Tuesday, May 27, 2008

The Joy of the Road

This last weekend, I drove to my in-laws' cabin for Memorial Day weekend. The night we arrived, I found myself surrounded by a conversation of the different cabins/homes on their street that were for sale. I had just driven past each of these homes no more than a few hours before, so I felt as though I should have had a mental image to go along with the objects of conversation. But I didn't. I was too concerned about getting to my destination to take any heed of my surroundings while driving.

What a metaphor for how many of us tend to live our lives. One financial and retirement planning company currently parades this mindset with their slogan, "Prepare to Live". While I'm all for smart financial planning, I think it's a bit sad that our society teaches us to be so future-focused. Yes, responsibility matters and yes, we must be mindful of the future. But whatever happened to living now? If we are always focused on the future, then we are never focused on the present. Our future plans and goals are possibilities, but our present is real, tangible, now. Life simply cannot be enjoyed without the enjoyment of the present.

I think the problem is that somehow we tend to build for ourselves the illusion that we will actually "arrive" somewhere in this lifetime. Once I get married, I won't be lonely. Once I get a pay raise, things won't be so tight. Once I own a home, I'll feel established. Once I land my dream job, I won't be as drained. Once I retire, I can start living. All this is a chasing after the wind - chasing after things that exist but that cannot be caught in the sense that we wish to catch them. They are incapable of bringing real satisfaction. We are all on a journey and none of us have arrived. Until heaven, none of us ever will arrive. In the meantime, there's only one thing that is even capable of getting us by with sufficient fulfillment.

And while we drive on toward our destination, we forget all about the beauty that surrounds us. We become dissatisfied, because we are focused on grander things that don't exist right now and may not ever. Kelsey and I have many hopes for the future. We would like to one day have many of the things I listed above, such as a family of our own, a home, a successful business, time to travel, and a comfortable budget. But ever since we've gotten married (and for the foreseeable future) it has been quite a task to live within our means, because our means are not very high. It's easy for us to long for the days when things will finally "be better". But the fact is, things already are just fine. We have each other and we are alive and healthy, not to mention innumerable other blessings we can list if we only take the time to realize them. Besides that, things probably never will "be better". As soon as we make more money, we'll likely spend more, and want more. What a powerful asset it is to be able to control one's own attitude. Jesus told us he came into the world that we "may have life and have it abundantly." I have a feeling that that abundance is not experienced unless we allow ourselves to enjoy the abundance we already have in Him.

While I was at the cabin, Kelsey and I went for a bike ride up that same road. We had no destination - we figured out our path as we went and enjoyed the ride for what it was. I saw the homes I had missed before. I also noticed the names of the people who lived in each home and the ferns and flowers that grew beside the road. If we realize there is no such thing as "arriving", the importance of enjoying the here and now becomes glaringly obvious. As Sheryl Crow wisely sings, "It's not having what you want; it's wanting what you've got." Set your goals, hopes, and dreams. And as you drive toward them, never overlook the joy of the road.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

The Emotional Manly Man

What is it that makes a man strong and manly? I think we all have some type of image in our minds of an answer to that question - the characteristics that a man would be proud to be known for. Probably this image is based off of the men we've known - fathers, pastors, teachers...or maybe it's based off of famous people that we watch from a distance - rock stars, sports stars, politicians. I think my gut reaction to this question is to answer with characteristics such as strength, success, steadiness, and wisdom.

Recently, I spent some time reading through First and Second Samuel and I was really intrigued by this character named David. He intrigued me because I think he challenges my notion of what a man is. If you're familiar with Biblical passages about David, then you know that he doesn't always come across as the most manly of men. At times, certain passages almost seem to even push the boundaries of his heterosexuality. This guy grew up playing soothing harp music and continued writing songs with emotional and passionate lyrics throughout his life. I mean rock stars are hardcore, and maybe harps in ancient Israel were the equivalent of screaming guitars today...but it seems like a stretch. David danced half naked in front of crowds of people - enough of a spectacle to make his wife tell him he was acting like an idiot. He had an incredibly close friendship with his male friend Jonathan - 1 Samuel 18 talks of their souls being knit together. They loved each other, shared clothes, kissed, and wept together. Sure, kissing was customary for Israelites, but this friendship obviously was a bit more intimate than your typical business relationship.

But what's really striking to me is not how emotional and passionate and vulnerable David could be. What really strikes me is that on top of all this, he went down in history as the mightiest of warrior kings that Israel has ever known. We all know the story of David and Goliath - you know, the one where the cute little boy with God on his side throws a rock at a giant and kills him? I'm not so sure he was just a cute little boy. This boy had previously overcome lions and bears by himself. And then this boy grew up. He single-handedly killed two hundred men at a time and sliced off pieces of their genitals. Kings and nations fell before him. He conquered or received tribute from virtually the entire Middle East and was respected and feared above anyone else in the world. David was a brutal warrior who killed thousands of men and showed tremendous strength during the course of his life.

And then the most striking thing of all: God calls David a man after the Lord's own heart. This statement, along with the facts of who David was, require some reconciliation in my perception of what a man should be. But really, when I think about it, it makes sense. In God I see a person who holds absolute dominion over the universe - a God who can be brutal in his justice and merciless to the unmerciful. This God reveals the qualities of strength, success, steadiness, and wisdom. Without doubt, these are all qualities of God and also of men who were made in his image. But I also see a God who can dance, shout, sing, and cry. An emotional God who isn't ashamed to be kissing, hugging, or dancing over those he loves. A passionate God who gave up his own life for people who could care less.

I tend to believe that all the qualities of both men and women stem from God. So maybe there would be some weight in arguing that just because God has emotional and passionate traits, that doesn't mean men should. Maybe that's the part of God that was planted in women when he created woman in his own image. Honestly though, this doesn't seem to work for me. David was a man after God's own heart. A man. Whose heart followed God's own heart. He was a man's man and not a woman. He was a warrior who also wrote beautiful poetry. He was a solid leader who also danced passionately without a shirt on. He brutally killed thousands of his opponents and also shared his heart, cried with and kissed his best friend. And apparently, none of these traits that initially strike me as "femmy" make him any less of a man.

There's a certain level of fear and insecurity in being a man. We have a need to provide, conquer, and make people proud and to be exposed as fake, inadequate, or weak is unacceptable. I wonder what it would look like for a man to be completely unafraid of looking like a fool. Completely free to be vulnerable, to dance like an idiot, to weep hard in the arms of a friend, unconcerned of what people might think. Maybe that kind of vulnerability can only be displayed by a man who is, in reality, confident. Maybe true strength goes beyond the ability to stand firm and unbreakable. Maybe true strength includes the strength to let go of pride and to be free to be emotional or broken. That's what I seem to see in David and that's what I seem to see in God. They're both men (at least God was in the form of Jesus) and I respect them, both for their strength and for their vulnerability. If we men are supposed to be strong, maybe it's time to man up and be strong enough to let out the emotion inside us.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

The Water Imposters

Okay, I realize the reasoning here. I realize that you need a title that makes people feel good in order to sell. But I'm sorry, something has gone wrong in the bottled water industry. I've been amused for some time over this notion and after watching a couple certain Super Bowl commercials, I just need to say it: If your water is sweet or colored, IT"S NOT WATER!!! We already have a name for flavored water - it's called JUICE! I mean, honestly. How naïve must we be to buy the proposition of these products? Just because something has water IN it does not mean it IS water. Heck, the bowl of pudding in my refrigerator has some water in it...it must not be pudding after all! It must be water! Seriously.
I know, I know. It's not really a big deal. But you've got to admit it's just a little ridiculous how far we go to pretend that we're being healthy. I don't have anything against the companies who pull this off. More power to them if they can inject some minerals into sugar-water (or Splenda-water - yuck!), slap the name "water" on the bottle and pass it off as a health product. Here's an idea: if you want to feel like you're drinking water, maybe...try real water?

Monday, January 21, 2008

What Do Jews Know?

First of all, let me clarify just a bit - I have nothing against Jews, and no this post is not going to be anti-Semitic. Funny how a title like that can catch your eye though, huh?

I always try to continue my search for truth. I believe that it's safe to say that all truth is God's truth, so I'm not scared of finding truths that surprise me or that challenge my preconceived notions of reality. It's interesting to me how many facets of the nature of creation can be interpreted so many different ways. Even Scripture can often be interpreted several different ways - which, I suppose, is one reason why so many different denominations exist. My point is that with so many differing points of view out there - even among fellow church members or among family members - I would bet that none of us are exactly right about everything we think about "the way things are". This leads to the inevitable conclusion that some of my own assumptions about life and the universe are wrong. Don't get me wrong here - I'm not about to go into a postmodernist relativist tirade - not at all! In fact, I am of the strong opinion that God has made the most important things blatantly obvious to those who will see, but that he has left the not-quite-as-important things open to debate for us. After all, if it doesn't REALLY matter in the whole scheme of things, why does God REALLY have to fill us in on all the petty details? (Even though, I admit that sometimes I wish he did!) Anyway, this introduction is getting long enough. What I'm trying to say is that I am completely aware that I don't know everything, so I try to keep an open mind in this journey of life to always learn whatever truth I can find that will bring me closer to a fuller understanding of the nature of the universe and, therefore, the nature of its Creator.

Now back to the theme of my title. I recently read a book that really challenged my thoughts in this way. It's called What Do Jewish People Think About Jesus? The book is written by Michael Brown, a self-proclaimed Messianic Jew, and is very well-written and informative. I approached some of his topics pretty skeptically, but I can't deny that his points are well-thought out and supported. I learned a lot from the book and would recommend it to anyone interested in the topic. The biggest question this book made me ask myself was: "What happened to our Old Testament heritage?" Or, wait a second. How about this question: "What happened to our Jewish heritage?" It's interesting how these two questions can ask the same question but have a different connotation. But really, most Christians, at least those that I know (me included!), don't celebrate Passover, don't associate the Star of David with their own religion, and probably couldn't tell you what Talmud means. I'm not sure that these are necessarily faults. But the fact remains that our God is the same exact God that we read about in the Old Testament. So really, why is it that we don't celebrate Jewish holidays (most of which were established in the Old Testament) and so forth? Why the rift? After all, Jesus even tells us himself in John 4:22 that "salvation is from the Jews". I'm sure there's a lot of history behind how Christians felt the need to separate from the Jews and to lump BC Judaism in with AD Judaism. It makes logical sense to see how Old Testament traditions could have been forgotten by Christians who have significant differences of belief from the Jews of their own day.

Still, there may be something to be said about reclaiming our spiritual history. Now, the following is a gross over-generalization, but for the sake of satirical stereotyping, here's a rough outline of how many Christians observe their history: The Catholic calendar of the universe started when Jesus was born. Nothing ever happened before him, but a lot of important traditions developed in the early church and continued to the present day. The broader Protestant calendar begins with Martin Luther. Nothing ever happened before him, but after the Reformation began, a lot of great Christian thinkers came along. The Evangelical calendar begins several years ago in Sunday School when I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Nothing ever happened before then, but Jesus sure has a lot to teach me now. The Pentacostal calendar begins today. Nothing ever happened before today, but a whole lot will happen today and in the future if we call the Holy Spirit's presence into our midst right now! Obviously, this caricature isn't entirely accurate, but to me, it's kind of humorous as well as being kind of true. Granted, history and tradition maybe aren't THE most important thing...but they're of value right?
Augustine, Calvin, Jerome, Moses, David, Maccabees... these guys are all important figures in the history of the religion that is Christianity today. To a Christian, the birth of Jesus is obviously of greater consequence than a group of soldiers winning a battle and lighting candles. But is it still okay for a Christian to celebrate Hanukkah? "Gasp! That story isn't even in our Old Testament! What could that have to do with Christianity?! That holiday is for people who don't believe in Jesus!" But if my God...was the same God...who kept the menorah burning...why shouldn't that mean something to me? An interesting thought.

Ultimately, I think the important thing for Christians to focus on is Jesus. Religion, tradition, church services...these can all be good, but none of these matter nearly as much as Jesus himself. Furthermore, Paul even argues in the New Testament that there is no need for Jesus-believing Gentiles to adapt Jewish customs. It's just not necessary, because Jesus is ultimately what matters for eternity. Still, maybe it's important to remember that most of us Christians are branches that were grafted in. The original branches on our tree come from the people of Israel. Salvation is a gift from God offered to Jews, then Gentiles. And God is one, forever, unchanging. It is important to be part of God's work here and now. Maybe some value can also be found in remembering the vastness of what God has done before us...even before Jesus came.

Monday, January 14, 2008

What Gets To Me

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness."

"What is it that GETS to you?" My wife and I are part of a young married couples' group that meets on Sunday mornings, and a couple Sundays ago, our leader asked us this question. We're about to start a new book - apparently the source of this question. I think it's called Divine Discontent, or else it's something like that and I think it's written by someone from Willow Creek. I haven't read any part of the book yet, so it's possible that the thoughts that follow will be completely unrelated to the gist of the book. Regardless, I've since been thinking about the question posed by our group leader. By this question, he meant, "What is it that provokes a righteous anger in you? What is it that just kills your heart when you see it?" I think for most people, the answer to this question falls in the arena of social injustice: poverty, rape, homelessness, hunger, racism, etc. These things all get to me. My soul longs for a renewed place where none of this crap of the world exists. But none of these issues were the first thing that came to my mind. The greatest hurt of my heart rather comes from a spiritual injustice: Christians who give my God a bad name. At the risk of sounding stuck in the 80's pop-rock scene, I think many Christians could take spiritual cues from the relational lyrics of Bon Jovi's song by a similar name.

This theme has been on my heart for a long time and will likely remain there. I've often noticed how many Christians (since I don't see people's hearts like God does, I'll be using this term to define true Christians and nominal Christians alike) have such a capacity to display behavior that eerily resembles that of the Biblical Pharisees. People have told me that this is a harsh parallel to draw, but I really don't think so. Until Jesus left us with documentation of their hypocrisy, (and even after), these were people who were greatly respected, who did all the right things. They were not a one-time phenomenon of evil whose ways disappeared from the Earth after the Bible was finished being written. They were most definitely not seen in this light by the larger community of their time.

I am saddened by Christians who put on a God-show as if the richer and more famous they become and the more converts they can win by their sensationalism, the closer they will come to heaven. I am frustrated by Christians who claim the name of Christ but make no substantial effort to seek or serve him as if by saying they believe in God and offering mealtime prayers, they have secured all the insurance their soul needs. And I am deeply hurt by Christians who go to church every week and sing songs of love and praise and then proceed to their Fellowship Hall where they share stories of gossip and condemnation.

I don't pretend to be above all this. I am guilty of all three of these offenses. I am a sinner saddened by other sinners. But all these hypocritical behaviors deeply affect my soul. Especially the latter. I am simply unable to understand how purity has any value without compassion. Where does a person's heart truly lie when they go to great lengths to keep themselves from sin and then frown upon those who fail to do likewise? Now, by no means am I arguing that sin should not be frowned upon by Christians, but you know that old adage - "Love the sinner, hate the sin"? Many Christians will proudly tout this phrase as their own social motto, but I wish every person of the church could see how many sinners feel deeply unloved by those same people.

I suppose the reason this hurts me so much is twofold: 1) By association, my God who is kind and worthy of all praise is being misrepresented to the world as a condescending, judgmental, rejector of those who haven't led a privileged and proper life. 2) So many people whom I love and wish the best for are utterly fooling themselves into thinking that they are okay with God. Again, I realize I cannot see the heart and I don't pretend to have the ability of sifting the sheep from the goats - neither do I intend to make such mental notes - but I'd be willing to bet that there are several established Christians in my own church who will be turned away from heaven. I'd also be willing to bet that some of the very people condemned by these Christians will find themselves in eternity with a loving God defending them. The last shall be first and the first shall be last.

It's just that I can't stomach someone who has the audacity to consider himself or herself better than someone else based on their own subjective view of the other's lifestyle. I just don't see how this sin is less severe than getting drunk, having extramarital sex, or doing drugs. A distinct parallel might be drawn to the Luke 18 parable of the Pharisee and tax collector. When a Christian welcomes their pastor into their home, but breaks off association with a friend who exposes himself as a homosexual, something is wrong. When a Christian hears a sermon about our responsibility to feed the hungry but determines that she can't afford to tithe, something is wrong. When a Christian joins youth ministry but closes his arms to the kids of the community who hurt the most, something is wrong. When a Christian claims to have love for those who are lost in despair but then proudly proclaims that she has never succumbed to drug use, something is wrong. And here's food for thought: If your response to all this is "he's right, those people need to fix their behavior", then you are the very person I am talking about. Not until we can admit to ourselves - I am messed up, I am the one who needs to hear this sermon - not until we throw this pride away, will we ever understand what it means to love others. When I look at the church, I see a remnant of incredible faithful followers of the true God and a multitude of self-righteous puffed up brothers and sisters who have become numb to true understanding. I wish I could see a community of the broken and unpretentious holding their arms wide open to even the scum of the world - a community where it's okay to admit the gross depravity of our lives and not be cast out with the rest of the despairing and honest, but instead be listened to, lifted up, and carried to renewal.

Jesus never condoned the lifestyle of the sinners he reached out to. He told them to "repent and sin no more". But he sure never forgot or shunned them. He made a distinction between the gross ugliness that infects us all and the human created in God's image along with the potential lying therein. Jesus helped the hurting and the lost to find renewal. The people he couldn't put up with were those who pretended to have it all together. A lot of us pretend to have it all together. But I'm willing to bet, in fact, I'm confident that Jesus would extend a long accepting embrace to even a Pharisee who is willing to fall to his knees.

A wise man I know once told me, "I'm an ass, you're an ass. We're all asses." Perhaps some would consider this statement crass. I don't. I think it's possibly the most valuable lesson a follower of Christ could ever learn. We're all on a journey and none of us have arrived yet. The prayer of my heart is that the church would determine love to be a higher virtue than propriety, and in doing so, become something that her head can be proud of.