Danny J Bixby

>I stayed home from work today because I’m sick. Since I had the free time and the desire to infect more of humanity with my disease I went to Radioshack. And Walmart. Two of them. Each.

mwahahaha

Well, first I went to walmart to buy some mucinex…you know, for the sickness. Just sore throat/stuffed face/dry cough/plague of death regular sickness. While I was there, I went to pick up some DTV converter boxes since we don’t have cable anymore and the coupons expire in 2 days.

NO LONGER CARRIES THEM

Fine, nuts to you walmart, i’ll go to the radioshack in your “Parking lot strip mall.”

SOLD OUT

Sigh.

Went home with my mucinex, called another Radioshack in town to see if they had any. Sure enough, they still have some! So I went and drove across town to another Radioshack which was in yet another Walmart “Parking lot strip mall.” I saw Becky and her daughter Courtney walking into walmart. Courtney is now significantly taller. This made me chuckle.

Since I was already at walmart, and radioshack was bound to be more expensive, I thought i’d go in and see if they had any first.

NOPE

Radioshack it is. Converter boxes purchased, yay!

(I don’t know who that is, it just came up googling “yay”)

Now, as the kids say, let us get down to brass tacks. I hate going to walmart. Why? Because there are people with cardboard signs in the parking lots that say “homeless” or “hungry” on them. And they are everywhere.

Don’t tell me i’m a terrible person, you enjoy seeing other people in a state of despair and hopelessness? Didn’t think so.

Why don’t I like it? Because I feel convicted to do something. And more so I feel incredibly angry at myself when I try rationalize why I don’t stop. Because I don’t stop.

Why I try to look straight ahead, and see everyone else doing it too, to avoid “seeing” the person in need of help on the side of the road. Or in the parking lot.

Why, even though i’m not going to be able to get them back on their feet alone, do I not even give a dollar? Or a few dollars to give them some money to get something to eat?

And even if I had no money at all to give (which is a lie, we always have money to give) would I not even take a few moments to talk to them? To show a bit of decency. To express some compassion even if in word alone? Being treated like a person is a big deal to someone who spends all day watching people pretend they can’t see them.

I try to tell myself that I don’t have time to do this. That i’m in a hurry. That I don’t have three minutes to pull over.

To further absurdify (yeah, that’s right!) the situation, the thought starts coming in that if I stopped and gave money or talked to this one person, then I’d have to do it for everyone that I saw who needed help. The same way your elementary teacher would shame you into not eating candy in class.

Because if you don’t have enough to share with everyone, you shouldn’t share with anyone.

So, why do I do this? Because I AM terrible. I am a miserable and pathetic wretch on my own. And I feel superior. Maybe not by any sort of intrinsic trait, but by my not being in the same position. I tell myself that I’ve made good choices to not end up on the side of the road with a sign. And by doing so I immediately mentally judge the person who IS in that position as having “deserved” it.

Disgusting.

What would happen if I took the time out to talk to someone on the walmart parking lot?

Would it destroy me? Would my wife leave me and child hate me because I was home 5 minutes later? Would my milk spoil because of the additional few hundred seconds in the car? Would my budget be devastated after now spending $100+ on groceries, I tack on an additional percent or two?

I believe that big acts of compassion start from small acts of compassion. I wouldn’t be helping this person turn their life around immediately — and who’s to say we shouldn’t strive to do that too — but I might be able to give them money for a drink. Or a sammich. Or maybe my interaction would make them feel more like a person. Like someone that has worth. Instead of someone who people pretend to not be able to see.

I happen to believe a little bit of compassion shown to someone who needs it is better than none at all.

>I’m in the middle of reading a book titled unChristian: What a new generation really thinks about Christianity…and why it matters.

Long title, amazing book.

I try to not talk about or come to conclusions about books until I’ve finished reading them, but my mind is exploding with the information unChristian contains that I need to spill some of it out. I want to quote nearly everything in the book….it’s just full of incredible information.

This book sprouted out of a three year research project by the Barna Group and contains a lot of information of how Americans age 16-29 (at the time the info was gathered, 2004-2006) view Christianity, Christians, the Church, the Bible, faith, and God. It also contains contributions from prominent Christian leaders: Chuck Colson, Mike Foster, Rick Warren, Kevin Palau, Andy Stanley, John Stott, Brain McLaren and many (20+) others.

For purposes of simplicity, people were polled in two separate groups: Christians, and non-Christians. Non-Christians being active adherents to any type of faith structure other than Christianity including no faith structure at all.

In 1996 the Barna group released a report “Christianity has a Strong Positive Image Despite Fewer Active Participants.” Among non-Christians, 85% were favorable toward Christianity’s role in society. And the 16-29 age demographic correlated.

Ready for what it looks like now? A mere 10 years later among the 16-29 demographic?

16%

SIXTEEN PERCENT!!!11!!!ONE!

Even worse, when exchanging the word “Christianity” with the phrase “Born-again Christian” the number drops to 10%. And when exchanged for the word “Evangelical” it PLUMMETS to 3%.

Yeah. Three freaking percent of non-Christians age 16-29 have a “good impression” of Evangelical Christians. Compared to 49% who say they have a “bad impression” and 48% who have a “neutral impression.”

You know that 85% from 10 years ago from ages 16-29? It wasn’t good + neutral together. It was just “good.” Now, it is merely 16% among ages 16-29.

Why is this? Well, the book goes into very large and painful detail of what Christianity has become and how it is perceived. You can complain about people’s perceptions all you want, but at the end of the day their perceptions are how you are viewed.

The researches used 10 negative words/phrases (they also used 10 positive phrases…it’s not encouraging either) that people could use to describe a religious faith and asked people to indicate of they agreed (a lot or some) with the phrase being able to describe modern day Christianity:

Anti-homosexual – 91%
Judgmental – 87%
Hypocritical: Saying one thing, doing another – 85%
Too involved in politics – 75%
Out of touch with reality – 72%
Old Fashioned – 78%
Insensitive to others – 70%
Boring – 68%
Not accepting of other faiths – 64%
Confusing – 61%

Every one was nearly 2/3 affirmed as an effective phrase to describe present day Christianity.

This is disgusting. And although I knew already these things to be true, it hurts to read them. To read hard data about the disgusting job that we are doing as the Church. To read that 59% of people surveyed say their PERSONAL EXPERIENCES at churches influenced their views, and that 50% say that PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS WITH CHRISTIANS are the most common way their views are shaped.

This is horribly damning evidence. It makes me sick and it makes me embarrassed to be counted among Christians.

It makes me want to do something about it. It makes me NEED to do something about it.

It makes me burn with a desire to show people that these perceptions are NOT what God intends. I don’t mean the perceptions are wrong….I believe that they’re right. I believe the best way to define/describe an institution is from the perspective of those outside of it. Anyone who involved in a group is far more likely to glaze over problems and inconsistencies, but it is those who are outside who give the best perspective. Their opinions are not warped by being a member of that which they’re criticizing. And I believe that the accuracy of the perceptions is the worst part.

We have failed to represent the grace that Jesus offers.

We have been poor representatives of a holy and loving God.

We bear responsibility for this problem.

We have to be the solution…

>I’m on vacation. Two weeks off while my parents are in town, though they are currently in Chicago until Friday. So it’s been just Brooke and me for yesterday and today. We were at Jump Mania today for three hours and I brought a book with me, The Hole in our Gospel by Richard Stearns. This is one of the most powerful, personally convicting, and difficult books that I’ve read in a long time. I can’t imagine how awkward and uncomfortable I looked while reading this in a public place…

Everyone should read this book. Everyone.

I’ll be writing a review of it in a few days for a program I’ve enrolled in, but this excerpt will have to do for now. It is the result of the author’s desire to write a Revelation style letter to the “Church in America” using pre-existing scriptural verses….and he makes special note of how he’s knowingly destroying every rule of biblical exegesis, and thinks you need to get over it. One line in it sent a special shiver at me, if you’ve come to NPC in the past month you’ll immediately recognize it:

To the angel of the Church in America write:

These are the words of the One who holds the seven stars and walks among the golden lamp stands. I know your deeds. You live in luxury and self-indulgence, and you have forsaken your first love. I hold this against you. Woe to those of you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left. Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine mansions left without occupants.

Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.

Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded your wealth in the last days. You say, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.” Yet it is those who are poor in the eyes of the world that are rich in faith. I have chosen them to inherit the kingdom I have promised to those who love Me. Therefore, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Seek first My kingdom and My righteousness, and all these other things will be given to you as well. Remember, even I, the Lord Jesus Christ, though I was rich, for your sakes became poor, so that you, through My poverty, might become rich.

Why do you call Me, “Lord, Lord,” but do not do what I say? Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says, for whoever obeys My commands–that is the one who loves Me.

What does the Lord require of you, you ask? To act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God. In fact, the entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

There will always be poor people in the land. I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in the land. Defend the cause of the weak and the fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.

Now let’s talk about fasting. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable tot he Lord? No, this is the fast that I have chose: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to see the oppressed free and break every yoke. It is to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter–when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

Even now, return to Me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity.

I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Why spend money on what is not bread and labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to Me and eat what is good, and your soul will delight int he richest of fare. Then you will call, and I will answer; you will cry for help and I will say, “Here am I.” If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and the malicious talk, and if you spend yourself in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become as the noonday. I will guide you always; I will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

Therefore, My dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

-Jesus

P.S. I am coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.