Christianity

Epic Phone Fail

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For those of you who are unaware, my Samsung Strive phone has officially given up the ghost. It is no more. It has ceased to be (to borrow from an old Monty Python skit).

I’m reduced to using an old phone with only the numeric keypad. Texting is such a pain and several times I have thought very unbaptist thoughts while trying to text.

That said, if anyone would like to sell (or donate) me phones they aren’t using, that would be great. I will probably end up going the refurbished phone route to tide me over until I can switch to Verizon in July.

If that’s the worst problem I have, I’m doing good. So many others have it way worse than I do. So many others lost their homes and possessions and in some cases, the lives of friends and family members.

I can’t imagine that kind of loss. I can’t begin to empathize with these people. All I can do is pray for them. It sounds like my religious cop-out answer, but it’s the best that I can do.

I’m blessed. Even if I don’t have everything I want, I have everything I need. I may not be where I want to be or think I should be, but I’m exactly where God wants me to be and I’m exactly where God can step in and do amazing things in and around and through me.

I can survive with a lame phone. It may take me 5 minutes to text one simple sentence, but it can be done.

I love the image one pastor used. He said that if God showed him his box of blessings and told him it was empty because he had used up all those blessings, he would say back to God, “I’m good.”

If God never did one more thing for me other than save me from hell and place His stamp of love on me, then I’m good. I’m blessed.

How about you?

Ansel Adams and Mixed-Up Values

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I went to an estate sale today, which would make the second estate sale I’ve been to in my life. I got some really good deals, one on an Ansel Adams coffee-table book.

A guy there told me the story about a lady who knew Ansel Adams personally and had several of his original prints. She had a yard sale one time and sold several of them for practically nothing. She basically gave them away.

It would be easy to look down on someone who does something like that. But if I’m honest, I do that everyday. I treasure those things that won’t last and I treat as worthless those things that are priceless.

Culture does the same. We are told to spend our lives pursuing things. We are told our happiness depends on more stuff, on things like titles after your name and having your name on the right list. After all, haven’t you heard the refrain “He who dies with the most toys wins”?

At the same time, we see the sacred profaned and the priceless treated as worthless. Young girls are told their bodies are meant for sex and if they really love someone, they won’t deny him. Young boys are told that sex is an act, nothing more, with no consequences.

We are selling our God-given birthrights for cheap. We sacrifice our integrity, our beliefs, and our convictions for a promotion or a better job, for a relationship, for a bigger house or better car. This society doesn’t put much value in a human soul.

God says that you are priceless. As one of my favorite illustrations goes, if the God who made you could pick you up and turn you upside down to show you where He signed you, then you would know your true worth.

You are worth more than a career. Or a relationship. Or a house. Or a car. You are infinitely valuable because God made you with His own hands and then redeemed you with His own blood. He thought you were worth dying for. Literally.

Sometimes, I honestly have a hard time believing I have value or meaning. The voices in the dark whisper to me that the world would be better off without me and that no one needs or wants me.

But if I listen, the Voice of Truth tells me a different story. It says that God knows my name and loves me and has plans for me beyond my wildest imaginations or dreams.

I hope you will listen to that same Voice that says good things about you and calls you Beloved. The One who says you were worth every bit of shame and pain and scars and blood spent for you on the Cross.

Is Good Enough Really Good Enough?

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Tonight, I watched the movie Courageous. On a side note, I found it not to be a Christian movie with some good parts, but a good movie with a Christian message. We need more of these kind of movies out there.

But I digress.

One of the main characters said something to the effect of “I don’t want to just be a good enough father.”

We shouldn’t be just good enough fathers and mothers. We shouldn’t be just good enough brothers and sisters, or sons and daughters, or husbands and wives, or friends. Or anything.

More than anything, we shouldn’t strive to be just good enough to get by with God.

We should strive for excellence in everything.

We should seek to go the extra mile in serving and loving others.

We should turn the other cheek and not return hate with more hate, but with love.

We should make time for those people in our lives, no matter how inconvenient, to show them they matter not just in lip service, but in actions that speak louder than words.

It’s easy to settle for second-rate and coast. I’ve done that too many times.

But did Jesus only do good enough to secure our salvation? Did he halfway seek to win our hearts?

I’m not saying if we do more and work harder, God will love us more.

I am saying that if we are truly living out of the freedom of being forgiven and we are truly grateful, our lives will show it. If we live in complete dependence on the power of the resurrected Jesus, we won’t be half-hearted anymore. We will be all in.

I don’t want to just be good enough anymore. Do you?

Living Sermons: Thoughts from Tonight’s Kairos Roots

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Something Aaron Bryant said really hit home with me today in a way few things have lately.

He said that we as believers could be the only sermons some people will ever hear.

Many people who will never step foot inside a chuch building are watching you and me. They are listening as we talk about our faith and how much we love the worship services and sermons we participate in each week.

But what speaks loudest of all is how we live. How we respond to bad days and failure and criticism. How we react when people yell at us or berate us or make fun of us and our beliefs.

When they see us not chasing after the next new big fad or product, they notice. They might think something like, “This is a person just like me who’s not captive to making the same bad choices I always seem to make. There’s something different about her (or him).”

When you exhibit contentment in Christ, it’s hard to miss. When you can be at peace in the middle of the chaos of a hectic day, it’s hard to miss. When you forgive after being hurt, they see Jesus in the flesh, your flesh, as He really is, full of love and grace and mercy.

You are preaching something every single day. How you live either glorifies you or God. How you treat others around you will influence how they see the God you profess to serve.

It’s not about being perfect and always acting out of love and never slipping up and giving in to anger. It’s about being able to ‘fess up when you mess up. It’s about being able to say the words, “I’m sorry. I was wrong. What I said (or did) didn’t reflect what I believe. Will you forgive me?”

So preach love. Not the touchy-feely sentimental much that passes for love these days, but the “get your hands and feet dirty” kind of love. The unconditional agape love that only can come from God, not from us.

Preach grace. Preach forgiveness. Preach not rules and regulations, but a better way to live.

St. Francis said it best (or at least this quote is always attributed to him, so that’s close enough for me): “Preach the Gospel at all times and, if necessary, use words.”

If you live Jesus on a daily basis, when the time comes, you will have an open door to share Jesus to a willing audience.

2012: The Leap Year

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Today is February 29, 2012, leap year day. Or for me, My Birthday: Part II. It’s a strange day that only comes once every four years and no one is sure what to do with it.

I know on February 29, it is supposedly acceptable for a girl to propose to a guy and if the guy refuses, he has to give her a dollar or 12 socks or something like that.

Maybe this is the day you will set your mind to take that leap of faith. Kinda like Indiana Jones in the Last Crusade movie.

What will that leap of faith look like?

Will it be you quitting your comfortable and safe and cushy job to take go on the mission field to a place where the gospel has never gone before?

Will it be you stepping out of your comfort zone and volunteering at a local mission that serves the homeless?

Will it be you walking across the room and speaking to that person no one else wants to acknowledge, much less befriend?

Will it be extending forgiveness to the person who hurt you, even if that person doesn’t apologize?

Will it be choosing to live each day in radical dependence on and obedience to Jesus, even if it means stepping away from the in-crowd and walking alone?

Will it be saying no to the so-called American Dream and to the pressure that for you to be happy you need to buy this one thing more? That you will be radically counter-cultural and say, “No thanks, I have enough. I’m good”?

I believe God is calling you and I to take a real leap of faith this year. It may look different for you than it does for me, but it requires the same faith in the same God that your foot will find a firm foundation when it lands.

Let 2012 be the Leap of Faith year and watch how God honors and rewards your stepping out in obedience.

Feelin’ the Love

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I know Facebook can at times be a complete waste of time. I myself have spent too much time in the past growing virtual crops and selling virtual pigs and cows for (unfortunately) virtual profit. But on my birthday, Facebook shows its usefulness. I love each and every time I get a post wishing me a happy birthday. Every one makes me smile and makes my day.

Tonight, at Chick-fil-A, my birthday cake was a brownie with a lit match stuck in it. I loved it. I was feeling the love.

But what about all those facebook friends who didn’t send me birthday greetings? What about all those people out there who aren’t as easy to love? Those who are too broken to love back at all?

If you only are friends with those who friend you back, that’s expected. If you only love those who love you back, there’s nothing special about that. Even those who believe in nothing do that.

But when you love the unloveable, the unloved, and the loveless, you show yourself to be a true follower of Jesus. When you are friends with those people who are outcasts and uncool and misfits, you are loving with the love of Jesus.

When a husband loves his wife because she loves him back or when a friend loves another friend because of what the second friend does for the first, that’s not really love. That’s a contract. You do for me, I do for you. Love is a covenant.

Jesus loved us when we were outcasts, strangers from the Promise, without hope, alienated from God, and broken beyond repair. He didn’t wait until we loved him to love us; He loved us first. He showed us that His love was strong enough to take the most broken parts and make even those whole again.

We really and truly love not when we love out of a need to be loved or recognized. but when we are complete in Christ and filled with His love and that love spills out onto those around us. We really and truly love when our love isn’t feeling or wishing, but acting for the better of the other. When we do everything in our power, regardless of cost, to help the other person be all that Jesus meant for them to be.

I want to love like that. I hope and pray you do, too. I hope we move beyond love as a feeling and choose to love every day, whether we feel like it or not.

By the way, thanks for all the birthday love. If I knew it would be like this, I’d turn 40 every day.

My Faux Oscar Acceptance Speech

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First of all, I really thought Viola Davis should have won the Best Actress Oscar. No, I haven’t seen The Iron Lady, but I can’t imagine any performance being more pitch-perfect and soul-moving than her work in The Help. Even Meryl Streep’s.

On the last day of me being 39, I came up with an acceptance speench on surviving 40 years with all my hair and most of my sanity intact.

Thank you to my family for being awesome. Thanks to my mother, without whom I wouldn’t be here. Literally. And to my dad, who had his share in the blessed event. 50% to be exact. I will never be able in a million years to repay the debt I owe them.

Ditto for my sister and brother-in-law, two nephews and niece. I love you guys and I can’t wait to have you be a part of my birthday celebrations!

Thank you to my friends who have shown me what real grace looks like and have been Jesus to me countless times. You’ve seen my worst and believed the best for me and about me. I am a composite of what I have seen and learned and imitated in you.

Thank you to all the great artists who make up the soundtrack of my life. Life without music would still be worth living, but barely. Ditto for movies and really good books.

Thank you to all the animals I’ve grown up with. All the dogs, cats, and even the parakeet. I still miss you, Sammy. Currently, my cat Lucy has the disctinction of being my best birthday present ever 12 years running.

Thank you, Jesus. You are not just Savior and not just Lord. You are my Life, my Oxygen, my Strength, my Joy, my Salvation and my Song I will sing every day of my life until the day I die (and then I will keep singing it every day after that).

I am still Abba’s child and He is still very fond of me and I will never stop proclaiming to the world that Jesus can take anyone at any point, no matter how far they’ve fallen or how profoundly they’re broken, and make them shine and make them radiant and beautiful trophies of the grace of God.

Thanks in advance for all my birthday wishes. I do read each and every one and they all mean the world to me.

Thanks for reading this little blog by this guy who is way more blessed than he deserves. This Ragamuffin who is still trying to tell other beggars where to find the Bread of Life.

Wisdom Gained from My Gaming Days

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Yeah, I’ve done my share of PC gaming in my time. Not recently, but I have spent time in front of the old PC in the non-productive world of playing video games.

My favorite is still Wolfenstein. It’s an old-school first-person shooter where you have to escape by killing a bunch of Nazis. It was a great stress reliever and a great way to take my mind off real life for a while.

I confess that I figured out a way to cheat the game and give me unlimited life and ammo. I made it through the entire game, but somehow the thrill was lessened by the knowledge that I was guaranteed not to lose or be killed by Nazis.

Life is that way, too.

Many times, we play only when we know we will win. We only place safe bets. In a world where winning is everything and failure is anathema, we want to be assured of guaranteed success before we even start.

But, as I have come to learn, true success can only come when failure is a very real possibility. You can’t ever really win if you were never in danger of losing.

Some of life’s greatest lessons come through losing and spiritual growth and change come many times through failure and the refusal to let that failure be final in your life.

I have played it safe for too long. I haven’t taken risks and I have had chances I didn’t take because my fear of failure was bigger than my faith.

Success isn’t the best thing. I think stepping out in faith is, even if you fall. The real victory is taking that first step into the unknown without any assurances that the ground will hold you up. It’s the willingness to keep taking that first step after so many times of falling down and failing.

Success is knowing that God is on your side, knowing that He won’t ever leave or forsake you, knowing that He who began a good work in you will complete it in Jesus.

I think it’s high time I took that first step . . .

Sacred Places

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I have one of those sacred places I love to go every once in a while.

Whenever I’m in downtown Franklin. there’s an old church I love to step inside and just walk the creaky floorboards and take in the history of the place.

It feels more sacred to me than a lot of places because so many people have expressed devotions of faith and worship there over the years. You can almost feel the ghosts of old saints still lingering about the place.

I think everyone needs that special place where they can commune with God. Some place private where only God and they can go, where the world must stay outside until you both are done.

I have a quiet corner of the couch in the mornings where I sleep. . . I mean, pray very intently and where my cat crawls up in my lap and prays, too. Probably for me to include more tuna in her diet.

The sacred places are the places you can’t wat to get to, the ones where you long for after a long, hard day. Sometimes, before the day you know will be long and hard is about to start.

Obviously, the most sacred place of all is the human heart where the Spirit of God dwells. If you are in Christ, then wherever you are is where God is and that place you are standing is holy ground. Kinda makes you think twice about where you go and what you do, doesn’t it?

If you only get one thing out of this little blog, it’s this. Your Heavenly Father desires to spend time with you. Your spending time with Him is not a have-to, something you do and check off your list, but a get-to, a privilege, and a blessing.

Your desire to be more like Jesus and to be fully mature in the faith will only ever be as strong as your desire to spend time daily with Jesus, getting to know Him and His heart for the world.

As my blogger friend always says at the end of hs blogs, “You think about that.”

A Vacation From My Problems

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 2 Comments

I’ve come up with a revolutionary new way to take a vacation. It goes like this:

1) You don’t show up for work. If you’re working, it’s not a vacation.

2) You stay home. You don’t spend insane amounts of money on plane tickets or gas or hotel rooms or any of that rubbish. You stay home, sleep late, go wherever you want, whenever you want.

I’m thinking of calling it a stay-cation. Catchy, eh? It’ll be the next big catch-phrase that all the hip young kids will be dropping in their sentences from now on.

The best kind of vacations are the free ones anyway.

The best kind of vacations are the ones where you get a break from everything that wears you out and holds you down. Like fear or doubt or worry. Like concerns about the future or haunting memories of the past.

I have a fantastic vacation package deal for you.

Tomorrow is the start of your vacation. Whatever is in your past is past. Whatever fears controlled you yesterday can’t touch you today. Whatever doubts you had are losing their hold on you.

Jesus promised that for those who believed that perfect love would cast out fear. He promised that to those who love Him He would work everything out for the good. He promised that every morning His mercies are new and His faithfulness is still great.

Your vacation is a clean slate. It’s freedom from the burden of trying to undo all you did wrong yesterday. It’s liberty to live today with no baggage.

Your vacation is a chance to be whatever Jesus wants to you be, to go wherever He leads, and to serve Him in the faces of every one you meet. It’s an opportunity to be blessed in giving yourself away, to find that you are now a conduit of blessing to others.

Your vacation starts at 12:01 am.

P.S. You still have consequences from past decisions and troubles to come, but you’re not held captive to them anymore. You’re free to face them as a blood-bought redeemed child of the King. You’re free in the knowledge that ultimate victory is yours. Just thought I’d add that in there for clarification.

As always, thanks for your  comments, especially the ones that point out to me my blind spots. It’s always good to get a new and fresh perspective on things every now and then.