Author: admin

Duck Dynasty

My Thoughts on the Phil Robertson Thing

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I don’t watch the news (if I can help it), so I rely on Twitter and word-of-mouth to stay connected with the outside world. Late last night, I was informed of Phil Robertson’s suspension from the A&E reality show Duck Dynasty for voicing his opinions about same-sex marriage.

I was immediately outraged. “As if they didn’t see this coming,” I thought. “How can they suspend someone from their own TV show.”

I was angry, but I didn’t get on Twitter. Instead, I went to bed.

When I woke up this morning, I was calm and collected, which enabled me to read several blog posts, in an attempt to gain perspective on the issue as a whole, rather than just one side of it.

And honestly, this tweet from Glenn Packiam was enough for me. (Our Christian imperative is to announce “Christ is Lord” in the public square, not to announce Christian morality to the unbelieving public.) But I didn’t stop reading there.

It was then that I found out that Phil Robertson did not simply politely state his opinion and quote a Scripture. Rather, he went into a lengthy and crude monologue that went something like this: It seems like, to me, a vagina—as a man—would be more desirable than a man’s anus. That’s just me. I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not logical, my man. It’s just not logical.

But Phil did not stop there. He also launched into a dissertation on African-Americans that many would find highly offensive.

Cue the conservative Christians claiming persecution and violation of the First Amendment (which is in the Bible, right?).

As Randy Bohlender pointed out, conservative Christians seem to be having a consistency problem. He cited this article, about a University of Kansas professor who was put on leave after a controversial—make that hateful—tweet.

Here is the harsh reality: If we want to play the “freedom of speech” card, we have to let this guy talk too. Freedom of speech means freedom to be hateful if one chooses. God has made us powerful, and He also gave us tongues.

I think it’s also important to note that A&E is the one who signs the checks, so they do have the authority to call the shots. It’s no different for us; we technically have the freedom to say whatever we want, whenever we want, but we also know that there are some things we say that may cause our employers to stop signing our checks. Why do we expect famous people to be able to say whatever they want and get away with it, when we ourselves know better?

If a logical standpoint isn’t enough for you, I can present a biblical one. The Constitution does NOT rank on the same level as Scripture. Jesus never promised us free speech. He never promised us freedom of expression. In fact, in His day and culture, these things did not exist as they do now, and Jesus did nothing about it, aside from showing us a new way—the way of the Kingdom.

We are not called to be right; we are called to be like Jesus. And Jesus, who faced far more persecution than you and I will ever face, was silent in response to His accusers.

It’s almost as if Jesus knew something that we still have yet to learn, isn’t it?

“If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” Romans 12:18, ESV

Jesus—and Paul—both call us to do everything we can to live in peace with everyone. (This includes out water cooler conversation, as well as our social media accounts.) They also promised persecution would come, which is what happens when we forsake the ways of the world and choose the ways of Jesus. Angry protesting, boycotts and petitions are the ways of the world; unconditional love, the forgiving of enemies (in His lowest and most vulnerable point, no less), and sometimes, silence, are the ways of Jesus.

One of the blog entries I read was by Matthew Paul Turner, who made the point that it’s just a TV show. And while many would say that it’s not “just a TV show” (it’s about us losing our freedom!), the reality is, there are far more important things in life. Like the fact that 500 people were killed in Sudan yesterday? That’s actually important. But conservative Christians didn’t talk much about that, did they?

Please, keep an open mind as you read this next paragraph, because it’s very important: Do you think maybe, just maybe, that’s the reason why the world hates us and doesn’t want anything to do with Jesus? Maybe they aren’t rejecting Jesus; maybe they’re rejecting the way we present Him. Maybe they’re rejecting us.

I think if Jesus had to pick between talking about the Sudan issue or talking about the Duck Dynasty issue, He would pick the Sudan one. And you know what scares me about that? If I’m being completely honest, I care more about the Duck Dynasty issue than the Sudan one.

The reality is, none of us are like Jesus as much as we think we are. But what if the world saw us taking a stand for the least of these? What if, instead of angry protests and rants, they instead heard us proclaiming that the Kingdom of God is here?

“Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.” Philippians 4:5, NIV

In this verse, Paul calls us to let the world see the gentle side of us. Why? Because the Lord is near. The Kingdom of God is at hand. God’s kindness leads people to repentance. And God’s kindness (or lack thereof) is most often displayed through His people.

I love the ESV, because it uses the word “reasonableness” instead of “gentleness”. When we angrily call the people on the other side of this issue “intolerant”, we are actually the ones who come across as the most intolerant. But what if we showed the world that we’re actually reasonable people who are open to dialogue? Not to change our beliefs, but just to talk. Because where there is yelling and protesting, there is no talking.

Most professional communicators will tell you that it’s not what you say, but how you say it. I think this issue with Phil Robertson is one of those situations. And if Jesus has called us to do everything we can to live in peace, shouldn’t we be concerned about how we come across?

Familiarity

Burden and Vision

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This is Part 2 in my series on Familiarity. View my previous entry here.

There is a difference between an idea and a vision. Ideas come and go in the moment, but vision remains. Because of this, vision isn’t born in a moment, but by process. And I have found that the best visions have burdens behind them.

When you have a burden backing up your vision, it drives you. It wakes you up in the morning, and keeps you dreaming when you’re lying in bed at night. When you don’t have burden backing your vision, it’s easy to lay aside when things get hard. But when you’re truly burdened by something, it’s difficult to ignore. Vision doesn’t have to be your own—it can be imparted to you by someone else—but no one can give you their burden for something. That you must get on your own.

So how does familiarity play into all of this?

In my previous entry, I presented the idea that familiarity leads to an awareness of need, which leads to compassion, which leads to vision, which leads to action. For this entry, substitute the word “compassion” with “burden”.

Burdens don’t usually come when we’re shut up in a conference room or a cabin in the woods, searching for it. But it does help to have your mind clear, and those things can serve that purpose. Burdens come in the day-to-day grind of life—in ordinary and familiar places—as we bump up against a broken world where things have gone terribly wrong, far different than how God intended. And it’s in the middle of this brokenness that burdens are developed.

Once you’re burdened for something, once you’ve tapped into that cause burning inside of you, it’s far easier to get vision. The burden is the driving force, but the vision is what you do about it. The burden is your inward motivation to do something externally that helps to heal the brokenness of the world.

If you feel lost and confused, if you’re looking for a reason to get out of bed in the morning, if you’ve lost your vision and are seeking to regain it … just keep showing up to life. The greatest temptation when you’re in this place is to shut out the world, to retreat to just going through the motions of life. It’s a trap. There will be times when you get knocked down, but get up. Keep showing up. Be present. Because it’s there—often in the mundane—that your burden will develop. And out of that burden, vision will be born.

Familiarity

Names and Faces

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This is Part 1 in my series on Familiarity.

When we hear words like familiarity, we often think of them strictly in their negative sense. We think about things like how Jesus couldn’t do any miracles in His hometown, because the people there were so familiar with Him that they couldn’t see anything divine coming out of Him. And it’s true: the closer we are to things, the less likely we are to see their beauty. In this sense, familiarity blinds us. But there is another side to familiarity that actually helps us to see.

Three weeks ago, I was with the youth outreach ministry I work with, doing a school outreach in a very small town in East Texas. Yesterday, I was on my way to Shreveport, and I drove through the town once again. As I passed the school, I began re-playing images in my mind from the outreach, and I saw the names and faces of students we had ministered to. And I prayed for them, that God would show up in their lives and point them toward who He created them to be, and more importantly, toward Himself.

Had I no previous interaction with the students, teachers and principals at this school, I wouldn’t have given the school a second glance as I drove by. But because I had some level of familiarity, I found myself remembering the outreach and praying for the students, a few of them by name.

Before I started working with the youth outreach ministry, I didn’t spend much time thinking about schools. But now that I have been doing outreaches at them for three years, I find myself praying for most schools that I drive by. And it’s funny, because three years ago, I never pictured myself becoming burdened for schools or students. Coincidentally, I was also not familiar with either one. But then I showed up at an outreach one day, sort of by accident, and in a moment, I became very familiar and aware of the need for this type of ministry.

Familiarity leads to an awareness of need, which leads to compassion, which leads to vision, which leads to action.

Because action rarely happens without vision, many of us are sitting around waiting for vision to come to us, so that we can go out and take action. But what if we’re doing this wrong? What if we need to get out and become familiar with things, so that we can see needs, be moved to compassion, develop vision, and ultimately, take action? Perhaps we need to start showing up places, until we become familiar with the cause that was inside of us all along.

Black Friday

Black Friday

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Black Friday. For some, it’s a chance to purchase things for their family that they wouldn’t be able to afford otherwise. For others, it’s a tradition where they accumulate more stuff that they don’t need, for no apparent reason. And then, for one group in particular, it’s a time to fight and trample—sometimes to the death—anyone who gets in the way of desired material goods. This is consumerism at its ugliest, and this is sinful.

The problem is not individuals who choose to participate in Black Friday. Rather, it is a much larger problem rooted in our systemic sin of consumerism, and Black Friday is only the most visible demonstration of that. (Side Note: If we look at the Gospels, we see that Jesus was more critical of systemic sin than personal sin, but that’s a topic for another day.)

I love the way that Brian Zahnd put it in a tweet earlier today: “Consumerism is impatience. … America is impatience. … Advent is learning patience.” Isn’t it interesting how our most thankful day of the year, rather than spurring us into the patience and peace of Advent, spurs us into our ugliest day of consumerism? It’s almost as though Black Friday completely cancels out Thanksgiving.

Advent teaches us patience because the birth of Christ illustrates that the Kingdom of God often does not come in the ways we most expect. And because the Kingdom of God offers an alternative society for humans while on earth, it is free from the many systemic sins we unknowingly participate in in our culture. Once again this systemic sin is not Black Friday in itself, but the larger problem of consumerism, which is rooted in restlessness and ingratitude.

So how do we rebel against the systemic sin of consumerism? As citizens of the Kingdom, we are not called to a loud rebellion, but a quiet one. Not a rebellion where we rail against things, but a rebellion where we intentionally choose a more excellent way.

One of the ways I have chosen to rebel against the tide of consumerism lately is the ancient practice of the Friday Fast. This was once a widespread practice among Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, but it is not commonly practiced today, except in some Catholic, Anglican and Eastern Orthodox communities. Ways of observing the Friday Fast vary, but I like the way that Brian Zahnd presents it, as observed at the church he pastors in St. Joseph, Missouri.

BZ calls his congregants to fast a meal once a week (typically the noon meal on Fridays) and take the money they would have spent on that meal (roughly $5) and put it in a collection that is then is distributed to those in critical need in the community. This ritual is more than just about fasting a meal, but rather, it is a quiet rebellion against the tide of consumerism. It’s not about the day or meal or the amount of money; it’s about intentionally interrupting your normal cycle of consumption, as a reminder that “life is more than food …” (Luke 12:23).

Last night, two of my friends slept on the sidewalk in front of a store for Black Friday, as many do. I asked one of them if they did this for the discounts, or the experience, and he said it was more for the experience than anything else, and I actually really like that idea.

But the more I thought about it, the more I noticed the glaring irony. On Black Friday, many people mimic the poor. They do this unknowingly, but for one night, they enter into their world of having no place to lay their heads. But there is one fatal flaw: they aren’t doing this to practice solidarity with the poor, but to display the ugliest of humanity in the form of consumerism.

With the Friday Fast, we also experience solidarity (in true form) with the “least of these”, and make a quiet—yet tangible—difference in our communities at the same time.

I think it’s important to couple the fast with the monetary donation (to someplace where it will be used to care for the poor), because giving money without fasting often causes one to miss the moment of solidarity and reflection, which is what we need the most.

I also think it’s important to make this a weekly ritual. This may sound legalistic to some, but the truth is, if we just do it “here and there”, it won’t be long before we forget it entirely. I’ve been trying to establish this ritual for a month now, and I still forget about 50% of the time. To make things a bit more flexible, I don’t regulate this practice to Friday alone. Sometimes my schedule has me around people on Fridays where a meal is being shared, and I don’t want to be the holier-than-thou “I’m fasting” Pharisee at the table. And from the Gospels, we can see that sharing a table was extremely important to Jesus.

The Friday Fast is flexible. It doesn’t put us in better standing with God. But in a world—and a Church—that is becoming more and more given over to consumerism, I believe that the Friday Fast is our opportunity to quietly rebel, and keep Christ at the forefront of our awareness in the 21st Century.

Editor’s Note: It should be noted that this is just one method of quiet rebellion against consumerism, and is in no way presented as the “superior” method. Rituals are only good to the point that they do not become routine, done from a place of obligation rather than passion.

Gray Thursday

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Today is Gray Thursday, known in some circles as “Thanksgiving”.

Earlier today, I was driving from one relative’s house to another—through Austin suburbia—passed miles and miles of empty parking lots and darkened storefronts. It reminded me of a simpler time, a time when we weren’t such consumers, and could actually go a day without buying stuff.

But all of that is changing now. A few select stores have been open on Thanksgiving for years, giving workers a day off to be with their families before the most exhausting day of the year. Last year, many stores decided to begin Black Friday at midnight. Because they were met with such success, many stores decided to open on Thanksgiving evening this year—hence, Gray Thursday.

One of the leaders of Macy’s made it quite black and white: “Our midnight opening was so successful last year, so this year, we’re opening even earlier.” In other words, “We made a crapload of money last year (at the expense of our employees and their families), and we want more.”

I’m not here to condemn anyone; that’s pointless. I’m not so much concerned about people who go shopping as I am the sinful system where money is our primary motivator, and we’ll sacrifice things once held sacred to obtain more of it.

Rather than condemning people, we should grieve. Not because people are going shopping tonight, but because something is fundamentally wrong with our world. All is not well, all is not right. Denying this reality would be foolish, and trying to fight it is a waste of time. Instead, we can remember, we can grieve, and we can invite people to enter in to an alternative society that is free from the chains of mammon and consumerism. This alternative society is the Kingdom of God, and Jesus is the Door. Jesus is the answer to the pain that Gray Thursday brings to families.

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Coming Into Focus

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I really appreciate everyone who has been praying for me lately. This week has definitely been better from last week, but I’m not all the way there yet. The past two weeks have certainly been one of the more difficult times of my life.

When I’m feeling down, I tend to either buy things or lie on the couch for hours watching TV (sometimes I do both at the same time—hah). Today, I watched TV for 2 hours and then decided that was enough of that. So, I spontaneously decided to drive to Taylor for the weekend to visit my grandparents.

I was still feeling like crap as I headed out of Dallas, so I prayed a very simple prayer to the effect of “God, I need you to show up.” Somewhere between Corsicana and Waco, I was hit with a wave of uncontainable joy. And I felt alive again, as though God Himself had come and awakened me from my sleepwalking and stumbling through life. The moment was not fleeting, as God came and began to heal the damage that has been done to my heart over the past several weeks. And I know that I am still in process, but for the first time in this process. I am beginning to believe that God is who He says He is – that He is faithful and that He is a redeemer of even the most broken parts of our lives.

I’m at my grandparent’s house now. As midnight approaches, a strange calm has settled over me. I say it is strange because this is the first night in a few weeks where I have felt at peace as I lie down to sleep.

I have found that when I’m busy with work and such, it’s easy to shut out my pain and forget that things have gone terribly wrong. But when night comes and everyone else in my house has gone to sleep, that is when the voices start; that is when I remember. But tonight, those voices are gone, and peace is in their place, as if I can feel the very hand of God outstretched over every moment and circumstance of my life.

I am learning through all of this that it is okay to acknowledge that all is not well. It’s okay to admit that this world has gone horribly wrong, that we are a million miles away from Eden. And even though the Kingdom of God is breaking in all around us, life is still hard sometimes, as we brush up against the brokenness of this present age. That is the Story, and we must embrace the bad along with the good. But I know how the Story ends, and I know about the New Story that God begins at the end of Revelation, the Story that is open-ended because it is outside of time itself. Basically, God is making all things new. The Kingdom is here, though not in full. But God is at work, even in the middle of our deepest pain. Amen.

Come, Lord Jesus. Come into our brokenness, and bring to us Your wholeness.

Story in Four Words

The Story in Four Words

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If I were to describe the Story in a handful of words; if I were to reduce it down to something that could be summed up on a sign in my front yard, these are the words I would choose: Jesus. Beauty. Mystery. Grace.

Jesus: Because He is the first and the last, the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. The author and perfecter, the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star. He is unending. Limitless. The beginning and the end. Without Him, there is nothing else. With Him, we cannot even begin to fathom the possibilities of who we can become.

Beauty: Because everything we see in the natural realm sings of the beauty of the unseen realm. As evidenced by the first sign (See Part 1), some present the Story as cold and sterile, black and white. When, in reality, the Story is full of life and color. And the most beautiful thing of all is the fact that I cannot even begin to describe its beauty on paper; it is something that must be experienced, something that cannot quite be put to words. The Story confuses us, while at the same time beckoning us, and that is why it is so beautiful.

Mystery: Because no matter how much we study and formulate and strive to find those perfect words, the Story is not something we can ever fully understand or put to words. Just think, if the signs were displayed in the same way that Jesus entered our world, they would not be right out in front of the house, or even remotely visible from the highway; they would be out back, in a barn somewhere, buried beneath the hay.

Grace: Because entering and becoming caught up in the Story comes without any cost on our part. It was costly, yes, but the Son of Man took the full price upon Himself so that we could get it for free. The Story does not require us to get dressed up and pretend we are someone that we are not. Nor does it require us to spend hours in the library, cramming, in hopes of passing the entrance exam. Participation in the Story cannot be purchased or earned; it can only be received.

Vastness of The Story

The Vastness of The Story

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I’m spending the weekend visiting family in Rural Missouri. On the way into town today, I saw two signs in two separate front yards along the highway. Both displayed phrases from Scripture. Both were what one would call “evangelistic.” But to me, these signs were little more than an attempt to cram a complex message onto a small, white sign.

The first sign read, “Repent, ye therefore, and believe the Gospel.”

And the second, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the knowledge of God!”

That’s quite a stark contrast, especially considering both signs are intended to be a means to the same end. However, the second sign makes me want to love Jesus a whole lot more than the first.

Why does the second sign carry a certain lure that the first sign lacks? Besides the fact that it doesn’t point a judgmental finger in your face, the second sign hints at the reality that there is so much more; it alludes to the fact that this is something we must give our lives to discover; it tells us that the Story is far too vast to fit onto a sign along the highway.

Kingdom of Connection

The Kingdom of Connection

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Last November, I was sitting in one of my favorite coffee houses when I overheard a conversation and afterwards introduced myself to a man who ended up being a pastor at a local church. I wrote about it here: http://ow.ly/jySWG

Yesterday, I was at the same coffee house, and ended up sitting next to Jerry—the pastor I met four months ago. We talked for over an hour, discussing topics ranging from adoption to salvation to grace. He also showed me a picture of the baby he and his wife recently adopted. And it’s cool, because the whole reason why we met last November is because I overheard a conversation about the adoption.

Tonight, I attended a special Maundy Thursday service at The Ridge Church, where Jerry serves as lead pastor. He saw me from across the parking lot as I was walking in and introduced me to his wife and their newborn adopted daughter, who in a way was responsible for me standing there in the church parking lot in Carrollton, simply because she was born. It’s remarkable how the trivial things can impact our lives in such profound ways.

Another pastor preached the service tonight, and he talked about how all Christians belong to one another in Christ, even if they attend different churches. He read from 1 Peter, and talked about how we are all “living stones” who are being built into a “spiritual house,” and he said that God is building a much bigger Church than what we see here, and that the house He is building is the only one that truly matters. And I liked that, to think that Jerry and I are both being built into the same house, and this was true even before we met randomly at the coffee house last fall.

This is exactly what I love about the Kingdom. Total strangers can have a conversation and feel like they’ve known each other their entire lives, because they have Christ in common. The Kingdom of God is a relational Kingdom—a Kingdom of connection.

“Now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 2:3-5, NIV

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Louie Giglio, Political Correctness, Homosexuality and the Church

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Sometime in the past year, I took a stance to be “non-political.” This essentially means that while I do have views and opinions, I have decided to put aside partisan politics for the sake of relating to people. The whole system is growing more and more ridiculous by the day and I do not want to miss out on having a relationship with someone simply because we favor different political parties.

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That being said, I just found out about the controversy surrounding a well-known Atlanta pastor, and I would like to make a few comments. If you aren’t following the situation, consider yourself one of the lucky ones. In short, Obama selects pastor to pray at inauguration. Liberal watchdog group finds out that said pastor made statement TWENTY years ago that they view as anti-gay marriage. Side note: Why is it automatically labeled “anti-gay marriage” rather than “pro-heterosexual marriage?” While I won’t go into what exactly was said, I believe that this pastor has just as much a right to his own opinions as anyone else.

I do not consider these political statements. They are, if anything, statements of logic and common sense – or lack thereof in American politics.

I find it quite ironic that Louie Giglio was rejected to pray at the inauguration because he “doesn’t reflect the administration’s vision of inclusion and acceptance.” What I would like to know is how rejecting Giglio for his beliefs follows said vision of inclusion and acceptance? It appears that this administration only “includes and accepts” people when it benefits them politically. True inclusion and acceptance would welcome the homosexuals AND Pastor Giglio to stand side-by-side on Inauguration Day. I am dumbfounded by the lack of simple logic here. Unless, of course, this is not truly about inclusion and acceptance at all, but rather being political correctness and catering to a few at the expense of alienating the masses.

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At the same time, I am grieved that the Church has more often than not come across as “hating” the homosexual community. This has got to change. I wonder what would happen if we focused less on condemning the sin and more on intentionally loving the homosexuals? You can love someone without agreeing with them or supporting their lifestyle/actions. Let’s be honest – if everyone had to be just like us in order for us to love them, we probably would not love anyone but ourselves. And another side note – Why are we so eager to condemn homosexuality? What about the other sins? What about the ones WE actually struggle with? I find it very interesting when Christians are eager to talk about the sins everyone else struggles with, while conveniently remaining silent about their own. Especially since the same book teaches us about both.

I love healthy discussions and thoughts about the issues, but at the same time I urge anyone who considers themselves a follower of Jesus to give thought to how they respond to this situation. There are many on the “outside” who already think that we are angry and full of hate, and when we lash out we only reinforce that. We must be very careful not to “react.” I believe that most things that are done out of reaction prove to be hollow and unstable in the end. Perhaps we should take Jesus as our example, as He was silent in the face of his accusers while on trial unjustly.

Isn’t it ironic that I conclude these thoughts with a statement on how we should be like Jesus, silent in the face of our accusers? I guess none of us get it right after all.