“Make no mistake: if He rose at all it was His body; if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle, the Church will fail..Let us not mock God with metaphor, analogy, sidestepping transcendence, making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded credulity of earlier ages: let us walk through the door.”—John Updike

“For consider Him who has endured so much hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”  Hebrews 12:3

It seems that lately this verse has been creeping into my mind more than it ever has before.  Me and Lindsay are driving home from a few days off with my family at Cedar Point, and we both confessed that this has been a struggle as of late.  It is so hard to be taken advantage of, and to be living this out in front of people.

For me, my life is very public.  I feel like I am either with the youth group, or at HeBrews, or I am with a large gathering of people somewhere else.  I know that God calls people like that to be on guard, and to be a positive example of who Christ is

The past month has been especially hard.  I feel like every person on the face of the planet thinks that Lindsay and I are complete idiots. I feel like it is coming mostly from the parents of our own youth group, and the kids themselves.  I wonder if this is how I was when I was 14.  I’m sorry, 14 year old “know it all” but you really don’t know everything, and neither does your parents.  And it isn’t even over important theological issues, it is something as menial as how you are supposed to fix something or repair a car.  It is so hard not to be frustrated when every single person in the world who doubts what you are doing, and to not get bitter and to judge them on how they live their life.  I feel like I am really good at that.  I guess I need to just consider how Jesus dealt with people, and ultimately how he dealt with the world.  He endured, he persevered, and he loved all the people that thought he was a complete crack head.  Everyone who doubted Jesus ultimately was shamed because Jesus right all along.  He didn’t wear a hat that said he was the smartest man in the world, and that he has achieved some level of intellectual mastering, rather he was a humble, loving, and patient man.  All things I confess that I need help with.

I am writing this because I have come to the place where I am weary and tired.  I am sick and tired of being questioned by people, sick and tired of every single kid in the youth group thinking that they are smarter than me.  I am weary of teaching a bunch of self-righteous kids, only to see them become more self-righteous as they get older.  I am weary of dealing with prideful people, and I am weary of striving to continue in ministry.   But that is the real issue.  It is not that I should be striving in ministry.  I need to consider how Jesus was treated, and what people thought/said of him, and to simply be faithful to God, as Jesus was faithful to his calling, and see God move, and let Him change people.

So i am sitting here at sbux on coliseum, and this guy comes in, total metro looking dude. anyway, he goes to pay for his drink, and his credit card is not signed. so my wife asked to see an ID, and he said “You don’t recognize me? I’m famous.”

to which my wife and the barista all said no sorry we don’t.

Now he is sitting in his Cadillac trying to be cool. I guess he has used this line before, and one of the other barista’s looked him up, and said he is not famous! ha

I love faith.  It is one of those words that gets grossly overuesd, but I have been teaching through Hebrews 11 on Wednesday nights and have been blessed to see these men and women throughout history that have been faithful.  I love that in a time of distress, and trouble, that they turned to the Lord, and were obedient.  Even in times of ridiculous trials and testings, we are commanded to remain faithful.  We have been given so many promises in the Lord, promises of peace and joy in the Lord, promises of eternal life, promises of peace in times of trials, and the list can go on.

In Abraham’s case, he was told to sacrifice his son, with the promise that his descendents would be blessed.  This challenge seemed to contradict itself, but in that time, he just ran to the commandment of God, and what he said, and he let God take care of the promises.

I heard Pastor Britt Merrick say that “God will sometimes test us in regards to what we value highly to make sure we value Him most.”

Holy cow!  God doesn’t desire that we live our life like robots, just doing things blindly, but he wants our hearts!  I love that we are commanded to just follow God in times of trial and in times of unsurety (is that a word?).

be faithful where you are at!