I was flipping through the channels today and came across a show on the Catholic channel about Fr. Solanus Casey. What an interesting guy! Through a series of circumstances trying to find his "calling" he winds up in seminary studying for the priesthood. He flunks out of the first seminary because he can't learn German to study theology. He then hears God call him to Detroit. He simply packs his bags and goes. He enters a monastary and graduates in the lower half of his class. So the powers-that-be relegate him to saying mass and being a doorman. He was not allowed to preach or take confessions. And yet, this guy winds up doing some amazing things for people and has been venerated by the Pope.

"For him, authentic religion rested in our personal relationship with God. He related to God as a Father, to Jesus as his personal Friend and Brother and their Spirit as the guiding principle of his life. His religion went beyond Religion into a personal relationship of intimacy with God and each member of the Trinity. It was this faith that affected so many people..." Sounds like my kind of guy.

I wish I had the quotes that were used, but the bottom line is that Casey trusted God with everything he had. He did not let flunking out of seminary divert him from his call. He did not let being relegated to the status of a doorman make him bitter. He simply served where he was, with what he had to give. He simply trusted God.

Politics: The Best of Both Worlds

I'm already sick of the DNC. I'm already sick of the RNC and it hasn't even started yet. I was struck by a couple of "political" happenings that reminds me that our hope in not in politicians, nor government.

This article gives us the best of both worlds: A protester at the DNC, probably a "God-fearing man," holding a sign with a dead fetus on one side and "Homo sex is sin" on the other. The "tolerant and compassionate" left promptly surrounded him and proceded to beat him up.

This article describes how Kerry's wife tells a newspaper guy to "shove it" after he questions her comments.

Actually, maybe I need to watch more of this stuff....street fights, shouting, violence....it's almost as entertaining as the WWE!

We went camping with five families from my daughter's Brownie troop this weekend. Wasn't sure what to expect, but we had a great time. It was about 73 degrees for the high! Definately not our typical July weather here in the mid-west. Found this a great way to REALLY get to know people who are "unchurched." We are already talking about a rafting trip next year....

On the trusting front....Friday Trish went to the doctor and somehow the topic got on me, and what I was doing for work. Trish told him that I was thinking about a Master's Degree in Counseling and it turns out that one of the Dr's wife is a Counselor in town. She is going to start a practice, build a building etc. Could it be coincidence? Maybe I will call her and setup a lunch...

Regarding my last post...just got a call from a friend who owns a gymnastics place. She wants to trade guitar lessons for her son, for gymnastics for my daughter.....maybe God is working it all out...we'll see what happens on the rest of the issues....

Peace!

Trust: Where the Rubber Meets the Road

We are all in different places on the journey toward trusting Father, and we are all in different places in our lives. Some of us are young adults, some are parents of young children, some are just starting careers, and some are retired. That is what makes the Church so interesting: We bring the differences in our experiences of life, and our common experience of Christ in us, and learn from each other.

My life experience right now is causing me to trust "where the rubber meets the road." I am finishing college, have small children to take care of, an old house to fix up, and very little money to live on. My patient, loving, nurturing wife has been so gracious to go back to work full-time while I finish my degree and work at a church part-time, but she really desires to be at home with the kids. The problem is, that my aspirations have completely changed since I started college. The original plan was to be a full-time worship leader at a church....not gonna happen.... I have been thinking/praying/listening about pursuing a Master's Degree in Professional Counseling...we'll see....

So, as Trish and I have talked/argued/cried about these things the past few weeks I've been asking myself some questions: Does God care what I do for a living? Does he care if I can't afford to take care of my house? Does he care if I can't afford gymnastics for my daughter? Does he care if my wife can't stay home. I don't mean these things in a negative way, and I don't mean to whine. But, these issues are "where the rubber meets the road" with trust in our lives right now.

It is fine to talk about the theory of trusting God, but when the issues of life are in your face it is time to live it out. I think the deeper question is: What does trust look like? Is trust active, or passive? Do I just sit on my couch all day and wait for some divine inspiration/revelation, or do I sign up for the Master's program and see what happens? Is trusting God for my sanctification a different process than trusting him for life decisions?

Fart in the Wind

I find such joy and contentment in hanging out with other people who love God, even though we are not in the same place on our journey. On the other hand, I grow less contented with the goals, structure, and outcomes of organized religion. Trish and I have been doing a lot of talking, listening and seeking lately about the situation we find ourselves in...

I am helping on a committee in the IC that we are serving at to redefine their mission, vision and values. We are reading some books and talking about things that are different from the direction of most institutional churches. But, I wonder if any of it will do any good, because most people will continue to do whatever they see the pastor doing anyway, and he's a "Purposed Driven" kind of guy. This keeps me emotionally detached from what I am doing, because I am not going to invest myself into an institution.

The good thing about doing this is it brings to light how much my views have changed. A couple of years ago I would have been so excited to talk about all of the "cutting edge" ministry structures and programs that are possible, today they seem so empty and lifeless. My litmus test for anything we are doing is: Does this help people know, follow, and trust Jesus? Anything else is a fart in the wind as far as I am concerned.

We did come up with a mission statement for them: To share the love of God and help all people become lifelong, passionate followers of Jesus Christ.

Now to answer the question: What does it look like to be a passionate follower of Jesus Christ....

Wayne Jacobsen posted a few pamphlets by Jack Gray that I was browsing when I read this prayer from the A.W. Tozer book, "I Talk Back To The Devil".

"Now Lord,if I do the things I know I should do,and if I say what I know in my heart I should say, I will be in trouble with people and groups --there is no other way! Not only will I be in trouble for taking my stand in faith and honesty, but I will certainly be in a situation where I will be seriously tempted of the devil.

Almighty Lord,I accept this with my eyes open.I know the facts and I know what may happen,but I accept it. I will not run. I will not hide. I will not crawl under a rug -- and I know that when I am weak, then I am strong. So, I do not let anyone praise me, and I try not to pay attention to those who would blame me. This is how I have learned to stand for Christ and all that He is to His own."

Jack's story is one of a man earnestly seeking God, but not finding Him in organized forms of religion, and dieing to preconceived ideas of structure to allow the Spirit to blow as He may. His story is one that I can relate to, especially right now....

More From Manning

Explaining Dostoevsky's novel, "The Brothers Karamazov," about Jesus returning to earth, Manning says:

After fifteen hundred years the institutional church, instead of proclaiming Jesus, had supplanted him. Ecclesiastical traditions and man-made laws had usurped Jesus, and the Church was living off the success of its ingenuity.

There was too much light and truth in Jesus. His word, "You will know the truth and the truth will make you free" was intolerable. The elders decided that men and women simply were not capable of being free, so the Church ascribed to itself the protections of souls entrusted to it, only to dispense it when absolutely necessary. Ordinary people could not endure the burden of freedom, so the Church took it away from them for their own good. They would only abuse and misuse it anyway. Delivered from the anxiety and torment of personal decision and responsibility, people would feel safe and happy in obedience to authority.

"They will be amazed at us," says the Grand Inquistior to Jesus, "and will think of us as gods, because we, who set ourselves at their head, are ready to endure freedom, this freedom from which they shrink in horror; and because we are ready to rule over them - so terrible will it seem to them, in the end, to be free. But we shall say that we are obeying you and ruling only in your name. Again we shall be betraying them, for we shall not let you have anything to do with us anymore. Indeed, why have you come to disturb us?" The Grand Inquisitor means to take this Jesus, who has come again, bringing freedom once again, and burn him at the stake in the name of the Church.

The question had become not "What does Jesus say?" but "What does the church say?" This question is still being asked today.

Sad but true: some Christians want to be slaves. IT is easier to let others make decisions or to rely upon the letter of the law.

Raised from the dead, Jesus remains present in the community of disciples as the way to freedom. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of freedom. Jesus invites and challenges us to enter this kingdom, to walk the royal road of freedom, to be set free by the Father's love. He calls ragamuffins everywhere to freedom from the fear of death, freedom from the fear of life, and freedom from anxiety over our salvation.

This one goes out to those who are trusting in a nation, a political process, or a politician to bring about the Kingdom....

"The Good Fight"
By Dashboard Confessional

Consider the odds,
Consider the obvious.
The martyr is meaningless,
The campaign has died.
In the planning stages and the fallen faces
Are the singular proof that it was ever alive.

This purchased rebellion has been outbidded,
Denounced and rescinded and left to die championless.
I begged you not to go.
I begged you, I pleaded.
Claimed you as my only hope
And watched the floor as you retreated.

Hope has sprung a perfect dive
A perfect day, a perfect lie.
A slowly crafted monologue conceding your defeat.

Does it comfort you to know you fought the good fight?
Basking in your victory,
Hollow and alone
While you boast your bitter bragging rights to anyone who'll listen.
While you're left with nothing tangible to gain.

Trust

It never fails to amaze me how God works it out so that what I read is exactly what I need to hear. I've been reading Brennan Manning's "The Ragamuffin Gospel" on and off for awhile. It's the kind of book I need to let sink in before I move on to the next chapter. Sometimes even a paragraph causes me to stop and absorb, ponder, worship...

I've been giving some thought lately about what it really means to trust God. Wayne Jacobsen's article and the CD's that George passed on to us have really got us thinking about it. So, the other night I was beating myself up regarding some of my many shortcomings, as well as some decisions about our family's future and I came across this:

"Second, our response to the love of Jesus demands trust. Do we rely on our resume or the gospel of grace? How do we cope with failure? Grace tells us that we are accepted just as we are. We may not be the kind of people we want to be, we may be a long way from our goals, we may have more failures than achievements, we many not be wealthy or powerful or spiritual, we may not even be happy, but we are nonetheless accepted by God, held in his hands. Such is the promise to us in Jesus Christ, a promise we can trust."

For those who feel their lives are a grave disappointment to God, it requires enormous trust and reckless, raging confidence to accept that the love of Christ knows no shadow of alteration or change. When Jesus said, 'Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened,' he assumed we would grow weary, discouraged, and disheartened along the way. These words are a touching testimony to the genuine humanness of Jesus. He had no romantic notion of the cost of discipleship. He knew that following him was as unsentimental as duty, as demanding as love. He knew that physical pain, the loss of loved ones, failure, loneliness, rejection, abandonment, and betrayal would sap our spirits; that the day would come when faith would no longer offer any drive reassurance, or comfort; that we would echo the cry of Teresa of Avila: 'Lord, if this is the way you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few!'

Manning goes on to point out that as long as a disciple is relying on "tangible reassurances" and craving "spiritual consolations" we are trusting in the response of God and not God himself. He points out that "What the disciple has not learned is that tangible reassurances, however valuable they may be, cannot create trust, sustain it, or guarantee any certainty of its presence. Jesus calls us to hand over our autonomous self in unshaken confidence. When the craving for reassurances is stifled, trust happens."

This is why I cannot rely solely on how I feel as a determination of my actions. I don't know about you, but I have been to the place where God is silent; where there is no tangible evidence of his presence. When I can't see, when I can't feel, when I don't experience, when there is no clear path, when there is no right answer, when there is no reassurance...These are the times of authentic trust!

The more I get to know myself, the more I don't desire any leadership position in the church....I'm to much of a fuck-up...God isn't done with me yet, but even when he is I still don't want the position of leader. That job is already taken.

This is a good word from Wayne Jacobsen:

As long as we're trying to manipulate circumstances around us, we'll find our spiritual life shriveling up. That's as true of our job as it is our ministries and our children. That's because we're trying to be free of Father to pursue our own will and desires. That road always looks secure but leads to ruin. I am so thankful that he has provided a better way.

Even out of our own failures, our Father can work his purpose. That's what he did for Adam and Eve. In fact he knew his first invitation to trust would be ignored. He knew it would cost him his Son before we would be able to understand how much we are loved and how safe it is to put all of our trust in him. He also knows how slow we are to learn that, and with great patience continues to invite us past our fears and anxieties, past the need to control every circumstance of our lives, and surrender to his work and purpose.

What are you afraid of today? Where does your life feel out of control? Right there, at the end of your rope, let go and fall into the lap of a loving and powerful Father. "I'm so sorry God for trying to fit everything in my image; so tired of finding my security in the fickleness of circumstance. Show me, Father, how I am manipulating others and teach me how to find all my joy and security in you and you alone."

He knows everything about you. He knows every circumstance that assails you and he will use them all to teach you how to trust him, if you'll let him. He will never take control of your life; that's something you must give up to him every day, circumstance by circumstance. Give up trying to grab what you desire most. Do it and you'll find that real security doesn't come in the money we possess, the church we attend, or the circumstances we manipulate. Security is found in the Father alone.

Then build your life anew not on the fears of unbelief, demanding your expectations be fulfilled, but on the presence of a Father who is more awesome than you ever imagined. There you'll find a peace and rest that no circumstance or person can disturb.

Finally, you'll discover what it is to be free of the need to control your own life. You'll find that Father really does know best and that he can work in you better than you ever asked or imagined.

Then and only then will your deepest desire be to know God more fully.

Spiderman 2

Took the family to see Spiderman 2 today. I haven't analyzed it all, but I found myself connecting on a deep level with Peter Parker. I was almost emotional after the movie was over...weird...

Thinking about the journey that many of us or on: having a daily, intimate, joyful relationship with the Father. I've given some thought about how I, and others, have arrived here.

One of the common threads, strangely enough, is that our participation in the institutional church has brought us to this point. I haven't read one person's story that said they were born with this innate love for Jesus and just naturally learned to love the Father on their own (I'm sure there is someone, somewhere, but it's not common.).

In my experience the Holy Spirit was wooing me long before I went to an IC. But, at the same time, I am able to admit that the IC was a type of tutor while I was growing in faith (as it is right now for many others I know). I have outgrown my tutor now, and it's time to move on...

In my study I came across this the other day:

Gal 3:23-27 (The Message)
Until the time when we were mature enough to respond freely in faith to the living God, we were carefully surrounded and protected by the Mosaic law. The law was like those Greek tutors, with which you are familiar, who escort children to school and protect them from danger or distraction, making sure the children will really get to the place they set out for. But now you have arrived at your destination:
By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God. Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe--Christ's life, the fulfillment of God's original promise.

In those days, the children of wealthy Greeks and Romans were given babysitters who were responsible for watching over them until they became of age. I wonder if the IC is for some of us, how Paul viewed the Law? A tutor to "carefully surround and protect" us until we are able to hear and respond to the call of the Father on our own. Not the end all, be all, but one stop on the journey toward full sonship.

For many people I know, while they confess Jesus as their Lord, they are not at a place to understand all of the implications of having a direct relationship with God. It's not that they don't want it, they are just ignorant of it.

It's like the Emancipation Proclamation: Even though the slaves were legally freed by the proclamation, those who were ignorant of it remained slaves. Some slaves who knew about the proclamation chose to remain slaves because they didn't believe it. The slaves who knew and understood the proclamation were the ones in a position to be truely free. There were many, many slaves who went through each of the steps just mentioned on their path to real freedom...

Gal 5:1
Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.

I've been studying Galatians lately, and I've had some rumbling in my mind about Law and Grace. Listening to people like Wayne Jacobsen and some of the other folks around the net has just reaffirmed to me that the Christian life is not about rules, rituals, or religion, but about relationship.

Trusting in anything, other than Jesus, to bring about righteousness in our lives is doomed to failure. Why? Because those things actually separate us from grace.

Gal 5:4-5
I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit.

There are some other things I've found on the net regarding this topic that I wonder about. For instance, in a post about having daily quiet time with God I found this comment:

"This sounds like another burdensome rule of the "religious" to me. Any exercise we may do can only be worthwhile if the benefit outweighs the effort. I get the feeling that anything we have to "schedule" or force ourselves to do, is not really valuable enough to do in the first place. To me, relegating ourselves to ritualistic obligations only takes away from the authentic lifegiving interactions we have with God as we journey."

Now, I might agree with this comment if the person having "quiet time" was trusting in the quiet time as a means of attaining righteousness. Or, if the person was implying that her salvation was in jeopardy if she did not do it, but that was not the context of the post. She was using quiet time as a way to interact with the Father. What might be a "burdensome rule" to one person, may be a means of trusting in, and interacting with God for the next person.

Further, what if the benefits of an exercise I partake in aren't realized for many years? I teach guitar lessons. The way for your fingers to learn muscle memory is to practice a little bit every day. For some people it takes a lot of time and effort to see any difference in their playing ability. Maybe the benefits of a spiritual practice aren't realized for many years. I don't think that discounts the benefits of the practice.

Can spiritual practices become "ritualistic obligations," or "burdensome rules"? You bet! It seems to me it is the attitude we have about a spiritual practice that can cause it to become a "ritualistic obligation," not the practice itself. So how do I know the difference? Here are a few questions I think we can ask ourselves to determine if a practice is unhealthy:

Is God leading me to do it?
Does the practice free me to love God with my heart, mind, soul and strength?
Does the practice assist me in relating to/with God?
Does the practice help me to have a "relationship with the Spirit"?
Do I feel guilt or shame if I do not participate in the practice?
Do I find myself trusting the practice more than trusting in the living God?
Do I realize that power is not found in the practice itself, but in the living God?