What I Really Think About the Church

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi
Santa Fe, New Mexico

I have been a Christian my whole life. Both my mom and dad have been involved in ministry for the past twenty years, I was baptized when I was nine, and I am currently attending a Christian university. I have been to thousands of corporate worship services and dozens of Christian conferences over the past eighteen years. I've known the Church for a long time. 

Here's what I really think:

I love the Church. 

I know it's not very cool to think or say that right now. I know that it's in vogue to reject most formal methods of worship, but I love the Church. She is not perfect. She is not always kind or welcoming or fun. Sometimes She can be a little too comfortable and judgmental, but I love Her anyway. 

Why? 

I love the church because Christ loves Her. I will never give up on the Church because Christ will never give up on Her. I will do my best to make the Church better because Jesus has a bride, and She is the Church. 

In Ephesians 5, Paul writes this about relationships and the Church:

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. Ephesians 5:25-27 NIV 

I get frustrated with the Church too. I see things that are wrong with Her, things I want to change. I see the love of Christ misrepresented, and that makes me angry. But love is not dependent on perfection but on how much one values something. Jesus Christ placed enough value into the Church to given His own life up in exchange for Her sanctification. If He, as the incarnation of God, found the Church to be more valuable that His own life, then how can I not value Her? 

I will die for the Church because Christ died for her. I will never give up on the Church because Christ will never abandon Her. I will do my best to help the Church be holy because Jesus has a bride, and She is the church. I love the Church because I love Christ.

The Question 010 | Everything

For the Glory of God | Everything

"There are far, far better things ahead 

than any we leave behind." 

-CS Lewis

The glory of man is that God has chosen us as vessels of His spirit, with which we can be filled and are only fulfilled by Him. The tragedy of man is that we try to fill ourselves with anything and everything but God- work, money, sex, admiration- all of which have their place but all of which make terrible gods. 

We as individuals intrinsically praise and elevate, we have no choice but to worship. However, we have the choice of who and what we will worship, and are made free to bear the consequences of those choices. 

Chesterton once wrote in his book Orthodoxy that "When you choose anything, you reject everything else." By choosing to do absolutely anything, we absolutely refuse to do everything else we could potentially do with the same resources, time, and energy available to finite being such as ourselves. Whether in word or deed, consciously or subconsciously, with every breath we choose to worship Something. What will that be? Is that god enough to fill you? Or are you just "playing house" with your life? Who is your god, and are you willing to give everything for it? Because that's what worship is. 

Worship is choosing One Thing, and giving up everything else. 

Following Jesus costs absolutely nothing and yet requires everything you have. He does not respect status, whether high or low, whether great or small. All stand on level ground in the presence of God.

When Jesus calls a few poor fishermen to be his disciples in Luke 5, the text says that they "left everything and followed him." Later in that same chapter, Jesus calls out to a wealthy tax collector to come with him, and the man "left everything and followed him." 

Everything? Even...(fill in the blank)? To this, Jesus answers "Yes. Everything."

In the 9th chapter of the gospel of Luke, Jesus says this to one of his followers who is on the fence about whether or not Jesus is worth following. 

"No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:60 ESV) 

I'm the type of person who likes to look back. I'm also the type of person who is hesitant to plow straight ahead. I like to look at the angles, to examine the options, to figure out the best thing to do socially and financially. But if I'm honest, social standing and financial security are pretty fickle gods to worship. The same goes for friendship, safety, and success. 

But I believe in my soul that God is worth more than everything I could ever offer. 

The Question

What are you willing to give up for more than everything?

The Question 009 | Breakfast

For the Glory of God | Breakfast

In John 21, Jesus appeared to His disciples while they were fishing. He called to them from the shore and when they came to him, he had prepared a breakfast of fish and bread on a little campfire in the sand. Jesus reached out to his disciples through cooking them a simple breakfast. 

The peace and transformation that Christ brings does not stop with the cross or the tomb or even with the resurrection. The resurrection is not the end of the story, no, it is the beginning of our new story. The new story is more real than our past and more tangible than our pain. 

Jesus changes everything, even the way we do breakfast. 

Think about it. What if Jesus didn't just come to redeem your sin and win but also to redeem your breakfast? What if we, as followers of Jesus, used breakfast as a holy place, a place where we consciously pursue Christ? 

The meals we share are how we spend a lot of time, usually a few hours a day, and I think they are one of the quickest, most effective ways to grow closer to those around you. Can you cook or bake? Do you have the financial ability to buy a meal to share with others? Then do so. 

Give generously in the name of Jesus. Go out into the world and love the people you will find there, those who are hungry and those who thirst. 

After their breakfast was done, Jesus asked Peter "Do you love me?" 

Peter answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." 

And Jesus tells him this: "Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep...Follow me." 

When Jesus is giving away food, performing miracles, and promising that the Kingdom of God is near, it is really easy to believe in him. When Jesus sacrifices himself in your place, it is simple to love him. 

When he asks you to follow him? 

To let go of what you've followed before and to take hold of him? 

What then? 

The Question

Are you willing to follow Jesus? 

To what end?

The Question 008 | Giants

For the Glory of God | Giants

David Slays Goliath by Gustave Dore, 1866

Every kid who has gone to Sunday School knows the story of David and Goliath (found in 1 Samuel 17); the classic flannel-graph of the cute little kid in the cupid-dress with a slingshot who kills a big scowling giant and all the people cheer and the moral of the story is that the little guy can win! Yay! 

But is that all there is to the story or is there something more?

Here's the way I see it. 

The story of David doesn't start in the valley where the giant and the boy battle. It doesn't even start in the army camp. It starts years earlier, when David was just a little boy. David's family had some flocks of sheep, and part of David's duties were to care for and protect those sheep. Sounds like a relatively easy job, until you consider that sheep make great snacks for lions and bears. Being a shepherd was tough work, and dangerous. Over time and out of necessity, David gained quite some skill with the sling. The Scriptures even say that David had killed a lion and a bear by himself, all before he was 13. 

So when he comes to the army camp and hears the bully Goliath is threatening the Israelites and speaking out against God, David gets angry. On one side is the Philistines with their giant champion, and on the other is Israel with their king who has recently been rejected by God. Not great odds. But David didn't care much about odds, and the story goes on to say that David called the giant out, who was at least twice David's height and a well-seasoned warrior. 

David gives this speech, which can be found in 1 Samuel 17. 

"You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand.”

David proceeds to whip his sling once around like a softball pitch and throw a rock about the size of a tennis ball in excess of 60 miles an hour at Goliath. The account in scripture says that "the stone sank into his (Goliath's) forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground."

A few grisly moments later, David has cut off the fallen giant's head and hoisted it into the air for all to see. The entire Philistine army sees their fallen champion and lose heart. Every soldier turns around and runs away, and the Israelites win the battle. 

There are two main points I see illustrated in this story. 

1 - God will use anyone to do anything 

It doesn't matter who you are or who you aren't. It doesn't matter if you're too big or too small or too loud. It doesn't matter what you have done or haven't done. God's got a place for you in His plan, and is more than willing to put you to good use. 

I can't say how many times I've heard the phrase: "Somebody should do something about _______." What if the somebody was you? What if you could do the something? I truly believe in my soul that God works everyday through ordinary people, by showing them "somethings" that need to be done and equipping them to do so. 

2 - God will often use what you're good at to carry out His mission 

This isn't to say that God doesn't use what you're not good at. There's lots of stories of God choosing the unlikeliest of heroes to do amazing things. But these men and women often have something they're already good at, a skill or talent, that God uses. 

For David, it was his skill with the sling. He didn't spend his childhood practicing with his sling, hoping to one day he'd slay a giant. A the time, David knew he needed to learn the sling to take care of his sheep. And so he did. Over time, with practice, he got better at it. Imagine the hours spent in meadows, trying to knock stones off of stumps or aiming at branches in the trees. David didn't wake up the morning he killed Goliath and instantly know how to use a sling. He'd practiced and prepared and, when the opportunity presented itself, he knew what to do. And God used David's skill to rescue a whole nation from slavery to the Philistines. 

The world is awfully full of giants, isn't it?

Full of sickness, corruption, desperate need and absolute poverty. Our systems are broken and our hearts are as well. We as people, as individuals and as a collection, need God as starving men are desperate for food, like an infant cries for mother. Headlines are full of corruption and conflict. 

But the world is also full of Davids, and of slings. We are the Davids, and our skills are our slings. We are underdogs with gifts and talents that can be used to go toe-to-toe with giants. Isn't that amazing?

These skills we have aren't automatically mastered, of course. They have to be shaped with discipline, with time and sweat and investment. The apostle Paul wrote about this in 1 Corinthians 9:26-27: 

"So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to other I myself should be disqualified."

Paul spoke of living as if it was a sport, as if it was about discipline and all-encompassing body and soul dedication. I think he was right.  

Don't run aimlessly. Don't punch at the wind. 

Be focused. Be disciplined. 

Slay giants. 

The Question

What is your sling? What are your skills that can be used to face giants? How will you sharpen them and hone them to be useful?

Dark Was the Night, Brighter Is the Dawn

                                                                                    

"In a semblance of the gardener 
God walked again in the garden, 

in the cool not of the evening 
but the dawn." 

-GK Chesterton 

There's a beautiful passage in Scripture that speaks of God "walking in the garden in the cool of the day" (Genesis 3:8 ESV). It seems so ordinary and simple, like taking a walk around the block after dinner in the cool after a hot summer day. God walked in the garden. I imagine that some days, man and woman walked with Him. 

I wonder what God and the people talked about on their walks. Perhaps they had the sort of silent conversation that can sometimes occur in the company of dear friends. Or God might have only listened as Adam and Eve remarked on just how wonderful the garden was. Everything I think is, of course, just speculation, but it's interesting to dream about. 

I love going on walks with people. My girlfriend lives on five acres of woods, and we love to  take long walks, down the hills and by the creek. The sun bursts through the branches with such unspeakable elegance, and in those moments I am bathed in the soft waters of contentment. The creek babbles away, sliding over itself with persistent peace, and the squirrels burst with frenzied energy through the crackling carpet of leaves. I cannot be discontented when I am there at that creek, sitting on a fallen log with a loved one, taking a few moments to do nothing but absorb the complexity and simplicity of creation. 

After Jesus rose from the dead, He took a while to walk around the garden where He had been buried. Gardens seem to have significance to God. In Genesis, man rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden. Before Jesus went to be crucified, He prayed to God for hours in the Garden of Gethsemane, and after Jesus had died, He rose from the dead in a garden. 

Gardens are places of life, and places of death, and places of death leading to life. Walking among the trees by the creek, I can see this saga unfolding before my very eyes. I can feel the frenetic scrabble for life and also the serenity of rest. 

God walked in the garden in the cool of the day, in the dusk of all goodness, as if to say goodbye before the garden was destroyed. 

Later, Jesus walks in a different garden, this time in the dawn, as if to greet the newly redeemed earth. 

Perhaps the night has passed, and, dark as it is, the day has come. Now we find ourselves in the grayness of the dawn, in which everything slowly becomes illuminated. 

Dark was the night, brighter is the dawn. 

Mad Libs

Photo Credit: Ryder Mills, Creative Commons

Have you ever played Mad Libs? If so, you'll know that this game is an explosion of laughter waiting to happen. In this game, there is a story that has already been written, but there are blanks throughout it. Each blank has parenthesis following it that says something like "verb" or "noun" so you know what type of word to put in the blank. You go through the story without reading it, only filling in the blanks. The fun begins when you get to go back and read it with your own random words strewn throughout it. An example would be, "Luke Banana (noun) -Walker battled with his inner shellfish (plural noun) when he began training to become a Jedi Steak (noun)." If random humor is your forte, Mad Libs are the way to go.

Ever since our childhood, adults have asked us what we want to do when we grow up. I don't know about you, but that question always intimidated me. I was one of those kids that either had to list the top 100 things it would be nice to do, or shyly admit that I didn't have a clue. I have always been interested in a wide spectrum of things! Even now, as I'm getting ready to graduate, I continue to wonder what exactly God has in store for my life. Unlike the whimsical dreaming of the future that childhood allows, the pressure is on, and we have to start making real decisions that will impact the rest of our lives. I think we have all hit a point where we pray something along these lines, "God, it would be really nice if you could just give a series of signs that tell me exactly what college to go to, degree to pursue, job to apply for, person to marry.. etc." I'm guessing we are all afraid of screwing up this season of life to some degree, and we definitely don't want God to be angry at us for not being as "in tune with his will" as we should have been.

Turns out, God has given us some "signs." The Great Commission is the foundation of what we need to do with our lives. Sharing Christ with the world should be our main goal. Other instructions we have been given include Mark 12:30-31, "And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.' The second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' No commandment is greater than these." There you go: a direct commandment from God telling you what to do with your life. One more verse that gives us some direction is James 1:22. "But don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise you are only fooling yourselves." So God commands us to love Him, love others, and finally, to know the scripture and act on it.
Still, all this doesn't answer our specific questions we have about God's will for us. I'm no closer to reaching a decision on which degree to pursue after reading those verses. 

I'm learning, however, that I've been looking at this the wrong way.

I have started suspecting that God is a fan of Mad Libs. He has written the story of our lives, but has mysteriously left a few blanks. This is because God has given us choices. God has indeed written our story ("For I know the plans I have for you.." in Jeremiah), but there are gaps! He wants us to make choices that align with the verses above and act on them. The details are up to us. We don't have to be afraid, this is a gift and an adventure he has given us to enjoy! It's almost like Jesus is saying, "I've shown my love for you by giving up my life so that you can live. Because of this, now you go            (verb) to show your love for me and show my love to the rest of the world." What will you choose to do with the blank God has given you?

Choosing Between Judgment and Joy

Reflect on the story of the Prodigal Son (found in Luke 15) and imagine the son who deserved nothing coming home to his father, covered in filth and shivering in his rags. He knows he doesn’t deserve his father’s love, and yet his father loves him. And the love of the father is not merely adequate but abundant.

The father throws a lavish party for his returned son, full of good food and dancing and music. And the story of the younger brother ends here. He was accepted and loved by his father although he deserved nothing.

Now the story shifts away from the party and goes outside. There we find the older brother, the loyal one who has always done what his father wanted him too. Now his little screw-up brother has returned and is instantly loved and accepted by his father. So the older brother sits outside, fuming and pouting because the younger brother got more than he “deserved” and the older brother got less than he “deserved.”

Photo Credit: Patricia Ann McNair, Creative Commons

The father comes to the older brother and tries to console him. He tells his son that he loves him and invites him into the party. The story ends there. No resolution for the older brother. We never discover what he decides to do.

The way I see it, he has two options:

1. He could let go of his obsession with fairness and join the party that everyone is invited too, enjoy himself, and forgive his brother.

OR

2. He could remain outside, freezing with pride and starving for fairness.

What did he choose? What did he hold on to? His bitterness or his love for his lost brother?

What do you hold on to? What do you have a white-knuckle grip on? Is it your idea of justice? Is it the memory of past pains? Is it the bitterness and anger still harbored against an old enemy? 

Or is it something else?

What if we had a white-knuckle grip on love? Or on forgiveness? How would that change the way you live your life? How would it change the way you think of people?

I think this choice is the reason the older brother was included in this story Jesus told.

I don’t know who goes to heaven and who doesn’t. I don’t know what sins God will look past and what sins He won’t. It’s not for me to decide. But it is clear to me from reading the Scriptures and the teachings of Jesus that there will be people there in heaven that “don’t deserve it.” There will be "younger brothers" there, prodigal sons and daughters and I think the older brother’s choice is important because I think it is our choice.

I think that maybe God offers us the same choice the father in the story offered his son. We can either let go of all our expectations and lines on who is "in" and who is "out" and enjoy the party or we can stay outside. Maybe we'll stand at the doorway to the party, the gates of heaven, and decide whether to abandon our boundaries and continue on or to stay back. 

At some point, we must choose between judgment and joy.

I believe with all my heart that God’s grace is abundant enough for all to accept, and that He desires for all to come in to the party with him. I truly believe this with all my heart. This is evident to me through a passage in Romans 5:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person-though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die- but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:6-11 ESV, emphasis added)

The passage does not say that "while they were still weak" it says "while we were still weak." We. Everybody, everywhere, forever. 

The truth of justice is that nobody deserves the reconciliation of Jesus. 
The beauty of grace is that everyone can receive Him. 

Rather than making lists in your head of who is “in” and who is “out,” may you offer to others the same grace that Christ offers you. Forgive. Let go of judgment and hold onto joy, the joy of reconciliation through Jesus. Have a white-knuckle grip on love. 

Choose Joy.

The Cadence of Character

Photo Credit: Creative Commons

Do you remember when you learned how to ride a bike?

I do.

It began (as I can remember it) when I was about five. My family was living in Dallas at the time, in a worn-down and wonderful little house that sloped down on one side as it slowly settled into the ground. In the front yard there was a cracked sidewalk that rose and fell like a stream.

I remember one warm summer evening when I learned a lesson I didn’t realize I’d learned until years later. My mom stood at one end of the yard on the sidewalk, and my dad stood with me on the other, holding the seat of my bike so I wouldn’t fall over.

My mom and dad were tired and frustrated. I felt the flighty shadow of anxiety settle down over my heart.

My dad tried to bribe me. 

“Okay, son, if you can just ride your bike down the sidewalk to mom, we’ll go get ice cream.”

My dad took some steps, pushing my bike with his hand on the back of the saddle. With a final push he sent me forward through the muggy Texas air.

I took a few shaky pedals, the front tire of my tiny bicycle weaving back and forth like a salmon going upstream. I went about halfway down the sidewalk and promptly fell over into the sharp yellow grass. 

I had failed. It didn’t matter that I’d been offered ice cream. It didn’t matter that my dad had helped me get started, because I couldn’t do it.

To be more precise, I didn’t think I could do it.

I looked around. I looked down. And I became afraid.

Have you ever been afraid? Have you ever looked down and fallen over?

I have. I know the pain of loss. I know the ache of grief. I know the sting of falling over. 

There’s a book of the bible written about Jesus by one of His followers, a man named Matthew. In chapter 14 of his biography about Jesus, Matthew writes a tragic and beautiful story about a man who looked down and became afraid.

Here it is:

Meanwhile, the boat was far out to sea when the wind came up against them and they were battered by the waves. At about four o'clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them walking on the water. They were scared out of their wits. "A ghost!" they said, crying out in terror. But Jesus was quick to comfort them. "Courage, it's me. Don't be afraid." Peter, suddenly bold, said, "Master, if it's really you, call me to come to you on the water." He said, "Come ahead." But when he looked down at the waves churning beneath his feet, he lost his nerve and started to sink. He cried, "Master, save me!" Jesus didn't hesitate. He reached down and grabbed his hand. Then he said, "Faint-heart, what got into you?" The two of them climbed into the boat, and the wind died down. The disciples in the boat, having watched the whole thing, worshiped Jesus, saying, "This is it! You are God's Son for sure!" (Matthew 14:24-33 MSG)

Can you imagine that? Being out on the waves, a little sailboat in a massive storm. These men were mostly fishermen, so they were pretty used to being out at sea. But it says that they were “scared out of their wits.”

Then Jesus comes. He walks out to them. On the water.

There is this Peter, whom I love because he can be an idiot but is also extremely devoted to Jesus. He’s the sort of guy I want to grow up to be someday. Especially the second part. I have the first part pretty much mastered at this point.

When Peter sees Jesus and knows that it is Him, he leaps out of the boat and runs towards him.

Then Peter begins to look down. He becomes afraid. And he sinks.

Maybe the story of Peter walking and falling towards Jesus is bigger than it seems.

Maybe its really a story about us. The flawed and broken people who teeter and wobble towards Jesus. We run with fledgling eagerness towards God, stumbling over our own chubby limbs like toddlers learning to walk or a child learning to ride their bike for the first time.

Let me tell you more about how I learned to ride my bike.

It wasn’t that day on the cracked river-sidewalk outside the sinking house. It was about two years later, on father’s day. In an empty parking lot, with my dad running beside me, I began to pedal for myself for the first time. 

At some point I looked back to see my dad had stopped running beside me, and I was moving on my own. I was shaking and wobbling yet upright.

Steadily, slowly, I found cadence. I discovered rhythm. 

I think learning to follow Jesus is the same. We begin and we fall over a lot, we tip over and scrape up our knees and cry and shake it off and start again and this cycle happens again and again.

And then, one day, almost by accident, you find that you’re riding. You find the rhythm and somehow you’re moving forward, towards God. Some days you are in the groove and all the gears are just right and your legs are pumping and you could swear you were flying. Other days your tire gets turned to the side by a pothole and you find yourself on the pavement with bloody knees, seemingly back at square one. But it's all okay; the spills and the scrapes come along with the ride. 

Life isn't about the falls we endure. It's about the Father who lifts us up off the ground and brushes the tears away and sets us back on the right path. 

Ride on, my friends. May you never loose sight of Jesus. May you never be too afraid of falling to get back up. 

"Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit whom has been given to us." (Romans 5:3 ESV, emphasis added)