Letter from a Disgruntled Follower

Dear God,

You’re kind of cramping my style. It used to be cool and fun to follow you. Now it’s costing me something. I wish you could understand. Every now and then:

• It’d be nice to take offense when someone insults me instead of turning the other cheek and forgiving.

• I wouldn’t mind enjoying some of the world’s pleasures instead of your peace, contentment, and joy.

• That money that I give to you every week could be used for such good fun.

• I could get so much more done if I didn’t have to take that day off that you claim is a gift.

• Certainly it’d be nicer to live in a cave than a community.

But God, as soon as I say these things, I’m reminded that I’ve seen too much. My eyes have been opened to your beauty and power. I’ve been a witness to your transforming of hearts. I know you can do more with my life than I ever could on my own. I’ve experienced eternity in the here and now. I’ve lived in your abundant life.

You’ve ruined me.

Your ways have become my ways and your thoughts have become my thoughts. And every time the grass looks greener on the other side, that nagging question of Peter’s creeps in from the shadows of my mind, “Lord, to whom shall we go? For you have the words of eternal life, and we have come to believe that you are the Holy One of God!” (John 6:68-69)

If you could please stop being so compelling, if just for one day you would cease to be so wonderful, my life would be mine again. Of course, since this is not the case, once again I will pick up my cross and I will stand for you today, reminded yet again that you are God and I am your blessed but unworthy servant that you have called to do greater things, by the power of your Spirit, than even your Son.

But seriously, thanks!

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Sincerely,

Your at Times Disgruntled, yet Faithful, Empowered, and Transformed Follower

I Blame Brita...

A certain man, irate for having tasted yet another putrid glass of water, ripped open a new filter for the family's pitcher for a third time. "I've already called the water company and they say there is nothing wrong," the man barked to whoever cared to hear him. "If this keeps up, I'm calling Brita and demanding they make this right!"

Sure enough, a third filter, and still no quenching goodness. You see, the man had been missing one of the most obvious solutions: It doesn't matter how clean the water is when you pour it in, the water that comes out will never be good until the pitcher itself is cleansed.

Jesus shares a very similar story early on in his ministry:

18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. So they came to Jesus and said, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?” 19 Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they do not fast. 20 But the days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and at that time they will fast. 21 No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and the tear becomes worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins will be destroyed. Instead new wine is poured into new wineskins.” -Mark 2

I like Jesus' story better for 2 reasons. First, he talks about wine and wanting to make sure it tastes good for the party. Not something you expect to hear here in the South from a "good Christian man" like Jesus, right?

Secondly, and more profoundly speaking, Jesus makes it clear that this new thing that he's doing is so revolutionary that neither old systems nor our old selves are prepared to handle it. It's not just that the new wine that goes in will taste funny when it comes back out, the old wineskin doesn't have the power to contain this new thing at all!

Jesus is setting the Pharisees up for something big, something world-changing. And as he does that he makes it perfectly clear: "To be ready for this new thing, it's going to require a new you, a new system of faith, a new community of followers. Because right now, this old thing just isn't ready for what I have to offer."

A lot of us, though, are like the guy in the first story. Jesus wants to pour this new thing in, and to some extent we really want to enjoy it. So we change the water filters in our lives:

• We change our church attendance
• We change our t-shirts
• We change our radio stations

Like somehow this external act of holiness is going to prepare us for this life-giving, thirst-quenching gift Jesus has to offer. Some of us even call the water company:

• We blame our church experience growing up
• We blame those "hypocritical" Christians

• We blame pastors and preachers we don't like

You might have baggage there to work through, but those people still aren't the problem.

You and I have to be willing to take an honest look at the vessel that God's Spirit wants to fill. Yes, God's grace saves you, but we are also commanded to regularly be transformed by renewing ourselves as an act of worship. -Romans 12:1-2a

The next time this water of life taste a little rancid for you, stop looking at the water filters and the providers in your life and take a hard look at the pitcher itself.

God's new thing wants to fill up God's new you!

Silly Hate Groups....

Stream of Consciousness:

So I got to thinking about that verse in John where Jesus says, "Apart from me you can do nothing." It's John 15:5 if you want to check out what else is happening in this passage.

From there I thought, "Hmm. Lot's of people who don't love Jesus do lots of good things. How is this possible?"

Conclusion: God uses the good work of others, Christians or not, to build the Kingdom of God. If God is God, and God can do anything, certainly God can use people who don't love God to do the work of God, right?

So then I wondered, "Hmm. I wonder if there's an example of people who don't call themselves Christians doing God's work in the world?"

Thanks to Google, I found a host of links, the first of which kind of pissed me off. "Religion of Peace" as the site is called seeks to paint Muslims in the worst light possible, stating that really, it's a religion of hate and destruction.

I'm not a fan of groups that hate on various religions. In particular, I'm not a fan of sites like this one that bash Muslims who, according to the site, offer no disaster relief response to the victims of Hurricane Irene. "Muslims believe Allah causes disasters, so Muslims don't provide aid for those in need, especially infidels" says the site.

To this, I facepalm, and direct you to the ICNA, a Muslim organization designed to alleviate the damages caused from any & all human suffering or natural disasters. Feel free to give to the ICNA relief program if you'd like, or contact your local church to give there:

http://icnarelief.org/site/

God is going to continue to do God's work by whatever means necessary, and no artificial religious boundary that we construct is going to stop God from working. Because after all, apart from Christ, we can do nothing, and God loves those in any tragic life situation more than any of us ever could.

As a pastor and preacher, my prayer is for all to come to know Jesus, but please Christians, let's not get there by making villains out of Muslims!

Shalom to you all!