other people

Awhile back I was feeling super frustrated. There were some folks close to me who seemed to constantly be getting in the way of my plans and my desires, whether unconsciously or consciously, intentionally or naively. It was all I could do to keep from shouting out at them in frustration, opposing them in the same way they were opposing me, or writing them off as irrelevant and useless altogether.

Suffice to say, none of those options are truly available to followers of Christ.

Having tried to reason with them (to no avail), I was left with simply tolerating them. I told myself that God was sanctifying me through their behavior, that this was the means through which he was growing me into a better human being, and that so long as I conducted myself appropriately and acted in love, God would vindicate me in the end.

Thing is, this nonsense went on for a long, long time. And I have a temper. I was really angry all the time.

But no one saw it. Or, at least, no one outside of my wife and closest friend knew I was frustrated with anything. I never lost my cool. I never raised my voice. I never said anything I'd later regret. I managed myself perfectly.

But it still sucked, and I wanted it to be over. I wanted victory, and it couldn't come fast enough. I began to despair that I would ever be rid of this ceaseless annoyance, this constant animosity.

Then one day, my friend John came to me and said, "hey man, I know what you're going through, and I know it's tough, but I want you to know you're doing really well with it. God is proud of you."

Aha!

His words gave me renewed vigor to keep on doing what I had been doing. Since I couldn't fix the problem, my best option was to suffer well. And even though I was (quite frankly) sick to death of putting up with it all, my friend's words allowed me to continue doing what I needed to do in order to see it through to the end and finish well.

Do you see?

I was longing for victory, but I already had it. I was experiencing victory in the midst of all the garbage I had to endure because the Spirit of God was, in fact, sanctifying me through those miserable moments. God's work was being done in me in the middle of it all. It wasn't pleasant, but I was growing stronger and more self-controlled every minute. But I needed my friend in order to realize it. I needed someone to come up to me and say, "good job, don't quit."

We have a responsibility to each other to congratulate and validate and authenticate a life well lived. We need to give each other kudos, especially in the suck, so we don't lose heart. Of course we're not trying to live righteously in order to impress others, but we do need the affirmation of other people from time to time to let us know our efforts aren't wasted.

God speaks to us through other people. When they see our goodness, and tell us, it's like God is telling us too.

Consequently, we need to do a better job of seeing the good in others and telling them about it, so they are encouraged too.

Speak up. No one should be the gag in the mouth of God.

win back who you are

Carmel and I recently began watching Downton Abbey. It's not my kind of show, yet I can't help but love it. The characters are fascinatingly flawed, and the plot never tips over into melodrama.

Perhaps the main foil in the show is the ladies' maid Miss O'Brian. O'Brian is bitter, resentful, and mean-spirited. She always works to harm others, sow mischief, and meddle in the affairs of everyone around her. However, toward the end of the first season, there's a moment when O'Brian walks past a mirror and sees herself just as she's in the middle of some particularly nasty business. Looking at herself square in the eyes, O'Brian softens and says "this isn't you." I won't give anything of the plot away save to clarify that O'Brian's transformation-work from wicked old bat to new creation is a long way from over, but I'd like to point out that small moment of personal victory. Because, for however brief a time, O'Brian came face to face with who she had become, and she didn't like it.

Victory means winning back who you are, truly. It means reclaiming your God-given identity in Christ. It means recovering the best possible version of yourself and cooperating with the Spirit to be that version of you all the time.

In Christ, you have a better identity, a truer one. In Christ, you're more than a conqueror. You're a child of the king, and you've been imbued with dignity and worth from the moment you were born.

Why did Christ come down from heaven? To destroy sin, overcome death, and give life to man.

And what does that mean for us? Firstly, it means realizing we are no longer bound to our sin, our ill temper, or our misdeeds. The lie of this world is that you are powerless against your addictions, your genes, your ethnicity, your heritage, and your desires. The truth is that you are not a slave. THIS IS NOT WHO YOU ARE.

Don't forget it.

victims and victors

A victor acts a certain way and a victim another. Victors enjoy their spoils. They celebrate. They laugh. They throw parties. Victims diminish into the background, shy and reclusive for fear of being hurt. A victor wants to taste victory again. A victim wants no part in any endeavor where he may not win, choosing to isolate himself and villanize others.

Christ won, and shares his victory with us, and yet we live like victims.

We must learn to live in victory, to walk in victory, to enjoy the spoils of war.

One of the simplest ways to enjoy the victory we have in Christ is to look at your life and consider all that you should be, but aren't, negatively. For example, I recently spoke to a woman whose husband had an affair and left her alone with her children. She was devastated. She told me, "I should hate him and hate [the woman he ran off with], but I don't. I can't forgive them yet, but I'm already convinced I will be able to. Maybe soon." This woman, by all rights, should have been bitter, hateful, resentful, and full of spite. She should have identified herself as a victim. But she didn't.

That's victory--to know that even though you've been hurt, you're still willing to forgive.

To find solace, even though you should be riddled with hate.

To have peace, even in the midst of life's conflicts.

Every time you should be something (bad), and you're not, that's victory.

Over the years I've come to adopt a few little formulae to help me process the work of Christ in me. They're simple really, but I find myself writing them on scraps of paper or in the margins of my Bible. Because they help.

For example, I might write: I'm _____ (happy, good, hopeful), even though I'm ______ (suffering, flawed, hurting), because Christ _____ (is with me, forgives me, promises me something better and has been proven faithful). As I brainstorm all the possible responses to these simple blank spaces, I'm amazed at how prevalent his victory actually is in me. His work is so comprehensive that the least strenuous application of my will and thoughts bring forth a fountain of true possible answers.

Another little favorite is to write: I should be ______ (fed up, crushed, violent), but I'm not. I AM _______ (patient, resilient, peaceful beyond all understanding). I think what I like most about this second option is the play on words. I AM is a common way to refer to God, harkening back to Exodus when God revealed himself to Moses. It makes sense to me that the most victorious aspects of my life are the ones where I am most like I AM.

And, of course, I’m no longer a victim. I am a victor, precisely because the victory was won by I AM.

I just need to start living like it.

christus victor

When I was a kid growing up in church we used to sing this song, Victory in Jesus. And, whether it was the song or something else, it seemed like 'victory in Jesus' was a pretty popular idea around Calvary Community Church. Crazed tambourinists shouted it, lonely widows claimed it, drunks begged for it, and the choir hummed it in the background of the Sunday sermon. Consequently, I grew up in an ecosystem of victory chants and ejaculations, a veritable smorgasbord of Christian conquest.

I miss that.

For a time I was embarrassed by all the hootin' and hollarin' (as they liked to call it), but those good folks—gardeners of God's eternality, as I now recall—had something most people lack. And they had it in spades.

They had hope.

They believed that no matter how bad things got, no matter how dire their straits or grim their chances, that God's Spirit was on the move to save, to heal, to rescue, and to restore. They had hope when it looked like pure fantasy, and they had it for the most ridiculous things. They hoped money would show up on their door steps at night while they slept, and they hoped their children would be unable to sleep because God's Spirit would convict them of their sin and they would fall to their knees in spectacular repentance, they had hope for divine deliverance and supernatural healing, hope for jobs and better jobs, hope for mystical romances that practically fell from heaven. And, lo and behold (for those are, indeed, perfectly suitable words here), they would find money and receive gifts, and their children did run to the altar to get both saved and married (sometimes simultaneously). Not always. But lots. And when they didn't get what they wanted, or get it in the way they desired, that didn't stop them from shouting, claiming, walking, and believing for victory.

When I look at my midwestern town, with all its economic woes and cultural false-starts, I think we could use a little victory. I think we outta start drinking that victory Kool Aid. Because those folks that raised me had it right.

We've got something to hope for, because we've got someone on whom to rest all our hopes. And Christ Jesus didn't just make a few promises about a better life later on, he won the decisive victory against the powers of darkness on the cross. He defeated death, he made a show of the powers of Satan and his subordinates, and he reversed the effects of sin on the human soul.

And because he won the victory, and because we are united with him through his Holy Spirit, we share in that victory too.

Victory in Jesus, my savior forever.

And this victory isn't at all like the victories recognized by the rest of the world. This isn't competition or comparison or domination or control. This isn't about "success" and it's certainly not about "winning" (apologies to Charlie Sheen, of course). Christian victory is about more than external results. Oh sure—those have a role to play and they're important in their own right—but make no mistake, what God wants to do IN his people is far more significant than what he wants his people to accomplish. His work is making us like him. Whether or not we're like him and famous or like him and beautiful is less consequential than whether or not we're loving like him or self-sacrificial like him.

That's why Christian victory is about overcoming obstacles, and demolishing strongholds, about rising above adversity and putting to death our sinful nature in cooperation with the Spirit of God.

Because the victory isn't really ours. It's his, but we get to share it. The victory is in us, like something we've got to incubate or gestate, not beyond us like something we've got to achieve, or reach, or perform.

So if you find yourself hopeless, despondent, melancholy and hurting, try and remember this: he won, so you can live in victory. Get started by telling him thank you, and then start thinking hard about what he wants you to do with it.

thecommontruth.org

i just discovered that our old video series, the common truth, has had the short films pulled. i'll see what's up, but--for now--i thought i'd repost them here. taylor did such a great job of producing them, it'd be a shame not to show them off one more time.

Palm Sunday from Taylor Keating on Vimeo.

Fig Monday from Taylor Keating on Vimeo.

Great Tuesday from Taylor Keating on Vimeo.

Spy Wednesday from Taylor Keating on Vimeo.

Maundy Thursday from Taylor Keating on Vimeo.

Good Friday from Taylor Keating on Vimeo.

Holy Saturday from Taylor Keating on Vimeo.

Easter Sunday from Taylor Keating on Vimeo.

Enneagram: type 7

Everyone keeps raving about the Enneagram test, so I thought I'd take it. Here are my results:

Type Seven Overview

We have named this personality type The Enthusiast because Sevens are enthusiastic about almost everything that catches their attention. They approach life with curiosity, optimism, and a sense of adventure, like “kids in a candy store” who look at the world in wide-eyed, rapt anticipation of all the good things they are about to experience. They are bold and vivacious, pursuing what they want in life with a cheerful determination. They have a quality best described by the Yiddish word “chutzpah”—a kind of brash “nerviness.”

Although Sevens are in the Thinking Center, this is not immediately apparent because they tend to be extremely practical and engaged in a multitude of projects at any given time. Their thinking is anticipatory: they foresee events and generate ideas “on the fly,” favoring activities that stimulate their minds—which in turn generate more things to do and think about. Sevens are not necessarily intellectual or studious by any standard definition, although they are often intelligent and can be widely read and highly verbal. Their minds move rapidly from one idea to the next, making Sevens gifted at brainstorming and synthesizing information. Sevens are exhilarated by the rush of ideas and by the pleasure of being spontaneous, preferring broad overviews and the excitement of the initial stages of the creative process to probing a single topic in depth.

Devon, a successful business woman, shares with us some of the inner workings of her Seven mindset.

“I am definitely a list person. It’s not really for memory since I have a great memory. It’s more for down-loading information so that my mind won’t spin on it. For example, I was at a concert where the tickets were hard to get and very expensive. I couldn’t sit through it. My mind was torturing me with the things I needed to do. Finally, I had to get up and leave. This was very upsetting to the person I went with and I missed a good show.”

Sevens are frequently endowed with quick, agile minds, and can be exceptionally fast learners. This is true both of their ability to absorb information (language, facts, and procedures) and their ability to learn new manual skills—they tend to have excellent mind-body coordination, and manual dexterity (typewriting, piano playing, tennis). All of this can combine to make a Seven into the quintessential "Renaissance person."

Ironically, Sevens' wide-ranging curiosity and ability to learn quickly can also create problems for them. Because they are able to pick up many different skills with relative ease, it becomes more difficult for them to decide what to do with themselves. As a result, they also do not always value their abilities as they would if they had to struggle to gain them. When Sevens are more balanced however, their versatility, curiosity, and ability to learn can lead them to extraordinary achievement.

The root of their problem is common to all of the types of the Thinking Center: they are out of touch with the inner guidance and support of their Essential nature. As with Fives and Sixes, this creates a deep anxiety in Sevens. They do not feel that they know what to do or how to make choices that will be beneficial to themselves and others. Sevens cope with this anxiety in two ways. First, they try to keep their minds busy all of the time. As long as Sevens can keep their minds occupied, especially with projects and positive ideas for the future, they can, to some extent, keep anxiety and negative feelings out of conscious awareness. Likewise, since their thinking is stimulated by activity, Sevens are compelled to stay on the go, moving from one experience to the next, searching for more stimulation. This is not to say that Sevens are "spinning their wheels." They generally enjoy being practical and getting things done.

Frances, a successful business consultant, sounds more energetic than is humanly possible—and yet, she is a typical Seven:

“I am highly, highly productive. At the office, I am joyful and my mind is running at its best. I might create several marketing campaigns for a client, work on the outline for an upcoming seminar, talk out a difficult problem with a client on the telephone, close two deals, make a project list, dictate a few letters and look up to see that it’s 9:30 a.m. and my assistant is coming in to start our work for the day.”

Second, Sevens cope with the loss of Essential guidance by using the “trial and error” method: they try everything to make sure they know what is best. On a very deep level, Sevens do not feel that they can find what they really want in life. They therefore tend to try everything—and ultimately may even resort to anything as a substitute for what they are really looking for. (“If I can’t have what will really satisfy me, I’ll enjoy myself anyway. I’ll have all kinds of experiences—that way I will not feel bad about not getting what I really want.”)

We can see this in action even in the most trivial areas of their daily lives. Unable to decide whether he wants vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry ice cream, a Seven will want all three flavors—just to be sure that he does not miss out on the “right” choice. Having two weeks for a vacation and a desire to visit Europe brings a similar quandary. Which countries and cities to visit? Which sites to see? The Seven’s way of dealing with this will be to cram as many different countries, cities, and attractions into his vacation as possible. While they are scrambling after exciting experiences, the real object of their heart’s desire (their personal Rosebud, as it were) may be so deeply buried in their unconscious that they are never really aware of precisely what it is.

Furthermore, as Sevens speed up their pursuit of whatever seems to offer freedom and satisfaction, they tend to make worse choices, and they are less able to be satisfied because everything is experienced indirectly, through the dense filter of their fast-paced mental activity. The result is that Sevens end up anxious, frustrated, and enraged, with fewer resources available to them physically, emotionally, or financially. They may end up ruining their health, their relationships, and their finances in their search for happiness.

Gertrude is busy establishing her career and family now, but she looks back at how this tendency contributed to her getting a rough start in life.

“There wasn’t anything to do at home or in the tiny Southern town I grew up in. I was dying to get out of it and go someplace more exciting. When I was 16, I started dating, and before long I got pregnant, but the father didn’t want to marry me—which was okay since I didn’t want to marry him, either. It wasn’t too long before I found somebody else, and we got married, and I got to move to a larger city. But it didn’t really work out the way I wanted because after I had the baby, we broke up and I had to move back home. I stayed there for a year or two to get my feet on the ground. When things were looking bleak, I married someone else. I’m 19 now and I guess I’ve done a lot already.”

On the positive side, however, Sevens are extremely optimistic people—exuberant and upbeat. They are endowed with abundant vitality and a desire to fully participate in their lives each day. They are naturally cheerful and good humored, not taking themselves too seriously, or anything else for that matter. As we have seen, the Basic Desire of Sevens is to be satisfied, happy, and fulfilled, and when they are balanced within themselves, their joy and enthusiasm for life naturally affect everyone around them. They remind us of the pure pleasure of existence—the greatest gift of all.

(from The Wisdom of the Enneagram, p. 262-264)

i love you x100