you are too uptight

I know I know, it happened two weeks ago. It's funny, I haven't heard too much discussion about the prize lately and I think it just goes to illustrate my thoughts just that much more. I should preface this by saying as a Christian, most would say that I lean heavily conservative. I didn't vote for the president, but I feel nothing but goodwill towards him. The burden of leadership is not an easy task, particularly for the sincere of heart, which I believe he is. There are probably a plethora of things that we disagree on, but as a Marine I know that I could, and would, give my life for him.

With that at the fore, congratulations to President Obama on the Nobel Peace Prize! I think it is a wonderful and deserved award. It is my hope that the prize money (which you have reportedly donated to charity) is blessed by God and your fame a testament to His glory. This was my initial reaction to the news of this honor being bestowed him.

Unfortunately, there are a good number of critics who can't seem to celebrate another being honored. Funny, just weeks prior a certain Mr. West had to butt in and speak his mind about awards being unfairly given to the wrong person. Ironic, the President's label of West as a 'jackass' was nearly celebrated and universally lauded by all. In a similar event one man was given an award which was immediately criticized by critics everywhere. Polls were done, bumper sticker slogans splashed on the news and people became angry; for what?

More people remember the entertainment award winners (VMA, Oscars, Emmys, etc) for years (generations?) in comparison to the Nobel Peace Prize. Why is it so upsetting that President Obama won a prize that you didn't even know came out in October until 3 weeks ago? Why do you critics care? Is it so difficult to just put your biases aside and congratulate a winner?

Mr. West apologized, but is still considered a jackass by many. Perhaps Mr. West's label should be slapped a bit more firmly on those critics who cannot be humbled into graciously recognizing President Obama's and apologizing for their overtly political and illogical actions.

As for the argument that the President has done nothing; give it rest. He is President of the United States of America. There have only been 44 of them, so I'd say he's in fairly prestigious company. He's done a bit more than you just by getting there and certainly influenced more people. My guess is that you couldn't name one bill that he has introduced and helped pass not for lack of the evidence, but due to a lack of your interest.

All in all, it comes down to this. Stop being so damn uptight, and give your President props. He did what you will never do. (in the 1 in 6 800 000 000 chance that you receive the Nobel Peace Prize next year, congratulations)

1 750 000 000 + Wisdom + Church ≠ Love

There are few things the world talks more about than love. It is a simple word really; easy to spell and even easier to shout! It rolls off the tip of the tongue of young and old alike, the drunk and the sober both talk of it, and a quick Google search reveals 1,750,000,000 results – approximately 1,500,000 more than a search for porn. The word is everywhere, but those who know and experience it are few. And so we search for it. Books are written, seminars are hosted and money flows. Yet all the wisdom of the world leaves us with is emotion and passion; as Pearl Jam laments: “hearts and thoughts they fade; they fade away.”¹

Sadly, professing Christians everywhere have fallen into the same trap. They desire love, but do not know where to look or how to act. To exasperate the matter, they not only desire love; they are commanded to give it. When asked what the greatest of all the laws was, Jesus replied “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.”² Despite Jesus’ sacrifice, many fail to see or understand love, and so Paul exhorts Christians in one of his letters to the church in Corinth:

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never ends.”³

And so Christians everywhere memorize this verse and act as if they love one another because they read what love is. Unfortunately, they have not reflected wholly on what Paul is saying. The Christians I talk to can always quickly recall that “love is patient; love is kind” but everything else is forgotten. The passage must be taken as a whole, or not at all. The love Paul talks about is on that is counter-cultural and focused on the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The great Dietrich Bonhoeffer makes a distinction between human love and spiritual love saying,

“Human love is directed to the other person for his own sake, spiritual love loves him for Christ’s sake. Therefore human love seeks direct contact with the other person; it loves him not as a free person but as one whom it binds to itself. It wants to gain, to capture by every means; it uses force. It desires to be irresistible, to rule. It makes the truth relative, since nothing, not even the truth, must come between it and the beloved person.”⁴

To love someone for Christ’s sake is to love them in a way that is unreasonable and incomprehensible to the non-Christian. In kindness, we put God before those we love, knowing that serving Him is the way in which we serve them. Love does not insist on its own way, it insists on Christ. Bonhoeffer continues, “Because Christ stands between me and others, I dare not desire direct fellowship with them. As only Christ can speak to me in such a way that I may be saved, so others too, can be saved only by Christ himself.”⁵ Christians are to love others focused on their Savior, and hate what goes against God. By hating evil they rejoice in the truth.

Paul’s directive to be patient and kind should not be misunderstood! The two should not be done without truth and a desire to see Christ glorified. Confession, admonishment and discipline are all vital components of truth and, therefore, love. Without those things, any love that is professed is merely an exaggerated form of politeness. Christians are warned not to be lukewarm⁶; but instead understand that their God is a divisive one⁷. Their adherence to the one true God and His will is bound to drive away many, just as showing love to an enemy “heaps coals upon his head.”⁸ Too often Christians do not desire confrontation or disagreement and allow sin to not only creep into their community but also control their own lives. They must find such great joy and hope in the truth that they hate evil and wrongdoing. Without that hatred, they have no love. This is perhaps the most difficult part of loving others. Relationships are built without an understanding of what the purpose or reason for them is. The purpose should be to glorify God, but this is rarely a reality or thought as relationships are usually entered into with a desire and purpose of self-gratification. While gratification certainly is one of the rewards of loving one another as God calls us to do, making it the reason for our relationships leads the type of human love which Bonhoeffer speaks about. Such love is temporal, incomplete and unsatisfying.

Instead Christians are called to love endlessly; enabled by the love they have for Christ The passion and love Christians have for God should naturally translate into serving one another. Paul encourages the church in Philippi to serve as Christ who “took the form of a servant” and “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.” If Christ is the focal point of love, then service will naturally be a part of acting out the love. Service is often self-righteous and takes a large amount of effort and calculating. “True service is a lifestyle.”⁹ Richard Foster makes the distinction in this way:

“True service finds it almost impossible to distinguish the small from the large service. Where a difference is noted, the true servant is often drawn to the small service, not out of false modesty, but because he genuinely sees it as the more important task. He indiscriminately welcomes all opportunities to serve.”

When Christians love Christ first and then others through that love, they love in a “naïve, unpsychological [sic] and unmethodical”¹⁰ way. The secret as to why and how they love is Christ. As their love for him grows, showing love in that way is an integral part of their life that they cannot shake off or get rid of.

Only through loving the Christ is such a life of love possible. His is a love which requires nothing of the loved; but instead gives the loved an opportunity to love. His love was not motivated by anything his chosen had done or decisions they had made; but was instead pure and endless. John Cobb Jr puts it this way:

“Love is, on the one hand, the only salvation of the spiritual man and, on the other hand, unattainable by his own efforts...We love only because we are first loved. In this way, and only in this way, can the spiritual man genuinely and purely love.”^­11

Christian love is motivated by nothing other than the love of Jesus. A man Christian man does not love his wife and Christ, but instead loves Christ and as a result of that love he loves his wife. The more he loves Jesus, the greater the love he has for his wife. Such love is a purer and more perfect love; it is beyond human understanding and reason. Without placing Christ ahead of his wife, he is unable to love her completely. This is true for all relationships: husbands and wives, neighbors, co-workers and friends. This love is the only love that is timeless and meaningful, and it is because it is rooted in the only unchangeable and perfect God.

Just as God’s service to us drives us to eagerly serve him, so also should Christians serve one another. They must help others and extend love with a “simpleness and humility rather than out of great analysis and calculation which is often motivated out of a desire to glorify” their own self. Failure to love Christ first will result in an unsuccessful attempt to serve one another because the simpleness and humility is lost due to mankind’s natural tendency to glorify its self. This is the greatest way that Christians fail to love and the biggest problem with churches. They fail to love and serve others because they do not love God or understand His love for them.

It should also be understood that part of loving is being loved. Often times Christians enjoy talking about themselves and what they do so much that they deny the reality of their own brokenness and need to live in humility. We forget that Christ “loved the church”¹¹ and that we are supposed to love and serve him in return. Jesus gave himself up for us, expecting us to give ourselves up to him. As one pastor put it, “Jesus isn’t looking for an hour of your time, a day of the week or even your weekend. He doesn’t want your money or your car or your house. He wants and requires all it. He demands your life!”¹² If Christ demands to be served, should Christians not expect to be served as well? Often times they forget that part of loving is allowing others to serve them. This should not be the case, but they should instead freely delight in allowing others to love as Christ does! Love must be given as well as received. This is most evident with persons who are suffering. People like to serve others who are suffering or are disabled, but the down and out are rarely given the opportunity to love and serve in return. In doing this Christians do not love them, but instead hate them! This is one of the many ways that Christians submit to one another as they are called to in Ephesians 5.

We live in an age of Christianity that not only fails to show love, but grossly misunderstands how to love. All of creation desires love more than anything else, and who could know or display love more than those who belong to the Living God? Christians need to wake up and love as it has been revealed to them and as they are commanded to do.