Jon Anderson: Journal

Just learning the whole Facebook scene- call me a slow learner. Big thanks to my daughter for getting me some friends (it's hard on the ego to have a computer tell you, "you have no friends") - want to be my friend?

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!! What a ride!” Dean Karnazes, Marathon runner

Thoroughly used up, totally worn out… many people will meet the grave feeling this way. The frenetic pace of most lives is just plain ridiculous. (“Too busy” has become a bragging right, rather than a confession.) Loudly proclaiming, Wow! What a ride!... now that is a rare attitude, to say the least. To live an abundant life does not mean “who has the most toys when they die?”, as much as, “who left it all on the field?” I want so much to be able to say I have lived to the full and left it all on the field of life, yet… so many things seem to distract.

And yet, the very things that appear as distractions actually wind up being the very “life” we are to be living to the fullest. It is my choice whether I will give my all to that particular endeavor that defines whether it truly is a distraction or part of the journey itself. Life is not whatever else is going on beyond my current experience. Life is precisely what is going on right in front of me, the very things in which I am currently engaged. The question is not about finding the thing to engage, but to engage the things already in my current experience. I can dream of one day finally pouring myself fully into a mission trip, back-packing my way into some remote region of the world to share the gospel with an isolated bushman OR I can pour myself fully into the very people I see everyday. I can be thoroughly used up in Iowa just as easily as I can in Cambodia. The issue is not location but motivation.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
2 Timothy 4:7

Being radical does not require exotic destinations and strange people… it requires my engagement with whoever I cross paths with right here in my own hometown. If I am faithful with what I have, I can be trusted with more. If on the other hand I overlook the lives right in front of my face – waiting to find those elusive and isolated bushmen – I will live most my life unengaged with anyone, and certainly not used up or worn out, and most certainly absent of any “wow!” moments.

What would it mean to “skid in broadside” with passion for the people with whom I currently cross paths? Can I be so bold and radical and passionate with my love for Jesus to my family and my next-door neighbor as I would be with a total stranger in a foreign land? Of course it’s one thing to write about such passion and quite another thing to actually be passionate and yet quite another thing altogether to actually extend that passion in the flesh to others – to the point of being used up and worn out. To live out life so fully that we hear the Master say to us one day:

'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'
Matthew 25:23

Sharing in His happiness… wow, what a ride!

Where do I start? I am sure it will be with very little fanfare, no glamour, no camera crew. It will be about spending my life on this present journey as husband, father, pastor, and friend – a bushman or two may also be involved. It will begin with being the most radical and passionate husband, father, pastor and friend God can empower me to be. And if I do it well - this life with God is after all the most extreme sport you will ever discover - I will end my days, skidding in broadside, saying, Wow! What a ride!

What would it mean to you to know that God thinks you are priceless? That you can be brave… that you really do have what it takes to live this life to its fullest, to become all that you were meant to become? That you are precious, beautiful, worth fighting for to the very end of the ages? That you are worth dying for? That He longs to gather you up into a dangerous, yet a good and glorious adventure, where you have an essential part to play? (Psalm 139, 1 Corinthians 12)

What would it mean to you to have clarity? What would it mean to you to know you have access to a wisdom in life that goes beyond just common sense and flying by the seat of your pants? Wisdom that can literally save your life? Wisdom that can show you how to maneuver through the mine-fields of relationships such as marriage, children, work, friendships? Wisdom that promises life and success? Wisdom that offers clarity and perspective so that you can catch your breath and actually make the right next move? (John 14-16)

What would it mean to you to know that there is someone who knows all your dark shadows, all the dirt, all your lusts and bitterness – but rather than condemn you, He heals you; or that He knows your wounds, your failures, your most embarrassing and most devastating moments, but rather than show disdain or betray your secret, He comes with restoration – I mean to truly make new and never bring it up again; not just ignore or cover them up? What if you could have a life with no more shame, no more condemnation, no more fear of being exposed and rejected? (Romans 8:1-4)

What would it mean to you to know that you could conquer your greatest opposition? Your greatest fear, doubt, temptation, wound? To know that you’re not blowing it and that God is not holding out on you, but there really is an enemy dead-set against you, even on the hunt for you… That though you will have to do the fighting, the “villain” in your story really can be defeated? That you really do have what it takes to stand against and vanquish this enemy? That though it will get really messy, you can win the day… more importantly win the ages? (Ephesians 6:10-19)

Just what do you think Easter is all about? What does it mean: that Jesus is risen from the dead? That those who die with Him, are also raised with Him? That your sins are forgiven through Him is only the beginning, not the sum of your life? That you are saved for a greater good and purpose in this life and the next? (Romans 6, Ephesians 2:1-10)

Do you know that what God intends for all who follow Jesus is a throne and a crown? Yet so often we concede to the subtle deception that the best we can hope for is to eek our way into heaven. Like the prodigal son, we muster up our hungry stomach and say, “at least I can go and be a slave in my father’s house, at least they get well-fed...” while all the while our Father is ready to call for the best robe and shoes and a ring for our finger. God is far more ready to celebrate our restoration than we are to step into it! (Luke 15)

So what say you? Would you want to know more about these things? Would you want to do what it takes – and God can give you what it takes – to enter into living fully, with your whole heart, in an ancient strength – the strength you were always meant to have? (John 1:12, 3:1-21)

Can we dare to love others the way Jesus loves us?

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love is patient.
Love is kind.

Even just these first two in the list from 1 Corinthians 13 stops most of us dead in our tracks, don’t’ they?

Yet there it is in all its blazing boldness: Love is – AKA God is! After all in 1 John 4:16 = God is love! And if God is living in us by His Holy Spirit, the love He has shed abroad in our hearts, these jars of clay in which God chooses to reside – we are to express Him to the world. We are to do life with others in love!

The main reason we find it hard to love?

We have forgotten the love God has lavished on us.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer says it this way:

“We must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.”

“Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”

We are, all of us, victims of grace. We neither expected nor deserved it. None of us saw it coming. None of us would have ever planned for it. Most of us live in either complete denial of it or in utter awe of it. Grace is that divine ability to accept without condemnation another person precisely where they are and to love them as God transforms their lives. Grace refuses to see another person as something to be fixed. Grace sees the other in the shadow of the same cross and loves another person courageously enough to walk with them into the light of Jesus’ resurrection.

Walking in the light means being exposed, vulnerable, surrendering all our masks and veils. It means all the scars and wounds and oozing sores are exposed without shame, but in the very certain hope of being healed and redeemed.

Until someone is confronted with real grace, they have no hope of putting their faith in it.

Tolerance is the world’s pathetic counterfeit to grace. Whereas tolerance seeks to make everything acceptable, grace reveals that everyone is acceptable.
So how will others be confronted with true grace?
We must see others with God’s eyes.
We must touch others with God’s hands.
We must be radically dependent on the Holy Spirit working through the whole body of Christ, of whom we are only part.

We cannot be overwhelmed to the point of doing nothing.

Are you ready to accept another person, right where they are, without condemnation?

How about the foul-mouth coworker?
How about the adulteress neighbor?
How about the addicted friend?
How about the homosexual?
How about the woman who has had four husbands and is living with fifth?

No doubt there are those who are already sizing up this situation and getting a bit unnerved about the potential consequences.

Let’s not forget that Jesus was accused of being a glutton and drunkard, the friends of thieves and whores. Does this mean He condoned their behavior? By no means. But He did attract people who engaged in such behavior and we can bet it wasn’t because He was busy pointing out their failings. He befriended them – first and foremost He kept in sight and mind His Father who sent Him to seek and to save that which was lost. Lost is messy. Lost is not simply a person, but a person’s dignity. Lost is a person’s innocence. Lost is a person’s identity. Lost is a person’s pain. Lost is a person who is trying to find a cure in all the wrong places.

We first must love people. We must have discerning eyes to see beyond the surface, beyond the behavior, and see the life of one for whom Jesus Christ suffered and died.

Grace will guarantee bloody hands for that is what grace costs.

Jesus never commands us to fix anyone. We are to love them.

Does love simply ignore sin?
Love must first see a person or else sin becomes the project of our fixing. A person must not become a project, but a relationship in which we are willing to invest in for the long haul.

Consider Luke 10 and the story of the Good Samaritan. Of all the attributes he displays – interruptible, generous with time & resources and compassion; the most valuable commodity that he offers the man is follow through. When I return… he tells the innkeeper. This is not a hit and run, random act of kindness. This is a personal investment in another person’s welfare. He winds up with bloody rags, an extended trip, and a lighter purse – but this is what it means to Jesus for us to be a neighbor – to be the one who extends mercy to one in need.

And believe me, everyone you lock eyes with has needs.

We are all victims of grace, so how is that we can ever be quick to refuse such grace to another? Even when Jesus is terse with the Pharisees, He is extending grace to them. He confronts them with the very law they supposedly uphold and gives them the opportunity to repent. You see, that is the purpose of grace - to extend to others the opportunity to change, to turn around, to repent.

“Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, 26and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.” (2 Timothy 2:25-26)

In this context, Paul is referring to those in the church who are opposing the word that has been given to them. Yet, I believe the truth is consistent. To the unbelieving, grace begins with radical acceptance of a person right where they are without any hint of condemnation. For the average believer, grace is about gentle instruction and in the case of the Pharisees even seemingly direct confrontation about violations and hypocrisy. In each instance it is about walking with a person – right where they are not where we think they should be – in the light.

Grace takes various shapes and is in no way a method, but a state of being with others the way Jesus is. Do you realize Jesus is right there when you sin? Right there when you are perusing pornography on the internet? Right there when you are cheating your boss out of time on the clock? Right there when you lie to your spouse? Right there when you stumble home drunk? Right there when you have verbally abused your child? And though this realization may cause us to hide in the bushes in shame and fear, the reality is this: Jesus meets us right where we are, in grace, and chooses to walk with us leading us into the light, if we are willing to come out of hiding, aka, repent. It’s how we come out of the bushes. We come out of the bushes not to a Jesus who is ready to slap us and beat us and condemn, but a Jesus who is ready to clean us up, wash us clean, and bring us into the light of day.

Let this truth sink in for a moment:

“God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:19

Not counting their trespasses against them. Now wait a minute. I thought that is why people go to hell, their sins are counted against them, right? So, how do I understand this passage, that God is not counting trespasses against them?

Hell is for those who reject what God has done for them, who have rejected Jesus. If we reject Jesus, we reject God’s gift and therefore do not receive His benefits, even though they have been bought and paid for. That is the true sorrow of judgment day – light has come into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light (John 3:19).

You see walking in the light, loving the light means being exposed for who you really are and seeing who God intends you to become!

The more Paul walked with Jesus through his life the more he realized his sin. Does this mean Paul became a worse sinner the more he walked with Jesus? By no means. What it means is the more you come into the light the more distinct Jesus becomes and the more distinct you become in comparison… and though we may grow and be transformed from glory to glory, in comparison to Jesus we can only realize how great and awesome is His grace toward us. This is not about becoming fatalistic – not at all. It is about seeing Jesus more and more clearly in all His wonder and glory and majesty. It is why the 24 elders around the throne of the Lamb keep falling on their faces before Him.

Revelation 11:15-17

15The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever." 16And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17saying:
"We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
the One who is and who was,
because you have taken your great power
and have begun to reign.

It finally is no longer about us – how good or not we are – but about being in His presence.

Do you get it?
When we engage people with Jesus’ presence – His grace in all its power – people will fall on their faces. We don’t knock people down, they fall down. We don’t trip them up, push them around, fix them, nit-pick, nag, harass – we victimize them with grace! And God will give the growth:

1 Corinthians 3:6-7
“6I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.”

Grace prepares the soil for people to encounter God’s life-changing love. Do we trust Him to do this work or are we all too ready to hurry it along?

Love is patient.

Patience with the other person, and perhaps more important, our patience with God’s timing and ways.

For now, will we dare to love? Will we dare to extend grace in all its fierceness to others?