Apparently there are many of us that connect deeply with C.S. Lewis and his claim to be the “most reluctant Christian” in the world. I have a theory about this.

We want to be happy. We think we know what will make us happy. We seek after what we think will make us happy only to find out that it does not make us happy. We find that one (more) thing that we think will finally make us happy, and the cycle continues.

And not all of the things we pursue are bad things. In fact, some of them are quite good: great family life, fulfilling career, serving others or community, making a difference in the world… But consider this thought from Psalm 1:

1 How happy is the man who does not follow the advice of the wicked or take the path of sinners or join a group of mockers!

2 Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.

So there are two forces at work here. The first force is ‘the advice of the wicked’ and ‘the path of sinners’ and ‘a group of mockers.’ At first glance, I’d say this really isn’t a huge temptation, because who wants to be the wicked, the sinner, or the mocker, right?

It’s never that straightforward though. How many people have pursued greatness in their careers and earned truckloads of money only to realize that they’ve lived an entirely selfish, wasted life? Or how many people have pursued a deep meaningful relationship only for it to become an illicit affair or pregnancy out of wedlock? How many people thought more free time, more entertainment, more whatever would make us happy only to realize they wasted a lot of time, money, and energy?

I think the core of what Psalm 1 is saying is simply this:  when pursuing happiness, don’t take the world’s advice. Instead, take time to give careful thought to the instruction of the Lord. ‘Delight’ in that. Psalm 1 goes on to say this about the one who delights in the Lord’s instruction:

3 He is like a tree planted besides streams of water… whatever he does prospers.

6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.

The journey of the reluctant obedient starts with this understanding. I don’t have to chase after the wind anymore, I can plant myself by a stream that will never cease to nourish and grow me. I can delight in His ways and be sure that He is watching over me.

This is faith:

Putting something into action that doesn’t have an immediate return on the investment.

Staying and working in a marriage that you feel like leaving.

Giving grace and forgiveness to someone that you feel like seeking revenge on.

Spending time in prayer and in the Word when you feel tired, hurried, and stressed.

Practicing thankfulness when you actually feel like you don’t have enough.

A few years ago we had some dear friends drop a major life bomb on us on a Saturday night. They were divorcing. She wanted another man and didn’t love her husband anymore. Not only were they dear friends, but they were highly active in leadership at their church. We prayed over the phone and cried as well. Before we hung up, my friend asked what I was preaching about the next morning.

I said, “Who cares about that right now?”

He said, “God does. I’m getting up and going to church tomorrow to worship. To pray. To praise. I don’t feel like it. But if this marriage has any chance of surviving, it’s got to be done by Him. And if I’m going to my church in the morning, somebody is coming to yours needing to hear from you about the goodness of God, His grace, His love, and His pursuit of us. So tell me, what are you teaching on in the morning?”

Years later, I have no idea what I taught about that morning. I do know that I watched them both put in years of reluctant obedience to God’s ways. Today, their marriage is as strong as ever.

That’s the journey of the reluctant obedient: to do life according to His ways, believing that it is putting them in a place to be constantly fed.

I stumbled across this quote today from C.S. Lewis:

“That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929, I gave in and admitted that God was God and knelt and prayed; perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.”

This is the same C.S. Lewis that wrote Mere Christianity, The Great Divorce, and The Chronicles of Narnia. It’s the same C.S. Lewis that befriended J.R.R. Tolkien as he wrote The Lord of The Rings. He’s probably the most quoted Christian author and probably the most read as well.

It’s a bit surprising to learn that he was 32 years old when he finally was ‘checkmated by God.’ He wrote, that after years of arguing and discussion, he finally had to deal with “the unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet.” It would take him another six years before he finally wrote a book about his new faith.

Lewis was consumed by logic and philosophy, and that ultimately became his undoing as an atheist. For him, Christianity was true not because of what it made him feel. In fact, he was adamant the rest of his life that if feelings were the mark of truth, he’d remained a hedonistic humanist. It was much easier to live with that philosophy than the one of Jesus.

Eventually, this cold hard logic and philosophy led to a softening of his heart and a collection of writings that has had an unmeasurable impact. But it was his reluctant obedience to the pursuit of God that made the difference.

This is how all growth in people happens. Face a truth and then allow your life to be transformed to that truth. Adjust to the truth, and the feelings will one day follow. It’s the decision to obey, regardless of feelings, that makes the difference.

Tithing. Daily time in the Word. Prayer. Forgiveness. Grace. These are actions not based on feelings. In fact, if we waited for our feelings to motivate us, we would be waiting for a long time. But something strange happens along the journey of the reluctant obedient…

The feelings follow…eventually.

That same C.S. Lewis would also write this, in Mere Christianity:

“Faith, in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”

So if you are struggling with obeying some issue today, or struggling to ‘give in’ to Christ… Go ahead and reluctantly obey. Tell your feelings where to get off. Put them in their proper place, and then you can start exercising real faith.

Eventually… The feelings will follow.

My mom is obsessed with Phantom of the Opera. She sees it every chance she gets, but somehow, someway… I’ve never seen it live. Until last Thursday. Mom and Dad got me a ticket to see it in Kansas City.

I picked my parents up, and we headed downtown early to get some lunch. We ate at Cosentino’s Market just down the street from the Music Hall. We talked about the story of Phantom, and their past experiences with the story. I was already imagining the dropping of the chandelier!

As we walked up to the Music Hall, the Phantom of The Opera truck was on the side street. We took our picture in front of it, completely looking like a bunch of tourists. We had first row balcony box seats. Dead center. Wonderful seats.

Waiting for the orchestra to tune felt like hours, but finally we heard that wonderful Concert A ring out. People stopped milling about and grabbed their seats. Talking quieted down to a whisper. Every ear and eye focused on center stage.

Then there is THAT moment. That moment of silence. The theater goes dark. The audience breathes in. That moment right there. That mystical second and a half where we all know that something divine, something incredible is about to happen, and we are going to be a part of it.

The opening chimes of Masquerade fill the room and we are off…

We don’t need to be taught how to worship. We sometimes need to be reminded to prepare to worship. We need those shared moments to bring it to focus. This way we can share in the anticipation that something mystical, something divine is about to happen, and we are going to be a part of it.

The show was fantastic. Fascinating. I’ve been humming All I Ask Of You for days now, but my preparation and anticipation fed that experience. Part of the reason it was so wonderful was because I wasn’t going to let it be anything but that.

On Sunday morning, something mystical and divine happens, and we get to be a part of it…when we’ve prepared for it. When we stop and let the orchestra of our heart tune, when we take that breath to let the ‘curtain’ fall and get completely focused on what is about to happen. When we prepare for worship…that’s more than half the battle.

It’s normally around age eleven or twelve when the BIG FIGHT happens. Parent and child square off in an epic battle of the wills and minds. It’s happened with every kid in our house. It’s an awkward time in their life anyway: pre-teen/middle school/not a kid/not a teen either. The BIG FIGHT is never about anything really important. It’s about something minor like staying up late, watching a movie, or staying out with friends. But the BIG FIGHT is always about something deeper.

“You just don’t trust me. You treat me like I’m five!”

I wish that Amy and I had made a banner to hang in the kitchen:

You will be treated according to the maturity level in which you behave.

Parenting wasn’t (and still isn’t) easy: deciding what battles to fight and what battles to avoid, when to step in to rescue them from themselves, and when to just let it all crash down around them.

“When you decide to make adult, grown up decisions, we will treat you as an adult. If you keep acting like a petulant child, we will treat you like one – regardless of what your birth certificate says.” I am pretty sure that God functions with this standard as well. There are blessings and opportunities that He would love to give us, but…

At some point, we have to decide to grow. That doesn’t mean become boring. It doesn’t mean quit laughing or joking around. It means making God-centered decisions, decisions that consistently put Him first and put us in the best position to be on His mission: love people, serve people.

I’ve had a lot of coffees where this inevitable truth becomes the topic. It starts off talking about being a better dad or husband or wife or mom or kid or leader. But it all comes back to whether they are ready to choose to grow. It’s on this topic that things can get incredibly complicated as well.

Books, movies, studies, sermon series… How much material has been produced with a focus of growing us up? It’s countless. And overwhelming. Who has the time or energy to add sixteen more things to their life that are supposed to help?

That’s why I’m so excited about this series. What if I told you that it’s been condensed to only five questions that you need to nail down and wrestle with. That’s it: one handful, five.

Don’t confuse simple with easy. Nothing about growing up is easy. It just doesn’t have to be complicated.

So make it a commitment to be here Five Sundays in a row. Take the challenge. Each week you’ll learn one of the five core choices. After the series, you’ll walk away with a handful of values and choices that could make 2017 the best year of your life.

See you Sunday.

King Saul by all measurements was a terrible leader. During his 40 year reign, Israel’s economy practically collapsed. The taxation kept people in debt and enslaved to their creditors. They spent more time in war than ever before in their history. Saul led the nation to civil war and to outright war with the Philistines – AT THE SAME TIME.

He was petty and shallow.
He was a hothead and a liar.
He did everything out of selfish gain.
He wouldn’t listen to wise counsel.
He was a terrible king.

What was the real tragedy? He wasn’t even the worst leader there ever was. Israel has been under the reign of a Who’s Who list of terrible leaders: King Nebuchadnezzar, Hezekiah, Ahab, Rehoboam, Cyrus and Artaxerxes. And don’t even get me started on the Roman rulers.

Where am I going with this?

History repeats itself.

So does God.

History is full of petty, shallow, hotheaded, lying, selfish leaders who make life miserable for the people they are “leading.” And if you look closely, God is still at work. He may have to work on, in spite of, through, around, with, or against them. But He’s working.

God turned the arrogance of the Pharaoh against himself to destroy his own army. God used Artaxerxes (with a little help from Esther) to avoid the genocide of the Hebrew people. King Cyrus paved the way to restore a fallen Jerusalem. Caesar Augustus put the world in motion to get Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem.

God has used unfit, unsavory leaders for His purposes throughout history. That’s the lesson here. It’s important to not get confused on the issue. I’m sure God would prefer godly, holy, mature, Kingdom-focused leaders, but He’s not limited if they aren’t around.

I’m not happy about where we are as a nation. We are in a delicate place financially, socially, and morally. And it doesn’t appear that any of the candidates placed before us have the maturity or insight to deal with those issues. One has had the opportunity for years and has failed miserably. The other is reckless and reactionary.

So yes, it’s beyond disturbing to see these two candidates throw careless word after careless word toward each other: how they each fail to demonstrate the basic ability to be civil to someone who is different than they are. It’s criminal: the lack of integrity and the continued display of immaturity and selfishness.

But I’m not going to give in to fear and panic. Mostly because I have dual citizenship.

I am a part of another Kingdom, a bigger Kingdom. That Kingdom is larger than just my color, my socio-economic status, my language, and my geography. It is a redemptive Kingdom where the King is righteous and holy. Always. He can be quiet. He keeps to His own schedule. But there are no integrity or maturity issues with Him.

While my confidence with mankind may be at an all-time low, my confidence with Christ is at an all-time high.

Regardless of the outcome of the upcoming election, God will work through, with, around, and/or in spite of the new leaders. It’s what He has done from the beginning. The real question is, “Will you be working with Him?” Or will you be so consumed and distracted by your earthly citizenship that your heavenly citizenship becomes worthless?

If the church faces more persecution, more attacks…
If it becomes more difficult to be the church in America over this next chapter…
If our leaders make life more difficult for us rather than easier…

We are still going to feed hungry kids in Topeka. We are still going to engage families with the story of Jesus through sports. We are still going to walk into trash dump communities with the Gospel, as well as food and education. We are still going to build bridges with international college students who may have never heard the Gospel before. We are still going to try to equip parents to be godly parents and kids to be godly kids. We are still going to speak truthfully about Jesus and His plan to restore and redeem ALL people, regardless of race, culture, or social position.

Those works will have a larger impact. Those works will be transformative in me, as well as to those who benefit from them. Those works will be Kingdom works that I know will never be in vain.

Utilize the greatest honor and responsibility you have as a citizen in both worlds. Vote AND Serve.

It’s possible to light the candles on a birthday cake with a flame-thrower!

Just know that there is going to be one heck of a mess to clean up afterwards.

After the most contentious presidential election in history, where both candidates used little restraint in talking to and about each other, the damage that has been done is extensive. Both candidates walked across America with flame-throwers and grenades. They insulted, demeaned, and belittled each other, as well as those who would support them.

They both had “scorched earth” policies during their campaign. Did either one of them ever stop to count the cost?

I had two phone calls on Wednesday that couldn’t have been more opposite than the other.

Phone call 1: “God really showed up during the election, didn’t He? Got these godless, atheistic leaders out of office. Trump is going to get rid of abortion and make national security a priority again. It’s a new day for America.”

Phone call 2: “I’m scared to let my kids go to school, because they aren’t white. I’ve got people that I’m working with that are fearful for their life because of Trump. How could America elect a man so full of hate?”

There is good news. God’s equipped the Church to deal with scorched earth. In fact, this weekend as we finish up our series on David, we will study a man who is the model of how we should now live.

His name was Nathan. He lived in a similar circumstance. He’s got a lot to teach us about walking through tough times.

It was Nathan’s life that I used as a model to answer both of these phone calls.

See ya Sunday.