Category Archives: commands

On Christian extremism

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I’ve been thinking a lot about Christians going to extremes recently. Here are some stories that I’ve noticed this week.

I watched a video about Ian and Larissa. They dated for ten months. And then he was in an accident. His brain and body were severely abused. After a long recovery process, where recovery means being able to understand each other, they got married.

Steve McCoy, a pastor, writes about his wife Molly’s struggles with Chiari Malformation. It’s a brain problem. She gets horrible headaches and worse. And there isn’t much that helps. Steve has many posts of their journey.  Recently, in the middle of one of the worst battles, he wrote:

We continue to talk and pray together about the goodness of God, His ability to heal and our request that He would heal Molly, and His power made perfect in weakness and the possibility of the weakness remaining rather than being taken away.

If you would, say a prayer for Molly and our family.

Bob Goff is a lawyer who sits at Disneyland to plan, is a friend of Don Miller, and founded Restore International:

Our goal is simple: to fight injustice. Restore International seeks to find daring and audacious ways to combat human rights violations, including forced prostitution and slave labor. Instead of just talking about it, we want to be actively seeking ways to bring hope, justice, and restoration.

Sunday night, I helped with a concert. A bunch of high school students want to keep young girls from Nepal from ending up in brothels by supporting Tiny Hands International. The free-will offering at the concert was over $6,000. After the event, Jon Andrews from Tiny Hands told them, “When your kids asked you what you did in high school, tell them you saved the lives of kids.”

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How I lost and still won.

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I didn’t win the contest.

The prize was a free online course about care of the soul. I had read from most of the course materials but, as I said in the email,

“I’m at a point of needing to be “encouraged” to go through the material in a structured way, though I’ve read from several of the contributors in the past. So if you choose me, you’ll get your money’s worth in promotion.”

They didn’t pick me.

As I thought about this “rejection”, I realized that my challenge at the moment is not about content. It’s about commitment, it’s about tiny steps in the right direction. As you can see in my email to them, I didn’t need the course materials. I needed the structure of the course. I needed deadlines. I needed external pressure.

As I was thinking this through, I remembered God’s words to Israel through Micah. God says,

He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

The essence of this requirement is simple. What I do, what I love, who I follow. Justice, mercy, humility, God.

If I’m honest with myself, I don’t need another course. WIth the deadlines and pressure, the stress on my soul would have been too much now. If I’m honest with myself, it would have been about the coolness of the class and the excuse it gives for six weeks of not doing what I already know.

I’m in favor of courses, of seminars, of workshops, of sermons, of lessons. It’s why I did my Bible course last fall. But often you and I don’t need another course. We need to do the homework already on our desks.

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How one disciple paid his taxes.

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Sometimes we promise more that our friends want to deliver.

“Of course he’ll buy you supper.”

“Of course we can help you move next Tuesday.”

“Of course he likes t-shirts with funny sayings.”

“Of course he pays the temple tax.”

The temple tax?

Yes. Everyone over 20 in Israel was counted. When they were counted, they paid a tax, a ransom for their lives. This money was used to pay for temple operations.

God told Moses how it worked.

One day a tax collector asked Peter whether Jesus paid this tax. Peter said, “of course.”

Peter never stopped to think about whether Jesus ought to. He never stopped to think, “Wait, he keeps saying that he’s God, why would God have to pay temple tax? That would be like paying to walk in and out of your own home.”

Jesus calls Peter on it. He explains why he shouldn’t have to pay the tax. He tells Peter where he will find a coin to pay the tax for both Peter and Jesus. He sends Peter fishing.

Just because Jesus rescues Peter, however, doesn’t mean that he approves of what Peter did. He may just want to make life simpler for the tax collectors, people he demonstrated care for.

We act like Peter.

Do we say, “Of course God will do that,” without thinking about the fact that God may not want to. There may be consequences we don’t know about. There may be issues we haven’t seen. God may be unwilling to do the thing that seems so obvious to us.

There are times that we need to stop talking and listen. There are times, when asked a question, we must learn to say, “God, what do you think?”

There are times when we shouldn’t depend on coins in fishes’ mouths.

eager to fight.

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You’ve been going through a lot. I get it.  Some of it matters, some of it doesn’t. And you know that. But still, you’ve been going through a lot. And you just said, “The next person who crosses that line is going to get smacked.”

What concerns me is that when you say that, when I say that, we just decided to be belligerent. We are ready to vent with whoever that is. We are ready to take all the tension of the last week, all the arguments from everyone, all the things that broke today, from fingernails to transmissions to hearts, and put it in bucket. We’re going to put that bucket above the door and tie a string to the doorknob. And if we forget to fasten the bucket firmly and it falls rather than dumps, well, sorry. Sometimes things like that happen. Like to our transmission.

In that time between placing the bucket and the next person coming in, we really don’t want to stop and read Paul’s caution: Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 

This comes in the middle of several similarly painful comments that make you want to make Paul himself be the next guy through the door. What does he know about conflict, about transmissions, about people who seem to delight in making your life miserable? After all, he’s the great apostle.

But he also is the guy who ran into hecklers and false accusations and angry mobs everywhere he went. He’s the guy who weeps because he cares so much. That’s who says “wage peace.”

How’s he do it? God only knows.

Oh, wait.

while i’m away.

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I was speaking at a conference about what I do. I said that my passion is helping people emotionally understand the truth of God’s work. I decided to see whether I could illustrate what I meant.

So I said,

Some of you are bosses. Some are parents. Some are spouses or coworkers. Many of you, when you came here, left instructions. You said, “Here’s what I’d like you to work on while I’m gone.” You said, “Don’t forget to study like we’ve talked.” You said, “When a difficult customer comes in, here’s what to do. You remember how I worked with Mrs Smith?” You said, “You know, you may have trouble with the constable. He’s been giving me a hard time, too. Don’t get into an argument. I’ll take care of it when I get home.” And you said, “And remember, text me any time. I’ll get the message. It may take awhile, but I’ll reply.”

For many of us, that picture makes complete sense. In our best moments of leadership, of parenting, of teaching, we have spent time showing people how to do what they should do. We have given models, examples, illustrations. We have shown them how we want them to work, to learn, to live.

And then I suggested that the picture describes what Jesus did when he left the disciples standing on a hillside. His last intructions said, “teach them how to obey what I’ve said.” And he said, “I’ll be with you all the time.”

Often, people who talk about following Jesus focus on teaching what he said, or holding it against people. We don’t do nearly enough working on teaching how it looks to do it – modeling, illustrating, living it ourselves.

But I learn better when I see how something works. You do too.

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Here’s the whole presentation: 3 continent parish