Hero

Frank

If you were to write your autobiography would it be thriller or a comedy? If you were the center of your own story, would not every hurt and every wrong would paint you as the victim? Who would be the supporting cast? What role would they play: encourager, enabler, persecutor? In the climactic finale, who would be the hero?

The truth is, if it were up to us we’d be the heroes of our own story. After all, the story is all about us, right?

But we’ve come to learn the story isn’t really all about us, is it? So then, who’s the hero?

The world is in need of a hero. Is it the hero to save us? The hero that is ordinary? The hero of the day? Or is it the hero who was famous for nothing?

(I forgot how much I love that Metallica video. It shows just how desperate the world is for a hero.)

Thirst

Frank

My mom is from the Southeast so we would regularly fly out over the summer to spend a week with her family. I remember nearly every trip getting migraine headaches that would lay me up in bed for a day. I would attribute it to the heat and the humidity, but then I took a trip to cooler climate and suffered the same malady. What was common was that I would feel this way the second day after flying, so I figured that maybe it was the recirculated air on-board, or the pressurization of the cabin. But I later learned it was dehydration. Spending 5-6 hours on a plane drinking nothing but free soda and no water has that effect. Since coming to that realization, I now will only drink water on-board and make sure to drink at least another liter of water every time I fly. And I haven’t had such a headache since.

“Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.”
(Psalm 1:1-3)

It is funny to look back and recognize that I physically felt ill just because I was thirsty. And because I was filling my body with junk disguised as refreshment, I didn’t recognize my need for pure water.

A.W. Tozer writes “Christ may be ‘received’ without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the receiver. The man is ‘saved’ but he is not hungry nor thirsty after God. In fact he is specifically taught to be satisfied and encouraged to be content with little.” (Pursuit of God, pg 12)

We are fooled into thinking we are spiritually satisfied by church attendance or religious participation. Meanwhile our souls ache inexplicably. We fail to recognize the thirst that God himself has placed in us. “The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after him.” (pg 9)

It would be easy to jump on my soapbox and compare religiosity to the nutritionally vapid soda from my personal experience. What is interesting is that nearly 70 years ago, Tozer observed the same thing. This is nothing new and whatever I write on some blog is unlikely to change that. Instead I need to look inwardly at my own thirst, and my own temptation to drink deeply from that which does not satisfy.

“My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (Psalm 42:2)

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6)

In the Beatitude above it is in vogue to translate righteousness instead as justice and miss the point of personal sanctification. The Amplified Bible expands righteousness as “uprightness and right standing with God.” The Message Bible  talks of having a “good appetite for God.” The temptation, besides an outward focused “justice” is a works-oriented trying hard to do good definition of righteousness. I like the idea combining the two translations above as simply having an appetite to be with God.

My soul thirsts for God. I am hungry to be with Him. Where can I go to satisfy my appetite and be filled? My temptation is to look around and try and find some program, some activity, some quick-fix to my spiritual longing. Tozer addresses this too, “The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart.” (pg 15) Simply put, man created religion to satisfy the need to seek out God and his holiness. But it is man-made and can never satisfy. So for every failed method there is an improved program. For every campaign that falls short there is a new marketing program. For every book read and put down there is another best-seller to take its place.

I cannot be satisfied by what the world, even the religious world, offers. Only God himself can satisfy my soul. Only God, God alone. And so I begin this book in The Pursuit of God.

This blog is part of a book club reading The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. Please join the discussion here and at our hosts, Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter. Need a copy of the book? You can get it for free on Kindle.

Running for the Glory

Frank

Sunday I watched Usain Bolt prove again that he is the “fastest man in the world” as he won the Gold medal in the 100 meter dash at the London Olympics. As a former sprinter myself, the 100 meter dash is my favorite Olympic event (with the 4x100m relay close behind). To the winner goes the lofty title above; it takes a special kind of ego to compete at that level.

My interest in the race goes back to Carl Lewis’ four-medal showing in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and it wasn’t too long after that I laced up my first pair of cleats with him as my inspiration. Since then records have been set, broken and set again, runners disqualified and medals stripped, unlikely heroes crowned, and of course the heartbreak of missing the medal podium by a literal hair (again, Tyson Gay came up short- just 0.01 second behind US teammate Justin Gatlin).

But the drama of this race did not begin in 1984. Of course we could obviously go back to Jesse Owens’ performance in the 1936 Olympics held in Berlin before the critical eyes of Adolf Hitler. But I want to go back a little further to the 1924 games in Paris.

Not long after Bolt crossed the finish line in Olympic-record time, I put in my DVD of Chariots of Fire. If you’re not familiar with the movie, it recounts the efforts of Great Brittan’s track and field team, specifically sprinters Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams, as they prepared for and competed in the Paris Olympics. I’ve talked about Liddell’s story before, but watching the movie while the London Olympics unfolded before me took on added significance.

One of the key plot points in the movie, and in Liddell’s life, was his refusal to run in the 100m dash because the preliminary heats were held on a Sunday, the Christian Sabbath. While this is a true story, the movie adds and extra level of drama by portraying Liddell as surprised to learn this on the way to Paris, when in fact he knew months in advance. Also not portrayed in the movie was that he also refused to run 4x400m relay for the same reason.

Bolt won his Gold medal on Sunday. Imagine, for a moment, Bolt refusing to race because it conflicted with his religious convictions. He would have been widely criticized as fanatical and his absence would have created a worldwide scandal. Perhaps Liddell wasn’t a runner of the same notoriety, but he was considered the fastest man in England. Liddell did compete in the 400m dash as a back-up event, and though he held the English record for the 440 yard dash he was not expected to seriously compete at the Olympics. Surpassing everyone’s expectations, he won gold, setting a world record that would hold for 12 years. So competitively, Liddell was on par with Bolt.

We’ve heard the soundbites from athletes grateful for their performances thanking God and giving him credit and praise. But what if Gabby Douglas or Missy Franklin went a step further and refused to compete on a Sunday? It is nearly unthinkable. Yet some Jewish athletes choose not to compete on Saturdays and all will refuse to compete during Holy Days. Likewise Muslims will also not compete during their Holy Days. Imagine Christian basketball players sitting out every Friday during Lent (it is during March Madness after all) and when would the NFL play if most players took Sundays off?

A lot is made of the culture war in America on issues such as gay marriage and abortion, but if we look just at holiness- being separate from the world- it appears to me that we’ve already lost as competition and fame have won out over our convictions. (How many in your congregation miss church on Sundays during softball or soccer tournament season?)

Right before Liddell ran in the 400m finals, a note was handed to him quoting 1 Samuel 2:30, “Those who honor me I will honor.” As you watch the Olympics ask yourself, who are you honoring?

Chicken With a Side of Politics, Business, and Religion Causes Indigestion

Frank

One night while I was in college, I was pulling an all nighter with some friends when the munches came. So like any other college student, we debated what brand of cheap pizza would torment our stomachs in the morning. “I will not eat Domino’s” expressed one friend. She then explained how the CEO of Domino’s donated significant money from the company’s profits to pro-life groups. It was also right around this time that Eddie Vedder wrote “pro-choice” on his arm with a sharpie prior to playing a song on MTV. You might say this was a coming of age moment for me. No longer were brands apolitical. Even favorite musicians had an opinion; often strong ones at that. The innocence was gone.

At this time I identified more with the College Republicans than with campus ministry. The Michael P Keaton capitalist in me recognized that a private company had the right to spend their profits however they wished, just as consumers had every right to not give those companies their patronage. Musicians could hold an opinion, and listeners could choose not to buy their albums.

With this attitude in mind, I really wanted a Chick-fil-A sandwich yesterday. One, because I happened to be traveling in the Southeast and there aren’t any restaurants back where I live. And two, I thought it would make a good anecdote for this post. Unfortunately, my terminal at Atlanta’s Hartsfield Airport didn’t have one, so I settled for pizza instead. From Pizza Hut, not Domino’s.

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to wade into this debate. The doctrinal and political leanings of Chick-fil-A’s president Dan Cathy are not news. And I think this whole firestorm has been fed by fuel poured on by the media. Yet the heart of the issue is right in the wheelhouse of the theme of this blog- in our democratic, capitalist society, what is the best way to stand up for our convictions in the public square?

In the context of the Freedom of Speech, Cathy didn’t do anything wrong. But was it the wisest approach?

Jesus was relatively apolitical. When the Pharisees tried to trap him into speaking out against Rome, he turned the tables on the instead. Paul wrote about soldiers who don’t concern themselves in political affairs while instructing Timothy to not get wrapped up in useless quarrels and debates.

In practice I think this would allow for financial support for causes when done in private, or vocal support when independent of business. I think you get yourself in trouble when you mix the two. But then again, I think it gets messy when you mix religion and politics in the first place.

Yet you could argue this is a moral issue, not a political one. But if it were not for the politics, would we even hear about this? And since Cathy so strongly supports “traditional marriage” is he as vocal opposing divorce? Or warning against workaholism? So how should he have expressed his convictions and how should we, as Christians have responded?

Others have written plenty on this already. Matthew Paul Turner, Rachel Held Evans, Alise Wright, David Kenney are just a small sampling. And Get Religion has done an excellent and thorough job scrutinizing the media attention this has received. (In order, Where’s the Beef, The Internet Honors Stupid Stories, The Media’s Irrational Fear of Chick-fil-A, Shocking AP Quotes, Hating on Chick-fil-A)

Please review these viewpoints, the pros and cons of boycotting or “eating mor chikin”, and tell me what you think the most Christ-like approach would be.

Update: A friend of mine, who also happens to be gay (yes, it is possible for a conservative Christian to have gay friends; shocking, I know!) posted this link showing the “Top 50 homophobic Chick-fil-A tweets” on his Facebook account. I know this is polarizing, but does it necessitate this kind of response? Warning in advance, the language in those tweets are beyond crude and definitely NOT Christ-like.

(Hah! I just noticed a typo of financial was auto-corrected to fanatical, completely changing the point of that sentence. Typo corrected, carry on)

Proof

Frank

What is the proof of your Christianity? Is it how you vote? Is it how busy you are on Sundays? Is it the Jesus fish on your car? Is it your choice in fast-food restaurants that serve chicken?

“By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35)

Flashback Friday: Every Nation

Frank

This was originally posted prior to the Opening Ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics. I figure I’d dust it off for the Summer Games.

***

Last Sunday [back in 2010] our evangelist showed this video of a soccer crowd in Turkey. A massive sea of people all chanting and swaying in unison. The illustration was for the question, what kind of fan are you?  But I couldn’t stop thinking about how the writer of Hebrews describes the heroes of faith as a “cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1). I imagine this is what Elisha’s servant saw when he was surrounded by “chariots of fire” (2 Kings 6:17). Now imagine playing a match with such a crowd? Encouraging if you’re the home team, but indescribably intimidating for the visitor.
Tonight is the Opening Ceremonies for the 2012 Summer Olympics. I love the pageantry, the patriotism, the pride. These athletes aren’t just representing themselves, but their entire nation.

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. (2 Corinthians 5:20, emphasis added)

One of my favorite parts of the Olympics is the parade of nations. Seeing everyone united, dressed in such a way to identify their home, waving flags and waving at fans, always gives me chills. This moment reminds me just how big this world is, seeing the racial and cultural diversity and hearing the multiple languages spoken. At the same time, I see how small our world is, as each athlete has something in common with another, and they are all gathered in one place for the entire world to witness. At the opening ceremonies, the competitors enter with their countries, but at the closing ceremonies you see these same competitors mingling with their rivals, exchanging hugs and tears, pins and photos.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Peter 2:9)

The Church on Earth is not limited by language or political borders. It is not held back by the global economy, war, or famine. We have no rival that God cannot overcome. We are under one Lord, and united in one holy nation. This world is both big and intimidating while small and taken for granted. But look around. See the crowds surrounding you, cheering you to victory in Christ Jesus.

Small World, Short Life

Frank

On April 20, 1999 I was driving down to Boulder, Colorado to look for apartments for school. Once I got a few minutes out, I couldn’t get any music on my favorite radio stations. I kept flipping around trying to find music and instead only heard breaking news. I didn’t want to hear breaking news so it took a little while before I actually stopped to listen. It was the news of the Columbine shooting. In the campus ministry where I was converted, many disciples had just graduated from there, and knew the victims. My home town was also personally hit as one of the victims was there the summer before for a football camp.

In 2007, a teenager opened fire at a mall in Omaha, Nebraska, killing 9. I was there the day before.

One week later a man opened fire at a Youth With a Mission office in Arvada, Colorado, just a mile or so south from the church where I spent many Sundays early in my spiritual walk. He would later go down to Colorado Springs and open fire during a service at New Life Church. Between both locations, 4 were killed and 5 were injured.

And of course, early Friday morning a gunman opened fire at a theater in Aurora, killing a dozen and wounding almost 60 more. One brother in the campus ministry tweeted that he was going to go to the movie, at that theater, at that time, but changed his mind last minute. One of the victims was from my community and whose mom works with a sister in my church.

It’s a small world.

While we search for answers, we need to accept the reality that it could happen here. It could happen to you. It could happen to me. I don’t want to be a downer, but the reality is Jesus could return any moment, or God could call you home any time in any way. We are not promised tomorrow.

In Luke 12, Jesus taught this parable:
“The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
“This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”(v 16-21)

James 4 reads, “Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes”(v 3-4)

Finally, in Hebrews 3, we read: “See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” (v 13-15)

For whatever purpose, a sovereign God has put you exactly where he wants you to be today. Do not harden your hearts to seek his will, for today may be your last opportunity to do so.

Forgiveness

Frank

Funny how things work. Long before the Aurora shootings, I was planning on these songs from Matthew West and Tenth Avenue North to be featured for a Music Monday post. But they take on a different tone now in the aftermath. All that I was planning on writing about these songs, forget about it.

Key verses:

Show me how, to love the unlovable
Show me how, to reach the unreachable
Help me now, to do the impossible
Forgiveness
***
Seventy times seven times,
Lord it doesn’t feel right
for me to turn a blind eye,
though I guess it’s not that much
when I think of what you’ve done…
Oh Father, give me grace to forgive them
Cause I feel like the one losing

And the important story “behind the music” to Forgiveness.

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”

Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” (Matthew 18:21-22)

A dozen lives lost. A number that could rise in the coming days as doctors struggle to keep others alive. Seventy total shot. That is seventy times seven people directly affected: parents, siblings, spouses, children, and closest friends. Then there are those indirectly affected but only removed by a single degree of separation (more on that in another post). Add to those a full theater of witnesses.

Forgiving seventy times seven times sounds impossible. That’s the point. We need God’s grace to overcome our own reactions of anger, hatred and revenge. It sounds impossible, but it’s not. The video above testifies to the power of forgiveness. Another great example is that of the Amish in Pennsylvania who not only forgave a school shooter, but embraced his family through the pain of recovery. While that side of the story is well known, here’s an update from the other side to show just how powerful forgiveness can be.

Can we forgive James Holmes to the same degree? Even if we cannot, there is a merciful Father in heaven who can, as hard as it may be to fathom. Jesus died for him too.

Father, give me grace to forgive him. Help me to do the impossible.

Can I Make Sense of the Senseless?

Frank
“‘Put your sword back in its place,’ Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.'” (Matthew 26:52)
“He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” (Isaiah 2:4)

How do you make sense of the senseless? This reminds me too much of the church shootings that happened in Colorado in 2007. Probably because that is my spiritual home, so to speak, and I take these events personally. I wrote about that trajedy here and here. But I’m not going to jump on some soapbox and try to find meaning or attempt to place blame. At this point, I am simply going to be quiet and pray. Because that’s all really anyone of us can do.

12 killed and 50 wounded at Aurora theater

Aurora victim survivor of Toronto shootout

Paris premiere of Dark Knight Rises cancelled

Witnesses describe sureal, horrible scene

Authorities: suspect’s apartment “booby trapped”

LA Police step up patrols in wake of violence

Remember the Alamo!

Frank

Traveling to San Antonio a week ago I knew I had to write some kind of post about the Alamo. I was thinking something along the lines of demolishing strongholds or the Lord being our fortress. The problem is that battle was lost, everybody died, and the Alamo was not held.

(As an aside, isn’t interesting how this is remembered by history? A monumental strategic gaffe which led to the death of hundreds is revered in history and William Travis is hailed as a hero while the Battle of Little Big Horn was a similar loss (though larger in scale) and George Armstrong Custer is remembered as a bumbling fool. It is a fine line between foolishness and bravery, I suppose- sounds like a future post to me, but I digress.)

I guess I could write from the perspective of Santa Anna, but as I am frequently reminded I better not “mess with Texas.” So visiting the site and scouring through the history I was stumped with how to present a spiritual lesson from this historic battle. Then I found this little nugget at the end of one of Travis’ many letters requesting reinforcements:

“P.S. The Lord is on our side. when the enemy appeared in sight we had not three bushels of corn. We have since found in deserted houses 80 or 90 bushels & got into the walls 20 or 30 head of beeves.”

Less than two weeks later every single man fighting alongside Travis would be killed, and ironically Travis was one of the first to fall. But here he is proclaiming confidently, “the Lord is on our side.”

The skeptic could look at that and respond, “see, there is no God!” The fundamentalist might respond, “there must’ve been unrepentant sin in their camp.” Liberal Christians may point a finger at the Texians as oppressors that the Lord was ensuring would get their due, and The Christian Conservative is left speechless while clinging tightly to the flag.

There’s a danger in confusing God’s blessing with God’s favor. Were they blessed to find extra food? Certainly. But by the outcome of the battle it would be hard to argue that they enjoyed any special favor from God. But we don’t learn from history (or the Bible for that matter). Every small victory, every seeming blessing is touted as “God is on our side!” From sports, to international affairs, to even the mundane occurrences of our daily routine we look for any little blessing (or kiss on the forehead as my wife likes to call them) to comfort us that God is with us.

Tony Campolo recounts in his book Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God, how he was speaking for a prison ministry to a group of hardened lifers and a young woman leading worship shared that on her way there a rock nicked her windshield. This made her very upset, so she stopped, got out of the car and prayed that God would remove the nick from her windshield. And God answered her prayer. Now just imagine being incarcerated for something like murder and hearing this story. Would this encourage you or patronize you? Why would God act in such a trivial matter while you were suffering in prison begging for forgiveness? Would you want to be redeemed by a savior who fixes windshields while children are starving around the world?

How often do we hear in sports that God was with the victors? Does that inherently mean that he wasn’t with the losers? Does God love one team, one quarterback, one player more than all the others? And does one team defeating another advance the Kingdom so much that it is worth God intervening to ensure victory?

And look around this political season. We have been spoiled for so long in America with wealth and prosperity, that it was a given for most that we are a “Christian nation” or that the United States holds some special favor with God. Yet now we are reaping what we’ve sown by living in excess as we look for someone to blame. Where is God’s favor now? The same place it has always been.

Jesus says in his Sermon on the Mount that “[God] causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous.” (Matthew 5:45) In context, Jesus is talking about loving your enemies, but he had just spoken about blessings and sin.

“The Lord is with us.” Sure, but he is also with your enemy, your coworker, your neighbor. He may be actively blessing one with good fortune while refining another’s faith through trial. God may be sparing a friend from cancer while a family member is suffering and about to die.

I’ve learned to be careful trying to read too much into things to find God’s motives. What is important is not whose side God is on, but whether I am on God’s side surrendering to his sovereignty. In hindsight it is sometimes easy to see blessings that are not obvious now. And what may look like blessings now may not be after all. God will do as he chooses. And the rain will fall on all of us.

Remember the Alamo.