We Are Not of This World

Ten years ago it was my 14^th birthday. Birthdays are supposed to be fun and exciting, especially when you’re fourteen and living in Iowa. Here’s what was supposed to happen: I would get my driver’s permit, eat lots of yummy food, drive home, and have a great time with my family. What actually happened was this: I didn't study for the test, failed it, disappointed multiple people, cried a ton, and that’s all I remember. Because I was so focused on one thing going right, I had forgotten that I probably still had great food and fun times with my family that day, but it was ruined because one thing didn't go my way. What was supposed to happen, didn't actually happen.

Another example of what is supposed to happen in our lives is life itself. As a man living in Iowa, I’m supposed to get married when I’m 26, have kids at 30, have a mid-life crisis around the age of 40, have grandkids at 55, and die when I’m 78 years old. What’s actually happening is that I’m nowhere near marriage. So yes, it’s frustrating since I’m feeling pressure from the world around me as well as myself to have and to hold someone known to lots of people as a “girlfriend,” but that’s the way it actually is right now. And according to life’s rules, I’m a failure.

Sometimes I feel like a failure when events that are supposed to happen and the events that actual happen don’t match up with each other. We can’t predict the future; we can only dream and speculate about what might happen. Making the game winning shot; passing the hardest test ever; and finally being smarter than your father are just some of the future events that we dream about quite a bit. And that’s what ultimately makes us feel like a failure; when our wishes and prayers and thoughts of what might happen don’t actually happen.

We do this all the time. We fantasize about future events because it’s optimistic, dream-like, and, most importantly, not in the present moment. The future is always bright, no matter where you’re at. Even if we think our future is bleak, we still try to make our future not as bleak as it seems.

We are also not the first ones to be optimistic about our future. Think about Adam and Eve. Picture them in the Garden of Eden, living life with God by their side. But once the Tree of Good and Evil was presented to them, they were amazed. A tree bearing fruit containing the wisdom of God! What could we be able to do with all of that knowledge?

Think about it. Picture yourself in their shoes. What could we do with the knowledge of everything God has ever known? We might be able to do anything we want, knowing that truth and goodness will always prevail. Maybe there would be an eternal Garden of Eden that’s better than the current garden. Maybe crops would grow exactly when and where we want them to grow. Maybe I could find a girlfriend – one that actually likes me!

The serpent was right in trying to picture a bright future for Adam and Eve in their heads.

Genesis 3:5 – For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Once that positive thought of the future entered their minds, nothing else mattered. Everything was done to make sure that whatever was supposed to happen, actually happens.

Adam and Eve were supposed to live like God, thinking and acting like Him. They would be equals to God once they bit into the apple. But in actuality, God banished them from the garden, and made their lives miserable. They thought their idea was the best idea, and it backfired on them.

I sometimes think the world revolves around my ideas, since my ideas about life are the best. We also want to be in control of our ideas, and more importantly, make money off of them. We get frustrated and mad if someone stole our idea and used it for their advantage. So, we do the only thing that makes since in America – go to court and sue them. We have to take back what was rightfully ours. 

But is it yours to begin with? Our verse for the day is John 17: 6-19, but I’m going to start at verse 13. This is Jesus talking to God.

I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they [the disciples] may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them in to the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

We are not of this world. Jesus says this twice, so it must be important. We are not of this world. We’re not here to own everything. We don’t control everything and anything in our path. Because we are not of this world.

Most of the time, we try to control our future by controlling everything around us, even those that are uncontrollable. We want our futures to be so bright, and if you get in our way, we will destroy you. We haven’t looked around enough to stay in the moment, in the present tense, in the now. Instead of wondering what we will become, or what we have done in the past, we need to be. Just be. Here. Now. In the moment.

It’s alright to dream and it’s alright to think about the future. But the part where we mess up is the reaction to reality. When something doesn’t align with our dream, we get disappointed, discouraged, and ultimately feel like a failure, even though we’re already successes just by being here. On Earth, in 2015, with the people we love.

Everyone’s goals are for them, but we also need to try to align our goals with God’s goals for us. Most of the time, we’re praying to God for ourselves, for our own dreams to come true. Like a genie granting us wishes that we want.

If that’s how we treat God, and subsequently how we control other people, we will always feel like a failure at everything we do. So let’s line up our vision with God’s. And since we don’t know what God has in store for us, let us walk his narrow path instead of fighting the bigger path and placing God’s path somewhere else. That’s what Adam and Eve did. That’s what a lot of people – including me – are doing right now.

Will it be difficult? Yes. Will it seem like it’s not working most of the time? Quite a bit. But it’s a little easier to realize once we understand that we are not of this world. We are not here to control our own destiny. We are not of this world, but let’s treat earth as it is in heaven. Let God’s grace and power reign down over us, let his path shine our way, and let his Word guide us through the future as well as the present.

Besides, I believe God can pick out a better girlfriend for me than I ever could on my own. Thank God for his mercy and understanding. Hallelujah, and amen.

Love Extremist

Extreme.

This word is like so many English words. The word “extreme” looks the same, sounds the same, but can have many different meanings. Some of you might be asking yourself, “Why is a math major talking about a simple word? People who love math are supposed to hate English cause they aint got none. They would rather sit down and add a bunch of numbers.” And you’re absolutely correct. But we math people also like challenges, and I wanted to challenge myself to teach you how extreme works in our world today.

The word extreme can be viewed horizontally and vertically.

The horizontal version of the word extreme is “furthest from the center of a given point, or outermost.” Two opposing ends. Two polar opposites. We can use this as a geographical direction, like “the extreme southeast of Iowa.” Or we can use this as opposing views on the world, like:

North Pole vs. South Pole

Happy people vs. sad people

Democrats vs. Republicans

Christianity vs. other religions

Notice how extreme views aren’t “kinda far from the center of a given point” or “sorta close to the center.” No, extreme is the furthest. Now let me ask you; when was the last time you liked something extreme?

We live closer to the North Pole, but we wouldn’t dare move to the North Pole.

I’m generally a happy person, but if I had rainbows shooting out of my mouth and happy all the time, I couldn’t live with myself. Nor a Debbie Downer. Always sad and hateful and “woe is me” attitude.

When’s the last time you liked an extreme Democrat or Republican? Those people who have views so far right they like to drink tea and have a party? Or those people so far left that they have a donkey plastered on their Volkswagen hippie van?

Or when was the last time you liked a Jewish extremist? Mormon extremist? Muslim extremist? Or a Christian extremist, someone pushing you to believe in Jesus or you’ll regret it for the rest of your life?  

I’ve noticed in Iowa, as an insurance salesman, if you want to sell people something, you want to be the opposite of extreme. You don’t want to be extreme with your looks, like tattoos and body piercings. You don’t want to be extreme with your views. You better be right down the middle, or else you won’t sell anything. You will be turned away. I truly believe this, because I personally don’t want to be pushed to do anything I don’t want to do. I’m not a big fan of politics or extremely happy people or the South Pole. I’m not a fan of extremists.

But we all know a guy who is extreme not just horizontally but also vertically. His extreme, the vertical kind, was to be at the zenith, at the max, at the highest point, to the extreme. His extreme was so extreme that he was more extreme that every extremist I can imagine. I know I would have disliked him if he was roaming the United States. Some of you might have as well. But he wasn’t an extremist for abortion, or gay rights, or Democrats, Republicans, math majors, athletes, Pharisees, Pharaohs, race, gender equality, or even religion. Jesus was an extremist for love.

He was so extreme with his love that he was born in a barn. So extreme with his love that he worked as a carpenter. So extreme with his love that he sinned on the Sabbath to help people. So extreme with his love that he turned the world upside-down and inside out. Do you think people liked that? I wouldn’t be able to survive my world upside-down, let alone turning it inside out.

So for me personally, he turned my world upside-down when he yelled, in Luke 23:34

Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.

Father, forgive these humans, for they didn’t know what they were doing when they spat on me, called me names, ridiculed me, told me I was a liar and a fool, persecuted me, then was beaten and had to wear a silly crown made of thorns, then nailed to a cross, not laid gently to sleep but hammered into a wooden cross to die. There’s no way I forgive them. Not after what they did to me.

But Jesus was the opposite. Knowing full well that this was God’s intention, He forgave them. That’s how you help God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Jesus turned my world inside out when he died on the cross and came back to life – for my sins. I have always had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of dying on a cross for my sins. I’ve viewed it as “Oh, if they ask why I believe in Jesus, I better tell people that Jesus died for my sins,” along the lines of “we’ve always done it this way.” Another way I’ve viewed it is, “Oh boy, I can get away with anything, as long as I say in the end, ‘Sorry God.’”

His resurrection stopped me from thinking like that. Everyone can die, but only one man can raise up from the dead. All of his teachings, actions, and his love for others would have been wasted without his resurrection. His raising from the dead brought everything together. There’s no way I can sin anymore with Him standing by me, alive. After what Jesus went through? He did all of that, for me? That, is love.

Only the most loving people in the past, present, and future know what it’s like to sacrifice yourself for God’s plan. Only the most loving people know how to sacrifice your money to strangers, not knowing where the money will go for sure. Only the most loving people know how to sacrifice your life, for those you love, so that they can live a better life. So when he died on the cross and subsequently resurrected, he wanted me to live a better life than I already have now.

I volunteered in a food pantry in Denver a few years ago in a place called DenUM, or Denver Urban Ministries. A man stopped by, sat down next to me so I could put his information into the computer so he could receive his food for the next couple of months. Before he got up to leave, he told me the story as to how he got to that point in his life. I don’t know if it’s completely accurate, but it’s a good parable nonetheless.

He had everything. Had a great job, big house, beautiful wife, couple of kids; it was the prototypical American dream family. Except for the part of living in Iowa, right? One day his life was turned inside out. He had a stroke. There went everything; use of the left side of his body, house, job, lost his wife and his kids since they didn’t want to hassle with his recovery.

But I had forgot to mention that he gained so much more out of that. He told me that when he had the big house and fancy job, he felt empty inside. He didn’t feel like it was ever enough to have it all. Once he lost it all, he came to Jesus and found everything he needed. He felt full of joy and happiness he never felt before the stroke. Kind of reminds me of how the first Christians felt.

I like to read the stories in the New Testament after the Gospels because these people were the first to truly live like Jesus did, but as a human being instead of the Son of Man. They were the closest to being Jesus without being Jesus himself. I like to ask the question, how did they do Jesus’ extreme teachings?

Peter and Paul were thrown into prison. Stephen was stoned to death. And countless others were persecuted for their belief in Jesus. But they did it in the name of love. Even as the Romans were persecuting them, they still believed. Here in Acts 4:32-35, it states that

³² All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. ³³ With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all ³⁴ that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales ³⁵ and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

That’s not supposed to happen. That is the very definition of socialism; sharing your land, houses, and money you earned. You’re supposed keep what you have earned and acquire a bunch of material items, like cool cars and televisions and the smoking hot wife. But with love in your life, none of these things matter.

Crazy thing is, Jesus was hated for being extreme with his love. This random guy in Denver was turned away by society not just because he didn’t have a home or money to feed himself, but he had the love of Jesus in his heart. The first Christians were extremely hated for their actions, but they had love in their soul. So how can we be extreme with our love? I guess if we knew that answer, we wouldn’t have to go to church on Sundays. But I believe the question isn’t how extreme, but how to be extreme with our love without having to turn our world inside out and upside down? The reality is, we can’t. The only way to be extreme with our love is to love extremely.

I don’t have the correct answers, like a teacher has the answers to a test. But let’s find out the answers together. Let’s see how extreme we can be. Jesus made it possible for us; for the random guy in Denver; for the first Christians; and for the rest of the world; to be extreme with our love for each other and towards ourselves, no matter our extreme (or moderate) views.