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Thursday, September 24, 2009
Love Without Strings
Had you come into my office yesterday at any point between 2:00 and 2:30 P.M., you would have found that I
was an absolute mess emotionally. I was crying harder than I have in a long time, and I wouldn't have been able to talk
to you without having to radically compose myself. I had been reduced to a sniveling mess, not unlike a pre-pubescant
girl who found out that Dumbledore was really, truly dead at the end of the new Harry Potter movie. It was truly a sight
to behold.
The reason? This article.
Now, I will fully admit that I'm a sucker for sports related, heart-wrenching stories; I still haven't recovered
from watching the HBO Real Sports Special on the 'Miracle League,' and that was ten years ago (and for the record, I got teary eyed watching that Youtube clip.
Seriously. I have a problem). But there's something more to this story than just the son of a quarterback who
tragically died bringing life full circle - there's also Bill McCartney.
Bill McCartney, as it turns out, was the
founder of the national men's Christian group, Promise Keepers, but in 1989, he was just the football coach of the Colorado
Buffaloes when he found out that his daughter was pregnant out of wedlock. Not surprisingly, the backlash from the Christian
community was predictably harsh and critical. And yet, McCartney stood by his daughter, helping her raise her son in
a loving and stable environment. He did this because he loved her, and that love is unconditional. A
few years later, his daughter found herself in the exact same position - pregnant, unmarried, and facing criticism as the
daughter of the founder of an organization which prides itself on practicing, 'spiritual, moral, ethical and sexual purity.'
And again, Bill McCartney acted like a real disciple of Jesus and stood by his daughter, unafraid of whatever backlash he
may receive.
To tell you the truth, of all the details of this story that I could blog about, I can't get over
what a wonderful example of Christ's love Bill McCartney is. Too often in our society and in the realm of Christianity,
the very people who claim to have hope and trust in Jesus act the least like him. And typically, when someone makes
a mistake, Christians are the first ones to get in line to heap burning coals on his head and kick him when he's down.
To put it bluntly, too often, we in the church shoot our wounded, choosing to 'put them out of their misery' instead of helping
them get back on their feet.
Not so with Bill McCartney - not only did he stand by his daughter (and not once,
but twice), but he led the cause of his daughter's heartbreak, quarterback Sal Aunese, to faith in Jesus shortly before he
passed away. THAT, my friends, is love - the type of love that God gives us. Love without condition, love without
strings. And that love is real love, the love that we see in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, and the love that people
should be able to see in us, his disciples.
And personally, I hope that one day I can learn to love like that.
4:21 pm
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
May the Force Be With Us All
As American Citizens, we should be outraged when the religious beliefs of an individual causes them undue persecution
and oppression. Similarly, as Christians who understand what it's like to be mocked for our beliefs, our hearts
should go out to those who suffer in a like manner. However, with it happens in another country, and to people who believe
in a religion based on a popular science fiction move, perhaps an exception can be made, and we can find hilarity in
the 'suffering' of others.
Such is the case when reading this article from Mail Online, an online source for 'news' out of the United Kingdom. Apparently, a supermarket in Wales recently
asked one of their patrons to remove his hood while in their store, presumably for reasons of safety and security. The
patron, a 23 year old named Daniel Jones, refused, claiming that one of the tenets of his religion cites that he is to constantly
wear the hood in public. When he did, he was summarily dismissed from the store, and claimed religious persecution.
His religion? Jones is a Jedi.
Yes, several years ago, someone got the bright idea to start a religion based
on what was taught in the classic Star Wars saga (more details here). And apparently, being one of the 500,000 (seriously) members of the religion requires you to wear a hood in public.
Of course, whether or not this is actually true is completely open to discussion. After all, as the owner of the supermarket
noted,
"Jedis are very welcome to shop in our stores although we would ask them to remove their
hoods. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and Luke Skywalker all appeared hoodless without ever going over to the Dark Side and we
are only aware of the Emperor as one who never removed his hood. If Jedi walk around our stores with their hoods on, they'll
miss lots of special offers."
So, special offers aside, the question that begs to be answered
is this: who's right? Is the Jedi correct in saying that he absolutely must wear his hood at all times in public?
He should know, after all, since he's a practicing member of the religion. Or, is the store owner right? He makes
a valid (and correct) point that in the movies, Jedi often walk in public without hoods.
At the end of the day,
there truly is no way of answering that question, and the reason is simple: in a religion created by men, all men have the
right to question and decide their own interpretation of the rules and regulations of that religion. After all, who's
to say which interpretation is correct? At the end of the day, all men are equal, and their opinions are equally valid.
It truly is a stalemate (and a humorous one, at that).
That's what sets our faith apart from all other faiths
in this world. See, to be a Christian does not mean that you're a 'religious' person. Religions come
from people. Instead, a Christian is a person who belongs to and is known by the one, true God of this universe.
There are no rules and no regulations to be interpreted, and there is no handbook to check on who can and cannot be a member.
The closest comparison to such a document, the Bible, expressly says as much, and instead of outlining a religion, describes
a historical account of why we should trust God and what that trust looks like in our day to day lives.
It's important
for Christians to note this subtle differnence in our faith, because it gets to the crux of the issue when it comes to who
God is: if God is really real, then why would we need men to create something to help us connect with him? And if we
do, is that 'god' really God?
The bottom line is this: while I don't want to sound arrogant or like an elitist,
it's comforting to know that what I have (and what we share) is unlike any other belief in the world. What we have is
truly unique, and because of that, it is uniquely powerful. Indeed - the gospel is the way God saves people, granting
eternal life and true purpose in this life.
And that, my friends, is a heck of a lot more powerful than 'the force'!
2:55 pm
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Can This Guy Dunk?
What do you want to be able to do by the time you're 30 (or 40... or 50... or 60... or
any other number)? For one man, the answer to that question is simple: dunk a basketball.
It's one of the
most exciting plays in sports, a feat of athleticism and grace that only a chosen few around the world are able to accomplish
at will: the slam dunk. For most of us, it's but a dream to dunk, but for one man, Jason King, that dream is becoming
a reality.
In May of this year, Jason, age 29, awoke to a stunning realization: he was almost 30. Roughly
six months away, on November 22, was that fateful day, and he experienced what so many before him experienced - fear that
his youth was slipping away. So, he decided right then and there to prove to himself that he truly was still young.
He would dunk a basketball, and to prove it to the world, we could all watch at his blog, IfThisGuyCanDunk.
Now, I don't share this with you because it's funny (though his videos are truly hilarious) or because I myself
am going through the same thing (though there are days when I wonder). Instead, I'm sharing this with you because I
think that Jason King is a fantastic example of exactly who we should be as Christians. Jason has decided what's important
to him (dunking a basketball) and he's working his tail off to reach his goal: he's hired a trainer, taken up yoga, and logged
hours and hours of work, all in the name of dunking before he's thirty. Regardless of how much time he may have wasted
in the past, he's not going to let that get in the way of what he wants to do today, and I think that's great.
For
you and I, we have a much higher calling: living for Jesus Christ. But we should work with the same fervor and
sense of urgency as Jason. After all, as the apostle Paul wrote,
Don't waste your time on useless work,
mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are. It's a scandal when people waste
their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see. Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive
they look in the light of Christ.
Wake up from your sleep,
Climb out of your coffins;
Christ will show you the light!
So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These
are desperate times! - Ephesians 4:11-16 (The Message)
The point? You and I have no idea how much time
we truly have, so we have to make the most of today. And we shouldn't do it like we've got all the time in the world,
but instead, see the time we have as desperate as God does.
I hope Jason reaches his goal, but more than anything,
I hope we do. And if nothing else, I hope we see the days we have for what they are:
Limited.
3:01 pm
Thursday, September 10, 2009
ACC Blog Book Club: Really God?
For the next several blog posts, we're going to discuss my reactions to the book by Kevin Roose called, The Unlikely Disciple.
For introductory information concerning the book, click here"Is your god really God?
Is my god really God?
I
think our god isn't God if he fits inside our heads." - 'Clouds,' As Cities Burn
When I first considered
this endeavor to blog through The Unlikely Disciple while standing in Barnes and Noble, I imagined
that I would be fighting Christian sterotyping, bashing Kevin Roose and right wing crazies at every turn, and maybe taking
my shots at the 'Sinner's Prayer' at some point along the way. As I look back at the last few posts, though, and I consider
what I've read, I've come to a stunning conclusion: I found myself relating to Keving much more than I related to the students
at Liberty.
I have no idea what this means: perhaps I'm just 'liberal' (whatever that means) or maybe your preacher
is a terrible Christian. I don't know. But it may just be that I see a lot of myself in statements like the following:
"That said, this semester has definitely changed the way I think about God. I've always gone through
brief phases of belief, but now, I find myself believing in some sort of divine presence more often than not - maybe 70 or
75 percent of the time instead of 30 or 35 percent. Part of this is wishful thinking, I'm sure. I hope there's
a God so that all the praying and Bible reading and spiritual struggling my Liberty friends do isn't pointed toward an empty
sky. I hope Jesus was truly resurrected from the dead because I have a couple hundred friends who have oriented their
lives around that story. I hope there's a God so that all the goo ddeeds being done in this world are being recorded
somewhere - and, if I'm being perfectly honest, so that the bad deeds are being punished." p. 282-283
I
think that the inner tug of war that Kevin went through is healthy and natural - even if his conclusion (no, he does not become
a Christian in our sense of the word) disagrees with what you and I have built our lives on. The alternative - to blindly
accept what we hear and refuse to entertain the notion that we may be incorrect - is, to me at least, a frightening proposition.
The reason I think that doubt and questioning is healthy is simple: God cannot fit inside our heads. He doesn't
fit into the American Church bubble, and He doesn't into the box of anyone's Biblical interpretation. The God that created
this universe, imagined human life and sacrificed Himself for our eternal well being is a God that you and I cannot fully
understand; if we could, then, quite frankly, He wouldn't be the God that we should worship.
For Kevin, his greatest
turn off to Christianity was simple: people thought they had all the answers wrapped up neatly and tied with a bow.
And that arrogance led to the adulation of people who deserved nothing of the sort, blatant disrespect for the 'heathen' outside
world, and frustrating evangelism experiences that didn't end as neatly as they did in the textbooks.
Maybe, just
maybe, by critically thinking and and a employing little self-doubt, some of that arrogance could be taken away, and
the frustration (for believers) and disbelief (for the Kevins of the world) would dissipate. After all, if we had the
answers and if we were good enough on our own - if we could trust our own view of everything - then we'd have no need of a
Savior who took care of what we could not.
Maybe I'm a wishful thinker too, and I truly hope and pray that people
like Kevin DO one day find the hope that you and I have. But I hope that we realize that the hope we have doesn't come
from our own great understanding and belief in God, but instead, in our devotion and wholehearted trust in a God we can never
understand. Because no matter what we think, one thing is certain: we will never fully understand God.
And
if we could? He wouldn't be God after all.
4:55 pm
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
ACC Blog Book Club: Viewing Those On The Outside
For the next several blog posts, we're going to discuss my reactions to the book by Kevin Roose called, The Unlikely Disciple.
For introductory information concerning the book, click here.
"Is your love really Love?
Is my love really Love?
I think
our love isn't Love unless it's Love to the end." - 'Clouds,' As Cities Burn
There are certain Christians I don't think much about, because, well, the more I do, the more angry it makes me. You
know the people I'm talking about - the ultra-conservative, right wing nutjobs who plant pipe bombs and abortion clinics and
cite the Old Testament as an excuse to persecute non-Christians. They're the people who legitimately believe that America
is a Christian nation. And that doesn't just mean that it was built on Christian morals, but instead, that our laws
should reflect every moral utterance in Scripture and that anyone who disagrees should just be put in prison. Got a
mental picture? Good.
I've always sought to distance myself from this line of thinking, not simply because
it couldn't be less 'me,' but also, I feel like it couldn't be less Christ. After all, by his definition of discipleship,
love is at the core, and not judgment, revenge and personal attacks. However, as Kevin Roose discovered, it's not just
the picketers and people who shout on the street-corners who have this type of attitude. Sometimes, it's the people you least
expect. In his book, he records verbatim a stunning conversation he has with his seemingly normal and well-balanced
roommates. It went,
"Tonight, I am stripped rather violently of my illusions. I'm in my room
after dinner, typing up the day's notes while my roommates work at their desks. Suddenly, Eric swivels his chair around.
'Guys, if you hear about any, you know, homosexuality in the dorm, let me know. I don't want anyone to get a crush
on me, you know?'
I chuckle. Henry does not. He slams his pen down on his desk and looks first at me, then
at Eric.
'Don't even talk like that,' he barks. 'I hate faggots. If something like that happened to me, I would
do something about it. I would snap somebody's neck.'
'I mean, it must happen,' says Eric, not missing a beat.
'They're everywhere. Like, my college friends who went to Christians schools, they talk about how guys have...
tendencies. Like this one friend saw a guy wearing a Speedo on the beach...'
'I don't want to hear anymore,' says
Henry. 'I'm telling you, if a queer touched me, I would do what Samson did to the Philistines. Or what David did
to Goliath. I would beat him with a baseball bat.'" - p. 108
As I read this for the first time,
the most stunning thing for me was not what was stunning for Kevin (let's just say he was a little heated after this one);
for me, what bothered me the most was that I knew 'Henry' and 'Eric.' No, I don't know the people Kevin roomed with,
but I definitely, absolutely, positively know people just like him, and I've had conversations that were eerily similar to
the conversation above. And that, my friends, scares me.
It scares me, not because I'd like to beat gay people
with a baseball bat, but because I've been the other guy - Eric - who responsed to non-Christians like they were from
another planet. I've been the guy who's talked about people struggling with something as common as homosexuality with
a weird fascination, like a mythical creature who only comes out every few centuries or so. And that scares me, because
when I realize where I've been and what I've done, I know that I've been a horrible follower of Jesus.
The fact
is that whether we respond to sin with trepidation or blind rage, we're not reacting the way we should. In our eyes,
as fallible human beings, we see sins in varying degrees of severity. In God's eyes, I'm not entirely sure that's the
way it is, and because of that, we can be sure that His grace is the only reason that we're looked upon favorably. In
other words, take Jesus from our lives, and we're exactly what we're afraid of or hate.
And the predictable result
of all of this is that people don't experience the saving grace of Jesus. Why would they, when our actions tell them
that they're as valuable as a diseased dog and as loveable as a leper? What we have to realize is that until people
see that there's love in our hearts, they'll never take Christ's love into theirs.
I hope and pray that I have
repented of my lack of love, and that regardless of my past, I will show love from this moment forward to those who desperately
need it. I want to be a true disciple who truly loves; I want love to the end.
How about YOU?
2:34 pm
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
ACC Blog Book Club: Saved?
For the next several blog posts, we're going to discuss my reactions to the book by Kevin Roose called, The Unlikely Disciple.
For introductory information concerning the book, click here.Some things should go without saying - they're just so much a part
of what should be considered 'common sense,' that you wouldn't question it for a moment. One of those things that
you would think would be logically understood is this: all the students at Liberty University believe they're going to heaven.
Heaven is, of course, a primary (if not the) reason that people give their lives to Christ. Not to
sound selfish or anything, but for most people, a virtuous life lived following the teachings of Jesus into service to
others is only worth it if there's something for us in the end. So, the hope of eternal salvation seems to be a pretty
safe bet for something that nearly every student at Christian university would hold to. And that's what made what Kevin
Roose discovered that much more confusing:
"This has been one of the more puzzling observations of my
semester so far. Almost all Liberty students profess a personal relationship with Christ (97.4 percent, according to
a survey cited in my GNED class). And yet, at every week's Campus Church service, a few dozen students flood down the
aisles to be born again. So where do those students come from?" - p. 104
This is a common theme
in the Evangelical world - people, regardless of what Christian tradition they're from, seem to lack faith in the decision
they've made. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people who want to be baptized again, or 're-dedicate' their
lives to Jesus or just 'make sure' they're saved now. Why? It's almost always one of two reasons that are claimed:
1.) 'I didn't understand what I was doing then as well as I do now.'
2.) 'I've done a whole lot of sinning since
I first became a Christian.'
In our family of churches (the Independent Christian Church), this is an even more
prevalent problem than in other types of churches, if for no other reason than we emphasize that just as you can choose Jesus,
you can un-choose him as well. I think that this is the heart of the issue - we, as believers in Jesus, are not all
that good at being trusters of Him.
Oh, sure, we trust our churches and ministers. And we trust the fact
we were baptized and/or repented. And assuming you're pretty good at putting up a good show, it's pretty easy to trust
in your post-coversion 'faithfulness.' But trust Jesus? That's a different story altogether.
The fact
is, though, that my salvation and yours is dependant on one fact: Jesus died and rose from the dead. Since that's an
event that occured nearly two thousand years ago, and so it stands to reason that if that is the basis of the trust
in our salvation, then we're certainly on solid ground.
This is not to take away at all the purpose of baptism,
repentance and a changed life. But it is to say that we need to keep our part of accepting God's grace in perspective
- we didn't earn God's love in the first place, and so no action is going to earn it again.
The bottom line is
this - if you believe in Jesus and have biblically accepted him, you're saved, no matter what you feel. There will be
days that your emotions may tell you otherwise, and there are days when your head and heart will doubt like you've never doubted
before. But that's why it's called 'trust' - we have to have faith in Jesus, whether or not we have faith in ourselves.
And you know what? That should just be common sense!
2:10 pm
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