confessions of a lazy mower, pt. 1

I want to confess:

I'm a lazy mower.

I mow my lawn not nearly as often as I should.  Every year I try and convince myself that "this will be the year" that I keep up with it.  But then spring rolls around, then summer, and then... well... my lawn ends up looking like a hayfield.

There she is to the left - my poor mower, plugged up with about 3 weeks worth of a deadly mixture: 50% dead grass from previous overgrowth, and 50% dead grass from the latest overgrowth.  I bet my mower died about 15 times tonight just because she couldn't spit the grass out fast enough.

And yes, my mower is a "she."  Don't ask me why.

Why do I find myself at this point every summer?  Because of a different deadly mixture: 50% busyness, and 50% neglect.

I'll have a long workday, come home tired of the to-do's, and would rather just check out for a bit.  Ah, the voice of busyness.

Of course, the lawn scolds me from beyond the picture window in the living room.  But, "I'm too tired.  I need some rest.  It's good to spend some time with the family.  I'll get to it tomorrow."  And there's the voice of neglect.

Eventually these two voices will have captured your ear so long that they've got you dreading the day when you know that you'll simply have to stop listening to them and face the consequences - in my case, extending what should be a 45 minute job into a several hour project spanning two, maybe 3 days, involving mowing, trimming, raking, bagging, and most likely a trip to the dump because my yard waste can is already full.

It's hard not to listen to these voices, and even harder not to submit to them.  The minute you've drowned out the one, it seems like the other is in your ear.

I can hear these two voices singing these deceptive duets in a lot of areas of my life.  "You're too busy to be disciplined; cut yourself a break."  "You're so far off track already; what's another day?"

These areas of my life where busyness and neglect are singing over me are also shrouded in a dark haze of my own making.  I try to both hide them and hide from them [shame].  Maybe because I'm not looking forward to that day in which I'll have to deal with them [fear].  Maybe because I'm embarrassed to let others see them [image management].  Maybe because I don't want others to feel obligated to help me out with messes that I know I and I alone created [pride].

Who knew that a lawn could be such a hotbed for all kinds of sin?

But I'm taking a good first step.  And I'm not talking about the hour and a half of mowing/raking that I put in tonight.

I'm confessing.

Confession brings light to the darkness.  It brings into the light the areas of your life that you'd rather just let remain in your secret thoughts and your secret (weak? unanswered? half-hearted?) prayers.

Confession forces you to conclude the same thing about yourself that God's Law has already concluded about you.

Confession closes the gap between what you're telling yourself about your life and how you're actually living it.

Confession helps you to forsake the path that you had been previously stumbling down.

Confession reorients you towards the Light.

Confession reminds you that you are broken, but that your brokenness no longer has the right to rule you.

Confession before Christ and a trusted friend helps you to find and embrace forgiveness.

Confession lightens the load.

Part 2 to follow:

How do you react when someone you know decides to confess?

big vs. small

I came across these two passages of Scripture today - two very different responses of worship.

From Mark 12:

41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.

 43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on."

Then from Mark 14:

3 While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

 4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste of perfume? 5 It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor." And they rebuked her harshly.

 6 "Leave her alone," said Jesus. "Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. 8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. 9 I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."

One response was very simple, small, understated, unassuming, and inexpensive by most people's standards.  You could describe it as reverent.  The other was bold, extravagant, edgy, and expensive by anyone's standards.  You could describe it as raucous.

But Jesus delights in both... instead of pitting one against the other, or favoring the one as closer to what God desires than the other.

Though these responses of worship look vastly different on the surface, they do have one thing in common:

Both were reckless.

I think we'd do well to stop pitting worship responses against one another, contrasting one with the other, or debating the merits of one over the other.  As long as the response is as reckless as the love that has prompted it, we can't really go wrong.

was Jesus easily offended?

Would LOVE to hear your reactions to that question above.

a righteous kill

I see this same pattern occurring today.  From John 12:

9 Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, 11 for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him.

What's the pattern? "Righteous" people trying to kill off the life-giving movements of God.

The Pharisees were trying to kill Lazarus--whom Jesus had already raised from the dead once--because "many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him."

How many times does this happen in our churches today?

How many times do we see people in the church trying to kill something off because people are finding life somewhere else, in something else?

How many times do we see people in the church defending to the death a long-standing program, a dated worship style, or a culturally irrelevant conviction as they see God give life to another?

Let's let the things that need to die, die.

Let's get on board with the things that God is using to bring the dead to life.

And, let's not make the mistake of trying to kill the the very same things that God is trying to bring to life.

if you knew...

I want you to ask yourselves a question that's unfortunately been made into a cliche.  This cliche, like so many cliches, is a cliche because there is a great deal of truth embedded in it.  So, the challenge is to get past the surface level garbage and our own pre-understandings in order for that truth to actually wash over us and change us.

So, here's the (cliche) question:

How would you live your life differently if you knew that Jesus was coming back tomorrow?

Can you hear the cliche sirens sounding?

Let's silence them by asking ourselves this same question from a different perspective.  In fact, let's silence them with Jesus' perspective to this very question.

From Luke 12:

43 It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. 44 I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 45 But suppose the servant says to himself, ' My master is taking a long time in coming,' and he then begins to beat the menservants and maidservants and to eat and drink and get drunk. 46 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.

Read that a few times before you continue with this post.  Seriously.

Yeah... Jesus said that.

For those of us who believe that Jesus is going to return here to earth, who call Jesus our "Lord and Savior," who gather to worship him every weekend, we're guilty of thinking that we can pretty much live any old way we like and still be guaranteed a warm welcome in the sky.

But here's the thing: Jesus doesn't turn a blind eye to those of us who are beating up on someone else.

As a matter of fact, if you're guilty of beating on someone else, he's itching to give you the beating of your life.

So let's rephrase our question:

If you knew that Jesus was coming back tomorrow with one eye on your life laid bare, and one eye on his justice, what would you stop doing today?

Here's what I bet:

I bet you would stop bickering.

I bet you would stop complaining.

I bet you'd start picking your battles a lot more carefully.

I bet you'd stop hoarding your money.

I bet you'd stop playing the victim.

I bet you'd stop accusing, attacking, or judging.

I bet you'd stop letting the first thing that came to your mind come out of your mouth.

I bet you'd stop justifying yourself.

I bet you'd stop all of those things, and probably go over your life with a fine-tooth comb trying to figure out if there was anything else that you needed to stop doing, start doing, or make right.

Remember when your mom said to you, "Just wait until your father gets home?"  Remember that sickening feeling in your stomach?  Remember the dread that you felt as you watched the clock, knowing that you had something coming to you, and that you deserved what was coming to you?

It's kinda like that.

scandalous

As a leader in ministry, sometimes I get discouraged and even frustrated with the people I minister to.

I know. Scandalous.

Maybe you already think I'm a whiner.  But suspend your judgment for just a second until you hear what frustrates me.  Here it is:

Sometimes people give themselves permission to see and judge according to what is on the surface, rather than commit themselves to looking past the surface in the way that God requires, and in the way that God has made them able.

Take a look at this story from John 7:

21 Jesus said to them, "I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. 22 Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. 23 Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man's whole body on the Sabbath? 24 Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.

Some of us rob ourselves of being blessed by God by choosing to be ambivalent, discontent, or even angry when God moves and blesses something that doesn't jive with our expectations, preferences, or convictions... as if our expectations, preferences, and convictions are the core of who we are and how God is forming us.

They are not the core of who we are.  Instead, they are surface level things.  They change as we change, grow as we grow, develop as we develop.  They (should) evolve according to how God reveals more of himself to us.  

Our God is the God who delights in breaking our rules.  He revels in leaving our pseudo-godly expectations unfulfilled.  He longs for us to leave behind the boxes we've put him in, and instead venture out into the new and unknown - to follow him not simply as the God who once was, but the God Who Is.

He's the God who works on the day in which we thought it was a sin to work. Scandalous.

So, ask yourself:

Are you worshiping a scandalous God?

If not, you're probably not worshiping the God of the Bible.

emote!

In public worship, let these words of Jesus in Luke 7 never be true of us:

Jesus went on to say, "To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: 

       " 'We played the pipe for you, 

       and you did not dance; 

       we sang a dirge, 

       and you did not cry.'

As we worship, we are like actors in God's grand play.  We must play our part authentically, throwing everything we have into our roles.

I'm not saying to manufacture something.

But let's face it:

No one is ever moved by a stone-faced, monotone performance.

For God's sake: emote!