Living Water Community Church

The Problems With Bullshit - By Thomas Koester No, this is not a treatises on global warming or climate change, or the negative impact of cow flatulence to our ...environment -- far from it. This is about fleeing pretense and duplicity and becoming the real you. It's about breaking down the fake areas in our lives and being honest with ourselves and others. Wholeness can only be achieved by utter and complete brokenness; this is a universal principal. This is also the opposite of what the world thinks. I like what Jerry Maguire said in his moment of breakthrough: "...Two nights later in Miami at our corporate conference, a breakthrough. Breakdown? Breakthrough. It was the oddest, most unexpected thing. I began writing what they call a Mission Statement for my company. You know -- a Mission Statement -- a suggestion for the future. What started out as one page became twenty-five. Suddenly I was my father's son. I was remembering the simple pleasures of this job, how I ended up here out of law school, the way a stadium sounds when one of my players performs well on the field... And suddenly it was all pretty clear. The answer was fewer clients. Caring for them, caring for ourselves, and the games too. Starting our lives, really. Hey, I'll be the first to admit it. What I was writing was somewhat "touchy feely." I didn't care. I had lost the ability to bullshit. It was the me I'd always wanted to be." - The Movie "Jerry Maguire" You see a breakthrough, I mean the kind of breakthrough we know we really need, is always preceded by a breakdown. And, when we lose... no, rather when we refuse to bullshit ourselves and others, we'll become the person that we've always wanted to become. You're divinely purposed to become a living act of God's love and glory. You can't become what your Creator has intended until you surrender your own mess. That is, your constant self-effort of holding the broken pieces of your life together. Living in fear and dread that your secret life will be exposed at any moment to a live audience. Living a life on constant defense and acting codependently, or as an enabler, justifying the actions of your false-self at the expense of your true-self. This is the definition of what I'm referring to as a "mess." You cannot become assembled in body, mind and spirit, all the while holding everything together. You are robbing yourself of the very strength and energy you need by wasting it on supporting your falseness and phony facade. Stop being driven by voices inside your head, echoing the curses of your mother or father, or from the other significant persons in your life. These curses are the voices of "false coaches," driving you to repeat a cycle of self-destruction and family dysfunction. These curses are carcinogenic to your desire towards wholeness and wellness. They are the cancerous agents eating away at the divine purpose for which God has created you. Gloria Dei est vivens homo," wrote Saint Irenaeus, which means: "The glory of God is living man." The glory of God, is you fully living, and not your daily self-destruction and learned dysfunction. In the human body, you cannot build muscle without first tearing down the muscle you have. Tearing down the muscle requires a determination to submit to the pain and deny yourself comfort. Likewise, you must have a willing determination to submit your very life and comforts to God. James says it this way: 4-6 "You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way. And do you suppose God doesn’t care? The proverb has it that he’s a fiercely jealous lover. And what he gives in love is far better than anything else you’ll find. It’s common knowledge that God goes against the willful proud; God gives grace to the willing humble. 7-10 So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet." James 4:6-10 (MSG) Pride is self-destruction, low esteem, self-loathing and such, is what's been behind your self-effort of "holding it all together." This is why pride always precedes a profound fall. There is nothing good in this kind of a fall, because it's always a fall from grace and not towards it. You want God's grace? Become truly humble. Oh yes, it is painful to stop your self-salvation and accept Truth and to act on it. But the light, which will come flooding into your darkness will bring with it the wholeness and wellness you've been searching for. The problem with bullshit, is that it is no respecter of persons, race, religion or age... it flows from all of us. "Men love darkness, rather than light," this is true. But you cannot become the man or woman you were meant to become all the while remaining in darkness. Just as painful as it is to build muscle, is it painful at first to step out from darkness into God's marvelous Light! The gain from the pain of coming into the light is worth the life of wholeness and holiness. Did you know that embracing your brokenness, rather than hiding it will cause collateral beauty? There may be a divine and strategic purpose behind your brokenness that when shared with others may cause a chain reaction of hope and healing in you and in them. This moment, you're standing at a crossroad -- at a turning point; your next decision can create a paradigm shift of unprecedented emotional and spiritual change. "The Lord said to his people... 'You are standing at the crossroads. So consider your path. Ask where the old, reliable paths are. Ask where the path is that leads to blessing and follow it. If you do, you will find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not follow it!' Jeremiah 6:16 (NET) Stop hanging out with the "We will not follow it" crowd! You no longer belong to the crowed who refuse to follow the right path. Stop staring at the crossroad put before you this day and follow it. Stop saving yourself and fall into the grace, mercy and love of God, and you will become the man or woman you've always wanted to be. After all, God put the desire to be his love and glory in you so that you may be fully living, fully alive to a world content with dying and taking you with it. Breakdown before breakthrough. God is waiting if you are willing. Open up to God, or find a trusted friend to help lead you to his grace. May I be honest and a bit crass? It is my prayer that you'll lose your ability to "bullshit!" - Amen