Chris Howlett

The School of Adversity

“There is no education like adversity.” – Benjamin Disraeli

    In human life it is impossible to avoid suffering. Siddhartha Gautama, the man who later became known as the Buddha, was raised in a highly privileged and protected environment as the son of a royal. When he was a young man he escaped the confines of the family compound where his every need had been met and every whim obeyed, and came face to face with real life. He witnessed poverty, death, and suffering. This was a shock to his system. He came to believe that human life, itself, consisted of suffering and that the only way out of this suffering was to basically cease being human.

    God saw our suffering and pain and decided the only way for humans to experience fulfilling lives was for him to send his only Son to enter into human suffering and redeem it for his purposes. The Buddha advises that we escape adversity. Jesus promises to suffer with us and speak meaning into adversity by suffering on behalf of a hurting and dying world. The resurrection of Jesus points to the defeat of suffering and the truth that human life is not defined by pain and death, but by love and life.   

    Sin is the cause of human suffering, but God uses suffering to shape and mold our character. He can turn pain into promise if we allow his healing presence to open our eyes to a bigger picture perspective about ourselves, life, and the world in which we live. The most inspirational stories I know are about people, with God’s help, who overcome the adversity they experience and live life far beyond the limits they initially believed their circumstances dictated.

    When you find yourself suffering, think of it as schooling and look for the life lessons and hope Jesus Christ brings because he has entered suffering for and with us.

Change Happens

“For what it’s worth it’s never too late, or in my case too early, to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit. Start whenever you want. You can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it.” - Benjamin Button, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

No one wants to change for the worst. I don’t think any drug addict started off thinking, “Gee, I’d really like to become physically dependent on this stuff to the point that I will abandon the people closest to me so I can get more of it.” No one begins a new school year saying, “Oh boy, I think I want to flunk all my classes and waste my teachers’ and my time and have to do this all over again!” I’ve never met a parent who said, “I can’t wait until my child gets old enough to fend for himself so I can ignore his needs and focus only on me.”

No one does that. But, all three scenarios, even as extreme as they are, occur every day. People don’t neglect their children, flunk out of school, and get addicted to drugs intentionally, but these are the possible results when we don’t pay attention to our habits.

Most of us won’t end up in any of the above nightmare scenarios, but we will miss the very best that God has planned for us when we neglect paying close attention to our habitual behaviors. We mostly set ourselves on autopilot and start heading in a direction. But when we arrive we discover it’s not exactly where we hoped we would be: the guy who experiences financial success but is so distant from his spouse that he hardly knows her at the end of the day; the mom whose life was totally consumed by kids, that when the last one leaves the nest, she doesn’t recognize the face sitting across the breakfast table; the college student who started school with a strong faith but never participated in a college ministry and graduates with little or no faith, wondering why life has lost much of its meaning.

Life has a kind of entropy about it. It tends to slowly breakdown over time, especially if we don’t keep a close check on our habits.

In order to experience the positive change that we desire and live the very best life we can, we must put energy into maintaining the very best habits and behaviors. Life has a way of passing us by if we don’t truthfully reflect on where we’re heading and make those little course corrections along the way. God has an amazing destination plotted out for us and he has called us to partner with him in living the amazing life he has planned! I will be sharing and exciting message this week at Christ Church, part of the Happy New You! series titled Changing for the Better. Change is inevitable, but I want to change in the direction of God’s very best life for me. See you in worship!

Forrest Gump on the Meaning of Life

 

“Jenny, I don't know if Momma was right or if, if it's Lieutenant Dan. I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both. Maybe both is happening at the same time.” - Forrest Gump

I am a huge Forrest Gump fan. I was tremendously disappointed when Paramount sold Kings Island and they got rid of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant! Gump is a classic Christ figure in the film who redeems the lives of those with whom he interacts. Perhaps the biggest redemption story in the film is the redemption of Jenny, who plays a kind of anti-Forrest role through most of the film, living according to a very different set of standards, making tragically self-destructive decisions.

This quote comes from the end of the movie, when Forrest is speaking to Jenny at her grave site. She has died of AIDS related complications. He asks an age-old question: Is life following a predetermined course or is it arbitrary? Is there a great puppeteer in the sky pulling our strings or are we simply a random conglomeration of DNA muddling our way through a meaningless existence? I think Forrest is actually on to something. It’s neither. Not that his answer is fully intellectually or, for that matter, biblically satisfying, but he is moving in the right direction.

Life is neither predetermined nor random. God, through his Providential action is moving his good creation toward a purposeful climax and he calls people to join him in fulfilling his plan. However, because he created us in his image, he endowed us with free will and we are constantly participating with him in creating and recreating the world in which we live. God has a plan and his desire is that we join him in that plan. He wants us to live for his purpose and be blessed to participate in the renewal of the face of the earth. We are not random, but we are not robots, either.

This week, at Christ Church, I will continue the message series, Happy New You! with the message, Living On Purpose. God has a plan and purpose for your life. Following his plan always leads to greater sense of fulfillment, accomplishment, and peace. However, he will not force us to follow his plan. We’d be silly to miss it, though!!

Back to the Preferred Future

Mr. Strickland: I noticed your band is on the roster for the dance auditions after school today. Why even  bother, McFly? You don't have a chance, you're too much like your old man. No McFly ever amounted to anything in the history of Hill Valley!
Marty McFly: Yeah, well, history is gonna change. (from Back to the Future)

 

You have a unique opportunity to rewrite history, future history that is. At the beginning of a new year, it is a traditional exercise to make resolutions. The practice of making resolutions is in decline. Only about 40-45% of Americans set resolutions each year. This might actually be a good thing because out of the ones of us who make resolutions, on 8% achieve them!!

Why do so many of our attempts to change fail? Because there’s nothing backing them. Resolutions are simply goals and goals must grow out of a compelling vision. Without a compelling vision of why I want to reach a particular goal, I will never expend the energy it takes to change in order to meet that goal. Where do we go for a compelling vision of a preferred future? The best place is to go to our Creator. He made us. He loves us. He has a compelling vision for his preferred future for us:

God said through the prophet Jeremiah, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (29:11 NIV11). God has a compelling vision for you and for your future happiness and wholeness.

This is what we are going to be talking about the whole month of January at Christ Church as I share a series of messages titled, Happy New You. God wants us to experience his provision, purpose, and power. He didn’t put us on earth to make us miserable, but to live an abundant, fulfilling, Spirit-led life. You have a unique opportunity to rewrite future history by experiencing real, positive, purposeful God-inspired change. See you in worship Sunday! Bring a friend! Everyone is going to want to know about God’s plans.

Christopher Hitchens on Christianity

“I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.” - Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens died this past week. He was one of the outspoken provocateurs of a group of people that came to be known as the Angry Atheists. Hitchens was a highly skilled writer and talented debater for his various causes, which were many, beyond just his anti-religious views.

The above quote occurred in the context of a discussion about various Christian perspectives, some of which, coming from modernist positions, believed Jesus was special but not supernatural. Hitchens rightly observes that if you don’t believe in the supernatural, you really can’t be a Christian.

This week we celebrate the miracle of the Incarnation. The miraculous birth of God as a human being in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. This is a most spectacular idea, indeed.

Very many people have trouble believing such things. I suppose Christopher Hitchens was at the front of the line. I, myself, would have trouble believing anything as remotely possible as a virgin birth if it were not for another miracle: the Resurrection. The Resurrection makes sense out of everything else, including the Incarnation. The Resurrection had to happen because without it explaining the rise of the early church becomes impossible.

So, this week, as we look to the Babe of Bethlehem, let’s keep our minds on the Risen Lord of the Garden Tomb and thank God for miracles.

Great Camp Video

This was used in worship last week at the United Methodist National Summit of Camp & Retreat Executives at Lake Huron Retreat Center. The intro is a little long, but watch it anyway. This is cool and a real blessing. It was produced at an Episcopal high school summer camp.

Be Like a Shepherd

“The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God.” Luke 2:20a (NRSV)

Following their encounter with the angel and going to Bethlehem to see for themselves the newborn Savior, Messiah, and Lord, they returned to their fields. They went back to work watching over the sheep. Yet, they were changed.

When you have an experience with the Living Lord, your life will never be the same. The shepherds adopted a new lifestyle of praise. That night altered their attitudes. Being shepherds outside of Bethlehem, they were most likely faithful Jews, who did their best to follow the regulations of the Law and worship in their synagogue and periodically in the Temple in nearby Jerusalem. After meeting Jesus, they were different. They were still shepherds watching sheep outside Bethlehem, they still occupied a relatively low spot on the socioeconomic scheme, but now their lives were marked with praise. They continually gave glory to God.

Do you think of your life as giving glory to God? Do you think that what you do in worship gives glory to God? If someone said to you “Give glory to God,” what would you do?

I think the shepherds did two things to glorify God. First, they told their story. They shared with other people in Bethlehem and on their way back out to the fields, and later with their families, what they had seen and heard: that Jesus the Messiah was born and God was ushering in his new age of renewal and redemption. The second way they glorified God was by praising God, giving God thanks for his goodness, for his redemption, for his love. The first they did as part of their everyday lives and interactions with others, the second came in the context of communal and continual worship. An encounter with Jesus changes your perspective. It helps you see the world as it truly is: the place that God created for us to enjoy a relationship with him. Everything that is exists to glorify God.

This Christmas, as we move through the message series CSI: Bethlehem (Christmas Scene Investigation), let’s have our eyes opened by God’s grace to change us and change the way we give glory to God.

All Saints... Not the New Orleans Kind

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2 (NRSV)

In the 1984 film, Places in the Heart, Sally Fields plays the recently widowed Edna Spalding, trying to hold her family together on their farm during the Depression. Her husband Royce, the sheriff, had been killed in an accident. A young African-American man, Wylie, is lynched because of the accident. Along the way through her struggles she’s helped by her two young children and Moze, a wandering African-American man, and Mr. Will, a blind boarder. This unlikely rag tag “family” works and scrapes and manages to make the loan payment on the farm. It is a touching story. And the ending is phenomenal.

The final scene takes place in church. The choir is singing In the Garden, “he walks with me and talks with me…” as the congregation passes the communion elements down the pews. The camera pans past several worshippers who figure prominently in the story, then on to Edna, Moze, Mr. Will, her children, and then, as if they were still alive and sitting in the service, her husband, Royce sitting next to Wylie. The last words spoken in the film are spoken by Wylie. As he receives communion, which was passed to him by Royce, he turns and says to him, “Peace of God.”

It’s an amazing vision of perseverance and faith, of forgiveness and community. On "All Saints Day," which is today, we need to be reminded that we are not on the journey alone. We are surrounded by a “great cloud of witnesses” who are cheering us on: on through life’s joys and struggles as we keep the faith and serve the Kingdom.

Investment Plan

“A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.” — D. Elton Trueblood

How many people have invested in your life? Parents. Teachers. Youth ministers. Coaches. Mentors. Pastors. Friends.

A guest preacher came to our church when I was young. He was the former pastor of the church where my father was serving at the time. It was a relatively small church in rural Warren County. Dad introduced him to the congregation just before he spoke, sharing all his accomplishments since he left that church, which were many. When the man stood up to speak he said that he felt like a turtle on a fence post: if you ever see one you know he didn’t get up there on his own.

We are all like the turtle. We didn’t get where we are on our own. Someone helped us. Someone along the way invested energy and effort into our lives. Ultimately, God is the one who invested in us and made it possible for us to live life and experience hope and fulfillment. Our lives are God’s gift to us. How we live our lives are our gifts to God and others. How are you investing your life?

What Is Success?

“To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.” -- Baruch Spinoza

Success means being faithful to God’s purpose for you. For some people, this means using the talents and gifts God has given them to develop new products that make life easier for others. These people will discover significant material rewards for their talents because these talents line up with what society values. Others have talents society does not value near as much. Consider the person who is especially gifted at encouraging elderly persons having difficulty adjusting to life after a spouse dies. Although this person is using their talents and gifts just as, if not more, effectively than the earlier example, society simply does not value older adults (at least not Western society). Great financial gain does not issue forth from exercising these gifts and talents.

However, that is a successful life. Being the person God made you. Too many people, striving for what the world says success is, completely avoid success because they deny their basic identity as a child of God created in the image of God in order to serve the purposes of God. Financial reward may be in the mix for such people, but happiness will always remain elusive.

The challenge for those who want to be true to themselves and true to the God who created them, is ignoring the advice and direction given to them by the world and follow their hearts. God has a wonderful promise along these lines: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Ps. 37:4 ESV). If you are faithful to God’s purpose for you, you will discover true success in life.