Sometimes I need to try something new. But, it’s not only for the sake of refreshment, but also for the sake of improvement. I’ve tried to streamline away some of the noise. Tell me what you think, okay? What would you change?
Handy Tip of the Day (for navigating the new styled site)
Scroll to the bottom for (some of) the old sidebar options. (search the blog, see other pages, sign up for updates, oh my, I’m winded…)
ALSO!
I could really use your help for the BUZZ 25K.
The what, uh, what, Buzz? You say. Right. I’ll tell you:
With the new look/revamp, it’d be ridiculous, fun, and interesting to see the “reach” of readers and visitors like you. What kind of ripple effect do you have? You are the one with the power. I’m just here for your amusement… but I digress.
What if we top out the hits (scroll to the bottom to see the hits counter) to 25,000, this week? YOU and your peeps could make it happen.
If you want to help, let some people know about this blog. (Tweet on it, stat about it, facebook it, link to it, text…heck, you decide how, just use your creativity, and don’t break any laws. ~Little brother, I’m talking to you.) If you want you can leave a comment that you helped, or how you did it.
I’m not a big fan of prepared foods, like the one you see above.
But, I have to admit, usually when food comes from a factory, it’s quick and simple.
It’s also sealed with cellophane and full of sodium to keep it “fresh”. How long could you keep this “meal” before heating it? …months for sure, maybe a year. It’s a bit of a one-size-fits-all cuisine approach, right?
A frozen meal typically comes tidy, in a divided plate. So, no mess, no worries. There’s no long prep time, no plate, just a piece of plastic flatware is needed-say a “spork”–to cover any food texture. One might not even need a napkin, if one eats it…calmly. But, I think, you’d have to be on the verge of starvation, have non working taste buds, or have little experience with eating delectable food if you wish to devour this quickly. Not too many salivate over or pine for pre-fab food, like only a mother a factory could manufacture.
When people want to “serve up” the love of God, or share the gospel can’t the same thing happen?
Serving up God. yum... ?
Sometimes not only are the workers few, but maybe what workers there are don’t know enough about the richness of the God’s banqueting table. Maybe they’ve been using the spiritual microwave too much. Or maybe they aren’t patient enough to let God into their kitchen and make the meal, and show ’em how it’s done.
It takes a while, it seems he likes slow-cooker and long roasting recipes. (Ask Moses or Joseph about that one.) Sometimes the longer process of becoming a lot better in the kitchen, and letting God be the Chef de Cuisine, doesn’t seem like the smartest or most efficient move for a ministry. “What, spend long hours in the hot kitchen? Chop vegetables, mince, simmer, sauté, reduce…that could take, well, heck, years! We’re trying to help people, here!”
Well, we might give them something to eat, “really quick,” but how edible is it? Is it healthy or good for them? Will it cause stomach cramps and diarrhea? Will they only be able to serve up the same sort of thing? Will we get to the point of creating and serving the kind of spiritual food that God specializes in–the kind we created with him at his side, just like Abba used to make?
Can we reflect God properly by serving up convenient, ready-made, spiritual fast-food?
I’m doubtful.
What if we tried a sumptuous slow roast?
What if we could mentor (disciple) willing helpers (pilgrims/Jesus followers) and give them a solid, theological, narrative framework (God’s Story) from which to see their reality: God’s present Kingdom, and his Kingdom to come.
What if things marinated, and the juices got savory and settled down deep into the meat, rather than inviting others to dig into some version of pre-fab nosh because, the slow cooker style just won’t suit our time frame and ambitions?
Would we be able to offer something closer to the nature and heart of God the slow cook way?
(For our good and theirs.)
Would we be changed to be more to his likeness in the process of that?
Oh, yes, it’s far messier to prepare, serve, and eat! It takes prep time, long hours of cooking, setting the table nicely. We’ll need plenty of napkins and perhaps a wet washcloth or two. Plus, don’t forget we’re talking about REAL people. There are spills, squirts, and stains. Life is MESSY. Even good relationships are fraught with various difficulties. What about the clean up? A sticky, gooey mess for sure. And maybe dental floss will be handy to keep around. Real meat gets stuck in one’s teeth.
Oh, but there’s this: it’s really satisfying, and tastes fantastic.
Messy, and slow cooked
Add some veggies or a large salad to the slow-cooked entrée you see above, and you have an excellent, tasty, and messy meal many will really enjoy. If the company is good, they might even come back for more.
What do you think about it?
Have you ever been in a situation where it seemed like you had to choose one way or the other?
What happened?
Does the slow-cooker way seem out of reach? (Does this post need a follow up with specifics? Let me know.)
We not made out of such strong stuff, are we? Dust to dust.
Though at times we feel confident or even invincible, reminders of imperfection, mortality, weakness, and helplessness spring up everywhere.
Suppose you placed a lit candle in a jar–a solid jar, what would happen? A bit of light would come out through the top, yes?
Now suppose that jar was punctured, shattered and pieced back together, or cracked in places. Some could think the piece was ruined. Others would admire it even more, once a lit candle was placed inside, because the spaces would fill with beautiful light. The weaknesses of the jar would shine as the most beautiful parts, making a unique and dazzling spectacle of shapes and illumination for others to see. The specialness would be the combination of once-perceived flaws co-mingled with the luminosity and brilliance of something added to it, working through it for something altogether appreciable and precious.
Be encouraged, you broken pots out there! Never over-worry that you have made mistakes, or that you have flaws, weaknesses, gaps, and broken spots. We all do. The grace and radiance of Christ will shine that much more through you because of them, if you allow it, and let the Light work in you. Each space that you give over to the Light will be made beautiful. Christ, and his love and grace is the light that gives new hope, and a new purpose for the scars we carry, and broken parts we’ve sustained.
Light from within a beautiful fixed jar
Verses to ponder:
2 Corinthians 4:7 – But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show us that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 Each time [God] said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
What broken space has the light shined through in your life?
Will you let all your broken places be a light for others?
What area might this be in, and how will you move forward in this process?
After over a 7 year break from music, Jennifer Knapp announces the release of her new album, and reveals her same sex relationship of 7 years in an interview with Christianity Today. (full article)
What will her fans do? How will she be treated in the Christian community?
Here’s my proposal:
Let the Judgment Begin!
(on ourselves)
Ask yourself a few important things:
What in your life should you look at more deeply?
If you like to come up with decisions about people, is it to make you feel better? And what other ways could work better?
What is your hidden payoff for taking the focus off your growth to focus on someone else’s shortcomings?
Are you hospitable?
Are you welcoming?
Are you loving?
Are you gracious with the same amount of grace you’ve been given?
Could these areas improve?
Let’s get serious, and List a few ways how we could work toward our own improvement, through God’s grace.
What does speaking any ill of Jennifer Knapp do for our practice of hospitality?
Or, for our Christ-likness?
Or, for our growing in the Love of Christ?
Do Christians HAVE TO be the best at shooting our own wounded ones?
Please, I beg you, no.
Let us enter into a concerted time of Spirit-led introspection, discovery, confession (to both God and each other), repentance, accountability, and ongoing, loving discipleship–in unity.
Sometimes these types of personal revelations seem interesting or fascinating–along the lines of scandal, intrigue, and excitement. Yet, it’s dangerous to fixate with our idle curiosity on public figures, like Knapp, or the ordinary people we know. It’s distracting. It misses the lesson. It skirts the point of the Kingdom.
The truth is, men and women like Knapp are in pews, or they are afraid to be, and they are on the fringes. They feel like they have to choose between being secretive, or being pushed out of the church community. If we had Christ-like hospitality, we would know about them. We would walk *with* them, not just talk *about* them.
But more importantly, if we weren’t so concerned about Knapp, in a judgmental way, we could do the deeper, and far harder work of looking within, and allowing God to work his sanctifying agency.
I pray no one vilifies Jennifer, rejects her, or condemns her. But, I think it will happen. The temptation is just so irresistible. Laying waste to those anything like Knapp is so common, that it hardly seems wrong to our conscience, in general. We have this corny idea of righteous indignation, to give us motivation. But guess what? It’s more irresistible to gossip under the cover of righteous indignation, and far more common than same gender attraction! If we only had righteous indignation for our own problems, first, or ever! Imagine the spiritual growth then.
I don’t think we should applaud her, or marginalize her, but rather know that her journey is neither yours, or mine, directly. When I think of her, I think of the words Jesus said.
Matt.9:11-12When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”
BUT-Here’s the distinction. I know this verse is about me. If you don’t realize you need God, and you need help, well, you won’t get any.
Besides that, It saddened me to read that in the article with CT, Jennifer said she was not involved in a church family now. We all need community, to be our best. What could be more beneficial to her than to be surrounded and supported by brothers and sisters in the faith? She dearly loves God. She continues to sing to him, and seek him, unabashedly. Now is not the time to focus on her particular statements, though. We have greater work to do. It’s the kind where personal change is truly possible–the kind within ourselves.
Let us love one another, for everyone who does not love, does not know God.
No. It’s not. Nothing to buy here. Slowly unclench your “click away finger.” Breathe deeply.
You are among friends, and not the ones you will find at a used car lot. (Don’t they always seem to act like that?)
:)
I’ve asked some friends to join me in this, but now I pose the invitation to all of you… out “there”… on the interwebs…
Here’s what it’s all about:
I’d like to join with you, and as many of you (pl) as possible, over the next week, to do the prayer exercise from the previous post. The challenge is to encounter this prayer form/exercise/format (what-have-you) I created just 3, or more times, in one week’s time. I hope you really enjoy it. I also hope you can help me, by leaving us your feedback here, (with your comments, thoughts, and insights- both positive, and/or negative).
Just 7 bitty days. Pray 3 times in 7 days. As you give it a try, you can expect it to be about 7 min long. Perhaps, this will increase the more you experience it.
You could probably do that in your sleep, right? But, then, obviously, it would be harder to remember what happened that way, huh? I should have said, “You could do that standing on your head.” I thought about it, and then thought better, because that actually sounded too challenging and so-very ascetic. So, I didn’t want to go there. Whew. I think I really dodged a bullet. hmm.
The next 7 days could be the breakthrough you’ve been hoping for. Let’s find out.
So, won’t you please join me?Read it here. Bring a friend along, too.
Thank you so much!
I look forward to reading your insights and comments.
