Today I read in James Ch. 2. I was really struck by it in a different sense than I have been before. I was reading it out loud and slowly which helps me. I was trying to follow the train of thought. Before I have always thought James was just sort of 'getting onto' the people, but today I felt like he was pleading or begging them to stop settling for some dead pseudo-faith. To stop fooling themselves and break through to really being alive. Like they were missing the very best part of believing in the life Jesus offers, they were missing the actual living of that life. Their belief needed to be activated. They had all the right ideas but nothing was putting on flesh. The truths were remaining abstractions and never passing into realization.
James is excited about how much he loves to be alive and he sees people missing out on it and he is desperate to bring them into the joy he knows comes with real living.
I'm trying to think of a good illustration for it. Maybe you say you like to ride roller coasters but you never have actually ridden on one. You can talk about what it would be like, you can watch movies about it and you'll have all the information and 'truth' about it, but you wont really know the joy of it till you drive to an amusement park and buy a ticket, wait in line, sit in that seat, buckle in, slowly clink up the first incline, then fly through the track and scream together with the crowd and feel that wind.
I can talk about loving people, I can quote all the verses, I can explain the truths, I can send a check in to someone I've never met to clear my conscience, but I want more than a life of abstraction. I want a life of real contact and joy. That's what I'm feeling from James ch. 1 & 2. It's so funny how things can change. I've always felt like James was a party pooper. Actually, he's trying to start the party for the poopers.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Negation vs. Creation
I've been thinking a lot lately about creativity. One idea showing up repeatedly is "negation vs creation". I'm thinking about how I usually notice or point out something that's wrong and end there. But God comes at a different angle by creating something to occupy that empty space and presenting that good thing which then shows the emptiness but provides an alternative good way to live.
One illustration might be the parable of the demon possessed 'house' that is emptied, swept clean, but not filled. So when the demons return after wandering, they find the house clean but unoccupied. So they just go right back in and fill the space. There had only been negation and no creation.
Another illustration is the woman at the well in John 4. Her value has been negated by herself and her community. A real void has been put in place (the people literally aVOID her). And Jesus, when he shows up is doing the opposite of avoiding. And the first thing he does is begin by asked for her to help him. "Will you give me a drink of water?" He creatively chooses how he will interact with her and the way he does it is to give her the dignity of asking for her assistance. This woman who feels like she has nothing to offer is told by Jesus that she does have something to offer. And her need is legitimate (thirst) but the means she's been using to meet it (promiscuity) weren't legitimate (ie she's been drinking 'water' but not living water). The people of the village had only negated the situation, but Jesus speaks with relational creativity into the void of this woman's life and a new way of living is available to her.
With our gifts we get to not simply negate but creatively add to the world with the beauty and love and goodness of God's life and story through Jesus. We can make things, say things, do things, choose things, and be creative in an endless number of ways to incarnate incessantly the love of God. We get to throw sparks into the darkness, we get to step into the empty, formless void of the lives around us and, with God, create something to fill that negated space.
A major realization of late has been that loving people well is not like a machine to be figured out, or an argument to be won. Love is not a mechanism that just needs to be fixed, or have the right buttons pushed to get the desired functional result. Love and relationship are creative endeavors. We are in the context of shaping clay, of writing poems, living good stories, or tending a garden. That's closer to the reality of relationship. And it's an exciting reality full of possibility, responsibility, wonder, and (honestly) fun!
It's brought a simple enjoyment back into relationships to think of them not as dreary mechanisms, but as vibrant creative opportunities. Each one is unique and full of eternal potential, like a poem yet to be expressed, or a lump of clay waiting to be lovingly sculpted. And like any work of art, a central purpose is that it would transfer what is in the artist's heart into the heart of those who encounter that work of art. So in every relationship we can craft a thing that carries in it the love of God and our love in a way that adds light and beauty and right-ness to the emptiness around us. This is what our entire lives can consist of.
By handing over his mission, Jesus has instilled dignity by entrusting us with a partnership in his call to speak creatively into the void and let the word become incarnate and available to a world in need. We are a part of it now. We can make creative and life-giving choices in Christ. So the world can find out that love matters, that Jesus has changed everything.
One illustration might be the parable of the demon possessed 'house' that is emptied, swept clean, but not filled. So when the demons return after wandering, they find the house clean but unoccupied. So they just go right back in and fill the space. There had only been negation and no creation.
Another illustration is the woman at the well in John 4. Her value has been negated by herself and her community. A real void has been put in place (the people literally aVOID her). And Jesus, when he shows up is doing the opposite of avoiding. And the first thing he does is begin by asked for her to help him. "Will you give me a drink of water?" He creatively chooses how he will interact with her and the way he does it is to give her the dignity of asking for her assistance. This woman who feels like she has nothing to offer is told by Jesus that she does have something to offer. And her need is legitimate (thirst) but the means she's been using to meet it (promiscuity) weren't legitimate (ie she's been drinking 'water' but not living water). The people of the village had only negated the situation, but Jesus speaks with relational creativity into the void of this woman's life and a new way of living is available to her.
With our gifts we get to not simply negate but creatively add to the world with the beauty and love and goodness of God's life and story through Jesus. We can make things, say things, do things, choose things, and be creative in an endless number of ways to incarnate incessantly the love of God. We get to throw sparks into the darkness, we get to step into the empty, formless void of the lives around us and, with God, create something to fill that negated space.
A major realization of late has been that loving people well is not like a machine to be figured out, or an argument to be won. Love is not a mechanism that just needs to be fixed, or have the right buttons pushed to get the desired functional result. Love and relationship are creative endeavors. We are in the context of shaping clay, of writing poems, living good stories, or tending a garden. That's closer to the reality of relationship. And it's an exciting reality full of possibility, responsibility, wonder, and (honestly) fun!
It's brought a simple enjoyment back into relationships to think of them not as dreary mechanisms, but as vibrant creative opportunities. Each one is unique and full of eternal potential, like a poem yet to be expressed, or a lump of clay waiting to be lovingly sculpted. And like any work of art, a central purpose is that it would transfer what is in the artist's heart into the heart of those who encounter that work of art. So in every relationship we can craft a thing that carries in it the love of God and our love in a way that adds light and beauty and right-ness to the emptiness around us. This is what our entire lives can consist of.
By handing over his mission, Jesus has instilled dignity by entrusting us with a partnership in his call to speak creatively into the void and let the word become incarnate and available to a world in need. We are a part of it now. We can make creative and life-giving choices in Christ. So the world can find out that love matters, that Jesus has changed everything.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Hebrews and Haiti
I saw a link on Donald Miller's twitter the other day that took me to the site of a journalist reporting from Haiti. It was horrific. The photos were amazing but so sad. It's an incredible situation and in many ways I feel so helpless. But I found another site of a group called "Flourish". Here's the Link:
http://flourishonline.org/2010/01/the-real-truth-about-haiti-and-what-your-church-can-do-now-and-in-the-future/
They had posted an interesting summary of the economic history of Haiti. Haiti has always had a tough go at it. Systems of oppression in place as they began their life as a republic set a strong and negative precedent for the people today.
Flourish also listed some good advice on how to participate in the relief work wisely. Check out those links and see what you can do.
One of the stories I read from the reporter I mentioned earlier stunned me. He spoke of the people grieving deeply. He spoke of how with every tremor and aftershock he would hear frightened screams in the night. Yet there was another sound that struck him as he listened awake on his bed in the heavy darkness: the sound of the people singing through the night.
I finished reading Hebrews today and wrote a song. There's a song from Haiti that I haven't quite been able to get a hold on, but this is one from the closing chapters of Hebrews. I hope if I were covered in the dust of shattered buildings lying in the dark trembling with the trembling earth itself, I hope I could sing still in faith about the things I cannot see that I long for. - Matthew
Faith is the confidence that hope in the Lord never fails
Sight never sees far, be assured that his promise prevails
Many came before and still they await his return
We know his voice, and the family of Jesus stands firm
CHORUS:
Sing the song of the faithful ones
Who carry on with the work of God:
This world never will be our home
Hold on until he comes
Let us strip off the sin that would stand in our way
Set before us is the race that will end when he says
Well done my good and faithful beloved of God
you who bore the cross now take up your life
http://flourishonline.org/2010/01/the-real-truth-about-haiti-and-what-your-church-can-do-now-and-in-the-future/
They had posted an interesting summary of the economic history of Haiti. Haiti has always had a tough go at it. Systems of oppression in place as they began their life as a republic set a strong and negative precedent for the people today.
Flourish also listed some good advice on how to participate in the relief work wisely. Check out those links and see what you can do.
One of the stories I read from the reporter I mentioned earlier stunned me. He spoke of the people grieving deeply. He spoke of how with every tremor and aftershock he would hear frightened screams in the night. Yet there was another sound that struck him as he listened awake on his bed in the heavy darkness: the sound of the people singing through the night.
I finished reading Hebrews today and wrote a song. There's a song from Haiti that I haven't quite been able to get a hold on, but this is one from the closing chapters of Hebrews. I hope if I were covered in the dust of shattered buildings lying in the dark trembling with the trembling earth itself, I hope I could sing still in faith about the things I cannot see that I long for. - Matthew
Faith is the confidence that hope in the Lord never fails
Sight never sees far, be assured that his promise prevails
Many came before and still they await his return
We know his voice, and the family of Jesus stands firm
CHORUS:
Sing the song of the faithful ones
Who carry on with the work of God:
This world never will be our home
Hold on until he comes
Let us strip off the sin that would stand in our way
Set before us is the race that will end when he says
Well done my good and faithful beloved of God
you who bore the cross now take up your life
Monday, January 4, 2010
A New Year
I'm always excited when a new year rolls around. I like to look back over the last year and think of all the things that happened that I had had no idea would happen- good or bad. There is always much to take in. At the beginning of last January, I had no idea of the people I would meet or the amazing relationships that would begin, the places I would travel including some of Europe, or the fun I would have touring with Brian Mulder all of October. And those are just the bigger things. Life is full of possibilities. I have no idea what the coming year holds.
So here I am at the beginning of an unknown territory again. I'm realizing that the last year was just as unknown to me twelve months ago. I'm realizing that I'm okay twelve months later. That plenty was frustrating or sad but the things that I remember the most are the good things I didn't see coming. I'm looking forward to living more deeply into the mysterious story. I'm also excited to think that God invites us to creatively contribute to His Story with our decisions, creations, conversations, relationships... with our whole lives.
This week I'm working to finish up a CD project that my dear friend Katie Heckel has been working on. She's very passionate about orphans in Africa. A couple of years ago she traveled to Ghana and lived for several weeks in the story of the children of poverty and oppression there. She wrote songs about it, she came back and told stories about it, and now she's going back to Africa to keep telling the story. We're finishing the CD of those Africa songs. All the money will go directly to the orphanage in Ghana where Katie has built a sweet and sacred relationship.
This coming weekend, another songwriter friend, Becca Varner will be coming to town to record some songs for an acoustic album of her own. And Brian Mulder has an album in the works that we hope to finish sometime this Spring before he goes on Blood:Water Mission's Ride:Well Tour in June. Brian will be biking about 3,000 miles across the Unites States to raise money to build wells in Africa.
I'm hoping to find a way to get to Africa myself this Summer. I'd like to go collect some stories and love some people. We'll see. I am amazed though at the endless ways to be involved in God's Great Living Gospel Story. We can really dig down into our imaginations and creatively dream up ways to participate with Jesus in his ongoing mission to save the world through his ingenious love.
In this New Year, be encouraged to jump into the call to create alongside Jesus and add beauty to the world. It's a sad mistake to think that the way of heaven is monotonous or boring. Remember the single lidless eye of the sinister Sauron in Lord of the Rings? It's evil that has just one boring unblinking view of the world. It is the vast vision of God that has spoken into existence all the vibrant variety of this universe. I want to be in on that and at work with Jesus.
-Matthew
So here I am at the beginning of an unknown territory again. I'm realizing that the last year was just as unknown to me twelve months ago. I'm realizing that I'm okay twelve months later. That plenty was frustrating or sad but the things that I remember the most are the good things I didn't see coming. I'm looking forward to living more deeply into the mysterious story. I'm also excited to think that God invites us to creatively contribute to His Story with our decisions, creations, conversations, relationships... with our whole lives.
This week I'm working to finish up a CD project that my dear friend Katie Heckel has been working on. She's very passionate about orphans in Africa. A couple of years ago she traveled to Ghana and lived for several weeks in the story of the children of poverty and oppression there. She wrote songs about it, she came back and told stories about it, and now she's going back to Africa to keep telling the story. We're finishing the CD of those Africa songs. All the money will go directly to the orphanage in Ghana where Katie has built a sweet and sacred relationship.
This coming weekend, another songwriter friend, Becca Varner will be coming to town to record some songs for an acoustic album of her own. And Brian Mulder has an album in the works that we hope to finish sometime this Spring before he goes on Blood:Water Mission's Ride:Well Tour in June. Brian will be biking about 3,000 miles across the Unites States to raise money to build wells in Africa.
I'm hoping to find a way to get to Africa myself this Summer. I'd like to go collect some stories and love some people. We'll see. I am amazed though at the endless ways to be involved in God's Great Living Gospel Story. We can really dig down into our imaginations and creatively dream up ways to participate with Jesus in his ongoing mission to save the world through his ingenious love.
In this New Year, be encouraged to jump into the call to create alongside Jesus and add beauty to the world. It's a sad mistake to think that the way of heaven is monotonous or boring. Remember the single lidless eye of the sinister Sauron in Lord of the Rings? It's evil that has just one boring unblinking view of the world. It is the vast vision of God that has spoken into existence all the vibrant variety of this universe. I want to be in on that and at work with Jesus.
-Matthew
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