Up up Up on a pedestal!

So no matter how hard you try not to we always seem to put someone up on a pedestal. No matter how many times we swear that we won't do it again, we always seem to do it one more time! "I'll never do that again!" LOL. That reminds me of a song... Never say never, say never, again... (10,000 points to the person who comes up with the name of the movie it came from and the characters that sang it.) Sorry for chasing a rabbit there.

I never even mean to do it, but somehow I alwasy find out that I have. And how do I find out I've done it? I'm glad you asked! Something happens that makes me have to take them down, or push them off, or they have fallen off all by themselves. That is how I know that they have been elevated to a place that they were never meant to be. It is a slow gradual process isn't it? Kind of like the frog in the pot of water. Heat it up slowly and he won't jump out, he just gets used to it, and doesn't know any better then he winds up on someone's plate.

That's me, I'm the frog. I take one person down (Kind of like Joust on American Gladiators), Swear that no one will ever get put back up ther, then next thing I know the ref. is saying "Gladiator are you ready? Challenger are you ready?" Then we Joust! After the match is over I look around and realize what I have done again.

What is my point? Well, here it is...

John 12:32And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

Who should we be lifting up? Who should we be putting on the pecestal? None other than Jesus Christ himself. What did Jesus promise to do if we lift him up instead of a mere mortal man? He would draw all men to himself. On the other hand what happens when we lift up people? Boom Crash, they fall, topple, tumble down, Plunge down, slide, trip, egress, decend etc. etc. etc.

Why do we do it? I don't know, but we do it don't we. Clearly we are not supposed to lift anyone up but Christ, but we all do it. I would much rather lift up Christ so that he can draw all men to himself but somehow a person creeps up there. Even if we don't do it for other people to see we do it for ourselves. I wonder what causes us to do this?

It's funny ((not funny Ha Ha)another movie reference worth 10,000 points) but interesting that there is always disappointment when we hear about the fall of those we have placed in a position that they are never meant to be in. Afterall they are NOT perfect, and the only one that is, is the one we have a hard time lifting up. Funny. Aren't we curious creatures?

Does anyone have any experience with this? What are your thoughts?

BTW I hope you like the picture of The David!!

Iron Sharpening IRON

Let's see, where to begin? The beginning...
So I have a "mentor." In parentheses because that isn't really the right word. Something closer would be "discipler." You know, that person who is the one who has put an extensive amount of time, resources, effort, and Patience into you in order to help you in your process of becoming mature. We've been meeting together for about 3 years. I know! LONG TIME. but in actuallity its been about 25-30 years that we have known eachother.

Fastforward...last week's lesson. Iron Sharpening Iron...

I'm not sure how to explain this exactly but I'll try. We were "debriefing" from an event, what we like to call "post-mortem." Simply put, we were picking apart the last week. Start wtih the Good stuff, move to the stuff that needs to be worked on, end with the positive again, and a general overview of things.

The 1st and last are ok to deal with, its the middle part that is hard to handle. If you know me well, you know that I tend to take criticism rather personally. Needless to say the "things to be worked on" category is a deeply personal, and dificult thing for me to endure, but it must be endured for growth to happen. That doesn't mean that I like it though! In fact its quite the opposite, I loath those times. So much so that I take anything less than perfection as failure, even if it was a huge success. (I know, I'm complicated...) We did the "things to be worked on" part and I had to deal with it. (not easily) This is the Iron Sharpens Iron phase.

I have some observations about the sharpening phase:
1. Nothing stays sharp forever. Not even Ginsu knives. No matter how good the material is, it will eventually need to be sharpened because of use or abuse.
2. Putting the edge back on is a rough process. Take a knife for example. What usually happens is that a knife looses its edge, becomes dull and doesn't cut well. The knife owner will then sharpen it by rubbing it against a stone or a steele. An abrasive. What this does is remove metal in a systematic fashion untill the knife is sharp again. No matter how you cut it (LOL) metal must be removed by an abrasive in order for the sharpness to return.
3. Sharpening is a painfull process. If you are the knife. Parts of you that are no longer suitable or good for use must be removed. It doesn't matter how much you like them or how comfortable they make you feel if you want to be usefull again you have to become sharp again.
4. Dullness comes in varying degrees. That is, the amount of sharpening needed depends on how dull you have become. For example, try cutting a piece of meat with a new steak knife, then try cutting it with a butter knife. The new sharp edge cuts nicely while the butter knife smashes the meat, rips it apart, tears the muscles and leaves jaged edges. Obviously butter knives are supposed to be more blunt than a steak knife but you get the idea. In a perfect world we would all stay razor sharp all the time, but because we are constantly hitting the world around us we become dull. How dull depends on how much you allow yourself to hit the world around you. Again, if you are a knife.
5. Even though the sharpening process is hard, the end result is worth it. Once a knife has been returned to a sharp state it works smoother, more efficiently, and with less damage than in it's dull state. Have you ever cut yourself with a dull knife? I have and I can tell you that it hurts more, heals slower, and does more damage than a sharp knife.
6. A good sharpener knows when to stop sharpening. There is a point where you sharpen too much and end up ruining the knife. When is that? It depends on the knife. A high quality piece of steele, that is well cared for, and hits the stone or steele often, takes less time to sharpen than a low grade of steele that is neglected. A good sharpener will only take off what is necessary to make the knife sharp again, no more no less. The law of diminishing returns applies here.
7. No knife, no matter how delicately handled and how well kept will last forever. Eventually the metal will wear down to a point that the manufacturer never meant for it to reach and it must be discarded. But how does that make sense if this process is supposed to be a good one? It doesn't, unless I'm not talking about knives alone and there is more to this little rant.

The good news is that we are not knives. Even though some of the same principels apply to knives that apply to our Lives, the last one is not necessarily true for our lives. Spiritually speaking we are to be renewed, and filled with the Holy Spirit so that we never allow ourselves to become less than the manufacturer recomends. Sure we become dull from time to time and need to be "resurfaced" but the process of Spiritually staying sharp doesn't take away more than it builds up. While some rough edges, knicks, or burrs are removed the idea is that they are replaced with more Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, & Self-Control leaving us more full of Spiritual things than when we started.

I've come to accept that Sharpening though not a pleasent experience is a necessary one. One that the results far out weigh the abrasive surfaces we must come into contact with.

Phelps

WOW! This Michael Phelps is AMAZING. As a former swimmer (not a good one mind you, but a swimmer) I can't believe what this guy is doing! WoW, WoW, WoW! He has to be at least 75% fish to do the things that he does. He makes Fly look super easy, so easy that it makes me mad! If you haven't seen this dude swim you really need to! Did I say WOW?

So as an update to the blog... As you all know Mr. Phelps won 8 count them 8 Gold medals! OCHO! THATS CRAZY! Crazy cool! GO USA.

The really cool thing is that he is so thankful and humble about it. He kept thanking his team mates for helping him out. Contrast that to the Runners, more specifically the sprinters. They are such a cocky arrogant group that they can only sing their own praises. The guy who won the 100m race could only talk abou how good he is. The problem is that the world will never know just how good he could have been because he put the brakes on with about 15m to go! He was winning by a rather large distance but why quit running? It just shows what its all about to him, winning and making himself look good. I HATE atheletes like that, give me a break.

GO TEAM USA!

More than meats the eye!

So I finally saw Transformers last night. I know, I know I'm way behind, but I just don't see that many movies in the Theatre anymore. Not only that but I really didn't want to be disappointed. Transformers was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid and I didn't want it to be ruined for me.

Other than Shia being the star it was REALLY GOOD! I loved the Autobots. Bumblebee was sweet, Optimus Prime was cool, even Megatron was good. It was pretty cool. The sound effects were exactly what they should have been, the action was cool, and there was even a good amount of humor. Transformers, robots in disguise, Transformers, More than meets the eye!

So that line got me to thinking. More than meets the eye. What does that mean? That what you see isn't all that is there, that there is something deeper, that we only show what we want and there is more to us. This being the very opposite of transparency, are many Christians living like Transformers? Is there more than meets the eye when we look at our friends in church?

How open and honest are we really? What would happen if we were who we really are?

It would "ROCK OUR WORLD" and church would no longer be the same. Bro. Crusty Pants would most certainly rear his head, Sis. Bertha Better Than You would be "Righteously Indignant", and pastors would be rendered virtually incapacitated by all the phone calls. Or would they?

I'm reminded of the episode of Gilligan's Island where they found some beans. Beans that gave them the power to read minds. What happened, at first they were judgmental, but when they all started reading each other's minds they realized that they were all screwed up and stopped eating the beans.

Would this be what happened if we knew each other's faults? Would we realize not how bad the other person is but just how screwed up we are ourselves? I would like to think the latter would happen. If we were to not only to see ourselves but the real lives of others I think it would offer a tremendous amount of relief. I think that one of the biggest reasons that we try to hide our faults is that we think we are the only one with that fault. We think that since everyone else looks normal on the outside that we should look normal ourselves, even though we aren't. Thus the spiral begins, cover up, cover up, deny, cover up, deny, deny, cover up, deny, cover up, break down.

Galatians 6
1Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
2Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
3For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.

What would happen if we were to lay down our pretense, bear our souls, show our wounds and fulfill this scripture? Would that be actual ministry? YUP, it sure would. Brother helping brother, bearing each other's burdens, and fulfilling the law of Christ. How much healthier would the body of Christ be?

Christians: more than meets the eye...

Brother Crusty Pants

So my first post is about a fictional character. Well not so much a fictional character as much as a general term for that guy in your church that has a pissy attitude about everything. You know who he is. He is the guy who always complains about things, no matter how good they are, has to be at the center of attention, has the biggest ego around, and thinks that he is always in charge.

He is in every church, in every city, in every state. He even crosses denominational lines. Baptists, Methodists, Episcopals, Lutherans, Catholics, Assembly of God, Penticostals, and even Church of Christs have him. He can be either a lay person, a pastor, deacon, elder, Sunday school teacher, even a Sanitational Engineer. In the words of Ray Stevens, "He's Everywhere, He's Everywhere!"

So the question is, "Where does this guy come from?" The next question I ask is, "Where does this guy get off acting like this?" I mean this guy really could not have been this way all his life could he? What turned him to "The Dark Side"? Does he even know that he is doing it, or is it such a natural reaction that its an automatic response?

Really my problem with this guy is that he is portraying Christ in a negative light. Take that a step further and understand that there are sometimes more than one in a church, can we say that maybe this guy(at least his attitude) is a huge reason that people don't want what we (Christians) claim to have? Remember that this is the same guy that will reprimand a church visitor, an unchurched person, for doing something wrong in the service, or sitting in the wrong place in the worship center. Why would I want to go back to that place??

I heard of a church the other day that said they consider it a good day if a certain member doesn't drop the "F Bomb" at least once during Sunday services. What would Brother Crusty Pants say about that? I think I'll put that on a bracelet... WWBCPS...LOL!

Questions for discussion.

1. What is Brother Crusty Pant's Problem?
2. What should be done with him? (Biblically & Personally)
3. Is he killing our churches?
4. Do you have a Bro. Crusty Pants story? I would love to hear them!

Andy

PS. Yes I had a run in with one this evening! AHHHHHHHHHHH