Jason's Blog

On Sunday, I mentioned 7 ideas from 1 Peter that we can use to pursue spiritual growth (and avoid spiritual decline).  Here’s the list:

1. Prepare your mind (more literally gird up your mind) – 1 Peter 1:13
2. Be self controlled – 1 Peter 1:13
3. Don’t conform to the evil desires – 1 Peter 1:14
4. Be Holy in all you do – 1 Peter 1:15
5. Love others deeply – 1 Peter 1:22
6. Rid yourselves of malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander) – 1 Peter 2:1
7. Crave pure spiritual milk – 1 Peter 2:2

Do you believe that it is natural for Christians to grow and mature?  If so, then you will need to face the inevitable natural forces that are pushing against you.  I believe that the fallen world that we live in is trying at least as hard (if not harder) to dampen your spirit, break your will, and arrest the work of God’s spirit in your life.

You can choose to take steps to grow in grace and salvation, or you can lie dormant for weeks, or seasons, or years.  Christ can be formed in you as you take up life giving practices. The list above is by no means exhaustive.   Be intentional in some way today about growing to be like Christ.

Do you remember the old Greek story of Pandora’s Box?

There once was beautiful woman named Pandora (her name means “all – gifted one”) who was entrusted with a box—really it wasn’t a box but a jar— by Zeus, the chief of the gods.  One day filled with curiosity, Pandora peeked inside to see what Zeus had given to her.  But when she removed the stopper, out burst all sorts of evil.  Because of her folly we now live in a world where toilsome labor, plagues, and disease roam about freely.  However, one item remained trapped inside the jar—hope.

This simple story raises all sorts of interesting questions.  Consider this one, “Did the Greeks think highly of hope?”

When Pandora opened the jar, all the evils emerged.  Hope remained.  So when you think about it is hope a good thing?  Apparently, hope is a weak thing – a bottled thing – a trapped virtue.

Unlike the diseases and toils of this word, hope is a faint, imprisoned spirit.  Was Zeus really doing Pandora a favor when he gave her this jar full of great evils and weak, pitiful hope?  What good is it to have hope when the real dangers of life (labor, plague, and disease) are running loose?  Is the best thing you can do with hope is bottle it up?

Have you met a person that has bottled hope?  Their eyes are weathered.  Their face is hard.  They expect the worst always.  Their whole outlook is negative and downcast.  This is the Greek way of living.  Forget about hope.  Dig down deep within.  Fight back against the world with all that you have.

Christians look at hope in an entirely different way.  Consider the Scriptures:

• Deliver me, O my God. . . For you have been my hope, O Sovereign LORD, my confidence since my youth (Psalm 71:4-5)

• Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade– kept in heaven for you (1 Peter 1:3-4).

• He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation–  ²³ if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel (Colossians 1:22-23).

• Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment (1 Timothy 6:17).

Our hope is no weak spirit.  Instead, we see the future for what it really is.  The present world and its sufferings are not the end of all things.  Jesus, the present and coming king, reminds us that his future and his way are road ahead.  We are to walk in his steps confident that “he who has begun a good work will carry it on to completion” (Philippians 1:6).

I like how Tom Wright describes the people of God as persons who “should live in the present as people who are to be made complete in the future” (Surpised by Hope (HarperOne, 2008): 286.

We aren’t clinging to false hope trapped in fragile vase.  We are Christians.  Our future is secure and arriving more fully every day.

Come Lord Jesus!  Bring times of refreshing (Acts 3:19) as only You can!

“The Christians that I know have to be among the unhappiest of people in the world!”

Think about the prune-faced, Puritan stereotype– severe, unloving, killjoys.  And if you call to mind a Fundamentalist of the twentieth century, the picture is a preacher pounding a pulpit, dripping with sweat, shouting out fierce words to the faithful.  Or worse — someone using a megaphone on a street corner.

How did we become so serious? Does this hardened spirit reflect Jesus? I think not.

Whatever else we might say about Jesus, he is completely at peace and full of joy. Jesus our risen Lord is not sullen or bitter about life. John Piper’s explains this idea beautifully in Desiring God (Multnomah, 2nd Edition, 1996):

Can you imagine what it would be like if the God who ruled the world were not happy? What if God were given to grumbling and pouting and depression like some Jack-and-the-beanstalk giant in the sky? What if God were frustrated and despondent and gloomy and dismal and discontented and dejected? Could we with David say, “Oh God, thou art my God, I seek thee; my soul thirsts for thee; my flesh faints for thee, as in a dry and weary land where no water is” (Psalm 63:1)?

I don’t think so. We would all relate to God like little children who have a frustrated, gloomy, dismal, and discontented father. They can’t enjoy him. They can only try not to bother him, and maybe try to work for him to earn some little favor (John Piper, 34).

Years ago when I was studying the gospels, I noticed that Jesus majored in defying the stereotypes of the religious establishment.  Instead of settling for quiet dinner conversation with spiritual leaders, Jesus parties with people like Levi.  Instead of fasting, he took up feasting.

I think that if Jesus came in the flesh to dwell among us today, he would continue the same practice.  His laughter would surprise, his attendance at parties would shock; his closest friends and greatest followers would be drawn from the edges of society.

WWJD?  (What Would Jesus Do?) Whatever he did, it would be filled with the joy of the Lord.  And if his track record is any indication of his choices, Jesus would be sociable and in the middle of a party.

So as you celebrate and spend time others this weekend (be it at a party or not), remember the one who was not too serious.  Remember Jesus.

Since the Super Bowl is this week (as well as national signing day), I thought it might be good to reflect a little on football as religion.  Is it just a game or is it more? Since I live in the shadow of Kyle Field, the economics of college ball are easy to see.  It is extraordinary how much money is tied up in athletics.  But its more than just that.

Mark Galli, senior managing editor at Christianity today, wrote a piece over at Books & Culture that really hits on the impact of sports on the daily lives of Christians:

Christians have embraced sports with no little enthusiasm. Christian parents enroll their children—boys and girls alike now—in youth leagues and enthusiastically follow them in traveling teams, even if that takes them away on weekends, and thus from Sunday morning worship in their home church. Churches have sports ministries and banquets featuring Christian superstars who wax eloquent about how God helped them who helped themselves (with discipline, teamwork, and so forth). And, in large parts of the country, high school sports is seamlessly woven into religious life.

I think about how close hits home to me.

• Upwards Soccer is around the corner (we skipped the basketball season).
• TAMU Women’s & Men’s Basketball games are held on Sundays (at noon) or Wednesday evenings.
• In the Fall, we love the home football game weekends and the attendance patterns that it brings– especially when we’re winning.
• Many, many of our church leaders are season ticket holders– some in multiple sports.

And then there’s the runners.  Houston, Austin, and San Antonio all have runs (1/2 and full marathons). The Armadillo Dash is around the corner.  One of our Christian Schools has a Fun Run.  Many think nothing of training on Sunday mornings.  They might even believe that they are closer to God in their Nikes than in a pew.

Parenting (as Galli’s quote above suggests) is now shaped athletics.  We have the  city leagues, private leagues, traveling teams, and strength and conditioning camps in the Summer.

Is this all aerobics and entertainment?  When would football (or any other sport) become a religion or idolatry?  Would we even know when we crossed that line?

When does following of sports teams (and I do have my favorites) begin to affect how I talk and my overall mood?

A number of books are on the market that discuss football (and other sports) as America’s new religion.  A number of these  draw on a definition of religion from Clifford Geertz- a cultural anthropologist.  To quote from the Galli article again:

[Geertz suggests that] religion acts to “establish powerful, persuasive, and long lasting moods and motivations” by “formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing those conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the morals and motivations seems uniquely realistic.”

I am not sure that this definition for religion is sufficient? In reality, religion and spirituality are about connecting with the divine.

However more importantly, perhaps you need to look at what sports is doing to you.  Does it create a sense of order in your life?  Is it shaping your morals, motivations, and mood?

If sports has this kind of play in your life, if it is affecting how you make choices, and your attitude — whether you think it is a religion or not isn’t the real concern.  I would say that your sport is too important.  Cut back.  Live without it.  Let it go.

I can’t tell you how important it is to cultivate your spiritual side.  God is not far away from us, but you will need to seek him.  If athletics, or games, or tickets, or winning seasons are more important to you than seeking the person of God, you have a problem.

Ultimately, sports and exercise cannot give you the resources for deepening your life for the long haul.  The apostle Paul put it well “physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:8).

I hope you can enjoy the games (and recruiting) and everything that goes with them, but pursue godliness