Charisa Stories

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  • How Can Broad-Brushing Create Division and Prevent Healthy Debates?

    The Oxford English Dictionary defines a “broad-brush” approach as a general, sweeping overview that lacks specific details, nuance, or individual differences. It is often used in professional or political contexts. Broad-brushing describes a simplified and sometimes unfairly generalized perspective. 

    Yep. I struggle in our current cultural climate with broad-brushing by all sides. What do I mean by that?

    If you disagree with someone’s beliefs you can automatically assign to them the worst values linked in any way to that belief. Without knowing a single thing about the person’s story, their heart, or their background we can easily throw down the gauntlet of judgment. 

    A lot of faithful Christians have been unfairly broad-brushed recently. I agree that some claiming the title of Christian absolutely deserve to be called to accountability. I have never had a problem with being honest about how I and many other followers of Jesus often fall short of representing the grace and love of Jesus. 

    That is just a fact. That doesn’t change who Jesus is.

    One heartbreaking result is that the entire Christian faith can be dismissed and denigrated by people with social media influence. 

    With just a bit of internet searching I can find example after example of failed followers of Jesus. What is more challenging to find are stories about the millions who serve selflessly every day and without being noticed. Why do so many people sacrifice willingly to help those who give them very little or even nothing in return? 

    It is hard to read some of the comments that strangers have made about my faith in God. It is harder still to read and hear them from people I know. But that is the reality of the spiritual battle that all followers of Jesus face. 

    If it is true that there is an enemy who tries to destroy the claims of Christ then it makes total sense that the narrative he would push forward is entirely negative. The Enemy does not want the millions of stories of people making a difference capturing the limelight. That would illuminate the darkness of this fallen world with the light and hope of Jesus.

    So what should be our response to these attacks? Jesus made our response pretty clear.

    43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even unbelievers do that.” (Matthew 5:43-47, NLT)

    When you have the opportunity to talk to someone who opposes your faith you should ask to hear their story. Why do they have such strong feelings against God? Did something or someone cause that reaction? 

    It is amazing how hearing someone’s story can often soften your heart toward them. You have a much better understanding of why they react the way they do. And listening (really listening) can open a door to dialogue about your own journey and story. You will be acting as a true child of God.

    Own your failures. We all fall short. I am careful not to communicate that my desire is for an unbeliever to stop living in a particular way or to quit a sin I abhor so I can accept them. My message is to really get to know Jesus. In the movie the Jesus Revolution a church welcomed in young men and women who were doing drugs and living a life that many in the congregation deemed decadent. If the message had been clean up your life and then you can be part of our community the revival would have stopped cold. Instead the message was come to know Jesus and let Him show you how to change how you live. That happened millions of times during that remarkable revival. 

    It can still happen today. But I fear that God cannot use me if I am busy broad-brushing everyone I disagree with. I want to share His story without judging theirs. If we wish to demonstrate the power of the Gospel we should throw away the broad-brush. Will you join me?

  • Time To Release The Eve of Destruction Record Again?

    I remember how my parents viewed the state of our country in the ‘60’s. They thought the end might be near and I felt their concern. The song Eve of Destruction was released in the summer of 1965. The country was divided by the Vietnam war, the draft, civil rights, fear of nuclear war, violence, and general mistrust of the government. Sound slightly familiar? Recorded by Barry McGuire, the song became the official theme of the protest movement. But that was not the intent of nineteen-year-old Jewish songwriter P.F. Sloan. He wrote this on his website.

    “I wrote it as a prayer to God for an answer. I have felt it was a love song and written as a prayer because, to cure an ill, you need to know what is sick. In my youthful zeal I hadn’t realized that this would be taken as an attack on The System! 

    He went on about the division created by the song itself.

    “Any positive press on me or Barry was considered unpatriotic. I told the press it was a love song. A love song to and for humanity, that’s all. It ruined Barry’s career as an artist and in a year I would be driven out of the music business too.”

    So both P.F. Sloan and Barry McGuire got canceled before it was a thing. 

    Once again, sound familiar?

    The song tapped into the division in the country but McGuire did not consider it to be a protest song either.

    “They called it a protest song but I never thought of it as a protest song. The media always has to label everything.” 

    Uhhhh…sound familiar?

    As we reach the 61st anniversary of this song the lyrics feel like it was written yesterday.

    When human respect is disintegratin’
    This whole crazy world is just too frustratin’

    I was young then but I remember clearly how unsettled our nation felt and how this chorus felt eerily prophetic.

    And tell me over and over and over and over again, my friend
    You don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction

    The push back to the song and to Barry McGuire by association led to a downward spiral of his career. His life also took a dark turn into severe drug usage and depression. Barry remembered that as a child his grandmother had spoken these words to him.

    “Barry, when you grow up, you’re going to know the truth, and the truth is going to set you free.”

    He left New York to try and find himself in California. McGuire shared the moment when the truth found him.

    “I got hold of a little paperback book called Good News for Modern Man, and I didn’t know what it was, I picked it up and on the first page it says, ‘the New Testament in modern English.’” 

    He felt tricked.

    “Oh man, this is those Jesus Freaks, they’re disguising the Bible! Who wants that? And I threw it on the floor.” 

    Eventually he picked it back up and focused on the teachings of Jesus instead of the flawed church people he had rejected.

    “Just through my own life experiences, everything Jesus said was true. I thought, this is the answer I’ve been looking for all these years. This is the answer to all our political problems, all our racial problems, everything that’s wrong with society. I finally came down to a decision that I had to make. What am I going to do with this piece of truth? Am I really a truth seeker or a self-seeker?”

    Barry McGuire trusted Jesus as His savior and was baptized in 1971. The verse his grandmother shared from John 8:32 showed him what he had been seeking for so long.

    “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” 

    Finding freedom was the goal of the sixties hippie movement and he realized he had found it. “What is the ultimate freedom? The closer I get to the fullness of truth, the freer I’m gonna be.”

    Barry became a big part of the revival the movie The Jesus Revolution brought back into the light. He was a pioneer in Contemporary Christian Music. So his life went from singing about the imminent destruction of the culture to a historical revival that shared hope and joy in Jesus. By the way, he also wrote the Bullfrogs and Butterflies album that we played for our boys every night for years.

    “I read the words of Jesus in this little modern translation of His story and the thing that caught my attention was when He said to love God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. And I thought, man, if there’s an answer to the ‘Eve of Destruction,’ then that’s it.”

    So here we are a half-century plus later. Are we on the eve of destruction? Maybe. But how should we react to the chaotic world around us? Our reaction is often to circle the wagons with those we feel comfortable with and hope that Jesus returns soon. But our command is to not to wait silently until the trumpet sounds. 

    So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. (John 13:34, NLT)

    It is possible we are on the eve of destruction. But if we could unite in Christ could we be on the eve of revival? Our role is to follow the words of Jesus and live out His commandments. God’s sovereignty controls the results.

  • How Can Grace Change Our Faith Stat Sheet Completely?

    I lived for decades in the performance driven world of sports. We too often measured value not by character but by statistics like how many tackles for loss, field goal shooting percentage, or batting average. Character was a nice bonus but performance was king.

    I remembered a comment from former Northwestern University football coach Pat Fitzgerald about the impact of negative stats on a football player’s performance. Coaches often talk about the need to reduce “missed” tackles and they keep track of each miscue. Coach Fitzgerald had a different philosophy. His staff did not keep track of missed tackles at all. The staff evaluated each player by their effort even if it did not produce perfect results. His next comment stuck with me. “I don’t like to put negative results in their minds because you become what you think about.”

    It immediately hit me how profound that comment is for followers of Jesus. We tend to keep spiritual stats on failure. We beat ourselves up over “missed” opportunities. We fixate on what we have done instead of what Jesus has already done for us. We write our game plan to do better on the board.

    Don’t sin.
    Do better.
    Pray more.
    Study more Scripture.
    Be more forgiving.
    Less angry.
    More loving.

    And we try really, really hard to do all of those things. But the bad stats overwhelm and discourage us. We do sin. We don’t always forgive. We get angry. We don’t study or pray as much as we think we probably should. The net result is frustration and spiritual fatigue.

    I wrestled with idea of how we can deal with sin in my book Stay: Lessons My Dogs Taught Me about Life, Loss, and Grace. 

    In Hebrews the text tells us to “strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”

    Even though it sounds like a daunting and even impossible task, the author of Hebrews sums up how to do that in one powerful sentence: “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2, NLT).

    That is it.

    There is no other way to consistently live that life apart from keeping our eyes on Jesus.
    The same is true for me. When I keep my eyes on Jesus, I have the strength to be bold and the ability to produce fruit that is pleasing to God. When our rambunctious Labrador Maggie could not settle down, I told her to sit so she could focus on calming down and doing the right thing. When she stayed and regrouped, things went well for her. When my thought life and actions cannot settle down, I need the Holy Spirit to firmly but lovingly tell me to sit . . .stay . . . abide.

    Only then do I realize that I have turned my eyes away from Jesus. When I stay, I can focus on His peace, love, forgiveness, and grace, and have the ability to resist sin. If I am anxious, fearful, have doubts, or am sad, I need to sit, stay, and abide, looking at the One who initiates and perfects my faith.

    What a difference between that approach and what too many of us experience. We tend to address the sin first. Stop that! Quit! Do better! And by the way, Jesus loves you. Or worse, He will love you when you do better. Paul always took the grace exit instead. Remember who you are! You are saints! Beloved! Adopted! Redeemed! Those same truths are ours to claim as we keep our eyes on Jesus. When we quit fighting to get better and do that one simple thing, something amazing happens. We get better.

    We do become what we think about. It is always a pretty good game plan to think about Jesus. And His gift of grace eliminates our spiritual shortcoming stats. Thank you Lord!

  • Jesus Gave Us A Much Better Intelligence Gift than AI

    I have written a lot recently about the need to show love and grace to those you disagree with on social media. That’s if you actually want a chance to influence them. Sadly, in our world today even that approach is a Hail Mary attempt. At least there is hope for some impact if you listen, refrain from name-calling, and speak with a tone of grace.

    All followers of Jesus should show a spirit of kindness to those who don’t share our faith and especially to those who do. Maybe our starting point in improving our culture would be unity in Christ throughout the universal church community as our primary focus. Then we have a healthy place to gracefully debate differences. And that would greatly diminish the too often unnoticed enemy. Satan.

    I believe all communication must be done looking through the consistent focus of the love of Jesus.

    He loves me. He loves those I vehemently disagree with. Sometimes it is tough to accept that God loves both sides. How can we hope to influence a person we disagree with if our communication is angry or even hateful?

    This is not about guilt or condemnation. This is about examining our heart and desiring to be a light in the darkness of our world.

    I have contemplated developing an app that pauses social media posts for an hour to give you a chance to take a breath and determine if that is really what you want to say.

    Every post about our faith, our culture, our leaders, and our community should be done with prayer and leadership of the Holy Spirit. That thought rocked my heart. How can we do that?

    We constantly get offers from social media and writing apps to have AI evaluate and edit our content. It can be helpful at times but there is one qualifying note on those apps that matters a lot.

    AI can make mistakes.

    Hmmmm. Me too. Then I thought about the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide the thoughts and actions of followers of Jesus. The best application to say the right thing and do the right thing could be known as HSI.

    Holy Spirit Intelligence.

    I am pretty sure that there is no Scripture that says that HSI (Holy Spirit Intelligence) can make mistakes. Jesus came to earth as a human so that people could relate to God the Father in a new and remarkable way. But when Jesus rose from the grave and returned to the Father how would that continue to have an impact for centuries? The words of Jesus in the book of John show how God’s perfect plan worked then and works for us today.

     “If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth…” (John 14:15-17, NLT)

    A few thousand got to see, listen, and interact with Jesus during His time on earth. But now every follower of Jesus has been giving the greatest parting gift ever…the constant internal presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and minds. And what does that gift include for His followers? Jesus explained the profound influence that the Spirit would have if we obey and follow Him.

    But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.

     “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” (John 14:26-27, NLT)

    Can we pause and reflect on that gift? The Holy Spirit will teach a willing heart. The Holy Spirit will remind us of Scriptural truths. And trusting the presence of the Holy Spirit will give us peace of mind and heart. Is there a better gift we could receive in the world we live in today?

    So here is my idea for the HSI app process. With AI you submit the content and the technology will revise it. With HSI (Holy Spirit Intelligence) we can take negative thoughts, fear, and anger and prayerfully ask the Holy Spirit to evaluate and revise our hearts and minds. It takes faith. It requires trust. But it works.

    Jesus gave us this powerful gift. Let’s use it every day to glorify God.

  • Is There A Need To Schedule Spring Training For Christians?

    Baseball fans countdown the day until pitchers and catchers report like a kid impatiently marking off calendar days til Christmas. The teams arrive in Florida and Arizona as the nation grows weary of gray and gloom. Spring Training is the first hope of Spring.

    We are beginning the annual six week period of teaching, training, and repetitious fundamental drills. It seems almost silly for uber talented and well paid athletes to be reviewing the same fundamentals they learned in youth baseball.

    Yet you watch the very best players focus on repeating proper fundamentals over and over. Superstars hit off a tee. Gold Glove fielders practice footwork repeatedly. All-Star pitchers constantly repeat correct throwing motion. The message is clear. Talent is important but even the best can be derailed by forgotten or sloppy fundamentals.

    Perhaps we should co-opt that idea of fundamental training for followers of Jesus. Today I am starting a movement for Christians to report for Spring Training. For a few weeks we can forego theological nuances to focus on the fundamentals of faith.

    We can do drills that reminds us who God says we are in Jesus.

    A brand new creation.
    Forgiven.
    Adopted.
    Redeemed.
    Sealed.
    Loved.
    A saint.
    Righteous.
    Accepted.
    A child of the living God.

    All these gifts of grace are ironclad contractual deals because of Jesus and every single thing on that list happened at the moment we joined His team. Believing who God says He is, understanding that you have been changed because of Christ, and living out of those two fundamentals is a game changer that can weather the toughest season.

    Next we could do some focus consistently on God exercises. We could have Pastor Rick Warren plan our drills by implementing his quote.

    “Happy moments, praise God. Difficult moments, seek God. Quiet moments, worship God. Painful moments, trust God. Every moment, thank God.”

    Another thing I love about Spring Training is the fresh start. Every team has hope as they enter the new season. What used to be true about the team can be adjusted. Spring training means all things baseball are a new creation.The same is true for followers of Christ. What used to be true of me has changed.

    I have had some bad seasons during my career as a follower of Jesus. Some pretty ugly slumps. That doesn’t matter if I focus on Christ in this next season of my life. There can be freshness in the journey and real joy and freedom. I can realize that I am a child of God and be grateful that I can call Him Father. I can believe that hope for the future is real. I can understand that I must (by His grace and the power of the Spirit) be a better teammate. I should not expect my team to be perfect. I am pretty sure they will boot some easy chances and strikeout in some key situations. But I will trust God to help me love them and encourage them because we are on the same team known simply as the Body of Christ. Paul gave us a good reason for hope in his letter to the Roman Church. It also fits into the discipline required to survive the marathon of a baseball season.

    And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. (Romans 5, NLT)

    The magic of a fresh start happens once a year in baseball. It can happen everyday for a follower of Jesus.

    Fellow believers report! It is time to remember the fundamentals and the hope of what Jesus has done.

  • Why Would You Want To Be A Troublesome Christian?

    Because of my career path in secular television I have a lot of people very dear to me who do not share my faith and hope in Jesus. Some are simply disinterested. Some think their good works will outweigh their bad deeds and they will be granted entry to Heaven. Some think that faith in God is a foolish pursuit that no intellectually honest person would consider. Some have witnessed horrible actions of people claiming to be Christians. Some have experienced harsh and legalistic religious types who make living a life of faith miserable and emotionally damaging. Some are pushed away by those who share sincere beliefs in a way that does not show the love of God. 

    Any combination of these factors can cause people to step away or not pursue what it means to follow Jesus. I get it. I have struggled with many of those things over my long journey of faith.

    Brennan Manning wrote this very convicting observation. “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.” 

    It is easy to dismiss the hypocrite. No problem to ignore the angry and judgmental religious types. But before I came to faith I was troubled when I saw some Christians who displayed something different in their lives. I could not dismiss so readily the joy, peace, strength, courage, and love they modeled. They were “troublesome” Christians to me.  I could not ignore them because their lives were authentic and different (different good, not weird). 

    I wanted to be that kind of Christian. That is what any follower of Jesus should pray to become. Troublesome. When others look at your life they see kindness and grace when the circumstances call for anything but that response. That is troublesome to those observers. Or how about being a positive light when you are going through a difficult valley?
    Our spiritual season today is divisive because many in the church are losing focus on Jesus. You can be a “troublesome” Christian by listening to and loving those you disagree with. The truth must be presented through grace and love and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. There must be unity in Christ first and then we can pursue political reconciliation with the proper light to guide us.

    Another way to impact those around you is to love and serve without looking for anything in return. That is being a “troublesome” Christian by simply following the commandment of Jesus.

    “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
    ‭‭John‬ ‭13‬:‭34‬-‭35‬, NLT

    That was not a helpful suggestion. Jesus made that command the cornerstone of following Him and the powerful way to prove that to others. So that is my desire. To love others as I have been loved by Jesus and be a “troublesome” Christian to those who aren’t sure about following Him. You can Google yourself away from faith by looking to find people who claim to follow Jesus and have failed dramatically. The Enemy makes sure we find those people and then encourages us to focus on that. What the Enemy tries to hide are the millions of faithful and loving followers of Jesus who make a difference every day without any fanfare or credit. They can be troublesome to those who desire to dismiss Jesus. I encountered troublesome believers in my early season of doubt who caused me to examine why they were so different, loving, kind, and graceful. God used them to open my heart toward Him. I want to be a troublesome Christian that God can use for His glory. And I want every bit of the credit to go where it should go. 

    Jesus.

  • Recovering From Legalism Is A Challenge

    I was introduced to Christianity in a church that put a legalistic leash on my behavior. By strict rules they believed they could force me to live a holy life. You can imagine how that worked out for a teenager in the Sixties. Our denomination reminded me of characters from the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. We did not have the dreaded knights who said, “Ni” but we definitely had the dreaded congregants who said, “No.”

    I’m certain there were several volumes filled with things that were forbidden and, not surprisingly, most of them were man-made rules. Here is a sample platter of no-no’s I was asked to follow.

    NO movies. (Might have been in violation)
    NO drinking. (Too young so I got holiness points for this one)
    NO mixed swimming. (I kid you not)
    NO television. (The temptation of Mr Ed, The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction was too strong. Violation.)
    NO cards. (More holiness points)
    NO rock-and-roll music. (Definitely in violation)
    NO smoking. (Nailed this one)
    NO slacks for women.
    NO long hair for men. (Deduct holiness points)
    NO makeup for women.

    I remember asking my godly grandmother what she thought about the no makeup rule. She smiled and gave this memorable reply. “If the barn needs a coat of paint I think you should paint it.” She was my first dispenser of grace.

    It’s not surprising that it took me a long time to figure out freedom in Christ. Ironically, there are a few verses that strongly emphasized the word “no” in the New Testament that our moralists somehow overlooked. For example, this little “no” verse would have come in handy (capitalization and italics added for emphasis).

    There is NO condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. Romans 8:1-2, NLT

    That would have been a refreshing mist of grace to our parched flock. Or how about these “NO” verses?

    This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is NO fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:17-19, NIV

    “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” The second is this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” There is NO commandment greater than these. Mark 12:30-31, NIV

    Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps NO record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 1 Corinthians 13:4-6, NLT

    I have been crucified with Christ and I NO longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing! Galatians 2:20-21, NIV

    That is a very different “no” list than the first one.

    NO condemnation.

    NO fear.

    NO commandment greater than to love God and your neighbor.

    NO record of wrongdoing when you love one another.

    NO longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.

    I can be holy because of Christ and not because of my anguished rule keeping. There is joy and freedom in that second list.

    NO kidding.

    Parts of this article excerpted from Stay: Lessons My Dogs Taught Me about Life, Loss, and Grace