Ragamuffin Gospel

Sharing Your Faith

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I met a friend of mine at the Well for coffee this afternoon. In the midst of our conversation, he mentioned that his PC virus scan picked up some spyware that was slowing down his computer.

Without even meaning to, I went into full-on proselytizing mode for Macs. I talked about how my MacBook Pro didn’t have all those annoying popups that most PCs seem to have after time, how I never got viruses, how much faster it was, etc.

On my way home, a question dawned on me– why couldn’t I be as passionate and articulate about my faith? Why am I so often silent when it comes to sharing my faith and what I believe?

I honestly believe that people automatically talk about what excites and motivates them. It could be sports, politics, music, philosophy, or any number of other topics and interests.

Maybe the reason I haven’t been passionate about sharing my own faith is that its become more of a checklist than a Love Affair. It’s become more of a religion (in the sense of man-made traditions and rules) than a relationship with my Creator and Redeemer.

I’m not trying to beat myself up or throw the ultimate self-pity party. I’m just being honest in hope that someone else out there recognizes what I’m feeling and knows they aren’t alone in this.

You really don’t have to be taught evangelism because you will share what you’re excited about. You will talk about what you obsess and dream about the most. So what does that say about how I prioritize my faith? What does that say about how much I really believe how much the God of the Universe loves me and cares for me?

Again the key isn’t beating yourself up but recognizing when you get off track, repenting, and giving yourself grace for not being perfect. It’s about realizing that you’re not who you were yesterday or who you will become tomorrow.

 

Jeeps

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1979-cj7-yellow-hardtop

I love driving my Jeep. I’m sure you know that by now. I still really like driving my red 1997 Jeep Cherokee Country, especially after it got a much-needed, long-overdue tune up.

I previously drove a 1995 Jeep Cherokee Sport, which I also really liked to drive. I miss that car but not the manual locks and windows or the crappy drink holder which fell over if you so much as looked at it wrong.

Sensing a trend? It honestly wasn’t planned out that way. I’ve been paying more attention since I started driving one and I see Jeeps all the time now, partly due to that incredible in-line V6 engine which is practically indestructible.

I’m thinking my next car might be a Jeep. Maybe a Wrangler (or possibly even one of those old CJ7s). It’d be fun to drive a car where I could take off the top and ride around with the sun and breeze in my hair.

The secret to happiness isn’t having the best of everything but seeing the best in what you already have. It’s being content with who you are, where you are, with what you have. Being satisfied and content is still the most radically counter-cultural mindset you can have in this current age of overspending to keep up with those proverbial Joneses.

I personally have never really lusted after one of those really expensive luxury sports cars like the Ferraris and the Lamborghinis. I don’t fancy spending more money on a car than most houses cost.

I’ve also never really had a strong desire for a muscle car. I really just want something that suits my personality and that doesn’t look like every other car on the road.

If I go with the better gas mileage, I still think I’d like to have a Mini Cooper. Those look like they’d be fun to drive.

For now, I’m feeling thankful and blessed to still be driving my vintage Jeep with over 315,000 miles on it that still looks and runs great.

I’ll stick with that one for now.

 

The Ultimate Longing 

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“For all my wanting, I don’t have anyone but You in heaven. There is nothing on earth that I desire other than You. I admit how broken I am in body and spirit, but God is my strength, and He will be mine forever” (Psalm 73:25-26 VOICE).

Ultimately, that’s it. No matter how you are at the moment or how well you think you’re doing, the real victory is living out of God’s strength instead of your own.

Every desire of mine, whether I acknowledge it or not, finds its ultimate fulfillment in God.

I see more now that all those unfulfilled desires and unrequited dreams really all were longings for what only God could grant.

Even when I got exactly what I thought I wanted at the time, it always turned out to be less than satisfactory because a thing can never deliver the true joy and happiness that God can.

That’s my prayer for you– that you understand more deeply that when a longing is denied or a dream gets dashed to pieces, that the deepest yearnings at the heart of those desires are all rooted in the person of Jesus.

May you find that God is more satisfying and gratifying than anything and everything this whole world has to offer. You find true contentment when you finally grasp that God Himself with nothing else added is enough.

That’s what Lent is truly about– abstaining from good things to find joy in the best things and making room in your heart and soul for God to speak and breathe and inhabit.

I’ve managed to make it through one whole day without any social media and I live to tell the tale (even if there was a little bit of withdrawal). If I can do it, I know you can.

 

 

What Does God Require of You?

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“No. He has told you, mortals, what is good in His sight.
    What else does the Eternal ask of you
But to live justly and to love kindness
    and to walk with your True God in all humility?” (Micah 6:8, The Voice).

A lot of people spend lots of time wondering what God wants from them. They pray and fast and read the Bible in search of God’s will for their lives.

I think a good place to start is this verse in Micah. What does God require of you? John Thomas, quest speaker at Kairos, mentioned three things based on this passage.

  1. Live justly toward the poor and needy. That includes widows, orphans, refugees, outcast, and strangers. Note: it does not say to see whether they measure up to certain qualifications and prove deserving of our aid. It says to live out justice and kindness toward them.
  2. Love mercy by showing God’s ultimate example of mercy in Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice. That means evangelism. That means sharing your faith and living out what you believe.
  3. Walk humbly with your God, following in His steps and always ready to listen to what He says to you.  Never get too busy doing that you neglect being with God and learning to tune your life to His voice.

I think I was more convicted by this than I’ve been by anything in a while. If I live in the middle of affluence and plenty and see the need around me while doing nothing about it, I’m in direct disobedience to what God requires of me.

I also can’t help but think that if we start turning away refugees, will we look back and see that we turned away Jesus in disguise because He looked too much like an Islamic terrorist? Will we renege on our duty to care for the least of these because of fear?

Let God’s love be stronger than any fear as we learn how to live out a little more each day what God requires of us.

 

Grace Given Vs. Grace Received

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“I do not at all understand the mystery of grace – only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us” (Anne Lamott).

During the homeward commute, I thought I’d play the Good Samaritan and let the car beside me merge in front of me. Little did I know that the next three cars behind that car would take advantage of my generosity.

For a brief moment, I was upset. I was livid. I mean, how dare they? All of us good and faithful drivers have been patiently waiting in line while these others felt they could rush past us and force their way in at the last possible moment.

There’s no way they deserve to merge in front of me.

Then it was like God spoke to me. I don’t claim to hear the audible voice of God and I’m not claiming I had a prophetic word, but I had the strongest impression that God said, “You know that you’ve deserved far less and received far more than these people have.”

The heart of the Gospel is that Jesus came for the undeserving– the hell-deserving– and instead of giving them what they (and I ) deserved, He lavished them (and me) with exactly what they didn’t deserve but needed most. Grace. Mercy. Forgiveness.

That’s why I don’t buy into karma. I don’t go around bragging about other people getting what’s coming to them because I know where I’d be if I ever got what I truly had coming to me. It wouldn’t be pretty.

That’s why I’m such a huge fan of mercy and grace. I don’t get what I really deserve and I get what I don’t deserve.

I believe that if we’ve received so much grace, we should be the first to show it not to those who deserve it, but those like we once were (and still are at times) who deserve it least but need it most.

That means those with different political ideology than yours. It means people that irritate you and get on your nerves. It means bad drivers who don’t know how to merge.

Ultimately, it means forgiving yourself when you let yourself down, remembering that God has already forgiven you.

 

 

Happy Birthday Adam to Me!!

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It’s my Birthday Adam, the day before my birthday Eve, the day before my actual birthday. As usual, all forms of payment are accepted.

I’m thankful that I’m still around to celebrate another birthday. Growing old is a privilege denied to many, so I’m not going to grumble or take it for granted.

I’m going to wake up tomorrow (God willing) and say a prayer of thanks for the privilege. I’m going to get in my car and drive to my job and be grateful for those things as well.

I’m going to take pleasure in the little things like the early appearance of spring weather and the flowers blooming. I’m not going to dwell on the things I can’t control or bemoan all that I don’t have but rather give thanks for everything I do have.

So here’s to a happy 45th birthday and another year full of grace and mercy to come!

 

The Love of God

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“Because of this, the love of God is a reality among us: God sent His only Son into the world so that we could find true life through Him” (1 John 4:9 VOICE).

It’s really easy to take it all for granted, especially if you’ve heard it so many times like I have. I’ve been hearing it since I was very little.

But if you can take it for granted, it means you’ve taken it in vain. You’ve assigned it less value that its inherent worth. By the way, that’s what taking God’s name in vain really means– to treat it as less than it’s truly worth.

To take the love of God in vain means that you  stop being awed and amazed by it. You stop being overwhelmed by the notion that an infinite and holy God should shower His love on undeserving people not just once, but time and time again.

To truly appreciate the love of God means that you understand that you will never get to the bottom of it or ever really fully comprehend its vastness and breadth and scope.

May you always wake up every morning flabbergasted that God still loves you. May you open your arms wide to receive it, knowing that trying to contain it is like trying to contain the oceans in a thimble.

May you know that this love–all of it– is for you.

 

Something from 6 Years Ago

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I wrote these words exactly six years ago and just read them again for the first time tonight. It was inspired by the story of the woman with the blood flow issue who merely had to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment in order to be healed.

“It’s amazing how in a crowd, Jesus can still find you and speak just what you need to hear right into your heart. How He can feel you grasping the hem of His garment out of all the people reaching for Him. How He hears your cries in the midst of the multitude of noises, even when you can’t find a voice. He knows all about you and loves you anyway. Let that be your praise today!”

I hope these words will echo and resonate with you today as you know more fully that Jesus loves you as if you were the only one to love and would have gone to the cross if you had been the only one to die for.

 

The Last Thursday Before the Last Sunday Before Lent

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O God, who before the passion of your only-begotten Son
revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant to us that
we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be
strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his
likeness from glory to glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
for ever and ever. Amen” (The Book of Common Prayer).

Mardi Gras is in 5 days (as is my birthday– hint, hint). Ash Wednesday is in 6 days.

That means I’ll be taking my usual sabbatical from social media for the next few weeks until Easter Sunday.

I’m actually looking forward to it this year more than ever. Not so much because of all the negativity (although there has been plenty of that lately) but more so because of all the extra time I’ll have to have actual face-to-face conversations with friends, do some reading out of actual books, watch movies, or just sit and contemplate in silence.

I recommend taking a social media break from time to time. It helps clear your head. It’s like a periodic reboot of your PC that helps reset and reorient your thinking when it’s gotten off track.

I’ll still be doing my blog posts as usual and keeping you updated on all the latest shenanigans in my life (as well as the ongoing saga that is the life of one Lucy the Wonder Cat).

I have some books lined up to keep me occupied, including hopefully rereading some Tolkien in the very near future. I’m still taking requests for good new/old music/movies, and books to check out, so keep sending them my way.

Who knows? Maybe I can manage to meet one or more of you at a nearby coffee spot for one of those face-to-face conversations? You just never know.