If you can't live your faith, don't talk about it

A reader recently wrote this:

"I recently served a client that was very vocal with his Christian faith. For business reasons not related to my performance, he abruptly terminated my contract outside the terms of our written agreement. He did not have the courage or courtesy to notify me directly--even by voice mail or
E-Mail. Instead, he told a rival co-worker who leveraged this information to undermine and damage my reputation with my consulting firm.

"Normally, I could write this off as 'just business,' but his 'red letter' words set higher expectations of his behavior and deepened the injury inflicted. Although the experience gave me a deeper understanding , I
would have preferred not to know he was a fellow believer. If you cannot
act ethically or treat people with dignity, please just
blend-in!"

Like you, I have been around "Christians" who were very vocal about their faith, but whose actions didn't back up their proclamation. I would cringe and duck and hope that the God-talk doesnt occur around me. I didn't want to be guilty by association.

Do you go to school or work with proclaiming Christians who you just wish would keep quiet?

Final Harvest

Thanks to High Calling Blogs, who published "The Final Harvest," from a previous Red Letter Believers post.

Here's an excerpt:

"I’ve been at this Christian walk for years — no, decades. And like these green tomatoes, I droop in immaturity. I’m not ready for Christ to come. I’m not ready to go home. I still need a few more days — or weeks — or years....will I be ready?"

Read the rest of the post here....

Bury Your Past, part 2. "Can't get to the other side."

There was an experiment done with the Great Northern Pike where the fish was placed into a tank with its favorite food, minnows. However, a glass divider was inserted into the tank between the Pike and the minnows. Every time the Pike went for the minnows, he bumped his nose into this glass divider.

Convinced that the minnows were forever beyond reach, he gave up. When the divider was finally removed, the Great Northern Pike never even ventured into the minnow’s territory.

Image via Wikipedia

Sometimes, we are like that Pike. We’ve been convinced that we could never break free from the patterns of defeat and failure that have bound us. Our noses are out of joint, our heads are banged and our hearts are broken. Yet somehow, God gives us the reserve to press on for yet one more try. He gives us resolve and confidence.

Ephesians 2:1-4 talks about living a new life: “You were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy made us alive in Christ.”

What do you think about "the past"?  Comment here.

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Bury your past, Part 1

Image by h.koppdelaney via Flickr

Technology blazes forward in many fashions, but none as remarkable as the computer chip. These chips perform faster and more accurately than ever. Yet, they pale in comparison to the human memory. Like a recurring movie, I can recall many things. Both the good times and the bad times receive equal play in the microprocessor of my brain..

Sadly, for many of us, the most poignant memories are of the slights we have received. We remember the snubs of friends, the insults of enemies, the slights by family. I still recall public humiliations from events on the school bus 30 years ago. Things that should have been erased from my memory bank long ago still crop up in my weakest moment.

I feel like a dog, who continually returns to the soft spot in the back yard and furtively digs up a bone buried long ago. Like an old friend, I return to hurts from yesterday.

Instead of living in the Past, I need to bury the past.

The American Dream

Driving to work each day is a ritual familiar to most everyone. According to the Federal Highway Administration, more than 113 million Americans make their daily drive all alone. That’s plenty of time think.

The morning commute might be the most difficult time for those of us who struggle with the daily grind. There is something about inching to work in the stop and go traffic that heightens our sense of foreboding. We grip the wheel harder as we pull up to the office, knuckles white, stomach in knots, and the anxiety about the day has its hold on us before we even clock in.

So many of us are suffering daily in our work, feeling the persistent and unforgiving discomfort that gnaws at our attitudes and sucks the joy from our lives. We put up with the pain as best we can but it isn’t long before we are peering into our neighbor’s workplace admiring the green grass.

The fantasy about tossing it all and running for the door is very real to many of us.

You wake up in a square house and drive in a square car to work in a square cubicle. You stare at a square screen for hours on end only to drive your square car back to your square home. After your third square meal you plop down in front of a large square television before lying your head down on your square bed.

No wonder you feel boxed in. No wonder you feel trapped. No wonder you feel like it doesn’t make any difference what you do. For some, it’s even a prison.

Welcome to the American dream.

The curse of work

It was Greek thought that first called into question the merits of hard work, seeing manual labor as a curse. This has pervaded many cultures and may now be breaking into our own.

Rather than satisfying our deepest need to be productive, work too often is simply a way to obtain a paycheck. No doubt, technology denigrates the work ethic. We have created mechanical solutions for nearly every task and the sweat of the brow is now replaced by the whir of a machine or the silent calculations of a computer.

"Work smarter, not harder" is a credo of nearly every corporation. Every slacker who wants to wiggle out of work loves this saying. But Ecclesiates tells us "It is good and proper for a man to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun ... to accept his lot and be happy in his work -- this is a gift of God"

God sees our labors and he is pleased. He respects those that work and so should we. Martin Luther wrote that "the works of monks and priests in God's sight are in no way whatever superior to the works of a farmer laboring in the field or a of a woman working in her home." The reformer went on to say that "Man does not live for himself alone .. but he lives also for all men on earth."

Work helps our fellow man. We all wish we could do more for other people. But performing our best in our labors is the highest compliment we can provide for others. When we strive for excellence, we do so for God and we do so for those we serve.

Three men worked on a large building project. One was asked, "What are you doing?" "I'm mixing mortar," he said. The second man said, "I'm helping put up this great stone wall." When the third man was asked, he replied, "I'm building a cathedral to the glory of God."

The Bible tells us that "Whatever we do in word or deed, we should do as unto the Lord."

So here's a cheer ... for work!

On ambition

"Ambition often puts men upon doing the meanest offices; so climbing is performed in the same posture with creeping."

-- Jonathan Swift, Miscellanies, 1711

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Stunts for Jesus

What will it take to break out -- to be all that God has called me to be?

Will it mean a change in profession, even mission work or full-time ministry? How about some great ideas or leadership or "stunts for Jesus?"

Will it require intensive study, deep mediation, or lessons in theology?

The answer is much, much simpler.

"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place if before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him."
—Romans 12:1, The Message

The deep Christian walk is less about a life of great deeds, rather it is more about a thousand little acts of obedience, lived out in your everyday, ordinary life.

And that starts by ingesting the Red Letters of Christ, living out in your school, your home, your work and your neighborhood.

One ...Moment....At a time.

Comment here.

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Faking my way through life

There it is again. It hits you in the middle of the day. That feeling that you don't belong. That undeniable sensation that this a play -- and you are just a bit actor.

They might find me out. That I am an imposter.

In our heart of hearts, we do not want to be left alone, without a God. We don't the crowds to see that we have been faking this confidence our entire lives.

Having looked everywhere else for meaning, the supernatural world is the only venue left. I can take the mask off.

For the millions who continue to wander around the abyss, cut from any sense of meaning, we can only pity and pray for them. They have an answer for their loneliness. Yet, because of their hard hearts, they choose isolation over God

Martin Luther simply stated “Bless us, O. Lord, yea, even curse us — but please be not silent.”

We desperately need the strength of an infinite God who knows us better than we know ourselves.

What will you gain?

Have you ever stood in front of the mirror - and you look into your eyes and you see the hollowness. You see the emptiness. You see deep into your heart -- into the deepest of all your insecurities and fears. The razor is frozen in your hand. The eyeliner pen hovers above your brow. You cannot ever let anyone else see what you see.

"Is this all?"

You've been working hard at your job to get ahead. Long hours. Dedication. Loyalty. And maybe you get a placque that gets dusty and one day you'll hold and wonder what it was for in the first place.

You might get ahead, but fall behind. You might gain some recognition, but is it worth it to lose something much deeper?

"What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" Matt 16:26
Who are you ... really.
What have you given up -- and what have you gained? Comment here.