brant-hansen

More About Humility

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“Humility is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing done to us, to feel nothing against us. It is to be at rest when nobody praises us and when we are blamed and despised. It is to have a blessed home in the Lord where we can go in and shut the door and kneel to our Father in secret, and be at peace when all around is trouble” (Andrew Murray).

I still think a lot about a book I read a couple of years ago called Unoffendable by Brant Hansen. It completely blew me away and forever changed my perspective on believers and anger. Basically, we should be the least offendable people on the planet because we know what grace looks like and what we were without it. We know that apart from grace, there is nothing too base for us to fall into.

Again, humility isn’t thinking less of yourself but thinking about yourself less. It’s to take all the frustration and anger to the Lord in secet and leave it there, knowing that ultimate vengeance is in God’s hands not mine. It’s to be at peace and not get caught up in the perpetual turmoil and anxiety that marks the waking life of most of the world’s population.

Humility is to see ourselves the way God sees us through the lens of seeing God as He is. Once we understand that the world does not in fact revolve around us, we see that God’s plans are so much bigger than us as individuals. We can then gladly serve wherever God calls us out of the overflow of His love to the multitudes on stages or to the few in secret. Either way, the joy of the Lord will be our strength.

Lord, I know this is a dangerous prayer, but make us humble. Keep us from the pride of thinking we can achieve Your will and Your ways through our own means instead of us relying 100% on You for everything at every moment of every single day. Amen.

A Man Like Jesus

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“A twitter hashtag about masculinity got me to thinking: If I’m to be a man like Jesus, what will I be like?

I will be a healer.

I will defend the powerless.

I’ll absolutely frighten and enrage the self-righteous.

I won’t be impressed by those with celebrity, credentials, or power.

I’ll be tremendously patient with people, well beyond what they ‘deserve’.

I will not take advantage of women.

And I’ll take them seriously.

I’ll subjugate my ego for the benefit of others.

The government will consider me, and my kind, a threat.

The religious power structure will consider me, and my kind, a threat.

I’ll attract people with bad reputations, and the seemingly worthless.

I’ll welcome children.

I will exhibit meekness – power, under control. And whatever power I do have will not be used to crush people, but to set people free” (Brant Hansen).

I think all of these perfectly describe Jesus during His earthly ministry. And I think they should also describe every man who aspires to be godly and seeks to be like Jesus.

It’s really not about climbing Mount Everest or jumping out of a plane at 10,000 feet. It’s not bench pressing 500 pounds or running an Ironman triathlon. It’s about how you treat those different than you and especially those who can’t possibly pay you back.

It’s not about doing good works to be seen by others, but doing them in secret so that only God and you know. Sometimes, living a simple life of faith will result in good deeds that even you aren’t aware of because they naturally flow out of a heart full of grace and generosity.

Being a man means doing what’s right even if the majority says it’s wrong. It means holding to biblical convictions when that gets you ostracized. It means standing in the gap for the least of these when it can’t possibly benefit your career or your brand or your image.

Being a man means loving your spouse and your family well. Even if you’re not married, you can still choose to love your family and those around you well. That means you love others more than you love yourself and put them first instead of you. It’s about sacrifice and generosity.

Being a man most of all means being like Jesus. It’s living out Philippians 2:5-11 every single day and having this mind in you that was in Christ Jesus.

Am I Unoffendable?

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

““Choosing to be unoffendable, or relinquishing my right to anger, does not mean accepting injustice. It means actively seeking justice, and loving mercy, while walking humbly with God. And that means remembering I’m not Him. What a relief” (Brant Hansen, Unoffendable).

This book is one of those that comes along and does a seismic shift on your thinking. I’ve always grown up believing that we’re supposed to be righteously angry about injustice and wrongs and sin, but this book is showing me that you can be actively against all those things without giving in to anger.

Based on what I understand, the Bible never calls for us to be angry. It does say that in your anger not to sin. It also says that anger does not produce the righteousness of God. I think when it says to be angry but don’t sin, it’s making allowances for the natural human tendency to anger. It also says not to stay there.

The only one allowed to be truly angry is God — and of course, Jesus — because God can have pure anger rooted in a holiness and righteousness that we don’t have. We can choose not to give in to anger without also giving in to all the wrongs and oppression in the world. We can fight those things out of love rather than anger.

I don’t want to give too much of the book away. It’s worth reading and says all the things I just said but way better than I just said them. Plus, if you get the audio version you get the book read by the author, which is almost always a bonus (and it is in this case).

A lot of our anger comes from the misguided view of calling out the sin in others while ignoring our own sin. We can easily become Pharisee-ical in seeing evil and wrong as being “out there” and “in them” rather than acknowledging my own sinful depravity and capacity for evil apart from the grace of God.

I’m a little over halfway there, so those are my takeaways thus far. My assignment for you is to find the actual book or the audio book and to devour it in short order. It’s an easy read (or an easy listen if you prefer). I’m even going through all the trouble of providing a link to the book on amazon.com. You’re welcome.

https://www.amazon.com/Unoffendable-Change-Better-updated-chapters/dp/1400333598/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.CCApAzLdwJEJ_bILerbPnP92PX4ePbEFxUdfzlwKQuQp8W7M9XUk146MAeiZVMFn_gCWS1YcpqnZy9olfkdcAfSWcn5iw6qDCNSMfQHhWM4EdxijLEVgmtywazlTVSyAjhJq8cHtUVNdhY2iyqRj5RPo8i-hjYAd2LH_aHTRyJG9DkQ7VkckmFOCsXjPi3Xs1hSaBdb8kGdBR9qVSFqkSUFMAdfYgPn_TY8uuyNJF1s.loHWjW318gTjgxlSS8Hem4fAJ5QuDVig1J42IDbTcCk&dib_tag=se&keywords=unoffendable&qid=1730083531&sr=8-1