comm U nity

I don’t think it’s possible to fully appreciate community until you’ve been without it for a season, have had the privilege of sharing it with a small group of people for many years, or both. I think we tend to think of community in terms of simply doing things with a large group of friends and acquaintances and as a result, we tend to settle for this kind of shallow community – if it can be called that – largely because our definition of community falls far short.

I’ve spent some time recently thinking about what exactly it was that led me to give my life to Christ almost six years ago at an October retreat. I had always said that it was the first time I had heard the Gospel presented clearly, and while that’s mostly true, there’s probably more to it than that.

Namely, it’s the first time I’d seen a Christian community I wanted to be a part of and thus probably the first time I gave the Gospel a chance.

Because let’s face it, when you’re an 18 year-old kid that’s never seen the truths of the Gospel lived out in community, the Good News just seems like an ancient tradition lacking any relevance, meaning, or power.

But all in the same weekend I understood the claims of Christ for the first time and I saw the life and kind of relationships that could only be possible through a relationship with God.

In that moment, did I completely understand that I was an adopted son of God? Did I know what the word “propitiation” meant? Or was I able to describe the Trinity?

In a word, no. (Still can’t explain the Trinity!)

But I knew that Jesus is God, that He died and was resurrected so that I might be forgiven and have a relationship with Him, and that my life was to be spent trying to glorify Him (this last part was especially mind-altering and life-changing for me).

And I saw the life of Jesus being lived out in my peers that weekend as we played football, people onstage sang, and we talked about life as men and as college students.

I recently sat around a table with a group of friends I had met that year and I can’t even begin to explain what a blessing it is to still have those people beside me now. People that have been around the world with me, have had fun with me, have been mad at me, and have made me into the person that I am today.

This has probably been happening for a long time, but lately I have noticed more and more how much the people God has placed in my life have been speaking encouragement and wisdom into my life and have affirmed the talents, gifts, and character traits that they’ve seen in me. During a season where I’ve had the chance to take a (rather large) step back from things and re-evaluate what direction my life and ministry is heading, people have gone out of their way to encourage me in the different ways they’ve seen God working in and through me.

Fairly recently, an author in the public eye made headlines when she declared that she was still a “follower of Christ” (as they like to be called) but that she was removing herself from the Church and the term “Christian.”

While I won’t get in to how ridiculous this is, let me assert that it’s also something else that most people are failing to consider…

Selfish.

The concept of the Church isn’t about “what I can get from the Church.” That’s an incredibly distorted way of looking at it.

When I was in college, I ran into a freshman who said he had gone to a certain Christian organization’s weekly meeting but that he hadn’t returned and wasn’t interested in finding any other ministry or church because “he ‘knew’ he was more mature” than everyone else there.

While his “maturity” is perhaps in question, he clearly had the wrong mindset about community.

What I’m trying to say is that we need to both receive and give community.

To isolate ourselves from community isn’t just harmful to us as individuals but it’s harmful to the community that you could be a part of.

That community needs your encouragement, your gifts, and your speaking into others’ lives words of affirmation and hope, because there’s a lot at stake.

For me as an 18 year-old kid, my eternal well-being was at stake. And as I continue in my walk as a Christian, my relationship with God, my ministry, and the talents and gifts I decide to pursue are still very much at stake. -CK

Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:24-25

Melinda and Melinda

It seems probable that two lives lived in basically the same way with about the same trials and challenges could be perceived in two completely different ways - one as full of joy, happiness, and blessing and the other as painful, lonely and unfair. But I don't think we come to the end of our lives and just "end up" in one polar opposite or the other. Instead, every day is filled with simple choices that determine the perception of a life's outcome.

A couple weeks ago, I watched an older Will Ferrell movie that slipped under the radar, called Melinda and Melinda. It starts with four film writers sitting around a dinner table discussing how the same basic details of a story can be turned into a tragedy or a comedy. What follows are the "two" stories of Melinda, played out side-by-side, one a tragedy, the other a comedy.

While it wasn't where the movie ended up going, it made me think about how I look at the events that take place in my own life.

I've certainly gone through seasons of thinking that life sucks, God is unfair, and that I wasn't getting what I "deserved" - and that never ends up well. No one wants to be around a bitter person that's mad at the world, and things never change for the better when there's no hope and no expectation of change and blessing.

On the other hand, I've also gone through seasons where, still difficult, by God's grace I've managed to choose joy, hope, and the discipline of thankfulness. This is probably one of those seasons, and while life isn't maybe exactly what I'd hoped it would look like, I've been blessed to experience love, growth, and joy like never before in my life.

And it's certainly not fate or happenstance that I've ended up here, but a choice to wake up each day, expect to experience the Lord's mercy and grace, and to choose thanksgiving before complaining, joy before misery, and blessedness before bitterness.

In a recent article in Rolling Stone magazine, Stephen Colbert had some insightful things to say about suffering after the loss of his mother.

"Not to get too deep here, but the most valuable thing I can think of is to be grateful for suffering. That is a sublime feeling, and completely inexplicable and illogical, but no one doesn't suffer. So the degree to which you can be aware of your own humanity is the degree to which you can accept, with open eyes, your suffering. To be grateful for your suffering is to be grateful for your humanity, because what else are you going to do - say, 'No thanks?' It's there. 'Smile and accept,' said Mother Teresa. And she was talking to people who had it rough."

As you continue in a discipline of joy and gratitude, I think you will find that your "tongue-in-cheek" kind of thankfulness will turn into an unforced, real, and genuine kind of thankfulness that overflows in every situation and is extremely contagious.

And perhaps, no longer will you have to rack your brain trying to find the good in every situation, but you'll be able to trust in the Lord's goodness and find a joy and peace that surpasses all understanding.

Certainly, there is no greater or more difficult discipline than making the most out of suffering. But Scripture tells us that this discipline is of tremendous personal benefit.

"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." Hebrews 12:11

Training is hard, yet it's worth it. It's meant to inflict pain so that we can flourish in the midst of lesser trials. But it's also a choice. Suffering doesn't automatically equal training unless we choose to be trained by it.

So choose wisely, because no one wants to be that old, lonely, grumpy guy at the end of their lives. -CK

Unconditional Love and Bragging Rights

Ephesians 5:25 and what follows has long been one of my favorite parts of Scripture, even before I was married.

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church.”

It’s both a beautiful description of the sacrificial love between a husband and wife and a declaration that a sacrifice has already been made for us.

It’s a command for husbands to love and protect their wives as they would their own hands and feet while at the same time showing that Christ already does love us in that way – not because we have done anything to deserve it or earn it but simply because we are a part of him.

It’s a picture of wild, crazy, unconditional love described in human terms, but it also means that through our spouses and any relationship for that matter, we can experience God’s love and better understand the depth of how passionate He is about us.

Which means it’s time to brag about my wife!

For a month or two now I’ve been processing through and writing about what it means to be a child of God, and how my Father loves me regardless of what I can do or create. I am deeply loved and cherished because of who I am, and because I am his son.

Recently, I had waited a couple weeks to find out if I had earned something I had been competing for. By the time I found out, I was pretty laid back about it and content with whatever happened, but Amy was very nervous for me and was constantly checking my email to see if we had heard anything. The phone call came and I was rejected, but the look on her face was one of pride and complete love and adoration and without any hint of shame or disappointment in my inability to come out on top.

As I went to bed that night, I couldn’t have been more proud to be her husband or felt any more loved for who I was than in that moment. It quickly dawned on me that she has always loved me like that.

Coming home from basketball games, she’s never asked who won – she doesn’t really care about the final score. She doesn’t care if hundreds of people read my blog or if only she does – she just likes to read them. And she doesn’t particularly care if I’m playing music in front of 500 people or just in our living room for her – she just likes to hear me sing.

Even when I’m down about my inability to do this or that, consumed with not having a more “prestigious” job, or just flat out fail at something, I know that I am completely loved by her, not because of what I do or accomplish but because I’m her husband and she knows who I am.

And getting to experience that from her does two things.

It makes me fall even more in love with her and makes me want to serve her and cherish her like I never have before. And it helps me to experience God’s love and to know that it really is possible that He loves me deeply, simply because I’m his son.

Because if she’s capable of loving me like that, He certainly is too. -CK

Longing

There’s a feeling I get in my gut after I say goodbye to old friends that I don’t get to see very often. It’s similar to the feeling I get occasionally when my wife and I or my friend and I are trying to express what’s going on deep within our hearts but there’s some invisible disconnect that makes it seemingly impossible. Which is similar to the almost depressing feeling I get when nothing around me really seems to hold my interest or to completely satisfy my deepest desires.

It’s the feeling that something is missing, or at least, not as it’s supposed to be.

Whether it’s longing for a day when everyone I’ve ever loved will be reunited in one place to never leave again, looking forward to a time when mine and others’ social inadequacies will no longer prevent us from knowing each other fully and being fully known, or finding complete joy and satisfaction not in what I’m able to accomplish or the things I own but in relationship with others – in this moment, life is not as it should be – yet.

Call it a moment of depression, laziness, mourning, longing, or whatever else, but I think it’s something deep within my being that is sensing that either I’m not who I was created to be, the world is not as it’s supposed to be, or a combination of the two.

And it’s true. I haven’t yet fully realized who I’m supposed to be and whose I’m supposed to be. And at any given moment, I may be utterly failing at living in what God has declared to be true about me. That I am His son, that I am fully loved regardless of my skills or what I can do for Him, and that my deepest needs and desires are met in the person of Jesus Christ.

And the world is certainly not as it was created to be. It doesn’t take much more than a quick glimpse at the front page of a newspaper to figure that out.

Something is missing, or not as it’s supposed to be.

Yet that feeling of insufficiency or of yearning for something more is an opportunity to hope.

Hope that things will change. Hope that I will become who I was created to be. Hope that the earth will one day function as it’s supposed to.

Hope for Heaven.

As painful as those realizations of inadequacy, loneliness, or dissatisfaction may be, it gives us the opportunity to hope and long for Heaven. Fortunately, I think if we had any real sense of the glory and the riches of Heaven, the divide between Heaven and earth would appear exponentially greater and the pain of longing would be too much to bear.

Even though my mind can hardly fathom the majesty of Heaven and being face to face with my Savior and King, I will likely have sufficient opportunity to hope for Heaven and long for Him.

Here’s to a night of longing. -CK

My Jesus

Second re-posted blog and last one of the week. Be back in a week or so! -CK

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June 2006

How does YOUR view of Jesus affect your trust in Him?

As time has passed since Jesus hung on a cross to die for our sins nearly 2000 years ago, I think our view of Jesus has slowly been minimalized. When Jesus speaks of "an unbelieving generation" in the Gospels I immediately think of our current generation. Too many times here in South Carolina have I heard, "I think Jesus definitely lived, but I don't know...the miracles and stuff, it seems a little far fetched." If you asked most "Christians" these days, how many people would give a similar answer?

The problem with this is that if you think the miracles which Jesus performed are unlikely to have occurred, how much moreso are you doubting the death and the resurrection? Jesus couldn't turn water into wine or heal a blind man, but yes, he was resurrected from the dead?....The basis for your faith is completely blown away.

I use this only as an example. Most people reading this blog will probably not disagree with the Jesus portrayed in the Gospels of the New Testament, but how many other ways do we limit Jesus?

Here's a quote from Blaise Pascal:"God made man in his own image and man returned the compliment."Brennan Manning goes on to write in "The Signature of Jesus" that,"Through five decades I have seen Christians shaping Jesus in their own image - in each case a dreadfully small deity."

I admit to all of you that, yes, I believe that Jesus lived and did all the things the Gospels say he did, but at the same time, I don't always take Him at His word. By this I mean, sure I believe it when Jesus says that, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."But do I also believe Him and trust Him when He says not to worry about money or the approval of others? Painfully, the answer is a resounding "no".

I have a very hard time surrendering things to Jesus like my future. "I'll go wherever you want me to go Jesus and do whatever you want me to do...just as long as I don't have to raise support to go on a Stint or become a Campus Crusade staff member." I'm sure many of us could say things very similar to this, but why is it that we can't trust God to let us surrender these things to Him?

In my opinion,we don't completely trust God because we have a small view of Him, a small view of Jesus. I think maybe for some of us that view stems from what we saw of God in our own fathers, our own loved ones, our own friends, people that are human and ultimately have let us down at some point in our lives.

But no matter how many times that person has said "jump" and then failed to catch you,Jesus will ALWAYS be there to catch you. Trust the Lord and that what the Bible says is true and surrender to Him whatever it is you're holding on to TODAY!

But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.-Isaiah 40:31

May God be increasing our faith and our view of who He is.

Waiting on God

I'm going to take a week or two break from posting new content due to the busyness of the end of the summer, and if I was Donald Miller I would just have my dog take over for a couple weeks, but since I don't have a dog, I came up with a different plan. With hopefully about the same frequency as before, I will be posting blogs that I wrote 2-3 years ago on a different website. They obviously come from a different season of life for me but will hopefully be life-giving nonetheless. Please forgive the formatting errors and enjoy. -CK

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Last time I briefly discussed how life is like a giant hill that requires us to slow down and take things a little bit at a time as opposed to making one giant leap.

And consequently…how many of us are like an eight year-old girl riding a bike.

I have no brilliant metaphor this time (or maybe you thought it was terrible, I guess you're relieved then) but instead will take a look in the Bible at what it means to wait on the Lord's timing.

First, let me just say that though the word "wait" seems very passive and lazy, let me suggest that waiting actually requires a very active faith that is in no way passive or lazy. I don't know about you, but I would much rather be DOING something in an effort to reach a certain goal as opposed to waiting.

I feel like I have more control that way…which is probably why God makes us wait so much.

But God wastes no time in the Bible showing us what it means to faithfully and obediently wait. Genesis 2:2 says, "By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done."

As a college student I know that it sounds like a crazy idea to think that I could take one day each week and not do any schoolwork, and I'm sure being a man or woman with a career would be no different. But the Sabbath was meant to be more than just one of the Ten Commandments…

What God is trying to tell us is this:"The Earth doesn't stop revolving when you cease to work! I did create the Universe in six days, so if that's enough to earn your trust, I'm pretty sure things will be okay if you take a day off and be still before Me."

God shows the Israelites what it means to rely on Him instead of taking matters into their own hands during the exile from Egypt: "The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." (Exodus 14:14)…how cool is that!

While there's no getting around the fact that waiting for something and trusting God for something can be one of the hardest things we have to do, it can also be one of the most rewarding. God IS sovereign, and choosing to wait on Him just gives Him another chance to prove His love and faithfulness to us.

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." (Proverbs 13:12)

I want to briefly (hopefully) go through two examples in the Old Testament of what it means to actively wait on the Lord's timing and to faithfully persevere even when things don't look like they're going to turn out right.

Anyone that's ever been in a long-distance relationship or waited for a long time before a certain relationship finally came to fruition should appreciate this first example. From perhaps one of my favorite sections of Scripture is the story of Jacob and Rachel in Genesis 29.

Earlier in the chapter Jacob meets Rachel as she's tending to her father's sheep and probably decides right then and there to marry her. As the story goes on, he agrees with Rachel's father Laban to work for him for SEVEN YEARS in exchange for his daughter.

Seven years…

"But they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her."

(Aww…you won't even find a line from a romantic comedy that good!)

As if that wasn't long enough, the deceptive Jacob gets a taste of his own medicine and when the seven years of labor is up, Laban tricks him into sleeping with Rachel's older sister Leah.

So Jacob agrees to work for Laban forseven more yearsin order to have Rachel!

7 + 7 =14 Years!!!

During a time when most women got married by the time they were 15 or 16, this is remarkable! Think about it…Jacob could not only have found another woman after he realized that this would take so long, but by the time his 14 years of labor had passed, he could have picked from a whole new generation of women!

God loved to bless Jacob and Jacob loved to be blessed, but this time it took a little longer.

But he perseveres and waits on God's timing because he loves her. Actively and faithfully waiting.

The second example is also from Genesis as we talk about Abraham and God's promise to him to be fruitful and multiply.

In chapter 15, while Abraham is still childless, God makes a covenant with him that one of his own sons will become his heir and that his offspring will be as numerous as the stars in the sky.

What's more, God TELLS HIM IN ADVANCE that his "descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated FOUR HUNDRED YEARS" before reaching the Promised Land.

Abraham has no children for his wife is barren, he's increasing in age, and God tells him that even if a miracle happens and he is able to produce offspring, his descendants will be enslaved for 400 years!…yet he believes and trusts Him.

It isn't until six chapters later and Abraham is 100 years old that his wife Sarah finally conceives their first child, Isaac.

What was Abraham thinking as he waited 100 years for even the possibility that God's promise to him would be carried out!? "What was I thinking!?…leaving behind everything that I once knew and for WHAT!? My wife is barren and I am old…how am I EVER going to conceive a child!? I thought that was YOU God!?…Your entire promise to me HINGES on me having a child!"

But Abraham waited and the rest is history. Actively and faithfully waiting.

You get the point. We could go through the story in Genesis of Joseph's dreams and imprisonment, we could talk about Paul's patience in affliction as he sat in jail, we could talk about Isaac and Rebekah also having to wait to conceive a child of their own…but you get the point.

But perhaps God's ultimate story of waiting on His timing was written a couple thousand years later…

Men and women left everything behind to follow Him.

His followers faced rejection and went two-by-two throughout the country to tell people about Him.

He proclaimed that He was the One they had been expecting.

He proclaimed that He alone was the way to eternal life.

…and then He died.

For THREE WHOLE DAYS, His disciples probably thought that everything that they had devoted the past few years of their lives to and everything that they had believed in and hoped in had quickly been destroyed in an instant.

…but three days later He is raised from the dead.

Those same disciples would go on to give their lives for the sake of the Gospel and do immeasurably more for the Kingdom of God than they probably could have ever imagined in their wildest dreams.

Three days earlier they thought that they had been defeated…but they just had to wait.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that entangles, andlet us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let usfix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men,so thatyou will not grow weary and lose heart." (Hebrews 12:1-3)