How to Begin Living On Purpose

November 26, 2013 / Erin Kirk / Leave a comment

A few months ago, I spoke at a church in Pensacola Florida with my dear friend and fellow Love Doer Lisa Long.

I wrote about it here and if you have 30 minutes you can listen to what the two of us had to say, about living a life of love: Who it’s about, why it matters and how to do it. Lisa and I are hardly experts, but we agree that this process of becoming who God intended, is rich and diverting, and well worth the trip.

Last Sunday, First City baptized 29 people, and it was beautiful.

Now, I recognize many of you reading are skeptical by nature, leery of overt Christian symbolism and/or mad at the church, but indulge me, will you? Spend seven minutes and watch this video, because friends, this is what love looks like soaking wet.

Specifically, watch for:

The expressions as people come out of the water.
Pastor Rick’s expression as he dunks some (but not all) of them.
The totally uninhibited clinging bro hugs.
Who is doing the dunking – Pastor, Mom, Youth Pastor, Friend, Brother, Community.
The naked vulnerability, the relief.

The “Church” and its goofy humans have messed the world up so thoroughly for so long, it’s easy to level that charge at Jesus, thereby ignoring the accountability following him requires. But what we miss when we do that, what I missed for years, is the love.

The Love of God. That big sky love, with its incomprehensible vastness. The Love that invades and swallows us, eventually moving us like wind across the plains, sweeping us over prairie grass or oceans into places we can’t imagine.

When we finally submit to Jesus, we aren’t granted ease, safety or perfection, but rather love and a purpose in his very big design. Twenty nine people at First City Church signed up for that on Sunday and I think it shows on their faces.

Good on you FCC!

Need Advice? Who Do You Trust?

November 3, 2013November 4, 2013 / Erin Kirk / 10 Comments

If there’s one thing women are really good at it’s the simultaneous delivery of sympathy and advice.

Long an advice giver myself, I’m fond of wrapping compassion, kindness and my own savvy into a tidy gift box for a friend in need, as an expression of love. The problem is, I barely understand my own life, much less yours, so who am I to tell you what to do?

In fact, I recall once wanting something so badly, I fixated on it until I was miserable. Since my friends love me and don’t want me miserable, they helped me plot its acquisition. When I finally got it, it blew up in my face. All of us acted surprised about that, but I don’t think we were. We knew it was a bad idea, we just hoped I’d get away with it.

If ever there was a case for faith, specifically Biblical faith, that’s it. We aren’t as trustworthy or prescient as we like to think, plus we muddy our own waters with selfishness and delusion.

But God never does.

As for God, His way is perfect! The word of the Lord is tested and tried; He is a shield to all those who take refuge and put their trust in Him. Psalm 18:30 (AMP)

I can feel some of you fighting that because, like me for many years, you don’t believe it’s true. That’s the bad news of faith. It is, by definition, experiential and irrational. If you could prove it before committing, it wouldn’t be faith, it would be theory.

Others of you are scanning centuries of Christian behavior, the rampant abuse and misapplication of scripture, and saying “ummmm no thank you.”

I get it. But what do you do instead? Who do you trust? I tried trusting myself but I proved unreliable. What then?

If secular wisdom is a viable alternative to Biblical wisdom, why does it appear we are devolving as a species? Why, by our clever devices, are we destroying our planet, poisoning our food, water, air and allowing poverty to plague 2/3 of the world’s population?

I’m reading a book now called The Old Testament Template. In it, author Landa Cope maintains that Moses didn’t lead the Nation of Israel out of Egypt, into the desert. He led a ragtag mess of hungry, thirsty, whining former slaves numbering in the millions, with rocks in their hands, into the desert. There, through Moses, God taught them how to be a nation. Three hundred years later, Israel was the wealthiest nation the world had ever seen. The Bible says incredible things about a free press, debt, the judiciary, art, science, education and the alleviation of systemic poverty, we just have to look.

All that to say, the God of the Bible promises big things to people who will suffer the leaps necessary to follow his advice and obey Him. There are tools available to us, and they work. They just aren’t free.

Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; reverently fear and worship the Lord and turn [entirely] away from evil. Proverbs 3:5-7

The Shutdown – What’s a Christian to Do?

October 10, 2013October 10, 2013 / Erin Kirk / 3 Comments

The other day, my South African colleague Pieter asked what I thought about the US Government shutdown.

“I’m so mad, I can’t even talk about it,” I said, prior to talking about it and ruining my own morning.

Like many, I’m frustrated by my helplessness. So my standard response is to roll my eyes, turn off the news and go vacuum algae from my pool. And maybe that’s a dodge of my responsibility to the Republic, but what else can I do?

Excoriate President Obama on Facebook?
Pray that God will smite House Republicans?
Holler “they’re all crooks in Washington” and pour another drink?

Really? Does any of that help? Or does it exhibit the same spirit of division, selfishness and spite that’s got Washington balled up? If our default response is boorish and ugly and our legislators are plucked from our pool, why are we surprised when they are boorish and ugly? If the average American has $15,000 in credit card debt why are we surprised Congress can’t balance the budget? They are us, just with more money and better hair.

Later that morning, Stefan, one of our fiercest Mercy Ship warriors, was teaching on prayer. He had us look up Ezekiel 22:28-30

The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the sojourner without justice. And I (The Lord) sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land that I should not destroy it, but I found none.

Wait, is Ezekiel suggesting I stand before God on behalf of the ringmasters in Washington? Does he mean I should pray for people I won’t even vote for? Worse, do I have to obey Jesus, and love and pray for my “enemies” even when we’re talking about the debt ceiling and Obamacare? (insert scream here)

All as a protective measure over my nation? Hmmm.

Sometimes I wonder if the shutdown will chasten us as a people, convince us that we’re not as clever as we think. Better yet, will it spark a revolution whereby Americans finally snap out of it and reject this corporate-sponsored demagoguery. Whoever can teach this nation to cooperate again?

Yesterday, Pieter reminded us that former South African President Nelson Mandela, after 27 years in prison, not only refused to exact revenge on his enemies, but halted negotiations until all 11 South African tribes were seated at the table. It was reconciliation, not revenge, that made Mandela a hero. Oh but how quaint, who thinks like that anymore?

Um, Jesus does.

Jesus is in the reconciliation business (IICor 5:18-19, Romans 5:10, Colo 1:20-21) and since many of our legislators call themselves Christians, where are the attempts at reconciliation? Or are US problems just more complicated than Mandela’s were in South Africa?

I have paid attention and listened but they have not spoken rightly: no man relents of his evil saying, What have I done? Everyone turns to his own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle. Jeremiah 8:6

So far this plunge has led the nation into a tar pit of acrimony and revenge. Maybe we ought to try something different, like dropping to our knees to acknowledge the one called Alpha and Omega, and shutting our smart mouths except to say,

“Lord. We don’t know what we’re doing. Please help. Thank You.”