I woke up today not really knowing what I was going to do besides do a bit of tramping (that’s what they call hiking here in New Zealand) on a mountain that my couchsurfing host showed me. I’m staying on the outskirts of Rotorua for last night and tonight in the North Island of New Zealand. Other than that, I really had no idea where today was going to take me. Some of the most excellent times I’ve had in my life have started out that way, and today proved to be similar. A couple years ago I went to Guatemala just for a 4 day weekend without having any plans whatsoever as to what I was going to do while I was there. A hiking trip to a volcano and roasting marshmallows by way of lava turned out to be a sweet deal for not having planned anything before I went down. Anyways, back to today; I ended up eating breakfast at trusty old McDonald’s. Yes, I hate it as much as the next guy, but I do have a weakness for their hotcakes in the morning if I’m up in time. Then I went on a 2 hour hike with some beautiful vantage points overlooking the city of Rotorua. This caused me to linger, take a couple of pictures, and soak it all in for a bit. It’s times like these when I wonder how people can deny that there is a Creator God. There had to be Someone who made all this majestic creation. It was really breathtaking and I’ll try to remember to post pictures on here soon.
After that, I went to the I-site, aka the visitor’s center to check my email and also to see what else there was to do. While browsing some brochures I came across a picture of a person in a huge inflatable ball. I’ve always wanted to try that and didn’t even know what it was called before I did it today. It was called the Zorb and it was a shot of pleasure in my neuroreceptors. You get in this huge inflatable ball, get in a harness, and then you roll down a hill, head over heels until you reach the bottom. For some reason, whenever I do anything that causes a bit of adrenaline, I can’t help but erupt in laughter. It happened when I was in South Africa and went bungy jumping. It happened when I went shark diving. It happened when I played with lion cubs. It also happened all 3 times that I went sky diving. There is something about that rush of adrenaline that produces a euphoria that simply must be released by way of a good hearty laugh.
Next was luging. For those of you who don’t know what this is, imagine street luging on an elementary scale. I took a gondola ride up a side of a mountain and then got myself somehow seated in a luge that was built for people much more petite than me. Three rides were only $2 more than 1 ride so of course I did the three rides to get the most bang for my buck. It too was pretty thrilling and I found myself wanting to let out a yelp or yahoo or something similar and did so on one occasion that I can think of. Again, the adrenaline rush just causes me to have a big smile on my face and in my heart. It’s those moments when you truly feel alive. Who was it that said life isn’t measured by the amount of breaths we take but rather by the moments that take our breath away? Today was one of those days all the way around. First with the tramping, then with the zorbing, and finally ending with the luging.
To top it all off, I got back to my couchsurfing host’s place around 7 pm tonight and he and his girlfriend really put on a feast for dinner. He put me in charge of dessert so I decided to do something I had just learned was unique to New Zealand. They have these biscuits (what we would call cookies) that are called Tim Tams. What you do is you bite off one corner (they’re rectangular prisms) then bite off the corner diagonally opposite. After that, you dip one corner into a cup of hot chocolate and suck through the opposite corner to get the hot chocolate to come through the cookie. If you’re thinking of a regular cookie it wouldn’t work obviously but this is more porous than your average cookie. What happens is that the hot chocolate melts the inside of the Tim Tam and then you have to wolf it down quickly prior to it breaking off into your hot chocolate. It is like chocolate heaven. This is coming from someone who loves chocolate a little too much to begin with, mind you. Before the wonderful experience of dessert, we had a great spread including lamb chops marinated in some middle eastern spices, mashed potatoes which I’m starting to like if they’re done up correctly, rice, and this tomato and basil salsa that you ate by itself which was quite good in spite of my usual aversion towards tomatoes. There were also some chili peppers fresh from his garden thrown in there so that spiced it up in a particularly pleasant way.
As I titled this post, it was an unexpected day of adventure, but one I would gladly repeat if given the chance. Tomorrow, I’m going to go tramping again (need to get in shape for Maccu Piccu in April) and then hit the road again for the Coromandel Peninsula. I’ll let you know what lies down that road when I get there.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Posture
"The Tangible Kingdom" is the book I'm currently reading. The chapter I'm on right now is called 'Posture' so I thought I'd write about it since I'm highlighting pretty much the whole chapter save a few sentences here and there. It has really spoken to me and convicted me of some things in my life that need to change. It talks about how Jesus took on a posture of meeting people where they're at, like with the woman caught in adultery. He bent down beside her, showing he was there for her. He didn't stand up in her face and condemn her but rather offered forgiveness and a chance at a clean start by asking her to repent. He captured her heart first though, before He asked her to repent. The author goes on to say we need to know a person and have a relationship with them before we ask them to change their behavior. How different is that then what most people think in regard to going to church? How many people's first reaction is to go to church when they're hurting? How often do Christians stay in their little 'holy huddles' afraid to interact with the world around them? I know I'm especially guilty on this last charge. It's so easy to be around fellow believers and do Bible studies and hang out and eat lunch. All of those are good things but we also need to make an effort to befriend people outside of the church walls. Bring the gospel to them rather than bring them to church and let someone else bring the gospel from the pulpit.
How different would it looked if Christians walked with a posture of humility? If anyone had a reason to walk around with an arrogant attitude of 'I'm better than you are' it was Christ but instead He walked around with humility. It is so easy to look down upon others outside of our circles or outside society's mainstream. How hard it is to approach those who are different from us. I know at one of the last places I stayed they smoked a lot of weed. This made me pretty uncomfortable but at the same time I was almost happy that they felt comfortable enough around me to do that in front of me. They didn't feel a need to put on a mask around me because I was a Christian. Sometimes when you tell someone you're a Christian they don't feel that they can be themselves around you for fear of you judging them. Maybe if we just meet people where they are, they'll be more likely to be attracted to the message we bring.
The author also brought up the point of how in all our interactions, we know that words are not enough at that people interpret our body language as being louder than the words we're speaking. He then poses the question, "So why do we expect it to be different when we talk about God?" Do we really expect people to give us the time of day if we don't first have a relationship with them? Do we expect people to give their lives to Christ after having seen a Jesus fish eating a Darwin fish on the back of our cars? "Oh, now I get it." Something like that? I used to be almost ashamed at saying I believed we should have a relationship with a person before we tried to share our beliefs with them. It seems like that was really getting a bad rap there for a while. Back in 2008 when I was last in New Zealand I specifically remember a minister saying something along the lines of how people who focused on relationship style ministry didn't have as many converts. That might be true in the short run, but I wonder how many people who are 'converted' from some mass evangelism strategy stay with the faith after the evangelizer leaves? Wouldn't they be more likely to grow in their faith if they had someone investing in their lives on a regular basis? Again, it comes back to the idea of evangelizing being like breathing, it should come naturally and flow out of regular conversations, not from handing someone a track and a smile with a "God bless you" attached for good measure. Even the mass evangelizers try to get in on this by telling the people about local churches to go to, I just wonder how many new converts actually end up going to those churches when they have no one taking them. Not many people go to other social events alone, why would we expect them to go to church alone?
I'm in the middle of the chapter now, and it hasn't said it yet but I expect it to say something about Jesus washing the apostles' feet and taking the posture of a servant. At least that's what kept coming to my mind as I was reading it. Serving is a much more attractive posture for a person than standing on a street corner shouting into a bull horn. But then I wonder if those people aren't on to something too. They may piss everyone off including myself, but weren't the old testament prophets somewhat similar to them? They just told everyone of impending doom and to repent of their ways and turn back to God. Pretty sure people didn't want to listen to them either; in fact many times kings or kings' aids would command them to leave their town and prophesy somewhere else. Of course, except in the case of Jonah many times the people of those days wouldn't change their ways either. All that to say, I think it's much more effective to be a servant to all rather than preaching at them about how wrong their actions are. I've been guilty of that myself quite a few times but am trying to work on it.
In college, a girl told me she wanted to come to Christ but had to get her life in order first. Even then, I remember telling her she had it backwards. We come to Christ first and His love compels us to change our hearts and our behavior. A lot of behavior that is sinful is more of a worship problem than anything else. A person doesn't generally commit adultery because he hates his wife, they commit adultery because they have failed to put God on the throne of their heart. A person doesn't steal just for the thrill of the adrenaline rush, they steal because they don't see how it dishonors God. A posture of kneeling before God is needed if we are to have the correct posture towards the world around us. If we don't get that part right than we can't expect to put others ahead of our own interests. As a single guy, I find it incredibly difficult to put other's needs ahead of my own. Even if I was married and had a family, I just don't think that is something that comes easily or naturally for that matter. Most of the time I'm not even aware that I'm putting my needs ahead of others, it just comes naturally. It takes some real thought to even get to the point of thinking what is best for others instead of what is best to serve your own needs. It's definitely a learning curve.
Well, I need to read the rest of the chapter, maybe I'll write more when I finish the chapter or the book as a whole.
How different would it looked if Christians walked with a posture of humility? If anyone had a reason to walk around with an arrogant attitude of 'I'm better than you are' it was Christ but instead He walked around with humility. It is so easy to look down upon others outside of our circles or outside society's mainstream. How hard it is to approach those who are different from us. I know at one of the last places I stayed they smoked a lot of weed. This made me pretty uncomfortable but at the same time I was almost happy that they felt comfortable enough around me to do that in front of me. They didn't feel a need to put on a mask around me because I was a Christian. Sometimes when you tell someone you're a Christian they don't feel that they can be themselves around you for fear of you judging them. Maybe if we just meet people where they are, they'll be more likely to be attracted to the message we bring.
The author also brought up the point of how in all our interactions, we know that words are not enough at that people interpret our body language as being louder than the words we're speaking. He then poses the question, "So why do we expect it to be different when we talk about God?" Do we really expect people to give us the time of day if we don't first have a relationship with them? Do we expect people to give their lives to Christ after having seen a Jesus fish eating a Darwin fish on the back of our cars? "Oh, now I get it." Something like that? I used to be almost ashamed at saying I believed we should have a relationship with a person before we tried to share our beliefs with them. It seems like that was really getting a bad rap there for a while. Back in 2008 when I was last in New Zealand I specifically remember a minister saying something along the lines of how people who focused on relationship style ministry didn't have as many converts. That might be true in the short run, but I wonder how many people who are 'converted' from some mass evangelism strategy stay with the faith after the evangelizer leaves? Wouldn't they be more likely to grow in their faith if they had someone investing in their lives on a regular basis? Again, it comes back to the idea of evangelizing being like breathing, it should come naturally and flow out of regular conversations, not from handing someone a track and a smile with a "God bless you" attached for good measure. Even the mass evangelizers try to get in on this by telling the people about local churches to go to, I just wonder how many new converts actually end up going to those churches when they have no one taking them. Not many people go to other social events alone, why would we expect them to go to church alone?
I'm in the middle of the chapter now, and it hasn't said it yet but I expect it to say something about Jesus washing the apostles' feet and taking the posture of a servant. At least that's what kept coming to my mind as I was reading it. Serving is a much more attractive posture for a person than standing on a street corner shouting into a bull horn. But then I wonder if those people aren't on to something too. They may piss everyone off including myself, but weren't the old testament prophets somewhat similar to them? They just told everyone of impending doom and to repent of their ways and turn back to God. Pretty sure people didn't want to listen to them either; in fact many times kings or kings' aids would command them to leave their town and prophesy somewhere else. Of course, except in the case of Jonah many times the people of those days wouldn't change their ways either. All that to say, I think it's much more effective to be a servant to all rather than preaching at them about how wrong their actions are. I've been guilty of that myself quite a few times but am trying to work on it.
In college, a girl told me she wanted to come to Christ but had to get her life in order first. Even then, I remember telling her she had it backwards. We come to Christ first and His love compels us to change our hearts and our behavior. A lot of behavior that is sinful is more of a worship problem than anything else. A person doesn't generally commit adultery because he hates his wife, they commit adultery because they have failed to put God on the throne of their heart. A person doesn't steal just for the thrill of the adrenaline rush, they steal because they don't see how it dishonors God. A posture of kneeling before God is needed if we are to have the correct posture towards the world around us. If we don't get that part right than we can't expect to put others ahead of our own interests. As a single guy, I find it incredibly difficult to put other's needs ahead of my own. Even if I was married and had a family, I just don't think that is something that comes easily or naturally for that matter. Most of the time I'm not even aware that I'm putting my needs ahead of others, it just comes naturally. It takes some real thought to even get to the point of thinking what is best for others instead of what is best to serve your own needs. It's definitely a learning curve.
Well, I need to read the rest of the chapter, maybe I'll write more when I finish the chapter or the book as a whole.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Catching Up
Tonight marked the first night in over 48 hours where I had an actual conversation with someone in person. Sometimes internet phone and chat just doesn’t do enough for me. What makes it better, is that it was a couple of guys who I hadn’t seen since I was in New Zealand in June and July of 2008. Keirohn and Zane are two guys who I helped out at a youth group when I was here last and have since graduated. One’s in Bible College now and the other is a manager at a Subway restaurant, both are about 19 I think. It was so good to catch up with them tonight. We shared stories of what’s going in each others’ lives and shared too many laughs to count, which is how I prefer it. They thanked me for the Bibles I had brought them in 2008 as they said they had been very helpful. I had completely forgotten about it so it was nice to know that I was able to bless them with something they still use to this day. My church at the time had bought those Bibles and some sports equipment so it was neat to see how my old church had blessed me with resources who then passed those resources on. A pretty neat example of how God’s economy can work sometimes. It was such a blessing to see them and catch up. It had been months since I’d seen someone I actually knew before so this really refreshed my soul.
How often do we take time to catch up with people? Not just hang out, but truly get to know what’s happening in each others’ lives? Are we just too busy to deal with other people on any more than a superficial level? In the states we value busyness and productivity while at the same time 25% of us will experience depression at least once in our lives. Maybe if we took more time to get to know one another instead of advancing our careers we wouldn’t get depressed as often. Was it Thoreau that said something along the lines of how many men lead lives of quiet desperation? Everyone needs some type of community, whether that is in your small group or at the local pub. We were made to share life with people. I thank God regularly for living in a digital age that allows me to easily keep in contact with many friends from back home. It is such a blessing to keep up with my friends’ lives while I’m on the road. It’s also cool to share photos of where I’ve been on this trip and see their comments. At the same time, technology can actually lead to a disconnect. How many people still get offended when someone answers their cell phone when you’re in the middle of a conversation with them? At first I’d get really offended but now I’ve come to accept it as a new part of our culture. It seems to be a rather rude new part, but you have to adapt to things like this. How many people I wonder spend nights at home on the internet instead of out with friends? I know this is often the case for me. Of course, if I had it my way I’d still hang out with everyone every night like I did in college. Things change though, people get married and now all of a sudden you’re expected to plan in advance. This is something that has always been a struggle for me, whether it’s for work of for making social plans. Of course, I can do it a week in advance when on a round the world trip but somehow I view that as different. Not sure exactly why that is. Hopefully, I’ll be able to take that ability with me when I head home for social contacts and especially for work.
How often do we take time to catch up with people? Not just hang out, but truly get to know what’s happening in each others’ lives? Are we just too busy to deal with other people on any more than a superficial level? In the states we value busyness and productivity while at the same time 25% of us will experience depression at least once in our lives. Maybe if we took more time to get to know one another instead of advancing our careers we wouldn’t get depressed as often. Was it Thoreau that said something along the lines of how many men lead lives of quiet desperation? Everyone needs some type of community, whether that is in your small group or at the local pub. We were made to share life with people. I thank God regularly for living in a digital age that allows me to easily keep in contact with many friends from back home. It is such a blessing to keep up with my friends’ lives while I’m on the road. It’s also cool to share photos of where I’ve been on this trip and see their comments. At the same time, technology can actually lead to a disconnect. How many people still get offended when someone answers their cell phone when you’re in the middle of a conversation with them? At first I’d get really offended but now I’ve come to accept it as a new part of our culture. It seems to be a rather rude new part, but you have to adapt to things like this. How many people I wonder spend nights at home on the internet instead of out with friends? I know this is often the case for me. Of course, if I had it my way I’d still hang out with everyone every night like I did in college. Things change though, people get married and now all of a sudden you’re expected to plan in advance. This is something that has always been a struggle for me, whether it’s for work of for making social plans. Of course, I can do it a week in advance when on a round the world trip but somehow I view that as different. Not sure exactly why that is. Hopefully, I’ll be able to take that ability with me when I head home for social contacts and especially for work.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Will the Church Rise Up?
As you've probably heard, the House has passed a budget that includes deep cuts to government programs that address the needs of the poor. This comes right on the heels of reaching a compromise with the President to get more than $800 billion in tax cuts for the top 2% wealthiest Americans. I doubt this budget will pass the Senate but in case it does, will God's people rise up? Will we pick up the slack and take care of the poor among us? Are the poor even among us to begin with? Or do we hide behind 'safe' neighborhoods that are on the other side of town and where we don't have to have any interaction with the poor if we don't want to? It's fine to live in a safe neighborhood, but how are we making sure that we interact with the poor on a regular basis? It takes quite a bit of effort and a certain amount of getting out of one's comfort zone depending on how you grew up. Do we cross the proverbial train tracks to reach out to our neighbors who are different than us? Or do we continue to live our lives where we see the occassional beggar and have a momentary feeling of pity and that's about as far as our interactions with the poor go?
I've been reading a lot about development recently and from what I can tell, it's long and incredibly difficult work. It's one thing to take a mission trip somewhere and build a house; it's quite another to raise money to buy the materials and pay the indigenous or native people to build the house so you're providing a way for them to live and have dignity. Developing countries need small business to provide jobs, how many people are willing to go down there and set up a small business for the sole reason to provide jobs to locals? That goes for our own country too. While we have about a 10% unemployment rate, (and I've heard it's more like 16 or 17% when you take into account those who have stopped looking for a job) in places like Haiti it's as much as an 80% unemployment rate. Imagine that, 80%! Then we have aid organizations that go down there and build houses, schools, and wells and effectively take jobs away from Haitians who would do anything to have the dignity of working.
Back to the idea about the Church. What do we spend our money on? Staff salaries and buildings for the most part from what I can see. Obviously, you have to take care of your minister and I think this is a right use of money, within reason. However, I don't think they should make millions of dollars by any stretch of the imagination, no matter how big their congregations. That's mainly prosperity preachers but I felt it needed to be addressed momentarily. How much of our church budgets are spent on the poor and marginalized? My own church gives 10% to local and global missions, but like with my own budget I'd like to see that get to 50%. American Christians made $2 trillion in income in 2005. If everyone tithed that would be $200 billion. Think of how much good that could do if used wisely. Unfortunately, much of the money that people give already isn't stewarded well by churches who preach to their own members about good stewardship. Personally, I think a church budget ought to be available and transparent so the people know where the money is going.
What if the Church became radical and counter cultural again? What if we took in people who were going through a foreclosure until they got back on their feet enough to rent an apartment? What if we set up job training centers and didn't rely on the government to do it? What if we started more small businesses to provide jobs for the disenfranchised? What if we acted like we were God's plan A, as my pastor put it in one of his sermons? What if we decided to cross socioeconomic lines and befriend even just one poor person? The last few years I've gotten more and more cynical towards the Church, but lately I've been beginning to have a glimmer of hope for it, inspite of all her flaws. If we start truly living Christ-centered lives and stop fighting amongst ourselves instead of coming alongside the poor, we can help restore the world to God's original intent. His kingdom come, His will be done on earth as it is in heaven, that whole thing. It starts with individuals making changes and challenging others in their congregations to do the same. I know I desperately need to make some changes, will you join me?
So I ask again, will the church rise up?
I've been reading a lot about development recently and from what I can tell, it's long and incredibly difficult work. It's one thing to take a mission trip somewhere and build a house; it's quite another to raise money to buy the materials and pay the indigenous or native people to build the house so you're providing a way for them to live and have dignity. Developing countries need small business to provide jobs, how many people are willing to go down there and set up a small business for the sole reason to provide jobs to locals? That goes for our own country too. While we have about a 10% unemployment rate, (and I've heard it's more like 16 or 17% when you take into account those who have stopped looking for a job) in places like Haiti it's as much as an 80% unemployment rate. Imagine that, 80%! Then we have aid organizations that go down there and build houses, schools, and wells and effectively take jobs away from Haitians who would do anything to have the dignity of working.
Back to the idea about the Church. What do we spend our money on? Staff salaries and buildings for the most part from what I can see. Obviously, you have to take care of your minister and I think this is a right use of money, within reason. However, I don't think they should make millions of dollars by any stretch of the imagination, no matter how big their congregations. That's mainly prosperity preachers but I felt it needed to be addressed momentarily. How much of our church budgets are spent on the poor and marginalized? My own church gives 10% to local and global missions, but like with my own budget I'd like to see that get to 50%. American Christians made $2 trillion in income in 2005. If everyone tithed that would be $200 billion. Think of how much good that could do if used wisely. Unfortunately, much of the money that people give already isn't stewarded well by churches who preach to their own members about good stewardship. Personally, I think a church budget ought to be available and transparent so the people know where the money is going.
What if the Church became radical and counter cultural again? What if we took in people who were going through a foreclosure until they got back on their feet enough to rent an apartment? What if we set up job training centers and didn't rely on the government to do it? What if we started more small businesses to provide jobs for the disenfranchised? What if we acted like we were God's plan A, as my pastor put it in one of his sermons? What if we decided to cross socioeconomic lines and befriend even just one poor person? The last few years I've gotten more and more cynical towards the Church, but lately I've been beginning to have a glimmer of hope for it, inspite of all her flaws. If we start truly living Christ-centered lives and stop fighting amongst ourselves instead of coming alongside the poor, we can help restore the world to God's original intent. His kingdom come, His will be done on earth as it is in heaven, that whole thing. It starts with individuals making changes and challenging others in their congregations to do the same. I know I desperately need to make some changes, will you join me?
So I ask again, will the church rise up?
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