Speaking their Language

There's a cartoon about a man going door to door, witnessing, but he's having problems with his language.

Christian: Are you lost?

Homeowner: No, I'm standing on my front door step.

Christian: No, I mean, are you blind?

Homeowner: No, I can see just fine.

Christian: No, I mean, do you need to be saved?

Homeowner: I don't think so. I feel just fine.

It would be funny if it weren't so true. We speak our Chrstianese inside the church, which is somewhat okay, if there are no visitors (which is a pretty sad commentary on your church, if you don't have any.) But, we can't really take it outside the church to the streets. Even Jesus had this same problem. "Eat my flesh and drink my blood" sounds an awful lot like cannibalism. And "I came down from heaven" sounds like a "Chariot of the Gods" thing. People who don't speak our language don't understand us.

Missionaries run into this, too. Ever hear the story of the missionary explaining "white as snow" to a group that has never seen snow? Your sins shall be as white as the inside of the coconut sounds weird, but it gets the point across just the same. Or the one who couldn't explain being nailed to a cross, because they didn't have hammers or nails? (God sent him a nail in a can of mandarin orangers, by the way.)

We had a missionary speaking at our church a few weeks ago. She was in northern Cambodia, and explained they can't say "God loves you." And why is that? Because they believe in millions of little gods, demons, spirits, and ancestors, all of whom need appeased.

Love? Love is desire. Desire is of the flesh. Flesh is evil. (Buddhist/Hindu/Animist beliefs, remember).

So, then, "God loves you" really means some little spirit of some kind or other wants to make your life miserable. Just great. That is exactly what they want to hear.

And what about those around me? The nurses I work with, old friends from high school I recently found on Facebook, my mafioso buddies on Myspace? What language do I need to speak to them? Many of my digital friends will never meet me, never get to see "Jesus in my life" and so see the difference he makes.

There is no resolution, no solution, no fix. Not for me. Not now. This is a question that I cannot answer.

Yet.

This is my world

Leonard was training for his black belt, but something was wrong. His teacher told him to "own the mat." When he changed his viewpoint, things got easier. "This is my mat, and I welcome my attackers. They are on my mat, my home territory. I own this place." He moved with greater confidence and grace, easily achieving his black belt.

According to his teachings, we need to approach life like this. "This is my ..." home, work place, restaurant, park, sidewalk, road. (It gives "owning the road" a whole new meaning.) This is my world.

However, is it really? Isn't this my father's world? (This post has more questions than answers.) Yes, this is my Father's world, and I'm a King's Kid.

But, once again, we are told we're "strangers and aliens." I'm not sure "my father's world" or "king's kid" are biblical phrases, but I know "strangers and aliens" comes from the New Testament. If I'm a stranger in a strange land, and I don't belong here, how can I "own the mat."

How can I reconcile these two views? Either this is my world, or it isn't. Is it even possible to "own" this world when I don't "belong" to it? My mom inherited a piece of property from her father. It happens to be on an Indian reservation in South Dakota. I don't think I'm registered with the tribe, so, will it pass to me, or revert to the tribe? What would they do if I showed up and claimed it? (If you've never met me, I'm severely white, with red hair. I look nothing like your stereotypical Sioux.)

Lets backtrack, and look at this from a different viewpoint. I belong to God. As his adopted son, I am an heir of God, and co-heir with Jesus. This world will pass away, and all we see. What I will be, and inherit, has not yet been seen by human eyes. By this reasoning, I shouldn't be proud or possessive of this "world" because this isn't mine. This is temporary and passing away.

In this whole, wide world, then, what is mine?

[T]he art of owning your life has larger implications. Are you willing to own, to take sincere and positive responsibility for your relationships, your financial situation, your health, your spiritual life? ... [T]here are limits, things beyond our personal control. But perhaps there are fewer of these than we might think.

Yes, here is the difference I was looking for. This is the last paragraph in this chapter. I can't "own" my job, because I have a boss to whom I answer. I can't own my "home" because I have a wife. The difference lies in the choices I make concerning my life, and how I interact with those around me.

I need to constantly remind myself that God is with me. He is my center. The choices I make are based on that unshakable fact. The decisions I make will affect my family, my friends, and my co-workers.

The Illusion of Power

Empowerment. A buzzword of today's business establishment. The employees are empowered to make decisions. This gives them the power to make decisions without having to seek out management approval for every move they make. Its a good feeling, knowing that I am in charge, and I can do what I need to get the job done.

However, there are still rules. There are boundaries I can't cross. In the retail environment, for example, I may give a discount, but I can't give away the product for free. I can write a check and the bank will honor it, but only if I have the money in an account with them. Not having the money, or having it in another bank, doesn't count. Climb up the political chain, and you will encounter more and more red tape. Some gifts are acceptable, others not. Some may be taxable, while others are punishable by fines or prison time.

I come to realize that my personal power, inherent in my own "empowerment," is constrained and eroded. Its a grand sounding word, but ends up being a small pinnacle surrounded by slippery slopes. Use that power outside of fuzzy boundaries and you'll get into trouble. You could lose your job, your friends, your money, health, spouse. The list goes on.

In the end, "empowerment" is a good concept, but an easy way to destroy ones pride. "I tried to do what you said, but ..." The greatest example of this is Lucifer, who was cast down because of his pride. Satan was given great power and responsibility, and promptly overstepped his boundaries. "This far and no farther" wasn't a command, but a challenge. He was given a choice, and chose disobedience. From his lofty position, he was cast down.

This happens to us, also. We have been given power in life. Too many people let this power go to their heads, and they walk carelessly, slipping and falling from the path God set out before them. They end up lying at the bottom of pit, crushed and bruised, wondering where they went wrong. "God gave me this gift, and set me on this path. Why am I here?"

In the words of Isaiah, God is with the lowly and contrite, those who are broken in spirit. Or, as Steve Taylor put it, "Jesus is for losers."

The very word "empowered" means to be given power. Implying, power comes from an outside source. It is not inherent in us. None of us is born with power. Some are born into rich families, or politically connected families. But, that comes from the efforts of those who came before them. It isn't theirs. It is their families.

If I have an ability, it comes from God, and is a gift. The illusion of power blinds. Disillusionment brings freedom to come to Christ. And, in Christ, there is freedom and power to express ourselves fully in a personal way. A way that has meaning to us, individually, and a way that influences those around us for God.

Defraging in a Fragmented World

Once again, mind mapping "centering" the other day brought up another rich word: defragmenting.

Fragmentation makes me think of a computer process whereby packets of information are randomly stored on the hard drive. It isn't intentional. Nobody actually programmed the computer to scatter information all over the hard drive. It just sort of happened. And, from my limited knowledge, it isn't really harmful either. Rather, it causes the system to be inefficient, which, in turn, causes a little more wear and tear on the system. But, with the new generation/life span, price, and disk sizes any more, the abuse the machine takes is a non-issue. But, its still inefficient.

Defragmenting is supposed to fix this. It takes little bits of information, and tucks them in between larger blocks. It tightens it all up, freeing larger blocks of free space. Somehow, this makes everything all better. Putting everything in order makes the computer run faster and with less work.

This is much like our own lives. (Bet you didn't see that coming, did you?) We say "yes" to so many things in our daily lives that we become fragmented. Consider all the hats we wear. I started out as a son, then a brother. Now, I'm also a husband and a father. Co-worker to some, former co-worker to others, friend to many. I'm a shopper, costumer, patron, member, browser. All of these different hats require time, energy, and some even require money. shudder

Now, if I spend money on books, I may not have it for Mt Dew, which is a high priority for me. If we eat out, we may not have the money to pay bills, or buy gas. I have to prioritize and allocate my money, much like hard disk space. Bills, payments, food and gas are all large, immovable blocks. The little things, like Mt Dew and books, get randomized.

Time. I have to spend time at work. I need to spend time with my wife, with my kids, with each of my kids on an individual basis, plus "me" time. Time on the computer catching up on RSS feeds, blogs, news, e-mail, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter. Time reading, writing, blogging. Time with God.

There is only so much space on a computer disk, and only so much time and money in my life. I cannot spend more than 24 hours in one day. Trying to do too much in one day leaves me exhausted and near useless afterwards. Overspending money brings a whole different slew of problems, with which most of us are familiar.

I find at times that my life is chaotic, and I am inefficient. I am trying to do too much in too scattered a fashion. Therefore, I need to "defragment" my own life. To do this, I need to examine my life, and prioritize those big, immovable blocks: God, family, me, work.

It would be nice if there was a nice reminder that popped up every week, just like on my computer screen, asking if I wanted to optimize my life. Compress here, delete there, make more room, and everything works better. But there isn't.

Besides, I always hated defragmenting my computer. Its time consuming, tedious, and it slows my computer down, which seems counter productive. Isn't this defragging supposed to make it faster instead of slower? But, it only seems counter productive.

The same holds true in life. Defragging my life is chaotic, messy, and painful. I'm supposed to look at all those things I do, and decide if I'm going to keep doing them. Well, I started them in the first place because I enjoyed them. Why would I want to quit? Because I don't have the time, or the money. Or, unlike the nice little computer analogy, maybe these things are harmful to my job, my self, my family, or my relationship with God. Those things certainly have to go.

And what does this have to do with centering? I find the Center of All Life, and put Him there. Like a gravity well in the space-time continuum, everything will fall into His orbit, or fall away. But, I have to make that choice to put Him there in every aspect of my life. Jesus is the Center of my Christianity (duh!). He needs to be at the center of my family, my job, coworkers, and friends. When He is the Center, and all these things settle into orbit around Him, life will be more orderly, (i.e. - less chaotic), and more efficient. Life requires less work, and leaves more energy to enjoy it, rather than stumbling through our days as zombies.

When planets collide, if, in fact, they do, there is a huge catastrophe. Many scientists believe that the meteor belt between Mars and Jupiter was one such planet that got ripped apart. Our solar system is stabilized now, and we don't worry about that sort of thing anymore. When God is at the Center of my life, everyone and everything has its own orbit, and they won't interfere with each other with catastrophic fallout.

Dualism and the Modern Christian

I was mindmapping centering again, because of The Art of Aikido I've been reading.  One of the words that popped out to me was "dualism" so I took off with that to see where I would end up.

Dualism, as I remember it, was part of Zoroastrianism, and expressed the belief that there are two eternal forces in the world facing off against each other.  God and Satan, good and evil, light and dark.  Everything has an opposite, heads and tails, hot and cold, and that fact is expressed in the spiritual realm also.

We have that spiritual division in ourselves:  flesh and spirit.  Others describe it differently, such as material and immaterial, or spirit, soul, and body.  Therefore, this heavenly war is reflected in each and every human.  Even the apostle Paul spoke of it in Romans 7: 19 "For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want."  There is an internal conflict we all deal with.

For many of us, it is a head versus heart issue.  We have certain priorities that we are taught are important:  God, family, the church, the poor, our neighbors.  Yet, we often focus our energies on ourselves and our own pursuits.  I get a job to pay the bills.  I accept a promotion, knowing it will pull me away from my family.  Yes, I will make more money, but we don't need more.  We had enough, by the grace of God, before the promotion.  So, why did I take it? Prestige?  Better toys?  Climbing the corporate ladder?

Or, another example.  I need to exercise.  I could walk to and from work.  Its about a 30 minute walk, which is what I hear is usually recommended.  Instead, I drive.  This allows me time to play around until the last minute, plus I can get a quick lunch at the drive through.  Its all about me.

I have certain priorities, but those things that really motivate me are all about me.  Its the gratifications of the spirit that shape many of my decisions.  In this world of moral ambiguities, we are faced with decisions many of us are unprepared to make wisely.  We vacillate between righteousness and selfishness, not knowing if what we are doing is "the right thing" or not.

Many people, when faced with this impossible situation, slip into a loop and don't make a decision.  They look to those around them, or to pop culture, to make the important decisions in life, thus surrendering their own autonomy.

In the end, indecision and powerlessness bring the same results:  Nothing is accomplished.  Oh, things may get done, but nothing is accomplished.

At least, many people seem incapable of doing anything with their lives.  God, however, has done much.  Lets go back to the beginning, dualism, and God.

"God is one."  There is one God, and only one.  Satan is not eternal.  He was created, and they are not equals.  More than that, though, this means God is indivisible.

Take this another step.  We are created in the image of God.  God breathed and created a living being.  Not two or three crammed into one space.  I am one.  The Hebrews knew this.  It was the Greeks who saw a division in humanity.  This stemmed from their own philosophies instead of Hebrew theology.

When we worship, we are supposed to worship with our whole being, not just our "spiritual man," standing frozen in place lest our fleshly bodies lead us astray.   Our bodies are supposed to live for God, and obey God.  There is going to be a physical resurrection at the end of time to face judgment.  If our physical bodies were totally corrupt, how could God judge us for the actions of our flesh?  Why not let the body do what it chooses, since it is uncontrollable irredeemable, and focus instead on spiritual exercises?

Its because they cannot be separated.  Even modern science sees a correlation between the state of our physical being and emotional state.  Laughter is the best medicine and all that.  Or, take a look at psychosomatic issues.  Psychological issues that are due to chemical imbalances.  The list could go on.

We face an internal war that ravages not just our emotional well-being and our decision making abilities, but also effects our bodies also.  It is because we are imbalanced.

As far as I understand, imbalance occurs when something is off-center.  Such as the tires on my car.  If out of balance, it throws off the performance of the whole car.  It wobbles, it steers poorly, it causes undue wear on the tires, and so on.

If our lives are imbalanced, the solution is the same.  We need to be rebalanced, and this happens when we find our Center.  We need to find Jesus, and put Him in the center of our lives.  Every decision we make must be made in reference to Him.  In His Steps, written in 1896 by Charles Sheldon, is a fine example of this.  A pastor challenged his congregation to ask themselves "What would Jesus do?" and when they had that answer, to do it.  (Yes, this is where WWJD comes from.  Read it.  Its more than a fad.)  A handful of people were able to turn their city upside down.  Being able to make those hard decisions, they were once again powerful.

When we put Jesus in the center, and focus on Him, we will be filled with a passion for life again. We will also be empowered to make the hard decisions.  The decision to scale back on our luxuries, to take a pay cut, to volunteer at the local food pantry instead of going elsehwere to go shopping.  Our money and our time will again belong to God, and He will get much better mileage out of them than we will ever be able to do.  But this comes when we have one focus, one center.

Centering

I was mindmapping the word "centering," which came up in The Art of Aikido.  After a few minutes, I had several different paths to follow:  physical, spiritual, emotional.  There is also personal as well as corporate and family, and probably a dozen other types and styles of centering.  There is also centering prayer, although I can't find my book by Richard Foster right now.

In aikido, you center by placing your attention on your center of gravity.  Most people think of their "self" as being in their head, but by lowering your "self" to your center of gravity, you become more stable, and more graceful.

You can do this in other areas of your life, too.  Although, I'm not sure of everything Leonard is trying to teach.  As a Christian, I view what he says through the lens of the Bible, and some of it is off base.  But, the basic principle is still applicable.

As Christians, what is our "center"?  It is more than the Church, more than Christianity, more than the Bible.  He is Jesus Christ.  When we place Him at the center of our whole life, we become "more stable, and more graceful."  This is how great Christians of the past, and the present, have weathered the storms of life.  It is how Christians have drawn others to Him, by the grace with which we deal with life.

It was this appearance of centeredness that drew so many to the churches of America right after 9/11.  It was the lack of Jesus in so many Christian lives that let them slip away. 

I'll be dealing more with "centeredness" in the next few days, and what it means to me.