Merging Lanes

Hello friends. I thought maybe we could play a little interactive game. Today, while going through my basic round of sites I regularly check, I saw a connection between two things that I came across. I am going to put these items on this post and see if you guys can guess how they are related. Yes, it is a little self-indulgent, like, let’s get everyone who reads this to try and read my mind … and knowing my self-centered self, that accusation may not be far from the truth. But also, I think it would be interesting to read how others might interpret these cultural artifacts.

So, without further ado, I present to you:

1.

the world’s largest swimming pool, just opened in a resort in Chile.

2. Yael Naim’s video “New Soul”

ok, so what do you guys think? I’ll post my thoughts at the end of the day.

Albert Mohler (President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) wrote an entry in his blog about postmodernism and its effects on the divinity of Jesus Christ.

He writes:

While postmodern literary theorists debate the meaning of “totalizing metanarratives,” at the level of popular piety we see the widespread substitution of “spirituality” for biblical Christianity. In this sense, spirituality is a project centered in the self and constantly negotiable — more about “meaning” than truth.

Is there anything about this statement and the article that bothers anyone?

It seems he’s sidestepping his criticism of postmodern Christians in particular (which he has done before) and talking about the general postmodern influence on the issue of faith and truth. However, I’ve found that those in our “morally declining” culture who find Jesus to be a wonderful teacher and an example for appropriate living seem to have it more right than the ones to place standards on “Biblical” truth.

By the way, I know, personally and dearly, self-described postmodern Christians who in no way deny the divinity of Jesus Christ and the truth of Trinity.

Links! Glorious Links! :o)

For I was hungry and you told me to self feed (The Thinklings Blog)

The true diagnosis of weak worship is not that our people are coming to get and not to give.

Offensive language: I Think My Mother Taught Me (Tall Skinny Kiwi Blog)

If cussing and offensive language piss you off, excuse my King James, please do not read on because I WILL refer to words that are deeply offensive.

Banned from Church (Wall Street Journal)

Reviving an ancient practice, churches are exposing sinner and shunning those who won’t repent.

Chuck Colson says “Nay!” to naysayers (Christian Post)

There they go again. Sunday’s New York Times featured yet another installment in its continuing saga about the “evangelical crackup.” Like previous reports, it was a case, not of news, but of wishful thinking.

Selling the Good Book by its cover (LA Times)

Publishers have found a niche–a big one–for stylized Bibles inspired by pop culture. Almost anything goes.

Death and Decorating (NY Times)

Amy Redford, actress, director and youngest child of Robert, is taking the first film she has directed to the Sundance Film Festival this week. It is called “The Guitar”.

Hilary, Barack, Experience (NY Times, op-ed from Nicholas D. Kristof)

With all the sniping from the Clinton camp about whether Barack Obama has enough experience to make a strong president, consider another presidential candidate who was far more of a novice. He had the gall to run for president even though he had served a single undistinguished term in the House of Representatives, before being hounded back to his district.

That was Abraham Lincoln.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
Read More…

I’m a mess! I’m an emotional mess. Why? Because I’m going through a pretty tough breakup. I won’t go into details, but it’s left me feeling really guilty, a lot of self-hatred, and some confusion and hurt too. I’m not always living in those emotions, but they come and go in pretty massive tidal waves.

The persistent feeling I have the most: emptiness. I feel empty. I’m not sure what to do next, because my life feels like it’s … empty. Less full of stuff. I feel less alive. If I let myself, I think I could spend the next week in my apartment watching TV and eating chips.

If I were to slice my brain and heart into different pieces, it looks like this. On one part is my superego, the negotiating force that keeps me looking sane at work and coming off as normal to my friends. I’ve never really embraced my inner emotions much, I’ve just found ways to articulate and spin my way around them. It’s what enables me to talk rationally about the whole situation, to sum up my story to friends around me, etc. We can call this the “Oprah” sector.

The next part is the voice of my religious upbringing, the Age of Reason words of “Christian wisdom”. “Don’t worry. It will pass. God will take care of things. He can heal you. He can make it better. Trust God, He’ll make it better. And one day, you and your ex will both find the right person and be able to praise God for His perfect ways. There’s something to be learned here, I’m sure God wants to teach you something. Self-pity and self-deprecation are ultimately just selfish; stop being selfish and turn to God.”

None of those statements are false, but they flood my brain as an automated response, almost a defense mechanism in themselves. And even if much of it is truth, what good is bathing in truth if you won’t let it soak in?

Underneath all of it is yet one more part, this dread, this incredibly simplified emotion of pain and dread. I don’t want to sit there and really think about it for too long, because then I might be confronted with some really ugly feelings. Maybe I really do hate myself. Maybe I love myself too much. Maybe this breakup wasn’t the right thing to do at all. Maybe I’m not going to be ok, I’m not going to be better, I’m just a messed up guy that can’t be trusted in another relationship for at least a good five years or more, because right now, all I know is how to hurt people and hurt myself.

That’s where I REALLY am. I’m not ok. I’m a mess. I’m able to control it because I’m so good at adopting external behaviors, but I think I’ve been weeping on the inside and questioning everything deep down. How is it that this can sway me so far when I profess every day that I have a relationship with the most beautiful and amazing being in the Universe? My emotions betray me.

That’s when all of that Bible knowledge and theology really started getting through to me. Not in terms of conventional wisdom, nor in terms of emotional lifeline verses (both of which are good sometimes), but in terms of just true stories of how God interacts with humanity. According to the Bible, God doesn’t wait to clean people up. He doesn’t wait to “normalize” them before giving them His presence. He doesn’t hold off until people are rational or have a grip on their emotions before sitting down to talk with them for a while. In fact, while there are a lot of cool-headed mature types, the Bible is also filled with a bunch of crazies. Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David… not to mention Peter and John and Paul.

I remember reading a book called “Messy Spirituality”, by the late Michael Yaconelli. I think it was along these lines: we should encounter God IN our mess. Not even necessarily with the idea of getting OUT of our mess, because sometimes the mess is exactly where we’re supposed to be. It’s disingenuous to put a different face on that and try to approach the throne room of God, self-deprecated and robotic. Moses was MAD at God sometimes. So was Jonah. David was frustrated beyond belief. But it never kept them from God.

And that’s all I’m holding on to. Not just this vague idea of a steely faithful God who never gives up on people and wants to bring them out of their messes and into His good cleanness. No. He’s Jesus of Nazareth, the God of the ghetto, the Hero of the hood. He was BORN into a mess, and He knew a lot of messed up people. He CHOSE to befriend them, and while some of them had some serious and instant behavioral/emotional change as a result of Him, others were just messy people delighted to be in the presence of a Savior.

So that’s the new part, the part I’m still trying on for size. The part of my heart and mind that tell me, yes, you’re a huge mess, but that won’t keep God from you. Not, “it’s ok, things will eventually be ok.” Not, “God will clean me up and make me whole.” I’m trying to turn to God not just to “get me out of here” and “save” me from my emotional distress. It’s just the thought that life is far bigger than me, and God doesn’t wait for me to get “cleaned up” before giving me Himself.

Give me Jesus, give me Jesus. You can have all this world, but give me Jesus.

WARNING: this entry may be a waste of your time.

My bathroom reading book is Dan Kimball’s They Like Jesus But Not The Church. The chapter I’m currently on right now deals with literal vs. figurative interpretation of the Bible. In it, Kimball explains that there are many things to be taken figuratively, and there are many things to be taken literally.

Reading it got me thinking about a subject that I’ve come back to dwelling on from time to time: literal vs. figurative creation account.

For the record, I have not read any apologetic documents regarding this subject. Moreso, I believe Scripture should be read, not for factual evidence in God’s hand in the physical order of the world, but as the narrative of God’s mission. I just want to get this out of my system. I’ll never write something like this again…

I know many Christians who believe in a figurative interpretation of the 7-day account. They quote 2 Peter and say, “To the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like a day.” Well, you’d have to believe a day is like 600 million years if you want to reconcile the biblical account with the scientific community.

I, too, believe in a figurative creation account. I even grapple with the idea that macro-evolution is a divine process. But for those of us who believe in a figurative creation account, I have a disturbing problem.

Figurative creationists, as I’ll call them/us, hold a fairly literal belief in the account of Adam and Eve. How does that make sense? If we hold to a figurative interpretation of creation, shouldn’t we hold to a figurative interpretation of the Garden as well? And where does it end? After Babel? After the flood? And if we accept a figurative account of the Garden, what then of the creation of humanity?

Don’t call Ravi.

This video made me not afraid to grow older. I love the diversity and beauty of all the people in the video. You can also see how much people’s personalities change as they enter different age levels just by how they say their age and bang the drum. Amazing!

- Embodied Human Beings and Our Gravitation Towards Ceremony and Ritual (Church and Pomo)

Since we accept the idea of meaningful actions and gestures in our common life under the sun—e.g. a kiss, a hug, a handshake—why should we exclude meaningful action or signify-ing movement in our worship of God and reduce our worship to a strictly verbal (and perhaps rational-ized) engagement?

- Confessions of a Missional Pastor (Wannabe?) - Looking Back on Some Frustrations With Time (Reclaiming the Mission)

Being a Missional pastor ain’t easy. There are inevitable compromises. No matter how hard you try, you end up spending less time on the things you really are passionate about (i.e. mission) and more time on things you value less (i.e. organization).

- Keys of the Kingdom (Jesus Creed)

[M]any today have chosen to prefer “kingdom” over “church” in a way that is not unlike this idea: as I like Jesus instead of the Church, so I like kingdom instead of Church. This concerns me, and it concerns me deeply.

- The Temptation to Quit (Internet Monk)

I suppose every person in ministry is strongly tempted to quit from time to time.

- God, Religion, and the Ridiculous (Church and Pomo)

Sometimes, in the ordinary course of weekly services, Sunday school lessons, and family prayer, I forget how ridiculous religion is.

- America to the Church: “You guys suck” (Religion News Service)

Almost three-quarters of Americans who haven’t darkened the door of a church in the last six months think it is “full of hypocrites,” and even more of them consider Christianity to be more about organized religion than about loving God and people, according to a new survey.

- Denzel Loves Jesus (Reader’s Digest)

For Denzel Washington, it’s not about fame and fortune. It’s about keeping the faith. 

- Best Job in the World: Master Coffee Cupper (NPR)

Tracy May Adair holds the grand title of “master coffee cupper.” All of the coffee produced by Folgers is based on her master palette. 

- Fashion, Faith, and Calloused Foreheads (NY Times)

There is a strong undercurrent of competition in Egypt these days, an unstated contest among people eager to prove just how religious they are. The field of battle is the street and the focus tends to be on appearance, as opposed to conviction. 

Happy new year everyone! I look forward to a full year of stumbling towards new truths with all of you in 2008. It is true that 2007 was not so much fun for me … but the advantage of being a nieophyte is that there is no where else to go but up!

Which makes me wonder, what if we were always in a state of newness, always assuming the position of a nieophyte? What advantages and disadvantages would that bring?

I grew up a pastor’s daughter and was raised in a semi-charismatic evangelical church. I graduated from a secular university and went on to study at a private evangelical college for my master’s in church history. All of this background should have provided me with a great foundational basis for understanding the Christian faith, and yet, at the ripe old age of 25, I am feeling less knowledgeable of what it really means to be a Christ-follower than ever before, not because I wasn’t paying attention during retreat sermons or in my historical theology classes, but because I fear that my entire Christian education has been based upon the paradigms of Western Christianity as established by post-Enlightenment modernity.

Now, all I have are questions. What does it mean that we might be doing church totally wrong? That we don’t necessarily need a presider and a sequence of praise, sermon and fellowship afterwards? What does this mean with regards to our thoughts on homosexuality? Or women in ministry? Should we rethink our paradigms? Can we?

Furthermore, I am constantly haunted by the grave mistakes that have been made throughout church history when Christians have justified the worst human injustices by citing the Bible. Slavery, apartheid, genocide—all these have been biblical supported by people unwilling to acknowledge the cultural blinders that remained as scales upon their eyes.

If only they had stopped once to recognize their newness upon this earth, that even after years and years of living, in the eyes of God they were just children playing at adulthood.

One of my favorite theologians, Helmut Thielicke, said that every great theologian is skirting the edge of heresy. I have found great freedom in that statement because it says there is possibility in everything, even in the doubts and questions that lurk in the furthest recesses of your mind. So, this year, my goal is to rethink everything. To leave no assumption unturned. To be a nieophyte in every sense of the word.

I have to admit, it’s a frightening place to be at the ripe old age of 25, when I feel as though I should know a thing or two about what it means to follow Christ. But it is also exhilarating … to know that after all these years, his blessings are still new every morning. I guess John wasn’t kidding when he said the world itself could not contain the books written about all that Christ has done.

-nieophyte

- An Application of PLURALIST Thought to the Missiology of the INDONESIAN RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES ([Post] Christian Faith)

I define missiology as a theory or a doctrine of how and what to act responsibly as a religious believer in this world in order to influence and change the world so that it can become a good place for every creature to live in now.

- Some Protestants warm up to Mary (Tennessean)

While she is embraced as the “Mother of God” by Catholics and as the Theotokos or “God-bearer” by Orthodox Christians, Mary is still considered taboo by some among Protestants…

- Mourning Benazir Bhutto by Brian McLaren (God’s Politics)

[A]ll of us who are people of faith need to reflect on our call in our respective faith communities to be agents of peace, agents of repentance, and agents of reform and growth, humility and hope.

- 10 Resolutions for Mental Health (Desiring God)

1. At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and about me.

- Recovering from Excellence (Christian Standard)

Some of the excellence engineers I have known are nothing more than perfectionists, and that is NOT a compliment. Perfectionism is a disorder.

- Pentecostalism for the Exurbs (Slate Magazine)

Joel Osteen wants you to stand up straight. “Even many good, godly people have gotten into a bad habit of slumping and looking down,” Osteen writes in his best-selling self-improvement tract Become a Better You.