Romans 12: Part 4

Romans 12: Part 4

Paul continues after his warning to not think too highly of ourselves with an analogy. He compares our one body (with its many parts with different functions) to the one body we form in Christ (where each member belongs to the all others).

Different Functions

We live in an amazingly diverse world. If everyone in the world was a farmer growing food, we would have no clothes to wear. If everyone in the world was a math teacher, we would not learn about history. Just like we have bodies with different parts and functions, so are we different parts with different functions in the body of Christ. If we had eyes everywhere, we wouldn't know the sweet sound of a gentle rain. If we had noses everywhere, we would live in darkness.

We often get caught in the comparison trap. We look at a different member in the body and we are jealous or discouraged that we don't have as spectacular of a role as they have. But God formed each of us and gave us the gifts He saw fit to bless us with. When we are discontent with our function or jealous of someone else, we aren't just belittling ourselves, we are also spurning God's blessings. 

It is beneficial to know our spiritual gifts (more on this later in this series), but our gifts or lack thereof do not excuse us from the general commands that God gives to all believers (more on this later in the series). Our body parts serve many diverse functions, but they all work in unity to do the task set before them, whether cooking and serving a meal or visiting with a friend over a cup of tea.

One Body

There is one body in Christ. We are not divided by nationality, continent, gender, age, or ethnicity. So let us learn what the body is doing around the world and across denomination lines. Let us be known as Christians, instead of as our denominational labels. Let us be concerned about our Christian brothers and sisters in North Korea, Afghanistan, Belarus, Egypt, Brazil, Guatemala, Canada, and elsewhere. Let us rejoice over the joys and celebrations happening throughout this one body, as well as mourn for those struggling with poverty, addiction, racism, and persecution in any part.

Belonging to All Others

Each member in the one body in Christ belongs to all of the others. May we not stand by and refuse to help those in need. May we share our time, resources, and knowledge with each other. We have a call to help each other and spur each other on. 

Search in the Bible for the "one another" passages. These are the "be kind to one another", "share with one another", "pray for one another" passages. This shows our interconnectedness, the bond we share with each other, and the requirements upon us as one body. 

As Christians, we should have deeper bonds than just friends. We are more than a social club meeting on Sundays. We are supposed to be living life together: sharing meals, sharing resources, holding each other accountable, and so much more. Yet, many Christians show up for a Sunday School class and church service, and then leave to their own homes, their own lives, their own preferences. We struggle through difficulties on our own, going through seasons of scarcity and pain instead of sharing our burdens with the body we are a part of. 

Questions to Wrestle With

Take time this week to consider: 

-What is your function in the body? 

-What would happen if everyone in the world had your job and skillset? What holes in your knowledge are covered by others? 

-Do you tend to disparage your role in the body?

-Do you tend to idolize someone else's role/gifting? 

-What does our dissatisfaction with our role communicate to God? 

-Do you already know your spiritual gift(s)? 

-Do you use this knowledge as an excuse to not perform some roles/tasks? 

-How are you working in unison with the body of Christ? 

-Are you connected with the struggles and triumphs of the body of Christ through the world? 

-What are the young/middle-aged/old dealing with? 

-What is the experience of people who do not look like you? 

-Are you willing to go through the highs and lows of those in the body? 

-How do you identify your relationship to Christ? Do you claim your denomination first or the name of Christian? 

-Do you help those in need, even those you don't know? 

-Do you share your time, resources, and knowledge with others? 

-How do you spur other Christians on? 

-Are you familiar with the "one another" passages? 

-What do you owe the other members of the body? 

-Does your congregation go deeper than a social club meeting? 

-How do you live life together with other Christians? 

-How have you offered help to other parts of the body who were struggling? 

-How have you asked for (and accepted) help from other parts of the body? 

New International Version (NIV)

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5th Sunday of Eastertide: Rehumanizing People

Our theme for Eastertide is finding joy as we faithfully do the small things, so today we will look at how to rehumanize people.

This may seem like a strange theme, because we don't have many people walking around going "Wow, I am sure dehumanizing a lot of people!", but our actions show that we have been dehumanizing people for quite a while.

We dehumanize people when we treat them like a good or service for our convenience. Are we treating waiters, cashiers, and gas station attendants as humans made in the image of God? Are we tipping them like they, as human beings, deserve to put food on their table after they work an eight-hour shift? If not, let us change the way we treat and tip those in the service industry. 

We dehumanize people when we treat them like they are invisible or diseased. Are we making eye contact with the people holding signs at intersections? Are we willing to approach them to share from our abundance? If not, let us acknowledge the humanity of those society has pushed to the margins. 

We dehumanize people when we call them names. Monster. Criminal. Addict. Idiot. Murderer. Are we using our words to build people up and encourage them? Do we view our opponents as human beings, trying to make what they believe are good decisions? If not, let us apologize when our words cut people down and insult them.

We dehumanize people when we say that violence is the only thing those people understand. Do we realize we can negotiate and compromise with people who disagree with us? Do we encourage non-violent solutions to problems? Many people act like we are in "zero-sum games" (either I win & you lose OR I lose and you win), but it is possible to reach compromises that are mutually beneficial to both parties. If not, let us problem-solve creatively to find solutions that each person involved can live with. 

We dehumanize people when we lump them into large categories and stereotype them. Do we view the person we are interacting with as their own unique person who is influenced by their culture, gender, upbringing, and other attributes in a special combination that makes them unique? Are we aware of our biases and stereotypes so we can identify them in our minds and words? If not, let us pray for the wisdom to identify these flaws in our thinking as we actively work to retrain our brain in how we perceive people. 

We dehumanize people when we treat some lives as less valuable because they are not our nationality, religion, or ethnic group. Are we just as concerned for the child seeking asylum as we are for the border patrol agent? Are we just as concerned about the redemption of the terrorist as the safety of those they are persecuting? If not, let us seek to advocate for the good of all people, instead of just "my people". 

We dehumanize people when we use animalistic descriptions to describe people. Calling someone a boar, an ape, or a rat. Do we intentionally choose to use positive and humane descriptions of people? Are we careful to consider how our word choice can be hurtful to others? Do we apologize and change our phrasing when we are told that our words have hurt a person? If not, let us be humble and teachable as we learn what words and actions hurt the people we interact with. 

We dehumanize people when we spew our anger, frustration, or pain at whoever is near us. Do we utilize self-control when we are upset? Do we seek to express our negative emotions in appropriate ways (in the proper place, time, and setting)? Do we make sure we are attacking the problem and not the person nearest to us? Are we talking directly to the person we have a problem with? If not, let us treat the people around us as individuals who get to decide if they want to hear our frustrations AND if that moment & setting is the best time to open that "can of worms". 

We dehumanize people when we use sarcasm, mockery, or ridicule to cut people down. Do we avoid giving back-handed compliments that feel like a compliment with a barbed tail? (Oftentimes, adding a qualifier to a compliment makes it insulting. "You are a good driver, for a woman." can be insulting, whereas "You are a good driver." is a compliment.) Are we willing to consider that things we and our culture view as funny can be hurtful to people? If not, let us seek to build up our empathy, compassion, and discernment. 

We dehumanize people when we boil a person's life down to an adjective or description that absolves us of compassion, mercy, and grace. Illegal. Evil. Heartless. Despicable. Do we view people as capable of being redeemed if they repent? Do we act like we believe that God's forgiveness can wash out any sin a person has committed and repented of? If not, let us repent of our judgment and condemnation of those God has forgiven.

Do you see why we need to start rehumanizing people? I very rarely venture onto social media because the statuses, memes, and links people share are often toxic, dehumanizing, cruel, and self-righteous. It breaks my heart to see normally loving and kind Christians belittle, mock, and shame their opponents. The "normal" way that we treat people is not how God has called us to treat people. We are not loving our neighbors as ourselves when we share that post that depicts our side as the long-suffering good and the other side as "evil personified". 

People think that dehumanizing others only hurts those who are being dehumanized, but it actually warps two souls: the one being dehumanized and the one doing the dehumanizing. Both souls are in need of redemption. One soul is shredded due to being dehumanized, but the other soul is rotting from dehumanizing others. Both need healing and reconciled to God and to each other. 

It is my prayer that we learn to see the humanity in those who disagree with us. This is not something we can do on our own strength; we can only do this by the grace of God. When we learn to see the humanity of our opponents, then the Holy Spirit will begin the process of decontaminating our souls from the filth and damage caused by dehumanizing those around us. 

3rd Sunday of Eastertide: Giving of Our Time

Our theme for Eastertide is finding joy as we faithfully do the small things, so today we will look at giving of our time. 

Time has been described as the great equalizer. The rich have 24 hours in a day. The poor have 24 hours in a day. 

Even though we all have the same number of minutes to spend each day (1,440), different seasons of life can have more or fewer commitments, resulting in a "higher" or "lower" cost to the time we spend with a person. Choosing to spend time with someone, in the midst of a busy season, shows that they are being prioritized. It is still a meaningful gift in the midst of a calm season, even though it probably takes less intentionality to arrange a gathering. 

It is nice to experience an extravagant gift of time, where someone spends all day investing in you and cherishing you, but the small daily expenditure of time requires us to follow the spiritual disciplines of Submission, Simplicity, and Service. 

Submission

I know. Submission can be a dirty word in some circles, but it is a biblical word. When we submit to someone else, we are putting our preferences and our "rights" under theirs. This should be done in a mutually beneficial and healthy (and even reciprocal as the "one another" verses of the Bible challenge us) way. When we give of our time, we are sacrificing our plans for how we could have used that time. Instead of doing what we THINK someone would like us to do, I challenge us to ASK them what they would like to do and then DO THAT THING. When we submit our time in this way, those around us can feel cherished and loved. We blend submission and time, when we submit to a person's restaurant preference as we share a meal with them.

Simplicity

There are simple ways to do things and complex ways to do things. I relearned this lesson on Resurrection Sunday. As our season of Lent was drawing to a close, I was wondering what the feasting of Easter would look like. Naturally, I wanted a fruit, vegetable, grain, protein, and dairy for each meal. Naturally, I wanted special foods that we haven't had in a while. I made my idealized menu and then realized that I would have to spend most of Easter in the kitchen cooking all of those delicious foods (and then cleaning up after myself). So we simplified things. Instead of mashed potatoes AND cheesy potatoes (because the two people of our household naturally wanted two different forms of potatoes), we opted for a fruit and veggie tray. Instead of an elaborate main dish, we cooked hot dogs over the campfire. 

When we choose to live simply, we have more time to spend with those around us. From time to time, it can be fun to have a kitchen adventure where we make fettuccini alfredo from scratch, but as a general rule, simple, wholesome meals give us more time to invest in other things, like loving those near us. Having simpler cleaning, cooking, and shopping routines will free up time from these activities to redistribute to our priorities. We blend simplicity and time, when we choose to have simpler meals, so we can have longer visits around the table. 

Service

Service draws on submission, even as we spend our time on this gift. When we serve, it is important that we submit to the needs and desires of the ones we are serving. Otherwise, we run the risk of making things more difficult for them instead of being of assistance to them. It takes time to do an act of service, whether it involves making something or doing a task to help someone. Service doesn't have to be elaborate or complex. We can help someone carry in groceries or refill the empty water pitcher, even if we weren't the ones to empty it. The simple day-to-day tasks can weigh on a person, especially if they are primarily responsible for doing the dishes, laundry, or any other chore that is only completed until the next dish is used or clothing is worn. As a result, serving someone by taking on these tasks is a gift of our time. 

I would be negligent if I didn't mention Self-Care along with the Submission, Simplicity, and Service. We cannot keep giving of our time to others if we do not take care of ourselves. It is not selfish. It is not unimportant. We, as humans, need consistent time with God in order to have the energy, compassion, and desire to serve others. Likewise, taking time for self-care will allow us to refill our energy levels to be able to give of our time to others. Invest in a hobby that is enjoyable. After achieving a priority for the day, take time to rest or delight in something, even if it is just a cup of tea. Allowing others to give of their time to help us is just as valid and valuable as giving of our time to help them. Far too often, we let pride keep us from asking for help when we are overwhelmed. Let us be willing to both give and receive help as we work to prevent burnout and exhaustion.

I challenge us to prayerfully consider how we can blend these three spiritual disciplines into our gifts of time. If this is a busy season for you, I encourage you to consider what simple service we can submit to, without staying up too late. Look for ways to simplify and cut down, in order to have more time to invest in those around you. If this is a calm season for you, I encourage you to consider how God is calling you to spend your time. After blocking out sleep and work, and adding in MARGINS between events, how are you being called to spend your time? Is there a place you've been meaning to volunteer at? Is there a task on a loved one's to do list that you can tackle? 

We all have 1,440 minutes each day. How can we spend them as gifts others? 

The Presentation of the Lord

Presentation of the Lord is celebrated 40 days after Christmas on February 2nd. This was when Jesus was presented in the temple and He, as the firstborn of Mary, was redeemed in accordance with the temple law. 

Scripture: Luke 2:22-40

Did you notice that Mary and Joseph sacrificed two doves or pigeons? Did you realize that was what the Old Testament law required for those who couldn't afford a lamb? Jesus was born into a family that was poor. While Jesus and His family were in the temple, Simeon and Anna the prophet approached with words of blessing, warning, praise, and redemption. 

Let's talk about poverty. 

Poverty isn't when we don't want any of the food choices in our pantry, freezer, or fridge. Poverty is having empty shelves. 

Poverty isn't when we can't afford everything our heart desires. Poverty is being unable to afford our needs. 

We get a skewed view of poverty in the US, because we are so focused on the mega-wealthy, that we convince ourselves that we are poor. I am not saying that poverty doesn't exist in the US (it does) or that people in our communities don't have tight budgets (they do), but rather, we devalue people's legitimate poverty when we complain that we are so poor that we can't afford both eating out AND buying a new ___. When we complain that we are STARVING, we are cheapening the words for those who really are starving, those who have gone without food for so long that their bodies are wasting away. 

Globally, there are more than 675 MILLION people living in extreme poverty by surviving on less than $1.90 per day. Poverty rates do vary by country and are influenced by the cost of living in each area, so I find it helpful to look at federal poverty levels (the threshold identifying when a person or family officially qualifies as living in poverty by government guidelines). We don't have to idly wonder what it's like to suffer from poverty; today's challenge has some suggestions on ways you can experience the food insecurity that plagues many people and then do something to help alleviate people's hunger.

Challenge: For many of us who haven't experienced true poverty, I challenge us to live as if we did for the next 5 days. Commit to spending only (an average of) $2 per day on food and beverages. Don't rely on your pantry and freezer to get you through this challenge. Take $10, go online to your favorite grocery pick-up place, spend only $10, and then only eat that food for the next 5 days. (Hint: beans & rice go a long way). After you do this challenge, reflect on your experience. What was it like to eat on such a limited budget? Did you have enough to eat? Did your hunger impact your ability to focus? Did you miss out on opportunities to eat out with family and friends? (I hope not, because you're in a pandemic, people!) Don't stop with merely reflecting, but use this as an opportunity to help others. Take the money that you would have spent eating out or on groceries and donate it to a charity that feeds the hungry. 

Choose to Believe the Best

When you go through life and you observe someone's actions or words, do you automatically presume the best or worst about them?

If someone cuts you off in traffic, are they in a hurry due to an emergency or a jerk of a driver?
If someone steals something from your store, did they accidentally forget to pay (and maybe will return to remedy the error when you're not there) or did they maliciously take the item?

Far too often, we, as Christians, are quick to assume the best about our actions, flaws, and sins, and equally quick to presume the worst about other people's actions and grave sins.

Yet if we don't know the motivation and thoughts behind the actions we observe, why shouldn't we presume the best about others until we are proven wrong? Why is the default for so many Christians to presume the worst about others when we don't know their story or their ending?

Yes, I realize that most rude drivers probably aren't trying to get their spouse to the doctor ASAP, but if that keeps resentment, complaining, and bitterness out of my life and heart, why shouldn't I believe that? I won't encounter them again most likely to learn why they were driving so poorly.

My husband and I had two unique experiences with workers in other countries that highlight how we have intentionally chosen to believe the best about others, even when we realize that we are probably being overly-gracious in our interpretations.

The first encounter we had was in 2013 with the self-proclaimed "Cheap Miguel". We were on a cruise with my family and at one of our stops, we were looking around a market, trying to find maracas to purchase. Cheap Miguel drew us into his shop and had exactly what we were looking for. We were short on time, so we gladly parted with $20 for a set of maracas. We blithely walked on to meet our tour guide, only to encounter another vendor selling those identical maracas for $2.
We were...how do you say...swindled. We were frustrated at Cheap Miguel and soon recognized that if we didn't change our response, we would soon allow an ungodly root of bitterness to grow in our hearts. So we looked at our encounter with eyes tuned to grace and compassion.

Miguel might have had a family. Maybe even a large family. Someone in his family could have been sick. He could have felt torn by his desire to keep vigil at their bedside, but he also recognized his responsibility to earn money for the medical bills. So he sold souvenirs and trinkets to cruise ship tourists. He could have been frustrated by tourists trying to haggle him down on prices to save a buck, when he needed that money to buy medicine for his sick family member. He knew that he was selling homemade, hand-painted artisan goods, but he thought that most tourists wanted cheap prices to brag to their friends about instead of paying for the time and talent it took to hand-paint maracas. He possibly saw their extravagance as these tourists threw away money on luxury goods, when he faced the real needs of providing food and medicine for his family. He might have resented them, even as he craved their business. At the end of his rope, he might have cried out to God asking for a sign of generous, radical, slightly naive tourists.

Yes, most likely, we got conned, but if we continue to remember the worst about Cheap Miguel and allow that incident to turn us away from interacting with those who might rip us off, we are not living Christ-like lives.

Our other story happened in 2014. We were volunteer missionaries in Costa Rica for a year, which meant that every 90 days, we needed to leave the country for 72 hours to renew our visas. We visited the US once for the Christmas holidays and we visited Nicaragua twice. Now even though Nicaragua was right "next door" to Costa Rica, things were different there. We went from staying in a walled seminary to a small-town hotel. We were in a different climate, using different money, in a strange city, trying to figure out where we could get food cheaply. We got off the bus in Rivas, Nicaragua the first time and we were to wait for a Nazarene District Superintendent to help us get to our hotel. He arranged for us to volunteer at a local Nazarene school & even arranged rides to & from our hotel and school during our stay. He wasn't there when we got off the bus, so a kind "bicycle taxi" driver (think a bike pushing a bench two people can sit on) lent us his phone to call for our ride. Fast forward to our next trip to Nicaragua. We were supposed to get to our hotel ourselves, so when we got off the bus, we looked around and recognized the friendly bicycle taxi driver from before. Lucas asked him if he could give us a ride to our hotel. The taxi driver agrees and we hop on. Now those of you playing at home may realize that we forgot to do something important before we got in our taxi. We forgot to negotiate rates. We get to our hotel and Lucas asks the taxi driver what we owed. The number he stated was 5% of our cash for the entire trip, but that was for one of us, not both!! So in our first hour in Nicaragua, we spent 10% of our total cash for the hotel, our food, and our other necessities!! Needless to say, I was stressed and we felt conned.

Again, we could have let this event sour us towards all bicycle taxi drivers in Nicaragua and let a bitter root start growing in us, but that would not have been to react in a Christ-like way. We instead choose to forgive (and keep forgiving) this driver. We choose to learn the lesson, but set aside our feelings of being wronged. We had enough money for our trip and the money wasn't ours, but money that we were stewarding for God. Again, our naive response may have been his answer to prayer.

What was the point of these stories? Besides pointing out that we are still rather naive and gullible? A lot of time, we see parts of people's lives. We don't know their story. We don't know who they are, what they have faced, or why they are acting a certain way. If we see a glimpse of their actions and choose to believe the worst possible intentions behind those actions, we will become mistrustful and negative people, hardly the Christ-like believers we are called to be. But if we see people as God's creations, recognize that we don't know their story, and choose to believe the best, then we are letting love cover over their sins and mistakes.

So will you choose to believe the best about others?

An Open Letter to Christians who Haven't Experienced Racism

Dear brother/sister in Christ,

We are presented with tens of thousands upon millions of voices crying out that racism is real and something that they experience on a daily basis.

I feel inadequate to address this topic, because I fall into the category that hasn't experienced racism. But we must speak out against injustice or we are silently supporting it. We want to believe that if we aren't actively participating in racism or injustice, then we are not part of the problem, but this is a lie. If we aren't speaking out against racism, then we are part of the problem.

This requires education. We must take a look at the underside of our nation's history to see how racism has survived for so long in our culture. This isn't to say that we ignore or deny the good parts of our history, but to acknowledge that we need to address the problems in our society. If a friend comes to you and tells you that something you said hurt their feelings, I hope that you don't immediately start telling them all the good things you have said over the years. Yes, it is true that you said good things, but that's not the issue right now. The issue is you said something hurtful and that is what needs addressed. Once that hurt has been addressed, then you can reminiscence about the good things together.

So I acknowledge that there are many good things in our nation's history, but that isn't our conversation right now. We need to address the racism that existed, still exists, and will continue to exist if we don't change. Racism didn't die out with the Emancipation Proclamation which freed SOME of the slaves in our nation, but survived by making Jim Crow laws to keep black people as close to their enslaved state after the Civil War ended. Racism survived through desegregation and the civil rights movement that pushed for legislative reforms.

We hear an ugly word like racism and immediately want to deny that there is any part of it that applies to us, but the only way we can make that claim is to narrow the definition. We do this when we define the rich as "people with more money than me" instead of as "people who can eat 2-3 meals a day and has a home with bills paid up-to-date". We do this when we define racists as "people who verbally abuse, physically assault, or kill people of a different ethnicity" instead of as "people who react differently to a person because of a physical characteristic related to their ethnicity".

Racism is the extreme acts that shock us on the news, but it is also the insidious small actions in our daily life.

If the following examples hit too close to home, I apologize for any pain they bring.
Racism is clutching a bag tighter when a black person comes into view.
Racism is acknowledging the diversity in "your group" while painting "their group" with broad brushstrokes.
Racism is sounding surprised when you mention that a black person came into your place of business...and was...nice!
Racism is believing the segregation in our Sunday services is normal because each group prefers to worship with "their own kind".
Racism is saying you talked with a black person and telling your listener that they "sounded so eloquent".

This will be an uncomfortable journey. Lean into that. As we go down this path, we will hear and see and read things that upset us. Our initial reaction is to deny and offer excuses, but I encourage us to pause and reflect on what is upsetting us.

This is going to cut us to our core, break us, and cause us to lament. And I hope that it does. If we read about prejudice, discrimination, and racism in our midst and remain unmoved and without compassion, we are not displaying the love of Christ that we claim to have. Encountering racism should lead to changes in our lives. Otherwise, we are just like the priest and the Levite who saw the man beaten by the side of the road and who walked on by. (See Luke 10:25-37)

Being ignorant is not the problem. Becoming aware of our ignorance and choosing to STAY ignorant is the problem. To continue the Good Samaritan analogy, there were plenty of people who didn't pass by the man on the road. They were ignorant of his problems, but they weren't there to fix them. That's not the issue. The priest and the Levite saw the problem and chose to do nothing. This is a sin that they will have to answer for on the day of judgment.

This might be a good time to start a journal.
What did you read/hear?
How does that make you feel?
Why do you feel that way?
How would you feel if you were in a similar situation?
What did the writer/speaker say about how they felt in that situation?
Where do we go from here?
What do we need to repent of and stop doing?
What have we neglected that we need to start doing?

Brush up on the 5 stages of grief. This is a grieving process. The "normal" life we knew is dying and something new is being born. We won't remain unchanged as we pass through this fire, but remaining unchanged isn't our goal.
Learn to reflect on which stage of grief you are in (denial, anger, depression, bargaining, or acceptance).
Is the stage of grief directed inward (at ourselves), outward (at our own culture), or further out (at those telling their stories)? Why is that?

Listen. Don't just find people saying the things that you want to hear and want to believe are true. Seek out voices that will challenge your biases and way of viewing the world. Then listen, reflect, and pray.

Sincerely,

Liz o' the Niche

Compassion in a Pandemic

Many of us are feeling loss right now.
Loss of work and purpose.
Loss of church meetings and fellowship.
Loss of being able to spontaneously run to the store.

Many of us are also feeling stress right now.
The stress of a constricting budget.
The stress of shortages at the grocery stores.
The stress of an ongoing pandemic with no definite end date in sight.

When faced with these losses and stressors together, it is natural to want to focus on looking after ourselves more than caring for others. As Christ-followers however, I challenge us to choose compassion over competitiveness.

May we choose grace to buy what we can online so those who can't buy online have the supplies they need in the stores.

May we choose to consider how this pandemic is impacting those around us and around our world, instead of focusing on how our lives have been upended.

This isn't to say that we shouldn't take care of ourselves (we should) or that we should only think of others while neglecting ourselves (we shouldn't), but instead of being 100% looking out only for ourselves, or 100% only caring for others, we should strike a balance.

To borrow the Apostle Paul's words: "Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others."
Philippians 2:4 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/php.2.4.ESV

When we only look to the interests of others, we burnout. When we only look to our own interests, selfishness abounds and our worries fester. When we balance the two as we look to God, we can look at the world with a clearer perspective, as we are connected to a source of hope, peace, and joy that the world desperately needs.

So what are ways we can show compassion while we are in the midst of a global pandemic?

1. Ask someone (using technology, not by dropping by for a visit) how they are doing.
2. Empathize with the stress, problems, and worries they are burdened by.
3. Rejoice with them over any joys, successes, or enjoyable events they have experienced.
4. Ask them how you can pray for them.
5. Next time you touch base with them, ask follow up questions from their previously mentioned requests. 
6. Be kind to those essential workers at stores, hospitals, and other essential businesses.
7. Only go out when it is absolutely necessary to get something.
8. Follow social distancing protocols. (The most loving thing we can do is to make sure we don't spread the virus to someone!)
9. Give people freedom from expectations. Just because we see someone online doing a really cool project, this doesn't mean that everyone has the time, abilities, resources, or desire to do that too. 
10. Treat others how you want to be treated. 
11. Ask people how they want to be treated if you're not sure what to do.
12. Find new ways to celebrate milestones and victories with loved ones far away.
13. Show compassion to yourself. Give yourself the space and time to grieve the loss of our former way of living for this season.
14. Give yourself time to process how this has impacted you personally

Going through a season of loss and stress doesn't have to mean that we need to act selfishly. We can choose to treat others with compassion in the midst of this pandemic. Then we can use these skills of compassion and empathy throughout the rest of our lives.

My Wants Are Not Worth Someone's Life

My heart is heavy as I write this post. As I read about the executive order mandating that the meat-processing facilities keep operating despite the danger, I am grieved. (If the order gave permission for plants to operate if they could do so safely, I would be behind that 100%. I'd also support formal rationing or stores limiting how much we can purchase in a day.)

This isn't a faceless crowd that prepares our meat. This impacts people we know personally. For 4 years, my husband and I lived within 15 minutes of a beef-packing plant in the Texan panhandle. So when I hear about how the plants are required to keep working, despite the rising number of cases at their facilities, I see the faces of the people who work there. They are students I taught. They are friends I made.

The order references our national need for protein as a driving force behind it. But meat is a small selection of all the protein sources available. In fact, here is a chart with many vegan protein sources.

We want meat. We don't need it.

Rather than rationing like we did during the World Wars, we are ordering people to work in dangerous environments for a luxury item.

Rather than encouraging plants to operate at 1/4 or 1/2 capacity, we don't want the ground beef to run out.

The contempt we are showing for human life by requiring workers to keep supplying us with meat devastates me.

But what can one person do in the face of this? Can one family make a difference?

Absolutely.

We can stop buying meat for a season.
We can avoid contributing to the demand of something that will require more people to keep working in virus hotspots.
We can cook with quinoa, couscous, rice, beans, barley, oatmeal, millet, tofu, and lentils.
We can find ways to stretch out the meats we have in our freezer to last longer.
We can have Meatless Mondays, Tofu Tuesdays, Walnut Wednesdays, Tempeh Thursdays, Friendship Bread Fridays, Sesame Seed Saturdays, and Sweet Potato Sundays.
We can realize that eating meat every day is a luxury that many in the world don't enjoy.

And if you join, we can give the meat industry the breathing room they need to get back on their feet safely.

Because my desire for bacon is not worth someone's life.

The Old Normal May Not Come Back

I've been pondering variations of the phrase "things will get back to normal soon".

But I can't help but wonder, what if they don't go back to normal?

Do I think we can find a new normal in the midst of a pandemic? Absolutely!

Do I believe we will one day reach a new normal once more when the lockdowns end? Of course!

Will things go back exactly as they were before the virus brought our lives to screeching halts? My dear friends, this is not likely.

When a wedding happens, life doesn't go back to normal afterwards. Things change drastically for the couple. Two lives are blended into one. Two people learn to live in one household together. A new normal is formed.

When someone we love dies, we wonder how our lives can go on with a hole in our hearts. We notice the empty space they should have been. Life never goes back to the way it was before they died, but we learn to live in a world without them.

When a tragedy like a world war or 9/11 happened, big changes followed. Clean up and recovery didn't happen overnight. Lasting changes became new normals as the way we interacted with our world changed.

When we graduated from high school or college, things never went back to the way they were before. We now were required to navigate the world of "adulting". There was no way to retreat back into the carefree (or highly stressful) days of school.

There are moments in our lives when change occurs, where things will no longer be as they once were.

These make a lasting impact on us. They define us going forward. They leave an irrevocable mark on our characters and souls.

This pandemic is one such defining event.

When it ends (and yes, it will end), we will come out of our social distancing and lockdowns, changed, but still here. Grieving those we have lost, even as we rejoice at the simple joy of choosing to go to the grocery store as a family. Things will become a new sort of normal as we pick up the pieces of our lives again. Some pieces will be fit back together, bearing the marks of this trial. Other pieces will be discarded, no longer applicable in our lives tomorrow. And one day, after a new post-pandemic normal has been reached, we will look around and marvel that this new life has become our normal.

Being Content During a Pandemic

Sometimes, I have a disconnect when reading Scripture, because I haven't experienced the persecution of the early church or even the lack of resources that they faced. 

Tonight I'm musing on Paul's words to the Philippians about contentment in a variety of situations.

"I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength."

Philippians 4:10‭-‬13 NIV

https://bible.com/bible/111/php.4.10-13.NIV

If I'm honest, I've only experienced the highs (and avoided all of the lows) Paul writes about here. I have had plenty and have been well fed. I haven't experienced the need and hunger that is the norm for many around the world and in our country today. 

Yet, as workplaces close and shelves empty, I ponder how to be content during a pandemic. The secret to contentment is not in how much I have or can hoard. The secret lies in knowing and following Christ. 

As I follow Him, He does lead through dangerous areas, like the Path of Generosity, which calls us to share with the needy while the world urges us to hoard away. 

He takes me along the Stream of Compassion, which can understand why the grocery store worker is frustrated at a parent bringing their kids to the store AND how that single parent can't just leave them at home.

He brings me an Inventory of Blessing which reminds me of all the books, games, crafts, methods of contact, projects, and food that I have at home. 

He guides me through the Cave of Promises which whispers that He is with me and He is the God who provides. 

He takes me to the Overlook of Joy where I can see afresh all the blessings that I have in my life.

And as I travel with Christ, counting my blessings instead of my fears, I realize that contentment is not gained through ideal circumstances, but through knowing God is with us whatever may come. 

And as we realize how richly blessed we are, we are moved to look out beyond ourselves and our loved ones to offer hope to a world that is hopeless. We can offer this, along with food and other resources, because we serve a God who does provide.

So be kind to our grocery store workers.

Buy what we need, but not too much.

Look for ways to share with others (and be open enough to share our needs when we have them)

Take this time to draw closer to God.

And be content, no matter what tomorrow brings. 

When Our Priorities Grieve the Holy Spirit

I remember being floored back in April this year (2019). That was when the famous Notre Dame Cathedral caught fire in Paris, France. This came back to my mind recently as I read an update on how repairs to the cathedral were progressing.

People were grieved, crushed, and devastated by this unfortunate event, but the things that we weren't bothered by are events that probably grieved the Holy Spirit. Honestly, I think that the Holy Spirit was grieved by the response of the Church. We were so upset over a *building* that people were posting about it, donating to fix it, and raising awareness of this tragedy. Yet, we were largely silent regarding the world refugee crisis. We weren't donating to help asylum seekers at our door. We weren't raising awareness over human rights violations & violence happening in parts of Asia & Africa that were happening at the same time.

When we care more about buildings than lives being lost, we grieve the Holy Spirit.
When we care more about our safety & comfort than helping those trying to survive, we grieve the Holy Spirit.
When we aren't bothered by those who are fleeing violence & persecution, the Holy Spirit is grieved.

This should bother us, but we don't seem to be losing sleep over the children still detained in for-profit prisons within our borders. We don't seem impacted over the plight of the refugees or asylum-seekers. We aren't broken over those enslaved around the world & even in our own countries today.

So what needs to happen?
We need to change. We need to ask God to shift the priorities in our heart until our hearts match His. We should ask the Spirit to help us let go of the things that aren't important and focus our time, energy, and money on God's kingdom priorities.

May we be filled with a passion and a boldness for actually telling other people the Good News.
May we use the variety of news sources, not just to catch up on local or national news, but to pray over world events.
May we find ways to simplify our lives so we can give our time, talents, and money to help those on the margins of society.

May we be grieved and broken over the things that grieve the Spirit. And may we be moved to get involved to work towards righting injustices and interceding those who can't speak for themselves.

Joining In Kingdom Work

Far too often we don't take everything to God in prayer. Some people don't mention the small things that are bothering them. Others don't mention that great problems impacting our world today.
I was musing on why we don't take all of our requests before God, no matter how big or how small. I came up with several possibilities.
Is this because we don't want to bother God even though He specifically invited us to cast all our cares upon Him?
Or is it because we don't have any God-sized projects in our life?

If all I am doing is a Liz-sized goal, then I don't feel the need to ask God or others for help. If everything that I am doing is within my power and my abilities, than I don't need help. I got it covered.

But when I join God in a God-sized project, then I am asking for help and guidance for sure!!!! I am leaning on Him for every step.

Kingdom work is all around us.
The question is: Will we join God in His work?

Now, we should be warned: We aren't enough for the project, but God is. It will take more than we have to give, but we aren't working all on our own. We are working alongside our brothers and sisters, as well as with God.

Just because we live in a sinful, broken world does not give a pass to isolate ourselves in our church buildings as we don't do anything about the state of the world. No! As Christians, we are called to help the hurting, comfort the mourning, feed the hungry, and pray for our enemies. We are called to visit the sick and the prisoners. We are to share the Gospel, the Good News, with the lost, the hurting, the hopeless.

Instead of driving past the person holding a sign, we can give them something to eat. Recently, I saw a couple sitting on the ground talking to a homeless man. They had brought him a to-go meal and were talking with him as he ate. When I saw that couple and realized what they were doing, I realized that was what Jesus would be doing in our present day and age.

Instead of barely interacting with cashiers and waitresses, we can ask them how we can pray for them today.

Instead of buying whatever is the cheapest or most convenient, we can buy what is most in line with Kingdom practices.

As followers of Christ, we are called to find where God is working, join Him, and then we'd better hold on! It is a wild ride of faith, tears, and prayers for those involved in a God-sized project.

Will we join in the Kingdom work going on around us?

Responding to the Border Crisis in a Christ-Like Way

I've been following the crisis at the border pretty closely. After all, Lucas and I spent four years working with refugees and immigrants in the panhandle of Texas.

The border crisis is incredibly complex, and it stirs up a lot of different emotions in people.

The first emotion that I feel in response to the border crisis is anger.
I am angered by how the asylum-seekers at our border are being treated. I am infuriated at the unloving and apathetic response of the Church. 

It's easier to walk around angry, but if I am honest and vulnerable, I am really, underneath the anger, deeply and profoundly saddened both by this crisis and the church's lack of compassion. I am saddened that our country has justified the inhumane treatment of people (men, women, boys, and girls) because of the breaking of a law. Breaking laws should have consequences, but humane ones. I am grieved that the Church is largely silent on this topic. Just like it was silent during the civil rights era in the 1960s. Just like it was silent during the internment of Japanese-Americans in the 1940s. Just like it was silent when persecuted Jews in Europe applied to get into the US and we turned them away because we valued our safety more than their lives in the1940s.

Earlier this week, I was reading an article on this topic and a sentence jumped out at me: "The children told the lawyers they were given the same meals every day — instant oats for breakfast, instant noodles for lunch, a frozen burrito for dinner, along with a few cookies and juice packets — which many said was not enough." You can read the full article here.

As I read this article, I had some tough questions run through my mind:
-Can you imagine your elementary, middle, or high school student being satisfied with this as their daily calories? -What will the lack of vegetables & milk do to their growing bodies? 
-Are the juice packets 100% juice or "juice drinks" that are just a flavored sugar-water "juice drink"?

-How would Jesus respond to this crisis at our border?
-What would Jesus expect for His Church to be doing?

I must do something in response to this poor treatment of children. I am compelled to act. And so I wanted to protest this unjust government policy, by joining these children in their meals, by eating similar things to them. But as I started to think through the logistics, I realized that A) I do need to eat fruits, veggies, & dairy in order to stay healthy and B) No one would care about one person changing their diet in protest.

My next thought was to do this for a day. And during that day, this would be my response:
*When I am hungry, I will pray for them.
*When my food budget goes unspent, I will donate to a Christian ministry reaching out to these children. 
*When I am done with these meager portions, I will spend my remaining mealtime in dropping a message to the elected officials who represent my area & my voice will be heard. 
*But most importantly, I will add my voice crying out to the King of Kings, who loves the people in overcrowded facilities, just as much as He loves the elected officials who should be making thoughtful and humane policies and as much as He loves those who serve Him as His Church.

And so, I will pray for the children, the aslyum-seekers, the workers, and the law-makers involved in this situation.
I will donate to Christian organizations to minister to those on the margins of multiple societies.
I will let my elected officials know that their political posturing is hurting children and that is unacceptable.
I will ask the Lord of Lords how He expects me to respond and I will obey.

Who Will You Obey?

I think it's safe to say that the world is a mess. It is divided, angry, hurting, and full of hate. We can easily tune into the world's message by listening to and reading the news, or even just getting on social media. We don't have to look far to encounter the undercurrent of fear that has become common in our daily lives.

We hear the world's message because we have access to technology, but God doesn't write a blog or send out tweets, so we haven't been paying His message and His teachings their due.

But amidst the white noise of the world's fear and hate, I can faintly hear my Savior speaking and we not only need to listen to Him, we need to start living out His teachings once more.

"I was a stranger and you welcomed me." (Matthew 25:35)
"I was hungry and you fed me." (Matthew 25:35)
"I was thirsty and you gave me water." (Matthew 25:35)
"I was sick and imprisoned, and you visited me." (Matthew 25:36)
"Let the little children come." (Matthew 19:14)
"Love the foreigners for you were foreigners." (Deuteronomy 10:19)
"You are Christ's ambassadors." (2 Corinthians 5:20)
"Our battle is not against flesh and blood." (Ephesians 6:12)
"Love your enemies." (Matthew 5:44)
"Pray for your persecutors." (Matthew 5:44)
"Our citizenship is in heaven." (Philippians 3:20)
"Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." (Joshua 1:9)

The world mocks, scoffs, and tries to drown out these teachings. It tries to convince us that trusting in "chariots and horses" is godly after all, but this is a lie.
The. World. Is. Wrong.
People are scared. That is understandable. The world seems to be a scary, strange, chaotic place.

We are not acting out of love for one another. We have been acting out of fear for far too long.
Leaders are making decisions out of fear. Historically, this leads to actions that our descendants are ashamed of.
People are scared, so they lash out. Other people are hurt and scared, so they lash out, and a cycle is born.

Can reaching out in love break this cycle? The Bible seems to think so. Yes, I'll admit that loving someone who hates us won't fix things overnight, but this is the path that we, as Christians, as called to walk. To the non-believing world, it doesn't make sense to lower our guard and reach out to others in love. It may not even make sense to us in the Church, but the thing is, God didn't invite us to edit the Bible to make it more palatable for our culture. He called us to obey, even when our culture is shouting that God's way will fail.

"For I was a stranger and you welcome me in." (Matthew 25:35) Jesus didn't promise safety and security when we welcomed the stranger. He didn't promise that it would be easy or convenient. But He did call for us to welcome the stranger in our midst. We can form friendships across cultures, even when our world says that it will fail.

The world is calling for us to react in fear.
Jesus is teaching us to love others in spite of our fears.
Who will you obey?

Strangers in Our Midst

For the last 4 years, we lived in an amazing community of people. We loved Cactus. We loved the refugees of Cactus. We loved the immigrants of Cactus. We loved the Americans of Cactus. We worked in a pretty fabulous network of people serving refugees, immigrants, and struggling Americans.

When we met a person from a country we hadn’t encountered before, we rejoiced. We were thrilled to get to know them and to get to learn more about their culture and their story. And our network rejoiced with us.

We had a new student from Burundi. If you don’t know where that it (I had to look it up), it is a small African nation by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Tanzania. We rejoiced when we realized we had a new nationality enrolled in our ESL classes.

We also mourned at times. Our eyes & ears seem to be hyper-tuned to pick out key words “refugee” “immigrant” “attack” “illegal” When those words are paired together, we read & listen to the news stories, often from as many news sources as we have time to read.

My stomach always sinks when I read those stories. But I do more than simply mourn for the people directly affected by the latest tragedy. I also mourn for the perpetrator as I wonder what they must have been feeling to commit such a deed. I also mourn for unconnected refugees & immigrants who now face a little more fear, a little more hatred, a little more discrimination, as life gets a little harder due to someone else’s actions.

How many of you, of us, have been outside of the United States? How long was each trip you took? A week? A month? A year?

Jesus charged His disciples (and we ARE His disciples, are we not?) to go into all the world and preach His gospel.  

Yet His Church regulated that task to “super-Christian” missionaries and most of us stay where we are comfortable.

So God brought the nations to us, in our hometowns. Refugee. Immigrant. Student. Tourist. They have come to our doorstep.

But we don’t welcome them with open arms. We don’t invite them into our hearts and homes to share the Good News with them.

You see, they eat differently than we do. They smell differently. They look differently than we do. They dress and act differently. So we ignore them and walk on past them.

God has brought the nations to us and we STILL do not tell them the Good News.

When Jesus gave His disciples commands, I don’t notice a lot of conditions and clauses attached.

"Love your neighbor as yourself." Period. He didn’t say, “Love your neighbor as yourself, UNLESS they practice a different religion than you practice. If they follow another god, ignore them and pass on the other side of the street.” Spoiler: He didn't say that second bit.

"Love your enemies and pray for your persecutors." Period. He didn’t say, “Love your enemies and pray for your persecutors, UNLESS they are trying to kill you. If they are trying to kill you, by all means, try to kill them first. After all, that is the example I and the Early Church left you.” Spoiler: He didn't say that second bit.

His commands are to us and our obedience to Him is not dependent on how others treat us. We are called to be obedient, regardless of how unloving and unlovable people are acting towards us. 

There are strangers in our midst. How will I, will you, will we respond?

Something Greater than My Rights

Independence.

Freedom. Of Religion. Of Speech. Of the Press. Of (peaceful) Assembly.

My Rights. To Bear Arms. To Vote. To a Speedy Trial.

Suffice to say, Americans value Independence, Freedom, and their Rights. We have gone to war over these values. We lived through a polarized era known as the Cold War that pitted American values against Communistic values. We take each other to court to protect our rights and get revenge for perceived slights.

We take our preferences, our view of the world, our values, and say that anyone who contradicts these things is threatening us and stepping on our rights.

What if our rights, freedoms, and independence were never meant to be the hill we stake our claim on and are willing to die on? What if there is something (or rather Someone) who is greater than our rights?

I do not like to make or take phone calls, but I will for the good of the places I work and volunteer at.

I do not like to run, but I will if someone's life is in danger and I can somehow help.

I do not like cucumbers, papayas, haggis, or cinnamon candy. I will never seek these out on my own, buy them for my consumption, or order them at a restaurant. But if you make a cucumber salad, that goes along with your haggis entree and papaya cobbler, before we adjourn to the living room to snack on cinnamon candy, I will eat a Liz-sized portion of everything. Why? Because you made it for me.

The (unofficial) motto of the mission field is "Where He leads me, I will follow. What they feed me, I will swallow."

America teaches us to value our independence and our rights above all else, but sometimes, especially when a friend from another culture makes us a meal, we eat anything we're not allergic to because we value our relationship with other people. That is how I ended up eating cow-stomach-soup. It's surprisingly chewy.

Life is a tricky mixture of knowing when to stand your ground and when to yield.

Paul kept teaching the Corinthians that as Christians, they (and we) have the right to do anything (1 Cor. 6:12 & 10:23), but not everything is beneficial.

To paraphrase Jesus (Matt. 12:6), we value our rights, but something great than our rights is here.

We have the right to demand our rights, but this is not always beneficial. One of my favorite passages of Paul's epistles is Philippians 2. This is probably a familiar passage, so see if these key phrases stir your memory: be like-minded, value others above yourselves, look to the interests of others, have the same mindset as Christ.

I have the right to demand my way, but I think to follow Jesus' and His path, I must lay down my rights and surrender my freedoms. The call to follow Christ is a call to die to ourselves, so we can fully live in Him.

The Heart of the Matter

Do you ever read books that get the gears in your brain turning? I do love reading books that help me unwind and de-stress, but I also get some of my mental exercise by reading books that challenge the status quo and challenge the assumption that things have always been this way.

Most Advent seasons, I either re-read Christmas Is Not Your Birthday or The Advent Conspiracy. These are profound books that have changed how I view Christmas traditions and are important enough to me that I make sure to re-read at least one of them a year.

This year, as I have been slowly re-reading and reflecting on The Advent Conspiracy, I have been wrestling with the concept of what makes my Christmas celebration (as a Christian) different from a non-Christian's celebration.

I assist in an English as a Second Language (ESL) program and part of my job is to write summaries of important holidays and events in the United States. It typically is a pretty plain task, until we get into Christian holidays. I expected to end up with a list of "Christian" ways to celebrate these holidays and a separate list of "non-Christian" traditions for comparison. I ended up with a list of secular traditions for these holidays, but many Christians celebrate Christmas & Easter by doing many of the same things that non-Christians do, but with a Christian twist or with other a few more religious traditions added in. This went completely against my expectations.

This insight I had in the Christian/non-Christian holiday traditions helped me to catch a glimpse of the heart of the matter.

The lives of Christians should look and be radically different from a non-Christian's life and I mean radically different in a positive way. We should be a joyful, generous people driven by sharing the Good News with everyone our lives touch.

The Church is trying to reform what has become a frenzy of consumerism and spending at Christmas. Unfortunately, we try to do this by conforming to and mimicking the world's patterns, instead of letting our transformed lives speak of a better way to live. We are spending too much time, energy, and effort in an attempt to to add back Christian meaning to what has become secular traditions. Maybe we should give our culture the traditions they have claimed and instead allow ourselves to focus on celebrating Christ in a different way.

We are trying to focus on the sacred aspects of Christmas, but we are still attempting to do all the secular traditions that we associate with Christmas. We can't do it all. We are running ourselves ragged trying to do it all. The secular traditions end up crowding out the sacred ones. Maybe the Church needs to start doing Christmas in a way that is obviously, completely different from how the world does things. Then, the Church will be transformed once we stop trying to conform to the pattern of the world.

If "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" as our bumper stickers proudly proclaim, then perhaps everything we say, do, buy, and make for Christmas needs to justify itself in light of Christ.

To whom would Jesus have us give gifts?
What kinds of gifts would Jesus have us buy for others?
How much would Jesus want us to spend on presents we give our family & friends for His birthday?
What does Jesus want us to give Him for Christmas?
With whom would Jesus have us share our Christmas baking?
What attitudes would Jesus endorse in the shopping mall?
What traditions do we have that glorify Christ in this special season?
What traditions do we need to set aside because they are just about us and our comfort?

Radical? Yes.
Different? Yes.
Putting Christ at the center of everything each Christmas? Hopefully.

Being a Christian should mean that our lives are radically different from non-Christians' lives. We shouldn't be mostly identical, except for our Sunday morning and Wednesday night activities. Our Christmases should look more different than just adding in a Christmas Eve service and reading Luke 2 before diving into our pile of presents.

Is our Christmas radically different from a non-Christian's Christmas?
Are our lives radically different from a non-Christian's life?

What are we going to do to make it so we can answer yes to those questions?

Will You Choose Death or Life?

Imagine that you had a superpower. It's not the power of flight, super-speed, or invisibility, but it is the ability to cut a person down where they stand or raise the downtrodden up. What is this superpower?

It is the power of words on your tongue. It is a superpower that we all have.

Far too often, we cannot tell the difference in the conversations of a Christian and the conversations of a non-Christian. Well, one may say "heck" instead of "hell," but the conversation themes are frighteningly similar.

We even hear the same phrases uttered by either group.
"I'm just telling it like it is."
"If I'm mean/sarcastic/insulting, it's a sign that I like you."
"It's better for you to hear it from me."
"Did you hear about _______?"
"It's just a joke. Can't you take a joke? I'm just kidding; lighten up!"

Frankly, I am sickened by the use Christians have been making with this superpower. We have the power to build each other up, but we are using it to tear each other down instead. Bah!!

I expect depravity and petty hurtfulness from the world and its people, but I expect more of Christians. We who bear the name of Christ are called to be light and salt. Instead of shining light on the path to Jesus and helping to preserve people, we are shining the light on the worst areas of people to ridicule them and then rubbing salt in their wounds. We have become all too fluent in the worldly language of sarcasm. Sarcasm has no place in the life of the believer. It is cruel and is designed to hurt or cut another person down. We use sarcasm to speak rude things to each other with a laugh and a thin smile.

PEOPLE ARE DYING!! PEOPLE ARE TAKING THEIR OWN LIVES!! Why?!?!? Because culture has convinced them that they are worthless, hopeless, irredeemable, and broken. And the church is reinforcing that message instead of speaking truth, life, and hope to people. We speak words of condemnation to those who are already hurting, instead of pointing them to the true source of grace, mercy, and healing. We speak of judgment, but fail to point to the hope people can have in Jesus Christ. We cry out that the wages of sin is death, but fail to mention that the gift of God is eternal life.

The Bible has a lot to say about words and their power.

Proverbs 6:16-19 lists 6-7 things that God hates. They include a lying tongue, a wicked/scheming heart, false witnesses, and conflict stirrers in a community. How many times have we added fuel to the fire by gossiping or saying things that we know will stir the pot? God have mercy on us!

Proverbs 12:18 tells us that "the words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing." Are your words piercing people and their souls like swords, or are your words bringing healing to hurting people?

Proverbs 15:4 states that "the soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit." Are your words crushing the spirit of a person, or are your words soothing and a source of life?

Proverbs 18:21 tells us that "the tongue has the power of life and death..." Are your words bringing life or death to those who hear you?

Matthew 12:35-37 is a scary passage. Jesus is teaching that good people bring good things from the good inside them, but evil people bring evil things from the evil inside them. Every person on this earth will give an account before God on the day of judgment for every empty word that they have spoken. Your words will acquit you or your words will condemn you. The danger isn't just speaking evil words, but there is an equal danger in speaking empty words. How have you been speaking?

James 1:26 tells us that if you think of yourself as religious, but yet you have a loose tongue that is not reined in, you deceive yourself and have a worthless religion. Do you keep your tongue reined in or is your religion worthless?

James 3:1-12 is a whole passage on taming the tongue. It is called boastful, corrupting, fire-setting, and a world of evil. It is a restless evil and is full of deadly poison. How can we praise God and curse man with the same tongue? People are made in God's likeness. How are you doing taming your tongue? Are you letting it set fires?

Ephesians 4:29 is a familiar passage that exhorts us to prevent unwholesome talk from coming out of our mouths. Let words that build others up according to their needs be spoken. Speak words that benefit those who listen. Do your words tear others down or build them up?

1 Peter 3:8-12 challenges us to be like-minded, sympathetic, loving, compassionate, and humble. We should not pay back evil for evil or insult for insult, but rather we should pay back evil done to us with blessings. Do you retort with evil/insults/curses or blessings?

1 Thessalonians 5:11 tells us to "encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing." Are we in fact encouraging each other and building each other up? Or are we doing something else?

Hebrews 3:13 commands us to "encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness." Do you encourage each other every day?

Your tongue is capable of speaking words of life or death. Which are you using? Which will you choose?

Citizens of God's Kingdom in an Earthly Empire

Paul talked about how to be a citizen of God's kingdom, while in an earthly empire. Throughout Acts and the Epistles, we see how Paul uses and refers to his Roman citizenship.
-He used his earthly citizenship for the benefit of God's kingdom, as we see when he pulled out the Roman citizen card to get out of an unjust beating and back to the mission field.
-He taught that we should be good earthly citizens and obey what we can.
-Yet at the same time, Paul taught that we should civilly disobey laws that contradict God and we should always resist empire idolatry.
-He showed through his life and the suffering he endured that we should follow God's law above all else, but expect to be punished by the pagan empire for such obedience.

But I have trouble imagining Paul writing a letter to the early church full of patriotic pride.
-I can't picture Paul encouraging them to put trappings of empire in the church.
-He instead encouraged them to focus on God's kingdom through reaching the people of the Empire.
-Paul taught that we should pray for the empire's leaders, but we should make sure to pray for God's kingdom to come at least as much as we pray for the empire, if not more.

Paul recognized that his cultural empire and God's kingdom were going in different directions and he decided to follow God's kingdom instead of the earthly Roman Empire.

As I reflected more on biblical-era Roman culture, I realized something profound...The USA is a modern-day Rome. We are not in a Christian culture, but rather we are in an Empire culture.

We are the Empire

An empire doesn't value young lives (Rome allowed infanticide; the USA allows abortion), but Christians should value all life, whether that life is unborn, newborn, prisoner, elderly, or enemy.

An empire celebrates violence (Rome gloried in violent games in the Colosseum; the USA revels in violent football, wrestling, and other sports in a variety of arenas), but Christians resist conforming to the patterns of the world and instead strive to overcome evil with good.

An empire practices idolatry (Rome worshiped its leaders; the USA worships its leaders and their political parties), but Christians worship the only One deserving of praise, honor, and glory.

An empire uses its military to achieve its goals (Rome prioritized and honored its strong, active military; the USA outspends the rest of the world in military spending), but Christians are peacemakers. (Look up the difference between a peacekeeper and a peacemaker). Christians love their enemies, pray for their persecutors, and turn the other cheek when attacked.

An empire encourages a hedonistic atmosphere (Rome had rampant homosexuality, prostitution, and fertility cults; the USA has the LGBTQ movement, prostitution, pornography, and the free love movement), but Christians put to death their sinful natures and keep the marriage bed pure. Christians do not participate in degrading and dehumanizing acts because they value humanity being made in the image of God.

An empire boasts of its power (Rome was thought to be the greatest empire in the world; the USA's citizens will tell you that this is the greatest country in the world), but Christians know that the Kingdom of Heaven truly is the greatest.

An empire oppresses the weak. (Rome achieved its "greatness" through oppression; the USA built its greatness on the backs of slaves, discrimination, and oppression), but Christians follow their Servant King's example as we honor one another above ourselves.

An empire's citizens are more concerned with their rights than if they should do something (Rome promoted individual rights-Paul needed to give his "you have the right to do anything, but not everything is beneficial" pitch for a reason; the USA declares that they have the right to ______ because this is the land of the free), but Christians value others above themselves as we look to the interests of others.

An empire promotes many idols. (Rome loved money, pleasure, and comfort; the USA has the same values. We consume more than our fair share of resources, in the name of our "right" to do so because of our hard work. We work long hours to earn more money to spend on ourselves), but Christians love God so much that we do not let ourselves get entangled in the trappings of the world.

You may be thinking that because you don't endorse or want the empire priorities, that therefore we are not in an empire. There were Christians back in the Roman Empire. They didn't endorse the empire's methods or priorities, but followed God's Kingdom priorities, even though they suffered for it. Our American culture values the same kinds of things that the Roman Empire valued.

But there is hope. When Christians, who live within an Empire, begin to faithfully serve God's Kingdom, lives are changed. We live in an Empire, but we have the choice to serve the Kingdom instead.

Biblical Alignment Check-Up

What would the world look like if we Christians found out what God thought about different issues and then we aligned ourselves to His views?

Please hear me all the way out before grabbing your tar and feather kits for implying that your views aren't godly.

So often in my life and the lives of other Christians, we read the Bible for ammunition, to defend our views. We find a verse, or just part of a verse sometimes, that supports "our" view, so we slap a label of "Christian" on our opinion and declare that anyone who thinks differently is ungodly.

Yet, maybe we are going about this the wrong way. Maybe we shouldn't be reading the Bible to gain heavenly support for our arguments, but rather, maybe we should be reading the Bible to find out God's view on a matter and then align our view with His.

If we examine our beliefs, our opinions, our political views, and our national priorities by holding them up to the light of Scripture, we might be surprised to find that God hasn't been on our side in the matter after all, but rather God is waiting for us to join Him on His side.

Occasionally, when I want a big picture view of the Bible, I will do a 90-day blitz through the Bible. It requires reading about 15 chapters a day, but it has the benefit of being able to cover Genesis to Revelations in 3 months. I like to do this kind of blitz when I want to find out God's view on a matter.

It takes more time, but as we read through the whole Bible, we can note in a journal all the references the Bible makes on a certain subject. We can note when God issues a command for or against the subject matter. We can read when history records the subject matter as happening and study what happens when it occurs. We can find advice on the subject as well. Then when we are through our 3 month study, we can have a clearer picture of God's view on the subject matter. It should be a clearer picture than just a few out-of-context verses that support what we already think.

If we turn to the whole Bible for our guidance on how we should live, and then we put it into practice, it will change how we relate to the world and each other.

Instead of asking what we should believe to fit in our political party, shouldn't we be asking what does God believe about our issues in politics?

Need a place to start?
-What is God's view of widows and orphans?
-What's God's view of the poor?
-What's God's view of strangers, aliens, or foreigners?
-What's God's view on violence?

          What does He command Israel and Christians to do concerning these people?
          Am I doing this?
          What else should I be doing to obey God and love my neighbor?