R3: radical, revolutionary, different

What does a sick 3 year old, being kicked off a flight, and losing a power strip have in common?  They are all things that in my two weeks of travel I never expected, and yet they were my biggest challenges. 

Before I left I expected computer problems, stress, or even getting lost in some strange city to be my biggest issues.  But all of those went smoothly.  In fact even driving around Chicago was easy.  Every single thing I worried about worked out perfectly.  What I found was a sudden supply of unexpected problems!  Things that had never even crossed my mind.

Jesus said, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”  I’m not sure that point has ever been driven home more than these last few weeks. 

I look back at all the stress and feel a little embarrassed by it.  All of the anxiety I felt was pointless.  I didn’t accomplish anything through worry.  I didn’t solve any problems by being nervous.  It was just a big waste of my time and energy. 

I’d like to say I am cured of my need to worry.  But I know that’s not really true.  I think I can honestly say, however, that things are just a bit more in perspective.  And isn’t that what the Christian faith is all about?  Each day making a little more progress towards God. 

I am very much an individualist. 

All of my favorite games, movies and history stories involve the lone hero fighting the forces of evil (Chuck Norris I’m looking at you).  To be honest I hate the idea that I need community to live a healthy, productive life.  I don’t want to have to submit my life to other people - I want to be king of the hill. 

But if I want to live out a life of faith, I need to look at everything the Bible says about my life, not just the things I’m interested in hearing.  That’s why I find the Bible’s comments on authority so challenging.  It directly confronts the way I want to live my life.

Yet should I be surprised?  Look at what happens in the world around us.

Since 2000 we’ve been told by one political party that our current president is an idiot.  Comedians re-tell that same joke as if no one has ever heard it.  Companies publish calendars and cards illustrating “Bushisms.”  In response, we’re told that the other political party hates their country.  And hopes that things will be miserable for millions of Americans just to improve their election chances.  

Of course it’s not just politics where this happens.  It’s at home too.  A 12 year old boy was suspended from school for wearing a mohawk to support the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.  His response was essentially: “I’d rather be suspended than cut my hair.”  His parents supported his decision. 

Now maybe Bush isn’t the smartest President we’ve ever had.  And maybe one party really does believe in redistribution of wealth.  And maybe the school over reacted with a boy’s enthusiasm for his favorite team.

But is this mocking authority how we’re called to live? 

We  seem to “stick it to the Man” because we can.  And so we cheer for the defiance of a 12 year old.  And laugh at the Bush is stupid jokes.  And nod knowingly that one party wants to take from the rich and give to the poor. 

I don’t pretend to understand everything about how the Bible portrays authority.  Maybe I don’t even know most of it.  But how can we hope to learn what it means to be obedient, when as a society we intentionally mock those in authority?

Right now we find ourselves in a global economic crisis.  And we’re told that we need to trust our leaders.  But why should we when we’ve been told for 8 years that the president is an idiot?  When we mock authority, how can we suddenly turn that attitude off when suddenly we need to trust authority?

The answer is, we can’t. 

There’s a moment when Saul is standing alone in a cave “using the facilities” so to speak.  David, the man who Saul is trying to kill, is hiding in the cave. Saul had been searching for them for a long time.  It would be so easy for David to end his life on the run by killing Saul. At least that’s what David’s men think.  

But David believes Saul was chosen by God, and therefore has all of God’s authority.  So instead of killing him, David cuts off a piece of his robe.  Saul leaves without knowing how close to death he was.  As Saul walks back to his soldiers, his protection, David appears, saying, “I could have killed you, but I didn’t because God chose you to be king.”

David knew that if he started ignoring God’s authority because it was convenient, he’d be walking down a dangerous path.  He respected Saul’s authority so much that he’d rather live a life on the run, then counter what God might be doing through Saul.  He knew he couldn’t turn his obedience on and off.  That’s a very different place to be than how we seem to be living.

Like I said, the Bible’s view of authority is difficult for me to grasp.  Especially as someone who prides himself on individualism.  I do know that with the election in a few days, this is something we all need to wrestle with.  No matter who wins the presidency, serious problems face this country and the world.  And I don’t want to reject authority simply because I don’t like it.  I’m committed to God, no matter where that leads me.

I want God to be my king of the hill.

R3 has been in existence for almost 1.5 years.  And during that time I’ve never taken a leave of absence.  The most time I’ve taken off is over the weekends, or occasionally a day or two when I’ve been sick.  But all that’s about to change!  For the first time since R3 started I plan on taking a few days off.  Two weeks to be exact.  But don’t worry.  You’ll get regularly scheduled posts over the next two weeks.  I have lots of content pre-written. 

I’ve never been very good at taking time off from anything.  Because I get bored easily, I look to keep myself occupied.  Which means I tend to ignore the idea of a Sabbath.  But there’s a reason God tells us to rest.  Nothing was made to always work.  Not even a website. 

For me this rest will allow me to catch up on some reading.  It will also let me refill my “creative well” so to speak.  Those are important reasons to rest.  But perhaps the most important reason is to simply see that the world goes on even if we don’t.  We often talk ourselves into believing that if we stop working, the world (or perhaps just your house) will fall apart.  It doesn’t.  The world always goes on.

It’s comforting knowing that when I come back in two weeks, R3 will be chugging along, even without my direct supervision.

Have you ever wanted to read the Bible but just didn’t have the time?  Well today you are in luck.  Because you can now watch the Bible in a minute. 

A significant part of Jesus’ ministry was spent in an area known as Galilee.  This was a region filled mostly with non-Jews, which meant much of traditional Judaism was diluted.  This posed a problem because Jews looked at Jewish culture as “what God demanded,” anything less was seen as inferior. 

In many ways this made Galilee one of the “worst” parts of Israel.   

My study Bible suggests it’s this brokenness that made Jesus spend so much time here.  Which, to be honest, is something I hadn’t considered.  But it makes sense.  Jesus even said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” (Matthew 9: 12). 

It seems to me that the closer we get to disaster the more likely we are to take notice of our lives.  And it’s usually here that we begin to realize there’s something wrong.  I’m sure it wasn’t any different 2,000 years ago. 

As Galilee struggled economically, and was looked down upon by the rest of Israel, is it any wonder why they responded so strongly to Jesus?  The people of Galilee saw the problems in their world, and recognized that Jesus was presenting another option.  He was giving them a new way to live.  He was offering hope. 

Sometimes in our prosperity we view God as a convenience (or inconvenience, I suppose, depending on your point of view).  We think of him as something that we can add onto our lives.  But that’s not how we were designed to live.  God is supposed to be an integral part of our lives.

Greg Koukl, of Stand to Reason fame, describes Jesus role in our life as a cure not a band-aid.  Jesus doesn’t “cover up” sin, he takes it from us.  This makes all the difference.  We can’t just choose to apply God to our lives when it’s convenient or when we’re feeling sick. 

That’s what the people of Galilee recognized.  They saw their need for God and responded.  I think it’s entirely possible that if Jesus had started in the most prosperous parts of Israel, with the healthiest people, they never would have recognized their own need for God.  They would have fooled themselves into believing they needed a band-aid instead of a cure.

Sometimes the best thing for us can be a difficult life.  Sometimes it pays to be Galilee.

Not to sound melodramatic but I think there’s a moment (possibly several) in a person’s life where they question if what they are doing is worthwhile.  Is the project you’re working on meaningful?  Is the business you’ve started going to be relevant.  Are you making a difference in people’s lives? 

It’s easy to fall into the idea that we’re somehow not doing “enough.”  And that’s where I’ve been the last few days.  I was wondering if I was doing enough professionally.  Was I reaching everyone I could with R3?  Should I do more? 

I expressed these concerns to a friend, and she said something that froze me in my tracks:

I think you’ve got something backwards here :o].  It’s not you that needs to make something out of your life, it’s God.  That I know of, nowhere in the bible does God tell us that we have to make something out of ourselves.  That’s His job…our job is to listen to what He says and act on what we hear, whether that’s physically doing something, or waiting on God to do something.

Ouch.

She’s right though.  I can’t think of a single example where God said, “why don’t you make something out of yourself?  What are you waiting for?”  God always says, be obedient, and let me do the rest.

All I need to worry about is listening to God, then obeying. 

What a relief!

Just because you’re a Christian doesn’t mean it’s not hard to watch the economy fall apart.  It doesn’t mean there isn’t any stress involved with facing hard times.  What it does mean is that we need to remember to trust God.  He knows what we need, and frankly it’s not really another video game or a new car - what we really need is a stronger relationship with him. 

I don’t always find that comforting as I enter into a crisis.  But that doesn’t make it any less true.

Lord - I pray for all the people who are being affected by this financial crisis.  The people who are losing their homes, their jobs, and their financial security.  Encourage them.  Help them to lean into you, so that they can overcome any obstacle.  And for the rest of us, help us to remain generous, to stay bold, and to act in love.  Amen.

R3 is currently running a series entitled “Phrases.”  Today, however, I’m going to interrupt our regularly scheduled programming.  Mostly because I lost power over the weekend (like tens of millions of people) which makes it difficult to write things on the internet.  So today, instead of business as usual, I want to just take a breath and comment on something I’ve been thinking about since 3:00 yesterday.

Every time I lose power I’m shocked (no pun intended) at just how much of my life revolves around electricity and technology.  It seems everything I do from waking up in the morning to relaxing in the evening requires electricity.  I couldn’t even spend time reading because my apartment was too dark. 

While I’m not alone in this realization about electricity, it does drive a point home for me: the people who wrote the Bible lived so differently from me it’s hard to even imagine their lives.  How can I relate to someone who lived their entire life without electricity, running water, or most importantly, Google? 

Yet they wrote of such profound truths that their advice - the wisdom of the Bible - is still relevant today.

Of course Christians would argue that it wasn’t simply people who came up with the advice, but God.  And judging by just how relevant the Bible is to modern life, I have to agree.  It’s a bit humbling to realize that God knows us so well he can predict our current behavior from thousands of years ago.  Despite all of our modern conveniences and ways we’re still the same people who rebelled against him in the Garden of Eden.  Humanity hasn’t changed, only the shape of our daily lives.  If this doesn’t drive home the relevancy of the Bible, nothing will. 

I may be without power.  And that may last a few days or a week.  But with each passing moment I thank God (literally) that his patience is more reliable than my electric company!

Sometimes readers say it better than I do:

I think that for starters, anytime a Christian acknowledges that they’re deficient in an area of their walk with Christ; that acknowledgment is sort of like the precursor to that deficiency becoming “fixed” by the Lord. A spin on how the Law makes us aware of sin, I suppose.I used to never speak out openly about God because of fear of ridicule. Nowadays, that’s not a problem, and I would say it’s because over time (as your relationship grows), Jesus does transform the committed believer.

My point? Yesterday was a day that you walked behind Christ, today you might be walking a little closer to Him; and tomorrow is the day that you walk side by side, step for step with Him.

Maturation by nature takes time, some folks perhaps do go through a radical and quick process of transformation, while others don’t. Scripture an my own personal experiences tell me that it all starts with the condition of the heart, sometimes we have deeper issues that the Lord must work on before we get to that spot where we become the “Super Christian” we aspire to be.

That was a comment left by Christopher from Got-Fruit.net on the prayer thursday: courage post.  I wanted to highlight it because it touches upon one of the deepest truths I know: the scariest prayer we can make is the one where we ask God to change us.  There’s nothing more terrifying, because those are exactly the type of prayers God answers on a regular basis!

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>