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  • Monday Musing: Second Chances

    Monday Musing: Second Chances

    Joni and I took a field trip this weekend with our grandson to the Gentle Zoo in Forney, Texas. It is a fun and kid friendly place where you can feed animals by hand. Our grandson’s favorite animals to feed were the goats. They were sweet and gentle as they took the food out of your hand. Not so nice was an overbearing Llama that forced his way into every feeding opportunity. We were warned that this critter would spit in your face if you made eye contact with him. That sounded too much like a couple of people I have encountered recently so we avoided him.

    What caught my eye was a sign posted around the grounds.

    That made the trip more special to know that many of the animals had been rescued from abusive or neglectful situations. It even allowed me to give a bit of grace to the spittin’ Llama (but I still kept a wary distance).

    I related to the second paragraph. “Many of our critters have been disabled or injured prior to arriving at the Gentle Zoo. With a little love and care they can thrive despite their disabilities.”

    That pretty much describes the resume I brought to Jesus when I recognized my need for something or someone bigger than myself. I was disabled by sin and injured by life. Jesus gave me not a little but a LOT of love along with a bonus helping of forgiveness and grace.

    And ever so slowly I am learning to thrive in His love and acceptance. The amazing thing about God’s grace is that He is not a God of a “Second Chance”. He is a God of chance after chance after chance in this lifetime. We are never outside of God’s redeeming grace no matter how much we blow it or how often we blow it.

    How is that even possible? We write off people after one or two offenses. How can God keep forgiving after dozens or hundreds of offenses? It doesn’t make sense.

    That is because grace does not make sense to our system of accounting. I bring nothing but my sin to the table. Jesus brings His complete sacrifice on my behalf. I get forgiveness for doing nothing except acknowledging and believing what Christ has done.

    God’s forgiveness has NOTHING to do with our good works or good intentions. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 

    So no matter what “chance” you are on God will run to meet and forgive you like the Father to the lost prodigal son when you turn back to Him. Not only are we given forgiveness. We also have value and a purpose as Paul points out as he continues in Ephesians.

    “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

    That is a pretty good thought to begin a new week.

  • The Plan

    For those of you who inexplicably look forward to my ramblings I have established a schedule so you know when to expect something new. I will post a short devotional called Monday Musings to start the week. At midweek I will offer a little booster called Hump Day Hope. And on Friday a Weekend Wildcard that may be serious, silly or a combo plate of both. I will post at other times as well but you can plan on having something on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Looking forward to interacting with all of you!

    Blessings and grace,

    Dave

  • Perspective

     

    I recently visited a large rehabilitation hospital for patients dealing with spinal cord injuries, strokes and traumatic brain trauma. As I walked  toward my car I noticed two young men in wheelchairs chatting near the entrance. I overheard a snippet of conversation that rocked my day. The tone was not bitter nor sad. This is the sentence I overheard.

    “I would give it all up just to be able to scuba dive one more time.”

    What this young man once did without thought or difficulty now was a nearly impossible dream. My heart was pierced. Just that morning I had fussed about a balky hip and yet I was walking freely to my car. I often thought about an aching shoulder but I had freedom to lift and move. All of us take so much for granted. Since that encounter I think of that young man when my hip or shoulder aches. I say a quick prayer of thanksgiving for the health I am blessed with today. But this awareness will wear off. It always does. That makes me sad. But it also makes me human.

    Jesus knows all about our frailties. How we worry about things that really don’t matter.

    “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?” Matthew 6, NLT

    My friend Ray Pritchard posted a little prayer years ago that I loved so much that my wife got it framed. It sits by my bathroom sink and I need to review it more closely each morning.

    Heavenly Father,

    You are in charge of everything that will happen to me today – the good and the bad, the happy and the sad, the positive and the negative. Please make me thankful for everything that happens to me today.

    Amen

  • More Confessions Ahead…

    More Confessions Ahead…

    I know that a few of you have been patiently wondering if Confessions of a Bad Christian would be returning anytime soon. If you have been staring out your PC Window looking for new posts I apologize.  I took a brief leave from the blog which became a pretty long leave of absence.

    Now I am refreshed and ready to dispense my marginal “wisdom” for my tens of readers. I am sure as new folks stumble to this site I will get this question again.

    “Why do you call your blog ‘Confessions of a Bad Christian’? Do you really think you are a bad Christian?”

    And my answer is always something like this.

    Yeah.  I really am. Sometimes “badder” than on other days.

    The blog heading of “Confessions of a Bad Christian” started out as a bit of a joke. It was based on the title of my first book, When Bad Christians Happen to Good People. But I will tell you that I have grown attached to the title of this blog. I have come to grips with the truth that I am, in fact, a bad Christian. And that is the point of the title. It is a daily reminder to me that I am capable of thoughts and actions that do not reflect Jesus. I have found that the realization that I can be a bad Christian at any given moment has been the beginning of real growth for me. I cannot do this on my own. 

    It breaks my heart to think that my actions would cause anyone to think that Christianity is false. The sad reality is that I encounter Christians all the time that do damage to the cause of Christ. I often tell people that my prayer is that they will not reject Christ because of Christians. I beg them to consider the person of Jesus. The question that each of us must answer is who is Jesus? Is He who He claimed? But too often those I encounter cannot get past the actions of a person who does not represent Jesus well. I do not want any part of a legacy like that.  So I challenge myself and other Christians to be real. Acknowledge that we are fallible. Really fallible. Downright hypocritical. Seek to repair damage. Ask forgiveness. Drop the legalism.  Err always on the side of grace. I suppose that a big part of who I am is growing up in a church that would not have recognized grace if it bit them on their self-righteous posteriors. I know firsthand the damage that legalism can do in the life of person trying to follow Christ.

    So I am a bad Christian with a good Savior. I am weak and He is strong. Jesus loves me and all the other bad Christians of the world. He sees all of my sins and He still loves me and calls me His child. Amazing.

    I look forward to sharing the journey with you.

  • Remembering Jackie Robinson

    (This is an annual revisit of one of the great stories in sports. Something to take your mind off of tax day)

    April 15th is not my favorite day of the year. Traditional tax day is never fun for a guy who is organizationally challenged. My idea of being prepared is having everything in one box. But I was heartened to find that April 15th is a great day for baseball fans.

    Jackie Robinson made his major league debut at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on this date in 1947. It was a historic and significant day for baseball but maybe more so for our country. You can argue that the American civil rights movement was ignited when Robinson came to bat in Dodger Blue. The journey for Robinson was difficult at best and nearly impossible at worst.

    Many Dodgers players, mostly Southerners led by Dixie Walker, threatened to walk if forced to play with a black player. That ended when Dodger management let them know in no uncertain terms that they could keep walking to the unemployment line. I often write about the pain that is caused by “bad” or thoughtless Christians. Can you imagine the pain that Robinson felt to have his teammates reject him for only one reason?

    But one teammate reacted in a way that I wish all serious and thoughtful Christians would emulate. Team captain Pee Wee Reese was an unlikely ally for Robinson. He was born in segregated Louisville, Kentucky, and the odds were that Reese would be a part of the boycott against a black player. But the diminutive Pee Wee Reese proved to be a giant of a man one day in Cincinnati. During infield practice the Redleg players were screaming at Jackie with all of the usual hateful epithets. And then the venom was distributed to Reese. They were yelling things at him like “How can you play with this (epithet)?”, as Jackie stood uncomfortably at first base. Pee Wee went over to him and put his arm around him and smiled. A silence fell over the Reds dugout and the fans witnessing this amazing act of grace, Jackie smiled back.

    At Reese’s funeral, Joe Black, another Major League Baseball black pioneer, said: “Pee Wee helped make my boyhood dream come true to play in the Majors, the World Series. When Pee Wee reached out to Jackie, all of us in the Negro League smiled and said it was the first time that a White guy had accepted us. When I finally got up to Brooklyn, I went to Pee Wee and said, ‘Black people love you. When you touched Jackie, you touched all of us.’ With Pee Wee, it was No. 1 on his uniform and No. 1 in our hearts.”

    Robinson later wrote this sentiment to Reese in a book inscription.

    “Pee Wee whether you are willing to admit what you being just a great guy meant (a great deal) to my career, I want you to know how much I feel it meant. May I take this opportunity to say a great big thanks and I sincerely hope all things you want in life be yours.”

    We need a lot more Pee Wee Reese’s in the body of Christ. We need men and women who are willing to step up for others when it may not be the best action for personal gain. We need men who are brave enough to look hatred and bigotry in the eye and call it by its name. April 15th was a day that demonstrated the greatness of two men. We need men who have the courage to emulate both Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese in our walk with Jesus. The Apostle Paul had some good advice to accomplish that goal.

    Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.

    Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life. (Galatians 6, The Message)

    I want to be willing to stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. As I meditate on the gift of grace and redemption I received through the Cross I wonder how I can do anything else?

  • Need You Now

    (Reposted from theFish.com)

    A song by Plumb caught my attention for this week’s edition of the iPod Devotionals. Singer Tiffany Arbuckle adopted the name Plumb of her 90’s alternative rock band for her solo career.  The lyrics to “Need You Now” touched my heart.

    Well, everybody’s got a story to tell
    And everybody’s got a wound to be healed

    I want to believe there’s beauty here
    ‘Cause oh I get so tired of holding on

    I can’t let go, I can’t move on
    I want to believe there’s meaning here

    I am learning how important community is to make this journey with Jesus work. In my community I hear people’s stories. I learn about their wounds. I believe there is beauty there but I grieve with them through the process. The chorus reflects my response to life battles that are way beyond my pay grade.

    How many times have you heard me cry out
    “God please take this”?

    How many times have you given me strength to
    Just keep breathing?

    Oh, I need you
    God, I need you now.

    Jesus talked about how we limit our freedom by not trusting what He said to be true. He talked about a yoke and that His yoke was “easy”. Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” (Matthew 11:28-29, NLT)

    You don’t have to ride the life roller coaster more than a couple of times to know that this journey is not “easy”. As I thought about loss I have suffered in my life and the suffering I see around me I was puzzled. What did Jesus mean by that statement? Clearly the burdens of life are heavy. There is nothing easy about heartache. A little research into the cultural context was helpful.

    The yoke was a wooden beam that harnessed two oxen together to pull a plow or load. The idea was that they worked together in shared effort. That idea fit well into my performance driven faith. Jesus was with me but I had to pull my weight equally. The only problem with my view is that it was untrue, dangerous and from the pit of hell.

    The truth is that Jesus was talking about the yoke of Torah, the yoke of the Law, which would have been familiar to his Jewish listeners. The Old Testament yoke represented submission to authority. The Jews knew that the law was impossible to keep. The key came in the often overlooked offer.

    “Let me teach you because I am humble and gentle at heart.”

    For years I strained to pull my weight by determined self-effort while Jesus quietly offered a better way.

    “Let me teach you.”

    I wore myself out trying to do more to please Him even as He whispered.

    “I am humble and gentle at heart. Your trust and faith pleases me”.

    Members of this agrarian culture likely would have known that a young ox would be paired with an experienced ox for training. The mature ox would carry the bulk of the burden as the younger one walked by his side and learned. That is a beautiful image of Jesus walking side by side with me but carrying the bulk of the burden (if not all) as I learn from Him. That is the picture that Christ is painting. Not a straining effort to please but a submission to His provision and protection. Jesus is offering those who are exhausted and buckling under life’s burdens a way to not go it alone. That was a comforting thought as I considered that pain and loss is a given. I don’t have to go it alone. I can find rest for my soul even as I grieve.

    Pastor and author John Stott writes beautifully about how seemingly contradictory truths fit together.

    “The way to find rest is to lose our burden at the cross and allow Christ to put his burden and yoke upon us instead. Freedom is not found in discarding the yoke of Christ; it’s found in losing our own burden. It’s not found in discarding his authority; it’s an amazing truth that freedom is found under the yoke of Christ. This is one of the great paradoxes of the Christian life: under his yoke we find rest; through service we find freedom; when we lose ourselves in loving, we find ourselves; when we die to our self-centeredness, we begin to live.”

    And that is my heart’s cry today.

    Lord I need you.

    Now.

  • Grace and Les Mis

    (Reposted from theFish.com)

    One of the joys of Christmas break is when the lovely Mrs. Burchett and I get to see some movies at an actual theater. One movie has dominated my thoughts since we left the theater several days ago. I did not know what to expect when I bought tickets for the movie version of Les Miserables. I heard some good things so I was optimistic. But I did not expect to be moved so profoundly.

    In case you do not know the story and plan to see the movie I will not be a spoiler. I will just say this is one of the most powerful stories of grace versus law ever written. The movie came to mind again when a song cycled up from Tenth Avenue North called, appropriately, Grace. The lyrics describe the surprising power of grace to change our hearts.

    Grace, only grace
    Can roll your dead heart’s stone away
    Grace, only grace
    Can move us to a rhythm that will change our ways

    Grace, only grace. I have found that to be so true in my own journey. Yet I fought grace for decades as so many others do. Les Miz is an incredible demonstration of the tension created by grace. Grace makes no sense to us and it is almost incomprehensibly radical. Pastor Tullian Tchividjian wrote this about our “aversion” to the concept of grace in his blog about the movie.

    We love the “if/then” proposition: “If” you do this, “then” I will do that. We love “what-goes-around-comes-around” conditionality. It makes us feel safe. It’s easy to comprehend. It makes perfect sense to our grace-shy hearts. It’s makes life formulaic. It breeds a sense of manageability. And best of all, it keeps us in control. We get to keep our ledgers and scorecards.

    The logic of grace, on the other hand, is incomprehensible to our law-locked hearts. Grace is thickly counter-intuitive. It feels risky and unfair. It wrestles control out of our hands. It is wild and unsettling. It turns everything that makes sense to us upside-down and inside-out. Law says, “Good people get good stuff; bad people get bad stuff.” Grace says, “The bad get the best; the worst inherit the wealth; the slave becomes a son.” This offends our deepest sense of justice and rightness. We are, by nature, allergic to grace. (from “Give Me Law or Give Me Death”)

    I was allergic to grace. Thank God I opened my heart to the compelling truths of grace. I beginning ever so slowly to comprehend the magnitude of Paul’s words to the Ephesians.

    But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) (Ephesians 2, NLT)

    Here is what I am discovering in my imperfect pursuit of grace.

    Grace compels you to trust others with you. Grace compels you to trust Jesus with your sin because you can’t manage it yourself. Grace compels you to forgive because you have been forgiven. Grace compels you to accept others and not judge them. Grace compels you to move toward the unlovable and not away. Grace compels you to sacrifice when you desire security. Grace compels you to love when your heart is hateful. Grace compels you to trust God when you are afraid and weak.

    One other thing that is true. Grace is hard.

    But it is the theology that allows us to quit trying to be righteous and actually begin to be righteous. Grace is the theology that allows us to deal with sin instead of trying to manage and rationalize it. Grace is real. It is powerful. And it is not weak. Grace should never be your cover for sin. Instead grace is your only hope to deal with it. Grace makes me tremble when I think of an almighty and powerful God. How could He give such a gift to an unworthy child like me? And how could I be comfortable taking advantage of that amazing grace? I cannot. I pray that I will not. Grace is compelling. I want it to be compelling in my life as well because of one other truth I am discovering. Real grace works. The chorus of “Grace” is my prayer for the New Year.

    Grace, grace, come and move me
    Oh, come and move me now
    Grace, grace, only you can
    Lift up what holds me down