relationships

Scarcity and your worry. Part 1.

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25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

Matthew 6:25-27

Chronic scarcity can ruin the soul. Not having enough preoccupies a person so that they miss opportunities in each day to experience God’s grace and provision. Most of Jesus’ audience at the Sermon on the Mount would have been intensely familiar with the grinding weight of poverty. Jesus shows them how money and wealth, or rather the lack of money and wealth, generates worry.

Perhaps you aren’t worried about money, clothes or food today. You might be worried about having enough time, knowledge, strength, happiness, professional attitude, control, wisdom, or patience. Worry actually turns you toward yourself and away from engagement in the Lord’s good work prepared for you.

Worry wastes life. One of Jesus’ first “abundance directives” shows the disciples the waste of worry. He wants them to anchor their minds on this truth: I am valuable to our Heavenly Father! Often when we worry we diminish the presence and truth of God in our lives, in this very moment.

Have you rejoiced in the mercy and grace of God today? Let your mind turn this truth around like a diamond in your hand.

My Heavenly Father treasures me. He values me. Not for what I can do for Him or be for Him; its all mercy and grace! He considers me. Thank you Lord!

Anger after the sun goes down.

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26Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27and give no opportunity to the devil. Ephesians 4:26-27

So angry. Seething. When the sun goes down on our anger, the mind races to create stories justifying our wrath. The mind creates an enemy not just out of the offending people or group, but out of you. An enemy is one we think the world could do without. In other words, an enemy is one who believes the world would be better if this person was gone, removed, and dead to us. After dark, anger can turn us into the enemy willing and capable of harm. Oh, we might not kill the person, but we can act badly — lashing out later or turning on a cold hearted and deathly silence.

Such mental work is poison to our souls and for our relationships. The Gospel of Jesus compels us to take these matters of anger seriously. We must begin to see anger as an important emotion, signalling that something is wrong either in the world or in us… or in both.

Paul connects “going to bed with anger at play in our heart and mind” as the Devil’s playground. Anger gives the Devil an opportunity.

So you are angry. A work of prayer is required. A work of reconciliation is required too. You must make an intentional decision to keep the offence and problem that stimulated your anger in the light of the Son of God and not in the heart of darkness.

Things I learned on the way to becoming a Christian

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testimony picture
(My mom’s testimony to a church group in the early 80’s.)
There are 5 topics or truths that I want to talk about.
1.  As the title implies, becoming a Christian isn’t a one-shot, all-at-once experience, though sometimes, we get the impression that it is.   Often, too much emphasis is placed on the initial conversion experience, and not enough on what difference it made in the rest of a person’s life.
            I used to worry about not having a dramatic conversion story to relate.  A 12-year old who went to church and Sunday school before and after conversion doesn’t quite make the TV talk shows.  Not dramatic enough.
            But I didn’t become a Christian that night during the summer revival, I only began the process.  I didn’t know that then, I just knew I felt great joy the day I was baptized in the river along with my brother and my father, and I felt great relief thereafter at not feeling guilty when the altar-call was given.  And that leads to the second point.
2.  Becoming a Christian means more than just being saved from Hell.  For awhile, I was happy just having that fire insurance.  I grew up hearing nothing but fire-and-brimstone preaching—- how hot the flames were for sinners.  It was some time before I gradually became aware of another aspect of being a Christian, my third point.
3.  We are saved for something, not just from something.  It was exciting to think that I, in all my uniqueness, was saved by God for something.  I had a responsibility to him—- I was accountable to Him to keep His spiritual laws.  And I planned what I would do for Him.   I was committed, I was willing, I would serve, I would witness, I would live a good life, and I would do great things for God!  The truth is, I did precious little for God.  For we are unable to achieve in our own strength.
4.  I had part of the story correct; I am responsible to God, I am accountable to Him to keep His spiritual laws, but the rest of the story is that it is only to the extent that God lives and works through me that my life counts for Him and I can fulfill my responsibility to Him.
         God lives and works through my life by His Holy Spirit.  The great interest in the “charismatic movement” several years ago stirred me to a greater realization of what being a Christian is.  Hearing people pray in tongues and seeing them “slain in the spirit” left me bewildered and feeling a little “left out.”  I became a seeker.  I began a prayerful study of the Bible concerning the Holy Spirit.  And I found Him—He was there all the time!
          Scripture tells us that we are the temples, or tabernacles, of the Holy Spirit.  Sometimes the tabernacle has to be cleaned out before He can dwell in it.  Some things that may clutter the tabernacle are hypocrisy, white lies, insincerity, cruel thoughts, whispered stories, gossip, hard criticism, jealous longings, pride and love of money.  Mine was full of self.
          If you are having a problem with the Holy Spirit living in your life, check your tabernacle, it may need cleaning out.  God doesn’t dwell in smokehouses and wine cellars and He can’t dwell in an already full tabernacle.  And another thing, not a pleasant topic to bring up, but one we can identify with— tabernacle-keeping is a lot like house-keeping.  An annual cleaning won’t do.   Monthly and weekly cleanings are good, but a daily tidying up is what is needed.
5.  The last point is that God is there all the time.  He works in our lives while we are just bumbling along, rolling with the punches and blowing in the breezes.  He works His purpose through us when we allow ourselves to be used and He rewards us with joy and peace.  That was something else I had to learn on my own, God’s joy and peace.   He gives joy in the midst of pain, peace in the midst of chaos, and courage in all trials.
I didn’t become a Christian at 12 years old, I just started to become.  I’m still becoming.
I have related to you some of the things I’ve learned over a span of thirty years.  I’m a slow learner.  Those of you who are also becoming, and especially beginners, I pray that your becoming will be more rapid than my own.
To summarize:  Becoming a Christian happens over a long period of time. We’re not just saved from Hell, we’re saved for God’s work, not by our own effort, but through His Holy Spirit in us, and God doesn’t give up  on us.  He is there all the time.  He is our strength.

I want a career…

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You know the moment.  The person across from you has been talking away and the moment is serious.  But your mind is light-years away from their concern.  Rather your mind has been hijacked by another concern.  In fact you showed up for the conversation with another agenda.  And finally the person takes a breath and you cross the threshold and carve out a doorway to your heart.  “I want… Please tell… Do this for me!”

People like me interrupted Jesus. He often used the moment to address the heart concerns of many other people.  In Luke 12 Jesus had been teaching the crowd to avoid hypocrisy by trusting God with their fears, when a man in the crowd revealed his distress.  “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

Practical Security

An inheritance in Jesus’ day was most often held in the family property or land holdings.  Traditionally the first son would receive two-thirds of the property as his inheritance.  The remaining one third would likely be sold and divided among all else who had a claim to it.  The “wisdom” of this approach developed out of the desire to maintain the ability of at least one member of the family to secure a future, a lifestyle, and an income for the family through the property that remained.  This younger brother’s request was likely driven by the desire to also have some security for the future.

When I poll University students at UBC and in Vancouver as to why they are pursuing school, its most often because they “want a good job” in the future.  They want a career that will bring some sense of security for themselves and for their family.  Although “the career” may be fading as a sure promise of security, it still holds power over many–especially those who are about to graduate.  The stress created moves them into the realm of worry.  Worry habituates us to what Jesus calls greed and a view of life because it rules out God from the equation.  Worry moves us to the center and displaces Christ.

Greed Consumes

A flashback to Wall Street reminds us that our societal message is that greed is good.  However, Jesus tells us “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” Luke 12:13  A career can be a wonderful journey.  However, we can miss the joy of work and the real purpose of life when wealth position, and security become the end-goals.  The story Jesus told of a  successful rich man getting ready to retire, yet dying “prematurely” was meant to confront the prevailing narrative of both brothers and the rich and poor in the crowd.  Life is about more than securing wealth for ourselves; wealth will fail us; life is about being rich toward God.

What happens when greed dominates life?

1.  My wants exceed my needs and become supreme.
2.  I will use people rather than love people.
3.  I will sacrifice the most important for the mundane.
4.  I will have a shrinking faith in God and His providence.
5.  I will create a self-righteousness that allows me to judge others who have less.
6.  I will fail to enjoy giving.
7. I will view hospitality as a chore or a way to ingratiate myself to others.
8. I will be possessed by my possessions.
9. I will be deceived into become small and insignificant rather than great.
10. As greed is a form of violence I will become habituated to injustice.
11. I will be persistently pre-occupied with security and therefore fear-full.

Jesus secures life

Greed is contrary to the knowledge of God.  In fact Jesus’ view of life and career is so different from ours and He knows it.  In light of who God is Jesus then exhorts His disciples:

1.  Not to worry about their life; what they will eat, drink, or wear.

2.  Not to set their hearts on what they will eat, drink, or wear.

3.  To pursue the Kingdom of God.

4.  To live generously–to sell their possessions and give to the poor.

So when thinking about our careers, Jesus would have us re-examine the question of WHO we are living for.  If we are at the centre you can be sure greed will find open space to take root.  If Jesus and His rule and reign is at the centre greed will find little rest.  I pray that we would truly know Jesus.  “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”  2 Corinthians 8:9  When Jesus tells us to pursue the Kingdom first, he then reminds us that our loving Heavenly Father has in fact and will continue to “give you the Kingdom.” Luke 12:32  Jesus has secured what a career will never give us.

Malcolm Glidewell on the weakness of social media

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Malcolm Glidewell spoke in Vancouver at a conference on online technologies this week.  “If social media tools are going to make a meaningful commitment to the way our world is run you have to remember to  build trust, to build institutions and to build strong ties.”  Read the whole article here.