How I Hate the “Mean Times”

There are a lot of popular phrases in our culture.  

The phrase “in the meantime” is one such phrase which is used in place of other phrases such as “while I am waiting”, or “until I see breakthrough”, or how about “until my ship comes in”.  I particularly like the phrase “in the meantime” because it hints to the state of mind we often find ourselves in and the attitude we are displaying while we are waiting. 

Just recently, while waiting to be checked in to a hotel where I was staying, I had the misfortune of being second in line when there was only one clerk on duty.  You might think that second in line sounds pretty good, except I had walked up ten seconds behind a guy who had already checked in but had found out some bad news that would require him to continue on his journey instead of enjoying a nice night’s rest.  Well, the clerk was new at his job and was unsure of how to process the refund which necessitated four different phone calls to other off-duty clerks who had no more clue how to proceed than he did.  After what seemed like an eternity (which was only about 25 minutes), I stepped up to the counter and checked into the hotel without incident but with a bit of an attitude, if I‘m being totally transparent here.  The wait had nearly killed me.  My luggage was heavy and awkward, and my mood had shifted from one of expectancy too that of a medieval martyr.  I had, after all, suffered “in the meantime”.

The scripture gives us a promise about the mean times.  Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”  If I had patiently endured this horrible hardship (waiting in the line, that is), I would have had the assurance of being rewarded in some way for my patience, but instead the only reward I ended up with was the hit of dopamine I got for pitying myself throughout the event and for a few moments after.

Well, I don’t have to tell you that there are far worse “mean times” than the one I recounted here.  Tragedy, oppression, job loss, and extended illness are not foreign to most of us.  My family is currently going through a little “mean time” of our own, waiting on the next ministry opportunity to occur.  You apply, wait, and then maybe receive a rejection letter or two for months until a door opens that no man can shut, and you walk through it into the next part of your destiny.

The trick to the mean times, as I am learning, is not to focus on the mean or the time, but to focus on our Lord.  “We are fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”  Hebrews 12:2 

An old song I sang in church when I was growing up is a frequent reminder to me of this concept.  It went something like, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus.  Look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.”  Unfortunately, the reverse is true- that when our focus is on our hardship, our view of the Lord grows strangely dim.  Let me encourage you by trying to be a real as I can.  When I spend time trying to grow in my relationship with the Lord, it’s a lot easier to “suffer through” the mean times.  But when I spend my time on my own pursuits without first taking time to foster the most important relationship in my life, then things can get ugly.  Take time today to talk to Jesus, ponder what He is up to in your life, and imagine what good things He has in store.  It will make the “mean times” a little easier to navigate.

Oh, and one last thing.  When I exited the line at the hotel, I realized that there were a dozen other people behind me.  I guess the two-fold message is that others have it worse than I do and that they are watching to see what kind of attitude I am developing in the process.

The Tyranny of Desire

If you are a parent, or for that matter, if you have ever been to a Walmart store on a Saturday afternoon, you have witnessed the tantrum that emerges after a child doesn’t get his own way.  It’s pretty ugly.  It’s annoying to everyone in proximity, and it brings out the worst in most of the parents I know.  Well, there’s only one thing worse than a child throwing a fit when he doesn’t get her own way, and that’s an adult doing the same thing.  I found a passage of scripture which addresses the same issue.

1 Peter 4, verses 1-2, says “Since Jesus went through everything you’re going through and more, learn to think like him.  Think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way.  Then you’ll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want.”

The point here is that God’s decision not to purge from our lives all of the difficulties we go through actually brings about maturity in us.  We would be much like a spoiled child if we got everything we asked for and never had to face a difficulty.  Facing the trouble actually help us grow.  I’m reminded of a scene from one of the Chronicles of Narnia movies that have been released in the past few years.  Peter, a young king, finds himself in a fight with two wolves that are intent on killing him.  He calls for help, and Aslan (the Christ figure of the movie) comes to assist.  He puts one wolf to flight, but when one of his warriors moves in to kill the second wolf, Aslan tells him to hold off; this one is Peter’s.  Peter steps up to the plate and hits one out of the park, stepping into his destiny as a warrior king.

In our lives, the old sinful habit of thinking that we should always get what we want needs to be dethroned, allowing the new King Jesus to take his rightful place.  When we endure things we would rather not, we start the process of killing off that old sinful way of thinking that allow Christ access to transform us into who he wants us to be.  Doing so brings maturity and a better quality of life.  So whatever you are wresting with today, allow God to use it as the weight on the bar that you are lifting which will produce spiritual muscle and give you the physique of a fully developed friend of Jesus.  To listen to more encouraging insights, please visit my podcast page.

Simple Church?

In the summer of 2011, as a result of much prayer and contemplation, my wife Lisa and I set out to re-convey what we believe is the simple, New Testament, community-oriented message of Jesus that
has been lost in much of the organizational, overly structured religious tendencies that we have seen nearly everywhere we have been. With a specific emphasis on not pointing fingers at others, we spent several months just studying the NT. We didn’t want to just start a church slightly different from the one we came from or in reaction to the one we came from. We wanted to do something far different. We wanted the church to be as close as possible to what we found as a result of our prayerful study. We started with the message of Christ found in the gospels. We sought to interpret all of the epistles
and the history of the early church recorded in the book of Acts in light of the greatest command of Christ, which was to love the Lord with all you have and to love your neighbor as yourself. What we found was an incredibly refreshing, community-oriented look at Christianity that allows us to focus the efforts of the church on what is best for the individual Christian instead of what is best for the
organization. It's really amazing to watch as God uses each member to help the others unpack the baggage that our experiences have brought about and then to simply live out relational love for the Lord and each other in our daily lives. What we also say was that this love was to be a beacon to the lost world that we are living in.

What we found is that the principles of the Great Commandment and the Great Commission seem to be the preeminent way that God intends for the Good News to be lived out in our society. But even these basic principles seem to be difficult for us to grasp hold of in the modern version of the Christian church. The first of the two principles (The Great Commandment) is, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. … equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” Matt. 22:36-39 NLT.
Being the son of a high school English teacher, I like to think of this principle in terms of the verbs and nouns. Love, the action verb, cannot take place without motion. Love is not a feeling- the infatuation and warm fuzzy, butterflies in the stomach sort of love. We are to love, and that word in and of itself requires action and demonstration. The nouns of the verse provide the context in which
we are to love. We are to love the Lord, to love ourselves, and to love those around us as much as we love ourselves.

The implementation of this principle is the basis, the focus, and purpose of the church, but how should we go about that? It seemed to us that the best way to arrive at the answer is to look at what the Bible says the early church spent their time doing. The early church seemed to be more a community than an
organization, and the book of Acts says that they gathered in public places as well as from house to house on a daily basis. They were sharing meals together and doing whatever it took to meet the needs that anyone had. The passage suggests that the people knew each other, and that they knew each other
well. That type of relationship develops after spending a lot of time with someone. It is obvious that there was intimate relationship because they knew what each others' needs were. An examination of the letters that make up the rest of the New Testament shows a wide range of admonitions to the church members to demonstrate their love for each other by some of the following: be devoted to one another, honor one another, live in harmony with one another, edify one another, accept one another, instruct one another, greet one another, agree with one another, bear each other’s burdens, be submitted to one another, and forgive one another. It had been our experience that the modern context of the Christian church had often broken these admonitions down to simply sit in the same room with one another a few hours a week while the professionals do the heavy lifting of body ministry. As a result, we are seeking to get everyone involved in the things which are most often left to a few.

The second principle that we can apply to best live out the Good News in our modern culture is to implement the Great Commission. “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the
commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age”. Matthew 28:19 NLT.   A quick calculation shows me that I have spent nearly 8000 hours of my life
attending church services. While that may be a lot compared to some people, it may not be even a drop in the bucket compared to others. One way or the other, those hours spent in services have given me one thing: a decent perspective on just how it is that the churches I have been part of were trying to fulfill the Great Commission. In my church experience, we have employed an outreach principle. We try to reach outside of the walls of the church building and get the “unchurched” (not God’s Term) to come into the church facility to attend some sort of “outreach event”. It was as if, "If we just get people to the facility, some of our Christianity might rub off on them." With all of the time, effort, and money involved in outreach events, it seems to me that we often still miss the point that we as individuals are to GO. I believe that, in order to fulfill the Great Commission, we need to focus on going to the lost, not expecting them to come to us. Now that seems intimidating to me and to most people, but I think
that is because we tend to look at it as a task we must accomplish instead of an opportunity to be open to. The Bible says of the early church that the world looked in and liked what it saw. The reputation of the people was that of love and kindness. The Bible says that Love (the great commandment) is going to be the way the world will know we are Christ’s disciples. In the book of Acts, it states
that the world looked in and liked what it saw and that the Lord added to the church daily those that were being saved. In those days, the church gatherings were conducted in public places as well as in private homes, but the church was being lived out everywhere that Christians went, for the church is constructed of living stones, the people of God. I would suggest to you that Christ intended for
us to go live out our Christianity in whatever venue we are in. When our lives reflect the light and love of Christ, it will whet the appetite of unbelievers around us. I believe that the Christian fully alive, living out his or her passions in public, is the bait on the hook when fishing for the lost. All the programs we want to put together, all the efforts to get the lost to darken the church building doors, pale in comparison to the testimony of one changed life that goes on to flourish in such a way that causes others to take notice. The Bible says that we should “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have...” 1 Peter 3:15 Notice that it says to be ready to give an answer. That suggests that people will be asking a question. Why do you have such hope? That may well translate to: Why don’t you yell at the ref like the other parents do? How come you are so positive all the time? Why do you work so hard for the company? How come you don’t talk bad about the boss like everyone else? I suggest to you that we take our faith into the world and live it out in an attractive manner. This will require intentionality, but it will require something even greater: that our faith in Christ be positively transforming our lives. That may be the biggest challenge we face in the current Christian church. Are we genuine and growing? If not, it may be reflective of the way we have been doing church instead of being the church. If we just accumulate attenders instead of converts, or are settling for converts instead of growing disciples, what the world sees may not look much different than what they already know. For the faith in Christ that is lacking the expression of love is hardly attractive. It almost relegates the Good News to a get out of jail free card. We are fully committed to rediscovering what God intended the church to be and then helping the believers around us to be just that: The Church. Novel idea, huh? A friend of mine recently called it a church experiment, and it may well be, but I like to think it has a better chance of success at fulfilling God’s plan for his disciples than how I had been doing things in the past, and it seems to me, THAT IS THE POINT! 

Sibling Rivalry

As a father of two boys which we intentionally had eighteen months apart (for some strange reason), I have had my fair share of experience with this topic.  Boys, by nature are, on a good day, always jockeying for position, seeing if they can outdo each other, looking for opportunities to distinguish themselves in some way to their mother and I.  To our dismay, on bad days they demonstrate some of the most disturbing of human behaviors.  Don’t get me wrong, they are great kids but they are just that kids, and by definition, immature in their relational and emotional development. 

When kids act immaturely it’s understandable.  When adults do so, it’s pretty ugly.  I know this from watching some of my own behavior. The problem of adults behaving badly has been going on from the beginning.  It’s appalling the amount of blood that’s been shed by people trying to get one up on someone else.  From early on the children of God have been engaging in sibling rivalry. The scriptures tell us of an instance between the first two brothers Cain and Able and the end result is murder.

We all have been in that place where we feel like someone else is making us look bad.  It may be nothing more than them doing something well that pushes our buttons, but regardless of the circumstances, sibling rivalry results in drama, pain, and ugly behavior.  I wish I had a dollar for every time that I sat my boys down and told them that I love them equally and that when one of them does something to hurt or make the other look bad that it hurts my heart. 

When it comes to the family of God things don’t get much better.  From the earliest days of Christianity, we see sibling rivalry rearing its’ ugly head.  The gospels tell a story of the disciples arguing amongst themselves about which of them was going to be the greatest in the kingdom.  In the presence of the Creator of the universe, whom they had witnessed raise the dead, heal the sick, and set those in bondage free, they are fighting over who is going to be Jesus’ right hand man.  Instead of making much of number one they are fighting to see who gets to be number two. 

I would like to say that 2000 years of church history would bring about more maturity on our part, but in my experience nothing could be further from the truth.  Unfortunately, sibling rivalry isn’t limited to relationships between individuals.  From the very time of Christ we see interactions like the one recorded in Mark, chapter nine.  Some of the disciples are telling Jesus that they had witnessed others doing good in His name, but they told them to stop it because they were not a part of “their group”.  Modern Christianity, at least the western style, is marked with division.  Whether Catholic or Protestant, Baptist,  Pentecostal, Methodist, Charismatic, or Lutheran, Christian organizations seem to feel the need to point out how they are different and therefore it is inferred, better, than those who do, or believe, otherwise.  One organization I have been involved with in the past has listed one of their beliefs as their “distinctive doctrine”.   Seems innocent enough but it basically means this where we get it right and everyone else gets it wrong.   Early on in my marriage, my wife and I discovered that both of us as children had either caught or been taught that if you were not part of our particular brand of Christianity, that chances are that you might not even make it to Heaven.  Well you might make it, but it would be some dumpy little corner of heaven that you would be relegated too.  Even between different local churches in most communities there seems to be a competition to see who can do this church thing best and therefore attract more of the Christians in a particular location to be a part of their particular organization.  I have a friend who is a local pastor and he shared a recent conversation with me.  One of the members of his worship team had asked to speak with him because he needed to let him know that he no longer was going to be a part of the church.  It seems that he had been recruited to play his instrument in the worship band at a church of over a thousand in the same town.  The larger church had actually sent someone to observe the man playing his instrument in the worship band at the smaller church to observe his talent and then recruited him to play in their worship band.  During my college years in a different city, I remember hearing frequent advertisements on a Christian Radio station for an up and coming new church talking about how they had the best children's ministry programs in the city.  While I’m not even able to judge my own motives accurately most of the time, it does seem logical that at least the subconscious motive for actions like these would be to get more people to attend your church so you can feel like you’re the best in a given community, or to improve the resumes of a particular leader, or at the worst, to bring more money into the church coffers for one reason or another.   

All of these things support my recent conclusion that much of Christianity has been made in our image, us-focused, consumer driven, and by doing so, understandably confusing to those who come to Christ, start attending a church, and see much of the world’s philosophies, attitudes, and policies on full display.  Don’t get me wrong I believe that the real church exists in every Christian congregation in the world.  That’s because the church is people, not doctrine, nor organizations, nor denominations or leadership structures.  We the people who are followers of Christ in relationship with God, via Christ’s sacrifice, we are the church.  

To all of this jockeying for position and competition for attenders, Jesus simply says, “He who wants to be the greatest must be the servant of all.”  In my opinion, we don’t see this demonstrated often enough.  The basis of the gospel requires all of us to lay aside our “right to be right” in exchange for doing what is in the best interest of others.  Oh, that we would stop fighting with and comparing ourselves to our brothers and sisters and start looking to serve them instead.  Check out Rediscover Hope inspirational sample.

Another Thing To Do :(

Another thing to do, another appointment, outside demands on my time.  Others’ expectations, my own expectations, prioritization.  Failure, readjustment, robbing Peter to pay Paul, disciplinary problems with kids’ attitudes, misunderstandings, offenses, worries, fears, bills, smaller paychecks, extended family, work, tax prep, finding time for things that are supposed to be most important, helping my fellow man, giving to church and others, listening to a friend.  Trying to be a good neighbor.  Is this the good life, real life, or really life at all?

Enter Jesus.

“Are you tired?  Worn out?  Burned out on religion?  Come to me.  Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.  I’ll show you how to take a real rest.  Walk with me and work with me -watch how I do it.  Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.  I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.  Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”                                   Matthew 11:23-30  

I spent time with Jesus and He reminded me that I should give myself as much grace as He does, that if I put knowing Him better first in my life, He would take care of the rest.  He reminded me that living with Him in my daily life is better than trying to live up to people’s expectations.  He told me that I am at my best when I allow him to be at my side, that He didn’t come to condemn me but to save me from myself and those who would condemn me.  He reminded me that just because someone says they are his messenger doesn’t mean everything they say is golden, that He wants direct access to me without any go-betweens.

Let me encourage you to let this be a year where you know Jesus better and better- not just a year where you learn more about him, but a year where you get to know him.  Remember that He wants to be known by you far more than you want to know him better, so moving even just a little in that direction will yield great results.  

For more encouraging messages with insights about Jesus and His good news to us please join us for City Light Rediscover Hope.  This one hour Saturday night event is designed for adults who are looking for encouragement, inspiration, and hope.  For a sample of what the meeting will be like visit the link below or just come on out and join us. The event lasts from 6:30-7:30 at 708 SW Gage in the Safety Training Solutions building.   What to expect from Rediscover Hope Christian Inspirational Event