Seeing is Believing

O.k., so I had this revelation this morning...well, maybe "revelation" is a little bit strong... But, anyway, I was listening to one of our pastors give a brief discourse from a story out of the Bible found in the historical account of the various Judges that lead the nation of Israel before the ancient monarchy was established.
The story he was referencing was about a guy named Sampson.  Maybe you've heard of him?  He was dedicated to God by his parents and they were told that if he followed a certain way of living, (fulfilling a vow called the Nazarite Vow), where he was given particular instructions about everything from what he could eat and drink to his appearance, that God would use him to save Israel from their oppressors.  
In this instance, as a result of Sampson keeping this vow, God gave Sampson supernatural strength.  Long story short, Sampson had a bit of difficulty fulfilling his vow.  And so, he lost the strength God had given him and he was taken captive by the enemies of Israel.  


The thing that caught my attention this morning was, that the Nazarite vow that Sampson took, stipulated that he was never to cut his hair, and from the Biblical account, it's really easy to make the correlation between his hair and his strength...that one was dependent upon the other.  
Now, in my opinion, his strength was not totally dependent upon his hair, it was just symbolic of his devotion to God and of the gift God had given him...
The reason Sampson lost his strength was because his heart wasn't in the right place.  He made a mockery of the gift God had given him and so the symbol of his strength was the means God chose to remove his strength from him.  ANYWAY, so much for trying to make a long story short...


So as a result of his arrogance, his head was shaved, he was taken captive and his eyes were put out.  The main point I'm getting to, eventually, is that once his eyes were put out, his hair began to grow...
You can reference this in the Bible in the section called Judges; chapters 13-16)
The lesson in this is: with humility, comes the strength to do what God has designed/called us to do.  
If we are not careful, we become blinded by our perceptions of reality and we  think we can see so much and in our arrogance we perceive little.  What we must do is allow God to give us the eyes to see what it is he is doing and allow Him to accomplish in and through us his desired outcome.
So in order to really see, we must in a sense, become blind...humbling ourselves in light of the fact that God is God and we are not...lest we lose the ability to perceive who He is and what He has for us to do.

Heart Issues

I've been doing a lot of study and teaching about the contrasting lives of Saul and David from Biblical history.
Saul, we see rise from obscurity to the monarchy in ancient Israel as a result of God's sovereign choice.  (the institution of a monarchy was to satisfy the whining of the general populous...this was not God's idea.  He relented and gave the people what they wanted.  You can see how well that worked out for them...)
Anyway, I digress.
Saul is a case study in someone who has an inferiority complex and uses their position and power to compensate for it.  His errors in judgment and subsequent poor leadership decisions serve to be his ultimate undoing. 
What do I mean...well in the interest of time, and blog space, I'll sum it up this way; when God gives specific instructions, it is apparent that He wants those instructions to be carried out to the letter.  Saul repeatedly failed to do that.
Why?  Well, I'm not qualified to dig in to the psychology of the decision making process of Saul, so, I'll summarize it my thoughts as to why, in a moment.
So we have Saul, the not-so-great king of Israel.  Enter the scene; David, humble shepherd boy from the town of Bethlehem in Judea.  
Why is David significant in this contrast of characters?  Well, he is the hero to Saul's villain, if we must put it in that context.  
David, was the antithesis of Saul.
- Great faith in God
- Hunger and passion for God
- David wanted to please God rather than appear great in the eyes of the people.
- David was unshakeable in his confidence in God's faithfulness and purpose for his life.
- He was humble in the midst of great success.
- He was persistent in his pursuit of God.
- He was a man of character, courage and loyalty.
- Humble...recognized that God was the true King and that he was just God's chosen representative.


That's quite a list.  Though not an exhaustive list it serves to help us compare these two characters and see that Saul is essentially the opposite of each of the characteristics that David possessed.


Now, this certainly doesn't mean that David was perfect by any stretch of the imagination.  He certainly had his faults and failings... He committed murder so he could be with another man's wife, disobeyed God's instructions and was an enormous failure as a father to his sons.  
However, in spite of his humanity, here's the biggest difference in my mind, between Saul and David;
David was humble and teachable and accepted God's judgment and correction in his life.
Saul's arrogance and presumption that he was in complete control, led him not only to make foolish decisions; it blinded him to the reality that it was his character flaws that caused him to fail.
Saul was too quick to put his trust in himself rather than in God.


So if David was indeed a man after God's own heart and the "hero" in this comparison, what does that mean for us?
Well, if I can sum it up, in a probably too simplistic manner, all God is looking for is someone who will trust Him and act upon that trust, whose heart is completely devoted to God.


More to come from the lives of these two men...

Freedom

July 4th, with it's rocket's red glare and the bombs bursting in air...give proof through the night that my neighbors are willing to turn our quiet little suburban street into a war-zone like cacophony of celebration that supports my assertion, people just want an excuse to blow stuff up.  

You might as well take a $100 bill and light it on fire many times over...anyway, as you can probably tell, this might turn in to a rant if I don't redeem it in a hurry...

Freedom, that's what July 4th is supposed to be all about.  Freedom to celebrate ones citizenship in the greatest country on the planet...freedom to light off countless incendiary devices...

Freedom to be and to do whatever we feel like, within reason.

That, dear friends, is where the road turns severely in an unsavory direction.  The unsavory direction being when we use our freedom as an excuse to exercise the "right" to choose whatever behavior seems prudent to us at any given moment, even if it seems unreasonable or without reason.

I don't want this to turn in to a political statement, because, well, that's not the nature of my business.  However, I do want this pithy little tome to include the idea that we were created for freedom that exceeds anything that could be achieved as a result of our civil liberties and even our imaginations.

There was this guy named Paul, who in the first century, shortly after the death of Jesus the Christ, encountered this same Jesus on the road.  You could call it an epiphany of sorts.

It was through this very dramatic introduction to Jesus that Paul discovered, freedom is more than an idea, or desire or political agenda...freedom is in a sense, a person, the person of Jesus.  

Because, as Paul discovered, it is only through Jesus, that we can find true freedom.  Freedom from the lies that have become our lives and freedom to become who we were intended to be.

Paul himself said, in a letter to some friends in a town in Galatia, "It is for freedom that Christ has set you free..."

So in all your revelry and combusting this weekend, I hope you discover that freedom really is more than our ability to express ourselves in any way we see fit.  Freedom is about discovering and living in the life we were created to live, through relationship with Jesus Christ.

time keeps on slippin, slippin...

There are way too many cliche's about getting older and time passing and the subsequent realizations of one's mortality, so I'll spare you the drivel that slips so easily on to the keyboard from the tablet of my jacked up imagination...

Save but for this one little tidbit; "Why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes...Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins."

This little excerpt from the 4th chapter of James' (the brother of Jesus) letter to the church in Jerusalem, reminds us that we have so little time on the face of this spinning orb to really make a difference. We boast about things we have done or will do, but unless we really take stock of the types of activities we spend our time chasing, and evaluate whether those things serve to benefit others, we'll soon come to the realization that it's all been for nought.

We must begin, if we aren't already, making sure that we are doing things that are less about building wealth or a place in history for our name. We need to be about building up people. If we hope to leave any lasting legacy, (a positive one anyway), our investment of time, energy and resources, must serve to bring others up...not in a corporate kind of way, helping them climb the ladders of opportunity and accomplishment, but, building character and skills that serve to build people from the inside out and pass along the desire and ability to do the same for generations to come. (wow, sorry for that long run-on...)

If we can master that...or at least become proficient at it, we might just find that the life we live will not only last beyond our days walking this earth, but that we will leave the generations behind us in, perhaps, better shape than we found ours...

Ears to hear...

Typically my blog leans more toward the philosophical than the practical...but perhaps today I can blend the two a little more intentionally.
I'm a youth pastor and very shortly will have been in youth ministry for 20 years...
I've seen and experienced a little over those years, however, I don't pretend for a minute that I have this all figured out.
I love students and will always love students, but not everyone shares my affection for the pubescent masses.
Probably because, now, more than ever, teenagers are direct. Students speak their minds even if it's not polite or socially acceptable...which I happen to find refreshing, but to some, this is offensive.
To the aged ones out there, (anyone over 25) who feel disconnected and like you've lost touch or control or both... Don't worry, we all have those days, but this freedom of speech is striking you as disrespectful or irreverent and so it rubs you the wrong way.
This is more often symptomatic of a generational disconnect than it is a cultural norm, although we have experienced a consistent decline in the respect for our elders department over the last 50 years...but, I digress.
What we, like all other generations of adults before us must realize is this: Students are saying more than we are hearing. I don't think this is a startling new revelation, but, If you really want to connect with the teens in your life, hear them. Don't just listen to them and respond out of your annoyance at their lingo or feigned disinterest.
Actually take a moment and listen...focus and hear them.

In many instances, they are dying for you to hear them. yeah, you might not understand everything that's going on or coming out, but for God's sake...try. You'll never know how significant the effort is to them and the impact that it makes until you do. Though we may never permanently span the generation gaps, we certainly can make the effort to build a few little walking bridges here and there and be amazed at what comes of it.

Though Youth Ministry might not be for everyone, we all have a responsibility to bring those generations along that follow us...at the very least we should try and do it intentionally...Lord knows we're reaping the rewards of the accidental influence past generations of adults have had on the "angry youth" around them.

Stop, look, listen and be amazed.

Oh, give me ears that i might see more clearly, than i do through eyes that oft deceive me...hearing, not only listening...discerning, learning, loving, being.

you say goodbye and I say hello...

Why can't we say what we mean? I mean, really, why is it so difficult to communicate with one another these days?
There are many opinions on this subject, ranging from general civic indifference to the disconnect between people as a result of their digital connections through social media, to those living in fear of their neighbors...and on and on...
Then there are the Beatles...nearly 40 years ago, laying it out in plain, well, mostly plain English. "I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello..."
I think, therein lies the answer...for eternity, we have been living within the ambiguity of our words, daily eking out an existence from within the confines of our misunderstanding.
Bottom line: We just can't sort it out enough to spit it out...
Now, not everyone suffers from this malady. There are those who speak what they mean ad infinitum...incessantly jabbering on about everything and nothing...speaking without thinking.
The key, at least from my perspective is this...think about what you're saying before you open your yap. This may not be an iron-clad solution to our problem, but at least it cuts out the majority of misunderstandings.
This guy Jesus said it pretty plainly..."Simply let your yes be yes and your no, no; when you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.
Ah, maybe that's the ticket...we are so self absorbed that we cannot separate our words from the context of how they, or any given situation affects us personally.
Maybe instead of worrying about what our words mean to us, we should think about what they mean to the other guy before we let them fly...?
I say yes, you say no...

FREEDOM!

One of my favorite "guy" movies of all time and I'm sure yours too, Braveheart, includes many compelling scenes. Not the least of which is the final frame, where Mel Gibson's character, William Wallace, is stretched out for his date with the disembowel-er. With his final word he cries out in both anguish and defiance the word "Freedom"! Leaving many of us with a heart wrenching visual of the price many have paid throughout the millennia for that which we all, on some level, still seek...freedom. Freedom from oppression, freedom of expression, freedom to simply be.
Depending upon your desired outcome and motivation, the quest for freedom always requires some form of rebellion. And therein lies the slippery slope, because rebellion, by nature, leads us toward some very nasty pitfalls. But I digress.
So, if you will indulge me, I will attempt to bring some sense of context to the point I'd like to drive home...
Rebellion is a necessary component in the pursuit of freedom.
I've grown up in church, so my worldview has always been seasoned by that particular influence and I fully embrace the meaning of being a follower of Christ. But this begs a question that perhaps, you've asked in your own cogitations on such things...
What happens to you when you "become a Christian"?
The Apostle Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthian church, "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone the new has come."
Intellectually, I grasp the meaning of what he is saying, but never having really experienced a radical transformation of my own, I have always been curious.
I've heard people who committed their lives to follow Christ later in life say, that they could really tell that something occurred when they professed Christ. It was an immediate difference, like a light being turned on in a dark room. As I've said, this was not my experience. I committed my life to follow Jesus at an early age...somewhere around 7 years old. The motivation for doing so was that the Sunday School teacher was giving out free Bibles to anyone who "asked Jesus in to their hearts".
As I got older I began to understand the concept of what this really meant as well as what sin was and why I felt bad when I did something wrong...conscience and the conviction of the Holy Spirit reminding me that God had called me to live life by His design and the way I naturally wanted to go didn't fit with that.
Consequently, I responded to pretty much every call to ask for forgiveness of sins and weekly re-committed my life to follow Jesus.

As I got older I began to get tired of feeling guilty and I began to notice something peculiar in the lives of older people. What I observed, we would now call hypocrisy. As a result I became a little disillusioned with the whole thing, because these were supposedly, "mature" Christians...So, I decided to venture out on my own and reject the feelings of conviction and guilt that were placed upon me, primarily by people who were holding a standard up for me to reach that they weren't attaining to themselves. In this period of time I did what many teens do when they want to express such feelings of disillusionment and confusion and anger...I rebelled.
As I grow older and hopefully wiser, I look back on those years and notice a couple of things about what it means to rebel.
1. Back in the day, rebellion was looked on more disdainfully...
2. Though parents accepted the fact that at some point it would happen, they were ill-prepared to deal with the actual occurrence. (not entirely unlike parents today.)
In the present, rebellion is so common that it really isn't even talked about much anymore, unless the cops get involved or the neighbors dog starts digging up body parts in your back yard...
We've even embraced the appearance of rebellion in the world of church...screw tradition, have a cigar, brew your own beer in your kitchen, cuss while you preach, push all conventional wisdom to the side...be edgy...and why not? It's profitable, rebellion sells books, it puts butts in the seats and gets 20-somethings to go to church, especially if there's coffee involved... and we embrace it, much to the chagrin and displeasure of the older generations.
Now, don't get me wrong, I have intense respect and love for the heritage I have as a Christian and the traditions of the church, but I also love the progress the church has made over the last 15-20 years and if we had to be a little rebellious to get there, then, well, I think it's been mostly positive as well as inevitable...
As wise King Solomon once said, there's nothing new under the sun...Every generation rebels...trying desperately to NOT be like the generation before it, but unwittingly making the same mistakes and perpetuating the classic historical blunders...like starting a land war in Asia, or going in against a Sicilian when death is on the line...sorry, just a little shout out for the fans of the movie The Princess Bride.
The point is this: there is this tension between what we want to be and what we're being told we should be...
So in an attempt to assert our independence and "stick it to the man", we go all anti-hero or try and stick out from the crowd or blend in with the crowd, so as to not be noticed, or whatever your M.O., consequently wrestling with what it really means to be a follower of Jesus...a process that many of us are continually engaged in to one degree or another.
Rebellion, typically is the precursor to freedom, even in God's economy...stick with me now...subject change, ready, go:
Whenever God does something, he does it perfectly...that is His nature.
But, when we get our hands on it, human nature is to distort God's perfection...we make it in to what we want to be, rather than what God intended.
The classic example is found in the creation story, where God breathes into existence, man and woman in the garden of Eden...ultimate perfection; innocence; man in pure relationship with God. But temptation enters the scene, "why be content with being with God...he's holding out on you - hiding knowledge and truth from you..."; "you're not really disobeying, your becoming enlightened...gain control, power, real freedom, rebel...be god."
And that is the classic blunder.
The thing that we perceive to bring "real" freedom to our lives, only proves to bring bondage, heartache, despair and sadness.
You can see it all throughout history.
You see it in man's response to God trying to bring humanity back in to relationship with Him.
God intended for us to live in harmony with him, but he also intended for this thing we call the church to mirror that relationship as a beautiful expression of community and love. Well, men got their hands on this endeavor and in the struggle to work out a process, control, power and jealousy got in the way. We imposed rules and restrictions on one another and in so doing pushed the freedom in which God intended us to live, seemingly, way out of reach. The sad thing is, we do it to one another and we do it to ourselves, withholding the very thing we're looking for...freedom.
Again, we hear from the Apostle Paul, saying to the Galatian church, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."
Jesus was the visible expression of God's desire for us to live in freedom as individuals and as a collective, thus Paul's use of the word, "again". As I mentioned a moment ago, we got our hands on this thing and ruined it...but, thankfully,
Christ brought freedom from empty religion, hollow traditions and hypocrisy...Paul says, stand firm in the freedom that comes from realizing what it is to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Paul also uses the imagery of slavery to drive his point home. He knew his audience would connect with this illustration because under Roman occupation, Macedonia lived with the reality of slavery, as conquered people as well as slaves by birth and indebtedness. Paul knew that those who had been in slavery or who were intimately acquainted with it, would understand what it meant to be truly set free!
Slavery is a horrible part of human history. But as you may know, it is alive and well in the world today. Even here within the borders of the United States of America, women and children are forced into slavery in the sex industry. Let's put this a little closer to home. In Portland Oregon, you will find the 2nd largest sex trafficking market in the U.S. Not far from our doorsteps this hideous reality exists. If you could hear the testimony of those who have been rescued from this terrible existence, you would come to understand the joy, relief, the indescribable feeling of literally being set free.
Though I don't personally know anyone who has experienced liberation from modern day sex trade slavery, I know people who experience slavery of a different kind.
Many people understand what it means to be enslaved by addiction. Perhaps you or someone you know or love has been gripped by the power of alcoholism, drug addiction or pornography and what it does to an individual and their family.
Within these life controlling behaviors lies the illusion of freedom, an escape, a high, a fantasy, that temporarily gives a sense of freedom...but it is just that, temporary and what it leaves behind is a deeper emptiness, because each time the pipe touches the lips or the liquid pours from the bottle into the stomach or the mouse clicks to reveal sordid images, a piece of what once was a whole individual is robbed.
Though the intent of this post isn't to address these issues specifically, they illuminate a point too frequently missed...we are far too often in pursuit of an illusion of freedom and the rebellion that we thought would lead us to freedom only serves to bind us to a far deadlier captor than that which we rebelled against initially.
See, the point here is this: unless you are constantly moving toward Jesus, you are moving away from true freedom, toward a destructive illusion...
I don't want to ramble on too much longer here, but let's not forget, in our culture, one of the most powerful illusions is the illusion of perfection. The perfect marriage, the perfect job, the perfect church, the perfect kids, the perfect life and so on and so on...let me tell you this; freedom does not equal perfection. Because, perfection only happens when you're dead.
Relationship with Jesus brings freedom. Freedom from the illusion of perfection and the need to pursue that illusion.
Reality is this: relationship with Jesus is a struggle, every pursuit of freedom is.
The struggle is visible
The struggle is visceral
The struggle,ultimately brings victory...because in the struggle, we find what we are looking for:
Freedom
Identity
Purpose
All those things we hoped we'd find when we stuck it to the man. Freedom and rebellion go hand in hand. Rebellion is a necessary component in the pursuit of freedom, but it's all about the motivation...the why...Jesus' confrontations of the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of the day was perceived as rebellion...but when you look at the motivation, when you look at the end result, you see clearly, it was necessary and produced for us, Freedom!