Risk

If you want to enter the kingdom of God, you must be like a little child. What does that mean? Childlike how? Trust? What does childlike trust look like?

In a healthy family, a child can know of their parents’ love and nuturing, but when it comes to learning new things like walking, riding a bike, or rollerskating, or whatever the experience is, that child is going to have to experience bumps, bruises, scrapes, scabs and cuts. Why? Because they have to learn. The parents, no matter how much they love them and want to protect them, have to let the child learn. They can offer tips, advice, wisdom and insight, but the child has to do it. The child has to risk something personally to gain the experience.

As an adult, how often do you or I ever have a bruise, bump, scrape or scab? Who do you see wearing the casts-adults or kids? I don’t need to answer those questions for you-you know the answer. But what happens to us? Why do we get more conservative and safe as we get older? (p.s. Please don’t answer “wisdom” on this one…..) As we grow older, we tend to take less risks, we want to be safer and we avoid pain at all costs. Where is that in the Bible?

Moses was 80 when he led Israel out of Egypt. Abraham was almost 100 when he had Isaac, and over 100 when he had to sacrifice him on top of Moriah. David probably didn’t become king of all of Israel until he was at least 30, and some scholars suggest closer to 40. And after he became king, he went on to do even more great things!

Why do we play it safe the older we get? And why do we love movies of heroism and greatness (Braveheart and Gladiator, just to name a couple), but at the same time, we are too afraid to pursue anything risky? I think it is rooted in some hidden fear that Satan puts in our hearts. Can you imagine what the Kingdom of God would look like if it was led by an army of grown-ups who have the resources and the wisdom of age, but also the risk-taking trusting heart of a child? The earth would tremble.

The irony is that we want safety and security, but that’s the one thing God never promised. The beautiful promise of God involved His faithfulness and that He wouldn’t leave us or forsake us. The things we do in life that seem adventurous take some risk: Rock climbing, water skiing, surfing, investing….. What about living for God? When did that become safe?

If living for God is supposed to be the greatest “adventure” of all (thank you, Steven Curtis), then what are we risking? And if we can’t think of a good answer to that, then are we truly living the kind of life that Christ taught us in the New Testament?

We study and follow a book full of true accounts of people who lived risky unsafe lives, and yes, they sometimes screwed up. But how can we claim to follow God and not live the same kind of life?

Side Effects Include Watery Eyes and Runny Nose

The end result is all about US. Of course, this isn't the central idea that we think about in church, and I'm not advocating selfishness. But it's hard to sidestep the idea in scripture that those who help others and love the least, last and lost will find healing and strength for themselves-that they would discover their own salvation. By loving our neighbor, could we actually be getting healed inside our hearts?

We'd all agree that loving God comes first, and loving our neighbor second. But strangely enough, scripture also reverses itself and says that if we don't do the second, then the first can't exist inside of us. That is, if we don't love our neighbor, how can we say we love God? (See 1 John 3)

There's an underground revolution going on in south Florida involving some people that are going out and loving their neighbor. Some are quietly going out and serving in a soup kitchen. Others love on a widow or a foster kid. Even others are becoming friends with the homeless. In the old Western movies, when the Indians would see something powerful like this, they would say, "That is strong medicine!"

Without stereotyping our Native American brothers and sisters, I would submit that loving your neighbor is Strong Medicine. It's powerful, speaks for itself, and has some strange and crazy side effects. For example, through this love and action, people emerge from the labels and social classes. People! Names, faces, stories of brokenness, marriages, kids, and parents….. They aren't "homeless" or "orphans" or "foster kids" or "widows." They are people; they are Bruce and Malin, Etta and Gladys.

The book of James tells us that pure religion is taking care of the widows and the orphans. Jesus tells us that the final judgment will in part be based on how much we showed his love to the unlovable. Jesus says that the hope and love we have in our hearts is the Good News that we can share with the world! The good news isn't a list of spiritual laws or a handful of verses that you have to say in a specific order to be right. The Good News is love for the unloved, hope for the hopeless. It's light in the darkness, and salt for the bland and bored. Its water for the thirsty, bread for the hungry, friends for the lonely, and strength for the weak.

We are sitting on the strongest medicine the world has ever known, and we have to take it to our neighbors.

Acts 1:8 Jesus tells us to go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth with this Love.

In other words, go to your development, neighborhood, city, county and then wherever! Most of us think that we have to drive or fly somewhere to do this, or support someone else's trip around the globe to do it. But I would suggest that we have to start small-with Jerusalem. With our development/condo building/street. So let me ask you a couple questions I have been asking myself lately.

1. Do you know your neighbors' names? Let's just start with the ones you see regularly-the ones who's houses/condos/town homes are adjacent to yours. Do you know them?
2. Do you think that you can't go out and do anything significant for God because of your family/kids/husband/wife?
3. What if God didn't ask you to go around the world or get a passport or learn a system in order to love your neighbor. What if it was just as easy as becoming friends with your neighbors and showing them what Jesus looks like?
4. What if by loving your neighbor, you could teach your wife/husband/kids about the love of God by example? You'd never have to leave your family to do ministry. It would happen on your street.
5. What if your entire church could capture this vision? What would your city start to look like?

Let me warn you, this is revolutionary. It's not an officially sanctioned program of any one church. It has to be a lifestyle. People will ask "When will you start telling them about Jesus?" Let me tell you, without speaking a word, you already have been preaching Jesus to them with your actions. So let me ask you this:

What if I asked your neighbors these questions about Jesus based on your actions alone representing Christ? If you were the only Jesus they knew, how would they answer?

1. Based on (your name here) actions, does Jesus know your name?
2. Does Jesus care about your problems?
3. Is Jesus friendly and helpful, or gruff and self-absorbed?
Let me just say, it's convicting to me. But I have slowly been learning to love my neighbor (yes I know their names NOW) and I've discovered a part of the Kingdom of God that isn't often spoken of in church.

What if loving your neighbor wasn't about what they got out of it, but it was actually for you? What if Isaiah 58 was true? What if we did Isaiah 58:6, 7, 9 and 10? Scripture tells us that if we love our neighbor, then the side effects are all about our own healing. It develops the light in us, it heals our hearts, our salvation comes through it, and we won't get dried up because the Lord will keep us watered. The end result isn't that it helps someone else. That's merely a side effect. The end result is that we are saved and healed! The end result is that we look more and more like Jesus every day.

It starts with our neighbors. Which is more difficult-to love someone on the other side of the world for 10 days on a mission trip or to consistently love your neighbor every day? Start at home, and you'll discover there's a Strong Medicine, and It might mess up everything you've ever been told.

Quote of the Day

“Just as the Christian should not be constantly feeling his spiritual pulse, so too, the Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be constantly taking its temperature.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, p. 30.

Old School Jams

Check out the lyrics below to the 1992 hit by Arrested Development titled "Mr. Wendal".....

Here, have a dollar,
in fact no brotherman here, have two
Two dollars means a snack for me,
but it means a big deal to you
Be strong, serve God only,
know that if you do, beautiful heaven awaits
That's the poem I wrote for the first time
I saw a man with no clothes, no money, no plate
Mr.Wendal, that's his name,
no one ever knew his name cause he's a no-one
Never thought twice about spending on a ol' bum,
until I had the chance to really get to know one
Now that I know him, to give him money isn't charity
He gives me some knowledge, I buy him some shoes
And to think blacks spend all that money on big colleges,
still most of y'all come out confused

[CHORUS:]
Go ahead, Mr.Wendal (2x)

Mr.Wendal has freedom,
a free that you and I think is dumb
Free to be without the worries of a quick to diss society
for Mr.Wendal's a bum
His only worries are sickness
and an occasional harassment by the police and their chase
Uncivilized we call him,
but I just saw him eat off the food we waste
Civilization, are we really civilized, yes or no ?
Who are we to judge ?
When thousands of innocent men could be brutally enslaved
and killed over a racist grudge
Mr.Wendal has tried to warn us about our ways
but we don't hear him talk
Is it his fault when we've gone too far,
and we got too far, cause on him we walk
Mr.Wendal, a man, a human in flesh,
but not by law
I feed you dignity to stand with pride,
realize that all in all you stand tall

[CHORUS]

Mr.Wendal, Lord, Mr.Wendal