The Office – Part 1

It's over. Like Usain Bolt, Christmas has sprinted by leaving bloated waistlines and bloated credit cards. Dry turkey, stale cookies, picked over fudge, half drunk egg nog, and gifts awaiting return litter the house like flotsam and jetsam of another Christmas sunk out of sight.  Obediently, we turn with great hope and determination to the new year.

With a new year come resolutions of a more virtuous and productive life. I recently read a list of the ten most popular resolutions. In order they are: more time with family, exercise more, lose weight, quit smoking, enjoy life more, quit drinking, get out of debt, learn something new, help others, and get organized. Whew! That is a lot of change. Unfortunately for most of us, it is change that will never happen. I vow to be the exception. I will not fail with my resolutions.

This year I am committed to resolutions I can actually achieve. To better meld with our current cultural tendency, my goals will put no burden upon myself nor lower my self esteem with any hint that I actually need improving.

With that in mind, I hereby resolve the following for 2010:

I will continue to color my hair silver.... one strand at a time.

I will not go ballroom dancing with Nancy Pelosi. I bet she's not very good and she probably wouldn't let me lead.

I will turn down the Nobel Peace Prize if offered. Taming my four year old daughter actually makes me over qualified.

I will drink more coffee and pop. I guess going to the bathroom more will be a derivative goal to this one.

I will wallow in self pity at least once a week. I don't want my wallower to get out of shape.

I will find five new scapegoats for my problems in the coming year. Maybe you could be one of them.

I will procrastinate more.....if I get around to it.

I will make sloth and disorganization into virtues if I can find them on my desk.

I will start smoking and quit smoking in the same moment.

I will be nicer to my wife.....as soon as she is nicer to me.

I think this is a pretty good list. I don't feel challenged, burdened or guilt ridden about my current self. I should be more self satisfied in 2010.....unless I read my bible.  Fortunately, that is not on my resolution list. If it was, it would ruin my plan. If I read Peter's first letter, I would be challenged to crave Scripture. He doesn't want me to just read it periodically or just study it. I am to crave it.  That sounds like a ton of work which will only result in guilt when I come up short. Why crave? Probably because we are made to crave God, but we are bent to crave things of our own making instead. The reason our resolutions fail is that we attempt to change our habits without changing our cravings. If we only try to fit Scripture around our existing cravings, we will fail in our attempts to realize true change.  Peter is building a mindset for daily life to bring about our transformation.

This mindset is that as a Christ follower I should have a perpetual, holy dissatisfaction with myself.  Myself??!! If I walk around with a spiritual dissatisfaction with myself how will I have time to be dissatisfied with everyone else?  This dissatisfaction heightens awareness of my sin and depravity and in turn heightens awareness of my need for Christ. We begin to crave the pure spiritual milk of Scripture. Something must be put off to make room for this craving.

Peter says put off malice, hypocrisy, deceit, envy, and slander. Are you joking Peter? What is left for my thought life then? Where is my personal power in all of this? Peter knows we must release our demand for personal power to begin craving God. As this becomes our craving, we become living stones. As living stones we come together with other Christ followers to build a spiritual house. As a spiritual house we advance God's reclaiming of us, our neighborhoods, and the whole creation.

What does it mean to be living stones? In the coming days I will write a series of posts to address how we become living stones. In summary we become living stones as we anchor ourselves to the cornerstone (Christ) and fill the offices God has invited us into.  What are these offices?  More to come.

Christmas Lights

Money, Cashola, Moolah, Filthy Lucre, Jack, Dough, $

Last week at bedtime prayers my four year old daughter prayed the following, "Dear God, thank you for making all the people who will make me stuff to get for Christmas. Thank you also for Santa so he can bring me toys." As a biblical worldview guru I was more than a little taken aback. We talk and pray about Jesus being what Christmas is all about. We do an Advent wreath at home leading up to Christmas. We minimize presents and the material focus of the holiday. Yet, our best efforts appear to be for naught. The material story is easy for a kid to grasp while the spiritual story is easier to memorize than to actually understand and feel.

Kids aren't the only ones to struggle with this. People of all ages find the tangible far more compelling than the deferred and intangible. Martin Luther contended that there are three conversions for the Christian. First is the conversion of the mind. Next, is conversion of the heart.  Last, is the conversion of the pocketbook. Interesting that even in medieval Germany bringing money under the lordship of Christ was something few attempted. Money dominates our thoughts. We obsess over getting it, saving it, or spending it. We walk around with a list of our next purchases that deep down we are convinced will make life fulfilling. I call it our "what's next" list.

Here is my  "what's next" list of things to make me happy:

• A new van for my wife. Our current van is 10 years old, generates a new mystery noise weekly and has enough food ground into the floor by my kids to have a buffet luncheon for the local high school football team. Additionally, my wife is quite pretty and should have a van that doesn't detract from her beauty.  A Honda Odyssey would be perfect.
• A new car for me. My current car is 15 years old and doesn't fit my image. I'm early into my mid-life crisis and need a car that is fast, virile, goes well with my salt and pepper hair, is not too expensive and avoids certain ostentatious brands (after all I am a pastor). I think a black Nissan 370Z would be perfect. A car nicknamed "Z"  fits me well and black would go well with my hair.
• A big screen tv. My current tv is 27 inches which is far too small. Nobody is life size. It is probably detrimental to my eyesight to watch such a small screen. I think I need (for health concerns of course) a "Fahrenheit 451" 50 inch lcd tv with a refresh rate of 120 hz, (I am not quite sure what the refresh rate does but 120 is bigger than 60 and I like being refreshed.) and 1080p(whatever p are it would be nice to have 1080 of them). The nice thing about a tv this size is you can lie it on its side and use it for a dining room table if you're ever in a jam.
• A new entertainment center. Now that I have made a decisive step in optic health with a 50 inch tv. I need a new place to house my wall....er....I mean tv.
• New athletic gear. Not sure what I need but you can never have too much gear. If your into sports, hunting, picture albums, sewing, gardening, hamster raising or whatever, every hobby has a gear industry to go with it so you are always in need of something.
• I am not sure what comes next, but I am confident there will be  a catalogue in my mail to tell me what my life lacks.

Our what's next list seems to never hit bottom. Yet Christ is not a "what's next" person. He is a "who's next" person. He was concerned about who he could help next. Who knows enough about their own lostness to know they need me? Who needs compassion? Who needs to be made whole?  Who needs to be set free from the power of sin and death?

Imagine if we became "who's next" people with our money instead of "what's next". Think of the time and we'd save not having to dream up self-centered, convoluted theologies why we don't give 10 percent and up. Think of the energy saved not having to feign being offended at money sermons. We could sell our excuse machines, and throw out our grumblers. We could dream about people becoming whole in Christ instead of fixating on purchasing more garage sale fodder. We could let go of the pressure of bigger, better, faster, stronger, new and improved, one of a kind, uniquely you, financial freedom, etc....

Look around your house and garage at all the stuff. Take inventory of all the stuff in your mind waiting to make its way into your house. Then repent; give; and ask God, who's next?

Blah Blah Blah Revisited

Last week it was Jesse Jackson. This week it's Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid whose mouth spilleth over. In one fell swoop Senator Reid compared opponents of the Senate's abortion funding version of health care to people who resisted the abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, and civil rights legislation. In other words, you are equal to a racist and a misogynist if you don't support a bill that has you pay for killing pre-born children. It seems the more absurd our internal inconsistencies the more absurd the things that come out of our mouths.

This is true for all of us. Gossip, criticalness, lying, contempt, anger, sarcasm, flattery, seduction, etc.... are not just annoying habits that call for daily suppression.   Each reveals a deep darkness in our hearts that defies God and casts Him aside, so we can run our own show. The answer isn't daily suppression of our tongues' troubled ways. Rather, it is the gut wrenching, humbling, admission of darkness of our heart, so it may be worked on by the Spirit and replaced with love for God which flows to others.

I write on this again not just because of Senator Reid, though I am grateful to him for exposing himself to the world, but because our office received a Christmas letter which contained a prayer from one of Joni Eareckson Tada's books. I was moved, as I usually am, by her thoughts. Read, enjoy and adopt her heart on this matter. She is older, but it is a prayer for all ages.

Joni Eareckson Tada

“Lord, Thou knowest better than I know myself that I am growing older and will someday be old. Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject and on every occasion. Release me from craving to straighten out everybody’s affairs. Make me thoughtful but not moody; helpful, but not bossy with my vast store of wisdom – it seems a pity not to use it all – but Thou knowest, Lord, that I want a few families and friends at the end….

Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details; give me wings to get to the point swiftly. Seal my lips on my aches and pains. They are increasing, the love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter as the years go by. I dare not ask for grace enough to enjoy the tales of others’ pains, but help me to endure them with patience. I dare not ask for imporved memory, but for a growing humility and a lessening cocksureness when my memory seems to clash with the memories of others. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be mistaken.

Keep me reasonably sweet; I do not want to be a sour old person – some of them are so hard to live with and each one a crowning work of the devil. Give me the ability to see the good things in unexpected places, and the talents in unexpected people.  And give me, O Lord, the grace to tell them so.

Amen

Redeeming a World of Noise

I want to be good.  I don't want to tease public figures who flay themselves with bizarre, non-sensical, and sometimes dangerous public comments. Unfortunately, sometimes I cannot resist. Like catnip to a cat, Troy Bolton to teenage girls, or Blackberry's to middle age men,  some things cannot be resisted. Enter Rev. Jessie Jackson. Last week Rev. Jackson said black lawmakers, "can't vote against health care and call yourself a black man."  This could be in my all-time top ten. Aside from the incoherence of a baptist reverend trying to moralize support for a health plan that includes government funded abortion, Jackson's statement reveals another speech abuse we all have,  illegitimate power.

How Rev. Jackson obtained the ability to revoke a person's race is unclear. He is baptist, like me (though I am not a Southern Baptist), and we can over-estimate our power at times, but rarely do we exhibit this much bravado. Imagine others throughout history using Jackson's self appointed power.

Napolean declares that a person, "can't resist French domination and call yourself short."

Pope declares that a person, "can't use birth control and call yourself left-handed."

Lincoln declares that a person, "can't vote against the union and call yourself hypoglycemic."

These statements seem silly because they overstate the speaker's power. We are so accustomed to it, however, we no longer care or notice. Words have become virtually meaningless, so we talk without thinking and think without listening. We often use words to assert power we don't have. In place of thoughtful and appropriate speech we air our opinions as if they are from the mouth of God Himself. The result is a noise that dominates our T.V.s, radios, break rooms, classrooms, dinner tables, and cell phones. From Rush to Hannity to you and I, everyone talks like their words have power, and yet in their multitude they are powerless.

Gossip, criticalness, complaining, boasting, cut-downs, sarcasm, etc.... are mostly illegitimate power plays.

Christ lived a life of humble charity and spoke life into others. This combination of truth and love gave His words great power. Christ-followers must do likewise. Our words must be tempered by sound thinking, a reflective heart, and a righteous life.  Words used as power-plays bring darkness and death. Words used in truth and love bring light and life.

Do you speak words of life or death? Try going one day saying only life-giving things. If you find it difficult, you're in the majority. Unfortunately, being a Christ-follower is a call to being in the minority. Our difficulty on this matter betrays a darkness in our hearts that must be repented of daily, hourly, moment by moment.

God's Kingdom is built on nobodies who become somebodies through this moment-by-moment exchange of death for life that comes from Christ.