Virtues

Do you consider yourself a person of virtue? Some of the greatest virtues a human can have are listed in Corinthians:  “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”  (1 Corinthians 13:13) 

Faith, hope and love, three pillars of human existence.  Which are valuable, honorable, respectful qualities that should be in the hearts and minds of every human being.  A faith that believes in something bigger than itself, a hope that springs from the past to a brighter future and a love that lives each day for someone else’s good.

Now when it comes to faith we know that without it we can’t please God or operate in His kingdom.  We also know what Jesus told us about love; “They will know you (who you are, what you stand for…) by your love for one another” John 13:35.  And as important faith is in relation to God, hope is just as important.  We strive to love God and others we need to also pursue Hope with the same passion. 

But what about Hope?  How does Hope fit into the process in following God and becoming the human being He created?  Hope is a term tossed often out like a magic card.  Showing up at unexpected times of despair and trying to surprise us with sheer optimism, but that is not real hope.  You see hope is not a possible future, it is the future, hope is not bound up in the “I hope you have a better day” promise but is the reason a better day can even exist.

It’s a hope that is alive, a living hope constructed in the depths of the human experience where pain and sorrow meet and produce tears of loss and grief.  A place where grey hearts and lowly spirits slip away to a smile and a bright eye because there is a bigger hand now holding the brush of existence.

A guy named Paul (no relation) thousands of years ago wrote about how this hope is built into a person through the darkest of times.

^“1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. ³Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:1-5)

So Paul gives us the formula on where rock solid hope comes from.  It comes from suffering.  It’s an unlikely place to expect optimism to break through.  It’s a hope that builds.  It builds into perseverance.  From that you learn the skills to continue on.  That in turn develops character.  Not just the qualities of integrity but the uniqueness of who you are.   From there you land with hope.

Solid hope is a built hope.  Hope that is built through a God of all hope, in Jesus Christ.  God who came to bring hope that does not disappoint and make a virtuous people!

“God help me in my darkest moments to become a person of hope as you have planned from the beginning of my life”

Marked?

As a pastor I find myself more widely know than I ever have been before in my life.  Many people know me through my messages, my blog and social media.  People that I don’t even know contact the church how I have personally helped their lives.   At times it’s a strange business to have people know me better than I know them.  I love how Albert Einstein put it “it is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely”. 

I guess being lonely does not mean that you are alone.  You can have people all around you that really don’t know who or what you are.  It can leave a mark emotionally.  And I think many of us walk around with emotional marks that cause us to react the wrong way to situations.

Often that is what Christ experienced.  He never reacted wrong but He was often mistook, misunderstood and walked alone with hundreds of people around Him.  People and His own disciples struggled to connect what He was doing with who He was, the Son of God.  As He went to the cross for your sins and mine He was alone and for the first time experienced separation as He took on the sin of the world and God the Father looked away from Him.  How awful that must have been, I can’t relate.

Or maybe we can in a small ways.  As a matter of fact Paul spoke of His physical scars that resembled those of Jesus and said this.  “…I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.” (Galatians 6:17)

I honestly have not been able to connect to this comment by Paul in anyway but a mental accent until recently.  At the end of January 2013 I had a tremendously intense incident with my dog of 15 years.  To spare you the gross details I got bit on my nose that caused two long lacerations that required 27 stitches to patch back together.  Additionally I lost a part of my nose that they could not reattach.  The amazing thing was how quick it happened.  I still can see that split second moment that has changed my life forever.

As it heals I have wrestled with the fact that it will never go away.  I am marked by that moment for the rest of my life.  I might forget about it from time to time, but it will remain with me sending it’s message.  I did not sign up for that.  I did not buy that dog 15 years ago so that I could have a permanent scar on my face that will never go away.  And of all places; on my nose, a place I can’t hide.  When you see me and spend time with me you will notice and eventually ask, what happened?  I have lived 40 years and for the next 40+ years I will tell the story.  I did not anticipate 15 years ago that buying that dog would produce such a result.  If I would have known then what has happened now that dog would have stayed in that store.  Just being honest!

I think that is what Paul was identifying with.  A relationship with Christ that “marked” him.  He did actually go through numerous beatings just like Christ (2 Corinthians 11:24) and that was for sure what he was referencing.  But I think it’s more than just the physical markings, an internal “mark” took place long before he received those beatings.  As a matter of fact that moment that marked him internally was what lead him to be marked externally later on in life.

In similar fashion you and I are to “bear on our bodies the mark of Christ”.  Not just in our minds or our souls where it is easy to forget about or even hid given the right circumstances.  But instead His impact should show up in such a way that we couldn’t avoid showing what Jesus has done to us.  Just like these marks on my nose will always be a point of connection and conversation so should Jesus be so visible and noticeable that we share the answer for the faith that lies within.

I would be lying if I told you that this scar or set of marks on my nose did not make me feel alone.  I get the looks and the glances when I am out and about, I have the pictures to show others what happened.  The conversations are interesting to say the least and in a very small way I think I understand more on what it means to be “marked” for the gospel.

Are you marked?

Summit Eyes

“Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him.”  (Mark 3:13)

I still remember the first time I experienced it.  Standing on the ridge I gazed out over the landscape and could see all the way into Kansas over 200 miles away.  The sky was pristine, the view was immaculate and breath-taking.  I had just finished a long hike up Pikes Peak, a 24,000 foot mountain in the rocky mountain range.

What I took into my soul that morning was only possible because I hiked up a mountain.  That journey was mixed with danger, fatigue, frustration and exhilaration.  It took hours to accomplish and at the end my lungs were burning with fresh, crisp oxygen.  And my hands clasped my knees as my body started to recover from the expense of such a climb.  I sucked what air I could and began to look up.  My eyes beheld an image I could only get because I was on the summit.   The highest point of the mountain, the pinnacle of what that mound of rocks could offer.  I really felt like I could fly that day (good thing I did not really try it).

I have never been the same since then.  I had been tainted with summit eyes.  Now as I travel across this great American land I compare all landscapes to that experience.  To be honest nothing has compared, I think that is why the song “America the Beautiful” was written from this mountaintop.

One of the most critical parts of climbing a mountain in Colorado is being aware of the weather.  It can change in a moment and can change based on altitude.  It could be sunny and 75 at the base and snowy and 20 at the top.  A storm can roll in within moments and people have even lost their lives because of freak storms like this.

Storms do this; they blow up out of nowhere and end up changing your day and week, modifying your monthly plans and changing the direction of your entire life.  They can be down right dangerous and life threatening.

Storms are storms, they have the ability to change your course only if you allow them that place.  We will all encounter frustrating, fatigued moments of life that are repaid by the chilly breeze of a violent storm bearing down on what is left.  You and I don’t have do expose ourselves to that storm.  We can bunker down for the moments they rage and then keep climbing.  They don’t have to keep us from the summit of life!

The experience on the summit is worth the sacrifice it takes to make it there.  Don’t give up, keep your dreams and hops alive regardless of the storm.  Keep ascending, be wise and get to that place where you stand in a clean, pure, crisp, holy place.  There is some life changing experiences waiting for your on at the top, get there!

“Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?  Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,…” (Psalm 24:3-4)