Jack Be Nimble

Yesterday we enjoyed a great message from the current director of the Christian and Missionary Alliance of New Zealand, Rev. Andrew Marshall. He spoke from a well known passage about endurance, focus, and discipline found in the first two verses of Hebrews 12. It reads this way from the The Living Bible. "Since we have such a huge crowd of people of faith watching us from the grandstands, let us strip off anything that slows us down or holds us back, and especially those sins that wrap themselves so tightly around our feet and trip us up; and let us run with patience the particular race that God has set before us." Part way through his message he used a word that I had not heard anyone use for quite some time. Andrew spoke of a marathon runner being cheered on, stripped down to the bear essentials, running toward the finish line. Then he began to encouraged us to rid ourselves of anything that could hinder our marathon run of faith as we also head toward the finish line. He spoke of the Christians need of being nimble and the word lodged in my brain. To be nimble means to be quick and light in movement; moving with ease; agile, active; rapid. I began to think through my life wondering if the great crowd of people cheering me on would consider how I live my life, (i.e.how I run my race) and describe it as being nimble. As I reviewed the various activities, actions, attitudes and attributes of my life of faith it became painfully clear that there were things in my life that were keeping me from being a nimble runner. I confessed my need and began to formulate a plan for ridding myself of everything that weighs me down and keeps me from being the nimble runner that God desires me to be.
One of the greatest blessings in my life is the many wonderful and meaningful church services I have participated in where the word of God is preached well. Services where the whole atmosphere of the crowd of believers present is to meet with and eagerly worship our Great God. To hear the word, to let it sink, saturate, and stimulate my life and faith is such a privilege. Often after hearing the word I can recalibrate my life, move forward, run with less to weigh me down, becoming more and more nimble in the race that God has laid out before me. Thanks brother Andrew for being the Lord's servant yesterday morning as you faithful administered the Word of God to us.

Shaken not stirred....

Lots of people know this phrase from author Ian Flemings well known fictional series of novels and movies about a British Secret Service Agent named James Bond. ‘Shaken not stirred’, refers to the characters preference for how his martini should be made, the indication being that a shaken martini will be colder and more watered down so as not to interfere with the super sleuths senses or slow his reactions down while on assignment.
Shaken but not stirred deep enough is how I would describe many of the comments I have heard recently from both Christians and those who are not of the house hold of faith regarding recent world events. Shaken is abundantly clear. People everywhere are feeling the sense of insecurity and uncertainty as literally the earth beneath our feet is moving. Earthquakes are happening around the globe at an alarming rate and this has shaken confidence, it has shaken the already fragile economic world and it has shaken people out of their little individual worlds to lend a hand to a neighbour in need. However, one church that was sensing the near hypocrisy of the moment wrote on their bulletin board, “You don’t have to have experience an earthquake to be a good neighbour.” My read on this was that they are trying to get their readers to push a little deeper than just being ‘stirred” by the moment; to dig a little deeper than to suddenly be interested in something or someone other than themselves! Shaken, indeed, but stirred, not nearly deep enough as this billboard would indicate.
Listening to some Christians blather on about judgment and gays and lesbians and sin and this is how God deals with the world today is disheartening and frustrating and simply a sign of not being stirred deep enough as well. It is a fall-back position for those who have the luxury of saying such things because their hearts are hard, their love is shallow and their thin understanding of God is disgracefully projected on a poor, broken and needy world of hurting people. Agenda driven and shaken but not stirred deep enough is what is so troubling about these brothers and sisters.
On the other hand, Christianity is not the only group that has its share of doomsayers out there babbling on about ‘just desserts’ and other nonsensical things like ‘karma’, i.e. what goes around comes around. I read recently of the whale protectionist group who spoke this way of the Japanese, attributing their current multi-front disaster, quake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdowns to karma because of their whale hunting practices. This is so aggravating! It is a clear case of kicking someone when they are already down. Shaken but certainly not stirred deep enough!
In my estimation we need to see how deeply stirred Jesus was when he encountered the destructive power of death in the story of Lazarus. Jesus saw how it causes such turmoil and grief and his response was to be angry about death, to be angry about its destructive nature, to be angry because it is clearly the greatest of enemies to all of life. But he was not only moved to anger he was stirred to weep as well. The grief, suffering and pain that death had brought moved him to weep with those who wept, to be empathetic, compassionate and sorrowful for those affected by this great tragedy. Finally, his anger mixed with his grief stirred him to action. In this case it was to counter the work of death and bring life and hope back into the picture. Jesus efforts were meant to restore, to deliver, to turn around the effects of deaths devastation and bring back joy, laughter and life.
As believers we must imitate the master. We must follow his lead. Be angry at our common enemy death and the destruction it causes, weep with those who suffer and then begin the work of restoration, to counter the effects of death and restore life, joy and laughter wherever we can.

Outcomes...

Who can really control any outcome from any decision or even non-decision made? I was thinking of the tragedy that is almost 24/7 in our faces from newsprint to TV down in Christchurch. Outcomes… two stories come to mind. One man saved from under the rubble and the action was caught by TV cameras. They pulled him out very much alive and rushed him to an ambulance and off to a hospital. He never made it as his internal injuries were just too severe, a casualty of this terrible earthquake. Another man, pinned down with his legs caught under concrete slabs was on the phone with his wife giving her his exact location. Some doctors in town for a convention heard his cries for help, found him, assessed the situation, and decided to amputate both of his legs to free him. All they had was a hacksaw and a pocket knife to do the job. They successfully removed him from his situation however; he had lost a lot of blood. They put him in an ambulance and he was zipped off to a hospital and he is currently recovering from his ordeal and very thankful for the quick minded efforts of the visiting Australian Surgeons who saved his life. Outcomes. In both scenarios the rescuers were brave, quick, efficient, in both cases they had desires for the patient to “make” it, in both the rescuers did everything they could humanly do and in both cases the outcome was completely out of their hands.
On a less traumatic front, my wife is currently searching for a job as a school teacher. She does everything she can do to get a job; dropping off CV’s, volunteering in classrooms, sending emails, and taking upgrade classes and training seminars. She can do all this and do so diligently but the outcome is completely out of her control. She prays, she believes this is God’s leading in her life, she has made many “signs” that this is the right direction but in the end the outcome is completely out of her hands.
As a pastor I moved my entire family here to NZ to work in a church that wanted to grow. We’ve done everything humanly possible to inspire and encourage this fellowship to grow. We’ve hosted music concerts, we’ve held ALPHA classes, we’ve done community volunteering, we’ve hosted evangelistic meetings, we’ve had discipleship training in our home groups, we’ve prayed in big groups, medium groups and small groups. We’ve done strategic planning weekends, we’ve had people come to faith in Christ and we’ve have been working, almost tirelessly, to grow people into maturity in Christ. But in the end the outcomes are not ours to control.
Working towards a desired outcome is not bad, but without understanding that a key ingredient in working towards a desired outcome is trust in the Lord can prove disastrous to our faith. Faith that God will do what is best for his plan, best for us and best for those who we love and care about is a matter of trust. We cannot control the outcomes. Learning to let this sense of control go is difficult, but the result is total freedom to enjoy the journey we are on today. Worrying, stressing, forcing, anxiety, and striving are all symptoms of those who believe they can control outcomes. Joy, peace, patience, calmness and trust are the results of those who labour but entrust the outcomes to God.
Jesus had a conversation with Peter in John 21:18-19 I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, "Follow me!" What really matters is that we simply follow the master, leaving the outcomes safely in his hands.

Riptides and Christians

Living in New Zealand, a place surrounded by two large bodies of ocean water, has been a real education for me.

My first experience with swimming in the ocean came while I was an intern in Salem Oregon. I remember all too well the frantic feeling of being smashed by a wave that took me by surprise as I was mesmerised by a sea lion not too far from me. The wave tossed me around like a rag-doll and then plunged me head first into the ocean floor. I heard all the bones in my neck crack as I collided with the bottom. I finally got my legs under me and stood up only to be greeted by water that was rushing down the slopped beach back into the ocean. I stumbled, fell, got turned around, and became so dizzy that I was having trouble knowing which way to head back to shore. Needless to say, my respect for the ocean and the mighty power it wields has never left me. One must keep their wits about them whilst playing in ocean waters.

New Zealand has hundreds of beautiful beaches, many of which are decent for swimming, surfing and body boarding. However, the best places for these activities usually include a serious riptide. A riptide is an underwater current, also called an undertow. It seems that over the 4 years I have lived here every couple of months we hear the sad news of someone being swept away by these dangerous riptides. The problem as I understand it is that just forgetting for a split second that you are swimming and playing above a riptide can be fatal. Suddenly the tide has you in its grasp and starts pulling you out to the open seas. The first mistake is that is often made is that people swim where they are not supposed to swim, outside the watchful eye of the life guards. The second mistake that many make is they try to swim against the tide. Doing this very quickly exhausts them and they succumb to the drag of the tide and are swept out to sea. The only way to survive is first of all not to panic and second is to swim across the tide in slow and steady strokes, stopping every so often to wave your arms and cry for help.

I was thinking of this and how it relates to Christians and the power of the culture we live in. The culture is much like a riptide. Forgetting it is there, even just a few seconds, and it starts to drag you off under its tremendous power. Swimming against it is also not wise, for soon you will become exhausted, and with no more power to fight it it begins to consume you or at very least sidelines you. Swimming across the tide is the only way to survive until rescue comes.

This swimming across the tide is called being wise or discerning about how much we allow culture to influence our day to day lives. How often do we passively approach the culture we live in? How often have you seen someone go off taking on the evils of society head on only to run out of gas, get into a rut, and fizzle out against the relentless pressure of culture. Jesus instructed us as his disciples to be crafty as serpents yet innocent as doves in regard to these matters. To swim across the current, to be smart about what we call good, and to remember where we are living and who we are living for is the only way to survive until rescue comes. He commanded us to be in the world just not of it.