It's Time to Remember...

Matthew 16:25 (MSG)
"Then Jesus went to work on His disciples. "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I AM. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?"

I'm not one to really shy away from controversy.

Thank God for my wife though. Not that she has made me less confrontational - she's just helped me not be a dick about it.

I'd think to think that I'm on a path of growth and discovery. A huge part of that path involves introspection and self-awareness. Along my journey towards better self-awareness, I have learned that I can be pretty abrasive sometimes, which makes me come across as arrogant. That's not been my heart (maybe sometimes...), but just because I have good intentions doesn't mean I can do or say whatever I want.

Anyone who knows me on even a surface level knows that I like to read. Maybe that's not the right word... I LOVE to read. Like, love love love to read. Pretty much anything I can get my hands on. This year I have read various Jack Reacher thrillers, some fantasy from RA Salvatore, a couple of Stephen King novels, plus some Tim Keller, NT Wright, and Scot McKnight theology books.

So, when it comes to controversial topics, I usually have some level of opinion. Not because I think everyone should listen to everything I have to say, but because I have probably read or studied something about it which has helped me for an opinion.

Another caveat. If you don't know me well (or at all) - I'm a Christian. I don't mean the kind of Christian who goes to church on Sunday and hates gay people and immigrants though. I'm trying to be the kind of Christian who's life revolves around Jesus and the teachings of the Bible. I want to love people deeply and believe in them whole-heartedly. I want to treat them like they are valuable creations of God who bear His image. I want to fight for them to achieve the purpose God has given them. I want to love them when they feel unlovable and unworthy. I want to point them to Jesus in my every word, thought, and action.

I say those things to provide some level of understanding about my foundation and how my thought processes are formed. I endeavor to have my opinions, actions, and words be determined and governed by my allegiance to God's Kingdom rather than by my nationality, race, background, etc.

Back to controversy and opinions though.

I have a habit of expressing these opinions somewhat regularly. Not because I want to make people mad or anything. I just genuinely enjoy good conversations and dialogues with people from all sorts of walks of life and backgrounds. Everyone has a unique story. The more people we meet the more we can learn. I think perspective is one of the most valuable things in the world and one of the best ways to gain more perspective is to talk with people who are different than you. So, I try to encourage conversations with people so we can all continue to learn from each other and grow into wiser and healthier humans.

I didn't really learn to think like this until I moved overseas a few years ago. Spending those few years in another country surrounded by cultures that were vastly different than what I grew up with helped me learn to appreciate them for being what they were. I learned that my way of thinking was not the only right way there was. I learned that everyone you encounter gives you an opportunity to learn something new and grow. This has helped me learn how to have healthy relationships with people from different religions, cultures, beliefs, and anything else. I learned that I didn't have to agree with everything someone said or did to be their friend. (I could probably make a strong case for this being one of the most valuable life tools I have ever learned.)

As a Christian, I believe that mentality should be present in every person who claims to follow Christ. The Bible says all over the place about how we should love everyone (1 Corinthians 13, 1 John), treat them with kindness (Galatians 5) and serve them (Philippians 2, Mark 9). And most Christians would say that's how they live.

But as a believer, I also don't think that's enough. The Bible is full of all sorts of difficult commands too. What happened to the really tough things that Jesus and the Bible tell us to do? Some quick examples:
- "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44)
- Treat people good who treat you bad (also Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:28)
- Take care of poor people (1 Timothy 6:17-19)
- Take care of refugees (Leviticus 19:33-34 , Matthew 25:25-36)
- Expect hardship, persecution, and suffering (2 Timothy 3:12, Matthew 16:24-26)
- Basically everything in the The Beatitudes is a reversal of what success in the modern world means (Matthew 5)

Why is it that only some Christians seem to talk about those verses (and the many others like them) though? When did there become such a divide in the church? Where did that gap start and why has it grown so much? Why have some Christians gotten more angry over the legalization of same sex marriage and marijuana than they are over issues like the Syrian refugee crisis, genocide, and human trafficking?

Jesus says in John 14 that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments. I know I'll probably get in trouble for this - but to me the logic breaks down like this:
- If you love God, you'll keep His commandments (He didn't specify which ones, so we can assume He meant all of them)
- If you don't keep God's commandments, you don't love Him

[Disclaimer: This doesn't mean if you aren't perfect you don't love God. None of us will ever be perfect, we will always make mistakes and fall short of what God has called us to. the point is to determine the position of your heart. Is your heart committed to doing whatever it is God has said, no matter the personal cost? Or did you just say a pray because you were afraid you would go to hell if you didn't?]

Somehow, Western Christianity has come to be defined as people who have 'confessed Jesus as Lord' (they use Romans 10 for this foundation) instead of people who obey the commandments of God. God has become a 'get-out-hell' card and a magic genie that will give you what you want if you don't have sex before you get married. The reality of Romans 10 and the action of 'confessing Jesus as Lord' was a dangerous statement of allegiance. A statement that meant Jesus was King of your life and nothing else (or no one else. In the early church's case, this meant Caesar). That means His will (commandments) supersedes all of your desires. Your life is not your own anymore (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). It did not and does not mean 'say a prayer and you're safe from hell.'

Jesus didn't make a big deal out of telling His followers to 'confess Him.' He told them to follow Him. To do what He commanded. He told them that you judge a tree by its fruit (Luke 6:43-45, Matthew 7:16-20). And we've already seen that He told us what that fruit should be: loving your enemies, taking care of refugees and poor people, as well as being kind, gentle, and peaceful.

It all boils down to a heart condition. Which, if you think about it makes perfect sense. Some of the phrasing we use when we talk about 'being saved' are things like:
- "Give your heart / life to Christ"
- "Ask Jesus into your heart"
- "Submit your life to Christ"

If we have given our lives to Christ, doesn't that mean it is His to use how He chooses? Where did this extreme desire for personal security come from? When did we start putting more value on our own lives than we place on the lives of others? Didn't Paul tell us that to live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21)? Didn't Jesus say that if you want to gain your life you would lose it (Matthew 16:25)? What about when He told us to take up our cross and follow Him (Matthew 16:24)?

Jesus told us to judge a tree by its fruit. That means whatever that tree is producing is what it is. Apple trees make apples. Cherry trees make cherries. Grape vines grow grapes. If trees could talk and an orange tree decided to call itself a pecan tree, it wouldn't matter. It could 'confess' it all day every day. But until it started producing pecans, it wouldn't be a pecan tree.

If you call yourself a Christian but don't love your enemies, don't care about refugees, poor people, or the marginalized and disadvantaged, and you don't exhibit the fruits of the Spirit then you're calling yourself the wrong thing. I can't say exactly what it is you are. Maybe you're a fantastic moralist. Maybe you're an amazing family man / woman. Maybe you're just a really great person. But, the word Christian literally means 'little Christ.' The early Christians were called that because they were acting like Christ, not because they went around telling everyone they had said the 'sinner's prayer' and went to church every Sunday morning.

What are the boundary markers of your faith? Is it church attendance, occasional prayers, and a $20 chucked in the offering plate every week? Those are great things to do - but they aren't the biblical definition of what it means to follow Jesus. Those things we mentioned earlier - loving your enemies (as well as your neighbor), taking care of the stranger (the refugees, the widows, the orphans), loving God with all your heart, laying down your life for the other. That's what citizenship in God's Kingdom entails.

Have we not read the story of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25? Jesus says that your refusal to take care of the least is a refusal to take care of Him. It literally, specifically uses a word that means 'foreigner' ('stranger' in some translations; the root word is 'xenos' which is our word for alien, i.e. person from another country). What do we think Jesus meant by this if He didn't mean what He said? There were no asterisks that excused us from following His commands in order to keep ourselves safe.

Again, I'm not implying that we are all supposed to be perfect when it comes to doing these things. It's HARD. But that's one of the reasons we have grace. God knew we couldn't do this stuff without His help. The main question comes back to: where is your heart? Are you willing to follow God's call at great personal cost to yourself? Would you give your life to see your enemy have a chance to encounter to Christ? What's more important to you - preserving your life or losing it for the sake of Christ?

I mentioned earlier that I have created quite a few controversies on my social media posts (I'm sure this one has the potential to fall in to that category). A lot of this has come from my strong opinions. It's almost always exacerbated by my wide range of friends. I have friends who are atheists, agnostics, Muslims, Christians, and all sorts of other backgrounds and belief systems. So my statements tend to bring out lots of other opinions and emotions. The one thing I have always noticed is that the people who get the most angry, the most disrespectful, and the most hurtful are always, always, always the ones who say they are Christians. This does not at all mean that all Christians are like that - a lot of them are really great and friendly and kind in their disagreements and help grow my perspective. My point is that every single person who gets involved in these discussions that doesn't share my faith are never the ones getting angry or belligerent or nasty. That side of the ring is always only occupied by someone or someones who say they are Christians. What an utter tragedy.

Just recently I wrote another one of these posts and a friend of mine who is not a Christian, but is searching for truth and trying to figure out what he believes (Guy A) was interacting with another person I know from a past church (Guy B). Guy A was genuinely asking some questions of Guy B, but Guy B was nothing but defensive, rude, and degrading while Guy A consistently emphasized love and respect. Which one more accurately represented and modeled Christ? Which one produced the good fruit? The churchgoer or the searcher? The answer is not what I wish it was.

This is not to single out any individual person but to address what seems to be a gigantic problem. I am constantly reminded of Matthew 21:28-31. Jesus is telling another parable that says, "What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' He answered, ' I will not'; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, 'I go, sir'; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you."

The action, not the confession, is what determined who was obedient. I mentioned this earlier, but James 2 clearly tells us that faith that is not paired with works is dead. If your faith is dead, what good is it? What purpose does it serve? Your faith, if it is alive cannot help but produce good works (Ephesians 2:10)!

We are told in John 13:35 that, "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." What happened to that? When did so many churches stop emphasizing this? I'm sure it wasn't a conscious decision to leave behind the teachings of Christ, but nevertheless the majority of Western Christianity is not known for the things Jesus told us we should be known for.

Evil and hatred and death will not be overcome by using their own weapons against them. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only love can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." This is exactly what Jesus taught for His entire life. Love is the overpowering force of the Kingdom - not violence and hatred. If we are not known by our love than we are not representing the King we claim to follow. Everywhere Jesus went certain things followed Him. Those things were love, redemption, healing, community restoration, and hope. That's what overcame the world - not anger, hatred, wars, or fear.

It's time to remember, my friends. The Kingdom of God that Jesus established through His death and resurrection is meant for anyone and everyone. As citizens of that Kingdom, it is our responsibility and our privilege to share that good news with everyone we encounter. Not always through our words necessarily, but most certainly through our actions.

Matthew 16:25 (MSG)
"Then Jesus went to work on His disciples. "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I AM. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?"

Work in Progress..

For the last 7 months I've been working my way through a chronological reading of the Bible.
A reading plan is a great way to get disciplined in your daily devotions and it's been interesting to read things in the actual order that they happened.
For instance, the Psalms make more sense when you understand what David was dealing with at the time that he wrote each one.
Isaiah makes more sense when you are reading it intermixed with 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles because you see what issues Isaiah was actually confronting within Israel.

The hard thing with it is that sometimes I don't get much from it. Some mornings I read 4 or 5 chapters of genealogies or lines of kingship. For historians and academics, this is gold. For me, it doesn't really set my spirit on fire while I try to get out of bed each morning.

But, I am a big believer in habits and I've stuck with it. Sometimes I may read for a couple of weeks at a time without 'getting anything.' But there's always a day that comes around where something jumps out at me and I realize the benefit of this habit.

I'm nearing the end of my time in Isaiah, Kings, and Chronicles and this morning part of my reading was Isaiah 48. The title my Bible gives that chapter is 'God the Creator and Redeemer' - which are 2 of my most favorite aspects of God. The Creator Who Redeems. Frick.

Anyway, in this chapter Isaiah smashes it from verse 1. He is addressing Israel and says, "who swear by the name of the Lord, and invoke the God of Israel, but not in truth or right."
Whoa. They are swearing by and invoking the name of God, but not being bothered with truth or right? Sounds kinda like what a lot of people do nowadays... But that's not the point of my writing today. It's a bit of background to where Isaiah goes within the chapter though (it's vital to know who is being addressed in Scripture - otherwise misinterpretation is almost sure to follow).

In verses 10-11 Isaiah says, "See, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tested you in the furnace of adversity. For my own sake, for my own sake I do it, for why should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another."

Wait, what?

How many times have we heard people say that 'God won't give us more than we can handle'? (Which is a misquoting of a verse in Corinthians that says He won't allow us to be tempted beyond what we can handle and will always provide a way out... Big difference.)

Why would God test us in the furnace of adversity for His own sake?? That seems pretty sadistic.

Brief personal background as to why this hit me so hard:
Lately, things in my life have been pretty good - but it always seems short lived. It's almost like, as soon as life starts coming together, some invisible wrench gets thrown in the cogs and everything comes to a standstill, or just flat-out breaks. It's been a pattern I've seen in my life for years and last night I got fed up and pissed off about it. I had it out with God.
(If you don't do this, you should. He knows what you're thinking and feeling already - why try to act like you're not angry?)
I told Him I was over it all. I have worked my whole life to live a life that honors Him. I have endeavored for years to learn as much as I can about what I believe to make an impact on every person I come in contact with. I have separated myself and tried to live a disciplined and sanctified life of character and integrity. I have given up everything to pursue what I feel like He has called me to.

So why the hell does stuff keep getting screwed up??? I'm a good dude after all - doesn't God know that??

My whole life I have been taught by the church that if you live good enough, give enough money, work hard enough - that God would bless you and favor you and give you all the desires of your heart. So why don't I have any of those things I've been promised by preachers for years?

Then, I wake up this morning and grab my Bible to read today's chronological plan (you can be mad at God and not give up your faith or quit your good habits). When I read the bit in verse 11 that says, "...for why should My name be profaned?" - I felt like something clicked.

The things we go through are there to help us become stronger people because we are representatives of our King, Jesus. I hate clichés, but it's not about me. It's about Who I represent.

God was using Isaiah to tell Israel that they've been using His name in vain because they are putting His name on what they are doing, but they aren't concerned with truth or right. He needed to put them through the furnace of adversity to get them to wake up and realize that they were, in essence, hurting His reputation. They were meant to be God's chosen people. Not just any god, but God the Creator and Redeemer. The God above all other gods. And they were acting like spoiled brats who thought that God existed for them, when the reality is we exist for Him. We are part of His plan, not the other way around.

I have to constantly work to remind myself that I exist to be part of His ultimate plan of redeeming creation. I have a huge responsibility to accurately represent His character. After all, Genesis tells us we were created as His image-bearers. Try thinking about that in a world where kings and empires are still relevant: kings put images of themselves all around their kingdoms and empires in order to remind the people who was in charge, even if they couldn't see him. That's us. Image-bearers of the Most High.

We are meant to be this world's reminders of Who is in charge, what His character is like, what He loves and what He hates. Who am I to decide what that image should look like? God determines that and as the Creator, it is His right to shape and mold me in to the image He most needs represented in the space I occupy.

My job is to stop complaining and let Him continue to chisel the unnecessary pieces out of my life so I most accurately reflect Him to the world around me.

The Weight

I think the reason I don't write more often is because I never know where / how to start.

I have so many thoughts and ideas rampaging around in my mind that I end up feeling like it is too big of a task to try to narrow any of these thoughts down to a simple blog...
But I genuinely feel like I am supposed to write so I'm just going to go for it.

I've been thinking about Jesus a lot lately. Not all the miracles and stuff that He has become famous for, but about what it must have been like as He was walking the cross through the city on the way to die.
What was He thinking about?
What emotions was He feeling?
Did He feel like He had actually missed God's voice and was now going to die in shame and misery for no purpose?

He had spent 30 years preparing for His roughly 3 years of ministry, and at the end of it all - He was going to die.
Did He know everyone would abandon Him as He trudged through the city streets, bleeding and broken, carrying the instrument of His own death?
Did He know He would defeat death and initiate the establishment of God's Kingdom on Earth via His resurrection?

A quick Google search says that the total weight of the cross was about 300lbs (135kgs) - but what Jesus would have been carrying was only the crossbeam (He may have already had His hands nailed to it) and it would have weighed about 100lbs (45kgs).

All of this had me thinking about how much heavier this whole situation was than we tend to give it credit for. We so flippantly throw out verses like "...take up your cross daily and follow Me..." (Matthew 16:24; Luke 9:23) that I think they may have lost the full weight of what they imply.

The emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical strain on Jesus on this day is more than I can even begin to comprehend.
Here He is, facing:
1) Abandonment by His closest family, friends, and followers
2) Agonizing pain
3) Shame most will never come close to experiencing
4) Possible doubt as to whether God is actually involved in the whole thing

But you know what?

HE KEPT WALKING.

That's what has struck me the most from this story. In the movie, 'The Passion of the Christ' the one scene that has stuck with me for all these years is when Jesus sees His mother and she is crying as He, brutalized and barely recognizable, reaches out to comfort Him and He responds to her by saying, "I must be about my Father's business."

HE KEPT WALKING.

I believe that, as difficult as every bit of this was for Him, He had had a glimpse of the Kingdom and KNEW that what He was doing was part of a bigger plan and no matter what, He had to keep walking.
No matter the weight.
No matter the pain.
No matter the shame.

HE KEPT WALKING.

I get emotional just thinking about His resolve and determination, His commitment to God's Kingdom, His courage and strength in the darkest of days.

How often do we get sidetracked when things fall apart or don't go according to plan? Life sucks sometimes and doesn't always feel like its worth living. It would be easier to just sit down and bleed out - but we have to remember that we aren't at the end of the story yet. There is ALWAYS hope. You may not see it, you may not feel it, but you may actually represent it for others, and that alone should keep you putting one foot in front of the other - no matter how slow or shaky each step is. The important thing is to keep walking.

We have been entrusted with a great commission which carries vast implications and a great weight. Sometimes it's easy to have our eyes only on ourselves, but the weight we carry is not for us.
It's for the world around us and it desperately needs for us to just keep walking.

Are You Afraid Yet? You Should Be...

"Jesus is my best friend."
"I"m so in love with Jesus."
"I'm dating Jesus for a year."

Blah blah blah.

I know I'm not the only person who has ever heard one (or all) of these ridiculous Christian-isms.

I have always had a deep-seated hatred for clichés, especially those of the Christian persuasion (not because I'm anti-Christian, but because I think we should be better than that and our belief system deserves more than lame catchphrases).

I'm not totally sure where this aversion came from, or why it bothers me so much, but I'm sure it is closely related to having been actively involved in church and Christian circles for my entire life. I've been around long enough to have seen how useless so many of our weak and shallow doctrines are. Consequently, I have been on a quest for the last few years to find some real answers to the questions and issues that, I believe, really matter.

[Quick disclaimer: This is an ongoing journey that I never expect to complete and nothing that I write is meant to say I have found all the answers.]

As I mentioned before, I have been in church my entire life (more than 28 years at this point). I was in a Christian school from kindergarten until 8th grade, was homeschooled for all of high school with a Christian curriculum, have completed 2 Bible schools (first one was 2 years, and the second one was 3 years) and have been involved in serving local churches on nearly every level imaginable. (Side note: this is not a bragging point - I only say it to provide evidence that I'm not new to the church / Christian scene)

And the thing I'm realizing after all of these experiences is: We are way too comfortable with God.

The overwhelming influence of Western society / culture has imbedded a sense of individualism within each of us. Whether we wanted it to happen or not, this individualism has invaded our Christianity. Many of our sermons revolve around themes such as:
- 'Your personal relationship with Jesus Christ'
- 'If you were the only person who ever accepted Him, Jesus still would have died just for you'
- 'God's grace is there to save you from your sins'
- The list goes on, ad nauseam

The common thread with all of it is the word Y O U.  Now, I'm not saying each person is not valuable and loved unconditionally by God (because they are). What I am saying is, that's not the point.

The point, in my humble opinion, is that God has stooped down to rescue our fallen and desolate creation from the gigantic mess that we created and is allowing us to take part in seeing it restored to its originally intended glory.

But somehow, we constantly go back to our casual clichés and think we just need to love Jesus more and everything will be ok. Obviously, we are commanded to love God with all of our heart - so loving Jesus is a component to our beliefs. But it isn't all there is to it.

I fully believe that being utterly terrified of God is just as necessary to our belief system as loving Him is. I'm not saying to be afraid that He is going to give you AIDS if you forget to read your Bible more than 3 days in a row; rather we should be absolutely awestruck and amazed that GOD, the CREATOR of the universe, knows and loves us.

These thoughts have been floating around my mind for a few months, but it all came together when I was reading Job the other night. Job 4:6 says, "Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?"

"Is not your fear of God your confidence...?"

That's it. Our confidence needs to be founded in our fear of God. We should fear Him because we know Him. And because we know and fear Him, we are able to be fully confident in His ability to handle any and every situation we ever encounter.

This is such a weak example, but I keep thinking about grizzly bears. From a distance you can talk about how cute and cuddly they appear. They have a beautiful coat of fur, play in the stream with their cubs, roll around in the grass. But as you get closer, you start to see details and aspects of their nature that  couldn't be observed from a distance. Fierce claws, sharp teeth, viciously protective and territorial. It's the same animal, so why is what you see from a distance so different from you see up close? (Let's be honest, if you're foolish enough to get up close and personal with a grizzly, the only detail you'll be able to describe is what it feels like to have a grizzly breathe down your neck as you run for your life)

I believe it has a lot to do with how well you actually know what you are observing. I don't have to be right next to a grizzly to know how dangerous it is and what it is capable of because I have read about them and know what to be careful of.

In the same vein, the closer I get to God and the more I read about Him and study Him, the more I realize how incredibly insignificant I am and how privileged I am to be adopted into His family and included in what He is doing with the creation. It doesn't make we want to 'date Jesus'. It makes me want to fall on my face and sob. I am completely unworthy and God has no need for me to do anything. But He still wants me to. How can I, with a clear conscience, think it has anything at all to do with me?

I'll finish this off with a quote from a book I am reading by C. S. Lewis called 'Miracles'. In chapter 11, entitled 'Christianity and Religion' he says, "The ultimate spiritual reality is not vaguer, more inert, more transparent than the images, but more positive, more dynamic, more opaque... If we must have a mental picture to symbolise Spirit, we should represent it as something heavier than matter."

I pray that I always remember that it is only by God's unchangeable nature of love and grace that He has included me in His plan to restore creation. He is the source and ultimate reality, not me.

And if that ever stops creating fear and reverence inside of me, I deserve nothing less than to be chased down by a grizzly and made to run for my life.

We are Far too Easily Pleased

"It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." - C. S. Lewis

How could CS say that God finds our desires too weak? Seems to me that most peoples' desires are pretty strong. We see it everyday - people doping whatever it takes to fulfill their own agendas and goals. But I think that's the point he's making. Our desires actually are pretty strong... And I reckon that's the problem. They are just strong enough to have us satisfied with the wrong things, but not strong enough to make us push toward the right things. 

We love going to church, we speak fluent Christianese, we love our Christian community and fellowship. And we are content with those things. 

Do you remember being young and having your parents force you to eat food that looked gross, smelled funny, and you just knew would taste terrible? You didn't even have to try it, you just knew. Your parents would always insist that it was good for you and you needed to eat it or else you wouldn't be healthy, your teeth would rot out, you couldn't have dessert, or some other unimaginably cruel and unbearable punishment would be forced upon you. So, you'd try to eat it. And then you'd gag. If you were experienced, you could maybe work up some tears about how much you hated it and couldn't eat anymore. (I was sneaky enough to get a mouthful of the stuff I didn't want to eat and then ask to go to the bathroom and spit it in the toilet... Sorry, mom. I love your cooking now. I was just being picky back then.) You had it in your head before you even tried the food that it would taste bad, so when you finally did take that teensy-weensy bite, you almost threw up because your expectations were determining your experience..

If it would've been left up to us, we would've eaten cookies, ice cream, and candy all day every day... And one day we would've grown up and been enormously obese, unhealthy, and in danger of dying much earlier than we were meant to. 

I use this as an example because I think it does a solid job of describing the state of Christianity these days. We want what we want. Don't inconvenience us with what we need. 

Feed me on Sunday morning. Tell me how God wants me to be a bajillionaire if I just keep giving Him more money. Talk to me more about how I can do whatever I want and God will always forgive me. I want to hear more about all the bad people outside of the faith and how God will punish them one day.

We are being given exactly what we want and it is killing us.

Fast forward 15 or 20 years from your childhood. You and your taste buds have grown up and you're realizing how much amazing food you missed out on as a kid because you were too scared to try something new. And you're probably pretty thankful your parents didn't give you everything you wanted. They were older and wiser and knew what you needed was more important than what you wanted. For example, I always operated under the belief that broccoli had no legitimate reason to be purposefully ingested ... Alas, all these years later, I have seen (tasted?) the light and absolutely love it. 

Now imagine your favorite meal in your favorite setting with your favorite person. For me, I would have Hibachi style Japanese food (sushi; fried rice with scrambled eggs; grilled broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, and zucchini; fillet Mignon cooked medium, and scallops seared in butter and soy sauce... Oh, man.), on the back porch of a log cabin in the middle of the mountains with a female companion yet to be named. I cannot imagine a better meal for the life of me. But that kind of meal takes time and effort to prepare. There are many, many ingredients and components and it can't be thrown together in 20 minutes. And that's part of what makes it so enjoyable. There is preparation and planning and precision involved to make it the best.

But, if you would have presented that option to me 20 years ago, I would have declined and politely requested Chuck E. Cheese's instead (young fool that I was).

Where I'm going with all of this is: just because something is easy doesn't mean it is the best thing for us. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with cookies for breakfast - but cookies will never satisfy you. You'll eat them and feel happy because they tasted so good going down, but within the hour, you'll be hungry again because your body can't survive on junk food.
On the other hand, I have had that exact same Japanese food meal (minus the cabin and female companion) and I can barely move after I finish. If I have it for lunch, I won't need to eat for the rest of the day because my body will be so nourished.

But our desire for cookies is just strong enough to keep us from realizing how much stronger our desire for real food would be if we just tried it (with no negative expectations).

It is high time we told our taste buds to grow up and start looking for more out of our Christianity than just cookies and ice cream. It's time we start searching for the things that will sustain us and challenge us. We need to be looking for those spiritual things that will sit inside of us for days on end because we can't quite wrap our head around them. We need to be challenged and confronted.

I don't want to be satiated anymore.

I want a taste of that heavenly Japanese food that will make me forget all about these earthly cookies.

Time to Breathe!

Holy crap.

You know what it's like when you start out with great intentions of doing something like losing weight or exercising, then you try it twice and get busy with other things? I think that's what has happened with this blog. So, I'm sorry, I really will try to do better.

So, I'm halfway through my first semester already. Time has flown by and it's hard to believe I'll be visiting the States in only about 2 1/2 months! I'm really excited for a break and to see Molly (plus everyone else I love and miss, but she takes priority).

School has been great. I'm really involved in a lot of different areas which has been cool. At the moment I serve doing Chapel set-up every other Wednesday, Car Park and Jumping Castle Team for Sisterhood on Thursday mornings, Sexy Sweeps on Thursday afternoons, Lecture Room set-up on Fridays, StreetTeams on Saturday mornings, Chinese Extension Service on Sundays, plus I'm doing some writing for the yearbook. So, yeah. It's awesome, but busy! There have been some let-downs, but nothing life shattering, just things not going quite like I had hoped they would.

I've never had such a hard time finding a job, which sucks. I've been at it for about 10 weeks now and just got my first interview. It's definitely a whole different world down here. God has something worked out and I believe He is bringing me the right job at the right time, I just wish the right time was now!

I've got awesome housemates, of course there are challenges that go along with living in a house with 5 guys, but overall it's been awesome. We've had some really great times so far and I only see it getting better!

I played guitar for the first time about 2 weeks ago, which was really cool. We had an assessment to do a performance for a particular culture group in the church, and my group was senior citizens. We had a great time and playing guitar went way better than I expected.

I've lost weight too, which is awesome. It's not because of my fantastic work out program, it's just what happens when you walk EVERYWHERE and live on a college diet. So, I'll be looking good over Christmas. I'll have a killer tan too, because it'll be summer time here, which means lots of beach time!

On top of all that, I'm learning heaps and having tons of mindsets challenged. Not that I've been wrong in every thing, but definitely re-evaluating things and making sure I'm thinking in a way that will propel me, not hinder me.

I have some cool announcements and big plans coming up, but it's still in the works so I'm going to keep it quiet for now... That's the best I have for a cliffhanger, so keep checking and I'll seriously try to update more regularly!

I apologize for being so random, but I had to just go with the flow. Look for more organized writings in the future!

I Come from the Land Down Under

It's official! I'm now a student at Hillsong International Leadership College! That may not mean much to some of you, but it's the fulfillment of a dream for me. I've strived for years and years to follow God's direction for my life, and sometimes I didn't understand what He was doing, but I'm finally getting it. He's been leading me here for years, but He had to work other things out in me first.

So, for those of you who have never been to Australia, it is the most beautiful place I've ever been in my life. My first week here I was able to spend a day in downtown Sydney with my new housemates and friends, see and walk on the Harbour Bridge, see the Opera House, and walk through the Botanical Gardens. I went to Katoomba to see the Three Sisters and the Blue Mountains, and have been to Manly, Bondi and Bronte Beach. Everything here is amazing! I've also met some really awesome people from all over the world.

On top of those great times, I've been able to start calling Hillsong Church my home church! If you don't know anything about them or what they do, just go to YouTube and look up "Hillsong" and you'll get a small idea. This church is the most incredible thing I have ever been a part of. It's not just a church here. This is literally a community of people who really and truly love God and take their relationship with Him seriously. I have heard some of the best teaching of my life here, and I've only been to services for 2 weeks! And if the teaching wasn't good enough, the worship here is beyond compare. The presence of God is so tangible, because the heart of the church is so pure.

I pray that through my time here, God will engrain the heart of this place into my heart, so that I can duplicate it elsewhere. The world desperately needs what God is doing in this place. I'm so thankful He's trusted me enough to send me here and start on this journey. Words fail to describe the awesomeness of the God I serve. I pray if you don't know Him like I do, that you will start to. It is the best thing you could ever do. There is literally nothing in this world that is worth giving up that relationship with God for. Nothing.