What's The Deal With People?

At some point in your life, you've probably wondered something along the lines of that question.  Most likely, it came at some point where another person did something that just baffled you.  You wondered how they could arrive at the conclusion they did, or why they did the action they did.  It didn't make any sense to you, and you really wondered about them.

At heart, it's inevitable that we would think that about every other person.  God did not fashion any of us the same, no matter how closely related we may be.  We never truly will know what the deal is with the other person because they are not us.  And that, in turn, affects how we relate to them.  How do I relate to a person who, at times, does baffling things that make absolutely no sense to us?

This question especially takes on a new relevance when we are in Christ Jesus.  Because God has chosen to interact with the people of this world through His people, we are called to remember that our interactions with others will inevitably affect how others see God when they see us.  If we are rude, if we are jerks, and we say that we carry the name of Jesus, that cannot help but affect how people see God (or, perhaps, God's people).

How do I relate to others?  The reminder that we have is that we are called to be the aroma of Jesus to the people we encounter.  That means that we are Jesus to them.  Martin Luther had a different way of putting it.  He wrote that we are to be "little Christs" to them.  When people see us, the expectation is that they see Jesus within us.  And that's not just to one or two other people.  That is for every person that we encounter, no matter what time of day, where we are, or what we are doing.

I relate to others as a baptized, redeemed child of God in Christ Jesus.  Maybe if we put a reminder of that on us, maybe as a bracelet or something, it would help us remember that when the person cuts us off in traffic, or when our kid does something baffling, or when our neighbor mows their grass during the kids' naptime.  We are to be the aroma of Christ to them. 

What's Your Biggest Secret?

Several years back, I was participating in a leadership set of courses.  The leader for one of these courses had a great deal of wisdom to impart to all of us who were attending.  Among the many things he said, though, one thing has stuck in my mind over the years, a very important principle which I strive to remember and work with in my life and ministry.

His saying was something along these lines.  What's your biggest secret?  You need to discover what it is and figure out a way to deal with it, because Satan is simply waiting to use it to destroy your ministry and to bring shame to the name of Jesus.  The big thing that this presenter was going for was transparency, especially upon the part of the minister and ministry leader.

Now, admittedly, that can be a challenging thing to do.  We all have things about ourselves that we hope and pray to God that no one else in the world unearths.  And truly, it's going to prove impossible to deal with every sinful thought and expression that we have in life.  However, generally speaking, transparency with our sin, and openness with the things we struggle with, far often proves to be of greater value than hiding them away.

I think this can be especially challenging for one in a position of some authority in ministry.  How open is too open, and how open is not open enough?  Admittedly, that is a tough balance to discover.  The minister who is to open about his sinful tendencies can lead people to question his ability to lead and minister.  The minister who is too closed off about his sinful tendencies can seem to convey the sense that he has no struggles, or appears to be too squeaky clean, and therefore unapproachable by someone who truly does struggle.

I would suggest, however, that there is a great position to be open about one's sinful struggles, and to ask for forgiveness for them, especially before they put you into a position where it can damage ministry.  That's the wisdom that I believe the instructor was passing on to us as pastoral leaders, and I think it's a great bit of wisdom that also happens to be competely biblical and applicable.  May God guide all of us to that openness, to admitting our sinful struggles, and being willing to asking for forgiveness and seeing it granted for the sake of Jesus.

The Listening Ear

"Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips he is deemed intelligent."  Proverbs 17:28

"Better to keep your mouth closed and have people think you a fool than to open your mouth and prove it."  Unknown

Some conversations stand out in the mind more than others.  I remember one that happened in my past.  I was talking with a person over a disagreement we had, and I found myself getting frustrated.  It seemed as though every time I would start to say something, I would get cut off.  The other person wouldn't even let me finish what I was saying much of the time.  It really came across to me as though my words weren't important to them, and that their words carried far more weight. 

Perhaps you've had an experience like this before, too.  I tend to liken it to a lack of proper listening skills (and even perhaps a lack of conversational skills).  The one who is so impatient to say what's on their mind that they can't wait until the other person even finishes what they are saying can be a very frustrating thing. 

Yet, one thing that stands out in God's Word is the encouragement to be a far better listener than speaker.  It's almost as though God would have us use our ears far more frequently than He would have us use our mouths.  The trouble is, listening requires work and effort.  It takes far less effort to say whatever pops into our heads.  And to not merely listen, but to strive to understand what the other person is saying?  Well, that takes even greater effort, an effort which few seem willing to try.

This fall I'll be spending quite a bit of time on here talking about conflict, confrontation, and confession and forgiveness.  It shouldn't come as a surprise that one of the matters that I will continually circle around on will involve being a good listener.  Being a good listener requires work and effort, and yet, few things will endear you to others than being a good listener.

Why not take a conversation you find yourself engaged in today, and practice really trying to understand what the other person is saying, rather than planning out your responses?  See how it changes the conversation.  What does it do to your mind as you attempt to listen, and to keep the mouth closed?

Distrust

As we live out our lives, one of the things that I have come to believe is foundational to a healthy life is having those people we can trust in life.  Many of us spend a lot of time searching for those people that we can truly "be ourselves" around.  We want to know that they are safe people, that we can open up to them, and that they won't betray that trust.

Yet, we find ourselves living more and more in a skeptical, jaded world.  In a day and age where everyone has the opportunity for a knee-jerk reaction on Facebook or Twitter or on their blogs, it seems that trust isn't seen as highly as it once was.  We see how untrustworthy so many are around us, and we cannot help but feel the lack of trust that exists around us.  And for many of us, this becomes a personal problem.

What do you do when you don't have someone with whom you can truly trust your life?  You want to have someone with whom you can be open and honest, but it's really hard to develop that kind of relationship with someone.  Spouses continually are breaking trust, as is evidenced in the divorce rate.  Friendships fall apart as gossip enters in, and trust is broken.  And even in churches, relationships that are founded in Christ Jesus are torn apart as confidences are betrayed, and as God's people fail to develop trust among one another.

Satan loves distrust.  He loves to isolate us with the thought that no one else can understand or be trusted with our precious thoughts and lives.  And sadly, he finds an all-too-willing ally in our sinful nature.  There is that part of us that wants to use the juicy thoughts or confidences of others as a way to exalt ourselves, or to draw more attention to ourselves.  And the more we indulge that sin, the greater the distrust that builds up, and the more difficult the task for the Holy Spirit to bring about Christ's reconciliation.

I don't have any easy answers for distrust.  But I do have one thing that I know for sure.  Jesus is not bound by our distrust, nor does He find Himself restricted only to those who truly trust.  Jesus is beyond our trust or distrust, and can work even in the lack of trust or the presence of distrust.  That's because Jesus Himself fully knows who we are, and has overcome both Satan and our sinful nature through His life, death, and resurrection. 

That is why we strive to build up trust, and to fight against the things that cause distrust.  And then, when reason for distrust enters in, we strive for reconciliation, as Christ has reconciled us to God through His death and resurrection.  We strive for confession of sin, and for forgiveness of sin to be granted.  When relationships have been torn, we strive to repair those relationships in God-pleasing ways.  And in all of these things, we give thanks to God for His gracious gift of forgiveness.

Faith in Action

From James 2:18, "But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works."

This morning I had some yogurt as part of my breakfast.  This particular yogurt is supposed to have some good living things in it that are good for your insides.  You consume them, and they are supposed to help bring a good, healthy balance to the things that live inside of us.  As they do their work, good health and better digestion are supposed to follow.

 There is a part of me that has long been fascinated by the interplay of our faith and the good that we do in life.  The order of these two things has been recognized as important by the Christian church for centuries.  Indeed, what I say today is nothing new at all.  God does His good work in us by planting faith within us.  He does this either through the water of baptism or through the hearing of His Word.  Either way, faith simply cannot come into being within us if God is not the first and acting agent.

As God does that good and gracious work, something incredible happens.  We become a new creation.  Where formerly there was only a sinful person, now there is a new creation also within the person.  And that new creation recognizes its creator, and desires nothing more than to live as the Creator designs and desires.  To put it another way, the new creation desires to do the good that God calls for in our lives.

This process simply cannot go in any other order.  To say that we have to do good in order for God to make us into a new creation is like saying that our insides need to be healthy before the bacteria can be introduced that does that.  The good bacteria cause the good health to follow.  Good health doesn't precede the bacteria of my yogurt.  One takes place first, and the other happens in response.

The good we do is the work of the new creation that God creates within us.  It does that work because it recognizes God as the good and gracious giver of all things.  May our new creation strive to do even more as it sees God and strives to live according to His design and desires.

Who ya talkin' to?

One of the traditions in my Lutheran heritage is the speaking of "creeds", statements about our faith, which describe who our God is and what we know He has done for us through the Bible.  In fact, it's a very rare Sunday or worship service that goes by without one of the three basic creeds of the church being spoken (those three are the Apostles, Nicene, and the rather lengthy Athanasian creeds).

Part of the tradition of the speaking of these creeds is to have every stand for them.  We then tend to speak them as we face the front of the church.  In many ways, this is a good thing to do.  Part of the confession of what our faith consists of is made to our God.  In that way, we are praising God for what He has done, and for who He tells us that He is.  And our response is to acknowledge our faith by declaring what we believe about Him.

But in recent years, I have also taken some slightly different approaches at times with the speaking of the creeds.  True, these are the confession of faith that we make to God.  But we also make this confession to one another, as a reminder of the faith that we share, and of the fact that God has done this for each of us, and we are part of the Church together.  On those occasions, I have actually had the people of God face one another and speak of their faith to one another.  Our confession of faith unites us together as the people of God, since God has done His work for us all.

I'm also planning to have God's people do something else in the not too distant future.  Rather than facing the altar (which is our way of speaking to God) or facing one another, I will have the people of the congregation turn toward the walls of the building.  We will then speak our faith out toward the community that we are part of.  I see this as a good thing to do.  After all, we live our Christian lives in the context of the various communities that we are part of.  As we live our lives, we strive to live in such a way that our lives declare our faith.  Our confession of faith is directed also toward those who are not part of our gathering of faith.

Our Christian faith is not intended to be something that is kept under wraps and only revealed in connection with our fellow believers.  It's a statement that is made as we encounter the people of the communities in which God has placed us.  My hope is that this simple exercise grows us as we think about how our faith is an important part of our life, not just when we gather, but as we go forth into a community, declaring our faith and boldly proclaiming our God.

Of Ashes and Repentance

Many Christians today observe a holy day on the Christian calendar, a day called Ash Wednesday.  You may even see some wandering around with a big cross of ashes on their forehead.  Sure, it's likely to get a few strange looks, but it also presents the opportunity to teach a little bit about our faith.

To help explain Ash Wednesday, it's necessary to explain a little bit about the overall season of Lent.  Lent is a time where we reflect on the sin that separates us from God, and which presents our need for God to send a Savior.  As Christians, we believe that God has taken care of the sin that separates us from Him through Jesus, who bore our sin on the cross and then rose victorious to give us a new, sinless life.

In a sense, God has taken our sin and burned it up in the fire of His wrath and justice.  That's what Jesus endured as He gave up His life on the cross.  Our sin has been reduced to ashes.  And so, we wear crosses of ash upon our foreheads to remember what God has done in taking our sin away, as well as how God accomplished that, which is the cross of our Lord Jesus.

So God has done that for us.  As His people who have had their sin removed, and who have been given new life in Jesus, we then strive to live according to that new life.  That puts us in a position where we face a battle.  We have our new life in Jesus right now.  The problem is, we also still inhabit this life and body, where sin exists.  Our sin that we battle against will seem to come out on top from time to time, and at other times, it may seem like the new life in Jesus wins the victory.  Regardless, what we discover is the constant need to return to God as we battle against that sin.

That's why Ash Wednesday, and in fact, all of Lent, is about repentance.  We recognize and believe in what God has done for us in Jesus.  We live in that hope and reality.  And yet, while we still inhabit this world and body of sin, we face a struggle.  We will need to turn our back on that sin and look again to God for our help, our hope, and our forgiveness.  And what we find there is what the prophet Joel spoke about so many years ago.

"Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster."  (Joel 2:13)  The God that we return to is one that has already poured out abundant grace to us.  We are His.  He has reduced our sin to ashes.  He has given us new life.  He calls for us to come back to Him, the one who knows what our true life looks like.  And He does that because He is a gracious God to us.

Physical, Spiritual, and Mental Discipline: Tying Them Together

Over the last several posts, I've spent a lot of time on these three.  Before moving us into the fourth area of discipline (emotional), it seems like it would be good to bring these three we've looked at all together.

As we look at the way we operate as humans (the way God created us to be), we recognize that we cannot easily divide ourselves to talk about one part of what we are as though it doesn't affect the rest.  When our bodies hurt, we often have a difficult time concentrating, and those moments also tend to bring us to low points spiritually.  On the other hand, when we introduce greater health to one of these areas, it has a tendency to spill over into the others, as well.  (I've noticed this in that my running has helped to sharpen both my thinking and my spiritual disciplines.) 

That's the tie that these three have together.  When we are unhealthy in one area, it's likely to affect the other areas too.  I can't really think of a greater example of this than what you can see on the TV show, "The Biggest Loser".  Often you see the contestants breaking into tears at what might seem minor things, but it's because they are crashing through the mental or spiritual barriers that have often led to their lack of physical discipline.  Breaking through those barriers is tough, and often should not be done alone, and yet, as we find the strength to do so, we suddenly start to see a better picture of the whole person that God created us to be.

I have to admit that discovering where we are unhealthy in these areas is not often easy, nor is it painless.  Uncovering and then confessing our areas of unhealthiness or weakness will never be easy, much less the task of overcoming it.  And the reality is, we will never fully overcome any of these while we live in this imperfect, broken (i.e. sinful) world.

Yet, God gives us means in our life and in our battle to strengthen these areas of life.  Dealing with these also provides a reminder to just how great life will be in His kingdom when all these areas of life are brought into perfect alignment as we live with God forever, through faith in Jesus.

Beads, Confession, and Pancakes: Oh my!

Okay, maybe I piqued your interest a little with the flashy title to today's entry.  But then, it's a flashy time of year (please pardon the poor pun). 

You may be familiar with the celebration of Mardi Gras at this time of year.  People seem to flock to New Orleans and engage in a time of celebration (and a bit more) each year around this time.  I'm not here to dwell on what all this celebration has come to be, but rather, to look at the meaning behind it.

Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras are, in some respects, an observance of the Christian Church year.  No, you won't look on any calendar in a church and see those days there, but their origin is based upon a long-standing church tradition.  And this tradition all begins with a day known as Ash Wednesday (more on this tomorrow).

Ash Wednesday begins the season of Lent, which has long been observed in Christian churches throughout the world.  This is a 40 day season (not including Sundays), drawn from Jesus' fasting and temptation for 40 days in the wilderness following His baptism, and echoing the Israelites' 40 year wandering in the desert. 

This season of Lent is a season of repentance and observing our need for a Savior.  One tradition that many follow is to "give up" something that is harmful in their life.  Originally, the desire was to give up a sinful behavior, breaking the habit of it over the 40 day period.

Now, bringing this back to Fat Tuesday.  Since many would give up a sinful behavior for the duration of Lent, the Tuesday before Lent would be an observance of their last "sinful" day.  Sadly, that tradition has been perverted by some to actually engage in more sinful behavior and to simply have a wild time of it.  But the origin was to remember the need for a Savior and to admit that need to God.

Thus, people were encouraged to go to their priest or pastor to make confession of their sin.  Because there would be so many people coming, quite often, a meal would be organized.  Especially in poorer regions, a simple meal was all that could prepared.  Things like pancakes came to be seen as part of the meal, as people would eat together as they awaited their turn at the confessional.

Still today, many Christian traditions hold to this day called "Shrove Tuesday" (after having confessed and been forgiven, one is said to have been shriven of their sins, hence the name).  Most enjoy a meal together, often consisting of pancakes.  In some places, the opportunity for confession is still provided.  This helps to prepare the soul for the observance of Lent and the journey to the cross.

Do you have any traditions relating to Shrove Tuesday (or even Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday)?  Knowing the origin of this day, do you have any new thoughts about what you make of this day?