faith

We Can Be Heroes

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“Everyday a champion dies. We only hear about the popular entertainers.” A friend of mine posted that comment on one of my posts about how many celebrities we’ve lost so far in 2016.

It does seem to me that a disproportionate number of famous people have died this year as compared with previous years. It also seems like just as we’re getting over the shock of losing one, another passes away.

But think of this. Every single day, unsung heroes pass into eternity. They may not have sold millions of records or grossed billions of dollars on box office receipts. They may not be household names or have instantly recognizable faces. Still, their names are in the lamb’s book of life and their faces reflect the glory of God.

They are mother and fathers. They are grandmothers and grandfathers. They are Sunday School teachers. They are Scout troop leaders. They can be next-door neighbors.

They are the ones quietly influencing the world around them and changing the lives of those they encounter. They are the ones who live out the gospel daily with words and deeds.

They are the ones whose life and deeds will most likely go largely unnoticed by the world but who will receive the best accolade of all with the words “Well gone, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Master.”

They are the ones whom future generations will rise up and call blessed. They are the ones whose legacy of faithfulness will live on long after they and their names have been forgotten.

I’ve known a few of these that have profoundly impacted who I am today. I can recall a grandmother, a piano teacher, a few Sunday School teachers, and so many more who have gone from this world but who still live on in the lives they radically influenced.

I truly believe that ultimately the real heroes aren’t the ones making music and movies or writing books. They are the ones who are faithful with what they’ve been given where they’ve been planted with the people God has entrusted to them.

Those are the real heroes.

 

Darkness Defeated

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I used to be absolutely terrified of the dark. As a child, I suffered though nightmares and anxiety and phobias, all associated with darkness. I even dreaded going to sleep at night because of my fears.

Eventually, I overcame those fears through the normal process of growing up. That and I would cram every stuffed animal I owned in the bed with me when I went to bed at night.

Lately it occurred to me that if a single candle can dispel all the darkness in any given room, then darkness is revealed to be powerless and impotent.

Jesus stated that He is the light of the world. He has already overcome darkness and everything associated with it. In fact, He has already overcome anything we could ever possibly be afraid of.

That’s a very comforting notion in a world where anxieties run rampant and fear rules the major part of the lives of the majority. In fact, both the news and social media are driven by fear.

Fear has no place in God’s economy. Perfect love casts out fear. The more one truly knows and understands how much he or she is loved, the less place there is for fear, because love and fear cannot co-exist within the same human heart. One displaces the other.

The ultimate destiny of darkness is defeat. There is no scenario where darkness ultimately overcomes the light. The only way darkness wins at all is in the absolute absence of light. The only way evil wins in this world is when good stays silent and hidden.

The final victory of light over dark is found in heaven where there is no need of sun or moon or stars, because Jesus is the light there. There is no more night or darkness or shadows because there is no place where the light is not present.

Here, we are the light of the world. May we not only find deliverance from our own anxieties about darkness but be instrumental in helping others overcome as well.

 

 

Everyone’s Welcome

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Have you ever been around a group of people and felt alone? Have you ever been in the middle of a group discussion where they included everyone but you?

The kingdom of God is for you.

Have you ever had a conversation with someone else which abruptly ended after they decided you weren’t interesting enough to keep talking to? Have you ever felt categorized and labeled and made to feel less than adequate?

The kingdom of God is for you.

I still love that Jesus chose shepherds and fishermen and tax-collectors and prostitutes to be His followers. He invited the outcasts and outsiders to be His disciples and entrusted them with the greatest work the world has ever known.

The kingdom is a party where everyone’s welcome. There’s no height limit, no age limit, no intelligence quota, no hip factor. All that is required is that you come as you are and admit that you need help. The one stipulation is that you confess that you can’t fix what’s wrong with you and only Jesus can.

It really is a shame that in so many churches so many believers who profess this Jesus will practice the opposite of what He preached. They preach grace but what they practice is a set of unwritten rules to follow if you want to belong and fit in.

Being made in the image of God gives a person dignity. The fact that Jesus died for that person is more than enough to validate their value and worth. Who are we to belittle those Jesus loved enough to suffer the cross for?

This coming Sunday, let’s go out of our way to welcome those outsiders and misfits in the same spirit which Jesus pursued us when we were outsiders and strangers. Let’s choose to be vessels that the transformative love of Jesus can flow through.

 

From Hostility to Hospitality

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“He is the embodiment of our peace, sent once and for all to take down the great barrier of hatred and hostility that has divided us so that we can be one. He offered His body on the sacrificial altar to bring an end to the law’s ordinances and dictations that separated Jews from the outside nations. His desire was to create in His body one new humanity from the two opposing groups, thus creating peace. Effectively the cross becomes God’s means to kill off the hostility once and for all so that He is able to reconcile them both to God in this one new body” (Ephesians 2:14-16, The Voice).

Chris Brooks brought another fantastic message to Kairos tonight that I much needed to hear. It was rooted in Ephesians 2:11-21 about how we were once hostile to God and everything He stood for, but through Christ we have been reconciled and brought into right relationship with God.

His mantra throughout the last few weeks has been “And you . . . but God . . . all grace.” As in and you were lost and far from the promise, but God made you alive and redeemed a sinner into a son and now your life is all grace.

He said something again that struck me. He said that maybe those Muslims that we keep hearing about aren’t the greatest threat to Christianity, but it’s greatest prize. Maybe what they need to see is not our retaliation with further hostility but our hospitality in welcoming them with the gospel message the way God once welcomed us through that same message.

Only through Christ can an enemy truly be transformed into a friend and a stranger become a brother. Only through the grace and mercy of God can so many different kinds of people previously estranged from each other be invited to the same table to sit together and enjoy each other’s company.

So many times churches and communities of faith have looked like people encircled with arms locked, facing inward and more determined to keep the wrong people out than to let the right ones in.

The true gospel of Jesus Christ calls us to stand outward with arms not locked but outstretched in welcoming those who feel disenfranchised and alienated from every other group to come sit at the table of fellowship. We offer the same Christ to others who brought us along from citizenship to family to living stones in the temple of God.

I love that the gospel of grace is still for those who don’t quite fit in and don’t have their acts together. The message of hope is still for those who continually mess up socially and financially and in every other way possible. The truth that still sets us free is still for the outcast and downtrodden and used-up and for those who are still in bondage to the lies and addictions that were sold under the guise of liberation.

The gospel is still for you and me. The gospel is for everyone.

 

Back to Radnor

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Sometimes, you just need to get back to nature. There’s an almost irresistible urge to get away from everything mechanized and electronic and just commune with God’s creation.

For me, that was the urge and Radnor Lake State Park was once again the place to go to  satisfy that craving. It had been far too long since the last time I actually hiked there.

Almost immediately, I felt my blood pressure lowering and my anxiety levels bottoming out. Not that I was overly stressed, but any normal working day carries with it some amount of stress and worry.

I read somewhere that if you have trouble sleeping, the best way to reset your internal clock is to spend a week away from everything electronic and digital. For most of us, that’s not exactly the most practical solution.

I do think that even an hour or two can be beneficial to resetting your mental calm. You can actually hear yourself think. Life slows down for that brief period of time. Everything that seemed so pressing and urgent fades into the background for a little while.

I love it. I don’t know why I don’t go there more often.

The extra added benefit is that I got at least half of my 10,000 steps there. I walked until I was weary. But it was a good kind of weary that usually leads to a good night’s sleep.

Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn’t be better to live that way all the time. You hear all the time that the best nutrition is to eat foods as close to the way God made them as possible. I wonder if we could learn to live as close to nature as possible if we wouldn’t be healthier– and not just physically, but mentally and emotionally as well.

Anyway, I recommend Radnor Lake if you’re ever in the area. It’s good for your soul.

 

The Lost Art of Face-to-Face Conversations

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I have a list of memories of events that fundamentally changed the core of who I am today. Almost all of them involve conversations where I looked the other person or persons in the eye. Almost none of them involve staring at a text or post on a screen.

There is so much healing and release that happens when you’re able to look into someone’s eyes and find true acceptance there. There’s truly something transcendent that takes place when you’re able to hear the words and read the facial expressions and catch the totality of what’s being communicated.

Yet these days I see a lot of heads constantly buried in smart phones and other devices. Even those sitting across from each other literally within touching distance will choose to communicate via text.

The upcoming generations are probably more advanced when it comes to texting and posting yet almost completely inadequate when it comes to actual social interaction. That’s sad.

I am most certainly not against social media or smart phones. I have both. I am against them when they entirely replace the old-fashioned conversation.

As a pastor that I greatly admire once said, God didn’t see our dire need of salvation and send a text. He didn’t look at our predicament and tag us in a social media post. He sent a person. He took on flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood and met our greatest needs face to face. Because that and that only is where healing and forgiveness and restoration can take place.

It’s ironic that in the present age where we are more connected than ever that so many feel cut off and neglected. So many feel ignored and unwanted. As Mother Teresa once said, the greatest poverty is that of not feeling wanted by anyone.

The cure isn’t more connectivity but community. It’s not in having more Facebook friends but in cultivating the few real ones you have. It isn’t tagging more people in your posts but being more intentional about including them in your schedule for those face-to-face conversations.

That’s still what we need most.

 

Nothing on a Saturday 

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I’m sitting on the couch with a very sleepy feline in my lap. A very sleepy elderly cat, to be more specific. She’s 16 and she can nap with the best of them.

That’s as deep as I get right at the moment. I’m trying to appreciate the moments for what they are without over analyzing them. I’m attempting to enjoy and appreciate the here and now, free from too much introspection over what might have been or what could yet be. 

I see that the best moments of your life will often not seem like much when they’re in the midst of happening. It’s only later, in hindsight, that you see how special they were.

So I’m treasuring these quiet moments as often as I can get them. I know they won’t last forever.

Thank you, God, for sleepy cats and comfortable couches and lasting memories. How could I ask for more?

That’s the Gospel

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“”The One we preach is not Christ-in-a-vacuum, nor a mystical Christ unrelated to the real world, nor even only the Jesus of ancient history, but rather the contemporary Christ who once lived and died, and now lives to meet human need in all its variety today. To encounter Christ is to touch reality and experience transcendence. He gives us a sense of self-worth or personal significance, because he assures us of God’s love for us. He sets us free from guilt because he died for us, from the prison of our own self-centredness by the power of his resurrection, and from paralysing fear because he reigns, all the principalities and powers of evil having been put under his feet. He gives meaning to marriage and home, work and leisure, personhood and citizenship. He introduces us into his new community, the new humanity he is creating. He challenges us to go out into some segment of the world which does not acknowledge him, there to give ourselves in witness and service for him. He promises us that history is neither meaningless nor endless, for one day he will return to terminate it, to destroy death and to usher in the new universe of righteousness and peace” (John Stott).

First, the gospel is bad news. We’re all messed-up sinners in dire need of redemption. Then it is good news. God took on human form and became one of us to rescue us from our sin and ourselves. Then it is the best news ever. We not only get the penalty for all those sins paid for, but we get the blessings and benefits of Christ plus eternal life.

For it to be the true gospel, it has to tell the whole story. Not just the pretty or politically correct parts. It needs all of it. Any other gospel is really no gospel at all with no hope and no redemption.

After all, it’s the true gospel alone that still brings salvation.

 

 

Mystery in the Journey

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The older I get, the less I’m sure about. The more I realize that there’s so much that I don’t know and probably never will.

The older I get, the more I believe God is calling me to trust in spite of the mystery of my life– or maybe because of it. After all, faith is trusting what we can’t see or feel or touch or taste with our physical senses. Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to.

I do believe rest comes from cessation of striving after knowing all the answers. Tranquility comes with making peace with unanswered questions and unfulfilled longings. Peace comes when you and I finally understand that God doesn’t give answers as much as He gives Himself and He doesn’t grant our desires as much as He gradually becomes the greatest desire of our hearts.

So I trust in God in the midst of the unknown when there’s so much that doesn’t make sense. I cling to the Promises when I can’t see beyond the next 24 hours what my life will look like.

And that to me is the most restful place to be.

 

Down from the Mountain

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“You see, all have sinned, and all their futile attempts to reach God in His glory fail. Yet they are now saved and set right by His free gift of grace through the redemption available only in Jesus the Anointed” (Romans 3:23-24, VOICE).

So many see Christianity as another option, just one road among the many that lead up the mountain to God. They say that all paths get to the destination but in different ways.

How about this? There may be several roads that lead up that mountain, but none of us will get to God that way. None of us are strong enough or brave enough or stedfast enough to make it all the way up.

How about this? God didn’t wait patiently for someone to find a way up to Him. He came down from the mountain to us to help us get to Him. He didn’t merely show the way or even offer to walk before us up the path. He became the way.

Jesus is our way up the mountain. Not by chanting and meditation. Not by praying five times a day. Not by sin management and moralism. Not by keeping a set of rule. Not by any amount of sacrifices or religious rites.

How then?

By simply believing that Jesus is Who He says He is and He did what He set out to do. It’s by trusting that Jesus took on our imperfections and sins and failures and death, instead giving us perfection and righteousness and new life.

If it had been up to me and my own efforts, I’d still be at the foot of the mountain looking up in despair. But thanks to God, I’m on my way up and guaranteed to reach the top. And my victory song will be that Jesus led me all the way there.