judging other people (especially other drivers)

Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 07-12-2009

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.

using loopholes to avoid trouble

Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 30-09-2009

Category : Jesus, Matthew, choice, different, faith, living a life of faith, taking action

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Have you ever noticed how everything in the world is geared towards justifying our choices, our actions, and our decisions?  We live in a world obsessed with finding excuses, reasons, and explanations for why our behavior should be the exception.

“Well officer, I didn’t mean to speed, I just had to go to the bathroom.”
“I’d love to play with you tonight son, but I had a hard day at work.”
“Everyone else is doing it…”

We are always looking for loopholes.  Always looking for an out.

I find it interesting that God is just the opposite.

God closed the loopholes.  No, scratch that.  He doesn’t “close” loopholes, he slams them shut, nails the door, and moves a giant bolder in front of it.  God does not accept “well I just wasn’t paying attention.”  God does not accept excuses and justifications.

Is there anything more revolution, more counter-cultural than that?

We often have this impression of Jesus as a “nice guy” who was in complete contrast to the “big, mean” God of the Old Testament.  But that’s not the case.  Both treated sin in a very-counter cultural way.  And yes, it was counter-cultural 2,000 years ago.   Much to the shock of the Jews of the day, Jesus ramps up the intensity of the 10 commandments:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5: 17-20)

If that’s not enough.  Consider what Jesus said about murder.  “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.”

Wow.

I don’t know about you, but that’s terrifying.  Hating someone is the same as murdering them?  God doesn’t see shades of gray?  You can be condemned to Hell for that?!  Talk about closing the loopholes!

Why was Jesus like this?

I believe it’s because God knows how we operate.  He knows that we’re always looking for loopholes.  He knows that if there was any wiggle room we’d be asking, “how close to the line can I get?”

If God has closed the loopholes should we still be seeking to justify all of our actions?

That’s what Israel did.  In fact that was their entire history.  They were constantly trying to get as close to the line as they could without crossing.  And you know where that led?  To hardened hearts.  To spiritual death.  And to a life lived not in faith, but a life lived in mindless obedience to minute laws.  A place where there was no room left for God.

There is good news though.  While you and I can never live up to Jesus’ standards.  That doesn’t matter.  Jesus took the punishment that we deserved.  He suffered where we should be suffering.  He paid the price that was ours to bear.  That’s what’s so amazing about God.  At the very moment he was closing all loopholes, he was opening up the front door.  No more sneaking around, we could boldly and confidently walk in the front door.  As Michael W. Smith says in Come To The Cross, “It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, everyone can come to the cross.”

If God has closed the loopholes should we still be seeking to justify all of our actions?  Should we still be trying to avoid trouble by wiggling our way free?  Or should we boldly move forward and simply ask God to forgive us?  Jesus may have closed the loopholes, but by doing so he made it easier to enter Heaven, not harder.

I ask you this week – where are the loopholes in your life?  And what are you going to do to close them?

A life of faith is guided by God, not controlled by loopholes.

how do you know God?

Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 04-09-2009

Category : Bible thumping, bible, faith, living a life of faith, prayer

Tags: , , , , , , ,

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How do you know God?

Do you know God just through a personal relationship?  Do you know God because you’ve been saved?  Do you know God because of what you hear on TV?  Or what your friends say?

For most of us, the way we know God is through rumor and gossip.  Are those words too strong?  I don’t think so.

Most of us have not spent any time working at our relationship with God.  We haven’t put in time reading the Bible.  Because of that we don’t really know God.  We might know about him.  But we don’t really know who he is.  We have to put time in with prayer.  I know that it sounds like work.  And there’s a reason for that.  It’s because it is work!

There is serious danger in not anchoring your faith by reading the Bible and through prayer.  Dan Edelen who writes Cerulean Sanctum (one of the blogs in my weekly reading list) points out, “I learned a great lesson that day. Every Christian wants to jump straight to the third heaven, everyone wants to move in power, everyone wants to be a great saint, but next to none want to lay the actual groundwork that will get them to that place.”

I believe that we don’t need a perfect theology or a perfect prayer life to know Jesus.  Bible thumping is not the point of all this.  But I’ve also learned that the only way I can really come to know Jesus is by reading about his life (the Bible) and talking to him (prayer).

If I don’t have those two things, along with my relationship, then I quickly find myself drifting away from God.  The world is too good at pulling you away from God to not have an anchor firmly attached to the Bible and prayer.

the illusions of the world

Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 12-08-2009

Category : bible, choice, faith, living a life of faith, taking action

Tags: , , , , , ,

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We live in a society heavily influenced by the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution.  Because of that we think that every decision we make needs to have a root in scientific evidence.  But what if the decisions we are making aren’t really based on science?  What if the world is lying to us?  What if the world wants us to believe something is true even when it’s not?  How then, can we be sure our decisions are still science-based?  Are we just being manipulated?

The world is desperate to present us with a picture of safety and security.  It wants us to believe everything is “fine” and we don’t need to examine our lives – unless it’s to buy more stuff.  The goal is to not rock the boat.  To fit in.  To accept the status quo.

The truth is, despite all the science and knowledge we’ve accumulated, we are still pretty gullible.  We still fall for some pretty silly examples of photoshop distorting pictures.  What’s interesting though, is that while we stare at obviously fake images we reassure ourselves that we’re making decisions based purely on reason.  That our logic, and trust in science makes us smarter.

And so we discard religion.  As a society we’ve somehow decided that if it can’t be seen it must not be real.

I find this to be tragic.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize we can’t always rely on our eyes.  Photoshop has proven that.  Instead we need to learn to also trust God, and the things he’s promised.  That’s really the definition of faith.  Expecting pure scientific evidence for God’s existence will always leave us wanting.  At some point we just need to trust in his promises and move forward.  At some point we have to realize that “just the facts ma’am” isn’t giving us an accurate picture of what’s going on.

Sometimes the temptation for a Christian is to turn their back on the world.  We can over react to the scientific revolution.  We can say “we can’t trust science because it’s from the world.”  However that’s not what God wants either.  God has never said don’t use science or trust your reasoning skills.  But he has warned us that there is a “Thief” who is intentionally trying to manipulate us.

It’s our job to go out into this place and try to bring a new message.  And we can’t do that if we pretend the world doesn’t exist.  We do, however, need to be aware of how much we take in.  We need to know how much we surround ourselves with other world views.  Because it’s easy to be overwhelmed.  It’s easy to fall prey to the lies.  To fall victim to the status quo.

To paraphrase the movie Mr. Deeds, the world is very, very sneaky.

Faith and science aren’t enemies.  They both give us access to important knowledge.  Science helps us to understand the physical world.  It helps us to build hospitals, cure disease, build computers and the internet.  But it can’t answer the question of “why.”  It can’t explain our purpose or our reason for existence.  It can’t define our morality or bring forgiveness to an enemy.

If you want to truly be part of the revolution, you need both faith and science in your life.

being a credible witness

Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 24-07-2009

Category : faith, living a life of faith, taking action

Tags: , , , , , ,

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I know posting on R3 has been a bit light the last couple of weeks.  That’s partly intentional and partly unintentional.  And depending on the day it’s hard to tell the difference!

The last few weeks have been unusually busy for me.  Which means I’ve needed to make some deliberate choices.  If you’ve been reading R3 for any length of time you know the prime question we look at is simply, “what does it mean to live out a life of faith?”   In each post I try to answer that question.  But this isn’t just an intellectual exercise for me.  This is something I am committed to doing.  If you’re going to believe in God, why wouldn’t you want to live out a life that reflects those beliefs?

As the Irish Evangelist, Gypsy Smith once said, “There are five Gospels.  Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the Christian, and some people will never read the first four.”

I agree with that.  For many people the only time they get to see God, is when I reflect God in my actions.  The more I live out a life of faith, the more they will see the impact God can have on their life.  And so I’ve made a conscious effort to spend more time with friends and family.  Which, sadly, means I’ve had less time to spend writing.

Something had to give, and for the last few weeks, I chose to give up some of the writing in favor of building into people in my life.  Fortunately this won’t last long – the lack of writing that is.  I should be back into the groove starting next week with the typical Monday, Wednesday, Friday routine.

But in the meantime I’d challenge all of you to consider that Christianity is more than simply knowledge, it’s about action as well.   Greg Boyd recently said in a sermon, “There this a widespread assumption that Christianity is mainly about believing certain things…if you believe those things well then you’re in, if you don’t, well then you’re out….as though God’s greatest aspiration for all of creation was to raise up people who have the right opinion about things.”

So this week go out and do something.  Be a credible witness for Christ.  Live out a life of faith in such a way that people can’t help but ask “what’s going on in your life.”  Go.  Be the church.

reader comment: will the evildoers never learn

Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 13-07-2009

Category : Jesus, faith, living a life of faith, reader comments, sin

Tags: , , , , , ,

Chris, over at Got-Fruit.net, had a good addition to Friday’s post “will the evildoers never learn:”

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1st John 1:9)

Perhaps this is a case of semantics, but I would say that it’s not that we’re captives of sin but rather that as you later say in your post; “it still lingers” ie;  we still struggle with sin even though we’ve been sanctified and justified by the blood of Christ.  In my own experiences as a Christian I can recall being so occupied with being good; not sinning, that I missed the point of Christianity, that Christ has already done all of the work, therefore there’s nothing that I can do to add to it. (Ephesians 2:8-9).

When you enter into a relationship with God, you are most certainly set free from the final bondage of sin (something I should have made more clear in that post).  Yet it seems that on some level we are willing to pick that bondage back up.  We seem to want to be put back into slavery. And the truth is, we do this willingly.

So while we are fully sanctified and justified by the blood of Christ (something I agree with, and believe the Bible teaches, and am grateful to Chris for pointing out) I think we are at least perceptually controlled by sin, if not in actual reality.  And as most psychologists would tell you, perception is reality. We live by how we see the world.

I don’t know where I fall on this fine line of semantics.  Maybe this is just a word game, or maybe it’s meaningful theology.  But what I do know is sin destroys people’s lives.  And if we’re not careful, even though Jesus’ death atones for our sins, we end up living out a life as if it didn’t.

time management, unemployment, and God

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Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 22-06-2009

Category : God, R3, faith, living a life of faith, taking action

Tags: , , , , , , ,

……….

The irony of unemployment is that I haven’t been this busy since I was in college.

A few months ago I wrote an article about 5 things to do while unemployed.  One of the things to do while unemployed was volunteering.  Now I’m not one to simply write about what you should do and not live out that principle.  In fact, the whole point of R3 is to learn what it means to live out a life of faith.  That’s why I find R3 to both be incredibly fulfilling and challenging all at the same time.  While I’m not perfect I find writing publicly what I believe really forces me to follow through with my actions.

And volunteering is one area I’ve thrown myself into full force.

The challenge I’m facing right now is time management.  The stuff I do involving R3 takes up quite a bit of time.  There are the three weekly updates.  I am also working on the finishing touches to R3’s first community guide.  Plus there are a ton of  side things I do with R3 like research, reading blogs, and twittering.  (Yes, yes, I know, I’m not very good at twittering.)

On top of that I am looking for a job, creating content for another website called Meaning to Work, balancing two small groups, four serving ministries, and all the different friends I have made through all of those activities!

To put it simply there is a lot going on.  And much of it is volunteer related.

But I am not alone.  Most Americans live lives with this much activity.  Little Johnny has soccer practice, Little Suzy has piano lessons.  Mom has a meeting and Dad has softball.  Sound familiar?  As a people we tend to be overwhelmed by obligations, activities, and responsibilities.  This time pressure has made us sensitive to “wasted time.”

What does this busyness do for our relationship with God?

A lot of times you’ll hear that it’s bad to be busy.  And it can be.  If you’re so focused in moving from one meeting to the next you’ll never live with enough urgency to have time to act when needed.  But I think sometimes busyness gets a bad rap.  There are good things that come with busyness.  Busy people really are more likely to accomplish things.  It’s easier to keep your momentum going forward, than it is to find momentum if you’re not doing anything.  When you are on a schedule you’re more likely to use your time productively – however you define that.

It’s not as if slowing down somehow makes us less lazy.  I can’t be the only one who when they don’t have much going on gravitates toward the TV than an interesting book.

But when I’m busy I know I have to choose between a book and TV.  There is no “I’ll get to it later” because I don’t have the time for that.  So I stay focused.

Time management is like so many things – it can be good or bad, healthy or unhealthy.  What matters is where we put our time in relationship to God.  Are we pursuing things that honor him?  Are we pursuing things that build into our relationship with him?  If we are, then even if we are busy that is a good thing.  But the minute we become too busy for God, then there’s a problem.

So as so many people struggle with unemployement, don’t let this be an excuse to do nothing.  Go out and volunteer.  Get engaged in your communities.  But don’t let this become an excuse to become so busy you forget about God.

holding on too tight

Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 06-03-2009

Category : God, taking action

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

 

Thanks to God, I’ve been doing some spring cleaning.   

Not just your typical cleaning.  This is a massive cleaning that involves moving significant amount of things out of closets.  Places where boxes have lived for 8 years now.  As with anything that sits in one spot too long stuff gets piled on top of it.  You throw something in the closet shelf and say, “oh I’ll get to that later.”

Yeah right.

But now is the time to get things done.  So I’ve been going through a lot of stuff I put into the closet right after I got out of graduate school.  Things I’ve completely forgotten about.  Dreams I forgot I had.  Memories I tried to forget, but couldn’t.  My goal in cleaning has been to simplify my life and get as much clutter out of it as possible.  I don’t want “things” to be in the way of my relationship with God.  And all too often I let stuff do that. 

But today I found it very hard to throw things away.  An old phone.  A pile of notes from Grad school.  Even a few old magazines. 

I couldn’t figure out why this bothered me so much at first.  But then I realized – these things represent dreams and hopes I had that will never come to pass.  I will never be able to relive those moments, never be able to save those relationships.  I can’t go back. 

I’m not very sentimental, but this really struck me.  I feel it at the pit of my stomach as I type this.  I don’t want to let go of those things.  I want to hold onto those dreams, even if they aren’t my dreams today.  In fact that life has absolutely nothing to do with my life now.  When I was in grad school I didn’t believe in God, at least not in a God who mattered. 

Now my life is bent towards his. 

To be honest I don’t want to go back to that time.  I don’t want those dreams.  I’ve moved on to better things in many cases.  So why is it so hard to let go?  Why does the human spirit latch onto the things that hurt our relationship with God?

We are a fallen people.  No matter what we do, on our own it’s not enough.  Sometimes it takes memories of the past to remind us just how far God carries us.  It’s funny these are the lessons I am learning from God’s strange request to clean my room.  God redeems everything – even a messy closet.

upside down kingdom

Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 25-02-2009

Category : barbarian, different, faith, taking action

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 

Sometimes the Bible scares me. 

I try and pretend I don’t understand, but deep down I do.  I know all too well that the Bible is clearly teaching a message I don’t want to hear.  In the book Titus, Paul says, “Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.”

That does not make me feel comfortable!  That’s such a dangerous statement.  If slaves must be obedient, pleasing, and trustworthy toward their owners, how much more must I be?

God calls Christians to an unbelievably high standard.  We are called to be set apart, to live differently, or as Erwin McManus says, to The Barbarian Way. 

We’re called to live this way in every area of our life.  Not just an hour or two on the weekend.  Which is why I found it interesting that I came across two sports stories in the same week. 

1. Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State School

2. Covenant vs. Dallas Academy

Each story had one team from a Christian school.  But the endings were miles apart.  Grapevine demonstrated Christ-like love to Gainesville by cheering for them.  Why?  Because Gainesville is a prison.  They had no one to cheer for them.  They had no family or friends on the sideline.  They don’t even have freedom.  Yet Grapevine Faith created a moment of love for kids who may have never experienced that type of love before.

Covenant on the other hand destroyed Dallas Academy by 100-0.  Is there anything wrong with that?  Maybe not.  But can you imagine Jesus running up the score on a bunch of kids?  Neither can I. 

Compare that with what one kid from Gainesville State School said, “everything about it was upside down.”  Do you think anyone is saying that from Dallas Academy?  We don’t like to say things like this – but was God glorified in any way by running up the score?  Did it teach anyone anything about who he was?

Sometimes we get caught up in the moment and make poor choices.  It happens.  And we must learn to live with our failure and move forward.  God’s Kingdom is an upside down Kingdom.  Our lives should be upside down too.

 

taking God for granted

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Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 10-02-2009

Category : God, choice, faith, hope

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

  

There’s a moment I love when you first get over a cold.  You have enthusiasm, energy, excitement.  You’re just happy to be able to breath.  You walk around appreciating that you can do it pain free.  And the fact that you can smell dirty laundry makes you happy.  Or is that just me?

But after a few hours, a few days, that changes.  We begin to take everything for granted.  We forget what it was like to be miserable.  We can’t remember how much it hurt just to talk or move.  We tell ourselves, “it wasn’t really that bad…” 

For many of us, that’s how our relationships work with God. 

He comes in, does something amazing and within a few days, a few hours, we’re back to our “normal” selves.  We forget the miracles.  We forget how he changes our lives.  We even forget that he was the cause for it all.  We find ourselves back into our old habits as if we never experienced something amazing.

Most people who believe in God have have experienced this.  As humans we seem to easily forget who helped us, and attribute it to our own efforts.  Maybe there isn’t any way to stop it.  Maybe it’s just part of our fallen nature.  Maybe when Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, we gained an understanding of evil, but lost the better parts of our memory. 

To be honest, I don’t know why we do this.  I can just make guesses.  And I don’t know how to stop it.  But I do know I don’t want to lose my sense of gratitude.  I don’t want to re-learn lessons that took suffering to learn in the first place.  I want my mind to latch onto God and never let go.  I never want to take him for granted.  Yet why is it so easy to forget?  How do we keep that sense of gratitude?

Maybe that’s just part of the struggle.  Maybe the only thing we can do is to wake up every morning and say, “today I am going to remember.”  Maybe what God wants most is that we give it everything we have, and if we fail, that’s ok, he’s there to pick up the slack.  Maybe living out a life of faith is more about honestly trying than succeeding.

And maybe it’s through that struggle that we’re changed, allowing us to remember what God has done for us.

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