Love Something More

“So we cheated and we lied and we tested,

And we never failed to fail;
It was the easiest thing to do.” (Southern Cross - Stephen Stills)

Why do people do things that they know are wrong? The drug user who abuses knowing it’s going to land her on the streets, in a hospital, or worse. The man having an affair who knows it is destroying his family, but still, he continues the destructive behavior. I think the best way to answer that question is to ask ourselves. Looking back there have been times in my own life where I recognized that my attitude, habits, or behavior was unhealthy and destructive, but I chose to do them anyway. Why? Because I wanted to.

We just finished going through the book of Joshua (still a favorite) and at the end of this book of promise and conquest, miraculous intervention and tremendous faith, we find Joshua’s final words to the leaders and elders of Israel quite curious. He tells them to choose for themselves this day whom they would serve” with his emphatic, “as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” The elders respond as you might expect, saying that they too would serve LORD, but Joshua responds in a way that strikes back at them saying, “You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God.”

Why would he say that?

Twice Joshua told the elders to throw away the foreign gods among them, but before that he told them to be careful to love the Lord (23:11), and though the people knew what they should and shouldn’t do, we see within just one generation they end up leaving the LORD and doing whatever was right in their own eyes (Judges). In the end, the people did what they wanted, what they loved and they loved something else more.

Woody Allen said, after leaving his wife and getting involved with her adopted daughter, “The heart wants what it wants” which brings me to my point: if you know the right thing, but love the wrong thing, you will make the wrong choice. Jesus said in John 3, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” It wasn’t that people couldn’t see the light (what was right), or understand the darkness (what was wrong), they just loved the darkness more.

I know people don’t usually change until the pain of remaining the same is greater than the pain of the change, but eventually loving the wrong things will leave us broken and disillusioned. At that time I pray we choose to love something else, something better, someone better, the one who first loved us and is jealous for us still. - 1 John 4:19

Ri

Have you ever heard or read something and found yourself being encouraged just knowing that there was someone else out there who felt the same way as you? That was the sense I had reading Steve Saccones book “Relational Intelligence”. I have long felt that how we relate with people is an important area that we often overlook and in his book Steve illuminates many ways that we can better ourselves in this area. In fact I thought it so good that I gave a copy to those who are in leadership at Genesis and believe it will help us not only be better leaders, but better people.

It bothers me (probably more than it should) how we can be fascinated with the sensational, yet be dysfunctional with the practical. We learn all we can about eschatology (end times stuff), but never think to better our ability to communicate on a deeper level. It’s the typical guy who will talk your ears off about the ‘mark of the beast’, but can’t get a date! Or, the girl who dominates every conversation with all she does for God, but fails to understand why she has so few friends! I have to say that in all my years of counseling, I’ve never had to help a troubled teen or couple in crisis because they didn’t have a clear grasp on the second coming of Jesus, but failure in communication is almost always at the top of the list. Leaders who don’t recognize this often fail to see that the truths they share aren’t received many times because of the tiresome and detached way they are relating those truths.

Steve writes about this and says, “When people aren’t engaged in our vision, our movement, or our cause, its easy to think that they lack the ability to remain interested, rather than absorbing the responsibility ourselves to become more interesting persons. If we struggle in our leadership to capture people’s attention and engage their interests, we’re not simply the victims who have fallen prey to the culture of boredom; instead we must allow this reality to motivate us to become more compelling relators.” He then says “We must take responsibility to become the most interesting people we can be to bring that part of us into our relationships.”

Jesus is a tremendous example of how to communicate with identification, passion and illustration to those listening (look at the Sermon on the Mount). He never gave off the impression of being too busy or uncaring. Whether it was the Children who came to him, Zacchaeus, the women at the well or so many others? He was the epitome of a relational genius.

I know that some people are good with this area and some not so good, but all of us could use improvement and this book is a great tool to help in that endeavor. It sure helped me.

Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Relational-Intelligence-Influence-Jossey-Bass-Leadership/dp/047043869X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270575449&sr=8-1

How Far? - Good Friday -

How far did He have to go? The Lord, to find you? Where was the end of your rope the bottom of your pit? Were you on a hill or mountain of despair? Was it in the middle of a sea of restlessness, searching for some peace? Was it in religious ritual, diligently trying to gain favor with a God you didn't even know was there?

Jesus said; "If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won't he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost?"

I'm so glad that He found me in that distant place, and I can't express the comfort and hope I hold onto knowing that He searches for the lost still.

There is something about knowing you are loved that can change you forever, change you for the better. On this Good Friday, may you know that you are loved.

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