furious pursuit: a review
Occasionally I will receive a request to review a book on my blog. I have actually never accepted an invite to do this until now. In late November I received an email from a guy named Tim King asking me to read his book and blog about it. So I thought I would give it a whirl. I was interested because I saw the words “furious pastor” and I thought it would be a treat to read some rants from an ex-pastor who was angry.
I received the book and read it all in one sitting (I had an allergy testing appointment that lasted more than three hours). Tim King and Frank Martin co-wrote the book Furious Pursuit. Both are from Colorado Springs. The first thing that struck me was that neither of these guys were angry; they were both broken and humble men writing honestly and from experience. The book begins with a story of a guy who is discouraged who asks the question, “Why doesn’t God pursue me?” I was intrigued and began to read faster through the book.
Tim and Frank do a wonderful job of telling of God’s love affair with the human race by weaving stories seamlessly together. We see this love first in the garden after Adam and Eve sin. God comes to them to find them. We see this love when God comes to Noah and Abraham. We see this love when God comes to his people in Egypt. We see the God who comes to live with his people in the desert and in Jerusalem, we see this picture of love in Jesus. The picture of God with us. We have the hope of God living with us forever.
It is this love spoken of in the Text that King and Martin do a good job of revealing in our world. So often the Bible and its message can seem distant and foreign to us. Furious Pursuit reminds us that the God of the Bible, Immanuel, still pursues men and women by moving within our world and bringing hope to us. At times the book can border on feeling “me-centered”, but if the reader can understand the intent of the authors he or she will recognize this is not the case. The authors are pointing not toward "me", rather they are revealing the loving nature of the One God.
The book is a good read, and one that I would recommend to anyone. If you are interested in reading the book for yourself, or receiving any of the materials that go along with it please visit www.timkingbooks.com. Thanks both to Tim and Frank for the opportunity to review a well written book.
hi, i'm larry
Each day when I arrive home I meet someone new. My son opens the door and tells me who he is for that day. Often he is football guy, sometimes he is basketball guy, other times he is Batman (who he believes is a bad guy), but more recently he has been Larry. Yesterday my wife took him the library and he was introducing himself to people as Larry. One person who he engaged in discussion even said, “Well goodbye Larry.”
Larry is not an arbitrary name for Myles. He knows exactly to whom he is referring. He thinks he is Larry Mullen Jr. Larry is the drummer for the band U2. Myles has taken to playing the drums lately as he watches U2 Live in Milan on DVD. He recently informed me that I am Bono (vocals), my daughter is The Edge (guitar) and my wife is Adam (bass guitar). Last night I referred to him as Myles, much to his dismay. He said, “No Bono, my name is Larry!” Bono apologized and kept singing as he danced with The Edge.
My son is only three, so we think of this kind of imaginative role playing as normal. However, if I were the one who spoke of introducing myself to people as Larry you may have concerns, with good reason. I am older, I am not supposed to do that. But if I am honest, I do pretend often to be someone else. Before you point the finger at me also realize that you do too. We all do.
There are many reasons for this I am sure. I think that many of us live in fear wondering what people will think of the real us. So we have to create masks and live in a dizzying world of acting, pretend and make believe. We are scared to reveal our dreams, desires and fears because others may well use those against us. Somewhat subconsciously we develop an outward front for others, and over time we begin to deceive ourselves. Without a second thought we tell others our name is Larry.
Self-deception is perhaps one of the most damaging things around. It is amazing how easily we can fool ourselves, and with full certainty and authenticity in our hearts we make ourselves believe the worst or best about ourselves. We build ourselves up so that we can tear others down. We beat ourselves up because at one time or another we let down someone we care about. If I can create another person the real me will never get hurt.
This kind of living is a huge step back from the design that God created. Adam and Eve were naked and felt no shame. This seems to be a metaphor for more than just their bodies. They knew each other fully. They were buck naked and had no fear of being judged by the other. I am not saying that we should be naked all the time, but we need to take off the other person. We can start this by being honest with ourselves.
The next time you are in an argument. Stop and ask yourself why you are mad? Is it really about the other person, or is it about you? Just this morning I was driving to work, and the light turned green. The car in front did not move. I waited and found myself getting edgy. The person in the car then saw their blunder, and quickly accelerated. I was just about to say, “You idiot!” Then I caught myself.
I thought, “What is it about you that makes you so mad when people do things that are not directed against me or anyone?” I am confident that the person driving that car did not wake up this morning with the intent of making me angry at the light on Fuller Avenue. It is me. I began to ask myself, “What makes you edgy?” I prayed and thought through the things inside of me that are solely focused on me. What a lonely existence! Living with myself in the center.
The bottom line is we need to stop being a bunch of Larry’s, and be who we are created to be. This begins by being honest with yourself.
like me.
This week at Ridge Point we began our teaching through the prayers of Christmas. Also known as the songs of Christmas. We began with Elizabeth, who after becoming pregnant with John said, "The Lord has done this for me, In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people." Elizabeth recognized the grace of God in her midst. She knew her value as a woman in the image of God with His breath in her nostrils.
Often when we speak of the grace of God we want it to be for us. We have a highly individualized picture of grace. As a result our thoughts drift toward grace being for people like us. Grace is for people who think like us, look like us, speak our language, share our religion, have similar political views and/or live in our neighborhoods. The reality is that God's grace is for all of us for all time.
Philip Yancey defines grace in his book What's So Amazing
About Grace? as follows: Grace is the idea that there is nothing we can do to make God love us more and there is nothing we can do to make God love us less. This is what God has expressed to men and women since he visited Adam and Eve in the garden.When we sing: Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch, LIKE ME ... We are faced with the reality that we are merely wretches. More than that all men and women who have ever lived have had that same grace extended to them. We
concluded our gathering together singing Amazing Grace and seeing at images that were all titled "like me."I have included some of those pictures in this blog, we had more than thirty five during our time together. Some of those included in the images were Johnny Cash, Adolf Hitler, Kurt Cobain, and Martin Luther King Jr. We had photos of a little blond-haired girl, a young Hispanic boy and African children. There were pictures of Jews, Christians and Muslims. There were pictures of American soldiers and Iraqi insurgents ... Republican and Democrat. All of us are people to whom grace has been extended.
The beauty of this message is that the Church, His Body, are the ones called to be the conduits of his grace in our world. So as we sang the old hymn we all had a new spirit in our hearts as we did. A friend of mine said, "I love the 'like me.' thing." I smiled and said, "Yeah, we should make it a t-shirt." We then looked at each other, and knew that we should do just that.To learn more please go to the like me store.
i am not a can of soup
All of us know that one guy from high school. He may have been the football hero, the party animal, the class clown or the ladies’ man. Years have past since my high school days, and what fascinates me is that in the minds of many I am still that guy (I will let you choose which one I was from the above list). Why is it that people are so quickly and permanently labeled?
The labels that are given us are rarely if ever undone. I have found that because they are so quickly given they are rarely assigned correctly. I have a friend who is rather mild-mannered and easy going. There was a time in his life when he had a lot going on. One of his best-buddies had just died, he had lost his job, he was having major marital troubles and spiritually his life was in disarray. One day he was with a few friends playing golf. Like so many of us, he played terribly. On the eighteenth hole he finally had it. He snapped his putter over his knee. He said several words that had four-letters and one other that rhymes with Byron Leftwich. His finale was a flawless hammer style throw of his putter just before he walked off the green, leaving his clubs and driving away.
He became known as a hot-head. This was the first and only time I have ever seen him lose his temper. It was followed with sincere apologies to all present. However, many who were there told others about it. As others were told I could see the label being applied. He was a can of soup to them. He was labeled. Six years later he still cannot undo it.
What is wrong with us? Honestly if people followed me for ten minutes or less at different parts of my life they would call me everything from a righteous man to a pagan. The problem is once they labeled me it would stick. My friend Tim in Ohio is experiencing this in his church in unheard of ways. His pastor confessed sin to the Board of Elders over a year ago. The pastor has been run out of town. He has been labeled a false teacher, a cult leader, a sex addict and other horrible things. He will never live it down.
I look at this and I am glad that God does not operate in our world. What would he have to label all of us? I know that if he labeled me I would be dead. Literally. He would have killed me for the way I profaned his name throughout my life. He doesn’t however. Jesus took those labels to the cross. He was mocked remember. He had labels posted above his head. When people saw the labels they laughed and applied more. They applied more as theirs were being removed.
Jesus took the labels and said no more. He told us that we could find a new name. In him we could find a new spirit. So if you are reading this I ask one thing of you “Stop.” Could you please not label people anymore. It is so dehumanizing. The next time you want to give the scoop on someone by doing the soup can thing … stop. Compose yourself and say “She is the image of God.” It is hard to gossip about people when you have to start by calling them the image of God. Suddenly it sounds like we are speaking evil about God himself. As for me I know that all men and women are more than soup cans.
the politics of the early church
I have thought about this for a time. I admit in many ways I am guilty. And not just in the realm of politics. I really pin my hopes on a lot. The almighty dollar. What others think of me. When one stands back and thinks for a moment much of this seems silly. I mean really, do we actually believe that a man from Texas is going to change our future in amazing ways? Why are some so terrified of a woman from Arkansas?
We do not need to give up on politics, but we need to keep them in their proper place. As we engage politically it has to stop being combative. Jim Wallis says, “It is not left vs. right. It is about going deeper.” We need to hear what the prophets say to God’s people about our culture. We need to let the words of Jesus resonate in our ears in regard to living our life and restoring the world in which we live. To believe that all this will happen in the political arena based on what person is their may be mildly shortsighted.
Many who spend so much energy and nervousness on these things also say they want to be like the early church. If this is the case then one need survey the political climate of the world in the first century. Rome ruled the world. The Peace of Rome (Pax Romana) was the hope of the world. Within what was called peace followers of the Way (the early name for the Church) were treated horribly. They were burned on poles after being dipped in boiling tar. They were fed to wild animals for sport. They actually sold tickets to that one. They were under the authority of Caesars who called themselves things like, “Son of God”, “Prince of Peace”, “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” They were not free to follow Jesus. They were killed for it.
As for who they wanted in office, well that was tricky. Some Emporers were madmen who would kill for sport. It was really an interesting world. Followers of The Way really did not put a lot of stock in the kingdoms of this world. So when people say they want to be a lot like the early church there may be more to it than we realize.
Many put faith in a political party. Many place people in office in a position where, while we would never call them “Son of God” we speak of them as though they are. After all we do use language like “God’s man in the Whitehouse.” If we are going to be like the early church maybe our faith should be placed less in politicians and more in the Galilean Rabbi who walked around this earth roughly two-thousand years ago.
my value on eBay
Recently I have been trying to buy stuff at a low price and sell it at a higher price. There are little tricks to the trade of getting noticed. So I thought I would give it a whirl. Being fairly new to eBay is a small disadvantage because people wonder if they can trust a new eBayer. However, today I have arrived. No longer do I have to wonder what others think about me as I prance around the large virtual auction house. I have a gold star by my name.
That’s right. Michael Hidalgo has arrived in the eBay world. I officially have ten people who in one person’s words think I am “a friendly eBayer.” Another said he “would deal with [me] anytime.” When I saw my gold star and the number 10 next to my username I smiled, and then I thought “Please tell yourself that you are not that happy about a gold star.”
I couldn’t answer myself. I heard the words of my friend ring in my ears from two days before as we talked about what gives value to people. The longer I went without answering the question I posed to myself the more nervous I became. This then compounded with the fact that I was asking myself a question that I could not answer. I looked at the computer screen and wondered how many people have this same conversation with themselves. I then followed up with the question, “How many are sick enough to blog about a long, detailed conversation one had with himself?”
So where does our value come from? This is a question that I have to wrestle with each day. When I was in my early twenties God brought me into a world where I spoke to a lot of people on weekends. Some of those who were a part of the same faith community would compliment me for what I would say. In many ways what they thought gave me a sense of self-worth. The problem was when I left that particular church. Those people, while they genuinely loved me, no longer were giving me the value input I needed.
Consequently I had this value deficit. I did not know what to think about myself. This is just one way I have caught myself doing this over the years. I wait for others to tell me what I am worth. The problem is that men and women are far too picky to base our value upon. Beyond that, when I place value on a person it is often shallow.
We need to come to the place where we ascribe value to others and find value in ourselves from a much higher place than a platform in a church, several zero’s on a paycheck or through our feedback scores on eBay. Our value is simply this. We are shadows of God. We are his image. My value comes when I cultivate what has been given to me. I am only a little lower than the angels and God is mindful of me. I am called to co-author the story that God has written for me before the foundations of the earth were laid.
Together humanity occupies the central place on God’s mantle. God crafted men and women to be like, look like and feel like him. The problem is we have become so temporary in the way we think about life that we cannot think to exist in a world where we think about eternity. We think eBay but God thinks Kingdom of Heaven. We think feedback score but God thinks Imago Dei.
So there I was staring at my computer screen. I thought about my gold star. I was relieved that I was not overly happy about having this new thing behind my name. I did however contemplate how I find value and ascribe value to others. If value is derived through anything other than viewing myself and others as the craftsmanship of God than I am falling terribly short.
good things
I was once asked by a high school teacher to come to his class and teach his students about Christianity. It was a humanities class and part of their curriculum was to study World Religions. I had forty-five minutes to explain the core beliefs of Christianity to twenty-seven high school students followed by fifteen minutes of the students asking me questions. My allotted time went quickly, and I was eager to get to the time when we could have discussion.
I concluded and asked for questions. The first one was, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” I thought for a time; looked at the student and replied, “Why do good things happen to anyone?” We spent the rest of the hour trying to figure out that side of the question.
We have been so wrought with the question of evil in our world, and rightly so. There is much to be concerned about. However, why are we not mystified by the good that exists in our lives? Every day I wake up next to my beautiful wife. I take a shower with hot water. I eat a bowl of cereal, and occasionally grab a granola bar for a mid-morning snack. I drive to work in a well-tuned car. I spend time studying the Text each day openly without fear of being caught. I come home at night and play trains with my son, and dance with my daughter. I sit with my wife and kids and eat a great dinner. Later in the evening we might meet up with our friends Jason and Liz and their son. In the summer and we walk to get ice cream. We enjoy the cool breezes on our face as we sit on our patio until late in the evening. I head to my bed, and sleep soundly until the alarm clock wakes me for the start of a new day.
For most of you, what I just described as an average day did not strike you as odd. You may have even been wondering what kind of ice cream I like, (Chocalate Chip Cookie Dough for the extremely curious) or maybe you are wondering how well I dance. Even as I write this I do so with a smile, thinking about the joy my son gets when his train goes over the big hill. This is normal, this is life, isn’t it?
We don’t give this kind of world a second thought. Every once in a while we may hear a sermon that speaks about all that we have and how thankful we should be. While it may often seem trite to thank God for toy trains maybe we need to do that and more. This is the kind of thing that should humble us. I have a son who is healthy and beautiful. This is not normal, this is God’s blessing. As for why these things happen to me ... that will be a question I will be in wonder of forever.
do i have to make a decision in 2006?
Last night I was sitting in my chair in our reading room at my house. Suddenly, my children who up until that point were giggling and playing in another room, began to get nasty with one another. I heard Myles calling Payton all sorts of names. I got up and realized that I was after all dealing with a three-year old, and walked into the room only to see them still playing kindly with one another. What I thought was my children arguing was actually a political ad on television.
Is any else tired of these ads? It boggles my mind that anyone can get serious about voting for these men and women who are stooping to levels that would make a middle school student blush. What is scarier is these candidates are not just making and/or approving the ads, one side or another will be leading our state, and representing us in our Capital.
I have a proposal should any candidate happen to read this blog. Get ready, this is earth shattering. I think that candidates should tell us what they are about. I think candidates should tell us about their plans for continued improvement in our state. I think candidates should not say anything about their opponent, only themselves so that voters can make educated decisions about that candidate.
Most men and women vote on one or two issues. Those issues are usually understood by what the general public hears on the television. As it stands now, we know that one side thinks the other has mush for brains, and the other side thinks the one side are incompetent fools. Is this really what we need to vote on? The opinion of one person about another? Surely no one running for public office would think that his or her opinion of another person would garner an informed persons vote … right?
So please candidates, could you stop? Maybe I should say could you start? Could you start telling us why you would be a good citizen serving in public office. Enough of the name calling, cynicism and divisiveness that has plagued our government far too long. After all true leadership should not be about left or right, it needs to be about going deeper.