Why I Need You

One of the best things to happen to me in a while is getting to be a part of what we at Midtown call a life group.  It’s basically a group of guys who don’t pretend to have it all together, but who genuinely want to be more like Christ.  You guys are amazing.

 

God has taught me a lot through this group, namely, the power of sharing life together.  We were talking a few weeks ago about what to do when you feel apathetic.  You know, those times when you know how much Christ loves you, but you just aren’t experiencing it.  You can’t really get excited about anything, you feel somewhat numb.  What do you do?  I’d hate to say it, but this is a place that those of us who follow Christ will find ourselves more often than we would like.

 

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”  Ephesians 3:16-19

 

I’ve read this passage so many times, but the last time I read it something jumped out at me that I’ve never really paid much attention to before.  It’s the “together with all the saints” part.  Here’s what I got to thinking; maybe the only way we can experience the width, length, height, and depth of Christ is by being in community with all the saints.  What do you think?  Paul says this love surpasses knowledge.  It’s not just knowing it, its experiencing it, its encountering it…together.  Are we the primary vessel by which God communicates His love to us?   I think so.

 

Romans 15: 5-6 says, “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

 

Endurance and encouragement seem to be good remedies for apathy. How do we receive that?  Unity perhaps?  I’m seeing this trend everywhere in Scripture.  Jesus says the two greatest commandments are to love the Lord, your God with all your heart, mind, and strength and then to love your neighbor as yourself.

 

Here’s why this is important.  When we are apathetic, when we are depressed, when we find ourselves backsliding, or something devastating happens we have a tendency to withdraw and to isolate, don’t we?  When we aren’t experiencing God’s love we pull away from the primary vessel by which God show’s His love, people.

 

We were talking in my life group about how energizing our times together are.  If I’m honest, on my way to life group I’m not exactly looking forward to it. I’m tired from work, I feel sucked dry from trying to motivate people all day, and I’m not really sure I feel all that excited about doing the whole spiritual thing.  On my way home from life group that couldn’t be farther from the truth.  I feel like I could conquer the world.  I feel inspired, I feel refreshed, I feel…loved.

 

A few weeks ago I was about to go into work and I was worn out, and a bit grumpy.  My roommate Heathe, and I started catching up on what God was up to in our lives.  After about a 15 minute conversation my work wasn’t ready for me.  I was a different person.  From a 15 minute conversation?

 

In fact some of the moments when I’ve felt the closest to God are moments spent in my kitchen.  For some reason that’s where all the good conversation takes place.  Sitting on the countertops, telling stories, laughing until my throat is sore.  Or like this summer when we had a college Bible study in my living room.  People, just talking about life and God, saw a group grow from about 5 to over 30 in a few weeks.  Talking about God is pretty appealing. 

 

So maybe you’re feeling apathetic, lethargic, un-inspired.  Maybe you’re backsliding, forgetting your first love.  Maybe you’re battling depression or maybe something has totally destroyed the world you live in.  Stop trying to sort it out on your own.  You can’t.  Try this.  Try starting a conversation with someone with these words, “God is…” or “God isn’t…” and see what happens from there.  Rob Bell says that two of the most powerful words in the universe are, “me too.” 

 

You need people.  I need people.  People need us.  Who are we making ourselves available to?  Who are we sharing life with?  It seems to me that in order to not just know that God loves us, but to actually experience it, feel it, we need each other.  This is why I need you, and this is why you need me.

Easy

My favorite part of a song has to be the part where all the other instruments drop out except the drums and vocals. I think I like it because it draws your attention to what’s being said and it offers an opportunity for the audience to participate by singing the lyrics back as loud and as bad as they can. I don’t know what musicians call this part, but I call it my favorite part. That’s what everyone should call it from here on out, Nick’s favorite part. That would be awesome.

I know I used this in my last blog, but I want to use it again.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give rest for your souls. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

I’m about to do something that I normally don’t like doing. I’m about to use a dry dusty word that is going to require me to explain what I mean. I feel as though we Christians operate with far too many presuppositions in how we present Christ to people. Did you catch the word? Presuppositions; what we already assume to be true. For instance, trying to get someone to believe that they should trust Jesus because the Bible says he is the Son of God. When we say that we are assuming that the Bible is true, and that is has authority to tell us what we should believe. Do you see the problem? What if someone says, “Well I don’t think the Bible is true, I think its made up.” I do think that the Bible is the word of God and I do think that you can believe and trust Jesus because the Bible tells us to, but maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves in terms of communicating the person of Jesus to others.

I was listening to some Jacky J (Jack Johnson) this morning and there’s a line in a song that almost made me label him as a prophet. “Love is the answer for at least most of the questions in my heart. Like why are we here? And where do we go? And how come it’s so hard?” I found myself saying, “Yeah Jack, me too.” I don’t know what Jack Johnson believes about the world we live in, but I do think that we can agree on what people long for and how we should be treated. Maybe in a general way, maybe not even specifically, but there’s bound to be a connection there.

I think that the most appealing thing about Christianity is…Jesus. No, seriously. The way that Jesus lived and the way he taught us to live is probably something most people can agree on as being a beautiful way to live. A life spent loving people, forgiving people, giving yourself to what’s right, compassion, humility, integrity. These are things that people can generally agree on as being things that make this world…better.

That’s what Jesus is saying in Matthew. He is saying, come follow me, learn from me, live the way I live. A yoke was understood to be the teachings of a Rabbi. When you took their yoke upon you, you held to their teachings. Holding to the teachings of Jesus will bring rest for our souls.

Maybe how we convince people to trust Jesus is to show them Jesus. Groundbreaking. Maybe less time reading books that prove historicity of Christ and more time spent reading the Gospels would do our world some good.

“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.” 1 John 4:16-17

Hey You, Chin Up

"REEEEEEE...MIIIIIXXXX." When I used to hear this at the beginning of a song I would roll my eyes because I thought it was somewhat ridiculous. Most of the time the remixed version of a song wasn't all that different from the original version, they'd add like a synthesized clap or a baby crying or something like that. But have you ever belted out the word remix? Its fantastic. Honestly. Its a bit empowering. It could even be one of my new favorite things to do. I now understand why the remixers get so into it. Give it a shot, its great.

"As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fisherman. 'Come, follow me,' Jesus said, 'and I will make you fishers of men.' At once they left their nets and followed him." Mark 1:16-18

I used to read this passage and see Andrew and Simon leave their nets in some sort of hypnotic trance and follow this strange glowing Jesus, like he was some sort of martian or something. A lot of us have debated why they were so quick to follow Jesus. Some people say its because there was something about Jesus, something attractive, and I'm sure that's definitely part of the reason, but I feel like there's a whole lot more going on here.

I've heard this passage preached on a lot and you can learn a bunch of really interesting things if you do a little digging into the Jewish culture. The position of Rabbi wasn't something that kids decided to be, it was something they earned, see they were chosen. I've heard it said that every Jewish boy dreamed about being a Rabbi. They were the most respected people around. You were mandated to greet them with a kiss for crying out loud. Every boy began the journey to become a Rabbi together and as the process continued those that couldn't cut it were weeded out and left behind. Now if someone didn't have what it took to be a Rabbi he would return home to take on the trade of their father. Here's where we find Simon and Andrew...fishing. They were fisherman. Their dream wasn't being realized.

This is why I think they were so quick to follow Jesus. He was a Rabbi, a mysterious one at that. At his baptisim a few verses before, God Himself spoke about him, and John the Baptist seemed to think he was someone important. This Rabbi has offered our dream back to us. "Come follow me" was an invitation to these boys to do what Jesus was doing, it was a invitation to remember their dream.

Do you ever feel like you're just trying to get by? I know that the first year out of college for a lot of graduates is hard. You find yourself stuck in a cycle. You repeat what you did the day before. You wake up, go to work, come home, go to bed just to wake up the next day to repeat yourself. You begin to ask, what happened to the dreams I used to have? They've met head first with reality and now they seem almost silly and embarassing. I'm just working for the weekend. Trust me, this is a horrible way to live, but I think it describes most of America. Idealists and dreamers are looked down upon. People say they've lost touch with reality, their heads are in the clouds, things like that. When we live this way life is no longer life...its merely existence.

This why the invitation by Jesus is so great. His invitation is for you to remember your dream. The dream and the hope that your life actually counts for something. That there's more out there than this cyclical lifestyle that repeates itself day after day. There's a kingdom to advance, their is adventure to be had, right now, right here. Seriously. Think about what must be going on around you, in you, and about you if what we say we believe is actually...true. That there is a God that has created everything we see, touch, smell, think, and hear. That this God holds everything together, He holds the oceans in the palm of His hands, but He is also as close as to you as the very air you breathe, that He actually lives inside of you. That how we live actually impacts how things are and how things will be. That we are involved in a battle against darkness and the darkness is fading. See...the dream is alive, the dream is real and at every second of our day eternity dances at our fingertips.

You don't just go to work everyday. You aren't just finishing up college. You don't just go to high school. You're not just a parent, son, daughter, husband, wife, boyfriend, or girlfriend. You are God's workmanship...God's fiction, God's dream come true, created to do what He's dreamed about you doing. You were designed to encounter the devine, the eternal. All the time. Right now. It doesn't start later, or when you're ready...its happening now. The dream is still alive, and more than that...its real. You were designed to do more than exist, you were created to be alive.

Here's the invitation offered to us by Jesus, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" Matthew 11:28-30.

Here's to having the courage to dream again and the faith to believe that we have our dreams for a reason.

Real

I had to have an examination done a few days ago becauese I'm getting a new life insurance policy. The company sent a nurse to the house to give me my examination. Anyone else think this sounds kind of shady? Yeah, me too. Thats why I found it totally necessary to set the mood before she got there. You know, put on my bathrobe, close the blinds, light all the candles in the house and make sure some Kenny G was playing in the background. Alright, that didn't happen, but it really should have.

I've had some really interesting things happen to me lately. I've been a bit frustrated because I heard myself talking about how I have a heart for the homeless and how I want to "change the world", but I really didn't see myself doing anything about it. It really started to bother me. I really wanted a relationship with someone that I could...love, someone I could serve. The frustrating thing is that my schedule, probably like everyone elses, is a bit crazy. I was having a hard time trying to figure out how I was going to be able to go downtown through the week and see this happen. So, one day I was driving home from class and praying about this. I was very frustrated. I knew God had put this desire on my heart, but I didn't know how it was going to happen. So I prayed that God would make it happen. I'm home from class for ten minutes, TEN MINUTES, and I hear a knock on my door...in Lexington, South Carolina. I go to my door and there is standing, at my front door, a homeless woman named Deborah. She wanted a piece of furniture that we were throwing out. We spent some time together that day and we have been hanging out quite a bit since then. I tell you this not to pat myself on the back, but to share with you how real our God is. It blew my mind. Its still blowing my mind.

Here's where I'm at right now. I've heard myself talk about wanting to make the world a better place, about how I want to love people, grow the kingdom and all of that hoopla, but if I'm honest, most of the time I'm just trying to sound interesting. Truthfully, its cool to be involved in social action right now, people are all fired up about being involved in the next great cause, but do we mean it? Are we just looking for t-shirts? Are we just trying to sound interesting? We love to go to church and worship with our hands raised, but what are our hands doing after the service is over? Who are they serving? We join facebook groups, read the popular books, quote the revolutionaries, but who are we loving? What makes this movement real and not just a fad? Its people who are eager to do good to others. I'll leave you with this, some Scripture, the real Word of God.

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9

"Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, paitent in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; morn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited." Romans 12:9-16

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us no love with with words or tongue, but with actions, and in truth." 1 John 3:16-18

This Is What Happens

I have no idea what I'm about to say, I've just been thinking some lately...

I bought a bowling glove when I was a kid, and I'm struggling to remember why. I didn't bowl that often and I wasn't really good at it. But I do remember convincing myself that I had to have this bowling glove. I think I even spent my own money on it. I remember wearing it in my bedroom, but never to a bowling alley. I must have thought it either looked somewhat "cool" or was I hoping it would give me magic powers.

For anyone that knows me, I somehow manage to quote a line from either Hook, Mrs. Doubtfire, or The Sandlot almost everyday. This isn't something that I try to do, it just happens. I found out that there's a sequel to The Sandlot and it features a girl on the team. This bothers me. A lot actually. Men...how do you feel about this? That was our movie! You know, "you play ball like a girl", that sort of thing. There can't be a girl on the team. Can't we have anything anymore? Honestly. You have Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants or whatever. How about we make a movie, The Brotherhood of the Traveling Slacks? Alright so that was a bit much.

Do you ever stop and think about how complicated a single moment in time is? Well if you haven't, try it sometime. Every moment involves so much. It all depends upon where you are, how you feel, what is going on, etc, etc. They are so intricate and complicated it almost makes my head hurt. The thing that really gets my head spinning is that everyone is sharing the same moment in time, but doing incredibly diverse things with it. Like right now, what is an Amish guy doing with this moment in time...not blogging thats for sure. What's he thinking about? What is important to him? Ah whatever, now this is getting weird. It just makes me feel small. There are so many stories out there that have nothing to do with me. Its actually kind of comforting.

And this is what happens when my brain gets to have recess.