MLK Day is So Much More

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is traditionally viewed as a day off from our busy schedules, but what we fail to realize is it was intended to be so much more than that.

"In 1994, legislation was passed to create Martin Luther King Day of Service – to encourage citizens to use the federal holiday as an opportunity to give back to their communities. Considered a "day on, not a day off" individuals are encouraged to work towards King's vision of a "Beloved Community."

In the words of King himself: 

“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”

What I know to be true is this, to honor the legacy of a man we all admire so greatly, today has to serve as a call to action for each of us to do our part in being a catalyst for transformation in the people we know and the neighborhoods we live in.

So not just today, but everyday, may we honor the words and example of a devoted follower of Jesus, Dr. King, by laying down our lives for the sake of our brothers and sisters regardless of religion, race, color, creed, etc.

May we love and live in real community, and not just talk about it. May we envision and take steps toward a world where people are valued with the love of Jesus even as we let Him work that love out in our own hearts. A world where tangible steps are taken to learn from and walk alongside those that are different from us economically, socially, racially, etc. A world where the content of our character is high, and our lives reflect the unshakable power and authority of our heavenly Father. 

That world is a dream come true, and is absolutely possible through Jesus.

Life Gets Foggy Sometimes.

"Last night I had a dream that I slept the whole day through.
I awoke to find that my alarm clock was ringing
but I had no sense of truth.

Something was hidden deep inside
Behind the curtain of my shame
Behind the wall of my pride

A fog covered me
rain clouds forming overhead.
I haven't been able to see in the days since."

- Original Poem entitled "The Fog"

"Forgive my tardiness; it takes me so long to awaken to some things." - Oswald Chambers "My Utmost for his Highest"

As I drove to work one morning, I remember a dark fog settling on the road, making visibility almost an impossibility. Lucky for me, the thickness of the fog was subdued by the short time it took to drive through it, but that was 10 seconds where I could not see the road ahead.

Doesn't life feel like that sometimes? A simple analogy, but the morning fog seems to manifest itself in my heart and mind, only it doesn't break up in 10 seconds. It stays, for days, for weeks, for months. It stays. Lingering thick around me.

In those moments I can't see Jesus for who He is, Almighty Lord and Savior, capable of anything. Capable of restoring my heart, healing my wounds, being present with me in all of life's ups and downs. I certainly don't fear him as Lord. Obeying Him seems moot when I can't even perceive what it is I am to obey.

When the fog settles in my life, I fight. I fight with everything I have. I get up, I press on, I try to do what is right, I sleep, I wake up and fight again.

Only problem is I'm still blind. For all my fighting, the fog doesn't seem to lift. What now? How about filling up my life with distractions. TV, Sports, Music, To-Do list, work, my calendar, other people. Surely one of these things with make the fog go away.

Nothing. It's still there. Despite my best efforts I still have yet to perceive the truth of Jesus Christ and his love for me. So I give up. I submit.

Wait. That's it. That has to be it. It's tiny, but I feel a glimmer of hope. Peace seems to be in reach. Light fills the tunnel. Submission, letting go, taking His hand, admitting my weakness, letting Him fight for me. That's it.

The fog in our lives can seem thick and endless. We try to hope, to press on, but we just can't see the road ahead. So we keep driving, and most often we crash.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,    and he will make your paths straight." - Proverbs 3:5-6

"He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth.” - Psalm 46:10

"The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” - Exodus 14:14 (emphasis mine)

Let's be honest, life can be painful, the days can be hard to face. Continuing to wake up and deal with people and all the demands of life can seem daunting. Given enough time and enough wear and tear on our hearts, even the strongest of us will crumble.

We need only to be still. To actually be still. I need only to be still, trust in the Lord, lean not on my understanding, submit to Him.

He shines a massive light in our darkness, restores our hearts, gives us strength to face the day. He empowers us to be gentle and responsive to His love daily where once before we may have approached each day with our defenses up and our hearts disconnected.

This is not what we were created for. We were created to have life and have it to the full, and it's only through the fullness of our creator God than this can be attained. It takes daily submitting to Him. Daily trusting Him. Daily letting Him fight for us.

The fog is no match for the fighting Father.

Jesus Moved Into The Neighborhood

The Christmas season marks the time when we remember the birth of Jesus. The interesting part is when I look at the world around me, what's on every one's lips is not this glorious occasion, but rather a song of consumerism and want.

Today I thought back to my childhood and how my mind would automatically associate Christmas morning with all the stuff I could hope to receive. Every year I would drive my mom crazy with my giant wish list and high expectations for what I would unwrap on Dec 25th.

There is nothing wrong with being a kid and wanting to wake up to some presents Christmas morning, but when our sole focus is the getting and receiving of gifts, we are missing the point.

I'm not the first to acknowledge or even write about the consumerism that plagues our culture around this time of year, but have we ever asked why?

Why do we choose to focus on stuff instead of our Savior? Why has Christmas become what it is in America?

I believe we have giant gaps in our hearts. Ways we have all been hurt, memories that haunt us, tragedies that have occurred. If we are honest, our time on Earth has not left any of us with a sense of wholeness in and of itself. We were all born into this world of sin and shame, guilt and death, trial and tragedy. We feel the full weight of that.

We may not always be able to name it specifically, but we recognize our lives are a mess sometimes. We know those gaps are there. Maybe we feel pain big time, or have taught ourselves to not feel at all, but it's there.

The good news of Christmas is Jesus came to set us free from those bonds of sin and death. As John 1:14 puts it in "The Message" translation of the Bible:

"The Word became flesh and blood,
    and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
    the one-of-a-kind glory,
    like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
    true from start to finish."

(emphasis mine)

Jesus, God himself, moved into the neighborhood. 

What I find interesting is how a season that marks a time when our Savior came to Earth to fill all of the gaps in our heart has become a season where we gather up anything and everything else to fill those gaps.

There is a huge significance behind the word Emmanuel or "God with us." God didn't have to come be with us. God is holy and could have kept himself out of our mess. What no other belief system can lay claim to is a God who became fully human and fully divine in order to draw his creation back to himself and make them whole.

This season is not a time for us to fill in the gaps in our lives with perishable things. This is a time for us to take ahold of the nonperishable love and redemption found in Christ Jesus.

Check out 1 Peter 1: 3-9:

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,  who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.  In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls." (emphasis mine)

We have all faced darkness. We all need something more than what this Earth can give us. So consider with me regaining focus in this season and remembering who Jesus is and why He came. More than that, take practical steps with me to press into the Father's heart and let him fill in our wounds and our gaps.

It's why He came. There is a light, and it's shining in the darkness, and the darkness against it won't prevail. There is a greater inheritance waiting for us that what we would or could give ourselves, and it's in Christ Jesus.

1 Peter 1:18-19:

"For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect."

Strength in Weakness

"He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,  but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." - 2 Timothy 1: 9-10

"You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." - 2 Timothy 2:1

I often think that everything in my life is a result of my own actions and my own ability to pull myself up by my bootstraps, persevere, and make the right choices.

I put the weight of my own salvation on myself. I put the weight of other's salvation on myself.

But very simply, whatever I may ever gain or possess or have given to me or see or do or accomplish, can never compare to the riches of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord.

My strength cannot solely come from me if I am to continue running this race of life. I can no longer pretend like my weaknesses don't exist. I cannot detach from my own heart or from the heart of God.

I have to press into the heart of God and be strong in His grace. Because he has always been my Father and it's never been because of what I have or haven't done. He loves me because of his own purpose and grace, and it is in that grace I will find my true strength.

7 Things I Have Learned About Loving the Poor.

A few things I'm processing today about caring for the poor:

1. A person's bank account does not define them. We are all created in the "Imago Dei" or "image of God." Ephesians 2:10 tells us we are God's workmanship.

2. Circumstances may help provide context for understanding what a person faces daily, but again, circumstances/bank account do not define.

3. Those we view as having "less" often have more to give than we could ever realize. It's just been buried under years of being in survival mode and being wounded by others. Or we simply just don't ask or care to hear their opinion.

4. We have a biblical mandate to "love mercy & act justly" (Micah 6:8), we know that true religion cares for the orphan and widow (James 1:27), and that Jesus himself came to proclaim good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted & set the captives free (Luke 4:18-19)

5. Our role in all this is:
- to be a catalyst for relational healing
- provide tangible expressions of love that affirm worth, value, and a persons role in community
- empower others to walk with Jesus & take steps to grow beyond their current circumstances.

6. God is doing it. He is our savior. He is the savior of the poor. He calls us to be on mission with Him. We are to "do with" and not "do for" the poor, the outcast, the broken. When we work together in community, it is far more effective and shows us a glimpse of heaven on Earth.

7. Unless our identity is found in God the Father and his streams of mercy for us, we will never be able to effectively walk with others through their healing process.

In Him.

To understand God as one who is able to fill in the gaps and heal the wounds created by our earthly relationships, is to understand the core of who our heavenly Father truly is. He is full of grace and truth, our God is love in its fullness.

Out of a pure understanding of who God is we can derive our identity, for we were created in His image and in Him we live and move and have our being.

May who we are not be informed by the things we produce, but may the things we produce be informed by who we are in Christ. For only He can make us whole.

A Good Gift

I believe the point of our lives is to be a good gift to others, to use what we have been given in selfless ways that foster community and show us what it's like to lay down our lives so that others may live. 

If we aren't careful, this selfless way of living is all too easy to disregard because we are by nature selfish beings. The irony is that the more of ourselves we give, the more we actually discover who we really are.

Jesus modeled this so perfectly not just in his death but in the way he lived. Scripture tells us that even Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve. How often do I want to be served instead of serving?

Why does our culture celebrate the accumulation of stuff and not the one who gives it all away? Why do we celebrate fame and not the one who is quietly changing lives in their own neighborhood? Why do I fall prey to this selfish way of thinking so often?

Jesus, would you show us how to truly lay down our lives for others. How to not just be for people, but to physically be with them. Would you show us the significance of you becoming human and living among us so that we may become "one of" those we feel called to love.

Ultimately, give us neither poverty nor riches, simply give us our daily bread. In everything we have, may we use it to be the good gift to others that we were made to be.