final days forum

Obama is not the messiah, but...

So far, President Obama's ability to communicate galvanizes people, particularly the young. Many young people crave inspirational leadership because they long for a compass that directs them to reach above their circumstances instead of being swallowed by them.

Obama's power to influence this generation may be the most annoying trait for critics; this may be why the accusation of "messianic"  is pasted to him with an apocalyptic wink.

Such criticism forgets that men and women throughout the ages were gifted with voices that spoke to their generation. Sometimes those voices fueled changes that  led to massive empowerment. At other times, those voices generated despair and sowed destruction. 

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We may all be better served if we study the responses of people to Obama -- consider the crowds in Strasbourg, France today -- and learn something about the hunger for inspirational leadership. It may inform us of the core shift not only in America, but in the world. It may reveal to us our place of crossroads, a term which the city of Strasbourg has as part of its name.

Inspirational leadership in every sector of life is key. The dour news today about the unemployment rate makes me think about the economy. Banks that refuse credit lines to small businesses because they fear going under should revisit their commitment to being "community leaders." Businesses that lay off because of grim economic forecasts should return to their profit-and-loss sheets and choose not to be economic pundits, but human beings who understand they can say nothing when their epitaphs are written. Think of this tombstone message: AS CEO, I KEPT MY ENORMOUS SALARY WHILE MY FORMER WORKERS STRUGGLED TO LIVE.

The progress inspirational leadership brings advances slowly, painfully, and sometimes unseen. It makes this type of leadership problematic for some. But for me, that is what makes inspirational leadership fascinating to watch. The fruit may not blossom for long periods of time, but the words of the leader either feed anger or motivate people to recover. I prefer the power of the latter. As Proverbs says, there are words that can be "fitly spoken."

Obama is flawed like everyone else. History will record his every mistake and misstep. But perhaps something else is at work during the Obama era, if we could but grasp it. Maybe now is an opportunity to point people to the true Messiah, the greatest inspirational leader of them all.

When that inspirational leader saw a man trapped in his circumstances, it was the leader's words that motivated the man to catch a vision of what could be. That inspirational leader said: "Do you want to get well?"

The man gave his reasons why he was still sick. Certainly they were acceptable conclusions for he was plagued with a 38-year condition. But the inspirational leader was after something else, something deep within. With a forceful, healing love I can only imagine, this inspirational and transformational leader said: "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk."

All of us must be inspired to look deep within -- past our frightfully limiting circumstances. All of us must decide now whether we will walk or sit.

Judy Howard Ellis

Links courtesy of msnbc.com, wikipedia.com, cnn,com, biblos.com, studylight.org

A time to celebrate, a time to shift

Sunrise over Sea of Galilee_0811, originally uploaded by hoyasmeg.

Today and tomorrow are two special days for our country. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s holiday is today and Barack Obama becomes the 44th president of the United States tomorrow. But these two days will go down in history as an ordinary Monday and Tuesday if we fail to start living differently by Wednesday morning.

From our natural eye, these two days appear as cultural and political events where we wave flags and sermonize. The news outlets fill the hours with incremental stories, along with the major ones. If we are not careful, we will miss the spiritual point as we savor the festivities of this historic week. We will not "represent" from our part of the world because we are dazzled by the grandeur, but ignorant of the moment.

This is not really about the memory of an noble man or the presidential debut of  a man many admire. Ultimately, the convergence of these two events back to back show how American life is being arranged, reordered, re-purposed. The implication of this change is that I must change. You must change.

God is introducing new ways of thinking and interacting with the world, and the King holiday and the Obama inauguration are tangible symbols of that. As a friend of mine, Colorado expert Dr. Taffy Wagner, told me today, we must obey God in this season. We must shift because God is shifting. His pillar of cloud is on the move. 

For me, this means a fiction project he has prodded me to finish must take priority if I want to stay aligned with his purposes for my life. It means that if I want to serve the world, I must serve as God instructs. It means I will have to trust God to take care of all that concerns me while I tend to what concerns him. It means that my work, when it follows God's destiny for me, fulfills a need or a hope for someone else. My obedient labor, my reasonable service, keeps me plugged into God's glorious plan to meet the needs of people everywhere.

King understood this. He personally sacrificed because he pursued dreams far greater than just him or his family. Remember his words in a Letter from a Birmingham Jail on April 16, 1963:

I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.

What is God saying to you?

Judy Howard Ellis

Letter from a Birmingham Jail courtesy of  The African Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania

Dreaming about a radical church

Sleep, originally uploaded by Steven Fernandez.

What would happen if we no longer practiced church as usual?

Close your eyes and dream with me:

1. What if the church pursued welcoming, loving conversations about Jesus on social networking sites like Twitter, Plurk, and Facebook?  What if we saw opportunities on the Web to share Jesus, much like he seized chances to talk about his Father on the roads of Galilee?

2. What if the church didn't make God seem spooky, remote, and weird? Why not talk with people like we were regular people instead of robotic clerics agitated by our itchy hair shirts?

3. What if we took Jesus' words about the Holy Spirit seriously? The Bible says the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. What if we moved aside and watched the Spirit do his job?

4. What if the church did not act like the fashion police? Wehy can't we get our praise on even when the multi-pierced, the ghoulishly Gothic, the skimpily dressed, and the completely tattooed sit next to us in church?

5. What if we treated all sin as sin and didn't act as if lying, cheating, gossiping, backbiting, adultery, meanness, and gluttony got a pass in the Bible? Ahh. Jesus' words to the folks who wanted to stone the woman caught in adultery: He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.

6. What if we gave people food and bill assistance just because they asked for it? Some people will take advantage of our benevolence, but a lot of other folks would just love the church for helping them out during a rough time. Seems worth the risk to me -- just to see how God touches people and answers their prayers.

7. What if all the televangelists who typically ask viewers to "sow" into their ministry never asked for another dime? What if they urged viewers to sow into the church where they actually attend?

8. What if we actually believed in the expansive power of prayer? We could ask the Lord to heal and prosper our country instead of writing nasty, mean-spirited stuff on the Web and loudly protesting outside of people's homes?

9. What if we love people, regardless of how they vote in this presidential election? Think about it: civility the day after the election. And the church could offer the most civil environment of all.

10. What if we treated people with the grace God gives us? Unconditional love is wonderful to receive. Have we learned how to share it?

What are your dreams for the church?

 

Judy Howard Ellis

 

Debates reveal a clash of world views

Monument Valley, originally uploaded by Wolfgang Staudt.

Two political debates later and the spin still swirls. My take is simple:  It barely matters what actually happened during a political event. Our predisposition for spin is so idolatrous that what used to be obvious no longer is. The emperor boldly walks the streets of Main Street America and the tendency is to shout: What a great outfit!

If what we perceive as true and honorable is so fragmented by partisanship and party agendas that dictate what we say or value is true and honorable, we tread chaotic territory. This is not to suggest that everyone does--or should--think alike. What I am saying is that places where people differ are deep and wide.

Increasingly, we're like homeowners in a subdivision who never talk with their neighbors. Jim Lehrer attempted to prod Senators John McCain and Barack Obama to debate each other. Apparently, Lehrer was trying to demonstrate the wisdom of how eye-to-eye contact may influence what a candidate says to a rival and how much spin is delivered within the message.

Senator Joe Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin exchanged eye contact, but their debate last night reflects another dimension of what ails America. Does America really want a serious discussion that would be a flop on reality TV? Do we prefer our politics delivered like powdered doughnuts with a surprise filling?

The debates -- and the responses to them -- are extensions of clashing world views. And it's not just Christian world view versus non-Christian. Even among believers there are vast rifts in thought about how we see life and this election. Should we all agree? I think not. Should we find a place of sincere common ground? Absolutely.

Judy Howard Ellis

Rage: the new normal

Web (HDR), originally uploaded by iChaz.

Everyone is angry. It's not that anger cannot be an emotion that can move us in the right direction or right a terrible wrong. Unchecked anger is what I'm talking about.  Anger without boundaries coats our politics, flavors our school board meetings, and poses as the uninvited guest at family dinner. We are ticked. We mercilessly spew our rage at the driver who cut us off on the highway, the callers who disagree with us on our talk radio programs, and the spouse who just won't do right.

Anger throbs in the hearts of Christians who pummel with the ferocity of hell those who have abortions or choose same-sex unions. The intent may be to bring people into alignment with Scripture, but they use the fist of Satan to inspire the obedience of Jesus. Our anger curdles like sour milk and reeks of rottenness. I have wondered at my own anger and the wrath seething on television programs and throughout the blogosphere. It's like we have supped with the devil and brought home poisoned leftovers.

I don't expect those who do not know Christ to curb their rage. They need God's intervention to see truth. To expect the world to do differently than it does is like expecting Tony Soprano to actually renounce killing forever. You need a revelation from God to follow kindness, peacefulness, and love.

But I do call on the church to check the level of its rage. Not all of our anger is righteous indignation, as Christians like to declare. Much of our anger is the refuse of inner issues left untended in our lives. The Bible tells us to be angry but sin not, and we have not obeyed that instruction. The sun has gone down many times on our anger. We accommodate anger, as if it were an admirable quality, a selling point, or a competitive sport.

In the church of Jesus Christ the Lord, this should not be. Unchecked anger blinds us. Anger obscures the view of heaven and lessens its power in our lives.

Judy Howard Ellis

Noisy politics and the voice of wisdom

Daylight Moon, originally uploaded by Sammis Co.

The din of this election season is a perfect recipe for us to get it wrong. A multitude of messages are hurtled daily at us to believe and they may not be what God is saying at all.

Admittedly, it's hard to reach the transcendent place where God rules because his royal diadem is neither owned by Democrats nor Republicans and his heavenly decrees are just, while humans mangle authority with biased, unfair, short-sighted, and calamitous leadership.

Hungry for discernment, one congregation in the Dallas-Fort Worth area has asked its church members to fast 40 days about the upcoming presidential vote. I know of other people who are weary of the election noise and are fasting in another way -- by changing the channel.

The fact is, this election will require wisdom like no other. We must pray that we do not call evil good or good evil. We must refuse to judge by appearances, but request God's perspective of what is righteously meaningful to him. We must look at circumstances with the vision of the Spirit.

And that's not easy. It is a battle to heed the voice of wisdom when the boisterous cry of deception hounds us day and night. If we want God's word on a matter, we must lay down our own opinion. The mighty current of God's way of thinking about things, doing things, and accomplishing things -- requires more than bumper stickers, political baiting , fire-breathing sermons or a CNN, MSNBC, and Fox media moment.

It's been my experience that God often tunnels through the dark with the light of his power to upend things to his satisfaction and our fulfillment. The process may not be pretty, and chaos may seem to reign, but the outcome is always marvelous in our eyes.

Always.

Judy Howard Ellis

Mirror, mirror: Who's the fairest of them all?

Narcissism lures us with gloved tentacles, and it's not just John Edwards who fell captive. Anytime we operate in the world with excessive self-interest, we are like the young man in mythology who falls in love with his own face,  or the conceited queen in Snow White, whose worldview centers on her rivals because life is a perpetual beauty pageant.

Last week I watched Mr. Skeffington on Turner Classic Movies, which told the story about how beauty is only skin deep, and that selfishness is more shallow than that. Bette Davis powerfully portrays Fanny Trellis, whose beauty brings throngs of men into her presence -- even after she marries the dour Job Skeffington (played by Claude Rains) -- as she basks in their adoration. Fanny is cruel, selfish, and throws away the love of her husband and daughter as she pursues passion for her own face.

The story takes a twist when diphtheria ravages her face. She transforms into a ghoulish figure of eyeliner, mascara, face creams, and wigs as she childishly attempts to adorn an aged face. One crazy scene is when a ringlet falls from her head as a former suitor from her youth woos her again. Fanny soon learns that the cash-strapped suitor always wanted her because of her looks. Now he wants her for money.

Even those of us who call ourselves Christians can be choked by narcissism's gloved, but brutal grip. While we wag a finger at the Paris Hiltons of the world, shake our heads at the egotism of politicians (take your pick: Senators Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton or former President Bill Clinton), and pooh-pooh the indulgences of the megarich and celebrities, what rages inside our own hearts? Are we narcissistic about our own religious practice? Is our concern for others based on our love for them and our understanding their inner brokenness? Or is our concern based on our own narcissistic standards of performance? When our pursuit of youth surpasses the needs of our children, who need our time, our direction and our example, are we living in vain?

I thought I understood beauty blossomed from within. Sure, Lord. I got this. Your word says in Proverbs 31: "Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."  (NIV) But then I contracted Graves' disease, which later caused my eyes to bulge. I began to experience the truth of that verse! I'll never forget when a friend I had not seen in years could not believe it was me when he saw me. His surprised reaction stung. But it was a good thing. The memory of that encounter and others force me to submit to God's beautifying work inside me and give that the priority. Even if God heals me right at this moment, may I continue learning His beauty lessons.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who in the land is fairest of all? Jesus...the image of the invisible God.

Judy Howard Ellis

 

Links courtesy of: http://www.pantheon.org/, www.wikipedia.org, www.courant.com, www.imdb.com, http://www.tcm.com/index.jsp, http://www.bettedavis.com/, http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Park/6771/, http://www.parishilton.com/,www.barackobama.com, www.johnmccain.com, www.hillaryclinton.com, http://www.clintonfoundation.org/, http://www.ehealthmd.com/library/hyperthyroidism/HYE_eyes.html, http://www.ibs.org/bible/

Why politics aren't ever the final answer

This is an excellent article from the New City Church blog. While politics are one way to fulfill God's mandate to influence the culture, our mission is bigger than that. (Please see my recent post, An Unreliable Reliance.)

As the kids say, don't get it twisted. Politics is not the answer to everything.

An excerpt from Tullian Tchividjian's blog post:

When many Christians think about the need to engage our world in a transformative way, they immediately think exclusively of our need to be involved in politics. For these Christians, the cultural mandate is synonymous with political activism. The assumption is that a change in policies will lead to a change in culture.

Now, I fully agree with the need for Christians to be involved in the political process. As I have argued, Christians are to be bringing the standards of God’s Word to bear on every cultural sphere—politics being one of them. But, it is a mistake to conclude that political activism is what God had in mind when he issued the cultural mandate to mankind. Moreover, it is also a mistake to conclude that the arena of politics is the most strategic arena for cultural renewal.

Judy Howard Ellis

Blessing others... even when it hurts

OD BLESS OUR TROOPS, originally uploaded by Rob Thurman.

The statements, "God bless America" and "God bless our troops," are common in our culture and can be heard during political speeches or seen on roadway signs like the one above. We're comfortable saying these words and they're acceptable in the canon of Americana.

But what about blessing those who harm us? How about "God bless my co-worker who is sabotaging my project" or "God bless my in-laws, who are spreading lies about me to my kids?" Shouldn't we be realistic? Who actually blesses the convicted sex offender who moves into the neighborhood? And who blesses the opposite political party?

The act of blessing folks who hurt us gets personal when we take the words of the Bible seriously -- to bless and curse not.

Author Reona Martin of Reona Martin Ministries in Dallas, Texas offers a teaching about living a blessed life. In this podcast, she discusses the blessing in store for those who bless others -- even when it hurts:

Gabcast! Final Days Forum #4 - Blessing others... even when it hurts

God's view of living a life that is blessed.

Let Hillary Clinton get emotional; we all need a good cry

I have not decided whether Final Days Forum will participate in the mass of punditry online, so this is not a politically driven post. But the so-called emotional moment by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton yesterday, and her defense of it today on CNN, made me reflect.

Clinton says she was moved Monday by an apparent supporter who asked her how she was doing. Of course, tearing up publicly is not new. President George W. Bush, former President Bill Clinton and late President Ronald Reagan did it. Public expressions of emotion can be healing, when those expressions are honest and not manipulative.

More heartfelt moments like those displayed in rich films such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington would be a welcome elixir right about now. Although the film's director, Frank Kapra, had his cheesy moments (as the trailer from The Internet Movie Database shows), a bit of Kapra might do America good. 

A more passionately civil and less calculatedly partisan discourse would be a balm for the republic.

The church could check its emotion-meter, too. The world has seen much of our tough-love politics, fierce denunciation of sexual sins and righteous grip on the literal message of the Bible. But when was the last time we made mega-headlines for publicly weeping over the poor, the homeless, the jobless, the uninsured, the chronically ill, the illiterate and the crime-ridden?

Tears may cleanse us of our cynicism.