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An Open Letter of Apology to My Non-Christian Friend

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Photo by Alexis Brown
Photo by Alexis Brown

Dear friend,

I am sorry for the times I’ve failed to invite you to church. It’s not because I’d be embarrassed or ashamed of you – indeed I would be honored to have you with me! It has much more to do with my fear of you turning me down. But that fear doesn’t really give much credit to our friendship, does it?

I’m sorry when my words and actions don’t align with the right and wrong of my faith, and you end up seeing the hypocritical side of me. While I’m not proud of it, consider it me modeling how much I need forgiveness. Be patient – I’ll be spending the rest of my life working on it.

I’m sorry for the times I’ve confused my political beliefs with my religious beliefs. While my political views are understandably shaped by my faith, no one knows better than I do to keep the two separate. No political party, after all, has ever ushered a single saint into heaven. Only Jesus does that. I forget that sometimes.

I’m sorry for giving the impression that I think my sins aren’t as bad as yours or those of others. I know quite well how God feels about all sin. I am also grateful to know and believe what he’s done about it (… he’s forgiven it).

I’m sorry for not bringing up Jesus in more of our conversations. My connection with him is the 1 thing that matters to me more than anything else… which probably isn’t terribly obvious to you if you hear me mention him so infrequently.

I’m sorry for my lack of availability on Sunday mornings due to church. As dear a friend as you truly are to me, I have another Friend with whom I cherish that time together. Besides, the more time I spend with Him, the better a friend I’ll be to you.

BTW, if you’d ever like to meet Him, I am gradually gaining more confidence in introducing my friends to Him. I’d be happy to connect you. Just let me know.

In Christ,

Your Christian friend

 

 

 

Stop Trying to Be “Helpful.”

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"helpful"
Image by © Royalty-Free/Corbis

“Can* I do it?”

It is every parent’s favorite question of a child, especially when urgency calls or efficiency demands that mom or dad fix/cook/bake/etc. it ASAP. We’re torn between responding with a “next time” and just getting it quickly completed ourselves or, letting junior jump in and help, knowing full well that doing so will require two things:

  1. Extreme patience
  2. More extreme patience
  3. The willingness to either

a) finish what your “helpful” child got bored with after approximately 2.34 seconds and instead decided to go off and annoy his sibling who was playing perfectly peacefully all on his own with his little toy that kept him occupied and out of trouble but who now is screaming bloody murder because formerly “helpful” child knew with astounding efficiency which button of his to push in record time – about 2.34 seconds, ironically, or

b) undo and/or redo whatever “helpful” child ultimately “contributed” to the initial task at hand.

(I suppose there is also the possibility in the above scenario that the “helpful” child does, on occasion, actually help, does an excellent job, and we’re thrilled to have spent the quality time together with our kid, but

  1. we want to do everything we can to avoid giving our kids a big head,
  2. the scenario in which the helpful child does get it right doesn’t actually serve in any way to help me make the point at which I am eventually going to arrive,
  3. I think we can all agree that the outline above was getting ridiculously out of hand and went well beyond the initial “two things” promised,
  4. oh dear, I’m doing it again.)

So where am I going with this? Glad you asked, one person who is still reading this. 

The tendency of our children to ask, “Can I do it?” is not unique to children. In fact, it is the very same question – or rather insistence – that each and every one of us has in our relationship with God. We are naturally wired to think that we can do something, anything – big or small – to buddy up to him and establish some sort of pleasing partnership or real relationship with him. We’re not so interested in what He has to say about it; we know that we want to contribute and, by golly, we’re going to help.

There’s just one problem: our “help” isn’t actually helpful at all. In fact, it doesn’t count for anything. Ever. God says quite clearly that your “good enough” isn’t good enough (cf. James 2:10).

“Can I do it?”

The answer is no. You can’t.

But… that’s only the first part of the answer. It gets better. Here’s the rest of God’s answer to the question, “Can I do it?”:

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9).

 

He already did it. By grace.

Let that be enough, and stop trying to “help.”

 

*Attention grammar police: I can relate to the consternation you no doubt experience when encountering a “Can” in place of a proper “May.” I share your pain. Please excuse it just this once… as well as any future posts in which grave grammar offenses will undoubtedly occur.

Ashamed.

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I am ashamed.

I am embarrassed.

On this day after our presidential election, I am not proud to be an American.

I am astonished that Donald Trump is our president elect.

This was not the outcome I expected. I fully accepted that the next president of the United States of America would be Hillary Clinton.

But the outcome of the election is not why I am ashamed.

It is not why I am embarrassed.

No, the reason I am not proud to be an American has nothing to do with the way Americans voted.

It has everything to do with the way Americans treated Americans who voted… or treated those who embraced their right not to vote.

I have never seen an uglier side of the citizens of the United States of America – regardless of political affiliation – than during this presidential election.

We “celebrate” our diversity… by vilifying other races or orientations who didn’t vote as we did. We are polarized. We hate each other because we have different values and views… all while hiding behind this facade that we’re totally cool with it.

That’s not on any presidential candidate. We don’t get to place that blame on someone else’s political stumping or campaign speech.

That’s on us. And we can’t fix it until we own it. Each and every one of us.

America, we have a problem… and it has very little to do with the outcome of this election.

It has everything to do with the citizens – you and me.

No president will fix that.

Only you can.

You want to be proud of this country?

Fix you. You’re what’s wrong.

But no one else can do that for you. Only you can.

I can’t.

I’ll be too busy working on me.

October Surprise

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I’ve heard more this election year than I ever recall hearing about the “October Surprise.” As I understand it, this phrase is a reference to presidential election year bombshells that are dropped the month prior to the election in November.

Here’s an October Surprise for you: the outcome of the Presidential Election next month doesn’t matter.

That’s right. It doesn’t matter.

It will not impact one single soul’s eternity. Democrat? Republican? It doesn’t matter. There will be both in heaven.

There will be both in hell.

A donkey or an elephant doesn’t determine your eternity.

A cross does.

Truth (which, based on the candidates’ track record, seems to be quite elusive): A Savior died on that cross to pay the ultimate price for your sins. Believe it or don’t.

But the result of whether or not you believe it will have much farther-reaching impact on your eternity than any presidential election ever will.

Don’t let your eternity be a surprise.