A couple years ago, I went to the optometrist to get my eyes checked. She had me sit in a seat and stare through a big set of goggles at a picture on the far wall. Admittedly, the picture looked pretty fuzzy all that way across the room. Then, she started flipping lenses in front of my eyes. Some of these lenses further obscured the picture, but a few of them really helped bring it into focus. I left her office with a prescription for reading glasses and a newfound appreciation for the difference the right lenses can have on the way we view the world.

If there was ever a time we could use a new perspective, it’s right now as we head into the final days of this presidential election. I thought 2016 was contentious, but 2020 has taken it to a whole new level. I can’t recall an election that has been more polarizing and emotionally charged. It’s led friends to belittle one another on social media for their political perspectives. It’s caused family members to stop speaking to one another. As a pastor, this election has made my heart heavy.

Now, typically we only look at an election through the lenses of political pundits and social media, but I've found that all these sources tend to stir up is more fear and agitation. What we truly need is a new perspective on this election, one that is based on something more solid than the shifting sands of public opinion and partisan politics. My hope is that in the following paragraphs I can do for this election what my optometrist did for the picture on the wall - bring it into perspective through the use of some different lenses.

As a Christ-follower, I can think of no better framework to look at this election through than the Bible. It is the inspired word of God and it has outlasted nations and political movements. So the lenses I will use are biblical perspectives that can help us bring this election into focus. 

Lens 1: As Christ-Followers, we are citizens of God’s Kingdom.

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul told believers that although they lived in a Roman city, their primary allegiance was not to the Empire of Rome or to its Emperor. He explained that as believers “our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).

The same is true of us. Sometimes we get so focused on this world around us that we forget that we’re no longer defined by it. If you have accepted Jesus’ invitation to follow him, you are not an American Christian, you are a Christian who happens to live in America. Our identity has fundamentally changed. 

And yet, sometimes it feels as if our patriotism to this country overshadows our devotion to our God. Many of us spend more time worrying about the politics of this world than we do the values of the Kingdom of God. Here are a couple questions to consider:

• Do you look to a candidate or a political party as the solution to the issues we face?

• Have you been spending more time reading articles, watching the news and browsing your social media feed than you do connecting with God and meditating on his word?

• Do you pay taxes, but resist giving to God?

• Are you more outspoken about your political perspective than you are your faith?

• Are you more concerned with the shifting morality of our nation than you are looking into your own heart and recognizing the ways you have resisted submitting to God?

• Are you more patriotic for America than you are for Jesus? 

The first thing we need to remember as we approach this election is that our primary allegiance is not to a presidential candidate or a political party, it’s to the Creator and Sustainer of the world, the one who rescued us out of darkness and gave Himself for us so that we can be called sons and daughters of God. Again, “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 3:20)

If we forget that, if we take our eyes off of God and look to a political party or a politician to fix the brokenness around us, not only will we be sorely disappointed, but we will stumble into the same trap that the religious leaders of Jesus’ day fell into. They longed to see God’s Kingdom come and His will be done on earth, but their idea of how God would accomplish this was different from how God actually planned to accomplish it. Like us, they were looking for a savior, but their expectations of what this savior should look like had been deeply influenced by the power structures of the world around them that said things like “might makes right” and “compromise is acceptable so long as the ends justify the means.“

Because of this, when their savior actually did show up, they couldn’t recognize him. Despite the fact that Jesus was doing what God said he would do - driving out demons, healing the sick, binding up the broken and breaking down strongholds - they viewed him as a pretender to the throne. What’s more, they feared that he could actually cost them what little political influence that they had. So what did they do? They sought to shut him up and, when that didn’t work, they clamored for his death. They compromised in order to retain what little control they had by declaring their allegiance to Rome (the political power broker of their day) rather than embracing their King.

May we not forget that we are temporary residents in this world, citizens of the Kingdom of God living in a world that does not share our values. May we never put our faith in a politician or a political party, because at the end of the day they are not our savior – last time I checked, Jesus was. Similarly, America is not the hope of the world - Jesus is.

This brings us to our second perspective shift –

Lens 2: Though only temporary residents, we still have a responsibility to be God’s representatives. 

Despite the fact that we are citizens of another Kingdom and living here as foreigners, that doesn’t mean we have no responsibility for the place in which we live. We were designed by God to be His representatives and called to be ambassadors of hope to a hurting world (2 Corinthians 5:17-20). This led the Apostle Peter to write:

“Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among unbelievers that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” (1 Peter 2:11-12)

How we live our lives matter, because we are God’s representatives. We reflect (albeit imperfectly) the heart of our King to the world around us. And our actions speak far more loudly than our words. 

We are surrounded by people who live and think and vote differently than us. We can claim that God is love all day long, but how we treat people like them says more to the world than our words. When someone accuses us of being bigoted or racist or closed-minded just because we call ourselves a Christ follower, how we respond shows them the sort of God we serve. Do we respond with love? Or do we meet anger with anger, hatred with hatred?

Furthermore, we are called to reflect the values of the Kingdom of God, despite how contrary they are to the values of the world in which we reside. While the world says to destroy your enemies, either with words or weapons, Jesus told us to love our enemies and to pray for them. In a world that honors the strong and celebrates the victors who climb to the top over the beaten backs of their competition, Jesus said that the greatest in the Kingdom of God will serve others and put their well-being above their own. 

So, as aliens and strangers here, citizens of a foreign country living in a broken, sin scarred world, we are called to embrace and exhibit the values of the kingdom of God, called to be representatives of our true King. Of course this doesn’t give us permission to simply disregard the laws of the land in which we reside. Peter continues:

“Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor” (1 Peter 2:13-17).

Notice that we submit ourselves to the leadership of this land “for the Lord’s sake.” We are his representatives, his ambassadors, and as such we don’t flaunt our freedoms, but we do live as representatives of the Kingdom of God.

Now, I want to be very clear about something. Just because we’re citizens of another Kingdom living in exile doesn’t mean that we disregard the upcoming election or refuse to do our civic duty of voting. After all, as Christ followers we are called to be stewards of what God has entrusted to our care, and our vote is one of those things. On Tuesday, we have an opportunity to give voice to our values through voting (not just for the top of the ticket, which is where most of our attention has been focused, but all the way down the ballot on issues that will impact our community as well as our country). To refuse to vote is about as effective as burying the talent our master has entrusted to us in the ground (Matthew 25:14-30).

However, I want us to remember that our vote is not the only tool we have for shaping and influencing our community. We may only go to the polls once every couple years, but we vote every single day for the kind of community we want to live in by the way we treat our neighbors, by the ways we spend our money, by the values that direct our actions and by the places where we volunteer. 

I love the words of the Prophet Jeremiah, written to the Israelites as they found themselves living in exile, in a land that was not their true home. He said, “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jeremiah 29:7). 

This may not be our permanent home, but as ambassadors of our King, we have a responsibility to care for the community in which we reside, and to pray for it. This includes praying for our leaders - even the ones we didn’t vote for - because they have been entrusted with the weight of leadership, and our God can and does use even bad leaders to bring about His good and perfect will.

This brings us to our third lens:

Lens 3: Regardless of who wins this election, God is in control.

“Make your motions and cast your vote, but God has the final say” (Proverbs 16:33, MSG).

The message of scripture is that, while man has free will and we make choices that affect our reality (such as electing who will govern our country), God still works behind the scenes to bring about his perfect will. Now, at times it might seem like God has lost control and the inmates are running the asylum, but scripture is full of reminders that we might plot our course, but the Lord ultimately directs our steps (Proverbs 16:9). 

We may be wringing our hands about what might happen on Tuesday, but the outcome is no surprise to our God. He already knows what will happen. He already sees how our choices will affect our temporary home, how it will shape our society. What’s more, He can and will use the outcome of the election to bring about His purpose and plans, even if what He wants isn’t exactly what we would have expected or asked for.

I think of the Israelites living as slaves in Egypt during the time of Moses. They would sit around the fire, recounting the story of their ancestor Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, then falsely accused of sexual harassment and ultimately thrown into jail. Yet, God used these circumstances to place Joseph into the right place at the right time so that he could rise to power and save the Israelites from the coming famine. They would remember Joseph’s words to his brothers – “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20). God used his brothers’ jealousy, used their decision to sell their brother into slavery, even used a false accusation to place Joseph right where He wanted him.

And then, as these Israelites sat around the fire, with weary muscles and calloused hands from a lifetime of slave labor, they’d consider their current leader - Pharaoh. He was so different from the Egyptian ruler that had entrusted Joseph with power. This Pharaoh didn’t treat them as honored guests – he’d enslaved them. I would imagine that the Israelites of Moses’ day probably didn’t think that God had any control over their circumstances, probably felt that the Pharaoh in power was the wrong candidate. If they had been given a vote, they almost certainly wouldn’t have voted for him – maybe they’d have looked to Moses as their candidate for change. 

Yet, God allowed Pharaoh to sit on the throne of the most powerful nation in the world, not because he was a Godly leader, but because our Creator was going to use Him to bring about His purpose and plan. Listen to what God told Pharaoh: “By now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth” (Exodus 9:15-16).

Don't think that someone is in power because our God has no control - they are in power because our God has allowed it and He plans to use them to advance His purpose and plans. Nations rise and fall, presidents come and go, but our God never changes - He never fails. 

That’s not to say that we won’t suffer or endure persecution. In fact, if we take Jesus at his word, we are guaranteed to be persecuted for our faith (John 15:18-21). After all, we are foreigners living in a land whose values are at odds with the values of our Lord and King. And just as they sought to silence Jesus, they will seek to silence us. However, the fact that we suffer persecution doesn’t mean God has lost and the brokenness of this world has won. 

As I look around, I recognize the ways that God uses even persecution to advance His purposes and plans. It was persecution that prompted Rome to crucify Jesus. It was persecution that motivated the spread of the Gospel (Acts 8:1-4). And as I look around right now, the gospel is making the greatest impact in those areas of our world where Christ-followers are experiencing the greatest levels of persecution, places like China and the Middle East. 

No one likes to be persecuted, but it seems that persecution actually promotes spiritual growth, so perhaps the greatest good that can come from this election is that the American people select politicians and policies that will further the persecution of the church. I’m not saying that’s the way I’m voting. I’m just saying that God’s ways are not always our ways and what we see as a setback might actually be a huge leap forward in His redemptive plan. Regardless of the outcome of this election, we can have confidence that our God is on the throne, not only of our hearts, but of all of creation. Furthermore, although we don’t know what the path ahead looks like, we can rest assured that our Father in Heaven does and He is using even these messy circumstances to advance His kingdom purposes.  

So on Tuesday go to a polling station and vote. Elect a temporary leader for our temporary home. But don’t forget that we are foreigners living in this land, and God is our true King. While we reside here we are called to be His ambassadors, reflecting His loving heart to our hurting world in both word and deed. Just remember, despite the outcome of this or any election, our God is in control and He will bring about His purpose and plans, both in this world and the one to come.

 

Pray for Rain

At 6 pm last night, a friend of mine who lives in Central California texted with an urgent prayer request: “Please pray for rain.”

She lives and works at Mount Herman, a picturesque conference center nestled in the redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains. And right now those mountains are being consumed by a massive wildfire that is burning out of control and threatening countless homes and businesses, including Mount Herman.

When I read her text, my heart ached for for everyone in the path of the fire (one of over 350 wildfires that are currently burning throughout California). Fire crews are working tirelessly to try and contain the blaze, but the fire is so much bigger than they can control. So she, along with so many others, are displaced from their homes and all they can do is wait and pray.

The Bible is full of examples of people who cry out to God, and He responds in miraculous fashion. One man even prayed for rain, and it came (1 Kings 18:41-46). And yet, when I got her text, my first thought wasn’t to cry out to God expectantly. To be honest, the prayer I offered up was pretty anemic, something along the lines of, “God, if you’re willing, it would be awesome if you sent some rain.” But truth be told, I wasn’t expecting much. After all, the weather report for that area was nothing but dry heat for the foreseeable future.

So it came as a bit of a shock when she texted back 20 minutes later with a screen shot of the weather report showing that it was, in fact, raining in Mount Herman.

Now, in no way am I trying to take credit for this movement of God. Thankfully, I wasn’t the only person she sent the text to. In fact, there were a whole lot of people praying around 6 PM on Sunday evening that God would once again open the heavens and shower the earth miraculously, and many of them had far more faith than I that He would respond.

But it reminds me that there is power in prayer. Despite the fact that the circumstances of life can often grow too great for us to control, it reminds me that there is one who stands above our circumstances and is not overcome by them. And He invites us to call upon Him, to cast our burdens upon Him and look to Him for help. 

So don’t hesitate to bring your needs to God. He’s not too busy to hear your cry. And don’t underestimate the power of prayer. It changes things. Sometimes it even changes the weather.

 

 

I'm taking my family on a road trip next week, and I’m already preparing myself for the inevitable question: “Are we there yet?”

It doesn’t seem to matter how important the journey or how beautiful the scenery, there’s just something inside of us that longs to get to the destination. Or, if where we’re going feels too distant, to wistfully look over our shoulder to where we started and wish we could go back.

The Israelites fell into this trap, even after they’d watched God lead them out of slavery through a series of plagues; even after He’d parted the waters and destroyed the most powerful army on the planet; even as He led them in a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night and as they ate bread that miraculously appeared on the ground each morning and drank water that gushed from a rock in the middle of the wilderness, still they grew tired of the journey. They grew weary of being dependent on God both for their direction and their sustenance.

And in the midst of the discomfort, they began to reminisce about how “comfortable it was back in Egypt,” forgetting that it was literal slavery. They began to grow impatient to get through the journey and arrive at their destination. They began to grumble against God. It didn’t matter that He was guiding them, or that He was providing for them – their attitudes turned this adventure into an ordeal. And because of their resistance to trust God and follow His lead, God literally extended the time they spent in the wilderness. Because what He was teaching them about trust and dependence was just as important, if not more so, than where He was bringing them.

As I examine my own heart in this current season, I discover thorny shoots of anxiousness and impatience sprouting from the soil of my weariness and discomfort. I find myself wanting to rush through this time, to just get to wherever we’re headed. At times, I catch myself wistfully looking back to how things were before the whole world shut down and wishing we could go back. Can you relate?

What’s ironic is that as uncomfortable as the journey became for the Israelites, as much as they wished to rush through it or turn back, that time of walking with God in the wilderness was one of the most formative seasons in their history, one which caused their faith in God to grow exponentially. In the soil of their discomfort, they learned dependence and trust. And they saw just how much God loved them. It was a lesson that shaped them as a people for generations.

I am weary of the journey. I’d love to just fast-forward to 2021, skipping past the whole Covid-shutdown, the racial unrest and the election. But as much as those things feel overwhelming and the road seems endless, I’m reminded that we don’t journey through this wilderness alone. God is right here with us, leading the way if we will only look to Him. He’s providing what we need in the midst of a season of scarcity. And I suspect that when we look back on this time, years from now, we will be grateful for it, grateful both for where He’s bringing us and for what He’s doing in us along the way.

Because sometimes the most important part of a journey isn’t the destination; it’s about being present with the ones who are with us along the way.
 

So do not fear, for I am with you; 

do not be dismayed, for I am your God. 

I will strengthen you and help you; 

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. 

(Isaiah 41:10)

“We’re in this together.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this over the last several months, or how many times I’ve said it myself. And yet, like runners in a marathon, our exhaustion narrows our focus and makes us feel like we’re alone in our suffering.

We are all tired. We’re all grieving losses. We are all feeling the effects of forced isolation. Forget thriving, we’re just struggling to survive with our sanity intact.

And we all have some things we wish for right about now:

• I wish someone would call. I really need someone to talk to.

• I wish I could borrow someone’s hope. I could use some encouragement.

• I wish people would be kind to one another. Why does everything turn into a fight?

• I wish I had someone to process with. Someone that wouldn’t judge me for being in process.

But the phone’s not ringing and most of the places we’d go for human interaction are closed due to Covid. So we turn to social media for a hit of community, for a reminder that we’re not alone, even though it can be incredibly impersonal and often degenerates into arguments. But at least it’s better than feeling alone, right?

Loneliness and isolation are some of the most damaging side-effects of this shutdown, and they’re causing huge spikes in addiction, depression, domestic violence and suicide. Something has to change. Someone needs to address this epidemic. But rather than wait for some politician or doctor to come up with a solution, what if we are the solution?

What if we become the sort of people who give to others what we need ourselves? 

• Rather than sit back and wait for the phone to ring, what if we pick up the phone and begin to reach out to people we haven’t seen in a while?

• Rather than lament a society that seems to have lost its ability to listen without attacking, what if we become the sort of people who listen – truly listen – with the intent to understand, not simply to find the flaw in their thinking.

• Rather than adding to the cacophony of criticism and critique that is dominating our public discourse, what if we go out of our way to speak words of life, to build people up rather than tear them down?

• And if we can’t think of anything nice to say, what if we practiced what we’ve been preaching to our kids all these years and didn’t say anything at all? Or better yet, what if we took our frustration and used it as a prompt to pray for God’s blessing upon those who disagree with us? 

This approach may not change the world, but it would certainly change our posture towards it. It may not eradicate loneliness, depression, or division from society, but it would make a huge difference to our sphere of influence. Just think of the effect of a single candle in a dark room. A little light goes a long way.

Jesus said it best: “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12). In other words, giving others what we’d like from them is the best way to reflect the heart of God into our hurting world.

So rather than focus on what’s wrong with society, rather than lament that people aren’t giving us what we need, let’s be part of the solution. Let’s give what we need.

After all, we’re in this together.

There’s been a lot of talk about the Governor’s decision to ban singing and chanting in church gatherings in his efforts to stem the spread of Covid-19. Many understandably view this as an attack on our First Amendment right to worship. That said, if we view a ban on singing in a sanctuary as a ban on worship, then we have a pretty anemic view of worship.

Worship is so much more than songs. It’s the way we live, the way we speak, the way we interact with people who don’t share the same worldview as us. The Apostle Paul got this. In his letter to believers living in Rome, he defined worship in this way: “I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1).

Similarly, when James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, wrote to believers living among an unbelieving world, this is how he defined the purest form of religious expression: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27).

While we think of worship as singing songs of praise, the giants of faith in the early church recognized that true worship was lived out throughout the week. It was choosing to let our lives become a reflection of our Creator’s heart. Since God showed grace to imperfect people like us, worship is extending grace to other imperfect people. Since He loves us despite our rebellious nature, worship is choosing to love others even when they tick us off. Since He constantly provides for us, worship is taking from the abundance of blessing He’s given us and using it to care for the needs of others. And that sort of worship is best done beyond the walls of the church.

So while I miss singing songs of praise alongside my brothers and sisters in Christ and look forward to the day when we can gather together again, I rejoice in the myriad ways I’m seeing the Church (God’s people) worshiping God through the ways they love their neighbors. Because true worship is so much more than the songs we sing on Sunday morning. True worship is the life we live the rest of the week. And that’s something that cannot be banned. Nor is it something that can be contained in a weekend service - it has to spill over into every other part of our lives.

So let’s let our lives sing.

Becoming a Light in Your Neighborhood

Lighthouse Family,

We started this year with a fresh understanding of what it meant to be a Light in our community. Rather than focus on the church being the Lighthouse, we realized that each of us is a light-bearer to our own unique Sphere of Influence.

At the time, we could have never anticipated what this year would hold in store for us. The Covid-19 virus has completely altered our rhythms and the way we "do life" together. But it hasn't been all bad.

I recently learned that the Chinese word for Crisis is the combination of two words: Danger and Opportunity. That is a fitting description of this current crisis for the Church in Costa Mesa. For all the hardship and danger this season has brought, I've also seen so much fruit, so many opportunities to learn a new way to love our neighbors.

I want to share with you one new way we can be a light in our communities. For the last six months, I have been a part of Bless Every Home, an outreach app that gives me tools to pray for my neighbors by name (along with a whole lot of other resources that I'm only now learning to appreciate). It is such a powerful tool that I, along with several other pastors in our city, have decided to make it a central component of our outreach efforts.

Rather than attempt to explain what Bless Every Home can do, I'd rather show you. So please click the link below, which will take you to a 2-minute introduction video that will explain what this powerful tool can do for you. Then, if you choose to, you can sign up to be a "light."

Thanks again for being a partner with me in radiating the light of Christ into our community. I'm grateful to know that we're in this together. Here's the link to sign up now.

May God bless you as you bless your neighbors, 

Eric Wayman 

Lighthouse Community Church

Better Late than Never

Today is June 19. For most of us, that doesn’t mean much. But to our African American brothers and sisters, this day rivals July 4. On July 4, we celebrate our independence as a nation, but even after we declared our freedom from England in 1776, not everyone in America was free. It would take another 87 years and a civil war before black men and women were also granted their freedom in America. On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation officially declared the end of slavery in America. On that day, everyone in America was technically free. The only problem is, not everybody knew it.

Bad news travels fast, but good news tends to take a more scenic route. That’s why over two years later, there were still slaves living in rural parts of America who still hadn’t heard that they were free. Every day, they got up and went out to labor in the fields as slaves. It didn’t matter that Abraham Lincoln had declared them to be free – until they’d heard the good news, they were in every way still enslaved.

That’s why June 19, or Juneteenth, is such a big deal in the African American community. It wasn’t until June 19, 1865 that word finally reached the last pocket of slaves living in Texas. On that day, they learned that the great civil war was over, and so was their bondage. They were free.

Admittedly, there’s a big difference between being free and living in freedom. And as the current racial unrest so powerfully reminds us, we still have a long way to go as a country. But as a pastor, I can’t help but think of some other people who are still living in slavery waiting to hear the good news that the means of their freedom has been secured.

I’m talking about spiritual freedom from sin and death. Ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed and sin came crashing into God’s good creation, humanity has lived in bondage to sin, separated from the one who created us in His image. And no amount of sin-management or rule keeping could ever break those chains. But then, two-thousand years ago, Jesus took up his cross and signed an Emancipation Proclamation in his own blood, declaring emphatically that sin no longer needs to be our task-master, shame no longer needs to shackle our hearts. We prodigals can come home.

This is good news of great joy for all humanity. And many of us have embraced this truth and begun to live out of it. But despite the effort of countless generations before us to carry this message across oceans and continents, there are still people living on this planet who don’t realize they can be free. And they’re not just in remote villages. There are people living in our own neighborhoods who have yet to hear the good news.

In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul wrote the following words: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10:13-15)

The Emancipation Proclamation was life changing for the men and women enslaved all across America, but the message of freedom that Jesus entrusts to us to proclaim is so much greater than that. It has eternal ramifications. And He’s entrusted it to those of us who have tasted and seen that life in Christ is true freedom.

This is the best news ever. Let’s not keep it to ourselves.