Blessed Are The Losers

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, 
   for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
Blessed are those who mourn, 
   for they will be comforted. 
Blessed are the meek, 
   for they will inherit the earth. 
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, 
   for they will be filled. 
Blessed are the merciful, 
   for they will be shown mercy. 
Blessed are the pure in heart, 
   for they will see God. 
Blessed are the peacemakers, 
   for they will be called children of God. 
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, 
   for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

“Regardess of how you feel inside, always try to look like a winner.” –Arthur Ashe

“If you want to be a winner, hang around with winners.” –Christopher Furman

General Patton once famously stated that “Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser,” and you don’t have to look around long to see how often that’s true. We value power, popularity, and prosperity; we have entire sections in our bookstores dedicated to being a success and to learning how to win. Not only that, but we avoid those choices that might lead to having less, that might seem like a step down and can even avoid those people who might not look good or might not make us look good. We want to be loved; and Americans love a winner. And so we will do almost anything to win.

Now Jesus comes with a grace bound up only in his great love and our great need. He does not save us because we are worth saving and he is certainly not impressed with our money, our status, or what we will do to win. In fact, he often spoke against those things.

When Jesus walked the earth; he was known as one who hung out with tax collectors and sinners. In other words, he hung out with losers. In fact, so much of what those who rejected him rejected about him was how taken he was with "the least of these" and how unconcerned he was with winning. He was a loser. And that's why they killed him.

But it’s been over 2000 years since Jesus walked the earth and, in that time, we have created a gospel that celebrates the winner. The most blatant version draws direct connections between being rich and powerful and receiving God’s favor and has become known as the prosperity gospel, but even more subtle forms still hold up worldly “success.” How many of us have attended churches whose eldership was primarily doctors and lawyers? Now, how many of us have attended churches whose eldership included a janitor?

Jesus begins his sermon on the mount blessing the poor in spirit, the meek, and the merciful. But our world (including many of us who claim Christ) see this as weak and lame.

We spend our lives trying to impress, trying to please, and even trying to become the very opposite of the people Jesus blesses. Because the meek and the peacemakers and those who mourn still look more like losers than winners. And we are people who will do almost anything to not be a loser.

Richard Nixon once stated that “the game of life is to come up a winner, to be a success, to achieve what we set out to do.” He was one who once tried to gain the world and risked losing the one thing we’re called not to lose; his soul.

Christ comes calling us to repentance. To go a different way. To make a different choice. To worry less about success and about winning.

Christ calls the church to be a place where weakness is welcome and losers feel at home; where you can walk in the door even if you don't have a savings account or a job or a home.

A place where the poor in spirit are blessed, where those who mourn are comforted and where peacemaking is practiced and celebrated.

A place where purity of heart and hunger for righteousness are valued over talent and ability.

Let’s stop placing such a high value on who has the nicest house or the coolest clothes or the most impressive resume, on who has the best education or who has the most influence or who shows the most strength.


God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord."

The Last Ten Years

So, it's January 1, 2001 and the millennium has officially begun (that 2000 thing was a hoax folks, nothing's ever 0 years old). I am 24 years old, 2 1/2 years married, and on the verge of moving to Austin, TX for the first time. My wife, Rachel, is finishing up graduate school in Abilene, TX and I am finishing up 2 years of (sometimes very) odd jobs worked in order to put her through graduate school. We're both past tired of west Texas, have finished up what will turn out to be the most difficult year of our married life (in terms of the actual "being married" part) and are ready for whatever is next.

What's next is speech pathology in a private practice and discovering that this career thing comes with a steep learning curve. What's next is teaching American History/Government and Bible at a private Christian school the year of September 11, 2001. What's next is two unfulfilling jobs (one more than another); one quit and one endured and a desire to stay in Austin, but an even greater desire to find meaningful work.

What's next is a move to Durham, NC in search of that meaningful work and both finding it and then one losing it and then being generally miserable when it comes to some of the things that matter most like faith and God and church except when being the opposite of miserable when it comes to some of the other things that matter most like growing together as partners and friends and becoming parents to an amazing son.

What's next is deciding together that something's got to change and that God meant there to be more to life than safety and security and what's next is a leap into something new and moving back to Austin with a 6 month old kid and no jobs and back in with the folks at the age of 29. What's next is church-planting and working in a bookstore and finding that a minimum/hourly wage is better than salary and a savings account when the work is worth it and you're doing what you're supposed to be doing and what's next is learning new things and taking greater risks and highs and lows and ups and downs and joy and struggle and stuff you wish you'd have done differently and things you shouldn't have said and 10 year anniversaries and starting kindergarten and let's try to have another only to find out we can't and maybe we adopt only we can't seem to afford it and it turns out we're pregnant only weeks later we miscarry and we never thought we'd recover only it turns out we will and pain is part of life and with friends and family and faith and God we find we're more than making it.

And it's January 1, 2011 and I don't know what's next, but I'm excited to see.

Any Street, U.S.A.

"Main Street Bethlehem. Don't miss it."

This was the advice given to me last week. The Main Street Bethlehem being referenced is a sort of attraction and a sort of play that is put on by residents of Burnet, TX. The idea is to recreate the streets of Bethlehem, circa the time that B.C. switched to A.D. I've never been to Main Street Bethlehem, but the website description sounds like a holiday experience the whole family can enjoy and I'm not hear to knock it.

But it did get me thinking. One of the biggest temptations for Christians at Christmas is to romanticize and dress up an event that was all to real and messy. We have nativities that feature the cleanest of stables, the most sanitized of animals, and the quietest of babies. I don't know if that's the Main Street Bethlehem approach, but I do know they feature free refreshments at the exit. And I'm guessing that the actual Bethlehem does not.

The thing is, the reason why Bethlehem is special is because it's where God first made His home with humanity. It's the place where God put on flesh and dwelt among us. It's where Jesus was born. Born into our mess and our brokenness and darkness. Born to bring some light and to save the world.

Over 2000 years later, the Spirit of God still longs to make His home among us. Jesus Christ looks to be born into our hearts, our lives, and our neighborhoods. God wants to move among people living on Main Street or 6th Street or 12th and Chicon or Oltorf and Lamar. And we can make such theatre of the past that we forget how the reality of the past breaks through into the present; that Jesus who was born in Bethlehem is alive and sends his Spirit today. That the light of Christ continues to break into every neighborhood and onto every street. Not just main street, but your street and my street and up streets and down streets and backstreets that you and I may go to great pains to avoid. The Spirit of God looks to be born into any and every street, the streets we drive on and past everyday and miss along the way. Miss the lost and the lonely and the angry and afraid. Miss the messy and the real.

So, here's my advice this Christmas as you walk down Any Street, U.S.A.

Don't miss it.

Prepare The Way

‎"Advent is the perfect time to clear and prepare the Way. Advent is a winter training camp for those who desire peace. By reflection and prayer, by reading and meditation, we can make our hearts a place where a blessing of peace would desire to abide and where the birth of the Prince of Peace might take place." -Edward Hays

Unprotected Sex

Not to get all TMI on you, but it has been a long time since I've worn a condom. That is, up until a month or so ago. Then I started wearing them again for the first time in years. Every time. No exceptions.

Now, I'm not anti-condom or anti-birth control. That wasn't why I hadn't been wearing them. I had worn them before Harry was born and after he was born, during phases and stages when Rachel wasn't taking birth control pills and we weren't looking to have a kid.

But for the past few years, we'd been hoping to have a second child, so the condoms and pills were out.

Up until a little over a month ago.

And I realized this week that it wasn't because I've rethought wanting to have another kid. I want that as much as I did a year ago. I want it as much as I did a couple of months back, when Rachel told me she was pregnant.

But then Rachel and I went through a miscarriage. And I started using condoms.

The last few weeks of daily prayer have been revealing something to me. The time spent in our church's study of the Old Testament has reminded me that we are called to live fearlessly. And the wise words and listening ear of a close friend have helped me to realize that I'm not trying to avoid another pregnancy.

I'm trying to avoid another miscarriage.

I'm wanting a guarantee when I know that isn't how this works. I'm looking to avoid pain, even if it means missing out on something great. I'm letting fear get the best of me. I'm trying to protect myself from a bad thing that may never happen and risk missing out on a good thing that might.

And that's not how I'm called to live. It's not how I want to live. And, as a Christian, it's not how I choose to live.

So, as of today, the condoms go back in the box and I go back to unprotected sex. My wife, always more faithful and fearless than I, will be pleased.

And maybe nothing happens. And maybe we get pregnant. And maybe we miscarry again. And maybe we don't. The future is uncertain. And that scares me. But we were not made to live in fear, but in hope; by the power of the Spirit of God whose love casts out fear.

Here we go.