Message From Leadership Team Member Damian Marta...

Element community - To kick off our series of blog posts on what God has done in our midst in the Element community, here's a post from Leadership Team member Damian Marta...We hope you're having a great week!
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I have been part of the element community basically since the doors opened. I have seen this community comprised of different faces at different times. However, some things have always remained consistent. The values have never changed. The desire to help bring people closer to God has never weakened. And that is why I knew that element was the place for me.

Over the years, some of my greatest friendships were fostered in the element community. People who I consider to be like brothers and sisters (family away from home) have come to be a part of my life through this community. Years ago, I would've never considered the possibility of my pastor also being one of my best friends. I have seen all of these people pour into each other at various times for various reasons. I remember when I was preparing for my trip to Germany to undergo treatment for my Muscular Dystrophy. This community rallied around me in my time of need and supported me in many ways. The most powerful of which was prayer.

As the people of this community transition to new seasons in their lives, my prayers are also with them. I pray that they focus on what is truly important in this life. It's all about our lord and savior Jesus Christ. It is all about what he did for us by wiping away our sins for all eternity. It's all about the gift he gave us. It's a gift that can't be taken away by anyone. It is a gift that will last for eternity. Literally! How powerful is that?! How life-changing is that?! It's something that we can hang our hat on! :-)

- Damian Marta

A little recap of the past few months...

Well, Element community, much has happened since the last update to the blog...We found some incredibly important ideas to talk about, brought to life by some powerful visuals through the films of the Big Picture series...We explored a complete (and radical) new way of thinking through the SHIFT series in the book of Philippians...We explored some of the many reasons people resist the the truths of God in the "I Believe in God, But..." series...We dove headfirst into maybe the most foundational book of them all, the book of Romans, and read some words that really should change how we approach everything. We took on the Advent Conspiracy, where we looked at three key ideas: Worship Fully, Spend Less/Give More, and what it means to Love All. We've gotten to partner with the wonderful people of the Steele Creek YMCA, and be the recipients of their kind hospitality. We spend time celebrating together, talking about our incredible God and what he's done in each of our lives, and we've prayed about some difficult decisions. We've face obstacles, and we've seen God overcome them. We've shared a lot of laughs together, and even a few tears. We've had some extraordinary times of worship, both musical and otherwise...And when all is said and done, we've grown closer together and learned a little bit more about our extravagant, loving God. And I, for one, will cherish every moment spent together. And though we're not an everyday Sunday morning kind of thing anymore, I look forward to continuing to deepening my friendship with each one of you, and sharing in the triumphs in life, and encouraging each other in the not-so-triumphant parts. You all mean an incredible amount to me - To think that God has allowed me to be involved in your lives to the extent I have gotten to be is really humbling, and I know I'll never be the same. 

I know that I'll be particularly grateful to those of you who made it your mission to be supportive in difficult times, who saw the good in any given situation, who showed me what it really means to trust in the goodness of God, and painted pictures of Jesus by your actions in loving both me and the Element community. You are truly valued - I know God has huge plans for you wherever you go. People who choose to put in the work when others won't, believe the best when others fear the worst, have each other's backs, and throw down in prayer for each other are a rare commodity in life, and I thank God that I've met more than my share of you in the journey of the past few years. I thank God as well for those people who gave up on me or the church when the going got tough - Through those times, I've learned to appreciate the loyalty and love of true friends more than ever, I've learned the power of forgiveness, and I've grown to recognize and love people whose default mode is mercy and grace. As a mess of a human being, I realize how ludicrous it is that God would use someone like me for any of his purposes, and I deeply thank each of you who have made me feel like God might not have made a mistake in using me the way he has ;) 

I pray that your Christmas season has been full of love and hope...That you're excited about the possibilities of the new year ahead...And that you're eager to uncover more and more of the beauty of the risen Christ. Religion and church tradition can be powerful things, but a vibrant relationship with the living God Himself is where life takes on a meaning that our very best efforts can never attain...God bless you all, and I invite you to continue to build relationships with the community you've been a part of, founded on trust, mutual encouragement, and above all, love. I look forward to hearing from you...Keep an eye on this blog space and the Facebook page in the coming weeks for some further thoughts , both from myself and some of the other people that have been an integral part of the Element community! 

With much love,

Brian Doell

Solomon Islands Blog, part 2...

Crazy things happen when you spend about 30 hours on various airplanes to get somewhere...Aside from the swollen ankles, conversations with complete strangers, and a readiness to eat food that you’d normally spurn,  that is...You can usually expect something to go very wrong with a team of multiple people over 2 days of travel, but in this case, God spared us from anything weirder than having to sit, eat, and sleep mere centimeters away from people we’d never seen before...
 
We got to the Island of Malaita on Thursday, the 21st of April, and after two and a half hours of negotiating approximately 3.2 million deep potholes in the bed of a pickup with about thirty other people, countless boxes and bags, and a very irritated chicken, we arrived at our first destination, a little village called Gounahilli. The idea was to join them for their Easter Convention, which would go from Thursday through Sunday, and ultimately consist of 7 church meetings lasting a total of almost 24 hours of worshiping together (5.5 hours for the Easter morning service by itself). 
 
I’ve always been a big fan of the idea of easing into something...You know, taking time to adjust and acclimate, and then when you feel ready to take on the challenge, dive in...That’s not really how this played out, though, and as it turned out, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. We only had a couple of short hours before we had to turn around and participate in the first service. About 30 minutes before it was supposed to start, I heard something across the village - some of the most incredible singing I think I’ve ever heard. I asked one of the guys with us what it was, and he told me it was what they call a “singing band”, a group of women who were going to come over to the house we were staying in and escort us across the village to the church. It was dark already, so I couldn’t see any of them, I could just hear then getting warmed up some distance away. Talk about building anticipation for something...The adrenaline’s already flowing, you’re in a place you’ve never been, you’re getting ready to take part in something that the locals had praying about for TWO YEARS, and you find out that the otherworldly voices you hear in the darkness are for you...Unreal. Even more so when it actually happened, let me tell you. They showed up outside the door, about 30 of them in all, all dressed in white...Swaying in time to the music, holding a stick in one hand (called a bit-bit), that they drummed with on their other hand as they sang. They opened up a pathway in their midst, and we walked across the village, flanked by these amazing women and their voices. I get chills just reliving the moment in my mind...
 
The combination of intricate harmonies, rhythmic pounding of the sticks, and subtle dancing as they marched would make anyone sit up and take notice, musician or not...This wasn’t just inspiring because it was different...It was inspiring because it was phenomenal. These women were doing something at the highest level of creativity and ability. Kind of sobering, really, since it was happening as we were getting ready to speak to these people ourselves. Who wants to follow that kind of opening act? I found out later that the idea of a band like this has deep roots in the Solomons.  When Christianity first came to the Islands,  bands like this formed as part of the evangelism effort. When groups would go to neighboring villages to share the gospel, the women would go in first, marching and singing; essentially, getting the villagers ready to hear a life-changing message. It’s easy to see why that was an effective game plan - That level of passion and beauty has a singular way of completely disarming a person. They don’t do this anymore, apparently. The bands now are just for entertainment purposes, or so they say. I’m not sure I completely buy that, though. The way these women approach their task suggests pretty strongly that they know they’re not singing just to give someone a pleasant diversion for a minute or two. I watched them a few days later as they prepared to sing for us again, on our last night in that village. To say they prayed together would be a huge understatement...These women simply threw down. They pleaded with God. They got on their knees. They raised their hands. They raised their voices. They fought a battle, for themselves, and for everyone they would soon be singing for. They understood the stakes, and they dedicated themselves more fully to their task than anyone I’ve ever seen.
 
And this is something I just can’t shake. See, I feel like I’m a person who puts a lot into what I do, and yet being with these people was a huge revelation to me in this area. Who prays everyday for an event for two years before it’s scheduled? Who builds their guests a brand-new house, rather than simply sharing a room? They even built us a western-style outhouse, complete with flush toilet, right in the middle of a jungle village, because they knew that would be more comfortable for us (granted, they put the lock on the outside of the door so it was completely useless, but hey, A for effort). Who pours themselves out in prayer for hours for a few minutes of singing? They gave the very best of what they had for us...Complete strangers, and yet to them, this is not a negotiable thing. You do it as unto Christ Himself, or you don’t do it. I have to admit, this shook me up, and pretty continually. I’m used to watching people around me shuffle through life and responsibility half-heartedly much of the time. And like I said, though I feel like a person who works hard and takes my tasks seriously, I know that in those moments where I dare to be honest with myself, I have to include myself in that group, at least some of the time. How many of us can say, in all honesty, that we throw ourselves with abandon into everything we do? How many of us would have to admit that we approach certain tasks, relationships, and moments as things to simply be endured until something better and more exciting comes along? Maybe most importantly, how many of us hold others to a standard of conduct and dedication to which we’re unwilling to hold ourselves?
 
I’ve been chewing on this for over a month now, and the only conclusion I can come to is that this needs to be a non-negotiable for me as well. I can’t be okay with the idea that I just coasted through something, or that I expected someone else to pick up the slack for me, or that someone or something wasn’t worth my full effort. It seems to me that it took a pretty thorough dedication to commit to dying on a cross for a group of people that were, at best, mostly apathetic. And it seems that Christ demands the very best from us as well, in what I do in public and in private, and in how I approach my own life and my relationships with others. I know the people of the Solomon Islands aren’t perfect in this respect, but they lived this out perfectly for one particular guy I can point to. Perfectly, because they both demonstrated the standard, and lived it out. Now it’s up to me to do the same. Let’s do this...
 
Peace.

A Spiritual Travelogue (Intro)

Question for you: What do 37 people in line for an approximately 2.5 square foot bathroom, watching movie after movie until your eyes start twitching uncontrollably, a strange interpretation of breakfast, and a high concentration of talkative Australians have in common? Actually, now that I think about it, the answer could legitimately be “any youth hostel in Western Europe”, but the answer I was looking for was “LA to Brisbane, via Qantas Airlines.” I would also accept “the longest 13.5 hours of your life.” Actually, since I really like flying, it wasn’t too bad, but I suspect that assessment wasn’t shared by any non-Aussie on that flight. Aussies, of course, have an innate ability to enjoy themselves no matter what the situation. This may be due to Australia having the highest concentration of lethal animals, insects, and reptiles on the planet - When you could croak at any moment, you might as well appreciate the present...Of course, it could also be that God just decided to put a whole bunch of friendly, good-humored people all together in one country, just to prove to France that it’s possible.
 
In mid-April, I took off with a team of three other people for the Solomon Islands, which explains the trip Down Under. You can’t get to the Solomons quickly or easily...If you live in Charlotte, NC, like I do, it’s like trying to head east on I-485 through the Pineville area at about 5pm, but not quite as frustrating. I flew from Charlotte to Cincinnati, then Cincy to LA, then LA to Brisbane, then Brisbane to Honiara in the Solomons, deep in the South Pacific ocean. Almost 30 hours of just flight time, but with layovers (and crossing the date line), three days of travel, airports, and the inexpressible joy of customs officers...In other words, you’ve really got to want to go there. And I did...
 
I was invited by my brother-in-law, Mike Anthony (the founder of an organization called Godfactor) to partner with him and a few others to head down there for a few weeks and invest some time in teaching and partnering with the South Seas Evangelical Church. I’d been there before, in 2004, and fell in love with the Islands and the people, so I was pretty excited to go back. I felt like God had a bunch of great things in store for this trip - For the Islanders, the churches in their villages, for our team, and for me and the church I’m blessed to pastor in Charlotte (Element). And it turns out that what I was anticipating didn’t even really scratch the surface of what actually happened. It’s rare in life, I think, that the reality of a given situation meets or exceeds the  level of anticipation we take with us, but in this case, that was certainly true. And I’m still trying, almost two weeks after returning, to figure out how to put some of it into words. To say that God worked in my life would be a good candidate for understatement of the year. I would say that I’ve never experienced the movement of God in my thought process to that extent really ever. It was truly amazing, and I’m still stunned and grateful that I got to be a part of it. Time will tell how God shifts and moves in me in the aftermath, but I feel like two things have become clear to me: 1. I feel like I know God much more intimately than ever before, and 2. I feel like I know how to explain Him less than ever before. Risky thing to admit as a pastor, maybe, that I can’t encapsulate God in easy human terms, but it’s true. And particularly for someone like me, who usually feels pretty confident about my ability to get an idea across effectively.
 
And so I thought I might work some of this stuff out via this blog...Rather than mercilessly bend the Element community’s collective ear with endless stories, I think I’ll take the next few weeks and write a lot of it down. My hope and prayer is that God will bring much of what He showed me to life even more...That the Element community would be strengthened, challenged and encouraged...And that anyone else reading along would find some value in this journey as well. I’d love to hear your thoughts as we go, either here in the comments section, or privately if you’d rather. To me, there are few things in life better than learning from and being sharpened by each other, and I’d love to see that happen here. Please forgive my limitations as we go - I don’t claim to have any special insight or extraordinary ability, but as the pastor of a community, and as someone who takes the responsibility seriously of helping to be a catalyst for spiritual growth, I think it might lead to some valuable discussion. Feel free to point others toward this blog as well, and I’m looking forward to it! Look for part 1 to post in a day or two...God bless you all!
Peace,
Brian

The truth about being good at things...

Over the last few days, I’ve come face to face with a strange phenomenon. No, not the curious success of Jersey Shore, although that just might possibly be a sign of the impending Apocalypse. You thought Paris Hilton was a little lacking in the cognitive development area? The cast of Jersey Shore has the collective IQ of a fruit bat, and worse hair. No, this is one I’ve encountered before, many times, but it really just hit me what was going on this time. See, I got sick a few days ago. I rarely get sick. I don’t get those 24 hour things that most normal people get, or wake up with a headache, take it a little easier than normal, and by morning I’m right as rain. No, though I rarely get sick, when I do, it’s for real. It’s not going a couple of rounds with the Common Cold and calling it good. It’s getting smacked in the face by some unpronounceable name that may or may not involve wearing a gown for a while that doesn’t fully close in the back, but almost certainly involves several doctors conferring, and usually a variation of the following question. “Mr. Doell, have you spent any time in Sub-Saharan Africa recently? And/Or eaten large quantities of lead?” I had a spinal issue misdiagnosed by no fewer than 4 doctors in a row several ago...I contracted a flesh-eating bacteria in Belgium that took all the skin off my feet...Two summers ago, I became possibly the first person in recorded history to get Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in my own front yard (which is, strangely, not within a thousand miles of the the Rocky Mountains).

But the phenomenon is not the incredibly good luck I’ve had with strange diseases. Rather, it’s the fact that at the precise moment I’m too sick to do a certain thing, that thing is all I want do. Currently, my throat is inflamed to the extent that the act of swallowing a simple cup of tea looks suspiciously like I’m having a seizure...Needless to say, talking’s not a breeze right now. Yet, curiously, I am enjoying a burning desire to sing the likes of which I’ve never experienced, and cannot in any way act on.  I never have a burning desire to sing. I sing just well enough to sometimes successfully convey the intended melody to other sentient beings. But now that I can’t do it at all, it’s all I want to do. Strangely, this is combined with a near-constant desire to be working out. Fat chance of that, since I’m out of breath after typing a two-syllable word right now, but wouldn’t you know it - in this moment where I can’t do anything physically productive, all I can think about is lifting heavy things.

The bottom line is that the desires just aren’t matching up with the ability, and it happens to me every time I get sick. But it’s a phenomenon not limited to me, and certainly not restricted to sickness. I find myself around people all the time that really, really want to do certain things, but aren’t necessarily (to put it as politely as I can) gifted with a commensurate amount of ability, or even potential. I’ve certainly been there myself. And this is a tough topic, believe me. Because, so the thinking goes, who are we to judge whether or not someone can do something or not? And I guess that’s true in one sense.  If you love to sing, but you know you can’t carry a tune in a bucket, then warble away, sister. To thine own self be true. Apologize to no one, and let the shower be your adoring audience. And, as a quick aside, I’m not talking about worship services here...You’re not singing for the person next to you, so who cares if you’re pleasing to his ear? You’re pleasing to God’s ear, and that’s what matters. The problem comes when this manifests itself in what we spend our time and energy pursuing; in how we view ourselves, which translates into the roles we try to play in the greater community. I KNOW how much you want to act, but the director has every right not to cast you if you’re, objectively speaking, not good at conveying different kinds of emotion, or can’t remember your lines. Similarly, playing quarterback for your favorite team is a great dream, but there are objective measures for fulfilling that dream. Can you throw the ball better than the average guy or not? It’s nothing personal, it’s just the truth.

And though most of us would agree up to this point, interestingly, one of the places this can sometimes all fall apart is the Church. For some reason, we’ve allowed an idea to creep into the community of Christ that says this - If I want to do something, you have to let me, even if I show no gifting for it. Because to not let me is to stifle the Holy Spirit in me, and you don’t want to do that. The problem with that is that it’s not Scriptural at all. There are several places in the Bible that list different spiritual gifts, and it’s made pretty clear that not everybody’s getting all the same gifts. We know this instinctively, anyway. We just know when someone without the requisite ability to do X tries to hang their hat on doing X. The American Idol audition episodes have  been a great example of that...And it’s not mean-spirited, short-sighted, or harsh for us to acknowledge that, though some people would have you believe otherwise. God has created us all very uniquely, with very distinct combinations of gifts, and has great plans for you in the use of those gifts! And each of those gifts is undeniably important to God’s plan for you and to be the kind of person he’s asking you to be to the people around you. Don’t get caught in the trap that says your gifts aren’t as good and necessary as the next person’s!

But neither should we buy into the misguided notion that says that nobody can, or should speak into your life and the effective use of your gifts...We are, by nature, people who have difficulty objectively assessing ourselves. Part of the Church’s function is to help lend gracious perspective to each of us where we have difficulty seeing things well. The Church flourishes when we all operate the way God created us to (and by flourishes, I mean that people are loved and supported and taught and led and served, and it all comes together in a truly beautiful expression of humble community). Because nobody knows what He created you for better than God Himself, the potential for what can  happen when you’re thriving and coming alongside others who are gifted in different ways is absolutely monumental. But we have to get rid of this absurd notion that says that the loving thing to do is to exercise no discernment and let anyone do anything they want to, at everyone’s expense. Sometimes the most loving thing we can do is gently help someone redirect their energies into the areas God made them good at. And sometimes, to simply affirm that it’s a great thing to be good at what you’re good at! Think of the amazing possibilities within the Church community if we could stop wishing we were someone we’re not, and revel in being the person God created us to be...

A New Year, A Book, and a Different Life...

So here we are on the brink of 2011, and that always causes people to think. Unfortunately, for some people, this is about the only time they take to think throughout the year, but that's a topic for another day ;) For most of us, though, it usually causes some evaluation of the previous year, and some degree of wonder about the upcoming one...What's going to happen? How will things play out? When I look back on 2011, will I like what took place in my life, or will I not? Looking back at 2010, you can no doubt see where you went wrong, whether in thought or action. You can also see where things were good, and hopefully you have a bunch of those moments to celebrate!

I wanted to take a moment here to champion something that I think could make a major difference in life this year. One of our major focal points in the Element community this year is a deeper understanding of the Bible...Makes sense for a church to say that, I know, but here's the deal. As people who consider our journeys with God to be critically important parts of our lives, our interactions with the Bible itself can sometimes be pretty limited. What I mean by that is this: There are a great many people whose knowledge of what the Bible says is gained almost exclusively by what other people tell them. In other words, there's little personal study of the Bible going on, and for a number of reasons. Some people find it just too difficult to figure out what it means, some people find it pretty tough to find the time, and still others have never really considered themselves a reader at all, let alone a reader of an ancient text!

There's something else I mean by "limited", as well, and this one applies even to people who consider themselves to be avid readers of the Bible, maybe even students of the Bible. In this case, our understanding of the Bible can be  limited to interpreting things in light of how we feel  about a given topic. We all have a way of seeing the world and a set of beliefs that we bring with us when we read the Bible, and it's very common to come to conclusions that simply support what we want the Bible to say. We would never say that we do that, of course, but the truth is that we do. 

Here's why I bring this up...As the written word of God, we have been given no greater tool than this for more fully and deeply understanding God and his plan for our lives! This certainly doesn't minimize the importance of prayer and community, but the reality is that we are not usually people who passionately pursue Bible study as much as we pursue other avenues of getting close to God. 

With that in mind, I want to challenge you to make this a year in which you embrace the Bible like you never have before. I know that sounds about as fun as a root canal to some of you, but I believe wholeheartedly that it'll change your life! That goes for those of you who already read it regularly, as well. And you don't have to be brilliant or have some sort of special gift, either. If you have trouble knowing where to start, or how to start, let me know. I'd love to help you! If you have trouble figuring out what certain things mean or how they apply, I'd love to help you with that, as well. In recent years, I've recommended and made good use of some great resources to help with the journey, and  I want to pass one in particular along to you. It doesn't matter what your level of familiarity is with the Bible, this book will help with just about any issue you might have in personally studying it. I know it can be tempting for some to say that you don't need rudimentary help like this...Let me put this as kindly as I can: That's garbage :-) I know seminary professors who still learn from resources like this. 

This particular one is called "How To Read The Bible For All Its Worth", by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart. I recommend it so highly because it helps to turn the average reader, of average intelligence and average motivation (in other words, me ;), into someone with a very solid understanding of hermeneutics (which simply means how we interpret things the way we do) and exegesis (which simply means breaking things down to what they mean). In other words, turning the Bible from a daunting task into something of great value in your life, and it does it in layperson's terms, and in very relevant language. I'd love to get your feedback on other resources you find helpful as well! Just don't buy what some people will tell you, which is that you're somehow doing something wrong if you look at other resources, both people and books, to help you understand the Bible better. No solid Bible scholar ever has embraced that attitude - Don't buy into it. As Isaiah 55 says: "Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life..." In other words, be humble and teachable, making use of all of the resources God has given you, including the Bible, and you will find the life God intends for you. 

I'm looking forward to the conversations about what you're reading, and about what God teaches you! I pray that we can humbly share in the journey together, learn with and from each other, and in the end, be sharpened by each other. God bless you in the New Year - I'll be praying for you, and I'd love for you to pray for me! Let's do this...

Are you a Legend?

I thought I'd pass along a post from a guy I read periodically named Karl Verkade, who's a guitarist and worship leader, who manages the difficult task of being both funny and meaningful at the same time. I forgive him for his U2 obsession. This post is about that weird moment at family gatherings where people try to one-up each other in the "I'm so important" game. It's worth it just for the last couple of lines. Enjoy...

Peace,

Brian

http://www.guitarforworship.com/?p=3049

Thoughts on Inception, part 1...

Ever heard of this movie that came out a while ago about dreams? Inception, I think it was called...Apparently it did rather well at the box office. I think this Leonardo fellow might have a future in the moving pictures industry...If you didn’t see it, congratulations - You’re one of 9 people worldwide that held out...I myself saw it twice. Good to know that I can be led around by the nose by whatever Hollywood thinks I should watch. But I really dug the movie, and actually mostly for some of the messages that found their way in... Not usually what I find redeeming about the Hollywood oeuvre, but this one had some interesting ideas that rattled around in my head for a while afterwards. In particular, the following lines: “What’s the most resilient parasite? An idea.” “A single idea from the human mind can build cities.” “An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules.” Actually, all of those lines can be found in the trailer, so if you want to pare down the two hours it takes to watch the whole thing, there you have it.


I love this idea, that an idea is a resilient parasite. Typically, of course, a parasite is an organism that has a symbiotic relationship with a host. In other words, it feeds off the host (the host sustains it), and in return, it influences the host. Sometimes for good, and more often, in a negative sense. I think the screenwriters are onto something with this notion...See, the actions we take in life are born in our thought process. Thoughts lead to decisions, which lead to taking action.  But just like in a parasitic relationship, much of our thought process is a reaction to circumstance; that is, something happens to us, and we process it, and react. And for more of us than would care to admit (and more of the time), we’re reacting to ideas implanted by people and cultures that aren’t particularly healthy, yet we accept them as reality, and make our decisions based on those ideas. And once those ideas get a foothold in our everyday thought process, it’s pretty darn hard to kick them out. Very resilient, in other words.


All of this got us thinking that it might be really beneficial to do a series at Element about this very thing. What happens when the ideas we allow to take root in our minds are God-birthed ideas, ideas that don’t simply mirror what society says are the norm? Revolutionary ideas...What are the ideas that we’re allowing to shape the actions we take? The bible is replete with dramatically counter-culture ways of living that, if we let them become foundational,  permeate our whole lives and introduce a new hope and a new way of life to others. And so we’ve been immersed in this series for the past few weeks and having some incredibly challenging discussions...Specifically about what it  means to fully embrace these ideas, and how to identify the first step I need to take, from a practical standpoint, to start down the right road? Even if I already identify myself as a follower of Jesus, what are the areas in which I’m content to stay where I am, or justify going down a road that doesn’t please God? What are the first steps towards changing that?


Week one began with a challenge from the book of James, which is an incredibly practical book on living out God ideas...And the way the whole book starts is fascinating to me. Of all the things he could kick off with in a quest for holy living, he starts with the following verses:

James 1:1-4
Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.


According to James, we need to understand that we  A) Are in need of growing, every one of us. B) Have been given the opportunity to grow by God Himself, and C) Can’t make it happen without a whole new way of thinking. In effect, the journey starts with a revolution of the mind. We can take all the steps we want to, in an attempt to see our relationship with God grow and the things in our lives look like how God intends, but that doesn’t happen until we embrace God’s standard, rather than our own. And that’s really a 180 degree reversal from where the human thought process defaults.



It all boils down to this: When everything gets difficult around me, I ACTIVELY choose to view it as an opportunity to make a God-centered decision. When everyone else around is running, hiding, and otherwise reacting badly to tough situations in life, we have an opportunity to take a simple, but bold, and literally life-changing step. Consciously choose to treat trouble in life as an opportunity for growth. This is no Dr. Phil idea, this is  straight from the Word of God. What are you facing right now that seems difficult? What are you going through in life that you wish you weren’t? What are the ideas that you’re letting shape how you react to those situations? Try James 1:1-4 on for size. Realize that, though it seems completely counter-intuitive, it’s God’s plan for you. It’s quite literally a revolution in the face of the business-as-usual thought process of the world. Let’s make it happen...

Something to wrestle with...

"He who begins by loving Christianity more than Truth, will proceed by loving his sect or church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all." - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I can't lie here...This is a disturbing quote. Partly because of how true it is, and partly because of the reaction it provokes. On the one hand, it tends to make some people defensive, as though Coleridge is belittling Christianity (which he isn't at all). On the other hand, it makes people nod their heads and say "See? That's what I've been saying for years!" Both reactions, and the varying degrees thereof, are inherently dangerous. In the first instance, elevating any movement of God, even Christianity itself, above the One who gives birth and meaning to it can, and usually does, foster legalism and misguided zeal. The second school of thought typically results in a dismissal of the Church altogether, or at the very least, a refusal to admit that the community of God is a great and necessary thing. 

I think Coleridge makes a fantastic point here - that the end result is self-love above the love for God Himself. Admitting this is important...Being humble enough to admit that our reactions to statements like this are in need of dramatic retooling is just as important. I've been seeing this play out in a lot of conversations lately, and I'm not thrilled to have to admit that. As followers of Christ, understanding that the Church is a God-breathed entity and indispensable to our spiritual journeys is critical, but let us never elevate the zeal for God working in ways we like above our zeal for God's will to be done. The two things can often be very different. And on the other side of the fence, to claim be a follower of Christ and wallow in cynicism about the Church is counter-productive at best, and at worst, crippling to our own lives and to the lives of those we influence. 

I think there's a Church revolution-in-waiting right now...But it's caught between those who love the comfort of religion too much and those who are waiting for the revolution to happen to get involved. The first results in spiritual stagnation. So does the second. Let us do, and be, the change the Church needs. Let us love the Truth (Jesus) more than religion. But let us never become people who expect that it's other people's task to do that for us. Out of a passion for God flows a passion for His people and his Church...You can't love God and dismiss his Church and His people. Let's not fool ourselves, friends...This is a critical truth to embrace...Let's embrace it together.

Listen to me...I'm an expert!

There’s an epidemic sweeping the nation, people. And no, I’m not talking about Justin Bieber (but as a friend of mine once said “You can make fun of Justin all you want, but dang, that girl can sing.” :) I’m talking about becoming more and more a culture of “experts”. You see it all the time on TV, of course. Watching two of the major news stories of the past year (the Oil Spill in the Gulf and the trapped Chilean miners) illustrated this so well. In situations like those, there's always someone invited to share their perspective as an expert on the matter, so we saw experts on marine wildlife, fishing, disaster cleanup, geology, and anything else that might possibly pertain to the situation. And I learn a great deal by watching things like that...First of all, that someone can actually qualify as an expert in “subterranean captive extraction.” But mostly, I learn how much I don’t know. And it’s good to know that there are people all over the place who have spent years studying, debating, and learning about their particular areas of passion, so that when when push comes to shove, someone’s already done a bunch of the mental legwork. I’m not your guy when it comes to disaster cleanup... Turn to me in an oil spill, and all I can think about is the price of shrimp going up. But thank God there are people who have actually applied themselves to disaster management, so that nobody ever needs to rely on people like me. In that sense, experts are great, and necessary.


It’s not the legitimate culture of expertise that I’m addressing here, though. It’s our human tendency to become “instant experts” on things without putting the work in. We see this all the time during election season, for example. People have strong opinions about candidates, topics, and bills, but in a great many cases, don’t have the necessary foundation to conclude the things they do. What usually ends up being the case is this: People start with a gut feeling about what they like or don’t like (usually developed over years of their own personal experience), and end up drawn to candidates and positions that reflect that perspective. Is it wrong to do this? Not at all! It’s human, and unavoidable. The problem comes when we begin to play the game (and often don’t know we’re playing it) of considering ourselves experts in that topic. We may not verbally claim to be, but we often act as though our decisions are based on objective study and empirical evidence, when in fact that’s not usually the case at all. We think nothing of making sweeping claims that a certain economist or political scientist is flat-out wrong. I’m hugely guilty of this in my own life, though my actual schooling as it pertains to economics and political science is rudimentary at best. What I do have is an opinion and a stubborn streak. So I tend to be dismissive when I hear things that contradict my comfort zone, though the expert I’m dismissing has devoted their adult life to understanding that topic, and may well have some things to say that I would do well to consider.


Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that a degree in a given field is a golden ticket to being right no matter what you say. I am saying that we live in a culture that’s often far too easily dismissive of actually doing the work of knowledge acquisition, processing that knowledge in a environment that challenges the conclusions drawn, and above all, of learning from others in humility, whether we think they have something to offer us or not (and generally, of course, people have more to offer us than we give them credit for. Disagreeing with someone’s stance on a given topic is not the same thing as not having anything to learn from them.)
Sadly, I see this all too often in the Christian community (disclaimer: I’m talking about the Church as a whole. This isn’t a veiled way of talking about my own church community, although of course, we’re not immune). I’d like to be able to say that I see a dramatically higher percentage of people that interact with each other in humility,  eager to learn from each other. I can’t say that with a straight face, though. There are people who do reflect that humility, and I’m truly blessed to know a bunch of people that challenge me on this regularly. But I also see a big portion of the population that are  “instant experts” on the nature of the Church, theology, and everything related. Rather than being people who are committed to meeting together, learning from each other, and moving forward together, we often degenerate into people who are committed to pointing out why we shouldn’t be meeting with this group or that, why I can’t learn from this person or that, and breeding disorder instead of unity. And to be honest, and possibly a little too blunt, those who always know best what should done in the Church, or always “know for sure” on a given doctrinal issue, are usually the ones who don’t display productive behavior in the Christian community. They’d rather lament the way things are, than actually be the change they wish they could see. And usually they talk a great game, and are never short of breath when it comes to defending why and how they think what they do. The irony is that they’re usually quite dismissive of the person rolling up their sleeves and pitching in to do the gut-level work of God, because they’d rather be a color commentator than get on the field themselves. And by the way, there are many people who will read this and nod sagely, thinking that they’re the ones pitching in and it’s others that need to learn this. If you just thought that, or got offended in any way, chances are pretty good you need to step back and re-evaluate.


I have to confess that I’m not immune. I have observed situations for about a tenth of a second before I knew that I knew that x was wrong, and should be addressed in this particular way. I have held a position, theologically speaking, for years, because my favorite professor came from that background, and I never challenged that assertion like I should have. I have not always been a humble learner. I have been an instant expert. And the great irony for me is, now that I’ve been deeply immersed in the study of Scripture, Christian community, and the Church for the better part of my adult life, having had the incredible privilege of some of the wisest, best teachers on the planet, the biggest thing I've learned is how much I have to learn. And that’s no false humility...That’s the facts. I am convinced of this: That the Church (which is a God-breathed and designed community, not a construct of man) is at its most effective in reaching a broken world with the hope of Jesus when humility and teachability are its foundation. You don’t know it all. Neither do I. But let’s never forget that God has gifted some with teaching abilities, some with uncommon wisdom, some with greater discernment...And reading a few articles that back up what we already thought or having a strong desire for something to be a certain way will never replace a lifetime of learning humbly from the community that God has placed us in. Embrace that community...Embrace the opportunities that God gives you to learn from others. There’s absolutely nothing like it. What an amazing thought - That we could become experts in listening, being shaped, and humbly allowing God to mold us. Let’s do this...

Organized religion...And some famous authors...

Well, it's been a few weeks since I've updated this thing...Life has a way of reorganizing my calendar for me, so I've been nowhere close to being the master of my itinerary lately :) I wanted to jot down a few thoughts, though, about a topic I've been thinking a fair amount about, and has coincidentally also gotten some media attention. We just kicked off a new series at Element called The Lowdown...The idea is that there are a bunch of basic questions people have about God and the Church, and the Church needs to be a driving force in dealing with them honestly. This past Sunday, we opened with the age-old "What if I don't buy into organized religion? Can't I just do the spiritual journey thing on my own? Why do I need the Church?" And I, for one, think it's a great question...Why, indeed?

Now, there are a bunch of things that come to mind here, but one of the biggest contributing factors to this question is this - the Church has issues. No surprise there, right? I mean, the church is full of people, and the people have issues; therefore, the Church has issues. Not really rocket science, is it? This past Sunday I talked a bit about a guy named Christopher Hitchens and a woman named Anne Rice. Well-known authors both...One a respected journalist and the other a writer of fiction. Both intelligent people, and for a variety of reasons I've enjoyed and learned from both of them in different ways. The reason they came up this past week, though, is precisely because of the fact that Church has issues. Hitchens is well known for his atheism, and has spoken at length, and written a great deal on why He's doesn't buy into the God thing. Rice considers herself a Christian, but recently made the announcement that she's leaving the Church - not denying Christ, but leaving the people that claim Christ. 

There a number of reasons Hitchens doesn't believe in God, but one of them is a longstanding mistrust of the way the Church has handled itself in interpersonal ways. For him, the fact that Christians (and followers of other religions as well) sometimes display hypocrisy, arrogance, employ coercive tactics, etc., means that these people don't really have anything to offer that's different from what he sees elsewhere. Thus, God Himself has nothing to offer. I realize I'm reducing his arguments down to a fraction of what he has spent years elaborating on, but you get the point, and I don't think Hitchens would argue that I'm misrepresenting him. For Rice, she came to follow God after a long journey that also included embracing atheism, and now 12 years later, is dismissing the church as well. Interesting that two people with very different conclusions on the existence of God conclude the same thing about the community of God. 

But here's the problem I have. Ask anyone you know about the Church, and whether believer or not, pretty darn-near everyone will assent to a slew of problems in the Church. The bottom line is that the Church is full of people, and people can't seem to get their act together, and we all know it. 

But here’s where they make a critical mistake, and where so many of us do when we write off the Church. Since we are all, every last one of us, sinners (meaning that every last one of makes mistakes and often operates in a way that’s not what God says is the way He created us to live), does it make any sense for that to suddenly change when we get together as the Church? If we’re all prone to sin, does putting a bunch of people who are prone to sin together in the same community, magically remove all potential for human stupidity? Of course it doesn’t. But the problem here is that for so many of us, it freaks us out when we see the human side of people in the church. Somewhere in the the thought process, we think about God's claims of changed lives, realize that's not very evident in a great many people, and throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. 

I  hear people say quite often that they've always wanted the church to be more real and more accessible. They say that they've had enough of the shiny veneer, of the idea that you can get all too often in the Church that following God means that life is easy and perfect. The problem is, though, that many of them write off the church as not practicing what it preaches when it is real. The fact is, when we commit to dealing honestly with each other, warts and all, and when we make the statement that we're all screwed-up but God loves us anyway, then people are  attracted by that message. And so they come, and become a part of the community, and then they screw up. And by "They", I mean "all of us".  And when the screw-up happens,  we throw the hypocrite tag around and and in some cases, go so far as to write the church off, as though God somehow promised that a community of people would somehow never act like humans. Someone treats someone badly in the church, and we sadly shake our heads and write off the church. Someone doesn’t perform a church task well or with integrity, and we write the church off. The church doesn’t look or behave exactly how we want it to (as though anything in life does), and we write the church off. And we think we can make the statement that I’m all about God, I just don’t like the people who claim to follow him, so I’m not gonna be around them. 

If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?  1 John 4:20

[Anyone who] does not love other believers does not belong to God. 1 John 3:10

If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. 1 John 2:4
 

And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters. 1 John 4:21
 

Well, hang on, we say...I don’t hate my brothers and sisters... I just don’t want to be around them, extend them any grace, or be patient with them when they screw up. But that's a problem. Because God loves us anyway, despite our stupidity. Why do we think our  definition of love should be different than that? And here’s where Hitchens and Rice and probably each of us at some point or another just flat-out get this wrong: We’re defining God by the community, rather than the other way around. God is an amazing, perfect God, working through and redeeming imperfect human beings. And to be brutally honest,  we're being pretty darn arrogant when we say that other people aren’t representing God well enough for my standards. Because I guarantee that those standards are situationally different for ourselves. I'll sign off with this...

But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.  1 John 1:7
But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God's Son, purges all our sin. 1 John 1:7 (Message)

In other words, it’s not just a good idea. It’s not whether or not it happens to fit my comfort zone of what I like in other people. It's not a verse for pastors to pad their sermons with...And it’s certainly not a way for you and I to lay out our own requirements for the kind of community that meets our own flawless standards. As sinful people, we don't get to draw that line. God smashed the line, and loves us anyway. And God says, if you love me, then you love my people, and you be with them...

“If God gives you a watch, are you honoring Him more by asking Him what time it is or by simply consulting the watch?” - A.W. Tozer

I love this quote. I like the way Tozer thinks, anyway, but this quote in particular strikes a chord deep inside me. Tozer's reflecting on the idea that God gives us the tools, gives us the ability, to do the things He asks us to do. The problem for many of us is that we don't recognize that He's done so, and so we continue to ask God for clarity on something He's already made crystal clear.  This is particularly true, I think, when it comes to the whole process of figuring out what God wants us to spend our time doing, whether right now or in the future. Jon Acuff brought this up in his book "Stuff Christians Like", which I highly recommend :) In it, he talks about someone being asked to stick around for a few minutes after a church service and help stack chairs. The person being asked then responds with "I'll pray about it." Pretty spiritual response, isn't it? I mean, it's hard to argue with. Who could take issue with someone wanting to submit everything they do to God in prayer? The problem is, as Acuff points out, it's just stacking chairs, and someone needs your help. Do we really think Jesus is going to say no? Can you picture Him saying "Sorry, pal, I know this person needs your help, and I know this would just take a few minutes, but I really think you'd be better off doing something else. The future of your relationship with God depends on this; why don't you go dig into something a little more obviously spiritual, and let this guy fend for himself? He probably didn't plan ahead enough, anyway." Or "That's not your spiritual gift...Your gift is something entirely different, so I think your time is better spent doing that. I've shaped someone else specifically to stack chairs - Let them do it." 

     Kind of ridiculous, isn't it? Yet, as Tozer points out, there are times when the choice is obvious, and yet we allow ourselves to fall prey to this very thing. I think I'm safe in saying that when someone truly needs your help, you're not being disobedient to God by lending a hand. On the contrary, the book of Philippians makes the statement that we're to consider others more important than ourselves. In Tozer terms, the watch says it's time to pitch in and make a difference for someone by investing in them - It's entirely too easy to "over-spiritualize" this, and let opportunity after opportunity fly by to translate love into action, while we pursue whether or not God wants us to do this. I'm certainly not saying we shouldn't commit major decisions to God in prayer; not at all. But we do know that we're called to love, and that God doesn't call us to be all about ourselves. In fact, He specifically calls us to NOT be all about ourselves. Who needs your help right now? When what you want collides with what someone in your life needs, what wins? Uncomfortable though this may to hear (and it's certainly  a sobering thought for me, given how much I like NOT having to sacrifice), God's direction for my life and yours is not at odds with serving the people around us. That IS God's direction for us. I pray that we (and certainly I) understand this more and more, and that more importantly, understanding translates into action. I think that just might change the world.

Aerosmith, Plumbers, and the Pope...

Ever had something stuck in your head for what feels like absolutely FOREVER? I distinctly remember a two-week span when I was in high school when I had the Aerosmith song "Dude Looks Like A Lady" playing on repeat in my brain. I'm not sure what that particular song says about me that my brain latched onto to it with both hands, but it was a miserable fourteen days, I can tell you. No matter what else I listened to or did, that song was rattling along as the soundtrack to my miserable existence, until one day it was just gone. Who knows what it was replaced by...One of the many constructive things seventeen-year-old guys think about.

But I'm going through something similar right now, and I have been for the past couple of months. Fortunately, it's a concept, not a song. Two straight months of ANY song, let alone Aerosmith, would doubtless have me in a straightjacket...But the concept is this (and if you've been around me over the past couple of months, you've probably had to hear about it. For that, I'm sorry. I'm not very good at not talking to everyone within earshot about what I'm currently thinking...): How do we bring the incredible reality of God into the ordinary, the mundane, the everyday world? In other words, how do we change our perspective, so that we don't see the human life we have to deal with and the God life we want to deal with, as mutually exclusive? A few weeks after this started to occupy  much of my thought process, I was given a book called The Insider, written by Jim Petersen and Mike Shamy. Coincidentally, it's subtitled "bringing the kingdom of God into your everyday world." In it, they point to the beginning of what Paul writes in the book of Ephesians:

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding. God has now revealed to us his mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill his own good pleasure. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan. Ephesians 1:3-10 (NLT)

They follow up this passage with this thought: "This paragraph is filled with vital information. God has purposes. He has a plan and right now He is in the midst of working it out. This is not an emergency rescue operation that God is performing, a sort of "Plan B" after things went wrong. This plan was in place before God created anything at all! We also learn that at the center of this plan is the creation of a people, and that the cost of getting them would be the blood of His Son. In summary, this passage tells us that life has to do with a people and a cross."
 
To be it slightly differently, the God parts of life aren't hanging around somewhere, high above the human moments, waiting for just the right moments to be seen. The God moments are right smack in the middle of the human moments. The famous Jewish Theologian, Martin Buber, puts it this way:
"The critical religious experiences of man do not take place in a sphere in which creative energy operates without contradiction, but in a sphere in which evil and good, despair and hope, the power of rebirth, dwell side by side. The divine force which man actually encounters in life does not hover above the demonic, but penetrates it."
 
The work of God is done through His people, with all of the baggage that people represent. The work of God is not intended to be done through only a certain kind of person, who dots the i's correctly and warms the church pew the right way. Your every interaction, my every activity, whether as plumber, pastor, or painter, has the tremendous potential to advance God's cause, to be indifferent to it, or to actively lead people away from it. And I might add, to be indifferent to it long enough IS to actively lead people away from it.
 
It's really about recognizing that every place we find ourselves is ripe for an honest telling of the God story. Not necessarily the plan of salvation, and not even necessarily by speaking. By honestly being who God has created us to be be, infusing all of life's vital work with the essence of God. To be ready, as 1 Peter says, to give an answer to those who ask. To be just as ready to listen instead of talk, do instead of demanding to be served, treating people around us like they really do matter to God Himself. In this way, every last one of us becomes an artist in the whole painting of life. We don't have to wish we had a part to play, or a gift to use. You have, and you do. God is in the mundane, and he uses the ordinary. As Benedict XVI said so eloquently upon taking the office of Pope: "[I am] a simple, humble labourer in the vineyard of the Lord. The fact that the Lord knows how to work and to act even with insufficient instruments comforts me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers. In the joy of the Risen Lord, confident of his unfailing help, let us move forward."

There, now, if a Protestant, a Jew, and a Catholic can all agree on something, maybe it's worth thinking about :) Let's do it...
Peace to you all...

Hope, Miley Cyrus, and infected wounds...

As we've been going through this series at Element called "Anatomy of a Life With God", I've been reminded every week as I've been preparing for Sunday about a basic truth in my life, which is this: Every morning when the alarm clock shatters my deep sleep and pries me away from my dream (which was a strange little surrealist number last night about searching for my contact lenses in a strange house...I don't even wear contacts. Weird. A psychologist would have a field day with me), I feel like I have hope. For real. There's something about facing the day that feels somehow limitless, like I can see a whole bunch of possibilities, an incredible variety of ways my day could go. Even when the day's schedule is packed, and there's not much room to be flexible, it still feels to me like my day is wide open to see what God can do with it. I know, it sounds all "motivational-speaker-ish" to say something like that, but I really feel like it's true. That's become an aspect of my own Life With God. I really do feel an almost intense feeling of excitement when I think about my day. Of course, this isn't always true, but it's true quite often, and the difference is, it rarely used to be true at all.

                                                                                                                                                For quite a while in my life, If I had something written on the calendar for some point in the future, such as a night out with friends on Friday, or a Miley Cyrus concert next Tuesday (Just kidding about the Miley Cyrus part. She wasn't around during this time in my life. Then, it was Hanson. Remember "Mmmbop"? Of course you do.), then I had something to be stoked about. But the daily grind was pretty much just that, a grind. Somewhat  unpleasant...Mostly something to be endured...And I used to look at people who were happy more often than not with some degree of suspicion. What are you so cheerful about? Don't you realize that reality's no laughing matter? Even this idea of joy, this notion that God can change my outlook seemed weird...Almost as though I had to pretend that life wasn't often grim, bury my fingers in my ears, and chant repeatedly, à la Bob Wiley: "I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful..."

                                                                                                                                                But something changed for me several years ago, in a kind of unlikely way, and though it didn't happen overnight, my perspective on my day changed, and with it, my perspective on God. I worked for a while in a Research and Development lab for a company that came up with innovative ways to treat hard-to-heal wounds. As you can imagine, many of the case studies we did were done with patients who were facing difficult times. Now, one issue you have to contend with in dealing with an open wound that won't heal is the issue of moisture management. I don't mean to be gross here, but a wound heals best when it has a certain amount of moisture present. Too dry, and it won't heal. Too moist, and it's prone to infection, among other issues. I remember one patient in particular - She had tried many different things with very little success, and was extremely depressed. Her outlook was essentially that that her day held no more hope than the previous, because she felt like she had tried everything, and the wound still kept getting infected. Until one of our team started treating her wound differently, and brought her infection issue under control. Within a couple of days, the infection was gone, and the wound started showing healthy tissue. And though it took time, eventually the wound healed completely. I remember being told about this case and thinking, "What an incredible relief it must be to know that you're finally on the right path, physically speaking. That can't help but affect your outlook on life. You'd finally feel like you had hope." And as I thought that through, more and more, I started finally adding up the numbers in my own life. I felt like I knew God and had a relationship with Him. And if that was true, and God is who He claims to be, then I had the hope that I was on the right path. And if I was on the right path in the area in which I was struggling the most, then shouldn't that give me some hope for my daily life? Why so bitter about life all the time? The problem was that I was viewing my relationship with God as an event on the calendar in the future, so life was, at best, to be endured until then. I had to actually choose to let Him affect my outlook on life.

Psalm 34:4 (NLT) says this:

"I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears."

I believe that's true in my life. But I also believe that I had to let Him free me...I run into people all the time who can tell me everything there is to know about the nature of God, and yet live, essentially, without hope. I know what that's like. My prayer for us all is from Romans 15:13 (NLT): "I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit."

And just as we're looking at the fingerprint of God on these people throughout the Bible in our "Anatomy" series, I would dearly love for people to be able to look at our lives for the same kind of thing. That our lives would be evidence of a living God - moving, breathing, and changing lives. Giving hope where there once was none. I don't know much, but I do know this, and I write this as one who's been changed...

Of Healing, Truth and The Church...

A couple of weeks ago I made the confession that I'm a music junkie. Not a real shocking revelation to those of you who know me, but I felt better just saying the words...There's power in confession :) And last night, I had my fix delivered in an incredible, intense, and seriously life-affirming kind of way. Through the generosity of a couple of good friends, I had the privilege of seeing Patty Griffin and Buddy Miller live. I won't bore you with the details, since I know for some of you there's only thing more mind-numbing than talking about music, and that's reading about it...Suffice it to say that on a musical level, it was an artistic statement of rare power and beauty, and I was pretty much on the proverbial ninth cloud all the way through the show. Lyrically, though, I was stunned. Patty's latest album is very gospel-oriented, and I really don't think I've been to many church worship services in my life that moved on the level this show did. This song, in particular...It's called Little Fire:
My friend, come stand beside me
Lately, I'm feeling so lost
A flood came and washed the stones of the path away
And a hot sun turned the mud to dust

Calling the sheep in for the evening
There's a voice, calls above the howling wind
It says comes rest beside my little fire
We'll ride out the storm that's coming in

My friend, you know me and my family
You've seen us wandering through these times
You've seen us in weakness and in power
You've seen us forgetful and unkind

All that I want is one who knows me
A kind hand on my face when I weep
And I'd give back these things I know are meaningless
For a little fire beside me when I sleep


As I was sitting there, it struck me that this is pretty spot-on description of what the Church could, and should be. Instead of simply being the primary place where our spiritual learning happens, the community of Jesus is charged with the task of taking care of people. And not just the people we like. And sometimes in uncomfortable ways. I love the idea that the Church is refuge from the howling wind. That we can be free to be weak, and still be loved. What a great thing to be the fire in each others' lives...Thanks, Patty for the words. Thanks, God, for the reason to write them...I pray we would truly be each others' little fire.
Peace...

Perspective, part 1

People who look through keyholes are apt to get the idea that most things are keyhole shaped.  ~Author Unknown

Ever find yourself thinking about how something is, and realize that you're upset or frustrated with someone else for not really getting it? It doesn't really matter in what area - It could be in a relationship, a job, a political discussion, a church...We see things a certain way, and it's sometimes pretty bizarre to us when others don't necessarily see it that way. A few years ago, I was working in a church on the west coast, and I was having a conversation with someone about how much it seemed like God was moving in the church at that time. He looked at me kind of quizzically, and said the following: "I feel like you're trying to convince me that God is moving, because I just don't see it." After talking for a while longer, something became apparent. He and his circle of friends were seeing a pretty high degree of difficulty in life at that particular time, and to Him, God seemed kind of absent. And his conclusion was that God must be kind of absent from other people's lives as well. We've all been guilty of this at some point - however close we feel to God at a certain time, we can project the same thing onto others, and think that that's how it must be for other people as well. This can lead to being cynical when someone else feels particularly close to God, or feels like whatever God is doing is really worth celebrating, because we can feel they must not be looking at things realistically, or logically. In our "me-centered" approach to life, looking at things "logically" means seeing them the same way we are at that moment. 

This is a particularly difficult thing in the church, which is (or should be) completely centered around God and His movement. It can get pretty tough when it seems like our perspectives on God's movement don't really line up. The beautiful thing is, though, that that's precisely one of the reasons God created us for community. When I feel distant from God, and you testify that God is doing awesome things in your life, I can have my hope jumpstarted. When I feel particularly encouraged, and you feel down, I can help you understand that God is closer than you think. The trick is to understand that part of community is lending each other perspective...We can, and should, be people who don't let opportunities go by to let each other know what God's doing in our lives. You never know how powerfully God will use that in someone else. And it heads cynicism off at the pass, as well. It's harder to be cynical when we get confronted by the goodness of God everyday...I'm so grateful for each of you, in my immediate church community and those who are a part of my life from afar - Through you, I get to see God do things in ways I might never have understood if I'm judging Him based solely on how I feel at the moment! Through each of you, I see Him in new and amazing ways every day! These past few months have been a phenomenal lesson for me on perspective, and I don't think I'll ever be the same! Peace...

What the heck does God want, anyway?

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the decision-making process, in a blog entry called "Making Decisions, Or Not..." This led to some really great (and ongoing) conversations with some of you about the decision-making process, something I've gotten more and more fascinated with. This process was really sparked several years ago after reading a book called "Decision Making and the Will of God", by Garry Friesen. The book provided a great jumping-off point for thinking through some things I had really been struggling with for a while - namely, how much does God want to be  involved in the "minor" details of our lives? I mean, it's a given that God wants us to pray, and to ask Him for guidance. And most of us, if we identify ourselves as followers of Jesus, do that, at least in the major decisions. Should I marry this girl or guy, or not? Should I move a thousand miles away and change careers? Should we buy this house? Should we have kids? Should Tom Cruise be technically classified as a "midget"? You know, the important stuff...

But chances are that most of us aren't dealing with life-changing decisions on a daily basis. Most of us get up in the morning, accomplish what we need to, or least try to, and then go to bed, and start the same process again the next day. And hopefully somewhere in there we share a laugh or two, match our outfits well enough to not invite public ridicule, stay on the right side of the law, and avoid food-poisoning (trust me on this last one - if there's food-poisoning to be had, I'll find it. It's just one of the many services I provide :) In other words, there's a degree of sameness that characterizes many of our days. We've got to do many of the same things, day after day. The question is, how pleasing are we being to God in those things? Is God involved in those seemingly mundane, insignificant things? Does He even want to be?

A few days ago I was reminded of this quote from Anne Lamott: "You can tell you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do."  I think the same goes for a lot of things in our lives. You can tell you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God magically wants you to be making all the decisions that you're comfortable making. Interesting, isn't it, that when we look at it honestly (and we sometimes need a little objective outside help in looking at it honestly), that God's will tends to look an awful lot like what we want. Everything becomes a sign from God that supports our actions and thought process if that's what we've decided we want to do. Now certainly, God's will is not automatically opposed to our own. One of the ideas the Garry Friesen book discusses is the notion that walking in God's wisdom, really knowing Him and striving to follow Him, means that my desires begin to line up more and more with God's will. I believe that's true, and I believe it's an idea well-worth teaching in the Christian community today. Most, if not all of us, though, have found ourselves making daily decisions about things based almost solely on what the comfortable thing is, or what our natural inclination is. I probably don't need to tell you that the comfortable or natural isn't always a good indicator of what's pleasing to God. Think through the last few decisions you've made, big, small, and medium sized. Huge, and seemingly not that important. Is God's reputation important to you in making those decisions? Is your integrity important? Have you, as Philippians 2 describes, treated others as more important than yourself? Or do you find that most of them are simply what made you comfortable at the time? Do you find yourself justifying the decisions with God language, because you know people won't argue with you if you say God was present in the decision?

If you see yourself in any of that, welcome to humanity! We've all done it, we've all watched people do it, and we'll all do it again. The exciting part is that God knows that we're prone to this kind of "me-first" based decision making, and He's all about helping us make a shift to a "God-based" process. It doesn't happen overnight, and it's not the easiest thing ever; after all, it does involve fighting your own natural tendencies, which are pretty stubborn. But the Bible is full of amazing verses and passages about how our lives really can reflect who God is...We really can learn to do and be all about the will of God in the big and small of our daily lives - in other words, God can change our natural inclinations to reflect His desires for us. That, by itself, is God's will for us! Let's take this journey together, sharpening each other, and holding each other to this...Anything less is just, well, less than God intends for us...Peace to you all!

Anatomy, and history...

    Are you a lifer? And by that, I mean, have you been in and around the Church your whole life? Have you run the gamut of the Church experience, from being a kid in Sunday School making Christian macaroni art and watching Flannelgraph stories, to being an adult trying to subtly dispose of your own child's macaroni art on the grounds that there's no more fridge space? If you've been around the Church forever, chances are good that you've heard the Old Testament stories about a jillion times, unless you grew up Episcopalian. I worked at an private Episcopalian high school for a few years, where the chaplain prayed to the "Spirit of Light and Truth", instead of actually saying God. No chance of an actual Bible story making its way in, there. Don't get offended, now...My Grandpa was an Episcopalian bishop, so I'm allowed to poke fun. If you know someone, that makes it okay to make fun of whatever they are, right?

     But most of us have heard the Old Testament stories more than a few times...And even if you're brand new to God, and thus the Church, you're familiar with David and Goliath, and some of the more well-known Superstars of the Scriptures. And somewhere along the way, they change from being Stories to stories. Big "S" to small "s". They lose their power. That's actually a huge problem in the Church, in my humble opinion. We have a terrible sense of history. It's become small "h" history. The Old Testament is reduced to the creation story, the Psalms, a few terrifying reminders of God's wrath here and there, and that's about it. Let's move on to the kinder, gentler New Testament. And along the way, the record of God vibrantly moving in and through the lives of His people has been reduced to a few sound bites. And so, since we don't really have a great sense of what God has done, we don't really have a great sense of who God is. And since we don't have a great sense of who God is, we don't live as though He's lived up to His potential. You know potential - if you're anything like me, it's the word that showed up on every single report card since you started school. "Brian has so much potential, if he would just stop carving scenes from Star Wars into his desk top and apply himself to his school work." But we act like God's the same way - His power's just a rumor. His authority in this world, in this day and age? Just a glimmer here and there. He's got all the potential in the world, but He just doesn't seem to care anymore. Except that He does, and it's recorded for all to see, all the way throughout History. His Story. And that power to change a life, that authority to imprint a different story onto our page is still there. Just waiting to be recognized.

     That's why, for the next six weeks, we're doing a series called "Anatomy of a Life with God." It's simply that - a look at some of the most incredible, amazing stories ever recorded...Stories that God thought would be good for us to hear, so He included them in the Bible. Stories about life-changing encounters with God - encounters with the living God, who still lives today...Stories about the crazy ways God works, and the "impossible by human standards" things He's chosen to do, through screwed-up, lost, confused, arrogant, hard-hearted, mean, directionless human beings. Some of these stories you may have heard...Some you may not have. All of them unforgettable, if we let them be. Let's become people who let Him continue the Story in us that He started writing back then...Let's do this! Peace...

Open your ears to what I am saying, for I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past— stories we have heard and known,
 stories our ancestors handed down to us. We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders. Psalm 78:1-4 (nlt)