All posts by Michael Clinger

Native of the 615. Avid sports fan and reality television consumer. Into Jesus. Engaged to a wondrous woman.
Faith, Faith and Culture

I want to be someone who…

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I remember the first week of my freshman year of high school, I was sitting in English class, and we were given a classic freshman assignment.  The assignment was to set 10 goals for ourselves for the next four years while we would be in high school. I’ve never been much of a goal-setter, but I knew what to put down on the paper.  So I wrote down what I viewed as the normal “successful” high school stuff.  I don’t remember all 10 goals, but I remember two of them: 1. Graduate in the top 10 percent of my class.  And 2. Become a starter on the football team.  I accomplished neither of these goals for myself.  For different reasons, of course.  There were factors in those that were out of my control like other people competing and natural ability limitations, but also, looking back, I am not sure those were really things that I cared much about, at least, I didn’t show it by my effort level.

When someone is growing up in school, the question adults often think to ask is “What do you want to do when you grow up?”  The answers that these awkward-feeling adults are expecting is a type of profession like doctor, firefighter, or teacher.  And so, depending on the kid, they either change their mind on this a few times, or some know from a very young age what it is that they want to do.  This changed a lot for me over the years.  Obviously I wanted to be a professional athlete for a while.  Get to play sports for a job? Make tons of money? Be famous? Sign me up!  I pretty quickly realized that perhaps for me, that wasn’t going to be a career option.  So I think then I said that I wanted to be a lawyer.  I did have quite the argumentative gift (My mom always says that if she said the sky is blue, I would say its not. That’s not too inaccurate… Sorry, Mom).  Then I realized that I thought talking to people was an ok thing that I could do, so when asked, I would always tell people I wanted to be a counselor.  Then very early on in college, I found that I wanted to do youth ministry.  And guess what!? That’s what I do.

When talking to a youth minister, some people may still ask the question, “So what do you want to do, really?”  At this point, I can honestly say youth ministry.

So I’m 23, and I think I have a ready answer for the “what do you want to do?” question.

But now, I, and I suppose every other person, have to ask the question: “What kind of person do I want to be?”  This seems to me to be a far more important question.  But this is a question that is much harder to break down into a list of goals, if you like making lists of that sort of thing.

See, we live in a world that is all about climbing up the next wrung of the ladder.  Our world cares about graduating at the top of your class from business school, our world cares about getting that next promotion, and our world cares about being able to afford living in the comfortable neighborhood with the comfortable car.  From a young age, we’re conditioned to want to associate with a certain crowd.  “Oh, you don’t want to send your child to that school.” We’re conditioned to not accept finishing in any place other than first.  I remember three times in elementary school that I was devastated because I didn’t win (2 spelling bees and a science fair).  We have accepted these expectations placed on us by voices other than the voice of God.  And some of these voices have even been backed up by scriptural references!  How many times have you heard Colossians 3:23 (context: Paul’s teaching for 1st century slaves) and thought that meant you need to work harder to achieve earthly success?

“Woah!  Slow your role, Michael.  The Bible is God’s Word.  Are you saying that we shouldn’t try hard at things!?”

No, that’s not what I’m saying.  What I am saying is that we should not pick and choose Scripture to enforce our desire to succeed in the eyes of other people.  Definitely work diligently in your jobs and in your relationships!

Ok, ok, so here’s my point: We spend way to much time trying to answer the question, “What do we want to do?” And we do not spend enough time trying to answer the question, “What kind of person do we want to be?”

I find myself in a season of life where that second question keeps coming up.  So I’m going to make a new list.  This time I’m going to pick 10 qualities that I want to aspire to be.  Maybe if you’re reading this, it will give you some ideas about the kind of person that you want to be.

*DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT ALREADY THESE THINGS ALL THE TIME BECAUSE IF I WAS, THIS WOULD BE A POINTLESS LIST.

I want to be someone who:

  1. always tells the truth.
  2. cares for the marginalized.
  3. is hospitable toward the outsider.
  4. seeks to gain understanding.
  5. is willing to be vulnerable.
  6. seeks wise counsel.
  7. responds kindly.
  8. leads by example.
  9. radiates patience.
  10. loves deeply.

 

-MC

Faith, Uncategorized

Perfect in Weakness

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If we live long enough we will experience something that completely wrecks our plans. We experience something that causes us to turn to God and ask, “Why?” Why did this happen? Why do we have to experience loss? Why can my will not align with Your will? In these moments we feel like we have nothing to give.  We feel like there is no wind in our sails.

We live in a world and society that is low on hope.  Everywhere we turn, we see things that communicate to us that we don’t measure up.  We don’t look like the people on television, we don’t feel like the happy ending of our favorite movie, and our lives don’t seem to be nearly as fun and adventurous as the people that we follow on Instagram.

We live in a world that scoffs at vulnerability and tells us that we must always project strength.  But if we live long enough, we learn that there are days where we cannot even fake it.  There are days where everything with us feels so wrong that we can’t possibly give people the impression that things are good.  What do we do then?

“Give your burdens to the Lord and He will take care of you.”         -Psalm 55:22

Sound simple? It’s not.

Time and time again, we ask God to take away our pain, sadness, and temptation, yet we still feel it.  We try to give our burdens to God, but everyday we feel more and more burdened.  It takes far longer to pass off our anxieties to God than it does to take on more anxiety.

But there is hope.  Whatever we are going through, we are not alone. Even when we feel distant from God, He is still there working for us.  Even when everything in our life feels out of control or messed up, God is there.  God is our provider.  We will ultimately be taken care of by the Almighty God.  And there are some pains, doubts, and fears that may never leave us, but God will still work in us. Paul speaks of something like this in his life:

He says this, “In order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.  But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Cor 12)”

God’s power is made perfect in our shortcomings, failures, and pain.  Often we may feel like we can only give a little, but God can do so much with our little. With little food, Jesus fed 5000 hungry people.  With little faith, God can move mountains.  We are fully known and fully loved by a good Father, who created us, and will do so much with what little we can offer.

Even in our deepest and realest pain, God is beckoning us deeper into a relationship with Him.  He wants to show His almighty power in us.

Let us share our weaknesses.  Let us be vulnerable and open with each other, so that God, in His unending grace, can take our brokenness and messiness and write a beautiful  story of love and redemption with our lives.

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Weeded Faith

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Last Saturday a group from our church was blessed to serve some of our neighbors.  Trash was picked up off the street, lawns were mowed and trimmed, fallen trees were sawed and moved, and lots of overgrowth was removed from houses, bushes, fences, and trees.

At one house, we spent a lot of time on a tree in the front yard.  It was a nice strong tree, but intertwined all throughout it were weeds.  Throughout the tree’s life, it had not received much care.  What was a beautiful tree had become infested with these foreign weeds.  As we worked, more and more overgrowth was removed from the tree.  By the time we left, it looked like a completely different tree.

I think this happens with our faith, and especially the faith of our teens.  As young people grow, they start to develop their own faith.  Thanks to someone in their life, likely a parent or parents, they have some foundational faith knowledge and belief.  That belief is going to grow one way or another, and if we as caring Christian adults allow them to grow on their own, they may end up like the tree with all the weeds.

Teens are faced with a whole mess of media everyday.  And this is not a “let’s all throw our phones away and hide in a dark room” essay.  In fact, I think many in our Christian circles underestimate our teenagers’ ability to handle pop culture properly.  However, because of this massive exposure to social media, music, movies, and the internet, sometimes it’s hard to decipher what is right and what isn’t.  Many people have what I’m going to refer to as a “weeded faith.”  For too long caring Christian adults were unavailable or assuming that “they’ll figure it out,” and now different weeds of the common culture have grown into our faith alongside the branches of truth.

I think that most of this transpires in more controversial topics that for too long Christians have shuddered in fear that a teen might approach them with.  For example, topics of sexual identity.  Many teens have never had a caring adult enter into a conversation with them about this topic outside of the likely “don’t ever do that” or “that’s wrong to do” lecture.  In these realms, the Church is often silent and teens are left to fend for themselves.  It turns out that the current culture is not quiet about these sort of topics, and if that is the only voice someone hears, they are likely to adopt that view into their faith.

And no, I’m not a parent and I never have been.  BUT I have been a teenager, and I am part of a generation that is largely a result of this phenomenon.  Too often adolescents are left to spiritually fend for themselves because they feel like they will be judged for having questions or because they believe they will get the same short and easy answer that doesn’t seem to cut it.

It’s time for the church to try and take care of some of these weeds.  No these conversations are not easy to have, and no these conversations are not always fun.  For too long we have looked the other way and chosen to believe, “Our teens don’t deal with that stuff.”  We need not only to simply be open to the conversation, but we need to initiate an open conversation on these tough topics.

Passing down faith to the next generation is impossible without verbally expressing our views and values.  Someone is going to speak into the lives of our church’s youth, and it is up to us to make sure that they are hearing truth.

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On Tradition

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Maybe you’ve heard the sentence, “Well, we’ve always done it this way.”  Maybe you’ve used this sentence before, I know I have.  This was likely said as a response to some new idea or proposal to change the way something is done.  If you’re a church member, you’ve probably heard this phrase in relation to church.  More than a normal group of people, churches are especially change-averse, and there are many reasons for that.  Many church members have fond memories of years past.  We like to remember the good things.  Sometimes we forget the pitfalls of our traditions because we our not individually affected negatively by them.

So before I go any further, I would like to clarify that I am not against church traditions.  Sometimes traditions just need a little tweaking, and sometimes traditions have lost their luster and keeping them on life-support is more costly to the Kingdom of God than it is beneficial.

I’m glad that two millennia ago there was a man named Jesus who saw through what had become vain tradition.  In Luke chapter 15, some of the religious elite came to Jesus and asked him why his disciples weren’t following the age-old tradition of washing their hands before eating.  Jesus’ response to them must’ve hurt, and it should convict us as well.  Jesus asks them why they are valuing their traditions over the commands of God.  Jesus says that they are refusing to honor their parents by saying that they couldn’t help because they had to donate all of their resources to God.  Jesus says, “You cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition.”  Ouch!

See, our traditions are fine until they have replaced the word of God and our call to grow and serve the Kingdom.  When we care more about holding onto our worship style than proclaiming the good news of Jesus to lost people, we’re in trouble.  When we do what we’ve always done instead of what we should be doing, we’re in trouble.  All over this nation, churches are shrinking where traditionally church has been an aspect of the culture, meanwhile in many other parts of the world where Christianity has been outlawed or minimized, God’s Kingdom is exploding.  Religious people like myself may be tempted to stay in our comfort zone and live, minister, and worship in our routine, but maybe God is calling us out of that.  Maybe God is calling us out of the rut and pitfalls of our traditional hand-washing and into the great feast that has been prepared for us.  We are cheating ourselves by living in the confinements of our lackluster traditions, and we are cheating those who we could be ministering to.

I don’t mean this to be an “I’m right, you’re wrong” essay.  In this I may be the chief of sinners.  But we must ask God for the desire to follow Him into the world.  And if you’re like me, you may not be there yet.  Please join me in praying for ourselves and our church communities.  Please pray that we may be given evangelistic spirits and a desire to sacrifice our egos for the sake of the good news of Jesus.

Traditionally, when people died, they stayed in the tomb, but Jesus didn’t.  Many of our churches are headed towards death without a transformation of the Spirit in our communities.  Let us be a generation filled with the Spirit that breathes life into the dry bones of our communities.

“Father in heaven, holy is your name. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive our trespasses as we have forgiven those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever! Amen.”

Peace be with you!

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A Love Letter

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“I thank my God every time that I remember you.”

This is how Paul starts off his letter to the Philippians, and this is how I would start off my love letter to the Donelson Church of Christ.

I am overcome with nostalgic affection when I remember the people of God who have known me from birth.  These people have surrounded me and my family with love and care for the past 23 years of my life.  The African proverb “It takes a village to raise a child” rings true in my life and in the lives of many others who were so fortunate to be a part of the church of my youth.

It’s important to remember that the Church is a group of people, not a building.  When I say that I love the Donelson church, I am not referring to a building, though I do have many fond memories on the church property.  I remember tripping and busting my lip on a pew, I remember karate chopping another boy on the playground in preschool (I wasn’t allowed to watch Power Rangers for a while after that one), I remember being baptized in a frigid baptistry in November 2008 when the water heater was broken, and I remember many of the technical fouls our church league basketball team acquired.  But the Donelson church is not a building, it is a group of people who have walked with me from birth until now and will continue to walk with me for years to come.

I remember all of the Sunday School teachers who poured so much into our time together and loved us despite our being ungrateful and occasionally disruptive.  I remember the youth group coaches who gave us their time outside of church service and treated us like family.  I remember our home church that was a blessing to our family for many years.  I remember the many counselors that I had at Church Camp, and then later I remember all the campers that were in my cabin when I was a counselor.

Being part of the Donelson church is how I first discovered that I loved youth ministry.  I learned that church is more than a Sunday morning production.  I was blessed as I learned that people were going to care for me long after I graduated from high school.  The church partnered with me as I pursued my passion for missions.  Though I left for summers at a time, I always felt right at home when I returned.  The Donelson church has played one of the largest roles in who I am today.

I would be lacking if I did not acknowledge the immense blessing of my parents valuing the community of Christ.  I truly grew up in a Deuteronomy 6 house.  No, they are not perfect people, and they were not perfect parents, no one can be, but I am sure there has not been a day in my life that I have not been prayed for.  There is no replacement for the influence of a parental figure in the life of a child or teen.  No youth minister can replace the influence of a parent.

That said, I was also fortunate to experience the blessing of a consistent youth minister.  Loving a knuckle-headed teen like I was isn’t always easy.  Whether I was disruptive or even outright defiant, I was still treated with love and care.  After high school, I have been fortunate to continue that relationship as I fostered my passion for youth ministry.  Having that channel for formative conversation has always been an advantage for me.

Yes, I have gotten to experience this great Christian community.  If you’re reading this, you may be thinking “Wow, that’s what the Church is supposed to be! It must be a perfect group of people!”  I can assure you that it is not a perfect group of people.  That’s the beauty of it.  God can take the messiest of people and use them for His perfect plan.  For two thousand years, God has been using churches, just like this church of my youth, to bless the next generation of Christ followers.  It is far too easy to get bogged down in the dysfunction of our churches.  Let’s be a people who focus on God, and let the rest take care of itself.

This past Sunday, I was prayed for by the church as I set to get started on a new chapter of God’s story for my life.  It was a moment that I hope to never forget.  At the beginning of Hebrews 12 it reads “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”  To this point in my life, the Donelson church has been the greatest cloud of witnesses I could ask for.  Because of those who have gone before us in the faith and those who are all around us spurring us onward, we are able to follow Christ to the fullest extent.  I am thankful to the Donelson church for giving me support over the past 23 years and for the support that I will still receive in the future.

The body of Christ is a wonderful thing given to us by God and bound together by the Holy Spirit.  Let us love God, and let us love people.

 

For the Kingdom,

Michael

Faith, Uncategorized

Identity Crisis

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Looking back over my 22 years on earth, I see a lot of different things that I have done.  I also see the different people that I have been along the way.  Maybe that doesn’t make sense to you.  Let me explain…

Throughout my life, if you asked me to describe myself, my answers would be different based on what I was into in that moment, or who I was trying to be.  I remember in elementary school, I thought I was THE smartest kid in the whole school.  So, in order to prove my intellectual superiority, I entered into the 3rd grade spelling bee.  I studied a little, my mom quizzed me and whatnot, so I felt very confident going in.  Obviously, I was a little nervous, there was going to be a lot of people there.

*I take the stage behind the podium for the first word.*

“Michael, your word is museum.”

“Ok… m-u-s-u-e-m.”

“That’s incorrect.  The correct spelling is m-u-s-e-u-m.”

*I start crying as I walk to my mom.*

Well, that was disappointing.  Later one of my teachers said, I bet you’ll never forget how to spell that word, will you?  She was right, I didn’t.  Why do teachers have to be right all of the time?  They’re like moms, moms are always right.

So I was determined to take my rightful place among the top spellers in the land.  I entered into the 4th grade spelling bee.  I studied exponentially more.  My mom quizzed me a whole bunch.  I was ready.  I felt like Rocky Balboa before his fight with Ivan Drago (Rocky IV).  I glided through the first several rounds with ease.  This was my year, I just new it.  And it was down to me and my arch nemesis, Bianca.  This wasn’t the first time we had squared off, she was also impressive when it came to multiplication tables.

*I step to the podium*

“Michael, your word is collage.”

“uhh… (palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms heavy) c-o-l-a-u-g-e.”

“That is incorrect.  The correct spelling is c-o-l-l-a-g-e.”

*I step back.  Bianca steps to the podium.*

“Bianca, if you spell this correctly, you will win the spelling bee.  Your word is banana”

“b-a-n-a-n-a”

*My heart burns with rage.*

I know what you’re thinking, totally unfair, right?  SHE SHOULD HAVE HAD TO SPELL COLLAGE!!!  I had been snubbed, yet again, by my imperfections and a broken system.  This was unjust to say the least.  To make it worse, my little brother Joel won the 2nd grade spelling bee in a landslide, then the 3rd grade, then the 4th.

If I actually look deeper at why I was so upset, I realize that these were not simple losses of spelling bees, they were losses of my identity.

Throughout middle school and high school, I tried to find my identity in other things.  I tried to find my identity in football.  The thing about that was, I was no good at football.  And in high school, I was injured most of the time.  I also tried to find my identity in being the funny guy.  You know this type of person, they have to be the funniest person in the room at all times.  But someone always got more laughs than me.

In college, I tried to find my identity in being all Christian author-y.  I read Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz and wanted to be just like him.  I started a blog – this blog – to show my skills as a writer.  I read Shane Claiborne’s The Irresistible Revolution, and I wanted to be just like him.  I started wearing bandanas to show how pacifistic I was.  I thought that being a pacifist was the coolest.

See, I was so busy trying to be all of these different things, that somewhere along the way, I forgot to be me.

One of my favorite quotes from the recent Olympic season is from Simone Biles (I know, you were expecting America’s new hero and role model, Ryan Lochte. /s).  In an interview, Simone Biles, darling of the U.S.A., made the statement, “I’m not the next Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps, I’m the first Simone Biles.”  It would be easy for her to feel some need to get as many medals as Phelps or Bolt, or to accept that she is another exceptional Olympic athlete who should be mentioned in the same sentence as those two icons.  Biles is a terrific athlete, and there has never been another like her.  Despite all of that, she is focused on being the best Simone Biles that she can be.

That is the point isn’t it!?  God has made us all unique and different!

We do ourselves and the Kingdom of God a disservice when we place our identity in anything other than being children of God existing for the redemption of the world.

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its parts form one body, so it is with Christ.    1 Corinthians 12:12

We are all differently gifted and blessed by God to serve in ways that only we can!  We are members of the body of Christ, created for a specific purpose, and together, God will do powerful things.

 

Peace and Blessings,

-Michael

Faith, Uncategorized

my.. I mean thy… will be done

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So I guess I would describe my current season of life as a season of waiting.

In my current situation, I have learned a lot about myself.  Waiting for things tends to do that.  See, when we wait for things, we often like to pass the time doing something to keep out minds busy about other things until the time comes to do whatever it is that we’re waiting to do.  Go ahead, next time you’re waiting on anything, see what you do.  I almost always pull out the phone.  That’s pretty much a go-to.  It’s safe, and strangely it has become completely socially acceptable to bury my head in my phone in the dentist’s waiting room, when I’m waiting on someone to meet me, or even at times when there is a lull in conversation.  I do not say this to condone my behavior, I am just making an observation as to something that I do that maybe you relate to.  ANYWAYS, the point is when we’re waiting, we like to keep our minds preoccupied with other things, as opposed to facing the strangeness and potentially awkward experience of waiting.  After all, what are we supposed to do?  Just sit and think?

Well by this point in what I would consider to be a prolonged period of waiting, I have pretty much exhausted all of my time-wasting options or gotten bored with them.  So now I sit here with questions.  Questions that I’m not sure I have a clear answer to.

For starters, when will this waiting end?

So you can better understand what I mean, let me explain.  I feel this calling to youth ministry, and I also feel a calling to do that as part of a church.  At this point, I want youth ministry to be my life’s work, and I need a church to support me in that; a church family to take me in and work with me to show the love of Jesus to teenagers both who are part of the church and those who are not yet part of the church.  I want to come alongside parents as they lead their children in faith.  So I’m waiting for a church to welcome this partnership.

So I am seeking these opportunities.  And I trust that God works in ways that I do not understand and cannot fathom, and I trust that it will work out for the best.  I’m also learning that the saying, “patience is a virtue” is true because virtues take practice, and patience certainly takes practice.  So I wait, and I have to believe that God’s time is better than mine.

Secondly, why has nothing already fallen into place?

The saying, “good things come to those who wait,” may be true, but it rarely appears to be truthful to those who are actually waiting.  To be comforted by this conventional wisdom, one must be hopeful about the result of their waiting.

I believe Abram was asking himself a similar question when God had proclaimed that he would be the father of a great nation, but all he had to show for it was an aging barren wife.  This question, if left unchecked, can cause us to do some rash things like how Abram slept with Hagar in order to conceive a son (Ishmael), perhaps to take his future and his family’s future into his own hands.  Maybe he thought this would in some way force God’s hand into sending his blessing through Ishmael’s line.  But God Almighty doesn’t always do what we think is best.  The Lord was planning something else, something that would go far beyond anything Abram could have imagined.  Through barren Sarai came a son, Isaac.  Through Isaac’s line, came Jesus of Nazareth, Savior of the World.

So maybe nothing’s fallen into place because though it was convenient, it wasn’t quite the plan.

And finally, when will thy will be my will?

For me, sometimes the hardest thing to pray is “thy will be done.”  Not because I don’t believe that God’s will is good and perfect, but because it’s not mine.  And I don’t feel like a necessarily terrible person for struggling with this because Jesus didn’t seem to have a particularly easy time praying this in the garden before his arrest.  Even Jesus, Son of God and member of the Holy Trinity had to surrender control to the will of the Father.  How much more so should I!?

To have God transform our will into His will, we must acknowledge that there is an Almighty God who created our world and that there is the Holy Spirit who is alive and active in our world.  We must also trust that God’s will is good for us.  And finally must pray that His will be done in our world and in our lives.  I think the latter of those is the more difficult for me most of the time.  I have to acknowledge that my life is not really “my” life, but rather that I am here on earth as an agent of the Kingdom of God.

We have to train every part of ourselves to surrender to God’s will.  We must pray that God will give us his eyes.  We must pray that God will indwell us with His Spirit.  And we must pray that God turn our thoughts towards him.

So yeah, strange times currently.  Life can get weird when you graduate from college.  I’ve learned that.  I want to leave you with a couple of prayers.  The first from Thomas Merton, and the second from Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.“

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The Mess

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This world is a mess.

News outlets, social media, and everything else is focused in on just how messy it is. For the last week, the story has shifted from the never-boring U.S. Presidential race, to issues of race, justice, and side choosing.  Many people are throwing stones (mostly figuratively) or shouting into the abyss of public opinion on these matters.  I have thought plenty about these matters over the last week, and I have had conversations with people on these happenings, but I do not write today to choose a side, or to persuade people of one thing or another.

What I have realized over the past week is that this world is a mess.  That couldn’t be more clear to me.  What has hit me even harder however is the realization that

I am a mess.  

Yes, I, Michael David Clinger, come before all who will read this today (so at least my mom…probably) and acknowledge that I am a screwed up human being.  I am sure there are people that know me who would read this and agree, but truthfully, I doubt those people read my blog.  Here I am, a 22-year-old former Sunday School all-star and Christian University Alum, and I want to be clear: My life has sin in it.  And yes, I do believe that I have been crucified with Christ, so I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, but the harsh reality of sin is that it does not discriminate.

Some of you might know this, but in Matthew 5-7 Jesus preaches this thing that we now call the Sermon on the Mount.  At the beginning of chapter 7, Jesus says this:

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

SO, in this story, I identify with the hypocrite.  That’s the guy walking around with the plank in his own eye.  There have been times in my life when I would have called for other people to stop being so dang hypocritical all the time, but looking back on that, I was doing the same thing.

See, I don’t want to deal with the plank or planks in my own eye.  It is a lot easier to point my finger at someone else and tell them to get their life together than it is for me to start the long journey of plank removal.  My plank is my plank; it is no one else’s.  It may be larger or smaller, shaped differently, and altering my view in different ways than others, so how could I throw stones at anyone else for having a different plank than I have?

Today it is easy to jump on the internet and rip off some wordy something-or-other about how certain people are wrong, but I must first confront my own wrongness.  In order to see clearly the terribleness of the world, I must first identify the terrible in my own heart.  It is in those moments when I come into the presence of the Almighty God who does no wrong.  I am amazed at the ways in which God’s righteousness mends the brokenness of life.  God takes our planks and makes bridges.  He uses the ways in which we struggle to bring good into a world lacking in goodness.

 

Within each of us lies the ability…

to love and to hate, to mend and to break, to bless and to curse, to live and to die.

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why you can’t win the sin game

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I know I’m not the only one, but I like to win.  In fact, competing can bring out the best and the worst in me.  Growing up, I competed in sports.  And though I was very rarely on a winning team, we did occasionally win a game.  What a feeling!  Walking away the victor from a tightly contested soccer, basketball, or football game was such a rush!  We had a few really close victories playing football in high school, and wow, I experienced adrenaline like never before, and I would always wake up super hoarse the next day (all that yelling from the sideline really takes it out of a person).  I also remember a few crushing losses.  Maybe more than I love winning, I hate losing.  I take losses horribly, so to prevent losing, I try really really hard.

And for the longest time, that is what I have tried to do with my faith.  Try really really hard.  With all of this trying however, I still lose.  Every single time, no matter how hard I try, sin always beats me.  And, of course, my motivation varies.  I have often been motivated by a call to ministry.  This motivation says that because I am a minister, I have to be good and do all of the right things.  This motivation says that because I am a minister, if I do mess up, which I better not, that no one can know.  If anyone found out, they might knock me right off that pedestal they have placed me on.

Another motivation I have often felt is the motivation to meet expectations.  A natural born people pleaser, I have always wanted to fit the mold that people have set for me, and many times in my life that has been the mold of model Christian.  My parents expected me to behave and act right, so I did, mostly.  My church expected me to be a role model for younger kids, so I was, mostly.  And my friends expected me to be a good, quality guy, so I was, mostly.

Mostly.  Throughout every stage of my life, I have done the right thing, been a good guy, stayed on the right path, mostly.  But in a game against sin, mostly still loses.  No matter how hard I’ve tried throughout my life, there’s always been missteps, fumbles, and straight up disobediences.  But why? certainly not for lack of trying.  I have always wanted to do the right thing, but at the end of the day, I have always fallen short of the finish line, losing to sin once again.

So what do we do with that?

We will never win the game against sin until we pledge allegiance to the One who already has.  Luckily for us, we’ve already been invited to join the winners, and they’re having a party!

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Romans 8:1-4 ESV

In his death, burial, and resurrection, JESUS CHRIST HAS ALREADY WON!

The battle is over, for God has done what the law couldn’t do (v.3), HE HAS BEATEN SIN!

The Enemy has lost the battle, and now sin is seeking to take whoever it can with it.

So, while alone, we will always lose, all we have to do is surrender to the Kingdom of God which has already won.  So let us be active participants in the Kingdom through the Spirit! For what was wrong has been made right, where there was death there is now life; the deaf hear, the blind see, and the lame walk!

 

-MC

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still part of the family

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My name is Michael Clinger.  I’m 21 years old.  And I love the church.

Statistically speaking, I shouldn’t feel this way.  By now I should have grown out of it.  I should like Jesus, but not the church.  Because the church is old and irrelevant, right?  Because Jesus was good, and Christians are hypocrites.  Because there’s just nothing for me at church anymore.  Because church is boring, and it doesn’t change anything.  Because Christians are bigots and aren’t at all like Jesus.  Because the church is filled with fake people sitting in multi-million dollar buildings who go there to be seen.  Because Christians put their metaphorical noses where they don’t belong.  Because Christians tell the world what is wrong with it while completely ignoring their own issues.  Because by now, I’ve realized that there is no difference between Christians and other people, with the exception of a Sunday morning obligation that is.

By now, I should be pretty far removed from the church, but I’m not.

I love the church.  

Growing up, I didn’t have a choice whether or not I would go to church.  I was there three times a week if not more because my parents were bigger than me, smarter than me, and were in charge.  Oh, I didn’t want to go to church?  That’s too bad because I was going.  I soon learned that I could do this the easy way or the hard way, but both had the same result.  The result being me, at church, with my parents.  Once while on a three-week family vacation in the summer of 2003, my parents did some research on local churches and found the church of Christ in town… we were in South Dakota… on a road-trip vacation… and we had to go to church.  Why? Because it was Sunday, and my parents saw the value of being with the Church on the first day of the week.  So what did me and my brothers do?  We sat through it.  I remember wondering how long we’d have to hang around afterwards as people continued to talk to my parents.  Often we would be near the last, if not THE last, to leave the church building on Sundays (and Wednesdays…).  Why?  Because my parents were about their Father’s business.  Because they saw value in the people who make up the Church.  And what did my two brothers and I do while they talked?  Did we have someone stay with us?  Did we have games to play with each other?  No.  We could stand there begging our parents to please let us leave, or we could find other ways to entertain ourselves.  I know the layout of that church building like the back of my hand, and it’s because we would goof off and run around.  I remember being often scolded by my parents for running in the church building.  “You’re going to run into an old lady and knock her over,” was a very common critique by my parents.  Shouldn’t my parents have been terrified that I could get taken or lost?  Maybe, but the thing about growing up in church is that many an adult would have felt comfortable grabbing me and returning me to my parents. It takes a village to raise a child?  That village was my church.  That church was my family.  That church IS my family.

And as I’ve gone through three and a half years of college, those relationships still endure.  Obviously things aren’t exactly the same.  I can’t remember the last time I fell and hit my face on the ground, or pew, or bench, or other and was taken care of, but I do know that I have a network of people who love me and care for me deeply.  A group of people who are my family.  And by their very nature, families are dysfunctional.  Families are groups of imperfect people who claim one another because blood is thicker than water (at least that’s what my mom would say).  But the Church’s blood is even thicker.  That being the blood of Jesus.

So no, the Church isn’t perfect.  It doesn’t always work together for good, and sometimes individuals or subgroups from the Church go rogue and bring infamy to the family, but I believe that Jesus loves the Church, and I believe He’s coming back.  Because of that, I claim the Church.  I am part of the Church, and I love the Church.

Father, bring renewal in the hearts of Your people.  Awaken Your Church, and those who feel jaded towards it.  Let the desires of Your heart become the desires of ours.  You are good, holy, and sovereign.  In all things, let Your will be done as it is in heaven.  Through Jesus we pray, Amen.