Mundane Faith

I read some stories recently of people who lived amazing lives for God. They started orphanages, sacrificed wealth, gave up personal comfort and celebrity for the advancement of the Gospel.

We read those stories and think, God was honored.

I sat in a meeting last week with three ladies planning an event. They are bright, gifted, funny and extremely capable women. There they were wading into the minutia of what food will keep 30 kids and adults happy on a weekend retreat. For a guy with no attention to detail and who's happy with cereal three meals a day, it was mind numbing.

And God was honored.

We read stories of people with profound faith, courage and love. We marvel at them then quickly pull out our measuring stick to see how far we come up short. What we  miss is God is also honored in mundane faithfulness.

He's honored by the woman preparing another Sunday school lesson, the dad coaching t-ball, the student wrestling with test prep, the single mom trying to find her son's shoes, a board of elders debating new carpet or new toilets, an exhausted pastor at a loss for his next sermon.

And he is honored by three women planing a retreat for weary missionary families, longing for rest... and good food.

We are asked to be faithful with today, nothing more. Will anyone ever write a book about it? Probably not. But God is no less honored. 

Radiated Pain

Nancy and I were munching on some popcorn the other night when she said, "OW!" She felt around in her mouth and looked in the mirror to see if she chipped a tooth but couldn't really tell. It wasn't until the next morning when she tried to eat that she realized something was really wrong.

At the dentist she showed him which tooth hurt. He tapped it, scraped it and blew cold air on it. Nothing. She said, "I know it hurt earlier. It had to be that one... or maybe this one." When she tapped the second tooth, it moved and she winced.

The problem with nerve pain is it can radiate. The pain spreads out into areas not really damaged. You can't tell where the real wounding is.

This can be true with emotional wounding as well. It's why we come home, after a bad day at work, yell at our wife and kick the dog. They aren't the ones who made us mad, it's just our anger didn't have an outlet at the office.

It can be why we make decisions that are self destructive. Why the cycle of abuse continues. It's why a spouse would return to the abuser.

From the outside it's bewildering. Why would an normally intelligent person, be so out of control of certain areas of his or her life? It's because the source of the pain has been buried so deeply, walled off so completely no one is ever going to get close enough to exposed it.

People wonder how Christ can love everyone. How can grace be available even to the wicked? I think part of it may be in his ability to see past the radiation and into the source of their pain. He sees the hurt and longs to heal us.

Healing is there if we allow Christ, sometimes through the help of others, to poke around and find the exposed nerve. Like a visit to the dentist, it can be painful. But, in the end, it stops the radiation hurting us and the people we love. 

Good Church?

"Why do you like your church?" It's a a pretty common question in Christian circles.

You get all kinds of answers like, "The preaching is awesome. I love the worship. The children's program is amazing."

Those are all good answers. Messages that provoke change, worship that leads us to the cross, our kids being challenged and encouraged are all healthy things.

I freely admit I've had problems with Church, so I'm not sure I'm the most objective observer. But something in those answers feels wrong. It's like we're saying, "The people who serve me, do their jobs well." Those answers free me of responsibility.

I wonder what it would be like to hear, "The people there show me who Jesus is."

I think what we miss is:, people will put up with poor preaching and sorry music if they know everyone in the building loves them.

I can leave Sunday morning inspired, uplifted... and unchanged. But if you love me enough to challenge, counsel, care for and confront me, it's hard to stay the same. If you take the time to hear my story and love me enough to enter into it, that has the potential to change everything.

This doesn't free church leadership of working hard to shepherd well. All it means is, if we do our job, theirs is a lot easier.