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Name: Justin
Country: United States
State: Washington
Metro: Bellingham
Gender: Male
Interests: OH food and music and fun
Expertise: bass playin
Occupation: Research and development
Industry: Other
Message: message me
Member Since:
4/27/2005
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| It has been quite a long time since I posted last. But, I have gone through some pretty tough stuff in the last months of my life. I have been questioning my faith, not in the sense on am I gonna flee from God, or leave Jesus, but more in the sense of what do I really believe in the Christian faith. It seems that in church now a days you can't ask hard questions or questions that make you seem like you don't have faith. I have learned that it doesn't bother God when you do. I can't ask a question that will stump Him. I think it just makes christian's uncomfortable when they need to think. We want everything to be easy for us. I know I did and I wasn't really satisfied with my cookie cutter faith. I wanted something real, something that I could make sense of this world with. I am getting closer to it, I think. It is amazing to see where I have come. I was in a really bad spot, but through God's mercy, He helped me through. | | |
| I feel alone. I mean I have lots of friends and people around me, but none that need me. I guess that is one of the human experiences that we all have to go through right? Am I just being overly sensitive or do I really have a legitimate feeling for wanting to be needed. I understand that I need to find my needs and wants in God, but I think that there is also that desire to be needed by another human that needs to be filled. God understood that I believe when he said that it wasn't good for Adam to be alone. So he made Eve. They complimented each other. One had strengths the other didn't. So in effect they needed each other right? So, I am here thinking about all my friends and I realize they really don't need me. That bothers me. I am afraid that I have become insignificant. And that makes me think I may need some change. What kind of change though? I guess that is where I need to do some soul, personality, and character searching. I want to be significant in peoples lives. I want to be someone that another wants to call if they are having a bad day. I don't know. | | |
| I am fascinated by ants. The crazy ant to be more specific. Right now as I write this, our kitchen is being completely overtaken by them. There is much to hate about the ant, but there is also much to be astounded by. Ants tend to be nocturnal, as do I, so I figured I should spend some time watching them and figure out where they’re coming from. Last night I opened my pantry and with a flashlight followed the line of hundreds of worker ants down the pantry, onto the floor and all the way to my laundry room where they were hiding in the wall. Besides being kept up all night thinking they were crawling all over me, I also learned a few things.
This may sound a little strange but I believe the ant has much to teach us about community.
Ants do their research. They know where the food is. The queen will send out a scout who will explore the area and figure out exactly where the food is so the community will be provided for. This is a role that pastors and elders cannot overlook. Not only should a pastor survey the spiritual landscape to lead the community to spiritual nutrition, but also survey the needs in the community at large so he or she can send out the worker ants to where they are needed.
Every ant is a worker ant. The worker ants are the hands and the feet of the queen. Every ant is a “missionary” and is sent into the world for a purpose. Every ant has a role in the community—no ant is left out. The inclusiveness of the colony is unmistakable. There are some special roles like scout and queen, but everyone else is a worker and simply serves their community. It’s easy to go to a church service every week and have no role in the colony. We are the hands and feet of our King—we need to serve, we need to work; it’s not a negotiable for the ants, neither is it for the church.
Ants are very adaptable to change. If they get moved out of one place, they find another place to live. Ants are willing to do whatever it takes, even if it means living in electrical outlets, appliances, pipes, you name it. The church needs to be flexible, fluid and ready to adapt to every landscape and situation that comes our way, too. Change is inevitable—a church should be organic enough to flow with the changes while being creative to discover ways to thrive in challenging times.
Ants don’t quit or get easily discouraged. Ants don’t give up. When ants build an anthill they are persevering to a fault. You can squash the anthill, and they immediately go back to work as if nothing happened. As comedian Brian Regan says, “You would think that they would take at least a second to look at what happened and go ‘OH MAN!’”
I find myself so easily discouraged with the church sometimes. Every once in a while for good reason, other times because I’m being completely immature. It may be through an article I read or lackluster weekend-messages, but I can often get discouraged about my current church situation. But I’ve realized I have to find a way to brush it off; I need to focus on what’s really important. I need to focus on the mission—what’s really important—not just food for the colony, but Jesus for the world.
You can’t stop ants. The most dangerous thing about the ant: It is near impossible to get rid of them. Ants are like a virus—they just keep popping up all over. It’s like they’ve been given a mandate that nothing will ever prevail against them.
When someone attempts to harm the ants that are currently out in the field the remaining 95% of the workers will become stressed and split into two or more new colonies. Now both the colonies will continue to work and grow and become twice as large as before. In times of persecution ants grow even stronger.
Why can’t they be stopped? They stick together. If they would spread out and go it alone, they would surely die; but they don’t. Besides the scouts who survey the landscape with a few others, no one leaves the community to try to survive alone. They know that to do so would be certain death.
Maybe God created ants not only to irritate us and ruin our food, but so we could learn a few things about living together.
So thank you crazy ants for all that you teach us about community.
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| "The final breakthrough to fellowship does not occur because, though they have fellowship with one another as believers and devout people, they do not have fellowship as the un-devout, as sinners." – Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel.
Some of the greatest breakthroughs in our church occur when we are challenged by the pastor to write down a sin that we are dealing with and nail it to the cross. To some this is unheard of—being open about our failures—but open confession is often a giant step in developing true community.
Raw honesty is a hard-core discipline within community. It’s natural to hide our struggles so we don’t have to face them. Sometimes we think that we're the only ones who struggle with certain sins, so we keep them to ourselves. For some it's further than that: We hide our sin from ourselves, in denial, thinking that we don't even have a problem.
And then there's the worst killer to confession: Sometimes we believe that God overlooks our sin. Or we don’t deal with our shortcomings because we feel like we have to be perfectly put-together to come to God.
When I read the Scriptures, I see people everywhere being incredibly honest with God, so much that our "rational" way of thinking is, "How can they approach God so honestly?” It seems that they're insulting His integrity by asking these things and by demanding things from Him. Moses, David, Paul and countless others had some real issues that they didn't hold back from God. There was a sense of authenticity mixed with reverence in the way they approached God.
This kind of relationship with God seems so out-of-reach for most of us. It’s a natural reaction to hide our sin: from others, from ourselves and from God—believing that we can never be honest and open with anyone. Because, heaven forbid, someone may see us for who we really are. And because of this community is lost and complacency settles in.
God wants us to ask hard questions, to deal with our heart-issues directly with Him. He'd prefer us be real and insult Him instead of fake—which is actually more insulting.
Confessing to others is another struggle in the journey of vulnerability. It really only seems to happen in small groups and even that takes time before we can "bare all.” But when it comes to church all of our sins are hidden. We smile, shake hands, worship God and then leave. It's a perfect world at church isn't it? When we gather, it seems we enter a new world. And so, as I've heard many times before, the church becomes a museum—or a cemetery—rather than an outpost for God’s mission.
Do you view church this way? Is it a place where only "good people" are welcomed? Is it a place where goodness and glory and honor are maintained? Or is it a place to be real, to worship in raw intimacy and to speak the truth—even when it’s painful to say?
Why do we keep secrets from one another? Why do we feel compelled to present ourselves as pure—we’ve got it all together—when, of course, we don’t have it all together. The truth is we're lost, broken and hurting people who need repair, and God has chosen community to be the context of healing and growth.
So, what would happen if we left the paper unfolded when we nailed it to the cross? What would happen if you had to say aloud what you were about to nail to the greatest symbol of renewal and regeneration? Would this result in brokenness? Would we see honesty? I believe we would see what God intends for the church.
Is this even possible? Can this happen in our churches? Can we learn to acknowledge our struggles publicly? I don't know. I can't even fathom the brokenness that regular confession like this would bring; when our masks are removed. Confession drives us to be authentic, transparent people, only when we learn this will we be, as Manning put it brilliantly, "the fellowship of un-devout sinners."
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| There’s something deep within all of us that desires to excel at what we do, so much so, that we will often put valuable relationships aside to toil at becoming the best. Whether it’s branding our name or marketing our work, the drive to create an impressive portfolio and to awe others with our talent and skill is overwhelming. In our culture there is an almost-irresistible drive to “be” somebody.
Of course, developing a solid work ethic is a noble thing, but the potential to lose our perspective is always pending. As a follower of Christ, living a balanced life is wrapped up in keeping a pure focus while living, working and pursuing the glory of God. Sometimes, there’s only a margin of difference between working for the glory of God and working for our own glory. And, even though the difference may seem subtle, the impact is monumental.
We all have strengths—things we do naturally and often with great results. God's desire is to take these incredible God-given abilities and use them for redemptive purposes. However, there's also another plan. Satan desires to take those strengths and distort them—to make you use them in excess and to create something destructive. Basically, Satan wants to turn your strengths into addictions. Dangerous addictions. When your strengths turn into an excessive labor pointing back to you, instead of a labor of love that is poured out for Christ, the trap is set.
When we revel in our own beauty we take our worship, turn it inward and become idolaters. Just like our penchant for worshipping our worship music, worshipping our churches or even pop culture or technology—we become enamored with the creation and begin to see God for less than who He is. When the excess of pride creeps in, the twisted effects mar the potential for kingdom work in our lives. The ability to shift our focus from ourselves to Christ is a daily discipline. Here are some practical tips for keeping your strengths in-check before they turn into excessive addictions.
Stop people pleasing.
We all spend way too much time thinking about what others think of us. This keeps us from doing genuine work for the glory of God. It’s not bad to do work diligently and affirmation can be rewarding, but if that’s what drives us, our motives are eschewed. Stop pleasing others and shift your heart toward pleasing God. This is one of those this-changes-everything principles. Work hard but in a different way and in a different direction—a God-ward direction. There’s an unspeakable freedom in working for God’s approval—unfettered by the power of people’s expectations.
Take regular breaks from your work.
Distance yourself from your work—for a short time—to get your head cleared of all the stuff that competes for your heart. Of course, taking a Sabbath to kick back from the week’s work is a great pattern that’s given to us from God. When God finished his majestic creation labor, He just stopped; He didn’t obsess over his work. In other words, He didn’t tweak the elephants on the seventh day. We all need to take time to stop what we’re doing and say, “This is good.” Thank God for your work and engage in the most humble activity there is—sleep. In his book Christ Plays In Ten Thousand Places, Eugene Peterson writes, "Sabbath is not primarily about us or how it benefits us; it's about God and how he forms us. It's not, in the first place, about what we do or don't do; it's about God completing and resting and blessing and sanctifying. These are all things we don't know much about; they are beyond us but not beyond our recognition and participation."
Give your time away.
When you are knee-deep in a project, and you’re tempted to retreat from every relationship you have and become a cave-dwelling hermit, remember that at the end of your life what counts will be people, not your ability to get the job done with style. When you die, you don’t want a eulogy that says, “We’ll always remember so-and-so for their commitment to the job above the ones they loved,” so make time for relationships even when there is none. Learn to give your time away.
It’s a beautiful thing when passion and discipline collide to work for the glory of God, but if we take the glory for ourselves the beauty erodes and we miss out on the heart of the kingdom. When we delve into our work with a passion for selfish glory we exchange the big picture of the kingdom for a micro-portion of reflected fame.
God calls us to live simple, balanced lives consumed with His glory. And, embracing God’s glory always begins with a stripped-down humility in the ways of Christ—nothing short of a drop-dead brokenness.
The natual talents we have are God-given for the progress of the redemptive story; for beauty, for goodness and for Christ.
Anything short of that is fallen. | | |
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