Last night was one of those nights where our kids swiftly re-asserted who’s in charge. You get into these rhythms where everyone is sleeping through the night, in their own beds, going to bed at bedtime, waking up when it’s reasonable to wake up… But last night was not one of those nights. All it takes is one night to remember that we’re at the mercy of these little jerks.    Avi was up a bunch, wanted to sleep in our bed… We let him lay with us for a bit but then brought him back into his room. When I put him down, I noticed Lily was out of her blankets but curled up in a ball, looking cold, so I did the right thing, and simultaneously the worst thing possible, by putting her back under her covers. And then she was up. And then Avi was up.   Long story short, at 4am both kids wanted to be in our bed and I figured it was easier for me to just get up and go to the 5am class at the gym.    The gym was good, then came home at 615 to a quiet house, poured myself some homemade cold brew with some branch-chain amino acids in it and sat down to read more of John Philip Newell’s “Christ of the Celts,” which I can’t recommend highly enough… It’s outstanding. Really amazing…   Then Elyse came down, and we had a great conversation together, about all sorts of things. Friends that disagree with us theologically, and all of the beautiful, life-giving things we’re learning from some of these spiritual giants we sit under. It made the lack fo sleep worth it… to reconnect with her before the day started, to talk about things that matter to us, and to sort of spur one another’s spirits on, into a good day ahead.    Energy works like that, doesn’t it? When we bring positive energy into a conversation, we can transfer that energy to the person we’re with. On a spiritual plain, on a quantum physics level… We can quite literally re-energize the cells and spirit of the person we’re with. Particles are jumping off of us and landing onto them, all seemingly invisible, but we can feel it, can’t we?    You can certainly feel it when it’s the opposite… When someone brings negative energy into a conversation and there’s this transfer of negativity: anxiety, worry, a weight of despair or a feeling of being helpless… These things can just jump from one person to the next… And it might actually make the first person feel better. It typically does. Someone comes in carrying a heavy spirit, they off-load it to you, they walk away feeling lifted, and we walk away burdened.    Whatever language you want to use for this, you know what I’m talking about. Some interactions leave us feeling lighter, some leave us feeling heavier. Other people’s problems thrust onto our shoulders, and we lighten their burden, but add to ours.    Then, the question is… What are you gonna do with all of that negative energy?   You have three choices.    First would be to pretend it’s not there. Ignore it. I don’t really see that as an option because I’m big on awareness and paying attention to what’s going on in my heart. Being unaware of these things is a recipe for disaster. If you’re holding a grenade and the pin has already been pulled, you’d want to know. You don’t want to accidentally blow up on the next person that walks by.    The second option is to transfer that negative energy to someone else… Which is what I most commonly do, and maybe you do too. You have a heavy conversation and you immediately need to call someone ELSE and offload some of it to them, even if it had nothing to do with them… We find the nearest or most reliable scapegoat in our lives (typically a spouse or parent) and we vent. And they catch all of it. We feel great, they probably feel significantly LESS great, but we don’t really notice. We feel good! It worked! Phew, onto the rest of our day! Not great, long-term, to live like this.    The third option is to absorb it. And this is the hardest but perhaps the most Christlike option. This is what Jesus was up to on the cross… He didn’t take all that negative energy and then transfer it BACK to humanity, continuing the cycle of sin and death and “eye for an eye” and violence and retaliation. He absorbed it. He chose not to continue the cycle.    Negative energy tends to spin up and get worse and worse. Like Sonic the Hedgehog but of darkness. It gains steam like a hurricane, everyone’s negative energy feeding into it and escalating again and again until it’s out of control.   In Exodus 21:24 it lays out an “eye for an eye” form of justice, because that WAS actually progressive 3000-4000 years ago. That was a radical form of justice, because people had a habit of escalating things. At that point it was more like, “if you take my eye, I’m going to take your children.” or “You cut me off in the parking lot and I’m going to ram your car.” or “You tweeted a threat to me so I’m going to fire off a nuclear bomb.”    This was Mosaic wisdom, this was Moses trying to keep order amongst his people. "eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.”    This is what the world looks like if everyone were to choose the second option, TRANSFER. I received this negative thing, I’ll pass it on to you.   This is where the incredible wisdom of Jesus shines. He comes on the scene a millennia into this “eye for an eye” type of justice and flips it on its’ head. In Matthew 5, Jesus says, "38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’[a] 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”    He introduces the absorption method of dealing with negative energy. Break the cycle, in the face of an enemy, bless them.    The famous quote of Mahatma Ghandi was basically him riffing on Jesus’ teaching, when he said, “an Eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.”    During the US Civil War, hatred became entrenched between the North and South. In one instance, President Abraham Lincoln was criticized for speaking of benevolent treatment for the Southern rebels. The critic reminded Lincoln that there was a war going on, the Confederates were the enemy, and they should be destroyed. But Lincoln wisely responded, “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”    When an absorber steps in... it changes everything. It disrupts the cycle; throws it off balance. When someone decides to NOT pass that negative energy on, they win. They defeat that energy. It dissipates. The world is quite literally a better place. This little demon that was once alive, jumping from person to person, disrupting God’s shalom, is now dead. And you killed it. Good job.   But how do we become absorbers that don’t eventually get exasperated? Because there is definitely an unhealthy was to absorb other people’s garbage… I see it all the time, and sometime’s I’m guilty of it too. We take a burden off of someone’s shoulders and feel pretty proud of ourselves, but then accidentally might end up feeling bitter or angry or sour towards that person. Or our self-righteousness gets to be too much, we have a little Messiah complex that needs dealing with.    To absorb this negative energy in a healthy way, we have to break it down. We have to process it and properly digest it. We have to break it back down into its’ original ingredients. Deconstruct it from the little demon it had become and recognize all the little puzzle pieces that made it what it was.    “Oh, here’s a little bit of discouragement that paired with confusion. Here’s someone’s dream getting overlooked, here’s some pain from a back-handed comment someone else made… And look, it all manifested into this angry little demon.”    No wonder. It didn’t just come out of nowhere… It was financial stress that came out of a lack of discipline that paired with a lack of sleep and an unhealthy self-image that had some bass note of a bad childhood memory reverberating under it all… That’s how this little demon was born, and you broke it back down into those parts… And what that created in you wasn’t more darkness or anger or negativity…   It was compassion. Compassion.    An empathy for where that darkness came from. An understanding. Not a judgement, but an alignment with the perpetrator. Compassion.    And all of a sudden you find yourself invested. You have skin in the game to actually see this person get healthy, or succeed, or realize their true self in Christ… To find freedom and joy.    “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”    To absorb it doesn’t mean becoming a victim. It means becoming victor. With the right tools and proper perspective, we actually become victorious over the darkness in the world. And we, quite literally, make the world a better place to live. A safer place for our children, a more joyful neighborhood to live in, a healthier church family, a more successful and healthy work environment.    So, today… And hopefully tomorrow, and the day after that: Keep your eyes peeled for this. You’ll inevitably have someone load some sort of burden off on you, and rather than ignoring it, or simply transferring it to someone else to deal with… Process it. Break it down. Dissect it. Absorb it. Understand it. See where it came from, and allow that negative energy to convert into compassion.    I know it’s a lot for a podcast episode, but it’s important. I’ll probably spend the next few weeks processing this idea and seeing how it plays out in the real world. I invite you to do the same.    And if this idea is helpful to you, maybe tell a friend about it and have them give a listen as well.   I love you guys, make it a good day. 

What’s your reputation? When someone mentions your name, what comes to mind? Are you dependable? Playful? Depressing? Encouraging? Do you bring out the best in the people around you? Do you tend to talk about people behind their backs? Do you focus on the good and beautiful things in the world? Or do you tend to stir up controversy wherever you go? Do you help activate people’s dreams to become realities? Or do you complain about things you can’t change?    Chances are you have a different reputation amongst different people groups… If you ask my friends from high-school.. Man oh man. Not good. Very different than if you were to ask my friends from church about me.    What might your kids say about you? What about your spouse? Do those closest to you get the best version of you? Or do they get leftovers?    Maybe you don’t even care if people like you… Maybe you’re just looking for respect. Maybe you’re finally wanting to have power over people under you at work… Or maybe you’re terrified of that responsibility. Maybe that’s literally the last thing you’d ever want, and you just want to skate through unnoticed.    Our reputations are complex things… There are hundreds of different inputs that affect people’s opinions of us.    If you research creative work on reputation you’ll find all sorts of quotes from famous people that are actually kind of discouraging.    Benjamin Franklin saying, “It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.” GREAT! That’s encouraging… It takes a thousands breaths to blow up this balloon and only one prick to pop it!    Warren Buffett says, “it takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it.”  Man… that’s depressing. Perhaps it’s so depressing because it’s actually true!    How many famous figures have fallen from grace due to one bad night or a handful of mistakes, that perhaps any of us would make in the same situation. Justin Bieber has made the news for ridiculous things in the last 5 years, but so would YOU if you were in his shoes. If I was 18 and had $265 million in the bank and had paparazzi following me around… I’d be on the cover of TMZ every morning.    Here’s the thing about reputations: Reputations can be suffocating. Whether they’re positive or negative, they can actually keep us stuck.    Reputations as the dumb kid. As the good girl. As the all-American athlete. As the fat girl. As the boy that can’t read. As the big-wig CEO or as the dad that never follows through. As the workaholic mother that never makes it to the soccer game. As the sweet girl you can take advantage of. As the brainy kid you can cheat off of. As the prude Christian. As the tough guy with the cool motorcycle.    These labels follow us. They quite literally brand our brains with these words… They nestle in deep, and we end up living our lives either in SUPPORT of those labels or in REACTION to those labels.    We either like the reputation and we live the rest of our lives trying to maintain / support everyone’s idea of us.. Making sure everyone still believes we’re successful, or we’re still the cool kid we were in high-school, or still the pretty girl that’s always in shape.    Or we live in reaction to them. We got a label in college that we’ve spent the rest of our lives trying to scrub out. A teacher in 3rd grade embarrassed us in front of the class so we spend the rest of our lives obsessively studying and getting top-of-the-class GPA.   There are ditches on both sides of this road. Both of these things can be unhealthy.    The truth is: We shouldn’t be living our lives in support of or in reaction to any labels someone spoke over us in the past. It will limit our lives to the lane we’ve already established. No room for growth or adventure or redefining ourselves. We stay stuck. We carry around those labels. We still remember the name of the person that first said it.    In a media-driven culture like we find ourselves, it’s easy to REALLY care about image. I care about image. If someone shows me a set of pictures of me, I care which one they’d post. Whether it’s conscious or subconscious, I curate my image that I put out on Instagram. Of course I do. There are things I wouldn’t want posted. Some things I love posting. I’m painting some grandiose picture of what my life looks like. That’s where we find ourselves. Our Instagram feed becomes some style board to describe our personal brand.    It’s a weird situation I find myself in, as the owner of a branding agency… But a big shift we’ve taken over the past year is placing less of an emphasis on the visual / perception management of just helping businesses appear shiny or new or better than their competitors, and actually focusing on the heart of their organizations.   Instead of just focusing on reputation, we’re focusing on character.    Abraham Lincoln once said that “Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”    He’s saying that our character is that actual object that casts the shadow of reputation. Our character is the substance.    Even better is Thomas Paine’s writing on this. He says, “Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God knows of us.”    Character is who you are when no one else is around. Character is the decisions you make when no one else is watching.    The beautiful thing here is that you are in control of your character. Anne Frank said “The final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.”    It’s up to us. Reputations can sort of get out of control, and they can be impossible to maintain. But character… That’s something we have jurisdiction over.    If we have ridiculous thoughts, we can steer our thoughts. I have quite literally slapped myself out of unhealthy trains of thought. Sometimes when I’m laying in bed and drifting off to sleep, if I’m going down some rabbit trail, I’ll force my eyes back open and try to reset my brain. And it works.    We’re in control of what we put into our brains, we’re in control of what comes out of our mouths, we’re in control of how our thoughts affect our emotions, and how our emotions affect how we act.    We literally become the things we meditate on. We obsess over things in our minds and we end up becoming manifestations of those things. What if we meditated on good, beautiful, hopeful things? What if we guided our dreams to be larger than they previously were? What if we set our sight on things above? What if we refused to settle for the silly dreams that culture and society hand us?    Maybe we could actually elevate our minds and lift our character a bit higher…    What’s at stake here? Basically your life. And how much you enjoy your life.    What’s at stake? The story you tell yourself every morning.    It’s what you set your heart on and the direction your life ends up taking.    What will they say of you at your funeral? I pray it’s far deeper and more beautiful than any surface labels or reputation… I pray there’s a character that inspires the next generation to live life to the fullest.    I love you guys, make it a good day. 

When I was 14, I had a girlfriend named Jane. I told her I loved her, she told me she loved me. And we did. What we were feeling was the pinnacle of our emotional lives up to that point. The working definition of the word “love” had just been elevated. It was all we knew of love. So, therefore, when we said “I love you”… We were being honest.    Then came a new girlfriend. And I looked back at my 14 year old definition of love and sort of laughed… Because NOW I loved THIS girl… Because the experience was  SO much different than the previous one.    Then came a new girlfriend. And this girlfriend’s name was Elyse. And I REALLY loved her. She was different. She was wife material. And that feeling—that new uncharted waters type of feeling—became what “love” meant to me. Elyse became my new definition of love.    And there we were, getting married, in love. She was my new standard. And all previous girlfriends and those definitions of love were laughable. Because that’s how life works.   We experience something, we find a word for it, and that stays as our definition of it… Until it doesn’t. Until a new experience comes along and redefines the word.    It would be foolish to ignore how these things evolve… We’d be missing what life has to offer us.    You might “love” a specific type of ice-cream, but that’s quite different than the LOVE you experience when someone embraces you after a failure.    You might describe something as “powerful” or “amazing” but that all changes when you watch your wife labor and birth your first child… That’s powerful. That’s truly amazing.    And, all of a sudden, your definition of love expands a bit more.    Something I’ve observed with all of these spiritual teachers I surround myself with is their ability to “transcend and include.” Along their path of spiritual development, their lives are continually being broadened into more expansive, open, inclusive spaces. “There’s MORE room at the table for MORE people.” “More experiences fit under these definitions of a word like ‘God’…”    There’s less fear, less exclusion, less walls and fences and more bridges and compassion.    Because their love has grown. Their first-half-of-life definitions don’t satisfy anymore… They don’t negate the previous experiences, but they transcend them… They transcend and include the previous definition… Like how a tree grows from the inside out. The center isn’t necessarily getting bigger, the edges are adding onto the original sprout. It’s expanding and including…    I wonder if you can observe that in any area of your life?    Are you finding that the previous definitions or ideas or rules or beliefs just don’t hold the same weight they once did?    A friend described it like putting on a sweater that’s a few sizes too small. You can make it work, sort of, but its uncomfortable (at best), and suffocating (at worst).    Any time I see an older man getting riled up at a Trump rally, or seeing hate speech come from anyone over the age of 30… It’s just clear that they are working with a simpler set of tools… And that they haven’t done much work.    When I see young men joining gangs or standing outside Rob Bell events with a megaphone and a Bible… I can actually find some grace for them, as they’ve found something to put all of their prepubescent passion behind… Their hormones are literally filling up behind their eyes and they need some sort of outlet.    But that’s first-half-of-life stuff. That’s trying to find your way through life… When I see people that SHOULD be elders by now… Village elders… People with wisdom to share and speaking truth into these little whipper-snapper’s lives… But instead they’re still trying to bring things BACKWARDS… It’s sad. And it’s something we actually need to mourn. That we don’t have more elders in our lives. True elders. Not just a label at church, and not just a label for people that are old.    People that have done the hard work of PAYING ATTENTION for 60, 70, 80 years, and have had their definitions of love and peace and joy and unity expanded time and again… So that we might sit at their feet and learn from them; get a head start; skip years of trying things our own way; learning from what they’ve learned.    I know this sort of started with me at 14, then ended up feeling all political and mourning the lack of elders in our lives, but that’s sort of a snapshot of where we’re at today.    We need to recognize what’s at stake, and why it’s so important to continually have our minds, hearts, souls transcend and include… Why we need to be seeing fruit in our lives that we’re growing larger and more inclusive, not smaller and more territorial.    We’ve seen what territorial gets us… We’ve seen what fear gets us. We’ve seen what arrogance gets us.    A prayer I have for my life is that as my body and my physical self matures, that my emotional and spiritual self does the same. We see far too many men that are physically and financially mature, but are emotionally and spiritually toddlers.    There’s a great moment in Jesus’ ministry captured in Luke 12… This guy Luke was a medical professional, and he was obsessed with accuracy and details, and so he took it upon himself to document Jesus’ life and write down things that he and other people had witnessed Jesus do and say.    In Luke 12, Jesus has all these crowds around him; crowds so large that they were trampling on each other. At one point, someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me!”    [ READ LUKE 12:13 through end ]   Maturity is marked by our fears falling away… In light of all we’ve seen and experienced in life… Knowing that worry or any backwards energy won’t ADD to our lives…    We’re then able to live with open hands.    “But can’t those people get taken advantage of?!” Yes… Of course. And there’s a good chance they will. But that’s on the person that’s taking advantage of them. A field of flowers doesn’t choose not to grow for fear of maybe being picked by a passerby. Those flowers are responsible for one thing: Blooming.    Seeds that fall into sidewalk cracks don’t choose not to grow. They grow, because they’re wired to do that. If someone steps on them? That’s on that person’s conscience… not the flower’s.    I’m not advocating for us to position ourselves to be victims, or stay in hostile environments. Those instincts we have for self-preservation are God-given… They’re important. They’re the reason we’re here today and the world isn’t run by dolphins. We survived, we thrived, we evolved, God gave us the ability to adapt and learn and pass those adaptations down from generation to generation.    But when that instinct for self-preservation results in an entire life marked by “us vs. them” and “fear” and “worry” and “conspiracy theories…” We have to take note.    Whenever I’m discussing an idea or a person as a new example to learn from, I always look at the fruit that idea or belief or person is producing. You’ll always know a tree by the fruit it produces. Might look healthy, but if it’s not producing healthy fruit, it’s not healthy.    By fruit, I mean what’s flowing out of their lives. What’s surrounding them? What is going on in their midst? When they show up, do things improve? Are the people surrounding them BETTER versions of themselves? Or worse…    Luke 7:15 “Beware of the false prophets, [teachers] who come to you dressed as sheep [appearing gentle and innocent], but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them [that is, by their contrived doctrine and self-focus]. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the unhealthy tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore, by their fruit you will recognize them [as false prophets].   What about you? What about the fruit from your life?    Is what you’re producing wholesome, beneficial, fruit for everyone around you?    Do your beliefs (and what you believe about yourself and others) create MORE or LESS peace in your life? Do your beliefs open your eyes and broaden your definition of love? Or do they keep you stuck, afraid, isolated, terrified that you might somehow get it wrong and God (or whatever God-figure you have in your life) might withdraw His blessing?    Look at the FRUIT of what you believe. Play those things out. How do those things pan out for you? Do they result in more life and love and soul-level satisfaction? If they don’t, re-examine those beliefs.    Same with our actions, same with our politics, same with our bodies and physical health…    If I had stuck with my first love at 14, COMPLETELY satisfied with this “love” I had found… Think of all the beauty in my life I would’ve been sacrificing. If I had refused to grow in what I understood love to be, I’d still be back there with that freshman-year-type-of-love…   But instead, as a result (or you could even say “the fruit of”) allowing my beliefs to evolve, I have a new love… And that love produced two new humans, that are even now expanding and redefining what I understand LOVE to mean…    My encouragement to you today is simply this: Don’t get stuck. Don’t let fear drive. God is not BEHIND US, somewhere in the past beckoning us backwards… He is both WITH US and AHEAD OF US, calling us into deeper waters, more expansive and beautiful truths, and completely new ideas that just might change the world.    I love you guys, make it a good day. 

It’s a powerful thing to be asked point blank: What is it that you want more than anything else in life? I’ve recently heard two separate spiritual teachers ask this same question, in slightly different ways, and then began reading a new book that emphasized Jesus asking this exact question in John 1:38: What do you want?    John the Baptist’s disciples started following Jesus, and when Jesus realizes he’s being followed, he turns around and asks, “What do you want?”    On first read, that can be a pretty blunt question, and it is… But I have to believe it wasn’t said in the way WE might say it if two strangers started following us. “What do you want?” “What are you looking for in life? What is it that your hearts are after?”    This is one of those questions that no one can avoid answering… Whether you realize it or not, whether it’s intentional or completely accidental, your life is oriented towards something. You’re already putting energy into some sort of idea or dream or vision of what an ideal future would look like.   We say this to our clients all the time: “You already have a brand, whether you know it or not.” When we’re talking about “branding,” all we’re talking about is your reputation. What comes to mind when your name comes up. When someone says “John Emery” in a group conversation, what stories and thoughts and opinions arise? That’s my reputation. Whether you realize it or not, you have a brand.    Whether you realize it or not, your life is demonstrating what it is that you truly want.    Blaise Pascal: “You have to wager. It is not up to you, you are already committed.”    You can’t not bet your life on something. You can’t not be headed somewhere. We live leaning forward, bent on arriving at the place we long for.    There’s this great word that a new author I’m reading introduced me to:   TELOS: The place we unconsciously strive toward is what ancient philosophers of habit call our “telos”—our goal, our end. But the telos we live toward is not something that we primarily know or believe or think about rather, our telos is what we want, what we long for, what we crave.   I had a spiritual teacher encourage me to sit down and answer the question: “What do you want?” and journal a few sentences. Then ask, “Is there anything you want more than that?” and journal a few sentences. Then ask again, “Is there anything you want more than THAT?” and keep going until you reach the deepest heart of your desire. This is an exercise to do completely alone, not sharing it with anyone, so that there’s no pressure to act or perform or produce something that you think someone ELSE might want for you.    You, in your heart of hearts, what’s at the center of your desires for your life?    It’s not a question of whether you long for some version of the kingdom, but of which version you long for.   Paying attention to our hearts… On the adventure of life, they’re part compass and part GPS… They’re part engine and part homing beacon… The longings of our hearts both point us in the direction of a kingdom and propel us toward it.    Restlessness until we are in our proper place… Augustine quote on page 13-14. Example of diving down with a noodle and trying to put it on the bottom of the pool. It is “restless” when its held under water. It keeps trying to rip away from your hands, or stopping your momentum entirely until it’s returned to the surface. It wants to be floating. In the opposite way, when I try to float in fresh water, my body weight wants to take me down to the bottom. I’ve finally figured out how to float in salt water, but fresh water is another thing entirely.    If our hearts are absorbed with material things, then our love is a weight that drags us downward to inferior things. But if our hearts are caught on fire for larger, more beautiful things, then our hearts tend to lift us upward.    I think one of the great tragedies we see unfolding around us (that we’re actually growing calloused towards) is seeing people orient their lives around things that clearly will fail them. Whether it’s from your own personal experience or from wisdom that others have passed along to you… Seeing people point everything they have towards things that ultimately will leave them feeling unsatisfied.   I see it all the time with men and their careers. Perhaps the gift of being one step removed from their ambition, I’m able to play out where all that energy ends up, even at its’ absolute best, and see a life that is still lacking certain significance. Money is wonderful, influence is a gift… But at what cost?    “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world [wealth, fame, success], but forfeits his soul? ...what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”Matthew 16:26   I’m not positive whether Jesus was speaking in an eternal sense, forfeiting our souls, or if He’s simply speaking to the lack of fulfillment we’d experience here on earth… Regardless, at either end of that spectrum, is a wasted life. Or at least a life unfulfilled. Untapped potential.    What is it that you want more than anything else in life? Is there anything you want more than that?  What about more than THAT?    We’re all orienting our lives around SOMETHING… let’s not have that direction set by accident, or set by someone else. With Pascal’s wager metaphor… What is it that you’re willing to wager your one, sacred life on? Is it more money? Moving up the ladder? Is it reform? Challenging those in power and changing the way things are? Is it beauty? Building, creating, crafting, forming things that have never been created before? Is it reconciliation and restoration to people that have been wronged, or have given up hope?    What is it, that if you gave your life to it, even if you die before it comes to fruition, you’ll be satisfied at the contribution you made along the way?    I know this is big stuff to consider, but it’s the kind of stuff we should be considering, right?    If we’re reminded of ANYTHING on a daily basis, it’s how short our lives are. And if we only have 50, 40, 30 years left… What will we spend our time pursuing? What legacy will be left behind?    When your name comes up in conversation, what will they say about you?    I’ll end with one of my favorite quotes from Black Elk, “Behold this day, for it is yours to make.”    I love you guys, Make it a good day.

In 2010, my wife and I were in New Mexico for our honeymoon. A close friend of ours Lindsey had a family cabin up in a remote section of Eagle’s Nest, New Mexico. It checked off all 3 criteria we had for our honeymoon: It was a new area we’d never been to, it was away from hustle-bustle and craziness of life, and it was free… All we had to pay for was a plane ticket and a rental car, and we’d have this beautiful cabin on the side of a mountain for a week.    We saw a bunch of incredible things while we were there. We’d sit out in the morning on the deck and feed chipmunks and squirrels out of our hands… And these weren’t your average animals. These chipmunks were the size of guinea pigs, and the squirrels had long ears and big beautiful tails… There was one squirrel that was the size of a small rabbit, and it would come up and eat from our hands, the same one, multiple times a day, and we realized it was a momma squirrel coming to get food so she could make milk to nurse her newborn, wherever they were hidden. It felt like a holy thing to be directly participating in this mother squirrel caring for her young.    We went into Sante Fe one day and did a batik painting class with a fabulous gay man as our instructor. It was awesome, and definitely memorable.    But one of the more profound moments of our honeymoon was a day that we went for a drive that locals had recommended. They all said, “Ahh, you’ve GOT to go up to these mountains and drive through. It’s a great day trip, it’s beautiful… You’ll see families of elk and cattle and all these beautiful views.” So we went.    We were in a little, trusty SUV, we packed a few granola bars and head out on the adventure. What we had assumed was a 1-2 hour drive, based on the map we had, turned into a 4 hour drive… We hadn’t taken into account that driving through this natural reserve would be at 15 miles per hour, up and over mountains on dirt roads… When we were about an hour into it, we had assumed we were nearing the end when we saw a sign that said it was 50 miles until the main interstate… At 15-20 miles per hour. On top of that, we were running out of gas… Literally, we hadn’t planned on this long of a trip, and we’re in the middle of nowhere.    Then it started raining. And not like New England rain… this was New Mexico rain. Out of nowhere and as violent as they come.    And we had this moment where we looked at each other, and we both were assessing how much food we had in the car, and hoping that we’d soon regain cell-phone service… which of course we didn’t.    We obviously made it out alive, but to this day it stands as one of our own personal Hannukah stories where the gas shouldn’t have lasted, but somehow it lasted 8 crazy days… We made it back into Eagles Nest running on fumes.    I share all of this story for another reason entirely… While we were driving through this state forest, we saw enormous packs of Elk and cattle… Roaming free. No fences, no nothing. And the cattle were tagged, so they clearly belonged to SOMEONE, but it was also clear that there weren’t any fences or property lines. It seemed peculiar to us, coming from New England, where all the small farms have fences and and barns and everything is kept track of so specifically.    We would watch these cattle gather at the foot of these big steel windmills, for what we later realized were little water troughs. The windmill must’ve been pumping up water from some table underground and these cattle and elk were gathering around, what I’m sure were their trusty water troughs, and it struck me: If you want to keep cattle, or elk, or people, in a specific place, you can either build a fence, or you can dig a well.    You can either build a fence to keep everyone in, everything monitored and quarantined, or… You can dig a well, and trust that the animals will stick around.    Elyse and I talked about this quite a bit on our drive home, in between our desperate pleas that God wouldn’t let us get stranded in the wilderness, and it has sort of become a mantra of ours for how we approach ministry, relationships, friendships, business partnerships, etc.    Instead of building fences, we dig wells.    There’s such a temptation to protect and guard and keep things exact that we often focus our efforts on “keeping people around.”   “how do we keep so and so happy? how do we keep this family from leaving our church? how do we keep this client from wandering off with someone else? how do we keep this boyfriend or girlfriend from cheating on us? how do we protect this money that we have?”    And we build fences. Sometimes with chicken wire, sometimes with concrete.    But here’s the thing: Fences are expensive. Think of how expensive it would be to build a fence around the perimeter of this forest we were driving through… Hundreds and hundreds of miles of fencing. It would take years to build, and then consume all of our time trying to maintain that fence. How would you ever know if a rogue bull bashed through a fencepost on the opposite side of the property? You wouldn’t. Enormous amount of energy would be needed to keep that fence keeping those animals in.   Instead, you dig a well. And because animals have memory and intuition and all of these evolved survival skills: They’ll stick around. A reliable water source in the middle of New Mexico? They’re not going to forget that anytime soon.    So with our church, instead of building a fence for people to climb over to get in, and to be keep inside with once they’re there… We dig a well. We provide something that is fresh and life giving and restorative, and guess what? People keep coming back. And they tell their friends.    People come to this well and they’re poured into. It’s all by their own choice, and that’s part of what makes it beautiful.    We’ve all been in relationships, either romantic or a friendship, when the other person is suffocating us… Because of their fear of us leaving, they spend every waking minute trying to build a fence around us so we never leave. And guess what? It’s wildly unattractive, and perhaps BECAUSE of that, we end up leaving.    No one wants to be fenced in. We don’t want to be kept by someone or something and be told where we can and cannot go…    But you know what’s really attractive?    Fresh water. Especially fresh water in a landscape of tumbleweeds and sandstone cliffs.    I wonder if you have any areas of your life where you’re feeling protective, and you’re trying to figure out how to preserve and keep and maintain something that’s important to you… And you’re presented with an option: Build a fence, or dig a well.    I see businesses building fences around their services all the time. Gyms that have cancellation fees. No return policies. Penalties for switching providers… These are quintessential fence-builder mentalities. It illustrates a scarcity-based mentality, and/or a fear that what they’re offering as a business isn’t high quality.    The opposite of that would be to find a desert and then dig a well. The rest will take care of itself. If what you’re offering is truly valuable, and it’s helping transform your customers or clients or members into the people they want to be, that’s all you need to worry about.    All of the energy you’d be putting towards maintaining the fence can now be focused on new ways of drawing people in.    Now there’s a lot to be said here… Far more than I can fit into one episode (I might turn this into a bit of a series) but obviously people still try to manipulate the reason this actually works.    For example: The attractional model of doing church… Play music you’d hear on the radio and raffle off a Harley Davidson on Father’s day… That’s exhausting, and it just doesn’t work anymore. That’s like digging a well, but then when people come to drink from it, they’re drinking Fruit2o. Something CLOSE to water, but definitely not water. So they probably won’t stick around.    People know when it’s the real thing, and I’d thank God for that. It’s actually God’s grace that more people don’t manipulated into sticking around false wells. If it’s the real thing, it will gather a crowd. Might not be a huge crowd, and that’s God’s grace too, because maybe you couldn’t handle a huge crowd… But it will serve people, and they’ll stick around.    When we’re drawing up contracts with clients for our branding agency, we want to be digging wells, not building fences. They’re free to come and go as they please. We trust that we’re offering them gallons of fresh ideas and things to help their organization grow… So we’re not territorial.    Whenever you’re doing anything of significance, there will be elements outside of your control. That’s a given. Even the biggest stars and celebrities out there, they go on tour and they still need to trust that their fans will show up. Anytime you’re taking any sort of risk, there are things outside of your control… And when that happens, you’ll recognize an urge inside of you to fence something in, or force people to commit, or mitigate some of this risk and fear you’re feeling…    And then its time for your choice: Build a fence that’s really expensive and a lot of sideways energy to maybe retain some of the good that’s happening? Or dig a well and trust that if it’s good, it’ll work.    I love the metaphor of these big windmill water troughs… You build it, let nature take control, and it just works. I’m sure they break down every once in a while, but it’s a much better use of time driving around to your 4-5 wells on property every month than driving a thousand-mile perimeter and fixing fence posts.    I think there’s a lot to learn here politically, and relationally, and spiritually… These fences can become enormous vehicles for spiritual abuse, or emotional abuse, or even physical abuse. Keeping people stuck.    And I just want to encourage you today to examine some of these areas of your life… These areas that you’re in control of, when you have decisions to make around how to keep people interested in what you’re doing… I don’t think the answer is in becoming more exclusive and territorial… I think it’s about opening things up and letting people make their own decisions.    There’s freedom and beauty in that. There’s room for love in that. And that’s when true, lasting relationships are formed.    Let’s be people that dig wells, and draw people to ourselves by offering something actually good and valuable and transformative.   I love you guys, make it a good day. 

I just wanted to make a little note here for anyone listening about new ideas. We’re surrounded by them. We’re inundated with new Kickstarter projects and inventions. Shark Tank is one of the most popular TV shows because it’s full of new, clever inventions and ideas.    Some of you know that I shared a sermon this past week at our church that ruffled some feathers. Intentionally so. I was looking at how we interpret Scripture, and some of the more damaging ways to interpret it, and some of the more life-giving ways I’ve found to interpret it.    In it, the topics of slavery, animal sacrifice, women in leadership and homosexuality came up. All things in the Bible. All things that have verses that people can cite at a moments notice. But largely all things we’ve recognized to be artifacts of a day and age gone by.    No one is missing animal sacrifices, including the Jews. No one is missing slavery, except for maybe the former slave traders. No one wants to bar women from leadership in the church, except for perhaps the old guard… Men that are terrified of new ideas.    What happens when a new discovery takes place? What happens when all of a sudden, we learn something NEW about something we’ve always known. Young husbands think they’re God’s gift to their wife in bed… Only to slowly find out over the course of first few years of marriage that they have no idea what they’re doing, and none of that is pleasurable.   New information leads to new breakthrough. This is how it should be. We don’t let our close-mindedness keep us in the stone-age, of course.    We’ve learned new information about tiny, invisible bacteria living on our hands and potentially making us gravely ill… So we learn to wash our hands. It’s how humanity survives, thrives and evolves with the changing times. It’s a GOOD thing. I think it’s how God wired us.   So when new scholarship in the mid 1990s unveiled a look in the first century women and the lives they were living, it gave us new information with which to understand our Bibles. 1 Timothy clearly says the forbid women to speak in church, to cover their heads, to dress modestly, etc.    Timothy’s Church in Ephesus First century, around the year 60AD, in the mega-city of Ephesus.  Lots happening.  Timothy in Ephesus, Paul having to address false doctrines.  “Stay there in Ephesus to correct the false teachings.”  Largest city in Asia Minor, housed the temple of Diana (aka Artemis), goddess of fertility.   Bigger than a football field, gilded in silver and gold. Acts 19 talks about the people chanting, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! Massive impact, this cult had on the city. It was a women-run temple--no men ran anything.     Artimis as origin of all lfe, paul says no adam first then eve And Eve was deceived, so she wasn't divine like the cult said   The women taught the religion of Diana, and had ritualistic prostitution.  The men could pay to have sex with these priestesses, and it was believed to increase a man's virility.   In this specific time and place, Ephesianwomen were associated with false teaching (the cult) and prostitution( the temple).  Women ruled, women did this.  But the women could fall into this b/c they were souneducated about the things of God.   So putting women into leadership of the church wouldn't just have beenunwise, it'd have been detrimental.        A.The Rise of the “New Roman Woman.” If you go way back in history, men controlled everything.   All the property, and even if they married a wealthy woman who brought lots of property into the marriage, all of thatpropertybecame the husband's.  If they got divorced, she left with nothing. Also, it was assumed that men might havea mistress or two on the side,but wives were expected to be faithful and chaste.  That was the assumption.  Up to this point, Ancient history was male dominated, and extremely patriarchal.   In the 1st C BC tho, due to increased wealth flowing into Rome and political instability resulting from civil wards, the social environment began changing and women from elite families gained political influence. Limiting laws on women were relaxed. Many wars separated women from their soldiering husbands, fathers, and sons. Result was a more public presence of women—esp. the wealthy, within the social and political arenas.  Poets Ovid, Catullus, Tibullus and the lawyer Cicero all describe this woman: wealth, clout, disregard for traditional social customs. The poets all praised extramarital affairs. The men sought adventure not on the battlefield or in the senate, but in a personal tryst with married women.    But In 44BC, the Roman senate changed the law.   They said a woman could keep her own property when she got married.   If she got divorced, she could take out what she brought in.   It created a Women's Liberation movement.  For the first time, women weren't dependent on their husbands.  Some of these wealthy women said they don't just want financial freedom, they wantall of the same freedoms.  So these wealthy women started takingyoung loverson the side.  And couples began encouraging each other in thisopen marriage, swinging, lifestyles.     Plutarch : “She must accept her husband’s extramarital sexual activities with good grace and not let such behaviors push her toward divorce." “The husband may enjoy sex with others (except married women), but should avoid provoking his wife to jealousy."   Also, women began to reject the role of Mother, and so you seethe rise of abortions for the new roman woman.   They'd dress extravagantly.  Gold in their hair, pearls, gowns covered with jewels.   You could tell what a woman's attitude was towards marriage and abortion, just by looking at what she wore.  In the 1st Century: you were what you wore.     Finally, these new roman women weren't just known for the immodesty and immorality, but also known for their brash outspokenness.  Roman Historians tell us that these women would challenge philosophers in the Symposia, and some of them would stand up and shout down philosophers, even rushing the stage and taking over.   Any time a new idea makes us angry, we need to seriously evaluate our hearts. Why would a new idea make you angry?    It could confuse you, sure. That’s fine.  It could intrigue you. Great.  It could draw you in to investigate further and research and learn more from more resources… Or, it could just make you angry and resentful.    I’ve found that the women that had questions following my sermon have come forward with genuine intrigue and honest searching, and we’ve had kind, fruitful, unifying conversations. The men were slightly different. Slightly more… angry.   If new ideas make you angry, it says far more about YOUR insecurities than it does about the new idea.    If someone knocked on my door today and proposed that Elyse and I join their open marriage and we start living in polamory, I would be seriously surprised, I would be confused, but I wouldn’t be angry. I would only be angry if my marriage was already on the rocks and I was insecure that Elyse might actually leave me…    If you study the great spiritual teachers, both contemporary and historical, you’ll find a common thread between them of openness, inclusivism, and deep consideration of other spiritual paths… They honor one another. They aren’t afraid of one another. They sit on stage with each other and have panel discussions about things that matter, inter-faith dialogue, things that further the human understand and collective consciousness… Not words of division or fear.    If you’re a person that finds yourself on the front edge of anything… You’ll have new ideas. You’ll perhaps be the tip of the spear or the first person to share these new ideas. Maybe pitching the idea to your board of directors, or your boss, or someone you respect… And they might respond in a way that hurts you.    You can bet that someone approached the CEO of Blockbuster 10 years ago to talk about streaming services, and maybe he responded with anger. “THAT’S NOT WHAT WE DO! WE’RE A VIDEO RENTAL STORE!”    Maybe true of Toys-R-Us, or Sears, or any other company that handled new information poorly.    I guess it’s worth noting that nothing I shared in that sermon was new. Not even close. Some of these ideas come straight from Desert Fathers and Mothers in the first centuries. And I guess I should also say that none of the response has hurt me, personally. I’m recognizing how stuck some people are, and how afraid they are that adjusting a single string in the tapestry will cause the whole thing to unravel… Which I just cannot agree to believe. This is way too big and beautiful to ever be unraveled by a few new (or not so new) ideas.    Be encouraged, be empowered, and let’s keep moving humanity in the right direction.    I love you, make it a good day. 

The Pharisees weren’t ready for Jesus.    They weren’t prepared. They had not trained for this.    They had studied and memorized and perfected all of the traditions to a “T”…But they weren’t ready for Jesus.    They had signed up for this life of religious duty to be living examples; to be guardians of God’s word; to be teachers and moral compasses for other Jews looking to grow in their faith… They were comfortable with pointing out the faults in others, and holding each other to incredibly high standards… They believed the way to please God was by meticulously following a long list of rules and regulations.613, to be exact.    So, as you can imagine, they weren’t ready for Jesus.    Theywereready to preserve thelast thing God had done, and continue passing it down from generation to generation—They were ready toPRESERVEwhat God had said500 years agoand keep it safe and shiny and preserved…    They were ready to be preservatives in the last batch of bread God made… but Jesus wasn’t looking for preservatives; he was looking for yeast. Something wild and active to work its way through theNEW THING He was up to.    The Pharisees weren’tready for thenew thing God was doing in their midst.    Here was this no name, blue collar guy from Nazareth(“Nazareth! Can anything good come from Nazareth?”John 1:46) And he was causing quite a stir.    By all measurable standards, Jesus was athreatto what the Pharisees were doing.  He didn’t follow in-step with what the Pharisees had defined as the social norm.  He broke the rules. The Pharisees were all pointed this way but Jesus hada new direction.    It would be like someone that would come to our church service and stand up in the middle to interrupt with some sort ofuncomfortableidea. I don’t know how honest you’re willing to be, but if someone just stood up and starting causing a ruckus here my first reaction would be“Jake! GET HIM! Get him outta here!” Because Jake is my personal body guard.    The Pharisees weren’t ready for Jesus.    I want to share today from Luke 6, a moment in Jesus’ life where He breaks the Law, and then we’ll “turn the gem” to see a few layers deeper of what Jesus was up to.    In this series, we’re using this metaphor of “turning the gem.” It’s a phrase we borrowed from the Jewish tradition where Rabbis talk about scripture having 70 faces. Just like a gem, when you turn it, or allow the sun to shine through it, you will see somethingnewandoften unexpected.So each week, we read a story from Jesus’ life, and then turn the gem to reveal a few other angles and facets of what was really going on.    Let’s read today’s text,Luke 6:1-11 NLT One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples broke off heads of grain, rubbed off the husks in their hands, and ate the grain. 2 But some Pharisees said, “Why are you breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?” 3 Jesus replied, “Haven’t you read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He went into the house of God and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests can eat. He also gave some to his companions.” 5 And Jesus added, “The Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath.” Jesus Heals on the Sabbath 6 On another Sabbath day, a man with a deformed right hand was in the synagogue while Jesus was teaching. 7 The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees watched Jesus closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. 8 But Jesus knew their thoughts. He said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand in front of everyone.” So the man came forward. 9 Then Jesus said to his critics, “I have a question for you. Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” Matthew12:11-12 “If you had a sheep that fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn’t you work to pull it out? Of course you would. And how much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Yes, the law permits a person to do good on the Sabbath.” 10 He looked around at them one by one and then said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored! 11 At this, the enemies of Jesus were wild with rage and began to discuss what to do with him.   Jesus breaks the Law.  (The first part of this text, Jesus and his disciples are walking through some grain fields is actually where this tattoo comes from.) It was known amongst the Jewish community that Sabbath was taken very seriously. This was something that God himself ordered us to observe. And it wasn’t some obscure holiday only happening once a year—This wasweekly. At this point in Jesus’ life, He had literally experienced over 1,500 Sabbaths. None of these actions were by accident.    This was Jesusintentionallyandstrategicallychallenging the Pharisees—who are symbolic of the status quo, the societal norm, the accepted culture at the time.    Jesus is poking, prodding, agitating thesespecific rulesthe Pharisees—and most of the Jewish people—were following.He was redefining what Sabbath meant.It wasn’t a day simply to follow as many rules as possible. It was a day to behuman. To rest from work, to acknowledge the Lord as Creator and provider, and to be a “humanbeing” rather than a “humandoing” the other 6 days of the week.    Jesus had this wedge driving into the legalism of the Pharisees, and He was prying it open… Proving to them that their rules were getting in the way of God.Their rules were getting in the way of God. Beyond that: These rules were getting in the way of Jesus being Jesus.    I wonder if we ever let “rules” get in the way ofusbeing Jesus…    What a radical teaching…Here were these rules supposedly established by God in the Old Testament. 39 categories of activities that the Mishnah explicitly says are prohibited:

• Sowing, Plowing, Reaping, Kneading, Baking, Shearing wool, Weaving, Trapping, Slaughtering, Building, Demolishing, Starting a fire, extinguishing a fire, putting the “finishing touch” on an object… 

  And Jesus says… “No, no, no… These rules and regulations are actually getting the way ofgoodthings happening.”    MARK 2:27 NLT Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.”    This—my friends—was radical.    Jesus was saying, “You’re beingtoo literal… You’re beingTOO LITERALwith what God has revealed to you. These boundaries were supposed tohelpyou to enjoy the Sabbath, not begrudgingly submit to it. These were guidelines from a loving Father, not rules from a sadistic monster. You’ve missed the point.”    And thank God—Jesus was willing to confront it. And challenge them. God Himself, in the flesh, helping us realize many of the rules we were following were missing the heart of God entirely.    Now that’s sort of what’s happening on the surface… The first facet of this story.    I want toTURN THE GEM here a bitand look at what Jesus is doing. Jesus was valuing the “spirit of the law” over the “letter of the law.” The SPIRIT over the LETTER. Maybe you’re familiar with these phrases… This is essentially the debate in politics around the Constitution—What did the founding fathers mean when they wrote what they wrote? This is the world ofINTERPRETATION, and it’s a murky water we’re stepping into.    Letter vs. Spirit. When someone obeys theletterof the law but not thespirit, they're obeying the literal interpretation of the words (the "letter") of the law, butnot necessarily the intent of those who wrote it.    2 CORINTHIANS 3:6 NIV He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.   Paul goes on to write about the previous covenant that Moses wrote down on tablets of stone, and how this New Covenant is written on the tablets of our hearts.Paul is distinguishing from an old way of writing down rules and following rules and a new way that is written on our hearts by the Spirit of the Living God.    Letter vs. Spirit is the reason our Constitution has 27 Amendments to it. Within 2 years of it being ratified, 10 new amendments were submitted for ratification. Clarifications on the interpretation, to make sure the SPIRIT of the Constitution was upheld over the LETTER. A literal reading, void of emotional intelligence and human conscience, would leave loopholes for people to exploit. Hence the amendments…    And over time, as humanity progressed, new amendments were made to uphold SPIRIT over LETTER.

• 13th Amendment abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude.
• 15th Amendment allowing any race to vote.
• 19th Amendment allowing women to vote.

  All of this: Jesus breaking the Law and confronting the Pharisees is Jesusdoing away with legalism. I believe that Jesus never wanted us tofocus on rulesandaccidentally miss God’s heart in the process.    Jesus valuedfeeding His disciplesover and abovefollowing the Law around Sabbath. As did King David.    The Parable of the Good Samaritanis one of Jesus’ most famous parables—these little story-illustrations that Jesus would use to drive home a point. They’re memorable, they’re meaningful… Jesus knew that the way to our hearts was through story.    It’s documented inLuke 10:25-37, when anexpert in religious law stood up to test Jesus… (Don’t you wish you had half the courage of that guy? Standing up to “TEST”Jesus?) He gives Jesus a pop-quiz about the Old Testament (“Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”) and Jesus does His typical Jesus-thing and responds with a question of His own:“What does the Law of Moses say? How doyou read it?”    27 The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 28 “Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!” 29 The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”   Verse 30: “Jesus replied with a story…”    Oh man, if Jesus replies with a story, you know you’re in for it. Look out, “expert in religious law,” you’re about to have your tail handed to you.    So Jesus tells this story…  LUKE 10:30-37  Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. 31 “By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. 32 A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side. 33 “Then a despised Samaritan came along,(Disabled, transexual Muslim) and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. 34 Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them.(Oh, 1st century medicine how I love you) Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him.   This is a beautiful story, and I don’t miss what Jesus did here: A priest (“expert in religious law”) and a Temple Assistant both have an opportunity to respond in love to this wounded man. They’rebothgiven the opportunity andbothallowGod’s RULESto get in the way ofbeing Jesus in that man’s life.   The Priest and the Temple Assistant uphold theletter of the lawOVER thespirit of the law and they miss the opportunity to “Be Jesus” in that wounded man’s life.    MATTHEW 25:42-45 NLT 42 For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. 43 I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’ 44 “Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’ 45 “And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’   Have you ever recognized an opportunity to be Jesus in someone’s life, but then you had all these second thoughts and fears creep in…“What will people think of me? What if ‘so and so’ finds out? What will my pastor think if I’m seen hanging out with that type of crowd?”    I find it happening all the time in my life… For me, (and this is just me personally), I find that I’m surrounded by people in theLGBT communitythat are hurting… People that have been beaten up by the Church and left on the side of the road. People that see “experts in religious law” and “temple assistants” crossing to the other side of the street and avoiding them for fear of being made unclean… on their way to do their religious duties.    I see opportunities to be Jesus in these people’s lives and then… the second thought comes. There’s always that damn second thought… 

• And I wonder what people at Harbor might think or me. 
• And I worry about folks on Facebook and what they might think of me. 
• And I’m paralyzed. 

  People in the LGBT community need to know the love of Jesus, and they need to be served and supported and treated with dignity and be told that they are sons and daughters of the King, just like you and me… but for me, the traditional understanding of the “rules” get in the way, and more times than not, I do nothing.    And it’s not just the LGBT community, that’s just an example.I see womenthat have clearly been given the gift of teaching and preaching and leadership being told by their senior pastors and male-dominant elder boards that 1 Timothy 2:12 clearly says, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.”    And I wonder if we’re letting theletter of the lawoverrule the Spirit…    Luckily, our leadership has done important work over the last few years for women and recognized these “few and far between” verses were culturally specific—for a specific time and place [NEW ROMAN WOMAN]—not God’s eternal timeless will for all of mankind.But realizing that took an enormous amount of work.   

• There are over 20 verses in the Old Testament that explicitly call us to sacrifice animals as worship to God. 
• • But then David spoke out against it, the prophet Hosea reaffirmed it, and then Jesus Himself quotes Hosea, saying"I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.” 
  • Thank God, for the animals AND us, that we recognize those texts were for a specific place and time, not God’s eternal timeless will for all of mankind. 
• There are dozens of Old Testament & New Testament texts condoning slavery (and indentured servitude).
• • But thank God we recognized that those texts were for a specific place and time, not God’s eternal timeless will for all of mankind. 
• There are 6 verses in the Bible that mention homosexuality, (the word “homosexual” not showing up in English translations until the 1940s) none of which I believe are talking about the same monogamous, faithful, same-sex relationships we’re seeing in 2018. 
• There’s 1 verse in the NT banning women from leadership.And yet that’s all it took for centuries of women being barred from teaching, preaching, leading worship, etc. 

  When Jesus broke these “laws” surrounding Sabbath, He was boldly teaching us how to interpret Scripture…    If following the law means that people go hungry?Break the law. Jesus did. If following the law means that people go un-healed?Break the law. Jesus did. If following the law means that hurting people go unloved?Break the law. Jesus did.   I believe that the beauty of even having the Old Testament available to us also presents some theological problems to resolve… butthey’re worth resolving. EVERYTHING humanity knew of God, prior to Jesus, needs to be re-evaluated in light of Jesus. Every Old Testament text, every Psalm, every tradition… When Jesus came to the earth, suffered at the hands of man and then was resurrected… That changed everything.And as a result, we now must read the Bible backwards.    We start with Jesus and then go back into these previous texts.Ifany interpretationof God’s character or heart in the OT isn’t accurate to the face of Jesus,then it isn’t fully accurate.Jesus was teaching us to interpret the Scriptures in this exact way with how He lived (and broke the “law”) on the Sabbath.    I’m not saying we need to do away with the Old Testament,I’m saying we need to read it through the lens of Jesus.Jesus is the most accurate picture humanity has ever seen of God.    Jesus, in the middle of His sermon on the mount (maybe when He noticed people were starting to get ruffled and bothered by this “You’ve heard it said but I now say to you…” stuff…   MATTHEW 5:17-18 NLT

• 17 “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved.

  Jesus says that He didn’t come to throw away the Torah, but to accomplish everything it was trying to accomplish. Not to abolish the Law but to FULFILL it…    So the question must be asked:“Did Jesus accomplish what He came to accomplish? Did He fulfill the Law?”I believe yes.Jesus didn’t say the Law and the prophets were somehowuntrue, but He certainly said that they wereunfulfilled. They weren’t complete as is. If they were, He wouldn’t have come.    Jesus Himself is the Word of God, and I believe He’s still speaking through His spirit to us today.He’s teaching us how toBe Jesusin a day and age ofsocial media, and24 hour news cycles, andglobalization… We know more now than any culture in the history of humanity. If something terrible happens in Tibet, we see in 10 minutes later on the news. We can hop on Skype and video chat with someone in Tasmania right now.   The Bible doesn’t have specific verses in it about how to honor one another on Facebook threads, or how to honor God with your BitCoin… Or how to love your crazyDemocratneighbor or your crazyRepublicanneighbor.The United States of America didn’t even exist when these men and women were writing and compiling the Scriptures...That’s why we have theSpirit of Godto speak directly to us about how tobe Jesusin 2018.    1 THESSALONIANS 5:19-21 NLT 19 Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. 20 Do not scoff at prophecies, 21 but test everything that is said. (then) Hold on to what is good.   Testeverything,filtereverything, and then hold on to what is good.    Brian Zahndsays this:  “God has a face and he looks like Jesus. God has a disposition toward sinners and it’s the spirit of Jesus. This is the beautiful gospel… God is like Jesus. God has always been like Jesus. There has never been a time when God was not like Jesus; we haven’t always known this, but now we do… God is not a sadistic monster who abhors sinners and dangles them over a fiery pit. God is exactly how Jesus depicted him in his most famous parable: a father who runs to receive, embrace, and restore his prodigal children.”    I fear that poor Bible interpretation over the years has gotten in the way of us trulyBEING JESUSin people’s lives… I worry when people uphold Old Testament texts that seemingly contradict the heart of Jesus (texts of violence, genocide… Any text depicting an Angry and exclusive God), and then they side with the Law instead of the Spirit.    I just had a lady tell me on Facebook that getting tattooed is a form of hating your body…Leviticus 19:28clearly says,“Do not mark your skin with tattoos.”But a few verses before it says that men can’t trim their beards, or eat your Filet Minion anything other than well-done. It also says we can’t cross-breed animals, so any of you that have a Labra-doodle or are eating Genetically-Modified corn at home—you’re breaking Levitical law.   I don’t bring this up to poke holes or have a light-hearted view of Scripture, I believe that this is actually having a HIGH VIEW of Scripture… one in which we dive as deep as we possibly can go, through every single verse in the Bible until we end back at Jesus.Any biblical interpretation that doesn’t end back at the image of God we see in Jesus isn’t good biblical interpretation.    I’m not saying you have to believe all of this exactly like I do, but you do need to study this as carefully and critically as I have.Having a high-view of Scripture means NOT just taking it at it’s face value. Dive deep.    2 TIMOTHY 3:16 AMP  16 All Scripture is God-breathed [given by divine inspiration] and is profitable (and useful) for instruction, for conviction of sin, for correction, for training in righteousness...   It’s all helpful, it’s all useful…We just need to know how to apply it. Some scriptures are included in the Bible as examples of howNOTto act. The entire OT essentially proving that following a bunch of rules to impress God doesn’t work.Jesus came and shifted the entire conversation.    We need to follow Jesus. What did we see in Jesus as He walked the earth and interacted with the people in His life?Let’s live like that!    Jesus wasn't angry. Jesus wasn't exclusive. Jesus wasn’t afraid of other nationalities or sexual orientations or genetic anomalies… God is exactly how Jesus depicted him in his most famous parable: a father who runs to receive, embrace, and restore His prodigal children.    Jesus broke all sorts of cultural “rules” and flew in the face of stereotypes and prejudices.    I want to end with a few photographs[SERMON.jpg] from the artist David LaChapelle, because I think it helps us understand culturally how radical He was…    [INTERVENTION.jpg]In John 8, Jesus stands up for a woman caught in the act of adultery.    JOHN 8:3-11 NLT 3 As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.   4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”   6 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.   9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”   11 “No, Lord,” she said.   And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”   [ANOINTING.jpg]InLUKE 7:36-38 NLT 36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat. 37 When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. 38 Then she knelt ...at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.   39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!”   40 Then Jesus answered his thoughts. “Simon,” he said to the Pharisee, “I have something to say to you.”   “Go ahead, Teacher,” Simon replied.   41 Then Jesus told him this story: “A man loaned money to two people—500 pieces of silver to one and 50 pieces to the other. 42 But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?”   43 Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt.”   “That’s right,” Jesus said. 44 Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume.   47 “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.” 48 Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”   49 The men at the table said among themselves, “Who is this man, that he goes around forgiving sins?”   50 And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”   [LAST SUPPER.jpg] The Pharisees weren’t ready for Jesus…Far too radical. Far too controversial. How dare this man redefine the Law and what it means to be in relationship with God the Father? How dare He…    But when I look around Harbor, I see Jesus at work. I see His spirit moving people to love people that aredifferentfrom them. People with different backgrounds, different cultures, different tax brackets and yes, even different sexual orientations.    I see God motivating all of us to be good Samaritans, even if we are despised in the eyes of the religious , to find the hurting people and nursing them back to emotional, spiritual, physical health… To help more and more people find their way back to God.    Let’s never let poor Biblical interpretation or previous, primitive ways of thinking get in the way of usbeing Jesusin people’s lives.    God is doing a new thing in our midst, and I pray, unlike the Pharisees, that we’re ready for it.    Let’s pray.

New song's lyrics: 

You led us out of Egypt You tore down Jericho You walked with us in Eden With new love to show   You spoke to us through Prophets Gave us songs to sing Showed us miracles and healings Things that Earth had never seen   Now we fight against the change, But change is what You do Yes, Your love stays the same But Your love is on the move   Your love is on the move.    You answered death with beauty When Your stayed Your hand You showed me that You knew me When You drew in the sand   You called us from the darkness We were bound in grave clothes You stood for me in protest When they began to throw   Now we fight against the change, But change is what You do Yes, Your love stays the same But Your love is on the move   Your love is on the move.    You love with great abandon May we do the same Everyone You show us Is a child formed in Your name   Wake us from our slumber Rise into the streets May we love our holy neighbor And everyone we meet   Lord, we’ve fought against the change But change is what You do Now we stand, proud and brave To love the world like You Your love is on the move.

Recently, I’ve been learning a lot about who I truly am.   Not about who the world wants me to be; not who my bosses or mentors or friends or parents wish me to be. Not who I think my image of God wants me to be. Not who my wife wants me to be. Not even who I think I want me to be… But who I am.   Underneath the make-up, the mask, and all the projections I’ve learned to master.    As an Enneagram type 3, I am labeled “The Achiever.” And it’s very apropos. For most of my life, I have found my self-worth in the production, presentation, and preservation of how others’ perceive me. “If people think I’m successful, I’m successful!” This has created all sorts of wild victories and utterly devastating failures (no matter the true size of failure). At my unhealthiest, I simply strive to produce whatever “they” will think is impressive (while never really being able to define who “they” are). And at my most healthy, I can transcend that need for others’ approval and be freed to bring value to the world, simply by who God has gifted me to be.    One of the most liberating things for my personality type to experience is actually failure. (And the more public the failure, the better it does to tear down the facade of success.) But because of my natural slant to want to be associated with success, I avoid failure at all costs. Even if it means jumping ship from an organization, relationship or project when it starts to show signs of decline.   Why do we feel a sense of liberation when all of our junk is exposed?  How is it that when some of our deepest fears are realized, we actually feel a sense of excitement come over us?   For me, when I’ve experienced failure recently, it’s been as if the experience tore the mask off my face; and quickly realizing that the mask was actually limiting my vision and making it harder to breathe. The thing that I thought was protecting me was actually putting my experience of life into a box. (A very pretty, gold-gilded box).   And a public display of my inadequacies actually becomes liberating.    “No, I’m not very good at that.”  “That thing scares me.”  “I’m not confident that I can make that work.”  “I don’t really feel like it.”  “I’m probably not the right person for the job.”  “I’ve been feeling pretty lonely recently.”    Even if you aren’t wired in the same way, isn’t there a great sense of relief when the people around you know you for who you truly are? And especially when they still love you.   A former boss of mine once said to me, “John, I want you to know that you’re not needed here. We don’t need you. We can find someone else to do this job. But I want you to know that you’re wanted. We want you here.”    We don’tneed you, but we dowant you.    And it reframed the whole thing for me.   Mothers, you spend most of your lives trying to nurture little ones into happy, healthy people. The last thing you need is to worry about projecting a perfect image while doing it. Pinterest isn’t watching. Be honest with yourself and the people around you about how impossibly hard parenting is. Rest in that. This season of life is probably the most confused and sleep-deprived that you’ll ever be.   Entrepreneurs, you live, eat, breathe and sleep striving for success. Every day you’re #Hustling. When will the final sense of satisfaction come? Is it when you make your first million? Is it when you have fifty employees? Is it when you sell your idea to a larger business? Don’t feel the pressure to act like someone you’re not. In your honest assessment of who you truly are, you’ll find joy (and relief that you don’t have to #hustle to find a sense of satisfaction).   Millennials, we’re wired with an insatiable hunger for more. More connection, more uniqueness, more social justice, more freedom, more self-reliance. When will we be happy? Maybe it’s not actually about our definition of happiness at all. Maybe it’s about genuine presence and making an actual impact in the causes we’re passionate about. Wouldn’t that be remarkable? If our lives actually made a difference?   I think we could all benefit from a bit of failure. A moment when we let our true inadequacies show. A time to realize we don’t have it all together. An ugly (but liberating) makeup-less Selfie.    Because then, and perhaps only then, we’ll realize that the people that love us truly love us for who we are.   (Not who we pretend to be.)