Sad Valley

"He who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends." Proverbs 17:9

That was the Proverb this morning for my men's LIFE Group that meets at the Grayson Olde Post Cafe at 7 a.m. on Thursdays (shameless plug - all men, you're invited!). I couldn't help but think of the events this week in Happy Valley. Now, I'm a pretty huge college football fan. One of my first memories of watching a college football game on TV was the Georgia vs. Penn State National Championship game in the Sugar Bowl on January 1, 1983. I was almost 6 years old. Joe Paterno won his first national title as the Nittany Lions beat my Dawgs. I'm still not quite over that one. But, I've at least respected how Paterno led his program over the years. Penn State had been an example of doing things the right way for years in college footbal. You have ot know that to understand the backdrop to the story. You might not be a college football fan, but you'd have to be living under a rock to not be aware of the situation at Penn State University and their football program. In short, a former assistant coach was a known child molester and was allowed continued access to the football facility with young boys and, at worst, school officials, including legendary coach, Joe Paterno, helped cover it up through the years, or, at best, certainly didn't do enough to end the terror on these young children and get this man behind bars. I've kind of been gathering my thoughts on it. This Proverb opened it up for me.

Generally, we get most upset when we are offended. We lash out at family or cashiers that offend us. We struggle to cover over offenses in instances in which we are hurt, harmed, offended, or insulted. The Bible says these are the times we should forgive. These are the times we should drop the matter. These are the times we should give grace. Grudges don't help anyone. However, we overlook offenses against others. We turn a blind eye when the poor are marginalized, when ethnic groups (that aren't ours) are offended, or when the vulnerable are taken advantage of. That is because coming to the defense of the weak may cost us relationships, pride, standing in the community, and time and energy we're not sure we have. We often trend the wrong direction. We are quick to respond when we are offended, and look the other way when the weak are. The Bible says that we have this all wrong and backwards. We are to give grace when we are offended, but we are to stand up for the weak and disinfranchised of the world. When someone's actions hurt us, we alone have the power and place to forgive that and move on, and we should. However, when someone's actions harm others, the community, and the organization, we have a moral and Scriptural obligation to do something about it. At it's core, that's what is wrong with the situation in State College, Pennsylvania. Those in authority at Penn State were not willing to risk relationships, jobs, and status for the sake of the weak. And that's how someone that was once a hero becomes a legend no more. And that makes me sad. Sad for our world. Sad for those boys that were victimized. And sad for every Penn State player and fan that are good people. You and I will probably never face a situation like that in our lives. I hope you don't. But there will be times when we are called to NOT cover over an offense against the weak and helpless. Let us stand up for those whom God has called us to defend when the time comes.

The Power We Don't Know We Have

I'm reading through Exodus. Pretty amazing stuff. Exodus 32 is one of my favorite books of the Bible. It shifts a lot of the assumptions we have about God's character. I'll give you the short version. While Moses is up on the mountain getting the 10 commandments from God, his brother, Aaron, leads the Hebrews to make golden calfs to bow down and worship. God catches wind of this (He kind of sees everything), and tells Moses that He's fed up with it, and He's going to wipe those people out and basically start over with him.


In Exodus 32:11-14, Moses replies to God:

11 But Moses asked the Lord his God to show favor to the people. "Lord," he said, "why should your anger burn against your people? You used your great power and mighty hand to bring them out of Egypt. 12 Why should the Egyptians say, 'He brought them out to hurt them. He wanted to kill them in the mountains. He wanted to wipe them off the face of the earth'? Turn away from your burning
anger. Please take pity on your people. Don't destroy them! 13 "Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel. You made a promise. You took an oath in your name. You said, 'I will make your children after you as many as the stars in the sky. I will give them all of this land I promised them. It will belong to them forever.' "14 Then the Lord took pity on his people. He didn't destroy them as he had said he would.

Moses changed God's mind. Does that blow your mind? It does mind. God loves us, wants to be in a relationship with us and listens to us. God's mind can be changed when we are faithful and we plead our case before him out of righteous motives. God wants to work good for us and in us and through us. God hears us. Sometimes we can start thinking that we don't matter. But we matter immensely. We are game-changers. Be a Moses. Be a game-changer. Our Father is listening to the cries of His people.

Totally

Francis Chan asked a piercing question: When's the last time you depended totally on God?

The truth is, we often use God as a fall-back. Or He's a side-kick to our other best laid plans. It's often God AND. There is no AND in authentic faith. There is something to the stories of the Bible that illustrate this. People often ask, "Why don't we see the miracles they saw in the Bible?" There's probably a lot of answers for that, but one of them is that we have too many 'ANDs".

Are you depending on something along with God in your career, family, marriage, addictions, and struggles? In the first commandment, the Bible says, "You shall have no other gods before me." But, many translations say, "You shall have no other gods before or besides me." Often, it's not that we have something before God, it's just that we have something sitting beside him. When we do that, we limit God's power to do something miraculous in our lives. If we only need God to come through a little, then a little is all we'll get. However, I believe that when we totally depend on Him, we begin to see Him do crazy stuff. We begin to see big God things happening in our lives. When He is our only hope, our only source of strength and our complete source of inspiration, when we are completely surrendered to God and God alone...we are poised for a miracle.

When was the last time you depended totally on God?

The WHY

Still decompressing all the incredible teaching from Catalyst. One of the speakers was Dave Ramsey, who is always fun to listen to. Dave gave a great talk on what matters in life, family, work, faith, and, namely, leadership. He talked about what really matters:

1. People matter.


2. An incredible team and a culture of excellence matters.


3. Slow & steady matters.


4. Financial principles matter.


5. A higher calling matters.

That last one struck an important chord as an important insight came out of that: "When you care about WHY you're doing what you do, then you'll overcome the obstacles you'll face." If the WHY is because of the money or popularity or 'just because' or 'that's the way your parents did it' or the power or whatever...it won't work.

Not everyone has a job that is a calling. But, if the WHY behind the job is that it allows you to make money to do things in your church and community, then you'll be motivated. If the WHY isn't strong enough, real enough, and deep enough, you'll quit at the first sign of a steep hill. WHY are you doing what you do with your kids? WHY are you going to work every day? WHY are you volunteering in the way you are? WHY are you searching for the job you're searching for? WHY? WHY? WHY? If the answer to that question is: "Because God is leading me or has led me this way" then you'll be alright. If the answer is anything else, then find out where God IS leading you, and do it quick.

The Eulogy

Our Conference of our denomination lost an active pastor in the last week. Today was the funeral, and she was on my mind. I thought about her church and how they'd get through this difficult transition. I thought about her family. I thought about her legacy.

It is difficult for all of us in the busy-ness of life, the bills that need to be paid and the errands that need to be run to remember that one day someone will give a eulogy at our funeral. But, if we could remember that, it would change the way we do all the other stuff. No one will talk about how much money we had, how successful we were at business, or how clean we kept the house. They will talk about the type of person you were, how you loved people, how you made others feel.

And they will talk about your relationship with God. If it was rocky, it will be a tough funeral. People will squirm and the pastor will try to come up with creative and nice ways to say that God wasn't really a part of your life. And everyone will leave feeling kind of awkward, with little assurance of where you are. Or, they will talk about how you shined with the light of Jesus. How Christ was the most important thing in your life. And everyone will smile, and they'll imagine how happy you are now living with your Creator. And your family will be so thankful that you had a strong faith. Or it will be something in between.

But...it will be something. We will all have a eulogy spoken over us. What will they say at yours?

Hope for the Hopeless

We had a tragedy at a local church this week. An elderly man committed murder/suicide by killing his sister (in her mid-eighties) and himself in their church arking lot early Sunday morning. He looked like he could have been my grandfather. Just a normal looking guy in our small little corner of the world. Reports describe him as a faithful church member and good man. It was tragic. It doesn't make sense.

It was striking to me because I thought about the people that are part of my church. And it should make you think about the people sitting next to you in yours. Or, even at your office. Oh, no, I don't mean to be afraid. I mean to be loving. There are hurting people in our church pews or auditoriums. There are hurting people in the cubicle next to us. There are people that seem normal that we see at the ball game each week that are aching inside. There are people in line at the grocery store that need a comforting word. There are people we come across in the Post Office that need hope.

The church is not immune to hopelessness and despair. Let us be a people that has our eyes open to the hurting souls of the world. How can you spread cheer today? How can you offer hope? How can you let someone know that they are noticed? Who can you tell that you love them today? There might be someone that needs it, but they might not look like it. Love people. We all need it.

When it hits you in the face

One of the people I was flabbergasted to listen to at Catalyst was Katie Davis. You can learn about her organization at www.amazima.org. She is now 23 years old and the adoptive mother of 14 Ugandan girls. You read that right. 14...FOURTEEN. Yes, she is 23. She adopted her first 3 girls when she was 20. She lives in Uganda and runs an organization that helps over 400 orphans. She beams with the light of Christ.

Do you have listen to someone talk or meet someone and think to yourself, "Man, I think I love Jesus, but do I love Him as much as them?" Katie makes you feel that way. But she inspires you. In her book, Kisses from Katie, she has a quote:

"Some call it courage, others call it foolish. I call it
faith. I choose to get out of the boat."

That's it. That is what faith is all about. Getting out of the boat. That's what this relationship with Jesus is all about. For Katie, that was moving to Uganda and adopting 14 girls. For you, it may mean being a foster parent or adopting one child. It may mean volunteering at your church or school. It may mean starting to tithe, as in, actually giving 10% of your income to God's Church. It may mean taking the first step to mend a fractured relationship. It may mean going back to school. And when you step out of the boat in faith, doing what God is calling you to do, there will be some people who will call it foolish. They are the voices of the world. Some of them might even be family and friends. They are not the voices of God. They are voices that the enemy is using to try and deceive you. There will be some who will slap you on the back and call you a hero. Don't listen to them either...because this isn't about you. Listen to the still, small voice in your heart. The voice of God. The Holy Spirit. He says step out in faith. He says get out of the boat, just like the Apostle Peter stepped out to walk on the water toward Jesus. He says to believe. Do it for that reason and that reason alone. Then you'll find your purpose. Katie has found her spot in the world. What's yours?