You Can Skim This One

How will you measure my life?

Clayton Christensen is a Harvard Business School professor who recently wrote an article posing this question to graduating MBA students. The author is a Christian and offers a model that is meant to be used to by individuals to define the important things in their life and what metrics are pertinent to track implementation. A short read, I highly recommend it.  

Where is my value found?


Placing my value entirely in God is impossible. It goes without saying that I would tell you I want my value to be completely interwoven into the fabric of our relationship, but my actions betray my altruistic rhetoric. In fact, using pretentious language like "altruistic rhetoric" just tied up some value in what I perceive as a facetious mind.

I spend a lot of my time trying to make sure that I seem valuable through: popularity, professional success, relationships, personal appearance, a wise demeanor and fractiously battle any enemy -- especially God. These exogenous variables valiantly defy the Almighty, but why?

Unusual circumstances often serve as points of clarification. Recently, God revealed how satisfying and "right" it was to yield all (or as much as my sinful mind could) of my value proposition into His grace and loving arms.


Eternity panic attacks

In Ernest Becker's book, The Denial of Death, he discusses the dualism of having an animalistic nature with all the functions of a sentient being-but also having a symbolic self, such as a name and self-awareness. This thought led me to an "eternity panic attack" which I occasionally have. You know, the thought of forever and what that will be like. I can grasp the idea that I have a symbolic self and how that places me on higher tier of creation, but if you want to feel insignificant and completely dependent, look up at the sky and imagine uninterrupted existence.

The dualism of having a symbolic self, like a name and cogent thought processes combined with the eternal purpose that God created us makes me feel like a dumb mule. Thankfully, God grants a clue to this dumb mule, and has offered the gift of eternal life.

It was interesting that when I stopped fretting about eternity, I looked less at myself and began to look at ways I could spread this exhilarating thought.

-Luke (sorry if this post was overly fragmented...hopefully you just skimmed it anyway :)

Power -> God’s Glory

I’m a man of little faith, most of the time.  I’ve increasingly grown less confident of my own ability to do anything, and yet instead of realizing this displacement is God’s strategy to shift my focus inevitably toward His all-sufficing provision, capability, and resurrection power, usually I see things as falling into an awkward state of limbo from which there seems no proximate remedy.  Over the years God has been developing in me, through adverse circumstances and loving discipline, an awareness to His sufficiency and my minute mortality. 

One of the stories of Jesus’ steps on our planet that has most intrigued me goes like this [end of Matthew 8]:  two dudes have so many demons they’re uncountable, thus called ‘legion,’ demons recognize Jesus as having power over them and they ask to be sent into farm animals, Jesus sends them into some pigs [thus honoring their request…odd], economic loss of pigs ensues when pigs run off the cliffs, townspeople have entirely inverted priorities of the universe and prize economic value over supernatural visitation of the Lord God Almighty in their town and kick him out of town….

…which leads to Jesus showing up and mind-reading the religious dudes who are looking down on him for healing a previously lame person, which sets up Matthew 9:8-9:

“But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.  And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him”

           That’s quite a turn of events.  Let’s be honest: what would you do if you turned on the evening news to see pigs running off a cliff due to being recently possessed by demons – demons who had just had a conversation with some dude who claimed to be the Son of God, who everyone has been talking about, and then after you turn off the news your buddy who’s been lame his entire life walks up to your house claiming this Son of God dude just healed him?   Oh, and your neighbor’s cousin’s wife’s friend Matthew just up and left his cushy job and started following this guy right afterwards?!  But wait, do you even think that some of the causes of events in our world and/or actions of people are directly attributable to demon possession or God’s direct healing hand on someone’s life? [but I digress, as that is another conversation…]

            

           We have a perspective today which, I believe, does not truly account for the power of God.  Or at least, I don’t.  Sure, we acknowledge the saving power of God over our sins, etc., but do we contemplate that it is power over EVERYTHING.  Over life, over death, over demons, over disease or deformity?!  We might claim we believe the Bible is true, but when’s the last time you overheard someone in church say:  ‘so, I was having an argument with this demon the other day…’ or ‘my daughter was recently raised from the dead’?  I’m overstating to make my point, but overall I believe we down-size God to match the parameters of our current problems.issues.wants.wishlist.mood.  If we contemplate God’s power, we see God as being all-powerful over our job search, our upcoming final, our relational drama, our income taxes, etc.  We see something like the tragedy in Japan and…is our first thought of God’s omnipotent power or Him or the destruction and how devastating it must be?  I know what my first inclination is. 

And yet, the Scripture says that God had ‘given such power unto men.’  A friend who is much smarter than I believes this passage shows that God’s design is to give us power, and cites how the apostles healed others, cast out demons, etc. when Jesus sent them out.  And I do get his point, and I haven’t studied the Scriptures to the degree he has, but I would agree with him thus far that a general construct goes like this:  God is all-powerful.  That means He has power over EVERYTHING.  Our God is not diffracted and does not report to someone else.  He gave this power to men.  Jesus and the apostles, to name a few.  We are made in His image and are built to become ‘little Christs’ and thus replicate Jesus with our very lives.  Thus, His design is for us to wield His power as well…why?  The Scripture says the result of Jesus using God’s power is that when the multitudes of people saw Jesus do it “they marveled” and “GLORIFIED GOD.” 

When I ask God why I’m weak the answer is usually that I’m not glorifying Him.  Every time, now that I think about it, that I’ve ever been powerful, channeling God’s power through me, it’s been synonymous with my life glorifying His.

And, Lest we think this is a one-time thing, or something Matthew blew out of proportion to justify him leaving his job to follow a random stranger, consider the very last instruction of Jesus to his disciples before ascending into heaven [talk about a sight to behold!]

Matthew 28:18-20  “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

Then in Acts 1:8 Jesus instructs them that “you will receive power” and be His witnesses…to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Main takeaway:  There is one Being with all the power in all Heaven and earth given to Him.  And He says we will receive power.  Why?  To be His witness, and to glorify God, that’s what His power’s for.

--Matthew

Comfortably Uncomfortable

As humans, I think we strive for comfort.  Some of us take comfort when we have enough money, others take comfort in having a good education, others in a family, and others in a career.  We like our routines, we find comfort in small things, because we know what to expect. 

Living a comfortable Christian life is easy too.  Go to church, go to fellowship, read the bible, have a few conversations, pray—all of these things are safe and comfortable.  And I’m not saying they’re wrong, but I do think there is a way for us to be challenged and thus have a stronger faith.

When we are comfortable, it’s hard to depend on God because we have other things to depend on; we are not much different from the rest of the world.  When we are uncomfortable, the only thing we have is God, and we have to put all of our faith in Him.

God clearly called me to Pepperdine, and for me this was an uncomfortable choice.  I had a safe and comfortable choice at home; I could stay in my hometown, I could work at my same job--easy choice.  I had to step out in faith and depend on him 100% and the peace I felt by making that uncomfortable choice was surreal.

What if God called you to…Africa…or to live homeless…would you make that leap?  I can think of many reasons why not to make that choice including fear, loneliness, safety, etc.

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”—Isaiah 6:8

So many times we cry out to God “Here am I. Send me!”  Then we complain that we never hear Him calling us, but I think sometimes we have selective hearing.  “Here Am I, Send me…but only if it’s safe and I will feel comfortable.”  I have made this same cry myself…there are many things that I feel God has called me to do…and I have ignored a lot of them because I’m not sure how I am supposed to do them or where I am even supposed to start.

We can’t expect to change the world if we live by the same rules.  Jesus I’m sure was quite comfortable in heaven, but instead He came down into the world in a very uncomfortable position…knowing He was going to be crucified.

If Jesus can put himself in a position like that for us, certainly we can step out in faith in uncomfortable situations and depend completely on God.  We can take comfort in the fact that God is not going to let us fall, and even if we do stumble, He’s going to be there. 

I think living uncomfortably, but depending completely on God will allow us to see Him work in a refreshing and rewarding way.

--Carly