patience in practice

Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 04-08-2008

Category : God, Matthew, choice, different, taking action

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A certain cable company (rhymes with “Time Warner”) has been causing me difficulties ever since I decided to downgrade my cable subscription.  Each day it seems to get worse. 

  • On Thursday they collected my old digital converter box and reclaimed my cable modem (hence no Friday post).  I have high speed internet through them still, so this was a mistake. 
  • Their mistake forced me to sit in my apartment waiting for them to deliver a new modem for 12 hours on Friday.  They never showed up.
  • Saturday I didn’t talk to them – so no bad news.
  • On Sunday I learned they can’t make it to my apartment until Wednesday. 
  • This morning (when I finally had some working internet at work) I learned that they also shut down my e-mail address.  And since I’m looking for a new job, this is a bit of an issue!

Now I find myself with a choice: On the one hand I’m furious.  There’s a big part of me that wants to scream, “I didn’t cause any of this, why do I have to deal with it?!”  On the other hand I just wrote a prayer to God asking for patience.  Apparently God was listening, because there’s no doubt now have the perfect opportunity to work on my patience!

As Christians we’re called to live differently.  We aren’t supposed to respond like someone who doesn’t have that relationship with God.  Our lives are supposed to have a different feel to them.  Or as Jesus says, people will recognize our faith by the “fruit” we produce.  (Matthew 7: 20).  The problem is, at least for me, I don’t always want to live that way. I don’t always want to respond calmly, or patiently, and certainly not lovingly.  Sometimes I just want to get in there and argue to “prove” just how right I am.

But is this how Christians are supposed to act?

The times Jesus lost his temper with people were the times they were dishonoring God.  It was never when they were struggling with their own problems, or their own sins.  Jesus always had love, mercy, and compassion for those people.  And that’s how we have to deal with people as well.

No one at the cable company was trying to ruin my service intentionally.  No one wanted me to have a bad day.  In fact, their whole job involves listening to angry customers yell at them.  What kind of a toll does that take on someone?  So while I was angry I took this as an opportunity to minister to people.  While I never said, “hey I’m a Christian, God loves you!”  I did try to be calm, not raise my voice, and get things handled in a civil way.  It was an opportunity to submit to service, rather than exercise my pride (something I do all too often).

Christians aren’t called to be walked all over, but we’re not called to be jerks either.

the growth of meaninglessness

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Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 11-06-2008

Category : God, choice, faith, taking action

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How do we know our lives matter?

That’s a question that seems to haunt me.  On the days that I feel most depressed are the days I question my value to the world the most.  Did I really make a difference?  Does my life really matter?

In a world filled with so much doubt, is it any wonder that we question if we matter?

The answer, of course, is that our lives do matter, and that we can make a difference.  God values each of us.  But we also have to want to make a difference.  We have to choose to embrace God.  We have to embrace curiosity, and be willing to take action.

That sort of sounds like work.  And it its. 

But that’s okay, because part of what God calls us to is to take action.  And sometimes action is difficult; we may not make the impact we want; we may not feel ourselves making radical changes for the kingdom.  Perhaps we should be doing more.  But as long as we’re moving towards God, we’re growing.  And as long as there’s growth, there’s meaning.

 

retirement

Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 14-05-2008

Category : Genesis, God, bible, faith, taking action

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Abraham was 75 years old when God showed up and said, leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1)

Think about that for a second.  75.  Most of us are hoping to be long retired by then.  And here God was taking a man and changing the course of human history.  Apparently the excuse “I’m too old” or “I’m too tired” or even “Haven’t I worked hard enough already?” doesn’t hold much weight with God. 

Peter’s redemption

Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 02-05-2008

Category : God, Mark, faith, hope

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Peter’s world had just come crashing down around him.  The man he thought was God had just been arrested.  The man he thought was going to free Israel from the oppressive Roman rule had given up without a fight.  Now this same man was being beaten and disgraced.  And because things weren’t bad enough, Peter had just denied even knowing him.

All of this came only hours after swearing that he would be willing to die for Jesus.  Now Peter had to confront the fact that he had failed.  Spectacularly.  The thing is, Jesus had even told Peter all of this would happen.  But Peter was too proud to listen.  He was too sure of himself.

Up to this point Peter had a history of acting boldly.  Perhaps even impulsively.  He had never run away from God before.  So this was new territory. 

It must have been lonely.

I don’t think it’s a surprise that after all this Peter “broke down and wept.” (Mark 14:72)

If this is where the story ended it would be pretty depressing.  But fortunately this is just the beginning.

All too often we live with the belief that if we fail, even a little bit, God will become angry with us.  That somehow making a mistake is the worst thing we could do.  And therefore we don’t try at all. 

But this is clearly not the case.

Peter failed spectacularly.  His mistake is recorded in the Bible, which means people will read about it for thousands of years.  Talk about embarrassing!  And yet God used him to do amazing things. 

That’s one of the most remarkable things about God – no matter what we’ve done, he gives us another chance.  He says, “don’t worry about the mistakes in the past, trust in the promises I make for your future.  And act on them now.”

I guess that really takes all of my excuses away for not acting.  If God can use Peter after denying God, then I think he can use me too.

suffering for faith

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Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 17-04-2008

Category : Acts, Paul, bible, hope, live for the eternal, sharing faith, taking action

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Sometimes I think it would be fun to be Paul.  (not this Paul)

This was a guy who traveled the world talking about God.  He was bold, action-oriented, and totally committed to God.  He was someone who lived his life to the fullest.  

But then I read stories about Paul’s experience in a city called Lystra. 

When Paul first arrived there, everything went well.  He was able to talk about God, people were listening, and some even started to believe.  But as time went on, people began to change their minds.  They began to no longer accept Paul’s teaching.  So they did what comes naturally to any crowd after a lecture they don’t like – they picked up rocks and threw them at Paul.  In fact, the crowd was so confident in their aim, they drug his body outside of town thinking he was dead. 

Days like this make me want to reconsider my plan to be more like Paul.

But as Monty Python might say, “he’s not quite dead yet.”  And so Paul got up and went back into town. 

I don’t know about you, but heading back into the town where people threw blunt objects at me would not be high on my ‘To Do’ list.  But for Paul, that’s just who he was.  So after returning to town, he and his friend Barnabas moved on to a different city.  Presumably to do the whole thing over again.

But Paul wasn’t done with Lystra. 

After visiting a few more cities Paul came back to encourage the Christians who lived there.  But he didn’t say, “don’t worry everything’s okay” or “believe in God and everything will go smoothly.”  Paul actually said, ”It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God.”  (Acts 14: 22) 

Ouch.  This being-like-Paul-thing sounds less fun all the time!

In a world that values comfort over all, this is hard to swallow.  How can suffering be a part of God’s Kingdom?  But the truth is the closer we get to God’s will the more dangerous it can become.  Just look at Paul’s life.  Even Jesus, someone who probably knew what God wanted, died a horrible death.

Now if suffering was all there was, this would be bad news.  Fortunately we don’t suffer because God enjoys it, or because it’s an initiation.  We suffer because sharing God’s message often means being in direct conflict with the world’s message.  And we suffer because this world is broken.

The people in Lystra went from thinking Paul was a god to trying to kill him.  Why?  Because Paul didn’t stop talking about who God was when they thought he was a god.  He kept teaching and explaining.  And eventually they decided they didn’t like his message anymore.  But if Paul had stopped teaching, no one would have learned about God.  And no one would have been saved.

That’s why Paul could be so bold and passionate when he knew some people might try to kill him for his beliefs.  Paul knew that sometimes to accomplish a bigger goal sacrifices personal have to be made.

virtual church

Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 10-04-2008

Category : barbarian, love, radical, taking action

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It’s easy to become overwhelmed with bad news.  Every day it seems like another problem crops up, or society takes another step away from following God.  And perhaps that’s true.  Perhaps today really is “worse” than yesterday.  But let me tell you a secret…

None of that matters.

God doesn’t call us to judge non-Christians.  He calls us to love them, and share our faith with him.  In a way, the more problems the world has, the more opportunities we have to share His message.  Now clearly a broken world is not a thing to rejoice over!  But we don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves.  We have a mission to accomplish.

That’s what I love about organizations like LifeChurch.tv.  They saw a situation and instead of defining it as a “problem” they recognized a need.  This “need” was a lot of people, who probably don’t know God, in a game called Second Life.  So they bought some virtual land and built a virtual church. 

But they aren’t alone, Catholic missionaries are getting into the act.  And others are asking important questions. 

Now as much as I love video games, I’ve never played Second Life.  So I don’t know if these virtual churches are still open.  But that’s not really the point. 

What matters is that people recognized a need, and they acted.  Instead of treating the game as a problem, they saw it as an opportunity to share a life-changing message.

I wonder what things in my life I treat as a problem, instead of an opportunity to grow?

keeping God for ourselves

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Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 17-03-2008

Category : God, Jesus, Luke, bible

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“The people were looking for [Jesus] and when they came to where he was,
they tried to keep him from leaving them.” (Luke 4: 42)

Why is it that when we encounter God, our first reaction is to make sure we keep him to ourselves?  Shouldn’t our first reaction be to share him with the rest of the world?

making a decision

Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 11-02-2008

Category : God, bible, taking action

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“Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent.” (Matthew 11:20)

Jesus spent a lot of time around the Sea of Galilee.  Especially during his early ministry.  While he was there he did some pretty amazing things.  Stuff like curing illnesses, calming a violent storm, and healing a paralytic.  To me that looks like a fairly impressive resume.  But apparently not everyone felt that way.

Which, ironically, was a pretty common reaction to Jesus. 

No matter how amazing God is, or what miracles he performs, not everyone will be impressed enough to change their lives.  I’ve often wondered why that is.  If you saw Jesus raise someone from the dead, or cure someone’s blindness, don’t you think you’d be willing to change your life?  Wouldn’t you jump at the chance to follow a guy like that? 

But when I look at the times God has done the miraculous for me, I have to admit, I’m not always willing to make a change.  I think this has to do with not wanting to make a choice.  We tend to be comfortable in our lives and our problems.

There have been studies involving people with debilitating diseases and handicaps.  They are told, “if you could give up your illness or disability, but had to select another disability, what would you do?”  Overwhelmingly people responded that they would choose to keep their current illness / disability.  Even when their disability was more severe than another option.  Why?  Because it was something known.  

Of course we don’t need to have a severe illness in order to understand this.  Think about something in your life you struggle with.  Now if you could have any other weakness, would you be willing to give up yours?  As much as we may hate our weaknesses or our temptations, we often cling to them.  Because they are known.  Because they are comfortable.  Even when we absolutely hate them.

When God shows me something amazing I tend to get really excited.  I’m convinced that my excitement alone will be enough to change my life.  But it never lasts.  Slowly that excitement is replaced with the realization of how hard it is to change.  So instead of acting, things stay the same. 

For all of God’s power and strength he never compels us to do anything.  He simply asks.

The burden is on us.  We have to chose whether we’re willing to respond.  We have to choose if we believe in Jesus.  And then we have to choose if we’ll live our lives according to that belief.  And for me that’s often a scary choice.  Let’s face it, it can be dangerous to follow God.  God doesn’t always stay to the well-lit paths.  He goes to those places that make us uncomfortable and afraid.

But in my mind the alternative is worse – not spending the rest of existence with God.  Jesus said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  Rather be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 11:28)

I don’t think Jesus is trying to motivate us with fear.  I don’t think he’s saying God is scary.  But I do think he’s saying that there are consequences for not acting, just like there are consequences for acting.  Just because we don’t want to choose, doesn’t mean we don’t have to.   

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