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)

The Question 007 | Rest

Creation

007 | Rest

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”

Genesis 2.1-3 ESV

Smart phones, laptops, TV, movies, music, advertisements, crowds, buses, trains, cars, stop signs, and social media. We are constantly being filled with sights and colors and sounds, brands and slogans and mottos. Everybody is spouting their opinions and screaming over one another. We live lives ruled by schedules, digital watches and SUVs powered by fossil fuels.

Sometimes our worlds are very noisy and very cramped. We are dominated by distraction, ruled by rules and regulations. In all the hurrying around, we oftentimes miss the opportunities we have to rest. To take a day off from buying and selling and earning and impressing and networking in order to simply exist with the people around us.

God created everything around us, everything we spend our lives trying to fix or repair, to exploit and expand. He said that it was good. Take some time and turn all your electronics off. No social media, no texting, no emails, no calls, no TV, no music. Take time today. Not tomorrow or next week. Today. The world was spinning before you were born, and it’ll keep spinning once you’ve returned to the dust.

Take a few minutes or even a few hours and simply exist. Ask the Creator of the Universe to speak to you. Ask Him to fill the empty places within you with His spirit and His love.

You’ll be amazed at what God can do with the little we can offer Him.

The Question

When was the last time you felt truly rested? Where were you? Who were you with? What were you doing?