It's been a while since I've had anything in particular to say, but this evening, my head and heart feel an impending explosion if I don't take a few minutes to write things down, so here goes...
This Sunday past I heard a sermon on Luke 15: 11-31, commonly referred to the "Parable of the Prodigal (or lost) Son." It would be more correct to call it the "Parable of the Father's Love" or something like that, because the focus of the story is the Father and his astounding - even shameless- love. Interestingly, the father in the story is dreadfully insulted by both sons - not only the one that went away and wasted his inheritance (For a full treatment of the parable see Kenneth Bailey's work).
Shamelessness is a predominant characteristic of God's love throughout the biblical narrative. He is continually forgiving, accepting, offering mercy and grace. Think of the story of Hosea who's told to marry a prostitute. Why? Hosea's life is an analog of God's love and forgiveness for the people of Israel, who continually run after others, rather than remain faithful to God, the rightful husband.
There is a part of each of us (I think) that longs for reconciliation like this - reconciliation with God - and reconciliation with one another. Have you received this kind of shameless love? Have you given it?
I'm NOT referring to neurotic or co-dependant love - the kind that reaches out to the other out of sense of personal neediness. Instead, this is a love for the person alone - not for anything the person brings to the table. I'm afraid that many folks today have no experience of receiving love like this. Not only do others expect us to bring something to a relationship - we expect it of ourselves (I know that I like to think that I bring value into my relationships). How about loving someone just for themselves? How about being loved just because you're you?
When Martin Luther baptized babies, he would hold the infant up in front of the congregation and say, "See what love the Father has for us, that we should be called His children, but so we are." It's perfectly clear the a baby isn't bringing anything to God - not even his or her faith, but God loves and receives the child anyway. He loves and receives you that way too. He's not interested in you because you're beautiful, intelligent, witty, fashionable, rich, or whatever. He doesn't need anything from you (or me). His shameless, searching, redeeming love reaches out to us because for some reason, he loves us - just for us. What incredibly good news!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Try, Try Again
OK... you may think this is silly... but here goes. Lately I've been playing a solitaire game called FreeCell. I'd heard several people say that it's possible to win every game. At first I did not believe it. It turns out that it's true.
Since I figured out that it is indeed possible to win every game, the way I play has changed. I play until I win the game. Sometimes that means undoing several moves I've made - sometimes all the way back to the beginning. Though it requires patience and perseverance, I can win every game.
It's made me wonder. If I knew that I'd be successful, how would it change the way I live? Would I persist? Would I be willing to scrap all the moves I'd made and begin again? How about you?
Babies and toddlers know how to persevere. They babble until they learn to communicate with words. They scoot, and crawl, and cruise until they learn to walk. They practice every skill they want to learn continually. And they don't seem to mind.
Most of the things that I need to learn these days are soft skills - mostly they're relational. And I'll admit that I often despair that I'll ever get it. But playing FreeCell has reminded me that I shouldn't give up hope.
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
Since I figured out that it is indeed possible to win every game, the way I play has changed. I play until I win the game. Sometimes that means undoing several moves I've made - sometimes all the way back to the beginning. Though it requires patience and perseverance, I can win every game.
It's made me wonder. If I knew that I'd be successful, how would it change the way I live? Would I persist? Would I be willing to scrap all the moves I'd made and begin again? How about you?
Babies and toddlers know how to persevere. They babble until they learn to communicate with words. They scoot, and crawl, and cruise until they learn to walk. They practice every skill they want to learn continually. And they don't seem to mind.
Most of the things that I need to learn these days are soft skills - mostly they're relational. And I'll admit that I often despair that I'll ever get it. But playing FreeCell has reminded me that I shouldn't give up hope.
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
Friday, September 4, 2009
The Green Light At the End of the Dock
Check out this portion of my daughter's blog:
"baby eyes and an open heart. a free spirit and a longing for adventure.dying to explore this big, big world.i have become the most restless being ever.i'm worse than a ghost caught in a haunted house,a sparrow trapped in a cage.a prisoner with his hands through the bars in his cell. slaves escaping in the dead of night for freedom. where is the relief for such a restless spirit?in this big, big world.
we walk through this life trying to find a light in the dark to guide our stumbling feet. the green light at the end of the dock on the other side of the water. a reason to keep ourselves alive.it seems i haven't found mine yet,but it's somewhere in this big, big world.
it seems i haven't found mine yet,but it's somewhere in this big, big world. am i too occupied, or not occupied enough?i am trapped beneath a life that i know i don't want. the big blue sky is my limit, and i can do anything.i want to reach for it and run for it and jump into it so i don't have to live this mousetrap of a life that i am living. cut the chains, set me free.free to explore this big, big world"
The green light at the end of the dock is an obvious reference to The Great Gatsby. It breaks my heart to read of her longing for something more.
Then I turn to today's Lectionary. The morning Psalm is Psalm 84:
Psalm 84
How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!
My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.
Happy are those who live in your house,ever singing your praise.
Selah
Happy are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
As they go through the valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength; the God of gods will be seen in Zion. O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob!
Selah
Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed.
For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than live in the tents of wickedness.
For the LORD God is a sun and shield;he bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does the LORD withhold from those who walk uprightly.
O LORD of hosts, happy is everyone who trusts in you.
My daughter is yearning for something more - something bigger. The truth is, all of us need a green light at the end of the dock. Unlike Gatsby, however, the Someone we need most is not beyond our reach. In fact, that Someone reaches out to us with steadfast love, and offers to fulfill our deepest longings.
"baby eyes and an open heart. a free spirit and a longing for adventure.dying to explore this big, big world.i have become the most restless being ever.i'm worse than a ghost caught in a haunted house,a sparrow trapped in a cage.a prisoner with his hands through the bars in his cell. slaves escaping in the dead of night for freedom. where is the relief for such a restless spirit?in this big, big world.
we walk through this life trying to find a light in the dark to guide our stumbling feet. the green light at the end of the dock on the other side of the water. a reason to keep ourselves alive.it seems i haven't found mine yet,but it's somewhere in this big, big world.
it seems i haven't found mine yet,but it's somewhere in this big, big world. am i too occupied, or not occupied enough?i am trapped beneath a life that i know i don't want. the big blue sky is my limit, and i can do anything.i want to reach for it and run for it and jump into it so i don't have to live this mousetrap of a life that i am living. cut the chains, set me free.free to explore this big, big world"
The green light at the end of the dock is an obvious reference to The Great Gatsby. It breaks my heart to read of her longing for something more.
Then I turn to today's Lectionary. The morning Psalm is Psalm 84:
Psalm 84
How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!
My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.
Happy are those who live in your house,ever singing your praise.
Selah
Happy are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
As they go through the valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength; the God of gods will be seen in Zion. O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob!
Selah
Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed.
For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than live in the tents of wickedness.
For the LORD God is a sun and shield;he bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does the LORD withhold from those who walk uprightly.
O LORD of hosts, happy is everyone who trusts in you.
My daughter is yearning for something more - something bigger. The truth is, all of us need a green light at the end of the dock. Unlike Gatsby, however, the Someone we need most is not beyond our reach. In fact, that Someone reaches out to us with steadfast love, and offers to fulfill our deepest longings.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Puzzling
Lately I've been into working jigsaw puzzles. My passion for puzzles began when I discovered the on-line daily puzzles on msn games. Each day three fresh puzzles are posted, and I began to work them over breakfast.
It didn't take long for me to decide that maybe I needed to purchase some real puzzles that would take longer than 10 or 15 minutes to put together. So... out I went to Wal-Mart to feed my new found enthusiasm.
Puzzles are relaxing. I also believe they're good for your brain. But there's something else that I'm beginning to understand from puzzles... It has to do with discernment.
When I'm working a puzzle, I like to sort out the pieces that I think will go together into groups. Then as I work on one part of the puzzle or another, the process of finding the right piece is made easier because I don't have to look all over the table. What I find, however, is that sometimes I've sorted a piece into the wrong group. I think, for example that I have a piece of sky, but what I really have is part of a chair...
Invariably there's a point in my puzzle working where I begin to look more closely at each piece of puzzle to discern if I have it in the proper pile. And just as invariably, I find that what I thought was part of one thing is really something very different.
I think that life is very like a jigsaw puzzle (maybe that's why I like them so much). It's a beautiful whole, but broken up into many - sometimes bewildering - pieces. Just when you think you've got everything sorted out, you find a piece that doesn't fit. When it happens in life it's very frustrating, but jigsaw puzzles are teaching me to slow down and look more closely. What doesn't fit in one part of the puzzle fits beautifully into its proper place.
May God grant us eyes that see (discern) and minds that understand how everything in my life and yours fits together to complete a glorious picture of His grace and mercy.
It didn't take long for me to decide that maybe I needed to purchase some real puzzles that would take longer than 10 or 15 minutes to put together. So... out I went to Wal-Mart to feed my new found enthusiasm.
Puzzles are relaxing. I also believe they're good for your brain. But there's something else that I'm beginning to understand from puzzles... It has to do with discernment.
When I'm working a puzzle, I like to sort out the pieces that I think will go together into groups. Then as I work on one part of the puzzle or another, the process of finding the right piece is made easier because I don't have to look all over the table. What I find, however, is that sometimes I've sorted a piece into the wrong group. I think, for example that I have a piece of sky, but what I really have is part of a chair...
Invariably there's a point in my puzzle working where I begin to look more closely at each piece of puzzle to discern if I have it in the proper pile. And just as invariably, I find that what I thought was part of one thing is really something very different.
I think that life is very like a jigsaw puzzle (maybe that's why I like them so much). It's a beautiful whole, but broken up into many - sometimes bewildering - pieces. Just when you think you've got everything sorted out, you find a piece that doesn't fit. When it happens in life it's very frustrating, but jigsaw puzzles are teaching me to slow down and look more closely. What doesn't fit in one part of the puzzle fits beautifully into its proper place.
May God grant us eyes that see (discern) and minds that understand how everything in my life and yours fits together to complete a glorious picture of His grace and mercy.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Tripping Together is Better Than Falling Apart
The title of this blog comes from a line in a Christine Dente song entitled, "Gotta Go Through". It's a song about the pain of living in community. It's not a song that suggests that it's better NOT to live in community - but instead that community life forces to "go through" things that lead us into another place. A better place.
America is a land that prizes individualism. We're also a consumer driven culture. Individualism and consumerism make community life difficult, whether the community in question is a family or a church. When the going gets tough - when life together gets painful, it seems easier to get up and run.
The Trinity is a model of community, existing together in a circle dance of love and mutuality. The relationship in the Godhead is a picture of what life together is meant to be like for us: love, appreciation, support, and collaboration.
God designed us to live in community. Even though our relationships are fraught with pain and difficulty, it is in relationship that we grow and develop into fully actualized people. We do indeed gotta go through. Hang in there. It's worth it.
America is a land that prizes individualism. We're also a consumer driven culture. Individualism and consumerism make community life difficult, whether the community in question is a family or a church. When the going gets tough - when life together gets painful, it seems easier to get up and run.
The Trinity is a model of community, existing together in a circle dance of love and mutuality. The relationship in the Godhead is a picture of what life together is meant to be like for us: love, appreciation, support, and collaboration.
God designed us to live in community. Even though our relationships are fraught with pain and difficulty, it is in relationship that we grow and develop into fully actualized people. We do indeed gotta go through. Hang in there. It's worth it.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Doomed To Repeat It
They say that those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. Up until the time of the Crusades, Islam peacefully coexisted with Christianity. The violence that characterizes some of Islam today was born out of the brutality meted out on Muslims, Jews, and Christians alike by the crusaders who couldn't really tell one Middle Eastern person from another. It's a sad and shameful chapter in the history of the West.
I (unfortunately) looked as some pictures taken in the Abu Ghraib prison. They show detainees being (allegedly) abused. The story used the word "allegedly" several times. Maybe there's a story behind the story that we're not privy to, but if not, it certainly looks like abuse to me. Most disturbing of all of the pictures were the ones with soldiers smiling over the death or dehumanization of the prisoners. Again... maybe there's a story behind the story. I'm not really sure that I believe there's ever any good reason to dehumanize someone.
I don't know about you, but I want to remember the past and learn from it. I want to avoid the mistakes I've made before. I want to face my sin and brokenness and forgive myself - God has already. When I encounter sin and brokenness in others, or in institutions (including the church) I want to extend grace and forgiveness. This is the only way to live the abundant life. The only way to sing a new song. The only way to avoid being doomed to repeat the past.
I (unfortunately) looked as some pictures taken in the Abu Ghraib prison. They show detainees being (allegedly) abused. The story used the word "allegedly" several times. Maybe there's a story behind the story that we're not privy to, but if not, it certainly looks like abuse to me. Most disturbing of all of the pictures were the ones with soldiers smiling over the death or dehumanization of the prisoners. Again... maybe there's a story behind the story. I'm not really sure that I believe there's ever any good reason to dehumanize someone.
I don't know about you, but I want to remember the past and learn from it. I want to avoid the mistakes I've made before. I want to face my sin and brokenness and forgive myself - God has already. When I encounter sin and brokenness in others, or in institutions (including the church) I want to extend grace and forgiveness. This is the only way to live the abundant life. The only way to sing a new song. The only way to avoid being doomed to repeat the past.
Friday, May 1, 2009
The Fellowship of Suffering
This week my colleagues and I traveled to our region headquarters for a dreaded quarterly review. During the review we recap our results - sales, key performance indicators, etc., and the initiatives we have in place for the upcoming quarter. It doesn't sound too bad, right?
Well trust me, it's no picnic - mainly due to the fact that regardless of what you've accomplished or how hard you've worked, you're in danger of embarrassment or worse from our region's head man. He's the kind of guy that believes in tough love - and that's putting it mildly. We'd all rather have a root canal than a quarterly review.
I was pondering the value of these quarterly exercises on my drive home Wednesday afternoon. We'd heard that we were the only region in our area doing a review this quarter, and I spent some time thinking about the value. It did occur to me that in this economy there's something to be said for keeping your foot on the gas peddle. We do need to be sure we're striving toward the right things and doing the right things in the right way.
But there's a greater value that my colleagues and I realize, and that's the fellowship of suffering. Maybe it sounds crazy, but we've been doing these together for several years. Each time it's excruciating. But something happens between us and among us as we suffer through them together. We bond. In fact, I've never been a part of a team as personally committed to each other as we are. I think that suffering together has a lot to do with it.
Most Americans spend a good deal of time and energy attempting to avoid suffering. I'm guessing that most of the world's people accept suffering as an inevitable part of life. Not Americans. The American Dream is a dream that we have enough of everything - money, health, knowledge, etc. to avoid unpleasantness. Life's better that way - right?
Maybe not. I think there's something to be said for the fellowship of suffering. Years from now when I look back on my life, I'll treasure those days spent in a windowless room toiling and laughing and praying (yes, praying) with my friends as we prepare to give an accounting of our efforts of the previous quarter.
In the same way, maybe our country will look back on these days of economic uncertainty and belt tightening as some of our best times. Times to be together, to learn to watch out for one another, to toil and laugh and pray together for the future - to share our humanity. Let's enjoy this time - these are the good ole days.
Well trust me, it's no picnic - mainly due to the fact that regardless of what you've accomplished or how hard you've worked, you're in danger of embarrassment or worse from our region's head man. He's the kind of guy that believes in tough love - and that's putting it mildly. We'd all rather have a root canal than a quarterly review.
I was pondering the value of these quarterly exercises on my drive home Wednesday afternoon. We'd heard that we were the only region in our area doing a review this quarter, and I spent some time thinking about the value. It did occur to me that in this economy there's something to be said for keeping your foot on the gas peddle. We do need to be sure we're striving toward the right things and doing the right things in the right way.
But there's a greater value that my colleagues and I realize, and that's the fellowship of suffering. Maybe it sounds crazy, but we've been doing these together for several years. Each time it's excruciating. But something happens between us and among us as we suffer through them together. We bond. In fact, I've never been a part of a team as personally committed to each other as we are. I think that suffering together has a lot to do with it.
Most Americans spend a good deal of time and energy attempting to avoid suffering. I'm guessing that most of the world's people accept suffering as an inevitable part of life. Not Americans. The American Dream is a dream that we have enough of everything - money, health, knowledge, etc. to avoid unpleasantness. Life's better that way - right?
Maybe not. I think there's something to be said for the fellowship of suffering. Years from now when I look back on my life, I'll treasure those days spent in a windowless room toiling and laughing and praying (yes, praying) with my friends as we prepare to give an accounting of our efforts of the previous quarter.
In the same way, maybe our country will look back on these days of economic uncertainty and belt tightening as some of our best times. Times to be together, to learn to watch out for one another, to toil and laugh and pray together for the future - to share our humanity. Let's enjoy this time - these are the good ole days.
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