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  • Dare NOT to Compare!

    Dare NOT to Compare!

    Theodore Roosevelt shared great wisdom when he said that “comparison is the thief of joy”. Losing joy is what inevitably happens when you play the no win game of comparisons. We all do it and comparisons are poison to the soul. We either compare to someone doing better than us and feel downcast or compare ourselves to someone failing and feel better. Sometimes we even secretly wish they would fail so we can feel better about our own efforts.

    In Psalm 139 we read how God uniquely wove our DNA together to create the one and only me and the one and only you. He knew us before we were formed and He has ordained our days. Paul’s message to the Ephesians gets a fresh take in The Message.

    It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.  (Ephesians 1:11-12, The Message)

    We are not an accident. We have a purpose in God’s plan. We have a role in God’s overall purpose. And we have unique talents as a gift of grace.

    For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.  (2 Timothy 1:9)

    Each one of us is unique and needed in God’s community. But we often don’t feel or live that way. Part of the problem is comparing our talents and gifts to others. There is a long list of gifts I wish I had. Musical talent. Athletic ability. Handy man skills. But I am uniquely me and I am needed in the Body of Christ for it to be complete. And so are you.

    Being content with who you are really is a heart issue grounded in the truth of who we are according to Scripture. How I wish that I could see myself as God sees me. Because of what Christ did in my behalf God sees me as a saint. Forgiven. Cleansed of sin. Valuable. Needed.

    What I often see is the same old failure that can’t play a musical instrument, fix anything or live as consistently as I desire for God.

    My fears about my shortcomings are confirmed when I log into Facebook and Instagram and see the smiling perfection of others. We are psychologically wired toward comparisons and social media is exactly the wrong medicine for that predisposition. Writer Steven Furtick pegs the problem with social media comparison.

    “The reason why we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind the scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.” 

    We see those smiling families and think they are experiencing some alternate life that has eluded us. I often quote my friend Bruce McNicol who said “there are no together people…just some people with whiter teeth”. His point is well-taken. Through hiddenness and acting you can present the “perfect” and “together” Christian. We feel the need to show others we are doing fine lest we show spiritual weakness.

    But the fellowship of believers should be the one place where honesty is encouraged. Where shortcomings ought to be accepted. Church should be the place where you can say without fear, “I am struggling, I hurt, I need help.”

    I know that too many have been wounded by unsafe places and that breaks my heart. But there are rooms of grace that exist. Don’t give up. Please.

    My fear is that we have created a culture where we feel there is something wrong with us if we are hurting. If I am struggling I must be doing something wrong spiritually. Shouldn’t God meet this need? What is wrong with me? The fact that God created us with a desire to be in community tells me that part of His plan is for us to be helped by other members of the body of Christ. But we think we are falling short when we are actually comparing ourselves to people who are not being real.

    Anne Lamott weighs in with her unvarnished honesty.

    “Everyone is screwed up, broken, clingy, and scared, even the people who seem to have it more or less together. They are much more like you than you would believe. So try not to compare your insides to their outsides.”

    Being broken, clingy, scared and screwed up is spiritual soil prep for the seed of grace to grow.

    Can we trust Jesus enough to drop the perfection ruse? Can we trust him enough to be authentic? Not needy and demanding. Just honest and real in community and, of course, with Him.

    Look up the “one another” verses in the Bible. Here is an example from Hebrews (10:24, NIV):

    And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

    So when someone in the body achieves or creates something that you wish you had accomplished don’t shrink in comparison. Approach them. Celebrate them. Thank God for their contribution to the body. And remember that you have a vital part in this plan.

    I am not sure if writer John Mason had a Biblical worldview in mind when he wrote these words but he is theologically spot on. “You were born an original. Don’t die a copy.” We are uniquely and completely designed for our role in the body. Don’t try to imitate another part.

    If you are not sure that you are important in God’s plan then you are not hearing His voice on the matter. You are. I pray you will believe and live out of that amazing truth today.

  • When Thomas Jefferson Tried To “Fix” The Bible

    Thomas Jefferson is an enigma for many. Political enemies in his day accused him of being an atheist yet he started the statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom with the phrase, “Almighty God hath created the mind free.” He certainly would not have been invited to speak at an evangelical conference to share his view that most clergymen are “soothsayers and necromancers.” You likely have a bigger brain than I do but I will confess that I had to look up necromancers. It literally means one who interrogates the dead. Okay. Not sure what church Jefferson was frequenting.

    Jefferson believed that Bible needed to be fixed. He took out his scissors and cut out the parts of the Bible that he didn’t believe. He excised the virgin birth, all of the miracles and the Resurrection. He cobbled together a book he titled “The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth”. His clippers removed every miracle while leaving teachings about helping the needy and treating people as we would have them treat us. Jefferson’s called the moral code of Jesus, “the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.”

    I agree with that statement completely. But Jesus stripped of His Divinity and resurrection becomes just a really challenging life coach.

    It is so easy to criticize Jefferson. What audacity! The incredible chutzpah to modify sacred texts to fit your own views! But then I took a breath and stepped back. Do I do the same thing without the in your face honesty of Jefferson? When I choose to ignore the hard teachings of Jesus I have, in practice, done the same thing. When I say that some command in God’s Word is too hard I have essentially taken my scissors of doubt and cut that teaching out. When I point out that I cannot forgive or love or give because you don’t understand my circumstances I have clipped out the challenge of supernatural living. In my book When Bad Christians Happen to Good People I wrote a chapter called “This is a Hard Teaching” about the challenging and difficult things that Jesus taught that I tend to mentally and practically excise from my walk. For example, Jesus had this fun little proclamation.

    “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 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. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.  (Matthew 5:43-48, NLT)

    Are you kidding me? Love your enemies? Pray for them? Scalpel please…that must be removed. I often feel like the disciples of Jesus who struggled with His teaching about the bread of life.

    Many of his disciples said, “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?”Jesus was aware that his disciples were complaining, so he said to them, “Does this offend you? (John 6:60, NLT)

    That is the bottom line isn’t it? Sometimes the hard teachings of Jesus offend me. Or at least annoy me. I don’t want to forgive the unforgivable or love the unlovable. I don’t want to serve the least of these because it is inconvenient, messy, and hard. But I have a choice to make. I have to accept the entire Word of God and be open to allowing the Holy Spirit to move in every area of my life. Or I have to take the scissors to my lack of faith to His Word. As for cutting out the miracles and just making Jesus a profound and amazing teacher? I don’t think He gave us that option. The famous words of C.S.Lewis from Mere Christianity dismiss that philosophy.

    “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon and you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

    So I am praying for the grace to embrace the hard teachings, trust to allow Jesus to grow my faith, and the discipline to leave the scissors in the drawer.

  • If You’re Happy and You Know It…Tell Your Face

    If You’re Happy and You Know It…Tell Your Face

    One of my favorite Peanuts comic strips features Charlie Brown’s sister Sally struggling to spread frozen butter on her toast. Finally she exclaims, “Nobody told me life was going to be this hard!” 

    I can understand Sally’s frustration. Life is hard. The Bible is very clear that life will be a journey of struggling to spread frozen butter and worse (that is a paraphrase). Much worse. I am going through one of those frozen butter times right now but I have come to understand that those times are part of the journey. God has given us a wonderful gift that we too often leave unwrapped. The gift of laughter. The following excerpt is from my sporadically selling book “Bring’em Back Alive – A Healing Plan for those Wounded by the Church.” 

    I believe a sense of humor is one of God’s gifts to help get us to the finish line. One of the things I learned from writing When Bad Christians Happen to Good People is well stated by humorist Dave Barry. “No matter what happens,” Barry writes, “somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.” AMEN, Brother Barry! Some people take and took some of my observations way too seriously. One of my core principles is summarized by Mary Hirsch’s observation that, “Humor is a rubber sword – it allows you to make a point without drawing blood.” 

    An examination of the life of Jesus would indicate that He possessed a sense of humor. The writers of Scripture did not set out to author a joke book so you won’t find the phrase “a Sadducee, a Pharisee and a Roman walk into a bar.” Still, you find glimpses of humor in the words of Jesus. For example, I can see the humor in this exchange when the disciples came running up and asked Jesus the following question.

    “Did you know how upset the Pharisees were when they heard what you said?” Matthew 15:12 (MsgB)  

    I can see them looking at Jesus and waiting to hear Him say something like, “Really? I had better go get that straightened out. The Pharisees are some important guys.” I expect the Lord’s answer first stunned and then amused them.

    “Forget them. They are blind men leading blind men. When a blind man leads a blind man, they both end up in the ditch.” Matthew 15:14 (MsgB)  

    You will also note that Jesus was an oft invited guest at weddings and banquets to the point where those appearances drew the ire of the Pharisees. Think about it. If Jesus was a holier than thou, uptight religious, suck the air out of the room sourpuss would you want Him at your wedding party? A deadly serious, stuffy theologian type would likely not be an “A” list party invitee either. Jesus must have been able to laugh and enjoy the common fellowship of others and he was obviously welcome and desired at the festivities.

    I am not trying to be flippant (this time) but clearly Jesus knew how to party in the good sense of the word. He knew how to interact warmly with others and connect with those around Him. And He knew where to find those who needed the touch of forgiveness the most. 
      
    I also think about the eclectic group of followers that Jesus assembled. They were a fascinating blend of common laborers and professional types. Imagine today if Christ went to the local pier to recruit some fishermen, dropped by the IRS to pick up a follower, then over to the medical clinic and so on. This would be (at least initially) a fairly coarse group. I don’t suspect that the earthy sense of humor possessed by such men was immediately dispatched when they dropped their nets to follow Jesus. Part of any healthy and dynamic group relationship is having fun together. I believe that there were times when Jesus and the twelve told jokes, fish stories and made fun of the Pharisees. I think that Jesus understood that the language and topics of those outside the faith may be a bit uncomfortable. John Wesley once walked through the London market with a young man who desired to join the ministry. The coarse language offended the young man and he clearly wanted to leave. But Wesley told him to, “Stay, and learn to preach.” 

    The wisdom of Proverbs applies here.

    A glad heart makes a happy face; a broken heart crushes the spirit. (Proverbs 15:13, NLT)

    So let’s all join in that familiar Sunday School song…

    If you’re happy and you know it,
    Tell your face,
    If you’re happy and you know it, 
    Tell your face.
    If you’re happy and you know it,
    Then it seems your face should show it.
    If you’re happy and you know it,
    Tell your face.

    A lack of humor in the church apparently this has been a problem for a while now. Teresa of Avila prayed this simple prayer in 1582, “From somber, serious, sullen saints, save us Oh Lord.” 

    Amen…and Amen.

  • The Devastating Cost of Division

    The Devastating Cost of Division

    I am deeply saddened by the division in our nation. But I am even more heartbroken by the division in the church. How have we forgotten to focus on the thing that should unite us?

    My head explodes when I allow myself to wade into some of the social media discourse happening between followers of Jesus Christ and non-believers. There are important cultural issues that Christians need to prayerfully and gracefully address. What I see is rarely graceful and that makes me wonder how prayerful the messengers have been before hitting the send button. 

    Because of the nature of social media a topic that should be thoughtfully debated instead becomes an us versus them war. The conversation easily drifts toward broad brushing of others with often unfair assignation of motives. 

    These judgements of motives and personal attacks are so damaging to the message of grace that I hold so dear. Sometimes I try to imagine myself as a skeptical seeker looking to explore this Christianity thing. I am pretty sure if I stumbled on some of these mean-spirited threads I would run straight for the secular hills.

    The irony of this need to “win” the argument at the expense of Christian charity and love may be one more profoundly effective tactic of the enemy. The moment the Church is divided by culture instead of united in Christ is the moment our light is extinguished.

    My dear friend Ed Underwood heads up a ministry called Recentered that helps struggling churches recognize where they need to refocus. He made this comment to me recently.

    “I think the worst sin a Christian can commit is to create disunity in the body of Christ.”

    Don’t lose his point. Of course there are worse things some might do but he is talking about the daily living out of our faith in the church community. The ripples of disunity spread across the entire body with devastating effects.

    I wish followers of Jesus would proclaim what we are FOR more passionately than what we are against. What if we decided to spend all of our energy proclaiming the Good News of the Gospel and the amazing gift of grace? I heard an amazing insight about how we should view sharing our faith in love with others.

    “We are often unsure if we should share the Gospel with others. But the truth is we are simply joining in a conversation that the Holy Spirit has already started.”

    What if we decided to be a little kinder, give a little more, serve a little more often, and commit to unity in our ranks? There is no more powerful community than a group of believers who live in unity. Nothing levels the playing field like genuinely following Jesus. 

    Famous preacher D.L. Moody had this warning. “I have never yet known the Spirit of God to work where the Lord’s people were divided.”

    Even as Jesus faced the agony of His betrayal and crucifixion this was his selfless prayer.

    May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. (John 17:23, NLT)

    We can do so much better in showing the culture what love, unity, and grace looks like. The One that unites us is so much more important than the things that divide us. Can we commit to pray for unity in the body of Christ? Satan does not want our church to proceed in unity. The choice is ours.

  • How To Shine Your Light For Everyone To See

    How To Shine Your Light For Everyone To See

    Even in my rock and roll days I loved the music of Glen Campbell. His final gift before his death was a moving and deeply personal look at how Alzheimer’s affects a family in the documentary “I’ll Be Me”.  

    Glen Campbell

    One of my favorite Glen Campbell songs, “Try a Little Kindness”, is a message that we desperately need to hear and heed in our current societal climate.

    You got to try a little kindness
    Yes show a little kindness
    Just shine your light for everyone to see
    And if you try a little kindness
    Then you’ll overlook the blindness
    Of narrow-minded people on the narrow-minded streets

    I think it is fair to say that we have an abundance of narrow minded people loudly making their presence felt. People so narrow minded they could look through a peephole with both eyes. The lyrics of Try a Little Kindness seem like a simple and even naive sentiment. I would argue this little chorus is one of the most important and doable things that we as followers of Jesus can do to shine a little light. And we have been given that assignment by our Lord.

    “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”

    Matthew 5:14-16, NLT

    I wrote a chapter about the power of kindness in my new book, Waking Up Slowly. Here is a brief portion of that chapter.

    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 ad infinitum. We are never outside God’s redeeming grace, no matter how much 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 us after countless offenses? It doesn’t make sense. That is because grace does not make sense in our accounting system. So how does that work in our relationships with our community? The apostle Paul pulls it all together perfectly in his letter to the church in Ephesus:

    Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

    Ephesians 4:32, NLT

    Kindness should be contagious because the God of the universe has been kind to us. That is part and parcel of the love story of the gospel.

    Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?

    Romans 2:4, NLT

    I used to be impressed by talent and prestige. Now I find that I am more impressed by kindness. Billy Graham observed how we all—especially children—benefit from a little kindness: “Often the only thing a child can remember about an adult in later years, when he or she is grown, is whether or not that person was kind.” I find that to be so true when I run down the list of adults from my childhood. I filter them by that very trait. They were either kind or unkind.

    Paul recognized the importance of this contagious gift in his instructions to the church at Colossae:

    Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.

    Colossians 3:12-15, NLT

    I have often said that if the church lived according to those four verses alone, there would be a spiritual awakening in the land. If we simply loved one another as Jesus commanded we could spark a revival. That is my job as a follower of Christ.

    Frederick Buechner captured the idea brilliantly: “If you want to be holy, be kind.”

    (Excerpted from Waking Up Slowly with permission of Tyndale Publishing)

    Today I remember Glen Campbell by determining to follow his advice.

    If you see your brother standing by the road
    With a heavy load from the seeds he’s sowed
    And if you see your sister falling by the way
    Just stop and say, you’re going the wrong way

    Everyone of us can be kind. Give it a try. When you do your light will shine.

    One act of kindness would be to donate to the Alzheimer’s Association to help find a cure for this cruel disease.

  • Remember Your Name!

    Remember Your Name!

    Ten years ago we adopted an abandoned dog after we said goodbye to our beloved canine friend Hannah. The new puppie’s foster name “Savannah” was just too close to Hannah so we began brainstorming other possibilities. After some debate we settled on Maggie.

    There was only one problem with the new moniker. Our puppy would not respond to her new name. It wasn’t unexpected. After all, she had been dubbed Savannah by the adoption center. Perhaps she had a different name before she found herself lost in the Texas countryside. Now we were trying to saddle her with a third name in less than a year of life. No wonder she was confused!

    We concentrated on teaching the puppy her new name. “Maggie, come!” We gave her treats when she came when called and praised her profusely. We did all the things the dog training websites suggest to introduce a rescued puppy into a new environment. No matter what we tried, Maggie seemed to choose if, and when, she would respond to her name. It was frustrating to see her look in our direction when we called her and, a moment later, wander off with apparent disinterest.


    Later I realized I had just learned my first lesson from my new canine mentor that I wrote about in Stay: Lessons My Dogs Taught Me about Life, Loss, and Grace. I realized I sometimes do the same thing with God. I was given a new name and identity when I put my faith in Jesus as my Savior. My new identity, mentioned several times in the New Testament, is “child of God.”

    But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.
    (1 John 1:12, NLT)

    For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

    So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. (Romans 8:1-16, NLT)

    You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26, NLT)

    Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too. (1 John 5:1, NLT)



    So who am I? Former Texas Ranger’s TV director? Author of modestly successful books? Husband of Joni? Longtime church goer? Father of three outstanding men? Ridiculously proud grandfather? Executive Member of Costco? Perpetually frustrated Cleveland Browns fan? All those things define me to some degree. But the one thing that should define me but I easily forget is that I am a child of God. Just like Maggie, sometimes I respond to my new identity and sometimes I just wander off thinking He must not be talking about me.

    There is power in believing in a name. We rescued an abandoned puppy and gave her a new name. Jesus rescued me and the Father gave me a new name.

    His child.

    For an embarrassingly long time I reminded God of what I used to be and all that was wrong about me. I told Him I didn’t deserve to by His adopted child. But Jesus patiently reminded me that my spiritual DNA had been rewritten. That I was a new creation in Him. That I am holy. A saint. That I am a flawless child of God. Not because of anything I have done, am doing, or will ever do. It is because of what Jesus did for me on the Cross. When I believe what Jesus says is true about me, it dramatically changes how I live my life.

    Maggie eventually learned her name with repetition, praise, and rewards. Our dog trainer gave us a great tip. “Never use her name for shaming or punishment. When you call Maggie, she should expect to play, get a treat, or to be loved. Every time she hears ‘Maggie’ it should be a party.”

    I love that imagery for my journey with Jesus. When He calls my name, it is a party of grace, not of shaming or punishment. I am His beloved child. When He calls me it is for my good.
    Dave Burchett is known in Heaven as a “child of God.” And I am finally putting my full weight on that truth.

  • Remember How it Feels to be Rescued?

    Remember How it Feels to be Rescued?

    You don’t have to dig too deep into my writings to know that I am a dog lover. For some reason I seem to gain spiritual insight from these wonderful creatures. On social media I follow lots of organizations that rescue dogs.

    This photo touched my heart.

    The photo on the left shows two sweet dogs one hour before they were rescued and adopted. Look at their faces and body language. On the left you see fear and sadness.

    After the miracle of rescue you see a total change. They are new creatures full of joy and excitement.

    The picture reminded me that I sometimes forget that I was once trapped in that place of fear and sadness. And then I heard the Good News of the Gospel. That Jesus came to forgive me, adopt, and rescue me. My initial photo after having that weight lifted would have resembled those joyful faces on the right. But something happens if we are not careful. We lose the joy of being rescued. We forget what God has done for us and focus on what we want Him to do for us now or get angry about something He didn’t do.

    When I do that I am forgetting the miracle and joy of being rescued. God did not have to rescue me. He chose to out of love. And He didn’t just say you are forgiven, good luck, and go on your way. He gave me the mind-boggling promise that I am now His child.

    For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

    So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. (Romans 8:14-17, NLT)

    Are you kidding me? Do we really comprehend the magnitude of that text? We aren’t put in a foster home with the hope someone might come along to rescue us. We are adopted as His own child and become heirs to God’s glory. That hope is my guiding light as I endure the sadness and trials of this world. God’s amazing promise is also framed with honesty about living in a fallen and sinful world. The last part of verse 17 gives us a reality check.

    But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.

    Satan comes along and tries to make us focus only on the suffering. He tells us that if God really loved you this wouldn’t be happening. Or how can a loving Father treat His child this way?

    Sorry not sorry Satan. Your lies are completely destroyed by the next promise from our Father in Heaven.

    Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.

    Our rescue is eternal. Our hope is assured. Whatever difficulties I have to navigate until I make it to my eternal home will be nothing compared to the glory that awaits.

    Remind yourself of where you once were and how Jesus came along to rescue you. That should shift your attitude toward gratitude.