Getting to Green and Getting to God?
This year the “going green” push is big on college campuses and the theme has caught a lot of attention with corporations who are really making this a push in their advertising and marketing efforts. Four years ago, this topic of green was just starting to emerge, but it was still on the outside fringe of popularity. Today, “going green” has hit our society in a huge way. The Oscars went green, the Superbowl went green, major league baseball is going green, TV, tourism, hotels, Microsoft, Dell, Walmart, restaurants, airlines, clothing, grocery stores, major retailers, construction companies and yes even coffins. (http://www.environmentalcaskets.com)
As I pondered this idea of “going green”, I started getting a bit annoyed at the magnitude of the whole thing. Don’t get me wrong, I think these things are great ideas and certainly we as responsible human beings need to be doing them to preserve our environment. What I am annoyed about is the passion, attention and public space this is getting. Just think about it, we have given more of our time, talent and treasure (dollars) to preserve the environment then to things with eternal value. What I am struggling with is the thought of how one movement gets such attention and popularity while other movements get no attention or resources at all.
Which Chair are You in?
I would like to begin with saying I recommend that you visit the “My Testimony” from Blue Ridge Community Church to the right and watch video #3 which will cover this topic of a “Chair 3 Christian” in more detail. It is roughly 6 minutes long.
In many of my blog entries I have openly discussed that I grew up in a Christian home. I thought I was a Christian only to realize later that I did not have a personal relationship with God. I have a passion to share my story, because I believe it is much more common than others care to acknowledge. A majority of those people do not realize they may not have the relationship with Jesus they claim to have, just as I was unaware for years. I am certainly not casting judgment. However, if I can grow up in a Christian home, attend and graduate from an evangelical university, work for that same evangelical university, closely with a great leader, Dr. Jerry Falwell, and not have a personal relationship with God, then it can happen to anyone. In the book of Matthew, Matthew spent a lot of time on this subject of alerting individuals to the danger of thinking we are saved when we are not. (Matt 5:20, 7:21-23, 13:20-21, 13:47-50, 22:10-14)
I heard a message one time with a “4 Chair” analogy. The speaker started off by saying “the good news is, that all of us in this room sit in one of these four chairs. The bad news is, not all of these chairs are desirable positions to be in.” He then went on to explain each chair in detail.
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Symptoms are misleading, when will you find the root cause?
The title of this post says it all…”symptoms are misleading…” Just like an iceberg, symptoms are what can be seen, but the root cause is still below the surface. Before I gave my life over to Christ and became His child, I thought I was a Christian and was going to heaven when I died. I truly believed I was His child and that all my poor decisions and negative reactions in life were just symptoms of what life threw at me daily. Just because the symptoms were negative reactions and poor decisions, that did not mean I was not his child, right? Wrong. For me the symptoms that I diagnosed as “what life threw at me” were really a missing relationship with our Heavenly Father.
Taking the Next Hill
I don’t know about you, but I am the type of person who needs a challenge or a hill to climb to get motivated. I have found this to be true in both my professional and personal life and now I find it true in my spiritual life. In my professional life I love coming into a challenging situation with the odds stacked against me. Many times in these situations whatever task is at hand is not the popular choice with the masses. So, I typically find myself swimming against the current of the mainstream. These types of situations usually require confronting the current culture or environment that is already embedded in a work situation. To me, I see this as a hill; it motivates me, keeps me engaged and challenges me to work hard, set goals and see the changes that take place slowly over time. I have experienced this several times in my career and it is not a quick fix. It takes both time and I remaining constantly engaged to see it through. Staying constantly engaged is the key to success in this situation. With my personality and the need to “take” the hill it is not difficult to stay engaged.
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