Respect isn’t what you think it is

 re-spect [ri-spekt] noun esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person

“If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that.”

Matthew 5.47 (NLT)

“Men are respectable only as they respect.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Who do you respect? Why? Is it because that person lives by a set of principles you aspire to live by yourself? Is it because you agree with the way that person lives? Is it because they treat you nicely? Is it because they have a life that you wish for yourself? It occurred to me recently that, for the person who wants to live life like Jesus, none of those things are respect. I’m not sure what they are. Maybe it’s preference or a desire to just hang out with people you agree with or, in the case of the person who has a life you wish to have, it’s just veiled envy. Whatever it is, it’s not respect. For the follower of Jesus, respect is given for a much simpler reason. The simplicity of it makes it much more difficult to give.

Respect is simply acknowledging and accepting a person based on their worth as a human being. Every person around me is a unique and beautiful creation of God with worth beyond measure. That alone makes them worthy of my respect. It doesn’t matter whether I like what they do or don’t do. How they live their life doesn’t enter into the equation. I don’t care who they voted for or even if they vote. Young, old, rich, poor…none of that matters. The only thing that matters is their inherent value as a person.

Horse trainer Buck Brannaman made it really simple. He said that respect is acceptance. Jesus took it even further by saying that we extend respect to everyone. If we only give it to people that we think deserve it we tread on dangerous ground. Anyone can do that. That kind of “respect” doesn’t set followers of Christ apart from anybody else.

As always, Jesus calls us to a higher standard.

Blue Like Jazz: A Big Step Forward

When I first heard that Donald Miller’s “Blue Like Jazz” was being adapted into a film, I was curious about how they would craft an effective screenplay from a series of essays. My curiosity was answered last night.

I’m a fan of Donald Miller’s books and I was concerned that I wouldn’t be objective about the film. I wanted to be able to say, “this film sucked” if indeed it did. This film did not suck. It exceeded my expectations not only in its fictionalized re-telling of the book’s themes and events, but also by the quality of the film itself. I’ve not been happy with most of the films that have come out of Christian circles. With rare exception, most films made by Christians have not been what I would invite friends to see. This was far and above anything I’ve seen from artists of faith up to this point. Whatever accolades this film receives, what it does best is take a big step forward as an example of what filmmakers with a Christian perspective are capable of.

The film tells the story of Don (Marshall Allman of “True Blood” and “Prison Break”) as he flees his fundamentalist Baptist roots after discovering the hypocrisy of the Christian subculture in which he’s grown up. As he makes his way through Reed College, he crosses paths with people far removed from his fundamentalist world back in Texas. Tania Raymonde (Lost) plays Lauryn, a lesbian from the Midwest who tells him his only hope of survival as a Reedie is to keep his “wacko, religious beliefs” in the closet. Justin Welborn (The Final Destination, The Crazies) portrays a student who roams the campus dressed up as the Pope and committed to freeing his fellow students from the shackles that come from believing in God.

Most Christian films do little more than preach to the choir. Blue Like Jazz goes in the opposite direction and holds up a mirror to believers and asks hard questions about how faith is lived out and what kind of effect Christians have on an unbelieving world. The film moved me in ways that I did not expect. It also depicts unbelievers not as projects for Christians to target for conversion, but as people to  extend grace toward and to love unconditionally.

I agree with another reviewer that this is not the film that some Christians will like, but it is the film that Christians need. It avoids sanitizing life to the point of being unbelievable and strikes a familiar chord depicting the world most of us live in. It does so with a great story, great acting and pretty decent filmmaking. It may not win any awards (or maybe it will) but it will be remembered as a pivotal faith-based film that raises the bar for Christian artists.

To find Blue Like Jazz at a theater near you, visit the film’s official website here.

And…ACTION!

So, it’s finally here. Blue Like Jazz opens in theaters tomorrow. It’s been hard to stay away from some of the early reviews. Variety and the Huffington Post gave it decent nods. Interestingly a Village Voice reviewer and a conservative evangelical site found themselves agreeing on a less enthusiastic take on the film, albeit for different reasons.

One reviewer said that the film’s harshest critics are from the extreme ends of the spectrum. For those at the far end of evangelical fervor, the film will not be Christian enough. For the “freedom from religion” crowd, it will be too Christian. I don’t care about any of that. What I care about, what I want more than anything else – and what I want from every film I see – is nothing more than a good story, well-executed. By “well-executed” I don’t mean a film with a big budget, lots of things exploding, heavy artillery and stellar special effects. All of those things can cover a multitude of theatrical sins. Is the acting good? Is the story and dialogue believable? Are the characters interesting? Does the story make me care about what happens to them?

I have to admit that I already have a bias for Blue Like Jazz. The book was amazing and, while I know that film is a fictional adaptation of the book, I anticipate the big screen adaptation of Miller’s thoughts on Christian spirituality to be equally provocative. As a lover of film and a follower of Christ, I hope it will be the kind of production that I am unapologetic about recommending to anyone who is a film lover like me.

I enjoy all genres of film, but my preference is for the smaller, independent productions. Movies like Sideways, Bottle Rocket, (500) Days of Summer, City Island and Dan in Real Life come to mind. Before seeing many of those I had heard little to nothing about them, but had great experiences with each.

Tomorrow, take a chance and check out “Blue Like Jazz.” You can go here to find out where it’s playing near you.

After you’ve seen it, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave me a comment or shoot me an email.

The World I See

I had a friend tell me several years ago that he only reads and listens to people he knows he can trust (i.e., people that support what he already believes to be true). The argument goes something like this: “My time is so limited that I have to make good use of it and can’t waste it on things that are not in line with my general point of view.” That’s too bad.

The moment I decide to listen only to those who agree with me is the moment I stop learning. This in no way means that I compromise my own convictions. I am firm in what I believe to be true about the world around me and how it works. But, I also have to allow room for the possibility that I may be wrong. If I believe the world to be flat and only listen to others who believe the world is flat, how will I ever discover that the world is actually a three-dimensional, multi-sensory, complex creation?

In my life as a pastor, I’ve seen the damage done to people whose first encounters with God were in environments with a  one-dimensional view of God. I’ve also seen people in various stages of healing from those limited expressions of belief. I’m glad that God is infinitely bigger than our efforts to box Him in or control how others engage with Him.

I recently landed on my “sweet spot” or the thing that, when I am fully engaged with it, I am most effective, most fulfilled and most useful. What is it? It’s “communicating to entertain.” Out of curiosity, I looked up the definition of “entertainment” at dictionary.com:

to hold the attention of pleasantly or agreeably

I’m particularly committed to communicating the story of God and how He desires to engage with each of us in ways we may not expect. For my money, there is no better story. Everywhere I look I see the creative thumbprint of God in expressions that extend well beyond the obvious. As a pastor and follower of Jesus, it’s my desire to communicate God’s story in ways that will hold people’s attention in such a way that they are moved to consider what He has to offer. I can’t do that if my view of God is in the context of a flat world. That isn’t the world He created and it’s not the world we live in.

As I continue down my path I want to proclaim the glorious, beautiful complexity of a God who has a simple message of hope to offer anyone who will listen. That’s something worth living for.

Creative or Artistic?

I’ve always held to the notion that there is a difference between actors and movie stars. More specifically, one is a subset of the other. While some actors become movie stars, I would not consider all movie stars actors. Thanks to the recent posting of an article by my friend and fellow blogger Rob Fike on the 12 Most Striking Tendencies of Creative People, I’m thinking a similar axiom exists also for creatives.

First off, we all have the ability to be creative. Any of us can take a can of Play-doh and make it into something. But to do something truly artistic with it is something different altogether.

I would propose that while all people have the ability to create, not all are creatives, not all are creatives. As I’ve reflected on the qualities listed in the article Rob posted – as well as other more intangible ones – among the creatives I know, it occurs to me that not all of those who create have the traits that make someone a creative.

Creatives possess skills and abilities and merge that with their imagination to become the true artists. They are the ones who express themselves through painting, photography, writing, acting, music and myriad other forms of expression that move us and challenge us in ways that not everyone can. Creatives tap into their limitless imagination to pursue artistic expressions that are unique expressions of themselves.

The best artists use not only their skill, but also tap into their imagination to create the stuff that has no peer.

For further reading, I’d love for you to check out a post from a site I really enjoy: Idea Sandbox. They posted a great article called “Difference Between Artistic and Creative Ability” that was a springboard for a lot of my thinking on this subject.

So, which are you? Creative or artistic?

Love still wins

I have a friend who is very intentional about eating a healthy diet. She pretty much lives by the old quote from Jack LaLanne: “If man made it, don’t eat it.” It surprised her, then, when she was recently struck with some health issues and was given some dietary guidelines. She was already following them for the most part, so it wasn’t a huge adjustment for her. Part of the restrictions on what she should eat involved staying away from fried foods. She was doing that on her own, but she commented that now that she was given a specific directive to refrain from it, she finds herself suddenly craving stuff that, up to that point, she hadn’t really wanted before.

This makes me think of something that Paul wrote in the New Testament book of 1 Corinthians:

“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” 1 Corinthians 15.56 (ESV)

That’s a pretty counterintuitive statement he’s making. It’s not often that we would see the law as giving fuel to sin. It’s usually more typical to think liberty is what gets us in trouble. It seems like Paul would take exception to that.

As followers of Christ, we have all kinds of freedom. Earlier in the same book, Paul said, “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (10.31). If we who follow Christ have all of this freedom, all of this (dare I say?) liberty, then why is it so easy for us to gravitate toward rules and regulations? Why do we want to limit how pursuing God plays itself out in our lives, let alone others lives? This isn’t a new problem. In fact, it goes all the way back to the Hebrew scriptures.

When Moses came down from the mountain, he had ten commandments for the people of God to follow. They were pretty straightforward and very clear. Through the years religious leaders – probably in a well intended effort to stay true to those original directives – expanded a short list of do’s and don’t's into a list of over 600 things to remember if you wanted to stay on the right path to follow God. They went through the various sacred writings of their day and decided that there were a lot more things God expected of His people. Some days I have trouble remembering the original ten. I can’t imagine what it would be like to try and remember 600 things to do and not do.

By the time Jesus comes on the scene, the religious leaders turned the law that was intended to be simple in its expectation for believers into a burden that weighed them down. It became an impossible standard to live by. Jesus fixed all of that in a conversation he had with some people who had the responsibility of making sure God’s people did what they were supposed to do (as well as stayed away from what they weren’t supposed to do).

So, one day one of the day’s top leaders in religious laws wanted to trip Jesus up. He asks Jesus what the most important commandment is. Jesus replies, “You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matthew 22.37-38, NLT) But, Jesus doesn’t stop there. He gives the guy a freebie. “A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” (v. 39) He didn’t say this second one was almost as important or was second place to the greatest commandment. He said it was “equally important.”

Then Jesus says something revolutionary. Keep in mind that for people to follow God during the time they have to remember more than 600 laws. Into this environment Jesus says something that cuts to the very core  of what the religious leaders were trying to do: “The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Wow!

Think about what Jesus is saying. If you want to fulfill all that God requires of you, just focus on these two equally important directives: love God with everything you are and, while you’re at it, love the people around you. Simple…or at least it should be. Many people will say that becoming a Christian is easy, following Christ is hard. I would agree with that, but not for the reasons most think.

Perhaps the idea of taking up our daily cross has less to do with trying to figure out what I should and shouldn’t do when it comes to drinking and dancing and cursing and more to do with how hard it really is to simply love God and love people. Give me a list of directives that tells me what TV shows to avoid, what books aren’t good to read or what music God doesn’t like. That’s the easy way out. You may be able to control behavior, but, like the law that gives fuel to sin, it may do more to stir up a rebellious heart. That’s human nature that goes all the way back to Adam and Eve.

Have you ever thought about the fact that God told them they could have anything to eat from the garden except for one thing? Of course, the one thing they were told they couldn’t have is the one thing they wanted. It’s like being given free reign to take anything you want from the grocery store, as long as you stay from from the Gala apples. The minute you’re told that, I promise you that’s the one thing you’ll want first.

But, tell me to love someone who I don’t really care for or extend grace to someone I may not agree with. That’s hard. That isn’t easy at all. Maybe that’s why we want to spend more time dealing with external behaviors, rather than matters of the heart. Behavior is much easier to deal with.

So in the struggle between Law and Love, maybe Love still wins…

Silly Christians

A lot of people who don’t follow Jesus think those who do are a little silly. Sometimes – more often than I prefer – we do a lot to confirm that sentiment.

It isn’t so much what we believe. It has more to do with how we act. Three things happened to me this week that converged to remind me there is a Christian subculture that often does more harm to the message of Christ than it can to effect real change in people’s lives.

On Monday nights I volunteer with the youth group at my church. This past week I had the privilege of visiting with one of the other volunteers. My friend Scot talked about his understanding of a passage from the Gospel of Matthew in the Bible. Jesus was talking to Peter about the Church and said that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16.18, ESV)

In Jesus’ day, “gates” were meant to keep things out of a city. Given that notion, it seems as though Jesus is saying that it is hell whose gates cannot stand against the Church, not the other way around. Somehow, a lot of Christians seem to reverse that idea and think that it is the Church that must live behind guarded walls, watching the gates to keep any perceived threat from getting in. We have Christians on the defensive and living in fear instead of carrying out the conspiracy of grace and redemption they are called to. Thanks to Scot for reminding me of this.

Later in the week I posted an excerpt from a review of the upcoming film based on Donald Miller‘s book “Blue Like Jazz” on my Facebook wall. I’m very excited about this project. It chronicles the journey of a young man who was raised in the Christian subculture, abandons it, only to rediscover his faith. Unlike many of the films put out by Christians, it does not sterilize the world we live in. It pulls no punches. The producers also spent a lot of time making sure that the message was not invalidated by poor filmmaking.

While I appreciate the heart behind a lot of the films Christians release, they are one of the main reasons people who don’t follow Jesus think we’re silly. Don’t believe me? If you can find someone who is not a Christian and has seen a Christian film, ask them what they thought about it.

It wasn’t long before a reply was posted with a link to a less than favorable review of the book titled, “Green Like Envy.“ Now, I know that Donald Miller is not everybody’s cup of tea and I’m sure there will be critical reviews of the film. What I take issue with is that the review was filled with wrong information, quotes taken out of context and what another friend of mine called “the same old judgmental stuff…why the world thinks of us as haters rather than seeing the love of Christ through us.” (Thanks Rick!) The book was also described as controversial. I chuckled a bit at this. There are a lot of controversial books out there (e.g. “Love Wins” by Rob Bell, “Real Marriage” by Mark Driscoll). Except to those with the narrowest view of what the Gospel means, Betty White is more controversial than Donald Miller. This is another kind of thing that gives reason for people to think we’re silly.

Today I read a great interview with Margaret Feinberg by Gabe Lyons that addressed the question, “Are Christians too sheltered?” Feinberg stated, regarding past generations of Christians (and I would assert current ones as well):

“I always thought they took on a fortress mentality when it came to life and possibly even engaging in culture. It was more of an idea of ‘I’ve got to protect me and mine.’ At the end of the day I want to stay pure, and the way to do that is to withdraw from the world, to withdraw from culture, to withdraw from things that could possibly shade or affect me. And I think the generation that is coming of age is beginning to ask a whole different set of questions. They’re saying, ‘How do I go into culture?’ ‘How do I go into the world and be an agent of change and of transformation?’”

This is probably the foundational reason those who don’t follow Jesus think we’re silly. We claim to believe in a message that offers hope and redemption to a broken world, but some choose to live behind guarded walls and wait for others to knock on the gate. We’ve forgotten Jesus’ charge that while we are not of this world, we are still in it. We expect people to come to us and on those rare occasions we do go to them, we want to proclaim our message through a Sony Walkman in an iPod world.

Well, that’s just silly.

Blue Like Jazz Trailer

I wrote yesterday about the upcoming “Blue Like Jazz” film. Thought you’d be interested in watching the latest trailer for the film.

Enjoy!

 

 

Blue Like Jazz: The Movie

My love for film goes back to one of my earliest memories. I was four years old when Oliver! was showing at the historic Majestic Theater in San Antonio. I may have been to the theater prior to that, but this was the one I remember. I was captivated by the images, the acting, the music, but most of all the story. Since that day, I have fed my love for great stories told through film. While some of my favorites are the well-known titles – The Godfather, Gandhi, Chariots of Fire – my heart will always gravitate toward the smaller, independent films.

There is something about the off-beat nature of the indie that always strikes a chord with me. Films like Sideways, Lost in Translation, City Island and anything by fellow Texan Wes Anderson. It seems there is a greater commitment to telling well-crafted stories that can get lost in most mainstream films. This month at South by Southwest, one such film will be premiering and will then be in theater on April 13 and I’m excited to have been a small part of this film coming to fruition.

Blue Like Jazz is based on the book of the same name written by best-selling author Donald Miller. The film will tell the story of Don, a nineteen-year-old sophomore at a Texas junior college, tries to escape his Bible Belt upbringing for life in the Pacific Northwest at the most godless campus in America. While the movie will surely tell a great story, how the project that almost wasn’t came to be is great narrative itself.

There was a point at which it didn’t look like there would be enough funding to get it produced. Then the project was posted on Kickstarter in a last ditch effort to secure the money they were lacking. They needed $125,000. 4495 backers gave $345,992. I gave a modest amount and will be counted, along with other donors, as an associate producer in the credits.

I believe in the power of film to tell stories that connect with people’s lives. Blue Like Jazz will be one of those stories. If you aren’t able to  catch it at SXSW, be sure to keep your eyes open for it in a theater beginning April 13. After you see it, leave your thoughts on this blog. I’d love to hear what you think about it.

ReyLo is on Alltop

I read a lot of blogs. The musings, opinions and stories communicated by others intrigue me. It gives anyone with even the slightest desire to write an opportunity to do so and be read by a wide audience. Which is why I’m excited that my blog will now be featured on Alltop.

The “online magazine rack” was founded by Guy Kawasaki, author and one of first Apple employees responsible for marketing the Macintosh computer. The purpose of Alltop is to “answer the question ‘What’s happening?’ in ‘all the topics’ that interest you.” It’s an aggregate of blogs and news articles from around the world in one easy to find space.

My blog will appear in their Christianity section, but you can search an unlimited list of topics to find articles and blogs that are focused on your interests.

I’m excited or the opportunity to reach a wider audience and I look forward to continuing to share my thoughts with you.