Excuses

A few of us were gathering to ride and one of mine friends was complaining about his bike, another was complaining about his hamstring and how he didn’t know if he could make it. Though I didn’t say anything I was wondering how I’d do in a group ride because I hadn’t been on a road bike in some time. Then Danny rolls up. Danny fractured his c 7 vertebrae 8 weeks ago and hasn’t ridden in those 8 weeks. Without a complaint or excuse he pulls up and heads out for 40 miles and even got out front in the wind when it was his turn to pull. Toward the end of the ride, when he was clearly fading, he never complained or made an excuse. There are so many reasons we can’t, we can come up with them to justify our underachieving or self-interested ways. Then there are those subtle reminders that our wills are simply not robustly aligned with His. What’s your excuse?

The Word

The unexpected Word of God is a profound blow to the soul. We are often numb to the beauty of the Word chiefly because we assume we know what it says. In doing so we drowned out the voice of the Spirit bidding us to come and listen. We are often shocked when we have it thrust upon us in the light of unexpected illumination. How changed might we be if we assumed we knew less and hungered and craved for more of Him revealed?

Love

The decorations are out already and the bells are ringing at the Wal-Mart. My list is shorter this year. The party invites are coming in. The parties I'm hosting are already arranged and I'm actually starting to work on the Christmas letter that will need to go out soon. It's not about any of this of course, they are all symptoms or expressions of what when I analyze it, think about it or just quietly meditate turns out to be plainly "Love." It's not a Hollywood, juvenile or cotton candy "pop" love. It's the climb any mountain, sail across the stormy seas, drive all night, lay down my life kind of love that leaves you breathless and broken. When the expression or the 'symptom' if you will no longer leads you to the source then it's time to reframe the expression. I'm not talking dispensing with Christmas, just centering it as Christ Mas. Gifts are nice if they are the reflection of love, songs are nice if they are love songs, parties are nice if they reflect adoring, loving community. Santa is nice too if he was a guy who lived out this radical love to others always anchored in the source. In the end it all comes down to love. Where every day is Christmas and every night is New Years Eve.

Revolutionaries

Revolutionaries: those regular, every day Christians who are changing the world through action. I think of Sharlla Stone volunteering at the Pregnancy Center, Oscar Ramirez working among the urban poor at Avenida Guadalupe, the rag tag bunch of radicals who feed the homeless each Monday and my 70-year-old mom who volunteers at the Christian Women’s Job Corp. I see them putting meaning to words every day so many of us merely espouse. Herbert Hoover said “words without actions are the assassins of idealism.” The apostle James said “faith without works is dead.”

Fear of Change

My son came home from his homeschool co-op and asked was it true that we would no longer be able to homeschool if Obama becomes president? I told him no, that people fear change and they fear the unknown but our God is a sovereign God and He is the one who puts people into power. President-elect Obama has never suggested or stated such a position and that while the party he represents tends to not be in favor of certain educational philosophies it in no way threatened our way of life. That same day my nephews came home from their affluent Christian school saying that if McCain didn’t win God would turn his back on America. I hung my head in disappointment. I long for Christians to follow Jesus first and be identified with Him.
Let me urge you to be a Christian first! Seek truth, unity and the Kingdom of God. Do not fear for He is sovereign, do not slander for it is sin. Build one another up. Seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly.

Live It Out

My son has been mowing lawns near our home. One of the single women whose yard he mows has been undergoing chemo and he began mowing it out of a request from the church. Recently as he was mowing she offered to start paying him and he told me about it. I got excited for him and started calculating the income he would be adding to his little business and he said, “No Dad, I told her not to pay me. She has cancer and it wouldn’t be right.” I marveled at the deep grasp of truth that he possesses. We can easily rationalize what Scripture clearly extols, we can justify and wiggle around the lucid demands of Christ and yet the pure of heart see it so clearly. The Scripture that I know so well sometimes loses its clarity in familiarity. To see it lived before me challenges my understanding.