Tag: insights

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The Terrifying thought of Christ-centered Laborers.

Thanks to the power of Twitter, and my ever-running search for “campus crusade” I saw this tweet yesterday:

A terrifying description of the Campus Crusade for Christ Club: “We are here to help turn lost students into Christ-centered laborers.” —@gogocosmonaut

To which I responded:

you and I must have a different view of Christ. It’s terrifying that anyone would not want to be a Christ-centered laborer.

To which he responded:

If your life is centered on labor for someone you’ve never met and that has a chance of not being real… That’s terrifying.

At which point, I felt the 140 character-at-a-time limit on our perspectives needed lifting.  Hence, this post. (to which I welcome a response either in the comments or on some other platform—even email)

I don’t know anything more about Nick Wood (@gogocosmonaut) than is revealed online, but from what I can tell about him through a brief perusal of his tweets, He and I share a lot of the same interests.  This isn’t a blog post where I slam the guy.  From his perspective, I’ve never met Jesus, and Jesus has a “chance of not being real.”

I could write a long defense of why I believe in God, but he’s heard it before, and probably has convincing arguments against even my best philosophical positions.  Ontological proofs are not what he wants or needs.  What he needs is to meet a Christian who actually finds their ultimate purpose, identity, and joy in Christ.

Because Nick is absolutely right.  If I’ve never met someone, and don’t know anything about that person, and then proceed to devote my life to them, and call that devotion “labor,” I’ve either lost my mind, or worse.  But, if I were to devote my life to someone like President Obama, or Billy Graham, or my pastor, or even my wife or child, and call that devotion “labor” it would lead to disastrous results as well.

Why? Because, at the end of the day, and at their most basic level, those men and women are flawed, as well. Ever met a parent who hinges all their hopes in life on the success/fame/competence of their child?  More often than not those are crushing expectations for flawed people to live up to.

That’s what’s different about Jesus.  The Jesus I meet in the Bible is perfect. Not swayed by human opinion, not selfish, not greedy, full of integrity, perfect. The type of guy that finds 100 bucks on the subway and gives it to lost and found.  Whether or not the Bible is true (different topic for a different day), the picture you get from the Bible is of a Jesus who never stopped giving himself away.  Devoting my life to a completely (and perfectly) selfless person would lead to me becoming the type of person who increasingly gives myself away.

There are countless examples in the history of Christianity of this principle coming true, from Mother Teresa to Jim Elliot to Dietrich Bonhoeffer to Martin Luther (King and otherwise).  People who saw it as a small thing to stand up against the Nazis, the bigotry of early 20th century America or 15th century Europe, and the horrors of poverty and disease.

If we have this view of Christ—selfless, sacrificial giver—there is nothing terrifying about an army of people walking behind Him and modeling their lives after him.  This world could stand to have a few more Martin Luther Kings who stand up against tyranny, even when there’s nothing but death in it for them.  Even if Jesus weren’t real, as Nick posits, to have a big group of people live like that imaginary man would actually benefit the world.

My fear is that many Christians in general and Campus Crusade staff and students in particular are not living in light of this Jesus, giving guys like Nick every reason to dismiss Christ without a second look.

I would beg folks like Nick to consider Christ.  You’ll always find more than enough Christians to ridicule, and find fault with.  After all, being a Christian means surrendering in the fight to be perfect, and admitting we can’t save ourselves.  But look at Christ long enough, and you’ll find an amazing truth worth devoting your life to.  In light of Christ’s perfect, selfless love, grace, and ultimate control over all the earth, it would be far more terrifying to center your life on fleeting counterfeits like self-actualization, money, sex, fame, power, or control.

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Pat Robertson and I, the Temanites.

I just got done reading Job 4 and 5, and was struck by the parallels between Pat Robertson’s comments yesterday and Eliphaz the Temanite’s comments to Job.

The major lesson? In the face of tragedy, responding with theological truisms (or conjecture) is not only insensitive, it’s the exact opposite of the Christian message, even if those truisms and conjecture are correct.

What strikes me is how many people, like myself, heard about both the tragedy and Robertson’s response and reacted by being mad about the response, not by actually doing something to help the tragedy.  I’m no different than Pat Robertson.

Here’s a way that you can respond in a more biblical way. I’ll go first-we’ll be donating to what CCC is doing in Haiti.

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Will you still have to Raise Support?

Like LL Cool J, I feel like this topic is less of comeback, and more like I’ve literally been here for years.

This isn’t the first time I’ve written about raising funds.

Perspective, when it comes to finances, is something I lose about every 15 minutes.  I need to be reminded of the truth on a regular basis.  I figure if I lose perspective, so do the people who support us.  Hopefully not as often, though.

So when we talk about moving, and among the first questions is the ticking time-bomb of “will you still have to raise support?” I like to pause and remind myself (and anybody standing nearby enough to hear) why support raising is not a chore, but a blessing.  A privilege.  Not a “have to” but a “get to.”

The short answer is yes, we are still fully supported by the generous contributions of concerned individuals and churches. There’s no central fund for paying office staff or field staff within Campus Crusade.

And I’m glad.  This way, we really rely on God even for the folks in the cubicles in Apex.  There’s still a department that does the hiring, but God does the confirming by doing what we can’t do, raise up the funds to pay the staff.  And as I’ve mentioned in the past, raising support is a constant reminder (in the midst of the money-driven “ethics” of western culture) that I am not a rock or an island, no matter what Paul Simon tells me, and I can’t do or have it “my way,” even if Frank Sinatra or Burger King urge me to.  Calling folks and challenging them to be on my team of ministry partners pushes me toward a biblical, humble, interdependence with others.

In answer to Colleen’s specific question about the difficulties we’ve been having raising support recently, what coming off campus for a whole semester did was help us see clearly what it might look like to be off campus.  So, yeah, the support struggles lately did help us to make the decision, but not because we are done raising support.  They just afforded us the opportunity to see outside of the “campus” bubble we’d been in for years.  And we liked it outside of the bubble.

So, until the next time I need reminding, you can always join our team of partners here.

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If Dave Matthews Had it All…

“If I had it all, tell me what in the world would I sing for?” (one potentially offensive word involved, 3/4 of the way through the song)

Well, Dave, it depends entirely on how you got it all.  People that earn it all tend to be a bit paranoid about losing it.  And that causes them to stop singing entirely.

On the other hand, people that are freely given it all are the ones that keep singing about it.  We can’t seem to help ourselves.

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Tim Tebow, Abortion, and the Gospel.

I’ll be honest, I’ve gone every direction on this one. (and before we get into it, none of the directions I have gone or will go represent the views of my employer or anyone else)

In case you haven’t heard, Tim Tebow is at the center of a firestorm regarding a pro-life advertisement set to run during the Super Bowl on Sunday.

I started out frustrated that the Christian right-wing was building their soapbox again. Before you freak out and think I am OK with abortion, hear me out.  Abortion is murder.  But so is hating pro-choice people.   Furthermore, it is such a politicized issue that you can’t tell the red tape from the genuine issues without an answer key.  And while I think abortion is a cut-and-dried issue, I don’t think that solving the crisis is as simple as legislating it.  There are hearts involved that need changing.  And there’s almost no fact more biblically true than “laws don’t change hearts.”

Then I started to read more about it, and have gotten pretty frustrated at the pro-choice lobby (which is really showing itself to be more pro-abortion than pro-choice, as astutely pointed out in a great article in the Washington Post yesterday).

Here’s the bottom line, for me:  I am glad that God has called some Christians to the front line of the abortion issue, because it is clearly taking a life when you abort a baby.  And taking lives in the numbers we are currently is nothing short of a holocaust.  But even in saying that, I am potentially alienating folks who otherwise might listen to the gospel.  You don’t have to be pro-life to become a Christian. (Although, if you are persuaded that the Bible is God’s word, it’s tough to remain in favor of abortion in any way. The Bible is not silent on the issue.  John the Baptist worshiped Jesus from within his mother’s womb.  Pretty strong argument for personhood.)

God has called me to be about one thing: proclaiming the gospel, over and over.  And part of the gospel that I proclaim is that I am not right. What bothers me about many pro-life lobbyists is that they argue from a position of “I am right, you are wrong.”  That type of finger-wagging and pretentiousness will never change anyone’s opinion.  Jesus met with the most heinous sinners of his day, and all of them (with the noted exception of the religious right-wing, who I’d argue are the worst of the sinners) were drawn to him.  We could learn much from his approach.

Now, I haven’t seen the ad by Tebow and Focus on the Family, but here’s my hope: I hope they lobby to individuals and not to Washington.  And I hope they don’t start from a position of finger-wagging, but of humility.  Even if we are right in the argument, we don’t have to win the philosophical debate.  Our acceptance, worth, and value are not tied to our ability to save the babies.  Jesus, after all, is in control.

What do you say? Is this a hornet’s nest I should have avoided? Why or why not?

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