“Live Long and Prosper”

Yesterday, the world lost one of the most iconic actors in television history, Leonard Nimoy. Nimoy, more popularly known as Spock, was an intergalactic superstar. Many are mourning the late actor, including a loyal group of Trekkies, the most devoted fans of the show.

Nimoy’s iconic line was, “Live Long and Prosper”, and the actor surely did just that! He was an accomplished actor, director, musician, and family-man. He is responsible for not only one of the most well-known catch-phrases of all time, but also an ultra-famous hand gesture! His acting was brilliant and his work will forever speak for itself.

However, his death led me to think about how I will be remembered someday. To be honest, when I heard the news, I thought: “oh man, Spock died...” But SPOCK didn’t die! Spock is a made up character. In fact, thanks to JJ Abrams, there is already a new Spock!

Leonard Nimoy died. A very real man with very real friends and a very real family. And while there is nothing wrong with the legion of fans missing an iconic actor, it must pale in comparison to the loss felt by those who KNEW him.

When I die, I don’t want people to mourn the loss of my perception. I want people to see behind the disguise I put on from time to time. The disguise that says I have it all together, or that I don’t need any help. I don’t want people to remember the greatest moments of my acting. I want people to have known the real me. The me that struggles with real things. I long to be transparent and forthright with who I am.

There is so much temptation as a pastor to get on stage and act like we are the standard to be measured against. That we have it all together. We want to be resilient like Spock – unflappable in the face of adversity. We think that if people knew that we get scared, and prideful, and tempted, and pissed off – that they would think less of us… that we wouldn’t be able to lead them or be an example.

But our job is not to act. Our job is to be real… to be approachable and relatable. Our job is to let everyone know that we are in this together. That we are not the masks we wear to hide our deepest fears. We are not brilliant actors, and our church podiums are not our stages!

We are all flawed, and broken, and deceitful, and that is what makes us beautiful. Because, when we see ourselves for who we really are, then we are ready to truly look to God for our identity. And when we find our identity in God, we are finally ready:

to “Live Long and Prosper“

White & Gold… a BLOG about being wrong

It’s comforting to know that so many people, all around the world, experienced the same moment last night. That moment when you looked at your spouse/friend/child/co-worker/etc, like they were an absolute idiot for not seeing that the infamous dress was CLEARLY White and Gold!

I was reading an article about the viral sensation, wondering how anyone could possibly be seeing Blue and Black. The dress was so clearly White and Gold that it felt like the whole universe had organized a practical joke against me! (apparently, I think the whole world cares about pulling a prank on me…). I casually showed the picture to Katie and said “hey what color is this dress?”

“Black and Blue…” she replied, wondering why I was interrupting her phone call…again.

“OK” I thought, “Who got my wife in on this joke??”

It’s a good thing I don’t have much money because I was about to bet it ALL on that dress being White and Gold! It WAS White and Gold! I was more than sure!

Except…it wasn’t. The dress is, in fact, Blue and Black. My eyes had deceived me. I WAS WRONG! I hate being wrong! I mean, I can’t help what I saw, what I really truly believed; but, at the end of the day, the dress is Blue and Black.

Have you ever been SO sure of something, but in the end you were dead wrong about it?

• The boyfriend/girlfriend you KNEW was your soul-mate
• The friends you knew would stick with you forever
• The life goals you knew you would achieve by 30
• Y2K…

Add to that list now the infamous Blue and Black dress. The reality is, not everything is an optical illusion, but most things in life are rather uncertain. You can’t really know how your relationships will end up. There are too many intangibles to control all the aspects of your future. Something you may steadfastly vouch for today, you may run from tomorrow.

Life is crazy and full of inconsistencies! So where do we find hope in a world full of things we can’t rely on?

Well, in the midst of instability, there remains one constant. One immovable force. One thing that has been consistent for all of time. In an unreliable world, there stands an unchangeable God. A God who loves you. A God who makes it OK that you still can’t see the Blue or Black in that White and Gold dress. Because at the end of the day, you are loved.

You are loved through your mistakes. You are loved through your failures. You are loved when your spouse leaves you for someone younger and more attractive. You are loved when your friends ditch you or when your life goals are all failures. You are loved when you don’t make the grade. You are loved when you build an underground shelter, buy all the bottled water in the closest 5 counties, wear a tin-foil hat and tell all your friends the world is ending… No matter what you do or where you go, YOU ARE LOVED. Because God’s love is the one thing that has never, and will never change!

Also, #teamwhiteandgold forever!!

50 Shades of Grace

If you are unaware of the current blockbuster/bestselling book, “50 Shades of Grey”, then congratulations on waking up from your year-long coma… The sex-driven, bondage-themed plot has made tons of money and found numerous hardcore fans. It has also been met with STRONG opposition from many corners; one of the most outspoken groups being the christian community.

Now, I have not watched or read any of the ’50 Shades’ material so I am going off of second-hand info here, but it seems like the church has a clear biblical basis for standing against the film/book. However, what always bothers me in these situations is HOW the collective “we” go about our protesting of societal fads, (The “we” being christians as perceived by the rest of the world):

• Bitter interactions with individuals
• Judgmental Facebook posts
• A better-than-you countenance
• And other attacks on PEOPLE instead of the ISSUE.

If while trying to drive people out of the movie theater you also drive them further from ever entering the doors of a church, you are failing! Jesus did not spend His time on earth running around protesting all the immoral activities of the day (and there were plenty!). In fact, the only people we see Jesus consistently calling out on their behavior, were the Pharisees! THE PHARISEES! The religious elite who were ostracizing all the people who needed God. The Pious priests who got to pick and choose which sins to rally against and which to do in secret.

As christians, it is easy to get up-in-arms about “50 Shades of Grey”… It is full of gratuitous, out of wedlock, sex! It is produced by Hollywood, (synonymous in some churches with Sodom and Gomorra)! It represents everything that we say is wrong with the world!

SO, I thought of some alternative plots that the writer of ’50 Shades’ could have used that would have flown under the radar of christian protests:

50 SHADES OF GRAVY

Plot: A man starts an addictive relationship with southern, fried foods. He ends up in bondage, not only to his eating habits, but also to his ever-expanding waist line. What started as three square meals a day, has turned in to a gluttonous quest for more and more.  

50 SHADES OF GRAY’S ANATOMY

Plot: A young woman hears about a new show on Netflix. The series features a McDreamy doctor working in an intense, drama-filled hospital. The woman ends up chained to her computer, watching Netflix non-stop! Her relationships and responsibilities begin to drop as she falls farther and farther into her show-binging.

50 SHADES OF GRACELESS CHURCHES

Plot: A conservative church becomes obsessed with legalism and rule-following, sending away anyone who doesn’t look the part of the religious elite. The culture becomes more and more stringent and captive to judgmentalism and self-appreciation.

These movies probably wouldn’t lift many eyebrows. Who cares about a guy eating his way to an early death? Why would a Netflix addiction be worth protesting? Who cares if a church has strict moral policies?

Well, in short, GOD CARES! Gluttony is one of the 7 deadly sins. Putting anything before God (even Netflix) is called idolatry and is one of the most spoken about offenses in scripture. Being a stumbling-block to people seeking Jesus is such a big deal, that in some circumstances, Jesus recommended drowning yourself instead!!

Why is it that we jump at the opportunity to speak out against the current ’50 Shades’ phenomenon but leave other issues alone? Could it be that we can’t speak out against over-eating and being judgmental because we are often guilty of it? Sure, it’s easy to rally against sexual perversion, chains, and whips; but, could an even more dangerous sin be an inability to extend grace to those around you?

It’s time to tear down the pillars of US and THEM. “Us” the moral majority, Bible-carrying, Toms-wearing, super-christians; and “Them” the sex-flaunting, pot-smoking, club-hopping sinners. You may sin differently than others, but you are just as screwed. You are just as damned to eternity in Hell. Your sin has separated you the same distance from God. And your only hope of a future in heaven is also their only hope! We are ALL saved by grace. There is no US and THEM… we are ALL THEM! And we are all made righteous by Jesus’ work on the cross, not our works here on earth!

The sooner we realize this, the sooner we can begin changing the world, loving people through their mistakes, and extending 50 SHADES OF GRACE to everyone we meet! We can join with Jesus to love the unlovable, bring hope to the hopeless, and help the weary find peace!

Filters

In 1861 the first color filters were used to process black and white film. The process was tinkered with from then on, continuing today. When we hear about photo filters today many of our technologically savvy minds jump to smartphone apps like “Instagram” or “Hipstamatic”. Others may think of computer programs such as Adobe’s “Photoshop” or online resources like “Picnic”. These are all modern forms of photo filtering; allowing you to take a photo and process it through different modes in order to get the picture to look how you want. You can change a color photo to black and white or sepia, blur the edges of a photo, reverse the colors, etc. (The possibilities these days are quite endless). Traditionalists may scoff at the idea of using a computer or smartphone to “filter” photographs. Originally this process was done by putting an additional lens or screen in front of the actual camera. This process was much more meticulous and painstaking, making it more of an art-form than clicking haphazardly on a computer screen.

Regardless of the method, the end result of photo filtering is to take a picture and change the viewer’s perspective of it. It is amazing the difference changing a picture from color to black and white makes. Put side-by-side, two identical photos with different filters on them can look strikingly different.

In the same sense, we live in a society that sees the world through different ‘filters’. God has provided the perfect pictures for love, life, sex, marriage, community, relationships, church… and we, in our longing to be our own gods, have placed cheap, ignorant filters on the truths He provides. People don’t look at the Mona Lisa and say “this is pretty good, but I wish Da Vinci would have put a Sepia tone on it and matted the edges.” NO! People look at the work of a master artist and stand in amazement! Why then, do we feel the need to take the picture God has created for us, showing us how to live this life, and dilute it with our own ideas of how things should look?…… “I know love is supposed to be true, and selfless, and unconditional; but, you can’t get anywhere in this world without playing games!” / “I know sex is supposed to be an outpouring of love in marriage, but that’s no longer feasible in this society.” / “I know the church should reach the ‘least of these’, but then the people who tithe will be too scared to show up on Sundays.” / “God says this life should be one of self-denial and Kingdom work, but that doesn’t exactly match my business plan.”……

For many, the filters have been in place for so long that the original image of how life should be is unrecognizable. As time moves on, things are not getting any clearer. Every day the envelope is pushed a little farther. The decline of perfection that started in the garden grows steeper with each passing minute. The image of Christ is not growing clearer as time moves on; it is, in fact, becoming filtered and augmented until we feel that it meets OUR standard of how life should look. The question therein lies: where is the hope?

From the beginning of time, God, THE master artist, has been creating a picture of how every aspect of life should be lived out. At the dawn of the world, creation was His tapestry to evidence how humanity and nature are to live. As time progressed He used the nation of Israel as his canvas of living intentionally and standing above the norms of society. Finally, in what was by far His greatest work, God sent his son as a precious baby into the world to teach us how to live in harmony with the Father… Our job now is to begin to reverse 2000+ years of worldly filtering on the image of what Christ’s life represented. This WILL NOT happen without an intentional, daily longing to live a life that matches the brilliance of how it was originally pictured to be. The Sunday school answers of ‘read your Bible and pray everyday’ hold the balance of the world in between simply acknowleding them, and the actual application of them. For us to know the artwork intimately, we must first know the artist.

I believe in world-changers. We have a chance to cut through the false realities that have plagued generation after generation and get back to the basics of how life is supposed to be lived: To love like Christ loves his church, to live like the hands and feet of God, to elevate the ‘least of these’ and lower ourselves as servants…

What societal filters are controlling aspects of your life? I urge you today to begin to discover yourself in light of the image of Christ – the truest picture ever developed.