Of Freedom and Squeaky Wheels

Photo courtesy peasandhappiness.com

Those who profess to follow Jesus should not be like those who do not, especially in regards to whining and complaining.

I had to run a quick errand last night and as I was doing so I turned on the car radio.  I tuned in part way through an interview with an Iranian man who talked about the various death threats he had received and how he was living in hiding in Germany.  It turned out this situation came as a result of a song he had written and performed.  Yes that's right, the Iranian officials were so offended by a song (that the artist stated was simply meant as satire) that they sought to kill the one who performed it.

This lack of freedom was especially contrasted to the abuse of freedom I saw yesterday where people cussed and complained ad naseum because the propositions and politicians that were passed and elected were not the ones who they wanted passed and elected.  Now I do not know the profession of those who had posted all this vitriol, but I sincerely hope that they were not professed followers of Jesus.

The prevalent philosophy in this world seems to be based on the old adage "The squeaky wheel gets the grease" which means that if we make enough noise (i.e. complain) we will eventually get what we want.  However, such a philosophy is in direct contradiction to the way Jesus lived His life when He was on this earth.  He took all sorts of abuse, but not once do you see Him muttering to Himself or venting to His disciples, "Those stupid blankety-blank Pharisees . . ."  If anyone had an excuse to complain it would have been Him because being God, He had the unusual position of always being right.  How much less room to we as flawed human beings to complain when people do not agree with us and our views.  Maybe they are right and we are wrong, or maybe both of us are wrong and the correct view is held by someone else.

So next time we are tempted to complain, maybe we should follow a not-so-old saying and check ourselves before we wreck ourselves.


Have you had an experience where complaining only made the situation worse?  Feel free to share your story in the comment section.

Book Review: Faith That Works

Wanna make it into heaven, but don't know how to get there?  Morris Venden's book Faith That Works will tell you how, but don't simply take my word for it, read it for yourself.

According to an old saying one cannot judge the contents of a book by its cover.  While that may be true in many cases, by looking at the cover you can still get a good idea about what's inside.  When you read the back cover of this book, you will discover its theme.  Righteousness is not something you can achieve on your own.  It can only be achieved through Jesus.

When you look inside the book you will find that theme throughout.  This daily reader (one page for each day of the year) begins with pertinent title "What God is Like" and leads you on a journey into a deeper understanding of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Christian life until you arrive at the last title "Jesus, Your Best Friend".   My wife and I started reading this book most of the way through the year last year, but the effect remained the same.  Despite our growing up in Christian environments, we found ourselves being challenged and encouraged to take a deeper look at our views on a variety of subjects.

For example, one does not overcome temptation with clenched fists and gritted teeth, you simply get to the point where temptation has no power over you at all (you can find a more detailed explanation here).

Whether you're a lifelong Christian, or you aren't even sure what Christianity is all about, you will benefit from reading this book.  Can one find similar thoughts in other books?  Absolutely, but Venden's style of writing makes complicated topics easy to understand.  Many times while reading this book I found myself thinking, "Hmm, I never thought about it that way before."  Venden's passion for the subject matter practically oozes from the pages, and will draw you into wanting to know more about this being called God, and this man named Jesus.

Being over ten years old, this book should be easy to get for relatively little money (I got mine for free, not sure why the previous owner gave it up).  So, what are you waiting for?  Get yours today.

Spiritual Hotspotting

Can an innovative approach to dealing with people's physical health translate into the spiritual realm?

I recently watched a relatively short (13 min) video about a doctor named Jeffrey Brenner in New Jersey who has taken upon himself the task of dealing with the sickest people in his city of Camden.  He found these people through analyzing medical billing data and by doing so mapped out "hot spots" where people incurring the highest medical costs lived.  He developed the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers as a means of helping improve these people's lives.  While innovation is definitely needed in the healthcare system, should we implement such innovation in our dealings with people's spiritual lives?

First off, how would we determine people's level of spirituality?  Dr. Brenner found his high cost patients through analyzing medical billing records.  Similar records showing spirituality simply do not exist.  Sure, we could go such organizations such as The Association of Religion Data Archives and find all sorts of data on religious attendance and adherence, but as we probably all know, a high level of spiritual health and regular church attendance do not always go together.  We could go to the impoverished, high-crime areas in hope of finding those with the greatest spiritual need, but as I mentioned in a previous post, Jesus did not have many positives to say about the spiritual health of rich people.  Simply put, it is virtually impossible to get an accurate picture of someone's spiritual health by focusing on the externals.  Sure, a man who systematically abuses his wife is definitely not one who has a high level of spirituality, but Jesus made it quite clear in His famous Sermon on the Mount that it is what is on the inside that matters most to God.  So, since our lack of the ability to accurately determine spiritual health (even, oftentimes our own) prevents us from spiritual hotspotting, what about the One Who is able to accurately determine spiritual health, does He target only high-need individuals?

No, and Yes.  Jesus was the best representation of how God deals with people, and we read about Him dealing with everyone from the profligate Samaritan woman to the well-behaved Nicodemus.  God does not demonstrate a favoritism in regards to how He deals with people.  So, then where does the "Yes" come from?  The "Yes" comes from the fact that "all have sinned" and therefore all need to be saved.  "All" means "all", from the person who systematically commits open sins, to the person whose sinning resides only between their ears, nobody can save themselves, and therefore everybody need a Savior.

So if the temptation comes to deal with the spiritual needs of only a specific group, remember "hotspotting" may work for the physical life but does not work for the spiritual life.

Red Monkeys

As in many things in life, some keys to dealing with temptation are so obvious we tend to overlook them.

I have been reading through the book Faith that Works by Morris Venden (a full review will come sometime next month), and it has gotten me think about many topics.  Recently, the book has been talking about temptation, and it has reminded me of aspects related to temptation and sin that have been logged in my memory and were gathering dust on the shelves of my mind.

I remember back in high school, a teacher of mine was trying to convey to the class the perils of over-thinking about a task.  The teacher told the class a story about red monkeys, and said whatever we do, do not think about the red monkeys.  The concept was that the more you try and not think about something, the more you actually think about it.  I remember one of my classmates saying that she wouldn't think about the monkeys, and she didn't regardless of how many times they were mentioned throughout the class period.  Now what do red monkeys have to do with temptation?

Simple, she couldn't care less about the red monkeys.  They were of no interest to her, and hence she was not tempted to think about them.  Now if the teacher had told the class not to think about what we were going to have for lunch, and it was the last period before noon, then it might have had some effect especially if the aforementioned student had skipped breakfast. Temptation works in much the same way.

For example, I am not tempted to get involved in insider trading, especially the illegal variety (it wasn't until today that I realized that there was a legal way to do insider trading, shows how much I know on the subject) because I am not even close to being in a position to even consider it.  However, I may be tempted to eat that second piece of cake even though I could easily do without it.  The point being that the strength of a given temptation is directly related to our exposure to, and choices regarding, whatever object, action, or way of thinking is tempting us.  So then, how can we be free from the temptation, and, more importantly, the sin that can result?  The answer is quite simple, yet often difficult to implement.

We need to come to the point where we couldn't care less about whatever is tempting us.  How does that happen?  Do we simply grit our teeth and make the right moral choice when confronted by something tempting?  For many people that answer to that question would be a simple "Yes", but by doing so they would be walking into a very dangerous trap.  The trap of doing things with our own power.

Now if even Jesus, the Son of God, did not do things on His own, what hope do we have of succeeding on our own?  The only way to ward off temptation's power is to be so closely connected with God, so intensely focused on what He focuses on, that we couldn't care less about those temptations.  If we do that, we will even go beyond not caring and get to the point where those temptations are repulsive.  The words to an old hymn say it well.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

So when we find ourselves confronted by temptations, think more about Jesus, less about ourselves, and by all means, do not think about the red monkeys.

Standing Up

A great thing about the Bible is that you can learn new things from verses you've seen many times before.

I've recently been thinking and studying about temptation (here's why), and I came across a verse that is very familiar to me, perhaps too familiar.  It is 1 Corinthians 10:13.  The part that stood out to me is the last phrase that states " so that you can stand up under it."  Other translations use the word "bear" or "endure", but "standing up" works the best for me.

"Standing up" gives me a lot of positive associations when it comes to temptation.  The verse doesn't say that God will make the temptation magically disappear, but rather He will give us a way out so that we can stand up. To stand up means that the weight of the temptation is still there, but now so is the strength to deal with it.  The temptation is no longer crushing me, and by God's grace I have the power to move forward.

Thank you God for Your grace.