I used to wonder why the Lord chose to send all of his children off to Linear Camp, where time rules our every obsession.  All the while He’s back home in the glory of timelessness. Our world has very definite time frames like any camp, be it a summer, or a week or two. We’ll tend, given these parameters, to try and figure out what we enjoy and then load up our schedules with those activities, to maximize our adventure. Authors even write bucket list books of all the great sights and activities which we should strive to get to before we die.  Imagine for a moment, instead of this, a world where we’d be allowed to make endless erroneous choices without at least the consequences of wasted time or a wasted life? A world where no matter how many times we get it wrong, we’d all have unlimited opportunities to try again to get it right? Do you think we’d ever learn how to make wise or informed choices or even how to follow a set of clearly detailed instructions? What would be the point, pride? There are a lot of lessons for us to learn before we can ever get to such a glorious haven and then maintain the glory of that haven.

We need to learn how to navigate disappointments, to correct deficiencies, to revise flawed plans and to weather failures. At the same time we should also learn how to succeed with a humble attitude, to assist as needed, to teach from experience and to share or give credit where credit is truly due. There is a certain urgency in this world, because we only have a short time to try and get it right. This urgency forces most of us to learn and adapt, to abandon failure and to embrace successes. Our world forces learning opportunities. “The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?” (John 7:15 NIV). Experiences come in two forms, our own and those of others. Jesus both lived learning and absorbed learning as He walked through this Linear Camp. He was and remains our model student and teacher. “let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance—” (Proverbs 1:5 NIV). We do need to be prepared for that safe haven called heaven.  The integrity of heaven itself depends on it. God won’t invite strangers or those who’ve rejected His ways into His home. This short camp life we’ve been given is our opportunity to learn how to cope and how to follow directions. When this camp comes to an end will we have learned how to survive and live eternally? That’s pretty much up to us.

JC Calkins with Hope for all of God’s UNCOMMON PEOPLE  

The extraordinary beauty of ordinary. Assisting us in finding joy in the most ordinary aspects our lives is the plan, the work and the pleasure of God. If we must go beyond the ordinary to discover our pleasure then we haven’t really figured ourselves out or who God is. Could it be wrong to aspire to greatness? If our foundational aspirations are fame, power, wealth or even personal recognition, then yes, it’s wrong and will only undermine the joy which was planned for us. The painful result of self gratifying pursuits is ultimately sadness or depression. For many this probably sounds terribly boring. After all, ordinary is … well just plain old ordinary. Don’t we all want to feel special, at least in our own world?

One can’t shake off the fact that God created each of us to be totally unique. The very nature of our existence has been scientifically ordained toward uniqueness. Physically, we are the unique product of one seed and one egg. Emotionally, we grow out of a unique arrangement of individual, environmental influences. Spiritually, we are the essence of the character God chose to breath into us.  So we can never be ordinary. When He said to 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.” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV), the Lord didn’t mention fame or fortune, those are the types of rewards we seek for ourselves. When our plans are not aligned with God’s, they’ll never produce the happiness we seek. “But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord; they do not understand his plan, that he has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.“ (Micah 4:12 NIV). I cringe a little whenever I hear concerned friends or family utter commands like make something of your life or do something great. This simply adds fuel to the consuming fires of human depression. Failure is a part of life and will remain so until we start to realize the life that God planned for us. If God has something grandiose in mind and we remain obedient to His will, we can be sure that He will make it happen. But if it’s our plan, not His, “The Lord knows all human plans; he knows that they are futile.” (Psalm 94:11 NIV), we’ll be carrying the weight of all the disappointments alone. The bible is intentionally overflowing with seemingly ordinary stories about ordinary people, yet each is worthy of special recognition. To truly enjoy ordinary in this extraordinary world is a challenge for us, yet that’s the plan. Simply having experienced the tiniest part this extraordinary creation will likely be the fondest recollection of a purified heart.

JC Calkins with Hope for all of God’s UNCOMMON PEOPLE

We are among the most fragile of all species, yet we believe we stand at the pinnacle of the food chain.  Our unique and special intellect fosters and then hosts certain insecurities founded by our own limited awareness. In part, being of sound mind means understanding our limitations. While we understand our weaknesses, we’re still unwilling to accept them, so we chose instead to focus more directly on future applications of our proven abilities. We think of this as looking forward rather than back. This singular forward thinking also allows us to forget much, including the loves which we have encountered. The kinds of loves which require or required us to constantly seek renewed assurances of their continuity. Do we doubt the feelings and convictions of those who love us or do we doubt being worthy of their love? Within the actions of our own fragile species we can generate love reassurances as needed, however the space between us and our God’s love is connected by faith and understanding. Without faith, our chasm of separation from His love can be so great as to suppress our every attempt at any crossing. We might readily believe in Him as our God, but as an interest of His love, we find ourselves constantly falling short. We solicit proof of His love but are then oblivious to His every beneficial act on our behalf. For example, we can’t see our future but God does.  If God changes our individual future, we generally have no way of knowing that He intervened. The exception is when our destinies seem dismal and forsaken, set in stone, so we pray and something changes for the better. Those who know believe in God, while those who don’t believe in good fortune.

Loving God and being loved by God have no earthly comparisons. This is where we often stumble. We learn from experiences. Our actions and interactions generate those experiences. If we don’t express our love of God and interact with Him, be assured, we will never understand Him. If every human needed a private tutor for all of our necessary learning our educational system would be woefully inadequate. Learning about God, starts with the bible. Knowing God, comes from experiences and loving God, grows out of knowing Him. God’s love for us is simple, He loves those who love Him. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10 NIV). “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19 NIV). “So be very careful to love the Lord your God.” (Joshua 23:11 NIV). “But whoever loves God is known by God.” (1 Corinthians 8:3 NIV).

JC Calkins with Hope for all of God’s UNCOMMON PEOPLE

To simply scratch the surface of the mysteries of this universe is commendable.  Deeply understanding even a few of them is however, totally relative.  Someone living today knows more about the human body than anyone living a thousand years ago!  An accomplished writer living 200 years ago could easily have managed a working vocabulary of over 200,000 words, while most writers today use only half that, which is still twice the voice of most other people. We’ve gained so much yet we’re losing our abilities to; evaluate character, honor commitments, understand relationships or trust much of anything or anyone.  Everywhere we look we find “experts”. There are so many people on our planet now that to differentiate ourselves, we must become a specialist in a narrowly defined field. That personal development process can take from 8 to 20 years (after primary schooling), and if we stop digging and uncovering for even a couple of years we’ll soon become obsolete. Our “expert” learning commitments require; respect, interest, motivation and resources. So why is it that so many people know so little about God?

How can it be that the central most figure in all of history generates so little respect or interest. Is He taken for granted? Has He become obsolete? Might He just be so complicated, so undefinable that we’ve just given up all hope of understanding Him? Or maybe … we just think we know Him and that’s good enough. There are a lot of survey’s on this subject. It has been recorded that less than 10% of the self professed Christians living today (students of God) have ever read the entire bible and only slightly more have read even one of the 66 books of the bible. Since the bible is the only authoritative source of information on God, and so few have read it, how did we arrive at this perception of “understanding”? Yes God does talk to us through His Holy Spirit, but He only gives us information. He doesn’t offer conclusions of convenience. Understanding His information doesn’t require expert status from us, but it does require the same; respect, interest, motivation and resource. The Bible. Here is the one bible verse that best describes God to me, “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” (1 John 4:16 NIV). The Holy Bible is the ultimate Love Story, filed with miracles, intrigue, sacrifice, forgiveness and understanding. If you haven’t read it, start today, if you have, read it again. God offers something new each time it’s unveiled. Find love in His treasured Valentine, every day.

JC Calkins with HOPE for all of His UNCOMMON PEOPLE (Share love today)

When we watch a major sporting event, most of us don’t sit there believing that we’re good enough to play in that game.  When we commiserate the choices offered us among those who desire to represent us in government we may think that we’re better than them, but we still don’t throw our names into that hat. When we excel in school we don’t necessarily think we should be appointed Dean. Yet when we skip church, avoid community service, read a newspaper, magazine or novel instead of the bible, then spend our last buck on ourselves instead of someone truly needy, we still somehow arrive at the conclusion that we’ll be good to go with Jesus when our time comes?  Now that’s an extraordinary leap of faith. Traveling to the Holy Land to walk where Jesus waked, or see what Jesus saw, in no way replaces the need to live like Jesus lived! Sure we have a long list of excuses for not following His example but we seem to have forgotten what He said, “I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet .” (Luke 14:24 NIV). This banquet parable is a simple invitation to us, from the only one who can offer to us, that certain special something, which at some point we will all desire.  Put simply, when our potential host requests that we behave like he does and we decline, respectfully or otherwise, we shouldn’t still expect that special engraved invitation to arrive just before the big event. To do so is unrealistic and flawed thinking, the kind which will one day result in a massive hysteria.

Much of the human race spent 5,000 years waiting for our Messiah to arrive. Some are still waiting. Others are paying no attention what-so-ever. Well He came and left about 2,000 years ago. Before he left, he established enough teachings to guide all of us through the next 2,000 years.  These teachings were and are a necessary supplement to the teachings His Father had laid down even before the Son lived with us. The teachings and the invitation are inseparable. We may not invite strangers to our weddings or banquets, but Jesus did, with the caveat that we would come to both know and follow him. With the hope, but not the expectation, that we would gladly abandon our roles as strangers and embrace his offer of friendship and family.  These hopes that God has for us are not fulfilled by knowing His name or traveling to His place of birth, they are fulfilled by following Him. Not later, but now, before the banquet He’s prepared for us.

JC Calkins with COMMON SENSE 4 UNCOMMON PEOPLE

I was discussing the concept of God’s judgements with a recent acquaintance today. He queried the current unrest in Syria, Palestine, Iran and Israel. He asked about the deteriorating state of the EU as it relates to the old Europe thing (the Holy Roman Empire). He questioned Israel’s objectives, which carried our conversation into the book of Revelation. He wondered aloud “have I pleased God enough, I worry about that”? I reminded him that the traditional Jewish faith does not follow our new testament or the prophecies found in it and the book of Revelation. Hence the prophecies which we (Christians) have adopted as future truths, are not of any concern to them. He said “they should be”. I replied, “they were and are God’s chosen people”, but left open the question of chosen for what purpose? I said “the fact that you are worrying about having pleased God enough, suggests that you are in fact on the right track for pleasing God”. Those who are not asking that question every day are in denial. This pleasing is a process not a single act. It’s tied to a relationship which stems from belief, much more than the belief itself. Believing is merely the prerequisite for acting on those beliefs. Doubting ourselves about pleasing God is an act of a strengthening faith, not a weakness of faith. Wondering out loud, as this new neighbor did with me, was a moment of witnessing his faith, trust and allegiance. This was an unusually mild winter day with the sun shining brightly on us, yet the light and warmth surrounding this conversation was of a different super-natural sort. It carried an element of comfort and trust, not fear.

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.” (Mark 13:32, 33 NIV). Wondering about tomorrow will not change tomorrow, but doing something that pleases God today and each day hereafter will surely alter our place, as whatever tomorrows are in store for us play out. We are not and can not be perfect in the eyes of God unless and until we live within the body of Christ. To follow Jesus, is to do as He does. To do only what we want is a foolish rebellion, displeasing God but endearing us to His long standing rival. The value of the church of God, is the sharing and strength of belief, toward a unanimous call to action. If each of the self professed 2.5 billion Christians in the world helped just 3 of the lost or searching, the entire 7 billion people on this planet would be more than served. And the Lord would be pleased.

JC Calkins with COMMON SENSE 4 UNCOMMON PEOPLE

“That’s easy for you to say!” Do you hear that very often? I do. To clear that up, nothing is easy for me to say, especially when I’m talking or writing about God. He is an incredibly difficult presence and subject for me. Ask me about finance, economics, jurisprudence or design and I’ll go on endlessly without concern or any reservations about what’s flowing out of my overly opinionated mouth. It doesn’t matter to me how others react to my remarks on those other subjects, but when I wander into the “what’s God thinking or saying” universe, I’m so fearful of being wrong or judged that I labor and pray, study, then labor and pray some more before writing anything down for others to consider. People can see “gifts” in others but we all really struggle to see or understand our own heaven sent “talents”.  I have no GPS for God’s desired direction for my life.  I try never to dwell on that question. For me, following God’s plan is like using a national atlas. I might be able to see the major towns and highways of my path, but I can never foresee the exit ramps, secondary road turns or the house numbers where I might end up. That’s not something that I’m suppose to know until I get there. It might all seem pretty spontaneous but it’s only spontaneous from our limited perspective. God’s plan for each of us is perfectly ordered. We just don’t know that order ahead of time. The part that’s critical isn’t the direction, it’s the rules we live by along the way.

The rules (not guidelines) are called Christianity, named after our mentor, redeemer and savior. Living our Christianity, sometimes softly and other times out loud, is the important variable.  Exampling or teaching something we don’t believe in never works in our own or anyone else’s favor. It shouldn’t matter to me who reads and who rejects these words, they will find their proper audience, but only when God sees fit. That’s the way it’ll be with your lives too. The key is in keeping God’s line of communication open. Turn it off for awhile and we’re bound to miss important instructions and turns, which will leave us lost and wandering. Back tracking over our mistakes is an unproductive detour, while learning from them and moving forward proactively is the key to staying on task. God’s task for us, is revealed when necessary. Woe be “… to those who say, “Let God hurry; let him hasten his work so we may see it. The plan of the Holy One of Israel— let it approach, let it come into view, so we may know it.” (Isaiah 5:19 NIV). Listen, be patient, follow His rules and trust that He knows the way, better than we do.

JC Calkins with COMMON SENSE 4 UNCOMMON PEOPLE

I’m not sure how many teeter-totters still exist in playgrounds, but I can certainly understand their scarcity.  It takes at least two people to operate one as designed and ideally those two people will be measurably equal for it to function enjoyably.  As soon as one person jumps off, the other party experiences pain or at least surprise and the emotions which accompany it. In life we all experience pain and disappointment. These simple but crude playground devices were a great example of the need for some balance in life. The pain or agonies of life are the parts we’d like to skip over or ideally learn from, but often the best we can manage is to try and quickly forget them. Most of us grew up learning that we’d need to stand on our own, be independent, make our own ways and take all the licks dolled out along the way. In this metaphor, we choose instead the playground swings over the teeter-totters. Swings comes in sets so that we might manage our own speed and risks, our personal ups and downs while watching others do the same.  Our success or enjoyment will not, if we have a choice, rest in the unpredictable hands of our acquaintances. When we fall, we … what? What choices do we have, we are alone … or are we? “Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me.” (Acts 26:16 NIV).

One of the truly misunderstood aspects of Jesus Christ, is that our agony is too often a prerequisite to really knowing Him.  He came, not for those of us who stand alone, but for those who know that standing alone will only get us so far. When we’re alone and fall, which we will, unless we’ve reached out with our hearts for Jesus, we’ll be on our own. When we’re slugging through life with the Lord by our side, we will still fall, but we’ll have the steadiest hand in the universe helping us back up. He alone is the perfect balance for our lives. If we’ve come to really know and trust in Him, the wisdom imparted can seriously mitigate our falls too.  The learning available to us through Him is immeasurable, but understand clearly, it still has a price. That price, comes in the form of sharing the good news, being a first party witness to the remarkable comfort and pleasure of actually knowing God. This should be the one life event we can’t stop ourselves from sharing. Jesus doesn’t want to be our secret buddy, quite the contrary, he’s the reliable friend we should be introducing to everyone who needs Him, whether they know it, like it or not. It is after all, what real friends and neighbors do.

JC Calkins with COMMON SENSE 4 UNCOMMON PEOPLE (please share today)

I watched a promotion on TV recently which showed a variety of very “mature” people describing what they want to be when they grow up. After the novelty of the concept wore off, it occurred to me that everyone who is truly open to God’s will should really be thinking like this, while probably leaving the destination space “open”. Just about anybody with even the tiniest speck of faith seeks salvation, but very few will ever accept the baton of discipleship even when it’s slammed convincingly in their pocketed hands.  Being a disciple of the Lord, makes this-life even more challenging, while simplifying the after-life enormously. Now I’m not suggesting a more comfortable cloud, or cooler assignment in heaven, as a justification for serving God, we don’t know enough about any of that to even speculate. I am however suggesting that for many, with salvation comes an eagerness, a drive or desire to answer the call(s) of God.  A certain willingness is needed, since those calls may send us into very unfamiliar territory. If anyone had suggested to me ten years ago, that I’d be writing regular articles like this, leading small groups, witnessing before imperfect strangers, standing in city parks on Christmas or New Year’s eve, with food and supplies for the needy, hungry and/or homeless I’d have wondered about their sanity. Sure I love God, what’s not to love?  But all the rest of this seemed seriously above and beyond.

My attitude needed adjusting and I didn’t think that anybody I knew was up to that task. Oh ye of little faith. Uncanny means “peculiarly unsettling, as if or of supernatural origin or nature; eerie“.  Well take it from a recovering skeptic, God has the most uncanny ways of adjusting attitude anyone might ever imagine. “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26, 27 NIV). Them’s strong words! Words I needed to hear. What Jesus was saying was, don’t start this job if you can’t or don’t intend to finish, for if you do, the result for all will be more catastrophic than good. The requirements for salvation versus discipleship are as kindergarten is to graduate school. “Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:12 NIV). Discipleship isn’t for everyone, but for some it’s everything”! I believe that each cross carried for Jesus is ultimately lighter than no cross at all.

JC Calkins with COMMON SENSE 4 UNCOMMON PEOPLE (OK disciples, share …)

“… but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.” (1 Corinthians 13:10 NIV).  Having a partial understanding of our purpose and interim roles, is the most that we can hope for now. Yet for us, that is all of it, our everything. For many, even that may be too much.  When we begin to realize that our true purpose is to be outwardly focused, to give rather than take, the warm caressing sands beneath our feet begin to wash away, leaving us unsteady and chilled on the paths we’ve chosen. Will we have spent so little of our precious time addressing the needs of our neighbors that we’ll have buried in the garages of our lives, even a partial understanding of our true intended purpose? We’ve each embraced our adopted purpose to varying degrees, what we are too often missing is the natural purpose behind the life we’ve been gifted. It begins and ends within the components of the following definition of the greatest emotion we’ll ever experience, love. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 tells us that love is comprised of; truth, patience, kindness, protection, trust, hope, forgiveness and perseverance. The very same scripture tells us of the ingredients we add which routinely spoil or destroy our loves; envy, pride, selfishness, anger and dishonor. Yet virtually each of these ingredients, both the beneficial and harmful, can be found in our lives and loves, in different quantities, producing uniquely different kinds and degrees understanding. Partial loves. Every life, that is, except  One.

“When completeness comes …”, all of our partial life understandings disappear or stated metaphorically, will become like a cup of salt poured into the sea. Technically these partial understandings still exist, but our heightened breadth of new awareness will have been magnified so exponentially, that we’ll finally be able to clearly “see” our former understandings, as merely “in part“. God’s Word tells us, that moment of completeness, will reveal what we’ve been missing. That incredible moment, takes place when the chaff has all been sifted away and our residual purity is permanently dedicated within the body of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only One who, through complete love and sacrifice, has the ability to thresh out the chaff of our confusion. What is so real to us, will ultimately and finally be brought into focus. The possibilities we only imagined will be spiritually transformed into the obvious. Our question every day is, will we only be close enough to see this, or will we have been involved enough to actually experience completeness? Jesus warns: “And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.“ (Luke 16:26 NIV).

JC Calkins with COMMON SENSE 4 UNCOMMON PEOPLE