A couple conversations of late have reminded me of a book I read a while back (at the recommendation of a friend who had really loved it) regarding the management of money.
It was (and is) particularly relevant as we are facing mountainous debt (accumulated over many years, and some the result of “questionable” business practice by others…) and God convinced us that trusting him even more—by only spending money when we actually have it—that life would go even better for us. Or perhaps better stated, that life would continue to get harder if we didn’t do that.
(If you like reading, see this post, and this one, too. Good historical accounts of God’s direction for us.)
So in recent conversations, I’ve been very encouraged that people are getting smarter about money. Maybe not everyone. And maybe the people I’ve been talking with recently have always been smart. But either way, it’s so nice to see the results of diligence and wisdom in money management.
A friend of mine told me today that their house would be completely paid off this year, and both of their cars by next year. Debt free. All by the age of 35. That’s awesome. Other friends tell similar stories, and almost always it is a result of being smart with the money you have.
Our culture has for too long thought that you could spend money you’d make later. (Just look at how our government, from federal down to local, handles money and budgets!) That just doesn’t really work. In a way, it seems there’s no other way to purchase something as large as a house, but we’ve heard stories of young adults who have saved up to purchase their first home with cash (and did!) so we’re already starting Ian (our oldest) on such a savings path. Rather than instant gratification—enjoy now, pay later—Ian is learning the value of saving, which in the end means you keep much more of your money, and usually get to enjoy the things you wanted to anyway. And more!
We are coming up on three years of not adding any debt to our existing debt. That means that the overall amount is coming down. That’s fantastic. And it’s fun to hear real-life examples along the way.
Do you have one? Feel free to share it here. Hope you, too, are your money’s master, rather than the reverse.
Sometimes in life we go along thinking that we really know what’s going to happen. We know how the day is going to go, how the week is going to go. We have it mapped out, and it works quite nicely, thank you very much.
At times, life plays along, and for the most part, our plans are accomplished.
Most of the time, it doesn’t seem to work out that way for me.
It’s usually nothing catastrophic, or life-changing, though sometimes it can be. More often it’s something unexpectedly breaking, or even just a series of “reschedulings” and cancellations by others around you (or even by you) that throws your whole plan out of whack. Doesn’t everyone have a copy of the script?!?
Today I’ve been fixing stuff again. Stuff that’s supposed to “just work” on its own, but sadly, picked today to stop playing along. It’s costing time, money, and plenty more time.
On the other hand…
I woke up today, and so did all of my family. My house is still here (and at least “sort of” in my name). My in-laws are visiting, which the kids love, and is allowing both Jen & I to get some more work done. God continues to provide money for us to buy what we need.
AND, my air conditioner works. (That’s actually no small thing for my third-story office on an 80-degree day!)
All in all, life is grand, even when it doesn’t follow the plan. (Hmm, if that were a bit more succinct, it could be on a t-shirt or something…)
Here’s hoping today that you remember the “unexpected” will almost certainly happen to you. If not today, then this week. If not this week, well… then you’ve probably already learned to expect the unexpected.
I am saddened and frustrated today. Not necessarily by what you might think.
We just sent in our census form today, which had me thinking about the role we have given our government (or perhaps, that it has taken) in our lives. Coupled with the passing of the big government health care legislation on Sunday which has caused even “regular folks” to be vocally expressing their opinions … I’m just feeling saddened at the current state of our country.
The title of this post comes from words spoken by Barack Obama just a few days before he was elected president of our country. Listen to the short clip below.
These days the words are being used to suggest that government-run healthcare is the first step toward that transformation. That we are a nation on the fast track to a tyrannical dictatorship. The people (and the states) are ceding more and more control to the growing-bigger-and-bigger federal government.
And there is some merit to that line of thinking. We are the “land of the free” as our national anthem reminds us, and the government established by our constitution is meant to be very limited (especially the federal government) and managed by many checks and balances. So the more power we grant the federal government over our lives, the more we potentially move toward a system that would allow for a dictator. (A centralized ruler (or rulers) over the people, rather than representing the people.)
However, that is not what my title refers to.
The more I think about the various arguments being passionately conveyed by both “sides” of the role of government issue—and, sadly, we’re still not hearing each other—the more I realize that we are in desperate need of a fundamental transformation.
I’m not sure what now-President Obama meant when he said those words. Some say he meant—means—to transform America into a socialist/marxist state that would seek “social justice” by the forced redistribution of wealth, using the tax system to accomplish such a goal. The “power to the people” mentality, which I think is rather oddly named in that the “power” comes as “handouts” distributed by the actual “power”—the federal government.
Perhaps he meant that he truly wants to see those who have been in poverty and in want for so long, even generations, to finally taste the “success” that many of their fellow countrymen have tasted. To have the resources at their disposal that their neighbors have. Perhaps—and I have no reason to believe otherwise—it is truly motivated by a genuine desire to see everyone have the material comforts of life that it seems we could all have in this bountiful, prosperous nation.
However, if that’s true, making that happen via a large, centralized government just isn’t the way to do it. Not at all. An institution is not capable of truly providing those things, nor should it be. Neither is it a good idea to just “distribute the wealth” to people who have done nothing to “earn” the “fruits of their labor.” See… there is value in work. Yes, some people get lucky and get a ridiculous amount of the material resources and wealth. There is certainly an element of luck involved… but it is (almost) never without hard work to get into position to be the recipient of that “luck”.
Free handouts do not help anyone. At least, not really. Temporarily perhaps, but not really. In fact, I’d argue they almost do the opposite.
We can—and it seems we are going to try to—solve our nations economic and social issues through a powerful federal government, enacting all sorts of legislations and programs—and taxes—to accomplish those ends… but in the end, we’ll still be in need of transformation.
The real transformation that America needs—the true “fundamental transformation”—needs to happen in the hearts and minds of individuals, and families, and neighborhoods, and communities. It starts with you.
We are a selfish, lazy, greedy people. We are materialistic and discontent. We lack any understanding of God and his transforming love, and it shows. Divorce, litigation, crime, greed, lust, and so many ways that we attempt to take advantage of each other that I can’t even list them here. Not to mention the dissolution of families: mom, dad, and kids as one loving unit.
We are a broken people.
And human nature requires that we look out for ourselves first. That creates and furthers all of this brokenness. And it can only be fixed—healed, restored—by the Healer. Jesus is truly the answer. He spent his days in his physical body on this planet healing all sorts of hurts. And I believe he continues to do so today.
And I believe he is the only source of fundamental transformation that will have any affect at all on our nation.
Until we allow God back into real life, back into our real lives, we can argue all we want over who is going to provide for whom. But it’s not going to matter. There will always be rich, and there will always be poor. There will always be the powerful, and the powerless.
The founders of this country knew the truth that God created each of us to be free (even though that was not the culture they lived in at the time) and they laid their lives and their fortunes on the line to prove it. They succeeded, and their freedom produced the most prosperous nation the world has ever known.
But today, Barack Obama is right. The United States of America is desperately in need of a “fundamental transformation.” But that is not going to happen on a State or Federal level … at least, not until it happens in our hearts.
Then we will see a true, fundamental transformation of America.
I got to spend the evening with our oldest son, Ian. We try hard to get each of our kids one night with Dad and nobody else. They’re called “OK Nights” (for “One Kid” Nights) and they usually happen once a week, if we’re on a good pace. So, doing the math, each kid gets their OK Night about once every 5 or 6 weeks.
Tonight was Ian’s turn.
What was fun and different about tonight is that Ian is getting older. He really is. He’s more of a person, which… feels weird to say. Of course he’s always been a person, and actually, it’s really cool to see the “person” that our one year old daughter is, too. But it’s just a little different with Ian. I think maybe it’s the struggles. They’re just different. He’s learning who he is, too. And he’s tender-hearted, compassionate, and sensitive to begin with, so when he gets swept away in the deluge of needy tiny people each day… well it’s just harder to actually get to learn who you are!
So after a great night of just being together, with no schedule, no demands, and no distractions from my attention, I asked him this:
“Ian, I know you’ve heard me say that I think God is teaching me that the greatest thing we can know is that we are loved, and especially that we are lovable. And since you know that… I just wondered, how can I help you feel that? How can I help you feel loved, and especially lovable?”
What I love is that there was only a slight hesitation and then he very openly told me. That was fantastic. I love the openness that we have engendered in our family!
We talked about what it means to know you are loved, to feel loved, and to feel lovable. They are similar, but different. He had some pretty cool answers, too. First was of course, any time we can do an OK Night he feels loved and lovable! 🙂 But there was more, and since it was an open and personal conversation … the details will not be shared here. 🙂
I will say this: I hope you feel lovable. I’m really not sure how you get there. I can quote some scriptures… “We love because he first loved us,” and, “[adopting us as his children] gave [God] great pleasure,” and, “[God] will rejoice over you with singing,” and plenty more. We know it, but… it doesn’t matter until we know it.
So do you? If not, what is it about you that you don’t think is lovable? What part of you is beyond anyone’s love? We’re all pretty good at being selfish. Some of us are good at loving, really loving, but mostly we’re better at protecting ourselves from real or perceived hurt. And we don’t really live because of that.
“[Jesus] came to give you life, and life to the full.”
“God is love.”
“… and the greatest of [faith, hope and love] is love.”
Love completely transforms us, and even the world we know around us. To be loved. To love. To know we are lovable.
May you know that right now today, and every tomorrow.
God blesses those people
who want everyone to be treated right more than to eat or drink.
They will be given what they want!
Our family is reading through the book of Matthew together currently, and we came to chapter five today. Many may know that chapter five is where you find the words Jesus spoke which we commonly call “The Beatitudes.” (The fact that I did not know how to spell the word without the help of the spell checker should be a good clue that I do not refer to those words by that somewhat religious title.)
Many of us have read them a thousand times. “Blessed are the…” for “they will be…” They are upside-down, topsy-turvy, kingdom of God truth. They kind of make sense, and kind of don’t. Those who mourn are “blessed?” Those who are persecuted are blessed? God frequently reveals that truth (and reality) are not what we (in our wisdom) think they are.
But what caught my eye this time was what I quoted above.
First of all, we’re reading from a Bible that is called “The Promise.” It’s the Contemporary English Version, which has been nice in that the wording is closer to the way we would speak than some translations, however, we’ve noticed in the first five chapters that there is a bit of a religion “lean” to some of the words they chose to use. There are frequent “notes” that refer to alternate translation options for a word or a phrase, and often the “alternate” is either more the way we have heard it before, or seems to fit more with the context of the book and of the whole message of the new testament.
Matthew 5:6 is one example. You may have heard this verse before, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” When you hear the word “righteousness,” what comes to mind? My mind is filled with images of personal piety and holiness, law keeping, and obedience to religious obligations and laws. That’s not really in line with the rest of what Jesus said… “Do your best, and if you’re really good—like, you want God’s perfect righteousness more than food or drink—then, and only then, you’ll be satisfied.”
Don’t think that’s on par with the rest of what I read.
However, if you go with the alternate translation, “God blesses those who want everyone to be treated right,” then you are a bit more in line with how Jesus lived and taught. Even old testament scriptures convey a similar message. Jesus summed it up in the words we call the “Golden Rule,” … “Treat other people the way you want to be treated.” (My paraphrase.) Basically, the true meaning of justice. Not revenge, eye-for-an-eye justice. But, wanting everyone to be treated right. Treated fairly.
So then I noticed the context. (It is always about the context!) Starting with the verse before, Jesus says: God blesses the humble, then those who want justice more than anything, then those who are merciful. Huh… sounds familiar…
“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to humble yourself and walk humbly with your God?”—Micah 6:8 (Amplified Version)
Or, in the words of Steven Curtis Chapman, “Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God.” (From “The Walk” – Signs of Life – 1996.)
Wow. Look at that! Seems to fit with what God had said centuries earlier through Micah. And really, if you strip away the religious obligation and attempts to please the deity that accompany the word, “Righteousness” just means doing what is “right”, doesn’t it? So, rather than wanting personal, religious “righteousness” more than food or drink, Jesus said that Kingdom people hunger and thirst for justice—especially for others.
Sounds right to me.
Two thousand years of religious interpretation of Jesus’ words can be a tricky thing to get past sometimes. But when you strip it all away, it really is quite simple. And it really is good news.
Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.
While cleaning up the girls’ room today, there came a point where we had to reach up high to get something. As I stretched, Julia, our 3-year-old, stated, “God could reach that. He’s super tall.”
“Yes, I suppose he could,” I agreed. “But he’s not really just… tall. He’s even bigger than that.”
“Yeah,” Kirstie chimed in, “He’s so big that the earth is just a speck to him!”
“Well, that’s right,” I said. “But he’s even so big that he’s just everywhere. There isn’t anywhere you can go that he isn’t. Isn’t that cool?”
They nodded in agreement, and we continued the clean up. After only a few moments of silence—during which the mental gears of the 3 and 5 year olds never stopped—the conversation continued:
“I wonder if God wears clothes.” (I think I may have laughed out loud at that one… at least chuckled.)
“I don’t know,” I admitted, “I guess he could… but he doesn’t really need clothes…”
“Well, if he did, he’d have realllllly big clothes!”
Steven Curtis Chapman has always been one of my favorite songwriters. At least, “always” since I began listening to music that would be labeled “Christian” in my late teens. (Holy cow, that seems so long ago…) For whatever reason—for many reasons—his music and his lyrics really connect with me. (And I with them?) I was talking about this with Jen last night and was realizing the perhaps a key part of it is that he and I think on the same things, and think similarly on those things. And how he says it must also resonate with me as well. (Plus, the music is great, well-done, excellent, too.)
Sometime last week I decided to listen to an album of his—the album in the box at the top of this post. Often when we play music in our house, we make full use of the “shuffle” feature on our iPod and let the tiny musical device be our DJ as it selects from any of our 4000 or so songs, making for a very nice eclectic mix of styles. But after hearing one of Steven’s songs, I thought it would be fun to actually listen through a whole album.
I was right.
If you own This Moment, I would like to recommend that you pull it out now (or queue it up) and have a good listen. If you don’t yet own the album, BUY IT! Really. It’s very worth it. Not only is the music fun, excellent, and fairly diverse (style-wise) … the theme of the album is what we all really need to hear and know.
You are being loved. You ought to hear his version of Amazing Grace. It’s crazy things that love will make you do. There’s a wonder in the here in now, right there in front of you. Don’t miss the miracle of the moment.
I contemplated actually posting thoughts on each of his songs here individually, and perhaps someday I may, but for now, I’d really rather you have a listen yourself. He does such a great job of capturing the truth of how much our father loves us (including, I think, through a song about loving every moment of his daughter’s life, being her Dad—Cinderella.)
It’s definitely not just this album, but for the moment, I am highly (as highly as I can) recommending this particular album—This Moment. If you have an hour where you can really take in the lyrics, do. The words flow from a real, living, deep relationship with our loving Father, and will hopefully remind you of just how loved you are as you listen.
You ought to see the smile you’re bringing to your Father’s face
You ought to hear him sing his version of Amazing Grace.
As I mentioned a while back, I’ve been reading through Paul’s letter to the Christians in Corinth. (1 Corinthians.) I’m trying to do it in bigger chunks to get a broader perspective of what Paul is talking about in this letter. It’s one that has always slightly baffled me. Paul (a life-long rule keeper) speaks tirelessly of God’s grace in other letters (to the Romans, Ephesians, Galatians…) but in his letters to the Corinthians, he seems to just be laying down rule after rule to “keep… or else.”
I still haven’t found a chunk of time to read it all at once, but I read chapters 1-10 today, and noted a theme running through that section. Paul does indeed speak of the freedom of the believer (via God’s grace through our connection with Jesus) but moreover, he speaks of our freedom to not be free.
Specifically, in what we’ve deemed “chapter eight”, Paul uses the example of eating meat that was sacrificed to idols. We don’t come upon such a circumstance very often these days, but that was a major deal then. He basically says that, of course, the meat is fine to eat (neither it, nor the demons to whom it was offered have any power) but the greater issue is the heart of other believers who think that it does.
In other words, it’s not about what we do… it’s who we do it to, or do it for.
Sure, we have the freedom from religious (and perhaps in particular, superstitious) practices, as we know God is not persuaded by any of those … but if by exercising that freedom we lead another believer to sin against their own conscience (another fascinating concept… that “sin” is arbitrary, relative, or subjective?) then we have done a greater injustice than that person’s “sin.”
I think it all still boils down to, “Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God.” (Steven Curtis Chapman‘s paraphrase of Micah 6:8.) 🙂
We do have freedom. Life in Jesus is freedom. Freedom from sin, guilt, shame, and even “religious rules” and obligations. But our greatest freedom is the freedom to choose to not be free—to love—for the benefit of everyone around us.
For some reason, I keep wanting to read the book of 1 Corinthians lately. I haven’t figured out why just yet, but it keeps popping into my mind. So, I’ve begun a few times, but I also have felt like I want to read the whole thing through in one setting, to perhaps get a better “big picture” context of the letter the apostle Paul penned.
But as I began one day recently, I noticed this long paragraph (which I broke into two, for easier on-screen reading).
“For God, in his wisdom, made it impossible for men to know him by means of their own wisdom. Instead God decided to save those who believe, by means of the “foolish” message we preach. Jews want miracles for proof, and Greeks look for wisdom.
As for us, we proclaim Christ on the cross, a message that is offensive to the Jews and nonsense to the Gentiles; but for those whom God has called, both Jews and Gentiles, this message is Christ, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For what seems to be foolishness is wiser than men’s wisdom, and stronger than men’s strength.”
I’ve read these words before, and heard them expounded upon. But for some reason they just presented the simplicity of the good news so clearly to me.
I love that the focus of our relationship with God is not on us. It’s on him. Not in a narcissistic way, as some imagine. God isn’t looking for people to “Become a Fan” on heaven’s Facebook. He wants to know us, and us to live life with and in him, and he makes that possible, not us.
“God made it impossible for men to know him by means of their own wisdom.” We can’t figure out God. We won’t get all the answers. It’s not even about the answers. Read on.
Paul explains that the Jews (his people) wanted God to reveal himself through powerful miracles. They expected God’s Messiah to come, and they expected him to be the King that would rule. They like that God would do big and powerful things for them.
The Greeks (Gentiles) wanted God to be the ultimately wise being. They wanted him to prove he was God by having all the answers.
This is like us. We still want these things from God today. We want him to fix stuff (we want to see his power), or we want to have all the answers. About him, and/or about our life and the world around us. We want to know “truth”—meaning, have black and white facts that we can know as “truth.”
But we—those who united with Jesus—”proclaim Christ on the Cross.”
This is not a doctrine. He’s not saying we need to know what the words propitiatory, salvific, atonement, and other such scholarly sounding verbiage mean. The point is almost the opposite. It’s not something to be figured out. It’s not something to overwhelm by force. It’s weakness, and nonsense.
But it’s Jesus.
this message is Christ, who is the power of God, and the wisdom of God.”
In the end, what we are looking for, God’s power and wisdom (and everything else) is in Jesus. Jesus on the cross. The ultimate (meaning greatest) act of love, and the ultimate (meaning final) act of reconciliation of our relationship with our Father God.
“…by him [Jesus] we are put right with God, we are God’s holy people, and are set free.”
I truly believe that the good news (the “Gospel”) the message that Jesus lived and taught and asked his friends to share with everyone they know is this: Jesus. He is the Life, the Way, the Truth … you can’t miss that in pretty much every book of Scripture. Jesus is life.
I happened upon an old blog post today. It’s included in my book Life In The Rearview Mirror. It is titled Knowledge. It’s fun to look back a few years and see that God was just beginning to open my eyes a bit to the reality that I might not know everything. 🙂
And it continues today. Yet somehow, as he helps me realize that truth, the simpler truth that all of the stuff we try to know about him (men’s wisdom) is really not that important… life becomes clearer. Not that I have all the answers in life. But perhaps I know the most important one?
The message is Christ. By him we are put right with God, we are his holy people, and we are set free.
It has struck me again recently just how significant Jesus is.
It’s not just that our entire calendar is based roughly on the year of his birth some two thousand years ago now. (Though that’s pretty significant.) It’s not just that there are people all over the entire world who know his name and use it today both to invoke blessing and as a curse word. (Do you know anyone else who has reached such a status?)
It’s not the statues, paintings, songs, building, even entire religions that bear his name that reveal his full significance.
We celebrate the birth of this man every year on December 25th because he is the visible likeness of the invisible God.
Listen to how Paul describes him at the beginning of his letter to the Colossian Christians:
Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God. He is the firstborn son, superior to all created things. For by him, God created all things in heaven and on earth, the seen and unseen things, including spiritual powers, lords, rulers, and authorities. God created the whole universe through him and for him. He existed before all things, and in union with him all things have their proper place.
Colossians 1:15-17
The book of Hebrews also calls Jesus God’s final and perfect revelation. (Read Hebrews chapter one for more.) In John chapter one it refers to him as the Word (logos) and talks of how all was made through him.
That’s fairly significant.
Let’s read on in Colossians.
He is the head of his body, the church; he is the source of the body’s life; he is the firstborn son who was rasied from death, in order that he alone might have the first place in all things.
Colossians 1:18
I think we who call ourselves Christians really believe and want to live this out. We want Jesus—not us—to sit on the throne of our hearts. He is the center of all we are and do. He is supreme in all things.
What I see though, suggests otherwise.
I think that—like I referenced a bit at the top—one of our biggest problems is how much we over-signify Jesus, if that were possible. Obviously, that is not really possible, as the descriptions of him from these books would suggest. However, as we further “deify” and remove him from the intimate relationship he chose to have with us, passing through a woman’s birth canal just as all the rest of us have, and living through the subsequent mess that our world and our lives can be … he also experienced all of the joys he created us to know and live. God came to be one of us, to be with us; “Emmanuel.”
So it’s less about what wise, learned people say about him… it’s certainly not about all of the traditions, rituals, ceremonies, and other various observances we have amassed along the way. Those are fine, but the core of the entire universe is Jesus. Just him.
For it was by God’s own decision that the son has in himself the full nature of God. Through the son, then, God decided to bring the whole universe back to himself. God made peace through his son’s death on the cross, and so brought back to himself all things, both on earth and in heaven.
Colossians 1:19-20
The cross is not just about death. The cross is about life, and peace. Reconciliation. Redemption. (Check out Romans chapter five. Fantastic stuff about what God did through the cross.)
When we reduce the Good News that Jesus came to deliver in person to a set of rules to obey, and a code of ethics, we are totally missing the point. JESUS is the point. We need to watch what he does, hear what he says, follow where he leads. We need him.
[Jesus said,] “And this is eternal life: for men to know you, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, whom you sent.”
John 17:3
This Christmas, don’t just remember that “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” … get to know him. He is the reason for everything. Knowing him is eternal life. It really, truly is all about him.
A couple conversations of late have reminded me of a book I read a while back (at the recommendation of a friend who had really loved it) regarding the management of money.