Are you ever surprised by who has faith and who has doubts?

It is really quite amazing that anybody believes that Jesus was the anointed King of Israel, was crucified, resurrected from the dead, ascended to his throne, and that he will return someday to make everything all right.

Considering how difficult it was for the first Eleven disciples to follow and believe Jesus, how much more difficult for us today?

Jesus shows up to the disciples with holes in his wrists and feet, he talks like Jesus, looks like Jesus, moves like Jesus – and they still think he is a ghost.

Even though he told them – and at this point, there are eyewitness accounts by others – he would return to them – they still doubt.

While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.

He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet.

And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.

He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.” Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. [Luke 24v36-45, TNIV]

Maybe we Christians should go easy on people who don’t believe Jesus.

Maybe we shouldn’t take for granted our own faith. Maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on ourselves when we lack a stronger faith.

Maybe it’s no wonder Jesus was hoping for at least mustard-seed-sized faith from his followers.

Maybe to believe in Jesus we need Jesus.

Jesus’ strategy is interesting;  upon his ascension, he promises that the Father will send the Spirit to become at home in each disciple. Follow the reasoning here:

  • the Spirit that was in Jesus is now in the disciples
  • this Spirit helped Jesus serve and endure and rescue and heal and feed and clothe and celebrate and share
  • that Spirit is in us
  • through the Spirit of Jesus, we have a powerful helper so that we can believe amidst our doubt, live boldly in the shadows of death, and speak the truth in love and grace amidst the lies, greed, and anger of our world.

It’s a miracle that anybody believes Jesus.

Maybe it’s not helpful to focus on all the people who don’t have faith in Jesus. Maybe it’s more helpful to notice everyone who tries to walk by faith.

Maybe in our work to see Jesus in the world, to see and partner with those who do believe, we’ll let Jesus plant more small seeds of faith in the least expected places.

Nobody expected the Jewish Messiah to come from Nazareth. Nobody expected the Galilean fisherman Peter to lead a movement. Nobody expected Jesus to be popular with corrupt tax agents and starving prostitutes.

Maybe we should let ourselves be surprised by who has faith and who has doubts.

He goes about doing his rescue work through the most unlikely of people in the most unlikely of places.

People like you.

How To Be Strong and Courageous When You Don’t Feel Like It

“Be strong, be courageous, all you that hope in the LORD.”

Research shows that you experience life primarily through your feelings, and then you process it with your thoughts. From there you make the daily decisions which culminate in where you are today.

Everybody faces daily challenges, and for most of us, it can get wearisome. It’s hard to feel strong when you’re chronically tired. It’s hard to think of yourself as courageous when there is so much to worry about. And hope? That seems like a dream amidst all the bad news we get bombarded with each day.

But it’s precisely when you’re worn out that strength is most needed, and when anxiety is prevalent that the call to courage is so crucial. It’s when times are toughest that our strength and courage can be revealed best, not when times are going well.

What are the challenges you are facing in your everyday life? What are the areas you wish you were stronger in? In what circumstances do you wish you were more courageous? With your health? Your family? Friends? The community? Our nation?

The Psalmist reflects on the role of hope in helping us be strong and courageous. Not hope in general, but hope in the LORD. When you face injustice, when life is unfair, when friends disappoint you and family saddens you, the Psalmist invites you to put your hope in the LORD. [Psalm 31:24 Good News Bible]

When your hope is in the LORD, you trust that he hears you, that he listens to your complaints, that he knows your situation, and that he is with you in it. When you hope in the LORD, you’re trusting that he is at work to bring good out of the difficult situation.

This kind of trusting hope can sustain the strength and courage to keep doing what is right. It can undermine the despair and bitterness that creeps in, and keep us from turning sour and cynical as you try to right what is wrong in the world.

Hope in the LORD does not prevent all of our sufferings, for we live in a beautiful but broken world where every living thing will die. Hope does enable us to be healed from the brokenness and it can magnify what is beautiful in life.

Jesus suffered in this beautiful yet broken world, and it was his hope in the LORD that enabled him to forgive those who betrayed him, bless those who tortured him and love those who hated him.

communion-pritchard-park

Of course, this was not easy for Jesus. It was with blood, sweat, and tears that he prayed for strength and courage to endure the coming crucifixion. It was prayer sustained by hope in the faithfulness and love of the LORD. 

Don’t try to feel strong or courageous, don’t try to feel hopeful.

To be strong, to be courageous, to be hope-full in the LORD are all actions. It’s how others will describe you as they observe you doing the hard work of not despairing, of forgiving, of persevering in justice, mercy, humility, and joy.

How can you become more hope-full in the LORD?

It helps to hang out with others that are also hope-full. Learn from them, talk it out with them, watch them, pray with them.

Together, be attentive to the presence of Christ in your life. Trust that the LORD is with you, always working for the restoration of all things in your community.

Read the gospels of Jesus being strong and courageous, and that of the apostle Paul in the New Testament. Read the stories of the prophets in the Old Testament too.

Take a moment to give thanks throughout the day for what is going well, and ask others for help when it’s getting tough trying to do what is right.

You can also make this your breath-prayer, let it be on your mind and in your spirit throughout the day: “Be strong, be courageous, all you that hope in the LORD.”

 

Striving To Be For All

As a Christian in the YMCA, I strive everyday to live out our mission in a way that honors Christ and builds up others in spirit, mind and body.

One of the things I love about the Y is their commitment to be “for all.” That’s not an easy promise to keep, but it’s the right thing to do.

In getting to know more staff and members of the Y, I’m impressed at how many strive everyday to be “for all”. I appreciate the honesty from those who are on the journey to learn how to be for all.

There are always more people to be for, and it takes a lot of humility, patience, wisdom, and compassion to learn how to be for others.

It means a lot to me to have this kind of support from the Y as they gently, methodically, and persistently explore how to be for all in a way that embodies our Christian principles, builds spirit, mind, body for all, and strengthens the foundations of our community.

Because this is such personal work that requires inner transformation, as a Christian my striving to be for all is sourced in Christ.

He is both an example of how to be for the world – a beautiful but often horribly broken world- and be a savior of people – beautifully but also tragically broken people.

Soren Kierkegaard was a Christian writing around the same time the YMCA was being established in Britain, North America, and the world. His writings have been helpful to me in striving to live Christianly in a way that is caring, honest, respectful, and responsible.

His quote below has helped me reflect on how Christ helps me be for all.

I’m not always a very good Christian, and I’m not always very good at being for all.

But I appreciate what Kierkegaard is getting at here for Christians.

My take on the quote: Being saved from our sins should keep us humble and full of unending compassion for others, and when we fail at that, we are reminded of how much humble compassion Christ has towards us, which prompts us to repent and renew our striving to be humble and compassionate, with the help of Christ himself as our teacher and savior.

“It must be firmly maintained that Christ did not come to the world only to set an example for us. 

If that were the case we would have law and works-righteousness again.

He comes to save us and in this way be our example. 

His very example should humble us, teach us how infinitely far away we are from resembling him.

When we humble ourselves, then Christ is pure compassion. 

And in our striving to approach him, he is again our very help.

It alternates: when we are striving, then he is our example; and when we stumble, lose courage, then he is the love that helps us up.

And then he is our example again.”

~ Soren Kierkegaard, Provocations, pg 223

This writing from Kierkegaard helps me frame how I strive to “love my neighbor as myself” which is how I try to be for all.