jeff's blog

Do you schedule time for God?

Is your schedule so busy that he gets his
fifteen minute slot
among the rest of your appointments?

Does he get the best part of your day –
the first-fruits of your time?

or does he receive the afterthought prayer at night?

Does God get the best part of your day?

the leftover part of your day?

or does he get all of your day?

God have mercy on me.
God have mercy on me.

I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that we compartmentalize our lives in many ways. It’s become acceptable, especially in our American culture, to separate and schedule. I have friends who literally schedule every minute of their day.

I wonder sometime how frustrated God gets with that mindset. Christianity is, after all, a lifestyle. It’s not something that you can simply turn on and off. It’s something that is with you every minute of the day, every day of the week.

We’re very good about “giving God” a certain amount of time every week, or if we’re good every day.

The problem, I think, is that God demands everything. It’s not “our time” to begin with. It’s his.

We’re saying “Let’s learn from all of our denominational heritage. Let’s even learn from the weaknesses of church history.”
Now there’s a tendency among some of us from Protestant backgrounds – we’ve been part of a history that goes like this: “Ok – we’re all Catholic over here.” And then some of us say, “There are problems in Catholicism. There are real problems here. So we’re going to protest Catholicism, and pull over here. Now – we’re pure and we’ve got it right, unlike them over there.”

But what happens after about six months when all of us “pure” people are together? Some of us say, “Well you’re not as pure as I am.” So then we protest and create another little group over here. And pretty soon everybody is protesting everybody else.

And one of the downsides of that protest is that when you think that your little group is pure and clean, the chances are very high of you also becoming proud and arrogant, which is not a good recipe for spiritual health.

So what we’re saying is, “No – let’s go back and let’s own and embrace the whole tree. We’re part of the whole thing.” And that means that we embrace the mistakes. And instead of saying, “These are their mistakes, these are Catholic mistakes. These are liberal mistakes. These are conservative mistakes,” we say, “No – these are our mistakes.” In our Christian history, brothers and sisters, we have anti-semitism, racism, slavery, witch burning, civil religion, financial scandals, sexual scandals, suppression of science, anti-intellectualism, anti-art, and a lot of other bad stuff, and it’s in our history, and I think we are less likely to repeat it if we own it. So what we’re saying is, “Let’s own the weaknesses, and let’s own the strengths.” St. Francis and John Calvin, Mother Teresa and Billy Graham, Bono, Bach and the negro spirituals, Pentecostalism and Greek Orthodoxy, Cathedrals and Christian summer camps, it’s all part of this wonderful heritage of the Christian community, and we’re saying we need to own it all.

…

The point is that instead of narrowing things down to just the little group, let’s just say, “Look – we’re all a mess, and we all have some good things going, so let’s try to embrace each other and work together.”

So if you want to be a Presbyterian and argue against the Mennonites and say that they’re not really Christians, that’s fine, but you’re probably not a part of the Emerging Conversation. If you want to be a Presbyterian who appreciates and learns form Mennonites, then you’re a part of the Emerging Church, and vice-versa. If you want to be a Pentecostal who thinks that all Catholics are total losers, then you’re not a part of the emerging conversation. But if you’re a Pentecostal who wants to learn anything you can from Catholics, then you fit in. If you’re liberal and you think that you have nothing to learn from conservative Christians, then, you know, you are what you are. But if you’re saying no, I’m a liberal Christian, but I think there are things that I can learn from my conservative brothers, and vice-versa – again, my life is so blessed because I get to travel around and speak to all these different groups, and I’ll tell you something: Although some sectors of Christians have excluded and rejected and given up on other sectors, in my experience, God doesn’t seem to have done so. God still seems to like them. And even if they pushed God out the door, he snuck back in the window, and he’s done that with all of us. And the fact that God puts up with any of us – including those of us who are here – is an incredible miracle.

Now I’m not saying that the truth doesn’t matter, but I’m saying that truth is not one-dimensional. It’s not flat, it’s thick. It’s not just a black and white picture, it’s full color. It’s not bland, it’s spicy.

…

Can I say it like this: reason and logic are ours, and art and imagery are ours. Reasoned logical sermons are ours, and rituals are ours. The treasures of Roman Catholicism – whose are they? Ours. The treasures of Eastern Orthodoxy – whose are they? Ours. Presbyterian treasures. Baptist treasures. Mennonite treasures. What we’re saying is look – they’re ours, and their mistakes are ours. And their embarrassments are ours, and their scandals are ours. Because we’re all in this thing together.

-Brian Mclaren

While the term “Emerging Church” is increasingly being employed to describe what would appear to be a well defined and doctrinally unified movement, the phrase actually belies a fragile embryonic and theologically diverse conversation. So what, if anything, unifies this conversation, and is it possible to predict whether it will have any impact on the wider religious community? This conversation houses a contemporary, yet deeply ancient approach to faith that has the potential of revolutionizing the theological and moral architecture of the Christian community. The problem with attempting to describe what the emerging community actually is relates to its kinetic nature, a nature that consequently defies reduction to a single set of exhaustive theological doctrines. This diversity prevents us from describing the conversation as a new church or denomination. This disparate network of communities is not some object that can be dissected by scavenging academics who would wish to pin it down and label it like a lepidopterist does with dead insects. Those involved within the emergent conversation are not explicitly attempting to construct or unearth a different set of beliefs, but rather are looking at the way in which we believe the beliefs we profess.

Let us imagine being in a museum and contemplating an artwork. The piece of art offers us a type of revelation, for it stands before us and communicates a message to us. However, this does not mean that its message is simple, singular, or able to be mastered. For, at the same time it communicates, its message remains concealed, elusive, and fluid. In a similar way, the revelation of God could be fruitfully compared to the way that a parable speaks to those with ears to hear. The parable is given to us, but at the same time its meaning is withheld. It is not reducible to some clear, singular, scientific formula. Hence, revelation neither makes God known, nor leaves God unknown, but rather renders God known as unknown.

- Pete Rollins

yeah… i drove through there while the fires were burning outside of town yesterday…

“The hardest-hit community during Tuesday’s blazes was Cross Plains, a West Texas ranching and oil-and-gas town of 1,000 people some 150 miles from Dallas. Cross Plains also lost about 50 homes and a church after the flames raced through grass dried out by the region’s worst drought in 50 years.”

article here

another taoism, this time from ron hogan’s interpolation:

those who know, don’t talk.
those who talk, don’t know.

shut your mouth.
be still. relax.
let go of your worries.
stay out of the spotlight.
be at one with the world
and get right with tao.

if you get right with tao,
you won’t be worried
about praise or scorn,
about winning or losing,
about honor or disgrace.
that’s the way to be.

it’s interesting how many documents of “ancient wisdom” run completely counter to what our modern society promotes. as kreeft notes, it’s interesting that we contrast “ancient wisdom” with “modern knowledge” – as if to say that we suspect that even though we know more than the ancients, we may not be as wise.

at any rate, i think lao tzu was on to something here – to not be worried about praise or scorn, winning or losing, honor or disgrace – that is a really good way to be.

“A lot of what I say is rooted in pride, meaning I don’t want to let him *win* the Christianity argument.” And isn’t it so interesting that Christianity is presented as an argument? A friend of mine paid for some research recently where they asked 16-29 year olds what they thought about Christianity. And of the top 12 perceptions from 16-29 year olds, 9 were negative, one was neutral, and 2 were positive. Number one on the negative – 91% of 16-29 year olds shared this perception: Christianity is Anti-Homosexual. Number two: Christianity is judgmental. Now whatever you think about homosexuality, you will probably agree that this is not what Jesus wants people to think of first when they think about his followers.

But to what degree have we turned Christianity into an argument.

If I think back to the book that helped me the most in learning how to share my faith when I was a new Christian, it was called Evidence that Demands a Verdict. Great book. Helped me a lot. But have you ever thought about what that suggests. “Hi. Let me drag you into court and convince you that you’re wrong and guilty.” Have you ever thought about that? The language of the court. Christianity is an argument. We use words like “targeting” people. “He gave me some good ammunition.” Woah. We’re really moving in a good direction. From the courtyard to the battlefield. “Culture wars.”

Do we know how to talk about the Gospel in some category other than argument? You say, “Well what would that be?” Just a thought, I mean, I’m not saying this is how we’ve got to be, but Jesus called his message “news.” We might just think about that as a category. News – it’s stories about what’s happening… what you need to know.

News comes in all these different sections. If the news were to be here today, which section would you put it in – the Good News of Jesus. Would you put it in the religious news page? Would you put it in the world news page? Does the Gospel of Jesus have anything to say about business or local life? And I think that when Jesus talked about the Good News it wasn’t an argument, it was news that affected every area of life. Think about the message of Jesus: “The kingdom of God is at hand. Change your way of thinking. Follow me.”

…

She goes on. “When we started dating, we set up two ground rules. Number one, he doesn’t try to convert me, and number two I don’t demand that he gets involved with the Gay rights movement that I am very much involved with.” Oh boy. There it is. The big issue.

And let me just say – whatever you think about homosexuality, you’d better realize this: when a person like April talks about homosexuality, obviously she has a boyfriend – it’s not her own self-interest here. When she thinks about it she’s thinking about it on this level of human rights. How do we treat people? So often when Christians talk about it, they’re talking about it on this level of genital sexuality.

And so here we’re talking about two different things under the same word of homosexuality, and we’d better realize that if we want to talk to somebody like her, we’d better start talking about the same thing – make it clear what thing we’re talking about. Do we care about human rights? How do we want people to be treated? Do we want homosexual people to be shamed? Do we want them to be beat up? Do we want them to be mocked? Do we feel like, “Don’t let them have a job?” You know – how do we want homosexual people to be treated? Forget about whether they’re behavior is right or wrong – that’s the issue that she’s dealing with. And it’s interesting – she says “Look, my boyfriend feels like he has a morally superior position to mine because he’s a Christian and I’m not. He’s agreed to be tolerant of me, and I’ve agreed to be tolerant of him, even though I feel that he has a morally inferior position.”

as dawn breaks
may you rejoice –
the King has come!

may He bring you peace to your soul,
light to your darkness,
hope to your dispair.

may you find joy in His promises,
may you find rest in His arms.

and on this day,
may you not seek the all-powerful King,
but the humble child,
lying in a manger,
in this moment
peaceful
and still.

from Jennifer, over at the AFC blog…

Much more so than Valentine’s Day, Christmas is truly a holiday of love. We celebrate, with the people we love, God’s ultimate act of love for us. The gift was small- a tiny, beautiful baby, born to parents of seemingly insignificant birth and social status, in a barn. Not a lot of show, but definitely a lot of love.

full article here

or (for now) here

The standard “I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas” post.

More to come later when I’m not about to fall asleep :)

Jesus,
come bring us hope.
bring light into darkness.
turn our mourning into your joy.
appear.

I drove home on what turned out to be the shortest day of the year. As I woke up this morning at 7 to drive to a Christmas celebration, I was amazed at how dark it was. Surely it can’t be 7:00! A quick check of my cell phone and my computer showed that it was, in fact, time for me to get up.

There are places in the world where this phenomena is carried to extremes. Places in Alaska are sometimes called the “Land of the Midnight Sun” because six months of the year they are bathed in constant sunlight (though not warm, from what I hear), and six months if the year they are in complete darkness. Apocryphally, people say suicide rates are higher during the prolonged darkness than they are at other times of the year.

Sometimes we hardly notice the changing of daylight, except in huge increments, but every now and then we notice – if only for a moment – that the night is just a bit darker than it used to be.

It’s interesting that in this season of darkness, we are greeted with the arrival of the light of the world. John, speaking of Jesus, writes that, “The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. … The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was going to come into the world.”

We now wait with anticipation the Birth of Christ into this dark night. The Savior of the world is coming into the world, bringing hope and light where we have only darkness.

at the AFC blog…

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine

and puts them into practice

is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

The rain came down,
the streams rose,
and the winds blew and beat against that house;

yet it did not fall,

because it had its foundation on the rock.”

Isn’t it easy to hear the words
and put them into practice

when the storms seem a long way away?

When the beach is sunny and warm
we pitch our umbrellas upon the shores of life.

Our umbrellas become shacks
our shacks houses
our houses mansions
our mansions estates

and before we know it

we’ve built our entire lives on a foundation

of sand.

But the storms are brewing.

The rain is coming.
The streams will rise
and the winds will blow.

And at that time it will not matter
how lavish a mansion we have created
how many treasures we have stored.

All that will matter

will be that left standing.

And all that will be standing

will have its foundation on the rock.

Another warning of misplaced hope. Through our lives, we build many things. We’re often proud of our accomplishments. Whether it be our belief systems, our wealth, our relationships, our social networks, our intelligence, or any other of the thousand things we build in our lives, we each have large luxurious mansions with treasures stored up. The question for us is whether we have built on the foundation of Christ.

The beach is a wonderfully attractive place. We’re lured often by the view and the serene beauty.

The only promise we have in life is that storms are coming. No matter who you are, whether you believe in God or not, your life will be pounded by storms. The issue for each of us is that by the time they hit, it will be too late to make changes to our foundation. The time to seek God is not when the storms arrive, but long before they are on the horizon.

so we have a local war memorial that has some cool picture opportunities. took the 12-24 out tonight. i may return tomorrow or sunday and attempt some panoramic shots. we’ll see.

here’s a few results from tonight:

Joy is a funny thing.

People sometimes think that it’s being happy,
but I know people who are joyous even in a melancholy mood.

People sometimes think it comes from outside of us, that the things that happen to us determine whether or not we have that joy,
but I have seen the greatest joy in people who have no earthly reason to be joyous.

People sometimes think it comes from within us, that somehow we can act our way into having joy, or if we can focus hard enough, we’ll find it,
but I know people who are great actors and can focus very well, but have no joy.

People sometimes think it’s hard to find, that we must search in many obscure places to glean even a small bit of it,
but I know people who seem to find it everywhere they go.

If joy is not from outside of us,
If it is not from within us,
then where does it come from?

I look at people who have the most joy and I am struck with one universal truth:
their joy comes from God.

And when their joy comes from God
It’s not just being happy,
and it’s not hard to find,

for God is everywhere
and in Him is all joy.

Joy is constant. Often, I think, we confuse joy for happiness. Especially in a culture that tells us in so many ways to not be content with what we have, we are prone to think of joy and happiness together in a fleeting sense – we never have enough of what we want.

Nehemiah says, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” I hope my strength is not fleeing. I hope it’s something that I can depend on.

The question, really, is where we find our joy. We store treasure in so many places. We place and mis-place hope daily. Any time we place our hope and trust in something other than the Lord, we are certain to be disappointed. Whether a person, an idea or an object, the only source of true joy and peace is the Lord.