Just remembering today that this whole "God loves us" thing is something we can bank on. It was all his idea in the first place. He took the initiative, he made the move, it was his idea. We didn't talk him into it, we didn't come up with some appeal and he bought into it.
Jesus isn't a God who has to be persuaded to love us or care about us. We don't have to win him over.
He's already there. He started this.
We don't have to use magic words to coax him into attentiveness when we pray, we don't have to try to manipulate him with religious procedure. If he didn't love us we would. And if he could be bought or bribed maybe those things would be worth the effort. But we don't have to bribe him or control him.
All the insecurity we feel about his love just isn't true.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Poop vs Parties
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.
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.
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.
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