The Least of These

Let's start by just getting it out there: it's fun to watch people. And there's hardly a better place to people watch than church.

Recently I was standing in a church lobby and noticed a young boy. This boy was excited about some sort of gadget he had, and was energetically seeking an audience to wow with his toy. I was surprised to see that after approaching perhaps five or six people, none of them showed any interest whatsoever in him. Eventually the boy became discouraged and wandered off.

The reason this troubles me is because of Jesus' words in Matthew 25--"Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." It also works the other way in verse 45; what we don't do to the least, neither did we do for Jesus.

Why does Jesus go so far out of his way to honor those society deems "the least"? And lest you think I am blowing one verse out of proportion, consider these:


Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.  Luke 6:20

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.  Luke 4:18-19

And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."  Mark 10:21

When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.  Luke 14:12

Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.  Matthew 19:14

Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.  Mark 10:15


This says nothing about about his treatment of women, which was revolutionary for the time. Consider the fact that women could be treated as property and yet Jesus' resurrection was first witnessed by none other than... a woman.

What's my point? My point is that these people ignored this boy because they believed his worth was only in what value he could add to their lives. He was boring and annoying and irrelevant--therefore he was useless and could be disregarded.

But the narrative of the kingdom of God says something different. It says that value is intrinsic. Your worth is not determined by what you do but who you are--a child of God. And therefore, nothing you can ever do can either add nor detract from that sum.

That means when you're at your absolute best, you are no more valuable than at your absolute worst, and vice versa. All your striving and struggling gets you nowhere. Neither will uncovering your failures and flaws reveal you to be somehow counterfeit. Rest in God. Trust your Father. It was never about you to begin with.

And now that we've established this identity for ourselves, it stands to reason that the same goes for others too.

Like the boy with the gadget.

Like the homeless begging for change at the intersection.

Or the billions of people who live on less than a dollar a day.

Or your super annoying coworker.

Or your mother in law.

The list goes on. Become like children. Love the poor. Love the meek. Recognize God in people--he's the one who made them, after all. Pay special attention to the ones that seem least important. Recognize that they are blessed precisely because they have nothing but God. And when you come without a thing, you come with all you need. It's all this other stuff that we think we contribute that actually gets in the way.

Peace.


P.S. - Lest I be accused of throwing stones or judging motives, I was one of the people ignoring the boy. For what it's worth, once I realized what was happening in my heart, I went and spent time with him. I believe that's what repentance is supposed to look like.

No fear in love

Fear can take many forms and can go relatively unnoticed in society today.

Yet fear is a chain to freedom. One way fear hinders our life is in the way it destroys love. As I've seen with Lily, A child loves her parents without reason. When a young child hears her parents voice there is an instant desire to just be near and affectionate towards her mom or dad. Untainted, unconditional love. 

As we get older, our sinful nature can turn the art of love into a science or formula. Love is more calculated rather than just a response from a pure heart. 

As I'm writing this, I'm sitting outside the cabin we are staying in Minnesota. My soul is soaking in the colorful leaves, the warmth of the sun, and the rhythm of the waves on the dock. I can tangibly see how the very purpose of creation is to glorify God by fearlessly proclaiming His love song back to Him. Trees have no fear of when they will receive their basic needs nor do they withhold their branches from the bird that wishes to perch, make it's nest, and sing melody to the Lord. Trees receive and give freely, just like the flowers of the field and the heat of the sun... All created by God, for God's glory.

Mankind's story, from the very beginning, has been seeking to be back in right relationship with God. Jesus' love, benevolent and fearless, shows us what true love looks like. True love is missional, it is not okay with things as they are, it seeks to cast out all fear by perfecting in love. 

To know God is to know love... For God is love. We cannot know selfless love without knowing God.

What do we find when there is an absence of love. Contrary to what many may believe, it is actually not hate. Hate requires some sort of feeling towards another, even though it may be befit ive. No... The opposite of love is to see a person in need and not do anything about it... Apathy. Apathy finds its fuel in fear and avoidance. Not knowing how to change something or ignoring an issue all together will not change the situation. 

God's heart is for the poor and He has compassion for His lost sheep. I'm compelled today to be love as God has given us an example in Jesus. God will you show me how, by your Spirit in me? How will they ever know of the benevolent, self-sacrificing, generous love I've experienced without me testifying of it? I am reminded once again of the reason Matt and I have been "uprooted". By faith we believe that our purpose, like a tree, is to trust God in all things just as the tree is sustained by the soil, the sun and the rain. It is out of that trust, that deep knowledge of God, that we have love to give. 

So we will give of our branches, look for God to do simple things and extraordinary things. We are planted and uprooted for the purpose of making His name and glory known. 

Thoughts on Grandpas

When you're eight years old, your grandpa is your hero.

I know not all of you have or had a grandfather worthy of that title, and for that I'm sorry. Fatherlessness (and grand-fatherlessness) is a huge problem, in part because it clouds our view of our heavenly Father. But for those of us who have been blessed with healthy families, a grandfather in the eyes of a grandson is a legend.

His legendary status was solidified for me one fateful summer afternoon that he took me fishing. Our family owns a cabin on a secluded Canadian lake, and it was a perfect day for some lake trout. That said, I--being eight--was not particularly interested in catching fish but rather jumping from rock to rock.

I don't remember how I slipped, only that I did. I was standing on a small rock ledge next to the water. I probably wasn't paying attention and walked right off the edge, because I didn't hit my head or scrape my back. It was one second on dry land and the next... swallowed up.

The interesting thing is that as quickly as it happened, it also UNhappened. Before I even realized how I fell or that I fell, I was standing on dry ground--dripping and spluttering. My grandpa had somehow teleported (in my eyes) the 30 or 40 feet distance separating us to pull me out of the ice cold water and set me back to standing on the rock. I couldn't have weighed more than 100 pounds at the time, but it made a huge impression on me: my grandpa is a legend.

A few weeks ago, my grandpa, Walt Hagsten, passed away at the age of 94. At that age it's not really about a cause of death anymore, but he had choked on a piece of food, developed pneumonia, and died. All this only a week or two before I was scheduled to leave Florida and visit Minnesota, his home. 

Even though you come to expect these things when a person is nearing their triple digit birthday, death is still a shock. A friend who happens to be more familiar with death than I described it as an absence. The person who died is no longer here, and they aren't coming back. You learn to live life without them.

Somewhat morbidly, I've thought more about death since becoming a parent than any other time in my life put together. I will not always be here to take care of this little human whom my wife brought into the world. Neither will this human always be here for me to enjoy, play with, watch grow up, walk down the aisle, have children of her own. It's distressing and feels broken, somehow. My grandpa was supposed to see another great-grandbaby. I am supposed to have grandchildren to enjoy, someday. (But what if!?) Death is not supposed to happen. It's like an unexpected inconvenience that somehow teleports you into another dimension, away from everyone you love, and you from them. "Surprise! Your vehicle, your body, has broken down. Now say goodbye to everything and everyone you've ever known."

But it really isn't. 

For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." - 1 Corinthians 15

God's promise to us is that he will swallow up death forever, that he will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth (Isaiah 25:8).

Death is not the end.

My grandpa, who pulled me out of a lake 20-some years ago, also has a heavenly Father who has and will pull HIM up out of the grave. One handed. Without breaking a sweat. And this heavenly Father will then swallow up the swallower--death itself. And there'll be no more mourning or crying or pain. Somehow God wipes it all away. Death isn't the end. I'm not saying that it doesn't or shouldn't hurt anymore. But knowing that even death is not exempt from "this too shall pass" kind of makes it a little easier to swallow.

The fact that not everyone will get to experience this resurrection is deeply troubling to me, and part of the reason we're going to Bulgaria. There are people there who don't know Jesus. There are also people who have heard of Jesus but don't know him--they think he came to die in order to help them be a better person (not so, by the way). They need to hear this good news, too. They need to know that death needn't be the end for them either. 

So we go, because we have work to do while we are here. And someday, we too will pass. 

But death is not the end.