Discovered

"What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.  In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish." - Matthew 18:12-14

Today I want to talk about the lost and found. I've been in both. Found is more fun than lost, though being found does not guarantee never getting lost again. When I'm found I have a better sense of where I am, of where I'm going or, gasp, where I've been. Found is a place, that's all. Like any other place the most it can ever offer is perspective. What we see when we're there is rooted in the eyes by which we see, which is often influenced by the lenses of what we believe.

When I'm found I notice my kids and my wife more. I'm more patient and attentive. I help with the homework or the bath, I make my famous grilled cheese sandwiches (which Anthony claims are even better than Foster Freeze, though I'm not sure that ranks as a compliment) and I'm calmer, less prone to my "bull in a china shop" persona. Found is a happy place. I realize that I'm not alone there and, well, God is more visible.

When I'm lost? Well, that's a different story. Lost is a place like no other because it's a place between places. You're not really "anywhere". You're just "there". On road trips you end up lost when you're going from one place to the next and forget the way. But on the journey of life you mostly end up lost because you have forgotten the why. There are many why's. Why am I here? Why am I alone? Why am I afraid? Why can't I figure it all out? The why's multiply and are so thick that you can arrive at lost and...well...get stuck there.

When you're lost the single, most important thing to remember is that you're worthy of being found. Scripture tells us that to God you are worth searching across the ends of the earth for. He's searching for you right now. He's waiting for you to be ready to leave the "why's" behind and rest in a whole new place that's neither lost nor found but, even better, a place that's called "discovered".

Run the Miles and Earn It

There was a time in my life when I would've demanded to be heard. Straight up. I would've bullied my way into the presence of those that "needed" straightening out with a tyrannical intensity. Self-confidence (read: arrogance) was not a problem for me. You either ended up agreeing with me or you were an idiot. I was so passionate in my beliefs that there simply was no room for yours. I had it all figured out. Life was a zero-sum game; somebody wins and somebody loses. I had no desire to be a loser.

I don't know about you but when I read the bible I see a lot of my past self in a number of people. Certainly in the early Paul (I would've been there, full of self-righteousness, to judge Stephen because, well, he would've dared to disagree with me) and again in Peter (when Judas showed, with his cadre of Roman soldiers, I too would've done a quick survival assessment and cut my losses, even if that loss was Christ) and most certainly in Thomas (I've often asked for proof in the place of faith, because it's a hard world that wants hard answers).

God knows this about me. These men are my mile markers in the bible. For some of you it's Solomon and James. Others of you will identify more with Ruth and the woman at the well and still others will find a lot of yourself in Luke and the prodigal son.  In all the many individuals of the bible there is someone for everyone, and that's the point. How could the word of God speak to each of us if there, inside it, weren't a little bit of us too? But in recognizing your mile markers do not miss the point: you are running a marathon and when the race is done there's only one person you should identify with the most and that person is Jesus.

Jesus wasn't about winning or losing, he was about doing and struggling. And Jesus never demanded to be heard. He earned that right. I think he expects us to earn it as well, a little bit more, each and every day. How? By sharing in the lives of all those around you and being there whenever there is hurt. If Jesus proved nothing else it's that there's not a hurt in the world that cannot be loved away.

A Simple Question

"Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” - John 8:12

What are you doing with your life? I mean, really doing with it? What do you represent to those around you? Do you represent desperation and defeat? Do you represent assurance and victory? Is what you became what you expected to become? Or is life just happening to you, like a movie?

On any given day I know what I can represent: all the above. Some days I stride around surrounded by a shield of humbling and empowering faith. Other days I can barely put one foot in front of the other.  I can't speak for other faiths but I know that in Christianity the struggle is what it's all about. Because only the struggle of this world can lead you to Christ. One cannot be "saved" unless they are in need of saving. Who needs saving? The desperate, those in pain, those who are lonely and confused, those who are lost.

Last time I checked, on any given day? That's you and me.

The difference between the "saved" and the "not yet saved" is not a position of dominance, superiority or righteousness. Quite the contrary; it's a position of submission. It's not saying "Oh, I'm past all those forks in the road and I know where I'm going now" as much as it's about saying, "Man, I get lost too, but I have a map now. I have a compass." I am now called to serve, not preach, to help, not judge. Sadly, many of the Christians who get all the press are either promising people prosperity or damning them to hell. In other words, instead of worshiping God they're playing God.

Jesus washed the disciples feet. He loved. He forgave. He listened. He helped. He came and he left but whether it was with the woman at the well, or with the Pharisees, with countless strangers or within his own inner circle of disciples, he seemed to be asking the same question over and over again: What are you doing with your life?

So today, will you take the time to answer him?

My Name Is Four

"Behold, children are a gift of the LORD; The fruit of the womb is a reward." - Psalm 127:3

Recently my wife returned to the world of full time work. It's been a transition in our household, with tasks and chores being shifted around, schedules being changed and a little unexpected chaos as the Captain of the U.S.S. Casa-Faggioli has been forced to leave by 7:30am each morning.

The kids and I braced for this change. None of us knew what to make of it, with Dad doing a school drop-off here or there, almost all the school pickups and - joy of all joys - the kids learning that having a self-employed father means, well, you get to go back to work with him after school for three hours each day.  God willing we'll be staffed back up in my office soon but until then, each day as we load up into my car after school I call a huddle, hands to the center, and the kids and I give a shout out as to how many days we have "survived" this routine. Yesterday was "10".

I feared this change would be a burden. Instead the Lord has made it a blessing. It's been revealed to me that before I wasn't just missing out on some things in my children's lives, but a lot of things. For example, I never knew what a zombie Sophia was when waking up every morning for school and I have taken great pleasure in doing the "good morning" dance for her each day, complete with out-of-key singing (most of you will have a hard time picturing me singing and dancing...trust me, you don't want to, it's pretty bad). If this doesn't work I flick the lightswitch on and off until she flies out of bed with her little paws up for a fight. She LITERALLY growls at me, with her hair in fifty directions and her eyes all puffy. Then, in spite of herself, she starts to laugh.

I also love hearing about their day; the way the girl that Anthony has a crush on perplexes him ("Dad, why is it that girls act differently around their friends than they do when it's just you and them?"), or what Sophia really thinks about this whole "color card" system in kindergarten ("It's not that hard Dad, you just don't get in trouble. But there's this one boy, he just doooooeeeesn't get it.").

I now get the chance to slip a little note in Sophie's lunch box or pep-talk Anthony the morning before a big test. They, in turn, can give me a head start on my day as well. Like yesterday, when I was leaving the house early and I saw a post-it note from Sophia that read : MY NAME IS FOUR. I had no idea what she was talking about, or what it meant, but it made me chuckle nearly the whole drive to work. 

Do Not Go Gently...

"Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." - Matthew 20

How firm, how strong, how rooted is your faith? Some of you who read this blog have a faith that is strong, others a faith that is holding the line, and others a faith that is, well, dormant. A faith that is strong need only hold the line. A faith that is holding on need only persevere.  But a faith that is dormant is a faith in trouble. It is, by definition, alive at some level, but not growing.

A dormant faith is asleep. If this is your faith then know this: you must wake up. A faith that is asleep too long runs the very real risk of dying. Don't let that happen. Wake up. If not for yourself, then for those around you.

Right now in your community 1 out of 4 children is skipping lunch at school because their parents can't afford it. In the United States a rape is reported every 5 minutes. That's a scary number. Until you realize that only 16% of rapes are ever reported in the first place. Last night anywhere from 2-4 babies were born immaturely and are fighting this very moment for their little lives at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena. That's only one out of over 1300 NICU's in the country.

My point is this: there is hurting all around you and people you don't even know, whom you haven't even met yet, who need you. How can you be there for people you don't even know in circumstances you have no idea how to handle without faith? How? It simply isn't possible. Because those people need hope. They need love. They need you.

Do not go gently into that deep responsibility. Rush in. Respond. Reach out. Use the hurts the world has thrust upon you to help others overcome their hurts and realize that as you do God is pulling for your glory.

Rocky

"Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses." - 1Timothy 6:12

There is a pattern to life; peaks and valleys. We have songs and poems that tell us of this pattern. We have books and movies too. The tendency for most of us is to duck in the valleys and stand tall on the peaks and, as such, we miss most of the scenery. There is a type of blindness to both places. At the summit everything below you is too small to really see and when you are hiding your head in the valley you can't see anything at all. On the peaks of life we can lose perspective and in the valleys we can lose hope.

I know I am dating myself a bit here but one of the reasons why I loved the movie Rocky was that he got it. He really did. He was just as happy drinking raw eggs and training until he collapsed as he was in the ring, advancing like a wounded bull at Apollo Creed in glorious combat. It wasn't that Rocky wouldn't go down, it's that he already had been down. It was a place he knew and was not afraid of anymore. So he kept advancing, taking shot after shot and giving in return. It wasn't the crowd or even Adrian, there in the front row, that kept him going. It was his heart.

Remember that the air is thin on the peaks. You can get dizzy and start seeing things that aren't really there. The same is true in the valleys, where it gets awful dark and the shadows can be misleading. None of it is important. Not a bit. Enjoy life, yes, but don't forget that you weren't created solely for this Earth, this place that is all peaks and valleys. If you were then you'd never be leaving it.

But someday, you will. There must be a reason for that. So keep your gloves up, stay true to your heart and remember that above all peaks and above all valleys there is a very big sky.

An Army of Sum

"Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up." - Ecclesiastes 4:9

One of the greatest lies ever told by the evil in this universe is that you are alone.

Part of the human experience is that first moment of self-actualization when you realize you are a being unto yourself, with a mind and thoughts all your own. At some point shortly thereafter you realize that it can get lonely in your head. No one knows you like you, and there is an inherent risk in reaching out to others, who may accept you or - just as easily - may flat out reject you.

I'm not talking about matters of love. The heart is a subject worthy of its own blog. I'm specifically focused today on our minds. After all, scripture tells us that this is the place where all the wars for your soul are fought. Who in their right mind (no pun intended) would fight a war alone? Especially against an adversary that has been taking out souls left and right for thousands of years.

When Jesus came to this earth what's one of the first things he did? He recruited the twelve disciples. Did Jesus, as God himself, need the twelve? Of course not. But like almost everything else in his short ministry he was teaching us how we should approach life. The lesson was clear: you need your own posse, as it were. You should not go it alone. The only time we find Jesus truly alone in the Bible, who was there, almost immediately? Satan. This, too, is a lesson. If evil was unafraid to come after Jesus how much bolder will it be to come after you?

Look around you, though. How many people has God placed in your life to keep you going on this journey? You are not alone. In your neighborhood, in your family, and amongst your friends are allies in faith who can come to your side. This is also why it's so important to go to church and to be a part of a small group, as this can only multiply those people in your life who can help to keep you grounded in hope and lifted in perseverance. 

How many allies do you need? It doesn't matter. You simply need an army of sum. So get out of your head and away from your fear of rejection. Gather your own little army to help in the challenges you will face in life, face in time and face in faith.