The Sustaining Power of Becoming: Perseverance, Part 1

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” [2 Corinthians 3:18].

Often we miss the undeniable work of God because we give up too soon. Perseverance is often the only thing that separates failure from success. Life is a gauntlet that requires determination. Yes, I am finally going to tackle the subject that has caused so many “discussions” [for lack of a better term] between my wife and I … my old standby references to MTXE … that old acronym that used to adorn the sidelines of the Wichita State University Shockers’ basketball court in the 1980s meaning ‘Mental Toughness Xtra Effort,' exhorting the team to never ever give up and to persevere to the bitter end … over the thirty years of our relationship. This is something she sees as decidedly unspiritual and residing squarely in the flesh, and something that, while I’ll acknowledge her concern theoretically, I see as distinctly spiritual and as a matter of ultimate faith. So we’ll see over the next two blogs whether or not I can make my case.

Perseverance is more than just waiting. It is about how and why we wait. It is the ability to stand and thrive under pressure.

Sometimes we should close the chapter on an enterprise, but some things we must never quit. Projects can be dispensed with; virtues are indispensable. If we treat who we are as being of the same quality as what we do, we are structured for failure. It is easier to replace a lost wallet, and sadly, I have some experience with this, than it is to regain our integrity.

The wisdom of God comes like a gift, yet it is a gift born out of the womb of perseverance. Wisdom is nurtured and formed in the context of trials and temptations. For wisdom to be forged properly in our hearts, it requires us to stand the pressure cooker of life. God will give wisdom generously to all who ask, but that promise is preceded by a description of the journey we all must take [James 1:2-5]. Thus, perseverance becomes the necessary link to wisdom.

Perseverance has multiple dimensions. In the Scriptures the same word can be translated as “endurance” or even “patience.” When we hold out for the good our perseverance is expressed as patience. When we hold on to the good, our perseverance is expressed as endurance.

To persevere requires wisdom in the process, and it also grows us in wisdom through the process. When we do not persevere, we do not grow in wisdom. Whenever God places us in circumstances where perseverance is critical, He is trying to birth wisdom in us. When we circumvent the process, it is a miscarriage of wisdom.

Patience ensures that we do not move faster than God. Waiting on God requires that we continue to do what is right even when our situation does not change. Patience holds out for the good [2 Peter 3:8-9]. Suffering must not be used as an excuse for impatience [James 5:10-11]. Endurance ensures that we do not lose our strength before the task is done. Endurance holds on to the good.

Great suffering can accompany a life entirely given to God. Perseverance is both the resolve to be patient and the commitment to endure. Perseverance finds the good in the worst of circumstances. Joy and suffering are bound together in the Scriptures. Suffering is not a virtue; it is a reality. We are not to pursue suffering; suffering will certainly pursue us. And while suffering is not the source of our joy, it is not to be a joyless setting. Trials are not the source of joy, but trials are where we can find our greatest opportunities for joy. When we belong to God, trials become both a reminder of our need for God and a promise that God will meet us in the midst of them. If God is our greatest pleasure, then trials can become our greatest joys. The key to experiencing this ultimate joy becomes perseverance. Jesus gives us the best insight into the relationship between suffering and joy. It was not for the joy of the cross that Jesus allowed Himself to be crucified, it was for the joy He could see through the cross [Hebrews 12:2].

Followers of Christ suffer just like everyone else [Romans 5:1-5]. The pain is just as real, the disappointment just as deep, the tears just as profound. Yet it is how we face suffering that is quite different. God allows us to see through the suffering. We rejoice through the suffering knowing that our pain is not without meaning. We persevere with the confidence that we ourselves are being transformed. Perseverance produces character and character, hope. And hope is the ultimate gift gained in wisdom.

-- To be continued --

The Healing Power of Belonging: Love, Part 2

Divine love always leads to wholeness. Only the love of God is free from all self-serving motivation. Only His love comes without reservation or condition. We find in Jesus Christ the only love that makes us truly whole. This is why ultimately wholeness cannot be defined by our ability to experience love but by our ability to exercise love.

The most basic definition of wholeness in my mind is simply a minimum of 51 percent; where we give more than we take. What if in every situation we face that we made a commitment to to make a greater contribution than withdrawal -- whether financial, relational, emotional, or the investment of our time? Jesus is our best example [since He is 100 percent] of a person whose entire life was given to giving. Jesus always gave more than He took. He still does. Everyone who genuinely engages Christ in a relationship receives far more than they ever give.

Modern psychiatry is the study of human dysfunction. Its expertise is in identifying, describing and defining human brokenness [though I do think they are also simultaneously 'defining deviancy down' with each new edition of the DSM [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual ... the Bible of psychiatry]. But the path to wholeness cannot be discovered by concentrating on the signs of fragmentation. This is why Jesus is our best and only hope. Jesus was the only truly whole person to ever live. He is the purest expression of what it means to be a healthy human being. While we can learn about God by studying His divinity, we equally can learn about man by studying his humanity. In Jesus we unlock the mystery of wholeness. And we find that wholeness is a promise for all of us. God fully intends to make disciples out of broken people. His love unleashed in us is our only hope for the process of wholeness to find its completion.

Love in its purest expression is not something that is received but something that is given. God is not love because He is most loved but because He is most loving. To properly pursue love, we must strive to give it away rather than simply to find it.

When we consume things, we are materialists. When we consume people, we are cannibals. In the most dysfunctional of human relationships, we see people existing for our benefit. We can be so longing for love that every time someone comes close to us, we devour them, oblivious to our selfishness. We can become emotional leeches. After we've sucked someone dry, we then detach and seek our next victim. Yet genuine love is never self-motivated [1 Corinthians 13:5]. When we open ourselves to love, we open ourselves for love. We are most whole when we are most free to give. Holiness and wholeness are inseparable.

Jesus answered, "The most important command is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these" [Mark 12:29-31].

Jesus clearly says that our relationships are more important to God than anything else. We are never closer to the kingdom of God than when relationships are our priority. First is our relationship to God, and inseparable from this relationship with our Creator are our relationships to others. This is not sequential. It is not love God, then love ourselves, then love others; it is love God and love others as we love ourselves.

The more of ourselves that we give away, the more whole we become. The more completely we love, the more complete love makes us.

When Jesus prayed for His disciples in John 17, He prayed for wholeness [unity]. There is no fragmentation in God; love is always the motivation, the intent and the outcome of the Godhead. Everything about God is good, and everything flows from God. He is the eternal giver, the source of every good and perfect gift. We were designed to live this way. We were created to be expressions of the goodness and wholeness of God.

The Healing Power of Belonging: Love, Part 1

"Love and truth belong to God's people; goodness and peace will be theirs." -- Psalm 85:10

In the midst of our growing fragmentation, we have never been more focused on the individual than we are today. This focus plays itself out in unbridled consumerism. Consumerism's primary product in our culture is narcissism. Even the language of pop psychology betrays us. "You can't love anyone else until you love yourself," is the mantra we are expected to embrace. We are given professional permission to put ourselves above everyone and everything else. "You've got to take what you need before you can give."

When we are disjointed, there is never enough. When we are emotionally fragmented, we leak. No matter how much we consume, how much we take for ourselves, we always find ourselves empty in the end. This in turn leaves us only more frustrated and embittered. Our desperate search for wholeness requires us to let go of what we so long to take hold of, and instead, to set forth on a pilgrimage that leads us along an entirely different path. Wholeness is not found through receiving, but through giving. Wholeness and generosity are inseparably linked.

While it is true that we cannot give what we do not have, it is also difficult to give what we have not experienced. We may find it challenging to serve if we feel we have never been served. We may find it arduous to forgive if we feel we have never been forgiven. We may find it daunting to express compassion if we find that mercy is foreign to us. Yet the reality is that God is the one who always initiates these experiences in our lives ... Jesus said that he "came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many" [Matthew 28:20]. He also first forgives us and then expects us to forgive others [Matthew 6:12-14]. And lastly, we see that "because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions -- it is by grace that we have been saved" [Ephesians 2:4-5]. So we see that our only reasonable response to God's generosity to us is for us to be willing to give to others.

Generosity in its primal essence is love. When we are fragmented, we become emotional black holes. No matter how much is poured into us, its light is absorbed and never finds its way back out. When we are whole, we are nurtured by what is invested in us, and at the same time we freely give of ourselves to others. When we are whole, we see love as limitless. We become what God designed us to be, conduits of love. The overarching problem with mankind is that we have become disconnected from the Source of love. We love because God first loved us [I John 4:19] and love is so central to who God is, that it is a primary test of our relationship to the Creator [I John 4:7-8].

The Scriptures also describe us as being perfect and complete in this life [1 John 4:16-18; Ephesians 4:13]. The best parallel word would probably be "wholeness." The promise of God is not that we will be flawless in this world, but that we can be whole in this life. We have wasted too much effort trying to become perfect in our actions and invested too little energy in becoming healthy in our spirits. To become truly generous and genuinely whole, we must become generative. God intended us literally to generate love .

"May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you" [1 Thessalonians 3:12].

"This is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ -- to the glory and praise of God" [Philippians 1:9-11].

"I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge -- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" [Ephesians 3:16-19].

This is the ultimate secret of moving toward wholeness: we love.

The Unifying Power of Believing: Integrity, Part 3

Integrity, or the lack of it, has everything to do with how we use power. The familiar adage "Absolute power corrupts absolutely" is wrong. The only one who has ever known absolute power is God, and He is also the only one who has never abused His power. The end result of absolute power motivated by undiluted love is servanthood. Jesus' first act after knowing that all power had been placed under His authority was to wrap a towel around His waist and wash His disciples' feet [John 13:1-17]. Absolute power does not corrupt; it reveals. Jesus is our proof of this.

Corruption is not an issue of power; it is an issue of passion. Power allows us to unleash our passions. Character is the mark that defines who we really are when we get to the core. When our character is defined by integrity, we can be trusted with power. Power does not become a corrosive agent but a creative energy. When we lack integrity, we use power to control. When we lead with integrity, we use power to bless.

How Jesus used His authority was an extension of His use of power. With His power He served; in His place of authority He chose not to hold power but to release it. After declaring His authority in Heaven and on earth, He commissioned His disciples to act in His name [Matthew 28:18-20]. Instead of hoarding His power, Jesus unleashed His power. For Him, neither love nor power was/is a limited commodity. Just like love, the nature of power expands when it is given away.

Power is a tool. It allows us the freedom to be who we truly are. This is why it is critical to pursue integrity rather than power. When we are promoted based on our abilities without regard to the contents of our characters, it does a disservice to both our subordinates and to us. We do no one a favor when we put ability [or talent] over integrity.

Integrity cannot be gained by either power or authority. Integrity must be gained long before these have been placed in our hands. Jesus lived an obscure life for thirty years preparing for a public ministry that lasted for only three. Integrity requires that we decide what kind of people we want to become. Integrity not only harnesses our passions but focuses our intentions. Our course is guided by an internal compass of our convictions fueled by our passions.

The real measure of our power is the freedom and opportunity we create for others. Men and women who are marked by integrity point the way to freedom for those around them. Perhaps the most amazing thing about integrity is when we still choose what is right when we're all alone, when no one will see us, when no one will know what we do. It's wonderful when we can look inside our hearts and like what we see.

Corollary to Integrity, Part 2

In 403 A.D. John Chrysostom was brought before the Eastern Roman Emperor Arcadius whose wife, Aelia Eudoxia, was offended by Chrysostom's teachings against extravagance in feminine dress [this entire situation seems strikingly similar to King Herod in the days of Christ with a wife, Herodias, who wielded undue influence and which ultimately cost John the Baptist his head] and was demanded to renounce his Christian faith. If he remained a Christian he would be banished.

Chrysostom replied, "You can not banish me for this world is my Father's house."

The Emperor replied, "But I will slay you."

Chrysostom then said, "No, you can not, for my life is hid with Christ in God."

The Emperor then threatened, "I will take away your treasures."

But Chrysostom answered, "No, but you can not for my treasure is in heaven and my heart is there as well."

Enraged the Emperor declared, "But I will drive you away from man and you shall have no friend left."

Finally Chrysostom replied, "No, you can not, for I have a friend in heaven from who you can not separate me. I defy you, for there is nothing you can do to hurt me."

An amazing response from a man who truly was "a foreigner and a stranger on this earth ... looking for a city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God" [Hebrews 11:10, 13]. This leader of Christ's church had a long history of both faithfulness and persecution. He had previously been banished from Antioch in 397 A.D. by Emperor Theodosius 1 which ultimately brought him to Constantinople where he served as bishop. Ultimately he ruffled the feathers of both Eudoxia and a priest named Theophilus there which led to the above confrontation and resulted in his banishment to Caucasus [Armenia]. Nevertheless, he continued to write letters that were read throughout the churches in Constantinople and continued to carry great influence there, and as a result, he was further banished to Pitiunt [Georgia] in 407 A.D. He never made it to Pitiunt as he died in transit, his last words being "Glory to God for all things." I think we can all learn a lot from his life.

The Unifying Power of Believing: Integrity, Part 2

God created everything to be in proper relationship with Himself. Integrity is born out of relationship with God and flows into our relationships with others. Integrity is the personification of truth.

Jesus had only one face. When we lack integrity, we find ourselves with several faces, being several people, depending on the circumstances. We become personality salesmen rather than people of substance. But Jesus was always the same person [Mark 12:14], and this is exactly what God both desires and expects of us. This same type of integrity is to be formed in us to shape our lives. As with Jesus, integrity is best showcased in the context of opposition or even persecution. When we face a moment of truth, our integrity is tested and proven either genuine or not. In Jesus’ three years of ministry, His environment progressively grew in hostility, and every decision of integrity increased its volatility. That Jesus walked in integrity at all times, even when it cost Him His life, was the ultimate proof of who He was.

When we are defined by integrity, we respond with moral courage. Courage is the ultimate expression of integrity. Integrity gives us the courage to walk in truth even when it means walking straight into the mouth of the dragon. Yet, when we lack integrity, we live in fear [Proverbs 10:9, 28:1]. We’re afraid of getting caught, of someone knowing who we really are, when we walk in righteousness and love what is right we have nothing to fear at all.

As we grow in integrity, we grow in the courage to live lives of conviction. The only actions we consider are those that reflect the character of God. Integrity increases our capacity to live and act in a genuinely heroic way. When Saul questioned whether David was up to the challenge of Goliath, David’s response was a summary of his resume as a shepherd [1 Samuel 17:34-37]. His response was not a moment of inspiration, but a pattern of integrity. The courage to face lions, bears, and giants was the outflow of the integrity of his heart. The seriousness with which David took his responsibility as a shepherd was the best indicator of how he would respond if entrusted with responsibility over God’s people [Psalm 78:70-72].

When we fear God, we fear nothing else. We are free from all the fears that haunt our hearts apart from God. The fear of God aligns us with all that is true and good, and it transforms the core motivation of our hearts to become love.

The Unifying Power of Believing: Integrity, Part 1

You can't say two different things at the same time and expect to be trusted. A person of integrity cannot say one thing and do another. In my opinion, this has been the greatest problem in American politics over the past twenty to twenty-five years. And subsequently, it has filtered both down and through our society. Integrity is the context from which courage is formed. Integrity, like wholeness, is a byproduct of our spiritual integration. "Integrity" comes from the root word "integer," which means to be complete, indivisible -- in other words, to be whole.

In our culture we have put an increasing value on authenticity and a decreasing focus on integrity. We have disdain for the pretentious and we long for anything that is real. But we must not romanticize authenticity. When calling for authenticity, we need to take seriously the corruption of the human heart. If we are not careful, authentic can be the new word for arrogance. As long as we are true to ourselves, how can anyone fault us? Right? Authenticity then can establish a self-righteousness that justifies abuse.

If we are committed to being the genuine article, first we had better look closely at what we are made of. Authenticity without integrity can be both dangerous and even lethal. To be authentic when our hearts are dark is equivalent to opening Pandora's box. As much as we disdain the external constraints of society, humanity's best solution without God is to establish laws that restrain the evil that lurks within all of us.

To be authentic means literally that we are not false or copied, that we reflect the original. Our separation from God has made us into imitations, no longer reflections of the Creator. Although we are born of a template designed in the image of the Creator God, that template is broken and the reproduction flawed. We are classic counterfeits. We may pass as the real thing. We may even fool ourselves. Yet the evidence of our inauthenticity can be seen in our departure from the character of God. The first and most important step to becoming genuinely authentic is once again to be authenticated by the original designer. God longs to place within each of us a new heart, that reflects Him in both action and desire [Ezekiel 36:26]. The divine transformation that God seeks to bring is nothing less and nothing more than making us fully human.

While religion works to restrain our actions from the outside in, God always works from the inside out. Only this kind of change will last. It is in this state that we can become people of integrity. It is more than "what you see is what you get." Integrity is not just about who we are, but who we seek to become. Integrity is not about being flawless, but about being "falseless." Everything that God creates has integrity.

With integrity comes integration. We align what others see with who we really are becoming. And more importantly, we align who we really are with who God is. When Jesus prayed for His disciples to become one as He and the Father are one [John 17], the focus of His prayer was unity. Only in oneness with God do we find wholeness and integration.