Do we use fire well?

In thinking about the use of social media, I heard this description of it:

"Social media is like fire. It is good when you are freezing and need to warm up a little and sit by it for a while. You can also use it to burn down a barn."

And this one was also useful:

"Social media is good for communication but connection happens between people."

Living courageously

I have just read the most brilliantly insightful book right now. Actually, the truth is I am reading and re-reading it, underlining in it, taking notes from it, quoting chunks of it to friends and recommending it to everyone I meet. The book in question is called, "Daring Greatly," by Dr Brene Brown. The sub title  "How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the way we Live, Love, Parent and Lead," and, in my opinion, is the second most transformative book I have ever read (the first being the Holy Scriptures, commonly known to us as the Bible).

Dr Brown is, in her words, a shame and vulnerability researcher. Her work, which is the result of wading through over 100s of pages of data over the course of several years, discusses why we human beings struggle with being vulnerable and letting ourselves be seen, really seen. A summary of the book might be as simple as this: realizing that no matter who we are, where we have come from, whoever our parents are (or are not), we ALL struggle and wrestle with the question, "Am I enough?" Dr Brown's conclusion is that people who believe in the depth of their souls that they are "enough" are the ones who live wholeheartedly. They live believing that they are worthy of love and belonging. She adds, all of us, every human being, will experience shame and the ones who truly believe in their worthiness, their "enoughness," the ones she calls, "wholehearted,' are those who have learned shame resilience. They are not shame resistant, they are shame resilient. They have learned that healthy connections with other human beings involve putting themselves "out there" and sometimes that requires unlimited amounts of courage and developed strategies

I believe this book is essential reading for pastors, teachers, leaders, CEO's, managers, artists, collaborators... in fact, everyone who has any accountability for people (including themselves). It ought to be compulsory reading, especially pastors, for whom I have a particular interest. It's brilliant.

In her introduction, Dr Brown says this:

"The Wholehearted identify vulnerably as the catalyst for courage, compassion and connection  In fact, the willingness to be vulnerable emerged as the single clearest value shared by all of the women and men whom I would describe as Wholehearted. They attribute everything...to their ability to be vulnerable."

It is brilliant. Straightforward, simple and clear. While I was reading and underlining so many words and sentences, I couldn't help but think that we already have a model who has already lived a wholehearted life as described by Dr Brown. 

More to follow on this Wholehearted life...

Getting my life back

In the past week I got my life back; not my physical life, but my entire life; my whole life. It’s 

taken a while, many conversations and reminders of the truth from God’s Word, not to mention some deep internal work and I have realized this by deeply understanding two things. The first is what it means to be a child of the Most High God; completely and utterly loved and there is NOTHING that can take that away from me. The second is connected to being fully loved. If that is the case then I can live free as a child of God through faith. My identity, worth and value do not come from human authority but from the God who has promised to never leave me or forsake me and LOVES me so much it was worth being brutalized and crucified so that I could have life and life to the full. 

The first sermon I preached upon my return to the USA in March 2012 was about the choice 

between life and death. It might seem like a strange concept but every day we are making choices for life or for death. John’s gospel records Jesus saying, “I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.” Jesus didn’t say I have come that you will, or you must or I will make you have life…. He said, “you may.” So it’s a choice for us. Light and life are 2 major themes in John’s gospel as are their opposites – darkness and death. John continues with the life and light theme in his letters. 1 John 1 begins with these words; 

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched, this we proclaim to you concerning the Word of LIFE. The LIFE appeared, we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal LIFE which was with the Father and has appeared to us.” 

What John is trying to help his readers to see is who this Jesus was and is – the Word of life. He wants us to know this and believe it for ourselves. We have to see it for ourselves and then believe that he is the LIFE; that life was the light of all people. John was one of those who got to be with and see Jesus up close for three years and it took some time for John to “get it.” But when he did, he uses every way he can to describe who Jesus was so that we get it too. God is light so live in the light – and LIVE. There is no other way of actually living a real life. Without the fellowship of the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, we are not living; we give the appearance of doing so because we are still walking around and we can still breathe in air and have a form of being alive. 

So John says this is what we have seen and heard and looked at – this is the WORD of life. But 

we have a choice; life or death. We make choices every day that lead to life or to death. We can get mad because something doesn’t work out for us. Someone hurts us and we can either retaliate or figure out ways to hurt back or we can forgive and move ahead. We spend longs hours on a work project and it’s rejected and we develop a complaining spirit or we continue to put in hours of excellence. We rub shoulders with people who don’t hold the values that we deem important and we allow them to define, categorize and label us and tell us stuff about ourselves that’s just not true. We can either allow discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissension, factions, envy, malice, hypocrisy and slander of every kind (acts of our sinful nature) to infiltrate our thoughts and speech and define us. Or we can make the choice of life and live by the Spirit being defined by love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control. How much of either of those lists do you see in your 

life – is there more of the latter than the former? It is a choice – always. The more we practice it, the more we will choose life out of habit and that will lead to more life and more of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. 

Choose life – we are all children of God through faith. So if you know God – or rather are 

known by God, allow the Spirit to work abundantly in your life. Don’t do what you think the world needs: do what makes you come alive and that is about choosing life.

Seeing life from the side

A week ago I made a spontaneous decision to go downtown Chicago and watch the first preview of the Lookingglass Theater's production of, "East land." The only thing I knew about the play was that it is a musical, a new musical. The read through took place in the summer of 2011 in Grant Park, Chicago.  A year on, and here is the finished product.

I love the Lookingglass Theater. this is the third production that I have seen and they are always great. very creative, highly imaginative, and compelling enough to keep it's audience attentive throughout the entire show, even without an intermission.

And so I booked the last ticket to the preview - not knowing it was a preview until the show's director stood at the front and gave us an introduction to watching a preview. The good thing is that the tickets are cheaper than the main season and usually the average audience member will not notice any difference and indeed it all looked great to me. Because I bought the last ticket, it was one right at the front and at the end of the row. Having been to previous productions and seen the way that the set uses all parts of the theater, I wasn't bothered that my seat was at the end or the front.

However, the best part was that I did not sit in my designated seat. The usher asked me and my neighbor if we would mind moving as they needed our seats for wheelchair access. The great thing was that we were moved to the side and onto the elevated section. So we, my neighbor (whose name I discovered was Lauren) and I watched fromt eh side.

Watching the play from the side gave me a bunch of insights. First, watching from the side meant that I could see the rest of the audience and their reactions to what was going on. But even better, was watching the actors from the side. Every nuance was on show, and I discovered that actually watching from the front we miss so much. We get to see the mirror image but really the real image is the one from the side. What happens on the side is the added picture to what we already see.

If I was to watch your life from side on, and if you were to do the same with me, what would we see? Would I like your answer and would you agree with mine?

The real thing

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death...

(Isaiah 6:1-8)

The law was weakened by the sinful nature...  the only way that we can stand before the Most Holy God is through Jesus Christ. It is hard for us humans to get this... God is HOLY. I find it hard to find words to describe this word: HOLY. Sacred, hallowed, pure, without blemish, worthy, revered... I am not sure which one to use here. The prophet, Isaiah, realized how holy God is when he saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted and angels were flying around. Even the angels knew how Holy God is and so they covered their faces because who could look at the Most Holy God and live. So they covered their faces, and their feet and used the other 2 wings to fly. They were calling back to one another, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory. 

Isaiah realized he was in the presence of HOLINESS and that was nothing to take lightly. His reply was a cry - probably a loud cry with all the flying around going on, "Woe to me... I am ruined." Being in the presence of holiness showed Isaiah's need for cleanliness. One of the angels did something that would hurt; he touched Isaiah with a LIVE COAL, a hot, flaming, live coal. But instead of burning his mouth, the coal took his guilt away and his sin was atoned for. He could do nothing else but be awestruck by God. 


Sometimes I take God so for granted that I take His holiness for granted too. I forget that while it is true that I am made in his image, fearfully and wonderfully made, and a fully loved daughter of the Most High King, that identity comes with responsibility and I am not at liberty to do what the heck I what I want and when I want. I think that this is what the Apostle Paul is getting at in his letter to the Romans. 

Right before this passage, Paul writes in a "out of his mind" way. Really, if Paul were to say all that he says here in a modern day context, he would be put away for literally being, "out of his mind." It is pretty funny in a scary way:

"I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. That's sin living in me... that's not my true self....the self that is in Christ... For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it..."

If you are confused, that's OK, because so am I... and so was Paul. He knows that while he lives in this world, sin is still alive and well... but because of God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful humanity to be a sin offering, Jesus Christ did our work for us on the cross and therefore the requirement of the law was fulfilled by his atoning sacrifice. 


OK, in short, for those who are in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation because the Spirit who gives life has set us free from the law of sin and death. 


END OF STORY...or is it...?


We are controlled by the Spirit... not by our stuff which causes us to sin... but that kind of transformation takes WORK. 


Next time... the work of transformation.

Up front anxiety

Today's post is related to one that written by Seth Godin @

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/05/perhaps-your-anxiety-is-specific-to-magicians.html

I will not quote the post in it's entirety as Seth has done that one very well for himself but here's the gist of what he says. 

Seth begins by titling his post as follows:

"Perhaps your anxiety is specific to magicians"

He then goes on to say that people who have "up front" jobs; musicians, actors, magicians etc., may have natural anxiety levels because they are always up front in their jobs. However, after further reading of this post, he says that actually anxiety is experienced by anyone who has ever had to be a part of something they cannot ultimately control - ie. all of us. The piece I like about it is that Godin suggests that being anxious about something might be a good indicator of who much one cares about what they are doing...

Whenever I hear the word, "anxiety" (an emotion that appears with annoying regularity especially on preaching weeks like this one), I remember that the Apostle Paul told us not to be anxious about ANYTHING, but in EVERYTHING, by prayer and petition, present our requests to God. Once we have done that, we can TRUST that the peace of God, which passes ALL understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

So, perhaps we can let our anxiety be free by giving it over to a faithful God who KNOWS that we will be anxious and knows that we wil be anxious over the things for which we care, and therefore He will take care of them and honor the work that we have invested in that about which we care.

We care, so let the anxiety out the door... or as Godin says, good riddance to it... and present your requests to God and PEACE will follow. 

The choice of freedom

I seem to be following a pattern here... the choice of joy, the choice between life and death and now I am looking at the choice of freedom. Most of the reason for thinking around freedom is because this weekend I am preaching and we have temporarily stepped away from the Lectionary and have been looking at the Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans for the past 2 weeks and once again this week.

Paul writes:

"Let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 
Accept those whose faith is weak, out quarreling over disputable matters..."


Freedom. It was for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened by a yoke of slavery."

The Apostle, Paul, is writing to the Galatians. He is mad that the Galatians are being so easily led astray by the Jewish Christians who are telling them that they have to follow the law and be circumcised. Paul says, NO. That was the old law and we are now under the new law - the law has been fulfilled and Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection. One can almost hear the sarcasm in his voice; wait, was it God or humans that set you free, he asks???

So, I have come to believe that all of life is a choice, especially when one follows Jesus Christ. It's a choice. God does not force His way into our lives; He does promise us that the only way to live fully is to live in Him and that could seem like we are being blackmailed into following Him because how else could we live? But actually there is only one way to live and that is to live IN HIM.

Jesus said, 

"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them, and they with me." 

Jesus did not say, "I will bang down the door until you let me in..." Jesus does not barge into our lives unasked, uninvited; He gives us that choice to respond to His call. 

And that is where the freedom comes in. Every time.... and it doesn't stop when we make the choice to follow Jesus Christ. We make choices every day. The choice to talk to a stranger just because we know God is prompting us to do so. The choice to walk a little further so we can see the flowers along the way. The choice to take more time than we might have done with a friend who just wants to talk for longer... The choice to invite another driver into our lane and not cut them off.... or use inappropriate hand signals just like everyone else does. The choice to not go to Starbucks one more time and instead buy the person on the street coffee instead. The choice to be in the world but not of the world because the world is crying out for a different way of living and we know the God who made them and loves them and longs for them to know Him too. 

So, as the Apostle Paul says, 

"You my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.... serve one another humbly in love....Love your neighbor as yourself."

So choose life... choose freedom....