homeless.  I find myself torn between two desires.  On the one hand I want to “make a difference.”  I want to help this person, because I recognize their suffering, and no one should have to suffer alone.  But at the same time I don’t think it does any good to give someone money if they are just going to use it on drugs or alcohol.  That’s not help.  Yet the Bible is filled with examples of generous love being given to people who don’t deserve it.  So how do you respond?  How do you walk the razor’s edge?

This weekend I was reminded of my dilemma.  While eating out with some friends we were approached by a homeless man.  He was clearly on drugs, and he admitted as much when he asked for money.  After an awkward pause we refused to help him.

I honestly don’t know if this was the right answer.  Maybe there was something more we could have done.  But this wasn’t our first conversation with this man.  Only a few weeks earlier he had asked us for the same thing (bus money).  Back then it was clear that he was on drugs.  At that time we decided to reach out to him, spend some time with him, and see if we could help.  As we talked to him (and bought him lunch) we offered to get him help that would make a difference.

He admitted he needed to clean up his life, but refused our help.  Insisting that all he “really” needed was some bus money and sleep.  It struck me then, as it did this week, that this is someone who knows he has a problem.  He’s not an idiot.  He doesn’t want to live on the streets.  And yet he keeps making the same decisions.  He keeps turning to the drugs and lifestyle that prevents him from getting the help he knows he needs.

In other words, he sounds just like me.

The only difference is my homelessness isn’t physical, it’s spiritual.  I may look great on the outside, but I know if I don’t guard myself, my soul all too easily becomes corrupted.  If I don’t constantly seek out help I can become angry, resentful, and filled with pride.  When I don’t take the help that’s offered to me my heart becomes hard, and some of the light goes out of my life.

While believing in Jesus is all that is required to be “saved”, that’s not all that God wants for us.  He doesn’t want the bare minimum.  He wants us to grow and to be changed.  Unfortunately we sometimes reject that path.  We sometimes tell God, “yes I understand my life is filled with sin.  But I just don’t want to change.”  And that’s a dangerous place to be.

It’s easy to look at someone less fortunate and feel pity for them.  It’s easy to start feeling superior.  But I think in some ways this homeless man has an easier path - at least he knows he’s homeless.  How often do I think everything is great in my life, when in fact my soul is homeless?

A few weeks back I read an advance copy of Erwin McManus’ new book Wide Awake. Out of this I began to consider my own nonnegotiables. In other words, the things that I’m simply not willing to give up.

As I’ve been thinking about that for the last few weeks I’m convinced one of them is community.

For many years I lived virtually isolated (by choice, circumstance, and distance) from friends and family. Virtually overnight I went from having a vibrant community of friends to having almost no one. To say it was devastating would be an understatement.

But like so many things in life, God took that moment and changed it’s meaning. He took something that was horrible and changed my perspective on it. He showed me how important it is to reach out to people who are suffering, especially those doing it alone. My heart breaks when I hear that someone had to go through a major event by themselves - no one should have to do that.

I think the early church new this instinctively.

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2: 42-47)

Usually this passage is discussed in terms of money. (The believers did, of course, sell “their possessions and goods.”) But I think that misses part of the story, the part about community. The believers didn’t simply sell their belongings, they also “continued to meet together” and they “ate together.” They never lost the fact that they were in community with each other.

It’s not a coincidence that God is described as a personal God. It’s not chance that we refer to him as “Father.” We were never designed to live in isolation. We only can reach our full potential when we’re living in community with others.

Of course that’s easier said than done. Sometimes maintaining community comes at a cost. For the early church it cost them many of their possessions. But they weren’t willing to sacrifice their community. They were willing to make that choice. And I think that’s what I should aspire to. Even if I don’t always feel like it.

Sometimes I think about how easy it should have been for the Israelites to follow God.  They had the benefit of all these miracles, and people like Moses and David.  Yet they could never get their act together.  They could never manage to follow the basic rules God laid out. 

To be honest, it frustrates me.  Especially because when I imagine myself in their shoes, it seems so easy to follow God.  ”He doesn’t need to tell me the same thing twice!” I tell myself.  “After all, how many times do you need to see a miracle to believe?!”

But it’s not that easy.

At least not when I start looking a little more closely at how I live my own life.  How many things have I started with the best intentions but they fell through in the end?  Anyone who has ever tried to stick to a diet can relate to this, I think.  Just because there are specific rules involved doesn’t mean it’s easier.  Just because we know we should do something, doesn’t mean we will.  Sometimes the chocolate cake just looks too good to pass up.

That’s what makes the “good news” of the gospel so amazing.  We no longer have to live under the law, because Jesus fulfilled that law.  We aren’t judged by how many rules we’ve broken, but by our relationship with God.  And there can’t be better news than that! 

The more I look at my own life, the more I realize I can’t do this on my own.  Especially since I can barely stay away from McDonald’s when I’m on a workout schedule.  How much harder when my soul’s fate rests on a law?

I admit it -  I definitely prefer to know more about God than to live like God.  I find it fun and exciting to learn about who God is, what he’s done and what that means.  But I find it scary to live a life of sacrifice, and intimidating to love my enemies. 

I prefer knowledge to action.

But that’s not always a good thing.  So today, instead of an interesting post or a good argument, I’m simply going to ask you one question and encourage you to answer it on your own.

What’s the one action you can take this weekend to show someone that God is real?

The LORD said to Aaron, “You, your sons and your father’s family are to bear the responsibility for offenses against the sanctuary, and you and your sons alone are to bear the responsibility for offenses against the priesthood. (Numbers 18: 1)

Talk about some serious responsibility!  How would you like to know that you are literally responsible for every time someone else screws up?  I can barely keep my own life together, how would I manage to bear the responsibility for someone else?  And yet, the Levites were “to be responsible for the care of the sanctuary and the altar, so that wrath will not fall on the Israelites again.” (Numbers 18: 5)

God seems to work that way.  He seems to give us bigger burdens when we succeed. 

Paul was arrested and drug off to the court in Jerusalem.  While being both physically and verbally attacked in front of the court, he gave his testimony about Jesus. For his reward, Jesus told him, “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.” (Acts 23: 11)

Jesus specifically told Paul to “take courage” because he was going to make Paul go through this all again.  But this time in front of a bigger crowd.  Paul’s reward for being faithful and obedient was to be given an even more difficult task.

Don’t think that God simply demands things though.  In fact he rewards us generously.  For the Levites he promised that in exchange for their great responsibility they would receive ”all the finest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain they give the LORD as the firstfruits of their harvest.  All the land’s firstfruits that they bring to the LORD will be yours.” (Numbers 18: 12-13)

God may ask a lot from us.  But he also generously rewards us.