Tenth Avenue North : Journals mike

Chapter 3 Lift Us Up to Fall

December 11, 2008

Though I struggle to remember it at times,
I’ve been blessed to discover that God doesn’t need me after all.
Wait, what?
Yeah, It’s true.
God doesn’t need my words, my songs, or my obedience.
He isn’t sitting up in heaven, wringing his hands, wondering
if I’m going to pull through for Him either.
In fact, God doesn’t need me at all.

What Mike?
What are you even saying?
How else will people hear the good news?
I thought the whole goal of being a Christian is to lead people to Jesus?
I thought that if we don’t tell the world about Jesus, then this could be
the last generation of Christians the world will ever see?
Well, no.
This will not be the last generation of Christians. I guarantee it.
I’ve read the end of the book, and you know what?
There’s Christians there at the end.
Unless of course, Christ comes back before this generation dies,
then I suppose it could be the last, but that’s not what I’m talking about.
I’m speaking about people who believe its up to us
to keep this whole “Jesus thing going.”
To those people I just want to scream, “Relax!”
The church will endure, and it is Christ alone who will preserve her.
If He has to start preaching through donkeys, He will.
I mean, He’s done it before hasn’t He?

Now to those of you He think I’m completely out of my holly jolly mind,
I’ll give you a little Biblical street cred to back up what I’m saying.

“God is not served by men’s hands as if He needed anything.
But He gives to us life, breath, and all things.”

That from the book of Acts, chapter 17.
And its a pretty substantial blow to the old ego isn’t it?
One of the most humbling truth pills that you’ll ever have to swallow
is that God is not contingent upon you.
He’s not.
And on top of that, he’s not gonna let you steal his glory either.
“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?
Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things!”
Romans 11:34-36 keeps the punches coming our way.
Paul argues we can’t even give to God what He doesn’t already have.
In fact, He gives to you the gift of serving Him in the first place.

So now let that soak in for a minute.
God doesn’t need you.
No, seriously.
Hear it again.
God doesn’t need you.
You need Him.

“life, breath, and all things.”

I wonder if we really believe this.
Because this means that we can actually serve God in a way that blasphemes Him!
Did you know that?
Did you know that if you serve God, because you think He needs you to,
you’re actually offending his strength, power, and majesty?
You’re saying, “Here God. I know you can’t do this without me, so I’m gonna get
the job done for you! And hey Jesus! You better be keeping track of all this good
I’m doing, because I expect to be rewarded handsomely when this is all said and done!”

Don’t you know people like that?
People who serve God as if it were the most annoying thing in the world.
Who grump around doing doing doing all the time, but they always
seem unhappy about it? And then to top it off, they give you a huge guilt trip
if you don’t make much of them and all their terrific efforts!
I know people like that, because I’m one of them!

And I guess I say all this, because as of late, and especially in light of the Christmas
season, I feel like we tend to spend a lot more time talking about what we need
to do for God, and too little time talking about what He has already done.
Not that I blame any one group in particular, I just think we need to stop and
remember that this whole thing isn’t about us.
No really.
At the end of time, when we’re all standing around the throne of God,
we’re not going to be screaming, “worthy am I! And worthy are all
my accomplishments! Way to go Salvation Army! Way to go Compassion!
Way to get the job done all you people and organizations! It sure is a good thing
we pulled it together and did all this for God!”
Good heavens no! Instead, when we get home to heaven,
we’re going to exclaim, “worthy is the Lamb that was slain!”
And I think we’ll see that all those opportunities, all those good works we did
were actually prepared in advance for us to do, and that it’s not about what we did
at all, but it’s about what He did and gave us the privilege to do.

But that’s so hard isn’t it?
Because at the end of the day,
we don’t like making much of someone else.
We want to be made much of.
We do.
We want to feel important.
We want to feel useful.
We want to earn it.
And the biggest problem with grace is that it implies that you can’t earn it.
And in fact, it actually implies the opposite. We earned death,
and all this life and serving and accomplishments, He earned for us.
Dang.
Isn’t that disappointing?

I mean, I know a lot of worship leaders that just play music “for God,” because,
well, it gets them noticed. I know a lot of people who do a lot of good things
for people, but at the end of the day, its just so they can get their name on a
building, or get applauded, or even earn a pat on the back.
I know a lot of people like that, because, well, I know myself.
And my biggest problem isn’t sexual immorality, or anger, or gossip or lying
or drunkenness or anything obvious like that. Although I have struggled with all of those
things at one time or another. But No.
My biggest problem is I think the world is about me.
Not too surprising from an old theatre major I guess, but its true.
I think that if I get credit, noticed, and famous, then I’ll be happy.
If I could just do enough good, if I could just earn something for God,
then I could rest secure that He loves me.

And so the gospel is really quite hilarious at the end of the day,
because the gospel teaches that you can’t really ever accept God’s grace,
until you realize that you can’t ever ever ever ever ever earn it!
In fact, only the beggars are able to open their hands to receive the righteousness
that God provides.
Why else would Jesus have so many problems with the successful and religious?
It’s because they thought their serving God got them points in some sort of
messed up elementary gold star performance chart system that your teacher
used to use to get you to behave.
Remember those?
Well, God doesn’t have one of those.
He just has one big star that Jesus earned for all of us, that He wants to give to us.
Not because that will make us good enough to earn our own stars,
but just the opposite. So we could receive his merit and rest from our striving.

Because you know, none of those things make us free.
Being good, being successful, earning our way to the top to hear
everyone applauding and shouting our name will feel really good for a time,
but the trick is, none of that will ever free us from the tyranny of self.
You know what does though?
Forgetting about ourselves altogether.

And so how do we do that?
We get caught up gazing on someone else.
I think that’s what makes falling in love so beautiful at first.
For a few minutes or hours or days,
you actually forget about yourself,
because you’re so caught up in the beauty of another.
And I think this is what God has in mind for us when He tells us to do stuff.
Not to be justified or honored or praised, but simply because we’re in love.
Think about all the crazy things you’ve done or heard others do when
they’re in love? You’ll stand in the rain with a boom box over your head.
You’ll walk miles in the snow, uphill both ways. You’ll go without food,
you’ll go without sleep, you’ll spend exorbitant amounts of money.
You’ll get so enamored, that you’ll actually forget about yourself.
And oh, when that happens, that’s when we’re free.

And so it should come as no surprise that the ultimate reason we’re saved,
isn’t to be useful. We don’t need to be clean to be used.
And quite frankly, I’m tired of people foolishly preaching that from the pulpit.
(God used Jonah, Pharaoh, and Judas, to name a few, so that should give
great hope to screw ups like you and me)
We aren’t adopted just so that we can advance the gospel and evangelize the world.
(Although that’s a beautiful gift we’re given)
Ultimately, we are saved to draw near to God.
To be close to Him, to know Him, and to fall in love with Him.
“This is eternal life, that you might know the one true God and Jesus Christ
whom He has sent.” -John 17:3

And in that process, turning our gaze away from our works,
our other gods, and finally ourselves, we actually
find the freedom we were looking for all along.
It isn’t from feeling good about ourselves, it’s from giving up on ourselves.
Like staring at a sunset, or a mountain top. or the grand canyon, it’s when
we forget about ourselves in the grandeur of God that we are truly and finally set free.

So may He lift us up to fall before Him,
open our eyes to see His beauty, and give us good works to express our love for Him.
It’s not about what we do, it’s about what He has done for us.
Or as John Piper once said,
“Man was made for mountains, not mirrors.”

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Chapter 2 Love is Here...and Later

December 03, 2008

Love is Here

I think Bono said it best, when he exclaimed,
“You broke the bonds and you loosed the chains
carried the cross of my shame, of my shame.
You know I believe it.
“But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.”

Said what best Mike? He didn’t say anything!
I mean, that doesn’t make any sense does it?
Jesus is what we’re looking for. Right?

Well, yes.

I remember a particular chapel service at my Christian high school,
when a worship band came and sang this song.
It was terribly cool at that time to sing a U2 song for worship too,
but when it came time to sing the refrain after that verse,
they cleverly changed the lyrics to,
“and now I have found, what I’m looking for!”
It was quite a moment too. Hands going up all over the place,
people shouting, flags waving, it was totally amazing.
And I remember pumping my fist, and thinking, “yeah! That’s right.
What does Bono know? How could he talk about Jesus and then
say that he still hasn’t found what he’s looking for?
Not me! I’ve found what I’m looking for! I’m not still searching,
I’m not still looking….right?

Well, yes and no.

Ten years ago I thought U2 was trying to say that Jesus wasn’t really the answer.
Now, I’m starting to see that they just understood something that I didn’t.
You see, I think Bono was simply reiterating something that theologians have
been writing about for centuries. He wasn’t making blasphemous statements
as much as he was poeticizing what is commonly referred to as,
“the already and the not yet.”
And you know, I’d say it might just be the most difficult truth that a Christian
will ever have to wrestle with.
The fact that we already have what we’re looking for,
and in the same moment, haven’t yet received it,
isn’t so easily reconciled as one would hope.

I mean, if some of you think about it long enough,
your brain might explode.
But believe me, it’s true.
Think about it this way.

(But if you start to get dizzy or nauseous,
discontinue reading and breathe into a paper bag.)

Love is here and now. We needn’t look any further than the cross.
To all the people who say, “I wish that Jesus loved me! If only he’d
get me that job, or fix that relationship, or get me a parking space on Black Friday…etc,”
I would say, “Look no further! The cross is proving to you the love of God right now.”
And as disappointing as that might be for some, Romans 5:8 says that
“God proves his love in this; that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”
His love isn’t waiting around the corner, or in a parking lot in front of Target.
He isn’t waiting to prove to you his love in some cosmic experience,
where he pops out like a game show god and gives you the idol you’ve always wanted.
No. We already have the acceptance, forgiveness, and validation that every
human heart longs for by Christ’s death in our place. Like David defeating
Goliath, Jesus triumphed over sin and damnation, and gives a victory
to a people who never lifted a finger to accomplish it themselves.
We are loved and accepted and it has absolutely nothing to do with our
performance. It has to do with his for us.
This is good news. This is the gospel.

But at the same time,
the very people who have been forgiven all, have transversely fallen in love
with the Saviour who loves them, (hopefully), and yet,
though they have his Spirit living inside them, they are still waiting to see
Him face to face. Which again, hopefully, is the burning desire of every ransomed heart.

So, the love we’re looking for we have in Christ, at the cross,
but the lover Himself we have yet to see.
In some sense, I guess you could say that
we’re fighting for what we already have received.
The already and the not yet, and it is a profound mystery.

And if you follow this through, you can see how much of our wasted time
and effort is from a failure to believe one of these two truths.
Either we think, “I’m not validated. I’m not important,
so I’m gonna go run to something or someone to give me significance.”
Or we believe the lie that we’re supposed to feel at home here,
and so the second we start to feel dissatisfied, instead of accepting
it as part of the lovesickness we feel for God himself, we just run to whatever
cheap thrill we can get in that moment.
And that’s a pretty good definition of sin.
Identity that comes from something other than what God has done for you,
and pleasure that we seek before the pleasure that God Himself can give.
Or to be King James about it,
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

But man, if deep down in my soul, God was really my God,
if I really believed that I didn’t have to earn my approval,
that I didn’t have to be good enough or smart enough or faithful enough to
get God to love me, I think it would change who I run to for acceptance.
Love is here. Love is now.
And if I really knew that the thing my heart wanted most was to be home
with God, then it wouldn’t come as any great shock to me when I feel dissatisfied here.
And maybe, just maybe, I’d actually be able to be content in my discontentment.

Could you imagine?
A bunch of people who weren’t fighting to prove themselves to everyone,
and who gladly heard and welcomed criticism?
A group of people who actually believed they were loved in spite of themselves,
whose identities, like John the disciple, weren’t based on their own successes and failures,
but were based on what had been done for them?
A church that wasn’t forever running to “lovers less wild,”
because it was content waiting for God in its discontentment?

For all you Switchfoot fans, thats what the whole “Beautiful Letdown” album is about.
“It was a beautiful letdown, the day I knew, all the riches this world had to offer me,
would never due….in a world full of bitter pain, and bitter doubt. I was trying so
hard to fit in, until I found out, that I don’t belong here. I don’t belong here.”

Man, what peace to know that this isn’t my home.
What a beautiful letdown to know that I am loved and there’s
nothing I could run to that would give me what I want.

But it’s not really that easy is it?
Because we’re made for a massive amount of pleasure you and I.
We’re made for God to fill us, and shine through us, and so when
God’s taking his sweet old time to satisfy us,
it seems downright impossible to hold out doesn’t it?
I mean, people want to be happy, right?
They want their best life now, and so when Jesus comes along and says,
stop looking, just wait, “your best life is coming later!”
Well, it’s not exactly what you want to hear is it?
“Don’t tell me that love is here, and not yet!
Just give me something to dull the pain!

But that’s just it.
Love is here, and now and…later.
Everything you want and are looking for, you’ve got it.
So stop looking.
Everything else that you want, wait.
It’s coming,

Like I said before, think about this too long and you might go cross-eyed.
But I’d rather be cross-eyed and content than have my eyes fixed
on a world that can’t even deliver what it promises.
If God Himself is really the desire of our hearts, then as long as
we’re strangers here, we’ll sing along with those crazy Irish rockers,
“I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.”

Psalm 84:10
“Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.”

Cheers,
Mike D

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Chapter 1 Over and Underneath

November 10, 2008

Alright, here’s the first of 12 chapters.
Remember, this is going to be a bit more like a book,
so you’ll need to get out of blog mode for a second and get ready to read.)

So I was talking with this girl in Cincinnati last month.
She was was very talkative, very lively,
and apparently, very much in love with Michael Phelps.
“I love Michael Phelps! I love Him! He’s the best ever!!!!!!!!! OMG!
He’s such a good swimmer, and he’s such a great American,
and he’s so good at speaking chinese and he’s so so cute….”
She went on and on for several minutes or perhaps it was hours,
until I finally thought to ask,“so you like swimmers huh?”
“Oh yes. They’re very exciting!”
“Do you think its possible that you only like Phelps so much because he won?”
“Oh no way. All swimmers are amazing. I love Michael because he’s a swimmer.
and swimmers make my heart melt.”
“Oh, ok. Well then,
could you name for me another swimmer on the U.S. National team?”

Awkward Silence.

”....um….Michael Phelps….Jr?”

It’s crazy.
This girl was in love with Michael Phelps simply because he won.
She seriously was. At least, she appeared to be anyway.
She spoke of him with a great deal of affection,
and she even seemed to shiver at the mention of his name.
Now ok, I admit, the guy did win eight gold medals and
could probably outswim a shark if the situation called for it,
so he definitely deserves some accolades.
but how sad is it to think that he’s become a hero and now a heart-throb
simply because he has the name, “winner” attached to him now?

This girl revealed it to me, when she didn’t know the name of one other
single U.S. swimmer besides him.
If she had even watched his meets she would have at least seen the other
swimmers right? Well, not necessarily.
Think about it. Do you really think anyone would know Michael Phelps’ name
had he lost? Would he still be on the cover of Wheaties and Sports Illustrated,
and Rosetta Stone had he only won silver?
Bronze?
How about a fourth place personal best?
Not as exciting is it?

And so I’ve been thinking about Mr. Phelps lately,
and coming to grips with the sad truth
that we’re not so very different from him and his situation either.
I mean, we all work on this system of performance in some way or another,
whether we’d say it that way or not.
Sure, it may not be as blatant as the sporting world can be,
but don’t we all have to cope with the fact that we are
accepted and praised based solely upon how well or how poorly we perform?
We sell more than our co-workers, and we get a raise.
We show up to work late, and we get fired.
It’s not that its inheritantly evil or anything, it’s just the way things are.
Even in our respective groups and clicks there’s an underlying system in place.
Are we funny enough?
Are we cool enough?
Are we witty enough to keep everyone’s attention, or
are we too socially awkward to be brought in?

It may have been several years ago now, but to this day,
I can still remember how frighteningly intense parents could get
at my pee-wee soccer games.
Its really actually comical thinking back on it, but you’d be
amazed at just how important a parks and rec soccer game can
be for a group of adults desperately seeking validation
vicariously living through their child’s victory.
Funny too, because most of those kids are
far more interested in the orange slices at half time and the hi-c
boxes at the end of the game than they are with the score.
But not their parents!

Oh no!
They’d scream at the ref til they got kicked off the field.
They’d berate the five year olds on the opposing team with insults.
There were even times when they would load the water cooler with
amphetamines! Ok, so I don’t know if that ever happened, but it wouldn’t
surprise me, because the thing was, it was a really big deal who won and who lost.
It always seemed like there was much more riding
on the line than whose name was on the little plastic gold trophies
at the end of the season pizza party.

What is that?
What is it in all of us that longs so badly to be on top!
To be better than the next guy?
How come when our favorite team wins, we exclaim, “We won!”
but when our team loses, we lament, “They lost?”
How come we’re always figuring out ways to attach ourselves to greatness?
What do we feel is riding on our emerging victorious?
Why do people in college get in fights over ultimate frisbee?
Isn’t it strange?

Strange most of all I suppose, because we all know that
religion operates on the exact same principle.
You perform well, and God will accept you.
Say your prayers, fight your jihad, stop drinking and give to the poor,
and then it will be well with you and the divine.
Every single faith system works on this principle.
Muslims stand before Allah and have their good works weighed against their bad.
A Hindu’s place in life is dictated by how well they lived the life before it.
One day they’ll be good enough to be a cow.
Buddhists attain enlightenment.
Mormons serve their two years and get a planet.
On and on it goes. Do better, be better, live strong, play hard, just do it.
It may have different names but its always the same story.
Good works = Good standing

I perform, and therefore I am accepted.
And that’s the way it is.
Or is it?

I wonder if we’ve realized just how radical the gospel of Jesus really is?
Do we realize that its completely counter intuitive to everything we’ve ever
learned and everything we’ve ever experienced?
As Bono once put it, “grace…breaks the spell of karma.”
And that’s because the gospel works on a different system altogether.
While everyone else on earth proclaims, “you do good and I’ll bring you close,”
Christ proclaims, “I was good enough for you to come close.”
Tim Keller explains that while religion says,
“I obey therefore I am accepted by God,
the gospel says, ” I am already accepted by God because of what Jesus Christ
has done for me, therefore I obey.”

He died for us. He performed for us.
We are not accepted because we won eight gold medals.
We’re not accepted because we kicked the game winning goal.
We are accepted because He was perfect for us. He earned it. He deserved it.
We are winners now, even though we never won for ourselves.

And that’s stinging isn’t it?
The gospel hurts our ego terribly I think, because deep down,
I think we all want to earn it.
We want to say, “I did it! Look at how great I did! Look at how awesome I am!”
But the gospel says, “Look at Him! Look at what he did! Look at how awesome He is!”
It’s a great relief and a terrible blow to know that you are excessively loved and celebrated,
and it has absolutely nothing to do with you!
In fact, it never will have anything to do with you,
because this whole thing is about Him.

And that’s where the title Over and Underneath comes from for our record.
The gospel is exceedingly clear that even at the very heights of our human achievement
and purity, Christ has gone higher. And that’s pretty humbling isn’t it?
He is over and above the most pure and the most successful, and there isn’t
one person on earth who doesn’t need Him or owe Him everything.
He has out performed us all!
And at the same time, at the very depths of human wretchedness and insignificance,
Christ has gone lower, bearing our sins, taking our shame, suffering the worst and
most embarrassing loss of all time. The loss of his right standing before his Father.
and the loss of his divine purity by clothing himself in our defeat on the cross.
There is no depth that is too low for his grace.
There is no failure that has fallen to far.
He is underneath us all.

And this friends, should do something profound in you and in me.
When we see that He is better than we could ever be, it cultivates
a deep humility in us, because who are we to look down on anyone?
Don’t we need Jesus just as much as the next person?
And at the same time, as we view to what great lengths he went to to forgive us,
hanging on the cross for the very ones who nailed him to it, that should
sober us greatly when we think we are beyond forgiveness.
Is there really anything to dark that his blood cannot clean?
And that should give us great security.

He won what we couldn’t win.
He lost what we couldn’t afford to lose.
We are loved, and it has nothing to do with us.
And when we get that, that’s when the greatest thing of all happens.
When we no longer are taking inventory of ourselves all the time,
feeling good when we do well, and feeling worthless when we fail.
When we no longer swing like a pendulum between pride and shame,
when we no longer think of ourselves higher than we ought or lower than we ought
that’s when we can finally and with great relief, think of ourselves less.
When we are finally freed from our obsession with ourselves,
that we might be obsessed with Him, that is when we’ve
received the greatest gift the gospel can give.

“But we, with unveiled faces, beholding Christ’s glory, are being transformed from one
degree of glory to another.”
2 Corinthians 3:18

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It	October 11, 2008

Hey friends.
Its Mike again, writing to you from a desolate stretch of highway
somewhere in west Texas. Lots of tumbleweeds, lots of “dips and canyon-things”
as Jason just said, lots of energy windmills and armadillos…I think you get the picture.

And we’re driving down this road to yet another show and I started thinking about
blogging and writing and making using of my time inside of rusty reliable
Rawhide (that’s the name of our van) and I think I had a bit of an epiphany.

You see, I’ve really been wanting to write a book for some time,
and have even had some people leave comments commending me to do so,
so I think I’m going to just start a bit of a book here on the old blog.

I’m thinking about some sort of devotional book, not because
the world needs another devotional book, but because it helps me understand
the things I say I believe. And I also thought it’d be nice to let each of the songs
on our album serve as the chapter titles, and just sort of write a book based on
the collection of songs from Over and Underneath.

And, as I go to put it together, I figured I could just
put up each little chapter as an individual blog. What do you think?

It could be totally disastrous, or…well, maybe not, right?
So, here goes nothing. Stay tuned in the weeks ahead for a 12 part
devotional series starting with the title, “Over and Underneath.”
Hope you like it.

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Making a Name for Ourselves

September 20, 2008

We’re driving through Maine today, looking for moose, gazing on the fall foliage, and listening to a bit of Francis Chan. And like He tends to do, He brought my attention to the glory of God, and my tendency to be more about the glory of me. Check this out. ”...your name and renown are the desire of our hearts…” -Isaiah 26.8 Seriously? Hmm. If I’m honest with you, when I take an inventory of the desires of my heart, I don’t know that the foremost would be for God’s name and renown. Usually my desires are…well, all about me. For me, by me. Unto the glory of me. What am I doing today? What am I accomplishing? What do I want to be accomplishing? What do I want for lunch? What would I have liked better for lunch? What’s my five year plan? What’s my next five minute plan? etc, etc, etc. When I think about it too long, I start to get depressed…or cross-eyed. “your name and your renown.” That’s like saying, “when I die, I don’t want anyone to remember my name, I want them to remember the name of Jesus.” And that, my friends, is especially convicting in my current line of work. I mean, the whole goal of a rock band sometimes is, “make a name for yourself!” Buy our t-shirt! Buy our cd! Tenth Ave! Tenth Ave! Tenth Ave! Ugh. Is this really what I’m meant for? What music is meant for? I don’t want to lift up our name, I want to bring attention to His. After all, His is the only name that will last. Sure we can give people a good show, but we can’t give them life. Being a Tenth Ave fan will only get you music, it won’t get you eternity. So I’m left wondering today, how do we do this? How do we operate in a system that’s all about making leaders celebrities, and turning prophets into golden calves? How do I turn my own desires to his renown, and likewise, turn the crowds’ attention to His name and not to our own? Well, I think the answer comes in Galatians 6:14 “May I never boast, except in the cross.” When I really think about what Christ has done, leaving behind the glory of his throne and the adoration of angels, severing the unbroken communion of the trinity, setting aside his rights and power and taking up flesh… Clothing Himself in aching, suffocating humanity, walking the earth, feeling our temptations and wrestling with our struggles, bearing our sin and enduring the cross, giving Himself over to death and then conquering over it, it leaves me very little room to boast in me. I mean, if Christ has done all that, then why on earth would I waste my breath to promote any other kingdom? “Your kingdom come. Your will be done.” Makes me think about this quote I heard from Louie Giglio once. “Would you be willing to trade the leading role in the story of you, for any supporting role in the story of God?” Which in essence, is like saying, “would you be willing to trade your star role in that local public access sofa store commercial, for any of the supporting roles in the Lord of the Rings?” Yeah you may not have as many lines, or as much face time, but only one is going to be seen by the whole world, and only one name will be worshipped for all time. And it surely isn’t going to be Tenth Avenue North. So with all that in mind, may we be mirrors only. Tilted at 45 degrees, pushing every adoring gaze and idolatrous stare back to the true source of beauty, to the true source of fame, and to the only source of life. “and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so 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 2:8-11

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Mike

How does one love God?
Well, John says, "we love because He first loved us."
And if that's true, then my whole approach must change.
No longer am I condemning myself in the mirror,
saying, "come on Mike, get your act together."
No. Instead I simply incline my gaze to the cross.
If I'm not loving God, it's because I'm not believing I'm loved.
And how do I know that I am loved?
"This is how we know what love is, Jesus Christ laid down his life..."

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