This Beautiful Mess

The kingdon of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.   Matthew 13:44 (NASB)

Finding it hard to hit a stride on the regularity of blog posts, but I’m still here.  Just finished a little book I’ve been meaning to read for a couple of years now.  It’s called “This Beautiful Mess” by Rick McKinley.  The author is pastor of a church in Portland, which is almost famous because that’s Donald Miller’s home church.  (Donald Miller wrote “Blue Like Jazz” and gave a pretty good prayer at the Democratic Convention this summer.)

Anyway, I really liked the first part of the book.  It’s about how the gospel is salvation for our souls, but it’s also about how to live in light of the mysterious “kingdom of God” that Jesus talked so much about.  I think McKinley asks a lot of the right questions, because they are are uncomfortable questions for me.  Bottom line, the kingdom of God is all around me, but more often than not I find that I’m actually living in MY kingdom, not His, which is not good.

The second half the book is about the conclusions he’s reached, or is in the process of formulating, which I am less on board with as a whole.  But I’m OK with reading a guy’s stuff that challenges me and makes me think.  It’s an honest book without much pretense, the kind that I read and think about and ultimately both agree and disagree with parts of.  That’s a lot better than falling asleep in mid-sentence. 

On the whole, if you’re a somewhat stodgy conservative like me, it’ll be good reading for you.  If tend towards the “green” movement, wealth redistribution, holistic medicine, and progressive politics…..skip it and read something by Charles Colson.

Be A Man

“Very well,” Deborah said, “I will go with you.  But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will hand Sisera over to a woman.”  Judges 4:9 (NIV)

Set up is this.  No king among Israelite tribes.  Joshua is dead.  Everyone is kinda doing their own thing, and God isn’t a top priority.  They have lots of trouble with other Canaanites (Palestinians?).  Every now and then, God’s spirit will land on some special person and they will act as a leader or a judge for the people. 

At this time the judge is a lady named Deborah.  She calls out a guy named Barak (yea, like the president) and tells him to gather an army of volunteers and take out the enemy force.  He says he’ll go, but only if Deborah goes with him.  Barak doesn’t say no but he lacks the faith or the guts or both to be the man and the leader he’s called to be.  The verse quoted at the top is her reply to him. 

If you read the whole story the good guys win and the main bad guy is killed, but it’s not real satisifying.  What we want to see, what we’re wired to hope for is a climactic battle between Barak and Sisera.  Think Rocky and Apollo Creed,  Maximus and the Emporer, Steelers and Cardinals….you get the picture.  God’s annointed man taking on the enemy and defeating him is the correct storyline.  What happens instead is that the bad guy has his skull crushed in his sleep with a hammer and tent peg by a woman named Jael.  Welcome to the bible.

Now the reason I’m even in this book is that a friend asked me to teach this to a group of  10 year old boys at church Wednesday night.  The canned lesson says something about having faith as the point of the story.  I’m sorry.  This may not be politically correct, but I think the takeaway for any guy from 5 to 95 is that God made us men and we’re supposed to act like it.  If Barak had done what God called him to do as a man instead of avoiding leadership and forcing Deborah into that role, it would have been better for him, for Deborah, for Jael, and for everyone concerned.  Heck, even the bad guy would have gotten a more respectable death.

Application:  Be a man.  God made you that way.  Don’t hide behind the ladies, even the best and godliest of them.

Example

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.  I Corinthians 11:1 (NIV)

Paul told this to the church at Corinth, and it’s a pretty bold thing to say isn’t it.  Not that any of us are quite there with Saint Paul, but we are supposed to do this aren’t we?  I’m to follow the example of those that I see following Christ.  So should we challenge others to follow us? 

Usually I don’t want to do this because I’m all too aware how poor an example I actually set.  I’d rather just hang back rather anonymously.  It’s safer back there.  It’s not easy in church settings, but the big challenge for me in the real world, the marketplace, at my job.

Lately I’ve been coming to grips with selfishness and greed in myself and am trying to be more generous.  For some reason, I felt like I should challenge some of the people I work with to contribute to a good cause as a team.  I told them I felt like we should maybe sponor a child through World Vision and asked for contributions from anyone that wanted in.  One person responded.  I sent a thank you and paid the rest of the sponsorship myself.  Then I was asked to talk a little about it a meeting we held.  Three more people contributed, so I passed along their contribution.  A week later I got a check from another teamate, which I passed along this morning.

I’m not saying that everyone participated, nor that we have all been particularly generous, nor that I am particularly virtuous in any way, shape or form.  None of those things are true.  I probably offended some people by suggesting we give to a Christian relief agency, and some people likely think it’s inappropriate, and I wouldn’t be surprized if people think less of me because of it. 

But the upside is that because I made an awkward attempt to set an example $500 has moved from the pockets of wealthy Americans towards caring for people with a lot less.  Hopefully some of the people I work with have been touched as a little bit of their heart follows a little bit of their treasure.  And maybe they’ll pass along that example to their friends and family and everyone will move a little closer to the heart of God.

Confrontation

Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions.  Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel.  Isaiah 30: 10b-11 (NIV)

I’m like the people of Israel here that were getting along just fine, thank you.   They didn’t like Isaiah messing with them.  What’s the problem?   

I like it when people tell me how wonderful I am and how everything about me is just peachy.  OK, It’s possible I can be convicted through reading my Bible and the Holy Spirit working alone, but most of the time my shortcomings, my failings, my blind spots, my sins will not be addressed unless I’m confronted by a flesh and blood someone.  I don’t really enjoy it when someone gets up in my face and questions whether my attitudes and actions really honor God.  My natural self prefers the pleasant illusion of how very satisfactory I already am.  And very, very few people care enough about me to confront me under any circumstances.

If you have people in your life that call you to account, that make you uncomfortable with their questions, that challenge how your words and actions match up,that constantly point you away from yourself and towards the Holy One of Israel, thank God for sending them into your life.  And listen to them, why don’t ya!

Resisting Authority

Therefore he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; ……Render to all what is due them:  tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.  Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another;  Romans 13:2, 7-8a  (NASB)

Don’t even go there.  You’re not an oppressed citizen of a third world country ruled by a cruel dictator.  And you know you’re not supposed to do anything illegal or immoral because someone in authority tells you to.  In fact, you’re resisting the authority of scripture as you push back against what you just read.  I know your reaction because it is mine.  Instead why don’t we try and let this verse settle where you and I really live and see if we can obey it instead of explaining it away.  It may translate differently in your life, but here’s the application for me.

To me this means I pay my bills on time and I report all my income and I pay my taxes. 

To me this means I respect elected officials even if I disagree with their policies and I don’t belittle them and make jokes about them. 

To me this means when my boss tells me to do something I think is a total waste of my time, I can voice my concern respectfully, but I do what I’m told. 

To me this means if I’m in a setting where I’m expected to dress to certain way, I submit my fashion taste and sense of personal style to honor my host and others.

To me this means I speak respectfully and show honor to my elders.   Since I’m in the South this means I say “sir” and “ma’am” a lot.

This is an especially hard verse for men to deal with.   We’re taught to be our own man.   It’s in me to want to zig just because I was told to zag.  A couple of friends of mine have had run-ins with their bosses lately because they’ve chosen to resist authority.  It’s not good for their professional careers, but more importantly, it’s not good for their souls. 

It’s really hard to practically be under God’s authority when we constantly resist the authority of our fathers, our bosses,  our pastors, and our government.

Forgive Me?

Since a blogger is one who blogs, I don’t know whether I’ve been a bad blogger or simply a non-blogger lately.  Between the holidays and a business trip to the West Coast I’ve gotten slack in posting.  I started to say I’ll do better, but let’s just say I’ll do it more regularly.

So I know you count on me to deliver lines of prose from books and songs that strike me as notable.  Here are a few lines from a song called “How He Loves” by John Mark Mcmillan.  I’ve heard it quite a few times lately and though the chorus gets just a little monotonous, the opening always gets me. 

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.

I don’t know how to improve much on that visual as what it looks like to live in relation to God.

Reverent or Authentic?

A smallish gathering of our 6:00 am Tuesday group last week.  We ended up somehow in a discussion of whether there was some conflict between reverence and authenticity.  The point was made we need to fear God and show him reverence and respect, and at least some of us connect the dots from that to ceremony and formality.  The assumption, based on observation and experience no doubt, is that when we’re “real,” we’re much more casual in our speech, dress, etc.  So the questions evolved toward, “What is true reverence?  Can you be yourself and reverent at the same time?  Has our culture lost reverence in pursuit of the authentic?”

I’m afraid I fall pretty heavily into the “authentic” camp if one forces the issue and makes it and “either/or” proposition.  I find in myself that it’s easier to dress up and be formal than it is to be real, to not wear masks, and pretend to be someone and something I’m not.  In fact, in my own experience, I find that formality and ceremony make it almost impossible for me to be real.  When I put on a suit and tie and speak in a voice and use words that are not my own, I’m playing dress-up, acting a part.  From that place, at least with me, it’s almost impossible for anything to touch my heart or actually come from my heart because that’s not really me up there.  I’m sure it’s not that way for other people.

I really don’t think it’s one or the other.  I think reverence is a function of heart and attitude, not ceremony and formality.  The biblical example of how authentic and reverent co-exist in one man?

And so John came, baptising in the desert region snf preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out ot him.  Confessing their sins. they were baptised by him in the Jordan River.  John wore clothing made of camel hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locust and wild honey.  And this was his message, “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.”  Mark 1:4-8 (NIV)

Stepping in it…

Without oxen a stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a large harvest.  Proverbs 14:4 (NLT)

One of the realities of life on the farm is that you deal with the stuff animals leave behind after they eat.  Was that polite enough?  It’s not especially pleasant but it’s part of the gig.  Let me be more specific.  Just this week I have been knee-deep in the slurry of water, hay, mud, urine and cow manure that accumulates around the round-bale feeders.  I have climbed several large mounds of chicken litter…we’re talking several semi-loads… to cover them with tarps in an attempt to keep our neighbors and the good folks at DHEC happy.  I have been treated to the odor that accompanies said chicken litter when it is spread on our pastures for fertilizer.  And I have cleaned up after our old yellow Labrador Retriever who is no longer able to control where she makes doggy deposits and leaves then on our carport.  My lovely bride manages our equine enterprize, so my interaction with horse poop is largely second-hand.  I think by now you get the picture.

Believe it or not, the Bible provides me with a spiritual lesson based on the experience of poop.  The verse above tells me my life and surroundings would be cleaner and less smelly without all the livestock, but then I would not have the opportunities and upside that comes from them. 

Well, ‘duh.’  To make the Bible, there is likely some more there don’t you think?  Here’s my guess.  If I’m not dealing with some crap in my life or the things I attempt for God, I may stay nice and clean, but I’ll suffer for not being involved with people where they actually live.  If I avoid the messy and smelly stuff in life, I’ll be cleaner on the outside but won’t fully experience the opportunities and upside that comes from life.   Bottom line: I don’t have to relish it, but if I’m afraid of stepping in it when I need to, I’m missing some great opportunities and I’m not TOO much use to the God that owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10).