faith

Good Memories

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uu

For some odd reason, I had a strong craving for some chicken tetrazzini yesterday. It’s not a dish you can get just anywhere. In fact, the last time I had this was probably almost 18 years ago in my last semester at Union University.

I still miss that place and the people there. Well, most of the people I knew there have long since moved on. I’d guess that I wouldn’t know more than five people currently on campus. If that.

Even the campus is different. Even before a tornado struck the campus, Union was already undergoing major renovations. Now, the campus is almost completely different than when I went there. But I guarantee that the moment I step on to the campus, all sorts of good memories would come rushing back.

I was not a ladies’ man at Union. Despite the 5-to-1 ratio of girls to guys, I had no luck. But I made some friendships that changed my life. I saw people who modeled the faith in a way that made it relevant and exciting and fun. People who wanted to hang out with me.

It took a long time to pay off those student loans. But it was so much more than worth it to me for the good times and good friends I made.

Some times, I wish I could step back into one of those memories and relive it. To be able to smell the scent of spring on its way and see the face of people I haven’t seen in years. To hear the old jokes and stories again.

Some friends I’ve kept up with, some I’ve reconnected with recently. Some I’ve lost touch with. But I’m grateful for them all.

If you’re a high school senior or junior looking for a college where you won’t feel lost in the crowd, then check out Union. There I was challenged both academically and spiritually. There I learned to put feet on my faith and walk it out.

I know I’ve probably said this before, but to all my old Union friends, thank you for making my time there so wonderful. I am who I am now because of you.

 

 

A Book Review In Progress Of A Book I’ve Already Read

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importance

“The great mark of a Christian is what no other characteristic can replace, namely the example of a life which can only be explained in terms of God” (Cardinal Emmanuel Suhard).

I’m re-reading a Brennan Manning book, The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus. I started off not sure of whether I’d read the book or not, but soon started recognizing that I had indeed read it before. No matter. It’s worth a second (or third or fourth) read because it still speaks the same truth it did the first time around.

The book resonates with me because it is all about getting the Christian faith back to the basics. Actually, one basic: knowing Jesus. Not just in a ecclesiastical or theological way. Not knowing facts about him or memorizing his words to spout off in an argument. It’s about knowing Jesus, celebrating how he chose a nobody like me (or anyone else) to love and rescue and save.

This Jesus isn’t the feel-good type who’s telling everybody to be nicer to each other. He’s not only a wise teacher trying to make us better people with better morals and better ethics. He’s God in the flesh who says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.”

It’s both comforting and convicting. It’s comforting in that it’s about knowing a Person, not following rules and being good enough. It’s convicting, because I can’t know Jesus and stay the same. I can’t follow Jesus and not have to change radically.

I love this quote of Manning’s (from another book he wrote):

“The gospel is absurd and the life of Jesus is meaningless unless we believe that He lived, died, and rose again with but one purpose in mind: to make brand-new creation. Not to make people with better morals but to create a community of prophets and professional lovers, men and women who would surrender to the mystery of the fire of the Spirit that burns within, who would live in ever greater fidelity to the omnipresent Word of God, who would enter into the center of it all, the very heart and mystery of Christ, into the center of the flame that consumes, purifies, and sets everything aglow with peace, joy, boldness, and extravagant, furious love. This, my friend, is what it really means to be a Christian.”

That’s what I’m after. Are you?

 

 

Live Naked

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I need to preface this blog by emphatically stating that by “live naked,” I so do not mean join a nudist colony or walk around all day in your birthday suit. If you do, we will disavow all knowledge and pretend you don’t exist. This blog will self-destruct in 15 seconds. . . .

For real, I do think that we need to live naked. By that, I mean live transparently and honestly. You will always be a second-rate version of someone else, but a first-rate version of you, because God made you to be you, only you, and no one else.

That means you don’t have to force yourself to believe that everything is fine when it’s not. You can honestly admit that you’re having a bad day, that your brokenness is showing, and that you feel completely inadequate to handle what the day is throwing at you.

To like naked is to live a life that is 100% 24/7 completely and utterly dependent on God for every single moment and every single thing. You know you need God in the next moment to avoid a full-on falling apart mental and emotional meltdown. You need all of God’s strength to hold you together and you need all of his love to keep you sane.

To live naked is to live trusting without understanding, following without knowing the way, and believing without having all (or even most) of the answers.

That’s how I am choosing to live each day. That’s how I pray you choose to live. Because believers aren’t perfect, but forgiven. If anything, those who have given up everything to follow Jesus know that Jesus is all they have and that Jesus is all they need.

It’s a battle to trust when your emotions and thoughts are screaming at you that God won’t come through. It’s a lifelong struggle, but it’s so much more than worthwhile.

May we live naked starting today and every day.

How Fit Is Your Faith?

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If I had my way, everyone would like me. Everything would always go my way and my teams would always win every game. All those teams I didn’t like would cease to exist. Everything I owned would work properly and every road I drove down would be sunny and traffic jam-free.

I’d also have the weakest faith ever.

Most of the things that have strengthened my faith have been unwanted, uncomfortable and (sometimes painful). Given a choice, I probably would have said no to most of them. But my faith wouldn’t be nearly what it is now.

So here’s some questions to gauge how fit your faith is:

1) What do you do when your “dream mate” falls in love with someone else?

2) What happens when someone at work doesn’t like you, no matter how nice and friendly you are or how you go out of your way to treat him or her with kindness?

3) What happens when your circumstances never seem to get any better and hope gets harder and harder to find?

4) What happens when your children act out or continuously behave in ways that run contrary to how you taught them to act or behave?

5) What happens when you run out of answers?

I think that faith grows in the dark. It’s in those times when you can’t see God and can’t find any answers that you find a stronger faith than ever before. It’s when you come to the end of your self-reliance and have no other choice but to fall on the grace of God that you really find out how strong it is to save.

It’s not about great faith in God, but faith in a great God that counts. That’s what I cling to in the dark days when not much makes sense. I hope you do, too.

 

Spontaneous, Joyful Uncertainty and Expectancy

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“If our certainty is only in our beliefs, we develop a sense of self-righteousness, become overly critical, and are limited by the view that our beliefs are complete and settled. But when we have the right relationship with God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy. Jesus said, “. . . believe also in Me” (John 14:1), not, “Believe certain things about Me”. Leave everything to Him and it will be gloriously and graciously uncertain how He will come in—but you can be certain that He will come. Remain faithful to Him” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from life, is that almost nothing ever turns out according to my expectations. No conversation ever goes like I planned it in my head, no holiday plays out quite like I planned, and no day ever seems to be what I thought it would be.

I think my only expectations from 2013 are of God. Specifically, I expect him to show up in 2013. How? I have no idea. I only know that when I need him most, he’ll be there.

I’ve had unexpected relationships that I never saw coming. I’ve had friendships with people I never thought would even talk to me. I’ve also had friends move on and seemingly drop off the planet (or at least off my radar). For those of you who have moved on to the next phase of life, the friendship is still on and always will be. Count on it.

That doesn’t mean I sit back and do nothing. I think this year I have to prepared and ready for whatever God brings. As one of my favorite lines from a movie goes, I have to have my fields ready to receive the rain when it comes.

I know that whenever God has shown up in my life, it has never been exactly in the way that I expected, but it has always been better. It has never been when I expected, but it has always been at the perfect moment when I needed him most. God’s gifts to me haven’t been what I asked for; many times, they’ve what I needed and longed for but didn’t know it.

I know that whatever I go through in 2013, God is good. I know whatever the day turns out to be, God is faithful. And I expect that to be the same in 2014 and beyond.

Little Victories

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Sometimes, we make Christianity an “all or nothing” affair. That means if I don’t completely succeed, I’ve failed. If I don’t completely overcome every temptation and obey the voice of God at every turn, I’ve lost.

But I think that’s not how it works. Most days are three steps forward, two steps back. Most days, you win some and you lose some, but you always learn something from it.

I’ve learned that sometimes you have to be thankful for the little victories. Sometimes, those are the only things that keep you going when the battle seems hopeless and life seems too hard.

I found today that it was okay that someone I wanted to notice me didn’t. A conversation I wanted to happen didn’t and I was more than okay with it. I was fine.

I didn’t try to force something that wasn’t there. I stepped back and trusted God. I count that as a little victory.

It’s when you don’t give into fear. When you don’t let anxiety overwhelm you. When you’re able to take a couple of deep breaths and plow through. You may not look so pretty at the end of the day, but you’re alive and standing. And in my book that counts as a victory.

So here’s a lesson I’ve learned the hard way. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Don’t beat yourself up when you’re not at your best or when you mess up yet again. Remember that God really is bigger than the problems you’re facing. Remember his plans for you are still good and still in operation.

Remember all the little victories you’ve experienced over the years. Also remember that the biggest victory of the biggest fight you will ever face is already won. How do I know? Because Jesus has already won it.

 

 

It’s in the Details

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“Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way” (Colossians 3:15-17).

I’ve had a hard time coming up with something to write tonight. That happens to me periodically. I search my brain for a memory or a word or a phrase I heard earlier to trigger an idea that becomes a blog, but I get nothing. I can hear the wheels in my head a-turnin’, but apparently the hampster has gone off to sleep somewhere.

I do know that it’s useless to spend your whole life waiting for the next big event. If you’re single, that means waiting until you find someone to date. If you’re dating, that means waiting until you are engaged and then married. If you’re married, it means waiting until the first child is on the way. And so on.

If you’re not careful, you get so caught up in looking ahead in anticipation that you miss what is in front of you. A smiling face. A kind word. A small blessing.

Those little things help you along the road to becoming the person who is ready for the next big event. How you treat the people around you now will determine if you’re ready for your next phase.

So be compassionate now. Love unconditionally now. Be content now. Trust God now.

He will take care of getting you to the next step.

 

 

Tangible Memories

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I have my grandfather’s old radio. It sat on his workbench for years and kept him entertained while he tinkered and puttered around in his garage.

Now it sits in my bedroom, a tangible reminder of someone that I loved who is gone but not forgotten.

It’s more than a collection of old tubes and dials and wiring. It’s like a piece of my grandfather is here with me, even though my grandfather has been gone almost 30 years.

I hope one day to leave a legacy like that to someone. I hope that the words I have written or spoken, the things I have done, will inspire someone else to go out and make a difference, to do what most other people say can’t be done.

The radio still works. It takes a minute or two for the tubes to warm up, but after that it sounds as good as it ever did. Legacies are funny that way.

 

 

Who Believes in You?

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“I will lead the blind by a way they do not know,
In paths they do not know I will guide them.
I will make darkness into light before them
And rugged places into plains.
These are the things I will do,
And I will not leave them undone.” (Isaiah 42:16)

There have been times in my life when I didn’t believe in me. I didn’t see any way that God could ever take my mess and make it into any kind of testimony that anybody would ever want to hear. It was at those moments most of all that God believed in me.

I truly believe that when you don’t or can’t believe in yourself that God believes in you, and he has enough faith for the both of you. He sees who you are at the core way better than you can, and he knows exactly what you will look like when he’s finished with you. And that’s enough.

Usually, that looks like people who come into your life who will believe in you when you can’t. Instead of criticizing your mistakes or telling you what steps you need to take, they offer support and encouragement. Sometimes, they have a double portion of faith for you when you just don’t have it for yourself.

I’ve had people like that in my life. Some are still around. Some were only there for a season. But God spoke to me through them and helped me find my own faith again.

Maybe that’s where God is calling you into someone else’s life. You’re called for a season to believe in someone who can’t believe for himself or herself. You’re there to call out all that God created him or her to be and help him or her see that.

There will inevitably come those dark nights of doubt when you think that not even God can save you, when you think you have passed the point where you can change or be fixed. That you’ll always be broken and unusable.

But in those moments, often God will send those people alongside of you to remind you of your song and help you sing it again. They will call your name in the midst of the deepest night and help you find your way out of the darkness of the valley of the shadow of death into life and light again.

May God give you the eyes of faith to see these people in your life and may you and I be such a person of faith for someone else until he or she can believe in himself or herself again.

A Very Good Question from Kairos Tonight

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The speaker at Kairos tonight asked a very good and pertinent question: are you trying to wear Saul’s armor?

Let me backtrack a bit to explain. In 1 Samuel 17, Israel is about to face the Philistines in battle. Their main guy, Saul, challenges any Israelite to face him in single-handed combat, with the losing side becoming servants to the winning side.

David, a young shepherd who is there delivering supplies to his brothers, steps up to the challenge, even though he is only a youth. He is convicted in  his heart that no one should taunt the people of God.

Saul, the king of Israel, tries to get David to wear his armor. But the problem is that it doesn’t fit. David isn’t used to it and can’t do what he’s good at in it– slinging stones with a sling shot.

David ends up facing the giant armed only with 5 stones and a slingshot– and supreme confidence that God will deliver him.

So are you wearing Saul’s armor? Are you encumbered by somebody else’s expectations of you? Are you so busy trying to be somebody else that you’ve forgotten how to be yourself?

God made you to be you and only you being you can fulfill the purposes God has for you. It starts with you being faithful in the little things long before you face your Goliath.

God has wired you a certain way and equipped you with a unique blend of gifts and talents and desires so that you can fulfill the part in God’s plan that no one else but you can do.

Don’t ever let anyone else tell you that you don’t matter or that you have nothing to offer. God made you unique and one of a kind for a work that he’s called you to do. He looks at you and says that you’re his masterpiece.

My prayer for you is that you would find joy in being the best you possible. That you would find your place in God’s advancing kingdom and help others find theirs as well.