Passion or Plodding Through?

I am not exactly your greatest source for the latest news. I  keep up with the major stories and keep up with what is going on in the world, but I don’t watch CNN for hours a day and I don’t listen to talk radio everywhere I drive.  But I have really been fascinated by what has been happening in Iran.

The whole situation has seemed to take people by surprise. I mean wasn’t everyone in Iran a crazy, radical, nut-job wanting to bomb the rest of the world into extinction?  Wasn’t every Iranian a revolutionary, dedicated to the principles of a West-hating, Islamic state?… Apparently not.

By nature, I really don’t like assumptions. I don’t like people assuming things about me that are not true. I don’t like assuming the worst about others… until they prove me wrong. I don’t like assuming the worst about the world, which many Christians seem to make their living doing. Assumptions are for those of a weak mind who merely want to take the lazy way out rather than doing the work, the reading, the conversations to discover what reality is. The world, by way of our media, assumed that all Iranians were the same. “The Iranians” is like saying, “The Americans”. We would take offense if someone said, “All Americans are greedy capitalists who…”.

We assume things about our Christianity as well. We take things for granted. We sometimes don’t do the hard work to find the truth or discover what God is up to. Rather than pursuing the reality of our Christian walk with passion, we merely plod through our life, assuming (usually the worst) things about God and ourselves. This is something that I have been working through a lot over these last few months.

When you feel the call from God to pastor, to preach, to serve as a teacher, children’s leader, usher, greeter, cook, nursery worker, treasurer, outreach leader, or whatever else God calls you to do… does it really become your passion or…do we just plod through, doing the work assigned to us until we get bored or hurt or tired or frustrated.  As a pastor for 16 plus years, I always assumed that pastoring is what I would be doing for the rest of my life. Why should I think otherwise?  I wasn’t cheating on my wife, didn’t have a Swiss bank account filled with church money, what could possibly go wrong?  Well, something did go wrong.

Our move to Gainesville, Florida  was a great one. We loved the church. The ministry was progressing. We had a great staff. The people of the church were awesome. I was getting to be involved in community work, which I love. And then, and then we found ourselves in a difficult financial spot, caught in the trappings of a recession… and there was no more pastoring. Confession time– I was mad. I was angry, frustrated, sick to my stomach and completely not understanding what God was doing.  But through all the haze and the fog came a very clarifying question.  Is serving God your passion or are you just plodding through?

Ministry has little to do with position and everything to do with love. Jesus said the greatest commandment of all is to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength– no disclaimers, no clarification, no maybes, no ifs, no nothing. The command is not different for pastors or missionaries. It isn’t different for parents than it is for children. It doesn’t discriminate nor does it show preference. Love God with all you’ve got- whoever you are, where ever you are. I like (well most times) this passage from Job 2:

7 So Satan left the LORD’s presence, and he struck Job with a terrible case of boils from head to foot. 8 Then Job scraped his skin with a piece of broken pottery as he sat among the ashes. 9 His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.” 10 But Job replied, “You talk like a godless woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.

Listen to Job’s word- accept. If we are just plodding along, we don’t want to be disturbed by difficulty, by hard things, by discomfort.  Plodders give up easy when things go wrong, they whine a lot, they complain about others, the world, themselves, the circumstances. Charles Stanley calls this kind of casual Christianity a “line of least resistance” faith (see Job’s wife). You can’t love God with all your heart… as long as things are going well… as long as it doesn’t require too much of me… as long as I don’t have to give up what I love– those are qualifiers, asterisks on the command. Jesus said to have passion, love God with all you’ve got, no matter what. Even if you are sitting in the ashes, scraping your sores with bits of broken pottery.  Now I have never doubted that I loved God, and have never doubted that God loves me. I have however wondered why certain things happen and have happened.

I was not your most compliant child. I was the youngest of four boys, and it showed. I was a loose canon. A live wire who wanted to live loose and free. My parents, however, saw things differently. Now I never doubted that my mom and dad loved me, but I did wonder why they were so upset at some of the things I did. I questioned their judgment. I questioned their ability to understand me. I was not happy with how things turned out. But, I never stopped loving them and they never stopped loving me.

Right now… yes, I have questioned God’s judgment at times. I have complained about what is happening. But I will never allow any circumstance to extinguish my love for God and I know, I know that my God has never stopped loving me. I may not be where I was a while ago, but what kind of job you have or what kind of title you wear, is merely a place, a setting if you will, for your love for God to shine through. First things first- Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.. the rest is details. If we get the details first- the what we do, how we do it, where we do it, the title we wear, the position we hold, the traditions we adhere to– then we become plodders. People get attached to a position or a place or a thought of who we should be or where we should be, and we plod, trying to hold onto those details.

I think back on so many conversations that I have had with Christian leaders over the years, and I realize that many are plodders. We mean well, we want to “do good” and “do right” and “grow the church”, but somewhere along the way we became plodders rather than passionate. Denominations are talking about Great Commission Resugences, strategies to reach the world, programs to make the church vibrant and growing again. All of these wonderful things will be plodding, if we do not, at our base, in the depths of our heart burn with a love for God.

Christianity, at its’ core, is a simple faith. Love God, receive His love through Jesus’ life and sacrifice on the cross. Remember the verse, we love Him because He first loved us. So simple. I guess when you are going through trying times you either highly complicate things by trying to figure out all the why’s and what if’s… or you simplify, stick to what you know and what you can count on. In other words, you try to make assumptions about your situation, make up scenerios about why God is punishing you or what He is setting up for your future or… you set your feet on the unshakeable love of God. You may not be able to explain what is happening in your life today, but do you know that, when you scrape away the layers of problems, trials, pains, hurts, confusion… that your heart really and deeply loves God?….then really, your OK. I am.

More Character, Less Reputation (Part 2)

As I was writing my last post on Character or Reputation, a thought came to mind that I tucked away for a part two. There is a lot of discussion about this topic today, with “character” education in our schools, sensitivity training in our workplaces and the homogenization of faith systems and their codes of conduct in society, we wonder what counts as character, Godly- Christlike character, and what is really just fluff.

Having a reputation is something talked about in many ways today. Reputation could be the “gossip” about a celebrity. Reputation could be the act you put on for other people so they will think well of you. Reputation could be your online persona, filled with lies and grand ideas of who you would like to be, but are not. Brad Paisley wrote an awesome song called “Online” that captures the idea of  loving someone you would like to be, a reputation you would like to have, but aren’t…

I work down at The Pizza Pit
And I drive an old Hyundai
I still live with my mom and dad
I’m five foot three and overweight
I’m a sci: fi fanatic, mild asthmatic
Never been to second base
But there’s a whole ‘nother me
That you need to see
Go check out Myspace.

‘Cause online I’m out in Hollywood
I’m six foot five and I look damn good
I drive a Maserati, I’m a black belt in karate
And I love a good glass of wine
It turns girls on that I’m mysterious
I tell ’em I don’t want nothing serious
‘Cause even on a slow day I can have a three-way chat
With two women at one time.

I’m so much cooler online
I’m so much cooler online.

It is one thing to have a healthy desire to be better than you are and to want to be smarter, thinner, taller, wealthier… but there is a line we cross when what we want to become overtakes who we really are.

Here is something to think about…

Reputation is what we love about ourselves

Character is what God loves about us

To some that may seem a little overdone. God loves us faults and all, that is true. But God does not always like what we do nor does He put His stamp of approval on just any act or thought we have. Reputation is loving us for what we believe will gain us advantage or favor with others- i.e. If I was thinner, more people would look my way, if I was only funny more people would like me- and then we try hard to be that person. Not necessarily because it is who we truly are or who God wants us to be, but because we would love ourselves more if we were like that…

Another thought…

The first commandment was to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. The second was to love our neighbor as ourselves… not impress our neighbor, catch our neighbors eye, not fool our neighbor about who we are… love them as we love ourselves. Unfortunately, many of us loathe ourselves, not because we lack Godly character, but because we feel that our reputation does not match up to what the world expects or at least the little group of people that we want to like us. I can’t love my neighbor if I loathe myself and I can’t really love God the way I should either.

What this boils down to is a question- “who are you really trying to make happy?” Be honest. The answer can be telling. For most of us, we have to admit, much of what we do, and say, has to do with how other people will receive us. For me, I am an extrovert, talkative, love a good laugh… and have been in public speaking for nearly 20 years. So yes, I am very aware of how people respond to me. And yes, I have been guilty of letting people’s response to me to drive what I say or how I say it. And each time it happens, I don’t like it. I want to be more aware of what God is wanting from me each day. It’s not the “What would Jesus do” thinking. It is simply realizing that I want to make God happy, and that comes when the fruit of the Spirit, the true character of Jesus flows through my life.

This isn’t deep theology or pop psychology, it is a love relationship, the kind where I want my wife to be happy with me because I love her and show her that I love her everyday, not because I can impress her by flexing my muscles. The kind of love relationship where I love my kids by doing what is best for them, and consistently disciplining them to help them grow up, not buying them everything they want and letting them do whatever they want so they will like me. This kind of character is deep, rooted in our relationship with God, not shallow and hallow reputation that can go away in the blink of an eye.

More character, less reputation. More love, less lust. More compassion, less judgment. More help, less well wishes. More giving, less talking. More encouragement, less criticism. More sharing, less taking. More God, less us.

Character or Reputation?

I was combing through some old files the other day and ran across this, I don’t remember where I got it or who wrote it, but it struck me as something that in this day and age we need to be reminded of…

Do You Have Character or a Reputation?

Reputation is seeming; character is being.

Reputation is manufactured; character is grown.

Reputation is your photograph; Character is your face.

Reputation is what men say you are;

character is what God knows you are.

Reputation is what you need to get a job;

character is what you need to keep it.

Reputation is what comes over you from without;

character is what rises up within.

Reputation is what you have when you come to town;

character is what you have when you go away.

Reputation is what is chiseled on your tombstone;

character is what the angels say about you

before the throne of God.

When I think about the situation that I am going through now, as we make our transition to a “new” place. I will meet new people and encounter new opportunities to live out my Christian life. As I do this, will I encounter people hoping that they will be impressed by the reputation I have or will I allow the character of God to show through?

What is the difference? If I can take some literary license from the quote above..

*  Reputation is what I want people to think of me, character is who God wants me to be…

This is the issue that so many of our politicians and leaders find themselves in today, they are more interested in the latest poll than what is right or good or holy. But before we feel all smug, we need to take a good look in the mirror- is that us as well. Do we laugh at jokes that God would not find funny, just to fit in? Do we want to be liked so much that we will work the gossip mill, so that others won’t think we are a prude?

* Reputation is word around town, character is The Word working in your life…

So if everyone likes you, that is really good?  Well if you are running for office it may be, but not if you want to live a Christian life.  Why you might ask? Doesn’t Jesus call us to be nice to everybody and make a good impression? Yes, but also remember Jesus’ words- “if they hated me, they will hate you”. The only group of people that the Bible describes as wanting the approval of everyone was the Pharisees. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be classified with that group. If I live a Godly life, I can expect some push back from the world. The evil in this world will not like it, and it will show through in the disapproval of some people. If there is one thing that I have learned in almost 17 years of ministry- there is no such thing as pleasing all the people, so quit now and live to please God.

* Reputations change with our circumstances, character is consistent

As I have gone through this last 7 months or so with my family being in financial difficulty, God has shown me that stress is a symptom not a cause of my circumstances. Often we blame “what I am going through” for a lack of Christ-like character. Yet God is not looking for a convenient excuse, in fact He is not impressed with excuses. I believe it was Benjamin Franklin that said, “I have never met a man who was good at making excuses, that was much good at anything else”. If your reputation is good when things are going good (I give when I have extra money, I attend church when I have time, I serve when it is convenient…), then your doing is not based on Christ-like character, it is merely the work of the flesh, doing what you want to do. Character does what it is supposed to do, and more, because it is motivated by a love of God first and foremost (Jesus said that loving God is the first and greatest of all commandments)

* Reputations take work to maintain, character flows from who you are

Do you know people that have to lie or comment or go somewhere or see a movie or like a group or don;t like a person or (fill in the blank) because it makes them look better in the eyes of those they are around at the moment?  Reputations have to be maintained because they are based in the moment and are motivated by the people that are around or the situation that is happening. That takes work. That takes manipulating the moment and keeping up with what you said earlier. Your life, your life of living with Jesus coming through, should flow. You can’t manipulate Holy Spirit living, you have to let it flow. The reason many Christians struggle is that they try to take the same approach to Christian living as they do to the office- “have to say the right thing, have to be in the right place, etc”. You can’t manipulate your way through the Christian life- you will be miserable.

No endearing words as we close, just think to yourself, or better yet ask God, “Lord, do I have a reputation or do I truly have Christ-like character?”

Faith in Uncertain Times

I am not a financial expert, but happened to be watching CNBC the other day and they were discussing the stock markets and an index they called the VIX.  The VIX is a volatility index, as I understand it in layman’s terms, a measurement of how far and wide the swings in stock prices go. The wider the swings the greater the index. Well, according to the people at CNBC we have set all time highs in the VIX. The commentator called it the measure of how afraid investors are in these uncertain times. We have seen the market swing 400-600 points in a matter of a few hours.

Now certainly we are in very uncertain days. Our economy, is it going up, down, are we in recession, are we just having a blip on the radar?  Our election, who is going to be the next president?  Probably depends on who you listened to this morning and which poll you actually believe. Your mortgage, can you pay it,and are the interest rates going up or down. Can you get a loan? How much longer is the war going to continue? Is your company going to lay people off?  There is no clear picture of our future as a nation. Everyone from the candidates to the talking heads on TV to the guy in the next cubicle has an idea, but we have to admit, things are very uncertain.

Aside from our oldest two generations, we have not really seen uncertain times. Our oldest generations lived through World War II, a time of great upheaval and uncertainty. That event literally changed the landscape of the world and set in motion fifty years of cold war and tension. The last real shake-up we had in America came in the late 1960’s when we had a social revolution among the younger generations. Now we have had a few fluctuations since then, but nothing that would be considered life altering, world changing. Now however, we find ourselves in a post 9/11 world, in a worldwide time of financial crisis, political uncertainty and social/moral confusion.  What do we do with uncertain times?

The contrast we make to uncertainty is stability, a known commodity that even if we don’t like the way things are, at least we know what is going on. As I have thought about not only the difficulties I find myself in with a house to pay for that I am not living in, financial uncertainty, two foster kids who may or many not be with us on a permanent basis… I do not know stability right now. But we cannot confuse stability with faith. Faith is not the same as having things go smoothly and knowing where we are going at every turn. Christians who wish to live a life of faith, should not expect God to reveal all of His plans and His ways before we trust in Him. In fact, if we are waiting for stability in order to have faith and feel comfortable with life, then we are not really expressing faith at all. Faith in fact is simply the ability to believe beyond and above what we see.

Whether we realize it or not, everyday, no matter how much you believe you know what it will hold, is a day where we must express faith. Take a quick look at the definition of faith…

Heb 11 1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

So when the markets are crazy, the job is unstable, the bank account has fewer numbers to the left of the dot and our doctor has given us bad news… Faith is certain of what we hope for. So when we believe that we have it all together, things are going well, our 401k is growing and we have lost those extra pounds… Faith does not change. Our faith is not tied to our circumstances. Underline that, remember that and practice that. We live out our faith in our circumstances not a faith driven by our circumstances. If we are going to live a Christian life that is led by a God who is not subject to the change of the winds of the times, then our faith has to be steadily anchored in the One we hope in, not to sights and sounds of the day. Bad news, good news, the world swings and sways under the influence of the evil one, but remember the Bible tells us that the “just shall live by faith” (that is our hope will be in God) “and not by sight” (the whims and waves of things in the world).

For example, hand wringing and worry seem to be seen as a sign of spirituality today. Several (many) Christians are “concerned” about this election. “I don’t know what we are going to do if _________ (whichever candidate you don’t like) gets elected”… why don’t you know?  If your faith is tied to the political swings of today, then your hope is not in a God who is never changing. Worry about the election seems to have taken on epic proportions, yet where is our faith in a God. Romans 13:1 says that no authority exists except that God appoints it.  So if I worry and complain and whine about so and so’ policies and stances, does that make me closer to God, a better Christian, more pleasing to the one who died for me?  No matter who is elected, you should worship just as passionately, pray just as unceasingly, minister to the needy just as compassionately and share Christ with others just as regularly.  Now do not misunderstand me here. I believe in voting, and I will vote in this election, but I will not allow the flood of political discourse and argument over policies affect how much I love and believe that God is the source of my strength and my hope forever. We need to allow the Holy Spirit and the Holy Scriptures to inform our hearts first, not the latest CNN piece.

“I don’t know what I am going to do about my finances, times are really tight.”  The future of your finances… is it in the hands of Wall Street and your mortgage company or does your faith see beyond these things?  Is your faith in the fact that your bank account has plenty of money or is it in the fact that God is your provider?  Look at what God taught Paul about faith in Philippians 4…

11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength. 14 Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. 15 Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; 16 for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need. 17 Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account. 18 I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. 19 And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Paul learned to be content. You cannot learn contentment and faith if everything is always amply supplied to you and everything is going your way. Rather than hand wringing and worry, if you are a Christian today, you should be in a learning mode. “God teach me to rest in you. Teach my heart to have more faith in you than worry about what I see. God show me your truth and help my heart to dwell upon your faithfulness not in man’s uncertainty.”

It is in uncertain times that what is truly within us rises to the top. Being from Florida, the expression is “you only taste the juice when you squeeze the orange.”  Friends, the VIX is high and we are in a time of squeezing. Now is not the time to shrink into worry and doubt. Take a look at your life and see what is coming out. What are your conversations like?  What are you spending time thinking about?  What have you stopped or started doing recently?  What do these things reveal about your faith?  Let’s live a PlusLIfe, an abundant life. When we are able to rise above the day and live in faith, then we give the world something to look to, something to believe in, that there is something beyond just this world and its’ ways. No more hand wringing- pray and believe that God is God, learn and grow in your understanding of God’s character and love, speak and share the power and faithfulness of our Heavenly Father.

The Base of Operations

Home base…in the military it is the place where decisions are made and the commanders develop strategy… in baseball it is the starting place for the batter and the ending place for the runner… if you are playing flag, it the place to protect or to capture the flag of the other team…in living our faith, it is our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Our Christianity begins and ends with Jesus. The Bible puts it this way:

Hebrews 12:2

looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus is described as the author and the finisher of our faith. He is at both ends, in His terms, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and end.  As life changes, as experiences bring you hurt and hope, Jesus Himself is our home base.

My parents still live in the same home I grew up in. When I visit them, I visit home. But home is not home because of the building or my room or my backyard or the trees, but the presence of my parents. Their personal love and devotion to me and my love for them, make it a special place. Their care for me and concern for my well-being, make it a safe place for me. No matter how special that concrete block house looks, no matter how many memories of mine occurred within the walls of that home with the screened in patio and corner lot, it is not truly home. My concern is that too many of us are associating the our spiritual home with a place or form or preferences rather than a person.

Ask yourself a few questions? What image comes to mind when you think of serving Christ… did a church service pop into your head? sitting in a Sunday School class…or maybe (scary thought) serving on a committee? What if I were to ask you what image comes to mind when you think of living the Christian life… Fellowship with other believers? Reading your Bible?  Now, there is nothing wrong with worship services, Sunday School classes, fellowship or reading your Bible, in fact I highly recommend all of them for having a vibrant faith, but none of these things are home base for the Christian. When I serve Christ, I serve Him. When I get to heaven I will not be accountable to the church, not to the pastor, deacons, not the patriarch or the matriarch of the church, not the controlling committee, no board, but I will stand before Christ, and I want Him to say to me, “well done, good and faithful servant” [meaning that He is rewarding servants who are accountable to Him]

We are enamored in our culture with things. Americans are overrun with things, in love with things and seem to have a desperate need for things in order to feel “right” with the world. Several years ago it took $600 to buy a Tickle Me Elmo doll during Christmas. I still do not understand that. My wife and I are taking care of two girls in foster care. This past week walking through Wal-Mart we could have decked out the girls in everything Hannah Montana- hair bows, lip gloss, shirt, watch, shorts, underwear, socks,shoes, backpack, bandanna… I am sure there were a few other things that I missed, but I got tired of looking. And of course the girls had to have every piece- had to. Let’s face it, we feel better if we have the “right” things. If we like golf, we want the right clubs, the right balls with the particular dimple pattern in them. If we like cars, we want one that has the right body, engine, color and sound system. If we like decorating, we want certain colors, furniture or curtains. The right things make us feel right, like we are comfortable with ourselves and with the world.

Spiritually we like our own “things” as well. We like a certain kind of church. A certain kind of appearance to the building. A certain way that people dress. A certain kind of music. A certain kind of instrumentation. A certain kind of people. A certain type of church government. A certain kind of evangelism. A certain kind of Bible. We sit in a certain seat. We like certain things said to us. We like a certain amount of attention. This list could get lengthy. The point is that all of these things have to do with personal preference, not righteousness or holiness. When we use personal preference as our base of operations, Jesus is no longer the author and finisher of our faith, we are. I become the controlling voice in all decisions spiritual, because everything has to line up according to the way that I am comfortable.

Now, everyone has preferences, we cannot help that. A certain sound is appealing to us. For example, as I am writing this I am listening to a worship leader named Paul Baloche singing “Meet with Me”. I love that song. It is a preference. Now the problem would come if I were to say that I could not worship Jesus unless we sang Paul Baloche songs. The expression of my faith in worship then becomes about me… the Bible however says that worship is about God. You could apply this example to a hundred different things in your Christian life. If my preference becomes the driving force behind whether or not I can live out my Christian faith, then I have abandoned Jesus as the center of Christianity, I have left my first love. The authorship of my faith becomes my own, my name goes on the cover. Our base of operation, home base for our faith, has to begin with Jesus. His name has to go on the front cover of the story of our life.

Think about the importance of an author to a story. If the author is writing a creative piece, they are working from their own personality, experience, knowledge and imagination. If they are writing a history or a biography, then they are merely reporting events that have already occurred, created by someone else. What kind of author is Jesus to your faith?  Is He creating from His own resources a magnificent story of His love, care, grace, power, purpose and mission? Is He using His knowledge to guide you and His experience to prepare you for what lies ahead? Or maybe you have control… and you want Jesus to be there to support what you are doing and what you are creating.

It is important that we have Jesus as home base, the author and finisher of our faith. If He were the author without being the finisher, He would wind us up and take His hands off. “Do the best you can and I’ll see you when it’s over!” We would be adrift in this world. Who would we turn to? We would be all alone with no help, only an idea of what the story is supposed to be about. (which seems like a place a lot of Christians are– We have a Christian idea without the realization of living the purposes and character of Christ). If He were the finisher without being the author, we would have no idea what to do nor would we understand any kind of purpose for life. This is prevalent today as God is pushed aside as creator and maker. If He didn’t make us, what are we here for? Does life have meaning?  Judgment would be a frightening and unsure time. Did we get it right? Did we follow His will?

For us to really live an abundant life, a Pluslife, we need Jesus as home base. Today, think about how you approach your faith. Is Jesus that author of it, or are your preferences the true author of your faith. Is Jesus the finisher of your faith, are you “seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” or are you just making it through trying to add a little Christian virtue into an otherwise unsure life?  We have a home base, and you are welcome there, the author and finisher of your faith awaits to write a beautiful story with you.

John Johnson

http://www.pluslife.wordpress.com