Justice and Mercy

Don’t just demand justice from others. If you’re all about justice, ask yourself two questions: Am I always just in my dealings with others? Do I always want to be treated justly? Personally, I answer a big fat “NO” to these two questions. This doesn't mean that I can’t demand justice for victims of injustice, but it will help me to not put myself on a pedestal above those that I demand justice from, whether or not I think my injustices aren’t as gross as others. We are all broken human beings, and we all are unjust in different ways and we ALL desire mercy.

Apparently I'm a dumbass?

You could say I'm a transparent guy, or maybe just a dumbass. Last week a few of my former Oracle colleagues took me out for a farewell happy hour, and one of them shared with me that the buzz around the office is that some people think I was a dumbass, while others think that I'm somewhat of an inspiration. The details of this story are secondary to the main reason I'm writing this post, but in summary, these opinions about me were formed by my choice to be transparent with my boss about leaving Oracle before I left Oracle.

My reason for writing this story is to say: have courage to be a dumbass.

My friend's statements struck me, but not because "the buzz is that some people think I was a dumbass" -- but because of the contrast between those that think I'm a dumbass and those that think I'm an inspiration.

My immediate response was something along the lines of (and I was just about jumping out of my chair with a huge smile on my face):

"You know what's great -- I am so grateful that some people would consider me an inspiration -- because I know I've had "inspirations" in my life and many of these people have impacted my life in ways that I carry with me today. I haven't forgotten them. If you inspire someone that can change someone's life forever -- it's something that they can carry with them forever.

And if someone thinks you're a dumbass? First off, you're not a dumbass just because they think you're one (nobody on this earth gets to create the definition of who you are), but more importantly WHO CARES about their opinion anyways because they will think "dumbass" and then forget about you and go to sleep that night and probably never think about you again."

Especially when you're following Jesus you will have people say to you (or think) that you're a dumbass. A lot of things about following Jesus just don't make sense to people that don't understand the beauty of self-sacrificial love and servitude.

First, let their comments or opinions roll off of you. They're just opinions.

Secondly, have grace for them that they just don't understand you. Maybe they don't know about Jesus -- and if this is the case they will very likely not understand why you behave the way you behave in your crazy fruits of the spirit ways.

Thirdly, if they keep calling you a dumbass just say something like "Dude I'd rather be a dumbass than a STANK ass!"

Love is the why and how

Love is the why and the how for the beginning and the existence of our universe.

We live for love, and we will die for lack of love.

Love is more important to us than other basic needs of food, water and shelter.

When we love someone with our entire being, we are willing to give our life for them. We won't sacrifice just food, water and shelter for our loved ones -- we will actually forfeit our life if it means that a loved one will live.

The scientific community has studies that have shown the damage done to infants when they are starved of their mother's love.

Countless stories will come to mind of the dysfunctions that ourselves and others manifest when there is a lack of love from those that we love.

Perhaps you have felt at times that life is not worth living without love.

Love is our core need and our core desire because we have been created by the source of love and the source of life. The source of love is God -- because God is love.

Art always reflects the artist. Creations carry the fingerprints of their creators. Life always reflects the creator of that life. Therefore, our life and our universe reveal the fingerprints of our creator.

What is this creator like?

This creator desires love. Just like we do.
This creator loves beauty. Just like we do.
This creator loves creativity. Just like we do.
This creator hates selfishness. Just like we do.
This creator hates injustice. Just like we do.
This creator hates evil. Just like we do.

The greatest and most unfathomable thing in our universe is love. It's a paradox to sacrifice our lives in a universe where our lives are all that it seems like we have. Love is the only thing that we love more than life.

This points to a creation and a creator that is
All
About
Love.

I believe that the only thing capable of bringing life out of nothing is something more powerful than life... this thing is love.

I believe that love is eternal. No beginning. No end.

For love to be eternal, it must be a relationship. Love can only exist within the framework of a relationship.

Jesus told us about this relationship. More on that later.

Jumping in Front of Trains

Atheist, agnostic, and seeking friends of mine -- thought for you -- is there someone that you would jump in front of a train to save, if you knew that it would cost you your life? I can think of several people in my life that I would do this for -- family members and also friends. 

Willingness to sacrifice our lives for others points to the reality and the superiority of love in our universe. Self-sacrificial love is a problem for the notion that our own survival is the sole reason for our existence. Self-sacrificial love makes perfect sense in a universe that was created by a God that IS love. 

Art always reflects the artist, so our universe makes sense when love is the ultimate purpose of life, as this is the reflection of a God of love. In a universe with love as the ultimate purpose, you will experience joy and peace when you're living in alignment with God's will to live a sacrificial life of love for others. In a universe with love as the ultimate purpose, you will experience loneliness, restlessness and an insatiable desire to consume when you're living a life selfishly seeking love for yourself. 

Would you jump in front of a train to save someone? That's greater than living. That's God in you. That's love.

Love Your Neighbor... Good Enough?

Why do we need to love God? A pretty basic question, I know. But I've been thinking "What's to say that a life of commitment to simply following the Golden Rule of love your neighbor as yourself" isn't good enough?

We need to love God, because God is love. It's simple, but profound. We need to love... love.

Let me try to explain why I think this is important.

If we don't put love first in our lives, someone or something else will become "first" that we will love. Everyone has someone or something that is "first" in their life. It's impossible not to.

But why do we need to define love? Because there are a lot of things that masquerade as love, that aren't love (co-dependent relationships, lust, sexual flings, etc.)

Let me say this another way. There are a lot of things that masquerade as God, that aren't God. (power, pursuits of wealth, political structures).

Cutting out God and just saying "we'll love others" isn't as easy as it sounds because there is a lot of smoke and mirrors in our world that redirect our intentions of loving others into diluted forms of love at best, and self-serving forms of love at worst.

Side note: I get why some people would want to cut out God and just seek to "love others" -- because religious can be ugly and complicated are a couple of reasons. But let's not throw the baby out with the dirty bathwater...

Those who seek to live a life of loving others will find the best way to achieve this is to seek God because God is 100% pure love. We seek to imitate God because there is no better goal in life than to love others with a pure love.

When Jesus was asked by a religious person what the most important religious law was, he told him: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’"

Loving your neighbor is LIKE loving God -- but it's NOT loving God. We still need to put God first over others SO THAT we can be our best in loving others.

How to Community

Whereas Christians often define their faith primarily as a system of beliefs, Jews see doctrine or belief as only one - and not the most important - of several elements constituting the essence of Judaism. In the words of the Jewish scholar Nicholas De Lange, "To be a Jew means first and foremost to belong to a group, the Jewish people, and the religious beliefs are secondary, in a sense, to this corporate allegiance." This deeply rooted biblical emphasis upon folk -- that is, the group -- is underscored by the fact that most Jewish prayer employs the whole community."  One of the best-known biblical prayers expresses this communal factor in it's opening words: "Our Father in heaven." In the words of an old Hasidic saying, "A prayer which is not spoken in the name of all Israel is no prayer at all." Jews have taken seriously the teaching that everyone is his brother's keeper (Gen. 4:9). Thus, each senses a responsibility for his neighbor's shortcomings and needs. Indeed, no one lives in total isolation from his neighbor.
-Marvin R. Wilson, Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith

Is there anything more beautiful than a community loving one another and supporting one another? In contrast, one of the ugliest things in life is segregation. One of the most beautiful aspects of Christianity is when we live out the teachings of Jesus to love our neighbor as ourself (and "neighbor" was anyone and everyone - humanity - i.e. the story of the good Samaritan).

When a community gathers around the teachings of Jesus, we not only share beliefs, but we share LIFE with each other -- ups and downs -- riches and poverty -- and by being involved in each other's lives we will NATURALLY take care of each other. We don't have to compare doctrines and beliefs when you genuinely love someone and invest in their lives. God never intended faith to be complicated -- therefore when we simply "love one another" we are "fulfilling the law" of God. God is love - therefore God IS a relationship (in the most supernatural, mind-bending, mysterious sense) - so when we do relationship we are imitating God. Beautiful!

Create > Consume

God made humankind "in his image" the Bible says. What is God's image? Love, of course, but a characteristic less talked about is creating. Not creative just in the sense of being artistic --- but creating as opposed to consuming. This is something to deeply consider in America as we are a consumeristic society. We buy, consume, repeat, buy, consume, repeat. What if we tried to create more of our own solutions? And not only just when it comes to shopping at stores --- consuming is also the common mindset when it comes to joining groups or finding a job --- what if we think more about starting vs. joining. This is God's image! A recent article by Donald Miller article, "Why Creators Are Happier than Consumers" has deeply moved me to think about this concept and I hope you have a chance to think about this too. Create > consume.

The only thing we have to fear is our ego itself.

I just did my first published post on LinkedIn! Click here to see it.

Wait -- Before You Say You're a Christian

It's kind of hard to not be labeled as a Christian, because at the end of the day, I do indeed follow Jesus. But the problem with being a Christian is that being a Christian is like being an American -- there's many varieties of us, and many stereotypes for us.  

If you were to ask 10 people what a Christian is, you would get 10 different answers.

One person would describe a Christian as someone that tries to do more good than bad.

Another person would tell you that Christians are people that try to pass laws to restrict people.

Another person would say that Christians are people that think everyone else is going to hell. 

Someone else would say that Christians are people that are the most loving people they know.

And they'd all be right. And they'd all be wrong.

Just like any other major religion or culture -- there is a massive amount of variety.

This is why I don't want to simply tell people that I'm a Christian when I'm asked the question. It's like me telling someone that I'm an American and expecting them to know what I'm all about.

What happens when you tell people that you're a Christian, or a Muslim, or a Buddhist, or a Wiccan?  You draw a caricature in your mind of what this person is like.  As humans our brains can't help but to fill in the blanks of what we don't know with assumptions.  We will draw from our experiences of what we know about Christians (right-wing Republicans), Muslims (terrorists), Buddhists (meditation, pop religion), Wiccan (magic spells) and unfortunately we easily become fixated on the label we slap on them and it hinders our chances of building a relationship with them.

What happens when you draw assumptions? You don't need to ask questions because you've already drawn up your answers. And when you don't ask questions, you don't learn what that person is about and you will judge them based on your assumptions.

What if someone asks you if you're a Christian, and that person thinks that Christians are narrow-minded, judgmental, a-holes? Whether it's an ignorant assumption or it's an experience that they had with a Christian (or Christians)? They likely will have 20 foot walls go up if they have to have a conversation with you.

Instead, what if when someone asks you if you're a Christian, you throw the ball back in their court and say something like "well it depends what you mean by "Christian" -- if I were to tell you I'm a Christian what does that mean to you?"  By answering a question with a question you're helping to break down any assumptions that they would have by putting a "Christian" label on you.

I know it's much too easy for me to draw assumptions about other people when I get just a few facts about them, so I want to become better at asking a lot of questions about who they are so that I can really get to know them as a unique person. As Christians, I think it's our responsibility to really get to know people, because this is how we learn to love them.  

Are you a Christian? ...don't answer that yet.

Share Your Story

This is my story that I had a chance to share at Hastings Young Life last month.  Everything in our life revolves around stories. When we talk to friends -- we interact by sharing stories.  When we spend time on facebook -- we're looking at stories.  Texting -- stories.  Reading books, watching movies, reading these words right here is all because we like stories.  But more importantly -- our lives are stories.

A couple of years ago I read a book called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller which had a major impact on how I view my life in the context of story.

I'm come to see my life as a story, like a novel. I want it to be a good novel.  I want it to be something that someone would want to read someday.  The only way this would happen is by creating some good drama, not avoiding it or being afraid of something unexpected.

We have the freedom to choose the story that we're living in, and the freedom to choose what your character in your particular story is going to be.

Something profound to think about is that you have the ability to be a leading character in not only your story, but in other people's stories.  This is exciting.  You can actually be that character that helps someone turn their life around from pain and abuse to hope and purpose.

Violent little boys

I had the opportunity to watch my nephews and niece this weekend, and while I was watching one of my nephews kill 80 people (he told me so) I had a few thoughts. First thought, is why am I letting my 10 year old nephew play Call of Duty? Second thought is, how bad is this for a developing mind to be role playing murder? Third thought, is why are young boys so drawn to violence?  I am tempted to talk about how role-playing murder is probably bad for any age (including my young 39 year old self), but I'm going to dwell on my third thought for a minute.

Why are young kids, and even not-so-young kids drawn to violence? Browse through the video game section at Target you will notice that probably 8 out of 10 video games involve killing people. Just about 10 out of 10 games involve adventure of some sort.  Take a look at movies and books that are geared toward men and you'll notice the same themes - violence and adventure.

I contend that boys (and men) are drawn to violence and adventure, because we are created for violence and adventure.  But not the kind that involves sitting on a couch killing 80 people.

I'm reading a book called "The Book of Missionary Heroes" which is what I believe is the kind of violence and adventure that we have been created for. This book is full of stories of brave men traveling thousands of miles by land and sea to share how God, through the life of Jesus, has taught us how to have life. These stories tell how brave men and women risked their life, and sometimes sacrificed their life for others.  They were tortured, starved and imprisoned and saw their companions die tragic deaths.  These brave men and women went into hostile lands of cannibals to share that the power to lay down your life for others is greater than having controlling power over another man.

When you are willing to risk your life for something, you are tapping into the God-life of Jesus.  Art always reflects the artist, and our lives are the reflection of our Creator when we live self-sacrificially.  

Living self-sacrificially will always entail adventure -- not always traveling thousands of miles across land and sea -- but it will involve putting our own self-interests in the hands of others at time.  But what about violence?  Jesus was never violent -- so should we ever be violent?  Why are we drawn to violence?

I contend that we're drawn to violence because we're drawn to adventure, and oftentimes adventure will involve violence as a result of struggle.  But if we follow the life of Jesus and the command of Jesus to "turn the other cheek" we have to accept that violence to others as a means to protect your own self interest is always wrong. 

Like all sinful desires, violence is just a warping of something that is meant for good. Violence is a byproduct of the God-given emotion of anger. There are healthy reasons for anger -- we should be angry at injustice -- but there are unhealthy reasons for anger -- when we have to share our candy with someone else.

So what do we do with our Call of Duty-loving boys?  The same thing we need to do with our girls.  The prescription for our violence-prone boys (and men) is the same prescription for our prince-seeking-prone girls (and women).  Invite them to live a better story.  We Americans are in a spectator-obsessed culture.  We like to "watch the game" (or role-play it with video games) instead of living it.  We live vicariously through movie stars, athletes,video game characters, or anyone else living a more interesting life than us.  And, we create heroes of ourselves by putting together nice Facebook profiles or Instagram selfies.  

Instead of watching or making stories we need to LIVE stories of adventure -- and this is how we risk our lives for others and truly live.

Reality For Kids

Truth is, kids deal with a lot of shit these days. A lot. My heart is heavy today with this reality. Being a volunteer leader at Young Life over the last 5 years I've seen and heard of a lot of sad, heartbreaking, and sick things that kids deal with. The reality of "absent" parents is a reality that everyone has heard of, but when you become friends with kids that actually deal with this reality, it breaks your heart. I know kids that pretty much live on their own and raise their younger siblings because they live with one parent that always works. Then you hear about problems like sexting which sadly is very common - boys pressuring girls to text naked pictures of themselves - and if girls don't do it they're shamed or teased. When you're dealt a lot of shit in life, there are countless dark "worlds" to escape to these days to try and find some worth.

I've met several young friends in Young Life over the years that have come and gone, or just gone, but I still think about them often. I hope they're doing OK. I know the world can chew you up and spit you out if you aren't holding on to the truth that's found in Jesus, so I hope and pray that they're in an OK place.

My heart is heavy, but I'm hopeful because once kids get to know the truth about themselves that is found in Jesus, they can deal with a LOT of shit, in a healthy way. I see it happen. It's awesome.
There is a huge need for people to introduce the younger generation to Jesus. If you have a heart for this, get involved and you'll change lives.

God's Not Dead - Neither is Choice

I haven't seen God's Not Dead and not sure if I want to.  I've read quite a bit about this movie and although it touches on some topics that are true (that public universities can have a strong bias toward humanism), however, It saddens me to hear that the movie negatively portrays anyone who is not a Christian, including atheists and Muslims.  

Some people will say "well do you see how Hollywood usually portrays Christians???"  Yes I do.  However, is this movie drawing more people to the love of Jesus by engaging in an "us vs. them" war? I'm not sold on the value of fighting a culture war with Christian movie propaganda like this -- I'm afraid this just reinforces the negative stereotype of the "angry Christian trying to legislate a moral lifestyle" which could in turn give people a false image of a God that is only concerned in people being "good people."

I contend that this subculture of Christianity that is focused on trying to change our country by political power instead of radical love and grace is trying to do something that Jesus is adamantly against.  God respects our choice to follow Him or to not follow Him, so we should also respect the right of others to do so. 

There are countless atheists that have come to know God (C.S. Lewis, Lee Strobel, Francis Collins, Alister McGrath, Greg Boyd, to name just a few), so to paint atheists as "the enemy" is be ignorant of the fact that some people require more time on their journey to work through doubt and questions and let God work in their heart and mind.

Also unsettling is how this movie presents a Muslim family that rejects their child for converting to Christianity. This suggests that Muslims are the only faith that disowns family for converting to a different faith.  What about Christians that disown their family to converting to or from Catholicism??  This happens all of the time.  This negative portrait of a different faith is doing no favors for showcasing the beauty of the gospel message in my opinion.  It's fear-mongering.  It's the equivalent of trying to build yourself up by taunting someone else.

I say this with all due respect to the people that created this movie. I will assume that most of the people involved in this movie have good intentions and they have a heart for sharing the love of Jesus, just like I do. Since I have not seen the movie, and I am relying on a movie synopsis from other reviewers, I know that I could be completely off in my commentary about this movie. Regardless, the main intention of this post is to be a humble critique of the "aggressive culture-war fighter Christian" approach to spreading the good news of Jesus.

My Life Story - A Good Read TBD

My life has dramatically changed recently.  I've gone from a character that is afraid of drama, to a character that actually gets a little bit excited about the idea that something thrilling or risky or unexpected is about to happen.  

I'm come to see my life as a story, like a novel.  I want it to be a novel that someone would want to read someday.  The only way this would happen is by creating some good drama, not avoiding it or being afraid of something unexpected.  I credit Donald Miller for writing a book called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years which provoked this way of thinking.

Everything in our life revolves around stories. When we talk to friends -- we interact by sharing stories.  When we troll facebook -- we're looking at stories.  Texting -- stories.  Reading books, watching movies, reading my words right here is all because we like stories.  But more importantly -- our lives are stories.  Someone once said that our lives are not like novels, novels are like our lives.

You choose what story you believe that you're living in, and you choose what your character in your particular story is going to be.  I think this is pretty amazing.

You can choose to believe that your life was just a chance occurrence in a universe that is a big cosmic accident, and your character is just another mammal that will die in about 80ish years, or you can choose to believe that your life is part of a universe that has something supernatural going on, and your character is trying to make the best of it by pursuing happiness.  You can choose to believe that you're life is not fair, or blessed, and you can choose to believe that your character is a victim, a failure, a success, worthless, troubled, special, unique, and the list goes on.

There are countless stories that you can choose -- and there are countless characters that you can choose to be. The story that we choose and the character that we choose will determine the meaning that we find (or don't find) in life, and it will determine the virtues of our character such as whether or life is mostly self-focused, or others-focused.

I've considered many different stories, and I've considered several different characters, and the best storyline and character choice for myself is a story that involves a character that lives fearlessly, attracts a massive following, changes the way that people look at life and is worshiped thousands of years after he lived on earth.  The character is a Jew named Jesus that lived 2000 years ago in Israel, and the story is that Jesus was actually God in the flesh to show us that He is love.  I want my character to be a character like Jesus.  Every day my character has to look for opportunities to love others, and be ready for adventure.  I think it's a pretty cool character.

It's a crazy and mysterious story to me, but it's the story I choose because there is nothing better than centering my life around showing love and introducing true love to other people.  As a skeptical believer I oftentimes have questions that start like "if this is true, than how come..." but I never question whether love is the one thing in life worth worshiping, and I never question whether there is a better story out there than the life of Jesus to capture what love is.

This is the best character, and the best story that I can live.  This character, and story about Jesus will save us from lesser characters, and lesser lives.

Do you want love or the truth?

If you had the choice to have people always be truthful to you, or to always love you, which would you choose? 

To me it seems like an obvious answer, but the funny thing is that I believe that oftentimes Christians (myself included) feel called to be the truth police instead of love ambassadors as we’re called to be. 

The first argument in response to this statement that you’ll hear from Christians operating out of their truth police mode is that making sure people have the truth is the loving thing to do.  I will agree with that, but I must say that sometimes being truthful is not the loving thing.  Do you remember when Simon Cowell on American Idol used to tell people that they were fat?  There are countless scenarios in life where being truthful is actually being unloving.

Love, on the other hand, is pretty much tough to screw up, if we’re talking about the others-focused love that Jesus talks about and not the cheap greeting card definition of love.

I can be obsessive about having the truth.  Part of this is my wiring in being a “skeptical believer” and part of this is being immersed and sometimes brainwashed in a culture that largely values truth over love and Christian values.  I like to know the truth so I dig into matters of faith, religion, and other nerdy pursuits. But, in doing so, I know that even in my desires to know God and possess the truth I will arrive at conclusions where I could be wrong.  It’s bound to happen for me and it’s bound to happen for anyone whether they study the Bible or not.  God-seeking, truth-seeking Christians across many generations have come to different conclusions on many different subjects in the Bible. Some are wrong, some are right.

Fortunately, God doesn’t command us to be scholars and historians and make sure we get it right on every debatable issue in the Bible. We’re not called to be truth police.  Yes, truth matters, especially if it’s the truth of the core gospel message of love, but it’s our seeking truth that matters to God, not our test scores on a Christian doctrines test.

The pursuit of truth is important, but truth isn’t life-giving and it can be uncharitable.  The pursuit of Love (God) is the meaning of life, it’s the source of life, and it’s the only way to truth. 

Photo credit to Gina Norman

The Problem with Believing in Jesus

Have you ever known someone that says they’re a Christian, but they’re one of the most rotten people that you ever have known?  Of course you have.  We all have.  Chances are, they are someone that merely believes some Christian doctrine, vs. choosing to follow Jesus.  The danger of belief is that you can believe something, and still choose to ignore it as if it's not true. 

“Believing in Jesus” is probably one of the most confused Christian-isms of all time.  For a lot of people, believing in Jesus means that they’re “saved” because they correctly believe that Jesus was real, that he died and rose again and He’s God.  I can’t say that when I was young I didn’t used to think this way. 

Believing in Jesus for other people is a “choice” that they made because they had a “mountaintop experience” and prayed the “sinner’s prayer” and “invited Jesus into their heart” and maybe even were baptized so that they’re “saved.”

Some people were raised in a church and they have “inherited” a belief in Jesus. They’re Christian because their parents were Christian. They believe in Jesus because their family does, and because it’s the right thing to do. 

I’m not trying to patronize anyone that has belief in Jesus as described above.  There are parts of each of these examples that are in my own personal story.  

I share these examples of belief in Jesus because many people, myself included, can reduce “belief in Jesus” into a mental exercise of thinking we’re safe because we believe the right things about God.  Kind of like, we know the answers to the test, so we’re safe.  Believing in something is good – but it’s only the start of faith in the God of love.  You can believe that exercising is great for you – but the belief alone won’t give you a healthy heart.

The Bible says that even the demons believe in Jesus.  Believing in something can equate to absolutely zero life-change.

Instead of belief, I prefer to use the term “following Jesus” because it implies action. To “follow” implies that there is a leader, and it’s not me.  In comparison to “follow,” “belief” requires nothing of you – and again – who doesn’t believe that exercise is good for you?  I believe this, but it doesn’t get me to put on my workout clothes every day.  However, I can’t “follow” something without having some level of commitment. 

Jesus told us to follow him, because he knows that when we don’t follow him we will mindlessly follow lesser things that aren’t worth following such as ego, greed, power, and other things centered around our own self comfort. 

Belief is fresh vegetables in my fridge and running shoes in my closet, following is eating my veggies and getting my heart rate up.  Belief in Jesus is "Christian" on my Facebook profile and a Bible app on my phone, following Jesus is to strive every day to be like Jesus.