Charisa Stories

Tag: martin luther king jr

  • One Powerful Way To Follow Jesus Is Serving Others

    Valuing everyone is how Jesus lived. He modeled that value with women, children, people with physical and mental challenges, lepers, social outcasts, and sinners. He served the weak and loved the unloved. He created the template for the New Testament church.

    How did the early church explode and multiply against all odds? By serving selflessly, recklessly, and fearlessly. There was nothing comfortable about spreading the news about Jesus in the days, months, and years after His resurrection. The Apostles understood after the Cross what Jesus had been trying to tell them earlier. That the world measures greatness on an entirely different scale from the one that God uses.

    Remember that debate among the apostles? They had the criteria for greatness completely wrong.

    They began to argue among themselves about who would be the greatest among them. Jesus told them, “In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’ But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves.”
    (Luke 22:24-27, NLT)

    The best way to take your eyes off your own circumstances is to serve others. Even as Jesus faced the horror of the Cross, He was serving others.

    Martin Luther King Jr. said it well: “Everybody can be great . . . because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

    Amen.

    Every person in the body of Christ can serve in some way. It may be running errands for a seasoned citizen who can no longer drive. It may be babysitting for a harried young mom. It may be providing a meal to a family dealing with illness. It may be calling or visiting a lonely person. Sometimes listening is one of the greatest ways to serve others. Maybe one subtle way to serve is simply appreciating those people whom you work and live with in community.

    The Carrot Principle, a book by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, determined that appreciation might well be the missing accelerator for happiness and ­self-​­esteem. Based on a ­ten-​­year study in which two hundred thousand people were interviewed, the authors conclude that appreciation tops the list of things employees say they want from their bosses. For those who worked in offices with high morale, an amazing 94 percent reported that they were shown appreciation. Not surprisingly, when employees quit, nearly 80 percent cited lack of appreciation as the number one reason.

    I suspect that heartfelt appreciation is in short supply in our faith communities as well. That is a wonderful way you can serve others. Simply affirm and bless them in their gifts and skills.

    Serving can be the smallest gesture, or it can be a selfless response to a crisis. We truly follow Jesus by loving, helping, and healing those who suffer from a disaster, or sometimes just from life.

    I pray that I will be willing to serve whenever I see a hurting person. When a student is struggling and needs mentoring, you can serve. When someone is feeling blue, you can affirm and lift that person’s spirits by simply being present and caring. Jesus taught that these things we do are acts for God.

    “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’

    “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

    “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ (Matthew 25:34-40, NLT)

    Part of the journey to serve Jesus and others is simple. Get outside yourself by serving and affirming others. The rewards are remarkable and God is glorified by your actions

  • We Need To Comprehend That Words Matter A Lot

    When it comes to social media some people seem to be in attack mode all the time. My heartaches because friends and colleagues of mine say truly ugly things and assign terrible motives to people they don’t even know. I quit going negative on social media many years ago. I affirm where I can and stay silent when I cannot. I just don’t understand what satisfaction people get from savaging someone from the safe bunker of the Internet.

    One word I choose to limit is hate. Hate is a powerful and deeply affecting word. But we toss it around so casually that it makes me wince. I am saddened, sickened, disturbed, and frightened at how the word hate is being hurled in our national discourse. Red-faced people of different viewpoints spew vitriol at those they disagree with. It can be an honest and complicated issue that people are reacting to, but they reduce the debate to hating their opponents instead of listening and discussing.

    Author James Baldwin made this insightful observation: “I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.”

    Isn’t that the truth? Sometimes it is easier to demonize than understand what needs to be done. It is up to me and to you to change the discourse. We need to start by allowing God to be the one who defines hate. After all, He does have that righteous and holy power on His resume.

    In the Book of Proverbs, there is a list of seven things that God hates.
    eyes that are arrogant,
    a tongue that lies,
    hands that murder the innocent,
    a heart that hatches evil plots,
    feet that race down a wicked track,
    a mouth that lies under oath,
    a troublemaker in the family.   (Proverbs 6:17-19, The Message)

    I believe we saw all seven of those things over recent days in our country. Political leaders favorite tactic of justifying bad behavior because of other bad behavior does not work with a holy God. Our God is not attention deficit and we cannot distract Him with a shiny sign condemning someone else’s sin.

    Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, author of “Words That Hurt, Words That Heal”, has lectured throughout this country on the powerful, often negative impact of words. He often asks audiences if they can go 24 hours without saying any unkind words about, or to, another person. Invariably, a small number of listeners raise their hands, signifying “Yes.” Others laugh, and quite a few call out, “No!”

    Telushkin responds, “Those who can’t answer ‘yes’ must recognize that you have a serious problem. If you can’t go 24 hours without drinking liquor, you’re addicted to alcohol. If you can’t go 24 hours without smoking, you’re addicted to nicotine. So if you can’t go 24 hours without saying unkind words about others, then you’ve lost control over your tongue.”

    Or maybe you could try sending 24 posts without saying unkind words about others. It seems that people talk about things and people they detest instead of solutions. Hate is a very serious word to use when talking about anyone, and especially for followers of Jesus who rant on other believers. As Christians, we simply do not have that option. Yet I see this happening way too often.

    If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?  (1 John 4:20)

    If anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is still living in darkness. (1 John 2:9)

    Ouch. It’s very clear—and uncomfortable to hear—that I need to pray for those I disagree with in the faith community.

    But beyond that, I think we need to be extraordinarily prayerful about throwing the hate card at anyone. I would suggest that we often allow ourselves to slip from hating the sin to hating the sinner as well. A wise man tells us that “the fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate” (Proverbs 8:13)

    We see the first sentence of this next Proverb played out in social media.

    Hatred stirs up strife,
    but love covers all offenses.
    (Proverbs 10:12)

    The second part of this Proverb has been demonstrated by a few brave souls in my lifetime. Martin Luther King Jr. had some legitimate reasons to hate, but he chose not to. His words have not lost their power: “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”

    Another courageous African-American, Booker T. Washington, made a similar choice. “I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.”

    We hate people we don’t know and, without a doubt, that suspicious attitude prevents us from ever engaging with them. That is why the assassination of Charlie Kirk was so heartbreaking. He sought to engage with people who disagreed with his faith and his views of life. I cannot understand how anyone can say that seeking civil debate over cultural issues is wrong. He asked questions of critics. He gave them an open mic to show where his thinking was off base. His heart’s desire was to shine a light in a dark world through his faith in Jesus Christ. His process was to share truth through kindness and grace. Charlie knew that even truth shared with anger and condemnation will rarely change a heart.

    I have decided to severely curtail my use of the word hate. I am praying to follow the words of Booker T.Washington to permit no man to degrade my soul by making me hate.

    I have to remind myself that the actions that make me angry are the result of our fallen nature and sin. Hating people will not fix either of those issues. My hope is that finding a relationship with Jesus Christ will heal their anger and pain. I can’t influence hearts by using inflammatory words. I want to engage them in grace filled conversation. And remember that words do matter. A lot.

  • We ALL Bleed the Same

    We ALL Bleed the Same

    Recently I had the privilege of breaking bread (toast to be accurate) at a breakfast meeting with Pastor/Educator Patrick Nolan. He is a black friend with a smile as big as Texas and heart for the Gospel that is even bigger. Patrick is the pastor at Vibrant Life Baptist Church. We had the most amazing conversation about racial issues, the church, and our culture. Here is what my friend posted on Facebook.

    “As we were sitting together and sharing life it occurred to me that people were listening and watching as we had honest conversations about race, religion and politics. Now I believe those who were looking on saw more than an old black guy🙋🏾‍♂️ and a young white guy eating together at the “lunch room” counter. I believe they saw in a real life illustration that the best way to break ethnic barriers is not by rhetoric but rather by relationship!“

    I can only challenge him on the young white guy part. I want Patrick to maintain his integrity.

    My friend said many things that impacted me but I am still rolling one comment over and over in my heart and mind. Patrick said “I have quit worrying what the world does. What breaks my heart is that the church is not doing more to heal this divide.”

    Amen. When I left the lyrics from a song from Mandisa and TobyMac came to mind.

    Are you left?
    Are you right?
    Pointing fingers, taking sides
    When are we gonna realize?

    We all bleed the same
    We’re more beautiful when we come together
    We all bleed the same
    So tell me why, tell me why
    We’re divided.

    Why indeed? I am praying for another leader like Martin Luther King Jr who will remind us that hateful rhetoric never, ever, ever changes a heart. Followers of Christ have a message of hope and light that is desperately needed. But we get caught up in the politics of our world and too often snuff out that light. I have probably been guilty more than I care to think about.

    I fear our culture will get darker in the days and months ahead. Followers of Christ have to make a decision. We can decide to complain that Christians are no longer respected and valued in the culture. We can whine that the media and elites mock us. Or we can decide to show the kind of kindness, forgiveness, grace, and love that early Christians demonstrated to change a hostile culture. Christianity really functions best as the underdog. We can ask God to give us the strength and grace to be a light in the darkness.

    What does that mean? What message makes a difference?

    During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods’ appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room. “What’s the rumpus about?” he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity’s unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.”

    Perhaps the fact that grace and forgiveness are rare commodities in this society is a big reason we see such anger and hopelessness. Our natural reaction to those who threaten our comfortable safe haven is to strike back. Jesus knew this would happen and He had some very radical instructions.

    “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)

    Jesus did not say “I am offering a helpful suggestion to love people that look like you and agree with you.” Our Lord who died for people of all colors and nations commanded that we love one another. People of different colors, political beliefs, and personalities all inconveniently fit into the “one another” category.

    If you push back that Jesus was just talking about loving His followers I offer this.

    “But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! (Luke 6:27, NLT)

    Jesus knows our hearts doesn’t He? If you are “willing to listen” then hear my words to love your enemies. He knew we tend to conveniently not hear verses that challenge our hearts. Am I willing to listen? Are you? I wonder what God could do if we followed those those two commands?  And how would it look different if we remembered that we are all created in the image of God. Our different experiences and stories should not divide us but instead create a beautiful tapestry of the amazing love of Jesus.

    If we’re gonna fight
    Let’s fight for each other
    If we’re gonna shout
    Let love be the cry
    We all bleed the same
    So tell me why, tell me why
    We’re divided

    Did you notice I centered the lyrics? No left or right justification. The only justification that matters is the work of Christ on the Cross. We all bleed the same. He bled for us. The color is red in every case.

    As a person with considerable mileage on my life odometer I am convinced the culture will never be healed by politics and programs. But I still believe the power of the Gospel of grace can heal our culture one heart at a time. We can be a part of that revival or we can give up and sullenly wait for eventual glory. May I grace challenge you to get out of your Christian comfort cave? Can I ask you to make an effort to break bread with people different from you? To quote the dating site…”it’s just lunch”! Take a chance and trust God. Go meet with a spirit willing to learn the story and heart of people who look and think differently. And here is the most important thing.

    Listen. Listen. Listen.

    I think you might be amazed at what God can do in those moments. The God who created this world can heal our hearts if we trust Him. The decision is up to each one of His followers. We can make a difference in whatever sphere of influence God has given us whether it is large or small. Only faithfulness matters and the question must be answered. Are you in?