Value

Over the last month our family has been challenged by the concept of value. We have been discussing what value means to us and what we are willing to sacrifice in order to have it. As professed Christians, we find value in having a relationship with God. The problem is that, to have a Biblically accurate relationship with God, we must be willing to act on our faith, not simply have it. Remember the book of James?

Max put it best last night, as we were preparing for bed. He said, “Honestly, before our adventure, I only prayed at church and even then not every time. Now I pray at home and school and well, everywhere!”. I then asked everyone else if they had experienced the same thing. They all agreed that they only rarely prayed before our adventure and now it is a very real part of their everyday life. Max went on to share, “Before the adventure we were the people, that we would talk about, that went to church and did all of the good things but did not really know God.”

I must admit that Max’s statements are spot on for me as well. This adventure has caused me to take my faith from it’s comfortable perch and put it into dangerous action. Once I did that; prayer, fasting and Bible reading moved from something that I should do (had to make time for), to something that I had to do in order to survive. My faith is no longer an academic exercise. I have taken it out of the laboratory and put it into everyday application.

Here is the strange thing: the above concepts are not new to me. I have always wanted my children to have a real, dynamic relationship with God. I wanted to truly walk by faith and trust God for everything. Additionally, I had plans to accomplish these things. I wanted to do family devotions, love others unselfishly and develop a greater level of trust in God. One year ago, if you had asked me how I was doing on those endeavors, I would have told you I was doing quite well. We had family devotions (most of the time…) and we went to church and encouraged others. In hindsight; however, I realize that I had established an elaborate facade, so that I would believe that I had the relationship that I valued, when I did not.

I desperately wanted to have the relationship with God; however, I was never willing to put action to my faith. I had dreams of greatness for God, but I was content for them to happen “some day”. Instead of embracing those dreams, I convinced myself that I had everything I needed. I could even convince myself that I did act on my faith and care about the widows, poor and fatherless. This facade allowed me to have the best of both worlds; the American dream and a relationship with God. The problem is that it was not real.

I am not sad about this, quite the opposite. I am excited to realize that I no longer value the facade. I now see real, active faith in the lives of my children. I do not feel like I need to rush them off to a revival or “good” church service in order for them to connect with God and feel encouraged. I know they will do that at home and school and well, everywhere.

If you are looking to buy a piece of real estate and, while inspecting the property, you identify a rich vein of gold on it. You would gladly sell everything you have in order to buy that land. You do this because the gold is of more value than anything you currently have and once you possess that gold, the things you sold will pale in comparison.

This is how I feel about the relationship with God, and others, that I see in myself and my family. It’s value far outweighs anything I had to give up in order to get it. I feel like our entire family has been on an intensive 6 month course that has helped us see ourselves and God in a more clear way. I trust that this intense course will continue for the rest of our lives.

Life On The Wild Side

I see that religion is somewhat of a sham. Looking from the outside, it appears to be people stretching the truth to make God appear more powerful than he is in their life. I do not believe that we are consciously misrepresenting. I believe we have good intentions (help others know God). The problem is that there is a significant lack of power to back up the claims that God is real and powerful. Yes, we have a friend, who knows a friend who has a documented miracle that we can bring up, but few first person accounts.

In lieu of power, we look to things or feelings to justify our belief in God. You may hear us say, “God really blessed me by giving me a deal on this” or “I know God is real because I feel him with me”. I do not doubt that God can give us a good deal or that we can feel him. The issue I have is that those things should not be the only manifestation of God in our lives.

We should have a love for everyone. Yes, I said everyone. That is a powerful miracle that is very much needed in our world. We should see marriages restored, suicide and suicidal thoughts completely wiped out, we should see believers joyfully following Christ even when things are at the worst. Remember Stephen’s response to being stoned (Acts 7:59-60)? A response like this would speak volumes to our modern culture about a real and powerful God.

There should be little question about why so many abandon their faith in God. Christianity, in our modern American form, is little more than the American dream with a little Jesus on the side. Our modern definition of “stepping out in faith” involves very little risk. When was the last time we felt like all was lost without a miracle? We run our decisions through a business model process that weighs the pros and cons and we settle on the solution that makes the most sense. As a result, churches are viewed as little more than group therapy sessions. People who have been hurt, mistreated, captured by addiction or abandoned by society can come together, hear an encouraging sermon, spend time with other positive people and as a result find healing, deliverance and acceptance.

The problem is that the healing and deliverance only works when you faithfully attend the group therapy sessions. If you miss a few therapy sessions, you are quickly gobbled up by your former addictions and trouble. I am not only talking about new believers here. What I just described happens to seasoned followers of Christ. Once again, if this is what we are offering, there should be little question why so many abandon their faith.

When I see all of this and allow my brain the liberty to look at everything I “know” in a critical light, I realize that the reason for the lack of power is that I have a relationship with a human made god instead of an all powerful God.

Admitting this is scary. There is a good chance that some of the above statements have made you a little hot under the collar. Trust me, that is not my intention. I am simply attempting to examine my heart and look at my life in the harsh light of reality. I am no longer comfortable loving a select few people, watching families be destroyed (while they sit on church pews) and the youth of our world live without hope, just so I can go to my job and my church in relative comfort. I believe God created people and called us to risk everything in pursing Him. Yes, that will lead us into situations in which we will be completely destroyed without the miraculous involvement of God. Why would we expect anything different?

I have decided to trust that He is an all powerful God and not just a religious icon that people need to subconsciously reassure themselves still exists. An all powerful God who created people and loves people would gladly care for and nurture people. That is why I have stepped out in “faith” and moved my family across the country.

I update this blog so that my family has a record of our blind trust in God. Additionally, I want each of you to know that God is powerful enough to fulfill the dreams that you have. I know, you can not imagine how that would ever work, but that is the risk I am talking about! That is the miraculous that our world desperately needs to see.

 I see the scam that my “god” is and have decided to give the true God at least as much of a chance as I gave the scam. So far He has not disappointed me. My true passion is to help people and show them the mercy and kindness that is lacking in our world. Who knows, maybe I will be documenting some modern miracles.

Jenny’s thoughts: When we go to a zoo, we can see lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) but to truly appreciate these magnificent animals, we would need to experience them in their natural habitat. The problem with that is, their natural habitat is dangerous. It is less costly and less risky to visit the zoo; however, by doing so you will miss the magnificent power that defines these animals. Once you see these animals in the wild, you will no longer be content seeing them in a zoo.

Keeping a pet god in your comfort zone is less costly, but you will miss the magnificent power that God has in His natural habitat. Once you risk it all and see God in His natural habitat, you will never be content with your comfort zone god again.