Weakness Training

Most people today are familiar with strength training, wherein one works out with weights and does stretches in order to burn fat, tone up, and generally become a stronger person. Those who have read the best seller titled: “The Daniel Plan” by Rick Warren et al, might even be thinking of the phrase “Daniel Strong,” a good goal for us all. Truth be told, I’ve always thought of myself as that kind of strong, and in recent years have done things to try to stay that way… especially as I get older (ugh).

In fact, I have spent several seasons of my life committed to strength training, and had just taken it back up again over the last couple of months, due to the fact that a hip injury had forced me to stop running. I thought, well, since I can’t run I’ll start doing some weights at the gym while I wait for this to heal. However, looking back today I realized that my life of late has been much more about weakness training than strength training.

I think this season of weakness training may have started about a year ago, when I finally laid down my pride, publicly admitted my hearing loss (something I tried to hide for years), and purchased hearing aids. I am only forty-five. In case you don’t know, forty-five-year-olds don’t often get hearing aids, but this one did, and they do help me hear better, but that’s not all they do. They humble me. I used to be really cool. Now, not so much. And if you don’t think wearing hearing aids makes people think you’re old and a lot less cool, I dare you to try it.

So… I started running… and I was really getting into it and, eh hem, kind of proud to have run several half marathons, and was hoping to run a full marathon perhaps in the Fall, but then a few months ago I hurt my hip, mountain biking. In denial, I proceeded to run another half marathon through the pain. After that, my hip got so bad I had to stop running to let it heal, but nothing seemed to make it better. Always before I was that guy who healed ridiculously fast, but this time… no progress at all. What I thought would get better in a couple of weeks is really not much better after three months… and it is debilitating. (Yes moms, I have had x-rays, etc., and have tried one type of doctor and am seeing a different type of doctor starting next week).

So with the injury continuing to cramp my style, the next thing I knew it was time for our annual mission trip to Nicaragua which includes physical work such as building houses. Every other year I’ve been able to impress (myself) as a “hard worker,” putting my physical stamina and strength on display (heh heh). I would be the one to go get the wheel borough full of cement every time (as if anyone noticed), but this time I couldn’t do anything impressive at all, and in fact, felt so crummy that for the first two days, I just wanted to go home. What was my problem? Well things weren’t the same as usual, spiritually (people were less responsive and opportunities were less abundant this year, another blog perhaps) and meanwhile I couldn’t do very much physically either so I just felt completely useless.

To make matters worse, my physical limitation was a hip problem… just like my dear Dad… who is wonderful, but old (just kidding, Dad). But really, everyone misunderstanding the situation (an injury) and talking to me about hip surgery (Dad’s had two), basically made me face that I’m not thirty anymore and to accept the fact that it all gets worse (physically) from here. Some of you know that’s a pretty painful reality check. So here I am trying to convince myself that this is not going to be a problem for me until the day I die, and meanwhile unable to do the work I normally do or to portray the image I normally portray (yes, I know how this sounds), I did what I could, but even what little I did was apparently too much, because there were two nights when I lay in agony, moaning and groaning in pain and not sleeping at all, which led to some really bad days when I couldn’t even think straight. I then made the “mistake” of telling people on our team how much pain I was experiencing, which led to me feeling even more like a total wimp, even as sweet, loving people wanted to fuss over me (and I did appreciate it, but it’s also humbling). Everyone was very caring. Superman (in my own mind) was down. The leader could not lead. He simply was not capable. He was emotionally spent and physically he might as well have been eighty-five. WEAKNESS. I hate it. Ouch.

But that wasn’t the end of the week’s lessons for me. Stomach problems hit next and I spent the week feeling miserable in the gut, but then a sore throat signaled what would become a terrible head cold to go along with my lower end problems. All of this turned into a nightmare on the very long journey home through three airports and six takeoffs and landings. I thought my head would explode… or maybe something else. Everyone felt sorry for me… just what I wanted (not). This terrible trip (from 3 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday) lead to the first time in twenty-five years that I have missed a Sunday service for illness. Yes, I was absolutely keeping track and was quite proud of my flawless twenty-five-year record, now history. I stayed home sick Sunday (in defeat) and three days later I’m just starting to feel well enough to type this blog.

So, I wonder if there is a lesson in all of this for me? DUH!!! As the Apostle Paul put it in 2^nd Corinthians 12, God is saying: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” And Paul went on to say, “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

I must decrease. He must increase. Amen.

We could also insert here any of the many verses about humility and how God is opposed to the proud but lifts up the humble, right? So I say to myself, “Hello, are you listening? What is God trying to teach you, dummy?” And, of course it is obvious isn’t it? I’ve had a dose of weakness training, and the Lord knows I needed it. Mr. Healthy and Mr. Strong is now Mr. Sick and Mr. Weak. And so I say also with Paul, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25a).

Who knew I needed weakness training? God did. And for all of you who are reading this and thinking, “Yeah, we knew you needed it too…” well look out brother, because you may be next. And in case I haven’t been clear, you are not going to like it, because with weakness training, it really is “No pain, no gain.”

So, it has been a rough few months, physically speaking, but now I am understanding more what God is doing, and I have hope for the answer to another of Paul’s prayers in my life, “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man” (Eph. 3:16). Let it be true, Lord. Let it be true.

I surrender.

Immigration: A Dissenting View

I am conservative to the core. I am conservative on the social issues and the economic issues. I want to return to the Limited Government of our Founding Fathers. But I disagree with the rhetoric of most conservatives when it comes to immigration. Why? Because I am a principled man, and my principles are based on the Bible. My views on abortion, gay marriage, the role of government, and everything else are based on Scripture. You could say I’m on the Christian right. Haters, I’m your target.

But how exactly is it a “Christian Right” position to be hateful toward illegal immigrants? “Oh, we aren’t hateful,” might be your response. Really? Because I’ve had emails forwarded to me by Christians that sound pretty hateful (and fearful and selfish and ignorant). Thank God other countries don’t treat Americans the same way or we wouldn’t be able to have missionaries all over the world. And what if they said to our missionaries, “You have to learn our language first before you are welcome here?” Ridiculous, selfish and sad, not to mention a long way from Christ-like. Good grief, they learn English by being here for awhile. They all do.

Let me get a couple of “straw men” out of the way before I go on. 1) Felons who aren’t citizens should be put into prison. 2) Sanctuary cities are a bad idea. 3) I am not for amnesty or open borders. 4) I realize I don’t have all the answers to this extremely complicated problem.

With those caveats stated, let me get back to the reason I am not happy with the way most conservative Christians are coming across on this issue. The Bible is not silent regarding immigration and immigrants. One of the many passages of Scripture that I believe applies very well is Leviticus 19:33-34, which says,

“When a foreigner lives with you in your land, you must not oppress him. You must regard the foreigner who lives with you as the native-born among you. You are to love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt; behold I am Yahweh your God.”

And I can hear someone saying, “Well that’s Leviticus; it doesn’t count now,” or “We aren’t Israel and we weren’t in Egypt.” And you would have a point. The ceremonial/civil law no longer applies to us in a literal sense, and we were never slaves in Egypt. However, anyone who isn’t trying so hard not to listen, can surely see that there is a principle here that is deeper and timeless. This is not even a law, for that matter. This is a “way to be” as a follower and representative of Yahweh. Read it again.

So what am I saying? Stop the hatred. Stop lumping them all together as if they were common criminals here to take something that is yours. Oh how selfish can we be? Part of the problem is that most people talking hatefully don’t know the people they are talking about. They don’t see the beautiful families they casually call “illegals,” with the underlying point being that these people have no rights and should be treated as if they were thugs deserving of prison. Well, I do know some of them and they tend to be wonderful people with a better value system than many Americans. These are real people… good people… trying to provide for their families. They should not be criminalized simply because they don’t have the right papers. This is not a Christian attitude.

Are you aware of the reason most immigrants are technically here illegally? They are here illegally because it is virtually IMPOSSIBLE for them to be here legally. Our system simply does not work. I have first-hand knowledge of this fact. Newsflash: Most didn’t swim across the river. Over half of them came here legally, and have simply overstayed their visas. What happened? Why couldn’t they get their visas renewed? They came to study or to work with our compliments. We gave them a visa that said, “Y’all come.” So they came and they established themselves and their families here and their children learned English and made friends, but then at some point the government said, “Your visa is up. Go back home or we will handcuff you and ship you back like FedEx packages sent to the wrong place.”

See it isn’t that hard to get into our country for a little while, but when it is time to renew that visa or to try for a more permanent status, that’s when you face the impossibility of the tangled up bureaucracy that is our American government. Conservatives love to rail against the broken system, only to expect immigrants to work with it. Well, they can’t. There is virtually no path to a long-term visa, much less citizenship, unless you have years to wait and lots of money to spend on a lawyer to try to get it through. Meanwhile, even if someone is so noble as to try to get through the system legally, during those months or years when the government can’t seem to get it done, they are considered “illegal.” It is true that most eventually give up on the paperwork and buy themselves a fake social security card for about 50 bucks so they can keep on working rather than to live on handouts or pack up their children and head back to third-world poverty. Have you really tried putting yourself in their shoes? Really? REALLY?

So what do I think needs to happen? We absolutely need to secure our borders and know who is entering and leaving our country. We need to keep felons and terrorists out, and if they get in and commit crime, I say we deal with them ourselves and lock them up so they can’t just keep sneaking back across our border. We do need to stop immigrants from coming in illegally as best we can, probably including better fences or walls or whatever it takes to develop a system where we can monitor who is coming, but I also believe we should help those who are already here gain extended visas or citizenship (which currently is virtually impossible). I say that if they are here to work and to contribute, and especially if they came legally in the first place, we should create a reasonable pathway for them to become legal and for them to stay long term and raise their families here. And yet, every time someone tries to suggest a reasonable way for illegals to become legal, the Republican party starts crying “No amnesty for the criminals!” It is ridiculous and heartless. A reasonable path to legal status is not amnesty.

As Christians, our attitude ought to be compassion, not self-righteous exclusionism and even racially-biased hatred. It makes no sense. We are all for giving and helping and going on mission trips to help the poor people in the world, but if any of them dare figure out a way to come live here, we want them all (men, women and children) shipped back and dumped at the border. Can someone tell me how that squares with anything in the Bible, not to mention a Christian Worldview?

For the most part, these are wonderful people who love our country and want to work here and live here. They are good examples for many Americans. They could be a nice addition to our nation. They could be a blessing if we would stop making them out to be criminals because of our own completely broken system that offers them no real shot at legal status. There comes a point when government gets so huge and unmanageable that we all could be called criminals. Christians might want to remember that we could be next in being labeled criminals for failing to meticulously follow the freedom-squelching requirements of our ever-more-controlling government. 

But what about the money!! Oh the tax dollars! The pundits tell us these people are costing us billions. That is mostly ridiculous. Why? Because the problem is with the welfare system, not immigration. Stop giving people free stuff if you want to spend less on welfare. Stop giving it out if that’s what you’re worried about. Personally, I’d end the whole welfare system and put the responsibility back on churches and communities to help the poor. That’s a whole different issue. The point is that we don’t have to deport people to stop giving money to them. Hello? Did you catch that? Most Hispanics don’t need government assistance anyway, because I’ve yet to meet a first generation Hispanic person who doesn’t work. They are here to work! Most of them can’t even attend the church we’ve planted for them, because they work fourteen hour days, often seven days per week. And if you think they are taking jobs away from Americans, think again. How many Americans do you know who are willing to bend their backs to pick berries all day for pennies? Give me a break.

Let me close with this admonition to my fellow Christians: If you are going to base all your other political beliefs on Scripture, maybe you should think a little bit more about what the Bible says in regard to how we treat foreigners living in our land. At the very least, watch your attitude. Do you really think God wants us to reject and criminalize those of other nationalities who wish to live and work among us? I don’t think so. I think God is bringing the mission field to us. Remember the second greatest commandment? Love your neighbor as yourself. I think maybe we should start doing that.