The church and spurs

  If you paid any attention to basketball over the last fifteen years or so, you would know that the San Antonio Spurs have been a really good team.  Since 1999, they have only had one year of not reaching fifty wins, and that was a strike shortened year.  In that time they have been to six NBA Finals, while winning five of them.  Their head coach Greg Popavich and star player Tim Duncan have been there for all of them, while the two other star players (Manu Ginobli, Tony Parker) have been there for four of the championships.  What this three players and their head coach have accomplished is very impressive and very hard to do.  The Spurs have been known for years to be one of the best run basketball organizations in the NBA and it got me thinking what can the church learn from them.  I posed this question to my social media accounts and this what a friend and I came up with.

  The first idea that we can learn is that in order for any organization to succeed, but especially the church, there needs to be sacrifice.  Tim Duncan is one of the greatest players to ever play his position at any generation of basketball.  He could of demanded the outrageous pay check, or that the scheme of the game would revolve around him.  Instead, he did what the team needed him to do to be successful, both on the court and off of the court.  If the church wants to have an impact on their community and the world, it needs to learn about sacrifice.  It is learning to give God and others the credit when credit is deserved and owning up to mistakes.  It is also learning that we are neither too good nor is anything way above us.  Are we willing to do what it takes to build the church.  Whether it is spending time cleaning, to teaching a kids Sunday school class, to being in a leadership position.  Now we all have particular gifts and we need to use them to all of our ability and help the church become healthy and vibrant.

  The second idea is that size does not matter and this is what I mean.  San Antonio is considered a small market team, so that means they potentially have a less of a income stream coming in through attendance, merchandising and media rights and this means they have to be more financially sound with their money.  How this applies to the church is that we do not have to be a church with five pastors and an average attendance of 500 plus to have an impact on the community.  The question is that are we using the resources and talents that we have wisely.  It is about knowing who you are and Gods purpose for the church.

  The other concept is the idea that we have to have the mindset that we are more concerned about fundamentals over the flash.  The Spurs have been known for playing fundamentally sound basketball.  This is playing good defense, not turning the ball over and taking what the other team gives you.  For some, this is boring basketball, because it isn't up and down with a lot of dunking.  As a church, are we more concerned about the flash and excitement, or do we more concerned with about discipleship, worship, and evangelism.  The fundamentals of the faith is that we bring new people in, create mature disciples of Christ and those mature disciples go out to bring more people in to disciple so they can become mature reproducing Christians.  Why look for the new thing, when we are not doing what we know we should be doing.  Obedience is not only maturity, but it is following through with what we know to be true and learning something new.  We can not run unless we get the walking thing down first. 

  The third thing we can learn from the Spurs is the idea of leadership.  Having fifteen plus years with the same coach in the NBA is unheard of.  I would guess the average shelf life for a coach is under five years.  The leadership of a church and should always be pointing towards Jesus.  The leadership of the church not only needs to practice what it preaches. but there needs to be humility and servanthood.  Are the leaders of the church spending as much time on their knees as they are leading?  This applies to more than just the pastor.  The church leaders are not the ones with the title, but the one who has a sphere of influence.  When the decisions are being made, who are people turning to for guidance and who ultimately can sway the vote.  It is being consistent and it also is being molded by Jesus so they can mold other people. 

  I know that there is more that can be written and the question is the church in it for the long haul and are we willing to put in the work to impact the world

Friends and sacrifice

    I was watching a hockey game last week and I noticed something that I have never noticed before.  There were players for both team, but especially the home team when in the defensive zone would be "falling" down every time an opposing player would take a shot.  It is not because these players are bad skaters, because they are professional skaters and most of them can skate better backwards better than the average person can skate forward.  What they were doing was either blocking or attempting to block shots of the opposing team so the puck does not get to the goaltender and have the possibility of getting past him.  Blocked shots are an actual stat that is kept by hockey teams on various levels of play.  In essence, the players are sacrificing themselves to be hit by a hard piece of rubber so that they might have a better chance of winning.  It is really hard for the puck to go in when it doesn't make it to the net. 

 This has gotten me thinking over the last week about this idea of sacrifice and friendship. We tend to be people of gluttony, it doesn't matter if it is with food, time, money, possessions and even friendships.  Most of us want the most friends with the most benefits with giving up the least amount of work.  This is a vary dangerous path and the opposite is true to.  What are we willing to do to make things happen.  I understand that we tend to over use the word sacrifice in a variety of venues, but where do we go from talking about sacrifice to implementing it.  Sacrifice has the implication of it costing us something, or the giving up of something to gain something else. The common Bible verse that keeps coming to mind is found in John 15, which is greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.  The question is, what are we willing to do for our friends to build healthy boundaries and have healthy friendships.  What are will willing to give up to make the friendship work.  I think there are times where we are to willing to chuck people underneath the bus to make things work for us.  Here are some ideas that I have been wrestling with. 

  The first realization is that we all have friends that are in different life situations, and this does not make them a better or worse person.  I am still working through this and don't have all the answers. With me approaching my mid thirties and still single, I am in a different boat than some of my friends, because they are married and have children.  This means that long phone calls and late night Applebees outings are few and far between.  Priorities are different and to be honest there are things that they go through on a day to day basis that I have no understanding of.  It doesn't mean that I am not as smart, it just means that their experience is different.  Sometimes just embracing those differences and unknown things makes for a better friendship.  Also, embracing the children and parenthood is key to this friendship, no matter if the kids are cute and fun or screaming and throwing a tantrum for no apparent reason.

  The second realization is that we all have friends who either come around when they need something, or they are needy and are always needing something.  These are the friends who always seem to be taking and not much is giving back.  I have seen enough rants on social media to know that it drives people crazy when this happens.  So here is my piece of advice, don't be that person.  Most likely we are that needy person to someone.  I am not saying we can not ask for help or we going through a difficult season of life where we do are share of taking.  This is apart of life, but when it becomes our character, something is wrong.  This is where we start to see people not as people, but as an avenue to get things done.  We are essentially running them over so our needs can be met.  This is where healthy boundaries need to be set and if you are that needy person, quit it and  apologize for it.

  The third and most important thing about sacrifice and friendship is accountability.  It is something as Americans we are not fond of, especially us guys.  We would rather say everything is ok and move on.  Are we willing to stick around and not only ask the tough questions, but are we willing to stick around to share and hear those answers.  I think one of the biggest sacrifices we can make with each other is being honest with each other.  We often just want to hear the good stuff and not the bad and where we need to change.  This style of friendship means that we are journeying through this life together and not holding each other higher or lower than we should, but though the eyes of Christ. Essentially it is remembering that we are all equal at the foot of the cross. 

  Back to the hockey analogy.  One of the signs of a good team that is headed in the right direction is that they are diving for loose pucks, blocking shots for their goaltender, playing fundamentally sound and they do not care who gets the credit, because everyone is carrying their fair share.  €

Suckingt up can be...

  I have come across a realization about myself recently and for those of you who know me, it is a no brainer.  I realized that I am a suck up, and the people I work with often joke about it with me.  They call me a brownnoser or other terms and there are some lessons that I have learned about being a suck up.  This has been a character trait in me for years, and I was even voted as a suck up by my fellow classmates as a senior.  Even though I think I am coming across as being nice or building other people up, it has some ugly consequences. 

  The first ugly truth is that being a suck up is that you tend to see people as what they can do for you and not who they are.  The only reason they are in your circle is because they provide something for you.  Whether it is a providing a listening ear, pawning activities or work on them, or using something of theirs that we can't or wont do for ourselves.  In this relationship, it is all about taking, and there isn't much giving back or gratitude.  If there is gratitude its because they feel guilty and it is half hearted.  I constantly see people complaining on Facebook about friends who only come around when they need something and never give anything in return.  This is a classic suck up move.  In the suck up world it is all about me and my needs.

  The second ugly truth about being a suck up is that we never have an opinion of our own because we want everyone to be happy.  We want everyone happy with us, just in case we need something, and we often don't confront issues because it might make people mad or we might loose a friendship.  This often leads to shallow relationships and a shallow personality.  We are to busy caring what other people think to work on our own issues or to develop any sort of opinion.  In the world of a suck up, disagreements are bad and we avoid them at all cost.  This often keeps other people at arms length and we have no solid relationships.

  The third ugly truth about being a suck up is that we feel that we are never good enough.  Another classic suck up move is that we are always being nice to people and doing things for them because we feel that we are not good enough.  I think this comes down to that we find our self worth in what we do instead of who we are.  Guys especially fall into this trap because we often find our identity in what we do.  If we feel that we are not good enough, we try and do things to make other people happy.  It could make us down right miserable, but if it makes the other person happy and that I can stay in their good graces, it doesn't really matter.  It is something that I have to do.  Often these things are missing the mark because we are not listening to other people and hearing what they want or what their needs are.  Its about what I can do and not what they need. 

  The fourth ugly truth about being a suck up is that we elevate people higher to what they really are.  In other words, we give people a god like status and everything we do or say revolves around what they do.  We hindge on their every word and we would do anything for them to keep them on that pedestal.  The opposite is true to.  We are willing to kick anybody down because we view them as a worthless piece of garbage.  We would do or say anything to keep them down and degrade them.  These two ideas often come unintentional, and we don't know when we do it.  Then there are other times where we know where we are being a jerk and we don't care and it gives us satisfaction doing it.

  There are more ugly truths about being a suck up, but here are some solutions to overcome the suck up disease.  The first one is realize that people are people and that people are not things.  We need to stop using people for our guilty pleasures and to get what we want all the time.  It is seeing them more than just what they do, but realizing that they are a person created in the image of God.  Often how we treat others is a direct correlation how we relate to God.  We need to realize that people are not pawns that they are fearfully and wonderfully made and not pawns in a chess game.

  The second realization is that we need to be honest with others, God and ourselves.  We have to be honest with God and others.  Being a suck up often revolves around lies that we believe about ourselves and others and we need to stop doing this.  We need to dive into the truth of Scripture to find out what it says and then to start applying it.  When we do this, we can actually start being truthful with ourselves we can be truthful with others.  Sometimes being honest with ourselves is the hardest part, because it focuses us to examine ourselves and to deal with both the good and bad.  This is the only way we can see things clearly.  This also means we need a few people in our lives to be honest with us.  We all need an AJ Pierzynski in our lives.  For those of you who don't know who he is, he is a baseball player who can come across  as a  jerk.  He isn't afraid to get into peoples faces or to pick a fight.  He often states what he thinks and is rather blunt about it.  But heres the thing, every teammate of his has said that he is a great guy and one of the most loyal people out there.  We all need someone who isn't afraid to get in our face, say what they think and to be extremely loyal.

  The final truth we need to hear is that we can never ever work for peoples approval, and if we could, those relationships are not worth having, because we will always be one step behind.  We need to love ourselves and others not for what we can do, but who we are.  Yeah sure in every relationship we do things for each other, but it is getting to the point that those actions are because we want to, and not letting those actions define who we are.  It is realizing that not only am I a person, but I have value not in what I do but who I am.  Value doesn't come down to its usefulness or the price tag on it.  Ultimately it comes down to, what someone is willing to pay for it.  Our lives have great value because not only are we created in the image of the Creator, but He also sent His only Son as ransom for us, so this means our worth is not in our eyes but His.  In other words, our worth is not found in what we can do, but what Christ does in us and through us.  In closing we all got a little bit of kiss ass in all of us and lets knock it off.

Addiction is a...

  I was talking with a friend last week and we were talking about his past issues with alcohol and his current job at a local detox center.  I learned that you see a lot of interesting things at a detox center, especially when working midnights.  Through this conversation I was reminded of the issues of addictions and how they can over run our lives very easily if we are not careful.  Addictions do not strictly relate to drugs, alcohol or even food.  I know this may sound kind of simplistic, but addiction really is anything that has an improper balance in our life.  What I mean by this is that what ever our addiction is, it either has improper placement in our life, or it consumes our life.  There is nothing wrong with playing fantasy sports, but when one spends countless hours getting ready for ones draft and then several hours daily/weekly on that fantasy sports, there just might be a problem.  I have come to the conclusion in the past that addictions boil down to having a misplaced view of ourselves and or God.  We either view ourselves or God to highly or do not give one or the other enough dignity.  When this happens, we tend to overcompensate with thoughts, attitudes or actions.  This is where we get into trouble.

  Where we try and overcompensate is what I like to call coverings.  These are things that are usually pretty harmless, and often are considered good characteristics.  But these good characteristics can be used and abused into addiction. When we take these good qualities and we distort them, it is often to cover up an issue that we don't want to deal with. One example is that most everyone values hard work and having a good work ethic.  We can even justify it by saying that we need to work a lot of hours to pay off bills, provide for the family, to make sure that one can retire.  These are all good things, but when we are consumed on making the almighty dollar there is something wrong. 

  Another thing that I have learned about these coverings is that they tend to help us avoid reality. We go to them so that we can put off dealing what is in front of us.  I think the biggest reason why we do these coverings is that these things will not disappoint, let us down or tell us no.  These things tell us either we don't have to change, to keep to doing what were doing and that its not us, its always someone else's fault.  These coverings tend to make our dysfunction minimal and the others peoples problem the bigger problem.  It tends to lead to the blame game and an unhealthy balance.  We do not to be told that we are wrong or that we need to change, that is why we keep going to those things that calm us and pets our ego.  In all reality it is a form of escapism and when done for a prolong period of time, it can be vary dangerous and detrimental. 

  The flip side is that we use these coverings to try and change ourselves or others.  We think if we just work harder, pray even harder, stop doing a certain activity, or doing a certain activity, that we can change.  I'm not going to argue that there are things that we need to do, but when we develop the attitude of "work harder" or I just have to push through it, it tends to make things worse.  This type of attitude is more of a works righteousness, or its all about me.  I got myself into this mess, I can get myself out.  Here is the problem, having this attitude is often what got us into this mess, so trying to work our way out usually makes the situation worse because we are usually the ones that got us into the mess to begin with. This is where the grace of God comes in and allowing Him to change us, this is the only way we can experience true freedom.  It is a realization that it is not about me and that I need help and that I need a Savior. 

   I know this is a very simple post on addiction, and that most addictions take years of hard work to overcome.  There also might be a realization that this is something that we will struggle with for the rest of our lives.  We need to be willing to put in boundaries, have accountability and know what our triggers are.  When we do these things and have a willingness to change and even seek professional help to deal with it.  This is when we can start to over come it and grow in grace

Time is....

   One of the best and most challenging times of the church calendar year is the season of Lent.  Lent is very cool because it signifies that Easter is right around the corner and the crux of the Christian faith is about to be celebrated in the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Also, all the Easter candy isn't half bad either, especially when we get to over stuff ourselves with Cadbury eggs and Peeps.  In all the joyous hope of what the resurrection of Jesus and sugar highs can bring, there is a part of Lent that is challenging if we chose to acknowledge and participate in it.  This harsh reality is that Lent forces us to not only face our own mortality and the most famous way of exiting earth is through death, but we also recognize that we are not perfect and that there are things that we need to improve on.  There are many people who give up or fast things for Lent that may have a misplaced priority in their life.  It could be anything from certain foods, to television, and technology.  Hopefully, during this time of fasting, we are putting into practice good and healthy boundaries and practices to replace what we are fasting from.  If not, we will find something just as equally destructive to take the place of what we are fasting. During this time of Lent, I have came up with a profound thought for me and that is I have come to realize that throughout the Old Testament, God mentions repeatedly that the Israelites are consistently stealing from Him.  There are various thefts that God calls out the nation of Israel on.  I know I don't like to hear this, but God has called me out on how I steal and one of the more common thefts I do is through time. 

  Through this awareness, I have realized that we all have gifts and talents, and when we do not use them to the best of our ability, or for the right purposes, we are stealing from God.  Some might say, what is the gift of time?  I know we all get twenty four hours a day and seven days a week, but it is how we use that time.  We are all called to use it wisely.  I also know that we all have different amounts of free time, due to family/relationship, church, and work commitments.  I think how we use them signifies how are relationship with God is going.  If we spend to much time and effort in one area, the others are going to become out of balance.  How do I make sure that I use my time well. 

  The first realization I have is that I have a lot more free time than most and heres why.  I am single with no kids, so this frees up a lot of time.  I am not saying that being in a relationship or having kids is a bad thing, but it is a realization that I do not have to invest time into those areas that other people do.  My only real time focus is my job (because I want to pay my bills) and some commitments at church.  I might have a few extra things to do that my mom or others ask me to do, but in all reality, my work commitment is the biggest time constraint that I have to my time.  So I am working through how to use my time better.  Here is some things that I have learned

  The first one is that time is a gift from God and it even might be a spiritual gift.  I know Paul doesn't point blank name time as a spiritual gift, but I think it is as how we use those gifts is a reflection of how we use or don't use our time.  As with any spiritual gift, it can be used for building the Kingdom of God, or for our own pleasures.  I know I am pretty good at taking what I am good at and using it for my advantages and doing things that I want to do.  The time of Lent is suppose to be a time where we are reflecting and finding out how we can use our giftings for God's glory and not personal gain.

   The second realization that I came to, is that if there isn't accountability, things wont get done.  I am learning to allow people in my life to help keep me accountable.  A great way to find accountability, is by joining a small group or creating one.  It is finding a couple people where you all can share what's going on, and pray for each other.  It is more than just praying for warmer weather or someone's stubbed toe.  It is finding those couple people you trust to share life with and to celebrate the good stuff, and to challenge each other on our attitudes and actions.    For me I can waste time like no other, especially on my days off.  I am learning that I need to be more proactive in what I do and not just do what comes to me.  I can waste a lot of time on the internet, but for me it is finding time to do more writing and reading.  I can say I am going to do those things, but if I don't develop a plan, and have accountability, they are not going to get done. 

  The third thing that I have realized is that I have noticed when I do not use my time wisely, that when I struggle with others areas of life.  When I am not making the commitment for my devotional life or am content in just wasting time doing other things,  this is when I tend to struggle with eating and a host of other things.  One of the things that comes to mind is the saying "idle hands are the devils playground."  Now this saying may not be completely true, but when my time because unproductive or even things that God has not called me to do at that time, I know I will struggle.

  The final thing that I have learned is that if you want to know what is important to someone, find out what they spend most of there time doing.  This excludes work, because we all need to pay the bills.  When its not employment time, what we do most of, I have a hunch is where are greatest strength's are and where we struggle the most.  We need to find a balance in life and knowing where our strength's are and where the pitfalls are and how we can work to miss them. 

  One last thought, I have a friend from seminary who is a pastor in Louisiana by the name of Chad Brooks (@revchadbrooks) who has a podcast called the Productive Pastor.  It deals a lot with the issue of time and how we use it in and out of ministry settings.  He is a great resource of how to better use time

Karma is a ......

   One of my favorite shows recently is My Name is Earl.  For all intents and purposes, watching this show might cause one to lose a few brain cells, but non the less it makes me laugh.  The whole premise of the show is that the main character Earl, realizes that his life stinks and because of karma.  The bad karma comes from all the bad things he has done.  In order for the bad karma to go away and for good karma to come, he makes a list of all the wrongs he has done and he sets out to rectify the wrongs that he has done.  In one of the episodes, he tries to right a wrong with his ex wife two kids.  His intention was to take them to amusement park to right wrong, but the amusement park was closed.  Earl was devastated and was wondering how he could make it up to the kids.  One of the kids made the profound statement that when you love someone you forgive them.  This kid was giving the impression that there is another side of karma.  If karma does exist, it is all about getting what we deserve.  Grace is the polar opposite and its all about getting what we don't deserve. 

 This is how I understand grace, which is giving unmerited favor.  We do not or can not earn favor, but it only can be given by the one who gives it.  We do have a choice in accepting it, but the recipient can in no way give grace from another person.  Here are a few things that I think that grace isn't. 
  
  The first one is that grace does not sweep things underneath the rug.  Grace meets any and every problem head on and it seeks to deal with in in a proper manner.  It is taking care of the problem and not the symptoms.  Because if we only take care of the symptoms, the problem keeps coming back, and often in different forms, but it still comes back.  It is not a superficial relationship that only dances around the edges and never covers anything important.  Grace is not claiming that everything is all right when everything is not.  The true mark of a maturing person, especially a maturing Christian is that they are growing in such a way where they deal with one issue and put it to bed, and when the next issue comes along deal with that one also.  Maturing in grace does not mean we will master all of our problems, but when they come up we deal with them and we are continually frying the bigger fish. 

  The second thing that grace is not, is that it is not always the warm and fuzzies.  I wish it was, but true grace is looking at us straight in the eye and telling us to knock it off.  There are times where grace needs to take us out to the woodshed and do some correcting.  This is not the fun aspect of grace, but it is well needed if we want to mature . 

  The third thing about grace is that it is not about works righteousness like karma is.  Restitution is apart of the maturing process, but if we are basing our hope on what we can do to make things right, that's not grace.  Grace is completely based on our intrinsic value as a person, not what we can do.  If grace was about what we could do or what people could do for us, the people who would only receive grace and forgiveness would be the people that could do something for us.  Grace knows no equal and should be bestowed by everyone to everyone whether they accept it or not.  Giving grace is not about giving it to only the ones who will accept it, but it even needs to be given to the ones who wont accept it. 

  There are many things that grace is, but here are two things that grace is that is central to its being.  The first one is that the aim of grace seeks to bring people into right relationship.  Grace does not seek to condemn, but it seeks to restore.  Grace is about restoring people into right relationship with not only God, but others as well.  This does mean we have to have proper boundaries with our relationships, but it is seeking to restore and to be in right relationship with every person we come in contact with.  This means that we are seeking and granting forgiveness with and from others.  Yes grace is giving out what something that the other person doesn't deserve, because we all have given and received something that was not deserved.  Grace is seeking to be in healthy relationships with all we come in contact with.

  The second part is restitution.  Restitution is the action part of grace. Restitution is not so much restoring what was lost, but it is making things right.  Restitution and restoration go hand in hand. It is making things whole again, or as whole as they can be this side of heaven.  No one likes restitution/restoration because it is hard work.  It is easy to say that you are forgiven, but to live it out on a daily basis is another thing.  Anytime where the rubber meets the road is tough, because we actually live it out.  We may say we forgive, and often it is not a one time thing, but it is a daily thing.  Seeking and giving grace is a daily workout that can only be done by the work of the Trinitarian God working in us and through us.  If karma is all about giving us what we deserve, grace is all about giving us what we need.  I am all about giving us and ourselves what we need and not so much what we deserve

Whose Image Are You Created In?

  I was carrying on a conversation with a few guys I work with and somehow we got on the subject of human trafficking.  I was surprised that they didn't know that human trafficking was a multi million dollar business and it does not only happen in third world countries.  It happens in North America, and we window dress it as prostitution and pornography.  There are several reasons why people are sold or forced into trafficking.  It could be any number of reasons why people are sold into trafficking.  It could be for money, criminal, prostitution, and it is done through coercion, the abuse of power, abduction or any other reason.  There are several very stagering facts about trafficking that grabbed my attention.
 
      27 million yes million men, woman and children are sold into domestic servanthood, hard labor    
        and prostitution
      Trafficking is a 32 billion dollar a year business.
      Up to 80% of people trafficked are woman and up to 50% of that number are children

    There are many organizations that are out to combat human trafficking.  Two of those groups are World Hope International (worldhope.org) and The Orange Movement.  The Orange Movement is a campus movement on Oklahoma Wesleyan University (okwu.edu).  As much of a problem as human trafficking is and it does deserve our attention to stop, prevent and help people recover from the horrors they have experienced through human trafficking, I think there is something else that also deserves our attention.  It is how we treat other people and often how we degrade people with our words, thoughts, actions and attitudes.
   
  How often do we bring people down with a joke or sarcastic comment and these are the people that we like.  At my church we have a group of men that meet on Saturday mornings for breakfast and encouragement.  As we are making breakfast, we are often busting each others chops over different things.  Its all harmless and it is done in good fun.  I have often come away with the saying that why do I need enemies when I have friends like you all.  I think that when we are dealing with human trafficking, both with the victims and the perpetrators, and our daily relationships is that we are all created in the image of God and we our God's children no matter how dumb we may act sometimes.  Here are some ideas that could be applied to how we treat others

   The first idea of how we can uphold the image of God is through our speech.  The big idea with this is that we should labeling gossip as prayer request.  I know there can be a fine line between gossip and sharing useful information that needs to be shared.  Gossip tends to bring one person down and build someone else up.  It often makes us look better when we are praying for that person and it is letting the whole world know that we are praying for them.  Here are two basic ideas to help combat gossip.  The first one is, does everyone need to know.  The second idea is that do I have permission to share this information with the world.  Not everything needs to be a status update on Facebook.  If we filter information through these two basic principles, gossip should dwindle fast.  We should think of everything that pure, holy, and uplifting and share those things.  If we were more concerned with building each other up instead of bring down, our attitude might change

  The second idea of how we can uphold the image of God is our attitude/actions towards others.  I know my attitude towards people that rub me the wrong way tends to go south when I am around them and I tend to get snarky.  Our attitudes often comes out in our body language and how we communicate with them.  Instead of making the rude comments that we think they deserve, try seeing things from their perspective.  Its also a chance for us to check our attitudes and assumptions.  Ask and allow God to change those attitudes in us that need to be changed.  Often when we encounter people who rub us the wrong way is a signal that we have uncheck attitudes and assumptions that need to be changed.

  The third idea of how we can uphold the image of God in us and others is through loving and praying for them.  Its not the prayer for God to smite them where they stand, but it is a prayer for God to be present in their lives in a big and powerful way.  Even if this means blessing their socks off.  It is easy to pray for friends and family, but when we talk about enemies, it is much easier to bring them down than to build them up through prayer and loving them with Gods love.  God calls us to not only pray for the people we like but for the ones we don't like also.  Maybe when we show God's grace to others, we are being responsible with the gifts and grace we have been given.  We have been given so much by God's grace we are called to share it with everyone we come in contact with because they are our neighbor. 

  The fourth idea of how we can uphold the image of God is realize that we were created in the image of God.  We often are our harshest critic and we know where we fail and fail hard.  It is inviting God to come into our lives and change us from the inside out.  The only way this happens is if we give Him the keys to the whole house and not just certain rooms.  The more that God puts back together His image in us, the easier it will be for us to see others in His image. When we see ourselves and others in our image, we tend to either be condescending bringing each other and ourselves down, or we tend to put ourselves and others on pedestals that we don't belong on.  When we or others fall from grace it isn't nice.  To quote an old hymn of the church, "my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus Christ and His righteousness."  When we start building our hope on this, how we see ourselves and others will radically change for the better