In my last post I talked about the parable of the farmer scattering seed amongst the 4 different types of soil. I ended with a comment about assuming we know what lies beneath the surface of the soil in which we try to plant the seed of Christ. This created a segue into one of the biggest problems I've witnessed amongst Christians in the field.
Far too many people who claim to be Christ-followers never pick up the plow and answer the call to be farmers of men. We are called to scatter the seed that was planted, and thankfully grew, within us. It's a simple calling, so why don't we? I believe there are several reasons (i.e. fear, laziness) but these days there's one that really tears me apart inside. It's the same reason the Pharisees had for never reaching out to the prostitutes, lepers, adulterers, and other various "sinners". They looked out over the land of God and saw that some soil was not fit to be plowed. They judged not only the quality of what God had created but also His ability to redeem it. If this doesn't sound eerily familiar than you haven't been observing Christian culture for very long.
Think of what the reaction would be if a woman walked into your church with pink hair, piercings all over her face, tattoos down both arms, leather boots, and a torn Rolling Stones t-shirt. Would you focus more on the exterior of her body than the interior of her heart which led her to walk cautiously through the doors of your church? Luke 11:39-41 "Then the Lord said to him, 'Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.'" I'm not saying it's unnatural to be surprised by the look of someone who is completely different than you, but I am saying it is completely unnatural to God's heart to look at a person and base their soul worth on the exterior of their cup.
Too often we dehumanize people by looking at them as 'completely hopeless' or as lost in a world of sin out of which no one could ever bring them. To use extreme examples, look at people like Paris Hilton or Hugh Hefner. I know the web of sex, power, and wealth creates a difficult road to salvation, but that's not for us to judge. I believe all too often we encounter people who disagree with our faith and lifestyles so we put them into categories of 'unreachable'. Once we've categorized these people in our minds as 'unreachable sinners' we put ourselves in the place of the Pharisee. The scary thing is that we can easily go from putting particular people in this category to putting whole nations, religions, or cultures in it. Someone who thinks or behaves in this way has no comprehension of the Gospel.
I know it's easier to write someone off as unreachable because it puts us off the hook and we feel better about ourselves. But we are never off the hook. Our work is never finished and by no means is there ever a soul that is unreachable for God. The only thing that would ever make anyone remotely unreachable is our own personal doubt that prevents us from going after them, learning about their lives/struggles, showering them with love, and focusing our prayers on their salvation. Galatians 6:9-10 says "So let us never get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessings if we do not give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone..."
Trust me, I know how wearing it is to minister to people year after year with no results. I know the exhaustion that comes from sharing the most convincing, relevant, impacting story of Christ you possibly can and to receive nothing back but suspicious smiles or angry words ridden with animosity and doubt. I look out at American culture almost daily and am overwhelmed by the work that must be done. Oswald Chambers writes about this feeling, saying "Our fear is that the very things our Lord stood for— love, justice, forgiveness, and kindness among men— will not win out in the end and will represent an unattainable goal for us. Then there is the call to spiritual perseverance. A call not to hang on and do nothing, but to work deliberately, knowing with certainty that God will never be defeated."
As I'm writing this, I'm reminded that I entitled the last post "The Peril of the Planter". I'm convicted by my own tendency to have a bleak outlook on the work that God has set before me. It's hard, as a farmer, to look out at the field and not think about all the rocks, thorns, birds, and every other possible source of harm that will prevent the seed I'm trying to plant from growing...The soil we are called to work with comes in every shape and size, and may seem to be of various qualities. However, God sees it all as equal. That's because only God can see to the depths of the land He has sent us into. We do not have the luxury of having God's vision, so it becomes our duty to roll up our sleeves, reach down in the dirt and get busy planting the seed of the Gospel in as much of the land as possible.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
The Peril of the Planter
Mark 4:3-8 "“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”
About 6 months ago when I first started out doing background work in Hollywood I used to liken what I was doing to the parable of farmer scattering seed that we read about in Matthew 13, Mark 4 and Luke 8. I thought "I'm just going to scatter my seed of faith in this dark place and see what happens." I went on spreading my seed for a couple of months (ok, that sounds like I was trying to impregnate people, but you know what I mean) until I started feeling rather discouraged. It seemed like the world was too much for me and that people are far more convinced by the trappings of this world than they are by the love of a Man they've never even met, yet may have heard about from their abusive parents and/or condemning peers. Than I realized something about the farmer planting seeds that was slightly encouraging to me, in a rather bleak way.
I realized that the farmer must have sucked at being a farmer! Think about it, the "farmer" tries to plant seeds across footpaths filled with hungry (not angry) birds, shallow/rocky soil, and thorny ground before he eventually finds fertile soil. What kind of professional farmer, who grows food for a living, would be so clueless as to waste his seed on such unproductive ground? Unless the reality is that he doesn't see what lies beneath the soil. He doesn't see rocks laying just beneath the surface of the shallow soil, he doesn't see the footpath where the birds pick over the land, he doesn't see the thorns growing up to choke out all other life, he sees only the potential for growth in all of his land and is filled with hope for what God might do with it. Some may argue that he sees only what he wants to see, therefore he is naive for having such blind faith. But I would argue that he doesn't concern himself with what will be, only with what could be.
We all have to accept the fact that as Christians sent to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19) we have become farmers of men. I know "fishers of men" sounds more catchy but that's only because Jesus said it. We also have to accept that only a small portion of our crop will ever grow. However, that quarter of a crop will grow "thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!" So although it may seem like a perilous journey into ministry, it may actually be the most miraculous adventure in which we could ever partake. The trick is not to assume that we know what God will do with any particular part of the field, nor should we ever pretend to know what lies beneath the surface of the soil in which we are trying to plant the seed of Christ.
And that leads me to my next topic...
Saturday, February 11, 2012
American Idol(s)
Idol may be a word we don't take too seriously in this society anymore. As much as I hate to go all 'Middle School English class' on you by using the definition of a word in the introduction, I feel as though it's actually relevant at this present juncture. (There, I used fancy jargon to make up for it.) Webster's dictionary defines an idol as a "representation or symbol of an object of worship; broadly : a false god : an object of extreme devotion <a movie idol>."
I'm slowly realizing that America is a more 'religious' place than I thought during my college years. Being enveloped by that kind of Christian bubble, as I was at APU, makes you start to draw a lot of lines amongst different groups of people in order to better distinguish yourself as an individual in a world full of very similar people. You start to think that you either have God or you have nothing. I now believe that everyone has a god, but only some of us have God. Human beings are wired to worship something. It's unavoidable and potentially destructive if anything besides God becomes the center of our worship. Jonathan Edwards wrote a book entitled The Nature of True Virtue, in which he argues that "human society is deeply fragmented when anything but God is our highest love." So as human beings who are wired to worship something, created with the need to love and be loved; What would happen to a society full of people who neglected to worship God and make Him their highest love?
A lot of people don't understand the harm that comes from this. What if you idolize something or someone good? What if you idolize world peace or Gandhi? During World War II Dorothy Sayers wrote that "The people who are most discouraged are those who cling to an optimistic belief in the civilizing influence of progress and enlightenment." For how in the world can you ever be encouraged by your god of world peace when there is nothing but continual war, conflict, and genocide? But, how about idolizing something more sentimental, such as your marriage or family? C.S Lewis writes in Mere Christianity, "No human relationship can bear the burden of godhood." People will always let you down because, quite simply, we aren't perfect. Our imperfections prevent us from loving each other the way only a perfect, diving being can. Timothy Keller writes in The Reason for God, "Sin is not simply doing bad things, it is putting good things in the place of God." So loving your husband, wife or kids is good up until the point that they become your god. The problem with putting good things in the place of God is that we inherently become addicted to them because we can never reach any lasting sense of satisfaction from material things. It's the classic problem of trying to fill that "God-shaped hole" inside of us. There's only one peg that fits inside that space and human beings will spend a lifetime trying to bend, twist, and shove things into it until they end up just as empty and unfulfilled as the day they began the search for their missing peace (pun intended). Now to take a macro look at the problem of a society full of idol worshipers.
So far I have supported claims that the worship of idols creates empty, unhappy, addicts who will never reach true fulfillment. It also creates hostility. Yes, hostility. Why don't we all just get along? Because we physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually can't get along while there are idols rooted in our hearts. Keller writes, "The more we love and identify deeply with our family, our class, our race, or our religion, the harder it is to not feel superior or even hostile to other religions, races, etc." I've experienced this in more ways than I can count. We've all seen wars waged over religious disagreements, political disputes, and racial elitism. Jesus Christ is nowhere near the highest tier of importance in the lives of the people behind these conflicts. On a smaller scale, I believe a continually growing problem in American culture is idolizing personal image. We are always upgrading, changing fashions or technology, so much so that it's gotten to the point that people who do not fit into our categories of "techy, hipster, country, urban, conservative, preppy or indy" are outcast and caricatured into people who are "less than" or "lacking" something essential to being counted as an acceptable human being. It's childish and it really gets to me, especially when I see Christians doing it.
But, I digress. As I've been saying, everyone is living their life for the one thing they find to be of greatest significance. It could be as simple as living for daily pleasures. The key problem with living for anything besides Jesus Christ is that nothing else can die for your sins. Therefore if you are living for anything besides God you are not truly living, you are actually suffering from the degradation of your soul. I pity the many people in this world and Hollywood especially (for they perpetuate the problem) who have become unaware to this soul-splitting feeling due to the numbness that has been created by sin from worshiping something or someone who can never really give them the genuine spirit of fulfillment that comes from a relationship with Christ. As Timothy Keller says at the end of his chapter on The Problem of Sin, "Jesus is the only Lord who, if you receive Him, will fulfill you completely, and, if you fail him, will forgive you eternally."
I want to end with one last story about idols that I've heard many times before but still love. It's relevance to me comes from the fact that I work in the very industry which the writer, Cynthia Heimel of the Village Voice, chose to write about. The idol of discussion is fame.
I'm slowly realizing that America is a more 'religious' place than I thought during my college years. Being enveloped by that kind of Christian bubble, as I was at APU, makes you start to draw a lot of lines amongst different groups of people in order to better distinguish yourself as an individual in a world full of very similar people. You start to think that you either have God or you have nothing. I now believe that everyone has a god, but only some of us have God. Human beings are wired to worship something. It's unavoidable and potentially destructive if anything besides God becomes the center of our worship. Jonathan Edwards wrote a book entitled The Nature of True Virtue, in which he argues that "human society is deeply fragmented when anything but God is our highest love." So as human beings who are wired to worship something, created with the need to love and be loved; What would happen to a society full of people who neglected to worship God and make Him their highest love?
A lot of people don't understand the harm that comes from this. What if you idolize something or someone good? What if you idolize world peace or Gandhi? During World War II Dorothy Sayers wrote that "The people who are most discouraged are those who cling to an optimistic belief in the civilizing influence of progress and enlightenment." For how in the world can you ever be encouraged by your god of world peace when there is nothing but continual war, conflict, and genocide? But, how about idolizing something more sentimental, such as your marriage or family? C.S Lewis writes in Mere Christianity, "No human relationship can bear the burden of godhood." People will always let you down because, quite simply, we aren't perfect. Our imperfections prevent us from loving each other the way only a perfect, diving being can. Timothy Keller writes in The Reason for God, "Sin is not simply doing bad things, it is putting good things in the place of God." So loving your husband, wife or kids is good up until the point that they become your god. The problem with putting good things in the place of God is that we inherently become addicted to them because we can never reach any lasting sense of satisfaction from material things. It's the classic problem of trying to fill that "God-shaped hole" inside of us. There's only one peg that fits inside that space and human beings will spend a lifetime trying to bend, twist, and shove things into it until they end up just as empty and unfulfilled as the day they began the search for their missing peace (pun intended). Now to take a macro look at the problem of a society full of idol worshipers.
So far I have supported claims that the worship of idols creates empty, unhappy, addicts who will never reach true fulfillment. It also creates hostility. Yes, hostility. Why don't we all just get along? Because we physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually can't get along while there are idols rooted in our hearts. Keller writes, "The more we love and identify deeply with our family, our class, our race, or our religion, the harder it is to not feel superior or even hostile to other religions, races, etc." I've experienced this in more ways than I can count. We've all seen wars waged over religious disagreements, political disputes, and racial elitism. Jesus Christ is nowhere near the highest tier of importance in the lives of the people behind these conflicts. On a smaller scale, I believe a continually growing problem in American culture is idolizing personal image. We are always upgrading, changing fashions or technology, so much so that it's gotten to the point that people who do not fit into our categories of "techy, hipster, country, urban, conservative, preppy or indy" are outcast and caricatured into people who are "less than" or "lacking" something essential to being counted as an acceptable human being. It's childish and it really gets to me, especially when I see Christians doing it.
But, I digress. As I've been saying, everyone is living their life for the one thing they find to be of greatest significance. It could be as simple as living for daily pleasures. The key problem with living for anything besides Jesus Christ is that nothing else can die for your sins. Therefore if you are living for anything besides God you are not truly living, you are actually suffering from the degradation of your soul. I pity the many people in this world and Hollywood especially (for they perpetuate the problem) who have become unaware to this soul-splitting feeling due to the numbness that has been created by sin from worshiping something or someone who can never really give them the genuine spirit of fulfillment that comes from a relationship with Christ. As Timothy Keller says at the end of his chapter on The Problem of Sin, "Jesus is the only Lord who, if you receive Him, will fulfill you completely, and, if you fail him, will forgive you eternally."
I want to end with one last story about idols that I've heard many times before but still love. It's relevance to me comes from the fact that I work in the very industry which the writer, Cynthia Heimel of the Village Voice, chose to write about. The idol of discussion is fame.
"I pity celebrities, no I really do – Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, and Barbara Streisand, were once perfectly pleasant human beings. But now their wrath is awful. I think when God wants to play a really rotten practical joke on you he grants you your deepest wish and then laughs merrily when you realize you want to kill yourself. You see Sly, Bruce, and Barbara wanted fame. They worked, they pushed and the morning after each of them became famous they wanted to take an overdose. Because that giant thing they were striving for, that fame thing that was going to make everything OK, that was going to make their lives bearable, that was going to provide them with personal fulfillment and happiness had happened and they were still them. The disillusionment turned them howling and insufferable." Cynthia Heimel, “Tongue in Chic” column in The Village Voice, January 2, 1990.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
America's Got Talent
I have a tendancy to get insecure when thinking about talented people for too long. I try to make myself feel better by wondering if "It's easier for a donkey to jump through a burning ring of fire than it is for a really talented person to enter the gates of Heaven." I feel like Jesus might have said that on one of His "off days" if he ever had one...
Last Sunday I went and saw Chronicle, which is about 3 teenagers who obtain the power of telekinesis. Without spoiling the movie, the power obviously goes to their young minds and antics ensue. I walked away from the movie feeling rather thoughtful and since then I've realized that I harbor an unhealthy amount of envy for those in our world who are blessed with incredible talent. It's so hard to deal with because everyday in America talented people are shoved in our faces on billboards, in magazines, movies, and especially television. Every reality show these days depicts thousands of extremely talented people fighting against one another to become the next best whatever. We watch the best dancers, singers, models, business men/women, and athletes face off (or show off) on the American stage and I wonder if I'm the only one looking at that hot mess of talent and asking God "How in the world is my untalented-self going to make a difference?" And that question is the very problem so many of us seek to answer.
Luke 18:27 "What is impossible for people is possible with God."
John 6:63 "Human effort accomplishes nothing."
Now I know at this point every 'good christian' out there can kind of sense my theme and wants to raise their hand and suggest Philippians 4:13 next but I'm sticking to what Jesus said for a reason. Notice, that both of these quotes give you no idea as to the actual context from which they come. They struck me first as quotes that needed no context. Initially, I just reflected on how true it is that it matters not what we can do physically, mentally, or emotionally if we do not have a divine presence in our lives. That is indeed a foundational belief that every Christian needs to internalize, especially in this DIY culture that we live in as Americans where the individual is expected to provide for everything in his/her own life and attain success only by merit of his/her personal skills. As I looked deeper into this aspect of these particular verses I wandered into the context from which they both come, and that is from Scripture in which Jesus is discussing the difficulties of attaining Salvation.
The quote from Luke is preceded by Jesus' famous teaching that it is "easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven." The quote from John is surrounded by a passage depicting Jesus' own disciples grumbling about Him and eventually walking away from His ministry. Rich men, promising religious leaders = Talented people. There's something dangerous about personal success in this life. We either have it and deify ourselves, or we idolize what it will be like to have it someday. It has the power to corrupt our minds into thinking "Well, I've made it this far through my own abilities, so why would I need something else to get me the rest of the way?" I find it especially hard in this culture as an adult feeling like everything is riding on what you do rather than what God does through you. We are often given glimpses of the expectations we face by our families, friends or the media that tell us to go out and make something of ourselves by earning a living in a practical manner so we can to support our loved ones. Eventually we start to believe that everything we gain is through our own personal effort. This is what I've come to recognize as the great blasphemy of our generation.
It's this flawed mindset that plagues me as I constantly dwell on how I, a simple person with no real extraordinary talent, could make a lasting impact in this world that seems so resilient especially in places as dark as Hollywood. But that's why I love these verses such as this for they realign our perspective on God. These verses point to the slippery slope that comes from being overly reliant on the self or obsessing over personal gain of any kind. God can and will use any tool that lays itself down before Him. Instead of worrying about how this lame tool will be able to fix any sort of substantial problem in the world, I'm just going to worry about laying myself down everyday at the feet of the Carpenter to be used whichever way seems best to Him. That's the only way I know I'll ever be truly effective. That's how we utilize our divine talent.
Last Sunday I went and saw Chronicle, which is about 3 teenagers who obtain the power of telekinesis. Without spoiling the movie, the power obviously goes to their young minds and antics ensue. I walked away from the movie feeling rather thoughtful and since then I've realized that I harbor an unhealthy amount of envy for those in our world who are blessed with incredible talent. It's so hard to deal with because everyday in America talented people are shoved in our faces on billboards, in magazines, movies, and especially television. Every reality show these days depicts thousands of extremely talented people fighting against one another to become the next best whatever. We watch the best dancers, singers, models, business men/women, and athletes face off (or show off) on the American stage and I wonder if I'm the only one looking at that hot mess of talent and asking God "How in the world is my untalented-self going to make a difference?" And that question is the very problem so many of us seek to answer.
Luke 18:27 "What is impossible for people is possible with God."
John 6:63 "Human effort accomplishes nothing."
Now I know at this point every 'good christian' out there can kind of sense my theme and wants to raise their hand and suggest Philippians 4:13 next but I'm sticking to what Jesus said for a reason. Notice, that both of these quotes give you no idea as to the actual context from which they come. They struck me first as quotes that needed no context. Initially, I just reflected on how true it is that it matters not what we can do physically, mentally, or emotionally if we do not have a divine presence in our lives. That is indeed a foundational belief that every Christian needs to internalize, especially in this DIY culture that we live in as Americans where the individual is expected to provide for everything in his/her own life and attain success only by merit of his/her personal skills. As I looked deeper into this aspect of these particular verses I wandered into the context from which they both come, and that is from Scripture in which Jesus is discussing the difficulties of attaining Salvation.
The quote from Luke is preceded by Jesus' famous teaching that it is "easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven." The quote from John is surrounded by a passage depicting Jesus' own disciples grumbling about Him and eventually walking away from His ministry. Rich men, promising religious leaders = Talented people. There's something dangerous about personal success in this life. We either have it and deify ourselves, or we idolize what it will be like to have it someday. It has the power to corrupt our minds into thinking "Well, I've made it this far through my own abilities, so why would I need something else to get me the rest of the way?" I find it especially hard in this culture as an adult feeling like everything is riding on what you do rather than what God does through you. We are often given glimpses of the expectations we face by our families, friends or the media that tell us to go out and make something of ourselves by earning a living in a practical manner so we can to support our loved ones. Eventually we start to believe that everything we gain is through our own personal effort. This is what I've come to recognize as the great blasphemy of our generation.
It's this flawed mindset that plagues me as I constantly dwell on how I, a simple person with no real extraordinary talent, could make a lasting impact in this world that seems so resilient especially in places as dark as Hollywood. But that's why I love these verses such as this for they realign our perspective on God. These verses point to the slippery slope that comes from being overly reliant on the self or obsessing over personal gain of any kind. God can and will use any tool that lays itself down before Him. Instead of worrying about how this lame tool will be able to fix any sort of substantial problem in the world, I'm just going to worry about laying myself down everyday at the feet of the Carpenter to be used whichever way seems best to Him. That's the only way I know I'll ever be truly effective. That's how we utilize our divine talent.
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