04.09.21 - week 99
don’t you just hate people
so this week is the masters golf tournament. i went a couple years ago when my friend bobby won the ticket lottery and invited me. its a remarkable place, beautiful + pretentious + interesting. one of the favorites to win this year is a guy named bryson dechambeau
i have changed my opinion about this dude so many times. when he first came on the scene, he dressed a bit quirky + did some unorthodox things (i loved him). then he started lifting weights like crazy and hitting the ball further than anyone ever and kinda acting like Ivan Drago in Rocky IV (i despised him). then he started annoying course designers by playing the course in weird ways to take maximum advantage of his skills (i LOVED him). then he won the US Open last fall in remarkable fashion, beating a a few of my favorites (i DESPISED him again). and the cycle continues … my opinion shifts. he’s mostly the same, but my view of him changes. people are fickle.
my brother Landon is a real music fan. i am not. it used to always make me laugh that right about the time i might have heard a cool song from some band (with some ridiculous name like deerhoof), Landon’s friends would be rejecting them. why? too mainstream. they loved the band when they were not well known, because some of their identity was tied up in being part of the cool new thing. when people like me knew about it, time to find something else unknown. did the band change? not at all … but their initial fans rejected them when they became too popular. people are fickle.
i have known this guy Nathan Finochio for 10 years. he is one of the most unique + eccentric + brilliant followers of Jesus i have ever known. for the first few years i knew him, he was trying to figure out his place in the world. he was making music + writing + teaching with some success, but he was almost completely unknown. i loved he + his brother, always tried to pull them into something we were doing and help them along financially. just being candid, they were cool + i was quasi-successful and that was how our relational dynamic worked. about 3 years ago, his ministry starting taking off. he is now a thought leader + speaking all over the place + has built an online seminary that is educating people around the world.. as the dynamic shifted, one day i began to notice that i resented him a bit. the same eccentric hilarity i used to love, now annoyed me. did he change? no .. my perception of him shifted because my life was not going amazing + it seemed like his was. people are fickle.
the same crowd that shouted HOSANNA at Jesus on Sunday shouted CRUCIFY HIM on Friday.
did Jesus change in that time? did He show some unflattering side of Himself? not really … the people changed. when Jesus seemed to be attaining the political power they wanted from their leader He was the guy. when Jesus was vulnerable and unable to help them attain their goals anymore, he was cast aside. PEOPLE ARE FICKLE.
people are fickle. so if you are popular in your little pocket of the world right now, enjoy it, because it won’t last forever. if you are confounded by how things seemed to have shifted against you, take comfort. people may change, but Jesus doesn’t. that doesn’t make it hurt less, but it does help explain things a bit. it’s obvious, but when we focus on pleasing God, it becomes a lot easier to not be bothered by fickle people.
galatians 1.10
for am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God?
or am I trying to please man?
if i were still trying to please man, i would not be a servant of Christ.
KG Korner
(a few wise words from lady kristen macdonald)
It’s a funny thing to be surrounded…
A few years back we were on a family vacation. It was naptime for our young kids and so my dad offered to take my siblings and I water-skiing while my mom stayed back and ‘held down the fort.’ The water wasn’t too choppy and the sun was shining so it seemed like a perfect opportunity for a few good laughs if nothing else! My brother-in-law was taking his turn on the ski’s when we saw dark clouds that had seemingly come out of nowhere hang over the whole lake. Within minutes we went from an amazing hang to the feeling of being surrounded by looming, dark clouds that looked so big we might get taken under by the storm.
Another day that lives in infamy is Felicity’s first birthday. It happened to be the hottest day of the year and yet family and friends gathered from near and far to celebrate her. I remember standing in our yard with her in a highchair and all of those gathered singing happy birthday to her while she took a good look at her beautiful cake. With tears in my eyes I remember taking a mental snapshot of the blessing that community had been in her first year. I felt surrounded by people who cared for us as parents and who loved her.
Being surrounded can bring intense feelings. Depending on the details it can be dangerous and dreadful or it can be filled with overwhelming joy! But this scripture has brought much hope to my heart and I pray for yours as well, “Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore.” Psalm 125:1-2
I’ve never been to Israel but I hear it’s a life-changing experience to walk in the places Jesus walked and makes reading the Bible come alive in a fresh way. But even if you have never been you can finally use the map pages in your Bible or search online and find that mountains truly do surround Israel. Dr. John DeLancey writes on a blog from a few years back saying, “travelers who look down to the ancient city of Jerusalem from the vantage point of the Mt. of Olives will never read Psalm 125:2 the same way once they literally “see the verse” unfold before their eyes!”
As you allow this truth to soak through from your mind to your heart another beautiful part of this idea is that if the Lord surrounds his people then nothing can get to them unless it first passes through him. We know that God allows both blessings and difficulty in our lives and that he brings glory to himself through both. But knowing that He is surrounding you no matter your particular circumstances brings much peace. It reminds you that you aren’t alone, that this isn’t all there is (eternity is coming!) and that He delights in caring for his children.
I pray today that you would sense and take great comfort in the truth that you are surrounded by the King of all Kings, who created the world and has the whole world in his hands; He is with you through the hills and valleys in life and everything in between!
#cupofleadership
sin is an individual choice. sin is also a state.
it isn’t just a glass of water we choose to drink, but an ocean of water we spends our every waking moment immersed in. it’s not just things we do at particular moments, choices between sin + evil, everything we see + touch + ponder is wet from the sinful water we swim in.
this distinction helps us in one very particular way. we don’t need to aggressively assign the label ‘sin’ to people or situations where it doesn’t neatly fit.
when a 3 year old throws a fit because they are up 2 hours past their bedtime, are they sinning?
when a soldier back from war yells profanity at the noise of a passing garbage truck are they sinning?
when a woman cruelly withdraws from her new husband because he wore cologne that her abusive husband used to wear is she sinning?
people who have been through trauma react to it in various problematic ways. rather than needing to label individual incidents as ‘sin’ or ‘righteousness,’ because of that knowledge, we can see things as being from a state of sin or because of the difficulty of sin without a hyper need to label.
we are much more loving + understanding when we don’t parse wrong + right so aggressively in individual relationships and simply do our best to love + help people heal.
book review
Crazy Like Us - Ethan Watters
american culture doesn’t just define how we treat my psychological + emotional maladies, it also defines diagnoses. as pharmaceutical companies have outsourced our national outlook on things like PTSD + eating disorders + depression, entire cultures have shifted the way the operate.
this is problematic for several reasons that ethan watters well develops our understanding of. in leadership, it’s often says that what get’s measured gets repeated. in the same way, cultures often develop an understanding of difficulty from a defined ‘symptom pool.’ meaning that may have been seen a normal sadness or guilt over poor choices in a previous generation, can now be called ‘depression’ and monetized. what may have been called normal teenage confusion is now called gender dysphoria and monetized.
we must pay careful attention to science that is really pseudo-science and insist that we not in our desire to help people in pain actually hurt them. this book (especially chapters 1 + 4) are incredibly insightful in framing how our culture has shifted so rapidly.
#superchristianguy
stuff to click on
my message from easter ‘pic or it didn’t happen’ is available on youtube + PODCAST … i hope it blesses you
if you need a reminder of who jesus is today, this is an all time beautiful song + performance.