The Long Way Up

I have recently seen this worship set aired on Facebook Live where the song leader sang out a few ‘artistic and rhetorical phrases’ toward God and toward the audience: a common practice that worship ministers do apparently. This reminded me of the times when I had been a part of such worship sessions, where I myself have said certain pleasant, spiritual-sounding quips, which in hindsight were, at best, impulsive and, at worst, presumptuous; I guess our emotions can get the better of us sometimes (most of the time?), even in such a hallowed setting. As I continued to watch this band play and sing, I had to fight my own judgmental and self-righteous tendencies since I — as previously mentioned — have been in that position of being on a pulpit to sing songs to God and have gotten carried away with my words, releasing statements that now feel awkward, out of place, and even embarrassing. How many times must I have said and sung words, phrases, and sentences that were not inspired by the Ho...

It is so easy to criticize what people do and who they are from the sidelines of life, and from the safety and comfort of our own conceptions of the world. Many of us — peering into other people’s lives through rose-colored glasses or whatever filter of preference we use — vehemently transform ourselves from couch potatoes into armchair critics the moment we see a headline printed on the newspaper, hear a report blasted on the nightly news, or scroll into a post on social media that affects and offends our sensibilities. We then go up in arms, and sound off on how this guy should have done this, or this person shouldn’t have said that, or so-and-so could have made this decision instead. We analyze, conjecture, and postulate until we are satisfied that we have said our piece on the matter.  Oh, if only we were privy to the internal workings of each person’s mind and the behind-the-scenes progression of events in their lives, then perhaps, to some degree, we might actually be ...

I don't demand much from people, if I do at all. I'm typically easygoing and really not hard to please once you get to know me. Anger doesn't come as easily to me as offense does, but even then a subsequent response comes as a carefully thought out proceeding. I do not hastily respond when I am angry, as I prefer to weigh my words first before launching them from my mouth because once they're spoken, there's no taking them back. So when people come at me with repeated disrespect and condescension, I think it is but fitting that I put my foot down and speak my mind, especially when blatant disrespect is done repeatedly and in the presence of others. Never mind that I'm a pastor; that part can be disregarded, as far as I'm concerned. But if the other party can not, will not, or does not have the capacity to exercise good discretion, extend basic honoring to another human, and express respect to a fellow believer, I would most likely be provoked to g...

It's really hard running into people with a very fixed, one-sided view of things that are very intricate and multi-faceted. Really hard! I can't understand -- if we're feeding off from the same source material and being taught by the same teachers -- why some people still choose to cling to a piece of the pie and insist to everyone else that their piece IS THE WHOLE PIE! This is probably the reason why the body of Christ is as fractured as it is today: too many people upholding one biblical truth and taking it to the extreme... mowing down other truths AND PEOPLE in their wake. I once taught about this during one of our services, echoing what I have learned from my pastor (and from other pastors online and off) that there is a danger in going to extremes when it comes to scriptural principles. The Word of God is so rich, so powerful and so full of many beautiful facets of spiritual life that fit together to make a whole. Human as we are, we have a tendency to p...