The Devotion Difference

Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it. – Proverbs 22:6 (NLT)

How do you hope your kids will emerge?

• Would you like to experience a higher quality relationship with your kid(s)?
• Would you like your child to emerge into an adult who is generous in contributing time and resources toward those less fortunate then themselves?
• Would you like your child to emerge into an adult who cares about significant issues such as racial equality, care for the elderly, and the poor?
• Would you like your child to be less likely to get sucked into alcoholism, binge-drinking, drugs, smoking cigarettes, smoking marijuana, or fighting (physical)?
• Would you like your child to emerge into an adult who is more likely to have healthy BMI levels, has a higher sense of self-image, and thinks about the deeper meaning of life?
• Would you like your child to emerge into an adult who is less likely to feel sad or depressed, who feels loved and accepted for who they are, and has overall good mental health?
• Would you like your child to emerge into an adult who has a greater sense of purpose and is quicker to be grateful?
• Would you like your child to emerge into an adult who has a greater life satisfaction?
• Would you like your child to emerge into an adult who is less materialistic?
• Would you like your child to emerge into an adult who has a more safe, healthy sexuality?
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According to Christian Smith, there is one variable that maximizes the likelihood that our highest hopes will materialize.  In Souls in Transition (Oxford 2009),  Smith  gives detailed analysis on the religiosity of young adults in the US, and the correlation of a wide range of feelings and behaviors.  An overarching conclusion was that the more devoted a person was in their faith, the more likely they would experience positive results in significant areas of life, such as those listed above.

The positive difference is devotion:

• Attend religious services weekly or more often
• Faith is very or extremely important in everyday life
• Feel very or extremely close to God
• Pray a few times a week or more often
• Read scripture once or twice a month or more often

Devoted emerging adults make up only  5% of their population.

Negative outcomes tend toward disengagement:

• Never attend religious services, or do so only a few or many times a year and identify as “not religious”
• Faith is somewhat, not very, or not important in everyday life
• Feel only somewhat close to God or less close
• Pray one to two times a month or less often
• Read scripture one or two times a month or less often.

Where we direct our children makes a massive difference on their future (and, consequently, ours).   Raise kids along a less-than-ideal path, and they will suffer the consequences.  They pay for your decisions.

Why does raising our kids “Devoted” make such a difference?

• The ethic they learn provides for a healthy sense of self, respect for others, and service.
• The community they engage provide a support system for learning key concepts and adopting new behaviors.
• The God piece is real – they will more likely experience God in a spiritually nurturing environment than in one that is neutral or biased against God.

The good news: all of the quality of life pursuits we want for our kids can become increasingly ours as well, as we pursue devotion.  As you pursue the best for your kids, your life will improve as well.

For the sake of the kids we knowingly and unwittingly influence, we are called to devotion.

For the sake of our own lives, our own well-being – we will choose devotion?

Choose today whom you will serve. But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.  Joshua 24:15 (NLT)

Done Well

The Gospel of John wasn’t meant to be picked apart, line by line, without regard for the whole. When John wrote it, he certainly expected people to hear the whole of the story, and consider the parts only in light of that whole. His purpose in writing the account of Jesus’ life was to point readers in the direction of God, so that they would know of the hope they had for the lives they were living, and for the life to come. The experience of this life present and to come is the very process of salvation: multifaceted, touching on every aspect of our lives.

In a nutshell, the salvation John paints is one that relies on the Spirit of God, seeks intellectual growth, is passionately heartfelt, is quick to turn away from ways not of God in order to follow Christ, and is sustained in remembering God’s redemptive work while learning to love in community.

There is one particular story which exemplifies all the facets of salvation come together. In John 4, Jesus choose to move into Samaria – a volitional decision based on God’s grace alone, as no Jew would ever want to dirty their sandals with that soil. He found himself at Jacob’s well, where a Samaritan woman approached midday to get some water. He struck up a conversation with her – an act of love – foot washing – something none of the disciples would have considered doing. As he did with Nicodemus, he stretched her thinking as he discussed who he is and what he offers. She wasn’t quite getting it, so he took her understanding of him to a much deeper, affective level when he illumined things about her that only God could have revealed to him. Her heart grew in belief. She tried to pick a fight with Jesus, but he had another agenda, and spoke to her about the Spirit – the essence of God and the means of our worship. In response to this discourse, she left her lonely, weak way of life and instead confidently, boldly ran back to the village that despised her to declare the news of the Christ, much like the healed blind man who simply stated what happened to him. The result of her witness of Christ? The whole village came to believe in him.

This one story encapsulates what we go through – throughout our lives – as we follow Christ. Our salvation is a process, a gift to embrace throughout our lives. We are like the Samaritan woman in that regard. The question is, are we still in the process of salvation, or did we leave the dialogue with Christ long ago?

The story also challenges us as apostles of Christ regarding how we are to carry out the great commission we have been given to make disciples of Jesus. We learn from Jesus where we need to go and how we need to treat people who we’ve been given the privilege to address. As you walk through life, how are you handling those in your path? With grace, honor, and respect as Jesus did with the woman at that well?

May you be humble enough to realize, every day, that you have not yet arrived. May you be bold enough, every day, to walk in the Spirit you’ve been given to gracefully woo a world back to the One who gave us all breath.

“One of the greatest lies of our day is that conversion is instant, like fast food. God can zap us and we’re saved. It is all free. It costs nothing. Take it and run. This is what Bonhoeffer calls 'cheap grace.' Punch in at church. Grab communion and run. Season your conversation with 'praise the Lord' and you’re among the saved.

“One of the great truths of our day is that conversion is ongoing. Conversion is the process in which we are given opportunity upon opportunity to accept the free gift of salvation. Salvation is a free gift, yes, but it’s costly. It’s 'costly grace.' It costs our lives lived passionately.” – Macrina Wiederkehr

Sheep

Peter got the cart before the horse.  Again.  There were a few moments in his walk with Jesus where he got a little ahead of himself, only to discover the hard way that he needed to back up the truck and revisit some things.

                At the end of john’s Gospel, Jesus appears to the disciples post-resurrection.  Peter was the most eager to see his Lord again, and was quite happy to move right along in his relationship with God.  But there was some unfinished business the needed to be addressed – something Peter certainly required but did not really want to engage.  As far as we can tell, Peter was quite comfortable avoiding the issue altogether, moving forward as if it was just a bad dream or something.

                But God wants a relationship with us that is unhindered by baggage and unfinished business.

                After breakfast, the scene we find is Jesus and Peter sitting around the campfire.  Then the questions came.  “Do you love me?”  Three times in a row.

                Peter’s confusion no doubt turned to clarity the third time the same question was repeated.  The smoke from the campfire reminded him of another time when his relationship with Jesus was in question.  During that episode, instead of a resounding affirmation of love, loyalty and devotion, Peter denied even knowing Jesus.

                This was Jesus taking the time to do what Peter wanted to avoid.  Jesus was moving Peter through a process of healing and reinstatement into full community with Jesus and the rest of the disciples.  Jesus chose a setting and a dialogue that was effective and efficient in helping Peter recognize what was before him.

                Don’t be surprised if you find yourself in a strangely familiar place, and sense God addressing unfinished business.  This is not God wanting to be mean.  God wants relationship with you again, and wants you to grow into your next level of life as a more whole person.

                Struggle with a hot temper?  Don’t be shocked if you find yourself in a situation that resembles a time you lost to the temptation to boil over.  Struggle with lust?  Don’t be surprised if you sense God tugging at you the next time you are faced with object of your infatuation – be it a person or anything.  Don’t give a rip about your relationship with God?  Get ready for a moment when you are faced with the opportunity to avoid or draw near – God is pursuing you.

                Peter gives us a realistic, very human response.  The lights came up slowly for him, and he chose the path of humility instead of denial and defensiveness.  We would do well to do the same, because we need a whole relationship with God as much as he did.

                Jesus didn’t just ask the question, however.  He gave instruction about our response, too.  After three identical questions about love, and after three affirmative responses, Jesus gave three (basically) identical charges: “Feed my sheep.”

                Of course, this was related to the reinstatement process.  Tending to the sheep was a sign to Peter that he was being entrusted yet again with those who follow Jesus – His flock.  But it points to a helpful lesson for us today.

                Love isn’t just a feeling – it is its own imperative and is the action needed to practically every situation we find ourselves in.

Peter was receiving two lessons, really.    First, he was hearing again about our status with God.  We’re sheep.  Peter was being reminded that he, like all of us, have gone astray now and then, and needed to return to the fold.

Are you in the fold?  Are you an obedient sheep?

The second lesson Peter got was that his unique role was to act as an under-shepherd for the real Shepherd, along with the rest of the disciples.  He was being entrusted with the daily operations of the Kingdom ranch.  A big, complex job that would require him to lose favor, on occasion, with the very sheep he was supposed to lead.

Ask a sheep what a shepherd’s role is, and they will tell you that it is basically to keep them happy.  Feed me, pet me, play with me, and clean me when I ask for it – spoil me.

But a shepherd has to do a lot more than that.  Sheep need to be sheared – their wool is a resource that needs to be used to pay for the ranch.  Some of the sheep need to breed while others should be the last in their family line.  And some of the sheep need to be sacrificed for the benefit of the ranch and the many beneficiaries such a sacrifice would yield.

As a pastor, I have to sort out my under-shepherd roles carefully and prayerfully, knowing that my decisions for the Ranch and for your life may not be welcome, but are, nonetheless, necessary.

But what about you?  What does it mean for you to be a good sheep?

Toward the end of Peter’s life, he offers us words as a seasoned under-shepherd:

Make every effort to respond to God’s promises.  Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. – 2 Peter 1:5-7 (NLT)

And he follows these words with an added insight:

The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins. – 2 Peter 1:8-11 (NLT)

What do we, the sheep, need to do in response to God’s question: Do you love me?