What Are You Known For?

I’ve had a big question on my mind this week thanks to Jeff Henderson’s excellent book “For”. What do I want to be known for?

My answer to this question has changed so many times. As a I teenager I wanted to be known as a great basketball player. Too bad I was always a little too slow, a lot too skinny, and the youngest guy on the team. In college I wanted to be known as a great musician, and to an extent I was. For most of my life these three words describe what I’ve been known for, “the smart guy”.

None of those describe what I want to be known for. I don’t want to be known for basketball, or music, my intellect, or my writing. And, even though at momentary intervals I may have looked for validation from others in these things, I don’t anymore. Those days are all long behind me.

But what am I known for? I can’t answer that. Mostly because I don’t possess Professor X level telepathic mind reading powers. Wouldn’t that be cool? I wouldn’t mind being known for that, but I digress. I don’t know what I’m known for.

I only know what I would like to be known for. It’s not my intellect, my musicianship, or my step-back-three. I want to be known for the way I love. That’s it. That’s all.

I want to love my family exceptionally well. I want to love my friends, our church, my neighbors, and my students—I want to be known for the way I love. But loving those people should be pretty easy. What kind of person doesn’t love their friends and family?

I want to be known for loving others. It’s that simple. It’s that hard. Have you met some of you? Some of you are hard to love. Some of you don’t make it easy. But I don’t want to be known for doing what’s easy. 

It’s so easy to love people who are educated middle class conservative evangelicals—most of the time. Those are all things that describe me. It’s easy to love people who share common interests. You like Captain America? Me too. We can be pals. But what about everyone else. I better be known for loving the easy ones. But I hope I’m known for loving the “everyone else’s” too.

What do you want to be known for? What are you known for? Is there a discrepancy?

Here’s my challenge to you. Ask someone around you to tell you what you are known for. 

August 3 - Testing Jesus

Matthew 22:15-22

But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? (Matthew 22:18 ESV)

Once again the misguided Pharisees sought to entrap Jesus with their petty questions and clumsy tests. Jesus always saw straight through their tests. They weren't really interested in getting answers, they were looking for reasons to blame, doubt, of entrap him. People still do the same thing today.

It is true that many atheists and various other skeptics chalk their doubts up to the ideas of proof, but so do believers. I have been a Christian for over twenty years and there a days when I have doubts. There are moments, when like the Pharisees, I look up and cast my test before the King of kings.

I believe that doubt can be a healthy thing when it pushes us toward honest evaluation and careful contemplation. But it can also be arrogant folly when we take our stance, presume ourselves to be the standard for truth, and call all others to verify truth through our personal view of the world.

The Pharisees were testing Jesus because he was undermining their religious hold on their personal world. He was stirring things up. They didn't test him because they wanted truth. They tested him because they were looking for leverage. That can be easy to forget. I would do better to remember just that the next time that I feel like testing Jesus.

August 2 - Jesus Stumps the Elite

Luke 20:9-26

And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer they became silent. (Luke 20:26 ESV)

Have you ever tried to argue a point only to have someone say something so incredibly superior to your view that you have to shut up and remain silent in deference to their superior rhetoric? That is exactly what happened to the Jewish religious elite one day when they tried to argue with Jesus. The simple truth is that lost people don't think like Jesus.

It takes a work of God for the human mind to begin to think in a different way. It takes the infusing of a new perspective, and a life-giving transformation. Many of the Pharisees wethe incapable of this, and so they thought their petty squabbles over inconsequential religious triflings would stump Jesus. No, he always had a superior stance.

When I think about this story it gives me pause to stop and look and my own ridiculously religious nature. It is something I have to fight against. It is a challenge.

God is taking me in new directions in my pursuit of Him. Christ has called me to abandon the petty arrogance and wayward assumptions of things that don't matter. And the Holy Spirit is leading me into a place of a reinvigorated emphasis on what is important—namely loving people and exalting Jesus.

Does that mean I won't feel elite or superior? Of course not, I know my ridiculous inclinations. But I pray that he will help. And on those days that I feel truly stumped I will have to stop and acknowledge that Christ is at work in me to change or teach me.

August 1 - Answering Jesus

Matthew 21:23-27

But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” (Matthew 21:26 ESV)

From the moment he arrived in Jerusalem Jesus was challenged by the uppity Pharisees and scribes. During his triumphant entree, while he performed miracles, and even while he tried to teach his followers—the religious leaders followed him, nagging him at every turn.

During one such encounter Jesus turned the attention around on them. They asked him a question that they assumed would stump him, and in turn he asked them a question they were too cowardly to answer. If you, like me, have ever found yourself afraid to fess up and acknowledge your own shortcomings you may be a little like those guys.

Whether it was simple fear of men, an obstinate refusal to acknowledge Jesus authority, or some combination of the two, the Pharisees and scribes dodged Jesus' pointed question. We too do this all the time. The truth is that God often speaks directly into our discomfort to bring us into correction.

The places in our soul we're most willing to avoid are generally the places where Jesus most wants to engage us. When I feel the most insecure he points me to a place where I can rediscover my strength in him. When I feel haughty he usually points out my deep need for his ability. But to get there I must acknowledge where, how, and when he calling out to me. I must answer him.

Why God Cannot Lie

Can God lie? This is one of those types of questions which you might find yourself trying to answer were you to ever engage in a lengthy apologetic conversation with a skeptic. I have to admit, it's not a question that I have ever given much thought, but just the same--the Bible provides us with a definitive answer, even if it is not an elaborate one. Paul, a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago, but at the proper time manifested, even His word, in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior, To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. (Titus 1:1-4 NASB, emphasis added)

Paul, in this brief introductory portion of his letter to Titus, states very plainly that God cannot lie, and as I mentioned before its not an elaborate answer. Neither is it a question that needs an elaborate answer, but I do feel like I might have some small understanding of why God cannot lie. Of course, to engage in this line of thought is to at the same time answer the question as to why God would ever need to lie--the answers to both are tied quite neatly together.

God cannot lie, nor does He need to, because any way that He chooses to communicate to His people is true. If He says it, it is. This is why when Moses asks God in the Book of Exodus, "who should I tell them sent me?" God simply refers to Himself as "I AM". Moses, and us as well, are sorely incapable of really grasping what or who exactly God might be, at least in an easily definable way. So God makes it easy for Moses.

He exists. He is. He is the God that changes not. The Immortal I AM. The same yesterday, today, and forever. He is our Alpha and Omega, that is our entire existence is contained within His sovereign infinitude.

God cannot lie because there can be no truth apart from Him.