Tunnel Vision

I grew up near Pittsburgh, and since I’m now living here for a while, I’m reminded of the “Tunnel Monsters” of the Burgh. Everyone, and I mean everyone, slows from 65mph to 10mph…and sometimes, 0mph, simply because they have to drive through a tunnel. Since there are no obstructions, no surprises, and cops stay away for fear of slowing us down even more, the Pittsburghers decided a Tunnel Monster must occasionally show up and eat a car or two, and people fear they could be next.

While the Tunnel Monster is a humorous means for locals to deal with their daily frustration of tunnel crawl, we as Christians tend to do the same thing. That is, day-after-day, we travel the road of life with God in the lead. While walking our path He set before us, occasionally we see a mountain or possible trouble in the distance so we slow down and begin to question His wisdom.

Are you sure, God?

I know you have gotten me through, over, or around other mountains, but that one is huge—are you sure?

We not only slow down ourselves, but those around us in our sphere of influence. I wonder how much people watch us and wonder if we see a tunnel monster or some other evil greater than God’s power.

Why are you hesitating?

Why do you slow?

Where is your faith?

"I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!" Mark 9:24

We tend to mock the Israelites because, despite unbelievable demonstrations of God’s might, they continually questioned Moses and God. The Israelites’ path caused them to face death at every turn due to starvation, dehydration, impassable mountains, the Red Sea, warring armies, and giants. Most of us, at worst, might face a harsh word, leaving family and friends, and the unknown, so we slow, stop, and some turn around and go back to “Egypt”, our place of comfort, "I know, but my family lives here…so..."

The problem is not what they did…it is what we do or don't do.

We have watched God do things in our lives, in the lives of others, and the world that we live in, and yet, we question Him daily.

As we get closer to the mountain, we sometimes find that God has provided a tunnel or a way through the problem. We are relieved we don’t have to hike this one. Going over the mountain is exhausting and can take lots of time, energy, and courage. But this time God carved a tunnel, so we should be good to go—right?

Sadly, wrong!

We still slow down. We still question. We still double and triple look for a tunnel monster.

What if, however, there is a note-worthy opponent—so what! The God who created everything, transcends time, and raised Jesus from the dead is leading you on this path. You can run and cower by yourself or stand firm with the clout of God’s might.

It’s your call.

As ridiculous and absurd as the Tunnel Monster is in Pittsburgh, so are we who daily question the God who created us, loves us, and died to save us from His wrath to come.

Isn’t it time to move forward with maximum speed?

Isn’t it time to take our foot off the brake and put it back on the gas pedal?

We need to stop slowing down; our indecisiveness affects the progress of the gospel!

The other side is on the other side….DRIVE ON!

“I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.” Mth. 21:21-22

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Walls

On a short hike through the hillsides of Pittsburgh the other day, I came across this 150-yard-long rock wall. The large structure has many boulders that must weigh several tons each. This barrier is in the middle of nowhere; at least, nothing surrounds it today. As I walked along the top and spied a snake or two, I wondered, who built this thing and why? I imagine it took a great deal of effort, sweat, and planning to create. I don’t know if someone built it to keep something in or out, or both. Regardless, here it sits, a remnant of days gone by, and no one cares if the wall is here or not. It may have done its job in the day, but it does nothing now, except provide a place for snakes to absorb the warmth of the sun, bees to make nests, and plants to hold on to for stability.

As I took some time out of my hike to sit and ponder the wall with my new snake friends, I compared the manmade walls of Christianity that we have built over the centuries. There are rules and regulations on church dockets from years past that are nothing short of ridiculous and humorous at best, and despite the committees it took to form them and the infighting parishioners went through to create them, few care that they are there today. They are useless old walls, which, unfortunately, have done their job. These manmade barriers to eternal life with Jesus Christ are desperately sad and disturbing, and Jesus spoke against them continually. As Alex Himaya wrote, “Jesus hates religion” or man-breathed rules. Many of these hurdles impeded those who were earnestly seeking answers.

Hunters of truth who were turned away because they did not fit into a human-made structure.

I wonder how many simply stopped trying.

How many people simply moved on, assuming they weren’t good enough for God because they weren’t good enough for humankind?

The wall from space,
Google Maps

Beyond those manmade ‘clay tablet’ rules that Jesus despises, how many parents, grandparents, and churchgoers have thrown up similar walls? The most perplexing to me are those who continue to trumpet their ignorance or fear of answers by saying, ‘it’s a sin’ or ‘it’s not right to ask questions about one’s faith’. If we don’t or can’t ask questions:

How do we learn? How do we grow? How do we know God better?

God told us to “test the spirits” 1 John 4:1

That means, ‘Ask questions’!

I wonder how many times a student, son or daughter, or those on the “outside” couldn’t see over the well-constructed rock wall of religion and missed the relationship. I know this; nature despises a vacuum and will always fill a void. If seekers of truth don’t or can’t ask us, they certainly will seek their answers elsewhere. The world happily gives them the answers they seek, and gladly fills the void.

I could recount many life stories that I have heard where the person at a young age sought truth, but ran into a self-righteous wall of fear or disinformation never to return. We need to stop building walls and start building relationships that bring people to dynamic life in Christ. Clothes, tattoos, cars, houses, jobs, education, looks, athleticism, smells, ignorance, actions, God haters, etc. We can’t let any of those offend us to the point of building a wall that Jesus is trying to tear down. I was a God hater until the age of twenty-seven. I am grateful someone did not build a wall that I could not get over, like so many in my life had already done. Lisa Shores saw me for what I was, despite my adamant belief to the contrary: a man in need of a Savior.

Be a wall destroyer, not a wall builder.

“Human pride will be humbled, and human arrogance will be brought down. Only the LORD will be exalted on that day of judgment.” Isa. 2:17

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Disappear

I can’t seem to watch enough documentaries about people who live in Alaska, Siberia, and various other locales where no one else lives but them. I envy that solitude, that fight for survival where nothing matters but food, shelter, and making it through another day. The pettiness of most of our pursuits and desires becomes crystalline and basics become paramount. 

In order to chase after a taste of this desire, I love hiking on various mountains across this great country by myself and not seeing people for days on end. To some people that sounds like purgatory, but to me it sounds like pure joy.

I have no desire to ever be known or respected by anyone but my family. I don’t want to be on a stage or have people recognize me. The idea of “rich and famous” repulses me to my core, and everything inside me, humanly speaking, screams to stop when I sit down to write a blog, stand up to speak, or enter a room where large groups of people are “having a good time”. That's partially what I loved about midnight shift as a cop. While most people slept, I would go about my work keeping others safe and they never knew who I was or that I existed or did anything for them. 

Here’s the funny thing, it doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t matter what I want. It doesn’t matter where I want to live. It doesn’t matter if I want to disappear and never be seen or heard from again. The only thing that matters as a follower of Christ is to listen to His leading, and if that means I am to write, speak, or interact, I will do it with all that I have.

After many, many hours of watching those documentaries (and various zombie and other apocalyptic movies that depict a similar world where only a few people remain) something interesting struck me.

That is a life wasted.

That is a life where someone would, maybe, find my sundried and bleached bones and then move on with little more than a passing thought about what kind of life he lived. Life only has meaning when we impact others for the eternal cause of Christ. Anything short of that is gone as soon as it starts.

We are, as the Bible tells us, truly a flickering flame, a morning fog, or a wildflower, here today and gone tomorrow. At best, only those in direct contact with us will be affected, and they move on, as they should, fairly quickly, and the rest of the world does not miss a beat, not a step, and traffic resumes its commute as if nothing happened.

That was one of the things that always got me as a cop.

You work a horrific fatal accident, clean it up, open up traffic, and I would watch the faces of those driving by while I wrote my report. They are clueless as to what they are driving over and the images I smelled. 

That’s our life. It does me no good to hide in Alaska, Siberia, or any other distant corner of this world, temporally, sure, but not permanently.  I must let the love of others trump my human instincts to run and hide. The Great Commission is my primary pursuit, and if that means becoming known so that some may come to the knowledge of the Truth, then that’s what I will do. 

Not begrudgingly, but with a passion that drives me past the mediocre and into the realm of all that He has gifted me. 

The naysayers, like me, will soon be gone, and it’s only eternity that really matters.

So no matter where you are, a small town in Alaska or a large city in Brazil, impact your world for Christ. Stand up, speak up, and tell others of the Good News, even if you are uncomfortable and want to hide in a dark corner like I do.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere--in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:8

Ugly Christmas Boxes

Once a year I go into our garage, push past several boxes of stuff, kick up the dust and dirt that has accumulated over the last year, brush away a few dead bugs, and finally reach my goal—more boxes.

There is an incredible difference between the ugly boxes I move out of the way and the ugly boxes I pull out and it is not just the word ‘Christmas’ written on the outside with black Sharpie, it’s what’s inside of them that makes them different. In fact, these boxes are more worn, tattered, and stained from the years spent in the garage than most of the other boxes. Year after year, they’ve been moved, pushed, and crushed into tight spaces to make room for other stuff.

I tug and pull them out of their resting place, pile them up, and carry them to the living room. They are ugly. They are frayed. Various types of tape hold them together. But unlike the others, these hold promise because of the true meaning behind that one word: Christmas.

It’s been eleven months since we packed them away and who put what where, is a mystery. My family gathers around the stack, and one by one, we open the boxes as nostalgia fills our hearts by what’s inside. Piece by piece, the old ‘works of art’ are pulled out and unwrapped from their protective Wal-Mart bags or the occasional ‘special’ item has paper, bubble wrap, and then the Wal-Mart bag.

The funny thing is… From the most beautiful piece to the downright scary hand-painted Santa, none of the pieces are particularly stirring on their own. It is only when we begin to put them on the tree that a different picture emerges. Then, when we step back, turn on the tree lights, and stand there quietly for a moment and gaze, it is at that moment that we are reminded of the uniqueness of Christmas and the ugly boxes that held this beauty gives way to something better.

Christmas, despite the ardent attempts of humanists, will always be about one thing: the birth of a Savior. He offers life to anyone who will accept His gift (John 11:25). Like the boxes and the items inside, we are all battered, broken, and held together by various types of ‘tape’. With Jesus, it’s not our decrepit body and not the beautiful or ugly moments that make or break us. It’s what we allow Him to do with those laughs—those tears—and those scars that matter. He alone opens the shell you live in, pulls out the good, the bad, and the ugly, puts it on the Tree of Life, and creates a perfect picture of beauty.

Christmas is more than symbolism; it is truth, reality, and it is life. Jesus doesn’t focus on the appearance of your box, the contents on the inside, or the stains from years of a difficult life, nor should you. Focus, instead, on the life Jesus brought to earth on the first Christmas morning and allow Him to lovingly use all of you to glorify Him and give you peace.

“I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem” Luke 2:10-11