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Sixteen hours to go!

In sixteen hours, the Kickstarter campaign for Death of Secrets will come to an end. I am already overwhelmed by the level of support shown by my friends. If you still want to back the book, go to http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1785187395/death-of-secrets. You can get a signed copy of the book as a reward, or more!

Once the novel goes to publication at the end of the month, I am prepared for anything. It could sell no more copies than the 40 people who are already backing it. In my dream world, it will sell millions of copies and I can become a professional novelist. More likely, of course, is somewhere in between. I trust God for the outcome. I know that He loves me, and that however many copies of the novel sell, he will use that for my good.

Whatever happens, I have already learned that I have Grade A friends who are willing to put their personal resources on the line to help me chase a dream. Thank you. Thank you all.

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“God told me to…”

When Rick Perry ran for President, he said, “I’m getting more and more comfortable every day that this is what I’ve been called to do.” This became something easily caricatured by his political opponents. The usual parody went something like, “God told me I’m going to be President.”

Many people who love Jesus at some point experience a feeling of being led by God to do something. But there’s a richness of meaning surrounding that which often goes unexplained. As a consequence, many people who don’t believe see the idea of “God told me to” as ridiculous.

When God leads a person to a certain course of action, his plan may be completely different from the human plan. For example, if God did call Rick Perry to run for President, his purposes may have had nothing to do with Rick Perry actually becoming President (obviously). Perhaps, somewhere along the campaign trail, there was a person who heard Rick Perry call Herman Cain his brother, and asked why. Perhaps that person learned that, often though we may fail, believers try to treat each other as brothers and sisters — as family. And perhaps that person’s behavior towards his fellow man changed because of that.

Maybe — in our hypothetical situation — that person might have been a cruel boss of a large company beforehand. Maybe he was even a racist. And maybe he made a change to his behavior that resulted in his employees of all races being treated better.

Maybe that was what God wanted. And He achieved it by leading Rick Perry into a situation where he could model brotherly love in general, and between people of different races in particular.

It’s important for believers to remember that those who don’t share our culture often don’t get what we’re talking about. Jesus is at the center of our lives, and we think about him almost all the time. Other people don’t invest that much in it. Things that we’ve thought about constantly, they may never have considered.

It’s equally important to encourage people who don’t know Jesus yet to look deeper, rather than laughing at a surface-level statement that doesn’t seem to make sense at first.

Understanding is better than mockery.

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When you are reviled

First Peter chapter 2 says this about Jesus: When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.

That’s a pretty clear instruction for people working in politics these days. It’s pretty easy to find the Al Frankens or Ann Coulters or Rush Limbaughs or Jon Stewarts of the world mocking you. And believe me, I know: when you’re mocked, the desire to mock back can rise up stronger than anything. “I know I’m supposed to turn the other cheek, but just let me say this one little thing Lord…”

When Jesus was mocked, he did not mock in return.

We want to prove we’re smarter by putting down the other side way harder than they put us down. We want it bad. But that’s not what Jesus wants.

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Sin

I have trouble with the word sin. It feels judgmental. I am so much happier saying, “We all make mistakes” or “We all screw up” or even “we all do things wrong.” But as soon as I have to say, “We all sin,” I’m afraid to say that to someone who isn’t already following Jesus, for fear it will put them off.

But, as I was watching Billy Graham’s “The Cross” video with some friends last Sunday, he said something that got through to me. “The cross is an offense.” The cross is supposed to offend people.

It’s not supposed to be easy to hear, “I did morally unacceptable things, and he died because of that.” No one wants that consequence. No one wants to confront the fact that because of something I did, someone else died.

Once we know Jesus and love him, everything about that changes. Once we know Jesus, we understand it’s washed clean. All the bad stuff, all the consequences — all of them white as snow.

But before we know that, being confronted with the reality of those consequences makes us want to turn away. The word sin is offensive and judgmental for a reason. It’s part of the process of wanting freedom from the past.

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Christian life: applied

My brothers and sisters, something is on my heart today. It’s this: rumor abounds in the land that we are bad tippers.

The other day I was having breakfast with a brother and he originally put down a tip that was only about 10%. We had prayed before our meal, and I knew the waitress had seen that. It happened to be a Sunday morning, so it called to mind the stereotypes about how wait-staff hate to work Sundays, because they don’t make any money on the church crowd.

Quickly, I added a few more dollars to bring the tip up to a more appropriate level.

I tell this story not to boast about my own tipping. I do my best, but I’m not rich. I tell it as an example for all of us.

When we are out in public and pray over a meal, the world sees “Christians.”  By our public act of faith, we have invited the world to make judgments about “Christians” based on how we act.

I know and you know that judging a whole group of people by the actions of one or a few is a form of bigotry. But this is the world we live in, and we must be aware that, when we publicly identify ourselves by our relationship with God, then all the followers of Jesus are being judged along with us.

Second Corinthians tells us, “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us.” The case for Jesus is being made through us! How we treat the people around us, helps people get to know Jesus. And “how we treat them” definitely includes tipping them.

The word is full of exhortations to those who employ servants to treat them with love and respect. We must never lose sight of it.

There’s a old trope among us — the idea of “tracting.” It refers to leaving a bible verse on the table. Some believers go so far as to leave a tract in place of a tip, or alongside a very poor tip.

And how well will that be received?

The person bringing our food depends on our tips for their livelihood. If we want to share the word of God with them, how much better will they receive it if we make a nice impact on that livelihood.

Love your fellow humans. Tip them well when they bring you food. When you do, you are increasing the chances that they’ll get to know Jesus for who he is.

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God loves us

There is no one who God does not love. There is not one single person. Each of us makes different mistakes than another, but there is no behavior that can cause God to stop loving us.

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Don’t make things hard for others

This morning I was reading Romans 14. (Actually, I was having it read to me — The Bible App is great!) The line that really stood out to me was this: “make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.”

The kind of person I want to be is this: one who helps people see that Jesus loves everyone, wants everyone. Sometimes in the past, I’ve let my strong feelings about a couple different political issues interfere with that. I express my opinion about those issues in a way that causes people to feel judged and rejected.

When I do that, I am putting a stumbling block in the way of my brothers and sisters.

Loving Jesus is too big for any one thing to sum up the whole point of it. But if I was to try and sum it up, this would be a key element: “when we screw up and hurt people, he can fix that.”

Please help me use my attempts to get back to writing in a way that also makes me a good ambassador for you Lord.

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Trying again

I had to put blogging aside for a time. I found that writing about politics often causes me to struggle with anger. The more I write about Obamacare or gun control, the less and less I want to treat people on the other side of the aisle with respect.

But that’s the whole point of this blog. I want to be a person who is active in politics who does not mock, scorn, and belittle the other side. I want to be a person who speaks with respect. More important, I want to be a person who disagrees with respect.

So, I’ll try again. I will write in a way that demonstrates decency and kindness, or I won’t write.

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Love can never be the law

Many legislators or politicians make a fairly simple chain of reasoning. Jesus says help the poor. Social security, SNAP, AFDC, welfare, medicaid, and many other forms of government spending help the poor. Therefore Christians should support them.

The fact which gets left out of that chain of reasoning is that all of those programs are funded by taxation, and taxation is never voluntary. If you get to choose whether or not to pay, it’s not called a tax, it’s called a suggested contribution. No one may live in a country and not pay its taxes.

Taxation is always backed up by the implicit threat that you will be found guilty of breaking the law if you don’t pay. The IRS will accuse you of tax evasion. A court will find you guilty and sentence you to pay a fine. If you don’t pay that fine, the government will take your money and your things without your consent. If you wont give up your money and your things, you will go to prison.

Jesus does not endorse that relationship. Jesus came to set the captives free, not to put more people in prison. Jesus came to allow people to choose, not to force them.

Choosing to help the poor pleases God. Grudgingly allowing a system based on force to take your money against your will and spend it on the poor does not please God.

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God will never force you.

God is love. –1 John 4:8

Love does not insist on its own way. — 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 (ESV)

God will never force you. He will always let you choose everything about your own conduct. He may make it very clear to us which we he would go, but he will always leave the choice whether or not to say yes or no.