So today I heard that the United States government is getting ready to send down troop "reinforcements" to the border states of our country to help "secure" our border and keep "illegal immigrants" out.
It made me think about the story of the good Samaritan that Jesus told, where this Jewish man is jumped by a gang, stripped of his clothes, robbed, and beaten within an inch of his life. He's then left for dead on the side of the road. One by one these prominent people (priests, temple assistants) pass by the man and purposely avoid him, creating borders between the man's heavy burden and their own selfish concerns.
Eventually this Samaritan dude shows up (the type of person the Jewish people would have despised), comes by and has pity on the poor beaten man on the side of the road. He then tends to his wounds, puts him on his own donkey, and takes him to an inn nearby. He then pays the inn like an entire paycheck's worth of expenses to ensure the Jewish man is well-taken care of and can stay in this inn until he has fully recovered. The Samaritan man never asks for anything in return.
I wonder what it would look like if people in America, especially Christians in America, put the good Samaritan story into practice when our government tries to put up walls between us and the rest of the world, when we create borders to divide the "haves" and the "have nots".
So often people quote this story of the good Samaritan for the sake of encouraging the caring of those in need, for helping those who other people simply pass on by. While these are definitely important truths and good analogies, (as my wife pointed out in one of her recent sermons) it is not the main message in the story.
You see, we worship a God of a borderless kingdom. He doesn't see "us and them". He sees humanity, the diverse lot of us, and sees beauty and richness in us all. There is this potential "oneness" that our world is craving, but our borders keep that from ever being realized.
Maybe when our troops get down to the border this week to keep people out, we should be there in masses opening the borders of our hearts and lives and seeing the people on the other side of the wall as brothers and sisters in this world, children of a good God, the Son of Man who has nowhere to lay His head.
Since we have been so richly blessed in this country, and since our ancestors were brave enough to jump the wall and make opportunities where there were none (although sadly we also did some major injustices to our Native American brothers and sisters), maybe we can give those at the border a lift up over those fences.
After all, walls are meant to be climbed.
(To get the real facts about immigration, check out this Princeton University research document that reveals the myths and true facts about illegal immigration in America. http://cmd.princeton.edu/files/POM_june2007.pdf ...don't believe everything Fox News tells you!)
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Keeping Beauty at Arms Length
So today I noticed that most people have one arm or leg that is longer than the other. It was all the observing I could do this morning as I waddled behind other working Chicagoans as we mass exited our trains like penguins and headed to our respective office buildings.
My mind usually takes a good few hours after waking up to process anything remotely productive, so I apologize if this realization misses the blogosphere benchmark of intellectual thought.
Upon first recognizing this distinct feature about most of my fellow human beings, my initial reaction, I confess to you, was annoyance. What kind of person has mismatched arms? Please don’t take me for pretentious. A gentlemen at a shoe store recently pointed out to me that my feet are in fact two different sizes altogether. I share in this shortcoming with each of you, and your struggle is my struggle. I digress.
After my initial annoyance, my mind went elsewhere. I began to think about how the average person spends a few years at a time in life trying to rid themselves of some feature that they dislike about their chemical make up, be it their weight, their eyebrows, their receding hairline, or their crooked or corn yellow-stained teeth.
We look at our airbrushed, spray tanned, fake boobed Hollywood utopian kings and queens as reminders that we are flawed, broken, and incomplete specimens of a failed God, or a natural selection that we cannot naturally compete with.
The funny thing about it all is that it is actually they whom all look alike, who come from the same cookie-cutter mold, and whose limbs are so unnaturally and disgustingly perfect that they look as if their creator (or whoever recreated them) had actually very little creativity. Their souls have been simplified to magazine articles, paparazzi videos, and the characters and art they portray on movie screens and I-Pods.
I started to think- maybe we’re the ones that are beautiful. Maybe we with our unique body builds, eye and hair colors, teeth that point in different directions, are the ones with the creative designer.
Maybe our stylist had such an endless depth of beauty and creativity about Him that Hollywood America had no where to go but backwards.
As I concluded this epiphany that took all of about 1 minute to work through in my head, I began counting the unique features in myself and those around me on my walk, things that no one else could claim as a generic feature, but rather a prototype.
I concluded that Hollywood is boring, and that my occasional love handles and bad hair days reflect a God Who never runs out of creative designs and Who doesn’t see beauty as utopia but rather as unlimited possibilities.
My mind usually takes a good few hours after waking up to process anything remotely productive, so I apologize if this realization misses the blogosphere benchmark of intellectual thought.
Upon first recognizing this distinct feature about most of my fellow human beings, my initial reaction, I confess to you, was annoyance. What kind of person has mismatched arms? Please don’t take me for pretentious. A gentlemen at a shoe store recently pointed out to me that my feet are in fact two different sizes altogether. I share in this shortcoming with each of you, and your struggle is my struggle. I digress.
After my initial annoyance, my mind went elsewhere. I began to think about how the average person spends a few years at a time in life trying to rid themselves of some feature that they dislike about their chemical make up, be it their weight, their eyebrows, their receding hairline, or their crooked or corn yellow-stained teeth.
We look at our airbrushed, spray tanned, fake boobed Hollywood utopian kings and queens as reminders that we are flawed, broken, and incomplete specimens of a failed God, or a natural selection that we cannot naturally compete with.
The funny thing about it all is that it is actually they whom all look alike, who come from the same cookie-cutter mold, and whose limbs are so unnaturally and disgustingly perfect that they look as if their creator (or whoever recreated them) had actually very little creativity. Their souls have been simplified to magazine articles, paparazzi videos, and the characters and art they portray on movie screens and I-Pods.
I started to think- maybe we’re the ones that are beautiful. Maybe we with our unique body builds, eye and hair colors, teeth that point in different directions, are the ones with the creative designer.
Maybe our stylist had such an endless depth of beauty and creativity about Him that Hollywood America had no where to go but backwards.
As I concluded this epiphany that took all of about 1 minute to work through in my head, I began counting the unique features in myself and those around me on my walk, things that no one else could claim as a generic feature, but rather a prototype.
I concluded that Hollywood is boring, and that my occasional love handles and bad hair days reflect a God Who never runs out of creative designs and Who doesn’t see beauty as utopia but rather as unlimited possibilities.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
The Opportunities in our Backyards
Let me confess to you that I am not typically prone to being social.
There was this brief time in high school, when I looked like I belonged in a boy band and played sports, where I thought enough of myself to be loud, outgoing, and probably really obnoxious! But all in all, my whole life I've sort of always been inward expressive, the guy who doesn't usually end up being the life of a party or the guy next door who goes around introducing himself to all the neighbors in the area where he's just moved in.
For this very reason, I spent the first year of my time in Chicago behind the closed doors of my house, inside the parameters of my front lawn, and inside the box of 'me'. Little kids annoyed me and the screaming people in the houses next to ours were just more distractions from my much-needed sleep, rather than echoes of real lives or real people with real issues.
It's amazing that when you think you're living in a world created for you, it's quite easy to drowned out the noises of busy lives all around you. It's easy to treat people like distant faces at arms length, people you can politely smile at but whom you owe nothing more to...ever.
Recently, my wife Sarah was the first between the two of us to break out of this shell, to end her hibernation and begin this thing they call 'living'. Mind you that while she is quite drawn to being social and outgoing unlike myself (it's the youth pastor in her ;)), we both have a tough time taking that first step.
But for me, watching her attempt to walk in new territory like a baby deer daring to cross a park path in the first day of spring, it helps me to follow more assuredly, having more confidence in the ability to bring new lives into mine and share worlds that other worlds dare to tell us belong apart, separated by fences in backyards in neighborhoods where no one knows the other people's first names.
Sarah began this new daring feat by befriending some of the neighbor girls next door and several other kids a few houses down. She began this 'experiment' by introducing herself, learning the girls' names, and sharing small moments of exchanges and light-hearted fun. We were even gunned down with squirt guns on several different occasions while attempting to bring in our groceries from our car (these little girls can be ruthless...haha!)
Now fast forward to several months later (aka present day!). This past week Sarah and I set out a big round table in our front yard, set up a bunch of chairs, fired our mini grill up, roasted some hot dogs and burgers, and had community with these girls, some of their friends, one of the girls mothers, and had our own little impromptu neighborhood social event. I cannot tell you how liberating this was for me, how much it really made me realize the importance of this thing our Bible and our Jesus talk so much about, being created to need one another, to be in relationships with each other.
It's a really real thing. Not just a bunch of painted prose in fairy tales or cute Bible verses. This is the stuff of life. Knowing people by their first names. Knowing their likes and dislikes. Knowing where they work and what they do. Knowing what their lives are like and where they hurt. Knowing how to pray for them and actively participate in being there for them. This is good stuff.
My challenge for everyone today is- have impromptu neighborhood cookouts like once a week...right where you live! Who knows who you'll meet, what you'll learn about, and how you'll grow in those precious moments. Who knows what hurts people have that God wants to use you to be a part of fixing. (We learned two of these little girls just lost their dad a few months back, and very few other neighbors knew about this. Heck, the church next door to my house didn't even know!)
The moral of this story is- Doors, fences, and windows are meant to be broken, and they should be!
There was this brief time in high school, when I looked like I belonged in a boy band and played sports, where I thought enough of myself to be loud, outgoing, and probably really obnoxious! But all in all, my whole life I've sort of always been inward expressive, the guy who doesn't usually end up being the life of a party or the guy next door who goes around introducing himself to all the neighbors in the area where he's just moved in.
For this very reason, I spent the first year of my time in Chicago behind the closed doors of my house, inside the parameters of my front lawn, and inside the box of 'me'. Little kids annoyed me and the screaming people in the houses next to ours were just more distractions from my much-needed sleep, rather than echoes of real lives or real people with real issues.
It's amazing that when you think you're living in a world created for you, it's quite easy to drowned out the noises of busy lives all around you. It's easy to treat people like distant faces at arms length, people you can politely smile at but whom you owe nothing more to...ever.
Recently, my wife Sarah was the first between the two of us to break out of this shell, to end her hibernation and begin this thing they call 'living'. Mind you that while she is quite drawn to being social and outgoing unlike myself (it's the youth pastor in her ;)), we both have a tough time taking that first step.
But for me, watching her attempt to walk in new territory like a baby deer daring to cross a park path in the first day of spring, it helps me to follow more assuredly, having more confidence in the ability to bring new lives into mine and share worlds that other worlds dare to tell us belong apart, separated by fences in backyards in neighborhoods where no one knows the other people's first names.
Sarah began this new daring feat by befriending some of the neighbor girls next door and several other kids a few houses down. She began this 'experiment' by introducing herself, learning the girls' names, and sharing small moments of exchanges and light-hearted fun. We were even gunned down with squirt guns on several different occasions while attempting to bring in our groceries from our car (these little girls can be ruthless...haha!)
Now fast forward to several months later (aka present day!). This past week Sarah and I set out a big round table in our front yard, set up a bunch of chairs, fired our mini grill up, roasted some hot dogs and burgers, and had community with these girls, some of their friends, one of the girls mothers, and had our own little impromptu neighborhood social event. I cannot tell you how liberating this was for me, how much it really made me realize the importance of this thing our Bible and our Jesus talk so much about, being created to need one another, to be in relationships with each other.
It's a really real thing. Not just a bunch of painted prose in fairy tales or cute Bible verses. This is the stuff of life. Knowing people by their first names. Knowing their likes and dislikes. Knowing where they work and what they do. Knowing what their lives are like and where they hurt. Knowing how to pray for them and actively participate in being there for them. This is good stuff.
My challenge for everyone today is- have impromptu neighborhood cookouts like once a week...right where you live! Who knows who you'll meet, what you'll learn about, and how you'll grow in those precious moments. Who knows what hurts people have that God wants to use you to be a part of fixing. (We learned two of these little girls just lost their dad a few months back, and very few other neighbors knew about this. Heck, the church next door to my house didn't even know!)
The moral of this story is- Doors, fences, and windows are meant to be broken, and they should be!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Pride worth Loving
This past Sunday, a bunch of us went out to the Pride Parade in downtown Chicago to serve as an alternative voice of love between the Church and the LGBT community, as so often the only Christians at these events have large megaphones, harsh words, and condemnation burning on their tongues. We wanted to be different than that, to show that more than anything, the church is a people of love, of God-fearing Christ-like love.
I’ll be honest with you that this was an eye-opening, character-stretching moment in my life. I come from a very conservative Baptist background (nothing wrong with that at all!... inherently), but I was always made to believe that the gay community was some sort of brood of evil-doers, some disgusting and unclean group of fornicating sinners. Many people where I grew up in and around would even go as far to say that homosexuality was a “special sin”, a “greater sin than others”, and that God wanted nothing to do with these people, nor should the church have any interaction with their community. All the while I had always wondered where these claims came from, what they were based on, where these ideas were found in Scripture, and if anyone back home really even knew someone who is gay, much less understood anything about their culture, their perspectives, or anything that related to the people and faces we were giving mere labels and distant finger-pointing to (while covering our eyes and blinding ourselves from being people who engage rather than enrage).
My perspective of the LGBT community and the church’s role amidst this community started to change when I became friends with several amazing guys at two consecutive places I’ve worked over the past 2 years. These people became my friends, good friends, and the LGBT community was given a face (several faces :)) in my life. I started to ask questions, have dialogue, and engage a community I had never engaged before- a community I had all the answers for but knew nothing about. It was a group of wonderful people I had ignorantly hated, avoided, and condemned before ever talking to and learning from.
Let me stop right now before I continue and say to you all that this blog in no way is meant to be pro or anti gay. If you are awaiting my conclusion on my views of homosexuality, you might as well start reading someone else’s blog. This in itself is one of the major problems creating this gap between the church and the LGBT community. We’re always trying to talk about a stance rather than talking to and listening to people with honest opinions and genuine perspectives. This is what distracts us. People always want to talk about Satan/the devil being associated with lifestyle choices and all that, and yet one of his most successful/proven ways of spreading evil is by getting the good people in the church to wage war against the good people in the LGBT communities, the Muslim communities, the Catholic communities, the poor communities, etc. The more we get distracted, the more love is replaced by judgment, faith is replaced by religion, and whole communities are completed isolated and feel ousted by the church. Shane Claiborne once said that if the homosexual community cannot find a home in the church, then where can they find a home and what have we as the church become?
I went to this parade as an outsider, as a person apologizing on behalf of the church for the way we have hated and judged the gay community. It was to let a community know that we are more than megaphones and hate, that we are a people of unconditional, sacrificial love, and that the Jesus we serve would be hopping up on the floats in the parade, grabbing every man and woman He sees, embracing them, looking them in the eyes and saying- “I love you, and I always will”. I left this parade as a part of a new community, friends with people I would have never talked to in my younger days and immature stages of faith, and full of the love Jesus had everywhere He walked on this earth and everywhere He still shows up, begging the church to simply and genuinely- love!!!
Throughout the entire parade Sunday, people on floats and those walking in the parade would pass our area, see our t-shirts and signs that said “I’m sorry” and why we were sorry, and being completely amazed and happy to see Christians showing love rather than judgment, talking about unity rather than hellfire. One of the most amazing moments came when a particular float went by and this young man looked over at our spot in the crowd and saw us standing there with our t-shirts and signs of love and reconciliation. At first, he assumed we were the typical Christian megaphone protestors, there to show our disgust and words of judgment on their community. But as the float turned the corner, his eyes stayed glued to the signs and shirts. All at once, I saw the imaginary light bulb go off in his head as he realized what we were doing there and what we were saying and representing. He immediately jumped up, hopped off of his float and ran back to us, diving into our arms and, with tears held back, simply said over and over again “Thank you”. I will never forget that moment, being hugged by someone I was told to distance myself from, sharing God-like love with people while the stereotypes of religion and world attempted to keep us apart saying that we do not belong together. I remembered at that moment the words of Billy Graham- “It is God’s job to judge, the Holy Spirit’s job to convict, and our job to love”. I love my job. I get to love, to love like Jesus.
I will always be a different kind of Christian having been a part of this parade, having friends from a walk of life I am still processing, still digesting, still working out in my own faith journey. Above all, I will always remember that there are some things we can always debate, some issues people in the church and world alike will take opposing views on, but that in the end there is never a debate around love. Love is never called into question, and love can never be wrong.
As our good friend and author Andrew Marin says (and is the title of his amazing book), love is an orientation.
“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”. – 1 John 4:16
“We love God because He first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen”. – 1 John 4:19-20
You can see photos from the parade at http://www.loveisanorientation.com/ or http://www.maladjustedmedia.com/ (ours start at like around photo #160).
I’ll be honest with you that this was an eye-opening, character-stretching moment in my life. I come from a very conservative Baptist background (nothing wrong with that at all!... inherently), but I was always made to believe that the gay community was some sort of brood of evil-doers, some disgusting and unclean group of fornicating sinners. Many people where I grew up in and around would even go as far to say that homosexuality was a “special sin”, a “greater sin than others”, and that God wanted nothing to do with these people, nor should the church have any interaction with their community. All the while I had always wondered where these claims came from, what they were based on, where these ideas were found in Scripture, and if anyone back home really even knew someone who is gay, much less understood anything about their culture, their perspectives, or anything that related to the people and faces we were giving mere labels and distant finger-pointing to (while covering our eyes and blinding ourselves from being people who engage rather than enrage).
My perspective of the LGBT community and the church’s role amidst this community started to change when I became friends with several amazing guys at two consecutive places I’ve worked over the past 2 years. These people became my friends, good friends, and the LGBT community was given a face (several faces :)) in my life. I started to ask questions, have dialogue, and engage a community I had never engaged before- a community I had all the answers for but knew nothing about. It was a group of wonderful people I had ignorantly hated, avoided, and condemned before ever talking to and learning from.
Let me stop right now before I continue and say to you all that this blog in no way is meant to be pro or anti gay. If you are awaiting my conclusion on my views of homosexuality, you might as well start reading someone else’s blog. This in itself is one of the major problems creating this gap between the church and the LGBT community. We’re always trying to talk about a stance rather than talking to and listening to people with honest opinions and genuine perspectives. This is what distracts us. People always want to talk about Satan/the devil being associated with lifestyle choices and all that, and yet one of his most successful/proven ways of spreading evil is by getting the good people in the church to wage war against the good people in the LGBT communities, the Muslim communities, the Catholic communities, the poor communities, etc. The more we get distracted, the more love is replaced by judgment, faith is replaced by religion, and whole communities are completed isolated and feel ousted by the church. Shane Claiborne once said that if the homosexual community cannot find a home in the church, then where can they find a home and what have we as the church become?
I went to this parade as an outsider, as a person apologizing on behalf of the church for the way we have hated and judged the gay community. It was to let a community know that we are more than megaphones and hate, that we are a people of unconditional, sacrificial love, and that the Jesus we serve would be hopping up on the floats in the parade, grabbing every man and woman He sees, embracing them, looking them in the eyes and saying- “I love you, and I always will”. I left this parade as a part of a new community, friends with people I would have never talked to in my younger days and immature stages of faith, and full of the love Jesus had everywhere He walked on this earth and everywhere He still shows up, begging the church to simply and genuinely- love!!!
Throughout the entire parade Sunday, people on floats and those walking in the parade would pass our area, see our t-shirts and signs that said “I’m sorry” and why we were sorry, and being completely amazed and happy to see Christians showing love rather than judgment, talking about unity rather than hellfire. One of the most amazing moments came when a particular float went by and this young man looked over at our spot in the crowd and saw us standing there with our t-shirts and signs of love and reconciliation. At first, he assumed we were the typical Christian megaphone protestors, there to show our disgust and words of judgment on their community. But as the float turned the corner, his eyes stayed glued to the signs and shirts. All at once, I saw the imaginary light bulb go off in his head as he realized what we were doing there and what we were saying and representing. He immediately jumped up, hopped off of his float and ran back to us, diving into our arms and, with tears held back, simply said over and over again “Thank you”. I will never forget that moment, being hugged by someone I was told to distance myself from, sharing God-like love with people while the stereotypes of religion and world attempted to keep us apart saying that we do not belong together. I remembered at that moment the words of Billy Graham- “It is God’s job to judge, the Holy Spirit’s job to convict, and our job to love”. I love my job. I get to love, to love like Jesus.
I will always be a different kind of Christian having been a part of this parade, having friends from a walk of life I am still processing, still digesting, still working out in my own faith journey. Above all, I will always remember that there are some things we can always debate, some issues people in the church and world alike will take opposing views on, but that in the end there is never a debate around love. Love is never called into question, and love can never be wrong.
As our good friend and author Andrew Marin says (and is the title of his amazing book), love is an orientation.
“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”. – 1 John 4:16
“We love God because He first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen”. – 1 John 4:19-20
You can see photos from the parade at http://www.loveisanorientation.com/ or http://www.maladjustedmedia.com/ (ours start at like around photo #160).
Thursday, April 1, 2010
How It Feels
So I don’t know how many of you have been hearing about this radical group of Christian extremists called the Hutari, but they’ve been all over the news this past week for allegedly planning and masterminding a plan to “wage war” on the police and our local and federal governments.
They go around misquoting scripture and stretching out verse after verse to justify the radical and violent behavior they are trying to spew all in the name of Jesus.
Meanwhile, all of us who fall into the margins of a faith continually misrepresented in the media sit by helpless screaming to a brick wall “Wait!! We’re a people of love! We’re a people trying to stop violence and bring hope to the world. Jesus is a lover, not a fighter!” But nevertheless, the media pays attention to the extremists, and the extremists yet again have added more skepticism to the Christian faith.
In the midst of all this news coverage I’ve seen and the frustrations I’ve felt for the misrepresentation of Christianity, I stopped mid-whine and realized- This must be how the Muslims feel!
American media has done such a stellar job of stirring up feelings of animosity and fear towards the Islamic faith that we see them all as extremists who hide behind a religion of hate-mongering and mindless violence. But just like we Christians fear stereotypes, these accusations are farfetched and brainless.
I was reading a news article recently (which I kept in a drawer and now can’t find) that I wanted to share with you all (maybe another time). But, I did find a website of unknown facts about Islam that may surprise a lot of you. These are just a few that we taken from http://www.43things.com/ :
- The Islamic concept of God is that He is loving, merciful, and compassionate. But Islam also teaches that He is just and swift in punishment, much like a father is to his child. Nevertheless, Allah once said to Muhammad “My Mercy prevails over my wrath.” (Hadith Qudsi)
- Muslims do not believe in the concept of “vicarious atonement” but rather believe in the law of personal responsibility. Islam teaches that each person is responsible for his or her own actions. On the Day of Judgment Muslims believe that every person will have to answer to God for their every word, thought, and deed. Consequently, a practicing Muslim is always striving to be righteous.
- Terrorism, unjustified violence, and killing innocent people are not allowed in Islam. Islam is a religion of peace. The extreme actions of those who claim to be Muslim may be a result of their ignorance or uncontrolled anger.
- “Islam” literally means “peace through the submission to God”.
- “Allah” is an Arabic word that literally means “God”. Muslims also believe that “Allah” is the personal name of God.
- There are six articles of faith in Islam. These are the basic beliefs that one must have in order to be considered a true Muslim. They are belief in: A) the One and only God B) all the prophets of God C) the original books revealed to Moses, David, Jesus, and Muhammad D) the angels E) the Day of Judgment and the Hereafter F) pre-ordainment.
There are so many respectable and peaceful things about Islam that nobody ever hears about, talks about, or refers to in discussions of religion, and it’s a shame. Our Muslim brothers and sisters have so much amazing insight into Who God is, and the dialogue we could have with them as Christians could be ground-breaking, maybe even world changing.
So for those people out there who see Christians and Muslims as radical polarizing crazies, dig deeper. For every Muslim out there who has ever been judged wrongfully by a Christian, I now understand just a little of your daily battle. And to every Christian out there frustrated by the extremists who hinder our cause, welcome to the struggle.
They go around misquoting scripture and stretching out verse after verse to justify the radical and violent behavior they are trying to spew all in the name of Jesus.
Meanwhile, all of us who fall into the margins of a faith continually misrepresented in the media sit by helpless screaming to a brick wall “Wait!! We’re a people of love! We’re a people trying to stop violence and bring hope to the world. Jesus is a lover, not a fighter!” But nevertheless, the media pays attention to the extremists, and the extremists yet again have added more skepticism to the Christian faith.
In the midst of all this news coverage I’ve seen and the frustrations I’ve felt for the misrepresentation of Christianity, I stopped mid-whine and realized- This must be how the Muslims feel!
American media has done such a stellar job of stirring up feelings of animosity and fear towards the Islamic faith that we see them all as extremists who hide behind a religion of hate-mongering and mindless violence. But just like we Christians fear stereotypes, these accusations are farfetched and brainless.
I was reading a news article recently (which I kept in a drawer and now can’t find) that I wanted to share with you all (maybe another time). But, I did find a website of unknown facts about Islam that may surprise a lot of you. These are just a few that we taken from http://www.43things.com/ :
- The Islamic concept of God is that He is loving, merciful, and compassionate. But Islam also teaches that He is just and swift in punishment, much like a father is to his child. Nevertheless, Allah once said to Muhammad “My Mercy prevails over my wrath.” (Hadith Qudsi)
- Muslims do not believe in the concept of “vicarious atonement” but rather believe in the law of personal responsibility. Islam teaches that each person is responsible for his or her own actions. On the Day of Judgment Muslims believe that every person will have to answer to God for their every word, thought, and deed. Consequently, a practicing Muslim is always striving to be righteous.
- Terrorism, unjustified violence, and killing innocent people are not allowed in Islam. Islam is a religion of peace. The extreme actions of those who claim to be Muslim may be a result of their ignorance or uncontrolled anger.
- “Islam” literally means “peace through the submission to God”.
- “Allah” is an Arabic word that literally means “God”. Muslims also believe that “Allah” is the personal name of God.
- There are six articles of faith in Islam. These are the basic beliefs that one must have in order to be considered a true Muslim. They are belief in: A) the One and only God B) all the prophets of God C) the original books revealed to Moses, David, Jesus, and Muhammad D) the angels E) the Day of Judgment and the Hereafter F) pre-ordainment.
There are so many respectable and peaceful things about Islam that nobody ever hears about, talks about, or refers to in discussions of religion, and it’s a shame. Our Muslim brothers and sisters have so much amazing insight into Who God is, and the dialogue we could have with them as Christians could be ground-breaking, maybe even world changing.
So for those people out there who see Christians and Muslims as radical polarizing crazies, dig deeper. For every Muslim out there who has ever been judged wrongfully by a Christian, I now understand just a little of your daily battle. And to every Christian out there frustrated by the extremists who hinder our cause, welcome to the struggle.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
The Ghosts of a Christmas Yet to Come
I was walking home from the train station one night recently after work, in one of those "sick of my day job/need to start doing what I love" sort of moods, and I started thinking about what it would be like to see into my own future.
Somehow it would be a relief to know for sure where I would end up, what I would end up doing with my life in the context of entirety, and if I would be happy at the end of it all looking back. I sort of felt like Scrooge from A Christmas Carol, grumbling and mumbling and hoping some ghost might appear to me at midnight and answer all of my deepest pondered questions.
Then I started wondering what good all that knowing would actually do for me. If I know where every step I take would lead me before the step is even taken, would I walk the same direction? Would ultimately knowing my own future cause me to sabatoge it? Would I be too cynical? After a while, knowing the future stopped sounding like a relief and started sounding like a buzz kill.
The thing about it is- faith exists because of the unknown. Hope is the optimism God instills inside of us to make us stronger, even through the tough times and especially when we can't possibly see a way out of the quicksand in our lives.
I can't tell you how sitting in a cubicle at a job I hate, dreaming about being on a stage or in a studio doing music full-time, is going to bridge together. I can tell you it sustains my wonder, sustains my drive, and continually challenges me to take risks and find opportunities to bridge the present gap. I can't tell you how sitting at my computer right now, writing to the 11 people who currently follow this blog, is going to open doors for me to write a #1 best selling book on faith that will be read by millions of people around the world. But I will tell you that I'll keep writing these blogs until my fingers fall off, trusting God that there is hope it can happen.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight."
If God had said "Just ask me whatever you want to know and I'll just go ahead and show everything to you ahead of time", would we really be better for it? It is the very essence of believing in what we cannot see that gives our lives purpose, that gives us hope.
One of the verses I cling to every time I morph into Ebenezer Scrooge is found in Luke 12:27-31- "Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well."
Today, may each of be grateful for the conditions of our now so that when our then comes, we will be more than ready. Amen!
Somehow it would be a relief to know for sure where I would end up, what I would end up doing with my life in the context of entirety, and if I would be happy at the end of it all looking back. I sort of felt like Scrooge from A Christmas Carol, grumbling and mumbling and hoping some ghost might appear to me at midnight and answer all of my deepest pondered questions.
Then I started wondering what good all that knowing would actually do for me. If I know where every step I take would lead me before the step is even taken, would I walk the same direction? Would ultimately knowing my own future cause me to sabatoge it? Would I be too cynical? After a while, knowing the future stopped sounding like a relief and started sounding like a buzz kill.
The thing about it is- faith exists because of the unknown. Hope is the optimism God instills inside of us to make us stronger, even through the tough times and especially when we can't possibly see a way out of the quicksand in our lives.
I can't tell you how sitting in a cubicle at a job I hate, dreaming about being on a stage or in a studio doing music full-time, is going to bridge together. I can tell you it sustains my wonder, sustains my drive, and continually challenges me to take risks and find opportunities to bridge the present gap. I can't tell you how sitting at my computer right now, writing to the 11 people who currently follow this blog, is going to open doors for me to write a #1 best selling book on faith that will be read by millions of people around the world. But I will tell you that I'll keep writing these blogs until my fingers fall off, trusting God that there is hope it can happen.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight."
If God had said "Just ask me whatever you want to know and I'll just go ahead and show everything to you ahead of time", would we really be better for it? It is the very essence of believing in what we cannot see that gives our lives purpose, that gives us hope.
One of the verses I cling to every time I morph into Ebenezer Scrooge is found in Luke 12:27-31- "Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well."
Today, may each of be grateful for the conditions of our now so that when our then comes, we will be more than ready. Amen!
Friday, February 5, 2010
When Judas Joined the "Dark Side"
I am a big fan of the Star Wars films. I have been since I was a little boy. I probably wouldn’t classify as a true fanatic, seeing as I don’t know every name of every creature and planet both in and out of the film’s mythical history. I’ve also never been to a convention, so maybe I’m just a wannabe fanatic. A poser, if you will. But there is something about the overall story of Star Wars that to this day I find compelling, captivating, and maybe even somewhat relevant to the Christian faith.
What most people don’t realize is that the Star Wars saga is somewhat of a modern day Shakespearian tragedy, at least from my point of view. I guess it is because I have always been drawn to the character of Anakin Skywalker, who (for those of you who don’t know) eventually becomes the infamous Darth Vader. This story of a boy who is gifted beyond reason, trusted with everything, and eventually betrays all expectations and joins the “Dark Side” is strangely and hauntingly parallel to both a part of the historical Gospels and the modern church as it can be seen in our modern day.
Recently, I was listening to a pastor speak on the life of Judas and his betrayal of Jesus Christ that ultimately led to His crucifixion. The pastor eloquently spoke about the nature of Judas’ betrayal, the clever façade he wore during the time he traveled and ministered with Jesus, and the revealing of his true nature that was fully understood in the handing over of Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.
Every time I hear sermons or insights on the person of Judas Iscariot, it seems like he is painted as a liar, a traitor, and an inherently evil human being who faked his way alongside the life of Jesus in order to cleverly plot and implement a betrayal that would lead Jesus to His death. Now the Bible at places does defend this notion, but its ambiguity leaves the Judas bashers with far too much liberty to claim that his entire time of discipleship was a farce. My perspective is bias as well, mind you, but I would like to present an alternative theory about our friend Judas. Take from it what you will.
Call me a skeptic, but the idea that Judas could pull off a scam this big around men who knew everything about each other by the time of Judas’ betrayal of Christ (some of which were tax collectors and could spot a double-agent from miles away) strikes me as a little farfetched, a little naïve, a somewhat generous giving of credit to Judas, and a near-sighted understanding of Jesus and his choosing of His apostles.
We have to really dig deeper into what it meant to be an “apostle”, as well as what Judas’ role in the apolistic journey truly was.
Along with all the respect and responsibilities of being an apostle of Jesus, Judas is historically known as the treasurer of the group. This tell us that Judas was chosen for his role, at least in part, because of his abilities and skills in some form of financing, budgeting, and care-taking of the provisions Jesus and His followers lived and survived on throughout their 3-plus year journey. Therefore, he must have been responsible, very intelligent, and very trustworthy.
As we understand and analyze this historical background and this specific role assigned to Judas, it makes a lot more sense why Satan would find and attack Judas in an area of his life he was highly committed to, extremely passionate for, and maybe even a little prideful about.
Isn’t that how Satan works so often? When we find strength and passion for something, when we commit our lives to being good at something, Satan is always there to highlight our shortcomings, offer distractions, and pull us away from what we originally set out to accomplish for God.
I see Judas as a good person with good intentions, but who fell flat on his face by letting Satan’s short-term distractions pull him away from Jesus’ long-term plans for his life.
Judas, before his betrayal, must have been a true follower of Christ also because of his endurance and commitment to the cause of Christ. John 6:60-71 is a passage of the Gospel in which Jesus clarifies the cost of following Him and speaks of the difficulty of His teachings and His mission. It says in verse 66 of the chapter that many of His followers turned away and stopped following Him, but that a handful remained. This would have included Judas Iscariot.
Other passages in Scripture go on to depict how trying, tough, and almost unbearable following Jesus truly was for both the physical and spiritual aspects of the journey. People began leaving Jesus, going back home, and tiring from the ongoing adventure. However, still all twelve of His apostles, including Judas, kept the faith and pressed on with their Rabbi.
Judas, therefore, must have been committed enough to the cause to carry on. So he was obviously strong, obviously faithful, and obviously committed to Jesus as a friend (or revolutionary leader as he might have seen Jesus).
So what went wrong? When and how did Judas lose his faith? When did he, like Anakin Skywalker, join the “dark side” of the force? Well, the story goes much deeper.
Historical studies and research on Judas Iscariot point us to an understanding that Judas believed Jesus to be the leader of what he considered an earthly revolution. Some historians claim that Judas believed and followed Jesus, at least in part, because he believed Jesus had come to save His people from this world. Jesus, to Judas, was a man who spoke against government, and who would eventually lead His followers in an earthly uprising and overthrow the Roman government.
While Jesus many times did challenge the establishment of that society, His revolution was a spiritual one. Jesus has come to save this world from the next life, a life destined for destruction, hell, and eternal separation from God.
Judas never fully grasped this, and as time went on, he began to lose faith in the plans that Jesus had for this broken world.
So now, let’s step back and take a look at Judas’ struggle. He wasn’t inherently evil, and least I don’t think so. He hadn’t followed Jesus as a spy for the devil. Instead, Judas let his plans for Jesus and his over commitment to a love of money cause him to lose sight of the bigger picture, ultimately taking matters into his own hands. As his faith in Jesus dwindled, as he became more and more selfish and short-sighted, he fell to the quick and easy path- take the money and run!
Judas was playing a spiritual game of “Deal or No Deal”, and he was taking the wrong deal at the wrong time. It would lead to the betrayal and execution of the person he cared for and loved most in this world- his Rabbi, his teacher, his Savior…his friend Jesus Christ. Why else would Judas have hung himself? He was so distraught, so messed up, and so lost and hurt by stabbing his friend in the back. Not only that, he was directly associated to the execution of the Savior of this world. He, like many of us, couldn’t handle that guilt, and took his life as self-punishment rather than seeking the unending and unmatched forgiveness of God.
Think about Anakin Skywalker for a second. How parallel is this Star Wars character to the person of Judas? He was considered to be one of the greatest Jedi Knights ever to exist. While hundreds had fallen during the Clone Wars, Anakin and a handful of others remained. Anakin was strong, determined, and faithful to his teachers. However, Anakin wanted power, and with that power he wanted a revolution. He was willing to sacrifice a few for the sake of many down a quick and easy path, and we all know how it ended. Anakin fell to his obsession for power and prestige, and became Darth Vader and was ultimately defeated.
George Lucas actually got something right (I say this because the man is awful with plot development and writing quality scripts…Indiana Jones 4…need I say more?). In the exact same way, Judas was selected to be one of the few to spread the Gospel. While hundreds of other followers fell by the wayside, Judas and the other apostles remained strong. When Judas realized that Jesus would not fulfill his selfish plans, he decided to sacrifice Him for the sake of the cause. He let his passion for money become an obsession, and his obsession caused him to be overcome with shame and guilt. In the end, he took his own life with the noose. Talk about cruel irony!
How often do we, the church, do exactly what Judas did? How often do we get so wrapped up in “doing” church rather than “being” the church that we lose sight of what we originally set out to do in the first place? How many times have we gotten impatient with God when His plans weren’t our plans? How frequently have we taken the easy route that left us worse off than we were at the start? How often have we betrayed the One Who loves and cares for us most?
There are hundreds of Judases in the modern church, and we’ve all been one at some point. The two questions we must ask ourselves are:
Are we letting our God-given talents, skills, and abilities distract us from God using those gifts to bless others and bring honor and glory to His name?
When we fall short and betray God’s intentions, do we seek His loving forgiveness or do we hate ourselves and feel useless and irrelevant to God’s bigger story that He’s writing for us?
May each of us, rather than clinging to the noose, cling to the loving arms of Jesus Who always forgives us and who never leaves us, even when we fail…even when we are like Judas. That is when it stops being about us, and allows His purpose to take the wheel.
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