SaySamuel

In God’s Story, what makes the Gospel ‘good news’ is not necessarily identifying who I am, but realizing who I am not…

In the parable of the Prodigal Son, I am not the forgiving, grace-filled, loving father.  I could be the son that came to his senses and came back.  But I’m most often the older brother who in jealousy was in many ways just as far away from his father as his brother.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, I am not the one who stopped to aid the one who was attacked.  I could be one who walked by without stopping, more concerned with my own journey or destination.  But I’m most often among the ones who victimized my brother and left him for dead.

On the road to Damascus, I was not blinded in a flash as Saul, and I didn’t follow in faith like a fearful Ananias to find and minister to my oppressor.  I could be one who held the coats for others while they stoned a man to death for his faith, or a woman caught in adultery.  But I was most likely casting the first stone myself.

In most circumstances, I have not been the poor widow who gave everything she had.  I could have been the wealthy who only gave out of my abundance.  But I am usually the one who does not admit to or even realize how much I have, and yet give nothing.

In the events that Jesus healed, I am not the Centurion faithful enough to set aside his rank, and leave a chain of command to seek help for his servant.  I could have been one who cried out for help as I lay near a healing pool.  But instead I became the dead child raised and the blind man who didn’t know why, but after decades could suddenly see.

At the Crucifixion, I am not Jesus suffering and dying on the Cross.  I could be the thief hanging next to Christ, coming to a late realization of whom the Lord is and what He has done for me.  But instead I was among the crowd that spit and jeered, and called out: “Crucify Him.”

And yet…

God still ran to me in joy as I came back to Him.

God took the time to stop and attend to my brokenness, and cared for me as He gave His only Son, so that I could recover, and have life.

God stopped me on my own selfish and self-serving road, and while not blinding me, gave me a new vision.

God gave me the Greatest Gift with His Son, and another gift in the realization that this could never be repaid no matter how much or little I believed myself to be, or thought I had.

And Jesus Christ Himself assured me, through His own agony and betrayal, with blood covering His face and holes punctured in His skin, that I too could be with Him in Paradise. 

What I am is a criminal with no way to pay for my crimes, set to face a holy Judge and an eternal sentence of death.  The Good News is that Jesus stepped in and paid my fine and took my penalty, setting me free.  I once was lost.  I now am found.  

Jesus, in becoming the ultimate love sacrifice, and then rising from the grave and conquering death, made a way and prepared a place for us all to be with Him forever. 

What more could I ever do to show my gratitude than share this Good News with others? 

I am so grateful for the abundance of love, grace and mercy shown to me in my life, and to have learned that anything else (especially in abundance) only stands between me and the One who has offered us life to its fullest.

I am so happy and blessed to have found the God who is not about what many call ‘Organized Religion’.  (Though I still remain unconvinced I truly understand what this phrase really means.  ‘Organized Religion’?  I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen it.  Is this like saying ‘I don’t like ‘Organized Family’?)

Maybe some people would prefer their religion ’disorganized’.  If so, then the answer (as always) is Jesus. 

It’s strange to me how Jesus’ name could have even ended up attached and connected to ‘Organized Religion’.  But I believe that every single one of us, in our human need to organize and classify, has been guilty of trying to somehow contain the One who is uncontainable (or at least attempt to label the One who created the labelers.) 

Anyone who is familiar with or who has read the history of Jesus’ ministry on earth knows that in a short time He appears to have a plan that is about complete ‘dis-organization’.

For example, Jesus doesn’t seek out those among the wealthy and educated groups, but appears among the common people.  Of these, He takes 12 ordinary guys who are fairly established in their roles as fishermen and craftsmen (plus one worker from the already-begun and despised tax industry) and leads them away from all they know in order to learn how to grasp, share, and spread the Good News of God’s Kingdom.  (“Rabbi, are you sure you’re picking the right people for such an important task?”)

Jesus also disorganized and disrupted the business of the moneychangers at the Temple by overturning their tables and driving them out with a whip of cords, saying they had turned His Father’s House into a den of thieves.  (“Jesus, this is not a good way to make to friends with the people who are bringing money into the building and to our programs!”)

In fact, Jesus doesn’t seem to have an enlightened view of our money at all.  Look what Jesus says to the nice, rich young man who proudly said he had kept all the laws from his youth.  Instead of patting him on the head, Jesus tells him that the one thing he lacks is treasure in heaven, and to get it he needs to sell all that he has, give it to the poor, and come follow Him.  (Jesus always seems to want from me the ONE thing that I’m trying to hide and hold behind my back.)

Jesus clearly needs an admin-assistant, as He doesn’t really schedule speaking events that He holds outdoors or for His Q & A sessions in the Temple.  In fact, instead of properly sized event forums, He seems to stick to such small houses that people end up cutting holes into the roof just to get close to Him.  (“Not good planning, Jesus.  And who’s going to fix my roof?”)

Jesus didn’t even try to set meetings through the proper channels with all the ’right’ people and religious leaders of the day.  Instead, he ate with the unwanted and undesirables, and even allowed a prostitute to wash His feet with her best perfume and most desperate tears.  (Jesus not only ignored the fact that this could create bad publicity for Him, or tabloid fodder, but He actually admonished the Pharisee host of the dinner, saying that he had not even offered to wash the feet of his Guest that day.)

Instead, with the compassion and care for the flock that has no Shepherd, Jesus doesn’t schedule for crowds, but He just speaks to those with ears to hear and hearts to listen.  Jesus doesn’t arrange for catering or potlucks, but feeds the multitude Himself, several times.  Jesus doesn’t arrange for security or medical support, but does the healing from His own hands.

And all He does, He does giving praise and thanks to His Father.

Jesus could even disorganize people’s thoughts when He simplified things for them.  He did this when asked what the greatest commandment was.  Jesus, gave them two:

Love God with all that you are

Love your neighbor as yourself

The people thought, “Ok.  That doesn’t sound too hard.  But wait a minute… Who are you calling my neighbor?” 

Jesus ruins everything again with his answer:  Everyone.  Starting with your enemies.  (Come on, Jesus!  You’re killing me here!) 

Jesus stood firm with His answer, and then shortly after went on to an agonizing death by crucifixion, knowing we never could and never would live up to even His most ‘simplified’ commandments on our own.

Jesus, however, was following an organized plan.  His Father’s.  Like most plans, at first we are unable to see a finished or completed picture.  Sadly, some never even want to see it.

Jesus’ main task of organization has still yet to be witnessed.  But it will indeed be seen by all one day.  On this day the Good Shepherd will gather those He knew—those who made their hearts His.  He will separate these, and Himself, from those He did not know, for eternity.

Today the Good News still is available for the taking.  But tomorrow?  No one knows.

The Good News is that Jesus loves sinners like us.  And He is still reaching out for us.  Without condoning her behavior, Jesus saved the life of an adulterous woman by telling her would-be executioners that whichever of them had no sin may throw the first stone.  After they all dropped their stones and left, He told her, ‘Neither do I accuse you.  Go, and sin no more.’

Like the adulterous woman, God’s church and His people have been adulterous.  Though we are guilty, and worthy of our punishment, we still have time to embrace Him as He reaches out to us.

Jesus still turns people’s lives around and upside down.

Jesus still confounds the wise with what they perceive as foolishness, and chooses those who are weak to shame the strong.

He still comes, not for the righteous, but for the sick and the sinner.  (And in case you haven’t read these words yet, both Jesus and former Pharisee Paul (reformed, remade, and renamed) let us know that none are righteous, and that none seek after God.)

Don’t ever let any person, group, set of rules or an ‘organization’ of any kind stand between you and God.  A person will NOT be judged by the standard of the screwed-up, error prone, weird and annoying law-breakers that call themselves Christians, nor judged in comparison to the terrible acts and mistakes many have made in the name of God and the church.  Those in judgment will be not be able to compare themselves to the Hitlers, the Dahmers, the Bin Ladens, and those who we claim have done much worse things than we have.  A person will be judged, alone, up against God’s holy standard, and none of us can reach it on our own.  The only One who saves us is the One we truly know, and who knows us.  That’s why Jesus came to us, and what He has done for us.

So forget about organization.  All we have to do is ‘Turn’…

And follow Him.

“It’s true and it’s a sad end to the fairytale,” sources told Access on Saturday.  Adding, “They love each other very much, but they have had a very tense time in the last year.” 

This was a reason given for the decision of divorce of celebrities Heidi Klum and Seal. 

I, of course, don’t know these people or their situation.  I always feel sadness when I hear of any marriage ending.  Yet after hearing and reading about so many celebrity (and non-celebrity) marriage splits attributed to ‘tension’, ‘boredom’, and ‘irreconcilable differences’, I wonder if marriage to many people is nothing more than a few moments in which they are lavished with attention, and maybe enjoy a brief identification with another human being that ends up as fleeting as the wind.  As one speaker put it:  “What do you mean you’re divorcing due to irreconcilable differences??!  ALL marriages have irreconcilable differences!”  Marriage calls two people together not only to love each other, but to be partners and to grow together.  It calls us to strengthen and lift each other up, and to support each other even while sometimes agreeing to disagree.

In other words marriage, unlike the image of fairy-tales, requires a lot of hard work and attention.  In fact, I can’t think of one modern event that was called a ‘Fairy-tale Wedding’ where the two that were joined remained together.  Good marriages will happen when instead of opting for the ‘Fairy-tale’, two people will plant their feet firmly on the ground, together.  They will commit to each other and face the same direction and walk, together.  Through all times and events, good and bad, easy and difficult, they will share joys and struggles and everything else, always, together.

I thank God for my marriage, not only for the love and comforts and security it provides, but also for its challenges and all of the qualities that it creates and strengthens in me.

“But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and the two shall become one flesh; so they are no longer two, but one flesh.What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” — Mark 10:6-9

Driving down an empty street

on an everyday errand

as winter begins, changing Autumn,

turning all to cold, gray and dry

With nothing else to see,

I always look to the side

Without seeking the What

or wanting the Why

In the middle of the small city

beside an old building

resting on a rusted trailer

in a vacant dirty lot

sat a small boat –

 — A craft aged and off-white

Faded black letters on one side-

a name for her, ‘Patience’

if calling it a ‘her’ was still right

I wondered about the vessel,

if her virtue was born years ago

in a time when her days were new;

Patience drifting over the waves,

on a lake, waiting for the fish to bite,

Patience in the morning, waiting

for the day to warm

Patience in the afternoon, waiting

for the day to cool

Or was the name to be a curse?

Patience

in a vacant, dirty lot

Patience

resting on a rusted trailer

Patience

left beside an old building

Patience

made for floating and trolling,

drifting and cruising across the waters

And yet sitting for no one knows how long

Patience

being seen by me

on an empty street

in the middle of a small city

as winter begins

In reading a list of job requirements that can be used on an employer’s application, there were two lines that caught my attention:

Must be able to dynamically stand for extended periods.

Must be able to statically stand for extended periods.

It seems that when it comes to standing, there is a subtle yet definable difference in the way it can be done.  I’ve worked with far too many people who seem to have the ability to ‘statically stand’ like masters.  The problem seems to be that the mouths of these static standers are usually engaged with another static stander on a topic that has little or nothing to do with the job for which they were hired to stand.

Would I be able to do a job where I must statically stand?  What does this even mean?  Even during those brief moments in the sometime busy or crazy worlds of working or managing ministries, retail, restaurant, or labor jobs, I occasionally find a brief time between action and tasks.  Sometimes it will be just a few seconds, but in that brief space of ‘static’ time, I take the moment and look around.  I anticipate the next move I will be making in my work.  I scan the area for safety issues.  I take mental notes on training, coaching, and praising opportunities.  My eyes patrol the area for danger, theft, errors, or potential shrink.  My mind captures the time on the clock to calculate where I am in the day—what has been accomplished and what still remains to be accomplished.  I figure how long it will take me and how many steps I must travel to be where I need to be for an upcoming scheduled event, meeting, or appointment.  Maybe a few ‘static’ seconds have passed now, and mind and body shift back to the world of ‘dynamic standing’, and then I begin to move once again.  Is it possible to ever be truly ‘static’? 

Maybe the problem is that I could not be able to commit to a job where I had to statically stand for extended periods.  Is this the difference between managers and the managed?  In work, I find myself not only moving, but working to ensure others are moving as well.  Even if there are ‘static’ moments or periods, there is always something that can be done, considered, planned, strategized, organized, or even just cleaned or wiped down.  There is always a customer or client or member who needs help or something that needs to be completed.

It is in life, not work, that times of static standing (or sitting, reclining, etc.) seem to come more often and far more naturally.  Of course, times of rest and rejuvenation are absolutely essential (and even commanded by our Creator).  But even though I can definitely be idle, the body and mind were never created with the ability to be truly static.  Even periods of needed rest are not merely static.  The chemical actions and reactions of the body are hard at work to bring your energy back up to the proper levels.  One day my body and mind will reach death, and may then be static in the sleep of forever.  The new bodies and minds we will be given will be beyond the realms of ‘static’ and ‘dynamic’ and may be even something like ‘electric’ and ‘supernatural’ at the same time, but likely something far more unimaginable. 

Yet I still refuse to waste a day in this body by planning for anything less than dynamic action.  There is someone or some purpose somewhere in your life that desperately needs your dynamism.

When I see static on a television set or hear a static sound, it is not merely ‘nothing’ that is going on.  It’s rather too many of the same or similar things trying to go on at the same time until it becomes an incomprehensible (and annoying) buzz, screech, or humming.  So when I think of ‘statically standing’, maybe I should not necessarily think of the absence of action, but rather of trying not to merely do what everyone else does.  There is always someone who needs help, needs food, needs spare change or needs a thousand dollars.  There is always someone who needs advice or just a listening ear.  Someone who just needs a handshake.  An embrace.  A friend. 

But I want to plan NOT to be just another part of the static crowd:  Someone needs me NOT to say that things will get better, but that I will be someone who is there for them when things get worse.  Someone needs me NOT to say ‘just tough it out’ or that they are reaping what they’ve sown, but that I will be the one that will help them up and out.  Someone needs me NOT to say that they need a Savior, but that I will actually show them the One that I know.  

Static time is over.  Now it’s time to move.

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world  —  James 1:27  NASB

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. – John 15:13  NIV

“Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink?  ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’    “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ – Matthew 25:37-40  NASB

I will continue to pray for the one who believes himself to be forever lost, and beyond the reach of God’s amazing grace.  I remember going through a time when I thought I too had fallen too far away from God. I accepted Christ at a very young age, and to this day I remember that moment and such an indescribable feeling and change in my heart (though others experience different things)…But I promptly went on and made some wrong moves…First, I didn’t really share my acceptance with anyone. Sharing can be a very valuable aspect of your salvation as it can help others come around you, help guide you, and help you begin to learn what is is to be part of God’s family. Second, as the next few years went on, I prayed occasionally, but it was mainly to ask for things, or for things NOT to happen, especially as I went through junior high…(Asking for things is ok, but it was much later when I learned that it is better to ask God what HE wants from ME each day.) I continued on into high school, went through my parents’ divorce and my father’s suicide, and used life’s misfortunes as an excuse to abuse alcohol, drugs and declare to some that I held atheistic beliefs (even though I actually never doubted God’s existence, I just thought I didn’t care anymore)…Fortunately I met a girl who, though we both were going through struggles and periods of searching, we stayed together. She had grown up in a family that had far more of a church background, but we did not directly pursue church or a path of faith in our first several years together. After moving to California, I truly hit a rock-bottom period in my work, relationships, and in my spirituality. I had felt literally empty. One Sunday when I was lying in bed in the late afternoon on my only day off (this is usually all I did on my day off) Jeanine (the girl I had been with since High School, and am still with today) came into the room to grab something, and she was dressed really nice. I asked what she was doing, and she said she was going to church. I was surprised, dumbfounded, and then angry. She left, and I couldn’t believe it. I stalked around the apartment mad while she was gone. Then I calmed down. Then, like in the Prodigal Son parable, I felt I had a ‘came to my senses’ moment. To make a longer story short (too late!) thanks to this impacting moment prompted by the woman who would later become my wife, I began a climb back toward my faith in God. Though some things began to turn around in a positive way (including marrying Jeanine in one of the best days of my life, and truly making my marriage vows to her and God), this took several years, and we had moved back to Idaho when I dealt with some serious faith issues. I felt that maybe I had done too much wrong to deserve to have God and His forgiveness in my life. Or that I should have to DO something grand to be able to accept HIS acceptance. These were big obstacles to me, and then one day, somehow His message was communicated to me in a quiet moment. It said “You HAVE done wrong, and no one deserves My love and forgiveness, but here it is for you.” and “There is nothing you can possibly do to deserve this great Gift, and to think you can means you can never possibly understand the depth of My love for you.”  I was determined then to grab for it, turn from my sin, and truly surrender myself to my Savior. Once I realized the eternal separation that He had saved me from, and that Jesus dying on the cross for me was a legal transaction, paying for my sins once and for all and there was nothing I could do in my power to save myself, I then felt (like in the Parable of the Lost Son) the Father was seeing me and running towards me again. I still believe that the moment when I ‘accepted’ as a young boy was a valid experience, especially when I realized that once I had let Him in, there was no way He was ever letting go of me. But I had to reach the point of true surrender, and turn back to Him. I’m so glad I did. The Journey with God is a ongoing road of challenges and is about continual growth and learning.  And you never stop learning up to the time you see Him face to face.