:: In.a.Mirror.Dimly ::

Yesterday I discussed some reasons why Christians fail to serve others. I’m following that post today by addressing some bad reasons for serving others.

I can think of a bunch of bad reasons to serve others. As important as it is to step outside of ourselves and to meet the needs of others, we could end up exhausting ourselves serving for the wrong reasons.

Guilt

It’s easy to say, “We should not serve out of guilt,” but identifying the feelings associated with guilt that drive us is a challenge. Are we worried about what others will think of us? Are we fearful of what God will make of us?

Guilt keeps us insulated within ourselves—serving to alleviate a personal fear or obligation. It prevents us from seeing others and disconnects us from the gifts and passions that God has given us. In fact, guilt distracts us from the guiding voice of God’s Spirit altogether. When we lose sight of those we are serving, we can do a great deal of harm to them.

Undirected Obedience

We can know in our heads that we ought to serve others, and then take action out of obedience. However, are we truly living in obedience to God if we just latch onto the first chance to serve others?

While we may do some good in this way, we will be more effective, fulfilled, and in relationship with God if we first figure out where God wants us to serve and how he wants to channel our skills and desires before jumping onto something.

We should not confuse action with obedient action. The latter discerns God’s leading and then acts accordingly.

Spiritual Credibility

In Matthew 25 Jesus made it abundantly clear what his followers would do: feed the hungry, clothe the poor, and visit the sick and imprisoned. I’ve had to search my own heart as I explore ways to follow this picture of faithfulness that Jesus painted. Am I serving from a God-given burden or out of a desire to appear spiritually credible?

These are fine lines I’m drawing, and I would never point at someone’s service and accuse them of this. I’m basing this last one largely on my own experiences of wanting to be faithful, but also feeling that selfish tug in my own heart to appear more authentic or whatever.

I sincerely believe we can do the right things for the wrong reasons and make a mess of them. Though followers of Jesus face challenges, their calling is one that is characterized by joy, love, and peace, which are all things that don’t mesh with serving to prop up a facade.

Tomorrow’s Post

So now that we have an idea of why we shouldn’t serve, tomorrow I’ll dig into some good reasons to serve others, including the important role that service plays in the normal Christian life.

When I pray and set aside quiet time to be with the Lord, I sometimes make a huge mistake. As I seek the Lord and fellowship with him, I become fixated on experiencing him.

I want the Spirit of God to come upon me, and my goal is to somehow validate my relationship with God or to prove that he’s true. It’s a kind of therapeutic, self-help, feel-good experience of God that really has little to do with God and everything to do with me.

God provides us ways to guard ourselves from this outlook, and I’m working on cultivating these as disciplines.

First of all, when we enter God’s presence with praise and adoration (as in the “A” in the ACTS prayer guide), we take our focus off ourselves. As we praise God, we break away from our focus from our concerns about money, insecurity, or disappointments in life.

Secondly, we can remain open to hearing from God in order to do the work that he has called us to. It is striking in scripture that with the Spirit usually comes some kind of commission or action to pursue.

Sometimes it’s as simple as, “Pray for this person.” Other times I need to stop obsessing about something. And then there may come a pretty huge, life-altering mission.

When the Spirit came on Isaiah, he didn’t just bask in the warm, holy goodness of God. In Isaiah 61:1, we read that he was anointed to preach the good news to the poor. This meant that Isaiah had to change his plans dramatically.

Seeking out God’s Spirit can result in a life-changing moment. We may never be the same. The status quo may be redefined. Are we willing to risk that when we seek the Lord and the presence of his Spirit?

This Thursday’s post is part of the Thursday Faith Jam over at Bonnie Gray’s Faith Barista blog.

It seems like another lifetime ago, but I once wanted to be a pastor—ideally in a new church plant. I’m certainly wired to be a pastor in many ways, but while I attended seminary my plan fell to pieces.

I respect pastors and my friends who choose to be pastors. I know some who are doing it well, but I recognized that putting myself into a traditional pastoral role was the sure path to a melt down or worse. As I volunteered and worked in churches, I realized that my supposed purpose in life had a “Do Not Enter” sign.

What to do with myself and my now terminal MDiv degree?

I’d always enjoyed writing. At the age of 12 I filled up my “anything book,” which was a notebook we could write in whenever we had down time in school. In high school my teachers encouraged me to keep writing. In college I studied literature. In seminary I planned to work on books on the side while leading a church.

Is writing my purpose?

My plan B purpose became Plan A.

The trouble with figuring out God’s purpose is the balance between being proactive while waiting for God to lead. We can’t do “nothing,” but we don’t want to just do something just for the sake of keeping ourselves busy.

A little over a year ago a friend called me with a very specific word from God. “Let the Holy Spirit lead you to your next book.” I’ve been trying to let go, to listen, to allow myself to be led. Here are a few things I’ve been learning throughout this process:

Managing Expectations

I often ask questions such as: Do I have to know all of the details? Will the way forward be clear? What will become of me if I fail to discern it? Am I expecting God to speak or to send me in a particular way?

Sometimes figuring out God’s purpose for our lives involves a mix of faith and flexibility, of determination and patience. The pieces may not fall into place in the timing or shape that we expect.

Learning to Listen

So many of our problems with guilt, uncertainty, and judgment come from a misunderstanding of listening to God. You and I are called to listen for God’s lead, to determine his purpose for us, and to act on it. That’s really simplistic, but it’s generally true.

Do you feel guilty? Perhaps you’re not judging yourself based on God’s purpose for yourself. Are you judging another person? Perhaps you don’t understand the ways this person is trying to be faithful to God. Are you uncertain about your own actions or the actions of others? Trust God to lead you with his wisdom.

Experiencing Peace Amidst Uncertainty

There is a tension in seeking God’s purpose. We may have enough light to take a few steps forward, but then the rest is obscured. This uncertainty is actually a gift because we have an opportunity to find peace in God rather than our circumstances.

Taking the long view of eternity, learning to rest in God’s presence is the one skill that we’ll need to take with us. 

Taking Steps of Obedience

As we determine God’s purpose for our lives, we may find God calling us in directions that are unappealing. I’ve fought and argued with God over his purpose for my life. I become frustrated sometimes. On one occasion I finally let go of my bitterness and anger and just about fell out of my chair in grief.

The process isn’t always pretty, but at the end of the day it’s all going to boil down to you, God, and whether you were faithful, as in, living an obedient life of faith. That’s a challenge, but we serve a God who has our best in mind. It’s hard to trust him sometimes, especially when we can compile evidence to the contrary.

However, there has been one constant that I continue to learn about God: he is passionate and caring for his people. If you’re reaching out to him in any way or have any inkling of interest in God, that’s because he’s reaching out to you with love that you cannot imagine or measure.

A New Series…

You know how most Christians tend to have the same problems and many of them sort of persist?

They’re the elephants in the room when we get together. Even if we don’t struggle with particular sins or Christian disciplines, we may counsel plenty of friends who have these struggles.

A few months back I decided to write up a kind of survival guide for overcoming these common threats to our Christian walks. These sins, doubts, fears, and short-comings can nibble away out our faith and keep us from intimacy with God, following Jesus daily, and completing the mission he has given us here on earth to proclaim his Kingdom.

The solutions are there. God’s power is available for us. So it’s time to challenge our doubts, short-comings, and fears. It’s time to lay hold of his power for us and to embrace the fullness of life Jesus promised us.

Let’s begin…

Part of One of “You Can’t Stop Sinning”

You know that guy at work who rarely does his job. He mocks you and the other peons who slave away while he plays games on his computer and shuffles papers, somehow convincing your boss that he’s a valuable asset. And so you get together with your colleagues while the coffee is brewing and talk about that sniveling, lazy jerk and his long, crooked nose.

Talk is too sedate a word for it. You slam him. You roast him alive like a fat pig. You make him the butt of your jokes and the target of your slander. He’s the worst kind of person and you always feel better about yourself whenever you’re done tearing into him.

And yet, you know deep down that a Christian shouldn’t mock this man’s character, lacking though it may be. And perhaps you shouldn’t make fun of the way he eats his hard-boiled eggs, the way he slurps his coffee, or the way he shoves his wispy black hair away from his forehead with a brush of his hand. No, the Christian way is to love this man rather than insulting him behind his back.

The tongue being a restless evil aside, you still think he kind of deserves it. It’s just words after all. Really, you haven’t done anything all that terrible. And as you hide behind justifications, you arrive at the real truth of the matter. You don’t want to stop slandering him. In fact, you can’t stop. It’s natural, easy, and feels good, as if you can undo his grievances against you by the power of your words.

But perhaps you haven’t struggled with words. Perhaps your struggle is with lusting after a neighbor along your block. He or she often walks past your house in the evening, and you find yourself thinking about this person in very inappropriate ways. It may be the scent of his cologne that lingers or that titillating blouse she wears that sparks your imagination and leaves you burning.

While you’re alone at home he sneaks into your thoughts with a seductive look or when you’re driving home from work your heart beats a little faster at the thought of seeing her today. This infatuation is both terrifying and wonderful, fulfilling some deep-seated desires that crave to be fulfilled even if they seem endless in their demands. You can’t help but give in to them because you’re not really hurting anyone, and worse than that, you don’t feel like you can resist them. The urges are too strong, your will too weak, and those exciting moments of surrender to lust are too exciting.

In either scenario, sin has taken hold and become a master of sorts. It isn’t that slander and lust are harmless sources of fun and fulfillment that God doesn’t want you to have. It’s that you’re actually enslaved to them, letting them control you, shape you into a different sort of person, and keeping you from the good things God has planned for you. When sin becomes an irresistible force that we cannot fight, we have a tremendous problem that must be addressed without delay.

The next post in this series will deal with sin and our information problem…

I used to drive eleven hours from my dad’s house in New Jersey to my college, Taylor University, in Indiana. Eleven hours that I usually drove by myself.

I was kind of nuts. It was all about minimizing stops for gas and the bathroom, while keeping my speed as high as legally possible. I was a blathering mess by the time I arrived, but if I could shave off a few minutes, it was all totally worth it. Really, my friends didn’t know what to do with me after I arrived at Taylor.

While driving I’d also get a Caesar salad and a frosty from Wendy’s. If I was really living it up, I’d snag some chicken nuggets. Don’t ask how I ate my salad.

I’m luck to be alive.

I remember driving across Pennsylvania and despairing. It’s such a long, monotonous state—though not monotonous like Kansas, the bane of cross-country road trips. But on the PA turnpike I was like, “Oh golly, another long hill of a mountain. I’ll bet they’re mining THAT one for coal too.” I would always despair over how long I still had to go in that state which really shouldn’t be allowed to be so wide.

When I’m facing my own issues with disobedience and sin, I’m reminded of my Pennsylvania road trips.

Some days I’m so dang discouraged about how far I still need to go in my Christian faith. In the letter First Corinthians, Paul calls the Corinthians immature, needing to hear about Christ crucified all over again because they suck at obeying God and loving one another.

I don’t know about you, but that all sort of sounds familiar. Am I really just an immature Christian who can’t get the cross and basic obedience down? It’s humbling.

Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that Christians pass through seasons. Sometimes we have struggles and other times we have our mountain peaks. However, the path to maturity surely must run through deepening our intimacy with the Father.

The good news is that God isn’t waiting at our destination, checking his watch, wishing we’d step on it and knock off the chicken nugget pit stop. He’s there in the car with us, wondering why we’re barreling forward at such high speeds instead of pulling over to have a chat with him. That’s where he wants us to start.

I dig a little deeper into the Bible and worry a little more about my prayer life, pressing my foot to the floor as I accelerate myself into a holy fervor. And yet, while God wants me to be obedient, he wants me to obey because my love for him is what drives me.

It’s true that we have very far to go in our quest for holy living and Christian maturity as part of God’s family, but we won’t zoom ahead by trying harder. That is the hardest lesson to learn.

I weary of folks saying that they like Jesus, but they don’t like Christians. Yeah, I know that Ghandi had a solid point with along those lines, but it has become a kind of urban legend that gains validity by repetition.

The truth is that people wouldn’t like Christians or Jesus, but their reasons for disliking both of us may be different. They may not like Christians, but if they met Jesus he’d quite likely offend most of these people as well.

If Ghandi had met Jesus, he may not have met someone who was judgmental or militaristic like the Christians he encountered in his colonial context. However, Jesus would have said, “You are close to the Kingdom. Come follow me. I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

I don’t know how Ghandi would have replied in such a fictional situation, but I’ll venture a guess that many folks today would not stand for that. “Why is Jesus so intolerant as to insist that my sincere beliefs are invalid?” And I’d bet that if Jesus showed up and told us that our religious practices or theology are wrong, we’d be inclined to resist him. I know I’d be a bit miffed.

Just a hunch on my part.

What we do know is that when Jesus showed up 2000 years ago, he told the religious leaders they had it wrong. He said that he is the way, the truth, and the life. This placed him at the center of their religious world as he challenged their assumptions about God and their devotion to God.

Jesus Turned Over More Than Tables

Jesus challenged the religious festivals, religious observances, religious leadership, and even the motives of religious leaders. Sometimes he called them out for using their prayers and their flowing robes as a cover for their wicked hearts and evil deeds.

In a time when the people were celebrating their newly constructed temple in the holy land, Jesus decentralized and spiritualized religion around himself. The temple no longer mattered. For people who had roughly a thousand years of tradition suggesting otherwise, Jesus had a tough time convincing the crowds to accept his teachings.

While the Pharisees worked to purify the land by calling everyone to observe the Law, Jesus served the poor and those labeled as cursed. He moved beyond the bounds of acceptable religious practice by healing lepers, ministering to the lame, forgiving penitent prostitutes, and gleaning, healing, and traveling on the Sabbath. In a time when obedience mattered to the religious scholars, Jesus prized grace and obedience. 

The followers of Jesus had to choose between the uncertainty of Jesus and the familiarity of their religion, the praise of men, and the approval of religious authorities. They had to leave the crowd at times.

The Jesus we meet in the New Testament turned over more than the tables of the money-changers. He challenged the beliefs and practices of his listeners, and he issues the same challenges to us. He pushes us to reorient our lives around his teachings that sometimes call our practices and beliefs into question.

If we can begin by honestly admitting that we may become defensive when we encounter Jesus in our day to day lives, we will be better prepared to listen to his call and to make the touch decisions that discipleship demands.

Continuing my meditations on the book of Romans…

With a clear picture of salvation and God’s historic plan of redemption into the present in place, this letter moves into more practical matters, namely how to live holy lives as God’s people. It is good for the Romans to know they should count themselves dead to sin, alive to Christ, and empowered in the Holy Spirit, but what does this look like on a day to day basis?

The answer is a daily offering of themselves to God, becoming living sacrifices that are surrendered to God but still able to live obedient, holy lives. This is a difficult matter, as it’s easy to make pleasing one’s self the primary goal of each day. However, Paul reminds his readers that Christ has done as much for them and that such a commitment will allow God to renew their minds. This will lead to the kind of holy lives that he says they should be living. In addition, God will make his will known to them.

The result of this will be holy living where the believers can use their gifts in service to others. Even with these gifts in use, the Romans are reminded not to judge themselves according to their usefulness or magnificence of their gifts. Their measure for themselves is directly tied to their faith.

This strikes me as a good check on whether believers are seeking first God’s Kingdom and offering themselves to God daily for direction. Faith is the means by which such steps are taken, believing that God can direct and empower his people to live in holiness and obedience.

With these things in mind, Paul adds on a series of commands and pleas for right living among the believers in Rome. They are called to a counterintuitive and countercultural lifestyle of self-sacrifice and love that is simply not possible for those who have failed to offer themselves to God as helpless, God-dependent sacrifices. The power of self interest must be laid down before God in order to love neighbors, provide for them, and to meet enemies with prayers and blessings.