Leadership

I recently got a promotion at work and am now a team leader. It's short of supervisor, but I help manage workflow and schedules for the assistant editors. It's my first "official" leadership position in the workplace, and I've been thinking about what kind of leader I want to be.

Then I read Joshua 3, where Joshua leads the Israelites across the Jordan River. And I noticed something I'd never noticed before. Before they cross, God says this to Joshua: "Today I will begin to make you a great leader in the eyes of all the Israelites. They will know that I am with you, just as I was with Moses" (Joshua 3:7).

And after they cross, the account is summed up in Joshua 4:14: "That day the Lord made Joshua a great leader in the eyes of the Israelites, and for the rest of his life they revered him as much as they revered Moses." (To which I thought - well, that's not saying much - they didn't revere Moses all that well...)

But revering aside, the Bible says that this event was the defining moment of Joshua's leadership. It had nothing to do with reading management books. His leadership was defined through his faith, when he allowed God to do something amazing through him. And his leadership was defined even though he gave all the credit to God.

That's the kind of leader I want to be.

Words

"With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be." - James 3:9-10

I admit, this verse convicts me every time. I've been known to say a few mean things - sometimes in jest, sometimes not. To people's faces, behind people's backs. This time I read the verse, it reminded me of when one of my dogs tries to lick me shortly after vomiting or snacking on a morsel from the backyard (though thankfully they've gotten over that habit). There is no way I want that mouth showering me with kisses.

And it makes me really sad to think God might have the same reactions to my praises when I've been puking up mean words to people made in his image.

Sometimes there seems to be no redeemable thing about people. Sometimes you like them perfectly well, but they're just fun to make fun of. But the bottom line is, God made all people in his image. All of them. I'd never go to someone's house and, upon eating their home cooked meal, start talking about how disgusting it is. Even if it is disgusting. I'd try to be polite. After all, they worked hard creating that food.

But I do that so often with God. Right in front of him (since he's always there), I criticize his workmanship. Then go on to praise him with the mouth that still reeks of vomit.

So this is my resolution: to speak only kind words to/about people, so that my praise is as sweet as the clean-mouthed puppy kisses I love so much.

Entitled

I heard recently about some poor people coming to pick up their food baskets, and saying things like, "Oh no way, I'm not taking the one with that small turkey. I want the one with the big turkey!"

That made me really sad. It got me to thinking about how even America's "poor" are so rich compared to so many people in the rest of the world. Countries where there's no such thing as food pantries, soup kitchens, and holiday baskets. Countries where starving truly means there is no possible way to get any food.

I'm not saying that all poor people (or even all Americans) have an attitude like the people at this particular charitable event. But I do think it's an example of how entitled our country has become overall. And entitlement is the enemy of gratitude. Why be grateful for something you believe you deserve?

I read a story in Numbers 11 last week that I didn't remember reading before. In it, the Israelites complain and complain that all they get is manna, and that in Egypt they had meat, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. Now all they have is manna and they want meat! Their attitude is full of entitlement and just general complaining. (Never mind the fact that they have food miraculously fall from heaven; that they don't have to do any work to obtain it.)

And here's what God says, "Now you'll have meat, and you will have to eat it. And it won't be for just a day or two, or five or ten or even twenty. You will eat it for a whole month until you gag and are sick of it."

This, if you'll indulge my thought trail just a bit further, reminded me of the scene in Matilda where the kid sneaks a piece of chocolate cake, and the principal makes him eat the entire, giant chocolate cake in front of the whole school. Now in this particular movie, the principal is just really horrendously mean and we all root for the boy. But in the case of the Israelites, God was punishing their entitled, ungrateful attitude with such an overabundance they'd wish they'd never asked. They got their just desserts. (Ha ha, get it?)

Now, to bring this full circle...I was convicted by all these thoughts. I don't often say thank you to God. Sometimes I focus on the negative and don't pay much attention to the blessings. Like the poor people who wanted the bigger turkey, I'm always looking at how to get more - or at least the same amount - of the good things others around me receive.

Ultimately we're all beggars standing in line at the merciful throne of God, in need of his blessings and grace. How much more must he delight in a gracious attitude than an entitled one?

To conclude - a great and amusing reminder of all we've been blessed with:

The Lord Is There

I'm working on reading the Bible all the way through for the second time. I'm using the one-year plan from God Sightings, put out by Group and Tyndale, although it's become the two-year plan for me. At any rate, I'll be done by the end of the year.

This morning I finished Ezekiel, which put me in mind of the first time I read the Bible all the way through. I was in high school when I finished, and at that point I wasn't following any plan. I was just reading a chapter a day, reading the books in no particular order and checking them off when I finished. I just decided on a whim which book to read next. And so it happened that the last book I read was Ezekiel. And the last words of Ezekiel are the new name for God's holy city, written as "The Lord Is There" in English (NIV).

I remember being really struck that those were the last words I read before I could say I'd read the Bible cover to cover. It seemed almost like a summary to me of the whole Bible. No matter what sinful things were going on, what chaos ensued, the theme of the Bible was that God's presence was there. Dwelling in the Temple. Filling his holy city. Feeling the pain of rejection as his people turned to idols. Sending his own Son to provide a way he could be intimately present in our life.

The Lord is there in your life. No matter how you've messed up, or how messed up your life seems. He's with you. His Word is evidence of how he longs to speak into your life. His sacrifice of his own Son is evidence of how he longs to be present with you for all eternity.

Are you lonely? Are you hopeless? Are you running on empty?

The Lord is there.

There's Always Tomorrow

I've noticed throughout the course of my life that there always seems to be a better time later to set self-improvement goals. New Year's of course, is a big one. So I think of a habit I want to form or break around this time of year, and I think, "I'll do that in 2012. That's a good time to change."

But there've been other times, too. When I graduate high school. When I get to college. When I get through mid-terms. When the semester ends. When I graduate college. When I get through this big project. When I move. And on and on it goes.

It struck me the other day that there's always an excuse to put off becoming who God wants you to be and becoming a more whole person. Until the day comes when there is no tomorrow, and you realize with each extension you made to your goals of self-improvement, you've never changed.

I'm not saying there's no grace for busy times. But if you, like me, find yourself putting off desires to improves yourself for another day, join me in saying: Today is the day I will become who God wants me to be.

* On an ironic note, I decided to write this blog on Tuesday. Hey, it's a work in progress...

Do Something

I'm reading James right now. It's challenging because it's very much about faith in action. It puts it pretty simply: "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says" (James 1:22). I prefer to just think about God and blog about faith. But actually helping the orphans and widows? That takes a lot more effort.

I've also been thinking about a missions trip I went on in high school. I went with my youth group, and one of the nice things was that I needed community service hours for a class I was taking in school, so I got to use those hours. But I needed photos of me there.

During the day we dug ditches and painted houses and such. And in the evenings we helped run a VBS for the kids on the Apache reservation we were staying at. I remember the first night of VBS, I was awkwardly talking to a kid here and there, but mostly just watching what was going on, taking some pictures of my own, and worrying because the youth pastor wasn't taking any pictures of me, even though he knew I needed them for school. I was pretty pre-occupied with the fact that I needed photo evidence, so I was watching and waiting for him to take some pictures.

Finally I said to him, "Rick, why aren't you taking pictures of me?"

He responded, "You gotta get out there and do something worth taking pictures of!"

That's when I realized I was so focused on getting credit for serving that I wasn't actually serving. So I jumped in and helped with the crafts. And I chased some kids around. And you know what? Rick took some pictures once I started actually serving. And I didn't even notice him taking them.

I think this is a great picture of the way humans tend to behave. We want credit. We want glory. So we talk a good game about our faith, or about our efforts, but what we're really doing is sitting on the sidelines waiting for the credit. Real faith happens when we get out there and do something worth taking pictures of - credit or not.

Tithing

One thing I'm thankful my parents did is teach me to budget. Like, early on. I'm talking around 5 or 6 when I started getting an allowance. And I put my 10 cents in tithe, 10 cents in savings, and so on. And as the years went on and my allowance grew, I kept on putting 10 percent in tithe.

The number 10 percent is generally the target number people who tithe aim for. It's based on Abraham's offering in Genesis 14, and on Deuteronomy 14:22 where the Israelites are told to set aside a tenth of their crops as a tithe. But the tithe in Deuteronomy wasn't like a charitable donation - it was an amount set aside to eat in the presence of the Lord as an act of worship. You actually consumed this tithe. Only every three years, the tithe was used to feed the poor.

But let's not forget the other offerings discussed in Leviticus - burnt offerings, grain offerings, fellowship offerings - these were given as an act of worship to God. These were not eaten, but rather burned as an offering. They were given freely, no specified amount. On top of your 10%.

Then there were the random collections, like when they were building or repairing the Tabernacle/Temple, where people just brought what they had to build the house of the Lord. On top of their 10% and offerings.

In the New Testament, there are people who give fields or other such things in Acts to help share the wealth with the body of believers in their church.

Then there's the Jerusalem Fund, a collection taken among many of the churches Paul visited, to help the poorer churches.

And let's not forget the most compelling example of giving - the widow who gives less than the rich men, but is applauded by Jesus himself for giving out of her poverty and putting in all she had to live on. This act of faith was an amazing thing.

So really, the things we consider using tithe money for - helping our church or other churches with ministry, building funds for churches, or giving as an act of worship - these were not specified amounts. What mattered was your heart. Whether it was giving 10%, like Abraham did, or 100% like the widow, or less or somewhere in between, a gift cheerfully given is a great gift. And I believe God blesses us when we give to him in faith.

I also believe it is OK to use tithe money to fund your own missions trip. If you would give money to missionaries, why not give both money and time to missions work? If you can fund your own missions trip, you're freeing up would-be donators to give to other things.

Idolatry

I haven't been posting very regularly lately. I've had a lot on my mind, things I don't want to blog about (at least not yet), and as a result it's been hard for me to think of things I am willing to blog about.

But one thing that occurred to me recently was on the topic of idolatry. So, the 10 Commandments say two things about worshipping false gods. 1) Don't have any other gods. 2) Don't make an idol or other image and bow down in worship to it.

The two often get equated in today's culture. We talk about how things like money or fame or video games are "idols." And I don't really buy that definition. I think they can definitely be false gods and fall into the first rule, if you let them consume you. But idols seem to be unequivocally statues or other images that people bow down to. And I can't think of anything that fits into that category that Christians do today.

This is the reason the Church got rid of all Christian paintings and statues at one point. Though I think that's overkill. If an idol is an object of worship, a simple painting is probably not an idol.

These are just my random musings, nothing based on scholarly research or intense exegesis of the original Hebrew or anything. And I'm not saying that means we should put things before God - that's clearly a no-no from rule 1. But I do wonder if we use the term "idol" too loosely as Christians.

Thoughts?

Trick-or-Treat

I'm going to take this blog to post a Halloween rant. I like Halloween. I think it's a fun holiday. I like candy, I like dressing up my dogs, I like giving out candy to trick-or-treaters. So I was disappointed to only have my doorbell rung 3 times, for a total of 6 trick-or-treaters. And the first set went like this:

*ding dong*
Un-costumed kids: "Do you got any candy?"
Me, thinking they said "want" not "got" (since that's not even grammatically correct): "You're giving out candy???"
Them: "No, we want you to give us candy."

So I gave them candy and they pet my dogs, and I wished them a Happy Halloween. And then I closed the door and stewed. Because I think the fun of Halloween is dressing up. And that doesn't have to mean tons of money on an expensive costume. My best childhood costume was a lamp - I wore a lampshade on my head, duct taped a flashlight in it, and wore gray sweats. Simple, very safe, and original.

And I have a problem with kids who don't say trick-or-treat. Even though at its heart, his message is a threat to prank you if you don't give out a treat, there's something whimsical about the age old catchphrase. This whole "Do you got any candy?" thing seemed so demanding. (And again, the grammar bothered me. It's "Do you have any candy?" Seriously, go to school.) It was like I owed them something for ringing my doorbell in their school clothes.

I read an article yesterday about how Halloween is losing its appeal to kids. Partly because of Christians calling it evil. And partly because adults have stolen it (with their slutty costume parties). This makes me really sad. I only was allowed to trick-or-treat through 6th grade, and only on my street of 7 houses, so I relished those years. And once I got to college, I donned two ponytails, a bunch of colors, and tied a bandana around my leg and went out as Punky Brewster.

I really hope next year brings back some of the whimsy and fun of Halloween. Adults can share in Halloween with kids, but only if we bring in the fun.

Next year I think I might not give candy to kids unless they say trick-or-treat.