Godonomics

Today was a long day. It began with a phone call to a father who sobbed over the phone as we disguised final funeral arrangements. His 17 year old son passed away a few days earlier. I met Mitch back in January when he started attending our church. He wanted the Bible’s answers to tough questions. One of those questions is “What happens when we die.” Unlike the rest of us who may wonder about that issue, but feel like it is forever away, Mitch had a sense of urgency to find the answers.
Two weeks ago, I had an atheist friend on stage with me at church discussing the differing views of death and dying. We looked at atheism’s answer to “Why suffer occurs” vs Hinduism vs Jesus. When you see a young life snuffed out, you hunger for answers. I shared the options.

If Atheism is correct, the answer to the question of “Why Cancer, and Why Him…” is painfully hopeless. In the words of Richard Dawkins, “DNA neither knows nor cares and we dance to it’s music. In a world of blind random chance, somebody’s bound to get hurt.” If that answer doesn’t leave you empty, angry, and hopeless, I’m not sure what would be worse. Atheism critiques the problem of evil while offering us the worst possible alternative. Evolution triumphs death as the catalyst to our evolution. Death and suffering is the hero of natural selection and the way we move forward in our evolution. We die… The next generation learns from it. We get better. Christianity says, “NONSENSE! Death is not normal or natural. Death is the enemy!”

Christ’s teaching explains the problem of evil, calls it abnormal and wrong, and offers a solution. The Bible says we were made for a world without pain and suffering. The echo of that world is still etched on our hearts. That is why we grieve. That’s why we say, “IT shouldn’t be this way…” We are comparing this broken world to it’s original blueprint still etched on our hearts. The Bible says evil is a result of two things: A broken creation and free will. Christianity also offers hope that God will one day fix this world. Wipe away ever tear. Restore broken bodies. This hope can be rubbed into our grief so we grieve with hope. The hope of seeing our son and daughter again. The hope that a body with cancer on earth is replaced with a REAL body without cancer or pain in heaven.

What happens when we die? IF Charles Darwin was right, we ROT TO DEATH and all we have are memories that live on. And honestly, about a month after our funeral, most people will move on and barely remember us. If Gandhi was right, we RECYCLE into energy. We are not unique individuals, but energy that is scattered into the universe (a tree, a rabbit, a mosquito). We will never ever see our loved ones again, because they don’t exist in one place or one form. If King Tut was right, we REMAIN the same. We go into the next life with the same problems and ailments as this life. Eqyptian tombs are filled with medicines and walking canes since you have the same diseases and pains in the next life as this one. BUT… If Jesus was right, there is hope. Real historic hope. We RESURRECT to life. We get real, healed, fixed, fully restored bodies in Heaven. No more cancer. No more alzheimers. No more pain. No more tears. We know we can and will see our loved ones again.  For anyone that trusts Christ to defeat death, this is the confident future.

This is not wishful thinking. This is not a fairy tale. This is a fixed hope locked on the historic FACTS of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ confirmed by archeology, history, and external evidence.  We could trust our good works to defeat death, but they are woefully inadequate. The Grim Reaper is only terrified by the ONE who crushed him.

I told my wife that I’d like to officiate my own funeral. She laughs at me, but I’d like to video tape my funeral in advance so I can share my confident hope in Heaven based on what Christ did, not what I did. Religion will not get you to heaven. Good works will not get any one to Heaven.. I’ll put my trust in the One person who went toe to toe with death and came out victorious. I also told my wife to bury me in a cheap plywood box from home depot. I didn’t want her guilted into spending a bunch of money on a box. Funerals can be expensive and the health code doesn’t allow Home Depot homemade coffins, BUT, back in 2009, Walmart started offering Coffins for sale for less than $1000. NOt kidding, here is the link

Some may be too proud to shop at Walmart for a funeral. As for me, I think it would sum up my view of money and death. Money: Don’t spend more than you need to on a box to hold your body. Death: It’s not the final chapter.

For more information, check out www.godonomics.com or this clip of me explaining the world views of death on the DVD series Godonomics.

Osama is dead. Obama is celebrating. Mother’s day is just around the corner. What a roller coaster of emotions. Mother’s day is a lot like this week. One moment you are laughing at a child’s funny moment, the next moment you are overwhelmed that you have no idea what you are doing. Imagine the challenges of being a mother to Osama Bin Laden. Imagine the complexities of mothering a known terrorist. Imagine the prayers, the pain, and the horror of seeing the world celebrate your son’s death. Imagine the smile and proud look of Obama’s mom, knowing her son caught the worlds most famous terrorist.

Jesus spoke of the complexities of both war and emotions of motherhood. He said:

Luke 14:28-3128 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— 29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, “This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?

Jesus notes that a leader and wise builder will weigh the cost of battle before going into war. Why? First, to ensure victory. Second, to consider the huge cost in human life, financial commitment, and loss of young men and women.

The Bible takes a nuanced view on war which explains why Christ followers can disagree. While the Bible clearly teaches us not to murder, the word murder is different from the the Hebrew word kill. The Bible forbids murder: unjust killing. The Bible makes exceptions for self-defense and lays out ethics for war taking a realistic view of our broken world and the reality of evil.

I once spoke with a dear friend, a Quaker, who was a strong pacifist… Until he got married. His wife once asked him, “If an intruder broke into our house and attacked me, are you saying you wouldn’t fight him off?” My friend said, “No, I am a pacifist.” He told me the look in his new bride’s eyes will haunt him till the day he dies. She was horrified that her husband wouldn’t love her enough to protect her from evil. He made a decision that day to take evil more seriously and relook at his position on “just” violence vs “unjust” violence. He changed his position and provided his wife with the security she needed and hoped for.

War is terrible. My father in law still aches from the things he saw in Vietnam. My grandpa fought in WWII as a marine; my other grandfather was in the army. They fought the forces of evil and did “the loving thing” by serving in the military and fighting off Hitler. I know first hand the challenges to mothers and grandmothers who see the complications of war on their sons and daughters and long to hold them tightly. Jesus knew this feeling well when he referenced feeling like a mother and grieving like a mother hen seeing the coming war and destruction of his people in Jerusalem.

Matthew 23:37-39
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 38 See! Your house is left to you desolate; 39 for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! ’”

Should we rejoice in Osama’s death? Should we celebrate Obama’s military strategy? A follower of christ can have mixed emotions. They can celebrate that evil is judged and innocent lives will no longer be victims while grieving the lost of a human life. They can support a war that punishes evil while questioning the cost of it. They can support just war while questioning if this particular war meets the criteria.

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Remember Scrooge McDuck swimming in his vault of gold coins. It’s easy to demonize Mr McDuck and his lack of generosity, instead of looking in the mirror at the Scrooge in your own heart.
By this time tomorrow, 187,000 meals will be on their way to feed starving children in the Phillipines. I watched the last two nights as 700 volunteers from our church: families, children, teenagers, and singles. Young and Old. Religious and Non religious. Politically blue and politically red. They all came together to express the radical generosity Christ calls us to engage in.
Our church worked with a group called FEED MY STARVING CHILDREN to pack meals for children who are literally dying by the day. What a horrible tragedy, especially when it takes so little to do so much. Over half the world lives on less than $2 a day. Half of them live on less than $1 a day. We lose that much in our car seats. I must confess that too often I identify with the fat EARTHLING in the movie Wall-e. I am so insulated in my own comfortable and well fed life that I forget the real poverty and starvation going on all over the world.
Corinthians tells us that Jesus who was rich became poor for us -so that in Christ, we can be rich as an heir to all the treasures of heaven. The response to that truth is life changing. We choose to draw near the poor -just as He drew near to us when we were poor. We choose to give away lavish amounts of our money to the hurting -knowing that our real treasure is in Heaven.
Christians are commanded and called to be radically generous to others. We are called to examine every crook and cranny of our hearts for self-centeredness and greed. We are called to feed all the starving children by building our budgets around the Three “P”s of generosity.

1. Percentage Giving

Don’t just give away a few dollars. Move your heart and budget toward percentage giving. Start at 1% and start growing toward a higher and higher percentage. Find the joy of giving up a Starbucks to feed a child for a month. Find the power of seeing your giving to ‘the least of these’ as a ministry to God Himself.

2. Priority Giving

Give to God’s priorities. As you examine your giving, give to his bride, the church. Give to the poor. God has so many strong, compelling, and stern warnings to those who ignore the plight of the poor and hurting. Build a budget to provide for your marriage and family knowing people are God’s top concern.

3. Progressive Giving

Every year my wife and I look at our budget and see how we can be more generous. Is there a way to organize our spending, our lifestyles, and our budget to give more money away.? I made a decision back when I was 21 years old to move toward becoming a progressively generous person. My wife and I decided to habitually move from giving a few bucks weekly back in college to giving away a large percentage of our money. And 17 years later, God has blessed that endeavor personally and corporately.

Our church sends medical doctors and pharmacists to Belize each year to give away free surgeries, medicine, and homes to the deeply impoverished. We are able to build a home for a family from the ground up for less than $5000. Imagine how the world could change if we all moved into the realm of deep sacrificial joyful generosity. Imagine if we all looked at the McScrooge in us and the Wall-e Earthlings in us…. And instead responded to the incredible grace of God

For more information, check out www.godonomics.com