RMP: The Great Dictator

For those of you who don't know who my man Charlie Chaplin is, I'm sorry. He was one of the most influential comedians back when televised media was just coming about. Most of the slapstick humor that you see on television today is some sort of derivative of something that he did years ago. He also had some interesting things to say.

In this speech that he gives, he steps back from the comedy to address the major concerns of his day: mainly the ideas of dictatorship and world conquest that came about as a result of both World Wars. He makes the excellent point that people have the ability to rise above the troubles of this world.

Problem? His speech falls short of relying on the strength of Christ to accomplish these things. Sure, he references a bit of the Bible, but he basically implies that people are ultimately responsible of "pulling themselves up by their bootstraps."

Thank God that He pulls up our bootstraps when the reality is that we have no ability to do so on our own.

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She Did, He Didn't, and Neither Do We

Something happened a few hundred years ago that changed our understanding of the Bible: chapters. Yes sir, the 13th century was a wild and crazy time. The Magna Carta was being pushed. The Chinese were using gunpowder in warfare. And it was also during this age that somebody by the name of Archbishop Stephen Langton thought it was appropriate to start dividing the Bible up in little pieces.

That's fine, I guess. I mean, I'm all for a little organization, but there's a little bit of a problem with chopping up the Bible into bite-size bits. Mainly, the issue is that sometimes we lose a little bit of context. We see a chapter heading and think, "Well, all right, that part about ____ is over, and this new part about ____ is beginning."

Well, for whatever reason, as I was reading Matthew 26, I realized that I almost missed something based solely on the fact that I was just going by section titles. Verses 6-13 are the classic tale of Jesus getting his head anointed with alabaster by a woman while He and His disciples were chillin' out. I have an ESV Bible, and in it, this section is called, "Jesus Anointed at Bethany."

Immediately following this section is another classic piece titled, "Judas to Betray Jesus," in which the most famous traitor in history gets paid 30 pieces of silver to commit Jesus to death.

My idea isn't a complicated one, and maybe I'm reading into this a lot, but I think that these accounts of two different people were placed right next to each other to make light of a stark contrast: she did and he didn't.

"Did what?" you say? She did recognize, even if only in part, Who Jesus was. When the disciples start seeing what the woman is doing with her expensive perfume, they all clamor and start to judge her for a supposedly inappropriate use of her wealth. However, Jesus lays down the proverbial law and defends this woman, claiming that, "you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me."

She gave her best, most expensive gift out of a humble heart because she was beginning to really get who this Man at the table really was.

Immediately after this, we find that the exact opposite happens: Judas sells The Christ out for 30 pieces of silver - the payment that one would give in retribution for a slave that was killed. He sold out the Man he had spent 3 years through thick and thin with for something that wouldn't even cover a house payment! Once again: she did and he didn't.

And neither do we.

Because if we did, we'd understand exactly what it means to sin. We'd understand that each of our screw-ups aren't just mistakes, but slaps in the face to our Maker. We'd understand the weight of sin and what it does to the heart of the One who carried all of it to the Cross. We'd understand how much it hurts our God that we choosingly submit ourselves to slavery, when He was murdered to purchase our freedom.

We'd understand. But we don't.

At least, I know I don't.

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Self Care Deficit

Working off of the idea that the church is a hospital, I'd like to posit that many of us have a similar diagnosis. It's called Self-Care Deficit.

Self-Care Deficit, in the clinical setting, is referring to the idea that a patient is lacking the means to take care of themselves in any number of ways. This could mean that they lack the ability to feed, clothe, dress, or move around on their own. Usually these people are put in a facility where they can be taken care of in a more long-term setting.

Metaphorically, I say that, since sin is the sickness, our spiritual Self-Care Deficit is the idea that we cannot will not feed ourselves with the nutrition of the Word and prayer. In the medical world, we would call this non-compliance. In other words, it's not that you can't take care of yourself, it is that you refuse to. And in doing this, you fly against the face of what a relationship with Christ is supposed to look like.

"I don't refuse to spend time with God, I just don't have time!"

Look, I understand what it means to be busy. Life gets ahead of you. Things pile up. Responsibilities start to overload. I get it. But, in that moment when you decide, "Well, I know I should spend time regularly with God, but I could use that time to study/sleep/make more money/etc." what you're basically telling God is that all of those things are more important to you than Him.

And truthfully, how many of us are so busy as to not give God an hour of our time a day? I know that's a nice little chunk, but let's start considering what other smaller priorities we can take out of our schedules in order to make time for the God of the Universe. It's gonna give you what you need to face all of those things that call for your time in the first place!

So here's my nurses order (to start):

1 hr. solo time with Christ O.D. (once daily) via the soul

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RMP: I Can Do Anything

Funny? Check.

Clever? Check.

Indicative of modern mentality? Check.

I love this quirky little video. Gets me laughing every time. I think there's a fundamental issue at question here, though: the main tagline of this video is, "I believe in my smellf." All right, all right, that's funny.

But let's honestly consider this: there is no amount of self-help that can be done to make you into the satisfied man you think it will. Not enough self-esteem tapes. Not enough ladies. Not even enough muscles.

My point? It's not self-esteem that's gonna get you where you wanna be. It's knowing and being known by God.

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The Lottery

I grew up in a system where, if someone heard the word "Powerball," they would immediately think the devil himself has just entered the building. I don't know about all that, though. I was always raised to follow the principal that gambling is dumb. Not necessarily sinful, (although it can very easily become so) but just plain, flat-out dumb. Like those pants you wore today.

Oop. Sorry. Forgive me. That was uncalled for.

In any case, that's just the view I've always maintained. The idea is that if you've already won the lottery, why   keep wasting your money?

"Qua? I've never won the lottery..."

Well, I'll have compassion on you - I'm normally also very literal. I mean we've won the lottery of knowing Christ (if you're a believer).

I read a curiously popular little book called, "Don't Waste Your Life," by John Piper. I say "curiously," because the book essentially makes the claim that most of us are wasting our lives, and that kind of stuff tends to offend modern sensbilities. Anyhow, I liked it.

Piper definitively claims that the key to praising Christ is "prizing Christ." Basically, it's the idea that pursing joy and pursuing Christ are the exact same thing. Look for one, and you will find the other. They are an inseparable package. So if Christ is the prize, why haven't we been treating our relationship with Him like we won the lottery?

We walk around telling people that the joy of knowing Christ is better than anything else, and yet how many of us can say that this is actually something we experience? Why don't our lives prove Philippians 3:8 - "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."

I can only speak about what I myself have experience, so know that this is something that I also struggle with. But I also think that this story begins and ends with seeking to know Christ through prayer and the Scriptures. I don't think there's any loophole to knowing Christ other than to (holds breath) actually spend time with Him. Go figure.

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RMP: Afterlife

I had the privilege of seeing this amazing band this last weekend at Rock The Universe, (a weekend-long event filled with Christian bands at Universal Studios, Orlando) and for a person who enjoys concerts, I have the pleasure of saying that Switchfoot is the best concert I've ever been to.

They played this song during their set, and suffice it to say, it was powerful. The song is all about not waiting until death to truly experience life. And if life is found in Christ, I don't want to wait until I die to experience Him.

Enjoy.

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A Royal Statue

I've never had a serious hospital stay after infancy, but the fact is that the hospital is a weird place. It's an isolated island of sickness floating amid the ocean of the healthy. It's this strange little world that becomes completely self-contained and independent when you enter inside. If you're a patient, you're probably already disoriented because of the sickness that landed you there, so you're at a loss to really mentally process everything that's going on. You're like a child going to school for the first time. A school where everyone has E. Coli. Plus, your very life is being handled by people you've never met.


Naturally, this makes you very vulnerable.

As a nursing student, I've been learning a lot about the patient-nurse relationship, and how vulnerability plays a big part in the formation of this association. Let me explain it this way: if you're in pain, you start to look for help. When help arrives, you become extremely grateful and possibly very close to the person who helps you. You can start to look up to your nurse, doctor, or any healthcare professional.

My pastor once said something like this, "The church is a hospital."

Well, my first tempation was to think, "Well, if the church is a hospital, then the pastor is the doctor, right?"

 *Insert buzzer sound here.*

No! If the church is a hospital, then God is the doctor! I think looking up to the pastor as some sort of super-being comes from the fact that we, as flawed, pathetic sinners, think that there is someone who's made it. And you know what I mean by "made it," right? I mean, this is someone who sneezes and holy vapors come out. Someone who has been able to rise above the dung-heap and be triumphant. Well, if there's anything I've seen, it's that this man does not exist. The simple truth is this:

We are all sick.

I guess what I'm trying to spill out of my brain is the idea that we can't elevate anyone to a position they were never meant to hold. And we tend to do that with just about everyone, albeit differently with some people. Worship leaders, celebrities, political figures, sports stars, and the list goes on. We idolize these people above "the norm," when all along Christ is the one who even allowed them to the position they have attained.

Don't you see how disgusting this is? Romans 1 would say that we've "exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!"

My suggestion is that we idolize Christ and stop putting action figures on a pedestal made for A Royal Statue.

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