What if there was a movement of people that actively stood up for Christ’s truths in our culture? What if we demanded leaders that truly stood up for legislation that promoted justice, peace, equality, and righteousness – and that actually acted in a way that promoted these truths?
As the Church, we are called to be "salt and light" in this world. (Matthew 5:13-16). It is no secret that our human nature suffers from the disease of inherent selfishness - looking at the world around us, this self-centeredness is apparent everywhere. Unfortunately, rather than visibly combating it, the Church seems to be joining in much of the time.
As my pastor recently said, our lives as Christians merely look "tweaked, but not transformed. Why would anyone want that?" We should be so salty and so filled with light that we look DIFFERENT to this world - different in a way that gives people the answer our hearts are all searching for.
How do we do this? How do we live in such a way that we are still in this world, still engaging the world, but live as salt - set apart and different?
I recently read an article elaborating on the beliefs and platform of the Tea Party. The article pointed out that the Tea Party has no “official” platform, but then went on to list their interests and priorities. As I read it, this problem of our inherent human selfishness grew more and more glaringly obvious: every single priority of the Tea Party had to do with self-interest. Whatever was best for them – for us – as Americans was the priority. No matter who else it affected and how – if it was what would most benefit the United States, that was the option they favored. It seems that the only platform of the Tea Party is self-interest.
I don’t think it is any secret why the Tea Party became so popular so fast: it is all about us. It feeds our already natural inclination to put ourselves before anyone else.
As Christ followers, we are called to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds" (Romans 12:2). We are called to actively fight this human nature as we learn to live in the power of the Spirit. We are called to actively provide an alternative, another way, to movements like the Tea Party that feed our selfish nature.
As Ravi Zacharias International Ministries writer Margaret Manning said in a recent article about this very topic of human selfishness: We isolate freedom to the realm of personal freedom, with little constraint or thoughtfulness to corporate consequences or responsibility. We do not often associate our gift of freedom with the opportunity to serve others… In his letter to the Galatians who were tempted to trade freedom for the grip of the law, Paul reminds, “[Y]ou were called to freedom; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'" (Galatians 3:13-14). Paul's definition of freedom for love and service seems to fly in the face of understanding freedom as doing whatever one wants to do. And while we rightly deplore the restriction or oppression of human freedom as evidenced in totalitarian regimes and systems, we should likewise deplore the unchecked, unthinking, and often self-centered understanding of freedom that occupy many Western societies and systems. We are called to freedom. Paul reminds us of the true intention for freedom—it is a freedom for others—and not simply so we can pursue our own self-interest. It is a freedom grounded in love for the sake of another.
This is our purpose. Rather than let our selfish sinful dominate us and let us think the freedom we’ve been blessed with is to be used for our own purposes, let’s be reminded of Paul’s words: “…do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another…" This mindset is completely countercultural – it is completely the opposite of the popular message of personal interest that the Tea Party preached. So let’s be the counterpart to the Tea Party! If the Tea Party can gather such momentum, then how much more can a movement that is based on the selfless love of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit? As Paul also reminds us in Ephesians 3: 14-21, God is capable of - and WANTS - to do more than we can even imagine. And THROUGH US.
What if the Church passionately and boldly demanded policies that support education reform, child welfare, the sanctity of life (babies in the womb as well as those living in poverty all over the world), justice for those oppressed all over the world, peace in our relations with other countries, righteous action in our government and in our dealings with other nations, prison reform, an end to the sex-trafficking industry, and countless other values that we as the Church are called to zealously stand for.
Then we need to stand together as the Church in demanding leaders that will also seek these values – regardless of their policy affiliation. What would it look like to our divided and partisan country if we, if the Church collectively – which would be a much larger group of people than those following the Tea Party – mobilized behind these values? These values of justice, peace, righteousness, equality – the values that everyone desires and everyone needs – are the truths Christ exemplified perfectly and taught, and the truths that He also prayed for His followers to live out. Christ prayed in John 17 for His Church to show His beautiful, selfless love through being unified in Him. And through standing together for the truths He commanded us to live out, the world will see Him. The way the world will see Christ’s love is through living the way He taught us, and one of the main ways we can do that today is using the power in the system He has blessed us with in this country to stand together for His truths.
The Church is essential for the betterment of government and society, and it is a necessary part of God’s call on our lives to speak out in matters of politics and to influence our leaders. As Christians, we are called to holistic redemption: not just redemption of the soul or of the society, but of both. Christ calls us to carry His salvation of the hearts of all people, but He also calls us to become like Him, living differently in this world, in a way that physically brings His redemption to the hurting and broken world we are living in.
Through Christ in us, we can be a people that reflect God to this world – a people that bring His redemption here and now. I’m not suggesting we start our own Christian political party or our own little Christian nation – no, far from it! I’m suggesting we demand a better way: Christ’s way. Not “conservative, liberal, or moderate” – but CHRIST’S way. I’m talking about boldly standing for certain values and staunchly supporting those in power who also stand for those values – just as the Tea Party did.
But, unlike the Tea Party, we stand for only what brings true justice, righteousness, peace, and equality….we demand selfless love, and we live it out. We actively bring it into politics by demanding the kind of leaders who will fight for these principles. We live it out by bringing these principles into every area of our culture: into business, art, music, what we buy, what we eat, how we live day to day, how we interact with all those around us…we help push our Christian culture as a whole to be salty in every area of life, living in such a way IN our culture that Christ is truly reflected to the world around us.
As the Church, let’s join together in living differently to bring Christ into our culture. Through our different gifts, we can work together to live out Christ’s selfless love in this world, and to teach others how to do the same. We can stand up and demand political leaders that will work for the issues that were close to Christ’s heart, and that are close to our’s. We can figure out ways to live simply, not buying products that hurt our brothers and sisters in other countries. We can personally live in a selfless way, in a way that promotes biblical equality and fairness. We can use our money to support businesses that are engaging in Christ-like work and practice.
We as the Church can start a movement that, because it is based on the selfless love of Christ and the power of the Spirit in us, can do far more than anything the Tea Party was and is able to accomplish. We can help each other learn how to best be salt and light in this world, and help lead the United States and worldwide Church in discovering how to best be salt and light in our culture! As salt and light, we are called to preserve and bring out the beauty of our faith, bringing the flavor of Christ into everything we do and shedding His light on this world. Using our different gifts, passions, and ideas, let's spur each other on and help each other figure out how to do this! Let’s start a movement to change our Christian culture and the culture of the world around us – and through this, change the hearts of people all over the world.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Freed to Serve by Margaret Manning
very thought-provoking and very true article:
Freed to Serve
A recent article in Christianity Today magazine caught my attention. With an excerpt from his forthcoming book What Good Is God?, author Philip Yancey discussed his speaking and listening tour throughout several countries in the Middle East in 2009.(1) Part of his listening included hearing how the "Christian" West is viewed by those living in predominantly Islamic countries. Time and again, he heard a familiar refrain: freedom in the West was equated with decadence. Yancey writes, "Much of the misgiving...for the West stems from our strong emphasis on freedom...where freedom so often leads to decadence."(2)
Of course, Yancey would quickly acknowledge that the freedom we enjoy in the West is often taken for granted. In general, we are free to do and to be whatever we want. We move unhindered towards the achievement of our own personal freedoms and objectives, without worrying about impediment or coercive control from outside forces. Certainly, we enjoy the privilege of the freedom to move about our country across state borders effortlessly. We have the freedom to worship, unhindered by government intervention or surveillance. Many of us who have financial abundance are able to access freedoms that only money can buy. We are free to think as we want, speak what we want, and do what we want. In comparison with people in other countries, we have the freedom to fill in the blank with endless possibilities. Freedom is the air we breathe.
But if we take an honest look at how freedom is exercised in the Western world, we ought to turn a careful ear to this critique from those looking in from the outside. Our association of freedom with doing, being, or saying whatever we want is often cut off from the intended ideal. We isolate freedom to the realm of personal freedom, with little constraint or thoughtfulness to corporate consequences or responsibility. We do not often associate our gift of freedom with the opportunity to serve others.
The apostle Paul wrestled with this issue as he wrote to the early Christians at Corinth. In discussing matters of personal freedom he exhorted these early Christians that "all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his or her own good, but that of his or her neighbor....whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:23, 24, 31). In his letter to the Galatians who were tempted to trade freedom for the grip of the law, Paul reminds, "[Y]ou were called to freedom; only do not turn your freedom into and opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'" (Galatians 3:13-14).
Paul's definition of freedom for love and service seems to fly in the face of understanding freedom as doing whatever one wants to do. And while we rightly deplore the restriction or oppression of human freedom as evidenced in totalitarian regimes and systems, we should likewise deplore the unchecked, unthinking, and often self-centered understanding of freedom that occupy many Western societies and systems. We are called to freedom. Paul reminds us of the true intention for freedom—it is a freedom for others—and not simply so we can pursue our own self-interest. It is a freedom grounded in love for the sake of another.
- Margaret Manning, writer for Ravi Zacharias International Ministries
Freed to Serve
A recent article in Christianity Today magazine caught my attention. With an excerpt from his forthcoming book What Good Is God?, author Philip Yancey discussed his speaking and listening tour throughout several countries in the Middle East in 2009.(1) Part of his listening included hearing how the "Christian" West is viewed by those living in predominantly Islamic countries. Time and again, he heard a familiar refrain: freedom in the West was equated with decadence. Yancey writes, "Much of the misgiving...for the West stems from our strong emphasis on freedom...where freedom so often leads to decadence."(2)
Of course, Yancey would quickly acknowledge that the freedom we enjoy in the West is often taken for granted. In general, we are free to do and to be whatever we want. We move unhindered towards the achievement of our own personal freedoms and objectives, without worrying about impediment or coercive control from outside forces. Certainly, we enjoy the privilege of the freedom to move about our country across state borders effortlessly. We have the freedom to worship, unhindered by government intervention or surveillance. Many of us who have financial abundance are able to access freedoms that only money can buy. We are free to think as we want, speak what we want, and do what we want. In comparison with people in other countries, we have the freedom to fill in the blank with endless possibilities. Freedom is the air we breathe.
But if we take an honest look at how freedom is exercised in the Western world, we ought to turn a careful ear to this critique from those looking in from the outside. Our association of freedom with doing, being, or saying whatever we want is often cut off from the intended ideal. We isolate freedom to the realm of personal freedom, with little constraint or thoughtfulness to corporate consequences or responsibility. We do not often associate our gift of freedom with the opportunity to serve others.
The apostle Paul wrestled with this issue as he wrote to the early Christians at Corinth. In discussing matters of personal freedom he exhorted these early Christians that "all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his or her own good, but that of his or her neighbor....whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:23, 24, 31). In his letter to the Galatians who were tempted to trade freedom for the grip of the law, Paul reminds, "[Y]ou were called to freedom; only do not turn your freedom into and opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'" (Galatians 3:13-14).
Paul's definition of freedom for love and service seems to fly in the face of understanding freedom as doing whatever one wants to do. And while we rightly deplore the restriction or oppression of human freedom as evidenced in totalitarian regimes and systems, we should likewise deplore the unchecked, unthinking, and often self-centered understanding of freedom that occupy many Western societies and systems. We are called to freedom. Paul reminds us of the true intention for freedom—it is a freedom for others—and not simply so we can pursue our own self-interest. It is a freedom grounded in love for the sake of another.
- Margaret Manning, writer for Ravi Zacharias International Ministries
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Amos, worship, and justice
God said in Amos 5:21-24,
"I hate, I despise your religious feasts;
I cannot stand your assemblies.
Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
I will have no regard for them.
Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!"
It is clear from this passage that it is not simply offering God our wealth, going to church, being "religious" and observing religious tradition, or even worshipping Him through song that pleases Him. It is living justly and righteously that pleases Him.
I was privileged to be a part of a meeting this morning where the discussion opened up with talking about the debate of the importance of the Word vs action and of personal salvation vs. acts of justice. Someone from our group wisely commented that unfortunately, many Christians hear "justice" and think only of the world's definition of "social justice." But God's justice is so different.
God's justice is seen completely in Christ, in redeeming us from our sin and giving us the chance to become the people He creates us to be. In Christ, God's justice is personified and not only are we justified, but we now have the chance to join with Christ in living out God's justice. Not only to carry His message of personal salvation and redemption to the world, but His message of physical and societal redemption as well. In Christ, we are not only forgiven but are also refined and molded and called to become more like Him. We are called to live as He lived - which means we do not just carry a message of hope after death, but hope now. God desires this world to be redeemed, and in Christ we can work to bring His redemption to all areas of life, working with the hope that one day God will come and perfectly complete the work He has called us to.
In Christ, it is not Word or action, personal or societal salvation. It is both. Both are an essential part of the Gospel. As someone also commented at our meeting this morning, they are intimately connected, flowing out of each other. It is clear from the passage in Amos that God desires action: He desires justice and righteousness. But He does not desire the type of action that results in mindless ritual and heartless religion. He is looking for action that is truly worshipful. And when we know Christ, true worship will flow from us: acts of justice and righteousness. Truly knowing Christ’s justice will cause us to live out that justice. One comes from the other: just as when God spoke and the earth came into being, just as when Christ spoke people were healed – when we read His Word we will not be able to help but act as He acted. Experiencing personal redemption will lead us to desire redemption of society and of the world – it will lead us to see the world more through God’s eyes and desire for it to be the way He intended it to be in the beginning – and this will lead us to do acts of justice to make it so. And as we see from Amos 5, this is true worship.
"I hate, I despise your religious feasts;
I cannot stand your assemblies.
Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
I will have no regard for them.
Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!"
It is clear from this passage that it is not simply offering God our wealth, going to church, being "religious" and observing religious tradition, or even worshipping Him through song that pleases Him. It is living justly and righteously that pleases Him.
I was privileged to be a part of a meeting this morning where the discussion opened up with talking about the debate of the importance of the Word vs action and of personal salvation vs. acts of justice. Someone from our group wisely commented that unfortunately, many Christians hear "justice" and think only of the world's definition of "social justice." But God's justice is so different.
God's justice is seen completely in Christ, in redeeming us from our sin and giving us the chance to become the people He creates us to be. In Christ, God's justice is personified and not only are we justified, but we now have the chance to join with Christ in living out God's justice. Not only to carry His message of personal salvation and redemption to the world, but His message of physical and societal redemption as well. In Christ, we are not only forgiven but are also refined and molded and called to become more like Him. We are called to live as He lived - which means we do not just carry a message of hope after death, but hope now. God desires this world to be redeemed, and in Christ we can work to bring His redemption to all areas of life, working with the hope that one day God will come and perfectly complete the work He has called us to.
In Christ, it is not Word or action, personal or societal salvation. It is both. Both are an essential part of the Gospel. As someone also commented at our meeting this morning, they are intimately connected, flowing out of each other. It is clear from the passage in Amos that God desires action: He desires justice and righteousness. But He does not desire the type of action that results in mindless ritual and heartless religion. He is looking for action that is truly worshipful. And when we know Christ, true worship will flow from us: acts of justice and righteousness. Truly knowing Christ’s justice will cause us to live out that justice. One comes from the other: just as when God spoke and the earth came into being, just as when Christ spoke people were healed – when we read His Word we will not be able to help but act as He acted. Experiencing personal redemption will lead us to desire redemption of society and of the world – it will lead us to see the world more through God’s eyes and desire for it to be the way He intended it to be in the beginning – and this will lead us to do acts of justice to make it so. And as we see from Amos 5, this is true worship.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
The tools God has given us...
Excerpt from an article written by Adam Phillips on a conversation he had with Zambian evangelical leader Bishop Mususu while at the Lausanne Congress recently:
Bishop Mususu concluded (and I scribbled on my coffee cup): “Yes, the church is supposed to be salt and light, but it is the government that is collecting our tax and making foolish decisions and policies. We can’t allow these things to go unchallenged. We need to address needs along the way with mercy, but ours as the church is to not simply pick up babies downstream that have been tossed in the river. We must go upstream and confront these challenges where they start, and that is why we as a church need to advocate and confront unjust laws.”
So often in the states we talk about advocating our own elected leaders and holding them accountable. It’s important to know that churches and leaders in other countries around the world are doing their part to hold officials accountable in a spirit of good governance. We stand as members of a global body of Christ — each having a role to play and gifts therein. Bishop Mususu’s story is evidence that African leaders are doing their part in fighting injustice, and it remains an inspiration for us at this Third Lausanne Congress and beyond to ensure our respective leaders do their part as well. (http://blog.sojo.net/2010/10/19/the-global-church-must-hold-politicians-accountable/)
It is crucial that the Church do everything in our power to do to be Christ to the world. And that includes takig advantage of the democracy we live in here in the US, the tool of government we have been given, and the powerful political system we are a part of. If the Church in Africa is standing up and utilizing the government to do God's work, then how much more should we as American Christians, having a more reliable and free system (generally)? As Bishop Mususu said, it is not going to work long-term, it is not going to bring lasting, systemic change to merely "pick up the babies downstream." We need to prevent them from even being thrown in the stream - and because of the blessings God has given us, most of us as American Christians can go upstream and stop the babies from even being thrown in! As I heard a pastor say recently when speaking to the World Vision staff here in DC, the worldwide Church does have the resources to prevent world hunger. We are big enough and powerful enough to stop some of the most pressing and heartbreaking injustices. But we don't stand together and collectively unite to address these issues. Individual missionaries and individual church programs to spread the Gospel and help the poor are wonderful, definitely. But being salt and light in the world is more than sending individual missionaries out, more than handing a Bible to people in other countries, more than sending food to famished communities. Being salt and light is using all the tools and blessings Christ has given us in our country and our culture to bring as much lasting, systemic redemption to the world as possible until Christ comes again and makes all things new. And using our governments and politicians to help us do the work Christ has called us to is one of the ways we can work for systemic change and stop the problem upstream.
Bishop Mususu concluded (and I scribbled on my coffee cup): “Yes, the church is supposed to be salt and light, but it is the government that is collecting our tax and making foolish decisions and policies. We can’t allow these things to go unchallenged. We need to address needs along the way with mercy, but ours as the church is to not simply pick up babies downstream that have been tossed in the river. We must go upstream and confront these challenges where they start, and that is why we as a church need to advocate and confront unjust laws.”
So often in the states we talk about advocating our own elected leaders and holding them accountable. It’s important to know that churches and leaders in other countries around the world are doing their part to hold officials accountable in a spirit of good governance. We stand as members of a global body of Christ — each having a role to play and gifts therein. Bishop Mususu’s story is evidence that African leaders are doing their part in fighting injustice, and it remains an inspiration for us at this Third Lausanne Congress and beyond to ensure our respective leaders do their part as well. (http://blog.sojo.net/2010/10/19/the-global-church-must-hold-politicians-accountable/)
It is crucial that the Church do everything in our power to do to be Christ to the world. And that includes takig advantage of the democracy we live in here in the US, the tool of government we have been given, and the powerful political system we are a part of. If the Church in Africa is standing up and utilizing the government to do God's work, then how much more should we as American Christians, having a more reliable and free system (generally)? As Bishop Mususu said, it is not going to work long-term, it is not going to bring lasting, systemic change to merely "pick up the babies downstream." We need to prevent them from even being thrown in the stream - and because of the blessings God has given us, most of us as American Christians can go upstream and stop the babies from even being thrown in! As I heard a pastor say recently when speaking to the World Vision staff here in DC, the worldwide Church does have the resources to prevent world hunger. We are big enough and powerful enough to stop some of the most pressing and heartbreaking injustices. But we don't stand together and collectively unite to address these issues. Individual missionaries and individual church programs to spread the Gospel and help the poor are wonderful, definitely. But being salt and light in the world is more than sending individual missionaries out, more than handing a Bible to people in other countries, more than sending food to famished communities. Being salt and light is using all the tools and blessings Christ has given us in our country and our culture to bring as much lasting, systemic redemption to the world as possible until Christ comes again and makes all things new. And using our governments and politicians to help us do the work Christ has called us to is one of the ways we can work for systemic change and stop the problem upstream.
Political priorities should be defined by Christ
This was originally posted on Sojourners' God's Politics blog by Lavonne Neff. I wanted to repost it because I thought it gave some very practical priorities that biblical Christians should have when going to the polls! Our views and who we vote for should be defined by the issues of Christ, not by the media or a political party.
Dear Candidate: Talk about Your Goals
By: LaVonne Neff
http://blog.sojo.net/2010/10/18/dear-candidate-talk-about-your-goals/
It’s midterm election time. How are you going to vote? Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? Your side — whichever it is — is the only one that will save America from utter financial and moral collapse. The other side — whichever it is — is full of liars and hypocrites controlled by unscrupulous cabals who, for financial reasons, are willing to ruin the common man. And woman.
I am so tired of political invective. I have come close to unfriending some very nice people on Facebook because they are always saying nasty things about the only party of truth and light, i.e., the one I favor. (Though nasty internet comments are certainly not limited to discussions of politics: I just read through a long list of vicious personal attacks that had to do with the genetics of an Airedale Terrier.)
Can we for a moment lay aside our overweening sense of personal righteousness and talk reasonably about goals?
Politics is a process of people working together to achieve goals that are good for everybody. Often we agree on the goals, though we disagree violently about how to achieve them. For example, I imagine we all think that if a great-grandmother develops Alzheimer’s disease and becomes difficult to care for, she should not be left in the street to fend for herself. We probably agree that all children who have the capacity to read and write should be taught to do so. The vast majority of us think it’s a good idea for a large country like ours to have an interstate highway system. Nearly all of us would like to live in an economy where jobs are plentiful and wages are adequate.
Where we disagree, of course, is how to achieve our goals, and a two-or-multi-party system can stimulate our thinking by challenging our presuppositions and enlarging the range of options we consider. It’s hard to believe, but several decades ago Democrats and Republicans often discussed issues respectfully and worked together to arrive at solutions. The Internet would allow us to do this again, if only we would stop calling names.
How are you going to vote in November? How about setting party labels aside and asking some goal-oriented questions of your candidates? And since many candidates are good at spinning their answers, how about setting campaign rhetoric aside and looking at what your candidates have actually accomplished in each area?
Here are ten goals that are important to me, with questions I need to consider:
Which candidate’s policies are more likely to help people escape from poverty? (I put this in first place because I am a Christian, and the ethical issue that receives the most space in the Bible is concern for the poor. I believe each party has a valid contribution to make to this issue, and I’d like to see both parties make it one of their major goals.)
Whose policies are more likely to create long-term jobs?
Whose policies will have a better effect on public health?
Whose ideas are more likely to provide high-quality education for children of all socioeconomic levels?
Whose ideas will better help us restore our decaying infrastructure?
Who is more likely to handle finances responsibly, keeping budgets balanced and planning for the future?
Who is more likely to show responsibility for the environment, keeping in mind not only our present needs but also the needs of generations to come?
Who is least likely to bow to the special interests that are financing his or her campaign? Who is least likely to be influenced by lobbyists? For that matter, which special interests are behind which candidates? (Open Secrets is a nonpartisan site that will help you follow the money that is following your candidates.)
Who is more likely to make accurate public statements? (Fact Check is a nonpartisan site that helps to sort out fact from fiction.) Note: It is possible to make an inaccurate statement without lying, but you probably don’t want either a liar or an ignorant person representing you.
Who has the better understanding of the common good — that is, that society depends on our working together, especially to help those who can’t help themselves and to build that which we can’t build alone — and not just on our getting the best possible deal for our individual selves?
I don’t believe either party has a corner on morality, justice, truth, intelligence, or good will. There are a few people of integrity and a lot of scoundrels leading both parties. I’d like to see us stop bickering about means and get to the important questions — what are we trying to accomplish in our towns, counties, states, and nation? And how can we work together to reach those goals?
Dear Candidate: Talk about Your Goals
By: LaVonne Neff
http://blog.sojo.net/2010/10/18/dear-candidate-talk-about-your-goals/
It’s midterm election time. How are you going to vote? Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? Your side — whichever it is — is the only one that will save America from utter financial and moral collapse. The other side — whichever it is — is full of liars and hypocrites controlled by unscrupulous cabals who, for financial reasons, are willing to ruin the common man. And woman.
I am so tired of political invective. I have come close to unfriending some very nice people on Facebook because they are always saying nasty things about the only party of truth and light, i.e., the one I favor. (Though nasty internet comments are certainly not limited to discussions of politics: I just read through a long list of vicious personal attacks that had to do with the genetics of an Airedale Terrier.)
Can we for a moment lay aside our overweening sense of personal righteousness and talk reasonably about goals?
Politics is a process of people working together to achieve goals that are good for everybody. Often we agree on the goals, though we disagree violently about how to achieve them. For example, I imagine we all think that if a great-grandmother develops Alzheimer’s disease and becomes difficult to care for, she should not be left in the street to fend for herself. We probably agree that all children who have the capacity to read and write should be taught to do so. The vast majority of us think it’s a good idea for a large country like ours to have an interstate highway system. Nearly all of us would like to live in an economy where jobs are plentiful and wages are adequate.
Where we disagree, of course, is how to achieve our goals, and a two-or-multi-party system can stimulate our thinking by challenging our presuppositions and enlarging the range of options we consider. It’s hard to believe, but several decades ago Democrats and Republicans often discussed issues respectfully and worked together to arrive at solutions. The Internet would allow us to do this again, if only we would stop calling names.
How are you going to vote in November? How about setting party labels aside and asking some goal-oriented questions of your candidates? And since many candidates are good at spinning their answers, how about setting campaign rhetoric aside and looking at what your candidates have actually accomplished in each area?
Here are ten goals that are important to me, with questions I need to consider:
Which candidate’s policies are more likely to help people escape from poverty? (I put this in first place because I am a Christian, and the ethical issue that receives the most space in the Bible is concern for the poor. I believe each party has a valid contribution to make to this issue, and I’d like to see both parties make it one of their major goals.)
Whose policies are more likely to create long-term jobs?
Whose policies will have a better effect on public health?
Whose ideas are more likely to provide high-quality education for children of all socioeconomic levels?
Whose ideas will better help us restore our decaying infrastructure?
Who is more likely to handle finances responsibly, keeping budgets balanced and planning for the future?
Who is more likely to show responsibility for the environment, keeping in mind not only our present needs but also the needs of generations to come?
Who is least likely to bow to the special interests that are financing his or her campaign? Who is least likely to be influenced by lobbyists? For that matter, which special interests are behind which candidates? (Open Secrets is a nonpartisan site that will help you follow the money that is following your candidates.)
Who is more likely to make accurate public statements? (Fact Check is a nonpartisan site that helps to sort out fact from fiction.) Note: It is possible to make an inaccurate statement without lying, but you probably don’t want either a liar or an ignorant person representing you.
Who has the better understanding of the common good — that is, that society depends on our working together, especially to help those who can’t help themselves and to build that which we can’t build alone — and not just on our getting the best possible deal for our individual selves?
I don’t believe either party has a corner on morality, justice, truth, intelligence, or good will. There are a few people of integrity and a lot of scoundrels leading both parties. I’d like to see us stop bickering about means and get to the important questions — what are we trying to accomplish in our towns, counties, states, and nation? And how can we work together to reach those goals?
Monday, October 18, 2010
To live "set apart....."
There is no doubt that Christ calls us to live differently, to live "set apart" for Him. To be foreigner in this land. But we are called to be in this land. So how do we actually do that? How can we live like Christ, in our world today? In our culture today?
It was said about 18th century Christian and politician William Wilberforce that “One of the first manifestations of… 'the great change’…was the contempt he felt for his wealth and the luxury he lived in…Seeds were sown almost immediately at the beginning of his Christian life, it seems, of the later passion to help the poor and to turn all his inherited wealth and his naturally high station into a means of blessing the oppressed...Simplicity and generosity were the mark of his life…riches were… ‘the means of honoring our heavenly Benefactor, and lessening the miseries of mankind’…this was the way his mind worked: Everything in politics was for the alleviation of misery and the spread of happiness.” (excerpt from John Piper's book, "Amazing Grace in the Life of William WIlberforce)
Like Wilberforce, a sign of our faith in Christ should be our simplicity and our generosity. These are two qualities that I think have faded from the church recently, especially in our American culture. Therefore one of the biggest ways we can live differently in our culture is to live simply and generously, recognizing that everything we have been given - as Wilberforce recognized - is a means of honoring God and loving others. All we have – our money, our job, all of our blessings – is not ours to do with as we please, but is a way to join with Christ in spreading God's redemption and love in this world.
This is something that God has been teaching me and emphasizing so much to me lately. It is not right that so few live with so much and so many live with so little. As we come to know Christ, we become less and less settled about the reality of the world around us: we, like Wilberforce, begin to feel contempt for all that we have when so many have so little. At least we should begin to feel this way. I think I was able to ignore this unsettled feeing for a long time, as I think many others have been able to as well, because of the culture we live in. But even if we try to ignore it, our hearts tell us that there is something wrong with how things are. God makes it clear in His Word that this is inherently evil: "He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God" (Proverbs 14:31) God is not saying it is just a nice thing to do to help the poor: He is saying we are literally showing Him contempt - basically saying we hate Him - when we oppress the poor. It is not an option: if we claim to love God, then we must love and care for the poor and oppressed! Even though America,and much of the Western world, has helped us think it is "normal," and even right, that we have so much and some have so little, this is a lie that will be seen clearly tyhrough the truths of the Bible and through just a few minutes of honest reflection: it is not normal for there to be such an incredible divide in wealth. It is not normal for so many to be oppressed while so few are free. This is not how our world was meant to be,or how it shold remain. Just because some - because of family,location,or whatever other belssing from the Lord - are born able with and able to work for wealth,does not make this right. God blesses some to be a blessing to others, to do His work and be His hands and feet. And even though the culture may at times lend a hand to thinking the dispartiy in the world right now is normal, even though we may get used to how things are, this does not mean this is how they should remain. God has called His people to STAND - throughout the Bible and now today, He commands His people to affect and help change the culture they are in, according to His vision. He calls us to help make things they way He intended them to be. And the imensity of wealth some have while others have close to nothing is not how God intended things to be.
I would take it so far as to say that we are helping bring about oppression if we are comfortable with the way things are right now - which, as Proverbs states, means we are showing contempt for God by how we are living. I believe that by the way we live, by the things we buy and the opulence of our lifestyles, we are not just allowing, but promoting the oppression of others. That is why I do not think it is enough to say that because we go to church on Sundays and give money to a charity every so often we are living differently. I believe more needs to be done - I believe our very lifestyles need to change - or we need to at least attempt to change them - in order to resist oppressing the poor.
So how do we do that? I think we can start with one of Martin Luther King Jr.'s principles in his Nonviolence Pledge: "Sacrifice personal wishes that all might be free." I think this is a key principle for us as the church today, espeically the American church today. A spirit of selflessness is not one that is naturally bred in us Americans - we are told from a young age to do all that we can for ourselves, to seek the American Dream.to work hard and get what we "deserve." But really, this is opposite of what Christ tells us - but we as Americans have gotten really good at smehow twisting the whole message of the Bible to agree with the American Dream. What Christ actually says is to be so unattached to personal belongings,to selfish ambition, to what we want, that we would be able to drop it in a heartbeat to follow what He tells us. This means that we are to live in the reality that there is MORE to life than US. More to life than what I want,and maybe more than my dreams and what I always thought my life was about. This reality leads us to live, instead of doing all that we can to accomplish our goals and our ends, in a way that looks to Christ's bigger purposes and bigger vision. And because He told us to love others and work for the redempton of others in this world, truly living differently for Him means being willing to give up something I want - maybe a part of my dreams, maybe some money, maybe a part of my lifestyle - to bring Christ's freedom to all people. Working for Christ's dream and not our own means working to bring His justice, freedom, and peace - His salvation - above working to accomplish what I want. A selfless lifestyle is what Christ calls us to. But the great part about it is the more we separate Christ from the American Dream, the more we will see that this selfless lifetyle is way more in line with the dreams and passions He has given us than the self-centered "all about me" purposes our culture tells us to live for.
"Sacrificing personal wishes" can take on all shapes and sizes. As was said about Wilberforce, though, I think it means we are all called to live more simply than the world around us. We are called to not hold as tightly to money or value personal possesisons as much. There is a reason Christ talked so muchaboutmoney - He wanted to teach us to find our treasure elsewhere, to not place as much value on it as others. Living simply and not placing as much value on the material is the most counter-cultural, selfless way we can live for Christ in this world.
For example, there is an amazing organization called Advent Conspiracy. (www.adventconspiracy.org) They have come up with a simple but radical way to sacrifice personal wishes: instead of spending hundreds of dollars buying gifts for others on Christmas - and instead of asking others to do the same for you - give that money to people that really need it. They choose to sponsor digging wells in Africa to provide clean water for families that have none. Water. Talk about equaling out the incredible disparity between rich and poor: how can we not do this? Make Christmas what it is really about: spending time with family, fellowshipping and worshipping Christ, and give the money that you do not need to help provide people with one of their most basic needs: water.
Other people I've met ask family and friends to donate to a certain organization instead of buying them birthday presents. We can give up coffee (or go down to buying only one cup per day!), limit the amount of times we eat out a month, limit the amount of clothes we buy, etc, and give away what we would have spent. We can be more intentional in general about spending less money on clothes and other “extras” and giving that money away - like to an organization that is doing community development and nation-building, an organization that is truly helping make things more equal, more the way God intended.
I have a personal rule for myself that I do not buy new clothes unless it is something I need to do the work God has called me to (which I know is subjective!). Something that is objective though, is that every time you buy new clothes, whether you really need it or not, make a rule for yourself that you have to give an equal number of clothing away. If you buy two new shirts, go in your closet and take two shirts out to donate. You'll be suprised at how much you really don't need! Every time I have done this, I've realized there are at least as many clothes as I've bought, if not more, that I have not worn in months.
We can also be careful of the things that we do buy. Without us knowing, many of the clothes, food, electronics,and other prodcts we buy fuel oppression in other countries. Often we are supporting child-labor, the sex-trade, unfair wages, and civil war - we need to look into the products we buy and make sure we are not unknowingly supporting oppression! For example, right now we are fueling civil war in the Congo because of a mineral that is neccessary for our cell phones and laptops. So before you buy an electornic device like these, make sure it is not one that is using minerals from the mines that are feuling war, rape, and genocide in the Congo! (http://blog.sojo.net/2010/09/03/human-atrocities-in-congo-what-can-we-do/) There are resources all over the internet and elsewhere that willl help you make sure you are not oppressing others - it is up to us to make the effort!
Other practical ways to live differently and sacrificially (depending on where you are in life): be a foster family, adopt - use the blessings and resources that God has given you to always be taking in the widow and the orphan, the stranger, the one who has less than you. Always be mentoring, discipling, reaching out: pray about and find someone that you can teach and disciple in the way of Christ. This is our mandate in the world!
Be an advocate. Be involved. Christ has called us to be His voice, and when we stop doing that, injustice grows and His love is not seen. Deep, systemic change occurs when Christ’s love is taught and lived out – and how can that happen if His people are not speaking up or living out His commands? Election time is always the perfect opportunity to speak out and live differently! Speak up and demand politicans who will work for Christ's truths in this world! Have a high standard for who you vote for and who you support - do not follow the partisan ways of the world and, unfortunately today, the church as well. Support those leaders who are actively living out Christ's truths, and who will truly stand for those! It is Christ's truths that will change the world: his justice, mercy, peace, and love - so take advantage of the blessing God has given us of living in a nation where our voice can be heard, and demand a politian who will seek to further these truths when in office - and who is furthering them in his/her life. During election season right now there are dirty, partisan politics all around us: politicians are focusing more on winning their election than on the issues, and we are hard-pressed to find a politician who is living out the truths we see in the Word. "Only when we have people who will win the right way will we have people who will govern the right way." If a politican is not even running in a moral and just way, how can we trust him/her to govern in a moral and just way? We need to speak up more, demanding a higher standard for our politicians, letting them know we care about people and the issues, and will not vote for someone who cannot even run in a way that lets me know they care about what I care about. This is the perfect time to live differently - what if the Church stood up now and demanded something different, a different kind of politics, a higher standard among politicians? This would make the world take notice, and see the character of Christ in the standard we demand. See this article to read more about how to demand greater morality in our politics and politicians, thereby showing more of Christ to the world:
http://blog.sojo.net/2010/10/07/7-steps-to-civility-this-election-season/
When God used Gideon to fight for Him, Gideon very purposefully yelled "For the Lord, and for Gideon" as he ran into battle. (Judges 7:20) It is essential that we as well yell both and see the neccessity for both. We as people can do nothing good or monumental without God working in us and through us. But if we throw uipour hands and sit waiting for God to do everyhting, we are being lazy. God wants to use us! He wants to make us His hands and feet, His tools - and we must be willing! Just sitting and not doing, not loving or living any differently, is denying God the use of His tool. He wants to use us, even in the smallest things in our everyday live’s, to affect change for Him. We are not our own – our lives are His. We are called to partner with Him in His work!
“All men desire peace, but very few desire those things that make for peace.” (Thomas A. Kempis) It is one thing to say we are Christians, to say we want His will to be done in this world and for all people to know Him - and it is another thing to actually do the things that will make all that happen. I think any Christian you talked to would say they desire peace in this world, but how many of us are living our daily lives in such a way as to promote peace? Are we actively speaking out in favor of politicans, policies, and legislation that promote peace? Are the products we are using promoting war, or peace? Do our interactions with those around us promote peace? The same questions can be asked regarding the kind of life God has called us to live: I think we would all say we want to do God's will in this wolrd, but are we willing to do what it takes to actually see His will done in this world? Are we willing to give things up that make us more comfortable? Are we willing to live in a way that puts others before ourselves? Are we willing to put in the extra time, effort, and heart that it takes to live differently for Christ in our culture? I pray that as we come to know Christ more, we would naturally seek to do this. I pray that, like Wilberforce, we would see all our possessions and all our blessings as "a means of honoring our heavenly Benefactor, and lessening the miseries of mankind." Through His Spirit in us, I pray that He would give us the strength to have this perspective daily!
It was said about 18th century Christian and politician William Wilberforce that “One of the first manifestations of… 'the great change’…was the contempt he felt for his wealth and the luxury he lived in…Seeds were sown almost immediately at the beginning of his Christian life, it seems, of the later passion to help the poor and to turn all his inherited wealth and his naturally high station into a means of blessing the oppressed...Simplicity and generosity were the mark of his life…riches were… ‘the means of honoring our heavenly Benefactor, and lessening the miseries of mankind’…this was the way his mind worked: Everything in politics was for the alleviation of misery and the spread of happiness.” (excerpt from John Piper's book, "Amazing Grace in the Life of William WIlberforce)
Like Wilberforce, a sign of our faith in Christ should be our simplicity and our generosity. These are two qualities that I think have faded from the church recently, especially in our American culture. Therefore one of the biggest ways we can live differently in our culture is to live simply and generously, recognizing that everything we have been given - as Wilberforce recognized - is a means of honoring God and loving others. All we have – our money, our job, all of our blessings – is not ours to do with as we please, but is a way to join with Christ in spreading God's redemption and love in this world.
This is something that God has been teaching me and emphasizing so much to me lately. It is not right that so few live with so much and so many live with so little. As we come to know Christ, we become less and less settled about the reality of the world around us: we, like Wilberforce, begin to feel contempt for all that we have when so many have so little. At least we should begin to feel this way. I think I was able to ignore this unsettled feeing for a long time, as I think many others have been able to as well, because of the culture we live in. But even if we try to ignore it, our hearts tell us that there is something wrong with how things are. God makes it clear in His Word that this is inherently evil: "He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God" (Proverbs 14:31) God is not saying it is just a nice thing to do to help the poor: He is saying we are literally showing Him contempt - basically saying we hate Him - when we oppress the poor. It is not an option: if we claim to love God, then we must love and care for the poor and oppressed! Even though America,and much of the Western world, has helped us think it is "normal," and even right, that we have so much and some have so little, this is a lie that will be seen clearly tyhrough the truths of the Bible and through just a few minutes of honest reflection: it is not normal for there to be such an incredible divide in wealth. It is not normal for so many to be oppressed while so few are free. This is not how our world was meant to be,or how it shold remain. Just because some - because of family,location,or whatever other belssing from the Lord - are born able with and able to work for wealth,does not make this right. God blesses some to be a blessing to others, to do His work and be His hands and feet. And even though the culture may at times lend a hand to thinking the dispartiy in the world right now is normal, even though we may get used to how things are, this does not mean this is how they should remain. God has called His people to STAND - throughout the Bible and now today, He commands His people to affect and help change the culture they are in, according to His vision. He calls us to help make things they way He intended them to be. And the imensity of wealth some have while others have close to nothing is not how God intended things to be.
I would take it so far as to say that we are helping bring about oppression if we are comfortable with the way things are right now - which, as Proverbs states, means we are showing contempt for God by how we are living. I believe that by the way we live, by the things we buy and the opulence of our lifestyles, we are not just allowing, but promoting the oppression of others. That is why I do not think it is enough to say that because we go to church on Sundays and give money to a charity every so often we are living differently. I believe more needs to be done - I believe our very lifestyles need to change - or we need to at least attempt to change them - in order to resist oppressing the poor.
So how do we do that? I think we can start with one of Martin Luther King Jr.'s principles in his Nonviolence Pledge: "Sacrifice personal wishes that all might be free." I think this is a key principle for us as the church today, espeically the American church today. A spirit of selflessness is not one that is naturally bred in us Americans - we are told from a young age to do all that we can for ourselves, to seek the American Dream.to work hard and get what we "deserve." But really, this is opposite of what Christ tells us - but we as Americans have gotten really good at smehow twisting the whole message of the Bible to agree with the American Dream. What Christ actually says is to be so unattached to personal belongings,to selfish ambition, to what we want, that we would be able to drop it in a heartbeat to follow what He tells us. This means that we are to live in the reality that there is MORE to life than US. More to life than what I want,and maybe more than my dreams and what I always thought my life was about. This reality leads us to live, instead of doing all that we can to accomplish our goals and our ends, in a way that looks to Christ's bigger purposes and bigger vision. And because He told us to love others and work for the redempton of others in this world, truly living differently for Him means being willing to give up something I want - maybe a part of my dreams, maybe some money, maybe a part of my lifestyle - to bring Christ's freedom to all people. Working for Christ's dream and not our own means working to bring His justice, freedom, and peace - His salvation - above working to accomplish what I want. A selfless lifestyle is what Christ calls us to. But the great part about it is the more we separate Christ from the American Dream, the more we will see that this selfless lifetyle is way more in line with the dreams and passions He has given us than the self-centered "all about me" purposes our culture tells us to live for.
"Sacrificing personal wishes" can take on all shapes and sizes. As was said about Wilberforce, though, I think it means we are all called to live more simply than the world around us. We are called to not hold as tightly to money or value personal possesisons as much. There is a reason Christ talked so muchaboutmoney - He wanted to teach us to find our treasure elsewhere, to not place as much value on it as others. Living simply and not placing as much value on the material is the most counter-cultural, selfless way we can live for Christ in this world.
For example, there is an amazing organization called Advent Conspiracy. (www.adventconspiracy.org) They have come up with a simple but radical way to sacrifice personal wishes: instead of spending hundreds of dollars buying gifts for others on Christmas - and instead of asking others to do the same for you - give that money to people that really need it. They choose to sponsor digging wells in Africa to provide clean water for families that have none. Water. Talk about equaling out the incredible disparity between rich and poor: how can we not do this? Make Christmas what it is really about: spending time with family, fellowshipping and worshipping Christ, and give the money that you do not need to help provide people with one of their most basic needs: water.
Other people I've met ask family and friends to donate to a certain organization instead of buying them birthday presents. We can give up coffee (or go down to buying only one cup per day!), limit the amount of times we eat out a month, limit the amount of clothes we buy, etc, and give away what we would have spent. We can be more intentional in general about spending less money on clothes and other “extras” and giving that money away - like to an organization that is doing community development and nation-building, an organization that is truly helping make things more equal, more the way God intended.
I have a personal rule for myself that I do not buy new clothes unless it is something I need to do the work God has called me to (which I know is subjective!). Something that is objective though, is that every time you buy new clothes, whether you really need it or not, make a rule for yourself that you have to give an equal number of clothing away. If you buy two new shirts, go in your closet and take two shirts out to donate. You'll be suprised at how much you really don't need! Every time I have done this, I've realized there are at least as many clothes as I've bought, if not more, that I have not worn in months.
We can also be careful of the things that we do buy. Without us knowing, many of the clothes, food, electronics,and other prodcts we buy fuel oppression in other countries. Often we are supporting child-labor, the sex-trade, unfair wages, and civil war - we need to look into the products we buy and make sure we are not unknowingly supporting oppression! For example, right now we are fueling civil war in the Congo because of a mineral that is neccessary for our cell phones and laptops. So before you buy an electornic device like these, make sure it is not one that is using minerals from the mines that are feuling war, rape, and genocide in the Congo! (http://blog.sojo.net/2010/09/03/human-atrocities-in-congo-what-can-we-do/) There are resources all over the internet and elsewhere that willl help you make sure you are not oppressing others - it is up to us to make the effort!
Other practical ways to live differently and sacrificially (depending on where you are in life): be a foster family, adopt - use the blessings and resources that God has given you to always be taking in the widow and the orphan, the stranger, the one who has less than you. Always be mentoring, discipling, reaching out: pray about and find someone that you can teach and disciple in the way of Christ. This is our mandate in the world!
Be an advocate. Be involved. Christ has called us to be His voice, and when we stop doing that, injustice grows and His love is not seen. Deep, systemic change occurs when Christ’s love is taught and lived out – and how can that happen if His people are not speaking up or living out His commands? Election time is always the perfect opportunity to speak out and live differently! Speak up and demand politicans who will work for Christ's truths in this world! Have a high standard for who you vote for and who you support - do not follow the partisan ways of the world and, unfortunately today, the church as well. Support those leaders who are actively living out Christ's truths, and who will truly stand for those! It is Christ's truths that will change the world: his justice, mercy, peace, and love - so take advantage of the blessing God has given us of living in a nation where our voice can be heard, and demand a politian who will seek to further these truths when in office - and who is furthering them in his/her life. During election season right now there are dirty, partisan politics all around us: politicians are focusing more on winning their election than on the issues, and we are hard-pressed to find a politician who is living out the truths we see in the Word. "Only when we have people who will win the right way will we have people who will govern the right way." If a politican is not even running in a moral and just way, how can we trust him/her to govern in a moral and just way? We need to speak up more, demanding a higher standard for our politicians, letting them know we care about people and the issues, and will not vote for someone who cannot even run in a way that lets me know they care about what I care about. This is the perfect time to live differently - what if the Church stood up now and demanded something different, a different kind of politics, a higher standard among politicians? This would make the world take notice, and see the character of Christ in the standard we demand. See this article to read more about how to demand greater morality in our politics and politicians, thereby showing more of Christ to the world:
http://blog.sojo.net/2010/10/07/7-steps-to-civility-this-election-season/
When God used Gideon to fight for Him, Gideon very purposefully yelled "For the Lord, and for Gideon" as he ran into battle. (Judges 7:20) It is essential that we as well yell both and see the neccessity for both. We as people can do nothing good or monumental without God working in us and through us. But if we throw uipour hands and sit waiting for God to do everyhting, we are being lazy. God wants to use us! He wants to make us His hands and feet, His tools - and we must be willing! Just sitting and not doing, not loving or living any differently, is denying God the use of His tool. He wants to use us, even in the smallest things in our everyday live’s, to affect change for Him. We are not our own – our lives are His. We are called to partner with Him in His work!
“All men desire peace, but very few desire those things that make for peace.” (Thomas A. Kempis) It is one thing to say we are Christians, to say we want His will to be done in this world and for all people to know Him - and it is another thing to actually do the things that will make all that happen. I think any Christian you talked to would say they desire peace in this world, but how many of us are living our daily lives in such a way as to promote peace? Are we actively speaking out in favor of politicans, policies, and legislation that promote peace? Are the products we are using promoting war, or peace? Do our interactions with those around us promote peace? The same questions can be asked regarding the kind of life God has called us to live: I think we would all say we want to do God's will in this wolrd, but are we willing to do what it takes to actually see His will done in this world? Are we willing to give things up that make us more comfortable? Are we willing to live in a way that puts others before ourselves? Are we willing to put in the extra time, effort, and heart that it takes to live differently for Christ in our culture? I pray that as we come to know Christ more, we would naturally seek to do this. I pray that, like Wilberforce, we would see all our possessions and all our blessings as "a means of honoring our heavenly Benefactor, and lessening the miseries of mankind." Through His Spirit in us, I pray that He would give us the strength to have this perspective daily!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
A new Way
Excerpt from: "Tension, Mercy, and Orphans" (whole article found at http://www.catalystspace.com/content/read/article_tension_mercy_and_orphans/)
By Jedd Medefind | Christian Alliance for Orphans
Tension. A high-wire pulled taut between two poles; a bow stretched back as far as it can go. Christ's call is rarely to the "golden mean," a comfortable-but-often-flaccid moderation that shuns any extreme. That was Aristotle. Rather, Jesus' disciples most often must grip two seeming opposites, both held tenaciously in pregnant tension: grace and truth, humility and boldness, justice and mercy.
At its worst, Christianity loses its tautness. We seize hold of one pole with white-knuckled grasp and abandon the other. At its best, our faith is tense as a bowstring in the hands of a master Archer.
We catch a snapshot of this tension in the seeming competition between evangelism and mercy ministry. Despite wide affirmation that "we can do both," most Christian organizations tend to emphasize one and under-develop the other.
Yet Christ's way was to hold insistently to both, always interweaving "preaching the Good News" and "healing every disease…" (Matthew 4:23). As we follow him in this, we come to see the two are not competing after all. Far from it. Tangible mercy in Christ's name bears compelling witness to the Good News like nothing else on earth. Meanwhile, the true Gospel is of such glory that both apathy and injustice melt before it; those embracing it, like Zacchaeus, restore wrongs done and extend self in sacrificial giving.
The above excerpt does an amazing job of describing a problem that every single human being struggles with. Balance. We have such trouble living in the tension of opposites, in finding a balance in life instead of being black and white about every single thing we encounter. The example Jedd gives is one that I have noticed so much in the Church today: either we emphasize acts of justice and don't address preaching the Gospel enough, or we over-emphasize evangelism and don't give proper weight to the actions of mercy and justice Christ clearly calls us to. It is so hard for us to find a balance. To, as Jedd highlighted, Christ held insistently to both, explaining and proving that acts of justice and mercy bear witness to the Gospel of Christ like nothing else can. Both, in equal amounts, are completely necessary. Both are needed to live like Christ and do the will of Christ. Loving God and living in true worship of Christ will naturally result in acts of mercy and justice. There is no need to fight for one over the other! Christ intends both of them to exist naturally together as we exist in Him. As Professor Paul Louis Metzger says, “Justice flows from God's heart and character. As true and good, God seeks to make the object of his holy love whole…We, the church, are to live now in light of Jesus' restoration of all things…As we experience the wholeness that Jesus offers, we are to carry his justice forward in the world.” As Jedd and Metzger both emphasize, personal redemption in Christ and living out His mercy to the world are intimately connected, and are an equal part of living in Christ.
The problem the human race has in general with balance has become too evident to me in the context of politics. Political activism is something I am particularly passionate about, as politics and government can be such a huge tool of the Church to show the love of Christ. In fact, God makes it evident through His Word that He desires the Church to utilize the government as a tool to do His will. Living in a country where we have the ability to make our voice heard and affect the world around us, we especially are called to utilize the blessings God has given us to help those around us. God makes it clear through His Word that He calls His followers to become like Him and to join Him in His mission in the world. And it is clear through His Word what His heart beat for: how can we ignore the Year of Jubilee He wrote into the law of the Israelites, that said that for no logical or apparent reason, other than that it is His heart’s desire, every seven years there was to be a year where all debts were forgiven, all crimes forgotten, all slaves and foreigners released from captivity (Leviticus 25) – it is clear that justice, mercy, and peace are God’s very heart: “The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed…” (Psalm 103:6). “Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it” (Psalm 34:14). God clearly calls His Church to stand up for His truths: to proclaim His salvation through living out His justice, mercy, peace, and righteousness. One of the main tools we have to do “tangible mercy in Christ’s name,” as Jedd said, and thereby proclaim His Gospel, is through the tool of government. The government is not meant to take the place of the Church – the government is merely the tool of the Church, issuing decrees that the Church then carries out. How amazing would it be if the Church properly utilized the tool of the government, making our collective voice heard enough to affect policy in the direction of the truths of Christ, and then also being the ones to carry out the policies the government decrees?
Unfortunately, I have seen the Church so often of late get caught up in this problem of balance, so much so that instead of utilizing government and doing the work we are called to do, we so often fall into the partisan ways of politicking, feeling pressure to pick a side, to be black or white. We have the choice to be either “conservative, Gospel-proclaiming, right-wing, evangelical Christians” or “liberal, social-justice emphasizing, watered-down Christians that trust big government too much to do the work of the Church.”
When really, we do not have to choose sides at all. In Christ, there is a third Way. There is an in-between. There is a balance. We can hold to the Gospel, and also just as strongly hold to social justice – because in Christ, the two are intricately connected. We can be conservative in that we believe the words of the Bible, but liberal in that we are open to the reality that the Church is changing and the truth of God can be understood and presented in new ways – without the Truth itself actually being changed. In this new Way, we follow Christ’s truths, and do not give in to the culture of the world that tells you there are only two options, one of which we must choose. In Christ, sometimes it is left, sometimes it is right, sometimes it is neither: we pursue what is just, peaceful, merciful, and righteous – we support those policies, politicians, campaigns, etc based on their identification with these truths. In this new Way, we choose the way of Christ, no matter the party affiliation or tradition. I am not in any way saying we should support the increase of religion in place of a party, or just make Christianity the new party – no, I am supporting the increase of the truths of Christ, and promoting that we stand up for whatever will increase these truths. Christianity should not be a political party that becomes a part of government – the Church should promote the truths of Christ in politics and government, and then the Church should be the one that the government can most trust to carry out their policies. It is the increase of Christ’s principles, and not the increase of a political party, that will truly benefit our society and lead to a higher standard among politicians and a higher standard when it comes to political priorities and policies.
By promoting these principles, society will only benefit – in His way, peace and unity are promoted in the political realm, modeled off of the tension Christ showed in His life from holding a wide range of truths in balance. Justice and mercy are promoted, which will further bring the love of Christ into the world. By seeking to promote Christ’s truths instead of fighting for a certain political party, the Church will help lead our political culture – as well as society – to a higher standard, in the direction of peace and justice, where human lives are truly a priority above self-interest and politicking. By promoting Christ’s truth, the Church will lead people to truly see the love of God – instead of the Church leading in the opposite direction, joining in and promoting the divisiveness that comes from picking sides.
As Christians, we are called to care about and participate in the political sphere – God has blessed us with a political system where we can actually make our voice heard, where we can speak up for the poor and oppressed. But that is what we are called to do: speak up for the poor and oppressed and seek justice for the widowed and the fatherless (Isaiah 1:17), seek peace (1 Peter 3:11) and love mercy and walk humbly (Micah 6:8). There is no need to pick political sides: we are called to support whatever and whomever promotes Christ’s truths, utilizing politics and government to carry out Christ’s mission. By promoting Christ’s truths, we will be demanding a higher standard for politicians and for political priorities.
How beautiful would it be if, because of the Church’s voice, our government stepped up their aid to the orphan and the widow? What if more relief was given to the poor and the oppressed? How amazing would it be if the voice of the Church was loud enough that not only were policies influenced, but that the government then relied on the Church to carry them out? For example, what if the government gave more aid to fund programs for the homeless, or to provide medicine for third world countries, and then entrusted more of these funds to faith-based organizations to implement? By focusing less on partisan politics and more on the truths Christ asks us to stand for, the Church will be much more able to carry out the mission Christ has called us to. To get to this point, though, it is essential that the Church realize our crucial role in utilizing the government to speak up for the poor and the oppressed, and live by Christ’s higher standard to do so, pursuing His truths and not letting ourselves fall prey to the current standards of the political culture. Let’s get to the place where not only is our voice strong enough to influence politics and policies for the better, but also to the place where our voice is trusted enough and passionate enough to then carry these policies out.
By Jedd Medefind | Christian Alliance for Orphans
Tension. A high-wire pulled taut between two poles; a bow stretched back as far as it can go. Christ's call is rarely to the "golden mean," a comfortable-but-often-flaccid moderation that shuns any extreme. That was Aristotle. Rather, Jesus' disciples most often must grip two seeming opposites, both held tenaciously in pregnant tension: grace and truth, humility and boldness, justice and mercy.
At its worst, Christianity loses its tautness. We seize hold of one pole with white-knuckled grasp and abandon the other. At its best, our faith is tense as a bowstring in the hands of a master Archer.
We catch a snapshot of this tension in the seeming competition between evangelism and mercy ministry. Despite wide affirmation that "we can do both," most Christian organizations tend to emphasize one and under-develop the other.
Yet Christ's way was to hold insistently to both, always interweaving "preaching the Good News" and "healing every disease…" (Matthew 4:23). As we follow him in this, we come to see the two are not competing after all. Far from it. Tangible mercy in Christ's name bears compelling witness to the Good News like nothing else on earth. Meanwhile, the true Gospel is of such glory that both apathy and injustice melt before it; those embracing it, like Zacchaeus, restore wrongs done and extend self in sacrificial giving.
The above excerpt does an amazing job of describing a problem that every single human being struggles with. Balance. We have such trouble living in the tension of opposites, in finding a balance in life instead of being black and white about every single thing we encounter. The example Jedd gives is one that I have noticed so much in the Church today: either we emphasize acts of justice and don't address preaching the Gospel enough, or we over-emphasize evangelism and don't give proper weight to the actions of mercy and justice Christ clearly calls us to. It is so hard for us to find a balance. To, as Jedd highlighted, Christ held insistently to both, explaining and proving that acts of justice and mercy bear witness to the Gospel of Christ like nothing else can. Both, in equal amounts, are completely necessary. Both are needed to live like Christ and do the will of Christ. Loving God and living in true worship of Christ will naturally result in acts of mercy and justice. There is no need to fight for one over the other! Christ intends both of them to exist naturally together as we exist in Him. As Professor Paul Louis Metzger says, “Justice flows from God's heart and character. As true and good, God seeks to make the object of his holy love whole…We, the church, are to live now in light of Jesus' restoration of all things…As we experience the wholeness that Jesus offers, we are to carry his justice forward in the world.” As Jedd and Metzger both emphasize, personal redemption in Christ and living out His mercy to the world are intimately connected, and are an equal part of living in Christ.
The problem the human race has in general with balance has become too evident to me in the context of politics. Political activism is something I am particularly passionate about, as politics and government can be such a huge tool of the Church to show the love of Christ. In fact, God makes it evident through His Word that He desires the Church to utilize the government as a tool to do His will. Living in a country where we have the ability to make our voice heard and affect the world around us, we especially are called to utilize the blessings God has given us to help those around us. God makes it clear through His Word that He calls His followers to become like Him and to join Him in His mission in the world. And it is clear through His Word what His heart beat for: how can we ignore the Year of Jubilee He wrote into the law of the Israelites, that said that for no logical or apparent reason, other than that it is His heart’s desire, every seven years there was to be a year where all debts were forgiven, all crimes forgotten, all slaves and foreigners released from captivity (Leviticus 25) – it is clear that justice, mercy, and peace are God’s very heart: “The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed…” (Psalm 103:6). “Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it” (Psalm 34:14). God clearly calls His Church to stand up for His truths: to proclaim His salvation through living out His justice, mercy, peace, and righteousness. One of the main tools we have to do “tangible mercy in Christ’s name,” as Jedd said, and thereby proclaim His Gospel, is through the tool of government. The government is not meant to take the place of the Church – the government is merely the tool of the Church, issuing decrees that the Church then carries out. How amazing would it be if the Church properly utilized the tool of the government, making our collective voice heard enough to affect policy in the direction of the truths of Christ, and then also being the ones to carry out the policies the government decrees?
Unfortunately, I have seen the Church so often of late get caught up in this problem of balance, so much so that instead of utilizing government and doing the work we are called to do, we so often fall into the partisan ways of politicking, feeling pressure to pick a side, to be black or white. We have the choice to be either “conservative, Gospel-proclaiming, right-wing, evangelical Christians” or “liberal, social-justice emphasizing, watered-down Christians that trust big government too much to do the work of the Church.”
When really, we do not have to choose sides at all. In Christ, there is a third Way. There is an in-between. There is a balance. We can hold to the Gospel, and also just as strongly hold to social justice – because in Christ, the two are intricately connected. We can be conservative in that we believe the words of the Bible, but liberal in that we are open to the reality that the Church is changing and the truth of God can be understood and presented in new ways – without the Truth itself actually being changed. In this new Way, we follow Christ’s truths, and do not give in to the culture of the world that tells you there are only two options, one of which we must choose. In Christ, sometimes it is left, sometimes it is right, sometimes it is neither: we pursue what is just, peaceful, merciful, and righteous – we support those policies, politicians, campaigns, etc based on their identification with these truths. In this new Way, we choose the way of Christ, no matter the party affiliation or tradition. I am not in any way saying we should support the increase of religion in place of a party, or just make Christianity the new party – no, I am supporting the increase of the truths of Christ, and promoting that we stand up for whatever will increase these truths. Christianity should not be a political party that becomes a part of government – the Church should promote the truths of Christ in politics and government, and then the Church should be the one that the government can most trust to carry out their policies. It is the increase of Christ’s principles, and not the increase of a political party, that will truly benefit our society and lead to a higher standard among politicians and a higher standard when it comes to political priorities and policies.
By promoting these principles, society will only benefit – in His way, peace and unity are promoted in the political realm, modeled off of the tension Christ showed in His life from holding a wide range of truths in balance. Justice and mercy are promoted, which will further bring the love of Christ into the world. By seeking to promote Christ’s truths instead of fighting for a certain political party, the Church will help lead our political culture – as well as society – to a higher standard, in the direction of peace and justice, where human lives are truly a priority above self-interest and politicking. By promoting Christ’s truth, the Church will lead people to truly see the love of God – instead of the Church leading in the opposite direction, joining in and promoting the divisiveness that comes from picking sides.
As Christians, we are called to care about and participate in the political sphere – God has blessed us with a political system where we can actually make our voice heard, where we can speak up for the poor and oppressed. But that is what we are called to do: speak up for the poor and oppressed and seek justice for the widowed and the fatherless (Isaiah 1:17), seek peace (1 Peter 3:11) and love mercy and walk humbly (Micah 6:8). There is no need to pick political sides: we are called to support whatever and whomever promotes Christ’s truths, utilizing politics and government to carry out Christ’s mission. By promoting Christ’s truths, we will be demanding a higher standard for politicians and for political priorities.
How beautiful would it be if, because of the Church’s voice, our government stepped up their aid to the orphan and the widow? What if more relief was given to the poor and the oppressed? How amazing would it be if the voice of the Church was loud enough that not only were policies influenced, but that the government then relied on the Church to carry them out? For example, what if the government gave more aid to fund programs for the homeless, or to provide medicine for third world countries, and then entrusted more of these funds to faith-based organizations to implement? By focusing less on partisan politics and more on the truths Christ asks us to stand for, the Church will be much more able to carry out the mission Christ has called us to. To get to this point, though, it is essential that the Church realize our crucial role in utilizing the government to speak up for the poor and the oppressed, and live by Christ’s higher standard to do so, pursuing His truths and not letting ourselves fall prey to the current standards of the political culture. Let’s get to the place where not only is our voice strong enough to influence politics and policies for the better, but also to the place where our voice is trusted enough and passionate enough to then carry these policies out.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Psalm 27:4 and a lesson from William Wilberforce
Being at camp this past week has reminded me how much joy there is in dwelling on Christ. My job allows me to be in a position where I am learning about what it looks like to actively love God and live out that love by serving others. And it has reminded me that focusing on Christ and not ourselves enables us to live in such a state of indomitable joy. As was said about passionate Christ-follower, politician, and social reformer William Wilberforce: "By the tones of his voice and expression of his countenance he showed that joy was the prevailing feature of his own mind, joy springing from entireness of trust in the Savior’s merits and from love to God and man…His joy was quite penetrating.” (Piper, 57) This is how God desires us to live – He knows looking to Him and not ourselves is what is best for us! This is why, I believe, the psalmist says that the one thing He desires is to gaze upon God in His temple, and to inquire after Him. Notice nothing is said about himself, about figuring out his life or inquiring after his salvation…his one desire is just to see God. I think that’s because God knows that this is what will fill us with the most joy. Every once in a while we as humans get that, as the psalmist did, and do what God desires us to do most, that which He knows will make us most joyful: we seek Him. We inquire after Him and not ourselves. As Piper quoted Wilberforce, self-denial is “…a means to the highest pleasures…” but “Pleasure and religion are contradictory terms with the bulk of nominal Christians.” (Wilberforce)
Unfortunately, as Wilberforce noted in the previous quote, our culture – and our human nature – are not very good at equating focus on God with joy. Denying ourselves and looking to Christ are not always seen as bringing us joy – often, they are seen as things we have to do to obtain eternal salvation, but not as things that bring us joy here and now. But as we’ve seen from Wilberforce and as many of us, like the psalmist, have experienced at moments in our own lives, true joy is known the more we look to God and to His glory rather than focusing on ourselves. We were created to love and worship our holy God, and the more we do that and deny our selfish nature, the more joyful we will truly be. Focusing on God and not ourselves enables us to “…see all the good in the world instead of being consumed by one’s own problems…” (Piper 60)
When we make it about ourselves, we tend to make Christianity “…so much a system of prohibitions rather than of privileges and hopes, and thus the injunction to rejoice, so strongly enforced in the New Testament, is practically neglected, and Religion is made to wear a forbidding and gloomy air and not one of peace and hope and joy.” (Wilberforce p.62)
True joy in our salvation comes not when we are absorbed in worrying about ourselves, our future, our salvation, but when we just look to Christ and His beautiful, indescribable glory….and as was noted about Wilberforce, it is this joy that will attract others to Christ – not a gloomy religion, but a joyful peace in constantly looking above this world to our Savior. It is this joy that will also lead us “from love to God and man…” Looking to Christ more and ourselves less will not only bring us true joy, but it will help us better love and serve others as Christ did, and as He desires us to as His people.
Our purpose is not to know Christ simply so that we may gain eternal life – but the more we focus on ourselves, the easier it is for us to think that Christ’s sole purpose and our sole purpose in knowing Him is to figure out what happens after this life. Rather, our purpose is to know Him for His glory, so that He may be known to others through us. He died so that we might become like Him and better love and serve others so that His glory might be seen by them and they might know Him as well. The more we look at Christ and dwell in His throne room, thinking and focusing on Him and not our own will, the more we will grow into Him, into having this mindset. From looking at Him, His glory will begin to reflect off of us to others. The more we look at Him, the more we will become like Him – living like Him and loving like Him.
Unfortunately, as Wilberforce noted in the previous quote, our culture – and our human nature – are not very good at equating focus on God with joy. Denying ourselves and looking to Christ are not always seen as bringing us joy – often, they are seen as things we have to do to obtain eternal salvation, but not as things that bring us joy here and now. But as we’ve seen from Wilberforce and as many of us, like the psalmist, have experienced at moments in our own lives, true joy is known the more we look to God and to His glory rather than focusing on ourselves. We were created to love and worship our holy God, and the more we do that and deny our selfish nature, the more joyful we will truly be. Focusing on God and not ourselves enables us to “…see all the good in the world instead of being consumed by one’s own problems…” (Piper 60)
When we make it about ourselves, we tend to make Christianity “…so much a system of prohibitions rather than of privileges and hopes, and thus the injunction to rejoice, so strongly enforced in the New Testament, is practically neglected, and Religion is made to wear a forbidding and gloomy air and not one of peace and hope and joy.” (Wilberforce p.62)
True joy in our salvation comes not when we are absorbed in worrying about ourselves, our future, our salvation, but when we just look to Christ and His beautiful, indescribable glory….and as was noted about Wilberforce, it is this joy that will attract others to Christ – not a gloomy religion, but a joyful peace in constantly looking above this world to our Savior. It is this joy that will also lead us “from love to God and man…” Looking to Christ more and ourselves less will not only bring us true joy, but it will help us better love and serve others as Christ did, and as He desires us to as His people.
Our purpose is not to know Christ simply so that we may gain eternal life – but the more we focus on ourselves, the easier it is for us to think that Christ’s sole purpose and our sole purpose in knowing Him is to figure out what happens after this life. Rather, our purpose is to know Him for His glory, so that He may be known to others through us. He died so that we might become like Him and better love and serve others so that His glory might be seen by them and they might know Him as well. The more we look at Christ and dwell in His throne room, thinking and focusing on Him and not our own will, the more we will grow into Him, into having this mindset. From looking at Him, His glory will begin to reflect off of us to others. The more we look at Him, the more we will become like Him – living like Him and loving like Him.
It’s days like these I am overwhelmed by how blessed I am. I have the most amazing husband in the world who always takes the time to remind me daily how loved I am by our Creator and by himself, who takes the time to affirm me again that I am so valued and worthwhile. I have a husband who serenades me in our living room, who I can talk with for hours about the Bible and how we’re going to change the world.
We have wonderful jobs and an apartment to come back to and food to eat and the chance to learn and take classes and work and impact the world…..who am I to deserve this? I was reminded again tonight about how it is not me. It is by the grace of God that I am what I am, that I have what I have and that I am able to do what I am doing. What I have is not my own – the blessings I have are not mine to hold to tightly. I have been blessed for the purpose of blessing others, for the purpose of bringing what God has given me to others to spread His love and grace. I fear the moment I ever begin to forget that. Who am I to ever begin to think that what I have, that who I am, is mine by merit? That I deserve it? All I have, all I have been granted, is to give back to God for Him to give to others through me. As William Wilberforce said, riches are “the means of honoring our heavenly Benefactor, and lessening the miseries of mankind.” I pray I never forget this, that my politics, my personal life, every part of who I am, reflects this awareness that I am not my own and what I have is for God to use.
We have wonderful jobs and an apartment to come back to and food to eat and the chance to learn and take classes and work and impact the world…..who am I to deserve this? I was reminded again tonight about how it is not me. It is by the grace of God that I am what I am, that I have what I have and that I am able to do what I am doing. What I have is not my own – the blessings I have are not mine to hold to tightly. I have been blessed for the purpose of blessing others, for the purpose of bringing what God has given me to others to spread His love and grace. I fear the moment I ever begin to forget that. Who am I to ever begin to think that what I have, that who I am, is mine by merit? That I deserve it? All I have, all I have been granted, is to give back to God for Him to give to others through me. As William Wilberforce said, riches are “the means of honoring our heavenly Benefactor, and lessening the miseries of mankind.” I pray I never forget this, that my politics, my personal life, every part of who I am, reflects this awareness that I am not my own and what I have is for God to use.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Living like Christ to reveal His Kingdom
Great reflection by Ravi Zacharias Ministries! Really shows the awesome privelege we have as Christ's followers to reveal more of His Kingdom everyday on this earth as we become more like Christ and live like Him. We can become representations right now of the Kingdom that is to come as we work for what Christ worked for. I pray that "Confessing Christ, we continue to be moved further into this good news even as we become representations of the very kingdom we proclaim."
"Relections of the Kingdom" - by Jill Carattini, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries
"You are the light of the world," said Jesus. But what on earth did he mean?
There is a certain quality within the mission of Jesus that he seems to expect his followers to duplicate. In the approach of Christ to the world, the implications of the Trinity are always at play. Where he says of himself, "those who have seen me have seen the Father," he says similarly of his disciples; we are to love one another "so that the world may believe" (John 14:9, 17:21). "As you sent me into the world," Jesus tells the Father, "So I have sent them into the world" (John 17:18). Evidently, conceding to the truth of Christ's identity is never a static decision, a confession that can be made only in private; it is one that immediately moves the conceder into new realms. "Do you love me?" Jesus asked of Peter. "Lord, you know that I love you." "Then feed my lambs" came the reply (cf. John 21:15-18).
Wherever claims are made of Christ, a community inherently follows. For the Christian, we are ushered into a kingdom with a vastly different order, with a vastly new authority. The private confession "Jesus is Lord" is simultaneously made into the communal confession—both in the sense that upon confessing we join in the proclamations of a great cloud of witnesses, but also in the sense that we are ushered into a missional community by design. "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify" (John 15:26). In other words, the universal invitation to believe the gospel is simultaneously an invitation to enter into the missional community and confession of the Trinity.
In this community, even what Christ calls us to claim about ourselves is far more than most feel comfortable claiming as true or real—or even possible—about themselves: You are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth. I am the vine and you are the branches. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. Yet it is specifically these claims that Christ makes on our very identities which compel us to become these people, to receive his words, and to make real the promises of the God we profess. Confessing Christ, we have entered a kingdom marked by nothing short of the reign of God among us. Confessing Christ, we continue to be moved further into this good news even as we become representations of the very kingdom we proclaim.
This identity, though it is Christ who clothes us, is not always an easy one to wear. As light that shines and branches that extend from the vine of Christ, we are ourselves to be the signs of God's reign on earth, working for peace and justice here and now, showing the world that the God of peace and justice is near and also coming. We are those who confess the reign of God is at hand and then work hands-on as a means of that confession. As one author notes, "By its very existence, then, the church brings what is hidden into view as a sign and into experience as a foretaste."(1) This is how we are able to be the light of the world; we are millions of mirrors reflecting the God of light.
Such reflection means there will be times when we ourselves are the light in the darkness, the hands that must deliver the cup of cold water or invite inside the one who has been deemed an outsider. There will also be times when our reflection of God's reign calls for something more of us: light that refuses to be hidden though it would be easier, hands that work in opposition to injustice, confessions that fall in opposition to the world, lives that challenge the very systems that foster oppression and counter the hope of God. The identity Christ has given us, like the identity of the kingdom he came to announce, precludes us from living as lone confessors, independent and unaffected by the cries of the world around us. Our mission to the world is our hope in action.
In a lecture on the nature of the church, given just a few years before he would stand in formal opposition to the Nazi influence on the church, Dietrich Bonhoeffer proclaimed: "No one can pray for the kingdom...who thinks up a kingdom for himself...who lives for his own worldview and knows a thousand programs and prescriptions by which he would like to cure the world..."(2) On the contrary, the kingdom we foster and for which we pray is one we profess with the whole of our lives because it is God who reigns within it. We are able to reflect the God of light amidst the troubling darkness of the world because the reign of God is real, because we could no sooner have invented this kingdom then we could have invented this God, and because we know of no other kingdom that is worth confessing. We are the light of the world because of this hope we are sure: The kingdom of God is near!
(1) George Hunsberger, "Called and Sent to represent the Reign of God," in Darrell Guder, ed., Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 102.
(2) Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Thy Kingdom Come: The Prayer of the Church for the Kingdom of God on Earth," in A Testament to Freedom: The Essential Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (New York: Harper Collins, 1995), 34.
"Relections of the Kingdom" - by Jill Carattini, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries
"You are the light of the world," said Jesus. But what on earth did he mean?
There is a certain quality within the mission of Jesus that he seems to expect his followers to duplicate. In the approach of Christ to the world, the implications of the Trinity are always at play. Where he says of himself, "those who have seen me have seen the Father," he says similarly of his disciples; we are to love one another "so that the world may believe" (John 14:9, 17:21). "As you sent me into the world," Jesus tells the Father, "So I have sent them into the world" (John 17:18). Evidently, conceding to the truth of Christ's identity is never a static decision, a confession that can be made only in private; it is one that immediately moves the conceder into new realms. "Do you love me?" Jesus asked of Peter. "Lord, you know that I love you." "Then feed my lambs" came the reply (cf. John 21:15-18).
Wherever claims are made of Christ, a community inherently follows. For the Christian, we are ushered into a kingdom with a vastly different order, with a vastly new authority. The private confession "Jesus is Lord" is simultaneously made into the communal confession—both in the sense that upon confessing we join in the proclamations of a great cloud of witnesses, but also in the sense that we are ushered into a missional community by design. "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify" (John 15:26). In other words, the universal invitation to believe the gospel is simultaneously an invitation to enter into the missional community and confession of the Trinity.
In this community, even what Christ calls us to claim about ourselves is far more than most feel comfortable claiming as true or real—or even possible—about themselves: You are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth. I am the vine and you are the branches. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. Yet it is specifically these claims that Christ makes on our very identities which compel us to become these people, to receive his words, and to make real the promises of the God we profess. Confessing Christ, we have entered a kingdom marked by nothing short of the reign of God among us. Confessing Christ, we continue to be moved further into this good news even as we become representations of the very kingdom we proclaim.
This identity, though it is Christ who clothes us, is not always an easy one to wear. As light that shines and branches that extend from the vine of Christ, we are ourselves to be the signs of God's reign on earth, working for peace and justice here and now, showing the world that the God of peace and justice is near and also coming. We are those who confess the reign of God is at hand and then work hands-on as a means of that confession. As one author notes, "By its very existence, then, the church brings what is hidden into view as a sign and into experience as a foretaste."(1) This is how we are able to be the light of the world; we are millions of mirrors reflecting the God of light.
Such reflection means there will be times when we ourselves are the light in the darkness, the hands that must deliver the cup of cold water or invite inside the one who has been deemed an outsider. There will also be times when our reflection of God's reign calls for something more of us: light that refuses to be hidden though it would be easier, hands that work in opposition to injustice, confessions that fall in opposition to the world, lives that challenge the very systems that foster oppression and counter the hope of God. The identity Christ has given us, like the identity of the kingdom he came to announce, precludes us from living as lone confessors, independent and unaffected by the cries of the world around us. Our mission to the world is our hope in action.
In a lecture on the nature of the church, given just a few years before he would stand in formal opposition to the Nazi influence on the church, Dietrich Bonhoeffer proclaimed: "No one can pray for the kingdom...who thinks up a kingdom for himself...who lives for his own worldview and knows a thousand programs and prescriptions by which he would like to cure the world..."(2) On the contrary, the kingdom we foster and for which we pray is one we profess with the whole of our lives because it is God who reigns within it. We are able to reflect the God of light amidst the troubling darkness of the world because the reign of God is real, because we could no sooner have invented this kingdom then we could have invented this God, and because we know of no other kingdom that is worth confessing. We are the light of the world because of this hope we are sure: The kingdom of God is near!
(1) George Hunsberger, "Called and Sent to represent the Reign of God," in Darrell Guder, ed., Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 102.
(2) Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Thy Kingdom Come: The Prayer of the Church for the Kingdom of God on Earth," in A Testament to Freedom: The Essential Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (New York: Harper Collins, 1995), 34.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
the Two Commandments of Jesus
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” - Mathew. 22:37-40
Jesus’ first and greatest commandment – to love God with our whole hearts – and then His second – to love our neighbors as ourselves – were never meant to be separated. As theologian Meredith Kline said, “The two commandments of Jesus do not distinguish two separable areas of human life but two complementary aspects of human responsibility…” Jesus made it clear through His teaching, and we see now clearly through His Scriptures, that the more we come to know and love Him, the more we should love others. Not separately, but one out of the other. The more we know the love of God, the more that love should be pouring out of us to others.
But how are we to love them? Not, as our modern Christian culture sometimes tells us, by preaching God’s love at them. No – we are called to love them like Christ. Because we are called to be like Christ, we are called to love others like him. “Why are we to love our neighbors? Because we love the God who loves them; and, according to the principle articulated in the Sabbath commandment (Exod. 20:11), the imperative to love God is also a demand to be like Him.” (Kline) We are called to become like Christ and love like He loved, with His love.
And what does that look like? Let’s look at His life: it looks like living out a love to powerful, so heartfelt, so compassionate that it draws people to you. It doesn’t look like preaching at people – it looks like showing God to people and then giving them a reason for your love when it stands out to them so much that they ask you about it. Christ never shied away from sharing Truth – but He lived in such a way that people actually asked to hear the Truth. It means we weep with those who are heartbroken; give to those that have none even, and especially, when we ourselves have none; we eat with those who are most hated and converse with those who could ruin our reputation even by our proximity to them; we do not follow religious tradition or what is culturally accepted but instead question the heart of the matter; we do not look at one as accepted and one as different (or one as American and another as immigrant…) but we look at all as children of God who deserve to be shown grace and pushed towards Something better. In John 4:4-26, Jesus talked to a Samaritan woman – a woman who, simply because she was a Samaritan (a group of people who were only half-Jew) was considered a foreigner and an outcast. She was a woman that no self-respecting man ever would have talked to at that time. Yet Christ approached her, asked her questions, spoke truth, and challenged her towards something better. He looked at her and saw a hurting child of God, and loved her. He saw no color, no race, no religion. He saw a woman created in God’s image and loved her with his actions.
Loving like Christ ultimately means we look to God’s Kingdom purposes and not our own – we love others more than ourselves and our own theology, our own purposes, our own political ideology, our own image. We die in humiliation, as Christ did, if that is what is required of us to accomplish God’s purposes; we love those who hate us to the point of heart-wrenching pain and cultural shame.
Out of God’s love, we are called to love others as He loved us.
Jesus’ first and greatest commandment – to love God with our whole hearts – and then His second – to love our neighbors as ourselves – were never meant to be separated. As theologian Meredith Kline said, “The two commandments of Jesus do not distinguish two separable areas of human life but two complementary aspects of human responsibility…” Jesus made it clear through His teaching, and we see now clearly through His Scriptures, that the more we come to know and love Him, the more we should love others. Not separately, but one out of the other. The more we know the love of God, the more that love should be pouring out of us to others.
But how are we to love them? Not, as our modern Christian culture sometimes tells us, by preaching God’s love at them. No – we are called to love them like Christ. Because we are called to be like Christ, we are called to love others like him. “Why are we to love our neighbors? Because we love the God who loves them; and, according to the principle articulated in the Sabbath commandment (Exod. 20:11), the imperative to love God is also a demand to be like Him.” (Kline) We are called to become like Christ and love like He loved, with His love.
And what does that look like? Let’s look at His life: it looks like living out a love to powerful, so heartfelt, so compassionate that it draws people to you. It doesn’t look like preaching at people – it looks like showing God to people and then giving them a reason for your love when it stands out to them so much that they ask you about it. Christ never shied away from sharing Truth – but He lived in such a way that people actually asked to hear the Truth. It means we weep with those who are heartbroken; give to those that have none even, and especially, when we ourselves have none; we eat with those who are most hated and converse with those who could ruin our reputation even by our proximity to them; we do not follow religious tradition or what is culturally accepted but instead question the heart of the matter; we do not look at one as accepted and one as different (or one as American and another as immigrant…) but we look at all as children of God who deserve to be shown grace and pushed towards Something better. In John 4:4-26, Jesus talked to a Samaritan woman – a woman who, simply because she was a Samaritan (a group of people who were only half-Jew) was considered a foreigner and an outcast. She was a woman that no self-respecting man ever would have talked to at that time. Yet Christ approached her, asked her questions, spoke truth, and challenged her towards something better. He looked at her and saw a hurting child of God, and loved her. He saw no color, no race, no religion. He saw a woman created in God’s image and loved her with his actions.
Loving like Christ ultimately means we look to God’s Kingdom purposes and not our own – we love others more than ourselves and our own theology, our own purposes, our own political ideology, our own image. We die in humiliation, as Christ did, if that is what is required of us to accomplish God’s purposes; we love those who hate us to the point of heart-wrenching pain and cultural shame.
Out of God’s love, we are called to love others as He loved us.
Monday, May 17, 2010
I am not my own...
"But by the grace of God I am what I am..." (1 Corinthians 15:10)
It is only by God's GRACE that I am what I am. It is by nothing I have done that I was born into a middle-class white family in America, that I was able to go to college, do prestigious internships, learn to read and write well, eat healthily enough every day to be able to focus and function in what I do, marry an amazing man who has a good job, etc. It is by the grace of God that I received all these things and am the woman I am. So why would I ever think that all those things are for me to take and use as I please? Why would I ever think that this life I have and all that I am able to is my own? I have done nothing to merit all of this - what I have merited is a life of pain and heartache, but by the grace of God in Christ I am saved from that, and for His purposes have been given all the aforementioned blessings. All that I am is His and all that I have is for Him. "You are not your own; you were bought at a price..." (1 Cor. 6:19-20) Therefore, why would I ever think that what I have is for me, to use for my purposes and as I please? I do not deserve what I have; it is by nothing I have done that I am here and not one of the girls born into a destitute family in India who could not afford to pay the bills so they sold her into sexual slavery. My heart hurts thinking of her. Why her and not me? The GRACE of God. I deserve nothing more than her. Who I am, what I have, is given by the grace of God in Christ for His purposes. I pray that my heart, that all of our heart's, would break all over again everyday for those who have been injured so much by the sin of this world, and that we would grow more and more convicted every day of the fact that we are what we are and we have what we have for the purpose of bringing God glory by bringing His grace to those who have not been blessed like we have. We are blessed for His purposes, to spread His grace.
God, show me everyday how to give all that I am to you. Show me how to give back all that you've given me, so that the pain of other's might be lessened by the blessings you have given me in Christ and by His grace lived out in my life.
It is only by God's GRACE that I am what I am. It is by nothing I have done that I was born into a middle-class white family in America, that I was able to go to college, do prestigious internships, learn to read and write well, eat healthily enough every day to be able to focus and function in what I do, marry an amazing man who has a good job, etc. It is by the grace of God that I received all these things and am the woman I am. So why would I ever think that all those things are for me to take and use as I please? Why would I ever think that this life I have and all that I am able to is my own? I have done nothing to merit all of this - what I have merited is a life of pain and heartache, but by the grace of God in Christ I am saved from that, and for His purposes have been given all the aforementioned blessings. All that I am is His and all that I have is for Him. "You are not your own; you were bought at a price..." (1 Cor. 6:19-20) Therefore, why would I ever think that what I have is for me, to use for my purposes and as I please? I do not deserve what I have; it is by nothing I have done that I am here and not one of the girls born into a destitute family in India who could not afford to pay the bills so they sold her into sexual slavery. My heart hurts thinking of her. Why her and not me? The GRACE of God. I deserve nothing more than her. Who I am, what I have, is given by the grace of God in Christ for His purposes. I pray that my heart, that all of our heart's, would break all over again everyday for those who have been injured so much by the sin of this world, and that we would grow more and more convicted every day of the fact that we are what we are and we have what we have for the purpose of bringing God glory by bringing His grace to those who have not been blessed like we have. We are blessed for His purposes, to spread His grace.
God, show me everyday how to give all that I am to you. Show me how to give back all that you've given me, so that the pain of other's might be lessened by the blessings you have given me in Christ and by His grace lived out in my life.
More than US
Something needs to change in our Christian culture today: examples in Isaiah and Amos show us that the more complacent, comfortable, and affluent God’s people were, the more they deviated from His Word and way of living. And this deviation led to God’s intense displeasure with them. Isaiah and Amos are just two of the many prophets that were sent to warn Israel to turn from her disastrous ways: stop living the way those around you are living, stop doing what you want, turn back to God’s way….
A common theme behind Israel’s sin throughout her history is selfishness. It is the same selfishness all mankind – yes, even (and some many say especially), the Church - struggles with today. It is our inherent selfish mindset that tells us we should do what we want, we deserve the best, that our first concern should be our happiness, our safety, our security.
But look at the prophets warning to Israel, and look at the culmination of God’s message in Christ: we are created to glorify Him above all else. We are created to be in relationship with Him and to live for Him. That means that our will, what we want, what we think we deserve, is not our focus. Christ’s message was one of God’s Kingdom coming onto this earth, of a new Way. He fulfilled everything the Old Testament spoke about and the prophets interceded for – He gave the opportunity to truly know God. And along with that, He showed what it looks like to live for God, to live as God desires us to live as His set apart people. Christ showed what it looks like to work for God’s redeeming Kingdom on this earth, and to live as the holy people He created us to be.
So then how should this practically look for us? I have come to realize maybe that means looking at life from Christ’s perspective, not mine. Maybe this means I am not the end, the center, the focus. I think it means that I am part of something so much bigger, so much more glorious than my selfish perspective originally told me…
Instead of seeing God has Someone who lives for our purposes, maybe we can get on our faces before Him as Moses did, aware of His glory and holiness and the fact that there is so much more He desires for my life and for this world than our selfish culture tells us.
Maybe my first thought in thinking about a government policy (possibly such as healthcare?…) shouldn’t be how it will affect me, but maybe it should be held up to the light of God’s Kingdom that He desires us to live under: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” (1 John 3:16-18) As His set apart people, we are called not to think of ourselves first, but of bringing Him glory by living differently – by living the way Christ showed us how to live.
Maybe instead of thinking of our own financial security or personal safety, we are called to GO. To DO what He has commanded, without fear or what the world will think or what the world can do to us. Does the beauty of my Savior and the glory of my God move me so beyond this world that I do not even think what twice about what it says I “should” do? The world says I deserve a nice house, a safe place to raise my children, a good job so I can live comfortably and be “responsible” with my finances. But what if there is MORE God desires for us as His people? “Go and make disciples of all nations…”(Matthew 28). In Isaiah 1 God says He is “weary” of the offerings of the Israelites, that they have become a “burden” to him. It is clear from Is.1 that the Israelites still observe the religious festivals and holy days God commanded them to observe, that they still bring Him offerings in His temple. Yet He says He is tired of their “vain offerings.” He then goes on to say that He will not hear their prayers, because their hands are full of blood, and commands them to “Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” (Is. 1:16-17) It is clear that, although still doing religious actions, the hearts of the Israelites were not in the right place. They were not truly loving God and living for Him. He says truly living rightly for Him would be to seek justice, correct oppression, plead the case of the fatherless and widow….Is there a similar pattern with the Church today? Do we observe the religious actions our culture tells us are “good,” and then not really live in all that God has for us? Do we do what benefits us, what is “good” for us, and miss out on truly living the Gospel the way Christ showed us we could live it? We need to question the world around us. What is our perspective? Why do we do the things we do? Are they religious actions that our culture tells us are right, but are in actuality self-satisfying and self-pleasing?
Christ showed us how in Him, we can be made new and join our God in the redemption of the world! That means so much more than living for ourselves, than living the way our religious culture often tells us we “deserve” to live. We can go higher, wider, deeper in the love of Christ to know Him and know what it looks like to join Him in working for the fatherless and oppressed, in working to bring His Kingdom onto this earth:
“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings…” (Phil. 3:10).
Do we really want to know Christ? There is such power in really knowing Him and in sharing in His resurrection and getting to fellowship with Him in sufferings – and He has given us an opportunity to truly know Him and fellowship with Him through living like Him! Are we living in that awesome reality, in the reality that there is more? It is not about us – it is about His glory, about living in the new Way He showed us in Christ, about living out the salvation we received in Him by bringing His Kingdom onto this earth everyday in how we live and breathe and move. We live for more. There is more He has for us than us.
A common theme behind Israel’s sin throughout her history is selfishness. It is the same selfishness all mankind – yes, even (and some many say especially), the Church - struggles with today. It is our inherent selfish mindset that tells us we should do what we want, we deserve the best, that our first concern should be our happiness, our safety, our security.
But look at the prophets warning to Israel, and look at the culmination of God’s message in Christ: we are created to glorify Him above all else. We are created to be in relationship with Him and to live for Him. That means that our will, what we want, what we think we deserve, is not our focus. Christ’s message was one of God’s Kingdom coming onto this earth, of a new Way. He fulfilled everything the Old Testament spoke about and the prophets interceded for – He gave the opportunity to truly know God. And along with that, He showed what it looks like to live for God, to live as God desires us to live as His set apart people. Christ showed what it looks like to work for God’s redeeming Kingdom on this earth, and to live as the holy people He created us to be.
So then how should this practically look for us? I have come to realize maybe that means looking at life from Christ’s perspective, not mine. Maybe this means I am not the end, the center, the focus. I think it means that I am part of something so much bigger, so much more glorious than my selfish perspective originally told me…
Instead of seeing God has Someone who lives for our purposes, maybe we can get on our faces before Him as Moses did, aware of His glory and holiness and the fact that there is so much more He desires for my life and for this world than our selfish culture tells us.
Maybe my first thought in thinking about a government policy (possibly such as healthcare?…) shouldn’t be how it will affect me, but maybe it should be held up to the light of God’s Kingdom that He desires us to live under: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” (1 John 3:16-18) As His set apart people, we are called not to think of ourselves first, but of bringing Him glory by living differently – by living the way Christ showed us how to live.
Maybe instead of thinking of our own financial security or personal safety, we are called to GO. To DO what He has commanded, without fear or what the world will think or what the world can do to us. Does the beauty of my Savior and the glory of my God move me so beyond this world that I do not even think what twice about what it says I “should” do? The world says I deserve a nice house, a safe place to raise my children, a good job so I can live comfortably and be “responsible” with my finances. But what if there is MORE God desires for us as His people? “Go and make disciples of all nations…”(Matthew 28). In Isaiah 1 God says He is “weary” of the offerings of the Israelites, that they have become a “burden” to him. It is clear from Is.1 that the Israelites still observe the religious festivals and holy days God commanded them to observe, that they still bring Him offerings in His temple. Yet He says He is tired of their “vain offerings.” He then goes on to say that He will not hear their prayers, because their hands are full of blood, and commands them to “Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” (Is. 1:16-17) It is clear that, although still doing religious actions, the hearts of the Israelites were not in the right place. They were not truly loving God and living for Him. He says truly living rightly for Him would be to seek justice, correct oppression, plead the case of the fatherless and widow….Is there a similar pattern with the Church today? Do we observe the religious actions our culture tells us are “good,” and then not really live in all that God has for us? Do we do what benefits us, what is “good” for us, and miss out on truly living the Gospel the way Christ showed us we could live it? We need to question the world around us. What is our perspective? Why do we do the things we do? Are they religious actions that our culture tells us are right, but are in actuality self-satisfying and self-pleasing?
Christ showed us how in Him, we can be made new and join our God in the redemption of the world! That means so much more than living for ourselves, than living the way our religious culture often tells us we “deserve” to live. We can go higher, wider, deeper in the love of Christ to know Him and know what it looks like to join Him in working for the fatherless and oppressed, in working to bring His Kingdom onto this earth:
“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings…” (Phil. 3:10).
Do we really want to know Christ? There is such power in really knowing Him and in sharing in His resurrection and getting to fellowship with Him in sufferings – and He has given us an opportunity to truly know Him and fellowship with Him through living like Him! Are we living in that awesome reality, in the reality that there is more? It is not about us – it is about His glory, about living in the new Way He showed us in Christ, about living out the salvation we received in Him by bringing His Kingdom onto this earth everyday in how we live and breathe and move. We live for more. There is more He has for us than us.
Believing in God's amazing grace
Why don't we live in the GRACE of Christ in our everyday lives? I think it's because the more we have, the easier it is to rely on those things - those material things that we can see and touch, rather than on the supernatural POWER of God that IS our's in Christ. God has promised that in Christ He will do more than we can ever ask or imagine....so why don't we ask?! We fall back on the money we have, on the material provisions we use every day, on the things we can see with our eyes that provide for us. We assume that there is no way to help that person, do that ministry, change hat situation, etc if there is no way that my material possessions will stretch that far. But God has promised us that in His grace, He can do so much more than the material world around us would allow. We need to live every day not based on what "practically" I can do, or what the world tells me is smart or wise, but on what the grace of GOD can do. What if we all lived like we really believed that living out the love of Christ could change things? What if I really believed that God will do more than I could ever do within my own abilities if I would just ask and believe? Christ's love is so powerful and so different - it changed the lives of all those He interacted with. What if we prayed to live in love like that, and then really lived that out? God's amazing love and supernatural grace can do more than we ever could with our finite abilities - we need to rely on those less, and on the POWER that comes with knowing and living in Christ. If it seems we don't have the money, the means, or the abilities to do what God has called us to do, then that doesn't mean He hasn't called us to do those things or to live the way He has told us to live - it just means we are called to believe in the supernatural grace and means of GOD more and our own practical means less. We live in an environment where we are able to rely on our practical means daily to survive - but we have been blessed to live in this environment not so that we would rely on it above God, but so that God can use these blessings through us to bless others and impact this world. We are called to give them up to Him so that He might use them in His amazing grace to do more than we could ever imagine - we are NOT called to replace God with them and rely on them to do God's work.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Lessons of the Outdoors
I love being outside. Something about it is magical, holy, - being in creation reminds me that this world is better than the movies and the media make it out to be, that there is still some beauty that we have not ruined.
I think I also love it because being outside reminds me that the world is so much bigger than me. It is enormous, a vast expanse that I cannot control and that will do what it was created to do whether I am there or not. The rocks will still be massive, the trees will still be moved by the wind, the flowers will still bloom, the grass will still whisper quietly…Being in creation reminds me that it is all not ultimately about me.
It is this perspective that helps me when I listen to reports about the healthcare situation. How did we get to the point where we think it is a valid argument to say that some people should not have even a basic level of coverage because the quality of our’s might decrease? What makes my life more important than my neighbor’s? How did this mindset become so pervasive? It is not ultimately about government control vs. my control, my personal finances, my ability to decide what I want – it is about human life. The message of our world that I am the most important has poisoned our thinking to the point that now we would deny mothers and their children even the most basic treatment simply so that I can have all that I “deserve.”
“Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” – Isaiah 1:17
If we all realized that there is more to this world than us, that we are held to a standard that calls us to take care of the poor, the widow, the fatherless, the child that can not care for himself – then I think we might think twice about arguing against providing for these people. There are some standards that apply to ALL of us – no matter our personal views, lifestyles, or callings.
Jesus tells his followers over and over in His Word that the way He would recognize if they truly know Him in their hearts is by the way they care for others. Matthew 25 makes it clear that if we truly know and love Jesus, we will love and care for the poor and the oppressed around us. In the book of James, the author says that pure religion is one that visits orphans and widows (James 1:27). Later on James says that if one truly has faith, good works will follow – and what is the first thing he lists as these good works that should follow faith? “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled.’ Without giving them the tings needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:15-17).
How can we say the politically correct, “War is bad, help the poor and needy, love everyone, etc…” and then in the next breath deny our neighbors even the most basic form of healthcare? The Church can be one of the most powerful tools in this world to bring Christ’s love and salvation to people – if the Church speaks up, the government will listen. Helping provide basic coverage to our brothers and sisters is a means to provide the “clothes and daily food” James is talking about! Spreading Christ’s message of salvation goes hand in hand with showing Jesus to those same people – telling them they should know Jesus while at the same time telling them they are not worth basic health coverage is blatantly contradictory and, really, not the true Gospel. We are called to live out the love of Christ, to show Jesus while we are preaching His name. Let’s examine our lives and make sure we are doing that in our every belief and action – are we truly living like we know this world is not all about us?
I think I also love it because being outside reminds me that the world is so much bigger than me. It is enormous, a vast expanse that I cannot control and that will do what it was created to do whether I am there or not. The rocks will still be massive, the trees will still be moved by the wind, the flowers will still bloom, the grass will still whisper quietly…Being in creation reminds me that it is all not ultimately about me.
It is this perspective that helps me when I listen to reports about the healthcare situation. How did we get to the point where we think it is a valid argument to say that some people should not have even a basic level of coverage because the quality of our’s might decrease? What makes my life more important than my neighbor’s? How did this mindset become so pervasive? It is not ultimately about government control vs. my control, my personal finances, my ability to decide what I want – it is about human life. The message of our world that I am the most important has poisoned our thinking to the point that now we would deny mothers and their children even the most basic treatment simply so that I can have all that I “deserve.”
“Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” – Isaiah 1:17
If we all realized that there is more to this world than us, that we are held to a standard that calls us to take care of the poor, the widow, the fatherless, the child that can not care for himself – then I think we might think twice about arguing against providing for these people. There are some standards that apply to ALL of us – no matter our personal views, lifestyles, or callings.
Jesus tells his followers over and over in His Word that the way He would recognize if they truly know Him in their hearts is by the way they care for others. Matthew 25 makes it clear that if we truly know and love Jesus, we will love and care for the poor and the oppressed around us. In the book of James, the author says that pure religion is one that visits orphans and widows (James 1:27). Later on James says that if one truly has faith, good works will follow – and what is the first thing he lists as these good works that should follow faith? “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled.’ Without giving them the tings needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:15-17).
How can we say the politically correct, “War is bad, help the poor and needy, love everyone, etc…” and then in the next breath deny our neighbors even the most basic form of healthcare? The Church can be one of the most powerful tools in this world to bring Christ’s love and salvation to people – if the Church speaks up, the government will listen. Helping provide basic coverage to our brothers and sisters is a means to provide the “clothes and daily food” James is talking about! Spreading Christ’s message of salvation goes hand in hand with showing Jesus to those same people – telling them they should know Jesus while at the same time telling them they are not worth basic health coverage is blatantly contradictory and, really, not the true Gospel. We are called to live out the love of Christ, to show Jesus while we are preaching His name. Let’s examine our lives and make sure we are doing that in our every belief and action – are we truly living like we know this world is not all about us?
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Prayer
I pray that this is my prayer every day when I wake up, and that it becomes the prayer of the Church around the world, so that we are constantly living in Christ's vision to love and redeem this world:
"Dear God, give me the courage to live and work for a new heaven and a new earth as Jesus did. Give me the freedom to be critical where I see evil and to offer praises where I see good. Most of all, make me faithful to the vision you have given me, so that wherever I go and whomever I meet, I can be a sign of your all-renewing love. Amen." - A prayer by Henri Nouwen
http://www.ijm.org/justicecampaigns
"Dear God, give me the courage to live and work for a new heaven and a new earth as Jesus did. Give me the freedom to be critical where I see evil and to offer praises where I see good. Most of all, make me faithful to the vision you have given me, so that wherever I go and whomever I meet, I can be a sign of your all-renewing love. Amen." - A prayer by Henri Nouwen
http://www.ijm.org/justicecampaigns
A really bad trend....
In an age where political correctness reigns, there is an important trend that must be noticed:
As the demand for “acceptance” has increased, actual compassion for people has decreased. Care, grace, and love for others has lessened in our modern world of simply “accepting” how people are and moving on without taking the time to find out who they are and why.
This ultimately stems from selfishness. Selfishness has exploded. We do not even notice it anymore – it is a permanent mindset that we must consciously fight if we are to see Reality. Our culture tells us we deserve whatever we can get, that this world exists to serve our purposes, that life really is all about me. Why shouldn’t I do what I want, take what I can get, assume that everything I have is mine?
But the reality is, in fact, that I am not the center of the universe. There is more to this life than me being happy, than the world running on my needs and desires, than me having and doing and being all that I want. My nature, my corrupt being that is exaggerated by this self-focused culture, tells me so strongly that this universe revolves around me that I find myself in a selfish state of mind constantly. My first thought after a friend tells me about something going on in her life is “How will this affect me?” My first thought after I read Scripture is “How does this help me?” My initial reaction even after a humanitarian event or human rights talk is “How will it look for me if I am involved in this?” Because of the work of our great God in my life, it now only takes me a couple seconds to catch myself and even less than that to be disgusted with myself.
Being married for the extremely extended period of one week has shown me this nasty part of my nature even more. I love my husband more than anyone else on this earth and it is through him that God has helped me see what selfless love looks like: I want to give up more of myself for him. I want to see him elevated above myself. I want him to have more than me, to live longer than me, to receive more praise than me (because he definitely deserves it!) I decided not to do a job that I’ve wanted to do for several years now so I can help him more with his job and just serve him better. I woke up at 6 AM this morning to go into his 5th grade classroom and help him put papers together for his students. I love doing his dishes, washing his clothes, and making him food. Things that I never thought I would want to do for someone, that are opposite of what my selfish nature tells me I should be doing - that are opposite of what my selfish nature tells me I deserve – I love doing. God has already used this marriage relationship in extraordinary ways to show me what it looks like to love someone more than myself.
Even in this relationship I have to fight against my natural instinct. My nature tells me I should have slept in, I should have done what I wanted to benefit my future career and my interests. But the Reality is that the more we focus on ourselves and the more we are motivated by selfish interests, the worse this world will become.
I think it is a pretty popular thing today to say “The world needs to change.” A lot of people, especially a lot of people in my generation, say that the world is not perfect and that a lot of things need to change. There are many people who have set out to “change the world,” myself being one of them. And it’s completely true: the world does need to change. But attempting to eradicate poverty, homelessness, disease, war, etc will not change the world. It might on the surface for a while, but the root causes of these evils will still be there, and will generate them again before long. It is humanity’s self-focused, hardened hearts that need to be changed. Until we are made aware of our selfish nature and are constantly fighting against it, the world will not change much. The politically correct position of acceptance will continue to grow and compassion for people will continue to decrease – even as humanitarian organizations grow and non-profit work continues to be the fad. As long as the mindset of self is taught, emphasized, and allowed in our culture and in our homes and in our classes, we will say we want to change the world and then in the next breath complain about how we need more money to live the lifestyle we feel we are entitled to. This is a disconnect that must be remedied.
Every day we must fight our natural instinct and tune out the voices around us that tell us to focus on the I, the we, and the me. Maybe we should question more what is right and normal. Maybe we should question what we deserve. Maybe we could not think we are entitled to every penny in this world. Maybe we could give more – maybe we could even give some money, time, and possessions that are “rightfully” ours. Maybe we could look at other people, no matter their race, gender, or economic situation, and consider that they deserve just as much as I do. Maybe I could actually change something about the way I live to better the life of someone else.
“…many who are first will be last, and the last first…” (Matthew 19:30). When Christ walked this earth, He introduced an “upside down kingdom” that messed with people’s heads – He challenged man’s inclination to help himself first, and even asserted that the actual Right way to live was to put all others before yourself. His message was one of service, grace, mercy, compassion, and selfless love – a message that He lived out with every part of His being when He put all of humanity first by giving His life for our’s on the Cross.
It is this selfless mindset we must seek after today. This nature of mercy and grace and peace must daily be put on and sought after as our first inclination, as our outlook on the world. When this is our view, when we are second and other’s first, when we know the love that Christ offers and are therefore able to offer it to the world – it is then that the world will truly be changed.
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” – John 3:30
“The world is overcome not through destruction, but through reconciliation. Not ideals, nor programs, nor conscience, nor duty, nor responsibility, nor virtue, but only God's perfect love can encounter reality and overcome it. Nor is it some universal idea of love, but rather the love of God in Jesus Christ, a love genuinely lived, that does this.”-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
As the demand for “acceptance” has increased, actual compassion for people has decreased. Care, grace, and love for others has lessened in our modern world of simply “accepting” how people are and moving on without taking the time to find out who they are and why.
This ultimately stems from selfishness. Selfishness has exploded. We do not even notice it anymore – it is a permanent mindset that we must consciously fight if we are to see Reality. Our culture tells us we deserve whatever we can get, that this world exists to serve our purposes, that life really is all about me. Why shouldn’t I do what I want, take what I can get, assume that everything I have is mine?
But the reality is, in fact, that I am not the center of the universe. There is more to this life than me being happy, than the world running on my needs and desires, than me having and doing and being all that I want. My nature, my corrupt being that is exaggerated by this self-focused culture, tells me so strongly that this universe revolves around me that I find myself in a selfish state of mind constantly. My first thought after a friend tells me about something going on in her life is “How will this affect me?” My first thought after I read Scripture is “How does this help me?” My initial reaction even after a humanitarian event or human rights talk is “How will it look for me if I am involved in this?” Because of the work of our great God in my life, it now only takes me a couple seconds to catch myself and even less than that to be disgusted with myself.
Being married for the extremely extended period of one week has shown me this nasty part of my nature even more. I love my husband more than anyone else on this earth and it is through him that God has helped me see what selfless love looks like: I want to give up more of myself for him. I want to see him elevated above myself. I want him to have more than me, to live longer than me, to receive more praise than me (because he definitely deserves it!) I decided not to do a job that I’ve wanted to do for several years now so I can help him more with his job and just serve him better. I woke up at 6 AM this morning to go into his 5th grade classroom and help him put papers together for his students. I love doing his dishes, washing his clothes, and making him food. Things that I never thought I would want to do for someone, that are opposite of what my selfish nature tells me I should be doing - that are opposite of what my selfish nature tells me I deserve – I love doing. God has already used this marriage relationship in extraordinary ways to show me what it looks like to love someone more than myself.
Even in this relationship I have to fight against my natural instinct. My nature tells me I should have slept in, I should have done what I wanted to benefit my future career and my interests. But the Reality is that the more we focus on ourselves and the more we are motivated by selfish interests, the worse this world will become.
I think it is a pretty popular thing today to say “The world needs to change.” A lot of people, especially a lot of people in my generation, say that the world is not perfect and that a lot of things need to change. There are many people who have set out to “change the world,” myself being one of them. And it’s completely true: the world does need to change. But attempting to eradicate poverty, homelessness, disease, war, etc will not change the world. It might on the surface for a while, but the root causes of these evils will still be there, and will generate them again before long. It is humanity’s self-focused, hardened hearts that need to be changed. Until we are made aware of our selfish nature and are constantly fighting against it, the world will not change much. The politically correct position of acceptance will continue to grow and compassion for people will continue to decrease – even as humanitarian organizations grow and non-profit work continues to be the fad. As long as the mindset of self is taught, emphasized, and allowed in our culture and in our homes and in our classes, we will say we want to change the world and then in the next breath complain about how we need more money to live the lifestyle we feel we are entitled to. This is a disconnect that must be remedied.
Every day we must fight our natural instinct and tune out the voices around us that tell us to focus on the I, the we, and the me. Maybe we should question more what is right and normal. Maybe we should question what we deserve. Maybe we could not think we are entitled to every penny in this world. Maybe we could give more – maybe we could even give some money, time, and possessions that are “rightfully” ours. Maybe we could look at other people, no matter their race, gender, or economic situation, and consider that they deserve just as much as I do. Maybe I could actually change something about the way I live to better the life of someone else.
“…many who are first will be last, and the last first…” (Matthew 19:30). When Christ walked this earth, He introduced an “upside down kingdom” that messed with people’s heads – He challenged man’s inclination to help himself first, and even asserted that the actual Right way to live was to put all others before yourself. His message was one of service, grace, mercy, compassion, and selfless love – a message that He lived out with every part of His being when He put all of humanity first by giving His life for our’s on the Cross.
It is this selfless mindset we must seek after today. This nature of mercy and grace and peace must daily be put on and sought after as our first inclination, as our outlook on the world. When this is our view, when we are second and other’s first, when we know the love that Christ offers and are therefore able to offer it to the world – it is then that the world will truly be changed.
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” – John 3:30
“The world is overcome not through destruction, but through reconciliation. Not ideals, nor programs, nor conscience, nor duty, nor responsibility, nor virtue, but only God's perfect love can encounter reality and overcome it. Nor is it some universal idea of love, but rather the love of God in Jesus Christ, a love genuinely lived, that does this.”-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Different
There are no words to describe the beauty, the holiness of marriage – the sacredness of knowing I am one with another person, that for the rest of our lives it is us together, living in God’s brilliant plan for this world.
What God has already reminded me of so much just through one week of marriage is that we are DIFFERENT. We are ALL meant to be different.
Just through one week of marriage God has shown me so much more of Himself and His incredibly massive vision for this world. It is grander than anything I could imagine, bigger than my little life. God, by His grace, wants to use Stephen and me to join this glorious adventure, this vision that has been the same since Adam and Moses and Esther – this vision to save the world. And it’s going to look so different - more amazing - than anything I could ever imagine.
The magic of being united with Stephen has helped me see that. I think our human habit is to fall into routine, into what it comfortable. It is to follow prototypes and examples of what is “right” that have been laid out before us by other “good” people. But there is no “prototype” for the unearthly, beautiful dreams of God. The heartbeat He is molding our hearts to feel is to a rhythm unlike any other. We are called to close our eyes and believe something bigger, something greater than we have ever seen before.
I completely believe that we should look to those that have gone before for wisdom and guidance. I believe wholeheartedly that there are some that are called to follow certain paths. But I have seen that taken to the extreme and abused, and have seen passionate, fiery people “calmed down” by the mold they were forced to fit. Get married, have kids, go to church, maybe work in youth ministry….none of these things are wrong, but if they are done simply because it is what is expected – because it is what is “good” and comfortable – and not because it is the calling of God to bring His glory and salvation into the world, then it is wrong. I believe there is more, there is something different and beautiful and fascinating that God has called each of us to that will blow our minds if we would believe that He wants to use us in this amazing huge vision. The girl crying in the brothel, the boy with no food, the parents who don’t talk anymore, the man in your office who gets quieter every day – God wants to change their lives with His love and make this world different and wants us to wake up everyday believing it can happen and believing that just like Moses, God desires us to stand up and declare FREEDOM for His people.
For some reason, God has given me a passion for government and the power it has to bring about real change if used in the right way. I have a deep interest in politics and advocacy and helping God’s people through these avenues. But I also love working with people, discussing theology, counseling others, and helping guide them to know more of God and His purposes. The past few years as I’ve been praying for God to show me His will for my life, I’ve though, because the world has told me, that I had to choose one path or the other, one passion or the other. But through my relationship with Stephen and God opening my eyes to more of His incredible, mind-blowing purpose for us in this world, I am realizing my life is supposed to look different. Just because I like working with kids, being around people, and having deep conversations doesn’t mean I have to have kids at age 23 and work with youth the rest of my life. I believe with my whole heart that God has given me a passion for government, advocacy, and political change for a reason. I believe He wants to use that just as much as He wants to use my love of people to change the world. But that doesn’t mean I can only work on Capitol Hill the rest of my life either – God is bigger than black and white, one or the other. And I believe He led me to a man who perfectly balances out the gifts He has given me with his own passions and talents – a man who perfectly completes the vision God has for us.
It’s scary because that vision is so beyond me. I can’t understand it and I don’t know how it will look. The path Steve and I are called to take is different. I am a political science major with a passion for politics who is working at a summer camp. I am married to a teacher who knows more about how to teach people than anyone I have ever met. We feel led to China, Scotland, the inner-city, the streets of Capitol Hill, the halls of nursing homes, churches, classrooms, seminaries…..
And all of it is for His glory – it is part of a wider, deeper, and more glorious picture than we will ever know. But we are called into it. We are not called to live our lives just for the sake of living them, or to fulfill a certain role or goal for ourselves. I am not called down a certain path because that is what I “should do” or because that is what makes the most sense or makes Stephen and I look the best. We are called to a higher way, a holy perspective. Everyone should look DIFFERENT. All of us should go down a path forged by a fiery passion for the vision of the redeeming love of Christ being brought onto this earth, a vision of His saving glory making this world the way God intended it to be before time began.
It is this vision that should drive us. It that leads us to a pretty normal looking life, then praise God – if the perspective is right then it is RIGHT. But nothing – nothing different or “normal” should be done with the motive of self, of comfort, of normalcy. We are called to empty ourselves, and we are called to this for a reason: the less we think of ourselves and the more we look to the throne room of God and desire His glory on this earth, the more we will pour out His love that is consuming fire, and the faster it will sweep over this pitiful, dying world. The more we desire His Way and keep the vision of Moses, Isaiah, and Paul, the vision that we are created for something more and live for something more – the vision that brings salvation – the more we let this be our perspective, the more we will look DIFFERENT. We can have PEACE in His greater plan, even though we may never see the whole picture ourselves. His love “surpasses knowledge” (Eph. 3:19), but we can LIVE it.
What God has already reminded me of so much just through one week of marriage is that we are DIFFERENT. We are ALL meant to be different.
Just through one week of marriage God has shown me so much more of Himself and His incredibly massive vision for this world. It is grander than anything I could imagine, bigger than my little life. God, by His grace, wants to use Stephen and me to join this glorious adventure, this vision that has been the same since Adam and Moses and Esther – this vision to save the world. And it’s going to look so different - more amazing - than anything I could ever imagine.
The magic of being united with Stephen has helped me see that. I think our human habit is to fall into routine, into what it comfortable. It is to follow prototypes and examples of what is “right” that have been laid out before us by other “good” people. But there is no “prototype” for the unearthly, beautiful dreams of God. The heartbeat He is molding our hearts to feel is to a rhythm unlike any other. We are called to close our eyes and believe something bigger, something greater than we have ever seen before.
I completely believe that we should look to those that have gone before for wisdom and guidance. I believe wholeheartedly that there are some that are called to follow certain paths. But I have seen that taken to the extreme and abused, and have seen passionate, fiery people “calmed down” by the mold they were forced to fit. Get married, have kids, go to church, maybe work in youth ministry….none of these things are wrong, but if they are done simply because it is what is expected – because it is what is “good” and comfortable – and not because it is the calling of God to bring His glory and salvation into the world, then it is wrong. I believe there is more, there is something different and beautiful and fascinating that God has called each of us to that will blow our minds if we would believe that He wants to use us in this amazing huge vision. The girl crying in the brothel, the boy with no food, the parents who don’t talk anymore, the man in your office who gets quieter every day – God wants to change their lives with His love and make this world different and wants us to wake up everyday believing it can happen and believing that just like Moses, God desires us to stand up and declare FREEDOM for His people.
For some reason, God has given me a passion for government and the power it has to bring about real change if used in the right way. I have a deep interest in politics and advocacy and helping God’s people through these avenues. But I also love working with people, discussing theology, counseling others, and helping guide them to know more of God and His purposes. The past few years as I’ve been praying for God to show me His will for my life, I’ve though, because the world has told me, that I had to choose one path or the other, one passion or the other. But through my relationship with Stephen and God opening my eyes to more of His incredible, mind-blowing purpose for us in this world, I am realizing my life is supposed to look different. Just because I like working with kids, being around people, and having deep conversations doesn’t mean I have to have kids at age 23 and work with youth the rest of my life. I believe with my whole heart that God has given me a passion for government, advocacy, and political change for a reason. I believe He wants to use that just as much as He wants to use my love of people to change the world. But that doesn’t mean I can only work on Capitol Hill the rest of my life either – God is bigger than black and white, one or the other. And I believe He led me to a man who perfectly balances out the gifts He has given me with his own passions and talents – a man who perfectly completes the vision God has for us.
It’s scary because that vision is so beyond me. I can’t understand it and I don’t know how it will look. The path Steve and I are called to take is different. I am a political science major with a passion for politics who is working at a summer camp. I am married to a teacher who knows more about how to teach people than anyone I have ever met. We feel led to China, Scotland, the inner-city, the streets of Capitol Hill, the halls of nursing homes, churches, classrooms, seminaries…..
And all of it is for His glory – it is part of a wider, deeper, and more glorious picture than we will ever know. But we are called into it. We are not called to live our lives just for the sake of living them, or to fulfill a certain role or goal for ourselves. I am not called down a certain path because that is what I “should do” or because that is what makes the most sense or makes Stephen and I look the best. We are called to a higher way, a holy perspective. Everyone should look DIFFERENT. All of us should go down a path forged by a fiery passion for the vision of the redeeming love of Christ being brought onto this earth, a vision of His saving glory making this world the way God intended it to be before time began.
It is this vision that should drive us. It that leads us to a pretty normal looking life, then praise God – if the perspective is right then it is RIGHT. But nothing – nothing different or “normal” should be done with the motive of self, of comfort, of normalcy. We are called to empty ourselves, and we are called to this for a reason: the less we think of ourselves and the more we look to the throne room of God and desire His glory on this earth, the more we will pour out His love that is consuming fire, and the faster it will sweep over this pitiful, dying world. The more we desire His Way and keep the vision of Moses, Isaiah, and Paul, the vision that we are created for something more and live for something more – the vision that brings salvation – the more we let this be our perspective, the more we will look DIFFERENT. We can have PEACE in His greater plan, even though we may never see the whole picture ourselves. His love “surpasses knowledge” (Eph. 3:19), but we can LIVE it.
Friday, January 22, 2010
less than a month...
So I’m getting married in less than a month – crazy! A lot of people have been asking me if I’m getting cold feet yet. If I’m nervous, scared, anxious. But it’s so different than that and it’s so hard to explain why. These last few months have actually been so GOOD. But not good because it’s fun or easy – good because this time is PREPARING me. Preparing me to be a WIFE. The more impatient I get, the more I am reminded of how crucial patience is in a marriage. The more annoyed I get at the little things, the more I am reminded of how essential grace will be in my marriage. The more I see how selflessly Stephen loves me, the more I realize how desperately I want to love him like that – every second of every day. So yes, I’m grateful for this time. Grateful that I have the time to be sanctified, to seek Christ every day and learn more every day how to be like Him. He has already changed me so much – I’m not doing the job or internship I’ve desired to do my whole life, because for the first time I’m beginning to want to serve someone else more than myself. I want to be there for Stephen more than I want to have my own career. Through Stephen, God is showing me how love works: loving someone more than yourself is so much BETTER. For the first time, I am not worried about the future, what exactly I’m going to do with my life and how I’m going to “change the world.” What God requires of me is to love Him with my whole heart, and then love others. And through my relationship with Stephen, He is teaching me to do that. And because I’m actually beginning to love someone more than myself, I’m so much more at PEACE – I know God will use the love, grace, and partnership Stephen and I share to do so much more in this world than my meager little plans could have ever done. It really is loving others that changes the world. And all we have to do is look to the cross, to the life and death of Christ to see what it looks like to truly love. And I’m so excited for God to continue to train my eyes to look to Him, so that in marriage I can be the best example of Christ’s love that Stephen will see on this earth.
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