A Bigger Box

Next Tuesday, November 4, the citizens of the United States of America will go to the polls and vote for the person they believe will be best next president of the country. And, presumably, barring any kind of weird 2000 stuff, when you wake up on Wednesday morning (or for those like me who won't go to bed until a winner's announced!) the anchors will be telling us who we elected.

I was thinking today about next Tuesday and here's the things that popped into my head:

• Heaven will be no different on Wednesday morning than it is today or was the day the Red Sea was parted.
• God has already ordained who will be elected. (Notice I didn't say "allowed." I said "ordained." God is not a passive observer of the affairs of men. He is active, always bringing about his will.)
• Depending on who wins, there will be some people who will feel a stronger need to pray for America on Wednesday than they do today, and that just seems odd to me.

The election, in fact politics in general, is very important. I think Christians should be active and involved, as a part of our Genesis 2 mandate and our desire to see every part of the world redeemed. I just hope we don't trade our theology for it.

It's a Gift

Last week I re-read The Giver. I hadn't read it since college, and I had forgotten what a great book it is.

For those who don't know, it's a kind of sci-fi story about a society that, in an effort to cut out all chaos, instability, etc. has done away with emotions. (This concept has been looked at in movies, since the book was written.) Jonas is a boy who, when he turns twelve, instead of being given a job like all the other children who are now "adults," is chosen to be "The Reciever," the only person in the entire community allowed to have memories. At any rate, as Jonas has memories transferred to him from the man who has been "The Receiver," his world begins to change. He sees color for the first time. He experiences emotions, both pleasant and hurtful, in ways he never has before.

The interesting thing that happens as Jonas begins to see and feel all these things for the first time, is that he realizes how blind the rest of his community is to how false they're lives really are. He now realizes that when families gather each night for required talks about their feelings, while they really believe they're working through their feelings and emotions, it's all just surface and a shadow of the things Jonas has felt in the newly transferred memories. He comes to realize that the laughter and tears of those living in the community are actually just logical reactions to objective observations of situations. No one actually knows what happiness or sadness is.

As I was reading this book, the music of the gospel played loud and clear in my ear. Those of us who are followers of Christ, know exactly what Jonas went through. We know what it's like to look around and realize that the rest of the world is existing in a perpetual state of being duped. They believe they're what they're feeling and experience is real, what they were made for, and they might even think they're reactions are honest, real, and raw, when really, like the folks in Jonas' community, what they're really experiencing is much like logical reactions to objective observations of situations. The aisles and aisles of self-help books at Barnes and Noble, and the hours and hours of talk radio and television, though they may seem very deep and probing, are shown to be surfacy and manufactured.

Here's the thing: that's what the gospel does. It opens your eyes to reality. It's not a reality that's always pretty or easy. Like Jonas, our eyes are opened for the first time to the fact that people die. We realize that everything we've been taught to believe is really just contrived and sterile. In other words, the introduction of the gospel into someone's life, much like the introduction of memories into Jonas' life, doesn't "fix" the problem. But, just like the memories, it gives us a context to know how to deal with the realities of the world around us.

Sunday School Sneak Peek

So, we're suppose to love people, bear one another's burdens, and walk with them through the hard times in their lives, right? But what happens when that person is headed down a path of sin that you're pretty sure will ultimately lead to destruction? How do we mix understanding with accountability? What if it's a sin you struggle with yourself, does that change anything?

This week in Sunday School we'll be looking at what the Bible has to say about how to handle relationships within the body when someone you love and care about seems to be on a collision course with sin in their life. Like most things that have to do with the gospel, there aren't a lot of easy answers, but the gospel does provide us a framework in which we can love people and spur them on to love and good deeds.

See you Sunday morning at 9:05am, in S-180. Don't forget to let Cammie Snowden know if you're willing to help with breakfast, room set-up, or Info. Table.

Relationships Within the Body: Leftovers

Trying to come up with leftovers to yesterday's lesson is pretty daunting. The buzz and amount of discussion that it created are both encouraging and overwhelming. It seems that there are two different responses from the group that we can categorize. One is that for some folks this lesson came completely out-of-the-blue. They weren't aware that unhealthy guy-girl relationships existed in the group, so for them the lesson kind of left them scratching their heads. To those folks, I would say, "Great! You're obviously involved in the right kinds of relationships, so keep doing what you're doing."


For the vast majority of folks, though, there seemed to be a sense of frustration. They recognized that there's a problem, and they want to see things change, but they were really dealing with the fact that, in the lesson, I didn't give any practical steps or rules as to what to do. This was on purpose, as I said in the lesson, but I think it did present some folks with a sense of "what do we do now?" It's as if they would have preferred I give "5 Guidelines for Healthy Relationships with the Opposite Sex." Problem is, I couldn't do that because that's not what the Bible does. There aren't any specific rules or guidelines given for how singles should interact in community, and so we are left with a mess to kind of sort through.

One of the few things I'm sure of about this issue, though, is that we cannot fall into legalism. We cannot come up with a list of rules and guidelines and expect that these will solve the issue. It just doesn't work that way. The law (whether about holiness, dating, or whatever) will only condemn us because we can't live up to it. But, so often if feels easier instead of asking ourselves the really hard questions the gospel forces us to.

My guess is we aren't done as a group with this issue, and I'm actually looking forward to grappling with it together in the coming weeks and months!

Bliss or Reality?

I really do think and believe that honesty, absolute, no holds-barred honesty is possible. I don't think it's meant to be had with many people. Actually, I really believe it's only meant to be had on that level with one person: your spouse. If you're single, I'm not sure you're suppose to have it, at least not on all levels, because the physical, sexual component should be missing. I do think it's possible to come close as a single, but it will look differently.

Here's the thing: it's something that you have to be ready for. You have to decide beforehand that you're going to love this person and stick with them regardless, because once you decide that you're going to be honest like that with someone, you open up yourself to the possibility that you can be and probably will be hurt very, very deeply. You give up your right to censor what you find out about, and sometimes what you learn isn't what you wanted to know, and there's no way to "un-know" it. (That could be another good reason not to be this honest with a lot of people. Emotionally, I'm not sure we would be able to handle it.)

On the other hand, it can bring incredible joy and closeness of being known and being loved, that is ultimately a reflection of the desires of our hearts that God perfectly accomplishes in salvation. He fully knows us, and fully loves us. Amazing as it is! And that's why it's necessary in our lives, I think. It's risky, but the potential is huge and hugely important because it might help us come closer to understanding the gospel in ways that few other things will.

Sunday School Sneak Peek

This week we're starting a two-part lesson on "Relationships Within the Body." Our focus this Sunday will be on the challenges singles face in developing and having healthy relationships within the body of Christ.

How do we serve and love one another well in the context of relationships? What are some of the potential hazards singles tend to fall into when it comes to cross-sex friendships? How do we have the potential to give ourselves to one another in ways that married couples don't?

Come join us at 9:05, in Room S-180 this week to hopefully discover at least part of God's design for waltzing through relationships with other believers as singles.

Relationships Outside the Body: Leftovers

I didn't teach Sunday School this week. Actually, I wasn't even at Sunday School this week, opting instead to head to the beach for 72 hours of just being away from the fray. At any rate, I have it on good authority, that the lesson was on evangelism and reaching out to non-believers that we know and work, live, and play around and with in the normal course of days and weeks.

Here's the question that I've been asking myself about evangelism recently: what's my motivation for it? I mean, really, I've "shared my faith" as it were in about four different countries on three different continents, and I wonder, really, what my motivation for evangelism is. I don't have an answer for that question yet, but here are the possibilities I've come up with so far: because I was commanded to in Scripture; becuase I really love people and want them to know Christ and have a relationship with him; because I really do believe that anyone who does not trust Christ will spend eternity in Hell and anyone who does will spend eternity in Heaven; because I want to show my gratitude and love to God for calling and drawing me to himself; because it's what good Christians do; because it was my job; because I want there to be lots and lots of folks worshipping God and the only way they can do that is to be his children; because it brings glory to God.

I'm not saying that any of those reasons, in and of themselves, are bad reasons (although some of them might be more biblical than others), but what struck me were all the reasons that there are, just in my own mind for sharing Christ and "doing evangelism." I'm not even sure there's one particular answer I'm supposed to land on, but it is interesting to think and pray about, because I am pretty convinced that unless I have a motivation that's significant and compelling, I won't share my faith.