Looks are Deceiving

For the past three days I have woken up in the morning and opened the sliding door to the balcony and looked out my window to Cheyenne Mountain. Located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, it doesn’t look much different than any other mountain that you look up to from the vantage point of the valley. However, looks can be deceiving. There is one small giveaway that this mountain might actually harbor deep secrets - on the top is a series of antennas which have the look of something more than cell towers. But, other than that, it just looks rather normal.So imagine my surprise when people told me that this was where NORAD was located! Underneath this mountain is the North American Aerospace Defense Command. It is like something out of science fiction. At one time, over a thousand personnel lived and worked in this underground complex that monitored the skies for anything unusual (and was also a nuclear bunker). Yes, looks can be deceiving.I am finishing up a week of ministry in Colorado. For four days I was on a retreat with the church planters in our denomination. Gathered at this retreat are the folk that are taking new ground for the gospel. In some ways, church planters are like the marines of the church. We drop them into a place with no gospel witness and ask them to form a beachhead where the gospel can thrive and a church can be started. And like most things, looks can be deceiving. You might think that these specially gifted people are bullet proof and made of different stuff than other folk, but it is just not true. In both Q&A and in private conversations, you realize that the struggles these heroes of mine have are no different than the ones everyone in our community faces. Of course, many questions were vocation specific and dealt with specific skills but by far some of the biggest items of instruction and discussion was what we talk about at St. Patrick all the time - How do I stay spiritually and emotionally healthy? How does God stay real to me? How do I deal with my besetting sin? So much conversation came down to soul care. It is almost as if planting a church is easier than fighting sin in my own heart.As I write this I am sitting in Winter Park, Colorado. I am talking to men who are members of a Scott Lowe’s church in Fort Collins. They are all ages and don’t look much different from folk in Collierville, except they do seem to be healthier. They just took me on a five-mile walk at over 10k feet. I swear I didn’t think it would ever end. And most of them are going on long runs this afternoon!! So here we are in the lap of beauty. Surrounded by beauty. Glory drips from the mountain peaks and as you come over each rise you are shocked by the wonder of this place. You would think that when you live in a place so aesthetically appealing, it would help you be more human, wouldn’t you? It would make your problems go away - I mean, I can’t tell you how many people move out here looking for utopia. And yet as I talk about transformation and what that looks like, I realize theses guys struggle with the same stuff that people in Collierville do: How do we change? How do we experience God’s friendship? How is Christianity more than just keeping the rules? How can this be more real to me?As I said, looks can be deceiving. There are no people out there that have it all together or know some secret you don’t know about growing in grace and becoming more like Jesus. The fact is, as we say all the time, life is hard. Becoming more like Jesus is really hard. Yes, grace is free but it is not opposed to effort. And what I think I am finding is that while most people appreciate the fact that the Gospel is about God’s free grace, we seem to be allergic to the deaths that Jesus calls us to. These deaths take the form of habits and rhythms of life that are not always easy but that yield righteousness and freedom. Another death the gospel calls us to is a communal faithfulness that demands we make space and time to live with people and to sacrifice for them in a lot of ways, including financially.The gospel is such an amazing thing - by free grace, sinners are made into saints! If you know Jesus, it is a miracle - you didn’t get there without Jesus laying hold of you! But that is just the beginning. One of the questions I am pondering in my own life and will be pondering with you in the days ahead is this: What in your life is only possible because of the gospel? Or, to put it another way - what things in your life are only possible because you are seeking to live in gratitude for what Jesus has done for you on the cross?It is a good question to ask ourselves often. What am I doing that the only explanation for doing it is the gospel? There was a Red Cross Emergency Responder who was neck deep in suffering after a massive earthquake in a third world country. Marshall Law was being enforced as things went from bad to worse. One of the soldiers was looking, no - marveling, at this young woman covered in blood and filth ministering to these physically poor and emotionally broken people who were ethnically, socially, and economically worlds apart from her, and he said to his friend as they walked by, “I wouldn’t do what she is doing for anything in this world.” Surprisingly they realized she had overheard them and they heard her say, “I wouldn’t either, I wouldn’t either.”