shh

In reference to a totally hip, totally edgy Facebook post of mine the other day, a friend asked if I question the existence of God. Below is my response. I am infinitely interested by this topic, and thought that what I wrote was so well written that everyone in cyberspace should see it. 
The modern blog makes everyone #brilliant.

//pragmatism in the church is the worst. ever//

I like to believe that for one to not question something, especially something as near and dear to many such as the existence of the transcendent, may prove to be more detrimental than helpful to one’s overall existence as a human being. 

||This, for the most part, is how people are wired||
We ask questions, we find answers, and find more questions to ask about the answers we’ve received.

Now.
there is without a doubt a certain measure of faith that is involved regarding actively questioning the existence of God (mark 2:5, mark 4:40, mark 10:52 to cite just a few). For instance, it takes a certain measure of faith to assume there is even something worth inquiring about. There is faith involved in asking the question, “are you real?” … for this assumes that one doesn’t speak into thin air, but rather to something/one who could very well share the same emotions and feelings that we do.

The problem.
… and this refers to the idea of pragmatism in the modern, western church … occurs when there is ONLY faith, and there is little or no thought to our faith. I can believe that God loves me, but that belief can only take me so far before we run into some sort of dilemma (e.g. I’m depressed, but God is supposed to love me, and love feels good. Why then am I depressed? God must not exist). 

Why does God love?
What makes it possible for God to love?
How do I know such a thing is real?
These are questions (crucial questions!) that ought to be asked by church leaders, but seem to fall by the wayside because
-Inconvenience 
-people “aren’t ready” for such tough topics
-Boring 

The Church as a community of God’s people ought to be better | Ought to be more thoughtful about social, spiritual, emotional turmoil | Ought to be so much more than a victim of disgusting, fluffy, sentimental pragmatism.

Thanks. And be well.

 

And now, for it…

And now, for it is time, I will prove their orgies to be full of imposture and quackery.

-clement of alexandria

You’re resume is lousy

This is a blog. Amateur writing by a professional amateur.

In recent weeks, value has been a prevalent topic of discussion among friends and family.

Not monetary value. Although, that may play a part.

When one receives a gift, what is the response? I would hope, as I have seen such responses in the past, that the it is a care for both the giver, as well as the gift itself. We receive a gift, and we care for it. We spend time thinking about it, and the one who gave it to us.
What makes it good?
What makes it special?
Great? Epic? Stellar?

In a time and place where value is incredibly difficult to come by, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that either “I am not of value to others” or the trump card, “You’re of not value to me”.

The punchline is as follows

//These are unhealthy way of understanding humanity//

what is healthy?

When we receive gifts, we understand (I would hope) the idea and action of caring. The question is, what happens when we begin to view humanity … our friends, family, enemies, annoyances, acquaintances … as what they really are and were meant to be? Gifts.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not one to write or think in some sloppy religious sentimentality. I’m not writing to say that “everyone is a gift from God”. I’m writing to to note that humanity is an opportunity to commune with God, to see and witness the truth of a real, tangible love that transcends politeness.

The experiment is looking at people. Followed by an understanding that individuals are packed with experience … stories of incredible joy, and overwhelming sadness. Each individual experiences joie de vivre and sorrow in very rich, and very individual ways. That individual as a piece of a very large, and very (potentially) beautiful mosaic that we like to give the name humanity.

What then? I treat everyone with respect? Am I just … polite?

Fine question. And I sense the sarcasm in your voice.

When we transform the way we understand the other, we no longer see resumes or applications.
“You’re good … You’re alright … You’re not worth my time”
We see value for what its really worth. Experience. Losses and gains in love. Bouts with depression overcome by a paroxysm of jubilation.

Aren’t we meant for much more? More dignity? Respect? Love? A resume is no longer lousy. Rather, its an opportunity to see into the life of another, and see an individual to be loved, cared for and respected.

Take an opportunity to reach into the experience of “the other” and see firsthand that beauty exists in that person. They … you… we are not walking resumes.
We are a glimpses into an inimitable, and overwhelming winsomeness called humanity.

Bobby Womack says

I was the third brother of five,
Doing whatever I had to do to survive.
I’m not saying what I did was alright,
Trying to break out of the ghetto was a day to day fight.

Wendell Berry Says ::

“But if there is a food politics, there are also a food esthetics and a food ethics, neither of which is dissociated from politics. Like industrial sex, industrial eating has become a degraded, poor, and paltry thing. Our kitchens and other eating places more and more resemble filling stations, as our homes more and more resemble motels. “Life is not very interesting,” we seem to have decided. “Let its satisfactions be minimal, perfunctory, and fast.” We hurry through our meals to go to work and hurry through our work in order to “recreate” ourselves in the evenings and on weekends and vacations. And then we hurry, with the greatest possible speed and noise and violence, through our recreation — for what? To eat the billionth hamburger at some fast-food joint hellbent on increasing the “quality” of our life? And all this is carried out in a remarkable obliviousness to the causes and effects, the possibilities and the purposes, of the life of the body in this world.”

-Wendell Berry-

I really feel for this guy

living life

I have recently been spending some time in John 15. It is here that Jesus discusses with his listeners that the life God wants for us demands more from us.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit.

How do we live life? Its often the case that we live life with a simplicity and risk-less predictability to it. We take the good, and stay away from the bad. This is easy, especially for a lot of us in the southern orange county region. Life is good, therefore, God must also be good. However, this is not the message that I see in Christ’s teaching here. Your life is good, God wants to make it better.

Pruning is usually an arduous process for the vine and, I would argue, the vinedresser. The process of pruning is done in order to 1) remove dead pieces that aren’t producing, 2)shaping and improving the health of the vine, and 3) increase the yield and/or quality of the fruit.

so//

My life isn’t producing.
My life is in dire need of shaping and improving
My life must produce more quality fruit

As mentioned before, life is good, but God wants to make it better. More often than not, however, this is done by the removal of dead branches in our life. These are the branches that don’t yield fruit or prevent fruit from growing. These are the things that we want to hold on to, as they are so near and dear to our hearts. Bank accounts, cars, friends, relationships, books, our thoughts, ideas, passions… stuff… perhaps these are the things we must allow to be pruned, to be cut off, in order for the health of vine. the idea here is that we allow certain things to stand in the way between who we are now, and who we are meant to be. When these branches or pruned, our life then begins to take shape into something beautiful. Creativity, poetry, art, beauty, love, righteousness… these are the things that take hold of our life when dead branches are removed and healthy branches are allowed to flourish. When good fruit produces, the quality of such fruit only increases over time.

Let me say that when God does pare down our lives, it usually is uneasy and frustrating. Obviously when someone takes something away from us that we feel attached to, no matter how unhealthy it may be for us, we feel it our right to fight for that something.  Ideas that follow are, “God is allowing bad things to happen, therefore, God is bad,” begin to take root. However, just as when a grimy mirror is cleaned and we see ourselves in it for the first time, we see who we were truly meant to be after the pruning process is finished.

So//where are things in our lives that we feel we need to “release” in order to be made whole?

ouch.

Miroslav Volf says

“I’m not a universalist,
but maybe God is.”

survey saturday!

Giving some thought as to how to get some feedback from you people reading.  What better way to do so than to ask you, plain and simple, what you think about things.

Books. We read them, eat them up, learn from them, and critique them.  I want to know what books have played a role in your life.  Feel free to explain they what, where, when, why and how about your experience with any particular book mentioned.

And the survey says…

1. A book that excites you just by looking at it
2. A book that has changed how you think, feel, love, etc.
3. Best book that you’ve come across in 2011… new or old
4. A classic you just cant let go of
5. Favorite book to loan

Allow me to go first//

1. Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis (read at L’Abri)
2. My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potock (My first real piece of literature)
3. Vipers Tangle, Francois Mauriac
4. Anything Oscar Wilde (never gets old)
5. C.S. Lewis SciFi trilogy (just a delight. especially for all your nerd.

Your turn. Make it happen.

Jack (C.S.) Lewis Says

In this kind of love do you love me means
do
you
see
the same truth?
The man who agrees with us that some question, little regarded by others ,is of great importance, can be our friend.
He need not agree with us about the answer.