Living Epistles (2a)

I know a guy, in his early 20s, who just started following Jesus. A few months ago, this guy was living at his parents’, on house arrest, smoking pot, and unemployed. Before that, he had been a thief, a drug dealer, and a womanizer. Here’s how all of that went down:

As a young boy, in third grade, he began stealing. He started with little things, like candy and trinkets. By middle school, he was stealing money, for expensive clothes and basketball shoes. He didn’t steal from family, but he stole while he was with family. That is, he stole some $1500 from the family that his mother cleaned for. The family caught him, but he lied about it. They said they believed him, but they also never invited his mother and him back to clean.

By the end of high school, he had begun to steal the merchandise itself, from various stores in Castleton. A year or so later, an employee caught him stealing at Dick’s Sporting Goods. As the employee led him back to the offices, my friend made the decision to run for it. He bolted out the door and began a 45-minute chase across some of the busiest streets and parking lots in the city. He escaped, but he did so on an adrenaline high, along with a strong sense of pride. What I mean is that after this experience, he wanted to steal more, because there was always the potential for a chase. A chase which he thought he would always win.

Eventually, he didn’t win. He was stealing merchandise from Von Maur, and when the employee was leading him to the offices, he tried to escape, just like he did at Dick’s. But this time he couldn’t fanagle his way out of a 3-person sting plot. You see, the day before, he had stolen from Von Maur and he thought the employees didn’t notice. But when he came back the very next day, they eyed him like a hawk. And when he went to leave, two security guards collapsed on him, along with the store manager. He was arrested for theft and attempting to flee authorities. But then, when they were putting everything in a bag to take to the station, the police were about to throw a little gum wrapper away. My friend insisted that they put that in the bag, and the cops, a bit suspicious, went ahead with it. Back at the station, in the wrapper, the police found a trace of marijuana. They tacked on possession to the list of charges.

Love Wins (1)

I finally started Rob Bell’s latest book. I can’t believe it took me this long.

Sadly, I still haven’t finished the book, but I am over halfway through it and I just have to express some initial thoughts.

First, I’ve never read a book with so many questions. He barrages the reader with pages of questions, and, although he never seems to answer them, I appreciate it. He makes the reader think.

Second, I appreciate his writing style and organization. He makes a very deep and complicated discussion accessible to the average Joe. He brings out Hebrew and Greek words, but never loses the reader in the process. And as for organization, his chapters stay on topic and they flow into each other.

Third, I’ve never thought about heaven and hell and eternity and what’s happening on this earth and what I’m doing with life so much as I have in the past two weeks. That’s a good thing.

Fourth, I can see why this book rattled many Christians. I can also see why it was in Amazon’s Top 10 Bestsellers for a couple months. It’s provocative, challenging, and delightfully interesting.

With that, I’ll go back to reading. And when I finish, I’ll write a final review.

Living Epistles (1)

I know a lady, a single mom actually. She is in her forties, with three kids, two of which are out of the house. The youngest is still at home, quickly approaching her teenage years. The other two are out of the house, both boys. The oldest boy is married, working as an apprentice in the electrical field, and working on his degree. The other boy is single, just starting college.

That’s the simple part, the surface part. The difficult part is the inner turmoil, caused by the past. She was married seventeen years, only to learn her husband had been living a double life. He had cheated on her, set-up a Ponzi scheme of sorts, and lied about it throughout the marriage. Eventually he was caught and ended up in jail, with the marriage ending around that same time. What was that time?

Well, by the time of the divorce, all three children had been born. The oldest had just started high school and the youngest had just started elementary school. So the mom found a job and started playing the role of provider, as well as protector, as well as nurturer and care-taker. And she did this for six years. Work away from home full-time, only to come home and work full-time all over again. Year in, year out, for six years. Talk about a trooper.

Now, she works as a secretary at a church on the northeast side of Indianapolis. Her middle child, the guy who is single and at college, has been in and out of trouble with the law. Most of his escapades happened before he turned 18, while he was living at his mom’s place. But now, he’s starting to make some better choices, and I can’t help but think these better choices have something to do with the prayers of his mother. She prays hard, works hard, and continues to make ends meet. She loves her boys, loves her girl, loves her dog, and loves her God.

And for all of those reasons, and for all of that story, I call her a living epistle.

Living Epistles (Introduction)

Last week I came up with an idea. I’m going to write blogs about people I know.

I know, it doesn’t sound like an impressive idea, but impressing you is not the point. Power is the point. The people I’m going to write about are living powerful lives. They are demonstrating that there is a better way to live.

In 2 Corinthians, Paul writes to the church at Corinth, “You are our epistle written on our hearts, known and read by all men.” He goes on to say that this epistle or letter of their lives is not written with ink, but is written by the Spirit of the living God. And my friends, that is a point that is often missed.

God is alive. He’s active. He’s present. He’s moving. He’s dynamic. He is not off in some distant place. He is not sitting around watching this whole experiment. He is not withdrawn, detached, or disinterested. God is closer than you think. He’s doing things all around you. And my hope is that through these series of posts, you too will see what I’m talking about. God at work, in people.

Wild at Heart (1)

Tomorrow begins a new adventure for me.

I’m starting a book club.

I know it doesn’t sound like much of an adventure, but in reality it is. Because very soon, our book club will turn into a man’s club. And we’ll go out and do manly things. And men will become better workers, better husbands, and better fathers.  And that is a big deal.

We’re starting by reading a classic, Wild at Heart by John Eldredge.

Just last week, I began listening to the book on audio and already I’m inspired to go and kill a lion with my bare hands. I want to return to Oregon and climb Mt. Hood, fly to Peru and hike the Incan trail to Machu Picchu, then come back and make love to my wife. Eldredge inspires that kind of action with his writing.

At the same time, however, Eldredge digs down deep, right into the heart of man. He tells men what they’re doing right and graciously shows us the things we’re doing wrong. He addresses office work, surburbia, the “nice man” syndrome. He points out how these things domesticate a man, like locking a lion in a cage at the zoo. He describes how men, as a result of the Fall, usually fall into one of two extremes–aggression or passivity. We either act like macho man and cuss and yell and flex at people. Or, we never address conflict, pretend nothing bothers us, and shrink back when it comes time to take action, letting our wives take control or letting our children walk all over us.

Somewhere in the middle is where the heart of man is to be. Bold, adventurous, and willing to fight for what matters, and at the same time, being gentle, nurturing his wife and cherishing his children. 

But here’s where I must stop, for I don’t want to give away all of wisdom of the book. I can only tell you, if you’re a man, you should come join us. And if you’re a woman, you should tell your man to come. (And go read the book for females, Captivating.)

Mammon

A wise man once said, “You cannot serve both God and mammon.” And while I’ve always been taught that mammon means money, I’ve always wondered if this was correct. Just recently I learned that it was almost correct; it turns out that mammon means wealth in Aramaic. It can also be understood as riches, neither of which are much different than money.

When I think about money, I think about how this 3in x 6in piece of paper is, ironically, what makes the world go round. And when I start to think about it for too long, it makes my head hurt. But I want to bring some clarity to this notion of money, wealth, riches, mammon–so here it goes:

Money is a means of exchange. It’s a middle man actually. Back in the day, people exchanged goods for goods, services for services. These goods and services were used. It was practical. But now, we exchange money for goods or money for services. Now, our goal is to accummulate money. And this isn’t just in America, for when we travel to another country, we exchange money for money so that we can buy within that market. What’s a market? Good question. As I understand it, there’s basically two types of markets. There’s a free market and a controlled market. In the U.S., we claim to have a free market, aka capitalism.

In capitalism, the means of production and the creation of goods or services are privately owned. The goal–profit. But there’s a few problems with this set-up and over the years, people have noticed. For example, G.K Chesterton once stated, “The chief heresy of vulgar capitalism is the fundamental falsehood that things are not made to be used but made to be sold.” In other words, we buy to buy; we don’t buy to use. So we have an abundance of goods that we never use, which in turn, creates an abundance of waste. 

Another problem of capitalism lies in its motive. As Karl Marx said, “The directing motive, the end and aim of capitalist production, is to extract the greatest possible amount of surplus value, and consequently to exploit labor-power to the greatest possible extent.” That is, the disparity between the rich and the poor will only grow in capitalism.

Furthermore, capitalism assumes a need for more. More surplus value and more money so that more things can be sold and more things can be used (and more things can be wasted). One of the richest men in U.S. history was asked how much money it takes to make a man happy. Without hesitation Rockefeller responded, “Just a little bit more.” You see, the problem is in the motive: more, more, more.

Going back to the quote at the beginning then, it seems that the person saying “You cannot serve both God and mammon,”  is pointing to an inherent quality within mammon. Mammon isn’t a neutral. It’s a competitor. And it competes against God.

So the more I think about this, the more I wonder if, when it comes down to it, Os Guinness might be right. “Either we serve God and use money, or we serve money and use God.” Which are you doing?

11:35

The other day I was thinking about the shortest verse in the Bible, “Jesus wept.”

In context, as I’m sure many of you know, Lazarus has died. Lazarus was a friend of Jesus’ and the brother of Mary and Martha. But what stands out in the story is not that Jesus wept, but that he knew Lazarus was sick and didn’t do anything about it for two or three days. And after Jesus weeps, he ends up resurrecting Lazarus from the dead anyways. So, the natural question to ask is, “Why did Jesus weep?”

In the story, the people see Jesus weeping and they say, “See how He loved him.” Clearly they thought Jesus was crying because He had lost a loved one. But I wonder, could He have been weeping for something larger, especially considering that He knew He would resurrect Lazarus? Could Jesus have been weeping because He saw the sorrow that death caused amongst the crowd? Could He have been weeping because He knew we weren’t created to die? Or could He have been weeping because He knew that what was happening with Lazarus would soon be happening to Him?

What do you think? Why was Jesus weeping?