Sick Doctors

There is a kid named Nik on my street who is literally the most invasive and annoying 12 year old you could ever meet. Always coming over and walking into my house unannounced, he never stops talking, he tortures my cat, and has a perfect knack for showing up at the exact moment I want to be left alone. He is like nails on a chalkboard to me.

At first I simply ignored him. Then I became overly direct and asked him to leave me alone; but he kept coming over. Eventually I would go out of my way to ignore him by taking the long way to work and pretending I did not see him when he chased after me to talk. It was then that I realized that being a jerk did not show him Christ. And because Jesus was supposed to be the center of my life I needed to start acting like it, whether I wanted to or not.

My job is not to be comfortable or have things go my way on earth because this is not my permanent home. This concept is hard for me and most Americans to grasp because our entire lives are spent being more comfortable and safe. Every commercial on TV is for a product that makes life easier. We avoid pain at all costs, and by avoiding pain we avoid the ones who hurt the most. Jesus said that "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mark 2:17). Being covered in muck, filth, and frustration is the furthest thing from appealing, yet that is exactly where we as Christians need to be. Jesus is not a fire escape for one, but a recovery clinic for many.

With this verse resounding in my head, I went to Nik’s house to invite him over only to meet his father instead. In the four words he hollered that were not swear words I decoded that his son was out. Returning home I found him, right where he always is: at my door, eager to siphon my free time. But this time I welcomed him into the hospital, salving his wounds with friendship and easing his pain with love. For the first time, he breathed free from hurt. He was so overjoyed to have an environment of recovery that he stayed for hours! When it finally came time for him to head home, he asked but one thing: “Can I come over tomorrow?”

Helping the hurting is not a perfect process. In fact Nik still bugs the life out of me sometimes, but he needs love whether it’s easy or hard.

We are directed by God himself to love unconditionally. If we do not, who will?

Ohi-no

Absolutely nothing has taught me more about public embarrassment, social frustration, and personal humility than being a fan of Ohio sports. The Buckeye state has a total of 7 professional franchises in the five major American sports, yet winning seasons have been few and far between in my life time. Normally when a sports’ fan invades another team’s territory locals verbally joust with the outsider; but when I travel, people apologize and empathize with my pain. No one fears a toothless tiger.

For pro teams, success is expected. But when your squad has an easier time catching colds than fly balls, every call-in show in the nation is engulfed by armchair coaches ready to rant in detail on where ineptitude abounds.

Yet, in the midst of all this obvious negativity, how often do these infuriated fans actually attempt to change things for the better? Exposing the setback is only the first step toward a solution. In order for a team (or dare I say, Christianity) to progress it is important for leaders to become involved and immersed in it. It is better for a boat to change directions with the aid of a captain and a rudder than it is from a storm or an iceberg.

One area of need that lies near and dear to my heart is media. Millions of people all around the globe turn to entertainment in order to distance themselves from the harsh realities of their lives. But very few Christians are willing to become lights in a dark entertainment industry: choosing instead to create “Christian” entertainment (i.e. films, drama, etc.). Speaking from a production standpoint, the Christian media market is quite lacking when compared to their million-dollar, Hollywood counterparts. Instead of separating from the culture to our own enclave media market we should improve the quality of Hollywood films by encouraging experienced Christian professionals to immerse themselves into the industry. Start correcting the problems with films and entertainment from the inside. Instead of criticizing, why not redeem it?

And while it may be distressing to be associated with a team that consistently flops or a faith bursting with hypocrites, the catastrophe will only escalate if we remain passive participants. We need to step into the fight instead of merely critiquing from the safety of the sidelines. Only the players on the field determine the final score.

“The only place you can win a football game is on the field. The only place you can lose it is in your hearts.” Darrell Royal, College Football Hall of Fame Coach

The Great Christ Divide

I hate Christian culture! There, I said it; now I can move on. Well, maybe I can’t move on. Are we really ok with a separate society when it comes to entertainment? Christian bands and quotable bumper stickers aren’t enough anymore. Now we can further immerse ourselves in Cross-covered branding with entire television networks, film companies, record labels, apparel lines, and Jesus-emblem theme parks. If we are lucky, we won’t ever have to step foot in the “secular” world again. Lucky for us or for them?

The modern conservative Christian movement started in the mid 1970s. The American public had exploded with lifestyles of “free love” and drugs. And in response to this moral decline, Christian families decided to protect their children from all the sinful surroundings by detaching themselves from it, creating a Christian subculture free from outside influence. Private Christian schools, uniquely Christian bands, and the 700 Club were all birthed from this segregated movement. While I can appreciate their intent in constructing a protective barrier from immoral influences, this decision proved fatal for the effectiveness of Christianity in American culture today.

By removing themselves from the equation, Christ followers took with them the light of hope in Jesus, and all that was left behind was darkness. As time progressed the fracture between the two worlds evolved into a vast chasm, one that few people were able to bridge successfully. Instead of carrying out the Great Commission personally, Christians happily settled into like-minded suburbs, covered themselves with “God-slogan apparel” (“they’ll know we are Christians by our t-shirts”), and feigned slight concern over the appalling nation outside their community. Now, for the first time in modern history, Christians sit back and wait impatiently for the heathen masses to scale an enormous barricade into church instead of us wading into the darkness and becoming a light ourselves. How far we have wandered from the example Jesus himself lived out by dining with tax collectors and befriending prostitutes.

“While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ On hearing this, Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’” Mark 2:15-17 (NIV)

It has become so easy to cocoon ourselves in Christian bubble wrap that we are incapable of being used to reach a society in need. We have been blind to the spiritual wounds in others, ignorant of the healing process, and apathetic to the amount of work it will take.

As followers of Christ we are called to something greater than ourselves. And the more we can focus on living in our world, the more we can guide it toward a world worth living in.

Game Marriage

While watching TV last night a quick discussion between two characters caught my attention. An Anglican priest was speaking with a member of his congregation concerning gay marriage. The conversation is as follows:

Member: “A gay wedding?! What about the sanctity of marriage?!”

Priest: “You’ve been divorced three times! What do you know about the sanctity of marriage?”

As their back-and-forth banter continued, I couldn’t help but feel depressed concerning the startling truth in the priest’s statement.

Conservative America has painted the rise in homosexual relationships as the enemy of traditional marriage, i.e. one man and one woman. Yet countless statistics point out that heterosexual relationships need no help when destroying marriage. According to the National Center for Health Statistics “somewhere between 40% to 50% of marriages end in divorce in America” (1). And this trend of destructive divorce is nothing new: “Since 1970 marriages have declined 30%, and divorces have increased 40%.” (2) So how are homosexuals the problem with traditional marriage?

Thanks to a long term study done by the William’s Institute (aka the UCLA School of Law) we know that “as of April 2011, approximately 3.5% of American adults identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual” (3). Less than four percent of the entire American population is responsible for corrupting the institution of marriage? The GLBT community either has the world’s best public relations division or we need to change our thinking on the issue.

Instead of looking to external provocation to the sanctity of marriage, why don’t we look at the internal disruption of a relationship, to the actual actors of the (less than) life-long union? In one form or another, the most popular reasons for filing for divorce in America are infidelity, abuse, addiction, and finances (4). In essence, it all comes down to selfishness. You want something at the expense of someone else; and you don’t care who gets hurt in the process.

Philippians 2:3-4 perfectly addresses this self-first way of thinking: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” (NIV). We waste so much of our lives talking instead of listening, complaining instead of healing. Why don’t you focus on the needs of your spouse instead of grunting until they listen to you? Were we not given two ears and one mouth for a reason? And this form of other-first relationship does not have to be limited to marriage; there is no limit to what a small seed of positive feedback can spring forth in a person’s life at the gym, workplace, or grocery store.

By placing someone else’s life to come before your own, you are demonstrating in a small way what Jesus Christ has already done for you. And that relationship has sanctity above all others.

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross.” Philippians 2:5-8

1. http://www.divorcerate.org/

2. http://www.divorce.com/article/divorce-rate

3. William’s Institute. http://services.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute/pdf/How-many-people-are-LGBT-Final.pdf

4. http://www.divorceguide.com/free-divorce-advice/marriage-and-separation-advice/the-top-10-reasons-for-divorce.html