Rob Bell put this video/talk together and it is really inspiring. He talks about the value of serving others and how to be blessing. Of course it has his trademark creativity and relevant explanation of Old Testament teaching. If you have 5 minutes to watch it I promise it will move your soul.
To see the video just cut and paste the link:
http://player.flannel.org/compassion?referer=corner
Compassion is an amazing ministry that helps underserved children around the world. Check this video out! This will move your heart!
I heard through some friends about a man named, David who is battling brain cancer. He found out that he has a tumor in his brain that is around his comprehension and language centers. I couldn’t imagine going through an experience like that. I wanted to turn you on to his blog because it is incredibly inspiring to hear his heart. This is right in line with what I have been writing recently about trusting God when bad things happen to us.
Here is something that David posted recently:
This tumor was specifically designed for me by God.
The other day my sister sent me an article written by John Piper called ‘Don’t Waste your Cancer’ <http://www.hopetriumphant.com/don%27t_waste_your_cancer.htm> . Written on the eve of John’s prostate surgery, his first point is:
1. You will waste your cancer if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.
“It will not do to say that God only uses our cancer but does not design it. What God permits, he permits for a reason. And that reason is his design. If God foresees molecular developments becoming cancer, he can stop it or not. If he does not, he has a purpose. Since he is infinitely wise, it is right to call this purpose a ‘design’. If you don’t believe your cancer is designed for you by God, you will waste it.”
God didn’t give me a bum leg or a sore back. He has designed a tumor to grow in my brain in the specific place – the exact location – where I would never ever want it to be. He has intricately fused a massive lesion into the middle of my comprehension and language centers. He has calcified cancerous tissues around the speech production areas of my brain; the essence of my personality, my career and my future.
If God were about to tell a compelling story with my life that ended in His glorification, this is a pretty incredible way to start it. After all, would we still talk about Goliath if he wasn’t a giant?
This is the beginning of a new story, but I want to make a clarification. This new story is about God, not me. So I confidently declare Psalm 20:6-9.
6 Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed;
He will answer him from His holy heaven
With the saving strength of His right hand.
7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
8 They have bowed down and fallen;
But we have risen and stand upright.
9 Save, LORD!
May the King answer us when we call.
Please be praying for David. If you want to follow along his blog is: http://www.jumpdavidjump.typepad.com/
I have found that most of us struggle with a fundamental distrust of God. Even if you are a devout believer in God, when tough times come it is easy to begin to doubt the fundamental nature of who God is. That is because at our core we believe that bad stuff shouldn’t happen to good people. We think only good things should happen to good people. We believe subconsciously in a cause and effect relationship with the universe. Subtly, we begin to see God as someone who spends his time averting evil from people who follow him and rewarding them for doing good. At the same time he is punishing people for doing bad things and bringing chaos into their lives.
Unfortunately in the real world, bad things do happen to nice people. Good things happen to bad people. It seems really unfair. When pain enters into our life we doubt whether God is good, omniscient, and all powerful. We may even wonder if God exists at all. This is because we do not have a good understanding of the God of the Bible.
It is easy to lose hope in God when we think that he allows evil things to happen and for justice to be withheld without a good reason. But just because we can’t fathom a reason why bad things may happen to us or to those we designate as good, does not mean that God doesn’t exist. It’s a form of pride in our own mental abilities, to imagine that with our finite understanding of the universe and the limited time we have on the planet we could figure our all of God’s reasons for why we experience pain. But as we look at the Bible we can find an answer to the question of evil.
In the Bible, we find a God who is good, all powerful, and hates evil. However, he allows evil to exist in the world for an important reason.
The reason that God allows evil to exist is rooted firmly in the gospel. This is Christianity 101. God allows evil to happen because he loves people. I understand this seems very counter intuitive. Why would God allow pain and suffering in the lives of people that he loves. Isn’t that sadistic and cruel? That doesn’t seem very loving. According to the Bible however, God allows evil to exist because he wants to rescue humanity from its clutches. God has vowed to end evil, pain, and suffering forever someday but he has held back because he is extending grace to those who are perpetuating this cycle of evil, namely you and I.
You see, if God was to destroy evil and suffering today, then he would have to destroy all people who are currently under the domination of sin. It is a package deal. If he were to destroy one part of the construct of this world he has to destroy all of it. Humans are tied into the story of suffering and injustice because we are the ones who initiated it into this world. We are not exempt from the system of this world that we are born into. God does his work of limiting evil by setting constraints upon it. When he finally does away with evil, all those who do not come to a repentant relationship with Jesus Christ will be destroyed along with evil, injustice and pain. God is extending mercy upon humanity by waiting to do away with evil.
An interesting side effect of God extending mercy on humanity is that God has not exempted himself from the human problem of pain. Jesus entered into the world and experienced pain and suffering first hand. God has not chosen to keep pain at an arms distance but has instead chosen to enter into it. He understands what it is like to suffer. He understands what it is like to be mocked, because he was scorned by the religious crowd. He understands what it is like to hurt when a family member dies young, his earthly father Joseph died before his time. He understands what it is like to be different, he was seen as an interloper by the leaders of the Jews. Jesus knows what it is like to be beaten and cursed at. He even understands what it is like to die for what you believe in. He understands pain. And he has chosen to weld his story with ours so that God no longer has the choice to opt out of human suffering.
This is why we can have confidence in God. Because God has said that we are now his people. That we have been shown mercy. 1 Peter 2:10 says ‘Once you were not a people but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.” God now offers us a chance to get away from the consequences of sin and pain through Jesus.
The problem is that we struggle when times get hard. We quickly stop trusting God when pain enters into our life. That is because we are really in it for ourselves. However, God does promise to redeem terrible situations for good. God is in the redemption business. God wants to use our hard times to show himself to the world through us. God uses our suffering as a stage to reveal himself to people far from him. There is a purpose behind the things that we go through. I love John 9:3 what Jesus says when he is asked about a man who had been blind from birth. His disciples wanted to know whose fault it was that he had been born blind. Jesus said, it was neither the mans fault or his parents fault, but it was so the works of God might be displayed in him. That is amazing. God allows the pain of this world to exist so that he can show himself to be God.
I don’t know if you are struggling today with some sort of suffering or pain, but I know that God is at work within you if you let him take the stage. If you say God, I trust you with everything, then he is able to take your pain and make something amazing out of your life. God has not forgotten where you are and what you are going through. 1 Peter 5:7 says, “Cast your care upon him because he cares for you.” The first step to casting you cares/suffering upon him is to trust Jesus. Trusting someone that you have an innate tendency to mistrust is a difficult process but it is one that brings eternal dividends. It is a leap of faith that God really has your best interest in mind.
I talk more about this on this week’s podcast from Green Hills Church:
Just click the link to listen: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=274809927
Ok! So I have a confession to make. I just joined Twitter last week. I feel kind of like a sell out but I think it will be a cool instrument to continue reaching people through this blog. If you are into Twitter you can follow me at Mike_Harder or http://twitter.com/mike_harder
See you online!
I don’t know if you are anything like me but I struggle with comparing myself to others. Its something that happens in the back of my mind constantly. I find myself gauging my own performance or self worth by looking around. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing with benchmarking yourself to seeing how you are doing and what you could be doing better but comparisons can be very dangerous to our psyche and our walk with God. The reason they can be dangerous is because we can become slaves to an image of what we should be and miss the freedom that comes with being who we really are.
Many times when I compare myself to others I make dangerous mistakes. I either prop myself up and push others down, allowing to think I am doing really well because of my perceived superiority, or I see myself as a complete failure because of someone else’s success. Comparisons make us ride a out of control emotional roller coaster. I become a hostage to my emotions. The dirty little secret about comparisons that I have learned recently is that comparing yourself is really a form of pride.
Two areas that I struggle with are Comparisons with my dad and comparisons with my peers.
Comparison with Dad - I have a great relationship with my dad but it is easy to compare myself with where he was in his ministry or his life when he was my age. I know other people struggle with the desire to please their dad and live up to his expectations.
Comparisons with Peers - This is probably the worst arena of comparisons for me. It is so easy to compare myself with my friends and co-workers. Performance is valued highly in western culture an the pressure to perform is exhausting. I think preachers really struggle with this because we have so much value tied into how we do when we teach. Everyone else is evaluating us as we teach and so we also evaluate ourselves. We can fall in the trap of equating our personal value to our teaching popularity. Compounding the problem is the power of the internet and podcasts.
Honestly the only way to be free from comparing yourself with your peers is to choose to walk in humility. Dictionary.com defines humility as: having a modest opinion or estimate of one’s own importance and rank. I really like that definition. Humility frees us to be who we really are. 1 Peter 5:5 says: “And all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God resists the proud,but gives grace to the humble.” Humility covers our nakedness and our insecurities. Humility brings God’s favor on our life
If you struggle with humility and comparing yourself to others I encourage you to trust God and fire yourself from comparing yourself to others. That will allow you to find true freedom and the ability to enjoy your life.
I talk about this topic a lot more on this week’s podcast from Green Hills Church. Check it out here!
Just click the link to listen: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=274809927
This Sunday I am teaching on the topic of humility as we teach through the book of John. Honestly, I am not the best person to be teaching about humility since I have not come close to attaining it. But I really have felt burdened for this message since I returned from Italy. I have really been convicted of my sins of comparison in the last week. Being away for 12 days on vacation was so refreshing. I completely unplugged from my life here. No email, phone calls or computer. Just my iphone that I used to blog our trip. When we got back I felt really rejuventated.
On Monday morning as I was getting ready for our staff meeting, I began to feel the weight of life begin to creep upon my bones. I was surprised to feel how heavy the stress felt that I had been under before I left for vacation. The stress was pressure to perform as a pastor, pressure to succeed, and the pressure of leadership. I was worrying about things I had no control of but hoping that through my worry that I would be able to overcome my obstacles. In that moment I felt God convicting me of not trusting him.
I immediately began to pray and ask God for forgiveness. I needed forgiveness for trying so hard to carry all the burdens on my own. I vowed to turn that stuff over to him and just work hard at doing what he has called me to. I need to just focus on being myself and staying humble. Humility frees us from the pressure of having to prop ourselves up by our accolades.
Jesus modeled humility throughout his life. Most of us are aware that Jesus set the gold standard for what it is to live a life that was humble and selfless. But as I have been digging in the scriptures I am amazed at how truly humble Jesus really is. I am struggling as a flawed vessel to live a life that resembles that of my savior.
Please pray for me as I share this message on Sunday. I know that so many of us are trying so hard to succeed and to find validation. My prayer is that our people can find freedom from the tyranny of comparison and the weight of pride this Sunday.
Wow.
We are back. Back in the blessed United States. We had such a good time but we had such a hectic 24 hours on our way home. Sorry I didnt blog the last couple of days. We stopped in Positano which is off the Almafi coast and didnt have internet there and then made a quick journey back to Rome to get on a plane and head back to Nashville.
Our stop in Positano was a pretty hairy adventure. We took an overnight train from Cinque Terra that started at 1:37 at night. We had to leave Vernazza at 11:30 to go to a slightly larger town called La Spieza. That was fine except for the fact that La Spieza got a little shade after midnight. Tab and I hung out with some very silent families who were visibly trying to ignore the sleeping homeless people sleeping on the train platform. But it was worth the discomfort to sleep overnight on the train all the way down to Naples. Our train was pretty cool. We had our own little bedroom on it that had a locking door and a guy who watched over us as we slept. He also woke us up with hot coffee when we were about an hour away from Naples.
The trip to Positano was pretty scenic except for the time we were in Naples. Rick Steves warns about Naples because it is known for its thieves and pickpockets. Over 1/3rd of the city’s adult male population is unemployed which leads to rampant petty crime. With great apprehension we rode the rickety subway called the Circumvensuvia to the town of Sorrento. From there, we took a bus over the mountains to Sorrento. We stayed at a really cool Pensione called Pensione Maria Lousia. Our host, Carlo Milo, was amazing. He was so hospitable. Our room had a balcony that overlooked the Mediterranean. You can check them out here: http://www.pensionemarialuisa.com/.
If you ever get to go to Positano, you will find that the city is really quaint and built on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Think Cinque Terra on a much larger scale. Both on the size of the town and the size of the scenery. It is the town that Robert Downey Jr. and Marissa Tomei go to in the movie Only You. It is very beautiful. But it is very steep. We counted 414 steps from our Pensione to the beach.
One of the coolest things was we bought sandwiches that evening from a local deli and ate them overlooking the sea. Believe it or not, we finally got tired of pizza. As we were heading down we heard this guy singing in a deep baritone from up around the corner. We thought we were going to be crashing a private concert but it was just some random guy just bringing it. He had one of the most incredible voices we have ever heard. We just camped out right there and ate our sandwiches, watched the sea and listened to an amazing free concert.
We left Positano the next day by boat to go to Salerno. We found out there that there is a Trenitalia train station in Salerno. It is right across the street from the docks. The trip that way is cheaper, shorter and safer. The views from the boat are really beautiful.
Our trip back was pretty uneventful. We went out one more time to Piazza Navona and the Pantheon when we got back to Rome. Tabitha bought some cool shoes and we went to bed.
The next morning at 6 AM Rome time, 11 PM Nashville time we got up to head home. It was such a long flight. We were up about 24 hours straight, minus some small naps on the plane. It feels so good to be home though and in our own beds.
Here are some pics of Positano.
Jet lag is seeping in and I am about to crash. I am going to post some more pictures tomorrow. I have to edit them down in size and I just hit a wall. Its great to be home though!
