The Kingdom of Me

We reached a point in our family where we were tired of just going to church and doing the same thing over and over. While we were grateful to be saved and to be able to worship freely and to have loving, Christian friends, there was an emptiness brewing in our hearts. Gary Haugen referred to this feeling about going to church as "Groundhog Day" after the movie with the same title. That was exactly how we felt. We knew that we were blessed bountifully for a purpose greater than ourselves. But what? We just kept doing the same things every week, every season. Our lives were full of activity and stuff, but the nagging emptiness did not go away. If the Church is God's answer for a lost and dying world waiting for justice and you and I are the Church, what is stopping us from actually carrying out this call on our lives? What is keeping us in church "doing" church instead of "being" the Church to this world? I think there are a handful of real answers to that question, and today I want to talk about one of them.

I believe that there is such a vast gap among western Christians between their reality and their awareness of the world. What I mean is that in our culture it is easy to insulate ourselves from the reality of how the rest of the world lives. We do this by choice. We prefer not to know about suffering - perhaps because we feel powerless to do anything about it, perhaps because we do not want to feel guilty for how we live in comparison. We've become skilled experts in avoidance. It's easy to watch the evening news or put down the newspaper and then go back to our dinner table discussions that have nothing to do with a suffering world and everything to do with our own little kingdoms. I love Kay Warren's phrase "the kingdom of me". Truly our lives are built around our own problems, our own challenges and issues that we deem a threat to our own personal lives of comfort. We have grown to expect our lives to be easy and we squirm and fight when something in our lives becomes the least bit inconvenient. We are consumers of ease. We are suckers for the latest product that makes our lives "easier" because we perceive in our limited field of vision that our lives are difficult and that we have a right to want them to be easier.

But our perceptions are an illusion. We are so insulated that we are comparing our lives not to the rest of the world, but to the person sitting next to us in our cozy pew at church. We have to broaden our awareness of the world.

To do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. That is what the Lord requires of us. But how do we do justice if we are so insulated from the injustice in our world? How do we love to administer God's mercy to a dying world if we can't see or connect with that world and can only relate to a world that is within the context of our own little kingdom? I truly believe that the Church today is God's answer for the injustice in our world, but we are living in our own little private worlds and can't even see the suffering world so how can we be the ones that God chose to deliver justice to a world we can't or won't see?

Statistics are not enough. I could sit here today and list some alarming statistics about our world and yet by dinner time you will probably have forgotten all about them. If I told you there are 143 million orphans on the face of this earth we live on, what effect does that have on you? Do you know any orphans personally? Maybe, but probably not. So, how can you relate? That number - 143 million - it sounds like a lot, but do you really stop to think about how many that really is? Do you contemplate that each of those children was created by God for a purpose here on earth and consider what is being lost by these little lives being wasted?

We are not completely heartless though. We do hear stories or see a muliti-media presentation at church that will stir our hearts beyond lunch time. We have given of our finances to some of these things, but I love what Kay Warren says in her book, Dangerous Surrender:

"Giving financially loosens the grip of materialism and selfishness that we all struggle with, but it can be a way of quieting our conscience while keeping our distance from those in need. Can you point to the sick, the poor, the prisoner, the orphan, the widow, the immigrant you are personally ministering to in Jesus' name?......As long as suffering people are a mere statistic to you, you will never become ruined for life as you know it. When suffering becomes personal - with faces and names - and when you hear their stories, you won't be able to remain disconnected."

We can't do justice unless we can see injustice. And we can't really see injustice unless we are willing to step outside the walls of our little kingdoms and go see and touch the suffering world. If the Church is God's answer for injustice in our world today, we have to be willing to embrace suffering and injustice and to get our hands and feet dirty. Sounds a little scary, huh? We'll talk about that next. Today, ask the Lord how to find the suffering world that lies just beyond the gates of your personal comfort zone and go there, just for a bit. I promise, though your kingdom may begin to fall, you will not regret what it will cost you, for truly, whatever you do for the least among us, you do for Jesus Himself. There is no greater way to experience Him.

Sacred Discontent

For some reason, I have had this weird nudge from God to relentlessly read stories of missionary heroes to my children. I wasn't raised that way. I was raised to fear everything. Like most people, I used to be more than content to have that life where I went to college and bought a house in a safe part of town and raised my kids to be afraid of anything that was too different - anything that would have the potential to "lead them astray." I made a lot of my early parenting decisions, I'm sorry to say, based strictly on....fear. Fear of my kids getting hurt, fear of them picking up bad attitudes or habits, fear of what other parents might think. But at the same time, I had this weird notion that I needed to read stories to them about missionary heroes - people who constantly laid down their lives and faced peril and danger to follow God and to reach the world with His message of truth and love.

I found myself wondering why I was so driven to give these stories to my children. Was it because I really wanted to live a life like that? Well, deep down inside, I think the answer for me was... YES. Did I think that I could or actually ever would live a life like that? Um, no. Did I want my kids to live dangerous lives for the Lord? Well, definitely not! I wanted them to live safe lives for God. :)

But is that possible? Contemplate that one for a minute. Is it possible to live a "safe" life for God?
Sure, I guess. Is it the life we are meant to live? Um, sorry....but, no. I don't think so. When I say "safe" I am referring to my comfort zone. Doing and being all that God created for me to do and be without ever feeling uncomfortable or unsafe - without ever risking my reputation, my finances, my life...

When my daughter started choosing stories about martyrs for her recreational reading when she was nine years old, I have to admit, I was alarmed. Was God preparing my daughter to be a martyr? Certainly not. I pushed that thought away and figured it was a phase she was going through that she would get over. For some reason, I continued to read stories to her, and then to her brothers about brave missionaries. Why?? For years I didn't know, but now I do.

I truly believe that when God created me - and my children - for this time on earth, He specifically wired us to be bring His heart to this present lost world. I was not born at another time. I was born for this earth at this time. I was also created to yearn for a life that matters. Pause. Think about that - deep inside each of us is this desire to carry out our God-given purpose here on earth - to live a life that matters. True?

When we begin to ask that "Now what?" question (see previous post), we come to a place of new understanding. Again, Gary Haugen gives voice to this understanding:

"This, I believe, is the voice of divine restlessness. This is a voice of sacred discontent. This is the voice of a holy yearning for more. This is the moment in which we can see that all the work that God has been doing in our lives and in the life of the church is not an end in itself; rather, the work he has been doing in us is a powerful means to a grander purpose beyond ourselves... This is the critical transition - when we who have been rescued by Christ come to understand that our rescue has not been simply for ourselves but for an even more exalted purpose. Indeed our own rescue is God's plan for rescuing the world that he loves."

My friend, the Church is God's answer - YOU are God's answer to a world waiting for justice. You have been set free for a purpose. You have been blessed for a purpose. You were born for such a time as this!

What is holding you back from making this transition - from rescued to rescuer? Ask yourself, "Why was I put on this earth at this time? Do you feel the tug of this divine restlessness to make your life matter? What is stopping you from living that brave, heroic laid-down life of a modern day hero?? It could be lots of things. Don't you think it's worth getting to the bottom of this question? I do, so I'm going to keep on.......