Is it really the thought that counts?

In high school I was pathetic when it came to buying gifts for my family at Christmas time.  I worked at an outdoor equipment store and so Christmas meant a lot of hours and that meant more money to spend over the holidays.  However, it also meant that I didn’t have very much time to go shopping for the family gifts.  So one year (and I’m not proud of this) on Christmas Eve, on my way home from work I stopped at a gas station and purchased all of my presents.  Mom got an oven mitt (only one) because I remembered she had burned her hands cooking a meal earlier, my sister got one of those cheap, fake roses next to the cash register (cuz our last name is “Roes”), and I don’t even remember what I got my dad – probably a fishing lure as I almost always give him something to do with fishing.  I actually did think about a reason for why everyone got what they got and as everyone says, “It’s the thought that counts!”  But did it?

One of my favorite scenes of the movie “The Passion of the Christ” is when Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane and he’s praying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” [Luke 22:42 ESV]  Then in the movie, they show Jesus stomping the heel of his foot on the head of a snake that is representing Satan.  I believe that this scene is metaphorically so “right on” here – that it really was at the point that Jesus said that he was determine to do his Father’s bidding, rather than his own, that it counted & Satan was defeated.  It was the thought that really counted there.  But did the victory over evil have any substance?  Any real power at that point? If it did, then why did Jesus have to continue through the arrest, the humiliation, the torture, the death and the resurrection?

“So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” [James 2:17 ESV]  See Jesus had the faith in God (and not just because he IS God  but as he is also fully man) that Jesus desired to be in God’s will no matter what.  Even if it meant living through some serious unpleasantries.

Most of the world’s faith is in themselves – as all religions, even humanism & atheism, are about seeing what a person can do to please their god and gain their god’s favor (for humanism & atheism, they are their own “god” or  better said their knowledge is their “god”), with the exception of following Christ.  If faith is in oneself, then their will is going to be followed and it’s going to be mainly about what pleases their self.  If they have “works”, they’ll be looking for the return for themselves.  While they might be a part of charity, it’s for whatever pleasure they can receive out of it or for status within the community because of it.

If you are a follower of Christ then you have declared that your faith is in God and your desire is to live His will, not your own.  Our faith in Him is not to gain is His favor but because He is the God of the universe, creator of ALL and yet He desires to know each one of us in an intimately, loving way.  Therefore our response to Him is to put our faith in Him and He gives us a new life (spiritually speaking) in Christ from which to live in His will. Since He is a loving God, there are many pleasures His will will bring to you.  But because He is a holy God and this is a sinful world, His will will also take you through many unpleasantries.  It’s in both the pleasures and the unpleasantries that our faith is lived out in “works”. Many people’s faith is only lived out in the “pleasures” within God’s will – especially in Western cultures.  I believe that this type of faith is the “it’s the thought that counts” type faith.  But is it really faith in God if we say, “I’m only going to have faith in you to a point”?  Is it really faith in God if we say “I’ll go to church and be friends with Christians and have family values but I won’t do  [blank].”

When is it for you that God’s will is too much?  When God’s will asks you to give a person who’s going through a tough time a hug and some of your time?  When God’s will asks you to regularly give of yourself to make lunches for kids through the summer or serve the homeless treating them to a banquet fit for a king?  When God’s will asks you to take the lesser paying job so that you have more time to give to your family and those needing a friend?  When God’s will asks you to invite your kid’s soccer team and their parents to your house for a bar-b-que? When God’s will asks you to do more than pray?

This is where I sit.  Is God’s will asking too much?  God’s will asked Jesus to go through death and Jesus’ faith was lived out in that work.  I’m a follower of Christ.  May my faith be lived out in God’s will in whatever “work” that manifests itself in.

Life as a Lego block

Legos.  As a kid I got a new Lego set almost every Christmas (usually one of the little $5 sets) and would spend hours putting it together one way and then taking it apart and putting it together to make something else.  It’s amazing how many different things you can make with the same pieces – a spaceship, an off-road vehicle, your lower intestine, etc.  The key to Legos ability to be so many different things is simple – they have these in little connectors that allow one block to connect to other blocks.  Some blocks have 12 connectors and some have only one but very few (only parts that are made for a very specific purpose) have none.  These connectors are the key to the success of Legos.

Recently a friend introduced me to the “Lego Theory”.  This is that we are all like Lego blocks with our connectors.  Some of us are people who can connect to many people (so they are a block that has 20 – 30 connectors) and there are those that can connect to only a few (say they have only 4 or 6 connectors) but each of us has connectors.  The amount of connectors we have isn’t the important point but what we do with those connectors is.  As we build relationships, we fasten to one another using up our connectors.  Some relationships are stronger and require more of our connections points while others may only intersect at one point.  Since each of us has a limited amount of connection points, we have to be strategic about those connections that we make.  Some will be assumed connections such as with our family and co-workers but some are choices.  Who do you choose to connect with?

I think we as Christians sometimes make bad choices in whom we choose to connect with.  Instinctively, some of you read that and went straight to the opposite of what I’m trying to say.  Many of you immediately thought that I was saying that if you made connections with non-Christians it was bad but THAT IS NOT WHAT I’M SAYING.  I actually believe we more often have too many Christian connections and too few non-Christian connections.  As Christians many of us go to our church buildings every time the door is open, we hang out with our church friends, we go to businesses that are Christian owned, we listen to “Christian” music and go to Christian concerts, and we even have our own Christian fast-food (I like Chick-fil-a, just sayin’).  These are all fine things and we as Christians do need to have fellowship with other Christians but not if it takes up all of our connections.  We need to have connections with non-Christians otherwise no one will ever see the Gospel truly lived out (note: not spoken but lived!!).  So I ask again:  Who do you choose to connect with?

Learning without a Queen

While I was at The Anchorage Project, we talked a lot about living incarnationally and missionally as a form of church planting.  You see, in the end, The Anchorage Project is about planting churches whose people are about living transformed lives rather than just having their ideas changed about God.  As we talked, Joe (the director) told me a story that someone else had told him last year:

When young children are showing the aptitude to become chess masters, they sit them down and show them all the chess pieces, where they sit on the board and how they move.  All the pieces except the Queen (if you don’t know chess, the queen is a very powerful piece that can move in all sorts of ways).  As they play people and learn the strategies of chess, no one gets to play with a queen.  They learn all about chess and develop strategies using the full abilities of all the different pieces without being dependent on the queen.  Once they have come to a point of mastering these strategies, they are thrown for a loop when their next opponent comes in and has a queen and they still don’t.  They must continue to play without a queen while their opponent gets to use this very powerful piece.  They must continue to play until they develop an understanding of how to use all the other pieces strategically to still win the game – even against their opponent’s queen.  It’s only until they continue to play other players who have a queen and win repeatedly that they are awarded a queen to then play with.

In the church planting context – you might consider the Queen to be Sunday Morning.  In the past, many churches have started with a Sunday morning only to be try and make Sunday morning do everything – build community, discipleship, worship, etc.  Sunday is weighed down and if there’s something wrong with Sundays, then the church doesn’t make it.  But what if in our church planting strategies, we start out not dependent on Sunday mornings.  While Sunday mornings can create numbers quickly, many sitting there are only keeping the pews warm.  What if we instead concentrate on the different aspects of church and only introduce Sunday mornings once these other things are in place?  What kind of life transformation would happen then? Anybody out there seen this lived out and would like to comment?

My Perception, God’s Reality

I started this post as a draft back in October 2006.  This is something that replays for me over and over again.  It’s the reality that I’m in a silo many times and am unable to see the world as it really is – that is from the perspective that God has.  I make many decisions based on the perceptions that I have.  For example,  I wear certain clothes because I think they look good on me (well, at least decent enough to wear in public) but then I’m given a reality check when my wife says “You’re really going to wear that?!?  Outside?!?”  That’s usually when I know my perception about clothing is wrong.

Here’s some of my perspectives with the contrasting of  God’s reality:

• I sometimes feel alone and isolated BUT the reality is that God is always with me and He has given me a great family, friends and co-workers.  I’m not always physically by them (well, except God) but they are there with me – praying for me, thinking about me.  If you’re reading this, then you’re “being with me” right now.
• I’m the only one who can do the work I do BUT the reality is that God could raise up anyone to do what it is He has me doing – but He wants me to do it.  For some reason that is beyond me, He has called me to do what it is I do.  I am blessed, not burdened.
• I’m tired and overwhelmed by what God has called me to do and don’t see how God expects me to do it all BUT the reality is that He hasn’t called me to do it in my own strength but by His strength.  This is the reason I have a sign in my office that says “It’s the Holy Spirit working – not YOU!!” which I try to read to remind myself every day.
• Sometimes I feel wronged by someone wondering how God could allow that person to do that to me BUT the reality is that that person is also loved by God (whether they’re a Christian or not) and that God may be looking to me to show some of the grace that He has shown me plenty of towards that person trusting Him that any wrong doings will be taken care of as God is the God of justice but that He will do it in His way and in His timing.
• I look to the future and can’t see a way for things to work out well BUT the reality is God sees (and is IN) the future and is taking care of it for me.  I’m just suppose to obediently trust and follow Him into that future.  Trust is the key factor there.

So sitting here today – here’s my perspective:  This is the longest I’ve ever gone without seeing my parents & sister and know that it will be a while before I will see them again face to face.  With the economy & spiritual situation here in Europe (and beyond), requests for help have multiplied considerably causing me to feel overwhelmed by the lists of “todos” that surround me and moving so fast is sometimes causing friction with the other people I work with.  I’m looking at our bank account and will have to make some serious decisions about the future.  Decisions that I don’t want to deal with.  This is my perspective BUT the reality is I’m in God’s hands and as I listen to Joan Osbourne’s “One of Us”, I’m reminded that “God is great, God is good.”

[Note:  If you are wondering how do you find out what is God's perspective? - talk to God, read the Bible and be a part of a community of believers.  Over time, you'll begin to see it too]

I like God, not necessarily the church

[This started off as a status line on my Facebook page and started a discussion there that I would like to bring here and continue here (where we have a little bit more room and can invite more people to join)]

My original status line:

Been hanging out talking about how to reach those that want to know God but can’t stand the church.

Comments afterwards (names have been changed since this is a public place vs Facebook – not as public anyways):

MA: Who are you meeting with and what is your response to them? I am running into that with many folks myself.

My reply: Its the initial talks with several missionaries that live in the area and some house church advocates. To bottom line it, the reality is that you don’t do church, we are the church. Church is a life style not something you do on Sunday morning and that doesn’t mean having to talk about God every moment of the day but it means that you live life, pouring your life into others and having them pour their lives into yours. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit will seep into your conversations as life continues. Remove the institution that is church to reveal those who have Christ as the church and people will understand it. Its a hard concept for many in the West to understand as we have church as an institution made up of programs and schedules which makes our walk with God compartmentalized and therefore to an outsider – our lives are compartmentalized and that makes our relationship with God only a part of our lives (and therefore hypocrites).

Ooops. I think I stepped on a soap box. Read more >>

Heat vs. Cold/Good vs. Evil

We recently went through a time where we didn’t get above freezing for over a week and our apartment uses radiators so at night it can get a bit cold.  But that’s the way Krista and I like it.  We love to snuggle under warm covers.  However the other night, the covers weren’t good enough so Krista put an extra blanket over me (I married a good one!).  In the morning, Krista made the comment that that extra blanket really puts out the heat.  That’s when the physics brain in me kicked off and I immediate explained to her that the blanket doesn’t actually generate heat but it retains heat and that this blanket did that particularly well.  At that moment, a cold wind blew in from her direction.

But this got me thinking about how the term “cold” is a relative term.  How 32 degrees F (0 C) is “cold” compared to our body temperature of 98.6  F (37 C) but 32 degrees F (0 C) is much “warmer” than the -90 F (-67.8 C) that was the recorded low in Siberia.  “Heat” however is an absolute term.  There’s just heat and then there’s less heat or there’s more heat.  Then there’s the term of “absolute zero” which is the removal of all heat and now that’s COLD as nothing can be relatively colder!

Now from there that got me to thinking about the terms “Good” and “Evil”.  I think sometimes that people think that “good” is a relative term.  Read more >>

The Prayer of Agur

Everything’s amazing and nobody’s happy – Louis CK, comedian, on The Conan O’Brian Show

Isn’t that the truth these days?  If you can find the video of Louis CK on Conan’s show (google:  Louis CK Conan), it’s absolutely hystrical in light of how our world economy has turned.  Louis CK talks about how he was on an airplane and they had high speed Internet access while flying.  Then the access broke and they guy next to him used some expletives.  The idea is that as soon as something new comes about, we feel like its owed to us – once we have it you can’t take it away!!

Being in the IT industry sometimes people think that I’m like a magician.  Read more >>