A Little Honesty
My daughter-in-law pointed me to this excellent blog post by Jordan McCall, a young mother with cancer, who is trying to come to terms with her Bible class’s study of a Joel Osteen book.
This is one of the most honest, gospeled blog pieces I’ve read in a long time. (I’ll put the link in the comments.) I appreciate the McCalls letting me reprint her words here:
In our Sunday School Class, we have started a series of lessons on Joel Osteen’s “Your Best Life Now.” I have not read it, so as you read this post, please realize that it comes from someone who is mostly ignorant on what the book actually says. I only know of its ideas from other people who have read this book and the series that I mentioned. So, if you think the book is great and whole-heartedly believe it, then you should probably stop reading now. I am in a “hurting place” today and I think most of it is written to make Americans feel okay about themselves and their greed. I have to make this point first, I respect and admire the teachers that are presenting this study in our class. It is because of them that I haven’t just thrown up my hands and decided to skip Sunday School for six weeks. I am trying to have an open mind and looking for what God may be telling me through them. In the three weeks since they have started talking about this (I admit, we did miss one week because we were at Family Camp), I spend most of the class trying not to cry and leave feeling incredibly burdened. It’s hard to hear people talk about praying for a good parking space, and getting one, when most of your prayers are desperate pleas for God to take away your cancer, to give you a few more years to see your children grow up a little more, to ease the pain of your husband and children and parents if you do die. People who have cancer die of cancer. It may not be tomorrow or next year, but people with cancer do not live to see a ripe old age.I want to believe that God wants to pour out His favor on me, but it is so hard to find the favor when everyday is a struggle to be joyful and hopeful. Sometimes I feel like I am clinging to the edge of hope by my fingers and when I just can’t hang on anymore, I’ll fall into utter despair. I hold on with everything I have for Brad and Eli and Phoebe. Daily I pray for God to give me His hope, but so often I feel like I have to make myself feel it. Then we go to Sunday School where we hear to “be positive”, to “make today the day for your ‘someday’ statements”, “you have to be specific about all your goals so you can make them”, and my favorite, “Look for God’s favor upon you this week.” I got a pretty bad sunburn on Monday at the pool because the Gleevec makes my skin very photosensitive. Monday night, the Gleevec made my back, hips, and legs ache so badly that I had to take prescription pain killer to get to sleep. Yesterday we learned that Phoebe has a hole in her heart that will require surgery when she’s two. I cannot claim to know the heart or plans of God, but it was pretty hard to hear. I am just not seeing the “favor.” Now most of this sounds very ungrateful. God has blessed us through all this mess. We have been showered with love and prayers. I have an uncle who writes me almost every week, just to say that he and my aunt are praying for me everyday. My side effects to Gleevec are pretty mild…I can mostly function (I say mostly because I have been expereincing some pretty heavy fatigue this last week). Our medical bills are not overwhelming us because Brad has a great new job. There are a hundred blessings, but it’s hard to see them through the hurt. I don’t feel like we are alone. I don’t know anyone who isn’t hurting in one way or another. I wonder if all of this “Best Life Now” stuff sounds shrill and hollow to them as well? More than likely, my attitude about the whole thing reveals more about me than about Joel Osteen and his book. But, this is my blog and I can write what I want. 
We need to be cautious whether we are criquing his work or jeouleous over his successs. Even if we disagree with his methods have to understand that he is doing some good work in God’s name.
This is sounding more and more like a coC blog
mike i am awed at what this sweet heart wrote..mourn with those who mourn…its so important..i can’t help but think that she could write a book that could help this guy get through the suffering he feels at times when his head hits the pillow…
All the comments about Joel Osteen as to what he teaches needs to be said. When someone is twisting scripture and teaching false doctrine then the deceptive doctrine needs to be exposed. Doing so is not unloving and legalistic. It actually is expressing love in that a person is not deceived and spiritually damaged in the long run.
I love that blog!
“Jealous over his success?” Preacherman, qb loves ya, but that dog don’t hunt.
*chuckle*
The expo Texas Monthly did on Osteen a year or two ago made it clear that whatever he’s got, qb don’t want it. Looks like one of those levels Dante had in mind, only pre-mortem.
lol,
qb
Focusing on the teaching rather than minimizing the person, of course, is always fair game.
But we also have in Jesus an example of calling into question everything that a person might be thought to teach given his demonstrated predispositions. For example, “beware the leaven of the Pharisees,” Matthew 23 and other pertinent examples. If the tree is not good, then the fruit is, in general, poor.
It’s fair to say that ripping Osteen to shreds with ad hominems is out of bounds, but that does not mean that focusing on the person is wholly off limits. Where he begins just seems fundamentally deficient, as Jordan’s posts suggest.
qb
I live in Houston and have quite a few friends who attend Lakewood. My mom even attended for a while up until her death from liver cancer. I won’t even go into how “positive thinking” and believing in “God’s favor” really did not make a difference to either of us when she was suffering. She told me that he told his congregation that he considers his spiritual gift to be an “encourager,” not a “theologian” and this has stuck in my mind. I think about it often. What does that mean?
I’ve read Osteen’s books, watched him on TV and listened to his sermons on CD and while I have tried very hard to be thankful that so many people attend church there and hear his sermons I can’t overcome the belief that basically he is a leader of a self-help group with 30,000+ members that happens to meet on Sunday morning. I have friends who tell me that by listening to his message they have become believers. So, what can I say? Through prayerful consideration I have relied on these two scriptures:
But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Philippians 1:18
and
For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to hear what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. 2 Tim. 4:3-5
My conclusions may be right or wrong. I don’t know. I just pray that those who hear Osteen’s message don’t stop with just his word, but continue to seek the truth in God’s word. As for Jordan, for what it is worth, you are in my heart and prayers.