Category: Spirituality

What Color Do You Reflect?

11/30/2018

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Can you imagine loving to clean house? Not me, but that describes a friend of mine. Another friend studies something broken and figures out how to fix it, while I stare at it dumbfounded. My friends and I are as different as colors refracting off a prism, and I’ve come to realize that these contrasts are clues to who we are meant to be.
     Exploring who I’m created to be has been one of life’s greatest adventures. I’ve learned to pay attention to how people compliment me. Or to ask close friends what I’m good at and not dismiss it. These are clues to my uniqueness, indicators of the particular colors God created me to cast.
     Sure, I still need to clean house and to tackle fixing things that are broken. But I don’t have to compare myself to my brilliant friends anymore. I can let my light shine with its particular hues.

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Not a Beautiful Day in Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood

10/29/2018

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It was not a beautiful day in Mr. Rogers’ actual neighborhood when a gunman killed eleven in a Pittsburgh synagogue. Like a brutal slap in the face, this atrocity smacked of all the evil Fred Rogers sought to dispel. Yet after years of modeling kindness, Mr. Rogers had grown disillusioned near the end of his life, a recent documentary revealed. Despite his best efforts, the world had grown worse, not better.
     Why is that? Why can’t we bring about the peace we hope for? The compassion we long for? I think it’s because we have met the enemy, and the enemy is us. We operate under a shared human dilemma, trying to be better people so we can make a better world - a futile task.
     What’s the solution? Ezekiel, an ancient Hebrew, explained we don’t need our hearts rehabilitated through greater self effort; we need heart transplants. First-century Jewish teacher Jesus expanded on this, explaining we must be recreated into completely new beings. Then, he said, a powerful dynamic transforms us, God’s Spirit.
     Radical, I know. It’s not about getting nicer or performing better, which is like a caterpillar struggling to fly. Instead, the caterpillar must be transformed into a new creature, a butterfly.
I embraced this metamorphosis. Sometimes I still try to wing myself through our broken world with my own efforts. What a waste of energy. And as Mr. Rogers did, I long for the day when this shattered world is fixed, not through our best efforts, but through the dynamic of God’s Spirit.

***
Portrait of Fred Rogers by Don Sondag at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, which Rogers attended.

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Would Jesus Jump on My Political Bandwagon?

9/22/2018

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My parents warned me, “Never discuss sex, politics, or religion because they’re explosive.” Alert: I’m talking about two of them here.
     I’m a Christian, I’m thankful to be an American, and like you, I’m concerned about the spiraling down of our culture. That’s why some Christians yearn to make America great again. But would Jesus jump on this bandwagon? Building up a country wasn’t his priority because he declared his realm isn’t in this world. When his supporters sought to make Israel great again by crowning him king, Jesus shunned their efforts. And when offered all the kingdoms of the world, he turned them down.
“Evangelicals claim to follow a Savior who relinquished worldly power,” historian and evangelical John Fea says. “Yet they continue to place their hope in political candidates as a means of advancing an agenda that confuses the kingdom of God with the United States of America.” I’ve done that, too.
In contrast, Jesus’ early followers understood that our primary citizenship is God’s kingdom, while nationality is our secondary citizenship. They perceived that we are aliens and strangers here, and that our hearts should long for God’s heavenly country.
But you say America is an exception because we’re a Christian nation? Evangelical theologian Michael Horton disagrees. “The only Christian nation in the world today is the one gathered ‘from every tribe and language and people and nation’ (Rev. 5:9) to be addressed by its king.” Horton points out that Jesus commissioned his followers “…to proclaim the gospel, not political opinions; to baptize people in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, not in the name of America or a political party; and to teach everything that he delivered, not our own personal and political priorities.”
     Then how should we Christians function as American citizens? I look to Billy Graham here. He learned that aligning himself politically was negative in representing the gospel. Therefore, he warned the religious right not to seek political power. “I came close to identifying the American way of life with the kingdom of God,” he said. “Then I realized that God had called me to a higher kingdom than America.” Graham declared he would no longer be “closely identified with any particular party or person. We have to stand in the middle in order to preach to all people, right and left.”
     For me, this means gratefully exercising my privilege to vote for those I believe will do the best job, while not granting unquestioning loyalty to any politician, party, or platform. Then I’m free to embrace what is right and to call out what is wrong.
Scripture exhorts me to display the fruit of God’s Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control - a stark contrast to arrogance I may be tempted to exhibit in my zeal. Therefore, I shouldn’t excuse or applaud lying, bullying, name calling, and mockery from either side of the political spectrum, even when it’s used to advance a goal I support. I am to walk humbly, reflecting God’s heart by seeking justice and mercy for society and wholeness for individuals.
So would Jesus jump on my political bandwagon? I don’t think so. I am to jump on his - a quiet revolution in hearts that leads to a contagious reform in culture.
Interestingly, when we Christians seek first God’s kingdom, we’ll be good Americans, too, by fulfilling our nation’s motto: “In God We Trust.”
***
Image from Clipart Panda with text added.

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Am I Plugged In?

7/27/2018

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As I sat in the movie theater watching the documentary about Mr. Rogers, an embarrassing memory crossed my mind. One morning at the rec center I’d stepped onto the elliptical, positioned my ear buds, and pushed up the volume on my phone. Only faint music. I cranked up the volume again. Not much more. Then the twenty-something man on the machine next to me pointed to my cord. “Not plugged in.”
     Oops. I shoved it in, and the music blared into my ears from what had shuffled onto my playlist - a cover of an old Mr. Rogers song. Second embarrassment - the guy next to me had heard it all. I peeked up at him, and he laughed. “Hey, I was into it!”
     I gave him a sheepish grin and began striding on the elliptical. The warmth of the song’s lyrics swept over me as they had when my kids were little and we watched Mr. Rogers on TV. Like a good father, Mr. Rogers reminded me that I’m growing inside. That I can make a snappy new day. That he has ideas for me. That each day he’ll have things to talk about, and I will, too.    And a thought crashed into my head: these words were not only from Mr. Rogers, they were from my heavenly Father. I’m growing inside. We have things to talk about. He has ideas for me. What a message I’d have missed if I hadn’t gone beyond the music and plugged into the spiritual realm.
     I left the rec center to make a snappy new day.
***
  To hear the B.J. Thomas version of “It’s a Good Feeling,” click here.

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When Your Dreams Burn Up

6/29/2018

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I spotted these charred remains of a car in front of a house that was reduced to ashes. Someone’s dream home on an island off the Gulf Coast gone up in smoke in a few scorching minutes.
I’ve had dreams turn to ashes, too. My dream of being a great singer - my voice didn’t cooperate with that. My dream of buying a house on a hill with a mountain view - the real estate market didn’t cooperate with that.
     Other dreams have come true. The dream of having a family - my husband willingly cooperated in the process. The dream of owning a red Miata convertible - it was a blast until I decided I’d better sell it before I got stuck inside and we had to use a crane to extricate me.
     Some of my dreams weren’t worth pursuing. They were like the New Yorker cartoon I saw in which one woman tells another, “I got what I wanted, but it’s not what I wanted.” Reality didn’t live up to the dreaminess.
     Life’s a tightrope walk - the tension between striving and gratitude. I don’t always navigate the tightrope gracefully.
  But a friend reminded me that this life isn’t the entire script. It’s only the first act in a never ending production where the best of dreams may come true in the second act.

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JOIN ME ~ I’ll send brief, occasional posts to lighten your backpack. We're on this journey together.

What Color Do You Reflect?

Not a Beautiful Day in Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood

Would Jesus Jump on My Political Bandwagon?

Am I Plugged In?

When Your Dreams Burn Up

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