Selfish Ignorance

Soapbox time.

There is one thing that causes me to lose, little by little, faith in modern relationships: when a pair of people are so engrossed in their own affairs that they lose sight of the repercussions of their actions; when they fail to see how the way that they are acting will affect the organization that they are working for or the people that they are responsible to.

Mostly, I am talking about when people try to justify bending (or breaking) regulations set down by the authorities, such as never being alone with a member of the opposite sex, because they "have the trust of the people in charge."

That doesn't matter. It's not about you. It doesn't matter if you don't know each other; it doesn't matter if you're getting married in a week.

This isn't about your trustworthiness. It isn't about your character. It's about the face of the organization that you work for and are accountable to. If someone sees you walking into an isolated place with someone of the opposite sex, and that person doesn't know you, then they can spread rumors and ruin the reputation of the organization.

I don't care if your authorities will defend you. Do you think that your "alone time" with your boyfriend, girlfriend, or "soon-to-be spouse" is important enough to make an entire organization deal with the repercussions that come from it?

The main problem that I see is a thing I call "selfish ignorance," where a person becomes so habitually concerned about their own interests and "needs" that they fail to see the whole picture and the dangers of what they are doing; when you fail to see that your "need" to be alone with 'that' person and your vice of intimacy is not only risking a defacing of the organization's reputation, but it is setting a terrible example for those under you, because, after all, if you can be alone with your fiance, why can't I be alone with my girlfriend?

This selfish ignorance causes the importance of one's concern to be inflated to such a magnitude that they habitually and unnoticeably take precedence over the concerns that are to the best interest of all. It happens so naturally, in fact, that over time, the person becomes completely unaware that they are focusing entirely on themselves, and covering over it with a facade of selfless concern. They try to cover up their selfishness by smothering it in loud humility and obvious sacrifice, but their selfishness lives on, unnoticed by any, not even themselves.

If you remain around these people for long, you begin to see a figure in their speech; in their actions; in their stories. This figure surrounds all that they encompass and all that they concern themselves with, Though they try to follow the Figure, they cannot rid their thoughts of this one figure. The figure is themselves. And the thoughts about that figure are so self-serving and so satisfying to that person that they continue to partake in those thoughts, forming a habit.

Here's the deal: Stop thinking about yourself. Stop thinking about your partner. It's not about you. It's about the big picture. You are a small seed in an infinite forest. You have very little to offer, but you can make a lot of difference in the world. It's your choice whether that difference is good or bad. Because if you continue to act like your desires are more important than those rules and that your wants supersede rationality, if you continue to find loopholes that falsely justify your decisions, then you will lose both my respect for you and the people's respect for the organization and even the religion that we hold to.

You're not special enough to get a green card, allowing you to break rules that inhibit your satisfaction. Maybe you're used to being served everything on a plate and getting everything you want, but welcome to the real world: you don't get everything you want. If you can't handle being limited, that's probably the main reason why I can't spend more than a few hours around you. Start not thinking about yourself.

In the words of a professor at OCC: "Selflessness is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less."

Think about yourself less, and care a little bit more about the ministries that you have the power to expand or destroy.

Salvation < Satisfaction?

It is a sad state when a church's objective truths of salvation, worship, and evangelism are pushed aside and replaced with subjective preference. When trivial things such as the style of worship or the order of a service or the presentation of the message are inflated to an importance on the level of salvation itself, we, as the Church, have lost sight of the most important thing in our faith; we have forgotten the reason why we even go to church.

When we cause a ruckus over the method of serving communion or presenting the announcements then we are either being ritualistic or selfish; we either think that we have to do it because we've always done it that way, or we simply don't want to change , or both.

It's way too easy to get caught up in the worldly view of the church, focusing in on the things we see, and losing sight of the things we can't. We too often sacrifice the important things of God for the important things of man, throwing faith, salvation, belief, and evangelism out the window, and replacing them with preference, satisfaction, ritualism, and attractiveness. Too often, we are focused on the church, and forget about the Church.

We are called to be distinct from this world. How then can we act like those who are lost?

Romans 12:2 

Shepherding

I'm doing a lesson at the Bible camp that I'm working all summer. It's on the passage from John 10 when Jesus was speaking of the Good Shepherd and His qualities.

I've gotten this from this passage:

A good shepherd has three qualities:

• Selflessness (John 10:11, Ezek. 34:2-10)
• Pastorship (John 10:14)
• Guardianship (John 10:24)

Each of us is a shepherd, whether we want to be or not. Whether you're a pastor, a father, a quarterback on your football team, or a member of  the local bingo club, you have been given a flock that looks up to you. Christ calls you to lead your flock with grace and with biblically-grounded leadership. I would encourage you to take a look at the passage of Jesus's talk to the Jews in John 10:11-18, (you might start from the beginning of chapter 9, because the shepherding passage proceeds from the story told in the preceding chapter.)

You can read the shepherding passage here: John 10:1-21

You should also read the passage in Ezekiel, where God reprimands the shepherds of Israel for their sub-par leadership of their flocks.

As shepherds, we are called to be selfless, placing the good of the flock over the good of ourselves. The idea of group-over-individual was in place all throughout bible times, invading into the way that families and government worked.The belief of bible times was that the good of the group took greater importance that the good of the individual. A young man married a woman for the good of the family, not for his own personal happiness (of course, they often times were happy in their marriage, but it was not the main reason for their marriage). 

This mentality has almost disappeared in American society. Nowadays, marriage is based on how the other person makes you feel, or how they show their love for you. But the marriage mentality of bible-time cultures was that marriages were for the good of the family, not for personal satisfaction. It was a matter of what the spouse could do for the good of your family, not necessarily for you personally.

The flock is more important than you. This simply does not mesh with modern thought. Christianity is all about me. It's about my relationship with Christ, and I'm called to help others along, but the only necessary thing is my relationship with Christ. We need to strike this from our thought. You relationship is exceedingly important, but we need to pursue others' relationships with Christ with the same intensity that we pursue our own - if not with more.

Your relationship with Christ is vital, however. Christ says in John 10:14, "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me - just as the Father knows me and I know the Father - and I lay my life down for the sheep." You are called to be pastor to your flock; your relationship with your sheep is the same as your relationship with God. Just as you must seek a relationship with your sheep, you must seek a relationship with your Father. Your relationship with God has direct implications to your relationship with your flock. 

As a shepherd, you are called to protect your flock. This ties the whole pack together. You are called to be selfless, to know your flock personally, and to protect them from danger. You need to guide your flock to "pastures" that are safe and healthy for them. When wolves attack, you need to be willing to lay down your life for the flock (John 10:11). You need to love your flock enough to die for them.

Wherever your flock is, there you will be also - and vice versa. You and your flock stick together, like it or not. You can't live life steeped in sin and attempt to guide your flock to a closer relationship with Christ. You can't lead a successful Bible study and go to strip clubs at the same time - it just won't work. Without the blessing of God, your attempts will not succeed. You will crash and burn.

You're a shepherd whether you want to be or not. We need to live accordingly. I need to look at the way I live and decide what things I need to strike in order to lead my flock with a more pure leadership. We need to draw ourselves closer to Christ, and guide others to a closer relationship with Him as well.

Mourning Breaks

Here's one really big shout out:

Thank you so much to my friends and my family for sticking it out through the storm and showing such strength and courage in the midst of such a traumatic event.

Kenna and Caleb, I love you guys. Your strength really impressed me and your trust in God is inspirational. Keep that faith; it's all that matters.

Mom and Dad, thank you for showing just how much you love me by sticking by my bedside 24/7 for three weeks and sacrificing everything for my safety. Love you two.

To my siblings - I know it must have been tough losing my sarcastic remarks and awkward humor, but thanks for trooping through that tough time where you had to put up with not having me aware. =)

Lucian - Love you, dude. I wouldn't be here without you. You're going to go far. Keep your drive, keep your faith.

Justin, Sam, and whoever else happened to, thanks for helping keep watch over me while I was in recovery. I know I got crazy sometimes - thanks for loving me enough to fight me down. =)

Thank you to my church family. Not only did you care for me and my family while I was in the hospital, but you cared for thousands of displaced and affected citizens, giving them food and water, rest and counsel. You are the Body of Christ, and you proved that on the night of and in the weeks following the tornado.

Thanks to Penny for letting me keep my job at the camp even though I was a full month late to my first shift. The camp means so much to me. You all are awesome.



Finally, thank you and congratulations to the community of Joplin for your astounding response to the tornado literally seconds after it had passed. I believe that the community of my city saved just as many lives as the doctors and nurses who were also vitally important to the response. You, as a community, acted as first responders, counselors, search-and-rescue, firefighters, crowd control, and damage assessment. The people of Joplin forgot who they were on the night of the tornado and became whom they needed to be - whom their fellow people needed.

Joplin - you, as a city, have shown what a mid-western people group can accomplish; as a people, you have defined the ideal community; as a community, you have changed the lives of thousands of people within this city. The impact you have made has impressed itself upon the minds of people worldwide. You have been placed on a spotlight - the light hasn't faded yet. We need to continue to be an example to the nation and to the world for the rest of our lives. This city should be the national example of how a loving community is, not how they were solely in response to a disaster.

Show the world how to love one another; how to love others above yourself; how to "love in spite of" instead of "love because."

The weather clears, and the sun rises; morning breaks and mourning fades, but I pray that the memory of the tornado would always serve to remind us to place priorities where they should be and live out our lives and our faith as we ought. For some, the wounds are still fresh. They need a community surrounding them - this means you - and they need the chance to share their story. Every person who went through the tornado has an incredibly powerful testimony to the rest of the world.

I pray that we never forget:

We are Joplin. Joplin is community. Community is strength. And in the end, Love is Strength.

Love one another with strength and courage, and see if we cannot change the world.

John 13:34-35
V

Who am I that you are mindful of me? That you hear me when I call?

Who am I that you think of me? That my love is enough?

Who am I, that you love me so?

A sinner - doubtless, the worst of men - fallen 'low the dust of the earth. A wretch and a outcast - wayward and broken.

Who am I, that you took me in?

Who am I that you redeemed me?

Killed you in my heart again and again; why do you keep coming back?

Who are you that you keep reappearing?

Who are you that I can't get away?

Piercing, tearing, you enter in; my best defenses fall 'fore your steps.

I cannot hide; never wanted to...

 Who am I that you think of me?

Who are you that you love me?

Society Sellout

How is it that I find Christians around me so immersed in culture that they are nearly indistinguishable from the unbelievers around them? I have been the same way until recently; I pirated music, watched movies with indecent scenes in them, and participated in the majority of sociological events that went on.

I, as the critical person that I am (God forgive, me I pray every day), I am starting to notice the lax in distinctness that a lot of Christians are experiencing. We are called to be distinct from the world, and yet involved in its affairs; we are called to be seperate but not removed from society. This means that a Christian should examine what they watch, how they speak, and their reasoning behind their actions in order to eliminate those that bring no glory to Christ.

Bashing time: How I Met Your Mother. I have a friend who watches this show that I have been giving a hard time to for quite a while, because the show is riddled with sex jokes and indecent talk. It's funny and goofy in the majority of the scenes, but why does he watch it? He would say that he watches it because it's funny. The feeling of sadness I had for my friend was overwhelmed when I came to OCC and found out that a good number of the men on my floor watch this show. When asked, one of the men I know explained that it is justifiable because it has more relationship-oriented elements than some other shows, so he can learn from those.

I can learn plenty of things from every terrible show. Shows with terrible language can teach me not to use those words; sex scenes in movies teach me to be affectionate towards my wife, but does that justify watching them? A dead horse cannot be called alive simply because it has more blood in its carcass than other horses. A show that is in and of itself unhealthy and tainted by sin is not fit for a Christian to watch, unless he is doing it for a greater evangelistic purpose.

I'm not hateful solely towards How I Met your Mother, though. Nearly all t.v. shows nowadays have sexual references and increasingly vulgar talk in them. I've gotten sick of having to listen to this to the point that I rarely watch t.v., and when I do, it's on Netflix, where I can choose which shows to watch. Phineas and Ferb and Mythbusters are two of the few shows I watch.

If you like a show or a movie or a band that has unhealthy characteristics, I would encourage you to pull away from it, but more so than that, I would strain you to at least own up to your vice! At least have the courage to say, "Yes, I know it's wrong, but I like the show, so I keep watching it." And if you indeed do keep watching it,  then establish a base of friends, counselors, and mentors around you to make sure that you don't fall into the behavior pattern taught in the social media you are listening to. Be in the Word every day and keep your prayer life at a higher level. Talk with people about the lessons taught in that media and whether or not you should conform to those lessons. If you don't do this, you will inevitably begin to conform.

Sound like too much work? Then the media you are addicted to probably isn't worth it. Unless you are willing to sacrifice time, money, pride, and priveliges for that media, then it most likely isn't worth your time in the first place.

You men addicted to pornography: would you be willing to spend your paycheck to keep up your addiction? Would you be willing to spend time in jail for it? No? Then why are you doing it? Because it feels good, I know, but you need to realize that you are committing adultery to the Church and to God Himself when you access that! You are betraying the intimate relationship with God that he has given to you, and are replacing it with an online affair with a woman you don't even know for 8 seconds of heightened satisfaction. Is 8 seconds of bliss worth an eternity in Hell?

Honor God with everything you do, Christian. Watch shows that are decent, in order to keep up with the times; play video games that aren't vulgar, in order to relate better to unbelievers. Just make sure that your mind is focused not on the game in and of itself, but the lessons you can learn from that game in order to further the kingdom.

Of course, I am all for the occasional "kick-back-and-relax" chill time, where you watch a movie simply to watch a movie, or play a game simply to play a game. I do that often, when I need a break from my college work, I just tru to make sure I'm not doing it every and all the time.

Be a balanced communicator - distinct from yet involved in the society. Watch the shows you must, be wise about the shows you desire.

Celebration of Substitution!

It's Easter!! This is a time to celebrate the substitution of Christ on the cross for us; it is a time for us to be filled with joy that the punishment and damning of our sins was taken by Christ upon Himself in order to bring us to Him.

People often give me a weird look when I tell them that I am celebrating Christ's death. And I do admit, it sound a bit morbid and uncanny, but really, when you think about it, the death of Christ as a substitute for us is a great subject to celebrate! I mean, had Christ not done that, we would be damned to Hell still! We would still bear the condemnation of our sins on us, without any hope of being with God.

Would I have preferred that Jesus didn't die? Yes, of course I do. But as Christ says in Luke 22, "Take this cup from me; but not my will, but yours be done." Jesus could have called the angels down from heaven and taken himself off the cross, but he didn't because he loves you and me that much - to endure flaying, beatings, insult, torture, even a crucifixion - a method of death that was so agonizing that the ancient people formed a new word for it, excruciating, literally meaning: "out of the cross."

Easter, I think, should not be a focus on Christ's death and resurrection, however, but rather a focus on the unfathomable love that was shown on that day when the Son of God let himself endure the most painful death man could conceive of, for the simple fact that God loves us like his Children. This is a celebratory time of Christ's love for us - his dedication, grace, mercy, and  commitment to us. 

I'm just afraid that people will think of Easter in solely the physical sense of Jesus dying and raising from the dead. If we think this way, it is easy for us to slip into the "Oh yeah, Jesus died, rose from the grave, it was a pretty cool trick, He's pretty awesome." But the whole point of His death on the cross wasn't to simply die and rise again, though that had a big part in it. Jesus died to bring us to heaven! He took every single one of your sins on his soul and damned himself to get you to heaven!


Do you get this? The Son of God DAMNED himself to Hell so that you could live with Him in heaven - He let Himself be torn away from the Trinity in order to give you salvation! This is the meat of Easter! This is the stuff that really matters! The physical dying and rising is a huge part of Easter, but look past the physical and see the spiritual ramifications this act had as well!

It's easy to downplay the significance of these events like Easter because they're annual and become a routine part of our lives. Be careful you're not taking part in Easter just because you feel like you have to. Stay home Easter Sunday if you feel this way; you can probably get a lot more spiritual working from a solo Bible study than you can from a congregational meeting if this is the case. Just try to make sure you understand why you are taking part in the recognition of this holiday before you routinely go to church tomorrow. 

Tomorrow, when you wake up, think of your new life that you received 2,000 years ago by the cross. Think about the love that God has for you that He would give his life and his comfort in order that you might experience it. Think of God's unbelievable affection for us, and you will most likely find yourself quietly (or not so quietly) praising Him joyfully.

That's all I have to say about that. Interestingly enough, this did not occur to me while working at Orange Leaf; I was comfortably enjoying The Hound of the Baskervilles by Stained Glass Theater Joplin when my mind started rolling this over.

Grace and Peace
-- Malachi

Happy Easter!