by Ryan Smith | Apr 2, 2018
Easter is a time when church families gather together to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If there is any day worth celebrating for the church, it is this one. Jesus is alive!
But once the pictures have been taken, the Easter eggs found, and the palette of pastel clothes tucked back into the closet, most of us are done celebrating Easter. We return to our day-to-day routines and wait for Christmas when we can do it all again.
Could it be, however, that we as Christ’s people still have more to celebrate?
I want to offer three days for consideration after Easter. Each of these days marks a vitally important day in the life of the early church as well as a continual testimony of God’s work through the Holy Spirit today.
Perhaps you would consider putting these days on your calendar as a way to continue to celebrate the resurrection and the ongoing work of the Spirit. These might serve as excellent opportunities for you, your family, friends, neighbors or kids to celebrate God’s work in the weeks and months following Easter.
The Ascension – 40 Days After Easter (2018: May 10)
We all know Jesus appeared to the disciples and many others after He was raised from the dead. We even include the ascension in many of our Easter Pageants (if we can find the wires and a Jesus who isn’t afraid of heights). But we often think of this happening over the course of just a few days. In reality, Jesus spent 40 days displaying His resurrected body and victory over death. After those 40 days, He was taken up into the clouds in view of a gathered group of disciples on Mt. Olivet.
How can you celebrate? Consider taking your family outside for a picnic. Set out a blanket on top of a small hill. Read Acts 1:1-11. Look at the clouds together. Consider what it might be like when he returns in the same way he left (Acts 1:11).
Pentecost – 50 Days After Easter (2018: May 20)
The arrival of God the Holy Spirit should be a tremendous day of celebration for the Christian. After all, He is the one who guides us into all truth and is the source of daily life as He conforms us to Christ-likeness through the Word. Pentecost was also the day the disciples spoke in different languages, and Peter stood up preaching the Gospel boldly as thousands were saved.
How can you celebrate? Read the events of Acts 2. Spend ample time in prayer and the Holy Spirit-inspired Scriptures (perhaps Psalm 119 celebrating the leadership of God through His Word). Go to a website like joshuaproject.net and consider the almost 17,000 different ethnic groups in the world. Remembering God’s desire that all tribes, tongues and nations would be blessed through the Gospel, commit to pray for an unreached people group.
Healing the Lame Beggar – Unspecified Date.
The next record in Scripture after Pentecost is the healing of the lame man in Acts 3. On this day, Peter and John first met a man’s physical need in order to boldly declare the gospel message. They were also thrown in prison for the Gospel.
How can you celebrate? Read Acts 3:1-4:31 together as a group of friends or family. While we don’t have a specific date for this event, you could pick a day a week or two after Pentecost. Consider in advance how you could meet a physical need as an avenue to boldly share the Gospel.
Serve on that day (starting at the ninth hour would be appropriate) at a homeless shelter, food pantry or other mission. Talk together with your kids, family or group about why meeting physical needs is important as a means to the Gospel. Also remember those around the world who are in prison for sharing the Gospel. Pray for them and their boldness in continuing to uplift the good news of Jesus Christ.
by Ryan Smith | Mar 27, 2018
“But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’”
– Luke 10:29
I recently saw two movie previews. One was for a big-budget summer movie with all the explosions, catch phrases, celebrities, and citywide carnage Hollywood can capture with a green screen.
The other preview was for a small-budget documentary about a man from Latrobe, Pennsylvania. This man was also a celebrity, but his character was much different. In fact, he didn’t have a character at all. He had a small, non-impressive studio, some hand puppets, and the occasional neighborly friend who stopped by to say hello. Elaborate costumes were abandoned for a simple cardigan, necktie, and fresh pair of walking shoes.
I remember watching Mr. Rogers as a child. Nothing seemed remarkable about the man. The show was entertaining enough, and there was something about that Ding Ding from the trolley that made my eyes light up.
What I didn’t realize at the time was how much of a revolutionary Fred Rogers and his small children’s show was. Rogers broke racial barriers, social stigmas, embraced the handicapped and disabled, was an advocate for children, and revolutionized standards in his industry.
Over the course of his three decades on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, Rogers talked about many things: school, jobs, friends, etc. But he also openly and honestly walked with children through such difficult topics as death, sickness, violence, and calmed their fears through wartime and political upheaval.
Of course Mr. Rogers isn’t remembered for being a revolutionary. He’s remembered for being a friend with an open invitation: “Won’t you be my neighbor?”
Today we often find ourselves clamoring for the loudest voice, the strongest argument, the most impressive flare, always asking the question, “Are you on my team?”
We approach people at arms length with skepticism until we know their political leaning, religious understanding, or evaluate their like-ness to us. We then may accept them as an ally, but rarely as a neighbor. Being a neighbor entails responsibility. It means time and life. It means being together.
I often approach people with the thought, “They aren’t my neighbor, are they?” Or like the man in Luke 10, seeking to justify myself, I want clear definitions and boundaries – “Who is my neighbor?”
But Mr. Rogers did not ask, “Who is my neighbor?” He invited, “Won’t you be my neighbor?”
How much stronger would my Gospel proclamation to the world be if I had this approach – seeking out neighbors that I might love them, speak truth with them, introduce them to life, and walk alongside them through difficult times.
The world may be bent toward the impressive and the powerful, but real impact lies in those without fences. It comes through an open invitation, not a cautious questionnaire.
Mr. Rogers spoke truth, and he did so in love. He targeted not the rich and the powerful, but the smallest and the weak.
Ultimately my model is not Fred Rogers, but Jesus Christ who though he held all the power in the cosmos, chose to humble himself as a servant. He offered not a place for the powerful, but a home for the weak, the orphan, the widow, and the sinner.
How would your world be different if you took a page from Mr. Rogers? How would your daily interactions be influenced if you approached people with not a series of questions, but a single invitation: “Won’t you be my neighbor?”
Perhaps then our neighborhoods would see a much more beautiful day.
Photo credit: http://www.focusfeatures.com/wont-you-be-my-neighbor/image/unit_fred-rogers-david-newell
by Ryan Smith | Mar 6, 2018
There is a scene in a Seinfeld episode where Elaine sits alone in her apartment having broken up with her on-again-off-again boyfriend, David Puddy.
Her inner monologue is torn between two desires.
On one hand, she is completely and wholeheartedly determined not to speak to this man again. Her will is set. She is a rock of resolve.
On the other, she can’t stop thinking of excuses to call David Puddy.
I empathize with Elaine’s struggle because it is the same way I feel every morning when I jump (read: roll sluggishly) out of bed. My wrestling partner, however, is not a person, but a device. It is a small, seemingly insignificant, unassuming little black box that sits by my bed.
However, inside this little black box is a virtual world that plugs me into the vast knowledge base of mankind, limitless news headlines, and opinions of millions of people all delivered to me in a matter of seconds.
With my iPhone in hand, I am limitless.
Here’s the problem: though my device allows me to equip myself with layer upon layer of informational armor to face the day, I never feel weaker than when I have invested the first minutes of the day in my phone.
For sure, there are great and wonderful uses for my phone. But like Frodo carrying the ring, I find all too often, such a small item can bring weightiness to my desires and shape my perspective in unhealthy ways.
My guess is you have this struggle too. So how are we to respond? Do we put on the ring and melt into its power or must we walk it to Mount Doom and see it destroyed?
The good news is we do not have to do either.
Like anything in our lives, (food, relationships, entertainment, work, leisure) too much can cause an unhealthy unbalance or addiction. Things meant to serve as means to ultimate ends can become ends themselves. What is given to serve us becomes our master.
In light of this, I want to offer four ways to kill your phone addiction before your phone addiction kills you.
1) Admit it
I have seen countless people put their lives, and the lives of others, at risk in order to hold attention to an illuminated screen. Before we assume our device consumption is something we control, we need to at least ask ourselves whether or not we are invested in these devices to the neglect of other things that matter more.
Analyze times in your day when you find yourself absent-mindedly on your phone. Stop in that moment and consider what you are putting off or ignoring. Is there a relational, physical, emotional or spiritual opportunity you might be missing? Be willing to acknowledge you might have a problem. If so, admit it.
2) Name it
This may seem silly, but it’s effective. If your technology was a person with a name, would your relational balance with them be off? For instance, if I called my interaction with technology “Steve,” what might I note about my relationship with Steve?
I spend ______ hours a day with Steve.
Steve is the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing I see at night.
Financially, I am committed to $_____ a month so I can be with Steve.
When I go on a date with my wife, I always take Steve.
When I get home from work, I always bring Steve with me.
At some point, these start to sound extreme or even moderately creepy. If you wouldn’t want these things to be true about a person in your life, maybe they shouldn’t be true of the technology in your life either.
3) Give someone else authority
We are most blind to what is closest to us. We must be willing to allow those who know us best to be honest with us about what we are missing. Does your wife feel completely free to ask you to put down your phone? Do your kids have authority to ask that they be the priority in a given moment? If you assume so, the likelihood that they do is probably low.
Sit down with a few people in your life and expressly give them the keys to speak truth into your life. Ask what they see in your relationship with your phone. Tell them they have free reign to ask you to put it away at any time. Give them the relational authority and priority.
4) Set times and limits
Agree to not check email outside of work. Decide to check Twitter only ____ times a day. Set a time or place aside that is a “No Tech Zone,” and stick to it. Set times and limits and let others know what they are.
Ultimately, the decision is literally in our hands. Yet we are often too preoccupied with our phones and devices to consider how preoccupied with them we actually are.
Take some time today. Question your relationship with your phone. Invite someone else into the conversation.
It may be worth more than you think.
by Ryan Smith | Feb 20, 2018
This is not an article about politics.
This is not an article about sports.
This is not an article about the media.
This is, however, an observation to take note of as these titans collide.
You likely heard the reports over the past few days of Fox News Host Laura Ingraham’s comments to NBA superstar LeBron James.
James has been actively critical of the president and has maintained a leading voice among athletes regarding social issues. After a recent video was posted in which James criticized President Trump, Ingraham took to her show urging (arguably) the world’s greatest athlete to simply, “Shut up and dribble.”
Here is why this is not an article about politics:
The politics of Ingraham’s retort have little to do with what was actually said (though we are discussing a Republican president being defended on Fox News), but the voice through which it came. This is personal, not political.
Here is why this is not an article about sports:
LeBron James is one of the best-known athletes in the world. Yet aside from a few tertiary stories, it is unlikely you will find James’ athletic accomplishments featured on CNN, Fox News, or any other political news outlet. However, this story has resonated with countless echoes because this is not a discussion about sports. To some it is a discussion about race. To some it is about wealth and privilege. Still to others, it is another brick in a wall of social discourse that threatens to tumble any day. LeBron may be the NBA All-Star Game’s MVP, but the headlines with his name are about much more. This is about society, not sport.
Here is why this is not an article about the media:
LeBron is a media mogul who knows how to market himself and his brand. This conversation (though posted to social media and carried through mainstream media) had nothing to do with marketing, however. LeBron wasn’t holding a Sprite or finding deals on car insurance in this video. He was speaking as a father, a citizen, a leader in an arena whose shadow stretches far beyond the hardwood and stadium rafters. This is about mindset, not media.
Regardless of whether you agree with James or Ingraham in this discussion, a much greater social reality has been revealed in this debate. The line James allegedly crossed was not in sport, politics or media. The line James crossed, and Ingraham opposed, was the act of crossing the line itself.
What is being revealed is something we have all sensed, but is important we, as Christians, understand. This is about social compartmentalization.
Society likes boxes. We have created a society in which compartmentalization is key to mentally digesting and understanding others. We watch and listen for immediate clues or words to indicate what box someone belongs in – whether they are left wing, right wing, feminist, bigot, millennial, racist, religious, phobic or any one of a number of titles. We then believe we know how to deal with that person – with what weapons of verbal warfare we will either guard or attack them.
But what if someone tries to climb out of his or her box?
There are many discussions to be had in this arena as evidenced by a growing sentiment of both vitriol and celebration regarding those who refuse their boxes in the public sphere (see Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson and Dave Rubin).
As this conversation unfolds and these questions collide, we must consider what this means for the Christian.
A frustrating reality for many Christians of late has been the labels (fair or unfair) attached to the terms evangelical, Christian and religious. Depending on an individual’s worldview, these terms will evoke immediate trust or repulsion.
However, for those of us in biblical evangelicalism, we recognize much of what truly needs to be heard and discussed is not in the headline, but in the subtexts.
The growing trend toward the necessity for conversation and a multi-layered approach to seeing individuals is hopefully leading to a moment in which conversation and multi-faceted understanding of a person is required before judgment is made.
Consider the following: your atheist co-worker may be more willing to ask what you mean when you engage them with a question about God than previously when they just knew you were “religious.” We may even quit referring to them as “your atheist coworker.”
Your neighbor may not care as much about what you do for a living as what your worldview is and how you arrived at it. Your church may contain those who are seeking to follow Christ together, yet have a variety of social and political viewpoints – and it may be okay.
Is the decompartmentalization of LeBron James and the subsequent pushback against it a watershed moment for American society? Probably not. But it may be an indicator that people may be open to discussing what you believe more than simply what position in society you hold.
May we see these opportunities to champion Christ, explore His Word and see others not in their labeled social boxes, but as fellow brothers and sisters sojourning in a dark world seeking the light of a Savior.
So Christian, if you’re a teacher, don’t just shut up and teach.
If you’re a student, don’t just shut up and listen.
If you’re a barista, don’t just shut up and pour a latte.
Engage. Speak. Tell. The walls of the box where you must keep your Christianity may not be as strong as they want you to believe.
These walls may be crumbling down.
by Ryan Smith | Feb 1, 2018
Right now my kids are at the age where they are blinded by false grandiose images of me as their father. My son asks why I read books because, “Dad, you already know everything.”
I don’t.
Any time my one-year-old daughter senses a concerning situation or does not know how to react, she turns her head into my shoulder and hides in the comfort of a father’s arms where she believes I can protect her from anything.
I can’t.
The difficulty for me as a parent comes in knowing there will be a day when my son looks at me and says, “Dad, you don’t know anything!”
My daughter one day will be faced with a situation of trouble and concern and her instinct will not be to turn to me as her father, but away.
I know this because I have seen it happen time and again to even the greatest parents. I also remember how it felt to think my parents knew nothing and rather than being for me, were simply acting as an authoritarian cocoon from which I must break free to find my true form.
I was wrong.
Parents want to preserve that close, innocent, childlike relationship as long as possible. But keeping the peace, for some parents, is of paramount value.
As long as my kids are happy with me, they trust me.
As long as my kids have all they want, they won’t leave me.
As long as we keep the peace, there is no war.
The problem is there is a war for the heart of your child. Competing voices are warring for your child’s time and attention. Complacency and laziness are warring for your child’s spirit as they reach an age with a certain degree of capability, responsibility, and accountability. Our enemy is warring for the soul of your child as they begin to ask questions about God, faith, church and truth.
Sometimes the most loving thing a parent can do is persist in doing things their kids insist they do not like. While this can obviously go into unhealthy ditches and is not a universal principle, I want to offer four ways in which this principle holds true.
These are lessons I have learned as someone who fought my parents and who has seen other parents use these tools to fight for (and with) the souls of their children.
Here are four things your kids don’t like that they will thank you for later:
Teaching them finances
Whenever my dad pulled out his yellow notepad, I knew I was in for it. The presence of this notepad meant my dad was going to try to teach me something. Usually this was about insurance, ledgers, checking accounts, and a bunch of other things I don’t remember. Why do I need to know this money stuff? That’s your job, dad. This snotty attitude worked fine for me until I needed to know about insurance, ledgers, checking accounts, and a bunch of other things I didn’t remember. Then I needed my dad.
Parents, your kids are not going to like it when you won’t pay for something – instead making them earn the money themselves. They won’t like it when you make them sit and take the time (for-ev-er) to look at a balance sheet. They won’t like limitations. But remember, the real world is coming for your child, and the real world operates with work, wages, balance sheets and even limitations. When they walk into those situations by themselves as young adults who are prepared, they will thank you and have a leg up on their financial journey.
Taking them with you
Saturdays for the Smiths were often workdays around our home. Why my parents never learned to enjoy the full Saturday morning 8-hour lineup of tweenager shows on NBC, I will never know. Even worse, whenever the lawn needed to be mowed, someone needed to be visited in the hospital, an elderly widow needed a friendly visit, or a pile of odds and ends needed to be taken to the dump, my dad decided I needed the experience as well (often making me miss a second episode of California Dreams).
I fought him on virtually every one of those trips. As an adult, I now look back on every truck ride to the dump, every smile of an elderly widow and every lesson on lawn mowing as some of the best times of my life. They weren’t always fun, but they were others-centered. That’s something that does not exist in the mind of an emerging adult. They also taught me to work. That is also something that doesn’t come natural to a kid or young teenager. They must be shown. Take them with you.
Being affectionate with your spouse
Every day when my grandfather came home from work, he would walk through the door, hang up his coat and kiss my grandma. Nothing came before that kiss. While watching your grandparents kiss is not on anyone’s list of the best things in life, the persistence and priority of this act greatly influenced me. I can remember screaming, “Ewwww!” as my grandpa leaned in for that kiss and I remember being grossed out every time my parents would dance in the kitchen or hold hands in public.
While I didn’t know it at the time, what this affection bred in me was a sense of security in my family. It made me believe my parents were in love and that out of that love for each other, they loved me too. Even when times were tense, I remember always knowing my parents loved me and loved each other. I knew there were times they may not have liked me very much, but I never doubted they loved me because they were people willing to verbally and physically express affection. To this day when I get home from work, my wife’s kiss is my first target.
Family worship times
My son enjoys us reading the Bible together, but often not for the reasons I would like.
“Dad, did David cut Goliath’s head off-off or just off?”
“What was Abraham’s cat’s name?”
When these questions become the focal point and our baby is trying to chew on the Old Testament prophets, it becomes very easy to want to phone it in or give up altogether. We sing our songs, pray our prayers and assume the worst about the investment of that time.
We shouldn’t. That is likely the most important time our family will spend all day. As my kids grow older and schedules become more strained, it will become even more important that this battlefield is fortified in my mind as a father and in our home. Your kids need to know the Bible is a priority. They need to know you believe it. A time will come when they doubt the Bible, don’t want to read it, or dismiss it altogether. Fight in advance of that time. Fight during that time. Be persistent and consistent in the way you treat the Scriptures. If they see your foundation shake when they walk away, they won’t come running to that foundation when they realize the world is a much shakier place.
The Scripture is clear: parents are not to exasperate their children (Col. 3:21). Clearly, there are certain hills worth dying on and certain battles best left alone. But having a standard and expectation for your children will also allow you, at times, to show grace and mercy (which should be done often).
Parents, don’t be afraid of a battle with your children if you know it’s the right battle. With loving consistency, persist in what is good and right for your kids. Sometimes your kids need you to dig in. They need you to draw lines. They need you to stand for something.
They will thank you some day when they are standing on their own too.