Flight Zone & Escape Behavior

So let's talk about a Flight Zone.  What is a Flight Zone?  Well, it doesn't have anything to do with aircraft.  I had been studying for a presentation I am giving in my class for bible school on the topic "what is a pastor?"  I decided to begin studying out the behaviors of sheep.  Why would I do that? you may ask.  Because a pastor is often referred to as a shepherd and we christians and church members are often referred to as sheep.  I know, very flattering.  Anyways, I figured I would study the behaviors of actual sheep and maybe that would give me some clarity on the life of a shepherd which would give me some more clarity on the roles of a pastor.

While I was studying behaviors of sheep I learned that sheep, like most animals, have what is known as a "Flight Zone."  A Flight Zone is an area surrounding the animal that if encroached upon by a potential predator or threat will cause alarm and escape behavior.  Escape behavior is essentially what the animal will do immediately following the encroachment of a possible enemy.  An animals escape behavior will vary from animal to animal.  Some animals may run for their lives, others may take a defensive position, and others will run for any form of protection they may find.

While reading about sheep and their behaviors and flight zones I can't help but wonder what my flight zone is and what my escape behavior is like once my flight zone has been breached.  

I know the Bible says "we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and rulers of darkness." and I also know that the Bible says "the enemy is roaming about seeking whom he may devour."  Based on those scriptures I understand that I have only one enemy in this life, only one substance that could possibly violate my flight zone, only one threat that could make me switch to my escape behavior and that is the devil.

This leads me to asking myself, what is my flight zone and what is my escape behavior?  Have I given the enemy so much ground in my life that my flight zone has become very small?  How much of an attack will I tolerate from the devil and his forces before I go into escape behavior?  Will I allow negative thoughts?  Will I allow sickness?  Will I allow lack?  Will I allow poverty?  Will I allow my family to live their lives not knowing Jesus?  How much will I take?  How much will I allow the enemy to encroach on me and my territory before I finally move into escape behavior?

And what exactly is my escape behavior?  Do I turn and just begin running away from the threat of my enemy?  Do I run and run hoping that I will be strong enough to out last and out run the one seeking to kill and destroy my life?  Do I turn and try to fight back?  Do I try to fight my enemy leaning on my own understanding and my own ability?  Or maybe I do what sheep do, maybe I turn towards my Shepherd, maybe I go and stand next to Him and I lean on His strength and His power.

See, as Christians we have to know that the devil and his forces have already been defeated.  We have to know that they hold no power over our lives besides what we allow them to have.  If we allow the enemy to encroach on our territory, if we allow the enemy to get close to us and take what is ours before we transition into escape mode, then we are saying we don't fully trust in what Jesus already did for our lives.  The word of God says that He came to give us life and life more abundantly!  That abundant life is within our flight zone and we shouldn't allow the enemy to come in and take what's rightfully ours through Christ.

Animals have four varying degrees of flight zones and the zones get closer and closer depending upon the threat the animal perceives in the object encroaching on their territory.  The closest zone is the social zone, where the animal feels no threat and therefore allows the closest distance without going into escape mode.  As I read this I wonder if I have allowed the enemy to come into my social zone.  Have I allowed him to get so close to me that I am unaware I should be in escape mode and standing next to my Shepherd leaning on His power and His promises to protect and defend me.

I think it's time I reevaluate my flight zone and I begin to take back my territory that was promised to me and made available to me through my Shepherd, Jesus Christ.  When times get tough, when seasons get hard, when threats come, I should go into escape behavior and run to my Savior before I get too comfortable with having the enemy in my territory. 

Barefoot Bryan in Austin. Part ONE.

I should have known it was going to be an interesting and unique night.  When Jon-Paul asked if I wanted to go to Austin to SXSW I said "yes" and I was excited and I was happy and I was glad and I was thrilled to be heading down south on a drive that would last one and one half hours.  Still, something inside told me it was going to be a strange and different and bizarre evening.  I did not open my mouth, though, to mention anything about my hesitation or my trepidation or my fear or my concern concerning our journey.  Actually, the opposite is what I did.  I did a little dance in the lobby of the church building where I was standing when Jon-Paul extended the invitation to join him on this trip.

We Drove.  We Drove to Austin.  We Drove One and One Half Hours to Austin.

We were stopped at a red light, we had just entered the city and were trying to find a parking spot amid the chaos of South by South West (SXSW).  I had my driver seat window down and my arm was hanging outside.  It was chilly in Central Texas but still warm and gorgeous.  I looked down to my left, out the window, and noticed a blue tarp covering something just 3 feet away from me and my car.  I looked a little closer and realized it was a person sleeping on the sidewalk.  No pillow, no blanket, no bags, nothing.  Just someone laying down, sleeping on the sidewalk using a blue tarp as their cover for the night.  It was around 11:00 PM on Wednesday.  It was the middle of SXSW and the city was busier than ever and over-crowded with people drunk and high and a few sober people too.  I watched the sleeping person for just a moment when I noticed a large coca-roach crawl out from underneath the person and scurry down the Austin City Sidewalk.  I was shocked I was surprised and I was honestly a little grossed-out.  I pulled my arm inside the car and rolled the car window up.  The light turned green and we drove through the intersection and I didn't have to think about homeless people or blue tarps or coca-roaches or anything like that for the rest of the night.

It took around 20 to 30 minutes before we finally found a parking space inside a multi-level parking garage where the attendant let me park my car inside for $13 instead of the $20 his sign was asking for.  We parked the car on the seventh level of the garage and boarded the elevator down to the ground floor of the parking structure.  Once outside the elevator we made our way around the corner of the interior of the building and pushed our way through a pair of heavy glass doors with heavy metal door handles.  We had it hard.  We had to drive so long to find a parking spot in the car that I owned.  We only had $13 in cash, times were rough for sure.  We had to beg this man to let us park our car inside for the $13 we had.  And then we had to drive all the way to the seventh floor!  Times were getting tough, that was for sure.

Once outside we made our way to the left on the Austin City sidewalk.  Austin is a pretty clean city, all things considered.  You don't see very many cigarette butts, beer bottles, empty cans, or trash of any sort on the Austin City Sidewalk or the Austin City Street.  Actually, I typically see more sanitation workers actively doing their jobs than I necessarily see police officers doing much of anything.

We had to walk down a bit of a sloping hill in order to arrive onto Sixth street, our destination for the evening.  It was a bit concerning, our walk down the sloping hill, I was wearing my cowboy boots and they do not have the best traction on slick and slippery surfaces, another sign of the hard times.  I deliberately bent my knees and walked more slowly than Jon-Paul and Nathan to make sure I didn't slip and fall on the Austin City Sidewalk.  I love my cowboy boots, a gift from my sister last May when I visited Texas for the first time, and I wear them almost everywhere I go.  I typically don't walk up or down very steep or slippery hills but I have slipped in parking lots before and know enough about them to understand I should step carefully when going across questionable surfaces or grades such as those of the Austin City Sidewalk.

Sixth street is famous in the city of Austin and the police shut down motor vehicle traffic on Sixth during peek hours because of the extreme amount of people walking up and down the Austin City Sidewalks and the Austin City Streets.  There seems to be a bar or nightclub every other door and so there are copious amounts of people who are intoxicated walking around Sixth Street during the evening hours.  I have only been on Sixth Street during the evening hours so I cannot attest to the soberness or drunkenness of the people during the daytime hours.

People walking in suits and ties.  People walking in blue-jeans and buttoned shirts.  People walking in their underwear.  People walking in shark costumes.  People walking other people.  Gay people.  Straight people.  indifferent people.  Christians...Well, not many Christians.  Sinners.  Black people.  White people.  Mexican People. Some Asian people but I don't know if they knew where they actually were.

 To Be Continued....

Turning your back on the world

There is a worship song that my church has been singing lately.  A portion of the song says “The cross before me, the world behind me.  No turning back.”

This morning while making my coffee that part of the song was stuck in my head for some reason.  I don’t even like the song so it was odd that it would be stuck in my head.  I sung that part of the song out and then thought “that’s wrong.”

I think there are a lot of songs with a similar message.  Stay with God, turn towards the cross, look to Jesus, but stay away from, out of, don’t go near, turn your back on the world.

While the songwriter is not present to define what they meant by “the world”, I will judge them strictly for the sake of this blog.

Why are Christians so afraid of the world?  You know we live in the world, right?  It’s like there is some evil force that we have no power of, but apparently the world has something enticing to offer most Christians because they keep having to remind themselves to look at the cross and not to turn their eyes to left or the right for fear of embracing the world.

I cannot see Peter, Paul, John, Luke, Timothy, or any of the other disciples, apostles, teacher, preachers, or prophets of the New Testament holding the same opinion.

See, most Christians today are afraid that of they spend more of their time in “the world” than they do in the Church they will somehow morph into sinners.  I would imagine if Paul or Peter spent more time inside the church than they did outside, in the world, ministering to the needy and the hurt and the confused and the politician, they would feel guilty.

Don’t misunderstand what I am saying.  Obviously I understand the importance of keeping our focus on Jesus and having the relationship that we do with Him.  But if we are so ignorant as to assume we should turn our backs to the world we may have some serious issues.

How can we fulfill the great commission if all we do is keep our eyes on the cross and our back continually to the world?  Should we just wait for the lost and hurting to walk in front of our path in order for us to see them and reach them?

No, we should turn towards the world and forge forward towards a goal of bringing love and healing to a lost and dying world.

So please, enough with the songs and sermons about how bad the world is.  Enough with turning your backs on the world that needs you more than the church does. 

- Cheers.

The Bride of Christ

"How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob; how lovely are your homes, O Israel!  They spread before me like groves of Palms, like fruitful gardens by the riverside.  They are like aloe planted by The Lord, like cedars beside the waters.  Water will gush out in buckets; their offspring are supplied with all they need.  Their king will be greater than Agag; their kingdom will be exalted.  God brought them up from Egypt, drawing them along like a wild ox.  He devours all the nations that oppose him, breaking their bones in pieces, shooting them with arrows.  Like a lion, Israel crouches and lies down; like a lioness, who dares to arouse her?  Blessed is everyone who blessed you, O Israel, and cursed is everyone who curses you."  - Numbers 24.

This is a bit of a different writing from me, I don't typically write about things like this.  Today I was waiting to pick someone up at the airport but the flight was delayed.  As I was waiting in my car I pulled out by Bible and opened to Numbers 24 where this portion of scripture was highlighted and so I began to read and then felt compelled to share these thoughts.

What's happening in Numbers 24 is king Balak is afraid of the growing nation of Israel, he is worried they will attack his kingdom and overtake his land.  He contacts a prophet named Balaam and asks him to come and curse the people of Israel.  Balaam arrives but every time he goes to speak over the people of Israel God tells him to bless the people instead of cursing them.  The scripture in Numbers 24 is the third and final time that Balaam speaks over the people of Israel and he gives the words above, he is prophesying exactly what God tells him to say.

The words that Balaam releases are the pure words of God’s heart for His people, His bride, His church.  God looks at His church and says, "How lovely, how beautiful is my bride!  My people are blessed, they are healthy, and they are victorious.  I will protect them near and far.  Those who are with you will be blessed and those who are against you will not."

God does never says anything based on the current condition or situation.  If He teaches us all through the bible how important our words are, how much more important do you think His words are?  God speaks things as He wants them to be.  He looks at His church and calls us beautiful and blessed and protected.

How lovely is His bride?  Are beautiful are His people?  God looks at His bride, at His church and says this about us.  We are victorious, we are healthy, we are moving forward, and we are blessed.

Never let the ways things are determine the ways things are going to be.

Love is Blind

     Love is blind.  I suppose this is becoming more true for me today than ever before, or at least making more sense.  There was a post on Facebook just the other day from Kris Vallotton that caught my attention and stuck with me for the rest of the day.  It said, "When  someone looks at a new love, the neural circuits that are usually associated with social judgment are suppressed."  It makes sense and goes along with the old saying "Love is blind."

    I've experienced this before, actually plenty of times.  You are attracted to someone and all you see are the good things about them.  In fact, you cherish the small differences that they have.  The freckles, the odd quirks, even some of the more annoying habits they posses become adorable attributes you find attractive.  It happens all the time and I can personally attest to having experienced this first hand.     

    Actually in 2004 there was a study done by University College London that took a group of 20 mothers and showed them images of their children and other friends and loved ones and simultaneously took scans of their brain activity which showed they were unable to make critical judgments against their loved ones based on appearance or other potentially negative characteristics.

    I had read this post from Kris Vallotton Sunday morning and had been thinking about it all day while I was working at my church.  Sunday evening I went to Austin where Bethel was having a night of worship.  In the middle of worship I began meditating and thought how true this was in our relationship with God and in our views of life.

    We are invited to have a passionate relationship with God.  To love Him with everything we have and to pursue a relationship with Him at any cost.  It is no wonder why we are referred to as the "bride of Christ" throughout the bible.

    Thinking back on various times of life I can see patterns develop where I began to look at my life with a negative perspective.  I can see the times where I complained about life and where I became ungrateful with what I had already been given and had opportunity for.

    The common denominator during those times of my life was when I had allowed myself to stop loving God.  

    I have never been married but have heard plenty of advice on successful marriages.  One thing that most couples have said is that you have to work on your marriage, you have to work past the disagreements and hard times to make the relationship work and to make it last.  It's not that I necessarily stopped loving God or fell out of love with Him but more that I stopped working at the relationship.  Our relationship with God is not a two way street.  He doesn't have to work at the relationship because He already did everything He needs to or could have done for our benefit.  No, our relationship with Him is a one way street, all the work that needs to be done needs to happen on our side of the equation.

    Even in the midst of the simple issues of day to day life.  Bills are due and the paycheck wasn't enough to cover them.  A loved one becomes ill and is hospitalized.  We have frustrations at work or with a friend.  Any of the potential problems in life seem to be diminished in their severity when we are pursuing and in love with God.  Our love with Him makes us blind to the issues and obstacles of life.  It's not that we choose to ignore these issues, it's that they don't hold power of our actions, feelings, or thoughts.

    It is true, when I complain about life, when I become ungrateful, when I become stagnant, it is when I stop trying with Him, it is when I stop pursuing Him.  But when I act out my love for Him, when I make an effort in our relationship, that's when the ability to find the negative in my life, when my ability to complain seems to become nonexistent.  It is when I pursue Him that everything seems to fit just perfectly together.

Grace vs. Justice

It's easy for us to understand the concepts of justice.  Especially in American society, the search for justice in every area of life is paramount.  We want people to get what they deserve, nothing more and nothing less.  Biblically, what we understand as justice doesn't make any sense, at least not with Jesus.

There are different ways we can approach the understanding of the grace and mercy Jesus provides for our lives.  One of those ways can be found in the book of Romans.  We are all familiar with the romans road to salvation.  We are all dirty sinners, not one of us is better than the other person.  It doesn't matter what you've done in your life or what you haven't done.  The fact remains that sin is sin and a sinner is a sinner.  Thank God for His grace and mercy and the beautifully free gift of salvation through Jesus, because now we are saved and made clean and free from our past and our sin.  What's even more important to understand is we are not sinners once we receive Jesus.  Yes, we still sin but we are not associated as sinners any longer, at least not in the The Kingdom.

If God followed our system of justice no one would make it through the pearly gates of heaven.  If God followed our system of justice, we would all be forever tormented with the punishment for our sinful ways because we would have to pay for the sins we'd committed. 

I can understand how a lot of people may believe that God's grace removes us from the power of sin and spending our eternal lives burning in the flames of hell.  That's almost too easy to understand.  Yet, there is a belief that says, "although I may escape the flames of hell, I will be punished with lack, sickness, and regret on earth because of my sins."  It's just another form of justice that we adopt for our lives and the lives of others.  We feel that everyone, including ourselves, deserves punishment for our mistakes and for our sins.  However, God says that through His grace, mercy, and love, when we repent of our sins we are set free from the power of sin in our lives.  God is not a police officer watching to make sure we pay for our mistakes.  I thought the cross made all of this pretty clear.  Because of Jesus, through repentance we are set free from the power of sin in our lives.

I went through something in my life, 6 or 7 years ago, which taught me a great lesson on God's grace and mercy and His justice.  World justice said to pursue the case and make sure the person paid for what they'd done.  Grace and Mercy said to let it go and trust God that His word was relevant and true for my life.  

This is not relegated to "non-believer's".  Even Christians seek vengeance and justice when we are wronged.  We want the other person to pay for the mistakes they've made.  That's just simply not God.  God is love and forgiveness and because we are commissioned with being Jesus to the people around us, that means we are to love and forgive in ALL situations and circumstances.  There is literally NOTHING someone could do in our lives that would justify not loving and not forgiving them.  However, this doesn't compute with our feelings or our intellect.  We read that sentence and immediately go to the negative or worst case scenario's.  Friend, let me tell you that God's grace and mercy triumph all!  

Let me challenge you with beginning to live your life the way Jesus lived His.  Offer abundant grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness to EVERYONE in your life, past, present, and future.  Do not seek justice or vengeance, instead seek love redemption.

Cheers,

~ Anthony