Part Three

“Where are you?”  That’s the first thing God asks after Adam ate the fruit.  What an odd question for God to ask. As if God lost Adam. As if all of the sudden the all-knowing, all-powerful God could not locate his creation. But it’s a good question. A question mankind has been trying to answer ever since that day.

The first thing that happened in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve “fell” was they lost a sense of who they truly were and where they truly were. Hence, God asked the question, “Where are you?” he wanted them to be honest with themselves. God knew where they were, that wasn’t the problem. Adam and Eve were the ones lost. Not God. God asked them this because before he could move them toward the next part of the journey with him, they had to be honest with themselves.

We inherited this from our original parents.

Where am I?  Well, physically I’m sitting at a coffee shop enjoying my favorite brew of coffee and a baklava. That’s obvious, but is that really where I am?  Or am I in the whirl wind swirling inside my soul, my mind, my spirit. That’s not as obvious. And I am a master at hiding that, even from myself.

It’s a funny thing; being honest with yourself. Why do we try and lie to ourselves anyhow? It’s not like we can outrun the truth. But we try. The smoker keeps smoking saying, “This isn’t hurting me”. The obese keep eating saying “I am just a big person”. The husband and wife keep living separate lives saying, “This is normal, all couples do this.” It is lies. All lies. And those lies lead to death. Sometimes those lies lead to a physical death, and sometimes to the death of a part of our lives.

But truth, the truth sets you free.

If you ever want to move from where you are, you have to first be honest about “where you are”. Most of us think where we are not that bad. We rationalize. We make excuses. We will do anything in the world to keep from accepting where we truly are. The truth of the matter is, however, until we are honest about where we are we are doomed to stay stuck there. You cannot possibly move from where you are to where you want to be without knowing where you really are!

Let’s play pretend. Say someone blindfolds you. Then they put you into a helicopter. You fly for hours and hours. Then you land in the middle of the woods in some wilderness, are taken out of the helicopter, given a map but not told where you are, just topography, and a compass, the blindfold is removed and people who brought you leave you only telling you to meet them back in Atlanta Georgia. What do you do?  You would have a million questions wouldn’t you? But before any of those questions mattered you would have to know one essential thing, “Where am I?” You must know where you are before you know which way to head. Go north? I don’t know! Where am I? Go south? I don’t know where I am? And what if the helicopter just flew in circles for hours and you are only a few miles from Atlanta? Or what if the helicopter flew all the way to New York State? You don’t know so you are LOST!

So where are you?

Probably not where you think you are.  Now, I am going to drop a bomb on you. This is going to take some of you by surprise. Some of you will argue with me, and that’s okay, I am used to it. But before you can move anywhere you have to be honest about this one thing. You are not okay. You are not okay, and you are not ever going to be okay in and of yourself. This is where Adam went wrong. Let us make fig leaf loin cloths. Let us hide behind a tree. We will be okay. But the fig leaf can’t hide our brokenness. And a tree, that God created, couldn’t hide the brokenness that was inside of Adam and now inside of us. 

So why is this essential? Because until you realize you are a sinner you will never need a savior. Charles Spurgeon said, “If your sin is small then your Savior will be small. But if your sin is great then your Savior must be great also.” Honesty. You need honesty. You are not that great. You are not doing okay. You do not have it under control. You are a SINNER! You may answer, “Well at least I am not _________” you fill in the blank, a murderer, prostitute, drug dealer, child molester. . . To that I would say to you, that’s great that you are not those things. However, do you ever tell a lie? Do you ever get jealous? Ever envy anyone? Get angry? Yeah, I thought so. The bible puts those things in the same list as the former. You are not okay.

Now that I have boosted your self-esteem, let’s close this part out with a promise. If you will become honest with yourself about where you are, and if you will come to grips with your sinful human nature, God will do some pretty miraculous stuff in your life. I promise. He’s not going to make you awesome. He’s not going to stop you from sinning, he paid for those anyhow, but what he will do is show you your need of The Savior. This is how we begin that journey of eighteen inches. 

Part Two

Last time we were together, I made a statement in closing, “If you want to know what you believe, look at where you are headed”.  I posted that same thought on Facebook and twitter. I even got a retweet. It was from my daughter so I am not sure it counts. Anyhow, I was curious whether or not anyone would comment on it. In the end, a lot of people “liked” it, but no one really commented. It’s a deep thought. I hope you didn’t just glance over it and keep going. Let’s break it down, shall we?

What we believe drives the direction of our feet. You will go toward what you believe will bring you happiness and peace. If you believe soccer will do it you will head toward soccer, if you believe more money will do it, you will head toward acquiring more money. If you believe a better body will do it, you will head toward a better body. Whatever you think will “do it” is what you will head toward.

In a sermon I once heard the preacher say, “If you want to know what you are really trusting in look at where you spend your time and your money. Look at your calendar and your checkbook.” That one stuck. It’s true. We will spend money and time on what we believe will make us happy.

I am a CrossFit coach as well as a pastor. I would say CrossFit is a hobby. Even though I own a gym, we do not profit from the business. I love to be with the people that join our gym, and having a place to work out. But my journey through CrossFit has not always been “healthy”.

I was overweight. Severely overweight most of my adult life. I started my fitness journey in 2006. I belonged to a group of guys that worked out together and we always had a blast. We ate decent and worked out hard. Then we found CrossFit. For those of you who do not know, CrossFit is an extreme work out program. To give you an idea, just this morning we ran 1 mile then did 100 pull ups, 200 push ups, 300 air squats and then ran another mile. Yeah it was tough. It is not the average CrossFit work out, but you get the picture. Anyhow, it doesn’t take one long to start seeing changes in the body when working out like that. Muscles show up you didn’t know you had, you feel better, your clothes fit better, everything feels good. And there is nothing wrong with that. But I took it too far.

My friends and I discovered diets that were strict on what you should and should not eat so that our performance would get better. We found out if we did more than one work out in a day results would come faster. So we did. A lot. We only ate certain kinds of foods, we weighed and measured our food. We would schedule our entire day around when to be at the gym. One friend had shoulder surgery, I had elbow surgery, and it was ridiculous. Our lives revolved around CrossFit. But you know what? I saw results. But the results were never good enough. I always wanted more. (Remember that)

So why did I tell you all that? And what does that have to do with Jesus? A LOT! During this whole time of my CrossFit endeavor I was still following Jesus. I was still praying, reading my Bible studying for sermons etc… but the problem was Jesus was not Who I was chasing after with all my might. I believed CrossFit would make me happy. I knew I needed Jesus, but I believed CrossFit would make me happy. And I was willing to sacrifice for it.

At any point during this entire time if someone would have asked me if I believed Jesus was my only source of happiness I would have said yes. But if the same person would have looked at where I spent all my spare time, and my spare money, they would have seen different. You see what I mean? If I would have looked at where I was headed I would have seen what I really believed.

This comes in so slowly, so secretly you hardly notice it. I just looked up one day and thought, “Man this isn’t where I am supposed to be.” However, even after coming to the realization that I was off track it took a long time to start back to where I belonged. I had to come to the reality of where I was before I could go to where I needed to be. (That’s our next post.)

 Jesus understood this dynamic. Jesus understood that what you believe drives the direction of your life. Check out this passage from Mark:

“Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Passing along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in the boat mending nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. (Mark 1:14-20)

            Jesus understood what someone believed controlled the direction of their life. Look at what he says, “Repent and believe in the gospel”. Repent means to change the direction you are headed, and Jesus says you do that by believing in the Gospel. Then Mark gives us a clear illustration; Peter and the fellas leave everything they know because they have met Jesus.

            I always assumed that this is the first time Peter, James and John met Jesus. I had some ethereal Jesus in mind, kind of floating down the beach and the guys were like zombies following him in a trance. But I think it’s different.  I think these guys have heard Jesus speak, maybe they saw him baptized and heard the voice from heaven. Maybe they saw him perform miracles. I don’t know what they experienced, but whatever it was changed their lives enough to redirect them in a radical way.

            I want to leave this part with three questions, first where are you headed?  Look at where you spend your time and money that will tell you. And don’t answer with the church answer. You’re doing no one any good lying about it. Be honest with yourself. Where are you headed? And the second question, how is that working for you? Are you finding peace? Are you finding joy? Or do you feel like a hamster on a wheel? And the final question is, do you want to change it? If you do, meet me back here later this week, and we will begin with exactly where you are. 

Whoops

Hey guys. I had another post almost ready and my computer crashed on me so I lost everything. Will try to have it up by tonight. Sometimes I long for a typewriter. 

Part One

Just when I thought I had this awesome idea for a subject, I found out it was high jacked years ago. I thought I was being revolutionary, but hey like Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun.”  In church one night my worship leader started telling me about a song idea, “eighteen inches” which is evidently the distance between your head and your heart. I thought, “What a beautiful concept” and it has not left me since that night. But I found people have been talking about this for years. Oh well. Here comes another one talking about it. Oh and Noah, there is already a country song called “Eighteen Inches” so don’t blame me for stealing your idea!

            What intrigues me most about this thought is the truth that’s behind it. Eighteen inches may as well be 1000 miles in my life many days. Let me explain what I mean. It is eighteen inches from the average person’s head to their heart. Eighteen inches is not all that far. Look down at your heart, there it is right there. That is the distance information has to travel in order to become a part of who you are. Head knowledge and heart knowledge are two different things. Head knowledge is not necessarily life changing. It can be, but many times we say we believe things, and in our head we do, but what we actually do shows something entirely different. Let me illustrate.

            I know that texting and driving is wrong. I know that it can cost people their lives. I know that it is irresponsible, and dangerous. I know that. But I don’t believe it, at least not for me. I teach my kids not to text and drive, I tell my wife she should not be texting and driving, but when it comes to me I do it without thinking. Therefore, I know I shouldn’t be doing it, but I don’t believe I shouldn’t be doing it. If I did I wouldn’t be doing it. See, there is a disconnection between my heart and my head.

            But let’s take it a little farther. The other day I was riding down the road, texting, and looked up and the car in front of me was stopped, I have no idea why they were stopped, but they were. I had to slam on the brakes. I threw my phone in the back seat, said a few words a pastor should not say, and then drove on. Realizing once again that I should not be texting and driving. I drove about two miles, pulled over and got my phone. Thirty minutes later I was texting and driving. What will it take? How will I ever make that connection?

            I have a friend from seminary, let’s call him Joe. Joe is a great guy. One day we were going to lunch and he threw his phone in the back seat. I did not think anything. When we got to the eating place, he got it out. We went in, ate, came back out, and into the back seat the phone went. This time I had to ask. The story he told shocked me. Joe’s sister was paralyzed from the waist down because she was texting while driving and hit someone head on. Not only was she paralyzed, the person she hit did not live through the accident. All because she was texting and driving she was paralyzed, someone else was dead. This made it real to Joe, he didn't only know, he believed. And he believed because he had been touched by the effects of texting and driving.

            I hope this is making sense. Let me keep going for a second.                      

            Racism is growing less and less popular. Racism is ignorant. And most of us know it is wrong, but let us ask the question, do we believe it is wrong? Ask this question, when someone from a different race pulls out in front of you do you blame it on their race? When a race of people gets special treatment because of whom they are and nothing else, do you immediately get bitter in your heart against the whole race? There is nothing wrong with getting angry at injustice, or when you are wronged, but there is something wrong with blaming it on a race of people. That reveals what you truly believe.

            Take it one further, if you say you are not racist, that you know it is wrong, what do you do if your white daughter brings home a black boyfriend? Or if your white son brings home a Hispanic girlfriend? Or what do you do when you black daughter brings home a white boyfriend? Or your Hispanic son brings home an Asian girlfriend? Experience reveals what you truly believe. It reveals your heart. You cannot get away from it. And experience will not only reveal what you believe, it can change what you believe as well. The racist can be changed by an interracial grand baby. The texting driver can be changed by a paralyzed sister. Experience changes belief. And, experience makes knowledge become reality which makes it belief. You have to experience something to believe it. And sometimes experience can be costly.

            My dad used to tell me things all the time. And I wouldn’t listen (I think I just heard an “amen” from my dad’s house two miles away). But the older I get I not only realize those things were true, but now I am saying the same things to my kids, who don’t listen. Why? One big fat word, EXPERIENCE! Once I experienced those things my dad said would be, they became my belief.

            Since I am a pastor I guess we should stick some Jesus stuff in here huh?

            Jesus said in Luke 6:43-45, “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and evil person out of the evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

            The problem with us Christians, and the reason we live a defeated life, is a disconnection between the head and the heart. We fail to connect what we know to what we believe. This will be our journey. Jesus said that what comes out of our heart reveals what we believe. So at the most basic level, if you want to know what you believe, look at where you are headed.

            More on where your headed next time, for now let this soak into your soul. :) 

"Eighteen Inches to Life" is a blog about what it means to live out the life that Jesus has called us to live. It is about getting all that knowledge church puts into our heads into our hearts. So many of us have a lot of useless knowledge in our heads. I call it useless because if it is not making us look more like Jesus, which is God's purpose for all our lives, (Romans 8:28-29) it is just information rolling around in our brain. What I hope to achieve is to wrestle that information out of your cranium and into your heart. It wont be easy, but then again anything in life worth doing never is. Let's go on the journey!