So when I was working at JC Penney 10 years ago, I had a really funny run in with one of my managers. I was working behind the counter, and was busily trying to take care of something. In a bizarre moment of me tripping over something, I lost my balance. As I fell backwards, I fell right into a box! With my butt firmly planted on the bottom and me in an awkward position, I was looking to find a way out. When lo and behold, the evening manager was standing at my register. Looking at me quizzically, he motioned and ordered me to get up. I was so embarrassed!
My direct supervisor received the report that I was sitting on the job. She asked me what I was doing, and then I explained to her what happened. She laughed it off, and told me that she told him that it was under control. It dawned on me that anything that I ever did that day did not matter at that moment, because all he saw was me in the box. Never mind the fact that 5 seconds before I was upright and straightening out my area, when he walked by, I was in the box. That meant that I was being lazy, and that is all that mattered.
So you might be wondering to me, "what does this matter?" The reason that I am mentioning this is that appearance was everything. I know people hate hearing that for many reasons. For most people, this invokes the feelings of having to be fake for appearance sakes, having to be perfect at all times, or being legalistic. This is not what I am getting at. But I do want to talk about trying to be genuine and doing your best to live a healthy life.
Jesus had many people who criticized him for this reason or that. One of the best examples was when Jesus healed the man with a paralyzed hand (John 12:9-14). In the first part of John 12, the disciples get in trouble with the Pharisees for eating a head of grain on the sabbath, since they considered it work. The legalism was out of control, and they even considered healing a man on the sabbath to be breaking the law since it was "work". Jesus healed the man since he felt that it was lawful to do good on the sabbath.
When we read this chapter, it is evident that if Jesus wanted to look good, he would have just followed the legalism and let the man be. But he did not, he did what was right. The Pharisees wanted to find something wrong with Jesus because they were jealous of him. Also, he was completely ruining their game that was rigged for them to win. So automatically, they did not want him to become popular.
Isn't that the way that life is? People who dislike you for no reason try to find a valid reason to dislike you. The point is that they are so focused on watching us fail that they saw anything less than perfect as failure and they do not want to hear anything else. They are right in their own minds. Imagine what they could see if they put that amount of effort into looking for the positive things in life!
The truth is that we can not be perfect. It is impossible. I am not asking anyone to try and be perfect. Instead, I am asking you to be mature about who you are and do your best to love God and love others. We will make mistakes, however, we do not want to give nay-sayers the luxury of having a lot of incidents to chose from. It also goes without saying, do not come down on others because of their failures, because we have all made mistakes.
The other reason that we want to do our best is that people are watching us because they want to see us win. I am sure that if Jesus did not do what was right and heal the man, than there would have been a lot of people that would have lost heart and became disillusioned. At the end of the day, the good that came of the situation was much better than the negative: A man was healed and Jesus convicted (hopefully) the Pharisees of their corrupt ways.
As you go about your business, my hope is that you would try to live fearless of criticism. We have been given grace, but that does not mean that we should abuse it. Let us not think more highly of ourselves than we ought, because our purpose is to love God, and to love and take care of others as we love ourselves. There will be Pharisees in our lives, but just look at the source... many of them are jealous and hate themselves. But please keep in mind that we do not want to give them a reason to pass negative views on to others, because some people might get deceived by them.
So the moral of the story is if you fall into a box, don't stand up too quickly, because it might remain attached to your bum... which is embarrassing! But seriously, God's opinion matters the most, so lets do our best to be great examples of him!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
What are Your Words Doing?
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. That is a phrase that we have heard since we were little. It is good for defense against other children and other malicious people growing up. But the truth is, the consequences for these words are pretty severe.
Matthew 12:33-37 is a huge chapter to me. I am not going to focus on the first part because anyone that knows me knows that I beat that subject into the ground, but instead talk about the end and how it motivated me in life.
So when we look at Matthew 12:37, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and calling them out on some of their misconduct. Their words were messages of death rather than messages of life.
When I was younger I was pretty talkative. I still talk a bit, but I have learned how to make my conversations more meaningful and to be less directionless speech. I found that when I was directionless or trying to fill space with words, it eventually led to something bad. I never really liked saying negative things to people, I could be good at it if I wanted to, but it never felt right. As I took this verse to heart, words began having so much more of a meaning to me. I stopped trying to be frivolous with my speech, and I decided that I wanted to give words that impacted people… especially positively. That is why often times you will see me hold back on speaking until I have my thoughts together and then I give the most well thought through answer possible. I am not perfect, I am working on it, but that is my goal.
So I am going to ask you this right now, what do your words give? I was planning on closing with this question, but I think it is too important to ignore. When you joke with someone, are you cutting someone down or making them laugh with a positive memory? When you talk, does it have a direction to it or does it just to fill space? Do your words try to build someone up rather than make them feel stupid for what they did? Do your words guide someone in the right direction or does your voice echo anger that makes them fear your wrath? Are you trying to make a friend or are you just stroking the person’s ego to get what you want out of them? Do you tell them that you appreciate them or do you try to make them more like what you want them to be? Do you only talk to the person when things are wrong or do you encourage them when they are doing good? Just a few things to think about.
These are the words that we are judged by. I by no means want to put the fear of God’s judgment into anyone, but for me this is serious. I am planning on being a pastor, and most of what my career will be about is verbal messages to people. If my heart is not right, than I could be misleading so many people. In case you were wondering, yes, God will take issue with that!
I have met too many religious leaders who are charming in public but very impatient and demanding in their offices. My hope is that as a leader, I can be one whose words inspire, motivate, encourage, and challenge my staff and my audience to be healthy and successful Christians and that they would not fear me. Also, I hope in my every day engagements with people that they can walk away feeling that I just breathed life into them.
I would like to close by giving an illustration. Lets say that I gave you an apple for lunch. When you bite into the apple, it is brown and rotten. But you eat it anyway since you are polite, and keep taking the apples. Eventually you will get sick. But if I gave you healthy apples, you would enjoy taking them from me and want return the favor and give me good apples as well.
Words are similar. When we take evil words from people, they make us sick. So that is why it is important that we continue to give healthy life giving words to others, and receive healthy words from those close to us. In the end, it is these same words that we will be held accountable for.
Matthew 12:33-37 is a huge chapter to me. I am not going to focus on the first part because anyone that knows me knows that I beat that subject into the ground, but instead talk about the end and how it motivated me in life.
So when we look at Matthew 12:37, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and calling them out on some of their misconduct. Their words were messages of death rather than messages of life.
When I was younger I was pretty talkative. I still talk a bit, but I have learned how to make my conversations more meaningful and to be less directionless speech. I found that when I was directionless or trying to fill space with words, it eventually led to something bad. I never really liked saying negative things to people, I could be good at it if I wanted to, but it never felt right. As I took this verse to heart, words began having so much more of a meaning to me. I stopped trying to be frivolous with my speech, and I decided that I wanted to give words that impacted people… especially positively. That is why often times you will see me hold back on speaking until I have my thoughts together and then I give the most well thought through answer possible. I am not perfect, I am working on it, but that is my goal.
So I am going to ask you this right now, what do your words give? I was planning on closing with this question, but I think it is too important to ignore. When you joke with someone, are you cutting someone down or making them laugh with a positive memory? When you talk, does it have a direction to it or does it just to fill space? Do your words try to build someone up rather than make them feel stupid for what they did? Do your words guide someone in the right direction or does your voice echo anger that makes them fear your wrath? Are you trying to make a friend or are you just stroking the person’s ego to get what you want out of them? Do you tell them that you appreciate them or do you try to make them more like what you want them to be? Do you only talk to the person when things are wrong or do you encourage them when they are doing good? Just a few things to think about.
These are the words that we are judged by. I by no means want to put the fear of God’s judgment into anyone, but for me this is serious. I am planning on being a pastor, and most of what my career will be about is verbal messages to people. If my heart is not right, than I could be misleading so many people. In case you were wondering, yes, God will take issue with that!
I have met too many religious leaders who are charming in public but very impatient and demanding in their offices. My hope is that as a leader, I can be one whose words inspire, motivate, encourage, and challenge my staff and my audience to be healthy and successful Christians and that they would not fear me. Also, I hope in my every day engagements with people that they can walk away feeling that I just breathed life into them.
I would like to close by giving an illustration. Lets say that I gave you an apple for lunch. When you bite into the apple, it is brown and rotten. But you eat it anyway since you are polite, and keep taking the apples. Eventually you will get sick. But if I gave you healthy apples, you would enjoy taking them from me and want return the favor and give me good apples as well.
Words are similar. When we take evil words from people, they make us sick. So that is why it is important that we continue to give healthy life giving words to others, and receive healthy words from those close to us. In the end, it is these same words that we will be held accountable for.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
What are you Being?
As I write this, I should really be doing my homework. I have a lot to read for my thesis, I need to grade some papers, and start on a journal review. Today, I woke up, graded papers, unpacked a little bit, went to the doctor, worked on my thesis, played flag football, went shopping after doing some reading, and now I am here. Exhausted? Nah, not me. Apparently I am able to multitask really well, but I really do not like it. It is just that someone has to pay my bills, someone has to do my homework, and someone has to buy my food, and that someone is… surprise, surprise, me. The football part, I can’t be all work and no play =)
The question that the Doctor asked me today was, “are you a human being or a human doing?” That sort of struck me, because I never really thought of what I was doing was bad. Whatever you believe, I think that having this boundary can be beneficial because otherwise you burn out. So when we think about being a human being rather than a human doing, there are a few things to consider.
Are we so busy with the tasks in our lives that we are overlooking those around us? I ask this because I think about how so many people are workaholics and they forget about their families in the process. Much of my thoughts are how parents often times miss out on their kids lives because they are in the office so much. In the end, the children are hurt because they feel that the parents prioritized work over them. Or the wife that would much rather have a husband to help them through life rather than a few extra dollars or nice “things” in life.
The other detail I want to add is that oftentimes ministry can be done and God can be forgotten in the busy-ness. Ultimately, the work of the church needs to be done and the church needs people to do it and often times will use the same people to do it. That is why we must be careful even when doing ministry to remember why we are doing it, and not overwhelm ourselves with everything going on and burn out. Oftentimes burn out can open yourself up to spiritual and psychological attacks.
Many of you are probably like me, and feel like there is so much that needs to get done and not enough time to do it. It can be frustrating, but there is something that I think about. If I am so busy with my life, will I miss out on an opportunity to bless someone else? My hope is that you would say that you would be able to see those opportunities as they come.
The story that I often think about in the Bible is the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38-42. When Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to him, Martha became irritated with her sister and asked Jesus to get Mary to help her out.
“Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things,” Jesus said “but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.”
This reminds me that the people in life are often times more important than the things that we do. Yes, we do things that matter, but if we impact no one in the process, what good are our lives? This is why many people die lonely, because they serve their own interests their entire life forget everyone along the way.
So before you leave, think about this… is what makes you who you are or is it what you do? If you lost all of your titles, all of your degrees, or all of your roles, would that change your identity? This is the difference between a human being and a human doing. My hope is that you would be a human being, and not allow the things in your life to dictate who you are. Speaking of doing, I should probably get back to homework!
The question that the Doctor asked me today was, “are you a human being or a human doing?” That sort of struck me, because I never really thought of what I was doing was bad. Whatever you believe, I think that having this boundary can be beneficial because otherwise you burn out. So when we think about being a human being rather than a human doing, there are a few things to consider.
Are we so busy with the tasks in our lives that we are overlooking those around us? I ask this because I think about how so many people are workaholics and they forget about their families in the process. Much of my thoughts are how parents often times miss out on their kids lives because they are in the office so much. In the end, the children are hurt because they feel that the parents prioritized work over them. Or the wife that would much rather have a husband to help them through life rather than a few extra dollars or nice “things” in life.
The other detail I want to add is that oftentimes ministry can be done and God can be forgotten in the busy-ness. Ultimately, the work of the church needs to be done and the church needs people to do it and often times will use the same people to do it. That is why we must be careful even when doing ministry to remember why we are doing it, and not overwhelm ourselves with everything going on and burn out. Oftentimes burn out can open yourself up to spiritual and psychological attacks.
Many of you are probably like me, and feel like there is so much that needs to get done and not enough time to do it. It can be frustrating, but there is something that I think about. If I am so busy with my life, will I miss out on an opportunity to bless someone else? My hope is that you would say that you would be able to see those opportunities as they come.
The story that I often think about in the Bible is the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38-42. When Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to him, Martha became irritated with her sister and asked Jesus to get Mary to help her out.
“Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things,” Jesus said “but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.”
This reminds me that the people in life are often times more important than the things that we do. Yes, we do things that matter, but if we impact no one in the process, what good are our lives? This is why many people die lonely, because they serve their own interests their entire life forget everyone along the way.
So before you leave, think about this… is what makes you who you are or is it what you do? If you lost all of your titles, all of your degrees, or all of your roles, would that change your identity? This is the difference between a human being and a human doing. My hope is that you would be a human being, and not allow the things in your life to dictate who you are. Speaking of doing, I should probably get back to homework!
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