The gospel of Starbucks, given to you

A couple weeks ago, I lost my Gold level status at Starbucks after having it for three or four years. The reason? I did not perform as required to keep my status as an elite member. All at once, I was slightly depressed that I would no longer enjoy the benefits of membership, and extremely determined to regain my status as quickly as possible.

For those of you that need a refresher course on how to qualify for Starbucks Gold Level, here are the rules, taken directly from their website (1 Star = 1 transaction. 30 purchases to get 30 stars):

“Collect 30 Stars within 12 months and step up to the Gold level for one year. Once you’re at Gold level it takes another 30 Stars to maintain Gold level for another 12 months. If you don’t qualify for the Gold level again by your anniversary date (i.e. the date you qualified for the Gold level), you’ll revert to the Green level and lose all your Stars. Don’t let that happen!”

Perform, and we will reward you. Stop performing, and you won’t be part of the club.Those are the rules of engagement. When I first reached Gold, I was elated. They really did make me feel special and prideful by sending a shiny and thick gold card in the mail. But interestingly, with the elation also came anxiety. Now I had to keep proving that I was loyal to them, or else my status would disappear. 30 stars between now and the next 12 months or I’m out. I lose it all.

And that is the case with most reward programs. Get 8 stamps on your punch card at Golden Spoon and they’ll give you a free 8 oz. Yogurt. Keep your savings above a minimum balance with Wells Fargo, and they won’t fee you. Pay $80 a year to Amazon and they’ll put you in the Amazon Prime club.

But here’s what happens with me:

I collected stamps on my Golden Spoon punch card over the course of about five years—yes, five years—until it was brown on the edges and worn like old leather. When I finally reached eight stamps, I happily went in for my free yogurt, ordered it, and then showed them the card…

“We don’t accept those anymore,” she said.

I frowned and tilted my head, “You don’t accept them anymore? I’ve been working at this for five years! What do you mean you don’t accept them anymore?” She didn’t budge. I paid with debit, and on the way out, I threw my punch card in the trash.

With Wells Fargo, I sometimes go below the minimum balance or make too many transfers in a month. Since they have a system of laws and regulations, they fee me.

I bought Amazon Prime when I was a student, hungry for books, and the fast, free shipping was great. But as soon as I graduated, I couldn’t justify the $80. So they took me off the list.

We’re human. We fluctuate in performance. But reward programs are based on your consistency and loyalty.

Let me switch gears here for a quick moment and relate these experiences to another experience. It may or may not resonate with you, but that’s OK.

Unfortunately, over time I’ve seen this “reward program” mentality seep into the way I think about my relationship with God. If I just keep showing up for my time with God at least five days a week, and make a transaction every time, God will keep my Gold level status. If I keep my prayer time at a minimum balance of 15 minutes a day, God won’t fee me. If I show my loyalty by getting eight stamps on my quiet time punch card, maybe on the ninth time, something amazing will be given to me.

None of these are true, of course, but lies like these find out how to seep into the way we think about our relationship with Him.

Thankfully, God does not have a secret club of those who have paid their dues. His words to everyone are “Come to me, and I will give you rest.” His mode of operation is grace upon grace upon grace for those who confess and believe. His call is to follow him, not to appease a system of rules and regulations.

You have a choice: exhaustion through believing the false gospel of performance and earning your own way in. Or replenished life through believing the gospel of Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection. He has performed all of the necessary work for you and he himself is the way in.

This is my body, given for you.

This is my blood, poured out to purchase back your souls.

ON ACCESSING MORE POWER IN GOD

Philippians 4:13. I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.  

Taking new ground in your life without upgrading your relationship with God is like climbing a higher mountain and using that old climbing rope… Don’t fall for it. In life, we will experience many new phases of growth. Could be starting a new business, career, relationship, or ministry calling… could be anything really. The problem with most new ventures and visions is that we bring the same relationship we currently have with God to the new, more intense, more demanding space. A quick glance at our spiritual disciplines may reveal our Word time is fragmented, our conversations with God are becoming recycled, worship is distracted, and our acuity to access and engage with the Spirit of God is dull and in need of sharpening. Unfortunately when taking new territory in life, the idea of improving our relationship with God to match the new challenge rarely enters our minds, if at all - like using old software to fulfill current and future needs. The result is we wind up suffering in our old strength, exhausted in the process, and the new thing we were so excited about becomes a burden it was never meant to be. To sustain the demands of the new territory, our spiritual disciplines and our intimacy with God must move to new levels of commitment and focus. We can confidently enter into any new vision with a surplus of God’s resources when our relationship with God is strong enough for the advance.

The question is: Is my current intimacy with God adequate enough for where I am, and will I bring it to a new level for where I am going?

Perfection? Really? A Reflection from Matthew 5:48

If you have been a fan of Downton Abbey, or other television or literary fare that portrays nobility and their servants, you are well aware of the contrast of what happens upstairs where everything is presented in perfect symmetry, and what happens downstairs where the trash must be disposed of and where the coal dust and sewage gather. Something similar happens when you do some fine dining. Linen tablecloths, atmospheric lighting, carefully prepared recipes and meticulously attired serving staff appear on one side of the swinging door to the kitchen. And what exists behind it?  Rinds, soiled cloths, garbage and empty boxes.

Or consider what it takes to create a perfect performance, one that draws standing ovations for incredible dexterity, vocal beauty, or visual delights. Prior to that incredible, memory-making moment comes falls, failure, a frequent being passed over during auditions, and repeated mistakes.

We do our best to create the simulation of perfection, but it is always built on something that has to be destroyed or hidden or lived beyond.

Q. Can you identify other ways the appearance of perfection is built off the consumption of something or someone else?

How does this show up in your life?

How does this show up in your enterprise?

We all have some idea of perfection. Some folks strive for it. They mourn when what they wanted “to be perfect” is not. Nothing less suits them and they are frequently disappointed. Others despair over whether perfection can be achieved and perhaps stop trying altogether. Whichever side of that line we fall, the perfection marker remains in front of us and we are well aware that we cannot measure up, that our perfect moments are built on imperfect ones, and that we cannot maintain them once they’ve begun.

So, when we hear these words from Jesus in Matthew 5:48  that we should be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect, it does not sound like an encouragement. It doesn’t sound like it fits with the gospel message of grace that forgives our imperfection and lets us hope to return to God. We simply do not know what to do with it.

Q. Where do you land? Are you mostly disappointed or mostly in despair when it comes to perfection?

The Sermon on the Mount would be easier to hear and respond to if Jesus’ words did not include the standard of perfection. We could then hear them as a call to try, even with the higher standard that Jesus offers.  We would hear it as “you don’t need to swear by anything because your word should be enough.”  We would hear, “Vengeance is a dead-end, try letting someone else’s anger run its course, even if you are its victim rather than adding fuel to their fire.” We would hear, “work at loving your enemy rather than putting your energy into hate.” If the words of Jesus did not hold up the standard of perfection trying would be enough. Grace would cover our mistakes. We could pick ourselves up and give it another go. We would try to hold to what we know to be good for a longer period of time each time we begin again.

And yet, Jesus seems to tell us that trying is not enough. Perfection is what we should be because we reflect God. God is all these things Jesus calls us to be. How in the world do we begin to understand this saying, find it to be hopeful, and claim it joyfully rather than collapse into despair?

(1) Let’s start with the Greek word Jesus uses for perfection. As so often is the case, a word does not fully convey its meaning when moving from the original to a translation. He uses a word related to telos, which  means “the end.”  To understand this more fully, we have to understand that the Greeks had multiple words for time (chronos, kairos and telos)  just as they had multiple words for love (philia, eros and agape).  Chronos refers to a specific moment in time, its flow, the ticking of seconds. Kairos refers to a moment of special magnitude, an auspicious moment. Telos refers to the end of time, the culmination.

Jesus is saying that we need to represent the end state, the culmination of maturity, the completion of the transforming work that God is doing within us. This is a perfection that is NOT built from something that is destroyed. Rather it is built OUT OF what would otherwise know destruction. It is a return to a purpose rather than a triumph at someone else’s tragedy.

It cannot be done perfectly at all times, but we can represent it, call for it, and emulate it to the best of our ability.

Q. Identify an arena in your life where you are

much transformed from what you used to be.

(2) And let’s look to the subject that Jesus holds forth — that of doing what God does. God offers grace where imperfection reigns. According to the Sermon on the Mount God holds a high standard for moral behavior and peacemaking—one that cannot be achieved on one’s own. And what is this moral behavior and peacemaking used for? It is used for showing grace to people who do not deserve it necessarily. And neither do we! We have been shown grace in our imperfection, so we need to represent God as show-ers of grace to others in theirs. And when we do we represent the perfection of God.

(3) And finally let’s look at Jesus’ statement about perfection itself. God is the perfect one. The perfection we point to by living toward our maturity, the perfection to which our lives point, is God’s perfection, not ours.

If we reflect on this a bit more, we can find hope for our journey.

• We don’t have to be stalled by petty and imperfect matters that surround us. They always will be there so our one choice is whether we respond in grace or nastiness. And nastiness isn’t just acting like a brute. Nastiness can also be a cold distance. Sometimes nastiness is simply a haughty sniff.

• We can gain perspective on the struggles of our lives - even the severe ones.  Jesus speaks these words to people, most of who lived downstairs, on the kitchen side of the swinging door, who knew the trash heaps far better than gilded rooms. It is to them, those who will listen, that he invites toward perfection. The audience of naysayers who sometimes surrounded him believed that the trappings of their lives were a sufficient substitute even though their wealth and pretend perfection were built upon the oppression of others.

By any reasonable measure, we are people who live upstairs. We are the diners in the restaurant. We are the ones who believe a perfect performance is possible and expected. We are the ones who join the Pharisees and rulers of old, believing that our lives should be perfect no matter who pays the price for our benefit. We are the ones who whine and complain and demand someone pay for it when we are not pleased or service has not been rendered properly. We are the ones who pout, get in a funk or have a snit when something does not go well. It’s hard to embrace the perfection Jesus invites when we are too busy pretending to be perfect ourselves.

Q. Who will you be? A person pretending to be perfect? A person defeated?

A person of grace, pointing to the perfected grace of God?

If it is to be a person of grace, how will you do it?

You're An Answer To Prayer

I suppose I’ve heard that before - and I never thought much about it. Maybe because I always remembered it being said after I helped someone though something pretty tough.  But me?  An answer to prayer? My 8 year old daughter asked me one night, "Have you called our neighbor to see how she is?”  Why she thought to ask that, I don’t know. We hadn’t particularly talked about them in some time. But I decided to pick up the phone.

“Hello….um, this is Michael from next door. We just thought we’d call and see how you are.  Can we bring you anything?  Go get something for you?”

“You have no idea…you’re an answer to prayer.”

“Why do you say that?” I asked.

I then heard a story of a fall, broken bones, a run to the hospital, a husband that had taken a turn for the worse…

“I was just saying to dad that we don’t have anyone to call to help us. And not but two minutes ago, I just prayed that God would help us…and then the phone rang.”  Tears welled up in me.  Now I knew where my daughter’s question came from.

God really does use us to answer prayer.  It’s Him, and His story, and we get to be a part of it.

As we sit in unique roles, leading our companies, our families, and others around us, God will use us to answer prayers, if we are open to the His voice.  It will be at work, at home, at the gas station.  Sometimes, we’ll know we part of the story, and other times, we may never know.

But, yes, we really can be an answer to prayer.

With Boldness & Without Hindrance

The Acts of the Apostles is the fifth book of the New Testament and tells of the founding of the Christian church and the spread of its message to the Roman empire. Acts begins with Jesus’s charge to the Twelve Apostles to spread the Gospel throughout the world. From that point forward, quite simply, the book of Acts tells the story of men and women ON MISSION.

Acts ends with the simple statement about Paul … He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance. (Acts 28:31)

With all boldness and without hindrance … those words popped for me. That is the instruction and example set for how we are to act on our mission, on our plans and intentions.

The month of January is finished and we should be through the important work of visioning, planning, goal setting, etc. Now the focus is on the hard work of execution, follow-through, implementation, accomplishment. Let’s approach that work with all boldness and without hindrance and see what magic happens.