Fools & Nation Shakers

“God did not put us in the world to run away from the world, but to transform the world”

-           - Christine Caine

Welcome to my weekend! 

Last weekend I attended this mission conference called World Mandate. I thought that having 4500 people crying out to God was good enough, but then I heard this fiery Aussie speak by the name of Christine Caine. Some of you may have heard of her, most of you haven’t. Christine is a teaching pastor over at Hillsong and also the starter of the A21 campaign, a campaign aimed at abolishing slavery in the modern 21^st century. But more importantly than both of these impressive statistics is the message she communicated. Never have I heard someone speak like her. Never have I seen someone as passionate about advancing God’s kingdom. Never have I experienced someone so in tune with the heartbeat of God. It was like every single thing she said pierced the deepest wellsprings of my heart. 

She spoke a lot of truth, but out of every God breathed thing that she uttered, what shook my foundations the most may have been overlooked by the majority of people there. You see her message was about running to the battle against the darkness and taking Christ to those who remain in bondage, but in addressing this issue, Christine touched on a subject that made my heart twinge: looking foolish.

If you have ever been to a Sunday service then you probably have heard that we are “supposed” to seem foolish to the world. In fact I’ve even preached on this very same subject. But something she said stirred a sleeping giant inside of me (I guess this is why the Bible is living and active Hebrews 4:12).

I knew that I was supposed to look foolish, but to this date I haven’t really been foolish. 

Sure I have knelt down in the middle of school to pray, sacrificed my spring break to go share the Gospel, and changed my major from an extremely lucrative profession to one that is laughed at by a lot of teenagers.  I have done a lot of things that may appear foolish to Americans, but I haven’t done anything that stands out as biblically foolish.

Where’s my ark?

Don’t you think Noah looked stupid when he was building an ark to protect the people from rain (which they have neither seen nor heard of)? Don’t you think Gideon looked dumb when he downsized his army to 300 men then went and faced a massive army? Don’t you think David looked like an idiot when he picked up a few rocks and said “Bring it Goliath?” Don’t you think Paul looked silly when he walked up to the house of Ananias and said, “I was about to kill you but now I want to help you?” Don’t you think Paul looked even more ridiculous when he got bit by a snake and pretended like nothing happened? 

Don’t you think Jesus looked foolish as he hung from a cross half naked?

Compared to these guys and the rest of the bible, all of my “foolish” acts look like filthy rags.

This weekend was more than just refueling to me, it was re-prioritizing.

What have you done to look foolish for God?

Where are you stepping outside of your comfort zone?

Are you transforming the world, or just merely running from it?

Where’s your ark?

Merely,

Chris Gerac
“We are fools for Christ’s sake…” 1 Corinthians 4:10, NASB

XX & XY

To those objectified,

I don’t know who, or how many for that matter, take the time out of their days to read what I write. But I would like to believe that some of you reading, wherever you are, are women. It is to these women that I write what is to follow.

I am writing this because I feel like women are in the dark when it comes to the mindsets of men as every bit as we men are in as yours. Many of you in fact may spend a large portion of your precious time trying to sort out the intricate complexities of the mass complex of confusion commonly referred to as the Man’s “mind”. It is for the sake of shedding insight and because I genuinely care for my sisters in Christ that I write.

It is by no surprise to you to hear that men are visual creatures. Everything around us from the news to our Sunday services tells us this is so (this reason is why Victoria Secret and other companies advertise the way that they do). I’m sure it is by no surprise that you have heard the famous studies saying men think of sexual things (not only the act of sex but of anything relating to the opposite gender) roughly every 2 minutes. However, what may come to a shock to you is that we don’t want to.

Men love adventure, being the hero that slays the dragon. Men love romance, saving the damsel in distress not taking her back to his place for a night. Men love beauty, raw, powerful, and magnificently awe-striking beauty, not the beauty created by caked make-up and artificial perfume. Men love a lot of things, but what they do not love is being labeled as pigs. I do not think any man particularly enjoys the idea of being a womanizer. They may embrace it or pretend that they do but deep down men just want to be liked, to feel loved, and to find meaning amongst the meaningless. 

Will some guys act like pigs? Yes of course.  Are some guys pigs? Of course! 

But let me clarify: men are not pigs because they are constantly involved in dirty affairs; men are pigs because they are often dumb enough to fall into snares.

 As I said men are visual creatures, and it is often because of this that men fall victim to lustful thoughts or womanization. Few men wish to become so but before they realize the traps they have fallen into they are stuck in a perpetual cycle of sin and shame. What I find most odd though is that we get blamed for thinking about sex every 2 minutes, but no one ever stops to think because that’s what our society, and particularly girls project every 2 seconds. I don’t wish to cause a protest; I am just calling it like I see it. But girls, if you are really looking for Prince Charming, or someone who will treat you like a queen, you will not find him by wearing shorts with pockets hanging out or shirts that don’t adequately cover anything.

 Speaking from experience 9 times out of 10 any quality guy, worth taking home to your family, believes the phrase modest is hottest.

So ladies, for our sake I ask you to think twice about what image you portray by the clothes you wear.

 Remember as Sisters in Christ, you are a Princess AND a Daughter of The King, you deserve to be treated so.

Don’t fall into the same traps we do.

Let a man sweep you off your feet, not into his bed.

Fall in love with God first and let him so you the true Mr. McDreamy.

Merely in love,

Chris Gerac

“A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies… Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.” Proverbs 31:10&30 NIV

The Me in Team & Atlas Struggles

To those overwhelmed,

Growing up my sport was always baseball. I don’t know if it had to do with my older brother playing or the fact that my dad coached every season, but as soon as I could walk I was swinging a bat ( a foam bat at least). When I finally met the age requirement my dad signed me up for tee ball at our local ball park. To say that I was ecstatic is a huge understatement. I immediately had grand visions of home runs, golden gloves, and MVP’s (at the age of 5 I had already assumed that the MLB was a guarantee). There was only one problem: after the try outs I thought that the rest of the players on my team were terrible. I considered myself to be the fastest, the best hitter, the best thrower, the greatest that Pearland has ever seen (for those that know me all too well, you’re starting to see where some of my more prideful moments originated). 

Bottom line, I thought I was the greatest thing since mac and cheese and there was no way I was going to let my team get in my way of stardom.

I didn’t trust them, and because I didn’t trust my fellow teammates the most peculiar thing would happen when my team was on the field: I would do all of the work. Literally, every time the ball was hit whether it was coming near my mound or not, I would take off running scoop the ball up and instead of throw it to my teammate at first base I would run the ball there myself.  The funny thing is it worked. I even remember grabbing the ball and running to 3^rd base and then all the way back to 1^st base and getting both runners out.

My selfish strategy  of doing all of the work worked well for a while, but sooner or later the bases got further apart, the batters got better, the kids got faster, and my baseball career went down in fiery crash.

How many of you are finding it hard to do all of the work? How many of you feel like an Atlas-like burden is slowly crushing you? How many of you feel like no one can help, that a certain task is only yours to shoulder?

I see these burdens harm people far too often. Many times I have witnessed people “burn out,” cry themselves to sleep at night, or suffer anxiety attacks because they refuse to let go.  Many times we aren’t willing to let others help us out or aren’t willing to put power into the hands of other people. We’re afraid of what could happen. Kings did this. Leaders do this. Church ministers do this. 

If you’re beginning to feel like the sea is rising or the caves are closing in, maybe it’s time to stop programming for people and start letting people program.

Jesus tells us that we can do even greater things than he did (John 14:12), not because we have greater abilities or greater faith, but because we have greater numbers.

Open up.

Allow communities to be actual communities.

Sacrifice doing it all so that others can lead

Merely,

Chris Gerac        

“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24 NIV