Winsome Subversives

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2009-02-06T05:46:00.000-08:00

I’m inhaling in short bursts as I fight to breathe. I’m sitting at my desk, alone in my office at 6:49 AM. My raspy gulps for air are cut short by pitiful little rushes of sound that escape my chest. I’m fighting back tears, searching for a napkin or tissue or something to keep the snot from running into my moustache…I’m so afraid one of my colleagues will come into the office and cheerfully ask, “how are you?” only to see my red puffy eyes, to which they will undoubtedly follow up with “are you OK?” No one comes. I lose the battle. Now I’m sitting forward in my chair, elbows on my knees, head in hands, sobbing. No tissue to the rescue—my face is a mess. Chest heaving, breathing hitched and shallow, I can’t seem to stop. Emotional ambush. Why the intense emotion? I’m reading a BOOK for goodness sake! The author is telling the true story of his wife’s final days as she vainly tries to beat back the effects of chemo. She’s losing. Her husband of 30years is trying to fight unbelief, and he is losing too. “I got into my car. I closed the door, laid my head on the steering wheel, and wept. At some point, I realized I was screaming.”

Scream we do. Audible or otherwise, none of us escapes the menacing clutches of reality. Like the man in the story, we have all rehearsed the lines before; “Wait on the Lord…” “All things work together for good…” Be still and know that I am God…” But we all reach a point where the words are not spoken, they are screamed. In our battle against unbelief, sight wins.

This is precisely where our training as winsome subversives begins. We need to understand exactly what the “anti-faith” state of mind is, and then fight it as if our lives depended on it. We often think or hear or read that doubt is the enemy of faith. If we believe, without doubting, we are told, we have achieve some small victory, and faith is pumped up like the muscles of a body builder who is pumping iron. Not so fast. According to the scriptures, doubt is not the opposite of faith. In fact, doubt seems to be a regular part of the journey toward faith—Moses, Gideon, David, Jeremiah, Peter, Paul and Mary (I couldn’t resist). The enemy is not doubt. It is sight. “We live by faith, not by sight.”

“We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.” Quintessential paradox—fixing our eyes on what cannot be seen? Like the superhero in the movie Mystery Men, who can become invisible, but only when no one is looking, the definition of faith seems a little short of the desired power. Fix our eyes on what cannot be seen? I take that to mean that we are looking at something that CAN be seen, just not with the eyes of sight. The eyes in my skull will always betray me. “Faith is being certain of…what we do not see.” Again, the point is not that these things cannot be seen—they simply cannot be seen with the eyes that are bookends to our noses. Those eyes will convince us that God is neither good nor great.

The first tentative step on the road to becoming a winsome subversives is to recondition our senses to be immediately skeptical of what we see with the eyes of sight. Rule of thumb; if I can access it with my five senses, there is a good chance it is misleading. I must learn that the things that cannot be seen are the most real things, and the things that will inform my heart and my mind of what is most true. Again, it is not that those things are not there, they simply cannot be seen without the eyes of faith.

Take the Kingdom for example. Look around. Listen. Do you see the ever-expanding Kingdom of Jesus Christ? Can you hear the extension of His rule over the whole creation? No? Have faith. Not pie-in-the- sky wishful thinking, but real, honest to goodness confidence that the leaven is working its way through the whole lump of dough—the mustard seed has given way to a great tree, and the birds of every nation are coming to roost there. The religious people of Jesus’ day never understood this. They were always asking for a “sign.” Translation? Give me something I can access with my five senses. Answer? Not gonna happen. Jesus promises a new set of eyes, not a new set of signs.

Consider the circumstances of your own life. How are things going? Will you give your answer based on what you see, or what you know and believe? If you are like me, you know how hard this can be. The fight against sight will never happen unless you know it is the fundamental battle. Even acknowledging this does not make the battle easy. Our expressions betray us—we talk about “blind faith.” That is a contradiction. Faith is not blind, it is just a better, more reliable kind of seeing. It is these tendencies and “givens” that we must struggle against to become winsome subversives. On the other hand, living by faith become a great antidote to despair and a great catalyst to Kingdom contributions. Fighting against “sight-walking” will be the focus of the chapters ahead. So, go ahead and doubt, even question. But remember that as soon as we make decisions and draw conclusions based on what we see, we have lost the battle against unbelief. As you ruminate on the relationship between sight and faith, I’ll grab another tissue. I made the mistake of picking up the book again. More tears, more snot, more tissues. But I won’t be fooled. The only things I truly believe are those things I cannot see.

S'More Chicken Soup?

2009-02-04T04:57:00.000-08:00

I’m weary of the “latest and greatest.” Apparently, for the last two thousand years the church (or The Church if you prefer) has gotten it wrong, and just recently we have found what was missing. Missional, seeker-sensitive, incarnational, dialogical, sola mea, double-brewed, fire-breathed, Spirit led power encounters of the barking kind—that is what the Church needs. Conferences abound-- carpe nauseum. The church machine, despite all the cogs and blogs, is still searching, vainly I think, for the “lucky-magic- rabbit-wand” that will cause the World to sit down and take us seriously. Culture wars, Bible-camp s’mores, church of the revolving door—I’ve participated in and encouraged them all.

I think our Lord felt some of the same things. There’s no question that the disciple He loved the most did. “Dear friends, I am not writing a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.” I John 2:7-8

We’ve had it since the beginning. It’s the old-new command that has been with us from the start. As Chesterton once quipped, “it is not that the Christian life has been tried and found wanting. It is that is has not been tried.” We don’t need a new command; we need to try the old one. The profoundly simple “old-new” command is this: “Love one another.” (1 John 3:11)

What’s new about this old command is that the context in which we live this out is changing. “Aslan is on the move.” The King has come, and the Kingdom is coming, and we can now observe this new-old love in the lives of both the Leader and the followers. At least that’s our hope. If we are to ever recapture our status as winsome subversives, it must begin here. Of course, there is nothing “new” about reading that either. We know that. We just don’t do it.

Here is where we must move forward carefully. The “solution” is not just to be more loving (although as the Jewish mother’s I grew up around in Miami would often say to sick relatives—“have some chicken soup. It might not help, but it couldn’t hurt!). Doing more loving things couldn’t hurt. But it’s critical that we identify the core problem behind our failure to do more loving things.

The apostle Paul, arguably Jesus’ best student, was fond of distilling truth into one or two pithy comments. After reviewing all the potential rabbit-trails of our walk with Jesus, Paul concluded, “the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (Gal. 6:5) Not a lot of wiggle room there. The point is clear. If you want to “count” then you must live a life of faith. You don’t need to schedule an appointment with the faith doctor to find out how healthy your faith is. We can all tell by looking at your life and seeing if you love. Weak faith, weak love.

It would appear, then, that love is not my core problem. Faith is. Love springs naturally from a life of faith. “Without faith, it is impossible to please God” “The righteous will live by faith.” “Show me you faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.” In the next several entries, we’ll look at the enemy of faith, and then examine how we can fight the lack of faith in our lives. Of course, there is always the alternative—we could plan a conference and then talk at length about “strategies for being more loving.” We could even sit around a campfire and tearfully confess our shortcomings, salving our guilty consciences with stories of how we spoke harshly to our husbands or dabbled in internet porn. You bring the chocolate, and I’ll bring the “mallows.” Or perhaps we should all just sit down over a steaming bowl of chicken soup and talk some more.

Why I Don't Think Much of God's Love

2008-11-25T04:47:00.000-08:00

Humble people are winsome. Arrogant people are not. It’s just that simple. Christ-followers will never achieve “winsome-status” as long as we see God’s favor as an entitlement. The antitode to arrogance is, of course, humility. Here is the irony. As soon as you “pursue” humility or make being humble a goal, you’ve already lost. Humility is an “anti-arrogant” state of mind that is the natural result of a heart that is overwhelmed by God’s love. And there is the heart of the problem. We are not overwhelmed. In fact, although we would never utter such a thing, God should be pretty darn glad we are part of the team. So what is the key to our being overwhelmed by the love of God? If we are serious about trying to change the prevailing notion of Christ-followers, that we are arrogant, demanding people, then this question ought to energize us. It is not trivial or peripheral, it is front and center. I can honestly say I have never met a humble person whom I did not also find to be winsome. I like being around people like that, and I am inclined to listen to what they say. So, what is the key to be overwhelmed by the love of God?

The answer is simple, but the problem is profound. Our inability to comprehend the love of God is firmly entrenched. In fact, it is so deeply rooted in our hearts that nothing on earth can dislodge it. Before I offer a suggestion as to how we can be overwhelmed, let me first explain why it is so hard. The reason we are not overwhelmed by God’s love is because His love comes to us on the wings of grace. Paradox? Contradiction? Not really. The reason that ‘grace’ makes it so hard to comprehend God’s love is precisely because we are, by nature, arrogant people. Tremper Longman put it beautifully when he wrote that the grace of God is free, and no price could be higher for arrogant people to pay. There is the root of the problem. There is something in us that demands praise or recognition. We want God’s favor to be, in part at least, the fruit of something we did! That attitude strikes a lethal blow to grace. In time, God becomes beholding to us. Subtly at first, then more boldly, we harbor a secret pride at how pleased God must be with our efforts, how happy He is that we have joined the team. The love that cost Him everything becomes an afterthought.

Now, back to the question; what can break the stranglehold that pride has on my spirit, which keeps me from being overwhelmed by God’s love? The answer is found in Ephesians 3:14-21. In short, the answer is, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead must be active in our hearts. This alone should impress us with the gravity of our situation, the depth of our pride. As Christians continue to try and make their mark, the world around us watches and waits to see something winsome, something compelling about Christians, anything at all that might recommend Jesus to the world—and rather than humble people who desperately cling to the grace of God they find narrow, judgmental people who wreak of self-righteousness. NOTHING LESS THAN THE SAME POWER THAT RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD IS NECESSARY TO OPEN OUR HEARTS TO HOW GREAT GOD’S LOVE FOR US IS! There is no greater power anywhere, the power to take a dead body and make it breath again. “And I pray that you…may have power (that power is like the working of His mighty strength which he exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead)…to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…” There it is! That is the power that I desperately need, and which is in such short supply in my life.

How do we ‘get’ this power? Above all, we ask for it! We pray, regularly, continually, that this power might be released in our lives, the power to break through our pride, the power that shatters the grip that cancelled sin has on our heart. We pray, and pray and pray. Second, we need to find a way to regularly remind us of “the riches of God’s grace which He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding…” I have had the wonderful opportunity of learning to live in complete dependence on God through my own struggle with drug addiction. As a recovering addict, I am under no illusion as to what I am capable of. As a result, I have established a daily routine which includes the surrender of my life and will to the care of the God of the Bible in the person of Jesus Christ. I am daily reminded that I am a sinner, saved by grace. Grace alone. As I reflect on what I deserve, I am humbled and overwhelmed. It is not something I do, it is something I am. I am told that there are actually moments when I come across to others as winsome. Praise God. Something deep within me wants to take credit for that myself. And then, I am hit by the shockwave generated by the mega-ton impact of the love of God as it is detonated in my heart. The old me is incinerated by the white-hot blast of God’s love, and all that is left for people to see is Jesus.

Join me, in this dying to self. Ask the Father, who gives liberally, for this resurrection power, and establish some kind of routine that vivifies the spirit and mortifies the flesh by reminding us of God’s grace. The fruit of that will be an army of winsome warriors, released as heralds of the truth; repent, the Kingdom of heaven is here.

A Winsome Whine

2008-09-11T07:03:00.000-07:00

Evangelicals rank just above prostitutes in terms of favorable impressions on the part of non-Christians. While that data may say something about prostitutes, it most definitely says something about evangelicals.[1] You don't have to look far to find people who are only too happy to lend a sympathetic ear to people who run down evangelical Christians. Of course, the evangelical spin on that is that we are supposed to be hated. Jesus said that, right? Nice try. We are being hated because we have, for some time now, adopted the world’s ways when it comes to influencing our culture and our communities. (More discussion later on "the world," but as a heads up, that's what we are supposed to be "subverting.") We organize, generate capital, create special interest groups, get “Christian” politicians elected, and then applaud ourselves for the “difference” we are making. The reality is that it’s not the cross that’s offending others—it’s Christians. On the one hand, they hate us because we are arrogant and smug. On the other, they hate us because we spend inordinate amounts of energy looking for the latest, trendy way to do church, and the only thing that gets lost in the process is Jesus Christ. Bummer. Don’t look now, but when it comes to favorable impressions, the prostitutes are gaining on us.

An alternative? The idea of becoming winsome subversives isn't new. Jesus’ marching orders to his first disciples are recorded for us in Matthew 10. He sent them out with a message that was unequivocal and devastating in its simplicity; “Repent; The Kingdom is here." That message was to be delivered by messengers that reflected the realities they proclaimed. They were asked to be, in a word, winsome. They were to be people who communicated joy—people who understood the pleasure of knowing God, a reality that oozed from every pore of their bodies. Matthew 10 describes witnesses who were, among other things, engaging, energetic, fearless, and above all, carefree in the knowledge that God would provide them with everything they needed. Next post, we'll dip our toes into Matthew 10, but for now, ask yourself; "When was the last time you saw an engaging, energetic, fearless and carefree Christ-follower sharing the gospel or emobying the Kingdom's presence. I'm not suggesting there aren't any, it's just that it's not always easy when deciding if I'd rather hang with other Christians, or prostitutes. Wrap your "what would Jesus do" bracelet around that one.

[1] The Barna Group of Ventura, California. www.barna.org December 3, 2003

Winsome Subversives (Try saying it five times, fast…seriously, try it!)

2008-09-03T20:06:00.000-07:00

Christians are, for the most part, a pain in the ass. We are arrogant, demanding, ignorant hypocrites who remain largely irrelevant to the world in which we live. I say “we” because, not only am I one of them—I have devoted most of my adult life to training and equipping others to become better pains in the ass. I can’t undo the wreckage of my past—but I’d like to try. Part catharsis, part social commentary, but mostly Biblical exposition, this offering is a handbook for embracing the one thing that Jesus spoke about more than any other thing; The Kingdom of God. For the uninitiated, make no mistake; those are fighting words.

To say that Christ-followers are at war is not hyperbole. That’s Kingdom talk. Not only is “war” a common Biblical metaphor, it is the reality that should dominate our thinking and our behavior. I know what you’re thinking; “great—another vitriolic and shrill call to arms—culture wars, protests, Amway, boycotts, , judgmental non-evangelical bashing, etc. I’d like to think this is something different. For too long Christ-followers have been fighting the wrong war, against the wrong enemy, in the wrong way, with the wrong weapons. Other than that, we’re spot on.

My prayer is that these posts will inspire you to change that—to become a winsome subversive—to try and live out what Jesus meant when he taught us to pray, “Your Kingdom come…on earth as it is in heaven.” I hope these posts will encourage Christ-followers to rethink their nature and their name. Of course, if you are not a Christ follower, I hope these posts will intrigue you enough to get you to think about thinking if you’d consider following Him. I can only hope that in the process of pursuing those goals I can piss-off as many people as possible. And by the way—if you did try and say “winsome subversive” five times, fast, and you did it, I’d love to hear from you. To date, no success on my part.