Skip to content or main menu

News

A Cup of Who I Am?

August 19, 2010

Strange, the things you remember. When I was around 10 years old my family made a trip to California to go to Disneyland. I hardly recall anything about the trip (except, “It’s a Small World,” for obvious reasons), but I do remember staying somewhere along the way at a little motel with a pool.

We had driven a long, long way that day in a very small car and when dad pulled up to the motel and it had a sign that said “Heated Outdoor Pool,” that was (to quote Seinfeld) “Gold, Jerry; gold!” We couldn’t get the suitcases into the room fast enough! I ripped through mine, found the suit, and was out like lightening to the pool’s edge where I stopped short. The pool was completely green; not just a shade green, it was unmistakably, thick-and-rich, pea green; a soup-bowl only the Jolly Green Giant could appreciate.

Imagine my disappointment! I couldn’t believe it. I dragged my feet (a special ability kids have) back to the room and lay on the floor, on my back, in my swimsuit, staring unresponsively at the ceiling. I thought bad thoughts about the management. How could anyone let something so good, so beautiful, so refreshing, go? The pool was right there, it was once a place of unparalleled joy, and now it was a cesspool.

Proverbs 25:26 is telling me to hang onto that image because, “If the godly give in to the wicked, it’s like polluting a fountain or muddying a spring.” The idea of “giving in” is to totter, slip, to be dislodged or to let something fall; to be shaken so as to be overthrown.

That could happen to me. I could be someone who was once a refreshing presence to others, but I could totter, slip, be dislodged; I could let something fall; I could be shaken up so that I end up many, many shades away from who I want to be.

God loves everyone, but that doesn’t mean everyone is living in a way that God loves. There is something called “wicked.” There are things that make God wince and sigh and shake His head. There really are things that anger Him. If I could ask God to not be angry, would I? Never! I am glad that God, who made me, has standards. I am glad that His goodness is 100% good without anything I need to overlook. I am glad this means He doesn’t overlook things in me either; and it makes it a gigantic relief that Jesus died for my wickedness, taking my sins, though they were like scarlet, making my heart as white as snow (Isaiah 1:18).

What is so awful is when you take a redeemed child of God, someone forgiven, someone who has been made new by the love of God and somewhere along the way they begin to choose “wicked” over good. Proverbs 26:11 has the best description of this: “As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness.” It is unthinkable that someone who understands the word “saved” in terms of what Jesus has done for us would now go back to what they were before. This is like filling a sweet, clear spring with mud.

Can’t imagine doing that? It happens all the time. Sometimes it is a dramatic fall; an obvious big step between what a person knows is right and something that is clearly and obviously wrong. Usually, it looks like someone teetering on the edge between what is good and godly and what is wicked. Usually it involves little compromises. Most often wicked creeps up, like a little spot of green at the bottom of a pool.

As I am writing, I realize it would be easy to deflect this topic. I could read and write this and think, “Be careful, don’t do anything bad.” But here is what is also wicked: a lack of gentleness, unkindness, unforgiveness, bitterness, stubbornness, gossip, selfishness, self-righteousness, judgement; all of these things darken the waters. All of these things make me an unrefreshing presence.

This summer Josh, who drinks A LOT of milk, was not around; so the milk sat in the fridge a little too long. I grabbed the jug one day and poured myself a glass and took a big drink, assuming the best. It was not. I had anticipated that cold wonderfulness and instead I got something extremely distasteful.

What do people anticipate when they walk up to me? Do they expect one thing and get another? Green and unmaintained instead of cool and clear; sour instead of nutritious and thirst-quenching?

At any moment, in any place, Jesus asks His followers to be a refreshing presence to others. I guess the question I am left with today is, can I take a cup of who I am and offer it to someone, freely and without checking first?

– Teresa Klassen (http://www.onebrownleaf.wordpress.com)

Read More

Image Deficit

August 18, 2010

I was listening to the news last night; updated reports on the flood in Pakistan and an interview with an artist who is writing a song to draw attention to the disaster there. The commentator said that Pakistan has not received equal media attention, nor an outpouring of aid like, say, Haiti, did. An article I read also refers to this issue and calls it an “image deficit.” Denoja Kankesan writes,

“We often note an image deficit with regards to Pakistan among Western public opinion,” said Elizabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman at the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The idea of having an image deficit interested me.

In the big world, and in our small ones, image makes some people insiders and makes others outsiders. Image rewards one and oppresses another, gives to one and takes from another. Even though “image” is incredibly subjective, we give it the power to define acceptable and unacceptable, in and out, and (this should make us shudder) lovable and unlovable.

In our small worlds, one child loves school because they are popular, another one hates it because they can’t make a single friend. Is the contest so different on the larger scale? Are our governing bodies more inclusive than the kids in the schoolyard? Image, apparently, means that one person receives aid, and another will languish without it.

Right now British Columbia is dealing with a boat-load of Tamil migrants from Sri Lanka; we have not put out the welcome mat, let’s just say; we are suspicious of them. We think terrorists are hiding in the mix; maybe the whole lot of them are bad. And what will we do with them? You’d think we were tight on space here in BC. That’s laughable. It must be hard to be Tamil. You might be a father with a wife and a child who just wants a job, but first you have a mountain to climb because you have a serious image deficit.What if our first reaction was empathy and our second was discernment? What if we asked how these people might bless our province instead of assuming they will curse it?

What is commanding my heart in all of this is that the Person I am modeling my life after vehemently protested anything that hinted of image deficit. He made a point of dining with people who had massive image deficits; He looked for them; He loved spending time with them and chatting it up with them. There was no touchable and not-touchable to Him. There was no desirable and not-desirable to Him There was no lovable and not- lovable to Him.

Jesus spent his life bringing good news to the poor. He proclaimed freedom for prisoners. His message was about recovering our sight, and He did so, literally for those who were physically blind, and He did so internally for those of us who were blind inside. Jesus was about releasing people from the oppression of image deficit and to declare God’s favor for everyone; everyone! (see Luke 4:14–28)

The thing that should be outstanding about me is this kind of acceptance. God never placed the burden to judge others upon me. He never asked me to fix everyone’s behavior. What He asked is that I would share the news about the freedom He offers, with love and respect for all. He asked me to hold up His Image to remind us who we were fashioned after.

That isn’t to say He never called me to discern right from wrong when it comes to my own life; He did. I am to conduct my life in a way that honors God’s boundaries, set in place for me with the desire to protect me and guide me along a right path. In relationship, in community, we are also to try to rescue each other from our destructive tendencies, in a way that is bathed in love; absolutely drenched in God’s Spirit which desires that none would be lost.

Can we love like that? God, can I? Can you remove that pin that keeps jamming my ability to just see people as You do, without any image deficit? Your Word calls me to, “Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy…” (Psalm 82:3–4).

When we gather as Christ-followers, can this “church” be free from image deficit? Can we eliminate the “cool and the uncool” from our gathering. No one was created with a deficit; all are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) so the church should be a place where, more than any other, opposites attract. The church should be a mixed marriage where people, somewhat incredulously, ask, “How did you meet?”

– Teresa Klassen (http://www.onebrownleaf.wordpress.com)

Read More

A Bucket Of Balls

June 26, 2010

It takes so little effort to be nice, to be generous, to make a difference in someone’s day.

Yesterday Josh, Nate and a friend spent the afternoon at Two Eagles Golf Course. They had some time to spare and chipped in to buy a bucket of balls to hit at the driving range. When those were done, they were done.

A gentleman approached them, chatted with them for a bit, gave them some tee’s that he had and then, for no reason, bought them another bucket of balls, wished them well, and went on his way.

I say, “for no reason,” but isn’t there one? I don’t know who he was, and I am quite sure he won’t be reading this, but I wonder what happened before he walked over. Did he see the three of them laughing and having a good time—scampering out as far as they dare to grab the nearest balls just to extend their time at the range when their bucket ran dry? Did it remind him of something or someone or just a time when he was their age?

I can’t say for sure, but for some reason he wanted to make their day; and he did.

Why do most of us stand by and observe but not go that extra step to do something nice for a stranger? Are we afraid of being rejected? Are we afraid someone will take it the wrong way or think it strange? Are we too in a rush? Or, worse, do we not even see those opportunities to be kind?

I am just reflecting on this today and wondering what opportunity will present itself.

I think God is so much like that stranger at the golf course. I think He delights in doing things for us, “for no reason” other than it brings him joy to do so. He is the master of “the moment” and, because He is so, I think He prompts us to not miss out on what He finds so delightful.

If we will pause and see what He sees, I think we will find so many ways to touch people’s lives with a little bit of sunshine, for no other reason than they share this earth with us and are of equal importance before God; they are another heart beating; another soul breathing. It should come naturally to us, because ”[We are] God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2: 9 NLT).

On a bad day, a tragic day, those within arms reach quickly become friends. Why not on a good day, a day when nothing much is happening, when there is no immediate need, just an opportunity.

—Teresa Klassen (http://onebrownleaf.wordpress.com/)

Read More

Blessing West Kelowna

June 22, 2010

You want to know what people seem to be really good at? People are good at picking things apart. People are good at killing an idea before it has a chance. People are good at finding fault and dirt and reasons to dethrone our leaders. People are good at finding what hasn’t been done, over what has. Continually, people look for shortfall and shortcomings and are good at finding them.

People pride themselves on being the “devil’s advocate” and “the watch-dog” and “the opposition.”

Proverbs 11:11 (in the Bible) says “Upright citizens bless a city and make it prosper, but the talk of the wicked tears it apart.”

We have part B down quite well but what about part A?

In the few years I have left, I would like to leave out the “devil” and just be known as an “advocate” for things that matter. Instead of a watch-dog, I would simply like to be watchful and mindful (more of my own steps than any one else’s). Instead of being all about opposing, I would rather be for something. I think this is what I am called to do. I think this is part of missional living.

I would like to bless people around me. I would like to bless my city and see it prosper and, in turn, bless other cities.

I know there is never enough attention being paid to “__________” (fill in the blank). But when I think of my own life and what I don’t give enough attention to, I wonder, am I measuring my leaders by a standard I myself can not meet? I am not saying that leadership does not need accountability, I just thing there should be way more “coming alongside” and less fingers pointing.

I want my city to prosper in the best sense. I would like it to be known as a place people can work and play and be safe. I want it to be a place where its citizens care for the poorest and most vulnerable. I want it to be tended and managed responsibly so that because of our good stewardship we can look at the future with hope and dream about its potential.

A city can be a light on a hill, but it is its citizens that make it so.

– Teresa Klassen (http://onebrownleaf.wordpress.com/)

Afterword: Had the best time on Saturday with people all over West Kelowna coming together to work with Communities In Bloom to clean up garbage at six different sites. From kids to seniors, just a great show of unity. And thanks to CIBC, we were also fed and entertained. One small thing accomplished to bless our city.

Read More