Spiritual wiring

So, I'm on my way to work and having a conversation with someone which then prompts me into meditating on some things that have been spoken of before. I pastor a church as well as work a job as an addictions counselor with brain injury survivors. I have worked with the disabled for over 19 years year (March 7^th marks my 20^th anniversary of the day I started trainings). I love seeing people move ahead in life, get through trauma, healed, restored relationships, etc. Each time I describe my work to people, they look a bit cross-eyed at me and make some comment to the effect of "better you than me." So, Why?

Seriously, that was a question, Why is it better me than someone else? Why doesn't everyone do this? Why don't more people go on mission trips? Shouldn't that be part of the qualifier to prove you are born again, that you have spent time in another country (or at least another neighborhood) bringing the love of Jesus?

Yet, if I believe we are called to a purpose, which I do, then it makes only perfect sense as to why me and not someone else. Sit down, before you continue your rant, I am by no means saying that I am better than. I am simply different than. As you are different than me and that other person over there as they are different than both of us. We are each wired a little differently according to the purposes we are called to. This actually makes total and perfect sense. If we were all wired the same, then there would be a lot of something that couldn't get done. Paul uses the 'body' when speaking about the church. That the hands aren't part of the body because they aren't the feet and the eye isn't part of the body because it is not an ear……the ear serves the purpose of hearing, the eye of sight, the hand of work and the foot of going, etc.

The next time you are having a conversation with someone, especially a non-follower of Jesus Christ, think about it. The fact that they don't have patience for dealing with the "little brat in the back row screaming his head off" makes perfect sense if you keep in mind that first we are all wired for our purpose/destiny and secondly that the great equalizer in wiring, the fruit of the spirit (Galatians chapter 5), only comes as a fruit of the Holy Spirit whom comes at the point of being born again. If someone is not born again and they weren't called to a purpose that would require, let's say six or seven extra helpings of patience, tolerance and long suffering, it makes all the sense in the world for them to respond with a short fuse and a not so friendly opinion. They are merely doing what they are wired to do. (I used a less flattering comparison earlier to a dog peeing on the rug—it's their nature, not like you can really get mad at them given a lack of doggie DNA which directs them to use a toilet.)

If we could get this, imagine the difference it would bring in being able to meet out mercy, grace, forgiveness and love? As you look at the face of the man who gets mad at his teenage son for continuously returning to the addiction, you, the born again baptized in the Holy Spirit follower of Jesus Christ who has the fruit of the spirit within you can step in, forgive the man, forgive the son, love on them both and pray for them both. What a blessing! You being able to see where they aren't wired right now, where the wires have crossed, shorted out or been corroded, you working hand in hand with Holy Spirit can become the spiritual electrician that would be able to offer them peace in the situation.

The young man who does not seem to possess the stomach to visit his elderly grandparent in a nursing home….what if he is simply responding out of the way he has been wired? Wouldn't now be the time to set aside judgment and condemnation for him not "loving his father/mother/grandma or whomever enough to visit them? Wouldn't now be the time to be the blessing to, yes, I said you be the blessings to him?

We are called to love people where they are at. That is what Jesus does. He meets us where we are at. (Like him, however, I am sticking to my guns that we are expected to stay there.)

Just imagine the difference it can make in the lives of our churches(families) if we were able to come to this understanding. Imagine sitting there and rather than judging the "jerk" who is bad mouthing ________, you instead accept that right now they are wired differently and merely acting out of their own wiring, which may be very "fleshly," as some of my Pentecostal brothers would put it. In that moment, you begin to pray for them. You begin to allow God to flow into the situation. You turn the cursing into blessing, the condemnation into mercy and allow God's grace to flow.

Sounds to me like it would move a lot of hearts and souls and would certainly show forth exactly what the love of Christ looks like.

Blessings and peace brothers and sisters.

back from africa

Hello All (however many "all" are that might catch this).

I just returned from 10 days in Africa, Nigeria to be more specific. I travelled through several States and cities, visited many villages and collected stories from those who had survived the violence of January, March and April 2010. As I attempt to slip back into life here in the U.S. I find the transition difficult. I was struck so strongly by so many different things, things which I didn't think could get any deeper since I had already been there last year.

Boy oh boy was I wrong.

I had no idea just how many levels there are nor how deep I could/need to go. This year, one of the prevailing things htat I discovered was a need for S A C R I F I C E. Here in the States, at least regarding my experience of growng up in New York State, that word has become something akin to a "dirty word".

As a Christian, it should be part of my regular vocabulary, ingrained in my belief system and part and parcel to the way I live out my life as a Christian. Shamefully, it has not always been that way and it most often is no where near what it could be. I get inward focused, drawn into my own worries about bills, labels, titles, the next gadget, finding time for 'me' and all the rest.

No, these are not necessarily bad things. In the correct perspective, they are fine and dandy to have as part of my life. Only, when in perspective, though.

Following Christ's example, he was willing to sacrifice not only his life, but his family, friends, dignity, safety, Glory, and personal will in order to do the work that the Father had given him to do. In the garden, prior to Judas showing up with the temple guards, Jesus is found praying: "if it is possible, let this cup pass from my lips, but not my will but your will be done, father." Jesus' will was not to go through the suffering, yet he sacrificed his will, effectively nailing it to the will of His Father, in order to fulfill what he had come to fulfill. Did he look forward to the torment? I doubt it. Could he see the glory on the otherside? The bible tells us he did and that is what he focused on in order to make it through the trial and crucifixion. Do not, however, lose sight of the fact that Jesus had asked to not have to drink from that cup if there were some other way to accomplish this.

This is the example that has been laid down for us to follow. This idea of taking my own will and laying it down for the will of My Father. In modern terms, I have come to refer to this as laying aside my "wants". Sometimes, that means also to lay aside my "needs" in order that another's needs may be met instead. Sometimes simple things like taking far less food in order to ensure that others have their fill first. Other times, it is going without sleep in order to spend time sitting with someone who needs some attention, needs to tell their story, to know they have been heard.

Yet, more to be done. Would that we would become a culture prone to sacrifice. When we are willing to sacrifice, we give glory to God and honor Him when we do so in His name. This was the honor and glory that Jesus allowed himself to be crowned with for a time. We, as Christians, must be willing to do the same. Lay down our personal crowns and take up the crowns given to us for the time in order to allow God to receive the glory. Only then will we learning to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. Only then will we become guilty of being followers of Christ not only in word but in deed. I pray that there come a day when I have enough witnesses in order to in a court of law be convicted of being a Christian.

more to come in the future