Hurry Sickness

I think hurry sickness is everywhere! An example of it in your life may be how you examined the length of this post before deciding whether or not to commit to reading it. I know I do that all the time. We are so busy, hurrying around from one place to the other and it is killing us – at least our souls.

Meyer Friedman defines hurry sickness as “above all, a continuous struggle and unremitting attempt to accomplish or achieve more and more things or participate in more and more events in less and less time, frequently in the face of opposition, real or imagined, from other persons” (The Life You’ve Always Wanted, pg. 83-84).

Jesus said people with hurry sickness are like those seeds that falls among thorns: “The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature” (Luke 8:14).

Isn’t it amazing to think that our spiritual growth is often inhibited not by something bad we do, but simply by doing too much, so much that the important things in life get choked out.

As a pastor I know of so many people who have told me – sincerely I believe – that they really want to know God, to grow closer to Him, to be more engaged in the life of the church and to serve more. The problem is that they suffer from debilitating hurry sickness. They are unable or unwilling to say NO to that extra Sunday overtime, that sports league that will take them away from church or youth group, that TV show that keeps them from calling to check on a friend in need, etc. You get the point. We are being choked and life is draining out of us minute by minute, day by day, but we don’t slow down or re-arrange our priorities. What we do is speed up and add more . . . and we just get sicker.

Ironically, if we ever do say NO to anything it becomes the things we say we want most – to know God, to grow closer to Him, to be more engaged in the life of the church and to serve more. We would never say or do that consciously or directly, but we just allow it to slide away with other things taking its place until it no longer catches our attention anymore. Something has to go, so we choose God and His people . . . and our spiritual life is “choked” out of us and we just get sicker.

Hurry sickness is everywhere and in every one of us!

Where is it alive in you?

How do you combat it so that your spiritual life is not choked out of you?

Are Hugathons Christian?

In Luke 7:36-50 Jesus is interrupted at dinner by a "sinful" woman. Her actions toward Him are powerful and symbolize her love for Him. Jesus' response to her indicates that He doesn't see her in the same way that others see her. The way Jesus sees her, the way He accepts her, the way He pronounces God's forgiveness on her and sends her away in peace is transformational to her. No doubt it impacted everyone else who was present as well, especially the arrogant religious leader who hosted Jesus for dinner.

As you think about that story, watch this video. It is a short video of a Hugathon in Sondrio, Italy. Every time I watch this I can’t help but smile! Don’t miss it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN8CKwdosjE

There is nothing in this that is explicitly Christian, but don't you think Jesus would be pleased by His followers living like this?

How do you feel when you watch this video? Does God say anything to you?

What needs do you see being met in this small gesture of a hug? Do you think this could be a catalyst for connecting people with Jesus? Why or why not.

A New Way of Measuring Health

Repentance = Confession + Contrition + Change

Check out this clip from Mark Driscoll: http://youtu.be/icJgZxT_-Bc

How has this changed or refreshed your thinking about repentance? How would the spiritual landscape be altered if we became life-long repenters?

What if we measured the health of our spiritual life by the frequency and sincerity of our repentance?

Who is right - Mark Twain or Jesus?

Mark Twain once said, "The church is a place where a nice, respectable person stands in front of other nice, respectable people and urges them to be nicer and more respectable."

Is that really all there is? Is that really why we exist? Surely not!

If anyone has ever gotten or given that vibe they were surely off course. That is not at all what the characters in Scripture experienced. Let me just mention a few more notable ones:

• Abraham – A liar and a doubter who God made into the Father of trusting faith.
• Moses – A murderer, questioner and complainer that grew so intimate with God that he spoke with Him "face to face, as one speaks with a friend."
• David – An adulterer and murderer who became a “man after God’s own heart.”
• Peter – An impulsive, speaking-before-thinking man who denied knowing Jesus three times when it counted. He became one of the primary leaders of Christianity.
• Paul – A man dedicated to persecuting God’s people, including through imprisonment and murder, who was transformed into being a critical missionary and apostle for Christ.

These people were anything but respectable. In fact they had qualities we would be more against than for. But one critical thing happened. They met God and were transformed as a result. In fact, the very trajectory of their life changed dramatically. They were not the same people anymore. Their stories can and should inspire us. They should also remind us that God works with people of the worst kind. No one is too far gone or too out of His reach.

Just being nice and respectable is not the life that the Bible calls us to. Christians aren’t just nice and respectable, but people who are transformed and being transformed by Jesus. They recognize and admit the sin in their life, inviting God to graciously forgive and change them. They open their lives up to Jesus living in and through them, making Him the absolute Leader or Lord of their life. They submit everything to the leadership of the Spirit and pattern everything after the life creed that Jesus taught:

“‘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.” – Matthew 22:37-40

That is way beyond simply being nice and respectable isn’t it? That is a life centered on doing the things that Jesus did and saying the things that Jesus said.

So who is right - Mark Twain or Jesus?

What if your life was patterned after the Jesus Creed instead of Mark Twain’s idea of church being about and for nice and respectable people? If that were the case, how would our church look different or our communities or beyond?

Are you a vampire Christian?

Dallas Willard says many Christians mistakenly preach and live a “gospel of sin management.” Essentially all they want is a Jesus who will forgive their sins and take care of the eternity question. Willard calls them “vampire Christians.” He says their attitude is like this, "I'd like a little of your blood, please. But I don't care to be your student or have your character. In fact, won't you just excuse me while I get on with my life, and I'll see you in heaven."

This is not Christianity and when we try to make it so we quickly find out that it isn’t real and it isn’t sufficient, especially when we are faced with real challenges and decisions and we need God in our lives. Thankfully this is not what the Bible talks about when it spells out our life with God. As His sons and daughters who have been forgiven of our sin and adopted into His family, we experience whole life transformation. We become brand new people in Christ and the reality of that newness is seen more and more each day. Here is how Willard goes on to describe it:

The spirit brings the inward transformation of thought, feeling and character that "cleans the inside of the cup" (Matthew 23:25) and "makes the tree good" (Matthew 12:33). As we study with Jesus we increasingly become on the inside . . . exactly what we are on the outside, where actions and moods and attitudes visibly play over our body alive in its social context. An amazing simplicity will take over our lives--a simplicity that is really just transparency.

This requires a long and careful learning from Jesus to remove the duplicity that has become second nature to us--as is perhaps inevitable in a world where, to 'manage' our relations to those about us, we must hide what we really think, feel and would like to do if only we could avoid observation. Thus, a part of Jesus' teaching was to "avoid the leaven, or permeating spirit, of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." (Luke 12:1)

The Pharisees were in many respects the very best people of Jesus' day. But they located goodness in behavior and tried to secure themselves by careful management at the behavioral level. However, that simply cannot be done. Behavior is driven by the hidden or secret dimension of human personality, from the depths of the soul and body, and what is present there will escape. Hence they always failed at some point to do what is right, and had to redefine, redescribe or explain it away--or simply hide it.

By contrast the fruit of the spirit, as described by Jesus and Paul, does not consist in actions, but in attitudes or settled personality traits that make up the substance of the "hidden" self, the "inner man." "Love" captures this fruit in one word, but in such a concentrated form that it needs to be spelled out. Thus, "the fruit (singular) of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." (Galatains 5:22)

How do you relate to what Willard is saying? Have there been “vampire” tendencies in your life? Where specifically can you see the Spirit at work in your life right now?