Trusting God is like jogging

We do both initially because it's good for us; we want to reap the benefit of the habit. But trusting God, like running, is not natural in the beginning. It is a trait that only develops when circumstances, well... require faith. Challenging circumstances. When we first run, our lungs, muscles and joints all protest with pain; their capacity is being stretched and trained. Committed runners know that if they cave in to the pain they will interfere with the strengthening process and so they tough it out. In the Christian life we are required to do the same, trusting God often means enduring difficult situations while choosing to do good or maintaining faith when options for short cuts are appealing and a disgruntled attitude is justifiable.

Fortunately running and trusting God aren't just all pain. At a certain point, endorphins kick in, altering our perception and supplying us with happy feelings. Likewise, unwavering faith eventually opens up opportunities for divine intervention. Then we realize that God who seemed so abstract and distant before is in fact real and personal; we experience His active work in our lives. THAT personal knowledge of God gives us esteem and happiness that no worldly success ever delivers.

Jogging and living in faith both get easier as they become habitual. It is our part to maintain the habit and God's part to provide the endorphins. We would be fooling ourselves to think that we can attain happiness apart from God.

Decisions, decisions!

A month ago while driving from Vancouver to Chicago, our beloved Toyota Previa's engine overheated and then somewhere along highway 94, in Montana, it started making clanging noises. Our journey was seriously threatened. But we pressed on. And while my husband and I were relieved when we arrived at our destination, two days later, that was not the end of the problem. Our van's engine needed major repair and we faced a sea of options regarding what to do with it. Should we keep the van? Buy an old engine? A used one? Maybe a rebuilt one that comes with warranty? Or find someone to rebuild our own engine? We were almost paralyzed by all the pros and cons, unable to decipher which was the best way to go.  

Christians should look for God's guidance in their decisions, right? But how? Do we just use our best judgement and trust He will make the path we choose a good one? How is this approach different from someone who doesn't know God? What criteria should be our guide? Lowest price? Best warranty? Most convenience?

As my mind was swirling with the theological questions involved in this very practical decision, a thought came to mind: 'Choose the option and service provider that you want to bless the most.' What? Look for whom or what I wanted to affirm, to build, to bless, rather than the one that gave me the best deal? This idea felt so foreign to my natural inclination...it must be from God.  

In the end we found a company to rebuild our engine, one that we wanted to encourage. It was not the cheapest nor the most convenient, and only time will tell about the quality. But we feel so much peace from first hearing, then heeding God's advice on how to proceed. His word is true--"Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say, 'this is the way you should go', whether to the right or to the left." Isaiah 30:21

Sometimes the worst brings out the best in us

When the Vancouver Canucks failed to win the Stanley Cup on June 15, all hell broke loose on Georgia street. The City had installed a huge screen there for thousands of people to watch the game; all hoping for a glorious win. But when it became clear we'd lose, a lot of young people decided to riot. They burned up cars, smashed windows and plundered some local stores--without restraint. Images of lawlessness, violence, stupidity and greed were broadcasted on TV for the world to see. A freak show revealing humanity's ugly side. And it shamefully originated in a world-class city with citizens who are wealthy and free. The riot showed that fallen humanity--even in a great place like Vancouver--is ugly.

After the nightmare of June 15th, I woke up to another side of Vancouver. By 7am the next morning, an army of volunteers had already shown up, armed with gloves and bags to help the government workers clean up the mess created by the riot. On the Post-Riot-Vancouver-Clean-Up Facebook page, over 16,000 people signed up to help restore our beloved city over the next three days (which, with so much help only took a morning!) Many beautiful citizens here rolled up their sleeves to make our city spotless. I love Vancouver more today because of them. 

So, June 15th saw the worst of us, but June 16th brought out the best in us. This makes me wonder...in the grand scheme of God's salvation plan, is he patient with the worst in us in order to bring out the best in us?

Pouting doesn't make us winners

The Stanley Cup fever has us Vancouverites talking hockey with everyone and anyone right now. One topic that comes up  a lot  in conversation is how the Canucks have been getting the short end from the referees game after game during this final series with the Boston Bruins. The uneven calls have been so obvious that they've gotten some fans' blood boiling--"How can this be a professional league?!", they ask.

We have the notion that everything must be fair and square all the time. But complete fairness is very rare; life isn't fair. Fighting through partiality is part of the maturing process. The best teams in any sport don't just possess skill and physical prowess--these are only basic competitive requirements. What sets winners apart is their mental tenacity to plough through obstacles of all forms including, at times, overcoming unfairness. 

We don't have to be athletes to feel the stain of unfairness; ordinary life is full of situational injustices. We ask, "why is this so?" Perhaps God is making us into winners, training us to overcome adversity by permitting these unfair circumstances in our lives. The greatest winner in history also suffered the most severe injustice. He was subjected to enormous unfairness. Try thinking about him the next time you think you've been dealt an uneven hand.  As he was hanging in pain for totally ludicrous charges, Jesus overcame, maintaining his spotless character even as he breathed his last breath--this is what a true winner looks like. (Luke 23:34)

Don't be a closet fan

It's hard to imagine it now, but there was a time when wearing a Canuck jersey was not so cool. Years ago, when the team was struggling game after game, they were the butt of a lot of jokes. Back then, you had  to be a die-hard fan to brave the ridicule of nay-sayers and admit you believed in the team by openly sporting their colours. Most tended to be closet Canucks fans back then. Not so today; the Canucks just need one more game to win the Stanley Cup! Now the tide has turned. On game day, you feel out of place if you're in downtown Vancouver without a Canuck's jersey or T-shirt.

A lot of us Christians are like the closet Canuck fans during the team's tentative years. We are very comfortable living in the closet until some star player makes a big splash that makes us look like we're on the winning side. The problem is, Christians aren't called to be fair weather fans; we're not called to be fans at all. We are all players called to win the prize. What is the prize for us? To know God and enjoy him forever. All kinds of distractions and trappings take our eyes off that prize. And like an NHL hockey player we need focus to win something far more precious to us than Lord Stanley's Cup in this game of life. (Philippians 3:13-14)

Lesson from my basil plants

Earlier this spring, I potted a dozen basil plants and put them by the wall of windows in our living room. It's the brightest spot we have and on sunny days, it's warm like a hothouse even when the temperature is low outside. On my part, the plants only require watering once a day--not at all high-maintenance by any stretch. To my delight, the plants are thriving; they have grown tall and strong from just little seeds! Ironically it is well known that basil plants are not that easy to grow, they require a lot of sunlight.

Everyday without fail each and every plant seeks out the direction of the sun, stretching it's leaves and stems towards the window to maximize exposure to sunlight. If I didn't rotate them regularly, they would have grown lopsided because of their natural and constant bend towards the sun for its sustenance.

I wish I was like these plants--smart enough to seek out the Son everyday for my spiritual sustenance. Didn't Jesus say that he was the bread of life? (John 6:35) And didn't he say that "man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4)? Christians wither and droop when we forget Jesus and his words as all this world's offerings fall short of providing sustenance towards our growth and maturity in life.

One game at a time

The Canucks' playoff run this year has made a hockey fan of every Vancouverite. With a winning team representing our city, it has become very cool to wear the Canucks jersey. On game days blue tops bearing the team logo dominate the visual landscape everywhere we go. And when night comes we're all fixated on the team's performance, riding the emotional roller coaster of wins and losses.

What seems amazing is that the players themselves don't display the same emotional highs and lows that the fans do. Watch them answer the barrage of questions from reporters after every game--they are always calm and cool. Whether it had been a disastrous loss or a well-fought win, the players neither gloat nor get deflated according to the results. They maintain their poise, focusing on 'one game at a time' to resist the spillover effect of a win or loss onto the next game, working to preserve a fresh start for each game no matter how well or how bad the last game went down. 

There is much wisdom in keeping such short accounts. As in sport, so too in life, neither pride nor dejection from a past victory or failure should affect new opportunities. His mercy is new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23) 

Good parents give good gifts

Imagine that your six year old child comes to you and asks for firecrackers for their birthday; would you grant their request? Of course not--firecrackers for a six year old?! But what if they asked for a story book instead, wouldn't you go to great effort to find the best book to give? A loving parent is ecstatic when their child asks for good gifts, and goes far to fulfill such wishes. But when our children want things that are potentially harmful we don't hesitate to disappoint them--for their own good.

This is how God operates too when we pray for things. There is no shame in our asking; asking indicates we trust both God's ability and desire to fulfill our wishes--that we realize we are in a loving relationship.  But when we don't get what we ask for, be careful not to conclude that He is withholding good from us. Maybe He has better things for us than what we can conceive in our mind or maybe He is waiting for us to grow up a bit.

Keep asking and keep seeking God for all things. Like a great parent, He will grant us gifts and our hearts' desire in accordance with our maturity. (Matthew 7:9-11, Psalm 37:3-5)

It depends on me?

When I was just a kid, probably no more than 10 years old, I asked one of my adult brothers this question: "Do ghosts really exist?" To my disappointment, his answer didn't really help me overcome my fear. He said that ghosts existed if you believed they did, and that they didn't exist if you didn't believe. Even back then, I thought that was a non-answer, that he really didn't know, but that at least he sounded like he knew what he was talking about. 

To say someone's or something's existence depends on my belief was and still is a dumb answer. Not only is it illogical, it is surprisingly self-absorbed, like saying the world revolves around me. Today we have fancy terms like relativism to label this ego-centric belief system. Let's just call it for what it is. In conversations about 'spirituality' and 'self-actualization', I find it is next to impossible to pinpoint exactly what many people believe. Their relativism--that is extremely self-centric orientation--causes them to constantly re-interpret and re-define normal words on their own terms; we can hardly communicate meaningfully.

Either ghosts exist or they don't. Either God exists or He doesn't. Even a simple "I don't know" is better than saying "It depends on you"!

The pursuit of happiness

Being around my two nephews when they were just tender younglings created many happy memories for me. One time I was having dinner with them when a silly idea came over me. I chewed my food real fine and then out of the blue I opened my mouth and stuck out my tongue to show my half-chewed meal. When they saw that, they gave out such priceless expressions that I remember them to this day. First came their look of shock (they were old enough to know this was not normal adult behaviour), then their eyes sparkled with delight, after that came big grins, and before I knew it, they were trying to one up me with their own displays of partially chewed dinner. We laughed so hard; I felt like I was the coolest aunt on earth!

When I look back on many happy moments in the past, they often happened when I was the least conscious about pursuing happiness. Usually my attention was on someone else--for example, while looking after my nephews--or when I was part of some cause with like-minded people trying to achieve a common goal. The point is, happy feelings almost never came as a direct result of my pursuit of it; they were by-products of focusing on something else so much that any self-interest of mine was diverted.

We live in an age and culture where the pursuit of happiness is the common and acceptable raison d'etre. We choose schools, careers, spouses, friends, places to live, all for the purpose of making ourselves happy. The irony is that happiness still eludes many despite their best efforts and even 'having arrived'. 

Christians should know better than to follow this path. The Bible never tells us to pursue happiness; instead we are to seek God, His righteousness, His Kingdom. There is no promise that we will be happy by pursuing these (in eternity for sure, but not necessarily in the day to day), but we can know that we're not wasting our lives grasping for something that can never be obtained by direct pursuit.

The devil is powerless

Last night I had a freakish dream. In it, the devil (who was faceless) asked me a series of questions, the last of which was, "where are you?" After surveying my surrounding I answered that I was in a cemetery. As soon as the answer came out, I felt a force pushing me down into the ground and I saw the shadow of my body in the soil--I was being buried. My mind knew that my body was asleep in a dream, I also knew that the only way to get rid of this demonic nuisance was to call out loud the name of Jesus. And that was a problem, because I was asleep; I had to wake my body up. That I did, and even with my weak groggy voice, the slight whisper of Jesus' name made the devil disappear.

This isn't the first time I've been harassed this way in my sleep. Every now and then dark spirits enter my dreams. Sometimes they taunt my insecurities; sometimes they threaten my safety. But mostly all they can accomplish is just sleep deprivation. After many experiences like this, I realize one thing--the devil and demons are powerless, the most that they can do to me is wreck my night's sleep. They can't harm me physically; they lack physical substance. They are a vapour. 

No wonder the devil loves this specific deception so much--that is, the lie that our bodies are bad. And no wonder the devil must tempt people to do wrong and use people as agents of evil deeds; on its own the devil has no power to conquer physicality. 

Overcoming fear

In a crazy evil sort of way Col. Qaddafi is a very smart man. He is an expert on words that invoke fear; from his murderous threats to his own people on Libya's state television "we will find you house by house, door by door, we will find you in your closets..." to his reaction on the US as they began airstrikes on his military strongholds "You will regret intervening in our internal affairs. You are helping people on the wrong side...it will be a long war". His calculated words are spoken always with the objective of paralyzing people with fear. When people are afraid, they will fail to act, and thereby concede to his control. Qaddafi is a master manipulator who uses the Devil's fear tactics to exert power.

Although we do not fall under evil leadership like that here in the West, we are not free from the Devil's fear tactics. We too succumb to thoughts and whispers of smaller fears in our minds, rendering us inactive at just the time action is needed to right wrongs. When we standby while witnessing bullying in schools and work places, or shun certain individuals because of peer pressure and gossip we concede power to the Devil. 

Whether it is petty fear or great fear, scare tactics work as long as we are concerned only for ourselves. Fear stems from our basic instinct for self-preservation. So how can we overcome this basic instinct? Christians have this admonishment from Jesus: "If you try to hang on to your life, you will loose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it." (Matthew 16:25)  These are paradoxical words that tells us to save our lives by giving it up. Jesus himself demonstrated it by dying on the cross. His subsequent resurrection is proof that we too will have eternal life no matter what happens to our current body. Therefore we can afford to risk safety for the benefit of others--and gain enormous power over fear and those who would use it against us.

Acts of God

In the wake of Japan's calamity last weekend, some have expressed their dismay at God for authorizing such devastation. Others attempt to defend God's goodness by attributing all natural catastrophes to the sin and subsequent fall of man--suggesting that God isn't really involved in the world at all. While its important to think about such things, it is slightly beside the point...really, is anyone of us in the place to judge God? Is he so small (are we so big) that he needs our defence?

I doubt that anyone who has experienced the terror of an earthquake or a ten-meter wave or a tornado wants to get into an argument about God's goodness. Indeed, having faced such enormous disasters, our insignificance becomes obvious.  How small we are.

Christians don't need to defend God because he clearly owns up to his deeds with these words, "I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disasters; I, the Lord, do all these things." (Isaiah 45: 7)

Instead of making judgement about acts of God, isn't it more productive to mull over acts of men?  For example, what happened to all the media coverage over Libya's ongoing man-made and preventable disaster?

What's in a prayer?

Our pastor has been preaching on the topic of prayer this month. This week he quoted celebrities like Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, who Twittered their prayers for Japan as it grapples with the aftermath of the catastrophic earthquakes and tsunami over the past weekend.

I am not a Justin Bieber fan, but out of curiosity I looked online and found that he actually wrote a song entitled 'Pray'. When I read the lyrics I became impressed; this 17 year-old got something right about prayer that most religious people miss. He sings repeatedly in the song "...tell me how I can make a change". He didn't write "do something God" or "why is this happening God?". No, he wrote something God would be pleased to hear: "How can I do something about this?"

I have heard--and prayed myself--so many pie-in-the-sky prayers treating God like a magical Sugar-Daddy that it's hard to believe a wise God would answer those prayers. I'm not saying we shouldn't make requests to God--the Bible tells us to do so(!)--but when we pray we often stop right after we've off-loaded our burdens onto God and fail to listen to him for answers, for direction--for his heart. 

Prayer is two-way communication where we should expect God to speak. His most powerful answers come in the form of internal changes that transform our attitude and behaviour towards the situation or  person that we are troubled by, thereby affecting an outcome to our situation. Changes like these are so profound that when we experience them we know God's Spirit is at work inside us, answering prayer. Of course, God can answer prayer outside of our influence entirely. But we need to be mindful that he is apparently more interested in changing us (and others) than he is in changing our circumstances. 

We often mistake prayer to be the means through which we solicit divine help to fulfill our agenda, quite the contrary, it is more appropriately the means through which God fulfills his agenda through us. 

Fair weather friends

A fair weather friend is someone who is warm when the friendship benefits them and cold when it does not. This oscillation between hot and cold may not be intentional; the fair weather friend may not even know that they're so fickle and utilitarian. We all know people like this in our circle. And, if we're able to see ourselves clearly, we probably notice that we sometimes behave this way towards others too.

How do we deal with people who treat us like this? Do we avoid them like most self-help gurus would suggest? Are they really 'toxic'? Are we all 'toxic'?  

Jesus was a magnet for fair weather friends. He was very popular when he miraculously healed diseases and fed masses of people, but when persecution came, everyone including his closest friends deserted him. I find it interesting that Jesus was not surprised by this abandonment. He knew all along that his disciples--the very ones he chose--didn't have the wherewithal to stick with him through trouble (Matthew 26:31-25, 41; John 2:24-25).

And yet their failure as friends didn't seem to bother him. Why not? Probably because his life objective was to benefit others to begin with (John 10:10). If we adopt Jesus's objective in our lives, fair weather friends won't bother us so much either.  Who knows, they may even become less fickle--in the end the disciples accepted death rather than betray Jesus... 

Use it or lose it

There was a time in my distant past when I could play music by Beethoven, Chopin and Haydn on the piano. My fingers danced on the keyboard; after enough practice, my digits would go on auto-pilot, setting my mind free to fully enjoy the beauty of those melodies. Later on, having gotten bored with piano, I dreamed of being a dancer and willingly put my body through multiple hours of daily practice in the studio. After three years, my body was so fit and agile that doing jetés, pirouettes, and rond de jambe en l'air was as easy as taking a stroll. In both cases, practice was the key to proficiency and enjoyment.

I can't make such boasts any more. Neither my body nor my fingers dance these days for one simple reason: the lack of practice during the years that have slipped by. I have proven the unfortunate 'use it or loose it' saying. Recently, scientific research has empirically affirmed what we all know. Studies on muscle mass, bone density and brain plasticity indicate, generally speaking, lack of use diminishes function over time. 

Knowing all this I found these words from Jesus surprisingly fresh and relevant, even though he spoke them two thousand years ago: "To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away." (Matthew 25:29)

Who doesn't have a blind spot?

We have all heard of the illustration of five blind men and an elephant. With each man only able to touch one part of the animal--one feeling the trunk, another a tusk, a different man touching a foot, etc.--they each gather a completely different experience and form different beliefs about what an elephant actually is. Some people use this to 'explain' the differences between all religions concluding that all paths lead to the same truth; while all the men describe something completely different, there is just one elephant. 

This sounds open-minded and accepting...except that proponents of this view (and it is just another point of view) assume that they are not blind and can see the whole elephant at once. This assumption of being all-seeing is in fact a similarly close minded view to the ones they critique while being, ironically, the most arrogant position of all religious views(!)

Richard Wurmbrand once wrote that every perspective has a blind spot. For example, when we look to the ceiling, we will not see the floor, when we look down on the floor, the ceiling exits our view. Therefore the more we fixate on one point of view, the more we will miss other vantage points. In this case, if we fixate on neutralizing differences, ironically, we nullify the legitimacy of each perspective.

The way to work out differences isn't to pretend they are not there. Instead we are much better off acknowledging that we, finite human beings, have blinds spots and working to understand other people's points of view.

Soaring like eagles

Once in a very long while, I see an eagle or two soaring in the downtown sky outside my window. That's right, beautiful bald eagles cruising over the city. When they appear, it is a treat that commands my undivided attention. Unlike seagulls, crows or other common birds, they rarely flap their wings during flight. They simply expand their wings and glide. Naturalists tell us that eagles depend on thermals (rising hot air from the earth) to fly; because their wingspan is so wide, flapping is extremely inefficient for them and it tires them out quickly. On the other hand, those same large wings allow them to soar over long distances and at great heights, as long as the thermal air condition is right. Eagles look for thermals before taking flight to avoid undue exhaustion.

There is a lesson we can learn from these creatures. From time to time, we feel tired as if we're running in place, going no where.  The Bible tells us that we have a thermal system we can rely upon; the words go like this: "...but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." (Isaiah 40:30-31)

Feeling fatigued and tired of life? It's time to set our hopes on God; he is able to carry us to further and higher destinations than mere flapping of our wings will ever take us.

Who's the alpha dog?

My younger brother just got a white terrier pup--Healey--named after his beloved car project, a vintage Austin Healey. This new addition to their family is one hyper pup; she jumps, licks and paws you the moment you enter her territory. Apparently such canine behaviour is not about her trying to be cute; she's establishing her status. The more attention you give her, the more alpha she gets, to the point where you get the impression you are her pup and that she feels responsible for your well-being. That does not sound so bad except when you leave the dog for a few hours it worries itself sick, like a nervous mother, and starts barking non-stop, driving the neighbours insane. That's happened to other friends of mine, who evidently had become their dogs' subjects. 

The best way to establish your status with a dog is to ignore them sometimes, not catering to their every whim. It isn't always easy to do, but establishing this proper status, where you're the parent rather than the other way around, actually relieves the dog of burdens that they can't carry. Being an alpha comes with responsibility. 

I wonder if that's why sometimes God seems to ignore us when we pray. Shopping list prayers where we just ask for things or where we direct how things should happen can be a little like Healey grasping for alpha status. Sure, we are being faithful by praying a lot and often, but if all we do is dictate what we want in prayer, that's just a subtle way of taking control over our Master. 

Instead of praying that way we can let it be a means of re-aligning our loyalty and subjection to our Master. And with this attitude we will find relief from the burdens God lovingly purposes to carry for us. 

The choice is yours

Some years ago when one of my nephews was nine years old, I took him shopping for a pair of shorts. He had a $20 bill and paid for his $15 purchase with cash. The cashier must have had a bad or crazy day  because he gave back a handful of coins that added up to at least $10 in change. When my nephew saw how much he was getting back, he just stared at the coins in his hand without moving for a good 10 seconds. Here was a picture of a 9 year-old being tempted by greed, and I will never forget the intensity of that moment. I pretended not to notice and waited to see what he would do.

My nephew did not succumb to greed that time. He returned the extra cash on his own accord even though it took some serious decision making on his part. After the mini-drama, I put my arm around him and expressed how proud I was of him; his face was beaming all the way home as though he won a million bucks. 

We run into similar dilemmas, not just as kids but throughout our entire lives. Usually there isn't anyone to build us up when we make a selfless decision, but you know inside it was the right thing--and that feels good; it's freeing. On the other hand, I have a theory that if a person goes the opposite way, giving in to temptation, continuously make morally bad choices, their conscience will become so callous and insensitive that eventually they lose touch with reality. I think we're watching this at work in the soon-to-be ex-leader of Libya, Col. Qaddafi. After decades of nursing his own greed, he has clearly gone off the deep end, so to speak.

Greed disguised as virtue

In a dream last night I saw someone from my life who personifies greed; she was locked in a room, contorted on her bed as she whispered "it's only $250..." The vision of her bondage to greed was so terrifying that it woke me up. 

In my waking life, I think nothing of someone who works very hard for money. Our society considers being industrious to be a virtue. We rightfully think it irresponsible to work little or none at all, expecting to live on other people's charity. Sloth is a bad thing.

But what if we already have plenty for what we need? Many people who have enough can't stop working solely because they can't let go of the monetary opportunity. Working hard fortifies our sense of entitlement; it justifies self-indulgence. Greed works in subtle ways, it wears virtuous disguises--like being called 'industrious'--as it drains our sense of self away by enlarging our quest for more. The idea of 'I have enough' never enters the enslaved mind. Though when it comes to drumming up reasons to keep on accumulating wealth or status, the enslaved mind exhibits great creativity. 

Let the dream serve as a warning for the perils of greed. Someone whose whole being is consumed by one desire--'wanting more'--is not a pretty sight. At the end of this life, what part of such a being will be left to bring to the new life on the other side of death?

Destined to be prosperous?

Proponents of prosperity teaching will pick and choose certain Bible verses to substantiate their claim that material wealth should be the destiny for all believers (Malachi 3:10; Deuteronomy 8:18; John 10:10; 3 John 2-4; James 4:2). And many men of faith in the Old Testament were materially prosperous--like Job, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, David and Boaz. My previous blog already addressed why someone like Abraham was righteously rich--many people were cared for due to his prosperity.

But we can't ignore that in the New Testament, not only do we see Jesus and his disciples lacking  material wealth, we also hear Jesus say, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has no place to lay his head" (Luke 9:58). And more recently, many of our role models in the faith, people like Francis of Assisi, Mother Teresa, Eric Liddell and Jim Elliot, stand out to us for the way they left behind comfort and security to serve others in poor and forgotten places. How do we reconcile this apparent contradiction?

Teachings that hyper-focuses on either enjoying prosperity or suffering for Christ are simply missing it. Instead, let's look for the common thread between the Old Testament patriarchs and Jesus' followers. What we see is that they didn't live their lives just looking after number 1 (self); they all looked out for others (i.e. loving their neighbours) whether they were rich or poor.  And in this love they prospered.

So, don't pursue prosperity to satisfy greed and don't suffer for the sake of suffering, nor should we  avoid either  prosperity or suffering if the end result will benefit our fellow man. Loving our neighbour fulfills our destiny and produces biblical notion of prosperity.

Is it wrong to pray for prosperity?

In many places the Bible suggests and sometimes states outright that God desires us to flourish, to be at peace, to prosper. But what does the Bible mean by prosperity?

Prosperity can be considered from two perspectives, with two different results. It feels really wrong to ask God for personal success and riches; there is no peace inside with a prayer like that. But when I pray for success that benefits more people than myself, say for my business--where others are employed--for example, I feel much differently. In this scenario, my prosperity benefits employees; praying for this type of prosperity pretty much becomes necessary because others depend on my success.

We see this same thing in the patriarchs of the Old Testament. Abraham was abundantly blessed with livestocks and wealth--a material prosperity that flowed over to his extended family and servants. Abraham's faith yielded a prosperity that benefited many beneath the shade of his tree.

That is not the way prosperity is marketed today. We tend to want wealth and success for personal reasons; its benefit rarely extends beyond one's immediate family. In some instances it doesn't even extend that far! Our individualistic society has lost the ability and joy for communal sharing, the very thing Biblical prosperity is intended to build. Now we rely on the government to aid our poor, to care for the sick, and to provide for our elderly relatives. We say, that is why we pay our taxes!

God does want to prosper us but it is not for our personal individualistic empowerment. Rather, when he grants us material abundance he intends it to help us be our brothers' keepers.

Search for love or search to love?

Listening can be particularly trying when the content is cyclical with no end. The typical love search scenario goes like this: A meets B, A builds entire (ie. emotional) life around B, B freaks out and runs away, A gets confused and hurt...later A meets C, A builds entire (ie. emotional) life around C...

The thing is, people who repeatedly find and lose potential life partners rarely love (in the giving sense) those they're trying to hold onto. You get this sense when what they share is never about admirable qualities of the person they want; rather, it is about what they did, what they said and what do those things mean regarding the permanence of the relationship. In other words, they're fixated on having someone to meet their needs, and not necessarily loving someone. 

Of course, all of us pursue life partners at least partly for selfish reasons(!). But when we become so consumed with our desire that it overshadows our ability to love someone for who they are, then the relationship is destined for failure.

Jesus was a talker

Being a listener--the kind where you become a mere sounding board for others to pound their words into--is overrated. After years of practicing active listening, I've concluded that endlessly listening to someone share the same relational problem on 'repeat', where I can't give them advice, is a complete waste of time. People who only want a muted audience are typically self-absorbed; their problem may well originate from this narcissistic tendency to begin with. 

It sounds callous and uncaring--maybe that's why it took me so long to speak up--but it isn't. In all the accounts we read where Jesus deals with people, there isn't one single story where he listens endlessly without speaking into someone's life. Being a muted listener seldom helps anyone.

In contrast, a helpful friend should speak up, trying to break the loopy thought or behaviour of another. A good counselor should probably do the same--though the temptation to allow a patient's endless verbal avalanche may be too much, when one is paid by the hour to be a 'good listener' :).

Rolling out of winter soon...

Angry sky

Feb 8/11 Vancouver sky line

Sweet light

Self-portrait at 17:19

Ants in my dream

Happy Valentine's Day!

Light up the hidden world

In the book Blink: the Power of Thinking Without Thinking, the author, Malcolm Gladwell explores and attempts to explain some of the mystery that comprises our subconscious world. One interesting thing he points out is that our subconscious selves may possess attitudes and beliefs that are contrary to our consciously held values.

To demonstrate this psychologists at Harvard use something they call the Implicit Association Test (IAT). For example, when Gladwell took the Race IAT, he discovered that he had pro-white associations subconsciously even though he himself is half-black; in fact, 80% of those who took the test had such results. Why is this? Surely not all 80% of the participants are racists! One explanation is that our society is full of things associating good with being white and, conversely, inferiority with having coloured skin. Even as we consciously decide against racism, our minds are fed images, information and impressions--which our subconsciouses can't help but absorb. 

No wonder countercultural values can sometimes create a nasty mess inside our minds!

Toward this end, Christians should consider verses like this: the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our inner most thoughts and desires (Hebrew 4:12). By cherishing the truth in the Bible, God's word can illuminate our subconscious world and instill deep within us the values that we consciously choose to uphold--even values the world around us subtly oppose (Ephesians 6:16, Psalm 119:9-16). 

The Egyptians triumph

It's been satisfying watching how the Egyptian story unfolds and this is a fun article about it: Dual Uprisings Show Potent New Threats to Arab States

Speaking of struggles and change

This song is pretty cool: Marina and the Diamonds' Mowgli's Road

Taming our subconscious (2)

When our subconscious causes havoc we gain an opportunity to change some part of our hidden selves.

An undisturbed Id, one that has all its desires satisfied, doesn't bother us. But an unhappy Id brings discomfort and thereby draws attention to a previously hidden area where our trouble lies. Struggling with our subconscious isn't always a bad thing. For example, we should put up resistance when an inordinate desire seeks control or when a blindspot in our personality causes involuntary unwanted behaviour. Internal conflict and struggles may well be indications of divine transformation at work (Ephesians 4:22-24, 2 Corinthians 5:17).

Many wise people in my life have said that people don't change. There is even a Chinese saying "At age 3, you are set til age 80"--meaning no substantial personality change is possible beyond age 3. But my experience has been quite different. I have gone from being extremely shy to having confidence, from having resentment to forgiving people, from being arrogant to being more humbly self-aware. Each of these profound changes surprised me to the core; they were never a result of something I initiated or even wanted. Change--of our deep selves, our Ids, our subconscious, is possible...

Experience tells me that the internal work of the Holy Spirit must be true (Romans 8).

Taming our subconscious (1)

In the Freudian model of human psyche, our subconscious--he calls it the Id--is the mysterious part of our personality that does much of the driving in our lives. It does not consider situational reality; instead our Id is consumed only by the need to meet its desires.  For example, babies do not consider the desires of others nor the reality of their situation. When a baby wants food, needs a change, or wants relief from pain, the baby will cry until the need is met. Likewise, when our Id is unhappy, it will cause vivid dreams, sleepless nights or illness to get our attention in order to satisfy its demand.

In other words, Id lives in a completely self-oriented world, motivating our decisions and actions mostly unbeknownst to our conscious selves. I don't know how much of the Freudian theory can be accepted as fact, but what this basic concept describes does match experience and makes some sense. It reminds me the apostle Paul when he describes his internal conflict in Romans 7:15-23. Paul call this part of him sin and confesses that he is helpless--without God--to control its whims and wants.

It seems that life then, at least to some extent, is about taming the Id in us. But how? We know in our head that Jesus can conquer Id, so what does it mean when sleepless nights hit, when disturbing dreams wake us or when bodily diseases cause us grief? Is Jesus not at work when these things happen?

The power of words

In Genesis 1:1-25 we read that God spoke and the material world came into existence. The creation account in many ways can simply be considered a series of divinely spoken, powerful words.

In the New Testament the apostle James warns how evil man's words can be (James 3:1-12). So he admonishes us to tame our tongues. And while his allegories about the power of our tongues seem exaggerated, we know from experience that what James wrote is true. Man's words can be powerfully destructive.

In both cases, we conclude that words are powerful. With words we create new worlds in people's imagination (think of Lord of the Rings or any other novels that you've read). With words we instill desires into people's hearts (remember all the clever advertising tag lines logged in your subconscious?). With words we can either soothe or cause pain (consider the effect parents' words have had on their children). With words we can create hope in desperate times or despair in idyllic circumstances (who hasn't been affected this way by a spouse or good friend?).

It's easy to forget the influence of our words, but we are held responsible for them. Didn't Jesus say that we will have to give account on judgement day for every careless word we have spoken? (Matthew 12:36-37)

Hope, fear and words

Hope is our fuel, it energizes, empowers, propels us into action. Fear is a puncture in the fuel tank, it drains hope and paralyses us. They are opposite powers working on our psyche. Which side ends up winning may be influenced by our words.

The Egyptians protesting right now are running on hope for a better future--a civilian-run society where they are no longer oppressed. But there is fear too: you see it when reporters ask about the potential rise of an Islamic state like Iran. Those interviewed become angry! Why? Maybe beneath that anger, they fear what the West fears as well; they respond with anger, not wanting to give fear any room.

The internet has now shrunk the world. Words from the West can inject either hope or fear into the tense situation. I wish news commentators were more sensitive when they air their opinions; any pessimistic 'what if's' are just not that helpful right now.

What's missing in the gospel we spread?

North American churches have been sending missionaries to Africa for over 100 years. When I was in South Africa, there were churches everywhere, the effect of missionary effort visible every Sunday morning. Yet with all this apparently successful evangelism, why does the continent struggle so hard to enter the first world?

It begs the question: why hasn't Christianity made more societal impact? We witness extreme poverty, disease, crime and war in many areas of the African continent. Culturally speaking, the Gospel seems powerless there.

Then one day I heard a sermon preached by our dear missionary friend. He asked this rhetorical question to the group of church leaders he was preaching to: "If you had a choice to choose between being a pastor/missionary or the president of South Africa, what would you choose? Of course you should choose to be a pastor because it is much more important to represent God than a country!"

It seems self-evident that one way of rendering Christianity weak is by demeaning believers that fill functional roles in society--as if believers can't reflect God's lordship within those roles. Doesn't the good news of the kingdom of God have anything to do with the way believers live their lives within the kingdoms of men?

Is WikiLeaks evil or good?

My first reaction is that it feels very wrong to publicly disclose private communication. Morally speaking, stealing information and then disseminating it is sneaky and underhanded. Not to mention the potential danger to persons, regions and even countries. In some cases such leaks might actually jeopardize the work people are doing. And by saying we are entitled to know we second guess our leaders, arrogantly presuming that "we know better".

But then, the leaked communiques, while private, are not entirely personal correspondances; they pertain to the nations their authors represent. In a sense, the people writing these things were doing so on our behalf--or at least on behalf of the Americans (it was, after all, an American leak). We have the right to know how and why decisions are being made on our behalf, don't we? And if we don't like the way we're being represented we can then exert influence for change. Viewed this way, this becomes another way to keep elected leadership in check. The case can be made that this is consistent with democratic ideology.

Perhaps the question being asked is too black and white; everything doesn't just fall under two categories, good or evil. While information itself is neutral, individuals are seldom so. How we act upon what we know is the issue. And people do act on information...

Some say that the WikiLeaks sparked the Tunisian uprising, which has now rolled into an Egyptian uprising. Information is power. Given that humanity's track record for wisely using information isn't great, the role of Christians today to pray for divine influence on our decision-making cannot be underestimated.

WikiLeaks may result in good consequences, which wouldn't necessarily justify the release. Or it may result in awful consequences, which wouldn't necessarily condemn the release. In either case, we should see the need for God's help to steward the massive amount of information we face today.

What's wrong with this picture?

For the last few days, news media has been dominated by the unfolding story of the Egyptian uprising. Now on day 5 of their stand to end President Mubarak's 30 year reign, the movement was initially sparked by young people expressing their frustration through social media.

Ironically, I just now came across a different news item describing the apathetic attitude of Canadian youth has towards voting. Elections Canada is literally scratching its head over how to engage youth participation.

What's wrong with this picture? It seems that when things are good, people don't care very much. In contrast, oppression and injustice have a way of igniting passion in people--to right wrongs.

Yet we are encouraged to stay engaged and passionate with life and society even when things are rosy. Aim to go from good to great! Jesus said: "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded..." (Luke 12:48).

The opposite of faith is works

But faith without works is dead (James 2:20). How confusing!

That's why it's hard to tell whether someone has faith or not just by observing their outward performance. Some people (religious and irreligious) work very hard because they are self-reliant, striving to justify their worthiness by what they do. In contrast, others work very hard because their faith in God empowers them to dream big, then strive to see those dreams become reality.

On the outside, the faithful and the faithless can both look the same. Though I'd bet that the faithful sleep better at night than their self-reliant counterparts.

Who needs faith when there is Tony Robbins

We live in an age of heightened self-awareness. All sorts of self-help gurus and motivational coaches teach us how to live successfully; they advocate behaviours that are good for us--things like having honesty, integrity, being grateful and positive, etc. And what they say does empower us, at least for the short term. These people help us recognize that there are principles in life, almost like natural laws, that guide human existence toward effective living. Who needs religion or faith when there is all this abundant knowledge about ourselves?

But then I'd like to argue that it's one thing to know the methods of successful living but quite another to actually do them over the long haul. The problem with self-help approaches is that they all rely on our 'self', i.e. on our works and performance. For those of us with weak will power, merely knowing a great methodology is basically useless. For those elite strong-willed few, constantly having to self-help becomes a heavy heavy burden; in time they show cracks too.

Unlike self-help gurus who put the burden on us, Jesus motivates with these comforting words: "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)

Think win/win

That's habit #4 in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This win/win mentality is not our natural default. Life experiences point us toward win/lose thinking.

For example, there's only one champion for every Olympic race, one team holding the Stanley Cup, one winner crowned in each beauty pageant, one realtor claiming the top sales award, one movie receiving the Oscar for best picture, etc... In any contest or competition, each winner is trailed by numerous other 'losers'.

No wonder it is hard for us to be truly happy for others when they win. In the back of our mind their win usually means our loss. And so our scarcity mentality kicks in; instead of win/win, we think win/lose. How can we overcome this limiting and ungracious habit?

Christian theology has the key to free us from the scarcity mentality. Christians are children of the God of abundance and generosity (Psalm 50:10, Matthew 7:9-12; 2 Corinthians 9:8-10). By looking to God for our every need and desire, God's offspring can afford to be generous--making it easy for us to become win/win practitioners.

The challenge always is: do we have faith to live out this truth and make win/win thinking and living our natural habit?

Will there be faith when we need it?

When everything is predictable and familiar, faith can be just a concept; something we don't need now. That doesn't mean we don't value it, but we are content to hold it loosely until 'the future'...say, on our death bed or times of turmoil when life's storms happen.

That's not how Jesus talked about faith though. In the parable of the wise and foolish builder, he taught us to build ourselves on solid foundation before the storms of life hit us (Matthew 7:24-49). If we live through life without trusting God for much, how will we know that He'll come through for us when we have dire need?

I like the idea that faith will magically appear when we need it. But that's not how it happens with the Bible heroes we read about--Abraham, Moses, and Joshua for example. Each of these were in relatively calm situations when God called them to action--what I call faith-building opportunities. Later, when life's storms inevitably hit them they triumphed. We would be wise to follow this pattern, building our foundations when things are calm.

Challengers of the unknown

Christians should be adventurous risk takers; they have the right stuff for it. Because we know the worst that can happen to us in life--death--has already been taken care of and because we have God's assurance that he will be with us no matter what happens, we don't need to fear the unknown.

But I have observed that many Christians are just as risk averse as the rest of the world. We commonly function like atheists, living by our own wits, as intimidated by unknowns as anyone else. What good is faith if it just stays in our heads--failing to lead us to concrete action?

In contrast, Abraham challenged the unknown. He left his familiar country, people and family because he believed God's promise (Genesis 12:1-3). Trusting God, he put everything at risk when he prepared to sacrifice Isaac (Hebrews 11:17). And although he died without seeing the fulfillment of God's promise (Hebrews 11:39), the actions of his faith were considered righteous by God and proven fruitful by time.

Not too many of us are like Abraham. Comfort keeps us in our seats; we prefer the status quo. And even those of us that manage to step out a little often give up when we don't see immediate results. How little we grasp that our attachment to the familiar robs us of what God values most: trusting Him in the unknown.

Eternity is...

An artist's palette

sound of music

scented air

sweet as fresh figs.

Sore cheeks from laughing

joy from feasting

friends abound

foes no more.

Faith fulfilled

death defeated

fear vanished

perfection's home.