“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and then perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” James 1:22-25

I have recently found myself back in the book of James. Of all of the various books of the bible this seems to be the one God brings me to again and again when he is trying to work something out of/in to me. Maybe it is because it is a short book packed with deep wisdom; or perhaps it is James no nonsense approach as he speaks bluntly and in mind of the oppositions view, regardless of the reason…I find myself here again.

God has been revealing to me the ways in which I am not fully living out what it means to be a man. Specifically in how I choose, respond to, and manage what I give my time to. He has used several different mediums to raise my awareness to this, one being a blog I posted about recently, and another being the book of James. But that isn’t what I’m posting about today, I mention it only as an introduction to how I again found myself reading through James.

Today, I sat down to re-read the book. One of my favorite parts of James is James 1:2-18, it is such a real piece of scripture in it’s rawness and ability to look at the difficulties of life, it also brings comfort and encouragement not letting us forget why we find ourselves in trials and who our God is. But today I decided not to start there, instead I jumped to James 1:19. I read through verse 25 then stopped, went back to verse 22 and re-read it again up until verse 25. Again, here it is.

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and then perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” James 1:22-25

I don’t know how many times I’ve read this before, 50…100? Who knows. But today it struck me in a new way. I think in the past as I read this passage I had mentally checked out after the first sentence, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” Sure, that makes sense, don’t be a hypocrite. It is at this point that I would breeze through the next few sentences. But today something new struck me in the description of the man who looks in the mirror. Something that is more than not being a hypocrite, something that is wound into the entirety of the gospel and of what it means to be a Christian.

In this passage there seems to be two different paths of engagement /application for us as believers; internal and external. First, this text calls us to external examination. What is it that we do? James makes it clear that our faith is made apparent by our actions. We are ‘saved’ by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-10), but, in the existence of our faith we will see actions that reflect this internal change:

“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (James 2:14-17)

It is in this lack of alignment between what we profess to believe and what we actually do that Christians have obtained such an unwanted reputation for hypocrisy. Part of the beauty of the gospel is that we don’t claim to be perfect, but that we acknowledge our imperfections and have been forgiven of them through Christs death and resurrection. But what This passage in James calls us to is an external examination of the fruits of our faith. As we identify the parts in our lives (look in the mirror) that don’t align with God’s clear will, are we acting on those revelations. Are we going through the process of sanctification, allowing God through trials, revelation, and his Spirit to purge from us the sins that cause separation. If we aren’t we must return to James’ initial question, “What good is it my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?”

The second part of the call to action in the passage from James 1:22-25 seems to be a call to internal examination. There is an implication in the passage that when the man looked into the mirror he saw something. This passage isn’t addressing those who have not yet walked with Christ, or those who don’t know His will. This passage is talking to those who claim to know Him. It is speaking directly to those who have seen the truth. James goes on in to say in James 1:26 that the man who looks into the mirror and sees, but then walks away forgetting what he sees has a religion that is “worthless.” It is here in the eternal examination that I think our true faith begins. It is here that we either allow God to engage us (all of us) or that we keep God out and proceed into hollow rituals of religion.It is here that we either “deceive ourselves,” or that we allow God to engage us in our messiness and transform us into a being that, by Him,  produces fruit in the kingdom.

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and then perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” James 1:22-25

Like I said early, I think this passage is rooted in the depth of the gospel. We are imperfect, broken people corrupted by sin. As we come to a realization of this and find salvation in the love of God we thus begin the process of God renewing us. It is in this life long process of renewal that we are changed most not by the results of our our decisions but rather by the process of making those decisions. This is the quest* of all Christians. This is the call of Christ, that we would learn to die to ourselves and become alive in Him (Matthew 16:25). It starts with God engaging us, revealing truth in our lives, showing us the true reflection of who we are in the mirror; once that happens the next step is ours. The depth and character of who we are as people and Christians is defined in that moment, as we look in the mirror and examine the internal/external repercussions of truth and how we choose to respond.

*A friend of mine recently pointed out the distinction between an adventure and a quest. An adventure has us returning to the starting point, a quest is a one way journey, where in the end we are not only a different person, but in an entirely new place as well. Such is the Christian journey.

You, O Lord, will keep them;
you will guard us from this
generation forever.
Psalm 12:7

Photo taken from www.jessietorresblog.com

“This week has been difficult due to the pain and thought of losing Ivan, but right now my heart just aches and I feel sick with pain. These are boys that will be forgotten, that few knew even their names. These are boys that each had a piece of my heart and will forever have that piece.”

A close friend of mine, Jessie Torres, wrote the above words in her most recent blog post. Jessie went over to Uganda a few months back to work with an organization focusing specifically on loving and walking beside children living on the streets. These are children living on their own, in the realness and raw pain that comes from exposure to poverty and all the darkness that it carries, most with no family or caretakers outside of people like Jessie. She originally went out to work with the children for about a month, but quickly realized God had other plans for her. She has now been gone for close to two months and will be staying until the end of the year, continuing to serve the kids she’s grown to love.

Recently, several children that were part of the program Jessie facilitates were stolen during the night.

Taken.

The pain that is felt here is quickly ascribed to the death and pain that is birthed by sin, but we may be missing the complete sadness of the situation, the brokenness and depravity of the lives of so many. How perverted a man’s heart must be to find himself kidnapping children off the street, how lost and dark a soul. Scripture says “For God so loved the world…” not some, but all. It says that each and every one of us was created in his image. Prayer here should be given for both William, Nicolas, and Mukenya (the boys taken), (as well as the countless children which are represented by this sad and heinous act); and, for the men who have taken them.

“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil…
be constant in prayer…
Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality…
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them…
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep…
Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all…
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Excerpts from Romans 12:9-21 … such is the life we are called to live as Christians.

I can only speculate on the pain of being so close to this. But Jessie is there, she is living it. I would encourage you to take some time to visit her blog at www.jessietorresblog.com to read more, and also and more importantly, to pray for these three boys, the kids like them, and the men that have taken them. Respond to how God has called you to respond. If this instance is one in which he is pushing on your heart to act further, then I’d encourage you to do so, contacting Jessie through her blog is a great starting point. In the meantime please join the many who are already on their knees in prayer.

So what did you take away from your time in Africa?

This is a question I have been asked over and over since returning. Some people want to know what God did in my time there. Others are curious about what I learned from the culture in Rwanda. Still others are merely keeping up with common courtesy in asking about my experience. And most are probably a combination of the above.

Since returning I’ve contemplated how to best answer this question. A proper response is especially tricky in that I am still trying to answer that for myself. The truth is I don’t know that I can boil this down to a clean answer, an answer that can be given by rephrasing the above question: In my time in Africa I walked away with _______.

Instead I am coming to acknowledge that times like I experienced the the past few months are merely periods in our life which shape us. They add a new layer to the lenses we see life through. It is in these periods that our understanding of the world is expanded, that we better comprehend the state of the human condition. By being exposed to a new culture, to a new people, a new set of problems and new sources of joy, I can now more clearly understand both God and the people around me (given this is still an infinitely inadequate and minuscule understanding).

While it is difficult to walk away from this experience and boil it down to a few key speaking points, what I can do is explain how I feel it has reshaped my eternal existence and understanding. Because as much as I appreciate the other areas of my life that are and were impacted, it is in the eternal changes that I find the most encouragement and hope. And whether or not my experience in these changes was one in which God would have worked out whether in Africa or in the states, the fact of the matter is he used my time there, his word, many conversations with people, several books, and the guidance of his Spirit to dig deep in my soul, churning the soil, and reworking the roots of my faith. In doing so he pruned away at the unhealthy or perverted parts of the roots, ripped out those that have been rotted, and provided the foundation for future growth.

You see, it has been my experience as a Christian that I engage Christianity as a culture; the language, the habits, the rituals, much quicker than I actually understand the depth of what I am talking about. I suspect that this process is similar to what most Christians go through. In fact, it is probably in the midst of this that Christians are often criticized as being hypocritical. If we talk without living out the truth of those words we raise flags to the world around us. And sadly, it is in the lives of those Christians that begin the journey, only to stop digging, stop allowing God to purge through the worldliness in them, that Christianity is given a poor reputation. To paraphrase what Rob Bell so appropriately stated, many people confuse Christianity with Christ and end up walking away from both.

If only we as Christians could better portray the underlying mantra of our faith, that we are NOT perfect. That we are broken, that we are full of sin, and that we desperately need the intervention of something, someone greater than our selves! Perhaps if that was how the world saw Christians then there would be a more accurate and true understanding of who Christ is, and the importance of our savior upon the cross and his resurrection. If only we were the light to the world we were called to be, if only I was that light.

You may think I am getting off topic, how does the hypocrisy of Christians (myself included), or the underlying message of Christianity relate to my time in Africa? Back to my previous statement; God has and is reshaping the core of my eternal understandings. I mentioned in one of my first posts while in Africa that God was reworking my understanding of the cross. He did. In the last 4 months God has reconstructed my understanding of Grace, of the cross, and of the fullness and truth that comes from the Good News, the Gospel.

What is the Good News?

The gospel has been demonstrated to me in one of two ways. For evangelical Christians the gospel is lived out through evangelism, in other words, sharing the good news (of Christ upon the cross and then his resurrection three days later) with those who have not yet understood or recognized the beauty that came from this event. How beautiful it is when someone has this shared, when someone for the first time realizes the true grace of God; that his love was demonstrated in that while we were still sinners- broken beings driven by our own selfish motives, he sent his son Jesus to pay the debt of our sins.

The other way I have seen the gospel explained is through those who believe that it is in serving others, in bringing justice to the world that the gospel is best demonstrated. It is here that people say Christ’s love is best understood, in the physical love of others in this world. And so social justice becomes the most important this. Fighting for the poor, the oppressed. Becoming a voice and advocate for the widows and orphans, those who Christ so clearly has a heart for.

I walk away from my time in Rwanda asking the question; when did these become separate? Since when is the gospel something that is compartmentalized into a portion of our life. Since when did the greatest act of love in the history of man become a set of rules, or a mission statement pertinent to only Sundays or mission trips. Since when did the gospel mean keeping track of how many people are attending church in the same way bookies account for their winnings?

It is becoming more and more apparent that the transformative power of Christ is found in the truth of the gospel. The gospel isn’t simply a religious sales pitch with the underlying message, “embrace Christ so that you go to Heaven and not hell.” Further, it isn’t a security blanket that covers over the pains and hurts of the current world. The gospel, in my current understanding is this:

I am imperfect. I sin. By that I mean that I put myself before others including God. I am created in the image of God, I can sense that, I can see parts of me that long for eternity. Yet, I also sense that I am not fully what I was created to be. I subscribe to the biblical definition and explanation of sin. That we were created with a high intention, but through the fall of man away from God, we departed from God’s purpose for our lives. This can be seen all over the world. Murder, rape, hunger, poverty, AIDS/HIV, abuse, unfaithfulness, slander, gossip…this isn’t how it was supposed to be.

Having this understanding that I am lacking, that we are lacking, I see the grace that God has for us. Christ lived perfectly, he lived a life that brought forth life, and then he served as a sacrifice for all of us, a perfect and spotless sacrifice. So it is when we acknowledge our imperfection, and then the perfection of the resurrected Christ that we are made free. We owed a debt to God that we could not pay, no matter how hard we tried, but through love God sent his Son to cover that debt on our behalf. If we will simply acknowledge that truth we can begin the journey towards restoration.
And so that decision, that acknowledgment is the beginning of the power of the gospel, it is in that moment that we start our eternal journey, but that isn’t where we stop, waiting for death and then heaven.

That isn’t the gospel.

The beauty of the gospel is that God includes us in His redemptive story. When Christ walked the earth, he didn’t just come to be a nice guy for thirty or so years prior to the crucifixion. His birth marked the beginning of God redeeming creation. What did Christ do while here? He physically healed people, he raised people from the dead, he forgave sin! He wasn’t just a good teacher, he was restoring creation. He was taking what was broken, and redeeming it to its original purpose and design. He was showing us what the gospel was, and then what did he do prior to being crucified? He invited us into the story. Read the Gospel of John. Jesus tells us that as he leaves we who put our trust in him will be filled with the Spirit of God. He then says we will go on to do works even greater than what we saw from him. This is unbelievable! Christ began the process of transforming a broken lost world, in the midst of it he not only redeems our very lives but then calls us into this redeeming story. A story that we know ends with his return at which point he will finally finish the process. Doing away with sin, with evil and with death.

So what is the gospel? Is it evangelism or is it serving others? Its both! It’s all of it and more. The gospel is the transforming power in our lives that should affect every moment of our existence.

It should change how we interact with those who serve us.

It should change how we respond when we are angry.

It should change how we manage our money.

It should bring about a heart of repentance and forgiveness.

It should be a catalyst for love being sent forth into the world.

It should bring hope and encouragement to others.

When we make the gospel one part of our lives we limit God’s impact on our lives. We stop God from having a voice in our lives and try to contain where and how he will affect us. And even worse, we pervert his image to the world around us.

So what did I take away from my time in Africa?

I hope that I have returned to the states with a better understanding of my purpose in life. That I have gained just a little bit of insight on the transformative power of God, and the capacity I have to be used by Him if I will both listen and obey. I return having a better understanding of my own sin, and his willingness to not only embrace me in that brokenness, but to redeem me, lifting me up to be something more than I could ever do on my own.

I suspect I will continue to learn more and more what God did while I was in Rwanda. I suspect that this time will have a lasting impact on many areas of my life. Ultimately, I hope that if nothing else, it will raise some questions in your life, that perhaps, you will see where God is pushing on your own heart. I humbly suggest that as a possibility and wouldn’t presume that it has anything to do with me. But that is my hope.