huh?

It’s pretty hot in my office.

My office is in a church in Apple Valley, Ca and despite the pleasant sounding name of my home town, this means that I am in the middle of the Mojave Desert, the third largest desert in the world.  And in case you were unaware, most deserts get pretty hot, especially in the summer.

Anyhow, my office is pretty hot.  I thought it was because the offices in my church are all in a straight line, adjacent to each other, and share the same air conditioning ducts.  My office is at the end, and so it’s the last office to get cool air, and thus, my office is usually really hot.

But that’s not really the case…

The church building is pretty old and so, as with most older buildings, there are a certain number of things that don’t work as well as they did when they were installed.  I was under the assumption that there was nothing that I could do to fix the dilemma of my office climate because, well, the building is old and the design is faulty.  At least, that’s what I thought.

I was getting increasingly hot and thought that it was bad to be sitting at my desk sweating, when I realized that the A/C was on; cool air should have been filling my office, but it was not.   I grabbed a ladder and ascended to the A/C vent on the ceiling just above my desk.  The air conditioner was still running, but there was no air coming through the vent.

Screwdriver.

I needed a screwdriver.

I opened the vent to find that, contrary to my belief, there was not an open duct, but rather a small, sealed box-like-area behind the vent.  I noticed something hanging from the center back of this box-like-area, a piece metal, obviously once attached to the rest of itself, and I reach in and pulled on it.

WOOSH!

A blast of cold air.

The back of the box-like-area revealed itself to be another, spring-loaded set of vents that was closed up tight.  The small piece of metal that I had pulled was a part of a broken clasp that held this secondary vent open.  The clasp was, like the rest of the building, quite old, and had stopped doing it’s job.  I MacGyvered the broken clasp with a piece of extra speaker wire that I found and now the vents stay open.

It is now quite cool in my office.

The thing is, it could have been cool in my office WEEKS ago.  Had I checked the vent, I’d have discovered this problem early on.  I had assumed that because the building was old, it could only work at certain capacities, but that was not the case.

And this is what we do so often in life.

We assume that things are working in the only way that they can, but the fact is that if we take a closer look, we can find a solution for better function.   How many times have we assumed that things could only work one way, only to find out that there was another, better way the whole time?

It seems as though we think that existing systems are the only way that world can function.  Or that the company has always done one particular thing and will only ever do one particular thing.  Or that our church has always been this kind of church and could never be that kind of church.

But the truth is, the thing that once made our system, or company, or church function so well was, at that time, an innovation, a new solution to a pre-existing issue.   So, why then have we ceased looking for new solutions, or have stopped trying to find ways to improve old systems that could work if they were still functioning like they were supposed to?  Is it not true that the best way to make an impact in the world is to find a need and fill it?  (Thanks to Tommy & Matthew Barnett for that)

I think that we can easily become apathetic towards our situations, that we can forget that without proper maintenance, improvements, and changes that our systems will fail.

Whatever you may do, be encouraged that the right kinds of change and improvement can make a world of difference.

Now, how do I turn this air conditioner off?  It’s freezing in here…

Grace.

Peace.

-m

Author’s Note: I’m a Youth Pastor and when I refer to my “students” I am talking about the youth group that I lead.

For the last couple of months I have been leading my students through a study that I am calling, “Christianity 101.”  The premise is simple; we are discussing the basic elements of Christian faith.  We have talked about things like the existence of God, the basic nature of God, sin and what sin is, and the like.  I have had to define a great deal of the basic “Christian Language” that we often take for granted in the church (words like: sin, trinity, God’s will, etc.) so that we can have the same understanding in our discussions.

My students really seem receptive to the opportunity to ask questions and they seem to appreciate that I am not assuming that they know everything about being a Christian.  They are enjoying discussions about basic doctrine.

Yes, that should sound odd to you.

Or maybe it shouldn’t.

I find it refreshing to address some of the basic orthodox beliefs of Christianity.  For me, the experience has been an exercise in REALLY knowing what I believe.  That is, I can’t just make simple statements to my students about the nature of God-I can’t use the standardized answers-because they have questions that probe deeper than these rehearsed answers.

And it has been a reinforcement, a sort of building of faith, for me.  It is easy in ministry to miss the simple beauty of the story that God has written (and is writing) because of all of the studying and looking for ways to package information so that it connects with an audience.  I can have a propensity to try and discuss the great depths of faith when I sermonize, but sometimes it is just as important to take in the whole forest as opposed to studying one leaf.

I recently heard someone say (in speaking of the “Art of Preaching”) something to the effect of, “We are not looking to be original, or to find some new thing in the Bible.  Rather, we are to honestly assess the scriptures and find their application for our lives.”  But even in this process, the temptation remains to be the “first” to say something or to make a particular point.

I often joke that I have no original material, that I am merely trying to expound upon what others have said; that I merely offer commentary about what was written by someone else under the inspiration of God.  And that is the truth, but I still find the temptation to try and write “The Gospel According to Matthew… Dudley”

As I discussed the nature of God with my students I noticed a theme in their questions; they had a desire to try and make God fit into their own understanding.  I would get questions that sounded like, “Why can’t God be more like this?” or “If God is really this, then He should act like that.”  My students held a view that God should fit into their desired perceptions of Him.  And it occurs to me that we do this often.  I do it without trying.

We vote a certain way and thus this is the way that God would vote.

We hold a certain opinion and instantly it is what we think God must think about the situation.

We want a God that is merely dynamic, a God that can be shaped and moved to fit into what we think God should be like.  There are a number of problems with this, the main one being that if God is merely what we think He should be-if He is merely dynamic-then there are currently 6.5 billion different forms of God.  God has to be more than our simple opinions because if he isn’t, then He is not the Creator but rather the created.  This view of God is just too small to fit into the picture that is painted of God in the Bible.

So then we say that if God is not dynamic, that He must be static.  After all, God is unchanging.  He is unique; He possesses personality, individuality and His own character.  He is unwritten, but is the author.  He can be-on basic levels-understood, but not defined, for He defines Himself. This difference between the dynamic and static views of God sounds unimportant, but it is a key element to understanding what we can/should believe about God as opposed to what we can’t/shouldn’t believe about God.

It is as though I were trying to describe what someone looks like to you.  If I was to describe to you what Conan O’Brien looks like, I would tell you that he is a tall, thin, white male of Irish decent, with a shock of red hair and a complexion to match.  I could, if I so desired, describe him to you as a very short, overweight, Asian woman, with long jet black hair.  I would be wrong in my description were I to do this, but I could if I wanted.  The problem is, that if I give you the wrong description and then tell you to identify Conan O’Brien, you will get it wrong every time.  Though we could use many different words to describe a person, there are still wrong words and right words for describing that person.  The same is true of God: though there are many ways that we would like to define God, there are wrong ways of defining Him.

We can want to write our own definitions of God, but the fact remains: He is static.  He is bigger than our ability to describe Him, but we can still understand the revealed aspects of God accurately.

And this is why we need to have an orthodox understanding of God.  We want so often to make a God for ourselves that is a reflection of our desires, a God that we like, but the fact remains that God is God and we may not always like what we see when we look at who He is.  We may not understand everything about Him, but this is no reason to reject Him.  If there is something about God that we don’t understand or like, it is not a point at which we should run from God but rather to Him, for we were created in His image and if we don’t like something that we see it is because there is a flaw in our  image, not His.

In addressing the fundamental doctrines of Christianity with my students, I have been reminded of the grand scope of the God of the universe, sovereign Creator and King: He is bigger than me, but still embraces me.  I am finding that this simple understanding of God is reshaping my thinking in ways that I would not have expected.  In embracing a simple, orthodox view of a God that I can’t force into my box of understanding, I am realizing that I have the ability to be very subjective, even if I don’t want to be.  I want to be honest, and yet when I am totally subjective, I am biased, and if I am biased, then I don’t want to be honest at times.  But if my view of God is fixed, if it is static, then I am more objective and if I am objective, then I am honest.  See, if our view of God is dynamic, if it is ever changing, then we have succeeded in never changing ourselves, and if we never change, our world never changes.  If our view of God is static, then our view of the world can be dynamic, our view of the world can be one that brings change because we will have found in ourselves items that need to change.

We can not change unless we realize that we don’t look like the God in Whose image we were made, and we can’t know what that God looks like if we keep trying to make Him look like ourselves.  Our view of God must remain static and in turn our view of ourselves will be quite dynamic; we will see that we need to change.

May you be confronted by the God that possesses His own personality and when you are confronted, find that He accepts you as you are and be changed into His image.

Grace.

Peace.

-m

Get out…

Acts 2:40 (The Message)

40 He went on in this vein for a long time, urging them over and over, “Get out while you can; get out of this sick and stupid culture!”

I often think that the early Christian Church spent its first few months on a bit of an emotional roller coaster.  Jesus started His movement with 12 men; 12 men from varied lifestyles and occupations; 12 men of varied ages and families; 12 men that brought along all sorts of baggage.

They brought along their own unique cultures.

I imagine what it must have been like, as one of those first 12 disciples, to leave everything that you have ever known and follow Jesus.  They walked away from their lives, from their cultures, so that they could go and learn at the feet of Jesus.  It was a big decision, a decision to adopt a new culture.

Think about it.  When you get hungry, you go and buy something to eat with the money that you’ve earned from your job.  Following Jesus, however, meant leaving your job, your source of income.  It meant not knowing where your next meal would come from.

You would get over that pretty quickly though, because this one time when Jesus was speaking to several thousand people that didn’t have anything to eat, you saw Jesus take a few fish and a couple of loaves of bread and He multiplied them so that everyone ate until they were full.  In fact, there were more leftovers than you started with.  You would stop worrying about where your next meal came from if you saw something like that.

Oh, and this other time when you were crossing the sea and the weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed (gotta love Gilligan’s Island references) Jesus saved the day again.  

Everyone was scared that the ship would be sunk and everyone would drown, but Jesus just kept sleeping through the storm.  Someone finally wakes Him up and Jesus tells the storm to “Knock it off” and so the water becomes smooth like glass.  I think that if you lived through this sort of thing that you would be driven to think that there was nothing that you ever had to be afraid of, that as long as you were with Jesus, you would be fine.

The 12 disciples went everywhere with Jesus for 3 ½ years.  And for 3 ½ years Jesus did things that changed their cultures.  Imagine, the level at which you would trust in Jesus if you walked along side of Him for 3 ½ years.  I bet that the disciples began saying things to each other like, “As long as Jesus is with us, we never have to worry about anything.”

Something rather traumatic happened to the disciples though.  

Jesus died.

He was arrested, put on trial, beaten, crucified, and dead within one day’s time.

Jesus, who fed the thousands.

Jesus, the one that walked on water.

Jesus, who calmed the sea.

Jesus, who just days before, called Lazarus back to life from the dead, was now dead.

For 3 ½ years the disciples had been slowly letting go of their cultures and adopting a new culture that was centered around the need to have Jesus near by.

And now

Jesus

was

dead.

At that moment, I think that I would have been scared.  I would have begun to think about what I should do next.  Could I go and get my old job back?  Would people think that I was crazy because I had abandoned my sensible-culture in order to adopt this Jesus-dependant-culture instead?  Would I be arrested next for rejecting the Jewish/Roman culture of the day?  Was I the next one that would be crucified?  They killed Jesus; surely the disciples were next…

It would have been the scariest three days of the disciples’ lives.  They went into hiding and began to wonder when they would be found.  Some of them started talking about going to their old lifestyles.  Just days before, there was nothing to fear because Jesus was there; now everything was scary because He was in a tomb.

Isn’t it amazing that as soon as we are faced with hard times that our first impulse is to hide and look for ways to go back to the “way things were?”

The disciples began to look for ways to return to their pre-Jesus cultures.

Then, Jesus rose from the dead and eventually they all believed in their Jesus-centric-culture again.

Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit and then, when they received the Holy Spirit, Peter (one of the disciples) stands up and addresses the critics of their culture.  He tells the people about Jesus, about how he was unjustly crucified, about how He was a man of miracles and good works.  He tells the people that they can be a part of this new culture of love and peace and joy if they will just let go of their old cultures.  He tells them that their “sick and stupid” culture crucifies innocent men while the culture of Jesus brings life even to the worst of situations.

Those early days would have been an emotional roller coaster for the first followers of Jesus, but they were able to hold fast because they were no longer a part of a “sick and stupid” culture that is full of fear and brokenness.  Instead, they held onto the promise that Jesus would always be with them and thus, they were able to live out their new culture.

So the question remains: what is it about this sick and stupid culture that is keeping you from abandoning it in order to embrace the much simpler culture of Jesus?  What is it about a culture that crucifies good men that keeps us from living out boldly the culture of the One that overcame the cross?  There is really no appeal to being a part of a culture that destroys good things when you have the option of being a part of a culture that redeems all things and makes them good.

“Get out while you can; get out of this sick and stupid culture!” 

Peter’s words ring true today.  There is nothing that can separate you from Jesus and His unending love, so why let this culture pull you away?  You can be like those first disciples; you can know that everything will be fine as long as Jesus is around, that there is no storm you can’t weather, that there is no obstacle too big, that not even death itself can conquer you.  You just have to decide to get out…

Grace.

Peace.

-m