Charisa Stories

Tag: grace

  • How to Move from the Island of Misfit Toys to the Island of Grace

    How to Move from the Island of Misfit Toys to the Island of Grace

    Christmas really is the most wonderful time of the year. I love the music, the memories, the traditions, and the chance to annually think about Burl Ives.

    His memory returns with the annual airing of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Ives is the voice of Sam the Snowman who narrates the “enhanced” story of Rudolph.

    Rudolph and his elf buddy Hermey don’t fit in with the others. Rudolph looks different than his peers. Hermey is not interested in making toys. In an odd plot twist, Hermey wants to be a dentist. Not surprisingly, his elf supervisor is upset with the unproductive Hermey. So the two outcasts set off to find their purpose and a place to be accepted.

    The part of the story that resonates with me these days is when Hermey and Rudolph find their way to the Island of Misfit Toys. All of the toys on this island are castoffs because they are flawed and deemed worthless. There is a “Charlie in the Box” and a train with square wheels. A boat that sinks in water and a squirt gun that shoots jelly. All of these flawed toys are banished to the Island of Misfit Toys simply because they are different.


    That is how I picture so many sad and tired followers of Jesus. They see themselves as misfits. They believe they are flawed and not worth much of anything. They have allowed a perceived idea of what a “good” Christian should look like to cause them to feel like they don’t measure up. The doubts overwhelm them.  Discouraged followers of Christ start thinking thoughts like these.

    I don’t have theological training.
    I can’t sing well.
    I am not a good teacher.
    I am afraid to share my faith.
    I feel awkward in groups.
    I am not a leader.
    I don’t have much to offer.

    But that is not how the Bible describes a follower of Christ. Every Christian is described as being part of the body of Christ. Scripture makes it clear that every part of the body of Christ is vital to the healthy function of the church. Henri Nouwen wrote that every follower of Jesus has a God designed role.

    “We seldom realize fully that we are sent to fulfill God-given tasks. . . . We act as if we were simply dropped down in creation and have to decide how to entertain ourselves until we die. But we were sent into the world by God, just as Jesus was. Once we start living our lives with that conviction, we will soon know what we were sent to do.”

    So if you are feeling like a misfit toy this Christmas season you can trust this truth. You have a divine purpose. God does not make misfits. He creates people in His image with value and great worth. Satan would like you to retreat to your own island of misfits to feel sad and worthless. But God has another gathering place in mind.

    The Island of Grace. On that island you are not a misfit. You are a beloved child of God. You are a saint. And in this wonderful place there are no misfits. Every blemish makes you more valuable, not less. Brokenness makes you more beautiful. The miracle of Christmas makes us friends to the King. Paul made that abundantly clear with these words of encouragement to the Church in Rome.

    So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. (Romans 5, NLT)

    Friend of God? Hard to feel like a misfit if you believe that is true. Open that gift this year and keep it close to your heart.

    Merry Christmas!

  • A Gift You Should Open Before Christmas

    A Gift You Should Open Before Christmas

    Every follower of Jesus is offered the gifts of grace without any strings (or ribbons) attached. All of us have full access to these gifts. Paul writes that we are brought into right relationship with God entirely as a gift of His radical and amazing love. 

    When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of his grace he made us right in his sight and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.

    Titus 3:5-7, NLT

    Grace is the best deal ever offered and yet we often resist opening this gift from our Lord. We can’t believe it is true. We fear it can’t be possible that we can be loved, accepted, and adopted when we know our behavior doesn’t deserve such love. 

    But that is the miracle of grace.

    A humorous Christmas song gives a clue to the mindset that makes it so hard to open the gift of Grace.

    The song “I’m Gettin’ Nuttin’ for Christmas” sums up the lie that Satan sells to every seeker of Jesus that your rewards are tied directly to behavior.

    I’m gettin’ nuttin’ for Christmas
    Mommy and daddy are mad
    I’m getting nuttin’ for Christmas
    ‘Cause I ain’t been nuttin’ but bad 

    That seems about right to our performance based mindset. I have not done what I should have. God has to be disappointed and maybe even a little ticked off at me so I don’t deserve this grace. I need to buck up and try harder and THEN I will earn God’s love. What a sad misunderstanding of how God wants to relate to His children.

    The Christian life is a life of grace from beginning to end and it is all based on what Jesus has done for us and not on anything we have done for Him. We enter into this journey with Jesus by grace, we live it by grace, and we enter God’s eternal presence by grace.

    During the Christmas season children learn that they get good things when they are good. Santa is pleased (and we later substitute God) when we obey. So we learn early that we had better be good. Or least fool everyone around us to think that we are being good.

    I remember (vaguely) the tension of the Santa Claus years. I knew I hadn’t really changed much. I tried to modify my behavior for a week or two leading up to Christmas but I knew I had failed to really be good.

    I carried that Santa process into my relationship with God. I need to behave better. Just like Santa we think that Jesus is making a list and He is checking it not once or twice but every moment of every day. God knows if you’ve been bad or good so if you want to be blessed and loved you had better be good or you will get nuttin’ from Him.

    Satan sells the lie so convincingly. And we buy it for months and years and even decades. I did.

    But God and Santa are very different in their approach. God does not keep a list. He is not impressed by our hernia inducing straining to control sin.

    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.

    Ephesians 2:8-9, NLT

    Jesus offers us so many gifts. Sometimes it seems we have the hardest time unwrapping the gift of grace. The stunning radicality of grace is that what seems to be too good to be true is more true than we can imagine. This unconditional love from God is unrelated to the emotions, expectations and desires that taint our human love. I am choosing to believe that truth this Christmas. I am going to allow God to love me and not attempt to earn that love. I am not going to remind myself why I am not worthy. I am going to open my arms and my heart to His love. My feelings ebb and flow. God’s feelings for me are a consistent fountain of grace so I am going to jump in the fountain today and splash around with joy.

    Receiving this gift is based simply on coming to Him in humble need. Go straight to the gift of grace that Jesus left under the Cross. Open it. And clothe yourself in His salvation, acceptance and love. It may be the best gift you have ever given yourself. Unwrap the gift of grace without guilt this Christmas and rejoice in it everyday. It was left there just for you.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Do We Make Faith Too Complicated?

    Do We Make Faith Too Complicated?

    Sports fans might have heard TV analysts noting that a young athlete is struggling on the football field because the game is too fast and furious for them to react correctly. They say that when the game “slows down” that player will be much more effective. That means the athlete will learn what matters, what to react to, how not to get faked out, and how to respond properly in each situation.

    I think that is what is happening for me after all of these years. My once frenetic efforts to be a “good Christian” are slowing down. I think I am learning more about what matters, what to react to, how not to get faked out by Satan, and how to respond in grace.

    A great way to get some less than grace filled responses is to quote an R-rated movie. So here goes.

    “Nook” LaLoosh (from Bull Durham): “A good friend of mine used to say, “This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains. Think about that for a while.”

    Yeah! Think about that for awhile!

    In many ways Christianity is a very simple faith that we have made incredibly legalistic and difficult. To paraphrase the line above. “You love the Lord your God. You love your neighbor. Sometimes it is easy. sometimes it is hard. Sometimes life rains on you.”

    Why do I want to make it so maddeningly complex? A classic song by Chris Tomlin has one of the secrets that helped the game “slow down” for me. The lyrics from “I Will Follow” help make this journey a little more simple.

    All your ways are good
    All your ways are sure
    I will trust in you alone
    Higher than my side
    High above my life
    I will trust in you alone

    Where you go, I’ll go
    Where you stay, I’ll stay
    When you move, I’ll move
    I will follow you
    Who you love, I’ll love
    How you serve I’ll serve
    If this life I lose, I will follow you
    I will follow you

    I will follow you

    Hmmmm. Maybe if I give up my need to figure everything out and sound smart I will actually be more effective. Maybe if I just follow Him I will learn to naturally do all the things I have been struggling so hard to do. There seems to be some precedent for this concept of simply following Jesus. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19, NIV

    • But Jesus told him, “Follow me“….   Matthew 8:22, NIV
    • “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. Matthew 9:9, NIV
    • “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”  Matthew 16:24, NIV
    • “Then come, follow me.”   Matthew 19:21, NIV
    • Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”   John 1:43, NIV
    • “Whoever serves me must follow me;”   John 12:26, NIV
    • Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.”   John 21:22, NIV

    In the immortal words of Forrest Gump…”I’m not a smart man”. But like Forrest I have a keen sense of the obvious. I have surmised (brilliantly) that Jesus wants me to follow Him. The rest of it we will figure out together.

  • Feeling Like A Nobody Just Might Be A Sign of Growth

    Feeling Like A Nobody Just Might Be A Sign of Growth

    My life odometer keeps adding mileage. No matter how hard I try I cannot roll it back. Part of acquiring higher mileage is getting some hard earned perspective on your life decisions. Some of my decisions were good. Some benign. Some not so good. Some truly regretful.

    That is life.

    The encouragement I have discovered is that even the really bad decisions can be redeemed by the grace of God. D.L.Moody was one of the greatest communicators of the Gospel in church history and a great Christian university bears his name. One of my favorite Moody quotes is about the learning curve of Moses. Moses ended up having a fairly decent impact for God.

    “Moses spent 40 years thinking he was somebody; 40 years learning he was nobody; and 40 years discovering what God can do with a nobody.”

    I have to adjust the numbers for my life. I spent 40 years thinking I was somebody. Twenty years learning I was nobody apart from the grace of God. I now am looking at (fill in the blank someday) years praying and seeking to see what God can do with a nobody.

    This is not about groveling in self-loathing. Far from it. It is simply acknowledging the liberating recognition of my dependence and need for God.

    All of us have a purpose. Here is an excerpt from my book Stay about purpose. The book chronicles the spiritual lessons I learned from a couple of rescued dogs. My canine friend Hannah understood who she was and lived out of that identity every day.

    Hannah was predestined to swim, run, and retrieve. That is the destiny of any retriever. Hannah does not try to be anything else. Even as a puppy, she chased anything we tossed her way and eagerly brought it back. We did not have to spend one minute training her. It was as natural as breathing for Hannah. Retrieving was her purpose and passion.

    That was the lesson for today from my four-legged mentor. I have also been created with a purpose. In fact, every person has a God-designed destiny whether they believe it or not. Henri Nouwen wrote about living with that frame of mind.”We seldom realize fully that we are sent to fulfill God-given tasks. . . .We act as if we were simply dropped down in creation and have to decide how to entertain ourselves until we die. But we were sent into the world by God, just as Jesus was. Once we start living our lives with that conviction, we will soon know what we were sent to do.”

    Living out of who you are is liberating. The apostle Paul had some thoughts about such a life when he wrote to the church at Ephesus.

    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. 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. (Ephesians 2:8-10, NLT)

    Think about that! You were rescued from the death of sin by grace. It was a gift that could not be earned. And you are a new creation, indeed a masterpiece for whom good things were planned from the beginning of time. How can followers of Jesus possibly have self-image issues? When we believe the lies.

    Taken from Stay by Dave Burchett copyright © 2015

    Don’t believe the lies. The irony of God’s plan is that we become important when we quit thinking we are important. God can do amazing things with nobody’s who are trusting and willing.

    Read the first chapter of Stay:Lessons My Dogs Taught Me about Life, Loss, and Grace by clicking this link.