“We have to be the people we want everyone else to be.” (see yesterday’s Catch)
We could spend weeks on this, but given the current climate, at least a few days would be good. John sent us an arresting video of Michael Jackson’s song “Man in the Mirror,” a song that says the same thing. We are the only ones who can make the changes in the world that we want to live in, and it starts there. It starts with us.
Dr. Brooks and Mr. Trump
I had a splendid interview on BlogTalkRadio last night with Doug Stevens about loving our enemies. Tolerating our enemies is not a high enough standard. Jesus wants us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute (say evil against) us. This discussion was spurred on by a talk on loving our enemies that Dr. Arthur Brooks, a professor at Harvard and the president of a conservative think tank, gave at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., two weeks ago. Dr. Brooks is not a theologian, but in his own words is “a Catholic whose personal savior is Jesus.”
Proud Papa.
Guest writer for the Catch today is Doug Stevens. Doug served many years as Senior Pastor of Hillside Covenant Church in Walnut Creek, California. He was Executive Director of The Renewal Project and The Leadership Connection and has most recently served as Transitional Pastor to five different churches where he specializes in congregational healing and rebuilding. His latest book, Christ Incognito: Imagining, Encountering, Embracing and Embodying His Love, came out in December. Doug lives with his wife, Nancy, in Austin Texas. Doug will also be our guest on BlogTalkRadio tonight at 4:30-5:00 pm Pacific. You can listen live at that time, and call in if you wish, or listen any time thereafter as a podcast at the same address. We will be discussing more on the topic of loving our enemies.
President Trump and House Speaker Pelosi both spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast two weeks ago, but the keynote address was delivered by Dr. Arthur Brooks, a Harvard professor and best-selling author. With all the tension in the room and conflict in the country, his bold biblical message is worth taking in.
In honor of Presidents’ Day, I thought I would share a quote from one of our greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln, that might speak into the place we find ourselves today in this country. While searching, I found out that the principles drawn from the word of God were always relevant to today, only because they are relevant to every day, to every culture and to every person.
The following quote was taken from an address Lincoln gave in Lewiston, Illinois on August 17, 1858.
Don’t you love those little heart-shaped candies with the messages stamped on them? That’s truly Valentine’s Day to me. Remember going through them and trying to find the right message for someone special? If God dropped some candies on us, this is what you might find.
Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples … and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. Matthew 28:19-20
And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. 2 Timothy 2:2
Jesus told his disciples to make disciples. He didn’t tell them to make believers, or converts, or even Christians, but to make disciples like themselves. Disciples are much more committed than believers, or converts, or those who “pray the prayer,” or those who fold over the little corner of the registration card indicating they have accepted Christ as their personal savior. A disciple doesn’t just have a foot in the door; a disciple is all in. Look at the twelve — they left everything behind to follow Christ. They left their families, their jobs, their future plans and went with Jesus for three years. And during that time Jesus taught them. He taught them separately; He taught them in groups; He taught the crowds with them next to Him and then explained to them later, privately, about the more difficult things He said. He taught them while they walked along the countryside. He taught them in boats, in houses, on the shore, on the mountain, in the city, in the temple. I doubt there was ever a time when He was not teaching them. He didn’t teach them in a seminar, or a weekend retreat, or an 8-week course, or a semester class, He taught them in life, and class was always in session.
If you had been somehow able to view from outside the bathroom window, the conversation I once had with my wife, (why is it that all meaningful conversations in my house happen in the bathroom or the kitchen?) you would have wondered what that crazy woman was doing bouncing back and forth, hopping first on one foot, then the other, and at twelve midnight no less. What she was trying to do was have me grasp the significance of what she calls “Forgiveness now!” or if that doesn’t capture it, maybe “You can’t outrun your forgiveness” will help.
How do you talk about or illustrate what happens in the ever present now? Marti’s attempt was to hop from one “now” to the immediate next “now” by going “Ooops, I blew it” (hop) “forgiven”… “Ooops” (hop) “forgiven”… “Ooops” (hop) “forgiven”… “Ooops” (hop) “forgiven”…. Etc., etc.. Her point was to get me off contemplation and into action. God’s promises are to be entered into, not studied and analyzed. Forgiveness is something we live, not just talk about.
There’s another saying on the wall of my kitchen; this one simply is “Laugh uncontrollably.” How long has it been since you laughed like this? One man that could elicit uncontrollable laughter is sadly no longer with us. It’s been five years and six months to the day since Robin Williams left us. Today I offer to you the Catch I wrote and the video I made the day after his death. Reading it again, it captured me, and I thought I would share it with you. We forget too fast. There are things he taught us that with his films and recordings, he is still teaching. I offer this reminder because the one thing he did so well is something we all need to do better.
Today, the world mourns the death of its funniest man, who, in the end, couldn’t find that last laugh that might have prevented him from taking his own life. He assumed so many personalities except the one he needed the most — himself. He was uncomfortable in his own shoes, so he got used to everyone else’s, and for that reason, he had a huge amount of compassion for people from all walks of life, in all situations. No one could stand in someone else’s shoes better than Robin Williams.
We have a sign in our kitchen that reads, among other short pieces of advice like “Forgive quickly” — “Never regret anything that made you smile.” I’m going to shorten that to just, “Never regret anything. Period.”
With the country split in half and everyone getting meaner, what an opportunity for grace turned outward! We are offering the anti-thesis to everything brewing in society. Wherever you are, from the mail room to the executive offices, you are in a position to make a difference. Whenever you engage with anybody, from neighbors to clerks, to delivery drivers, you have an opportunity to stand out simply because of what has happened to you.
John Fischer The Catch 