Not that anyone will actually read it. I just kind of enjoy writing. Well, more the thinking that goes into writing. I already have two posts in my head right now. Well, maybe two posts, we'll see how it all works out. So to wet the appetite (of the 1 person who randomly stumbles upon this) here's a sneak peak:
Earning the Right to be Heard
Earning the Right to Hear
If you're a Young Life leader you definitely know the first phrase, but I'm beginning to think the second is just as important, if not more so, than the first.
Before you go any further, kick back, relax, and groove on this sweet song. Seriously, stop reading and listen to the song. You can ignore the video, just listen to the song.
...
You're probably wondering about the use of 24 in the song. It was written on the lead singers 24th birthday. The part that I've been concentrating on is the following lyrics:
Twenty-four voices With twenty-four hearts All of my symphonies In twenty-four parts But I want to be one today Centered and true I'm singing 'Spirit take me up in arms with You' You're raising the dead in me
Oh, oh I am the second man Oh, oh I am the second man now Oh I am the second man now And you're raising the dead in me Yeah
I've been pondering the resurrection of Jesus lately. A guy coming back from the dead is quite the thing to ponder. I've grown up all my life knowing and hearing the story of the resurrection. The resurrection has always been presented to me as a story of huge hope. It meant that Jesus was the real deal, and that when we die we can go to heaven where everything will be perfect, and one day Jesus will come back and make things perfect on earth like it is in heaven. That is a great story of hope for the future, this broken world will some day be restored and God will wipe away every tear, its beautiful.
But what about hope in there here and now?
Why do I have to be dead for the hope brought by Jesus's resurrection?
Am I just suppose to be happy that the world and its people are broken in numerous ways, but that God will fix that at some point in the future?
Over the past few years a lot of my thinking has changed in regards to Jesus and the words he spoke, and the religion founded off them. I'm not so centered on the afterlife, I'm more concerned with what God has in store for us in the here and now. Eternal, abundant, full lives in the here and now. But the resurrection has always been about the afterlife for me, and I've really struggled with that.
Last week I gave a talk about sin, our state of disconnection from God, and how we do all these things in this life that are attempts to get connected, and that while we are chasing after all these connections that just end up leaving us broken and destroyed we're running away from the God that created us for that connection. It was very much a here and now talk. Jesus's death on the cross is God opening up that connection for us so we can live the life of connectedness we were made for. But the resurrection had me stumped until I unknowingly put this song on my computer at work. (I work above a library with a sweet cd collection, so once every other week I wander downstairs and pick out some cds, this was on one of them I happened to check out last week.)
The line "you're raising the dead in me" is beautiful, and I think a great picture of the resurrection in action in the here and now.
All of our sins, all of the ways we try to connect apart from God, leave us dead and broken. Sometimes its our whole body pays the price, but many times its a part of who we are spiritually, and more times than not sin kills a lot of who we are spiritually. We end up splintered; hearing 24 voices telling us different things, 24 hearts telling us how to feel, we're splintered and long for wholeness.
The death on the cross is Christ dying to reconnect with us, and the resurrection is Christ bringing back to life all the parts of us that have been killed by sin.
"You're raising the dead in me"
They're not just events that did or didn't happened 2000 years ago, they happen all around us, and most importantly within us.
I got sick of not knowing/remembering all the different medals available when you play Halo2 on xBox Live, so I made a cheat sheet to print out and sit on the coffee table where I play. If anyone else feels the same way I do, feel free to print it snag a copy for yourself (the picture is a link to the .pdf file that opens up in a new window).
I've lived my new place for about a month, and I noticed something on the toilet today which made me giggle.
The image is linked to the totally unedited version in an attempt to prove I didn't photoshop it in there. Obviously the closeup and my makeshift magnifying glass are pShoped in, but thats it I swear.
I might post something about life later this week, no like it really matters.
God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a living soul!
God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature... God created human beings; he created them godlike, Reflecting God's nature.
I'm definetly not the first person to say it, but this thought has been stuck in my head all night (which tends to be a long time when you haven't slept). If those verses from the creation stories in Genesis contain an ultimate truth then living the way of Jesus isn't about fighting against or escaping our humanity; its about restoring our humanity, about becoming fully human.
I promise... maybe. But this totally resonated with where I am right now I had to share it.
...It was New York's Late Senator Daniel Moynihan who said, "Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinions, but no one is entitled to his or her own facts." Religion cannot hide from truth by seeking to accumulate its own facts. How, we need to as, can the heart be warmed if the mind is violated? Will the heart worship what the mind rejects? Hardly, unless the fear of nothingness creates hysteria that in turn replaces all rationality. The other side of this equation, however, is that the heart will not tolerate emptiness forever. It is, therefore, that human sense of emptiness that forces the mind to break new ground, to open new possibilities and to develop new alternatives. The spiritual reality we seek in this postmodern world cannot be achieved without enlightened minds, but it will also never be discovered without warm hearts. That is what drives us, I believe, to learn new ways in which to worship God with both heart and mind.1 Before we can do that, however we must first be willing to allow our minds to destroy any formulation from the past that no longer works. There is something secure about the fantasy of unexamined truth, or a life that is so closed that it will not step beyond yesterday's human explanations, yet no God is well served who is not seriously questioned. We must face that fact openly and directly.
1. That is totally me right now till after this part. But I don't think I'm totally inline with the next sentence, but I also think the reason I'm not there is because of the truth in the next sentence. This should be quite the journey.
So I was at Barnes and Noble picking up a book I had on hold, when I came across the book "Jesus for the Non-Religious" by John Shelby Spong. Sounded interesting so I started reading the preface, and wasn't sure about it, then I came to the prologue, a poem by the author entitled The Lament of a Believer in Exile:
Ah, Jesus! Where have you gone? When did we lose you? Was it when we became so certain that we possessed you That we persecuted Jews, Excommunicated doubters, Burned Heretics, And used violence and war to achieve conversion? Was it when out first-century images Collided with expanding knowledge? Or when biblical scholars informed us that the Bible does Not really support what we once believed? Was it when we watched your followers distorting people With guilt, Fear, Bigotry, Intolerance, And anger? Was it when we noticed that many who called you Lord And who read their Bibles regularly Also practiced slavery, Defended segregation, Approved lynching, Abused children, Diminished women, And hated homosexuals? Was it when we finally realized That the Jesus who promised abundant life Could not be the source of self-hatred, Or one who encourages us to grovel In life-destroying penitence? Was it when it dawned on us that serving you would require The surrender of those security-building prejudices That masquerade as our sweet sicknesses?
We still yearn for you, Jesus, but we no longer know where To seek your presence. Do we look for you in those churches that practice certainty? Or are you hiding in those churches That so fear controversy that they make "unity" a god, And stand for so little that they die of boredom? Can you ever be found in those churches that have Rejected the powerless and the marginalized, The lepers and the Samaritans of our day, Those you called out brothers and sisters? Or must we now look for you outside ecclesiastical setting, Where love and kindness expect no reward, Where question are viewed as the deepest Expressions of trust?
Is it even possible, Jesus, that we Christians are the villains Who killed you? Smothering you underneath literal Bibles, Dated creeds, Irrelevant doctrines, And dying structures? If these things are the source of your disapearance, Jesus, Will you then reemerge if these things are removed? Will that bring resurrection? Or were you, as some now suggest, never more Than an illusion? By burying and distorting you were we Simply protecting ourselves From having to face that realization?
I still seek to possess what I believe you are, Jesus: Access to and embodiment of The source of Love, The ground of Being, A doorway into the mystery of holiness.
It is through that doorway I desire to walk. Will you meet me there? Will you challenge me, Guide me, Confront me, Reveal your truth to me and in me?
Finally, at the end of this journey, Jesus, Will you embrace me Inside the ultimate reality That I call God In whom I live And move And having my being? For that, Jesus, is my goal in this book.
