IF by Rudyard Kipling

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Copied from: http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_if.htm

Am I Saved?  Part 1: Saved from what?

It's more than the million dollar question.  It's the only question that matters.  If you miss it, you life could be a tragedy.  If you get right with The Question - your life could be a beautiful prelude to a truly forever life of fulfillment, joy and wonder.  Here are seven things you should know:

1. Saved from what?
God is.  God is a person.  He is all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present, and here is the key thing we need to get our heads around, He is Holy.  Holy means so many things: He is perfect, merciful, compassionate, true, faithful, loving, kind...and just.  He won't let injustice, cruelty, carelessness, lies, wickedness and evil go unpunished.  He demands justice.  If you want a snapshot of the definition of what He requires from you, read the Ten Commandments in the Bible.  You'll find them in the Bible book of Exodus, Chapter 20.  Nobody measures up to this pattern of perfection, but the way.  It doesn't matter if you think you are basically a good person.  If you only stole from one person - you are still a thief.  If you only told one lie - you are still a liar.  If you only lusted once...you get the idea.  Actually it's not so much about what you have done, it's more about who you are, that you would do it at all.

So we can view this life, this world, as a place of decision.  You can decide to live your life with God at it's center, or with you as it's center.  In order to allow us to make an informed decision, God has ensured that every life has enough of Heaven in it, and enough of Hell in it.  Our world is full of beauty and ugliness, life and death, friends and enemies, love and hatred, faithfullness and cheaters for us to understand what Holy is and understand what Self-centered is.  God has told us that He has created two places that await us after we die: Heaven and Hell.  Briefly, Heaven is eternal life with God - and all the bliss and wonder that means.  Hell is eternal life without God, and all the horror and pain that means.  While God is in charge of all things, He has allowed us room within His sovereignty, for us to have a role in where we will spend eternity.  By His grace, you get to choose.  He will confirm your decision not only in this life, but on Judgment Day.  So what can we be saved from exactly? Hell, eternal living-death, life without God both here and forever, from 'sin' (which means anything and everything that comes between us and God), from ourselves, from our past (shame), from our present troubles, and from our future without God.

Next episode: three movements of the heart that will move us from unsaved to saved.

Transience

In a little over 24 hours I'll climb onto a jet liner, leave this old, crowded island, and in next to no time I'll land back in the US.  I know the leaving is coming.
This morning I went to the sparcely attended 8 AM service in the 875 year old 'mission church' constructed by the Benedictines as they sought to evangelize this outpost of London for Christ.  Beneath a leaning brick wall is my father's grave.  This little church, is an island of Christianity in a land that seems to have forgotten the Lord. Long may the community that worships here persist.
This sense of transience, of not being here for long, and yet being part of a great movement of people and God together is reassuring, compeling, purposing.  The arrogance of dull intellectual atheism, the indifference of this sprawling city, the noise of the jets continually taking off from nearby Heathrow (the world's busiest airport), the rush of the traffic all around, familes taking their kids to Sunday soccer games, all pass by this little brick church.  Inside, the confession is made, the Lord's prayer is said together, bread is broken and wine is shared.  God quietly does his work in human hearts.
I pray for my church far away, those precious people.  I sing my favorite hymn in the car on the way home and I know I am just passing through.
"This is my Friend, in Whose sweet praise
 I all my days could gladly spend."

Home

I am a British American, which means that I have two nations that I know well.  The odd thing is, the old country just doesn't feel like home any more.  It's familiar, I know my way around and the ways of the people,  but I am an alien here.  When I am here, I feel a little bit like a stranger on the inside.

When I come to the US, I know that is not where I started out.  I've had to learn my way around, to adapt to the way people are.  However, that is where I belong now.  I am much more at home there.

Today, as I drive around London's M25 ring road late at night, it occurs to me that there is no place that is fully home for me: neither England nor New England.  I am a perennial stranger.  Then the great truth become apparent.  As a Christian, a Christ-follower, a disciple on The Way, only in The Father am I truly at home. I am at once always home, and at the same time always a stranger in a strange land. And it's OK.

Polemic disease
A friend posted a funny cartoon on facebook today, and I wanted to 'like' it...but hesitated, thought better of it, and passed on to something else.  It's bothering me that I made that decision, so here I am bloging about it.  The cartoon was a joke aimed at the Republican Party.
What was my motivation for wanting to 'Like' the cartoon? 
1) It made me chuckle
2) I wanted to thank the friend who posted it for making me chuckle
What was my more powerful motive for NOT wanting to 'Like' the cartoon?
a) I'm a pastor and most of my church is Republican, and a good chunk are staunchly Republican.  There is a real danger (almost certainty) that some of them would have interpretted my 'like' as an anti-republican jab, and that would harm my relationship with them.  I value my relationships more than my need to thank a friend for making me chuckle.
b) I'm a pastor and many of my church is passionate about supporting traditional marriage and might have seen my 'like; as a vote in favor of lesbian marriage.
c) It was a political cartoon, and I'm a pastor and many might have seen my 'like' as political involvement and will think less of me for getting involved in politics. (This topic needs a whole blog post of it's own.)
d) Facebook is a forum where people often instantly react, rather than step back, consider, pray, consider some more, and respond thoughtfully and charitably.  Thus Facebook is a relational minefield.  Postings loom larger than the people who post them.
e) I live in a circle of brothers and sisters in Christ, friends, colleagues and aquaintances that are soaked in the polemic of America in an election year.  Anything you say or do is considered fair game for rapid judgment, condemnation and polemic over-the-top heavy interpretation.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could just laugh at ourselves with a little levity?
Relational footnote:  I lean right, but not exclusively, and believe in traditional marriage.  I also like to chuckle.