A couple of days ago, I shared the sermon Andy Stanley delivered to North Point Community Church Sunday. I said it was the most powerful sermon I'd ever heard. I'll include a link to it in the comment section. I'm spending this week processing some of the things Andy said.
One of the things his sermon drove home to me is just how much our lives are shaped by perception. And further, how much we purposefully choose to hang out with people groups and media sources and churches and neighbors that align with our preconceived notions of reality. We are not creatures who willfully seek out truth, we are creatures who comfortably get drawn into places of comfort. When I was running last night I got to thinking about that a lot. I thought about it first through the context of the actual running journey I am on. Six years ago, I wasn't a runner. I was actually dead against running. Most of it, I think, was because I was against runners themselves. I'd seen enough of their bumper stickers and fancy running outfits and pictures of their awards and medals to know they were all arrogant; I didn't want anything to do with them. Runners were a bunch of elitists. They weren't inviting me into their little club, and I sure wasn't asking to join. Through some tragic circumstances, though, I got invited to join a run one day. And I got to know a bunch of runners. For the last six years since then, I've come to know runners as one of the most supportive, accepting, community building and loving groups of people I've ever met. My perceptions about a group of people couldn't have been more wrong. Because I hung out with and exercised with people who had similar perceptions of runners as me, I was dismissing a lot of facts about them I was never going to discover as I clung to places of comfort. Perceptions are shallow. They lead to shallow choices in life. But they can also lead to significant consequences in our lives and in the lives of the people around us. Was my life or anyone else's life destroyed because I wasn't a runner? No. I was sure missing out on an opportunity, though. More than that, the same perception-based decision making I was making about runners is the same type of decision making I - and maybe we - use with people who are a different color than us. One of the challenging things Andy Stanley said in his sermon is that white people fear the black man. Wow - that's sort of throwing something out there isn't it, Andy? He went on to say most people fear them without ever having had a fearful experience with a black man. In other words, he was suggesting our fear is based on perception and not fact. When I heard that I did what I do when I first hear a suggestion like that. I denied it. You, Andy Stanley, have NO way of knowing what I do and do not fear! Then, as I was running - alone - without anyone to support my perceptions of myself - I had to meet myself in the messy middle. Because we do, we have to meet ourselves in the messy middle before we can go meet anyone else there. It does us no good to pursue the facts of anyone else's life until we fully know the facts of our own. So here are some messy facts in my life. I am not personally close to a single black man. I know a few black men - call them friends - but I don't know the story of their lives - their longings and fears and experiences. I know a couple of black men well enough to deeply respect them and admire them. How many black men, though, are on my speed dial? How many black men are at the top of the call list for anything in my life? For helping me out. For hanging out together. For serving the community together. For doing anything at all arm in arm. The answer to those questions are the facts in my life, not my perceptions. When Andy Stanley says I don't have black people in my life because I fear them, my perception is he is wrong. My fact, however, is I don't have any black men in my life. How do you explain that Keith - Andy says it's fear, what is your explanation? I don't know, I just know it means whenever I deny the struggles black men are saying they have faced for decades and centuries, I'm doing so based on my perceptions, not on any facts. The facts in my messy middle say I'm not equipped to deny the black man's stories and experiences; I've spent my life comfortably floating toward people who haven't had any of their experiences. I've hung out with people who also don't have black men on their speed dials. I've spent my life floating towards conversations on the comfortable fringes of life: news channels that give me comfortable news, friends who comfortably agree with the things I say, a church that fits neatly into my views of God and what that God asks of me, a neighborhood that fits comfortably into my ideas of safety and protection. I've spent my life floating toward people and places and things that assure me my perceptions of the world are right. Because let's face it, that's much easier than intentionally going toward the messy facts that might just suggest I've had it all wrong. I'm grateful I was sort of forced into discovering some facts about runners that weren't in line with my perceptions of them. Running has changed my life. It's probably time I start pursuing some even deeper facts in my life. For my sake and for the sake of the greater human race.
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6/17/2020 0 Comments To Change We must be more than sadYesterday, I shared the sermon Andy Stanley delivered to North Point Community Church Sunday. I said it was the most powerful sermon I'd ever heard. One day later I stand by that. As such, I'm going to spend this week processing some of the things Andy said.
I internalize things better when I write about them. It's my way of thinking out loud. It's my way of reflecting on the things I think I believe. It's my way of pushing myself to be better. Stanley opened his sermon with this idea. Sad is how we feel about things that happen to people "out there." Sad is what gets stirred inside us when bad things happen to other people. And because it's an emotion that usually doesn't get triggered by something that's directly affecting us, it's rarely an emotion that challenges us to fight for the things happening to someone else. When he started talking about this idea all I could think about was my trip to Honduras last August. Prior to going to Honduras, it was easy for me to be sad about people living in extreme poverty. Show me a picture of a starving kid on television and I can get as sad as anyone. I could also move on and forget about it as fast as anyone. Then I went and lived in Honduran communities for 5 days. When you've lived and seen and heard and touched poverty, you forget all about sad. When you live in someone else's struggles, you can no longer walk away and pretend someone else's struggles are not your struggles. Nothing diminishes your own sadness more than walking so intimately in the shoes of that which makes you sad. For a long time I considered myself a good and caring person because poverty made me sad. When I left Honduras, I felt much less than good because sad was all I'd ever been for those people. I came home and I've been recommitted to doing all I can to make a difference in systemic poverty around the world. I realize a lot of people can't afford the luxury of my sadness. To so many people around the world who are living in poverty, my sadness is no help to them. My sadness doesn't demonstrate I get the significance of their struggles. My sadness does nothing to bring more opportunities to their lives. I hear Andy Stanley loud and clear on this one. We have an opportunity to look at the television and be sad about all we are seeing. And if we turn the television off and walk away and all we are is once again sad about the state of our country and our communities and of our brothers and sisters, we will miss the significance of the moment. We will miss an opportunity to be moved to action instead of getting lost in emotions that might move us to tears, but fail to move us inside the lives of people who need us most. I encourage you to watch Andy Stanley's sermon here: https://northpoint.org/messages/this-human-race 6/16/2020 0 Comments people fail, but love never doesIf I have everything in the world - every power in the world - but I don't have love, I am nothing.
I've never completely understood the whole "mic drop" thing, but that scripture seems to fit the sentiment. This scripture in 1 Corinthians goes on to say: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. Love never fails. I think many of us read that scripture and think, you know, I want to be more loving so I'm going to work on my patience. I want to be more loving so I'm going to try to stop being so envious. I want to be more loving so I'm going to try to start honoring other people better. We want to be more loving so we make a list of loving things to do that we can work on. And as noble and good as those efforts might be, they will ultimately miss the mark and fail. Because unlike love, people always fail. I think we need to be more focused on becoming people who are filled with love instead of focusing on becoming people who do more loving things. When we are people filled with love, loving engagement with others will always overflow from our hearts. When we are people thinking about and becoming more dedicated to loving, when we are trying to memorize what it looks like to be more loving toward others, ultimately that is a mental exercise that will wear us out. So how do I become filled with more love? The only way I can answer that is to tell you how I work on it. Please here me say "I work on it." I am not a perfectly loving person - not by a very long stretch. But I am more committed these days to having more love in my heart than I am committed to doing more loving things. For me, there has to be an unfailing source of love in your life. You first and foremost have to feel overwhelmingly loved, unconditionally, if you are ever to be an unconditional outpouring of love in everyone else's life. For me, that source is Christ. Christ said I created you to be loved and accepted and appreciated and honored. I realize for some people that is not your source of love. I'm not trying to tell you this has to be your source - I'm just suggesting we all have to have a source. We all have to feel loved with an unfailing love. If we don't feel loved completely we will never become a person who is grounded and motivated by love. And love never fails. Running and prayer - often they are the same thing to me - they are where I get grounded in that love. When we look around the world and we see a lot of unloving things going on, that can wear on and consume our minds. We can begin to think in unloving ways. We can begin to feel unloved. We can become the people who fail instead of the love that never does. Running and prayer are where I remove that noise and settle into a heart space that gets centered on that overwhelming love being poured into me. Sometimes becoming a more loving person is as simple as finding your way for filtering the hate and discontent out of your person. For me, more and more, my prayer life is about shutting everything out. Complete quiet. My prayer life is about shutting off every thought in my life and just being still and quiet. It's about becoming more in touch with what lives in my heart and detaching from what is begging to live in my head. Because my mind always fails me, love never does. I suppose to some that sounds like meditation. Maybe. I just call it be still and listen. I think as Christians, especially, we've tried to define what prayer is and what it should look like and if you don't do it right then you're not praying. I guess I just think God isn't always as concerned with hearing what is on my mind as much as he is with me feeling his love. You think God doesn't know what we want and need and have on our minds to say to him? What God often wants to hear most from us is nothing. He just wants us to be still and listen. He wants us to be still and listen and feel his overwhelming love. Because if we don't feel overwhelmed by some source of unfailing love in our lives, we'll always fail at being a source of overwhelming love for others. You are on Facebook right now. After reading this, if you scroll on, you'll discover a minefield of information. Some of it will be true, some false. Some will be laced with loving intentions, some to fuel hate and division. Some of it will be deeply researched, some of it will be a republication of something someone read that matched their current outlook on life.
Between Covid-19 and the racial tensions we are experiencing, I'm not sure there's ever been a bigger supply of and demand for information. As part of my own search for information, yesterday I interviewed and recorded a conversation with friends who are in a bi-racial marriage. They have four bi-racial kids. To better understand what is at the root of the hurting in our black community, I wanted to hear their story. I'm not black, so I'm a little lacking in understanding there. I learned a lot in that conversation. I'm anxious to have more of them. But I have to tell you, the main thing I took away from that conversation is this: no information in the world is worth a penny if we aren't willing to engage in other people's lives. And even more - engaging in people's lives that we've previously been uncomfortable engaging in. I think of the biblical story of Jesus "engaging" with a Samaritan woman at a well. Jesus engages with her in spite of the following: She was a woman - a Samaritan woman at that - both of which went against Jewish traditions at the time. Jesus also asked her to bring him a drink of water, when using her cup would have made him ceremonially unclean. Yet there he was. Engaging. They had a long conversation, the longest conversation on record that Jesus ever had with a woman. Jesus taught her. He offered her a lot of information. Most importantly, he talked to her about "living water" - the hope she could find in following him and his teachings. The most remarkable part of this story to me is always the following as told in the 4th chapter of John. Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him. Keep in mind. This woman had been shunned by those people she went back and told about Jesus. She was meeting Jesus in the middle of the day in the blazing heat for a reason - she wasn't allowed to go with everyone else in the cooler parts of the day. The people in town had no regard or respect for this woman whatsoever. I always wonder - because the bible is clearly short on what that conversation was like when she went back to town. Am I to believe that solely on this woman's words “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” that people suddenly started flocking to see this man? Is it possible that these folks were far more curious about why this man would have any interest in having a conversation with this woman in the first place? Is it possible this woman told them about the Messiah with an overflowing spirit of feeling loved like she hadn't been able to express in years? Is it possible they went there drawn far more out of curiosity of this man's heart than of his mind? I follow Jesus myself. Reading the information I find in the bible is a big reason for that. But the biggest thing I always take away from that information isn't that Jesus offered unlikely information in the bible. Much of it, in terms of guidance on how we should treat each other, is rather common sense. What gets me over and over when I read the information, though, is the unlikely places Jesus always showed up to teach. The hard truth for me many days is I have the information I need to treat people better. That is not the hold up. The hold up is that to put that information to loving use I have to go to some unlikely places. Jesus didn't teach that he had to just "accept" the Samaritan woman in spite of their differences. He taught that he had to go out of his way to engage with her because of those differences. The Samaritan woman would go on to change many lives with her testimony. I'll always believe every time she shared her story about meeting Jesus at the well, her story, with tears in her eyes, started with "in spite of ......., this man showed up in my life." When we know something someone else doesn't know, that can make their minds curious about what we can teach them about life. When we show up in someone's life when and where no one else would, that can make their heart curious about why we would be there engaging with them at all. And that's when we get to show them the answer. Love. In the bible there is an extraordinary string of events that highlight the compassion of Jesus.
Twice, even though Jesus has been out walking and teaching and is ready for some rest himself, he is met with crowds of thousands upon thousands of hungry people. In Mark chapter 8, we are told Jesus says, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” In both instances in Mark when Jesus feeds these large crowds, we're told he does so out of his compassion for them. In both of these stories, the focus can easily be on the physical miracle that Jesus performs. He feeds thousands with bread and fish that in non-miraculous settings would only feed a few dozen. I think the physical miracle is an important part of the story, but clearly Jesus didn't want it to be the main point. After the disciples have witnessed these physical miracles, they were in a boat with Jesus headed away from the crowds. Jesus was talking with the disciples, warning them of the people who had just witnessed the miracles he performed but who had totally missed the point. Don't you miss the point, Jesus was saying to them. Well, right on cue, the disciples begin discussing how they don't have enough bread in the boat to eat. They only had one loaf - I can just hear them arguing about who forgot to grab the bread for the trip. I am a dad who has two young boys who've argued with each over about things I've countless times proved to them there is no point in arguing about. So I'm with you Jesus on this one. So Jesus says to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?” Oh, how often do I and do we as a church get so caught up in our own physical pursuits of comfort and security and power and acceptance and fame and fortune and on and on and on that we miss what Jesus has done in our lives and what he is still trying to do. When I read that passage this morning I could hear Jesus saying to me, "Do you not yet understand?" I heard Jesus asking, has your heart become so hardened that you have missed the point? The point isn't whether or not you can take care of everyone, the point is do you have the compassionate desire to do so? Are you willing to put your own personal comfort aside long enough to do what compassion demands of you? I hear Jesus asking, have you not heard and seen, do you not remember what I have done in your life? Are you so caught up in chasing your own comfort in life that you've completely forgotten all I've done to take care of you up to now? We are all capable of missing Jesus. These were his disciples. They had just witnessed Jesus feeding thousands upon thousands with almost nothing - and yet they are arguing about whether or not they'll have enough to eat. Is there a more appropriate definition of absurd? If these dudes are capable of missing the point - Lord, so am I. The beauty about Jesus is, if we'll take the time to reflect, oh he'll simplify the point for us. He'll tell us the point is compassion. The point wasn't that Jesus could feed the multitudes, the point was in the midst of his own need for rest and sleep when it would have been easier to turn his back on them - he didn't. Jesus told us the point was love your neighbor - all of them. He said be careful, people will try to tell you the point is whether you can or should take care of them. No, he said, the point is do you have the compassionate desire to do so? Yesterday was Global Running Day. Just a few years ago it would have been as unlikely a day for me to celebrate as National Star Wars Day (a movie I've never seen).
But I am a runner now - albeit an injured and wobbly and slow one. Still - I run. We're all prone - sometimes with little thought - to say something has changed our life. But I can tell you, because I'm slow and I've spent thousands of hours running the last 6 years contemplating life, running has indeed changed my life. If I'm asked how, I'd say two things. It's completely changed how I see me. And it's completely changed how I see you. That's a key to life, isn't it? Understanding how I see myself and how that shapes the way I see and engage with others. It's not so much the act of running as much as it's been the running community that's shaped me. In the picture I've shared here, you see three friends who have finished their races running to find me at the back of the pack - always the best place to start looking for me by the way - to help me finish my race. Not only did they wait around, but they were interested enough in helping me discover who I was becoming that they ran to my side to make sure I knew it. This has come to define the running community for me. A group of people far more interested in who I was becoming than who I once was. A group uninterested in labeling me a slow runner but one interested in being by my side as I became a better runner. I always say crossing race finish lines opens my eyes more to what is now possible than to what I just did. The force behind that discovery, though, has always been the people by my side. People reminding me I'm becoming someone I never thought I could be while I abandon the person who always thought finish lines were beyond me. Here's the thing, though. When you experience that in your life - the power of people coming alongside you - you are more driven to be that person in someone else's life. When people meet you with compassion and inspiration and it changes you, you are suddenly more driven to be compassion and inspiration in someone else's life. When you feel the power of someone going all in on you, you are suddenly more driven to going all in on others. The bible is filled with running metaphors. They talk about finishing the race and about running with perseverance. But you know what all bible characters had who did the whole finish the race and perseverance thing well - they had people running alongside them. They had people fully committed to love your neighbor. They had people who felt like a finish line just wasn't a finish line if it was an "I did it" finish line instead of a "we did it" finish line. Jesus was all about a "we did it" finish line. That's why Jesus spent his ministry running to the back of the pack helping people discover they were becoming better runners and not condemning them as forever back of the packers. Jesus spent his entire ministry passing up the opportunity for race medals and podium finishes to run alongside those who were discovering who they were becoming while Jesus reminded them I could care less who you once were. Jesus spent his entire ministry teaching us that if we want to truly love our neighbors, we have to go meet them where they are in the race. Us finishing the race before them should be a sign - a big blowing flowing in your face red flag sign - that they need our help, not a sign that they are somehow unworthy of it. Jesus spent his entire ministry teaching us love your neighbor happens by someone's side, not from a distance. On Global Running Day yesterday, I was reminded that who I'm becoming has a lot to do with who the people by my side are telling me I can become. And when I look around the world and see people stuck in their races, it might not be because they don't want to become someone better, it might be because no one has run to find them and tell them they can be. To know what breaks God's heart we have to intimately know what is breaking the hearts of the people around us.
To know what is breaking the hearts of the people around us is the only way to be equipped to be led by mercy. And mercy will then demand that our fingers point us to where we need to go in love - not with blame and shame. 6/8/2020 0 Comments Facing our prejudicesMost mornings I share my own words here. This morning I feel compelled to share the words a beautiful friend of mine shared yesterday.
Years ago, I worked with Regina and Clay Harrington. I've been blessed to follow their lives from a distance since then. I deeply admire their commitment to their Illinois church - Clay is a pastor there - and their loving outreach to the people there and to people around the world. Regina's story pulled at my heart. It made me think deeper about things I've already been thinking about. Here are Regina's words: _______ I’ve been holding this story for 12 years, so today is the day,... As the dedicated and involved father he is, 12 years ago Clay was driving our twin babies, Asiah and Adessa, 15 miles to their daycare early every morning. On one particular morning, he arrived early to the daycare and they had not yet opened. The parking lot was empty. For those who know Clay, you won’t be surprised to hear that he took this opportunity to turn on worship music in the SUV while hanging out with the babies and waiting. You will also not be surprised to imagine him with eyes closed and hands in the air loudly proclaiming his worship to God. You will also not be surprised to know that when another car pulled into the parking lot, he barely noticed and kept on worshipping like he normally would. A few moments later the car returned with police. A white, male officer in the police car. A white woman was “scared” when she came to the daycare. The same daycare our babies had been attending since birth. She was “scared” because a black man in the parking lot was acting “crazy”. I am sure she thought that he needed an intervention, that she may not be safe getting out of the car, that our twins might not be safe, and certainly the daycare wasn’t safe with him in the parking lot. I wonder if I might have thought the same things if I were the only white woman in the parking lot with him and if I had not known him. I was mortified when I heard this. I had wished I was with him. I was mad that white people too often make the worst assumptions about black people. It still bothers me today! Even as a white woman married to a black man, I know I have done this too. For example, I recently had an interaction in a store checkout line with a black man who just by his demeanor and lack of a smile, I assumed he was not friendly nor someone I should engage with. Instead, he engaged me in a conversation while we were waiting and when I realized he wasn’t who I assumed, I was suddenly faced with my own prejudice. What a great guy! As much as I dislike shopping, I am grateful I am not being judged by whether or not I am smiling or appear approachable in a grocery store! But this is what is meant by white privilege. Assumptions that people are bad or up to no good just because you don’t know them and because they are black is a problem all white Americans need to grapple with. The white, male police officer that day, praise God, was not the kind you see in the news these days. He didn’t make him get out of the car, he had a casual conversation, he was respectful, he assumed the best! We all need to work on assuming the best about people!! When things happen like #georgefloyd, I imagine what would have happened if a different kind of officer approached Clay like they approached #georgefloyd. If the officer assumed the worst based on someone’s fear and prejudice would he be alive today? In summary, if you see a black person, assume the best! It just might be a black, future pastor and evangelist who is dangerously crazy for the Lord! I wrote this article almost 4 years ago. I went back and read it again last night. The only thing I'd edit in the article is the part where I identified myself as a Republican.
Last night, I watched our President hold up the bible in a photo opportunity in front of a church. When asked if it was his bible, he simply responded, no, it's "a" bible. Then he was asked his thoughts. He said his thoughts are, we have a great country and we are on our way back, better than ever. He didn't say, with that bible in his hands, I have a great God. God will lead us back. He didn't, with that bible in his hands, lead this country in the prayers we all so desperately need to be saying for and with one another. When asked, he could have explained the role that bible can play in bringing this country together. When asked, he could have explained he was holding a book filled with redemption stories for people who loved one another like God first loved them. Instead, he simply had his picture taken with it. The words I went back to read last night are these: "The bible is filled with stories of Christians who shared the gospel in places and times when they faced far more oppression than they face today. But I strongly and fearfully believe, even though Donald Trump doesn't stand in the way of opportunity, he puts the credibility of my Lord at risk more than any United States president - elected or potential - ever." I don't regret those words. And today the words are no longer a belief; last night I witnessed them. Article from 10/12/2016: **** I am a Christian. A husband. A dad. An American. A Republican. In that order. And being committed to that order has never been more important to me. That order has helped me reach what I once thought would be an unlikely - if not impossible - decision. For the first time ever, when I cast my vote for the president of the United States, I will vote for a democrat. At least that's how they'll count the vote - a vote for Hillary. So be it. I can accept whatever label comes with that. But for what it's worth, I would have never voted for her in a million years if there was any other way to take a stand for my credibility as a Christian, a husband, and a dad. Trust me. I've had friends try to convince me there is another way. They tell me this election's too important to let the failings of one man stand in the way of the Republican Party. Consider the damage a Clinton presidency could do to America, they plead. In other words, just reverse the order of who you are. I wish it was that simple, but it's not. You see, no Republican has ever offered me more hope than Christ has. I can't ignore that. Nor has any country, including America, ever promised me a place to live when my rapidly expiring time here is done. But Christ has. In the darkest and ugliest days of my life, there was no party, country, wife or sons to offer up the miracle I needed. But Christ did. So now I try to find opportunities to share that story. I truly believe everyone can experience the kind of light and hope I've found in Christ. Granted, some don't want it, and that's fine. I try to be sensitive to that. Some don't think they need it; I lived enough of my life believing that as well to understand where they're coming from. But many people go through life, every day, mired in darkness. They long ago gave up on the idea they'll ever see light again. So I try to be light. Many days I fail. But when I get it right, and people see light in me, I point to Christ. What does any of that have to do with me voting for Hillary? A lot. Neither of these candidates will stand in the way of my opportunity to share my story. The bible is filled with stories of Christians who shared the gospel in places and times when they faced far more oppression than they face today. But I strongly and fearfully believe, even though Donald Trump doesn't stand in the way of opportunity, he puts the credibility of my Lord at risk more than any United States president - elected or potential - ever. This risk starts with the reality that one candidate has the backing of some of the most prominent evangelical Christians in America. That candidate is Donald Trump. They've found every reason in the book - even the Good Book - to excuse his laundry list of immoral choices and attitudes. I don't need to outline that list. If you're reading this you're well aware of it. Maybe you've found reason yourself to look beyond his sinful nature in the interest of a bigger picture. You've invoked the get the plank out of your own eye scripture to make sure you don't let his human frailty stand in your way of discerning God's will for our country. I get it. I get it because I'm a flawed human being myself. In fact, my flaws, my countless mistakes and transgressions against other people, they are at the root of the darkness that once nearly suffocated the life right out of me. They are also at the root of the miracle Christ worked in my life. It's the miracle identified in the book of Acts as written below: "And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago." (Acts 3: 17-21) My life turned around the day I understood that by handing my sins over to Christ, they would be blotted out. And the hope, the light that flooded my life after I did, it was an indescribable refreshing that's uplifted me ever since. Believe me, it wasn't a one time deal. I've had to repent daily since then. In return Christ has continually refreshed me. It is the cornerstone of the hope I try to share with others who feel weighted down and burden by their own mistakes. This repentance, it's the foundation of the Christian faith. Therefore, it's inexplicable to me how so many Christian leaders have endorsed Donald Trump. It's beyond me why they don't see his opposition to repentance as one of the greatest threats ever to our Christian faith, a roadblock of biblical and eternal proportions to the Christian testimony of salvation. At a faith leadership summit in July of 2015, Frank Luntz asked Donald Trump if he'd ever asked God for forgiveness for his actions. Trump replied: "I am not sure I have. I just go on and try to do a better job from there. I don't think so," he said. "I think if I do something wrong, I think, I just try and make it right. I don't bring God into that picture. I don't." Trump said that while he hasn't asked God for forgiveness, he does participate in Holy Communion. "When I drink my little wine -- which is about the only wine I drink -- and have my little cracker, I guess that is a form of asking for forgiveness, and I do that as often as possible because I feel cleansed," he said. "I think in terms of 'let's go on and let's make it right.'" Some time later in a follow up interview, Trump expanded on his thoughts about repentance: "I try not to make mistakes where I have to ask forgiveness. Why do I have to repent or ask forgiveness if I am not making mistakes? I work hard, I'm an honorable person." One of the main reasons people hesitate to bring God into the picture of making their wrongs right is because doing so implies God is bigger than they are. If you've watched any of Trump's campaign, you may have come to the conclusion I have. Donald Trump doesn't think anyone or anything is bigger than he is. At his convention, after describing his view of a crumbling United States, Trump stated: "I alone can fix it." One of the keys to the joy I feel in my life today is, with more clarity that ever, I understand Jesus is Lord in my life. There is nothing I can fix or achieve without Him. Having a publicly professing Christian leader - backed by publicly professing Christians - who sees no need to drag God into his failings, and has expressed little need to drag Him into the struggles he sees in our country, is one of the riskiest threats to spreading the gospel I've personally witnessed in this country in my lifetime. Andy Crouch, Editorial Director for Christianity Today, put it best: The lordship of Christ places constraints on the way his followers involve themselves, or entangle themselves, with earthly rulers. Enthusiasm for a candidate like Trump gives our neighbors ample reason to doubt that we believe Jesus is Lord. They see that some of us are so self-interested, and so self-protective, that we will ally ourselves with someone who violates all that is sacred to us—in hope, almost certainly a vain hope given his mendacity and record of betrayal, that his rule will save us. I know many fellow Christians won't support my thoughts. My goal in writing this isn't to gain their support or sway any votes. But I do have two young sons I'm trying to shape. I have a family to lead. In doing both, it's a priority to me that they always know that more than standing for a party, or standing for my country, I stand for Christ. It's nice when I can stand for all of them at the same time, but the bible has warned us over and over; that's a dangerous tight rope to try to walk. For me personally, it's too dangerous. Again, I'm not with her at all. But the process has left her as the strongest way to stand against him. I read that Bob Goff quote this morning and thought, I think Facebook should change how they characterize the relationships here. I think it's much more accurate to say we are all acquaintances here than it is to say we are friends. At least by Goff's definition.
I realize that's not completely true. But I have a lot of "friends" here and 99% of them fit Goff's definition of acquaintances. Goff isn't saying, and neither am I, that acquaintances are a bad thing. Knowing what each other are doing can be inspiring and a good guide in our lives. In May, I just ran/walked the most miles I've ever run in a month. That was largely motivated by some awesome acquaintances whom I admire. The problem is, I think, that as a large part of the world got busy doing things and then talking about the things they are doing, a large part of the world got left behind feeling unloved. They got left feeling friendless. I had a thought provoking conversation with a "friend" yesterday whom I deeply respect and admire. We didn't see something completely eye to eye. It's sort of cool when you can see life from different angles without calling each other names and hating each other. It allows you to think deeper and learn. We were talking about the riots going on. I said, you know, in the old testament God used to be a bit of a "start a riot" kind of God. And she reminded me that Jesus came so God wouldn't have to riot anymore. I thought about that conversation yesterday afternoon as I was walking the trails. It's not biblical, completely- I mean you aren't going to find this conversation anywhere - but I started imagining Jesus having a conversation with God. I could hear him say, dad, I don't think your riots are going to work anymore. I think you need to let me just go be their friends. And in my head and on those trails I could hear God saying, OK. Go be their friend. When Jesus arrived, he walked straight to the people who had been oppressed and harassed and marginalized. And he never left them. He said a friend is someone who is eager to be the last in line if it will help move ahead those who've always been imprisoned there. He said a friend is eager to do that - not willing. Jesus just kept doing that. He just kept going to the back of the line and he just kept saying I want you to move up. One ditch in the line after the other, through his love, he just kept saying I want to be your friend. As Christians, there is a lot of opportunity to be an acquaintance of Jesus and not his friend. There is a lot of opportunity to read the bible and be enamored by all that Jesus did and lose sight of the way that Jesus loved. To consider Jesus an acquaintance is to be inspired to be a better person. To consider Jesus as a friend is to feel obligated to be a better friend. To consider Jesus an acquaintance is to look at the oppressed and harassed and marginalized and say here is what I want to do better. To consider Jesus a friend, we have to go to those same people and say I want to make sure you have a better life than I have. Radical? Yes. It's like someone going to the back of an execution line and tapping someone on the shoulder and saying, hey, step out of line please. I want to take your place. I want to die so you don't have to. In the end that's what Jesus did. He climbed on a cross and died so we'd all be less oppressed and harassed and marginalized. To see Jesus as an acquaintance is to remember what he did on that cross with gratitude. To see Jesus as a friend is to see that cross and feel obligated to be that same kind of friend to others. To see Jesus as an acquaintance is to hear Jesus say my work is done. To see Jesus as a friend is to hear him say your work has only just begun. |
Robert "Keith" CartwrightI am a friend of God, a dad, a runner who never wins, but is always searching for beauty in the race. Archives
May 2024
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