A Curable Disability

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

I’ve made no secret of my dislike for the term, disability. I use it because I don’t want what I’m saying to get lost behind needless offense, but I’ve long felt that the word, handicapped, is more accurate. The charge that it refers to begging with cap in hand is false. Disability is not necessarily inaccurate. Whatever the condition that has earned us that label does take away some measure of ability. But if we say a machine or function is disabled, we mean that it doesn’t function any longer. A handicap on the other hand is just an impediment. It does not disable us. It only makes it harder in some way for us to win. It doesn’t stop us from winning.

I’ll get off that soap box now, and I will keep using the word disability lest nothing else be heard because I really wrote this to talk about a condition that can really disable us needlessly. I have discovered it to be more profoundly disabling than almost any physical state in which we might find ourselves. It denies us opportunities we would have otherwise had. It paralyzes us more surely than any accident or disease. That condition is fear. The worst thing about it is that we can choose to conquer it but often choose instead to embrace it.

Fear is a God-given emotion just like all the others. It is given to us as protection. To have absolutely no fear is not bravery but foolishness. The problem with it, just like any emotion, is when we allow it to control us. If we allow fear to displace reason; if we allow it to become the sole motivator of our action or lack thereof, then it turns from protector to jailer. And it is a cruel master.

I want to write about it because I have seen it play a devastating role in the lives of people facing disability but it is certainly not limited to us. The opportunities lost to its clutches are too many to count. Careers that could have taken off never launch. Relationships that could have bloomed were never seeded. God-given talents never saw the light of day. It is a tragic waste.

For those of us with disabilities, fear has more weapons at its disposal. It’s easier to believe we cannot accomplish what we want to, especially when the world around us agrees! Few will argue with us if we say, “I can’t do that.” Additional dangers do exist. We might fall. We might get lost. We might fail for any number of reasons beyond those confronting people without additional challenges. Or, just maybe, we’ll succeed! One thing is certain. We cannot succeed if we never try.

Fear isolates us and then feeds on the isolation. In the absence of other perspectives, our own distorted view grows. Perversely we also become afraid to share it. Alone and immobilized by unseen and possibly actual demons, all that we might be is locked away and hidden even from ourselves.

Fear has a nasty habit of growing beyond its proper boundaries. There are real dangers to us, but often we magnify them. One weapon in the fight against fear is reason. Evaluate the real danger. I know people who should be working for the DHS. They are experts at imagining the worst possible scenario for any given situation. It’s good to be aware, but apply some perspective to the situation. How likely is it to actually happen? Some risks are worth taking. If it does happen, how bad is it really? Chances are highly in your favor that the worst won’t happen, and that what does happen is quite survivable. If you fall, you may hurt yourself, but you’ll probably live. You might need help getting up, but there’s no shame in that. None of us gets through life without help from time to time.

If I cross the street, I might get hit, but I can minimize the chances of that by paying attention to my surroundings and obeying the traffic signals. It would be a pretty limited life if I refused to ever cross a street because I might not see an oncoming vehicle. I did get tapped once. It didn’t even knock me down. There have been other close calls, but I refuse to be bound by fear.

If I go to a new place, I might get lost. So what! As my wife is fond of saying, the world is round. I’ll get there eventually. I’ve been lost before. I consider it an opportunity for my own little adventure. There’s a sense of accomplishment that comes with finding my way again. And yes, if I must, I’ll ask for directions.

I don’t mean to say that I have conquered fear. There are risks that logically I know I must take to move forward that I am not yet willing to take. Sometimes we do get hurt, and fear of repeating the experience can be more devastating than the direct cause of the pain. Sometimes it is difficult to separate reasonable fears from the unreasonable. Most of us prefer the safer path.

If you are struggling with fear, there are practical strategies for overcoming it that you can turn up with a little research. There is no shame in asking for the help you need. I want to help you find the best weapons for winning the fight. They are available at any time, any place, and at no monetary cost. They come from one source, and there is none other so worthy of your trust.

That source is Jesus. If you don’t believe in Him, you may be tempted to stop here. You thought you might get some real insight and now I want to talk religion! I hope you’ll be willing to stick with me a little longer. I know that what I’m saying is the truth. I can’t in good conscience leave Him out. There is nothing else I can give you that can compare. The rest of what I have to say comes from a Christian perspective. It’s the only one I know. Can one succeed without it? The answer depends on your measure of success. I challenge you to examine the principles by which true success is achieved and to look beyond the temporal to the eternal. I won’t walk you through a ritual here, but I’d be delighted to talk to you if you want to know more about having a relationship with the God of the universe. It’s an awesome thing that He makes a way for us to do that!

So begins the exploration of faith. That word will mean different things depending on who you ask. The skeptic associates it with a belief in things which cannot be proven and possibly are not true. They may treat it as synonymous with religion or subdivision thereof. Faith in this form may or may not exist at all for them. The skeptic believes or thinks he believes only what can be proven. I confess that in many aspects of life I am among the skeptics. I don’t consider my faith all that strong. Now I’m using the word more specifically, I’ll come to that next. My faith in God comes as much from the faithfulness I have already seen from Him as it does from that which I have not seen.

Even among Christians you will find some radically different views on the meaning of faith. Some treat it as if it were some magical power. Obtain for yourself enough of it and you can rearrange the geography of the planet! Jesus did say that a very little faith is powerful enough to move mountains (Matthew 17:20,) but to understand that statement properly we need to consider everything else He said. That’s another topic, but I want to dispense with that view of faith so that we can consider it in a more personal and practical light.

That is, the trust that it implies. Some have called faith the opposite of fear. I disagree with that for reasons that will become apparent, but it is easy to come to that conclusion. One could do worse. When we trust someone, we are not afraid when we are with them. We believe that they will protect us and not harm us. When we trust in human beings, we will inevitably be let down at some point, but when we trust in God, we can be assured that even though we may not understand why He allowed something to happen, He means to bring out the best for us from it. That kind of trust is not easy to attain because of our limited perspective. Why suffering occurs in the first place is another topic for another day, but when we trust the creator of all things, we need not fear anything that may come our way. If we know him, the worst possible outcome still ends in eternal life with Him.

That is the hope that we have. It is a real hope, not a mere wish, which is what we often reduce the word to in modern language. We know the God of our salvation. What is there to fear? Calamity may befall us, but it cannot destroy us. We can take risks, because our reward is assured. We can dare to love, because His love never fails.

That is why I say that love is fear’s true opposite. In the Bible, John the disciple of Jesus puts it this way.

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. (John 4:18 NKJV)

We will do things for love that we will not do for any other reason. Love overwhelms fear because it demands action. Love inspires trust, because we do not fear the ones whom we know to truly love us. When that one is The One, what or who would we fear?

1Yahweh is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
Yahweh is the refuge of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid? (Psalm 27:1 LEB)

Jesus tells us that we do not need to be afraid. This is a message spoken to His disciples just before he would be arrested and crucified. He speaks of the coming Holy Spirit, who lives in all who call Him Lord.

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” (John 14:27 NASB)

Because He loves us, we can trust Him. Because He loves us, we can love Him. In that trust and love we can find the courage to conquer fear and be all that He meant for us to be.

What’s in the Box

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

Do you remember this from being a kid? Or maybe you’ve watched your own children do this. An expensive gift comes in a great big box. Someone put a lot of thought into that gift and thought it would really be enjoyed, but instead, the empty box is the thrill of the day. The item of value is ignored, and they play with the box.

As we grow up, the box wanes in appeal as a plaything, but we don’t lose our fascination with packaging quite so easily. We still tend to judge the quality of the item inside by how the package looks on the outside. We shun damaged cans and boxes of perfectly good food at the supermarket. Manufacturers from food to high-end electronics spend a lot of resources making sure the outside catches the eye. They know that if the outside doesn’t look good, we’ll never sample what’s on the inside.

This may not always be bad when applied to things, but it’s terrible when applied to people. We do apply it to people. “Good-looking” people get treated better, are hired more easily, and are more likely to be believed. All of this based merely on the packaging. We worship the body and devastate the soul. We’re so obsessed with the packaging that even those among us who would be considered beautiful often don’t believe it about themselves. It’s a fickle standard in any case, varying across time and culture according to whim.

If “normal” people battle this, what about those of us who are not? Like most teenagers, I wanted to fit in. I wanted to be “normal.” My dad used to ask me something like this, “Why would you want to be normal? Who told you that normal was good?” If we examine what’s going on in our world today, we find that normal really isn’t so good. It’s not a standard any of us should be striving for.

Whether or not you’re facing any kind of disability or disfigurement, chances are there’s something about your package that you don’t like. Maybe it came that way, or maybe it was damaged in shipping. The reasons are as varied as the packages, but one thing remains true for all. The real value is inside the package. Remember that not only as you consider yourself, but especially as you consider others. Is a diamond worth less because you received it in a crumpled paper sack instead of a fancy box? We might wonder about the giver’s choice of packaging, but it would not change the value of the gift.

So if you look in the mirror and don’t like what you see, are you looking past the packaging? What is inside? If you are looking at someone else, on what are you basing your assessment of them? Why do you accept the word of that news anchor or politician on the screen? Is it because they have established credibility, or does it have more to do with how they present themselves? In your day-to-day interactions with other people, do you look beyond first impressions? It’s true that there is only so much time available to us. Sometimes we have to make judgments based on the information at hand, but I urge you to make the time as much as possible when dealing with people. Don’t be fooled by the package. You could spare yourself bitter disappointment or discover something of great value.

We need to learn to see ourselves and others as God sees us. This is both wonderful and frightening. It is wonderful because we can know that God loves us. He has done everything He can to bring us to Himself. We are of such value to Him that He gave Himself for us. We should always keep this in mind as we interact with each other.

It is frightening because of the corruption that is at the core of all of us. It has been there since Adam let it in. Without God’s redemptive power through the blood of Jesus, we are all without hope. We all have good qualities that come from being created by God. That is why I wrote this. I want to encourage you to find those qualities within yourself and others. But none of us is truly good. Within every package is the deadly contamination of sin.

That is why it is such good news that the one who put us together in the first place provided a way for us to get cleaned up. If we’ll give over our package and its contents to Him, He will perfect it, making it all that He intended it to be. A word of warning though. He starts on the inside first. To get to the inside, he has to open the outside, and that’s painful at times. We may not get the pretty rapping until He takes us to be with Him.

I wish that we would all take more time to look beyond the surface. If we spent more time with the gift instead of the box, we would all live in a better place. Let’s start today!

Childlike Faith

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

Many of us are familiar with Jesus’ statement that we must enter His kingdom like a child if we are to enter it at all. We describe it as having a childlike faith, but is that what He said? Certainly we should trust in our Heavenly Father in the same way that a young child trusts in his earthly father, but in the passages we refer to, Jesus said nothing of faith. In each instance, the theme is humility. The disciples weren’t getting it. They were arguing among themselves as to which of them would be the greatest in the kingdom. Presumably based on the question they asked Him even after His resurrection (Acts 1:6,) they were imagining an earthly kingdom in which favors would be handed out to the closest associates of the new leader. Jesus is letting them know that’s not how His kingdom works. One cannot enter it on his own merit in pursuit of his own glory. One must entered it in humility, desiring God just as a little child desires his parents.

1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:1-4 NASB)

This is one way we get misled. The idea of a childlike faith is not without merit, but here many of us have assumed a scriptural support for a concept that is actually something entirely different. We have missed the main point and thereby promoted a teaching that I believe is actually harmful to our faith. We promote faith without reason. We are encouraged to turn off our minds and just believe. Yes, it is possible to accept and believe without understanding. The true faith of a child is no less true because he cannot fully understand what he believes, but we advise him never to grow up!

Children are trusting, but they are also naive. We cringe at the thought of a child approached by a stranger who says, “Your daddy said to come with me.” We teach them as soon as we can not to go with strangers. We are not preparing new believers in the same way. Often we are inadvertently encouraging them instead to pursue the stranger. Any time we listen to someone else tell us what God said and do not confirm for ourselves that He did indeed say that, we risk following a stranger into danger. Just as it has become common for parents to give children a code word so that if they do need to go with someone new they will have a token of the parent’s authority, we have God’s word in the Bible. Everything we hear should be checked against the Bible before we accept it as truth. And remember, even Satan quotes scripture. One isolated reference does not constitute proof. The Bible is a big book. It can be made to say just about anything if one picks just the right fragment.

Trust in God as a child may trust a father, but accept no impostor. Have a child’s humility, but have a mature faith.

Not At Your Service

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

People usually do what they have incentive to do. That’s what makes most government assistance programs so destructive. They offer incentive to stay on the program rather than to get out of it. It’s also why most government services of any kind do not work as well as market alternatives. I’m going to use our local paratransit service as an example. I’m not picking on Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) specifically. I doubt any similar program functions much better. The reason, put simply, is incentive.

First let me explain what it is since not everyone will be familiar with the terminology. Paratransit refers to an alternative to fixed-route bus and train service developed to serve those who are not able to use or have difficulty using those options.  It is a curb-to-curb shared ride system. Typical users are physically impaired in some way or may have cognitive challenges. It was developed in response to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, a law whose merits are debatable, but that’s another post. Among its requirements are that transportation providers create comparable alternatives to fixed-route services for those who cannot use them due to disability.

So out of the gate we have a problem. Compliance is not the same thing as cooperation, and when something is mandated, compliance is the most likely outcome. The incentive then is to do the absolute minimum to comply with the law. Anyone who has dealt with disability for very long can tell you that this is in evidence everywhere, not just on the bus. Are we better off? Certainly it is better to have these accommodations than not to have them, but as the segment of our population facing disability grows, who knows what innovation has been stifled?

The public transportation system is plagued with problems without even mentioning the paratransit issues, which I’ll get to in a moment. Again this is because the incentive is not really to serve the customer. The customer does not provide the bulk of the funding for most public transit entities. City, state, and federal subsidies do. So the organization is going to try to please the people with the money. Fares are too low to support the business and scheduling inefficiencies abound.

What if the market was allowed to develop a solution? Mass transit might be more expensive, but it would serve the areas that can support it. If we got the cities out of the practice of controlling private taxi service for the benefit of the big companies, prices there would come down to more reasonable levels, making it available to people who can’t afford it now and therefore must rely on mass transit or even paratransit services. Smaller scale shared ride systems serving commuters and niche markets would be free to innovate. Everyone would be better off. Small entrepreneurs would make money. Individuals would have more options, and overall prices for customized services would be lower.

I originally published this article in 2013.  Uber and Lyft, car services that connect you with drivers using their private vehicles, existed but had not yet come to Dallas then.  Uber might have been here but I didn’t know about it.  They found a way around the Taxi cartels, and prove the point I was making.  I use them regularly.

I imagine the loudest argument against this would be that individuals with meager means would be priced out of the market. I think it would be better if the government stayed out of the relationship altogether and let mutually beneficial arrangements and charitable organizations work it out, but if necessary some kind of voucher might be provided. However, as soon as you introduce that, you’re back on the way to government control of the industry because the customer is no longer the primary provider.

My wife and I have had first-hand experience with how the current system works, or doesn’t work.  We are grateful that it was available, but I wouldn’t call it a customer centered experience. Unlike calling a taxi, clients must make a reservation for a ride a day in advance. One cannot make a reservation more than two days in advance. (As of this update there’s an online reservation system with limited capability that will give you four days.)  Because it is a shared ride system you may be one of several people in the vehicle, and you cannot be guaranteed to meet your arrival time. Route planning is often poorly done by the dispatchers. Whether this is due to incompetence, malfeasance, indifference, or just bad software I don’t know. I suspect some combination of these. We have learned to plan to be at our destination thirty minutes before we really need to, which usually means arriving even earlier than that. When I want to go to a morning Bible study that meets at 6:30am I know I can get away with providing the actual time since it’s so early, but I would still often be picked up at just after 5:00 and arrive at 5:30. At this time the doors are locked, no one is around and I must stand outside and wait. I appreciated the independence it gave me and rather than trouble others to come and get me I used it until Uber and Lyft came along..

Reliability is another problem. The scheduling is inconvenient, but it too often happens that the schedule is not kept. This is particularly so when the rides are farmed out to local taxi services. One day my pickup did not arrive until it was almost time for my return trip from the destination. One time, my wife and I waited an hour past the end of the pickup window we were given. When I first called to find out where our ride was, the dispatcher said we were listed as onboard. The driver said he had computer problems, but I have my doubts. We were then driven all over the Dallas area and he refused to keep the air conditioner on, though the day was warm.

My point here is not to bash DART, but to point out one reason why the service and others like it are so bad. The end user is not the one the organization is beholden to. I do not doubt that individuals in the system desire to do a good job and take care of the people they are serving.  I’ve had some wonderful drivers.  But the system doesn’t help. The incentive for the company is to make sure the money keeps coming in. It will serve the end user only as far as is necessary to keep the spigot open. The customer is not the primary payer. The price for a trip is $3. The average cost of that trip using a full-sized paratransit van is $46 if I remember correctly. I don’t know what they pay the contracted cab drivers, but I do know at least at one time it was a fixed amount and the driver paid for the gas. It made for very unhappy cab drivers when they were routed all over town unnecessarily. Once I was driven within a mile of my house, then the driver went several miles in the other direction before coming back and dropping me off.

It is the same with bus and train service. Though buses are much more likely to be on schedule, I have had numerous experiences with busses showing up much earlier than their schedule dictates. Riders are told in the literature to arrive 5 minutes early, but buses have often been even earlier than that. It’s against the rules and if you complain they say they will send a supervisor out to monitor the route, but the problem persists. Again, there is not a sufficient incentive to really serve the customer. The trains are generally more punctual. They are usually not affected by traffic and they have to keep to the schedule lest they affect the whole system. However, I often see on DART’s Twitter feed notifications of delays due to malfunctioning equipment. Our track system doesn’t have many points at which anything can be done to route around problems, so the whole system is impaired, especially if the problem occurs in or near downtown where every single line runs on the same set of tracks. The system has never had enough ridership to pay for it, and if it did the capacity would not be there to support it. The price would have to be higher, reducing the ridership even further. I like having the trains and buses, but the reality is that without subsidies they probably wouldn’t exist, and the subsidies skew the relationship between customer and provider, leading to service that pleases virtually no one.

Cups of Caffeinated Cacophony

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

A couple of years ago Starbucks’ CEO made it clear that those of us who believe in traditional marriage weren’t welcome customers.  When I learned about it, I decided to oblige.  I’m not big into boycotts.  Sometimes they have an effect.  Most times they don’t.  I just decided I really didn’t want to give my money to a company that directly and explicitly opposes my values.

Now there’s a new controversy brewing.  Apparently Starbucks has removed any reference to Christmas from it’s new holiday cups.  I can’t get too bothered.  They’ve already said people who hold a view common to anyone who actually believes the Bible aren’t welcome, so why wouldn’t they cater to the customer base they have chosen?

What we need to ask ourselves as Christians is what is to be gained by getting all hot under the lid about this?  I’ve read people are doing silly things like giving their name as “Merry Christmas” among other obnoxious displays of utterly unchristian behavior.  How does that improve our witness?  Howe does that spread the Gospel?  Who wants to get to know a leader who’s followers act like jerks?

If you don’t like what they’re doing, don’t go.  Forego your Frappuccino.  Lay down your latte. I’ve already said I think most boycotts are ineffective, but it is true that if enough people stay away, it will be noticed.  Some have been successful.

Of course we should be standing up for our faith.  We should stand up to cultural bullies who try to run us out of public places.  However we should never forget our mission.  In our zeal to defend our faith, let us remember what that faith requires of us.

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.’ 39 But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. 40 If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. 41 Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. 42 Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. 43 You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous”  (Matthew 5:38-45 NASB)

That sounds a lot different than the things I read about.  How about this?  If you choose to go to Starbucks this season, do it with a smile.  Leave a nice tip in the jar.  Just say, “Merry Christmas.”  If they’re not too busy, engage your barista in friendly conversation.  Let everyone around you see what Jesus would really be like if He were there.  There’s no promise you’ll always be loved.  He wasn’t.  But don’t drive people away with obnoxious and generally unfruitful behavior that reflects poorly on you and only hurts people who have little or no power to change the things you don’t like.

Destructive Shame

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

When shame is deserved, it’s a good thing. It can cause us to renounce that which we should be ashamed of and make better choices in the future. But too often it is unjustified, and that’s when it becomes a destructive force. We can be free from deserved shame by the cleansing that is available to us when we turn away from our sin and to the lordship of Jesus. He paid the price for us and took our shame.

Sometimes it’s the undeserved shame that is harder to purge. Because I know people who struggle with it, I’ll specifically address that which many feel related to their disability. I can because I’ve been there. For me it came because I believed that I was supposed to be healed. For others it may be because of the way they see disability or the way they imagine (not always without foundation) that others see them.

Shame is completely inappropriate when its basis is something you cannot change. It makes no more sense to be ashamed of disability than it does to be ashamed of, say, being of average height. I’ll ad, since I am not, that being ashamed of below average height is no more reasonable. On some level we probably all know that, but knowing it doesn’t help much. We still feel ashamed.

I wish I had a secret formula that I could share with the world to eliminate needless shame, but I don’t. In my own life it took decades, and when I get into awkward situations, it still shows up. What I do hope I can provide is a little incentive for anyone struggling with it to find ways to overcome it.

My wife and I have set out to minister specifically to the needs of people facing disability. We want to give from what we have been given. All of my life I have been affirmed and encouraged.  I was never allowed to develop an attitude of disability or entitlement. This has allowed me to succeed in the working world. The more important parts of my life took a little longer to mature and I’m still growing.

The key for me was and is learning to trust in God. We repeat that until it becomes little more than a Christian cliché, but we shouldn’t lose the truth of it. When I finally realized how little depended on me and how faithful God is to complete what He started despite my failures, I began to experience true freedom. I wrote that Jesus took our shame. He did this through His sacrifice on the cross. I was thinking of deserved shame that comes from guilt, but it is more than that. Jesus takes all of our shame. It is not through our own effort that this happens.

When we realize how much depends on God and how little on us, we realize that we have nothing to be ashamed of. At the root of unmerited shame is pride. When we are focused on ourselves, we think about what we can and cannot do. When we turn our focus to Jesus, we know that there is nothing He cannot do. His power is perfected in our weakness (2 co 12:9,) and we can do anything He requires of us by His strength (Php 4:13.)

We all have a purpose. God has a mission for you, whether or not you are facing a physical disability. It may be that God wants you to share what He has given you with someone else facing the same or similar challenge. Often the best people to lead us through are those who have been there. But if you carry shame, you will not be very effective. It will cover you like a soiled garment, and it is all others will be able to see. Shame changes our behavior. We may retreat into ourselves. We may become anxious, defensive and unpleasant to be around. Why would anyone want to follow that? Throw away the worthless shame that hinders you from being all that God intended. Let Him take it from you. Live in the freedom and purpose that comes from being in harmony with Yahweh.

Should Voting Be Easy?

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

Is anything that gets people to vote good just because it gets them to vote?  I don’t think so.  I’m all for convenience.  I would very much like to be able to go online and cast my vote at an accessible web site, but not at the cost of opening the door to the rampant voter fraud such a system would invite.  My wife and I did use mail-in ballots one year, but that too opens the door to fraud.  It has happened.  There is a need to accommodate those who cannot use typical methods due to disability, but it needs to be done with great care.

The point is that if what it takes to get someone to vote is just to make it convenient enough for them, I am not at all sure I want them voting.  If our goal in making it easier to vote is to attract those who won’t bother unless we make it that easy then our goal harms the society rather than helping.  Voting should be undertaken with diligence and forethought.  That’s not the kind of voter that will do it just because it’s easy.  If you think voting is too much trouble, please do stay home.  I’m not for making it any easier for you.

The Free Gift that Costs You Everything

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

I recently finished reading a book, Killing Christians: Living the Faith Where It’s Not Safe to Believe by Tom Doyle. We talk about persecution here and there is a little to talk about, but the people whose stories are in this book can tell you about real persecution. I found myself wondering how we would do under the conditions they endure. Across the Middle East today, being a Christian may cost you your life. We fear a bit of ridicule or even a bit of discrimination. They may face torture of themselves or family members, rape, or beheading. As I read I had a thought. Jesus asks no less from all of us than these are compelled to give. Our heads may be safe for now, but what about our hearts? Are we prepared to give Him everything we are and everything we have? That is what He asks.

We are correctly taught that salvation is a free gift. What does that mean? It means we didn’t do anything to earn it. We don’t deserve it. The problem arises when we don’t know it’s value and fail to treat it with due respect. We are like the stereotypical spoiled rich kid. We think we have a right to it. We treat it lightly because we fail to appreciate what we have. We may even acknowledge the truth, but our lives don’t reflect it.

It’s different when we feel we’ve earned something. By definition then it is not a gift. We understand its value because we worked for it. We treasure and guard it.

What is necessary for us to take the same attitude toward the gift? We must come to understand its true value. There is no price we can pay to obtain salvation for ourselves. We must come to know the cost to the giver. This concept isn’t foreign to us. A gift may be of little monetary value, but if we know that a loved one made a sacrifice to give it, we place a higher value on it. In the case of salvation, the gift is beyond value and it cost Jesus everything.

We must realize that we desperately need it and don’t deserve it. The very idea that we are all sinners is abhorrent to our society. We have put man in the place of God. We have decided that we, not He, determine what is good. Evil, if usually acknowledged, is never applied to ourselves. To appreciate what God has done for us, we have to come to a place where we are conscious of our unworthiness. When we get a glimpse of His holiness, we can’t help but know that we are doomed unless He chooses to show mercy.

He does so choose, and when we commit ourselves to Him, everything changes. He has bought us with the price of his own life (1 Co 6:20.) He did so freely, but in accepting that gift, we give our lives in return. Whether we live in Palestine of Israel or Palestine of Texas, the call is the same.

24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 25 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 27 “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and ‘will then repay every man according to his deeds.'” (Matt 16:24-27 NASB)

A lot is happening in the chapter where these verses are found. The context is important, so let’s look at it. In verses 13-20 Jesus reveals Himself to the disciples by means of Peter’s confession. Verse 18 famously gives Peter his new name and contains the proclamation can I think has layered meaning, but that’s another topic that requires more research on my part. But peter’s revelation was not complete, as we see from what happens next.

Jesus goes on to foretell what will happen to Him when they get to Jerusalem. (v. 21) This isn’t the conclusion to the story that the disciples were expecting. Peter speaks up (22-23) and earns the stinging rebuke, “get behind me, Satan.” Why? He had a revelation of who Jesus was, but not what that meant. He’s thinking like we all do. A king comes to conquer, not to die. But Jesus will conquer death itself by dying.

Peter essentially says something we’ve all heard in some form today. “God wouldn’t do that!’ But He did do that, and it’s a very good thing He did. When we oppose God because we think that we know better what He should be doing, we are on the side of Satan. We would do well to remember this.

Next comes the passage above. We don’t know how much of a time gap is between them or that they are necessarily in order. We do know that Mark’s version says he gathered a crowd before he spoke these words (Mark 8:34.) The significant detail is that both writers group the events together. They have the same message. It is in the context of sacrifice that Jesus outlines what it means to be His disciple. He outlines what it takes with three points. A disciple must, “deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” Let’s look at each one.

What does it mean to deny oneself? Some things are obvious. If the Bible clearly says something is sinful, we should resist the temptation to do it. We should resist any impulse or desire that would cause hurt to another. But Jesus’ statement goes further than that. Look at what just happened. Of course we deny the lusts of the flesh, but we also put aside our own plans. We reject our own ideas about how things should be or what we want them to be. We subject our interests to His. The day of His return will come. Then he will conquer and He will judge. But that is for Him to do. We will be with Him then, but we are here now, and He gave us the example to follow and the Holy Spirit to guide us.

Self-denial is not an end in itself. Neither is it a ritual to be practiced so that we appear more religious. That turns the whole concept upside down. That’s what the Pharisees did, and Jesus didn’t have anything good to say about it. God is not pleased by self-inflicted pain or privation. He is pleased when we endure it for something greater. We deny ourselves in order to put Him and His first.

The second point would have been very real to the people Jesus was speaking to. They saw crucifixions first hand. He’s just been telling then what is going to happen to Him. Mark’s account says he spoke plainly to them. Now He has taken it to another level. If there was any vagary in what He said before, it’s gone now. Not only that, He’s saying, “you too!” The disciples are going to be thinking right up to the time he ascends that He’s going to set up a kingdom and they’ll get prime positions. But He is showing them a very different path.

Then He says, “Follow Me.” To follow Him is to die. We die to our desires, our plans, and our ideals. We may be called upon to give up our physical lives. Nothing here is worth hanging onto. The truth is that’s the only way we can really live! That’s what He tells us in the next verse.

When we’re focused on ourselves, we will find that happiness is fleeting. Nothing in this world can sustain it. Read Ecclesiastes. In pursuit of our own desires above all else we will drive others away. Sometimes with intent and sometimes through negligence or apathy, we will do harm to them as well. In living this way we will completely miss God. If this is the pattern of our lives, we need to ask ourselves if we ever met Him. 1 John, Chapter 3 makes it clear.

Then there’s the other side, “…whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” The key words here are “for My sake.” Know that your life is precious to Him. He gave it to you. He gave up His for you. He will not tell you to throw it away. You may be assured that a life dedicated to Him, even if shorter than we think it should be, is lever lost. The way to truly lose your life is to spend it on things that have no eternal value.

Will we here in the West be required to offer our earthly lives for Him? Only He knows. The persecuted church around the world certainly has. Here we have had only isolated incidents, but if we keep on the way we are going, they will increase. What will we do?

We will do then what we do now. The call on our fellow believers in places like Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Iran, and across the world is no different than ours. We serve the same Jesus. We read the same Bible. The language may change, but the truth does not. Will we stand up for the truth now? Will we defend the helpless? Are we willing to sacrifice a little of our comfort to meet the needs around us? Will we choose righteousness when it costs us something? If we won’t do it when it’s relatively easy, what makes us thing we would do it when things get tough? I ask myself the same questions.

But if we truly give our lives, we will find real life. We will find it in the joy that comes from blessing others. We will find it in the reward that comes from doing things God’s way. Life just works better when you live according to God’s design. Trouble still comes, but in the midst of it we can have the peace that comes from communion with the Holy Spirit. We will find it as we enter into the joy of our master (Matt 25:14-30.) We will find it in eternal life with Him.

Next Jesus tells us how serious this is for us. This truly is a life or death decision. Choose to live for yourself, and you will face death forever. Choose to die to yourself, and He will give you real life. What is the price of your soul? All the treasure in the world can’t buy it. Only One could pay the price, and He loved you enough to do it. He is our master. He paid the price for us. We either submit to His lordship or we live in rebellion against it. The day will come when we must answer for our decision.

He has told us that He is coming back. He will judge the world. The problem is we’re all guilty. We’ve all missed the mark of perfection. It is only because of what He did for us that we have hope. He served our sentence. Yet we are not without responsibility. Mark’s Gospel records this final warning in Jesus’ sermon.

“For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:38)

The paradox here has been a topic of hot debate between theologians for centuries. Millennia is probably more like it, but more recent records are better known. I won’t go into that much here, but I find interesting the cross references to the part of Jesus’ statement that is considered to be a quote from Old Testament passages. They present an interesting contrast and define our mission.

And lovingkindness is Yours, O Lord, For You recompense a man according to his work. (Psalm 62:12)

The psalmist has just contrasted man’s insignificance with God’s power in the previous verses. Here, lovingkindness, (or faithful love, loyal love, mercy) is equated with this judgment. Love isn’t love without justice, but justice demands we all pay a price. Because of His love for us, He paid that price. Our salvation comes from His work, not ours. But when we become His, we get a mission. If we truly have given our lives to Him, things will begin to change. The next reference shows us something of what it looks like and serves as another warning. The reference is to verse 12 below, but that’s part of a related grouping.

10 If you are slack in the day of distress, your strength is limited. 11 Deliver those who are being taken away to death, and those who are staggering to slaughter, Oh hold them back. 12 If you say, “See, we did not know this,” Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts? And does He not know it who keeps your soul? And will He not render to man according to his work? (Proverbs 24:10-12)

We have a job to do. We have been given a gift. It is the most valuable gift ever given. The One who gave it to us expects that we will share it. The nature of the gift compels us. It is the gift of life. No one truly lives without it. He who gave it to us is watching. What will we do? Another proverb comes to mind.

27 Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. 28 Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come back, and tomorrow I will give it,” when you have it with you. (Prov 3:27-28 NASB)

This has more to do with the physical realm, but how much more the message of the Gospel? There’s an implication of asking here, and surely none of us who believe would delay sharing if asked directly. But it should never be far from our thoughts. Knowing that so many around us will die without what we have, how can we keep silent?

I think Paul packages it neatly in these verses from his letter to the Ephesians.

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Eph. 2:8-10)

Salvation is a free gift that we can’t earn no matter how many good works we do. But God gave it to us with the intent that we would in fact do good works. Jesus gave His life for us. When we become His, our faith demands action. We give our lives for Him. That is only possible because of Him.

We’ll be arguing about the details until His return. We don’t need to have all the answers. We just need to trust The Answer. Trust Him with everything.

 

Ceremony and Tradition

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

One Memorial Day a few years back I was reflecting on the value of ceremony and tradition.  Depending on your background, it may be critically important, or not at all important.  I think of it most often in the context of the church, since, sad to say, that’s where we most often fight over it.  Churches I grew up in expressed disdain for tradition, failing to realize how much of it they retained or that they had simply replaced the ones they so despised with different ones.  Anyone who dares suggest that the old ones were better is labeled as a Pharisee, or an “old wine skin.”

As for me, I ask the same questions I try to ask about everything.  What does God want?  Does it accomplish anything?  Of course, if the first answer is that God values it, then the second is yes, though we may not always be able to see the purpose in it.

Does God value tradition and ceremony?  When we read the Old Testament it would seem that He very much does.  Then we read the New Testament and things seem to have radically changed.  Is that so?  If “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever,” what changed?  It seems that the value of tradition in the Bible is only to lead us to Jesus.  Paul said of the law, (the instructions to the Jews in the Old testament) that it is “”a “tutor to lead us to Christ.”

Yet the New Testament is not entirely devoid of ceremony and tradition.  Two are generally recognized by the church, though the practices differ significantly between different groups.  Paul indicates that there may be others at the beginning of 1 Corinthians 11, but I will focus on the two.  The first is baptism, signifying the new believer’s burial and resurrection with and through Jesus into life as a new creature.  By the way, one is not buried by sprinkling a little dirt over the body.  This is obviously important, since it is part of the commandment that Jesus gave his disciples before going back to Heaven.  He said, “…make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit…”

just as we tend to do with everything else, we’ve developed all kinds of ideas on exactly how baptism should be done.  Depending on the denomination, one may be sprinkled or dunked.  Some say the name of Jesus must be used exclusively.  Others say we must use the words “in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”  This hair splitting is done by pulling different snippets from the various accounts of baptism and instruction on baptism that can be found in the Bible.

It all misses the point.  Looking back at the Old testament, we see that if God meant for a thing to be done a certain way, He knew how to be specific.  He laid out design of the tabernacle, the implements and practice of sacrifice, the clothes the priests had to wear, what sacrifices were required in under what circumstances, and so on.  There was no room for doubt or improvisation.  In fact the slightest deviation from His specifications put one in danger of instant death.  This served to illustrate His holiness and our inability to be in His presence without the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus.  If he meant baptism to be a wrote ritual, would he not have laid it out in the same fine detail?  I think so.  God has always been more concerned with the motivations of the heart.  The significance of baptism is the public commitment of the new believer to walk in the new life given to him by Jesus’ sacrifice.

So let’s move on to the second New Testament tradition.  Depending on your background it may have been called communion, The Lord’s Supper, or the Eucharist.  We’ve gotten really crazy on this one.  Again I think we totally miss the point.  We’ve got it wrong on two counts.  First, we have taken a simple meal shared among believers and turned it into a stilted ritual.  1 Corinthians 11 starting in verse 17 is a well-known warning against taking communion unworthily, but what we miss in this passage is that it was clearly a meal shared together.  that leads me to the second thing, that we aught to be thinking of any meal we share with the same gravity we associate with our little ritual.  I don’t see the ritual as a bad thing, but I think that by focusing on it as the fulfillment of Jesus’ command to “do this in remembrance of me” we miss the full scope of the instruction.

I’ve lumped ceremony and tradition together, but they are separate things that kind of overlap.  It would be fair to say that what I’m really talking about today is more ceremony than tradition.  Both have their place.  I think my second question regarding what they accomplish must be answered case by case and even individual by individual.

If God gave them to us then they must have value, but what about the ones we invented?  In our society, with the written word and other ways of capturing memories and instruction readily available to most anyone, their value as memory aids would seem to be reduced.  Yet we seem to need them.  In fact, eschewing them in many cases will be looked upon as an indicator of bad character.  Since it was the genesis of these reflections, I’ll take up Memorial Day as an example.  I’ve heard many lament the fact that most of us take the day off as an opportunity to cook out or hit the sales rather than a solemn remembrance of the soldiers who have given their lives to make us free.  I’ll agree there is something to that.  As a country we lack an appreciation for what we have and what it takes to keep it.  We would do well to take time to remember these things and to personally thank the living families of those we have lost.

However, I was asking myself that second question on that day.  Linda had been talking about attending one of the memorial services in the area, and wanting to accommodate whatever she felt was necessary, I agreed to go.  Privately I was thinking, “who will be any better off because we did this?”  I suppose there is some value in standing with others, thereby affirming our support and sympathy, but I’m looking for some kind of practical benefit that I can offer.  In the end, thinking of my difficulty standing in one place for long periods of time and Linda’s sensitivity to heat, we opted to visit a friend in the hospital instead.  Serving a friend in need doesn’t’ seem like such a bad way to celebrate what we have been given.

Who Do You Think You Are?

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

I still marvel at how despite all my supposed disqualifications God has brought me into the calling He gave me.  I want to share the joy of that with you, and illustrate from the Bible that when God has placed a calling on your life, You are not big enough to mess it up.  To say that does presuppose one thing, that your heart is right before God.  Even so, if He wants it, He will have it.

I am amazed, encouraged, and humbled when I read about the people God used to accomplish His great purposes in our world.  The book of Genesis alone is quite a story.  Abraham treated his wife shamefully.  Isaac repeated his father’s mistake.  Jacob was a liar and a cheat.  Joseph had the makings of a spoiled brat.  At best he was imprudent in sharing his grandiose dreams with the family already jealous of him.  Things don’t get any better for him as he goes into slavery and then to prison on a trumped-up charge.  Yet because he remained diligent in all that he did, he became Israel’s first great deliverer as second in command of Egypt, at the time the world’s greatest nation.

Moses had some kind of speech impediment and an anger management problem that got him exiled after committing murder.  He offered so many excuses when God showed himself at the burning bush to call him to deliver Israel from slavery that he made god angry (Ex 4:14.)  Yet he did deliver Israel and gave them God’s laws.  In Judges 6 we find Gideon, hiding in a hole and yet called a valiant warrior by God’s angel (Judges 6:12.)  He would go on to deliver his nation with an army of three hundred men.

Then there’s David.  We find his story in the books of Samuel.  Anointed king while a lowly shepherd, the youngest in his family, seemingly considered unworthy of consideration even by his own father.  After proving himself worthy of the honor he was instead exiled as the jealous king Saul tried to kill him.  He was called a man after God’s own heart, yet he committed adultery and tried to cover it up with murder.  God’s promise remained, and Jesus is called the son of David.  The difference between the sin of Saul and the sin of David is their responses when confronted.  Saul made excuses.  David repented.  There are more examples, but let’s move on to the New Testament.

One might have expected Jesus to pick the best of the best to be the followers who would spread His message throughout the world.  Maybe He did, but we probably wouldn’t see it that way.  A third of his chosen team were fishermen.  One was a tax collector, another a rebel, another a pessimistic skeptic, and another a traitor.  None of them really understood what he was here to do until after his resurrection.  They seemed to be constantly squabbling over who was going to be the greatest in Jesus’ new kingdom (Luke 9:46, 22:24.)

Some of His disciples got special mention for their human failings.  Peter is called a rock by Jesus, yet denies Him 3 times in His greatest hour of need.  We like to pick on Peter, but I think we treat him a bit too harshly.  He may have sunk, but he also got out of the boat and walked on the water.  He may have denied Jesus, but he was also the only one to fight for Him and was one of only two who follow Him to the trial.  Jesus made it clear after his Resurrection that Peter still had a job to do.

john, the one who wrote the most about love, didn’t start out very loving.  He was mean spirited (Luke 9:52-56) and power hungry (Mark 10:35-39.)  He must have thought his close relationship with Jesus would give him unique privileges.  Yet Jesus had a special love for him (John 13:23, 20:2, 21:7,20.)  John eventually got it because he wrote more about love than anyone else whose writing we consider to be God’s word.

We can’t talk about unlikely candidates for God’s work without mentioning Paul.  He started out an enemy of the church until Jesus intercepted him.  There’s evidence in his letters that he wasn’t a particularly gifted orator or much to look at.  Yet no one did more to spread the message.  A joke has been floating around the church as long as I can remember listing Paul’s resume as if he were applying for a pastoral position.  The point is that none of us would be very likely to hire him.  It’s just one more illustration of how God’s standards differ from ours.

My hope in laying all of this out for you is that you will be encouraged to pursue the calling God has placed on your life.  Do not be deceived into thinking that your current circumstances or your past prevents you from doing what He has given you to do.  Maybe you do not know your calling.  Be assured that you have one if He is your Lord.  Even if not, He will have His way with you if He has chosen you.  Just ask Paul, Moses, or Jonah.

I am constantly amazed at His mercy and grace.  I am just as human as all of these.  I have hope only because He is my God.  He gave himself for me, and I give myself to Him.  Trust Him.  Do the best you can, but do not fear failure.  He is bigger than your failure.  Even that will be turned to His glory.  Only keep your heart devoted to Him.