A Blog by Jason Salamun

The unchanging truth of the gospel is like a kaleidoscope. It can be viewed in many angles and can be seen in every aspect of life.  It’s not just a historic act of yesterday but a living force that’s at work today. May we have eyes to see the gospel in all things.

Each Christmas we celebrate the incarnation.  When God broke into human history and left heaven for the messiness of earth.

When we Christians become escapists from culture and divide everything by what’s good and bad, we forget the incarnation. We forget that he set an example of what we are to do.  We forget the words of Jesus in John 17:15 when he prayed, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.”

Jesus entered our story in order to change the story.  He has called us, his people, to do the same.  How will anyone know what’s good news if we refuse to engage a world full of bad news? Our call is to be shaped by the gospel and then shape our culture with it.

In the everyday, we can see examples of the incarnation.

The friend who sits beside her friend in a waiting room while she awaits word on if the tumor is cancerous.

The big brother who plays toys with his baby sister in her room.

The church who throws a block party at a trailer park full of kids who are often forgotten.

The dad who could easily stay late at the office but chooses to be at home with his children instead.

The teacher who could teach in a cushy private school but instead teaches in the troubled public school.

If you want to change a story you must enter it first. This is what Christ did by stepping into human history to redeem it and what we do by stepping into the stories around us.

The unchanging truth of the gospel is like a kaleidoscope. It can be viewed in many angles and can be seen in every aspect of life.  It’s not just a historic act of yesterday but a living force that’s at work today. May we have eyes to see the gospel in all things.

Take for instance the critical piece of the gospel: The Resurrection.

When Jesus rose from death on the third day he caused death to tap out to life. In fact, if you wanted to disprove Christianity, you would look no further than the resurrection. Target that and the gospel begins to crumble on itself. Paul even wrote to the Corinthian church that “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.”

The resurrection has vast importance in the life of the believer. We should be about celebrating Easter in the everyday.

Martin Luther proclaimed that “Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in spring-time.”  Consider that. Flowers, plants, grass, and trees appear dead every winter yet every spring we see new life come.  What a beautiful picture of the resurrection!

If you look for it, you’ll find the resurrection elsewhere as well.

When your car battery dies and after a jump, it begins to purr again. (And you breathe a sigh of relief).  That’s a little resurrection.

When you can love again after your heart has been shattered. That’s a little resurrection.

When you wake up after sleeping. That’s a little resurrection.

When your bad breath is overcome by a mint. That’s a little resurrection.

Open your eyes to it and you’ll begin to see little resurrections in the everyday.  And when you do, let it be a reminder of the big Resurrection of Jesus and what he did for you and I. This is what it means to see the Gospel in all things.

How have you seen little resurrections in the everyday?

This is version 4.0 of the Shift Happens video.  Fascinating stuff that you need to know about regarding culture, media, and the ever-changing world we live in.

Past Versions for your viewing pleasure:
Did You Know 3.0
Did You Know 2.0
Did You Know 1.0 (Shift Happens)

If grace is true it changes everything.

If grace is true it changes me.

If grace is true then going the extra mile is the norm.

If grace is true then my tips are more than the waitress deserves.

If grace is true it means I will forgive all those who hurt me.

If grace is true then I would give my full attention to each person I come across today.

If grace is true then I wouldn’t withhold my encouragement to another.

if grace is true then I wouldn’t try to avoid certain people.

If grace is true then I would accept every Facebook friend request that another human sends me.

If grace is true then I will seek to give more and spend less.

If grace is true then I will give that homeless guy downtown a few bucks even if I think he’d spend it on alcohol.

If grace is true then I would treat people who love me the same as people who don’t.

If grace is true then I wouldn’t cut people off in traffic or hurry and beat someone else for a parking spot.

If grace is true then I would not play favorites.

If grace is true then I don’t believe in just second chances but a million chances.

If grace is true then Christ gets 100% of me and nothing less.

If grace is true hope always remains.

How has grace changed you?

Read a fascinating article from Gary Hamel in the Wall Street Journal about a talk he gave at a recent Willow Creek Leadership Summit regarding the Church.

Here are some noteworthy quotes that made me cheer.  Some of which many of us have been saying for quite some time:

My hypothesis: the problem with organized religion isn’t that it’s too religious, but that it’s too organized.

Absolutely agree. What is to be a movement has often been institutionalized. This doesn’t mean there’s no leadership- but it does mean that there’s a danger in stuffing what should be set free in a box.

…church attendance may be lagging, but nine out of ten Americans still claim to have faith in a spiritual being—a number hasn’t changed much over the past two decades.

This is not a new statistic. It’s curious, and sad, that the church is the last place those who are interested in faith would go to discover more about spiritual matters. I am hopeful for the future as many new and renewed churches are seeking to change that story. I’m happy to say that Project Church is one of them.

Over the centuries, religion has become institutionalized, and in the process encrusted with elaborate hierarchies, top-heavy bureaucracies, highly specialized roles and reflexive routines. (Kinda like your company, but only more so). Religion won’t regain its relevance until church leaders chip off these calcified layers, rediscover their sense of mission, and set themselves free to reinvent “church” for a new age.

Don’t miss the key words here: rediscover and reinvent. I’m reminded of the quote by H. Richard Niebuhr, “The great Christian revolutions come not by the discovery of something that was not known before. They happen when somebody takes radically something that was always there.”

I truly believe that the Church isn’t going to thrive because of anything new, hip, or innovative as much as we will by returning to our roots as found in the scriptures as a community on mission driven by the gospel of Jesus.

Read the article in its entirety

In his book, “Wishful Thinking”, Frederick Buechner wrote, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

I refer to that as the sweet spot.

Have you considered what that might be for you?

What are those things in which you are most passionate?

Those activities and interests that get you the most excited?

Those talents that you most enjoy exercising?

That work that doesn’t feel like work?

How could they be used to be good news to this world?

To bring light into darkness?

To tell a better story?

Discover the intersection of your joy and the world’s need and dive in.

Ponder that. Pray though that. Act on that.

And let me encourage you to go for it!

You were created to be a blessing to this world.

To show love and offer hope.

What are you waiting for?

You’ve got one life.

Make it count.

When given the choice between an easy yet ordinary life or a hard yet extraordinary life, which would you choose?

I confess that for much of my life, it’s been the easy way.

Somewhere along the way, the notion that God’s way was on easy street filled with wide, open doors had been planted in my head.  So given the choice, I would drive down the smooth, paved road.  Eventually, this way of thinking led me to quit things once I met resistance.  The easy way led me to mediocrity.

Elvis Presley sang that, “true love travels on a gravel road” and he couldn’t be more right.

The hard truth is this: the hard way is often God’s way.  He actually wants us to encounter situations that are bigger than us.  This way, we need him.  This way, he gets the credit.  This way, we experience the life in full he calls us to.  It’s in this way that we grow.

Jesus willingly took the hard way by going to the cross for you and I and he even paused to ask God the Father if there was another way.  Again, “True Love travels on a gravel road.” And with a furious love Jesus climbed the rocky road to Calvary for you and I.

Jesus showed us that when the wind of resistance comes (and they will) God will see us through it- not just get us around it.  It’s by going through the wind that we begin to experience the life we’re meant to live.

I’m learning to embrace the challenges. To push through resistance. To take the extra step. To travel on the gravel road.  To pray for wisdom and check my heart when a door does open to make sure I’m not just going the easy way, but the right way.

If “true loves travels on a gravel road” I’ll take the gravel road every time.

Christopher Columbus is often credited with discovering North America.  The only problem was, it was already inhabited with Native Americans who had made the discovery long before he did.  In fact, he wasn’t even the first European to land in North America. Leif Ericson had done so about 500 years before him.

What Columbus did was stumble into a discovery of this discovered land, spread the story across Europe, and the rest is history.

Like Columbus, I made a discovery of something that was always there several years ago. Others had seen it before me but for some reason, I never saw it. When I did, I felt as if I found new land when really my eyes were opened to an already settled land.

What did I uncover?

The grand narrative of the Scriptures.

I had viewed the bible as information and at best, a collection of stories.  That’s true, but it’s so much more than that. It’s all about Jesus. In fact, it’s these words from John 5:39-40 that led me to look at the common thread throughout the bible, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”

The Scriptures are a narrative of God’s epic story and it all points to Jesus as the hero of the Story and the plot is his passionate pursuit of his people. This is the heart of the gospel.

This has radically shifted my studying and teaching of the bible.  Seeing how particular passages fit into the meta-narrative found in the scriptures has opened my eyes to things I had never seen before.  I had been careful to quote verses in context but had neglected the context of the greater story that verses and passages are embedded in.  Not to mention the context of the story of my life.

This has helped me better connect the Old Testament with the New Testament.  It has opened my eyes to see Jesus in places I never expected in both the scriptures and in culture. It has shaped how I view the church in light of God’s great pursuit of his people.  It has also helped me to gain perspective of my story and how I fit into the greater story.

Since this shift, I’ve sought to write, teach, and preach by storying the scriptures.  I’m learning that stories work better at penetrating the heart and mind than mere information alone. Storying is our way of packaging information so that others can grab hold of its meaning.  When our quest for truth treks through the frontier of our imagination it produces compelling stories.

Within each of us is a longing for a story.  This is why we search and explore and why we tell others about our discoveries. History is full of amazing storyers and is how history has been passed along from generation to generation. This is why we consume books, films, and television.  This why we have conversations over food and drinks.  This is why we even ask others, “How are you doing?”  That’s nothing more than a launchpad for a story (or in most cases, an odd way of saying, “hello.”)

Whimsical writer and thinker G.K. Chesterton wrote, “I had always felt life first as a story: and if there is a story there is a Story-teller.” I agree. Every tale has an author. Every story-casserole is baked in the oven of someone’s imagination. And God is the source of all stories.

His epic story is found in the Scriptures and the epic story he’s called us to live out is wrapped up in His.

This is my great re/discovery and it has awakened my soul, opened my eyes, and changed how I look at life.

I pray it will do the same for you.

If you didn’t know, I am in the midst of a challenge called “This Must Change!” where I’m losing weight over 3 months for six amazing causes and asking friends, family, and my online community to give a buck for every pound I lose.  Visit the website for more information.

I weigh-in every Monday.  My initial weigh-in on August 17 was 280 lbs.  Here is today’s weigh-in.

Week 4 Weigh-in from Jason Salamun on Vimeo.