I love writing this blog for so many reasons.  One of the reasons is that it’s an adventure.  Sometimes I sit down planning on writing about a certain subject but then it goes in a completely different direction.  Like today for instance, I was planning on writing about something that’s been on my heart lately but then it went to The Bible and then it stalled again so I said, “Okay God, so what am I going to write about today?”

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And then it went here, which I’m not gonna lie, is a little strange.

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Imagine a world without crock pots.

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I know what you must be thinking, “What kind of messed up world are you asking me to imagine here?”

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I know, I know but just stay with me here. 

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And then one day, along came you – the very first crock pot. 

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Are you there?  Imagining it?  You are the very first crock pot.  Only problem is, you don’t know that you’re a crock pot.  You don’t know what you are.  You came with no instruction manual, there were no illustrations on the box and nobody around you seems to know what your purpose is either.

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So what do you do?

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Trial and error has you trying all sorts of things:

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Tool cleaning, feet soaking, candle making, rain measuring, dog water dish, candy holder (hopefully you bathed somewhere in between the feet soaking and candy holding), silver polishing, mud carrying and plant holding.  You finally settled on your current job – paper weight, which you’re pretty good at.

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And while you may not be miserable, deep down inside you know that you’re not being properly utilized.  You know there’s a greater purpose for you.  You’ve searched and searched (I mean, why else would you try foot soaking?) but you’ve never realized that potential you have.  But you know it’s there.   

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So how do you find it?

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You could just keep trying different things but how’s that worked out for you?

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I’ll tell you how it’s worked out for you in three words – DOG WATER DISH.

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So you can just resign yourself to being a paperweight for the rest of your days unless something better happens to come along.

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Or

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You can look to the one who created you because who better to show you what you were made for than the one who made you?

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“BINGO!”

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So you seek and find your creator and next thing you know, you’re making the tastiest, melt in your mouth, pot roast.  Two weeks from now you’ll be entering the Flaming Hot Chili Cook Off and you’re pretty sure that you’re going to have a big part in that beef stew recipe that was recently put on the counter.

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Purpose found! 

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All it took was seeking the one true person who knew what you were made for.

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Try it on your own, you might end up soaking bunions.  Seek your creator and you’re making Rotel cheese dip for the family get together. 

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So……

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Are you a crock pot paperweight?

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Well

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“….Everyone who seeks, finds.” – Matthew 7:8

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EVERYONE

Situational Christianity

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This is something I’ve wrestled with ever since I became an Unlikely Christian.

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It’s also something I’m done with.

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Are you a situational Christian? 

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Are you a Christian when you get together with your church buddies? – Yep

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How about at church?  Duh….of course!

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At community group?  Oh yeah!

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How about when you go back home to visit your friends and or family?  Umm…well…uhhh…

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How about at work?  Well…..you see…..

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That used to be me.  A Christian within the safe confines of the holy huddle for sure, but around my non-Christian friends/family, work or any other place where the conditions/people weren’t favorable….yeah not so much.

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Why?

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Well for me it was because I didn’t want to freak them out.  I didn’t want to push them away. 

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As a Christian, I became a guy that I never thought I’d be – a Christian.  In doing so, I also became a guy that I know they aren’t necessarily fond of – a Christian.  So when around them, I didn’t want to weird them out. 

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Is that for the right reasons?  I don’t think so.  I basically denied Jesus in front of them?  Well I didn’t fully deny Him.  They know I’m a Christian because they know I go to church and have a Christian blog but did I tuck it away?  Oh guilty, guilty, guilty.  I folded it up nicely and put it in my backpack.  It was there with me, I could get it out at anytime but I didn’t because I didn’t want to freak them out.  I didn’t want them running the other direction.  I want them to be open to a relationship with Jesus so the last thing I wanted is them seeing me as some crazy religious nutjob.  Not that I have any religious nutjob traits but a close family member already made some comments to that effect once I started writing about being an Unlikely Christian.  It freaked him out a little bit. 

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Is that family member saved?  No, maybe, I don’t know.  Do we talk about it?  Well, no.  One of the last times we got into a conversation about it, another family member made it clear that subject matter such as that, was not to be talked about in their house, which was totally weird for me.  I was the guy who was being told to stop talking about God.  I let it go and I haven’t brought it up again.

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So when around them, I just acted like the old Bill and that’s a travesty.  Am I to believe Jesus will honor that?  Because I don’t want to be uncomfortable or make things a little weird, I basically kept my Christianity hidden.  

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“Well done good and faithful servant”…. yeah, I don’t think so.

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Jesus went to parties and hung out with non-Christians but He didn’t stop being Jesus.  He was full on, full blown, Jesus.  He didn’t pretend to be somebody He wasn’t to help others feel comfortable.  He made others feel comfortable by being true to who He was and wants us to do the same – “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.  No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” – Matthew 5:14-16

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Going back to Pre-Jesus Bill (PJB) in those situations is putting a lit lamp under a basket.  What good is that doing?  What if deep down inside they are actually watching me to see if I really am different, to see if I’ve changed?  Well then I’m sure they’re thinking, “Yep, same old Bill, nothing’s changed, guess there isn’t really anything to this Christianity thing”. What if my non-Christian friends/family are secretly reading my blog but then when I’m around them I’m PJB?  Talk about some mixed signals.  The phrase, “All talk and no walk” comes to mind.

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Maybe they want to see the Jesus in me.  Maybe they’re looking for it.  Maybe that’s what they need to see to be open to it.  Instead I’m giving them PJB - “Yeah look at me, nothing’s changed so feel free to do it too.” 

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That’s not right.

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But that’s what being a situational Christian does. 

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It puts the light under a basket.

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If you’re a Christian that means you belong to Christ and, “The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” – 2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT

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Did you get that? 

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The old life is gone.

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GONE!

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Bye-Bye!

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C-U-L8R

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Not to be resurrected in certain situations.

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GONE!

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I’m finally letting go of mine.

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And while it’s not always easy, it’s oh so freeing.

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The bottom line is, situational Christianity isn’t really Christianity at all.

POSER!

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As a skater (skateboarder, not figure skater) from the 80’s, I am very familiar with the word poser. 

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In that world, a poser was somebody who had a skater haircut, skater clothes, a nice Powell & Peralta or Santa Cruz deck, with some Indy Trucks, Bullet Wheels and the fastest bearings money could buy.  Sounds like a typical skater right?  Yeah but if you looked closely at their board, you’d notice that their wheels always looked clean, the deck was scratch free and even the grip tape looked brand new. 

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And the reason for that was simple.  They didn’t skate.  They were posers.  Their look, their board, the way they talked, was all for show.  They were wannabe skaters – Posers. 

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I’m not sure what benefits they hoped to reap by pretending to be skaters.  There were certainly no pop songs being written about Sk8er Boys back then.  We weren’t the most popular guys in school, if anything we were outcasts.  In spite of all that, people wanted to be like us.  We had something they wanted and because of that, there were a large number of posers in our school, which we enjoyed pointing out.

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Why did we enjoy pointing it out?

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Because they were posers!  For whatever reason, they didn’t have the courage to shred.  They were never going to drop in on a quarter pipe, spray paint “Skate or Die!” on the neighborhood concrete ditch or leave skin on the driveway while perfecting their ollie skills.  But we…..we had earned the moniker “Skater” thru blood, sweat, tears and more blood.  The scars on my elbows tell the story.

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Real skaters lived it, while posers pretended.  Real skaters were fully committed to the sport / lifestyle, posers wanted what real skaters had without the commitment.  Skaters were easily recognized as skaters because, well we were skaters, it was what we did.  Posers…..well everybody knew they were posers because they didn’t really skate.  All you had to do was sit back and watch for a little bit and you could tell who the skaters were and who the posers were.

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Posers…..yuck!

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Today, however, I have a different view of posers.  Why?  Well because I can relate when it comes to being a Christian. 

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I go to church on Sunday, I volunteer there twice a month, I wear a cross necklace, an “I AM SECOND” bracelet and I have a Christian Blog.  But do I skate?

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Am I really living the life Jesus called me to live?  The life Jesus died to give me?

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Everybody knew I was a skater in high school because I lived it.  It’s who I was because it’s what I did.

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But who outside of the “Holy Huddle” really knows I’m a Christian?

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Like I said earlier, all you had to do was sit back and watch to tell the skaters from the posers.

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What can people tell by watching me?  Can they tell that I’m a Christian or do I come off as more of a poser?

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If I’m being honest with myself, I don’t really like the answer to that question.

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I love Jesus.  No doubt about it.  But truth be told, I think some posers loved skating.  They romanticized about doing it but for whatever reason they just didn’t.  They dressed the part, had the equipment and maybe even the skills, but they just didn’t while skaters did and because of that, they remained posers.

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When taking inventory, I’m afraid that I might be more of a poser than a Christian.

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I don’t want to be a poser.  I want to be all God made me to be.  I want to live the life God called me to live.  

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As I said earlier, the main difference between a poser and a skater is – Skaters do, posers don’t. 

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It’s time for me to start doing. 

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a 17 year old Unlikely Christian

Sk8er Boy

Oh, I still got it This was a couple of years ago.