What is your hope and joy in today? What is my hope and joy in today? It is futile to put our hope and joy in balloons. So let's stop doing that. Instead let's fix our hope and joy on Jesus Christ alone. Our only Hope. Our Only Joy. Our Only Guaranteed to never die HOPE and JOY that we have is in Jesus Christ. Praying the prayer that Paul prayed for the believers in Ephesus for you and me.... Ephesians 1:18, "Having your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the HOPE to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great." Balloons pop- Let's stop putting our hope and joy in them.
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Ballons Pop
Balloons! The joy and laughter that can fill a child at the sight of balloons is remarkable! Big ones, small one's, ones shaped like hats, hearts, ninja turtles, swords, water filled balloons, or the simple round balloon! A couple weeks ago had the opportunity to go with my kids to see "Mr. Twister: The Balloon Guy!" Leaving the show with a balloon hat brought joy and excitement to all five of my kids that within 60 seconds came crumbling down for one of them. As Ty, my three year old, was walking back to the van filled with joy and excitement playing with his balloon hat he accidentally rubbed it agains the brick exterior of the building and POP! Every parent knows what is coming next... Yep, the tears! The passionate tears of sadness and disappointment combined with a three year old who was quickly approaching his nap time resulted in a couple minutes of an inconsolable little boy whose balloon popped. While life eventually moved on and his balloon was eventually forgotten about and the rest of the balloons popped, deflated, or were simply forgotten about as they moved onto the next big thing I was struck with the thought of how foolish it is to put one's hope and joy in a balloon. They are fickle, they are temporary, they face numerous dangers, and they are guaranteed to not last forever. They pop, they deflate, they can float off into the sky when the string slips through a child's hand, they are popped or destroyed by others. It is foolish to put our hope and joy in balloons but I wonder how many balloons you and I put our hope and joy in. Not literal balloons, but none the less things that like balloons prove to be temporary, fickle, guaranteed not to last, are surrounded by numerous dangers, any one of which could make them go "POP" and so goes our hope and joy.
Thursday, June 4, 2015
Stop trying to change the world!
Change the world.
Leave a mark.
Leave a legacy.
Make A difference.
Be a World Changer.
Be a history maker.
Make your life count.
Make a lasting impression
Be the generation that changes things.
Change a life
Rescue a life
End poverty
End sex trafficking
End domestic abuse
End _______________
It all sounds good doesn't it. It all sounds really, really, good, and it speaks to us at a deep level. We want to change the world, we want to leave a mark, we want to be a history maker, we want to be a part of ending slavery, poverty, sex trafficking, domestic abuse. Who wouldn't want to be apart of providing homes for orphaned kids all across the globe. All of the rhetoric above seems to be common place within western evangelical Christianity and especially in ministry towards youth and young adults. I have used the above phrases numerous times with various groups of people. I have taken students on multiple short term mission trips with a great organization called, "World Changers" where the first day of the trip we learn the theme song...
"You can be a world changer.
Shinning your light for those in danger.
Sharing the love of our Lord and Savior.
You can change the world.
Go out and change the world."
However, the more I think about this common rhetoric the more I see several dangers.
First, it is easy to picture ourselves as the hero, the godsend, the rescuer, the one who is going to sweep in and save the day. As that thinking seeps into our minds we lose sight of the Gospel, we lose sight of Jesus, we lose sight of the Biblical truth that we are not the hero's, the godsends, the rescuers. Instead we are the ones who need a hero, who need a godsend, who need to be rescued and Jesus alone is the God-send, the hero, the rescuer who swept in and saved the day. As we forget who the only hero is we tend to over-emphasize our ability to make a change and under emphasize our desperate need upon God to change people's lives.
Secondly, the above language has the ability to downplay the importance of everyday faithfulness to God in the mundane, routine, ordinary tasks of life. The vast majority of our lives our not lived in the "world changing, history making, ending sex trafficking realm." The vast majority of our lives are spent in the ordinary tasks of life. You will spend countless hours at work during your life and most people cannot easily connect how their day to day work is "world changing" in our common understanding of the phrase. However, if we understand that we have not been called to be world changers but instead we have been called to be faithful it changes how we go about work. Faithfulness to God in work comes through doing our work in order to serve and bring glory to God, and doing our work to serve our neighbors. This shift from "world changer" to faithfully following Christ not only applies to work but to every area of life. It applies to marriage, parenting, being a neighbor, and being apart of the local body of believers. It applies to mowing, doing laundry, making dinner, changing diapers, and washing dishes. We must be careful to not speak in such a way that the vast majority of our life is seen as unimportant, because in every area of our life God desires us to be faithful to Him, to serve Him, and to bring glory to Him. It is also in the mundane areas of life that God desires to use to make us more and more into the image of His Son Jesus Christ. If we don't emphasize faithfulness to God in all of life we will send countless people running from "high to high" of Christian world changing activities and all the while missing out on the countless daily opportunities to bring glory to God when we are faithful in the small, ordinary, mundane things in life.
Lastly, the above language undermines what we have been most called to.... and that is to know Jesus Christ. We have been called to a relationship with Jesus Christ. We have been called to know Him, Love Him, to be like Him. Our calling first and foremost is to a person, it is to a relationship, it is to our savior Jesus Christ. That is our calling first and foremost to Jesus and everything we are called to be and do is the result of that relationship. We are called to be salt and light but our salt and light is a result of us being in a relationship with Jesus.
We are not called to change the world.... we are called to a relationship with Jesus Christ. To love Him, to serve Him, to bring glory to Him. We are called to be faithful. We are called to love our neighbor. As you pursue Christ, as you bring glory to Him, as you serve Him, as you strive for faithfulness in the big and the small, and as you love your neighbor you just might find the world around you changing because you are in a relationship with the one who changes people's world.
Leave a mark.
Leave a legacy.
Make A difference.
Be a World Changer.
Be a history maker.
Make your life count.
Make a lasting impression
Be the generation that changes things.
Change a life
Rescue a life
End poverty
End sex trafficking
End domestic abuse
End _______________
It all sounds good doesn't it. It all sounds really, really, good, and it speaks to us at a deep level. We want to change the world, we want to leave a mark, we want to be a history maker, we want to be a part of ending slavery, poverty, sex trafficking, domestic abuse. Who wouldn't want to be apart of providing homes for orphaned kids all across the globe. All of the rhetoric above seems to be common place within western evangelical Christianity and especially in ministry towards youth and young adults. I have used the above phrases numerous times with various groups of people. I have taken students on multiple short term mission trips with a great organization called, "World Changers" where the first day of the trip we learn the theme song...
"You can be a world changer.
Shinning your light for those in danger.
Sharing the love of our Lord and Savior.
You can change the world.
Go out and change the world."
However, the more I think about this common rhetoric the more I see several dangers.
First, it is easy to picture ourselves as the hero, the godsend, the rescuer, the one who is going to sweep in and save the day. As that thinking seeps into our minds we lose sight of the Gospel, we lose sight of Jesus, we lose sight of the Biblical truth that we are not the hero's, the godsends, the rescuers. Instead we are the ones who need a hero, who need a godsend, who need to be rescued and Jesus alone is the God-send, the hero, the rescuer who swept in and saved the day. As we forget who the only hero is we tend to over-emphasize our ability to make a change and under emphasize our desperate need upon God to change people's lives.
Secondly, the above language has the ability to downplay the importance of everyday faithfulness to God in the mundane, routine, ordinary tasks of life. The vast majority of our lives our not lived in the "world changing, history making, ending sex trafficking realm." The vast majority of our lives are spent in the ordinary tasks of life. You will spend countless hours at work during your life and most people cannot easily connect how their day to day work is "world changing" in our common understanding of the phrase. However, if we understand that we have not been called to be world changers but instead we have been called to be faithful it changes how we go about work. Faithfulness to God in work comes through doing our work in order to serve and bring glory to God, and doing our work to serve our neighbors. This shift from "world changer" to faithfully following Christ not only applies to work but to every area of life. It applies to marriage, parenting, being a neighbor, and being apart of the local body of believers. It applies to mowing, doing laundry, making dinner, changing diapers, and washing dishes. We must be careful to not speak in such a way that the vast majority of our life is seen as unimportant, because in every area of our life God desires us to be faithful to Him, to serve Him, and to bring glory to Him. It is also in the mundane areas of life that God desires to use to make us more and more into the image of His Son Jesus Christ. If we don't emphasize faithfulness to God in all of life we will send countless people running from "high to high" of Christian world changing activities and all the while missing out on the countless daily opportunities to bring glory to God when we are faithful in the small, ordinary, mundane things in life.
Lastly, the above language undermines what we have been most called to.... and that is to know Jesus Christ. We have been called to a relationship with Jesus Christ. We have been called to know Him, Love Him, to be like Him. Our calling first and foremost is to a person, it is to a relationship, it is to our savior Jesus Christ. That is our calling first and foremost to Jesus and everything we are called to be and do is the result of that relationship. We are called to be salt and light but our salt and light is a result of us being in a relationship with Jesus.
We are not called to change the world.... we are called to a relationship with Jesus Christ. To love Him, to serve Him, to bring glory to Him. We are called to be faithful. We are called to love our neighbor. As you pursue Christ, as you bring glory to Him, as you serve Him, as you strive for faithfulness in the big and the small, and as you love your neighbor you just might find the world around you changing because you are in a relationship with the one who changes people's world.
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