I’m not lucky, I’m…blessed?

A few months ago, I was at a Christian gathering and a shirt caught my eye – it was bright green, with a lighter green shamrock, and it read: I’m not lucky, I’m blessed. On the surface, this is such a simple statement, but the roots run deep!

The concept of blessing is complicated, and this author is no theological scholar. There will be more ways to analyze this simple statement than I am able to explore here, but I hope this raises as many questions for you as it has for me about how we understand the idea of being blessed.

An internet search for the phrase in question brought me to James 1:17:

Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (NRSV)

Giving the shirt designers the benefit of the doubt, they may mean that God-given gifts like wisdom or prophetic words are not given by luck or random chance, but intentionally and purposefully by God for our good and the good of all people and creation.

On the other hand, they could be suggesting that God’s blessing is tied up in more earthly things, such as enough delicious and healthy food to eat, a supportive family, a career that is both exciting and pays well, or any number of others that might describe a “good life.” These are definitely good things, but if some of us don’t have them, does that mean we are not blessed?

Jesus says something different to his disciples in Luke 6:  blessed are you who are poor, hungry, and weeping, and woe to you who are rich, full, and laughing.

Without getting too far down the road of figuring out exactly what Jesus meant by those statements, I want to propose this: I think we have a bad habit of using “blessed” and “privileged” interchangeably. I wonder if the t-shirt I saw is an example of that.

Now, avoiding a conversation about privileges, rights, and entitlements (sorry for all the caveats), let me simply posit that those things I mentioned before – nourishing food, supportive family, etc. – are privileges in the reality of today’s world. Not everyone has them. Those who do have a leg up on those who don’t.

In James C. Howell’s book The Beatitudes for Today, he mentions (via Frederick Dale Bruner) that the Beatitudes are presented in Matthew 5 in two forms. First, blessed are those who are in a state of need – poor, mourning, meek, and hungry. Second, blessed are those who are in a posture of right action –merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and persecuted for Christ’s sake. The only kind of luck that’s involved in any of these is possibly back luck!

So, with all of that in mind, I bid you this: stay blessed.

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Dave Johnson
General Board of Church and Society
Washington, DC
US-2, Class of 2013-2015
Advance #3021860

Your Servant is Listening

Recently, I perceived an unmistakable call to stillness. The incidents added up over a week: first a planned meeting of friends with the purpose of discussing meditation via Richard Foster’s book “Celebration of Discipline,” then an invitation to read “The Art of Stillness” by Pico Iyer with our staff at work, and finally listening to a daily podcast which focused on practicing stillness and listening for God. This was all framed by the lectionary passage 1 Samuel 3, which came up several times.

As these incidents piled up, I decided to take God up on the offer for some quiet time. I went to a coffee shop, pulled out my journal, and began to write.

But before I go further, why bother with stillness? I collected a few reasons this week:

To slow down. We are a people of motion with tremendous emotional and intellectual inertia, not to mention kinetic energy. Our modern world always demands more from us. Running nonstop is to be like the world – slowing down is countercultural, which is often a good starting place for God’s work.

To empty ourselves. Try to sit for just 3 minutes without thinking of your responsibilities or your to-do list. Many of us struggle; our heads and hearts are full. Slowing down and emptying out puts us in a posture to hear and receive from God.

To be filled. One of the differences, says Foster, between Eastern and Christian meditation is that Eastern mediation focuses on completely emptying out and retreating from the world. Christian meditation goes further – we become empty in order to be filled. We hear God’s voice, receive God’s call, stir up our creativity, and recover from the wear and tear of everyday life, but poised to engage with the culture.

I sat in the coffee shop, and as an exercise, began to write every thought that came to mind, emptying them into the hands of God. It started with lines like:

Back pain.
A friend’s name.
Curriculum design.
Desire to lead.

As the list grew, its character changed:

The wood grain in the table, and the marks and blemishes – who made them?
The spiral of metal binding this notebook, precision wound through sheets of processed tree matter.

After that, I stopped writing and started noticing people around me. One spent about 10 minutes getting the balance of condiments in his coffee just right. Another hammered away on his laptop with unfettered focus.

I didn’t hear the audible voice of God like Samuel, but I did receive a sense of peace, calm, and thanksgiving. I entertained creative thoughts and renewed my connection with God and the world.

This is the posture I want to have while seeking justice and God’s Kingdom come. I’d love to invite you to try slowing down, emptying out, and asking God to fill you. I hope we can be like young Samuel, in the quiet stillness, saying, “speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”

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Dave Johnson
General Board of Church and Society
Washington, DC
US-2, Class of 2013-2015
Advance #3021860

Challenge Accepted

Over November 7-9, 2014, a few of us Young Adult Missionaries traveled to Denver, CO for Imagine What’s NEXT. Through music, messages, conversations, and fun, this UMC gathering gave college students, and folks from agencies and organizations, time and space to connect, worship, and consider opportunities for service and vocation.

On Saturday evening, we were issued the $5 Challenge. As we departed for dinner and evening worship downtown, the organizers gave each participant $5 cash. We were not to keep this, but to use it to make the biggest impact possible in downtown Denver. They gave a number of ideas like buying a package of socks to give away, treating someone to dinner, or buying a bus pass for someone. They encouraged us to take pictures of our experiences and post them on social media with the hashtag “#5challenge.”

As for the missionaries, the gears in our minds were spinning. Personally, I had just given a talk earlier in the day, and one of my points was an old standard at Church and Society: we often fail to make the distinction between acts of charity – temporary assistance for urgent needs – and justice – lasting transformation aimed at God’s Kingdom. God calls us to both through our lives of faith (Micah 6:8, Matt 23:23), but we often focus our ministries on charity. For us, the $5 Challenge was to think and act outside the box and do something a little closer to justice.

An idea budded and blossomed during break time: what if we bought sidewalk chalk and wrote messages of inspiration, encouragement, advocacy, and awareness on the streets of Denver? We ran with it. After dinner, we fortunately came upon an office supplies store 5 minutes before close (yes, we were those annoying customers). Six of us went in and spent $3 on 3 packs of chalk. We hit the streets.

Before our eyes, the results multiplied like fishes and loaves blessed by God. People read our notes as they walked by, some engaging us in conversation. Some people wanted to write words of wisdom and inspiration for themselves, so we gave them chalk to take with them on their own journeys. We tagged each of our notes “#NEXT14” so that socially-networked passers-by might go online and see what else we were up to at the conference.

I like to think that people’s lives were changed, even just a little, by our “street tweets” – that someone would know that Christians carry messages of hope as well as challenge – that another might grow in their awareness that all people are valuable and treasured – that yet another would come to realize we were created to be alive and vital. A few strategic and beautiful words, bathed in the power of the Spirit, have the power to transform lives forever.

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’ He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’ —Luke 19:39-40

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Dave Johnson
General Board of Church and Society
Washington, DC
US-2, Class of 2013-2015
Advance #3021860

Training Memories: Beets and Kale

Nearly one year ago, I started training as a missionary. I was in the process of passing off, dumping off, and shrugging off 6 years of grad school and entering into something completely new. During training, I entered into relationship and covenant with 28 other amazing young adults who are committed to serving God and all people. We spent 3 weeks together where we bonded over many things. One of them was food. Much of our training took place at Stony Point Center, a retreat center in New York. Stony Point has an organic farm, and a good amount of the food they served for meals came from the farm. As farming goes, certain crops become ripe and ready at particular points in time. For us, two staples were beets and kale. On our first day, we savored all of the ripe food, plucked from the earth hours earlier, cooked, and delivered to our dinner plates. With food that fresh, I swear you could taste the sunshine it bathed in as it grew. Over the next few days, there was plenty more, and also prepared differently for variety. “Beets and kale again? Yes please!” By the end of training, we were pseudo-prophets, predicting what vegetable duo would be served to us that day. We groaned, both because our taste buds longed for something different and because someone told another bad beets and kale joke. We beatboxed, not using the phonetics “boots and cats,” but instead “beets and kale.” These common vegetables became legendary. Near the end of our training, we reflected on the entire experience. As much as we remembered about justice, spiritual health, living in community, and many others, we could not shake “beets and kale” from our minds. It went on the summary list. In an epiphany moment, I tied it back to my own story. I was living a beets and kale kind of life. I plugged away at the same old thing day after day, not really loving it and not really sure where it was taking me. The chance to serve as a missionary changed everything. I got to leave that old life behind and go on an exciting journey that God called me to. This July, my missionary class closes year one and enters year two of service, the MI class of 2011 and US2 class of 2012 finish their term, and a new class of missionaries is currently being trained and commissioned in the Philippines. In this season, how will we choose to leave behind the ordinary, the mundane, and the everyday beets and kale in exchange for the abundant life promised to us by Christ? Can we leave behind everything we want to follow the One who promised everything we need? As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ And immediately they left their nets and followed him. Mark 1:16-18 NRSV

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 Dave Johnson
General Board of Church and Society Washington, DC
US-2, Class of 2013-2015
Advance #3021860

 

Crazy, driven, hard-workin’ believers

How does this commercial make you feel? What do you think about it?

I’ve mulled this one over with a number of friends, and typically one of two responses arise. One affirms the commercial. Work hard! It’s the pathway to success, achievement, and fulfillment.

The other is usually some kind of shock or repulsion. People with this reaction are the folks who have worked hard, but haven’t moved upward. Others with this response have climbed to the top, or at least near enough to see that more hard work is all that awaits them. Still others have experienced the lives of those who have no choice but to work hard. I think of my friend Emmanuel, a high school student in Liberia. His daily routine: run to school, take a quick shower at the pump, learn and absorb in class, buy a cup of rice at the market, cook it, eat half, save the other half for breakfast, study, and sleep. That’s a hard day’s work.

Hard work is a virtue for sure, but does not necessarily correlate with accomplishment, success, or even being able to meet one’s own basic human needs. Of course, these do not come without hard work. They also don’t typically come without some degree of privilege. I think this is the component the “work hard” community often misses.

For a long time, I thought my academic success was due to my hard work. Later, I realized that I actually worked a lot less than most of my peers! I definitely put in the effort, but the gifts God gave me allowed me to excel. Now when people discover I studied engineering and praise my smarts, I have to be honest and say I’m just gifted and would fail miserably in other fields!

But there is another component we should also consider as people of faith:

He said to me, ‘This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.’
Zechariah 4:6 NRSV

Zerubbabel, governor of Judah after the exile, oversaw the rebuilding of the Temple, which was gutted and destroyed when Israel was conquered. Rebuilding such a significant edifice was a tremendous task, compounded by neighboring nations’ threats and by Israel’s pursuit of “the good life.” Hard work was needed, but so was a reliance on the power of God’s Spirit to have the right heart attitude, sufficient strength, and the willpower to stand against the naysayers. Anything of lasting value is done in community and is done by the power of God’s Spirit.

Here is my challenge: work in earnest, be cognizant of privilege, and enter into the work of the Lord. This is the pathway to success, achievement, and fulfillment before God. At the end of the day, I hope we stand before Jesus and hear, “Well done, good and faithful servants.”

So – what kind of crazy, driven, hard-workin’ believer are you going to be?

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David Johnson        

General Board of Church and Society, Washington DC

US-2 Class of 2013-2015

Advance #3021860