Well, it's finally over.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008, after about two years of campaigning, a man was elected to serve as the 44th President of the United States. And unless you just got home from the former planet Pluto, you know that that man is the junior senator from Illinois, Barack Hussein Obama II.
There's no doubt it's an historic occasion. Americans have elected their first African American President. Of course, based on his voting record in the Senate, it seems as though Americans have elected their most politically liberal President and naturally, a lot of Evangelical Christians are not exactly happy about that fact. But I find that there was more history made in this election than just those items. And most of us Evangelical Christian-types would do well to note: Barack Obama understands something about getting his message across to the people. I heard some of the pundits talk last night about how Campaign ‘08 was unlike anything that had come before it. I had noticed the same thing.
The Obama campaign captured the imaginations of many. There’s no doubt of that. Many young people and African Americans especially seemed swept up in the notion of making history in the voting booth. I got a stronger sense of this the day of the election than I ever had before as I was driving down Hwy. 98 in Durham. As I raced along the rain soaked asphalt, my attention was drawn to a tent set up outside a church along the road. Braving the misty rain of that Election Day morning, two African American males were selling shirts to people in the neighborhood. Their tent bore a sign reading “Custom Obama Shirts for Sale.” And they actually had customers! Buying T-shirts! IN THE RAIN!
That got me thinking: When had I ever seen people on the side of the road selling custom-made shirts for a political candidate? And not selling them as just one product alongside other popular designs! Just selling shirts for a politician! Furthermore, how popular has someone or something got to be for people to stand around in a tent on a dreary day selling paraphernalia on the side of the road? And how much more popular must that one or thing be for people to actually show up to buy the merchandise? I knew there was very little chance that John McCain was going to win the election but at that moment I had a concept of why. Senator Obama and his campaign managers had captured the hearts of people, something that Senator McCain had not even come close to doing.
Throughout that day and into the night, I thought about all the stickers, signs, posters, internet banner ads and such I had seen for the Obama campaign over the preceding months. They had seemed strange (even occasionally disturbing) to me and unlike any Presidential campaign before. There were so many slogans: “Change We Need,” “Our Moment is Now,” and especially the one word, “Hope,” stand out among others. There were the line drawings of the candidate’s head, smiling and depicted from a low, seemingly heroic angle, these often appearing above the aforementioned “Hope“ and awash in light blue cream and red (and looking to me more than a little like propaganda images of revolutionary Communist-types like Lenin and Guevara). There were the very retro-looking red and blue Obama/Biden bumper stickers (which I believe were mainly put out by the ultra-liberal moveon.org). And there was that now famous (or perhaps infamous) “O” logo—so simple, so professional, so sleek—with the stripes of an American flag draped through the center appearing as a path to the future. Each of these designs spoke to different segments of the population and most of them were undeniably cool-looking. And they conveyed so much in so little.
But that was a small portion of the overall approach of the winning campaign. The Obama camp seemed to be able to use every weapon at their disposal to get the word out. You could hardly go online to any popular websites without seeing banner ads prompting people to register so they could vote for Obama. In the last days of the campaign, the Obama camp outdistanced McCain on the number of phone calls made to prospective voters in battleground states, many of the calls made by live operators. Toward the end, while McCain was focusing on how Obama was going to screw up the country, the Illinois senator’s message was more positive: categorizing his opponent as desperate and his supporters as heroes getting ready to change the world. And everywhere you looked--online, on television, on T-shirts--you saw his face, smiling reassuringly or looking determinedly off toward the horizon. He always seemed confident, personable, filled with charisma. It’s hard not to admire the effectiveness of it all.
Well, all of these thoughts led me to another: How is it that a presidential candidate can inspire so many people to action when the church in America can’t even seem to inspire its own members--much less the world at large? And that’s when I realized that a lot of what Barack Obama has been doing is what we as believers need to be doing if we ever want to reach out to a culture that has almost completely written us off as irrelevant. So here are a few ministry lessons I think we as Christians seeking to glorify our God in the world can learn from Obama:
1. BE POSITIVE. The first and most important thing is to offer people that one word that has become so attached to Barack Obama, thanks to the geniuses that marketed his campaign: HOPE. I know it’s easy to look at all that’s going wrong with the world (election results included) and complain. Believe me, I am as guilty as the next guy of grumbling and mumbling (and more guilty than the two guys next to him) but nobody likes to hear people grouse or offer grumpy, unsolicited advice all the time (believe me, I’ve learned that the hard way!). Most people see where things aren’t so great. They want to know where they can look for hope that things can be better. Who better than believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to offer that hope? Why should we be so negative all the time when this world is not our home? We have the hope of heaven. We have the Holy Spirit living inside of us which means we have a source of wisdom and comfort that this world can never comprehend. And we have God’s Word that assures us of the truth behind those things we hope for. That’s so much better news than what any politician can offer to hurting people. So why do we act like all the news is bad all the time? We know who wins in the end and it isn’t some senator, whether from Arizona or Illinois. Nor is it the forces of darkness, despair and death.
2. BE PERSONAL. Secondly, we need to personally reach out to people. If we can find the disenfranchised and show them that we love them and we want them to be on our team because God wants them on His, God will be glorified and people will be drawn to Him. It’s not enough to sit back in our churches and hope they come to us; we need to go to THEM! That’s what Jesus did. That’s what Paul did. Barack Obama spent lots of time courting more liberal voters in traditionally conservative states--even in conservative districts of some of those states. He reached out to working class folks who are afraid of losing their jobs. He went on the Michael Baisden Show by phone the night of the campaign. He spent time in his own phone banks in towns he was campaigning actually calling people himself. If a candidate for President can meet people where they live, why can’t we? Seems to me Paul had something to say about that (1 Cor. 9:19-23). Why do you think Obama’s campaign put out all those different slogans and poster designs in all those different styles? Why did he even bother campaigning in historically red states? And why can’t we as Christians start focusing on how we can reach people—even if it means we have to change how we do things—rather than what makes us comfortable? This convicts me as I’ve been learning it in my youth ministry. Oh, and even more convicting, perhaps? Part of being personal means we actually need to LISTEN to people tell their story rather than trying to figure out how we can fit the Romans Road into every conversation. You don’t like people that don’t even know you telling you what you should or shouldn’t be doing and thinking, do you? Why would someone who doesn’t even know Jesus feel differently about that?
3. BE PROFESSIONAL. Why is it that it seems like every form of entertainment or culture has an inferior “Christian” alternative these days? Well, actually the reason is obvious and sad: American Christians have, by-and-large, much more interest in providing themselves with “inoffensive” entertainment than they do with actually reaching out to a lost world and those marketing to Christians know Christians will buy their stuff even if its sub-par. Of course, you try to sell the less-than-pro “Christian” stuff to the masses and they just laugh at you. And why should we expect otherwise? Oh, how I long for the days when something done in the name of God was done more effectively than anything else out there, when Bach would compose musical masterpieces to God’s glory or Michelangelo would paint and sculpt for chapels and cathedrals. The church of today, it seems, thrives on doing things so much less attractively and effectively than the world (for more on that, check out this website: churchmarketingsucks.com). When you take all of Obama’s campaign paraphernalia and set it alongside his opponent’s, it’s not hard to tell that a WHOLE lot more money and effort went into the campaign that actually won the election. There was pretty much one style of McCain poster/button/sticker. Obama had multiples put out by his national campaign and several more that were being done by various interested parties. The slick “O” logo was, by itself, better thought out than any visuals I saw on the McCain ticket. And so much of the design work in Obama’s camp was based as much on advertising for magazines and MTV as it was on traditional political advertising. The result was McCain/Palin signage made the Republican ticket look like a throw-back compared to the “cutting edge” symbolism of the President-elect-to-be. And related to this idea of professionalism…
4. BE PLUGGED-IN. As believers and ministers, we need to understand something about what’s going on in the world around us and how best to communicate to that world. It’s safe to say that the Republicans had already been successfully categorized as “out-of-touch” with working-class America and youth culture by the time the campaign started and Barack Obama capitalized on that but if anything, the Obama camp lengthened that divide while creating an image that Senator Obama understood so much better where Americans were coming from. If there was a way to get the word out, his campaign seemed to know how to utilize it. Commentators were already talking about how politics had changed forever with this election before the first return had even come in, with a new emphasis on the realm of the digital. The Obama banner ads were everywhere online. There were multiple domain names for websites where facets of the Obama campaign would be illuminated. Facebook groups and fan pages sprung up like weeds, some official, some entirely nonprofessional. Al Gore may have invented the internet, but no candidate has used it as effectively as Barack Obama. Why is there even still a church in America (including my own—but I’ll work on that when I get a chance) that doesn’t have a website? Think about it: When was the last time you cracked open the old yellow pages to find anything? And if you have done so recently, I bet it was because you weren’t close to a computer or your iPhone didn’t have service where you were.
5. BE POSITIVE. No, I didn’t miss something. It’s just that I don’t think I can overstate the importance of this quality as it relates to ministry. So positive campaigning gets a second mention. If we think scaring people into the Kingdom works in 2008, we need to go grab a venti espresso and WAKE UP! No one wants to hear Christians tell them how bad they are. I’m sorry. It just won’t work in a day and age when sin is seen as a manmade category that only exists in a few closed, superstitious minds. But that’s not to say people don’t realize things are messed up and that they need help. And we have HOPE for them. Real hope. Not the savior of liberalism but the Savior of the world. So let’s stop complaining and start encouraging! Honey, vinegar and flies—you know how that one goes and it’s still true.
Having said all this, I don’t want to leave you with the wrong impression. Because I think there are a couple of major things the Obama campaign has done that we need to keep from doing at all costs. And that leads me to the two negative lessons I have to offer from Barack Obama’s campaign (not the only negatives necessarily, just the only ones I’m offering):
6. BE HONEST. I’m going to have to sound a little more biased here but really, does anyone who voted for Obama have an idea of what he’s actually going to do in office? The only thing I know he’s promised for sure is signing the Freedom of Choice Act which would take away all restrictions against abortion, including repealing the Partial Birth Abortion Ban. He’s tentatively offered a pullout timeframe for Iraq but I think it’s safe to say that that’s subject to change. Beyond that, most of what he’s offered has been based on himself and his opponents personally—such as charging that the McCain campaign would try to point out that he Obama did not look like all those Presidents on our money, which Obama later promised was not playing the race card (I’ll let you decide on that one). He also talked a lot about more about how the Republicans had screwed up than he talked about how he would fix it—although, as previously noted, he did a great job of building up the hope in voters that he would be able to do something to change things. But as believers, we need not only to offer hope but to be frank about the contents of the hope we have to give and why it matters. We have nothing to be ashamed of. “Bait-and-switch” evangelism belongs more properly to the counterfeit groups—the Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the like—who always want to focus on secondary issues and who don’t give the full picture of what they believe until their convert is already secured in their camp. Be real and be honest. It’s what so many people are looking for and what so few of them expect, especially from the church.
7. BE HUMAN. The final lesson from Obama is also based on a negative of his campaign. If there is one thing that everyone seems to acknowledge about campaign Obama ’08, it’s that the candidate seemed to be sold as some kind of superhero or savior. The cult of personality can be a powerful force in politics and occasionally even in the church but it’s usually not a good idea for believers to spend a lot of time promoting any leader other than Jesus Christ or any agenda other than the Scripture. For one thing, no one but Jesus can live up to that level of expectation or scrutiny. I think back to the fallen TV evangelists of the 1980s. They had polished their images so much that they seemed like helmet-haired angels of God but the damage that was done to the Kingdom in those days after they fell remains incalculable. The word “televangelist” still means “shyster” to most people to this very day and no preacher, even if he’s on TV every day, wants the “T” word applied to him. But if we approach people with the notion that we know we can fall and fail—that we still mess up but God has changed us on the inside—that can communicate to people. That brings me to the other reason the “supersaint” image doesn’t work: People just don’t believe it. They may be desperate enough for change that they believe the hype about a political candidate but (hate to burst your bubble) most people stopped believing in our hype a long time ago. It’s time to offer some truth instead of hype. And shouldn’t truth be what we’re about anyway?
So that’s it: the lessons I learned about ministry from Barack Obama. Many more could (and hopefully will) be added to the list. To that end, what lessons would you add? Do you think the church could (or should) take cues from such a radical Presidential campaign? Or am I just off my meds (again)? Leave a comment. Let me know.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Ladies: "How can I tell if he loves me so?" Answer: DUMP HIM.
I've been witnessing a trend for a couple of years now that has disturbed me: Many godly girls I know seem to keep falling hard in love with Christian guys who are merely impressed with them, not truly in love with them. The guy respects the girl, is attracted to her, thinks she's got a lot to offer, but he's not really "in love" with her (maybe he could be, but he's not now). In some cases, the guy is just so desperate to be married (mostly because--let's be honest, guys--he wants to be able to have sex without sinning) that he is all too willing to get involved with a girl who is interested in him and seems a good fit, just so he doesn't have to be alone. In other cases, the guy is just trying different girls on for size (like they were running shoes or something) and not really pursuing a girl sacrificially the way Christ loves and pursues the church--giving everything for her to win her, keep her and perfect her (Ephesians 5:25-29).
I am absolutely convinced that the best relationships are the ones my mentor Mike has described to me on numerous occasions: The guy is already convinced going in--he would marry her right now if she'd have him. He just needs to convince her that he is worthy of her love and trust. After all, we didn't seek Christ (Romans 3:11); He sought us. He loved us first (Rom. 5:8,10) so it stands to reason that the best relationships would involve a man loving his wife and pursuing her PRIOR to her being convinced of and responding to him. Now that's not to say that it can't ever work when the girl is interested first. We're human and fallen and we don't always reflect eternal truths perfectly. But most of the successful relationships I've seen where the girl had been waiting on the guy had more to do with the guy being clueless that the girl was interested/available than with him needing to be convinced that she was worthy once he realized a relationship with her was possible.
The picture of Christ and the church that marriage is supposed to paint (Eph. 5:22-33) involves a man who loves/cherishes/sacrifices for his wife and a woman who respects/honors/submits to her husband but too often, it's primarily the woman who loves and the man who respects. Now. we all need both love and respect. But where a man has more respect than love for a woman or a woman has more love than respect for a man, biblically speaking things are backwards.
(Quick note for the ladies here: Respect as I'm using it here is not like the general respect you might have for all brothers and sisters in Christ--just like you wouldn't want your husband to love every other Christian to the extent that he loves you. This is a much deeper level of respect that says: "I would go along with him wherever he leads--even if it's the last place I want to go--and I will support him and encourage him every step of the way because I trust him completely with my life and my heart." It's an exclusive respect, just like the husband's love for the wife is an exclusive love. If this seems similar to the kind of faith and trust you know you place in Christ, it's because it's supposed to be! In fact, Christ should be the only one you respect and trust more than you do your husband. Until you are sure that you have that level of respect for a man, please don't give him your heart because he hasn't proven himself to you yet.)
So to the rather provocative title of this note: I think I've found a solution, ladies. You see, a friend of mine once commented that a man will never cherish what he doesn't have to fight for. I have another friend I know who lived this out. He was in love with a woman and they had been dating for some time. Unfortunately, their relationship started to stagnate--at least from the girl's perspective. She kept sending him signals that he needed to step things up and move forward and he didn't appear to be ready. She finished school and moved back home, two states away. Seeing that it didn't look like it was going anywhere, she did exactly what I am offering as a solution here: She dumped him. Now my friend really loved this girl and he was devastated because he was sure he wanted to marry her. So, he did something radical: He drove straight across two states to tell her that if she really wanted to end it, he would respect that but if there was anything he could do to hold on to her, he would do it. They were married a few months later.
Girls, do you doubt that your guy whom you're so crazy about would do that? Going after a guy and holding onto him tightly because he's what you think you want when he doesn't love you enough to lay down his life for you day-by-day is settling for less than God's best. Why settle? I don't care what he looks like, how well-spoken he is, how confident he is, how successful he is, how much he takes your breath away and makes your heart beat fast, how good you look on his arm, how much he reminds you of that image you have in your head of your perfect husband that's been there since you were twelve or any other reason you think you might have for loving this guy. If he isn't willing to sacrifice anything and everything but his integrity and his faith in Christ for you, he isn't worth your time and he certainly isn't worthy of your heart. So if you're not sure, may I humbly suggest that you put him to the test. Make him work for your heart. Dump him altogether if you have to, like my friend's future wife did. If he really is a quality guy and truly loves you like Christ loved the church, he'll be hurt, yes, but he'll do anything to lovingly win you back. I know it's a scary thought; you LOVE this guy. Losing him is a scary proposition. But I promise you, if he isn't willing to fight and sacrifice for you, he is so much less than what God has for you and it's so much better to wait for God's best in faith than to settle for what you can see. And if you can't trust your heart to God, how can you trust it to a man who is just as imperfect as you are (often moreso)?
Oh and on the flip side, if there's a guy in your life who displays godly character and wisdom who does love you like that (and I admit I'm a little more biased on this part of it because while I've been both of the guys in this note, I've far more often found myself on this side of the issue; but it's still good advice, I think), instead of wondering why the other guy who makes your heart flutter doesn't give you the time of day, how about showing some favor to the one who does love you? Give him the chance to win your heart and you might just find that a man who really cherishes you and lays his life down for you can not only make your heart flutter even more quickly than that other guy, he can keep that heart safe too, because for him, your heart is something valuable and irreplaceable. And my dear sister, that is exactly what your heart is. And you deserve to be loved like that. Please don't settle for less. Let a man win you by his love and godliness. Then you can be safe to place your trust in him and your heart in his hands.
I am absolutely convinced that the best relationships are the ones my mentor Mike has described to me on numerous occasions: The guy is already convinced going in--he would marry her right now if she'd have him. He just needs to convince her that he is worthy of her love and trust. After all, we didn't seek Christ (Romans 3:11); He sought us. He loved us first (Rom. 5:8,10) so it stands to reason that the best relationships would involve a man loving his wife and pursuing her PRIOR to her being convinced of and responding to him. Now that's not to say that it can't ever work when the girl is interested first. We're human and fallen and we don't always reflect eternal truths perfectly. But most of the successful relationships I've seen where the girl had been waiting on the guy had more to do with the guy being clueless that the girl was interested/available than with him needing to be convinced that she was worthy once he realized a relationship with her was possible.
The picture of Christ and the church that marriage is supposed to paint (Eph. 5:22-33) involves a man who loves/cherishes/sacrifices for his wife and a woman who respects/honors/submits to her husband but too often, it's primarily the woman who loves and the man who respects. Now. we all need both love and respect. But where a man has more respect than love for a woman or a woman has more love than respect for a man, biblically speaking things are backwards.
(Quick note for the ladies here: Respect as I'm using it here is not like the general respect you might have for all brothers and sisters in Christ--just like you wouldn't want your husband to love every other Christian to the extent that he loves you. This is a much deeper level of respect that says: "I would go along with him wherever he leads--even if it's the last place I want to go--and I will support him and encourage him every step of the way because I trust him completely with my life and my heart." It's an exclusive respect, just like the husband's love for the wife is an exclusive love. If this seems similar to the kind of faith and trust you know you place in Christ, it's because it's supposed to be! In fact, Christ should be the only one you respect and trust more than you do your husband. Until you are sure that you have that level of respect for a man, please don't give him your heart because he hasn't proven himself to you yet.)
So to the rather provocative title of this note: I think I've found a solution, ladies. You see, a friend of mine once commented that a man will never cherish what he doesn't have to fight for. I have another friend I know who lived this out. He was in love with a woman and they had been dating for some time. Unfortunately, their relationship started to stagnate--at least from the girl's perspective. She kept sending him signals that he needed to step things up and move forward and he didn't appear to be ready. She finished school and moved back home, two states away. Seeing that it didn't look like it was going anywhere, she did exactly what I am offering as a solution here: She dumped him. Now my friend really loved this girl and he was devastated because he was sure he wanted to marry her. So, he did something radical: He drove straight across two states to tell her that if she really wanted to end it, he would respect that but if there was anything he could do to hold on to her, he would do it. They were married a few months later.
Girls, do you doubt that your guy whom you're so crazy about would do that? Going after a guy and holding onto him tightly because he's what you think you want when he doesn't love you enough to lay down his life for you day-by-day is settling for less than God's best. Why settle? I don't care what he looks like, how well-spoken he is, how confident he is, how successful he is, how much he takes your breath away and makes your heart beat fast, how good you look on his arm, how much he reminds you of that image you have in your head of your perfect husband that's been there since you were twelve or any other reason you think you might have for loving this guy. If he isn't willing to sacrifice anything and everything but his integrity and his faith in Christ for you, he isn't worth your time and he certainly isn't worthy of your heart. So if you're not sure, may I humbly suggest that you put him to the test. Make him work for your heart. Dump him altogether if you have to, like my friend's future wife did. If he really is a quality guy and truly loves you like Christ loved the church, he'll be hurt, yes, but he'll do anything to lovingly win you back. I know it's a scary thought; you LOVE this guy. Losing him is a scary proposition. But I promise you, if he isn't willing to fight and sacrifice for you, he is so much less than what God has for you and it's so much better to wait for God's best in faith than to settle for what you can see. And if you can't trust your heart to God, how can you trust it to a man who is just as imperfect as you are (often moreso)?
Oh and on the flip side, if there's a guy in your life who displays godly character and wisdom who does love you like that (and I admit I'm a little more biased on this part of it because while I've been both of the guys in this note, I've far more often found myself on this side of the issue; but it's still good advice, I think), instead of wondering why the other guy who makes your heart flutter doesn't give you the time of day, how about showing some favor to the one who does love you? Give him the chance to win your heart and you might just find that a man who really cherishes you and lays his life down for you can not only make your heart flutter even more quickly than that other guy, he can keep that heart safe too, because for him, your heart is something valuable and irreplaceable. And my dear sister, that is exactly what your heart is. And you deserve to be loved like that. Please don't settle for less. Let a man win you by his love and godliness. Then you can be safe to place your trust in him and your heart in his hands.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
So apparently it's my weekend...
The bulletin cover today said it was Single Adult Sunday (of course there was nothing that happened in either service or Sunday School that would have let anyone know this--but thanks for trying, Lifeway). And I find out that apparently yesterday Youth Specialties declared to be Youth Worker Appreciation Day. So I figure as a single adult youth director, this should have been my weekend, right?
You know, I gotta confess I didn't really feel like it was my weekend this weekend (and definitely not my week this week) but it's good to know, I guess. :)
You know, I gotta confess I didn't really feel like it was my weekend this weekend (and definitely not my week this week) but it's good to know, I guess. :)
Friday, August 22, 2008
Sharing Space in the Schoolhouse of Suffering
Well, everybody hurts sometimes,
Everybody cries.
And everybody hurts sometimes.
And everybody hurts sometimes.
So, hold on,
Hold on.
In the days of His flesh, He [Jesus] offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
Hebrews 5:7-10 (NASB)
This is perhaps one of the most amazing and perplexing passages in the Scripture. Jesus prayed to the Father who was "able to save Him from death, and He was heard" (v. 7). But wait a minute! Jesus prayed to be spared from death if possible BUT HE STILL DIED! How can the writer of Hebrews say that, "He was heard because of His piety," by, "the One able to save Him from death?" If God heard Him, why didn't He save Him? And that's not the only problem: Jesus was God Himself, the Son of God, who always submits to the Father, so how could it be that, "He learned obedience from the things which He suffered" (v. 8)?
Tackling the latter problem first, it seems to me that this "learning" of obedience refers not to learning how to obey (Jesus always obeys the Father) but rather to gaining an experiential understanding of obedience and the price it carries--He learned what it really would mean to Him personally to obey by the sufferings He underwent. He obeyed the Father by coming in human flesh to suffer and die--something that is impossible for His God nature but is the norm for humanity (and thus made possible by Jesus' own human nature). And in His sufferings, He learned what that true measure of obedience was. If Jesus' sufferings taught Him what obedience means when He always obeyed perfectly to begin with, do we have any less to learn than Jesus Himself?
But even besides that, what a comfort it is to think that God actually understands our needs experientially:
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
Hebrews 4:15 (NASB)
He pled with God for His life but He submitted to the will of the Father in His death. "He was heard". . . and the answer came back, "No, but I will accomplish My will in You." Jesus submitted as He always did and died so that God's plan of salvation might be actualized.
But Jesus isn't the only servant of God to ask to be released from sufferings. And He's not the only one whom God denied. Consider Paul, to whom the Lord had revealed the glories of heaven. But then, suffering came to teach Paul, even as it had the blessed Son of God Himself and just like Jesus, the Apostle pled to be spared:
Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.
2 Corinthians 12:7-8 (NASB)
But as with the Father had with Christ, so the Lord had other plans for Paul:
And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults , with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NASB)
And so suffering--the great teacher of Christ Himself--taught Paul as well. It taught him, "to keep from exalting" himself (v 7). It taught him that the grace of Christ "is sufficient" for our needs (v.9). It taught him to be "well content" with all the trials he would face "for Christ's sake" (v. 10). And it taught him that his weakness leaves room for Christ to exercise His strength in him (vv. 9, 10). What have we to learn that only suffering can teach us? Praise God that He understands our weakness and loves us so much in the midst of it!
Father, forgive me for crying out against the great teacher Suffering. His wounds instruct me just as they instructed my Lord before me. Thank you for granting to me not only faith but suffering so that I can learn what it means to obey and so that Your strength may show through in my weakness. Teach me not to exalt in myself; and I pray that You would continue to refine me in the cauldron of suffering, not maliciously or excessively but only as much as it takes to make me more like Christ, obedient and used by You. Thank You for blessing me with so much more good than I could ever deserve and for submitting me to so much less suffering than I surely do deserve. I am in awe of You, Lord. Please comfort my friends who are hurting, Lord. I love You. Teach me to love You more. Amen.
Everybody cries.
And everybody hurts sometimes.
And everybody hurts sometimes.
So, hold on,
Hold on.
The words by William Berry, Peter Buck, Michael Mills and Michael Stipe (aka R.E.M.) are familiar to anyone who listened to much pop music in the 90s. "Everybody Hurts" was written as a song to comfort teenagers going through the pains of growing up (including the heartbreaks associated with first love). The song was actually so influential in Great Britain that, according to Wikipedia, the British charity the Samaritans actually published a brochure advertising their suicide hotline with only the lyrics to the song and the hotline number.
There's something about that concept that helps us in our pain: "Everybody hurts," not just, "I hurt." I think it's because there's an isolating factor to pain. When we hurt, we feel like no one understands us--like no one else could have ever felt what we feel; or at least they don't appreciate the extent of it. The poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox wrote these even more famous words:
Laugh and the world laughs with you,
Weep, and you weep alone;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
But has trouble enough of its own.
We laugh together but cry alone. And yet, according to Wilcox, there are more lonely tears than common laughter in "the sad old earth." So we're alone but there are a lot of us here "alone" together.
"Everybody hurts." There really is something comforting about that. We're not really alone. But as comforting as it is for a moment, it's not quite enough for the long dark night that strangles the light out of our souls on an ongoing basis. Pain is relative. Pain is not fairly distributed. Some of it just goes on and on and isn't so big in individual doses but really stymies us when we seem to be struggling in ways others aren't (this is more the kind of pain that I deal with and have been dealing with lately--usually related to rejections, regrets and failures). Some of it is really, harshly, world-shakingly rough (like my mentor, who lost his wife to cancer last night or my friends whose baby died the day he was born two weeks ago). But it's each our own pain and suited to us individually.
And while it's a small comfort to say, "Everybody hurts," is there something better we can say? Can we offer something that fits each and every one of us and can get us through any hurt, something that lasts. And is there a reason for it all. How about this? The same God who created this whole universe loved us enough to enter into our pain. And HE understands. And not just because He knows what He's doing and the plans He has for us, but because, in the Person of Jesus, God Himself has actually been through it. Consider these words from the writer of Hebrews:
In the days of His flesh, He [Jesus] offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
Hebrews 5:7-10 (NASB)
This is perhaps one of the most amazing and perplexing passages in the Scripture. Jesus prayed to the Father who was "able to save Him from death, and He was heard" (v. 7). But wait a minute! Jesus prayed to be spared from death if possible BUT HE STILL DIED! How can the writer of Hebrews say that, "He was heard because of His piety," by, "the One able to save Him from death?" If God heard Him, why didn't He save Him? And that's not the only problem: Jesus was God Himself, the Son of God, who always submits to the Father, so how could it be that, "He learned obedience from the things which He suffered" (v. 8)?
Tackling the latter problem first, it seems to me that this "learning" of obedience refers not to learning how to obey (Jesus always obeys the Father) but rather to gaining an experiential understanding of obedience and the price it carries--He learned what it really would mean to Him personally to obey by the sufferings He underwent. He obeyed the Father by coming in human flesh to suffer and die--something that is impossible for His God nature but is the norm for humanity (and thus made possible by Jesus' own human nature). And in His sufferings, He learned what that true measure of obedience was. If Jesus' sufferings taught Him what obedience means when He always obeyed perfectly to begin with, do we have any less to learn than Jesus Himself?
But even besides that, what a comfort it is to think that God actually understands our needs experientially:
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
Hebrews 4:15 (NASB)
He pled with God for His life but He submitted to the will of the Father in His death. "He was heard". . . and the answer came back, "No, but I will accomplish My will in You." Jesus submitted as He always did and died so that God's plan of salvation might be actualized.
But Jesus isn't the only servant of God to ask to be released from sufferings. And He's not the only one whom God denied. Consider Paul, to whom the Lord had revealed the glories of heaven. But then, suffering came to teach Paul, even as it had the blessed Son of God Himself and just like Jesus, the Apostle pled to be spared:
Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.
2 Corinthians 12:7-8 (NASB)
But as with the Father had with Christ, so the Lord had other plans for Paul:
And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults , with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NASB)
And so suffering--the great teacher of Christ Himself--taught Paul as well. It taught him, "to keep from exalting" himself (v 7). It taught him that the grace of Christ "is sufficient" for our needs (v.9). It taught him to be "well content" with all the trials he would face "for Christ's sake" (v. 10). And it taught him that his weakness leaves room for Christ to exercise His strength in him (vv. 9, 10). What have we to learn that only suffering can teach us? Praise God that He understands our weakness and loves us so much in the midst of it!
Father, forgive me for crying out against the great teacher Suffering. His wounds instruct me just as they instructed my Lord before me. Thank you for granting to me not only faith but suffering so that I can learn what it means to obey and so that Your strength may show through in my weakness. Teach me not to exalt in myself; and I pray that You would continue to refine me in the cauldron of suffering, not maliciously or excessively but only as much as it takes to make me more like Christ, obedient and used by You. Thank You for blessing me with so much more good than I could ever deserve and for submitting me to so much less suffering than I surely do deserve. I am in awe of You, Lord. Please comfort my friends who are hurting, Lord. I love You. Teach me to love You more. Amen.
Monday, August 11, 2008
MUST READ: From Acts 29: "A Child's Heart for Church Planting"
Ravi, when I go out and plant a church, I want you on my team, buddy!
http://www.acts29network.org/acts-29-blog/a-childs-heart-for-church-planting/
Seriously, if that doesn't give you hope for the future of the Kingdom, I can't imagine what would. And why don't you send your $5 along to:
Acts 29 Network Ravi Matching Fund
3524 NE 95th St Seattle, WA 98115
Praise God for what He's doing in the hearts of even the little ones! What a time to be a part of His work in this world!
http://www.acts29network.org/acts-29-blog/a-childs-heart-for-church-planting/
Seriously, if that doesn't give you hope for the future of the Kingdom, I can't imagine what would. And why don't you send your $5 along to:
Acts 29 Network Ravi Matching Fund
3524 NE 95th St Seattle, WA 98115
Praise God for what He's doing in the hearts of even the little ones! What a time to be a part of His work in this world!
Why am I still surprised...
...When God blesses me in spite of myself? I keep thinking I'm such a screw-up that nothing can ever go right with me in life or ministry and He keeps saying, "Well, of course you're a screw-up, but I'm GOD! HELLO! All you have to do is trust Me! I do the work! I get the glory! That's how it works!"
Well I can't say those were His exact words (actually Jesus explained it with this whole thing about a vine). But He sure is good, isn't He?
I trust HIM.
HE does the work (HIS way).
HE gets the glory.
That's what changing the world is really all about. Seriously, you'd think I'd get that already...
Well I can't say those were His exact words (actually Jesus explained it with this whole thing about a vine). But He sure is good, isn't He?
I trust HIM.
HE does the work (HIS way).
HE gets the glory.
That's what changing the world is really all about. Seriously, you'd think I'd get that already...
Saturday, August 9, 2008
"But how do you love the 'more lovable?'"
I promised to be honest with this blog and so I'll let you in a little closer than I normally would and tell you about a recent experience where my own fallen-ness got in the way of me:
I was driving down Creedmoor Road in Raleigh when I passed a runner. I took a quick look at this guy and got an image of someone who spends a lot of time on his own body. He was tanned and toned--ripped, even. And as I saw him run by, I realized the immediate reaction I had to him and his appearance with some regret:
I hated him.
Now mind you, I didn't (and still don't) know this guy from Adam. He could be a hard-working guy just trying to get by in the world. He could be an athlete in training. He could be a brother in Christ headed for the mission field or a young father out for a run to keep the stress down so he can be there one hundred percent for his wife and kids. But at that time, none of that crossed my mind. All I could think was how in my heart--for just a moment--I despised him.
Now in case you haven't picked up on this, the reason for this flash of hatred was jealousy. I looked at this guy and it seemed clear to me that here was a man who could have his pick of women (and likely has), while I personally seem to live somewhere between loneliness and rejection all the time (rejection being the worse of the two but risking rejection being unfortunately the only way to escape loneliness). I don't exactly tend to do well with the girls in general and worse yet right now I'm not in a place where I'm likely to meet someone new anyway. It seems like lately all the women that attract my notice are either too young or married already (or in the really scary cases that I'm seeing more of lately, both). And if guys like this are the ones getting the girls, an argument could be made that I have some grounds for hating "Running Stud" here and all his ilk.
Except I don't. Not at all. Not even a little bit. I don't have the right to choose who I will or will not love. Jesus made that abundantly clear when he applied the second part of the great commandment (the part about loving our neighbors as ourselves) to Samaritans and Jews (pretty harsh rivals, to say the least). So, while I get the concept of loving the unlovely or the unlovable, what about those I see as more lovable or desirable than me? The ones who seem to get all the breaks I don't get? We're all made in the image of God and that image is not any clearer or more obscure in a "beautiful" person than it is in an "ugly" one. And oh yeah, lest I forget and think I deserve so much better than I get, I should note that I'm a flat-out gross sinner whose only claim to anything good is that God loved me enough to send His Son.
So I had to pray and ask forgiveness. I'm not proud of such thoughts in myself, but they do show up from time-to-time. There's no excuse for it, but right there it is. If that was you running on the side of the road, I'm really sorry, man. You didn't deserve my animosity. My own insecurities aren't your fault or anybody else's. They're based on me believing the lies of the evil one that no one could love me and that I've got to be in competition with other guys to get by. Thankfully, I'm still a work in progress and God hasn't let go of me yet.
Father, you are so good, and I'm so thankful that You never let me go...even when I act like a straight-up idiot and think someone has been blessed more than I or that I have a right not to love any person created in Your holy image. I love You so much, Father. Thank You for loving me first, even though I couldn't ever hope to deserve it.
And even if you're not as big an idiot as I am, He loves you like that, too.
I was driving down Creedmoor Road in Raleigh when I passed a runner. I took a quick look at this guy and got an image of someone who spends a lot of time on his own body. He was tanned and toned--ripped, even. And as I saw him run by, I realized the immediate reaction I had to him and his appearance with some regret:
I hated him.
Now mind you, I didn't (and still don't) know this guy from Adam. He could be a hard-working guy just trying to get by in the world. He could be an athlete in training. He could be a brother in Christ headed for the mission field or a young father out for a run to keep the stress down so he can be there one hundred percent for his wife and kids. But at that time, none of that crossed my mind. All I could think was how in my heart--for just a moment--I despised him.
Now in case you haven't picked up on this, the reason for this flash of hatred was jealousy. I looked at this guy and it seemed clear to me that here was a man who could have his pick of women (and likely has), while I personally seem to live somewhere between loneliness and rejection all the time (rejection being the worse of the two but risking rejection being unfortunately the only way to escape loneliness). I don't exactly tend to do well with the girls in general and worse yet right now I'm not in a place where I'm likely to meet someone new anyway. It seems like lately all the women that attract my notice are either too young or married already (or in the really scary cases that I'm seeing more of lately, both). And if guys like this are the ones getting the girls, an argument could be made that I have some grounds for hating "Running Stud" here and all his ilk.
Except I don't. Not at all. Not even a little bit. I don't have the right to choose who I will or will not love. Jesus made that abundantly clear when he applied the second part of the great commandment (the part about loving our neighbors as ourselves) to Samaritans and Jews (pretty harsh rivals, to say the least). So, while I get the concept of loving the unlovely or the unlovable, what about those I see as more lovable or desirable than me? The ones who seem to get all the breaks I don't get? We're all made in the image of God and that image is not any clearer or more obscure in a "beautiful" person than it is in an "ugly" one. And oh yeah, lest I forget and think I deserve so much better than I get, I should note that I'm a flat-out gross sinner whose only claim to anything good is that God loved me enough to send His Son.
So I had to pray and ask forgiveness. I'm not proud of such thoughts in myself, but they do show up from time-to-time. There's no excuse for it, but right there it is. If that was you running on the side of the road, I'm really sorry, man. You didn't deserve my animosity. My own insecurities aren't your fault or anybody else's. They're based on me believing the lies of the evil one that no one could love me and that I've got to be in competition with other guys to get by. Thankfully, I'm still a work in progress and God hasn't let go of me yet.
Father, you are so good, and I'm so thankful that You never let me go...even when I act like a straight-up idiot and think someone has been blessed more than I or that I have a right not to love any person created in Your holy image. I love You so much, Father. Thank You for loving me first, even though I couldn't ever hope to deserve it.
And even if you're not as big an idiot as I am, He loves you like that, too.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
What makes a leader? (1 Sam. 29-31)
I was reading the last three chapters of 1 Samuel today, and it struck me just how differently David (who has been anointed king of Israel but is in exile) and Saul (who is still king when this passage opens) deal with adversity. David had finally left Israel all together to pledge his service to Achish the king of the Philistines, and he is content to remain faithful (mostly faithful, anyway) to him even when Achish is headed out to fight against Israel. But the other lords of the Philistines don't trust David--noting how a strategic betrayal in that battle could put David back in the Israelites' good graces. To whit, they quote the little Hebrew ditty that has caused David so much trouble up to this point:
"Saul has slain his thousands,
And David his ten thousands." (29:5)
Saul didn't like that song much either, which is kind of why David was running from him in the first place. But the song itself was never intended to make Saul look bad, of course. David was Saul's champion, fighting for the same kingdom so Saul should have rejoiced that God had blessed David with such success and thanked God that he had so loyal and effective a captain. Instead he gets jealous and tries to kill him! Go figure.
A couple weeks ago at Crossroads camp, I was in a group of youth workers in a Bible study conducted by Matt Orth when we looked at this song (Matt was the one who coined that phrase about "fighting for the same kingdom"). It occured to me just how much I'm tempted to do the same thing in ministry. I get so self-absorbed sometimes that it's so much easier to complain to God that the church down the street has a bigger youth group or that the young preacher friend (who clearly isn't half the speaker than I am, after all! [guilty sarcasm should be noted here]) gets so many more calls to travel and speak (no doubt because he was saved from more colorful sins than I was or he has better connections than I do [same guilty sarcasm]) than it is to rejoice that God is doing His work through all of us. David just wanted to be faithful to his king both then with Saul and now with Achish. Achish does trust him but the others don't so David is rejected again.
So David goes back home to Ziklag but the Amalekites had attacked his hometown while he and the soldiers were away and took everything, even the women and children. (And you thought Saul killed them--with Samuel's "help." They're like cockroaches! Presumably these guys are from other cities of the Amalekites besides Amalek itself. And actually David attacked them previously so it's not really that much of a surprise.) Now David has it pretty bad here because BOTH of his wives (the ones Saul hadn't given to somebody else anyway) are taken away, and if that's not bad enough, the men want to stone him because of their own losses. It's funny how the tide turns quickly, huh? These guys were willing to die for David, but when their families and houses are hit because they were away with him at war now they want to kill him (when he's lost as much as they have)! Sadly, even doing your best you can't please everybody, and some of those who should be your greatest supporters wind up behind your back with the knife.
So things look pretty bad for David. But he doesn't screw it up. He could run and cry. He could make promises to his guys that "We'll get 'em, boys! Don't you worry!" and just hope he can deliver the goods (and if he fails again, then go back to the "run and cry" strategy). But instead, he takes it to God and the Lord says "You're good. Go get 'em!" (Evans paraphrase). So David wipes out more of those pesky Amalekites (although 400 get away--like cockroaches I tell ya!) and gets everything back. Then he's generous to the guys that were too tired to go to war but who stayed behind to watch the stuff, which in turn makes some of the ones who actually fought the Amalekites jealous (I wonder if these are the same guys who wanted to stone David previously when he didn't leave anybody to guard the city).
So David perserveres and he's generous, even if it still seems like he can't please anybody. Contrast that with Saul in chapter 31. Even without David's help the Philistines easily beat Saul's forces and he can't take it. His sons die in battle but he's wounded and instead of fighting on and dying like a man the way they did, he gets scared and kills himself. And we know that his failure to do things God's way (which again is so different from David who we've already seen seek God's wisdom before he took action; Saul was a little too impatient for that) is why he's in this position to begin with. So things looked so bad for David that he had even left Israel to join the Philistines, and it just seemed to keep getting worse, but as 1 Samuel ends and 2 Samuel begins, he finally is in position to inherit the kingdom he was promised, and Saul, who caused him so much trouble, is no more.
God help me to perservere and be faithful, to do the work that He's called me to in His way. I'd much rather end up like David than Saul, thank you very much!
"Saul has slain his thousands,
And David his ten thousands." (29:5)
Saul didn't like that song much either, which is kind of why David was running from him in the first place. But the song itself was never intended to make Saul look bad, of course. David was Saul's champion, fighting for the same kingdom so Saul should have rejoiced that God had blessed David with such success and thanked God that he had so loyal and effective a captain. Instead he gets jealous and tries to kill him! Go figure.
A couple weeks ago at Crossroads camp, I was in a group of youth workers in a Bible study conducted by Matt Orth when we looked at this song (Matt was the one who coined that phrase about "fighting for the same kingdom"). It occured to me just how much I'm tempted to do the same thing in ministry. I get so self-absorbed sometimes that it's so much easier to complain to God that the church down the street has a bigger youth group or that the young preacher friend (who clearly isn't half the speaker than I am, after all! [guilty sarcasm should be noted here]) gets so many more calls to travel and speak (no doubt because he was saved from more colorful sins than I was or he has better connections than I do [same guilty sarcasm]) than it is to rejoice that God is doing His work through all of us. David just wanted to be faithful to his king both then with Saul and now with Achish. Achish does trust him but the others don't so David is rejected again.
So David goes back home to Ziklag but the Amalekites had attacked his hometown while he and the soldiers were away and took everything, even the women and children. (And you thought Saul killed them--with Samuel's "help." They're like cockroaches! Presumably these guys are from other cities of the Amalekites besides Amalek itself. And actually David attacked them previously so it's not really that much of a surprise.) Now David has it pretty bad here because BOTH of his wives (the ones Saul hadn't given to somebody else anyway) are taken away, and if that's not bad enough, the men want to stone him because of their own losses. It's funny how the tide turns quickly, huh? These guys were willing to die for David, but when their families and houses are hit because they were away with him at war now they want to kill him (when he's lost as much as they have)! Sadly, even doing your best you can't please everybody, and some of those who should be your greatest supporters wind up behind your back with the knife.
So things look pretty bad for David. But he doesn't screw it up. He could run and cry. He could make promises to his guys that "We'll get 'em, boys! Don't you worry!" and just hope he can deliver the goods (and if he fails again, then go back to the "run and cry" strategy). But instead, he takes it to God and the Lord says "You're good. Go get 'em!" (Evans paraphrase). So David wipes out more of those pesky Amalekites (although 400 get away--like cockroaches I tell ya!) and gets everything back. Then he's generous to the guys that were too tired to go to war but who stayed behind to watch the stuff, which in turn makes some of the ones who actually fought the Amalekites jealous (I wonder if these are the same guys who wanted to stone David previously when he didn't leave anybody to guard the city).
So David perserveres and he's generous, even if it still seems like he can't please anybody. Contrast that with Saul in chapter 31. Even without David's help the Philistines easily beat Saul's forces and he can't take it. His sons die in battle but he's wounded and instead of fighting on and dying like a man the way they did, he gets scared and kills himself. And we know that his failure to do things God's way (which again is so different from David who we've already seen seek God's wisdom before he took action; Saul was a little too impatient for that) is why he's in this position to begin with. So things looked so bad for David that he had even left Israel to join the Philistines, and it just seemed to keep getting worse, but as 1 Samuel ends and 2 Samuel begins, he finally is in position to inherit the kingdom he was promised, and Saul, who caused him so much trouble, is no more.
God help me to perservere and be faithful, to do the work that He's called me to in His way. I'd much rather end up like David than Saul, thank you very much!
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Can one blog really change the world? (Nah, but I think I'll start one anyway.)
For anyone who is actually bothering to read this mess of mine, welcome.
This is the very first post of my new blog. I've done a little blogging before but this is my first ever personal blog and if you're actually reading this (and God bless you for it if you are), be forewarned that I'm really not entirely sure where I'm going with this or what it's going to look like. But at the very least, I can offer this first post and tell you the two streams of thought that led to my starting this little endeavor:
The first stream flows from a friend of mine who gave me the idea of blogging as a substitute for keeping a journal. I liked the idea because I've never really been able to get into journaling regularly. It always seemed like I only wanted to write in a journal when I was in some highly emotional state (which usually meant I was obsessing over some girl--the number of journal entries I've written about women is probably about triple the number of entries about anything else, and that is likely to be a very conservative figure). Sometimes the whole journal thing came off as a little narcissistic to me because it gave me an excuse to be a bit self-absorbed, since no one but me would read it anyway (and I don't mean to condemn anyone who keeps a journal--if you find it to be helpful spiritually, then keep it up and who knows? Maybe one day I'll even come back to it myself). Even so, I often wrote the journal entries as if someone else would read them later anyway. So not only do they tend to be self-centered, but they probably aren't even as honest to my actual feelings as they could be. At the very least, they're inhibited enough that they don't usually display my most shocking inner thoughts. With the blog, the nice thing is I actually am writing something intended for others to read (whether anyone actually does or not is another thing entirely, of course) so there seems to be some added value to the endeavor itself. And with other people reading, a certain level of inhibition is actually a good thing. That said, I'll try to be as honest as I can be and still adhere to some small level of tact at least.
The second stream that led to the blog (and particularly the theme of the blog) was a thought that's been gaining prominence in my mind ever since I saw the film Amazing Grace a few months ago. If you don't know, Amazing Grace is the true story of William Wilberforce, the man who is largely credited with ending the slave trade in Great Britain in the early nineteenth century. The movie gets its title, of course, from the popular hymn by the same name (which was written by John Newton, a former slave ship captain and a spiritual influence on Wilberforce's life).
What is almost unbelievable about Wilberforce (especially in this day and age) is that he was a politician who was moved by nothing more or less than his convictions as a follower of Christ and a concerned citizen of his nation. The abolition of the slave trade was not generally regarded as a wise platform to promote either financially, politically or nationalistically and yet, Wilberforce would not let it go no matter the personal cost to himself (which turned out to considerable) because he was convinced his cause was just. It took nearly twenty years but he was ultimately able (with the help of many other change-minded warriors) to sway opinion against the slave trade, and it was halted. Finally, just three days before his death, he received word that the practice of slavery would finally be abolished in the U.K. entirely (in the U.S. it would be another 35 years and a bloody war before slavery would finally end).
What struck me about seeing Wilberforce's story was the realization that here was a man who was pretty ordinary (for a member of Parliament, at least) who really believed that God would have him follow his conscience rather than popular opinion, and the end result of his obedience was that God used him to change the British Isles--and ultimately the world--forever. Too often I read how God worked in Bible times and it just seems so far away from my life today (a culture totally unlike ours and an age so far in the past as to seem almost legendary). And so, when God works in those stories to change things, in some ways it's just a story to me--inspiring, encouraging but often not much more personal than a fable. But to be reminded by this far more contemporary event that all those things God did in the past are not mere fables but rather they are the reality--that the same Christ who walked the earth in the first century is the same God and Savior who's Spirit dwells in and seeks to work through us today--that inspired me. (Sad to think it took a film to do that when I have always had God's Word on it, but I am a fallen creature after all and a rather visual one to boot.) So as I watched that story play out before my eyes, I realized a thought that has been growing in my head at least since I responded to the call to vocational ministry for the first time way back when I was 16 years old:
I want to change the world.
Before my life on earth is through, in at least one substantial, positive way, I want to change the world. That doesn't mean that I want to be famous like Wilberforce was. I've always struggled with a desire for fame (which really stems from my desire to be loved and accepted) and I'm not saying I'm looking for God to sanctify and honor my own personal lust for recognition and glory. In fact, when it comes to world change, I would certainly hope to be perfectly happy with no one actually knowing I ever did anything of any significance. Even if I myself never know what change God has brought about in the world through my life (and it's safe to say that, to some extent, I won't), it doesn't matter (even though I'm sure that God will reveal to us the true worth of our lives in eternity).
The change itself is the important issue, and the thing that impresses me is that the world changes on such simple things. Think of the people who influenced Wilberforce. Think of people like John Newton. He has a part in Wilberforce's victory and the change God wrought through his life too. Go even further back and think about the spiritual influences in Newton's life. Where does the honor truly lie? Who gets the greatest glory for all of that?
Well the answer is simple, actually: God does.
God gets all the glory for bringing about His will in the world. But He used all those men and women to do something that was far beyond any of them, and so they get to share in that glory. Why? So that they can radiate it back to Him again for all eternity. Please don't think that I'm saying I think God can use me to change the world because I'm anything special. I assure you that I am not (and if you know me personally, you can certainly attest to this). No, I believe God will change the world through me because He is the one who created me, chose me, called me, justified me and is in the process of glorifying me (Rom. 8:29-30). And He doesn't do anything for nothing. Everything He does and everything He creates has purpose. So if He put me here for a purpose (namely glorifying Himself) that must mean that--in some way that I could never hope to understand--His will is accomplished more completely with me in the world than it would be without me. And the same is true for you. You have a purpose and you can change the world--just by being obedient to Him.
So with that in mind (and since I've already written way too much--longwinded as usual), welcome to my new blog. Now, let's get to it! There's a whole world out there to change.
This is the very first post of my new blog. I've done a little blogging before but this is my first ever personal blog and if you're actually reading this (and God bless you for it if you are), be forewarned that I'm really not entirely sure where I'm going with this or what it's going to look like. But at the very least, I can offer this first post and tell you the two streams of thought that led to my starting this little endeavor:
The first stream flows from a friend of mine who gave me the idea of blogging as a substitute for keeping a journal. I liked the idea because I've never really been able to get into journaling regularly. It always seemed like I only wanted to write in a journal when I was in some highly emotional state (which usually meant I was obsessing over some girl--the number of journal entries I've written about women is probably about triple the number of entries about anything else, and that is likely to be a very conservative figure). Sometimes the whole journal thing came off as a little narcissistic to me because it gave me an excuse to be a bit self-absorbed, since no one but me would read it anyway (and I don't mean to condemn anyone who keeps a journal--if you find it to be helpful spiritually, then keep it up and who knows? Maybe one day I'll even come back to it myself). Even so, I often wrote the journal entries as if someone else would read them later anyway. So not only do they tend to be self-centered, but they probably aren't even as honest to my actual feelings as they could be. At the very least, they're inhibited enough that they don't usually display my most shocking inner thoughts. With the blog, the nice thing is I actually am writing something intended for others to read (whether anyone actually does or not is another thing entirely, of course) so there seems to be some added value to the endeavor itself. And with other people reading, a certain level of inhibition is actually a good thing. That said, I'll try to be as honest as I can be and still adhere to some small level of tact at least.
The second stream that led to the blog (and particularly the theme of the blog) was a thought that's been gaining prominence in my mind ever since I saw the film Amazing Grace a few months ago. If you don't know, Amazing Grace is the true story of William Wilberforce, the man who is largely credited with ending the slave trade in Great Britain in the early nineteenth century. The movie gets its title, of course, from the popular hymn by the same name (which was written by John Newton, a former slave ship captain and a spiritual influence on Wilberforce's life).
What is almost unbelievable about Wilberforce (especially in this day and age) is that he was a politician who was moved by nothing more or less than his convictions as a follower of Christ and a concerned citizen of his nation. The abolition of the slave trade was not generally regarded as a wise platform to promote either financially, politically or nationalistically and yet, Wilberforce would not let it go no matter the personal cost to himself (which turned out to considerable) because he was convinced his cause was just. It took nearly twenty years but he was ultimately able (with the help of many other change-minded warriors) to sway opinion against the slave trade, and it was halted. Finally, just three days before his death, he received word that the practice of slavery would finally be abolished in the U.K. entirely (in the U.S. it would be another 35 years and a bloody war before slavery would finally end).
What struck me about seeing Wilberforce's story was the realization that here was a man who was pretty ordinary (for a member of Parliament, at least) who really believed that God would have him follow his conscience rather than popular opinion, and the end result of his obedience was that God used him to change the British Isles--and ultimately the world--forever. Too often I read how God worked in Bible times and it just seems so far away from my life today (a culture totally unlike ours and an age so far in the past as to seem almost legendary). And so, when God works in those stories to change things, in some ways it's just a story to me--inspiring, encouraging but often not much more personal than a fable. But to be reminded by this far more contemporary event that all those things God did in the past are not mere fables but rather they are the reality--that the same Christ who walked the earth in the first century is the same God and Savior who's Spirit dwells in and seeks to work through us today--that inspired me. (Sad to think it took a film to do that when I have always had God's Word on it, but I am a fallen creature after all and a rather visual one to boot.) So as I watched that story play out before my eyes, I realized a thought that has been growing in my head at least since I responded to the call to vocational ministry for the first time way back when I was 16 years old:
I want to change the world.
Before my life on earth is through, in at least one substantial, positive way, I want to change the world. That doesn't mean that I want to be famous like Wilberforce was. I've always struggled with a desire for fame (which really stems from my desire to be loved and accepted) and I'm not saying I'm looking for God to sanctify and honor my own personal lust for recognition and glory. In fact, when it comes to world change, I would certainly hope to be perfectly happy with no one actually knowing I ever did anything of any significance. Even if I myself never know what change God has brought about in the world through my life (and it's safe to say that, to some extent, I won't), it doesn't matter (even though I'm sure that God will reveal to us the true worth of our lives in eternity).
The change itself is the important issue, and the thing that impresses me is that the world changes on such simple things. Think of the people who influenced Wilberforce. Think of people like John Newton. He has a part in Wilberforce's victory and the change God wrought through his life too. Go even further back and think about the spiritual influences in Newton's life. Where does the honor truly lie? Who gets the greatest glory for all of that?
Well the answer is simple, actually: God does.
God gets all the glory for bringing about His will in the world. But He used all those men and women to do something that was far beyond any of them, and so they get to share in that glory. Why? So that they can radiate it back to Him again for all eternity. Please don't think that I'm saying I think God can use me to change the world because I'm anything special. I assure you that I am not (and if you know me personally, you can certainly attest to this). No, I believe God will change the world through me because He is the one who created me, chose me, called me, justified me and is in the process of glorifying me (Rom. 8:29-30). And He doesn't do anything for nothing. Everything He does and everything He creates has purpose. So if He put me here for a purpose (namely glorifying Himself) that must mean that--in some way that I could never hope to understand--His will is accomplished more completely with me in the world than it would be without me. And the same is true for you. You have a purpose and you can change the world--just by being obedient to Him.
So with that in mind (and since I've already written way too much--longwinded as usual), welcome to my new blog. Now, let's get to it! There's a whole world out there to change.
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