November, 2009

general — Comments Off
30
Nov 09

blessing

We are big fans of cause and effect; of rewards for “right” behavior and punishment for “wrong”. This is intuitive. Our hearts align with these concepts easily. In ideal-land, those who act rightly receive beneficial things, positive energy, hand-over-fist money, and the like. Conversely, when someone is mistreated, we ask that privileges, money, relationships, and other good things be stripped from the offender swiftly. We like to call it justice.  It’s a concept that we’re taught we should strive to see replicated.

And we sometimes feel like God has it wrong when He doesn’t observe the social mores that we conveniently set up on His behalf.

When we ask “Why does God let bad things happen to good people?”, it’s rare to hear “And another thing: why does he let bad things happen to bad people?” In fact this is the implication … why doesn’t God reserve the worst of circumstances for the worst of humanity?  Where’s God’s favor for those that bust their butts to serve Him?  My good behavior ought to be rewarded!  That’s the way the universe functions.

But to take this view is to take a view that’s at least not in line with how God seems to have ordered things and perhaps even counter to it.  After a long sermon about how everyone is blessed whether they like it or not, Jesus finishes up with this quotable quote that often gets skimmed over :

For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.
Matthew 5:45

Our existence in the ultimate meritocracy has colored our perceptions of this.  We think God loves ALL – whether good or bad, evil or righteous and we often miss the other emphasis here: God LOVES all.

To add a little context to this, think about a first century farming economy where rain and sun were essential to life itself.  Good rains meant times of surplus and success for the good and the bad.  A lack of rain meant that everybody suffered equally.  Too much sun and everyone’s crops dried up.

We spend so much time attempting to win God’s favor.  In fact, we have almost made it the centerpiece of our expression of faith.  Many Christians say that they know that God will not love them any more if they increase their church attendance, pray more, give more.  God’s love is not directly proportional to the church activities.  And, in the same breath, we talk about how burned out we feel, how much we’re doing.  We’ve discussed this already…

The implication of Scripture is not that there are no consequences for correct or incorrect behavior.  Simply, it’s that God will give everyone equal footing.  The rains will come or they won’t.  The wind will not be directed by merit.  God’s treatment will not always be understood, it will not always seem just according to how we assume the universe to run, but it will be divvied out based on His thoughts, or will, or whimsy depending on your persuasion.

Perhaps the problem is perspective.  Perhaps it is some sort of omnipotent illusion where God has conveniently arranged for us all to crave justice but, through some of His patented razzle-dazzle, makes it appear like the evil-doers are getting more than my fair share.

The declaration from scripture above is immediately preceded by the familiar “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Remember, Jesus was talking to an oppressed people here – not 2009 Americans).  We often take that literally to mean isolate the people in your life that are your enemies, don’t harbor any particular feelings of ill-will towards them, and remember to pray for them so that God will hear your prayers and maybe ask the oppressors to stop their life’s work.

I’m beginning to think of it another way; it’s the way of assimilation.  ”Us-and-Them” mentalities are often unhelpful today and my suspicion is that not much has changed in the past 2,000 years; similar situations were likely as polarizing as they are today.  Given that we tend to love our non-enemies, and that the people we most often pray for aren’t making it a practice to persecute us, loving our enemies and praying for our persecutors has the distinct effect of making “Us” and “Them” indistinguishable.  To the outsider gazing in, there is no separation between the enemies’ camp and the allies’ camp.  Instead there’s a love and approach to everyone that is noticeably equal.  Our prayers are indistinguishable.  Our actions are indistinguishable.  Our words and thoughts and motives are indistinguishable.

And we rejoice when the rain falls on the evil AND the good.

faith / reset — 3 Comments
16
Nov 09

will of god

I believe that church:

complicates the simple matters of living like Jesus and loving on others with extraneous, counter-productive, wasteful, and often damaging processes.

:: from “church?” post ::

In the mix of well-intended teachings, traditional churches lean towards if not outright teach some convenient “facts” that simply aren’t true.  As an example (in fairness, painted with a large sweeping stroke), issues of “right” and “wrong” or “black” and “white”.  There is no grey in the utopian world of the 20-21st century church.  Nothing about my own experience with Jesus or reading through the Bible leads me to believe for a moment that this is true.

Hormone-befuddled teenagers sense this.  The classic question at Bible studies where teens were allowed to discuss matters of sex: “How far is too far?”  At the heart of this question is a sense that all points along the “sexual immorality” spectrum are not as perfectly defined as parents would insist that the are.  Without question there are some “endpoints” that are made known, but there is a whole realm of issues that are undefined.  Teens inevitably make their own decisions here.  Some rationalize that as long as they don’t do “X” then they’re good and others fearing lust’s eternal damning flame decide that “J” or “K” is all they can muster lest guilt kill them prior to confessing the 17 sins of the day.

The more and more I think about life, the more I realize how this question ought to set off a host of questions about the black and white scenarios that many of us are taught.  Unfortunately for me and for many others I know that this isn’t necessarily the case.  We are blind to the parallels.

Most of us who believe that there’s a god worth believing in struggle with the purpose for which we’ve been put here, at least at some point in our journey.  If God went through the trouble of creating this blue orb in a maniacally massive universe, surely there’s some point to it all.  We point to passages about the will of God and how we “are desirous to be found doing the will of God upon His rapturous return to earth.”

God has a “plan” – but it’s most likely less defined than most of us would like to believe.  We give ourselves far too much credit when we think that choosing brown pants over puce has cosmic consequences or that writing messages on goldenrod is more holy than if that same message were written up canary yellow.  God may not have caused that last chocolate morsel to fall to the floor.

We have this concept of God as sitting at the control panel some grand, incalculable machinery tweaking settings, taking measurements, eyeing gauges, and causing every metric to level out at just the right level so that those three tacos we prayed for show up on our plate prepared just so.  We assume he gets frustrated when the flux-capacitor shows signs of failing and he has to call in Christopher Lloyd to repair it.

What if God has delegated this level of accuracy out?  God: the ultimate crowd sourcing advocate. What if he’s got enough faith in the abilities that He’s given us to make the small things work out?  What if He has actually said “Here’s the plan: Love me.  Love other people. Make it happen”?

A few years ago during a much-needed counseling session Dr. “Bette” introduced my consciousness to the concept of living an “active” life vs. living a “passive” life.  She likened it to another of her clients who was constantly being picked up by women at a bar, but despite the quantity could never find a woman with the qualities he desired.  It’s because he was never actively choosing – he was passively being chosen – so he never pursued that which he aspired to.

And we sit around waiting for God to act.  We pray long and hard finding just the right words to convince God of all the reasons why he should attend to our hearts desires, why he should open the doors after he closes some further down the hallway.  We routinely leave it all in His hands while in the same breath claim to be that very thing – His hands.

Perhaps it’s not important how we love.  Perhaps the important thing is that we love.

Perhaps it’s not important how the church reconciles the questions regarding homosexuality. Perhaps the important thing is that we love.

Perhaps it’s not important if the bible isn’t “inerrant”.  Perhaps the important thing is that we love.

Perhaps it’s not important if your Arminianistic or Calvinistic or even if you know what the difference is.  Perhaps the important thin is that we love.

Perhaps it’s not important what we do.  Perhaps the important thing is that we love.

Some people will quickly point out the “distance” that this puts between God and his creation.  Except that in much the same way that I have the mannerisms of my father and mother and how their character has characterized me – even while thousands of miles way – Gods very character and image is right there, tucked just below the surface.  It’s transforming if you let it be transforming.  God is present in every decision that we make.  Choosing “rightly” means taking a small step in the right direction.  It’s not all or nothing.  It’s small steps towards doing what’s intrinsically  human and intrinsically mystic.

It’s the will of God.

faith / general / life — 2 Comments
12
Nov 09

wonder

One of the tragic losses from the modern era has been the loss of unabashed awe.  During this time in history, we see a dramatic surge in knowledge from the various facets of science.  The capabilities that we possess as the human race now to produce, create, repair, heal, and discover are incredible and directly attributable to the precision and determination with which we have been able to work in relatively recent years.

But in the process of building our knowledge and the endless pursuit of the provable we have all but lost one of the most amazing aspects of humanity.  Our self-aggrandizing quest for limitless knowledge has chipped away at our understanding that the “awe of the unknowable” is in itself inspiring.  It is almost no longer “human” to consider a question unanswerable, to remain in the dark about anything that can be considered remotely important.

We have moved into a time where questions have no inherent value unless they are followed with an explanation.  Great thought is now empirical rather than philosophical.  The greater value is now placed on the state of knowing rather than the art of learning.

In fairness, anything finite can be understood.  The workings of the human mind and neurological system are incredibly complex and once thought impossible to fully comprehend.  Very intelligent people are already beginning to model human brain activity in new ways using new technologies developed by the very systems they are studying.  Someday we will have an incredibly accurate visualization of the intricacies of this aspect of life.  Assuming the laws we have in place are true, and our universe turns out to be finite, we will traverse it, and grasp the things that are unknown.

As scientific fact continues to be refined (e.g. all the “steps” in our evolution, the quirks with Einstein’s relativity, etc) we will eventually reach true understanding about almost everything.  And we should pursue these things with exactly the same fervor as we currently do.

But there is value in the admission that not all questions are answered with facts.  There is inspiration and new outlooks on life when we admit that there are things we will never be able to answer without bias or opinion masquerading as truth.

We can practice this now.  Some of us will never know the full-details of the intricacies of the way the body does the things that a body needs to do to survive.  Be inspired by this.  Whether you believe it was created by a god or arrived at by the laws of nature, it is amazing to think about what had to have happened to reach this point and what has to happen every second of every day.

Think about the mind.  No one alive today will ever fully understand the way that electricity some how transforms into conscious thought.  There’s value in being filled with awe about this and not just seeing it as an unanswered question.

And yes, then there’s the issue of faith and death and what happens next.  This is perhaps the quintessential “unanswerable” question.  By their very being “questions of faith” at best they can only be answered with thought and persuasion.  The “answers” to these questions can change from hour to hour and from person to person.

With questions of faith there are no “Yes” or “No” answers.  And perhaps that’s why these questions are so appealing to me – because of how much recently I’ve been avoiding black and white as much as possible.

And, yet, somehow we often relegate this realm to that of the fairy tale because we cannot say with certainty what the “answers” are.  That’s the beauty of these questions.  They can answered at best with a “maybe” and more often an “I don’t know.”

Black and white is nice, but it’s also the easy way out.

I want to get lost in the wonder of everything that’s around me.  The subtleties of life.  The interactions between people.  Questions of love and faith and dreams and aspirations and worth and purpose.

I want to be introspective.  I want to question the meaning of life and my value as a human and be better for it.  There is no room for this without awe.  The unknowable, in some mystic way, is the only way to begin to answer these issues.  It is only by venturing out from the black and white domain that we’ve created that living even begins.

And even when we admit that some “answers” are unknowble, no questions are “unanswerable.”

We can claim to know more than any generation before us, to have mapped the heavens and observed the molecular.

So what.  Do you think?

faith / reset — 4 Comments
8
Nov 09

prayer

I can’t say that I’ve been wrestling with prayer – that would be an overstatement.  Rather, prayer has always been perplexing to me and continues to be one of my biggest issues and questions.  Lately, as others around me have been wrestling with prayer, I’ve been processing through some of the same questions and concerns.
The dominating understanding of prayer in terms of pop-culture seems to be asking for something from God – maybe asking for a healing or a miracle or a raise or a new car or for a particular candidate to not become the next president of the United States.
For Jesus-followers, the Bible says that:
I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.
or
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Mark 11:25 (NLT and NIV respectively)
Now, while I can tell you stories about praying for a million dollars and a big house and a fast car and how I have none of those things, I’d rather complicate the matter by talking about friends who have prayed long and hard for physical healings and deliverance from sicknesses.  They pray with all the faith in the world.  And nothing changes.  Their loved ones continue downhill.
Religion usually gives one of two very easy answers for this: 1) you didn’t pray hard, long, faithfully enough or 2) it wasn’t in the will of God.
These aren’t good enough for me.  This says that God rewards the people who are faithful, the people who’ve got it all figured out and the rest of us who are still struggling – well, it sucks to be us.  This says that once you reach a certain point, only then will God hear your prayers.
And this from a God who “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and and the unrighteous?”
It’s not a good enough answer for me.
My reset here has been to starting thinking about prayer as more than just making an ask.  It’s talking.  It’s a conversation: a two-way flow of words, thoughts, wishes, intentions, feelings, concerns, questions, and  answers. I’ve understood this for a long time but it’s felt very one-sided.  Almost as if I trusted God was listening but never really heard much from Him.  This is more experiential than anything else.  I don’t know where this “casual” approach to prayer came from or is referenced in the bible.  Then again, I don’t know how it become so holier-than-thou and elitist either.
I’ve WANTED to hear a voice.  I rarely ever have.
I used to think I had to do something special to get God to listen to me.  I know that’s not true either.  He listens to all of us.  He probably gets annoyed at all the bickering and back-biting and ill-will wishes via the prayer line, but I really do believe he listens.
So, my biggest questions now revolve around the answers.
I don’t expect that I’ll hear an audible voice much.  I’m not ruling it out and I’m not convinced that I HAVEN’T on one or two occasions heard something “real” but I’m not counting on hearing words.
This whole prayer business raises lists of other questions, not the least of which are major, major challenges like “the will of God,” or WOG.  The WOG is thrown around so haphazardly and inserts itself as a matter of convenience, ignorance, or indifference.
Why didn’t I get into that school?  Not in the WOG.
Why is the sky blue?  Well son, it’s the WOG.
How will we know the right thing to do?  The WOG will work itself out.
Perhaps this is the next thing to talk about.
There are some core issues surrounding prayer that I still don’t know if I can answer.  Example: How does God decide “who” to listen to?  Bruce Almighty shows us the chaos that follows a blanket yes to all.
I think the central premise of prayer is off.  Prayer can be a very selfish endeavor.  God bless ME.  God forgive ME.  God heal MY friend.  And it’s hard to approach without this selfishness.  We’re interested in self-preservation.
Perhaps it’s fear.  Do we come to God more afraid of hell and suffering than with love and awe?  Is it the “he holds our fate in the palm of his hand” mentality?  We only have limited face-time with the big man upstairs so we should make all our big asks now.
And at the end of the day, I don’t have an answer.  Maybe putting all the big asks on the table is the right thing to do.  I have a hard time processing prayer and I’m sure I will for a long, long time.  I don’t need to understand the mechanics of it, but it sure would be nice for me to have some rationale behind it.
Paul says to pray without ceasing.  That to me does, in fact, make sense.  I do feel pretty online at most times during the day, and in those moments when I encounter something notable, I’ve got no problem being thankful or making an ask for it.
And perhaps I’ve not asked with the right faith, believing that I’ve received something.  Or perhaps I’ve already received everything and don’t know what to do with it all.

I can’t say that I’ve been wrestling with prayer – that would be an overstatement.  Rather, prayer has always been perplexing to me and continues to be one of my biggest issues and questions.  Lately, as others around me have been wrestling with prayer, I’ve been processing through some of the same questions and concerns.

The dominating understanding of prayer in terms of pop-culture seems to be asking for something from God – maybe asking for a healing or a miracle or a raise or a new car or for a particular candidate to not become the next president of the United States.

For Jesus-followers, the Bible says that:

I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.

or

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Mark 11:25 (NLT and NIV respectively)

Now, while I can tell you stories about praying for a million dollars and a big house and a fast car and how I have none of those things, I’d rather complicate the matter by talking about friends who have prayed long and hard for physical healings and deliverance from sicknesses.  They pray with all the faith in the world.  And nothing changes.  Their loved ones continue downhill.

Religion usually gives one of two very easy answers for this: 1) you didn’t pray hard, long, faithfully enough or 2) it wasn’t in the will of God.

These aren’t good enough for me.  This says that God rewards the people who are faithful, the people who’ve got it all figured out and the rest of us who are still struggling – well, it sucks to be us.  This says that once you reach a certain point, only then will God hear your prayers.

And this from a God who “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and and the unrighteous?”

It’s not a good enough answer for me.

My reset here has been to starting thinking about prayer as more than just making an ask.  It’s talking.  It’s a conversation: a two-way flow of words, thoughts, wishes, intentions, feelings, concerns, questions, and  answers. I’ve understood this for a long time but it’s felt very one-sided.  Almost as if I trusted God was listening but never really heard much from Him. This is more experiential than anything else.  I don’t know where this “casual” approach to prayer came from or is referenced in the bible.  Then again, I don’t know how it become so holier-than-thou and elitist either.

I’ve WANTED to hear a voice.  I rarely ever have.

I used to think I had to do something special to get God to listen to me.  I know that’s not true either.  He listens to all of us. He probably gets annoyed at all the bickering and back-biting and ill-will wishes via the prayer line, but I really do believe he listens.

So, my biggest questions now revolve around the answers.

I don’t expect that I’ll hear an audible voice much.  I’m not ruling it out and I’m not convinced that I HAVEN’T on one or two occasions heard something “real” but I’m not counting on hearing words.

This whole prayer business raises lists of other questions, not the least of which are major, major challenges like “the will of God,” or WOG.  The WOG is thrown around so haphazardly and inserts itself as a matter of convenience, ignorance, or indifference.

Why didn’t I get into that school?  Not in the WOG.

Why is the sky blue?  Well son, it’s the WOG.

How will we know the right thing to do?  The WOG will work itself out.

Perhaps this is the next thing to talk about.

There are some core issues surrounding prayer that I still don’t know if I can answer.  Example: How does God decide “who” to listen to?  Bruce Almighty shows us the chaos that follows a blanket yes to all.

I think the central premise of prayer is off.  Prayer can be a very selfish endeavor.  God bless ME.  God forgive ME.  God heal MY friend.  And it’s hard to approach without this selfishness.  We’re interested in self-preservation.

Perhaps it’s fear.  Do we come to God more afraid of hell and suffering than with love and awe?  Is it the “he holds our fate in the palm of his hand” mentality?  We only have limited face-time with the big man upstairs so we should make all our big asks now.

And at the end of the day, I don’t have an answer.  Maybe putting all the big asks on the table is the right thing to do.  I have a hard time processing prayer and I’m sure I will for a long, long time.  I don’t need to understand the mechanics of it, but it sure would be nice for me to have some rationale behind it.

Paul says to pray without ceasing.  That to me does, in fact, make sense.  I do feel pretty online at most times during the day, and in those moments when I encounter something notable, I’ve got no problem being thankful or making an ask for it.

And perhaps I’ve not asked with the right faith, believing that I’ve received something.  Or perhaps I’ve already received everything and don’t know what to do with it all.