03.20.21 - week 97
those weird things christians say
you can’t just love flowers, you have to hate weeds - pastor michael durst
Matthew 13:24-25
“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.”
it’s become popular in the last few years for pastors + christians to talk about a needed shift. the saying goes, we must not just be known for what we are against, but also what we are FOR. it’s conceived as a move away from culture war and picketing abortions clinics and screaming about homosexual marriage while our church’s are filled with adultery etc etc etc.
if we are pro-active on exemplifying + living out our beliefs we will be more effective in spreading them than if we simply criticize those who believe and act wrong. totally helpful and accurate …
BUT … this idea is as incomplete as the problem it’s trying to solve.
in the same way that as you get older you can’t exercise enough to outrun a terrible diet, your positive contributions can be destroyed by your negative ones.
the little negative stuff can choke out a lot of good. rather than that fight that reality, we must fight to choke the little stuff out.
last week was the second sunday service at good news in the neighborhood. we are trying our best to improve our systems + processes to serve our people with excellence. my friend theresar + i (who incidentally it was her birthday yesterday) have worked together for a long time and we can get pretty fussy at each other, pretty quickly. a lot of barking + a lot of growling but never any biting type thing lol.
during a 10 hour two day marathon of loading in and leading our digital + in-person services with our team, for about 20 seconds we got real mad at each other, somewhere around 1020a on sunday. not like screaming or f-bombs angry, but visibly frustrated. we both sort of forgot about it until after the day was completed and someone else on our team reminded us.
there are flowers everywhere. new community being formed. new folks in the process of finding faith. new discipleship forming out of serving. people back in church. restoration of faith all over the place.
but if we want to build something healthy + lasting, we don’t have the luxury of just focusing on the flowers, we have to root out the weeds also. we worked hard this week to make sure this ‘weed’ was pulled up and won’t return. we can’t be unkind to our team mates ever for any reason. of course there’s grace when we fail, but we can’t lean back on that, we must work to destroy sin.
our athletic heroes + political heroes + entertainment heroes have the luxury of winning enough or succeeding to a degree that people will generally overlook their flaws + foibles. christian leadership isn’t that way. all unholy + ungodly behavior must be put away.
holiness might not be trendy, but it’s right.
Colossians 3:5-8
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
KG Korner
(a few wise words from lady kristen macdonald)
One of my sons gets eaten alive by mosquitos! He will scratch and scratch the little sores til they bleed because he just can’t help himself. And a few weeks ago I found myself right there bitten by a bug, not a mosquito but a bug of discouragement. I almost felt like a giant bug bite because all I could think about were the overwhelming feelings of knowing God is at work but not being able to understand the path quite yet and (to add another bug to the mix, lol) feeling quite antsy about it.
I love the Lord. I have walked faithfully with him for 20 years this summer. This is the sort of thing I didn’t think happens to “good” Christians who trust God and stuff. But it does, and if you don’t talk about it I think it makes you feel even more isolated and even sometimes doubtful in your heart. I have found that the very honesty of where I am and sharing that with a loved one can remove the denial and can help me stop the recurring thoughts of ‘why I am discouraged’ and lead instead to trusting God in the midst of my discouragement.
You see it is a real feeling, the dictionary describes discouragement as, ‘a loss of confidence or enthusiasm; dispiritedness.” Although I don’t think it’s wise to be led by our feelings, I also believe that we need to acknowledge them in order to process them, diffuse any doubt and keep moving forward. On this particular day I sought the Lord (that’s what God says to do, right? Psalm 34:4). I probably prayed this prayer 50 times that day, “Lord, I know you are there, I know you are good, I know you have good plans ahead, and I know you are always, always working, show me Lord, remind me of your Word and what you are up to right now, bring the encouragement my heart needs today.”
As I prayed, these words from Psalm 61:2 came to me, “Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.”
As I pray and fight for peace on days like these I have learned that I must remember whose I am. I have shared here before how much I love the Psalms because they are filled with so many of the names of God: He is my protector, my shield, my refuge, and like this last verse suggests my Rock. A rock is known for its immovability, it’s not going to falter or fail. When I shift my focus from my circumstances to the one who I know is in control there’s simply more peace. Yes, the situation I find myself in may feel bleak and it probably isn’t comfortable but if I remember the one who created the universe promises his presence in the midst of it then I am more likely to keep my eyes fixed on Him.
I have a list of the beautiful identities we gain when we decide to follow Christ and scriptures that confirm it in the front of my Bible. It helps me to remember that God’s Word tells us that no matter the itch of discouragement we feel that we are known, loved, useful, redeemed, forgiven, precious, seen, chosen, free, an heir, a new creation, and I am His. Let’s not discount all the good He has done for me and you because we can’t see the present or future clearly. He sees you, He loves you, and He wants you to take courage because He has good plans for you ahead.
#cupofleadership
like many people, i have spent a lot of time in the last 48 hours thinking about the shootings in atlanta that appear to be a culmination of a rise in anti-asian sentiment. it’s wrong.
based on the sources i have read, there appears to be both racial + some kind of attempt to vanquish sexual sin element to the motive (as currently reported)
the part i can’t shake is the idea from the shooter that he was trying to destroy something tempting him. this is a gross perversion of a beautiful truth revealed maybe most clearly in colossians 3.5 (which incidentally i quoted above)
Colossians 3:5-6
Put to death therefore what is earthly IN YOU: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of
God is coming.
book review
facebook: the inside story by steven levy
the lengthy tale of the history of facebook, written with the cooperation of sheryl sandberg + mark zuckerberg is an important part of 21st century history. levy writes with both compassion + clarity on the brilliance + missteps of the most influential company on earth. if you are trying to make sense of the frustrating reality of disinformation, toxic politics, and divisive attitudes in our world, understanding how facebook has contributed is a good place to start.
in many cases, we have traded privacy for access and depth for breadth. facebook was designed to do this to us, most of us agree that its bad, yet we continue on with it. levy shows how the company’s internal culture code of ‘move fast and break things’ contributed to the astonishing growth + toxic uses of the their products.
a really insightful + useful look at how our world has evolved in the 21st century digital age, highly recommended.
stuff to click on
sunday sermons from good news in the neighborhood are now on podcast … would love for you to follow along if it would help you :)
a gospel bopper from dante bowe, a perfect roll down the windows beginning of spring song.