Some Insights As I Fast...

This post breaks the golden rule of fasting.

Never tell anyone you're doing it.

Lest others might think that you are after some kind of recognition, some kind of awe-inspired praise from your peer group. Lest you become full of yourself, and think that you're something better than someone else.

Then again..."Oh, look at me, I can...not eat." Hmm.. Not exactly awe-inspiring, upon reflection.

We're not jumping the Grand Canyon on a Harley, here.

But I'm going to tell you about it, anyways. This experience, this process of fasting. I guess I feel that the potential benefits to myself, and to you, might outweigh the potential for me to lose this heavenly reward.

First off, this is Day #10 of the fast. The ground rules are (the 1st rule of fast club is....)

A - No solid food.
B - Natural fruit juice is allowed. For this, I utilize my blender. Or visit Jamba Juice downstairs, but forego the organic add-ins.
C - No milk.
D - Naked Juice is OK. If you're scandalized by that, go to King Soopers and look at the label.
E - One beer a week is allowed. This was a condition upon beginning the fast.
F - A coffee or two is allowed, but as I have found, is a very, very bad idea in general.

I already have a number of insights I'd like to share, but most will wait until the days following.

Here is one that I'll share now. If done properly, fasting before YHWH does little for your ego. Except maybe shatter it. Maybe the lesson here is that this process is what you make it.

For me, a fast reminds me of weakness, not strength. Dependence, not autonomy. Interconnectedness, not self-sufficiency.

Oh, and visiting stores that serve apple pie may not be the best idea, either.

i want my FOCUS ON THE FAMILY back.

I remember the James Dobson of 1989.

This was the Dobson that interviewed Ted Bundy, confessed serial killer and molester of several women. This was the Dobson that wanted the world to know the evils of pornography, and who laid the philosophical groundwork for such progressive ministries as XXXChurch. When no one else was talking about this stuff, Dobson was.

I remember when we would listen to the James Dobson of the late 1990s, and read his books about healthy relationships and the importance of families. His Focus on the Family seemed to be the counter-voice to those saying that the family was irrelevant. He defended the idea of the healthy, functional family unit, not just as the foundation of the church but as the foundation of a vibrant and functional society.

So what made this voice in the wilderness, FOTF, turn its focus away from all which I respected it for?

I heard today about this letter, prepared by FOTF, where they imagine a world 4 years from now.

This post-apocalyptic hellscape is ruled and presided over by President Obama, harbinger of evil and destruction.

The leftist commies under his command have allowed the homosexuals (apparently some sort of new, master race?) to rule the land with their tyrannical immorality.

Obama's tax strategy has backfired to the point that no one has anything. Well done.

Obama's health care strategy has backfired horribly...it is now free, but the wait is so long that no one can receive the care they need.

Obama's progressive foreign policy has resulted in foreign invasions, nuclear strikes on Israel, and all manner of brazen terrorist attacks. How could we have been so stupid?

Guns are gone, and porn is everywhere. (Is nothing sacred?)

Oh, and campus ministries are gone. None could withstand 4 years of Obama's anti-Christian policies.

Christian books have been banned. Orwell's vision can't touch the horror of Obama's reign!

And so on and so on.

So, in the words of Jules, allow me to retort...

Dude, you're a MINISTRY. You're not supposed to be a mouthpiece for ANY political party. You're not supposed to be a tool for the Republicans, Democrats, Greens, Socialists...ANY of them.

You're supposed to represent Christ to a lost and dying world. You're supposed to be proclaiming The Year of the Lord's Favour.

And His Name is not Bush, McCain, Obama, Palin, Cheney...none of those names is spelled YHWH or Yeshuah.

This letter is beyond disappointing. It's so inappropriate and propaganda-ish that I can't imagine anyone taking it seriously...except people will. They will take Dobson's political scare story and make it their reality.

This makes me sad. It makes me wonder where the redemptive message in this letter is. It makes me wonder if they can become a ministry again, and redeem their calling to millions.

Brain Power

I read something today, in the NY Times I think, about some researchers looking at how the brain "experiences" events.

Turns out, that those sudden memories, those involuntary, immediate ones that spring up, have incredible power behind them. These events, forgotten through our conscious days, suddenly spring to life from a scent in the air, an old picture or video.

The brain is fooled momentarily, and actually re-lives the experience as if it were in the midst of the moment. To my mind, then, that event is every bit as real as the moment it happened in linear time.

This could be a great thing - a wedding, birth of a child, some great achievement relived.

Or it could be brutal - a breakup, a fight, a death...relived.

Today I experienced one of the latter. One minute, I'm walking into a shop to get some coffee. The next, my heart is stung. My body recoils inside-out. I saw someone I thought was gone forever, a ghost from a past recently forgotten, and there I was...right back in it, fighting within myself for emotional survival.

Seems they were right.

Death by Blogging

I just read this story in the NY Times. About people who get paid to blog, and over-stress themselves to the point of exhaustion and, rarely, even death.

As I have been reminded by those of you that read this...this blog is in no danger of such extremes. ;-)

Gifts

In his letters to the Corinthians, Paul speaks at length about the value of spiritual giftings.

He seems to believe that not every Christian should endeavour to produce every good work. Rather, that God especially equips each of us for particular tasks within His kingdom work.

Then he tears them a new one.

Because Paul wasn't happy with the Corinthians. Both times he writes the church at Corinth, that we are aware of, he is admonishing them for

missing
the
mark

and coming up short, considering all that the Father has in store for them.

But even as he calls them out on their misdeeds, lack of charity, and general disregard for all things holy, he builds them up as Christians. He never diminishes them.

He never reduces their sense of themselves, or God's living, breathing gifts within them.

I love teaching. I love communicating God. Communicating with Him, about Him to others. This, maybe above anything else, is my gifting.

There are times, some of them not so long ago, where I have wondered if my giftings are valid. Questions begin to stir.

Am I too beat up from life?

Does my past disqualify me from a future?

Are some people (like me, for example) just too damaged to qualify for real life?

Imagine if the answer to any of those questions was "YES". Imagine that. The Good News, then, is a charade. A farce, a cosmic joke. Then, as Paul says, we are to be most pitied for buying it. If.

The single most significant change in my life the past year has been to SHIFT. To risk, dare, dream, whatever, that the answer to all the above questions

might
just
be
NO

And that something I've believed all my life...might just be true.

Imagine that.

So here I am, a Corinthian, groveling in the mud. Still gifted. Still vibrant. And waking up.

Ads and Temptation

I picked up the latest edition of one of my favourite mags this weekend. Sandwiched in between articles on how to renovate my apartment, I see this ad:

(go ahead, click on it...I'll wait.)

To say I was "insulted" betrays the real issue. You see, after the fact, I looked into this thing - I guess eHarmony.com and Chemistry.com have some kind of freakish rivalry over who can get who to hook up or whatever. I could seriously care less.

What insults me is that the people that made this ad, whether intentionally or not, have shamed everyone who doesn't believe "like they do". They are not just attacking one man who believes a certain way; they are attacking everyone that shares this "archaic" belief that sex before marriage is best avoided. And that it, in fact, might just be harmful and fundamentally poised against God's redemptive purposes.

Wow, this world pisses me off. It latches onto Christians with serrated teeth and accuses them of being judgmental. Sometimes they are. Sometimes they do try and force people into their way of doing things, when those things may not have a whole lot to do with Christ and His redemptive purposes.

But SEX...(got your attention?)...SEX, this world has it covered. Sex isn't "holy". Sex is completely fine outside of marriage. Especially if you're in a "relationship" - after all, we're not monks and nuns here. We have needs. This isn't 1952. Right?

Maybe.

Or maybe the topic of sex is so positively shame-laden because both Christians and the world have lost their way. Maybe we should not suppress it, or let it run rampantly uncontrolled. Christians and the world have done both, at different times, in different ways.

Maybe sex and holiness are indistinguishably intertwined. Maybe sexuality doesn't have a whole lot to do with a penis and a vagina, and a lot more to do with connection. Vulnerability. Integrity, within myself, and with others.

Commitment.

How dare some bulls**t advertising agency suggest otherwise. They are allowed to state their opinion, as they should be. And I am allowed to be pissed, and to take them to task.

This post probably makes me seem a little more conservative than I really am (okay, maybe a lot...I don't feel very post-modern right now. I feel more Dobson-ish..). I'm just pissed off. It's a very present struggle to be a Christian, and I wrestle daily against discouragement and temptations that would so easily derail me.

I'm a single Christian. I've been single longer than I thought I'd be. And I am PISSED OFF that some ad agency would come along and would try to add to the shame that was so hard to give to the Father. I'm pissed that they would want to make it harder for me.

But they have failed. Christ's blood flows in my veins.

"Doom to the world for giving these God-believing children a hard time! Hard time are inevitable, but you don't have to make it worse - and it's doomsday to you if you do." Mt 18:7, The Message

That is all. Next time we shall talk about Peeps and more pleasant things.

Causes

I find that there are nearly limitless causes with which one could become involved with today. This quote has been floating into my life a lot lately:

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

- Howard Thurman

So much of our generation has rebelled against the "obligation" of Christian service, instead of finding joy in what we do and relating to those we do it for.

I have found such wisdom, peace, strength, in letting go - and when I think of the things I have done without peace and joy in "Christ's name"!

I now know, without condemnation in myself, that these things were done not out of a genuine desire for holiness and Christian service, but out of my own lack of sense of self. I was simply trying to give out of an abundance, a reserve, which I did not have. Even the widow which Jesus praised so highly for giving her last, gave out of what she had to give.

May we, as Christians, come alive inside. Start living. May we now become genuine with ourselves, and with a world that needs to see people ALIVE in Christ.

Galatians 2:20 -

"I am crucified with Christ, so that I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me."

How my perspective on this verse has changed! The closer we draw to Him, the closer we should be drawing to our real selves.