Tag Archives: Choice

What Would Church Be Like?

January 11, 2010

I wonder what church would be like

if instead of thinking of it as an event on a checklist

we thought of it as family

and Sunday morning was just a reunion of cherished cousins.

I wonder what church would be like

if instead of acting like

church is the place that

once a week

we can shove life aside

sort of

and reconnect with God

kind of

we believed that it is a place

that once or twice or three times a week

we can connect with souls

and share with them the same God

who lives and breathes inside us

twenty-four/seven.

I wonder what church would be like

if instead of noticing everything that’s wrong

and demanding that the church leaders fix it

soon

or I’ll have to find another church

we fixed our eyes on Jesus,

the Author and Finisher of our faith,

Great Physician,

Bread of Life,

source of Living Water,

Prince of Peace,

the Beginning and the End,

the embodiment of Love,

the Great I Am.

I wonder what church would be like

if instead of walking in and saying

“I made it, Pastor, now fill me up…”

we said

“Here I am, Lord, I pour myself out!”

I wonder what church would be like

if instead of wondering

 

I just did it.

 

 

 

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An Open Letter to God

August 16, 2009
When I Ran Into A Brick Wall...
Image by cobalt123 via Flickr

I heard you, God.

I’m not getting it all right yet; I’m still learning. You keep finding ways of getting my attention, and of steering me in the right direction, whether or not it’s where I want to go. Well…where I think I want to go anyway.

I heard you this morning when you asked me when I was going to start getting serious about you, God. My first reaction was, “What do you mean? I am serious about you!”

Then you reminded me that for a long time I said I was serious about my marriage. And I was. But it wasn’t where you wanted it to be. I wasn’t growing and I wasn’t keeping the right priorities. You tried to get my attention more than once, but I brushed you aside, gave you lip service, or ignored you. It took a crisis for me to realize where I was heading and to really get serious about my marriage and my priorities.

It’s still a work in progress, but you knew that. I’m still getting things wrong sometimes, but I’m learning, and I’m working diligently to grow and strengthen my marriage every day.

“See?” I said to you. “I’m serious about my marriage. I listened to you. What makes you think I’m not serious about you?”

Then you reminded me that for a long time I said I was serious about my job and my career. But in reality I was stalled. You gave me talents, and instead of investing them, I buried them. I coasted instead of developing and honing and building those talents to fulfill the potential you put in me to become the best teacher I was capable of being. It took some serious challenges before I looked up and noticed how you were trying to get me to pay attention.

I still have a long way to go, but you know that better than I do. I still make mistakes, but I’m working on them and I take seriously the responsibilities you have put in my hands.

“So, God, what’s your point?” My self-righteousness began rising as I talked to you. “You got my attention. I listened. Twice! I turned things around and I’m moving forward now. I do take you seriously.”

Then you reminded me that my relationship with you is not about fixing my mistakes or becoming a better person or even being a great teacher, father, or husband. It’s first about knowing you. The other stuff comes afterwards.

So much of my thinking still needs adjustment. How many times have I treated you like you’re an afterlife insurance salesman? Pay the regular premiums, pray the prayers, confess the sins. But who thinks about their insurance in between the annual payments? How often have I acted like serving the church or serving my family is the same as serving you? I see now that I’ve just been wading ankle deep at the shoreline instead of diving into the ocean.

So finally you asked me a simple, pointed question: “Do you really want to wait for the catastrophe to strike before you finally start to take me seriously?”

Well, I’m still learning, so I can only promise you that while I’m going to take you seriously now–really take you seriously–I’m also going to mess this up at some point. Probably more than once.

But God, I hear you.

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The Awesome Power of Free Will

April 9, 2009
(spigolature: libero arbitrio - free will)
Image by gualtiero via Flickr

As my relationship with God continues to develop, my perspective about certain things keeps shifting. Lately, I’ve been thinking about the power that God has given us by allowing us free will. By doing so, he has handed us the ability to choose right or wrong, and the power of great control.

It’s simple, sometimes, to think that we are at the mercy of events and circumstances, that God is capricious or aloof, allowing things to happen that aren’t in our best interests. When bad things happen, we pray for God’s miraculous intervention. When good things happen we praise God for his blessings.

Most of the things that happen to us on a daily basis, though, aren’t inherently good or bad. Of course there is evil in the world, but I don’t believe that many of us run into it as often as we think we do. The things that we judge to be “good” or “bad” we really evaulate based on how they make us feel. The problem with this is that good things can make us feel bad and bad things can make us feel good.

The real goodness and the true miraculous intervention of God often come from the gift he already delivered: free will. We have awesome power in our hands to be creative or destructive in any situation.

Consider the parable of the Good Samaritan:

“There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.

“A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’ (Luke 10:30-35, MSG)

We know the story well, and we usually think of it as a simple story of something bad happening to the victim–through no fault of his own–and the Samaritan showing mercy and helping him, being the neighbor that Jesus tells us we should be to everyone. But consider another free will choice that took place here: that of the robber. His desttructive choice left another man beaten and bleeding on the side of the road. He did not have to do that, and I’m certain it wasn’t part of God’s plan for his life. But the Samaritan came into the situation and chose to create instead of destroy.

We each have the ability to choose to create or to destroy. If my son wins a baseball game, I can celebrate it with him and create joy, or I can hold it over him as an expectation for every game to come, destroying his love of the game. If a tragedy falls on my family, I can choose to rebuild, or I can choose to be bitter and tear down what little remains.

God desires for us to become like him. God is the Creator, and wants us to create. He gave us the power to create, but even more stunning is that he gave us the power to choose whether we will or not. In every situation, then, I need to think about what it will take to use my creative power to make something where there once was nothing. Then choose.

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Not Just for Sunday School Any More

January 11, 2009

If you follow my professional blog, you’ll know that I did an interesting project with my class this week. We explored comments left at the website 1000 Things That Matter by people around the world, analyzing them to see if there were any patterns or recurring themes. Besides the academic results, I was struck by how the students’ analysis exactly mirrored scriptural principles.

Let me first say that there was no mention of religion, God, or the Bible during our discussion, and the web site had comments from a very broad variety of people. In fact, there was only one comment that overtly mentioned God, and I actually left that one out of the list I gave to my students.

The first group I worked with was second and third graders. I had absolutely no preconceptions about where the discussion would go, but as they discussed their observations, I started to see that there were some themes running through the posts. I was curious if the students would notice them.

As they wrapped up their study, I asked them to name the common themes they saw. I was amazed as they named, in this order:

  • Love
  • Joy
  • Peace

I’m certain that the class had no idea they had just named the first three Fruits of the Spirit.

They also identified “Relationships” as a fourth theme, something which I believe any reader of scripture would agree is an essential part of being a Christian.

A couple of thoughts occur to me as I ponder this. One is how scripture may seem irrelevant or out of date to someone who isn’t familiar with it, yet when they are asked about what matters most to them, they name the things that the Bible also describes as priorities.

But even more than this is how so many people—and I should include myself in this—desire the same fundamental things and work so hard to achieve them in their lives. They just want better relationships, to love and be loved, to enjoy life, to live in peace. All they are missing is the only thing that can make them a reality: a relationship with God. Scripture is very clear that these are not things we are entitled to, and they are not things we will ever accomplish on our own. They are all a result of allowing the Holy Spirit to live in us, work through us, and change us.

I think this can also be an encouragement to those of us who are reluctant to share our own faith with others. Maybe one way to approach it is to start by asking them what matters most to them. Then you can introduce them to the one who can provide it.

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Under the Tissue Paper, Another Gift

December 26, 2008

As often happens during family holiday gatherings, we started reminiscing yesterday about Christmases past. One story that made us all smile was about my wife’s grandmother. One year, when we asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she simply said, “Just give me all your love. I don’t need anything else.” So each one of us gave her a box that had a piece of paper that simply said LOVE. When she opened the first one, she saw the paper and asked what it meant.

“It’s your gift, Grandmom. You said you just wanted our love. So that’s what we gave you.” She smiled and was obviously very touched. Then she looked under the tissue paper and said, “No, really, where’s my gift?”

As I was watching my children and my nephews opening their gifts yesterday, I realized that are layers to my own understanding of Christmas, and it’s reflected in the progression of my attitude towards gift-giving. Each time I looked under the tissue paper, I found another meaning to Christmas.

When I was a child, it was all about the getting. All that mattered to me was whether I got cool stuff and how much I was accumulating. I’d rip open one package, and had hardly even seen what was inside before I moved on to the next box. I was so engrossed in my own pile of loot that I hardly even noticed what everyone else was opening. And sometimes, I’d look under the tissue paper and wonder, “No, really, where’s my gift?”

As I got older, though, things shifted. As much as I still enjoyed (and enjoy) receiving gifts, it was more about the giving than the receiving. I got so much joy from seeing the pleasure that other people received when I had given a particularly appropriate gift.

Yesterday, I lifted yet another layer of tissue paper and discovered that it’s about the receiving again. But what matters to me now isn’t the gift, it’s my response to it. I have had many different responses to gifts over the years, some verbalized, some kept to myself:

“OK! What’s in the next one?”
“Is that all?”
“It’s just what I wanted!”
“It’s not exactly what I wanted…”
“Maybe I can exchange it.”
“Well, it’s the thought that counts.”

And for most of my life, my response has revolved around what I wanted or thought I needed.

But a gift is more about the giver than the receiver. The giver chose the gift believing it was a good match for me. The greatest expression of love I can give back is to accept it, open it, and use it. It may not be exactly what I thought I wanted, but if I allow myself to appreciate it—and I mean honestly appreciate it, not just obligatory lip service—the value of the gift is fully realized.

This thought process naturally brought me around to the original Christmas gift: God’s grace and forgiveness. He gave me His son’s life in exchange for mine. So many times the meaning of this gift has been lost on me. “Is that all? It’s not exactly what I wanted. Maybe I can exchange it…. Well, it’s the thought that counts.” And I truly felt that the thought was what counted, and all I needed to do was acknowledge the thought. “OK, God, I really appreciate you thinking of me. Thanks!”

But it’s not.  The gift counts, and the giver counts. What good is it to get a gift card if I never spend it, regardless of how much I “appreciate” the thought? God wants me to do more than take his gift and appreciate it. He wants me to do something with it.

So for me, this Christmas will be about responding more deeply to God’s gift than I ever have. Not just appreciating the gift, not just appreciating the thought, but loving the giver and giving my whole life back to him. Because God’s real gift to me is that if I give him my life, he’ll also take responsibility for making it a worthwhile one.

At one point I was contemplating titling this post The True Meaning of Christmas, but quickly realized that besides being a cliché, I’m not nearly old enough yet to have figured it all out. I’m certain that when I look under the next layer of tissue paper, there will be yet another meaning to the gift. I’m looking forward to discovering it.

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