Be Extraordinary

While I enjoy lamenting with a bit of sarcastic humor how little time I have to myself when all is said and done in a typical day, the busyness rarely prohibits me from pondering the days, weeks, and more importantly to me, the years to come. My current condition is described as best as I think it could be. I seek out the grace, joy, and benefit of each day, so as to not lose sight of the lessons I may learn being out here; in addition, to not becoming embittered of how I must spend the remaining months. I think if one only looks forward to the long term goals it is too easy to miss the lessons each day may reveal. At the same time, it is not always fair to expect a life changing lesson on a daily basis.

For me, the my daily routine can easily take up 23 hours of a regular work day, with that level of monotony I can’t but help to seek a greater purpose than my daily tasks. Perhaps the most useful daily lesson I learn is maintained joy. The sentiment of those around me often reflects a form of frustration be it the lack of loved ones, alcohol, freedom, you name it. I find myself frequently looking forward to the goals I have for 2009. I hope my goals are similar to what God has planned for me; I believe God’s plan is closer to a game plan than a blueprint. I can’t pinpoint my drive for wanting the most out of this life, I would like to think as Christians it is in our nature to be extraordinary. I know scripturally we are not of this world. Some would attempt to say it is an American trait, to be driven for the best, be it experience, luxury, or whatever. I think it comes from our Free Will given from God that we recognize our uniqueness and desire to express it.

I don’t think many people set out with the goal of being ordinary. It is one of those things that just happens all too easily as life happens. I think of a clip from the Recruit, in which Burke attempts to persuade James to join the CIA by threatening him of an ordinary life.

“A call will come in a day or two, when you get a call from a John Medika; he’s Head of R&D for Dell. He’s gonna invite you out for Martini’s, before long you’ll be working out advanced encrypting in Bethesda. Five years, you’ll get your first annual trip to Texas. Gotta a wife by then, .5 kids, 200K a year and that’s it. That’s the whole show.”

I don’t presume to claim I am extraordinary. While I confidently claim I have done some extraordinary things. I know the public figures and commanding officers frequently remind us how unique we are as soldiers because “less than 1%” of the population serve or have served in the military. Along that path, I am certain there has not been many people to hand out Bibles in Prague or build a Slovakian school playground, both ministry opportunities I could not have done without the military. At the more local level, it is not common to serve the community be it as volunteer staff member at church, serve the homeless food, or pack Thanksgiving meals for those in need. I can thank my Dad for many of those opportunities which often started from being “volun-told” as we like to call it in the Army. The range in which we can be extraordinary is dare I say, infinite. I have found as long as I allow myself to be available the opportunities present themselves. I suppose the driving point of this “be extraordinary” is do hard things. It is so easy to get caught up in our lives we forget about the accomplishments possible when we offer ourselves.

Once we are willing to offer ourselves, the leash of materialism and selfishness which plagues our society loses its strain. Many of you are aware of the scholarship I funded this last year for the Rock Choir. I don’t discount that it became much more than I had expected and hoped it to be. At the same time, we must be willing to risk ourselves when attempting to be more than ordinary. In all reality, I did not know what to expect when I presented the offer. It literally could have cost me everything I had and would have earned for my time in Iraq. In actuality it was a fraction of what it could’ve been, yet when it comes down to the numerical amount, it shocks far too many people in my opinion. Knowing the risk, it was that much more rewarding when it came together. I thank God for the success of it all. I was the tool, nothing more. To God be the glory because through him I was able to make a difference.

How we manifest ourselves in terms of being ordinary or extraordinary relies on our willingness to be used. The example set forth by CS Lewis in his giving of himself and his monetary wealth is my inspiration. I read in a recent biography, that he gave all payment for his BBC broadcasts and books to widows and charity, until he was married late in life. Upon his marriage he kept 1/3 of the proceeds to support his wife. I have difficulty trying to fathom such generosity, when Lewis didn’t even see it as a burden. I wonder how many of today’s Christian authors and leaders could attempt such an act of submission to God. Even as I think of Lewis’ example as I get caught up in the potential money that existed I am reminded of the example Christ wanted us to follow. The widow with two pennies… it was never about the monetary value of the offering as much as the heart of obedience and submission to God.

Where’s the Love?

 I would like to say my month of silence has produced some deeply insightful revelations to write about, sadly the bulk of my silence is the result of mental complacency. I find it funny how often I can take a break from writing out my thoughts despite the constant sense of accomplishment and continued self-development when I maintain a pattern of writing; enough with my excuses, on to the blog.

I have found over the course of the last 3 years that it is especially enjoyable to read two books at a time. I started doing this because the wear and tear on a single book being transported on my person constantly became irritating, especially when it was a decently thick hardcover. Currently I am reading Do Hard Things by Alex & Brett Harris (the younger brothers of Josh Harris) and Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. I usually have opposing topics between the two books, but this duo has a certain common ground which I find even more enjoyable for each.

Blue Like Jazz (BLJ), subtitled "Non-Religious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality" is a tread softly emergent book. The author emphasizes Christian spirituality vs. Christianity. I would find a more appropriate comparison is Christian living vs. Christian Religion. In Divergently Emergent Church I mentioned the clear danger when dealing with Emergents due to the varying theology, as I am about halfway through it so far it seems okay. I chuckle to myself because the author throughout the book he casually mentions several prominent individuals such as Mark Driscoll and Josh Harris, but he did it in such a way as “The cussing pastor from Seattle named Mark” or “Josh, the guy that wrote a book about not dating”. Donald’s story is certainly a read welcomed to those turned off to religion. It is constantly a sad thing there are so many people turned off to Christianity because they have experienced Claiming Christians and not Christ. I’ll return to this as a bridge the two books.

Do Hard Things (DHT) is a battle cry to the American Christian Youth to challenge ourselves. The heart of the book I could not agree with more. I believe the 18-24 age group has the potential, constantly, to be the most powerful age group. Instead, be it the society which tells us if we want to be successful we need to stay in school for 22-24 years before we can potentially be useful, or our own laziness, or fear of risk. This is certainly a must read for Youth leaders and the youth themselves. The target audience of the authors is actually 13-19 as it is mostly devoted to teenagers and the accomplishments extraordinary teens have made past and present. Being that it has been more than 5 years since I left my teens and yet this book still encourages, I recommend it to all who want to impact the world.

Based upon the descriptions of each it doesn’t seem like the books would have much commonality. This is where the two meet each other, BLJ talks about a confession booth several Christian students made in the midst of a several day party at Reed College, under the connotation that the party lived up to the drunken orgies which celebrated all forms of debauchery. At the confession booth the Christians would apologize to the unsuspecting sinners about the mistakes of Christianity. In doing so the author tells the story of remarkable ground gained for Christ. On the flip side, multiple times throughout DHT when giving an example of different causes to impact the world examples like Ending Poverty, Curing HIV, and Saving African Children were given.

I agree whole heartedly with the theme of DHT in which Christians make a difference and living the faith in big ways. However, when compared to the confession booth which brought the drunk, stoned, and promiscuous into the arms of Christ, I had to ponder “Are the two methods consistent, opposing, or contradictory?” Is it just me or does it seems Christians tend to focus on making people moral instead of trying to reach a fallen world? While I support most of the social agendas of Christian organizations too often it seems fellow proponents get so focused on the legislation and policy they forget about the people it affects. Can we as Christians honestly ask ourselves that our faith has made us more known for our love or our hate? It often frustrates me that I fall in line often with the stereotypical "religious right nut job" due to my views; however, when those who disagree with me actually dialogue with me about how I think we ought to approach those I disagree with, or the improper tact of our supporters use, ground is often made both for the cause and for Christ.

I don’t think I would have gone so far as apologize to random individuals the sins of other Christians, at the same time Christians need to be honest about the mistakes that have been made throughout the world in the name of Christianity but not in accordance with Christ. One of my favorite clips illustrating this is in the Kingdom of Heaven. As Baelian goes to meet the King of Jerusalem we see this dialogue with a Knight-monk friend concerning a hanging they just witnessed.

“These men are Templars, they killed Arabs.”

“So, they are dying… for what the Pope would command them to do.”

“Yes, but not Christ I think, nor this King.”

When I think back to the early Church, amidst the Roman, Galatian, Ephesian, and Corinthian societies most anyone would agree that our culture is nowhere near their forms of cultural sin. Take your pick from the historical examples, the Coliseum which public entertainment was to watch people fight to the death, the cliffs used to cast undesired babies, or the rampant sexual promiscuity practiced throughout the land; Scripture doesn't address changing the laws of the land. It speaks of changing people's hearts, and with their hearts a minority of Christians shook the entire Roman Empire. Perhaps we ought to follow suit?

Necessary Beliefs

It has been a little more than 10 years since I decided to practice my faith to the point of inconvenience in which I allowed it to take hold of my thoughts and actions. Since then I could not count how many people through the years have claimed beliefs masked as Christianity but were unsupported by any form of valid Christian authority. It was during those years I came to the understanding that I cannot trust what a man says or has said to direct me in my faith. I must rely on Scripture and the reasonable interpretation of such. Beyond the authority of Scripture we are left to our interpretations, hopefully through the Holy Spirit’s guidance we can test to know what ought to be followed and what ought to be discarded. Not to discount the teachers of the day, there are many gifted teachers doing God’s work, my first and foremost litmus test when considering a given message is if it is founded in Scripture or not. If so, it is taken with authority of possibly being the proper view of God’s Word, if not it cannot be taken with any more weight than one man to another.

In retrospect, as I consider the manner I approached the doctrine of Faith to be followed I am thankful that thus far I have not adhered to an unscriptural doctrine before my pursuit of understanding Christian doctrine began in Germany. It started as learning the rational and secular defenses for Christianity known as Apologetics, but upon the Introduction I learned it was really basic evangelical theological doctrine, much of which is necessary to be established “a priori” to understand the Bible and God as the Bible describes him to be. I have not yet been confronted with a set of doctrine that I disagreed with that has been established as necessary beliefs, the vast majority of the material presented I never considered as topics of issue or contention, such as: God’s simplicity, necessity, impassibility, unity, or immateriality just to name a few. In the volume I recently completed those traits listed are among 28 other necessary traits which encompass the God of the Bible.

If someone approached me 3 years ago and claimed I must believe those traits of God to be a scripturally faithful Christian, I would have laughed at them and questioned their seriousness, sanity or both. I most certainly would’ve questioned their faith and sincerity of knowing Christ. Christianity has been packaged in so many ways to be more “marketable” for lack of better words. I theorize the more evangelistic in nature of the ministry the more simple the message will be packed. Reasonably so, it is likely unnecessary that someone acknowledge God’s immutability before they are personally introduced to Jesus. I grasp the need to summarize the Christian Doctrine such that a layman can understand it; I don’t think a better summarization is done by the Gospels. However, the Gospels are often too complex to actually understand and for further evangelistic purpose they are carved even more to get to a message something along the lines of “We are all sinners, sinners go to Hell, God forgives sin, confess your sins to be saved”. I have previously expressed thoughts on the Prayer of Salvation and the potential detriment I think it offers to a life of authentic faith.

I find myself being much closer to the person claiming that one must believe X set of doctrines to be an authentic Christian. Without becoming Pharisaical where does that leave me? I do not regret learning the doctrine of what I have bonded my life to; in fact knowing the deeper understanding of Christian doctrine has further strengthened my faith immensely. I recall describing my worldview to a friend a while ago as a buckyball, a C₆₀ molecule that has been described as flexible as a rubber but as strong as a diamond. I chose this description based on the molecular configuration, because every atom is interconnected. My understanding of the sciences has already strengthened my assurance that Christianity is true, understanding the doctrine is one more area to reinforce my faith, so much so I can hardly call it faith. I know Christianity to be true better than I know 2+2= 4.

I understand my faith is vastly different from those around me because of my personal relationship with Christ, the experiences I have had, my willingness to accept truth, and the empirical knowledge I have. Just as every friendship is an individual relationship, so too every person’s faith is at the individual level. I do not dare to claim one must fully understand orthodox systematic theology of the evangelical Christian faith. The danger I am more aware of, if one does not understand the essential doctrines of the faith they claim, there are serious issues that may arise.

The most important, how does one know the God they claim to have a relationship with, is the God of Christianity? If one denies that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God the implications from such a seemingly skeptic claim quickly pile into a web of heresy or blasphemy. If the Bible has errors and is still the Word of God, then God makes mistakes, if God makes mistakes then he is not Truth, if God is not Truth, then he is not perfect, if God is not perfect, then he is not omniscient, if he is not omniscient, he cannot be God. This is one simple example of many that can be formulated from orthodox evangelical Christianity. Each “if” statement can be used to counter a number of paths to prove the existence and rationality of Christianity. Consider the example provided, only expand the “if” “then” to 28 necessary qualities and see how interesting that becomes. That is how a simple claim of skepticism is only a logical deduction away from disbelief in the existence of God at all or at least the God of Christianity. My only rational answer to such a question is to depend upon the Holy Spirit’s guidance, but then it still refers, that if I consider the Trinity to be tritheism (there are three gods or three separate beings), modalism (God is one person that appears in different roles), or any number of doctrines apart from the Trinity that God is three persons with one nature, then how can one know the God they believe is the one that is?

The dangers from ignorance of doctrine I think are far greater than knowing too much doctrine without faith. Placing importance on doctrine is what lead the Pharisees astray, and Christ had strong words to those that claimed religion but not faith. I also think of any number of documentaries I have watched on the History Channel to represent the scholastic historical views experts give concerning the existence of Jesus, the origin of Christianity, the understanding of Heaven or Hell, or any number of topics of that order. I have yet to see an expert that offered a view that completely coincided with the scriptural account. Faith is the most important part of our relationship with Christ. However, there is an undefined level of understanding that I see necessary in understanding who the God we pledge to follow is. Or maybe this is a deeper meaning of what Christ meant when he said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and believed”.

Epilogue: It was almost humorous for me to read this, at this point in my life I did not even conceive the possibility of going to a Bible college. Yet, all of the content of this was addressed in my Theology I course.  Dr. Thoennes does a much better job that this blog though.