Fear Keeps Us Stuck; Faith Moves Us Forward

 I have used the cliché that fear is the opposite of faith. I believe that it is true, but I also know that a cliché can be insulative and demoralizing. People who hear the words, “You have cancer,” have a genuine fear creep into their lives. Saying a cliché to them that “Fear is the opposite of faith, so have faith,” is not helpful and it tells the person that we do not care about them but that our words are correct. 

Everyone faces fear. It’s how we move when we are afraid that creates a life of faith and a life of creativity. Too many times in life we get stuck when we are afraid. We stay too long in a job. We stay too long in a relationship. We even stay too long living in a community because we fear moving to a new place. Most of us fear the unknown. What we do not realize is that our fear keeps us from moving forward. We get angry as we watch other people move ahead in life and wonder why we are not getting ahead in life. We have to look introspectively and be honest with ourselves if we are not getting ahead because we are not good at what we do, or if we are not doing what it takes, or if we are afraid. If we are honest, it is the last one that affects the other two. 

Jesus never promised us that life would be comfortable and safe. He told us not to fear as he would be with us. This last week I realized that when I was a younger, I jumped and took many risks. As I became older, I became calculated with risk as I believed I was being responsible, but I was not. I became more responsible when I finally took a risk that would benefit others and not just myself. So, how do we jump and take a risk, even if we still have fears? We trust, we pray, we communicate. 

We have to trust. First, we have to trust that God has given us the gifts, talents, and provisions for us to take this direction in our lives. As a person who creates writings, I have realized that I had to trust that God has given me this talent and the more I use it, the better it serves people. If I just keep it to myself because I am afraid of what others may think, then I am not trusting the gifts and talents that God has given me, which reveals that I do not trust God because I am revealing that I believe that God did not gift me well. So, I must create and trust. I will mess up and do wrong, but I must always trust the process. 

Prayer is an anecdote to fear. The more we pray with specific requests, the more we become fearless and decide that we must move forward. It does not mean that there will not be struggles. It does not mean that there will not be setbacks. It means that we have a God who listens to us and one we can rely on when we are afraid to take the next step. Prayer gives us the strength to keep moving, even when we are afraid. 

We must communicate with others. For a long time in my life, I kept my writing to myself that I wanted to write because when I would tell people they would laugh or scoff at my ideas. I didn’t realize that every artisan will encounter that criticism because people who do nothing are jealous of those who do something, so they criticize those who do something. So, I just had to decide to do something. We need to communicate with others our ideas as we may begin to collaborate with other people who can help facilitate our ideas. 

We cannot allow fear to rule us. We must follow the dreams that we have. We must trust, pray, and communicate. We must use our gifts and talents for others. We cannot live in fear. So many people are still living in fear and anxiety. In order to thrive as full human beings, fear will hold us back and trap us. We must continue to press forward even with the fear. Then, in the end, we will realize how fear became acts of faith along the way. It is when we reflect on our journey that we will see whether we are driven by faith or by fear. Let us move with faith. 

The Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth

 During quarantine, people took the time to reflect on their lives and discover what they could change about themselves and began to work on those areas. Some people lost weight. Other people wrote books. Some people found a new job or a new hobby. Other people quit a job that had a toxic environment and others quit their bad habits. Whatever we do, we have to come to the realization of facing the truth in our lives; however, many of us have been programmed to avoid the truth, so we carry that mantra into our adulthood and our entire lives. 

Since most of the country is now open, violence is up in most major cities. It is not that people choose to be violent, but that they struggle to face the truth about themselves that become revealed when they are around other humans. Self-reflection is a mental health activity, but if we just reflect and not have any action to it, we are avoiding the truth that we need to face. 

Like so many other people, I have struggled to face the truth that I am not just a victim of the church hurt, but that I have also hurt other people. The truth is that I had focused so much on myself, that I lost the vision of focusing on Christ to guide others to him. Along with realizing that I have hurt people, I also have had to face the truth that my response to hurt was not always healthy for me and for others, and yet I continued to respond with the same response in the situations, and I would continue to get hurt. This occurred in relationships outside of the church too. 

The church, like many other institutions, needs to face the truth that for decades, we have not represented Jesus. We have been a good representation of rules, regulations, and rituals, along with righteous behavior, but we have not represented Christ because as we were following the rules, we did not leave room for love. If we want to truly represent Christ, the church needs to love other people with the love that Jesus has for them. There is no room for excuses. 

The church cannot shout and scream about the behavior of other people who do not follow Christ and yet condone the actions of Christians who do the exact same behavior. We need to face the truth that sinners attend church, no matter what faced they wear when they enter the doors on Sunday. This misrepresentation of Jesus has tarnished the church, not Jesus. Those of us in the church need to realize that we must change in order to represent Christ. 

Change is difficult for everyone. I realized a few months ago, that as much as I claim that I love change, there are areas in life in which I do not love change. If we want to grow, or dare I use the phrase, “Go deeper,” then we must change. We not only need to change our behavior toward other people, but we also need to change our hearts show that we can reveal genuine love to people. 

So, as we come together as a country and the church to battle sin, we must be truthful with ourselves and change. anything worth doing, will take time, hard work, and being honest with ourselves and others. Without truth, we cannot stand. We must be and speak the truth. 

The Cost of Freedom

 Anything that is free cost someone something. We live in a society in which we want to thrive on that which is free, but it costs someone, and freedom itself is expensive. If freedom were not expensive, it would be worthless. The more a product costs, the more precious it is to the owner. The cost is not always money, and on July 4th, we celebrate and remember the cost of freedom for this country. As Christians, we can appreciate the cost of freedom that Jesus gave us. We just need to remember and realize that freedom isn’t free, and its cost is precious as it cost many their lives. 

Men and women have lost their lives fighting for our freedom in America. We have the freedom to vote for whom we want, to think how we want, and believe how we want, even if our beliefs are not substantiated in facts, we have the freedom to believe. I would have it no other way. I don’t want to be forced to believe or think how others want me to think and believe.  I don’t want everyone to think and believe the same, and that includes spiritual beliefs. I’m a Duke basketball fan. There is no way I’ll ever believe and think like everyone else, but that’s not the only freedom we can celebrate. 

Jesus sacrificed his life for us to live free from sin. He gave everything, so that we could be saved by grace through faith. There is no act of service or good work that we can do to repay him for his sacrifice. People try to repay him with acts of service and good behavior. As humans, I think we struggle with this because we cannot comprehend such an act of sacrifice. We can show gratitude, but we need to know that it will not repay Jesus, but to show gratitude to Jesus.

With all of the sacrifice for our freedom, how do we respond? We show gratitude. Gratitude can come in the form of actions with service. We can show gratitude with our love toward other human beings, even if, and especially if, we disagree with them in the realm of spiritual or political issues. We can begin to love those that are different from us. 

Loving others is the complete strategy of showing gratitude for those who sacrificed for our freedom. The ten commandments are summed up in two commands, love God and love others as you love yourself. Love is the answer. If we love others, we communicate without belittling and mocking. If we love others, we understand that they will believe and think differently from us, and we appreciate that, even if we disagree. If we love others, we listen with empathy and compassion. If we love others, we perform acts that benefit all. 

This July 4th, may we celebrate the freedom that we have. May we also express gratitude for that freedom with love, so that others may enjoy the freedom. If we fight for freedom with love, then love will prevail. The sacrifice of life for our freedom was done for love. Jesus loved us and wanted to save us from our sins, and our soldiers loved the country for which they died. Let us show our gratitude with an act of love. 

A Firm Faith Requires a Firm Foundation

 This last week, the nation watched in horror the video of a residential building collapse in Miami. The reason for why it fell is debatable, but one thing is for sure. Its foundation crumbled. Having grown up in Florida where we had sinkholes, and now living in Southern California with earthquakes, I know that having a firm foundation is vital for our homes. 

Our bodies also need a firm foundation. In our physical bodies, our core is the foundation. If our core is strong, our whole body is strong. I need to work on my core in my physical body, and I also need to work on my core in my spiritual body because when the core of my spiritual body is strong, the whole spiritual life is strong. Jesus taught about having a firm foundation for our spiritual lives. He warned us that when it is built on a rock, it is firm, but when it is built on sand, it comes crashing down. The problem is that most of us believe that we have a firm foundation built on rock, and yet, when trials hit, our faith crashes, which reveals it was built on sand. 

We can have a spiritual firm foundation, but like our physical bodies, it takes time to become solid and firm. When life’s troubles crash down on us, many of us do not want to take the time to repair the breakage, as we waste time complaining, but we must because we do not want our entire spiritual life to fall. 

To have a firm foundation, we must throw away the ideology of other people’s beliefs. This was and still is difficult for me. Throughout my life, I have been taught to trust the “experts.” When the experts began to become human and they failed in their own faith and expertise, I struggled to believe what was factual of their teachings and what was not. These experts had been trained in the Bible, and yet, they only spoke words and did not put their words into practice. Once I began to search for answers for faith throughout the Bible and studied the context, I realized that it was one thing to know the facts and very different to put those facts into practice. 

Putting our faith into action requires having faith when we feel as if we are stumbling around in the dark. We must trust God when we cannot see what will happen in our lives. We must trust God when the answers are not apparent. We must trust that the answers we want may not be the answers we need, and God will only give us what we need. 

Many times, when our faith collapses, we blame God. Jesus taught us where to build our foundation. If we choose to build our foundation on people or on good works that are disguised as service, then our faith foundation is built on sand, and it will crumble. We have no one to blame but ourselves. For far too long, I played the blame game. For far too long my faith, although I had extensive Biblical knowledge, was built on sand. Once I repaired my foundation and built on rock, my faith grew. I stopped blaming God for my own flaws and my acts of service that were done with disdain. We must serve with a love for God and people. if we do not love people when we serve, then how we can love God as we serve? 

Once our faith is built on a firm foundation, we do not automatically receive an easy life without troubles. James warns us in James 1:3 that we will have trials and troubles. It is how we respond to those trials and troubles. He does not write that we need to be happy about them, but to have joy, which is to be content where we are in life. We all have strife. Many of us do not share worldwide our strife, which is why we need to be kind on social media of how we treat people, as we do not know the strife of which others endure. How we treat others reveals if our faith is built on sand or on rock. 

If we have a faith built on a firm foundation with Christ being at the core, then we treat other people with the love of Jesus and as we love ourselves. We eliminate criticizing and belittling because our faith is so strong, that we do not need to tear down other buildings but bring support that the others can rebuild on rock instead of sand. Empowering others creates a strong foundation that is built on Christ because we know that we have a faith in Christ that empowers us, so we want others to have that same power. 

We need to have a firm foundation in our spiritual lives. We need to discover where our foundation is. If we have built our foundation on ideologies, we need to return to God’s Word and align our faith with God. If we built our foundation on people, we need to realign our faith with Christ. If we have built our faith on overpowering and controlling other people’s faith, we need to shift our power to empowering others to have a love for Jesus and to encourage them that Jesus loves them. 

Our world is struggling as it reopens. We all have struggles and troubles in our life. We need to have our spiritual lives built on a firm foundation. It will result with the rest of our body, with our physical, mental, and emotional health also having firm foundations. Our strong faith will affect people around us. As we pray for those who are affected with the loss of loved ones in Miami, may we also pray for our own spiritual foundations to be solid so we can create a stronger world around us. 

Do We Act and Make a Difference, or Do We Sit Back and Criticize?

For the past year and a half, the Internet has exploded with disputes over any and every subject. Some of the topics are serious and others are frivolous. No matter the topic, we have to choose. Are we going to hide behind our computer screens and criticize those who are attempting to make a difference in the world, or are we going to work with others and try to discover ways to resolve some of the issues that are hurting other people? The decision is ours to make and one that will either call us to act or do nothing. 

Whenever we take on an endeavor to make a difference in the world, there will always be critics. You know why? They don’t want the change. If it changes, it may involve them to act and not just sit back and rest on their laurels. We are living in a society that criticizes every act that people are doing. It is causing people to not act, which resolves nothing. That’s what the criticizers want. They want nothing to be done because they either want to control everything or they want to sit back and complain. If we look into the lives of people who make a difference in the world, we will discover that all of them had critics, and all of them drowned out the noise of their critics and did the work they had to do. 

Looking throughout history, we can see those who had critics from Edison, the Wright Brothers, to even Elon Musk. They refused to listen to their critics. In order to grow and make a difference in the world, we have to not listen or even engage with our critics. They do not want us to change. Our critics are not our allies. It’s easy to sit back and criticize. It’s difficult to discover solutions to complex problems. It’s time we stop taking the easy route in life. 

We need to empower others. Empowerment means we give someone control over their own life and claiming their own rights. We need to empower other people who are doing tasks to use their talents and gifts to make a difference in the world. If we become so focused on empowering others and serving others with the gifts and talents that we have, we will not have time to criticize or listen to the criticism of others. 

Jesus empowered his disciples to spread the Gospel and make a difference in the world. He didn’t sit back and criticize them. He set an example. He then empowered them after three years. They made a large impact with the foundation of the church. The church may not be what they envisioned it to be, but we can empower others in the church with us to make that difference today because sitting back and criticizing will not benefit anyone, as it will do nothing.

We must focus on our mission. I have recognized that the people who are making an impact on the world are so focused on their mission that they do not have time to bother with the insults being thrown at them. I’m trying to get to that point in my life. It’s a process. We have to determine that God has given us our talents and gifts to use, and we must begin to use them. We must be diligent. So, we have to make our decision. We decide to criticize or to act. I choose to act. We all have the decision to make. Criticizing will lead to disputes and arguing, and nothing will be resolved. Acting will lead to change, which will create solutions to the issues our world is facing. Once the changes take place, criticizing and disputing will be useless. The choice is ours to make. 

 

A Great Leader Creates Great Teams--Even in the Church

 It seems as if I can go on any social media site and see someone lambasting the church. Christians have been behaving badly and this last year was terrifying with their behavior. Many people complain on social media. I would like to make a suggestion. How about we begin to fix the broken?  It is what the church is supposed to do. It is time that the church fixes the church in order to heal the broken in the world. It will take faith, trust, and hard work, but it can be done because I’ve seen it happen inside and outside of the church. Using a mentor outside of the church, who took a broken and losing system to a very healthy program, guided me to some suggestions. 

The times are changing, and with that change comes endings and beginnings. This last week we were informed of those changing times with the announcement that Coach K will retire from college basketball after this upcoming season. Times are changing, but we can learn from a leader who has had led young people to championships both on and off the court. 

His numbers speak volumes of the impact he has made on the men’s basketball team and their legacy. In my small Bible College, our basketball team won three national championships three years in a row. Our coach was an incredible man of faith, a great leader, and a role model on and off the court. I wanted to join in on the college basketball craze that exists in many in the Midwest. My Indiana friends told me to follow Indiana University. My Kentucky friends told me that would be horrible and to follow the University of Kentucky. Here’s a little bit of information about me. I don’t go with what others tell me to do. I chose Duke University. They had good-looking players and they kept going to the Final Four and not winning, until 1991 when the dynasty began. 

Here are the lessons I have learned from watching Coach K that can be applied to leaders in the church: 

1. Believe in the people around you. So many of us as leaders complain about those whom we are leading instead of being grateful for those who God has given us to lead. We never know which ones will make a huge impact on the world. Instead of complaining about those whom we are leading, we need to guide them to improve their skills, which means we need to know what their strengths are. For far too long, the church has focused on people’s flaws instead of their strengths. It’s time we focus on people’s strengths and guide them to use those strengths in areas of service. Good leaders get the right people. Great leaders work with the strengths of those people, so they can use them in order to have a healthy and strong organization. Coach K always believed in and developed his players and assistant coaches’ strengths. 

2. Do your research. So many of us as leaders get into a position of leadership and stop learning. One element of leadership I gained from observing Coach K was to never stop learning. When the game changed, he changed with it. He didn’t complain. He did his research. He studied. He continued to learn about the changes and challenges, which led to another championship in 2015. Leaders in the church must continue to learn with culture and be proactive instead of reactive. 

3. Trust and be trustworthy. Duke University trusted Coach K, even though he had three losing seasons his first three years at the school. Coach K has continued to trust his assistant coaches, his athletic directors who are above him, and his players. Without trust, the system becomes broken. Leaders must begin to trust those they have placed within ministries. Those of us in ministries must trust our leaders and those with whom we are working. Trust builds into faith. When our churches lack trust, they lack faith. When we begin to trust, our faith in Christ grows. 

4. Never give up, even when it looks bleak. Duke had a terrible season last year, but they entered the ACC tournament with the determination to win it. Unfortunately, Covid stopped them. Coach K had so many comebacks in his career, and he knows that panic is never healthy. There are trials. We have to learn how to endure them. Events occur in our ministries that can become out of our control. We cannot give up. Many people have given up on the body of Christ and claim that it is unredeemable. That is untrue. No one is unredeemable. We have to press forward, even when all looks bleak. The church has to lead in the direction that Jesus can redeem anyone. The church must set this example. 

Coach K will enter the court for one last season as a head coach, but he will always lead. If we have been called to lead, we have to lead, even in positions that those around us might view as small. Nothing is small in God’s eyes. He can take a small item that the world sees and create a huge dynasty. It’s how He works. It may seem mysterious because we give up before we get going. It’s time for the church to rise and get going. It may be the farewell season for Coach K, but for the church, we need to have a revolution tour. It’s starting. May we rise from the ashes, heal, and begin healing others. It all begins with great leadership. 

Memorial Day Celebrates the Ultimate Sacrifice

 My Great Uncle Elvy died during WW2. They were attacked off the shores of Germany. Experts are following the stories of all those who were lost and are trying to discover how he died. According to his shipmate who wrote my Great Grandmother, he was killed while shooting at the enemy, as they had just been attacked. The way his fellow soldier described my Great Uncle’s last action, it was as if he was in a war movie and after he took his last shot, he was shot off of the boat. 

He was considered MIA for years. One of the soldiers said that he was there one moment, and when he turned around, he was gone and nowhere to be found. That gave a lot to our imaginations. History conservationists are working to have his headstone placed in Arlington National Cemetery to honor his ultimate sacrifice for his country. A country struggling to find its way, even today. 

Nothing in this world is free. Someone has to pay for it somewhere. We all enjoy receiving free gifts, but we forget that someone had to pay for those gifts. Freedom comes with a price. The price costs some people everything. Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. If he didn’t, we would have to be killed for every single wrongdoing we have committed. We cannot repay the ultimate sacrifice, but we can begin to live as if freedom is priceless. 

We have soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom to live our lives on our physical land, and we have Jesus who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom to live our lives on our spiritual land. Now, it is our turn. We can make small sacrifices in order to create a big free world. If we just sacrifice little habits that destroy people, we will recognize freedom all around us. 

We can recognize how our actions and words affect others. We can use our freedom to berate others or empower and encourage others. We have to decide which one will make a difference and make actual changes. If we do not like certain words or terms, then we do not use them, but we are gentle when we instruct others about those words. If we want the world to be a better place, we have to start with being better people. Each day we can choose to practice good habits and work to break a bad habit. That is how we make America better. That is how we represent Jesus better. 

I cannot fathom living in a country without freedom but in order to have that freedom for everyone, I may have to sacrifice some choices in order for others to be free. I can sacrifice time and resources so others can also enjoy the freedom that all humans deserve. 

Memorial Day is a time to remember and reflect of why those men and women sacrificed everything for our freedom. Let us reflect and let us make a choice to honor their lives with respecting our freedom and not taking advantage of their freedom or the freedom that Jesus gives us from sin. Our small sacrifices can make small differences that when added together, can create a better country. We can do better, and we must.