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. ;-)
Monday, April 7, 2008
Saturday, April 5, 2008
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.
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.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
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.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
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:
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 -
How my perspective on this verse has changed! The closer we draw to Him, the closer we should be drawing to our real selves.
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.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Let Me Grow Young
A month or so back, a co-worker casually told this story, about her grandfather I think it was...the story has haunted me since. I'd like to share it.
The story goes, that her family was gathered at the house one night. The grandfather, in his 90's, still insisted on taking his turn with the chores - this night, he was washing the dishes as the rest of the family socialized in the living room. At one point, someone noticed that granddad was taking an awfully long time with this chore.
They found him slumped over the kitchen sink, dish and washcloth still in hand.
And she said that the entire family gathered in the doorway. No one screamed, or cried.
They just...marveled.
They just...stood, in awe.
In reverence, to a life fully lived.
I usually picture someone's last days spent in a hospital bed, maybe some feeding tubes. Sickness, pain, everyone holding their breath through the night to see if he or she "made it" to another day. But not this man.
He was just living life, doing a perfectly ordinary thing. In one instant, he was washing a dish, fully present in the same world he had spent the past 90-odd years. And then...he was gone.
It makes me reverent.
He went somewhere. He lived life, then he left. Where did he go?
Heather Nova is a new favourite of mine: "Sitting here I remember, it's easy to smile. Let me grow young, like a brand new day, like I've just begun."
This story, these lyrics, they slap me across the face, they pour ice cold conviction down my back.
I burn, something in me screams, to lead people somewhere. To take my turn at my post.
To wash the dishes.
How can I feel younger at 30 than I did at 20?
Because there is purpose, passion, authority, which compels me forward to take people somewhere they've never been. It's easy to grow old on the inside, which is what God is really concerned with: our heart, our inside.
What screams inside you?
We never have to grow old. We were never meant to.
Let's all go somewhere together.
Let's grow young together.
The story goes, that her family was gathered at the house one night. The grandfather, in his 90's, still insisted on taking his turn with the chores - this night, he was washing the dishes as the rest of the family socialized in the living room. At one point, someone noticed that granddad was taking an awfully long time with this chore.
They found him slumped over the kitchen sink, dish and washcloth still in hand.
And she said that the entire family gathered in the doorway. No one screamed, or cried.
They just...marveled.
They just...stood, in awe.
In reverence, to a life fully lived.
I usually picture someone's last days spent in a hospital bed, maybe some feeding tubes. Sickness, pain, everyone holding their breath through the night to see if he or she "made it" to another day. But not this man.
He was just living life, doing a perfectly ordinary thing. In one instant, he was washing a dish, fully present in the same world he had spent the past 90-odd years. And then...he was gone.
It makes me reverent.
He went somewhere. He lived life, then he left. Where did he go?
Heather Nova is a new favourite of mine: "Sitting here I remember, it's easy to smile. Let me grow young, like a brand new day, like I've just begun."
This story, these lyrics, they slap me across the face, they pour ice cold conviction down my back.
I burn, something in me screams, to lead people somewhere. To take my turn at my post.
To wash the dishes.
How can I feel younger at 30 than I did at 20?
Because there is purpose, passion, authority, which compels me forward to take people somewhere they've never been. It's easy to grow old on the inside, which is what God is really concerned with: our heart, our inside.
What screams inside you?
We never have to grow old. We were never meant to.
Let's all go somewhere together.
Let's grow young together.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Being Green in an Apartment
I have had several discussions the past few weeks regarding home ownership vs. renting. I am tempted to (though I won't) go into the philosophy behind land/home ownership, and why it is not the achievement, status marker, or privilege it once was. Witness the plethora of "subprime" loan defaults, and what this has done to the world economy.
But land ownership no longer means you "own" the land. Let's say you own, and would like to be green. Put up a solar panel or install a compost box in your front yard, and you earn the wrath of your sullen neighbours. Thou Shalt Not Violate the Neighbourhood Covenant. Thy lawn shall be cropped, your car shalt not lie upon cinder blocks, and you and your family shall be beautiful, easy on the eyes, and loving at all times for thy neighbours' benefit.
Welcome to Pleasantville (formerly Dysfunction Junction).
I'm sure you're picking up the sarcasm, as was once quoted in the masterpiece Tommy Boy, because I'm laying it on pretty thick. Home owners' agreements (HOAs), neighbourhood covenants, and the like are a not-so-subtle method of control - community feudalism. And it's unnecessary.
Not that home ownership is never a good idea. For many of my friends, married with families, home ownership makes quite a bit of sense. I grew up out in the countryside of Ohio with farms bordering 3 sides of the house, and I can't imagine spending that childhood trapped in a Dayton apartment or condo with no room to explore outdoors. Though of course, owning a house means lots of work - you're committed to those studs and drywall, and you may even find yourself hosting a DIY party!
Nothing spells "fun" like alcohol, power tools, twelve friends, and a guest bathroom that needs redone.
The whole reason for this post is that I am in the process of discovering just how fun being in an apartment can be. As a birthday gift last year, I got my first issue of ReadyMade magazine and have fallen in love with their little DIY projects. I find myself looking around my little apartment saying, "what can I do with THIS corner? what can I build that would do this??" And with a little help from my favourite store of all time, 10,000 Villages, it's working pretty well, I must say.
Plus, in the words of the late, great Mitch Hedberg: "I wanna go to the Apartment Depot. Just a bunch of guys standing around saying 'I have an apartment, I don't gotta fix s***'."
Now, after all that, I will definitely admit to looking at a house for sale on Oak Street this week, and wistfully thinking about how great it would look with a new deck...
But land ownership no longer means you "own" the land. Let's say you own, and would like to be green. Put up a solar panel or install a compost box in your front yard, and you earn the wrath of your sullen neighbours. Thou Shalt Not Violate the Neighbourhood Covenant. Thy lawn shall be cropped, your car shalt not lie upon cinder blocks, and you and your family shall be beautiful, easy on the eyes, and loving at all times for thy neighbours' benefit.
Welcome to Pleasantville (formerly Dysfunction Junction).
I'm sure you're picking up the sarcasm, as was once quoted in the masterpiece Tommy Boy, because I'm laying it on pretty thick. Home owners' agreements (HOAs), neighbourhood covenants, and the like are a not-so-subtle method of control - community feudalism. And it's unnecessary.
Not that home ownership is never a good idea. For many of my friends, married with families, home ownership makes quite a bit of sense. I grew up out in the countryside of Ohio with farms bordering 3 sides of the house, and I can't imagine spending that childhood trapped in a Dayton apartment or condo with no room to explore outdoors. Though of course, owning a house means lots of work - you're committed to those studs and drywall, and you may even find yourself hosting a DIY party!
Nothing spells "fun" like alcohol, power tools, twelve friends, and a guest bathroom that needs redone.
The whole reason for this post is that I am in the process of discovering just how fun being in an apartment can be. As a birthday gift last year, I got my first issue of ReadyMade magazine and have fallen in love with their little DIY projects. I find myself looking around my little apartment saying, "what can I do with THIS corner? what can I build that would do this??" And with a little help from my favourite store of all time, 10,000 Villages, it's working pretty well, I must say.
Plus, in the words of the late, great Mitch Hedberg: "I wanna go to the Apartment Depot. Just a bunch of guys standing around saying 'I have an apartment, I don't gotta fix s***'."
Now, after all that, I will definitely admit to looking at a house for sale on Oak Street this week, and wistfully thinking about how great it would look with a new deck...
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Connection and Disconnect
Okay so this probably won't make a whole lot of sense....but it is therapeutic for me to put some thoughts down for the world to see. So let's try to keep up, shall we?
I had an experience this morning. It's one of those times where you're sitting across from someone and you're sharing really deep, intimate, personal stuff, but it's really a goodbye moment where you realize that this is the last time you will ever share yourself with that person. Someone I've been connected to, but when the conversation was over and I walked away, I became disconnected from.
If it's God's plan that we all enter into relationship, then why do relationships end?
I used to think this was tragic, but I don't think that anymore. Actually, I think it is beautiful. Because two imperfect people tried to make a connection and it didn't stick. Things like personality, pride, lies, insecurity, and all kinds of other gunk got in the way, but here were two imperfect people who gave it a go anyways.
And if God promises that all the gunk will one day be burned away, then what are we left with? Perfect relationships. Nothing can stand in the way of this eventually happening, and all the pain and injustice will be forgotten.
Human relationships are beautiful because two imperfect people attempt to participate in the work of God. And I believe He smiles on our feeble attempts to instinctively make things right again.
I had an experience this morning. It's one of those times where you're sitting across from someone and you're sharing really deep, intimate, personal stuff, but it's really a goodbye moment where you realize that this is the last time you will ever share yourself with that person. Someone I've been connected to, but when the conversation was over and I walked away, I became disconnected from.
If it's God's plan that we all enter into relationship, then why do relationships end?
I used to think this was tragic, but I don't think that anymore. Actually, I think it is beautiful. Because two imperfect people tried to make a connection and it didn't stick. Things like personality, pride, lies, insecurity, and all kinds of other gunk got in the way, but here were two imperfect people who gave it a go anyways.
And if God promises that all the gunk will one day be burned away, then what are we left with? Perfect relationships. Nothing can stand in the way of this eventually happening, and all the pain and injustice will be forgotten.
Human relationships are beautiful because two imperfect people attempt to participate in the work of God. And I believe He smiles on our feeble attempts to instinctively make things right again.
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