Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Do you ever stop to think about the things no one else knows about you? The things you have done that you now wish you had not done.  Your quirks and seeming shortcomings that were really beyond your control, but nonetheless you have always tried to minimize or hide them. The things about you that make you unique and special that you have always downplayed in order to more easily conform to everyone else’s expectation.

I suppose we all have some personal oddities about which we would just as soon not tell. In the same way, we have probably all done something about which would we would just as soon not be asked to explain.  All that not telling and not asking requires a good bit of energy. There is an ever present fear that the world might discover who we really are.  For everyone to really know us would be devastating because then the world would really know who we are and we might get voted off the island.  The worst part is that it keeps us from ever really accepting ourselves with all of our bumps, bruises, and bright spots for the human beings that God created us to be. The joy that God desires for us is lost in all of our effort to not tell and to keep from being asked.

If we are fortunate, over time we come to accept who we are.  We extend the grace that God gives to us to ourselves.  Our shortcomings no longer keep us from experiencing the contentment of being at peace with ourselves, others and God. We realize our notions of worthiness, disjointed and broken as they were by this world’s values, were completely redefined by God in Christ. We are made worthy by God coming into the world to be with us and to die for us.  God comes for each of us and God comes for all of us.

The time and effort that went into not asking and not telling can now be used for living as God has created and redeemed us to live. Now we have energy to love as we have been loved. Now we have time to forgive as we have been forgiven. Today we can accept as we have been accepted.

Another call to Free Haiti from Debt

Here is another call to forgive Haiti’s debt from The New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good.

This call is especially acute in times of crisis. In light of the catastrophic earthquake and the destruction of Haiti’s already fragile infrastructure, we, the undersigned, call upon all nations and institutions that have made loans to the Haitian government to quickly and completely forgive these debts.

We congratulate the government of Haiti for completing the requirements of the Heavily-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative that allowed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to forgive $1.2B of Haiti’s $1.9B debt in June 2009.

We thank the United States for its forgiveness of $12M in loans in September 2009.

We commend the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for granting Haiti $511 million in debt cancellation in 2009.

We call for the (IDB) to forgive its loans to Haiti, which account for the remaining $441M of its multilateral debt.

We call for the debts owed by Haiti to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to be forgiven.

We call for the U.S. State Department to use its influence to encourage other governments to forgive all debts between Haiti and lender nations.

We call for all disaster assistance and reconstruction payments to Haiti to come in the form of aid, not new loans, so the cycle of borrowing and repayment that has so crippled the nation of Haiti since its independence will not begin anew.

We call for the leaders of Haiti to follow Jesus’ example of service, moral behavior and humility, and to work to end corruption. We call the leaders of Haiti to use all forms of foreign assistance to save lives and, in the long term, better the lives of the Haitian people.

Most of all, we pledge our prayers to the people affected so deeply by this recent disaster, we ask our fellow Christians to be in prayer also, and we will seek ways for our churches to aid in the rebuilding of the nation of Haiti.

Signed,
Richard Cizik, President, New Evangelical Partnership
David Gushee, Chair, New Evangelical Partnership
Steven Martin, Executive Director, New Evangelical Partnership

Casting out Demons in Haiti

People are giving in all kinds of ways to relieve the suffering in Haiti.  Many are giving through their cell phones. Some are giving with credit cards through the websites of various relief organizations. Others are putting dollars into the offering plate at their places of worship.

The sad reality is that when all the millions of dollars are given and used to relieve the suffering in Haiti, Haiti will still be under crushing debt.  Centuries of exploitation and oppression have left Haiti an impoverished and indebted country.

Contributions to relief organizations are needed to help Haiti recover from this devastating earthquake.  Debt cancellation is what is needed to set Haiti free from the demons of greed and abuse that have haunted her for centuries. You can add your voice to those seeking justice for the poor and suffering of Haiti by signing this petition urging the cancellation of Haiti’s indebtedness.

You can be a part of casting out the demons that have tormented the least of these in Haiti.

What to do with the January Blues?

The day was typical of winter days in East Tennessee, but not as cold as some we have had this winter.  It was a wet, overcast, and rainy day.  A friend raised the question, “How do you chase away the January blues?”  Her question was certainly a fair one for such a foul day.  Yet, I did not have a ready answer. Certainly I had felt the blueness of the day, but had not yet happened upon a remedy.

What does one do about the blues? If, in fact, the blues are all that we are talking about and not something more serious, then what are our options? Of course, these are not ordinary blues, but January blues. They are made more complicated by cold wet weather that puts some limits on what can be done to chase them away.

A conversation with a friend I have not talked to in a while is a good blues beater.  Recalling and remembering times we have spent together, things we have done together, and challenges we have faced together, has a way of renewing one’s energy and brightening one’s outlook.  Perhaps the way that chatting with an old friend is most helpful in chasing away the blues is that it reminds us that we are not stuck in this cold, overcast and rainy day all by ourselves.

Finding a way to do some vigorous exercise is also a good remedy for the blues.  Granted, it is not one that I choose often enough. I am pretty sure that something happens to the body during exercise that just causes you to feel better. There is something that results from exercise that is more than merely feeling good about having done something good for your body. Strenuous exercise is said to cause the body to release endorphins which produce a feeling of well-being. At any rate, I almost always feel less blue after a good run.

Books are another way that I confront the blues.  Reading a good a story may or may not get rid of the blues, but it will definitely provide an interruption. If it is a good enough interruption, then it just might chase them away. Reading engages the imagination, and the imagination is still the place where we are able to create the most vivid of images. Reading enables us to create images which are perhaps not quite so blue.

A fourth course of action does not involve chasing the blues away so much as it does confronting them or considering them.  The blues have a way of cracking open the doors behind which we keep our hidden failures, mistakes, and shortcomings. They have a way of waking up old hurts and disappointments for which we thought we had finished grieving long ago. Perhaps instead of chasing the blues away we should listen to them, because they could well be speaking to an issue in our lives that needs some attention.  By rushing the blues away we might miss an opportunity to listen to our lives and hear again the good and the bad of our living — the pleasant and the painful. We might fail to notice a loss that still needs grieving, a wound that still needs care, a mistake that still needs forgiving, or an offense that still requires reconciliation.

Chase them away or listen to them; either way, spring is coming.

Birthday Surprise!

A long time ago I celebrated my eighth birthday.  I remember nothing about it.  My only real certainty about whether or not I even had an eighth birthday lies in the simple chronological truth that one cannot arrive at forty-six without having, at one time, been eight.  What happened the day I turned eight?  I have no clue.  Did I get presents?  Most likely I did.  What might they have been?  I have no idea.

What I am fairly certain that did not happen on the occasion of my eighth birthday was that those celebrating with me were asked to bring canned food and non-perishables to help replenish our church’s food pantry.  In fact, I am pretty sure that the church that my family attended during that time did not have a food pantry.

So this week a mother of a boy who just turned eight sticks her head into my study and requests my presence in the fellowship hall.  In the fellowship hall, there is a round table loaded with canned goods and non-perishable food items.  The children who celebrated Breton Stanley’s eighth birthday brought these items to his birthday party in lieu of gifts. As I looked at the food on the table and realized how it came to be collected, I was both impressed and grateful.  I was impressed that Breton’s friends had contributed so much food, and grateful that it would be available to hungry families who come to our church seeking help.  When I heard Breton talk about the food that had been collected, and heard in his young voice a sense of understanding about what the food would mean to those families in need,  I realized that the food collected was more than just an idea that Mom and Dad had suggested.  He understood that thinking of others and acting on their behalf was a way to give expression to what he had learned of Jesus and His teachings.

Breton's birthday gift

In talking to his mother, I learned that Breton was not alone in putting his faith into action. Other children had done likewise at their birthday parties. Hayley Lovingood had collected items for Family Promise, and Leo Jaramillo had collected food for Second Harvest at their parties. Who knows what others have done?  What children!  What parents!

It is of little consequence, all these years later, that I cannot recall a long-ago birthday present. Yet, what might it mean years and years from now that these children have been shown how to give mercy and to show kindness?  What might it mean that they understand that to have regard for the least of these is to have regard for Christ?  What might it mean that they have learned early to put hands and feet to their faith?  How many lives will they touch as they show compassion to those in need and invite others to join them in living for Christ?

This is happening right before our eyes.  The Bible is being taught and learned.  Step by step, and day by day, boys and girls are living lives shaped by the teachings of Jesus.  It is cause for great hope.  It is more than that; it is also a testimony to the reality of God at work in our church.

Every day there are events taking place in our city and in our world that cause us to question, to have doubts, and perhaps even to feel fear.  When we see our children putting their faith into practice in such a meaningful way, it should be a significant reminder that we are not alone.  With their faithful acts of kindness, they are not only reminding us that the light of Christ is still shining, but they are also becoming part of the reason that darkness cannot overcome it.

Pat, don’t blame the Devil.

Often times, when something bad happens, God gets blamed for it. When something really bad happens, the devil gets blamed. The earthquake in Haiti has been attributed to a curse that resulted from a pact that the people of Haiti made with the Devil in their effort to gain their independence from France. While their is no evidence that such a pact was ever made, the history of Haiti is certainly one marked by tragedy and turmoil.  The devil though is undoubtedly given too much credit in the matter.

The devil was not responsible for the nearly complete annihilation of the islands original inhabitants one hundred years or so after Christopher Columbus first landed their in 1492.

The devil did not import and enslave Africans to provide the labor for the islands coffee and sugar plantations

When Haiti won independence from France in 1804, the Devil did not cause the United States to wait until 1862 to recognize Haiti as an independent and sovereign nation. The idea of nation born of a revolution led entirely by African slaves was too much for a still slave-owning America too acknowledge much less figure out how to relate to diplomatically.  President Thomas Jefferson argued that it was best to “confine the plague to the island.”

The devil did not demand that the new nation of Haiti make reparations to the tune of 150 million gold francs (roughly 21.7 billion in today’s dollars) this insuring that Haiti would always be a debtor nation.

The list of events and actions that have impacted Haiti’s history not perpetrated by the devil could go on and on.  Centuries of exploitation and oppression from other nations and from brutal dictators has caused Haiti to appear to be cursed.  The spiritual principle that seems to be tragically at work in the nation of Haiti is that of sowing and reaping.  From the first European to the last dictator, the seeds of justice and mercy have found few places to take root in Haiti. Yet, exploitation, corruption and cruelty have sprouted like so many weeds in a wet, hot summer after wet, hot summer.

Today the people of Haiti need blessing not cursing. They need blessing not just for the enduring and surviving of this latest tragedy, they need blessing for the tragedies of centuries that have left them worn, weary and appearing cursed.  May God’s grace and mercy be may evident to them by both the deeds and the words of those who profess to know God.

Year End Giving, New Life Living

As the year was coming to a close, his church’s income was running behind what the church needed for it to be. In a letter posted on the church’s website, the pastor underscored the urgency of the situation. Their church, like so many around the country, had members who were experiencing the ill effects of a bad economy. Giving to the church had not kept pace with the expense of doing ministry. The letter asked the members of the church to give a gift to help cover the $900,000 shortfall that the church was facing as 2009 ended.

Nine hundred thousand dollars is a large number. I cannot imagine having a deficit that large.  It is almost twice as much as our annual budget.

At their Sunday services on January 3^rd, Pastor Rick Warren announced that members and friends of Saddleback Community Church had given 2.4 million dollars in response to the letter. On any given weekend, over 22,000 people will worship at one of Saddleback’s five locations. Pastor Warren described the response as “radical generosity.”

When I read the story of this amazing gift, I could not help but think of the members and friends of Ball Camp Baptist Church. You may remember that at the end of October, our expenses were running $19,000 ahead of our income. Granted $19,000 is a long way from $900,000; but before you said your final farewell to 2009, you gave with “radical generosity.”  We finished the year $3,000 to the good. On top of that, you gave with that same “radical generosity” to our Christmas Offering for Global Missions, so that we exceeded our offering goal.

The challenges faced by their members and friends are most likely not all that different from the challenges that we as a church family have faced over the last year.  In the midst of difficult situations and hard times, I have been so proud of the way you have been church to each other.  Certainly, not all of your giving has been through the offering plate. Some of your most meaningful gifts have been directly to each other. Neither do I assume that I know about all that you have done for each other and for others outside our church. That is the way it is with “radical generosity.” It does not wait to be told how to act, nor does it look for recognition.

From families and individuals in our church, to hurting people in our community, to those in need in Eastern Kentucky, to those hungry for grace in North Africa, and to the uttermost parts of the world, your “radical generosity” has made a difference for the Kingdom of God and in the lives of people.

A writer for the USA Today newspaper described Pastor Warren’s letter to his church as begging for money.  While I understand how someone who is unacquainted with the gospel and with church life could see his letter in that light, I also think that  those who have experienced the grace of Jesus Christ, and the supportive love of a church family, know that there is a different motivation at work. Giving is an opportunity to minister. Giving is an opportunity to share the love of Christ. Giving allows us to become a part of the lives of those we give to in a redemptive and loving way. We give because we have received a gift — that gift is no less than the Son of God.  We give generously because the one who gives us life and hope has given to us with a generosity that we can never match.

Even still, I am amazed when I take note of the ways that you have given your resources, your energy, and your time in this year just ended. Truly, the impact of your giving was felt around the world. Thank you.

You’ve Got the Time

CAUTION!  There is a spiritual adventure ahead.  Please proceed with care and caution, keeping your tray tables in their locked, upright position.  Stow all carry on items underneath your seat or in the overhead compartment.  Fasten all seatbelts until the captain turns off the “fasten seat belt” sign.

Well, not really.  I mean, we are not really going anywhere.  However, that does not mean that there is no adventure in our future, spiritually speaking, of course.  Think for just a minute about the sounds that you hear each day.  From the alarm clock in the morning, to the gentle hum of the furnace as you go to sleep at night.  There are a multitude of sounds that we hear each day.  Many of those sounds we hear almost without even realizing that we have heard them.  We hear all kinds of things.  Sometimes we hear something or someone because we decided that we wanted to hear it, like a song on the radio or a television show.  At other times, the sounds we hear are random and depend not on our choosing as much as where we are and what we are doing.

Here is the starting point for the spiritual adventure:  What if we decided to take control of what we hear for 28 minutes a day?  What if we choose to listen to something that would draw us deeper into our relationship with God?  What if we choose to intentionally listen for a word from God for 28 minutes a day over the course of 40 days?  What if. . .

I remember once when I was a boy playing at my Aunt Virginia and Uncle Howard’s house. (Parents you may not want your young children to continue reading at this point.) In my cousin’s bedroom in the basement, I found a piece of wire about four or five inches long.  Bending the wire in half so that the two exposed ends were about a half of an inch apart, I wondered what would happen if I stuck those two exposed ends into the electrical outlet, when my cousin entered the room and asked me what I was doing.  I told him, “Nothing.”

He saw the wire and the outlet.  “Were you going to put that in there?”

“No,” I said.

“Yes, you were.  Don’t do that. You could get hurt,” he told me in that way that only older cousins, who are not really that old, can.   So I still do not know what would have happened if I had stuck that piece of wire into that outlet; but I do know that someone has made a bunch of money selling little plastic inserts that are supposed to keep kids like me from sticking stuff in electrical outlets.

What if it were possible for you to plug something into your day that strengthened your connection to God?  There is so much in our lives that keeps us from making a good daily connection with God.  Our schedules and our responsibilities seem to take up most of our time. What would happen if you listened to the New Testament for 28 minutes a day for 40 days?  What would happen to our church if we each made the commitment to listen to the New Testament for 28 minutes a day for 40 days?

I do not know what would happen, but I would love to find out. That is why we are going to give you an audio copy of the New Testament.   January 17, we will give each family an audio copy of the New Testament in MP3 format.  You can then listen to the scriptures in whatever way is most convenient for you.  MP3 discs can be played on computers with a CD/DVD drive, home DVD players, portable MP3 players and MP3 compatible CD players.  If you are not sure what it will take for you to listen to the disc that we will give you, ask anyone 18 or younger and they will be able to explain it much better than I can.  We will also give each family with grade-school children an audio children’s version of the Bible so that our young ones can join us on this spiritual adventure.

The Bible says that “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17) What if we each took 28 minutes a day to listen to God’s word?  I hope you will begin now to get ready to join together with brothers and sisters in Christ at Ball Camp Baptist Church as we take the time to listen with our hearts and our minds to God’s word spoken into our lives.

It is a Wonderful Week

The week between Christmas day and the start of the New Year is a delightful time to collect thoughts, review events and ponder the possibilities of the upcoming year.  It is a time to take a deep breath and enjoy the afterglow of being together with friends and family.  Taking account of the people, places, and happenings that have enriched our lives provides fuel for our ongoing engagement in this business of being alive.   Recalling the mistakes and wrong decisions we have made can help us to use our energy for living in a more fruitful and meaningful way.

That brings me to the question of whether or not we can change.  Can we be different than what we have been?   Sure, we can, but in most situations that requires effort and determination.  We need a strong will, a good plan, an abundance of motivation, and continuous encouragement to make significant lasting changes in our lives.  Sure, we can change, but sometimes we do not.  Sometimes we find it easier to stay the way we are and to continue doing the things we do, and not doing the things we don’t do, even when we wish it was otherwise.

I have a friend who recently reached a lifetime goal after years of working toward it in an on-again off-again sort of way.  Having not heard from him in some time, I was not sure what was happening in his life.  The challenges and setbacks that he has faced on his journey would have been enough to sink most of us.  Yet, somehow he kept coming back for more; he kept on trying.  His success, after all these years, is a testimony to the fact that we can change, we can be different.  Human beings are indeed resilient creatures.

No doubt there is a spiritual dimension to our efforts to improve the way we live our lives.  Those who walk by faith and seek to live in a way that reflects the reality of Jesus Christ, find themselves in continual dialogue with the teachings of Jesus.  What would Jesus do?   As we listen to scripture and to the way the church has heard God speaking through the centuries, we get a sense of what God might be saying to us.  As we ask questions about the ways God has been at work in the world through the lives of people, we get some idea about how God might desire to work through our own lives.

While we are full participants in setting the course for the living of our lives, the most significant change comes to us, not as a result of our resolve, determination, or plan.  No, it comes to us as a gift.  It is that gift that changes us in the most profound ways.  It changes us in ways that we are altogether incapable of changing ourselves.  It is the gift that God gives to us when God looks at us and says, “I love you.”   It is the gift that God gives to us by taking on flesh and living among us.  It is the gift that God, after looking at all our broken pieces, awkward moments, and utter failures, gives to us by calling us children of God, God’s own sons and daughters.  Being loved with that kind of love is the most transforming event that can ever occur in any human being’s life.  We cannot help but be changed by it.

Most of the changes we seek to make in our lives are based on someone else’s idea of what we ought to be.  Whether we are talking about our health, our appearance, our work habits, or how we spend our free time, the changes we seek to make are changes that we think are important because someone told us it would be good for us and make us better.  Whether it was a doctor, a counselor, or talk show host that gave us the idea about what we needed to change, the idea was probably a good one.   We would all benefit from healthier hearts, clearer communication, and more organized lives.

I am pretty sure that God does not mind us taking steps to improve the quality of our lives so long as we realize that it is not what we do that causes God to love us.   Our efforts to be better people, more efficient, healthier, wealthier, and smarter are not what God desires most.  What God desires most is for us to know that we are loved right now, today, in this moment.  Change or no change, we are loved.  Not our effort, but God’s gift is what brings to us the most radical change our lives can ever experience.  Yes, we can change, but more importantly we can be changed by the unconditional love of the One who always welcomes us and never leaves us.

Merry Incarnation!

The whole idea that God took on flesh, came to us and lived among us, has challenged the human ability to understand and comprehend since that first Christmas.  There are all kinds of questions and few, if any, answers.  Answers that give us a thorough explanation of the details of how the creator of human beings becomes a human are not forthcoming. Mystery is the word that the church has often used through the centuries to explain that which is beyond explanation.  That is what we say when we don’t know anything else to say.  Granted, it is no small thing to be able to look into the pages of scripture, the annals of history, or the faces of the living, and utter a single word in response to the unbelievable, the incredible or even, the unthinkable.

Faith is the gift that enables us to believe what we would not otherwise believe or consider.  It gently nudges us beyond the questions of how to look at why God did what God did.  John’s gospel tells us that it is love that moved God to come into our world with flesh and bone.  God loves us enough to come to where we live and experience life as we experience it.  Faith gives us the ability to know that we are loved and accepted by God.

What we should not allow faith to do is to distort the reality in which we still live.  God takes on flesh and comes to us at Christmas time.  God does not come and get us to remove us from where we are now — not yet anyway.   Faith is not an escape hatch from the world in which we live.  It is, however, refusing to believe that the world in which we live is the sum of our living.

Because Christ has been born, when we hear of a tragic death of a neighbor, we can say even still, Christ is coming.  Because Bethlehem has happened, when we see that someone has had to spend the night in a car in our parking lot we can say even still, Christ is coming.  Because the one who would be our Savior was wrapped in swaddling clothes when we continue to see the poor and needy at our door, we can say even still, Christ is coming.  Because the Prince of Peace slept in a manger when distant wars are brought near by the deployment of a friend or family member, we can say even still, Christ is coming.  Because Mary and Joseph did not turn away from God’s call, when we experience the stress, the strain and sometimes the brokenness of human relationships, we can say even still, Christ is coming.

We can and do say it, not as sugar coating or denial, but as a truth born from the gift of faith. Christ comes to the place of pain and suffering, misery and malaise, and of betrayal and disappointment.  He comes to us.  In coming, he calls us to himself.   The call is such that somehow we become a part of the mystery of his incarnation.  We become his hands, his feet, his body.  Led by his Spirit, we find our greatest joy in following his path to the places where there is hurting and want, injustice and wrong.  Far from taking us away from the trial of earth-bound living, his coming to us points our lives in the direction of those who are broken by sin and sinned against, those who are left out, and left alone.

Christ is coming!