I am a broken man...

image from exileinternational.org

We waste so much. Why do we spend so much time arguing about politics, destroying relationships, drowning in debt, collecting and consuming?

What is really important to you? Think about it... what ultimately matters in your life?  Is it worth the breathe you expel arguing about who has the best energy policy, or which economic theories will pull us out of this recession?  Was it worth the strain in your marriage, and the fear in your kids hearts, to try to yell louder and prove you were the one that was right?  Is it really worth that sick feeling in the pit of your stomach when your bills are past due to have that new...

In this country, we live opulent, sheltered, spoiled lives while in other parts of the world people die from drinking the only water they could find, not knowing that it was full of parasites and bacteria.  Think about this when you dump out your filtered, bottled water because it was too warm.   Elsewhere in the world you children, maybe six or seven years old, are forced to join armies and fight against their own families.  Some are killed to show others not to even think about betraying the leaders.  While this is going on, in other parts of the world, even younger children, are being forced into slavery and raped.

How do we fix this broken world?

First, we have to fix our own brokenness.
This only comes from a personal relationship with Christ.
C.S. Lewis said it like this, "the Christian life is simply a process of having your natural self changed into a Christ self, and that this process goes on very far inside".

It starts with you.  I cannot love the way Christ loves me.  But only through Christ's love for me can I begin to love others.  My view of the world must change.

w/ audio from C.S. Lewis

The Age of Awareness, Prayer Warriors, and Cleaning Your Room

So what do these all have to do with each other???  Read on if you at all curious, because I will show you how these all fit together.

I have never really bought into the whole Age of Awareness stuff that some religions push.  There is no magic age when kids understand God.  I don't even think it is always an big powerful moment when all of a sudden you get it.  Some times it is much more subtle... and much more beautiful.

For some time now Dylan, my oldest son, has been interested in Bible stories and "Jesus" music.  He really seems to understand a lot more than you would think.  Jodi and I even had to console his crying one day because he was so moved by the way one of his kids worship songs made him feel.  It was one of the most amazing and beautiful things I have ever experienced in my life.

Then, this morning as I was about to head out for work, I heard Dyl talking in his room.  I went in and he was in bed.  I asked him, as he looked up at me, if he was talking in his sleep.  Which he has been known to do...  He said, "No, I was praying."
"About what?"
"About watching TV and cleaning my room."

See, I have been asking him to pick up his room for a few days now, and told him last night that he really needed to pick it up today.  I have also been talking to him more about prayer.

Dylan is an aspiring Prayer Warrior.  (Now I do not use that term lightly. I think it is a term that is thrown around far too often.)  Dylan always reminds us to pray at dinner, and almost always is the one who offers the prayer.  He also is always ready to pray over boo boos or if some one is sick or seeds we plant in our garden.  And the amazing thing is that from his true child like faith he believes knows, that his requests will be and are answered.

He is an amazing blessing to everyone that knows him.

I love you Dyl!

Gratitude and Kindness

This cartoon is based in reality and I though it seemed like a good time to talk about gratitude and kindness
We seem to live in a world where far too often we react like the boy in the cartoon when some one is unexpectedly kind to us.  And if we don't react exactly like the boy in the cartoon we might try to shrug off the kind act or we accept it hesitantly wondering what strings are attached.  This same line of thinking makes us less likely to be kind and does the same for people who were kind to us and the whole thing snowballs into a world where we don't reach out to one another in love.

So the next time someone is kind to you, please graciously accept it at face value.  And then try to be kind to someone else.  I think you'll like the results.

Losing Sight

From time to time I go to an old staple of mine for inspiration.  Maybe it's more often than from time to time.  I was looking through some lyrics to day of a band i really like.  The song is Losing Sight on the Shadows Are Security album by the band As I Lay Dying.  Now if you are not into heavier rock, please don't write this off.  You may never be into the music, but read these lyrics.

How could we lose sight of what matters most?
Trying to love what cannot love us back.
All we have is not worth living for
If we do not know when to let go.

What is this life, that we cling to it so tight
Afraid that it will take from us these fading sentiments?

Can we die to live another day?

How true is this... We do often lose sight of the most important things in life due to things that seem important.  We end up wrapped up in work but neglect our friends and family.  Our jobs will never love us back.  We some times get so into things and stuff when that is all they are.  Inanimate objects that cannot love us or benefit from us loving them, no matter how hard we try.  Worse yet, we sometimes spend all of our energy on these things that will never love us only to be short tempered and mean to people that love us and want us to love them more than anything in this world.  I often find my self apologizing to my wife and kids for bringing the stress of work home with me.

If this is how we treat the most important people here on earth how do you think God feels when he takes a back seat?  Sometimes he barely even makes it on the bus with us...

So to quote the song one last time... "How could we lose sight of what matters most?"

Sad Sad World

I just read an article about a 30 year old women, who was mentally handicapped, that was tortured and killed by people that she called her friends.  The consequences of living in a broken world are having to learn of things like this and then trying to make sense of senseless acts like this.  How can people fall so far into darkness from where we are intended to live.  My heart breaks for the countless friends and family of Jennifer and it also breaks for the souls of the people that decided to do these terrible things.  Forgiveness does not come easy to souls like these, at least not from man.
Please pray with me for all that are associated with these horrific events.

She

Some times we get it right and other times we don't.  I have seen too much not getting it right recently.  I have seen too many people that should be spreading the aroma of Christ that are clearly spreading something that stinks!  I love how Rob Bell talks about this in his book Velvet Elvis.

SHE

One of the central metaphors for God and his people throughout the Bible is that of a groom and his bride. God is the groom; his people are the bride.  I like this because it makes the church a "she".  We need to reclaim this image.

The church is a she.

She’s a mystery, isn’t she?  Still going after all this time.  After the Crusades and the Inquisition and Christian cable television.  Still going.  And there continue to be people like me who believe she is one of the best ideas ever.  In spite of all the ways she has veered off track.  In spite of all the people who have actually turned away from God because of what they experienced in church.  I am starting to realize why: The church is like a double-edged sword.  When it’s good, when it’s on, when it’s right, it’s like nothing on earth.  A group of people committed to selflessly serving and loving the world around them?  Great.  But when it’s bad, all that potential gets turned the other way.  From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows.  Sometimes in the same week.  Sometimes in the same day.

But she will live on.  She’s indestructible.  When she dies in one part of the world, she explodes in another.  She’s global.  She’s universal.  She’s everywhere.  And while she’s fragile, she’s going to endure.  In every generations there will be those who see her beauty and give their lives to see her shine.  Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail against her.  That’s strong language.  And it’s true.  She will continue to roll across the ages, serving and giving and connecting people with God and each other.  And people will abuse her and manipulate her and try to control her, but they’ll pass on.  And she will keep going.

How true is that...  If you are one of the people not getting this right.  If you are tearing down the church, if you are causing non-believers to stumble, if you are not spreading the aroma of Christ, if you are spreading things that stink, if you are not spreading the love of Jesus Christ, if you need soul deodorant, please talk to someone.  If you know someone that is one of these people, please lovingly take them under you wing and talk to them and help them move past this point.  Help them see how we are meant to live and how the church still today is and can work.

Life is War

Late last year I told my wife that I had realized everything in life comes down to war - spiritual war.  Life is really a constant series of battles over who holds reign in our heart, who's name is forever in our soul.

The sooner we realize that everything in life, every day, every trial, every temptation, every hardship, everything is spiritual warfare the sooner we can begin fighting on the winning side.  This all became clear to me one day when I was running.  Over the past few years I have taken up running and I really enjoy it.  I was on a run and like a lot of people that are out of shape I was having trouble finishing my run.  The struggle between wanting to achieve my goal and do something that I knew was good for me, and stopping because it hurt and was hard work had really set it.  Now it is important for you to know that part of why I like to run is I get to think and talk to God a lot on a run.  So my conversation, be it very on sided that day was something like this...

This really hurts.  Maybe I should stop.
No, I can do this.
I want to do this.
God help me do this.
There's no reason You wouldn't want me to do this.
It's good for my body...your body.
Why is it so hard then...
(here is when the light bulb lit over my head)
The devil doesn't want me to do this!
This is WAR.
Get out of my head!
I can do this.

So after I had that epiphany my run ended very smoothly and I have had less trouble with motivation.  I have really tried to approach each minute part of every day and every decision as if it were the spiritual war that it is.  There is good and evil in this world.  We need to acknowledge that fact.  Both parts of it.  It is great to talk about the good, but if we leave out the evil we tend to overlook the battle that we are in the midst of right now.

I know how the war ends, and I know which side I will be on... do you?  Do you actively take part in this battle or are you just trying to ride it out?  That can be a dangerous game.  So today, and every day, put on your armor and be prepared to fight!

The Silent Witness

Today's post is in contrast to, but meant to go hand in hand with this post about our words having power.

The Silent Witness

Not a single word left his lips, but his actions spoke volumes.

Go and tell the world – let them know the truth
Show them through your actions everything you are

He told us everything he could – but never spoke a single word
He told us all – he told you and me…
But I never spoke to him.

- think about what you do
- His eyes are watching you
- your actions have consequences

You scream at them but they will never hear your words
Because your actions are more deafening and visible to all.

Remember, not only do our words have power, but so do our actions.  Sometimes our actions speak much louder than our words.

With words like bullets...

...who needs pens and swords.  Our words have power.  Everyone has heard the adage "The pen is mightier than the sword", but often we do not realize just how powerful our words can be.  It is so much more than the words we choose.  There is also power in how we say the words.  Our tone, the volume of our voice, the words we choose not to say, when we say something...

This idea was the origin of my blog title.  Through out my life, I have come to realize the importance of words - spoken and written.  With our words we have the power to build people up and we have the power to tear people down.   I think that we often do not hold this power in high regard and in turn we destroy relationships and also give people bad opinions of us.  And try as we might we can not take back our words or erase the moments when we could have reacted differently.

Whether it is how we talk to our kids, or the careless words that slide out when we are with friends, or the promises we make but never keep.  Our tongues can be powerful and destructive instruments.  OR... if we are careful and show compassion we can try to tame this instrument and spread kindness and love.

Let's all try and use our words carefully.