Am I Worth Reading?

Let me start out by asking this… if you had to read your life as a story to someone, would it be worth reading?
If all of our lives were told as stories and we were characters in our stories, I think it would be interesting. Would you be the character that lives to provide for the good of others or will you be the character that does not want to do anything uncomfortable? Will you be a character filled with travels and adventures that most dream about or will you be the one dreaming that you wish you could have done that? Will you be able recount some of the awesome people that you have met and helped shape your life and that you helped shape them, or will you just talk about celebrity gossip?
I thought about this a while ago. If Jesus just stayed where he was and just sacrificed himself on the cross without healing, teaching, and doing miracles, that would have been a boring story. But instead, we have four different accounts of his life that highlight four different perspectives. He did some pretty awesome things, and if it was never written, we would not have known about it. We are the same way. If we do not talk about the amazing things that God is doing in our lives and we do try and engage the world that we live in, our lives will be bland. People will fall asleep reading our books!

So what I want to encourage you to do today is to step out and live your life like it is a book worth reading. People love stories. They love to hear how God impacted you, how you met your spouse, what foreign places you have seen, etc. But you can never have those stories if all you do is sit at home and watch TV and let the rest of the world pass you by. Now is the time to take a job you always wanted. Now is the time to do something you never thought you would do. Now is the time to get to know someone you always thought was interesting (not always relational). The point is, you have to get out and do something.

In order to include people into your life, you have to have a life to speak of. So let me ask you again, if you had to read your life as a story to someone, would it be worth reading?

Can I Take Care of What I Have Already?

This idea just came to my head about ten minutes ago. I was thinking about buying something, and then I thought “have I even been a good steward of what I have already?” This stopped me in my tracks, and I realized that I could be quite a bit better than I already am.

When we look at scriptures, one of the most prominent stories is the one about the faithful servants in Matthew. In this story, the master rewards the faithful servants for what they have done with their talents (money unit, not actual talents, but it works well for correlation). Meanwhile, the servant that buries his money gets punished for not trying to utilize the talent (mind you, he had just one talent, compared to 5 and 10 like the other two).

I think about my life in the same way. I have been given a certain amount of resources, and God wants me to utilize those. When we prove to ourselves that we are good keepers of those resources, we will have the confidence to use more resources wisely.

When I look at this parable, know that the two with more talents were given the amount that they were probably because they were reliable in the past. The way the master blasts the one talent servant is telling for a few reasons…

-he was given one talent for a reason, because it was low risk, meaning that he did not want to risk too much on that servant.
-he did not understand the master, because the master looked for effort, results were secondary.
-fear clouded his vision, as he mentioned the master as being harsh.

With this in mind, am I a good steward of what I have? I have been thinking a lot about this subject, and how it plays into my life. If I can not take care of the money that I have right now and if I blow it on stupid things, why should I be trusted with more money? I am fairly low maintenance, but I know that I could be more frugal.

What about marriage? People talk about it all the time, but I often wonder why they want it so bad. If they feel that entitled that they deserve a particular person and are that impatient about it, what makes you think that they will be selfless and patient with another person? Can we take care of our own hearts, let alone the heart of another person’s entrusted to us? Needless to say, being a steward of another person/family is a heck of a lot different than being single. Right now, I have shown that I am mature enough but I am not sure that I have the time with school or a job that can support my family. When I demonstrate that I can take care of myself, then I will feel confident that I can take care of others.

What about where I live? Yes, it would be nice to have a big new house, but do I really need it? Can I afford it? Isn’t a used house just as good? Am I able to take care of the apartment/room that I am living at currently? This goes the same for churches. Do you really need a brand new huge building, or is it more of a want? As a friend of mine said, “God must only be in new buildings, because so many churches are trying to build new ones.” There is a lot of danger in this idea, as I have seen first hand with a church almost lost its building since the congregation shrunk to the point they could not sustain their payments. Houses and churches are very similar in that case, and the best way to avoid foreclosure is to live within your means. With me, I hope to buy a used church (ie, The Catholic church is closing buildings left and right) to run my church out of. As for a home, if I ever owned a big house it would be so that I could run ministry out of it. Then again, I grew up in a small home and have lived in dorm rooms or other people’s houses for the past 11 years, so “big” might actually be small for all I know! But right now, I have to be a good steward of my education so that I may get a job so that I may afford the luxury of a house.

What about my education? Yes, I get good grades. But am I am able to translate it from book smarts to practical smarts? Am I dedicated to learning even if a grade is not on the line? Honestly, I do not have any guarantees that I can get a job when I get out of Divinity school. I am confident that I will be able to, even if it does not pay. But If I am faithful with a small job, that will lead to a bigger job.

I just included a few topics above, but I think it is great food for thought. If we can not take care of a few trees in the orchard, why do we expect that he will let us have the entire orchard? I definitely do not want that responsibility. Some people might feel that I am not leaving room for the Holy Spirit to do great things, but I plan so that if the miraculous does not happen, that I can still execute what I feel is God’s plan. But at the end of the day, when calls on me to give account for what he has entrusted me with, I hope he says, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Condemnation or Conviction?

So one day I was standing outside of my house, and my neighbor walks up to me. Mind you, she did not know me very well, but she thought that she was doing me the biggest favor in the world.
“I do not know where you stand with Jesus, but you should have this.” She commented to me, as she handed me a small booklet with what appeared to be people walking into hell. A bible tract! Not sure how to respond, I looked at her quizzically and then handed it back.
“Thank you very much, but I am a Christian. I actually go to school at Regent and am studying theology. You could probably give this to someone else.” I replied, trying to be as polite as possible. But the short Latino lady wanted nothing to do with my excuses.
“That means that you should take this! It would not hurt as a refresher.” Dumbfounded, I took her doom and gloom tract, wished her well and promptly placed it in my car. Her resolve grew stronger knowing that I was a student at Regent.
I got into my car, and thought about how we are perceived as Christians. In general, I can understand why people would not want to come to church. My mind begins to shift to the way in which the evangelists at the Virginia Beach oceanfront operate. I remember a time in which I witnessed them up on boxes telling homosexuals that they are going to hell. I was very torn in the moment as I watched the crowd heckling the men who were condemning them. They were teaching from the Bible, but there was no love or grace in the message, just condemnation.
So now I wonder, if this is all that a homosexual knew of Christians, why would he or she want to go to any church? The answer is they wouldn’t, because they figure that they would get yelled at about their lifestyle. There are few things that feel worse than putting yourself out there to meet new people and getting rejected before they even get to know you. Logically, it makes sense that they would be preemptive and avoid getting rejected and feeling condemned before it starts.
I also think of people who have had hardships or made bad choices. Someone who has had an abortion will probably keep her choice a secret if she went to church, or she would just avoid church all together to avoid any situations. I am glad that churches are now trying to help these people, instead of simply protesting and making the person feel worthless. They have worth, but they just made a bad choice.
As the church becomes increasingly aligned with the Republican Party, how would a Democrat feel in a church that is very pro-republican? I have heard too many people claim that Democrats can not be Christian, and I find that assumption to be insulting. I have known many Christians who were democrats, and they did not support every idea. Having grown up in a swing state, I understand how it would be a dangerous move to endorse one side fully and risk ostracizing the other. From another perspective, if an anti-Democrat message were spoken in Chicago, where the Democrats have dominated for years, that pastor would ostracize a lot of people.
I guess what this comes down to is whether we are condemning people or convicting them. Jesus convicted people, through his actions they were compelled to leave their self-destructive life styles behind. Matthew/Levi was practically a thief, Simon the Zealot was a religious extremist, and chances are Simon would have wanted to kill Matthew due to his affiliation with the Roman government. That is the power of Christ convicting them.
Condemnation, on the other hand takes someone’s hope and makes them feel as if they are not good enough. If someone feels as if they can not add up, they will try to get as far away as possible.
One of the greatest indicators is how we feel when we walk away from someone. If you feel drained and worthless, chances are you were not convicted. If you feel hopeful, then more than likely you were convicted. Conviction is not always pleasant, because sometimes the pruning that happens in our lives is not always the best. But in the end, it is for our growth and our health. I have learned that from experience. So in closing, can we remain committed to helping give people life, instead of giving them death?

Junk in the Trunk

One thing that I have always tried to do is meet the practical needs of my friends. It is something that I genuinely take pleasure in doing. The basis of this story involves me helping a friend who had a practical need. She did not have a car, so I asked her if she would like to borrow mine to get groceries. She agreed, and I let her borrow my car for a few hours so she could run to Wal-Mart.
As I met her at her apartment, we began to unload my car. Much to my dismay, I saw her pop open my trunk. “NO!” I thought to myself, as I saw her groceries neatly tucked in around all the random junk in my trunk. I immediately became apologetic and said that I was sorry that she had to see that mess.
“Whatever, dude. It’s your trunk.” She said to me, probably confused at my reaction to her seeing my messy trunk. We went inside and loaded everything into her refrigerator and then went to meet our friends. I eventually calmed down about her seeing my trunk, and I began to think about how ridiculous my thought was.
Looking back, I can now see how our lives are sort of that way. I tend to put my stuff that I do not want people to see in my trunk, and keep the main part of my car clean. Out of sight, out of mind. But if someone were to open up my trunk, they would see what I really have. It can be scary at times, and I felt vulnerable when I realized that she could see my mess. She did not care that I had junk in there, she was just happy that I loaned her my car and she was grateful for that.
I have to think about my own trunk now, and realize that I accumulate a lot of “stuff” in there. Some of it is mine and I bring it in there, but a lot of it are things that others put in there and I have to remove. The first question that I have to ask is, “can we sort out what is not our from what is ours?” When I begin to look at my trunk, I find that a lot of the garbage was placed there by other people.
What I have done over the past few years is find ways to leave behind that stuff when I find it. I identify whose baggage it really is, and then give it back to them or dispose of it. Our cars do not run as efficiently when they are loaded up.
The other detail is that I had a friend who reacted kindly to my mess. Do we have people in our lives that can look at our mess, and still hang around? More so, if you need them, can they help you sort out the mess and send it back to the rightful owner? Often times, we feel like we have to have everything together and in order or else people will look down on us. The truth is, that some people will do it. But they are not true friends. They have their own junk that they have to get rid of! We all have stuff back there, so no one is above another person. It might look different, but it is all junk.
Finally, do you have the courage to go to the back and sort out what is back there? It is easy to pop the trunk, and throw something in there without looking. But we all know what happens to something in dark areas, it begins to get worse. That is why it is important to be careful of what you put into your trunk, and to keep it clean. It can be embarrassing or painful at times to do it, but remember that you will feel a lot better about yourself after it is done.
So if you have free time this week, my hope is that you can do an inventory of your trunk, and try to identify what needs to be there and what does not need to be there. It is always interesting to see!