Give Up Your Rights

Fasting is essentially an exercise in giving up your right to eat. However, because food is such a primary and driving force behind so many activities, it is also giving up the right to those things as well. Jesus came from a perfect world, where all things always happened as they should (“…as it is in heaven”). He came to a place where things were broken, where people refused him, didn’t understand him and treated him as an outcast, many times denying who he even was.

God too calls us to become like Christ Jesus, and to give up our rights. To leave the comfort zone of home so that others can receive the same calling we ourselves have received. To give up our rights is to let go, allowing that inner sense of self-entitlement to slowly curl up and die within us. Holiness is essentially the fruit of giving up our rights: the right to fight back when we are angry, to disrespect our spouse when we are frustrated, to steal a lascivious glance or to compare our story with that of someone else.

It is this sense of entitlement that keeps us bound up in negative and unfruitful behavior, for the longer we hold onto it, the more that accumulates that “sets us off.” Jesus came to give up his rights, and we must walk the same path of submission and humility. To give up the “right” to clean water, a just political system, a consistent infrastructure of utilities and public services, and the right to be able to “do” what others are doing that we cannot yet do compile many of the unrecognized rights we so often hold onto.

I visited a high school men’s group recently and one of the young men shared two common phrases regarding this kind of life that I think embodies much of the American ideology when it comes to this kind of self-less sacrifice in following Christ; The first, “Better safe than sorry” and the second, “Easier said than done.” I believe those two statements embody the greatest reasons why many Christians, and so-called Christians, fail to ever recognize the true message of the gospel or the full calling of God’s great commission.

It is safer to stay, and more difficult to go. Therefore, we choose the safe and easy path, simply because we can.

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” -Matthew 7:13 & 14

Jesus came to give up his rights. His initial test against temptation was after his forty days in the wilderness where he took no bread and was weak with hunger. First Satan tested him on his right to eat, by turning a stone into bread. Jesus gave up his right to eat. Second, Satan tested him on his right to test God and to throw himself off of the temple that angels might be sent to save him. Jesus gave up his right to test God. Lastly, Satan tested him on his patience to preeminent power by offering him all the kingdoms of the world now, without submitting to God’s timing in everything. Jesus gave up his right to get what God had promised him for the future and his right to ultimate authority now.

“For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” – Colossians 1: 16 & 17

Lastly, Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior, came to give up the one right that was more precious than any other. The one we hold onto more tightly than any other, and so quickly question and berate when it is gone: life.

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!” – Philippians 2: 5-8

He denied himself, was led like a sheep to the slaughter and he did not open his mouth. He let go, he gave up and surrendered all. But he did not do this so that we would not have to give up our lives as well, but as an example to show us how we must also give up our lives to follow him.

“…and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” - Matthew 10:38 & 39

Pick up your cross today. Find ways to exercise giving up your rights, and you will find treasures in heaven. - Shannon

God brings it all together

Well, first off, I would like to say a big apology to all our followers that we have not written much in the blog this year. Sorry! Of course it has been very busy around here, but that's really no excuse...we will try to do better!

This week, I have been struck by just how much God "plans ahead," or rather, the way he works everything together for his purposes. It is so interesting how God will place us in certain circumstances or give us experiences that at the time may seem insignificant - or even difficult and confusing - but then he ends up using those situations months or years down the line.

Yesterday our co-worker, Faith, was telling me that last week she was at the hospital with a friend who was giving birth. The nurses were not being very helpful and her friend was really struggling and scared. Well, a few years ago, Faith had been a translator at a seminar for mid-wives. Remembering all that she had translated, she was able to coach her friend through the birth. She also prayed with her and encouraged her...in fact, she was so good that the mid-wives at the hospital told her to come back and help with other births! (I am not sure what that says about the mid-wives at the hospital, but that is another story). At any rate, as Faith was telling me her story, I was just amazed at the idea that God may have had Faith translating at that seminar two years ago just so that when her friend came to give birth, she would have someone there to support her.

I see this in Scripture over and over again. I was reading in Genesis this morning about Jospeh. He was second only to Pharaoh in Egypt, but how did he get there? He got there because God allowed him to be sold into slavery by his brothers. At the time, it looked bleak, but Joseph says to his brothers, "Do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you...God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God..." (Genesis 45:5-8)

Joseph then sends for his father, Jacob (Israel), to come down to Egypt. God tells Jacob to go saying, "I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down with you and will surely bring you back again." (Genesis 46:3-4) So Jacob goes. And God does multiply his descendants. But, then they become slaves to the Egyptians, which pretty much stinks. However, God delivers them from the hand of Pharaoh and makes them into a great nation - Israel - who become his people.

The point is, God allowed Jospeh to be sold into Egypt and told Jacob to go there-knowing his descendants would be slaves-just so that He could ultimately free them, make them his people, bring glory to himself, and later down the line, send Jesus! How cool is that!?! I am sure at the time, Joseph, Jacob, and their descendants didn't fully understand their circumstances, but God did, and as they followed him, he worked even the difficult things for good.

Even in our lives, I see this idea at work. When Shannon worked at Fuller, he was doing efficiency training and learning to make fillable forms and spreadsheets. But Shannon has known since he was 15 that he wants to make movies. So at the time we were both thinking, "How is this getting him anywhere closer to his goal?" Now, though, working for Wild Hope in Africa, he has been using everything he learned at Fuller! He's making the office more efficient and creating forms and spreadsheets they will hopefully use for years down the line. Plus, I am sure that training will come in handy once he has his own Film Production Company.

So, I suppose all in all I am just amazed yet again at the way God works. I do not yet know how he will use our experiences and time in Africa. I don't know how all our difficulties, our circumstances, and the things we have learned here will come into play, but I know they will. And that gives me hope. I may not understand now. I may feel discouraged at times or wonder what in the world we are doing here. But I can rest assured that God will ultimately work it all for the good and for His glory.