wealth and poverty

So I promised to keep a blog to keep you posted on the happenings of Los Angeles and honestly, I have so many stories it is unreal. The fact is, I am typically exhausted at the end of each day and have lacked a desire to keep you, the reader posted on the happenings. Recently, I have had a few days off and now am finding the energy to do this. Seeing as how I have the energy, I am going to post a mega blog and warning, this will be long and thought provoking. Enter at your own risk. Much like watching a car accident, you wont be able to pull your head away… okay, maybe you will but this is more for me than it is for you but I hope you enjoy never the less.

Let me start using stats from bible gateway:

Poor is mentioned 176 times
Wealthy/rich is mentioned 165 times
*NIV

Often times, when we mention the gospel, we mention it by talking about how we should serve the poor. How many times do we mention helping the wealthy? The thing is, often times, when Jesus is mentioned being with sinners, it is because he is hanging out with outcasts of society including prostitutes, drunkards, and tax collectors.

Enter a man named Zacchaeus. Luke chapter 19 vs: 1-10

¹ Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. ² A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. ³ He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

⁵ When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” ⁶ So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

⁷ All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

⁸ But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

⁹ Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

I do believe this is the first time I have ever blocked scripture in my quote but let us take a symbolic look at this passage. I want to point out that Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector. This means that homie was making bank. The second thing that I want to point out is that just because Jesus was coming through town and he had heard who this Jesus was, he wanted to see what all of the fuss was about so he climbed into a tree because he was a wee little man. I know none of these facts are new to you but trek with me here. Not only was he small in stature, he was small in the eyes of the Jewish community, this is only furtherd not by historical fact but by the muttering that began in verse 7.  The point is, however, Jesus called Zacchaeus down from the tree so that he could stay with him in his house. Jesus wanted a relationship with Zacchaeus. After Zacchaeus and Jesus met, Zacchaeus promised to do all of these great things for him by giving back all of this money and such. Notice how much interest Jesus took in this promise. If you guess none, you’re right. Jesus main interest was in the fact that he came to seek and to save the lost, not how much Zacchaeus promised to right the wrongs he had committed.

Now, I understand that requires some reading between the lines but I do find it interesting that the writers pay no attention to Jesus’ response to this promise. Keep in mind that these are the same writers that took interest in Jesus’ astonished looks, his emotions, and his responses but when it comes to such a bold proclamation such as paying back his wrongs four fold, Jesus responds with his mission of coming to seek and save the lost. He then proceeded with a parable about being good stewards of what God has gifted you with.

My point in writing all of this is that when it comes to society, God called us to further his kingdom. How do we do this? Zacchaeus thought it was to right all of his wrongs to the fourth fold. Jesus had other ideas, it was to seek and to save the lost. You see, I want to draw some symbolism from Zacchaeus climbing the tree to how when we climb the ladder of success, we forget that we are lost as well. Even while we are in the tree, those who have not climbed the tree mutter in judgment as well. This means that in God’s eyes, those with money and those who are without money are on the same continuum of judgment which is God’s job, and is a sin. You see, Paul was onto something when in Philippians  4:12 he says,

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

The point is not for the “have-nots” to judge the “haves” or vice versa. The point is to be content. Albeit, God does say in Deuteronomy 15:4 “… there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you…” but God’s focus is still for the haves and the have-nots to be content.

Honestly, when we look at both ends of the spectrum, we see that when Jesus said that the kingdom is at hand, he was not talking about Christendom but the fact that when we are born again, we are restored spiritually to the image of God. When we are made into his image, we are all on the same field whether rich or poor. We are the ones that create class and race but God sees us in our original form which is in his image.

If you want social justice, I believe it can only come through the realization of the image of God. There is nothing we can do to rid of socioeconomic injustice, but we can do our mission to restore others to the image they were created for and use the overflow of his blessings in our life to ensure that there are no poor among us. I am going to go ahead and stop there because this is a tension of how that is still going on in my mind.

I will end with this though in Acts 3:6-7

⁶ “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” ⁷ Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong.

Give a hand up next time and not just handouts. When someone asks you for change, instead of throwing money at them like a monkey tied to an organ grinder, treat that individual as if they were made in the image of God. The funny thing is, they ARE made in the image of God.

Just thoughts.

Tray to the Face

Last week I got to help host a group from Hanford, CA… or was is Hamford, CA?

Anyways…

It was awesome watching a bunch of Junior High students learn about LA. They had wonderful hearts and were open to learning. One day, while we were at the Midnight Mission (really cool place), we wee serving dinner in Skid Row, or Hope Row. The interesting thing about it was I came face to face with how condescending I really am. You see, to illustrate it all, we were serving food and I was expecting everyone of the homeless men and women to appreciate me. It is like, “Here, enjoy these tasty morsels I am giving you because you are poor and I am able to travel all the way to LA just to serve you. I am greatness in the flesh.” So it struck me as odd when with a few minutes left of serving, a tray is suddenly thrown into gravy with a splattering of “ungratefulness”, or gravy, all over a girl’s apron and on to my shirt. I am Zach Morris on Saved by the Bell and we are going to freeze and diagram this play like John Madden does a football game.

First, why should the population on Skid Row really appreciate missionaries? How many church buses have come through Skid Row leaving only their carbon footprint? That is not to say that what these people do is not valuable but what are the motives of mission trips? I feel like we often get it wrong. I think that often times we use mission trips to be the only week that we serve as missionaries and the rest of the time we live like we want to when really we are supposed to always be missionaries. Paul did not go on mission trips to serve for weeks or seasons at a time but went to plant churches, or to encourage the believers there and be encouraged. I think that is still the purpose of mission trips and missionaries today.

Secondly, where was my heart during all of this? Should I just expect everyone to be grateful that I was there or what should be our attitude during all of this? After much though and reflection, this is what I have come to. The people on Skid Row should be grateful but I should not be cocky about what I am doing either. Jesus served others out of compassion and often times we serve out of feel goodness.

Let me break down feel goodness. Me thinks that when we serve to feel better, it is not because we genuinely feel better about helping someone else, it is because we are uncomfortable with ourselves and we try to create balance with that by helping someone else. The question then becomes, what is our motive? If our motive is to feel more at balance then we should probably get a heart check. If our motive is to serve out of genuine compassion. To understand more about what I mean, we will have to obey Christ’s example. You see, Christ did not come to be served, but to serve. Yet, he still let Mary wash his feet. We should be the same way. Philippians 2:3 which basically says that we should not be jealous or proud but consider others as more important than ourselves. What is the connection between these three thoughts? We should not worry about societal ranks when it comes to service. The poor should be grateful to be served and I should be grateful to be served. We serve each other in different ways and we should be as one when it comes to service. Was throwing the tray wrong? Absolutely. Was being a jerk about serving the poor wrong? Absolutely.

True equality lies in true humility. We will never be truly humble, and we will probably never be truly equal. You cannot throw resources at a problem and expect that to fix everything just like you cannot ignore a problem and expect that to fix everything either. Social justice should not be about fiscal policy, universal healthcare, racism and retribution; it should be about meeting people’s physical and spiritual needs which means that social justice comes from Jesus. He did that 2,000 years ago. Too bad it took getting a tray thrown at a girl to show me that.

So to end, let me share a favorite quote of mine:

“Can he hate the world enough to think it needs changing? And yet love it enough to think it worthy of being changed?” – G. K. Chesterton

Just thoughts.

Insert Witty url Here

I really wanted to share about a couple of the things that happened on my trip. So let me begin in Forrest City, Arkansas home of the greatest Taco Bell known to man. The food and service was exceptional. The only problem was, there were no windows on one side of the building. Here I am eating south of the border in 40 degree weather. You know how most fast food places play really good music? i was jamming to the soothing, rhythmic melodies of the hammer and nail. It was awesome. So, if you’re ever going down I-40 in Forrest City, Arkansas, you should stop at the taco bell and tell them Jay sent you.

Another funny thing that happened in Arkansas is I almost got hit by a crop duster. My step-mom does not like me talking about this but I thought it was hilarious. Basically the plane looked like it was only 20 feet in the air and right between me and the truck in front of me but it was probably a couple hundred feet in the air and my depth perception was thrown off by the size of the plane. Who knows?

My favorite event that happened on the trip was when I stopped at a truck stop north of Dallas. I was on my way to Abilene, TX and I had to go to the bathroom bad. Not trying to be graphic but I literally got to sit in on an “a capella” rehearsal in the bathroom. It was like “Boyz 2 Men” meet Church of Christ and was incredible. I didn’t know whether to shake their hand or wash mine first. They were gone before I thought to yell over the stall thanks and tip them. I had $2 in my pocket too…

Well, anyways, I am here now and it’s rainy and 45 degrees in southern California… go figure.

Accustomed to Beauty

As you may well know, I got the privilege to drive across the south western part of the U.S. in order to get to Los Angeles. It was an amazing drive. Especially Indio, California. I wanted to post pictures for this blog but did not have the right equipment. I digress. One question that kept coming to my mind, however, was, “Do these people know how beautiful their city/state is?” And that got me to thinking as one does when they are driving. Do people say that about me?

I wondered, do people say about my freedom and faith that I do not know how good I have it? Am I living in such a way that people that are unaccustomed to the love of Jesus Christ are baffled by my life? I don’t think so.

On the other hand, have we grown so accustomed to the darkness around us that our eyes have adjusted and we have watered down the gospel so much that it does not take much to look like a believer?

Just thoughts.

Praying with Earmuffs

Recently, and honestly still, my prayer was (is) wondering where God will lead me. I realized recently that he had me all along. I have always wanted to live the adventure of walking by faith and he has put that in order for me. As I embark on a drive to Los Angeles, I realized that the many times I was praying for his will and secertely hoping he would lead me to a 6 figure job doing something meaningful. While he has given me the something meaningful job, he has not given me the 6 figure job and rightfully so. He has in store for me much to learn and much to experience in the arena of faith which is more valuable than money.

I realized that the reason we often experience disappointment with God is that we often time pray with earmuffs. We want to be happy with the thrill of living minus the faith part. Thrill of living without faith is just living. I am excited to see where God takes me only because I have no idea where he is leading me. If I had gone my own way and gotten a job that I was stuck with, I would not be nearly as excited as I am now. It took me a while to get there but now I realize it. Obviously, not everyone is afforded this opportunity but are continuing to work to the thrills of living. At this moment in time, however, it is my turn. Not everyone’s thrill is the same and not everyone’s moment of thrill at the same time but as you work through life, I hope that you do not miss out on the chances to walk by faith because of fear. That fear is merely stagefright for your moment in the spotlight of God’s will. Please, don’t limit yourself to mediocre existence but live the abundant life.

Next time I write you, I will be in LA. I hope you are all doing well and continuing to find your chance to walk by faith. I’ll just tell you, it is a lot of fun… at least right now it is. I’ll get back to you when I fall flat on my face.

Don’t exist, live.

Just thoughts.

Thoughts on Serious Things (pt. 2)

“In the end, there are only two possible attitudes which Christians can adopt toward the world. One is escape and the other is engagement.”
                                   -John Stott

In part one of  ”Serious Things”, I left you with the question, “How often do we let things like that go unnoticed because we are too busy waiting on the world to change?” I talked about how we often see the need for change but do litttle or nothing about it. I am not above reproach by any means and as expressed by the title, I am still a student. So this begs the question, “Why do we let these issues skate by us unscaved?”

My first and possibly most relatable answer is that we are often overwhelmed by the world’s problems. There is so much to be done and so many things that need to be fixed that we feel as if our little contribution to the world is petty and often times temporary in comparrison to the magnitude of the world’s problems. Even if we do make a difference, it is not like Hollywood will be banging on our door with a movie deal or a book will be written because of the grand difference we made in people’s lives. Even since we do not care about the recognition, the point is that we feel like there is little we can do to really make a difference in our world, or even our corner of the world.

The other reason I think we often do little is because we are busy with other things. Albeit, some of these things are very important but often times they are not. I will not say that Christians should not have down time or such, but there is a point where we have to realize how much time is really wasted on fruitless matters. Even as I write this, I wonder if I should plump this under the fruitful or fruitless category but that is besides the point. The point is not to become critical but to become aware.

I think often times we replace the thrill and stuggles of life with replacements often times found in media outlets. For example, how many times does a romantic turn to romantic movies and books or even live vicariously through their friends. How many times do you see washed up athletes become obsessed with sports disregarding those around them for the game. How many times do guys watch action movies wishing they could be the hero getting the girl instead of chasing the girl they have trying to be her hero. The point is we need to ditch the fakes and live the adventurous life before us and it can be just as exciting and way more fulfilling than the replacements we come up with.

To end with an analogy, would you rather see a picture of a sunset in Yosemite or stand on the mountain yourself watching the sunset.

Just thoughts.

Thoughts on Serious Things (pt. 1)

Over the past several months and maybe past couple of years, I have been coming face to face with the uglier side of government policy and the church. The thing I am noticing over and over is that we are more prone to say that we are prolife when it comes to saving unborn babies but are not prolife when it comes to helping our neighbor (This is a paraphrase of Brennan Manning). My point is not to say vote one way or the other. If it makes you feel better, I will go ahead and tell you my political leaning. I consider myself an independent because I cannot align myself with either Democrat or Replubican. My point is to say that I think we are more willing to vote a straight ticket one way or the other and trust the suits in Washington or town hall to take care of all of the worlds’ problems and sit in the backseat and complain about the direction the elected official is taking us. I think this is a true sign of our laziness and apathy towards the problems of society. I think also that my generation is the worst at this. My generation would rather “wait on the world to change” and “fall for anything” rather than “stand for something.”

Last summer, I was talking to one of the most brilliant men I have ever met, Bill Bru, who was the executive director (I could be wrong about that) of Waterfront Rescue Mission. We were drinking the morning coffee and talking about the then Tea Party assemblies that were taking place and he made the comment that he remembered when school buses used to get tipped over, riots over progressive issues, and rallies that lasted days over certain issues. Dr. Talmage, a mentor of mine, also vouched for the same situations on a campus that he used to be the chaplain of. The reason for bringing up these two men is because they both made similar comments in paraphrase saying that those riots scared them, but the fact that this generation does not stand for anything scares them even more.

My latest kick has to be education. So for the example that I am going to use will be how schools get their money. Their are two ways that schools get their funds put simply, taxpayers and fundraisers. Since we know fundraisers hardly work. Let us dialogue about taxes. To keep it simple, I will set up a control to kind of show you how it’s done. Keep in mind I am an amateur:
     Let us pretend it takes 200k to keep a local school running for ten people. A suburban school system’s average property in a ballpark is worth about (let’s say) 200k. An underdeveloped community might have an average  property worth about 80k (and that’s being generous). The local government imposes a 10% tax on ten property owners in the suburb which means the school get 200k from those ten constituents. The underdeveloped community has to impose a heavier tax to get the same kinds of funds so it would require a 25% property tax to keep up with that 200k mark that is needed to keep the school running. Obviously the underdeveloped cannot bear the burdens of a 25% property tax and so they local government drops the tax lower but what happens is the quality of education in the underdeveloped area goes down. Class sizes are increased and supplies are depleated. The school cuts corners in every other way possible in order to cut costs. The point is, the rich kids get better educations while the poor kids lose opportunity. But wait, you say, what about No Child Left Behind. You have studied. While NCLB throws money at the problem, often times, the quality of education drops in order to ensure the reception of the government funds. Practices like teacher only teaching the tests that grant the NCLB funds drop the quality of education so that at the end of the day, the superintendent gets paid.

My point in writing all of this is to say, “Shouldn’t something be done?” But how often do we let things like that go unnoticed because we are too busy waiting on the world to change?

to be continued…

Thoughts on Pendulums

I cannot take all of the credit for this blog. Me and a dear friend/mentor, Jeffrey, were talking and going off on our usual tangents. He is that friend in my life. The “Fight Club” kind of friend that you feel like you could start a virtuous rebellion with each and every time you talk. I have a few friends like that and they will make their way into my blogs but for now, this one is for Jeffrey.

Last night we were talking about how people need to not only make Jesus their savior but also need to completely surrender their lives to the Lord. That is when I reminded him that we need to also make sure we don’t make Jesus our Lord without making him our savior. Often times, it is very easy to find things in our, or other peoples’ lives and say we, or they, are in rebellion from God and need to surrender this thing over to the Lord. Often times, this is true. I am sure that for many of you reading this, you could think of multiple things that are in your life that has distracted you from being completely obedient to God’s law. On the flip side of that, and equally as dangerous, we often time forget to make God our savior. What this means is that we find it easy to keep God’s commands but forget our first love. To put it plainly, it is like we know what to do but forget why we do it.

The continuum of Meager Sinner vs. Pompous Saint.

As a meager sinner, it is easy to love God and be in awe of the grace he has shown us because we are so undeserving and even as we continually fail, he reaches out to us. The problem is, often times, we may live in such a way so that grace has to continue to bail us out. We know we are sick but do little to discipline ourselves and boast in how little we judge others and boast in our acceptance and mercy shown towards other that struggle through life.

 The pompous saint, however, may not have required much grace and/or may not ever require much grace but in doing so, find it easy to forget that God is our savior. We find it hard to relate to people that lack the self restraint to stay in tune with God’s moral will for our lives and put on humble faces when we are around fellow believers. We appreciate those that are cleaned up and are quick to (in our minds) point towards those who we feel do not deserve grace.

The problem is that both personalities abide inside of us. We must keep in mind that true humility comes from recognizing Jesus as our savior and surrendering to him as Lord of our lives. This all sounds familiar but my challenge to you is to not live within the bounds of “meager sinner” or “pompous saint” but to live truly humbled by God’s mercy and His Lordship.

Just thoughts.

First Real Thought

One thing one must know right off the bat when writing something like this is that you never know who will read such a thing as this. There is no way of tracking it unless someone comments on it. So to the anonymous and vocal reader alike, welcome to my personal life. My life is filled with struggles and lessons and some of them need to be shared while others do not. This is an occasion where I am prompted to speak.

The main lesson I am learning is that of finding God’s will. Sure, we fill our lives with cliche` after cliche` of “Wait on the Lord” or “Life is a parade, take it one float at a time” to my personal favorite, “Let Go, and Let God”. These all sound well and good but what is God’s will?

Some of the things I have been struggling with and have hindered me is that “mystic place”, that “mystic job”, and a whole lot of that “mystic someone”. These are all things that 20 somethings struggle with. It may sound more familiar if put in more practical terms such as: “Where are you going? What are you doing? And who will you be with?” Sound familiar? We feel pressured by parents, peers, and mentors to have answers for these questions. They come from nosey old ladies at church, siblings, parents, friends, obscure relatives, everyone. The bottom line is, we often hide behind a shrug of the shoulder, a smile that says “I have it all together” and a smug, “I don’t know.” Most of you reading this who are unsettled as to the future can probably relate to this feeling. I know this has been the case for me. Others of you will probably keep reading with a curious yawn as if you are watching a Lifetime movie — Spoiler alert: no men were beaten in the creation of this note.

I digress.

As I venture out into the real world with no job secured, no money, no significant other, and astonishingly no retirement plan, I cannot help but feel a little out of place; even at home. We take this feeling to heart and in some cases it cripples us. We feel the fear of failure and loneliness creep in and become paralized by the next step. Even now, I long to be back in school, somewhere safe, and I never thought I would feel that way. I can remember envying my friends who had the next step planned out. One man I envied was a friend becoming an officer in the army. Another man I envied was a friend going off to seminary. Yet a girl I envy was a great student in nursing school who might be up to her ears in job offers when she graduates. The connection was that they all had a plan and a purpose. And for myself, that mystic somewhere still eluded me like El Dorado to a greedy explorer.

You might be saying that you have heard this before but hear me out if you have come this far. The problem enlies with our preoccupation. The thing is, what we need to learn is that our yearning for a plan, job, person comes directly from our preoccupation with ourself. I have been too preoccupied with purpose and person that I have missed the point. God teaches lessons in the hardest way and the very lesson he taught me was that He has not been important enough to me. This hindered many relationships along the way and I just want to offer a sincere apology to those who struggled with me through these times. My perspective was self-centered and I am hard headed enough that God knows he has to teach me the hard way that his will is not to be at a place, with a purpose, or with a person. His plan for me is to look to the cross and believe in Him (John 6:40). His purpose for me is to be kingdom minded (Matt 6:33). In looking for that person, He wants me to see that in looking for love, I have already failed because it is already there (John 15:13).

You see, one of the great paradoxes of our faith is we are taught is go be somebody when we need to realize that we already are somebody.

“This all sounds so corny” but it’s true. ”This sounds too easy” but it is finished. 

Wait, I have not answered all of life’s questions, so what’s the point? The point is, there is a lot more freedom in knowing that nothing you do can seperate you from the love of God and that whatever you are trying to accomplish has already been finished. That is what grace truly means. We should reset our focus off of our resumes and focus on the fact that we have already been accepted. Take our focus off of relationships and realize that the same heartbreak you may experience is the same heartbreak God experiences when we idolize someone other than Him. We break his heart when we focus on a place or calling more than the call he has placed on us to come from the darkness into the light.

I understand that this does not change your situation. You still need a job. You still desire companionship. You still want a roof over your head. Even though this does not change your bank account, it does change your perspective. But like I said earlier, the beauty of it all is that you are already accepted failures and all. And at the end of the day, acceptance by God is more valuable than Bill Gate’s credit card with a Steve Job’s… job and a honey that knows how to cook. If you do not believe me, watch how much you crave acceptance by others and how empty you feel when you have “yes” men flocking to be your friend. At the end of the day, everyone wants to hear, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

Just thoughts.