Nothing Compares

Count your blessings, my mother used to say. She has been gone nine years today, and I still miss her so much. I miss everything about her, and it hits hard on a day like this. But this happens to be a day where this one lesson of hers shines. And it shines through the Christmas story.

Count your blessings. I have so many. Do I dare start listing them? No, I would surely leave off something or someone important. The list is as close to infinite as something created in a finite time can be. Can I at least list categories? Maybe. Family. Friends. Church. Career. Mission. Wow, just to start to list them would be daunting.

But it is a finite number. And I guess I could count them.

So there is this song from our Christmas musical that we sang tonight. And there is this line:

I could count all the ways that my heart has been blessed. But nothing compares to this.

What is "this"? What could there possible be that would dwarf all orther blessings? Take a few minutes to listen:




The gospel of Jesus the Messiah. There is nothing - nothing - that compares to it. The incarnation - God taking on flesh as a baby. The cross - God taking the punishment I deserve on himself and defeating evil. The resurrection - Jesus conquering death, so that one day I will see him face to face.

Truly, it's a story without compare. And it's my story.

There is another song, one that was a favorite of my mother:

This is my story, this is my song.

Praising my Savior all the day long.

It's a story without compare. No, nothing compares with this.

Thank you, Father.

Wasted?

Wanna see a good example of what makes the gospel of Jesus different from the world...different from what everyone around us thinks it takes to live a good life? Check out this meme, which I saw on Instagram last night:

A good, solid Christian message, right?

Not really.

The first part, okay. We definitely should not waste our lives on things that don't matter. The focus of life should be on people, relationships, and loving God. Those are things that matter.

But the second part? Well, it sounds good. Who wants to to waste time on people that don't appreciate it? What a waste.

Except that is exactly what Jesus did, and it's what separates true discipleship from a feel-good, me-first, get-me-to-heaven, meet-my-material-needs gospel.

This meme says, Love those who love you. Those who can and will return your affection.

Jesus said, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

The meme says, If they mistreat you, don't give them the time of day.

Jesus said, If they strike on one cheek, turn the other. If they ask you (unfairly) to carry their stuff one mile, volunteer to carry it two.

The meme is saying, You can only take so much. If they treat you as worthless, give up on them.

Jesus said, Forgive them over and over and over and.....(70 x 7).

And most importantly, Jesus put his words into action. He went to a cross and died for everyone, including millions and millions who reject him and say with their lives, You don't matter, Jesus. He died from them, and still pursues them desperately urging them to change their hearts and minds.

A waste? No, it's what God designed us for. And the way we can tell someone who is really captured by the Spirit of God is when they do "waste" their life on those who think they don't matter. That is not natural. Or more precisely, it's supernatural. Nobody would do that on their own; it takes the resurrection power of the Messiah living in them.

When is something wasted? Here's the perspective of a woman whom Jesus encountered:



What did you think of the meme?

Monday, Monday

Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me;

Fight against those who fight against me. 

Take hold of buckler and shield

And rise up for my help.

- Psalm 35:1-2

Wow! What a day!

I've gotta say, I think today was the definition of a Monday. In fact, I don't really know why I'm staying up to write this post. I oughta just go to bed and start over tomorrow.

Without going into detail, it had some of everything. Time pressure. Unexpected obstacles. Meetings that ran longer than they were supposed to. Rescheduled meetings. Misunderstandings. Personality conflicts. Abrasive emails. And on and on.

There was a time today when I lifted up a prayer of exasperation. I just wanted to God to resolve it all and make my day easier. Is it worth it? Why, God, would you put me through a day like this? 

And then I went to the Psalms.

Now, that's a good thing to do when we pray. The Psalms have about every range of human emotion, and they are all expressed to God - which is the right place to go with our joys, sorrows, triumphs and frustrations. So that's where I went. Looking for just the right prayer of desperation, crying out to God for relief.

As you can see at the top, I did not find support for my whining. I found perspective.

Psalm 35 is just one of many Psalms where King David prayed to the LORD for help. For rescue from his enemies. For relief.

But unlike me, there were actually people trying to kill him. He had enemies trying to overthrow his reign on the the throne God had established. There were people attacking his character and good name. Real trouble.

Me? I had a bad day. Stress. Woe is me.

Now don't get me wrong, I believe the Psalms are there to give us the words to pray on days like this. No, nobody at my office is really my enemy. Nobody is trying to kill me, or even get me fired. I work with great people and I enjoy them all. 

But I do have enemies and they are out in force on days like this.

Satan.

My flesh.

The forces of evil.

They're trying to tear me down. They're trying to tear you down. And they would love for us to end a day lie this feeling defeated.

So we pray. We go to the Scriptures for the words to pray to a real God who is really there and has really revealed himself.

And he comes to our rescue. And that makes Monday not quite so, well....Monday-ish.

Lucy: A story about limits

The serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God." 

- Genesis 3:4-5a (NASB) 

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS

Last weekend I went to see the movie Lucy, starring Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman. The trailers had intrigued me for several months, and so I was really looking forward to it.

Let's just say, it was weird. The plot involved a young woman (Lucy) who was subjected to a powerful hormone drug in massive quantities, with the result that her brain chemistry was radically changed. Whereas the normal human being only uses about 10% of our brain capacity, her usage began to increase exponentially. She became more powerful, began controlling the environment around her, was able to learn Chinese in about an hour, and began to spiral out of control.

Parallel to Lucy's story, we see Professor Norman (Freeman's character) delivering a lecture about the brain's power. When asked what would happen if a person reached 100%, he replied, "I have no idea."

Of course, that's where Lucy was heading, and she was going to be get there in less than 24 hours. So she found Norman and got his help to upload her brain's knowledge to some monstrous supercomputer. When her brain hit 100% capacity, three things happened: 1) She disappeared. 2) The data from her brain was contained in a large flash drive [yeah...I know], and 3) a cell phone received a text message from her saying, "I am everywhere."

I'm not positive, but I believe that the implication was that she had essentially become the equivalent of God.
____________________

So we come back to the Scripture quote at the top of this page. The movie was clearly trying to draw a line of history starting with the dawn of man (a primate that evolutionary scientists have nicknamed "Lucy") and ending with exponential growth that finally brought man to the level of God. In other words, the very thing with which the serpent tempted the first man and woman.

According to the Genesis account and the rest of the Bible, the very essence of sin is the desire to be our own god. We don't want anyone, including our Creator, running our lives. And so the temptation of the fruit was, You will be like God. It has been the aspiration of humans from the beginning. And this movie painted a (weird) picture expressing the concept that if we ever could reach our full potential....bang! There it is. We're God.

People were created in God's image, but not to raise ourselves up to claim his throne. We were created to reflect his image on the earth and send praise back up to him as a part of his creation. When we decide to try to be more than that, we go down the same dangerous path as Lucy. Thanks be to God for the gift of his Son, and the grace that he brought to us through his death and resurrection. In him, we can be restored to our original purpose, reflecting his glory instead of our own.

Forever. And that's a lot better than uploading myself to a computer.

Back to Africa

Macy...

Steve...

Clark...

Mike...

Sarah...

Emily...

Mark...

Melissa...

Rhamsie...

Trisha...

Tommy...

Kendra...

Campbell...

Melissa...

Lexie...

and Donnie.

These are names that I hope will find their way to your prayers. An awesome group of individuals coming together for one purpose - to share the love of Jesus with children on the other side of the world.

Our journey begins tomorrow, and we will land in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Sunday morning. We will spend a week there and I cannot wait to see the great things God has in store. But it's all him, not us. So your prayers are desperately needed.

Wifi is spotty and time is precious. If I good signals correspond with free time, I hope to send a blog post or two. If not, well, I'll update you when we get back.

Either way, thanks for your prayers. Things are about to get good.

Man of Steel

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS

I have always loved the Superman myth. When I was six, my mother used to have to beg me to take off the Superman suit she got me for my birthday. I think she was scared I would jump off a roof and try to fly. Yep, I've always loved Superman.

And so I was excited to see that another Superman movie was coming out. The connection to the Dark Knight series through Christopher Nolan was encouraging. I liked the idea.

And I was not disappointed. I found it to be a movie that was exciting, fast-paced, and full of themes that made me think. Much like the Dark Knight series.

What themes? Purpose. Destiny. Power. Love. Sacrifice. Heroism. And many more.

There has been talk that Superman was a representation of Jesus and his mission, a representation of the gospel. In fact, this idea was unashamedly put forth by Warner Brothers, presumably to sell more tickets to Christians. For the record, I found this oversimplification to be a distortion, as explained very well by my friend Patrick in this blog post. (Click it. Read it.) Jesus indeed did not come to exercise power, be a hero, or to promote "truth, justice, and the American way." In fact, he turned down every opportunity to assume that role. He conquered evil by becoming a suffering servant. Patrick is exactly right.

But there are themes in the movie that serve as awesome springboards to think about why we're here, what we're facing, how to live, and yes, victory over evil. Here are some things that jumped out at me, in no particular order:

• The people of Krypton had for centuries been born only for one purpose, each baby artificially engineered to have a single life purpose. Clark, on the other hand, struggles to find his identity and purpose, and ultimately has to make a choice about his destiny. Regardless of superhero status, this is a struggle I can identify with.

• To me, this was the best part of the movie. Unlike earlier Superman stories, it was not really about a self-assured hero with no doubts. It was about a young man trying to find his way, having to make complicated choices about what's right and wrong.

• He did not always make the best choices in my opinion. This is very human. It is also yet another reason that trying to make him a picture of Christ is off base.

• I did not see the battle with evil as a representation that violence and force is the way to win. Instead, I saw the story as an allegory for the battle that is taking place in the spiritual realms, behind the scenes. Let me explain:

The Bible does teach that Jesus came to conquer evil through servanthood, humility, love, death, and his resurrection. And that we are to follow his example, giving up our rights for the sake of others. This is how God wins.

But it also teaches that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12).  And all through Revelation there is imagery that the Messiah has conquered through his blood. So to me, the Superman fight against the evil General Zod is a picture not of beating bad people with violence, but symbolism of the fact that fighting with love and suffering in the physical world represents real, but unseen, battles in the spiritual. In other words, to me it is "literature" of the same form as Revelation: a visual representation of things so far above us that we can't possibly understand the real thing.

Regardless, I love the fact that we are talking about these things. And whatever Warner Brothers' motivation, the discussion is being brought out into the open by a movie; and to me that's a good thing.