Audiobook version of Jim's book - update

This week, I completed the editing of the audiobook version of my book, Recover Your Good Heart.  I thought the recording part took a long time, but editing was even more labor-intensive.  (It can take over and hour to edit a 20-minute chapter.) But I'm excited to release this new resource in the near future.  I want to provide an audiobook version because many prefer to listen, rather than to read.

The audiobooks will probably come in a 5-CD set. I've talked with the company that will be producing my audiobook packages, and they say it will cost me around $400 to duplicate the CD's and package them. Each set is costing me $15 to produce, as I'll be doing a smaller run to test the waters. 

This is a big chunk of change for my family.  The ministry of The Good and Noble Heart is just me -- no sponsors or publishing houses backing me. I've independently published my work.  (Which, I'm discovering, can have its advantages -- but that's another conversation) 

So, if you'd like to help me with some portion of the $400 it will take to produce the audiobooks, I'd be grateful.   I'm not an official non-profit, and therefore don't have a tax ID number -- but your gift would go right to the production of the audiobooks, and get the message of the good and noble heart out there.

You can email here, if you'd like to help.

Thanks!

That story is too small for you.

How can you tell if the story you're living in, the script that you're following, is too small for you?

1. Life becomes about managing risk, more than audacious faith.


2. You'll borrow others' stories -- through pop-culture magazines, novels and reality t.v. shows -- because yours feels uneventful and boring.


3. You won't think of entering into the stories of friends and family -- getting to know their hearts, their wounds and desires -- because you're not even aware of how your own story has developed.


4. The nature of your prayers hasn't changed for years, perhaps:  stalled and sputtering, rather than asking the Father the sorts of things Jesus did.


5. You'll feel that the stories of the Bible are distant and disconnected from your own experience -- that your own story bears little resemblance to the distinctly supernatural interplay those of ages past enjoyed with God.


6. You'll feel disengaged from your own heart's desires -- perhaps even dismissing the life you most deeply want.  Or, your desires may be so deeply buried or denied that you're not even aware of them.


7. Perhaps the story you've adopted is too small for you.  Perhaps it isn't God's story for you.

God's heart is strongly for you:  listen to his tailor-made invitation for your life.

In defense of the Renaissance Man

Is it possible for one to be both scholar and artist?  Simultaneously "right-brained, and 'left-brained" and capable at both?

Part of the problem with our contemporary culture of "experts" is that it doesn't allow for the real possibility that a man or woman can effectively operate out of both sides of their brain, or demonstrate expertise in both the arts and the intellect.   Going to our General Practitioner won't do -- we are referred to a 'specialist.'  There's simply too much to know for any one person to know it all.

As I've wrestled with my own calling, the idea that a person who is a jack-of-all-trades can only be 'master of none' has forced me into an artificial narrowness:  "If I am a writer, then people won't possibly believe that I am also an artist and musician."  (Or at least, not very good at either; because how could any one person possibly be skilled at both.)

What would Leonardo DaVinci have thought of this constricted vision of human calling?  His own brilliance covered such sweeping pursuits as painting, architecture, the anatomy of the human body, and even the design of tanks and advanced weaponary.  The man who painted the "Last Supper" also excelled in geometry and architecture. 

Yet, perhaps our culture of experts has sabotaged the Renaissance Man with narrow and constricting assumptions.

One the one hand, it is good for a person to be as clear and specific about their calling as they can be.  On the other, there may be a common thread running underneath the various pursuits of the Renaissance Man or Woman.  In my case, it was the thread of design:  whether I am composing a music score for a video, or writing another chapter of my next book, I deeply enjoy creating and revealing design  -- whether it's the design of a musical composition, or the design of the human heart and its longings.  The intellect and the artistry are not mutually-exclusive, but mutually-affirming.

So take heart, those of you who, like DaVinci have found yourself competent in both the intellect and scholarly as well as the poetic and sublime.  There is precident for what you can offer the world.

Why God became ruined

"A story is a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it."  - Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years - What I Learned While Editing My Life

God is also a character in a Story. However, even though he is its author, though he could write a less painful part for himself, he subjects himself to the story.     He's in fact, the hero, the protagonist.  If he doesn't come through, then you don't get to live.  So what does God have to overcome in order to get what he's after? 

First of all, what exactly is he after? 
He's after the total and supernatural re-making of each person -- which means he has to rescue their hearts.  Rescue the heart and you rescue the person.  Only restored persons are able to live well in a restored habitat.  God is after the thorough remaking of all living things, so that they may receive his affection and direct, unfiltered Life. 

“This world is a great sculptor’s shop.  We are the statues and there is a rumor going round the shop that some of us are some day going to come to life.”  - C.S. Lewis

This has already been done.  The Great Lion, Aslan, by the stirring of his own breath, has released those bound in stone into his own immortality.  Sodom and Gomorrah has been reversed.  This is the gift of salvation.

Second, what does God overcome to get it?
The unintended consequences of his Beloved's freedom. The unintended consequences of his Beloved's freedom.

He has to enter into conflict with his own creation's ruinous affliction and overcome it.  He ties the millstone around his own neck. He goes down with the ship.  Because he is truly free, he discards his own freedom by becoming ruined himself [God "became sin for us"], turning the human heart back towards his affection. He gave the Christian her new and noble heart, so that she could return to God with all her heart.

"A story is a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it."

THE ASSAULT AGAINST YOUR CALLING - new podcast in the 'calling' series

Special guest Gary Barkalow, author of the upcoming book, It's Your Call:  What are you doing here?, joins Jim again for part four of their series on living from our calling. 

What has been coming against your heart to shut it down?  What is at stake as we pursue the deep desires of our hearts and the calling that is written there?

This was a powerful conversation with Gary Barkalow, who brings a deep clarity to the struggles of calling.

Danger: Exhortation that ignores the new heart

Much of what passes for the “gospel” these days is a message of exhortation without regeneration—preaching that excludes the New Covenant reality of a transformed heart. (Or more accurately, preaching that is grossly unaware of this transformation having already occurred.)

The message of exhortation translated today says, “You’re not doing enough of this; or you’re doing too much of that:” “You’re too selfish, not committed to your marriage, not serving enough …”

Exhortation becomes an attempt to manage (or manipulate) people’s behavior by pressure and guilt, rather than urging them to release the good stored up in their heart through Christ’s work in them.  Exhortation leans toward the 'not-enough' and 'not yet' rather than relentlessly pursuing the  supernaturally-pure heart Jesus has already given us at our conversion.

[Excerpted from my book: Recover Your Good Heart -- Living Free from Religious Guilt and the Shame of Not Good-Enough.]

Good and also becoming good

How can Christians be both already good, and becoming good?  Here are two verses that lay this out for us:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17)   (Here, there’s a sense of finality. Our goodness is a settled fact.)

But Scripture also show us the ever-increasing process of becoming good …

“ For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge...and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1: 4-8)

(In this verse, we have a sense of Christ’s character developing in us with growing measure, over time.)

As I learn to live from my new and supernaturally-good heart, I mature in the goodness that God has already given me. That goodness may be as yet not expressed, but nevertheless still present in me. Discipleship is the process by which I enjoy and continue to express an already-present holiness and wholeness within me.

Toxic preaching that confuses and wounds

"Christianity is not about how good we are, but how good God is." 

Are we sure about that?  [Even raising the question sounds heretical, doesn't it?]  As my friend Mike cautions, "Don't poke the bear..."  But what if the answer to the question is:  It depends on who the "we" is, in that statement. 

Part of the problem with preaching today is that it often has to be addressed to a large, diverse crowd, some of whom buy into the teaching of Jesus and some who are cautiously investigating.  The speaker/preacher ends up delivering a broad, cast-a-wide-net message that isn't oriented to any particular segment of the crowd [and ends up confusing everybody], or ends up covertly addressing the "unbeliever" in an attempt to evangelize them, though he appears to be addressing everybody.  [I used to be in that very position, so I understand the complexities.]

However, to preach or teach and not be clear with the crowd exactly to whom you are speaking [especially when making a statement like the one above] can have a bewildering and injurious effect.

For example, the above claim that:  "Christianity is not about how good we are, but about how good God is"  is true, but requires a clear caveat.  If you're a Christian who hears that statement, you might assume that your heart [your true nature] remains selfish and sinful --because it's not about "how good we are," according to that statement. 

This would in fact, be untrue and unbiblical for the Christian to believe.  The idea that the human heart is desperately wicked is true -- prior to a person entering the 'in-Christ' life.  After Jesus enters the person, he or she has a supernaturally and thoroughly-pure heart [true nature].  This is the classic notion of regeneration.

You can image the confusion many Christians have felt when hearing statements that are non-specific and unclarified like this.  The affect of such an unthoughtul approach to preaching (and a misunderstanding of Jesus' rescuing of the heart] leaves many who are technically free, but functionally bound, like Lazarus:  Invited into life, but unable to live freely, under the 'easy yoke.'  They don't know they've been made radically good; and their spirits break under the weight of poor preaching.

Can you think of other apparently 'Christian' statements that really need clarifying and a deeper undertanding?

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Related post:

"How much do you know about 'grace?'

Video:  "How to Shame a Christian"

Update on Monday, July 12, 2010 at 3:05PM by Jim Robbins

If someone were to read only this post and be unaware of my full perspective, they could conclude that I think we ought to condemn the person who has yet to follow Christ, or that Jesus himself approaches people through condemnation. 

Nothing could be further from the truth.  Jesus didn't approach people this way, nor do I.  However, neither can we ignore the conclusion that the heart [prior to Christ's rescuing work] is just as scripture describes -- in ruins, bent inward, unable to love and receive at the level Jesus loves and receives.  [ -- what Scripture describes as 'deceitfully wicked.']  As an aside, "deceitfully wicked" doesn't have to look like rape or genocide.  It's often much more subtle. -- Remember, Jesus' indictment of the Pharisees is that their righteousness didn't go far enough.]

Just because we want to think all people are basically good [whether Christian or not] doesn't make it so.  It's easy to understand how we, in our attempt to make sense of troubling issues, can draw conclusions based upon what we wish was true.  But this doesn't get us closer to what is real.

All these issues have to be held in tension. 

Registration ends tomorrow - 'Live' web event

I'm teaching an online webcast series on "RECOVER YOUR GOOD HEART."  The first (of four) sessions is called, "Guilt, Shame and Pressure!"

1. When:  Thursday, July 8th at 8:30 p.m. (East Coast time)
2. Registration for that event is now open.  Click here for more.

Web "Live" event series - registration is now open

I'm teaching an online webcast series on "RECOVER YOUR GOOD HEART."  The first (of four) sessions is called, "Guilt, Shame and Pressure!"

1. When:  Thursday, July 8th at 8:30 p.m. (East Coast time)
2. Registration for that event is now open.  Click here for more.

Watch the video to get an idea of what I will cover in the web series:

HOW TO SHAME A CHRISTIAN from Jim Robbins on Vimeo.

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What does 'calling' have to do with your heart?

You may be wondering why a guy like me, who typically speaks about the heart, is talking about 'calling' lately. 

The first reason is that the topic of calling is part of a book I'm working on.  Second, because you can't find your calling without believing Christ has given you a good and noble heart.  Calling flows from heart.

Within your new heart lie the clues to your place in the Story - your 'calling.'  These clues come in the form of your deep desires, as well as the story your heart has been living in.   Beneath the defining events of your life, the pattern of wounds, the activities that made you come alive, something was happening in your heart - shaping it, calling it up and out.  Your heart has a unique history and a story to tell.

If you believe your heart is deceitful and selfish, it will be hard to see your deep desires and to believe that there are now good and noble desires within your new and noble heart.

That's why I write about calling.  Calling flows from heart.

Is it o.k. to get paid for your calling?

Yes, it is o.k.

There are those, who with good intentions, are saying 'no,' though.  Their contention is that "God's stuff" should be free.  However, as noble as that sounds, it stems from an unhelpful view of calling.

Their argument:  Get a 'real job' so that you can support your true calling and offer your message for free. But here's the problem with that: 

Your calling is to bring the effect of your life into every area of your life -- including your 'job.'  Ideally, your job reflects your calling and giftings and is suited to them.  Isn't your job a ministry?  For those that want to say "Get a real job that supports your ministry so that your ministry offering is free,"  I say, "But isn't your 'real job' a ministry?  Don't you bring the effect of your life, your gifts and unique heart to that job setting?  Why is that any less a ministry?

Secondly, their argument seems to apply primarily to those having a message-based ministry, rather than a product or service that isn't primarily message-based.  This might include Christian authors and speakers, or those creating explicitly 'Christian' music.  Those who are bringing a kingdom message seem to fall into a separate category than anyone else in the Body of Christ -- pedestalizing that group of communicators -- and diminishing the role of everyone else in the Body.  [I'm not even specifically thinking of paid 'pastors' and the like, necessarily; but more generally of anyone whose mission is primarily message-driven.]

Would they expect a physician, who happens to be a Christian, to offer his services free?  Not likely?  But isn't he also doing God's work and offering the restoring work of Jesus?  How about the hairdresser who loves God and brings him into conversations with her clients?  Should she offer her services free? I don't think we would expect that of her.  But for some reason, those whose primary mission centers around a message are expected to offer it free -- austensibly because it's "God's stuff."  (Yet isn't the doctor and the hairdresser offering 'God's stuff' as well to their clients?)  Don't we all have a right to support our families at a reasonable level? [-Of course, I'm speaking of reasonable pay and in good-conscience.]

If we use the inequitable scale of value that those who want God's stuff to be free do, then no one  in the Body should be paid for any of their work, including the 'real jobs' they have, since we'd hope that every believer treats his/her job as a ministry and an extension of their calling. 

I understand the sentiment of those wanting the message to be free -- I just don't think that value -scale is being applied equally across the Body, and I think it creates a false division in the Body as to which callings are more important than others.

No calling is more godly or sacred than the next, because each one's gifts and calling flow from him who levelled the playing field.  Let's stop pedestalizing (and penalizing) those primarily offering a message, and lift up each one's offering to others -- whether that person brings their gifts as an artist, author, electrician, doctor or hairdresser.

Your thoughts?

The Trinity is a clue to calling

Just about anything of importance can be figured out by watching the Trinity in action.  This includes our individual callings as unique persons.

We don't have one God wearing three different hats:  we have one God in three distinct persons.  All possessing ultimate divinity, yet living out unique roles.  Let's take a look:

The Father:  the Sender  ["As the Father has sent me..."]

The Son:  the Bridge  ["Therefore, since we have a great high priest ..., Jesus"]

The Spirit:  the Counselor  ["But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, ... will teach you all things and will remind you of all..."]

Clearly, there's a fluidity and overlap to the roles of each person in the Trinity, but the distinctness of those roles is also true.  That's why you and I have distinct roles and callings in the Body of Christ.  Remember, as the Trinity goes, so goes the Body:  Whatever is in the Trinity flows towards us.

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What unique calling do you have, your distinct offering to others?

Badly underestimating a life

On NPR today, a man was being interviewed who had made it his year-long quest to bake the perfect loaf of bread. 

My first thought was, "This guy has badly underestimated the cosmic drama unfolding around him."  My second thought was, "This guy has a really lackluster sense of his own personal calling."

Don't misunderstand me:  I think freshly-baked bread is one of life's true pleasures.  In fact, today I enjoyed a sandwich made with a nutty garlic and potato artisan bread:  Nourishing and hand-crafted.  But taking a year of my life to learn how to bake the perfect loaf isn't something that strikes me as urgent or enduring.  Rather, it strikes me as a bit naive. 

He has miscalculated two things:  the unfolding Story into which he has been invited; and his place in that Story.  It's much like the journalist in the movie, Saving Private Ryan, who had never seen battle before.  He's been asked to join a rescue operation.  He wants to bring his clunky and cumbersome typewriter; but the Captain, played by Tom Hanks says, "Here, take this instead" and hands him a pencil. The journalist didn't know what to take because he sorely underestimated the unfolding circumstances:  He wasn't taking another desk job  -  he was about to engage in field ops, where he would get shot at.

Surely the man who took a year of his life to pursue the perfect loaf has much more to offer the world -- a more needed and substantial treasure to give.   If our naivete persists, we might as well bring cookies and punch to flood victims; and board games to the clinically-depressed.  Surely much more is needed than that.

Video - KINGDOM OF NOBLES

[This is a new video I just finished producing.] 

You were born into nobility. 

Those who are hungry for what you bring

What kind of people most need what you offer?

Jesus’ invitation was extended to those with an appetite for what he had:  hungry and thirsty people.  An individual is not going to come to his table if they are neither hunger nor thirsty.  It’s not their desire to do so ... and desire is the difference.  If they don’t want it, they won’t come.

Therefore, when you consider your own calling, the affect of your life, your unique offering to others, it’s appropriate to ask:  “What type of person will be most receptive to what I offer?  Who will be hungry for what I bring?” 

This is a general guideline for determining the direction in which our calling can go.  However, as with the kind of environment we most want to flourish in, there are occasions where God will place us in adverse environments, surrounded by people who don’t want what we offer.  We ultimately offer our hearts in service to God, and therefore may be asked to bring our selves to those grating and ungracious people.  For a time. 

Take heart – our environment need not define us:  a caged lion is still a lion.  He may wish to return to the open savanna, but only his surroundings have changed; not his noble strength, not his regal splendor. If our appointment to a job (mission) is only for a time, we can take comfort from the fact that the people there can never diminish our splendor or remove our unique glory – for they did not give it.

So what kind of person is most likely to need and want what you bring to the Story?

podcast - "YOUR UNIQUE GLORY" - guest Gary Barkalow talks with Jim

"Your unique glory:"  What is the particular aspect of God's splendor and brilliance that you bring to the world?  What is the affect of your life on others?

Gary Barkalow joins Jim for part 3 of a seven-part series on "Calling."  Gary's teaching on calling addresses critical issues that spiritual gifts inventories and personality tests don't cover.  You will find his message healing, insightful, and hopeful. 

Podcasts are up again

I'm still transferring my podcasts to another server, but at least the current links are working for now. I'm also re-loading all the podcasts with new links into iTunes (one or two a day). That way, they shouldn't go down again.

You can listen now on the podcast page, or on iTunes.

Podcast player

My file-hosting site went down again without warning.  So, as I work on resubmitting all the podcasts to another hosting site, then rel-linking them, you can listen to them in the player below.  (I'll let you know when they're again accessible on iTunes.

HOSTED FREE AT MYDATANEST.COM

What's the best environment for your calling?

What kind of environment best fits your personality and calling?

Once you know what you want to offer people, determining which environments (contexts) you flourish in can be very helpful.  For example, I love to teach, but I would not do well teaching Junior High.  I also would not flourish serving in an institutional setting that felt too restrictive or that was led by an overbearing authority structure. 

However, I do love to teach through writing, blogging and speaking.  I also love to bring discernment and direction through everyday conversation with family and friends. The right environment can encourage our particular splendor:  the wrong one can suffocate it.

I’ll add a word of caution here:  Sometimes, God will place us in contexts we wouldn’t have chosen for ourselves:  Those places may feel unwelcoming and hostile.  Yet, our Counselor may still need us there for a reason, for a season.  Remember, he's a master tactician and knows what he's doing.

Again, it’s always helpful to ask:  “God, is this where you need me right now?  Is this where you would have me bring my splendor for a time?”

What environments do your gifts and glory thrive in?