Don’t think about it, just do it.

. . .  make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; ⁶and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; ⁷and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. ⁸For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There’s an order to the walk of the disciple of Christ. Peter urges us to build on the foundation of faith, adding in succession goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. He adds that these qualities, in increasing measure will keep us from being ineffective and unproductive in our knowledge of Jesus. I’ve been thinking about this passage lately, especially in the context of several conversations that are taking place both FTF and around the blogosphere. I’m visualizing a pyramid that an individual ascends throughout his faith journey. Everyone begins at the level of faith. Some don’t progress much further. A couple steps up you add knowledge and all the higher acheivements build on that, like self-control, perseverance and love.

Here’s my point. In my experience, the American evangelical church is stuck on the third step. We spend so much of our effort and our resources on building our own knowledge and force feeding it to our disciples that we lose track of the higher calling, the self-control, the brotherly kindness, the love. And so, our “discipleship” programs become all about studying the bible and less about learning to live a Spirit-filled, God-honoring, Christ-like life in the meantime.

I don’t have a problem with the accumulation of knowledge as long as it is tempered by love (knowledge makes us proud, but love makes us useful), and I love participating in Bible studies, but, I think we might be missing the point. I don’t think God wants us hanging around opening coffee shops on the third step. I think he wants us to keep climbing.

There’s something my dad used to say to us that I think applies here. “Don’t think about it, just do it.” (Sorry, Nike, my dad said it first.)

And now I’m telling you.

 

Out of Order

I work in a school.

My office/classroom is on the same hall as the bathrooms.

In the basement.

Most of the time this is not a problem. Occasionally it can get a little, shall we say odoriforous.

Yesterday was another thing altogether. I don’t want to get into all the smelly details, but it was really, really bad. Overflowing into the hall-I couldn’t get to my classroom-and wouldn’t want to even if I could-bad. And we were all upstairs, at the other end of the building complaining about the stench. Teachers and students. Well, I needed something from my office. I decided to brave the smell and see if I could get to it.

No good. I got halfway down the stairs and saw that the whole hallway was flooded. And what I smelled made me glad I couldn’t get any closer.

But, get this. Pedro, our PE Teacher/Bus Driver/Groundskeeper/ Maintainance Man was down there, in the mess and the smell and while we were complaining, he was whistling. Whistling! And it wasn’t a dirge.

I asked him about it this morning and he said, “What else can you do when the situation seems desperate?”

Huh.

Makes me think of this.

Psalm 34

¹  I will extol the LORD at all times;
       his praise will always be on my lips.

 ² My soul will boast in the LORD;
       let the afflicted hear and rejoice.

The bathroom wasn’t the only thing out of order yesterday. My attitude was equally out of order. I don’t want to play the part of the afflicted, I want to be the helper, the encourager, the one who causes others to rejoice.

I want to be the whistler.

 

Perspective: It’s the Little Things

This morning I was going through some papers and came across a page of stickers. I handed them to my 9 year old who was standing at my elbow. A few minutes later she stuck one on my shirt, shoulder level.

I kept working.

A couple hours later, the sticker on my shirt caught my eye and I looked at it. I “heart” mom!, it says.

In these early days of the new year, everyone’s talking about goals and resolutions. No matter how much I weigh at the end of the year, or whether I achieve what I would like to academically or professionally, I will have a 10 year old and an 8 year old and a 17 year old who “heart” me. Achievement and ambition pale in comparison.

What little thing will you celebrate today?

This post is one in a series on perspective.

 

New Year/ Old You

Last year I attended a training during which I was supposed to get alone and figure out a mission statement for my life. I was pretty stressed out about this, thinking that if I got it wrong, I would screw up the rest of my life or something. Luckily, common sense intervened and I realized that this was just a tool, like any other tool, maybe useful and maybe not. I stopped trying to write it, and it came to me. It’s pretty personal, so I’m not going to share it verbatim, but it has to do with helping people who are marginalized by society.

This fall, I got really, really busy. This time it wasn’t my fault … honest. But one of the things I’ve been trying to do for the last 6 weeks or so is lighten my load a little. But I realized a couple weeks ago that the easiest things to lose logistically were the ones that fit best with that mission statement that I almost forgot about in my busyness. So, I switched tack and renegotiated and I think I’ve come up with a reasonable compromise that balances my resonsibilities with my mission, taking into account financial as well as family needs.

I remember hearing one time that two Chinese characters combine to form the concept of busy: heart and killing. I believe it. Busyness creates stress which is literally life threatening, but maybe even worse is the fact that busyness kills our souls, we forget who we are and what we’re here for. At least I did.

That’s why when taking the Chris Brogan challenge to choose three words for 2009, I chose blessing, which embodies my mission; perspective, reminding me not to invest emotionally in things that don’t matter; and ownership, asking myself (as reminded by @EricaRKrieger on twitter) “Is this mine to do?”, and if the answer is yes, owning the task and working wholeheartedly; and if the answer is no, figuring out how to let it go as soon as possible.

I’m thinking about reviewing these three words once a month throughout the year to prevent busyness from overpowering my mission and purpose and even the very person I’m made to be.

Related posts:
Goals, Schmoals

 

Lifted Up

Twice in the past few days, I’ve run across this verse, But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. (John 12:32). Anytime that happens, repeated references to the same verse or idea, I try to take notice. And here’s the progression of my thoughts:

If my mission is to make disciples (and it is)

And if making disciples means helping others know and follow Jesus (and I believe it does)

And if Jesus said men would be drawn to Him as He is lifted up (and He did),

Then, I should be lifting Jesus up with my life.

What does it mean to lift Him up?

Did I lift Him up today?

More than I lifted myself?

More than I tore others down?

Did you?

 

in the beginning

in the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God
the WORD was GOD

 

in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth
    the earth was formless and empty

 

empty
nothing
void

 

darkness was over the deeps
    the Spirit of God hovered over the waters

 

God said, let there be light
    let there be light
    let there be light
    and there was light

 

and the Word was God
the WORD was GOD

 

by the Word of the Lord were the heavens made
their starry host by the breath of His mouth

 

the heavens declare the glory of God
the skies proclaim the work of His hands

 

and the Word was God
the WORD was GOD

 

then God said, Let Us make man in Our image
    into Our likeness We will create

 

so God made man in His image
    in the image of God did He make him
    male and female He made them

 

God blessed them and said
     be fruitful and increase
    fill the earth and subdue it
    rule over the fish
    and the birds of the air
    and the creatures that move on the ground

 

and God saw all that He had made
    and it was very good
    it was good
    it was good
it was very good

 

now the serpent was beautiful
was an angel of God
but his envy and pride made him fall

 

and the serpent was filled up with hatred
    crafty and sneaky and mean
    so he plucked up the fruit that’s forbidden
    and he polished the fruit until shiny
and presented it to the woman
eat it, it’s good – you’ll like it, you’ll see

 

and she ate
and he ate
and I ate
and we ate

 

and she fell
and he fell
and I fell
and we fell

 

our disobedience caused us to fall
and created a gulf between us and our Father

 

but
in the beginning
God made a plan

 

a plan to redeem a world that had fallen
a creation that’s groaning
since the beginning
    of sin

 

a plan for redemption from sin
    from injustice
    from hatred
    from envy
    from greed and from pride and from sin

 

in the beginning was the word
    and the Word was with God
    and the Word was God
    the Word was GOD

 

the Word became flesh
made His dwelling among us
God became man
O great mystery and blessing
Alpha and Omega inserts Himself in time
God eternal touches man

 

the Word became flesh
    to redeem His creation
    to remind us of God and His love
to show us the way
    of living that’s holy
    a life of redemption, of love and of peace

 

the Word became flesh
    then returned to the Father
but the Word remains with us this day

 

He dwells in the hearts of the people who love Him
    and His work of redemption is ours

 

ours is the task to share with the world
the love of our Father, redemption in Christ

 

as God anointed Christ that day
so Christ anoints each one of us
    to preach good news to the poor
    to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and sight for the blind
    to release the oppressed
    to proclaim the Lord’s favor
the good news for all

 

the indwelling Christ compels us to act
will you answer the call to love as He loved
    to redeem the world through His strength and His teaching
    to practice Christmas 
    the Word become flesh
    every day of the year

 

the Word made His dwelling among us
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God
the WORD was GOD 

 

by anna lenardson
(Christmas reading 2008)

 

The Jesus in the Middle

Off and on I’ve been reading “A Generous Orthodoxy” by Brian McLaren. Understand that McLaren is not for the faint of heart and I do not recommend him wholeheartedly, but I like much about this book especially with regard to unity and the Church.

One of the things he talks about early on in his book is the tendency for evangelicals (full disclosure: though I don’t like labels, evangelical is the tradition I grew up in) to focus almost exclusively on Jesus’ birth and death, the incarnation and the cross, while some other traditions tend to focus much more on the Jesus in the middle.

And I’ve been thinking about the Jesus in the middle.

In the middle Jesus had compassion on the multitude.

In the middle Jesus healed the sick and the lame and the blind.

In the middle Jesus fed the crowd.

In the middle Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners.

In the middle Jesus walked and he taught and he prayed and he helped.

He laughed and he ate and he danced and he loved,

and he loved and he loved and he loved.

I praise God for the birth of Jesus, the Word became flesh, God stepped into time … a mystery unfathomable.

And I thank God for the cross: salvation, redemption, restoration … blessing beyond compare.

But for today, for life, and for joy, and for truth, and for peace, and for love, I try, and I try and I fail and I try, to pattern my life on the Jesus in the middle.

Because the beginning and the end seem a bit empty without the life in the middle, like a story with no plot, or a melon rind with no sweet fruit … hollow … don’t you think?

 

Fear Itself

A couple months ago I was on the beach with my daughters. The youngest picked up something that she thought was a piece of beach glass.  It turned out to be a dead jellyfish. She dropped it in horror and ran to me crying and buried her head in my lap.

Are you hurt? No.

Did it sting you? No.

Then what’s the problem? More crying.

The truth is, I knew what the problem was. I’m familiar with that problem. It’s the fear of what coulda, woulda happened. 

And it’s a problem.

Not because the couldas and wouldas materialize all that often, but because they keep us from getting our feet wet in the first place. I persuaded the girl to go back into the water, but only with difficulty. What if there are more? I could get hurt?

True. You could get hurt. But if you let your fear keep you on the sand, you miss the waves and the splash and the fun.

And in the end, that could hurt worst of all.

 

Seduced by the New

Before I started kindergarten, I was Anna Marie. But the kids and teachers at school all called me Anna, and, try as I might, I couldn’t get them to stop. All through school I was Anna Marie at home, among family friends and to the older people at church and Anna everywhere else.

Then, after I got married and moved to a new community and started a new job, I tried a funny experiment. When I filled out the application, I wrote Annamarie. And suddenly I was Anna Marie again to a whole group of people. I had reinvented myself in a small way or maybe I had found myself again.

I’ve been thinking about new beginnings lately because there is a very good possibility that my family will be moving in the fall, possibly across the country, maybe even across the ocean, or maybe just a couple towns away.

This idea of new is very seductive to me. I’ve been thinking about how a major move will force me to drastically cull our possessions. What a freeing thought. And I’ve been further thinking that new neighbors, new friends, new church, new opportunities, new ministries will give me the opportunity to reinvent myself to become more the one I’d like to be. Or maybe it gives me the opportunity to find myself again and become more who I’ve always been and have lost in the chaos of my noisy life.

But. Why do I have to wait for a move to rid my life of physical and metaphorical clutter? Can’t I pare down my possessions for no other reason than the fact that I want more space in my life? Can’t I start being who I want to be and ignore the ones who try to fit me into last year’s box? Can’t I put down the baggage of old assumptions and take up the knapsack of my dreams?

What do you think? What would you do differently if you were starting over? What stops you from doing it now?

 

Out of Context

I changed the ringtone on my phone last week. Ever since, I’ve missed virtually every call. The new ringtone is super-cool. It’s the honking of a flock of geese.

But here’s the thing. When I’m inside, it goes off and I think, “What’s that now?” And by the time I realize what it is, it’s too late to pick it up. When I’m outside, it goes off and I look around for the geese.

And I’ve been thinking about listening for the voice of God.

Sometimes, when we compartmentalize our lives too much and think about God on Sundays, but pretty much go our own way the rest of the week, we miss the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit. It is out of context and we have a “what’s that now?” type reaction if we even hear it at all.

On the other hand, if you will permit me to stretch the analogy a bit, inside the church, the honking of our own voices, schedules, strivings and agendas can oftentimes drown out the voice of God or, even worse, be mistaken for the voice of God.

What do you think? How do you quiet yourself so that you don’t miss or drown out what God has to say to you?