Feeling a Little Flaky

Call a Christian a freak and he’ll wear it like a badge of honor.  Call him a flake, and expect a good fight!  There’s just something about THAT word that raises the hair on the back of any self-respecting believer’s neck. 

The Urban Dictionary defines THAT word as: An unreliable person; someone who agrees to do something, but never follows through.  The entry includes the derivative, flaking: To bail out of something at the last minute.  Sure, we see this occasionally in the church.  Flaking, however, is hardly a Christian problem.  You’ll find flakes of this variety in every cross-section of society.

The Christianese Dictionary (which I’m thinking about compiling), defines the word quite differently.  A flake is characterized as one who is shallow in his faith, prone to insubstantial experiences, and likely to occupy himself on the edge of reality. The flaky Christian is the guy who has frequent epiphanies and throne room encounters, but can never find the time to show up for real-world encounters (ie. church cleanup day, prayer meeting, outreaches, etc.)

Regrettably, the definition has been stretched, over time, to include a vast array of socially unacceptable believer behaviors, including but not limited to: flag waving, worshipful emoting, travailing in prayer, shaking, quaking, crying, tongue-talking, et cetera, et al, you get the point.  Perhaps, flaky should be redefined to mean: anything that goes beyond the realm of your personal experience with God.  It’s quite amusing to hear what “flaky” means to each individual camp.  It would seem the standards for experiencing God vary from red to violet in the spectrum of Christiandom.

Social standards that dictate how we interact with God are problematic, at best.  Our personal standards are nothing short of subjective.  Sometimes our own personal experience will violate the “standard” to which we ascribe, resulting in paranoid flaky disorder (PFD). 

At the risk of losing your respect, I’ll admit I tossed my former “standards” for experiencing God several years ago.  Was it that I was a secret flake, wanting to “out” myself ? No.  Honestly, I had pretty staunch standards for acceptable Christian behavior that ruled out anything “uncontrollable” or “emotional.”  Life was pretty safe and predictable inside the box.  Then one evening… I got served.  One God encounter of the supernatural kind changed everything.

Now, spiritual life is amazingly colorful.  I find no fault in collecting coincidences, or signs of Father speaking through the Word, creation, or a fellow brother or sister.  (Sometimes, He even speaks to me in license plates or random billboards! Gasp!) The fact that He communicates freely with all His sons and daughters in multitudinous ways just reveals His eagerness to share every waking moment of our day.

2010
02/09
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To Tell The Truth

Why is the truth so hard to tell? Human beings often find it easier to invent a pleasantly plausible para-reality than to admit something disagreeable.  We’ll fib before we fess… fake it instead of make it… and front rather than confront.  Why?   

According to the book, The Day America Told the Truth, 91 percent of those surveyed lie routinely about matters they consider trivial, and 36 percent lie about important matters; 86 percent lie regularly to parents, 75 percent to friends, 73 percent to siblings, and 69 percent to spouses. It would seem the truth is harder to tell than we’d like to admit.

Why the Lie?

The lie, in and of itself, is not our problem.  The real issue is, “Why would we withhold the truth?”  Several reasons easily come to mind: (1) Fear of man or rejection (2) Self-preservation (3) Avoidance (4) Diversion. 

Fear of Man: We’ll justify the lie with thoughts like, “The truth would hurt their feelings,” or “The truth would jeopardize our relationship.” Honestly, personal rejection is more painful than a guilty conscience.

Self-Preservation: The lie is told to keep others from interfering with our lifestyle, deferring our desires or diminishing our self-image. 

Avoidance: The lie is designed to postpone dealing with something that causes stress or distress.

Diversion: The lie is told for amusement’s sake, or worse, for the purpose of distracting an opponent.

 

Get Real

A lie is meant to diffuse or circumvent reality. It is the activity of denial.  According to philosopher Josef Pieper in Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power, (you’re welcome for the free book link):

A lie is the opposite of communication.  It means specifically to withhold the other’s share and portion of reality, to prevent his participation in reality.  And so: corruption of the relation to reality, and corruption of communication… 

Lying keeps others from participating in our reality or vice versa.  This breakdown in communication serves to isolate us in our own little worlds, apart from community otherwise defined as common-unity.  Ephesians 4:29 tells us, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” Communication is communion.  If the affliction of our modern society is loneliness or isolation, the only true comfort is to tell the truth.

2010
02/07
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Freeing the Mind

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32.  Philosophers of nearly every worldview and religion agree with Jesus’ declaration.  The point of difference is and always will be, “What is truth?”  If truth is fact, we should be the freest generation ever born. The fact machine we call “internet” is churning out more factoids than we can absorb, by the second.  Some would argue the internet and the information age it has facilitated, has not freed but ensnared us all.

Let’s be honest, there is nothing significantly freeing about knowing that (1) Danica Patrick will make her stock-car racing debut this weekend, (2) Ashton Kutcher will do “anything” for his lovely wife, Demi, (3) Lindsay Lohan has hoarding issues.  (All three of these “facts” are top 10 trending topics on internet search engines, today.)  If you’re the type of truth seeker that digs deeper than celebrity fodder, you may have discovered today that (1) Sarah Palin relied heavily on her husband Todd’s advice as governor, (2) The government is now arbitrarily storing newborn babies’ DNA in a massive database, (3) A new study reveals gamblers who experience a near loss are inwardly encouraged to gamble more since they’re acquiring “skill” in their “craft”.  For all our learning, do we feel any freer?

Do Facts = Truth?

True and truth are different.  They are related, but not one in the same.  Just like man and father are different, true and truth exist on two different planes.  Let’s play this out for fun.  A father must be a man. A man, however, doesn’t have to be a father to be a man. Other factors make a man a father.  A father is a culmination of several realities that result in a new arena of existence.

Truth is higher than true.

True facts will not and cannot ever equal truth.  They are merely an ingredient of the recipe for truth.  Follow?  Truth (perhaps oversimplified) is achieved through harmonizing facts.  It is the result of moving in and out of concrete experiences and realities and finding consistency and unity in the facts.  This is what we call the “higher meaning.”  This higher meaning gives significance to life that cannot be discovered through simply knowing facts. 

The Significance of Truth

Secularism insists that there is no higher meaning, only facts that are true.  The result is deification of fact.  Their rule book tells them that all fact is random and thereby has no further significance, no reason or rhyme.  Just as in their version of the genesis of the world, all that is, exists by chance and not design.  But isn’t the organization of this worldview, proof of an attempt to arrive at a higher meaning?  The truth of their view could not be ascertained, because they ruled out the One who sits in that higher plane possessing the meaning they seek.  They are, then, condemned to comb the earth for more and more facts devoid of the power to fulfill any meaningful purpose.

Missing the Truth

We, as believers, are quick to chastise the secularist who fails to discover  higher meaning.  The true irony lies in the fact that a large number of “Christians” will also fail to grasp the truth in their day on earth.  There is a danger in thinking that knowing the “word” of God is knowing truth.  The discipline of reading the “word” is indispensable, but not the sole ingredient of knowing truth.

The holy canon of scriptures can also become a mindless collection of random facts and experiences, without the ability to the find harmony, reason and meaning they lead to.  Could this be what Jesus meant when he scolded the Pharisees in John 5:39?  “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me.”  Christ is the higher meaning, the Truth.  Everything that is, exists by and for Him.  (By Him, I mean His purpose, His redemptive plan and its fulfillment in all creation.)

Free Your Mind

We were created to look for this higher meaning.  Truth is ascertainable, because God made you to ascertain Him.  To quote Josef Pieper, “Man’s existence becomes more fulfilled the more he can explore and understand reality.”  This is our freedom.

Photo: from Signs, one of my favorite movies of all time.  Just thought it was cute :)

2010
02/07
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The Man of Faith

If you think you’ve missed God one too many times to inherit your promise… the following post is for you.  Your situation is no match for the boundless grace of God.  Abraham offers encouragement to those who fear they have lost their promise.

Abraham is known as “The Father of Faith.”  Romans 4:11 tells us ”He is the father of all who believe,” [encompassing Jews and Gentiles in this passage.]  Because of these passages, Abraham has become the model for the life of faith. 

Abraham’s life was far from perfect.  There were ”moments” and missteps on his journey of faith.  However, in Heaven’s estimation, he never staggered.  Abraham received the promise of all promises.  He believed in that promise, because he believed the God who made it.  Some consider the promise and its plausibility before they consider the infinitely powerful God who spoke it into existence.  Romans 4:20 says, “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.”  

Define Stagger

According to the original language of Romans 4:20, stagger (diakrinō) means to hesitate because of a lack of faith.  One thing can be said of Abraham, he was not one for hesitation.  When the promise seemed to tarry, He entertained options that would keep him in position to inherit the blessing.  We’ve been taught to look at the Hagar/Ishmael situation as the grand mistake of Abraham’s life.  As though it was the “moment of weakness” in his faith walk.  I beg to differ.  If Romans 4:20 says Abraham staggered not, his decision to heed Sarah’s pleading to father a son with her servant Hagar was not a step out of faith.  He examined his options and choose the one that would keep him in line to inherit the promise.

To be honest, the promise was a little vague concerning who the mother of Abraham’s seed would be.  In Genesis 12:2 God said, “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.”  In the following two encounters Abraham had with God, there was never any mention of Sarah.  Genesis 16:2 records the dilemma that precipitated his “misstep”.

“And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.”

Since they truly believed it was God who had shut her womb, they logically concluded that Hagar was the best choice.   In their day, this was culturally and morally acceptable.  Only after Ishmael arrived on the scene, did the Lord return to set the record straight.

Genesis 17:16,20-21  “And I will bless her [Sarah], and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be [a mother] of nations; kings of people shall be of her…And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.”

Couldn’t we make the case that God was not “displeased” with Abraham for the birth of Ishmael, but was clarifying His will?  How many of us have Ishmaels in our care that we birthed in faith, waiting to obtain the promise?  Good news, friend… taking a step, even a misstep forward, is far more acceptable to God than fainting in unbelief.  Many of the choices we’ve made and regret, were choices made in faith.  Like Abraham, we often arrive later at the fuller understanding of how God intends to deliver.  I would venture to guess, most of your “mistakes” were made in faith believing.  Btw, who said they were “mistakes”?  That’s a question we should learn to take to Father. 

Faith acts. Unbelief paralyzes.  To obtain the promise as Abraham did, we simply act in faith and let the Lord sort it out.  He knows how to manifest the promise, regardless of our circumstances.

2010
01/31
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A Look At Spiritual Hunger

I am not a fan of word games.  There is something very bane about two parties insisting on using two different terms to refer to the same thing.  Semantics is generally the parlor game of people pushing a tired message, or splitting hairs over irrelevant details.  (That being said, the balance of this post could be interpreted as a semantics on parade.)  There’s one word I’d like to serve up on a plate – only because it has bounced around in my spirit all evening. Hunger. 

To be honest, the word has been lost on me in recent years.  Haven’t we all heard sermons on the topic of “spiritual hunger” ad nauseam?  Only after hearing that word repeatedly, tonight, did I yield to ask, seek, and knock what Father might be saying.

Holy Spirit began to fire off a list of words that “hunger” has been construed to mean.  See if any of these translate into “spiritual hunger” for you.

stirring, motivation, passion, craving, desire, desperation, discomfort, yearning, gnawing, searching, etc…

These are sophisiticated notions.  While these words describe hunger, I believe they do not grasp hunger’s true nature and definition.  Hunger is primal.  It is inherent to the nature of any living being.  Hunger is a natural response to a living being’s requirement for nourishment.  In the physical realm, hunger happens more than once a week.  It happens daily, and multiple times daily in healthy circumstances.  It is one of the basic survival drives of life. 

To preach a message on spiritual hunger is moot.   Since it is not externally triggered, it cannot be created by trying to stir people to action.  Most of what we witness in meetings focused on spiritual hunger, is a whetting of the appetite.  An appetite has to already exist before it can be whetted.  Could this explain why people can sit in a service where the Lord visits with amazing power, only to return home just as empty… or even emptier than when they came? 

If spiritual hunger is primal for every living creature, why do some seemingly have no appetite for the presence of God?  May I suggest, there are some “Christians” who are not alive in Christ?  Such a one is receiving nourishment from another source.  If they sit at Father’s banqueting table only to push away the plate, their spirit has already been satiated.  You cannot force them to eat, nor can you whet their appetite at this point.  They sit at the table digesting the fodder of this world.  It begs the question, to whom do they live?

Jesus said in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”  The Lord knew we had a choice of where we would go for nourishment.  He wasn’t saying we would only need to eat once.  The promise was that Christ would never fail to have fresh supply for the one who came to Him for sustenance. 

We feed our spirits daily.  What, then, are we eating, and to whom do we go for our daily bread?

2010
01/27
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