A brisk walk in the park brought about a humbling thought. My capacity to love others is squarely dependent on how much I allow God to love others through me.
I was walking the asphalt loop that circumnavigates the two baseball fields in the park not 2 blocks from my house when I caught eye of a father and his two sons. The father could not have been older than mid-thirties and his two sons could not have been older than 6 and 4 respectively. The father had his baseball glove with him and consequently so did the 6 year old; they were playing catch. The 4 year old was not one to be out occupied, so he had with him a plastic, red-handled pirate sword with which he was playing. He was perfectly content with swinging the sword at the air and making lunges into non-existent, fellow swashbucklers while his father and his older brother engaged in a game of catch.
The game of catch was going as well as you’d expect with an adult and a 6 year old. The father having to short arm all his throws to keep the velocity down and the 6 year old, while displaying quite an affluent arm, wildly hurled the ball in either direction of his father; it looked like a good time. The 4 year old looked like he was having a good time as well. He was stabbing everything he could get his little eyes on. Then he caught eye of his dad. In his little mind, dad was wearing a fancy three-point hat with a big feather, an eye patch, and he had a parrot perched on his shoulder; there’s no room in this town for both someone who looks like this and someone with a red-handled pirate sword. He proceeded to go after dad; he took a swing.
Now, dad had a choice to make. He was currently engaging his 6 year old son in a game of catch, but that engagement was about to be usurped by a young 4 year old swashbuckler with a red-handled sword. If he chose to ignore his 4 year old, he might not take much notice, but he might be hurt. If he chose to ignore his game of catch with his 6 year old, he might not notice too much either, but he also might be a little hurt. The father was demonstrating perfectly that we as humans cannot be in two places at once.
Now, I am 100% positive the father loved both of his sons equally. However, he could not demonstrate that love, at this time, to both of them in the way that he wished. That is, he could not both sword fight with his 4 year old and play catch with his 6 year old at the same time. His capacity to love his sons was limited. This is not to say he did not love both of his sons at this point, but rather he was limited.
God is not limited; this is the humbling thought that came to me while this all was unfolding in front of me. I am limited, but God is not. God can love everybody, God can demonstrate love for everybody all at once, and I cannot. Therefore, In order to demonstrate love to people in greatest capacity, I need to rely on God. My love is limited, God’s is infinite.
The 4 year old took a swing at dad and dad was able to maneuver in such a way in which he avoided the fatal blow to his knee caps. Not one to give up easily, the 4 year old chased after dad, but dad’s legs were a bit too long for the pursuit to be successful. The 4 year old gave it his best, but the fence was a much easier opponent, so he pursued after it. The father was able to go back to his game of catch with his 6 year old and he looked un-phased by the pause in action.
If one generally wants to love others as Christ loved us, one has to trust while he or she is occupied with one person, love is being demonstrated to others without one’s direct help. One question that constantly comes to my mind is how I can spend my time with people here in America when there are people who need God’s love demonstrated to them in so many other places. Cyclones and earthquakes are destroying families and devastating lives in other parts of the world; wouldn’t my help be better off there? But the second I say that I have to say that people here in America need God’s love demonstrated to them. Alcoholism and divorce are destroying families and devastating lives here; my help is needed here as well. The only way I can live with myself knowing that I cannot be love to everyone at once is a faith that God is demonstrating His love to all people everywhere.
The father made the decision to engage his younger son knowing that he could still impact his older son. He realized that despite not directly being with his older son, his older son would still know love. Despite my inability to love everyone all at once, people will still have the opportunity to know love. God’s love demonstrated through me can have a direct impact on those around me or an indirect impact on anyone anywhere in the world. God is pretty big when it comes to love.
“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us . . .”
- 1 John 4:16-17
09 May 2008
Jumping into Pride. Watch for Lions.
Something I find interesting about our human condition are the things in which we take pride. There are things in which we should legitimately be proud and things in which we should take no pride at all. It’s great to be proud of a child scoring a goal in his or her first soccer game, or getting an A on a term paper, but it’s not great to be proud of causing a rift between yourself and a friend, or being stubborn about some issue you should probably bend on.
It’s refreshing, almost inspiring, to see pride expressed in a correct situation. I was sitting in on my sister’s graduation ceremony and there were a few ROTC graduates that were being honored. The graduate would march up on stage in full uniform to be recognized. Accompanying them were the graduate’s parents. What was interesting was that it was the parents’ responsibility to apply the badges for lieutenant on the ROTC graduates uniform. The graduate would stand completely at attention while his or her parents would apply the badges. Then, the graduate would be allowed to be at ease and huge and thank his or her parents. What was touching to see and think about was how proud the graduate’s parents were. You could see it in their faces. When they gave their child a hug, they were all smiles. When they pinned on the lieutenant stripes, they were all smiles. It was a really beautiful thing.
However, on the opposite side, seeing pride expressed in situations in which it is completely inappropriate is rather difficult to sit through. When you experience someone who is arrogant or who is constantly bragging about accomplishments, you just want to punch them in the neck.
Something God is changing in my life right now is my appreciation for being around people. I used to find the company of others rather unnecessary. I was fine on my own. In fact, some people’s presence just flat out annoyed me. It was not too long ago I was sharing a room with someone I had just met for a meeting we were both attending. He was a nice guy, but he just got on my nerves in not too much time. I really just wanted to be myself and he was always around. But now, I find I can tolerate, wait, actually appreciate more and more the presence of others. This may seem like a non issue for some of you, but for me this is huge. God is really doing a work here.
What’s interesting about the whole situation is that I have this sort of pride about my independence. I’m rather proud of my Marlboro Man mentality. It seems macho, it seems American, it seems it’s my personality, but the more I search into what God wants for human life, the more I find people are involved. God cares about people; therefore, I have to care about people since I care about God. So, the more I care about God, the more I’m starting to care about people.
Now what’s difficult about this whole thing is the pride thing. I’m very proud of my independence remember. So, if I start caring more about people, it’s going to start showing. And if it starts showing, people are going to ask me, “What’s going on?” Then comes the hard part; the breaking of the pride to say, “I care.”
This all may seem a bit trivial to some of you, but you have to understand, all our lives we’re told our personalities are from God. This is true to a point, but they also are under the influence of sin, so there are going to be aspects of them that are not so hot. This little fact is often neglected. Thus, a development of an attachment to our personalities; a pride of sort in who you are. Now you can see how difficult it can be to weed out these nasty aspects of your personality. They’ve been apart of me for so long; I’ve grown some what attached.
It’s interesting isn’t it, how we can take pride in the silliest things?
It’s refreshing, almost inspiring, to see pride expressed in a correct situation. I was sitting in on my sister’s graduation ceremony and there were a few ROTC graduates that were being honored. The graduate would march up on stage in full uniform to be recognized. Accompanying them were the graduate’s parents. What was interesting was that it was the parents’ responsibility to apply the badges for lieutenant on the ROTC graduates uniform. The graduate would stand completely at attention while his or her parents would apply the badges. Then, the graduate would be allowed to be at ease and huge and thank his or her parents. What was touching to see and think about was how proud the graduate’s parents were. You could see it in their faces. When they gave their child a hug, they were all smiles. When they pinned on the lieutenant stripes, they were all smiles. It was a really beautiful thing.
However, on the opposite side, seeing pride expressed in situations in which it is completely inappropriate is rather difficult to sit through. When you experience someone who is arrogant or who is constantly bragging about accomplishments, you just want to punch them in the neck.
Something God is changing in my life right now is my appreciation for being around people. I used to find the company of others rather unnecessary. I was fine on my own. In fact, some people’s presence just flat out annoyed me. It was not too long ago I was sharing a room with someone I had just met for a meeting we were both attending. He was a nice guy, but he just got on my nerves in not too much time. I really just wanted to be myself and he was always around. But now, I find I can tolerate, wait, actually appreciate more and more the presence of others. This may seem like a non issue for some of you, but for me this is huge. God is really doing a work here.
What’s interesting about the whole situation is that I have this sort of pride about my independence. I’m rather proud of my Marlboro Man mentality. It seems macho, it seems American, it seems it’s my personality, but the more I search into what God wants for human life, the more I find people are involved. God cares about people; therefore, I have to care about people since I care about God. So, the more I care about God, the more I’m starting to care about people.
Now what’s difficult about this whole thing is the pride thing. I’m very proud of my independence remember. So, if I start caring more about people, it’s going to start showing. And if it starts showing, people are going to ask me, “What’s going on?” Then comes the hard part; the breaking of the pride to say, “I care.”
This all may seem a bit trivial to some of you, but you have to understand, all our lives we’re told our personalities are from God. This is true to a point, but they also are under the influence of sin, so there are going to be aspects of them that are not so hot. This little fact is often neglected. Thus, a development of an attachment to our personalities; a pride of sort in who you are. Now you can see how difficult it can be to weed out these nasty aspects of your personality. They’ve been apart of me for so long; I’ve grown some what attached.
It’s interesting isn’t it, how we can take pride in the silliest things?
08 May 2008
Community: Some Thoughts
*Precursor: This is a compiling of my thoughts over the last few weeks. It's kind of cohesive in that they all revolve around the idea of community, but really there is no flow to them. What I'm looking for here is feedback on these thoughts. Do they appear accurate, obtainable, etc?
End Precursor*
It’s Saturday. The weather outside is 65 plus degrees Fahrenheit. There was a time in our American, human history where this meant the threat of a baseball going through one’s window was on an orange alert; the probability was rather high. Now, with a beautiful Saturday afternoon in our midst, the only sound we’ll hear knocking against our windows are misguided flies thinking they’ve found open passages to the insides of our houses. We like to place the blame of this newly acknowledged phenomenon squarely on the invention of video games; some of us go as far as to place it on the invention of the television. I feel this blame is undeserved; the root of the problem is much deeper.
Recently I’ve given a lot of thought to the idea of community. I’ve been trying to wrap my head around what it means exactly, what purpose it serves, what, if any, benefits it has, and, consequently, what, if any, downsides it has. In the past I’ve conducted experiments on myself to see if I could expand or narrow my idea of what the “Christian Community” looks like. I attended services and seminars hosted by Christians whom with on everything I don’t necessarily agree. I’ve proposed another of those experiments to try shed more light onto that same question. However, I’m uncertain I’ll be able to answer that question by the end of that experiment either.
Coming up in a couple of months I’ll be leaving the secure soil of the United States to join a ship operated by Operation Mobilization for two years to be a resource to local churches all around the world. I’ll be joining a very unique community of people from all around the world with one commonality; a love for Jesus and a love for people. With this experience I’m sure I’ll gain much more insight into the question of community. I look forward to this learning experience very much. But, again, I don’t think I’ll have the question solved after the two years are up.
The reason, I think, that we don’t see kids out in the neighborhoods playing baseball or whatever with each other, the reason we don’t see families barbequing with each other, the reason we don’t see people generally hanging out with each other is because of this issue of community. I believe we’ve lost the sense of what it is and we are struggling to find out what it is again.
As a kid growing up on a cul-de-sac in Monroe, WA, I was rarely bored. The only times I was bored, I can think, was when I was by myself. To solve this problem, I’d just call up my friend Triston who lived down the street and we’d do something together. We’d ride bikes, we’d climb trees, we’d play out in the soccer field separating our houses, whatever; we’d find something to do. If Triston wasn’t available, I’d just go outside and there would be some kids from the neighborhood doing something.
See, I think we need community in our lives; we admit it every day. Every time we say we are bored or we think we need something to do is our admission to missing community. When a kid says he or she is bored, it is not that they have nothing to do; it is that they don’t have anyone to do anything with, or rather, they don’t want to do anything with the people that are around them. They’re both rejecting the community they are in and admitting to missing community all together.
Now, obviously I don’t have any research to prove this hypothesis, but I think it makes sense at least. I can see it in my own life as well. Whenever I feel bored, I’m always wishing I had someone to do something with. I usually chalk it up to being lonely, desiring to have a partner in which to share things. But the reality is, even if I had someone like that, I’d still feel bored. I’m not really a part of any community. I go to a church (ironically called Monroe Community Chapel), but I’m never really around these people outside Sunday morning. I got to work, but I’m never really around these people outside a professional atmosphere. I live in a neighborhood, but I never really see my neighbors. I know people, I have friends, but I have to make appointments to see them and go out of my way to visit them. So, whenever I’m bored, I’m always wishing I lived closer to my friends or I had relationships with people I go to church with or work with in which I could just drop by and hang out. But that isn’t how we operate.
As is apparent by now, I’m just relaying thoughts at this point. I don’t really have a conclusion to draw to. My goal in the next couple of years is to gain more and more insight into what community really means and what it really looks like. I have ideas, but I need to see if they play out in reality. I find I have an innate gift of being able to come up with great theories, but their connection to reality is hit or miss. So, we’ll see what comes out of this thinking experiment. If there are any thoughts on the subject out there, feel free to share them here or with me in person; I’ll be willing to listen.
End Precursor*
It’s Saturday. The weather outside is 65 plus degrees Fahrenheit. There was a time in our American, human history where this meant the threat of a baseball going through one’s window was on an orange alert; the probability was rather high. Now, with a beautiful Saturday afternoon in our midst, the only sound we’ll hear knocking against our windows are misguided flies thinking they’ve found open passages to the insides of our houses. We like to place the blame of this newly acknowledged phenomenon squarely on the invention of video games; some of us go as far as to place it on the invention of the television. I feel this blame is undeserved; the root of the problem is much deeper.
Recently I’ve given a lot of thought to the idea of community. I’ve been trying to wrap my head around what it means exactly, what purpose it serves, what, if any, benefits it has, and, consequently, what, if any, downsides it has. In the past I’ve conducted experiments on myself to see if I could expand or narrow my idea of what the “Christian Community” looks like. I attended services and seminars hosted by Christians whom with on everything I don’t necessarily agree. I’ve proposed another of those experiments to try shed more light onto that same question. However, I’m uncertain I’ll be able to answer that question by the end of that experiment either.
Coming up in a couple of months I’ll be leaving the secure soil of the United States to join a ship operated by Operation Mobilization for two years to be a resource to local churches all around the world. I’ll be joining a very unique community of people from all around the world with one commonality; a love for Jesus and a love for people. With this experience I’m sure I’ll gain much more insight into the question of community. I look forward to this learning experience very much. But, again, I don’t think I’ll have the question solved after the two years are up.
The reason, I think, that we don’t see kids out in the neighborhoods playing baseball or whatever with each other, the reason we don’t see families barbequing with each other, the reason we don’t see people generally hanging out with each other is because of this issue of community. I believe we’ve lost the sense of what it is and we are struggling to find out what it is again.
As a kid growing up on a cul-de-sac in Monroe, WA, I was rarely bored. The only times I was bored, I can think, was when I was by myself. To solve this problem, I’d just call up my friend Triston who lived down the street and we’d do something together. We’d ride bikes, we’d climb trees, we’d play out in the soccer field separating our houses, whatever; we’d find something to do. If Triston wasn’t available, I’d just go outside and there would be some kids from the neighborhood doing something.
See, I think we need community in our lives; we admit it every day. Every time we say we are bored or we think we need something to do is our admission to missing community. When a kid says he or she is bored, it is not that they have nothing to do; it is that they don’t have anyone to do anything with, or rather, they don’t want to do anything with the people that are around them. They’re both rejecting the community they are in and admitting to missing community all together.
Now, obviously I don’t have any research to prove this hypothesis, but I think it makes sense at least. I can see it in my own life as well. Whenever I feel bored, I’m always wishing I had someone to do something with. I usually chalk it up to being lonely, desiring to have a partner in which to share things. But the reality is, even if I had someone like that, I’d still feel bored. I’m not really a part of any community. I go to a church (ironically called Monroe Community Chapel), but I’m never really around these people outside Sunday morning. I got to work, but I’m never really around these people outside a professional atmosphere. I live in a neighborhood, but I never really see my neighbors. I know people, I have friends, but I have to make appointments to see them and go out of my way to visit them. So, whenever I’m bored, I’m always wishing I lived closer to my friends or I had relationships with people I go to church with or work with in which I could just drop by and hang out. But that isn’t how we operate.
As is apparent by now, I’m just relaying thoughts at this point. I don’t really have a conclusion to draw to. My goal in the next couple of years is to gain more and more insight into what community really means and what it really looks like. I have ideas, but I need to see if they play out in reality. I find I have an innate gift of being able to come up with great theories, but their connection to reality is hit or miss. So, we’ll see what comes out of this thinking experiment. If there are any thoughts on the subject out there, feel free to share them here or with me in person; I’ll be willing to listen.
30 April 2008
A Time for Healing (Or B-B-B-Benny and the Jetsssssssssssss)
So, I had an idea. I drive by a church near my house every day that is a bit on the charismatic side. In fact, according to a big, blue banner, they hold a healing service every month on the first Sunday of the month. I’ve never driven by on that particular Sunday to see how packed out the house would be, but I imagine someone’s got to show up. I thought I’d show up.So, continuing on the theme of me putting myself in potentially awkward church situations, I plan on attending the healing service at the church by my house in Shoreline the month of June 2008. I plan on being an observer; I plan on being a skeptic; I plan on having an open mind. If anyone would like to come with me and participate in the observing, the skepticism, the open-mindedness, or even to get some healing, feel free. Just let me know that you are interested and we’ll go.
The service will be June 1st at 6:30p if the big, blue banner is correct. So, mark your calendars!
22 April 2008
A Radical Proposal.
Here’s a test. Read this article. If you’ve already read it, read it again. What was your reaction?
Do you side with the church?
Do you side with those who find it controversial?
Who’s correct in this situation? The church has a right to free speech just like the rest of us. It’s too bad they chose to use it in this manner, but the freedom is there. What if the situation were different? What if the sign had something nasty to say about McCain? Would the press be all in a fit about it then?
I propose something radical. I propose that regardless of who is right and who is wrong in this situation, regardless of who did what and what the reaction is when asked to retract the action, the response should be the same. Love. Love I say.
Here’s the thing. Regardless if you worship God on Sunday or if you sacrifice to Satan on Wednesday night, you’re going to do something wrong at some point in your life and you are going to have a hard time admitting it. The problem is that the reaction of, “Oh the Church, up to their old tricks again,” or, “Oh the liberal media, up to their old tricks again,” gets us to the exact spot we are at right now; separated and hating each other.
If you are fed up with people hating each other, if you are sick of seeing the Church butt heads with everyone else in the media, perhaps it’s time we have a new reaction to controversy. Perhaps, instead of, “Oh you just don’t understand,” we react with love for those who cause controversy. We react with love for those who stir it up. Perhaps then, we might not get the constant butting of heads we are so used to.
Perhaps it’s time we start taking the initiative on this. Instead of condemning the church who posted a crappy billboard, pray for that church that they might see where they went wrong. Instead of condemning the media for focusing on its own liberal agenda, pray that the media will see the harm in only covering one side of the story. It’s time to take initiative.
Now, this is not to say we will see immediate results from this radical change of reaction, but rather the opposite will likely be true. We may never see results in your lifetime. However, we can sleep well at night knowing that your reaction was the correct one; one that was exemplified by a man who was no stranger to controversy. Jesus died for the Pharisees along with the Tax collectors; the extremely religious and the extremely sinful. What greater love has a man for his brother than to lay down his life for him? What greater love has a man for his enemy than to lay down his life for his enemy?
Do you side with the church?
Do you side with those who find it controversial?
Who’s correct in this situation? The church has a right to free speech just like the rest of us. It’s too bad they chose to use it in this manner, but the freedom is there. What if the situation were different? What if the sign had something nasty to say about McCain? Would the press be all in a fit about it then?
I propose something radical. I propose that regardless of who is right and who is wrong in this situation, regardless of who did what and what the reaction is when asked to retract the action, the response should be the same. Love. Love I say.
Here’s the thing. Regardless if you worship God on Sunday or if you sacrifice to Satan on Wednesday night, you’re going to do something wrong at some point in your life and you are going to have a hard time admitting it. The problem is that the reaction of, “Oh the Church, up to their old tricks again,” or, “Oh the liberal media, up to their old tricks again,” gets us to the exact spot we are at right now; separated and hating each other.
If you are fed up with people hating each other, if you are sick of seeing the Church butt heads with everyone else in the media, perhaps it’s time we have a new reaction to controversy. Perhaps, instead of, “Oh you just don’t understand,” we react with love for those who cause controversy. We react with love for those who stir it up. Perhaps then, we might not get the constant butting of heads we are so used to.
Perhaps it’s time we start taking the initiative on this. Instead of condemning the church who posted a crappy billboard, pray for that church that they might see where they went wrong. Instead of condemning the media for focusing on its own liberal agenda, pray that the media will see the harm in only covering one side of the story. It’s time to take initiative.
Now, this is not to say we will see immediate results from this radical change of reaction, but rather the opposite will likely be true. We may never see results in your lifetime. However, we can sleep well at night knowing that your reaction was the correct one; one that was exemplified by a man who was no stranger to controversy. Jesus died for the Pharisees along with the Tax collectors; the extremely religious and the extremely sinful. What greater love has a man for his brother than to lay down his life for him? What greater love has a man for his enemy than to lay down his life for his enemy?
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