ketchup on 2k12, week 22 — mud, slumps, & grace

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a “ketchup” blog, so I thought I’d take a few minutes to get back into the habit and chime in on some of the things that have been happening in the news lately, and try to do so from my “sincerely Christian” perspective.

I don’t do politics, but I read an article this week about how there was some sort of agreement about the type of mud-slinging that the political parties would agree to this campaign season. How come they couldn’t just agree to not sling mud at all?

Speaking of mud, I was recently introduced to the concept of the Muddy Fanatatic, a cross-country-sort of marathon race through obstacles that involve a whole lot of mud. Friends of mine actually hosted one of these things, and thousands turned out. And it sounded like a lot of fun, but my take on it was, “If I was going to run through the mud someone might have to pay me.”

Fun – there’s been a lot of that lately. My church’s Revival was fun. The Reds win streak has been fun. I’m going canoeing tomorrow – that’s always fun.

Watching the Reds streak though has made me think of slumps. Jay Bruce is going through a pretty bad slump right now, and he talked at the start of the year is that he wanted to avoid going through such bad slumps this season, but he’s now in the midst of one.

Is it possible not to go through a slump? We all have them – when we’re just not into our jobs, can’t seem to get into a groove and get incredibly behind on a project, when we haven’t felt creative. However, it’s not that we get into slumps, it’s how we get out of them. Jesus is good for that, reminding us that the world was in quite a slump before he came along as that single home run that gets the worst of sluggers swinging again.

I don’t really follow stocks, but that was some swing the Facebook stock took after it went public. I have this love / hate relationship with Facebook. It can be an outlet for some pretty bad stuff (e.g. bullying) but also a great means of mutual encouragement. Personally, I like Twitter, but I’ve learned recently that if you cross-post (from TweetDeck, et al.), hashtags don’t translate to Facebook. (Consequently, I guess if I lived in Pakistan I couldn’t use Twitter at all, because they blocked it this week for religious/political reasons.)

That college student who videotaped his roommate, spread it over social media, which led to that roommate jumping off the George Washington bridge? I feel bad about the whole situation. There’s one thing about a dumb college prank gone tragically wrong – fine – but then again … show some remorse!

Remorse goes a long way, just look at King David. He got another man’s wife pregnant, tried to cover it up, then ended up having her husband killed – and yet, his is the line from which Christ came. Why? Because David showed remorse. David understood Grace. He wasn’t perfect, just forgiven.

Grace – it’s what I love best about being a Christian. Abundant Grace. Amazing Grace. That by which we know that we are forgiven for who we’ve been, accepted for who we are, and given the ability to be that person (and church) God expects us to be. Grace freely given, without our merit – Grace we are expected to pass onto others, but we don’t. We can be downright cruel, think ourselves superior to others. It’s one thing to disagree with a person’s lifestyle or political views, but do you have to demonize them to prove yourself right? Thank God that Jesus doesn’t do that to us, for he disagrees with the way we spend most of our life, he disagrees with our life of sin, but the Bible says he came not to judge or condemn but to save.

Speaking of saves, congrats to Aroldis Chapman on your first save as a closer, and for chasing the record of consecutive games/appearances without an earned run. Keep the toe on the rubber, and the foot off the pedal, okay?

Sometimes we just miss the branch

Bert, “Missed a branch.

Wally, “Don’t I know it!”

Measuring Success (When Presbyterians Hold a Revival)

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you may have heard that my church held a Revival this weekend. And some of you may even have come out an evening or two to worship and pray with us.

Was it a success? you may ask.

I guess it depends on how you measure success. If you measure success in the doing of something, then as I told the Revival Team from the very beginning this was a success before we ever sang the opening song on Thursday night.

Oftentimes when we get a general idea of something, we immediately begin by talking about how or why we can’t do it, what we lack to do it, that we talk ourselves out of it before we even try. That’s failure, as opposed to the success of having that general, Spirit-planted idea and actually figure out (if but imperfectly) how to do it, something we were doing all the way up to the last day of the Revival.

It’s like Jesus sending out the seventy-two. He gave them a general idea of what they were supposed to do – heal the sick, proclaim the kingdom – yet when it came down to it, they still had to figure out how to do that – working, of course, from the example he set for them.

That’s what we did. Christ had given some people a general idea of holding a Revival. Problem was, Jesus gave that idea to Presbyterians, who don’t typically hold Revivals like some of the traditions you may come from. Yet we figured it out, and more importantly, we did it.  So yes, it was a success.

But did you save any souls?

Well, that depends on how you define it. As Presbyterians, we don’t believe that we “save souls” – we believe that only Jesus can do that, and that he already did all that was necessary to do so.

How can a person be saved? the disciples asked when a rich, young ruler came asking what he must do to be saved, but didn’t choose to follow because he couldn’t part with his possessions. “For people,” Jesus said, “it’s impossible, but with God, all things are possible.” (And thank God for that.)

Thus, all we felt we were doing was to create space for Jesus and souls to connect, and the primary ones we thought about saving were our own – not in an exclusive or self-centered way, but with the humbling reality that even long-time church attenders need their souls saved too. And that being the case, though we can’t tell you that we “won” so many souls for Jesus, I know that through our Revival, Jesus won many of our souls – cradle-to-grave or newborn Christians – back to him.

In closing what I hope sharing the success of our Revival with you is two-fold. First, if you’ve had a general idea planted by the Spirit in your heart / mind for your personal life, or for your church, quit talking yourself out of doing something about it! Success comes in the doing, for as Catherine of Sienna once said, “The way to heaven is heaven!”

Second, realize that your soul needs to be saved as much as the next person, and that only one person can save it, and already has! You aren’t the person you could be. Just going to a church Revival isn’t going to change that. Only Christ. And so like we did for our Revival, find time in your life to do the same – create space for Jesus to win your heart and help you be that person he knows you can be! Get back in a worship habit in a church that helps fill you up and that you can help in its mission. Start a daily devotion pattern at a specific time in a specific space. Block off time for intentional worship, like we did, and who knows who you might and what this world might become!

So thanks for “asking,” because this weekend was a success. And if you were among the couple of hundred who were there, thanks for joining us. If you weren’t, we hold “mini-Revivals” every Sunday morning. But only if you’re like me, with a soul in need of constant saving!