Carey Nieuwhof

Grieving MJ - or something else?

Today's service for Michael Jackson was fascinating for so many reasons.  

More people seem to have been moved by Jackson since he died than when he was alive.  So what's the deal?  

But it's not just MJ.  It seems like we have a growing need to acknowledge public passages more than ever before.  Think Princess Diana. Even think Pierre Trudeau.  Sometimes the emotion surrounding a death are greater than the emotion surrounding the life we are celebrating.  

What's going on?  Why is that?  Why do we seem to be grieving more openly, more publicly and more profoundly?  Is it just me, or is the reaction to select deaths far greater than it ought to be?  Not that we shouldn't grieve Michael Jackson (he was an incredibly gifted artist).  It's just that this seems to me to be way out of proportion to how we felt about him when he was alive.

A few thoughts:

• Although God gets moved more and more to the sidelines of most people's lives, our desire to worship - the human need to worship - doesn't go away.  If we're not worshipping God, we'll create gods.  Happened then.  Is this just what it looks like now?

• A pastor I respect said that in his view, one of the biggest phenomenons of life today is that people accumulate ungrieved losses.  Life is so fast, we often ignore small losses and big losses. We lose a contract, but rather than pay attention to our feelings, we just stuff them and move on.  A distant aunt dies, we pause for a minute, but our day moves on.  We lose a job.  Lose a friend, but we keep moving.  Do events like this arrest our attention and cause disproportionate emotional responses because essentially, we're not grieving Michael nearly as much as we're grieving all the other losses that have accumulated over the months and years? I love how in the Old Testament, whenever someone died, life ground to a halt.  People mourned.  They grieved losses - whenever they occured. They went to God and each other with daily hurt.  They were emotionally and spiritually so much healthier than we are.  Over the last few years, I've tried to notice the losses in my life and process them when they happen - pray them through, sometimes shed a tear - grieve them.  It feels so much healtheir than stuffing it.  It also means when Michael Jackson dies, I'm really only feeling his loss, not a thousand other losses in my life - they've been processed before God.  And I actually wasn't that much of a fan - notwithstanding his giftedness.   

  Why are we grieving Michael Jackson so deeply?  What do you think?

A Bias Against the Bible?

This post isn't about the media or 'secular' society.  It's about people who say they follow Jesus and our attitude toward the Bible.

The last month has brought me into contact with an attitude I've seen over the years that just doesn't seem to go away.  The attitude?  Nearly everybody wants to hear from God, but a lot of Christ followers really don't like to read their Bible. 

Let me say that again - a lot of people just don't like to read their Bible.  So they don't.  And then they wonder why they don't hear from God.

The issue's been a live one during our Signs from Beyond series - I really believe we mostly hear from God through scripture - not direct revelation. 

But I've heard variations of this over and over again over the years and intensely again in the last month:

Yeah, I just don't really read my bible.
I find the Bible too confusing.  
I don't get anything out of the Bible when I read it.  
I wish God would just speak to me directly.  

Bottom line:  if you don't access God's word, your probably not going to hear from God.  And your faith won't grow.  And you won't develop an intimate relationship with Him.  And you will end up making foolish decisions because you didn't consult God, but then you'll blame him for your misfortune.  And you'll be frustrated because you'll think God bailed on you.  But in reality, you bailed on Him.

As to whether the Bible's too hard to understand, I'm not sure that ultimately holds water. Check this out. 

No, I'm not in a bad mood.  I'm just sayin.... Because I've seen it over and over and over again.

What do you think?  Do people like to read the Bible? Do we read our Bibles? Is it too hard to understand?

On Monday, I'll come back with a plan I'd like to propose to change people's views about the Bible. In the meantime, chime in....

Now You See It - No You Don't

There's a verse in Hebrews that gets me every time.  I know it's two verses after the 'famous' verse, but I like it better than the famous verse. 

Here's what Hebrews 11:3 says:

What we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.

The writer is talking about how God formed the universe.  Imagine being there in the moment before anything we now know was created, and God saying "this is what exists in my minds eye: Solar systems, planets, oceans and forests, people and duck-billed platypii."  

And you and I would have said "Huh?"  We couldn't have seen it.  It hadn't been created yet.  We would have had no category.  What we were about to see wasn't going to come from anything we could currently see.

Which is kind of how God always works.  

Which, if true, leads us to a disturbing question: what God had planned for you might well come from nothing you can currently see.

That's only a problem because people of small faith (me - you?) love to walk by sight.  We operate best in the known.  Tomorrow is a lot safer if it looks like a slightly improved version of today.  It seems controllable.  It seems safe.  It's predictable.

What if your trust and my trust started operating on a level that so implicitly submitted to God that if tomorrow completely dis-resembled today, it would be fine?  What if we were so open to God that tomorrow might look radically different than today?  

Often we're willing to settle for a better version of inadequate because our fear keeps us from trusting God for anything better.

What we can see did not come from anything that can be seen. The best stories of faith operate on that principle.  

______________

Abraham, I'm going to make you into a great nation.   

Yeah, but I'm old and have no kids and my wife is way past the baby years.  Like that's not even possible!

What you will see will not come from anything that can be seen.

_______________

David, you're going to be king.

But there already is a king, and I'm just a boy and I'm the runt of the litter and I'm only a shepherd.

What you will see will not come from anything that can be seen. 

_______________

Peter, come and follow me.

You, rabbi?  But like I fish for a living and I kind of failed out of Hebrew school and if you really are who you say you are I promise you that you've got the wrong guy.

What you will see will not come from anything that can be seen.

_______________

So - what if God is calling you to something that can't be seen right now?  Would you go?  Would you do it?  Would you trust him that much?

What if thousands of people started trusting on that level today?  What would happen to our lives, to the church, to the Kingdom?

Because what we can will see is probably not going to come from anything that can be seen right now. 

I Only Got to Verse One

So in Part Two of the series "Signs from Beyond" (yesterday in Barrie, this coming Sunday in Orillia), we talked about God's will being revealed mostly in scripture.  

The assignment?  Read Romans 12.  Why?  Because most of us don't want to read the Bible. Most of us would rather hear from God directly rather than read the Bible to hear from God, even though direct communication is NOT something God does very often.  And even when we read the Bible, most of us don't read it as though God is speaking to us.

So the assignment was simple: read Romans 12 every day for a week and try to apply it to your life. I promised to do that too.  

This morning I started. I only got to verse one.  Actually, just the first part of verse one.  I didn't eve make it through one verse before I got stopped in my tracks.  Here's what hit me: the part about giving our lives (bodies) fully to Godin light of all He has done for us. 

Now I preached on this text yesterday.  I studied it during the week.  I've read it 100 times in my life, maybe more.  But I missed the part that says in light of all He has done for us. That stopped me dead cold.

I started thinking:  Do I really think about all that God has done for me?  What if I did?  That could change my motivation.  That could double or triple my gratitude.  If I really think about all God has done for me, my brain would melt. The Christian story isn't about what we can do for God, it's about what He has done for us.  It's about grace, mercy - God standing with us when I least deserved it. Wow! 

So I didn't read any further today. I had enough to saturate my little brain in applying just one verse to my life.  Usually I read 3-5 chapters of the Bible a day.  I got stuck at verse one.  And it's still eating at me.  I wonder what the rest of the week will hold?

Who says God's Word doesn't speak?  Try it.  Romans 12.  What's it saying to you?

Who God Really Is...

I had an experience last Thursday that really sent my world spinning. Without going into a lot of details, a friend went into a deep crisis that had a number of us deeply worried and scared for his well being.  For a period of about 12 hours, we didn't know which way things were going to turn out.

I went to bed that night incredibly concerned for my friend, but also deeply grateful for our faith. Because this was a situation that involved suffering on multiple levels, I found myself accessing my faith at a deep level.  I found myself so thankful that the kind of faith we often long for - a God who makes everything nice and ends suffering - doesn't exist.

Instead, I found so much peace that the central symbol of the Christian faith is a cross.  I found so much comfort in the reality that God chose to enter our suffering.  I was so grateful that although no one knew how the circumstances facing us would out, there was a peace inside I couldn't describe.

Sometimes I think the Christian faith is best understood from the perspective of suffering.  When you have a need, it puts you in touch with some of the deepest strands that run through every life.  

If you are looking for a promise that everything will always be perfect and you will never suffer, the Christian faith will disappoint you deeply.  But if you are in touch with the fragility of the human condition, your personal needs and the needs of others, the story of Jesus will resonate more deeply than anything I know.  At least it did - and does - for me.

I'm sure at some point this week you'll need to jump into a story that gives meaning to your disappointment, your frustration, your fear or your suffering.  Jesus is ready to meet you there, and for that, I'm so grateful.  

A Story Bigger Than You and Me

A thought I've had on and off for years grabbed me again this morning:  

Wouldn't it be great to live a life story so compelling only God could claim credit for it? 

In the Old Testament, God had a reputation. It would have been absurd to claim personal credit for the parting of the Red Sea or for the collapse of the walls of Jericho.  The people of God were caught up in events so big only God could plausibly get credit.

Jesus' life is another example. In the early church there were miracles to be sure, but their extreme generosity and self-sacrifice turned heads.

Part of me wants to write my own script (okay, a big part of me does).  But if I write my story, it will be pretty small.  I'm not talking about fame or renown (it's not that kind of "big" I'm talking about). I'm just saying on my own strength I can accomplish about an ounce of good.  God could accomplish an avalanche of good through any of us, if we let him. He can write stories I could never write.

The problem with a lot of North American Christianity is that our stories are too small.  We're less into life-change and more into life modification or amendment.  We prefer order to disorder, predictability to unpredictability and control to surrender.

So what story do you think God might want to write in you?  Struggling with mood?  Surrender it.  He could use you to bring joy.  Struggling with your marriage?  Surrender and let him write a new chapter...heck, a new book.  Struggling at work?  Let him change you.  Your church boring or stuck? Give it back to God.  It was his in the first place.

My prayer today is this: God, give me a story only you can write.  Whatever that looks like or what it accomplishes is up to you.  But give me (and our community) a story that only you can write.

What's your prayer? 

The Lost Art of Confession

I took some time off from blogging, not just in the last month, but for much of 2009.  

I got deeply immersed in twitter (and still am), but some ideas can't be captured in 140 characters or less. I'd love to develop a dialogue here again, and if you're up for it, so am I.

I spend some extra time this morning praying and spent some time confessing my sins.  True confession: I don't confess my sins well. I need to do it more often and more thoroughly.  It seems far easier for me to ask God for things or pray about things than it does to honestly confess my shortcomings and trust Him to provide forgiveness and the grace to change.

Tell me if you think I'm wrong, but when I read people's tweets I don't see a lot of humility (and I likely don't see enough in my own).  Rarely do we as Christians show our vulnerability, dependence on God or need for Him.  It's easier to pretend we have it nailed and others need to change.  In fact, that is the posture of many preachers and leaders today.  If we had more humility in the church, we'd have more Jesus and less of us in the mix.  How could that hurt the church?

I so need to do more confession...more quantity and quality.  Confession is a gift from God, based on grace, that can help in so many areas.

• It is the basis of salvation - what got us back with God will keep us back with God.
• It's the key to dependence - I don't need to depend on God if I'm depending on myself. 
• It's a powerful way to grow self-awareness which is the key to transformation - I can't change what I can't see, and God won't change what I won't acknowledge.
• It helps me see other people's points of view more clearly - when I see my own shortcomings I can see the value of Christ and his work in others more clearly.
• You're only confessing what God - and often everybody else - already knows is a problem. 
• It leads to greater humility and to greater- Christ-likeness  
• It makes me a better leader - leaders who understand their weaknesses are much better able to lead dependent on Christ. 

Humility is so attractive in others, and confession leads to greater humility. But while humility is attractive in others, it makes me feel like I'm going to die 1000 deaths, which is likely what God needs me to do to allow him to control my life.  I think that's why it's a struggle to confess deeply, regularly and honestly.  So I am going to resolve to go much deeper in my prayers of confession in the next month.

What's your relationship with confession?  How do you struggle?  What if anything keeps you from confessing your sins more freely and deeply?

How Many Days Till Easter? Innovation

I was driving to Toronto yesterday when I saw innovation in a new light.  

I passed trucks, cars, planes, bridges, buildings - tons of every day stuff.  Then I had this thought - everything we take for granted today was created by someone who at one point or another way out on a limb, often all by themselves.

If you were friends with the Wright brothers...how crazy would you think they were?  Flight...people have tried for centuries and failed.  I'd likely have told them to stop wasting their time and go back to building bicycles.  

At some point, a handful of people dedicated their lives to building an an engine and a horseless carriage because they thought life would be better without horse drawn carriages than with them. Their neighbours must have thought they were nuts, I'm sure.

And that's just stuff we use every day.

The best stuff in life is hard.  

2000 years ago Jesus did something no one else had ever done - He gave himself up as a perfect sacrifice for my sins and your sins.  God broke the stalemate between Himself and humanity when He made love the final Word.  He took the spitting, the lashes, the torture and the humiliation of the cross and loved us back so strongly that it still shakes us to our core today.  He went out on a limb and loved in the face of hate so great that anyone else would have caved and hated back.

Made me think that the innovation that love brings - to love when others hate - is such hard, but worthwhile work.  Others would tell you to spit back in their face.  To give in to the critics.  To penalize and lash out.  I have been so tempted to do this, and under such lesser hatred than Jesus faced. 

At times lately I've wondered whether love is worth it - whether it's worth the cost.  But the alternative - to treat people as their sins deserve - is so ungraceful it's disgraceful.  So we soldier on, loving...because we have a God who loves.

This week, you and I will be challenged to innovate with love.  To bring love where there is unloveliness. It can be hard.  Eventually someone will call you crazy.  You might think you are crazy.  But look at the impact Jesus had with His radical love.  The love I'm called to bring and you're called to bring. It's innovate, because it does what other people are not doing.

I want to innovate...bringing love where it doesn't belong.  How about you?

13.9 Days Until Easter: Does God Trust You?

On my journey to engage Easter more deeply this year, I was in my usual quiet time this morning.

Every once in a while a passage in the Bible grabs me.  Today, I almost bolted off the couch when I read Numbers 12.7.    It simply said this:

But not with my servant Moses.
      Of all my house, he is the one I trust.

This is the thought that electrified me:  God is looking for someone he trusts.   

See, as preachers, we always say "Hey people, trust God."  But here, God flips it and asks a very different question:  Can I trust you?  

How's that for a game-changer?

It made me wonder if this is true:  The more God trusts you, the more he will use you.  He trusted Moses.  He was able to use Him.  He trusted Jesus and...well, you know that story.  

My question for me (and us today): Am I trustworthy?  

I'll come back to this again tomorrow.  I think this unearths a bunch of other questions.  Right now, my little brain is still spinning.  

Here's a thought for a Monday:  God's up already this morning, and he's looking for people he trusts. What will he find when He engages you? 

Today, I want to be trustworthy with my life and my leadership.

16.3 Days Until Easter: Super Hero Powers

I am continually amazed that we get called a new creation in the Bible.  So much of me still seems to be part of the old creation.  

• I struggle with things I've struggled with for years, like my mood and the fact that I like things to be in order. Perfect order.  I wish I didn't struggle with these things, but I do.
• Some days it looks like creation is renewing itself, but the specific trend of human history doesn't look like its headed to better days.  We seem to keep creating new problems.
• The church still has enough hypocrisy and scandal on a big and little scale to keep the media engaged and non-Jesus followers away.

One of the verses that has haunted me for years comes from Ephesians.  Please read it and tell me if I am missing something, but it makes a claim so outrageous it still makes me gasp.

Paul says that the power that is at work in those of us who believe is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.

Question: what kind of power would it take to make a dead person live?  Answer: a pretty big stinkin power.  Yep.  Pretty much the greatest power imaginable.

Now for the take-away.  That's the power that's in you and me who believe.

Which leads me to another question: why did I start this blog post with the observations/questions I used?  I mean if the power that raised Jesus from the dead is in me, then what the heck do I need to struggle with?

My conclusion would be - are you ready - that maybe I'm not tapping into that power nearly as much as I could be.  That we, collectively, as the church, are not leaning as heavily into God as we could be.

And Easter's almost here.  So I need to think about that, and pray about that, and lean into that, so hopefully I can write a different intro to a blog post a few months from now.

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in you, in me, in all who believe. 

How does that strike you?  How do you see that at work in your life?  In the church?