By now you all realize I love good Christian humor. Not the Ned Flanders type, but things that are actually funny. So is it any wonder why I love this video?
What better way to kick off 2010 then with some silent monks who sing?
Category : different, faith, humor, just for fun
Category : choice, different, humor, just for fun, living a life of faith
As we begin to wind down 2009, I want the last few posts of the year to be a bit light-hearted. Life is stressful. We all tend to work long hours. We have hundreds (seemingly) of things going on all the time. We rarely get days off (if you’re lucky enough to have a job).
Everything seems to move at warp speed.
So for this Christmas I encourage you to spend quality, focused, time with your friends and family. Enjoy their company and the community you have. Use this as an opportunity to show what it means to live a life of faith, not by preaching Bible verses, but by being there when they need you.
In the meantime, check out this video. I think we can all wish this was our house growing up…
Category : Daneil, different, faith, living a life of faith
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I deserve this.
How many times have we thought that? How many times have we said it? And lets’ be real here for a minute; It’s all too easy for us to do.
The scary thing is, it doesn’t get any easier when you believe in God. In fact, being a Christian may actually make you feel more entitled to deserving things. At least if you look at how most of us act.
It seems to me that I meet far too many Christians who think they are entitled to things. Whether it’s a belief that society should follow Christian values or that our lives should be free from pain, our sense of entitlement is profound.
Even saying “well I’m a good person” shows just how deep our entitlement runs. Because you aren’t a good person. None of us are. We all fall short of God’s standards. It’s not as if we fall just a little bit short. We aren’t even close. We fall pathetically short.
This is why Daniel’s actions are so interesting when he’s given the choice of eating unclean food (for Jews that meant ceremonially clean food, not unwashed). He simply says to the King’s attendant, “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” (Daniel 1: 12-14)
He doesn’t ask for special treatment. He doesn’t say, “But I believe in God, I should be treated differently.” He says, “Let me earn your trust.”
Daniel responds to the Assistant’s fear. Not by powering up and being angry and demanding. Not by being bossy or condescending. But by being willing to earn his trust.
How differently would Christians be perceived if we acted that way all the time!
As you go forward this Holiday season, let me ask you one question: How would Christmas look in your family if you didn’t act with a sense of entitlement, but simply said, “let me earn your trust”?
Category : different, faith, living a life of faith, sin, trust
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It snowed last night. Approximately 1/1000th of an inch. Well maybe a bit more than that. But not much more. Now I don’t know about you. But in my city that means everything gets shut down. It also means that there are certain drivers who become more aggressive than normal. Or perhaps they are just the same level of aggression, and it’s just that the rest of us just use common sense. But either way, the bad drivers really stand out in this kind of weather.
Even though I was on the highway for only a few minutes I manged to get one of these lovely drivers behind me. Which means that while everyone else on the highway was driving at about 15 mph Mr. I-don’t-need-to-follow-traffic-patterns decided to try and pass me on the shoulder of an off ramp.
Apparently he was in a hurry to stop at the red light.
Now I’ve written before about being a Christian driver. I’ve also written that we seem to lose that Christian feeling once we get behind the wheel. I’ll forgive my enemies but not my fellow drivers. At least that seems to be what happens in church parking lots. But in this particular case I noticed I had an overwhelming urge to turn to the guy and say something just as he finally passed. Of course in turning my desires weren’t exactly socially acceptable or very Christian. Actually those urges weren’t Christian at all.
Frankly that reaction surprised me. I was taken back (although I probably shouldn’t be) by how strong my desire for judgment was. I wanted to make that guy know that he was an idiot and that I didn’t appreciate him putting my life in jeopardy.
It’s funny though. We work so hard to prove that we are right. To show other people that they are in the wrong. And it’s by that very action we put ourselves and others in danger.
That’s one of the unexpected outcomes of judgment. It puts us, and others, in jeopardy. Think about it for a moment. When you are judging other people, what usually happens? You lose your temper. You act in anger with a smug sense of being right. “I was wronged!” we think. And that attitude lets us feel justified in doing whatever we feel like.
In my case I went from criticizing a bad driver to becoming one myself. I went from being the normal, smart driver to being just as aggressive and insane as he was. I was willing to put myself and others at risk, just to make a point.
What kind of response is that?!
Fortunately I didn’t. I choose to keep my eyes on the road. It wasn’t easy. I really wanted to pass judgment on that guy. I really wanted to say some pretty unpleasant things. At least under my breath. But one of the advantages of writing R3 has been the accountability that comes with being public about your faith. And in this moment, accountability won out. Chalk one up for living out a life of faith!
The irony is that judgment rarely matters in the end. We work ourselves up over what someone said or what they did. We get furious that someone cut in line or smoked a cigarette. We call people horrible names who vote differently than us. We mock people who like different sports teams.
But what does that serve? What good comes out of it?
Nothing.
Instead it just feeds our anger and judgmental nature. The more judgments you make about people, the more judgmental you become. No one has ever become a more loving person by being more judgmental.
Maybe God knew what he was talking about when he said judgment was his to pass, and not ours. Funny how often that turns out to be true.
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One of the worst lies about Christianity is that if you start following God your life will be better / richer / easier / smoother … well, you can fill in the blank. So many people’s faith has been derailed by this thinking. Perhaps no other lie does as much damage.
To me this conversation takes on a bit of a personal tone. Because I grew up believing that as long as you did the “big” things God would always have your back. Which meant your life would be pretty easy. But that’s so far from the truth it’s shocking.
If you look at the Bible you see story after story of people having to overcome terrible challenges. Not because they are sinners, but because they are believers. That’s the whole point of Job: you can be a good man, but still suffer horribly. In fact it’s Job’s goodness that gets Satan’s attention. (Let that one settle in for a bit!)
We don’t need to stop with Job though. Out of the 12 guys closest to Jesus, all but one of them died unnatural causes. And the last one, John, was died while in exile. Did you catch that? The people closest to Jesus all suffered greatly for that connection.
That sure doesn’t sound like the good “happy christianity” we are fed sometimes in church.
Odds are this conversation is making you uncomfortable. It should. Living a life of faith is something that’s different. It’s something that’s radical. And often times it is something completely counter cultural. That’s at least what Jeremiah and Ezekiel learned. In both cases, God essentially says, “because you believe in me, I’m going to give you an important task.” Of course that task was to tell the rest of their country about their impending doom. Talk about a horrible job description! No one likes to be told they are wrong, let alone going to be punished. Just tell a 4 year old she can’t watch TV anymore and you’ll see what I mean! But this is what God had them do. Living a life of faith for Jeremiah and Ezekiel meant they were going to have to do some pretty hard things. Things that made them hated, persecuted, and punished.
If living a life of faith means having a harder life, why do we do it?
For two reasons I think.
1. Following God is always better than the alternative.
2. Because there is a reward: it’s just not now.
Just like a good parent, God always has our best interest in mind. When we follow him we end up being better people. Maybe not financially, but character-wise and spiritually we are vastly improved. We send our children to school even though they don’t want to be there. Why? Because it makes them better adults. I think that’s what God is doing. He sends us to “life school” to make us better. But we don’t get to experience the full benefits of that until after we die.
For a lot of people that’s hard to take. And I understand that. I’m just as much a product of fast food, microwaves, and instant ramen noodles as anyone else. But I don’t write the rules, I just try to understand them. And then I try to do something with them.
So the next time you are faced with a challenge from God. Accept it. Confidently. Knowing that while it might be hard, it is worth pursuing with all your strength. God never asks us to do something without a reason! We will get that reward. God has promised us that much. And who knows, in the end, you may find you like it better than money or a stress-free life.
Category : God, Jesus, different, taking action
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Football coaches are known for their paranoia. They fear that the slightest bit of information might give an advantage to their opponent. Now in a game that can be decided by fractions of a second or just a few inches of height that seems understandable. How many games have been decided by a ball that just flew over the outstretched fingers of a defender? It seems like the last couple of Super Bowls have played out that way.
But sometimes coaches get caught up in their paranoia. It takes on a larger role than just a precaution, it begins to determine their actions.
One such example comes from a former University of Pittsburgh coach. During the middle of practice the head coach began to suspect his team was being spied upon. So he called down to two police officers and told them to check out the “suspicious” guy who was leaning against a telephone poll a few hundred yards away.
The police, doing what they were hired for, jumped in their car and sped toward the man.
A few minutes later they returned.
“Well?” asked the coach.
“He’s waiting for the bus.” they replied.
The problem with freedom isn’t that we can’t have it – it’s that we don’t know how to get it. We’ve fallen for the lie that to get something we have to “power up.” That if we aren’t fighting for what’s “ours” we aren’t going to get anything. Then, when we do get something, we need to be so controlling that we start hoarding it.
That’s what the University of Pittsburgh coach thought. He was so set on protecting his winning record that he saw a spy behind every telephone pole. Fortunately not all of us make the news when we’re paranoid or controlling. But we all have areas where we struggle.
You might call these areas “strongholds.”
We start out thinking these strongholds are going to keep us safe. If you’ve ever been hurt by a loved one, you can understand this. We build walls so high around our heart that no one can ever enter. But eventually we learn these aren’t to protect us, they are to imprison us!
What was once a way to protect our broken heart has become the very thing that makes us so lonely.
Freedom does not come from strongholds. It doesn’t come from being on the attack. Or defending what’s ours. It comes from God.
Freedom is being who God designed you to be.
The reality is, every stronghold you have prevents you from experiencing that freedom. Those walls keep you a prisoner.
So how do we break free? Simple: by enabling other people to become free.
That sounds pretty radical. But then does pretty much everything Jesus said. Do you think the Pittsburgh football coach was free assuming that everyone was out to spy on him? Do you think you are truly free when you hold onto your anger and pain over being wronged? Of course not. But those are the natural results of what happens when we try to do it “our way.”
Jesus recognized that as long as we try and hold onto our resentment and bitterness we would never be free. It’s only be releasing our claim on people who have wronged us, that we can become free. That’s why it is God’s place to judge. That’s why Jesus said we should love our enemies. It’s why Peter told Jews (who were slaves to the Romans) to be subject to their masters.
Holding onto anger, resentment, pain puts us into bondage. It steals are freedom. It is no way to live a life of faith
Only by giving up control can we set others free. And only after we set others free, can we ourselves be set free.
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I love to laugh. I especially love to laugh when Christians are being funny. All too often our “humor” is pretty lame. It’s nice to know that not all Christians are Ned Flanders clones. While some people may consider this a clever marketing campaign, I consider it good Christian humor. Way to go LifeChurch.tv.
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Is there anything harder than loving our enemies?
If there is, I don’t know what it would be. And frankly I’m not sure I want to know!
Until recently I have never had anyone I considered to be an enemy. Sure there were people I didn’t like. There were even people I found annoying. And of course there were people who I didn’t trust. But never anyone who has actively worked against me.
The one thing about living out a life of faith is that there is always more to learn. God always has a way of giving us new homework. Despite all of my study, all of my understanding of who God is, and what Jesus taught, I find I am really struggling with loving my enemies. I would much rather destroy my enemies. Or at the very least, make them look foolish.
But that’s not where Jesus is. That’s not what God wants.
The book that drives this home to me is Jeremiah. Now Jeremiah was just a normal guy. He could easily be you or me. Yet God called him to a unique mission. And for much of his life he went around telling Israel they were about to be destroyed. Talk about a crummy job description!
His life was in constant danger. He was beaten. Arrested. Harassed. And suffered an isolation that very few of us can understand. To say the man made some enemies would be an understatement. Yet he kept working at it. He never gave up. Despite his enemies, he never stopped moving towards God.
I have a hard time relating to that.
But when I look at it in light of who Jesus was, it makes more sense. Jesus calls us to lead a counter-cultural life. He wants us to be radical, revolutionary, and most importantly different. (That’s why you see that phrase associated with R3.)
To prove this point, in his first public declaration of his mission, Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”
Man that’s not what I want to hear. I want to hear “Blessed are those with bigger baseball bats, because they will win.” Or “Blessed are those who are quick witted, because they will make their opponents look dumb.” That’s not where Jesus goes though. He takes a different path. A radical path.
If I’m honest, part of why loving your enemies is so hard is a lack of trust. I simply don’t trust that God will take care of things. I don’t trust him to be the arbiter of justice. I think he needs my help.
Now I don’t think this consciously. (Well until now). But that’s how I behave. I act as if I’m saying, “God, look I know you created the universe and can perform miracles. But clearly you’re a bit out matched here…why don’t you let me handle this one.”
If I am to live a life of faith, I need to get with the game. To focus on these revolutionary teachings. To learn to really trust God when it’s all on the line. At times that feels impossible. As it did to Jeremiah. But Jeremiah found a way to trust God. And so can I.
I don’t like having enemies. But sometimes that can’t be helped. So instead of focusing on complaining, I am going to focus on trusting God.
I want to become more like Jeremiah.
