Blessed are the...

For the past few months I have not been able to shake the urge to notice people.  I try not to stare but my curiosity gets the best of me at the strangest of times.  For example, I was at Whataburger the other night with some friends and I couldn't help but observe the guy at the cash register as he slowly worked the clock down.  This guy was just another spoke on the wheel, an employee we all ignore from time-to-time as we gaze above his head to decide on the #1 or #3 combo meal.  Once the order is made we fork over the cash and wait for our Whata-meal.  But I cannot stop thinking about that guy!

Who is he?  What is his family history?  Why does he have that job?  Is he happy?  Does he get embarrassed when people his own age come in to order food?  So in an effort to actually connect, and not ignore, I asked how his night was going.  "What,"  he jerked his head back towards me as if I were speaking another language.  In truth I was speaking a different language.  Instead of barking orders or asking for more ketchup I simply asked how he was doing.  When he finally responded, he cracked a smile and said "tired."  The entire discourse only took about one minute but I could tell he appreciated it and so did I.

Do you think people know when they are blessed?  I mean to say, when Jesus tells us "blessed are the poor in spirit...blessed are those who mourn," do you think the poor and mourning ones know they are blessed?  I would guess not for most cases because they don't feel that way.  However it is precisely these people Jesus sought after because they were overlooked and seemingly useless.  For those of us who seek to live out the principles of the Kingdom of God, we see people like my Whata-friend and an opportunity to love arises.  It's not just an opportunity for us to seize so we can prove that we love others, rather it's a chance to let that person know he/she is blessed.  Ours' is a ministry of blessing others and not just waiting to receive blessings.  I wonder, who are the people in your little world that are waiting to hear the good news of being blessed?   

Missing my Love

As a music connoisseur I, by proxy, must enjoy all varieties of music; this includes love songs. Perhaps my favorite modern love song is by the rock band Incubus.  Their song "I miss you" tells of the lead singer's heartache over missing his love, even though she "has only been gone ten days."   It seems he is left to wander around the house, searching for signs of his love.  Eventually he describes his longing by saying, "I see your face, I smell your skin on the empty pillow next to mine."  Even the smell of his love arouses the deepest, simplest need for her presence.  

Yesterday my love, Allison, returned home after a weekend visit to get away from school and be with me.  For three days she graced the space inside of my home, leaving her sweet aroma in every room she visited.  When she finally left and I came home, I could only wander around my house to search for signs of her.  The bed where she slept was unmade, the towel she used laid drying in my bathroom and her Bobby pins rested on my chest of drawers.  These traces allowed me to track where my love had been.

On the same day I was missing my love, I experienced a deeper need for the presence of my biggest love: My God.  I went to the places where I had met Him before: church, the quietness of my room and holy scripture.  I stumbled around aimlessly searching for a sign of God.  For a long time now I have been doing a lot of things for God, trying to know about God and serve Him at the same time.  However, these pursuits have become tiresome as I truly miss His presence.  I miss laying at His feet and being changed by His presence.  I can learn about Him, talk about Him, read about Him and still not know Him or be known by Him.  

I never understood why, in scripture, Paul sometimes called God "his God" (see Phil. 1:3).  It's not as if Paul made God or kept God as some controllable possession, so why would he call God "his God?"  Paul describes relationship with God as "being known by God" and "being found in Him" (Gal. 4:9, Phil. 3:9).  As my fiancee Allison has pointed out to me, Paul's reality of God was so powerful and so earth-moving that he had no other choice than to believe.  It was Paul's combined past, present and future interactions with God that made God his God.  In the same way we would describe someone we love as ours' because we know them, Paul described God because he knew Him and was known by Him.  

Search out the love letters He has left for you in scripture.  Find the fragrant aroma of the Christ in your daily living.  Please join me in being discontented with a cursory look at God. Let's stare deeply into His faith so that we may be changed into what He has made us to be (2 Cor. 3:18).  

A Tale of Two Kingdoms

This is a benediction I shared at Ecclesia Clear Lake this past Sunday, enjoy!

Where two kingdoms stand war is at hand.

Whereas one makes a killing breaking dreams and hearts,

the other forgives all debts and gives freely new starts.

The will of the one is to progress only its purpose;

the will of the other is to lead humbly as a servant.

An economy of grace and pursuit of the poor

stand strictly at odds with closed fists and shut doors.

Let Him cast off your fetters in the kingdom of "me" 

to come serve freely in the Kingdom of "He."  

Breaking the law!

My neighborhood has far too many stop signs.  It's almost as if every concerned parent petitioned the city council to put up a new stop sign at each mail box.  As you probably know from experience, when dozens of big, red signs tell you to stop each day you are bound to roll through one or two of them.  Call it defiance, but I would prefer to call it the "big, red button effect." 

Looney Tunes use to air cartoons with characters who were strictly instructed not to press the big, red button in front of them.  After moments of solitude the character would usually peak around every corner, wipe the sweat from his brow and then press the button!  What usually followed was an explosion created by our old cartoon friend TNT.  Yesterday I was casually taking corners in my car when I approached one of the big, red buttons.  After peering around the corner, I defiantly pressed down my accelerator only to be met with an unexpected explosion.

Now at this point you may be thinking, "Is this guy going to use his blog to whine about the laws of the land, what a waste of public domain?!"  Rest easy because the story only gets better.  As I did my best impression of Lindsey Lohan rolling through stop signs on Hollywood blvd., I failed to see the giant SUV careening towards the left side of my car.  I quickly accelerated to avoid being hit but soon realized, with great relief, I had plenty of time to get out the way.  As I moved parallel to the SUV, an angry Mom behind the wheel of a suburban tank took a swipe at me with her car.   I probably should have kept driving but I was curious as to why she was so upset; so I rolled down my window to ask what was the matter?  My decision was about as wise as deciding to explore the second floor of a dark house in a horror movie.    

Before I could utter word one, the young Mother starting use all sorts of seven-letter words to describe me and my driving skills.  I was threatened, called several creative names and then she finally drove away as my mouth hung wide open.  Immediately my mind starting racing with multiple comments I could have shot back at her to defend my cause, but what was the use?  The incident was over and I felt like crap.  When I waited tables I would get trampled on some nights, but I don't recall ever being called an a--hole.  Even for an ex-waiter with relatively thick skin I was unnerved by the whole incident.

Why do we immediately grow defensive when we have been busted for wrongs committed?  I kept trying to tell myself not to get angry with the woman because I would only be "answering a fool according to [her] folly" (Prov. 26:4).  However, another question continued to plague me: Why are we surprised when people break the law?  When it comes to driving we are always upset when people don't obey the rules of the road.  Some of us will consequently slam on our breaks if we are being "tailed," cut people off because they had done the same to us and employ countless other tactics in order to play police.  Are we really shocked when transgressions of the law increase wherever the law is found (Ro. 5:20)?  

What I felt yesterday was death.  I had been slaughtered by the malicious name calling of another and I wanted to respond back with the same.  How do we break this cycle?  When someone crosses you during your day how do you avoid wrongly reciprocating?  For those who have trusted in the redemptive work of Jesus, we have the Spirit of Him who fulfilled the law to help us.  Colossians 2:14 tells us that Jesus made us alive, "having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross..."  The law, albeit it good and holy, is too much for us to bear.  Try as we may to enforce it or even live by it, we don't add up and it can only breed death as we defy daily.  

Everything in us, what Paul calls our flesh, cries to defy.  The Spirit with which we are baptized when we receive the free gift of grace sets us free from the law (Gal. 5:18).  We then have the opportunity to break the cycle of frustration and death in our daily living when we submit to the Spirit's conviction and leading.  The fruit, or production, of the Spirit is something which is free from the law's condemnation (Gal. 5:23).  So when we ask to be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:17-18) of God, we are asking to be filled with life and freedom from dragging around the burden of our blunders.  

Allow other people to fail you today and allow yourself to fail.  Don't seek sin so that forgiveness and grace may abound (Ro. 6:1), but seek forgiveness instead.  Attempting to "be good" all of the time or live up to everyone's standards will result in slavery to others and to the law you are trying to meet.  "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery" (Gal. 5:1).