I'm not sure I've experienced this fully. The idea that everything else is crap. Paul says in Phillipians 3 that "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, for whose sake I have lost all things and consider them rubbish (Gr. dung, trash, excrement, crap) in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him..."
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Everything else is a bunch of crap
Thursday, October 11, 2007
I Choose Xbox
“The general human failing is to want what is right and important, but at the same time not to commit to the kind of life that will produce the action we know to be right and the condition we want to enjoy.”
I am found out. All over my life I see my desire to be different being trumped by my complete and total inability to follow through. Nowhere is this more true than in my life with God. A quick reading of my journal reveals that I seem to come to God with the same personal frustrations over and over, the same failings and short comings, the same acute separation between who I know God wants me to be and who I actually allow myself to be. It seems that week after week, year after year, I know the areas in my life that need to be conformed and need to be molded, but I have so little patience for the change process that I refuse to engage in it.
Really though, shouldn’t everything happen now. I seem to think so. If I cannot be gratified immediately, or at the very least within a time frame of my own crafting, and usually by my own conditions, then I don’t want any part an undertaking. This is why I seem unable to lose those few stubborn pounds I want off. The work required doesn't to fit into my schedule, dieting doesn’t produce instant results, and frankly, any diet that doesn’t include a steady amount of french fries just isn’t worth it to me. Sadly, I am finding that the same is true for my spiritual life. I want God to transform me, but I am not really willing to engage in any kind of “lifestyle cramping” effort that would actually result in me becoming more of the person He created me to be and I deeply desire to be. And I am definitely not willing to give up french fries for God.
Don’t get me wrong, God does change me. He works on me, shapes me, and molds me, it is just usually against my will. I can’t help but think there is an easier way, a way where I willingly take part in developing my heart and mind. What would my life look like, and who would I be, if I didn’t expect God to work in my life like he is wielding a magic wand. Instant transformation for instant gratification, that’s my expectation. But for some reason, God has decided to actually give me a part in the change process, to let me participate in the remaking of myself. In my case it was a dangerous decision, because for some reason, given the choice to invest in becoming the person that I deep down in my heart want to be, or to play Xbox, I tend to choose Xbox.
I am found out. All over my life I see my desire to be different being trumped by my complete and total inability to follow through. Nowhere is this more true than in my life with God. A quick reading of my journal reveals that I seem to come to God with the same personal frustrations over and over, the same failings and short comings, the same acute separation between who I know God wants me to be and who I actually allow myself to be. It seems that week after week, year after year, I know the areas in my life that need to be conformed and need to be molded, but I have so little patience for the change process that I refuse to engage in it.
Really though, shouldn’t everything happen now. I seem to think so. If I cannot be gratified immediately, or at the very least within a time frame of my own crafting, and usually by my own conditions, then I don’t want any part an undertaking. This is why I seem unable to lose those few stubborn pounds I want off. The work required doesn't to fit into my schedule, dieting doesn’t produce instant results, and frankly, any diet that doesn’t include a steady amount of french fries just isn’t worth it to me. Sadly, I am finding that the same is true for my spiritual life. I want God to transform me, but I am not really willing to engage in any kind of “lifestyle cramping” effort that would actually result in me becoming more of the person He created me to be and I deeply desire to be. And I am definitely not willing to give up french fries for God.
Don’t get me wrong, God does change me. He works on me, shapes me, and molds me, it is just usually against my will. I can’t help but think there is an easier way, a way where I willingly take part in developing my heart and mind. What would my life look like, and who would I be, if I didn’t expect God to work in my life like he is wielding a magic wand. Instant transformation for instant gratification, that’s my expectation. But for some reason, God has decided to actually give me a part in the change process, to let me participate in the remaking of myself. In my case it was a dangerous decision, because for some reason, given the choice to invest in becoming the person that I deep down in my heart want to be, or to play Xbox, I tend to choose Xbox.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
If you love one another...
According to my good friend, Wikipedia (remember, if it's on the internet, it's gotta be true!), there was a man named Tertullian who was an early church leader. The son of a Roman soldier, he lived from 155-230 A.D. in Africa. After his conversion to Christianity sometime around 197 A.D., he wrote quite a bit to Roman leaders defending this new persecuted faith, including the following:
“We are an association bound together by our religious profession, by the unity of our way of life and the bond of our common hope…We meet together as an assembly and a society…We pray for the emperors…We gather together to read our sacred writing…With the holy words we nourish our faith…After the gathering is over the Christians go out as they had come from a school of virture. It is our care of the helpless that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents. ‘Only look,’ they say, ‘look how they love one another!’”
Others in that early church era who lived outside of the Christian faith noted how different the Christians were. How they were willing to stay and care for the sick as plagues decimated villages, while the doctors of the day fled for the hills. Leaders and authorities marvelled at how they cared for the poor far better than the government of the day did.
Jesus told his followers it would be this way. He told them that they would be recognized as different because of their love for one another.
Do we look that way today? Would the world recognize us as Christ-followers by how we care for each other and those outside the church? Are they curious to know what it was that gave us peace enough to make us a bit strange or alien?
I've seen this in practice specifically in relation to our little league sports ministries. I've seen the looks on faces of parents in these leagues who are astonished to learn that the team they are playing that week is one sponsored entirely by a local church...sponsored not merely with money but with time and effort and love. While I am not nearly as active in that ministry as I would like to be, I really enjoy that others get a chance to see that kind of service born out of love. Sharing what we're doing there with others is part of that ministry, I believe...and is another example of God multiplying the work we do.
“We are an association bound together by our religious profession, by the unity of our way of life and the bond of our common hope…We meet together as an assembly and a society…We pray for the emperors…We gather together to read our sacred writing…With the holy words we nourish our faith…After the gathering is over the Christians go out as they had come from a school of virture. It is our care of the helpless that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents. ‘Only look,’ they say, ‘look how they love one another!’”
Others in that early church era who lived outside of the Christian faith noted how different the Christians were. How they were willing to stay and care for the sick as plagues decimated villages, while the doctors of the day fled for the hills. Leaders and authorities marvelled at how they cared for the poor far better than the government of the day did.
Jesus told his followers it would be this way. He told them that they would be recognized as different because of their love for one another.
Do we look that way today? Would the world recognize us as Christ-followers by how we care for each other and those outside the church? Are they curious to know what it was that gave us peace enough to make us a bit strange or alien?
I've seen this in practice specifically in relation to our little league sports ministries. I've seen the looks on faces of parents in these leagues who are astonished to learn that the team they are playing that week is one sponsored entirely by a local church...sponsored not merely with money but with time and effort and love. While I am not nearly as active in that ministry as I would like to be, I really enjoy that others get a chance to see that kind of service born out of love. Sharing what we're doing there with others is part of that ministry, I believe...and is another example of God multiplying the work we do.
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