One of my favorite authors, James K.A. Smith talks freely surrounding the new theme of his book, Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation (Cultural Liturgies) A Fantastic primer and discussion guide for how our appetites, desire, or the things that we love do more to shape us than we could ever realize or know. Enjoy! I need to listen to it over and over again to remember the gems!
Defining "The Good Life" - Inner Compass from Calvin College on Vimeo.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Understand dependence when you know the Maker's plan
On a tree my leaves would grow, but bitter torrents have stripped the sew and I'm pissed off at the High Street now for taking down their signage just because of a roue.
Come out your stores and feed us fat, licentious nests of dying streeter cats. Why hold onto what's gone in the morning, if night is night then life to be lived is strife without warning
I've held onto what scorched my soul, my hands softer than ever before. I can wake and hear the distant guilt but really it was worth the manifold wilt.
I could believe my own if it weren't such a stench, to know I'm a flower that's rotting on a fence - while the bitter cold sweeps round about me, seed or not sown, my life is but just bounty
So speak this word of words long lost, tell me a spell that burns the frost - I want more than my soul can share to burst wide open free from the tare.
I was meant to write so much softer - my hope that this death and guilt tarry less and less ofter. Hope - a four letter phrase that fills my mouth but rots like mais, ever darker but never dismayed
So have your cult and eat it too on altars built by soft hands only a few, a soul that scorched others refrain and led the slaughter towards an oncoming train
I 'll have what's lost, it's better than yorn - a life so full of roue and scorn. Judgement makes my life a little bit easier, an enemy who's a saint - wrapped in blood as salvation gets queasier
I'd like remove my continuous flare but life is night and without out it - I'd be over there
Come out your stores and feed us fat, licentious nests of dying streeter cats. Why hold onto what's gone in the morning, if night is night then life to be lived is strife without warning
I've held onto what scorched my soul, my hands softer than ever before. I can wake and hear the distant guilt but really it was worth the manifold wilt.
I could believe my own if it weren't such a stench, to know I'm a flower that's rotting on a fence - while the bitter cold sweeps round about me, seed or not sown, my life is but just bounty
So speak this word of words long lost, tell me a spell that burns the frost - I want more than my soul can share to burst wide open free from the tare.
I was meant to write so much softer - my hope that this death and guilt tarry less and less ofter. Hope - a four letter phrase that fills my mouth but rots like mais, ever darker but never dismayed
So have your cult and eat it too on altars built by soft hands only a few, a soul that scorched others refrain and led the slaughter towards an oncoming train
I 'll have what's lost, it's better than yorn - a life so full of roue and scorn. Judgement makes my life a little bit easier, an enemy who's a saint - wrapped in blood as salvation gets queasier
I'd like remove my continuous flare but life is night and without out it - I'd be over there
Monday, October 25, 2010
Could it be that music Messiah is come?
Longing for a tune that reduces me to tears, for a song that gives back just a few years, and then for a cup of tea that tastes like a few stout beers.
I used to like wheat beer - twas smooth and kind to my bitter fear - now I taste for an IPA, too long awaited and too much fricking day. Bring the evening, for that pint of mine, though alcoholic some say, it really just means sublime.
Once I heard a tune, and it was fair, yet these young lads sang and now I stand upwards in my chair to belt above your blasted noise and bring this riddle of pure rejoice. Please listen and weep for days of thunder that stole through noise of this pure melodic wonder.
Have fun and listen responsibly eh
I used to like wheat beer - twas smooth and kind to my bitter fear - now I taste for an IPA, too long awaited and too much fricking day. Bring the evening, for that pint of mine, though alcoholic some say, it really just means sublime.
Once I heard a tune, and it was fair, yet these young lads sang and now I stand upwards in my chair to belt above your blasted noise and bring this riddle of pure rejoice. Please listen and weep for days of thunder that stole through noise of this pure melodic wonder.
Have fun and listen responsibly eh
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Dr. Al Mohler, Please Reconsider your comments!
Dr. Al Mohler, President of the Souther Baptist Theological Seminary recently participated in a three part conversation about the New Calvinism. It was an interesting conversation with good dialogue until about the 7 minute mark. I felt it necessary to write in response to his remark and so here it goes.
DeYoung, Duncan, Mohler: What's New About the New Calvinism from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.
In this clip, Al Mohler asks, "Where else are they going to go? What options are there? If you are a theologically minded, deeply convictional young evangelical, if you're committed to the Gospel, and you want to see the nations rejoice in the name of Christ, if you want to see Gospel built and structured and committed churches, your theology is just going to end basically being Reformed, basically being something like this New Calvinism, ugh or you're going to have to invent some other label for what's just going to be the same thing.
There just are not options out there and that's something that I think frustrates people...ugh but what I'm asking about the New Calvinism is basically, Where else are they going to go? Who else is going to answer their questions? Where else are they going to find the resources they're going to need and where else are they going to connect? This is a generation that understands, they want to say the same thing Paul said, they want to stand with the Apostles, they want to stand with old dead people, and they know they are going to have to if they are going to preach and teach the truth."
Whoa! Well, I have to disagree based upon the fact that there are other options and good ones at that. The list of characteristics that he described seem to fit where I am at along with many others that I know but we actually have found other options. Is my only option the New Calvinism? I wasn't aware that we would all end up bowing the knee and confessing with our tongue that the New Calvinism was the truth to preach and teach.
The Reformation was a great time in history and has offered us so much that is good and right and true, but what about 1500 years of Christianity that preceded it, what about the global church and the untapped self-theologizing of the Majority World? Will they all figure out once they self-theologize that they too are part of the New Calvinism? Will African theology agree with the New Calvinism? Will Chinese theology be a fan? Will South America allow this Western Reformation tradition to direct how they do theology? What about Native North America? Will they also bow the knee to the New Calvinism? An audacious claim such as this only breeds contempt and is typical of much of our Western dominated theological vision. It only feeds our narcissism and top-down evaluation of the rest of the world's input at the table of theological dialogue.
Paul Hiebert, the late and well-respected anthropologist/missiologist, talks about how global theology, where in each culture has input on the interpretation of Scripture and reality, is more like a blueprint than a map. It seems that Dr. Mohler would have us believe that our history in theology and self-theologizing is more like a map that we are slowly plotting and discovering and we only have to look back at what was initially discovered and laid out as we plod on to new ground, though there is little to discover that is of much importance.
Paul Hiebert sees it much differently. Our Western tradition only represents certain sheets of the blueprint of the narrative of Scripture, the truth about God and the message of the Gospel. We are limited in our understanding of the entire blueprint because God has only given the Western tradition so much of the blueprint to work on and help others see. But as the Gospel is established in the Majority world, we will see many nuances and major insights about Scripture that we have never seen before as they are discovered by people in contexts that we have never visited or even known about before. They offer the rest of the church another page of the blueprint and though the Western tradition of theology has helped tremendously with our pages of the blueprint, now it's time to hear from others and allow their pages to be held up, seen and appreciated and at times for them to critique our over-emphasis on our pages of the blueprint. Altogether, we will be able to see God's vision for his church built if we allow for the entire blueprint to be accessed and referred to. As long as the Western tradition thinks that our pages are the only pages or the most important ones, then we deny the rest of the church access to the grand vision of God's work in history and as such should be ashamed.
Statements like Dr. Mohler's only encourage that agenda and as such need to be checked, rebutted and dealt with swiftly but gently. My guess is that gentleness may not work in this case, though it is the way of God.
"Dr. Mohler, you're a good man, but your evaluation of this New Calvinism movement and the tradition of Calvinism as you define it is far to myopic for the more robust and grander vision that still awaits us and that lead up to the Reformation. Please don't ignore the rest of the world or and their coming voice, or the 1500 years of church history and tradition leading up to the Reformation. We do not all want to be Calvinists. We do read Paul, we do stand with the Apostles, we do respect the voices of many dead saints from history, but we also read and dwell in the living words of a living Savior who is not dead. We have convictions, we love Jesus, we rejoice in the name of Jesus being lifted high in the nations and we want to see the glory of the Lord fill the earth but do not want to be Reformed or become Calvinists and there are going to be many more like us. We have good places to go and we don't have to end up at your door necessarily. That kind of hegemony has never been good for any society and I hope that you would retract your statement and honor the nations, the coming theologies, all of church history and those who think radically different than you do but still love Jesus wholeheartedly because they are your brothers and your sisters and you have disrespected them. Please reconsider and join the community of the globe in our desire to honor Christ in spite of our differences in theological trajectories and visions. Thank you for your hard work and commitment and blessings on your journey!
-Nathan Smith
DeYoung, Duncan, Mohler: What's New About the New Calvinism from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.
In this clip, Al Mohler asks, "Where else are they going to go? What options are there? If you are a theologically minded, deeply convictional young evangelical, if you're committed to the Gospel, and you want to see the nations rejoice in the name of Christ, if you want to see Gospel built and structured and committed churches, your theology is just going to end basically being Reformed, basically being something like this New Calvinism, ugh or you're going to have to invent some other label for what's just going to be the same thing.
There just are not options out there and that's something that I think frustrates people...ugh but what I'm asking about the New Calvinism is basically, Where else are they going to go? Who else is going to answer their questions? Where else are they going to find the resources they're going to need and where else are they going to connect? This is a generation that understands, they want to say the same thing Paul said, they want to stand with the Apostles, they want to stand with old dead people, and they know they are going to have to if they are going to preach and teach the truth."
Whoa! Well, I have to disagree based upon the fact that there are other options and good ones at that. The list of characteristics that he described seem to fit where I am at along with many others that I know but we actually have found other options. Is my only option the New Calvinism? I wasn't aware that we would all end up bowing the knee and confessing with our tongue that the New Calvinism was the truth to preach and teach.
The Reformation was a great time in history and has offered us so much that is good and right and true, but what about 1500 years of Christianity that preceded it, what about the global church and the untapped self-theologizing of the Majority World? Will they all figure out once they self-theologize that they too are part of the New Calvinism? Will African theology agree with the New Calvinism? Will Chinese theology be a fan? Will South America allow this Western Reformation tradition to direct how they do theology? What about Native North America? Will they also bow the knee to the New Calvinism? An audacious claim such as this only breeds contempt and is typical of much of our Western dominated theological vision. It only feeds our narcissism and top-down evaluation of the rest of the world's input at the table of theological dialogue.
Paul Hiebert, the late and well-respected anthropologist/missiologist, talks about how global theology, where in each culture has input on the interpretation of Scripture and reality, is more like a blueprint than a map. It seems that Dr. Mohler would have us believe that our history in theology and self-theologizing is more like a map that we are slowly plotting and discovering and we only have to look back at what was initially discovered and laid out as we plod on to new ground, though there is little to discover that is of much importance.
Paul Hiebert sees it much differently. Our Western tradition only represents certain sheets of the blueprint of the narrative of Scripture, the truth about God and the message of the Gospel. We are limited in our understanding of the entire blueprint because God has only given the Western tradition so much of the blueprint to work on and help others see. But as the Gospel is established in the Majority world, we will see many nuances and major insights about Scripture that we have never seen before as they are discovered by people in contexts that we have never visited or even known about before. They offer the rest of the church another page of the blueprint and though the Western tradition of theology has helped tremendously with our pages of the blueprint, now it's time to hear from others and allow their pages to be held up, seen and appreciated and at times for them to critique our over-emphasis on our pages of the blueprint. Altogether, we will be able to see God's vision for his church built if we allow for the entire blueprint to be accessed and referred to. As long as the Western tradition thinks that our pages are the only pages or the most important ones, then we deny the rest of the church access to the grand vision of God's work in history and as such should be ashamed.
Statements like Dr. Mohler's only encourage that agenda and as such need to be checked, rebutted and dealt with swiftly but gently. My guess is that gentleness may not work in this case, though it is the way of God.
"Dr. Mohler, you're a good man, but your evaluation of this New Calvinism movement and the tradition of Calvinism as you define it is far to myopic for the more robust and grander vision that still awaits us and that lead up to the Reformation. Please don't ignore the rest of the world or and their coming voice, or the 1500 years of church history and tradition leading up to the Reformation. We do not all want to be Calvinists. We do read Paul, we do stand with the Apostles, we do respect the voices of many dead saints from history, but we also read and dwell in the living words of a living Savior who is not dead. We have convictions, we love Jesus, we rejoice in the name of Jesus being lifted high in the nations and we want to see the glory of the Lord fill the earth but do not want to be Reformed or become Calvinists and there are going to be many more like us. We have good places to go and we don't have to end up at your door necessarily. That kind of hegemony has never been good for any society and I hope that you would retract your statement and honor the nations, the coming theologies, all of church history and those who think radically different than you do but still love Jesus wholeheartedly because they are your brothers and your sisters and you have disrespected them. Please reconsider and join the community of the globe in our desire to honor Christ in spite of our differences in theological trajectories and visions. Thank you for your hard work and commitment and blessings on your journey!
-Nathan Smith
Saturday, October 23, 2010
I don't like John Piper
After hearing him, listening to him, reading him and hearing so many others talk about him, I've decided I don't like John Piper. I've just had such a hard time with this brother for so many reasons and have struggled to appreciate the good of his ministry with the bad. I know, I know, we aren't supposed to get to the point of saying that we don't like someone this coldly. But I've been learning that it's necessary.
Lately God has been opening up my heart to the fact that I have harbored unforgiveness towards people and communities in my life. I know how damaging this is to all those involved including myself. I have taken graduate level courses on forgiveness, love and reconciliation. I've been trained in the Greek, the Hebrew, the language and lives of experts on this field and have devoted my life to the message of forgiveness, I've preached it, taught it, lived it, counseled others to embrace it and have judged those who don't - but now the radiance of my own guilt has reached my own eyelids.
Let's give a toast to the blindspots and ask God to show them to us in good time. I have them, you have them, we all have them. It's not enough to just say I have them, I need to know them. I dislike John Piper because he thinks differently than I do, says things that disagree with my fundamental convictions about how important statements should be said regarding God, convictions, tolerance towards those I disagree with in and outside of my beliefs, etc... I don't like feeling like he is right and I'm wrong because I think differently than he does.
But, even with people whom I agree with, I find that I still don't like what they say at times and how they say it. I'm willing to put up with these aspects because of my resonance with their way of thinking. I guess John Piper frustrates me because I want him to be kinder to those who disagree with him, to those who's theology is not his. I believe that after sitting and having tea with John, I would like him on a personal level but I know that I still would be frustrated.
Lately, I've learned that the best of friends are the ones that are frustrated by me, yet they stick around. Or, they frustrate me and I stick around. What about the people who disregard your humanity, step on your dignity, dislike your personality or just plain abuse their power over you? What if they didn't begin as your friend or even worse they did and then seemingly betrayed you? What if they give you benevolence without respect or lip-service without action? What do we do with those people?
Boundaries anyone? I think boundaries are necessary - first to understand that boundaries do exist and then the needed navigation of how to set up, maintain or even at times remove them. I want respect, health, balance, passion and consistency in my convictions and relationships. But life isn't that straightforward or simple. I have learned a lot about how to have boundaries and self-respect through many broken relationships but what about those broken relationships? What do I do with those? Many of them still effect me and though I can ignore some, others I know I can't.
I feel as if the lessons I've learned about being a person of health by maintaining healthy boundaries and being patient in relationships could have a detrimental effect on the softness of my heart. Could it be that the pursuit of healthy boundaries has turned into an effort to cortisone my heart off into a safe but lonely corner where the brokenness of the world cannot break in? Have I renamed the status of an "unforgiving heart" to accomodate what I want to hear - maybe - a "heart with boundaries" might sound better...
What about John Piper? Have I justified disliking him in spite of the fact that he's a brother? I disagree with him but my frustration with him is beyond that because I know that if he decided that he was going to change the things that I was upset about - I would be disappointed and would need another figure to pin my frustrations upon. Anyways - Unforgiveness has immobilized so many potentially beautiful relationships, friendships and learning communities.
I want to be filled with love - not just for people that I agree with, am in community with but with those who I owe nothing to, to those who owe me something, to those who have wronged me beyond recognition and to those who I have unconsciously hated. Unforgiveness - it's a cancer that we harbor.
Christ said to love our enemies - what he didn't tell us was that that most of our enemies we create on our own. They are people who may or may not have harmed us, but the choice for them to be an enemy is ours. We create them, feed them, cage them and expect that our bags of stones are justifiable.
Christ may have said to love our enemies but I'm discovering that my enemies, at least most of them, are really not enemies, just people who I chose not to forgive.
I'm sure he knew that, so in his infinitely wise way, he allows us to call them enemies so that our feelings can be named and then he commands or coxes us - however you want to hear it - to love them. To love them - why - so that what we have done in our hearts to make them an enemy can be undone. We are our own best propagandists. Vilify for victory, right?
No, not right
They are not enemies - most of the enemies we are called to love are really our family members, our loved ones, our brothers and sisters, our friends, our children, our confidantes, our ex-husbands and wives, our ex-boyfriends and girlfriends, our own flesh and blood. A few really are people who despise us for no reason but most aren't. Forgiveness doesn't remove the wrong done, the pain inflicted, or the negligence imbued, but it does free us from having to create more enemies.
If I live a life of love, enough enemies will come, so why create my own? Maybe deep down we need enemies like the CIA needs another cold war in order to justify why we exist...why we are important...why we finally have meaning. My frustration with John Piper is that his hyper-transcendental view of God negates the role of humanity in God's design - we are not just conduits for God's glory to pass through, we are not a means to an end - we are not just happy so that God can be glorified - we are happy to just be happy, to know what joy is and enjoy it ourselves and of course God enjoys that - we must mean more to God than that. No parent buys a Christmas gift for their child to feel joy for themselves - they buy it for their child's joy which then gives them joy.
There has to be a more important evaluation of our existence than that. It seems that if that's all we are then we will either accept his conclusion - that our happiness is only about being a vessel, a conduit or a means for God's ultimate end of glorifying himself through us as a means - a necessary but maybe unintended consequence. We are therefore not an end in and of ourselves. Or the alternative is that we will continue to search for meaning outside of the soothsayer's realm and some say that the danger is we'll turn to Oprah, Tolle, Buddha, or Osteen. Of course we will because we weren't created to ignore that part of our humanity that seeks dignity and meaning outside of just being a means to an end.
For God to be the ultimate "End" does not remove humanity's need to be "end" in and of ourselves. If we are primarily a "means to an end" and are to accept that woeful existence in military fashion, then some of us will look for meaning incessantly until we find it elsewhere while others will give up and then others quietly accept their mean status of being a "means" devotionally and devoid of the abundance we were meant for.
It becomes very hard to forgive when our enemies bring us so much meaning and significance to the degree that harboring an unforgiving heart becomes the source of our life - a life that was meant to be lived in abundance. Just like in Monsters Inc. - we suck the fear out of our enemies for an inkling of energy when it is really their laughter that will fill our homes with light. When our value as image bearers of both the image and likeness of God is rightly appraised by us as it is by God, then our need for value-adding enemies will cease and our need for enemies will cease and our need for unforgiveness will cease.
So what about John Piper - have I made him an enemy - I'm afraid so. He's not and I do love him because he's my brother and a man of great integrity. So should I dislike him, no, I just disagree with his way of thinking and doing things - but I love him. Without recognizing that I truly disliked him, though I've never met him, his status as an enemy in my heart couldn't have been undone unless I loved him. Some will find this love hard to give and that is the point of release - wherein I recognize I have what it takes to love my enemies, but I need help to take the step. Many have done it before my time who never chose to follow Christ, but they followed him nonetheless. So do I dislike John Piper? - well I did and I may again, but at least I know that's wrong.
I finish with a quote from Rob Bell
In a Chicago Sun Times article entitled The Next Billy Graham?, Bell responded to his critics:
"When people say that the authority of Scripture or the centrality of Jesus is in question, actually it's their social, economic and political system that has been built in the name of Jesus that's being threatened," Bell says. "Generally lurking below some of the more venomous, vitriolic criticism is somebody who's created a facade that's not working...But I love everybody and you're next!" he says, giggling. "That's how I respond to criticism."
I want to love my enemies, so that I can realize that they really aren't my enemies. Blessings on your path to forgive and be forgiven and on loving your next enemy!
Lately God has been opening up my heart to the fact that I have harbored unforgiveness towards people and communities in my life. I know how damaging this is to all those involved including myself. I have taken graduate level courses on forgiveness, love and reconciliation. I've been trained in the Greek, the Hebrew, the language and lives of experts on this field and have devoted my life to the message of forgiveness, I've preached it, taught it, lived it, counseled others to embrace it and have judged those who don't - but now the radiance of my own guilt has reached my own eyelids.
Let's give a toast to the blindspots and ask God to show them to us in good time. I have them, you have them, we all have them. It's not enough to just say I have them, I need to know them. I dislike John Piper because he thinks differently than I do, says things that disagree with my fundamental convictions about how important statements should be said regarding God, convictions, tolerance towards those I disagree with in and outside of my beliefs, etc... I don't like feeling like he is right and I'm wrong because I think differently than he does.
But, even with people whom I agree with, I find that I still don't like what they say at times and how they say it. I'm willing to put up with these aspects because of my resonance with their way of thinking. I guess John Piper frustrates me because I want him to be kinder to those who disagree with him, to those who's theology is not his. I believe that after sitting and having tea with John, I would like him on a personal level but I know that I still would be frustrated.
Lately, I've learned that the best of friends are the ones that are frustrated by me, yet they stick around. Or, they frustrate me and I stick around. What about the people who disregard your humanity, step on your dignity, dislike your personality or just plain abuse their power over you? What if they didn't begin as your friend or even worse they did and then seemingly betrayed you? What if they give you benevolence without respect or lip-service without action? What do we do with those people?
Boundaries anyone? I think boundaries are necessary - first to understand that boundaries do exist and then the needed navigation of how to set up, maintain or even at times remove them. I want respect, health, balance, passion and consistency in my convictions and relationships. But life isn't that straightforward or simple. I have learned a lot about how to have boundaries and self-respect through many broken relationships but what about those broken relationships? What do I do with those? Many of them still effect me and though I can ignore some, others I know I can't.
I feel as if the lessons I've learned about being a person of health by maintaining healthy boundaries and being patient in relationships could have a detrimental effect on the softness of my heart. Could it be that the pursuit of healthy boundaries has turned into an effort to cortisone my heart off into a safe but lonely corner where the brokenness of the world cannot break in? Have I renamed the status of an "unforgiving heart" to accomodate what I want to hear - maybe - a "heart with boundaries" might sound better...
What about John Piper? Have I justified disliking him in spite of the fact that he's a brother? I disagree with him but my frustration with him is beyond that because I know that if he decided that he was going to change the things that I was upset about - I would be disappointed and would need another figure to pin my frustrations upon. Anyways - Unforgiveness has immobilized so many potentially beautiful relationships, friendships and learning communities.
I want to be filled with love - not just for people that I agree with, am in community with but with those who I owe nothing to, to those who owe me something, to those who have wronged me beyond recognition and to those who I have unconsciously hated. Unforgiveness - it's a cancer that we harbor.
Christ said to love our enemies - what he didn't tell us was that that most of our enemies we create on our own. They are people who may or may not have harmed us, but the choice for them to be an enemy is ours. We create them, feed them, cage them and expect that our bags of stones are justifiable.
Christ may have said to love our enemies but I'm discovering that my enemies, at least most of them, are really not enemies, just people who I chose not to forgive.
I'm sure he knew that, so in his infinitely wise way, he allows us to call them enemies so that our feelings can be named and then he commands or coxes us - however you want to hear it - to love them. To love them - why - so that what we have done in our hearts to make them an enemy can be undone. We are our own best propagandists. Vilify for victory, right?
No, not right
They are not enemies - most of the enemies we are called to love are really our family members, our loved ones, our brothers and sisters, our friends, our children, our confidantes, our ex-husbands and wives, our ex-boyfriends and girlfriends, our own flesh and blood. A few really are people who despise us for no reason but most aren't. Forgiveness doesn't remove the wrong done, the pain inflicted, or the negligence imbued, but it does free us from having to create more enemies.
If I live a life of love, enough enemies will come, so why create my own? Maybe deep down we need enemies like the CIA needs another cold war in order to justify why we exist...why we are important...why we finally have meaning. My frustration with John Piper is that his hyper-transcendental view of God negates the role of humanity in God's design - we are not just conduits for God's glory to pass through, we are not a means to an end - we are not just happy so that God can be glorified - we are happy to just be happy, to know what joy is and enjoy it ourselves and of course God enjoys that - we must mean more to God than that. No parent buys a Christmas gift for their child to feel joy for themselves - they buy it for their child's joy which then gives them joy.
There has to be a more important evaluation of our existence than that. It seems that if that's all we are then we will either accept his conclusion - that our happiness is only about being a vessel, a conduit or a means for God's ultimate end of glorifying himself through us as a means - a necessary but maybe unintended consequence. We are therefore not an end in and of ourselves. Or the alternative is that we will continue to search for meaning outside of the soothsayer's realm and some say that the danger is we'll turn to Oprah, Tolle, Buddha, or Osteen. Of course we will because we weren't created to ignore that part of our humanity that seeks dignity and meaning outside of just being a means to an end.
For God to be the ultimate "End" does not remove humanity's need to be "end" in and of ourselves. If we are primarily a "means to an end" and are to accept that woeful existence in military fashion, then some of us will look for meaning incessantly until we find it elsewhere while others will give up and then others quietly accept their mean status of being a "means" devotionally and devoid of the abundance we were meant for.
It becomes very hard to forgive when our enemies bring us so much meaning and significance to the degree that harboring an unforgiving heart becomes the source of our life - a life that was meant to be lived in abundance. Just like in Monsters Inc. - we suck the fear out of our enemies for an inkling of energy when it is really their laughter that will fill our homes with light. When our value as image bearers of both the image and likeness of God is rightly appraised by us as it is by God, then our need for value-adding enemies will cease and our need for enemies will cease and our need for unforgiveness will cease.
So what about John Piper - have I made him an enemy - I'm afraid so. He's not and I do love him because he's my brother and a man of great integrity. So should I dislike him, no, I just disagree with his way of thinking and doing things - but I love him. Without recognizing that I truly disliked him, though I've never met him, his status as an enemy in my heart couldn't have been undone unless I loved him. Some will find this love hard to give and that is the point of release - wherein I recognize I have what it takes to love my enemies, but I need help to take the step. Many have done it before my time who never chose to follow Christ, but they followed him nonetheless. So do I dislike John Piper? - well I did and I may again, but at least I know that's wrong.
I finish with a quote from Rob Bell
In a Chicago Sun Times article entitled The Next Billy Graham?, Bell responded to his critics:
"When people say that the authority of Scripture or the centrality of Jesus is in question, actually it's their social, economic and political system that has been built in the name of Jesus that's being threatened," Bell says. "Generally lurking below some of the more venomous, vitriolic criticism is somebody who's created a facade that's not working...But I love everybody and you're next!" he says, giggling. "That's how I respond to criticism."
I want to love my enemies, so that I can realize that they really aren't my enemies. Blessings on your path to forgive and be forgiven and on loving your next enemy!
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Marriages are Never Meant to Last...
I look through the window of our apartment and see students from our university passing by everyday, wondering what they are thinking, if they are thinking or are just on autopilot. Having walked back and forth from their dorm to class has created a groove in the sidewalk for them that, once they hook into it, they follow assuming it will lead them back to their dorm room.
Many of us have walked, rode or even drove ourselves somewhere, not remembering the journey there because it is so second nature. I usually thank someone, usually God, for letting me get to my destination and then other times, I just shrug and sigh some relief.
Driving down the road in autopilot once, a sudden jolt brought me back to life as some unidentified object on the road was immediately in front of me causing me to automatically swerve and redirect my path. From that moment on I was all nerves. I finished my journey with both hands gripped tightly to the wheel on the brink of either an anxiety attack or cardiac arrest.
My commitment to another person can consist of autopilot. I don't want the unidentified object in the freeway to jolt me from this redundancy but sometimes it just seems necessary. I have too many people that I know all too well going through rigorous and trying times in their relationships. Was it the default setting that got them there, is it life because life is just tough, was it malevolence and selfishness left unchecked? What was it? I don't know.
The other night a friend of mine had a ceremony take place because of his recent engagement. The gist is that he and his friends gather around a bell tower with a pole to the ground. Men gather around him and ask questions regarding his engagement and other pertinent information. The design is to give the horde a chance to yell and cajole him into telling more though the fun is always checked by respect and celebration. After the raucous, his fiance comes from her much more tame session with the girls (where they pass a candle to ask questions) and comes to him so that he can finally climb the pole and ring the prized bell to announce his love to this woman. All others gather around and cheer him on as he climbs. The problem is that few ever make it to the bell without some help.
This evening, our groom-to-be was really struggling, as many do. The on-lookers roused a thunder like roar to usher him up but our famed hero was just not going to make it. Immediately, a friend was on the shoulder of another friend and then another until they had three levels of support to hoist him up this infamous climb to ring the bell. Finally he was there, the bell was wrung and down he came to kiss his prize - upon which followed a shove off into the lake, arranged by his closest friends - of course.
As I watched the men come around him, I couldn't help but escape into my own thoughts or all those struggling in their marriages? Was it because they didn't have the help they needed? Was it because they didn't have 1st, 2nd or even 3rd level of support that brings them to the top to ring their bell? Do I stand by and watch them struggle up the pole, critiquing their mistakes like an armchair coaching staff? When they come back down for another try, do I stand by or just walk away on account of my own hopeful exhaustion?
My heart swelled with gratitude as when at last the third level of support went up and the bell-ringer was able to ascend unabated to the top. I at once was thankful for the friends, the men, women and families that have supported me through tough times, through bumps in my marriage, through paths on the journey where selfishness didn't seem so wrong.
And then I remembered what it was like when they weren't there, when I had lost what was more than dear to me, when I knew that not even my worst enemy should experience that sort of loneliness and loss and that saying that wasn't a cliche. As he rung the bell, exhausted and worn out by the climb my heart knew - Marriages are never meant to last...never meant to last in autopilot.
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
Waiting for SuperChan
"I went up to where he was standing, waited to chat and...well I'm not one of those people that runs to the famous person to talk to them but something was different this time - I knew I needed to talk to him...to connect with him so that I could be discipled by him...so I said Hey..."
He went on to tell me how he had asked Francis Chan to be his mentor which was followed by a friendly arm on the shoulder with a discouraging let down.
My friend stopped him mid-sentence and assured Francis that he understood what he was saying, politely excused himself and walked away with a heavy feeling in his chest. Why had he sensed god telling him to connect with Francis Chan if only for a let down? What was the big deal?
He then said one of the most profound statements I have heard in awhile. His conclusion was...
"What if I was led to talk to Francis Chan so that I could realize that I don't need Francis Chan to give me the affirmation that I am the right guy for the job...I know it sounds dumb but I've always wanted to be picked out of a crowd by someone famous and told that I was the person, that I was the one that they needed. It's a fantasy that I would be recognized and affirmed by someone like Francis Chan and today I got the opposite."
"It hit me then...I realized that God was telling me that he has given me that affirmation and that I don't need Francis Chan, I already have it from Him - the disappointment took place so that I could hear that from God. Maybe that was the whole purpose of this day."
I heartily agreed with him and began to realize all the "important" people that I had sought out to receive affirmation from. One such person was George Verwer - a mentor and former boss who established one of the largest mission agencies in the world. I became his travel assistant for a year back in 2005 and have had a great friendship since. I told my friend that even though I had been affirmed by him through my year and continually since, I still seek affirmation in other "famous" people and try to get into their field of vision so that I feel affirmed in my calling, interests and personal goals. What do I give them - not much if anything. Ultimately it is very self-centered. It is not wrong to know famous people, to learn from important people or to intentionally seek them out, but I knew that I was doing it primarily for myself rather than both that person and I.
So having affirmation from George Verwer didn't stop the need to get affirmation from other men and women of influence. Ultimately, what do I do with that affirmation? It should be turned into action, ingenuity, leadership, character, opportunities for others, etc... but instead I use it for my own sense of self-worth and gratuity. At the end of the day, I am just using these people if my motivations are sourced in my own insecurities and not in the greater good of those individuals and the Kingdom that we share. There's a lot going on with that but after listening to my friend - I too realized that I was hearing the same thing from God.
I don't need affirmation from another human being above God. I can receive affirmation from them but when it becomes a central aspect to how I clamp down my insecurities, then it becomes selfish and self-serving instead of generative, sustaining and life-giving. Looking for affirmation from other human beings incessantly also inhibits our ability to move forward, create and launch out with our sense of calling and giftedness - because we are always waiting for someone else to tell us that we should, that we can, that we are gifted, etc...
Others deal with insecurities very differently than what I have described but I know that some of us can resonate. I want to say this.
"Let's stop waiting for the Francis Chans, the George Verwers, the hero that gives us a sense of security and affirmation. Let's just join them on small or large scales in the work that we are passionate about and let God be our source of affirmation - to just go for it, to know that we are gifted, called and have, for the most part, been commissioned already. Let's stop waiting for our heroes to pat us on the back and just join the fun.
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