Value of Story

The story made us different characters than we would have been if we had skipped the story and showed up at the ending an easier way.
Donald Miller

Tree of Life Is Hollow

Critics celebrate the new Terrence Malick film, Tree of Life, but the audience isn’t convinced. People walked out after 20 minutes in my local cinema. You either love it or hate it.

The film is visually gorgeous, but hollow in content.  With the sweeping shots of the universe evolving, of dinosaurs grazing and the earth waking up, Malick cannot cover up that he is lost. The film is dreamlike and impressionistic. Impressions of words, moments, emotions and places hidden in memory are brought to life on screen. The way he does this is beautiful.

The film asks questions, seeks answers. Too bad his conclusions aren’t satisfactory.

Tree of Life is pantheistic in its worldview. Everything and everyone is a part of this huge universe that evolves in its own pace. One person’s experience, memories, pain and loss are just a speck in the cosmos – insignificant. You have questions to God, but the cosmos is god and you are a part of it and it doesn’t really matter what you feel.

How different is this view to the one based on a Creator God. That there would be a God who is a Person and who has made everything and everyone – intentionally.

The universe is huge, so this God must be huge too. This Being, who is capable of creating something as vast as the Milky Way and as detailed as the human eye, is interested in His creation. He is personally interested in you, your life-experience, your disappointments and your questions. He is the one who would give himself to experience death, so that he could have a meaningful relationship with you.

You’re not some drop in the ocean of everything and nothing at the same time. There are answers to your very personal questions.

The Creator knows you and likes you.

Don’t Waste the Tough Times

 It is more important to discover what God wants to speak to me at a difficult period than to get rid of this period.
Hudson Taylor

Whatever your trouble might be, would you be willing to trust God to stay there long enough to hear what God is saying?

We want to come up for air as soon as possible. We pray, God do this or that and please do it quickly! The deeper walk with God involves inviting Jesus into our pain so that He can heal us and teach us. We have blind spots that we can start to see only under the pressure of difficult times. In fact, it is a waste of trouble, if we just move on as quickly as possible without allowing the process to shape us.

It starts with a simple prayer and giving in. Trusting that God does work everything out for the best of those who love him.

Sweeter Than Honey

“Your word is sweeter than honey.”

The Jews impress the value of God’s Word, the Torah, on their kids minds.  As they began to teach children the law of God, they would give the kids a drop of honey to lick. The sweet taste was to remind them of how good God’s Word is. As prophet Ezekiel writes:

“…So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth. “ (Ezekiel 3:3)

Is sweet the first thing that comes to mind when you think about the Bible?

Too often us Christians know we should read the Word, after all,

‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God,’

but it’s more of a chore than sweetness on our lips.

All of us go through seasons in this. Perhaps two key things to practice are meditation and and submission.  Marinating in the Word of God, meditating on it, letting the words wash over you. And submitting, accepting the fact that God is great and all-knowing.  When we don’t understand something from our limited view, it doesn’t make God smaller or his word flawed, but we are the ones to be molded by the Word and not the other way around.

The truth is, the Word sustains our faith and keeps us growing. It is easy to wither spiritually if allow the Word lose its sweetness to us.

Your Discipleship Matters to Others

The weakness of Western Christianity lies in the lack of discipleship. People may “accept Jesus” or grow up in the Church, but too often our newborns have been left out to die. We “birth” new Christians through mega-events and evangelism, but expect the baby Christians to show up at Christian concerts, church services, tune into Christian radio and magically emerge as mature believers. We have activities, but very little discipleship.

Discipleship simply means becoming like Jesus. He is the teacher, you’re the apprentice. He leads, you follow.

Practically this happens when a more mature believer models the Jesus way to the new believer. And this right here in its simplicity is hard. This means that #1 Christians grow up and don’t remain spiritual children and #2 that as you mature you are consistent. You are watched and if you fake it, you will be found out.  Your kids, your neighbors and your coworkers observe your life and make their judgement on  Christianity based on whether it works for you.

The number of spiritual infants in our churches is staggeringly high. The number of mature believers capable of discipleship, living consistent lives  is staggeringly low. A spiritual child is like any other child, self-centered and thinking that he/she can do it on their own, when they really need parenting and help. A spiritual child says he doesn’t need a church or accountability. A mature believer is God-centered and others centered. He/she understands his identity as a Christian and is concerned about the salvation and spiritual well-being of others. He is able to walk alongside a baby-Christian and help them grow.

The ramifications of not discipling believers are huge. People can remain children in the faith all their lives, never  maturing to understand God and faith on a deeper level. When Christians who are not mature have families, their children grow up seeing Christians who don’t walk the talk. And they turn their backs to God disillusioned. When immature Christians evangelize they can do more damage than good by being too judgmental and Bible-bashing. Perhaps that is why Christians have such a bad reputation.

If you are a Christian who hasn’t grown up yet, please seek more mature believers to help you along. If you are a mature believer, are you investing into the lives of others?

10 Commandments Revisited

I never think about the absolute moral code, the 10 Commandments. Once you’ve been a Christian for a while or having grown up in a Christian culture, you shrug and dismiss them by a” yeah, of course they’re good”-nod.

But maybe we should stop to meditate on those 10 basic laws for living well. We’re so busy looking at people’s obvious sins, that guy’s porn addiction, her adultery, his gay lifestyle and their atheism, that we might miss some obvious sins in our own lives.

I mean, how many of us good, nice Christians envy our neighbor’s fancy car/husband/wife/house/holiday? Or how many of us take keeping the Shabbat seriously and take real time with God? Or how many of us sing to the Lord on a Sunday about our love and commitment, only to live a completely reverse lifestyle on Monday?How many of us spread death with our critical words?

And how many of us keep serving other gods and withhold completely surrendering our lives to Jesus?

The Fields Are White – That Means Your Hood

You know how Jesus said the fields are white for harvest. So, pray for workers to reap the harvest. If you are like me, you’ve heard this passage preached in a missionary context. The fields are ripe out there in China or Africa or India. So, get up off your bum and GO!

But, Jesus didn’t specify where the fields were geographically. So, was Jesus’ speaking in general about the state of the world? Does he mean, that people everywhere, all around you, are ready to hear the Gospel and accept it, if only someone told them how?

I believe here in the West our greatest obstacle to people finding a relationship with God, is our lack of faith as Christians. We don’t pray and we don’t talk about faith and the peace, joy and hope we have in God, because we think “they’ll” never accept it. We are saying “no” for others, without bothering to really ask.

The fields are white, in your neighborhood, all around you. Ask God to fill you with His love and kindness and explain the reason you have for hope. Maybe you will be surprised.

Hope for Truly Hopeless Women

“All the stories I know from Afghanistan seem to be sad stories,” said a a relief worker who’s lived there for almost a decade. In our recent conversation she shared how she has had to deal with co-workers being kidnapped and murdered. Not to mention the desperate situations many locals deal with. Death and fear are constant companions to those living in Kabul.

Research published this summer, stated that Afghanistan is the most dangerous country for women. Women face a one in 11 chance of  dying in child birth. Over two thirds of the women are illiterate. And most women, 70-80%, face forced marriages. On top of this there is the regular  physical, emotional and verbal abuse women endure by their husbands, mother-in-laws and other relatives. And to top this there is extreme poverty.

There is no reason for hope. A former relief worker has seen so much suffering among the women in Afghanistan, she is now struggling with serious depression herself. Another relief worker living in Afghanistan said, that even the smallest thing can give hope to an Afghan. When things are that bad, even a bit of good goes a long way.

A growing number of women living in such circumstances are suicidal. In fact self-immolation has become a national epidemic. Most often it is young women who set themselves on fire. Most survive having to live with terrible scars. To combat this problem the government has begun a campaign to teach safety in the kitchen to avoid genuine accidents. They also show the terrible injuries burnt women have to now suffer with and looks at domestic violence issues.

While Afghan women struggle to survive Western women complain about this or that minor detail in gaining equal rights with men. For some women competing with men has become an obsession. Nothing is ever enough. The life we lead in the West as women is so free compared to millions of women who live in truly unequal circumstances. They are not even equal in their right to exist as human beings with the rest of the world, compared to both women and men. Maybe we should do something about that first, before we complain about the 5%  difference in his and hers paycheck.

How Common Shame Is

Everyone feels alone in their shame. We are ashamed or embarrassed over a variety of issues. It can be sin and failures in life. Or it can be perceived, ie our view of ourselves, our bodies and actions. It is a lonely place.

“Only super-losers struggle with this sin. I feel so alone.” 

“Everyone notices my crooked nose and hates me for it. I feel so alone.”

“I failed at speaking in front of the class again. I feel so alone.”

A cure, or at least, a help for shame is understanding how others are ashamed too.

An illustration from the gym. Sixty people cycle, dance, lift weights or whatever together in one space. A curious phenomenon begun some years ago: the dimming of lights. We all apparently feel so self-conscious, embarrassed and ashamed of our sweaty, red faces and heaving bodies, that someone decided to dim the lights. When it is dark, we relax. We can’t see others so clearly and neither can we be seen. So, as we exercise together in the dark, we’re all hidden and no need to feel shame. And we all work harder.

In God’s Kingdom it actually works exactly the other way around. As Apostle John writes in his epistle.

If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth—we’re not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purges all our sin. (The Message paraphrase)

When we are honest with God about our struggles and sin, we can be honest with one another. And we can walk in the light. We can have true community with each other. It is miraculous how when you see others struggling too, you don’t have to feel alone. And somehow the sense of shame lifts.

Christians Are To Face Suffering

Suffering is not a virtue in Western Christianity. Perhaps it is even seen as a punishment.

What a far cry from Apostle Paul’s, “I consider it a privilege to suffer for Christ”.  Jesus went further and promised it to his followers. “You will be persecuted, you will have trouble in this world”.

The people I know who have suffered are deep people. Some have been humbled by disappointments, such as remaining un-married, not being able to get pregnant, getting a divorce and some by serious illness or by the death of family members in freak accidents or by being murdered while serving the poorest of the poor.

In a weird way, the more we suffer, the more we need God and the deeper our relationship with Him becomes. Also, our trust for God deepens and our willingness to follow him increases. When suffering comes, it is not our calling as Christians to run from it, but to embrace it. In facing suffering we also have to choose to allow God to shape us through it, or to harden our hearts and let bitterness take root.

Libby Little wrote this, only a few days before she heard of her own husband being brutally murdered. They had served the poor for over two decades in one of the world’s most war-torn nations.

For most Westerners, the opportunity to embrace suffering in service has become rare. Stringent security and evacuation protocols, government advisories, threats of litigation, and pressures from relatives and supporters make it difficult for mission people working in conflict zones to stay near to those who suffer.”To stay, or not to stay?” is a relevant question for today’s mission personnel working in dangerous places. … What might have been a God-appointed time to embrace suffering and those who suffer may be prematurely aborted.
Full article here.