Malchus

So, for the past month, I’ve been reading through Gospels in an attempt to read all four of them in thirty days. Today was twenty-four & I”m right on track, possibly even ahead of schedule now, but that’s beside the point.

The other day I was reading, or listening rather to John 18, which is Jesus’ arrest. as I drove to my next meeting & simply listened to the story darkest night in human history I was struck, again, by the story of Malchus. Malchus, in case you don’t remember who he was, was one of the key players in the story of Jesus’ arrest, and yet, there is only one verse (John 18.¹⁰) in the entire Bible devoted to him. Malchus, was not only the servant of the high priest, but the one whose ear was cut off by a passionate & impetuous Peter.

Every time I read this there are a few things that come to mind. 1, Peter must have been a pretty bad shot with a sword if he only took off a guy’s ear, or maybe he was just so precise that he was showing off his abilities; & 2, what happened to Malchus after Jesus healed him. Now whether Jesus picked up his ear & put it back on or if he just stopped the bleeding immediately doesn’t matter. What matters here is that Jesus, despite the fact that this guy had come as part of a mob to arrest & later murder him chose to show compassion to Malchus & heal him on the spot. As if to say, “look guys, I could stop you with one word if I wanted to, but I know how this has to go down.”

That’s when I start thinking, what happened to Malchus after that? He just had his ear cut off, which I imagine is quite painful, & then seconds later he is healed by the guy he came to take away. How radically would that have shaken his world? Did he go with the mob as they took Jesus away? Did he become a believer?

In all likelihood, he’d been told time & again that this guys Jesus was nothing more than a blasphemer & that he deserved to die. But then to experience the power of the Son of God first hand as he heals you despite knowing your intentions would be, to put it lightly, earth shattering. Now, you couple that together with what Jesus said on the cross, “Father, forgive them they know not what they do” (Luke 23.³⁴) and instantly you see the essential character of the person of Jesus Christ.

We hear all the time that God is love & that Christ loves us so much that he willingly died for our sins. Both of these things are true, but what we often segregate from that is the person of Christ. He was in fact fully God & fully human, & I believe that his willingness to endure physical pain beyond what you & I will ever endure shows the loving human heart that he had within him as well. Let’s face, if he didn’t have an emotionally charged human heart in him, he would be much harder to relate to, but as it is, there is something in the person of Christ that each of us can find a connection to.

The older I get the more in love I fall with the person of Christ, and the more I long be that kind of person.

We often strive to be like Christ as we are commanded to do. But, what ends up happening for me is that I end up trying to be like the fully God side of Christ. I don’t mean that I long to have the power that only God has, but I strive to be blameless, which the scriptures tell us is impossible without God.

But, the older I get the more I realize that while we are called to strive for living blameless holy lives, we are also called to be more like the person of Christ.

We are called to love our neighbors more than ourselves.
We are called to have compassion (not just pity) on those who are less fortunate than we are.
We are called to protect the weak rather than take advantage of them.
We are called to be beacons of truth in a world that is ready to jump on any band wagon that promises an easy life full of health & wealth.

I’ve recently realized that much of my life has been focused on being like the divine Christ rather than the human Christ. The more I think about this, the more I understand that my efforts are completely futile. It will not be until the day I see Christ in all his glory and surrounded by angels that I will no longer have to strive to live a sinless life. God knows this. He knows I’m going to mess up until the day I die, but he has promised that he will have grace for me every time I do. What I can do while I’m here on this earth is strive to be more like the person of Christ which, while that too is very difficult, is a little more attainable (still with God’s help). And I believe that as I strive to be more like the person of Christ, the more God will transform my heart to be like his heart & the heart of the divine Christ. A heart that is filled with compassion for this broken world & a greater love for those who don’t agree with me.

This life isn’t easy, there’s heartbreak, disappointment, frustration, & a million other things we have to deal with on a daily basis. But in the midst of all of this, we can know that even when we royally screw things up Christ will heal our (metaphorical) ears & our hearts so that we can better see the person of Christ. And from my personal experience, I can tell you that the more you see the person of Christ more you long to be like him & the more you love Divine Christ.

So, this holiday season, I challenge you try to be more like the person of Christ rather than the Divine Christ. My guess is that you’ll see that they go hand-in-hand.

Blessings, & happy Thanksgiving.

That stupid box everyone talks about

Okay, this is based entirely on speculation, but I’ve got a feeling that the phrase “think outside the box” is used in every culture across the planet.

Alright, maybe not, but I think you get the point that we hear this everywhere.

We live in a time when businesses, churches, & people in general are trying to be as absolutely creative as possible. And not matter what industry you work in, my guess is that someone you work with has said in a meeting something along the lines of, “Okay, guys let really think outside the box about [insert project or problem that needs to be solved].” Now, I’m the type of person who doesn’t generally like to assume things because…well, you know what happens, but I think it’s pretty safe to assume that we’ve all heard this phrase more times than we care to count. I know I have.

And in the spirit of full disclosure, I must say…I absolutely hate it.

Seriously, every time I hear it I get frustrated & want to scream, “What box? There is no freakin box!”

I don’t think there has ever been a phrase that has grated my nerves as much as this one for the simple fact that there has never been a box, other than one we build around ourselves. Whether you’re a church leader, a designer, a CEO, a teacher, or a stay at home parent, the only box that is holding you back is the one you’ve built yourself. Whether it was built out of fear or people pleasing, the only boxes that we live in are the boxes that we establish.

Even though I’ve hated this phrase for years, I’ve only recently decided to see thing a different way. Instead of living inside the proverbial “box,” I’ve realized that I actually live more on the “horizon.”  What I mean by this is instead of seeing boundaries that I have set up around myself, whether they have to do with my art, my leadership style, my preaching, my spiritual practices, or even how I show my wife I love her, I’m choosing to see endless possibilities. Because that is where we all really living.

You see, the beautiful thing about the horizon is that we know there is something beyond what we can see right in front of us, not matter what direction we’re looking. And, even though we have no idea what it might be, which can be intimidating to say the least, we know there is something out there. Something we’ve not yet thought of, experienced, learned, or fought.

Watching the horizon can be scary, because it is a fight. It’s a fight against what’s working now. It’s a fight against stagnation. It’s a fight to set yourself apart from everyone else. You see, the horizon is where creativity lives, where inspiration is currency & where the tension of innovation is the status quo.

I just finished reading Stephen Brewster’s post about the 13 keys for innovation, & I have to say, he nailed it (& that you should go read it). One of his 13 keys (number 10 to be exact) is:

10. Accept rejection. Not everyone is going to like us, and that is okay. When we are being innovative, we are going to be rejected. We must believe in what God has called our church [business, home, or classroom] to be…at all costs. Live in the confidence of all that God has called you to be – that is innovative in its own right.

He’s right innovators are rejected. Picasso, Lincoln, Edison, the Wright brothers, & (not to mention) Jesus, were all rejected. Not only because they were innovators, but because they refused to be bound the same boxes that other people had built around themselves. These guys & countless others throughout history have lived with their eyes on the horizon instead of the walls the built themselves. They recognized that there has never been a box.

How different would our lives, let alone our world, be if we lived with the same perspective?

The perspective that what other people are building to keep themselves “safe” is actually holding them back. We don’t have to live in fear or with the mindset that being a “people pleaser” is how we’re supposed to live. We were all designed specifically by God to look at & chance the horizon in our own way.

Rejection is a part of life. And when we begin to chase the horizon we’re going to be rejected, sometimes by the people we thought would be with us all the way. It sucks, but it happens. And when it happens you’re faced with a decision that can shape the rest of your life: Are you going to stop & build walls to keep it from happening again? or Are you going to say “thanks for the support so far” to those who reject you & keep your eyes on the horizon?

I wish that I could tell you that I’ve spent most of my life chasing the horizon, but the truth is, I’ve spent most of my life building my box to withstand hurricane force winds. It’s not a good place to live. It’s marked with fear, stress, & a longing for something that seems out of reach.

Walls hold you back, the horizon is unending.
Walls fill you with fear about the unknown, the horizon inspires you to discover something new.

What are your walls?
Mine are fear.
What’s on the edge of your horizon?
Mine is living a life marked with courage & boldness for the sake of Christ.

Blessings.

Changing veins

The other night, I had the opportunity to get together with a great friend of mine, Scott. Scott & I had several classes together in college & after we got to know each other, he became one of the few people on campus that I was able to be completely real with. (If you’ve stopped by before, you’ve probably read that I’m typically a pretty guarded person, even though I’ve been working on trying to be less guarded in the hopes of experiencing the type of community that we read about in the pages of scripture.)

Well, when Scott & I got together a couple of days ago for dinner & to grab a beer, I have to admit that I was a little concerned that we would spend much of our time reminiscing about classes we had together in school & crazy things that happened around campus. Fortunately, that was not the case. We picked up right where we had left off, as if it hadn’t been nearly two & a half years since we’d seen each other. From the first question of, “So, what’s going on?” to the end of our time together, we were in almost constant conversation. As the night ended, I realized how greatly blessed I am to have people like Scott in my life. People who, without knowing it, challenge me to think outside of my normal tracks.

You see, one of my personal pit falls, is that when I get to working on something is I tend to have a one-track mind. While I may be thinking about several different things all at once, I typically tend to stick to one vein, the creative vein.

Because, much of my job lies in being visually creative in the ways we connect with people at Catalyst.

The great thing about the people in my life, like Scott, is that they get me out of my creative head & into a more academic head space, whether they mean to or not. It’s almost inevitable that when Scott & I get the opportunity to connect in person we end up talking about: what we’re reading, who we’re listening to, what theological issues we’re wrestling through & general ministry issues that we’re learning about that we couldn’t have learned in the classroom.

As I’ve been thinking about this for a couple of days now, I’ve realized how important it is for me, & I would even go so far as to say for most leaders, to not be creative all the time. I know that in today’s culture where so many companies, churches, teachers, & even politicians are talking about getting more creative with everything this sounds a little nuts. But it’s true. I think that in order for us to reach our full potential in accomplishing what Christ has called us to, then we need to change the vein we’re in from time-to-time.

Now, I’m not saying that you need to change jobs ever 6 months to a year, that’s just stupid because after a while, no one will hire you.

What I’m getting at is that if we are solely focused on communicating the love of Christ through traditional means, we’re going to eventually run that well dry & while we’ll still be saying the same things over & over again, no one is going to be around to hear it. The same is true for creative side of that coin. If we’re solely focused on being as creative as absolutely possible in conveying the love of Christ, then we run the risk of getting so creative, that people will be so focused on how things are being conveyed they’ll miss what’s being conveyed.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for communicating the Gospel in creative ways, I’m a church planter for crying out lout; but I think in order to do it effectively, we need to consider our creativity from several perspectives: from the visually creative perspective, from the “experientially” creative perspective, from the emotional perspective, & from the academic perspective.

Now, I’m not saying all of these need to be considered for every part of a message or even worship experience (what we call worship services) for God to move in the lives of his people. But, what I am saying that we, the human race, is a complex group beings.

We applaud creativity & taking off into new endeavors; yet we fear the unknown.

We appreciate the comfort & safety of living in routine & yet we’re constantly itching to break out of our routine lives.

I’m also not saying this only applies to the Church, it applies to any field where you’re trying to communicate the same thing on a regular basis.

So, what’s the point of all this?

The point is this: maybe, just maybe, for those of us who are creative by nature & spend all our time in that vein, we need to get out of that & into another vein for a season. Whether that’s changing the types of magazines & blogs you read or it’s spending time with someone who unknowingly challenges you to get out of the creative head space you’ve locked yourself in. Regardless of what it looks like for you to get out of that vein & into another, I strongly encourage & challenge you to do so. And, if you’re on the flip side of that coin where you’re constantly focusing on academia or intense business strategies, I would recommend that you do the same. Take some time & get creative; paint, write, take pictures, read creative books/magazines/blogs, spend time with someone who consider to be one of the most creative people you know. Even if you don’t consider yourself the “creative” type, my bet is that their creativity will rub off on you more than you think it will.

Having just recently realized the importance of this change from time to time, I’d love to hear what you all do make that jump.

So, what are some of the ways you’ve found that work for you to get into a different head space?