9 Ways to Get Out of A Spiritual Rut

There's this quirky story in the gospel of John: There's a pool called Bethesda, and around this pool, invalids and people with various illnesses would wait for the waters to suddenly be stirred. The belief was that the first person into the pool after the water stirred would be healed. It's not clear in the story whether it actually worked - if anybody got healed by this method, but what is clear is this: that when the water was still, nothing happened.

When everything is stagnant in our lives, we will most likely not see any motion. Occasionally, we need to change our routine, change our 'normal' so that we get different results.

To paraphrase Einstein, if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten.

With that in mind, here are 10 ideas for shaking things up in your faith to get something better than 'the usual':

1. Join a group at church.

This isn't just about making yourself busy. The point here is to learn about other people's story of faith. When you're not sure what God is doing in your life, listen to what he's doing in other people's lives. Joining a small group or a volunteer team is a way to connect with others and be able to learn what God is doing in their lives.

2. Take a road trip

Get out of your normal surrounds. Take a day trip or an overnight trip. If you want, make it a silent retreat. Turn down the volume of your life in order to hear the quiet whispers that may already be there.

3. Read a book that challenges your faith.

If you don't know of any books, let me make a few recommendations: Pastrix by Nadia Bolz-Weber // Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle // Blue Like Jazz by Don Miller // The Christian Atheist by Craig Groeschel

Or, ask your friends about books that have inspired them.

4. Take a leader at your church out to lunch.

Ask his or her perspective on a biblical/theological/faith-centric topic that you've given consideration to. Ask them how they get out of a spiritual funk. Ask them ways you could contribute to your community of faith. Ask them anything, just so long as you get to hear a different perspective.

5. Download an app to memorize some scriptures

In multiple places, God talks about wanting his words to be in our hearts. Getting them in our head is a great first step.

6. Find a non-profit where you can volunteer and serve a group of people you usually ignore.

Doing something you don't feel fully able to do is a great way to increase your reliance of God, which can certainly lead to a refreshed relationship. Kind of like the whole 'step out of the boat' thing Peter went through. I bet that changed his view of Jesus a bit.

7. Fast

This is going to sound sappy, but I mean it genuinely: if you want to experience hunger in part of your life (spiritually), it helps to experience it in another part of your life (physically). When I'm fasting and the hunger pangs start, I say 'God, my body is hungry for food, but I want to be hungry for you'. It sounds stupid, but it really does help you start to transfer that desire.

8. Read the Same Bible book over and over again.

If you're reading the Bible day after day and getting nothing out of it, try picking a shorter book, like 1 John, and read it everyday for a month. You'll start seeing what you're reading everywhere you look.

9. Start a journal

I used to be terrible at journaling. It started on day one with a list of my prayer requests and by day three it was the same prayer requests and I stopped. I could see no point or benefit. So instead of writing a prayer journal or a spiritual journey journal, I started a tumblr where I just wrote about books I read, and observations I made, and things I thought God may be showing me. I wrote every weekday for a year and it changed my life.

These are just a few ideas to get you jump started. They're all about the same basic two ideas: get a different perspective or do something that makes you a little uncomfortable.

Do you have other ways you've gotten yourself out of a rut? Please comment and share!

What To Do When You're Angry At God

One of the things that I love about Jesus is that he's a realist. Case in point: one of Jesus' disciples records him saying "Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows." (John 16:33)

He doesn't mince words by saying 'you may have trouble' or 'bad things could happen'. He gives us a guarantee. It's certainly not one of the promises we talk about claiming when we're in church.

But Jesus knew that sometimes life will suck.

Illness can strike, a loved one can die, we can lose a job or a house or our transportation.

So the question is not 'will something bad happen', or even 'what/when/how bad things will happen', for we cannot control those things, but rather 'how will we respond when bad things happen'?

The most important thing we can do in these situations is to respond by being honest with God.

When I am dealing with difficult emotions or frustration with God, I look to the Psalms.

The author of Psalm 44 writes "Wake up, O Lord! Why do you sleep? Get up! Do not reject us forever."

David opens Psalm 55 with "Listen to my prayer, O God. Do not ignore my cry for help! Please listen and answer me, for I am overwhelmed by my troubles."

In Psalm 3, David prays "Arise, O LORD! Rescue me, my God! Slap all my enemies in the face! Shatter the teeth of the wicked!"

Imagine if I got up on stage at my church, asked everyone to bow their heads for prayer and then started saying any of those things. People would be shocked. Offended.

Yet nothing we say comes as a surprise to God. When we are honest with God about how we feel, it is something he already knows.

David was called a man after God's own heart despite his failings because he invited God into his emotions.

We read the prayer to destroy his enemies and it makes us uncomfortable, because the violent texts do not fit well with our concepts of the loving Father.

Yet in this case, we don't have to assume that God endorses David's prayer. He's simply allowing David to express his rage in the situation he faces. David trusts God with his real feelings, knowing that God loves him in the midst of his despair and fear and anger.

Anne Lamott in Help, Thanks, Wow says that “you might shout at the top of your lungs or whisper into your sleeve, "I hate you, God." That is a prayer...because it is real, it is truth, and maybe it is the first sincere thought you've had in months.”

When I realized that God isn't afraid of or upset by my anger or hurt or fear, but that instead he wanted to be invited into those places within me to bring healing, I began to open up more with my emotions to God.

I began to start my prays with 'God, I feel ________ today'.

Sometimes it was optimistic. Sometimes it was frustrated. Sometimes it was scared.

The next line was to welcome God into those emotions. Until I could be honest with God about those emotions, I couldn't be honest with myself about how I was feeling.

Telling God how you feel doesn't guarantee that he will 'fix' the situation immediately. But it does create space for him to provide healing and comfort that hits our soul like air in our lungs after being underwater for too long.

As William Nicholson wrote in Shadowlands, "[prayer] does not change God - it changes me"

When you are angry at God, follow the example he provides to us in the Psalms:

1. Share those feelings with God.
2. Invite God to meet you in those feelings.
3. Allow God to work in you even while you are in the midst of your situation. It's not about what's happening to you, it's about what's happening in you.

God's not looking for men and women who can put on the nicest face on a Sunday at church. He's looking for the ones courageous enough to take off the mask and be themselves, trusting that God's love is bigger than our hurts and our concerns for appearance.

3 Things Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis Teaches Me

Last week, a county clerk in Kentucky blew up your social media feed. The Supreme Court legalized gay marriage earlier this year. In light of this ruling, James Yates and Will Smith went to their local courthouse to obtain a marriage license. County Clerk Kim Davis refused to issue a marriage license to them.

Mrs. Davis has cited her Christian beliefs as the reason for refusing the marriage license.

She has since been held in contempt of court for refusing to comply with the orders of the federal court system.

If you search for #kimdavis on social media, you're going to spend most of your time reading about somebody on the fast track to sainthood and a new American hero...or a simpleminded, bigoted law breaker.

We continue to demonstrate that we aren't very good at having a discussion in our society, but we're great at having arguments.

We've been trained by 24 hour cable news and politicians and various other outlets that the best way to communicate my viewpoint is by trashing the opposing viewpoint. If you don't agree with me, you're not just wrong, you're also evil and dangerously stupid.

As somebody who wants my faith to impact my daily life, I don't want to be part of insulting, hateful arguing. So what can I learn from this situation - that is, how can I be part of conversation and discussion rather than fighting?

1. Start with respect.

Kim Davis is not a monster. Neither are James Yates and William Smith, the couple who tried (unsuccessfully) to get a marriage license on multiple occasions from Mrs. Davis.

None of them wake up in the morning and ask "How can I undermine the fabric of humanity today?"

Clearly they have different viewpoints on what is right and what is wrong in the case of gay marriage.

We'll get into that in a minute.

As a Christian, I must believe that each person in this argument - including internet trolls on both sides - are made in the image of God. Every single person bears God's imprint.

Next time you're about to call someone a moron or an idiot, remember Matthew 5:22 where Jesus says:

"But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell."

Now that probably hits our ears as a threat - if you get angry and insult or curse someone, you're going to get some kind of spiritual payback. God's gonna get you, so to speak.

But what if Jesus isn't threatening us, but he's warning us in a loving way? What if he's essentially telling us that when we start making ourselves superior to other people, it can lead to our own destruction?

Jesus loves us. If he's giving us a warning, it's for our own good. We need to start with valuing other people - not devaluing them -  because God loves them as much as he loves us.

2. Seek to understand the other viewpoint.

Let's take a minute and get introspective. You have an opinion on gay marriage. The way you got to that opinion was by running the topic through your personal worldview. That worldview is influenced by your experiences, your culture, your faith, your family and peers, your education, etc.

Realize that it is completely reasonable for a person with wildly different experiences, culture, family, friends, etc to come to a different conclusion than you.

The preachers outside the courthouse are doing their best to help people. The people ripping those preachers to shreds online are doing their best to help people.

If you can start from that assumption, that the 'other side' isn't satan's personal envoy to you, you can actually start to talk instead of argue.

3. Don't choose a side. 

When you pick a side, it becomes necessary for you to prove the other side wrong.

So don't choose a side. Choose to love people.

You can hold an opinion, but when your opinion is more important to you than other people, you're out of line with God's values.

Jesus shared plenty of unpopular opinions, but he did it in such a loving way that everyone wanted to be around him, including what Matthew 9:11 refers to in one translation as the 'scum' of society.

Pretty much everyone (except the exceptionally self righteous) wanted to be around Jesus because he was the most upright, noble person who ever lived and he made them feel better about themselves. He made them want to have a better relationship with God.

Christians are not God's police officers. We are God's ambassadors. If Azerbaijan sent ambassadors to DC who walked the streets telling Americans how bad and dumb they were, nobody would want to go visit Azerbaijan.

People won't hear what we have to share if all we're doing is trying to prove them wrong.

___

We have an amazing opportunity to have huge conversations across the globe thanks to social media. Wasting that opportunity on insults and vitriol is a huge mistake.

I love Kim Davis, I love James Yates and I love William Smith and I want to be part of the conversation they have prompted.

I want my involvement to point to the fact that we are all made by God and loved by God so that people want to keep hearing what I have to say. Because the best way to have influence of any kind is to be invited to participate. Maybe that's why Jesus made such a difference.

How to Respond to Tragedy

We live in an amazing age where people anywhere in the world can get up close and personal perspectives on tragedy happening in other parts of the world. The effects of the war in Syria, the actions of groups like Boko Haram, labor and sex slavery, and many, many others show up in our twitter and facebook feeds.

So how should a person who wants their faith to inform and affect their daily life respond to the ability to learn about the heart breaking realities in our world?

Let's start with what not to do. A to-don't list, if you will.

First, don't respond by ignoring them. These stories are upsetting. They hurt to learn about. We must follow the example of our creator, who, even when we hurt him, refused to ignore us. We are part of this world and when we refuse to allow anything to interrupt our starbucks-work-gym routine, we're going to miss out on a large chunk of our makeup - with is an individual called to be in community with other humans who are also made in God's image.

Second, don't respond with guilt. You have a computer or smartphone that you can use to surf the internet. Endless entertainment and distraction is available for your leisure time. That doesn't make you a terrible person for relaxing or enjoying life while others are in hellish circumstances.

Lastly, don't respond with pity. I know this may seem strange, but pity is shaking your head, saying 'that's terrible' and wishing you could do something about it - but knowing you can't and giving up. Pity helps no one.

So what is the right way to respond?

Respond with compassion.

Compassion seeks to care about the pain others are experiencing and asks 'what can I do to help?' Here's three things you can do in order to have a compassionate response.

1.Learn the stories.

2.Weep with those who weep.

3.Act.

Discovering the humanity in tragedy helps us to have compassion. Hearing that refugees are fleeing is a news story. Seeing the body of a toddler washed ashore and hearing his father talk about watching him perish is a human story. I have a three year old son. I wept when I saw that picture and read the story. I hate crying. I'd rather ignore or gloss over these painful stories, but I'm not called to avoid caring about others in this life. The story of the good Samaritan says I'm supposed to keep my eyes open for people who are beat up and laying on the side of the road so I can offer help. Helping starts with knowing and caring. Jesus wept when he arrived at the tomb of Lazarus - and Jesus knew he was going to resurrection the guy. Luke 7:12 and Matthew 14:14 both talk about Jesus being moved with compassion into action. You probably can't walk away from your current life and invest yourself into personally resolving one of these issues. Even if you could, you can't do it alone and there are many different problems. So what are the practical things you and I can start doing today which can contribute to a better future?

1.Pray unceasingly

Prayer is a limitless resource available to you. God is very clear in the scriptures that he wants us to ask him for his help and involvement. After learning about a tragic situation, you can spend as much or as little time as you like asking our loving Father to bring life and healing into situations of despair and death.

2.Donate generously

Find worthy organizations that can and are helping. World Vision is a great one, Salvation Army does wonderful things. Do your research and sacrifice some of what God has given you to help others.

3.Invite others to join you.

Most people would be happy to help others, but they need some encouragement and direction. Guilt or information overload may have them frozen in place. Ask some friends to join you in praying for Syria this week. Tell facebook how you’re donating $20 a month to help the refugee crisis and ask everyone to join you.

You can’t solve any crisis on your own, but the thing is: you aren’t supposed to. This whole ‘Body of Christ’ thing that God has given us is about each of us contributing and all of us together as a whole making huge differences. It’s why Jesus said in John 14:12 that his followers would do even greater things than him. If the 1-2 billion people who follow the teachings of Jesus each do something, together we’ll be an unstoppable force.

So don’t try to boil the ocean. And don’t get discouraged that you can only do a little. Do it, and invite others to join you, because that’s the mission of the church.

I Am A Hypocrite

I know there are people who refuse to attend a church because of all the hypocrisy they find in it.

Let me warn you up front that you probably won't like my church because I'm one of the pastors, and I'm a hypocrite.

I I wish I could say I wasn't a hypocrite, but that would just make me a hypocrite and a liar.

Sometimes I judge people who are judgmental.

Sometimes I look at people who commit sins that I am not tempted by, and consider their sins as being more severe than my own.

Sometimes I ignore advice I give to other people.

Arrogance and pride and lust and selfishness have at different times in my life grown wild in the soil of my humanity.

In Red Letter Revolution, Tony Campolo says that we are all hypocrites and that our only choice is where we set the boundaries of our hypocrisy.

Socrates, as I have written elsewhere, was considered the wisest man alive by the Oracle of Delphi in large part because he was aware of how much he didn't know. The other 'wise people' his era were self deluded into believing their knowledge was all encompassing.

I think we are all hypocrites. What defines us is whether we are aware of it. And once we are aware of it, whether we try to reduce it.

CS Lewis in Reflections on the Psalms worries that rather than being 'too good' for bullies, or cruel and dishonest people, we are perhaps not good enough to minister to them.

My favorite part of Blue Like Jazz is when the 'pope' starts to repent to the 'sinners' for failing them.

You know why Jesus was able to attract the outcasts of society despite the fact that he wasn't compromising God's standards - in fact he was raising them?

I think it's because it was a genuine message from a completely genuine person.

We still have that genuine message, but often, my failings and flaws make it hard to actually see the good news.

My name is TC and I'm a hypocrite. I'm sorry for that. I'm working on it, and I think I'm getting better about it. If you can forgive me for it, I think I can help the Body of Christ as we seek to grow closer to God together.

Follow Me

One day, as Jesus was walking along the shore of the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers - Simon, also called Peter and Andrew - throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, 'Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!'

They left their nets at once and followed him.

I always thought this was crazy. Why would these men leave their careers in a moment to accept a vague invitation?

I mean, he's Jesus, so maybe there was such a magnetism about him that they couldn't help but to follow him...but based on Isaiah 53:2 ("There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him"), it seems that was probably not the case.

So what could lead to their actions?

I was in Nashville for a music conference once, and after a session one evening, I walked to a convenience store to grab a snack.

While I was there, a fairly famous musician came into the store - Steven Curtis Chapman.

Because I understand that celebrities are just human, I have no interest in requesting autographs. I don't have any dislike for the man, I just know that we're not going to spark a long term friendship in a convenience store, so I didn't bother him as he was just trying to buy some food and keep moving even though I was the only other person in the store in addition to his agent/manager guy.

But even though I didn't interact with him, I knew who he was. If he had suddenly turned to me and offered to hire me at $100K per year, I would have immediately accepted, knowing he had the resources to do it.

Back to Galilee - word of this Jesus must have swept through the vicinity. People must have talked about how this great Rabbi was in the area of the seashore today. But with work to do, and a likely less than perfect religious record, the fisherman surely never expected Jesus to pay them any attention. There was no point in going up to him because there was no chance of some long term relationship starting.

But when he suddenly started walked among the boats of workers, they must've known who he was.

To their shock, Jesus doesn't just walk by, but turns to talk to them. Not to condemn them, but to invite them.

In light of this, we could understand their reaction.

They knew before he ever asked that he was worth following, they simply never expected they would be allowed to do so, much less to be invited to do so by Jesus himself.

You Are What You Do

Who are you? Are you a compilation of ideas and beliefs?

Are you defined by your potential or your intentions?

I would argue that you are defined by your actions. That you are what you do.

I've heard many celebrity apologies who, after doing something terrible, like uttering hateful speech, or drinking while driving, or abusing a girlfriend - they say something to the effect of 'this isn't who I am'.

But that's ridiculous. If you drink and drive, you're a drunk driver. If you speak with bigoted language, you are a bigot.

For my part I can say and do arrogant and prideful things. No matter how much I don't want it to be true, that makes me an arrogant and prideful person.

Now, I'm not saying we can't change and leave behind the parts of us that we no longer want to identify us, but that's not the point of this post.

My point is that we are what we do.

In the book of Revelation, chapter 5, we encounter a scroll in heaven.

All heaven and earth is searched, and nobody is found who is worth to open the scroll.

But then, one is found. It is Jesus. And here is how he is identified:

"...Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered..." (5:12)

Jesus was worthy to open the scrolls because of what he did.

I want to make it clear that Jesus is not being given this honor because he was a victim.

In Matthew 26:53, we are clearly told that Jesus was never out of control of his own execution. He had the ability to pull the plug at any time.

So Jesus being the Lamb who was slaughtered isn't about what happened to him, but rather his choice to accept it.

He was not a victim, he was a sacrifice.

It was through that sacrifice that he brought redemption.

Jesus' actions made him worthy.

His actions become how he is identified.

Instead of spending time telling others who we are, let us show them.

If we say we love people (as Jesus told us to), talk is cheap. If we want to be known as somebody who loves other people, what are the actions in our lives that points to that?

I would suggest that we look for places to sacrifice, as there is really no better way to demonstrate our values than when we give of the resources we cherish most deeply - our time, our efforts and energy, in the most extreme case, our lives.

I heard it said in the past week that if you want your life to matter, find the things you would be willing to die for, and start to live for those things.

Jesus both lived and died for our redemption. He is identified by his ultimate act, but also by all that is before that. Before being slaughtered, his actions demonstrate that he is the Lamb. That his worth is incredibly great by his innocent love for God and other people.

Again, it is what Jesus did that defines him.

Let us ask what our actions say about us.

White Washed Saints

"Don't call me a saint," Dorothy Day once told an admirer, "I don't want to be dismissed so easily." We love saints and heroes. We have Presidents Day and Martin Luther King's birthday. We used to have Columbus Day. We celebrate Memorial Day and Veteran's Day. We build statues to star athletes and war heros.

Generally speaking, we love the dead ones most. The reason being that once they are dead, we can choose to remember them as we wish without the pesky reminders of who they actually are -- which living people tend to provide.

George Washington cannot tell a lie in our nation consciousness, though the story is apocryphal and an admitted fabrication.

Lincoln never has to deal with bouts of severe depression in the car sale commercials we run in his honor.

Mother Teresa said in the midst of her ministry she had not heard God speak to her for decades.

Martin Luther King's womanizing is quickly pushed behind the curtain as we put him on a pedestal.

I think that King may be the best example of the misguided but not malicious makeover that we give our dead heroes. MLK was a genius. If you've never read his letter from a Birmingham jail or his books, or even watched the movie Selma, you're missing out.

Having just read his book, Strength to Love, I believe that if MLK was alive today, he would be speaking out about the evil of war. Any and all wars.

If, after 9/11, he were to speak to our nation and caution us against replying to violence with violence, we would have turned on him quite viciously. But because he is dead, his blind patriotism is unquestioned. In fact, he was becoming a thorn in the side of the government when he turned against the Vietnam war prior to his assassination.

Indeed in Strength to Love, King says this: "There may have been a time when war served as a negative good by preventing the spread and growth of an evil force, but the destructive power of modern weapons eliminates even the possibility that war may serve as a negative good."

Would our love for King be so great if he continued to force us to face questions about our behaviour as a country? His agitation for civil rights is viewed highly through the lens of modern history. If he was alive to speak against other injustices that still exist, we may not be so quick to praise him.

Would King be closer in national opinion to Al Sharpton rather than how we celebrate him today?

Heros and saints are great. They are important. By their examples, they call us to think bigger and to give ourselves fully to a cause greater than ourselves. But when we ignore their problems and failings, it actually hurts us.

We think, "I'm not perfect like s/he is, so I shouldn't try to do what s/he did." Our heroes and saints lived in a broken and corrupt world, just like we do. They had to deal with the same crap that comes toward all of us. Sometimes, they didn't handle it well.

That gives me great reassurance. God can do great things through people who are sometimes as flawed as me. We live in an era where we crave the humanity of our heroes.

Watch the latest Superman and Batman movies to see that we no longer want paragons of virtue who are untested by emotion and character flaws. I hope we can continue to apply that lens to the real heroes of our current and past world and not just our fictional ideas.

History and the Next Great Decision

Do you ever wonder how you would have reacted if you lived during different eras in history? What I mean is this:

Had I lived in the civil rights era in this country, would I have had the courage and understanding to stand with those who were fighting for equal treatment?

If I had lived in Germany during the 40s, would I have hidden Jews from those seeking to kill them?

Would I have criticized Abraham Lincoln when he led the process of introducing the Emancipation Proclamation?

Had I been alive at the time, would I have joined the crowd shouting ‘crucify him’ before Pontius Pilot?

Silly as it may seem, these questions scare me.

Mostly, because I know how imperfect I am. I worry that in the midst of these situations, I could have come to the wrong conclusions through arrogance and selfishness.

And when I talk about the wrong conclusion, I don't just mean the one that lost. We all know that history is written by the victors.

What happened to the Armenians in Turkey was wrong. Dropping nuclear weapons on civilian populations was wrong.

Obviously, I'll never know the answer to these questions. But it makes me look for the people groups and issues in our day that need people to stand up and courageously speak out.

Where are the issues that I need to apply the values gained from studying the scriptures and work for what is right?

There's many issues we argue over today: gun rights, universal health care, gay marriage, minimum wage, etc.

How can I be sure that I am pushing on the side 'of the angels' as the phrase goes?

I believe it comes down to a simply concept - that I must always chose the side of love.

I love this quote by Napoleon:

“Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him.”

Love is willing to give and sacrifice whereas force is willing to kill and take.

Where can I pour out my time, and energy and resources and efforts and possible my life for a cause greater than myself?

I believe this question will lead us to the places where we can work for redemptive and creative causes.

Humanizing Monsters

I'm reading a book called Radical by Maajid Nawaz. He grew up in the UK to a Pakistani family and became an Islamic Radical, but eventually came to disagree with the viewpoints he once embraced. He said one of the things he had to do in his journey back from a place of great hate was to learn to humanize everyone, even (especially?) those who dehumanize others. He describes how he went from celebrating 9/11 to mourning the London attacks in 2005.

As I read about what happened in Charleston, my reaction is to want to dehumanize the man who murdered 9 people in Emanuel AME Church.

He's a monster. Or a demon. Or something else that allows me to pretend that he's not a fellow human.

But that's not true.

He was born. He has a mother and a father. He eats. He drinks. He breathes. His heart beats.

He's human. And if I take the narrative of the bible to be true, he's a fellow child of God. Loved by God.

I want to be very clear: I'm not supporting or accepting of what he did.

As I read that he spent an hour sitting in a worship service with these people before murdering them, I can't fathom how after that time, he pulled out a gun and started shooting them.

I remember that at Columbine, in the original modern day mass shooting, crosses were erected for all the victims. Someone erected two smaller crosses for the shooters, which were angrily torn down. It's painful to recognize that someone who has caused so much harm may also deserve some measure of compassion.

We like to live in a binary, black and white world. Someone is 'good' or 'bad'. But life isn't so cut and dried. Someone can be guilty of terrible things and still deserve compassion.

The Colorado movie shooter suffered from mental illness. Instead of having to choose whether this affects his guilt or innocence as the legal system must do, can I not see it as a place where I should have compassion?

I'm not seeking to humanize the Charleston shooter because he deserves it or because I am ignoring what he did.

I'm seeking to humanize him because it's true.

It is also the only way we can hope to stem the tide of shootings at schools and malls and workplaces and houses of worship.

Because if these actions are the work of monsters and demons, I am powerless to stop them. I can only shake my head and feel sad that such beings cannot be stopped.

But if I'm dealing with humans, I can have hope. Hope that messages of love and acceptance and peace can be heard.

When I see an Islamic Radical come to the conclusion that 'an eye for an eye' simply doesn't work; and when I learn about the US Civil Rights movement through a film like Selma, I see clearly that only when we treat our adversaries as humans - no matter how flawed - can we hope to prevail in our cause.

In this case, the cause is that all humans are valuable. All people need dignity and acceptance.

That doesn't mean approval of all their actions, but that leads us into conflict resolution, which is not the point of this post.

So as you continue to hear about Charleston, mourn with those who mourn. These were also fellow humans who were killed.

I'm so saddened to hear of the death of my brothers and sisters in Christ. But I also have hope in a God of resurrection who says that He has the final word.

So in the meantime, I will hope that the shooter may get a glimpse of the loving God worshiped at Emanuel AME.

Because every human needs to know that God loves us, even as we must accept consequences for our actions.

Measuring Up

"So soon as he certainly has followers, he does not compare himself with his followers, towards whom he might appear as a master; he compares himself more and more with his Master, towards whom he appears only as a servant." That quote is about Francis of Assisi written by G.K. Chesterton.

As a leader, it's easy to start to derive your identity from what your team does or does not accomplish.

And if your team does a great job on a consistent basis, becoming arrogant is certainly a potential pitfall.

I get to lead some amazing people at my local church. People who volunteer their time and skill to help our local church make a difference in our local community and our world.

Staying humble when you work with amazing people can be hard (at least for me). Sometimes I get a bit arrogant. Sometimes I make the mistake of false humility, where I become too self deprecating.

Staying emotionally healthy and having a healthy self image is tough.

I love how Francis addressed this. The more other people wanted to follow him, the more he wanted to follow Jesus. If things were going great, it would be easy to pass that praise on to the Master he so closely followed.

If things were going rough, he has a mentor he can turn to rather than bearing the brunt all on his own.

His perspective and self worth would always be rooted to relationship that would not shift. Assisi would not be 'promoted' above Jesus at any point. Jesus would never fire him.

That's the solid ground on which to build our identity, not the shifting grounds of performance or results.

In order to have the best performance and results, one must have confidence. Jesus can give us that security and confidence.

Francis need not worry whether his followers abandon him, whether for valid reasons or not, because it would not change his identity as a follower himself.

To me, this is a brilliant perspective and one that every leaders - especially church leader - should keep in mind.

The End of the World (As We Know It)

If I were to ask you if things are going to get better or worse, what would you say? Perhaps you would ask me for some context, or at least a time frame.

One year from today, do you think your life will be better or worse?

What about 5 years? What about 30 years?

What if we think about more than your life. Will the world at large be better or worse off in a year? A hundred years? A Millenium?

I was in a discussion recently with some local community leaders and one of them made the observation that almost all movies/shows about the future have a negative outlook. Post apocalypse type stuff. The remake of Mad Max is currently on top of the box office as I write this post.

Shows like Last Man on Earth and the 100 are popular.

The theme is similar. In the future, things have gone terribly wrong (one way or another) and now human civilization lives in this Hobbsian reality where survival is the only real goal for people who are fighting to exist.

But here's the thing: there are other indicators that show we don't really believe that.

When a school or mall shooting occurs, we are still shocked and dismayed. If we believed that this world was inevitably heading for hell in a handbasket, we should simply shrug our shoulder and say, "Oh well. That's all we can expect."

Instead, we want answers on how to avoid these occurrences the next time. We turn to our political systems and seek answers and leadership. We want to make sure it will never happen again.

This is where I feel that we have cognitive dissonance.

We think that in the long term, things are going to go badly; but at the same time, we think in the short term, things can/should get better.

I believe we need to pick one or the other.

Either 'things can get better', or 'abandon hope all you who enter here'.

In the past, I think the church has taken the latter stance. The sales pitch has been, "This world is awful, but one day we'll get to heaven and it'll be okay". I'll Fly Away is a hymn that reflects this kind of escapism mentality. This world is the Titanic and my only goal should be to get off of it.

When I started to read N.T. Wright a number of years ago (specifically, Surprised by Hope), I discovered that I didn't need to choose the path of negative eschatology.

God is recreating this world. Revelation 21 points to a day that the heavens and earth are renewed and they exist in harmony with one another.

This tells us that what we do in this life makes a difference. It prepares the arrival of the kingdom. God is conducting train, and he has invited us to lay down the tracks for his arrival.

We can make things better now by praying the prayer in Matthew 6:10, "Your kingdom come, Your will be done" and then bringing our actions into line with our prayer.

And we know the end of the story. It is one of hope and redemption and renewal.

All the wrongs are set to rights.

No more tears or pain or death.

Now that's a future I can get behind. That's a future that lets me look at tragedy today and say, 'No. I will not stand idly by and allow this.'

That's a future which gives value to working for peace today.

If that's the end of the world as we know it, then I really can feel fine.

Justice: Freddie Gray and the City of Baltimore

I live in Baltimore County, just a few miles south of the city that is currently in the aftermath of the death of Freddie Gray, who died while he was in police custody a little over 2 weeks ago. Initially there were protests, but then some people have used what happened as an excuse for violence. The family of Freddie Gray has asked that the violence stop because it does not honor the man whom they loved.

It seems like we have seen this movie several times recently.

Violence leads to more violence.

Pleas for peace emanate from community and government leaders.

Most everyone just wants everything to go back to normal.

But normal means we go back to not being able to have a conversation when something goes wrong, like it did on April 12th.

We have been trained by political campaigns and cable news not to listen to one another, but rather to shout over one another.

When somebody attacks you, you must return it upon them ten fold.

The 'other side' is not just wrong, but also stupid and evil.

Respect, compassion and understanding are signs of weakness. If you're right, you should have the power of conviction that would make it impossible to demonstrate these traits.

Justice, we have been taught, is something you must demand, and if it is not offered, it must be taken.

But even if we are pure in our intentions to seek justice, we are wholly unable to achieve it.

Does that surprise you? What I just said? Let me explain why I believe that:

Jesus said "God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied." (Matthew 5:6)

Do you notice here that justice is not linked with our own action? The implication we get from Jesus is that God will give justice to those who have longed for it.

It does not say be "justice makers", as in verse 9 where Jesus tells us to be peace makers.

It says we should hunger and thirst for it.

Why is God alone able to provide justice? Very simply because we don't know what is just.

How should the police officers who handled Freddie Gray be responded to? Should they be be punished? Fired? Prosecuted? Imprisoned? What was in their hearts at the moment of the incident? We don't know.

And what of the police officers who have been injured by people who are looting and attempting to riot? If their actions were not just (and they certainly seem not to be), then what response should they receive? What does justice demand for them? We will again run into the problem of every person creating their own answer.

So what we end up with instead of justice is retribution.

We will demand punishment for those who have acted wrongly. Those who cry out that the punishment is too light, will say that the punishment is unjust.

If we give the harshest penalty possible, wouldn't those on the other end of the spectrum likewise scream that the punishment was unjustly harsh?

Both sides will appeal to justice for completely different results.

We cannot give justice. Only God can. And that is why he calls us to hunger and thirst for it.

What can we do in the meantime, while we are awaiting God to set all the wrongs to right, to restore this fallen and broken world?

I would suggest we look at verse 9 where Jesus gives us an action step. "God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God."

We can work for peace as we await justice.

Peacemaking, as we already saw why, is not simply getting things 'back to normal'.

Peacemaking is much, much more difficult. It will involve seeking to work on the issues that cause such outbreaks. Why does violence so often occur in our cities? Why is there an undercurrent of frustration that can lead to civil unrest?

This seems like a daunting task. Baltimore is a large city and I am but one person. How can I work for peace?

Perhaps your level of peace making starts with stopping. With not 'picking a side' and using your words on social media to bash the 'other side'.

Perhaps it can start with choosing to pray for everyone involved and not for the people who you prefer.

Perhaps after the unrest has settled, as it eventually will, it will start with reaching out to organizations or missions in areas where there is no peace to invest some time, energy and/or money into the process of peace.

Black lives matter and blue lives matter.

All lives matter to God, and they should matter to us as a result.

So let us hunger and thirst for justice. Let us trust that God will set the wrongs to right. In the meantime, let us work for peace.

_________________________

(If you are interested in reading some excellent material about this topic, I recommend No Future Without Forgiveness by Desmond Tutu, Evil and the Justice of God by N.T. Wright, and Exclusion and Embrace by Miroslav Volf)

Socrates and the Tough Mudder

There's an old story that goes something like this: A rich guy goes on a trip. Before he leaves, he calls his household employees together and gave them a task. Each of them got some money to manage for the boss while he was away.

- one got $3,000,000

- another got $1,200,000

- the third one got $600,000

The boss was gone for quite a while. When he came back, he called his three employees in to evaluate their performance.

The first guy had invested it well, and had been able to double the portfolio to 6 million bucks. The boss is thrilled, saying "Great job! My benefit will also be your benefit...I'm going to share the profits with you!"

The second guy also has good news - he doubled his portfolio as well. The boss tells him the same thing - that he's really pleased and that the employee is going to get a reward for his performance.

When the last guy speaks, it's quickly apparent that they didn't go 3 for 3.

The last guy tells his boss that he didn't do anything with his money. He was worried what would happen if he lost it, or if his boss would need access to it, so he put it in a checking account for the entire time. It didn't earn a dime.

The boss was furious with him.

"Are you kidding me!? You didn't even put it in a savings account or an IRA to earn some interest? If I can't even trust you with that, how can I trust you with anything I actually value?"

He was fired right in that meeting.

The story has multiple truths to explore. The obvious one is to do everything you can with what you have been given, but just below the surface of that is another truth: not everybody gets an equal starting point.

Both of the first two guys doubled their investment, but one of them started with a much bigger amount, so his results were magnified. The boss doesn't explain why one got more than another. It was the bosses prerogative to divide his investment however he wanted.

I went road biking with a friend the other day. I normally mountain bike, but I have a friend who road bikes and we agreed to each try the other style. I road biked with my friend, and he will mountain bike with me sometime later this summer.

When I was performing better than he expected, he complimented me and said that the running and mountain biking I do must have 'something to it'.

I told him about how I will be running a fourth Tough Mudder this year and how my current fitness goal is to complete a half full ironman triathlon next summer.

He had the same reaction that many people do when I talk about it, which is some combination of 'you're crazy' and 'why do you do this'?

My wife has asked me the same thing. Many friends and acquaintances have also asked this. I usually give an answer that goes something like this: I like to find my limits and push past them.

In the midst of the ride, though, something occurred to me. I told him the famous quote by Socrates: "The unexamined life is not worth living." I used to think this applied to philosophical introspection, but it dawned on me that was I applying this to my physical life.

I like to examine my limitations. So that I can push those limitations further out.

And I've done this not only in my physical life, but in my intellectual life as well. I finished a graduate degree and started teaching part time at local universities and colleges. I read books at a reasonable high rate on a wide variety of topics. I'm interested in entering a doctorate program in the next few years.

Spiritually, I threw myself into exploring the nature of God. To the point where I wanted to be involved in growing and strengthening the community of believers known as the Body of Christ. It led me to full time ministry.

I had an epiphany that I'm doing what Socrates said in pretty much every area of my life.

I think that I'm the second guy in that story from above (which you can read in Matthew 25:14-30 if you want the way Jesus told it).

I'm not the smartest guy I know, but I'm a professor. I'm not the fastest or strongest guy I know, but I've completed triathlons. I know better ministers, but I'm part of an amazing community of believers who I get to help lead.

The point I'm making is not that I'm a jack of all trades and a master of none, but rather that I simply wasn't given the 3 million dollars to start with, but that I think I'm doing everything possible with the one million I did get.

Others may have more than I do in their results, but I would bet that most of them started with more than I had to work with.

I think I have gotten pretty good returns on what I was given. And instead of getting frustrated that I didn't get more (with 3 more inches, my baseball career could have gone a lot further), I'm going to get every drop out of what I have to work with.

I didn't want to run races in my 20s because if I couldn't win, I didn't want to compete. I mistakenly thought I should compare myself to what others could do. I knew there would always be somebody faster than I am.

But when I learned to compete against myself, and against the clock, I realized that it was all about maximizing what God has given me.

I'll keep that in mind on June 13th in Virginia when I'm running through tear gas, electric wires and dumpsters full of ice water.

I do this because I want to get the highest rate of return possible out of every part of my life, so that my boss says 'Great job! I'm going to share my profits with you!"

35@35: Completion

So last year I had a goal to write 35 blog posts, using the 35 principles and guidelines for life that I have been gathering during my adult life. I didn't meet that goal. I got through 26, but my schedule just didn't allow me to finish. So, in an effort to follow through (at least to some degree) on that 2015 goal, I'm going to post the rest of my principles and guidelines. Here goes:

27. You improve what you measure.

If you want something to be 'better' in your life, then you need to figure out how to put some metrics around it so that you can determine growth. If I say 'I want to eat healthier', it's only going to happen if I have the ability to look at my performance and see whether there is growth. Am I eating more vegetables? Eating less cookie dough filled donuts? Reducing carbs/calories/fat? The first step to improvement is assessment.

28. My imperfection points to God’s greatness.

When I screw up, I tend to be pretty hard on myself. I am tempted to devalue my own self worth when I screw up. But God chooses to give me grace. So I try to do two things: accept God's grace, and thank Him for that grace. Because God is not threatened by my screw ups. And that just goes to demonstrate how wonderful and fatherly His love truly is.

29. Read a lot of books. You can never have to much outside perspective in your thinking process. When you stop learning, you stop growing.

I think that wisdom comes from having perspectives. We can each see through our own eyes, feel our own feelings, know our own desires, fears, hurts, passions, etc. Wisdom is understanding and appreciating those same things from the eyes of other people. Books are a great way to see through another person's eyes, and therefore to gain wisdom.

30. If you want your life to be different in five years, the question to ask yourself is "what am I doing today to make that happen"?

I knew a person once who wanted to be a professional musician. I asked her if she was taking voice lessons. No. I asked her if she was taking guitar lessons. No. I asked her if she was creating demos and sharing them online. No.

It dawned on me that she was simply hoping that one day, somebody would knock on her door and offer her a dream job, or that she would otherwise luck her way into that position. That's a terrible idea. If you want to work in a particular field in 5 years, I want to know what school you're enrolled in to take classes toward that field. If you want to be a mile away from your current life next year, I want to see the footsteps you took today. Wishing you were at a destination is pointless. Taking steps, even small ones, will move you closer and eventually get you there.

31. In your 20s, try anything and everything you think you might be interested in.

I see many young people going to college right out of high school and joining the workforce right out of that in the field where they got a degree. It's like a race to get in so you can start working your way up. But what if you figure out 10 or 20 years later that you hate what you're doing? That's why people have a mid life crisis. I think that in your 20s, you should travel, try different jobs, have as many experiences as you can. How can you know what you love until you start to discover things that you don't love.

I discovered that money was a much less powerful motivator for me that it was for others. I learned my passions and engaged with them fully and now I work at places where I love showing up each day. I may have seemed like a late bloomer, having not started college until several years after high school, but when I decided my course, I engaged it full steam. Take a moment to aim before you fire. That moment is your 20s.

32. You get what you pay for. (aka: I hate running, but I hate being out of shape even more.)

Pretty self explanatory. If you want something better than what you have, it will cost something. As Jesus said, count the cost. For me that cost is regular exercise, specifically running. I hate it, but if I don't pay that price, I won't get what I want.

33. There is no success or failure, there is only obedience.

Most of my principles are acquired (stolen) from other people of materials. This one particularly so. When my wife and I were in the process of purchasing a business (that would eventually fail), a friend at our church said this to us. It sounded a bit prophetic to me, and I didn't like it one bit because I intended to succeed. After everything came crashing down, I recalled this. It gave me hope, because I believed we had obeyed what we believed God had guided us to do. I don't have to accept the result as being my identity, and I can move forward without feeling like a total failure.

34. The path you take in life makes you who you are. Shortcuts aren’t all they are cracked up to be.

Related to my theory about trying anything you want in your 20s, the point in life is not the same as Youtube commenters yelling 'FIRST!'. Being first is overrated. First into a career. First to own a new expensive gadget.

My wife and I both settled on a long term career in our 30s. Part of us wants to kick ourselves for 'losing' 10 years we could have been investing in these fields, but I don't regret it.

We're very different from somebody fresh out of college learning a job. We bring experience and broader perspective with us. Here's how I think of it: Everybody set out for a particular campsite called 'life'. My wife and I took a long and winding path through the forest while most others took the paved footbath. We arrived much later than those who used the footpath, but we also have way better stories about things we saw in the forest, experiences we made it through, and the ability to navigate the forest again if the campsite has to be evacuated.

I know this is basically the plot of the Adam Sandler movie Click, but life is made up of the experiences you have along the way. Shortcuts usually have less experiences.

(Yes, I'm aware that this whole post is basically a short cut. Thank you for not pointing out my inconsistency :)

35. Think for yourself, but not only of yourself.

As somebody who highly values both faith and intellectual development, I have learned that both of those two area have strengths, and that they are not mutually exclusive.

Intellectual development helps me not to be subject to manipulation of others. I decide the things I believe. I don't just go along with people.

But faith has taught me the value of community. That allowing myself to be reliant on others isn't a sign of weakness. It allows me to gain more value out of life as I love and am loved. As I know and am known.

I work hard to never outsource my thinking to others, but I seek to invest in others and allow others to invest in me knowing that I can never reach my upper limits without others to help me get there.

Have a great 2015!

___________________________

35@35 is a blog series by Thomas Christianson which involves 35 blog posts in 2014 on 35 things he has learned at the age of 35.

Retelling Christmas: A Story of Joy

This past Sunday, I got to speak about the joy we find in the Christmas narrative. Pretty much everybody who discovered what God's plan is - and that they get to be involved in it - are filled with joy. You know what? I don't like ending a sentence with the word 'joy' and a period.

Joy needs to have an exclamation point after it.

Joy!

JOY!

That's better. Okay, back to the blog post:

But it's not just at Christmas that people discover JOY! regarding God's plans:

Matthew records a story on Easter Sunday (I know, I know, now talking about Easter at Christmas. I shouldn’t do that...)

Anyways, Matthew tells us about some women heading to Jesus’ tomb on what would become known as Easter Sunday. When they arrive, they find an angel has rolled away the stone and the angel shares with them the news that Jesus has risen.

Here's what happens next:

Matt 28:8 “The women ran quickly from the tomb. They were very frightened but also filled with great JOY!, and they rushed to give the disciples the angel’s message.” (emphasis mine)

These women discovered something God was doing, and it filled them with JOY! These women got to be the first people to share the Gospel.

(Just quick side note here. If you're a woman and you feel that God is calling you to ministry, what more authority do you need than the fact that God chose women to be the very first messengers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? God's gifts are not separated by gender. That's my riff on that.)

The bottom line is that if you want JOY! in your life, find out what God is up to and get involved.

This doesn't mean you won't have difficult time and circumstances arise. But if we remember that God is all about renewing and restoring all of creation and we get to be a part of that, there's a JOY! at the core of that which no circumstance or situation can ever fully smother.

So share the message of JOY! that the God who made us and knows all about us loves us and wants to have a relationship with us, because this is not something we're supposed to hold onto and hoard. God was pleased to share this JOY! with us, now we should go forth and share it with others.

Put other people first by volunteering.

Do something randomly nice like paying for the check of a family at a restaurant without them knowing

Give a Christmas present to somebody totally not expecting one from you (and tell them not to go get you one, but give something to charity if they feel a need to reciprocate).

Tell stories of JOY! in your life this Christmas in honor of the God who shouted it to us through his own son Jesus!

A Weird Way to Save the World

And this is one of the most crucial definitions for the whole of Christianity; that the opposite of sin is not virtue but faith. ― Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death

That the opposite of sin isn't doing good or being good; rather it’s trusting Jesus.

That’s a weird idea.

That when I screw up and do something that’s selfish and hurtful, it doesn’t mean that I need to make myself into a better person; but that I am a person who is in need of a Saviour.

Jesus saves us from all our selfish, destructive ways not by glaring at us and threatening us with what will happen if we don’t start to get our stuff together.

Instead, it seems like he’s always trying to lead us on paths that lead to life rather than paths that end up in us getting the same, normal results everybody else gets in life.

Instead of saying “stop doing that or else”, it seems like Jesus says “stop doing that, because I’ve got a better way”.

Jesus shows us this narrow path by the way he lived his own life. He was the Son of God, yet he didn’t show up demanding to be treated like a king.

There’s a great story in the book written by one of Jesus’ closest followers, John that highlights this:

“Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.” (John 13:3-5)

Jesus knew he had been given authority over everything, and yet here he is, washing the dirty feet of a group of men, one of which was going to betray Jesus.

He didn’t use that authority to dominate or control or bully. He knew he had it, and he chose to serve. That’s definitely weird.

At the end of that story, Jesus tells his disciples “I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.” (v. 15)

Jesus saved me.

From my sin.

From a life of anger and hopelessness

And ultimately, from death itself.

He saved me by serving and sacrificing. That’s a weird way to save the world, and I’ll never be able to adequately express my gratitude for it.

But I want my life to be a response to his great love.

So I will worship God with my heart as I sing of his great love.

I will worship God with my mind as I think of the things he has done.

I will worship God with my soul as I invite God into the center of all that I am.

And I will worship God with my strength as I go out into my community and my world and share his great love through my actions.

Because if Jesus can bring salvation through serving and sacrifice, then I know I can point to that salvation through doing the same things.

35@35 #26: Hype vs Depth

TC's guidelines and principles of life #26: "Motivation fades. Inspiration lasts." When I was getting my undergraduate degree from Christ for the Nations Bible College in Dallas, TX, I had to take a course called Evangelism.

The whole point of this course was learning how to convert people to Christianity.

For the final exam, I had to memorize a script, go into a neighborhood with several other classmates, and use this script to get people to accept Jesus into their lives.

I hated this whole concept. I felt that we had turned following Jesus into a cheap parlor trick of some kind. I decided to stay disengaged from this transactional approach to expanding God's kingdom.

I didn't know it at the time, but I believed that if you remove relationships with people out of the evangelism, it can quickly become very toxic. A game based solely on numbers rather than the relationships Jesus calls us to create as we 'make disciples'.

Because God is funny, the teacher of this class -out of dozens of teams - chose to embed herself into my group. So much for disengaging. I was going to have to stay involved in this exercise if I wanted to pass this class.

We walked through the streets of a particular neighborhood and met several people outside. Each time, one of us would go into the sales pitch we had been required to memorize.

Everybody we talked to prayed a prayer of salvation with us.

As we headed to the rally point, the other members of my team were celebrating the results of the day.

I felt no such joy.

I worried that we had turned God into a magic password.

Say Jesus and you get to go to heaven.

I have been to rallies designed to convince teenagers to give their lives to Christ at the end of amazing music, lights, and speaker.

I wonder what will happen to these kids when they return to their lives outside of that weekend.

I am a follower of Jesus. Not because somebody convinced me that the carrot of heaven is worth running after. Not because of a rally with great production values. Not because I just believe what my parents believe (I don't).

I am a follower of Jesus because I have caught a glimpse that the God who made everything in the universe also made me. He knows everything I have ever done, said or thought, yet loves me anyways.

Instead of being motivated to avoid hell, or shame, or being left out when everybody else is giving their life to Jesus at a rally, I have been inspired by the new, richer life that Jesus offers to me.

I don't follow Jesus out of fear or for a reward. I follow Jesus out of love and gratitude.

Hype, motivation - you can use these to get somebody to do something for a short period of time. Either you have to keep hyping and motivating them, or they'll fade away. Hype is like fireworks: beautiful and captivating, but quickly faded and forgotten.

Depth, inspiration - these things will last. These things change our lives. These are the impacts that Jesus had in the lives of those who encountered him. Inspiration is like the sun, constantly shining, giving us the ability rely on it day after day.

That is why he asks us to make disciples, not converts.

Fireworks light up the sky, and everybody enjoys them; but the Sun, with it's steady, constant glow gives life to all beneath it.

___________________________

35@35 is a blog series by Thomas Christianson which involves 35 blog posts in 2014 on 35 things he has learned at the age of 35.

35@35 #25: Work Smarter

TC's guidelines and principles of life #25: "If you’re not entirely sure what you’re doing, watch a Youtube demo video first." This one is one of my very practical lessons in life.

I'm not the kind of person who does a lot of 'instruction reading'. I'd rather try to figure it out on my own if possible. I'll also spend the time walking around a store to find what I want instead of just asking an employee.

I don't know why. It's one of my quirks. I'm stubborn.

However, I am also not mechanically inclined.

So when I had to fix my dryer about a year ago, this was a bad combination. Fortunately, I have discovered that pretty much every problem I ever encounter in life has a youtube instructional video.

Fixing the dryer? Check.

Building my son's new toy car? Check.

Putting together that new piece of Ikea furniture? Check.

So anytime I have to do something that involves assembly, I try to make sure I watch the Youtube video as soon as I get stuck, because otherwise, I will probably find out later on that I have to do some disassembly to fix what I've just done wrong.

You have the greatest compilation of human knowledge in the span of history at your fingertips, don't forget that.

___________________________

35@35 is a blog series by Thomas Christianson which involves 35 blog posts in 2014 on 35 things he has learned at the age of 35.

35@35 #24: Anger

TC's guidelines and principles of life #24: "When you get angry, your IQ decreases by about 75%." I am a reasonably intelligent human being. And I strive to follow the healthy, helpful advice that Jesus gives me through the books his disciples wrote about him and what he said.

Jesus especially emphasized two things that he says I should do: Love God with all my being and love my neighbors as myself. I'm a bit of an introvert, and I was an only child, so I'm still learning to be good at the 'loving my neighbor' part.

I'm actually reading a book right now called 'The Art of Neighboring' that is challenging me and I'm already taking steps to better get to know the people who physically live closest to me.

But sometimes I get angry. And I've noticed something: that when I get angry, I stop caring about the things Jesus said.

I don't want to learn about why somebody else took a particular action.

I don't want to learn their story so I can value them more.

Usually, I just want to take the bad feeling inside me and shove it on top of somebody else.

So I argue or I yell or I just kind of act like a jerk.

I was at a gas station the other day when one guy started yelling and cussing at another guy because he didn't like where the other guy pulled up to the gas pump.

It made the guy who was yelling and cussing look pretty bad. He was being selfish and pretty unreasonable.

I wasn't angry, so I could see how ridiculous he was being. But I bet he didn't think he was acting foolishly. Because his IQ was down about 75% at the time.

When I get angry, I think 'not angry me' would look at me and think many of the same things. 'What's that guys problem? Doesn't he realize how bad he looks when he is doing that?'

In Ephesians 4:26, Paul relays a quote: "don't sin by letting anger control you." Later he says that anger gives the devil a foothold in our lives.

So when I'm angry, I try to shut up until I get over myself. Usually I try to remember to pray in those moments, knowing that God is able to help me deal with emotions that seem to be out of my control sometimes.

When I've got my wits about me, I can usually handle situations that come my way. So I try not to let anger steal those wits.

Another product of my personality is that I fear rejection. One of the temptations for me is to respond to rejection (or even perceived rejection) is to use anger as a shield.

It's pretty unhealthy, I know. That's why I do my best not to allow it to happen. Being willing to stay vulnerable in the face of rejection is not my favorite thing to do.

That's why I pray. Because, without God's help, it will be impossible for me.

So next time you get angry, remember that you're not just angry: you're angry and stupid. And when you're angry and stupid, it's probably best not to so something that smart, calm you will look at and say 'what's his/her problem?'

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35@35 is a blog series by Thomas Christianson which involves 35 blog posts in 2014 on 35 things he has learned at the age of 35.