Monday, November 30, 2009

do-overs

I've been doing some studying/teaching through the Kings and Chronicles and have observed some pretty amazing things.
1. The arrogance and stupidity of Israel (Judah later on too) never ceases to amaze me. They repeatedly thumbed their noses at God in spite of the constant warnings they received about impending judgment and doom that would befall them if they didn't repent and change their ways.

2. We are not unlike Israel and Judah.
3. God is Just.
4. God is Merciful
5. In spite of bad decisions that have been made by you or for you,,,,
(legacy of the Kings of Israel/Judah) You can start over again.
It is in your power to change, no matter what your heritage.

Pretty cool stuff!

Now the fatalistic among us would argue that once the cards have been dealt, it's over, you have to make do with what you have in your hand. True...to a point. we are powerless to change the past, but we have to decide how we are going to respond to the cards we've been dealt and how it will affect our future...no one else can do that for us. The beauty of God is that He's always shuffling the deck and with Him, you have the ability to discard and pick up a brand new hand. We simply must open our eyes to the possibilities...because with God, anything is.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

...driving my life away...

I like to drive.
some people don't like to get behind the wheel any more than they absolutely have to, but I'm one of those crazies who enjoys the hum of the open road.
Maybe it's the competitive nature that drives most males that fuels my zest or the video game induced rally sport longing in me to drift around corners...who knows...
Anyway, i digress...on one drive recently, i happened to be alone and in those moments i really do relish the opportunity to turn the music up loud or embrace the silence of reflective prayer. The latter was the case this time and in that moment i was reminded, by the gentle prompting of the Holy Spirit, that God has wired me to hear from Him.
The way he created me, from my annoying idiosyncrasies to the depths of my psyche, was to specifically hear from Him.
So, I realized once again, that it is incumbent upon me to make sure that I create moments, daily moments, in which His is the only voice to which I tune in.
There in lies the tension... often, I tune in, way too often to too many alternate sources of meaningless drivel.
So today, in this very public of formats, I make this commitment.
I endeavor to make the time I spend listening to and communing with God, the most prevalent of time spent taking in and remove the majority of the "noise" cluttering my brain.
This may seem like a pointless exercise to some who read this, but I know that in those moments when I choose to give ear - that my ears and my spirit and my heart will indeed be filled with that which is necessary for my health and my sanity on many levels...the unmistakable, still, small voice of God.
So roll on you open road...unstop my crowded ears.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

L.O.V.E.

Weddings are one of those services that we as ministers provide to people, outside of our Sunday and Wednesday duties...
I really see it as a privilege, that two people would entrust to me the beginning of the most significant human relationship they will ever have. That's pretty heavy stuff...
Except, I guess, if you view marriage through the lens of our culture...where anyone can go online, and in about 15 minutes, be ordained to perform marriages through any number of sanctioning "churches". For some reason this doesn't seem right to me...

It doesn't bother me that you don't have to actually be a pastor to perform marriage ceremonies. I think what bothers me is that this is just another symptom of how we in America have trivialized the significance of the union between a man and woman.

Even if you don't believe in God, there is something pretty amazing about the level of faith and commitment two individuals are placing in and toward one another when they take up the responsibility of uniting in marriage.
Maybe that's the whole issue right there...commitment is so fleeting and relationships treated as utterly disposable, that we take the path of least resistance when entering in to what essentially is a covenant between the man and woman.
Here I go...it's not just the marriage ceremony that's been corrupted, the whole idea of love is completely polluted. Love has become a means to an end, we use it to satisfy our selfish desires and twisted sense of entitlement and gratification. Love is no longer love...it is a vehicle that is bound to the servitude of self.
Love without strings attached...how quaint.
When you talk about deference and sacrifice for the sake of the highest good of your partner, people almost scoff with disdain and disbelief at the "unenlightened, irrelevant and antiquated", idealism and naivete that you possess.
You know what? I'm perfectly content to stay naive, idealistic, unenlightened, antiquated and even irrelevant, if it means that the love i give and receive is unfettered by the freedom genuine love supplies.
The measure of genuine love is just that: it is both freely given and freely received...just as God intended.
Man, i could go on and on, but the bottom line is this:
Love doesn't do what we feel like doing, true love is bound to the character of its creator and in that, we find all that we're looking for and more.
I Corinthians 13) says something like this: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."
Indeed, how quaint...