Bad Eggs (Easter - Day 7)

In order to talk about joy, I have to talk about food poisoning in Costa Rica. I was there about six years ago working in a small village in the mountains near San Jose. Each morning the "village mom" would gather all of us together in the cocina, and she would spread out bowls of rice, beans, and eggs. This is mostly what we ate in our time there, so it was no surprise. It was toward the end of the trip, and we were planning on spending the last four days on the beach of Playa Hermosa. The night before we left though, I spent half the time kneeling at the toilet and the other half sitting on it. I had some bad eggs. 

I couldn't keep anything down. The ride to the beach, which lasted about three hours, was miserable. We were driving through thick rain forests and crossing over bridges that went over crocodile-filled waters, and I was in the back seat anxiously waiting for the ride to end. My condition kept me from experiencing the scenery and the new world around me. 

When we finally arrived to our destination, went straight to the bed. We were staying in a small bungalow, and I literally laid in bed for the first three days, leaving one day to actually enjoy the beach we were at. 

When my sickness went away, I couldn't wait to get outside. What I saw was breathtaking. There were lazy iguanas crawling everywhere. There were parrots flying overhead. The sand on the beaches was black. The waves were incredibly powerful. The temperature was about 75 degrees. The joy I felt when I stepped from the darkness of the bungalow into the sunshine and scenery outside was indescribable. No one could have robbed the joy that occurred right then. 

Then, there's this other kind of joy. It's like the pounding, intimidating waves on that beach in Costa Rica. 

As an alcoholic, there's always the possibility that I could take another drink, and another one, and another one. This "illness" is part of me. There's always this part of me that's susceptible to possibility that if I don't take care of myself, the alcohol will take care of me. What once led me to stints in jail, broken relationships, peeing on furniture, and self-hatred, has been quieted and treated. But, there is no cure. That's the problem and the solution. While the alcoholism is still there, it hasn't manifested itself through the physical act of taking a drink in the last three years. However, it is always waiting and watching. 

So, there are measures I have to take to prevent myself from getting into "stinking thinking." I pray, spend time with God, make amends when I harm other people, and pay attention to when I'm resentful, selfish, dishonest, and self-seeking. The treatment for my alcoholism is solely dependent on a power greater than myself giving me the strength to keep, going, on. Every day is a routine of waking up, doing this, praying, looking over yesterday and highlighting any areas of my day that I need to improve on today, trying my best to keep my eyes open for opportunities to be of service to the people around me, making amends quickly if I cause any harm, and working with other alcoholics. 

While the threat of alcohol is the same as it's ever been, there is a deep, flowing river inside of me called joy. Although my mind is constantly trying to get away with murder, my heart is constantly trying to run the show, there is a joy deep inside that comes from a source of life outside of me. 

Sometimes joy looks like a balloon filled sky, and other times it looks like a twelve foot storm surge. What Jesus says in the passage today is that he's going to leave, and the disciples are going to be really depressed. Then he says he'll come back, and they'll be full of joy. The problem is, they've been walking with him all this time, and they are just now believing what he is saying about his relationship with God. Sixteen chapters into the book of John, and they are just now believing. 

Jesus tells them to fix their minds on this: pray to the Father in relation to what Jesus revealed to them in his life. Then, everything they ask for will be given to them. A little later, the disciples say, "We finally believe!" But Jesus responds, "Do you? The fact is that in a little while you will make a run for it to save your own skin and abandon me."

I believe that the disciples weren't experiencing the joy that Jesus talks about in this passage. It would come later. Jesus is talking about a joy that pervades circumstance. It's a deep, acknowledged feeling that no matter what's going on around me, no matter how tragic, hard, or unbelievable it is, everything is okay. He says that no one can rob this kind of joy.

When we tap into the source of power that we call Jesus, and believe that it can and will do things for us that we can't do for ourselves, and it happens, we start experiencing this new sensation comparative of both rushing water and lasting peace. We have this inner understanding that we can't actually control the situations around us or the people, but at the same time are willing to do whatever our own parts look like in the process. We are willing to do things we've never done before, like soaring in a swing one thousand feet over the Royal Gorge. 

We're willing to love people with problems we have no idea how to solve. We're willing to answer phone calls that don't go anywhere, and have coffee with people who tell us we're wrong. We're willing to wake up and show up to the job that just doesn't seem to fit our passions, and find a purpose still. We're able to give money to the homeless and needy, knowing that mathematically it looks pretty foolish. We're able to step outside and pray when inside is full of chaos. We're able to step back inside and not be swept away by the chaos, but be perfectly at peace. 

We're able to look in the eye of someone who is at the end of their rope, knowing that our next couple words could make or break this person's life, and tell the truth even if it makes them want to kill themselves. We're able to make friends out of anybody including our enemies. We're able to advocate for people who have no voice, and ask for help when we have no voice of our own. We're able to spend time with our ailing friends and family members, knowing that although there's nothing we can do, there is a source of power who can, and is, and will.

When we tap into this source of power we call Jesus, we are swept away with a new perspective on pain, suffering, and things that used to make no sense at all. We find that we were loved all along. We find we were forgiven all along. We find that we were worth it all along. We find that nothing is impossible with this power called Jesus. 

Silent Exposition (Easter - Day 6)

Jesus tells his disciples that rough times are ahead. People are going to try to kill them, and people will kill them. He says that they will do this because they will think they are doing God a favor. And then, he talks about the Friend. 

Jesus says the Friend will come when Jesus leaves the scene, when he leaves the earth. Jesus describes this group of folks who are going to kill off his disciples as the "godless world." In essence with his views on nonviolent resistance, the Friend will come to assist the disciples in dealing with the godless world by:

• exposing the error in their view of sin
• exposing the error in their view of righteousness
• exposing the error in their view of judgment
• showing them that their refusal to believe in Jesus was their basic sin
• showing them that righteousness comes from above
• showing them that righteousness is out of their sight and control
• showing them that judgment takes place when their "ruler" (the principle of evil, aka Satan) is brought to trial and convicted
• taking the disciples by the hand
• guiding the disciples into all the truth there is
• being a mediator between the disciples and God

I was talking to my next door neighbor last night about how his new job was going. He wasn't doing too well. He was talking about how his supervisor has a big head and is lazy. He talks to my neighbor  like he's ignorant and doesn't know how to work. Essentially, my neighbor feels like he's being taken advantage of, because while he's out working his boss is in the truck sleeping. He has evidence too because he's been taking pictures on his I-Phone and recording conversations for backup. 

He was telling me these things, and I told him that this can't last long because he will be exposed for who he really is eventually, and that sometimes we just have to "eat crow" until something different happens. 

Maybe we aren't running from people who are trying to kill us like what was eventually going to happen to Christians in the time of the Roman Empire, but isn't there this since that we are being seriously mistaken by a majority of the world?

One of the bravest things I think we can do as humans is to share our most intimate beliefs with someone who has made it clear that they know how God works. We share, and then we're laughed at, or told that we're wrong. Jesus says that our job is not to expose errors in other people's belief systems, even if they're at the point of burning us at the stake, or, writing long, drawn out Facebook notes about why we are wrong about God and judgment.

Jesus calls the Friend the spirt of truth. Other people call this "inside knowledge" the human spirit, or the soul, or intuition. It's this guiding force inside of us that is prompting us to seek truth, and letting us know that everything is going to be okay, and revealing things to us that we just can't put into words. Three things that Jesus says about the "godless world" are: they will kill, they are erred in their views on sin, judgment, and righteousness, and they think they create righteousness.

The spirit, or friend, or human spirit, or soul, guides us and shows us what to do in circumstances where it just feels like we are not getting anywhere. When it feels like our beliefs are on the fringes of the mainstream, or discounted by other people, or flat out disregarded and rejected by people, that small still voice inside comforts us and continues leading us where we're supposed to go. The spirit communicates with each of us in unique, autonomous ways. We can't generalize these things. 

The problem of the "godless world (or, the ones who seek to kill the disciples)" is they snuff out the spirit and take it on themselves to determine who's right and who's wrong. They think they're doing God a favor, but are only stroking their own egos and quieting anyone who disagrees. Does any of this sound familiar at all? 

Our job is to let the spirit lead. I think it's safe to say that if we are trying to snuff out the voices of disagreement around us, we are probably not following the lead of our soul but rather the lead of our offended-ness. When we put big, substantial words like sin, righteousness, and judgment into a box and label them, we are headed for trouble. When we think that we have a copyright on what these things mean and convey our definitions of them as infallible, we are headed for trouble.

Part of being open-minded is following the spirit in the formation of truth in our own lives. Being open-minded enough to listen to someone else's claims, even when they claim them as undeniably true, is one of the characteristics of someone who follows the rhythm of the spirit. Deep inside, they know there is error in all of our belief systems, and that fighting and seeking revenge over disagreements is futile. Instead, they let the spirit expose the errors and learn from them. 

Today's Action: Share our beliefs with someone today, but keep it in first person. Have the other person share their beliefs. Do we find ourselves trying to "expose their errors," or are we letting the spirit do the exposing?

Another (Easter - Day 5)

The scriptures say that Jesus was hated by the world of the religious leaders and Roman officials for the radical things he said and did. In a dialogue with the disciples in John 15, he tells them that the same will happen to them if they follow him. He starts with the command "love one another as I have loved you." He finishes with, "and you will be hated for it."

When I look back over my life, I can't recall times I was hated for loving people. If anything, I've done things not out of love that cause people to retaliate against me. I can't say that I've ever been purely hated solely on the  basis of what I believe or the way I love though.

There was this one time where my buddy Ricky and I got the crazy idea to go stand on an intersection in Houston "flying signs." We had just read a book that had turned a lot of heads at the time due to its countercultural concepts, and we were going to take the city by storm. So, we made a couple of cardboard signs. Mine said "Jesus was homeless." I don't remember what Ricky's said. We had a bunch of donated Bibles sitting in the garage, so we took them along in the hopes of passing them out at this intersection. 

We found a nice spot to loiter for awhile, and there was heavy traffic. There was a bucket sitting in the grass, so we took turns sitting while the other passed out Bibles to the drivers waiting for the light to turn green. I remember one driver seeing my sign and yelling out the window, "Don't be shittin' on Jesus!" Another driver flipped  the bird at us. All in all, Ricky and I gave away many of the Bibles and walked away with the sense that we had just experienced "persecution."

This was the closest I'd ever come, but it was manufactured. We created our own sense of persecution, and rightfully so. 

I used to have this idea in my head that if I wasn't being hated or persecuted by the "world," then I was doing something wrong. I would bang my head against the wall trying to figure out ways to live radically, so that the "godless world" would notice and rise up against me. I did things like send out a mass email to a megachurch, explaining how they were spending their money on "building campaigns instead of opening their eyes to the world around them." I would use this blog to create controversy amongst people who believed differently than I did, and provoke my "unbelieving audience" to send frustrated comments under my posts so that everyone could see how I must be doing something right if all these people are sending angry comments to me.

For some reason, I just don't think this is what Jesus meant by "the world hated me." I don't believe he went around trying to provoke people to retaliate. He didn't love so he could be hated. He loved and therefore was hated.

It's safe to say that there are not religious leaders walking around scrutinizing what Jesus followers are doing today. There may be controversy every once in awhile, but they are not ready to arrest anyone who they consider heretical. There are authors and artists, preachers and musicians who are spreading a message of love and grace currently who are considered as heretics for "watering down the gospel," but the most that's used against them is social ostracism and attacks on Facebook. 

The point that I'm trying to get at is this: Just because we're not hated for practicing a radical form of love doesn't mean we're not doing it right. I can't guarantee that in China or Iran this would hold true, but in America there isn't much hate toward Christianity. If anything, the hate speech in America is directed toward Islam, but that's another story. 

What I have experienced in loving the way I believe Christ loved the people around him is, social tension. There was a time when I was a hiring manager at my old company, and one of the applicants was very poor. He didn't have a ride, so I volunteered to go pick him up in the company truck on company time. He was a black man and was in desperate need for a job, so I thought he deserved at least an interview. He didn't end up getting the job, but there was definitely a tension going on. I knew he wasn't the "average" applicant, and he would probably be looked at with scrutiny, but I believed Jesus would have done the same thing.

There was this other time when a guy I knew who had some major issues going on didn't have a place to live. Due to the nature of his problems, I couldn't let him stay at my apartment, because I had two other roommates, and I had to be honest about what he was dealing with at the time. My roommates graciously gave us two days to figure out what to do next. The problem was, no one was willing to take on the guy and his problems. For one week, we bounced around from one apartment to another, trying to figure out where to go or what to do. I believed that Jesus would have loved him regardless of how bad his issues were at the time, so I believed that I should as well. The tension was created when we would enter other peoples' comfort zones. We finally agreed that the best place to go would be the Star of Hope mission in Houston. He would get the kind of help that I couldn't offer. 

Love is a choice. It's a choice because, it's already inside of us and we get to choose how and when we let it out of its cage. Jesus says that when we love, we are loving God. God is love. Love is God. Whenever we take part in loving someone or receiving love, we are essentially tapping into the source of energy and life that connects all of us together. When we tap out of loving other people, we disconnect from the heartbeat of humanity, the source of life which connects us. 

Jesus says to love one another. The "another" is whoever crosses our path today. Whether it's family, a stranger, a customer, a boss, or a hurting friend, we love. Love does not get offended, and sometimes it's an investment that gets no return. My job is to learn how to not get offended, if I'm having a hard time loving someone. It's not my job to try to manipulate them to do what I want. That's not love, but revenge. Radical love, in my opinion, is seeing through other peoples' mistakes, history, baggage, and flaws, not getting offended, listening more and preaching way less. 

Today's Action: What is one thing we can do for the people at work today? How are we going to be open to the "interruptions" of people today? Do we have a plan? Lets enact it before we leave the house this morning, and love in a way that spurs on the people around us to tap into the source that "loved us first."

God Doesn't Kill Trees (Easter - Day 4)

When I was in Colorado recently, I wanted to build a fire. So, I trekked through the snow on the property looking for logs and branches to construct my A-frame. Since all the trees were mostly frozen, it was hard to tell which ones had life in them and which ones were dead. The ones that broke off easily were the ones I leaned up against the stack of wood, and the rest were not easy to break off. Although they were seemingly dead because of the winter frost, they were very sturdy and not easy to bend. After a couple hours of traveling back and forth from the fire pit to various places on the property, my construction was finished. It was time for a fire. 

The only problem was, the owner had left a note saying "Absolutely no campfires!" Damn.

I stood pondering what "absolutely no campfires" really meant. Maybe he meant no ground fires. Maybe he meant to have a fire, but to clean it up really well afterwards making it look like there never was a fire. Or, maybe he meant no fires.

I walked away discouraged after all the work I had put into building this awesome fire, while the branches and logs I had gathered sat waiting for a flame. 

When Jesus talks about us, he talks about things like branches, vines, pruning, cutting, gardeners, and fires. He says that he's the vine. His father is the gardener. We are the branches. As branches, we are connected to the vine. The gardener does the work of maintaining the vine and the branches. Depending on the amount of fruit that is bearing, the gardener can prune back or completely cut the branch back, starting it over. In order to go further, I need to explain the differences between cutting, pruning, and topping.

At the house I grew up in, there was a huge live oak tree that had branches covering the whole yard. We climbed it all the time as kids, and its shade provided many days of playing and killing slugs. 

I drove back years later to look at my old house, and to my disarray, the tree was lifeless. It was dead. The new owners had topped the tree. Every single branch had been chopped at the joint. There were no leaves, no greenery left. The tree had starved to death, and now was just waiting for someone to take it out of its misery.

Then, there rose bushes. In order for rose bushes to flourish and roses to bloom in abundance, careful pruning and cutting needs to happen. The idea is to take a look at the bush every year, or maybe twice a year, and observe which branches are bearing fruit and which ones aren't. The ones that are bearing roses, need to be pruned - meaning, slightly cut back where the branch meets the stem. If a branch is not bearing any roses, the whole branch gets cut off at the joint. In this scenario, all that's left is the stump at the intersection of the former branch and the stalk of the bush. The branch must start over, feeding off the nutrients coming from the rest of the bush. Eventually, it will bear fruit.

With all this said, I would like to give my interpretation of what Jesus is telling us in this passage. We are the branches connected to him, the source of life. God is the gardener, observing, watching, and reaching into us to prune those of us who are bearing fruit. If we're bearing fruit, he wants us to bear more fruit. If we're not bearing fruit, he cuts us back to the joint, starts us over, knowing that with the rest of the vine and branches alive and well we can feed off their nutrients. What I don't believe God does is "top" the tree. He doesn't haphazardly whack off random branches, leaving the tree to starve to death. Just as a rose gardener, he takes careful consideration in where he prunes, where he cuts, and how he feeds the whole tree. 

To the naked eye, a tree that has some branches bearing fruit and greenery and others that are stumpy and stunted, looks weird. Trees like this look out of sorts and funky-looking. While some branches are growing beautiful flowers, others are looking like they need some help. At the same time, they are all sustaining off each other, and all the branches no matter which state they're in are sustaining off the vine, or trunk.

Just like the different stages of cutting and pruning, we go through seasons in which we are full of joy, and can't seem to string together bad days even if we tried. We are producing fruit in abundance. We are happy, and people actually seek our company because they want a little of what we got going on. Have you ever felt the sensation that things were so good in your life that other people sought your company or advice? 

Then, there are those other times. Sadness and depression can't seem to leave. When it rains, it pours. One thing after another. We don't know where the end is. It just seems like nothing is working and everything is falling apart, leaf by leaf. The people who were seeking our help are now doing great, and we're actually going to them for help now. Has someone you have helped in your life ever got on their feet and then helped you when you weren't doing so hot?

Jesus is saying that regardless of how many times we get pruned back or cut back, the source of life remains. We may have to start from the beginning and we may experience amazing growth, but the source of life still remains. God doesn't kill trees.

The source of life we are connected to is a love that just doesn't go away. Although we don't feel loved or we feel loved all the time, the love is like nutrients and water pumping through our veins, creating cells for growth so that we can grow greener and more fruitful. 

The fact of life is this. Branches sustain off of their sources of life - the vine or trunk or root. We sustain off the love of God. God's love pumps through our veins and promotes life, and joy, and growth. Sometimes, though the process is still working, we don't produce the kind of fruit that we could. So, we start back over. 

Have you ever heard someone talk about how they started their life over, or got a new life? Have you ever heard a story of someone spending a few years on top of the world, and then through a series of events, their world comes toppling down, only to be built back up over the next decade? 

We are connected to Jesus who is constantly pumping love, joy, contentment, and freedom into our veins. We go through seasons where we produce an amazing amount of fruit, and others where we just need to start over. The Gardener knows what's going to make us grow the best, so we don't have to worry about being carelessly cut off and mistreated. Our best interests and the interests of the whole tree are being watched out for, and we can trust the Gardener. 

Today's Action: Pay attention to the ways in which we are being pruned or cut back today. Pay attention to how well we are sustaining off the other "branches" and the "vine." What stage are we in? Are we trusting the Gardener to do the work?

Chubby Bunnies

After the sermon my kids got the idea that kids rule and they wanted "More More More!"... so on the way home from the Easter service Kaley says, for the umpteenth time, "Let's buy peeps and do 'Chubby Bunny'!"

She had me cornered.  How could I say no?  Stuffing your mouth full of peeps until you can no longer say, "Chubby Bunny" - how could I take the fun away - deny the request?

She knew the timing was right.  It tied in with fun, kids, giddy new life - church.  Jesus would have done 'Chubby Bunny'.  Deny Chubby Bunny and you have denied Me.

I thought, "There's something to say about stained glass, holiness and crotchety middle-aged people that have to do all the work while the kids and senile old people have all the fun.  It's time for some locusts, a hot sun, the desert, dirty feet, sweat, parched mouth, ragged clothes and scorpions."

Compelled (Easter - Day 3)

While I was in the computer lab yesterday, I was reading through a "scholarly journal" of a critique of one of my favorite authors. The author of the journal and the author of the book he was critiquing are both Christians. As I read, the critic used passage after passage of scripture to disclaim the book and the author's beliefs. The journal took every one of the author's statements, and dissected them one by one. The journal was proving that the author was a heretic. I shook my head as I read it, wondering, Is this really what's important?

Heretic, as defined by Merriam-Webster's Online dictionary, is a "dissenter from established religious dogma. As I continued reading about the book that I had read myself, I eventually thought, This guy's absolutely right. The book is heretical.  

The thought that their are men sitting in religious think tanks around the globe, with their Bibles out, drinking champagne, and disproving and disclaiming the heretics around the world at first infuriates me, but subtly intrigues me. I hate the tension but I love it all the same. I would hate to think that everyone believed the same thing, and that everyone who read the Bible came away with the same interpretation. 

The Jesus I believe in was a heretic himself.

The Jesus I read about in scriptures was a dissenter from the established religious dogma. Yet, he still managed to make room for his critics. He still shared meals with those who would eventually kill him for being the heretic that he was.

In today's passage, Jesus tells his disciples that he's about to leave them but that someone will be taking his place - the Spirit. One of his disciples asks him a very valid question, one that I ask constantly: Why are you only revealing your spirit to us, and not the whole world?  Jesus answers with a profound statement: Because a loveless world is a sightless world.

There's a guy I know who has a world of problems. He's physically handicapped and emotionally co-dependent. He's so needy that he brings the people around him down, including myself. There are points at which I want to throw in the towel and say, I'm done! Find your own way and leave me alone!  It's in these moments that I find myself blinded. I can't see anything good or beneficial in this person, and it makes me want to give up. I'm void of love, and full of intolerance. 

Jesus says that the Spirit is connected with love and sight. 

Have you ever walked down the streets of Houston or some other city, and felt compelled to randomly talk to somebody, or give a homeless person money, or take a homeless person out to dinner? Have you ever found yourself taking on the grief of another person in a way that actually internalized inside of you? Have you ever seen or heard something that compelled you to speak or act in some way because it did something inside of you? 

Jesus tells his disciples he's leaving, but that he's leaving a friend behind. This idea of leaving a spirit behind has been handed down over centuries. Sometimes, when we hear of people who have seen a mom or dad pass away, they say things like "she's watching me, his spirit is still with us, I can still sense that she's here." The idea that Jesus would leave his spirit behind isn't an idea that should alarm us. We talk this way all the time.

So what does he say about this Friend? He says that it: makes everything plain to us and reminds us of all the things Jesus has told us. 

When I think about my grandmother who passed away, I sometimes wonder about what she's doing right now. But most of the time, I think about what she taught me when she was hear. 

When Jesus was here, he did things that were completely heretical. He ate with prostitutes (against religious law), he healed people on the sabbath (against religious law), he touched lepers (against religious law), he spent his time with people who were not religious as well as people who were extremely religious. Whether he was teaching in the temple or attending a wedding feast, there was one common thread running through everything he did - love.

When I say Spirit, I'm talking about that "thing" inside of us that compels us, drives us to do things that are spontaneously loving and compassionate. It's this thing inside us that reminds us of the legacy left behind of love ones, and the lessons they taught us about life. 

The Spirit is present all the time, but our "seeing" depends on our "loving." When we love, we see a world that is more than meets the eye. We see below the surface. We see things like joy and pain, struggle and victory. We see a hurting world and a world that's being restored all at the same time. We see a part to play. 

Today's Action: Pay attention to the "random" ideas that come into our heads today that have to do with loving other people. Follow through with them. At the end of the day, reflect. A prayer that may help in this process is: "God, let me see with my heart today and not just my eyes."

Papal (Easter - Day 2)

Last night after church, I decided to go to a certain Starbucks to work on my paper. I was planning on going to one near my house, but my girlfriend convinced me to go to a different one because it stayed open longer. I had forty-five dollars in my pocket, and my phone was dead.

As I was retrieving my coffee, I looked through the front door and saw an old friend walking up. When I saw him, I realized that I had arranged to meet him at that Starbucks at 7:30. The reason I was meeting him was to make amends. I had borrowed $40 from him nearly eight years ago, and had never paid him back. 

I had completely forgotten about this meeting, and I would have gone to a different Starbucks were it not for someone convincing me to come to this one. My phone was dead, so he would have had no way to contact me if I didn't show up to this specific Starbucks. I happened to have forty-five dollars in my pocket from a housesitting gig I did over the weekend. When I handed him the cash, I asked him if he remembered what it was for. He vaguely remembered something about bills from eight years ago, and I told him how I had avoided him back when he kept asking me for the money I owed him. We caught up on each other's lives and smoked some cigarettes. It turned out we were both in recovery from alcohol. And, it turned out that a drunk woman would get dropped off at the Starbucks we were sitting in as we talked about our sobriety. We offered the woman a ride home, but her friend had called the police and they ended up giving her a ride. 

I told my friend that "the stars have aligned" for us to be here tonight. It's moments like these that give me a glimpse of the invisible God who is working for us. 

I talked with my friend about how I nearly feel hopeless about the possibilities of the message of Jesus being reclaimed by the Christian religion. It seems like the message has been turned into such an exclusive membership that people are just put off when it comes to Jesus, God, Christianity. I've been thinking, though, about the Pope. He's been doing things that are not normal for a pope.

Recently, he washed the feet prisoners and invited Christians and non-Christians to take Communion. He declined from staying in the mansion designated specifically for the papacy, and has chosen to live in the guest house. In my opinion, he's using his platform to reclaim the message of Christ, and it's causing heads to turn and questions to be asked. He's doing things that haven't been done in centuries. The last two popes to actually wash peoples' feet were the first two. That was a very long time ago. 

If there's anything I want to convey through this simple form of messaging it's this: God is for all of us. 

Jesus says that he is in the Father and the Father is in Jesus. He says that when we see himself, we see God. When we see God, we see Jesus. God is love. Love is God. 

Jesus was speaking to a crowd face to face. He was standing next to them. They could actually see him. He was literally saying, "As you look at me right now, you are witnessing God." 

Obviously, we can't see Jesus today, so we can't see God. But, Jesus also says that what we believe about him confirms what we believe about God. He says that no one can know God apart from himself, which makes sense. I don't know God because I don't know Jesus. I don't have the ability to call Jesus on the phone to see if he wants to go eat at Rudy's today. But, I believe in Jesus and I believe in God.

All I've really got to stand on is a faith that tells me that God is inclusive. The way I build on this faith is by reading the scriptures and practicing them. Relying on the media to build my faith would most definitely cause me to construct a faith around a God who is exclusive. Towards the end of chapter fourteen in John, Jesus says that "anything you request that's along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, will be given to you."

This passage has been taken out of context in many ways and been manipulated into, "Ask and I'll give you anything." Jesus says specifically how to ask. Request things that are in line with who he claims he is. Request things that are in line with what he claims he is doing. Then, they will be given to us.

The only way to find out who he claims he is or what he's done, is to read the scriptures. Otherwise, it's a cat-and-mouse formula game. It's a shot in the dark. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. Jesus gives us the opportunity to experience something mystical and tangible at the same time. He invites us to request, and says that it will be given. There are parameters though. In order to receive what we ask for, he is saying our requests need to be in line with who he is and what he does.

So, what he is not saying is to pray like this: God, please show Tommy that he's wrong; God, please help me not get in trouble for not paying my taxes; or, like the one I've been praying recently, God, please the cops away from me with this headlight out. 

We're told throughout the scriptures who Jesus is. He's a healer of the sick. He's a friend of the poor. He's a washer of feet. He's an advocate for the people nobody likes. He's God in the flesh. He calls us his brothers and sisters. He calls himself the head of the church. 

We're also told what he does. He sets the lame to walk again. He restores sight to the blind. He restores the dignity of prostitutes. He hangs out with tax collectors and drunks. He eats with the poor. He constantly turns the heads of the religious community. He's very much sacrilegious. 

When we become more in line with who Jesus is and what he does, we begin to pray like Jesus does. Things like new jobs and cars, vacations, and 401(k)s - though they are necessary - aren't what I believe Jesus had in mind when he invited us to request things "along the lines of who he is and what he does." 

Maybe prayers like these are what he was talking about: Jesus, please help my mom get through her chemotherapy; Please help Bobby get off the streets; Please help Amber get to A.A.; Please help me show tolerance and grace to Stephen; Please give me an opportunity to give to someone in need today.

When we begin living in the way that Jesus did, our prayers take on new meaning. They start to center around who Jesus claims he is, and what Jesus does, the invisible meets the tangible. Heaven meets earth. The imagination intersects reality. 

In closing, I want to say something very important and inclusive. Prayer is not designed to be religious. It's not designed to be a slot machine token. Everyone is invited to test what Jesus says, regardless of belief or background. It's not the person praying that makes the difference. It's not the doctrine, dogma, belief system, or history that matters. It's the content. Anyone and everyone has open communication with the God we can't see but who uses real things and real people to get our attention. 

Today's Action: Along the lines of who Jesus claims he is, or what we're told he did in the scriptures, pray for someone or something today. Pay attention to see if any opportunities to play an active part show up. See what happens!