Friends, Love, Deeds, and Country

Tim McGraw's song "Find Out Who Your Friends Are" sends a powerful message about loving one another in friendship. This is the chorus:

"You find out who your friends are

Somebody's gonna drop everything

Run out and crank up their car

Hit the gas, get there fast

Never stop and think 'what's in it for me' or 'it's way too far'

They just show on up with their big ol' heart

You find out who your friends are."

In this song, we find the culture, namely the country music culture, appreciating one of the "biggest picture" kinds of things with Christianity. I heard this song on the radio and immediately thought of this project. "Here is someone who gets it." I thought to myself, "Someone who understands that even in the context of culture without Christianity that we are called to love each other. Sometimes Christians and non-believers fall into the tricky trap of making love an emotion or feeling. While I think that there is an emotional aspect and all that jazz, I think that love without deeds is ungrounded and should probably fall under the category of like or lust. Like in James 2, "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." (James 2:14-17) I think that the same applies to love. Telling someone you love them is great, but showing them is even better. Think again with me about the Tim McGraw song listed above. What are the depictions of friends in this song? Someone who is "going to drop everything/ run out and crank up their car..." The true friends that Mr. McGraw is trying to get at is that true friends are invested in their relationship enough that they value the other person more than themselves. Many times in my personal experience, I have had friends that were both more invested in the friendship than I was and less invested. I can tell you that when the scales are unbalanced, the relationships are strained. I think that the main problems with people in our culture today is the individualistic, dog-eat-dog mindset of "getting on top." Everything is about self-promotion. We don't count on each other to lift us up, but rather, we count on ourselves because everyone else is busy doing the same thing. 

What would the world look like if we cared for each other first? Isn't that what God has been asking all along? I think that is what Tim McGraw is asking in that song. Why aren't we trying to be friends like that instead of just expecting to have friends like that? 

I think that the interaction between culture and Christianity is parallel on this issue. I think we are striving to get to that point but we have given up. What would our world look like if we hadn't given up already?

RESPECT - Find Out What It Means to Me

"My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?" James 2:1-4 (NIV)

This week, I have really been inspired to figure out how to make community service a bigger part of my daily and weekly life. After leading an SBC to Houston last week, I have had time to reflect on what that means to me.  Living and serving for a week unveiled my deep-seated discontent with the way that I live my life here on the ACU campus. We had our eyes pealed for one week of things that God would do in our lives and He did. Why not live like that now that we are back? 

So with this inspiration in my heart, I decided to go and serve Breakfast on Beech St. because we had worked with "the homeless" in Houston at an organization that is called Crossroads. So, in the dark hours of what seemed to be the night, I, feeling very persecuted, got up and went to help cook breakfast for these people that I could touch for God. It was great, but I noticed a problem in my heart. Referring back to the scripture, I was discriminating against them in my heart. I wasn't treating them like friends; I was treating them like they were homeless. I would like to propose a paradigm shift in that the people we were serving are not "the homeless" but people, in a homeless condition. Some of these people showed me that with the economy, almost anyone could be homeless in the blink of an eye. Our culture would like us to believe that these are all poor, bad, terrible, dangerous people that are not worth being treated like humans. They are NOT bad people overall. Overall, they are people with lives and families and should be respected as such. 

I think that James was trying to say this in the passage above. He was emphasizing that people are people and believers are believers. We need to love all those around us actively. This isn't something that just happens; each of us has to actively pursue this goal, every minute, every day. That is my new calling for myself.

Casting Out Filth

Continuing on with our discovery of counter-cultural passages in James, I want to focus on James 1:19-21: 

"My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for a man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you."

The first thing I wish to point out is that he calls his readers "dear." To me, this implies that the author is well acquainted with the fellowship of believers to which he writes and cares for them. These are no flippant instructions or doctrines, these are "Hints for Happy [Righteous] Living."  But the culturally different piece comes next. "EVERYONE should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry." When I look around my life, society, people, even people I look up to immensely, struggle with this. For instance, even my preacher at church during a sermon will stop and speak firmly to the audiovisual people to "Get to the next slide, please;" or  "Let's move a little bit faster, guys." He stops his sermon almost every week to correct them in a harsh tone. Then he goes back to his preacher voice and everything is "happy love Jesus" again. I think about this in my own life and how this story is reflected. Often times, I am the one that judges my friends problems and tells them what to do. I see that while advice can be good, it is burdensome if it comes when you do not ask, if no one is in real danger. I have taken steps to improve this. 

The next part of the scripture is about "casting out evil/filth." I think that to many non-believers, this is kind of assumed that it is how Christians should act, but don't, so it's a reason to dismiss them. I wish this weren't true, but I can't deny it. There are two things that I think we should do. First, I think that we should try harder to live sinless lives, always reaching toward righteousness, and believe that we can get there. Second, I think that we need to be open about our faults so that we may be encouraged to do something about them. 

This is the question I would like to leave you with, "What would the world look like if we lived a James 1:19-21 style life?" If you can't see the goal, you can get there. Visualize what it could be like; believe that we, someday, can get there if we try.

Change of Pace

This week, I decided to change pace a little bit and perhaps relate more to scripture than experience for a little bit. Here is what I would like to explore today: 

"A brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. ¹⁰But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower.¹¹For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business."

This passage form James 1 contradicts most of the American lifestyle. I would say that most American strive to be on top of whatever they do because being on top is part of the American Dream. We do not want anyone to be smarter, faster, more athletic, or better in any capacity that we are. I think James is warning us about this. When he says that, "a brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride..." as Americans, we turn off and away from that part. We see that the brother in humble circumstances should work his way to the top so that he can feel better about himself and provide for himself and his family better. We for the most part do not identify with the second part of this passage either, "...the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business." We see that if a man is rich and still going about his business, he will make more money and be even happier and more comfortable. The image of something passing away after a normal amount of time has also been lost in our culture. We are very reluctant to let something pass away. We preserve our food and plants, we strive to preserve our youth, we preserve our health through strenuous means. Basically, we are not willing to let something pass away in the first place, much less our wealth, fame, power, or position. I think that James is telling us that we should be more content and less attached wherever we are in life. If we do have wealth and power and other resources, we should be good stewards of that realizing for the most part that we are only STEWARDS, not owners. We should realize that like it says in Job, the Lord gives and takes away. Everything is ultimately his, not our own. The flip side of the coin is that if we are on the bottom of the ladder, we should take pride and hope from the fact that God is a God of creation and change. We do not have to stay down forever. God can help us and does help us by instilling his hope and peace. I think that this is not really manifest in our lives as Christians for the most part. Why do Christians still buy into the game of being on top? Don't you think that God can use us no matter where on the "totem-pole" we are?

And the Winner is...

For my final blog on this subject, possibly, I would like to introduce to you the best sign that I could find that describes the intersection of Christianity and Culture as we really see it. It may not be the sign that we, as Christians, were hoping was the most realistic, but regardless of what we think, it is probably the most truthful of all. I hate to say it, but I really think that most of the time Christians leave non-believers staring at the sign as if they had been left there by their mother to find their way home. I think that we definitely do not intend for there to be this much confusion or the feeling of being left, but nonetheless, it happens. I think that sometimes in Bible study or some small group format, the differing opinions of different Christians can lead to a lot of confusion. For me, if I was to be left at this sign, I would have turned right around and gone on my way. As Christians I think that we should strive to be in deep enough relationship with people that they do not see this sign at all, much more, that they are not alone if this is what they see. We need to be walking along side people on their journeys as we further our own journey. You can't walk a road for someone, but you can hold their hand while they walk onwards. The second thing that I think we need to do is simplify. This has been known to be a dangerous word in the church because we think that if we over-simplify, we won't present truth. I think that the same can be true though. Sometimes, the more details and rules and doctrine that you shove down someone's throat, they more discouraged and turned off they will become. I think it is important to remember that the real message is the love story of God for His creation and what He has done to reconcile it to Himself. When we forget that it is all about the love of God shown in Jesus Christ, we trade our simple truth in for some complex, distracting, harmful un-truth. Just like the sign could have simply stated the directions, so too we should be able to tell non-believers what the real moral of the story is. God loves us so much that He sent His son to die for us so that we could live a present and eternal life with Him. Let's not forget what all of the sign really says.

No U-Turn

Have you ever done something that you thought was so bad that you could never be forgiven? Have you had people tell you that there is an unforgivable sin in your life that not even Christians can heal or set you free from? You were right about one thing: "Christians" can do a thing about it; but God can.

When I was a little girl, I had heard that there was an unforgivable sin. I had heard that, but no one had ever told me what exactly that was. I went around asking people, "Is it true? Is there something I can't be forgiven for?" The adults in my life would always say that there was something that couldn't be forgiven, but that was always the end of the conversation. I spent about 4 hours one night watching TV and crying hysterically because I thought that I couldn't be forgiven for something (who knows what!) and I was certain that my fate was to burn in hell away from God. 

Since that night, I have always had a very broad view of forgiveness both from God and to other people. I think that culture would have us believe that there are things that we cannot turn away from and be forgiven. I think that things that are labeled with the words, "sinful" or "addicting" may lead people to believe that they cannot be forgiven; they are blatantly marked with "NO U-TURN" signs left and right. However, the truth is that God loves U-turns. I think they just might be one of his favorite traffic maneuvers. God loves for people to turn to Him. He loves to forgive, even when the culture or churches label things, "unforgivable." He loves to be near to his creation and He loves for them to turn closer to Him. I apologize for all the times that you or someone dear to you may have felt like they can't be changed or forgiven by silly Christians. Just remember, Christians can't do the healing; only God can.

CAUTION! DO NOT ENTER!

Picture this: You are sitting in a room with a group of so-called "Christians." A new believer asks a question. The room falls completely silent as if a one-hundred-year-old glass has just been broken. People shift in their seats and the leader takes a deep-breath. What did they ask? What broke? What suddenly pitted these generally nice people against each other so suddenly? You don't understand and you look to your Christian friend beside you, she says in hushed tones, "Here we go..."

There are some things in the Christian faith that it seems that Christians themselves are not willing to talk about. Some have been burned by these things themselves, some have only heard of the devastation that came from these conversations. People leaving churches, people bashing each other. Most people from the outside see the desention and recognize a group of Christians by that very trait. Issues like baptism (sprinkle vs. immersion), instrumental music, praise teams, and other seemingly unimportant things become great "taboo" phrases among Christian circles. Why is that?

I think that it is because our generation has been hurt and burned and heard the stories from our parents. We are so afraid of these hurtful conversations that we often fail to engage in them in the first place. A major trait of the post-modern thinker is the pluralistic mindset of this generation. Unlike most of our parents and grandparents, we are not afraid to say that more than one viewpoint might just be okay. We are afraid to even admit that though, because that is not accepted by the older generations.

Like a road marked "Do not enter" we flee these issues. I think that we should be more willing to discuss these issues. It is a huge turn-off to non-believers and new Christians when we shut down their questions because we don't like talking about them. Perhaps we need to become even more post-modern in that we are conversational and communal about bring about solutions and truths. Sometimes, as we stand at the intersection of Christianity and Culture, we should not be afraid to go around the "do not enter" sign set by tradition and discover what may lie on the other side for ourselves.