Introspection: Re-cut, Repainted, and Unscrewed

Developed from thoughts shared at Hugo Salkehatchie 2010.
I share these thoughts, hoping they are of help to someone else.


Re-cut, Repainted, and Unscrewed

Scripture:

Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you;
therefore He will rise up to show you compassion.
For the LORD is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for Him!

Isaiah 30:18 (TNIV)

A thousand times I've failed
Still Your mercy remains
And should I stumble again
Still I'm caught in Your grace

From "From the Inside Out" by Joel Houston (Hillsong United)

Last year, a minister friend got me involved in a ministry called Salkehatchie Summer Service. This work camp ministry of the United Methodist Church gives youths and young adults the opportunity to spend a week in summer providing home repair for those in need. It also gives them the chance get out of their comfort zones, to learn new skills, to build new relationships, and to reflect on how God has spoken to them as they work and fellowship throughout the week. For two years now, I have attended the Hugo Camp, a camp for young adults that serves the southern coastal region of South Carolina, and each time I have counted my experience a blessing.

This year, I had the opportunity to work on a double wide mobile home, and I spent a lot of time repairing damaged floors. This process involves first pulling up the flooring or carpet. Next, the rotten section of the subfloor is cut out, and the old insulation is removed. After that, lateral supports for the floor joists are cut and screwed into place. Once all floor joists and lateral supports are level, the new subfloor is cut and screwed into place. I was privileged to be involved in all parts of this process at some point during the week.

Sometimes the work went swimmingly. I particularly enjoyed cutting the lateral supports for the floor joists; however, my inexperience with power drills caused me some difficulty in screwing the supports into place. Sometimes complications arose, requiring me to redo some of my work. At one point, the floor was uneven, so we needed to screw in extensions to the floor joists. Unfortunately, the lateral supports were already screwed in, so I had to unscrew and reset the supports.

Another source of frustration was a particularly difficult corner of a closet. One lateral support was in an odd position, requiring my friends to re-cut it several times. Once all the supports were in place, we had difficulty getting the subfloor into place, and we had to re-cut it a number of times as well. Overall, I felt as though replacing the floor in the corner of that closet took a lot more time than it should have taken.

Working on the floors reminded me of my own life. Prior to attending Salkehatchie this year, I had reflected on my life and realized that many parts of my life were failures the first time around. I had a bad attitude during high school, and I did not make the most of my time there. I had two car accidents the first year I had my driver's license. My first job as a computer programmer was in an industry I had no business being involved in. I have broken relationships with certain women because of foolish behavior and negative attitudes.

What is good about the work site is that there is a lot of room for forgiveness. Boards can be re-cut; screws can be unscrewed; and walls can be repainted. Likewise, there is a lot of room for forgiveness in life because of God's grace. Our God is a God of second chances. With God's grace, broken hearts, broken relationships, and broken lives can be made new, and past mistakes can be forgiven and forgotten.

God has given me a lot of second chances. After high school, I decided to make more of my time in college. I learned from the mistakes that caused my car accidents and have become a safer driver for it. I lost the job I hated, and I took more of an initiative to find a job I could take pride in. I have still not been able to find a girlfriend, but I am learning how not to act around women, and I have even been able to keep a friendship in the midst of rejection.

As we continue to build our lives, let us be thankful that we have a gracious and forgiving Architect who, time and time again, allows us to learn from our mistakes and gives us the opportunity to undo our failures as we re-cut, repaint, and unscrew those parts of our lives that did not work out right the first time.


For more information about Salkehatchie Summer Service, check out the ministry's website at http://www.salkehatchie.org.


If you have any feedback, thoughts, stories, or even arguments to contribute, please leave comments.

Perspective: Extreme Love

I share these thoughts, hoping they are of help to someone else.

Extreme Love

Scripture:

You are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.

Jonah 4:2

That You simply love
Despite all the stupid things I've done
It's hard to remember
That You simply love
Even though I know not what I've done
It's hard to remember
That You simply love

From "Simply" by Pillar

Many of us know the story of the prophet Jonah very well. God calls Jonah to warn the people of the city Nineveh about their impending destruction. Jonah tries to run away from his calling and ends up being swallowed by a whale. Jonah cries out to God from inside the whale, and the whale hurls him up onto dry land. Jonah is then given a second chance. Recently, this has become one of my favorite stories in the Bible - not because Jonah is a great hero in the faith but because of the opposite. Though, like many, I aspire for spiritual heroism, I find that I am more able to relate to stories of spiritual failure.

The message that many of us end up taking from Jonah's story is that we had better be good or else God will be out to get us. I want to tell this story in a different light. I want to take the focus off of Jonah's failures and "punishments" and put the focus back on God's grace, mercy, and love. In the end, I hope that we will stop looking at this story as a story of extreme punishment and start looking at it as a story of God's extreme love.

Chapter 1

The story begins with God calling Jonah to go to the large city of Nineveh to speak out against the violence and other evils of the people. Nineveh is the capital city of Assyria,¹ an empire with whom the Northern Kingdom of Israel had been at war. In fact, Jonah had been the prophet who advised King Jeroboam II to reclaim captured territories from the Assyrians.²

Jonah, Instead of obeying his calling, flees and boards a boat heading in the opposite direction. God then creates a violent storm which tosses the boat about on the sea. The people on the boat, fearing for their lives, begin calling out to their various deities. The crew begins to suspect that Jonah may be the responsible for the storm, so he tells them that God created the storm because he tried to run away from the mission which God had given him. Jonah suggests that he be thrown overboard so that God will calm the storm. At first, the crew will not do it because they do not want to be responsible for Jonah's death, but, when their rowing proves to be in vain, they pray that God will have mercy on them, and then they proceed throw Jonah overboard. The storm dies down.

What is ironic is that, though Jonah is trying to run away from his calling to preach God's message, all of the people on the boat become believers in God because of the ordeal. As Paul says in his letter to the Romans, God can bring something good out of everything, even our failures.³

While Jonah is in the water, God sends a whale to swallow Jonah alive. While we typically think of this as an act of punishment on God's part, it is actually an act of God's providence.⁴ Remember that Jonah is far out at sea at this time, so Jonah would have drown had it not been for the whale. Punishing Jonah is not the extent of God's intentions. I believe that God has a much greater purpose in bringing both the storm and the whale.

Chapter 2

Jonah spends three days within the the whale. Finally, he cries out to God for deliverance. God hears Jonah's prayer and causes the whale to spew Jonah out upon dry land. This goes to illustrate that no matter what kind of messes we get ourselves into, our God, mighty to save, is always ready to come to our rescue if we will just call on Him. I can personally attest to this fact, and I know that many of you who are reading this can as well.

We might consider God's actions to be harsh, but just imagine how much worse it would have been for Jonah had God simply given up on him. As noted above, God's plan is not just to dole out punishment upon Jonah. God is acting not to retaliate but to reconcile. He is using the trials Jonah is going through, the storm and the whale, to bring Jonah closer to Himself. This entire ordeal shows us the lengths to which God will go in order to bring us back to Him. Often it is in times of distress that we find ourselves drawing closer to God.⁵ Sometimes we have to go through the wilderness in order to reach the Promised Land.

Chapter 3

Thankfully, our God is a God of second chances. God once again calls Jonah to travel to Nineveh to speak out against the wickedness of the people. This time, Jonah follows his calling and begins preaching throughout the city, warning the people of the their impending doom. The people believe Jonah, and word eventually reaches the king. In response, the king calls for all the people to change their ways and to fast and pray in the hopes that God will have mercy on them. God sees the repentance of the Ninevites and decides to spare them from the disaster to come.

The story only includes eight words of what Jonah said to the people of Nineveh: “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” While we don't know if this is all he said to the people, these words probably sum up the tone of his message, given Jonah's history with the Assyrians. Like Jonah, it is easy for us to focus on the negative. Some of us have this image of an angry God sitting up in Heaven, scrutinizing our every move, waiting for us to mess up so that he can hurl down fire and brimstone upon us.

Our sins, like the sins of the Assyrians, have disastrous consequences, but God never wants us to meet with disaster. Our God is not just “a kid with an ant farm”⁶: He loves us all as His children. Our God is full of grace and mercy, and this is why he sent Jonah to Nineveh. He only wanted what was best for the Assyrians, and He only wants what is best for us. Maybe the negative image of God that so many of us have comes from our own unwillingness to forgive. Unlike humans, God is always ready to forgive.

Chapter 4

It is at this point in the story that we see Jonah at his worst. The people of Nineveh have put aside their violence and their iniquity, and God has forgiven them. The Ninevites are spared from destruction, and Jonah becomes angry. He admits that the reason that he tried to run from his calling is that he knew that God would forgive the people when they repented. Jonah hated the Assyrians. Why shouldn't he? Those barbarians were the enemies of Israel, and Jonah himself had even advised his king in the campaign against them.⁷ God asks Jonah if it right for him to be angry.

Jonah asks God to end his life, but, instead, God provides him with a bush to give him shade as he watches the city. This makes him feel better; the next day, however, Jonah comes back to the bush and finds that it has rotten away because it has been attacked by a worm. To make matters worse, it is a particularly hot, windy day. Enraged, Jonah again wishes for death. Again, God asks Jonah if he is right to be angry. When Jonah says that he is right, God responds with the following:
You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left,⁸ and also many animals?⁹

There exist so-called Christians who are more than happy to tell you that God hates you because of your sin and that He is just itching to send you to hell. In my opinion, these people know nothing about God. They use their preaching as an outlet for their own hatred of others. Apparently, Jonah has had a similar attitude as he preached to the people of Nineveh.

Even though Jonah has completed his mission, God continues to work to bring Jonah closer to Himself. He uses the incident with the bush to illustrate an important truth. If Jonah was concerned about a bush that he didn't plant or nurture, then so much more God should be concerned about the many human beings in the city whom He created. God does not only want us to be obedient, He wants us to share in His own love and concern for all of His children.

Conclusion

The story abruptly ends at this point. We don't know if Jonah has finally gotten the picture or if he continues to wrestle with God. We are left to imagine what happens next as we live out Jonah's story in our own lives. What I hope we learn from this story is that God loves all of us in spite of our faults and failures. He loves us so much that He is willing to go to incredible lengths to draw us closer to Him. This is God's extreme love.


Notes:
1 - Wikipedia article: Nineveh
2 - II Kings 14:25
3 - Romans 8:28
4 - Wesley Study Bible: notes on Jonah 1:17.
5 - See also: Rob Bell. Nooma Rain | 001. Flannel.
6 - A reference to the 2005 film Constantine
7 - Wesley Study Bible: notes on Jonah 4:1-11.
8 - Signifies ignorance of right and wrong. See The Message translation.
9 - Jonah 4:10-11


If you have any feedback, thoughts, stories, or even arguments to contribute, please leave comments.

Perspective: The Story that Never Happened

I share these thoughts, hoping they are of help to someone else.


The Story that Never Happened

Scripture:

In the first light of dawn, all the high priests and religious leaders met and put the finishing touches on their plot to kill Jesus. Then they tied Him up and paraded Him to Pilate, the governor.
Judas, the one who betrayed Him, realized that Jesus was doomed. Overcome with remorse, he gave back the thirty silver coins to the high priests, saying, "I've sinned. I've betrayed an innocent man."
They said, "What do we care? That's your problem!"
Judas threw the silver coins into the Temple and left. Then he went out and hung himself.

Matthew 27:1-5 (The Message)

There's so much more
This is not the end
It's all in your hands
Don't throw it away
A beautiful life
With so much to give
The image of God
Underneath your skin

From "Missing Pages" by Seventh Day Slumber

Some of the most beautiful stories in the Bible, in my opinion, take place after Christ's resurrection. These are stories of forgiveness, of redemption, and of broken relationships with God being restored. These are stories of new faith being born and of new-found purpose in life. These stories put the entire Gospel into perspective as they show us the extent of Christ's love and mercy. These stories give us hope.

THOMAS' NEW-FOUND FAITH

On the Sunday morning after the crucifixion, Jesus' grave is found to be empty. That evening, the Disciples, confused and afraid, are gathered in their meeting place with the door locked. All of a sudden, Jesus appears in the room with them, saying "Peace be with you." He shows them His scars, and imparts to them the Holy Spirit, commissioning them to continue the ministry He started here on earth. Unfortunately, the disciple Thomas is not with the others. Overjoyed, the ten go and tell him that they have seen Jesus, but Thomas refuses to believe them. He even tells them that he will not believe unless he can see and touch the scars where Jesus was pierced during the Crucifixion.¹

One week later, the disciples are gathered in the same room once again, but Thomas is with them this time. Jesus appears in the room with them in the same way He did the week before, saying, "Peace be with you." He turns to Thomas and invites Him to touch His scars, exhorting him not to doubt but to believe. Thomas then cries out, declaring Jesus to be "my Lord and my God."²

Christ addressed Thomas' doubt directly, and real, living faith grew from seeds of doubt. Along with the other disciples, "Doubting Thomas" went on to continue the work Christ started. According to church tradition, Thomas was a great missionary, taking the Gospel as far as India and China.

PETER'S SECOND CHANCE

Peter was one of Jesus' closest disciples. He was also the most vocal of the Disciples. Whenever Jesus challenged the Disciples in some way, Peter was almost always the first to speak up.

On the evening of Jesus' Last Supper with the Disciples, Jesus begins to speak cryptically of His coming trial and execution. He then tells the Disciples that they will all desert Him. Peter protests, saying that he would follow Jesus to the grave if necessary; Jesus, however, prophesies that Peter will deny knowing Him three times before morning.³

Later that night, Jesus is captured and brought before the religious leaders. As Jesus is being questioned by the high priest, Peter is nearby, and people begin accusing him of being associated with Jesus. As he tells the third accuser that he does not know Jesus, the rooster crows. Peter immediately remembers what Jesus had predicted and is filled with regret.⁴

One morning after Jesus' is raised from the dead, Jesus takes Peter aside and asks him three times if he loves Him. Each time, Peter replies that he does indeed love Jesus, and, each time, Jesus charges Peter with the task of "feeding His sheep."⁵

Three times, Peter denied Jesus, and, for each denial, Christ gave Peter the chance to redeem himself. For each time Peter told Jesus that he did love Him, Jesus gave Peter the task of leading the church. After Jesus ascended into Heaven, Peter went on to become a very influential leader in the early church.

SAUL'S RADICAL TRANSFORMATION

As the church increased in numbers, Christians began to face persecution from those who saw Christ as a threat. One such person was a man named Saul. This man persecuted Christians with a passion, and even endorsed the first execution of a follower of Christ.⁶

One day, Saul heads out to begin dealing with the Christian threat in the city of Damascus. Suddenly, a blinding light from Heaven falls down upon Saul, knocking him to the ground. The voice of Christ then asks, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"⁷ In Damascus, Saul is given back his sight, and the entire experience leaves him a changed man. Immediately he turns from his old life of fighting the church and begins his new life of serving Christ.⁸

Saul changed his name to Paul and went on to become a great missionary and another influential leader in the early church. He traveled abroad, starting up local churches in non-Jewish communities. He wrote numerous letters to instruct and encourage these churches, and these letters make up a significant part of the Bible. Ironically, this man who once caused so much suffering for those who followed Christ would himself face much suffering on account of his ministry.

THE STORY THAT NEVER HAPPENED

Thomas, Peter, and Paul were all personally touched by Christ, and they were never the same afterward. Thomas found new faith; Peter found redemption and a new calling; and Paul found new faith and a new mission in life. All three of these men were changed radically, and their stories inspire us even today. There is one story that never happened, though. There is one man who did not give himself the chance to be transformed by Christ's love and mercy.

Judas Iscariot was another of Jesus' twelve disciples. All of the disciples shared their money, and Judas served as their treasurer. He acted as though he was charitable, but he would often steal money from the group.⁹ Judas was also the one who betrayed Christ, setting into motion the chain of events that led to the Crucifixion.

On the evening of the Last Supper, Judas has already been paid a sum of money to help the religious leaders apprehend Jesus.¹⁰ Judas leaves early to meet with them and, that night, leads them to the garden where he knows Jesus will be praying. In the darkness, Judas points out which man is Jesus with a literal "kiss of death." Jesus is then taken before the high priest and put on trial.¹¹ Judas realizes what he has done, throws the blood money back at the religious leaders, and, unable to live with himself, commits suicide.

Judas' life had the makings of another beautiful story of redemption and reconciliation, but Judas gave up. He gave up on himself, believing that there was no other option for him but to go silently into the darkness. He also gave up on God, believing that God could not forgive him and that no amount of grace could ever cover what he had done.

What would have happened if Judas had not killed himself? How would the story be different if Judas had not given up?

I believe that forgiveness and grace were available to Judas. Jesus, as He was being crucified, prayed for the forgiveness of those executing Him.¹² If those who mocked Him and drove the nails into His flesh could be forgiven, then I believe that Judas could be forgiven for his part in the plot.

I believe that Jesus would have confronted Judas, just as He had confronted Peter, asking "Judas, do you love Me?" Perhaps Judas, seeing that Christ was giving him a second chance, would answer tearfully, "Lord, I never loved You, but I do now!" Jesus would then impart to him the Holy Spirit and send him out into the world to serve God. Judas would have struggled, like Paul, to be accepted in the community of faith, but he would have gone on to do great things for Christ.

Like Thomas, Judas would have been given the personal encounter with Christ needed for living faith to grow in his heart.¹³ Like Peter, Judas would have been given a second chance and a new calling in life. Like Paul, Judas would have been given the opportunity to turn from a life of hurting the cause of Christ to a life of serving Christ.

No matter what you have done in your life, it is never too late to turn around and run into the arms of Christ. Christ wants to show you love and mercy. He wants to turn your life around. He wants to grow living faith in your heart and to give you new purpose in life. Christ wants to be part of your life, and He wants you to be part of His. Never give up on God, and never give up on yourself.


Notes:
1 - John 20:19-25
2 - John 20:26-28
3 - Matthew 26:31-35 / John 13:36-38
4 - Matthew 26:69-75 / John 18:15-18,25-27
5 - John 21:15-17
6 - Acts 8:1-3
7 - Acts 9:1-9
8 - Acts 9:17-19
9 - John 12:4-6
10 - Matthew 26:14-16
11 - Matthew 26:47-57
12 - Luke 23:34
13 - I just want to give a shout-out to my pastor for highlighting this in a sermon recently.



If you have any feedback, thoughts, stories, or even arguments to contribute, please leave comments.