Jeff Adams

Citizen Kane has often been rated by various polls and organizations as the number one movie of all time. The innovative 1941 production starred Orson Wells, who also wrote and produced it. The title of the old movie classic came to mind as I reflected back on events of the past couple of weeks and my own citizenship.

Traveling in Spain and North Africa with my friend Tony reminded me again that he has the advantage of holding citizenship in three countries. As he travels he can pick and choose which passport is most convenient, cheaper or safer for a particular trip. I have many other friends who hold dual citizenship. I was beginning to feel a little sorry for myself until I realized that I, too, have triple citizenship.

I am first a citizen of the United States of America. This is where I was born and raised. I have never held citizenship in another country and have never been ashamed of being a US citizen.

If you followed my journey with my friends Ricardo and Tony, you know that we were recently in North Africa. One evening, riding the train to a North African city, Tony, Ricardo and I were chatting away in Spanish. Across the compartment from us was a strikingly sophisticated and handsome North African couple. We knew enough to speak carefully even in Spanish. You never know who is listening. I could tell this couple was paying attention.

Suddenly, both jumped into our conversation in beautiful Spanish! She was a native of the country where we were traveling, and he was from another North African nation. It wasn’t long before the inevitable question – “Where are you from?”

Being identified as a US citizen was not something I desired at that moment – not for security reasons, but just to avoid the obligatory questions about politics, etc. I kept quiet for the moment, waiting for one of my colleagues to take the lead. Tony flashed a big smile and said, “I’m a citizen of the world.” The couple returned the smile and said smugly, “Great! We are, too!” Good answer, Tony! You diffused all the issues for the moment.This couple, by responding in kind that they were citizens of the world, was saying that they understood that we have far more in common that unites us than that which divides us. Our understanding of the world goes far beyond the limited sphere of the country of our birth or residence.

My two friends covered for me as they said we represented El Salvador and Mexico. Their curiosity was satisfied, and there was no way they would know the real color of the passport in my pocket as long as we continued to converse in Spanish. Yes! I liked the answer. We are citizens of the world. That’s an honest answer, too. I have lived in four countries and traveled in more than 50 others, though I hold only one physical passport.This world is the wonder of God’s creation, and I am one of God’s many creatures on this earth – a fellow citizen of the world.

Citizen of the US, citizen of the world – but I also hold another citizenship. I am a citizen of heaven. Paul said as much to the Philippians in Philippians 3:20 when he said that our πολίτευμα (citizenship) is in heaven. Just yesterday I was reading from Hebrews 12.

But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect. Hebrews 12:22-23

How wonderful to know that all of us who follow Jesus hold the same heavenly passport! I was thinking of that during our prayer meeting tonight as one of our students introduced me to her mother. As we prepared to pray she apologized that her English was not very good and would it be alright if she prayed in Chinese. Of course! Others near me were praying in Spanish in addition to English. Maybe there were some other languages working in the room tonight. I don’t know. It just felt wonderful to know that God speaks our language – whatever that is.

My friends from Argentina arrived this morning. Thomas and Mechthild Vögelin are the founders and leaders of the CEC, the mission-minded youth ministry that I have been blessed to work with on a few occasions. Their eighteen-year-old daughter Manuela is also traveling with them. They will live in our mission house for the next two months as Thomas works to improve his English.

When people travel to another country for the first time, I encourage them to write down their thoughts and impressions because they will never see things in such a fresh and unique light. I was reminded of that today as I spent time with the Vögelin family. What a blast to see the heart of America through their eyes. Everywhere they looked, everything they touched was a source of wonder.

One of their suitcases did not arrive, so we settle down on some stools at Starbucks to wait for the next flight to arrive in hopes the errant bag would arrive (didn’t happen).  Starbucks has not yet conquered Argentina, so to drink a cup of Starbucks coffee is for them something like sipping from a fine bottle of champagne. This is the first time in the United States for Thomas and Manuela. Mechthild made a brief trip over the 4th of July when she was about Manuela’s age. Thomas is Swiss and Mechthild is German even though they have lived in South America for 20 years.

“And I’m Argentine!” smiles Mani (Manuela) proudly.

The young man who took our order has asked what language we are speaking and I am giving him the program of nationalities represented, explaining that we are speaking Spanish with occasional German sprinkled in for accent. He is from Ghana as it turns out.

“Oh yes!” he says, “My mother lives in Germany.

“There’s certainly better coffee,”  I remark as they try to figure out the rainbow of sugar options to stir into their coffee.

“But here we are at Starbuck’s,” they say smiling from their stools backed up to the airport window.

Mani looks at me and the world in general and proclaims, “I’m living my dream.”

Thomas examines the slurpy lid on top of the Starbucks cup. “We need this in our next event in Argentina,” he says. “Just look at this. It’s very practical and it really works well. Look at how it fits.” I am understanding why his ancestors have always made such great watches.

We have a bit more time to kill while waiting for the next flight to come in so I take them a couple of exits down the Interstate just to drive through a “typical” American suburban subdivision.

“OOOOOH! Look at that house. …  Look how much wood they use in construction. … This reminds me of something I saw in a movie. … I saw a house an American built in Chile once that looked like this. Now I know why. … Do you see how much land each house sets on? …  There are no bars on the windows!”

Dropping off their luggage at the mission house, my assistant Emily and I think to take them for a quick lunch because they have not eaten since an airplane breakfast at 4:30am. There is plenty of food in the mission house, but they surely don’t feel like cooking after such a long flight.

“Let’s go somewhere typically American.”

Emily and I weigh our options. By this time most every place will be crowded, and we want to get in and out so they can come back, clean up and take a nap. We reluctantly decide on a nearby Applebee’s. They are thrilled when we tell them it is typically American.

Walking through the door of Applebee’s, their eyes survey every detail just like a Superbowl quarterback reading a defense. They notice the TV screens visible from every possible angle.

“Just wait, Mani, until you feel the thick carpet beneath your feet in one of the houses,” Mechthild says as she reflects on one of the strongest impressions from her trip long ago.

The server has arrived to take our orders. Thomas looks up with his trademark smile, musters up his best English and says, “Tell me. What is the most typical American food on this menu?”

Seeing the server’s facial expression, I jump in to help interpret. We later learn that this is her second day on the job and is in training. We learn this after she has spilled Pepsi on the table that chases Thomas and I from the booth, fails to know how to clean it up, mixes up our orders and brings the plates 10 minutes apart. But this is their first meal in America and nothing, no one, not even a server in training and an exasperated and frustrated trainer can rob them of the wonder of it all.

Father and daughter order cheeseburgers and fries. Mom opts for a salad.

The drinks arrive.

“They’re so big!” they giggle to each other.

Emily smiles and adds that they refill them – for free.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOO!” they squeal in unison.

“Look at how thick and big these straws are!”

Today you won’t convince them that Applbee’s is any different from Ruth’s Chris Steak House. They are fascinated with each detail.

Wouldn’t it be great to go through life with such an attitude of wonder? Surely this has to be much more favorable for one’s health than constantly complaining. Maybe the Fourth of July is a good time to learn a new attitude. We have so much for which to be thankful. Let’s see if we can find wonder in even the smallest details of life. Why not share the joy of something others take for granted? Try it and see what happens.

Marco and I are sitting in the airport in Panama City waiting for our flight that is now about an hour delayed. This will make for a brief connection time in Houston and we are hoping to make it. We are scheduled to get back to Kansas City a bit before ten tonight, but this could put us later. We are both ready to get home.

I had an interesting experience this morning. I mentioned in passing that we were going to have a Chinese breakfast today, what you might know as dim sum. A great young Chinese couple in the church had invited us. As we pulled up in front of the restaurant, a Panamanian landmark, I had sense of deja vu. The main part of the restaurant is on the second floor, and as we walked in I immediately recognized that this is the same place where Cheryl and I enjoyed a wonderful meal with friends in 1975!

Sitting there I reflected back on many years of ministry between my first time in this restaurant and today. We often make mention of our mission of making disciples. This is the commission we have received. Making disciples is all about multiplication. The passion of my life has been to multiply myself in others. In 1975 I knew no one in Panama. We had come to Panama City to renew our visas for Costa Rica. To think that today I am heard on radio here every day and that the pastor of one of the larger churches in nation looks to me as a type of mentor is at once humbling and gratifying. Lives are being touched by God’s truth all over this country through the natural and biblical process of multiplication by biblical disciple making. This is what life is about.

With all the many demands on our time, this is a good reminder for me and maybe for you. Are you reproducing yourself in others? Who are the people in your sphere of influence? Can you name them? Can you see their faces? How are you influencing them? For good or for bad? Do you see them carrying on that same reproductive process? No matter who you are, what gifts you have or the type of things you do, you should be multiplying yourself in others. Are you?

Evangelical Christians in the West love to loosely paraphrase 1 Corinthians 14:33, especially those who are of a Calvinistic slant, and remind folks that “God is a God of order, not confusion.” We usually say this in heated conversations when someone has dared to not accept blindly our neatly structured, logical arguments that make perfect sense to us. Or, we might say this before or after making what we consider to be a profound point, as if this punctuation mark gives automatic acceptance and veracity to what we are saying.

“I just don’t think things are as neat and tidy as you make them appear,” someone says to us.

“Well” we respond, stretching to add an extra half inch or so to our frame as we stand erect in pious propriety, “you need to understand that God is a God of order, and when you know how to rightly divide the word of truth, even a child can see the logic, order and structure of God’s truth just as I am explaining to you.”

I find it interesting that we play this “God is a God of order” card so quickly as though everyone knows this and agrees, when there is not a single verse in the Bible that directly says that God is a God of order. Those of us who cling to the purity, inspiration and preservation of every word of Scripture quickly become masters of paraphrase, dynamic equivalence and implication when discussing the sacred doctrine of the God of order. And, to top things off, we do so by pulling and twisting scripture out of proper context. I know this because I’ve done it myself!

Now, those of you who may still be stuck in the pious propriety mode, calm down! I am certainly not suggesting that God is not a God of order and all that. Many who have ventured into the sphere of natural theology have established the intentionality of design in the universe, though we are far from understanding the totality of the design. I’m just trying to make us think before we toss around clichés, and hold us accountable to honesty and integrity as we deal with the sacred scriptures entrusted to us.

The basic foundational truths we all hold dear are clear enough for a child to understand. These truths are evident and applicable in any culture and language on the planet. Yet God is so much bigger than we are that there is still much that we cannot mentally grasp much less control. There are divine concepts far beyond our comprehension.

So what does the Bible really say?

For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. 1 Corinthians 14:33

Clearly, God is not the author of confusion. But, it does not say he is the God of order, rather of peace. And, the context is not cosmology but the the confusion of the Corinthian church where the immature understanding of spiritual gifts had made their worship times together a chaos. Considering the context and what the scripture does not say, we should perhaps be a bit more circumspect as we borrow this verse from it proper context to make a point.

Now, check out this photo from the Hubble telescope. This is what got me thinking along these lines.

This is a picture of two galaxies colliding. You can see a higher definition picture here, and you can also learn more about this spectacular cosmic collision. So, there you have it. Pure order and structure. Right where we can get up on our little soap boxes and expound all about it. I’m thinking this looks somewhat like what’s left of one of my very orderly, logical and structured sermon outlines after the Holy Spirit gets hold of it!

Make no mistake. God obviously has an ordered and structured purpose in this collision that appears anything but neat and orderly to us. This is my point. God has it all under control, yet we are kidding ourselves if we think we understand it all. I wonder if this is a good illustration of cultures in collision — messy, painful, confusing to us — yet God always is at work accomplishing his purposes.

Think of possible galaxy collisions of culture in our world — Islam and Christianity, mixed marriages from totally different cultures, missionaries struggling to navigate what is to them a strange and resistant culture, clash of old sin nature and new nature in Christ, or the generational collision of what type of music we are going to sing when the church comes together in one place. These are all real and serious issues that often leave us confounded. Hopefully, seeing the bigger macro view of the universe will encourage us to trust in God even when life at times seems like a train wreck or galaxies in collision. God is always God.

Quite frequently I’m asked how to handle a question someone has been asked. Some questions are fairly easy to answer, and the person who has inquired of me only needs some specific Bible information, the location of a passage or suggestions on making application of biblical truth. No problem!

Other questions, though, can be difficult. I’m thinking of those questions that often begin with “Yeah, but …, ” “OK, so answer this,” or “Then, how do you explain … . ” The very set up of the question implies an atmosphere that is charged with a bit of emotion, defensiveness or squirming to avoid accepting the consequences of biblical truth. Some of that defensiveness may in response to a Christian who steps over the boundary of wisdom and good taste and becomes pushy or just plain obnoxious. If that is you, back off!

Having explored some different types of difficult questions, how about those tough ones that remain? Perhaps you’re sharing your faith in a normal and natural manner when someone nails you to the wall with one of those questions that makes you stutter and sweat. It seems that no matter what you say, you lose.

In the Gospels Jesus was in difficult situations like that several times. The difference is that he always handled himself masterfully. I was looking at one such instance this morning.

Jesus has just entered Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt in fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy, and he has torn things up in the Temple once again, overturning moneychangers’ tables and those who sold sacrificial animals at exorbitant prices. Entering the Temple the following morning he is met by a delegation of chief priests, scribes and elders who demand to know by what authority he has done these things.

Their question is legitimate. Jesus has no theological pedigree such as being discipled by a prominent rabbi or having graduated from some rabbinical school. Jesus knows that to answer them on a human plane is to expose himself to the charge of blasphemy. He has repeatedly tied his authority to Jehovah God, and the works he did bore witness in fulfillment of scripture. The Jewish leaders had not accepted this evidence earlier and he knows they are in no mood to accept it now. Most of us would consider this one of those no-win questions. The way Jesus handles this is instructive.

And Jesus answered and said unto them, I will also ask of you one question, and answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? answer me. And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then did ye not believe him? But if we shall say, Of men; they feared the people: for all men counted John, that he was a prophet indeed. And they answered and said unto Jesus, We cannot tell. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things. Mark 11:29-33

Trying to organize my thoughts as I ponder this passage anew, I offer these points to consider whenever we have our backs up against the wall with no-win questions.

• Some questions, even good ones, do not merit an answer. What makes them particularly difficult is the motive behind them. This is the case in this example from Jesus’ life. When good, penetrating and legitimate questions are posed with dishonest or ulterior motives, we never have to feel obligated to answer. The reason for this is because the person asking the question does not want an answer — the question is asked only to entrap or to confirm one’s already established conclusions and presuppositions.
• Leading questions are often best dealt with by deflection, not by answering. In this case Jesus answers their questions with a no-win question of his own. Jesus was brilliant at this. I usually don’t think this fast, but it’s a great tactic when you can. There are other forms of deflection such as quietly pointing out that a question is good and legitimate, but that this is not the right moment, setting or emotional framework to answer it. Alternately, there is no shame in admitting that you don’t have a ready answer for a good question and asking for another occasion to answer after you have had time to prayerfully consider it. You can do this with confidence and control.

Why is it so hard for us to handle these tough questions? Most of us are not as quick as Jesus to come back with an equally impossible question. So why do we feel defeated or embarrassed when we are up against those questions that have no answer? Speaking for myself, I think we are too concerned with how we look, how others perceive us. We love to give the impression that we have all the answers. We don’t. Even when we have God’s word in our hands and understand it well, we don’t have all the answers. If you think I’m wrong about this, read the book of Job. Why do we struggle so much when the answers don’t flow smoothly out of our mouths? In a word — pride.

I was reading another passage of scripture this morning that confirms this and shows the proper response. Joseph has spent a great deal of time in an Egyptian prison when Pharaoh suddenly calls on him to interpret a troubling dream.

And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it: and I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it. And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace. Genesis 41:15-16

Joseph deals with the issue upfront, making it clear that the source of any potential answers is God, not him. You might remember that Daniel is in a similar situation in the Babylonian court. When Nebuchadnezzar inquires about a dream, Daniel does exactly what I suggest above. He asks for time for prayerful consultation before answering the king.

Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would shew the king the interpretation. Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions: That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Daniel 2:16-18

God, of course, reveals to Daniel just the right response. I believe that God can do the same for us if we are careful to pray. If not, maybe the question does not merit a response.

If you have any tips on facing the tough questions, or additional insight from this example of Jesus, please share.