Improving Our "Crap-meter"

In the Army I had to deal with a lot of crap. I'm not complaining. It was simply part of the job. You may wonder how soldiers are able to put up with all the tough parts of the job. They are subject to a life of crap on a day to day basis. Things like: irregular sleep patterns, lack of sleep, bad tasting/little food, blisters, fatigue, working in austere environments, cold and hot weather extremes, getting dirty, getting shot at, getting blown up, etc... the list goes on and on. How do they do it? How do they prepare for all of this crap? It all starts with training. The very first part of a soldiers training begins in Basic Training or " Boot camp". In Basic Training they have a phrase called the "Crap-meter". This refers to the amount of crap you are able to handle before you reach the breaking point. To improve this "crap-meter", during training a soldier is bombarded with controlled chaos at the hands of his Drill Sergeants. The more crap one has to deal with, the bigger your meter gets and in time, you will naturally be able to deal with more "crap" without reaching the breaking point.

What does all this have to do with following Jesus? Well, in civilian life we all have a "crap-meter" as well. We have a meter for day-to-day life situations. We also have a meter for how we relate to others. How much "crap" can we take from someone before we reach that breaking point relationally? By relational crap, I mean anything someone else does to you directly or indirectly, that warrants some level of forgiveness by you. How can we as followers of Jesus improve our crap/forgiveness meter? I believe that just like a soldier, it involves training. For starters we must become aware of how much we have already been forgiven of by God. By God's grace we have been offered complete and total forgiveness of every sin we have committed or ever will commit. The scriptures say that our sins have been cast "as far as the east is from the west", they tell us that God "remembers our sins no more". This is really good news! Over and over again Jesus tells those who follow him that we must forgive others as God has forgiven us. If we let the truth of our forgiveness get down deep within us, our crap/forgiveness meter for others will begin to improve. When we understand just how much crap God puts up with in us, we should find our "crap-meter" in relation to others getting bigger and bigger. So lets work on it. Spend time every day reflecting on the fact that you have been forgiven. And when you mess up again, you are already forgiven for that too. Then, go and do the same to others. Love and forgive others as God does for you. When we do that, in a small way His kingdom breaks into this world just a little bit more.

The Good Immigrant: A Modern Retelling of the Samaritan Parable

There once was a man driving home from work on a rural road somewhere in the USA. While on a stretch of road that was several miles from the nearest house, a stray dog ran in front of his car. Swerving to miss the animal, he lost control of the vehicle and drove into the ditch. The man, slightly injured and bewildered, managed to climb out of the car and with a sense of disorientation tried to figure out what to do. (For the sake of the story, our traveler's cell phone was lost or broken in the crash)
 
By chance a pastor of a local church came driving by on his way to mid-week bible study. Because he was running late for the evenings service, when he saw the crash victim, he continued driving and said a quick prayer for the man to himself. A short time later, a Protestant, evangelical, bible-believing, right-wing, Republican city council member came driving by on his way to a city meeting. Being late for his meeting, he slowed down enough to hand a business card to the injured man for a local tow-truck service, and continued on his way.

 Some time later an immigrant worker of unknown nationality (who some would label as 'illegal'), came along the road after completing a days work at a local farm. Upon seeing the crash victim, the immigrant took pity on him and stopped. He began to perform what little first aid he knew, bandaging the mans wounds with what he had. Using his cell phone, he called the towing service listed on the card that was previously given by the city official. When the truck arrived, the immigrant helped them retrieve the vehicle from the ditch. After paying the truck driver, the immigrant gave what was left of his measly pay check to the injured man, along with his cell phone for the man to use if needed.

Which of these three do you think acted as a neighbor to the man who was in need?

Go and do likewise.

Love Is Everything

  
      Over the past year because of certain beliefs I now hold (and speaking negatively about commonly held Christian beliefs and worldly institutions), I have at times been labeled as "anti-fill in the blank". Anti-American, anti-military, anti-war, anti-conservative, anti-tradition, anti-Republican, anti-organized religion, etc. However, I want to make it clear that I am not ANTI or AGAINST anyone, rather I am FOR love...and love makes me FOR everyone.

"And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony." (Col 3:14)

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." (1 John 3:16) 

"This is my command, that you love one another." (John 15:12)

     Above all desirable attributes or traits, mindsets or dispositions, we are called to put on love. I'm not talking about the good-feeling, warm and fuzzy, smoochy-smoochy, sexual love. As we can see above, the Scripture defines love as Jesus laying down his life for us, his enemies, and the ones nailing him on the cross. We are called to this kind of love. Jesus taught us to "love our enemies"  and to "do good to those that hurt you". He said that all of God's law could be summed up by loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves. If I must be willing to lay down my life for enemies, then I can't kill them. If I love everyone, then supporting one government over another, one race, tribe, or people group over another is not possible. If I love everyone then I cannot support war and the death of others. If I take Jesus at his word--that following God is as simple as loving God and others--then religion (a system of rules, regulations, and rituals for getting right with God) is another thing I cannot support. Love is the one all-encompassing command. Get it right and everything else will fall into place. Get it wrong and nothing else you do matters. 

 "For in Christ Jesus…the only thing that counts is
faith working through love." (Galatians 5:6)