R3: radical, revolutionary, different

I’d like to say that I’m home after a few weeks of travel. But I’m actually back on the road. Which is nice because where I live it’s snowing and where I am its 70 degrees. You have to love that! So while I’m on the road I want to take care of a little housekeeping and expand upon an interesting idea.

Christopher sent in an email about the king of the hill post.

The part of your post that I really wanted to comment on though is about being an individual and learning to submit to authority. From my own experiences in Christ, I have to say that once we do start to practice submitting to authority for the sake of the Lord, it has been for me, another one of those new found freedoms in Christ that you begin to experience. You’re no longer weighed down by thoughts and feelings to “defend” your ground, or to come up with arguments of justification for your actions.

Practice. It’s something I usually don’t’ associate with living out a life of faith. But you know what? I think that’s a great way of looking at it. It’s very rare that we instantly become people who can live in perfect faith. Usually it takes weeks, if not years, to overcome some of our sinful behaviors.

I think this is one of the most dangerous times of being a Christian. When we become frustrated that we aren’t changing as fast as we should be, we run the risk of giving up. We can become so upset that we keep making the same mistake we wonder, “will I ever be able to overcome this?” It’s easy to say we’re never going to overcome our selfishness, our lust, our greed, and so we give up.

But if we look at it from a practice perspective, things change. Our weaknesses no longer become impossible to overcome. Instead they represent a chance to learn and try again. In the book, God is closer than you think, John Ortberg has a prayer that simply says, “God I’m sorry I failed, please help me start again.”

God can never change our hearts if we’re running away from him because we see ourselves as failures. But he can radically change us if we keep getting back up and saying, “God, I failed, help me to stand up and try again.” This is the balance between truth and grace.

Maybe it’s true what they say: practice makes perfect.

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!

Once again Christopher, from Got-Fruit? , has some insightful comments when asking what’s the point.  And yes, the title of this post is horribly misleading!

E.B.,

Reference: “And it’s only by remembering that can we ever hope to reshape the world, and bring light into darkness.”  Thank you!!!!  The part in bold is what seems to be missing from so many conversation about social change, changing the world, or what have you.  In all fairness though, maybe I’ve just overlooked it.

Without saying His name, that sentence reiterates in my mind (even before checking the link: bring light) that it is in fact Jesus that must be at the center of all we as Christians do, otherwise it’s as if we’re trying to do our will in the name of God, not God’s will in His own name.

In an odd and probably morbid sounding way to a non-believer, I see living as a Christian as kind of analogous to being a Kamikaze pilot.  Not meaning literally for anyone to test their faith by say jumping in front of traffic yelling “Halt in the name of the Lord!”, hoping that the driver of the Pepsi truck stops;  rather though, to assume a care-free attitude towards the things that the world constantly thrusts in our face as being important, or that needlessly draw our attention from the fact that God is in control and He’s got our back.  Mix in a little of Peter from Office Space with healthy doses of Biblical wisdom, faith, common sense and last but not least…reliance on God.

And since I have nothing to add to that, I say we watch a few scenes from Office Space!

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!

 
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]).

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.

Christopher, of Got Fruit? fame, sends in this comment:

I most always view reference or mention of the word “hope” as synonymous with Jesus Christ; how He is the key to God’s plan for redeeming us through Him.

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1st Corinthians 13:13

It took me a long, long time to realize that.  I searched for all kinds of answers, never even guessing that God was part of the equation.  And so all of my searches proved, if you’ll pardon the pun, fruitless. 

Erwin McManus says that our souls crave God, and when we try to fill that craving with something other than God, we’re always disappointed.  The more we put into our lives that isn’t God, the emptier we feel. 

Today I was going to write about faith and reason.  But I’ve changed my mind because I realized something this week.  I realized that I’ve become comfortable with my faith.  My trust in God has slowly been turning to religiosity in God.

There was a time where I would have happily sacrificed anything for God, because the memory of him saving me was so strong.  But over the last year that’s dimmed a bit.  I’ve developed theological ideas.  I’ve come to conclusions about who God is and what he wants from me.  I’ve become comfortable with my level of generosity.

I don’t think any of those things are bad in and of themselves.  But they are causing me to fear talking to him about things.  I don’t want to hear answers that may challenge my beliefs.  I don’t want to be bothered with changing my life - I’m comfortable now.

But that’s not how God works.  We have to give him our all.  We can’t hold anything back, because if we do it hurts our relationship with him.

To be honest I don’t know what all this means.  I just know, with God’s help, I have to become open to everything he has to say.  No matter how uncomfortable that makes me.

It’s scary to stand before God knowing you’ve been hiding.  It must have been that way for Elijah when he ran away from his job and hid in a cave.  God had to actually go into the cave and call out to Elijah saying, “What are you doing here?”  I’m sure God has been doing that to me, and I have just had my fingers plugged in my ears!

Reader Eduardo Flores sent in this comment:

“Douglas Kelly from Reformed Theological Seminary said, “The only thing we can offer God is Christ’s obedience“. When we meditate on that, we find the beauty of that statement. As Isaiah 64:6 says, all our rightgeous acts are like filthy rags  to God (NIV). The only thing that God sees in us (those who are united to Christ) is Christ’s obedience and love for the Father. That is the only reason we can come to Him.”

It’s easy to start thinking we can impress God.  As humans we try to impress people on a regular basis.  We get used to people responding positively towards us when we tell jokes or work extra hours.  We’re so used to it that we hardly even think about what we’re doing. 

But stop for a minute and consider God.  Do you really think he’s someone we can impress with our behavior or ceremonies?  Do you think God really has a musical preference?  Does he like knock-knock jokes?  Is he impressed when you work 70-hour weeks?  Those are just “things” and God is not a God of “things” he’s a God of relationships.  The bottom line is this: there is nothing we can do to impress someone who has existed for all time.  And even if there was, he’s seen it by now! 

The minute we start believing God is impressed by our methods, our music, our prayers, or our language is the moment we separate ourselves from God.  The more distance we have between us, the harder it is to establish that relationship.  By focusing on “doing” we are telling God that we are more important than he is.  And how could that ever be true?  In the end, the best we can hope to “do” is to love God.  And fortunately that’s what God asks of us.  He doesn’t ask us for fancy prayers, or elaborate ceremonies.  We don’t need a stand up routine or polished resume to get into Heaven.  He just wants us to love him in our hearts.  Because he knows if we do that our lives will never be the same. 

A reader sent in this comment regarding the previous post:

“A few weeks ago I heard an interesting statistic about anger: our bodies allow us about 7 seconds to decide whether we’re going to get angry about something (i.e. a person cutting us off on the highway).  If we choose to get mad, our body releases chemicals that then linger in our bodies for 3-4 hours!  It seems to me, then, that anger is truly a choice, and rarely is it the appropriate choice, especially for situations involving mini-vans (my personal peeve) or Ohio drivers.”