Change

Factions — a work of the flesh

July 13, 2019 0 Comments

The works of the flesh are obvious… factions… I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19, 20, 21 NIV

Here’s what I’ve been asking myself.

Are you often keyed up about who is more right, more holy, and a more legitimate group to be a part of rather than being keyed up about what is right, holy, and a legitimate fruitful response to knowing Jesus and His Word? If yes, that’s factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

Do you divide the world up into “them” verses “us?” If yes, that’s factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

Do you often find yourself drawn to and attached to public figures and leaders as a part of your identity and security in life?  If yes, that factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

Do you automatically criticize and demonize people and their activities who are not on your side, without suspending judgment until you have truly heard and understand them? If yes, that’s factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

Do you automatically assume that your group is always right and a perfect expression of what is on God’s mind? If yes, that’s factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

Does your social media account echo with the sounds of self-righteous outrage and condemnation for one political party over another? If yes, that’s factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

Do you quickly write off a person as unworthy of love and consideration because of their identification with one group or party? If yes, that’s factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

Have you stopped respecting some people, because they don’t fit in your party’s vision of life together? If yes, that’s factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

The Apostle Paul identified “factions” as a work of the flesh. It’s not how followers of Jesus are to live. Instead we are to live responsive and free, not bound up in a faction. The freedom of the Spirit comes from a full-on celebration of Jesus and His love! Then in response to Him and as a forgiven person alive to Him and dead to the flesh we are keyed up about being fruitful in our relationships in the world and in the church rather than on being in the most powerful group.

Those who continue to depend on and promote “factions” will not inherit the kingdom of God. The Apostle Paul keeps warning us as does the Spirit of God. Factionalism has nothing to do with the Father’s heart or the Kingdom of Jesus.

The prophetic and priestly work of Jesus the King in our lives really depends on us being free. Free to offend all parties in our association with Jesus and with His Kingdom.  Without this freedom you and I will not actually enter into the command of Christ to care for the perpetuators of all kinds of fleshy and damaging acts. The fear of antagonizing “our side” will keep us from empathy and even forgiveness of our enemies. We will easily become puppets of power and trumpets of half-truths and lies. And then before you know it, we will abandon the Gospel for the pleasure of having power.

Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Lord have mercy.

So this is complicated:

Now what are we to make of the common and God-given need to organize?

What are we to do in the Spirit in order to keep the creative and redemptive work of God in relation to powers and principalities?

How can we speak truth to power and organize people without falling into factionalism?

Change, Society

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Mindfulness and the who.

June 17, 2019 0 Comments

Chalkboard at UBC, Mindfulness

Ronald Purser is pulling back the curtain on mindfulness; his book will be released in July. I am surrounding by mindfulness talk. This past year, reading Paulo Freire brought me to say to myself, “Mindfulness is not conscientization.” Maybe I should start saying that out loud so we can challenge this thought… so here we go.

In my work with students I find that mindfulness has become the mantra of the academy especially as it relates to student stress. That’s convenient isn’t it? Mindfulness changes the geography of a problem. It allows the university to off-load responsibility from the faculties so they don’t have to change the demands they are putting on students, staff, and even administrations. Instead the student bears the weight of being stressed out. The student bears the weight of not being able to learn fast enough. The student is solely and personally responsible. The student just needs to be trained in how to cope.

It’s a perfect storm. Top ranked universities are supposed to launch top notch students to the world (to the employers waiting on them.) At the same time, there is more to learn; the sheer amount of information and the depth of that information has made for enormous silo’s of specialization in university degrees. And yes, students may be showing up at universities with a lower threshold for some kinds of stress.

I’m all in for a holy pause. However, mindfulness is not helping address the conditions that a student may become aware of when they stop moving. I fear that mindfulness without an ethic for evaluating the world forces coming down on us may indeed be making us sicker. The source of some problems are located outside of us. However, mindfulness as a new technology for health has no authority for identifying oppressive forces.

Is mindfulness conditioning us to be passive?

While there may be some good brought through “mindfulness” maybe it doesn’t go far enough. If mindfulness does bring some pause and some space for restoration, maybe it just centres us in our selves. And here’s the catch: If its always our neighbour’s fault that they are not able to cope, then love for neighbour only means that I have to help them cope. That’s a small view of love isn’t it? I find that so unsatisfying. True love means that I may sometimes need to do something to lift the burden or to address a system that is arrayed against. True love will find a way for mercy to do its work.

Mindfulness as it has been constructed in public discourse creates a vision of society and what it needs. Ronald writes, “Underneath its therapeutic discourse, mindfulness subtly reframes problems as the outcomes of choices. Personal troubles are never attributed to political or socioeconomic conditions, but are always psychological in nature and diagnosed as pathologies. Society therefore needs therapy, not radical change.”

I read this article and feel primed to read Purser’s book when it comes out.

Be mindful of God.

In Vancouver I feel like I’m surrounded by the mindfulness mantra. It’s been a topic of conversation in our household. So here’s what I have been saying, “Be mindful; but be mindful of God.” I’ve been saying this to myself and to my kids while they are growing up in the school system. Be mindful of the God who has been revealed in Jesus Christ. The One who cares. The One who enters into life. The One who has moved into the neighbourhood. The One who is active, challenging, and prophetic toward the powers and principalities arrayed against the glory of God finding its home in people. Be mindful of God so you can live loved. Be mindful of the One who loves you.

The Apostle Paul lives out of this kind of mindfulness and encourages us: Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. (Phillipians 4:5)

See what this kind of mindfulness does?

We are to become a gentle force against that which would destroy people. So, be mindful of God. Being mindful of God unveiled through Jesus Christ fortifies us to love and to pray.

What’s your take on mindfulness?

Change, Education, Work

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The Morning After

June 13, 2019 0 Comments

A Witness to Our Lives

The morning after a friend became a follower of Jesus he started walking. He walked all through the city of Vancouver. He said he walked all day and that it was one of the most difficult days of his life.

As he walked the Spirit of God began to walk him through the memories of his life. He said it was as if “Jesus turned on all the lights.” All these things that he had forgotten came flooding back from childhood and his years in a gang. He said, “I began to remember one act of deceit and violence after another.” He began to give a full account to Jesus. And with every violent remembrance laid at the feet of Jesus, my friend received forgiveness and freedom.

Jesus was cleansing his life. When the day of his baptism came it was a glorious celebration!

My friend began the journey with Jesus and continued living in it the way he began: Having trusted Jesus for the forgiveness of sins the Holy Spirit activated repentance and belief. This is the way for all of us who name the name of Jesus as Lord.

Repentance and Belief

Our Heavenly Father, no matter our family story, our education or our nationality desires that repentance and belief be the reflexive responses to Jesus and His Word prompted by the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul reminded the elders of Ephesus,

“You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.” Acts 20:20-21, NIV

Repentance is a response to grace and truth in which we change our mind about God, ourselves, people, and the stuff of earth. John declared that Jesus had come full of grace and truth and has shown us the glory of God. So if you have a collision with Jesus you have choices to make.

Godly Sorrow verses Worldly Sorrow

The Holy Spirit can bring about a godly sorrow but the enemy prefers worldly sorrow (See 2 Corinthians 7:10-11). Worldly sorrow will sink us deep into deathly shame and will mobilize us to play blame and denial games. But under the influence of godly sorrow we will receive the prompting of guilt (the truth about our attitudes, actions, and beliefs) and will turn away again from that which is opposed to Jesus.

Then, we are learning the ways of grace and keeping in step with the Spirit. Hopefully you will have some company in this. James says,

“Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each others so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” James 5:13-16, NIV

Set Free to Love

The goal of all this is love. We cannot love if we are bound up by shame. We cannot love freely if we are bound up by oppressive spirits. The deliverance of God is available to us. My friend started a great journey with Jesus that night. And the next day he started to walk with Jesus. He had to keep on listening to the Holy Spirit and discern, “What is God saying to me?” and “What am I saying to God?” That’s repentance and belief. For all of us, the morning after receiving Jesus is just the beginning of life that is meant to be abundant, it is meant to be progressively more free as we live in The Truth.

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Jesus
Matthew 7:13-14, NIV

Racism: Willful Participation and/or Stupid Complicity

Racism presents one of the big challenges of repentance for the followers of Jesus: to realize both our willful participation in that which is wrong and/or our complicit participation in that which is wrong. Repentance of attitudes and actions and faulty beliefs about people is necessary. To walk with Jesus and His church means that we enter into repentance and belief with him most definitely even when it concerns our complicity with oppression.

Paul knew the Holy Spirit’s movement of repentance and belief personally so he is able to write,

“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:26-29

But Paul, he not only had the words, he had the relationships and actions born out of repentance and belief. Do we?

Change, Discipleship, Jesus, Relationships

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No Nostalgia for Shells

May 28, 2019 0 Comments

The soft blue swatch
that caught my eye
would not yield–
either
a tale of security
or the song of your
wild fortunes.
My questions could not penetrate
the folds of your recent past,
yet gratitude swept over me like light on ancient paths,
illuminating our common plot
and the Spirit’s gracious gifts —
the free
must have room to grow
and time for wings
to stretch.

Change, Poetry, Relationships

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Blunt Force Trauma

May 27, 2019 0 Comments

Just a stick in the mud.

You struck me with
those careless words
a little phrase 
it turned my head.

I filed it till 
it became a bowl
fit for blood, sweat 
and bitter tears.

With those shavings
I stoked a fire whose 
flames smelled of 
cold cursed ambition.

I stoked it 
till it nearly
killed me.
I stoked it 
’till true wisdom
turned me 
against the grain
of your casual 
disregard.

Change, Poetry, Relationships

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