Greatest of These

Bob Goff shared the other day on Twitter "Every time we treat people as ordinary, we turn the wine back into water".

If I would just look at all through the lens of love, and not the lenses I put in front of my eyes. Jesus did, and laid down his life. He saw everyone qualified. Or better yet, He saw that He needed to qualify everyone.

Three things will last forever--faith, hope, and love--and the greatest of these is love. - 1 Corinthians 13:13.

Don't be a Good Christian

A little while ago, I was in a conversation with a few church-going guys about how to "live out Christianity in the workplace". This is a frequent topic among affluent, white, male, church-going circles. There are many blogs, email subscriptions, books, seminars, which cover this subject matter—how to be a "good Christian". Mind you, there are some incredible minds, hearts, and motives behind a lot of this. I've followed folks like WisdomHunters.com and have on occasion read Boyd Bailey's blog.

But I think too many of us are too focused on being a "good Christian in the workplace", and too concerned with what we do and say to ensure we are "being that."

So, I was in this conversation with some guys and as we discussed this "being good Christian in the workplace" experience, I asked the question, "Why?".

Why do concentrate so hard on this? Why do we need to figure out what this looks like? How it should manifest itself? The Bible is loaded with answers. So why do we struggle so much with this? Why do we need to define it? I think its because we think we can control it. Our "goodness".

Maybe I am just a "bad Christian" in the workplace, and I don't define or work hard enough at it.*  

I am a Christian. A follower of Christ. Desiring to be like Christ. Not reading enough Bible. Not praying enough. Swearing too much. Drinking too much. Putting myself first too much. And I am in the workplace. 

If I am looking too hard at being a "good" one. I am looking at others. And what they think of what I am doing. My focus is elsewhere. On my reputation. Or worse yet, my reputation on behalf of God's. And He doesn't need my help.

Jesus never called us to be good. He called us to be like Him. To "Be holy because I am holy (1 Peter 1:16)" and that "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27)" and that "the kind of fasting I want calls you to free those who are wrongly imprisoned and to stop oppressing those who work for you. Treat them fairly and give them what they earn. I want you to share your food with the hungry and to welcome the poor wanderers into your homes. Give clothes to those who need them, and don not hide from relatives who need your help. (Isaiah 58:6-7)"

E.T. told us to "Be good.". God did not.

* That's my safe statement, y'all. It absolves any critical observation and comment from being too cutting, and puts any blame on myself and my shortcomings. After all, "All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God."–wink.

By 2013

A little late for a New Year's resolution, but I wanted to get the show on the road none the less. I had a great Holiday season, a good bit of time off work, some quality family and friend time, and some down time for just me. Some of which was spent looking back through my annals of blog entries. And it was good to see a bit of my journey since 2010. If I do say so myself, I believe there's some good stuff there. Check that.... I KNOW there's some good stuff there. Maybe the "good stuff" is writer (THIS writer) -directed content. And I know its good...for me.

Which brings me to a New Year's declaration. This year I want to:

BELIEVE BY KNOWING
While I will never (on this earth) fully know the mind of God and His Providence. And there is such an existential quality to faith in God, His Son, and His Spirit, that sometimes what I know will be something I don't understand, or even want to hear. But I want to know more. Through study, experience, and trust.

SAY BY DOING
Words mean things. Attitude and activity mean more.

RISE BY FALLING
To my knees. Seeking more of and about God, and in-turn, myself. Being vulnerable. And perhaps failing.

I started last year with a semi-ambiguous resolution New Year's Evolution, and have found that acted upon, faith-followed, intentions happen.

I know there are some things ahead that will challenge, discourage, and cause pain, from all of the above. Additionally, there will be joy, fulfillment, and self-discovery.

10 days in. Here we go.

Dear Wormwood

My Dearest Wormwood,

I must commend you for the work you are doing. You've distracted many from some of Our Father Below's greatest work. Now they are grumbling about "why" this so called tragedy has occurred. They are arguing amongst themselves, searching for places to put the blame. They blame their government, their laws, their entertainment, their family units, and even the makeup of their minds. And many have now lost sight of Our Father's activity almost entirely. Unfortunately I have also seen many turn to the enemy for mere comfort, and some actually believe they are receiving it. This cannot happen, Wormwood. Shame on you.

That said, you are recovering well as you have refocused many to this holiday season and its crowds, spending, and gift hoarding, instead of the celebration of our enemy's coming in this laughingly human form to supposedly save them. Those you've refocused away from the "tragedy" will easily fall into your plan of laziness and selfish inactivity.

I must forewarn you however that there will be some of their leaders in the buildings in which they meet who will claim the untruth of this silly savior. Be sure and occupy the congregants minds on visiting relatives, the gifts which help them to better their neighbors, and feeling bad about the drunken behavior they displayed at their holiday get-togethers. I'd rather them feel guilty, than special in this season.

In addition, be sure you continue to fuel the ongoing argument many have as to the existence of our enemy. This is a powerful discussion to leverage as many will be distracted to feel they must defend their beliefs rather than stand firm in them.

Don't mess this up, Wormwood. Our Father would not be pleased. These are important times.

Your Deviant Uncle, Screwtape



NOTE: This evil which reared its horrible face in Newtown on December 14th caused me to consider CS Lewis' Screwtape Letters. Its been a while since I've read it, but a lot of the conversation surrounding the Sandy Hook killings brought Screwtape's letters to mind. And how he may have written his nephew. I hope I've done it justice. My apologies to CS. May we continue to pray for the community of Newtown and the family and friends of all affected.

Stay Encouraged

Recently, a verse was placed in my heart and mind. Admittedly, I can't quote chapter and verse, so had to Google the actuals. So here goes:

Proverbs 16:9 states "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps."

Some recent activities in my life have brought me some clarity to "why this verse". Without getting into details, I've seen heart-of man-plans, and I have seen Lord-determined-steps lead to an unforeseen bend in a road.

Pastor Bob Vann with the Atlanta Mission shared this statement a while back, and I found it befitting and encouraging. "A bend in the road is not the end of the road. Unless you fail to make the turn. God did not promise smooth sailing, but He did promise a safe arrival. We give our problems sovereignty—God is sovereign! Adversity is a purifying agent. Be gracious under attack. Not everybody likes you. Not everyone can handle God's blessing and favor on your life. What has been taken from you may be God's way of giving to you. Let God comfort you. God didn't promise you that he wouldn't let you go through what you're going through. Yet, He WILL comfort you. Let your life speak for you—just keep following the Savior"

Or as my Pastor, Crawford Loritts puts it. "Let God do what He does."

Stay encouraged...

Our Christmas Carol

Yesterday was the mass killing in a Newtown, CT elementary school.

Last night I saw my second born perform in the role of Scrooge's nephew in a local adaptation of A Christmas Carol. The director is a 5th grade teacher here in town. I can't imagine how the day's tragedy played through his heart and mind. He loves kids. He teaches kids.

So the lens of the day had Scrooge's Christmas Past, Present, and Future ghosts loom a little differently in my mind and caused me think about our future. Based on our present. Stemmed from our past. We are a crazy country, in a crazy world, at a crazy time. And we all want everything to be "fine". The problem is the methods we use to make it fine. We typically wait, blame, apply solely reason, legislate, excuse-make, suppress, or just sit on our behinds and complain. Rarely do we take action. All too often, we don't see love.

This past election season was a tough one for me. I've spent the past year volunteering once a week at The Atlanta Mission, a homeless shelter in downtown Atlanta. And in doing so, I have learned a lot about myself, my Faith, my culture, and my socio-economic acumen. In addition, I've seen other perspectives, lifestyles, social and cultural realities, and societal inequalities. A revisited perspective caused me to really wrestle with my vote. My desire to truly do the right thing. I wrestled, tossed and turned, wanting to make a difference. I was for one guy, then the other. Then I decided to just vote for the one guy who hit on a couple core things I believed in. Then I voted. 

I tuned in to the election coverage for a few hours that night, and watched the networks use there cool charts, touch screens, and exit polling. Then I got tired. Went to bed. Woke up later that night and turned on the TV to see if there was some sort of conclusion. I heard Stevie singing Signed, Sealed, Delivered. Then turned it off, rolled over, and went back to bed. 

I learned that God's love, my love, my life, my activities, my words, cast more opportunity for impact than my cast vote.

There have been a lot of "hug your kids a little tighter" comments all over the broadcast and social medias. And I understand that. And surely we should. And maybe this is a right season for just that. We need to mourn*. But, we can't remain hunkered down in our own safe zone. There is a world out there that needs our love, our prayer, our activity.

Maybe somehow this evil, tragic, horrific, non-sense, will cause pause to visit the importance of how we live in the world we live in. I said in my post yesterday, "I don't think we can shelter and escape it." I pray that we all decide to take action in love. Move from here in love. Scrooge had an opportunity to change a future. We do too.

"Do not merely listen to the word, and in so deceive yourselves. Do what it says" - James 1:22

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* Ecclesiastes 3:1-7

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
A time to be born and a time to die, 

a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak

Dumbfounded

Today 20 Children and 6 Adults were murdered by a gunman in a Newtown CT elementary school.

I can't get my head around this. Does God look at us and weep and say, "My Creation, My Creation. Look at what you have made of yourselves." Does God look at us and weep and say "My Children, I too know what it's like to have lost a Son." I try to imagine the mind of GOD.

Humanity looks to attribute a reason for this. Do we blame the person? Do we blame the mom? Do we say "Well she must have neglected her child."? Do we blame the guns? Do we look at the video games our kids play "shooting and not feeling." Has society and culture numbed us to the point that someone is influenced to the point of insanity and we want to make sense of it. I don't think we can shelter and escape it.

We want to rationalize evil. We want to legislate evil. We just want somewhere to look and say "THIS is why this happened."

It is just horrible.

I believe in God, His Son, and His Spirit. But right now, I can make no sense of it. But I trust Him.

Lord, somehow bring peace and comfort....