god

Form-Fit Faith

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“Your own, personal Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who cares.
Your own, personal Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who’s there.”

If you’re a fan of “the Man In Black”, Johnny Cash, OR if you’re a fellow Gen Xer (like yours truly), you recognize those words from the song “Your Own Personal Jesus”. Released by Depeche Mode in 1989 and then again by Johnny Cash in 2002. More on that in a sec.

In other news, I have to give you an update on my life. This might shock some of you, and for that I’ll just give you a mild “sorry, not sorry.” In all honesty, I’m not sure I ever thought I’d say to you what I’m about to say.

For months and months, my wife has worn and enjoyed a pair of Birkenstock sandals. She swears by them. She loves them. They were always “her thing” and honestly I never considered myself a Birkenstock type of guy. Just not my vibe. No offense to all you hemp-wearing hippies out there. Do your thing. Birkenstocks just weren’t for me. Period.

As we approached my birthday (which happened just a couple of weeks ago), my wife was quietly and gently suggesting and hinting that maybe I might want to rethink my staunch stance on these sandals, beloved by millions. She was convinced that once I just tried them, I’d change my tune. Long story short, I’m sitting here at my laptop that’s sitting on a cafe table, and just under that table on my two feet are…you guessed it…

I’ve come to realize that Birkenstocks really are a great shoe. As I’ve been told, the longer I wear them, the more comfortable they’ll become. Apparently, the unique corky material used in the footbed will slowly morph itself to the shape of my foot. The more I walk, the better they fit.

David invites us with these words in Psalm 34:8:

“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”

Every faith story begins with a willingness to taste. For some, that taste is taken at the bottom of life’s proverbial barrel, at rock bottom, when there are no other options left. For others, that taste is taken when life is going just fine, but there’s still an empty ache that persists within us. For some, the taste is taken after tasting of the world and the world’s ways and metrics of success have been tasted and found at first sweet, but afterwards leaves a deep, bitter aftertaste that simply won’t do. Regardless of who you are, the invitation is the same: Taste & See. The imperative connotation David gives us is that if you taste, you’ll see that, in fact, “the Lord is good.”

The longer I walk with Jesus, the more Jesus becomes so very personal to me. He’s not merely King, Messiah, Savior, “Darling of Heaven”, and Supreme Authority, though he is most definitely all those things. He’s also my greatest friend, my closest ally, my solid ground, and the One to whom I can (and do) take every topic, every question, every pain, every frustration, every joy, and every experience I have. There is nothing this personal Jesus isn’t personally involved with in my life. I’ve tasted and I’ve seen that He’s good.

Have you tasted and seen the same?

If you haven’t tasted and seen that the Lord Jesus is good, let me echo David’s invitation to you today, thousands of years after it was originally recorded. Taste Him. You’ll see.

I’m not pushing religion here. I’m not asking you to join a club. I’m not saying meet me at church this Sunday. I’m saying right where you are, right how you are, in whatever condition your life is in right now, and for whatever reasons you haven’t tasted and seen up to this point. Just taste, and you’ll see.

Tell me you’ve tasted and haven’t seen that He’s good. I’d love to hear those stories. I’d love for you to reach out if you’ve actually tasted who Jesus truly is, and have found Him to be NOT good. Please reach out. Email me. Call me up. Leave a comment below. I’m not gonna argue with you. I really just want to hear your story.

Tell me if you’ve tasted and found Jesus to be good. Leave me a note in the comments and testify to the goodness of God. I’d love to gather as many people as possible who read these words to simply drop a statement so that others can see that you’ve tasted and seen that Jesus is good. That you’ve tried Him and found that He’s not only the centerpiece of time and eternity, but He’s a personal friend in whom you’ve placed your form-fitted faith.

Worthy.

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I was driving in my car this morning after having just dropped my son off at work, and was listening to Shane & Shane’s rendition of “Worthy of it All” when a thought struck me. I’ve got tons to get done today, but I wanted to get some thoughts down before I get to those things because I think there’s something here…well….worthy of some wrestling and articulating.

In the song I just mentioned, the lyrics are borrowed from the apostle Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome. Read Romans 11:36. The song lyrics I want to focus on are: “You are worthy of it all…You are worthy of it all…for from You are all things, and to You are all things…You deserve the glory.”

It struck me that all of our ills, woes, issues, and dilemmas have some (or all) of their roots in this very issue: Worthiness. The scene described in the song, borrowed from John’s vision of God’s throne found in the book of Revelation, is one of utter weightlessness in view of the majesty and power of the One on the throne. It seems to me, dear friends, that we hold off on reckoning the worthiness of God until some later, future date and time. We view that throne scene as some “I can’t wait to get there and see that”, all the while the scene is present tense, and contemporary with wherever you are and whatever you are facing, right now.

Our failure to acknowledge the worthiness of God of our praise, our attention, our affection, and our surrender has a direct impact on the weight we carry (needlessly) on our own shoulders. When we extol the King as worthy, we acknowledge His power, and hoist our cares onto those shoulders and into that great, unfathomable power. From Him are all things, and for Him are all things, and to Him all things will return. Translation: None of this is yours or mine to bear alone. None of the struggles you’re facing right now actually belong to you. When you confess the worthiness of God by virtue of His power, you relieve yourself of the nonsensical need to carry anything in your own power.

There’s a weightlessness that awaits you, and I’d dare say its moments away from this moment. Because if God truly “deserves the glory”, then He must also be worthy of the weight of that glory. Let me put it bluntly: For you to hold on to the weight you carry is to say that God is not worthy of it. And to withhold the weight of your woes is to stop short of worship.

So let me ask you this: Do you view God as worthy of your worship? Is He to you what He declares He is to all? Do you truly believe that from Him, and for Him, and to Him are all things, even the things you hold in your heart, mind, and hands?

If you view God as worthy of your worship, it makes zero sense that you would withhold anything from Him, especially those things that would weigh you down today.

“For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.”

Romans 11:36

Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”

Rev. 4:9-11

And if you aren’t familiar with the song, let me introduce you to it…

The Safest Assumption

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I’ve got to admit something openly. It isn’t easy, but I know it’ll be healing for me and maybe helpful for you. Here goes.

I do not always assume that God is working.

There. I said it. It’s out there now. You just read those words. If you’re feeling some kind of “That’s it?” feeling, let me assure you that I realize you maybe thought I was divulging a skeleton from a dark corner of some closet of my past. Believe it or not, I just did.

For most of my life, I have operated under the assumption that even while I may claim belief in God, and even follow Jesus, and even worship Him regularly, and even gather with other followers of Jesus, and even pray…I have not operated under the continual assumption that He is working. I would say that most of my journey of following Jesus has been akin to seeing a cardinal zip across the blue midday sky; an occasional occurrence marked by wonder but seemingly over as quickly as it began. Until it came around again. Until then, keep trucking. Buy groceries. Brush teeth. Pay bills. Cut the grass. Just…you know…life.

My heart assumed that God showed up and did His God thing sporadically, inconsistently, and, dare I say, haphazardly. You ever watch a night sky with a friend and they yell out, “OH! I shooting star! That was so cool!!! Did you see that?!?” No. You didn’t. Just a *fffttt* and it was gone.

My mind assumed that if I laid all the pieces of surrender and obedience just so, if I plugged all the variables into the equation in just the right way, I could have more of these red cardinal, shooting star sightings. The danger there is that that’s partly true so we think it’s always true. And when we think we’ve nailed the equation and God doesn’t show up…well….that’s a faith-shaker. Basing God’s spiritual prerogative on my spiritual performance is never a good idea. Some of my fellow Gen-X’rs remember the game “Perfection”. Get all the pieces in before the timer runs out. Spiritually speaking, that’s the anxiety that kind of assumption produces (and don’t even get me started on Superfection)!

So here’s what I’m doing. If it helps you, great. If it doesn’t, just know you’re further along than I am.

I’ve changed my assumption from “maybe God will show up today” to “I will see God working today. Not because I say so, but because He is, and I have the choice either to see it or not.”

Now I’m finding God in every conversation, every situation. I’m seeing God work through others for my sake and even through me for the sake of others. Here’s the kicker: God hasn’t changed anything. I’ve changed my assumption about Him; how and when He moves and works. It’s gone from “occasionally” to “now” and “always”.

The safest assumption you can make in your relationship with God is that He is not merely somewhere nearby or that He might possibly pass by like some rare bird, but that in every moment you’re living, there is a true volatility of His Spirit. There is a moving, a happening, a level of activity that clearly indicates His character and His willingness to reveal Himself to you, to me, to us.

Do you want to assume this with me?

Praydoh

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When I was kid, my mom would make homemade Play-Doh. You remember Play-Doh, right? It came in bright yellow buckets, and if you were super fancy, you also bought different playsets that did different things with your Play-Doh. The barber shop, the McDonald’s licensed playset, and the “Doctor Drill ‘n Fill” playsets were super popular.

But my magical mom knew how to make her own. I don’t know what was in that stuff, but as I think about those memories, the smell of it returns in a palpable way to my nostrils. Crazy how that works.

I’m not sure why she didn’t just buy Play-Doh at the store, but I’d guess it was cheaper to make our own. I remember I always struggled to have patience while the clay cooled, so I could play with it without getting third-degree burns.

I do recall that there were more than a couple of occasions where I would be playing with the homemade version of our Play-Doh and I’d get distracted by some other thing, probably Tom & Jerry or He-Man. Or maybe my Legos were calling me. And I’d leave my squishy clay out on the kitchen table.

Whatever shape your spiritual life and health are in right now, it is how you last touched it. Whatever condition your faith currently exists in, it is a direct result of what you have done with it–for better or for worse.

Can I ask you to stop whatever you’re doing right now–whatever episode of Tom & Jerry your heart is distracted by, or whatever pain your life circumstances have handed you, or whatever bitterness has developed because of that wrong you feel has been done to you–and simply return to the kitchen table and sink your hands into an actual conversation with Jesus?

If you don’t, that clay will harden. It will stay in the shape it is currently in and the work of reshaping it will become more difficult the longer it sits. How fresh is your faith right now? How much time has passed since you’ve obediently sculpted it with God’s Spirit playing alongside you?

If you have found your heart and faith have hardened like that lump of clay, simply invite God’s renewing Spirit to breathe new life into your mind and heart right now. It isn’t a chore for Him; it would be His joy to rekindle that conversation and soften that lump of clay, so that you can continue to grow.

Jesus, I return my heart and my affection to you. I come back to the place where I loved you most. I acknowledge that lesser things have pulled me away, and I’ve allowed that to happen. But in this moment, I want to return to you, my first love. Thank you for love that forever welcomes me back.
Amen.

I looked up a recipe for homemade Play-Doh, in case you’ve never experienced it, or if you have and just want to rekindle some memories. While you do, spend time talking with Jesus.

  1. 1 cup plain flour. 1 cup water. ½ cup cooking salt. 1 tablespoon cream of tartar* … 
  2. Mix the flour, water, salt and cream of tartar in a saucepan over medium heat until thick. Allow the mixture to cool and then add the oil. Knead well over a floured cutting board. … 
  3. Store your play dough in an airtight container.

Additives & Preservatives

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What thing, quality, or experience–if added to your life–do you strongly suspect would enhance it greatly? We’ve all likely been prone to the regularly occuring daydream where we think “If only I had ______…” or “If only I did _____ for a living, then I’d be….” or “If I could just get to _______, I know I’d feel so much happier, more fulfilled, and content.”

I want to ask you specifically to think about that thought:

What thing, quality, or experience–if added to your life–do you strongly suspect would enhance it greatly? Use the comment section below to share your answer. Or find me on social media and send me a DM. Or if you’ve got my number, text or call me. Yes, really.

This isn’t an exercise in discontentment, and I’m not trying to stir up some angst within you, forcing you to focus on and gripe about what isn’t there. This is more of an exercise in capturing (or at least spotting) the elusive bird called aspiration. Why? Because in our typical work-a-day lives, we can sometimes lose sight of what it means to dream, to plan, to move, to morph, to advance, to attain what seems good to us.

And let me be clear: wanting is not a sin. I have a long list of wants. Here are a few:

I want all my children to know, adore, and follow Jesus– not because my wife and I do, but because a living, vibrant love relationship with Christ is the only solid ground that exists in this world. I want my wife to never doubt that she married a man who thinks of her continually, and can’t wait to see her again. I want to see the Church live out its Commission in the power of the unexplainable Holy Spirit so that the whole world gets a better view of grace than we have given it. I want to commute to work on a Vespa GTS 310 or a Honda X-ADV scooter. I want to hike Ireland with my wife. I want young people to boldly take their place in this unique piece of history in God’s story of humanity. I want to win Chipotle for life. I want more land and a bigger house, so my future grandkids can build sweet memories of going there to catch frogs, wrestle goats, eat ice cream, and find joy. I want to be a wildly friendly person. I want French fries from Dante’s on Ironbridge Road. I want lower cholesterol (And yes, I see the connection). I want Post to bring back Maple Pecan Crunch cereal (believe me, I’ve asked). I want clean water for every person in the world. I want pastors who seem to revel in celebrity status to pack it up and do something else. I want us as a human race to slow our roll on AI. I want New York bagels to be available in central VA (Cupertino’s is closest, in my opinion). I want to better understand anxiety and depression so I can better connect with those who struggle daily. I want 7-11 to finally figure out how to do a sweet tea Slurpee. It seems so doable. I want more wealthy people to be more generous, and I want more impoverished people to find their way out of poverty. I want to understand why so many of my wants seem to gravitate to food and drink. I guess more than anything, I want Jesus to make good on His promise to return for His bride.

No, wants aren’t bad. Wants we have that either stand opposed to God’s wants or pull us away from intimacy with Jesus are what’s bad. Jesus speaks extensively in the gospels, and Paul speaks at length in his letters about managing our desires and aligning with God’s desires for us (which, by definition, are far better anyway). If you want to read more about those, here are some passages for you:

  • Matthew 6:24
  • Matthew 10:33
  • Matthew 20:26-28
  • Matthew 23:11-12
  • John 5:44
  • Romans 8:7
  • Ephesians 5:8-10
  • Philippians 2:3
  • 1 Thessalonians 4:11

So what would you like to add to your life right now, if you could? And being as objective as possible, what would be the logical conclusion to getting that want?

Here’s my working theory: The best additives (things we seek to add to our lives) are also the best preservatives (those things that uphold and protect the most important relationships in our lives). If you have (or attain) a want but the expense of the want is the erosion of a relationship, you had a bad want.

Likewise, if your main aim is to simply preserve what you are and what you have, you’re going to forfeit your ambition for some (or all) of your wants. Some Christians seem to operate this way. They live in a perpetual circling of the wagons in an effort to simply hold on to some illusion that things are now as they used to be.

Lord, help us to be a people driven by the mission you gave us: To love people in a way that simply points them to Your love so that the gift of salvation is the message of our lives. And while we do, help us to navigate and when necessary, surrender the things that would get in the way of our closeness with You. Give us grace to interact with others so that Your grace is clearly reflected. Protect us from attitudes that are not fueled by Your Holy Spirit. Make Your Church a unified Bride, busy at the work you’ve given us to do. We temper our wants and submit them to You. Sanctify us wholly.
Amen.

“But wait….there’s more!”

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There’s often a disparity between what I know and what I feel. They don’t always line up or even agree.

If I based my existence and daily decisions on my feelings, I’d be living a very different life indeed.

If you want to dig into the issues of emotions, experience and evidence as I wrote about a couple of years ago, feel free to click here. But I’d like to take us in a slightly different direction this time.

The most often asked question in scripture that is asked by humans to God is, “How long, O Lord?” This is a question that indicates discomfort, maybe even distance, and maybe even disenfranchisement. When we are in a situation that we’d rather not be in, the fuse of our patience typically shortens as we seem to bear up under the weight of whatever it is we’re facing. Even when we sense/feel God’s strength, we are not immune to wondering just how long this situation will last.

By contrast, the most often stated command given by God to humans is, “Do not fear.” It isn’t that God is dismissing our discomfort, but rather He is reminding and recalibrating our hearts to the truth that the present reality is not the permanent reality.

There’s always going to be more to the story. Always. As those catchy lyrics to that song go: “If I’m not dead, God’s not done.”

But feelings and facts can sometimes conflict with one another, can’t they? In fact, feelings can more often be a busted compass leading us in the wrong direction. Here’s the thing: While most people believe that God exists, not nearly enough people view him as personally interested and invested in who they are, where they are, or what they’re dealing with. So the only other option is to go it alone (or with other human friends) and use your human feelings as your guide. Can you see now why we’re a mess?

Imagine instead for a minute that the God who made the universe and stars in our galaxy is the same God who made you, your hands, your eyes, and your feet. Imagine that because He made you, He’s keenly interested in who you are, where you are, what you’re doing, and how you’re doing. Imagine that.

If God is not only real but personal, well, that changes everything. If God is personally interested in what your today holds, then you’ve got everything He is and every ounce of His powerful presence making the difference in your life. You can throw away that busted compass and instead rely on the higher, better, stronger, wiser, ever-present God who refuses to simply let you flounder and figure things out based on your feelings.

With this new reality, you move instantly from scraping by to walking on water. You move from having to muster up human strength to accessing God’s might that cannot be depleted. You get to leave behind fearful thoughts like “What if _____ happens?” and instead walk in the confidence that says, “Even if _____ happens…” and know that God is not merely near you but WITH you. And not merely with you, but FOR you.

I believe the “more” of what we all want is found in extracting ourselves out of natural living and planting our hearts in supernatural realities.

These are thoughts I simply wanted to set on a table and invite you to come and break bread with me and talk about. Leave a comment below for others to share, or feel free to text me. Either way, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

  • What role does fear play in your life?
  • What role do feelings play in your decision-making process(es)?
  • What difference does God’s personal presence and interest in you make on a practical level?
  • How do you imagine God to be? What do you think His thoughts of you are right now? Why?

What’s good?

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It’s Monday of Holy Week and I’ve (again) recently been asked this year the question that seems to emerge every year during Holy Week: “Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?”

Rather than launch into some deeply theological or academic answer (you can find a plethora of those on the intrawebs), let me share with you what I hope amounts to more of a personal, internalized response.

When I think of Jesus, I must always keep in the forefront of my mind that He is God incarnate. That is, God in human flesh. By the way, that’s as theological as this post will get. God became flesh in order to satisfy His own demands for holiness and a holy sacrifice. Why was a sacrifice needed at all? Because the Creator will not tolerate not being fully united with His creation. The perfect sacrifice of the perfect Savior created a perfect salvation that is perfectly accessible to any and all who will believe.

Because you and are…well…imperfect, we couldn’t have provided that perfect sacrifice on our own.

So Jesus humbled Himself by taking on the flesh of humanity and came to live among us. As He did, He gave us a clear reflection of God’s Kingdom and all that it entails. He loved, He taught, He shepherded, He healed, He put justice and righteousness on display, and He willingly crescendoed His earthly ministry with a one-two punch that defeated sin and death for all time.

The cross Jesus died on wasn’t a new invention. The Romans had perfected this method of execution. They didn’t invent crucifixion, but it’s fair to say that they nailed it. Pun intended.

So when we think of Jesus, we must always keep His mission central. Jesus didn’t happen to fall onto the cross. He didn’t get himself wrapped up in the wrong crowd and thereby found Himself on the wrong end of the law, and hanging on a cross. This wasn’t a curveball in His mission. It WAS His mission. Jesus wasn’t a victim as He hung on that cross. This was the script from the beginning. The cross was precisely why He came at all. For Jesus, the cross was Job One.

The hours that Jesus spent on that cross were prepared and planned out millennia beforehand. Read Genesis chapter 3. All of eternity had awaited this crushing blow that Jesus delivered through His death.

And all of creation was the recipient of grace through the shed blood of Jesus’ death on that cross. No one is left out of the invitation to come and take the gift that Jesus offers through the work of the cross. The thief that hung next to Jesus wasn’t just a random or mildly interesting addition to the story. No, no, no. The thief is all of us. The guilty given grace. Jesus said to him that day and it echoes for us today: “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Still wonder why Good Friday is Good Friday? Ask yourself these questions:

  1. Since God’s holiness demands a holy sacrifice, what hope do I have in attaining holiness on my own?
  2. If God, through Jesus, provided the necessary sacrifice to forgive my sins, what is keeping me from receiving that gift through faith in Jesus alone?
  3. As a forgiven child of God, how can I set my heart on the good news of Jesus’ sacrificial death on my behalf? Who in my life needs to be told or reminded of His love for them?

I trust that as we move through Holy Week, our hearts will be set on the cross of Jesus and the Good that was done there. I’ll finish where I started: there are other explanations as to why we call it Good Friday, but when it comes to the saving of our souls, I’d argue that none matter as much.