Self-Examination

Betrayal is kind of a big thing. It normally isn't something you just jump into. I can't imagine a husband just waking up one morning and saying, "I think I'll cheat on my wife today." I highly doubt that Benedict Arnold had a sudden revelation of, "I'm gonna switch sides, that's the ticket." These things happen over time, they are the culmination of a series of small decisions, small choices, ones that may seem insignificant at the time. Which decisions like this am I making?

If I was going to turn my back on my country, it might start with disagreeing with government decisions or regretting paying taxes or doubting the abilities of our leaders. Uh oh. If I was going to cheat on my wife (WHICH I'M NOT), it might start with fantasies about celebrities, looking too long at other women in real life or having intimate conversations with other ladies.

When do we check ourselves? When do we look at our lives and see what tiny choices are leading us in the wrong direction?

During the Last Supper, Jesus told the disciples that he would be betrayed by one of them. The guys got a little nervous. They started checking themselves and their hearts. They asked Jesus if they would be the one.

Here's the point...

Some of us will cheat on our wives. If I want to uphold the promise I've made not to, I've got to check myself and see where I'm messing up. If I just blindly say, "Nope, I'm good, nothing to worry about here," I've already lost.

All of us are in bondage in one way or another, we're not free. If I want to experience life the way God intended, I've got to check myself and see where I'm not free. If I just blindly say, "Of course I'm free, nobody can tell me what to do," I've already lost.

Some of us

There's hunting and then there's hunting

Warning: This post contains some graphic detail. If you are opposed to hunting of any form, please wait for the next post...

Hunting is a pretty manly activity. You're main goal is to kill things, after all. In years past I hunted. I wouldn't say I was an avid hunter, but I hunted regularly with my dad. We'd go out for small game and deer. (The first day of deer season was a holiday where I'm from.) Small game hunting was a lot of walking and looking. Deer hunting was sitting and waiting and watching. Hopefully something would cross your line of sight and you would aim and shoot. Simple as that.

I spoke to a gentleman this weekend who hunts in a different manner. He asked if I knew if it was legal to hunt in Ohio without a license - if you weren't going to use a gun. His method of deer hunting was much different than mine. It began the same, with patience and quiet. But, when you spotted a deer the rest was very different. He told me about leaping out of trees (or down from walls) onto the back of a deer, gripping it with your legs and then killing it with a knife. That's a whole new level of hunting. That's a whole new definition of manly.

It made me think about how we approach life. Are we sitting and waiting to take a shot or are we stalking and looking for the opportunity to throw ourselves into the fray? Are we willing to get our hands dirty and add a little risk to the equation?

I'm tired of sitting in the tree. I'm ready to leap.

Waffle

I had a great lunch yesterday that included some lively discussion and a tasty belgium waffle. That has noting to do with this post...or does it?

"How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him." - Elijah on Mt. Carmel

From the top of Mt. Carmel you can see the entire valley spread out before you. On a clear day, like the one I was there, if you squint you can even see the Mediterranean sea. There is no doubt that in Elijah's day many people spent every moment of their entire lives in the area that you can see from this peak. Their entire lives is exactly what Elijah was talking about.

The people of Israel liked to waffle. They would follow the Lord when it suited them, when they were greatly in need, when they had no hope. They would follow Baal when it suited them, when they were unhappy, when they wanted to fit in or go their own way. Elijah had had enough.

Imagine what he would say to us. Waffling can be a weekly or daily event in many of our lives. We wake up in the morning and whisper a prayer asking God to be with us throughout the day, but by 2:30 we've done everything in our power to forget about him or drive him away except actually tell him to get lost. We go to church on Sunday morning and sing and listen and contemplate what implications God's word has on our lives and forget about all of it until next time. We love our neighbor when we like our neighbor. We despise them when they get on our nerves. We're not sitting on any fences, we're hopping back and forth over them like jumping rope.

ENOUGH. Elijah's cry for a decision still rings true today. We can't do both, yet way too many of us think we can. It's time decide.

"How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if you are God, do whatever the heck you want."

?%

No, that title is not substituting punctuation for letters that spell something inappropriate. This is a follow-up to yesterday's post about commitment and what we commit to God. There are several other blogs that I read and one of them is about leadership - for church leaders. Recently, I was challenged by a post about the "Final 10%" that I read there. In the post, Craig Groeschel shared that he has been struck by the fact that we often fail to finish strong. We start off strong, we work hard and we might finish the work, we might even do it better than others, but do we give it our all.

90% is more than people often give. For me at least, I can usually give a partial effort and get by. It is rare that I have to devote myself to something 100% for any length of time. Should I continue to skate by on just doing enough, or on doing more than enough but less than my best?

This struck me this week in the area of relationships. When someone is in need, do I make sure they are taken care of or do I make sure they know they are loved? Do I just do enough to make myself look good or do I do so much that I can't do any more?

When I read Paul's words, I get the feeling that he did everything 100%. When he was persecuting Christians it was 100%. When his life changed and he started following Christ, it was 100%. Was he just that kind of guy, or was this a conscious decision he made? Regardless, this is why he was Paul. This is why God used him to change the world.

If I'm going to lead people into creating real, meaningful, intentional relationships, it has to be 100%. I can't settle for the first 90%. I can't just do enough. I can't just care for people or care about people, I have to love them. 100%.

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 1 Cor 10:31

An open question

The Bible is the inspired word of God. It contains everything that God wants us to have and know and use. But it certainly is not a record of everything God has ever done.

In it, we find the story of Paul - a man to whom Jesus appeared, who radically turned his life to accommodate the new reality he discovered.

Was Paul the only one? Did Jesus appear to others in a like manner at a similar time?

Was there a man who led a similar life but couldn't write like Paul, so we have no record of his actions?

Was there a man who led a similar life, but couldn't change like Paul, so he stayed in his old life (or stayed blinded because he couldn't bear to submit)?

Was there a man who led a similar life, but couldn't persevere like Paul, so when the going got tough, he walked away from God's call?

Less of Paul, Less of Me

"Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others."

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."

Paul doesn't pull any punches. He doesn't sugarcoat things or break it up into bite-sized pieces. Instead, he lays it right out there. "Nobody." "Whatever you do." He doesn't shy away from saying that this commitment is an all-in commitment. There is no half-way, there is no try. It is classic Paul, bold and straightforward. For him, the Christian life wasn't something you tried. It was something you dove into headfirst. It wasn't something that you got used to, it was something that continually pushed you and stretched you and tested you.

How different is the Christian life we talk about today?

We have our God time and our "me" time and our family time and our work time. Paul only had "God" time. We take God and try to fit him into our lives. Paul radically turned his life upside down when he found God.

Do we do that? Do we challenge others to do that? Where is our passion? Where is our commitment? Where is our lack of self?

Power Sources

When you are starting your car, it is completely electric. The power from the battery turns the starter motor and tells the fuel injectors to spray fuel and powers the spark plugs to spark and cause a little explosion. That little explosion pushes the pistons which drive the crank which is connected to your transmission and your alternator. When that explosion causes the alternator to spin, a radical change occurs. The alternator takes over the electrical side of things. It powers the fuel injectors and the spark plugs and starts to recharge the battery. From this moment on your car is no longer powered by the battery, it is powered by little gasoline explosions. (Unless you have a hybrid, which means this transition happens only on the highway.)

After the little automotive lesson, there is a good chance you are asking, So What?

Much like the car, the source of power for things in our life changes. There are times when we are electric and times when we are gas powered. There are things in our life that only have power because we give it to them. Without the battery (or some pushing and clutch-poping), that gasoline engine is worthless.

In 1 Cor 10 Paul writes about food sacrificed to idols. He points out that idols are nothing. They are powerless. Unless we give them power.

All of the idols in our world sit idle (pun!) like that internal-combustion engine until we give them power. We give them attention, we give them effort, we give them life by diverting our attention from where it should be. Little by little we let them grow and consume us, becoming more and more important to how we see ourselves, what we think will make us happy, where we hope to find contentment.

Paul writes, "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons." Our attention, our focus, our devotion must be only on God, since he is, after all, the source of our power. While we may think we have successfully compartmentalized our lives and found a place for God and a place for work and a place for family and a place for hobbies, we've really just excluded God. He doesn't want a place; He's too big for that. He doesn't want part; He demands all.

"Are we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy? Are we stronger than he?"