Archive for January, 2010

Haiti and Other Acts of God

The world stood agast this week as a massive earthquake shook the tiny country of Haiti down to rubble.  The death toll rises daily, unrelentingly reminding the world of its own frail mortality.  As of the writing of this article, the EU reports an estimated 200,000 people dead and over 1.5 million rendered homeless.  This number is likely to rise due to lack of medical attention and the violence that has erupted in this unstable nation.

By all accounts, this is a disaster.  A tragedy.  Some have used the phrase, “an act of God”.  My insurance company uses that phrase to refer to bad things that happen to my car that cannot be blamed on anyone. They just happened, they’re bad, so we call them “acts of God”.

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Didn’t Enjoy a Christian Movie? Permission Granted.

I have a staggering confession to make.  I didn’t enjoy the movie Fireproof.  I wasn’t entertained or particularly moved by it.  I didn’t cry.  That’s saying a lot because I recently got misty-eyed at the end of a re-run episode of Full House.  Kirk Cameron didn’t revolutionize my marriage or inspire me to become a fire chief who makes good chili and inspires his men to be soft-spoken and wear dockers pants.  However, his idea of pounding the outside trash can with a bat is a good one that I plan to implement soon.  Looked like fun.  But, seriously, if my house was on fire and Mike Seaver showed up to lead the effort in saving my cigar collection from smoking itself, I would be more than a little concerned.  I’d probably ask him to call in a favor to Kurt Russell for assistance.

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Robbing God of Our Weakness

When Jesus began his ministry, and throughout his 3 years of public ministry, he performed many miracles.  Luke 4:31-44, I believe, relveals something interesting about WHY he performed those miracles.  Yes, he was certainly motivated by compassion for those he healed.  But in Luke we see Jesus leave a multitude of needy people so that he could go elsewhere to declare the gospel of the kingdom of God.

This fact, as well as the context of Jesus’ statements in the synagogue just a few verses earlier, make it clear that these miracles are meant to proclaim the arrival of “the year of the Lord’s favor”.  The coming of the Messiah, the inauguration of God’s kingdom on earth.  Jesus was doing what only God could do.

For us, this has radical consequences.  This means that our weakness, sickness, brokeness, poverty, etc is not TRULY a handicap.  Not to sound too much like a motivational speaker, but your weakness is Jesus’ opportunity to declare his name.  To declare that the Kingdom of God is now.  To declare “the year of the Lord’s favor”.  Your weakness is the best way for God to get the glory he deserves.

Could it be that when we boast of our strengths and try to conceal our weaknesses that we are robbing God of his chance of using us to proclaim his message through us?  Could it be that we’ve got it backwards?  Maybe our strength is our greatest enemy and our weakness our greatest asset.