R3 has moved

Doesn’t it seem like internet pages are always announcing they are moving?  Well I decided a while back to join the club.  I wanted a little more control over what I could, and could not do with R3. 

Erwin McManus talks about “seizing your divine moments.”  This is something I’ve really tried to act on.  And because of that I want to give everything I have to R3.  And for right now that means creating a unique website that has some flexibility to grow and change as God prompts me. 

Thus R3blog.net was born. 

So update your bookmarks, or if you’re lazy like me, just follow this url: www.r3blog.net

training for God

There’s a line in 1 Timothy that really caught my attention: “Train yourself to be godly” (1 Timothy 4:7).  Why is this so great?  Because of the word “train”.  Paul doesn’t say, “suddenly know”, or “don’t work too hard at it”, or “it will come naturally”.  No!  He says “Train yourself”.

If you’ve ever trained in anything you know it’s hard work.  It takes time, dedication, commitment, and a plan.
You have to do it even when you don’t want to.  It’s not always a picnic, but if you stick with it, it always pays off.

So how are you training?

when we screw up

I had lunch with a friend the other day, and as we often do our conversation shifted towards God.  As we talked, I began to describe some of the things happening with R3 and what personal challenges I needed to be working on next.  That’s when she said something to me that didn’t fully register until a few days later.  (Hey, no one ever said I was quick!)  She told me I was “patient.”  Now let me put this in perspective; patience is not a trait I view myself as having.  Put me behind a slow moving car, shopping cart, pedestrian and I start to twitch with irritation.  But more than that, I’ve always viewed patience as a weak area, because I can see all the times I’ve failed.

However her comment got me thinking.  Over the next few days I began to ask myself, what if I am more patient than I think?  What if an area I think I struggle in, is an area she views as my strength?  What if she wished she had my level of “weakness”?

It’s surprisingly easy to assume someone else has it all together, while we are complete failures.

I suspect we all have the tendency to look around and say, “if only I could be more like them, then I’d be set.”  But in reality “they” struggle just as much as we do – just with different things. The truth is we all have areas of weakness.  And if you’re like me, sometimes it feels like you collect them!

So what do we do then?  One option is to say we’re so messed up that we’ll never be able to fix our lives.  But that doesn’t seem like a very Biblical approach to me.  I think a better solution is this: we keep working at it.  In fact, a “righteous man falls seven times, and rises again.”  (Proverbs 24:16). 

Part of being “righteous” is simply the act of getting up again.   And again.  And again.

If we look at people who have done amazing things for God, they aren’t characterized by perfection, but by the fact that they keep getting up.  David committed adultery.  Moses killed someone.  Jeremiah questioned whether God had the right person.  But they all did amazing things simply because they got back up when they fell down.

And so can you.

working at faith

I am beginning to realize that faith involves a lot of work.  I used to think that becoming a Christian was the hard part, that once I worked through my doubts it would be smooth sailing.  But it’s not.  And in some ways it’s harder.

When I first became a Christian there was the excitement of understanding.  The excitement of it all being new.  Every day brought some astonishing realization.  But eventually the newness wears off.

This, I think, is a dangerous time for Christians.  We can so easily lapse into bad habits.  Excitement can be replaced by staleness.  Joy replaced by repetition and habits.  We can fall away from God, just because it’s easier than staying close.

Maintaining your faith takes a lot of work, and unfortunately a fair amount of the D-word, “discipline.”  We need to craft new habits of reading our Bibles, praying, going to church, and whatever else you may need to stay focused on God.

It’s hard to do this on days we’re busy or tired.  Trust me, I know.  There are many days (like today) I don’t feel like studying or praying.  Sometimes I even want God to leave me alone.  But I fight against those urges.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the last few years it is this: God is the only place we can really find meaning and worth.  

Maintaining any relationship, even one with God, is hard work. But it is always worth it.

the dangers of following God

I often wonder if I would be willing to drop everything and follow God.  As I sit in the comfort of my home, surrounded by my things, I think, “of course I would!”  But would I?  Would I have the guts to follow God?

To be honest I’m afraid of what true surrender looks like.  I enjoy my stuff, and there are certainly days I can’t imagine giving them up.  It’s one thing to be a leader like Moses.  Someone who, in a sense, got fame and glory.  He was The Man.  But what if that wasn’t the mission God wanted to give you?  What would you do then?  Would you volunteer?

Because that’s what Isaiah did.

Isaiah was eager to obey God.  He didn’t even stop to ask who, what, when, where, or why.  He just said, “send me.”  It makes me wonder if Isaiah knew what he was getting in to.  Did he even care?

In some ways Isaiah ended up with the short end of the mission stick.  His job was to tell Israel they were going to be judged and punished.  Talk about a job description!  In fact, in my NIV Bible there are dozens of pages devoted Isaiah’s speeches dealing with Israel’s punishment. 

That’s my dilemma though.  I want to be obedient, but I also want an easy assignment.  I think that’s something most of us share in common.  We all want to do something noble and exciting with our lives.  We just don’t want it to cost too much.  We all want to be the leader, and none of us want to give up our lives to do the grunt work. 

No matter who we are, or what we believe, God will eventually ask us to do something radical and crazy.  He will ask us to be different, to stand out, to make a choice.  When God says, “whom shall I send?” I want to be like Isaiah and shout, “send me!” 

is excellence bad?

Sometimes it seems that we Christians are afraid of embracing excellence.  As if somehow doing amazing things, and doing them well, was something God wanted us to avoid.  Now it’s possible striving for excellece can get you in trouble.  For instance, a pursuit of excellence, for the sake of excellence, is a bad idea.  It can lead to pride, dishonesty, and being a jerk.

But does that mean excellence itself is bad?

It seems to me the issue isn’t with excellence verses mediocrity, but instead it’s about what role each person (and church) should play. I can’t think of a place in the Bible where God said to someone, “that’s okay, just be average.  Or, you’re too busy; just mail it in this week.”

We are all flawed, and can’t be brilliant at everything.  But God still calls us to be extraordinary and to be different, and he calls us to be excellent in what we do.  Of course we (obviously) don’t all have the same calling. God may not want every church to have brilliant theological messages.  Maybe he just wants them to care for the neighborhood, or to help the sick and dying.  After all, excellence is defined as more than giving a good speech.  Similarly God doesn’t necessarily want everyone to spend all of our time in nursing homes and hospitals.  Sometimes he just wants us to live out lives of grace and love at our jobs. 

God understands you aren’t perfect, and he’s not waiting until you become perfect before he will use you.  God meets us where we are, not where we ultimately will be.  So if you feel God asking you to do something, go for it!  But don’t do it half heartedly.

being jealous

As we get ready to move into 2008, something occurs to me – we need to jealously protect our relationship with God.  The Bible often talks about how God is a “jealous” God.  That’s not because he’s insecure or needy.  But because God knows what’s best for us.  After all, he’s the one who designed us!

God knows that when we worship other things, other idols, we are moving in the wrong direction.  We’re moving towards a place that God never intended us to go.  That’s why he’s jealous – because he wants to keep us to live our lives to their fullest potential.

I think the same applies to us: we need to be jealous of our relationship with him.  Not because we are insecure (although we are) or needy (although we are that too), but because our bond with God can be so easily severed by sin.

That’s not to suggest God moves away from us, because he doesn’t.  In fact the opposite is true.  Sin moves us away from him.  And the further away we move the harder, and more painful, it can be to find our way back.  That’s the true nature of sin – it literally separates us from God.

So as you enter 2008 consider this: keep God close to your heart and don’t let anything separate you.

the meaning of Christmas

I find Christmas to be a fascinating holiday.  Not because I like to get a lot of presents.  Although I do!  Instead, I think it’s interesting watching how people get so caught up in all the things that there are to do before Christmas Day.  I’m sure we can all think of examples of that business.  All we have to do is go to any busy intersection and count how many people look angry in their cars.  Or go to a store and watch people shoulder their ways toward the nearest deals.

Why is that?  What is it about this time of year that we get so self absorbed?  We get crazy and worked up as we pursue gifts for other people.  And it seems that no matter who you are, we are all affected like this.  Of course no one wants to be stuck in traffic or lines or anything else.

Somewhere along the way we’ve come to believe we deserve better.  That we deserve that spot at the stop light.  That we deserve the last gift on the shelf.  But do we really?  Do we somehow deserve these things?  I’m afraid we don’t.  We’re all tainted by sin, and therefore we all are unworthy. Or in other words, we don’t actually deserve any of those things.

That’s why God is so shocking.  If there was ever anyone who didn’t deserve to have to go through of this grief it would be him.  Instead, he chose to suffer, simply to show us how much he loves us.

The one thing that separates Christianity from all other religions is that we don’t have to do anything to earn this love.  God came to this planet not because we earned it, or deserved it, but because he loved us. He sacrificed himself so that we would be able to know who he really was.

That’s the greatest gift any of us could receive. And at the risk of sounding cheesy – that’s what Christmas is really about.

This isn’t to say you should feel guilty for getting Christmas presents, or celebrating on Christmas day.  In fact, God wants you to have nice things, and he wants you to receive gifts.  God is a radically generous God.  So when you wake up on Christmas morning and you are surrounded by all your new things, don’t feel guilty, just remember the sacrifice God made for us.  Just remember that no matter how nice the gifts you receive (or give) they are nothing compared to what God offers to us.  And maybe with that in mind, we won’t mind it when we’re cut off in traffic, or don’t get the exact item we wanted at the store.

announcement! the new R3

After some deliberation and prayer, and more than a little feet dragging, I have decided to open new blog.

Well, not exactly new. 

I’m really moving R3 from this free wordpress blog to my own domain.  One that I have cleverly named R3blog.net.  Feel the creative juices at work! 

There are two reasons for this move.  The first is after reading Chasing Daylight I decided that I needed to fully commit myself to wherever God might be leading me.  If God has a plan for R3, I want to do everything I can to help.  And that means taking a chance that this whole move will be a disaster!   But sometimes following God means stepping out into the unknown.  God is, after all, radical.

Secondly the new digs, at R3blog.net allow me greater freedom in designing experiences for you.  I wanted to give R3 a unique feel, and I simply couldn’t do that with the current wordpress setup.   So look forward to some new ways to interact with the blog, some new bells and whistles, and most importantly, new content!

For the near future I will be updating both sites.  I want people who are used to coming here to have the opportunity to migrate to the new site if they are interested.

So go check out the new digs and let me know what you think!

driving to distraction

I am convinced that bad drivers are stalking me.  No matter where I am, somehow, I end up surrounded by people who shouldn’t be allowed to operate model cars, let alone motorized vehicles.  It makes me wonder what the DMV is up to!

Take today for instance.  On my way home I ended up behind a taxi (you know this isn’t going to end well!).  At the first light the taxi stopped 2 car lengths before the light.  At the next light, he decided to change tactics and stop one car length into the intersection!  Between the lights he slowed down to a leisurely 25 mph in a 35 mph zone.  Apparently he was sight seeing…

The final straw was the fact his meandering ways made me sit at 3 extra lights.  If I had sped around him I would have made those lights.  But I knew that was reckless, so I just let my anger bubble while I sat behind the guy trying to will him to drive the speed limit. 

Let me tell you, no matter how much I used my “mental powers” to make him move faster, it didn’t work.  Fortunately I had a left turn to make, which would allow me to escape the cab’s obviously evil clutches.  Escape I did.  Unfortunately another yahoo on up the road had conveniently pulled 1/3 of the way into my lane while trying to make a turn.

I was so ticked off that I swerved around him.  Looking in my rear view mirror I made my “where did you learn to drive, ya idiot!” expression.  The whole time thinking, “who pulls into oncoming traffic like that?!  What is wrong with people?!”

I returned my attention to the road with just enough time to avoid rear ending the guy in front of me, who had stopped at the next light.

…   …

Somewhere along the way I had become that lunatic.  I had become the guy who had no business driving.  Jesus said, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” Sometimes we get so wrapped up in what other people are doing or saying that we not only ignore our own behavior, but it can actually make us do the wrong thing.  If I had been focusing on the road, and not worrying about other people’s driving habits, I never would have been in that situation.

God talks a lot about how we should treat other people.  And we often think it’s only for their benefit.  But that’s not true at all. Sometimes the reason we extend grace and love to other people, is so we stay focused on the road and avoid our own accidents.