Microscopes & Stages

Every single day I live under the stress of what will people think.  I live my life publicly, on a stage of sorts, and that means I live under a microscope.   Some days I detest that microscope; longing to be just another person, who doesn't have people depending on them for the care of their souls. Other days, I love the microscope. It holds me accountable to the virtues that I profess.  And on all days, good or bad, I love my calling to be that person who cares for the souls of others. So on those bad days when the mechanical stage of the microscope has been raised to the max and the objective lens magnifies my every move, I can't help but feel that I've failed in some way to live up to the standard people demand of me.  Sometimes on those days, I've done all the things I know to be true and right and yet, it wasn't enough for the people peering in the eyepiece, as much as they have focused in, somehow their lens is still blurred and they cannot truly see me or G-d in me.

When you live on the mechanical stage and your life is illuminated and investigated, there is only one thing that will get you through the day. You trust that you have a calling and that the only lens that matters is the lens through which G-d sees you. 

 

You learn that there will be people who bless you and there will be people who curse you. You can be doing everything right and this will still be the reality. You can be in the gutter or you can be on the mountaintop, people will bless you and people will curse you because at the end of the day it's not about you. It's about them and their heart. It is not your job to seek the affirmation.  It is not your job to try to force blessings from people.  It is not your job to convert people's behaviors and choices. 

 

It is your job to be yourself. It is your job to do what you are supposed to do as a child of G-d. We are asked to be faithful to who He has created us to be and that's it. 

And what is it that we are called to do: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our G-d, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your G-d with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself." " What is it that the Lord requires of you: to ACT JUSTLY, LOVE MERCY and WALK HUMBLY WITH YOUR G-D."

We all, every single one of us, has been asked to change the world. I cannot do that through policing people's behaviors, morals and values, or even policing my own. The only hope I have of changing the world is through the very virtue of being who I am called to be - embracing my brokenness and my wholeness and living in the paradox that is freedom in Christ. We change the world through just being ourselves passionately following the Master of the Universe. We are being asked to change the world through loving G-d with all we got, and loving our neighbor. We change the world through acting justly, loving mercy and walking humbly with G-d.  

In a world, where human microscopes are our daily reality, may we be a people who trust in the lens of G-d's love to give us our value, worth and purpose.  May I be a person who rests securely in who I am in Him.  

Shake it off

In Matthew 10, Jesus instructs his disciples to go out.  He tells them to heal the sick, raise the dead, drive out demons, break the bonds of oppression - to give freely because they have freely received.  Jesus tells them to be among the people, in fact to stay in the homes of those willing to have them.  But he also tells them in many senses to not be bullies, to not be pushy, or demand that people believe like them or even that people receive them.  Jesus tells them that if they are not received with openness and peace, to shake the dust from their feet and move along. 

I have a feeling a lot of life is about learning to "shake the dust off your feet".

Not everyone will agree with you, not everyone will believe like you, not everyone will have the same ideologies, perhaps some will have none at all, but that doesn't mean it's our job to change those people.  And this isn't even about reaching the lost necessarily.  Jesus sent the disciples into the people of Israel, into their own people.  Reality is even other followers of Christ will be different than you. They will dress different. They will make different choices. Their interpretations will not sound the same as yours.  And you will have to learn how to shake the dust off your feet and love them anyways.

It's our duty to open ourselves to all and let those who are willing come close and for the rest we must learn to shake the dust off our feet. We each have a mission and passion, we must live from that. We must live from love.

There's an art to shaking the dust off our feet and still truly loving our neighbors at the same time. That's what we must learn because if we don't, the dust piles up and with it bitterness, hatred, arrogance and unforgiveness begin to rule our lives.  

So what does shaking the dust off your feet mean to you? How are you living this out?

Turning Tables

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, "who is this?" The crowds answered, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee." Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there.  He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. "It is written," he said to them, "My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a 'den of robbers.'"  The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, "Hosanna to the son of David," they were indignant.  

~ Matthew 21:10-15 

Imagine with me for a moment this scene.  Jesus, a well-known man enters the city. The crowds are yelling out "Please save! Please save us, we pray!" That's what "hosanna" means. The word is a paradox.  It's a cry from the depth of their beings for a Savior and yet a cry of celebration because this Savior was present. "Hosanna, Please save us to the son of David." "Hosanna, please save us, in the highest." The people were in desperate need of a Savior, and they had some sense of that reality, enough to gather and cry out.

So this man, this Jesus, the prophet, after a long journey and a steep ascent to Mt. Moriah, where the temple was located. He enters. Now, Jesus was not a high priest and because of that he could enter no further than any other Israelite.  Being an Israelite male gave Him access tomuch deeper courts than most others.  The first court was for Gentiles. All along the inner walls and gates that led to the next court were words forbidding any Gentile or unclean person from proceeding any further.  If they did, the punishment was death.  It is in this court that we find Jesus - the court of the outcast, the most outer court of the temple that was reserved for the lowest of people. Here we find this Savior.

The teachers of the law and the chief priests valued this court so little that instead of being a place of worship for the outcast, the sojourner, the Gentile, it became a market that lined their pockets.  It became a place where little, if any at all, worship could be done. Crowded. Constant commotion.  Confusion. Noise. Contention. Fraud.  These things served only to build bigger walls between the people who came to worship and G-d. The powers that be created a space that allowed for walls of oppression that were bigger than the physical stones that towered over all who entered. There was no chance for this space to be a safe-haven. There was no ability for this space, this temple court, holy and sacred, to be a house of prayer. "Hosanna, please save us." The crowds needed a Savior. 

The teachers of the law and the chief priests, the money-changers, the people who held power, put their rights above all else, including their neighbors. Their complete disregard for the outcast brought on a righteous turning of the tables. The cries of the people would be answered, but not in the way that those holding the power liked.  Jesus created space.  In His turning of tables,  He lifted the oppressed. He restored their place in worship.  He tore down walls.  He welcomed the outcast, the sinner, the Gentile and He welcomed the blind and the lame to sit at His feet and be healed.  This is appropriate ministry for the house of G-d. He made the temple an oikos - He made it a home, a family. In these moments, He created a safe place for ALL! 

Are we creating safe places for ALL? Are we tearing down walls of oppression? Or are we protecting our own rights? The teachers of the law, the chief priests, the money-changers, the people who held power, well, quite frankly, they were pissed! They were indignant. They were angered and infuriated that their rights had been squelched.  Funny thing about anger is that it's really hard to be virtuous and righteous, to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly when our anger incites shameless acts of self-defense.

Jesus created safe places for ALL.  We are called to manifest Him.  We are called to lay down our rights, to turn the tables of oppression and bring freedom to ALL. When we do that, the Kingdom comes! 

Fear or Faith?

"They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Moses this account. 'We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is it's fruit.  But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev...'  

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, 'We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.' But the men who had gone up with him said, 'We can't attack these people; they are stronger than we are.' And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. 'The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw Nephilim there...we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.' 

~ Numbers 13:26-14:9 

Fear does funny things to us.  Fear paralyzes us.  This is what happened to the people of Israel.  A people who had seen first hand G-d in big, bold miracles, like liberating them from Egypt, parting waters, and killing their enemies.  This G-d commanded them to teach their children of the miracles He had performed, to remember all the mighty works that He had done, to never turn aside from trusting that G-d is with them. G-d is with them even when they cannot see Him. Any and all success was only possible because of their surrender to G-d. And yet, here they are ascribing to men what is only meant to be ascribed to G-d. "They're too powerful." "They're too strong." "They have mighty walls." 

In ascribing to their enemies the power that should only be ascribed to G-d, they failed.  They allowed their fear to distract them. They allowed their fear to disconnect them from G-d. They allowed their fear to call themselves unworthy - to equate themselves to grasshoppers and to assume the world saw them the same way.  Fear ravishes us. Fear devours us.  Fear is the enemy of faith.  

The people of G-d, the people who had witnessed His mighty hand and powerful miracles, allowed their own fear to conquer their lives.  The word for community here means "witnesses" or "testimony givers." These were G-d's testimony givers - the ones who would carry His story to the world and their fear broke their mission.  

Today, we do the same.  The evil one has no power except that which we give him, that which we relinquish to him.  In our fear, we ascribe to him power that is only G-d's.  We ascribe to him miraculous deeds as if he has the attributes of G-d.  He doesn't. He is not all-powerful. He is not all-knowing.  He is not omnipotent. He is not omniscient. He is not divine. Those are the attributes of G-d and G-d alone. We see our enemies as people who have power over us, as people who can harm. We let our fear determine how we think the world sees us. Our fear pins us to our own insecurities. Our fear looks us in the face and utters untruths about who we are. Our fear clouds are witness. Fear ravishes us. Fear devours us. Fear is the enemy of faith.  

Caleb and Joshua, followers of a really big G-d, stood before their people, silencing them and calling them to account.  "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it...the Lord will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord and do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them." 

In Mark 10, we see the story of the rich young man who says, "Lord what must I do to follow you?" Jesus replies "sell everything you own, give to the poor and follow." The man can't do it.  The man can't surrender. He can't trust. Jesus continues "With man this is impossible, but not with G-d, all things are possible with G-d." Sounds a lot like Caleb and Joshua's declaration.  

Everything is possible with G-d. G-d alone is mighty. Any success we have, no matter how hard we have worked (and work we must)...any success we have only happens when we surrender control to G-d and trust him. Only G-d can do it, but He does it through us. Fear ravishes us. Fear devours us. Fear is the enemy of faith. 

We have choice. Fear or faith? Which do you choose?