Change the World

I recently received an e-mail from a friend that I felt the need to respond to and then as I wrote, realized that this message was not just for them. The context was one in which the person was calling for us to "move to a nobler goal - the ascension of humanity to a level of moral and ethical behavior based on love, trust and respect." These are truly noble goals, ones we should aspire to, yet when placed in a context outside of Christ, are impossible. So here follows my response:

"Most importantly, and you need to hear this from my heart, we will NEVER ascend to nobility as a race until we bow the knee to Christ. If I said otherwise to you, I would be hypocritical. If you hear me judging other religions, okay, but that's not what I'm saying here. Human beings have long proven their inability to rise above themselves as a race. I have seen evils done by ALL religions, and that is not the issue, or maybe it is. The issue is personal rather than societal or corporate or an organizational one as many religions (and by this hear organizations, not faith systems) have made it. Unless I bow my knee to Christ, then I have set myself up as my own god. The problem with self-made men, I've heard it said, is that we tend to worship our maker. I make a pretty weak god. Jesus never said come to me and hate everyone else. He did say I am THE way, THE truth and THE life, NO MAN comes to the Father but by me. Jesus never set up an organized religion, yet He held to the truth. The warnings about failing to bow the knee are both 'prescriptive' and 'descriptive.' In other words, they are not just a warning of judgment, they are also a warning of the consequences of our decisions. I have seen the impacts of this regularly. For example, in our local church we have many people in recovery, and I have rarely seen someone truly freed from the power of their addictions without turning to Christ and submitting their lives to Him. They have tried to place many things in that place as their higher power as it says in the 12 step programs, but nothing, not even self denial, has brought them the freedom that Christ does. When we submit ourselves to Christ, we get freedom. That submission does not come from praying a prayer, from joining a church, from submitting to worldly authority (though in its proper context, that too is important), it comes from submitting our lives to Christ. Christians who fail to act in areas of social injustice need growth. Scripture abounds with areas in which God tells us this. I have, however, begun to learn something that is new to me - mercy. One of my spiritual gifts is prophecy (not fore-telling, but 'forth'-telling). I have in the past been very quick to use that as a hammer to stamp out wrongs. I am learning, however, that all this does is attempt to destroy the bad without building anything life-giving. Part of what I am learning now is that social justice is more than undoing the evils - it is much more about showing mercy. The propet Micah says 'Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God' He doesn't just end with the 'do justice' part - mercy and humility are crucial to the true righting of wrongs. But I ramble here. Bottom line, the only way for us as arace to rise to true nobility is to fall from the pedestals of ourselves and submit to Jesus Christ. Only in this way will reform ever happen. And it doesn't happen on a national level first, never has, never will. It has to happen on an individual level."

"Over the years you have asked me to pray for you, your family, situations, and I have. But I have always wondered who you wanted me to pray to - Allah, Buddha, my ancestors, or Jesus. I have, or course, prayed to the One God - and I have prayed that you and yours would come to a saving knowledge of Him - I pray that now. Why am I responding to you in this way now, well, I'm not exactly sure, except that yesterday I challenged the church to talk openly about their faith more, not to hide it, to tell people the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and so your e-mail came perhaps as a divine appointment for me."

That was my response. We often hear calls that people, nations, or the world needs to change, to become better. The truth is that this will never happen without Christ. There may be people who read this and disagree, but what evidence do we have to show that people, left to themselves, can do it? This type of change can only come from the One God, working through those fully submitted to Him. That, after all, is the point. Jesus came to free us from ourselves, our sins and our weak attempts to rightly handle things with ourselves on the throne. He restores with justice, with mercy, and with grace. Who of us can do the same without Him?

Humility.... or Upside-Down Pride?

Have you ever heard people talk about "gentling" a horse? When you do that, you take the unharnessed, uncontrolled power of a horse and rein it in (excuse the pun). The horse is now strength under control, which, strangely enough, is how humility is often defined. When a horse is gentled, it does not lose its power, it does not lose its confidence. Imagine a horse, under saddle, thinking "Oh my, I can't do that little jump anymore because it might be misinterpreted as arrogance." or a quarterhorse after a win saying that it was all the jockey, but thanks. Yet this is what we are taught as humans, that if we show confidence, we are arrogant. Arrogance is not thinking more of yourself, it is thinking less of others. I once coached a soccer team that believed, every time out, that they were going to win. Now, they understood that in order to do so, they had to play to their potential and work hard, but they knew they were gifted enough to be successful. This is confidence, not arrogance, and something that is very hard to achieve in high school athletes. Some of the parents, however, came to me worried that the team was arrogant. We never belittled an opponent, never took anyone lightly, we just went out and took care of business.

In the church, I often see a false humility in people that does not honor who God made them to be. False humility does not point to God, but points to our weakness and thus, in my mind, is what I call "upside down pride." I personally have had a hard time taking compliments, but I am getting better at it. You see, if you frame your gifts as God has given them, you should have confidence in yourself and in what you were built for. I, for example, believe that I am an average guitar player, an average vocalist, and I am certainly not a detailed planning person. These seem to be things you need to be a successful worship pastor. I think that this is an accurate assessment of my skills. God, however, dealt with me on this issue several years ago showing me that the soft heart He gave me, the training I had through choirs, musicals, drama, band, even the Corps of Cadets at Texas A & M, were all part and parcel to getting me to the point at which I could not just lead His people in worship, but also pastor. For me, it is not so much the effect of one or two amazing gifts, but the combination of many smaller ones that is my strength. So I have been successful in leading worship and pastoring, and I feel comfortable doing it, like that is what I was made for. Too many people dishonor God by dishonoring their giftedness through false humility. You know; "Well, thanks, but...." and then breaking down why they should not have been complimented, or "it was all Jesus." No it wasn't all Jesus. Yes, we gain our strength through Him, but he gifted us and made us co-heirs with Him. Christ died to restore us to what He intended for us. What has been our response? We have elevated low self esteem and demeaning ourselves to an indicator of being spiritual, and that is wrong. In His book The Supernatural Ways of Royalty, Kris Vallotton tells it this way: If we look at a picture and say things like "What a stupid looking painting" or "the colors are all wrong" and "That thing is not very good," does that make the artist look good? Does running down the painting exalt the author? Of course not, so why do we do it with God's creations - us? The problem is that our culture has made it unacceptable to be confident. To the insecure, confidence always looks like arrogance. We do not glorify God by demeaning ourselves, we glorify Him by acknowledging that He is our strength, that He is the source of our gifts. The problem for many gifted leaders, especially in up-front pastoral positions, is that there are many in the congregation who do not get the simple fact that humility is not weakness, it is strength under control. God hold the reins, but He has not taken away the very strength He gave us to do what He designed us for.

So what does this mean for us as Christians? I believe that we are to walk confidently in the gifts and strength that we were made for. What if Jeremiah, who told God he was too young, or Moses, who told God he wasn't a good speaker, or Abram, who told God he was too old, had stuck with their own limited view of themselves? God's plan would still have been done, since he is in charge, but not through those "giants of the faith." On the flip side, how arrogant was David perceived, even (perhaps especially) by his own brothers? But read 1 Samuel 17 and see how things go. David says to Goliath in verse 46: "This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head." He doesn't ever say that he is too weak, that he is not very good, that someone better should do it, he says "I will kill Him." Then he chooses not to use someone else's weapons for the task, but uses those that God has given him skill with, no matter how unorthodox they seem to others. The rest, as they say, is history. We should do likewise. When we are asked to use the gifts we have been given, we should do so without apology. Acknowledge where our strength comes from, but operate in the strength. If we make ourselves lower than the enemy, we deny the power and authority we have been given as true sons and daughters. When we compare ourselves with others we either find ourselves wanting and feel insufficient or find ourselves superior and look down on the others. When we do what God has put us here to do and we are successful, we glorify the creator. When we allow God to work His strength through us, we may come to realize that our battles are smaller than we thought.