Revolution of the Faultless

There once was a man with whom there was no fault.  This man found himself filled with justification.  He was a good man.  He knew the answers to every question.  For this man there was no one else more pure in heart.  I’d like to introduce you to him.  Here are just a few quotes from this man.

“I am a good father, I provide for them! My father was never home, and so I don’t know what a father looks like.  I am doing much better than him.”

“I only beat the sh*t out of them because they deserve it! What else is there to do?”

“I don’t need to change, they need to change, I’m a good person!”

“Why can’t they fix their own problems? I did!”

“I was trying to live by the bible, but your parents made me feel embarrassed and asked me not to talk about God.  Well fine, I won’t talk about God then!”

“I used to be sweet just like you. Son, go get my yearbook and show them all the things people said about how sweet I was.  It’s your fault I’m this way!”

“I just do these to take the edge off!  Don’t tell me you haven’t done them too.  I’m a grown a%* man and I’ll do whatever I please!”

“Oh you want me to cheat??  I’ve been nothing but faithful but since you don’t trust me anyway, I might as well do whatever I want!”

“You’ll never be anything but a loser, and it’s not my fault! I showed you how to be a man. SHUT UP!”

“You’re a little slut, and you deserve whatever you get. I would never disrespect someone like you have.”

“I don’t need counseling, I’m smarter than the shrink, trust me, I know what I’m talking about, she doesn’t!”

-My Father

These are the tame things.   I would need a lot more cuss words to truly paint the picture of verbal tirades he would go. I will write more stories about the actual abuse later.  This entry’s objective is to point out things that everyone struggles with.  We all want to believe we’re perfect, good people.  No one likes to admit they think they’re perfect.  But what is a man with no one to blame except others?  What is a man only harmed by the world, but attempting his best to do good?  What is a man who needs no help?  Who is only a victim?  Who has every answer, every rebuttal for his actions?  This man sounds like a complete, whole man lacking nothing with only the imperfect world inhibiting him.  The only person getting in the way of your hope, your real lasting perfection is you. 

You

Lack

Perfection.

Without Jesus your soul is incomplete.  It is not the world that is to blame.  You chose your actions.  You chose to guide your life.  You chose to be your only sense of security.  If no one is perfect except Jesus as they say, then how are you the answer to the ultimate questions?  Self-help is a lie.  Your life, your soul is lacking something it desperately needs.

Don’t be my dad.  Your life was meant for something far greater, and I beg you to see it.  Before that pride leads you the wrong way on a highway far too intoxicated.  Your self-perfection will destroy your soul.

Church of the Revolution

I cannot tell you how many conversations I’ve had that have begun, and went exactly like this:

Me: “Tell me about yourself man, like your family, religion, values, whatever.  I just want to know you a little better”

Someone not me:  “Well, my family is great and we believe in God and stuff, I was raised Christian.”

Me:  “Dude, that’s awesome, I’m a Christian too, do you go to church anywhere?”

Someone not me:  “I don’t have to go to church to be a Christian!”

-Well, that escalated quickly.  When did I question the salvation of their soul with my question about which church they attend?  It seems to me that a question is answered that isn’t really asked, and answered quite defensively.  While, what they said may be technically true what they are communicating behind the words is actually far more alarming.  They’ve made following Christ about belief alone.  And missed the entire message of hope.  Allow me to explain.

Let’s focus on another ideal.  Let’s say you call yourself a father or mother.  As a father/mother you don’t have any children.  You don’t spend time with any children.  You have no desire to be around other children.  You have no intention of trying to have children.  They actually make you angry to be around.  They hurt your feelings.  They try to take the things you love away because they demand your time, money, energy, and life.  These children are selfish.  The ones you don’t have.  But because you believe you’re a mother/father, well you are one.

Sound crazy?  Well, that’s exactly what we’ve done with Christianity.  We don’t want to be in church because we have fears of what the church will demand of us.  They might demand we love each other better, be less self-centered, spend our money on helping the poor, or they might do something even worse: make us feel “Judged” because they ask us to change behaviors that we think are fun but they believe Christ calls deadly. 

I get it.  Faith in Christ saves your soul. Faith was the first step in the walk.  It’s not the last, and it wasn’t intended to be.  Church can be painful.  Churches fail.  Churches crush people’s hearts.  But not all of them do.  The Church was meant to be a place that reveals hope and encourages you to press on in your journey with Jesus.  If you find yourself hurt by a church move to another.  Don’t dismiss all churches based on one failure.  At the end of the day a Christian can be a Christian without church, but that’s not the real question is it?

The real question is why would a Christian not want to be around other Christians in worship of the Jesus they claim to follow?  Do you not want to be “told what to do?”  Do you want to keep on coping with the deadly things you know Jesus doesn’t approve of?  Are you still holding onto hurts from the past? 

Sounds an awful lot like a parent with no children….sounds an awful lot like crazy.

Revolution of Self-Worth

You are never alone.  I don’t mean that in some creepy, God is watching you take showers kind of way.  I mean don’t forget.  Some live like God doesn’t exist, doesn’t matter, and doesn’t care while some live like God simply left their side.  God hasn’t left your side.  As a matter of fact, He’s in the thick of it.  He’s in the trenches of your pain waiting to rescue you but you keep turning to anything and everything else.  What’s fascinating and overwhelmingly sad about that is you were designed to walk in amazing love, life and opportunity but instead you chose to keep listening to lies over and over again believing that those things can be found somewhere else.  You have lost hope.

Remember how in the earlier blog I said hope is equivalent to confidence?  Well, when you don’t have confidence what do you do?  Some drink.  That’s how they gain confidence to pick up women.  Some become attention grabbers because that brief attention makes them feel loved, even if it is fleeting and quickly lost.  When you don’t have confidence your whole self-worth becomes lost also.  When you feel like there’s no one you can lean on, or nothing you can trust in then you feel like it must be you that is the failure.  That you are to blame, and that you are ultimately worthless.  So, what do you do when you feel worthless?  You attempt to ease that pain, with whatever vices you can.  Maybe you work longer hours; maybe you even start to serve at church more.  Whatever you can do to feel valuable.  The one similarity in all of this is that your confidence comes from outside yourself.  There is no such thing as self-confidence.  It is a lie.  Think about it.  When was the last time you put 100% of your trust, hope, or confidence in yourself??  

Hope

Comes

From

Outside

Yourself

So, for arguments sake let’s put all this together.  If your hope is confidence which comes from outside yourself and brings you value, isn’t it fair to say that it is vitally important where you place that hope?  One could say it’s soul-changing, revolutionarily important.  One might also say it’s probably pretty important to put that hope in the best available place.  It’s important we figure this out for the sake of our souls.  I’m not saying I’m 100% right, but I’m 100% confident that Jesus gives me the best hope I’ve ever experienced.  But, hey, I’m just another dude.  You place your hope where you will, and may it truly bring you the confidence and self-worth your soul longs for.

Hoping for a Revolution

The world lacks something lasting, something profound, something... revolutionary. 

Hope.

In order to fully understand what hope is, one must first understand what hope is not.  I’m not talking about hopelessness, because on one thing I think everyone agrees; we all experience hopelessness.  The stories in this blog are but just glimpses into the depths of hopelessness.  I will be posting stories as they are shared with me, so that you will see just how not alone you truly are.  The world knows hopelessness and longs, yearns, and cries out for hope.

Have you been at the end of your rope, crying, screaming, and begging for help?  You reach out to family, friends and lastly the God you never talk to, but nothing ever comes of it.  You knew it was just a shot in the dark anyway.  This isn’t hope.  This is desperation.

Hope

is not

desperation.

Have you ever prayed, crossed your fingers, rolled the dice, performed a ritual, used herbal medicines, or any other attempt to appease the spiritual realm? Thinking perhaps this time you’ll get an answer?  This isn’t hope.  This is religion, albeit poorly performed religion.

Hope

is not

religion.

Have you ever surrendered to the circumstances; thinking that this is the hand you were dealt?  You continue living life, insecurely believing “it is what it is.”  Apathy, and eventual depression set in.  But at least you’ll never be hurt because “hey, that’s life!”  This sounds like humility and trust but really it’s a heart that has given up.  A heart that has given up doesn’t have hope.

Surrender

is not

hope.

I believe the three of these are examples of how the world might view hope.  The world misses the mark.  Surprised?  Me either.  Hope, described in the bible is actually synonymous with confidence.  What does this mean in application?  It means that when you’re struggling, and you are desperate for answers or rescue your confidence is tested.  You have options for your confidence, you know?  You could try self-confidence which actually begs the question, how did you get so desperate if your self was the answer?  Perhaps, you are not the rescuer.  Media, society, movies, and the world have deafened you with their shouts of “You are the answer; you’ve had the answer in yourself all along!!”  Has this worked out for you? C.S. Lewis said it quite astutely when he said “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: Pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” God is saying “ENOUGH!!”

You are not

Hope.

Your children are not your hope.  Your religion is not your hope.  Your money is not your hope.  None of these things will rescue you.  Don’t do the easy thing and give up, this changes nothing.  Place your confidence where it belongs, in God.  He’s stronger, faster, bigger, and more immensely powerful than your suffering.  It simply makes no sense to put your hope anywhere else. 

Children of the Revolution

Imagine, if you will, two scenarios.  In one scenario you have however many children you want (if that’s none, well, this may be a tough lesson to process) and that they are still newborns.  They are precious, small, chunky, beautiful, and healthy.  They are untainted by the world, embracing no insecurity, no pain, no suffering, and no broken hearts.  You want to keep them there forever.  You do whatever it takes.  You may homeschool, keep them from watching TV, keep them away from crazy relatives, and change your own language.  You will create this bubble to keep them safe, and innocent.  They are for all intents and purposes...perfect.  And your heart smokes with raging fire that will burn anything that attempts to rob your children of their perfection.  But, you know it’s coming...the day they get hurt.  You know that your love cannot keep them from doing what humans do, making poor decisions.  You know no matter how perfectly you raised them, they will end up screwing up.  They will end up insecure, hurt, and broken. Their hearts will be mangled, ugly, lost, and in need of immense repair.

Perfection

lost.

In this same scenario your fire raging heart beckons you to do something drastic.  You know that if given the opportunity you would take all the pain, the ugliness, and the loss of innocence upon yourself so that your child’s heart never, ever becomes broken or destroyed.  You chose to sacrifice your life for their heart.

Now for the second scenario.  Everything about your children is the same as the previous situation, except one of your children is still a newborn, untainted.  This untainted child, however, is an infant prodigy.  This prodigy knows how your other children will turn out.  This infant also knows you would take their place if you could, so this infant offers themself instead.  After much deliberation and intense heartache you agree.

This is God.  He did this.  He, in the most wonderful mysterious act of love chose to be the parent, and the child who sacrificed themselves.  Imagine this and it will blow your mind.  He gave up His son!  For all of the other children!  A perfect God chose to become human flesh, so that your heart could be restored.  He is equally sacrificing parent, and sacrificing parent!  He is the ultimate sacrifice, because he never loses his perfection. His raging heart, smoking with love traded places with you so that your heart could be restored, healed, and made perfect. 

Suffering is guaranteed.  Every human child was considered in His choice.  Even Stalin, Hitler, Dahmer, Osama and Obama (for the hardcore haters) were considered.  He, like you a loving parent couldn’t let our hearts stay this way forever.  He took our place. 

Is

this

love?

Any parent can see, without a doubt it is.  A revolution is available.  He paid for it.  Receive it.  And find hope.  Find a drastically new mind.  Find God.  Find you.