"Rick" - i see the world upside down-

I have this friend named Rick. Maybe not so much as a friend as much as I might consider him a mentor. But he would call me friend, and so I'm honored to call him my friend. I met Rick about three years ago. I was a month from getting married; I'd moved to St. Paul, Minnesota to start a new job and a new graduate school, and a new life with a girl.

This job was a pretty sweet gig. Really what I wanted was to finish up a masters degree I had started three year earlier at Washington State. But I'd dropped out because I really hated the classroom, always knowing though, that I'd like to finish up some day. So finally, the right time had come because I needed to be responsible in order to provide for my new wife, and I was thinking that a masters degree could really be a step in the right direction. Plus I was kindof interested in what I'd be studying.

Now graduate school is very expensive. Unless you are planning on ordering a degree online from some fake institution, in which case it isn't really that costly, although really it is because you are paying someone simply for the honor of them giving you a piece of paper. Which really stinks... actually what most stinks is that even though I kinda worked for my degree, there were tons of times I felt I was just giving my money to a school to produce a piece of paper that said I'd accomplished a degree. It was just a lot more expensive piece of paper than you might get from a fake online institution.

Anyways, I was attending the University of St. Thomas, a small Catholic school in St. Paul. (I know, tons of St.s' but that's how they do things out in the midwest.) I couldn't afford the degree in a million years, but this is where the really cool job gig comes in. Schools will hire people, graduate degree seeking people, to live in their residence halls (dorms to the lay person) and in return pay for their housing their food, and sometimes all of any degree they are pursuing. In my case they weren't paying for all of it, but a big enough chunk that really made the whole thing worth it. So for a couple thousand dollars, and two years of selling my soul to living with alcohol loving college students and waking up at 2:30 in the morning for fire alarms (we had 23 my first year) I got, in return, a real, semi-worked for masters degree. What an awesome deal.

And this is where Rick comes into play. I had an apartment building that I was in charge of. Eight floors, all upperclass students, a lot of parties and noise and fun and students and, as I already aluded to, fire alarms. (That's just what happens when college students start cooking for themselves for the first time in their lives...)

Rick was a janitor in Morrison Hall. A janitor. Now, I'll admit; I was pursuing a masters degree. A degree that would give me status and reputation and authority and knowledge, and by the way, hopefully more money! Janitors weren't necessarily the people I most wanted or needed to rub shoulders with at that time. Or so common human, worldly logic might tell you. But Rick was different.

For starters, Rick was tall and slender, slightly balding and he had this killer beard. He was old too, at least 65. I mean, I know for sure he was old enough to be retired, I found out later he just hated sitting around and he wanted to keep working. His hair was kind of turning grey, but still had some of this reddish tint to it, so I always thougth he was probably Mennonite. Or Quaker. I guess he is just what I always thought a Mennonite or a Quaker would look like. Kind of like an Amish person, but maybe dressed in colors-a little more 'hip' if you will.

Rick had the personality I would expect of a Mennonite too. He was real quiet; he almost mumbled when we would talk, and I had to really concentrate on listening to understand everything he said. Within our very first conversation, something drew me to Rick. I wanted to talk to him more, I wanted to listen, very carefully, more, and I really wanted to know if he'd clean my bathroom until I got married.

Seriously, after the first conversation I had with him, this is what I thought to myself: "self, this guy seems very sincere, and has this air of love and simplicity and of contemplation. I must get to know this Mennonite-type man better." And so I did. And with every conversation I became more and more aware of his deep, intimate love for Jesus Christ, his concern for every student that had ever lived on any of the floors that he cleaned, and his simple spirit that really just sought to be the best, most God-honoring janitor the University of St. Thomas had ever seen. And I believe he is.

Well, you can imagine that my attitude towards janitors changed rather quickly. In fact, most days I found myself envying Rick and the other janitors in my hall, Thomas and Marcos; mainly because of the simplicity of their jobs, and the fact they didn't have to kiss that many people's butts throughout each day. Their jobs were probably quite political in some sense, but not in the sense I dealt with; spending hours on phone calls and emails in an attempt to appease an angry parent or child because they got busted for smoking pot and really, with their money, there was no logical reason in their eyes that they should ever get in trouble for anything... In any case, I envied those guys. Most of all Rick because he had a really good attitude. All the time.

It wasn't until late into my first year at St. Thomas that I learned something about Rick that reminded me of the Truth (that is Jesus) more than anything else in my life. We were talking one day and Rick, without any pretensiousness or pride, mentioned he was writing/editing a text book for a friend. Yeah, and on some crazy topic like physics or chemistry or medical stuff. I really can't remember, but I do remember being awed that this 65 year old, very quiet janitor was writing a text book on a really smart subject. Even if you are just editing, you have to know something about the topic I would assume, so I started figuring that Rick was a pretty smart fellow. A couple days later I found out the rest of what makes Rick being a janitor so intriguing. This guy has a Doctorate in something like English or Chemistry or both! Its amazing. Here I am trying to sound important in my pursuit of a masters degree, and a janitor in my building is a Doctor! I was blown away. And this is what Rick said: "Greg, I just realized I wanted out of the rat-race. Its like I was running on this treadmill and I just got sick of it and I wanted to get off. So I quit and became a janitor." And if that isn't some kind of simplicity, some kind of carelessness for what the world thinks and hold in esteem, than I don't know what is.

Rick's heart to know Christ blew far and away his desire for reputation and knowledge and money. The Bible says that "knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." So true. All of Rick's knowledge never touched my heart at all; but his love, man, I walked away from every conversation with that man encouraged and inspired and desperately wanting to know Christ more deeply.

Derek Webb has a song entitled, "what is not love." And the first few lines go like this:

What seems like failure is success/and what looks like poverty is riches
when what is true looks more like a knife/it looks like you're killing me but you're saving my life

And is it not true? The things we revere and hold up in this world are just not what is important in the Kingdom of God. In fact, Jesus, when He was living on this earth gave a sermon in which He spoke about the difference between what the world honors and what God honors:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.
Matthew 5:3-10 (NIV)

If that's not seeing the world upside down, than what is? Poor in spirit? We, or I should say I, tend to honor those rich in spirit; the rich and the educated are voted into office, those who graduate from seminary are esteemed as true pastors, the charismatic are given positions of leadership. Seriously, if someone is poor in spirit we really don't give them a second look. I think that Bill, the homeless guy I met outside of Safeway the other day, sitting in the cold, begging, I see him as poor in spirit. Or maybe Corina and Steve, owners of a car repair center down the block from my house, who once were in full-time missions and then church planting, then gave it all up to be close to family and opened their own humble car repair shop. They seem to me to be poor in spirit. Rick the janitor is poor in spirit. But what abundance of love has been given to him because Jesus loves him. I think these people have and will continue to receive the kingdom of Heaven.

And blessed are those who mourn? Are you kidding me? We try everything possible to protect ourselves from having to mourn. We put on wrinkle cream and get botox injections to remain looking young, we look for revenge as soon as we've been wronged, we remain closed off and disconnected from others so we don't have to mourn losing their friendship one day down the road. Jesus in this sermon has it all wrong, He's seeing things backwards. How can this really be what He believes?

If you think that these few verses are just a snipet of Jesus' life taken out of context, spend some time reading through the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the Bible. It doesn't matter what version you read, the Message, NIV, New King James... they all will communicate the same ideas, and all of Jesus' life affirms and supports these ideas. Jesus saw our world through a different lens-one completely opposite of everything we know.

One book I believe you must read is Donald Miller's "Searching for God Knows What." In the book, Miller draws out this idea of seeing the world upside down, how Jesus had everything backwards from us. He wasn't competitive, He didn't seek out reputation or monetary gain or even positional power. He avoided the lime light to a large extent, even telling people He had healed not to tell anyone about who He was (the Son of Man, the Messaiah, the Savior). Jesus didn't follow the same rules that we live out by nature. We seek to save our selves, He sought to give Himself up as a sacrifice for us. Jesus loves us.

It is so hard in this world, probably especially here in America, to see the world the way Jesus did. We're surrounded by comfort; extreme comfort. We have television and technology and really cool and expensive toys to entertain us. We are bombarded with a message that tells us that our reputation and our looks and how much money we have, that those are the things that define us and that really matter. We find pride in positions of leadership and power, we hold tightly to our degrees and training. And so when this Jesus guy tells us that it is blessed to be merciful or to be poor in spirit or to be persecuted, well, that just goes against everything that we've been raised up to live for. His voice drives us nuts, probably because we sense some kind of long lost truth in His words that we used to know, and so we are faced with a dillema. Either ignore Him but continue hearing, or respond. Often I'll admit, I want to choose the option that we chose when Jesus walked on the earth-to kill Him. Silence His voice. But that's the thing. Jesus broke the hold that death had on Him. He was raised back to life. He lives even now. And so we still hear His voice.

Our other option is to respond-to begin attempting to see the world the way Jesus sees it; upside down. Or right side up. Either way, we desperately need His perspective. Its hard and it goes against our nature, but it is the way of love. It is the right way.

Just look at my friend Rick. That man left everything the world had offered him to "make himself a somebody." And he just walked away. He could have stayed, and I believe he could have stayed and loved Jesus just as well. He probably faces just as much temptation to live for his self as he would have in his other life, but he chose to walk away from what the world holds dear. I suppose the issue isn't really whether one walks away or not; if you truly see the world upside down, you have the freedom in your heart to walk away. You have the freedom to let go of always getting your way. You have the freedom to walk in the path of love.

How do we learn to see the world upside down? Well, that is a topic for another day. But it is so vitally improtant because it is a challenge. I succumb to the world over and over, and am rarely reminded of the truth. I believe it starts however, with getting to know those who have everything backwards from us, those who do see the world upside down. I started with a janitor named Rick. Look around and be observant, because there is someone around you, nearby, who perfectly fits the bill. Every once in a while I run across the path of another backwards thinker-Corina and Steve, Bill the homeless guy, Donald Miller... Jesus. Get to know Jesus and you can't go wrong.

Remember, blessed are the poor in spirit-theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are the least of these, because of such as these is the Kingdom built. Now go, and see the world backwards.

what looks like failure is success/and what looks like poverty is riches/when what is true looks more like a knife/it looks like you're killing me but you're saving my life

chorus: but i give myself to what looks like love/and i sell myself for what feels like love/and i pay to get what is not love/and all just because i see things upside down

what looks like weakness can do anything/and what looks like foolishness is understanding/when what is powerful has not come to fight/it looks like you're going to war/but you lay down your life/chorus/

what looks like torture is a time to rejoice/what sounds like thunder is a comforting voice/when what is beautiful looks broken and crushed/and i say i don't know you but you say its finished/when what is beautiful looks broken and crushed/and i say i don't know you but you say its finished

(Derek Webb "what is not love" from the album: i see things upside down)