Reflections from the Alley

I once heard a successful CEO in San Francisco talk about his work ethic on the TV show, Sixty Minutes. The show was highlighting businesses that are thriving in spite of our depressed economy. The reporter asked this particular CEO from San Francisco what his secret is. He said, “I work all the time. I even have a phone in my shower so I can make or take calls.”
“So what happens when you don’t work?” the reporter asked.
“I ache.”
I thought about that for a while. The truth is, I used to ache if I didn’t work, too, working many hours, attempting to find my identity in what I did for God. I was so busy trying to do things for God that I neglected being with Him.
I am learning that what God is after, what He really wants, is our transformation. He’s not impressed with how much we do our how busy we are. Don’t get me wrong: doing good things and working hard are important; but it just doesn’t replace the intimacy God desires for us.
With that said, the third reason we don’t give God our best is because many of us are just too busy and have nothing to give. We’re busy doing church activities or ministry, busy with our careers and activities – we’re in a whirlwind of busyness. And so how can we give God our best when we don’t have time for Him?

But this is not a blog about how we need to spend more time with God and have regular devotions.  I believe this is important, and do this myself; but it’s not the point I’m trying to make.  My point is that I believe we need to allow God access in our lives; that is, to position ourselves in such away that it gives room for God to work.  God does not want dutiful religion.  He wants us.

As I said, I believe that God is after our transformation, and for transformation to happen means one thing: conflict. All good stories have this in common. The protagonist (the hero of the story) needs to change, must change.  And for that to to happen he or she must face conflict. It’s the same with us.  God uses conflict, struggle, hardship, disappointment and pain to transform us. The question is, will we let Him? We can’t give God our best if we’re not willing to let Him change us; and we can’t change unless we are willing to face conflict.

Recently, I was thinking back to when I was a kid growing up in the early 90′s.  Back then everyone had jobs, and jobs right out of college, and there were no long lines at the airport and certainly no full-body-contact metal detectors.  And there was… Nintendo.  I got my first box in 1991, I believe, and my all-time favorite game was The Legend of Zelda.

The Legend of Zelda is  an adventure/fantasy game about an elf named, Link, who sets out to rescue his damsel in distress - Princess Zelda.  To do so, however, Link has to face all sorts of challenges: woods to explore, new towns to get through, and great opposition.  The closer Link gets to Zelda, the harder the level and the more opposition resisted him.  My favorite part of the game was exploring new areas, new towns, caves and woods.  Honestly, I don’t even remember if I rescued Zelda.

I think this is a good picture of the life of faith.  God wants us to progress in our faith and enter new levels.  And the more we do, the harder the “level” seems to be.  In John Bunyon’s classic book, The Pilgrim’s Progress, the closer Pilgrim got to the Celestial City, the more darkness and opposition he faced.  This is true for us as well.  But transformation cannot take place unless we are (1) willing to go to the next level; and (2) willing to allow God to to take us through conflict and difficulties in that level.  The bottom line is that God wants us to trust Him and seek Him with everything we’ve got, and that usually doesn’t happen unless we are put in situations that are hard and that require us to trust Him.

I leave you with this quote from Larry Crabb.  I hope it challenges and encourages you as it did me:

“God wants to change us into people who are truly noble, people who reflect an unswerving confidence in who He is that equips us
to face all of life and still remain faithful…When the fact is faced that life is profoundly disappointing, the only way to make it is to learn to love.  And only those who are no longer consumed with finding satisfaction now are able to love.”

My family and I have been in Dearborn, Michigan for about six weeks now. Although it has been quite hectic – moving, unpacking, settling in – we are very grateful to be in Michigan and excited for all that God is showing us and doing through us.

Last time I blogged (before the move), I shared that discipleship is about becoming the person God wants you to be. In our fast-paced, performance-driven culture, that can be very challenging at times.
As we draw closer to Christmas, the more hectic, stressful, and challenging our lives seem to become. What’s with that anyway? Why are so many of us lonely, depressed, and so glad when Christmas is over? Think about it: the greatest Gift was given to the world, a Gift that prophets and kings dreamed about and wrote about hundreds of years before. C.S. Lewis said, “Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise…” (Mere Christianity). Jesus came under the cover of darkness, into enemy-occupied territory.

Innocent babies were killed. Wise men were practically persuaded by evil, and two young parents, along with their new son, had to flee to Egypt and live as refugees. Is it any wonder the world seems “darker” at Christmas? The Devil couldn’t destroy Jesus (at His birth nor at His death), but he is certainly trying to destroy His followers ever since.

And one of the ways Satan tries to do this is to get us to believe the lie that God is not good nor can He be trusted. My wife and I know many people who are going through such hard times. We hear things like, “I don’t know how much more I can take?” or “Does God really care?” This is exactly what Satan did when he tempted Adam and Eve to sin. “Did God really say…?” (Gen. 3:1). His strategy hasn’t changed: “Did God really say He loves you?” “Did God really say He has a plan for you?” “If so, you wouldn’t be hurting and lonely right now… has He forgotten you?”

I think the biggest challenge we face following Christ in our world is when life doesn’t seem to be working out. What I mean is that all of us have an idea that life should work out a certain way, that things should be “normal.” But when things are not normal, we get easily disillusioned and can even be tempted to believe that God is not trustworthy. So what do we do?

First, I think we need to come to terms with the fact that life is not normal. It hasn’t been normal since the fall of man. We live East of Eden. One day, Jesus promises, all things will be made right: we will be right and our world will be right. He will make all things new. Until then, though, we have to resist the lie of the enemy that life should be normal, and when it is hard, God is to be blamed.

Second, we need to learn to let go of control. The great Chinese Christian, Watchman Nee, once said that Satan does not tempt us to sin; rather, he tempts us to operate in our own strength. Interestingly enough, Watchman Nee’s classic book is called The Normal Christian Life. You see, in the world, it is normal to take control of our lives, to attain greatness, to be entitled to pleasure and comfort. But in God’s Kingdom, the “normal” is abnormal according to the world’s standards. Jesus says, to be great we need to serve. To be first we must be last. To live we must die to ourselves. To have pleasure, we need to trust in Him and His righteousness.

Satan achieved his goal and was able to deceive Adam and Eve into taking control of their lives. He tries to do the same with us every day. At the end of the day, what it really boils down to is: Do we trust God or not. Do we give Him control or not?
On this journey of faith, God wants us to give Him our very best. Satan wants us to believe God isn’t worthy of our best, and that, in fact, God doesn’t have our best in mind. But He does! He always has and always will. It’s hard work, but it is imperative that we replace this world’s mindset – the mindset that things should be normal – with God’s mindset.

Jesus lived under the shadows, under a cover of darkness while on earth, and so must His followers. He told us the world hated Him and it will hate us… but the best is yet to come, as He said He had to go and prepare a place for us (John 14). So this Christmas, hold unto Him. Resist the lies of the enemy. Let the greatest Gift land in your life.

Merry Christmas!

The biggest part of discipleship, I think, is about becoming more than about doing. What I mean is: God is more interested in us becoming (or I should say being) the right person than doing or performing or trying.

Discipleship is a journey, a journey of becoming more and more like Jesus throughout our lifetime. It is the ultimate adventure! And like Chesterton said, often adventures come on dull days not on sunny ones.

But I think if we’re honest with ourselves, many of us feel we are in a thick fog – a fog that we can almost taste, the kind that is described in Dickens’ writing when he talks about London. This fog is inevitable; it’s a result of the fall. The old modernistic mentality of “pulling up our spiritual bootstraps” just doesn’t cut it. It doesn’t work. We cannot pull ourselves out of the fog. So what do we do?

We learn to live in the fog, to cut through it by believing and becoming and trusting that God is with us. He promises that He won’t leave us like orphans (John 14:18). Jesus tells His disciples on that dark, yet mystical night in the Upper Room: “I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left – feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught” (Jn. 14:27, The Message).

Don’t we often feel distraught, bereft, abandoned? This is the fog, the result of living in a fallen world. But in this fallen world there is peace: a peace that only Jesus can give. This alone can lift us above the fog; it clears our throats and dries our eyes. Granted, the fog is still there. But it’s manageable.

This is the journey of discipleship. It’s not fireworks, magic, or warm-fuzzies. It’s getting through the fog, day-by-day, trusting in the One who went before us and promises to come back and take us to where He is. Although we may feel like orphans, it’s not true. The god of this world (Satan) wants to do everything he can to knock us of the path, that narrow path that slashes through the fog, and get us to really believe we are in fact alone in the world – that we are orphaned.

What I’d like to share with you, in hopes that it will help keep you on the path, is how to give God our best and the reasons we don’t. This blog, then, will be covered in three different parts. The first parts I will deal with three main reasons we don’t give God our best.

I pose these reasons in questions, or doubts, that many a follower of Christ wrestles with. They are (1) “Can God be trusted? Is He good?”; (2) “Why would God use me? I’m not that important”; and (3) “I’m just too busy. I have nothing to offer.”

These, I believe, keep us from giving God our best. And by giving God our best I do not mean trying to perform for God like some kind of circus monkey. It’s not about trying to do good, not mess up, or be perfect. It’s trusting – trusting God with our lives and doing our best to being the person He wants us to become.

That’s why I say discipleship is a journey. A journey of becoming more of the person we are meant to become.

So I invite you to journey with me, through the fog, through our doubts and the lies that we often succumb to, and become more of who God wants us to be.

For those of you who read this blog, thank you. My journey continues as my family and I, in just a few short days, move from Chicago to East Dearborn, just a mile or so from Detroit. My urban discipleship-journey continues; just in a different area and with different people.

Blessings to you and yours!

What comes to mind when you hear the word temperance? Sadly, it is a word that has been lost in our day and age, a word some might consider “out dated.” But it is a powerful word – an important virtue to possess if we, as disciples of Jesus, are going to navigate our way through the murky waters of our culture.

Temperance means to be self-controlled; it is to give yourself to something, but with restraint. Proverbs 17:27 says, “He who restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.”

It’s an active, thoughtful resolve to restrain our wills, minds, actions, and tongues; in a word, our whole self. C.S. Lewis in his classic, Mere Christianity, calls Temperance a Cardinal Virtue. He writes that temperance is, “not abstaining, but going the right length and no further.”

In our times, it is imperative that we have temperance. Many great Christian thinkers (many who I believe were prophetic) warned us of the dangers of a relativistic, secular society. Lewis himself, Francis Schaeffer, G.K. Chesterton, William Law, all warned us of what lies ahead. Well… we are in the thick of it.

It was the German philosopher, Hegel, who opened the door to a relevistic point of view. Whether he meant to or not, he devised a thought-pattern that moved away from cause and effect (the thought of truth and its opposite, non-truth, or error) to a synthesis. A synthesis, as defined by Schaffer, is “The combination of partial truths of a thesis and its antithesis into a higher stage of truth.”
Does this all sound theoretical? It is the reality we find ourselves in. People (including many Christians) succumb to this deadly worldview that there is no truth (or partial truths). With no real absolutes, then, you can pick and choose a truth that you like, as you would at a lunch buffet. As Chesterton said long ago, the problem is not that people believe in nothing; it’s that they believe in everything.
This makes it very challenging to live out and proclaim the gospel in our secular age – especially in hyper-secular environments like urban centers. Yet our leading universities are in the world are in cities. The thoughts that shape our world are coming from the minds of these institutions. And much of what these minds absorb is that there is not one true truth; and all we can hope for is to find a truth that works for our lifestyle.

What does that this have to do with temperance? Well Paul, the father of all “Christian thinkers”, says, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8). And just before that, Paul tells the Colossians that he sees their “good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ” (vs. 5).

In short, we are to be wise in the age we live in, and careful of what we allow in our minds and hearts. The subtly of relativism is very pervasive. It can creep up on us like fog rolling over San Francisco. We must be people of good discipline and stable in our faith in Christ. We must have temperance. If we live intemperate, without restraint, we will find that we are ineffective in our witness of Christ. It’s not easy; it is against everything we’ve been taught at our schools and through the media, but it is the way of Christ.

Let’s recapture this forgotten virtue, dust it off and practice it daily.

  Well… It has been too long since I’ve posted a blog.  My goal was to be more consistent, but that didn’t happen.  So, I am posting now with the hope that, going forward, posts will be somewhat regular.

 Speaking of hope, I have been thinking about it as of late.  In the midst of such uncertainty in our world, earthquakes, hurricanes, terrorism, protests and unrest in the Middle East, and personal challenges, what do we do with it all?  I mean – we live in America!  The country of comfort, security, convenience.  An unshakable, fortified super-nation where no one and nothing can harm us.  Right?  But can we rely on our economy, a better job, the chance to buy a nice home, safer schools for our children?  Is that our hope?

 During my senior year of college, I read something by C.S. Lewis that shook me to my core.  In a little chapter he entitled “Hope,” in his classic, Mere Christianity, Lewis says that if we aim for Earth, we will get nothing, we will miss the point of why we are here.  But if we aim for Heaven, we will get Earth “thrown in.”  Simply put, our hope should not rest on this place, in our world, our culture, or our circumstances.  It is merely a shadow of what is to come.  I believe that we are never truly satisfied – that is, after we eat a great meal, we are hungry again; the newness of our city wears off; we have to come back from our vacation.  Why?  Bbecause we are not meant to find total satisfaction in this life.  Our deepest desires and hopes will one day be met with Christ in our Heavenly home.

 So, where is our hope?  I must not be here.  If it is, we will surely be despaired.  John reminds of our hope we he wrote:

 ”Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.  And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:2-3).  This is our hope; this is what we must build our lives on.  Pilgrim, take heart.  Whatever you are going through, whatever dreariness you are facing… this too shall end.  The best is yet to come.

 Be like Abraham who, “looked forward to the city with foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10).

 A little over a month ago, America kicked off its holiday activities with our beloved day-Black Friday.  Black Friday is the consumer’s paradise – a day where people get up at the crack and shop till they drop! Black Friday kick’s off the Christmas season, and, for many stores, is the busiest day of the year. Sales! Sales! Sales! That is the key to Black Friday. Sales on electronics, toys, home goods… you name it. And people come in droves, often (especially here in the North) braving the cold to get the best deal.

Although I have know major qualms toward shopping (although I am not an big shopper), nor do I think buying something on sale is wrong; however, I think that Black Friday (and really, our whole approach to Christmas) gives us a glimpse of a major driving force in our culture: consumerism. On Christmas day in fact, I was scrolling through the TV channels to see if there was something that focused on Christ… And you know what? – I couldn’t find anything. There was the Gaither Southern Gospel tribute, and that’s about it. How far we’ve slid from the simplicity and purity of celebrating the birth of Christ.

Alan Hirsch, in his book, Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church, says, that the major threat to discipleship is not Buddhism, the New Age Movement, or Islam; it is consumerism. “This is far more heinous,” says Hirsch, “and insidious challenge to the gospel, because in many ways it infects each and every one of us” (pgs. 106-107). I think he’s right. Consumerism is all over the place, infecting every aspect of our society, seeping into our homes through TV, the Internet, radio. We need more I-Tunes, more applications for our I-Phones (or Droid). We need this… we need that. This is the danger of consumerism. It beckons us to come and buy. Why? Because we need it. If you go visit another country (specifically a country that is more improvised), or visit a newly-arrived immigrant or refugee family, things are so much more simpler. The people seem more content with what they have, which is often, not much at all. We have all of our gadgets, our stuff, and yet we become more and more discontent.

We have lost, I feel, the power of simplicity. In short, it’s hard to live simply in a culture like ours. Discipleship is not “come and buy”, it’s “come and die.” It’s the opposite message. “Unless you loose your life for My sake,” Jesus says, “you will not save it” (see Luke 9:24).

That pretty much slaps consumerism in the face. Can we die to our stuff (our cultural-pleads) in order to have more of the gospel? Is the gospel hindered because of our over abundance? Can we live as disciples, and make disciples, with consumerism breathing down our neck? Yes and yes. But it is our challenge. It was the challenge of Israel when they went into the Promise land. How quickly they forgot all that God did in Egypt. Why? They had abundance – vineyards, houses, cities.

“Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you. When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance… You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth” (Deuteronomy 32:7-8;18).

 Black Friday is all around us and not just the day after Thanksgiving. And we have to shine the bright light of Christ to a culture, and a people, that are consumed with consumerism.

On a personal note: I would like to wish you and your family a Happy New Year. I hope that 2011 is a year full of God’s blessings and favor upon you. Thanks for reading my blog and for your encouragement. 2011 was a year of great joy and blessings for my wife and I. On July 6, God blessed us with a beautiful, healthy baby boy (Luke). He is the best Christmas gift we’ve ever received!

Part of my job (my tent-making job), is helping refugees get adjusted to their new life in America.

 Part of that process is to take them to our local Public Aid Office (welfare office) here on the north side of Chicago.  Each refugee, within thirty days, is eligible for Food Stamps, Cash Assistance, and a Medical Card.  In the state of Illinois, they get what is called a LINK card.  They use this card to buy their food (like a debit card) and withdrawal cash to pay their rent.

 The other day, I was with about six different refugees, from Iraq and Bhutan.  One of my guys, a gentleman from Iraq that has strong English skills, said to me, “Mr. Dave, I really want a job so I do not have to rely on Government for assistance.”

“This is the goal,” I said with a smile.

 And that is true.  Our goal at World Relief is to help our refugee clients become self-sufficient; to empower them to live independent of the agency and the Government.  

 Shortly after this conversation, there was a young girl (along with her grandmother), who went up to the check-in desk.  I happened to be standing near them to overhear the conversation.  The girl looked about seventeen or eighteen year old.

 “Can I help you?” the lady at the desk said.

“Yes, my granddaughter is pregnant and needs Food Stamps and a Medical Card.”

“Ok,” the lady said, “you have to fill out this paperwork and then turn it in.”

And that was that…

How sad, I thought to myself.  I just finished talking to my guy about how he wants to be independent and not rely on Government aid, and then I observe this scenario with Americans who, sadly enough, because of being pregnant, will have no problem getting assistance.

So I started thinking about empowerment.  What a great word.  The idea behind this word is a person or persons discovering, and claiming, personal power.  It’s independence verses codependence.  It’s being powerful verses being powerless.

 The more I am in ministry, the more I see the importance of empowering people.  We in the West (specifically, I think, the American church), haven’t done the best job of empowering people.  In many churches the pastor does everything (or a lot of things) and the congregation sits passively on the side-lines.

 Empowerment can be challenging for leaders because it involves both trusting people (or should I say entrusting) and giving them authority.  This is a hard thing to do.  It’s trusting that when you empower another there is the possibility that they may fail, turn on you, not do it as good as you, or a number or other reasons.  Yet empowerment is key.

 The Holy Spirit empowers us and we blow it all the time.  Yet, God continues to entrust us with His mission and Kingdom.  Discipleship is all about empowerment – entrusting ourselves and our ministry to others.

Empowerment gives others freedom to do their part in the body of Christ.  “From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Ephesians 4:16).

Chicago is a city of alleys – 1,900, in fact.  These urban mazes are used by people, bikes, cars, pick-up trucks looking for scraps and “treasures” from garbage bins, and so on.  Really, these alleys are another world – a world behind the glitz and glam of stores, houses, condominiums, restaurants, hotels, etc.

In addition, alleys are home to the city’s forgotten, the broken, vagabonds, urban nomads, and sojourners who don’t fit into the “system”.

This, I think, is a metaphor of discipleship.  Discipleship is not easy, predictable, a five-steps-to-fix-your-life program, or comfortable.  Most days, I think, are alley-days: just normal, ordinary days in which we are called to work out what it means to follow Jesus. And it’s this “working out” that is difficult.  “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” Paul says (Phil. 2:12).  Although we long for spiritual bliss and mountaintops, those are the exception, not the norm. 

In ancient cities, alleys ran off the main market areas and were very narrow, urban footpaths.  Bible scholar Ralph Gower says, “If two people went together, they had to go in a single file line.  To follow after a person was to go with them” (From The Essential Bible: Manners and Customs, Chicago: Moody Press, 2000).

Interestingly, Jesus says, “Follow Me.”  Discipleship, then, is learning (or should I say experiencing!) what it means to follow closely after Jesus, to walk in His ways, his footpath, often unaware of where He is taking us and what lies around the bend.

In the city, this can be a challenge, which is why I think suburban Christianity is  so popular in our culture.  The city is a hard place to work out what it means to follow Jesus.  It can be lonely and dreary, noisy, dirty, loud, crowded.  But I have learned more about what it means to be a disciple in the city than anywhere else.  I once heard the slogan, “The city will bring out the best in you and the worst in you.”  I think that is true. 

Urban living has a way of  “forcing” things up that we have to deal with – sin, pride, pretense, consumerism, autonomy, just to name a few. 

The city has also taught me that lone-ranger and ”private” Christianity does not work.  It’s impossible to work out discipleship alone. Discipleship is forged and tested through and in relationships.

More on this in part two…