Not worth fighting for....

I sit in a coffee shop; I listen to the music of a softly played piano coming in over the speakers; I watch people come and go, their footprints an invisible pathway into a thousand doors, a thousand conversations, a thousand roads... These roads trail into lives, into stories of lives that will never be told to the world at large but irrevocably shape us all.  One set of footprints follows a man with long, gray hair, big boots, rough hands.  He sits alone.  He reads.  He crosses his arms and hunches over as though he might somehow protect himself from prying eyes that would trace back along his path to an empty house echoing an empty heart.  Another set follows a young couple, rings on their fingers so fresh their skin has yet to take the shape of the promises they made.  They laugh.  They scroll through their smartphones.  They sit in confident conversation, sunlight streaming into large windows, a whisper of the hope they have as they start this journey together.  Theirs is not the only story.  

As I watch these stories... I wonder what pasts shape the people I see.  I wonder what the future holds and how much that unknown past will shape the future they allow themselves to have.  I wonder how many of them walk this road unsure of their own value, unknowing of how precious and unique and priceless they are.  I wonder how many of them fit these statistics:

50% of American youth will experience the divorce of their parents.

40% of American youth will grow up without a father figure.

How many of them walk this life overshadowed by fatherlessness, whether conciously or unconciously attempting to fill a void that should have been brimming over with love and affirmation?  How many of them unconciously believe the lie: your own father didn't think you were worth fighting for, so why should anyone else?  

But we all have a Father who thought we were fighting for.  We all have a Father whose face isn't turned away, His back the only fading memory we have of what should have been a breaker against the storms of our lives.  We have a Father who doesn't look at us with disappointment or shame or rejection on His face.  Rather, our Father looks at us with compassion, with love, with hope, with sorrow for us and the pain we are experiencing.  This Father is a Father of courage, who in the face of hardship didn't pack His bags to walk out, but to storm into our lives.  In the midst of Hell, He chased after us as we stood in a howling storm, screaming to be heard above the tempest.  As the hurricane grew in power, He cast Himself over us, shutting out the wind and the rain and the debris, taking the abuse, taking the pain, taking the death that storm intended for us.  

And in the silence afterward, in the brokenness of His body that continued to sheild us even in death... His eyes opened, and they looked into ours...and there was not accusation and blame.  There was... there IS... LIFE everlasting and LOVE neverending and HOPE never failing and PURPOSE and MEANING and BEAUTY and all those things we believed life could be when we were young and small and soft and sheltered.

Who is this Father, who would give up all things that we may have all things?  Who is this Father who will never deny us, never walk away, never quit, never be content to leave us where we are and wash His hands of us?

He is known in His Son... the Son who sheltered us in the storm.  The Son who looks on us with His Father's eyes... our Father's eyes.  His son, Jesus the Christ.  Jesus the Messiah.  Jesus, our Immanuel.  Jesus, the Light of the World.  Jesus, the Son of God.  Jesus, the Son of man.  Jesus, the Lion of Judah.  Jesus, the Beginning and the End.  Jesus, the Alpha and Omega.  Jesus, the First and the Last.  Jesus... who has made Himself known to us so we could know His Father.  Our Father.  The Creator of the Universe and the lover of our souls.

"God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins." - 1 John 4:9-10(NRSV) 

A desperately neglected one....

Marriage...it's a word that carries layers of understanding and expectations.  When someone tells you they are "married," it immediately calls to mind a wealth of information.  In it's ideal, God-given state, saying this means, "I am committed to someone outside myself.  I love and cherish another human being above my own well-being and happiness.  In fact, my happiness comes from putting this other human first in my life.  Every decision I make impacts directly and intimately another human being, and so every decision I make necessarily takes into consideration that person and the potential impact on them.  Everything I do takes into consideration that other person, their wants and desires, their joys and sorrows.  This inherently means I will not do things I might have done as a bachelor because my relationship with that person has realigned my priorities.  My desires must be tempered by the knowledge of the other person in my life."

In the same way, the word faith is not a word that stands alone.  Faith is not an end in itself, nor the object of our attention.  Faith describes a relationship, a relationship that is deeper, longer-lasting, and more powerful than even the relationship contained in the word marriage.  When you say "I have faith in Christ" or "I am a Christian" or "I am growing in my faith," you are saying, "By the grace of God, I am committed to someone outside myself.  I love and cherish this man/God, Jesus, above my own well-being and immediate happiness.  In fact, my happiness is defined by putting Him first in my life.  Every decision I make directly and intimately reflects upon this object of love and passion, Jesus.  Therefore, every decision I make necessarily takes into consideration Him and the potential impact it has on our relationship.  Everything I do takes into consideration my Savior, His wants and desires, His joys and sorrows.  This inherently means I will not do things I might have done before I found out about His love for me because our relationship has realigned my priorities.  My desires must be tempered by the knowledge of Jesus' presence in my life."

So in the church, when we say that being a "Christian" is about more than checking your name on the metaphorical attendance roster for Sunday or simply paying lipservice by saying, "I'm a Christian," that's what we mean.  We aren't saying your lifestyle and priorities in any way determine Christ's love for you or provide for your salvation; what we are saying is they say a lot about whether there is a relationship.  Remember what I said about marriage?  How long will that be the definition of your marriage if that other person is the focus of your life for a mere hour a week, no matter how desperately your neglected spouse continues to pursue you?  It will end, not because they walk away... but because you did.  People should be able to tell if you're married.... and they should be able to tell you are in love with Christ.

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit."

 -Galatians 5:22-25(NIV)

A nod to the month: Knowing Love

For Americans, February is the month of love.  However, in a culture where love seems so quickly labeled and disposed of, I want to dig through the pile of candied hearts and remember what God intended love to be.

1 John 3:16a(NIV) states, "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.”

If we want to find out what real love is, we need to look at who Christ is and how He loved.  We need to not only look at His death, which is overwhelming for anyone to think about, but before that, before even His birth as a man.  To begin to understand His love, we need to understand our beginnings, when with mere words, God brought life rushing forth from nothingness.  In this time of humanity’s dawn, it was through Jesus that all things were made (John 1:3).  Imagine that power, that authority, to send whole galaxies spiraling out of the darkness, to light the cradles of stars in the expanse, to send the waters of the earth rushing forth in their millions of gallons, to rear mountains up from the plains with a crack and roar… to weave together the form of man from particles of dust, and with a breath give life through his nostrils. 

Now imagine what it was for him to become a human being.  Imagine lying aside the power to shape the universe and then coming screaming into the world in the cold of the night, into the care of two flawed human beings who did not even have the authority to protect their children from the sword of their government.  Imagine going from the object of worship, to the object of scorn: the questionably conceived child of a teenager from a region of the world that caused others to wonder, “Can anything good come from there?”(John 1:46a)  He would later be called a lunatic, a blasphemer, and even Satan, himself.  Eventually, the very people to whom He had been for centuries promised… would turn Him over to the government they hated to be brutally beaten and hung on a tree to die… a significant act, as in Jewish society a man killed this way was “cursed by God” (Deuteronomy 21:23).

And yet, as Jesus hung dying on the cross, carrying the sins of all mankind personally, alienated from God and tortured physically, Luke records Jesus saying in chapter 23, verse 34, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Love, then… is more than a feeling of passion.  It is treating others better than they deserve.  It is acting lovingly, even when it is not felt.

Not like nature....

The last time I typed a blog entry on the beattitudes, I discussed the concept that those who "hunger and thirst for righteousness...will be filled" by Christ, in whom dwells all the characteristics of God.  Those who "hunger and thirst for righteousness" will be satisfied by the life of Christ in them, who gives Christians the very righteous nature of God, separate from whether they deserve it or not.

It is from the filling with the righteousness of Christ that we are able to understand the next beatitude:

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." - Matthew 5:7(NIV)

I don't know about you, but when I was child, I hated and loved the nature shows.  I loved them because I loved animals!  I loved learning about them, seeing them going about their lives in the wild, interacting with nature and one another.  But it was in that very interaction of animals that I found what I hated about nature shows: watching animals brutalize and kill each other.  I remember watching a show where a stallion killed a foal in his herd because it was dying and the mare wouldn't leave it, slowing down the whole herd.  I remember vividly watching a show about orcas and witnessing a pack of orcas terrorize a grey whale and her calf for six hours, before the calf was so exhausted that the orcas were finally able to cut it off from its mother and drown it.  The worst part was after killing this calf, they only ate the jaw meat and left the rest of the body to float in the middle of the ocean.

As an adult, to a certain extent, I can look at and understand these things.  It's the "circle of life."  This side of the Garden of Eden, animals survive by killing other animals.  By feeding themselves, they feed their own offspring and ensure the continuation of their species.  By killing other animals, they participate in an unintentional "population control," as well as eliminate from the gene pool all but the very best of what a species has to offer, ensuring that the next generation of a species will be stronger than the one that proceeded it.

Yet... animals represent, in this way, the bare minimum of existence.  Kill or be killed.  Look out for number one because number one is all you have.  Stick to your own.  Kill your enemy before they kill you.  Yet, Isaiah 11:6-9(NIV) prophesies that life after Jesus' coming will look much different:

"The wolf will live with the lamb,

    the leopard will lie down with the goat,

the calf and the lion and the yearling together;

    and a little child will lead them.

 

The cow will feed with the bear,

    their young will lie down together,

    and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

 

The infant will play near the hole of the cobra,

    and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest.

 

They will neither harm nor destroy

    on all my holy mountain,

for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord

    as the waters cover the sea."

Just because it works, doesn't mean it is the highest good God has to offer us.  And it is in that thought that I understand the beatitude of Mark 5:7.  Colossians 1:21-22(NLT) reads:

"This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.  Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault."

In other words, Jesus acted AGAINST the law of nature by SAVING human beings, who in their very nature were opposed to all the goodness of God and had no desire to know Him.  He showed us mercy, not killing us (as He easily could have), but showing us love, to the point of His own death.

Because of that mercy He showed us... we are able to show mercy to others.  We, as human beings, are empowered by Christ's actions to act against the laws of nature, which tell us to only be nice to people who are nice to us, which tell us to only do things we want or like to do, which tell us to leave behind anyone who gets in our way or slows us down.  Instead, we understand life like this:

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." 

-1 John 4:10-11(NIV) 

The fullness we hunger for....

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." 

- Matthew 5:6(NIV)

Reading this verse can only be understood in the context of the previous three beattitudes:

1. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." - Matthew 5:3(NIV)
2. "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."- Matthew 5:4(NIV)
3. "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth." - Matthew 5:5(NIV)

As we walk through life and see how broken the world is, as we, ourselves, are broken by the cruelties and horrors human beings commit against one another, as we look into our own hearts and see how often we fail to be the good sort of person we would like to be... we recognize that we, and the world, are incapable of creating paradise on earth.  We are entirely unable to intrinsically and permanently change this world... or ourselves.

The word "righteousness" in Matthew 5:6, is not the same kind of understanding of the word "righteousness" that we have in the English language.  The English understanding of this word makes righteousness a quality that we create within ourselves.  I choose to have good moral character.  I choose to do the right thing.  The English understanding is "self-righteousness," where good behavior is entirely dependent on me.  But wait... don't the previous three beattitudes fly in the face of this definition?  They say we, and the world, are entirely corrupt and unable to change things for the better. 

They do indeed, but the Greek understanding of this little, yet significant, word... has a very different implication.  "Righteousness," from a Biblical understanding... has nothing to do with you.  Righteousness is a characteristic which can only describe the total goodness, justice, and mercy that God, Himself, embodies.  It is, in a word, perfection.  To truly be righteous is to stand before this completely perfect being, who is God, and be absolutely blameless.  God would be unable to find a single fault or character flaw in one who was righteous.

Wow... what a daunting prospect.  When I stand in front of the mirror and look at myself, I don't see a person who would withstand that test.  I see a person who consistently fails to treat others with the respect they deserve, to love others as Christ loved them, to the point of death.  I see a person who never lives up to the standards they have set for themselves, no matter how much they desire to.

Yet what does the second half of verse 6 say?  

"They will be filled."  

And Colossians 2:9(NLT) states:

"For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.^"

And Ephesians 3:16-19(NIV) states:

"I pray...that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

When we "know this love that surpasses knowledge," which is all that Jesus is and has done... we are filled fully with the righteousness we "hunger and thirst" for.  When God looks at us, He does not see the failings and darkness and filth of our less-than-perfect ways of living... He sees perfection: the perfection purchased by the death and resurrection of Jesus.  It is not something we do... but something that Jesus did.

So, rest in peace... and remember this:

"Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.  God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure." 

- Ephesians 1:4-5(NLT)

For whom Christ died....

When I was in my early twenties, I had a revelation about interacting with people.  That revelation was this: just because something someone did was irritating to me or was awkward... didn't mean I had a right to treat them however I wanted.  It didn't even mean there was really anything they were doing that was wrong!  Now, looking that thought over, some of you may think "duh" or "well of course," even I'm thinking that!  After all, I had heard similar statements before and verbally professed agreement with them.  I had never been a bully growing up, nor had I been part of any sort of "exclusive" social group, despite being both a jock/musician/nerd in high school.  Nonetheless... I cannot help but think that I have often in the past lived in disagreement with this, and I see others do this all the time, no matter if they're children or past retirement.  If you're honest with yourself, I think you'll agree you've lived in contradiction to this statement, too, despite your best intentions.  Now how so?

Think of that guy or girl in high school.  You know the one.  They weren't necessarily disliked by anyone... but nor were they really anyone's friend.  They tended to sit by themselves or hang onto the fringes of a social group that they weren't really a part of.  They may have not showered as much as they should; they may have been physically awkward or uncoordinated; they may have been overly talkative about anything and everything or just about that one thing that no one else cared about.  They may have seemed slightly immature for their age; they may have dressed in a way that was very "uncool" or simply unflattering.  Maybe they just had a habit or way or functioning that irritated you.  Whatever the reason, when you got into a conversation with them, one of two things happened:

1. You listened politely, all the while squirming inside, trying to find a way out of the conversation, not really caring what the person said.  If you saw them coming, you would try to find a way to avoid them so you would have to endure spending time with them. Or:
2. The way they talked or acted rapidly irritated you, so you would endure them or get snappish with them until you could get rid of them, then talked with others about how irritating they were and how you couldn't understand why they acted the way they did.

But, if you reflect honestly back on this person's actions, ask yourselves this: is there really anything they said or did that was inherently wrong?  Or were you choosing not to like someone simply because they were outside your comfort zone or sucked at socializing?  I hate to admit that oftentimes I have not spent the time on someone simply because they were socially awkward or inept.  I have subconsciously labeled them as not worth my attention because they didn't fit the picture my society has built in me of how a person should behave and talk.

What does the Bible say about this?  In Romans 12:16(NIV), the Apostle Paul writes, "Live in harmony with one another.  Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.  Do not be conceited."  But the Bible does not stop there.  Our society can concede to this concept at some level.  Of course we should treat people with respect and not judge them just because they're "different."  That's intolerance!

The Bible takes it a step further: 

"Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to what is honorable in the sight of all.  If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.  Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengence is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.'  To the contrary, 'if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by doing so you will heap burning coals on his head.'  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." 

(Romans 12:17-21)

Did you read that?  

"Repay no one evil for evil."

"So far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all."

"Never avenge yourselves."

"If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink."

"Overcome evil with good."

So we're not just talking about befriending the socially rejected kid.  We're talking about treating well:

1. The guy that accelerates so you can't change lanes in traffic and causes you to miss your turn.
2. The woman constantly accelerating and decelerating in front of you because she's too busy on her cell phone.
3. The girl who spreads gossip about you until everyone in the school knows your embarrassing secret.
4. The girlfriend or boyfriend who has betrayed your trust.
5. The parent who has chosen their career or other things over you or your family.

Wow!  These are hard things!!  How are we to do all this?  Philippians 2:13(NIV) says, "it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."  You are made able to do all this because GOD HIMSELF is working in your heart to make you capable of desiring to do what He has called you to.  He has not given us this incredibly difficult calling in a vacuum and then left us to figure out how to make it work. Rather, He sent Jesus to actually SHOW us how the Christian life is to be lived:

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

    did not consider equality with God  something to be grasped,

 

but made himself nothing,

    taking the very nature of a servant,

    being made in human likeness.

 

And being found in appearance as a man,

    he humbled himself

    and became obedient to death—

        even death on a cross!"

(Philippians 2:5-8)

What is more, Paul wrote in Romans 8:9b(ESV), "The Spirit of God dwells in you."  He hasn't left you high and dry, trying to figure out how to emulate Christ, but He has actually entered into your heart to be present with you every day and help you "discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." (Romans 12:2b)  So when you face that socially awkward person, or that person who has genuinely hurt you... God is facing them with you, giving you the ability to treat them with kindness, no matter if they deserve it or not.

I close with this final note: this does not mean you have to be best friends with everyone you encounter.    Should you be inviting over for sleepovers people that hurt and abuse you emotionally?  That's not what this passage is asking.  Instead, the passage is telling us that no matter how others treat us, we have a choice to treat them better than they treat us.  If someone treats you disrespectfully, confront them on it!  But when you do it, do it with kindness and respect.  No insults, no cut-downs, just truth, remembering always that they, like you, are someone for whom Christ died.

What we refuse to believe...

The word "love" appears approximately 551 in the NIV translation of the Bible.  If I look up the word "love" in a Bible search, I find verses like these:

• "In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed.  In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling." - Exodus 15:13(NIV)
• "And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, 'The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin." - Exodus 34:6-7a(NIV)
• "In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.” - Numbers 14:19(NIV)
• "But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery." - Deuteronomy 7:8(NIV)
• "If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer.  The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul." - Deuteronomy 13:1-3(NIV)
• "Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders." - Deuteronomy 33:12b(NIV)
• "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever." - 1 Chronicles 16:34(NIV)
• "But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation." - Psalm 13:5(NIV)
• "The unfailing love of the Most High he will not be shaken." - Psalm 21:7b(NIV)
• "Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies." - Psalm 36:5(NIV)
• "For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths of the grave." - Psalm 86:13(NIV)
• "Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you." - Isaiah 54:10(NIV)
• "Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail." - Lamentations 3:22(NIV)
• "The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” - Zephaniah 3:17(NIV)
• “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." - John 3:16-17(NIV)
• “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." - John 13:34(NIV)
• "If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." -John 15:9(NIV)
•  ^"I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.  Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.^{" - John 17:23-24(NIV)}
• ^"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:8(NIV)
• "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:35&37-39(NIV)
• "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." - Galatians 2:20(NIV)

There are so many more passages.  Passages that fill me up no matter where I am in my life.  I think you see the point:

GOD LOVES YOU!!!

There is nothing - ABSOLUTELY nothing - that can stop, change, reverse, compromise, undo, damage, destroy, halt, or any other synonym that!  Don't you know that when God was sitting around, doing whatever God did before He created this place, He was fully, completely, intimately, and totally aware of the exact depths of your worst possible thoughts and actions?  Don't you know He saw the lies you would tell, the people you would have sex with, the drugs you would do, the tests you would cheat on, the laws you would break, the love you would deny others, the horrible, corrupt, evil things you would do over and over and over again, even though you knew, deep down, that you shouldn't??  YES!  God SAW those things!  And you know what???

HE STILL CREATED YOU!!!!

JESUS STILL CAME!!!

AND HE STILL DIED!!!

Why?

BECAUSE YOU ARE WORTH IT!

I leave you with one last passage.  One that has meant so much to me.  It is Ephesians 3:16-19(NIV), and my prayer for you today:

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."