R3: radical, revolutionary, different

Humility.  That’s what 2008 means to me. 

Professionally I find myself entering 2009 without a job.  The first time that’s happened since I was about 12.  This presents challenges and opportunities.  It’s challenging because more of my pride and self-identity are wrapped-up in working than I realized.  It’s hard to let go of that.  It’s also hard to let go of the money and sense of security a job brings.  But it’s also an opportunity.  I now have the time to visit friends.  I have a chance to learn new things.  And I also am in position to explore new writing and speaking opportunities. 

By allowing myself to be humbled, instead of rebelling in pride, I’ve been able to see the good as well as the bad.  Humility has a way of allowing us to realistically deal with the bad, while not losing sight of the promises God makes to us.  I’m not going to say this process was easy, but I will say it was worth it. 

On the personal side, writing R3 has been humbling in it’s own way.  Receiving feedback, (mostly positive!), knowing people are interested in what I write, and the slow realization that people get upset when I miss a scheduled post (you know who you are!), has all come as a bit of a shock.  Sometimes it even feels surreal.

But the most humbling aspect of R3 has to be the fact that writing for all of you is a huge honor.  One that I don’t take lightly, nor do I take it for granted.  I feel a sense of responsibility for R3 and of teaching what I think God is doing in my life.  Or, as Spider-Man once said, “with great power comes great responsibility.” 

All of this leads me to one last thought for 2008 – one of the themes I’ve touched on time and again is the idea that God can take anything and turn it into an important lesson.  Pain, suffering, joy, excitement – they all can teach us about God.  Every lesson we learn brings us one step closer to our creator.  It doesn’t matter if we’re losing our jobs or getting $100,000 raise.  In every instance there is something we can learn about God.   

We may not know what lessons we will learn in 2009.  And I am sure they will often be unexpected, taught to us by sadness and happiness, calmness and activity.  But we can always count on God turning even the greatest disaster into an opportunity to learn more about him. 

Which is why in everything that we do, we must strive to learn how to live out a life of faith.  A life that is ready to do great things for the Kingdom.  Because that’s really the point of everything, isn’t it. 

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As I’ve mentioned a couple times on R3, I will not have a job come January.  Knowing that has been an interesting experience.  But maybe not in the way you would expect. 

I find I’m focusing more on the things I have than the things I don’t.  I’m also realizing all of the things that used to bother me, such as not having a house, are now blessings.  (No house = No mortgage payments)  

The biggest challenge has been learning to not buy things for myself.  Games, books, CD’s, movie tickets, that sort of stuff.  Things that I never really gave much thought to, are now out of reach.  So what does this have to do with Christmas?  Well, for the first time, in a very long time, I’m really excited about Christmas.  I am now being given presents that I could never afford on my own.  Even simple gifts such as a CD or a book is a big deal, and I am grateful for each and everything I have received.

Sometimes we think the solution to all of our problems is money or comfort.  That if we could only get more stuff, then we’d be happy.  Yet I’m learning that’s not true at all.  Sometimes the best thing that can happen to us is to struggle.  Because it’s in those moments we are forced to rely on God.  And anytime we trust God, miracles happen.

So I may soon be without a job, but even in the midst of that, God is working miracles.  I am learning things I never expected.  Funny how God works like that.

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We’ve all heard the story of Jesus’ birth.  We know that he was born into a family of humble origins.  That he was born in a manger because his parents couldn’t find a room.  We know that Mary was a virgin, and that it was through a great leap of faith she had Jesus.

But whenever I hear this story, I find myself thinking about Joseph. 

Often we hear this story told from the perspective of Mary or the Wise Men, or even Jesus.  And those are all good ways of looking at this story.  But I think sometimes we lose sight of Joseph’s profound faith.  Remember, he was well within his rights, by Jewish law, to have Mary put to death for adultery.  They had been pledged to be married, and instead she was pregnant. 

Yet he didn’t. 

Instead Joseph trusted a dream he had was from God.  Joseph trusted that God was doing something special, and that even though he didn’t understand, he would act in faith.  All of this means Joseph must have been quite a man to have put his faith in God like that, especially in an honor and shame culture.  After all, Mary knew she hadn’t “known” anyone.  Joseph, on the other hand, had to take her word for it (and of course, the message he received from God).

It would have been easy for him to begin believing the rumors that must have been swirling in such a small community.  You can’t keep secrets like that in a small town.  Yet Joseph remained faithful to both God and Mary.   

There are many times I hear about a tragedy or some extreme act of heroism and I would like to think I would have acted the same.  I’d like to think that when push really comes to shove, I’d be willing to trust God over everything.  But would I?  Would I be able to marry someone who said they were pregnant, but the child was God’s?  Would I believe God spoke to me in a dream?  Or would I believe the snide comments being made by my neighbors?

I will never know.  But I think there’s a really good chance I would have chalked that dream up to a bad slice of pizza.

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Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. (Luke 15: 1-7)

The parable of the lost sheep is one of the most famous parables in the entire Bible.  It’s the first of a collection of stories where Jesus emphasize the value God places on each of us.  As we approach Christmas it’s easy to lose sight of that.  It’s easy to develop a sense of entitlement and “I deserve this” attitudes.  Being with family might even make that easier!

But Jesus reveals something astonishing.  Saying, “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” 

Can you imagine?!  No matter what you’re doing, or how you’re celebrating, or who you are, God wants to find you.  He wants to have a relationship with you.  Can you imagine?!

We often think of Christmas in terms of gifts, vacations and lots of food.  Which, frankly, are all good things.  But to God, Christmas means something a little bit different.  To bring us back into the flock, God sent his son knowing that he would have to die a horrible death.  God was willing to sacrifice everything to find us. 

I’m not sure I’ll ever stop being amazed at that.   

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We all want certainty.  We all want absolute answers.  Turn on the television and you’ll see shows like CSI or Monk, offering us “what happened” in a neat, 60-minute, package.  Science and math also push us, promising complete understanding of the universe’s natural wonders. 

But as humans there is only so much we can know.  We don’t always have the luxury of using numbers and scientific study to address our problems.  Sometimes we face choices where we can only guess at the right answer.  And until someone builds a time machine, or rides shotgun with Dr. Who, it will always be that way.

No matter how much we pray, and I do believe God answers prayers, there will still be room for uncertainty.  No matter how many archeological digs there are, or studies of the original Biblical texts, we will not know if Arminianism or Calvinism is truly correct.

Part of this is simply because God is less concerned with us knowing who, what, when, where and how as much as he wants us to know why.  God’s emphasis for our lives is learning why we do what we do.  He wants us to know why we follow him.  Which is the reason he asks us to let him worry about the rest of the details.

Of course that’s always easier said than done.  As I mentioned we’re buffeted day-in and day-out by promises of knowing for sure.  I think this even explains why UFO conspiracies are so popular.  We’ve convinced ourselves that someone must know, and they just aren’t talking.  If only we can push the right people to talk, then we’ll know.

But humans were never designed to know everything.

This, I think, is partly revealed in the name God gives himself, “I AM.”  As L. T. Jeyachandran says in Beyond Opinion, God is his own frame of reference.  In other words God has a completely unique view of things, that nothing else shares.  The rest of us define our lives by other people, only God defines himself by, well, himself.  (Christians call this the Trinity, not to be confused with the Matrix Trinity)

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t easy to accept.  I like to know with certainty more than most people.  I’m even professionally trained as a scientist.  But just because I want to know, doesn’t mean I can know.  Some things simply won’t be answered until we meet God after we die.

That’s a mystery we all have to learn to live with.

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“I deserve this.”

Those are magic words.  Right up there with “this wasn’t supposed to happen to me.”  Each time we say it, we’re betraying the sense of entitlement we all have. 

Often the focus of entitlement is on “American culture” or “American greed”.  But I don’t think that’s the real problem.  Oh sure American’s may have a highly developed sense of entitlement, but all humans believe they are entitled.

After all, didn’t Adam and Eve feel entitled to the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil?  Didn’t Jacob feel entitled to Esau’s inheritance?  Didn’t David feel entitled to more than one wife?  Didn’t James and John feel entitled to a special place at Jesus’ side?

History is filled with a sense of entitlement.

And so are we.  It’s part of human nature.  For instance, if you find out your co-worker makes more money than you, but does less work, how does that make you feel?  Don’t you immediately think you deserve more money?  More respect?  More vacation time?  And they deserve more work?

Psychologists have a theory of motivation to explain that behavior, they call it ”Equity Theory.” 

But the world is neither fair nor equal.  And on top of that, God never promised us a life of fairness or equality.  He doesn’t even promise us comfort.  He just promises us life and freedom. 

I’m not immune of course.  And a sense of entitlement fills me more than I’d like to admit.  Even as I type this I feel that I am entitled to finding a job (as many of you know, I’m currently out of work).  But I don’t want to find a job through hard work, suffering, and faith.  Instead I want this job to fall into my lap, offering a pay raise, shorter hours, and an easier commute.

So why should you care about any of this?

Because entitlement is dangerous.  It blinds us to our own greed and selfishness.  Often we can’t even recognize that what we’re doing is wrong.  Consider the person who steals a tie because he thinks he’s owed by the “establishment.”  Or someone who downloads music off the internet because “it’s not fair to have to pay for it.”

Entitlement surrounds us in sin, but whispers to us “I deserve this.”

The irony in this post is that we’re approaching Christmas.  To many Christmas is a time of rampant entitlement.  We criticize presents because they are “not quite right.”  We complain about relatives and travel arrangements.  We attack store employees because they don’t have what we are owed in stock.  And sometimes we even kill to get a good deal.   

Yet to God, Christmas is a time that contradicts entitlement.  Christmas is when God gave up every right he had, and decided to come to earth for the sole purpose of dying.  Simply to save us. 

So this Christmas, as we start feeling a sense of entitlement, maybe we need to stop and reflect about the actual cost of that feeling.  (Hint: God gave up everything for us.  It cost him his life.)  

What can we give up for him?

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No matter how hard, or I suppose how little we try, we tend to be pretty self-centered.  I don’t mean this in a negative way.  Being self-centered doesn’t always mean that we are selfish.  Although it could.  Being self-centered can also mean that we appropriately focus on ourselves.  Which can be healthy.  After all if we lack self-focus we would end up with a lot of people forgetting to take showers, making the world a much stinkier place! 

Think about it this way: during the course of a day we make hundreds of decisions about ourselves.  What pants do I wear?  What do I eat for breakfast?  Is it safe to pull out into traffic?  We are constantly forced into making choices about ourselves.  So it’s no wonder we end up being fixated on oursleves.  It’s not that difficult to go from “Do I feel like going to the gym?” to assuming everything is about us. 

Which is why, when we say “God told me to do X”, we are acting under the assumption that “X” is for our own good.  What if it’s not?  What if “X” is for someone else’s good?  What if we need to do “X” to step out of the way?

Any time I feel God prompting me to do something dangerous or out of my comfort zone I assume that there must be some benefit for me.  I ask the reasonable question, “why else would God have me do this?”  It must be for my own good.  Right?

But does it have to be?

John the Baptist spent his ministry doing crazy things.  Not the least of which involved wearing camel hair and eating locusts.  Yet his entire ministry wasn’t about himself.  It wasn’t about growing his own followers or becoming safe and secure.  It wasn’t even about staying on a low-carb locust diet.  The whole point of his ministry was to prepare the world for Jesus’ ministry!

In other words, the whole point of “X”, for John, was to get out of the way once Jesus showed up.  That has to be hard on the ego.  Yet get out of the way is exactly what John did.  And for his troubles he was beheaded. 

Looking back at John’s story there seems to be very little benefit to him.  Sure he’s remembered, but he was also beheaded.  And knowing that it makes it hard for me to want to follow in his footsteps.  Frankly the same can be said of a lot of people in the Bible.  I don’t really have much of a desire to be martyred. 

But that’s the catch isn’t it?

The story isn’t really about them.  And my story isn’t always about me.  Sometimes in order for “X” to succeed, I need to get out of the way.  And maybe, just maybe, that means I must lose my life in the process.

As long as I remain convinced that every time God asks me to do something it is for my direct benefit, I will never want to take a risk because I may lose everything.  But as I learn that the story isn’t always about me.  That sometimes my role is to get out of the way, I don’t need to worry about losing everything.  Because all that stuff didn’t belong to me in the first place.

Sometimes it’s just not about me.

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Here at R3, when we talk about learning to live out a life of faith… this is not what we mean people!

Schwab told first responders at the scene that “the other vehicle was not driving like a Christian and it was Jesus’ will for him to punish the car,”

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It’s amazing how one little sin can destroy our entire lives.  We think that our behavior doesn’t really matter.  Or maybe we justify it by saying it only hurts us.  But that’s just not the case.  One little sin can can destroy everything. 

David had one little sin.  He gave into sexual temptation and had an affair.  That lead to the death of the woman’s husband, the death of their son, the rape of his daughter, the murder of another son, the coup by his oldest son, David’s fleeing into the desert, the death of his oldest son, and even the removal of his most trusted and successful general.

All because of one choice.

The next time you think one sin doesn’t matter, think again.

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