christmas part 2

salvation. in a lot of ways, to me, the books of Moses seem to capture people drifting away from God, and then God finding a way to bring them back. God uses several key people to do this. to me, this attitude God has of consistently pulling us out of our own mess is most accurately called "salvation." God also spends a lot of time in the Old Testament telling His people to stop trying to tame him. I love the line from Lewis's "Chronicles of Narnia," where the people are talking about the lion (who is meant to symbolize Jesus), and they say he is very good, but most definitely not safe.

rescue is coming. fast forward a little bit. in Isaiah, there is talk of a king who is coming to make things right again. at the time, though, the people are expecting a political king, a descendant of David, who will make things right the way all kings attempt to--by force and power. man, did they have a Surprise coming their way. God realizes that the only way he's gonna rescue His people out of their mess is to come down and become one of them.

a baby-seriously? so the night came. and let's get one thing straight. when people thought about the Messiah, they weren't thinking about a baby. yes, Isaiah did say that the Messiah would be born of a virgin (meaning he would have to be a baby), but when you think of a political leader, the first image that comes to mind probably isn't of a baby. my guess is they figured he would live a normal life, up until he was ready to become king, and then everything would start falling into place. maybe they thought he would just be a pretty normal guy, just born with a real gift for overthrowing stuff when he got older or something.

anyway, the time approaches, and i've got to think that if you were living back then, the story didn't really seem to play out the way you thought it would. i mean angels came and spoke to people, but they didn't really address a large audience of people. if you were outside of the loop of Mary, Joseph, and a select few others, you've gotta be thinking "this can't be. it should be more impressive than this." i mean for starters, for all you know, the mother who is carrying this "Messiah" seems like she is nothing more than an unfaithful fiance, right? Joseph was inches from leaving her because that's what he thought. then, the already off-kilter plan for Mary to give birth is thwarted when she, a very pregnant woman, has to hop onto a donkey and trek across miles and miles because of a census being taken. this has to look, from the outside, like the worst timing ever for having a baby. and to top it all off, he is born in a place where animals live, sleep, and poop. i mean i've met a lot of people who say they come from "humble beginnings," but I can think of about a million places I would rather my son be born than in a stable.

why. you've gotta think that there was a reason for all this irony though. i mean, if Jesus was born in a palace surrounded by gold and people catering to His every cry, there would be people all around saying, "well yeah, of course people love Him, he's rich." in order for the rescue to happen properly, God wanted to enter the world in the humblest possible position. so the whole least being the greatest concept held true from the very beginning. awesome. you know you've got to admit, even if you don't believe all or any of the Bible, you have to admit it's a pretty well put together story. i mean this story is simply loaded with metaphors, foreshadowing, all that good stuff I never paid attention to in school.

above and beyond. so God starts by living the perfect life as a human that Adam and Eve failed to do (rescue from sin). then He takes the beating and crucifixion that we deserve for our sin (rescue from death). and as if that just simply wasn't enough, he comes back to life (what I call rescue from the permanance of death). God has a lot of names, but sometimes I like to give him one of my own: the Persevering King. if there's ever an example of someone who refused to give up, it's God.

i realize none of this is new information to most of you, but I just really enjoy writing about it. I love the bibles that say on their cover, "the story of God." and maybe that's why I love writing about it, because I wish I could have written a story that good.

(CUE ORCHESTRA, OR CHEESY CHRISTMAS MUSIC, WHICHEVER YOU LIKE)

so whatever you do today, whether it be last-minute shopping, spending time with family, or singing carols, remember the awesomeness of the beautiful story of God.

the obligatory Christmas post

just kidding. i wanted to do this just because i wanted to tell everybody (or anybody bored enough to read this here blog during Christmas time) my favorite part about Christmas. this comes right before Royal Dansk cookies on the list of favorite Christmas things. if you're martha, cliff, rhett, jeanne, or blake, you'll understand that; if not, try harder to be on the inside loop with the cool people next time.

don't get me wrong. i absolutely love the story of the birth of Jesus. it's awesome. but what i love more is the bigger story that it fits into. the story of a persistent God. a God who refused to let His people mess His story up. a God so loving that he would go through trial after trial to ensure that we had a way to get back to Him, despite us screwing up many many times. to me, this story has several "layers," or "chapters" or something like that. i'm gonna try to capture each one, and maybe give a really snazzy name to all of them. and after listening to the new live hillsong united album, i'm gonna try to find lyrics that capture some of them. also, i think i'm gonna make this my first multi-part blog, just because i promised i was gonna start doing shorter posts, and i don't wanna lie to my millions of faithful readers. anyway, here we go.

the beginning. God makes everything. and man, did he set it up perfect. man had no reason not to be tight with God. he got to be in constant communication with his Father, and his Father had set it up so that there wouldn't be any pain, any problems. anyway, when he set them there in the garden, God provided at least two trees for them to eat from, the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. now, personally, given the choice between those two, i would choose the first one, just because it sounds prettier. i don't know how Adam and Eve felt about it, but they are eventually talked into eating from the other one after a serpent talks them into it. i think it's really interesting that the first sin ever committed had to do with pursuing wisdom. Adam and Eve really thought that they could be smarter if they ate from that tree. they could eat from a tree that would give them life, or a tree that would make them smarter and dead, and they chose the second one. that remind You of anything? i don't think we (myself included) are much different today. we pursue all kinds of things to make us smarter, richer, and happier, a million times before we take the life that God holds out for us. when God says, "who told you you were naked?", i used to think he was really mad, just screaming at the two who had just forsaken Him. but when I read the story closer, i wonder if He wasn't simply heartbroken. i wonder if the look in His eyes wasn't more like the look of a spouse who has just realized the other cheated on them. and i wonder if he doesn't have that look in His eyes every time we cheat on Him.

further and further away. so that's when things kinda started going sour. another way i used to think about this story is that God was mad, and that's why he left and disconnected Himself from Adam and Eve. and the truth is he was mad at times. but the Bible tells us that God cannot be in the presence of sin, or, maybe more appropriately, sin cannot be in the presence of God. so I wonder that moment wasn't more like that same heartbroken father leaving his children after a divorce, getting on his plane to leave while reaching his arms out and saying "I wish I could stay, I really do wish I could stay, but I can't. But you can talk to me whenever you want to. all you have to do is call, and i'll be there. i really really wanna help you through this minefield that is your life, and i will, but i just can't be right beside you all the time now." God tried his best, through providing prayer, to allow the people who screwed up His relationship with them to still communicate with Him.

okay, i've been waiting for this moment ever since blog day 1...

. . . to be continued . . . .

relevant pt. deux

so to no surprise, my slack attitude at cramming all my thoughts on one subject resulted in me very ambiguously commenting on the subject of relevance.

wow. that sentence should be in an english paper of mine sometime.

but i think i have come up with a clearer way of saying what i meant to say the first time around. when it comes to church, i don't think there is anything wrong with using ideas from other parts of culture. using video, cool projection stuff, mainstream music (i don't really like the idea of there even being "christian" music as opposed to "mainstream" music), different kinds of instruments, and using culturally-savvy illustrations during a sermon--those kind of things. especially me being someone who gets to help lead worship sometimes, i love technology and think it can definitely enhance at times, and distract at others. the kicker though, i think is this:

what happens when you strip all that stuff away? imagine for a second that you showed up at church one sunday, and the band wasn't there. it was one guy, with an acoustic guitar (or piano, for you pianists). the projector/projector screen is broke. no words. so needless, to say, the cool video you had planned is a goner. the pastor has forgotten his notes. he can't remember any of his cool analogies or bullet points, and is just gonna have to shoot from the hip. all the fluff of sunday is gone. is it still the same message? is the message you hope to convey every sunday that of "being a culturally relevant church/christian" or is it the importance of following Christ both when it seems relevant and convenient and when it's unpopular and inconvenient?

i just think too often when we are trying to be relevant, we end up doing what any other organization does when they try to be relevant, which is to package their product up in the most attractive way possible, and then put it out there, hoping people will consume it. and when church turns into the staff producing and the congregation consuming, it's not what God designed the church to be.

derek webb says it this way:

"the Truth is never sexy
so it's not an easy sell
you can dress Her like the culture
She'll shock 'em just the same"

i love the story behind the song "Heart of Worship." at worship leader matt redman's church, the pastor decided that their church had turned into just that: the congregation were becoming consumers as a result of them and the band both pursuing better and newer forms of worship music. so he stripped it all away. he took away the band and the sound system, and for several months, worship was just the congregations' voices. and at first it led to really awkward silence. but after a while, the people got it. we as followers are meant to be producers, not consumers. we are meant to bring everything we can do offer to God, to glorify Him--not to go to church and find what we can fit into our life, what is relevant to us, and then leave the rest there at church, because it doesn't fit.

so there. i guess if you're doing all that stuff, and you can be relevant all the time, go for it. anyway, it's more christmas shopping for me today. talk about trying to be relevant...

being relevant, being wordly

i had the opportunity of weighing in on a conversation about relevance the other day. relevance is an interesting thing, especially when it comes to being a christian. after the conversation, i was intrigued, so i journaled a little bit. here's what i came up with:

relevance is a pretty complex term. according to webster's, relevance is "bearing upon or connected with the matter in hand; pertinent." in this way, i guess i can't argue that christians and the church should be relevant. given that the "matter in hand" is God (and i sincerely hope it is), i guess there's no way around the idea that the church should be relevant.

yet whenever i hear a church calling themselves "relevant," i flinch a little bit. part of it i think is simply because i don't like the idea of marketing in church. it just seems out of place to me. it makes me feel like we're selling a product and we want people to come hear about our product. i guess it just seems like if we're marketing one church we should market all churches, since they're all striving for the same thing (or should be). what makes this person or this church "relevant," compared to that one over there?

but beyond that, maybe it's not relevance that bothers me. i think it's more the pursuit of relevance. kinda like in a lot of ways the bible separates "wisdom" from the "pursuit of wisdom"? i don't exactly know what i'm getting at here. i guess i just feel like saying we are relevant followers of Christ should be like saying the same thing twice. maybe the thing is that relevance is an effect, rather than a cause. yeah, that's it. maybe.

like shouldn't we be seen as relevant because we preach the truth of the gospel, and not try to be relevant so that we can reach people with the gospel? i think that might be what i'm trying to say. i think if we pursue relevance, it's gonna continue to blow up in our face every time. the world is filled with person after company after organization, all trying to be relevant, all just trying to keep up with the times. to me saying that i'm a relevant christian sounds like i'm saying, "well, i want to share with you an idea that isn't all that cool. the Bible I'm reading from isn't all that hip. so, instead, I'm gonna try my best to appeal to you. then, maybe you'll hear me out."

the mere fact that the Bible is still around tells me that it's been relevant for quite a while (not to mention it's breathed by God himself). i think if we pursue a book that is as relevant to generation after generation like it is, and pursue the things that it tells us are worth pursuing, it'd be awfully hard for relevance not to be a result. right?

leadership = discipleship?

i wanna throw something out there. its something i feel like i am somewhat in the dark about, so maybe someone reading will know more about it.

i look around online a lot for Christian books. and the more i look around lately, i begin to see a ridiculous amount of books on leadership. in fact, one website i was on the other day had their best seller list up, and 9 out of 10 of them were on leadership. and i am constantly hearing about churches having many different kinds of "leadership conferences." now i like the idea of leadership. romans even mentions leadership as being a spiritual gift of sorts. but has leadership become the "new discipleship"? i even heard a podcast the other day saying that in order to be a good disciple, you have to first be a good leader. this seemed kind of erroneous to me, seeing as how a big part of being a disciple is following. so you need to be able to lead so that you can follow??

and that's kind of the vibe i get from all these books and conferences i see everywhere: that leadership is just as important as (if not more important than) discipleship when it comes to being a follower.

am i missing something here?

glorious unseen

okay so this is the my last effort at procrastinating studying for exams, but y'all have got to hear this guy's music.

His name is Ben Crist and he's a worship leader from Nashville. His group is called the Glorious Unseen, and he's blown me away. If you're like me in that you enjoy worship music, but you get kind of bored with it sometimes, check them out. Go to myspace.com/thegloriousunseen and listen to the player with his songs in it, especially Hear Our Prayers and Forever Holy.

He's awesome.

Ha! short post number two. I'm loving this.

change

so here's the deal. I'm gonna start having some shorter posts. I was looking at my blog yesterday and realized that I have a tendency to really write too much.

Like, WAY too much. So there will still be some of that, but probably less.

Anyway, in other news, I changed my major. It was the result of a lot of prayer on my part and other people's parts (thanks to those guys and gals by the way), and a book I was reading-thanks to Cliff. A lot of you have probably heard of "In a Pit With a Lion..." I was refusing to climb in the pit because of what it might mean, and finally I just sucked it up and jumped in. And I'm winning, I think. Or maybe the lion just hasn't stepped it up and started fighting full force yet. Regardless, it helps that I feel like this was the pit God wanted me to jump in.

Also, I saw Derek Webb in concert last night. If any of you get the chance to go see him, I would do it. Don't go thinking you're gonna get your normal every day Christian music though. Don't get me wrong, I like that stuff too, but Derek Webb just isn't that. He says it this way:

"There's a lot of Christian music out there about the two percent of Christianity--those transcendent moments, those worshipful moments. There isn't a whole lot about the other 98 percent though. Songs about family, struggle, social issues, politics. I just wanna call attention to the other 98 percent sometimes."p

The other thing you need to know about Derek Webb: he's honest. And doesn't exactly hold back words. If you're looking for conservative, you probably shouldn't go. Which is cool, because from what I can tell, a guy named Jesus wasn't all that conservative either.

This is already too long. Sorry, I'll keep trying.

life-disrupting

Alright so this is something I almost posted at like 4 a.m. this morning because that's how late I was awake thinking about it, but I insisted on getting at least a little sleep, so now I'm at work blogging. I am "proforming data" as I speak, which basically means that every 10 minutes or so I click a button and let the thing run while I spend time blogging--pretty cool huh? One of those things I almost feel bad getting paid to do, but it's all he asked me to do, and I've already done all the possible straightening up around the office I can do, so that leaves me here with you, blogging. Man, I may have to join a bloggers anonymous class or something. This is pitiful. Do they have those?

So last night I was EXTREMELY tired. We have FCA on Tuesday nights, and very similarly to the way things are at Freedom back home, we load and unload tons of sound equipment for a full band set-up every Tuesday night. Also like Freedom, we've finally gotten pretty efficient at it--well, at least when everything goes smoothly. Last night was the opposite of smoothly. The group that uses the theater before us got out late, so we had about 30 minutes less than normal, our drummer didn't show up, and then after FCA, two of the five guys who usually do set-up/take-down with us had to leave immediately for school reasons, leaving us three to load back up all the sound equipment. Suffice it to say, when I finally got back to my apartment at midnight, I was worn slam out. I spent a lot of time on the way home and when I got home thinking about normal self-centered Kent things. Like how much more time I used to have before I was doing FCA and things of the like. I started thinking about how life-disrupting giving my time was. I am making it sound more selfish than it actually seemed at the time for a reason, but that's basically what I was saying. Giving time to God was disrupting my life.

So I get to my quiet time before I go to bed, and in my quiet time, I'm making my way through two books: Nehemiah and Matthew. I actually read very little at a time because this time around, I'm doing my research and trying to really get at the real meaning of these passages. Last night my reading put me at the Rich Young Ruler story in Matthew (starting at 19:16). This guy wants to be saved, so Jesus tells him to obey the commandments (I almost think this is Jesus' way of poking fun at the rulers' and lawmakers' ideas of that time, that following Him mainly just consisted of following rules, but anyway). Then he says he is already living by the commandments. At this point, I see Jesus stopping in his tracks and turning around thinking, 'okay, you have my attention.' Maybe Jesus is interested that someone, for once, understands there is more to it than following commandments. So Jesus gives it to him straight: "Sell your possessions, give to the poor, and follow me." And that's where it ends. The rich young ruler realizes that following Jesus is not just gonna be another event in his life, but instead is gonna be life-disrupting.

But to be honest, that idea didn't occur to me while reading the passage (I guess I'm just thick-brained.) But as I was going to sleep, I had iTunes on random shuffle (what I usually do as I go to sleep), and the second song to play was Derek Webb's "Rich Young Ruler." At this point even my thick-brained self says "Okay God, You have my attention. Really." So I listen:

We’re all living so good
that we moved out of Jesus’ neighborhood
where he’s hungry and not feeling so good
from going through our trash
He says, more than just your cash and coin
I want your time, I want your voice
I want the things you just can’t give me

Yeah, Derek doesn't exactly hold back words. These words, combined with the passage I had read earlier hit me like a brick in the face. A brick that said: "Following me is supposed to be life disrupting, Kent." This marked the beginning of a sleepless night. I started thinking about all the things on my plate: school, family, friends, writing music, FCA, my life group, and the ten million other things I try to do all at once. That's when I realized where I have gone wrong: God was just another thing on my plate. And when I say this, I am actually thinking of a literal plate. In my mind, I'm staring at a meat & four plate from Rock's (mmmm) and seeing my life in it. The mac & cheese is probably my music, because it's the vegggie that feels the best going down. Hanging out with my friends is probably most like fried okra, because there's some good in it, deep down at the core, but a lot of times I feel like I have to get through the batter (which is not so good for me) to get to the important stuff. School is probably most like broccoli. Okay, so I really don't eat broccoli, but if I did it would be like school. I absolutely despise eating it, but I know I need it--that kind of thing. FCA is good, but I think half of what makes it so good is that I get to help lead worship while doing it, and that's not good that I feel that way, but it's true sometimes. So FCA I guess is kinda like mashed potatoes: I love it, but only when that delicious brown gravy is on top. And I'm not saying this to brag at all, but right now I feel like God is the meat. He's the country-fried steak. And now that I think of it, there's probably an analogy there too. I'm not a huge steak guy. It's gotta have some special sauce or be prepared a different kind of way in order for me to enjoy it. And sometimes I think I do that to God. He has everything to offer me, but I have to receive Him a certain way in order to get what I want from him. Once again, a really selfish way of looking at it, but I do it sometimes.

If you wanna take a break and go eat lunch/dinner now that I went through all that, feel free. I'll wait here.

Okay, glad you came back. I'm almost done, I promise. So I say all of that to say this: the problem is when we look at God like he's just another item on our plate. Whether he is the largest item or the smallest that we don't quite get to because we're already full, He's still just an item. You see this when people try to make Jesus an advocate of them climbing the corporate ladder, or an supporter of their political view, or an admirer of their parenting style, or a champion of their American dream. The truth is, he's not. He doesn't want to compliment your life, he wants your life. He wants you to lay down your life, and follow him. How many times does Jesus say something to that effect in the bible? I was gonna go through and count them to prove my point, but I got tired of counting. It's a lot of times, trust me. Very few people in the bible just added God to their plate. Most of them, I would even say, let God disrupt, or straight up ruin, their life.

I think the truth is Jesus doesn't want to be something you simply add to your plate in hopes it will improve your life. Instead of putting him on our plate, I think he wants to be the one we give our plate to, saying, "here's my life Lord, use it. Rearrange everything on it, take things off of it, add things to it, make it healthier, use it to feed the poor, or, if you want, knock everything off of it like you knocked over the tables in the temple. Be my Life-Disrupter."

why God is like music (at least to me)

Those of you that know me are probably thinking "you would post about this." But I think I have something here. Or at least it makes sense to me, so feel free to stop reading at any time if it just becomes a bunch of jumble to you.

I am a huge fan of most any kind of music. I have my own opinions about certain kinds of country and rap, but I'll save that for another day. But perhaps even more than I like listening to music, I love playing music. There's just something about creating something that makes you feel a certain way that I love. My friends and I were talking about it, and I don't know if I would be the same person without music. I love listening to music when I'm happy, upset, pumped up, alone, with friends, ticked off, or just whenever. I have everything from Chris Tomlin to Slipknot in my CD collection, something for every mood. Wow, I just thought about Slipknot opening up for Chris Tomlin in concert. Quite a thought. ANYWAY--

There is one thing I've realized about playing music AND listening to it in that the more I know about the theory behind it, the less I like it. And by theory I don't mean the message they are trying to convey. I mean music theory. This is the reason I didn't major in music. I completely despise learning anything about music theory, and that may be the very reason my music never goes anywhere, but I just don't. I dislike it so much that I nearly quit taking guitar lessons in middle school because of everything I had to learn in band class to play the trumpet. I remember thinking "it can't be this complex and uninteresting." It's just not something I enjoy. To me, knowing every note you are playing and why you are playing it and in what octave you are playing it takes all of the feeling out of what you were doing. It's like you're taking something creative and beautiful and turning it into a science or a math. And I say that with all due respect. I love science and math--probably two of my favorite subjects, but they are very different than music for me.

Sometimes that's the way I feel about God. It's great to connect with God on a number of different levels, and if one of them happens to be intellectually, that is great. But to me it is not only impossible but exhausting to put reason to everything God is and does. And I get really tired of people who try to do this. I feel this way when I watch Christians on TV try to argue their beliefs with someone who believes in evolution or another similar theory. To me, the beautiful difference between God and science (which by the way, aren't meant to be in opposition to each other like they often are): the beauty is that in order to believe in something to do with science you need proof. You need a question, research, a hypothesis, experiment, analysis, and a conclusion (see, told you I listened in science class). With God, however, you just need faith. That's it. And the definition of faith, according to Webster's, is "belief without absolute proof." So when I see people on TV trying essentially to prove God the same way their opposition is trying to prove science, it really makes me wonder if they're missing the point.

Rob Bell makes an interesting point in "Velvet Elvis." He says this:

"What if tomorrow someone digs up definitive proof that Jesus had a real, earthly, biological father named Larry, and archeologists find Larry’s tomb and do DNA samples and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the virgin birth was really just a bit of mythologizing the Gospel writers threw in to appeal to the followers of the Mithra and Dionysian religious cults that were hugely popular at the time of Jesus, whose gods had virgin births? But what if, as you study the origin of the word ‘virgin’ you discover that the word ‘virgin’ in the gospel of Matthew actually comes from the book of Isaiah, and then you find out that in the Hebrew language at that time, the word ‘virgin’ could mean several things. And what if you discover that in the first century being ‘born of a virgin’ also referred to a child whose mother became pregnant the first time she had intercourse? What if that spring were seriously questioned? Could a person keep on jumping? Could a person still love God? Could you still be a Christian? Is the way of Jesus still the best possible way to live? Or does the whole thing fall apart?…If the whole faith falls apart when we reexamine and rethink one spring, then it wasn’t that strong in the first place, was it?”

Now I realize this statement is very unorthodox and probably was intended to stir up some controversy (because Rob Bell enjoys doing that), but I think he is essentially saying this: do you believe in God because you have faith in God, or do you believe in God because you believe in a list of facts and statements, all of which in one way or another, "prove" God? Bell makes the statement later in the chapter that this situation hasn't occurred and will never occur, but maintains that we shouldn't believe in God like we believe in science. Science is only as strong as it's weakest opposing argument. Is that really what we want our faith to be like?

Anyway, back to the point. I'm basically just trying to say that if we are obsessed with understanding God like we understand things of this world, we will fail every time. I just really get the feeling that God is so far out of our league as far as intellect goes, that taking him and finding a nice neat box that we can put him in would be a lot like listening to the best jazz music you've ever heard (I guess if you don't like jazz, this analogy won't work), and going up to the saxophonist who taught himself to play by ear and saying "I really loved that music tonight. Can you please write it out for me?" More often than not, a jazz musician would look at you like you were just plain stupid. I get the feeling this is kinda how God felt when he was dealing with Job. Long story short, some really crappy stuff happens to Job. And when I say crappy, I mean like completely horrible stuff. Anyway, Job goes on this extremely lengthy rant, some of it he complains, some of it he questions God, and some of it--get this--he tries to put reason to why God has let these things happen to him and why God behaves the way he does. After this, God has straight up had it with Job. And I think no matter what translation you read of this passage, it's pretty obvious that God is pretty flippin' irritated with Job, and goes on his own rant:

"Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you and you will answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone"

(God goes on like this for quite a while). So what is he trying to say? Essentially, I think he's telling Job this: "Don't try to put me in your box. I won't fit. My ways are higher than your ways, and you will never understand why I do some things, so stop trying."

And here's the other thing, God is way too beautiful to be trimmed down to a list of beliefs and rules, like we tend to do a lot of times. I find it interesting how every passage in the bible, no matter what its content or length, can always be slimmed down to exactly three bullet points in a sermon. I think the bible was meant to be a lot more poetic and artistic than that. There are times in Exodus and other parts of the bible where the authors run out of ways to write about God in prose, so they just bust right into poetry. Jesus spoke in parables and metaphors a great majority of the time, as did many of the apostles. All this makes me think that God intended for his Word to be a lot more than a "How to Comprehend God" manual.

So I think this post is getting pretty lengthy. In short, my advice from personal experience would be this: don't try to constantly understand God, because you're not gonna be able to. And it's kind of like music--if you ever did find a way to understand him all the time, you probably wouldn't like it as much.

love

I want to take advantage of my massive presence here on the world wide web to tell everyone about two people I met tonight at Starbucks. Starbucks lends itself to deep spiritual conversations (well, kinda) between me and my friend Stephen and God used our conversation tonight to introduce us to Will and his friend, who we were told to affectionately refer to as "Muscle Man"--if you saw him, you'd know why. Muscle man can do 30 push-ups with one hand, then switch over to the other for 30 more. Will is kind of lean and has curly hair and is a huge Elvis fan, and has side burns to prove it. Muscle Man is one of those guys that you never see without a hat on, to the point that you realize you have no idea what color or length of hair he has, and quite frankly, it would look weird to you no matter what it was if he ever took off his hat, which he won't. You probably know the kind. They are both from the great state of South Carolina, and Muscle Man has traveled all over the country (or the east part of it at least) doing who knows what. Both of them love God and love people, and Will actually spends his spare time selling and giving away roses to people in Columbia. Will's parents grew up and raised him in the church, his father was a deacon. Muscle Man comes from a not-so-religious family, but now talks to God every day.

By this time you're probably wondering what the point of all this is. "What makes these people so fascinating that you thought I might want to know about them, especially this much about them??" Well, nothing is extraordinary about them--they are basically no more interesting then most of the people we hang out with normally, with one difference. Neither one of them knew where they were going to sleep tonight. They are homeless.

There. Now I have ever-so-theatrically revealed the two main characters to you, let me show you how they connect to what Stephen and I were discussing the moment they walked up. We were basically talking about control. The question we were discussing was, at what point do you just let go of any goals, purposes, and agendas for Christ and just give it to God. The answer, for us at least, was "right now." Neither Will nor Muscle Man had had anything to eat in several days, so we took a trip to Church's, and acquired a massive helping of one of God's greatest gifts to earth (at least to the South)--fried chicken. After holding up traffic in the Church's drive through because Will suggested that we pray for the food before we got it, we laughed our freakin' heads off with these guys. I guess there's something about sleeping outside for several years that lends itself to having some pretty incredible/hilarious stories.

Then came the painful part, at least for Stephen and I. They took us to a place where they told us they could stay the night for $25 bucks a piece, and when we arrived there, it wasn't much. And by saying "it wasn't much," I mean it was nothing. Personally, I might have rather have slept outside than in this place. There was no power, I didn't really feel any heat, and there were boards on all the windows. Stephen and I suggested that they stay at one of our places or at a local shelter, but Will and M.M. both told us they had had enough of that, simply pointing out that when they stayed at other "Christian's" houses or at shelters, the people who let them stay always wanted them to do something--either pray, or accept Christ, or promise they would find a job. So Stephen and I coughed up fifty bucks for them to stay at a place that someone couldn't have PAID ME enough to stay at, wondering to ourselves if that money would eventually just be used for drugs or booze. As we started to talk about that ruin the high we had from laughing with these guys, Stephen got silent for a second and asked me this: "At what point do you just not care what they do with the money?"

And that's the question. Maybe the will take the money, go get coked up, and spend the night outside after all. We have all heard the advice about how to take a homeless guy to a restaurant, carefully pull money out instead of our wallet so they don't steal anything, take them to a homeless shelter ran by a local church so maybe they will hear about Jesus, and make sure not to give them any money because they will probably blow it on drugs. Maybe they will just take the money, go get coked up, and spend the night outside after all. But at some point you have to just say I'm out of control now. I think that sometimes we try to control and direct our generosity to the point that we are taking that control away from God. At what point do you just quit caring so much about controling what happens to them with your money and just give the situation to God? At what point do you cough up money that you could just tithe with and say "God I just want to give them this in hopes that they will see Christ in me, instead of a can of month old food served out a spoon?" At what point do you give them something you know they don't deserve and know they probably will abuse, not because you think they need it, and not because you want to feel good about yourself, but simply because God gave us something we never deserved and we abuse it every day?

thanksgiving...well, kinda

so I'm trusting that everyone had a great thanksgiving. mine was great, as I have so many things to give thanks for. a few specific things I became thankful for just today, though:

1) Corvettes. my uncle has a '67-68ish (sorry I forgot) Corvette. after we ate and were all just sitting around (I think I was asleep/watching the Green Bay/Detroit game, he goes "Kent, you wanna take the 'vette for a drive?" wow--what a question, so I took it for a drive with my cousin Lesley, then got back and realized I didn't wanna stop yet, so I talked my mom into getting in so I could do it all over again. awesomeness.

2) Weiner dogs. these little guys are truly the joys of life. I know a lot of people who will swear against weiner dogs, and I just don't know how. maggie, my cousin's new pet, simply lit up my world. and that, my friends, is probably the most masculine thing I will ever say on this blog.

I am especially thankful for my family this thanksgiving. I know that sounds weird, but it is because yesterday I attended a receiving friends for a friend of mine, Kenny Plumley, who took his own life on Monday. I can't imagine the pain his family must be going through. I do want to say that all of our prayers and thoughts go out to Kenny's family. I know a lot of them are searching for answers right now, and I don't have them, but I know Someone does. God bless you guys.

all the traveling today also lent itself to a lot of podcast-listening. on the way to Charlotte today I listened to donald miller speak on Paul and the "incarnational gospel." this led me to realizing how thankful I am for Paul. Paul is often considered, other than Jesus, one of the most passionate missionaries in history. and reading his stuff helps me out a lot when I'm trying to figure out how in the world to go about sharing Christ with people. not only did he not give a rip about being persecuted for something he believed in, but insisted on being very Christlike in the way he presented the gospel. one example is the way he approached the church in Athens in Acts 17.

for those of you not familiar with this particular story, Paul basically is encouraged to travel to Athens in the hope that he will tone down his act a little bit and quit being arrested and stuff so much. now just judging from what you've heard about Paul, do you think it worked? exactly. it took Paul about an hour before he was bursting at the seems to tell somebody else about Christ. while he was in the synagogue, he saw the many false idols that the Athenians were worshipping. this bothered Paul, but not in the way that it would bother a lot of Christians today. in this type of situation today, many believers would probably feel the urge to confront these people confrontationally and ensure that we told them just exactly how wrong they were for worshipping false gods. Paul sees something different. he sees the many different gods, and then sees one altar dedicated to "an unknown god." so instead of telling these people how dumb they are for worshipping all these statues (which is probably what we would do), Paul says:

"Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. I even found an altar with this inscription: 'TO AN UNKOWN GOD'. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you"

Paul then proceeds to tell them about who this 'unknown God' is! imagine that! in a situation where we would lean into these people to tell them how ridiculous their religion is (I am specifically thinking of the way I have heard many Christians respond to Buddhism), Paul compliments them! He thinks it is on many levels beautiful that these Athenians long for something spiritual, so he tells them about Christ!

there are a few reasons, I think, that this idea strikes a lot of Christians as crazy. one is the idea of a Christian culture that we have created. miller uses the example of the Scopes monkey trial in the 1920s. in a lot of ways, after that trial, a lot of Christians were offended. the idea that America would take Christianity to court was pretty blasphemous (sp?) to a lot of people. and from that day on, you begin to see a lot of this idea of separating Christian culture from the world's culture. it wasn't always like that. it was in the five or ten years following this case that you saw a ton of Christian schools popping up all over the place. you began to see this attitude of "well, if they aren't going to do things the way WE say, we'll start our own thing. then eventually, when we get big enough and strong enough, they'll be starved out and come crawling back to us for help." this "survival of the fittest" attitude, miller points out, is kind of hilarious considering that the Scopes monkey trial was, in many ways, Christians vs. Darwin.

but as much as we would like to say that we don't do this as Christians, it is pretty obvious that we do. for example, how many ministries in the church to you see targeting single parents? common sense would tell you that these type of ministries would be important, since over half of U.S. households are those of single parents, right? I would argue that many churches don't though, simply because someone being a single parent would imply that they might have either had a child out of wedlock, or are divorced--both things that are simply frowned upon by the church. this idea of simply not reaching out to these people is very Western in origin, and more importantly, unbiblical. something tells me that if Jesus had no problem hanging out with a woman who had had five husbands and was currently living with a guy who wasn't her husband, he would also have no problem hanging out with a single mom.

anyway, I realized through listening to this podcasts that I am just as guilty as anyone of doing this, and that there is no excuse for it. it's so easy for some reason for me to help out a homeless guy who is on drugs, and then turn around and refuse to connect with a guy who seems like he might be gay because I don't agree with it, and that is stupid. if I am telling people about the Great Physician, I should present him as just that. in a lot of ways, us trying to starve out people who are in the margins of life is a lot a nurse who runs tests on a patient who thinks he might have cancer, and coming back into the room saying, "well the tests came back positive for cancer. you're in pretty bad shape. and here's the thing--the doctor here really hates cancer. so if you don't mind we'd rather you just go ahead and leave now, and don't come back. good luck with your cancer, but the doctor here only wants to help you once you have helped yourself first. thanks. bye." as ridiculous as that sounds, that's what so many churches do to people who are lost. the lost come to a church, in hopes that that church can help them find what they're longing for and the church says, "okay that's great, but we really don't help [insert adjective of choice] people here until they've straightened that up. come back when you're not [adjective of choice] anymore." let's show people Christ's love, and then partner with him to do the healing. all of us are broken. it makes no sense for one broken person to say to another "you need to get to my level of brokenness first before God can help you."

let us be the remedy...

you will be blessed

in my head I keep singing that addicting Maroon 5 tune "she will be loved, she will be loved..."--not real sure why. anyway, I really wanted to blog to elaborate on a really cool conversation my mom and I had this past weekend (it's amazing having Christian parents to discuss these things with!) I was telling her about how I've been reading and studying the book of Job lately, and we started discussing the concept of being blessed by God. Now lately, when I say that, my mind immediately goes to the whole idea of the prosperity gospel. for those not familiar with it, the prosperity gospel basically teaches that God wants you to be financially wealthy, and that you being wealthy is evidence of you having God's favor. examples of proponents of this theology are people like Kenneth Copeland, and perhaps most well konwn, Joel Osteen.

to my surprise, this movement does actually have a biblical "origin." they cite as a reference Deuteronomy 8:18, which says "But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today." now I don't want to spend this entire blog refuting this whole branch of theology, but I think there are a couple of things that appear to have been ignored when using this verse as fuel to fire a movement which is not exactly biblical in several other ways. one is simply that it seems the verse has been taken out of context, as many verses of the bible are, to support what someone wants it to support. the verse is actually a very minute part of a long list of laws Moses laid out for the nation of Israel. Moses is on the mountain, and comes back with the ten commandments, and then a few other laws that follow. the verse, to me, appears to convey a much different message than "riches=God's favor." it actually simply reminds the Israelites that WHEN THEY FIND wealth, not to forget their God. warning the Israelites that WHEN THEY FIND wealth, they shouldn't thank their own hands for it, is a little different than saying "you have found wealth, so you are in God's favor." Moses simply said this as a warning, not an indication of God's favor. a warning, by the way, that was entirely justified, since 1 Corinthians tells us that "God was not pleased" with most of these very people. the second part of the verse simply means that IN THIS SITUATION, God chose wealth AS A TOOL to bless people of this PARTICULAR LINEAGE. I feel like if God wanted to say that being wealthy was ALWAYS an indication of his favor, he probably would have said that. So there you have i:, we've taken a passage of scripture meant to warn against becoming people who God is not pleased with, and turned it into justification for gaining wealth.

anyway, this post is not about that. it's about being blessed by God, and that concept goes way beyond financial prosperity. there are three points I want to make about being blessed, so here we go:

God wants to bless us when we don't deserve to be blessed. this is a hard one for us to accept. our society is one that isn't exactly always a living example of the whole "unconditional love" idea. we have been firmly rooted in the idea that when you perform well, you are rewarded. if you work efficiently, you get a raise. if you play a sport well, you get a trophy. so for many of us, it's easy to carry this over to our relationship with God. if we perform well religiously, then God will bless us. the more Christian music we listen to, the more people we pray for, the more church events we go to--okay, now I'm just poking fun at people. I digress (spelling??) my point is, when we give into our sinful tendencies as humans, we feel like there is no reason for God to bless us. the painful/relieving reality to this though, is that if that were true, we would never be blessed.

God wants to bless us when we don't feel like being blessed. this one may not apply to you, but I struggle with this a lot. I get in my moods where I just want to sulk. it's like I tell God, "I really appreciate what you're trying to do right now, but I would really like to just feel sorry for myself for a while. my life sucks, I know it sucks, just let me sit here and think about how bad it sucks. then I'll be fine." in retrospect I really feel like God says in response sometimes, "seriously kent? I don't mean to hate on my own creation, but that is the stupidest thing I've ever heard you say." okay, so maybe he doesn't say that exactly, but that's what I would say to me if I was Him. anyway, the point is I think God wants to bless us to show us hope when we don't necessarily want it at the time.

When God blesses us, sometimes it's not gonna feel like a blessing. this, I think, is where I was trying to go with the whole prosperity gospel thing earlier. I think sometimes when we think of God blessing us, we think of money. I mean be honest, when you hear of God blessing someone, do you not automatically think of either falling headfirst into money, or getting a new awesome job, or in general just something awesome happening to you? I know I do, even though I know that's not the point. that's why so many people eat this prosperity gospel thing up! people absolutely love going to a church where the pastor tells them God wants to make them rich. well, it's either that or the fact that there's a spinning 20 foot tall golden replica of the earth in the background (ooo, ahhh). the fact is, God wants to bless us in many more ways than giving us money. you know the whole "blessing in disguise" idea? as cheesy as that phrase has become, it's true! looking back on my life (that makes me sound old), some of the most awesome blessings have been things that sucked entirely and completely at the time they happened to me. this is why I think the bible tells us that God wants to bless us. if He wanted to, he could have just said "I want to give you money and make awesome stuff happen to you." (of course he would probably put it a little more eloquently than that, but you get the point). I mean if you buy into that thinking, any time something bad happens to you, it's because of Satan. that's kind of ridiculous. anyway, this is starting to sound like the god vs. psychology blog, so I'm gonna stop.

but seriously, if any of you gets to go visit Lakewood Church, can you see if you can bring me back a piece of the golden earth? I really think God wants to bless me with part of it. thanks.

I'm still alive (or, if you prefer: politics, politics, and politics)

So I know I haven't blogged in ages, so my vast reader audience has probably dwindled down even lower at this point (if that was even possible). Anyway, for those of you that are still listening, I have a solid topic for today. It's something I've kinda hinted at in several posts now, but not really gone any deeper than surface level. So here it is--Christianity and politics.

I realize this is a touchy subject, so if you are 100% convinced that the only candidate a Christian should vote for is a southern Republican from a Baptist background, and you get upset when someone tells you otherwise, you should probably stop reading now. Anyway, with the race for presidential nomination going full force (probably stronger than it should be at this point, one year before the election), I felt now would be a good time to throw my political thoughts out there for whoever cares enough to read them. Growing up, in a pretty decent sized Baptist church, I was constantly told (or otherwise encouraged) that the Republican way was the only way, as far as being a Christian goes. I even remember hearing the following DURING A SERMON one Sunday: "If you are a Christian, George W. Bush should be your candidate." Period. Not "I think Bush embodies many Christian ideals," or "Bush is the strongest candidate faith-wise," but more or less, "vote for him, or you're voting against God."

While I realize this might be an extreme, it's hard to ignore the die-hard positions a lot of Christians take when it comes to politics. Whether it's in presidential elections or matters such as abortion, gay marriage, or things of the like, there is very little "lukewarm" when it comes to Christian (especially Baptist) ideas on what and who to vote for. Now if there's one thing I want you as a reader to take away from reading this blog, it is NOT that we as Christians should be wishy-washy when it comes to politics. Not at all. I think we as voters should research ideas, find the things that align with our faith the most, and vote for them. Hear me out on that. That is important. What isn't important, though, is picking our choices, and then throwing them on other believers and non-believers while saying "I don't see why you wouldn't vote this way if you are really a Christian." That is ridiculous, unbiblical, and, well, ridiculous.

When talking to Christians about voting and politics, you hear something like this a lot: "This is a broken world, and it's not gonna get any better unless we have a person of faith and good morals in office." I have two major problems with this thinking. They are as follows:

1) This IS a broken world. It was broken from the very beginning, as a result of the Fall. From the first bite taken of that fruit, this was a broken world. True statement. The viewpoint that it is more broken now than it was centuries and centuries ago, though, is hard for me to believe. When we speak of this "broken world," we are most likely referring to a decrease in general morality of people, a general shift towards un-Christian living--stuff like no more prayer in schools and the Ten Commandments being taken down, to name a few. This stuff is all unfortunate, and in no way do I support it being done, but we have to look at history for a second. When Jesus came to earth, it was a pretty "broken world" as well. I might even go so far to say that it was a little worse then than now. I mean after all, at least here in America, we complain that we have to pray silently in school, forgetting that during Jesus' time, praying to God in a public setting may have very well led to your death. To play it on the safe side, the political situation of Jesus' day was JUST AS BAD as ours today, even if you don't want to say that it was worse. In spite of this, though, did we ever hear Jesus say to anyone, "This is a broken world. And I'm telling you, if we could just get this guy in office instead of Caesar, we could fix everything"? To my knowledge, he never said anything close to that. Instead, he went from village to village telling of a new kingdom, a different kind of kingdom, that would always be possible, no matter what the political situation was. Which brings me to my next point...

2) I mainly don't believe in this "voting for someone so the world can improve" thing because of what it implies. If I believe that we as Christians must vote for a certain political candidate so the world can see a change in the direction of the kingdom of God, I must also believe that Christ is unable of changing the world under a different political candidate. And that, my friend, is simply a load of crap. I firmly believe that when God decides there is going to be a massive movement that will reach the entire world for Him, it will not make a bit of difference if Rudy Guliani is president, or if Billy Graham is in office.

Lastly, and bear with me as this may be my most "liberal" idea of the day, is this: Let's just say that we get the perfect Christian candidate in office for President. And why stop there? Let's say we also have elected a 95% Christian Congress too. Meanwhile, we have gotten every piece of legislation passed that we, as Christians, considered Biblical. Prayer is back in schools, and the Ten Commandments are now posted on every street corner. What have we really accomplished? By that I mean this. Is the ultimate goal for us as followers of Christ to get the world's laws to align with our beliefs? Or is the ultimate goal to reach people for Christ, no matter what the situation? I personally can't imagine one more person being saved these last four years because we have George Bush in office rather than John Kerry (a lot of people may even argue that the opposite is true).

I guess, to summarize, it's not that I don't think Christians or churches should be involved in politics. They should, to a certain degree. But I have to believe there are probably better ways to spend our time.

we will remember

I want to send my prayers and thoughts to be with anyone who was affected by the fire in NC this past weekend. I didn't know any of the victims personally, but just being a student here on campus produces a great deal of emotion for the lost students.

there's not a whole lot more to say. it is always terrible when we lose people, especially when they are so young. probably none of us understand why it happened. and while the media tries to give us every reason to blame someone for what happened, I would encourage people to look to the only One who does know why. believe it or not, God is in control. I know at times like these, hearing that will probably either be strangely comforting or ridiculously irritating to hear, but He is. none of us are gonna know why this happened, and why it happened to the people it happened to, but that's okay. I'm sure there are a lot of times when God wishes for a second he could fast forward and show us what He is doing or preparing us for, but the most we can do is put our faith in Him.

in joy and pain,
sun and rain,
You're the same
You never let go

regardless, now is the time for family and friends to help more than ever. find someone to talk to, just as I am about people I don't even know, and tell them how you feel. as tragic as this all is, I'm sure the last thing these seven students would want is for another tragedy to befall the USC campus because someone couldn't take the pain of them being gone.

other students not directly affected by this tragedy (if there are any such students), show some love to people all around you. if you are a believer, show them Christ's love. if not, just let people know you are thinking about them, sympathizing with them. this is a huge hurdle right now, but it's no bigger than God, it's no bigger than love, and it's no bigger than the spirit here at USC.

We can see that our hearts are hurting
We can see that our soul it aches
We can see that it seems we're failing
but we will overcome

We love you and miss you.

9-18-07

awesome.

Last night was baptism at the Coop. I'm gonna do my best to give you a general idea of what it felt like to be there, but in all honestly, you should probably just drive to columbia next time there is one. awesome doesn't even begin to describe it.

For starts, pastor Dustin Willis made a point to describe to everyone present that this was THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING that the church does. He told us after the baptisms that a lot of churches spend a lot of time organizing a mission statement, a vision, and core values to guide them, but he says when people ask him what his vision is for his church, he gives them the date of the next baptism. twenty-five people were baptized last night, and Dustin only baptized 5 of them. the awesome thing was that the other twenty were baptized by either their Christian friends, their brother/sister, their camp counselor, or their parents (this is ridiculously scandalous to many I know, but definitely not unbiblical). to me this gave a whole new meaning to baptism, considering I was baptized by someone I didn't really know all that well.

And the celebration that followed was unreal. And when I say celebration, I'm not necessarily talking about everyone cheering as loud as they could, or even a social gathering that followed. All that was great, but I'm talking about the celebration that you could see in each person's eyes that came out of the water. There was no denying that Christ had done something amazing and each one of their lives.

I got to see Antionette, a high school friend of mine baptized and she was literally glowing for the rest of the night (see picture). After the baptism, the band led us in some of the most celebratory worship I've ever heard, ending with us singing at least 15 times:

O praise the one who paid my debt
and raised this life up from the dead

and honestly, I can't imagine a more excited look on someone's face who had literally been raised from the dead. there are no words to describe what took place Sunday night at the Coop or the God who made it happen, but here's a few that come as close as I can get:

Our God is an awesome God
He reigns from heaven above
with wisdom, power and love
Our God is an awesome God

my church is better than your church

DISCLAIMER: THIS BLOG CONTAINS SOME GRIPE

You know, you hear a lot about the "problems with Christians today" or the "problems with the church" today, and I'm not saying I haven't ever contributed to that stuff, but I really think I've found the root of the "church's problems." The problem being that no church truly realizes that they are on the same team as the church across town. I realize that organizations like the Southern Baptist Association and the Association of Evangelical Churches would lead you to think otherwise, but let me ask you this: when is the last time you saw a church in a community partner with another church to accomplish something for Christ. Whether it be a simple Sunday morning service, an outreach event, or anything else, it is very rare that you see something like that. And why?

I had a conversation the other day that would provide one answer. When another church in the Columbia area got brought up, someone's first comment was "there is too much fundamentally wrong about that church." Wow. What a profound statement, coming from a human who descends from the lineage to whom the Fall occurred. Let me ask this: with statements like the Great Commission as our guide, doesn't the mere fact that we haven't reached "all nations" with the message of Christ prove that there is something "fundamentally wrong" with every church? When I asked what fundamentals this church was violating, all I got were several (unbiblical) traditions that this church didn't strive to hold up. I worry that sometimes the line between traditions of the church and what the bible says about church is getting blurred.

And maybe a reason we can't reach people in the multitudes we want to is because this is what the rest of the worlds sees when they think about church: a group of a hundred different denominations that can't even bring themselves not to dispute with each other, much less the outside world. Well, either that, or they see that we need to put a spokesperson on CNN to tell everyone that we as the "conservative Christian" demographic are having a crisis because we don't have a political candidate yet. To me, in a broken world like ours, there HAS TO BE better ways of spending our time as a church than concerning ourselves with crap like that.

I've never been one to think we need to modify our behavior as a church or as Christians to "appeal" to non-believers. But I don't think it's a coincidence that when we do something as un-Christlike as endorsing a political candidate and competing amongst ourselves, that we end up turning people off to the message of Christ.

This message is a very relevant one. I don't think we have to try to make it relevant to people; people need hope. If we can stick to the truth without embellishing it with what WE think is best, it will work 100% of the time. But the problem is when we start creating our own fundamentals, and turn our focus on making our way the best rather than cooperating to reach an empty world.

I find the church very worldly in the way that we joined the competitive corporate world. The more "customers" we can get, the better off we'll be. I can't help but think that the real reason we won't work with other churches and organizations is the same reason you don't see Pepsi and Coke teaming up to "refresh the world." Each is afraid their product isn't strong enough to withstand such an effort. As the church, we have Someone strong enough (but isn't a product--more on that another day), we're just really worried that someone else is packaging it better than us. Let's be the exception to the rest of the world, for once, please. Isn't that what He was?

God vs. Psychology

Once again, this post is about something that has been bothering me lately, so here's your chance to stop reading.

Sweet. Thanks. I promise to try not to get too negative. I had a conversation with a new-ish Christian the other day. She said that was having a problem--and here it is, ready? She felt like having Christ in her life was just making her feel really good. That's all. She explained by saying that she felt like, when she accepted Christ, that there was something deeper. She expressed that all she felt now was pretty much the equivalent of how you feel after successful sessions with a psychiatrist. She said that when she looked to God, she did think that it would make her feel better, but also thought that that relationship would be much more than that. I can't help but say that's the problem I have with a lot of Christians today. I hear stuff all the time like "I feel so much better about my life now that I believe" or "it's like nothing can phase me now" or "God is making me feel really good about myself." And it's not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just that that is a very tiny part of your walk. You know I wish I could find a passage of scripture where Jesus says "all who follow me will be perfectly content with their life, they're struggles will be no more, and they will be completely free from problems." If there was scripture that said that, we could probably just throw out most of the rest of the Bible. There would be no reason to read that other stuff about trusting Him and struggling with sin would there? I mean that would make the choice to lay down your life and follow Him a no-brainer wouldn't it?

Unfortunately, He never said that. And just from my general understanding of who He is, I would bet that there's a reason for that. I don't think Jesus wants to be our Great Psychiatrist, giving us solutions to all our problems and making us feel better about ourselves. A promise like that would require very little faith to accept. What he does want to do is make our faith stronger, and give us hope. One passage that defines what I think is God's way of dealing with us in trials is one that almost everyone has heard: when Jesus walked on water. Peter has a couple problems, it sounds like to me: (1) He wants to know if the man he sees in the distance is indeed Jesus, and (2) the only way he can find out is to walk out on the water to Him (a feat not easily accomplished by most people). And when Christ told Peter to step out onto the water, I doubt He was thinking, "here is a way I can show Peter that he can walk on water." It seems to me that he was trying either show Peter what little faith he truly had in Christ, or simply to show the power of faith. The same goes for us. When we run into a problem, I have to think that God gets tired of us praying for an answer. I have to believe that He would much rather us believe that He has it in control, and instead of looking for an answer, look at what He is trying to tell/show us in the meantime. Often times for me, what He is trying to show me is that my faith is nowhere near what it should be.

And so that is one of the problems I have with the way the Bible has been treated lately: as a self-help book with some rules in it. I get the feeling sometimes that when we read it, we want the answer in plain words to anything we are struggling with at the time. No doubt the Bible was given to us as a form of guidance, but when you condense a passage of God-breathed scripture into a few bullet points and methods to solve your day-to-day problems, it tends to make me feel that we're missing the point.

And here's the other thing. Jesus never intended for us to be saved so we could be happy all the time. In I John we are told that "those who claim to live in Him must walk as Jesus did." And if you think that Jesus never struggled with anything and was 100% happy all of the time, I'd love to read you some scripture. I just feel like they're are plenty of people and ways to make yourself happy with your life. You can turn on the TV and find Oprah or Dr. Phil, or go talk to any psychiatrist to find a way to do that. Or even turn on Joel Osteen for that matter and find "your best life now." There's only one Jesus, and he promises a lot more than happiness...

robbie seay band and other goodness

So I'm gonna try to keep this post to a minimum since I have a finance test to study for (making great progress as you can tell), but I just want to tell my vast blog-reading audience that if you haven't heard the robbie seay band, you need to. I'm gonna sound like a commercial I know, but listening to this CD is the only thing that is keeping me in my room long enough to do the little studying I have done tonight, and so I have to tell someone. I don't care if you like worship music or rap, or what you believe, I guarantee there is at least one song on here for you, specifically. These guys are on to something. Kinda sounds like Derek Webb's voice meets the Fray-type instrumentation. I'm doing my best to get them to play a show around here, but for now do yourself a favor and either go out and buy the CD, Give Yourself Away, or go to myspace and search for them. You won't regret it. Check this out.

Keep on dreaming of the day when it all will change
believe in the end love wins
if you're waiting for the time when the sun will shine
look above 'cause love wins

These guys are awesome. I'm serious, go listen to them--now. And in the meantime, stay classy, San Diego.

weekend stuff

Okay so our Gamecocks couldn't quite pull us through. I told my friend Peanut that the Vandy game would be the test: either we would show up as the team that stomped Georgia and Kentucky, or we would be the team that almost lost to UNC. I think it's pretty clear which one showed up. I think we even saw Spurrier move PASS the visor throwing phase. In the third quarter, that thing was flying left and right. In the fourth, I think he was in such disbelief that all he could do was put his hand on his hips and give it that Spurrier smirk of his (which, by the way, is never a GOOD thing.)

On a brighter note, tailgating was amazing as usual, and today was Free College Lunch at Shandon. And since it was Parent's Weekend, a lot of parents came to bible study and lunch. Steve, the college minister, chose a very interesting topic this morning. He spoke out of Luke 14. The passage that talks about how we as disciples and followers of Christ should hate our fathers and mothers compared to our love for Christ. (Pretty funny choice for Parents Weekend huh?) I thought it was awesome because that is one of those passages that tends to be ignored, or otherwise downplayed by the church a lot of times because of it's harsh truth. We tend to say, "well, that's not exactly what he means for us today. It was more of a metaphor-type thing." Steve decided that not only would he not ignore it, but he would speak on it for PARENT'S WEEKEND! Kudos, Steve.

All in all I realized that I do not love Christ enough. I mean what a tremendous love that must be. I absolutely love my parents and family, even if I don't tell them near enough, but to say that that love looks like hate compared to my love for Christ!? Quite frankly, I'm nowhere close. As I mentioned in an earlier post, our love for Christ is evident much more in the things we do for Him than in how many times we tell him that we love Him, and lately, I feel like I have done little more than tell Him I do. That same passage in Luke talks about hating one's own life and carrying your own cross--suffering and sacrificing to further the kingdom of God. We discussed at our table about how it is easy for us as Americans to say that we WOULD suffer for Christ, simply because we know we will probably never have to. For example, many people would think of tithing as being financial suffering for God, but the cold truth is that backing ourselves into a corner with the way we manage our finances, only then to find it difficult to give back to the Giver, isn't exactly the "suffering" that Jesus spoke of. The other table members and I came up with a general rule of thumb: if you have to say out loud or otherwise convince someone (including yourself) that "it's a sacrifice," chances are it probably isn't.

To summarize: this week I'm gonna start trying to find new ways to pick up my cross, despise my life (comparatively), and follow Him. Amen. Have a safe trip home parents, and remember, we only hate you compared to God. It's not that bad of a deal, really.

bad t-shirts designs, yelling, and other ways to show people what Jesus WASN'T like

haha, I knew that would get your attention. Today is one of those days you're gonna have to put up with a little griping from me. Me being a college student at a large university in the South, I frequently have the pleasure of seeing street preachers, ati-abortionists, and other interesting people of the like. Apparently, we (meaning college students) are much more subject to sin than the rest of the world, and these people feel have felt called to spend a lifetime informing us of that. Let me clarify here, I'm not talking about college ministers, or counselors of any kind. They spend time helping students. The people I'm talking about do nothing but yell, wave hateful signs in the air, and wear really bad and unbiblical t-shirts.

As many people may know, Gay Pride Week took place about a month ago, and that's when these people really showed up. Every day that week, a preacher would gather in the middle of campus with a megaphone, and inform all gay people on campus that they are going to hell (which doesn't agree with the bible he holds in his hand on many different levels, but stay with me.) Every day, this guy would acquire a gathering around him, mostly made up of the hell-goers he speaks of, doing nothing but yelling back at him. I can't help but wonder what either side of this argument thinks they are accomplishing by this.

But more than anything--more than the hate he is spreading, more than the despise of anything "Christian" is he encouraging in the hearts of the surrounding people, more than the embarrassment he is causing me as a believer--what bothers me most is the hypocrisy of it all. He holds a bible that teaches that one of the greatest gifts given to us is the ability to love, and he shows none of it. I would encourage this guy to read 1 Cor. 13, to see just how many times he is butting heads exactly with what God says. Secondly, he wears a t-shirt that says, in big block letters, "If you have sinned, you WILL go to hell." (Kind of clever on his part for not including the scripture reference to that, seeing that there isn't one.) How could you wear a shirt so blatantly untrue, much less one that forecasts such a dreary future on yourself?? Thirdly, a sign rests behind him reading "God hates homo sex and baby killers." I'm not even gonna begin to describe just how incorrect that is. And lastly, on his wrists are three different colored bracelets, all containing the letters "WWJD". All I can come up with is that this guy must be talking about a different Jesus, seeing as how my Jesus hung out with tax collectors and prostitutes, who from what I understand, were frowned upon much more back then then homosexuals and people who have had an abortion are now.

To me, I find it a little amusing that street preachers like this are called "conservative," or maybe "ultra-conservative." Pardon me while I borrow loosely from Donald Miller, but as far as Christianity goes, wouldn't a "conservative" be someone who sticks to the Word in the strictest sense? Believing and acting on just what it says, rather than letting his/her prejudices get the best of them? From what I understand, this guy seems like he's on the other side. Taking what you like about the bible, and leaving out what doesn't align with your feelings, to me, is the definition of a "liberal." Gross--I don't even like those two words, it's just something I'm a little confused about.

Anyway, I want to say that in no way am I trying to convey a holier-than-thou attitude by writing this, nor am I saying that me posting this will necessarily help anything. But if you are out there reading this, and you have been on the receiving end of a person like the street preacher or the sign waver, please know that none of that has anything to do with Jesus, and I would love to tell you about what does.

sushi is amazing

well it is. I think I have effectively formed a habit of getting sushi for lunch every tuesday and thursday. I started all because of convenience. Apparently everyone on campus goes to Russell House at the exact same time as me for lunch on those days, and every line ends up being crowded except for the sushi line. Don't know why. But that's how it began, and now I can't stop.

I read a book a while back by David Crowder called "Praise Habit: finding God in sunsets and sushi." And I can honestly say I have seen God in many a sunset. And while I can't say I've found Him in the sushi yet, I feel like the sushi has definitely shown me something deep, maybe even spiritual. Today it was the tempura roll, which is totally worth the 3 dollars price difference between it and the other, less holy rolls.

Here's the thing. Whenever I eat sushi, I have to eat it outside. And whenever I eat outside I feel the need to put in the iPod earphones (because I am obviously a social recluse and try to avoid contact with other humans as much as possible). And whenever I eat sushi outside with my earphones in, I like to pick something deep to listen to, so maybe it's the music as much as the sushi, but the sushi is where it starts (I promise to get to the point here soon). Today the selection was Mutemath. Great band. I usually try to stay away from a band's most popular songs, but today the shuffle landed on "Typical," and I let it play.

When I eat sushi outside, I'm really bad about watching and analyzing people, and more and more lately, I keep getting this feeling from doing that. This feeling that life is about something so much bigger than what we see (very cliche, I know), and that about 85-90% of the people I am seeing walking around don't know that. And if my tendency to think these things weren't bad enough already, here's what Paul Meany of Mutemath put in my ear today:

I know there's got to be another level
somewhere closer to the other side
I'm feeling like it's now or never
Can I break the spell of the typical?

And that's kinda how I feel. That even though I don't quite have it together/figured out yet, there is another level, and that a lot people are never gonna realize it. Switchfoot must also be big sushi fans:

Stars looking at our planet watching entropy and pain
and maybe start to wonder how the chaos in our lives could pass as sane
I've been thinking about the meaning of resistance,
a hope beyond my own
and suddenly the infinite and penitent
begin to look like home

So the moral is, there is something bigger. And apparently the people who don't eat sushi or listen to Mutemath aren't gonna get it the way I did. So I'm gonna figure out someway that I can make somebody get it. And in the meantime, maybe I'll leave my earphones out of my ears.

Love isn't a feeling, it's an ability

So I saw a special sneak preview of the new Steve Carell movie, "Dan in Real Life," tonight. One of the few remaining benefits of being a student here at USC. You now must skip class, blow off work, or otherwise rearrange your life in order to be at the Russell House before 10 a.m. on Mondays to obtain a free ticket to the football games, but you get a free sneak preview at a movie every once in a while.

I don't plan on spoiling the film for anyone (but it is awesome if you're trying to decide to go see it), but a line was spoken that didn't really hit me until after the movie. At some point, a minor character speaks the words "love isn't a feeling, it's an ability." Now as far as earthly, boy-girl love, I'm not sure this idea holds true. To me, both times I've been (or thought I've been) in love, it was very much a feeling, rather than an ability.

I can't help but thinking, though, that our love for God is a lot like "an ability," rather than a feeling. Now the ability I'm speaking of isn't like a skill, like most people think of abilities. I don't mean that some people are born with or have acquired the SKILLS needed to love God, and some people aren't. It's more that our love for God can be much more clearly defined and displayed by things we do, rather than emotions we feel. I think this is one of the major ways our love for Him differs from our love of a family member, spouse, or boyfriend/girlfriend.

With the direction modern/post-modern (I'm not sure what the correct adjective is now) churches and worship music is going, it is easy to compare our love for Christ to "earthly" love. There was a whole movement of worship songs several years back where you would sing to God exactly as if you were singing a love song to a significant other. And if this helps you connect, then great, but personally I can't help but think that our love for Him should be at least a little different from that. When you "fall in love" with someone, I large part of it, I think, is emotion. You feel love for that person.

With God, that "feeling" seems to only scratch the surface. You love God, but saying that you do seems to come second to the way you speak to him, worship him, seek him, and love his creation. I guess my point is this: generally speaking, You could open the car door for your signicant other, help them through rough times, make them dinner, take their car to the shop for them, write them letters, and talk to them on the phone, but if you never speak the words "I love you," they might never know whether you loved them or if you were just a super nice person. On the other hand, I get the feeling that if I communicated with God throughout every day, showed people love the way He would have me show them, and lived a life in keeping with Him, but simply forgot to remind Him by saying "I love you, God," he would not wonder if I truly did.

I may have read a little too much into this and/or let a movie get the best of my "emotions," but I think I may be onto something here, or at least I landed on some scripture that somewhat agrees with me. It seems like God finds "loving Him" and "keeping His commandments" to be very much related, considering He says virtually the same thing numerous times. (Ex. 20:6, Deut. 5:10, Ecc. 12:13). And in Mark 12, I think it is most clear: "Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." And to me, there might even be a certain reason for the order of this verse. After all, it seems like it starts with the heart--with a feeling. But the more important thing is what you do with that feeling (how you show it with your mind and your strength, for example).

The whole "light under a lamp" idea makes me think that if we feel affection for Christ, but then never do anything but let ourselves be in love with God, we've gone wrong somewhere.

Shine your light and let the whole earth sing,
we're singing for the glory of the risen King

I can't believe I did this

Let me start by saying I am (or was) the guy who said I would never do anything like this. I have always been one to say that "I don't care what other people are thinking, so they probably don't care what I am thinking either." I even quit getting on instant messenger that much because I got tired of people putting up away messages like this:

"gone to work, then to class, swinging by my house for a quick lunch, back to work, then to my AIM-anonymous meeting, then dinner on campus, by the grocery store, some homework, and then to bed."

I mean--seriously. A stalker would be in paradise. I don't see any reason random online friend #1 would need to know all of that. I just never understood how anyone would care about all that stuff, much less this whole blogging idea.

I stand corrected. In the past few weeks, I have somehow gone blog-crazy. I've become addicted to reading blogs like David Crowder's, Needtobreathe's, and numerous other well-known people. Then I started getting into normal people's blogs, like Cliff, my friend and pastor back home. (Or at least we like to think he's pretty normal). So I figured since I have already violated the first part of my principle (that being that "I don't care about what other people have to say"), I might as well give this a shot too.

Just as a preview/disclaimer, should you choose to join me on this journey (if anyone does), you'll probably hear a lot of stuff you care about, and a lot of stuff you don't. But I promise that everything I talk about will be something that I care about. So you will inevitably hear a lot about Christianity: both about its awesomeness, and about some people that I wish I could apologize for because they're getting it all wrong (according to the Word, not according to me). You'll also hear a lot about things like music, how I think I'm a sorry excuse for a business major, how sleep is probably one of my favorite things ever, and probably a lot of Will Ferrell quotes. Sorry. Thanks for listening.