Revolution of the Jerks

Have you ever met someone who made you feel like a million bucks?  It’s as though you were just embraced by warmth, joy, and patience for the very first time.  You feel all your pains, insecurities, anger, and guilt just melt away from the experience.  This is called kindness.  We don’t experience it very often but when we do, we recognize it and we long for more of it.  What blows my mind is that God cultivates kindness in us.  In short, kindness is a fruit of a plant grown inside our hearts.  We can water this plant, feed it, give it sun or we can be awful caretakers and never see the fruit this plant can bear.  Instead of a fruit born in us, we treat kindness as commodity for sale to the highest bidder of our affection.

Kindness is not for sale.

Kindness is meant to be free.

As a follower of Jesus you were given the gift of the Holy Spirit, which has the primary objective of making you a whole, perfect, complete person.  One of the jobs the Holy Spirit has is cultivating fruit inside you as you walk in relationship with God, refining you into a reflection of Himself.  In other words we’re meant to look more and more like God. Amazing.  Kindness is just one of the many fruits cultivated in a believer if they so choose. 

Some choose rudeness, bitterness, and contempt.  They choose to look down on others for not believing the way they do.  Some of those beliefs can be as shallow as music taste.  Then there are things like differences of religion, sexual choices, race, economics, etc.  that cause some not to be kind.  Another form of lacking kindness is those who believe that if they’re kind in one way, then there need not be any other reflections of kindness.  For example those that give money to help others, but still treat everyone with contempt, and a pretentious spirit.  One act of kindness, kind does not make.  You dig?

Kindness is proactive, selfless, and above all life changing.

If you are not being changed by kindness daily then you have missed out on much in life.  Some are too humble to receive kindness.  This isn’t real humility, it’s pride.  If you can’t receive kindness because it makes you weak, then you have missed out on life changing kindness.  Insecurity is also not kindness.  To believe you are somehow too bad to receive kindness because you’re not kind enough to others, or you’re not good enough at such and such, you have missed out on the very thing that could change all of that.   Some think that to be brutally honest is more important than kindness.  Truth is vitally important, but kindness is of equal importance.  Try to quit being such a stick in the mud, lighten up.  Life’s too short to be so focused on whether it’s important to tell someone their joke isn’t funny.  Laugh not because it’s funny but because it’s kind.  At least smirk, or somethin’.

To receive and give kindness requires you to stop thinking of solely yourself.  It requires you to think of others and love them.  Anything that robs you of the ability to be kind or receive kindness needs to be destroyed before your soul is.

Revolution of the Redeemed

What happened to the church? We’ve become so divided in society by political differences that we deem as Christian verses Non-Christian.  The bride Jesus calls spotless and lovely has once again become tainted.  Don’t get this twisted into me saying the Church is somehow beyond redemption, no far from it, we are already redeemed!  But somewhere along the way we have used that redemption as license to condemn, to contradict, and to preach a whole slew of messages that misrepresent the gospel.  I’m not against brothers calling out brothers, but when they aren’t even part of the family that’s when things get twisted.

What is appealing to those that don’t believe?  Where’s the message of hope?  The message of redemption?  The message of love?  I understand love is tricky because in our society we’ve come to view love as meaning “to each their own.”  Love was meant to be about kindness, truth, and patience… we in society only like the kindness part.  The church forgets that part the most ironically…is it any wonder we but heads with the secular world so much?

I get it.  Society has changed, the world has changed and so the church must change.  We fight battles and wars over such trivial things like we’re married to the world and not Jesus.  Because in marriage you fight over trivial things, oh forget it! Geez, I’m sorry I said anything.  Drop it already!   Yeah, kind of like that.  The thing is, although society has changed and the values of the world have changed, certain things must remain the same.  The church must be a place of love, truth, and life.  We must remain reflections of Jesus, not politicians waging wars over “marriage” or “gun ownership.”

Our job has and always will be to proclaim the good news.  To offer hope.  To offer ways out of sin, and to offer ways off the paths of destruction.  It’s time to stop bringing further destruction to the souls of those who disagree, and begin offering loving, lasting solutions to the real problems in the world.  It’s time for the church to be the salt that seasons the tasteless world and the light that sits on the hill guiding the world home.

Revolution of the Discontent

Contentment is a difficult and unbelievable achievement that forever alters the soul.  Life is far too short to be wallowing in self destructive thoughts like insecurity, disillusionment, or dissatisfaction. There’s one thing this generation coming up got right, YOLO.  They use this as an excuse to be fools, and do whatever it takes to be destructive because eff it you only live once, but what if the you only live once thought process was applied to where you are right now, right in this very moment?  Are you loving?  Are you kind?  Are you enjoying the finest things the soul can embrace?  Like friendship? Intimacy? Beauty?  Awe?  Wonder?  Joy? 

Circumstances will change.  They will become worse.  They will become better.  And at any moment you could be dead.  So, what are you waiting for?  Perfection?  It never comes.  Never.  I’ve only been alive thirty one years, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that circumstances are never what we want.  Life is never what you expected.  But I’ve also learned something else.  Happiness and or contentment is there for the taking.  It is.  You can have it right now.  It’s a choice.  A mindset.  Stop being unhappy.

YOLO.

Okay, okay, before I get pushback, there are circumstances that must change.  Abuse is never acceptable.  A life full of suffering, pain, and joyless abandonment is never one you have to accept.  So, yes, absolutely work on changing those circumstances, but don’t forget contentment is a choice.  Learn the discipline of working on change, yet being content regardless.  You can.  You really, really can.

Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof.  Clap along if that’s what you want to do.




**this is not meant to be a broad stroke covering all areas, for example clinical depression and anxiety.

Revolution of our Filter

The human body is an amazing, frustrating at times, creation.  We have organs that are responsible for balancing out our health and our happiness.  We release hormones when we need extra strength in times of stress, or when we feel really good and want to relax.  We have many organs responsible for controlling every little action we take and every little feeling we feel.  An organ designated for filtering our blood, our liver, is one of my favorites.  We do so many things to destroy this organ from alcohol, to illegal substances, to far too much sugar, etc.  But it compensates and filters nonetheless.  The human mind, conscience as it were, has a filter too.   Let’s call it our soul for fun.  The ultimate human organ, our soul has been broken, however it continues to do its job and filter.  Maybe a few stories will make this a little more clear.

Gina, a beautiful, intelligent, talented young woman used to do talent shows for her family.  When she missed a step in her routine she would be disciplined with a wooden paddle that hung in the laundry room.  Spare the rod, spoil the child was truly a staple in her home.  Gina could recite scripture, and knew to save herself for marriage.  She couldn’t watch any movies that implied magic for fear of witchcraft, and she certainly couldn’t miss a Sunday morning church service for that would be abandoning the gathering of believers.  The picture painted by Gina was one of strict adherence to the bible, according to how her parents saw the bible, and anything outside of this required stern physical and emotional discipline.  Gina found herself abused for the sake of God.  Her filter was broken.  She did indeed save herself for marriage and found herself in an abusive marriage full of neglect, abuse, and heartache.  The way Gina saw the world was terrifying.  She was trapped, abused, fearful, and lacking any hope.  The only way she could be a Christian was to stick by her man, and follow the rules set in place by her parents so long ago.  Anything else would make her doomed for Hell.  She knew nothing of grace.

Timothy, a homosexual raised in a Christian home was abandoned by his family.  He was left in a program designed to help homosexuals turn straight.  The program involved watching hours, and hours and hours of straight porn followed by exhaustive questioning about which parts he enjoyed.  He was highly encouraged to please himself during these multiple pornography sessions.  Eventually he would lie and say he was straight just to get out.  His filter is broken.  He sees the world as either being a Christian who hates gays, or as a man who must rescue the gays himself from the abuse of these families.  He knows nothing of grace, only a cause to fight for and a hatred that festers.

James, a man raised in a religiously conflicted home was abused daily by his parents.  His mother with her lack of action more than anything (her filter was broken too, long ago), and his father who was never there. When he was there he was swinging fists and weapons.  When James would attend school he was so quiet, and intelligent that he often found the favor of teachers and the hatred of fellow classmates.  So on his way home from school he would be beaten by bullies, and when he arrived home he would be beaten by his father.  James’ filter was broken.  The world was a hopeless place, filled with misery, and no love for anyone who wasn’t powerful.  He knew nothing of grace, just the power of self-help.

I’ve heard hundreds of stories like these.  The journey with God, with Jesus, with the Holy Spirit is meant to be one that transforms, heals and restores our filter.  Sometimes, out of default we allow our filters to be caught up in the lies of our upbringing.  We miss out on so much in life. I sincerely have no clue how anyone lives a healthy, real life without Jesus.  Your filter may be broken, but it doesn’t have to stay that way.  My prayer is God allows you the opportunity to recognize where your filter is broken because trust me if you’re human, it’s broken without His healing power.  I’m ready for us to see the world, ourselves, and ultimately God correctly.  I’m ready for a revolution of my soul.