I don’t know about you, but I personally love funny things. I grew up reading The Far Side, Calvin and Hobbes, and many more. Now, thanks to the internet we get to see a whole new crop of cartoonists. It’s nice to see that Christians can get in on the act as well. So enjoy a little holiday laughter….
Comic created by ReverendFun.com
Being a Christian means stepping into dangerous situations. We’re called to care for the sick and needy, and to comfort the hurting. Unfortunately this doesn’t always come with a hall pass. Which means, sometimes Christians end up facing hardship, persecution, and death. But that doesn’t mean we can give up. In fact, the more we stick to it in the face of danger, the more we show people the power of Christ.
Courage
God - I’m a coward. I know it. You know it. Help me to step into the places you call me to, despite the danger. Don’t let my fear be the reason the Kingdom doesn’t advance. Help me to remember that the harder the task, the more I need to rely on you. And maybe, just maybe, that’s the point.
<comments are open, feel free to add your own prayer for courage>
It’s hard work to maintain a relationship with anyone. And it’s not any easier to maintain a relationship with God. Fortunately there are a few things you can do to keep that relationship healthy. A few weeks ago I talked about the ups and downs of faith. In that post I mentioned some of the questions I ask myself when I’m feeling distant from God. (Am I working on being connected to God? Am I still praying? Do I read my Bible regularly? Am I writing down my thoughts as I pray or read? Am I following through on what I sense God is telling me?)
All of those are important questions, but today I want to take a closer look at some specific actions I take to develop that relationship. Namely, whether I’m writing down my thoughts as I pray or read. I’ve found keeping a book filled with random thoughts and notes has been really helpful. Sometimes those initial thoughts turn into a more fully developed post on R3. Other times what I wrote influenced my own behaviors or thoughts. But my favorite moments are when I asked God to do something - and he did!
There’s something powerful about writing down a prayer, and seeing (in black and white) that it came true. This is especially true when you’re feeling distant from God. It’s all too easy to convince ourselves that God has somehow not lived up to his end of the bargain. Or to forget all those times God miraculously came to our rescue. We tend to ignore the good things he’s done, and focus on the bad things in our lives.
Not everything I write down is useful, or even relevant. Some of the stuff doesn’t make any sense. And I have to wonder what I was thinking. But that’s not really the point. My goal is to have a way that God and I can communicate. Not to have a perfectly written paper! I figure, if God is telling me something important, it’s probably a good idea to write it down. Even if that means sometimes I just write down my own cluttered thoughts.
Faith is about maintaining a relationship with God, that keeps you focused and centered on Kingdom goals. You can’t do that if you’re not willing to carry on a conversation with God. Plus, in my experience, it’s never God who leaves the conversation.
Keeping track of my thoughts just makes sure I remember all the awesome things God does for me on a daily basis.
Gideon made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family” (Judges 8: 27)
I’ve been thinking a lot about wealth and power, and I think I’m finally coming to the point in my life where I can honestly say I don’t want any. There was a time where I would have loved to have been famous, or at least well known. The thought of being influential and remembered in history was exciting. (I still smile when I think about school kids 200 years from now trying to remember trivial facts about my life.) It would also be nice to not have to worry about money.
But as I sit here thinking about those things, I just don’t want the trouble that comes with wealth and power. I can barely manage my own problems, I don’t need any more. And wealth and power seem to bring a lot of problems. Consider that the Steelers are going through ownership struggles. The Steelers founder gave a share of ownership to each of his sons, and that’s been passed down the line. Now one brother (Dan Rooney) is trying to buy out the other brothers. For a variety of reasons neither side is happy with the other. And a sale doesn’t look promising, which means no Rooney will own the team their father/grandfather founded. They make sacrifice the family legacy, break the hearts of millions of fans, all for a few million dollars. Is money worth that kind of legacy?
Or if you’re a music fan just look at the divorce hearings of Phil Collins or Paul McCartney. I’m not in a position to say how much money the ex wives deserved or didn’t deserve. But there’s no question the divorces would have been less acrimonious and less public if there wasn’t so much money at stake. Money makes you do funny things.
We are all vulnerable to it’s influence. Even people God personally selects to do amazing things, like Gideon. After living a life that God used to save thousands of lives, Gideon gives it all away for wealth and power. The wealth he accumulates becomes “a snare to Gideon and his family”
Jesus said “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” I don’t think that’s because money is evil. I think it’s because money changes who we are. And I’m not sure I want to take that risk.
Whenever I look at someone I assume they don’t feel the same kind of pressures I do. That somehow they are immune from the stress I feel, or the fear that paralyzes me when I don’t know what to do. This is especially true when I’m watching someone famous, important, or brilliant.
It’s easy to forget that we’re all susceptible to stress.
Which is why the following video seems so surprising. How can the Georgian President be nervously chewing his tie? Isn’t he famous? Don’t world leaders just naturally know what to do? But clearly he’s terrified. Just like you or I would be if in similar circumstances.
Life is filled with the unexpected, as I’m sure the Georgian President understands all too well. And the more we are willing to follow God, the more unexpected life becomes. You see, God has a way of calling us to do things that seem so overwhelming, and yet as we step into that moment we seem to be perfectly created just for those tasks.
That’s kind of a common theme around R3. Despite that, I always seem to come back to the same questions. Where do we find the strength to keep on going? How do you keep on fighting when everyone else around you has given up? How is it that some Christians seem to crack, while others endure brutal hardships?
The only answer I can come up with is ”God.” Nothing else can hold up its end of the bargain. Everything - money, love, Fido the family dog - will let us down at one point or another. Only God remains steadfast. Only God is always there for us. The trick is in remembering that when it feels that the world is caving in around us.
I’ve been sitting around all day wondering how I was going to write an introduction to this post. What could I say that would add more impact? Then it occurred to me, maybe I should just let the comment speak for itself. So here it is - I received this in response to some of the ideas discussed in the ups and downs of faith. Naturally these reader comments are more insightful than my own. Don’t you just hate that?!
As far as R3 goes.. I can see why you wouldn’t want to write, and I can totally relate to feeling like if you did it’d be a fraud, but I think that writing in times like this is just what R3 is about :o]. I mean, R3 is a blog where people learn how to live out a life of faith. How else can we learn to live out a life of faith if our faith isn’t tested at times, if we don’t want to just throw in the towel some times, if we don’t want to give up and call our losses? I think that this time in your life is the perfect time to be writing on R3. I think that you should talk to your readers about what you’re going through and by telling your readers what you’re going through they may see what it is that they need most - a demonstration of what it looks like to live a life of faith. And that, in my opinion, is more impactful than hearing someone write when things aren’t hard (not to say that those writings aren’t important - but I’m sure you know what I mean :o]).
There are days (like today) that I don’t feel much like writing. In fact, there are days when I don’t really feel much like doing this “Christian thing” at all. This isn’t surprising; we all go through times like this. Sometimes we even do it more than once. CS Lewis captures this up and down during a conversation between Screwtape (a senior demon in the bureaucracy of Hell) and Wormwood (his nephew). Screwtape says, ”Now it may surprise you to learn that in [God’s] efforts to get permanent possession of a soul, He relies on the troughs even more than on the peaks; some of His special favorites have gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else.” (The Screwtape Letters
I find that encouraging and depressing all at the same time.
I want faith to be simple. I want it to be easy. But it’s not. Faith is a relationship, not a scientific equation. Some days it “feels” more real, more intense, more exciting than other days. It’s on those “other days” where we need to be aware that our relationship with God may be strained, and be ready to act.
When I feel this distance, there are a few questions I ask myself. Am I working on being connected to God? Am I still praying? Do I read my Bible regularly? Am I writing down my thoughts as I pray or read? Am I following through on what I sense God is telling me?
There are other questions I could ask myself, but usually the answer lies in one of these questions. The more I answer “no” to these questions, the further I feel from God. I would never expect a strong and healthy relationship with a friend if I never talked to them, never wrote to them, and ignored them when they called. Why would God be any different?
Those disciplines are important in my life. Not because they are the secrets to getting into heaven, but because they are important to simply developing healthy relationships. All relationships take hard work, even ones with God.
What started as a way for early Christians to express their faith, has morphed into a ridiculous cultural battlefield. The most popular counter-fish being the Darwin Fish (which, you have to admit, is pretty clever). Of course there are hundreds of counter-fish. Some are better than others. Like this fish, which I saw in the parking lot at the gym. Frankly, I think it made me hungry….
I was thinking about something today, and it’s not exactly theology, so humor me for a bit. As much as I’ve tried to escape the reality of age, I am finally coming to the depressing conclusion I’m getting older. I have reached that stage of my life where my body simply doesn’t respond like it once did. (And it never returns my phone calls.)
Some of you know what I’m talking about. Others of you are just waiting for me to discuss walking uphill both ways in the snow. (By the way, I did this when I was going to high school - there was a valley between my house and the HS.) As my body changes, the way I think about things is also changing. You see, sitting here typing this is causing me physical pain because I have an old chair.
Until recently I had never given any consideration to my posture, how I sit, or certainly not what I sit on. But that’s changing. The obvious solution is to buy a new chair. And that would be great, if I hadn’t just resigned from my job. So right now I can’t afford to buy some fancy, comfortable, ergonomically correct chair.
When I chose to resign I knew there would be sacrifice involved. Although this wasn’t exactly what I expected!
As I sit here thinking about my chair, my job, and my back I can’t help but realize I’m still in better financial shape than 99% of the world’s population. At least I have a chair to sit on. This is forcing me to think about the so-called “less fortunate.” Have I ever stopped to consider the physical pain they go through because they can’t afford new clothes, a warm bed, or even a car to get to work? Have I stopped to wonder what random issues they have because they don’t have the money they need?
For the first time I think I’m starting to understand that suffering sometimes happens just because we can’t afford to “upgrade” the things we have. That it’s not simply about “not having” but also about not have the right things. Owning a pair of shoes doesn’t do you any good if they are a size too small.
Like I said, this isn’t exactly theological in nature. Just an observation about the weird ways life (and God) teaches you important lessons.
A certain cable company (rhymes with “Time Warner”) has been causing me difficulties ever since I decided to downgrade my cable subscription. Each day it seems to get worse.
Now I find myself with a choice: On the one hand I’m furious. There’s a big part of me that wants to scream, “I didn’t cause any of this, why do I have to deal with it?!” On the other hand I just wrote a prayer to God asking for patience. Apparently God was listening, because there’s no doubt now have the perfect opportunity to work on my patience!
As Christians we’re called to live differently. We aren’t supposed to respond like someone who doesn’t have that relationship with God. Our lives are supposed to have a different feel to them. Or as Jesus says, people will recognize our faith by the “fruit” we produce. (Matthew 7: 20). The problem is, at least for me, I don’t always want to live that way. I don’t always want to respond calmly, or patiently, and certainly not lovingly. Sometimes I just want to get in there and argue to “prove” just how right I am.
But is this how Christians are supposed to act?
The times Jesus lost his temper with people were the times they were dishonoring God. It was never when they were struggling with their own problems, or their own sins. Jesus always had love, mercy, and compassion for those people. And that’s how we have to deal with people as well.
No one at the cable company was trying to ruin my service intentionally. No one wanted me to have a bad day. In fact, their whole job involves listening to angry customers yell at them. What kind of a toll does that take on someone? So while I was angry I took this as an opportunity to minister to people. While I never said, “hey I’m a Christian, God loves you!” I did try to be calm, not raise my voice, and get things handled in a civil way. It was an opportunity to submit to service, rather than exercise my pride (something I do all too often).
Christians aren’t called to be walked all over, but we’re not called to be jerks either.
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