:: in.a.mirror.dimly ::

When trying to figure out what I should give up for Lent, I’ve decided to make a list of what I can’t live without and to pick one item from that list. However, this season I ran into an interesting twist.

I began to think of what I’m longing for—what I lack and desire but have not been able to find.

My list of things I can’t live without would include my computer, the internet, social media, coffee, nice pens, nice journals, etc. However, I realized that this Lent I needed to create some boundaries in order to cultivate space where certain things could happen that have not been happening lately.

I think my professional life has some decent boundaries in and of itself, but the problem is that my professional life has crept into my personal time. Since I’m working on writing and speaking full time, it’s very hard to know when to stop—and I rarely stop once evening comes.

My wife always looks at me in shock on the few occasions when I sit on the couch reading a book. That is not good.

I need to stop more. I need to create some boundaries from the internet and my work. I need sacred space.

While I admire those who are giving up social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter for Lent, my larger problem is when I fritter my time away on social media, blogs, and web stuff in the evening when I should relax, pray, read, or let a rabbit climb all over me. I don’t feel like these things invade my professional life too much, but they are a problem at home.

So this Lent I’m creating two boundaries.

The first is a space of roughly 20 minutes each day for worship. This means worship music, prayer, or whatever. Some of this needs to be time specifically set apart for worship without any other distractions, but I’m also planning to focus on playing worship music while working throughout the day.

The other is a 6 PM internet cut off time. After 6 PM I am not allowed online, save for the few occasions when I’ll have to check my e-mail for something important. Even then, I’ll only use my wife’s computer where I don’t have any social media or blog settings saved—and it’s frittering my time away on social media and blogs that I’m far more worried about.

It’s already been wonderful. I fought off the urge last night to go online, even if Lent hadn’t begun, and enjoyed reading and journaling for a few hours. One rabbit hopped onto my lap and furiously licked my jeans and the pillow next to me.

I have a feeling that Lent is going to be wonderful for my soul… and my rabbits.

The debate about the Tim Tebow commercial set to air during the Super Bowl has been completely off base if you ask me. Boo hoo, the Super Bowl has an advertisement for something that may be vaguely political instead of beer bottles with helmets, women being sexually harassed by men, and retro hippie commercials with new soda cans.

I think I’ll get over that.

The Tebow story is a very inspiring and good story. It’s a story that should be shared. I’m glad that Tebow and his mother are sharing it. However, the way it’s been done reveals something very troubling about the priorities of Christians, how we deal with problems in our society, and how Christians today think of allocating resources.

I’m not going to argue against abortion being a serious issue for us to deal with today. There are poor pregnant women who can’t afford to support a child and then there are wealthy women who don’t want to have a child, and we need to talk about real solutions that will help women who may feel like they don’t have many options at this time in their lives while saving the unborn. Yes, we should stop abortion.

Sadly, the Tim Tebow commercial reveals that Christians are making several key oversights when it comes to saving lives today.

Our Priorities

The Super Bowl commercial is generally aimed at affluent Americans, though perhaps some poor folks may be watching as well. However, by and large, if you figure out the demographics that most advertisers are aiming for, you can guess that the Tebow commercial aims to convince middle to upper middle class voters (those relatively well off) that they should not have abortions or support legislation that permits abortion.

Whether this is an intended oversight or not, the message is particularly striking at a time when charities such as World Vision are in an all-out struggle to save lives down in Haiti. In addition, by tossing so much money at a particular demographic, the poor are not made into the kind of priority spoken of in passages such as Luke 4:18-21 or Matthew 11:2-6. Success in the Kingdom of God is synonymous with declaring the Good News to and ministering among the poor.

Ministry in Society

This ad also shows that overall Christians have chosen to speak to our culture on a large platform in an impersonal and hands off manner. Rather than taking the personally costly road of directly helping the women considering an abortion, it’s much easier to write a check, let someone preach the message, and then throw our hands up in despair when no one listens.

The ministry of Jesus was incarnational and costly. In Philippians 2 Paul speaks of Jesus who emptied himself and took on the form of a servant. A Super Bowl commercial is a big platform that does not require us to empty anything other than a bank account.

Allocating Our Resources

Lastly, the Tebow commercial brings up a matter of stewardship. The organizers of this commercial no doubt wanted to save lives, and for that I commend them. However, is this the best we can do with the resources at hand?

Three million dollars were tossed into an ad campaign that will most likely only harden support either for or against abortion without changing many minds or saving many lives. We can debate that, but hear me out: there are children in Haiti who need basic food and water to survive, tribes in Africa who needs wells, and malnourished children all over the world who could benefit greatly by a three million dollar investment.

If we only want to talk about ending abortion, then I’d ask whether this money would be better spent by creating medical clinics for financially struggling mothers. There are a lot of clinics I know of who would love a little bit of that money to purchase an ultrasound machine or to add a few doctors to their staff. Since health care in America isn’t quite as important as funding a war to drop bombs on terrorists hanging out in caves, I think that’s the least we could do.

A bunch of right-wing Christians opening medical clinics so that the poor can have health care may just shock enough “godless liberals” with our love and generosity that they’ll want to find out about Jesus for themselves.

Grace on Game Day

I want to make clear that I’m not necessarily mad at Tebow or Focus on the Family. I’m sad. This is a terrible opportunity to waste. It’s sad to think that three million dollars could be spent for the sake of thirty seconds of air time while there are so many pressing problems among the poor in America, Haiti, and around the world.

I’m also sad that there isn’t a more robust debate about the message of Jesus and it relates to the way we allocate our resources. Instead, we hear about whether we should be tolerant or intolerant of the political end of this message. To be frank, I don’t care about that in the least.

The Tebow commercial reveals that we have some priorities out of line, and I don’t give myself a free pass on this by any means. It’s a constant struggle to keep my priorities in line. As we watch the Tebow commercial I suggest we stop to think about how we use our resources, how we minister to others, and how we can strive to imitate the costly, personal ministry of Christ.

My review disclaimer: I received this book as part of a blog review program. And by the way, I’m doing very, very few book reviews in the future after I wrap up the five or six books I have lined up for the next few months since I’m focusing on doing more series based on books of the Bible. I’m just saying.

I was sent a copy of Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert’s book after a publicist at Moody Press noticed my review of Richard Stearn’s The Hole in Our Gospel. I have found that this book, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself, is a great next step after reading Stearn’s rallying cry.

The problem is that many Christians want to help the poor, but the ways we aim to help often end up creating situations where we devalue the poor and create dependence on outside resources. Oftentimes charity work takes the form of relief work without progressing into phases of rehabilitation and community-lead development.

Never lacking for stories and detailed explanations, this is a great book for Christian leaders, charity ministries, volunteers, and anyone who is interested in donating time or money toward poverty alleviation. The chapter on short-term mission trips should be mandatory reading for every youth pastor. In addition, this book gave me both a greater understanding of what it looks like to help eradicate poverty and the encouragement to realize, “Holy cow! This is possible!”

Though this book strays more toward the reference category with its systematic approach and explanations of each facet of helping the poor, to the person involved in charitable work in any form or planning to start such a ministry, this book will be a motivational life-saver, if not a page-turner.

The authors wear their Calvinism on their sleeves throughout the book, even in creating a definition for poverty alleviation that has a heavy dose of the Westminster Confession to it. I’m not quite sure I’d use their definition word for word because I’d want to emphasize more about joining in the Kingdom of God and the extension of the rule of Christ. However, that’s more of a theological quibble that I have since I’m not a Calvinist—though I deeply appreciate much about that theological system.

Though the theology of the authors pops up at some interesting places throughout the book, I can’t imagine most readers would take issue with it. It’s certainly not a deal breaker.

I’m glad there are so many great books out right now about poverty alleviation and serving among the poor. My favorite remains The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborn, though if you’re looking for a practical guide to serving among the poor, this is a tough book to top. I highly recommend it. In light of the situation in Haiti, I suggest that this book is a very good place for Christians who are new to relief work and alleviating poverty.

Read a sample chapter today.

In my book Coffeehouse Theology I spent a lot of time explaining how theology is developed in Christian community with an awareness of context under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, scripture, and tradition. While it matters a great deal to keep all of these pieces in view, the physical location where we form theology is a part of context that perhaps doesn’t receive the attention it deserves, especially in light of its influence.

When we speak about context we often focus on philosophy, pop culture, and shared values—the shared values and experiences that color our view of the world. The other part of context is a our physical location, whether in a city, in the country, in a wealthy neighborhood, or among the poor.

This was driven home for me over the past weekend while speaking in a church meeting at a prison. Whenever you speak about freedom, authority, or Roman soldiers oppressing the Israelites, inmates have a tendency to add their own interpretive spin that doesn’t always help them submit themselves to God, one another, and secular authority. By the same token, whether I speak among those who minister among the poor or those in the suburbs, there are different concerns to address and adjustments to make in application.

Having several different locations to think through my theology has pulled me out of my shell, forcing me to challenge my assumptions and opening up fresh meanings and applications for the biblical text.

While preparing to speak in a church in a relatively impoverished area this was driven home particularly strong when I thought about the way John the Baptist started his ministry in the wilderness, far away from the political and religious epicenters of his day. In fact, the one thing we notice in the Gospels about those with authority, whether in religion or government, they can twist, tame, and challenge the message of God’s coming Kingdom to fit their own agenda.

Jesus wasn’t even allowed to heal a man on the Sabbath according to them. When he did, the Gospel of Mark tells  us that the religious leaders plotted against him with the help of those affiliated with the government. That should be give us pause before we strive for religious power and authority.

By preparing to speak to people on the margins of our society I saw these familiar texts in new ways. I realized that I need to not only question my experiences, values, and philosophical assumptions, but also the very place where I’m forming that theology and the challenges of that particular location. In doing that we will find God speaking to us in fresh ways and opening our eyes to the riches found in scripture.

I’ve read about Paul boasting of weaknesses, but it has become increasingly clear to me that everything we count as a weakness or past failure is an opportunity for God to not only heal us, but for us to share that healing with others. We boast about our weaknesses because they remind us of our need for God and the power of God in our lives.

No matter how hard I try to forget it, God has a way of bringing up our insufficiencies, while overwhelming us with his love and sufficiency. I experienced this directly over the weekend.

While speaking at a church I mentioned some of my struggles with fear and anxiety. It kicks in at predictable moments, but on other occasions I become keyed up and nervous without necessarily realizing what has caused it.

To make a long story short, my family prayed for me, God’s Spirit filled the room and all of us, and I sensed that God’s Kingdom was advancing into that area of my life, breaking the power of fear. The verse, “God has not given us a spirit of fear (or timidity)” came to mind, a constant reminder of God’s power and the simple fact that he does not want us to live in fear. He gives us a Spirit of confidence, a Spirit that makes us God’s sons and daughters.

And so after the service someone mentioned having similar struggles with fear and anxiety. I know the feelings all too well: the tension in the chest and the shortness of breath. I felt deeply burdened to pray, so Julie, myself, and a few others prayed for this person. Once again, God’s Spirit showed up powerfully.

In reality, I had nothing much to offer this person. However, since God’s Spirit brought healing into my life, I have a gift I can freely share with others. As I celebrate my weakness and inability to overcome anxiety and fear on my own, I can celebrate the power of God and freely pass it on to others.

I used to challenge and debunk what people believe about God if it didn’t line up with what I understood to be biblical truth. I don’t do that so much anymore.

I’ve run into Christians who have tried to convert me to their version of Christianity and have found such an aggressive approach more of a turn-off than an effective way to win someone over. In fact, I have begun to wonder if the aggressive proselytizing done by Christians is actually turning more people away from the faith than to it.

We don’t have statistics for that.

However, we can talk to people, and that’s something I’ve done. The vast majority of people find our methods very closed-minded, unappealing, and even dangerous to society.

So what should we do? What should we say? How should we say it?

For starters, I’d like to suggest that we drop the pressure down a notch, viewing each conversation as part of a process, trusting God to the ultimate results. The Holy Spirit is at work, we have something to contribute to the process, but we may only be the ones planting some seeds and ideas.

And if we take the farming idea further, we could think of ourselves meeting with people who have some correct and false notions of God. Our job is to help them weed out the false ideas and to nurture the correct ideas. We’re pointing them to the truth, perhaps gently pointing out the issues with some false notions of God, and encouraging them to nurture that which best reflects God.

My goal after speaking with people is to leave them eager to find out more about Jesus. Sometimes I’m overwhelmed with the love and grandeur of God, and I want as many people to experience that as possible. When I speak with someone who doesn’t have that kind of relationship with God, I do what I can to help them see the possibilities, to help them see how badly they need God.

Nevertheless, I firmly believe that I don’t serve a manipulative God who forces himself upon us. He often describes himself as a lover who is jealous of our affairs with false gods. That should give us pause and help us think about how we tell others about how we share God with others.

I have constructed a premise that the Gospel is good news we proclaim , demonstrate, and describe (through stories that is), rather than a call for proselytizing rife with pressure and warnings about sin, judgment, and hell.

There are subtle differences between the approach to evangelism that I was taught—and now reject—and my current approach. To help us on our way, I’d like you to forget for a moment everything you know about evangelism.

Let’s imagine for a moment that you have a friend who practices Islam.

Scenario A: Your friend tells you that Allah loves him and that Allah in fact loves you as well. The only thing separating you from Allah is your own choice to go your own way. However, if you repent and follow Allah, you will be able to enjoy the love of Allah both now and for all eternity rather than risk separation from Allah.

Let’s adopt a slightly different approach now…

Scenario B: Your friend tells you that Allah has marked you as an infidel who is an outcast from his true people. In fact, you have made Allah very angry with your sin and could be cast into hell for all eternity if you don’t believe in Allah. However, if you do believe in Allah, you will enjoy the love of Allah.

Which message would you be more likely to respond to?

Which message sounds like good news?

Let there be no mistake here: everything hinges on getting this right. This is the single most important thing for Christians, and to be perfectly frank, sometimes we’re severely distorting the Gospel. We have the message out of order, we place the emphasis in the wrong places, and we have inadvertently turned the good news primarily into bad news about an angry deity who wants to send people to hell.

On the contrary, God desires that all people be saved, even if we have all sinned and turned from God, following our own way. God wants this to happen so badly that he has come to earth and set up shop: the Kingdom of God is here. God is coming to live with his creation, and if we want to have a part in that, we need to turn from our sins and follow Jesus. Jesus has created the path to God through his life, death, and resurrection, while the Holy Spirit enables us to enjoy the new life God gives.

Are there consequences for not believing in this message? Of course there are. We don’t know exactly what that will look like for all eternity, but the warnings are there in scripture. However, the point of the Good News is that while we still have light, while it is still the day of salvation, we have a wonderful message to proclaim, demonstrate, and describe.

Dmitry Orlov, author of The Collapse Gap, offers his unique perspective on the American economy. He doesn’t think the stimulus plan will work and offers the following analysis:

Starting from the very general, what are the current macroeconomic objectives, if you listen to the hot air coming out of Washington at the moment? First: growth, of course! Getting the economy going. We learned nothing from the last huge spike in commodity prices, so let’s just try it again. That calls for economic stimulus, a.k.a. printing money. Let’s see how high the prices go up this time. Maybe this time around we will achieve hyperinflation. Second: Stabilizing financial institutions: getting banks lending – that’s important too. You see, we are just not in enough debt yet, that’s our problem. We need more debt, and quickly! Third: jobs! We need to create jobs. Low-wage jobs, of course, to replace all the high-wage manufacturing jobs we’ve been shedding for decades now, and replacing them with low-wage service sector jobs, mainly ones without any job security or benefits. Right now, a lot of people could slow down the rate at which they are sinking further into debt if they quit their jobs. That is, their job is a net loss for them as individuals as well as for the economy as a whole. But, of course, we need much more of that, and quickly!

He goes on to say…

So, what is there for them to do? Forget “growth,” forget “jobs,” forget “financial stability.” What should their realistic new objectives be? Well, here they are: food, shelter, transportation, and security. Their task is to find a way to provide all of these necessities on an emergency basis, in absence of a functioning economy, with commerce at a standstill, with little or no access to imports, and to make them available to a population that is largely penniless. If successful, society will remain largely intact, and will be able to begin a slow and painful process of cultural transition, and eventually develop a new economy, a gradually de-industrializing economy, at a much lower level of resource expenditure, characterized by a quite a lot of austerity and even poverty, but in conditions that are safe, decent, and dignified. If unsuccessful, society will be gradually destroyed in a series of convulsions that will leave a defunct nation composed of many wretched little fiefdoms. Given its largely depleted resource base, a dysfunctional, collapsing infrastructure, and its history of unresolved social conflicts, the territory of the Former United States will undergo a process of steady degeneration punctuated by natural and man-made cataclysms.

Reference

I’ve been wondering if such a scenario is the case. Obama’s language is focusing on growth and getting the economy back to normal, and I don’t believe that is realistic. We’ve pushed our economy to the limit and now it’s contracting. The solution then isn’t to push it back to the brink, but to find a new “norm” for the economy.

That leaves me thinking about Christian communities and churches in this downturn. Could it be that Christians can help lead the way by thinking of using church land to grow food for their congregations and even the larger community, to pool resources so we can break out of our personal consumption downward spiral, and to even explore the possibility of sharing homes or at least property to defray living costs.

It stands to reason that the people whose treasure is in heaven should find a way to thrive and to even lead the way forward in this economic crisis?

While visiting my hometown of Philly this fall I was chatting with a friend of mine who lives in the city with a community of peacemakers. We were discussing the various Christian groups in the city, and you can’t talk about that without mentioning Shane Claiborn, the Tony Campolo inspired, Jesus-driven ordinary radical who has done so much to bring justice and equality to the poor of the city and worldwide.

My friend mentioned that Shane makes his own clothes, which explains why he always seemed to be wearing a t-shirt in pictures. Shane seems to have a problem with the possibility of underpaid children making his clothing and consumer spending.

Gulp.

Yeah, so this global economy can be a real bummer sometimes.

I’ve made up my mind that for now I’m going to unplug myself partially from the system, but for the time being I don’t see a way to keep my current job and stop buying decent clothes. I also have  yet to find fair-trade clothing. Even white t-shirts are impossible to find, and t-shirts are often made with cotton from India where farmers are underpaid and gradually go insane from the pesticides drenched on the cotton. They call cotton the suicide crop… It’s not pretty. Oh, and the earth is getting trashed too.

So I’ve been thinking about ways to obey that scripture about doing justice, loving, mercy, and walking humbly with God. It’s generally pretty easy to walk humbly with God when you have insecurities and anxiety—Yay for weaknesses we can boast about. However the justice bit can be a tad more difficult.

Dare I care about the poor cotton farmers who are killing themselves just to make my shirts?

It’s a tough one when there aren’t a ton of alternatives. I’ll keep up the search for fair-trade cotton, keep my clothes as long as I can, and continue to frequent the church rummage sales. However, I can’t figure out a way to cut myself off from the system completely yet.

Thankfully there are pioneers out there like Shane who are blazing trails that the rest of us can follow, even if we do a fraction of the program, they have something to teach us. One of these pioneers is Jenna Woginrich, a writer and web designer who lives on her own little sustainable farm and makes her own things, pulling out of the consumer lifestyle.

Her book documenting her home-made switch is called Made from Scratch: Discovering the Pleasure of Handmade Life.

There are plenty of reasons why a book like this is worth reading. For our own sake, we need to save money and live simply. Our consumer economy is also not sustainable for the long-term, so we need to figure out ways to sustain ourselves other than working longer hours.

However, there are moral dimensions here worth exploring, especially if you’re a Christian who believes the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. Production itself is causing pollution, to say nothing of the justice concerns with working conditions for many laborers. I’m not saying we need to unplug completely or that overseas labor equals abuse, however we need to carefully think through the implications of our purchases. Sometimes we may not be able to avoid it, but I’m thankful that someone like Jenna can give us stories about alternative ways to live.

One of the neat things about this book by Jenna is she lives a few minutes away from us in the next town over. In fact, her book is for sale at the local general store. I think I’ll need to purchase her book…

… Although, I could make my own book from scratch. (sorry for the lame author joke)

Every celebrity athlete seems to have some kind of diet plan or workout guide, and every self-help expert faces the temptation of writing a book with principles for healthy living, ways to love the real you.

With the holidays, we face the temptation of falling prey to high calorie desserts and the potential mess of giving or receiving the wrong kinds of presents. It seems we need an authoritative word on the holidays to save us from such a terrible fate: extra pounds and expensive presents we can’t return.

Thankfully Jesus is on the job.

After healing throngs of people along the Sea of Galilee, he shared the following guide to holiday happiness:

Looking at his disciples, he said:

Blessed are you who are poor,

for yours is the kingdom of God.

Blessed are you who hunger now,

for you will be satisfied.

Blessed are you who weep now,

for you will laugh.

Blessed are you when men hate you,

when they exclude you and insult you

and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.

Matters become decidedly dicey in the following verses (Luke 6:23-26) for us affluent folks in America, so we’ll pass on that part for now. Besides, we want to know how to have a blessed holiday season, and Jesus makes the path to blessings as plain as day: poverty, hunger, weeping, and exclusion because of following Jesus.

We don’t have to buy or own presents to be blessed.

We don’t have to be stuffed with food to be blessed.

We don’t have to be happy to be blessed.

We don’t have to be part of the in-crowd to be blessed.

It’s kind of relieving if you ask me. Late night shopping trips aren’t necessary. Buying those expandable pants isn’t going to happen. And we don’t have to worry about family conflict ruining the holidays. That is, if we are willing to follow Jesus.

Jesus essentially says the American dream or our holiday narrative will not bring the blessings we are looking for. In fact, there’s a sense in which the pursuit of food, happiness, and satisfaction in material things may well wreck us. When our treasure is stored up with God, then we will have something to rejoice about and then we will have what we truly need.

And so what should we do with this challenge from Jesus? I wonder if there are people we know who are mourning or just lonely who need support this time of year. Can we help out a poor family by picking them up some gifts? Can we contact a local nonprofit organization and offer to help out during the holidays? Can we make an extra shopping trip to help out the local food cupboard?

I think it’s wonderful to give gifts to friends and family, but if we don’t have time to do these things, the things that Jesus says are most important, then perhaps we’re missing out on God’s blessings for us, to say nothing of the blessings we’re holding back from others. I’m hardly a saint with a long history of sacrificial giving, but in my limited experience, giving in the ways that Jesus recommends always brings blessings back. These are not material rewards mind you, but rather a sense of true joy that I have helped someone. And while I’m doing the work that Jesus asked me to do, I forget about my problems, about the traffic, about the sales, and about the stress at work.

When Jesus asks us to follow him, leaving the pursuits of this world behind to receive the life he gives, there is a sense in which we will have to lose some of the things this world has to offer. But he is never lacking in blessings.