A Conundrum if You Will...

I am stranded in York for two more weeks. Every morning I get up and look out my window at the dead campus and let a single tear roll down my eye, pollution-indian style.

Anywho, in keeping with the great educators of history, this week I choose to teach by posing questions. The following is a series of questions that were posed in my Wednesday night High School class last week, and I've got to say, they handled it very well. So now, allow me to play Yoda to your Luke.

I'm not going to directly cite any scripture today, which might be a gutsy move, but I would rather that you open scripture and search for yourself on this one. I will direct you to the Sermon on the Mount in early Matthew, and James 2, starting around verse 15. Now, moving on.

Consider two people. First, a personal hero of mine whose picture hangs on my wall next to one of my many Spiderman posters. No, not Optimus Prime. Mahatma Gandhi. In case you're not up to date on your Indian civil rights leaders, let me fill you in. Gandhi quit a job as a high paid lawyer in order to live with the Untouchables, a group of people in India who were seen as literally, untouchable. They lived in poverty and disease, because they were considered outside society, beneath the notice of civilization. Gandhi dedicated his life to these people, living among them and living like them, trying to help them. This is in fact the most Christ-like thing I've heard of since feeding a multitude.

Unfortunately Gandhi had a major problem in his worldview, namely, Hinduism. Now I'm not about to denigrate someone else's beliefs, but at the same time, I'm not about to say that all roads lead to God. They don't. Some roads lead to lots of vague and fictitious gods, and that's what Gandhi chose.

Exhibit B however is one of my least favorite people in the world. While he has yet to acknowledge our feud publicly, I consider this man to be one of my arch-enemies. I am of course speaking of Pat Robertson of the 700 Club. Pat, for those of you not in the know, has used his media empire to spread wonderful Christian beliefs. Like the time he said that 9-11 was the will of God, brought on to punish us because of feminism. (Might have been Katrina, I'm not entirely sure, so if you read this Pat, don't go getting all techinical on me. You know what I'm getting at.)

So Pat Robertson, a man who is far more concerned with making sure we know who goes to Hell than with helping others get to heaven, calls on the name of Jesus Christ as his Lord and savior. While I'm never ever going to say that Pat Robertson is any kind of Christian, at the same time, I also have to believe that grace can cover hypocrisy and bigotry, or a great number of Christians, including myself, are all going to Hell.

So consider this a different sort of post; rather than a challenge or a moral, today I leave you with a question. Which of these two is more pleasing to God? The man who lives a Christ-like life outside of Christ, or the man who embraces all encompassing grace but denies it to others?

(jake)

Broken Tools

So I have a confession: I have not been in Mexico for two months. I have in fact been in York, Nebraska, finishing up the fourth year of what I'm beginning to suspect is a forty year wandering as punishment for some past sin. The good news is that I am still playing guitar, and I believe it shows; last night some stranger paid for my food at Buffalo Wild Wings, and just today, the girl at the coffee shop gave me a few extra packages of tea as I bought my rooibus. I've said it before, chicks dig the artsy type.

So I have begun to consider leadership. A little late in the game perhaps, but it is important I think that I re-evaluate. I'm not always the best leader, and next year I've got more to lead.

So I took to reading from the Bible, specifically the parts that deal with The Jesus and his take on leadership. Now there are lots of great passages, and one that I want to focus in on, but first I want to take a look at something written by Paul. Pay close attention children, as I can only perform this trick once:

For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. (1 Cor 1:25)

Understand before we go any further on this adventure that God is not concerned with how humans do things. Humanity views leadership as an upward climb, a battle to the top. You step on who you can to get higher up, you demonstrate the most strength, and people will inevitably respect and follow you. Basically, the idea is to look like you have everything together, even though we all know no one has it all together. Maybe we follow people like this in order to forget our own brokenness? "Hey, he's got it figured out. If I do like him, maybe I'll get all of my crap together." The incredible thing is, that that person we're following is likely every bit if not more broken than we are.

Okay, so with all of that in mind, here's the Jesus part. There's this great passage in Mark where Jesus is just sitting down after a long journey, and he decides he's going to nail the disciples. See, earlier on the road they had been arguing about who was greatest of them, and Jesus decides to put in his two cents. And what does he say? Simply this.

"If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all." (Mark 9:35b)

You getting that? Jesus doesn't want people who are powerful and have it all together. If you don't think that's what this verse means, then read the whole freaking story of his life. Jesus didn't show up and change the world by finding the rich and powerful; he went to the broken, the rejected. He picked fishermen and con-men to be his best friends, and then went and hung out with hookers and sick people. What do all of these have in common?

Brokenness.

I submit to you that I, Jake Owens, am a poor leader, because I am completely wrapped up in getting it all together, and projecting an aura of confidence and power. I have wasted my time and talent on trying to appear like I have life figured out, when in reality, I have no freaking clue what I'm doing. I am 22 years old, still in college, and doing my absolute best to figure out how to get out of debt. Sometimes I avoid saying hi to people not because I don't like them or because I'm shy, but because I just assume the don't want to talk to me. Somedays I worry I might be borderline OCD, and every day I wonder if I'll ever get my student loans paid off.

I am messed up. And God still chooses me, and God still loves me.

Leadership is not about getting it all together. Leadership is about admitting to God how broken you are, and letting him do what he will with you. One of the most wonderful things about Jesus is that he does his best work with broken tools like me.

(jake)