Gratitude: Part 1

We were in Florida last week staying at my father-in-law’s second home in Orlando. It’s a peaceful beautiful home with windows across the back of the house giving views of a small lake. It’s the kind of house my slim salary will never be able to afford. It’s a world I taste but can’t have. And the materialistic menace in me dreams and covets.

Saturday morning we locked up the house and drove seven hours back to Atlanta. The weather transitioned from sunny and warm to rainy and cold. We pulled in our little driveway beside our little house, very unimpressive. I found myself wishing for a different reality. I wanted to pick up my wife and little girl and give them something more.
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Tags: culture, God's sufficiency

Lie #14: Always give them an answer.

Sometimes we don’t know why something happened, and that’s okay – see Lie #13 for that conversation. There are other times when we know the truth, the answer to some person’s question, but it doesn’t mean we should necessarily speak the answer. Many times the greatest way to teach truth is to ask a question rather than answer one.

I think this still upholds our responsbility to give an answer, 1 Peter 3:15-16, “15But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”

I think it’s that sometimes our answer can be a question. This is how rabbis taught, this is often how Jesus taught, not just telling someone the truth but helping them discover it.

This isn’t great news for most of us, for if you are like me you want a rule to live by, a blanket law to cover all circumstances so I’m required to implement little discernment and faith in a given conversation. Yet, as I try to talk about the things of God with my neighbors and friends I’m learning blanket rules usually don’t work, love and care for the individual is often left out of memorized evangelism scripts, and learning to ask questions is as important as answering them.

How did you come to believe that?
Did you learn anything through that difficulty?
Which should be more important feelings or facts?
What’s the difference between tolerance and love?
How is your sick dad?
Is the cancer gone?
Would you like to come over for dinner sometime?

Tags: evangelism, lies, love

Clementines and Authentic Christians

My wife, Kristy, didn’t make it all the way to Whole Foods the other day, and we had to settle for non-organic tasteless fruit from Kroger. Yes, Whole Foods is pricey, but you are guaranteed good fruit. Oranges actually taste like oranges, rather than just looking like them, which is often true with fruit from Wal-Mart or Kroger Grocery (sorry bargain shoppers).

Shortly after the Kroger fruit arrived at our house my 20-month-old, Josie’s dinner plate was full, some chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, and a peeled Clementine, neatly separated. We are huge fans of the Clementine, the little orange. I call it citrus candy.

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Kristy and I were in the kitchen, a room and a half away from little Josie. Josie knows about ten words and we began to hear her favorite one, “No, No, No.” We looked at each other puzzled. Again, with fervor, “No, No, No.”

The Clementine.

She could taste the difference. Most people can.

Tags: church, evangelism

Lie #13: Christians have all the answers.

Having all the answers isn’t a requirement to become a Christian. Becoming a Christian actually creates a whole new set of questions. If you don’t believe in God you don’t wrestle with His omniscience – how He can be in my kitchen pantry but also in Kirk Cameron’s. And if you don’t believe God is sovereign and good you don’t wrestle with why He allows suffering.

I don’t suppose to give you an answer to this – that would be quite ironic – but I do have a thought.
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Tags: faith, knowledge, spiritual growth