Responding to Election Anxiety

I read this article back in June just before my wedding and realized I was a candidate for 'news fatigue.' I suppose my entire generation is at risk, according to the report, but I find myself especially susceptible during this absorbing political season. 

We have to be careful, though, friends. Balance your news with the Word of God. When I don't I not only get news fatigue, I also get gloomy about the future. And that is unacceptable for a child of the King who has the hope of Heaven. I will confess, however, as election anxiety creeps in I begin to somehow start putting faith in people (yikes) and (Lord, forgive me) politicians (who are often the lesser of two evils). 

But in my time with the Lord this morning I was reminded of an important truth in my reading through Proverbs: 

"The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will." 

--Proverbs 21:1

I am thankful that I serve the Sovereign of the Universe, who is actively involved in the affairs of men, bringing history to a God-glorifying apex. No matter the outcome, this election will not throw off the plans of God the Father. It was sweet to be reminded of this promise and I'm carrying it with me into this November 4th  and beyond. 

The Friends You Need

Not long ago a close friend of mine commented on another close friend of mine: "How did you fall in with him?" (Isn't it always fun to bridging two friendships together?) 

I didn't have an answer. "I just did," I guess. "Divine providence?" 

Ever sat around in your group of friends and have a moment? An epiphany of sorts that though you may have prayed for friends, you never could have conjured up this group in a million years. I feel this way often when I reflect on my friendships. 

There are men in my life whose presence defines friendship. Many of them I consider my own family ... my brothers. I always say to Jenny that should God grant us children, they'll have about 8 uncles. 

These are the friends for whom I prayed for years as a teenager. They're the friends I wanted, but even moreso, they're the friends I needed. 

Each one balances me and enhances me as a man of God in ways I could not have provided myself in any other way. I think there have been moments of humility where I felt undeserving of such friends, and then there have been moments where I pause, wondering how, out of all the people in all the world, I ended up with THESE people...

But that's who I got and I'm stickin' to 'em. And I'm proud of each of them. I'm even more grateful to God for them.It just confirms to me that You don't get the friends you want, you get the friends you need. 

You can read about just a few of these men in an earlier post. 

'Spiritual Depression' Happens to Us All

If you've been a believer for any amount of time, you're familiar with the feeling.

It's like your...off, somehow. You're not connecting with God for some reason, even after you've asked Him to search your heart and reveal to you any unconfessed or secret sin. You are praying your guts out. You read your Scriptures hoping to feel real again.  Your relationships with people may be going well, but you don't feel connected to anyone. There's no reason to be in a desert but you are anyway.

And you are not alone. Not by a long shot.

It is spiritual depression, the subject of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones' classic, "Spiritual Depression: It's Causes and Cure." And it will affect us all at one point or another. Actually, probably several points. 

A few months ago I realized something in me was...off. I couldn't explain it or understand it. It felt familiar but not. I kept thinking I had done something to get myself into this desert. There seemed to be no reason for feeling in a funk. My first sign of hope came from Scripture, specifically from the transcript of Christ's temptation in the desert in Luke 4. I noticed Jesus was "led by the Spirit in the desert." He didn't do anything to get himself there. The Holy Spirit led the Lord Himself into the desert for a specific purpose. Much of my spiritual journey in this season is shared in my recent sermon over Luke 4:1-15 at NBC this past July. 

I began to learn I was not alone in facing spiritual depression. "The fact remains," writes Lloyd-Jones, "that there are large numbers of Christian people who give the impression of being unhappy. They are cast down, their souls are 'disquieted within them', and it is because of that" the late London minister calls attention to the subject in this collection of hard-hitting, refreshing sermons.

This book has been an oasis for me.  I especially appreciate that Lloyd-Jones distinguishes that there are certain personalities who are hard on themselves, given to unhealthy instrospection. This kind of insight pervades the book. He writes,

"Some of us by nature, and by the very type to which we belong, are more given to this spiritual disease called spiritual depression than others. We belong to the same company as Jeremiah, and John the Baptist and Paul and Luther and many others. A great company! Yes, but you cannot belong to it without being unusually subject to this particular type of trial." 

Further:

"You cannot isolate the spiritual from the physical for we are body, mind and spirit. The greatest and the best Christians when they are physically weak are more prone to an attack of spiritual depression than at any other time and there are great illustrations of this in the Scriptures." 

Lloyd-Jones defines in his book an important and vital issue most Christians face but never really define or defeat because they are blinded to it. I'm thankful for this volume and give it the highest recommendation I can. 

You Are Not Special.

Recent events in friendships and ministry have prompted much thinking centered on the subject of what drives us to think we are any better than the next fella and can “get away with it.”

Smart, smart people fall for this trap all the time:

“Just once won’t hurt.”

“This is the last time, I swear. No more.”

“I understand this better than other people.”

“I can control it.”

“It won’t affect my friends.”

“My wife won’t find out.”

Oh yes. I know you, dear reader. Well enough to know that if some of these exact statements haven’t crossed your mind verbatim (which they most likely have) then the spirit of them is one with which you are at acquainted on a first-name basis.

Whether it’s too much meth, masturbation, meds, Mountain Dew, fetishism, homoeroticism, Michelob, emotional red light specials, M&M's, your modem or misappropriation, WE ARE ALL GUILTY of thinking we’re special…that we can overthrow addictions we’ve seen conquer all other takers.

“But I’m different.”

Bull.

Forget all those self-esteem workshops you got in elementary school where you sang about how unique and unrepeatable you are as a person. Your addictions don't know that tune.

You’re not ANY different. You are a human being with the same tendencies, capacities, scars, emotional needs, physical desires and aptitude for addiction as the next guy. Your poison may be different than your BFF’s (you’ll pick one corresponding to your specific personality and pain), but the outcome will be the same across both boards.

“But I’ve studied this stuff. It was my major in college. It’s my job now. I know all the signs.”

How many doctors self-medicate and become addicts? How many cops/criminologists are morally crooked? Ever heard of a porn-addict pastor? Think of your high school guidance counselors and how many divorces they’d been through.

Still think you’re the exception just because you’ve surrounded yourself with knowledge? That BA, 3.99 GPA means jack squat in this arena, pal.

"I'm offended!"

Me too! I was taught in D.A.R.E. to consider myself incredibly crunk! The truth has a way of kicking you to the curb as far as presuppositions go.

Self-Esteem Generation, listen up: You don't deserve a sno-cone after losing that account. No free Saf-T-Pop because you got a paper cut (closest you get is sucking on said lacerated finger). Your mom is not on her way to tell your boss off because he passed you over for promotion (he didn't get the memo about you being "gifted and talented"). There are no trophies or white ribbons for "participating" in life.

And as far as your dirty little secrets go...they're not any more dirty or little or secret than any other sinner's.

Now I've devastated you. What next?

“For real, just yesterday I told God this would be the last time. Ever. No going back.”

It’s a start, I guess. But let’s be honest in admitting cold turkey is never that easy. Depending on the depth of your addiction, it could take you years to thrash the habit. And it’s probably something you’ll spend a lifetime vigilantly guarding against and keeping at bay. If you just got out of drugs, awesome. But know the prediliction to them has been ingrained in you – possibly for years depending on the length and depth of your habit. That’s just the way things are this side of Heaven: we are imperfect beings in imperfect flesh. We can train our bodies for bad. And because we’re so good at working out our sin natures, old habits die hard. Very hard. You won’t achieve any lasting, true victory over your demons under your own power. Your self-control is shot unless it is steeped in Holy Spirit.

The first step in maintaining victory over any stronghold is realizing how vulnerable you are. You are not special. You have flesh crawling all over you that looks for every opportunity to destroy your spirit. And that’s the story of every human being.

Overcoming addiction and its ilk is directly related to you submitting to the fact that you’re just not that big a deal. One of the key factors in people who are mentally disturbed is their complete and utter self-absorbtion (try that one on for size…)

So get over yourself. See in the Scriptures that we’re all of us accosted and marred by sin. Just because you shut the door to shoot up and the teenage girl is beginning to show means nothing. You’re both in need of a Savior. Get over yourself, press into Christ, and start being truly exceptional in the only lasting work: furthering the Kingdom of God.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:1-10

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

I forgot how sanctifying public transportation can be. When I was a ministry associate at BYX I traveled most every other weekend (usually by plane, sometimes by car) to a different university. Those times sitting in airports waiting, riding in planes, driving for hours... those were some of the greatest, most focused times of spiritual growth I've experienced in the past three years.

Granted, I didn't spend ALL the time alone. I talked to some folks too. I mean, there was that flight to Jackson when I chatted it up with R&B singer Brandy, not realizing it was her until a little girl asked for an autograph at the baggage claim. But when it comes down to it, I'm more of a Neal Page (Steve Martin) than a Dell Griffin (John Candy) when it comes to planes, trains, and automobiles. Chalk it up to temperament.

I don't travel nearly as regularly anymore. Just my short commute to NBC. But the other night I decided to take the train from Fort Worth to Plano to see one of my best friends. We've been meeting up semi-regularly for dinner since we both graduated from OU and moved to the DFW metroplex...it's just that we live on opposing sides of the 'plex, so getting together takes some commitment. This time it took the form of a two-hour train ride to and from. But it was a refreshing time of sitting with Jesus, Martin Lloyd-Jones' Spiritual Depression, and my iPod. Melancholy's thrive on introspection and there's fewer better places to do so than solitary plane, train, and automobile rides.

I'm glad I don't have to ride the TRE or DART every day. But my little journey the other evening yielded amazing results: I got to spend some great time with God, I met a delightful older Christian couple (who'd spent the day touring the art museums in Fort Worth) and got to share with them about the ministry of BYX and my thoughts of discipleship. And, of course, there was Steve-O, who is that side-by-side friend from whom I receive such great encrouagement and love whenever we meet or talk.

Sufficeit to say, I'm very much looking forward to my next train ride. And who says I have to have a set destination? What if I just went for the round trip? Five bucks ain't bad for some focused time with the Lord. And intense people watching.

iPhones May Be the Closest We Could Ever Get to Green Lantern Rings

At the risk of sounding culturally irrelevant (not a large risk, mind you: I bought the new Coldplay album the day it came out...on iTunes!), all these new phones scare me.

Mostly because I fought email addiction in college. And won. But it was bad for a while, folks; we're talking every-two-minutes-or-less checking of the inbox. Perhaps you've experienced this or it's sister Facebook addiction where you click that 'friends' button every two minutes or less just to see who "is hating the 100-degree heat,' or 'is trying to study,' or, a personal favorite from Anonymous: "stepped on a baby kitty and hopes that it doesn't go retarded!! poor baby"

Really?

My inclination to all things electronic has become even more apparent to me in marriage. The other evening my wife and I were watching a movie during our weekly date night at home. I was into the movie, I was digging the alone time with my baby...and then the email notification on my Mac (2 points for relevancy) went off in the other room. Like a trained seal I sprang up from my couch, my wife, and Robert Duvall to see what kind of message comes into my email on Thursday evening.

It was a Facebook update (the forces combined!). Someone commented on my photo. Naturally I was compelled to respond IMMEDIATELY, lest I be considered culturally irrelevant. (Who wants to see a response the next day? "That joke was soooo last night at 9:45")

It made me start thinking about how tied to technology I have a tendency to be. I have started making some slight changes (see linked article below) and it hasn't been easy, but my wife's been patient with me through the process.

Now can you imagine this scenario if I had email/facebook on my phone?!?!? I could do anything! Anytime! Anywhere! I wouldn't have even had to get up and walk to the next room.

Kinda like a Green Lantern power ring, which gives its user great power over the physical world and can accomplish almost anything its user imagines. This ability is increased

or limited only by the the wielder's will power, imagination, and savviness with the ring. The ring can give instant analysis of any situation, object, substance, or threat. It connects its wearer instantly with any other member of the 7,200-strong Green Lantern Corps. It allows the wearer to fly. It even has to be charged every now and again or it'll run outta juice. (Now, the power rings are even starting to come in other colors of the "emotional spectrum"...like blue for hope, or red for rage).

I'd never stop using a Green Lantern ring if I had one.

And I know would take some Green Lantern-strength willpower to tear myself away from a phone that can connect you to anything or anyone. So for now I'm playing it safe and trying to be wise in readying myself to recognize when a technology is taking over my relationships or ministry.

And maybe, just maybe, I'm holding out for the iPhone that enables its user to fly. Now THAT I'll stand in line for!

---

Pray for us all as we continue to exert control over the miracles of technology, ever vigilant against those miracles becoming strongholds used by the eneamy to distract us from Christ and His Kingdom work.

Here is one Christian philosopher's helpful ruminations; I commend them to your consideration and discernment.

Student of the Human Heart

"If we will observe the relationships that go on between human beings, we will receive a graduate-level education."

--Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, p. 74.

The study of "non-verbal" books, as Richard Foster would call them, has been a theme of my life. I am fascinated by the human condition; that is, why we do the things we do, our facets, our personalities, our fallen state, our contradictions, our desires, our inherent need of a Savior, etc.

Foster is correct in that being observant of the lives surrounding us as well as those found in history and literature provides incredible insight. Great wisdom can come from experience tempered with a Biblical worldview.

I find support of this type of study in the wisdom of Solomon. From Proverbs 24:30-34:
I passed by the field of a sluggard,
by the vineyard of a man lacking sense,
and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns;
the ground was covered with nettles,
and its stone wall was broken down.
Then I saw and considered it;
I looked and received instruction.
A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man.
(emphasis mine)

In the same vein, the book of Ecclesiastes is Solomon's own confessional autobiography in which he shares his personal reflections on life and all he has observed and experienced; the godly and the fallen. Great impetus for us to make the study of the human heart a top priority to practice.

I am reminded as I write of an earlier blog very much in spirit with this. Linked here are a few meditations of mine on how learning from others' poor examples has allowed me to avoid some pitfalls of my own: Mistakes Not Taken, Scars Not Received

Following the Leader

The Institute for American Values released a study on June 11 entitled Is Religion an Answer? Marriage, Fatherhood, and the Male Problematic. The findings conclude church involvement and devotional activity “increase the odds that fathers will get and stay happily married to the mothers of their children and foster higher levels of involvement and affection with children.”

This should come as no great shock to the Christian male or family. The Family of God SHOULD naturally foster through its ministries –from baptisms, to Father’s Day sermons, to men’s ministry – a moral responsibility that calls men to sacred character.

The “Male Problematic” as defined in the Institute’s report (father’s shirking spiritual leadership and responsibility) has been plaguing us since Norman Rockwell painted his famous and prophetic, “Sunday Morning” piece for the cover of the May 16, 1959 edition of The Saturday Evening Post.

I sense many of you are with me in my stance that I’m not going to take this slouching and hiding like the central figure in Rockwell’s painting. No longer. Not this generation. Not this church. Not these men.

As the Body of Christ at NBC, it is the heart of our leadership to see men grow into who they are made to be by their Creator: strong leaders who stand on Scriptural principle, who are spiritually fit and able to fight for their church, their families, friends, and their God. Part of this training up of sturdy men, husbands, and fathers is facilitating a place where men can be who they were meant to be.

This Fall promises to be exciting for the Men of NBC. Our Men’s Ministry Council, comprised of myself, Ronnie Staats, Jared Starr, and Austin McKnight, are meeting, praying, and sensing a very strong and unified direction for the NBC Men’s Ministry.

We have adopted a quote from our Pastor’s recent Father’s Day sermon to wave like a banner over our men’s ministry: “As the man goes, so goes the family; as the man goes, so goes the church.” The response to the invitation that June morning for men to commit anew to serving God and leading their families was very powerful. Seeing that many men at the front of the church, kneeling before God, praying together… it was a glimpse of spiritual champions fed up with emasculated manhood. It was a final confirmation that the Spirit is indeed moving in the hearts of our men. Personal conversations with some of you men have only led to a stronger sense of this in recent days.

Beginning in September we will initiate Men’s Fraternity, a radical call to help one another explore the critical issues we all face by standing side by side, back to back, and doing spiritual battle together. Trying to go it alone doesn’t work so we’re going to challenge one another in the coming year to walk with other men in following God’s leadership in our devotional lives, families, friendships, and church. I think it’s really just the beginning of something quietly epic.

This might not be for everyone though; as with any true and great spiritual undertaking it will require sacrifice and vulnerability. In Men’s Fraternity we will tackle issues regarding wounds of family and loneliness, among others. Through time together and in small groups of 4 to 5 men, we’ll call one another to drop the pretenses of the “male problematic” to get real about the baggage our mutual enemy uses to make us ineffectual in the fight off faith. Through fellowship, accountability, brotherhood, and unity, we will walk together to spur one another toward love and great deeds, a Biblical view of manhood guiding and igniting the warrior’s spirit granted each of us by our great King.