How Common is My Christ?

Good Friday: Seemed like an appropriate day to read about Jesus’ crucifixion. So thumbing through John to chapter 18 where the story really gets started I expected to be reminded of the brutality of that day, perhaps access remembered images of Mel Gibson’s movie, reflect on God’s love for enduring so much for my sake, and possibly be stirred to some kind of emotional response…I mean, I should be stirred right? It’s Good Friday, I’m a Christian, I work for a church.

Reading the account I thought to be so familiar though, the imagery of the drama that unfolded on that day came to life for me in my mind as it had never before. Usually the character I focus on, who the movies are always about, and certainly who is ultimately the point is Jesus. But this morning it was the person of Pilate, the Roman Governor, ultimately responsible for the decision of Jesus’ fate, where my attention was drawn.

For the first time I saw in my mind’s eye just how common Jesus must have seemed to this man: seated in a governor’s palace with a carpenter, in working man’s clothes, bloodied and tired from the night before, standing before him. Though these moments recorded in John 2000 years ago mark the fulcrum of history to us, to Pilate then and there it was no more than a very difficult day at work. Throughout the account in John Pilate is contentious of his duty, seeks to make the wisest decision for his governorship, attempts to be just, in ways seems compassionate, and even wrestles with the implications of Jesus’ claims of divinity. But ultimately, when weighed against the pressures of life, the demands of the job, and the harsh realities before him, Jesus, the Carpenter Son of God, is someone to be dismissed.

Pilate gives Jesus to be crucified that his career may continue, offering a sign above the bloodied Christ’s head reading “THE KING OF THE JEWS” as a half measure of recognition that, had the circumstances been different, Jesus and His lordship might have been worthy of consideration.

Today the risen Christ still comes in power cloaked in humility, the images evoked by the crucifixion  story this morning making me consider how often I am Pilate to my Carpenter King.

If we are not in the buckle of the Bible Belt here in Little Rock, we are at least in the big Turquoise inlay just off to its right; and here, to us, to me, Jesus indeed can be common. I get busy, I get selfish, I excuse my sin and enlarge MY kingdom, while posting my token sign with my business card or fish on my car proclaiming that Jesus might be my king under certain circumstances.

So this morning I knelt in repentance before my King who is patient and kind. Who IS alive, and does reign on high while crafting His dwelling place in my heart. My prayer is that His kingship would transcend my life’s convenience and comfort as His love transcended when He laid claim to His kingdom with three nails and a spear. By His grace I want to seek Him harder, listen to His voice more, and glorify Him most. After all, if He truly is King and not common is that not the least He deserves?

Happy Good Friday to all who know the riches of His Kingdom.

To the Sound of the Guns

One Headlight

A couple months ago my roomie at the time pointed out to me that my headlight was burned out, and my first thought was SWEET, I haven’t been able to see that well at night lately and now I know I’m not suffering from early onset blindness. Since I understand less about the inner workings of a car than I do about how the economy ended up the way it is right now (read: absolutely nothing), I typed “Toyota Rav4 Headlight” into Google and hit search.

Do NOT do this. Everything that comes up will cost approximately $396,532,083.74, which will probably give you a teensy, tiny heart attack.

A work lunch conversation about how simple this would be and a quick trip to the hospital to get my heart fixed later, I headed over to Wal-Mart armed with my manual (which I didn’t even know I had and certainly have never opened) and a completely false confidence.

I managed to walk out of that store with a Halogen Light bulb, my dignity (although there was mention that I was probably going to blow my hand off), and without punching the man who made me feel like an idiot because I don’t know how a carburetor works. Or exactly what it is.

I opened up my manual, opened the hood (okay, that took 10 minutes. AND I had to use my manual to find the opener-lever.), and peered inside when-

“Hey, will your car not start?”
I spun around, and there was an older man standing next me.
“Oh, no- I’m just trying to change my headlight bulb.”
“How’s it going?”
“Welllll… so far, I got the hood open.”
He chuckled, and without saying a word, took the manual and bulb out of my hands. He sent me inside to wash my hands,

(proof I tried)

and when I came out, he had not only fixed the headlight, he had cleaned off my battery and replaced a screw that had come off the front grill. I’m not kidding.

So for months and months and- okay, for life so far, this “man helping a woman because she can’t do it herself business” is exactly what I’ve been tooth and nail fighting. Because, the truth is, I probably could have done it myself. It would have taken me an hour *cough* hourssss, and I might have gotten hurt, but I could have done it. I can follow pictures.

But that’s not the point, is it?……. Is it?

And there it was- what I’ve been missing all along, maybe.

That this wasn’t about a man putting a woman in her place, or taking care of a “lil’ lady”, or any of that stuff-

it was about one human helping another human. It was about compassion, not superiority. It was about kindness, not smugness.

Oh, pride. You are indeed a sneaky little sucker.

I’m not saying that the next time I need something done to my car, I won’t try to do it myself. And it will probably end with a trip to the emergency room and irreversible damage to my car. I’m stubborn, and I don’t learn that fast.

What I’m saying is that I’d like to recognize these things a little more for what they really are, and less for what they’re not.

(I’m learning)
(Thanks, God)

Now all the heavenly splendor
breaks forth in starlight tender
from myriad worlds unknown
And we, this marvel seeing,
forget our selfish being
and know a beauty not our own.
Music: Innsbruck Heinrich Isaak (15thC)

The Sanctity of Stuff

Live Well…pillar part deux of Fellowship’s new vision statement of what a Christ follower looks like who lives a life of irresistible influence (i² if you’re in to both alliteration and exponents…you boomers you ). Seriously, I LOVE our new vision: love much, LIVE WELL, light the world. I honestly get chills every time we’re talking about it as I think it represents the stirring of a missional wind starting to blow fresh through our church.

But following Tim’s message last Sunday on what it means to LIVE WELL I’ve been really kicking around what that means for me beyond the bullet points and filled in blanks. Allocation of time, money, and passion have all been up for review: not necessarily in the context of good vs. bad usages, but more within the rubric of acceptable vs. excellent. The result of this introspection is the conclusion that I already live well; not as Tim or the corporate vision of Fellowship Bible intends: meaning redeeming every moment for the glory of Jesus; but I live well in the fact that my life is already filled with great friends, much joy, and so much more than everything that my heart could desire. I am richly blessed. I am able to spend so much of what I have and who I am on people and things I deeply enjoy (all by God’s grace to this sinner).

That does not mean that the syncopation of my “rhythm of life” is not borderline frenetic. My job, my marriage, my house, and where I have already been led to serve takes up a ton of time that I hope I can say in honest humility stands in right balance upon this further review. That said, just the thought of LIVING WELL as a factor of addition to my life leaves me breathless and ready for bed. I don’t think my plate as it stands is clear enough for even one more thing.

And that is where my answer rests in LIVING WELL: turning the fullness of the opportunities I have already been given, the relationships already gifted to me, the stuff with which I am already so deeply blessed towards the glory of my God who has so enriched me. I have a tendency to separate the temporal from the spiritual, the things of everyday life from the sacred, but if ALL things are from God (as Colossians 1:16 declares) then perhaps that distinction in reality does not exist. Seeing not only the Bible I study or the money I set aside to give as overt tools for the glory of God, but ALSO things as earthy as a pair of matinee tickets, a half tank of gas, or a box of Tag-a-Longs I was manipulated into buying by troop 682 with their cute as buttons cheer (“Girls Scout cookies rock the house….and they’re really good!”…truth in advertising to be sure). All of those THINGS can be given or enjoyed for the glory of God to my joy when done as they were intended: all the way, keeping His provision in my mind and His goodness on my lips. How good is it to celebrate being married to your wife with an intentionally screened rom-com, talk life with a new friend as you haul his equally new high def TV across town, or loudly participate in an enthusiastic cookie-chant at the entrance of Kroger with 6 other smiling munchkins wearing Hanna Montana apparel? If you have had moments like that when normal stuff of life elicits supernatural moments you know it is very good.

Maybe LIVING WELL for many of us is not found in the ceasing of some activities and the investment in others, but in being aware that even especially the common things in life can be sacred. So today I’m resolved to fully participate in every moment, apply everything I have been given to enjoying His provision and loving others, and not doubting that I am where I am when I am for a reason. I’m not sure what that’s going to look like, but I think that is LIVING WELL.

Aunt Bee’s Revolution

My wife and I live on an island. It’s not some secret gated community in the middle of Lake Maumelle, and as a dual income household we make enough that we have not had to relocate to that sandbar you can sometimes see from the 430 bridge. No, our isle is that of isolation: we are nameless strangers; owners of one big vehicle, one small one, and a squirrel-barking dog living cheek by jowl to other equally anonymous owners of Cobalts, Camrys, and a Camero (bet he’s got AWESOME hair). Anyhow, our island of isolation is thoroughly land locked just at the end of Shadow View Dr.

When Shannon and I moved into our first house in early December perhaps my visions of hand delivered freshly baked cookies, weekend block parties, and mountains of housewarming gifts were a little too “Mayberry“, especially smack dab in the middle of holiday season. But now that the decorations are long gone and the doldrums of February are underway we’re still yet to encounter any of our neighbors. Though we have done our fair share of cross-street surveillance, we have no real knowledge of the people that live just yards away apart from some wild speculation as to where in the Hoosier state the girl in the Mitsubishi that parks in front of our driveway is from (Indiana tags).

Even as I type here at Starbucks on a Friday night (Ladies night at the Yates’ house) the joint is packed with single occupancy tables filled with folks who have all come here to be alone together. Isolation is everywhere. Isolation is accepted. Isolation is even sought after. Phones, iPods, laptops all sprout earbuds which activate personal cones of silence, nodded “how’s it going”s are rhetorical questions mumbled to familiar strangers out of obligation, and garage doors go up and down to the predictable beats of our own solo drummers. I think we kid ourselves behind our keyboards sometimes, trying to “connect” in a world where every profile pic, status update, or message reply can be managed or spun with the appropriate amount of anonymity.

This is not me nostalgically pining for some lost ideal era: I got my first foam padded Walkman at age 8 and the indoctrination of isolation was on from there (Glass Tiger: The Thin Red Line was the cassette deck played in it by the way). This IS however me longing for a future…..

This 501 deal has been going on now for about 6 months, I’ve had a ton of fun, been richly blessed personally, and am excited about what is next for us all. We have visions of seeing God do great things, connecting people in community, spurring one another on to following Jesus, seeing lives redeemed, changing a city, a culture, a whole generation for Christ. Though things are rolling now we are still in the praying phase, still very much in the planning part of the mission we have embarked upon. We’re talking programs, events, teaching, groups, structures, and strategies. The feeling is that we may need to do something RADICAL, something that both understands the world which is emerging here in Little Rock while at the same time refuses to be so familiar that it fades into the background along with all of the other competing noises of distraction, duty, business, bosses, and beyonce.

What if that radical, rebellious, revolutionary, interrupting, counter-cultural thing was apple pie? Seriously…apple pie: the kind Aunt Bee would have cooling off her kitchen window Saturday morning. Such baked goods may seem benign, but applied correctly they may be just thing to use to crack a culture for redemption; to the gospel of Jesus Christ. What if that pie was not just for eating, but for sharing? What if that confectionery delight became a bridge that would span roadways, driveways, and front lawns? What if we were to invite our neighbors over to eat……………pie? How CRAZY is that? Now admittedly, eating pie does not sound rebellious except for the fact that NO ONE else is doing it!

What if it is not our programs, promotion, production, or planning that will reach isolated people here in Little Rock, but our HOSPITALITY. The theology of meal sharing throughout scripture is incredible (check it out here). Through the biblical narritive, the snarl that is human history begins with a meal taken apart from God, climaxes with a meal served through the sacrifice for us of Christ, and ends with a feast celebrating the glory of God and His son, Jesus. Throughout scripture and throughout OUR lives we see a shared table be what turns strangers into friends.

What if throughout Little Rock every week there were hundreds of tables that understood they were set through the gracious provision of a loving God which were openened in order to redeem acquaintance to friendship? How many relationships might be built that would introduce our new found friends (be they neighbors, co-workers, or family) to Jesus and His people?

Our city sees big every day churches but rarely if ever sees open homes. What if THAT is the radical calling of our mission. Have you ever thought about cooking for Jesus?

For most of us it is not the preparation but the invitation that makes this a frightening process. For those of you (dudes) that will struggle on both fronts you can download the recipe at the end of this post (I made it often even pre-maritally). But I challenge us ALL: LET US PRACTICE HOSPITALITY, even at the risk of being strange or rejected. I will leave it to you to consider prayerfully who and when will be invited, but let us step out in faith and do something CRAZY.

Hebrews 11:6 says: “…without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” I want desperately to please Jesus, in fact, that is why I was made…for His pleasure. So would it not make sense that what He calls us to do would require of us the faith that is so pleasing to Him?

So let’s make up the grocery list, set aside a night of the week, and bust out a casserole dish. If we want to see Jesus change this city through us He will probably begin with our friends…so let us go make more of them!

Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Let us emulate the ministry of our God and GET COOKIN’!

Shepherd’sPie

Living Through a Broken Heart

What I am about to admit to in sharing what God’s doing in me ain’t pretty. Hopefully exposing my ugliness will induce us all to run more fervently toward the grace given us by God in Christ.

Please, let’s carry this conversation forward, comment below…

Push

Oh, 501. I miss you dearly.

It’s been far too many minutes and days and months, now, since I’ve sat in community with you on a Thursday night, and I’ve thought of you and prayed for you often, though I find my prayers coming more frequently now that I’m looking for a new young adult program to live life with. One that’s a little more conveniently located, since I’m living less 5 minutes from Fellowship Bible Church and more in Kansas City.

If this was a movie, this is where the intense BUM BUM BUUUUUM music would crash, and probably a zombie or King Kong or Mike High in a clown wig would come popping in from stage right. Just in case you didn’t get that just from the words.

Two Tuesday nights ago, I entered a small building with large green painted letters “The Crossing” slashed across the front, located between a pet cemetery and what was either a corn field or an elaborate set for the newest Victor Halperin movie starring Bela Lugosi.

I stood for a moment with my hand resting on the doorknob, peering through the window. Inside were about 30 people my age, all chatting and laughing, and everything inside of me screamed “ruuuuuuuuuun!”

It’s hard, isn’t it? It’s hard to walk through the doors and face new people and answer hundreds of questions and not know how anything goes. To not get the inside jokes. To not have a normal table with all of your BFF’s.

I’m a pretty outgoing, friendly, extroverted gal, and it literally took everything I had inside of me that night to push open the doors and walk in.

So why am I writing this, right? Why does it matter that I had to will my fingers to open out of an unintentional fist and lay flat to push?

It matters. It matters because I have a feeling that it might not just be me. It could be that there are others among you, other people who desperately want to find people to live life alongside of, but just walking into that candle-lit room is taking everything they have to give.

My dear friends, are you the body of Christ? Do you believe that we are meant to live together- to live in genuine fellowship? Then you must find these people. Show them what you found when you first came.

Show them Christ.

If you’re new to 501, I just want to tell you- I know where you are right now. I know how hard it is to look for something real and how frustrating it is to not find it. You can relax. You’re home.

I’m not home yet. But I’m not giving up, either.

After I pushed through the doors that Tuesday, I faced 30 young people who were there more for the free cheesecake then to really know each other. And that’s fine. I mean, who doesn’t love cheesecake?

But after you’ve had a taste of people-who-really-love-Jesus-and-each-other, it’s kind of hard to settle for cheesecake.

Thanks, 501. For making it impossible to be satisfied with anything less than heartfelt community.

Love each other with genuine affections, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Romans 12:10-11.

What am I about?

Vlog #2. Been both convicted and encouraged to be about what God is about. All to often I do my own thing and hope God supports it. Makes more sense to actively run toward what God tells us directly He is about doing. Imagine the excitement, the closeness, the power in prayer to be directly in the path of the moving of God. That’s where I want to be.

A God Who Understands

A God Who Understands

Hebrews 2:17-18, 4:15-16
“For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted…”

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

There is such truth and power on tap for all of us here, but we so often fail to look close enough. The author of Hebrews demonstrates that one reason Jesus was made man, made to suffer, and made to be tempted was to intimately experience our struggles. How precious this promise is to those of us who struggle! Jesus (all God in every way) became human so that our struggles and pains could be experienced and covered with mercy. That is not a picture of God who sits on high waiting for us to mess up so He can strike us with punishment, but rather one of God who becomes one of us to experience our flesh and respond to our weaknesses with compassion and mercy. Rejoice!

There is something else quite precious here: the passage says that Jesus was “without sin.” He committed no sin in the midst of the sufferings and temptations “in every way.” Even when faced with death, He did not respond in human weakness by running away. However, He did respond: He stressed to the point that He sweat drops of blood—that was “human” Jesus seeing the pain of what lay ahead. However, “God” Jesus was able to overcome the temptation to flee and endured the cross for the glory of His name and the salvation of all people. That gives me hope! We have “God” Jesus to respond to us in the full memory of what it meant to be “man” Jesus. Not only does it give me hope, but it also gives me a new charge concerning my way of living. I know that to be Christ-like in my living, I cannot struggle in my own strength. I must instead rely on the mercy and grace of He Who Overcame. Therefore, my prayers, now, are becoming: “You went through this Jesus and did not fall—Oh, please help me with that strength.”

So, I see these hopes standing:
-When Feeling Lonely: Jesus never married and yet stayed pure with full satisfaction in God.
-When Feeling the Money Crunch: Jesus was not wealthy and yet rejoiced in what He had without worry of tomorrow.
-When Uncertain of the Future: Jesus knew well the cross that awaited Him and yet faced it with confidence and God-centered, human emotion.
-When Angry: Jesus responded humanly in anger, yet never sinfully.
-And On and On…

When we are overwhelmed with all that weighs us down, God gives us The Strength. When temptations, sufferings, and struggles mount, we have The One who truly understands and overcame without sin. He is Jesus—100% us (human) in all emotion and pain, and 100% God in all perfection. So, we must pray to Him to overcome…we must rely on Him for hope and victory…we must never lean on our own “strength,” because even the “weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” (1 Cor. 1:25)

Amen

What Sort of Faith

I’m trying a Vlog now, see if I’ll be more consistent.

Next Page »