A Prayer of Praise

Lord, I praise You for Who You are. You are everything beautiful, everything good. Nothing exists apart from Your mercy. Your grace is evident in the entirety of the universe. Your glory is evident in the sunshine, Your tenderness in a kind word, Your love in a real embrace. You are so beautiful, Lord! Thank You that every good and perfect gift is from You! Thank You for being absolute goodness. Thank You for sharing that goodness with Your children. You are a redeemer! You delight in providing, in giving grace - undeserved favor - to Your children. I rest in You. I lean my head on Your chest. I take Your light burden, Your easy yoke and give You my worries and fears. You see every need and You care. Your love lifts me of my burdens. Your perfect love casts out all of my fears. I place all of my trust in You. Thank You for Who You are! You are good.

Amen.

Familiar Places

I wrote this while driving down Highway 81 a week or so ago…

“There is something so comforting about familiar places. It’s a peaceful feeling. A contented feeling. An assurance that a traveler does not always mean a stranger. These familiar places hold memories - good memories, funny memories, bad memories - and in this way these places become a home to us in their own unique way. We neglect them as we do our home. We pine for them as we do our home. When we return to them after a long respite our souls suddenly flood with warmth in much the same way they do when we return home. Familiar places scream in barely audible whispers reminding us that our past still exists in our present. Not in a way that chains us, but in a way that pulls back the curtain of the here and now to show us where we’ve come from and assure us that we really are going somewhere … to assure us that God really is faithful.”

What It Takes to Please God

What pleases God most? Is it giving every penny that we have to missions and trusting Him to provide for our personal needs? Is it quitting our jobs and moving to a third world country where no one’s ever heard the gospel? Is it praying all day long? Is it taking to the streets and preaching the gospel? Is it any of these?

I think it’s interesting that we always equate pleasing God the most with serving God the most. The problem with this thinking is that it presumes that God’s greatest desire for our lives is proper behavior. It’s not. Selah

So many of us live with the crippling presumption that to please God we have to constantly be doing. Certainly doing the work of the Lord is a great thing but is it really what God is after?

Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus‘ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. “But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” (emphasis mine)
Luke 10:38-42

What was Martha distracted from? Jesus. What was the one thing that was needed? Sitting at Jesus feet. Hearing Him speak. Getting to know Him. THIS is the pinnacle of pleasing God. Knowing Him. Loving Him. So while doing His work is certainly of great importance something else pleases Him more. Truly having a living, two-way relationship with Him. Not a cutesy, watered down phrase but a REAL friendship. A deep love.

So what pleases God most? Is it giving every penny that we have to missions and trusting Him to provide for our personal needs? Is it quitting our jobs and moving to a third world country where no one’s ever heard the gospel? Is it praying all day long? Is it taking to the streets and preaching the gospel?

I believe what truly pleases God the most is when we daily throw all of our energies into cultivating a living relationship with Him. The service will follow.
Jesus died so that we could know Him. Not so that we could serve Him. We serve Him because we love Him. Not because we have to.

Praise the Lord! :D

Overwhelmed

"It might be hard to find one in 10,000 or a million who will understand that half of the world has never heard the name Jesus and are plunging into eternal hell, and who will give their lives away to die and be unknown, unnoticed for their sake.” ~ George Verwer

I read this quote this morning and have been upset ever since. Not because I don’t agree with it. I do. In fact I desire this commitment - this faith. It’s just so overwhelming. Half the world dying without Christ? How many countries is that? How many languages is that? How much money for plane tickets is that? How much time is needed? What can I really do?

I just feel so helpless to really do anything and then, even if I do, does it matter? I know that it does but why does it never seem like it … feel like it? I long for those small, priceless moments when you see it - you see a tiny glimpse of what you’ve been working for, what you’ve been praying for.

At Lee we have this saying that we are in the “Lee Bubble”- referencing the fact that we are all so immersed in the the Lee University culture that we are in a bubble of sorts. I’ve been out of this bubble for around 2 weeks and I have to admit that I miss it. I miss the protective feeling that it provides. Yes, there is stress in the “Lee Bubble,” problems in the “Lee Bubble,” but they aren’t “half the world is dying and going to hell” problems. They aren’t “people with no homes due to a tsunami” problems. They look more like “I have 3 tests and a paper” problems.

It hurts when our bubble is popped.

Somedays I so desperately, SO desperately, wish that God would get “more involved in the world” (as if He weren’t already). Why does He often seem so distant and uninvolved in the places where we need Him most? Why aren’t more people healed? Why do we pray for years and never see our loved ones come to Christ (not yet, anyway). Perhaps it has something to do with how finite we are? How little we can really see?

I don’t have all the answers but I am convinced that God is still good. Still loving. Still working in deeper ways than we can fathom. I never want to lose faith in God’s character. In WHO He is.

May we be humbled by that fact that the Living God constantly chooses to work with such a broken people and planet. May our eyes be open to how much He is accomplishing daily. May we not be overwhelmed by the pain we see, but may our faith grow to meet the need. With each day may we trust more in the power of Jesus.

Personage.

Have you ever thought about the phenomenon that is humanity? What are people? What are these almost 7 billion humans on this tiny planet? What are YOU?
That might seem like a strange question, especially written with the word “what.” But I ask “what” because it is a more basic question than “who.” “Who” automatically implies personage. The question I ask: what is the phenomenon of personage? Why do we not refer to animals as “who”s? Why not trees or things as “who”s?
No, the word “who” is used for people exclusively. Why is this? How is it that even language acknowledges the uniqueness of humanity? Certainly this uniqueness is not limited only to an idiom...

Still Broken.

Have you ever had a song trapped inside of you because you didn’t have the musical ability to translate it into the physical world? Well, that is my current situation. It actually happens to me a lot. You might not think so because I can play the guitar and all, but this is a piano song. A haunting, melancholy piano song. It really is the most frustrating thing to have a song trapped inside of you. What’s worse is this was a song that I really wanted to sing. You see, music is how I process things, vent my emotions and all that. Well tonight I had some emotions I wanted to hash out.

I’m sorry if this is sounding confusing. Let me explain...

I recently found out that one of my favorite Christian recording artists recently got divorced. I felt very sorry for him but being a good journalist I was terribly curious about what happened and googled it. Turns out that his ex-wife got married 6 months after the divorce. Now I really wanted to know what happened! After finding out that little bit of information I discovered his ex-wife’s blog and started snooping around. Maybe that sounds terrible and maybe it is. Honestly though, I just wanted to know what happened. What I found was that she is an extremely devoted and sincere Christian. Almost every one of her lengthy and thought out posts had something to do with God. That was certainly not what I was expecting. I guess I just presumed that she must be some Wicked Witch of the West to get a divorce and then marry someone else 6 months later. This piece of information not only confused me but it greatly disturbed me. How can two extremely devoted and sincere Christians get a divorce? How can that happen? How can two people who claim to know forgiveness and redemption just give up? I don’t understand?

This whole thing seems like the most real kind of tragedy. The type that lives and breathes and doesn’t go away after you leave the movie theater. The type that finds real people crying themselves to sleep and wishing they had done things differently. The type that can’t be fixed.

I know that this is an extremely random topic for me to write about. I am not connected to this story at all. I don’t personally know these people or the details of their situation. But I can’t help but be broken about this. It hurts me to see a brother and a sister in Christ give up; it hurts (and scares) me to know that they didn’t find Christ’s love sufficient for them. I am not passing judgement at all, I am just observing (I don't know the details or how I would react in their place). This whole thing reminds me of something my theology teacher use to say: that is that we live in the “already and the not yet,” referring to our state as believers. We have been saved but not yet completely redeemed. Sometimes I just forget how broken we still are.

Would it be nice?

So it's been a while since I have had time to write anything on here. Sorry about that! Hopefully I'll be able to keep this a bit more current...

I have had much on my mind lately-- though I suppose that is nothing too peculiar. Regardless, the question then becomes where to start? Should I ramble about yesterday's thought train for fear it will be lost tomorrow, or should I instead divulge today's queries? I think right now, I would prefer the latter.

Today. Today (which almost surely, by the time you are reading this, has long become yesterday, last week, or some other semblance of time run out)I was sitting in a movie theater. As I was watching the film the thought occurred to me of how comfortable I was and of how nice it would be to forget about God, Jesus, eternity, heaven, and hell. Of how nice it would be to not care about anyone's soul. Of how nice it would be to just live my life and enjoy it without looking ahead to eternity and having to feel like I needed to care about other people's eternities. After all it is draining to look around and know that most likely the majority of the people that you see are headed for forever pain, suffering, and torment. I guess I was musing on the freedom of just not caring because heck, if I don't care then I can be as selfish as I want. I can live for me as much as I want-- I wouldn't care. Of course I don't really agree with these thoughts. I need to care about God. I need to care about eternity. I need to care about others. I want to. I just found the whole episode interesting to ponder.
First of all it is a classic example of my selfishness and sin. Only extreme depravity would prefer to sit back and sip lemonaid instead of helping prevent the needless eternal damnation of others.
Secondly, it shows me that I need to constanly grow my relationship with Christ because our natural self is so prone to take over. If my personal comfort means more to me than my relationship with the Lord then I have a serious problem... the crazy thing is it is SO EASY to slip into that place and way of thinking.
Thirdly, it brought to my attention once again how little the modern American church actually cares about people. When was the last time you heard about a church actually evangelizing straight up? Instead we pretend that inviting people to church (a church which probably is so concerned with being "hip" that it is afraid to just preach the Bible)is somehow equivalent to personally sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. What does more good, entertaining lost souls in a "relevant worship service" or telling someone the truth of their soul's standing before God (in love)? I think this all comes back to our desire to be comfortable. It's like we pretend to care about other's souls, but in reality we don't care enough to actually do anything because that is uncomfortable.

Oh Lord help us! We are so human and frail. May Your truth overtake and consume us. May the REALITY of eternity become a burning passion in us. Give us faith to believe and courage to do something about it. Without You we fail, plain and simple. Please help us when we don't care or don't want to care. Please make it all so real to us. Thank You, Jesus! Amen.

Why Bother?

Ok. So it's no secret that living for Christ in our culture is pretty much super hard. Not only are there distractions galore but sin practically screams at and tempts us from every corner. And I don't just mean music and movies, television and magazines. I mean friends who mean well but only end up condoning and/or encouraging our degenerate nature, family members who subconsciously put God on the back burner to the "American dream," and churches that find it a little too radical to actually preach God's word so instead replace biblical teaching for cheesy, "uplifting," motivational speeches (with a bible verse on the side, of course). I could go on. Everyone knows the list is practically endless. There are teachers who ridicule students for their faith, governments that daily carry out mass infanticide, materialism that tears at our sense of belonging, a culture of comparison that breeds our insecurities, unhealthy peer pressure that pushes us to immoral behavior, and a country that says we are hateful and rude if we have the audacity to claim there is even such a thing as basic as right and wrong.

Who are we kidding?! Living for God the way we are meant to is incredibly hard! Maybe we should just stop trying? Yeah! Just stop trying to live for God! Obviously there's no point? Why is it even worth it?! Welllllllll, actually it is worth it (you didn't think my real advice was to stop living for God did you??). Obviously I don't think we should stop living for God, so why, then, is it worth it? Why is it even worth being the odd one out? The weirdo? The one who cares? Before I answer that I'd like to ask my own question: why is it worth living for all those other things? What so great about being selfish? What's so great about being rich on this earth? What's so great about having sex before marriage or cursing when you're angry? What is so great about listening to music or watching TV that degrades people's worth into mere bodies to be used? What is so great about being just like everyone else?!? To sum it up even better, what is so great about living a life of pleasure for (if you're lucky) 85 years only to be in darkness, and suffering, and pain, separated from God completely for ever and ever and ever after that? That makes no sense and we all know it.

But do you wanna know something even cooler? There is even a better reason to live for God than just the fear of hell and the hope of heaven. John 17:3 reads, "and this is eternal life that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." Eternal life is about KNOWING God. That starts now. So many people always say, "it's not a religion, it's a relationship *insert cheesy smile*," that it actually drives me crazy but there is truth to that. We have the opportunity to know THE God of the Universe. Stop and think about that. Really. Stop reading for a sec and think on what that means. I mean it, stop. THE God of the universe call us to KNOW Him. We can't even imagine what joy this entails. Everything else fades in comparison to Him. It's so easy to get stuck on all of the reasons why it's hard to follow Christ and focus on all of the areas that we are failing to the point that we miss the joy of HIM! God calls us not just to do certain things and not do other things! He calls us to know Him. When that becomes our focus we don't have to try so hard because it just comes. We start to go about our days looking for Him and finding Him and desiring Him more.

Let us not get discouraged in our walk with Christ. His Spirit will help us. We can't make it without Him. Let us be reminded that we are human and frail and we mess up. But let us never stay there. Let us never think that He is not worth it. He is so worth it we can't even begin to comprehend. Sure it's hard but, "I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ... (Phillipians 3:8)" Christ vs. fading pleasure? Christ is worth it every time. :)

What's the Difference?

Remember those picture puzzle things? You probably attempted some when you were little. There were two or three pictures that at first glance looked exactly the same but if you looked a little closer weren't? And that of course was the game: try and find all the differences. Some of the differences where super easy- a guy would have a large mustache in one picture and none in the other. The majority though, were surprisingly hard to find.

I can't help but think that those fun (or lame, depending...) little puzzles are a good example of Christians in our culture. There are so many people who claim to be Christians. They are all around us. Chances are if you are reading my blog you probably say you're one. But have you ever noticed differences among "Christians?" Some people seem so passionate about God while others are more passionate about the newest music and movies. Others take what the Bible says seriously, while others seem to treat what it says as merely suggestions. Still others practically exude a life, and a joy, and a peace, while some seem like selfish killjoys. What is the difference? Like two picture puzzles these "Christians" are comparable yet somehow unmistakably different. Recently it has been so completely obvious to me how some Christians just radiate life. It practically shines out of their pores. Something supernatural. They certainly are not perfect but there's such a peace and a joy. Such a love. There is something intrinsically different about them. And then there are the other "Christians?" They are so similar yet somehow so different? Why? Where is that living water that Jesus said would flow from them?

Sometimes I wonder if the church is filled with more posers than we would ever feel remotely comfortable admitting? Actually I take that back. I think that a lot of people don't realize that they are posing in which case the church would be filled with people who have fooled themselves into thinking they are the real thing when in fact they are only cheap knockoffs... like costume jewelry made in China. We of course can't judge hearts and I'm not saying that if you have a bad day and don't feel very peaceful that you aren't a true Christian. But remember something Jesus said, "...narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it...[Matt 7:14]" Narrow? Difficult? Few? Are we all really on that narrow path or are some of us simply imitating it without even realizing it- marking off our own "narrow" boundaries while we walk on the broad road of destruction? I really believe we all need to take a fresh look at our lives and compare our "picture" to the real thing: Christ.
Help us, Lord Jesus.

"Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you are disqualified.
2 Corinthians 13:5

Evening Blue

Blue. I like that color. It's my favorite color in fact. There are so many wonderfully beautiful shades of it. There's the turquoise clear of the Caribbean and the deep navy of the open ocean. There's the bright glow of your friend's eyes and the shimmer of Sapphire. But one of my all time favorite manifestations of blue is that rich, deep, but bright, saturation that occurs mid evening. The sun is down, though one corner of the sky still shows pink and orange after thoughts, and the stars are just starting to twinkle. The moon has just begun to take center stage as the source of light. This is when evening blue is found. Not that dark, night black, but that vibrant, alive, blue. Look up. It can be easy to miss. Clouds can mask it. Distractions will interrupt it. It's still there. Take a look next time. I am convinced that there is so much beauty around us we have become so oblivious to almost all of it. What a tragic, pitiful thing. Creation is truly crying out in a symphony dedicated to the goodness of God. Sense it in quiet moments. Feel it in the loving touch of a friend. Hear it in a beautiful melody. Smell it after the rain. Taste it in good food. See it on the face of a stranger made in the image of God. And heck, find it in the color blue.
~Tiff

"Praise God from Whom all blessings flow."

Irresistible?

So I've been reading. Big surprise there, I know. Well anyways, I picked up a copy of Shane Claiborne's "Irresistible Revolution" while on Thanksgiving break the other week (since I've heard his name quite a bit recently) and have been trawling my way through it these past couple days... I think I'm on chapter 6 or something. Consensus so far? Welllllll, it has made me think, which I appreciate, and it does have some pretty darn revolutionary ideas (and by that I mean it implies you probably should round up some fellow "ordinary radicals," move to the inner city, pool all you possessions, and help out the poor... which hey? could be a good idea?) but somehow something isn't sitting right with me. Maybe it's Claiborne's willingness to be identified with names such as Brian McLaren and Tony Campolo (among others) who hold blatantly heretical views? Or his emphasis on "going green" (don't get me wrong, I am all about taking care of the planet! But is that really something, what with the "not-so-convincing '-science'" of "Global Warming," that should be high on the spiritually important list)? Or perhaps his pacifist stance (which I will admit has made me think a lot... should Christians condone war? I find it fascinating that the Early Church Fathers were against fighting and would never have killed a man/woman... but is fighting always wrong? For instance, when evil people endanger innocent lives should we not react for the sake of the innocent)? Overall I think what has been bothering me the most about this volume is Shane's overemphasis on the present. I mean he seems so focused on creating a "heaven on earth" that he neglects to realize eternity IS, in fact, quite more important than this present world. We are all here, whether rich or poor, for but a blink and then, hello foreverrrrrrrr! Better do something about, not just someone's earthly needs, but their eternal needs, don't you think?

Anywho, I'll update ya'll more on my ideological adventures later... Love and Hope through Christ! :)

Beautiful Song.

"I know that You are for me. I know that You are for me.

I know that You will never forsake me in my weakness.

I know that You have come now,

Even if to write upon my heart

To remind me of who You are."

~Kari Jobe from the song "You are For Me."

Look it up on YouTube. For real. Go do it.