There has been a lot of talk about “white privilege” in the media lately. At first, being white, I was insulted. I felt that some jealous people wanted to dismiss my success as being due to having an unfair advantage. I was insulted because I worked hard, paid my dues and took advantage of opportunities. I did everything right, and then someone thinks it all means nothing just because I am white. After thinking about it for a while, I realized that I did have some privilege, but it wasn’t because I am white, or because my parents were affluent. It was because my parents loved me, disciplined me, and didn’t spoil me. This love taught me to work hard, do things right and be fair. I then realized that being “white” had nothing to do with my success, while my loving parents were actually the real reason. Everyone I know that has had good parents, are also successful too, and it had nothing to do with their ethnicity. The fact is, having good parents is all the “privilege” you need to be successful, and those talking about “white” privilege are just bigots.
Month: August 2017
All Alone in Ministry
There have been many times I have felt all alone in the world while doing ministry. I felt this way particularly when I was the treasurer of my church. There seemed to be too many nights where I was working by myself, and I needed help to get the job done. You see, we had a system of accountability where I had to get another deacon to sign checks for me. This system was put into place so that a treasurer could not write checks to himself or to benefit himself. It was a cumbersome system, but I liked it. The problem I had was that my fellow deacons would be frequently unavailable when I needed them to sign checks for me. The situation annoyed me so much that I made some angry sarcastic comments at board meetings and directly to my fellow deacons. They took exception and complained to the pastor about me. I ended up appologising to them and accomidating them by carting the unsigned checks to their homes to get their signatures.
I believe that God put me through this on purpose to teach me a basic truth about ministry. Ministry is between you and God, and God alone. You may be helping people, teaching people or serving people, but the working relationship should be between you and God, and no one else.
From 1 Kings 18:22 – “Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the LORD’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets.”
God’s answer came later in 1 Kings 19:18: “Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel–all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”
The problem Elijah had was, these people were not around when he thought he needed them.
Fact is, all we need is God, but since God is invisible and speaks with a still small voice, we often ignore the fact that he is there with us when we are performing ministry, and is all we need. God wants us to get used to the idea that ministry is about Him and you and no one else. If you think you need other people, then you are probably not ready for ministry. Ministry is about going to the next level with God, and the next level does not involve anyone else. If you think about it, when ever you go to the next level in anything, you are frequently alone in it. There may be other people around, but you experience being alone while in the middle of going to the next level.
Being alone was also Jesus’ last test. During the crucifixion, he noticed that he had been abandoned by all, including God from Mark 15:34 – “And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).” In being alone in ministry, we have fellowship with Jesus, and we know a little bit how he felt on those last minutes of his life.
We desire the fellowship of believers for good reason, we need the encouragement we get from just being around our fellow believers. God invented the church for this very reason. It is good to seek out our fellow Christians and be with them. We need to remember, however, that we may not always have these people available, and need to get used to being ALONE with God, and experience fellowship with Him.
Christianity and Confirmation Bias
I confess that I indulge in confirmation bias when looking at things. I do this because I have FAITH. I know that no matter what I look at, no matter how bad something looks for my faith, in the end, it will come to nothing. My confirmation bias does not mean that I don’t ignore inconvenient facts, it just means that in the back of my mind, I know that in the end, God will still be real.
This is not to say that my search for truth started with confirmation bias. It did not! I did not want to be a Christian! I started out being agnostic. Even then, I knew that being an atheist was intellectually dishonest. I knew this because of my Christian background. Almost every American started with a Christian background. When you start this way, you simply cannot ignore the fact that what they tell you in church has a ring of credibility. Whether you believe it to be true or not, the credibility of everything that is going on simply cannot be ignored. From Isaiah 55:11 – “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (NIV)
So while my search for truth started out with a rejection of Christianity, the basic credibility of it stayed in the back of my mind. I suppose that this is the reason why some people simply cannot dismiss Jesus totally. They will say he was a good teacher, or a prophet, while rejecting him being the son of God. Islam teaches that Jesus was a prophet, while rejecting his divinity. This is why C.S. Lewis came up with his “trilemma” to combat this view.
In the end, I accepted Christianity BY FAITH because I did not have all the answers I sought, BUT I did realize that its credibility was real, and I NEEDED the forgiveness that Jesus gives us freely. Thank GOD!
