learning to love

"Humility is most Christlike when it combines a certain down to earth acceptance of reality with a..."

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 08:01:32 +0100

“Humility is most Christlike when it combines a certain down to earth acceptance of reality with a passionate longing for God’s Kingdom of justice, truth, mercy and peace.”

- Stephen Cherry

Rage against the machine

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:00:09 +0100

America touts itself as the land of the free, but the number one freedom that you and I have is the freedom to enter into a subservient role in the workplace. Once you exercise this freedom you’ve lost all control over what you do, what is produced, and how it is produced. And in the end, the product doesn’t belong to you. The only way you can avoid bosses and jobs is if you don’t care about making a living. Which leads to the second freedom: the freedom to starve. ”

Tom Morello, Guitar World

Rock of Ages

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 12:43:27 +0000

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee;

Let the water and the blood,

From Thy wounded side which flowed,

Be of sin the double cure,

Save from wrath and make me pure.

Not the labor of my hands

Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;

Could my zeal no respite know,

Could my tears forever flow,

All for sin could not atone;

Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to Thy cross I cling;

Naked, come to Thee for dress;

Helpless, look to Thee for grace;

Foul, I to the fountain fly;

Wash me, Savior, or I die.

While I draw this fleeting breath,

When my eyes shall close in death,

When I rise to worlds unknown,

And behold Thee on Thy throne,

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee.

Anglican Collect for Today

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 07:05:42 +0000

Almighty God, you have created the heavens and the earth and made us in your own image: teach us to discern your hand in all your works and your likeness in all your children; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things, now and for ever. Amen.

Tired of Being A Christian?

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 18:19:25 +0000

Reblogged from: http://bedeviant.com/tired-being-christian-too

This is my response to Mandy Steward’s (a.k.a. @MessyCanvas) post entitled “I’m Tired of Being a Christian“. If you haven’t read it, you should drop everything and go read it right now. It’s what this blog is all about.

I can’t remember the last time I read a post and thought, “This perfectly describes where I am at in my life right now.” Surprise! That just happened.

Mandy Steward put into words what I’ve been feeling for sometime in regards to the Christian subculture. She talks about the staleness, the dryness that comes with attempting to live the Christian life through the lens of what others think. She writes:

I’m tired of being a Christian if being a Christian means I have to preface any and all of my actions with an explanation. I am drinking, but I am not getting drunk. I am cussing, but I am doing it in a whisper and I’m only quoting something I heard from someone else. I am not going to church but I’m not alienating myself from the body of Christ. I am writing in the mornings, but it doesn’t mean I’m not getting my prayer time and Bible time in with God at some other point in my day. I’m so tired of explanations, many of which I don’t even believe in.

Can you hear what she’s saying? She’s sharing about how tiring it is to make our walk with Jesus about something more than our walk with Jesus. When we make it about not drinking or no cussing or being at a certain building on a certain day of the week, we lose. The Gospel loses. It never has been and never will be about those things.

What is it about? Mandy answers:

I’m tired of being a Christian if being a Christian means I have to apologize for being me.

Not to put words in her mouth, but I feel like this is the crux of what she’s writing about. Being a follower of Jesus means that as we walk closer with him, the more we become who God has created us to be. Authenticity becomes our hallmark; our calling card. It’s a win-win.

Here’s Why I’m Tired of Being a Christian

It might be more appropriate to say “here’s why I’m tired of living in the Christian subculture.” Either way, here’s what wearies me.

I’m tired of being a Christian if that means I can’t have friends who aren’t Christian. No one would ever say this out loud, but the wayward glances one gets when hanging out with a “rough edged” crowd says enough.

I’m tired of being a Christian if that means “service” is narrowly defined as being an usher at church services or directing traffic in the parking lot on Sunday mornings. I serve God when I put others first. Period. That happens all the time, not just in a building.

I’m tired of being a Christian because of the way we shoot our wounded. Ted Haggard, in the eyes of many Christians, can never do another good thing in his entire life. Ever again. Neither can Amy Grant (she did get divorced, you know!). This is wrong. Grace wins, not your limited perspective on the situation.

I’m tired of being a Christian if that means you can’t say “shit” in a blog post without getting flamed. Sometimes things are shitty. It’s that simple. I know some people who have a clean mouth but a dead and blackened heart inside. Likewise, some of the most foul-mouthed people in my life have a deep and abiding love for Christ. (And yes, I realize Jesus said “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” I get it.)

I’m tired of being a Christian if that means I have to obsessed with a person’s sexuality. Give it a rest already. We know the verses. You’ve quoted them at length. We get it. If it’s one thing that following Jesus has taught me, it’s that pet issues change when you have a face to put to it.

Most importantly, I’m tired of God’s goodness being co-opted by people who know nothing of it. God is good. So good. The God that some claim as Lord and Savior … I hardly recognize him. I don’t know how we can both claim to follow Jesus of Nazareth. This is a God who loved sinners; washed feet; ate with whores and prostitutes; befriended cheats; forgave his murderers. This is something mysterious and great and horrible. This is paradox, not certainty. I’m tired of being a Christian if that means I have to “get it”.

Here is What I Plan to do About It

I appreciate the way Mandy is proactive in her post. She gives a “list of grievances,” if you will, but then shares what she’s going to do about it.

For her, that means living more authentically. I dig that. Living less according to what people say and more according to God’s call on her life.

As for my part, Here’s what I’m going to do:

I’m going to spend less time writing for people I don’t like. When I look back at the posts on this site, some of them have been written for people I can’t stand. I’ve tried to convince them of something; tried to get them to see things differently. No more.
I want to focus on seeing where God is instead of where he isn’t. Does that make sense? I think there’s a huge difference. I want to focus on the image of God that all people carry. Yes, all people. It’s asking the question, “God, what are you up to in this person?”
Goodbye legalists and fundamentalists. No more debates. No more appointments. No more phone calls. I’m not going to answer your emails, Facebook messages or passive aggressive tweets. Nothing. I’ve reached my limit. You’ve exhausted me. You’ve won. Congratulations.
I want God to shock me with his grace. I want him to show me his grace in a way that appalls me. “What did he do to deserve all those good things?” “Nothing.” I hear God saying, “and that’s the point. (Neither did you, by the way.)”

And that’s just the shortlist.

What’s It Going to be For You?

Well, I’ve officially spilled my guts. So has Mandy. What about you? What are you tired of? If you’re a follower of Jesus, surely you’re seeing things that tax your spirit. If you’re not a Christian, what do you see from the Christian faith community that wears you out?

Let’s share. Let’s rest. Let’s be people who live in grace, not weariness.

"He loves, He hopes, He waits. If He came down on our altars on certain days only, some sinner, on..."

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 12:00:44 +0000

“He loves, He hopes, He waits. If He came down on our altars on certain days only, some sinner, on being moved to repentance, might have to look for Him, and not finding Him, might have to wait. Our Lord prefers to wait Himself for the sinner for years rather than keep him waiting one instant.”

- St. Peter Julian Eymard (via setthiscaptivefree)

"SPIRITUALITY That quote I just posted ends Rowan Williams book on spirituality which I just..."

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 12:00:56 +0000

“

SPIRITUALITY
That quote I just posted ends Rowan Williams book on spirituality which I just finished. What struck me so powerfully was the massive disconnect between the spiritually of major figures of the Church as presented by Williams (up until St. John of the Cross) and the spirituality of my charismatic background. I was an extremely committed charismatic for most of my Christian life (and I mean like on the worship team, going to a Benny Hinn crusade, home schooled level of intense). My Christianity was more influenced by the likes of Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, etc. than say Augustine. Of course something has happened between then and now. I will always be grateful for that one morning I decided to walk by myself to the nearest Anglican parish in North York. But that’s all off topic I guess. One thing that has remained with me from that past is an extremely experiential, emotional, and subjective, or personal, relationship with God, or the “wholly other” (I friggen love that phrase). It’s because of those years that I can probably never become a nominal Christian, despite how much I’ve sometimes wanted to. I also understand very well why charismatic Christianity is growing at such an explosive rate. Not only does it provide the simplistic and “certain” wordlview (with the normal attack on anyone different or who challenges the received dogma) that you’ll find in any fundamentalist branch, but it also allows people to experience a powerful experience of God or sense of transcendence that has been too often downplayed or viewed with suspicion in Protestantism.

But that doesn’t mean I believe it is a healthy expression of spirituality; in fact I’ve seen it do tremendous amounts of harm. The main flaw I think is that it does not embrace any of the “contradictoriness” of the Christian faith that William’s speaks of. Fear, doubt, angst, financial problems, sickness, relationship issues, and every other problem we come across are all ruthlessly expelled in the name of faith. Spirituality involves continuously leaping from one plane to another; we meet God in the ecstatic experiences of life, but never in the doubt or suffering. In fact, a whole theology has been constructed that tries to provide an explanation for why the Christian should never experience these things because of the Cross. But this is a horrific construal of what the Cross means for the Christian life; a faith which finds its very centre in the Son of God crying out in despair to his Father can never expel the “night.” The darkness of the Cross is something that we must continually turn to and the contradictoriness of the Cross is what I love so much about the Christian life. Christianity never was and never can be some “opiate of the masses,” even if that is what many forms of pop Christianity have become. It doesn’t exist to provide a form of collective escapism. I think it’s actually the exact opposite; by constantly returning to the central mystery of the Cross I don’t think we need to attempt to avoid the complexity and darkness of life. At least according to St. John of Damascus, it seems like it’s in that “dark night” that we really begin to enter into the divine life.

”

- furnaceofdoubt.tumblr.com

*quoted with permission.

**his thoughts may have developed since he wrote this
(via gracethatfrees)
Developing roots in faith…

"Romans normally excluded children from the dinner table until the age of fifteen or sixteen, at..."

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 08:22:44 +0000

“Romans normally excluded children from the dinner table until the age of fifteen or sixteen, at which age boys received the toga virilis that marked their entrance to manhood. Family dinner as we know it was a Christian invention, not some ‘natural’ form of family life. The family dinner is a reflection of the eucharistic meal, the meal that welcomed all members of Christ to the table. Opposition to communion of children is pagan and seeks to reverse the revolutionary table fellowship established by the Church. It is an attempt to return to Egypt.”

- Peter Leithart, Against Christianity (via affcath)

Henri Nouwen on Solitude

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 08:20:16 +0000

All human beings are alone. No other person will completely feel like we do, think like we do, act like we do. Each of us is unique, and our aloneness is the other side of our uniqueness. The question is whether we let our aloneness become loneliness or whether we allow it to lead us into solitude. Loneliness is painful; solitude is peaceful. Loneliness makes us cling to others in desperation; solitude allows us to respect others in their uniqueness and create community. Letting our aloneness grow into solitude and not into loneliness is a lifelong struggle. It requires conscious choices about whom to be with, what to study, how to pray, and when to ask for counsel. But wise choices will help us to find the solitude where our hearts can grow in love.

Photo

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 10:23:31 +0000

"(D)eep down inside, cradled in the soul, where no one but the One who counts can detect, is again an..."

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 21:29:06 +0000

“(D)eep down inside, cradled in the soul, where no one but the One who counts can detect, is again an empty manger where the Son of God wants to be re-born. Christmas can do that.”

- Cardinal Timothy Dolan (New York)

"You may fear that the Lord has passed you by, but it is not so: he who counts the stars, and calls..."

Sat, 20 Oct 2012 22:42:03 +0100

“You may fear that the Lord has passed you by, but it is not so: he who counts the stars, and calls them by their names, is in no danger of forgetting his own children. He knows your case as thoroughly as if you were the only creature he ever made, or the only saint he ever loved. Approach him and be at peace.”

- Charles Spurgeon (via -bailee)

Photo

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 22:27:31 +0100

"Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you..."

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 08:00:42 +0100

“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”

- John Wesley…Anglican Preacher/Cleric and founder of the Methodist Movement

"My students are often Christians who are old enough to mock mercilessly the people that gave of..."

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 07:55:32 +0100

“

My students are often Christians who are old enough to mock mercilessly the people that gave of their time sacrificially to disciple them when they were young but who are not yet mature enough to be able to disciple others. I often find them quick-off-the-draw-ready with a forceful and sophisticated critique of most any traditional religious belief or practice.

They can be sadly flummoxed, however, by a simple request to explain what is true. If I wonder, “What are some problems with the doctrine of the atonement?” hands fly up all over the room, but if I straightforwardly ask, “What is the gospel?” the room falls strangely silent, and I find myself staring at rows of students quietly avoiding making eye contact.

To sketch what the gospel is would be to risk a rough draft that someone else would get the joy of critiquing; it would be to express a childlike faith; it would be to do the work of parenting.

I have therefore increasingly made it my self-imposed task to help my students find their way to their mature identities in a manner that does not make their parents and childhood teachers and pastors the foil in the process. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that they should simply accept what they have inherited unaltered. More and more I have come to value those who model how to no longer hold to the exact version of faith they grew up with while still finding ways to be grateful for and affirming of the community of faith that raised them.

”

- Tim Larsen

"Sometimes we experience a terrible dryness in our spiritual life. We feel no desire to pray, don’t..."

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 11:52:13 +0100

“Sometimes we experience a terrible dryness in our spiritual life. We feel no desire to pray, don’t experience God’s presence, get bored with worship services, and even think that everything we have ever believed about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is little more than a childhood fairy tale.
Then it is important to realize that most of these feelings and thoughts are just feelings and thoughts, and that the Spirit of God dwells beyond our feelings and thoughts. It is a great grace to be able to experience God’s presence in our feelings and thoughts, but when we don’t, it does not mean that God is absent. It often means that God is calling us to a greater faithfulness. It is precisely in those times of spiritual dryness that we must hold on to our spiritual discipline so that we can grow into new intimacy with God.”

- Henri Nouwen (via radioteopoli)

In you I hide

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 07:45:38 +0100

When all around pushes in on me,
I make you my refuge.
When I find it hard to choose,
I make you my rock.
When there’s no space to be,
I find my peace in you.
When life is relentless,
I find stillness with you.
When I fight the tears,
I find your touch lets them come.

And the truth of all of it, is I need you.

You are my strength.
My shelter.
My refuge.
My space.
My rest.
My comforter,
And lover.

You are good,
Lord of all.
My warrior,
Sustaining my soul.
My encourager,
My guide.
Always faithful,
In you I hide.

In you I hide.

"Williams reflects extensively on the nature of mercy as well. He portrays it as an unsentimental..."

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 06:21:31 +0100

“

Williams reflects extensively on the nature of mercy as well. He portrays it as an unsentimental though humane experience, again because it means facing up to the truth about what you have done and who you are. The theistic insight is that this truth can only be seen when you are confronted by the divine. To meet God – or Aslan, as Lewis has it in the Narnia stories – is “to meet someone who, because he has freely created you and wants for you nothing but your good, your flourishing, is free to see you as you are and to reflect that seeing back to you”.

In other words, to see yourself as others see you might be discomforting but it will also always be skewed by the distorting lens of their self-interest. To be unmasked as God sees you is painful because purgative, but is also a path to true liberation. It is merciful because without it we are left in a citadel of self-deception, life’s energies being sapped and wasted on bolstering self-regard.

”

- Mark Vernon, on Rowan Williams’ new book about Narnia

On pain

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 22:07:43 +0100

simplyorthodox:

Those who come close to people in pain naturally draw near to God, because God is always by the side of His children who are in pain.

- Elder Paisios of Mount Athos

"God’s Creation gives us a model for making and sharing homes with people, but the reality of God’s..."

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 11:41:21 +0100

““God’s Creation gives us a model for making and sharing homes with people, but the reality of God’s Trinitarian life suggests that Christian hospitality goes further than that. We are not meant simply to invite people into our homes, but also to invite them into our lives. Having guests and visitors, if we do it right, is not an imposition, because we are not meant to rearrange our lives for our guests — we are meant to invite our guests to enter into our lives as they are. It is this forging of relationships that transforms entertaining (i.e., deadly dull cocktail parties at the country club) into hospitality (i.e., a simple pizza on my floor). As writer Karen Burton Mains puts it, “Visitors may be more than guests in our home. If they like, they may be friends.””

- Lauren Winner, Mudhouse Sabbath. This is a profound insight and well-put. I think about this paragraph often.