Faith like [mashed] potatoes.

ACID

i always get slightly nervous when i look at the back of a food product – like this Idahoan Mashed Potatoes packet i am looking at right now – and read citric ACID…

now i’m no scientist [clearly] but i have vague memories of school days where acids were demonstrated mostly burning through things, like metal for example [you remember metal? the substance my stomach is made of a weaker material than]

to really rub it in, they add in brackets, [to maintain freshness], which incidentally on this same packet it declares that sodium ACID pyrophosphate, sodium bisulfate and mixed tocopherals are already contained in this product for the purpose of maintaining freshness so how much does the citric acid actually add [and how freshness-losing is this packet of powder – that i need to just add water to – in the first place?]

FLYING

this is something i actively try to regularly keep in mind. i just climbed into a giant metal hulk of a thing with hundreds of other people. it took on the force o gravity and won convincingly [except for a few little hiccups along the way when gravity thought it fun to remind us all via a little turbulence that she was still very much out there and ready for a round two any time]. it lifted off the ground [with me in it] and flew me half way around the world.

like really, take a moment EVERY TIME YOU FLY and just think about what is happening. you are being flown from one place to another in a thing made out of that really heavy substance that sometimes you can’t even lift when there is enough of it together. mind-blowing. every time.

FAITH

And somehow people still claim to live without faith.

Let me tell you this: if you can eat, without thinking too much about it, a product containing the word ACID in its ingredients, then you have some kind of faith.

If you can get into an airplane with as little understanding as i have of how anything works together to make the plane fly, then you are exerting a tremendous amount of faith.

Every single time i fly, i am literally putting my life into the hands of a person i have never met, assuming that they know how to pilot a plane and that they passed the airplane-not-crashing test and that the airplane is airworthy and going to make this next trip.

When i hit the ‘on’ button on my laptop, things happen. I don’t understand personally how a series of 1’s and 0’s allows me to communicate with people halfway around the world or how my cellphone has the ability to bring your voice clearly into my ear. But I believe they do. Because in my experience they always have.

GOD

And then there is God. Do i understand Him? Absolutely not. [which i take great heart in, by the way. a God that i could wrap my brain around would be a tiny God indeed]

But i do have faith in Him. Because i understand enough about Him to believe that it will be safe [and certainly there will be turbulence along the way, my journey has taught me that much]. And i have witnessed the effects of God too many times for it to be merely contributed to “coincidence”. To me, anyways. I do have atheist friends who attribute my whole faith journey to the fact that i was born into a family who had Christian faith, despite mine looking a lot different from a lot of aspects of theirs [same faith though] as if i merely robot-accepted everything i was fed as a child and am clinging desperately to those things, because i am not as wise and brain-empowered as these specific atheist friends [i do have other atheist friends who celebrate my belief and are a lot less arrogant in theirs].

But the point is that we all have faith. In some thing. In many things. Every day we demonstrate it – the belief that this thing that i don’t fully understand or know how it works will work in the way that it always has or that i have been led to believe that it will.

We all have faith. The only question is what do you place your faith in?

 

the guide to true greatness

I read this in my NIV Once-A-Day Walk with Jesus devotional i do on my tablet [i wish once a day]…

‘Listen to the world and you will hear the message: “Greatness consists of how many you lead.”

Listen to God’s voice and you will hear just the opposite: “Greatness consists of how many you serve.”

They can’t both be right. You can push to the head of the line and receive the world’s applause. Or you can give up your place in line and hear God’s “well done.”

The servant of God knows his place. 

Mark, my words: Jesus gone wild?

Jesus loses it.

Or at least that might be what you suspect if you arrived late at this party. Yet the Bible is very clear that ‘In your anger, do not sin.’ [Ephesians 4.26]

We know that Jesus never sinned, and so this passage found in Mark 11. 12-17 would suggest that there is a time when something like righteous anger – when God’s things and the people He loves are being messed around with – is absolutely called for. The danger/temptation for us would be labelling something as ‘righteous anger’ when in fact it might just be us losing our cool. Let’s take a look and see how this episode plays out:

[To watch the next one dealing with Faith that moves mountains, click here]

Be a tool.

I was struck by something our pastor Albert said at a meeting we had at church last nite. 

He was talking about how when it comes to physical things we tend to give praise to the person who uses a tool. We don’t go to a scalpel after an intricate heart operation and praise it for being really sharp and able to cut such precise lines.

“Hey, well done scalpel, you performed really well in that surgery back there. You should get a medal made out of your cousin probably.”

No, we praise the surgeon. That was an incredible way in which you used the scalpel and other tools and knowledge to be able to perform such a tricky and important operation.

“Well done golf ball. The way you soared through the air and then just hung on the edge of the hole for that extra half second too build intrigue before popping in. Well done you.”

No, it’s Tiger Woods, or AB Devilliers or Sebastian Vettel who get the praise and recognition for sporting achievements.

But then when it comes to spiritual things, and yes this is using the ridiculous notion that things can be divided into spiritual and physical, we tend to praise the tool instead of the One using the tool.

So the idea is that each one of us is a tool used by the hand of God [when we invite Him into our lives and ask Him to use us] but then we tend to praise the tool for the work that God is doing through us.

And the more successful or far-reaching the effect of the person’s work seems to be  the more we tend to put those people on a pedestal [like our own modern day golden calf perhaps? isn’t anything that starts to take the place and fame of God something like that?] 

So it might be helpful if each one of us took a moment to acknowledge – out loud if you’re brave, especially if you’re reading this in a Starbucks – that I AM A TOOL.

This is where it gets tricky though…

I remember wrestling with this whole thing somewhat when i started doing a lot of speaking engagements in South Africa. Deliver an amazing message [hopefully] and then someone comes up to you afterwards and says something like, ‘Wow that was really incredible.’ It took me a while to figure out what to do with that.

For starters, there is the ‘It’s not me, it’s God’ approach which is where you try to deflect praise off of you on to God, but i remember once hearing the greatest response to that which is, ‘Please dude, if that was God it would have been SO MUCH BETTER!’ 

So there is that catch 22 effect – inspired by God but not completely God working it through me as if i was a puppet or robot. [which also shows sometime in the talk someone took a lot of time and effort into preparing and the one someone else winged for example because they didn’t get around to preparing]

And the best piece of advice i was given in my speaking scenario was to politely say, ‘Thank you’ and then move on. Don’t deflect onto God which is well-intentioned but comes across as fake, and don’t stand basking in the glow and try and receive more credit than it was worth. a simple thank-you and then head for cover. 

I do think however, that when a Christ follower [in the speaking, ministering, writing realm of things] is doing their job really well, that the focus will be moved towards God naturally [because their speaking, ministering, writing will point towards Christ] and so there should never be a need for the person to become the focus and be receiving any kind of praise. 

This story is and continues to be all about Him. 

I am but a tool! 

help save the internet!

this cartoon is a lot more true of me than i would like it to be, but also a lot less true of me than it used to be and so at least progress is being made…

[cartoon courtesy of http://xkcd.com/386]

how about you?

man, i love to reminisce about all those times someone changed their mind and opinion on some major life-transforming issue because of me arguing with them on a Facebook wall…

how about you? any stories come to mind?

next up: How Grandma police [aka grammer police aka the correct spelling of the word preceding police] brought life and hope to millions…

psalmthing to chew on: psalm 63

Wow, love me some psalm 63 – was contemplating just sticking the whole thing in here cos it is such an uplifting psalm [we caught David on a good day, people] so i highly encourage you to go and read the whole thing, but as per usual, here are some thoughts or reflections on part of it:

You, God, are my God,
    earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
    my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
    where there is no water.

[vs 1]

i guess you can read this two ways. the first time i read it i found it highly encouraging – this hunger and thirst for God… but now that i see it again it does look like it could be a cry of desperation – i really need you right now God, because life is not looking so good at the moment…

but it is still a statement of knowing – ‘You, God, are my God’ and that really feels hopeful again. so no matter how life or circumstances appear right now, i know that God is my strength and refuge and the One i am needing to rely on and call out to.

And then this next section really expands on David’s understanding of who God is and you start to sense the depth of relationship that exists and can learn a lot from how he is able to express that so poetically:

I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

[vs 2-5]

This psalm smacked me a little [okay a LOT] in the face this morning. It is easy [when employed or engaged in ‘ministry’ type work] to fall into the trap of everything being about God and not enough just being God. So do I earnestly seek God? Not enough right now if i am brutally honest [although i have been trying to eat lunches outside as a continuation of the non-rush experiment – just stopping and being and trying in that time to ‘be still and know that He is God’ so that helps].

When last did i ‘earnestly seek God’?

When last have i ‘beheld His power and His glory’?

Are my lips glorifying Him? How about my keyboard and fingers?

And is my relationship with You, God, something that satisfies me as with the richest of foods?[which in my case would be double chocolate frosting in a can or some form of ribs with mashed potato on the side]

i guess i really could go through the whole thing, but let me leave some for you. but this next piece is a great way to end and an encouragement to finish your days like this:

On my bed I remember you;
    I think of you through the watches of the night.
 Because you are my help,
    I sing in the shadow of your wings.
 I cling to you;
    your right hand upholds me.

[vs. 6-8]

 [To return to the Intro page and be connected to any of the other Psalms i have walked through before now, click here]

Cheering Section: the art of mentoring – part mentor

Have i ever been a mentor to someone? It’s hard to say. I HAVE had a lot of regular weekly ‘coffee, breakfast and working through a chapter of the Bible or some book’ sessions with a whole bunch of different guys over the last couple of years though, in various contexts and places.

As i continue to participate in NaBloPoMo, otherwise known as National Blog Posting Month, in which the invitation or challenge is to post a blog every day, i decided to continue my answer to this prompt they so kindly prompted:

Do you have a mentor? Tell us about him or her. Are you a mentor to someone else? Tell us what that relationship has added to your life.

I already looked at some aspects of being mentored over here. But what about mentoring? It sounds so official and what if I am not qualified enough?

Well, the way I see it, if you can shine a light on a step that someone else has not yet walked on, you have it in you to mentor.

I would suggest that it will generally be someone younger than you and usually someone of the same gender, but those are not fast rules.

And for me, possibly the greatest gift of mentoring someone is Time. Being intentional about building relationship with another person over time, giving them a space to speak and be really heard [a safe place where they can free to share anything without risk of judgement]. Being a cheerleader who is present for them whether times are good, bad or less than photoshopped.

I also imagine a lot of mentoring is done in secret. It is not so important that someone knows or understands that “they are being mentored” – what is important is that someone knows they are loved and important enough for you to spend time with them.

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?

Jesus hung out with 12 men for three years. And so i guess another term for ‘mentoring’ could be ‘discipleship’ because ultimately that is what it is. And He didn’t work through the latest book or program with them. He ate meals with them and He demonstrated His mission on earth and for a while they got to observe Him and then at some point He gave them the opportunity to step out and try it themselves. So often Jesus stepped away from the crowds that would gather around Him, simply to teach His twelve. And within that there were even times where He would take Peter, James and John aside and give them special attention and opportunities.

Sometimes it can look like a cup of coffee every now and then, or perhaps, if you’re an outdoor person, an invitation to a hike or a regular run or game of squash. I personally believe it is likely to be more beneficial to meet on a more regular and set-timed basis [and I have always viewed this as a two way thing – as the older person I might have lots to share through experience or from having been taught certain things, but the other person will have the benefit often of seeing life or a passage through younger and fresher eyes and so may see things i have never thought of and so as i pour into them, i am always gaining something back, although that is never the point].

 So at the moment I have coffee or breakfast every Friday morning with two younger guys and we are working through the book of Ephesians a chapter at a time. When I was in Stellenbosch it was morning coffee or breakfast [spotting a trend? caffeine and food!] with a number of different guys over the six years i was there, sometimes one at a time but often two together. Back in East Claremont days, three of us used to meet once or twice a week in the earlyish morning for prayer [when we would all wake up].

We worked through a chapter of an inspiring book or the bible every week and then would come together and share something that had ‘jumped out at us’ or that we had found particularly meaningful, or brought a question about something we didn’t understand. There was also time to check in in terms of how the week had been, or current temptations we were struggling with or help with decisions that had to be made.

And at the end it really looks like friendship. 

The question i have for you is, who are you mentoring or discipling? And what does it look like? Would love to hear some stories in the comments…