It is well with my soul.

Alex Bumbaca, a friend and brother in Christ, passed away yesterday of cancer at age 25. God was merciful in taking him quickly and peacefully. God was gracious in bringing new friendships into Alex’s life, and by allowing family to gather and say farewell on Saturday.  God was glorified uniquely in Alex’s gracious spirit, his passion and his desire to speak of God’s love and truth. Your prayers are treasured by his family and by me in this time of grief. May God have His glory in this, and may all who grieve receive comfort at our Fathers hand.

“Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.”

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Random Points

A friend of mine introduced me to the concept of random points. Basically, you accumulate points based on actions and conversations that come out of the blue. The more confused the people around you, the more points you accumulate. This could include random injections into conversation or bizarre interactions. For example:

“Just for random points,” I said mischievously as I reached into my pocket to get something. I placed the object on the footrest in front of her.

With consternation and amusement she voiced the perfect words, “What is that!?”

“It’s a dog wearing sunglasses. I found it on the ground.”

Random points achieved.

Shaped by and Shaping Others – Counting the Costs of Unity

Living out Jesus’ prayer in John 17:20 – 23 is costly.  It requires two actions that scream against the natural tendencies to preserve our stability and mental/emotional safety.

First, to be one with our brothers and sisters in Christ means that we make ourselves available to be shaped by their circumstances, culture, personalities, struggles, and celebrations.  It means that when a sister struggles with depression we risk losing a little bit of our happiness and well-being to sit with her.  To truly be one means forfeiting the option of quick answers and quick fix giving that serves only to end our discomfort and instead to make choices that lead to solidarity.  Biblical unity is an invitation to lose part of yourself, in order to gain a deeper understanding of Christ and the gospel by partnering with people and cultures whose display of Christ in them is at tension with our understanding of the gospel.  In  Ministering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Personal Relationships , the idea of becoming a 150% person is put forth.  As Jesus was the 200% man (fully Jewish man and fully God), we have the opportunity to forfeit part of our identity when we truly bind ourselves to other people – in order that we may gain a portion of their culture and identity (Lose 25%, gain 75% = 150% for those of you who needed the math).  Losing a chunk of identity is not an easy or pleasant task.  Two years ago, if you asked me about world missions I would have told you that it seemed like escapism, and that those who chose to minister in other countries were often running away from the poverty and depravity in America.  I would have been quick to point out that there are plenty of needs here and invited you to consider Skid Row, Tent City, New London, or Delft Colony.  But over the last year I have been partnering with and walking alongside a sister whose heart is for international ministry and it forced me to adjust my way of looking at missional Christianity.  I had to risk loosing my heart and passion for local missions in order to take on the wider passion of God for His glory to be proclaimed in the nations.  At times it felt like dying.  My ministry mindset came into question, the value of my work came into question, and I questioned my location of ministry and my methods.  Things that had gone unchecked for 5 or 7 years came under my personal scrutiny as I examined scripture for God’s heart in missions.  As I wrestled, and continue to wrestle, it has turned from dying to living once again.  I have a growing passion for every nation, tribe and tongue.  My heart now expands far beyond Dinuba – but the work God has in this small town is more satisfying in the context of His global work.  I have an increased urgency to see people and people groups reached for Christ, not wanting any voice absent from the heavenly choir.  In short, I have become more because I risked losing part of myself by partnering with the work of Christ in a dear sister.

There is a second risk in being one, however.  The risk of allowing yourself to be known.  In allowing others into your life to the point where it shapes both you and them.  To realize that just as others have a valuable reflection of Christ that is uniquely theirs so also are you individually gifted and created.  Allowing others to invest in you and your dreams means that you risk influencing the understanding of Christ in people around you.  This has happened to me twice in very noticeable ways, and quite frankly it freaks me out.  To see my personal culture, values and theology replicated in people around me is scary.  In sharing my passion for John 17 with a friend, she put me to shame by memorizing it…all of it.  Another time, a conflict arose in a meeting about risk vs. safety in ministry.  A student and close friend whom I have spent much time with was at the meeting but didn’t speak up.  After everyone else had left I sat down to debrief with him and the conversation was incredible.  Both his reason for maintaining silence, and his internal reaction to the conflict were shaped by the the work of Christ in me.  They were choices that I would have made based on my relationship with Christ – and his relationship with Christ was mirroring that.  Unity costs having your personal relationship with Christ made public and put on display through those who you invite into your life.

On the same note of allowing others into your life, true solidarity also means that you risk allowing others into your sufferings, frustrations, and failures.  This is dangerous for maintaining anger, self pity, depression, isolation, and any number of other real yet potentially unhealthy emotions.  To show oneself as weak in community is admiting that not only can you not work it out alone, but that at times you can’t work things out between just you and God.  It feels like you’re somehow less (less of a Christian, less of a man, etc.).  But the truth is we weren’t created to deal with life (pain, struggle, celebration and all) apart from others.  We were created to be in community with God AND with others.  Our interpersonal relationships are one of the ways God has chosen to help us understand His relationship to us.  Just look at scriptures in Hosea and Revelation and the use of marriage imagery to describe God’s relation to His people.  By recieving forgiveness, grace, and care from our brothers and sisters we get a sliver of a glimpse of the abundance of those things that dwell in Christ.  We can more easily put legs on the things that we know in our head when we experience them through the incarnational presence of fellow believers in our lives.  Humbling ourselves and allowing others in allows us to gain depth, wisdom, and compassion in our ability to walk alongside others.

Thoughts on Suffering: A late response to “a cultural guide for the non believer”

In response to a previous post “a cultural guide for the non believer” wrote:

The sent thing is neat. God damned his only son to save us since we are his sons. I don’t like the idea of suffering for God or Jesus because we already have and so did Jesus. I think Jesus example is to damn lucifer. I think that is what he was trying to do with his life and save us from him and get us back to what we were before lucifer damned.

First off, thanks for the comment (if you ever visit again after having being ignored for a month).  I agree that Christ’s sacrifice has released us from the curse of Adam, has redeemed us to be daughters and sons of God, and provided complete and sufficient victory over lucifer.  However, I do want to push a little on the sentence “I don’t like the idea of suffering for God or Jesus because we already have and so did Jesus.”  I believe this was mostly in response to my statement “Christ enables us to suffer for God and for one another with zeal, joy, and patience.”  I don’t think anyone naturally “likes the idea of suffering” but Christ redefined suffering for righteousness sake and on his account as blessing (Matthew 5:10-12, Luke 6:22-23).  (On a short side note – the Beatitudes make me uncomfortable when I think of how lightly we say “God bless you”).  Through Christ we are freed to live out a worldly oxymoron – we get to suffer gladly!  This was a viewpoint elemental to the early church.  They sacrificed wealth to live in community (Acts 2:44-47), they rejoiced at persecution (Acts 5:41), and the first martyr blessed his executioners by asking for their pardon (Acts 7:60).  We even find Paul, after having been stoned and left for dead, returning to the city where he suffered to strengthen and encourage the disciples there “to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:19-22).  Then we get to the rest of the New Testament!  In Romans we are exhorted to “also rejoice in our sufferings” (5:3-5), and most directly in response to “a cultural guide” our adoption spoken of in terms of dependence on our suffering with Christ.  “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him” (Romans 8:16-17).  Now this suffering is not damnation or the wrath of God – but purification and refining for glory.  It is one of the most basic ways of imitating Christ so long as we approach it with joy, “(L)ooking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb. 12:2).  One passage really ties it all together much better than I can, and that is 1 Peter 4:12-19 which states:

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.  But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.  Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?  And

“If the righteous is scarcely saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”

Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.”

So after all that scriptural bludgeoning (sorry – I got carried away), I must admit I was a little off when I wrote “Christ enables us to suffer for God and for one another with zeal, joy, and patience.”  That sentence could potentially leave the burden of suffering on the individual if the reader placed the emphasis on suffering for God and one another.  A better wording might have been “Christ enables us to suffer with and for him and with and for one another with zeal, joy, and patience.”  The word “for” captures the obedience and individual action that we are called to, but the word “with” takes us into relationship – and suffering outside of relationship is hell.

All scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version.  Emphasis was added by me by marking some words in bold.