bombay reflections

for a good time i've felt led to embark on several "mini-journeys" in search of answering questions that lay beneath the surface of the hearts of us all. i believe that people, no matter their theology, their race, their gender, their religious beliefs, all have questions that never go voiced.

just the idea that people have questions that they won't ask bugs me. it doesn't bother me because i want to know what question "so and so" has or because i need to know i'm not alone. it bothers me because if you never voice those questions, you'll never search for God through them.

that sounds a bit hazy, i'll see if i can clear up the water a little. if you have a question that you've always been curious about and you might have even studied scripture, read some commentaries, looked up the greek but you've never raised the question to anyone else, i would argue that you are missing out on a critical part of sanctification.

you are missing out on a piece of discipleship.

if you notice in the Gospel accounts, things were done in groups.

there were the 12 who were the Apostles. then there were the 3 who seemed to be a little closer to Christ. it was almost as if Christ took the three men and walked with them a step deeper.

isn't this the way our friendships are? we have a larger number of people who we would call friends but there is that small core group of people who we would say we are closer to, we are more connected; our bond with them is deeply rooted unlike other friendships.

it is with this core group of men and women that you share your lives on a more intimate level.

let's hop back over to the first century briefly before we ask a few questions... as i read the gospel accounts, i see Christ doing daily life with the people who followed Him. These men and women were his good friends.

i can see Him laughing with them at dinner. staying up to the wee hours of the morning telling stories about each other, about their lives before Christ, eating good food, drinking good wine and sharing pieces of themselves with each other.

i can see Christ hugging and crying a young man after losing a loved one. embracing him in his grief with no quick Bible quote but just the comfort of his arms.

i can see Jesus getting fishing tips from Peter, talking about philosophy with John, walking through questions that keep coming up with Judas and much more that isn't recorded by the four books we have today.

do you ever think that the part of life we miss out on the most is in our lack of conversation with each other?

think about it. we get together and go to the movies, to a ballgame, bowling, to play pick up basketball, to go shopping, to go to the park, etc. we do all of these things and there is little to no conversation that goes on. and the conversation that does go on is small talk, much like that on a sunday morning. we are lacking substance. we need substance. our souls, and our minds need to be stretched and challenged. we need spiritual and mental exercise.

to pay my way through school i bartended. you know what i miss about not being a bartender? the conversations. i've never had better conversations anywhere (outside those with my dearest friends). the job was amazing and the people were what i was there for. i had many regulars that even today i can remember where they sat, and what they drank. there was one particular man that comes to mind. his name was john and he was a retired university professor.

he wasn't a very tall man by anyone's perspective, but what he lacked in height, he more than made up for in intelligence. the man was a wealth of knowledge. he would walk in once a week, usually thursdays, and sit down with some sort of reading material. each time he sat he had the same drink, sapphire martini with a twist of lemon, but he always had a different book or magazine than last week.

we would often discuss politics, current events, etc. in one particular discussion i asked him why he was always reading and he said, "when you exercise, you keep your muscles healthy, in good shape, and hopefully growing to be in better shape. your mind is the same way, so if you don't exercise your mind, it will lose strength and become weak. i'm determined to not let my mind go first."

do you ever feel spiritually weaker than you did yesterday if you didn't "exercise" your spirit recently?

there are times when in-depth conversations come easily but most of the time outside of Bible study classes we don't have spiritual conversations. WE NEED THEM TERRIBLY.

if you want to grow, you must start down a path where you can search for the heartbeat of God in hopes to become more like Christ with other people. you must ask the questions that you've always wanted to ask. raise the question even if it seems questionable. how can you ever learn if you never begin to question.

i want to challenge you, if you've read this far, to begin a "mini-journey".

here's is what i'm urging you to do: find two or three (keep things small) other people who desire to go deeper and are willing to invest time in reading, talking, studying and praying individually and together. once you've found those people everyone "put a question in the hat" and pick one to start. this question can be about anything. it could be about the old testament laws, war, peace, salvation, life, love, relationships, anything. take that question and look at what scripture would have to say about said topic, then share your findings. do it over dinner or send out one email with a question and everyone reply. hear or read everyone elses responses thoroughly. not to find something to prove them wrong with, but find something that makes you think. discuss each others answer with an abundant amount of love and encouragement. once you've discussed thoroughly, go to the next question.

the key is to keep searching

keep walking

keep reading

keep praying

keep loving

keep encouraging

keep your spirit and your mind sharp

you don't want your spirit to be the first thing to go.

may you find people around you to journey with more intimately

may your heart be pushed to new depths

may you have more questions than answers


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the odd couple

a week ago today millions of families and friends sat down together and ate. we sat down with people we love deeply and broke bread. what a sacred event.

my closest friends will tell you that for years i've been saying, "good things happen over food." i truly believe that if more people took the time to sit and eat with each other, the world could be a different place. sounds a little crazy, doesn't it? i'm convinced that breaking bread together can change the world.

just think about the idea of thanksgiving and how your heart feels on that one day. even the idea of thanksgiving is about coming together over a feast and recognizing your blessings.

on that one day, we realize what is most important in life -- family, friends, love, grace, community.

for many of us we are reminded that all the things we've been chasing aren't what matters. we realize that what matters are the people in our lives, the community around us, the love from friends and family, good conversation over good coffee. hopefully we realize that what truly matters isn't something that we buy, but rather the very things that can't be purchased.

life is sitting down with people, listening to their stories, talking, laughing, crying.

life is walking along side people, loving them relentlessly.

life is helping people up who are at the bottom.

life is cooking simple meals and sharing them with others.

life is giving away clothes to people who need them more than we do.

life is building relationships with people founded on the love of Christ.

i think we can all agree that life is about the spiritual connection between people and what is birthed from those connections become the important moments we must savor.

thanksgiving is a reminder that life is here in front of us at all times, in our families, friends, and neighbors.

what's strange is that we can absolutely be on cloud 9 of spiritual revelation and understand that everything that truly matters in our life is living and breathing in front of us, but then turn around and pursue things that don't matter at all.

in today's world, thanksgiving is coupled with another day....

i know you all know it.

That's right -- "Black Friday". the greatest day in the world (note sarcasm). day of all the big sales. the day that every store under the retail sun opens hours before light breaks the horizon.

black friday is the day an entire nation flocks to store after store to spend money for the upcoming christmas holiday.

what's insane about this is the transition of our mind, not to mention the amount of money spent in one day, by one nation.

our mindset on thanksgiving is focused on enjoying what we have and even being comfortable for what we don't and finding it within ourselves to be thankful for where we are at in life. then black friday rolls around at 4am and we forget about being thankful for where we are at in life and the fact that material possessions aren't what makes us happy.

we trade in thankfulness for wanting more stuff.

it's as if we can't be happy with what we have for more than one day. we must go out and buy more for the people we love, because we want them to know how much we love them.

for some of us, we rely on the gifts we buy on black friday to show people how much we love them. so we went from the day of the year where we get in touch with what matters and we trade it for a day of greed. i don't want to sound incredibly negative but as a whole, we are a greedy nation.

our never ending pursuit of bigger, better, faster, stronger, newer stuff is something that scares me. there are a few things that the New Testament message is very clear about and one is the evidence of Christ in our hearts shown through our lives. Different authors tell of it in various ways but one of the passages that scares me personally the most is found in 1 John.

1 John tells us that "if anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

the phrase, "has no pity" can be better translated as "shutting off the heart". just think about that.

the person who sees someone in need and does nothing has had his/her heart shut off and is in question of even having Christ in their lives at all.

is that scary to just me?

think about it...

poverty has ravished our nation, our inner cities, our world. we have all seen the need. there is no way to say that we haven't seen the oppressed, the downtrodden, the needy. some of us see it daily with our own eyes.

if we have seen the need and the magnitude of the need, why are we spending billions of dollars in one day on junk that we have convinced ourselves we "need". in all truth, what more do we really need.

we have a house, with heat, we have food in the pantry, and jobs to help make all this possible.

do we really need the giant TV's, and sound systems?

do we need four cars?

do we need a house with more rooms than we can fill with people?

just think about walking by the homeless as you move from store to store spending a $1000 on people who already know how much you love them. you've seen a need right in front of your eyes over and over again and we (myself included) do nothing.

to steal an analogy from one of my professors, it's as if God is trying to tell us something and we're the little kid that sticks his hands over his ears singing, "la la la la la la la la i can't hear you". God is trying to get our attention and we won't even look his way.

when do we take our hands off our ears so that we can hear God?

this passage scares me because sometimes i feel that christians in america are more in love with capitalism than the gospel.

are we unwilling to live on less so that we can give more?

i can't justify a good reason to God for this. i have a hard time coming before the creator to explain why i need more comfort when so many slept outside last night.

God, give us the eyes to see and the ears to hear you.

may we take our hands off of our ears and listen.

may our lives be transformed in such a way that we only want to serve you.

may the Gospel be exhibited through our actions.

may we see a need today and meet it.

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