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. 

In the last post, I spoke about David’s belief that God would be with him when he faced Goliath.  He didn’t need any more evidence. He didn’t have to wait for “just one more reassurance.”  He just took past experiences and applied them to his life.

Yet so often we don’t act with that same assurance.  Sometimes we want to wait for absolutes before we act.  We play it safe and ask, “God, should I do this, or should I do that?”  Waiting until God gives us some kind of definitive answer. 

Now on the one hand, this is a very valid and legitimate question to ask.  It can be a very bad idea to act without knowing God is there to support you.  But in many cases God has already told us to act, he doesn’t need to repeat himself.  For instance, Jesus already told us to love our enemies.  We don’t need to pray about whether we should love them, we just need to do it.

No matter what decisions we make, or what actions we decide to take, we must always move with God.  As bold as David was, he never would have survived without God’s help.  In fact, that’s the whole point of the story.  David was much smaller than many of the Israelite soldiers.  He was the youngest child (which Israelites viewed as ‘inferior’).  If David had come up to you or I, we would have laughed at him, and said, “sure whatever kid.”  He didn’t fit the mold of manly man, let alone hero.

Which is exactly why God chose him to act.  No one could confuse God’s action as something David did on his own.  Casting Crowns sums up David’s attitude saying, “I’ll go, but I cannot go alone.”  This was David’s life philosophy.  He was aware that it wasn’t his own abilities that would take down Goliath (or the bear, or the lion) but it was God.  He went, but he didn’t go alone.

In Me

If you ask me to leap
Out of my boat on the crashing waves
If You ask me to go
Preach to the lost world that Jesus saves
I’ll go, but I cannot go alone
Cause I know I’m nothing on my own
But the power of Christ in me makes me strong
Makes me strong

Cause when I’m weak, You make me strong
When I’m blind, You shine Your light on me
Cause I’ll never get by living on my own ability
How refreshing to know You don’t need me
How amazing to find that you want me
So I’ll stand on Your truth, and I’ll fight with Your strength
Until You bring the victory, by the power of Christ in me

If You ask me to run
And carry Your light into foreign land
If You ask me to fight
Deliver Your people from Satan’s hand

To reach out with Your hands
To learn through Your eyes
To love with the love of a savior
To feel with Your heart
And to think with Your mind
I’d give my last breath for Your glory

With God’s backing, we can accomplish anything.  As David found out even giants are no match for God.  Or as Peter discovered, even walking on water is possible when we live out a life of faith.  What can God do with our lives, if we choose not to walk alone?

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.

Last week I wrote about something that really struck me: God has given us a big enough responsibility in just being obedient, we don’t need to worry about “making something” of our lives.  It’s easy to think we need to do more to become successful, but how do we define that success?  

More often than not by the world’s standards.

God defines success so much differently, which is why we’re just asked to be obedient.  This thought hasn’t left my mind all weekend, so I wanted to focus on it again.  But instead of me trying to find words to for my thoughts, I think I’ll just let Building 429’s song Amazed do it for me. 

Where did it go
33 and it’s gone so fast
Thought I knew who I was
I thought that You were leading me

But this depression is
Crashing in on me
And I’m not half the man
I hoped I’d be

But I won’t question in the dark
What is true out in the light
I will follow after You
Through the storm and through the fight

Cause You’ve got me
Right where You want me
Yeah You’ve got me
Right where I need to be
And I’m standing amazed

I don’t know who came up with the idea that “seeing is believing” but they couldn’t have been more wrong.  Trusting what you see is one of the fastest ways to get you into trouble!  I think we all recognize that we can’t trust our eyes.  That’s why it’s so fun to play with optical illusions. 

Yet the truth is, we live in a world that is visually manipulated.  Like optical illusions sometimes it’s for fun.  But other times it’s done intentionally, with the goal of manipulating us.  Our advertisements are manipulated.  Our television images are manipulated.  Even the “truth” is manipulated.  We are surrounded by distortions of what “real” is. 

Now I get what some of you are thinking.  ”Sure, we get that the news portrays current events for ratings not news.”  Or, “I know Hollywood is full of it, I’ve seen Mythbusters!”  The sentiment is that manipulating what we see just isn’t that big of a deal.  “It’s only TV.” 

But is it? 

Sins like greed and lust work on this exact principle.  They tell us that what we don’t have is more appealing that what we do have.  Lust plants the idea that what we need, no, what we deserve, is another woman (or man).  While greed whispers that we owe it to ourselves to get a “little more” money no matter the cost. 

Consistently the world tells us that if only we would go after those things will we be satisfied.   We just need to consume more things and then we’ll be happy.  Just one more drink.  Just one more cigarette.  Just one more purchase. 

Can you feel it?  Can you feel those desires tugging at your heart?

I can.  And the truth is, sometimes they win.

What we see is a lie.  What we see is not reality.  It’s a myth.  It’s something the world desperately wants to be true, but is so far from God’s Kingdom.  Think about your own life, and then compare it to what we see.  Hollywood portrays sex and drugs as ways to live your life.  But when you have sex and do drugs does your life improve?  Or do you feel more empty than when you began?  Hollywood never shows us the consequences.  Because that would show that their world doesn’t exist.

Advertisements tell us that we’ll be happy if only we have a new set of furniture, or a new game, or a nice vacation.  But do you feel satisfied after that purchase?  Or do you feel stress, fear, and worry because you don’t know how you’ll pay for it.  Advertisements show us a great life - but they don’t tell us that the happy couple doesn’t exist.

Only God offers us a clear image into reality.  Everything else is photoshopped.

Watching your 401(k) disappear is never a good feeling.  All that work, all that saving, all that energy feel like they are wasted.  I’ve only been putting money into savings for a few years.  Some people have spent 50 years making responsible decisions, saving money, doing the “right thing” only to see it all destroyed in a few months time.  People are angry.  But should we be?

The same is true about the country.  I love the United States.  I think it’s the greatest country in the history of the world.  I think we’ve done more to protect, support, help, and provide for the world than any country in history.  So it pains me to see the talk of an end to US supremacy.  But should it?

There’s no question these events are awful.  Tragic even.  But none of this really matters to a Christian.  Why?  Because we don’t live for more things.  Sure it’s great if we have them.  But that’s not the point. There’s a reason Jesus said that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter heaven.  Not because being rich is bad, but because Jesus knew that wealth consumes us.

We live for the Kingdom and anything that advances the Kingdom.  If the first Christians lived with joy and happiness as they were being tortured to death, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to act in love as our 401(k)’s fall apart.  If Jews lived under the oppression of foreign rulers, but still managed to love God, is it impossible for us to live in a time when the US isn’t the number one country and still be obedient to God?

Life is hard now.  It’s not easy or comfortable.  But from a Kingdom perspective, is that bad?

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.

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.

Have you ever stopped to think about the amazing things people have created?  Just look at the skyscrapers we build, the planes we fly, and even the computers we use.  It’s simply amazing.  We can easily draw the conclusion that what God needs is more of our success.  More of our brilliance.  And more of our strengths.  (e.g., Deuteronomy 9)

Yet that’s not really what God uses to change the world.  Instead, he uses our weaknesses to show the world his strengths.

weakness is our strength

God - it’s easy for me to get wrapped up in my own ideas of brilliance, of what I think I need to do, and what I need to provide.  But you don’t need any of that, because you specialize in taking the weak to humble the strong.  Help me to see that it’s in my weakness and humility that you do the most radical things.  Help me to never lose sight of this, so that I am never afraid to take a risk for you. 

I don’t need to be perfect, because that’s not what you ask me to be.  You simply ask me to be faithful, and trusting.

<comments are open>

Life can feel so hard.

Some days the weight of it seems to be crushing. It’s in those moments where all the advice you’ve ever received just doesn’t seem like enough. Things like “trust God” or “God loves you” feel so empty, so meaningless.

Of course it’s not.

Those things are entirely true. But simply saying that doesn’t really solve anything. We need to have some way to put it all into practice. It’s almost as if we need to experience it before we can live it.

Have you ever met someone who just seemed to “shine” with an intense glow, as if there was something special radiating from them? While it’s unlikely they just ate a lamp, what is happening is their faith makes them look different. These are the people who are living out their trust in God. They know that God loves them, no matter what the situation.

Sometimes I think we expect things to come too easily. That believing in God is a magic pill that makes our life easy. When we see these “glowing” people we think their lives must be fine. That they aren’t experiencing problems, because if they had our problems, they wouldn’t be so intensely different.

But nothing is that easy. They have problems just like you and I. But they know something important: faith takes work.

Paul tells us that we should “Train [ourselves] in godliness, for, while physical training is of some value, godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” (1 Timothy 4:7-8)

Living out a life of faith doesn’t happen by accident. And it doesn’t happen over night. It takes (literally) practice. We have to make choices that bring us closer to God. And the more we do this, the more “radiant” we become.

If this seems like an impossible task just remember…even Jesus “grew in wisdom.” (Luke 2: 52)