A Different Perspective

 Have you ever heard the parable of the 4 blind men and the elephant? It’s a clever story that has existed in many different variations. The earliest iterations date back to a Buddhist text written around 500 BC. It tells the story of four blind men. An elephant is brought into their village for the first time and they all try to figure out what this “elephant” thing is.

One feels its leg, and describes the elephant as thick and strong, like the trunk of a tree. Another feels the elephant’s trunk and says it is wet, long, and flexible, like a snake. The third feels its side and says it is rough and hard, like a walking boulder. Another feels its tail and says no, you’ve all got it wrong, it is covered in thick hair, like a horse! 

The elephant moves along and the four blind men all argue about this elephant, all insisting their perspective is the correct one. It's a clever little story! We stand back and think “Oh, those silly stubborn men don’t see that they are all wrong! … or maybe they are all just a little bit right!?” 

This enduring little parable illustrates how we are all blinded by our own limited perspective. It’s simply a part of the human condition- our understanding of life and the world around us is always shaped by perspective. Our experiences, education, our family values and community all influence and inform a unique perspective through which we view the world. Just like the blind men, we compare every new experience to our mental database of what we have learned so far, and mentally categorize it as “like a tree trunk” or “ like a snake.” All information is interpreted through prior experiences and knowledge. 

Before you object and say “I am no slave of my environment! I’m an open minded individual! Etc etc!!”, please understand that this is just the way the human brain works. It is well documented that the human brain is very good at taking in and categorizing new information. It does this by putting information into categories it has established from prior experiences. This helps us expand our capacity to learn and recall new information. 

Understanding this phenomenon has a big impact on how we understand God, the scriptures, and theology. Theology is at its core the study of God, our attempts as humans to understand Him. If our understanding of the world is limited by our experiences, education, and community, isn’t our understanding of God equally limited? Can any one person truly understand God? 

I do believe that we can all know God, but I’m not so sure any one of us will ever know Him completely. It would be like finding a way to fit the sun into a drinking glass- the question itself is absurd! A glass cannot even approach the sun, much less contain even a portion of its incredible power! In a similar way, we need to simply accept that our view of God will always be limited. 

Despite all of this, He somehow still manages to reveal who He is to us all. He reaches through to our small lives and teaches us His ways. He crosses the chasm between the infinite and the finite and shows us as much of Himself as we can handle. 

My point in all of this is if we really are so limited in how we understand Him, we really ought to be more careful with how certain we are of our theology. Of course there are certain undeniable and pervasive truths He reveals to us all- He is loving, just, he forgives generously and freely, he hates the oppression of the weak by the powerful. These and other truths have been agreed upon by Christians of all generations. Let’s hold these truths close to our hearts and cherish the beauty of God’s wonderful nature!

But then there are other topics of theology that are less clear. These are the things that we tend to fight and argue about, the things that split Christians into different denominations, the points of theology that make some people more “sinful” than the others. Too often, Christians have created doctrines regarding aspects of God’s nature that are harder to define, and held them just as sacred as any other doctrine. We really need to be much more humble when it comes to understanding all the aspects of God’s nature. Remember- we are blinded by being human! Our understanding of the scriptures and the nature of God are destined to be flawed, just as we are!

So the next time I look at a difficult doctrine, I will look at it with humility- I am small, limited, blind. He is the God who created uncountable suns- there will be times I just won’t understand Him. So I’ll do my best to understand Him, but also remember that this small vessel He gave me can’t contain Him. So I might be wrong. 

Hopefully, from that place of humility, I might be ready to listen to someone else’s perspective. Even if I don’t fully agree, it’s possible that through humble listening, I might actually grow in understanding His nature, as it is described by a person coming from a different perspective

The Creative Power of Words

The world was once empty. It had no shape, no features, no life. It was chaotic and dark and void. There was a deep chaotic water, swirling and churning with darkness and nothingness. This is the Earth at the start of Creation, the Earth we see in Genesis 1.

Then came words. Just a few, simple words, but filled with the creative power and the authority of Infinite God- “Let there be light.” Suddenly, hope and promise existed where once only darkness and chaos reigned. Soon after came more words- “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters” and suddenly where there had been only shapeless water was a sea and a sky. 

More words- “….let the dry land appear,” and suddenly the world had a future! Now there was land and sea, which made room for more new things! “Vegetation” He said, and plants appeared all over the land. “Light to separate day from night” and the sun and moon simply existed, creating day and night, the seasons, and the concept of time!

Eventually came the best of God’s creative words- “Let us create man in our image,” and we came into being, people who would also share in God’s creative power of words.

God used His words to create life, time, existence as we know it. Think of it- simple words took chaos and emptiness and somehow by their speaking, formed everything we see, feel, and experience. What an incredible power these words have!

One of my favorite depictions of God defines Him by the creative power of His words- “the God…who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.” The book of John used the word “Word” as a name for Jesus- “The Word became flesh” John 1:14. 

God seems to truly understand and value the power of words. When mankind became too arrogant and proud for our own good, and banded together at the Tower of Babel to try to overthrow God as the ultimate power, God used the power of words to show us how weak and frail we are. He gave mankind different languages, words we didn’t all understand, and suddenly a united humanity was confused, broken, and ultimately divided. (For the full story, see Genesis 11)

And words have divided us ever since! We don’t seem to grasp how powerful words really are. For example, think of a time in your life when you were deeply hurt, cut to the core of who you are, and I guarantee that it involved a powerful display of words. Our greatest fears and insecurities can often be traced to terrible words someone spoke to us. 

Look at our world today. People are angry, afraid, and divided, and it seems to only get worse. There’s political tension, religious tension, racial tension, you name it, and it’s tense! Deep down, at the root of all of these problems, are words. Angry, resentful, untrusting, untrustworthy words. Terrible things said about all kinds of people have sown seeds of chaos, emptiness and darkness. I am convinced- the root of our nation's problems isn’t COVID-19, injustice, or bad politics. It is ugly, powerful, terrible words. 

Our words do have creative power. Perhaps our words don’t have the power to bring a new species into existence, but our words still create all the time. They create love, fear, hope, pain, and joy every second of each day. Words inspire people to reach higher and dream bigger, and they also break people down and make them afraid to try. In short, WORDS HAVE POWER. 

As a people who bear God’s image, our words do have power. We can use that power carelessly, like waving around a loaded gun, or we can chose to use that power responsibly. We can create life through our words, saying thing like “I believe in you!” or “we will get through this together!” or “There are more things that unite us than divide us.” If somebody rolls their eyes and tells you that you’re corny, remember that words have power, and double down on speaking words that create life, unity, and hope. The more we use our words for good, the more good there will be.

Maybe you think that sounds small and trite, but let me remind you of the people God has used to change the world. Few of them were incredibly talented or heroic. God’s Kingdom heroes don’t have superpowers. They just do a lot of little things right, and over time it creates a tidal wave of good. 

So let’s be heroes. Let’s speak good words that change the world.

Objective History, Unoffended Love

Let's take a quick look back in history!

In 1939, Germany invaded Poland, starting World War II. By 1941, they had invaded and occupied 9 countries, forcing their narrow view of the world upon many European countries. The most insidious of these ideologies was "Hitlers Final Solution", what we know better as the Holocaust. Germany would enact unspeakable horrors on the Jews and anyone else whose lifestyle didn't fit into their tidy worldview. 

History has rightfully demonized Hitler and the Nazi regime for what they did to the world and specifically to the Jews. But if we take a broader, more objective view of what happened, it wasn't entirely unusual. For hundreds of years, European countries had been reaching out to all corners of the earth, finding other nations and peoples who were weaker than them, and taking away their land and their way of life. We call this Colonialism. 

co·lo·ni·al·ism  /kəˈlōnēəˌlizəm/

noun

the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.

This is what most European nations had been doing in Africa, the Americas, the Middle East, and all over the world. What the Germans did in Poland, Denmark, and France is the very same thing that the British and then the Americans did in our own country. They used powerful violence to dominate the native population and force their views upon them. In the process they killed hundreds of thousands through violence, starvation, and disease. This is exactly what the early Americans did to the Native American population.

It's not a pleasant way to look at history, but it doesn't make it less true. And while the Germans did terrible terrible things to the Jews, it didn't last for generations. No, the winners of the war elevated the Jewish people, gave them their support, and even their own land, which had been lost many years ago.

Here's a sad truth about what happened in American colonialism- we didn't stop at taking the land away from the natives and forcing our way of life upon them. We also "purchased" hundreds of thousands of lives from African nations and forced them into slavery. 

But where the conquered Europeans and tortured Jews had the British and Americans and other allied forces to free them, the Native Americans and black slaves had no one to set them free. When the Jews were restored to their own renewed nation, the displaced black lives, even when freed from slavery, were forced into segregated ghettos and heavily oppressed. Where the Jews found liberation, justice, and compassion, the black Americans found no such kindness, but saw new forms of oppression at every turn. 

Here is a sad fact- America really has done very little to repair the damage done to our own people by hundreds of years of colonialism and its generational repercussions. So little, in fact, that we often forget how powerfully this history has impacted the events we see unfolding today. 

As a white man seeing it all unfold, I often feel a strange dichotomy. On one side, I want to see peace and restoration to society through greater justice and rights to people of color in our nation. But moments later, or even at the very same time, I feel offended by language used by today's Civil Rights movement. I sometimes feel as if I am made to be the aggressor and the enemy because of my whiteness, or that I'm being told that what I've earned in my life was not earned through hard work and sacrifice, but was just given to me because of my white privilege. 

It's easy to be offended by all of this. It's easy for me to say "Well, I'm not the enemy, I've not done anything wrong, I wasn't raised rich, I don't have any power at all! I shouldn't have to apologize for being born white!"

But the better part of me, the part I know has been born through the love of God, tells me to look past the offense and see what's on the other side of it. Yes, there are critical voices out there that I can choose to take offense with, but if for a moment I can understand that I am loved by God, and that His love compels me to love my neighbor, I might be able to try to listen beyond my offense to hear a bigger story. 

A story that is filled with pain, injustice, and centuries of inequity. A story of a whole people group who have been told since the founding of our nation that they are less than because of their skin color. A story of a people that still feel that is the message our country tells them today, and screams into their ears everytime a black life is ended in cold blood and there is no justice. 

Can we for a moment find enough peace in Christ to listen in love to a story that is different than the one we tell ourselves, a story of a slow holocaust that was never recognized, never repaired, and in some ways never ended?

I'm trying to speak to people like me, white moderate/conservative Christians, who cringe at phrases like "white privilege." I've never felt all that privileged. Like the Creedence Clearwater song says, "It ain't me, it ain't me/ I ain't no millionaire's son, no no/ It ain't me, it ain't me/I ain't no fortunate one." 

But I also have to recognize that I didn't grow up in a neighborhood where police would stop me because I fit a certain description. My parents were never made to feel that they weren't welcome in any neighborhood. I always went to good schools that were properly equipped and staffed to provide me with a good education. Sure, nobody had the money to pay my way through college, but I've also never had to wonder if I didn't get certain opportunities because maybe the guy in charge was a racist. 

We need to let go of our own offense, put down our insecure guard, and recognize that equal opportunities and equal justice really have not been offered to all in our nation. Maybe recognizing that there's no question as to whether or not my ancestors were enslaved or oppressed in any way really is a privilege, when compared to the incredible damage hundreds of years of inhumane oppression has done in the world and in our nation. 

And then, in love, maybe I can look beyond the deep generational pain of someone else and see a heart pleading with God for justice, for an end to the pain of oppression. I can try and do what little I can to promote justice for all in my small corner of the world. 

What's the point of prayer?

These are strange and difficult times. 2020 has been such a hard year for everyone, and we’re only halfway through! We started off with the threat of war with Iran, incredible political division with the primaries and Trump’s impeachment proceedings, and the shocking death of Kobe Bryant, all before the world came to a grinding halt with COVID-19. Now, as we begin to reopen America under the looming shadow of a potential 2nd wave, the world is torn apart again by racial division. 

Despite all of this chaos and hardship, we all still face our own problems. Financial hardships, family illness, job stress, none of it ever stops despite the chaos around us. It’s completely overwhelming. 

As a believer, I know in times of hardship I should go to God in prayer. If I’m honest, however,  it's hard to know what to pray for. I can pray for world peace, the end of illness, and global prosperity. That would take care of everything right? But the tension all Christians struggle through is “If I pray big prayers and God doesn’t answer them, what’s the point of prayer? Why pray when prayer doesn’t do anything?”

In the face of such uncertainty, many Christians avoid the hard questions or simply give up, praying prayers with no faith that God will answer. When all of this gets too hard, we run away, stop praying, and avoid church and faith altogether except for Christmas and Easter. 

I think the root of our problem is we have forgotten who God is. In our attempts to understand Him, we have created many different theologies and rules about who He is and what He does. We think “If I act ____ God will think/act/say _____” or “When ____ happens, that means God is _____”. Think about it- those blanks are too easy to fill! The real truth is, no matter how systematic a theology, no matter how many verses are quoted in defence of any idea, no rules we make for God ever really fit. God is just too big for us to define! 

Unlike many of our scientific pursuits, we cannot control God through study and understanding. You can read the Bible in every translation, every theology book written, and spend hours in contemplation, but you still won’t get it. God just can’t be contained in human understanding. 

No matter how hard you pray, how well you live, or how much you know, God will always do what God will do. He is God. We just don’t come close. 

When we accept that God cannot be contained or controlled by our rules and understanding, we can finally approach prayer with a sense of real surrender. We remember that we don’t pray to accomplish things. Prayer is not about results. We pray because God is good, and we love Him, or we want to grow to love Him. We pray during crisis for the same reason we call friends or family. We just want to talk about it with someone we trust. We talk about our pain and frustration because it helps us feel better, and because we innately understand that it is in the process of relationship that we find comfort, peace, and perspective. 

So when you approach God to talk about your struggles, imagine that He is a close friend, a loving parent, or a mentor. Approach Him with familiarity, love, and respect. Share your thoughts and feelings. Tell Him what you want to happen, not because you expect Him to do it for you, but because you love Him and you want to share. 

This prayer is not one that intends to accomplish something, but to love someone. God is love, and love does not disappoint. 

Certainty and Mystery

It was a brisk night, a gentle yet unwelcome breeze causing the men to pull their cloaks in tight to keep them warm. They were settling in to their night’s work, keeping watch over their master’s sheep. One man watched another stoke the fire, while a third relentlessly told them his stories, laughing at his own jokes and beginning to annoy his coworkers. It was just another night at work.

These shepherds ordinary lives were suddenly interrupted, as a bright light brought their gaze upward. A host of angelic messengers appeared in the sky, announcing the birth of the Messiah.  They gladly sang His praises, and sent the shepherds to go find this special child. Without even thinking, they ran to town together until they found a baby laying in a manger.

It's this moment that captures my imagination this Christmas season. These men had left their work and hustled back to town to see something spectacular, but when they arrived, what did they see? A beautiful newborn, born in a barn. The sight must have been novel, sure, but what was so special about this boy? Did he really deserve an angelic announcement?

These shepherds found themselves in the middle of history’s greatest mystery. God became man, stepped into our world to save us, but he looked so ordinary.  

“Is this really it?” they must have thought. Could this actually be the Messiah, or do we need to keep looking? What proof did they have? Did they just dream that angelic scene? Maybe they had drunk a little too much wine, trying to stay warm? It all seemed so real when they saw it, but here in the stable, they were left with more questions than answers.

I think I can relate. I’ve had moments with God that felt so big and real, where He spoke so clearly to me. They are inevitably followed by the mundane struggles of life. In that tension, what once seemed so powerfully real comes into question. Certainty crashes head on with mystery.

These two words, certainty and mystery, describe the tension that is faith. They form the foundation of Christian life. We are certain of God, His existence, His love, His power. In the same breath, however, we are stuck in a mystery, with so many questions that we can’t answer.

The shepherds chose to embrace certainty in the mystery of Christ. They could have walked away frustrated and confused, rejecting the mystery outright. It would have made sense to explain it all away. Instead, they chose to-

“spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” `Luke 2:17-20.

In the face of mystery, they leaned into certainty. They chose to accept the mystery as it was, no questions asked. Leaning into faith filled confidence in God, they celebrated this mystery as it was offered to them. What a delightful, admirable example!

I’m facing my very own mystery that has shaken my faith. I’ve recently left a career and a life that was filled with challenges, but was also comfortable and secure. I’m certain of God’s leadership in this move. At the same time, I don’t know what my future is going to look like. Finding a steady income has been incredibly challenging. I worry a lot about my family and our future. I’m faced with a question I can’t answer- “If God has called me here, why does the future seem so unclear?”

Like the shepherds, I find myself wondering and doubting His voice. I could walk away, frustrated and confused, and reject this mystery outright. It would make a lot of sense.

Instead, I’ll embrace the mystery, just as God has given it to me. Come what may, I’ll choose to be confident in His leadership. He has always been faithful. He’s never failed, and He won’t start now.

Lord, increase my faith. Help me be certain in the face of your mysteries. Amen.

Driving Me Crazy

My four kids drive me crazy.

They are all smart, independent, and strong willed. They all know what they want and they will all fight for it. These are excellent qualities. These are the qualities that make adults successful! These qualities will grow my kids into leaders. These qualities will help them to reach and strive and achieve the great things that God will lay on their hearts. But these qualities also make for lousy children.

Please don’t get me wrong, I really love them. They each have unique characteristics that I admire and adore. I wouldn’t want to change who they are at all. But when you put four smart, independant, strong willed individuals together, all four who want very different things in life, you’re bound to have some tension.

Car trips are torture. Yesterday Kim had the brilliant idea to drive down to Mt. Rainier to hike and play in the snow. We had a blast while we were there! It would have been a wonderful day if it didn’t also include four hours in the car together.

Here’s what I mean- One of my children will want to quietly listen to the radio, another will want to loudly sing along, another will be annoyed by the music that is playing, while the other just wants to talk. Inevitably their conflicting desires lead to arguments and fights. Pleasing everyone is an impossibility, so we just try to maintain some semblance of control through a mix of patient parental instruction and forceful coercion. If we manage to regain control, however, there are a million differences of opinion boiling under the surface threatening to disrupt the relative peace we’ve forced upon them- personal space, device volume, individual vs. shared ownership of books and toys, what to eat, what to do with trash in the car, which dress Barbie should wear, how to develop the plot in whatever made up game they are playing with said Barbie. The list is everlasting, as are the possibilities for conflict. It's a terrible way to relax and enjoy family time.

Car trips are a great way to make me feel inadequate as a parent. I’m sure there are hundreds of people out there who could tell me how to do it better, and a scant few of them might actually have good points. The thing of it is, there aren’t any parents, doctors, or specialists out there who have raised my children. So when I am most discouraged with my kids and our interactions, I have to remind myself that there is no perfect or “right” way to raise a family. There’s just a lot of trial and error, and Kim and I are the leading experts in our Boyd family field.  

Nobody knows this family better than Kim and I do. What I know about this family is that their many differences are given to them by God. Their unique personalities are gifts. Their strength of will is going to make them all uniquely great.

And for now, it makes raising them a LOT of hard work.

Need to Change

Remember Blockbuster?  

Blockbuster has become a bit of a joke to Gen Xers and older Millennials, but there was a time when they were a staple of American life. Everyone went to a Blockbuster to rent movies! They were the nation’s leader in providing access to video entertainment. When Netflix began providing a new service of mail-in DVD’s, however, it grabbed the nation’s attention.

Now you could watch movies without leaving your home! Just go online, set up your queue, and the movies would arrive at your door! The growing popularity of the Internet in the late 90’s and early 2000’s was changing the way people consumed media, but for some reason Blockbuster doubled down on its movie rental store model.

During times of culture shift, every organization needs to look inward and ask “Who are we, why do we exist?” For Blockbuster, it was to provide access to media. The next big question needs to be “How can we do that best in our current context?” For Blockbuster, the answer should have included using the power of the internet to make media access easier for the consumer. Instead, they kept doing what they always did. Now they don’t do anything.

Netflix, on the other hand, showed itself to be capable of adapting to cultural change. Netflix’s model of shipping DVDs directly to consumers was innovative, made media consumption easier for the consumer, and it followed the culture’s growing reliance on the internet. As the internet became faster and more capable of hosting larger forms of media, people started streaming movies online. In the face of this new streaming trend, Netflix adapted as fast as the consumer did by providing both services, gradually shifting to be a streaming service. They are now the industry standard for movie streaming, and their once greatest competitor, Blockbuster, is a foregone memory of times past.

The Church is facing a similar culture shift today. While many people in modern America are interested in Jesus, the Church is in rapid decline. According to Barna, the leading statics group on trends in the Church in America, 73% of Americans identify as Christian. That means about three out of every four Americans claim to follow Jesus Christ! On the other hand, another Barna report shows that only four out of ten Americans claim to have gone to church last Sunday. Furthermore, only 6% of Christians who have ever been to church claimed to have learned something about God the last time they went to church! Another way to say this is that 94% of Americans who went to church last Sunday didn’t learn or grow at all. They went to church, went home, and nothing changed. No wonder people don’t want to go to church anymore!

The sad truth about the Church in America today is that, while people know they need to be closer to God, they don’t find much value in going to church. Our model of church is failing to achieve its purpose.  

Something needs to change.

We can follow the example of Blockbuster by doubling down on doing what we’ve always done. I think we know where that goes. On the other hand, the Church doesn’t need to reinvent itself with clever models, like Netflix did. That’s never been how the Church moves forward. Instead, Christians adapt through prayer and submission to the Spirit of God. We win when we trust that He will move His Church. In the meantime, we need to be flexible, willing to adapt to the subtle moves of the Holy Spirit, ready to go when He sends us into unknown territory. Then, following His leadership, we will find out how to make the Church matter in a shifting culture.

Changes in culture have never killed the Church before and they won’t start now. If we want to move forward with society, we need to be willing to change and adapt. Like soft clay in the Potter’s hand, let’s allow the Spirit of God to form and shape us into what He wants us to be today and into the future.

Jesus, help me to follow your lead. Help me let go of what I think is best and grab hold of what You have in store. I trust you. Amen.

Start with Love

Kim recently bought me the book “Paddle Your Own Canoe” by Nick Offerman. I was expecting stories from his life, filled with his typical style of deadpan humor, insights on American masculinity, and thoughts and experiences in artisanship. To be clear, it was full of all of these, but I was surprised (and disappointed) to find some pretty pointed criticisms of the Church as well.

Offerman talks about his experiences growing up in the Catholic church, but his memories are mostly superficial and quaint. He seems to have experienced nothing of the powerful influence of the Spirit or the love of God. He talks about joining an Evangelical youth group as a teenager, but his memories centered on the kids he hung out with, the “cool adults” that preached to him, and the shallow attempts they made at the altar to “save him.” To Offerman, Christianity is a great way to remind people of how they ought to behave as decent human beings, but nothing more.

I was really bothered by his wry perspective on the Church at first. After all, the Church is me! And my friends and my family! Don’t judge us Nick! Later on, when I was praying, I talked to God about it. I felt the Lord gently giving me perspective- ”He must not have been really loved and embraced by a Christian community.” This completely shifted my focus.The problem wasn’t Offerman, it was the Church!

What if in his Catholic masses as a child, he had witnessed a group of men and women who loved each other (and him!) radically, different than any other group of people he had encountered? What if, instead of attracting huge numbers of teens to entertaining meetings with shallow salvation pitches, the Evangelical church invited little Nick to be a part of a small community that embraced him and showed him the gospel by serving him sacrificially?

Think about the people in your life who have deeply and powerfully loved you. That love changed you in big ways, didn’t it? Think about how Jesus lived and loved. It changed the world! Yet instead of encountering the transformational love of Christ, Offerman’s experience of the Church was characterized by adherence to ministry models and Church tradition. This is unfortunately the experience of far too many Americans today.

As we consider how we live out our faith in 21st century America, let’s ask ourselves this- what would the Church look like if it was based only on Christ’s command to love God and love our neighbor? If we restarted the Church today, without any of the old structures, forms, or traditions we are used to, what would it look like? How does it make sense to us to express our love for God together and to love our neighbor in today’s society?

If you rebuilt your life from scratch, seeking first and foremost to practice the greatest commandments, love God and love your neighbor, what would you look like?

The Church is ripe for change. All kinds of books, podcasts, sermons and ministry models have been created to address the many problems Christians face in society today, but before we look at anything else, let’s start with love.

Matthew 22:35-40

One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

The Key to Godly Success

Joshua 9 tells a fascinating story of deception. As Joshua and the children of Israel began to invade the Promised Land, the native nations in the land were terrified. Here was this massive army sweeping into their territory, and they seemed to fight with divine power! Rumors had spread of how their God stopped up the waters of the Jordan and destroyed the walls of mighty Jericho. So the natives began to band together to repel this invading force.

“However, when the people of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they resorted to a ruse…” Joshua 9:3-4a

But the Gibeonite tribe was more devious and cunning than the others. Fearing Joshua and his God, they came up with a clever plan to fool the Israelites into an alliance. They put on ratted clothes, packed moldy stale food, strapped old worn out sandals on their feet, and set out to meet Joshua.

As they approached the Israelite camp, they began to limp, put on worn expressions, and acted as if they'd been traveling for months. Then they gave their story, "We have come from a distant country, so now make a covenant with us." (9:6).
Joshua is instantly suspicious of this bunch, saying "Perhaps you live among us; then how can we make a covenant with you?" (9:7). The Israelites knew that if they made an alliance with any of the inhabitants of the land, they would never truly take possession of the land.

The Gibeonites pressed harder however, displaying their old provisions and worn out clothes. They insisted on their story, that they had traveled from a distant county. It was a convincing story, so Joshua decided it was reasonable and practical to make a treaty with these travelers from a "distant land."

As you read the account, Joshua and his men are held accountable for falling for this deception. Verse 14 goes out of its way to point out that they did not consult the Lord for guidance. In the long run, they had to pay a price for this mistake.
What is so striking about this account is how reasonable it all was. From Joshua's perspective, there was no good reason to turn these people away. They clearly have a lot of respect for his God and his people. They had seemingly gone to great lengths to form this alliance, and as a newly established nation, such an agreement would be very beneficial to the Israelites! It was a perfectly reasonable business transaction. On top of that, Joshua's advisers were on board with it. I'm sure Joshua felt he had made a wise decision.

The problem with human wisdom is it is so very limited in scope. Had Joshua stopped and taken the time to seek the wisdom of God, he would have understood how bad a decision this really was. Instead he leaned on short sighted human wisdom.

We do this so very often in our own lives. There are so many decisions to be made, and we lean on our own wisdom to make them. Instead, Christian decision making needs to be characterized by prayer. Seeking God's will first is the only path to Godly success. Joshua's folly should serve as a warning to us, however. Even well vetted plans are prone to fail and derail us from God's will. Christ must become the first adviser of our lives.

Contrast Joshua here with the saints in the early Church. They model Christian decision making by constantly seeking guidance from the Spirit. Sometimes He led them to do strange things that, at first, seemed to be contrary to conventional wisdom. But by following God's Living Word rather than their own judgement, the Church exploded in effect and power, fueled and led along by the Spirit (for examples, look to Philip in Acts 8, Peter in Acts 10, or Paul in Acts 16.).

What kind of big decisions do you need to make in your life? Have you made a habit of seeking God's counsel? Is it possible that you may be missing something huge, something that God wants to show you? Let's learn from Joshua's mistake and make Christ our Wonderful Counselor, our First Adviser on all matters. He won't let us down.

Taking the Leap

Do you trust me? It’s a common movie trope, but as a true child of the nineties, it stands out best to me from the movie “Aladdin”. The hero of the story, Aladdin, has just fallen for Princess Jasmine, and as they are about to share their first sweet smooch, in come the villainous guards clumsily clunking through the dilapidated entrance of Aladdin's home. In a flash, he jumps up on the window ledge, reaches out his hand to the princess, and asks “Do you trust me?” Jasmine is forced to make a decision- stay put and live the status quo life she knows needs to change, or make one wild leap of faith and trust it will all work out?

Maybe I’m crazy, but to me the moment is oddly reminiscent of the Bible’s Joshua. He was taking over for Moses in leading God’s people. It was a huge calling with giant shoes to fill. The task must have been completely overwhelming!

God wasn’t exactly making it easy on him either. As he faced the Jordan river, trying to figure out how to cross it with so many lives at stake, God gave him these instructions to pass on to the people- “Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.’” (Jos 3:8).

I can almost hear the critical comparisons- “When we crossed the Red Sea, Moses parted the waters before we got in! The river is in flood season, we could get washed away! Why should we trust Joshua?”

As the pressure mounted, it would have been easy to dismiss God’s plan in lieu of something more “practical,” like waiting out the flood season or building a bridge. But God doesn’t often work in practical. It leaves far too much room for us to give ourselves credit for our good decision making, and ignore God’s gracious provision.

I think that’s why God seems to prefer to operate in the wild and revolutionary. When it works, there’s only one place to put our praise, and it isn’t on ourselves! The difficulty is that it takes a lot of trust from us! He shows us an impossible road forward, thrusts His loving hand out to us, and says “Do you trust me?”

Joshua took the leap, and God revealed His power in a miraculous crossing, and showed the people they could trust Joshua was hearing clearly from the Lord.

This story has a ton of relevance for me right now. My family is going through a huge life change. God is calling us to leave something familiar and comfortable to follow Him into the unknown. I don’t know what will happen, but I want to put my money where my mouth is. I want to follow God into unknown territory, grabbing on to His outstretched hand and saying “Yes, I will always trust you!.” Then, just like Jasmine, leap.

But the LORD was not in the fire...

I’ve always loved Elijah. His stories are so grandiose and engaging. He gets some of the coolest miracles too (did you know he outran a chariot on foot?)! This story stands out among the bunch though, as it shows us the champion of prophets at his lowest.

Shortly after a crazy victory on mount Carmel, he runs and hides in the wilderness, afraid for his life and feeling like a total failure. He had risked it all, sacrificed so much, and nothing seemed to change. Now his life was on the line. Elijah looked at all he had done, and it seemed like one massive failure.

Then God does something weird (as He does). He shows Elijah a tornado, an earthquake, and a huge fire. What’s even stranger is Elijah’s response- the LORD was not in any of them.

Let’s be clear- these things obviously came from God. Natural disasters don’t just happen like that! And it wasn’t as if God never spoke through these things- Elijah had literally just proved God’s presence through fire that came from heaven (1 Ki 18:38). Yet he somehow knew that while God made these powerhouses of nature, He didn’t inhabit them.

Elijah had an intimate relationship with God. He knew God’s voice and could recognize when God was working through His creation to speak to His people. As he watched these miraculous signs from God, he did not recognize God within them, so he stayed where he was in the cave. When God spoke in a whisper Elijah heard a familiar voice, and he left the cave to follow it.

The rest of the story shows Elijah pouring his heart out to God, and the LORD listens. He encourages Elijah by showing him his work wasn’t in vain. There are seven thousand children of Israel who are still faithful to God (v18). Then He gives Elijah instructions to fulfill the rest of the work God had planned for Him. By going where he could see God moving, Elijah found comfort and guidance when he needed it most, and the LORD revealed the next step of Elijah’s calling.

 When you feel like Elijah, worn out and exhausted, feeling frustrated like a failure, look for God. If you know how to recognize His presence and hear His voice, then find where God is revealing Himself. Hear the wisdom of His whispering voice. Then go where you see Him, hear His words, and embrace your destiny in the center of His will. His kind words will bring you comfort and peace. He will help you to know which way to go next. It might not be down an easy road, but it will be a lot better than the shame the world wants to lay on your shoulders. So step out of the safe cave you find yourself in and move towards the place you see His presence at work. His gentle voice will lead you towards hope.

1 Kings 19:9-13

9 There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” 11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

I care what people think.

To be honest I’ve been better, but God is always there when I need Him.

When I started off my life of ministry, I was filled with faith and dedicated to a set of guiding principles. It was my dream that if I put all my weight into trusting God for every aspect of my life, I would not only prosper, but thrive in a spiritually successful, balanced, and satisfied life.

Instead, l’ve found myself feeling empty, frustrated, and jaded. I didn’t realize that following my dreams would sometimes put me into opposition with others, even with people in my own spiritual community. So instead of following the principles I set off with, I worked to be accepted by everyone all the time. It didn’t work.

Today my family went on an adventure. We were trying to escape the Phoenix heat and find a beautiful place to play. We were not disappointed when we found the Tonto Natural Bridge State Park. The two-hour drive there provided a lot of time to think and process, something I realized I really needed, based on how irritable and short tempered I felt with my kids. I’ve learned when I can’t handle myself with the kids, it usually has a lot more to do with my own unprocessed feelings than their behavior.

I realized I’ve been stressing over what I perceived to be others’ expectations of me and my fear I would fail them. As I prayed over this, God spoke this truth to me- self acceptance is the first step in living an abundant life. Then God spoke to me from an unexpected voice, the Twenty One Pilots song “Stressed Out.” The first verse says-

“I was told when I get older all my fears would shrink
But now I’m insecure and I care what people think”

These words hit close to home. I guess I always thought that my childhood fears and insecurities would slowly fade away when I got older, but the fact is I’m seeing that my fears and insecurities have only been magnified by my adult life. Towards the end of the song, he says-

“Used to dream of outer space but now they're laughing at our face
Saying, ‘Wake up, you need to make money’”

I saw that my dreams of a thriving life in ministry have been sideswiped by a hundred worldly voices that tell me to “Wake up, you need to (fill in the blank)”. I naively thought that if I followed the Holy Spirit, I would always feel accepted and content. The fact I’ve had to learn is that before I can be content, I need to accept myself and be satisfied with who God has called me to be.

The next song on my shuffled playlist was “Beautiful Things” by Gungor. This song has often made me cry in the car, and it didn’t disappoint today. God used this song to speak directly to my disillusioned, jaded heart “I can still make beautiful things out of dust.” He is calling me back to dream again, to have faith that if I lean all my weight on Him, I will live to see beautiful things in my own life.

So I will. I will trust Him. I will grow and learn to accept myself, no matter what anyone else thinks or says. I’m sure it won’t be easy, but I’ll have faith that God will lead me through that too. He is good, and He is always there when I need Him..

Joel's Blog

Hi, I'm Joel. 

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