This is a question that Tim Stevens proposed on his blog. I have my own thoughts, but I’d like to hear yours.
Is it the responsibility of the Church to transform governments to follow our values (i.e. school prayer, abortion, the definition of marriage)? Or is it our responsibility to introduce people to Jesus who is the only one who can transform hearts?
I’ve been brainstorming this for awhile and I’ve finally launched it.
Simple love does not mean small love. It means small acts with great love.
This project is all about creating a culture where love and kindness become the default, the norm. We want to accomplish this by cultivating a movement of people who would commit to attempting that lifestyle of love through small acts of kindness each day.
Check it out. Join the movement.
I hate to see my blog go so long without something new. It’s quite sad. However, life is getting crazier by the day. Here’s a rundown of some things occupying my time:
Here are some other things have just been on my mind:
Right now is the Lenten season. It’s the time of the Christian calendar in which we fast and pray for 40 days, preparing ourselves for the annual celebration of Easter, the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection and reconciling creation back to God.
The 40 days is supposed to symbolize the 40 days that Jesus spent in the “wastelands” and was tempted. We can read this story and it’s easy to see the whole picture. However, I’m beginning to wonder if Jesus knew it would be 40 days. When the spirit led Him into the desert, did He know that the fasting and the sacrificing would only last for 40 days or did He willingly go into the desert not knowing how much He would have to give. How long He would have to give. When it will finally be over.
It’s easy to see the end in sight when we read it in a book, but imagine being in His shoes. We have no reason to believe that Jesus knew the testing would only be 40 days. Could you imagine? Imagine if you knew that your testing and fasting would last 40 days (such as lent). You can see the end in sight. You have a goal and a finish line to keep pushing towards. You can keep reminding yourself that the end is coming soon and you can soon have all that you gave up.
Now… imagine if you were led by the Spirit to fast, pray and go into a time of testing, but you were not told how long the fasting would last. Every day could be your last test. Or the end could never come. You wouldn’t know. Every day you would wonder, “Could this be the final day of my testing?” Every chance you had to eat, you would have to wonder, “Maybe this will be the last meal I have to skip… or maybe this is still only the beginning.” Your body and mind would be constantly reminding you that God is not going to come through for you to end your testing, so you might as well quit now.
It’s easy to be tested on day 40 if you know there’s a buffet waiting on day 41. Real testing comes when you can say, “Today is day 40 and I have given all I have to give. All that is in me wants this to end, but there is no end in sight. It could end today. It could end next year. I have no clue if there are another 40 hours or 40 days or 40 months or the rest of my life ahead of me, BUT I will continue to trust that He is going to come through for me at the right time.
Every day could be the day that the testing of your spirit is done. You wouldn’t know when that feast would be given to you. You wouldn’t know when the end would be. You wouldn’t know how much longer you would have be pushed. You wouldn’t know how much more you would have to give. Every day you would have to say, as the king of Ninevah decreed, “Who knows? God may yet relent…” They didn’t know if God would relent or when He would relent. They only could trust and hope that God would come through for them in the end.
Thoughts?
Who are the pastors I respect?
If you’ve lived for any length of time in the “professional Christian” (aka, church staff) realm, you are probably expecting me to rattle off a list of church leadership “celebs”. You know who I’m talking about. The ones the church world has idolized just like the world does to pop singers. The ones that are the headline speakers at EVERY church leaders’ conference (you know… those conferences that claim to be “different” and “better” than the other ones yet pay a ton of money to hear the exact same people speak). The ones who preach for thousands weekly or blog for thousands daily.
No, I’m not going to “name drop” those names like everyone else does. No, I’m not going to list all the guys who preach to thousands and make $100,000+ a year. I have some respect for those guys, but those aren’t the guys that I want to talk about today.
The pastors I respect are the bi-vocational pastors…
Just saying.
Through this journey of living in SC since graduating college has taught me a lot of things. Currently, I am having to work whatever job I can find while Kindel is finishing school down here. Once she graduates, we can open ourselves up to moving and finding opportunity elsewhere. But for now, I am working whatever job will pay the bills so that Kindel can finish her education.
Here’s what I’ve learned from working some not-so-good jobs. I will no longer allow myself to be defined by what I do to get a paycheck. I will not be defined by where I clock in or who signs my checks.
I will be defined by what I do for free. What I do by choice. What I do in my free time.
I will be defined by who I love, not who I work for. How I serve people in my own time, not what I do for people on company time.
I will no longer be defined by how much I make each paycheck, but instead by how much I invest in each person in my life.
I will be defined by how much I gave of myself off the clock, not how much I earned on the clock.
I will not be defined by how I pay the bills. I will be defined by how I live as a servant in the meantime.
I will not be defined by titles, positions, job descriptions, credentials, district appointment, licensing, or the lack thereof. I will be defined by love, mercy, grace, generosity, and servanthood. I will strive to be the latter, not the former.
My Mom. I don’t know where to begin. This attempt at thanking my Mom will probably be the understatement of the year. Yet I will at least make a feeble attempt at it.
Thank you, Mom, for…
In the beginning, the Gospel was spread across dinner tables and martyred in coliseums. Now the Gospel is taboo at our dinner tables and we have to go to church coliseums to spread it.
There is something about that reversal that does not sit well with me. We handed off our personal responsibility to the Gospel to the production staff of a now highly “corporatized” church.
The Church still has its place. The Gospel still advances on Sundays from stages and microphones. However, I am now convinced that the Gospel has to be advanced on a personal level from our homes, not just coliseums. We have a responsibility to the Gospel message we claim and to the God that loves us to proclaim that Gospel from our dinner tables and living rooms to our friends and neighbors. Not just to pawn it off to the corporate world of churches.
The Gospel is grassroots. Not hierarchical.
Thoughts?
