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All Good Things: or “Christians…quit whining…suck it up…and praise God”

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kid-tantrum-062110-250b

By all outside appearances I should know a whole lot about God. I have a few degrees, work in full time ministry, and teach about this God all the time. But, through all of the books and classes and sermons and conferences, I’ve come to the conclusion that my knowledge of His goodness and faithfulness is…well…less than adequate.

Case in point: I was dropping my daughter off at school this morning. She’s 4…and she’s all girl. I let her read one of her new books in the car on the way, and when we pulled into the parking lot, she kindly asked if she could bring her book into class. I said, “No honey. You will lose it and be sad when you can’t read it tonight.”

She responded, “Ahhhhhhhggggrrrbhwahhhwahhh…bwah…bwah…grrrr,” and kicked her feet into my seat to punctuate her point.

And so I did the natural thing, and tried to have a deep theological conversation with a toddler in the midst of a tantrum. (Hey…it might work this time)

I said, “Sweety, you think that I am trying to take fun away from you. But I’m not. I’m trying to make sure that you have the most fun possible in life. And it’s no fun to lose a new book. I’m not an enemy to your joy. I’m on your side. You just have to trust me.”

She threw her sippy cup at the dash board…but I think she understood.

When I got back in the car after dropping her off, I said to myself, “That’s me…” I do this all the time, and though my tantrums may be silent, they are just as rebellious. I forget all the time that God is not the enemy of my joy. He’s for me. Through everything that happens to me he’s fighting for my joy.

My father-in-law passed away from pancreatic cancer 9 months before I married his daughter. He brother walked her down the aisle. One of our wedding presents was a sizable chunk of student loans her mother simply couldn’t pay. At first, I thought it was no big deal. We’ll get some good jobs and pay them off in no time.

But after a year or two those 4 zero’s began to sting a bit. One child came, along with childcare costs, diapers, mortgage, HOA. Then another child. Medical bills, insurance, more diapers. We also learned that filing taxes as a minster shouldn’t really be done by an amateur like me. And it certainly shouldn’t be done again while expecting better results.

After time, I began to hate those 4 zero’s. They were a weight on my shoulders that I couldn’t do anything about. Even though I was as calm as a hindu cow on the outside, on the inside I was screaming and throwing sippy cups at heaven’s gates.

And then one day, a certain woman I share a house and bed with sat me down and said, “You know, Chase, God could have taken this debt away. But he didn’t.”

And it hit me. I was acting like a 4 year old. My face was turning red and snot was running down my face…and all the while my sovereign God was working for  my joy…not against it.

“He is in heaven and he does all that he pleases”, the Psalms say. Rick didn’t have to die. We didn’t have to inherit those loans. But God is in control and we did. So, whether I believe it or not, that debt is actually good for me.

Looking back on the past 6 years, I am just now seeing the benefits. I appreciate the small things in life. Without cable and internet, I got to be present during the first years of my daughters’ lives. I got to visibly, physically, without a shadow of a doubt see God provide financially for us time and time again. And the trust in God we gained from that gave us the courage to step out and go through the adoption process. When we bring our little one home from Ethiopia in a few months, I’ll get down on my knees and thank God for those 4 zero’s. Without them, who knows where our family would be.

And I learned to make my own beer. Which I think is pretty cool.

Moral of the story. Christians, when it comes to minor inconveniences, which is what most things are, QUIT WHINING! Suck it up…and praise God.

He’s sovereign and in control. Things could be otherwise, but they’re not. He’s not trying to steal your joy…he’s trying to guarantee it, sustain it, and increase it.

So the next time Uncle Sam takes a chunk of your change, your car breaks down, or your boss gives you a piece of his mind…just remember “God works all things for the good of those who love him”.

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Too much stuff…

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toomuchstuff

“God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.” C.S. Lewis

Hi. My name is Chase. (Hello Chase). And I love stuff.

Like, I really, really love stuff. Especially new stuff. Shiny and expensive stuff. I know I won’t love the stuff once I have it, but still, I really…really….really love stuff.

It feels good to get that off my chest.

And maybe you’re like me.

Let me rephrase that.

I know you’re like me. In fact, I know every person on the planet is like me.

Case in Point: Christmas.

Gifts under the tree. Layaway payment plans at K-Mart. Mile long lines at 11pm on Thanksgiving night.

We love stuff. And we love it because of the momentary rush, the instantaneous thrill we get when we hold it in our hands.

But the thrill never lasts. That’s why there’s the iPhone 3G, 3Gs, 4, 4s, and 5. Like those slippery little glass phones, happiness is hard to hold onto.

God made it that way. He wants us to realize this, to sit and dwell in the frustration of discontent. It’s not a cosmic joke. This world in which we live is not some eternal bait and switch.

No…it’s to prepare us. God allows us foretastes, a little sip here, a nibble there. All to prepare us for the real thing, the lasting thing. The ultimate joy, the everlasting satisfaction.

Himself.

Do you know why we give gifts during Christmas? We trace it back to the gifts the three wise men gave Jesus. But the gift giving we participate in now is a far cry from the tradition of these wise men.

Do you think Jesus needed stuff? Nope. He could have turned rocks into bread. He could have made all the nations bow before Him. Laying as a tiny baby in the manger, with his blue collar step father and teenage mom peering over the side, he was upholding the entire universe. Every atom, every molecule, moving in obedience to his will.

No. The wise men didn’t give gifts because Jesus needed them. They gave gifts because they needed Jesus.

The gifts were simply symbols. In the act of giving they were saying, “These things we hold in our hands, this stuff, will never complete us. They’re expensive. They’re extravagant. They’re status symbols. People have waged wars to get their hands on things just like these. Nations rise and fall, egos rise and fall, depending on whether they have these things.”

“And they will never satisfy. They will never bring joy. And they were never meant to.”

“So we lay them at your feet. We lay these shadows before the source of light.”

“The joy that we were created for is not found in stuff from you. We have traveled these long weeks, not for the things you give, but for you.”

“So we give these things up, in the hope that we will enjoy you more. You are our treasure, not this stuff.”

St. Nicholas spent his entire inheritance, which was a rather large one, helping the poor and down in out. He’d hide coins in peoples shoes. He’d pay off debts for others in secrets. He rescued slaves and children who were kidnapped. And shouted with his life, “Not your blessings God, not your gifts, but you and you alone. That is what I was made for.”

Maybe its time to rethink our Christmas rituals. Maybe its time to look our children in the eyes and ponder what we teach them every year.

Hello. My name is Chase. (Hello Chase). And I was made for so much more than simply stuff.

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God Doesn’t Need Prayer

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But we need it in a desperate way.

God is in heaven and does all that he pleases, whether we ask him or not.

But we are on earth, confused and broken, and need to learn that everything that is good comes from God, and God alone.

Prayer is not the means by which our will is accomplished in heaven.

Prayer is the means by which our wills begin to match God’s, and his will is accomplished in our lives.

Prayer is a gift, given to us by God’s mercy, to mature and grow us into people that rely on Him, and nothing else, to satisfy us.

When I don’t pray, I do not render God helpless and unable to work.

No, I render myself helpless to acknowledge and cling to the faithfulness and goodness of God.

In the words of Calvin, abridged by me:

When I pray I find a strong desire rising in my heart to flee to God alone for my every need.

When I pray, I test my desires against God’s desires. And as I’m honest in his presence, I slowly learn to desire what’s best.

When I pray I set myself up to be thankful when he answers and teach myself that no blessings ever come from my work or discipline, but are simply gifts from God.

When I pray, and He answers, I consistently set before my eyes His faithfulness and goodness, and I fall more in love with Him.

When I pray, I become more hungry for his nearness and will, and when I finally get a taste of his blessings, I lose my appetite for every sinful pleasure.

And when I pray, I stop living off second hand experiences with God and come face to face with God’s real and physical help and aid.

Prayer is not for God.

Prayer is for us…a treasure too few unearth and use.

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Worship and the Gospel

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ws-worship

Zac Hicks gets it right in this insightful blog on worship. Read the full thing here.

Contemporary worship has been criticized over and over again for its ability to form spectators, but I’ve actually witnessed passive worship all across the stylistic spectrum. (I see it at my church every Sunday in BOTH of our services, one of which is “traditional” and the other our version of “contemporary.”) Worshipers, sitting or standing with blank looks on their faces with little to no movement of their bodies, stare bored at the leadership, screen, bulletin, or song-sheet.

Passive worship like this needs a remedy, so as worship leaders we often turn to education. We’ll remind people that worship isn’t a spectator sport, that the leaders in worship are not performing for them, and that the service is our offering to God. We range from a gentle word to a more emphatic rebuke. On one recent recording, you can actually hear Joel Houston of Hillsong United saying over the mic, “C’mon, no spectators, let’s all sing.” I bet we all know what he saw in that arena.

Others advocate creating situational change. Many rightly point out that standing against more participatory worship is the medium, which becomes our message. If we’ve got a big stage with a nice light rack, it looks more like a rock concert than a worship service. The medium says, “Hey, you’re here to get your face rocked off, so just sit back and relax.” If we’ve got a traditional building with rows of pews oriented to the front of the room, that can send the same message: “What’s important is what’s happening up front; just watch.” And architecture certainly does both send a message and shape a culture.

But all of these things are half-measures, really. There is a deeper heart-issue with which to contend, and that issue is the gospel. If we truly believe that the good news about God’s grace through Jesus Christ is the only means by which we are both saved and sanctified, then true change on anything is fundamentally rooted in us going deeper and deeper into the gospel.

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For Your Consideration

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farleygaymarriage

To read Michael Bird is to take a wild theological ride. He’s funny, witty, and though I don’t agree with everything, he certainly is perceptive. Case in point: here’s a excerpt from an article he wrote on the topic of gay marriage. You can read the whole thing here.

I say we adopt a European model on civil unions and marriage. Basically, everyone gets a civil union. So on Friday, rock up to town hall with your fiance, see the magistrate, get licensed as a couple, so all the legal bases are covered. Then on Saturday, if you so chose, go to your Cathedral, Synagogue, or Mosque and get sacramentally married with divine blessings. This provides a base level of rights and benefits for everyone and gets government interference out of what has normally been a religious ceremony. As far as the state is concerned, there are only civil unions. Marriage, as a sacramental union, does not exist in the state’s eyes. They only recognize contracts between people … any people and as many people as you like. If you want to be in a civil union with a pretty girl, your biological brother, three Ukrainian women you met on-line, two pet monkeys, a racoon named “bongo,” and a box DVD set of Supertramp, go ahead. If it can physically sighted you can be civillyunited. If marriage is just a legal fiction, then there is no legal argument why you cannot do this. You want to throw that bigoted Christian heritage away and discover your inner pagan sexuality, gratify your every lust with state approval, go ahead, fill your boots, throw off the shackles of those perverse Christian values. If you need me, I’ll be on a family picnic with my wife and kids while you’re in law court figuring out who gets the house and kids  in the love dodecahedron you’ve made for yourself.

That might sound strange, but here’s my thinking.

Christianity is no longer the default setting in the West. Christian ethics are no longer mainstream, normal, or even make any sense. Yes, in some places we have remnants of this, esp. in parts of the UK and USA, but Christendom is over folks. We are no longer calling people back to values they nominally consent to. There is no silent moral majority; we are now the minority, we are the odd balls, we speak a different language, we inhabit a different symbolic universe, we are now regarded as enemies of the state’s values,  we are the new villains, we are the greatest threat to what the secularists think is a fair, just, and inclusive society.We are subversive ideological terrorists because we order our lives according the story, symbols, and sovereignty of Jesus Christ, all of which stands in violent opposition to the values of the secular order. We Christians represent a clear and present danger to the very edifice of secular pluralism because we refuse to believe in it and we tell a story that undermines it – and some people believe us not the powers that be, that’s the problem.

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Why are so many guys addicted to pornography and video games?

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Russell Moore has a helpful post on the desiringGod blog.

Here is an excerpt:

“You know the guy I’m talking about. He spends hours into the night playing video games and surfing for pornography. He fears he’s a loser. And he has no idea just how much of a loser he is. For some time now, studies have shown us that porn and gaming can become compulsive and addicting. What we too often don’t recognize, though, is why….

…Pornography promises orgasm without intimacy. Video warfare promises adrenaline without danger. The arousal that makes these so attractive is ultimately spiritual to the core.

Satan isn’t a creator but a plagiarist. His power is parasitic, latching on to good impulses and directing them toward his own purpose. God intends a man to feel the wildness of sexuality in the self-giving union with his wife. And a man is meant to, when necessary, fight for his family, his people, for the weak and vulnerable who are being oppressed.

The drive to the ecstasy of just love and to the valor of just war are gospel matters. The sexual union pictures the cosmic mystery of the union of Christ and his church. The call to fight is grounded in a God who protects his people, a Shepherd Christ who grabs his sheep from the jaws of the wolves.

When these drives are directed toward the illusion of ever-expanding novelty, they kill joy. The search for a mate is good, but blessedness isn’t in the parade of novelty before Adam. It is in finding the one who is fitted for him, and living with her in the mission of cultivating the next generation. When necessary, it is right to fight. But God’s warfare isn’t forever novel. It ends in a supper, and in a perpetual peace.”

There’s also a secular look at this problem in a new book by Philip Zimbardo, “The Demise of Guys: Why Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It“.