Author: The Trucking Monk

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Seasons

Seasons are a part of life. Good times.  Slumps.  Mountaintop experiences. Valley dryness. Celebrations. Blahs. They’re all common to our world.

I’ve struggled with the effects of Bipolar all my life,  although I’ve only been aware of the cause for a couple years. The effects tend to exaggerate whatever I’m going through at the time, so the good is the best and the blah is the worst.

Over the years I have learned a few ways to help me overcome the effects of my down and depressed periods.

1. Many years ago I attended a police academy. The course included physical training, primarily running. My body hates running. During the weeks we trained, I was invariably the last runner and not even close to the minimum requirements.  One day as we ran I was so far behind, I couldn’t see anyone else.  My body ached.  My mind was numb. I was ready to quit, even though I was near the top of the class in all other respects. That was when I noticed the instructor,  a leutenant in the local PD, had circled back to me. I expected him to upbraid me or harass me for being so slow.  Instead, he matched my pace and gave me a phrase to dwell on when I felt I couldn’t keep going:

NEVER GIVE UP.  DO NOT QUIT.  Just another minute, you can hear the sirens, HELP IS ON THE WAY.

2. In the movie ‘the Patriot’ Benjamin Martin (played by Mel Gibson) is a peaceful plantation owner drawn into the Revolutionary war by the murder of his second son. After losing his eldest son, he is defeated, disheartened, and ready to quit and go back to his farm.  His friend challenges him to Stay the Course,  to remember what he is fighting for and trying to accomplish.  His reply, borne out of despair is ‘I have run my course’. But as he packs his son’s effects, he finds the war torn battle flag that his son has painstakingly resewn. Finding that token restores his resolve.

When I am in the dark days I find that looking to the past and finding the highlights helps me to remember what I am striving toward,  even if it doesn’t seem I’m making any progress at the present.  It strengthens my resolve to

STAY THE COURSE.

3. I honestly don’t remember where I learned this phrase, but the idea is that just as in winter, as the cold gets so bad another day seems unbearable the sun comes out and warms things up, at least for a day or two.  Or in summer when it feels like a furnace, it rains and cools things down.  All we have to do is hold out a few more days.  We know it’s coming, we just don’t know when. As surely as spring follows winter and autumn follows summer;

THIS TOO SHALL PASS.

Whatever dry spell I’m going through, whether job related, relationship, or spiritual, I’ve learned to hunker down, focus on the goal, and wait for God to work things out in His time.

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Worldview

As I’m sitting here scrolling through my Facebook feed and scanning the news, I’m thinking, why is it that we all disagree so much? Can’t we ever come to some consensus? What makes tempers flare and blood boil so fast?  In the words of a person from the recent past, ‘can’t we all just get along? ‘

The short answer is no, we can’t.

Well why not? In a word, WORLDVIEW.

Worldview is the way we understand what reality is. It’s how we see everything around us. Worldview forms the foundation for everything we hold dear, believe, and how we think and act. Our worldview drives who we are.

There are many pillars that make up the foundation of our worldview.  Let me describe a few:

Truth – Is it absolute or relative? Is there an objective reality or is everything just my perspective?

God – Is there a god? What is the nature of god?

Mankind – Were we created or have we evolved? Do we exist for just this lifetime or is there something after this life? Are we basically good or bad or neither?

Morality – Are ethics and morality absolute and permanent or relative and situational?

Personality and Identity – Are they inherent or learned,  nature or nurture, fixed or changeable?

I’m sure there are many, many others and some I don’t even see because of my worldview.

Most of these pillars are so closely entertwined that the answer to one necessarily influences the other,  i.e. if the is no God, mankind can’t be created nor do we owe any allegiance to Him. Or if there is no absolute truth then there can be no absolute morality.

Society’s varied, sometimes antithetical, answers to these questions helps to explain why it seems we’re always fighting about what seems patently obvious to us. Obviously,  if we are products of natural evolution, then to speak of a God who has made us and expects something from us is nonsensical.  Likewise obviously,  if there is an absolute true reality expressed as God, then to ignore and deny Him is utter folly.

If our worldview does form the foundation through which we see everything, it follows that anything that does not fit into that worldview is nonsensical, silly, even wrong and dangerous.

Can our worldview change? Yes. When we come face to face with a situation that our current worldview has no answer for,  we either deny the evidence before us or modify our worldview.  As an example, many of us grew up with the worldview that our dad was perfect,  a shining knight,  superman, and batman all rolled into one. But as we got older, we saw the chinks in his armor, and his cape got torn. Our worldview changed. We saw him for who he really was, good and bad, warts and all.

So what can we do when we encounter a worldview that is radically, even diametrically opposed to ours?

I see five options:

1. We can CONQUER, verbally, politically, or even physically, to ‘prove’ the truth of our position.
Win/Lose.
Unsatisfactory, for that just proves which one is stronger, not which one is right.

Ideally, we will use REASON and DISCOURSE to reach one of the other solutions.

2. We can CAPITULATE.
Lose/Win.
Unsatisfactory, the side that gives in will resent the other, while the side that ‘wins’ will despise the other.

3. We can COMPROMISE.
Lose/Lose.
Somewhat better but still not great.  Both sides must give something that is dear to them. They will still be looking to win.

4. We can COOPERATE.
Win/Win.
Best option, when we look for ways that all sides are honored and included.

If we have exhausted reason and discourse, we can’t reach options two through four, and we avoid option one,  perhaps the only thing left, at least for the present is option five:

5. Agree to disagree. Leave each other alone. You go your way and I’ll go mine.  The temptation here is that while we agree to disagree, we really are just preparing for option one.

Perhaps the best we can do has best been expressed by the Apostle Peter:

“always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect….”
1Pe 3:15

And always remembering what the Apostle Paul said:

“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ….”
Eph 4:15

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Dear Jesus

To: Jesus of Nazareth,  Gallilean Ministries

From: The Ecumenical Council of Jerusalem

We would like to commend you on building such a large ministry in such a short time.  To have attracted  the large number of followers you have in just three years is unheard of.

We are especially proud (and a little jealous) of the good work it is reported you have been doing among the poor and hungry,  sick and deformed.

We do have a few questions, however.

It is reported that on at least two occasions you and your disciples fed groups numbering upwards of five thousand people. We know from our inquiries that your ministry operates on a very limited budget with no visible means of support.  Furthermore,  there are no markets or warehouses in those locations where you might have procured the food. Where did you get it and what means did you use?  We would like to have our investigators drop by to discuss this matter with you.

There are numerous reports of so called healings taking place when you are around. We have no record of you attending any medical school nor are you licensed to practice medicine in our country.  The reports have stated that you have spat on people and made mud from the street as poultices. These unsanitary practices must stop immediately.  Please cease and desist from ‘healing’ unless and until you are properly trained and duly licensed.

Next, in regards to your teaching. We enjoy your messages about love and acceptance, they are truly heart warming, especially the ‘love thy neighbor’ and ‘judge not’ series. We are very concerned however about your more controversial messages such as ‘remain in the vine’ and ‘every tree that does not bear fruit will be cut off’. These sound very condemning and unloving.  Most worrisome for us are the times you have said ‘go and sin no more’, ‘ stop sinning or something worse will happen to you’, and ‘a tree is known by it’s fruit’. Who are you to tell another person what is right or wrong?  Don’t you know that each person has the right to determine right and wrong for themself? In the future, please stick to platitudes and refrain from moralizing.

Your view of our holy writings is, shall we say,  alarming. You seem to think that you know how they should best be interpreted, ignoring the schools of thought that have been carefully developed over the centuries. You want us to believe that they should be taken and believed as they are written, when it is obvious to everyone that they are outdated and in need of modernizing for each new generation. Your repeated use of the phrases ‘have you not read’ and ‘Moses said’ indicate an alarming bent toward fundamentalism that has no place in our culture. It also shows a distinct lack of education.  Where did you attend seminary and where did you receive your ordination? We find no record of these events.  Please forward us copies of the pertinent documents.

Finally and most distressing to us are your statements concerning yourself.  You repeatedly have called yourself ‘the Son of Man’ and ‘my Father’s Son’. You said ‘I and the Father are one’. You even claimed the holy name ‘I AM’. You claimed the prerogatives of God himself;  power of healing,  power over nature,  power over death,  forgiveness of sin.

Surely you understand what it would mean for your claims to be true. For if you were actually God, then we would have to listen to you,  to obey you,  to fall at your feet and worship you. It would mean we have to accept what you said, including your acceptance of our holy writings.  And most distasteful of all,  it would mean you have the right to tell us how to live.

In light of these objections,  please refrain from referring to yourself as messiah or God or any variation thereof.

Your immediate attention in these matters will forestall legal action on our part.

Ecumenical Council of Jerusalem, consisting of
The Pharisees, The Saducees, The Scribes, and all the Good and Moral people of Israel.

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Fakes and Wolves

Enough.  Enough!!

It is time  and past time, for the Church, the true universal Church to stand up and throw the bums out.

The fakes.
The unbelievers.
The wolves.
The charlatans.
The false teachers.

Both Jesus and Paul were unafraid to ‘hurt feelings’ and call out both false teaching and false teachers.  Paul even went so far as to name  specific people and, on his authority as an apostle,  order the church to shun them.

If you don’t believe in the triune God – Father, Son, and Spirit,  fine, that’s your right. Just don’t call yourself a Christian, because you’re not.

If you don’t believe that the second person of the trinity came to earth as a baby,  lived,  taught,  was killed,  was buried, rose again, went back to the Father in glory,  and is coming again,  fine, that’s your right. Just don’t call yourself a Christian, because you’re not.

If you don’t believe that Jesus is the way, the only unique way, to get to God,  fine, that’s your right. Just don’t call yourself a Christian, because you’re not.

If you don’t believe that only those who accept and trust Christ in this life will be welcomed into His Presence, and that those who don’t will be cast out of His Presence, fine, that’s your right. Just don’t call yourself a Christian, because you’re not.

If you don’t believe that the proof of your salvation is a life lived in trust and obedience to His Word in thought and in deed,  ethically, morally, and relationally, fine, that’s your right. Just don’t call yourself a Christian, because you’re not.

If you redefine the words of scripture or explain away clear teaching to suit modern theories, fine, that’s your right. Just don’t call yourself a Christian, because you’re not.

If you’re a teacher or leader in the church and you teach contrary to Scripture and the historic teaching of the church, you are a false teacher. It matters not your pedigree or how many degrees you have,  you are a wolf.

It is time to clean house.

Starting with ourselves.

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Weeping

Umpqua valley weeps tonight.

Today we experienced a tragedy that most of us thought could never happen in our little town. Unimagined pain. Lives lost. Families changed forever. A shooting on the campus of our local college.

Two questions will be asked by many people in the next few days.

1) WHY did this happen? Put more bluntly, Why did God let this happen? Couldn’t He stop it. Wouldn’t He stop it? If God is so good and all powerful, then why?

The Bible makes clear throughout the whole two things:

  • God IS Good. He IS Love. Every good adjective you can think of applies to Him. it is His very nature to be Good and Loving and Just and Gracious.
  • God is power. All power in our world ultimately flows from Him, since it was created by Him.

So WHY does He stand by and watch such evil and tragedy happen? Free Will. When God made mankind, He said. “Let Us make man in Our image”. We understand that to mean we were created first and foremost with the ability and desire to make our own moral choices. We can choose to do good or to do evil. If God were to step in and counteract our choices then we really would have no choice. We would be like little automatons that could only do He wanted. A result of giving us the ability to choose is that there are consequences to our choices, good and bad, direct and indirect. Again if He shielded us from those consequences, then our choices, in effect, become meaningless.

Then WHY did He give us free will? So we could freely choose to love Him. He chose to allow our choices that cause pain and suffering and death to continue so that some could choose to come to Him.

2) What is death? What happens after? Do I just stop existing or is there something else? Some would say death is the end. Finished. Done. Some would say you get to come back for another go round. Some would say we all get absorbed by the eternal everything.

The Bible says that after we die we are caught up into the presence of the most glorious, awesome, beautiful being we could ever (or not even) imagine. There we will have to answer one question. Not ‘how much good did you do?’, or ‘what did you do for others’, or even ‘what did you do for God’.

The question we will have to ask is “Did you love me, did you follow Me, did you do what I asked you to do?”

Our answer to that question determines whether we will spend all eternity with Him, enjoying His presence, or an eternity alone, outside His presence.

Choose Carefully

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Hospital or Cruise Ship?

An Open Letter to the Church in America

A phrase that’s been bandied about lately is, ‘Don’t judge others for sinning differently than you’. The sentiment behind that is that the world looks at us and sees that we are no different than they.

As a group, we watch the same entertainment, talk the same trash, buy the same toys, have extramarital affairs, live together outside of marriage, get divorced and remarried, just like they do. We’re mean, critical, abusive people. We cheat, we steal, we lie, just like them.

We’re hypocrites.

Not all of us, of course, but enough that our reputation is destroyed.

The church has been described as a hospital. A place where broken, hurt, wounded people come to get healed and in turn, go on to help heal others.

We have become a cruise ship. A place where you come as you are, be entertained, and leave just the same as you were. No one dares to call out our sin to us for fear of offending and driving us away. If someone dares to try to live holy, they are mocked as self righteous.

If we ever hope to be the Church that God calls us to be, our churches need to become hospitals again. We need to know each other on a deeper level. We need to call each other out and be eager to be called out.

Brother, if you see a brother sinning, go to him and righteously counsel him. Sister, if a sister points out a sin to you, fall on your knees before God in confession, then rise in His power and DO something about it.

Only then will the world see us as His bride and not as hypocrites.

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On Whose Authority?

One of the most common phrases I’ve heard this past week is some variation of ‘what gives you (narrow-minded, bigoted, hateful) Christians the right to tell anybody how to live?’ And they’re right. I have no authority, of myself, to tell anybody else anything.

IF, as most people assume, I am here by chance and there is no god, or only one of my own imagining; If religion is only a construct of culture and social engineering; if there is no absolute truth; then the only constraints on me are myself and whatever social and cultural constraints I choose to accept.

BUT, if there is an absolute truth, an absolute reality outside of any human construct; if there is a Being who created us, then that Being has the Right to direct me and correct me and constrain me.

  • The Bible says God created everything, including me.
  • The Bible says mankind rebelled against God.
  • The Bible says God chose a particular tribe to bring His message of love and peace with Him to all mankind.
  • The Bible says that He himself came to this world and lived as a man, to show us what a perfect man looks like, and to make a way for each of us to come back to Him.
  • The Bible says He taught His followers how to live in such a way as to please Him.
  • The Bible says that He was killed, was buried, and that He rose from the dead never to die again, went back to heaven, and is returning soon to settle all accounts and re-create this world perfect again.
  • The Bible says it was written by men who actually talked with God, and were directed by Him to write it.

Our choice is extremely simple:

Either the Bible is our authority for understanding who God is and what He wants from us, or we have made ourselves our own authority.

God help us to choose wisely.

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God Speaks, Culture Responds

God says, ‘I alone am God, there is no other’.
Culture says, ‘What god? There is no god at all.’

God says, ‘Worship only me, do not make anything higher than Me.’
Culture says, ‘Self and pleasure are the highest good, that’s what’s important.

God says, ‘Respect My name and My character.’
Culture ignores God’s character and uses His name as a swear word.

God says, ‘Take one day a week to worship Me and to rest and reflect on all I have done.’
Culture says, ‘Go flat out 24/7 until you drop.’

God says, ‘Respect those who have come before you in this world.’
Culture says, ‘The elderly are washed up and need to be housed away from productive people.’

God says, ‘All human life is precious, don’t end it gratuitously or in malice.’
Culture says, ‘I’m important, you’re not, if you’re in my way, I will dispose of you.’

God says, ‘Marriage, between one man and one woman, is MY invention and is the only place where sex belongs.’
Culture says, ‘it’s MY body and I can do whatever I want, with whoever I want, whenever I want.’

God says, ‘Respect other people’s things, don’t take things that aren’t yours.’
Culture says, ‘Take all you can, give nothing in return.’

God says, ‘Honor, respect, speak, and live out truth.’
Culture says, ‘Tell people what they want to hear. Don’t offend them. Make up a good story to protect yourself.’

God says, ‘Don’t want what I haven’t given you.’
Culture says, More, More, More. Grab everything you can. Keep up with, and surpass, the Jones’s.’

God says, ‘There will come a day when I will suffer their sins and affronts no more.’
Culture says, ‘Yeah, right. When?’

God says, ‘I will come like a thief in the night. Behold, I am coming quickly.’

Even so, Lord Jesus, come.

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The Coming Conflict

There is a conflict coming.

A struggle between people who believe, teach, and strive to live out the concepts embodied by a traditional understanding of biblical principles and those people who do not hold such views (I will use the terms traditionalists and moderns as shorthand). If some moderns have their way, traditionalists will be silenced, not only publicly but privately also. This will be a fight for the very existence in any meaningful way of traditionalists in our culture.

We have already seen the beginning of this, such as;

  • Extracurricular bible study groups being kicked out of schools that allow any other type of group.
  • Private small businesses being forced to provide services that violate their beliefs.
  • Selective enforcement of zoning and parking laws to inhibit church and small home group meetings.
  • Selective enforcement of free speech issues such as public preaching, demonstrating, discussing faith on the job, office cubicle decor, etc.
  • Selective enforcement by Child Protective Services against traditionalists (and anyone who does not share their rigid view of child rearing).

While it has not happened in the U.S. (yet), I have seen examples of extreme modernism that advocate stripping all parental rights from traditionalists, stripping tax exempt status and even the legal right to exist from any traditionalist congregation, criminalizing traditionalist preaching (even within a church setting), and many others.

There are three camps in this struggle:

  • Traditionalists who wish to see moderns eliminated from the culture.
  • Moderns who wish to see traditionalists eliminated from the culture.
  • Moderates on both sides who wish to see a live and let live attitude preside along with a healthy debate

For many years those in power held a traditionalist view for society, even if they didn’t personally live it out. Sadly, they marginalized all with whom they disagreed. Many people were hurt by a system that could only see ‘my way or the highway’.

Over the past few decades, moderns sought, fought for, and finally achieved a seat at the table of cultural debate (and rightly so). But now that moderns are in power, they seek to do the same thing to those they disagree with that was done to them and their forerunners.

One of the clarion calls of modernism has always been that every voice should be heard and no viewpoint should be silenced. Yet now they seek to do that very thing to traditionalists.

  • How long will moderates stand by and watch as the moderns in power chip away at traditionalists’ right to a seat at the table of public discourse?
  • How long before moderate traditionalists find themselves perceived as extremists, therefore to be silenced?
  • How long before traditionalists, fearing for their survival, rise up violently, and bring condemnation from the culture and retribution from those in power on themselves?

I do not know if these things will happen or if the pendulum of culture will start swinging back toward traditionalism. But I do foresee, that if nothing changes, a conflict is coming, and it will not end well (from a cultural perspective) for traditionalists.

So what can traditionalists do to retain and regain a seat at the table of cultural influence?

First, two things that would be extremely bad for us:

  1. To do nothing at all, and watch what little influence we have now evaporate.
  2. To rise up in armed insurrection and be marginalized by the culture and criminalized by the powers that be.

What’s left for us to do?

Love and Pray.

Jesus taught us to ‘love your enemies and pray for those that despitefully use you’.

What does it mean to ‘love your neighbor’?

  • Does it mean agree with them? No.
  • Does it mean argue with them? No.
  • Does it mean accept all behaviors as normal or good? No.
  • Does it mean take anyone into your fellowship of believers, regardless of whether they’ve shown heart change? No.

It means pray for them, go to them, care for them, feed them, clothe them, visit them, let them know they are important to you as a person, not a statistic or conquest. Only then will we have the opportunity to invite them into the kingdom.

We need to clean house.

Live out what we say we believe.

The early church, while hated for it’s message, was respected for it’s authenticity. They were known for actually being the kind of people they preached you should be.

Sadly the way many people see Christians is as hypocrites, and for good reason. Many that are in our churches ARE hypocrites, or worse yet, false teachers and brothers.

  • We need to fall on our face before God and let Him expose and convict us of the garbage that entangles us… and then get rid of it.
  • We need to purge our churches of the snakes, and lions, and false brothers and teachers among us. Not by indiscriminately kicking them out but by showing them their errors and urging them to get right. Only if they steadfastly refuse to repent MUST the church sever ties with them.

Only when we become and are seen as authentic followers of Christ who truly love others and truly live out what we say we believe will we begin to have an impact on our culture again.

We need to separate being a Christian from being an American.

Our identity is in Christ, not in the Constitution. As long as we continue to conflate being holy with being patriotic, we will continue to drive people away. We drive away three groups at the same time:

  • Those who are Americans, but not Christians.
  • Those who are Christians, but not Americans.
  • Those who are not Americans and not Christians.

I’m not saying don’t be patriotic, but rather, understand that governments come and go, our ‘rights’ can be taken away, our freedoms can be limited or withheld, but God is forever.

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The Wishing Well

When my beautiful bride and I got married (many many years ago), one of the cherished memories we created was using a crystal wishing well as a cake topper. That sparkling piece was a symbol of the hopes and dreams we each held for the future. It was also a reminder of the uncertainty that lay before us. Would we be happy? Could we learn to adjust to each other? What was just around the bend for us?

Not very long after, that shiny object was sitting on a shelf, observed but rarely thought about. Within a few short years, as we were moving to a new home, the wishing well became cracked and broken. It truly symbolized our lives at that time. Like the pretty glass, our marriage was crumbling around us. I was pulling away and she was glad for it, as I was not a pleasant person then. By God’s grace He saved our marriage and healed both of us. (read our story here)

I’m not sure what ever happened to the original piece, but we soon replaced the broken well with a new shiny one to symbolize (again) our newly reformed union. And like the first one, it soon ended up on a shelf gathering dust.

One of the strategies we have learned to keep our relationship vibrant and growing through the years is to take time together to love and study each other and to learn new habits for life. We recently enjoyed a time we called ‘A Weekend to Remember‘. Our weekend included laughs, love, and learning. One of the special things I planned for my princess was that I would do all the cooking (and cleaning!). I set a special table with our best dishes and tablecloth, and even got out the (now dusty) wishing well.

As we looked over and past it that first evening, my lady jumped a little then started laughing. It seemed that even though I had dusted off the wishing well and it was sparkling clean on the outside, a bug had decided to crawl into the bucket and die! We spent the better part of the meal discussing how much that wishing well mirrored our marriage. We talked about our resolve to continue cleaning not just the outside of our marriage (how we look to other people), but the necessity of cleaning our hearts and desires and motives. In short, making sure that the important part of our relationship is whole and wholesome and healthy.

I would encourage each you to plan your own Weekend to Remember. Find a marriage seminar or get a DVD of one. Plan special meals and events. Act as though the only other person that is important is your spouse. If you need ideas, contact me… I have tons of ’em.