The Randomness I Call My Mind

About 12 years ago I had surgery to repair my ACL. It was a difficult process to recover from because when you have the surgery the first few weeks you are required to not move your leg at all. After a little while of not moving your leg your leg actually dies and the muscles aren’t able to do anything. It is a weird feeling for your brain to tell your leg to move and it not move. It took a lot of effort to get the leg back into working order. While I was in rehab there was a guy there that had the same surgery as me. He had his a few days before mine. But I quickly noticed that my progress had caught up and passed his. They actually ended up putting his leg on a shock therapy. This made me more motivated to work hard, I hate being shocked. The point is if you don’t use your leg long enough it can require drastic measures to get it working again.

The reason I am writing this is I read an article that happens a lot more than it should. I read an article of a waitress who was left a $20 tip... Well actually it was a bible tract disguised as a $20 bill to go along with a $0 tip!!! I posted about this article and people started commenting about how they hear all the time that the worst tippers are church people. Or even worse the most unhappy people are church people. How do people who have the most reason to be happy and to help others become the most unhappy and worst at helping? I could rant on why this shouldn’t happen but the world knows and so should we. Maybe for another post.

I started thinking about why the church gets the reputation it gets. Is it a fair assessment? Now while I do think that the good church members get overlooked because of the bad I think that their is plenty of bad to go around. But the question for the church isn't really are there unhappy mean Christians in the church because we all know there are. The question is how did they get there? and how do we stop ourselves from going there?

Could it be that when Paul taught the Corinthians about being a part of the body it meant a little more than we think. When my body is healthy all parts work together to let me do amazing things like run, jump, carry things, see, hear, taste, feel, and much more. When I tore my body’s ACL the rest of my body worked harder to keep me moving and doing things. At some point when a part of that body does nothing with the rest of the body it dies. And believe me it doesn’t take long. If a leg, like in my case, isn’t used it becomes useless and dies. And when it dies it take a lot of work and change to bring it back to life with the rest of the body. Thinking in this way could it be that those that are part of the body who seem dead are dead simply because they quit working with the body?

I hear a lot of people say “I can’t do anything my body is just too old”, “It isn’t something that I am good at so I don’t think I can do it”, “I’m just not interested in it”, “I am too busy”. Really what you are saying is “Let my body part die, someone will pick up the slack”. While you certainly can do this it makes the body suffer more. Not because they have to pick up your slack because a healthy body alway will pick up the slack. A healthy body always adjusts and the Body of Christ will never be unhealthy as a whole. You create suffering for the body because you can become bitter and forget what it is all about. Ever not played a game in so long you forgot the rules? Yeah it happens to the best of us. When we go to restaurants and expect a piece of paper to speak for us and think that a piece of paper will help them. We forget the words of James that says  “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?”(James 2:16) We forget we are required to tip more because we are to help people. We are required to be happier than everyone else because you have been given the greatest of Gifts ever given. Do we forget the Joy of Christ in our lives? When we forget these things we send a message to the world that Christ is about misery, unfriendly, and harsh. The rest of the body now has to work harder to bring these people back to Christ and to show Christ in a true picture. I think Casting Crowns got it right when they wrote “The world is on their way to You but they're tripping over me” 

It is very simple if you don’t want to become a Christian that is rude, mean, inconsiderate then you need to be a part of the body. Serve with the rest of the Body. I am convinced that simply serving in God’s work will bring you love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23) Stay focused on what Jesus left us with, Love Him, Love everyone else, and go into the world teaching people who He is by loving them. Sitting in a building on Sundays and Wednesdays isn’t going to draw you closer to the God you believe in. Only stepping out into the world to love them will we find what we need and what they need. Anyone that stays in a cage will simply never be happy and will be grumpy.

This is a video going around about a guy who with permission from their parents engage their kids on social media to see how far they would go. One interesting thing I notice on the video is not the shocking outcomes. It is the mindset of their parents. The parents always have the mindset of "my kids would never do this". They trust that their kid would make the right choice.

We tend to look at our kids on a pedistal, I know I do. I have one the most awesome 6 year olds I know. But I also know that she is 6 and LEARNING to navigate this crazy world. I know she needs guidence and help. I know she is going to do stupid things. My job is not think she is awesome, my job is to help her not make as many stupid mistakes.

You see when it comes to social media and your kids I would put money on the fact that your kid has more social friends than people she knows. Are we concerned about this?

Here is the big part of this video. The last mom says says what we do as parents "we watched movies togehter, we looked at newspaper articles, and the news about real life situations, and we discussed them". You see parents it takes more than discussion. Do you remember when you were young? What did you do when your parents discussed stuff with you? If you were anything like me you tuned them out.

So there is a notion today that Christians are the victims. Want to know a secret? Christians have always been attacked and it was promised that you always will (John 15:18-19). As Christ followers we need to start listening to the red letters in the book we claim to believe. We seem to want to play defensive when in all reality we have already won. What are we trying to defend? God? He doesn't need you to defend, He has asked you to spread His truth.

When we play the victim we will always look like whiny people that are against the world. While we are not to be "of" then world we should not be against the world. We will never make disciples fighting against the world. We aren't big enough.Leave the fighting to God and just focus on what our mission is. Love God, Love everyone, Make disciples.

Christians today think we need to defend people who are actually challenged in their faith. In my home state KY Christians are in an uproar over a County Clerk who won't give out marriage licenses to a same sex couple and the federal government is forcing them to. Why are we surprised at this? Why do we expect anything different? Why don't we view the situation though the lens of scripture?

If I look at this situation through scripture I would see Paul standing firm in his faith not giving out the marriage license. Now I know you are saying "That is what is going on today", but I see Paul accepting the consequences of standing up for that faith and not fighting against it. Paul spent his last years in jail, was beaten, was the plot of assasinations, and much more(2 Corinthians 11:23-27). What did Paul do? He didn't stand and fight, He simply kept speaking the truth all the while expecting and accepting the consequences that came with his stand.

Paul wasn't a victim, he was a victor. He knew the war was won and his only goal was to get more souls. He never stopped speaking truth but expeted this to land him in jail or much worse. Why then do we think that we have a right to stand up to the government because of our truth or beliefs and expect them to bend to us? We have no right but to humble ourselves and take the consequences. That may mean losing a job, losing friends, losing what we hold dear.

From the beginning of Jesus' ministry there has been sacrifice. Peter and Simon gave up their job to follow, Paul gave up his life for the sake of the Gospel. Stephen gave his life for the sake of the Gospel. The disciples were outcast for the sake of their savior. Why do we think we can have a savior and it cost us nothing?

If you are a Christian most certainly stand up for truth, stand up for what is right, but don't stand on a box an scream about your rights to be treated equal because it wont happen and you shouldn't expect it to. You aren't the victim you are the victor. Your goal is to play from that role. You should want other people on the winning team. Love everyone without trying to win. Love everyone by losing the battle so they will listen.

Paul while in jail didn't scream "Unjustice" he actually just sang and praised while in jail(Acts 16:25). He accepted their was a cost to this life and it didn't bother him. He wasn't a victim he was a victor.

Christians today get up in arms and become activists about the condition of our nation and our world. In fact I bet quite a few will get mad at the title of this post. It is like we are surprised at a world that is broken and falling apart. We act like this world is something new. We act like we need to fix the world. We act like the world should look like us. Have we forgotten to read the book we claim as true?

Ok so maybe that is a rhetorical question. Maybe things aren’t any different than when the disciples followed Christ. Actually they are exactly the same. So what’s the problem, why do I want to write about this? The problem is Jesus corrected the disciples for the way we act today. Knowing this, which we should if we read the book we claim to believe, why do we make the same mistakes? 

Remember when Simon Peter pulled out his sword to defend what he thought was right(John 18:10)? Remember when the disciples where indignant toward Bethany for wasting perfume(Matthew 26:7)? Remember when Jesus said they were correct to feel this way? No? Yeah He didn’t, Jesus rather understood the condition of men and knew what needed to be done to change the hearts of men. 

Jesus knew that He had to let the world be the world all the while changing the heart of men who would listen. He wasn’t worried about changing the laws or the land. He didn’t care about what the government said. He wasn’t in the government changing business, He was in the heart changing business. Jesus was a person who gave up of Himself for the sake of the world. When will we follow this example?

You see Jesus who created moral law, rules, commandments never fought for those who weren’t following Him to keep them. He fought and gave up His life to have life changes so they would follow His rules and commandments(John 14:15) He never tried to put his teaching in schools, make the governments abolish homosexuality, stop killing babies or people. He knew that if the people would come to Him and love Him that is all that is needed. That is why He gave up His life. Not for the laws to be changed but for lives to be changed

So while I think that you should vote in a Christian way I do not think we can be offended by any law, any ruling, any people. Why do I believe this? Because I see the condition of the world, a condition Jesus saw. I see the example Jesus was, He didn’t stand in the crowds screaming “Stop Gay Marriage”, “Stop Abortion”, “Stop, Stop, Stop”. He corrected those who tried this approach (Matthew 26:10). He loved on those who apposed His views and rules. He died for those who apposed His views and rules. He forgave those who apposed His views and rules. One thing he never did, He never became and activist for His views and rules. He never went around posting pictures on buildings (in our case on facebook). He was a simply loved people and showed them in the way He lived his views and rules. The result people actually listened and were amazed.