The Lord Is My Pace-setter

We are a stressed-out nation. Very often, we wear our stressed-out, over busy, crazy lifestyles like a badge of honor, all the while knowing that we are losing something very important in the chronic insanity of our culture…our sanity and soul.

There are many reasons that stress is so prevalent, but according to the American Psychological Association, the following are the key issues at hand:

* Money, work and the economy continue to be the most
frequently cited causes of stress for Americans, as they
have every year for the past 5 years. In addition, a growing
number of Americans are citing personal health and their
family’s health as a source of stress.

* Significant sources of stress include money (75 percent),
work (70 percent), the economy (67 percent), relationships
(58 percent), family responsibilities (57 percent), family
health problems (53 percent), personal health concerns
(53 percent), job stability (49 percent), housing costs
(49 percent) and personal safety (32 percent).

* The percentage of adults reporting that family health
problems are causing them stress (53 percent) increased
in 2011 compared to the last 2 years (47 percent for both
2009 and 2010).

An unhealthy pace of life has become an addiction in our country, and is something we desperately need to address if we are to regain our soul, and most importantly, listen to the voice of God. When our lives and minds are drenched in over-stimulation, over-communication, and excessive busyness, the voice of God becomes a distant memory, and we begin to justify why God is no longer speaking. No matter the theological gymnastics and/or other reasons we create to comfort our unease concerning the seeming silence of God, the truth is that He is still speaking, all around us, all the time, but our minds are too full to discern His still small voice in the storm of noise.

I love how Toki Miyashina re-wrote the 23rd Psalm and reminds us that the Lord needs to be our pace-setter:

The Lord is my Pace Setter, I shall not rush,
He makes me stop and rest for quiet intervals,
He provides me with images of stillness,
Which restore my serenity.
He leads me in ways of efficiency,
through calmness of mind; and his guidance is peace.
Even though I have a great many things to accomplish each day,
I will not fret, for his presence is here.
His timelessness, his all-importance will keep me in balance.
He prepares refreshment and renewal in the midst of my activity,
by anointing my head with his oils of tranquility,
My cup of joyous energy overflows.
Surely harmony and effectiveness shall be the fruit of my hours,
For I shall walk in the pace of my Lord,
and dwell in his house for ever.

It’s okay to live with balance…

It’s okay to have moments in your week that are not crammed with rushing around…

It’s okay to still, slow, and even stop in order to breathe more deeply and practice divine awareness…

It’s okay to say “no” to the requests that don’t align with your purpose in life, for if you don’t, you will miss your purpose in life…

It’s okay to be healthy and unable to “one-up” your friends who are trying to impress you with their busy schedules…

It’s okay to have joy in your soul, hope in your heart and serenity in your mind because you choose to allow God to determine your pace, and not the culture or the people around you.

May you have a life that responds to God’s grace with energy, His voice with delight, and His love with service.

Honest Grace-filled Conversations

This weekend at SVA I covered some key questions that we should be able to have a five-minute conversation about that is honest, grace-filled and respectful. I also recommended a handful of books to help you work through your responses. As I have had a large number of requests to repost what I covered, I am going to list those below.

Feel free to comment about other questions that you feel would be great to have a good and ready response to. This is a part of living out the conversational mission that Peter encourages us to employ:

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”  1 Peter 3:15

Be ready to respond with Gentleness and respect:

•Is there really a God?

•Why believe in miracles?

•Isn’t Christianity a psychological crutch?

•How reliable is the Bible?

•How can a loving God allow suffering?

•Is Jesus the only way to God?

•Will God judge those who never heard about Christ?

•If Christianity is true, why are there so many hypocrites?

•What about just being good, doing my best?

•Isn’t salvation by faith too simple?

•What does the Bible mean by “Believe?”

•Can you be certain of your salvation?

Helpful Books On My Bookshelf:

If you have a favorite book that has helped you comment below, I’d love to know about more great books!

Influence and Culture

I came across this gem by Tim Keller today and simply thought he said it well. I have been teaching through a series called the new normal, and the first few weeks the conversation centered around looking at the effects of worldview and culture on faith. Keller notes:

“Even if 80 percent of the population of a country are Christian believers, they will have almost no cultural influence if the Christians do not live in cultural centers and work in culture-forging fields such as academia, publishing, media, entertainment, and the arts. The assumption that society will improve simply be more Christian believers being present is no longer valid.”
Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City

It’s not a numbers game, it’s about creative influence. God created us all to be cultural artists and gardeners. The way to see things change is not by condemning, critiquing, copying or consuming culture, rather it is about creating more culture that is winsome, authentic and powerful. To create more culture we need to unleash men and women of faith in the key centers that Keller notes ion his book.

There is a beauty and a freedom when you realize the best way to change things is not to fight, but rather to be like God and create.

Reformers and Fences

In many ways, it would seem that we are a world of reformers now. Thanks in large part to the power of social media, everybody has a platform to say whatever they like regardless of how accurate, intelligent or worthy their thoughts may be. Some people like to troll and cause conflict while others simply like to demolish the ideas and people that they disagree with.

One of the problems with this platform in our current context is that most people who are posting status update after status update, using their agenda as a polemic, seem to have forgotten the basic laws of logic and reason. What has taken their place, you ask? Emotions, opinions, and half thought through arguments.

In order to be a true reformer one must understand the scope of the thing that they wish to reform before they destroy it. Many go about reform the way history tells us Cortés burnt his ships in the harbor. While there was no going back for Cortés, sometimes we burn the ships before we have reasoned through such actions.

Today we are in the midst of cultural reform. Facebook has proven to be the new “speakers corner” as people pontificate, throw in a meme or two that agrees with their viewpoint, erroneously thinking that the picture and soundbite alone should end all other disagreement.

People are unfriended when they disagree, or perhaps more to the point, when they become belligerent concerning their topic.

The problem with the new reformers is that too often they have not thought through fully the reasons that something existed before. They have not entered into the “whys” of the thing they wish to eliminate or change. Some areas of reform seem easy such as ending human trafficking or eliminating global poverty. Some areas of current reform seem less clear to the populace such as gun rights and same-sex marriage. While boats are being burned, and status updates are flying, the conversations that are needed are being ignored in lieu of trying to determine who is right…who is wrong.

When emotions rule the day, we don’t ask the deeper questions, we simply want everyone to agree with our position. These are not easy issues, and before we tear down the things that have been in place for a while, we need to understand why they existed in the first place. Maybe they do need to be changed, maybe they don’t. Until we can clearly understand why something has existed, we don’t have the clarity yet to remove it.

G.K Chesterton spoke profoundly to this:

In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.”

This paradox rests on the most elementary common sense. The gate or fence did not grow there. It was not set up by somnambulists who built it in their sleep. It is highly improbable that it was put there by escaped lunatics who were for some reason loose in the street. Some person had some reason for thinking it would be a good thing for somebody. And until we know what the reason was, we really cannot judge whether the reason was reasonable. It is extremely probable that we have overlooked some whole aspect of the question, if something set up by human beings like ourselves seems to be entirely meaningless and mysterious. There are reformers who get over this difficulty by assuming that all their fathers were fools; but if that be so, we can only say that folly appears to be a hereditary disease. But the truth is that nobody has any business to destroy a social institution until he has really seen it as an historical institution. If he knows how it arose, and what purposes it was supposed to serve, he may really be able to say that they were bad purposes, that they have since become bad purposes, or that they are purposes which are no longer served. But if he simply stares at the thing as a senseless monstrosity that has somehow sprung up in his path, it is he and not the traditionalist who is suffering from an illusion.

Dialog is needed today on so many issues from global economics to civil rights. It would be my hope that we could engage the issues with honest reflection, being compassionate about the other person, even if we disagree on some issue.

But before we keep tearing down fences, lets make sure we know why the fence was put there in the first place.

Happy Passover (Pesach)

The Christian Holy Week is rooted in the Jewish celebration of Pesach (Passover). The week of Passover festivities celebrate how God delivered Israel from the bondage of Egyptian slavery. In Christianity, we celebrate Jesus as the Jewish Messiah who frees us from the bondage of sin and death. The latter flows  from the foundation of the other.

I came across a fun video today that shows what would happen if today’s media reported the events of the first Passover. enjoy and Happy Passover/Pesach!

I Could Have Got More: Schindlers List

In our conversation at SVA this weekend on the return of Christ, one area we discussed was how followers of Christ are to live and engage the world while waiting for His return. Three key thoughts we discussed were that we needed to:

• Stay Awake…His return is imminent, He could come back at any moment so we need to be ready. Every person is responsible for their faith and relationship with God. You can’t live on someone else’s faith…You can’t but or work your way into the kingdom…and when Christ returns, there are no more chances. In light of this we need to make sure that our lives are connected to God through Christ. His grace is waiting for everyone…there is nothing you need to do, figure out, or clean up before you come to God…simply come. 




• Stay Engaged…God has given everyone a purpose and mission to live out. The followers of Jesus are not to “bunker-in” and disengage from life, but rather, we are to invest all that God has given us to make a positive impact for His kingdom with every breath that we have. If you are still breathing, you still have a purpose and mission to fulfill. 




• Stay Missional…As you read the parables of Christ it quickly becomes apparent that those who follow Jesus live in such a way that mercy, grace, justice and compassion are not just deeds that they do, but rather a lifestyle that they live. When we are tethered to Jesus and when we long for His presence in our lives, there is a transformation that takes place deep within us. This transformation is birthed from God’s love releasing mercy and grace like a burgeoning river breaking through a dike.

For me, the Second Coming of Christ comes down to a question of love… If I truly love Jesus with all that is within me, I will long to be with Him, and in the meantime that love will propel me to live in such a way that other’s long for His return as well. The contagion of love creates a Christ-reality and at the same time waits for a Christ-reality.

Love is a verb…

Love requires expression…

Love is why Jesus is coming back…

Love is the means and the method to reach seekers…

Love is the definitive mark for those who follow Jesus… 

When we allow God to perform a heart transplant within us,  our motivation to share Christ with others moves from religiosity to compassion expressed through love.

This reminds me of the closing scene from Schindler’s List where Oskar Schindler had purchased the lives of 1100+ Jews from concentration camps to work in his factory during WW II. Initially he saw the use of Jewish prisoners as a way to make great profits, but something happend…he changed…his heart changed…those Jewish prisoners became people who mattered and Oskar’s profiteering turned to redemption.

Even though Oskar did so much, spending his income to purchase/redeem those 1100 Jews from a certain death…he knew it wasn’t enough and he could have done more.

When it’s all said and done, and we stand before God I hope we can all know we made a difference.

We are here to help people find their way back to God.

Here’s that final scene from Schindler’s List…

Jesus and Religion

“Christianity was never intended to be an “ethical system” with Jesus Christ at the head. Our Lord did not come into the world 2,000 years ago to launch Christianity as a new religion or a new system. He came with eternal purpose. He came as the center of all things. Actually, he came to be our religion. He came in person, in the flesh, to be God’s salvation to the very ends of the earth. He did not come just to delegate powers to others to heal or cure or bless. He came to be the blessings and the full glory of God are to be found in His person.”  ~A.W. Tozer
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I came across this quote by Tozer and I was again reminded of the centrality of Jesus and the decentralizing of religious institutions. It seems the more we succeed in the church, the more we create something that competes with Jesus. Jesus came to be our faith, our religion, not to compete against what we have created.

As churches grow and initiatives progress, we tend to pat ourselves on the back for what we have accomplished. Yet the community of faith is supposed to be something different, the measuring metrics are different, the outcomes are different.

The larger a church grows the more complex the machinery needed to maintain it. Expansion moves towards the ever elusive dollar, and soon a congregation might find itself serving their structures and initiatives and programs rather than the God who inspired the movement.

When the church moves in this fashion, the teachings become more about behavioral modifications and sinning less because we are so busy “doing” religious stuff that we forget that Jesus -is- our religion.

For the follower of the Rabbi, there is no substitute for who He is…There is no to do list that trumps His presence…There is no self-improvement program that transcends His power.

Jesus is the center. Jesus is the personal revelation of the Father. Jesus is our religion. In becoming our religion, He has demolished the machine that has been created in His name yet lacks the power of His presence.

Monty