The Threads Blog

Do you like sports? I have always been drawn to the sports world. I think it is one area where you can blatantly see people using the gifts and abilities God has given them. Do they always glorify Him in the process? No, but every now and then they do. I think about my childhood heroes like Michael Jordan and current stars like Lebron James and I see someone built to play basketball. They simply have abilities others do not have. Michael Phelps captivated this country for more than a week as he proved he was the best in the world at what God created him to do. I remember seeing doctors talk about how his body was built to swim.

If you’ve completed Todd Phillips’ thought-provoking study Get Uncomfortable, you know he is a person dedicated to holding up the plight of the oppressed. Right now, the teaching pastor of Frontline is in the midst of an incredibly ambitious project called The Last Well.

We spend so much time and energy trying to make the Christian life appealing to the outside world. And when books like unChristian come out we get smacked in the face by reality that people don’t look favorably upon us as Christians. In fact, most of the time doors get closed before they really even open when someone finds out we’re Christian. This is a great paradox and is very distressing to me. Here we are, followers of Christ, carriers of the cure, messengers of hope and the dying world around us literally runs from us. As I read about Jesus the exact opposite happened to Him. The lost and dying flocked to Him, they tore through ceilings and climbed trees. They poured treasures of oil on His feet and wiped them clean with their tear soaked hair. They left their world behind and followed Him. Yet today, we have to build ball fields or fancy stages to attract people. Why is that? As simple as the answer is, I think it is very true, our lives don’t look like our beliefs. The way we live everyday, simply doesn’t resemble the faith we claim to have.

Throughout the Old Testament, God referred to His people as His wife. The prophets are full of references about Israel’s marriage to God (although many times it was one of infidelity). Jesus’ first miracle was performed at a wedding. And then we come to this week’s passage in Matthew 22 where Jesus uses a wedding to teach some great spiritual truths. One of the conclusions I draw from all this is pretty simple: God likes weddings.

First, Gustav. Then, Hannah, Now, Ike. Our Threads events team is thinking that maybe the best time for Connect Conferences is not August and September. Last week, we were looking hurricane tracking models trying to figure out whether we should adjust the Connect Conference in Charlotte.

Do you act like the real you when you are around other people? What about when you are in church? For me, I like to wear my pretty mask, the one with the “I have no problems in my life” smile. It is just easier to be fake most of the time. The problem occurs when that fake persona falls apart and people see the reality behind the mask. It is not that I then become a hypocrite, it is just then revealed I am not who my mask says I am. What we need is not less hypocrites, but less mask wearers. What if church became a place where we could be who we really are and continue working to be who Christ wants us to be?