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December 2008 Archives
in the midst of our current series ADVENT going on at the gathering on wednesday nights my heart continues to be rocked and continues to break at the need around me... and by around me i fail if i think that means st. charles county only, but i also recognize that if i cant be aware of it here, how will i care about a person in iraq or africa or south america... our global neighbors that are no more than a sad story seen in a commercial who need a donation for something that we have in abundance.
i am praying the global killers of convenience, agenda and self absorption have no place in my heart... in my life.
but what happens if and when we see the NEED around us?
what will I/we do then?
awareness with no action is worse than ignorance. it would be better off to not know than to see and not act... than to know and not love. i think that its time (its been time) to re:think obedience and/or our lack of it... i mean seriously... how can we call ourselves followers of christ if when we see need we do nothing?
james 1:26-27
"If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless."
james is implying that our tongue reflects and mirrors our heart... we know in luke 6:45 from our mouths come the overflow of our hearts... Prov. 4:23 says that our hearts are the well spring of life...
life happens from our hearts and if we don't care when we see need... our religion is WORTHLESS!
our only response... brokenness and obedience.
(let that marinate)
F
i reconnected with an old buddy from college today on the phone for about 45 min as he waited outside the subway in his new hometown of brooklyn, ny... go check out zach williams (zachwilliams.com) to hear his music that has been compared most notably to the likes of sufjan stevens. zach just got off tour with to write love on her arms (TWLOHA.com) and is on the bill with jon foreman of switchfoot in jan.
show some love...
F
its seems like i have a conversation weekly or even daily that deals with questions surrounding the what feels like distance our relationship with christ or in relationships period. (remember the litmus test to knowing our health and maturity with christ is seen and reflected in our relationships here and now... if our relationships are struggling... its a pretty good picture of our relationship with christ)
continuing in our recent theme of not forgetting we know that there's power in remembering.
so why does it seem more often than not like we have spiritual amnesia?
i think we experience this as the norm in our life because we lack movement... we lack doing... we lack action...
doing creates UNDERSTANDING... if i never attempt how will i know... if i never start how will experience... if i never taste how can i speak to its flavor?
doing creates EXPERIENCE... we learn best thru experience.
doing creates REALITY... theres a difference to one who sits back and waits for life to happen and another who makes life happen... i would say that one is creating reality while the other just exists there.
doing create OBEDIENCE... obedience always and only happens with love... love always leads to action.... love always leads to doing.
if you're not doing you're not moving... if you're not moving you're dying! there's no such thing as spiritual neutral... in the absence of growth there's death!
may our love drive us to DO SOMETHING!
F
several years ago now as we deconstructed our culture around the REALM and began to understand what it meant and means to be responsible for creating culture we (the community at the REALM) frequently used a term that began to shape our identity and DNA. the word represented a lifestyle, it encapsulated missional living, and reflected a life of a true genuine learner... a disciple. the word simply was...
BE.
we learned that america was experiencing a huge identity crisis as americans sought to be defined by what we did, what we owned, where we lived, who we hung out with... superficial, plastic identities that changed whenever what we did changed... which was often, if not everyday. the search for significance seems to so elusive that we hide ourselves in anything that seems to have worth.
and so the identity crisis continues...
as a reflection of the gospel we realize that its WHO we are that dictates WHAT we do. BE leads to DO... if DO leads to BE we struggle to remember... we forget who we are. there's power in remembering and it seems that god went to great lengths to remind us to NEVER forget... forget what? to never forget from where he rescued us from... the oppression, the slavery, the margins of society.
so... all these years later and the sequel comes out...
because the word DO(ing) has a negative connotation for me i will replace it with the word OBEDIENCE... as we BE (understanding the story from which we come from... the redemption and continued restoration of the gospel) it naturally produces a life defined by obedience. true hearing always produces a response... obedience that is steeped in LOVE. obedience finds its roots in love. thats why the poor widow gave everything (2 coins) she had, she understood, she loved deeply and richly producing a life of obedience.
so may my life... may our lives... may our community... may the church BE steeped in love so rich and so deep that all we know is obedience.
F
with www.wordle.net you can create a cool word cloud about anything that you write. this is what i preached on last wednesday night at the gathering. rethinking christmas thru the lens of not forgeting.
do you ever just get tired of the apathy?
ever get tired of the lame attempts that just give way to accepting failure?
what about the endless doubt that leads to self reliance that just produces more doubt?
when will this stop? when are we going to wake up? when will we rise with anticipation and expectation that gives way to REAL CHANGE?
"in his book deep change, robert quinn observes that people and organisms have only two options... slow death or deep change. for the church of jesus to make deep change, individuals will have to make deep and profound changes."
(excerpt from transformational architecture by ron martoia)
we know that there is no spiritual neutral... in the absence of growth there's only death. the problem with this death i think is the time... it appears to take time, hence a slow death. since its slow i think it kinda flys under the radar... subterranean. what will it take to bring this reality to the surface for us? i think that we feel the tremors and the rumblings that something is not right, that something is off but we quickly dismiss the nuance and fill the void with something for the immediate.
i am tired of the apathetic that paves the ground for the pathetic to set up shop. i can not handle the pathetic attempts anymore...
when are we going to wake up?
F
another christmas idea...
internally i have spent some time reflecting and evaluating the current condition and trajectory of our community... we are experiencing several things that seem on some levels to be pretty unique. some our contextual to our culture (mid-west/st. louis), some our repercussions of our philosophy and style, some are elusive and continue to be a journey that requires more exploration... some thoughts:
sustainability is more difficult that creating.
consistency still wins... unless it's consistently bad.
routine, mundane, monotony never wins.
you need a CORE group of committed followers.
you need a CORE group of committed leaders... (both student and adult)
a weak system produces weak behavior.
if you have created something that you cannot sustain... IT WILL DIE!
F
this month during our advent series its my desire to re:frame christmas for our community... even in my own eyes, heart, life... the modern trappings of christmas is just a microcosm and is cyclical of the view handed to us by modern america. the reality is thats its NOT just with christmas... it seems to be with lots of things.
we need to re:frame our view of worship... giving... awareness... purpose...
i think that its easier for us to be "above or against something than it is to be in love." (richard rohr)
i was on the REALM's facebook page the other day and saw the new group that was added that had something to do with keeping christ in christmas or something like that... so here's my point... its easier for us to attach ourselves to a group (which by the way isnt a bad thing... we need community to survive) that stands for something both good or bad than it is for us to simply LOVE. as we gain people "on our side" or "in our corner" all of a sudden our perspective or view seems to be legitimized even more.
i know that i am standing on a razer's edge here but it just seems like we, including myself in this group, find tons of excuses to NOT fully love with no strings attached. i mean, seriously if the brand of the sweater that i get my brother in law is better will he love me more? what if i didnt give him anything? does a sweater = love? the better question may still be... what does the sweater even mean if the other 364 days a year were void of love in our relationship?
do our gifts mask our inability to love deeper?
obviously for some it does not... they give because they love... i want to be that person!
i want to learn how to love more than i want to belong to a group that is good at being above or against something.
F
this stuff continues to mess me up...
its time to shift our current reality and understanding...
