My five year old daughter is definitely her father’s child. I love movies. She likes movies. I like great movie quotes. She likes great movie quotes. One of our favorite Christmas movies is “Elf” with Will Ferrell. There are several memorable quotes from this lovely holiday film. She used one with perfect comedic timing last Sunday…
I was laying around, watching football. She was sitting on the floor, playing a game. She picked up one of those youth baseballs (it’s looks like a baseball, but isn’t hard. It’s squishy, but it’s the same weight as a real baseball). She chucked it over toward me. Being half asleep, I didn’t react as quickly as I should have. Her aim was, well, painful… right in the jewels (or whatever crude term you prefer).
As excruciating pain repeatedly shot from my groin up through my back, and as I labored to keep from puking all over the place, my daughter didn’t miss a beat. Straight out of “Elf” (and without any knowledge of the male anatomy), without missin’ a beat, she screamed, “Son of a nutcracker!”
Now that you’ve had a good laugh at my expense, have a good weekend. Before you go, read Psalm 14 and then the post below. See you on Monday.
Have you ever got in someone’s grill because they were “actin’ the fool”? In other words, they were doing something really stupid, and they should have known better? They had no excuse, they couldn’t plead the 5th, they knew the eventual consequences of their actions–they were just being straight up dumb? Eventually, you had to give them the “I told you so” look or speech, because the consequences of their outright stupidity caught up with them. How many times have we “acted the fool”?
Probably more than we think.
Psalm 14 is a short explosion of emotion about wicked people (and because of sin, we’re all wicked people). The Psalm opens this way: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; there is no one who does good.” The apostle Paul (the dude who wrote most of the New Testament–the second half of the Bible), quoted part of this verse and the following verses in the Bible book of Romans to show how everyone is guilty of sin. We may look at these verses and quickly dismiss them–I’m not an atheist, I’m not an agnostic, I believe in God, I go to church, I’m religious, etc. And these verses are first written to those who don’t acknowledge God through their words or actions. But how often are we guilty of “practical atheism”? How often do we “act the fool?” Let me explain…
Last week was a week of practical atheism for me. I read my Bible every day. I blogged every day. I prayed. I pushed through a week of “church work.” And I acted the fool. I let some sin slip back into my life. It led to spiritual dryness–I felt really far from God. It led to grumpiness that turned into outright anger. I spent a lot of time yelling at my kids and my wife, for no reason. Practical atheism is when your life doesn’t match your beliefs. In your head, you believe in God, but your life is out of balance with that. You talk sinfully. You act sinfully. You behave sinfully. You live sinfully. You live in a way that you know you shouldn’t–you have no excuses, and you know the consequences, but you do so anyway. That’s practical atheism. That’s actin’ the fool. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time asking for forgiveness last week from God, from my wife, and from my kids. I’ve got a lot of work to do this week to let God transform me from a bad week. Thank God for His grace through Jesus.
How are we actin’ the fool? What parts of our life are we living in practical atheism? Do we use our finances selfishly, do we use our time selfishly, do we use our abilities selfishly? Just narrow it down to one area at a time. For me, this week, it’s anger. I need to think before I speak, cool down before I react, and realize that almost everything I get angry about doesn’t need such a jacked up response that makes me look like a freakin’ idiot (gosh!). Whatever it is, give it to Jesus, pray about it, let God guide you into a plan for repenting of it, and stop actin’ the fool…
When was the last morning you woke up and didn’t want to get out of bed? Probably this morning… and every morning. I know–it was a dumb question! I hate getting up. It takes me forever to wake up. And I don’t like coffee. So it takes me longer than most of you drugged out, high as a kite caffeine junkies.
Sometimes, however, you wake up and don’t want to get out of bed, not because you’re tired and the covers are warm and fuzzy, but because of the crap life is flinging at you. Finances are super tight, the company is making layoffs, you had a massive obscenity-laced fight with your spouse last night (again)–whatever it is, you just want to pull the comforter over your head and go back to sleep… for a long time, because it seems like you troubles can’t bother you when you’re off to Sleepy Town. But they’re always here when you get back.
Psalm 13 reveals an unknown episode from David’s life, most likely before he was king. The opening verses show us that he feels like God is on vacation, and David’s leaving a frustrated voice mail–hurry up and get back! He then writes this in Psalm 3:3-4, “Consider and answer me, O Lord, my God; enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, ‘I have overcome him,’ lest my adversaries rejoice when I am shaken.”
I love that phrase, “enlighten my eyes.” I’m not 100% sure if David is asking God to revive him–he’s exhausted physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually and just needs a shot in the arm to get moving–or if he’s asking God to help him see his situation differently. In either case, one usually causes the other. When we’re tired, it’s hard to get the right perspective on a problem. Likewise, when we can’t get clear perspective on a problem, it wears us out. Sometimes, all we need is for God to enlighten our eyes and we find new resolve to go toe-to-toe with the problem.
I recently had one of the most unmotivated weeks I’ve ever had. Everything related to my ministry was a bore, and often a chore. Around 2:00 PM each day, I found myself wanting to check out for the day and go do something completely mindless–absorb TV, eat something with lots of sugar, etc. Looking back, there were several causes. The previous week was kinda stressful–my wife’s car was in the shop (again), we ditched it and got a new one (and mortgaged a little more of our life for the next half decade). I also was dealing with some personal sin that I didn’t want to let go of, and that always results in apathy. I was tired, but not sleeping well. I needed God to enlighten my eyes. And He has. I’m over the sticker shock of the new mommy van. I’m facing the sin and am in the process of repenting. As a result, I’m sleeping better, I’m less stressed, and I’m regaining the proper perspective as well as motivation.
So ask God to enlighten your eyes the next time life gets tough and you’re having trouble getting your head above water. But be ready–it could be painful. You may find some personal sin that God wants you to repent of. You may find that you’re too self-reliant, and that God wants you to quit trusting your own broken self and rely on Him. You may find that God is trying to bring your attention to an area of your life that He wants to transform. He may want to open your eyes to the situation of others around you, and help you to see how you should be serving them. It sucks going through the process, but once you do, and can look back, you’ll have a much easier time rollin’ out of bed in the morning.
Now if you could only break that caffeine addiction…
If you get a chance, go check out my buddy Wayne’s blog entry entitled “Pistol Pete” (click on the “waYne wagner” link to the right). Some good stuff to think about. Now check out Psalm 12…
Psalm 12
Don’t you just wanna smack the fool outta people who talk a big game but consistently fail to back it up? I remember back in my school days–there was this dude who claimed to be a great basketball player. He bragged about how, one time, he hit 30 straight 3-point shots. I saw the guy play. The only way he could hit one three point shot is if Jesus Christ Himself miracled the ball into the hoop after it left his hand. The greatest three point shooters ever only hit around 30% of their shots–3 out of 10. And this dude claims he hit 30 in a row? Please! This dude let his mouth write a check that his butt couldn’t cash–he said one thing, but there’s no way he could back it up.
As sorry as that is, there is something worse–letting your mouth write a check that your butt won’t cash. A person says one thing, but has no intention of carrying through with it. We’re all guilty. For example, why do so many people say “Yes” to an invite to some event, and then don’t bother to show up and don’t even have the courtesy to call? And that’s just the proverbial tip of the ol’ iceberg.
David writes this in Psalm 12, “Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases to be, for the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. They speak falsehood to one another; with flattering lips and with a double heart they speak. May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that speaks great things…” Notice that David isn’t writing about evil, wicked, cruel SOB’s. He’s writing about those who claim to be godly. He’s writing about those who say one thing but do another.
One of the things I’ve learned as a dad is to never make a promise to your kids that you cannot keep. It devastates them. It also shows them that you believe it’s OK to say one thing, but do another. If you do it enough times, your kids will stop believing you at all. The same goes for our peers, our friends, our co-workers, our families, and our church communities. We can say and brag all we want about how cool we are with God, but it’s our lives that carry the most weight. If people don’t see any change in our lives, they’ll just think we’re blowing smoke… and they’ll be right.
Several months ago, I was trying to put the finishing touches on something for church. I called a person up who was contributing to the project to see if they had their stuff done. They’d had a really busy week at work, and I think they even had a health issue that week. I told them not to worry about it and that I would take care of it. I hung up the phone, and immediately shouted, “Lazy ass!” BOOM! The Holy Spirit rips me a new one. Inconsistency. My words and actions didn’t line up. I tried to ignore it the entire weekend, but the Holy Spirit kept bugging me about it. 48 hours later, I apologized in person… although that person had no clue what I’d said. I had to ‘fess up and eat some humble pie. It sucked. I knew that they regularly logged 60+ hours a week at their job, and sometimes more. And I still goofed it up. Fortunately, they were cool with it and forgave me. That incident taught me a lesson about my actions and words being consistent.
So what areas of our lives do we need to line up with our beliefs? What parts of our lives need repentance and transformation from God so that our actions match our words? Are there any people we need to seek forgiveness from because of inconsistency between our words and actions? What do we need to do to make it right? We need to let God change us now. We only have so much “relationship capital” with people. If our actions continually don’t match our words and our beliefs, eventually that account balance will drop to $0.00…
I’m not a huge Sandra Bullock fan, and this isn’t the tightest of movies (there’s a lot of stuff that you have to assume), but the premise is pretty cool–a woman goes through the week of her husband’s death… and the days are out of order. Throughout the ordeal, she discovers a lot about faith (the scene with the priest in the church building is an awesome conversation starter about faith), what is truly important, how to forgive, and how fragile life really is. If you’re married and/or a parent, this film will cause you to step back and take a look at your life, your faith, and your priorities. Not an Oscar nominee by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly worth a view…
I’m one of those dumb people that has a horrible time remembering people’s names. I do all the tricks to try to remember–repeat their names multiple times during the conversation, etc. Nothing seems to work very well. I’m great with faces–I remember when I met the person, maybe what our conversation was about, but I rarely remember their names. I have a tough time with my kids’ names. I’m always calling them the name of their sibling. Gosh! Frickin’ idiot!
God isn’t like that. He knows our name. He knows our face. He knows our hearts. Psalm 11:4 tells us that God’s eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. God knows what’s really in our hearts. God tests the righteous and the wicked. He knows if we’re seeking to be like Jesus. He knows if we’re faking it. No one can fool Him. Look at what the final outcome will be for those who are righteous (which is only possible through Jesus), which the author tells us about in Psalm 11:7, “For the Lord is righteous; He love righteousness; the upright will behold His face.“ This promise is echoed in Revelation 22:4, which gives us a glimpse of what heaven will be like. Those of us who realize how unrighteous–how sinful–we really are and who put our faith in Jesus to take care of that problem, we’ll get to see His face; we’ll get to hang out with Him forever. It’s a face we’ll never forget! But until then, our hearts and our character need work done to them…
In what ways is God testing your heart? Let’s be clear–He doesn’t tempt you to do evil, but He does provide situations to test your character. What areas of your life is He testing–patience, perseverance, honesty, humility, generosity, etc.? For me, currently, it’s patience. Boy, did He ever bless me with two of the most beautiful, patience-testing children! Although I still struggle in my patience with them, I think God has used those times to actually help my patience with others (especially those who aren’t following Jesus yet, and those who’ve just started following Jesus). God rarely grants requests to give us these things outright. But He does provide opportunities that test these things so that we might develop them.
So the next time someone cuts you off in traffic, or if you’re stuck in the longest line with the slowest cashier at Wal-Mart, or you’re dealing with that jerk of a person at work, or your kids mark all over your freshly painted walls with a chisel tip Sharpie, don’t get so pissy. God knows your heart. He knows your face. He just wants each to reflect Jesus a little more every day.
Thanksgiving is now in the books. Black Friday ‘07 is now behind us. Lots of holiday stress, anxiety, fun and cheer lay ahead in the next 3+ weeks. During the next month, if you’re not into the church thing, you’ll still hear a lot of Christians talk about the reason for the season. You’ll pass church signs that say it. If you do go to church, and you pick up a handout, it’ll probably be printed for all to see. If you have the stamina to stay awake during the Christmas sermons at your church, your preacher will probably say it. It’s the mantra of all Bible-believing religious people between Thanksgiving and December 26: Jesus is the Reason for the Season.
Four words of advice: Don’t believe the hype!
If you’re a Christian, don’t get your Santa undies in a bunch. I grew up believing that statement. I was in all of those horrible church Christmas plays that embarass the crap out of parents. I saw all the old ladies wearing the old lady sweaters with the old lady embroidery with the statement. But follow me here…
I’m definitely not saying that materialism, shopping, family get-togethers, snow, evergreen trees, tacky outdoor decorations, or Santa are the reason for the season. What I am saying is that those of us who are followers of Jesus need to think a little longer about the real reason for the season. If it ain’t Jesus, what is it? Let’s let Jesus Himself tell us.
Look at what Jesus said in the Bible in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man (that’s Jesus) has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” He said this after a sinful IRS agent repented of extortion and put his faith in Jesus. The reason for the Christmas season is the reason that Jesus came: to save sinful people like you and me.
We are the reason for the season!
Don’t take this the wrong way–I’m not talking about an ego-centric, self-centered viewpoint of Christmas. Our culture has nailed that. I’m talking about a humble realization that each person needs to come to: that we’re sinners, that we’re broken, that we need fixing, and that we can’t do it on our own. We need someone else to do it. And that baby boy, born in a filthy stable with a stone feed trough for a crib, grew up to be the man who lived the life we could not live (a life without sin) so that He could die the death we should have died on the cross (taking God’s punishment off of us an onto Himself) so that we could be reunited with God again.
We are the reason Jesus came. We are the reason Jesus died. We are the reason Jesus was raised physically from death.
We are the reason for the season. Don’t ever forget it.
Posted in Other Stuff on November 21, 2007 by Aaron
Happy Thanksgiving. I’m off to brine a turkey. If you’re keeping up with the Psalms posts, check the one below, and then come back Monday. Until then, nothing like some Mr. Bean to get you in the holiday spirit…
Remember this commercial? This is the 1984 Christmas version (the original came out in 1970). It’s returned to TV several times in various forms in the last 30+ years. It’s quaint. It’s cozy. It makes you feel fuzzy. It makes you want a Coke.
It’s a load of crap.
Some of you may not agree with me on certain issues. I’m a non-recycler (all the comments in the world won’t change my mind). I like meat (preferably grilled, red, and bleeding). I like Ultimate Fighting. I like an occassional cigar (it keeps 200,000 people in Central America employed). Maybe I should recycle and eat less beef and watch less violent TV. But if I start doing those things, it won’t make the world a better place. They may treat the symptoms, but they won’t cure the disease.
We live in a crappy world. If “Imagine” is your life theme song and you live in perpetual hope that, one day, we’ll all live in perfect harmony, do us all a favor… wake up. Our world sucks. It’s not because we eat beef and don’t recycle. It’s because we’re sinners. Watch the news; read the paper; surf the news sites online. We live in a sinful, evil world. Greed leads poachers to snuff out entire species in Africa and corporations to suppress and exploit their workers. Lust has birthed a porn industry that rakes in more money annually than Hollywood, Nashville, and the major sports combined. The list could go on forever. It all leads back to sin. We’ve got a sin problem.
While all our efforts and intentions may be from good motives, they’ll never fix the problem. The reason: they are the efforts of broken, sinful people trying to fix a broken, sinful world. While there has been and may be progress on things that really matter (like human rights), it will never be totally fixed, because the very people trying to fix it need fixing themselves.
A lot of people have rejected God and Christianity because of how messed up our world is. The reasoning is, if God is so loving, how could He let all this evil take place? Yet, many of the same people also reject the concept of hell… which is God ultimately doing something about it. You can’t really have it both ways…
If you’re like me at all, you get depressed sometimes at the sorry condition of our world. The writer of Psalm 10 outlines the characteristics of wicked people–proud, oppressive, deceitful (to name a few). Yet, the author ends this Psalm in hope. Look what he writes in Psalm 10:16-18, “The Lord is King forever and ever; nations have perished from His land. O Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear to vindicate the orphan and the oppressed, that man who is of the earth may cause terror no more.”
Whenever we get overloaded with the messiness of life, we can always log off the Internet, put the paper down, or turn off the TV. But God never does. He sees and hears everything that everyone is going through. It breaks His heart in ways we can’t begin to understand. He could have created us to automatically love Him… but it really wouldn’t be love, would it? That’s the chance He had to take–in order to create beings who could choose to love Him, they would also have to be able to choose to rebel. That’s what we’ve all chosen: rebellion through sin. And God knows it all. All the hurt and pain we feel, He feels… and He feels the pain of every person who has ever lived. He knows the plight of the oppressed, the unfortunate, and the hurting. That’s why He sent Jesus–to give us hope of forgiveness and renewal through His death and resurrection; a hope that, one day, He’ll ultimately clean this crappy world up and make it right again.
In the meantime, for those of us who follow Jesus, it’s our duty to shine a little light into this dark old world. What can we do this week to reflect the heart of God–who identifies with the broken and hurting? Don’t think something huge–think simple. It may be talking to someone who needs an ear to listen. It may be helping someone who needs assistance. It may be encouraging someone who is depressed. It may be making some material and financial sacrifice to help someone in a crunch. Be open to God’s leading; be prepared to get uncomfortable; be prepared to be stretched; be prepared to be used by God; be prepared for possible rejection; be prepared for possible gratitude.
Forget buying the world a coke. I’d like to give the world Jesus. And by God’s grace through my life in spite of my sin, it’s slowly starting to happen…
We were flipping through the channels the other night, and we caught the last half of “Rain Man,” the Tom Cruise/Dustin Hoffman film that brought a lot of attention to autism (and won Hoffman an Oscar, as it should have). In the film, one of Hoffman’s routines that can’t be interrupted without a major meltdown is watching the hit ’80’s show “The People’s Court”, with Judge Wapner. Hoffman’s always reminding Tom Cruise of how long it is until Wapner comes on. Ten minutes to Wapner. Ohhh… ten minutes to Wapner.
To watch the news now, we probably wish that Wapner was still sitting on the bench as a judge. As I write this, OJ Simpson is in trouble again, and a pre-trial hearing that should have taken one day has taken a week. Hollywood starlets, guilty of pretty serious offenses like driving under the influence (multiple times) are literally walking into jail, getting booked, and walking out without spending a minute behind bars. It seems like, at least with the rich and famous, justice is rarely served.
Psalm 9 is another psalm of David. He is thankful to God for being a perfect judge, especially of those who do evil. Look what he writes about God in Psalm 9:7-10, “But the Lord abides forever; He has established His throne for judgment, and He will judge the world in righteousness; He will execute judgment for the peoples with equity. The Lord also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble, and those who know Your name will put their trust in You, for You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.“
In other words, God is a perfectly fair judge. And to those who put their trust in Him, He’s more than fair.
We want justice in this life: we want murderers to get the death penalty (or life in prison, if you’re not in favor of the death penalty), we want rapists to get their due, etc. The Bible tells us that a time is coming when all of us will stand before God, the ultimate judge. When that time comes, the last thing we want is for God to give us justice. The reason: we’re all guilty of sin. The evidence is stacked a million miles high. No matter how much good we think we’ve done, we’re still sinners. What we deserve from God is hell. The last thing we want is hell. Therefore, we want God to be more than fair. Fortunately, the Bible tells us that someone has already “done the time for our crimes.” That same person argues our case before God. That someone is Jesus. He is our stronghold. He is our refuge. Because of His death and resurrection, those of us who become Christians–followers of Jesus–can run to the refuge of God’s grace.
If you’re a Christian, take some time today to thank God for Jesus, who suffered in your place. Prayerfully look for ways to express that thankfulness in your life. Serve someone today (as Jesus has served us). Let God do the judging–stop seeing people for their past (and their present), and see them as Jesus did: broken people who need fixing, healing, forgiveness, and restoring that only Jesus can bring. Look for opportunities to point them to the refuge of God’s grace. Extend grace to others. Reflect Jesus.
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