Walking to San Francisco (part 1)
the beginning of a book i am writing...
not proofed...at all...
Have you ever gotten the motivation to go out and fix the world? To go out and help? To go out and make a difference? Because right now, more than any other day, I have the urge to change peoples lives.
I have spent my entire life searching for the basis of my faith. I have wandered around for so long looking for the way to live my life. I have asked questions and waited for God to send me a letter in the mail with the answers. I never got them.
I don’t think there are any answers. I never found any. I don’t think you are supposed to find any. I don’t think Christianity is about looking for the answers to living your life. That makes your faith self centered. When you look to God for answers on how to serve yourself, it stops becoming faith. It has never been about trying to figure things out.
I went through a period in my college career where I searched wide eyed and in entrancement about the right major. I called my mom crying. What did God want me to do? What was God’s will for my life? These were all cliché phrases I kept hearing and kept trying to understand.
“Stop trying to figure out what God wants you to do in life,” she said to calm me down. “God will never tell you an answer like that.” Rather than looking for my major in God, I needed to look for God in the things I do. My mom continued on appeasing my heart. She went on to explain that it would never matter what I majored in. I could be a Christian in whatever I was doing.
I was so stressed about looking for God in something that he created. C.S. Lewis says, “Looking for God--or Heaven--by exploring space is like reading or seeing all Shakespeare's plays in the hope that you will find Shakespeare as one of the characters...” You will never find Shakespeare in one of his plays. In a sense, he is there because he created it. Much like God is in the universe, but you will never find him there. My dad, in another discussion, explained it in other terms.
Suppose I wanted to take a trip to San Francisco. While life may be easier if I were to buy a ticket and fly, I may not have the money to do so at the moment. I might start walking. I may even start walking in the wrong direction. With guidance from friends and guidance from strangers, I will find myself pointed in the right direction. I may have several ways to get there but one day I will find myself in San Francisco.
This sounds cheesy and formulaic, and when I tell my friends this they laugh at me, but when it comes down to it, it is really just about loving people. Relationships should be built on love. They should never be built on anything but love.
It is funny, well to me, the people who walk around basing their life on converting people to Christianity. We simply cannot do that. How self righteous to assume like wise. Faith and our relationship with Christ is so much more than that. It is not our job to bring people to Christ. It is our job to show people who Christ is - not through a book, not through Bible verses, not through songs or plays. It is our job to shine the joy and love of Christ on other people.
When we, as Christians, start to believe that faith and evangelism is more than loving others, it becomes selfish and self centered. To someone who is not a Christian, we look ridiculous. We see our faith as a relationship with a God and our Savior. We see a faith based on experiences and encounters with God. They see magic tricks and supernatural powers. It doesn’t make sense to anyone who doesn’t already understand.
For example, my friend Joe and I were discussing this same matter. I asked Joe where Heaven was. “In another dimension,” he replied. I asked how you get there. “God takes you there.” He kind of laughed. See why non-Christians look at us as if we are crazy?
They cannot comprehend us believing magic tricks such as the disappearance of your body when you die. For this very reason, it is foolish for us to go around preaching the gospel and expect people to understand. That is not what we are called to do. We were not devised to recruit people for Christ’s “baseball team.”
We are called to be ambassadors. People keep using the phrase “ambassador for Christ” and I do not think many people even know what it means. I looked it up. That’s the easiest thing to do. Ambassador - An authorized messenger or representative. That is who we are - a representative for Christ.
In a sense, this gives me a little peace about going out and preaching to others. It means I do not have to worry about the conversion ratio. In another light, it means I have a bigger responsibility. People are now looking to me to be a reflection of Christ’s glory and love. People are expecting, in essence, Christ, when they see you.
While we know we cannot be an exact likeness of God, we know that we can shine his love on other people.
So many people work hard at defining love. The bible says it plain and simple, “God is Love.” What does that mean? It means that rather than looking at who God is and what he teaches us, we try to redefine the word. Why? Because finding new phrases to describe love is easier than finding new ways to describe God.
Rather than putting a finger on what love is, since we have already determined that answer, we should work at deciphering who our God is.
That is a personal issue. I could never explain to you who God is. It has been written for you to read. It is for you to experience. He is there for you to form a relationship with. God is your God and it is your relationship. While I may be able to explain, in full detail, my relationship and experiences with God, to someone who is a non believer, it will make no sense.
I can paint you a picture of a chocolate chip cookie. I can describe to you the sensation of eating a chocolate chip cookie, I can even let you smell a lotion that reminds me of chocolate chip cookies, but until you taste a chocolate chip cookie for yourself, none of that will ever make sense.
Our relationship with others is much like that of the cookie analogy. We can tell them about Christ. We can let them read about him. We can even let them watch movies about Him. But until one experiences Christ for himself, none of our efforts will make any sense to them.
Rather than trying to make people understand and believe, we should be a vision of love and what is in store for them. The smell of a cookie is enticing. The love that Christ has for us, and the love we show to others, is something to embrace and draw you in.
Being an ambassador for Christ -a reflection of God’s love - means treating people with respect and love. It means seeing people through the eyes of God. It means looking at people without passing judgment.
I have found that being a Christian is not about always being right. It has nothing to do with being right any of the time. Working at Starbucks, I encounter a lot of people who are not Christians. They are amazed when they realize that I am not there to judge and condemn. That is not my role in life at all. If my job, as so many people claim, is to glorify God in all that I do, then how could I even think to judge others.
It just seems self righteous and pretentious to do the work that was intended for God, and only God. Perhaps, and this is only a thought, rather than sitting back and living our sin infested lives and pointing our fingers at others, maybe we could hold our friends accountable and just love society as a whole.
When I say we should hold people accountable, I don’t mean telling people they are wrong. Once again, that is simply pious and conceited to assume you have the knowledge and wisdom to inform people of their mistakes and faults.
Accountability is something far from condemnation. I have found that friendship, alone, is accountability. My best friends Sarah and I discussed this. She told me that because I know her, and I know her values and morals, my friendship is in the back of her mind at all times. My conscience is the friendship I have with my best friend.
After I heard this, thought about it, and put it aside, I soon agreed. Put in certain situations, I know how Sarah would expect to react. I know what would upset her. Sarah knows me so well that I think she would be aware of something with out me even telling her. She and I both went on this little profanity spree. We never really cussed with anyone except each other. We look at each other though, and we know it is wrong. With Sarah in the back of my mind, I am living a life that I should be expected to live.
Christ has always been the center of our relationship. From the moment we met, we wanted to go on a mission trip to France together. We push each other to be the people we can become. We share our faith and struggles. With Christ as our focus, he is driving our friendship and lives.
Every relationship is a little different. Every friendship has different limits. Sarah serves as my “spiritual encourager.” She knows my struggles and she knows my secrets. When I screw up, I am not ashamed to tell her. I know that she will not bring me down. She keeps me accountable. She never condemns me.
not proofed...at all...
Have you ever gotten the motivation to go out and fix the world? To go out and help? To go out and make a difference? Because right now, more than any other day, I have the urge to change peoples lives.
I have spent my entire life searching for the basis of my faith. I have wandered around for so long looking for the way to live my life. I have asked questions and waited for God to send me a letter in the mail with the answers. I never got them.
I don’t think there are any answers. I never found any. I don’t think you are supposed to find any. I don’t think Christianity is about looking for the answers to living your life. That makes your faith self centered. When you look to God for answers on how to serve yourself, it stops becoming faith. It has never been about trying to figure things out.
I went through a period in my college career where I searched wide eyed and in entrancement about the right major. I called my mom crying. What did God want me to do? What was God’s will for my life? These were all cliché phrases I kept hearing and kept trying to understand.
“Stop trying to figure out what God wants you to do in life,” she said to calm me down. “God will never tell you an answer like that.” Rather than looking for my major in God, I needed to look for God in the things I do. My mom continued on appeasing my heart. She went on to explain that it would never matter what I majored in. I could be a Christian in whatever I was doing.
I was so stressed about looking for God in something that he created. C.S. Lewis says, “Looking for God--or Heaven--by exploring space is like reading or seeing all Shakespeare's plays in the hope that you will find Shakespeare as one of the characters...” You will never find Shakespeare in one of his plays. In a sense, he is there because he created it. Much like God is in the universe, but you will never find him there. My dad, in another discussion, explained it in other terms.
Suppose I wanted to take a trip to San Francisco. While life may be easier if I were to buy a ticket and fly, I may not have the money to do so at the moment. I might start walking. I may even start walking in the wrong direction. With guidance from friends and guidance from strangers, I will find myself pointed in the right direction. I may have several ways to get there but one day I will find myself in San Francisco.
This sounds cheesy and formulaic, and when I tell my friends this they laugh at me, but when it comes down to it, it is really just about loving people. Relationships should be built on love. They should never be built on anything but love.
It is funny, well to me, the people who walk around basing their life on converting people to Christianity. We simply cannot do that. How self righteous to assume like wise. Faith and our relationship with Christ is so much more than that. It is not our job to bring people to Christ. It is our job to show people who Christ is - not through a book, not through Bible verses, not through songs or plays. It is our job to shine the joy and love of Christ on other people.
When we, as Christians, start to believe that faith and evangelism is more than loving others, it becomes selfish and self centered. To someone who is not a Christian, we look ridiculous. We see our faith as a relationship with a God and our Savior. We see a faith based on experiences and encounters with God. They see magic tricks and supernatural powers. It doesn’t make sense to anyone who doesn’t already understand.
For example, my friend Joe and I were discussing this same matter. I asked Joe where Heaven was. “In another dimension,” he replied. I asked how you get there. “God takes you there.” He kind of laughed. See why non-Christians look at us as if we are crazy?
They cannot comprehend us believing magic tricks such as the disappearance of your body when you die. For this very reason, it is foolish for us to go around preaching the gospel and expect people to understand. That is not what we are called to do. We were not devised to recruit people for Christ’s “baseball team.”
We are called to be ambassadors. People keep using the phrase “ambassador for Christ” and I do not think many people even know what it means. I looked it up. That’s the easiest thing to do. Ambassador - An authorized messenger or representative. That is who we are - a representative for Christ.
In a sense, this gives me a little peace about going out and preaching to others. It means I do not have to worry about the conversion ratio. In another light, it means I have a bigger responsibility. People are now looking to me to be a reflection of Christ’s glory and love. People are expecting, in essence, Christ, when they see you.
While we know we cannot be an exact likeness of God, we know that we can shine his love on other people.
So many people work hard at defining love. The bible says it plain and simple, “God is Love.” What does that mean? It means that rather than looking at who God is and what he teaches us, we try to redefine the word. Why? Because finding new phrases to describe love is easier than finding new ways to describe God.
Rather than putting a finger on what love is, since we have already determined that answer, we should work at deciphering who our God is.
That is a personal issue. I could never explain to you who God is. It has been written for you to read. It is for you to experience. He is there for you to form a relationship with. God is your God and it is your relationship. While I may be able to explain, in full detail, my relationship and experiences with God, to someone who is a non believer, it will make no sense.
I can paint you a picture of a chocolate chip cookie. I can describe to you the sensation of eating a chocolate chip cookie, I can even let you smell a lotion that reminds me of chocolate chip cookies, but until you taste a chocolate chip cookie for yourself, none of that will ever make sense.
Our relationship with others is much like that of the cookie analogy. We can tell them about Christ. We can let them read about him. We can even let them watch movies about Him. But until one experiences Christ for himself, none of our efforts will make any sense to them.
Rather than trying to make people understand and believe, we should be a vision of love and what is in store for them. The smell of a cookie is enticing. The love that Christ has for us, and the love we show to others, is something to embrace and draw you in.
Being an ambassador for Christ -a reflection of God’s love - means treating people with respect and love. It means seeing people through the eyes of God. It means looking at people without passing judgment.
I have found that being a Christian is not about always being right. It has nothing to do with being right any of the time. Working at Starbucks, I encounter a lot of people who are not Christians. They are amazed when they realize that I am not there to judge and condemn. That is not my role in life at all. If my job, as so many people claim, is to glorify God in all that I do, then how could I even think to judge others.
It just seems self righteous and pretentious to do the work that was intended for God, and only God. Perhaps, and this is only a thought, rather than sitting back and living our sin infested lives and pointing our fingers at others, maybe we could hold our friends accountable and just love society as a whole.
When I say we should hold people accountable, I don’t mean telling people they are wrong. Once again, that is simply pious and conceited to assume you have the knowledge and wisdom to inform people of their mistakes and faults.
Accountability is something far from condemnation. I have found that friendship, alone, is accountability. My best friends Sarah and I discussed this. She told me that because I know her, and I know her values and morals, my friendship is in the back of her mind at all times. My conscience is the friendship I have with my best friend.
After I heard this, thought about it, and put it aside, I soon agreed. Put in certain situations, I know how Sarah would expect to react. I know what would upset her. Sarah knows me so well that I think she would be aware of something with out me even telling her. She and I both went on this little profanity spree. We never really cussed with anyone except each other. We look at each other though, and we know it is wrong. With Sarah in the back of my mind, I am living a life that I should be expected to live.
Christ has always been the center of our relationship. From the moment we met, we wanted to go on a mission trip to France together. We push each other to be the people we can become. We share our faith and struggles. With Christ as our focus, he is driving our friendship and lives.
Every relationship is a little different. Every friendship has different limits. Sarah serves as my “spiritual encourager.” She knows my struggles and she knows my secrets. When I screw up, I am not ashamed to tell her. I know that she will not bring me down. She keeps me accountable. She never condemns me.