The Violence of Tolerance

As a society, why do we teach so much tolerance to our children - in schools, on educational TV cartoons and shows, in children's books, etc.? Do you like it when someone merely 'tolerates' you? I don't. Do you know what it feels like when someone merely 'tolerates' you? I do. It sucks. People get stiff, don't make eye contact, for sure don't smile, glance around at others nearby for nonverbal affirmation that they are doing it right - allowing you in their space, yet alienating you all at once; they speak at you, not with you, short answers, no questions.

I think the act of tolerance is abusive at best. I think it edifies the markers of difference because in a frame of tolerance - neither party is willing to cross the lines of difference. They only approach them then pull away.

Why not teach our kids how to reach out, ask people questions, make eye contact, offer a smile, a hand, a conversation. Why not acknowledge the lines of difference and cross them in order to help an outsider come in. They don't have to come into your realm of identity - but why not invite them?...You know, rather than merely tolerate?

More and more in public schools students are called to tolerate and accept differences like racial, gender, and behavioral lines of difference. You know, we are all called to accept the ADHD student, students of different color, and students who have same sex parents, or who are gay themselves. Students are taught the mantra "nobody's difference is better or worse so we will allow them to coexist, live parallel with us." But being tolerant and accepting are PASSIVE and inward. Tolerance maintains constructs of difference in its passivity.

Students are NOT taught to be outgoing, to reach out, make conversation, find someone who needs a smile, smile at someone, ask them questions. Why not? Isn't the outcome of actively loving someone, actively caring for someone, actively showing interest in someone, isn't the desired outcome better? Wouldn't it be something amazing if public schools were to teach an active form of loving difference...not just merely tolerating it?

Hmm...love your neighbor as yourself. I wonder where I have heard that before? NOT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, UNFORTUNATELY!

Too Small A Thing

I am doing a prayerful fast today. It just came to me this morning that I have done one for a while and it was starting to feel like a disconnect was happening on some internal level. And that was that. That is all that was needed. I do not want a disconnect on any level with Jesus and the mysterious way learning comes about through prayer, fast and worship. So, I prayed for His guidance and wisdom in my day of being immersed in his word, that with every pang of hunger that he would fill me with his word and that I would learn and be filled.

At my first pang of hunger I grabbed my prayer pad (a little note pad where I keep my daily prayers, any scripture passages that resonate, and any notes on connections made that interface scripture with life). It’s always with me. I opened it. The first thing I wrote in my note pad a long time ago was, “Isaiah 49 my passage of revelation”. I never wrote out the passage because it was too long, but it is a passage that was one of the first and only passages that was a turning point for me – a mile stone – a marker - a river – a Jordan.

After I read this passage some 6 or 7 years ago, my life was never the same. And I could go on and on about what happened that day when I read it, etc. But that’s not the point of this writing. The point of this writing is to note that today was the first time I saw myself in the narrative. I saw the entire passage as a map of me, and I saw where I jumped off, where I quit it…where I left the narrative when life got too hard, and how I stopped short of the blessing to come – and how I could use the passage again as a map and stay on it understanding that God has my back and the goal of doing hard things is God - -

Within the passage it says in first person (like it’s me talking): “I have labored to no purpose. I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing.” As a mom, as a primary caregiver for my family, I can’t tell you how many times I feel like, “What am I doing this for?” Everything I do seems so under-appreciated and taken for granted. I often feel like escaping back in a traditional working career where ‘real’ thinking and ‘real’ contribution take place, and not be removed from society in this little bubble, working from a bedroom-converted-to-office in between my ‘chores’ as a mother, wife and friend. You know? Serving everyone in this house all the time, and getting no thanks, can really suck.

What’s more, this part of the passage is what made all my work at that church (anonymous for you readers) feel like it was for naught. After all, I didn’t make any real headway towards changing their “island / silo” habits. They all remained islands. My influence did not seem to make a difference in their ability to repent – and in fact, in many ways, from a distance, they still appear to be operating as islands. So what was my work there really for?

And that’s where I left the narrative. I quit when I felt like I was defeated. But I didn’t see that had I just read and meditated on the next line of this passage during my weakest point in that church, I would have realized God was in control…and He wasn’t done. I would have realized that I may have been giving up on Him.

The next line says, “Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand, and my reward is with God.” So simple. One of those lines we all skim over. But what I didn’t realize then - - that I now see - - is when we feel like our work is futile, and we get sick of it, just want to quit; I need to remember and really embrace that what I am doing is not for me. God is training me for something and I need to look to the prize – beyond my own need to feel important, accomplished, appreciated. The work is for God, not for me.

I need to have faith that at some point I will be “honored in the eyes of the Lord” when I realize fully that “my God has been my strength.”

Back 6 or 7 years ago, I didn’t see. I didn’t see the encouragement, the certainty or the prize…I just saw the islands and I let my anger blind me to the promise. I compare then with now feeling like I am in a rut: I see now that I may feel like my work was/is all for naught, like I was/am not doing anything with my life, like I was/am not contributing to anything significant, like my work was/is toil and produces nothing…but I see now that I am and was looking at self…

I was looking for work to satisfy me, to meet my ends, to attain my goal, to make me satisfied. I see now, that back then, God gave me a really hard task and I quit because I wasn’t happy; rather than realizing I was doing something for Him…He gave me a job and asked me the favor of being me in the job, and when it got too hard on me – for my own selfish desire – I left.

I see that what God has me doing right now might not feel like what I want to do – might be work that isn’t matched with what I think my talent is – might be tedious, might be too hard physically, but I see now – really see that God is not only asking me to do it, but empowering me to do it. I see now that the goal is THAT I AM DOING IT FOR GOD. THAT GOD IS THE GOAL. And He will bless me with more to do…more to take on… once he has seen that the job he has given me is too small for me. Because the passage continues by showing what happens after I fully invest my feeling of gratification ALL IN pleasing God…doing it for God…the map continues and shows that when I complete this task, God will say something like, “It is too small a thing for you. I will also make you a … (fill in the blank).”

In other words: He will pile it on as I go. He will give me more as I complete the portion I have.

To Be The Church Requires a Dismantling of Religion

To be the church requires a dismantling of religion.

The early church known as The Way never intended to follow Jesus by way of erecting buildings just for them. They occupied existing buildings and primarily, homes.

The early church never intended for anyone except Jesus to be a mediator between people and God...read: there was never intended to be (dare I say it) priests or popes. Peter, John and Paul didn't want anything except the worship of Jesus.

The church of Christ is made known to each individual as their eyes are opened. It is not a result of religious edifices and rules.

In order to make the church more visible to the rest of the world, we the church will have to dismantle this idol-centered institution called 'religion' and reveal Christ-centered worship through our faith-powered deeds.

Replace 'Church' with 'Me'

Okay Christian friends, here's a game-changer: next time you find yourself scoffing at some church leader being arrested for some crime, or if you see some church leader being broadcast on CNN either confessing or denying some wrong-doing to his congregation, or if you are in a conversation around the water cooler where it may be said that Christians are hypocrites, then please try this:

Replace the words 'church' and/or 'Christian' with the words 'me' or 'I'.

You can do it privately in your head, or out load and boldly...whatever you wish.

What's that? You don't think you are a hypocrite or part of a hypocrisy? You personally are a clean, washed follower of Christ, right? You don't have anything to do with the church? Your relationship with Jesus is just that: you and Jesus?

Guess what? If you are a person who believes in Jesus, it doesn't matter what you think, or if you go physically to a building on Sundays or not. If you believe in Jesus, YOU ARE the church.

If the public perception is that Christians are hypocrites and the church is irrelevant, it means YOU are a hypocrite and YOU are irrelevant. And I am right there with you.

It's going to be a long row to hoe to change the public perception about Christians and the Christian church - but it won't change without people like you and me who now find ourselves denying our identity in Christ by denying the relevance of the church. He is married to the church and would die for it. He was beaten, ridiculed, mocked, cheated, flogged, stripped, spit on, paraded, hung, pierced, and killed - for the CHURCH...for us. Don't deny the church...because it makes Jesus' work and sacrifice meaningless when you do that.

Be a part of the solution.

We all need to MAN-UP and participate in unity in order to keep it cleaned up and purged from sinfulness of leaders who idolize themselves over Christ. It won't happen without people like us who (right now) would rather not get messy. But there is no in between. If you we are not participating in the solution - we are participating in the problem.

We, in fact, are the problem with 'the church' - not the overt sinners who are actually working in the church. We, the people who sit on the outside, don't participate with OUR church, then deny it while desiring the full benefit of a relationship with Christ....WE ARE THE PROBLEM WITH CHRISTIANITY. We can't have a relationship 'on the side' outside of the church. It doesn't work like that. Jesus won't have an affair with you separate from His marriage to the church. He is married to you through the church.

We are the church. Stand up for US. Come out of the shadows. Get involved. Pull out a phone book, ask a friend for the address, but go to a Christian church of your choice...find a Christian community of believers and BE a part of it. Get involved.