If you’ll never see your own results, would you keep at it? Do you think you have a choice? There isn’t enough sweat in you to do what you’re being used to do. Take a nap and wake up, you’re still there. Gather the crowd, stack your electrolytes and sprint until it hurts, you’re still there. Does it feel pointless? Is that defeat? Find that feeling and chase it to the source: pride. You should make your own t-shirt because you’re not getting any special treatment for your effort.
Whatever your circumstance has destroyed needs to hurry up and be buried.
Come on, I’m wearing my best black. My Barbie posed feet are aching and my flowers are drooping. Let’s get on with it. The dead can’t hear that painfully long goodbye speech.
So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! -Romans 8:12
Are you in a place where your religion is tuckering out? Is your god not talking back? Not carrying you like you think he should?
God is not conventional and He doesn’t navigate within your common sense. He has purposes and plans that we have never considered. But, religion tends to over step the line when they try to box up a pretty ‘god’ for people to worship.
They carry it around in holy parades, then take it home and put it on a shelf. And there it sits, day in and day out, a dependable god, always right where you put it. Say anything you want to it, it never talks back. -Isaiah 46:6-7
Stop focusing on yourself.
It’s not about what you could do or want to do. It’s not even about what you’ve done. If you’re in the trench, it’s because you need to know what it is to be in the trench. If you’re eating slop with pigs, it’s because you need to know what it is to eat slop with pigs. Everything you are going through, have gone through and will go through is not just for you, it’s for the rest of us, too. How can you help someone navigate a path you’ve never walked? You’re not here to be a doll on a shelf, in a pew. You’re here to learn and then teach what you’ve learned. Life is not perfect. People will fall in the same traps you’ve fallen in to and when you come out, turn and help those who are were you were.
Where you are now is absolutely crucial to your purpose. You haven’t messed up God’s plan for your life, you’re living it. God has not made a mistake in allowing your sin or your suffering. Suffering destroys the ’self’ in you. Thank God. You go through the hell so that you can become something that God can pour out for others.
Grapes have to be mashed in order to be poured out wine.
Hang in there, this matters. Keep notes, others will need them.
You always know the man who has been through the fires of sorrow and received himself, you are certain you can go to him in trouble and find that he has ample leisure for you. If a man has not been through the fires of sorrow, he is apt to be contemptuous, he has no time for you. If you receive yourself in the fires of sorrow, God will make you nourishment for other people. -Oswald Chambers
In the middle of a confrontation between two brothers, one hauls off and hits the other. The brother who got hit stands there stunned and hurt. The brother who hit wants to take it back, but can’t. He stands there and braces for the fight. Instead of returning the punch, the hit brother asks, ‘Does that make you feel better?! Go on, take another hit.’ Then offers his other cheek. His brother rubs his aching fist and shakes his head. It didn’t make him feel better. It made him feel worse. There’s no way he’ll take another hit. Especially when there is obviously no fight.
A girl sneaks into her sister’s room to take a shirt she wasn’t allowed to borrow. Her sister walks in and finds her wearing it. She’s disappointed, but instead of screaming at her, as expected, she says, ‘It looks good on you,’ and offers to loan her the matching shoes. Next time, she’ll just ask instead of sneaking around.
The sixteen year old takes his dad’s sports car out for a joyride. He’s not supposed to be driving with his friends in the car, but he does it anyway. He’s not old enough to drink, but he does it anyway. Fun and freedom got in the way of ‘right’ and his bad choices started stacking up. He knew he’d be in trouble, so he made sure to make it count. Hours later, the shiny sports car was wrapped around a tree and he was in the back of an ambulance. When his dad came in the hospital room, his shame hurt worse than his broken leg. He was ready to forfeit all of his freedom and make promises he fully intended to keep, but his father wouldn’t let him talk. He just cried and kissed his face like he did when he was little. ‘I don’t care about the car, son, you’re alive.’ He would rather have a son who could do it again than lose him over his mistakes.
A drunk was staggering down the sidewalk, into the road, onto the sidewalk. Tripping and cussing and throwing up. Everyone avoided her. Crossing the street, rushing past, ignoring her. Her brother was out with his friends and noticed the commotion she was stirring. People were staring, making snide remarks and showing their disgust. He left his friends and ran over to her. He threw his jacket around her bare shoulders and made excuses for her to the people as he lead her to his car. He’ll have some damage control to do in the morning, but tonight, he just wants to get her home.
strangers
If a stranger hits you, you hit back. Your honor is at stake.
If a stranger steals your shirt, you take it to the public. Let the merciless law teach them a lesson.
If a stranger stole your car and wrecked it, you’d be happy they were in the hospital. Serves them right.
If a stranger was stumbling around in the dark, jacked up on who knows what, you’d avoid them, too. They’re not yours to take care of.
body
“Here’s another old saying that deserves a second look: ‘Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.’ Is that going to get us anywhere? Here’s what I propose: ‘Don’t hit back at all.’ If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.” -Jesus, Matthew 5:38-42
But the father wasn’t listening. He was calling to the servants, ‘Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We’re going to feast! We’re going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!’ -Luke 15-22-24
But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ -Luke 10:33-35
Love is not limited to family, the command extends to everyone. You may not know the other human being, but, because of the way Jesus set this up, they’re your family. You don’t get to pick and choose and you don’t get to look after your honor, your time or your stuff. We have to treat everyone the way we would treat our own family. The goal in the ‘ideal’ family would be to get past the differences sooner than later so that we can all sit down together again. You see the worst in each other and get past it because you can also see the best.
Something that you have to consider, is that when a person screws up, it shocks them as much as it shocks you. There is an opportunity to turn it around and use it to bond you closer if you look for it. Instead, we assume the worst and don’t know what to do with the ‘monster’ they’ve become to us. We turn people into ’strangers’ so we don’t have to deal with the pain of going through the recovery with them.
‘I don’t even know who you are anymore.’
You’re strong, they’re weak. You have to hold them up, carry them if you have to. You, as a self-proclaimed Christian, have to get past yourself and bear them, their ‘burdens.’ That’s how you fulfill the Law of Christ. The Love Law.
Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.-Galatians 6:1-3
“You don’t get wormy apples off a healthy tree, nor good apples off a diseased tree. The health of the apple tells the health of the tree. You must begin with your own life-giving lives. It’s who you are, not what you say and do, that counts. Your true being brims over into true words and deeds.”-Jesus, Luke 6:43-45
We’re always reaching for that next step. If we could, we’d take them two at a time just to get to our destination. Our destination is that place of approval and importance in purpose. We want a show-n-tell for our efforts. We want to be recognized for our work. In chasing that, we neglect our foundation.
Your purpose is the task at hand. It’s the mundane sprinkled with moments of ‘extra-ordinary.’ If you try to make the ‘extra-ordinary’ ordinary then you become a thrill junkie. Right now is never enough. You’ll never be content.
Get a handle on what is right in front of you so that when that illusive ‘crossroad’ of opportunity takes place, you can move into it with practiced ease. When the ‘extraordinary’ task is finished you can go back to practicing in the mundane for the next one.
If you can’t excel at the small things, how can you be trusted with the bigger tasks you’ve been called to do?
The ordinary is your foundation. It’s the ground on which you stand. If you only tend to the larger things, the things that get noticed, you lose everything when your foundation crumbles.
Practice. Get a grip on what you have. Practice with what is right in front of you so that you’ll be ready when the big stuff comes.
Approval comes with disapproval. Popularity comes with infamy. Your importance is gauged by your foundation. How can you handle with wind on the mountain if you aren’t burrowed into it? How can you take the slander out in the world if you don’t know who you are at home?
Life’s tests are like fire burning up the cheap materials and leaving what it solid. The better your foundation, the more that will be left standing when it’s your turn to get hit.
To put it practically: A well tended marriage, well cared for kids and a smoothly running home make for a safe place to land when the world bites at your back and chips away at your self-worth.
Or, to put it another way, you are God’s house. Using the gift God gave me as a good architect, I designed blueprints; Apollos is putting up the walls. Let each carpenter who comes on the job take care to build on the foundation! Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ. Take particular care in picking out your building materials. Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you’ll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won’t get by with a thing. If your work passes inspection, fine; if it doesn’t, your part of the building will be torn out and started over.-1 Corinthians 3:9-15
I have two signed copies of ‘Grace Is For Sinners’ that I want to give away. All you have to do to enter is post a comment below. Let your friends know about the giveaway. You can enter more than once by posting a link to this video blog on your facebook, twitter (hashtag #gifs), myspace or on your blog. Each separate ’share’ is considered an entry. Let me know about it by posting a separate comment here for each separate ’share’. At 12:00 am on Wednesday, March 10, I will use random.org to choose the two winners. Good luck and thanks for spreading ‘Grace.’
The only person who would hold a person down when they fell is the one who had something to gain from that fall.
There is this wildly competitive spirit in the sub-culture of Christianity. Everyone wants to be blameless and above reproach. Most are taught to live their lives in a way that nobody can have doubts about them. Father’s teach their children that the unbelieving world is watching them all the time and they must not give them a reason to discredit their Christianity. They say that, even if you’re not doing anything wrong, it’s wrong if you make people doubt you or God. This people pleasing mentality is even given that high gloss sheen of extreme righteousness. If the sheen is glossy enough, it can glare out the ’self’ in self-righteous and keep people blinded and disoriented enough to not know why the whole thing feels so wrong.
It’s because it is wrong. Bizarre behavior of forced spirituality and the pressure to fake it, too. Get out. There is something real and something deep inside you knows it. Get away from the counterfeit other wise ‘those who wait on the Lord’ will start to settle for the High School melodrama version.
If you’re someone who has been ejected from that merry-go-round, sit back for a while and take inventory of what you can see now. You’ve fallen and instead of helping you up, like they preach, they spit condemnation at you. They don’t want you back on their toy. Now you can see the holes in the faith system. You may have been aware of them before, but there’s nothing like falling through one to get you to care about it.
Now look at those who refuse to show you grace. Instead of assuming they’re speaking for God, think about what they may have to gain from your failure. Even the comparison is enough for some to list your faults and failures. It elevates them to decrease you. Did they gain relationships from your fall? Relationships that used to belong to you?
No one would refuse to offer you unshackled grace unless they were afraid of what you could reveal about them or what you could take away from them. God’s grace doesn’t only affect the the recipient, it realigns the entire group. Some see that coming and they’re terrified of it. Their terrified of losing the ground and honor.
This tyrannic behavior can’t last long, however. People are watching and they need to start taking steps to build a bridge. They don the white hat and tie while they make others do the work. They load you down with self doubt and expectations that they’re hoping you can never navigate properly. Their hand is on the button to get the wrecking ball swinging again and you’re left dancing to avoid his flying bullets. They never intend to bring you back, they just want to make it look like they’re trying and you’re still failing.
They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’-Jesus, Matthew 23:4-7
You don’t have to worry about relying on people to set things right. God’s hands aren’t tied and this suffering won’t last forever. Not one second of ignorant people using God’s name to torture you in the dark has gone unnoticed. He sticks up for the broken and abused. A victim can quickly become a tormentor if they don’t trust that God can handle their vengeance better than they can. God appears to delay and men become impatient with the pain. Don’t weaken the end result by taking bits and pieces of payback into your own hands. Stop the vicious cycle by letting them take the allegorical swings. They’re tallied. When they have to answer for their behavior, they’ll have the same choice that you did when you were called out. You can answer for yourself, relying on your own ability to debate and hope God can’t see the recesses of your heart, or you can let Jesus answer for you.
You have to be ready for them to (and hope that they will) get off without punishment. The way to do this is to remind yourself of what it was like to be aware of your own dark heart with nothing in you to make it go away. You have to remember what it was like to receive grace because the actual experience removes the fear that setting someone free only frees them to hurt you more. It doesn’t and those who have been there know this. It changes you. Be ready for their own ‘burning’ during that ‘purifying’ process and make a point to be one of the first to go on record as one who loves them and believes in them.
Bide your time leaving a trail to peace. Carry your basket of stars and leave them clues that you believed in them all along. In this horrible time of feeling like you’re underneath them, maybe you can distract yourself by making preparations for the party when the hell is over.
Yesterday’s blog threw a few of you and as much as I like throwing people around, I actually had a message in there. I put this in a comment, but think it’s worth posting as today’s blog.
This is one of my more lyrical/poetic writings. Sometimes I feel like I’m chasing a ribbon of words and trying to nail it down. Interpretation is open, but I’ll give you my thought process.
The beginning is a play on a circus. Religion being the circus.
Stop juggling, stop the show boat tricks and get real.
You can be real because this whole thing, life, isn’t about you or me…
Now that you are real…what do you want? Do you want to cuss and spit just to try it? Do it.
God puts desires into our heart (‘He gives us the desires of our heart….’). If that’s true, then after you’ve taken inventory or what you ‘want’ then you can sift out the stuff that isn’t for you and explore the things that may not look like everything you’ve been taught in the circus, but are still a part of who you are.
When you have this ‘real’ internal exploration, you’ll find God there. You’ll find urges that you actually have the power to choose or dismiss. You’ll find unique gifts and a unique voice that you never would have found if you hadn’t stop the charade.
He set us free to find out how things work and in the ‘finding’ you’ll find Him.
When you set a group of people (who have the Spirit of God inside them) free to do as they please, they’re not going to run for Hell. They’re going to find their legs and run to Him.
I wrote this because of the overwhelming fear that resides in the hearts so many professed Christians. They’re afraid of what will happen if they ‘let go of the wheel.’ If they’re afraid, then they must not believe that He is actually driving.
Let go and find the truth. It’s beautiful. It’s laced with skinned knees and messy hair, but it’s real and it’s free and it’s where He wants you to be.
Picture an adult, racked with stress and discouragement. Now, turn that adult into a kid and watch him play, explore, get grass stains and a few new scars. See the sun freckle his face and twigs stick in his hair.
Some of my best childhood afternoons left me with a scar I can still see twenty-five years later. If a child is afraid of falling, he’ll never play. REALLY play.
I’m just saying, PLAY! He’ll take care of the ‘holy’, ‘pure’ and ’sanctified’ parts. He’s got you covered. Be free.
Let the balls drop and get off the unicycle. It’s time to go home and wash off the makeup. Leave the circus to the bearded ladies.
If this isn’t about you, then you can do what you want. Have you thought about what you want lately? I bet not. The circus is a time consuming act. Think about it. Sky’s the limit, you can’t mess this up. You’re free to eat what you want, drink what you want, say what you want, touch what you want. No punishment, no death.
What do you want?
Freedom is a purifier. Honesty is a starting point. Being real is the only way to get anywhere real.
Slaves don’t think about what they want because they don’t know what they want. Give them freedom and let them figure it out. Keep them slaves and they remain dehumanized. Fear is the only reason why you wouldn’t set someone free to do as they please. There is this corrosive belief that men, when left to their own devices, will conjure up an insurmountable evil. I have three things to say about that:
Fear is the opposite of Love. So, it’s the opposite of God.
Men are not left to their own devices. Has it not occurred to you that God is real?
You project what is within yourself on to those around you. What you fear and try to control in others is only a reflection of what you see in yourself. You’re the one with the problem. Get the plank out of your own eye so you can see clearly.
…if it comes back it’s yours…
He set us free because He’s not afraid of where we’ll go. He is real. And He has really taken up residence in your heart, so He’s not afraid of an evil He has crowded out. When He projects what is in Him on to us, we glow. He trusts the ‘Him’ in us. This isn’t an arranged marriage and it’s not a duty. He knows that when you give a voice to what you want, you’ll want Him.
Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. Can’t you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to …reject… It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life!-Galatians 6:15
He’s not afraid. He can sleep through the chaos of what terrifies you because He knows how this story ends. He had you figured out long before He created Eve’s womb. He’s been carrying you from the beginning and if you’d stop squirming long enough you’d realize that. No matter what you do, you’re still a child on the shoulders of the Father who saves you from drowning in your own flood.
I’ve been carrying you on my back from the day you were born, and I’ll keep on carrying you when you’re old. I’ll be there, bearing you when you’re old and gray. I’ve done it and will keep on doing it, carrying you on my back, saving you. -Isaiah 46:3-4
…if it doesn’t, it never was.’
Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me. And once that person is with me, I hold on and don’t let go. -John 6:35
We’re launching an online (video chat) Bible Study on the ‘Grace Is For Sinners’ community website. If you’re interested, let me know so you can help pick the time and day of the week that works best for you.
The community website is private so you have to be a member to see what anyone says on there. We’ll be using the ‘Grace Is For Sinners’ curriculum that goes along with the book. It’s challenging and the conversations get deep!
If you’re interested in seeing what the Bible says about sin, grace, restoration and God’s sovereignty, then you’ll want to be a part of this.
Here is what others who have been through it have said:
“This has been a life changing six weeks for me! I feel like I’ve ‘got it’ or am at least ‘getting it.’ Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!”
‘One of my favorite things you said was ‘God said, you were broken here. Here is where you will heal.’ I will never be the same after this class.’
‘My relationship with my sister is on the path of healing after I met your challenge to reach out to her. This class has restored by hope and renewed my faith. That’s saying a lot from a fifty year old woman. Thank you.’
‘I’ve been a Christian my whole life and have never been taught the simplicity of Gospel like this. It wrecked me and built me up in truth like I can never explain. Thank you.’
Let me know if you’re interested and if you have any questions.
