A Risen Life

I feel terrible today.

The weight of the world feels like it is slowly getting heavier on my shoulders. I feel caught in that ugly place of confusion, frustration, weariness, selfishness, lonliness, and exhaustion.

This is one of those days where I feel like everyone is just waiting for me to fail and like I have nothing to give.

But Jesus has risen.

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." - Galatians 2:20

You see, whether we want to admit it or not, we are human beings. 

We are needy, broken individuals who, if left to our own devices, allow our perspective to become narrow and our actions harmful.

On our own we do not always feel loved, or like we even have the ability to love others. On our own we dig ourselves deeper into despair or whatever bad feeling exists and we isolate ourselves from any form of true intimacy.

"I no longer live, but Christ lives in me."

Jesus has risen.

Meaning we don't have to stay in frustration, isolation, or fear. Meaning that as we die to ourselves and imitate Christ's humility, as we share in his sufferings, we can also share in his resurrection.

"We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." - Romans 6: 2-4

The celebration of the resurrection of Jesus is a reminder that Jesus can breathe new life into our humanity, and has empowered us through his Holy Spirit to be an agent for resurrection everywhere we are.

You are not "just a" mom or dad, you are not "just a" employee, you are not "just a" ordinary person.

You are someone with the ability to influence those around you wherever you go, to live the power that comes from having Christ live in us and through us.

We don't have to be perfect, just willing. Willing to let God work in our hearts to bring true healing and intimacy with Him, so that we can be that for others and ultimately point them to Jesus.


"The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

Imitating Christ's Humility

I want to start this blog with the following passage from the book of Phillipians. Specifically Phillipians 2:3-8:

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself   by becoming obedient to death - even death on a cross!"

(emphasis mine)

You know what one of the most amazing things about Jesus' death on the cross is to me? 

The fact that all authority and power in heaven and earth had been given to him, and he chose to lay it down of his own accord.

He could have summoned an army of angels to prevent him from being held captive, or at the very least taken the multiple opportunities that were given to him by his accusers to defend himself. 

He could have lashed out in anger at his torturers or ran away as he felt the anxiety and fear in his final moments at Gesthemane. He could have said "Father, not your will, but mine be done."

But he did none of those things.

He took the very nature of a servant and humbled himself to the point of death.

What Jesus did on the cross represents forgiveness for all of our sins, a way being made to relationship with God, and full submission of Jesus to his Father's will.

That's what I want us to consider. What steps are we taking to die to ourselves on a daily basis in submission to God the Father? How are we imitating Christ's humility?

Are we getting angry and frustrated when things don't go our way? Are we seeking only the good of ourselves? Are we entitled to what we "deserve"?

The Son of God himself did not wield his power against humanity. So we, who are here today & gone tomorrow, should not be so arrogant to think we can act any differently.

May we take the nature of a servant, may we "wash each other's feet", may we look not only to our own interests but to the interests of others. May we learn to hear the Fathers voice, and know that his commands are not burdensome, but are born out of his undying love and commitment to see us look more like Jesus.

May the death of Jesus remind you how deeply you are loved, and empower you to love others.

Maturity

I want to be humble in a way that isn't just really good at faking it, but where I have a true self awareness of who I am in relation to the God we serve.

I want to improve at submitting to authority, and not always thinking my way is right or that I'm untouchable because of what I may have accomplished or experienced.

I want to mature in the unique plan that God has for my life, not spend all my time comparing myself to so and so in an attempt to either boost my ego or make their story into my story.

I want to have character and integrity, to do the little things well even when no one is watching.

Most of all, I want to help empower families and lead folks out of the poverty mindset and into the worth and dignity they possess as the creation of God Almighty. I'm tired of seeing single parent households that can barely pay the bills, feed their kids, do laundry, or find a job.

I'm tired of the way people in those situations fall into depression and believe they are worthless. I'm tired of them getting used to being somebody's project.

I'm tired of living in the poverty mindset.

Let's face it, you can't lead where you haven't been. I believe the church needs more spiritual mothers and fathers who throughout their life have consistently taken steps in faith to follow Jesus no matter what it may have cost them. People who are truly mature in the Lord, confident in their identity in Jesus, humble, compassionate, quick to love in action & truth, submissive to authority, full of character & integrity.

In a word, people who are being sanctified. Looking more like Jesus everyday.

If we want to see true and lasting change, disciples of Jesus being made, broken homes and families restored, and people coming out of poverty, we must allow Jesus to walk us through the process of maturity. If we want to be participants in what the apostle Paul calls "the ministry of reconciliation", if we want to see resurrection happen all over the place, we must be in tune with what God wants to do in & through us.

In this next season of life, I will be working part time at Starbucks and part time as a missionary through Current of Ohio, LoveCanton, and many other entities I am involved with.

I know that God wants to teach me all of the stuff I listed above, and I believe being bi-vocational for a season was the step out of my comfort zone that Jesus was wanting me to take.

So how about you?

What is the next step Jesus is asking you to take?

Reaching The Summit

Kids matter deeply to God, and the tragic circumstances and home lives that some kids must face, is not the end of the story. Healing for at-risk kids in physical, spiritual, and emotional ways is absolutely possible. I know because in many ways it's my story.

I grew up in a tough home environment, and the stress of poverty and the weight of our brokenness felt like too much to handle sometimes. My response was often violence, which caused me to get suspended multiple times, almost expelled, and eventually led to my brief incarceration in a juvenile detention center when I was in 8th grade. 

That is a brief part of my story, and was not the end for me. Today I am a new man who has   experienced great personal healing through God and the community of people he placed around me, including much of my once broken family. I have lived firsthand the life of an at- risk kid and the transformation that is possible.

As a result of how my life was changed, my goal is to give back and do whatever it takes to help kids facing big obstacles. To do this practically, I will be climbing Mt. Rainier in Seattle, WA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rainier) during August 18-20, 2013 w/ 3 other friends. Our goal is to reach the 14, 411 ft. Summit.

This is both a personal growth challenge, and an attempt to raise money for the Christian Children's Home of Ohio (http://www.ccho.org/). Our total goal is $20,000 as each person has committed to raise at least $5000.

Their mission is to "bring healing to hurting children & families in His name." For more than 40 years, and with programs in 16 locations throughout OH, including many counseling centers and a Children's Residential Center where kids get the care they need, CCHO is a beacon of light for at-risk kids. 

For the personal challenge side of it, I will also need to raise some personal costs just to be able to go. Rest assured, I will be saving every penny I can to help cover this.

I will be tracking my progress in every aspect of this climb, so stay tuned for more info.

Please be in prayer for the climbing team, the kids that CCHO supports, and the countless other children that are still living in abusive situations.
 
       
       

    

Men & Women.

I feel like it's all too easy to idealize or demonize a person from the opposite sex. Much of the time I have found myself having false expectations of what a relationship with a woman would look like, viewing it as the goal, the end, the finish line.

But it isn't. I'm finding that dating, being engaged to, or marrying someone is a very real undertaking. It isn't perfection, it isn't fantasy, it isn't a way for us to get all of our needs met. It's something that causes us to die to ourselves on a daily basis, to show true, sacrificial love to the other person.

Men and women both have very real purposes and unique things they bring to the table. For example men are most actualized when creating and initiating something. It's who we are, we thrive on doing and giving life to something. Women are uniquely created with a profound ability to be and to relate. They were made with a high level of emotional skills and the capacity to be responsive.

Out of our brokenness we will often find ourselves getting these roles mixed up, and it can become hard for a healthy male/female relationship to take place. Our wounds may also cause us to avoid male /female relationships altogether.

God himself possesses both of these masculine and feminine qualities as shown in his ability to initiate truth and action in our lives as well as provide a place of comfort and rest.

The point is that we were created to be in right relationship with God and members of the opposite sex.

Rather than idealize or demonize male/female relationships, we should earnestly seek wholeness in Christ and in our unique gender roles as masculine & feminine.

You hear guys say to each other all the time as advice for getting a woman to like them; "Just have confidence bro." That "confidence" can serve as a mask for the fear and insecurities within. Jesus doesn't want us to cover over or avoid our brokenness, rather he wants us to be fully confident in him and who he has made us to be.

As men we should treasure the heart of women and fully accept in grace and love their humanity.

I'm done placing unrealistic ideas on women and expecting them to be the ones who fully heal the broken places in my heart and who affirm my masculinity.

I want to become a whole person in Christ so that on the day I am blessed with a companion, I can begin the journey of caring for the real human heart that has been entrusted to me.

What my heart knows about God

Recently I was charged with the task of sitting down and writing what I know about God. However, this is not a "know" as in mere "knowledge". This was meant to be from the heart, from a place of intimacy with Jesus. You can have knowledge about someone and no intimacy, but as you allow intimacy to take place, knowledge comes naturally.

So here, in a raw way, is what my heart KNOWS about the Father:

I know that God loves me more than I could ever love myself or be loved by anyone else.

I know that his is a perfect love. It's perfect, unfailing love because he is faithful and committed to us and not going anywhere. He 100 percent cares about our hearts. He 100 percent cares about my heart.

 If I had it my way I would be a person who is lazy, arrogant, selfish, prideful, insecure, depressed, anxious, and fearful (among other things). But God knows what I need and he knows how to get it to me.

I'm not just talking about physical provision (although he does that as well), I'm referring to what I need to become "complete, lacking nothing" as the apostle Paul states. He continues to raise the bar in my life for what it means to look like him and to follow him.

That is ultimately how I know that his is a perfect love and more spectacular than what I could ever give to myself. He does not hold back from putting me in uncomfortable places, speaking truth into my life, and providing a place of rest. Supernaturally in his grace he portions all of that out in ways that I can receive and act on it. His timing is wonderful. 

He is more than just a God who goes around cleaning up our messes. He is proactively teaching us and putting us in spaces where the Holy Spirit can work in and through us for reasons that we may never understand. He is committed to redeeming our past, working in/through us in the present, and guiding us into maturity for the sake of our future.

I know that God is love, and that statement has taken on a whole new meaning as we have walked together through victory and struggle. I know that He is Lord, and that I want him guiding the way, and not simply sitting next to me as I dictate where we go.

My Rejected Friend part 2

I have recently had to come to terms with some pretty major weaknesses I possess, and as a result make some very humbling decisions. The tendency here is to buy into the lies that I'm only as good as what I have or the things I do. Even worse, I might be tempted to buy into the lie that I'm only worth comparing to others and hold no value of my own.

It's easy to get caught up in our own world isn't it?

We let things like fear, anxiety, and our need for control shape our daily actions. If left unchecked, over time the most gentle spirit can turn into a hardened soul.

I recently had an interaction with a notorious member of our community here in Canton. This person and their past has always been such a mystery to me. I have watched them literally lie, cheat, and steal just to make it through the day. Social pleasantries? Forget about it. They will come straight up to you and demand you give to their personal cause.

I don't know too much about them (mostly because it's hard to have a real conversation), but have had enough interactions to know that most of their thoughts center around their own existence, and that I have often acted in the same manner.

Who of us hasn't believed the world to revolve solely around us at some point?

Whether it's a complete focus on how much we hate ourselves, or being incredibly prideful, when the focus is completely on us it throws our lives out of balance and acts in direction opposition to our ability to love others in a sacrificial way.

What's needed is a perspective shift.

"How great you are, Sovereign Lord! There is no one like you,  and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears."

- 2 Samuel 7:22

"I know that you can do all things (Lord); no purpose of yours can be thwarted."

- Job 42:2

The first statement is part of a prayer from King David in the book of 2 Samuel. By that point in his life, David had undergone a lot of tragedy and strife, yet still found it in his being to worship the Lord in genuine awe of who He is.

The second statement is from Job, right after he had just lost everything. I mean everything. Maybe more than you or I will ever lose.

These 2 experienced huge personal hardship in their lifetimes. They had every reason to renounce God, focus on themselves, and let their hearts fill with bitterness. They chose to put their personal stuff aside and acknowledge the bigness and goodness of God.

We have that choice today. We have that choice to acknowledge that we are small, yet loved by a big God who created the universe. What God did by sending his son Jesus in human likeness to die for us is huge when you consider how fleeting our existence is. We matter to God.

I love my friend that I described earlier. Many in Canton have written him off, shunned him from their establishments and lives. "There's no hope for him" people say.

I say that with God all things are possible. I say that behind his misdeeds is a human being who has been ultra wounded and taught that he is worthless. Can you blame him for focusing on himself?

We have the opportunity in this lifetime to realize how big God is, realize how much he loves us, and take part in a story much larger than ourselves. We don't have to let our hearts harden, and we don't have to give up on those who have.