“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

- Philippians 2:3-11 (NIV)

===============================================

Humility’s been on my mind for the last few days. ‘Tis a difficult attitude to have, and a rather painful lifestyle to embrace. Succinctly stated, humility puts flesh on the phrase, “die to self.” It’s a call to obedience, to laying aside my own preferences and desires and realizing that I am completely destitute.

I really don’t want to be humble. I mean, I really don’t want to be humble. After all, being humble means not boasting, not being lazy, not thinking for myself first, and all sorts of things that I like to do. Most of the time the passing pleasures of this world seem just that much more pleasant than the “supposed” glory of the future.

How much more difficult would this life be without the grace that is given to us in Jesus Christ! It’s by His blood that we can be humbled; it’s His example that we desire to imitate. The world mocks this pattern of thinking, because it can’t ever understand why or how we lay down all we care for to obtain a far richer prize. After all, evolutionarily speaking, self-preservation should be our primary instinct. It’s ridiculous to think that overcoming that innate drive would contribute something good to the propagation of our species.

Yet, kindness and caring for others completely counters that pragmatic view of life. After all, if only the strong should survive in order that we might perfect ourselves, we should be caring about other people, particularly those who are suffering – because natural selection should weed out those who cannot survive on their own. But the hope that comes from believing deep down that we all have an intrinsic worth – far more valuable than riches – that’s what truly motivates us to ever consider others before ourselves.

I imagine that a good doctor ought to be humble – that he/she should be doing nothing from selfish ambition or vain conceit, but considering others better than themselves. This passage indicts my heart, because I know that I pursue my own desires and “do my thing” before I ever want to serve others. But this is the race God has given me, and by the grace of Jesus I want to finish well, that at the end I can say that I ran the race in such a way that I was not disqualified.

I had the great honor and pleasure of meeting with one of my mentors last week. He is one of the top ophthalmologists (eye specialist) at one of the top programs of its kind in the nation. What amazes me the most about my meeting with him and his “team” of doctors was both his absolute commitment to living out his relationship with Jesus Christ, and his passion for the pursuit of excellence.

I was thinking about this idea of having “spiritual ambitions” and setting high goals and plans for our lives. Now, I’ve heard this many times, but I don’t think I’ve ever fully understood what this means.

When I think of what Scripture says should be our ambition, I find pretty much all of our “ambitions” should revolve around loving God and loving others (Matthew 22:37-40). Even practical passages reflect this idea – “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12)

None of these things really have anything to do with us seeing physical, tangible results. Sure, there will be some seen here and there, and we’ll receive some of the benefits of those results (respect, reciprocated love, etc.) – but the Bible makes it clear that the “spiritual ambitions” we should have are focused outside ourselves – notice the other-centeredness in both of the above passages. You’ll find that in pretty much every command of Scripture. Sure, we receive the benefits of obedience, but ultimately everything we let God do through us is for His glory or for the sake of others (which ultimately gives Him glory too, but we won’t delve into that).

So what does this have to do with pursuing excellence? Well, this idea of “spiritual ambition” versus “worldly ambition” definitely has scared many Christians (myself included) into settling for mediocrity, because we don’t want to face situations where we might be thrust into the spotlight, and we will be made much of, at the expense of God’s glory.

What I posit in this article is that laboring intensely and putting our best effort into things in order that we might become the “best” at what we do does not have to be directly linked to our pride. Rather, it is the intention by which we do what we do – Scripture commands us to work as “unto the Lord,” because doing the best we can honors God. Becoming the best neurosurgeon or the best teacher or the best lawyer or the best businessman is not incompatible with what God calls for our lives – but our motivation can conflict.

I’ve seen many a college student who places less priority on his/her schoolwork because he/she is “too involved in ministry.” As a result, a student who has the potential for making, say, a 3.5 GPA ends up settling for a 2.9. While this may be what is necessary for a short season, I believe that this sort of mindset actually dishonors God and presents a weakened testimony before non-Christians. This mindset also runs directly counter to Jesus’ analogy of being “faithful in little” to qualify for greater responsibilities.

So what I’m trying to say in my little rant is, no matter what you do – whether it’s a “dumb” math assignment or cleaning the bathroom or keeping your house hospitable for guests or writing out the alphabet 400 times, we need to do the very best we can. The best means the best we can given the time, resources, and energy we have to accomplish the task. We need to leave every task with the contentment of knowing that we could not have done any better – even if the result is graded as a “C” or a “D”. That’s where our spiritual ambitions ought to be – showing ourselves as Christians approved by God because we put all of ourselves into everything we do.

Speaking of which, I need to get back to studying for my finals – which definitely will need all of the time and energy I can put into them.

This title’s a bit deceiving, I’ll admit. I apologize for the delay in updating – there have been many thing I have wanted to discuss and ruminate, but alas, not enough time to put it all into writing.

So what’s the meaning of this title? Well, I just finished watching M. Night Shyamalan’s movie, The Village. It tells the story of a quiet village whose inhabitants hold an uneasy truce with dangerous mythical creatures living in the forest around them. Imprisoned by fear, they are unwilling to go beyond the borders of their village, not even to save the lives of their loved ones. Unfortunately, I can’t say much more for fear of giving the whole story away, but what was really interesting was not so much the plot but as much M. Night Shyamalan’s ability to weave the spiritual into his theatrical masterpieces. The Village is no exception. What is even more uncanny is the knowledge that M. Night Shyamalan professes not to be a Christian. For someone who doesn’t identify with Christ, the themes of his movies certainly carry quite a bit of spiritual significance.

Without revealing anything from the movie, I’ll just say that I found at least two major truths from Scripture that were illuminated by the film. First, the film illustrated in a very real way that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The village, though having every appearance of being completely innocent, still has its share of fear and evil. I think it’s really neat to see the honesty that Shyamalan injects into the movie, that the evil we face most is not always outside, but inside. Jesus Himself said that “the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander” (Matthew 15:18-19).

Secondly, the movie “briefly” touches on love. One of the characters says, “The world moves for love. It kneels before it in awe.” Counter that with the words of John: “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16, emphasis mine). When the world considers pure, true, agape love, it is astonished, because everything about agape runs contrary to the way the world views things. One of the characters in the movie bravely volunteers to travel beyond the borders of the village in order that they might save the life of someone they love. Love gives us the courage to face the fears that trouble us. John actually continues on in verse 18: “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” I think this movie demonstrates the power of love, that it is strong enough to illuminate the darkness that fear brings.

And for the last point I want to make, here is one of my favorite lines, delivered by one of the men of the village: “Why can you not stop saying what is in yours? Why must you lead, when I want to lead? If I want to dance I will ask you to dance. If I want to speak I will open my mouth and speak. Everyone is forever plaguing me to speak further. Why? What good is it to tell you you are in my every thought from the time I wake? What good can come from my saying that I sometimes cannot think clearly or do my work properly? What gain can rise of my telling you the only time I feel fear as others do is when I think of you in harm?”

Throughout the movie, the young women seem to desire the attention of the young men of the village. Yet, instead of waiting for the men to lead and initiate the relationships, the women place themselves forward – often leading to heartbreaking consequences. Such is the course of life even now. Society tells women that it’s okay for them to initiate, to “take the lead when others follow.” Yet, as this man blurts out, this often comes to aggrieve men who desire to be strong and to lead as God intended. Time after time, whenever women become so impatient with men’s laziness that they choose to take matters into their own hands, the men let them. And the frustration is compounded, because instead of fulfilling the roles ingrained into our purest essence, both men and women end up losing the identities they desired to have the most. That quote made me want to cheer with that character, because I’ve seen women who mean well initiate because they thought the men were working too slowly, and become frustrated because the men won’t do anything. I’d better get off this soap box before I slip and break something.

Anyways, there are my thoughts on the movie. An excellent film, though the twist at the end was not nearly as dramatic as I thought (but that’s because I had already guessed what was going on before it was said). Yeah, I know, I’m a nerd. Well, until next time!

Well, several weeks ago I posted a rather long entry about the Biblical definition of manhood. It’s been a challenging process since that time, while I have been seeking to grow and learn about how to be a man of God. I can’t say that the journey has been easy, but it certainly has been liberating to see my confidence in God grow as I continue to reject passivity, accept responsibility, lead courageously, and expect God’s greater reward.

Today at Men’s Fraternity, we looked at how men relate to their daughters. This is an interesting subject, since many of us younger men are still unattached and will be looking to date (and eventually marry) some other man’s daughter in the future. It’s also interesting to see the perspective of what we can start preparing to do should God give us daughters.

Part of what we looked at was a clear definition of Biblical womanhood. We didn’t get to go into detail like we did with Biblical manhood, but we discussed the main points. Real womanhood is also broken into four areas: Rejecting worldly temptations for significance, believing in God’s priorities, nurturing the next generation, and expects God’s greater reward.

Rejecting worldly temptations for significance is mostly talking about the temptation that “there is something better out there.” Since the Fall, women have sought to find significance in things and people outside of the roles God has given them. In modern society, there is a ton of pressure on women to get out of the home and into the workplace, to pursue a career and draw their significance upon their jobs rather than the “traditional” family and relationships. Now the idea of staying at home with the children has lost the little appreciation it had, and women who choose to do that aren’t respected by the world. Listening to all of this reminded me of the movie, The Incredibles. In the special features of the DVD (now available at a store near you), an alternative opening scene was discussed in which the mother (a superheroine) was talking with a career woman about raising a family. The career woman was very condescending, and the mother was getting very angry. This was especially touchy because she voluntarily chose to give up the excitement of using her powers to fight evil in order to stay at home to raise her children. So in a roundabout way, I guess I’m saying that a real woman rejects the world’s attempts to get her to choose a source of significance outside of what God has designed for her.

Believing in God’s priorities goes along with that – Godly women embrace the values of God. Titus 2:5 was mentioned, and the idea of older women teaching the younger women to be sensible was emphasized. Women are incredibly capable. I dare say all of the women I know have been gifted to do many things in ways I will never be able to match. As it was stressed to us, the idea that “you can’t do everything” and sensibility is not supposed to limit or demean anyone. It’s just recognizing the finite amount of time we have in this life and choosing the most important things to pursue. So real women learn and desire to have God’s priorities in their life.

Nurturing the next generation is pretty self-explanatory. God created women to have an instinctive sense to nurture. This role is vital to the edification and encouragement of the body of Christ. Women are just simply better at recognizing the spiritual and emotional needs of people and finding creative and considerate ways to meet those needs. There are several ladies that I immediately think about when this is brought to my attention. This nurture not only includes caring for and raising children of their own, but also the idea of discipleship/mentorship. Being a woman who is passing on the wisdom of God to younger women is super cool, and I dare say, quite attractive.

Finally, expecting God’s greater reward. This is something that definitely needs to be common to both men and women. After all, we all must walk by faith and earnestly seek God’s purposes. I was reading Psalm 104 this morning, and verses 27 and 28 really spoke to me. The previous 26 verses are telling of God’s amazing and vast creation and His greatness in making all of creation and setting things into motion. Then, the psalmist writes, “These all [all of creation] look to You to give them their food at the proper time. When You give it to them, they gather it up; when You open Your hand, they are satisfied with good things.” God’s sovereignty is unquestioned. However, I still find myself unwilling to joyfully receive the good things He gives me. Receiving what God gives is just as important to worship as giving Him all the due praise and honor – and in a real sense, we cannot give Him sincere praise without joyfully receiving the best He gives to us. So I hope you are all challenged to be expecting God’s greater reward for your faith.

Since I am not a woman, I am just spitting out the things we covered in a mens-only workshop, and not really speaking from my personal experience. Are we completely off-base with this definition? Does any of it make sense? Comments and thoughts are most desired. We men are usually stumbling around in the dark with these matters, but if we desire God’s things, we want to honor and encourage women to be a real woman after His heart. So any insight you all might bring to this would be an awesome encouragement and/or challenge to us as we consider how to raise daughters and how to relate to women.

We got a “Biblical definition of manhood” in Men’s Fraternity this morning. I don’t know how much of it should be shared in an open forum such as a weblog, so I’ll try to keep my melancholy tendencies at bay. Looking at the contrast between Adam and Jesus has been challenging my perception of this whole “manhood” thing that men wish to become and women wish men would be. There seems to be a lot of talk about it on other blogs as well, and given the fact that Valentine’s Day was a scant two days ago, I’ve been brooding on this for a while (this morning anyways).

In a way, it’s funny to see how much godly women have been challenging men to step up to a higher standard. Reading about it and hearing it told in numerous forms has made me realize the fullness of expectation in these women who desire Christ wholeheartedly. I think that I’ve heard more about who a man “should be” from my sisters than I have from any man. I think I have resented that in my life. Not to say that these dear sisters of mine are wrong in any sense, but I’m disappointed that I had to hear these standards coming from them, rather than from the men who have influenced my life. I think that is a sad failure by men to set the standard of godly manhood. We, and especially I, as a male, often fall woefully short of the biblical mandate for manhood.

So what is a man? Well, upon investigation of Jesus’ life, we determined that an authentic man rejects passivity, accepts responsibility, leads courageously, and expects reward, God’s reward. An authentic man has a will to obey, a work to do, and a woman to love. It’s hard to believe that manhood, like any other aspect of life, can be encapsulated by a list of qualities. Still, these characteristics are a challenge for men to step up in every facet of life and embrace the challenge and thrill of the abundant life.

We discussed how it’s pretty natural for men to step up at work. They are effective leaders and managers, and do a tremendously superb job of teaching and mentoring younger men for a vocation. Even in spiritual discipleship men can be pretty strong leaders, taking the initiative to meet with younger and older men, developing a lifestyle of learning, and an openness to obeying God. However, when it comes to leading a family socially and spiritually, many (if not most) men defer to their wives to provide leadership. Where is the higher calling for men to be the head of the family, as Christ is the head of the man and of the church body? Where is the willingness to lay down our lives for our family, rather than to passively drain life from our wives and children? It’s a tremendous struggle for men to consistently take the initiative in all things – whether it’s in leadership or following, men need to be active, not passive. It’s a difficult struggle, a struggle that was brought about by sin’s curse. The curse of man was not leadership, but the tendency to shirk from complete leadership modeled by Christ. I’m challenged by this idea. It’s very easy for me to defer my choices to others – though I accept responsibility for my actions, I know I still have the tendency to foist my decisions to my friends and family.

Transparency is another area of manhood that grates against my nature. Sure, it’s easy to complain about how my life’s horrible or that I’m going through a rough time, but I’m not “man enough” to acknowledge my situation and profess my trust in Christ, expecting the great rewards that He has stored up for me and has made accessible to me. How we as men fail to bear each others burdens biblically, as we try to wow each other with our tales of pity. Our encouragement is rarely to trust God, but to trust our own methods and plans. Instead of sharing in the struggles of our friends, we offer them our solutions and expect them to turn off their emotions and “snap it together.” I’ve heard and read about so many stories of marriages where the man is afraid to share anything about his life with his wife, which causes her to fear that he is holding back his affections. Yet in the same way, we don’t need to behave as though we are helpless against the storm – we are in Christ; He is our refuge and strength.

Well, I feel like I’ve just let out a dangerous secret. I guess I’m writing all of this because of the challenge God has laid before me to be a man after His own heart. While it’s nice to know that being a true man is attractive to godly women, I’m not really interested in impressing them with any of this talk. I sincerely believe that Christ has set a mandate for men to be far more than we are now. John Eldredge touches on these themes and motifs in his various books. We must become men of passion and purpose, ones who have tender hearts and strong spirits, and the courage to live up to the role God created for us. So maybe this stuff will encourage us men to become greater than the “boys” that the world labels us and stand up for our manhood, even in the face of our friends and family trying to pull us back down. Let’s be noble and true!

I want to end this post with a song by Casting Crowns, which portrays the “common man” so well. I pray that I will never settle for something so small as the “American Dream.”

=====================================

American Dream
Lyrics by Mark Hall, Music by Casting Crowns

All work no play may have made Jack a dull boy
But all work no God has left Jack with a lost soul
But he’s moving on full steam
He’s chasing the American dream
And he’s gonna give his family the finer things

Not this time son I’ve no time to waste
Maybe tomorrow we’ll have time to play
And then he slips into his new BMW
And drives farther and farther and farther away

So He works all day and tries to sleep at night
He says things will get better;
Better in time

And he works and he builds with his own two hands
And he pours all he has in a castle made with sand
But the wind and the rain are comin’ crashing in
Time will tell just how long his kingdom stands
His kingdom stands

His American Dream is beginning to seem
More and more like a nightmare
With every passing day
“Daddy, can you come to my game?”
“Oh Baby, please don’t work late.”
Another wasted weekend
And they are slipping away

‘Cause he works all day and lies awake at night
He tells them things will get better
It’ll just take a little more time

And he works and he builds with his own two hands
And he pours all he has in a castle made with sand
But the wind and the rain are comin’ crashing in
Time will tell just how long his kingdom stands
His kingdom stands

He used to say, “Whoever dies with the most toys wins”
But if he loses his soul, what has he gained in the end
I’ll take a shack on the rock
Over a castle in the sand
Now he works all day and cries alone at night
It’s not getting any better
Looks like he’s running out of time
‘Cause he worked and he built with his own two hands
And he poured all he had in a castle made with sand
But the wind and the rain are coming crashing in
Time will tell just how long his kingdom stands
His kingdom stands

All they really wanted was You
All they really wanted was You
All they really wanted was You

American Dream
Mark Hall and Hector Cervantes
© 2003 Club Zoo Music / SWEC Music (Admin. by Club Zoo Music) / BMI