Seem.

I was in Lincoln today and I was riding in the car with a friend. We were riding right past the gas station when we saw about five young black men coming out of the gas station together. This is what happened;

"What's with all the gang activity in Lincoln this summer?" -friend

"I don't know this is the first time I have seen anything like that? I just think it's interesting that when we see a group of black men all together we think it's a gang."=me

"Well it's not that they are black it's their clothes that gives it away."=friend

"Yea I did hear about a couple of car break-ins this summer."=me

"Yea, except they caught the people who were doing that and they were both white guys."=friend

This short exchange gave me a realization that sometimes people seem differently than they actually are. This is not only with a slight judgement on the streets but it seems to be infesting my own life.

I seem to be failing at most things and the thing that I seem to be good at seems to be farther away than I would like to admit.

This idea of seem really frustrates me.

Almost to the point of wanting to give up. I just feel like if I determine my life by the way I seem to think it is I set myself up for failure.

Simply because I know that this mind set of seem has been developed by the many ventriloquists that have attempted to pull the strings in the life I live.

Here's my deal.

I am tired. I am tired of trying to explain myself, because I don't seem to get anywhere. I am tired of being vulnerable because the people I choose to be vulnerable with don't seem to care. I am tired of getting up and doing the same thing I did the day before because my existence seems futile at times. I am tired of trying so damn hard to love the people in my life because it seems that nothing ever changes. I am tired of my resilience because it seems to get me into a mess every so often.

I am tired of going to bed every night because it seems that some things happen in the dark that make me weary.

But, here's the clincher.

All these realities, ideas, things, whatever you like to call them are not who I am but rather how other people have seen me which in case lends itself to how I seem to have to live my life.

I have to live my life according to what seems.

However, if I were to take my old way of thinking and throw it on the oven burner of actuality I will soon find out that my seems are much more over exaggerated than I thought they were. That people don't really seem to think of me in any specific way or being and that I can go on with my life without needing to prove anything to anyone.

So, my struggle...is being frustrated with the way things have been while transitioning into the things that are and that are yet to be. I know original using the word things.

I am tired. Not because I am seemingly trying to accomplish anything.

I am just tired and I wonder if other people ever feel this way? If everyone ever so often is weary?

I apologize for my rambling because I am doing this without much thinking. Sorry if this seems a little harsh.

Homeless

So, recently I have become homeless.

Actually, come to think of it I guess I have always been quite homeless. Not in the typical sense in which I don't have a place to stay, but in the way where I guess I have always gone by, "Your home is where your heart is," and it seems that ever since I was able to see things in this world I have always given my heart away. So, since my home is where my heart is I seem to find myself quite homeless.

My heart is in Canada,

My heart is in Mexico,

My heart is in San Diego,

My heart is in Lincoln,

My heart is in Naperville,

My heart is in Montgomery,

My heart is in England,

My heart is in Assumption.

There are so many places where I have seen God and so it's hard to have one place to put my heart and so there in essence is why I remain homeless.

Everyone Wins...or at least everyone feels like they did.

I was swimming in the pool with Waylon and his niece Mckayla and she is just learning how to swim with her arms and her legs. When Mckayla would swim a certain amount of distance she would yell "I win a thousand metals!" and Waylon would yell in response, "Mckayla wins the gold medal!"

Then we tried to teach her how to count to five. Waylon and I figured that Mckayla didn't feel like learning because she would always forget what would come after two.

The reality of the situation is that Mckayla is going to be turning five in a week or so and she doesn't know her numbers or her letters. This is a contention between the men and women in Mckayla's life. The men think that she shouldn't have to learn anything until she actually goes to school, while the women think the opposite.

It's an interesting debate. And I finally came to a realization in the pool today. Being a different kind of learner I understand the conflict of understanding the different kinds of learning styles and I also understand that the public educational system really focuses on one style.

But, that is not what I am concerned about right now. What I am concerned with is the way that people in the public educational system are so concerned with making sure every child knows that they are special and knows that they are winners.

Perfect example: If you are watching the disney channel you don't have to wait long to see a movie or a show about a little league team who loses but they still feel warm and fuzzy because someone comes along and tells them, "Your winners no matter what"

Here's the reality your not. When you lose a baseball game you lose. Now I am all about being good sports about it. You don't have to be an asshole and pout or gloat about it depending on what side you are on. I am just saying that at the end of the day somebody wins and somebody loses.

And maybe losing isn't a bad thing after all.

But the children in America don't ever have to feel the disappointment and shame of losing. It's not even the fact that every child is valuable, because they are. It's just the fact that some children are going to win and some children are going to lose. Many could say it depends on the culture and their upbringing, and that probably has something to do with it.

But in the end the kid who was always determined in school, who always was ambitious enough to work late will probably win. While the kid who didn't care much will lose.

Maybe this reality of 'tolerance' that is flushed out in the idea that 'everyone is a winner' has formed the laziness of my generation and is continually causing damage in the next.

Everyone is valuable. Everyone is worth something. Everyone should be treated equally.

But not everyone is a winner. Because if everyone was a winner then the kids who worked extra hard wouldn't get the recognition that they deserved and the kids who didn't do much but smiled will get a cup full of false entitlement.

So should a five year old know her numbers and her letters? I'm not exactly sure but I know if she doesn't catch on soon she might get a cup full of false reality and will be living with her parents when she is twenty eight.

Holy Entitlement.

I just finished reading Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga. As I was reading this book people continued to ask me what it was about and my response was, "I'm not exactly sure." It wasn't that I didn't know what was going on in the book I just didn't know how to explain the complexity of it.

Sometimes it is better to get the whole picture before you start scrutinizing over the details. The whole story is centered on a main character who is burdened by being and African female in the early 1960's. Tambu is this main character's name and she is first introduced as a little girl wanting to attend school. While I didn't think that wanting to attend school could be the basis of an actual novel I soon realized that wanting to go to school was the greatest aspiration and accomplishment for Tambu, or any African women.

While many people would assume that someone who was not very educated would not be very astute or observant however, it is not the case with this little girl. Tambu is extremely observant and reflective about what goes on around her.

A certain myriad of events happen that land her at the mission for what she always dreamed to do, school. While she is on her way there, with her beloved and generous uncle, she thinks through something that seems to be literal in her experience, but i think it is metaphorically universal.

"But the real situation was not so simple. Although I was vague at the time and could not have described my circumstances so aptly, the real situation was this: Babamukuru was God, therefore I had arrived in Heaven. I was in danger of becoming an angel, or at the very least a saint, and forgetting how ordinary humans existed- from minute to minute and from hand to mouth. The absence of dirt was proof of the other-worldly nature of my new home. I knew, had known all my life, that living was dirty and I had been disappointed by the fact." (pg. 70)

Babamukuru was the head master at the mission and also was her uncle. He was the wealthiest elder in her family and was the main provider for his sister's and brothers. To be in his house was to be in the wealthiest home that could be perceived by Tambu. But, she has a good point. She knows that being in such a nice and wealthy place could leaver her believing that she was entitled to be clean and wealthy. This entitlement was a mind set that she knew could have trapped her in feeling elite. Feeling like she was better then those who worked on the farm without education. She wanted to feel clean. But, she knew that she was not entitled to feel clean.

Tambu was afraid of the entitlement of being clean. This was an opportunity, an act of grace and if she couldn't understand that she knew she would lose her understanding of humanity.

When I started thinking through this idea I realized that I feel just as entitled because of my potential position in the church. I feel entitled to be clean and to forget the dirt that I experience every day as a human being living in this world. While, Tambu experienced dirt on a physical level I experience on a metaphorical level.

Dirt is not better or worse than clean, because dirt is what we all experience. We are all have dirt and in my thinking, metaphorically we all have an opportunity to get clean.

I am not equating dirt with sin, although it does happen, I am equating dirt with the human body. With the human reaction and with the human limitation that we all feel.

Here's the deal. I believe that Jesus was clean and dirty. He was clean because he knew and acted on the proper way to treat humanity. He was clean because he was divine. But, he was dirty because he was physically limited. I know that he could do miracles but that was because he was divine. He was killed which means he was also physical.

Jesus didn't need to feel the entitlement of being clean because he was just clean just like he was dirty. We are not entitled to be clean but we are given the opportunity to get clean, without forgetting that we also need to be dirty.

Great Expectations Or Ruined Relationships?

The Question I have is what is the point of giving people expectations? Do we love people that way? I honestly think that if you truly loved someone you wouldn't have a false pretense of who they were and you wouldn't have a false pretense of there actions towards or against you.

I feel like the reality of expectations has made our culture extremely individualistic and selfish. Perfectionism has stemmed from this idea and so has jealously. These expectations that we put on people and that they put on us is our conceptual lenses becoming the reality of the way that we see the world. We are not people but a sequence full of events that has some correlation to the person next to us.

When this sequence of events becomes expected then the individual starts to determine his or her value by there own sequence of events. If their experiences don't match up to their determined expectations than they are therefore cast into the realm of insanity and scandal.

If a person wealthy from birth, and has had certain expectations pushed upon them from said persons to continue to achieve and go after a great amount of wealth in their adult life is ruined by a bent or conviction to go serve in the peace corp that person from wealth has become the scandal of the neighborhood.

If a person that is born in poverty, and has had certain expectations pushed upon them from said persons that they will be always in poverty, if the person born in poverty then gets out and becomes wealthy, he or she becomes the scandal of the neighborhood.

That is why the story of the Prince and the Pauper is so well known, because it is an ugly reality. This feeling that people get when they are breaking someone else's expectations is one of either complete rebellion or complete sorrow.

If two people fall in love and then start expecting that love every morning from the other person they have taken that love for granted. The love they share between each other is not a selfish love, or a love to be used, but it is a gift. A gift that each person decides to give every morning.

Now there is a difference between the actuality of expectation and the actuality of longing. To long for something brings the human being into a place of dependence. While expectation is putting the human being into a place of power and control.

My thinking is that when Jesus discipled his twelve followers he did not expect them to understand his massive human divinity rather he longed for them to understand it and to eventually live it out.

Christ does not play the ventriloquist and pull the strings when he wants us to move. He does not have any expectation for us. He loves us. He yearns for us to understand that love but he does not expect that we will.

This idea of expectation for other people trap us into becoming God. We long to control other people and a lot of times we set up expectations with communication and wait for those we 'love' to fail. We set up our children and our spouses and our friends to fail because we expect.

We think that because a person we care about is in the hospital and we pray to God for healing that God will heal us because we expect God to love us.

But what if we stopped expecting?

Coming

The Coming is like feeling the winds of a tornado.

These winds do not feel natural as they ripple around you and through you. The rain you can protect yourself from, the lightening and the thunder are in the distance but the winds are a natural erosion.

That is what the coming feels like. It feels like a natural erosion that seems to rip through my being. The Coming has shaked and thrown my existence around like a rag doll.

The interesting reality is that when an individual comes back to the coming they start to realize how destructive it actually is.

Tornado winds eventually stop but The Coming winds are poisonous. These winds eventually stop but they leave you with a feeling that seems to never stop. You always feel like you are in a whirlwind of destructive thoughts and emotions.

And if you stick around The Coming for too long you find that you start to think that the destruction is natural and normal. You get used to the erosion and it becomes part of your daily self reflection.

Then The Coming starts living through you. It starts seeping through your pores and infects your conversations. It eventually infests your relationships and starts to erode them. The Coming flows through your being into the other people around you and starts to influence their being as well.

"Ugly As Homemade Sin"

When families are called to undertake the responsibility of the individual sin.

Brought to you by the book of Deuteronomy.

Coming soon to this blog near you...

Unwanted Life

Waylon and I went to the mall this weekend. And we ended up going to the Decatur mall, which has a good few stores, but one of my favorite stores to go to is the pet store. Yes the mall has a pet store. And so every time Waylon and I go to this mall we always end up going to see the puppies. We have come very close to actually buying a puppy a few times.

The reason why I love this store is because I love dogs. I love playing with dogs and snuggling with dogs and just being around them. But it seems that more and more that I visit this store I walk away more sad. Simply because there is so much unwanted life in this world.

It's interesting how we glorify death. How we watch it on the movie screen, how we read about it in the newspaper and in our favorite novels, how we scatter it all over our lives. We tend to believe that the only best movies have a death scene of some kind, whether it involves explosions or shooting or the last breath of someone of old age it seems to be the only way that a movie seems to be good, or real, or deep.

While we are so obsessed with this reality of death we seem to reject the unwanted life that is all around us. The fascinating thing is that we are such an individualistic society that we easily say, "Everyone for themselves." So we build walls out of sarcasm, cynicism, pride, intelligence, anger, or even our ability to be the victim for everyone else. We build these walls so that we can keep people out. We build these walls with the mortar of self and the brick of pride so that the life that is around us can not get in through the cracks.

Then when death strikes we build windows in our walls and we view the person as an exaggerated version of themselves. We dress them up or dress them down and throw them against the cruxifiction of introspection in our own lives. We are like the way we are because they did this or didn't do that. But we wouldn't ever try and approach them while they were living.

We would never tell them how we really feel why they were sitting next to us at dinner on Tuesday night.

Just like we don't talk about that relative who has a bastard child, because it would just cost to much. It would cost too much to tear that wall down. Or we don't try and get involved with our neighbor who just got a divorce because her husband was having an affair. It's just easier to hear about it from everyone else. Maybe even that regretted one night stand that has left us with the decision whether or not to keep the baby. We get lost in the words and the seemingly cheap whore that is represented as our relationship with people.

All this unwanted life seems to seep through sometimes doesn't it? This unwanted life that we have tried so hard to avoid our whole entire life. But, what if we are missing the point? What if instead of glorifying death we start glorifying life? What would happen if we didn't look forward for the hero to bust a cap in the bad guy, but instead we watched for the simple life that deepens these characters.

Yes, I know death is inevitable. But why wait to start grasping at the life around you after death has sunk in?

8th Grade Assembly

"A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying Him." T. Merton

Do you ever remember having junior high assemblies? Where they got everyone in the stuffy, hot gym together and made you sit really really close to the person next to you. Then they told you through dramatic skits and colorful clothing that the best person you can be is yourself. Did anyone else leave middle school with these haunted memories or is it just me?

Well I haven't heard a "Just be yourself" speech in a long time, but about a month ago I stumbled through a book called New Seeds of Contemplation, by Thomas Merton, and I found myself reading a "Just be yourself" speech. But it seemed to be less arbitrary from his point of view. He states that we are called to make a decision in our human state. This decision that T. Merton is writing about stems from the beginning of time. It is the decision of whether or not we are going to live out our lives in our created state or whether we are going to take a stick of dynamite to ourselves and face death. The decision of whether or not we are going to find our created being in our creator or if we are going to find our created being in something created.

This decision does not just impact our selves, like we often like to think, but it impacts the whole community. Many times we think that the self that we project upon other people or the self that we see in the mirror is either not good enough to be presented to the creator or is to good to be bothered with such trivial things like service.

When we have come to either of those conclusions we then set our eyes on the aesthetic lifestyle. We try and find our security in the things that seem to bide of our attention. We cling to our families, our lovers, our friends, our money, our pride, our selfish deprecation, even our theology. We create sand-built castles out of these things but when a storm comes the walls that are trying to protect our true selves become eroded. They get washed away in the senseless violence of death in the world.

This is all a side effect of trying to run away from just being ourselves. See, we aren't created in the waters of sin. We are created in the image of God. If we are created as 'sinners' then we cannot also be created in the image of God, because those two realities cannot exist together. They can sit side by side and be in existence but they cannot be intertwined.

So when we are asked to "Just be ourselves" in the essence of the kingdom of God we are asked to find our identity in that kingdom as children of God. This identity is not just a role that we play but is the redeemed person. We are called to be the child of God individually but also in community.

When we become to good for the community around us, and our created being finds identity in our pretentious piety we become again lost in the idol worship that swirled around the Israelites and that swirl around us.

The question remains; are you going to be yourself reflected in our creator? Or are you going to be marked and identified by your sin?

Trees, William Carlos Williams

Crooked, black tree

on your grey-black hillock,

ridiculously raised one step toward

the infinite summits of the night:

even you the few grey stars

draw upward into a vague melody

of harsh threads

But as you are from straining

against the bitter horizontals of

a north wind, - there below you

how easily the long yellow notes

of poplars flow upward in a descending

scale, each not secure in its own

posture -singularly woven.

All voices are blent willingly

against the heaving contra-bass

of the dark but you alone

warp yourself passionately to one side

in your eagerness.

Life of Bees

"The world will give you [a pure relief] once in a while, a brief timeout; the boxing bell rings and you go to your corner, where someonebody dabs mercy on your beat-up life." pg. 82

God of Relevance...

"What if we took Jesus to culture?" -Me

"No, Jesus goes where He wants." -Waylon

This state of mind that we seem to pursue as a church that we must chase after culture with the official stamp of Jesus totally is irrelevant. Simply because Jesus is alive, and he walks where he wants to. We cannot actually take Jesus anywhere because Jesus is the one leading.

Ironic that we so consistently want to be Jesus' missionaries and bring Jesus to people. In reality we are just following Christ to where he already has made his stamp. We are not his messengers we are His witnesses. We witness and proclaim what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will do.

When we start getting startled and focused on what other churches are doing we become complacent to being witnesses to what Christ is doing. This is a very dangerous line to walk and could potentially be a catalyst for communal idol worship. When Christ becomes the God of relevance instead of the God of all then we have stumbled into a very dark place.

We start trying to proclaim the Gospel from darkness instead of from light. We start trying to proclaim the Gospel from a cultural impact instead of from a Jesus impact. This cultural relevance that seeps into our Gospel creates the fundamentalism and liberalism that we all despise from one point or from another. We get lost in the Black, White, or the Gray.

So are we going to worship the God of relevance or are we going to worship the God of all?

Easter Reflection.

We are in Holy Week.

This and the fact that I have been locked away in a library in Minnesota studying the aspects of faith have brought me to a reflection of the Easter story.

This is my Easter reflection: Christ defeats death by submitting to it and then overcoming it by the authority of life.

Now this seems to be the obvious realization when one comes into church on that annual Sunday morning.

However, I have not ever grappled with the reality that Christ submitted to death. He, giving up Heaven, put flesh on and adopted the human nature. This reality of human nature is not the same as the sinful nature. For Christ did not sin which displays that the human nature is not a sinful nature. If the human nature was the sinful nature Christ would not have been able to put flesh on. If the sacrifice of the pure lamb that morning was impure than the sacrifice would have been pointless. Christ submitted to death and in turn had the ability to defeat it through the authority of true life.

This reality of what true life is can be flushed out in the church by the renewal and the restoration of the dying souls, through the life of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. We are called to realize that when we die to ourselves every day we should walk joyfully into death because the authority of life that we will receive in turn has the ability to defeat death in everything that has fallen and is dying, by default not by choice. Because when you die by choice you are losing everything but in the process of losing everything you are gaining faith in which life is possible.

So would I give up Heaven for you? Yes because Christ gave up Heaven for me, but in doing so he unlatched the door that allows for every single person to live.

For Christ defeated death by submitting to it and then overcame it with the authority of Life.

Would I give up Heaven for you?

The reality of reaching into the depth of the deep darkness in someone else's soul by the light hand of the own tension in our soul truly determines the reality of our own capacity to love.

This reality of being in love, not romantically, but in life. We have masqueraded the light that we have been given through grace, by the sacrifice and life of Christ, through cultural relevance and our perception of seeing the world in the "gray area." So many times we view theology in concrete colors. Which seems appropriate because theology is the study of God but knowing God is not concrete, at least not in the way that we have propagated it.

God does not play by the rules of black and white. He, being the creator, determines the life that is being given. God determines whether rules even exist or not. With this in mind our black and white concrete realities cannot truly exist in the realm of our Creator because when we see the Good News as a big picture we realize that Christ put on flesh and submitted himself to this world and to a human nature. This reality is a paradox because Christ gave up Heaven for each of us to make sure that we would experience the ecstasy of God.

So, why should we be so concerned if we are commanded to love one another recklessly? What IF we were called to give up Heaven for our brother or sister?

This idea reminds me of the movie What Dreams May Come. Robin Williams is the main character and in the beginning of the movie he has a beautiful family. Two wonderful children and an amazing wife. Unfortunately his children get killed in a car accident and his beautiful life starts to fall apart. He and his wife go through a traumatic period and Williams is the sustaining foundation for their marriage. Then a sudden twist and Williams ends up getting killed in a freak car accident as well. He ends up going to Heaven and enjoys the wonder and awe of what Heaven could possibly be. Then one day he receives news that his wife has died and he gets excited because he figures he will see her, but he is told that since she ended her own life that her soul is sent where the most despairing souls are sent. Williams can't handle the reality of not spending eternity with his soul mate and goes on a quest to save her. He is meant with the darkest challenges of the soul, and finally ends up outside their house. He is told that if he goes in he may never come out, because when you are surrounded by darkness you start to forget what hope is like.

He goes in to save her and ends up losing everything.


But he wakes to find himself in Heaven. He wonders how he got there and he sees his wife. She told him that when he lost it all is when she gained it.

The simple sacrifice of losing Heaven for someone else. The simple quest of loving the other person in a way that represents the cross.

The question still lingers...would I give up Heaven for you? As I reflect on Easter in my next post I think the answer will be found.

Decisions.

I read this on www.postsecret.com this morning. The funny thins is that I totally registered with it. I do the exact same thing when I enter a room. That is actually one reason why I refuse to have my back towards the door when I am in a room or in a restaurant. I actually started thinking about this idea. This reality that haunts my thoughts when I go somewhere, anywhere, really. Some may call me paranoid or even erratic but I wonder how many other people my age actually think this when they enter a mall, a school, or even their own homes?

Which leads me to the reality that I don't know what my writing does for many of my peers. I come to my blog partly for my own reflection but also partly to try and spread the Good news to anyone who reads it. The question is if we are in such a state of despair in this world what's the point of one blog writer? Why does it matter?

So I once again am departing from the Internet. It seems that I have not much to say any longer in this world of despair other than Christ is the only peace that seems conceivable.

If you haven't understood that from my writing then I have failed to communicate it clearly.

For the Widows in Paradise; For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti, Sufjan Stevens

I have called you children, I have called you son.
What is there to answer if I'm the only one?
Morning comes in Paradise, morning comes in light.
Still I must obey, still I must invite.
If there's anything to say,
if there's anything to do,
If there's any other way,
I'll do anything for you.

I was dressed embarrassment.
I was dressed in wine.
If you had a part of me, will you take you're time?
Even if I come back, even if I die Is there some idea to replace my life?
Like a father to impress;
Like a mother's mourning dress,
If you ever make a mess,
I'll do anything for you

I have called you preacher; I have called you son.
If you have a father or if you haven't one,
I'll do anything for you. I did everything for you

Dreams Diminished.

"Purpose determines Existence" Rob Maupin, professor of missions at Lincoln Christian College.

Rob said this in class a couple of weeks ago and I have let it sit in the crock pot of my brain for that long. I realized that in a lot of ways this statement is very true. However, I do not think that this statement is ultimatley true because it would be two narrow in terms of existence.

But hearing this made me think of the dreams I used to have that don't seem to fit into the life that I am living. Which makes these dreams intolerable. These dreams arn't those dreams that people say are too big to reach they just don't fit into the life that I am living anymore.

So I find myself to be floating around Central Illinois quite a bit and reading quite alot. It's amazing how much time I have found to read when I am not obssessing over a dream.

I was actually reading the book of Exodus and I stumbled into chapter 19. This chapter is placed in the midst of the Israelites recent escape from the slavery of the Eygptians. Not only have the Israelites just escaped, Moses is actually on Mt. Sinai and is about to recieve the Ten Commandments from God.

But before God delegates these holy rules one must first read chapter 19 which is the dream and the vision that God gives to the Israelites. This dream is vitally important to the existence of the Israelites and is the reason why the Ten Commandments were given.

For how can God give the Israelites a dream without giving them the means to reach it?

It is written, "You yourseves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on Eagles wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the earth is mine, you will be fore me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." Exodus 19:4-6

It's intersting because, first, God reminds them who the nation is in the kingdom of God and who God is. He reminds them that HE brought them out of Eygpt and HE brought them to Himself. So we must realize that God is God. HE is the creator over all creation and HE is the King of the Israelites. Not pharoah or any other Eygptian God's but Yahwah Himself.

Secondly, HE calls the Israelites his treasure possession. HE tells them that if they keep their part of the promise they made with God through the patriarch Abraham then they will be the treasured possession. Now this word in Hebrew is actually segullah and it literally means to be the crown jewel. To be the center of all beauty on the head of the King.

Thirdly, God peices the whole dream together. HE not only reminds the nation of who they are HE also tells them who they could be in the promise of God. God doesn't leave it at that though. HE tells them who they need to be in relation to other people. God is calling them to be missionaries. I know missionaries is a term that is generally looked down apon and is spat at because of guilt connotations, but God is calling the Israelites to be the holy people among all the nations. HE wants them to not only be holy in communion with him and with each other, HE wants them to be Holy within the context of the nations around them. This is their vision. This is their mission.

Purpose doesn't create existence, God does. But God also creates purpose and HE had one for the people of Israel and HE has one for the Church today. The question is are we so self centered on our own existence that we miss the purpose of the church itself?

I like to listen to songs over and over again. Not all the time but when I find that there is a song that tugs at my heart strings I tend to want to hear it as long as possible in that singular moment. There is generally something in a song or a melody that I don't understand. That is why I tend to want to go over it again and again.

There is a mystery to a peice of art. When you can listen to something, or look at something, or read something that has been intertwined with the soul it no longer remains something humanly created. There is a divine peice that has partnered with it as well.

Most of the time when I come into contact with a peice of art like this I realize who I am in that moment. I become very small when I come into a collision with something that is full of soul. Simply because I realize that I, for one did not create these things, which makes me realize that I am not God. Secondly, because I am not God I have a great appreciation for what God has done. Thirdly it brings me to a place where I can worship God more definitley because I am not God, I am his child.

This is how I view the great scripture that has been taught to me over all of my time going to church. So many times I approach scripture in such a laxed way. I come to it with the mentality that I will go in to it and then evaluate my life. Instead of letting the scripture come into me and evaluating me. I have lost the revreance for scripture simply because no one has ever really taught it to me.

So let me say this, for all of the readers who come to my blog for one reason or another, scripture is much bigger than you or I will ever be. Now you can naysay it and tell me that I am reading the wrong translation, or that the Greek manuscripts used didn't all match up. You can throw textual criticism around all you want, and there is definitley a place for that.

However, when you come to scripture with the attitude of analyzing it and tearing it apart why then do you wonder about the desparing world around us? Because if you come into scripture analyzing it, then it is not truly changing your life hence it will not change the lives around you.

To everyone who preaches scripture if you are truly aware of the scripture that you are preaching please come to it in prayer and contemplation. Do not take something and just add illustrations and stories to make it sound better. Scripture has a life of it's own. It doesn't always need to be explained away with an illustration.

Realizing that Scripture is so much more than just words on a page, but is written with a soul attatched and with a divine hand we can come to it in humility. We can realize that we are not God because we did not create it. We can also give the appreciation of scripture towards God since we did not create it ourselves, and then we can glorify and honor God through our worship because we can understand who we are in accordance to God.

We can go back to scripture over and over again, just like I do with a song that seems to grasp my soul.

Reflections on Hope.

"Hope prevents us from clinging from what we have and frees us to move away from the safe place and enter unknown and fearful territory. This might sound romantic, but when a man enters with his fellow man into his fear of death and is able to wait for him right there, "leaving the safe place" might turn to a very difficult act of leadership. It is an act of discipleship in which we follow the hard road of Christ, who entered death with nothing but bare hope."
Henri Nouwen, The Wounded Heart


I read this exert the other day and it struck a cord. Probably because Hope is something that seems to allude me at times. I have the great ability to get so discouraged with the way that the world has slid into desperation. I would even go as far to say that I have the great ability to be discouraged with the way life has seemed to pan out but I know that there is really no truth in this statement.

Partly because the way that life has turned out has nothing to do with me in a large way, and partly because life can only come from Christ, which makes the first statement ultimately true. When I say then that I am discouraged with the way life has turned out, I am actually saying, I am discouraged with the way that sin has encroached the way that I perceive life to be.

If I had a pure and realistic view of life I would be so encouraged that discouragement probably would not be able to sink it's teeth in me.

But if I were to see life in a pure and realistic way hope would not be as necessary. It would still be necessary because one needs to hope that the end will come and that Christ will play the last encore.

In the light of purity and realism hope does not seem as urgent as it does when I am at the bottom of the pit waiting for the lions to rip my skin off.

Hope is something that seems to be one of the redeeming qualities that ring through the story of Christ.

Just as we hope in Christ to defeat death, Christ hopes in us to share in the celebration of life.

Just as we hope in Christ to live again, Christ hopes in us to live out His resurrected life.

Just as we hope in Christ to forgive us of our sins, Christ hopes that we forgive ourselves and others.

Just as we hope in Christ to save the world, Christ hopes in us to partner with him in the fight to freedom.

We have this great capacity to take our position in the kingdom of God and lower it. Instead of taking our rightful seat we feel the need to be the servant outside the banquet hall eagerly waiting for it to be over so we can pick the scraps off the floor.

If we do not have any expectation in life. If our life is not held in hope that Christ is going to change our lives and the lives of the people around us through us than we have missed a large portion of the life story itself.

For expectation is the essence of hope. And hope is the essence of anticipation for something to happen.

Hey, you want to become a slave today?