“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  Jesus replied: “‘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.’  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” – Matthew 22:36-40

Isn’t it interesting how we ourselves at times are our greatest obstacles to living the life God created us to live?  This can get particularly tricky when we talk about the Almighty’s desire for us to be instruments of his mercy and justice.  The last thing some of us need is a greater focus on ourselves as some already possess honorary doctorate degrees in self-centeredness.  However, there is a need for asking the Lord to help us in tending to our own junk in order to allow Him some solid space to work in and through our lives.

One of the great manifestations of this obstacle of self is that of self-pity.  I am fascinated by Jesus again and again, and his way of wording these important laws in Matthew 22 is no exception.  He did not say that we are to love our neighbors more or less than ourselves but rather love them AS ourselves.  Some folks struggle time and time again to love and serve others in a healthy way because they are so incredibly consumed by self-pity and with that, at times, self-punishment.

“The great and spirited novelist D. H. Lawrence once said, ‘I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself.  A small bird will drop dead frozen from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.’  That’s because wild things live lives of pure action.  Today, the more I live like a ‘wild thing,’ taking action instead of meditating on my sad condition, the faster self-pity drops away.  Chronic sadness seems to become more a thing of the past. . . It took me years of looking back to see that self-pity had become an addiction of the worst kind in my life, a very nasty habit.  It acts on the system much like heroin.  It hooks you into feeling numb to life.  It makes creative action impossible.” – Steve Chandler in ReInventing Yourself

Self-pity can indeed become a bizarre and powerful addiction, and from that, one heck of a block to us doing our part in ushering in God’s kingdom here on Earth.  I of all people know how easy it is to get stuck in one’s head and over-think things in the name of meditation, education, and/or rational analysis.  (To top that off, I’m a licensed professional counselor, ha!)

So how about you?  What in your life is keeping you from living the life of intentional action that our Lord desires for you?  Is self-pity your drug of choice or is something else?

What would it look like for you to be freed from the pressure of others’ expectations and/or your own fears?

Be free and live wild!

“My back hurts.”

We had just spent a night on the floor of a basketball court during an in town missions trip.  One of the guys I was with chimed in again, “My back really hurts.  But why do I feel more connected to Jesus because my back hurts from sleeping on the hardwood last night?  Like I am suffering for Jesus or something.”  This was a fascinating question.  Why did a tweaked back make him (us) feel more connected to Jesus?

During this trip, we had been serving the homeless at a downtown shelter run by the beautiful folks at Trinity Episcopal Church.  People would come in off of the streets for a hot meal, and we had the privilege to hang out with them and serve them breakfast.  I believe that my friend having an ailing back connected him (us) to Jesus by helping him to identify with the homeless people that we were serving.  Sleeping on the hardwood floors somehow helped him (us) to understand and be able to relate to those who had to sleep on the pavement the night before.  In a very small way, we could identify with the pain of being homeless, and that helped us to connect with the folks we were serving.  In do so, it also connected us with the person of Jesus.

I once heard Tony Campolo say, “We can’t just look at the Bible through middle-class American eyes, and try to fit it into our lives.  We have to identify with the poor in order to understand the message of the Bible.”

We need to identify and relate with the poor and the hurting.  We need to begin to put a face to pain–a face to suffering–a face to a statistic.  In doing so, does it also help us to better understand the gospel message of Jesus Christ?

“Compassion grows with the inner recognition that your neighbor shares your humanity with you.  This partnership cuts through all walls, which might have kept you separate.  Across all barriers of land and language, wealth and poverty, knowledge and ignorance, we are one, created from the same dust, subject to the same laws, and destined for the same end.  With this compassion you can say, ‘In the face of the oppressed I recognized my own face and in the hands of the oppressor I recognize my own hand.  Their flesh is my flesh, their blood is my blood, their pain is my pain, and their smile is my smile.  Their ability to torture is in me, too; their capacity to forgive I find also in myself.  There is nothing in me that does not belong to them too; nothing in them that does not belong to me’…In the depths of my being, I meet my fellow humans with whom I share love and have life and death.”  Henri Nouwen; With Open Hands

“One year into my position as president of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC), I am more convinced than ever of this biblical principle: doing big things for a big God is merely the accumulation of little things done for people.  I have seen firsthand the big things we are doing in partnership with the Hindustani Covenant Church among sex-trade workers in India. But it comes down to people who are willing to babysit the children of prostitutes while their mothers work in new alternate employment. . .  I have seen firsthand the great relief it is to families to know their adult handicapped children or siblings are in a caring, professional setting in our network of group homes known as Covenant Enabling Residences. But know it comes down in certain cases to staff members who change adult diapers for those who cannot care for themselves.” – Gary Walter, President of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC)

I don’t know about you, but I certainly have the great ability to overcomplicate things at times and, as a result, miss the point in certain areas of life.  Following Christ and living as His body through the Church is no exception.  Words such as compassion, mercy, justice, and missions have a sweet ring to them, but is it possible that we are thinking and talking about them more than actually living in them daily?

Before I go any further, I need to give a brief disclaimer: I am not a church pimp for the ECC!  It is also not my desire to make an attempt to get as many folks as possible to jump on over to the Covenant.  However, I am grateful to be a part of what God is doing through this body of believers.

Having said that, I invite you to read the words of Gary Walter cited above once more and then really pray and meditate on them.  Don’t get me wrong, I believe that God calls His people at times to do some pretty wild stuff on some pretty large scales.  However, is it possible that we have made the call to live missionally more romantic and grandiose than it really is at times?

Maybe God will call you to something HUGE in the future, but in the mean time, what are some “little things” that could be done today for people in your world in the name of Jesus Christ?  Once again, isn’t it funny how the paradox of God’s kingdom works in that often times the things we deem as small and insignificant are the very things that Christ uses to do big work in people’s lives?

“In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs.  If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time.”  –  C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity

The last few years I have been doing summer mission in Ibiza, Spain.  Ibiza (pronounced Eye-bee-tha) is a small Mediterranean island off the coast of Spain that is often known as the party capital of Europe.  It is an intense environment to show the love of Jesus.  A small team from England decided to move there to help bring peace and love to the island through prayer and mission.  Here is a short video about these guys:  Prayer as Mission

Once while in Ibiza, I encountered a guy named Lee.  He asked me what 24-7 Ibiza was, as I was wearing a 24-7 Ibiza t-shirt.  I told him that it was a Christian organization that focuses on prayer and kindness.  He looked at me in confusion and after a long pause he said, “In Ibiza?  You’ve come to help a bunch of drunk people?  Why?  Why don’t you go to Africa and work in an orphanage?”  Half drunk himself, Lee continued, “People in Ibiza don’t deserve help.  They choose this lifestyle.  Why don’t you go help kids with AIDS?”

I still think about this encounter.  What struck me was how hard it was for Lee to accept that 24-7 Ibiza wanted to help those that “didn’t deserve it.”  He was all right with people receiving help if they warranted it, but not those who chose wrongdoing purposefully.  He was begging to ask these questions, “Is help only for those who deserve it?  Is mercy only for those who warrant it?”

Oftentimes, when you walk someone to their hotel that has had too much to drink in Ibiza, they will offer you money to compensate.  The response is always no.  When they persist and persist, the team will say, “Hasn’t anyone ever done something nice for you without asking for something in return?”  Mercy.  Shown in the simple act of walking somebody home.

I recently went to a benefit concert in Tulsa that financially supported a cause called Falling Whistles. After a few bands had played their set, an energetic twenty-something from Falling Whistles beautifully shared his heart about what the cause was all about. It went something like this:

“The Democratic Republic of Congo is home to the world’s largest and most deadly war. During the past 10 years, roughly 6 million people have died, and nearly 1,500 people continue to lose their lives daily. Sexual violence is more rampant here than anywhere else in the world, and thousands of children are involved in the war. Why?

There are a number of reasons, dating back over a century. However, most of the conflict is tied directly to the country’s vast natural resources. They are both a blessing and a curse, making Congo a country of great potential and a frequent victim of exploitation. The minerals found in Congo are used in consumer electronics, including laptops and cell phones. While many benefit from the mineral trade, it is the Congolese people who bear the consequences of a conflict that sustains profitable mining enterprise.

A combination of unstable governance, a history of bitterness between local groups, and international interest in Congo makes this situation one of the most complicated on the planet. It is this complexity that has left the current systems in place largely ineffective. A new approach is needed.”

This struck me with a deep sense of ache for the people of Congo but also left me feeling strangely debilitated. I talked about this jumbled feeling of both compassion and helplessness with some friends after the show. As wealthy Americans we are confronted with the great contrast of our comfort and the tragedies of situations like the one going on in Congo. We are oftentimes faced with these huge global realities on a consistent basis. It could certainly have a numbing effect on us if we are not careful. The more that we hear about the massive sweeping injustices in our world, the more it could leave us feeling both compassionate and helpless but also possibly apathetic. I have had these dichotomous feelings after hearing many awe-inspiring causes. Maybe you have experienced these same feelings?

The question that I would like to pose to us is…
How do we stop from feeling half-hearted about our substantial comfort and the number of serious world causes that we encounter customarily?

When I was working full-time as a psychotherapist, I spent a good chunk of my work days helping clients that were struggling with chemical dependency.  The topic of pain was very relevant to the people I interacted with in counseling, both as folks still active in addiction and also as new travelers on the road to recovery.  Pain in this life is unavoidable, and I would frequently challenge people to see pain as one of the most underutilized resources on the planet.  Sound a bit odd?

I am currently on staff at an Evangelical Covenant Church (www.covchurch.org) and recently attended our annual Midwinter Conference (www.covchurch.org/midwinter) and Connection (www.covchurch.org/connection) in Denver, CO.  The theme of the Connection this year was “The Beautiful Struggle,” and there were a variety of great speakers and teachers that spoke in different ways on this notion of pursuing Jesus with our lives as being a beautiful struggle.  Sunil Sardar was one of the general session speakers that I was privileged enough to hear.

“Pain is a privilege.  Pain is a gift from God.”

These are the words of Sardar, an incredible man of God that founded TruthSeekers International (www.truthseekersinternational.org) as a vehicle to share the life-changing power of Jesus with seven hundred million lower caste people in India, a people that are set up from birth by the caste system more to exist rather than truly live.  He has been physically and verbally assaulted because of the work he is doing, and yet, he experiences pain of all types as an honor.  He also made a point to say that we do not have to seek pain for it will find us.  However, Sardar did mention the concept of “borrowing pain” from others.  Does this sound like someone else?

We are called to join in joy as our brothers and sisters celebrate a victory, and on the other end of the scale, there is this equally important call to join with those that are experiencing deep struggle and pain.

What does that look like for you?  It may be incredibly personal today, as in the pain may be inside you or someone that is very close and dear to you.

Look back in your story.  Is it possible today for you to see a struggle as something that is connected to real beauty?

We often claim to be people that desire growth, but if we are honest, we seldom are willing to do what it takes to go in that direction.  Just like farmers utilize manure to assist in the growth of fresh produce, we are invited to utilize pain, the “crap” of our lives, to assist in spiritual growth.