photogrpahy, random thoughts, ramblings
Legend tells of a unique bird, beautiful and majestic. At the dusk of life, it would construct for itself a funeral pyre. As the flames consumed the phoenix, from the ashes would rise another bird – younger, stronger, more beautiful than the one before.
From these smouldering ashes, let rise a new future – hopeful, beautiful, and more full of life than the flames consumed.
NPR has an ongoing series entitled “This I believe…” where people write some reflections. I decided to jot down some thoughts this morning.
This I believe:
I believe that life – each day – is a gift. I believe none of us is guaranteed a tomorrow, and each sunrise we see is the most beautiful sunrise we have ever seen, until the next, and the next, and the next. I think of sunsets I’ve missed and mourn the loss of a moment that will never return.
I believe in the sanctity of life. I believe the term applies to all life, to the greatest and the least, to the rich and the poor. I believe the lives of starving children I sat with in Kenya are as valuable and important as the lives of my best friends. I believe when the bell tolls, it tolls for us all.
I believe in Justice – not an abstract conceptual notion of a legal code or repayment for deeds, but a real equality of all people – a world where each person is valued and respected not only for who they are, but who they may become. I believe treating each person equally requires more than changing laws, but changing hearts.
I believe in love. I believe true love is deeply rooted in sacrifice – not an ephemeral feeling of attraction. I believe it is simultaneously the most painful and most rewarding choice in life. I believe both the pain and reward of love are essential, and we would not cherish the benefits of love so strongly had we never known its pain.
I believe in struggle. I believe there is no joy in the easy life, and nothing worth doing is easy. I believe our lives consist of a series of journeys from one wilderness to the next. I believe we must learn to cherish the desert as much as the oasis. I believe our struggles define who we are as people, and that we are the sum of all we have overcome.
I believe in purpose. I believe we each have a reason to live, a reason to exist. I believe the greatest tragedy of life is when people forget their purpose and turn to lives of quiet desperation.
I believe in a better world. I believe a better future begins in the hands of every person recognizing the power they have to fashion and shape the world around them. I believe together we can make a difference not only in the future, but in the present.
This I believe: belief makes a difference. I believe our beliefs weave humanity together into a beautiful tapestry of many perspectives, many colors – each an important thread in the story of life.
A lot of times we want God to be fair.
To give us a better house,
a nicer car,
a job that lets us be home more.Really just to give us a break,
to help us out for all the times we’ve sacrificed.Then I think of what I deserve.
Hell.
A life without
peace,
joy,
comfort,
completion.I’m glad God’s not fair.
ahh yes, the fairness complex. we all grew up with parents who told us that life wasn’t fair, but why do we somehow think that our Christian life should be?
of course, when we mean fair, we really mean that we should get what we want, which generally doesn’t involve fairness, but us getting the better end of the deal. we play this game all the time, and the funny thing is that some people try to play it with God – as though God should repay them for all the church services they’ve sat through… (and considering some of the services i’ve sat through, i can see how one might be entitled to think that compensation was in order…)
but the reality is that paul, quoting quoting God in the book of job, is right on… “who has ever given to the God, that God should repay him?”
the funny thing is that God is ultimately very fair. we don’t like to think that God can reward anyone as he sees fit. somehow we think that God is bound by our rules and ideas of what he should do, rather than by his own limitless power and grace.
the humbling thought, is that before God, we all deserve one thing: death. we are by nature objects of wrath.
no, God is being very unfair to us. by his Grace, we will not get what we deserve.
and praise God for that.
You know, we talk a lot about Peter
and how he fell time and time again.How he sank while he was on the water,
and denied Jesus three times.Bit I think God sees it different.
I think he sees Peter as the one out of the boat.
The one who followed him when others deserted.
And the one who jumped out and swam to shore
because he couldn’t wait to be with Jesus.And when God sees us, sitting in the boat,
laughing at Peter,I rejoice that he accepts us in our weakness,
and in his God-ness calls us to walk on water.
somehow peter always gets the bad rap. he’s the guy who screwed up over and over again. for some reason i’d had enough when i wrote this, and wondered what Christ thought of him.
i didn’t see any of the other 11 guys getting out of the boat. maybe they were more intelligent and realized that people sink in water, especially stormy water.
part of the beauty of peter is that he’s never afraid to do something. even though he looks dumb fairly often, his faith is there. he’s never afraid to stand up for Jesus, and as i picture Christ, i see him smiling at peter.
i think we need to be more like peter. all too often, we’re afraid of looking like fools. it reminds me of a west wing clip where C.J. is talking to Bartlet and she says this:
Sir, I think you should do the classroom either way. We have at our disposal a captive audience of school children. Some of them don’t go to the blackboard or raise their hands because they think they’re going to be wrong. I think you should say to these kids, ‘You think you get it wrong sometimes, you should come down here and see how the big boys do it.’ I think you should tell them that you haven’t given up hope, and that it may turn up, but in the mean time you want NASA to put its best people in a room and you want them to start building Galileo Six. Some of them will laugh and some of them won’t care, but for some, they might honestly see that it’s about going to the blackboard and raising your hand. And that’s the broader theme.
may we be people who go to the blackboard and raise our hands – not afraid of getting out of the boat.
Isn’t it funny
that we do anything we can
not to look silly
or foolish?Isn’t it funny
that we try in who we are
to look sophisticated
and wise?Isn’t it funny
that in everything He does
God has chosen the foolish
to shame the wise?
isn’t it funny.
another case of the economics of the Kingdom catching up to me. it’s been probably 6 years since i wrote that, and i don’t know that i do any better with it now than i did back then.
nobody likes to look dumb. nobody likes to look silly. we all try to put our best foot forward and not look like dunces in front of the world.
but sometimes the illogic of God trumps the logic of men. it’s funny how we try to make sense of everything – like there must be a logical explaination for every religious truth. faith doesn’t work like that, thankfully. you don’t need a degree in rhetoric in order to be a good Christian. you just need faith.
and God again turns the world upside down, remding us that what we think of things isn’t always that important…
In the first centry, Christianity was an unknown religion. In the second, third and fourth centruries, Christianity was a misunderstood religion. After Constantine and the merging of Christianity and Empire, Christianity was at first a permissible religion, then a favored religion, and then the required religion. And it has continued to be the favored religion even in the protestant era, but something is new now, because for people like April, Christianity is, for the first time a failed religion. You know when you meet somebody and they’ve had five divorces… and you think, “You know… it probably wasn’t bad luck. There must be something…” I think when a person outside the faith, they think about us as a religion that’s had five divorces.
I was just in South Africa where the Christian community in South Africa invented something called Apartheid. And we had our own version here for a long time. First slavery, then segregation. If Christianity is so good, why didn’t it teach white people to love people of other colors? Any young woman who’s been to college and taken a women’s studies course is going to say “If Christianity is so good, why have Christians treated women like dirt for so long.” If Christianity is so good, why did Christian cultures create the industrial revolution that has brought us to the brink of environmental destruction? Why did we rape the earth? Why did we not appreciate God’s creation? And why is it that when people care about the environment today and try to make a difference, why do they find that Christians are against their efforts and make fun of them as tree huggers? Why is it that whenever there’s a war, Christians seem happy about it and are the first ones who want to go fight? Didn’t Jesus say something about peace? Why is it that rich Christians stay so far away from poor people?”
First, she says “I need to talk to someone…” She doesn’t say, “I need to have somebody talk to me.” “I need to talk to someone, and I can’t think of anyone I can talk to about religion.” Now brothers and sisters, I think you know that there are a lot of people around who would be happy to talk to her about religion, you understand? But what she is desperate for is not somebody to talk to her, she is looking for somebody who will listen to her and have respectful conversation with her. Does that make sense?
I hope this won’t offend anybody, but I think you will all understand if I use it this way. What if you had a sincere question about Amway Products?
And I understand that Amway changed their name exactly because of that reason, because there had been too many people who’d tried to twist people’s arms and get them in their upline or downline, and you know what folks – there might be some good reasons to change the brand name of Christianity for similar reason. Because a woman like April is desperate to talk to somebody, but she can’t think of anybody who’s safe to talk to.
…
She’s so honest, she’s so transparent, and she doesn’t want to put any pressure on me. She is doing unto me as she hopes that I will do unto her. Is it possible for two human beings in America in 2004 to have a conversation about God without one person putting pressure on the other? And there are people who are desperate for a conversation partner.
I once saw a child speak.
His voice was squeaky.
His manner unsure.He told a story that seemed to have no bearing on anything.
His connections to the Bible were poor at best, tragic at worst.
His lesson made little sense, and I struggled to follow it.
I struggled to listen to the beautiful story lurking below the surface of his message.
Even if his speech wasn’t good, I had to admit that his heart was.
I had spoken that morning.
I spoke with force.
and power.I had a forceful message that made you think.
I spoke with passion and moving words.
He spoke with the words of God.
“If I speak
in the tongues of men and of angels,but have not love,
I am only a resounding gong
or a clanging cymbal.”God have mercy on me.
God have mercy on me.
those of you who know me closely know that pride is one of those nasty little things i struggle with. often. this might have been one of the first times i really recognized it.
the kid was terrible. he really was. most 8 year olds (or however old he was) are. i’m sure i was too. but what a beautiful heart, standing and speaking about something he loved – Jesus.
it was a shot across the bow, really – the first of many that God has sent me, and no doubt the last.
i am not all that. and for all the talent I have been given, if my heart is not in the right place and i am not constantly aware of my relation to a holy and perfect God, then anything i say is worthless. if i do not have love and cannot subjugate myself to others in order to do what it takes to love them, then all i’m doing is making noise.
and that’s hard for a person like me. even now, it’s something I struggle with. but it’s a part of my journey.
God have mercy on me.
God have mercy on me.
Heart and Soul.
I fell in love with you
heart and soul.Take my heart, God.
But my actions are mine.Take my heart.
But what I do on Friday is my business.Take my heart.
But this show is more important than spending time with you.Take my heart.
But I’m keeping my money this week.God looks at what we give,
But he cares about what we keep.To fall in love with Him
Is to give your heart
and your actions.Heart and Soul.
there is a completeness to our walk with Christ that is something we aren’t spiritually born with. as a result of our compartmentalization, we often think we can give little pieces to God – that somehow this is a sharing process and that we get to choose what God gets, while at the same time choosing what we get from Him. sort of like a best of both worlds type of thing.
too bad that’s not really not a sound theological way to look at it.
our lives need be completely surrendered to Jesus Christ. there is nothing left – nothing we can hold onto, nothing left to keep. the key statement for me here, i think, is that Christ looks at what we give, but cares about what we keep. those things that we hold onto – those are the things keeping us from Christ.
may we each let go of all the things that encumber us, and the sin that so easily entangles, and run the race toward God.