Love vs. Rules

Last Sunday, our pastor reminded us that we do not have to be perfect to come to Jesus. We need to go to Jesus and let Him change us.

When I was in youth ministry, an angry parent had to speak to me about the new students attending our youth ministry. This parent informed me that they should not be at church and I should not encourage the young people to bring their friends because these new teenagers were “bad kids.” Ironically, whatever actions and activities this parent was blaming these “bad kids” doing, the actions and activities of this parent’s own child was just as great. I was horrified. I knew people thought that, but it was the first time it was said to my face.

Jesus said he came for the sinner not the righteous. He came for the sick, not the healthy. The church needs to be a place where the sick and sinner can come and find health. If we fall into the trap that only good people can come to church, then we are failing to understand why Jesus even came to earth in the first place.

The religious leaders struggled with Jesus. The people who should have known him and become his faithful followers were the fewest to believe in Jesus, and they questioned everything He did, especially with whom he spent his time. The people who spent the most time with Jesus were the ones who needed him the most. He even had a tax collector among his twelve disciples, which was considered a career that was full of lying, cheating, and stealing. Somehow, that tax collector was allowed into Jesus’s group of twelve, and yet, today the church struggles to allow someone like that into the church.

Romans 3 reminds us that we all sin. Somehow, many of us have forgotten that we sin, or we believe that our sin is not as great as another person’s. Jesus reminds us that sin is sin. If we even look at someone in a lustful manner it is adultery. Since we are all guilty of sin, we cannot block someone with a sin that is different from ours from coming to Jesus. Most people will come to church to find Jesus, and no matter what Christian church they walk into, I hope they find Him.

People who do not know Jesus cannot follow the ways of Jesus until they come to Him and desire to follow Him and love him. The disciples were not perfect when they met Jesus and decided to follow Him. They were not perfect as they continued to follow Him, as Jesus had to remind them to have faith throughout his ministry.  

Following Jesus and loving him is more than just a list of rules to be obeyed. When we reduce Christianity to a list of rules, we reduce Jesus to a human being who only loves those who obey and follow Him. Jesus is bigger than that. Jesus loves everyone, including those who don’t love Him. Jesus loves people who don’t obey Him or even believe in Him. If Jesus can love them, then His followers also need to love them.

A relationship needs to be built on love and not on obeying a list of rules. We will obey Jesus if we love Him, and desire to build our relationship with Him. a list of rules is built so that people can keep others in check. It’s hard to measure the love someone has, so we reduce the love to rules.

With a list of rules, comes guilt. As people try to manipulate others in Christianity to live by a certain set of guidelines or rules, they enforce the emotion of guilt when a rule or guideline is not followed. We should feel remorse for sinning against God, but it should be toward God and not the person who taught us that it was a sin. Using guilt as a motivator only works for a period of time. Then, the person no longer reacts to guilt. I’ve seen it happen with younger and older adults, and yet, I continue to observe Christians using the tactic of guilt to motivate someone to perform a task or not commit a sin. Jesus did not use guilt. Jesus did not have to manipulate. Jesus inspired. It’s time we inspire.

Inspiration comes when we show love and grace to others and invite them to Jesus. When we lead people to Jesus and take down barriers that many think they have to cross, we will see them come to Jesus and change because Jesus is powerful to induce change and growth. When we follow rules, we just keep moving in life. When we show love and grace, we make a difference in life. It is more difficult to show love and grace. It takes a conscious effort to show love and grace, and it must be done. Let us lead others to Jesus as we live our lives revealing his love and grace.

The Beauty of Art

Ever since I left full time ministry, I have attended a church with a bunch of artists. My pastor informs us that we are all artists and that God the creator created us to create. This past week I was able to witness how art can transform a high school campus in the midst of the inner city in Los Angeles. Dozens of professional and famous muralists descended upon our campus and throughout the week created a campus that has become a museum of art. It has brought the district school and the charter school together. It has encouraged the community, but most of all, the students are proud of their school and of who they are.

Art brings people together. Our school has two schools on it. One school is the Los Angeles district school and the other is the charter school. We are united with sports and the cheerleading team. This week, the schools worked together to help the muralists with the murals. Students helped paint, assist the muralists, and documented the murals with photography. Teachers also worked together. Art brings people together. With the beauty of art, we have unity.

Art gives hope. Our students struggle to believe that people outside of the school care about them or their community. Many of our students are led to believe that they have to choose an occupation that will bring money to them, and they don’t realize that if they would do the occupation that they are passionate about not only will they provide for themselves and their family, but they will make the world a better place. Some of our students found that art is an outlet. They went every day after school and waited patiently for their muralists to come so they could help them paint. With the beauty of art, we have hope and a purpose.

Art tells stories that are worth telling and need to be heard. Many of the murals tell the story of South Central Los Angeles, as the muralists are from the community or found students or families from the community to tell their stories. Having hope and having a purpose in life is the theme of many of the murals. With the beauty of art, we can tell stories.

Art builds community. Many of the muralists worked together to help others finish their work. One muralist came from Michigan to help out any of the muralists that may have fallen behind with time due to high winds on one of our days. Students didn’t watch just one person painting on a mural, but several of them worked with teams, including the most famous muralist, Shepherd Fairey. When we experience teamwork to make a beautiful piece, we realize that the way life is beautiful is to have community with others, even if we do not always agree with them. With the beauty of art, we build community.

Art brings pride. To be perfectly honest, our school resembled a prison. A fence and walls surround it and all gates are locked. There is one way in during the day. Then when someone does enter, they must check-in at the office. I get that it’s safety, but imagine being in that environment for six to eight hours a day for five days a week. The walls were bland with yellow, green, and orange. All of this blandness brought school pride to an ultimate low. This week, school pride is at an ultimate high. Students have always complained that we are not like normal high schools in that we do not look like the ones on television or in movies. Today, no school on television or in a movie can hold a candle to the beauty of our campus. Students are now proud when visiting sports teams come to our campus to play against us and are greeted by the largest mural of Maya Angelou. Then as they continue to step onto the campus, they see other murals that surround them. Our students will walk by them with pride. Whether we win sports events or not, pride will always be a part of our campus. With the beauty of art, we build pride in our community.

Young people need to be surrounded by art in order to be a part of the art. Art can change a community and the lives within the community to build hope. As an artist, I see the art that God created in the universe. From the mountains to the deserts to the ocean and the various weather changes, God’s creation surrounds us and it needs to inspire us and bring us hope. The best part of God’s creation is every individual. It is why we need to treat people as priceless. The life changing art on my campus is priceless, but more importantly, the lives of every student and teacher who enters the campus is priceless. The art surrounds the lives that will paint the world with intelligence and experiences that will make a difference in the world around us.  With the beauty of art, priceless lives will change.

Unique

We all have different beliefs. We can go to the same churches, same schools of theology, same family, and yet, still have different beliefs. It is because God created us all to be unique individuals. He didn’t want us all to be robots that He could program to be a specific way. Our society today is trying to diminish our uniqueness and tries to impose on us to all be the same. This is why I still subscribe to the idea that we must listen to the right voices in life.

Recently on social media, I have noticed that people are berating others for their differences in beliefs and thoughts and opinions. (I usually want to tell most of those people not to ever watch a college basketball game with me because as a Duke fan, I will not adhere to their losing team but I resist.) For some people, it’s because if they begin to change some of their core beliefs, then they think they will begin to change their core values. That’s not always true. For others, change is scary. It leads to growth and it leads to change into the unknown, and if we were all honest, change is scary because the unknown is scary.

It all comes down to fear. We fear what we don’t’ know. It’s easier to argue for what we don’t know as we believe it will keep us safe, but Jesus didn’t call us to safety. Jesus doesn’t always lead us to what we know, but many times he leads us into the unknown, which leads us to needing to trust Him. When we fear, we don’t trust. People who berate, call names to others, or argue with simplistic answers fear just as much as those who refuse to change. All of them lack trust in others and in God.

Lack of trust comes when we refuse to communicate. I have noticed that so many people are angry and just yell or make a point and argue foolishly on social media. If we are all unique and admire each person for their differences, then we will actually communicate with others, which means we speak, listen, and understand that a person may not change his or her mind but we can respect others for their own individual stance.

A team must take various individuals and make them work as one. A church is a body that must take various individuals and make them work as one. A military must take various individuals and make them work as one.  The only way any group or team can work as one is for each individual to use his or her own unique gifts and talents and implement them into the group. The other part is allowing others to use their own gifts and talents. We may have to sacrifice something we treasure, but it is better to sacrifice an ideal than a person.

Let me be clear and transparent. I understand that some people may be advocating for a certain sin to be accepted by Christians. That's not what I'm advocating. The Bible is clear. We are to communicate with love when people want to advocate that sin is not sin. If you read enough social media posts, you will realize that most of them are not posted with love, but with anger and hate. No one will listen to anger and hate, no matter how correct the idea is. 

Jesus took a raggedy group of men and created the best leaders in the world who started the church and continued Jesus’s ministry. They all sacrificed.  They all worked together. May we all learn to teach others what we think and believe in a mature and wise way and show the world that even with our differences, the church can work as one and lead many people to Jesus.

Mercy

While everyone is running to see the Avengers movie, I’m watching Cobra Kai on Youtube. For those of you that have not heard of the show, Cobra Kai is the story of Daniel Larusso and Johnny Lawrence (from the original Karate Kid movie) as adults. The story follows Johnny Lawrence, the antagonist in the original movie, who becomes the protagonist in the first season and into the second. He begins to learn that you need to give mercy in this world, even though his former sensei teaches that mercy is for the weak, and that you never show mercy to your enemy. That’s how so many people view mercy, even Christians. It’s for the weak and you don’t show mercy to your enemy. If they show mercy to someone, then they believe that the other person wins. Do they though? Even if they do win, is life about winning and losing or is there something more to all of this?

Giving mercy is not about the other person. It’s about you. It reveals your true character. I heard a speaker at the Los Angeles Book Fair say that mercy was easy so she received to give it. That’s interesting. If it’s so easy, then do it. Mercy is not easy; it’s difficult to do, but the rewards are tremendous. Mercy is not deserved nor earned. Mercy is not for the weak. It is for the strong. If you cannot show mercy to your enemy, you continue to dwell on the act that they committed and you never move forward. You are stuck.

Being stuck in life gets you nowhere. You think you have conquered the issues with the other person, but in reality, you cannot let go of the incident or of the person receiving any success in life. That other person or group of people has moved on with their lives. They may feel bad that you refuse to give them mercy, but they don’t dwell on it. Some may not even think about it or care because they don’t know they did anything wrong. You, on the other hand, dwell on it.

If you were in the same room with the person you refuse to give mercy to, what would you do? Would you wish you had the karate moves to practice on that person? Would you tell them how horrible they are? Would you leave? You don’t have to be friends with them. You don’t have to see them. You don’t even have to acknowledge them. In order for you to become stronger, you have to fight for you. You have to be the bigger person because it is the only way you heal and move forward. You heal because you are the one who has the power. You no longer allow the other person to have power over you.

If what they did has caused harm and warrants criminal charges, it does not mean that a consequence is not given. It does mean that you no longer allow that person to control your emotions or thoughts. Take the power. Give mercy.

No one deserves mercy, yet God had mercy on us and sacrificed his Son for us. Every one of us has sinned against God and has broken our promises to Him and broken His heart. We so graciously receive God’s mercy and even praise God for it in our prayers and songs. We must do more. We must show mercy to others.

So, to those characters on that fictional television show, Cobra Kai, giving mercy is for the strong. The strong have power over someone because they can stand up when the other person is lying on the floor trying to kill. It’s not who wins or loses. It’s who can stand and be the person who refuses to allow anyone to have power over them. It’s the one who can rise up over others and show mercy. I try to work every day to show mercy in a world that wants no mercy. If it were easy, everyone would do it, but the best things in life don’t come because they are easy. They come with work, strength, mercy, and love.

Power of Words

At a workshop with authors, one author claimed that she can go on Twitter and not like what you say, but you better not like what she says. Therein lies the problem. We all believe that someone must listen or read our words, but we do not have to listen or read the words of others. We have become arrogant with using our own words and the words of those with whom we agree and ignorant to the words of others to whom we disagree. The reason is that words are powerful.

I get it. We all get in the battle of words. The leaders of our country get in battles of words and the intent of their meaning every single day. I get in battle of words with students and vice versa. What we all have to learn is that words are powerful, and maybe, just maybe, a whole lot more of grace is needed with everyone. Maybe instead of arguing, we need to listen, ponder, and be very slow to respond.

In James, it talks about being quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to become angry. If we would be more intent on listening, then maybe we would not allow words to penetrate us so that we silence others from using their words. In America, we have freedom of speech. With freedom comes responsibility. Just because we have freedom to speak, doesn’t mean we are not accountable for what we say. How we respond to others will reveal how we listen and how we respect others, which reveals how much we respect ourselves.

If we can allow others to use their words to get their message heard, then others will listen to us. it’s called conversation. We need to have more conversations and less lectures. We are taught in as teachers that lectures are only useful when they go for about ten minutes. We have been taught that we need to find other strategies to use to teach our content. Students tune us out when we lecture. Adults tune out when people lecture, but in a conversation, people listen because they are waiting for their turn to talk.

So, for that author, she has the right to write whatever words she so desires. She can say what she desires. We have the right to read and listen or to not read or listen. We also have the right to refute her words with love and grace. It all comes to how we respond that reveals our love for God, others and ourselves, and that is what is most important. Love. May we all show more love today than we do anger and hate. It will make the world a much better place because love and grace are two of the most powerful words that we have.