Kidz Church

I had forgotten until yesterday that, with Mom preaching today, it would be my day to do Kidz Church. Not a big deal really, but....well, I had a day to get ready. So many times when I do Kidz Church alone, things fall sooooo flat. It's just very difficult to keep the attention of so many kids with such a wide age-range (about 3 to 14).

We've got Kidz Church scheduled to follow Foster's six Traditions - we do two months on each stream. We're on the Evangelical Tradition. Was it a coincidence that I recently finished Foster's chapter on this stream? I was going to grab an easy out - show a Veggie Tales or something, but decided not to. The first things Foster said should be done in practicing the Evangelical Tradition is to "get to know our Bibles." Well, how can you possibly do that with a bunch of kids who seem to loose interest at the very sight of a book, not to mention a rather thick book lacking pictures?

I cracked open Calhoun's Spiritual Disciplines Handbook....what a rich resource!! She's got a section on memorizing scripture....so I took that idea, along with all the scriptures and ideas she included in the section....and did what I could to set it in a "kid friendly" framework.

So....we (myself, a friend, and about ten kiddos) gathered around my laptop to look at pictures and talk about things we've memorized. We learned that memorizing stuff can be both easy and fun, and we looked at three reasons why we memorize words out of the Bible: it's a cure for boredom (the whole wandering mind problem), it gives us tools for life (watched a clip from Nim's Island), and...just 'cause it tastes good (we had some reeeeally yummy cookies to help us understand this). Then we worked together on a memory verse: "God, I love your words! I can't stop thinking about them!" Ps. 119:97. We paired the kids up, an older kid with a younger one, and had them work on writing our the verse and going over it with each other....and we played memory games to help us remember the verse.
I'm delighted to say....we had a blast.
Thanks, God.

Random thoughts

Help! The motorcycles are invading my town!!

Seriously.

This weekend is the big bike rally. Ick. Good for some people, but for me....uh-uh. I live near a major highway, I work near a major highway, I drive from home to work on a major highway in a car that has no air-conditioning (sooo....window down if I want to breathe). Fun, fun.

On a...quieter note, we're talking in class about contemplative prayer. Everything I'm reading about it, in books or on the discussion boards, whether I've heard it before or not, is bringing the contemplative tradition alive for me. The frustrating part is that my mind isn't big enough to hold all the information!! And when you're talking about contemplation, you're talking about not having a mind so busy with finding connections and applications...but a quiet mind that nurtures a quiet heart. I want to live a contemplative life....not just know lots of cool words about it.

On yet another note - Mom stopped by (at my work) and dropped off a box from Amazon! (I'm a junkie. I need Amazon-Anon) I got Adele Calhoun's Spiritual Disciplines Handbook (for my next class) and Frank Laubach's Prayer, The Mightiest Force in the World. Having been so focused on the contemplative tradition, my mind has repeatedly been brought back to Laubach's life and work. I figured I'd explore some of his writings beyond the letters to his father.
Hmm....not that I needed any more books. I've got more books than I can handle as it is. Erasmus once said......"When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes." That is sooooo literally me.

The deconstructive effects of silence/solitude

"When we discover ourselves "hidden with Christ in God," we don't need any kind of self-image at all. I hope this doesn't sound too esoteric, because it isn't; it's what happens in true prayer.
This is what will happen when we expose ourselves to silence and stop exposing ourselves to the judgments of the world; when we stop continuously "picking up" the energy of others; when we stop thinking about what others think of us and what they take us to be. We are who we are in God—no more and no less." ~Richard Rohr

I usually thing of silence as....quiet. There's inner silence, outer silence....there's even a sort of an undertone of silence that can be heard regardless of the noises going on around you. But it's even more than this. Mulholland (Invitation to a Journey) defines silence as "the deep inner reversal of that grasping, controlling mode of being that so characterizes life in our culture...relinquishing to God our control of our relationship with God"(pp 136-137). Nouwen (Way of the Heart) says that silence keeps us from becoming entangled in the world, from extinguishing the inner fire of God's Spirit, and from slipping into the wasteful use of words that is so prevalent in our world.

Solitude has a more outward quality to it. Going to a place apart...alone. But it is even more than this. Both Mulholland and Nouwen look at solitude as an unmasking of sorts. The (sometimes painful) tearing away of the many faces, fluffs and scaffolds wrenched, hammered, and soaked into us by the surrounding culture/society. It is the "furnace of transformation," where all that is not truly me is incinerated, completely demolished. Gee. Sounds like fun.

Silence, Nouwen says, is solitude in action - solitude taken out of a place apart and carried into the daily grind. Silence "completes and intensifies" solitude. So they are inseparably linked. And they work together at the task of creative demolition. What a beautiful mess.

Out of Solitude - Part 3

Henri Nouwen's three meditations on the Christian life presented in this little book seem so simple - and so deep. The book is divided into three sections: Out of Solitude, With Care, and In Expectation. Here are my thoughts on the third part:

John 16:16-22
True and deep caring for others can be painful. It does not make for an easy life. We do not have within ourselves adequate resources to sustain such a life over the long haul. As we immerse ourselves in the pain and suffering of others, we must cling to hope – confident expectation that redemption will come.
“Without expectation, care easily degenerates into a morbid preoccupation with pain and gives more occasion for common complaints than for the formation of community (p. 53).”

Expectation as Patience
“…What seems a hindrance becomes a way; what seems an obstacle becomes a door; what seems a misfit becomes a cornerstone (p. 55)… That is the great conversion in our life: to recognize and believe that the many unexpected events are not just disturbing interruptions of our projects, but the way in which God moulds our hearts and prepares us for his return (p. 56).”
Expectation – hope – gives strength to climb the mountains of suffering we embark on when we commit to care. The caring is, then, a passage of sorts. A transition. A movement from one way of life to another; one realm to another. A passage requires patience and perseverance. So many stories tell us how the characters are transformed – usually through difficulty of some kind – into a whole new way of being. Images come to mind of the difficult journey for Frodo and Sam as they travel through Mordor to take the ring to Mount Doom. They persevere, they keep going, and they have hope.
Patience is necessary even when circumstances are not overtly painful. When things don’t turn out as we expected, or when our lives seem utterly boring and off-track – these are also times that we must look up in hope and press on with patience.
But what comes first? There is no patience without hope, but can there truly be hope without patience? “…patience is the mother of expectation (p. 59).”

Expectation as Joy
“A man or woman without hope in the future cannot live creatively in the present (p. 59).”
By patience and perseverance we know that our hopes will come to pass. This sets joy in our hearts! When we have something to look forward to, the dull dreariness of today fades – things look brighter. Nouwen compares it to receiving a letter from a loved one, with news that we will see each other soon. There is expectation and joy (probably accompanied by a sudden awareness of the impending housecleaning tasks). Without the joy of our hopes, our patience will be very short-lived.
“…Our intimate relationship with God can become deeper and more mature while we wait patiently in expectation for his return (p. 61).”

Out of Solitude - Part 2

Henri Nouwen's three meditations on the Christian life presented in this little book seem so simple - and so deep. The book is divided into three sections: Out of Solitude, With Care, and In Expectation. Here are my thoughts on the second part:

Mark 6:32-44
The knee-jerk response of seeing need, pain, suffering is to seek change – a cure. “What we do not see and do not want to see is care: the participation in the pain, the solidarity in suffering, the sharing in the experience of brokenness (p. 35).
Being with the people in their pain. This idea of care is evident in the life and work of Mother Teresa, whose homes for the dying created a place for the people of Calcutta to face death held by loving, caring hands. There is a time for action, for demanding change, for seeking a cure. “…Cure without care is as dehumanizing as a gift given with a cold heart (p. 36).” Care must be the foundation for all action taken to cure.

Care
In Beyond Borders, Dr. Callahan (played by Clive Owen) has been living in Ethiopia conducting relief efforts during the famine in the 1980s. Sarah Beauford (Angelina Jolie) has been introduced to the needs and inspired to take action for change. Dr. Callhan helps the naïve but well-meaning woman to see things differently:
“What’s the first thing you do when you get a cold?”
“Uh... chicken soup, aspirin, scotch...”
“You never just have the cold?”

“I don't know what…”

“Taken nothing. Just have the cold?”

“No.”
“No, and that's us, right? We drown it. Kill it. Numb it, anything not to feel. You know, when I was a doctor in London, no one ever said 'medahani'. They don't thank you like they thank you here. Cos here they feel everything, straight from God. There's no drugs, no painkillers. It's the weirdest, purest thing - suffering…”

Dr. Callahan’s insight came from first-hand experience in caring for the Ethiopian people. Following the word care to its roots, it means “to grieve, to experience sorrow, to cry out with”(Nouwen, p. 37). It is to admit that we do not understand, we do not know what to say or how to fix it. Words are often unnecessary; we are simply present to the other person. Cure without care is abused power – we are only trying to manipulate and control the situation.

Community and Care
How can form caring communities? For starters, we’ve got to get over this ridiculous idea that “I’m only one person…I can’t make any significant difference.” If every person believed this, our world would be devoid of both care and cure. We do not need special training to care for those placed in our path. We must simply do it. But we don’t. Why?
Henri Nouwen asks this question in such a way that the answer begins to emerge:
“Why is it we keep that great gift of care so deeply hidden? Why is it that we keep giving dimes without daring to look into the face of the beggar? Why is it that we do not join the lonely eater in the dining hall but look for those we know so well? Why is it that we so seldom knock on a door or grab a phone, just to say hello, just to show that we have been thinking about each other? Why are smiles still hard to get and words of comfort so difficult to come by? Why is it so hard to express thanks to a teacher, admiration to a student, and appreciation to the men and women who cook, clean, and garden? Why do we keep bypassing each other always on the way to something or someone more important (p. 43)?”
Are we afraid of how we will appear to others? Are our schedules so fully booked that we simply have no time for our fellow human beings? Do we have our own ideas of what things and people should be?
Care requires “the honest recognition and confession of our human sameness (p. 45).” This is the basis of true community. As true community is conceived and nurtured, these communities will naturally be caring to those “outside” of the community.

Out of Solitude - Part 1

Henri Nouwen's three meditations on the Christian life presented in this little book seem so simple - and so deep. The book is divided into three sections: Out of Solitude, With Care, and In Expectation. Here are my thoughts on the first part:

Mark 1:32-39
Action is born out of solitude. Time alone gives rise to effective ministry. “Surrounded by hours of moving, we find a moment of quiet stillness (Nouwen, p. 17).” We are to cultivate a lonely place within, where only our Father has access – where he rests in the midst of every storm.

Our Life in Action
“…although the desire to be useful can be a sign of mental and spiritual health in out goal-oriented society, it can also become a source of a paralyzing lack of self-esteem (pp. 21-22).”
It is all too easy to define our worth (or worthlessness) according to the success (or failure) of our actions – as perceived by ourselves and others through the lens of the norm. We emphasize success, yet we live our lives in constant fear that the real us will be discovered – that others will see us for what we really are: “not as smart, as good, or as lovable as the world was made to believe (p. 23).” We give ourselves over to – and are enslaved by – the illusions we have constructed around ourselves. Adaptation is mistaken for intention, seduction for reality (Young, p. 123).

Our Life in Solitude
“A life without a lonely place, that is, a life without a quiet center, easily becomes destructive (Nouwen, p. 25).”
Solitude is defined as the state of being or living alone; remoteness from habitations; a lonely unfrequented place; absence of human activity (Dictionary.com). In such a place, we can learn to rest free from the compulsion to define ourselves by what we can grab, conquer, claim. We can become open and receptive, defining our lives in gratitude by what is given to us. This frees us to give and share, rather than take and defend. It loosens our grip on the world and the world’s grip on us. We learn to see worth as distinctly other than usefulness. Results and success loose their power over us.
By nature of the fact that we are born into this world and are continuously surrounded and fed by it, we love our world. Solitude sets a healthy distance between us and the world, allowing us to see it more objectively – revealing its false realities.

God...with skin.

Ronald Rolheiser, in The Holy Longing, explores what he calls the "under understood" mystery of the incarnation:

"The incarnation is not a thirty-three year experiment by God in history, a one-shot, physical incursion into our lives. The incarnation began with Jesus and it has never stopped. The ascension of Jesus did not end, not fundamentally change, the incarnation. God's physical body is still among us. God is still present, as physical and as ready today, as God was in the historical Jesus. God still has skin, human skin, and physically walks on this earch just as Jesus did (The Holy Longing, p 79)."

This physical body is us. You and me. Here on this planet...We are the Body of Christ.

What are the practical effects of this incarnation on our spirituality?
(Note: A theist is a person who believes in God; a Christian is one who believes in a God who is incarnate. Thus a theist would not be much affected practically by the incarnation; a Christian is defined by it.)
I am sure the practical implications are countless....Rolheiser names eight....and I've only read the first one: how we should pray. If we am the continued incarnation of the Christ spirit, and we pray through Jesus Christ (or in his name), "not only God in heaven is being petitioned and asked to act. We are also charging ourselves, as part of the Body of Christ, with some responsibility for answering the prayer. To pray as a Christian demands concrete involvement in trying to bring about what is pleaded for in the prayer (p 83)."

We are to be God with skin to the people around us. We pray for people and situations...but we do not leave it at that. We look for very real ways to be part of the answer to our own prayer.

Make sense?

This brings to mind a recent "experiment" Mom and I did in Kidz Church a few weeks ago. We were starting on our compassion ("social justice tradition") series....and sat everyone, including ourselves, in a big circle. Everyone was given a card that said, "This week I will pray every day for _____. S/he has asked that I pray for __________." Everyone wrote the name of the person on their right in the first blank; that person's request in the second. Mom was being prayed for by an 8-year-old girl, fairly new to the group but very attentive. She promised to pray every day that Mom would have new ideas for her artwork. Later that week, we held our mid-week gathering out at the Cedar Creek picnic area/campground. This little girl came with her mother....and brought a big, thick book of great art ideas and gave it to Mom.
She had been praying....and she became part of the answer to her own prayer. This is how the incarnation brings life to our prayers.

Mind-Body....Silence

Matthew Sanford was paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident when he was 13 years old. In the twenty-something years following, he has learned a lot about the mind-body relationship and the silence there waiting to be discovered. Krista Tippet (Speaking of Faith) interviewed Sanford last fall; I've now listened through this interview...3 times? It makes a lot of sense to me...and touches something on a deeper level. I'm not sure what exactly. Here's the page from SPF's website...

The Body's Grace: Matthew Sanford's Story

I just ordered his memoir yesterday...Waking: A Memoir of Trauma and Transcendence.

And here's the video interview:

Matthew Sanford Interview from Speaking of Faith on Vimeo.

Desire

Ronald Rolheiser, in The Holy Longing, says that all of creation is driven by desire. That desire is the driving force behind all of life's happenings. Desire. And our "spirituality" is what we do with that desire - how we channel it.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own insight; in all your ways acknowledge him..."

This is all about directing/channeling desire God-ward. It would be helpful, then (and perhaps critical), to entertain the ongoing question:
What desire is driving me in this very moment?
What drives a beetle to scritch across the patio and puch through the grass to some mystery destination (have you ever wondered where they go?)? What drives a bird to weave a nest? We can dismiss this as mere instinct...but isn't it really some form of desire? What drives my dogs to to get excited and crazy when they think it's time to go for a walk? Desire. What drives a child to clean his/her bedroom (even under compulsion)? Desire. Why am I here right now, writing this? Desire.

Invitation to a Journey

I got the first few books that were listed for last semester's beginning classes for the MSFL. They're all so....GOOD! I've been reading Robert Mulholland's Invitation to a Journey...and finding a clearer vision, intention, and means of living a life of dicsipleship to Christ. He starts by defining "spiritual formation" - terminology, in our culture of self-improvement, that can so easily be misused. As Mulholland defines it, spiritual formation is "a process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others" (p.15). The chapters on creation gifts and holistic spirituality took an in-depth look at Jung's personality types and how these would influence the journey to Christlikeness. This is not approached from the standpoint of, "This is my personality type, so it's ok that I don't want to do this discipline or that practice. It's just not me." No, no. Instead, we look at and nurture our personality preferences...but we also challenge our preference to develop balanced habits.
Mulholland then goes into the classical stages of Christian pilgrimage: awakening, purgation, illumination, and union. Interestingly, this was touched on at the very beginning of the "Mystic Saints" retreat in Pecos. Purgation is the stage, I think, that we want to gloss over. So many conversations in the church center on the initial conversion experience (awakening) and the "high times," when we suppose God is going to zap us into perfection. Purgation is the slow and painful process of releasing the habits of thought and behavior that keep us from Him....of allowing our hearts to be transformed so that we become the kind of people who can be united to Him. It is this stage that we find the spiritual disciplines - means by which God is given access to the deepest places of our hearts (though there is a need for discipline through every stage in the journey, it seems they are most prevalent in purgation - though I could be totally wrong :o).

What I read today is an exploration into the "classical spiritual disciplines." Mullholland gives a totally new perspective on the very definition of prayer and touches on spiritual reading....but what has really captured my attention are his thoughts on liturgy. Consisting of worship, daily office, study, fasting, and retreat, liturgy is a "personal structure of daily activity" that helps us to more continuously see our lives in the context of "God's new order of being" (pp. 115-116). It's a daily rhythm that is essential to the journey....it helps us to stay rooted in a different reality from what is contstantly pressing us in the visible world. It reminds us of the community of believers, companions on the journey, with and for whom we are being transformed.

This is all sooooo...yummy! Next we go into the nature and dynamics of the spiritual disciplines.

The Shack

"God as you've never seen Him before!"

No kidding.

I'm two-thirds through the book right now...it's hard to put down! Without giving away the plot (because, quite simply, should read this book), I can say that I am finally getting a real taste of GOD...his personality, his character, his desires, his playfulness, his love. It's really quite remarkable. William Young (the author) had had quite a revelation of the Father. Last night I read through a scene that...helped me understand the idea of redemption through the Cross. It clarified the reasoning....the sheer, unspeakably deep love...behind the Cross. My mind keeps going back to it. What love!

Yesterday morning, in Renovation of the Heart (in daily practice), I was challenged to look more closely at one loving thing Jesus did...to put myself in the place of the person being loved...and to receive that image of God's love as a gift for the day. I chose Jesus' encounter with the leper in Matthew 8. I imagined the look in Jesus' eyes as he lovingly, emphatically said, "I do choose. Be whole!" Following this up with image after image of God's love found in The Shack, are there even words that come remotely close to describing the feeling in my heart?

It lends all new meaning to the song "Jesus loves me."

Metamorpha.com

I have come across a website that is an invaluable resource for anyone wanting to explore and discuss a life of Christian spiritual formation. Metamorpha.com, stemming off Kyle Strobel's book
Metamorpha, has great forums and excellent articles and video resources regarding life in this way of Christ. If you haven't been there already, go check it out!

Swimming in God

Sitting quietly this morning, medidating on Psalm 41:6 -- "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble..." -- something occured to me. Everything...everything I think, say, and do....is thought, spoken, and done in the context of God. That sounds simplistic. But it's not, really! It's HUGE!
He is my refuge (around me, protecting me), my strength (surging up from deep within me), and a very present help (near me, as a friend, to assist and encourage and love). Every word that comes out of my mouth originates from, is formed in, and goes tumbling out into a sea of God's presence. Every thought. Every little motion of my body.

I've been playing around with Laubach's Game with Minutes, training my mind to settle more continually in God's presence. I have found it helpful today to remind myself as I type out emails, answer phone calls, trudge through tasks in Photoshop....that all is done in the context of God. Swimming in God. That gives all deeper meaning to the workd of the song: "In him we live and move and have our being..."

Jesus for...."President"?

I just watched a video yesterday that helped me grapple with this book a little better. I found it on Krista Tippet's Speaking of Faith website. It's an interview she conducted at the National Pastor's Convention....with (get this) Chuck Colson, Greg Boyd, and Shane Claiborne.

When I first heard about this book, Jesus for President, I felt a tinge of...you know that "Eeeks!" feeling you get when you know something might really tick you or someone you know off? Yeah, that's the feeling. I didn't give it much thought. I just knew that a book with that title, coming out in an election year could, uh...raise some hair. At one point during the interview, Greg Boyd said something about the title of the book....Calling Jesus "Lord" really doesn't mean much anymore. We don't have any lords...not in the same way they did way back when. But when you call Jesus President, you start stepping on toes and getting a feel for what a touchy phrase "Jesus is Lord" would have been at the time.

Jesus for President! Commitment to Christ and his Way...placed before any social or political allegiance. It makes total sense. Sounds great. But put into practice, it will mean giving up some sacred cows.

Check out the interview and related resources here.

What to do with a lazy mind?

"I am perhaps more lazy mentally than the average person.."

I don't know how often or for how long I turn my thoughts to God during an "average day," but I do know that the last two days I have done so even less. A lot of things going on and I guess my assumption is that I must be fully absorbed in all that's going on in order to deal with it effectively. But in Laubach's experience, the more effort he poured into this Game, the easier every other "outside" activity became. But it's hard work to change habitual patterns of thought. And I find that I am, like Laubach, "perhaps more lazy mentally than the average person..." I seem to lack the ability to articulate my thoughts or the small, seemingly insignificant things of my life in clear and creative ways. I envy those who can. What seems to come so naturally to them takes so much effort for me. But I feel this is a hurdle that I can overcome. Laubach's words are so fitting....

" The experiment which I am trying is the most strenuous discipline which any man ever attempted. I am not succeeding in keeping God in my mind very many hours of the day...
...The moment I turn to Him it is like turning on an electric current which I feel through my whole being. I find also that the effort to keep God in my mind does something to my mind which every mind needs to have done to it. I am given something difficult enough to keep my mind with a keen edge. The constant temptation of every man is to allow his mind to grow old and lose its edge. I feel that I am perhaps more lazy mentally than the average person, and I require the very mental discipline which this constant effort affords."

(Frank Laubach, June 15, 1930 - Letters by a Modern Mystic)

Jesus for President....further thoughts

Alright....so I started reading the book and got sidetracked with school. Now I'm back on it with a vengence!!!

My initial reaction to hearing that this book was going to be released was...a strange mixture of excitement and...angst. I had the same feelings as I read The Irresistible Revolution. Now, a couple months after finishing it, I find myself just hungry for more and yet...frustrated because I have no idea where to start changing my lifestyle! There are always "these here reasons." But maybe as I immerse my mind in these ideas...my heart in this truth...right action will be the result.


When I first opened Jesus for President, I was confronted with eight pages of...well, truth. Having grown up in a politically conservative pastor's family, I felt a tinge of defensiveness. But then I wondered why...and read on.
Where to begin, where to begin???
I love the way Shane and Chris open up the cultural/political context of the biblical narrative. It sets so many of the stories in a new and fresh light.
This book is similar to Irresistible Revolution in that the ideas (or is it one unified and strangely intricate-but-simple idea?)are so huge and...potent, yet small...very...well, small.
In that way, the book takes on the same characteristics as the Kingdom - the way Shane and Chris describe it.

The Kingdom of God... is like a mustard seed..." ~Luke 13

Busting out of the popular mold this parable is so often crammed into, the book sheds light on Jesus' inteded meaning...by looking at some matters of culture and context. I'd breeze over this and go on to my next great thought about the book...but I don't have one. As far as I've read in the book (I'm just starting Section Three), this idea is foundational. Much of what I've read so far can be taken back down to this essential truth....so I'm gonna hash it out.
First of all, this is more than the tiny-seed-turned-big-tree lesson we usually hear. Mustard actually grows like a wild bush...like kudzu. Small, pesky, but extrememly powerful. Jews weren't allowed to plant it in their gardens because it would take over the garden...and allow the growth of a "public nuisance." Folks back then were used to thinking of the Kingdom in terms of the huge "cedars of Lebanon." Jesus turned that upside-down! His view of kingdom was nothing like what we have come to associate. I can't beat the way Shane and Chris have put it:

"What Jesus had in mind was not a frontal attack on the empires of this world. His revolution is a subtle contagion - one little life, one little hospitality house at a time. Isn't it interesting that Saul of Tarsus went door-to-door trying to tear up the contagion, like it was a wild week? But the harder people tried to eradicate it, the faster it spread. When mustard is crushed, its potency is released....So there goes Jesus spinning power on its head again. His power was not in crushing but in being crushed, triumphing over the empire's sword with his cross." (p 104)

That all sounds well and good....from a distance. It's nice talk if I want to sound devout and pious. But He meant it to be lived. And not just within the "bounds" of religion.
Speaking of this in terms of faith, religion, belief - whatever you want to call it - I can handle that. It's when I try to translate these ideas to the realm of politics....that's when I start to squirm.

Later on....p 123..."This king rules with a towel, not a sword. In the kingdom of God, we descend into greatness." That's it. The upside-downness of God's kingdom. Christ said Follow me, then went to the cross. This is not a gospel of self-preservation. So much of what I do is absolutely, utterly soaked in preserving my own "well-being." So much of the political action taken in our country (and other countries, to be sure), is in self-defense. Damn the upside-down kingdom! Full speed ahead! And we drop bombs. We kill innocent people. We leave truly needy people in the dust.

"Sure my citizenship is ultimately in heaven, but I have to live in the 'real' world now." I can sooooo relate to this! Part of me sees the lie of redemptive violence. But part of me squirms and screams, But what about the terrorists? What about them? What's to be done with them? We can't just let them get away with it!! In the name of idolatrous self-preservation (call it whatever you want), I settle for a temporary fix. Like taking meds instead of addressing the root problem. Like bandaging a contagious infection. Like whitewashing a tomb.

Maybe this Kingdom of God...does work down deep...quiet...small...but with unspeakable power. Maybe His way won't lead to my idea of "well-being"...the preservation of the many comforts I love and depend on. Maybe....just maybe...the results will be more slow in coming. But they will be lasting. And real.

That's all for now. I'll write more when I've read further. So far.....there are lot and lots of questions. And that's good.

Laubach said that one way to win this "Game with Minutes" is to tell friends about it. So I will. I'll share it with you. How many minutes can you spend with Him today? Can you think of him for one second this minute?

"All day long we are contented, whatever our lot may be, for He is with us.
'When Jesus goes with me, I'll go anywhere.'"
~Frank Laubach, The Game with Minutes

Jesus for President - Blog Tour

I just ordered the book from Amazon today. It looks really great.

For God alone my soul waits...

"For God alone my soul waits in silence..."





This business of waiting is intertwined with Jesus' words "Let your light shine before others." I am a light to the world only insofar as I am attentive to the Light within. That's what it is to wait "for God alone" in silence.


So I sit, stand, wait in His Light...and become filled with Light...to then be Light to the world around me. To go into the world, seeing it in a new way--through the sheen of His Light, causing it to be seen in a new way, and causing it to change--to be new in some small (yet somehow very great) way.



Jesus called us the Light of the world.


"...You are the One in charge and You have all the power; and the glory, too, is all Yours forever, which is just the way we want it." (from Dallas Willard's paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer)

YOU (being God) have ALL the power and ALL the glory. Which means that none of it is mine.

None of it is mine.

None of it is mine. No power, no glory.

I have no power, I have no glory. None of my own. It's all His. Yours, Abba.

This frees me from two things that plague me (though my guess is that I'm not alone in this):
1) Thinking I am/should be omnipotent. All powerful. That I can/must do everything. "Everything" includes controlling schedules and destinies (my own, of course, and others' if they'll let me!).
2)Trying to appear "glorious" to others -- opinion/impression management.
These are not what God created me to do or be. Meditating on the reality that He has ALL the power and glory...will gradually change deep-seated beliefs, and I will at last be free to live Life as God intended it. Waiting on Him. Walking with Him. Being filled with His Light.


What's your idea of a practicing Christian? I mean, what images come to mind when you hear the words "practicing Christian"? Be honest and attentive.

"A practicing Christian must above all be one who practices the perpetual return of the soul into the inner sanctuary, who brings the world into its Light and rejudges it, who brings the Light into the world with all its turmoil and its fitfullness and re-creates it..."
~Thomas Kelly

You are the Light of the world.

"Let your Light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven."
~Jesus (in Matthew 5:16)

Irresistible Revolution (further thoughts)...

As I was reading further in Claiborne's book last night, I realized part of what is making me so uncomfortable with it. There are still things in it that I question...that need to be questioned, I think. But a large part of my discomfort is that I've settled into a different Gospel than the one Claiborne is living--and I'm starting to see that his is closer than mine to the Gospel Christ preashed and lived. He's presenting the Gospel in such a way...it's really, really different. Dangerious, I'd even say. It's not a comfortable message. It's not safe. It doesn't promise safety--physical or otherwise. And I'm beginning to think that it's more accurate to the Gospel Jesus preached and lived. But something in me doesn't want to look at it anymore. I like being comfortable. And safety is paramount. I can't even imagine knowingly making decisions that would really threaten my safety.
This Gospel is not comfortable and it's not safe, and I don't want to look at it. But something in me can't help but look at it. A tiny part of me wants it. A bigger part of me wants to be safe and comfy.
But the Gospel Jesus preached wasn't comfy or safe. It didn't lead Jesus to a safe place (naturally speaking). It lead Him to physical death, and He was ok with that. I see that trait in Claiborne's writings as well...and it irritates me! Because I'm not ok with it! I, like John Wesley earlier in his life, am afraid to die.
So...if I am to be perfectly honest, if the Gospel is a gospel that leads to death--I don't want it. That's my condition. It stinks. I know this. But I find myself unsure how to shake free of it.

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds." (Romans 12:2)

It's a complete turn-around in my thinking. That is the only way that I can begin to step into the reality of the Gospel as Christ proclaimed and lived. And a thought revolution can only take place as my mind is bathed in the Word. As Dallas Willard has said, Scripture must become part of the "furniture of the mind." Scripture in all its truth, in its real meaning, no matter how much it offends my current thinking.