Reading Time: 3 minutes

This week as I was running in the snow (which doesn’t happen a lot, so it’s nice to do it when I can), I thought about another snowy run that happened a few years ago and smiled. It was the day someone called me the nicest bad word I’ve ever been called.

But first, some context.

I started running almost 10 years ago. Now, I’m not the fastest or the best, but I have been a pretty decent example of consistency over the years. Some years I run more and some years I run less, but most years I’m logging somewhere close to 1,000 miles. The majority of those miles are run on the same roads, and usually alone.

Of course, I don’t run to be noticed by others (except for drivers – I’d like for drivers of vehicles that could potentially hit me to notice me!!), and when you run a lot of miles alone, sometimes you feel like you’re in your own little bubble, unbothered and unnoticed.

But on that snowy run a few years ago, I wasn’t unnoticed. In fact, I was paid an amazing compliment that was one of the most unusual compliments I’ve ever received.

As I was running through the snowstorm past a business near my home, a friend of mine who was in the store at the time said one of the employees pointed out the window at me and said, “That is one crazy *******!”

With that crazy context in mind, let me tell you what that one simple, honest, off-color statement communicates to those of us living out our faith in a rapidly changing post-modern culture.

Extreme circumstances call for extreme commitment to everyday convictions

Want to stand out? Simply stay committed to doing what you’ve always done at a time when no one else is willing to do it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve run by that store – surely in the hundreds of times by now – without that comment being made. But one run in the snow – one normal run in abnormal conditions – is what stood out.

There’s a verse in Philippians that calls believers to “shine like stars.” Did you know that stars are ALWAYS shining? It’s what stars do! But you and I don’t see them shining until the sky around them has grown dark. They simply do what they were made to do in an environment that enhances the effect of what they’re doing!

This is a wonderful time to be a follower of Jesus because if we’ll simply continue to do what we’ve always done – if we’ll simply BE who we have been recreated to be – we’re guaranteed to stand out as the culture around us grows darker.

Standing out is simply a matter of shining out when all the other lights are going out!

[Tweet “Standing out is simply a matter of shining out when all the other lights are going out!”]

Extreme circumstances can be vehicles for producing effective change

You and I are living in a culture that can tend to be a little bit entitled, yes? We get participation trophies for everything even if we never really did anything, and so it makes a lot of sense that an entitled culture would fail to see the value in uncomfortable situations.

But growth never happens in a recliner (unless we’re talking about the waistline!). Labor precedes delivery. Working out comes before building up. That amazing feeling you had when you made an A came after that horrible feeling you had studying for the test. Seeds push through the soil as the plant begins to take root and grow.

There’s no way around it. Hard times produce strong people when we accept the fact that easy street is not the best avenue for change.

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The apostle Paul wrote it this way:

Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. (Romans 5:3-4, emphasis added)

Suffering produces. It’s one thing to go run when the weather is perfect. It’s quite another to run in a (Southern) blizzard. Both runs are effective, but only one convinces me (and others) that I’m a runner who will run no matter what.

There is no doubt that the church is facing tough times in America, but there is also no doubt that the tough times can change the face of the church in America.

Shine like stars, and allow the darkness around you to reveal in you and produce through you the brightest light of the Gospel the world has ever seen.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Sometimes I write about things I know. Sometimes I write about things I don’t. Today, I’m writing about both, and it’s hard.

How does a believer respond in a world that is growing increasingly hostile to what he believes?  Most of us know we should do something, and yet most of us couldn’t even begin to say what it is we should be doing. As a result – 2 thumbs pointing squarely at yours truly – most of the time we end up doing nothing.

How do we love a world courageously when that very act could open us up to being persecuted by that same world mercilessly? I’m not sure about all the specifics, but I’d like to share 3 general guidelines that I think can at least help shape the conversation that we need to be having as believers.

Fear and faith are neighbors.

I can already hear it: “Fear is the opposite of faith! Don’t you know the Bible? I thought you were a pastor!”  Fear isn’t the opposite of faith; disobedience is.  Fear actually lives right next door to faith on a street that leads us out of our comfort zone. Need proof?

[Tweet “Fear isn’t the opposite of faith; disobedience is.”]

David wrote that he would fear no evil because he was in the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:4). He was in a scary place that required faith.

Ananias wasn’t too keen on God’s plan to visit a (dare I even say??) terrorist named Saul who had been brought into the borders of his city. (Acts 9:13-14)

Come to think of it, Jesus wasn’t all that pumped about the cross. (Luke 22:42)

The point? Simply that all of us will feel fear from time to time if we’re following Jesus because he’s always looking to lead us to places that aren’t comfortable.

As Christians, there’s nothing wrong with feeling fear, but something’s wrong with feeding it, and right now, that’s what so many believers are doing.

[Tweet “As Christians, there’s nothing wrong with feeling fear, but something’s wrong with feeding it.”]

The idea of opening up our country, our states, our neighborhoods and homes to Syrian refugees scares me, but not nearly as much as letting that fear stop me from following the commands of scripture.

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” — James 1:27

To date, over 12 million refugees have been displaced from Syria alone, and over half of them are children. Could the other half all be terrorists? I guess it’s possible, but it doesn’t seem to be as possible as what you’ve probably read in your Facebook and Twitter feeds from people who are freaking out.

And that leads to the second truth.

God doesn’t panic.

Can you imagine the God described in Isaiah 40:12 watching Fox News or CNN while pacing back and forth wondering what to do next?

“Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?” – Isaiah 40:12

It’s absurd to picture God in a panic, but how do people picture him when his children panic? Probably as a God much smaller than the God Isaiah wrote about. If God doesn’t panic, then it’s fair to say that we don’t represent him well when we do.

[Tweet “If God doesn’t panic, then it’s fair to say that we don’t represent him well when we do.”]

When we panic and talk more about the evil in this world than we do about the God who loves this world, we paint a picture that very few people want to look at.

We were all refugees once.

Sometimes it’s way too easy to forget who we were and where we were, but God talks a lot about our past in the Bible.  He doesn’t do it to shame us or to “put us in our place” as much as he does it to make sure we never forget what it was like to be on the short end of the grace stick.

When his people moved into their new home with a fridge stocked full of milk and honey, he gave them a plaque as a housewarming gift. It read:

“You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” — Deuteronomy 10:19

This is something we can never afford to forget.  Sure, we may not have been displaced physically like the Syrian refugees are, but all of us were spiritual refugees. All of us know what it’s like to be on the outside looking in, and at the very heart of the gospel is a God who wasn’t willing to leave us there.

“Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” – Ephesians 2:12-13

I can hear you reminding me that Jesus didn’t have to worry about welcoming us in when we were spiritual refugees. After all, he was God and so he didn’t have to feel the fear that we do or take the risky step into the unknown.

I would simply remind you that when Jesus took us in, we killed him.

But as only one who has been resurrected can, he calls us to now do the same, and when we understand how much he loves us – and the 12 million refugees from Syria – we’ll find ourselves compelled by that love to do whatever we can to bring outsiders into the family.

Is it possible that our obedience could open us up to pain and loss and suffering? No. It’s guaranteed (see Matthew 10:22; Matthew 24:9; John 15:18; John 16:33 … you get the idea).  After all, radical Muslims are pretty committed to violence, and whether we say yes or no to the true refugees, they will find ways to act in a manner consistent with their beliefs.

The only question is, will radical Christians do the same?

[Tweet “That “perfect love casts out all fear” thing? Now is a good time to live it.”]

Reading Time: 4 minutes

This week there have been a boatload of articles and blogs about the release of the Vanity Fair issue with Bruce “Call me Caitlyn” Jenner on the cover, and I haven’t read a single one.  They’re probably all good, and chances are pretty likely that a good number of them are better than the one you’re reading now.

I guess I just got too turned off by all the grandstanding and soapboxing that was going on among Christians that I couldn’t take any more of it. I got sick of seeing people post the low-blow status updates about “him, her, or it” on Monday after they had just posted about how great church was on Sunday.  And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the bigger identity crisis in culture today may not be the one Bruce Jenner has made so public.

It may be the one going on right now in the church.

Back when Jesus was walking the planet, people noticed that there was something different about him. It wasn’t so much the way he dressed (although his dress sure would stand out today) or the food he ate. And in what may come as a total shock to many today, it wasn’t even the things he said.  What made Jesus stand out in his day was the way he said the things he said.

The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. (Mark 1:22)

Jesus had this amazing knack for telling people the truth about themselves and about God in a way that made those around him want to press in to hear more.  He had an authority that the other teachers didn’t have, a confidence in what he was saying that pulled most people in.  I say “most” because, as it turned out, some didn’t want to listen to him because some people were pretty sure they didn’t need anything Jesus was saying.  Those people were called Pharisees, and most of the people back in Jesus’ day felt about them the way a lot of us are feeling about Christians who are talking smack all over social media about the other Christians who they think are wrong about the cover of a magazine.

[Tweet “The Pharisees wanted to be better than others, but Jesus wanted to make others better.”]

See, the difference between Jesus and the religious leaders of his day wasn’t standards; Jesus had higher ones than they did (see Matthew 5:17-20, especially the mind-blowing statement Jesus made in verse 20!). The difference was motive. The Pharisees wanted to be better than others, but Jesus wanted to make others better, and there’s a really big difference between the two.  This takes me back to the way Jesus taught and how different it must have sounded to the ones listening in his day.  Somehow, Jesus was able to make judgement calls without sounding judgemental, and I think there’s a real need for the church to learn how to do that again.

We need to be careful not to confuse STANDARDS with JUDGEMENT, and even more careful not to use JUDGEMENT to enforce STANDARDS.

[Tweet “Don’t confuse STANDARDS with JUDGEMENT, and don’t use JUDGEMENT to enforce STANDARDS.”]

This is the critical disconnect that has led to a major identity crisis in the church. We aren’t really sure who we are, what we’re supposed to do or how we’re supposed to do it. As a result, we end up fighting each other when we should be loving each other, and since we can’t seem to do the second one, the world writes off everything we have to say, even when we’re saying the right things.

There was a woman who got exposed in all her unholy glory by a bunch of cold-hearted standard bearers who caught her red-handed and brought her to Jesus. Actually, they threw her at the feet of Jesus (which is very different from leading people to Jesus) and demanded that Jesus judge her.

Isn’t that where we are today?  Culture is changing rapidly all around us, and in an attempt to make sense of it all, the temptation is to draw lines in the sand and demand a ruling, but what inevitably happens in these culture wars is that Christians war against each other while culture just walks away.

Do I believe that the choices Bruce Jenner is making will break God’s heart and lead him further from the identity God has planned for him? Absolutely, but no more than the myriad of sinful choices I make on a host of issues not controversial enough to warrant a sit-down with Diane Sawyer.  Can we please admit what when believers are pointing at each other in anger instead of pointing to Jesus in love, we have a far greater crisis than whether or not Jenner’s first name is Bruce or Caitlyn.

The woman thrown at Jesus’ feet was exposed, and in many ways, the Bruce Jenner controversy is exposing the church and forcing her to answer the question, “Will we lead people to Jesus to be loved or throw people at his feet to be judged?”

[Tweet “Will we lead people to Jesus to be loved or throw people at his feet to be judged?”]

What’s interesting is that Jesus did both. He recognized that she was sinning and then sent her away without condemning her so that she could sin no more. One side wants to make the world conform to it, the other side tries to conform to the world, and both sides miss the truth that Jesus came to transform us all into his image.

Like kids who have forgotten that we’re in the same family, a divided body draws lines, but Jesus drew something else in the sand, and while no one can know for sure what it was, we do know that it resulted in stones being dropped and lives being challenged to follow him.

Ultimately, that’s the reason he came, because it is in the following that all of us – no matter which side of the line we feel we’re on – can find our true identity.