Thoughts on the Political Process

It is so easy to get caught up in politics – believing that a win by one candidate can either spell doom or bring great hope. The reality is that there is one real, solid hope in this world — it is for a kingdom that is coming where we won’t vote but get to joyfully live under the kingship of one who is perfect … one who is the perfect fit for everything our hearts and minds desire. Derek Webb has written a great song called A King and A Kingdom:

“who’s your brother, who’s your sister
you just walked passed him
i think you missed her
as we’re all migrating to the place where our father lives
’cause we married in to a family of immigrants

my first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man
my first allegiance is not to democracy or blood
it’s to a king & a kingdom”

 

It is a king and a kingdom that have my vote. While I will vote in our current election, I will pray for our leaders, and I will strive to help bring change and hope to “the least of these” in our world – I will never place my ultimate hope in any flag or country or man.

 

Solomon Summaries

For the “millions” of people who read this blog each week, I want to share something very interesting and potentially helpful with you. For those of you who love to read and find yourself with a minimum of 73 books on your night stand at any one time, keeping up with reading important works can be daunting. Solomon shared in Ecclesiates that the reading of bookless is endless and that was before the printing press or even the digital age.

I’ve recently learned aobut a ministry called Solomon Summaries which produces a weekly summary of siginificant Christian books – from C.S. Lewis’ Mere Chrisitianity to modern works – it looks like a helpful resource. From their website, I learned this about Solomon Summaries:

“Solomon Summaries, a Dallas, Texas-based organization, provides 8-10-page summaries of key Christian books. It offers a platform for Christian engagement and growth. Solomon Summaries helps busy Christians quickly glean wisdom from some of the brightest Christian minds and facilitates discussion about Christian issues—issues regarding living the Christian life in the Church and as individuals every day.”Solomon Summaries can also help lay leaders choose good materials and resources for Sunday school classes, small groups, mentoring relationships, and leadership training and help pastors stay in touch with what’s out there and what their congregations are reading.”About Chris and Heather Goodman, Solomon Summaries founders “Chris loves learning but found a growing chasm between the amount of books he wanted to absorb and the time available to read them. He has a background as an entrepreneur and a business executive and has a passion for ministry and missions. Chris spends much of his time thinking about how to use the tools of the Internet to better minister in our world. “Heather loves all things books and desires to raise awareness of the books available to Christians. After receiving her Masters in Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, she began writing and speaking on the intersection of Christianity, art, and culture. “They formed Solomon Summaries to help people like them—people who want to grow in Christ and draw others to Christ. With so much wisdom accessible from leading Christian thinkers and ministry leaders in the publishing industry, to-read lists become longer than Rapunzel’s hair. Chris and Heather wanted to create a service to help readers grasp ideas from classic and new Christian books and discern which books would be best for their spiritual formation.”

One of my favorite professors from Dallas Seminary said this: “Want to save time and yet keep up to speed? Want to be able to decide what really is worth reading and digesting? Solomon Summaries can help you do that by focusing on really key books in a variety of areas. So leave the sifting to Solomon–read, reflect and save time doing it!” Dr. Darrell Bock

As I read their summary of Mere Christianity – I found it to be well written and helpful. It made me want to pick up and read it again!

I am sharing this info as a part of a “blog tour” where several bloggers are sharing their review of this resource. You can check out the Solomon Summaries website (http://www.solomonsummaries.com) to learn more & check out the other bloggers on the tour. You can find a complete list of bloggers here (Found here).

Finally, you can receive a year’s subscription for $100 (regular price: $120, ~15% discount), and you will be entered into a drawing for a stack of books with their subscription. Let them know to reference your blog when the subscribe.

Between Two Worlds

To the left of our house lives a family who has an Obama sign in their yard and to the right is a family that has a McCain sign in their yard. (yes – it is ironic that the respective directions of ‘right’ and ‘left’ support the candidates they do) As I stand in front of my house, the visual of being between these two signs is incredibly symbolic of how I feel as an American voter … between two worlds, feeling like I don’t fit in either one.

By the way – I did vote today (early voting started) and there are more candidates than just these two on the ballot. Interesting …

I often think about how Jesus handled politics in his day — He was often questioned by very skilled people about various political issues and He refused to be pinned down by any ideology. He usually answered the questions with another question that transcended the liberal/conversative mix. Usually – both the “liberals” and “conservatives” were upset with Him. What is that transcendent thinking? Does it even exist on the American political scene?

Taking Off the Training Wheels

I’ve been working with my daughter over the weekend on learning to ride her bike. She asked to take off the training wheels and the adventure began. It has been a lot of fun to watch her face as she expands the distance she can ride on her own – foot by foot. Of course, the key to the whole deal is balance and I’m still holding the back of her seat until she has enough momentum and I can let go. The next step is for her to learn to get started on her own … once that happens, there’s no turning back.

In working with her, it has provided an amazing picture of relationship with God. The training wheels provide some balance and require no thought or skill. However, as every little kids instinctively knows – we weren’t meant to ride with training wheels. They are temporary. As I’ve been studying through Romans, it seems clear that both license (living however you want) and law (living under an external standard) are training wheels. Neither require thought or skill – just mindless/heartless conformity. Both are living independent of God – just to the right (law) or left (license) end of the spectrum. Living with God is the balance of riding without those training wheels – living in a place of utter dependence where I trust in God each moment.

And, when I fall – it might be very tempting to get those training wheels back out – but they enslave and actually mean that I can’t go offroad or go over a ramp or all kinds of things a bike was intended to do. And, when I fall – it is important to remember that the Father is cheering me on – clapping and smiling that I made it so far. And, then – He’s there to help me back up … while I feel like I’m riding by myself, He is there every step of the way – watching and cheering and helping and holding. When I have the training wheels on, I don’t even notice Him and certainly don’t cry out for help.

I want so much to keep learning to ride without training wheels — it is exhilirating and a lot of fun to just be with the Father as He loves me in the process.

Growing thru Romans

This fall, at Trinity Chapel, we’re study Romans 6-8 – and the following is from an email I sent to folks in our body.I want to share with you how I’ve been growing through this study – and it has been intense — first, I’ve been realizing just how much I live out of my sin capacity. I regularly fail to stop and just say “Father I need you …” I am seeing very clearly that I often allow the desires of the sin capacity to enter in and I entertain them. I thank God for the clarity He has been giving me. Second, I’ve been so aware of just how much I want to get “freedom” so I don’t have to struggle anymore – and the reality is that I don’t want to struggle anymore because I want to be independent and on my own. That desire to be independent is the essence of the sin capacity. So, I’m realizing that my motive is often to use God to get away from him. Ironic, huh? Yet, the very nature of sin … independence/dependence is the issue and can often be quite subtle. So, I’m beginning to pray that God would increase my understanding of my sin capacity so that I can clearly and deliberately give myself to Him moment by moment.

Grace-filled, part dos

As I continue to ponder God’s grace, I’ve been struck once again by the sheer depth and complexity of His grace. It is very simple to understand the concept of “unmerited favor”/”unconditional love.” The idea is that there is nothing I can do to make God love me any more than He does and there is nothing I can do to make Him love me any less than He does. I rest in that grace. Yet, it is very easy to allow it to sit at the surface. As a concept alone, grace is very comforting and restful. However, it can fail to transform me.

Titus 2 says that the “grace of God teaches us to say not the ungodliness.” This is transforming, heart altering stuff. How does that happen? I have to allow His grace, His love to penetrate to the depths of my heart. I may be able to “say” that I know He loves the dark things of me. I may be able to verbalize and even share what those dark things are. Yet, I have to be able to move from “theory” to actual practice.

How do I allow God to grace every part of who I am? While I don’t have it all figured out, it does seem very clear that I have to refuse to shut down my heart when I begin to experience those dark places: anger, hurt, jealousy, pride, sadness, lust, etc. My great tendency is to go into “management mode” when those things arise. Instead, I have to pray “Father, don’t let me shut down my heart. I want to experience You right now. I need You. I want You to be my sufficiency.” As I do that, His grace reaches me – it frees me – it teaches me to say no to ungodliness.

Then, as I strive to love others graciously, I realize that I must get past the surface with people and love them right where they are. I can’t say that “I love” – I have to get to know stories and background so that I can show them the grace God has shown me.

Grace-filled, part uno

I’m in the middle of a study on grace … I know the theological definitions, but something occurred to me recently. To define something is not live it or even truly understand it. Definitions seem to have a curious ability to control and limit something. So, I’ve had this nagging suspicion that perhaps my seeming “mastery” (ha ha) of the theological nuances of grace has really kept me from accepting and extending grace. Perhaps, the more I realize I don’t know something – the more power it can have in my life.

So, I’ve been reading and re-reading a passage in Titus 2 that says that “the grace of God has appeared – teaching us to say ‘no’ to ungodliness.” And my question is: how exactly does that happen? It sounds amazing and definitely something for which I’d sign up. But, teaching us to say no? Understanding that grace is God’s “umerited, unconditional love” wouldn’t seem to teach me to say no to ungodliness. Quite the opposite – if I know that I can do anything and He still loves me … moral license and liberty would seem to follow. And, certainly, that is the temptation for an underwhelming view of grace – a surface view of grace. In fact, most of the New Testament writings focus on correcting a shallow view of grace which leads to license. Often, the corrective is that “you can’t do anything you want.” However, this falls short because it takes away from true grace — “I can do anything and He still loves me.” If I can’t do anything, then it’s not unconditional love. Understand, I’m not negating the presence of possible natural consequences or even Fatherly discipline. So, rather than stripping grace down – perhaps there is more there/a depth which is not apparent on the surface.

What has occured to me is this … grace teaches us to say no when we understand what “ungodliness” is and what grace truly is. While grace says that “I can do anything I want and He still loves me” … at a deeper level, grace says “I can do nothing.” I can do absolutely nothing to achieve the life that God has created for me. I can do absoltely nothing to live well. The implication is that I am absolutely dependent upon Him. Ungodliness is simply living a life that is the result of thinking that I can do life on my own. Ungodliness is living independently of God.

So, grace teaches me to say no because I finally understand that I can do nothing … life is a gift – a gift that I enjoy in dependent relationship with God.

So, being aware that my desire to define things is trying to rear its ugly head … I simply rest in the realization that I have very little idea of how to consciously, moment by moment live in my “can do nothing” state. Then again, perhaps resting there is the whole point.

Encouragement :: the book

This is one of the best books I’ve ever read. I read a lot – and I also have a tendency to think that anything I’m experiencing at the moment is one of the best the things ever. (I frequently tell Jenifer at dinner that it’s the best meal I’ve ever had – honestly believing what I’m saying. It is truly a great way to live!) However, this book really is good – I promise.

The whole purpose of this blog is to “share the real me” – to be honest and authentic. The inability to openly share the real me is a barrier to real relationships – first with God and then with others.

This book, Encouragement by Larry Crabb and Dan Allender, provides an excellent framework for doing just that – moving past the barriers of what the authors call “surface community” and into encouragement: defined as “the kind of expression that helps someone want to be a better Christian, even when life is rough.” What is so helpful is the balance and context the authors suggest. In chapter 4, “Total Openness: the Wrong Solution”, caution is suggested: “we have cheapened the idea of sharing to the point where sharing now means to exhibit ourselves rather than to demonstrate Christ to one another.” The foundation for fellowship is a commitment to one another and “to depend only on God for the acceptance we need.” Crabb and Allender warn against sharing in order to find acceptance from others but for the purpose of loving others.

I really appreciate this balanced approach. Most often, communities of those desiring to follow Christ either openly share everything with selfish motives (leading to fractured community) or they share nothing (leading to surface relationships) with protective motives. When Christ is the focus and the fulfillment in relationships, a true encouragement can emerge.

The concept of learning to move past the surface to real encouragement is so vital. And, the book is so well written – the complex issues are discussed concisely and in very accessible terms. Give it a read! You won’t be sorry.

A Day in the Life …

Last Saturday was one of those days that took me from a “Sporting Clay Shoot” to raise money for New Day Services in the morning to a Fashion Show in the afternoon that was put on by our good friends, Karl and Belinda Marshall. Can you guess which event was the most comfortable for me? You only get one guess.

Be Not Afraid

“Don’t teach me about politics and government, just tell me who to vote for. Don’t teach me about truth and beauty, just label my music. Don’t teach me how to live like a free man, just give me a new law. Don’t want to know if the answers aren’t easy. So, just bring it down from the mountain to me. I want a new law. Don’t teach me about moderation and liberty. I’d prefer a shot of grape juice. Don’t teach me about loving my enemies. Don’t teach me how to listen to the Spirit, just give me a new law. What’s the use of trading a law you cannot keep for one you can but cannot get you anything. Do not be afraid – do not be afraid …” Derek Webb, New Law

Father, please help me to not be afraid … I desire and long for the freedom of being stripped of all. I want to breathe and live in You more than anything else in the universe. I want You more than …