W.W. J.G.T.

           Over a hundred years ago a man named Charles Sheldon wrote a book called In His Steps that asked for the first time What Would Jesus Do? In the nineties all the cool hipster Christians started wearing bracelets with W.W.J.D written on them. I had one that I wore for about six years until it disintegrated into dust.

            Despite the cheesiness of our propaganda, Christians today are still asking the same question. Don’t you just wish we could all have our own personal Jesus we could carry around and have walk us through the right decisions to problems we face in our “modern” world?

            We could take Him driving with us and see what He does when somebody cuts Him off and gives Him the finger. We could take him to the movie theater and see which movies He really would rather us not see. We could take Him to our school or workplace and have Him pick out who we should start a relationship with.

            More likely than not, we really would rather have Jesus stay where He was as some rabbi who lived in Palestine two thousand years ago than have Him actually influence our daily decisions because for the most part, we already know exactly what Jesus would do.

            Let me throw out a new question that is not as likely to catch on and might not be as trendy as the last one but I think is just as relevant.

            W.W.J.G.T.?

            What Would Jesus Go Through?

            Christians are really bad about wanting to be like Jesus but forgetting all that Jesus went through.

            Jesus was made fun of, He was lonely, He was betrayed, He was ignored, and He was killed.

            We pray that God would help us be more like His Son- all filled with wisdom and friendliness- but we forget that Jesus once sweat drops of blood because of the agony He was feeling. We forget that Jesus once wondered if God had forsaken Him completely on the cross.

            We are most like Christ when the world is falling down on top of us. We are on common ground with Jesus when nothing makes sense. We are just like Jesus when we have run out of money.

            Have you ever considered what it costs to travel like Jesus? I have; it’s a lot. All four of the gospels show Jesus going from place to place His entire ministry and never settling down to earn an income. Here is the cool part- he never traveled alone. We all know about the Big Twelve that followed Him around, but what about the list of women who went with him everywhere?₁ At one point, Jesus happened to have 72 people He called disciples just standing there waiting to be sent out into the world.₂  So Jesus has this mob following Him everywhere He went that needed food and shelter every day. Everybody would have looked at Jesus, their fearless leader, and said “hey Jesus, any word on when we will be eating… you said we don’t live on bread alone but you have to admit it is at least important…”

            Jesus chose to live a life of unemployment with lots of hungry mouths that were His responsibility to feed. When He said to God “give us today, our daily bread₃” it was because He might not have known exactly where tomorrow’s meal would come from. In everything, Jesus chose not to be in control.

            Two of Jesus’ best friends died. One came back but the other one had his head served on a platter. The friends He had left ran away as soon as He needed them. But everybody wants to be like Jesus…

            I don’t understand how we think that suffering ruins our perfect life. Suffering makes our ruined lives perfect. Jesus wouldn’t be all that He was if everything he went through was easy. That is how the disciples were able to rejoice in suffering. They knew that being like Jesus in the wisdom He spoke or the miracles He performed was a task that would take a lifetime, but to suffer- to put themselves in the lowest point possible- that was something they could do now. They could share in the most important thing Jesus did.

            We live in a country that seems to be all about making life easier. Every info-mercial to ever air has promised to make some part of your life more convenient than it already is. Why use all those annoying paper towels to clean up a mess one Sham-Wow could fix? Why go through the hassle of deciding whether or not you need a blanket or a backwards robe when you can just wear a Snuggie and thus eliminate all your lounging needs?

            What if “easier” isn’t supposed to be the point? What if the most convenient and safe life possible isn’t actually the best choice. We all know it isn’t in the long run but we still persist. Instead of waking up and praying for a good day, I want to pray that I might be a little bit more like Jesus. I don’t want an easy life. I want to ask of everything “What Would Jesus Go Through?”

            Would Jesus make all his decisions based on His comfort level? What would He be willing to go through to do what needed to be done?

The reason we try and be like Jesus is because we want what is on the other side. Paul said that we “share in His suffering so that we might share in His glory₄.” Read the book of Revelations and you will see the kind of glory Paul is talking about. A few years of heartache here seem like a fair trade for an eternity of glory.

It all begs the question, how can you claim to be Christ-like if everything in your life is perfect? In what way are you like Jesus when you are in control of everything within your reach?

You can’t ask what Jesus would do unless you are willing to go where He went. W.W.J.G.T

_{1- Luke 8:1-4, 2- Luke 10, 3- Mathew 6:11, 4-Romans 8:17}

More than Meatloaf- some thoughts on Dreams and Dreamers

            Dreams can be a funny thing. You never really know when they start or where they come from but you always wake up slightly confused.

            I once had a dream that I was breaking into the Weather Channel TV station for some reason and Al Roker from the Today show happened to be there so I felt it necessary to hold him up at gun point. I pointed the gun at him but before I could do anything I seemed to come to my senses and realized that I was dreaming. I then said to Al Roker, “What the heck?” to which he replied, “I don’t know, it’s your dream.” Then I woke up thoroughly confused.

            Now as far as I know, I don’t have any secret desires to assassinate America’s favorite weatherman nor do I harbor any ill feelings toward him. I don’t think that in twenty years or so I will need to see a therapist to help me handle these hidden desires because I am pretty sure it was just a dream.

            It was just a dream; a really weird dream, mind you, but still just a dream. It meant nothing and changed nothing. It was just a dream.

            I think those five words are the most dangerous words in our vocabulary when they are arranged that way. It-was-just-a-dream.

            That thing your eight year old self always pretended to be- it was just a dream.

            That person you imagined you would be as your mind wandered away from the ramblings of your high school teacher- it was just a dream. You are older now and know better, you have things you are responsible for and can’t afford going after child-like fancies.

            One of my favorite passages in Scripture is in Acts chapter 2 where Peter gets up in front of 3,000 people and starts to explain why everyone from around the world is hearing their own languages being spoken and seeing strange things being done by the disciples of a man named Jesus who was just executed a month and a half before. Peter quotes the prophet Joel when he says:

            “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophecy; your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams”₁

                        Did you catch that? Old men will dream dreams. Old men who have lived their lives through heart ache and disappointment will dream dreams. Old men who have settled down after a full lifetime will dream dreams. Old men who had accepted the fact that their journey is almost done and that it is no more use asking “what if” will dream dreams.

            It doesn’t matter at what point you are in your life, God still has dreams for you. He still has passions and desires that He has placed inside of you that He still plans on bringing out to fruition. Your dreams wouldn’t be there unless they had been given to you by God and He would never have given them to you unless he wanted you to go after them. He would never want you to go after something He didn’t already have waiting for you.

            It was not just a dream.

            So many people are scared to dream because they tried dreaming before and it seemed to come to nothing. They went out to pursue their dream but got caught off guard by the magnitude of it all and enough people told them it was ridiculous that they started believing it. Some always had this dream at the back of their mind but somehow Life got in the way and now they have a job, a mortgage and a whole list of things they are responsible for but aren’t passionate about.

            I talked to a man in New Orleans who carried everything he owned on his back. His face was sun beaten and his hands coarse from years of hard  work. He used to play percussion for the Philharmonic Orchestra, now he gets paid to sweep the streets of the French Quarter. Somewhere down the line something happened and his dreams were abandoned. The odd thing was that he was OK with all this.  He had accepted his lot in life and had given up any hope of being what he wanted to be or ever seeing his family again. He couldn’t accept the fact that God still had dreams for him.

            So many times we blame our dreams on our naivety or ignorance. I blamed the meatloaf I had the night before for the dream I had about Al Roker. The dreams that come from God are more than meatloaf.

            The verse also says that young men will see visions. That part gets me excited.

            One of the biggest problems of my generation is that we have no vision. We have no deep purpose that we are pursuing or any idea of what we want to do with our life. This is probably because we have been raised by old men who refuse to dream. It is no wonder that we are so easily persuaded. When someone has no destination in mind they will go wherever the trail takes them.

            We all start out with dreams and visions but we give it up at the first valley we come to. In Isaiah chapter 22 the prophet talks about a certain valley that God on more than one occasion would reveal Himself to his people. He called it the Valley of Vision. The valley- that place farthest away from civilization and the protection of the city walls. It is the lowest place possible, the place of no hope- and that is where the visions start happening.

            Those seasons in our life that everybody gives up on their dreams are the seasons when our dreams are supposed to come alive. Sometimes God has to let everything in our world crash down on top of us so that remember we have a dream we are supposed to be pursuing anyway. Our biggest struggle is when God puts us on the track to fulfill our deepest desires when we want to be on the track that leads us to temporary comfort. I don’t get people sometimes.

            I don’t want to sound like some cheesy motivational speaker but I think it is time we start pursuing some dreams. There is more out of this world that we all want. I want to get rid of the idea that there is God’s will and there is what we want as people and our job as Christians to find a good balance of the two. I heard someone once say that God’s will is another way of saying “everything you would have chosen anyway if you knew all the details.” I really like that because God is all about making our dreams come true. Following Him means following our dreams, it means becoming who we always wanted to be anyway. Go after God and remember the dreams he gave you. Maybe it is time for some new dreams…

            What dreams have you given up on? Isn’t it about time to start praying for vision and some idea of what the heck to do with your life?

1-     1-  Acts 2:17

Shout Out to the Ladies

Dear Women,

            I am not pretending that I have in the least bit “figured you out” but I have noticed some very troubling things that my fellow Men have caused. It is pretty common knowledge that a basic need of females is to feel beautiful but I think that you have unconsciously let Men define what beauty looks like. This is very bad because we seem to have messed everything up.

            Everywhere I go I see girls struggling so hard to fit into what we have defined has Beautiful and failing so miserably that what is left is hardly recognizable as a person, much less a treasured child of the living God. Needless to say I am tired of testosterone ruining lives when we were given the Divine responsibility of cherishing and leading God’s own Creation. I am not disowning my gender, just trying to redeem it.

            In an attempt to redeem the reputation of Men I want to redefine what it means to be Beautiful. It is a little awkward for me and very different more blunt than anything I have ever written but there are too many slaves to what we have always called beauty to shy away from the topic any longer.

            Let me start with what Beauty is not.

Beauty is not WHO YOU ARE WITH: It seems like everywhere I go I see these girls hanging for dear life on some guy’s arm as if letting go would shatter everything they want to be. Sure he may have tons of money and look like you ripped him out of an Abercrombie catalog but if he is the kind of guy that always wants you with him it is probably because he is insecure and wants to be seen with you. You are being used.

You don’t get more beautiful by being with that guy, you just become a trophy.

Trophies collect dust and never are admired for anything but for who “won them.” You are far too beautiful to sit on somebody else's shelf. You were not created to collect dust because Woman was the only thing in all of creation that was not made out of dust. Eve came from a living, breathing, body- everything else came from the ground.

Beauty is not YOUNG: This country is full of weight loss programs and cosmetic surgeries that take the aged and transform them into youthful “beauties.” Men have told you your whole life that your value is in your appearance and since you are aging out of your good appearance your only option seems to be dressing like a teenager and hating what you see in the mirror more and more every day. Don’t believe our lies.

Grow old and be happy. Laugh away those wrinkles and know that you have more wisdom and experience than any of those girls you are trying to imitate. You don’t prove anything by looking half your age or showing that you “still got it” except that you are terribly afraid of death and don’t believe that the other side of eternity has anything to offer you.

Beauty is not OLD: Nothing ticks me off more than a little girl who hates that she isn’t ten years older. Life moves so quickly Time doesn’t need your help in blowing away your childhood. Your beauty is not in how old you look. The “you” in twenty years would trade places with you without hesitation.

Beauty is not NAKED: Since the first day Adam looked at Eve and thought to himself “Whoa man” (where we get the term “woman”), us guys have been on a continual pursuit of convincing the female race that their beauty lies in their nakedness. We tell you that you aren’t worth anything when you are fully dressed. This is because we have come under the grave misconception that woman are just objects to point our raging sex hormones at and use for our pleasure. We could not be more wrong.

            You are more than a sex toy. You don’t get more beautiful by exposing more skin. Fitting into those jeans doesn’t make you more valuable. Don’t sink to our level by attracting that kind of attention. The kind of guy you get when you use that bait deserves to be thrown back into the water. You have been bought with a price by the Creator of the universe so don’t dress like you are still for sale.

So now that I have covered what Beauty is not, I think it is time I clarify what Beauty actually is.

Beauty is about WHO YOU ARE WITH: You read that right, it looks like I just contradicted myself but let me clarify. Beauty is not about the people you associate with but by the God with whom you are surrounded. Your beauty comes from outside of you. You are a reflection of the glory of God which is a beauty far more powerful than any physical appearance or hairstyle. Beauty in the truest sense of the word is the radiance of the Holy of Holies which can saturate everything about you. People don’t even have to see you to be attracted to the beauty coming from you when you are with God.

Let the world see past your body and see into new depths of beauty. Some wise person once said that a woman should be so deep in God that any man has to find Him before they find her. Do that.

Make us guys go through intense discipleship before we even think about pursuing you. Make it impossible for someone to see you and not see God.

Beauty is YOUNG: Everybody stopped pretending life is easy a long time ago. Growing up and living life is bound to beat you up and give you scars and calluses. Try as hard as you want but you will never be able to erase them on your own but there is a God who can and wants to wipe you clean, give you a fresh start and make you beautiful again.

Beauty is the renewed youth of someone who has gone through Hell but bears no burn marks on their body and can laugh at that thing they call “past.” It doesn’t matter where they have been because they are made young again by the grace and awesomeness of God.

Beauty is OLD: People seem to have this idea that beauty is somehow trend related. In the Roaring Twenties beauty meant looking like a boy. In the sixties beauty meant dressing like the first lady. In the eighties beauty meant having hair that floated three feet off your head and used enough hair spray to put a whole in the Ozone layer.

Beauty is not a trend that dies. True beauty is as ancient and eternal as the angels in heaven. When you realize what true beauty means you are connecting yourself with the things of heaven which will be around long after your clothes go out of style. The beauty that is in you is older than humanity and still kicking.

Beauty is NAKED: We live in a day and age where enough make-up and fashionable clothing can cover up any amount of “ugliness” people think they have. True beauty, however, is naked, raw and transparent. Beauty doesn’t need to cover anything up because it has nothing to hide. Adam and Eve were naked until they discovered shame.

You don’t need to get any part of your body “done” because you let God do all your transforming.

True beauty is honest with itself and isn’t pretending to be anything it’s not. Beauty is not an act.

                Please forgive us guys for confusing you, we don’t know any better.

                        With deepest sincerity,

                                    Remorse and  

                                                Apology,

                                                            A guy

The Macaroni Lifestyle

           There are not too many practical uses for pasta. I mean aside from making various Italian dishes with names that sound like mob bosses, there is not too much you can do with it.

            There is, however, one very notable exception.

            It is the largely unappreciated art form of pre educational system humans known to most simply as Macaroni Art.

            You know what I am talking about. Someone one day long ago figured out that uncooked pasta works great glued to construction paper in various shapes to appease small children in clean amusement for hours. I for one, never really saw the artistic side of Macaroni Art but I know that my four old self just got hungrier every time we had make some.

            In case you don’t know, here is how the process of creating Macaroni Art works:

            Adults tell kids what to do, show them how to do it; then let the kids go free and have at it. The kid puts all of his attention span and creative energy into his masterpiece. He knows that his macaroni elephant looks like a mushroom with eyes but it doesn’t matter to him. He also knows that the kid beside him is fully capable of making the Mona Lisa out of lasagna noodles but that also doesn’t matter because he did his best and that is all that counts. The great phenomenon here is that the kid never once thinks of keeping his masterpiece, but can’t wait until he gets home to give it to his mom or dad.  

            I can’t think of a better picture of the life of a Christian than macaroni art.

            Think about it.

            God tells us what to do; He shows us how to do it then lets us free to be creative with the hopes that we will enjoy ourselves completely and then offer our work back to Him. It makes so much sense.

            Instilled deep inside of us is the desire to make beautiful art and give it back to the One who will appreciate it the most and this desire comes out when little kids are asked to make macaroni art. The problem is we grow out of pre-K and somehow get this idea that the gifts and abilities we have are solely to be used for our benefit and critiqued by us when they are not what we feel is good enough.

            It shouldn’t matter that our greatest gifts hardly amount to anything recognizable, because they are the best of what we have been given. It shouldn’t matter what it all looks like in the end because we fully enjoyed making it and fully enjoyed giving it away.

            It shouldn’t matter that somebody else does things way better than we do because what you make is for your Father not theirs. This life is your macaroni masterpiece, not theirs.

            I think it is incredible that little kids can have so much pleasure in making art and then not think once about giving it all away. If you have ever been around a little kid with time on his hands you will inevitably find yourself with a stack of art that keeps piling up until you take their crayons away. They just keep giving and creating more of their masterpieces and never think of keeping one for themselves.

            Sometimes I get this idea that I can use the gifts God has given me to become a super Christian that the world respects and remembers for eternity. It is like I can use the writing ability given to me to write a world changing, fame attracting masterpiece or use the speaking ability given to me to become the greatest preacher the world has ever known. My four year old self would smack me. He knew that what I create isn’t for me.

            None of us have much but we always think that the art supplies given to us is ours to do whatever we want with but that is not the case at all.  Some of us have the audacity to think that God never gave us anything at all and so we aren’t expected to do anything. We assume that if God didn’t make us “wise beyond our years,” socially extravagant or even physically attractive than we have nothing and should not be expected to attempt a masterpiece.

            A parent receiving art from their kids never evaluates what materials, resources, or abilities the kid had available to him- they just appreciate it all because it was done out of love.

            God does the same thing.

            Sometime people who do have all the things the world desires think that they can actually make something beautiful with their macaroni. They think their best efforts are good enough to actually make a difference in the world.

            God knows better. It is just macaroni.

            When you think about the incredible power it took to shape the heavens and create humanity, the very best of what we do just becomes macaroni. It really isn’t any more valuable than gluing dried pasta to construction paper but God still lovingly accepts, and desires for it all.

What are you making with the little bit of macaroni you have been given?

            What are you going to do with your masterpiece?

            God desperately wants to display your macaroni masterpiece on the refrigerators of heaven but He can’t when all you want to do is keep it for yourself or pretend you can’t do anything.

Megaphones

             One of my favorite movies of all time is A Knights Tale. It is one of those great movies that I can’t not watch when it comes on TV. There is a scene where Heath Ledger’s companion posing as Geoffrey Chaucer is performing his usual over the top and laudatory announcement of his jousting friend to the adoring crowd when he says something that got me thinking.

                In the midst of lavish exaggerations, fake Chaucer says something to the effect of “he spent a year in silence just to better understand the sound of a whisper.”

                A whisper is almost nothing. A few notches down and there would be no sound whatsoever. You have to be real close to someone both physically and relationally to carry on a successful whispering conversation. Distance between parties eliminates the art of whispering. That doesn’t seem like something that would take that long to understand but once again, I am proved wrong.

                Elijah once was given the incredible opportunity to meet face to face with God. He had just finished a fiery dual with the prophets of Baal where God had showed up in an incredible way when he ran away to a cave to hide from people who wanted to kill him. It is amazing that we can see God so clearly in all His power one second and the next feel like He can’t save us from whatever circumstance we are in the next. God wanted to remind Elijah of who he was dealing with so He tells him to stay in a cave and watch because His presence was about to pass by.

                “Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.” *

            Elijah was so close to God that he recognized that God would be more likely to appear in a gentle whisper than in a rockslide.

            “That random ball of fire that just came through here? Oh that was nothing.”

            The Creator of everything chose to reveal himself with a sound that is almost nothing.

            God whispers because you have to be close to him to hear it. Anybody can feel an earthquake, whispers are for the ones He wants to be close to.

            One thing was just revealed to me about the familiar walking on water story in Mathew chapter 14. These tired, weary, and wave battered disciples thought they saw a ghost and not one of them recognized him as the guy they traveled the world with so Jesus had to tell them himself who He was. They all still had their doubts so Peter decided to ask Him something that would prove his identity, kind of like when you forget your Facebook password and they ask you all these predetermined questions to make sure it is really you. Instead of Peter asking Jesus to tell him what number He was thinking about or where he was born he asks one striking question.

            “Lord, if it’s you…tell me to come to you on the water”*

            Peter would know that this ghostly figure on the water was Jesus if He compelled him to come closer. Only Jesus would show his power and then invite him to join Him in it. It was characteristic of Jesus to want Peter closer to Him. He always wants us closer to Himself than where we are right now.

            We are always looking for a “sign” from God that anybody with half a brain could see when God wants to personally swoop down from heaven and whisper directly into our ears and show us how close He views our friendship with Him to be. He just wants to have you lay your head on His chest and feel Him breathing. Signs are for those who don’t know God enough to hear him whisper. Everybody saw Jesus walking on the water; Peter got the privilege of getting closer.

            The point of closeness to God is to bring others with you. Any truth you have ever learned was given to you so that you would share it. God stops speaking when you stop repeating.

            I have been thinking a lot about whispers and am really considering the idea of a “voice fast” like our hero in A Knights Tale is said to have taken. I want to take a whole day without saying anything and focus solely on listening- listening to God, to the people around me and to the rare but ever so pleasant sound of silence. I want to better understand a whisper. Also, my foot hardly ever has to enter my mouth when my mouth decides to stay closed. Anyway, just a thought.

           

            The problem is that everyone is a megaphone. That means that not everybody is shouting the right whispers. However, everyone is shouting something. It can get a little messy sometimes.

            The issue is not that you don’t have a voice, but that it is echoing in the wrong place. The problem isn’t that you have nothing to say but that you are so terrified of saying it you pretend like your megaphone doesn’t work.

            You don’t have to be a preacher, or a novelist, or political activist to use your voice, you just need to be quiet long enough to hear the right voice and bold enough to shout what you hear.

            People are hurting and dying every single place we go. Where there are people, there is pain. Where there is pain, there is a need for a good megaphone. God has given me this blog to shout His voice; someday I hope it will be a pulpit but that doesn’t change the fact that I pass by hurting people all the time at Wal-Mart or the grocery store that need to hear something from God. Sometimes that one person God compels you to talk to needs to hear His voice more than a whole congregation of people listening to a sermon.  

            Where is your voice echoing? Who are the people you are already influencing that need to hear the whispers of the Almighty? We have the incredible privilege of drawing so close to God that we can hear Him whisper into our ears, how can we keep that to ourselves? We all have a megaphone.

            Shut up and start listening. Speak up and start proclaiming.

*1 Kings 19:11b-13 NIV

*Mathew 14: 28 NIV

*Ezekiel 3:26-27