Honor Guard

I witnessed a military funeral yesterday.  As I was sitting in my office building cafeteria I looked out of the windows and saw 4-5 DOZEN motorcycles leading a funeral procession to the cemetery located just west of our building.  I walked over to the windows to get a better view.  And what a view. 

Hundreds of people, soldiers, bikers, friends, family were waiting at the gravesite to pay their final respects to a man that had given his life for his country.  I found out later that the Captain had left behind a wife and 3 kids, all of the kids under the age of 13.  What’s worse, he was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq just ONE WEEK before he was to come home. 

The Honor Guard there looked sharp dressed in their full-dress uniforms.  The Patriot Guard bikers were a sight to see carrying flags and standing at attention.  The rifle salute probably startled some, but drew the attention of passers-by.

What will our “welcome home” look like?  Will those that are faithful to God receive such honor on the “other side” as this Captain did when he died?  Will the “last” really get to go to the head of the line?  Will those that drew little attention here on Earth as they served God be the “belle of the ball”? 

I imagine, as in Hebrews, it being like running into Olympic Stadium to finish the running the marathon.  Imagine the crowd, most of whom you’ve never met, cheering you towards the white tape.  Imagine guys like Peter, Paul, Stephen, and Mark giving each other high fives.  Imagine Jesus coming over the loudspeaker and announcing your name as you run to the line.  Imagine the “honor guard” waiting for you at the finish.

Mine is my grandfather, whom I’ve never met, standing tall on two good legs.  It’s my grandmother who used to call me her “pill.”  It’s my grandfather dressed in his World War II Marine dress greens.  It’s my wife’s grandfather, the Canadian rancher, whistling as loudly as he can. 

Run hard, finish strong.

Perspective

If I told you about a woman who has had 3 different husbands, now living by herself, plays the piano, active in her social group, what kind of woman do you picture?   

I had a dear friend of mine give me a little bit of a different view on the woman in John 4. 

In this passage, Jesus tells the woman that he knows that she has had 5 different husbands and that the man she was with now was not her husband. 

Question: How many times was this woman divorced?  According to scripture, the answer is NONE.  We don’t KNOW how many times this particular woman was divorced.  Is it LIKELY that she was divorced at least once?  Yes.  Likely more than once?  Yes.  For CERTAIN more than once?  No. 

I always envisioned this woman as a young promiscuous lady with a knack for getting kicked out of her home for cheating on her current husband.  Actually, we don’t know that she was promiscuous.  She might have OUTLIVED her other husbands.  It may be that this woman is an older woman who still carried out her daily chores just like the younger women in the village.

Is it LIKELY that she cheated on other men.  Yes.  Is it LIKELY that she was living with a man who was not her husband and sexually active with this man?  Yes. 

Jesus still addressed this woman’s hurts, though.  Think about it.  If she had actually outlived all of her husbands, could you imagine the pain she has endured?  If, in reality, she had cheated on all of those men, could you imagine the shame she had to live with every day, carrying that same jug of water back to the same well?  If she had been “wrongfully” divorced by her husbands, could you imagine the worthlessness she felt? 

Jesus still made her feel welcome.  Jesus made her feel safe.  Jesus made her feel whole.

Amazing.

By the way, the woman described at the top of this article?  A ninety plus year old nursing home resident who is a dedicated member of her church. 

Different views on the same people.  Jesus sees it all.

Looking for Good…

It’s easy on sunny days to find good in the world.  A soft breeze may remind you of a great family vacation that you had growing up.  A fresh and bright snow blanket on the ground might seem to give the world a “newness” it may have lost. 

It’s even easier to find the bad in the world.  Look around you.  You can find countless examples of evil in the world.  Yet, somehow, when brought out into the light, it makes us even more disgusted.  (Ever wonder why bars don’t have windows?  Ever wonder why most “bad things” happen in the dark?  People don’t want to be “seen” doing “bad” things, yet they still do them.)  It’s hard to battle Satan when he knows your weakness.  What’s worse, he plays dirty.  He’ll try to separate God from the world so that all you see around you is evil, vile, disgusting things.  It’s hard for ANYONE to deal with…  

It’s even harder when dealing with hurt people all day long.  When you surround yourself with “expertise” in helping others, hurt people will eventually start asking for your help.  With those petitions for help come their stories of abuse, neglect, and all around mistreatment.  Sometimes I have to stop and start looking for the good in those hurt people’s lives.  Sometimes they themselves can’t find it and need help in carrying on. 

Emotionally tiring. 

But…it’s what I’m built for. 

Maybe I’m not necessarily looking for good in those poor people’s lives.  Maybe I’m looking for God in my own life in order to be able to point out the good in their life.  Make sense?  In order to really find good in the world, you must first find God in your “own world.” 

What blessings has he given you today? 

What “neat things” did you see today?

Who encouraged you today?

Who did you “bump into” today? 

What “sunbeam” came to you today?

My prayer for you today is this: May God show himself to you in your WORST moment today.  May God continue to work in your life today even when you don’t think He’s really there.  May God surround you with support, emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually.  May God use you in spite of Satan’s attempts to separate you from Him. 

Sunday’s a comin’! 

The Sermon on the Mount

If you grew up in a church of Christ like I did, you probably have heard numerous sermons and lessons over the Beatitudes as well as the rest of the Sermon on the Mount.  In fact, as I recall, most of my reactions to these lessons growing up were usually expressed with a long sigh and a slumping of shoulders. 

Again? 

I read through the first two chapters a few days ago and realized something….I’ve been reading it wrong for the last two decades….

The people that Jesus was speaking to didn’t have pens and paper to take notes with.  These folks didn’t bring their blackberrys with them to text a quickie message to their buds to say “Hey come listen to this guy!”  The people that were following him were sick (see the last couple of verses of Matthew 4).  They were in need of a healing touch.  These people were the outcasts, the lay-workers, the unschooled, the family-friendly.  These were the people who probably thought to themselves throughout church, “Man, is this ALL THERE IS?”  These were the searchers. 

And they found Him.

Our Bibles do a disservice to the Sermon on the Mount by breaking it up into nice “digestible” sections.  The Beatitudes, Salt and Light, Fulfillment of the Law, Murder, etc.  I challenge you that this was not Jesus’ intention.  When we break these sections up and stand them alone outside of their context, we lose part of the power in the message. 

When Jesus talked about “Blessed be…,” he was speaking to those people about themselves.  He was challenging them to look at their own qualities, circumstances, and faith in a different light. He then transitioned into the Salt and Light passage…still speaking to them about them. 

So how does this fit our lives today? 

Find yourself in the Beatitudes and you’ll have the answer to that question…

In Transition…

I’ve become more and more convinced that we are creatures of habit…

No kidding. 

Think about the last time you became uncomfortable with the changes that may/may not be occurring in your life.  Those changes (or lack of) can bring about feelings of discomfort, anxiety, and uncertainty.  We get comfortable in our routines (or our chaos, depending upon our situations) and any change causes ripples in our life.  We react by pushing others away, scrambling to keep things “under control,” or flat out breaking down emotionally.  To a lessor degree, we end up getting headaches or other physical ailments, and our friends wonder if we’re “o.k.”  One word comes to mind in all of this:

Process

How we handle these transitions (changes in our lives) is what God is most interested in.  Face it.  We like being comfortable.  That idea of ambivalence also means that we aren’t moving (or moving productively).  It also means we aren’t growing.  Change in our lives causes us to reflect upon the way we approach different issues/people/relationships.  It also forces us to examine what we place value in.  Do you value your relationship with God above all else?  If not, you will feel worry, anxiety, or stress more profoundly than others.  I’m not saying that you WON’T feel these things if you do have a good relationship with God, that is a reflection of utter dissociation with the things happening around you. 

Transition means growth.  Transition means learning. 

If you aren’t moving, you aren’t alive…

Conversation

“You know God, I’m not really sure about things that have happened today.”

 God: “I know.”

“I’m not sure if I’ve done everything that I should have.  I’m not sure if I’ve done things to make you proud of me.  I’m not sure if I’ve done right by YOU.”

God: “I know.”

“So, what should I do?  Should I continue struggling like I have in the last few months/years/decades in order to try and find you?  I’ve seen you working in my life when I look back, but I still can’t seem to find you IN THE MOMENT.  I trust that you are there.  I trust that you are working behind the scenes for my good.  I know that I’ll fail even when I don’t want to, but it’s still hard to think that I can get back up after I’ve struggled for so long.”

God: “I know.”

“Maybe that’s the issue.  Maybe that’s what faith is all about.  It could be that the journey is the thing, and not the outcome.  I KNOW that I’ll fail, but I also KNOW that you’re there.  If I’m truly called to be something different than the world, then maybe I shouldn’t be afraid to convey these feelings to others, but also tell them that I’m confident in You.  Maybe it’s not the fact that I work hard and things keep happening.  Maybe it’s the fact that I keep working hard and KNOW that YOU keep happening.”

God: (smiles) “I know.”

Placement and Purpose

Comedians will tell you that the key to a good joke is timing.  This inherent trait in “good” comedians is something that always amazes me.  Some regular Joe can take a Jay Leno joke and get no response whatsoever, whereas Jay can usually bring down the house (if not, garner a few groans). 

How does God’s timing work?  Are we destined, inevitably, to accomplish (or not) certain things in our lives?  Are we bound to bump into the people we are “supposed” to bump into?  Are we puppets on a string?  Does God control everything or doesn’t He?

Yes. 

God is in control and so are we.  Paradoxical in nature, so as not to be “understood” by the conventional wisdom of man, God allows us to choose our placement, predicament, or people that we connect with.  He gives us the basic outline of our lives through our physical makeup, talents, and social support structures, and then He allows us to make our own path in that life.  But there’s a catch…

He’s still in control. 

God can use any and every mistake, miscalculation or success in our own lives for His good.  In fact, that’s the plan. 

If you’re able to completely understand how this works, please fill me in.  My brain hurts from trying to comprehend how a choice I make in my life (that I think I have made of my own accord) ends up being EXACTLY what God had in mind in the first place. 

Did God PUT that decision in my mind.  No.  Was I acting in a vacuum with absolutely no other influences?  No, yet the decision was still mine to make.  How then do I find MY personal purpose in this walk? 

Live your life. 

Base it on God and His word (although we’ll never attain this perfection described in the Bible, we should try to attain it if we claim to be disciples of His).

Have faith that God will use you in ways that you may be unaware of.

Now…if I can just get my delivery down, maybe I can make the Tonight Show…

Interesting…

Seems I’ve started a little conversation with my last post.  Thank you to all of you “non-family members” who have shared your thoughts.  They have all been insightful.

Can one “sound biblical” without actually “being biblical”?  I believe so.  I seem to remember reading about a certain angel that actually USED SCRIPTURE to try and tempt our Lord and Savior.  Simply because one knows scripture and is able to “sound” like a Christian, does not necessarily mean they are a Christian. 

Jesus himself told us that all men will know that we are his followers by our love.  He does not say that we will be recognized by our vast amount of biblical knowledge.  What exactly does “love” mean?  The word “love” has become so diluted over the past 30 years in the US culture that we REALLY don’t know what true love is…However, knowledge must be sought after in order for us to mature and become more like Christ…maybe more on that later…

James also admonishes us to not just “listen to the word” and therefore “understand it,” but to also DO IT!  So, yes, I do believe that there is a fine line between “playing Christian” and actually living the life. 

Political views and religious ideology seem to have become one and the same as of late.  Hence the popular idea that you have to affiliate yourself with one political party or another in order to be a Christian has gained ground in past elections.  So too has the idea that you have to check your brain at the door in order to be a Christian.  Faith does not require evidence.  Knowledge requires evidence.  I have faith in the pilot of my airplane that he knows how to fly from my little hometown to the Great White North.  I have NO evidence other than his past flight behaviors, but this in and of itself is not predictive.  Science (and I consider myself a scientist) is only a small part of my overall life experience.  If I were to require predictive evidence in order to make any and all decisions of my life, I would have to lock myself in my house and order take out.  Even then, I’m not sure I could be CERTAIN that my Chinese food would be the food I actually ordered…Big metaphor, I know, but I’m trying condense a complex argument into something usable. 

Faith does not know boundaries.  Faith in God requires an acceptance of our own relinquishment (is that a word?) of control.  True peace and contentment comes from “letting go” when every ounce of your being screams for more concrete solutions to problems.  Give up?  No way.  See this post by Larry James for more.

Well….enough dogging it on the job.  Hope everyone has a good day today!

Seismic Shift

Since when was the Republican party God’s party?  I’m hearing more and more Christians voicing “left leaning” views about their lives.  Is that ok?  Since when was God interested in political debates?  Some may argue that we HAVE to be affiliated with one party or another based upon the respective party’s platform, but I would argue that we FIRST must affiliated with “God’s Party”…His Kingdom. 

Do we have a moral obligation to oppose injustice?  Yes.  Do we have a moral obligation to stand up for those that cannot be heard?  Yes.  Do we have a moral obligation to treat each other fairly, no matter what?  Yes. 

So…do EITHER parties have it “all together?”  No.  Do either parties have SOME things right?  Yes.  Paul nailed this argument concerning citizenship and political squabbling when he stated that his “citizenship was in heaven,” and that he eagerly awaited Jesus’ return so that he could take Paul “home.” 

One political party may be in for a shock this election year.  I’m not sure which one, but I know that I’m fairly certain that God expects us to first “Love our neighbor as ourselves.”  That includes those whose political affiliations are not necassarily “God’s Party.”

And Another Thing…

Larry James’ post today (9/5/06) is absolutely right on. Make sure you visit his site and see the ministry that is happening in Urban Dallas.

Now, one may wonder as to my personal investment in this field of work…I’d say to you: “You bet I’m invested in this type of work! That’s my calling! That’s why I went to school to get my degree in Psychology! That’s why I want to serve others!”

I went to a VERY interesting rally yesterday for Labor Day. Politically slanted in a direction that I didn’t grow up believing. In fact, I still have trouble wrapping my mind around some of the convictions that others have. But…

Is there somewhere in the middle of the road that we can effectively teach others to become better people while nurturing those that need it and celebrating those that have achieved? What is a Christian to do…?