Putting On Flesh: Cultural Relevance & the Church

Jesus was the perfect example of the pursuit of cultural relevance.

A non-human became human in order to reach humans.  A spirit became flesh and bone in order to reach those of flesh and bone.  A person of divinity became a person of mortality in order to relate to the mortal.  The invisible became visible in order to reach the visible.  The invulnerable became breakable in order to love the weak and the broken.

I think you get the point.  Jesus was the embodiment—the inspiration—of Paul’s shocking words:  “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.”  Jesus modeled for us our calling to become like those around us so that they may be empowered to become like Him.

The Church has to face reality if it wants to again be a “relevant” voice in today’s world.  Hard reality:  the Church is no longer the center of society.  The Church no longer establishes cultural norms and expectations, and it is no longer considered the dominant voice in matters of morality, politics, or education.  In some circles, the voice of the Church isn’t even legitimate, much less authoritative.

The world has changed around us, so we have to change our mindset.

This isn’t bad news; it’s just reality.  Whereas the Church formerly sat on a throne, it now is poised to wash feet.  (Fortunately, it was our assignment all along to wash feet!)  Again, it isn’t bad news, because God has never pursued cultures or thrones.  The Father has only ever pursued the human heart.

Where we are now more accurately reflects our intended design—to lovingly serve, rather than to authoritatively dictate.

We have two camps in the Church today, and they split roughly along generational lines.  (The divide I make is an over-simplification, I know.)  The first camp likes to build walls, and the second camp likes to build bridges.  Both have their strengths, and both have their weaknesses.

The “Wall” camp is comprised of primarily older generations, and it likes to remain separate from non-Churched culture.  It is conservative, in a traditionalist sense, and it has seen everything.  There is a clear divide between “us” and “them” in broader culture, and to cross the divide is to risk compromising integrity.  I would propose that misunderstanding and insecurity can tend to drive the wall-building process, but I’d also grant that the pursuit of purity, consecration, and holiness is a very good, wise thing.  Non-Churched “culture,” in general, is a mountain they’d rather avoid than climb.

The “Bridge” camp is comprised of primarily younger generations, and it likes to blend itself into non-Churched culture.  It is progressive, in a sometimes-rebellious sense.  There is a lot of overlap concerning “us” and “them,” as those in this globalized camp are more like their younger peers out in the “world” than they are like their older parents back in the church pews.  The ability to function in non-Church culture is lauded as relevance.  I would propose that a heart to belong, a heart to reach, and a heart to unify tend to drive the bridge-building process, but I’d also grant that these pursuits can be naïve, can shoot holes through integrity, and can be negatively anti-Church.  The “world” is refreshingly their mission field, but they quickly throw away the time-tested and the sacred for the untested trendy and new.

Granted, a ton of people fall somewhere in the middle of these two extremes.  I think each of us sees elements of both in ourselves.

We can draw two bottom lines concerning these camps:

1.  The Church has no transformative voice in the world when it hides itself behind walls, separate from the world.

2.  The Church has no transformative voice in the world when it hides itself behind relevance, identical to the world.

“I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.”  So where is the balance?

Jesus related to us, so that we could relate to Him.  Likeness to us was never His end goal.  Likeness to us broke down the wall, but it took His being qualitatively different from us to save us.  He put on flesh, but He was full of Spirit.  The paradox:  humanity couldn’t save humanity, but only a human could save humanity.

Further, it wasn’t just Jesus’s likeness to us that made Him relevant.  Likeness to us was certainly part of the package, but His relevance was so much more than skin.  His relevance was wrapped up in the fact that He offered to us what we needed.  He had life, and we needed life.  He had an alternative way of living and believing, and we needed an alternative way of living and believing.  He was a tangible picture of God, and we needed a tangible picture of God.  Surface-level “cultural relevance” cannot be despised, as all of those things were packaged in skin and bone, but there was so much more substance to Jesus’s way.

He didn’t hide behind imaginary walls that separated “us” from “Him,” and He didn’t stop being God for the sake of being human.  God wrapped what we needed in flesh so that we could receive it.

We can’t love well if we build walls.  We can’t love well while withholding the treasure that has been given freely to us to carry.

I must admit that the call to “cultural relevance” is a call that irks me.  It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, because I can hardly be satisfied with the sense that the Church is playing catch-up with the rest of the world.  But this is our reality.  We fell behind in the arts, in media, in creativity, in ingenuity, in innovation, in ideation, in problem solving, etc., and we are scrambling to catch up.

Something in me leaps at the hope that—some day soon!—the Church will no longer be scrambling and settling for cultural relevance, but that it will be setting the industry standards, raising the bar in the arts and media, and meaningfully contributing to society at large.  Indeed, we are on our way to seeing this be the world’s reality, as people of faith are rapidly adding value, excellence, and meaning to “culture” in all spheres of society.

The Church is truly relevant when it has answers to the world’s problems.  It regains its voice when it stops condemning and starts investing and valuing, choosing to acknowledge the good being brought into the Earth by those who are not like us.  The Church is legitimate in the world’s eyes, regardless of its faith, when it releases excellence, creativity, and higher standards (and love!) into the Earth, for all to know and admire.

“Cultural relevance” is the philosophy of a Body that can see the world has passed it by.  “Cultural creativity” will be the philosophy of a Body that can see it has great resources, potential, and value to add to a world that needs some help.

Regardless, we carry the assignment—taking after Jesus’s example—to put on the flesh of the world around us, so that they may see and understand that we truly care.

Get My Book!

Hello, everyone!  You can purchase my new book, “The Father’s Heart: Another Exodus,” at:

It is also available in Kindle, Nook, and iBook formats!

I hope you are blessed by it. I’d love your feedback.

-Bobby

“The Father’s Heart: Another Exodus”

I have written a book!  I’m currently in the process of publishing it, and it should be available within a month.  I thought I’d share with you all some information regarding the book.

From the back cover of The Father’s Heart: Another Exodus:

“We Have a Problem.

Jesus said that where His Spirit is there is liberty, yet too many believers today are not free. We have embraced Christian belief, but our faith is not working right. The boldness, joy, and liberty of Christ do not yet mark us. Instead, we allow sin and its consequences to define our Christian faith and identity. We strive to reach impossible standards of religious and moral performance, which lead us through endless cycles of religious success and failure.

We are another Israel in bondage, in need of deliverance. We need another exodus.

In The Father’s Heart: Another Exodus, you will…

    • encounter God’s perfect love for you as you explore the Father’s heart

    • be empowered as you embrace your God-breathed identity and purpose in Christ   

    • experience freedom from religion and moral performance as you shed shame and condemnation

In The Father’s Heart: Another Exodus, revisit the cross and allow its good news message of grace to shine as brightly for you today as it did the day Christ was nailed to it. Leave behind the religious baggage you have carried and reclaim the faith that brings life as you embrace the heart of the Father.

Bobby Howard graduated from the University of Arkansas with a degree in political science. He works on staff at Christian Life Cathedral in Fayetteville, Arkansas. His passion is to share the Father’s heart with youth, young adults, and college students within the Church and community. He loves to drink coffee, do ministry, and call the Hogs.”

 

Endorsements-

“Bobby Howard’s book, The Father’s Heart, takes on some of the complex issues that have held generations of Christians from moving into their promised freedom.  This book is bold and will prove challenging to much of the religious tradition of today, but the work is greatly needed and graciously presented.

‘If we give people a better, more faithful lover, they will eventually leave their sin behind.’

This book could be the gift you’ve been looking for in your personal journey to the Father’s heart.”

—Steve Dixon, Lead Pastor, Christian Life Cathedral, Fayetteville, Arkansas

 

“Every generation has taken some issue with its predecessors, and rightly so, as the imperfection of people and the Church demand that our institutions be constantly awakened and realigned to God’s original design.  However, few ‘critics’ identify the real fundamental issues, and even fewer give substantial solutions.  Bobby Howard has not only put his finger on the right issues of our ‘religiosity,’ but also gracefully pointed us in the right direction toward our liberty and acceptance in Christ.  This ‘kid’ has done us all a big favor by writing this book!  Read it!”

—Alan Platt, Founder and Leader of Doxa Deo Ministries & the City Changers Movement, Pretoria, South Africa

 

“I believe that Bobby Howard’s book, The Father’s Heart, carries the message and the cure for an emotionally depleted and fatherless generation.  This book may very well be a classic work written prophetically over a generation, and it may stand as the banner message that leads them into ‘another Exodus.’  Drink deeply.”

—Josh Foliart, Founder of MULTIPLi, Lima, Peru

 

“Pastors like me need to read books like Bobby Howard’s to gain insight into young adults whose stories are similar to his and to remind us that we need to practice what we preach.  That is, if we believe the Gospel proclamation that the God of Jesus Christ is a God of love, then we should trust that love to work its transforming power through our ministries and not try to do the Holy Spirit’s job of conviction.  Thank you, Bobby, for sharing.”

—Rev. Rodney Steele, Senior Pastor, First United Methodist Church, Mountain Home, Arkansas

Is the Church Still Relevant?

I recently worked my way through a slew of articles that posed this question, in one way or another:  “Is the Church relevant?”

All of the articles I read were gloomy, written by both older authors who lived through the American Christian glory days and younger authors who are frustrated by spiritual apathy. Most writers indict the modern American Church for what they see as “the Church’s” major failures to adequately address, engage, or maintain the attention of secular society.

The talking points of the day boil down to:

1.  If the Christian religious community is no longer the majority political voice in the States, and if we have indeed lost the Culture Wars (which, we have lost the Culture Wars), then the church institution must be irrelevant. The Church should engage politically, dive into politics with solidarity and unity, and steer the direction of the politics and morality of this nation.

2.  If the millennial population in America is disillusioned with religion and is leaving the Church, then the church institution must be irrelevant. The Church should post-modernize, greater considering its youth and young adult population and meeting them at their generation’s aesthetic tastes and preferences.

3.  If atheism, naturalism, and science are the dominating legitimate worldviews of the developed world, then the church institution must be irrelevant. The Church should work to discredit the flimsy body of science that attacks religion and faith at every angle, and we should keep our religion pure by preventing the encroachment of science into faith matters.

There are problems with all of those points, and there are problems with each perspective we have developed in response to those points. But I won’t go there in this post. All I will say, before moving on, is that the prevalence of each of these talking points in our conversations, and our responses to them, is largely due to fear. That these things are steering our conversations, our methods, and our understanding of our relevance to the world radically reveals our insecurity.

We’re letting worldly barometers determine our God-given role and God-given assignment. We’re letting cultural cues determine our value. We—a spiritual Body—are weakly responding to a changing world in worldly ways.

(I’m not advocating non-action, non-progressivism, etc. I’m all for the Body of Christ moving forward, growing, and getting better at what it does. We just need to reconsider who we are and what it is that makes us relevant.)

Moving on.

The Church is two things:  organism and organization. We are both people and institution. As such, I believe the Church can pursue relevance in two different ways.

First, the Church will be relevant only as long as it has love to offer. People are relevant if they are willing to love sacrificially. People—believer and nonbeliever alike—need love more than anything else. If the Church ministers love to human beings who need it (in the form of relationship, physical needs, financial needs, forgiveness, grace, human touch), it is relevant. A person, and therefore the Church, is relevant as long as he or she pours out love for a world that is thirsty for love.

Love without an agenda is the most relevant kind of love. Perhaps this is where we have lost ground. As a Body, we can tend to be competent lovers-with-strings-attached. We can also systematize our love, forfeiting some of its value. Raw, grace-filled, sacrificial, unabridged love makes our presence in the Earth very relevant.

Second, the Church will be relevant only as long as it maintains organizational excellence. Organizations are relevant if they can move beyond chasing industry standards into challenging industry standards. As an organization, we can serve the world with our excellence. A high tide raises all ships. We can move beyond “staying relevant” into establishing the standards and setting the bars. The best leadership principles, organizational leadership principles, and business principles are really just Kingdom principles.

Our excellence—creatively, strategically, economically, organizationally, morally—makes us relevant to a world that is less than excellent. Rather than lagging behind, we can be pushing the standards forward. Relevance in this area looks like Church leaders or Christian experts being called upon to consult secular bodies in areas of crisis management, business strategy, education, and character development. We meet needs as the world presents them, because we have access to resources, answers, and strategies the world doesn’t have.

Relevance isn’t political. It isn’t even social or cultural. Relevance is our ability to love and serve the world—just as Jesus did. Relevance is our ability to make the world around us better, providing alternatives to the way things are already being done—just as Jesus did. It’s about being salty and bright where there is little flavor or daylight.

It isn’t about being right, being the majority, or even being approved of. It’s about being present, with something to offer from a different Kingdom.

Can the Church be relevant? It already is, and it always will be. Jesus would not have invested so much into an irrelevant Bride.

Why Religion Isn’t Working

“Religion” doesn’t work, because it is a man-powered attempt to find God. It doesn’t work, because it is the human exploration of supernatural things that has to stop when we meet the limits of our humanity. It doesn’t work, because we try to see what is invisible with eyes that can only see what is visible.

“Religion” doesn’t work, because it allows room for racism and homophobia. It doesn’t work, because it is a human system in which humanity is the only possible result. It doesn’t work, because greed, judgment, and guilt have been quartered there.

“Religion” doesn’t work, because we cannot possibly fix ourselves. It doesn’t work, because it is exclusive, condemning, and ignorant of other cultures, peoples, ethnicities, nationalities, political philosophies, and time zones. It doesn’t work, because perhaps patriotism is more valued than something like generosity or compassion.

“Religion” doesn’t work, because it has been violent (and probably always will be). It doesn’t work, because it defines people at their core, and people who disagree at their cores tend toward offense, bitterness, and isolation from each other, perpetuating an ignorance and fear of one another. It doesn’t work, because entire collectives of people have a way of being characterized as backwards, ignorant, and hypocritical due to the actions and words of very few.

“Religion” doesn’t work, because it is opposed to intellectualism, rationality, science, and common sense. It doesn’t work, because progress and freethinking have been made enemies of doctrine and truth. It doesn’t work, because it values only itself and can exist in a vacuum, contrary to the rest of reality.

“Religion” doesn’t work, because people need a hero whose reality far exceeds their own reality. It doesn’t work, because people thirst for people, not practices. It doesn’t work, because the system can be valued at the expense of the individual.

“Religion” doesn’t work, because it doesn’t care. It doesn’t work, because it cannot be satisfied, and because it cannot be satisfying. It doesn’t work, because it tells, rather than allowing for a journey of discovery.

Religion doesn’t work, because we don’t work.

It’s why God came to us. He came to abolish the human tendency to identify with a system, with a doctrine, or with an opinion. He came to redefine us. He came to identify with us, and He came to identify us with Him. He came to fix us, and He came so that we may be reconciled to Himself.

God has torn down the banner of religion. His banner over us now is love. It is possible, by His grace and power, to be a Body of believers marked by love. Religion is all but irrelevant in this day, but love continues to win hearts. Love continues to establish doctrine in alignment with His Word. Love continues to reconcile. Love continues to overturn stereotypes, and it continues to redefine the Body’s image. To love is the assignment of the global church.

His love continues to fix and to restore us. It has to.

Because, as we have seen, religion just doesn’t work.

Being Human in Church

If the last twelve months of ministry has taught me anything, it is this:  a broken person isn’t desperate for a flashy program. Broken people are desperate for a friend that oozes grace.

People who need healing are not looking for rigidity, structure, or formality. The hurting do not shop for excellence, sound quality, or put-togetherness. The “disqualified” have developed aversions to “qualification,” and the desperate don’t value hype, numbers, or vision quite like the comfortable.

Broken people do not seek flashy perfection. They thirst for an organic, human imperfection with which they can relate. They crave humanity, and they crave relationships that will grant them permission to be their weak, imperfect selves.

Why does this matter in the Church?

It matters, because maybe we don’t have enough to offer in the way of human imperfection. It matters, because maybe we have invested too much time and energy into hiding all the things for which broken, hurting people are most desperately hungry and thirsty.

Perhaps we are absolutely irrelevant to the people right before our eyes when we pretend to be anything better than broken. Perhaps we forsake any heart-level connection with an individual when we conceal our hearts behind whitewashed walls. Perhaps we deny ourselves a true friend when our façade forces us to withhold grace. Perhaps we deny a broken person an incredible testimony of healing when we, after having received an invitation to be vulnerable, resort to hiding behind our expertise, our anointing, and our leadership role.

Maybe the Church has sterilized its humanity, and, therefore, can no longer relate to those who are most broken.

There is something extremely valuable in the fact that God invited us to become His friends. He invited us to know His heart. When it comes down to it, the people of God are called to minister grace in the context of relationships. It is our familiar and easy tendency to minister in the context of programs, but God didn’t become a program; He became a person. In His wisdom, He understood that we relational creatures needed His grace and Truth in the context of a person (Christ). He understood that we would be healed only in the context of His Person. He understood that we would be satisfied in Him only in the context of relationship.

Person, not program. Grace, not glamour. Human, not superhuman.

People are hungry and thirsty for friends who ooze grace. Something no one has ever indicated needing from me is gaudy perfection. People of God:  the hurting and the broken need you to stop hiding. They need you to be honest with yourselves, and they need you to share with them your pain and your brokenness.

Be human, and be weak. It is only in the context of that mutual, broken humanity that the hope, identity, and healing you have found in Christ can also become mutual.

I’ve Been on a Journey

When you first embark on the journey of writing a novel-length book, you don’t actually have much to say.  It’s like any other journey.  At step one, you just left home, and you haven’t yet experienced anything of worth.  The journey hasn’t had time to transform you.  Conflict and discouragement haven’t done their best to burn you up.  Victory hasn’t found you.  Not yet.

However, by the time you have completed your journey, you somehow have learned a lot.  About your manuscript and about yourself.  You have seen the valley, and you have seen the mountaintop.  You’ve been changed by the process.

It is in that spirit that I write this post.  I’m excited to announce that, in the coming months, I will be publishing my first book (!!!):  “The Father’s Heart:  Another Exodus.”  I’ll give you more info on the book later, but, first, I want to share with you some of the journey I’ve been enjoying.

Journeys and processes are the stuff that transform us.  Moments are fine, but moments have a way of being eclipsed by the totality of the rest of our lives:  our habits, our established ways, our tastes and preferences, our relationships, the expectations people place on us, our responsibilities, etc.  Moments are good, and we need them, but they are just drops in the bucket of life.

It’s the process, not the moment, that has the power to usurp the power of habits, established ways, tastes and preferences, relationships, expectations, and responsibilities in our lives.  It’s the journey that has the uncanny ability to turn everything upside down, in ways that moments simply cannot.

You want a memory?  Find a moment.  You want to change?  Go on a journey.  You want life-transformation?  Find the relevant process.

Here’s a peek into my journey over the past year, pertaining to the book-writing process.  My takeaways:

1.  Have the audacity to value what you have to offer, but maintain humility at all costs.

What will kill your dreams?  Your failure to recognize the value of what you were created to bring to the Earth.  In writing my book, I had to totally buy in to the belief that my voice is valuable.  I had to come to terms with the fact that I have, in Christ, been given gifts for the purpose of making Earth better.

Where humility comes in:  your success will depend just as much on other people as it does on you.  You cannot go on your journey in a vacuum.  The Body of Christ was created to depend on itself.  Your gifts are not enough.  You need your brothers and sisters and their gifts and their encouragement.  Chances are, your journey was meant to be an invitation to others.  God collides our lives intentionally, and our journeys cross paths for a reason.  Your journey will be a jumping-in point for many, and you will receive the same kinds of invitations from others.

Humility:  intentionally incorporating the success and promotion of others into your own God-given, upward calling in Christ.  When you lose sight of humility, God will probably slam the breaks on your project.  He did it to me several times.  Value what you have to offer, but don’t glory in it.

2.  Have the propensity to dream.

Dream.  Consecrate your imagination, and press “start.”  Some are afraid to dream, and some believe it’s prideful to dream.  But the reality is:  every time God brings Heaven to Earth through a person, it starts off as a dream.  Little dreams require a little faith that makes God look little.  Big dreams require a big faith that requires that God be big.

3.  Have the courage to press forward when you don’t know where you are going, but be sensitive to when God says, “Rest.”

Journeys through life don’t come with a map.  Because of this, there will be times when you have no idea where you are going.

In writing a book, having “no idea where you are going” looks like a blank page.  What does a writer do when faced with a blank page?  This writer doesn’t stare anxiously at the page, waiting for it to reveal its secrets.  I lean forward, put my fingers on the keyboard, and write the heck out of that page, totally caught up in the words coming into being.

Life can be like that, I think.  Journeys can be like that.  You get blank pages… and you get to conquer the page!  You rule the page.  The uncertainty of a blank page doesn’t dictate your plan of action.  You pursue the Father’s will for that page, and you write Heaven all over it.

There will be some pages that you get to write.  Some pages will be written for you, by the sovereign hand of God.  Other times, the words you write on a page will be edited, by the Perfector of our faith.  But that’s OK.  He’s into quality control.  He’s a good editor.

When God says, “Stop,” stop.  When He says, “Rest,” rest.  Journeys are long and tiring, and life-transformation can be draining.  Learn to discern whether an obstacle is “for” you or “against” you.

In conclusion:  I encourage you to go on the journey.  Dream.  Have faith.  Value yourself.  It will transform you. You build something in the process of your own transformation, which is cool, but “something” isn’t the point. “You” are the point.  Go for it.

Three Things I Wish I Had Known Going into College

For most, entering college is both exciting and terrifying. College is the first season of life during which one is exposed to different worldviews, people, ways of doing life, norms, and moralities.

“College” is a season of life– typically, a 4-year-long season of transition– that lays the groundwork for the rest of life’s seasons. The people in your life during this season will radically transform the way you view life, and they will forever change the way you do family, the way you have community, and the way you love or don’t love. The things you learn, accomplish, treasure, or discard in this developmental season will inform the rest of your life (such is the nature of seasons).

I graduate in three weeks. This precious season of life is almost over for me. In the spirit of looking back, I have come up with this list of things that I wish my current self could have taught my 18-year-old, freshman self in the months leading up to my higher education. My four years of college would have been radically more fruitful, had I grasped these things.

Thing 1:  No one else has life figured out yet, either.

This one is the “great equalizer.” This is also where grace begins to find its home in your heart.

When walking around on a university campus as an underclassman, the temptation is to elevate everyone around you while lowering yourself. In an unhealthy and insecure way. You look around at older students, and you assume that they have things figured out. You look at professors, and you assume that they have arrived onto some unattainable plane of enlightenment. You eat up words, political views, philosophical opinions, and moral judgments, because you assume these people know better than you, or that they are authorities when it comes to life.

But they don’t, and they really aren’t. At least, they don’t know any better than you. People are people, and people require margins of error and so much grace. Your professors and upperclassmen have a certain wisdom from having lived more life than you, but they do not hold a key to some ambiguous authority. Guard from them the decisions and beliefs that will define the rest of your life, particularly in matters of faith or morality. These people are no more enlightened than you are. Nothing qualifies them to be that voice into your life.

If you don’t believe me, audit a university class and listen to some of the silliness that is hashed out by some of our “best and brightest.” Remember, too, when in a university setting:  most intellectuals know just enough to doubt matters of faith, but most of them know just short of enough to see faith legitimized.

What does all of this mean? It means that your thoughts, beliefs, opinions, and faith are just as legitimate as anyone else’s. It means you have just as much authority to make moral judgments as anyone else. It means you have the authority to be countercultural. It entitles you to a backbone. It gives you permission to disagree. It gives you permission to be wrong, to make misjudgments, and to make mistakes, as well.

It teaches you to walk in grace, because life on a college campus is a constant interaction with people who, according to what you believe, are wrong. But where grace is, disagreement and tension are healthy.

Thing 2:  God has a plan for my life, but so does everyone else.

The call of God and the call of man are often– perhaps, “usually”– two different things.

God really values you. But here’s the thing:  everyone else around you really values you, too. Your time, your resources, your energy, your emotional fuel, your talents, your abilities, your draw, your network, your personality, your ability to get things done, the amount of hours you represent, the legitimacy you represent, the future you represent, etc.

I wish I had learned earlier on that everyone carries an agenda. It certainly seems as if most people have had a plan for me (one to prosper me, one to give me a hope and a future!). Very few people, organizations, or churches, however, have the health to build someone up, to equip them, to invest into them, and then to release them into what God has planned for them. Too many will use you, and then possess you. The secret is to learn how to value yourself so much that you reserve yourself for what God has planned for you, and not waste yourself on what those around you have planned for you. If you can do this, you’ll save a lot of time and effort. (If you can’t do this, or if you have failed to do it, there is hope:  God wastes nothing, but redeems everything.)

This is usually difficult to do, because the things that Man plans typically look really good. The fruit of their plans might even be Kingdom fruit. It might be God-breathed. What others are up to might be the will of God. (Or not.) Those tugging at you might be getting people saved, might be lifting up the name of Jesus, or might be providing orphans and widows with shelter and family… and the reality is that you might not be called to any of it.

It is possible– likely, even– that Godly opportunities (as well as ungodly opportunities) will rise up around you, and that you are supposed to look them in the eye and say, “No, thank you.”

Sure, it’s possible that you are supposed to say, “Yes.” However, be sure to reserve yourself for God’s plans for you, and don’t spend yourself on man’s needs from you.

You are called by God. Nobody owns you.

Thing 3:  People desperately need me, and I desperately need people.

I wish I had known sooner the value of community in my life. Conversely, I wish I had sooner known my own value to my community. To begin with, I wish I had known the healing that God works into our lives through people. I wish I had known the sanctification that God exacts from our lives through people. Sooner, I wish I had known the gift of people in my life. Sooner, I wish I had walked in my spiritual gifts to the betterment of the people around me.

If I had known these things, I would have spent more of myself on people. And I would have received more grace from people.

Here’s the truth:  you are God’s plan for the world around you. God is all about people. You are someone’s answered prayer, and you are called to be God’s voice into someone’s life. You will be called upon to speak words into someone that will sustain him or her for months, and you will be called upon to clash with someone for the sake of God’s work of heart transformation in their life. In the same way, you will be called upon to submit to a community, to humble yourself unto love. It isn’t difficult to be an authority in someone’s life, but it takes great humility to receive love, to know that you need people, and to learn and grow from ones you love.

There is a reason why God became a man. People are best engaged by people. He heals us as a person, and He forgives us as a person. He reserves certain works in your life for the people around you, who love you most. In the same way, He reserves certain miracles in the lives of those around you for… you. Or for somebody else, if you miss the opportunity.

Learn it quick:  you were created to engage life in the context of other people, and you were created with a deep need to be engaged by and to receive love from other people. It’s how God moves His body.

In grace, you will have no regrets! College is a beautiful season, and it is a season of so much growth. God is a faithful Teacher. Embrace the season, and go into it armed with authenticity and love.

Being Led by the Spirit

And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

-Exodus 13:21-22

He divided the sea and let them pass through it, and made the waters stand like a heap. In the daytime He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a fiery light. He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. He made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers.

-Psalm 78:13-16

There is a lot of talk in the Body of Christ today about what it means to be led by the Spirit of God. Mostly, these discussions revolve around what we have come to call “the Will of God.” A lot of people talk about being led by the Spirit in ambiguous and slippery terms, which does nothing but confuse eager learners. A lot of people talk about the will of God like it is some great scavenger hunt, and they live their lives in a perpetual fear that they won’t ever find “it.” This seeking and searching roller coaster ride leads people to anxiety, discouragement, and depression, and a lot of people just end up giving up.

Hint:  it doesn’t have to be that way. There is a higher road, one of peace. We can meaningfully be led by the Spirit of God, and we can rest in a particular knowledge of God’s will for our lives.

1. Following requires submission.

Pretty simple principle. You are not a follower if you are not submitted to leadership. Why is this important? Because so many people speak with their mouth that they long to find the will of God for their life; yet, with their heart, they are unwilling to cede the authority of their own life to the Father. If you want the will of God for your life, you have to let go of the reins and submit to a higher authority than yourself.

Jesus said it this way:  “Go die to yourself, and then follow Me.” (My paraphrase.) There is a proper order. God’s thoughts are better than our thoughts, His dreams are more exciting than our dreams, and His ways are higher than our ways. We can’t follow Him until we have abandoned our own idea of what “destiny” needs to look like.

The largest aspect of submission is trust. When we submit to the Father, we do so one step of faith at a time, trusting Him. When we don’t see the end of the road, we take a step forward anyway, because we are certain that God is good and God is faithful. When we don’t know what we are getting ourselves into, we take a step forward anyway, because the safest place for us to be is smack-dab in the center of God’s will for our lives.

Following “the will of God for your life” is a step-by-step submission, by faith, to the leadership of the Father. “The Will of God” is not a destination; it is an exercise in submission and obedience. The Father is always taking us into Promised Lands. You don’t have to know the destination. You just have to follow the leader.

2. When God moves, we move.

In the desert, Israel followed the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. The pillars were the manifest presence of God, for the sake of the people of God. These pillars led God’s people through the desert.

When God’s presence moved, God’s people moved.

As a modern Body, I think we are guilty. Yes, God’s presence works differently now. Technically, we are always where God’s manifest presence is… because, in the New Covenant, God’s manifest presence is in us. However, this principle still holds true:  as a Body, we should always be on the cusp of what God is currently doing in the Earth. We should always do our best to be involved where God is presently working and moving. We should be breathing where God is breathing. We should invest where the Father invests. We should make the centers of our attention whatever Christ is making the center of His attention. Today.

When Israel followed the presence of God, they pitched tents. They camped around the pillars, when the pillars stopped moving, in impermanent structures. In short, the people of God were always ready to move. God is a God of movement.

Today, we don’t pitch tents. We build castles, and castles don’t move. We build walls and make fortifications around something that God has done. Some revelation, some miracle, some experience, some theology, some personality, some revival, some program. We dig a mote, and we fixate on what God did. Past tense.

Meanwhile, in the present tense, the pillar of fire is moving on, and we aren’t prepared to leave. The castle is safe. It is our home. Our families and livelihoods are here. It’d be inconvenient and expensive. We’d have to redefine and rebrand. We’d have to rebuild elsewhere, anyway. So… let’s just stay.

But Israel walked a higher road. They packed up their tents, and they followed God’s presence. He was their center. They settled where God settled, and they went where God went. They made His presence their purpose.

3. When we follow God, God provides.

When Israel made God’s presence their purpose, God became Israel’s provision.

In regard to us, I’m not talking about manna. Manna is finished. We don’t get manna. Rather, we get gifts. We get blessings. We get land. And we get to steward it. Work.

However, this core principle, too, still holds true:  when we follow God, He provides.

God manifested to meet the needs of His people. By day, His manifest presence was a cloud. God was His peoples’ shade and rest when they needed shade and rest. He was their comfort from the desert sun when they needed comfort. By night, God’s manifest presence was flame. He was their light and their heat. He was their protection from the creatures of the night when they needed safety.

God was exactly what His people needed, always.

Further, the Father caused water to gush forth from rocks. He made rivers rise up from arid land, and He opened up the wells of the deep for a dry and thirsty people. He parted the sea. He gave them the bread of angels.

When His people followed, God provided. When we follow, God provides. He equips, empowers, and encourages. He puts things into motion only when we have the right tools in our hands. (We tend to put things into motion before we have the right tools in our hands.) He goes before us, He puts all things into their proper place, and we follow Him into provision.

4. We are not stronger than God’s sovereignty.

What is the most freeing thing about our relationship with Christ? In my opinion, it is this:  God is so incredibly sovereign that it is impossible for us to defeat His will. Even if we were to try, we couldn’t thwart the plans of our omnipotent God. Especially by accident, there is no way we could ruin the plans He has to prosper us.

He is too far-reaching. His redemption is too strong. Resurrection has too much power. His perfect love covers too much. His Spirit is too present.

When our hearts are ablaze to know and follow the will of God, He orders our lives according to His sovereign plan. Despite us.

Many of us walk through life in fear of messing things up. We have a faithless, arrogant mindset that tells us we can frustrate Heaven’s vision for Earth. We view God as some sort of taskmaster who will promote us only if we walk in supernatural degrees of excellence and perfection. Which is silly. He isn’t looking for us to fill in all the blanks correctly. He is looking for us to be faithful and willing.

He has initiated between us messy relationships of cooperation and partnership. He says, “Follow Me,” and He understands that our humanity is going to be disaster-prone the whole way through. The problem is that we leave no room for grace, mercy, or forgiveness in our conversations about the will of God. We think we are the sovereign ones. We think that the fruit of our will, and not God’s will, is the fruit that will endure forever. But God’s sovereignty is greater than our ability to mess things up. When we have hearts that seek after His will, we can derail very little.

Anyway- I hope some of this helps you. Being led by the Spirit is a journey. A fun journey.

Easter Blog

The Easter Bunny isn’t glorious. The Lamb that was slain- to take away the sins of the world- is glorious.

Two thousand years later, and the blood of Christ continues to turn the seasons. Tomorrow- Good Friday- marks the death of Jesus. Tomorrow, we remember the day that God climbed a hill outside of Jerusalem, as a man, to be given over to the worst the world had to offer. Nails, shame, and death.

We call tomorrow Good Friday, because the worst evils of this world were proven illegitimate. They were made void and obsolete. We call tomorrow Good Friday, because of what happens on Sunday.

Easter is powerful. The season is far more than chocolates and pastels and bunnies. It’s a season that represents hope. It’s because of this season that we have breath to praise God.

On Sunday, after three days in the grave, Jesus Christ comes alive again. The universe watching, He walks out of His own tomb.

So, too, do we come alive again. Easter is the season of resurrection. It’s the season for dead things to come back to life. Relationships, dreams, plans, anything broken… they all gain resurrection power. Easter is the Father’s invitation to us to find our crosses, to die, and to be raised in glory. It’s a season designed for us to rise, to remove our burial garments, and to walk out of our own tombs.

The world falters when it sees the dead come alive, because resurrection redefines everything.