Hard Lessons

Hard lessons from 26 years of marriage that I want my kids to know. (1 minute 26 seconds of read time) 

You're going to do some things well, and you're going to do some things badly. When you do well and get praised, give it to God. Don't let accolades make you complacent. Success is a combination of dreaming and work. One without the other will not serve you well. 

When you hurt someone, own it and make it right. It's God that defines your eternity, and only He knows how forgiven you are. But it is your relationships with people that define the experience you have in this life. 

You won't gravitate to those who love you the most, but to those who accept you the most. When you allow those who accept you to rise above those who truly love you, somebody is going to get hurt. It will only be the grace of the people you hurt and the people who love you that keeps your life from being defined by your lowest moments. People who love you will protect you if you hurt them. People who merely accept you will destroy you if you hurt them. 

Surround yourself with people you can be completely transparent and vulnerable with. Choose those people wisely when you don't need them, because you're rarely thinking wisely when you do need them. But don't limit your council to your friends. Get a professional counselor in your life who has dismissed themselves from ever being a friend. That person may the most honest person you ever talk to. 

Rejection can be a brutal teacher. When people don't want to stand close to you, it's usually because you stepped in something. Selfishness is when you step in something on purpose and blame others for not accepting it. Selfishness is a rocket ride to a lonely life because when you step in something people don't want you walking into their house. 

Live a life filled with abundant experiences that you wouldn't mind telling your grandkids about. Judgement and grace are inevitable, but you only get to keep what you give away. Finally, everything, every moment, every breath, every heartbeat, will hinge on this question from Jesus Christ, "Who do you say that I am?" There is nothing more important than your answer to that question.

Life in Austin, Texas Was Like...Nicky the Stranger

(I never want to forget what it was like to live in the weirdest city in America. Austin will always be a home to me. This was in 2014.)

After an evening at Kerby Lane for a late night pancake gathering with friends, Traci and I pondered what else to do. Just up South Lamar was an English style pub that had late hours and the word 'grill' in the title, so we assumed they might serve food. Screens scattered around the faux old English decor were showing shark week, so we were hooked. Did you catch that? And that... I digress.

Being that is was open mic night we ordered fish and chips and settled in for some random amateur entertainment.  After a few jangly guitar tunes were plinked out by a variety of nervous bearded hipsters, a guy got up who was never gonna be famous but looked like he might die trying. He was a glorious train wreck of Pat Boone, Cirque du Soleil, a slam poet, and a game show host. He started out like Leonard Cohen or Barry White singing to a track and suddenly shed the white suit coat for a blue sequin coat underneath.  A couple of spins and a backflip later this guy (who goes by the name Nicky the Stranger) is leading the pub in a singalong of a song that was entirely made up of words impossible to decipher. It was so oddly mesmerizing that I didn't even think to snap a pic.

When he finished to a chorus of cheers the MC said with a hint of semi sarcasm, "Thanks, Nicky. Always a nice change of pace from the usual." Shark week, a fake British Pub, and Nicky the Stranger in his sparkly blue glory. What a wonderful, weird Sunday night in Austin, Texas.

A New Covenant Clarity

Everything from the Old Covenant needs to be interpreted through the New Covenant. In the New Covenant we have 1 Corinthians 13 (Love keeps no record of wrongs, never fails, etc), 1 John 4:7-8 “…Love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” And the words of Jesus leading up to the cross, “Love your enemies” Luke 6:31.

The New Covenant didn’t change the nature of God, but it did shift how He deals with mankind. "Now, in Christ, we who were afar off have been brought near by His blood” Eph 2:13. The blood of the New Covenant abolished the old covenant (detailed in Ephesians 2) and brought us into adoption as heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ.

We now revisit the old covenant simply to celebrate what the cross and resurrection accomplished. We don’t throw away that glorious New to re-embrace the blind fearful foreboding of the old. I don't view Old Testament verses on hate as elevated above the New Covenant verses on love. Ephesians 2. The Old Covenant was nailed to the cross. Romans 8. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ has set us free from the law of sin and death. I don't know what was happening back then to cause them to interpret what they were getting as the hatred of God towards man, but in Christ we get a different picture. If He commands us to love our enemies, what do you think He does with His?

Hebrews 1:3 says Jesus is the exact representation of the Father's nature. So anything I find in the old covenant that I can't substantiate in the life of Jesus Christ, we have reason to question. The Old Covenant was one big question to which Jesus is the answer. John 5:35. So I'll never exalt an old covenant perspective of God over the clear representation of Christ. When you have a contrast between the old and the new you don't have to try to reinterpret the old, rather simply align with the new covenant and thank Him for it.

Busyness

"Busyness is artificial significance." Bill Johnson.

Busyness isn't the cure for laziness. To me, laziness isn't a lack of activity. It's a lack of productivity. To be unproductive is to be unfruitful. And if a person is killing themselves with activity that bears no fruit, that's poor stewardship of time and energy. Make every action an investment in which you attempt as much as possible to be conscious of a return. It's not saying, "What will I get out of this?" because it's not always about you. But saying, "What fruit could this effort produce?" It is the second question that fuels the dreams within you. In the Kingdom of God, His priorities are paramount. If you take care of what's important to God, He will take care of what's important to you.

Why I Believe

I believe in God because of Jesus. I believe in Jesus because of the resurrection. And I believe in the resurrection because of the disciples. We can argue the existence of God, the validity of Jesus, or the legitimacy of the resurrection. But the life and death of each of the disciples is the greatest historical case for the resurrection. These men, one moment huddling in fear, have an encounter with the resurrected Christ, and that changes them forever. Ordinary men don’t die for a lie. And each of them separately, with no way to easily contact the other, was killed or tortured and none of them ever said, “Stop! We made the whole thing up.” That’s simply astonishing.

How did they die?

James was the first Apostle to be martyred. Herod Agrippa seized him when he was in Jerusalem in the year 42 and had him beheaded. Andrew preached the Gospel in Turkey, Greece, and Macedonia. He was crucified in Achaia at Patras in the year 61. Tied to an X-shaped cross after being scourged, he hung there he preached to people for two days before he died. Peter was martyred by Nero in the year 67. Peter was crucified, by request, upside down, out of reverence for Jesus. His request was granted. Paul was beheaded on the same day as Peter outside the walls of Rome. Simon was crucified at Edessa in the year 67. Matthew preached in Africa and was martyred by the sword in the year 65 in Ethiopia. Thomas was stabbed to death at Mylapore, India, in the year 74. Matthias (who replaced Judas) was crucified in the year 65. Jude was clubbed to death the same year in Persia. James the less had it rough in Jerusalem. The religious leaders took him to the pinnacle of the temple and told him to renounce Christ before all the people who were gathered below. Instead he proclaimed Christ resurrected and they cast him off. Still living after he hit the ground, a man stepped forward and smashed his head in with a club. Philip preached the Gospel in Greece and he was martyred at Hierapolis in Persia in the year 62. Like Peter, he was crucified upside down. Bartholomew was skinned alive in Armenia in the year 72. John was the only one not martyred. However, in the year 95, he was taken prisoner at Ephesus and sent to trial in Rome. Sentenced to death, he was boiled in oil before the Latin gate. Miraculously he survived and was exiled to the island of Patmos. He was later freed and died at Ephesus in the year 100 when he was eighty-eight years old.

So this Easter, I’m compelled to look around me at the arguments of people against the existence of God and the validity of Jesus, and each one has their theories. But the resurrection has moved from theory to fact in my heart because of my own encounter with the resurrected Christ. I understand now, how these men found a cause worth living and dying for. And it’s their lives, message, and deaths that solidify for me the truth of the resurrection, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the everlasting love of the Father. May Easter weekend bring each of you a life changing encounter with the resurrected Christ.

(For anyone who wants to do research on this, I highly recommend Historian Michael Licona’s incredible work called, “The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach”. At 700 pages and more than 2000 footnotes, Licona has done his homework. Also for the especially studious scholar, see the writings of historian, Josephus, Eusebius, and the early church fathers such as Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Dionysius of Corinth, Irenaeus, Tertullian and the list goes on.)

Interwoven in Christ

Col 2:2-3 Paul’s outlining the priorities for what he wants to see in every believer and every church here in this verse and it’s staggering and incredible.

…that their hearts may be encouraged…

When you face loss or disappointment it’s called “hope deferred”. The result is that it makes the heart sick. But Paul is stating the clarity of focus here is that you would have an encouraged heart. A heart filled with courage stands in the present with confidence and looks toward the future with bold expectancy. Whatever circumstances lie between you and your destiny, we are continually strengthened by the knowledge that the end of this journey is a joy that nothing can take away.

…having been knit together in love… 

Jesus declared that we would know that we are one with Him in John 14. Then He prayed that we would be one with each other in John 17. In Christ we have been interwoven into a tapestry of Love Himself. The Holy Spirit has a high value for union and unity. The declaration itself doesn’t make it reality without our willful alignment to the desire of His heart.

…and attaining to all the wealth that comes from full assurance of understanding that results in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

The boundless riches of the Gospel are accessed when you have settled on this singularity as the foundation of every moment and movement of your being. Christ. So then when Paul makes statements about Christ in the rest of the letter, He is unveiling that wealth with statements like “Christ is all and in all” and “in Him you have been made complete”. Our union with Him is the source of all wisdom.