{"id":134,"date":"2013-05-15T00:44:57","date_gmt":"2013-05-15T00:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/theroadyoureon\/?p=134"},"modified":"2013-05-16T18:28:11","modified_gmt":"2013-05-16T18:28:11","slug":"need-some-fresh-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/theroadyoureon\/2013\/05\/need-some-fresh-air.html","title":{"rendered":"Need some fresh air?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Jesus said, ‘If you love me, you will do what I command.’ \u00a0Some people live on the ‘Do what I command’ \u00a0side of that comma, but we need to get back to the ‘If you love me’ side of that comma. \u00a0When you are in love, the relationship becomes this fresh air internal motivation.”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Gayle Trotter<\/b>:\u00a0 I\u2019m speaking with Pastor Chris Hodges, author of Fresh Air: Trading Stale Spiritual Obligation for a Life-Altering, Energizing, Experience-it-Everyday Relationship with God<\/i><\/a>.\u00a0<\/i>What do you mean by fresh air and how can we experience it?<\/p>\n

Chris Hodges<\/b>:\u00a0 Everyone has already experienced this kind of culture. Fresh air is a culture where things thrive. All of us have been in either life-giving cultures or we\u2019ve been in life-taking cultures. We\u2019ve all been in homes where it just was empowering and life-giving and free and so you wanted to be around. Others were raised in homes where you simply couldn\u2019t wait to get out of it. We\u2019ve been in churches in the same way. They\u2019re using the same songs, same Bible, but one of them is life-giving and one of them, you\u2019re just looking forward to it being over.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s these life-giving fresh air kinds of cultures that make everything in our lives thrive. I base my book around a very obscure little verse out of 2 Timothy where the Apostle Paul referred to this guy named Onesiphorus who visited Paul while he was in prison. Paul said \u201chis visits revived me like a breath of fresh air.\u201d Paul was saying that when this guy came around, he was encouraged and free again. It was all life-giving again.<\/p>\n

So many live in the \u201cdoldrum state,\u201d a state where there is no wind in your sails. I wrote about applying it to all these areas of our lives so that we can have the wind back in our sails.<\/p>\n

GT<\/b>:\u00a0 You talk in your book about how the year 1999 was the worst year of your life. How so?<\/p>\n

CH<\/b>:\u00a0 I\u2019m not a depressed guy. I\u2019m outgoing. But something was missing, and I didn\u2019t know if it was medical. I didn\u2019t know if it was spiritual. I didn\u2019t know what was going on. The best way to describe it is that I was just going through the motions. I was serving as an associate pastor, and I just was going through the motions. It was like where you\u2019re on a journey but the only way you\u2019re getting there is just to paddle really hard. You\u2019re working really hard and nothing is energizing it.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s this place called the Doldrums that\u2019s right around the equator. Because of the Northern Hemisphere, the trade winds spin one way and in the Southern Hemisphere, the trade winds spin the other way. There\u2019s a zone right around the equator that they call the Doldrums where there is no wind. Back before there were motorized boats, when it was purely sailing by wind, if you ended up in the Doldrums, you didn\u2019t get out. You died in the Doldrums.<\/p>\n

I start the whole book with identifying with what I believe are thousands of people who are simply going through the motions with no wind in your sails and you\u2019re in the doldrums. You\u2019re putting on a smile but inside, you\u2019re dying. I use my own experience of that so people can have the freedom to get out of it with me.<\/p>\n

GT<\/b>:\u00a0 You write, \u201cThe world around us tells us that we must look good to get ahead, which often leads us to spend money we don\u2019t have and invest time in pursuits that bring us only temporary comfort or prestige.\u201d Can you explain?<\/p>\n

CH<\/b>:\u00a0 When you end up in the doldrums, you still need to go forward so you manufacture energy. You\u2019re padding really hard. As it relates to culture, people will put on the smile or they\u2019ll put on some image with money and spend money that they don\u2019t have to impress people they don\u2019t even like. They\u2019re trying to create something but they\u2019re creating it the wrong way.<\/p>\n

In the second story of the Bible, God put two trees in the garden \u2013 one, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the other, the Tree of Life. He said, if you\u2019re going to pursue life, if you\u2019re going to pursue me, if you\u2019re going to pursue religion based on just your knowledge, your external knowledge of things, it\u2019ll kill you. What you need is life. What you need is something energizing all of that. And in fact, when I teach this in conferences, I often start with this message and just simply say that there\u2019s a choice. Most of us have a tendency of making the wrong choice of just manufacturing that energy.<\/p>\n

GT<\/b>: You write about generosity. Why is generosity important in getting this feeling of fresh air?<\/p>\n

CH<\/b>: There actually are seven or eight qualities or attributes that I talk about that can get you back into a fresh air kind of a lifestyle. I have bent toward the money thing. My dad was an auditor for the State of Louisiana and I was raised up in this very strong financial culture and I see money as being one of those things where boy, it can be life-giving, one of the best parts of your life. If you get it wrong, it can be life taking. It could be one of the worst parts of your life.<\/p>\n

One of the greatest antidotes to selfishness is generosity. I write about bringing some fresh air to our finances.<\/p>\n

GT<\/b>:\u00a0 You write that, \u201cReligion is man\u2019s external effort to please God but God doesn\u2019t care about all my efforts to get it right. He wants more, something far greater.\u201d What do you think God wants from us?<\/p>\n

CH<\/b>:\u00a0 In one word, God wants relationship, not religion. Jesus himself said it in Matthew 7. He said there\u2019s going to be a lot of people who will show up in Heaven on Judgement Day who would\u2019ve done the religious motions \u2013 calling him Lord, the miracles in His name \u2013 he lists all these religious things. Then he says I\u2019m going to tell them plainly \u201cAway from me because I never knew you.\u201d The word \u201cknow\u201d there is the same word that the Bible uses where it says, \u201cA man knew his wife and they had a baby.\u201d It\u2019s an intimate term.<\/p>\n

In John chapter 14, Jesus said, \u201cIf you love me, you will do what I command.\u201d For years, I read that out of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil out of this non-fresh air mentality and here\u2019s how I read it. I heard, \u201cIf you love me, you\u2019ll prove to me you love me by doing what I told you to do. If you love me, you will do what I command.\u201d But that\u2019s not what it says. It says, \u201cIf you loved me, you will do what I command. All you need to do is fall in love with me and my commands are going to be the byproduct of that love relationship.\u201d And I think there\u2019s a comma there between those two phrases. Some people live on the \u201cDo what I command\u201d side of that comma but we need to get back to the \u201cIf you love me\u201d side of that comma. When you\u2019re in love, the relationship becomes this fresh air internal motivation. Here\u2019s the simply way to say it. It goes from the \u201chave to do it\u201d to \u201cyou want to do it.\u201d From the \u201cgot to\u201d to the \u201cget to.\u201d<\/p>\n

GT<\/b>:\u00a0 How do we know God without religion, though?<\/p>\n

CH<\/b>:\u00a0 You don\u2019t know God with religion. Religion is simply things man created to try to approach God. We think that God is impressed with our church attendance or our liturgies but that\u2019s not what he\u2019s looking for. He never came to Earth for those. He came to be in relationship. That was his whole purpose. The liturgies and all of the baptisms and communions and church attendance and giving and serving, they are all important but they are all important as a result of the relationship, not the things that create the relationship.<\/p>\n

Let me give you an example. For instance, putting on a wedding band does not mean that I have a good relationship with my wife. Because I have a familiar with my wife, I put on a wedding band to let the world know. Too many times, we\u2019ve thought that those motions actually get us to God and no, you have to get to God so that you can do all of those things.<\/p>\n

GT<\/b>:\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting you raised that example because now, a lot of young people are choosing not to get married and just focus on the relationship. What would you counsel those who are saying it\u2019s just a piece of paper, it\u2019s just a ring, it\u2019s really all about the relationship?<\/p>\n

CH<\/b>:\u00a0 All of the actions are important. Again, I\u2019m not dismissing them. I\u2019m just talking about the order that relationship needs to proceed the commands of God in the Bible. All of the commands, including marriage vows and getting married, all those are very important but it\u2019s built on the foundation of relationship. If you do those things without the relationship, it\u2019s almost certain that the relationship will fail. That\u2019s why a lot of religious people aren\u2019t finding a lot of success in their walk with God is because they\u2019ve done the motions without the relationship.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying eliminate the commands of God, I\u2019m just saying we need to put them in the right order. When you\u2019re in love, it just changes everything. The motivation changes where it\u2019s something that becomes the delight of your life. I\u2019m just so concerned for people who are trying to fulfill the bible without being in love with God. I\u2019m telling you, Gayle, it\u2019s almost impossible. But when you\u2019re in love, 1 John chapter 5 says, \u201cNow his commands are no longer burdensome because he who has the Son has life.\u201d When you\u2019re in that relationship, it fuels everything where it becomes the delight, not a duty.<\/p>\n

GT<\/b>:\u00a0 You write also about our relationships with other people and specifically, you write, \u201cNothing has the potential to drain our breath and leave us feeling alone and exhausted more than other people.\u201d You have some suggestions on how to turn those relationships into something that breathes fresh air into our lives rather than drains us.<\/p>\n

CH<\/b>:\u00a0 That\u2019s the cool part of the book is that once we unpack this principle of living a fresh air life, there are eight application chapters of let\u2019s get this working in our family. Let\u2019s get this working with our kids. Let\u2019s get this working with our marriage. Let\u2019s see if we can bring some fresh air to our Bible reading, to our worship, to prayer. Most people don\u2019t enjoy prayer. When you approach it from a fresh air standpoint, it\u2019s enjoyable again. Giving money, all these areas are added to your purpose in life.<\/p>\n

There are all these applications and probably, without a doubt, one of the areas that can suck the life out of you or it can add life to you, are your relationships. There\u2019s a chapter in there describing Cheers<\/i>, that saloon where all those people gathered to be revived and refreshed by those close relationships. The theme song is, \u201cWhere everybody knows your name.\u201d I maintain that you can be in a big church meeting or in a lot of environments with a lot of people and still be very lonely. I write about how God put in motion a plan for every person to be ultimately fulfilled and receive all that he has through powerful relationships. But they have to be shaped in a life-giving way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Jesus said, ‘If you love me, you will do what I command.’ \u00a0Some people live on the ‘Do what I command’ \u00a0side of that comma, but we need to get back to the ‘If you love me’ side of that comma. \u00a0When you are in love, the relationship becomes this fresh air internal motivation.” Gayle…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":448,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[89,90,91,92],"class_list":["post-134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chris-hodges","tag-christian-life","tag-money","tag-relationships"],"yoast_head":"\nNeed some fresh air? - The Road You're On<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/theroadyoureon\/2013\/05\/need-some-fresh-air.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Need some fresh air? 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