Saints--Rich Mullins

I decided I would write a series of blogs about people who inspire me to move closer to Jesus. I guess we can call these individuals “saints.” Some of these saints are a little old school; others are more contemporary.

I decided to start with a man who, like many saints throughout history, left this earth a little too soon (although I’m sure he isn’t complaining). His name is Rich Mullins. He was a Christian recording artist, a dreamer and a follower of Jesus. His life, his story and his music continue to inspire me. I’ve attached a video that, I believe, captures the beauty of his life.

In the video he shares openly about the nature of sin and temptation as well as a personal struggle he was dealing with on one of his travels. Then, he plays one of my favorite songs of all time, which also happens to be one he wrote, called Hold Me Jesus. I encourage you to take five minutes out of your day and watch this video. Even in this short video, you will notice how remarkably transparent this man was and how deeply he loved Jesus.

I honestly don’t think there is another song that touches my heart the way this tune does. I hope you are blessed by it:

What I learned from Kobe Bryant

A few weeks ago I was listening in on ESPN radio and none other than the Black Mamba himself, Kobe Bryant, happened to be on. The show’s host had invited him on the air for an interview. Immediately, curiosity set in and I turned up the volume. Now, I should be honest here. Nothing against Kobe, but I’m not a huge fan. I always recognize and respect basketball talent, but that doesn’t mean I cheer for the person. Part of this has to do with being a Blazers fan growing up and always wishing the Blazers could have taken it to the Lakers when it really counted. Alas, this never happened. My bitterness, though, has receded over the years. I’ve been healed. It was good money spent on therapy.

Anyways, the interview with Kobe was fascinating. Kobe shared some of his thoughts on the NBA and on how the Lakers were doing so far this year. He answered some critical questions by the host and with an air of confidence, assured the listeners that the Lakers would be doing just fine come play offs. I have to say, I completely believed him. One thing I noticed from the interview was that Kobe never took the focus off of himself. When asked about the Heat, he brought it back to himself. When questioned if the Spurs would upset the Lakers, again, without hesitation, he brought the issue back to his setting and his life. This move wasn’t done out of arrogance or some deep seeded narcissism; rather, I realized, it was done out of confidence in his pursuit of excellence.

Kobe believes his success is not contingent upon what other people do around him. That is why on the air he didn’t get rattled by criticism or even react to the mentioning of the successes of other players and teams. It just didn’t matter because he was confident in his job and his skills. One line from the interview that really stood out to me was when Kobe said, “I know I have to put the work in.” Putting the work in, as Kobe explained, is about doing what you know you need to do in order to be the best you can be. “Putting the work in” is not about comparing oneself to others or living in a state of reaction, based upon what’s happening around you. On the contrary, it’s about focusing on oneself.  Besides, as Kobe mentioned, the only real improvement I can make is to improve myself.

Many of us find heroes or successful people we want to emulate. We see the good they produce—the books they write, the movies they make, the songs the compose—and we want to be like them. We see loving families and notice strong friendships between people.  It looks attractive and we want that for our lives too. The only problem is, that most of us don’t want to do what they did to get there. We want the success, but lack the work ethic and discipline to achieve it. Reading a good story is always fun. Writing the story, on the other hand, rarely ever is. We all want to tell good stories, but first we have to be willing to write them.

Perhaps this is the reason why there is only one Kobe Bryant.

Sometimes the best advice is no advice

Have you ever noticed how sometimes the best advice you can give someone is no advice at all? We live in a society where we are constantly searching for answers. It seems like everyone has at least one consultant they can call upon. You have someone to help you with your finances; another to give you “life coaching” (whatever that is); and if you’re rich then you might have a personal trainer as well. In every aspect of our lives, we are searching for those who can give us good advice.

I think this is true in my life to a degree as well. Especially in hindsight, I can see the many people I sought advice from over the years. Some of it was great advice. I had people who genuinely cared about me. They wanted what was best for me. Regardless of their motives, though, the best advice doesn’t always come in the form of stating your opinion. In fact, I think it rarely does. The best advice I’ve ever received was when someone intentionally chose not to give me advice at all. Their silence spoke louder than words or proactive plans that I could follow. They helped me because of what they didn’t say. Their ultimate refusal to tell me what I “should do” was not a hindrance to my growth as a person; rather, it was an opportunity to become the person I had to become on my own initiative. No advice was good advice. Further, not giving me advice was really a sign of someone’s wisdom.

When I think of wisdom, I can’t help but think about the book of Proverbs in the Bible. It is a book full of wise sayings that were passed down from different generations. This book of sayings and adages, though, were not secret formulas that automatically gave you wisdom. Rather, they were ideas that could help someone live a good and fulfilling life. Proverbs devotes many of its chapters to the achievement of wisdom and the importance of seeking wise counsel.

Wise counsel.

When we ask someone for advice, what we are really asking for is their counsel, right? But wise counsel doesn’t necessarily mean giving people answers or telling them what they should do. That is not counsel. That is not empowering someone. That is simply the stating of your opinion. Which depending on who you are, could mean very little. It’s like the person who is always sharing advice on relationships and they’ve never been in one. They might have read some Joshua Harris book in the past, but that in no way gives them credibility to speak on the subject. They are a purposeless voice, who may have great intentions, but is nevertheless, an incessant and annoying reminder as to why some people should keep their opinions to themselves. No one wants to be “that guy” or “that girl.” Do we seek to give wise counsel or to just be heard?

Counsel is really about helping someone find their way. It is assisting them on their journey and allowing them the power to choose and figure things out on their own. When we constantly “counsel” people by the sharing of our opinion or telling them what we would do in a given situation, we take away the power of their choice. Our influence can become too big in someone’s life. Instead of figuring out how things should really be, they just do what we say. That is not helping someone become a mature and complete person. That is hindering them. Parents do this. Pastors do this. Friends do this.

Viktor Frankl, the famous concentration camp survivor and author, said that the last of any human freedom is the ability to choose—to choose one’s attitude, thoughts and to make decisions. Do we allow people to truly choose if our counsel is always giving them answers? Sometimes our silence says as much as the words we say. Furthermore, our ability to not tell people what to do has a tremendous impact, even if it is not immediate. It is a sign of maturity when our counsel gives people freedom to figure things out on their own.

Mark Twain once said that if he had to live life over again, he would have said less. Perhaps there should be times when we practice the art of restraint. Not because we don’t have meaningful ideas or good things to say, but because our silence can mean someone else finds the solution they were looking for. Moreover, I rarely hear someone praised for his or her “advice-giving-opinion-stating” abilities. People are praised for their ability to listen. A good leader, and a good friend for that matter, will artfully and tactfully choose when to give advice and when to say nothing. They will allow their silence to be as important as their words.

God—A Hopeless Romantic

Have you ever read a part of scripture and thought: “Really, God? That seems a bit over the top, even for you.” Sometimes reading though scripture feels like your watching a Tim Burton movie—constant special effects and weird stuff happening everywhere. There are bushes that catch on fire, the parting of waterways, multitudes of angelic choruses singing together, and dead people rising from the grave. Have you ever read one of God’s miracles and thought God was a bit too theatrical? Or perhaps thought that he likes grand gestures a bit too much? By the time you reach the New Testament you begin to think that maybe God is bragging just a bit, almost as if to say “Look what I can do next!”

Perhaps God is a bit theatrical at times, constantly showcasing his power through signs and wonders, all the while continually reaching out to his creation time and time again. There are moments when God seems too forgiving and too loving. There are moments when he says one thing and then does another. He tells his people he is going to bring calamity upon them and then decides to give them a second chance (well, more like a thousand second chances). Just when you think he has finally done enough, voila! He strikes again, reaching out to touch his creation once more. In fact, we begin to see that God never tires of reaching out to his people.

As God reaches out to his people, he begins to appear as this greater pursuer. He is deliberate, patient and tenacious. But what exactly is he pursuing?

One of the things God seems pretty keen on is getting his people to recognize his love for them. God keeps sending all of these reminders in the scriptures that he is close to his creation, cares for them, and has their best interests at heart. His love is so grand that uniformity alone would not do it justice. God could have chosen to make every person reciprocate this love automatically. He could have made us robots. But forced love, is not really love at all. Love is a choice. God chose to love us and allows us to choose to love him back. However, his love is never contingent on our love. In fact, his love cannot be defined in our own limited understanding of what love should be. His love is infinite, pure and unending. God is a patient lover who has made the first move. He waits for us to return the gesture, all the while showing us that His love is eternal and will never fade out. Brennan Manning puts it this way: "Human love will always be a faint shadow of God’s love. Not because it is too sugary or sentimental, but simply because it can never compare from whence it comes. Human love, with all its passion and emotion, is a thin echo of the passion/emotion love of Yahweh."

I wonder if that is why the psalmist can cry out “Your love is better than life.” Or why he can pray to God: “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.” Satisfy us with your unfailing love? That is a bold request. Could it be that God’s love is so good and so strong that it can do just that? That it can satisfy us.

Satisfaction.

That is a word we don’t hear very often. It seems like most of us are very unsatisfied. We keep searching for the next thing, the next love or the next relationship that will finally give us peace. It’s a Never-Ending Story—and not a cool one that has mythical far away places and giant flying dogs.

God’s love is not far away or distant. His love has no contingencies. It is real. It is unfailing. And it is all-satisfying. I wonder if God is really a hopeless romantic at heart and he delights in wooing and awing his creation. Perhaps he is the greatest romantic that exists. And maybe every time we take part in a little romance or choose to show some grand gesture of our affection to someone we love, we are, in fact, acting like our creator. Perhaps romance is a sign that we are partnering with God in an epic love story that has existed since the beginning of time. We are choosing to love and be loved. We are embracing the hopeless romantic inside all of us.

It's never over

This is a picture of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. On the surface, it looks like an ordinary motel. History, however, tells us this particular motel will be remembered forever. This is the site where Martin Luther King Junior was assassinated so many years ago.

The hotel has been converted into a museum of the Civil Rights Movement, with special emphasis on the events leading up to Dr. King’s assassination. Dr. King was a man with a dream and a plan to see it come to fruition. He was a social justice worker and peacemaker. And we lost him too soon. One thing is certain, though, his legacy lives on.

On the day King was assassinated, two men were with him: Andrew Young and Ralph Abernathy. Tony Campolo tells a story about the words these men exchanged when King was shot. Young was the first to reach King and he began to cry aloud, “It’s over, it’s over, it’s over.” Young cries these words as if to say they’d lost, their progress was for nothing, and things would never change. Abernathy, on the other hand, did not share Young’s sentiments. He grabbed Young in his arms and shouted passionately, “It’s never over. This will never be over!”

It’s never over.

Indeed, King’s work and his dreams are not over. His legacy of resilience, peace and nonviolence lives on in the hearts of men and women who dream of a better world. His incredible amount of patience paved the way forward. His life gave us an supreme example of sacrifice and love. His work will never be over.

Perhaps the same is true for our lives. We can resiliently hold on, even when it feels like everything is falling apart. We can echo Abernathy’s words and live like “It’s never over."

How well do you know the Bible?

Remember all of those Bible verses we used to diligently memorize in Sunday school? I do. I vividly remember my childhood Sunday school room displaying a large banner with the names of every student in the class. Next to each of our names was a blank space for a star. Every time we memorized a verse we received a star. This star also translated into a trip to the candy bucket. I loved that candy bucket and was also quite fond of gold stars. Hence, I became a Bible scholar by the fourth grade.

I’ve heard the term “Bible literate” used quite a bit recently. The question asked is: does your church know Scripture? This question is often used to distinguish between churches that really teach Scripture and others who aren’t as in depth in their preaching and teaching. I’ve been thinking about this lately in regards to my church and many others. How well do we know Scripture?

Since I’m a pastor, I tend to listen to a number of sermons every month. It’s always interesting to hear what other churches are preaching on and what I can learn as a communicator from others in my field. There are a number of preachers around. They have their unique styles. Some are insanely creative; others a tad bit boring. But they have one thing in common—they’re teaching from Scripture. Their congregants are listening to them so they can interact with a text. The preaching moment happens on Sunday morning or Saturday night and people come to listen. It doesn’t matter the size of the church. People are coming to hear. How we teach the Scriptures is important.

I heard someone sing a song the other day that listed all 66 books of the Bible in order. It was an assignment they received in their Christian school. They learned a song, so they could know the order of the books of the Bible. I was asked recently if I could recite every book of the Bible in order on the spot. I could not. I got mixed up somewhere in the Minor Prophets. I forgot about Obadiah. This person was shocked that I couldn’t recite the books of the Bible. “I thought you were a pastor,” they said jokingly.

All of this makes me wonder what knowing the Bible means? What are we really getting at when we ask that?  Jesus certainly knew the Scriptures in his day. He quoted from them, taught from them and applied them to his ministry. He certainly had an understanding of the Scriptures, but it was more than that. He understood the Scriptures to be full of life. He embodied them in a way others didn’t.

I’ve heard it said that knowledge is a gateway to action. The more you know, the more you care. I’ve often wondered, though, if the way we talk about “knowing” Scripture can be misleading. Instead of equipping our churches, we’ve left them believing retention and fill-in-the-blank inserts are the key to knowing the Bible. Perhaps many of our congregants who know so much about the Bible, are missing a fundamental insight: what to do with it. We try so often to interpret Scripture, but how often do we allow Scripture to interpret us? We strive to know more, but do we attempt to live out with what we do know?

Is knowing Scripture the same as being changed by it?

I certainly aspire to know the Scriptures. I study them, take courses on them and engage in conversations about them. I desire that my church knows Scripture too. But I also want them to embrace Scripture. Whenever I preach, I’m not looking to simply transfer information. Rather I desire to invite my church to experience transformation.

I have a few students that I disciple on a monthly basis. Some of them want to know more about Scripture, theology and ministry. I’m happy to teach them and help them study Scripture. But my goal is not for them to be the new day Hank Hanegraaff (the Bible answer man). Instead, I hope that in learning about Scripture they would be prompted to do something with it. Because God’s word comes alive when we live with the text.

Here are some ideas that I’m trying to use in order to help my church move beyond the realm of informative and into the realm of transformative:

-Preach sermon series that are focused on a book of the Bible or a particular genre of biblical literature. This way, we have the chance to get a better understanding of a book’s overall message and context. Instead of simply memorizing individual verses, we have a broader understanding of the book as a whole.

-Promote quality Bible reading over quantity. There is something important about meditation and repetition that many of our modern churches miss out on. Liturgy is powerful. Rather than have our church members read chapter after chapter, challenge them to reflect on a smaller portion of Scripture several times a week.

-Allow creativity to intersect with a Bible study. Scripture can inspire us. Can we allow our church’s to react in creativity to the Scriptures through art, music, video, song, dance and craftsmanship? This way, a passage or book becomes alive to an individual.

-Expand the preaching experience. Sometimes we (myself included) put too much emphasis on what happens Sunday morning or Wednesday evening. Preaching and Bible study, though, are not confined to that hour every week. Find ways to broaden the preaching experience. Allow our churches opportunities to live with a text in their world—events, projects, and outings. 

Leading or Being Led

I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. John 21:18

There is a difference between “leading” and “being led.” A Christian leader is primarily someone who chooses to be led, instead of leading. It’s an interesting concept. Our culture emphasizes the importance of leading. We crave great leaders who are visionary and charismatic. We search for those who can help us navigate the changing waters of the future and guide us into the unknown. Our world celebrates these types of leaders. Our churches hire these types of leaders. Jesus, however, has a different version of leadership he shares with his people: the art of being led.

Jesus calls us to follow him. We are to be disciples. Learners. Students. Followers. He doesn’t call us to be leaders. He calls us to follow one true leader. Jesus’ version of leadership is to strip away any barrier or position and submit to his way and not our own. Jesus is anti-institution, anti-“The Man” and anti hierarchy. In the gospels, Jesus avoided any kind of conversation that was political or power oriented. When James and John argue about their places in heaven, Jesus talks about the little children. When Jesus is questioned about paying taxes, he doesn’t get caught off guard, but refocuses the attention on serving God, not man. A Christian leader is called to mimic his example (Ephesians 5:1).

Peter was one of the foundational leaders of the Christian movement. By the time we reach the book of Acts, he is leading a great deal. He is bold, strategic and effective. But we shouldn’t forget the advice Jesus gave him before he became this great leader.

John 21 shares a unique scene in Scripture: the reinstatement of Peter. Most scholars believe the twenty-first chapter of John was a later addition to the gospel, being as chapter 20 concludes the gospel quite nicely and a number of other theories that we don’t have time to explore. In my opinion, though, John 21 offers one of the clearest pictures of what a Christian leader should do. Regardless of its origin, I am thankful the gospel bears this chapter.

The story is quite fascinating. After Peter is reinstated, Jesus tells him a proverb about young age versus old age. Peter was reminded that when he was younger (perhaps, in his days before Christ) he did what he wanted and went where he wanted to go. When he is older, however, he will stretch out his hands and be led… even to places he would rather not go. Jesus reinstates Peter to be a leader. But his primary “leadership ability” is going to be as a follower. He needs to choose to be led.

Peter’s world came crashing down when Jesus was arrested and crucified. It destroyed his hopes of what the Messiah would do—restore Israel, reestablish the law—and who he would be. Jesus’ mission was different. God’s true plan for the Messiah was something bigger than Israel—it was global and spiritual and far more radical. In John 21, Peter has left the path of following Jesus and turned back to his old way of life. He is on a boat, fishing. The same thing he was doing before he met Jesus.

Jesus appears to Peter and challenges his current way of living. No longer would he sincerely follow Jesus according to his way or his own thoughts about how things should be. Now, he would be led. Furthermore, he would also be led to places where he might not want to go. That is a shocking thought! Following Jesus means going where you might not want to go? Henri Nouwen says, “Jesus has a different version of maturity: it is the ability and willingness to be led where you would rather not go.” Peter’s new found commitment to Jesus eventually led him to martyrdom. It also established him as a Christian leader.

I’ve heard a number of pastors and other Christian leaders talk very candidly about “following” God’s leading in a given situation, usually when it relates to a new job or opportunity. The line of thinking goes “We’ve prayed over the right decision and believe God has led us to make it.” Interestingly, when it comes to accepting a position at church or other organization, it seems people are always led by God to accept the job at the bigger church, with the bigger pay check.  God doesn’t lead us to stay at our current churches, or heaven forbid, accept a position at a smaller church in a less affluent area. He doesn’t lead us to work with the poor or give up the comforts we desire. The way people talk about following God’s leading, it seems God only guides us according to our bank accounts. I wonder why we can’t just be honest and say this isn’t God’s leading, it’s my own.

The Christian leader, however, will learn the art of “being led.” He may learn to dismiss certain opportunities because he’s following God’s leading and not his own. He may choose to look foolish in the eyes of the world because he understands there is a difference between “leading” and “being led.” Like Peter, he may choose to stretch out his hands and follow the path of Jesus, even to places he would rather not go.