Recently, I receieved an email from a friend that loves making films. He and I met at Bible school. We then ran into each other in the Bahamas. I was on an OM ship and he was making a film with a film team form Moody. We chatted about vision and film ideas, always recognizing its incredible ability to move, motivate and change. I just received an email from him that I want to share with you, Here it is...
well i cant wait to get together with you. i wanna share a quick story with you. in the beginning of this year, i was driving home from a great conversation with a buddy. we talked about christianity and what it looks like. we talked about the laziness and what is has become. driving home i realized i was a hypocrite...see...i was afraid to be a real christian. i didnt wanna deal with the whole faith thing. i just wanted to do what everyone else did and kinda pray for stuffso i decided i was gonna be a christian that day. i drove home and told God:"Lord, im sick of being normal. i wanna do crazy stuff like what you did through people like moses and paul. you created me with a desire to make movies so here it is. i dont know if thats what you want me to do, but im gona dedicated myself FULL TIME to that. i dont know where the money is coming or where im headed, but thats gonna be my number one priority."that day i decided to drop everything i was doing,"ministries", work, etc...no money i get home and get an email from the pastor of xxxchurch"you got any more video ideas?"within that hour, we communicated some more, i ended up having a ticket to vegas to film for them at a convention.i come back home with a 15k check and a pretty nice cameraall that to say, i understand the power of willing hearts and sincere faith
I also just had a conversation with a man from Sweden today about his ministry to encourage, coordinate and support youth ministry initiatives around the globe. So many countries are looking to the west to understand youth ministry. We have to understand that we can't assume youth ministry exists in every country. It is primarily a North American thing. Even many Churches in Europe are just now catching. (This is very general) So this man and his team have a huge job ahead of them as well as massive opportunities. One things we discussed though was, the passion that youth have and how, even though it is lacking in wisdom and experience, it is still zeal and something that should not be discouraged in light of an older person's experience or "wisdom" Ray Vander Laan (www.followtherabbi.com) believes that the disciples themselves were mostly teenagers as young as one being 14 or 15. That would mean that Jesus as a 30 year old had chosen to give his precious three year ministry to these insignificant and unlearned youth. Not only were they young, they weren't the cream of the crop intellectually as many of them were sent back to the family business as apprentices, meaning that they hadn't made the cut to be a respected and prestigious scribe or Pharisee. Yet, we know what they did - they transformed the globe and turned the whole world upside down with what Christ gave them in those three years. What did He give them? - Himself. I really believe it is essential to also realize when He gave Himself to them and why.
I have come to be a 28 year old who loves Jesus but is very lazy about his faith. I am seeing that the passion I had as a teenager has waned considerably as my knowledge and wisdom have grown. I know that this is normal, but is it right?
The Eagles sing of Desperado losing his feelings because of his effort to stimulate them - leaving him sterilized by his own apprehension of gratuitous pleasure and the ensuing "security". "It seems to me some fine things have been laid upon your table, but you only want the ones you can't get...Freedom, oh freedom, that's just some people talking, your prison is walking through this world all alone...you're losing all your highs and lows, ain't if funny how the feeling goes away...it may be raining but there's a rainbow above you, you better let somebody love you, let somebody love you, you better let somebody love you, before it's too late"
My pastor in Chicago talked about how Worship is a responsive and formative participation in the timeless worship of God that is happening in Heaven right now and has happened for centuries. He taught that it is here that we should form our emotions towards God and in so doing our emotions are formed correctly towards our earthly relationships. As a teenager, we experience a flood of emotions and they are wonderful and miserable all at the same time. What place does this stage in our development have in maturing us into the fullness of who we are called to be - holy (pursuing wholeness) as He is Holy (fully whole and complete, lacking nothing). I believe that teenagers are given the privilege of experiencing these emotions as a teaser for what is possible if the individual pursues a life separated for God's purposes. We are called to participate in the formation of what we so freely and naturally experience as teens in the ensuing portion of the rest of our life. I have seen this in my relationship as well with God - He has given me a taste of His goodness to allow me to see what is possible with Him only to be brought back to reality. I believe this is the same thing that happens in massive and sweeping revivals. Should they tarry or should they compel us to a lifestyle of obedience and love that will shape and form a space for these visitations of God's Spirit. Is God into teasing people? I think so - He wants us to taste what Heaven is like and what is possible with Him so that we will never forget what our lives can be oriented towards - deep intimacy with the Godhead and the fulness of what maturity from Heaven on Earth looks like. If I don't know what it is possible I won't reach for it.
Many drug users, sexually ilicit people, drunkards, relationship chasers, career mongers, etc... are looking to recreate something, a feeling, a sensation, a sense of belonging, a moment of influence or power, something they encountered as a teenager. They want this to come back and to "happen" to them - to be acted upon. What God offers is not recreating a memory of pleasure or satisfaction and belonging, but He is calling us forward to sit at the table and feast on what we only tasted as a young teen. What does this require? Simply obedience, submitting to the process that God has laid out for you and receiving freely from His hand. Christ has said that is more blessed to give than to receive, but as Christians we find it much more difficult to trule receive than to give. When I share the Gospel at times, I pull a larger than normal bill out of my wallet and hand it to the person in the midst of the conversation - to their awkward dismay of course. I tell them, this awkwardness and unwillingness to receive this money is because your automatic response is that you haven't done anything for it, so why should you receive it. This is why many don't receive the gift of salvation either. They end up taking it but not without trying to give it back a couple of times. This is the awkwardness of the Gospel but it is also the awkwardness of sanctification/growing in our journey with Jesus. I haven't found another answer other than obedience and receiving. To participate is to obey, so it isn't only about waiting on your couch in prayer and hoping He'll drop "it" into your lap.
As Sam did, follow your desires and if that means leaving behined what gives you security. Leave it, it's worthless and it will only suck the abundant life you can have out of you. We need a new generation of passionate people to do this but we also need the many generations of "wise" people to re-engage the passion - not to relive a memory that tasted good, but to engage and participate - to create a story that will draw others in and challenge them beyond their secure borders. Follow this story,
Imagine a family with a young teenage girl who is dating a 16 year old guy. Dad doesn't approve, but the family keeps on living life. The dad expresses frustration to Donald Miller who says in response, "What your daughter is telling you is that this 16-year-old guy's story is better than your story!" The dad is a bit taken back and offended. He returns home . . . thinks . . . prays . . . and takes action. He researches something to improve his (and his family's) story. Gathering his family in a room he says, "I want us to raise $25,000 for an orphanage to be built! the family is shocked (mainly because they're not used to thinking and acting on such an unselfish non-entertainment based way). The family gathers behind dad. The daughter says, "I can get on MySpace and raise some money."
. . . 3 weeks later the daughter breaks up with the boyfriend. Why? Dad gave his daughter a more compelling story to be part of.
So as my friend recounted, he had discovered that the life he was leading was not heading towards the impossible, only the possible. Is it wrong to want a lasting legacy - you can't have one unless you leave pieces of yourself all over the place, mainly in the hearts of people that God has put in your path to love well. How do you love well? Simply by living the way God created you to live, with your desires in obedience to Him in His Word and with the willingness to do so in the face of impossibilities and lack of securities. Walter Bruegemann talks about how the Isrealites were a very difficult people to govern by the Romans because they always believed in their coming Messiah and that no matter how strong the Romans were, the Messiah was stronger and would sweep them away - why, because the God that promised the Messiah was stronger. Their vision of who God is and was had a much larger context and reach than the Romans ever had and they knew they just had to wait for Him to come and He would do the impossible as He had done so many times before. Though miseducated in their concept of what the Messiah would be, they understood who God was and as Christians we are called to the same expectant apprehension of the impossible.
But as in my friend's case, it may require walking away from what has been only possible. It may require the realization that there is so much more to be had than the teasers we experienced as teenagers - that we only tasted that the LORD was good so that He could call us to feast with Him at the table of abundance in His unbroken presence. That is Heaven, yet we are called to this "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven." We are called to the impossible! Paul talks of this whole process in Ephesians,
"My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit - not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength - that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in . And I ask that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
God can do anything you know - far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in you wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us...You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.
But that doesn't mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift. The text for this is,
'He climbed the high mountain
He captured the enemy and seized the booty
He handed it all out in gifts to the people.'
It's true, is it not, that the One who climbed up also climbed down, down to the valley of earth? And the One who climbed down is the One who climbed back up, up to the highest heaven. He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts, filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christians in skilled servant work, working within Christ's body, the church, until we're all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God's Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive in Christ.
No prolonged infancies among us, please. We'll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love - like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.
The purpose of the impossible is to call us forward without our own strength. It is in that encounter wherein we discover our intimate bond with the One who provides not only with the provision to accomplish the impossible but with His presence as well. Moses pleaded for this presence as God told Him to lead the people out of Egypt by Himself and God stayed. Jacob wrestled for this blessing all night and clung to the cloak until He received it. So I end with 5 things that I'm afraid of in my "old age".
Patience
Persistence
Prayer
Pain
Passion
Though I'm afraid of what they require of me, when I submit to them, I submit to all that is Christ and what follows is God's
Presence and Power
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