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.

Did Adam, Eve and Jesus really exist?

Did Adam and Eve really exist?  Did a serpent talk to Adam and Eve like a little cartoon snake?  The story goes that when humans first came on the scene, we had everything that we needed.  Humans didn’t have to work for food because it was all there in all of its vegan glory.  It was like a big salad bar everywhere they walked.  They hung out with the animals, and there was no hunter or the hunted because they lived off of the earth.  However, they were told to not do one thing – don’t eat from one tree called “The tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”  They had a TON of freedom to do just about anything – anything but distrust God.  God gave them everything they needed, and all God asked is that they recognize that God is not holding back anything for them to be happy.  An analogy would be a parent telling their child “We’ll go to the playground today, but just don’t try and cross the busy road.”  

This story might be just an allegory to explain how God created this universe out of love, and that originally there was perfect harmony on earth and that humans lacked nothing.  Humans selfishly decided that the universe revolves around them, and this introduced violence, greed, deceit, stress, worry, shame, and all sorts of pain into our world.  God put freedom of choice at the center of our existence, and with freedom comes the abuse of freedom.  

Did Jesus really exist?  Did God have a son that he sent on a trip to earth to forgive us of our sins?  The story goes that Jesus came to earth as a baby and grew up, made 12 close friends and went around healing people physically and spiritually. Jesus predicts his death and resurrection, and then sure enough, he is crucified and then rises from the dead 3 days later.  It’s an understatement to say that this story has a lot more meaning than even the story of Adam and Eve, but I believe that the core message is that God puts love at the center of our existence, and that love is ultimately sacrificing yourself for others.

To say that the story of Jesus is an allegory would be to ignore every rule of literary criticism that clearly shows that the story of Jesus is written as a historical narrative.  However, there are still people that believe that Jesus didn’t exist, or the story of Jesus is not to be taken at face value.  Regardless, there is truth in story regardless of whether it’s a historical story, or a parable-like story that communicate a truth.  Jesus wasn’t compelled to always deliver truth by detailing historical events – He delivered most of his stories in parables.  

I believe that the historical accuracy of most stories in the bible is beside the point, because I believe the messages of the stories in the Bible show us who God is, and they lead to life, regardless of whether they’re historical narrative, or allegory (I understand that plenty of people will disagree with me on this).  The message of the Bible is more important than the historical or scientific detail of the Bible, even though there is a tremendous amount of support for the historical accuracy for much of the Bible.

What does it mean for you if Adam, Eve, Jesus and other stories of the Bible aren’t historical narratives, but stories people told about the self-sacrificial love of God?  Would you still trust God?  Would you still love sacrificially?  

Do you have faith in a God of love, or faith in a set of doctrines?

Beyond nature

Belief, or unbelief in God, whether we want to or not, requires assumptions of God. Even if you don't believe in God, there has to be a definition of what you don't believe in.  Most atheists don't believe in a God that I don't believe in either.

One of the most common misconceptions of God is that God is a finite being that exists somewhere out of sight apart from our physical universe.  This view is essentially similar to the Greek "Demiurge" as a god that created the physical universe at one point of time "back then."  This is a normal way to view God, because as the material beings that we are, a finite being is an easy category to put God into to wrap our head around him. (Also, it's easy to call God "Him" because as sexual beings we think in terms of sexual orientation, and we like our God to be like one of us.)

This is an easy view for atheists and naturalistic scientists to reject when considering that there are countless scientific laws that can account for the spontaneous generation of any and all universes. If laws can begin to explain our universe, then why do we need God?

A more rational view of God, as explained by philosopher and theologian David Bentley Hart, is that laws and physical conditions were logically and necessarily prior to all worlds, all physical laws, all quantum events, and even all possibilities of laws and events.  Neither physical laws, nor quantum states could exist of themselves. God is not a force or cause within nature, and is not a kind of supreme natural explanation.

God is with us, holding our universe together.

When Jesus was kicking around dirt in the Middle East a couple of thousand years ago, he sometimes defied natural laws because He was God manifested on Earth -- the same God that wrote the laws of our universe.  Since God is love, God chooses sometimes to break the rules of nature to prove to us that we are loved.  Jesus' final act on earth was to die and come back to life because He wants us to know more than anything that he is God, and that we can know God by looking at his life on Earth.  He wanted us to see that self-sacrificial love -- giving up our life for others -- is the way of God. 

God is bigger than most of our attempts of trying to categorize and deconstruct Him.  Although God gave us Jesus to understand Him, Jesus didn't do any scientific lectures or "How I Made The Universe" TED Talks.  As interesting as these topics are, they are probably beyond our finite intelligence anyway.  Jesus was solely focused on showing us the way to life that leads to life and love.