I’m Back… Part II

I was reminded recently, due to activity completely unrelated to any efforts on my part, that I own a blog. A lot’s been going on in my life over the last year that I think warrants comment by both me and the faithful few that have found what I have to say useful. Please know that the man I was in the last post and the man I am now are two completely different people. My convictions are deeper, my beliefs are more well founded, and my passion more intense than ever before. Life, as you all know, has its way of taking someone and twisting them into an unrecognizable shell off a man, but our Lord, as you all know, has a way of reigniting a fire once quenched by the trials of put upon us by the enemy and fanning it into a flame the likes of which has never been seen.

It is with great humility that I submit to you, Jeff Walton 2.0. My Lord and my God have seen me through what has been the most difficult year of my life so far, and I’m excited to share with you the great things that He has revealed to me.

God Bless,

Jeff

I’m Back!

After a hiatus die to lack of laptop (I can’t stand typing on the tiny keyboard my phone offers), I’m back in action. I was given a MacBook Pro by may parents for Christmas, so I’ll be learning a lot in the coming weeks, since until now, I’ve been a lifelong PC devotee (more out of necessity than desire).

I’m planning on brewing a new batch of I.P.A. soon, which’ll be my first attempt at getting a handle on a hop schedule that I really like. My thinking is that if I can perfect one recipe giving myself a kind of baseline, later on it’ll be easier to branch out and experiment with new things. So, look for photos and reports on how that turns out.

In the meantime, everyone have a Happy New Year and stay faithful to your resolutions!

What’s Your Focus?

Lately, I’ve been super busy. Between my day job as a teacher, my volunteer work with Young Life and Wyldlife, and trying to get my new business Avenue A In-Home Tutoring off the ground, I’ve been working myself to death. If I’m not grading a mountain of papers or running kids around all over town, I’ve got my nose buried in the laptop trying to drum up business and build my brand. Don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly not complaining about any of it. I know how blessed I am to have the resources and energy to be able to do all of these things. But, there comes a time when I do begin to feel overwhelmed, and without fail, I’m always reminded of the same exact thing.

You see, none of the things I’ve mentioned is intrinsically evil. In fact, I believe with my heart of hearts that they are all worthwhile causes that warrant my attention. However, I have a tendency to allow even the good things in my life to push Jesus out of the place of honor that He deserves. When this happens, I usually feel like my life is spinning out of control.

It’s really easy for me to steal time away from Christ. After all, He’ll forgive me, right? But, I’m learning with each new day that although He longs to be with me and to care for me, He’ll never force Himself upon me so when I start stepping all over Him, He gladly backs away until I realize that I just can’t do it all without Him. The fact is, I absolutely cannot do it without Him.

So, what do I have to do? It’s really as simple as giving Him back what is rightfully His. My time is a gift that He’s given me stewardship over. Close study of His Word and His nature will reveal that the best way to spend it is by using it to develop a more intimate and meaningful relationship with Him.

15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise,
16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.
17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Ephesians 5:15-17 (NASB)

You Mean It’s Not All About Me?

First, I strongly believe that while part of our character is genetic, most is directly related to our environment. Since becoming a teacher 6 yrs ago, each new class is increasingly self-centered. I feel like until they are actively taught it, they have no idea that there are other students in their class!

I remember when the “Golden Rule” was generally understood and considered the top class rule. All that was needed was a gentle reminder to, “remember the ‘Golden Rule,’” and problems were solved. I wanted to be treated well so I made sure I treated others that way too! On rare occasions, a student didn’t know or care, but this was only a handful of students in the whole school. I’ve got one class of 23 this year with about 6 of these kids!

Here’s the deal; every influential teacher in the Bible teaches selfLESSness. In Matthew 7:12 Jesus sums up the Old Testament and teachings of the prophets with, “so in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.” Later, Paul reminds the Philippians to, “look not only to [their] own interests, but also to the interests of others (Phil 2:4).”

Remember on this holy weekend that building relationships is a process. Forcing your agenda down others’ throats will only drive them away. Promote others 1st, yourself 2nd.

I have, by no means, perfected this in my life, but when Christ teaches this as the gist of His ENTIRE message, I take that pretty seriously! Don’t be afraid to be a doormat sometimes. Jesus wasn’t. In fact, He considered all of us before Himself… to the point of death.

5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7 but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:5-11(NIV)

Really?

It’s difficult for me to fathom the mentality of some people. This won’t be long, but I want to make sure my readers are clear. I love beer. In fact, I have dreams about beer. In my dreams, there are rivers flowing with beer. There are forests of beer trees where no creature ever thirsts, and cows that when milked produce the finest milk stout you’ll ever taste. In fact, in my “beertopia,” it’s called “beering” not “milking” at all. In other words, I love beer.

Now, please don’t mistake my passion for this magical elixir as drunkenness. In fact, it’s quite the contrary. People who swill beer disgust me. This is a beverage meant to be savored not abused. So, when I’m at the grocery store, and I pull up next to an expensive looking convertible Mercedes with the top down and two half-full (yes, I’m typically pretty optimistic) Corona’s in the cup holders, I take offense. First, to the fact that this person is clearly discriminating in his or her choice of automobile yet they choose to skimp on the beer they choose to drink, BUT, and that is a big fat hairy “BUT!” I take offense to the fact that my state, Texas, has unnecessarily strict beer laws, not because of people like me, who truly love beer, but because of idiots like this who clearly couldn’t tell a lager from an ale, even with it stamped on the bottle, but choose to ruin it for the rest of us by pulling crap like this!

Jesus CAN Play Rugby

When I first started playing rugby about four years ago, I was challenged from the outset by a cast of characters completely unlike any I had every seen before. Having grown up in a relatively conservative, church-going household, I had come to be a pretty zealous Christian who knew little of compromise when it came to the things of God. How I came to a place where I was willing to give a culture like rugby’s a try is a long story that you’ll learn throughout several posts. Suffice it to say, attending that first practice was a big step for me.

Honestly, I was an obnoxious Bible thumper. While in college, I felt the call to ministry and set about trying to fill my head with “knowledge” and became quite the little theologian, but it was all at the expense of my understanding about the true motivation behind why Jesus did what He did. Through a series of disappointing relationships and experiences with churches that would have turned any non-Christian away from the faith entirely, I found myself on the outside looking in. I don’t mean that I’d given up my faith, but my faith in the system that had developed over the last two millennia was about gone. At the encouragement of a friend during a time when I was trying to get fit and lose weight, I tried rugby which met that need and almost immediately filled the void that had been created by my lack of involvement in church. As frustrating as it was to endure the disappointment that I had, I can look back now with understanding as to why God allowed me to see things the way He did.

I was amazed from the beginning. Not only did they welcome my wife and me into the club with open arms, but when I didn’t show up to practice for some reason, I got a phone call! Not the next week or even the next day, but in most cases it was on the same night. We were invited to social events, people seemed to take the time to really get to know us and understand who we were and where we were coming from. I felt like for the first time in a very long time that I was accepted truly for who I was without judgment.

It was during this time, that God began to pull back the veil for me. He had allowed me, and rightfully so, to be shielded from the world and all of its “diversity.” I had a lot of growing to do, and before rugby, I needed a life separate that would allow my faith to grow and not be impeded by any kind of mixed messages. However, I had become complacent in my faith and was resting on my proverbial laurels. My faith had stagnated to the point where it felt routine and dry, but… I was comfortable, unchallenged. Rugby changed all of that in an instant.

Growing up, I had learned about atheists, now I was sharing the field with them. After church, my friends and I would go to lunch and talk about politics while looking down our noses at liberals; now, I found myself talking about my work week over a beer with them. I’d once heard a rumor about a guy in my high school that might be homosexual; my first rugby match was against Dallas’ gay men’s rugby club. I realized very quickly that if I wanted to fit into this culture, I’d have to become a lot more open-minded and fast! But, how was I supposed to do this without compromising everything I had come to believe in?

Well, it wasn’t easy. Yes, there were compromises early on. I was naïve, and didn’t understand at first that most people in the world don’t need you to be like them, and the vast majority doesn’t want politically correct facades that hide who you really are. Moreover, I learned quickly that it was okay to be who I am, a Bible believing, Jesus loving guy from Texas! The overwhelming majority of people want, even need, the genuine article. More importantly, people want to be valued, no matter your worldview. They want to know that you care about them, whoever they are.

That was it; that’s what I saw when He pulled back the veil. Instead of liberals and gays and atheists, I began to see people. I finally saw people the way Jesus sees them. Just like me, every person longs for acceptance, understanding, compassion, and love. Instead of viewing the world as an “us” versus “them” scenario, I began to understand that I was just a poor and blind beggar trying to point other poor and blind beggars toward the bread crumbs; the catch is that those bread crumbs are actually a magnificent feast I’d kept for myself for too long!

Yes, I still believe that Jesus is the only way to get to Heaven (John 14:6). Yes, I still believe that without Him, we’re doomed to eternal suffering (Romans 6:23). Now more than ever I understand that it is important that I keep company with other who are faithful to God (2 Cor 6:14). But, now there’s a sense of urgency in my life. Now, I don’t view sharing my faith as a duty that I have to God; instead I delight in living a life of love toward others that will pull them alongside me as I walk with Jesus.

Here’s the deal. Theologically speaking, Christ’s death on the cross assuaged the wrath of God that was our due as a result of the sin in our lives, but that’s not why He died. When Jesus died, God’s law was fulfilled so we wouldn’t have to answer to it eternally, but that’s not why the Father sacrificed His only Son. Yes, Jesus now sits at the Father’s right hand in glory because of the work He did on the cross, but that’s not why He did it. All of the fancy sounding theological explanations of the suffering, death, resurrection, atonement, propitiation, etc… that you’ve heard about and had pounded into your brain your whole life are true, assuming of course you were taught the truth, but none of those are the reason Jesus died. Rugby, of all things, taught me that Jesus died for people.

Does He care about our sin? Absolutely! Jesus hates sin! But, He hates it so much because it’s what keeps us far from Him. At the end of the day, He is motivated, more than anything else, by the fact that He loves people. He loves sinners and saints. He loves the gay and the straight. He loves the believer and the non-believer. He loves people. Jesus died for people.

We can discuss all day long the scope of the atonement, and debate until we’re blue in the face about each of the 5 points of Calvinism and whether they’re scriptural or not, but Jesus died because of His deep and abiding love for people and His desire to spend eternity with us.