Here are some good thoughts on asking the right questions when we read scripture by Donald Miller.

J.R. Briggs gives us a simple, yet I think spot on, definition of ministry.

I wrote this a while back and just came across it:

I am incurably restless.

Where did all the prophets go?

Amy was my cousin. Our family was/is very close. We miss her dearly.

AMY

Words don’t come easy when they’re this late
They get a little heavier with their weight
Death does that I suppose
But for what their worth, here it goes

I will start by saying that I love you
I never really said it, because I thought you knew
But I wonder now cause, well, you are not here
And so maybe I’m to blame, or so I fear

It hurts like hell, to think of you
To think of the pain that you went through
To think that our love was not enough
Or that it could not overcome the rough stuff

I struggle with that, because our love was deep
So much so that we all still weep
I struggle because I thought you knew
That our love was strong enough to carry you through

It was, and is, and always will be
The pain comes in the fact that you could not see
In that moment that our love was real and true
And powerful enough to heal what was broke in you

Love heals, but I guess you know that better than I
I reckon you see things more clearly after you die
I trust you see what you could not before
Our love, His love, and much, much more

And if you could grant me one final prayer
Help us see what you see there
The truth that death does not get the final say
That though tears are real, they get wiped away

That though pain stings and breaks our soul
That God takes broken things and re –makes them whole
That though we miss you now while you’re gone
After death’s dark night is God’s new dawn.

I will see you on that morning.

- Dan

Incarnation means that before we attempt to fumble our way towards God, God has already moved intentionally towards us.  The God of heaven, the God that often feels far away, the God who reigns in heaven, the God who created all things at the beginning of time, the mysterious God who we cannot see or comprehend… has come “in the flesh”.

Incarnation means that God is know –able.

Most religion is the movement of people towards God.  Incarnation is the movement of God towards us.

Most religion is humans moving away from earth towards the heavens.  Incarnation is heaven moving towards earth.

Most religion is learning how to love God.  Incarnation is realizing that God loves us.

Most religion is our struggle to find God.  Incarnation is God’s struggle to find us.

Most religion is trying to get closer to God.  Incarnation is the truth that God is closer that we realize.  Much closer.

Most religion is our pursuit of God.  Incarnation is God’s pursuit of us.

Shake Off Our Slumber

Let’s not numb our souls with pixel light

Cause the world is alive tonight

Rub our eyes and shake up these bones

Let blood flow to our hearts of stone

Don’t drown what’s breathing in wasted days

Cause life is living in dazzling ways

Beauty breathes and dances free

Moves in grace for us to see

Holds out its hand, inviting me

Wake up this life and shake off its slumber

Count our days and know their number

Cause all of living is God’s pure magic

All that’s joy, all that’s tragic

Inhale this life and let it fill our veins

Feel it all, its delight and pain

All is grace, all is gain

Don’t close your soul to this sight

That the world is alive tonight

Help me be a good father.  Thanks for my dad.  Teach me to be a good one.

-Dan

These are just the little lessons God teaches us/me as we walk with him.

#1.  Today I was at the Chiropractor.  (I have been there a lot lately).  I had to watch a video about keeping my back healthy.  Though I texted during most of it, one thing caught my attention.  The video stated that bad posture, over time, can have just as damaging effects on the back as getting into an accident.

God seemed to whisper that this was also true of our walk with Him.  Sometimes all the small ways in which we “slouch” in our walk with Christ can have just as damaging effects as a huge failure in our faith.  I have not gotten in any (serious) car accidents.  I am much more prone to bad posture.  God whispered that I must be much more intentional in the little things.

“If we permit- or worse, promote- dreamy of deceptive distortions of the Holy Spirit creation [the church], we interfere with participation in the real thing.  The church we want becomes the enemy of the church we have.  It is significant that there is not a single instance in the biblical revelation of a congregation of God’s people given to us in romantic, crusader, or consumer terms.  There are no “successful” congregations in Scripture or in the history of the church” (Peterson, Practice Resurrection)

At times in my life, I have lost trust in the church, rejected it, walked away from it, written against it, critiqued it, worked for it, gotten paid by it, bashed it, loved it, planted it, cultivated it, and more.

Over this time, I realize that my understanding of the church is extremely important.  Too often, I looked to the church with with unfair expectations that lacked a biblical grounding.  Church, I thought, was supposed to be perfect, meet most of my wants and needs, be centered in Christ without any entanglement in sin, deeply spiritual, and generally idyllic.  When it failed to meet these criteria, I was left with 2 options:  1) criticize and critique it (and thereby, I would often remove or distance myself from that tangible community); 2) romanticize and  mystify it (i.e. remove the theological dream of the church from its tangible reality).  Over time, neither of these options satisfied.

Don’t misunderstand me- engaging in critical thought on the church and embracing the mystery of the church are both important.  However, these things cannot be separated from the tangible, living-breathing, social and local, worshiping community.  For so long, I struggled with this tangible, living-breathing reality called the church.  It had too many warts and hang ups.  Truth is, it was easier to critique the imperfect bride of Christ than to be part of it.  If I privatized my faith, dabbling in occasional conversation with family and friends, I did not have to do the hard work of becoming part of the “body of Christ”.   I reasoned, as a believer, I was part of the mystical body of Christ while refusing to engage in the tangible body of Christ.  But biblically and historically, God’s people have always been a social and tangible reality in the world- warts and all.

It has been in the context of the church, the real, living-breathing community, that my faith has been sharpened the most.  Reading books, talking to friends, writing blogs, listening to sermons are all great and helpful.  But they easy.  They engage my heart and mind, but not my humanity.  It is in the context of the church, I am challenged with difficult people, actual arguments, differing personalities, real needs, and so on.  This context, better than any other I know, helps me to grow up in Christ- taking up my cross, submitting my my brothers and sisters, encouraging and being encouraged in the faith, forgiving and being forgiven, etc.

I admit, that I also find my workplace, the neighborhood, “the world” as a context for growing up in Christ.  This is important both for my maturity in Christ and the mission of God in the world.  And there are many Christians and churches, who in avoiding the world, seriously hinder their faith and neglect God’s mission.   But this is the church scattered, it is not the body gathered around the Christ’s body.   I have certainly learned that I cannot be the church alone.   It is both too easy and too difficult.  Mostly, it is not God’s intention.

“I want to look at what we have, what the church is right now, and ask, DO you think that maybe this is exactly what God intended when he created the church?  Maybe the church as we have it provides the very conditions and proper company congenial for growing up in Christ, for becoming mature, for arriving at the measure of the stature of Christ.  Maybe God knows what he is doing, giving us church, this church.”  (Peterson, Practicing Resurrection)

I cannot ignore that I’ve been wrong before

But I must wonder if my blunders

Limit what I speak to being weak

It seems these days that we do not say

Much of anything, that can bring

Hope.

or Truth

or Light

This is our plight, failure to fight

To plead, to speak, to stand for what is right

Am I out of touch saying so much?

Is it wrong to believe, or dare to conceive…

That things are true.

To speak with confidence that there are things worth saying

To share truth with people that’s well worth weighing

Am I allowed the courage to preach that God is real

Speak to souls that He can heal

Give them truth that they can feel

Dare to risk that things are true

Bet my life on them and all I do

And stand to tell the world too.