Death, Life and Passion

There is nothing quite like writing. There is nothing for me in the entire world that feels as meaningful as moving a pen across a page and having an idea spring to life. The whole process screams of beauty and creation and "other-ness," writing something that is incredibly private and deep between you and God.

Writing has fast become a lost art in our culture.
Our culture values speed and quickness in communication rather than slow and thoughtful expression.
Letter-writing has almost vanished, and with it, truly cherishing another individual has almost vanished as well. To write a letter to another person means that we care enough about them to spend time forming and creating complex thoughts and words in order to communicate some truth that God can then use to shape and mold their lives and help them grow more and more into the image of Christ.

In addition, the time it takes to write out your thoughts leads to intense thinking about different ideas. Often, it is only through this "intellectual" or "exploratory" writing that we can ever discover anything. It is this type of writing that helps us create and form new ideas in our minds, bring and draw different ideas together and cement truth into our brains that can be slow to learn.

What I will now attempt is some "exploratory" writing on the subject of: death, life and passion. These are three thoughts that have consumed my mind for many weeks.

The thought in my head consumes many of my thoughts. The idea slowly forming, and becoming clearer with every passing moment. Is this thought really true? Is it something that could truly be the foundation?

Ever since the beginning of the summer, I have been thinking and praying about these three things:
1 - Dying to self
2 - God has given us ALL things pertaining to LIFE
3 - Necessary passion

Is it possible that all three of these things are somehow connected?

Ok, let's back up. To begin with, I started by thinking of these three things as completely disconnected ideas. This should not be a surprise. For our entire education, we have been trained to compartmentalize everything. We go to a History class and learn about history, and then when we walk out of the classroom our minds cease thinking of history. We walk to the next class, Science for example, and instead of integrating History and Science, we think only of Science. This may or may not be acceptable or proper in academia, and I will not argue for or against it. However; could this compartmentalization of things be a major detriment to us spiritually?
I believe that it is.
When we try to teach something such as prayer, it is vital that we do not separate this from other core teachings of the Scriptures such as: the Holiness of God and the reality of sin and the Truth of Jesus.
In order to present a complete teaching of prayer then, we must fully integrate the concept of prayer with the other major ideas presented in Scripture.

Because this is true, it is also vital that anything that God is teaching us cannot be separated from the core ideas of the Bible: namely, Christ and Him crucified, and the glory of God, etc.

When we bring all of this back to the idea of death, life and passion, what do we find?
We find that neither death, nor life, nor passion can be separated from each other. In addition, each cannot possibly be disconnected from the Truth that we find in the person of Jesus Christ.

The idea of dying to self screams of a total surrender of personal goals and wants. It is a submission to the Savior, a complete emptying of self so that the love of Christ can flow through us and into the lives of others. It is only by ourselves dying that we can truly show others real love, and this is the love that Christ has called us to show.

How is this connected to life? Well, it turns out that it is fairly simple. Jesus says that He has given us all things for life. What does this mean? How does this look? Simple, life equals death. Did you catch that? Life equals death.
Real life must be predicated by self-death.
Jesus sums it up when He says that any man that wants to be His disciple must die to himself, take up his cross and follow Jesus.
It is only when we finally die completely to our SELF that we truly find LIFE.
When we die to ourselves we may "lose" by the world's standards, but we find ultimate satisfaction in Christ. We find real joy and we find real life and we live by the Spirit.

How does this tie in with passion?
I have known for a long time that we each need a certain amount of passion in our lives. We can call this "Necessary Passion."
The lives that God has given us are too short to be wasted in fear and doubt and "small" living. God wants us to go all out, to live our lives focused on Him and to live lives that are bent hard to do His will.
Sometimes I ask, where has all the passion gone?
Perhaps the answer is simple.
Perhaps the reason that Christians are lacking in the passion category is simply because they have forgotten to die to themselves. If we never die to ourselves, we can never truly live or experience life, and if we can never experience that because of our pride, how can we ever hope to live with the passion God intends?



There is a song by Tenth Avenue North called: Empty My Hands

It is a song that screams death to me. Death literally to me, and all of my dreams that I have set up. Tonight, I'm willing to give up all of my dreams, all the "big" things I want to do. If Jesus asks for my dreams, I will gladly die to them so that I can truly LIVE.
When I let these dreams die, I will find that the letting go of these dreams makes me COME ALIVE. It all makes sense. The idea is so beautifully brought together.

Thank YOU JESUS for the gift and writing and the intellect that You have given us to think and reason.
Help us to put all of these ideas together so that we can live the way You intend for us to live and so we can show others Your beautiful love.





Empty My Hands - Tenth Avenue North
I've got voices in my head and they are so strong
And I'm getting sick of this, oh Lord, how long
Will I be haunted by the fear that I believe
My hands like locks on cages
Of these dreams I can't set free

But if I let these dreams die
If I lay down all my wounded pride
If I let these dreams die
Will I find that letting go lets me come alive

So empty my hands
Fill up my heart
Capture my mind with You
Oh empty my hands
Fill up my heart
Capture my mind with You
With You, with You Lord

These voices in speak instead and what's right is wrong
And I'm giving into them, please Lord, how long
Will I be held captive by the lies that I believe
My heart's in constant chaos and it keeps me so deceived

But if I let these dreams die
If I could just lay down my dark desire
If I let these dreams die
Will I find you brought me back to life


So empty my hands
Fill up my heart
Capture my mind with You
Oh Lord, empty my hands
Fill up my heart
Capture my mind with You

Cause my mind is like a building burning down
I need Your grace to keep me, keep me from the ground
And my heart is just a prisoner of war
A slave to what it wants and to what I'm fighting for

So won't you empty my hands
Fill up my heart
Capture my mind with You
Oh empty my hands
Fill up my heart
Capture my mind with You
I need you now Lord

Even if it costs us our dreams

Some of us have huge plans for life.
We want to see the world.
Build companies.
Start incredible ministries.
Touch and impact people's lives all over the world.

All of those ambitions are great!
Many of us lack dreams.
We need dreams.
Dreams bring life and vitality to our lives.
They help us grow as people and spur us on to great accomplishments.
We all need to dream bigger than we do now.
We need to dream big dreams because we serve a BIG GOD!

But today...God has been teaching me something.
He's been teaching me something really simple.

Sometimes in life those big things never work out.
They never materialize like we think they will.
Sometimes it's because we just aren't strong enough.
Sometimes it's because we are afraid of failure.
Sometimes it's because we don't pray enough.
...
But often, "big" things don't happen simply because it is not God's best for us.
The thought is this:
Perhaps the most important thing for some of us to do is to touch everyone we can.
To touch those we interact with on a day to day basis.
When we look at the life of Christ, the majority of His life was poured into His Twelve Disciples.
Perhaps we need to take a lesson here.
Perhaps God is more interested in us making a DEEP impact in the lives of FEW rather than attempting to make a small impact in the life of many.
Perhaps for some of us, our lot in life to simply be teachers and pour ourselves into our students and show them how to live like Christ.
Perhaps for some of us, our lot in life to simply be coaches who teach their athletes the way of the most excellent life, the narrow Calvary road.
Perhaps we've all been thinking upside down.
Perhaps our "big" American thinking needs to be stopped and we need to focus on making meaningful impact in people's lives.
If Jesus spent so much time investing in twelve simple men's lives, perhaps this is something I need to start doing.

Remember: a life lived for people, and a life lived showing people how to live and love like Jesus is never wasted.

This must be our central goal...no matter how "BIG" or how "SMALL" Christ decides to use us.
God's not interested in numbers.
He's interested in our hearts and our message.
The message is always Jesus Christ and Him crucified and the life of love and service.
The Gospel is always the core and the cross is always the center.
And the manger is the beginning of it all.

Tonight, I'm lost in the wonder of Jesus' love.
May we live our lives in such a way that shows EVERYONE that we meet this incredible love.
No matter the cost.
Even if it costs us our dreams.

Marvel

Love brought You here
to the world You created
Love sent His Son
on that first Christmas morn'

Lord, I marvel at Your love
that I cannot fully know
How could You save me,
after all that i've done?

How could the one who made the heavens,
take me as His own?
How could You love,
a sinner like me?

But the wonder of it all,
is that You sent Your Son that Christmas
the wonder of it all,
is that You even came at all.

You could have left us here to wonder
You could have left us on our own.
But You sent Your Son to save us,
and bring redemption for us all.

So in this priceless moment,
I'll fully stand amazed
on this perfect white Christmas,
I simply marvel at Your perfect Love.

-Marvel at Your Love
written 12/25/09

Past, Present, Future

After my previous post titled "The Principle of the Path" comes this post titled "Past, Present, Future."
I have been spending a great deal of my Christmas break thinking through things, as well as reading and writing.
This post may be a little choppy because my findings are far from complete.
Here's a few quick thoughts:
1 - Prayer is very very very powerful, and we do not pray enough.
2 - Good things come to those who wait.
3 - C.S. Lewis was a brilliant writer.
4 - Jesus' love is insane. How in the world do we ever take His love for granted?
The KING of the whole universe, made Himself a servant, and came in the likeness of a child. He subjected Himself to this, He emptied Himself, He lived inside of a 13 or 14 year old girl whom He created, and then He was raised by two humans who He created. He had brothers and sisters. He grew up with all of the normal issues facing children. He did all of this when He could have come as a conquering King!
He could have rushed in with a host of angels!
But...as Audrey Assad puts it: "He came like a winter snow...quiet and soft and slow, falling from the sky in the night to the earth below."
He did this to save us all from ourselves.
It's this "foolishness" that saved the world.
The world calls all of this "foolishness," and it is because they cannot comprehend such love.
Wow.
5 - I am in the middle of creating a lot of goals.
I have some really big things I want to do in the future, but I have no idea how to get there.
That's where I'm at now.
I understand everything that God has done for us, and what He does for us every day.
I get life, I get how it's supposed to be lived.
It's so simple: He says to be like Jesus and to love like Jesus.
"His Will" is revealed in His Word.
He has told us how to lived.
We have no excuses.
So: Because of His great love.
I am resolved to live like Jesus today, and every day for the rest of the days that God graciously grants me.

The Principle of the Path

I have really been challenged recently but this quote from the book "The Principle of the Path."

The quote is this: "choices determine direction and direction always determines destination."
While this quote may not seem novel, that is exactly the point!
The Principle of the Path is a principle because it is something that is always true.
If we are on a path from Kansas to Florida, we will NEVER end up in Colorado. We can WANT to go to Colorado all we want, but unless we are on a path that is headed to Colorado, we will never arrive there.
This still probably does not strike you as that important.
You know this principle in your heart, and you understand it in your brain, yet, we really don't live like it.
We want to accomplish certain things, but we are unwilling to put in the work to achieve them. At the end, when we don't achieve them, we ask: why didn't we achieve this? The answer is simple.
Many of us want to become stronger spiritually, but we never really open our Bibles or increase our prayer life. And we wonder why we don't grow closer to God.
Many of us want to improve our friendships, or relationships, or our grades, or our jump-shot, or our finances, or our writing skills, or any host of things...
but the problem is...unless we are intentionally on a path towards those things, we will never arrive at that destination.
We will never have better grades until we put in the necessary work.
Our basketball game will never improve simply because we want it to, work must be put in.
Our finances will never get better because we want them to, they will improve when we budget and plan well and then execute our plan.
Thus, the principle of the path is almost always true.
If we are on a path headed somewhere, that's where we will arrive.
Sure, things happen, the best laid plans sometimes don't work out...that's life, and things happen in this world that is broken down by sin.
But God asks us to be responsible.
He asks us to plan well.
To walk the path towards GOOD destinations.
If we do this...we will be amazed at the results.

The "Soccer-Trophy Generation"

One of my teachers used this phrase yesterday in class. It was very interesting to think about, and now I'm going to expand a little bit on what was said in class.

It seems that the "Soccer-Trophy Generation" is a very fitting description of my generation as a whole. We are a generation that expects to get a reward/trophy for just being "on the team." This can have many different applications. We expect to get a bonus for coming to work and finishing our tasks on time, we expect to get an A for showing up in class and not having to study, we expect to be acknowledged and rewarded and put up on a pedastal for just doing what is expected.
And when we are not rewarded....we kick and pout and scream.

Why do we feel so entitled?
Is it because we live in a culture where we seek and obtain instantaneous gratification?
Is it because we have been giving everything we could possibly want or need for all of our childhoods?
Have we been conditioned to receive praise and rewards for simply doing the minimum?
It seems as if the answers to these questions could be Yes.