How To Avoid Damaging Others With The Bible

I know a great photographer. My family has used her on a couple of different occasions, and she is simply the best. Everyone who sees her pictures absolutely loves them.  I would recommend her highly and will use her for all of our photographic needs. How much sense would it make though if I asked her to bring over all of her equipment to the house to help me with my most pressing need right now, a deck that desperately needs to be stained? No matter how superior her camera and lighting is, it won’t do much good on the deck. It wouldn’t make sense, no matter how great she is with photography to expect her to be equally prepared and skilled when it comes to carpentry or fly fishing or chemical engineering.

But many of us have been taught that it’s ok to treat the Bible that way.

The Bible is life giving. Every word it says is true. It informs our lives. It guides, inspires, and corrects. But, in the words of Reggie Joiner, “the Bible is all true, but not all truth is found in the Bible”. Yet we stretch the Bible to force answers that it doesn’t supply on it's own. Here are three things we can all do to avoid damaging others with the Bible:

Quit Using The Bible To Speak When It Is Silent

Just because the Bible doesn’t tell us the year that the universe was created doesn’t mean that it’s less valuable. There is no reason to be afraid of what the Bible doesn’t include. God inspired the writing of the Bible to include what it includes. He has also inspired it to leave out what it leaves out. If He is ok with us not having all of the answers, then we can be ok with it too.

Quit Using The Bible As A Fact Finding Tool

The Bible wasn’t written to supply you with pithy answers to atheists who challenge you. It’s a bad idea to use the Bible to try to prove how wrong other people are. The Bible is a beautiful collection of stories, history, and poetry. It’s a story to be caught up in, not a tool to bludgeon others with. When we read the Bible with the primary goal of relating to God we will never be disappointed.

Quit Using The Bible To Try To Prove Your Point  

When we go to the Bible to back up what we already believe we close our eyes to things that God may be interested in showing us. The Bible is not a tool to prove how right you are.  It’s an invitation by the God of the universe to open our hearts and minds and be changed. When we read the Bible we are entering into a relationship. In the same way that it’s not good to use someone for our own purposes, it’s bad to use the Bible simply to win arguments.

The Bible is a powerful book. It doesn’t need to be twisted to do things it doesn’t do. It does everything we need for it to do. When we force the Bible to say things it isn’t really saying, we either become discouraged or we hurt other people, and the Bible doesn’t exist for either of those purposes.

Quote from Reggie Joiner at Orange Tour Charlotte 2015

How Telling People How Wrong They Are Can Hide The Truth

Why do we so desperately want to tell people what they are doing wrong? It starts young. If you have brothers and sisters, you know what I’m talking about. One of the high points of the day for lots of children is catching their sister doing something she shouldn’t. He’ll tell her or mom or whoever will listen, how wrong it is leave the legos spread around the floor.  Even when we're young, we love telling people what they are doing wrong.

This seems especially prevalent in the church. Sometimes it seems that a majority of sermons are about something or someone that is wrong. I’d like to stop for a second and simply ask the question: Why are we so obsessed with telling people how wrong they are? Many people will say that telling people that they are wrong is loving. Love is honest, that’s true. But if we are honest with ourselves, love is usually how we rationalize that deep desire to talk about how wrong the wrong stuff is. I doubt anyone sits around thinking, “how can I show this person how much I love them… oh yeah, I’ll tell them about all of the things they do that are wrong!”.

Seems like a bit of a stretch.

I normally know when I’m doing something wrong. I don’t always admit that I know, but deep inside I know. Maybe other people are like that too. What if the thing that people really struggle to believe is that God loves them, and that God isn’t scared off by whatever wrong they are wrapped up in. The good news of the Gospel is about God’s refusal to be held back by the sin in us and around us. The point is that we are to take our eyes off of how messed up we are and to fix them on Jesus, who is for us. I believe that is the message that people need to hear the most, not how weak they are, but how strong God is. We can't right our wrongs by ourselves anyway. We need God's help.

“But wait a minute!”, you may be saying, “so many people act like they are doing nothing wrong!”. I know. So do you and so do I. What breaks me out of pretending that I’ve got it all together is a reminder that because of Jesus, I don’t have  to have it all together. He does. I just need to trust Him.

So, let’s stop obsessing about who’s wrong (we all are), and let’s start obsessing about a God who loves us more than we can imagine. That sort of love tends to right wrongs better than our accusations ever could.

Photo courtesy of Death To Stock Photo

Is Your Work Producing The Life You Want Most?

Children are wonderful. With my daughter starting her senior year of high school, I’ve been even more aware of how valuable she is and our moments together are. The church is quick to praise the benefits of family as a hub of growth and character development, and they are right to do so. Families are a wonderful gift and can be powerfully productive. In their attempts to praise the goodness of families, many within the church have stretched a verse from the Bible beyond its original meaning, leaving many people feeling discouraged and confused. The verse is found in a collection of poems and songs from the Old Testament. It reads,

“Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands. How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them! He will not be put to shame when he confronts his accusers at the city gates.”                                                         Psalm 127:4-51

While these verses affirm that children are a wonderful thing, many have gone on from there to state that all families should have as many children as possible, or that the presence or number of children is a direct indication of how pleased God is with you. I’ve sat across from countless couples who have been exposed to this type of thinking. Their efforts to have children have failed, and broken and defeated they’ve asked, “what did we do to make God angry with us? What is it about us that keeps God from giving us children?”

The answer is nothing. God isn’t angry, and they haven’t done anything wrong. We live in a broken world, and everything bears the marks of that brokenness, including our bodies.

So, what do these verses mean?

The poem must be considered in its totality. It’s not a poem about whether you should have children, or why you may be unable to carry them. It’s a poem about work, specifically the kind of work that God calls us to. It opens with the statements that there are ways of building homes and guarding cities that are not effective. The writer also notes that it's pointless to wake up extra early and stay up extra late just to get a bit more done. Working your fingers to the bone may get you ahead in the short term, but it’s not how you were created to live.

For work to be all that it is supposed to be, it must be done with God. Work at its heart is to be a relational activity. Not only should work begin in relationship, but it’s real value is that it also produces relationship.  The poet uses child birth as an example of the type of work that we are called to. Child birth (at its healthiest) comes out of relationship. It also creates new relationship, between child and mother, and child and father, it even adds to the existing relationship between the husband and wife. 

So, the primary thrust of the passage is that the effort and hours of our life should begin with relationship with God and should result in relationship with other people. Those relationships (not just children, but all relationship) are like arrows in the quiver of a warrior. Our relationships make us strong. Lack of relationship can leave us empty. Unhealthy relationships can be incredibly painful.  We don't have full control over our relationships, and some of them may not end well, but they are worth our effort. They are worth attempting. 

So, does your work currently produce deeper and better relationships? Promotions are great. Raises are always welcome. Recognition of our efforts is rewarding. Relationship, however, is the true prize of life. They make life more enjoyable and make us more healthy. May you always have a quiver full!

Photo courtesy of Death To Stock Photo

1- Passage from the New Living Translation

Why Fighting Fire With Fire Will Only Get You Burned

Trying to live the life that Jesus modeled and has called us to isn’t easy. It would be easier if we could be totally surrounded by others who are also trying to follow Jesus. The world we live in, however, plays by very different rules. One of the most dangerous temptations Christians fall into is the “let’s beat them at their own game” mindset. This way of thinking believes that Christian ideals should be brought about by any means necessary. We should wield political power, and rally blocks of voters to persuade politicians to enforce Christian rules. If we disagree with businesses, we should boycott their products and services. Hit them where it hurts. Pressure them financially to back down or change course. Military power can be leveraged as well. After “the saints go marching in”, let’s send the Marines.

We picket. We protest. We buy billboards for Christians slogans.   We try to beat the world using the tactics of the world. For the most part, I don’t believe this has come about as a result of bad motives. Many Christians fear for their world, and the damage that is being done through reckless and selfish actions. Whether the motives are good or bad however, this is not how Jesus modeled for us to influence the world.

Remember….

Jesus could have politically outmaneuvered the Pharisees and the Roman government. He was astounding religious leaders in the temple with his understanding even as a child. He had the ability to outsmart the system and to bring political change.

But He didn’t.

Jesus could have used military force to conquer the world. Angel armies beat any other armies you can imagine. Jesus had access to all the firepower He could have needed. Many of his followers were spoiling for a good fight anyway

But He didn’t.

Jesus could have bought and sold Rome thousands of times over. The wealth of heaven is pretty formidable. When you use gold as pavement, you live in pretty swanky neighborhood.

But He didn’t.

Jesus method was different. Jesus loved people. He was honest. And when the time came, He suffered and died. The resulting change in hearts and minds has lasted for over 2000 years and has touched every corner of the world.

Like Jesus we are called to love a world that will often not love us back. We are called to be honest and humble when arrogance and lying most often win the day. We are called to lose at every turn and to love those who seem to be defeating us. The way of Jesus isn’t the way of the world. When we follow Jesus we can stay calm even when it feels that the world is crumbling all around us. God has been at work. He is at work, and He will complete His work. That completed work will be far more wonderful, peace-filled, and fulfilling than anything we can imagine.

So, Christian friends, here are a few thoughts:

Vote. Have a voice politically. But don’t lose your mind when your candidate doesn’t win. And quit calling the other candidate an antichrist. It makes us all look bad.

Support our military men and women for the sacrifices they make for our country. Be there for them in their times of need when they return home. But stop taking joy in the thought that “bad guys” will be blown off the map. Jesus died for them too. They should be held accountable for their actions, but God never gives up on anyone. So, you should stop doing it.

Be wise financially. Spend you money on things that last. Use it to bring mercy and hope. After all, money can never buy you safety and security. It’ll only rent them for a while. In the end, mercy and hope are better investments.

Photo Courtesy of Death To Stock Photo

Believing Drives Doing: How To See Yourself Honestly

I lost.

I am a loser.

Those statements seem to go together.  If you lost you are a loser right? They may seem similar, but those statements have very different consequences when deeply believed. One is a description of our performance, the other is a statement about who we are.

I’ve become hopelessly addicted to the GPS app on my phone. I use it anytime I travel any distance from home. I even use it when I’m close to home just to make sure I am taking the quickest route to where I want to go. Even with GPS it’s easy to miss turns and get lost. We lose focus, turn a bit too early, or get caught up singing Taylor Swift songs to the top of our lungs and don’t hear the notification to take the next left. (not that I’ve ever done the third one).

Taking a wrong turn is different from having a malfunctioning GPS. If we simply take a wrong turn, our GPS can “recalculate” a new route that will get us to where we want to go. It may take a bit longer, but we will eventually arrive at our destination.  If our GPS is broken, however, it will continue to give us wrong information, and we will never arrive at our intended location.

We all make mistakes, fail, sin, or lose at times in life.  Even though it’s not enjoyable, we can learn from our missteps. We pick ourselves up and try again. Believing that we are a loser or a failure is very different. What we believe to be true about ourselves directs every turn we make in life. Like a malfunctioning GPS, false beliefs will lead us off course.  If you believe that you are broken or a failure or unlovable, then you will live a broken life.

The message of the Bible is that God doesn’t believe that you are unlovable or irreparably broken. The Christian life is one in which we daily attempt to believe the truth that God is telling us about life and ourselves. We are loved, and God wants to repair our brokenness and then employ us to reach other broken people. It’s almost too good to believe. The question that I often return to may be one that you need to ask yourself as well: “Is my GPS broken?” Have I begun to believe things about myself that aren’t true? There are lots of voices in the world trying to make us doubt our value. We have to block out those toxic voices and listen for the true voice of God speaking into our hearts.

Eugene Peterson writes, “All the waters in the ocean cannot sink a ship unless it gets inside. Nor can all the trouble in the world harm us unless it gets within us.”  You can lose your job, fail in a relationship, get passed over for a promotion, and a thousand other things in life, but none of them will crush you if are able to remember that your identity isn’t the same as your performance. Your performance will fluctuate, but what God thinks of you will never change. So, keep an eye on your inner GPS, and remember that the God of the universe is for you.

Excerpt from "A Long Obedience In The Same Direction" by Eugene Peterson

The Charleston Shootings And The Unstoppable Power Of Character

Is it fair to say that more and more people today use tragedies as a platform to present their own thoughts and opinions? Fair or not, it's true. Following the tragic shooting in Charleston, SC, social media was packed with words of encouragement, words of hate, and everything in between. After our carefully worded posts cycled through and our emotions cooled, we moved on. The families of those lost, however, remained in the dark mists of their grief. Thousands of voices and sensationalist news reports almost obscured the real story. Many of the families forgave the murderer.

They forgave him.

That sort of courage and character is overwhelmingly beautiful, especially in a world that seems to increasingly lack both courage and character. How did they do it? Maybe even more importantly, how can we do it? How can we manifest such character in our own times of crisis? How can we offer hope and forgiveness rather than empty opinion and posturing?

How did the family members of those killed in Charleston forgive the person who had caused them such misery? The answer it seems is that they had already been forgiving for a very long time. Forgiveness was a skill they had already developed and employed countless times before.

There's a story from the Bible about a young man named Daniel who had been taken from his home after his country had been conquered by a foreign army. The habit of the Babylonian leaders at that time was to take the best and the brightest from each nation they conquered and bring them home to make their own nation stronger. Daniel was one of those best and brightest. Daniel's life in Babylon was marked with trials and challenges. During one such challenge we read that Daniel, "went to his house where he had windows in the upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously." (Daniel 6:10). Daniel acted according to what he believed most valuable even when it threatened to cost him his life. How? He was simply doing what he had already formed a habit of doing. He prayed. Families in Charleston forgave.

Truly noble actions in the face of tragedy or danger can only come as a result of deeply formed character. In the words of Aristotle, "we are what we repeatedly do". Character is a habit worked out over time. Character is what we need most. Opinions change. Our culture will continue to morph from one thing to another, but deeply rooted character will always give hope and point to something bigger and more beautiful. Those courageous families in Charleston have character. May God give us each the drive and desire to form character of our own.


Photo Courtesy of Death To Stock Photo
Bible passage is from the English Standard Version

The Middle Of Your Story

I hate the middle of a good book.

Don’t get me wrong, I love good books. I think one of the greatest satisfactions in life is to settle down with a good book on a rainy evening. The beginning of a good book always offers intrigue and excitement. You are quickly meeting new characters, immersing yourself in a different time and place. You get a glimpse of the hero’s hopes and dreams. You can’t wait to see where the story goes. For a while, in most stories, things seem pretty good, but then somewhere near the middle of the story, things go wrong. The mother dies or the bank forecloses. Sickness sets in or the relationship crumbles. Things break down and for a while, and it’s hard to imagine any way this story could have a happy ending. If you stopped reading the book at this point, you would live in constant depression and frustration. But we keep reading, because we hope things will somehow find a way to turn around.

Your life is a story, and you are probably somewhere in the middle of it. We all face days, weeks, or even months when things go wrong. People we love die. Jobs end. Our health fails. In those dark times, it’s hard to imagine that our story could have any sort of good ending. It’s hard to imagine that things could work out or even that we’ll survive. It’s during these dark moments that we begin to wonder if we have failed or somehow let God down.

This is when the words of an early church planter named Paul mean so much for Christians. Paul wrote in a letter to the church in Rome that God takes everything that happens in our life and shapes them to lead to a good place. (Romans 8:28). Your story as a Christian has a good ending. You are a part of a story that is more amazing than you could ever have imagined. I know that the middle parts can be discouraging sometimes, but there is more to your story than what you are enduring today.  So hang in there, and keep living your story. Dark moments today can give way to incredible victories tomorrow.

The Courage To Take A Closer Look

Many of us remember the story of Medusa from mythology. With snakes for hair and a face to match, she was so horrific to look at, that anyone who saw her turned to stone. (insert your own horrible date story here). The idea that something is so bad that it can’t even be acknowledged seems far-fetched, but it actually hits pretty close to home.

One of the most difficult things in life is to take an honest look at yourself. To admit all of the ugly things that you are not proud of that are lurking in your heart. Support group folks know this task as Step 4, taking a fearless moral inventory. For many of us the idea of being completely honest about how messed up we truly are seems overwhelming. We can’t bear to look at it any more than people dared to look at Medusa. But there are important reasons for taking a courageous look at your own heart:

Hiding Isn’t Healing

The mess is there whether you acknowledge it or not. You can ignore it if you want to, but it won’t go away. The bad decisions, selfishness, and arrogance inside of us will fester and grow if we ignore it. The damage that comes from not looking is worse than anything we will feel when we are honest with ourselves about it.

God Is Bigger

God’s forgiveness is bigger than your mess. Actually, it’s not even close. It’s not that my mess is small, it’s just that my God is so very big. His mercy is greater than you ever imagined. His forgiveness knows no limits. Best of all, He doesn’t want you to carry around that guilt and shame anymore.

You’re Not Alone

God is not waiting for you to clean up your mess before He shows up in your life. God wants to be a part of the cleaning-out process with you. God doesn’t want you to fix yourself (you can’t anyway). He wants to partner with you as you address one thing at a time. Piece by piece, day by day, God will heal those broken places inside of us, and leave something beautiful in its stead.

So, if you have been putting off an honest, hard look at your life, today is your chance to move in a different direction. God isn’t surprised by your failings and He won’t leave you alone with your messes. 

Failing Forward

The One Thing People Need From You (And How You Are Depriving Them Of It)

We need you.

Your friends need you. Your spouse needs you. Your kids need you. Your co-workers need you. People in your community that you have yet to meet, need you. They don’t need tons of your time or money or help, although those things are nice. What they need most, is something only you can give.

They need your experience.

You have made tons of decisions in your life, some good and some not so good. You have succeeded and failed. You have loved and possibly even been hurt in a relationship. As Christians, we believe that God is wrapped up in all of those events in life. He’s in the good. He’s there for us during the bad. The story of how God has interacted with you during those times in your life is a valuable gift that can be shared with others. When Moses was encouraging the nation of Israel before they entered the land of Canaan to live, he told them to love and serve God, “For your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord that he did.” (Deuteronomy 11:7). Some wisdom isn’t found it books, it comes from a life lived, from what our eyes have seen and our ears have heard. Sadly, most of us never pass on (or sometimes even notice) the amazing things that we have learned. If you want to give your most valuable resource to the people that need it most, here are three things you need to start doing:

1)Watch

Sometimes life happens to you without you even noticing. It’s easy to get so caught up in the frantic pace of our lives, looking ahead to the future, that we forget that God is up to something here and now. There is something He is wanting to show you on even the most ordinary days. If you don’t watch for it, you might miss it. The large, dramatic events of our life aren’t the only time that God shows up. He’s always with you, which means there is always something new for you to see and learn.

2)Reflect

Setting up a time each day to look back and reflect on what happened is one of the most overlooked spiritual disciplines. Reflection is hugely important. It’s our chance to wrap our mind around our day, and to sort out all that went on, and all that it means. St. Ignatius set a time each evening to look back over his day and to talk to God about the good and the bad. Not only does setting a time of reflection sort out our own thoughts, it allows us to package the information that we hope to pass on to others.

3)Tell

It’s easy to believe that people don’t really care about what you have to say, and sometimes they don’t. That doesn’t change the value of what you have to offer. The ways you have seen God interact with you in your life is a valuable story for others. Some may ignore it, but others will cherish it. So, tell your story, and let others decide what they will do with it. All you can do is share, the rest is up to them.

You have a story to tell, and there are people who desperately need to hear it. So, take some time today and make a call or schedule a visit and share your heart. You’ll be glad you did.

Why Your Use Of The Truth May Be Pushing People Away

Last year a recurring problem in Somalia made the world news. People throughout the world were reaching out and sending food, medicine, and other critical supplies to help starving people in that country. The supplies, however, rarely reached the people that needed them so desperately. They were often intercepted by the very warlords and militias that had contributed to the poverty stricken condition the people were in. Once this problem was exposed and studied, it would have been insane to continue to blindly send aid in the same manner as before. Aid would still be needed, but the question of how to get the aid to the people who needed it would have to be addressed.

I love wrestling with difficult questions and seeking answers to problems. I used to believe that supplying people with the correct answers to their questions (often whether they asked or not) was one of the most important things you could do in life. I still believe that honest answers to questions are important, but I’ve learned something else now as well. In the same way that simply dumping food and medicine into Somalia had stopped doing any good for the people who needed it, simply dumping answers on people who I think may need them doesn’t do any good either. It’s possible that the people you are trying to help are no longer listening to the answers that you are offering. Here are three things to remember as you seek to help others:

1)Love comes before answers, not vice versa

A major failing of the church in the past 30 years is that it has often been focused on teaching its people right answers instead of teaching them how to love. We then unleash them on their jobs, communities, and schools to go spread the right answers. It’s been like sending someone to change light bulbs with a hammer. God’s plan for people is to love first and always. Everything else comes after that. If the person you are talking to doesn’t know that they are loved, the will never care about your answers.

2)Acts of love give meaning to words of love

It’s important to tell the people you care for that you love them. You should do it as often as you can, in as many ways as you can. Just saying the words isn’t enough though. In our fast-paced, hectic world one of the most difficult challenges we face is the fact that love takes time. Quick answers won’t do the trick, even if they are the right answers. Your co-worker that you care about, who keeps wrecking her life with toxic relationships, already knows that her relationships are awful. What she needs is someone who will spend time with her and love her even when she is a mess. Over time that love will help her find the courage to make the changes she needs to make. Sometimes the answers that people need can be delivered without saying a word.

3)Don't Rush In With An Answer

A quick answer to a heartfelt question can often make someone feel dumb or lazy. When people have the courage to ask a question our first goal should be to meet them where they are and to make sure they know that we care for them. For example, let’s say your middle school son comes in and says, “I’m sick of studying, everybody else just cheats on the quizzes and they have a better grade than I do. I’m not going to study anymore.” You could answer, “Christians don’t cheat. Those kids are going to have to answer for God one day for what they did in sixth grade Civics. Now, go study.” You just offered an 8 second solution to a problem that has been stressing your son all day. No matter how good you think your answers are, that’s a lousy way to treat someone. Take some time to appreciate where your son is before you jump in. Maybe something like, “Wow, that’s got to be really stressful. I think I would be super angry if that happened to me.” Let him know that what’s he feeling makes sense before you cram an answer down his throat. Better yet, work with him to help him find an answer, rather than just dropping one on his head.

When we love people, we try to help them. We try to answer questions. We try to solve problems, which is good because people need what you have to offer. While most of our efforts are motivated by love, just like the aid sent to the Somalian people, our help doesn’t always reach its intended target. Our preoccupation with giving answers often pushes people away.  Let your friends, children, and co-workers know that you have love for them before you let them know that you have answers for them. By doing so, you may help them receive and enjoy both.

Photo Courtesy of Death To Stock Photo

Why God's Love Matters More Than You Think

We’ve all been told at some point or another that God loves us. We’ve been told in sermons, at conferences, and in songs. It’s a great message, but like most great messages, when you hear it often, it begins to lose it’s meaning. Why is God’s love such a big deal, I mean He loves everyone right? What does God’s love have to do with you and your everyday life?

God’s love isn’t just sentimental feelings of affection for you. God’s love doesn’t mean that He thinks you are great. It means that He values you whether you are acting great or not. His love is not just a fact that you should know in your head. It starts there, but it’s much more.

God’s love is an active, aggressive process. God’s valuing of you means that He wants the best for you. That’s good news for two important reasons; number one, God knows everything, so He actually knows what it best for you. How many times have you made a bad decision or failed at a task simply because you didn’t know enough about it? I’ve done it millions of times. It's impossible to know every possible aspect of every thing. With God, we don't have to.  The second part is also reassuring. God has unlimited power, so He has the ability to help you accomplish what is best for you. Sadly however, while God is good on His side, our side is less than reliable. Our lack of knowledge and lack of power often leads us to battle against God and against what’s best for us. We don’t know and we don’t have as much control as we think we do. That

brings us to a crossroads with two possible answers.

There are only two options in our relationship with God. We either trust God’s love for us even though we don’t understand it and can’t predict it, or we trust ourselves and our efforts. Trusting God, rather than proving yourself to God is the key to life. Rather than seeking to understand or control His love, simply accept it. The song I was taught to sing when I was young wasn’t joking when it taught that God’s love is like “a fountain flowing deep and wide”. Being loved by God is a lot like being carried along a rapidly flowing river. It’s deep so my feet can’t reach the ground and control it. It’s wide, so I can’t reach to the side and escape it. It bruises me, frustrates me, cleans me, and calms me. It’s constantly changing and at the end, I will be in a very different place because of it. 

God loves for you matters very much and it's yours if you will have it.

Why So Many People "Get Saved" And Then Get Gone

The task of speaking about God and His plans for the world has always been a daunting one. As humans, we are not perfect and we do not know everything, yet we must do the best we can to talk about this most important idea. As Christians, the story about God and how it relates to us is the core of how we understand everything in life. So we must talk about God, but we must do it humbly, and we must be honest with ourselves when certain words and phrases that worked well in the past, do not serve us as well today. That brings us to the question of why so many people today seem to “get saved” and then get gone.

The idea of “getting saved” isn’t a phrase that most non-church people are familiar with. Normally it’s presented to them as the idea that God can save you from something: a meaningless life, your own selfishness, or being on fire forever in a place called hell. The thought is that if you follow God you won’t be set on fire forever. So, the speaker is counting on the person’s fear to cause them to choose to follow God. If this is the case then the following is only as strong as the fear. That means that when the fear leaves, the following fades. It’s as if the person is being chased to God all the while having their eyes fixed on what’s behind them that may cause them harm, but as soon as the coast looks clear and they see no danger, they walk away from God. No danger = no need for protection. This causes speakers to try to create fear constantly in the hearts of their listeners. Fear of the world being overrun by evil, fear of death, fear of hell after death, fear of Christianity being swept away by other beliefs. But, here’s where things begin to break down.

No one wants to live in fear every day. Fear is miserable and exhausting, and we can only handle so much of it before we break. (Not the mention the fact that God didn’t create us to live in fear) So, people leave the church and sometimes leave God. They find ways to distract themselves from the constant fear.  And leaders are left scratching their heads wondering what went wrong.

I don’t want to throw stones at anyone, or even begin to try to say that somehow I have better intentions than other people. By and large, I feel most Christian leaders do have good intentions, it’s just that they’ve forgotten how to talk to people. They often see people as a means to an end. They care and they want to reach out, it just tends to come across as manipulation instead of love. As a beginning of a solution I would like to offer up the thought that love is a greater motivator than fear. If someone comes to God because they love Him, then their eyes aren’t fixed on what they may be afraid of that’s behind them, but on the God that they want to know better. Running to God instead of away from hell is about relationship not just self-preservation. That is important, because we were created for relationship, and when we find it, our souls are soothed.

So, I’m not afraid of the rise of Islam, or the dangers to traditional marriage in America, but I do care. I care because I care about the people involved. I’m not afraid, because the God I love (albeit imperfectly) is bigger than those issues.The job he has given me (and I believe all followers of God) is to care for others, especially those unlike ourselves. So don’t be afraid, but love. Love the best you can wherever you can. Love wisely with humility and patience, and trust that God has a firm grasp on all the rest.