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God hates toast

If you are an amazing Canadian man, you might recognize this title.

I have a buddy named Dallas.

Dallas is Canadian... and amazing, even by Canadian rule, which is far more strict in recognizing someone as awesome.

Well, he has a foto album entitled "God hates toast" and I have always found that title amusing so i thought i would try to construct an entry off of it.

Maybe a top ten list would suffice.... So, with toast as a standard,  I hereby submit the top 20 inanimate objects that God might hate.


The top 20 inanimate objects that God might hate.

1. lint
2. hand lotion
3. post-its
4. dead cats
5. fingernail clippings
6. plastic cups
7. eye boogers
8. macs
9. popcorn
10. bad coffee
11. clothing from the 1980's
12. candy corn
13. mechanical pencils
14. pudding
15. ironing boards
16. bananas
17. mayonnaise
18. light beer
19. feathers
20. toast

This might be my most insightful entry to date.

dangerous anthems

When we hear a talented musician play something amazing and fresh we do not say that music is doing a "new thing".

Music is interesting in that while it is experienced by physical senses, it somehow crosses between the natural and supernatural. Some argue that music is discovered rather than created... all the sounds and rhythms are out there, but we need to find them and piece them together. Music would exist without people, but it is through people that we realize music exists.

When we hear a talented musician play something amazing and fresh we say that the musician is doing a new thing... and we can describe what it is they are doing.

Quite a while ago I had a conversation with a pastor of a local congregation. During our time together I was describing to him something that I had been processing and had some concerns about. During this conversation I ended up using the phrase "dangerous anthems" to describe what I had been witnessing.

To give a brief description...


dangerous anthem: [deyn-jer-uhs - an-thuhm] -noun

1. A blanket statement with biblical truth used to justify an individuals actions, often times overriding question and accountability.

Just to give an example, I will pick one such anthem that causes me alarm...

"God is doing a new thing"

This statement in itself is not entirely inaccurate. I think that God inspires and moves people to begin new works quite frequently.

It becomes a dangerous anthem when paired with other symptoms.

It is not as though the eternal and everlasting Creator of the universe just realized one day that what He had started out doing was no longer right. Like He had made a mistake and decided that His initial trajectory was miscalculated and he had to change what He was doing in order to start "a new thing".

He didn't just say "oops. sorry. let me try that again.... "

but... sometimes it seems that people believe that has happened and will justify actions based on the dangerous anthem. UnGodly changes can be made because of a small nugget of truth used inappropriately.

To some degree, I think that music operates in a similar fashion to how God does. God is unchanging although unpredictable. In theory, we are supposed come to understand more about God through the people who claim to follow Him. Sadly this is not often the case, but in theory... it's how it is supposed to work.

Apparently we have a lot of bad musicians and equally impressive christians.

anyhow,

Sometimes a little nugget of truth will be stumbled upon, used out of context, and cause hurt and confusion.

That is a dangerous anthem.

Dangerous anthems also are dangerous because of how vague they tend to be.

The lack of specifics is a cause for alarm.

"God is doing a new thing" could mean anything, and justify any changes that are made... for better or worse.

A more accurate statement would be "we are doing a new thing and feel God is behind it" Although that doesn't quite have the same tribal ring to it when paired up with some djembes and acoustic guitars in a emotionally lit room.

or better yet " We are now doing _______________ and feel God is behind it because ___________"

I know... crazy concept. Actually describe what the new thing is and your reasoning behind it, turning it from a concept blindly shouted out and into a reality, and taking responsibility for your actions... not very romantic, but much healthier and appropriate.

So beware of dangerous anthems, bad music, and change your undies frequently... cause you never know when you will get in a car crash.

Peace.

drink our filth

I just thought of this title, thought it was catchy and has potential to develop into a good entry, so I am going to write based on that. We'll see where it goes... could be a fun ride.

Yesterday I attended an alliance meeting for mission professionals in the Twin Cities. There was a speaker there who was a good communicator with some life experience, and he presented a few thoughts that were healthy reminders, if nothing else.

Darrow Miller

I had never heard of a person having this first name... Let's look it up.

done.

The boy's name Darrow \d(ar)-

row\ is of Old English origin, and its meaning is "spear".

(the name meaning is not really relevant to this entry.. consider it an added bonus)

So... as the story unfolds, Darrow had three main points that have stayed with me.

1- The Great Commission is about making disciples of the nations. The main stress being of the nations. Encouraging discipleship to happen at every level of society, not just "in the hearts" of individuals.

2- The entire Bible needs to be explained for the significance of "Christ as Savior" to be understood within the appropriate culture and setting.

3- The church has not done a good job of telling the whole story. We often times take only the good news and try to insert it in the story of another culture... and it produces an odd bi-product.

Let's talk a bit more on 1 and 2.

try to follow along with this...

Let's say we have two books...

Book A

The Bible is telling the story of a specific culture, time, people etc. It is a historical and factual piece of literature. In this great work exists the great masterpiece of God sending his only son, Jesus Christ as an everlasting atonement for the sins of mankind, in order to create a new and lasting covenant between God and Man. The story begins before the events of the cross and ends after the events of the cross.

Book B

The historical and factual story of a different culture or sub-culture, whether they be Maasai, Argentinian, Rainbow Family, Canadian, etc.. etc... This culture has a history as well. The actions of the people are created from their past. They have specific ways of doing things and understanding things. Within these cultures exist subcultures that are just as unique. This book tells the deep and complex story of who these people are and what they believe.


So, what happens is the "Jesus part" of Book A gets inserted right in the middle of Book B. Ignoring the fact that it does not really have an appropriate context, the story of "sin and Jesus saving us from it" gets thrown into this culture. Someone at some point decided that was all that was needed. boom: disciple made.

Darrow went on to describe how this has happened in the United States...

What is the bi-product of placing the Jesus Story in the midst of a individualistic, materialistic, atheistic, convenience and performance based society?

Well, let's make a list of just a few things...

we have...

• the prosperity gospel
• apathetic "followers" who are christian by association
  
• mega churches that focus on numbers and anonymity
  
• performance based sensationalism in worship
• disproportional focus inside of the church, compared to focus on surrounding community
• lack of authentic community and intimacy inside of the church
• alarming statistics from The Barna Group
  

Obviously, there are many other attributes of the USA church, both positive and negative... but that's not what my focus is in this entry.

This is my focus.

Because the United States of America has been a dominant and influential world power, the version of christianity that has grown in it has been widely spread to other parts of the world. Unfortunately, it is an often times tainted expression of the faith and we end up teaching the bad with the good... or just forcing the bad with the good, or just forcing the bad...

Throughout Matthew 23, Jesus had some strong words to say...

read through it

He is basically calling out the religious leaders for the way they have become tainted, and one illustration Jesus uses is that of a cup.

The outside of the cup is clean. The inside is dirty... tainted... filthy.

He stresses that you must clean the inside of the cup and not just the outside, otherwise the cup will still be dirty. What a shocker.

If I was washing dishes and someone felt they had to remind me to also wash the inside of the cups, it would be absolutely insulting...

unless...

I was only washing the outside of the cup. Moronic as that would be of me... a reminder would be absolutely appropriate.

We have become very good at cleaning the outside of the cup. A performance based culture is good at looking good and justifying our shortcomings.

The inside of the cup must be cleaned.

This begins by re-examining all of Book A. Seriously considering the significance of Jesus, considering the cost of following Christ, and taking the appropriate steps of obedience to that call and applying it to all of our Book B.

When we do this, we will be drinking from and able to present the water of life from a clean cup.. and no longer needing to tell others to...

"drink our filth"

saturated by the smell of burnt rubber

I find myself saturated by the smell of burnt rubber.

In Minnesota we have this thing called "winter"

... or rather...

In the heart of winter you will find this concept that we have learned to call "Minnesota"

Recently, as my cousin phrased it.. "Jack Frost has decided to leave his excrement everywhere" meaning.. we have gotten a ton of snow... also, it has been pretty cold. Jack Frost has a case of Ganga Gut and has showered us with his fluffy and whimsical waste.

When the temp stays below a certain number and the sun decides to take a vacation, that snow will continue to pile up. Occasionally it will warm up just enough to melt the snow so that it can coll again and turn into some kind of super-material that is both a ridiculously strong adhesive and a freakishly slick surface.

Occasionally a car will be left unattended during one of these cycles, and it creates a bit of a nuisance to get unstuck. after a couple of these cycles it becomes a NASA sized problem. Three or more cycles.... the snow, the ice, and the car are no longer separate... an unholy and supernatural bond is formed that is nearly impossible to break.

My fiancée's car found itself deep into one of these unholy unions. She has been away from Minnesota, while her car remained in this frozen wasteland... and after about a month and a half.. this unidentifiable chunk of metal and ice was disturbed from it's deathly slumber only to find itself being attacked by a team of loyal winter warriors and a terrible battle ensued.

Not to draw out this ridiculously long and embellished story any more... but after a good hour of hard work and engineering... involving digging the car out of it's crystal grave, jumping the "Dirty Gurdy" (car name), trying to pull the beast out with "the black beauty" aka "the black pearl" (jeep name), melting the 6 inches of snow beneath the jeeps tires til I became saturated by the smell of burnt rubber, and eventually pulling some more manpower into the ordeal... did we finally release the ice princess from the arctic-cold iron grasp of Ol' Jack Frost.

what did we learn?

well, if I ever have grand kids I will probably fill them up with so many tall tales that "fluffy and whimsical waste" will be dripping out from their ears.

and

I think life is full of metaphors if we take the time to learn from simple things.

I think that we have negative things build up in our lives if we are not being active by either taking steps forward or being mindful of our surroundings and protecting ourselves from "the elements".

Too much of either one can be dangerous. if you are driving all the time you will probably not get frozen into the driveway.. but if you don't take a break you will eventually fall asleep at the wheel and crash into a ditch or another car, etc, etc...

However

If you never take your car out to drive you will end up getting snowed in and stuck... When the time comes where you are forced to move it will be painful, awkward, difficult, something might crawl into it and die... and there is a chance your battery will have lost it's charge somewhere along the way...

I think in regard to faith it is very easy to fall into one of these two categories.

Always moving

or
Always waiting

There are benefits to both moving and waiting, and finding a harmonious balance between the two is very important.

If we find ourselves always moving, we do run the risk of burning out, being too heavily goal or task oriented, losing track of why we are moving, comparing ourselves to others.. to name a few.

If we find ourselves always waiting it is easy to grow complacent, it becomes more difficult to take steps forward, we can focus too much on ourselves and seemingly "personal growth", we can lose accountability and fellowship, etc...

Now if we keep a balance of moving and waiting we can begin a harmonious rhythm that is sustainable and allows for true growth. We need to take steps forward and be active as followers of Christ while at the same time recognizing the need for a sabbath and for rest and meditation on God.

It kind of boils down to this...

Love God: Waiting on God and resting in Him. Taking time to increase in understanding of our call to follow Christ and growing in intimacy with God. Taking time to be realigned in understanding the cost of following Christ.

Love Others: Moving with God. Actually demonstrating your beliefs in tangible ways that have an actual impact outside of the community of believers. Hiding it under a bushel... no.


So... let's learn from the little things in life and continue to walk this thing out.

awkward pants: fashion and community

I was sitting in my office recently when I heard a conversation in the next room that caused my ears to perk. It was filled with a bunch of "exciting" buzz words like "community" and "discipleship" and "cluster" and "huddle". The whole purpose of the conversation seemed to be trying to find ways of recreating a feeling of intimacy within a church structure designed for anonymity. this is a big task.. and to hear the bits of conversation was humorous in an ironic sort of way.

The whole concept kind of reminds me of pre-worn fake-ripped cookie cutter-faded jeans.

Do you remember when you would go to the store and find a standard pair of jeans. You had some options... the right cut, color, brand, and size... you know, the basics.


Once you had the right pair of jeans it was up to you and life to determine how they would take on a unique look.

That small rip that you patched it up has a story behind it.... and you can tell it.

Why yes that is a paint stain, because I was painting in these jeans and some dripped... you might also appreciate the oil stain near it.

That mild discoloration in the denim? It is from dirt, sweat, and life...

The faded denim was a symbol of months, maybe years of commitment and bonding... If you had bought them that way it would have been awkward, but because they shaped to you, they are familiar... and you are dreading the point at which the knees bust apart, because you know that at a certain point... jeans are just done and you will have to start with a fresh pair and allow life to shape them uniquely.


Then one day... somebody decided to skip the important part and sell an imposter. The pre-worn fake-ripped cookie cutter faded-jeans entered the scene... the worst thing to happen to denim since the words "acid" and "washed" decided to join forces and asked the 80's for fashion advice.

There they hang... out of place. There is no unique history behind the alterations... the person who buys them has no commitment or past with them... and it is very apparent. They just look bad and wrong and terribly awkward on people.... and are stupid.

... and lame.

The real thing is much better, but takes time and commitment.

I think the same is true for intimacy within a small group of people. We can structure things efficiently, and use the right group-building resource pack, and be strategic in cultivating community through our advertising and terminology... some of that might guide things in a good direction. At the end of the day though, intimacy takes time, commitment, shared experiences, converstaion, etc... Building a community is not a clean and simple process... it is messy and it takes real sacrifice.

Your jeans won't fade or rip or get paint stains if you don't put them on and live life.

Your community will not take on a unique shape or grow in intimacy unless you are willing to do the work it takes to allow change to take place.

If true sacrifice and self-disclosure are not involved, the closest thing you will have to "community" is the pre-worn fake-ripped cookie cutter-faded jeans version of it... and that is just awkward.

authenticity is a good thing.