Reclaiming My Heart for the World

Funny, isn't it, how you can watch the news on TV every once in awhile, read various news articles online to try to stay informed, and of course, religiously patrol the "News Feed" on Facebook, and yet in all reality, forget about the world and live as if you're enclosed in a little, personal bubble?

I never wanted to be that person that "forgot" about the rest of the world. After all, I spent a year as a missionary overseas - like I could actually forget about the world...

I never wanted to be the person that was so consumed with paying the bills, making a name for myself, what's on TV, and what things I would buy when I went to the store.

And yet how easily we get consumed with ourselves, or at least, how easily I can get consumed with myself - my problems, my frustrations, my bills, my money, my job and my time.

But let’s be honest, the society in which we live condones and even encourages this kind of mentality, and unless we were to completely shut ourselves out from the rest of the world – every store, TV show and commercial, magazine, movie, and so on- it would be impossible not to be influenced by these things.

A little over a year ago, I visited an art district in East Asia. On one street, there was a huge gallery dedicated to LeBron James, complete with bigger-than-life-size pictures of him, his shoes, a basketball court, and everything else LeBron James. Kind of fitting after James vainly decided a few weeks ago that his decision regarding where he would play basketball next year was worthy of an hour of the world’s time.

Just down the street was another, much smaller, less flashy gallery and store. I wrote this several hours later:

By far my most memorable part of the day was walking into what seemed to be a store that was selling postcards, notebooks, etc. When I rounded the corner there turned out to be a pretty small gallery with some different paintings hanging on the walls. But what caught my attention was a wall with just a few framed collections of photographs.

Contained in each of the 10 picture frames were six 3x5 photographs of impoverished families in a small village in East Asia along with a sentence or two on their story and who they were. I can't even begin to describe to you the living conditions that these pictures showed. I don't think I saw a single bed, bathroom, any kind of living area, etc - only very small, gutted, concrete structures with mud for a roof. The buildings they were living in looked more like abandoned cement cubicles than homes. Most children were orphans or living with one parent who had either a mental or physical disability and couldn't work, and whose other parent had left long ago. Many of the families were being 'supported' by the government, probably living on less than a dollar a day.

My heart just broke for these people and I turned away in the middle of the room with tears welling up in my eyes and just being frustrated because I know that you could fill up thousands of art galleries with similar pictures from all over the world, yet I don't know what I can practically do for them. I'm not rich and I can't help much by just going to them.

There HAS TO be an easier way to allow people to see these needs and then DO SOMETHING to meet them."

18 months removed from this experience and, I too, had almost completely forgotten about those pictures, the amazing people in that country and the students’ overall sense of hopelessness, the orphans I visited and their lonely beds, and the huge Kingdom vision that I had of the world.

That God so loved the world, that I’m commanded to make disciples of all nations, that I get the privilege of being involved in taking the good news of the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

Grabbing hold of and keeping this kind of vision for the world is a flat out fight given all the different influences surrounding us and trying to penetrate our minds. But it’s a fight that has very real consequences and very real rewards. Much is at stake.

The world is so much more worthy of my thoughts, my prayers, my time, and my energy than my day-to-day worries, my PlayStation 3, or watching the Bachelorette on TV.

In all seriousness, it’s time I re-centered my desires and ambitions and set my mind on God’s love for the world and what I can do to be a part of that in some small way, that my God would be made famous in every nation. -CK

Poverty and the Gospel

pov·er·ty

   [pov-er-tee]

–noun

1. the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor; indigence.

2. deficiency of necessary or desirable ingredients, qualities,etc.: poverty of the soil.

3. scantiness; insufficiency

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Even the dictionary contains a definition of poverty that is smothered in Western culture. In a country that is the richest society of people to ever walk the planet and where identity, power, and influence is wrapped up in work and wealth, it’s no wonder that the first thing that pops into our heads when we hear the word “poverty” is “having little or no money, goods, or means of support.”

Let me offer an alternate definition from the book When Helping Hurts, which I will refer to often:

“Poverty is the result of relationships that do not work, that are not just, that are not for life, that are not harmonious or enjoyable. Poverty is the absence of shalom in all its meaning.” (62)

More specifically:

“Poverty exists when one of more of the four foundational relationships are broken: a relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the rest of creation.” (57)

This means that poverty can show itself in us as Americans when our inability to set aside our work and invest in our families leads to divorce, strained relationships with our children, and identities that are wrapped up in what we’re able to accomplish and how much money we’re able to earn.

On the flip side, in many parts of the world, poverty can show itself when broken institutions, distorted worldviews and misconceptions about creation lead to a lack of goods or resources.

So while the visible manifestations of poverty might look completely different depending on which part of the world you’re standing in, at the root of both broken homes, failed marriages, and pride - and a lack of food, money, and resources – is one or more of these relationships being out of whack.

This is an important concept to grasp whether you’re a Christian or not. Are you ever going to give money to a charity, try to help a homeless person, build a home for someone, volunteer at a homeless shelter, or give Christmas presents to a family that can’t buy their own? Then it’s essential that you get this idea, or you could end up doing more harm than good.

I could spend several blogs elaborating on these two excerpts and the rest of this book, but that’s not what I want to get at right now. If you want to learn more, I highly recommend checking out the blog of a friend of mine who spent several posts breaking this book down and what it means for his inner-city ministry. (See: http://nowisthedayof.blogspot.com)

There’s constant debate and criticism flying back and forth about the right approach to doing ministry in poverty-stricken areas, and even more generally, what ministry and evangelism should consist of regardless of location.

Good works versus preaching the Word…Building homes versus Bible studies…Providing food versus church leadership training.

Many popular Christian books that have come out lately have pushed the “social gospel” hard. And for good reason. We need to do good works, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, caring for orphans and widows, providing clean wells, and putting an end to HIV/AIDS, showing people the reality that the Kingdom is here and yet there is so much more to come.

But we can’t stop there, or we’ll only further peoples’ poverty. Here’s why:

If light of this new definition of poverty, if we’re to believe that poverty is really caused by these relationships being out of order, ministry and evangelism simply CAN’T be one or the other, but must be both good deeds and the preaching of the Word. This all seems logical so far, but here’s a true story from a talk by Dr. Brian Fikkert, a PhD from Yale in economics and co-author of When Helping Hurts, that helps to illustrate this point.

A Christian organization goes into a very poor farming community in Bolivia where they worship a mythical goddess that they believe will make their harvest plentiful. It is common practice there to buy llama fetuses to bury underneath the crops that they plant, as a sacrifice to their goddess.

The Christian organization wants the village’s income to increase, so they buy the community new high-yield seed. The harvest comes and it’s more plentiful than ever before. So what does the village do? They throw a HUGE party, distilling more alcohol than ever before due to their increased corn harvest, and proceed to worship their “farming goddess” for so richly blessing them with the most corn they’ve ever seen.

The organization had failed to pair their deeds with a proclamation of the Word, and thus, the help they were trying to provide actually led to deeper worship of an idol, drawing them further away from a right relationship with God, and setting them up for failure in the future when the high-yield seeds are gone and all that’s left are their superstitions and broken relationships.

In the same talk I mentioned earlier, Fikkert brings up the St. Francis of Assisi quote, “Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.”

Fikkert acknowledges that it’s probable St. Francis never actually said this phrase, but his response is this:

“Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words? It’s always necessary.”

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” Colossians 1:15-23

Jesus is the King who holds everything together. In Him, through Him, and for Him, all things were created. And it is He that has the power to restore and redeem these broken relationships, institutions, governments, and manifestations of poverty. We can bring His acts of mercy and healing to people, and we can share His words and His Gospel story, but unless both are done in conjunction with one another, we fail to truly teach everything that He has commanded us, and we minimize and dilute his Kingdom and all that He came to do. –CK

*If I could put one book in the hands of every person I know, it might be this book, “When Helping Hurts.” Everyone that’s going to go on a short-term mission trip, give to a charity, do relief work, come across a homeless person, or travel abroad (hopefully this covers everyone) needs to read this book. I truly believe that while this book might not change how poverty is addressed and lead to substantial, visible change in our lifetime, it will change the lives of thousands of individuals that can combat the misconceptions and manifestations of poverty one person at a time. And that’s a step in the right direction.

Gospel Diagnostics

What follows in this post was not written by me but was a tool I was given a little over a year ago after a talk on experiencing the Gospel. At the time, my answers didn't really leave a profound impact on me, but I recently pulled them out and realized that a lot of the things I've been learning about myself lately were right there on that sheet of paper all along, so I pass this on as something that can be very valuable in getting to the heart of where your identity lies and what you're putting your hope in. I hope this serves as a resource for you to dig a little deeper. -CK

"Gospel Diagnostics" (author unknown)

Preaching the Gospel to yourself and to others is an art that all of us must grow in if we seek to see real and lasting change in our lives. It is often assumed that the Gospel is only for those who have not yet trusted Christ. As we know, this is a faulty view of the Gospel and limits its work to a personal salvation experience rather than the explosive power and catalytic dynamic for renewal in our hearts on a continuous basis. To sum up, the life of the Christian is one of continual repentance and belief, without which we slip into a boss/employee, earn/wage, work/rights relationship with our God.

Here are some Gospel questions to ask ourselves:

1) What is my greatest nightmare? What do I worry about most?

2) What, if I failed or lost it, would cause me to feel that I did not even want to live? What keeps me going?

3) What do I rely on or comfort myself with when things go bad or get difficult?

4) What do I think most easily about? Where does my mind go to when I am free? What preoccupies me?

5) What prayer, unanswered, would make me seriously think about turning away from God?

6) What makes me feel most self-worth? What am I the proudest of?

7) What do I really want and expect out of life? What would really make me happy?

8) What position of authority do I desire to give me a sense of power?

9) Whose opinion of me do I hold so dear that, if lost, I would be undone?

10) What type of financial loss or gain would change my sense of security?

11) What one criticism would cause me to respond in anger (wife, children, work, ministry, family, friends, etc)? What am I most touchy about when brought to my attention?

12) If I had ____________, then I’d be truly happy and feel as if my life has meaning and value.

13) If I lost __________, I would be undone.

14) I’m impatient because I’m _____________.

15) I’m critical because I’m ____________.

16) I’m angry because I’m ____________.

17) I’m unhappy because I’m _________.

18) I’m in despair because I’m __________.

19) I have hope because I’m ____________.

20) I feel worthy because I’m ___________.

We must spend time excavating our idols by asking these questions. When we sin, we do so because some idol has promised us power, prestige, influence, joy, peace, satisfaction, security, pleasure, etc – that is far more attractive than Christ at the moment. We don’t sin with a gun held to our heads. We do so willingly because it is overwhelmingly appealing. We need to discover why they are so appealing by asking these questions and then remind ourselves that idols:

-are weak

-can’t deliver when you succeed; they can only raise the bar.

-can’t forgive when you fail; they will only condemn you.

-are harmful to you and to others

-hurt you spiritually, emotionally and physically

-hurt others by undermining your ability to love

-are grievous to God

By pursuing this idol, you are saying to God, “Jesus is not enough. I also need _________ to be happy.”

Getting to the root of such idols is incredibly liberating and helps us to hit our target rather than shadow boxing with sin, swinging in the dark without much success. The dynamic of the Gospel not only saves us from the penalty of our sins, it also defangs and cuts the power of sin at its root as we look forward in hope to the complete removal of its presence at the return of our King.

Dads and Grace

As frustrating as my first car accident was last winter, it enabled me to experience the Gospel through my earthly relationships more richly than I ever have before.

As carefully as I was driving, I was apparently going too fast to make the snowy, downhill turn. My brakes locked up, I hit a patch of ice that was hidden under the snow, and the car slid hopelessly into the curb.

I knew it would probably be expensive since even the most seemingly simple repairs end up being expensive when it comes to cars, but it was my fault, and I knew I needed to be responsible for the cost of the repair, even if I couldn’t really afford it.

So I mustered up all the courage I could gather to go into my dad’s dealership and tell him that it was my fault, and I would pay for the damage to, technically, his car.

“How much did the repair cost?” I asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” he replied.

“But it was my fault,” I said. “I should be the one who pays for it.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m in a much better position to pay for it than you are.”

“You shouldn’t have to do that. I don’t really know what to say,” I muttered, holding back tears.

He wrapped up the conversation and said,

“I know, but that’s what dads are for.”

I was speechless. In that moment I think I cried in front of my dad more than I had since I was a little kid. We hugged, tears in his eyes too, and I drove away sobbing knowing that I would never be able to repay my dad for the act of grace he had shown me and feeling like I was the main character in one of Jesus’s parables.

This is by no means a perfect metaphor for the Cross, but the parallels to the Gospel are mostly obvious. I couldn’t pay for or fix the damage I’d caused, and though I didn’t deserve it, my dad took care of it because he loves me.

Earthly fathers have a lot to live up to, and even the best of dads fall short of God’s fathering. That being said, in this two minute interaction with my dad, I experienced in a very real way the love and grace of God the Father.

And in the end, I wasn’t most grateful that I had x amount of dollars more than if I’d paid for it myself, but for the relationship that I have with my dad and the opportunity this incident gave me to experience more of his character.

The Gospel happened, it’s happening, and it continues to play out in every relationship we have. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have experienced it and to be brought closer to my earthly father. -CK

Rob Bell, the Virgin Birth, and Constructing Our Theology

Certain things in Christianity are central to its theology and doctrine, and central to the Gospel. Arguably, others are secondary. Two people arguing whether or not Judas the Betrayer ended up in Heaven or not, or whether anyone can lose their salvation for that matter, is perhaps interesting, but is not going to put God’s redemptive work on hold or challenge the truth of the Gospel - the Gospel that proclaims that God created a perfect world, we messed it up with our sin, and yet, God sent his own Son in the form of Jesus Christ to be crucified and resurrected so that we might be able to be forgiven and have a relationship with God himself.

Within the last five years, an author and pastor by the name of Rob Bell brought up this idea in his book, Velvet Elvis. The book resulted in a ton of controversy, and there are pages and pages of discussion, critique, and even hatred that were generated as a result.

While in some respects I think people were missing the bigger point of the book and Bell might even be smirking somewhere because he wanted people to question ideas, think critically, and not believe everything they read in books, that’s beside the point and I’m hoping to avoid making any more judgments on the issue or taking any sides. Because already, I’ve offended someone or there’s a person reading this (if people actually read my blog to begin with!) that will either now quit reading or forget what the greater picture of the rest of the blog was about anyway. And kind of like Bell likes to say, “This isn’t about that.”

The part of Bell’s Velvet Elvis that made people particularly peeved was his claiming that if, tomorrow on the news we found out that people proved that Jesus wasn’t actually born to a virgin and he could be linked to a biological father (I’m paraphrasing), it’s not something that should shake our faith too immensely since the virgin birth is not foundational to the Gospel or to God himself. He also tosses in a bit of Biblical scholarship and adds that there might be reason to believe that the idea of being born to a virgin was probably based on Isaiah 7:14 and may have been misinterpreted or mistranslated along the way. Though Bell maintains that he believes in the virgin birth, people highly disagreed that the virgin birth was not something foundational to the Christian faith and the Gospel.

We could do a little dance and try to determine who’s right and who’s wrong, but here’s something I’ve been thinking about lately that reminded me of this discussion:

It’s virtually unanimously supported that Mark was written first of the four gospels. One gospel account starts with a narrative about how Jesus has existed for all eternity, two have accounts of Jesus’ birth, and one mentions absolutely nothing prior to the beginning of his ministry and picks up when Jesus is about 30. The author of the latter gospel account?

Mark.

So what did Christians believe about Jesus’ beginnings or birth prior to Matthew and Luke’s accounts showed up on the scene? Did they care? (It’s obviously possible that people heard about the virgin birth through word of mouth even if it wasn’t written down, but for now we’ll stick with what we do know, and that’s that Mark includes nothing about the virgin birth in his narrative.)

The point is that the redemptive power and the truth of the Gospel were just as redeeming and true before Matthew and Luke’s accounts were written as they were after with the introduction of the virgin birth. Prior to that, people were still sinful and in need of a savior, Jesus was still “the ransom for many,” He was still crucified and resurrected, and the Gospel still changed lives.

What’s fascinating to me much more than this discussion of the virgin birth is how much of the theology and doctrine that we have comes from meshing together what we know about God from the many different books in Scripture. Sounds simple, and it’s completely logical, but it’s also very interesting.

Let’s use our virgin birth example:

Most evangelical Christians believe that Jesus has “existed” for all of eternity and was “sent” to earth where he was born to the Virgin Mary. He started at the right hand of the Father, and there He sits until He comes back again. This is most clearly found in the Gospel of John where the author depicts Jesus as the embodiment of the “Word of God,” having existed from “the beginning.” However, John says nothing about a virgin birth.

This comes from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, likely based on a source that both writers had access to. Matthew and Luke, however, never explicitly mention anything about Jesus having existed for all eternity. Jesus had a definite beginning when he was born to Mary.

Some scholars say that this weaving together of different thoughts from different books of the Bible does an injustice to what the writers wanted to convey and that doing so essentially creates a fifth gospel account. I disagree.

While it’s true that each author had their own reasons for writing and themes and ideas that they wanted to emphasize, if we believe that these books that we have in the Bible were divinely inspired by God, it makes sense for us to think logically, pray, and figure out our theology and beliefs based on the entirety of the Bible.

The Gospel is big. As much as we try to sum it up in four points or one sentence, it can’t be done. This is the same Gospel that allows us to become children of God, redeems our pain and weaknesses, gives us a right relationship with God, and is our only source of hope.

And God is big. If one human writer could perfectly sum up who God is and how He works without the need for any other insights or offerings, that god wouldn’t be much worth giving our lives to. 

 -CK

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Figuring Out Who I'm Supposed To Be

As I was coming home from teaching guitar lessons the other night, I was thinking about one of my new students who is probably only a week away from his first big milestone as a guitar player:

Being able to play Green Day’s “Time of Your Life.”

Apparently that generation of music has come and gone since most of the younger students have never even heard the song anymore. Maybe not the worst thing in the world, but back to my point.

After having gone over that song religiously with several different students to help them put chords together and play a whole song, I’ve become very thankful that my end goal as their teacher is not to make every student sound like Green Day. You have not “arrived” as a guitar player when you’re able to play “Time of Your Life,”and Green Day’s style is certainly not superior to all other musical styles.

Quite frankly, music would be boring if all guitarists sounded the same, and we’d miss out on the varying styles of other exceptional guitarists like Jimi Hendrix, Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave’s Tom Morello, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Yngwie Malmsteen, and so on.

Yet as Christians, it seems like there’s some kind of unspoken mold that we’re all supposed to fit. It’s not necessarily talked about all that often, but there’s immense pressure to fit that mold.

Honestly, I think it’s boring, and it’s not Biblical.

“But isn’t everyone supposed to aim for being more like Jesus?”

Yes, by pursuing his righteousness, character, and what it means to love and be human. Not as pertains to his sense of humor, his “intro or extrovertedness,” his skills and giftings, or the color of his loincloth.

There are a lot of different ways to go with this. That as the Church, we’re supposed to embrace our different personalities, skills, and strengths…or that God has created each one of us to be unique, yet we all bear His image…or that even the disciples, the people that were around Jesus the most, had very different abilities, social tendencies, and ways of worshiping and serving God.

But the question I’ve been asking myself for the last two years is,

What does it look like for Chris Kopp to become more like Jesus Christ and to fulfill more of my God-given potential?

Not, what does it look like for me to become more like Francis Chan? And not, what does it look like for me to become more like _____________, the good-looking, loveable, leader at Church ABC?

But what does it look like for me to become more like Jesus, given my unique talents, personality, and other attributes?

Ever ask yourself that question? It seems like it should be fairly easy to answer, but man, do I struggle with coming up with an answer.

It’s kind of like a beautiful guitar that’s not working quite right. We have to dig and get in there to see how we’re wired, who we’ve been created to be, and how we operate. Until we go through the sometimes painful process of figuring some of those things out, we’re like a mess of wires and twisted strings.

But just like how that same guitar can absolutely sing when it’s understood how that guitar works and how it’s supposed to be used, I’m hoping the same might be true of me. That as I learn more about who God’s created me to be, how I interact with God, and how I interact with others, I can quit pretending I’m something or someone I’m not and rest in the fact that this is who God pre-destined me to be before the foundation of the earth was laid.

This is eternal life in the flesh – the process of becoming who we were created to be that begins when we entrust our lives to Christ, gets hammered out in as many days as God grants us, and is brought to completion in death. It’s an incredibly messy process. One whose path is by no means clear most of the time, and one which will never be finished here on earth, but a process that will one day be brought to completion.

“He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6

-CK

In Cars We Trust

Some people just stink at driving. Others make dumb decisions, are inattentive because they’re texting or talking on their cell phones, or simply miscommunicate with other drivers. I’ve been guilty of most of these, but fortunately none of them have resulted in car accidents.

I’ve been amazed as I’ve been driving the past few weeks of all the times I could’ve been an unfortunate victim of someone else’s driving mistakes or plain bad luck. Passing a car on the left on the interstate, a woman didn’t see me, started to move into my lane so I quickly sped up, narrowly avoiding her clipping the back side of my car. Driving to work one day, I was in the right lane minding my own business when someone making a left turn into a gas station failed to signal, causing the two cars behind them to both slam on their breaks in a hurry. Luckily no one tried to swerve into my lane to avoid the stopping car. And just last week, I left for work a few minutes later than usual and came upon a pretty bad accident that had to have happened only a minute or two earlier.

We all experience these things regularly, although we’re not always quite as fortunate.

One of the things this has turned my attention toward is how much trust in other people it takes to get in our cars and drive every single day. Every time we pass someone, pull up to an intersection, or drive during rush hour, we’re trusting hundreds and thousands of people to be responsible for their own vehicles, otherwise putting our own lives in jeopardy.

Call it pessimism (I like to call it a healthy dose of reality!), but I don’t like to put too much confidence in the general public and their overall ability to make wise decisions.

That being said, it’s kind of convicting to me to think about how willing I am to put my life in the hands of all of these other drivers, and how unwilling I am at times to entrust different areas of my life to God. I think I’m probably like most people in that I desire to have control over my own life and well-being.

Said another way, I’m more willing to trust the woman talking on her cell phone next to me on the interstate not to drift into me than I am to trust God to provide for my family’s financial needs. I would rather take matters into my own hands, doing whatever I can to control the situation.

The way of Jesus is one that demands radical trust. He himself entrusted his life by way of the Cross to God’s plan, confident in the fact that entering into the Father’s story was better than trying to write one for himself.

And that’s what we’re called to. Every day, we have to decide if we’re going to live for our own story, seeking power, money, and prestige, or if we are going to trust that finding our niche in God’s story is the better option. The good news is that we’re giving up control to One who has proved Himself to be more powerful, loving, and worthy of trust than anyone else will ever be. -CK

Jonny Lang and Jesus

The Gospel is not just a metaphor that we can pull out of TV shows, nature, and relationships. It is the power of God that changes lives. It’s changed mine, and it’s changed billions of other peoples’ lives throughout the course of history.

One of those lives that has been changed in miraculous ways is the life of guitar prodigy, Jonny Lang.

I still remember the first time I saw Jonny on TV. He was playing a special concert on the Disney channel of all places. I was 12, he was 17. I hadn’t even started playing guitar yet at the time, and I definitely didn’t like the blues yet, but that concert changed both of those things rather quickly. I and thousands of other people were quickly impressed by his seasoned guitar playing and soulful voice.

One of the things that a lot of people who heard him sing for more than five minutes said was that, “It sounds like he’s been smoking for 20 years,” yet he was barely 18.

Turns out he hadn’t been smoking for quite that long, but since he was 11, and was quickly turning into an alcoholic. Here’s what Lang says about those years.

“I started smoking when I was 11. I joined my first band when I was 13, and shortly thereafter started drinking and smoking pot. From there I just started drinking more and more, until it got the point where I was definitely an alcoholic. I couldn't not drink. I had to wake up and drink. I was smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, and then I just started getting into all sorts of other kinds of drugs. I was partying pretty hard, and, you know, loving it. I loved doing that stuff. I never got to the point where I thought, Oh, I have to stop. I don't think I really ever gave myself enough time to be in reality to know that I was at rock bottom. Any time I'd think, Oh, there's reality, I'd just go over here and smoke this or snort that, you know. I just tried to keep reality at bay as best I could.”

Things were obviously going downhill quickly, and Lang seemed destined for the same fate as many of the prodigies that came before him.

I knew Jonny was a Christian prior to going to his show a couple nights ago, just from reading some things online and after listening to his most recent gospel album, but I had not yet read this interview.

Yet, something seemed different about him as I watched him onstage – something that I hadn’t seen the last time I saw him play almost six years ago. There was something very spiritual happening in the room, whether simply because of what was coming out of his guitar or the few intimate moments of singing soulful Gospel music, his palm facing up, as if there was only One person he was singing for.

And there was something different about him. Turns out, several years ago, the Gospel and the power of Jesus Christ changed him in a drastic and miraculous way.

“What got me off of that stuff was this one moment when God touched my life. I never really had an experience where I said, "I need you God." It wasn't like that. I was definitely spiritually hungry, but I was never necessarily desperate for God. But then one day he just did it anyway.

My wife Haylie and I were friends at the time. Her dad, Cliff, was kind of like another dad to me. He was terminally ill, and he was being taken care of at their home. They thought he had maybe a couple of weeks to live, so I was hanging out at their place. One night, I went to my buddy's place, and we were going to smoke pot. He only lived a few minutes away, but when we walked in the door, the phone rang. It was Hailey's mom, saying Cliff had just died, just in that 10 minutes we were gone. We left to go back immediately, and as I was going down the hallway, I just felt, I mean, I know it was the Holy Spirit now, but then I didn't have any idea what it was. It was just like a wind that went wham right into my chest, and it stopped me in the hallway. It was unbelievable, and I was so caught off guard by it. I wasn't thinking about God or anything. I had no clue what just happened, but something just happened.

After a while I asked Haylie if she would like to go out back and talk for a while. And honestly, I just felt really relieved that this was over, that Cliff wasn't suffering any more, and they could start healing. At that point, it was like this big weight had been lifted. Again, I was not thinking about God, not at all. In the middle of our conversation, from that same spot that I felt something had hit me earlier, I just felt something start welling up, just burning in me, and it came up out of my throat. It was like I was throwing up, and the name "Jesus" just came out of my mouth. I just said "Jesus.” And when I said "Jesus," my whole body started shaking. Haylie was looking right at me. This is the part of my story where I've just said, "Lord, if I'm ever doing interviews, what should I say?" People are going to think I'm insane, you know? Nevertheless, it's what happened. I knew it was Jesus immediately from the moment I started shaking. It was like he just came up and introduced himself to me. I remember him saying, "You don't have to have this if you don't want it." And I said, "No, I want it." I kept shaking, and I knew when it was done that I had been completely set free of all my addictions, and I knew that I didn't have to smoke or drink or do drugs anymore. All I could do was fall on the ground, and I gave my life to him right there. I was just in shock. I thought, I totally despised you, and you just did this to me. It's been a process ever since.”

Crazy. Absolutely crazy.

I kept thinking about Lang’s experience for awhile after I went to bed, and a couple things stood out to me.

It’s indisputable that God has blessed Jonny Lang’s life and career. He was extremely talented as an 18 year old when he first made it big as a blues guitarist, and not only has his guitar playing continued to improve, but he has an extremely unique and incredible, soulful voice that almost stands out more than his guitar playing now.

Whether God used the damage done to his throat and vocal chords by the smoking and drinking to develop such a unique voice or was able to do so despite it, the Lord took one of Lang’s most visible areas of brokenness, depravity and sin and redeemed it to make something ridiculously beautiful, and one of his greatest strengths.

Jonny’s wife, Haylie, also became a Christian, and in one night, God likely saved their relationship from immeasurable pain and suffering at the hands of the alcohol and drugs’ destructive path.

Jesus is a game-changer. The Gospel changes lives. And selfishly, I’m glad it changed Jonny Lang’s. Because even though life isn’t always fair and it doesn’t usually work out the way we expect it to, I’m thankful that he will hopefully continue to make great music for a long, long time and that I’ll get the chance to worship Jesus our Savior alongside him for all of eternity. I mean, it’s Heaven. He has to let me play with him. Right? :) -CK

*Full interview originally appeared in Christianity Today. http://www.thefish.com/music/interviews/11618032/

Sovereignty in a Sunset

After a long, frustrating day at one job and a few more hours at the next, I pulled out of the parking lot, sun-setting, and the refrain, “O praise Him! He is holy!” pouring through the speakers. And in that moment, I was thankful for just how “other, set apart” and simply different than me God is.

My life isn’t all that difficult or hard, but I’m thankful for a God that is more than capable of holding the world together when I’m stressed out, who has a perfect plan for my life even when I’m confused, and who has more than enough mercy and grace for me in every situation. It’s like God purposely paints a beautiful sunset for us to see at the end of each day just to remind us that there’s a God who loves us and is in complete control.

No matter how bad our day seemed to be, or how out-of-control life seems to be, the sun still sets and it will rise again in the morning. There’s a beautiful consistency and sovereignty in that.

In the midst of this, it occurred to me that the Cross is kind of like Scripture’s sunset.

Even when God seemed to have lost control of His creation, when He seemed to be helpless and vulnerable as Jesus was beaten and crucified, and when for three days it seemed this whole Jesus “Christ” thing was all for nothing, there was more to the story. God ultimately was in control and brought order and beauty out of chaos and destruction.

At the end of the day, if God can cause the sun to set and to rise again, and if God can bring righteousness, hope, love and relationship out of a wooden cross and a few nails, He can probably manage my problems from today.

“In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world.”

Sounds A Lot Like Me

In Wednesday’s post, I talked about something I had come across recently, a “Credo for Support” for working with people with developmental disabilities. In Part One, I addressed how no one likes to be told that they need to change, but everyone needs people in their lives that can point out the sin that we ourselves can’t see. This post is a continuation, addressing more from the Credo about brokenness.

Probably the line from the Credo that stood out to me the most was this:

“Do not try to fix me because I am not broken.”

Any more broken than the rest of us?

No.

But broken nonetheless?

Yes.

Ever since beginning this job, I’ve wanted to keep at the forefront of my mind that I have many of the same problems, attitudes, and weaknesses as those with developmental disabilities that I work with. I daily have opportunities to recognize this if I’m careful to pay attention to it.

Two examples:

(These are fictional examples, only meant to illustrate some of the things I’ve realized I have in common with those I work with. Names and exact details have been altered or made up for the sake of confidentiality.)

#1

Two men, we’ll call them Jonathan and Nathan, are talking to each other during their game of basketball. One thing leads to another, and as often happens when you have two competitive people in a room, Jonathan takes the bantering a little too far and says something to demean Nathan’s basketball skills (something he’s quite proud of!).

Nathan’s natural reaction – to give Jonathan an earful with several choice words, hand gestures, yelling, and so on, creating quite the little scene in the park in the process. But at the root of what appears to be extreme behavior on the part of Nathan in the way that he reacts to the criticism, is the same thing that’s going on in my mind and heart when I’m in the same position. Anger, wanting to protect my reputation, pride, maybe even holding back physical aggression.

The only difference is, I know how to hide it better, and with Nathan, that filter that I have somewhere in my brain just doesn’t work the same.

#2

Another man, Lewis, is constantly talking about all of his different jobs. Some days he’s in the army, others he’s an engineer, or fire fighter, or professional athlete. Lewis will see someone from across the room and having never met them, proclaim to everyone, “That’s my friend!” Every night there’s someone’s birthday party to go to and every day he catches a huge fish or shoots a prize-winning deer.

In my opinion, what seems like very different, even obnoxious behavior and social tendencies is really just the result of a need that we all have – for community, to feel wanted, to feel like we’re contributing to society in some way.

And again, the same things resonate with me, and many of the things that I do in my own life are in pursuit of those very same needs.

The only difference is, I know how to hide it better.

* * * * *

I’m not all that different from the people that I work with. I have many of the same problems and behaviors as they do, but we all have the same thing going for us.

We were created in God’s image.

That means that when I set aside my pride and the comparison game and they let me into their lives and help me to see what’s really going on inside of them, we’re all capable of helping each other grow and to change, hopefully becoming more and more like the people that God created us to be. -CK