A misunderstanding of god

It’s become hard to tell people that god is with them in their pain. I’m not sure people can or want that sometimes. I wonder if that’s because it will destroy the false image of god that they’ve been taught and held with them. They want to hear that god will get them out of every problem. Or at least they want to hear that if they just do this or just do that or be good or pray hard enough that will somehow convince god to act on their behalf. But this is what Judaism and Christianity tried to get away from. Because ultimately this would mean we could control god. It is logical and it makes sense. But it is not what the god of the bible is about. Life doesn’t work that way. But many times it is what is still taught. Do good and god rewards. Do bad and god punishes. So when you’ve been mostly good and disaster strikes, what then? We dont have the spiritual vocabulary to cope with this. And many is want to believe that god will automatically save us from anything (even if we brought it in ourself!) but honestly… Thts not the god of the bible. It’s not. Stephen doesn’t get saved from stoning. The Israelites don’t get immediately rescued from exile. Jesus didn’t get a last minute plan change in the garden of gethsemane. So why do we assume that god will automatically do it. He will sometimes of course but many times it takes time an doesn’t look like what we hoped it would. We have added our own image to god and have started to think he might do as we tell him to. But I’m pretty sure god doesn’t like that very much. Suddenly it is our plan! We know what we need! Ultimately WE can save ourselves! God is just the materials provider. We drafted the blueprints he provides the parts and labor. Sure we will add in a few token good works and some prayers and we will be there to cut the ribbon. But it doesn’t work that way… I’ve tried that. God isn’t the magic genie we hoped he’s be. But nor is he the jerkwad who waits around to punish us. But he also isn’t the god who saves everything immediately. That’s who we created him to be but that’s not in the original job description. I want to tell people that god is win us in disaster as our comforter and our friend. Yes he might be working on some plans to get us out, be patient be diligent and alert in the meantime. By all means pray and ask. But don’t assume he’s gonna do it your way. For now know that he cries with you, laughs with you, understands your pain, and is working stuff out…somehow, sometime. And the call then also owns out to friends and family who are believers. Can you be part of the plan to be the listening ears of Christ, the arms that hold, he hands that help? Can we be part of te solution? The world is fallen but god has called us to participate in the recovery… But so often we fail to listen

the questions of shepherding

Jesus is the the shepherd who loves by going after the one lost sheep. But what happens when the other sheep don’t get along and wander off when there shepherd is tending to the lost sheep? And they all run off in different directions, some exploring, some because they’re hurt, some because they’re searching, some because they’re confused, some because they’re angry.

Paul tells us that he became all thing to all people. He became a different culture to best reach that type of people.

But what happens when each culture within a group is different from each one and when you adapt to one it alienates the others?

a frame of mind

This post has nothing really directly related to the previous… just some other thoughts on stuff.

It actually started with a conversation with my dad about taxes. I hear all the time that taxes are something to be dreaded. People avoid them, either legally or illegally and we dread that time. And why not? You have to pay more money to the gov’t and sometimes its hard to see the results. So to avoid paying more taxes, we give to charitable causes. And don’t get me wrong, that’s a good thing to do. But it got me thinking… if I get paid say $1000 and then donate 100, I will get taxed on 900 of that. So let’s say the tax on that 900 is 10% and so I pay 90 bucks. Thus at the end of the day, I’ve “spent” 100 and paid 90. Leaving me with 810. Now if I don’t want to pay taxes on that 1000, I donate 1000 and don’t have to pay taxes on it… But that still leaves me with 0… and 810 is still more than 0, but I didn’t pay taxes sucka! someone correct me if I’m wrong, but in all honesty, just paying the tax seems like you’d end up with more (yes, that doesn’t take into account tax brackets and the extremely complicated laws, but what I’m going at next is really my main point).

I asked my dad why paying taxes was such a negative thing. He basically said that its “money that I earned” I deserve what I pay and losing money out of that feels bad. I understand that. Taxes, to simplify is something negative from something that was deserved. But if you look at it in another way, that the taxes you get are gone, if you get a tax return, its a bonus. If you can learn to be content with what is in the end, then nothing is taken away (unless you file incorrectly!) and anything back becomes a blessing. It just depends on how you look at it.

I wonder if this has to do with a sense of entitlement. They say my parent’s generation feels they are entitled. I deserve this. I earned it. I should be able to get this. Its my right. I’m not saying they don’t work hard but it creates an interesting frame of mind.

i wonder if this affects how we look at our lives as well. We oftenhave the idea that the world revolves around us and that good things SHOULD happen to us. And that when bad things do, well, screw the world, its not fair. We’ve been told we can accomplish anything if we just put our mind to it and that we can be anything we want to be. But life has limits and thank God that is true! Goodness, if I could do anything I wanted… shoot… that’d be disastrous.

But maybe even with the best of intentions this can be bad. Example: I want to be used by God. Good thing. But the moment I give into the temptation that its all about me and that I need to be there to see the changes happen and that its my responsibility, I basically start saying, “God needs me”. And nothing can be further from the truth. Something that we learn in seminary is that we really are expendable. God can do the job without us. Yes, He can. And if I start thinking that he needs ME to do it and nothing happens, my feeling of entitlement kicks in and i start thinking, “its not fair” “why God why?” That isn’t trust. That’s trying to get the glory for myself. Getting what is “rightfully” mine.

But when we sit humbly at the feet of God and realize that we are infinitely small, it changes us. We are not entitled to it, but anytime God does choose to use us, it is a blessing. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t seek it, but we need to think about… well, how we think about it. Are we entitled to be world changers? Nope. That’s God’s job. But does he use us in little ways to touch and minister to people. Yes he does. And those are blessings. Its a privilege, not a right. Maybe I could learn to be thankful for those things that God has done through me, rather than be resentful of the things that God hasn’t.

Maybe it would change how we view the world. How we view people. how we view ourselves. how we think about money, our insecurities, our jobs. Maybe we could learn to let go of controlling situations and changing people and things that we have no business changing. Maybe we’d just learn to listen and see the blessings in our life, rather than the deficits. I’m not saying be constantly pessimistic, but I’m no longer surprised that much when bad things happen. I feel, I can be sad and mourn, but death and pain and mishaps and accidents are a normal part of life. It hurts, to be sure, but it isn’t everything. The world is fallen. That’s a fact. But the kingdom is coming and every inbreaking of blessing from God is another step forward to the eventual victory. Every victory is a blessing and every blessing a victory.

Oh and one more thing.  If you look at it honestly.. we don’t deserve anything.  In fact, what we deserve is death and wrath (wages of sin and all that…).  YET!!!  God gave us grace, something we didn’t deserve.  He gave us kindness!  He gave us unconditional love!  Maybe that’s why its so hard to forgive ourselves sometimes… but if we change the way we look at it (hard I know…), maybe we can find a bit more freedom and joy in life.

Maybe Christ is not enough

Forgive the abrasive title and I don’t mean it in a salvation aspect of course. I’m talking about a unity aspect. My whole life there have been cliques and borders even within the church. And now it seems like the bounds of personality are pushing people apart.

Maybe the fact of life is that we will bot get along with all people. Perhaps we can live side by side if we limit contact but true engagement with all people may just be a naive fantasy.

Perhaps just having Christ in our lives us not enough to bring people together. Ideally Christ calls us to love all and adapt to each other, leaving parts of ourselves mutually in order to achieve harmony. And when we can’t always do that we learn to love each other despite our negatives and differences.

But without mutual interests beyond Christ… Maybe simply having Christ isn’t enough. And maybe those personalities just clash… Maybe cultures clash… Maybe the ways we have insecurities clash…

Maybe we weren’t ready for that. Perhaps some just aren’t meant to get along. Perhaps we know just how to press each others buttons or know how to convince ourselves of our own Insecurities. Some of us are too blunt, and some never say a thing. Some of us are ticked off by the slightest and some of us never show enough. Some of us explode while others withdraw. But none of us are truly healthy and mature so that we might see beyond ourselves, have a healthy sense of self and god, and live with others

What happened everyone? Was it too idealistic? Did we not work enough? Did we give up to early? Or are we just not meant to have that?

God Loves Us First

the famous phrase in 1 JOhn 4.19 that God loved us first is often, and probably correctly, interpreted that God loved us before we ever loved him.  This certainly is true.  God knew us, knew the hairs on our head, before we were born.  But I wonder if there isn’t something else there.  Perhaps not in the text itself, but something theologically true about that same sentence.  It could also be in the text, depending on how one looks on it, but we’ll get into that later.

What I mean is that perhaps God not only loved us chronologically first, but his love always comes first.  This is the basis of grace-filled unconditional love.  God says, “I will love you.”  Period.  There’s no “ifs” or “whens”.  But how can that be true.  We see that when Israel disobeyed, God got a bit upset.  God even had to punish Israel.  How can that be love?  But let’s think about this, does a parent who punished their child not love them?  Certainly not!  Of course, those message may be broadcasted and I’m sure we all have been recipients of that kind of message.  Things like, “You’re a disappointment.” “Why can’t you change.” “Why can’t you be like this.”  And these words hurt.  They smart.  They tell us we’re bad people, that we aren’t good enough.  I’ve said them and I’ve heard them.  They don’t feel good and when you spot a place where you’ve said it….. that feels like crap too (If I’ve ever said that to someone who reads this, do let me know, for I am immature and still need to learn).

For most of us, admittedly, love is conditional.  ”I can’t love this person when they are this way” “I find it hard to love someone who hurt me” “I can’t love this kind of person”.  And I suppose that’s natural.  We protect ourselves, we are cautious, especially when we’ve been hurt.  I do it.  But when that is the case, we are often putting ourselves first.  It is centered on the self (read harshly as self-centered).  When we do this, we are, as they say in Family Systems we are in a hurtful system.  Here we have conditional love, we shame each other, we are controlling, we try to force things, and that can lead to distancing relationships.  And again, I’m guilty of these as well and desperately need to improve.  But the fact is that, “We love us first.”  or probably “I love me first”.  Of course, not that we aren’t suppose to love ourselves at all, but to love others means we often must put them first… even when its tough.

Because that’s the way God loves.  He loves first.  It comes before anything else.  ”I will be your God, Israel” (almost with a “whether you like it or not” or more accurately “if (when) you fail, if (when) your fall short, or if (when) you stray away).  Nothing has ever changed that!  God still is!  And that promise extends to Christians as well.  He will be our God!  Jesus made it so!  Period.  Now of course, that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t get mad.  He doesn’t force himself to like each our actions.  In some dysfunctional families, there are rules and regulations that define who is in and who is out.  Those who are part of the family follow the rules and those who don’t get excluded.  Love is given only if the rules are followed.  Inclusion happens only if the rules are followed.  But God is not like that.

God isn’t afraid to acknowledge that there is a problem.  He’ll say it flat out.  But that doesn’t stop his love.  His love comes first.  His love doesn’t come with the condition that you follow all the rules to the letter.  Now, his blessing and some of the good things that comes with being his people does come on condition.  He’s not going to just give us everything especially if we’re not following his commands.  Just as a parent doesn’t shower a kid with candy if they’re bad, God doesn’t (and wisely) just give all the blessings out to disobedient Israel.  But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t love them.  Its unconditional.  Full of grace, empowerment, and intimacy.  Change is there, it doesn’t mean we don’t try to change, but it isn’t forced, but encouraged through grace.  My favorite theological idea right now is “I call you saved so you can live that way.  Now you have an identity of a saint, so you can stop living like a sinner”.  The love, the encouragement, the truth, comes first!  It comes before the change, before we love back, before we respond, before even the blessings.  The love is there first.  And God is a consistent and unchanging God…. so that love ain’t gonna disappear.

a cycle (both linear and process) of healthy and unhealthy systems (Jack and Judy Balswick)

There are two questions that come along with this.  First, do we believe that we are loved first?  That God’s love comes before and transcends all actions and will not go away.  that he loves us even when we fail?  Can we accept that love knowing that we are not shamed.  We may be guilty of sin, but never enough that we are kicked out of God’s love.  Can we forgive ourselves and accept that we are imperfect but we have a perfect God with a perfect love that does not fail?  Second, do we love others like that.  (hint: probably not).  Can we strive to love first?  Can we join with God in establishing that love is unconditional, full of grace, empowering, and growing in intimacy?  Or are we distancing ourselves, controlling others, and shaming them?  Or perhaps we do this to ourselves?  Or believe God is doing it to us?  God’s love is first… in everything…

Micah 6.8 – what do I lack?

So I was reading Micah this morning and actually I’m just through chapter 1 this go-round… but whenever I hear Micah, of course Micah 6.8 comes to mind… its probably the most famous verse in Micah.

⁸ He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

I think this verse encompasses simultaneously what is so interesting about the Christian faith… it encompasses so much.  Justice and mercy do not always go hand in hand.  In fact, God is a God of wrath (where justice might come from) and love (where mercy comes from).  But they don’t always fit, in fact, sometimes they clash.  But perhaps they don’t clash (though in practice sometimes they do).  But instead they make God complete.  Perfection in the bible is often not “lack of flaws” as we prefer to look at it today, but it is completeness.

When I look at my own life and this verse, I think the first part sticks out to me the most:  act justly.  This is of course, because of my own life and my own dissatisfaction with church that focused mostly on the mercy and love part most of my life (not just CBC, but the church in general).  Thus, I emphasize the act justly part.  This has done wonders and done harm to my own life.  For me, it opened up brand new possibilities in my faith.  The application became obvious, mission more clear.  I saw, like so many before me and after me, that God cared not just for the soul, but the human race as well.  It could not be ignored.

And I preached Micah 6.8… or at least Micah 6.8 up to the end of “justly”.  In reflecting, I think I tended to ignore the love mercy and walk humbly.  Not entirely of course, but it fell by the wayside.  And this became the danger.  My own bitterness towards those who were much more conservative and narrow in their doctrine, those who called me a heretic, those who told me to change, those who told me social justice was wrong… well, I began to hate them.  And there is a part of me that still does.  Their worship became empty in my eyes, echoing the Old Testament and the empty singing of the Israelites when God wanted them to shape up their lives in terms of loving their neighbor.  And I began to see that there was a great divide in Christianity.  I thought because I was upset about it I was in the middle (and theologically I am… which is great doctrine wise), but what I didn’t realize was that my own wounds caused me to take sides.  And I didn’t have mercy in my own heart and I didn’t have any humility… because of course, no one is right but me.

But in viewing that, I realized that I’ve lacked any one (or more or all) of these at one point… so I reflected on just having one, but not the others… in a sense, not being complete according to the scripture.

Just acting justly: The paragraph above describes acting justly, but without mercy or humility.  But I’ll go a bit deeper.  Justice without mercy and humility is simply activism.  Sure, God commands us to do it, but if we’re simply helping the poor because its the right thing to do, we’re just nice people.  If there is no true compassion and mercy, we will never communicate through ourselves the love that God’s given to us.  The message of God’s love won’t fully get there.  Additionally, our other relationships take a hit.  We become proud and obstinate and set in our ways (Social Justice Fundamentalism anyone?) thinking that all of other non-justice Christian friends are lesser believers.  And sure, if they lack it, they’re missing something, but it does not make us better Christians… because without the other, we lack something dear.  In missing humility, we place all other things below us.  Our hearts become hard and repentence…. for almost anything… becomes second priority.  We might think that we’re doing good in the world, so that’ll make up for repentence!  But that’s just following the law and trying to earn our way into heaven.  Atoning for ourselves while inside, we are hard, angry, bitter.

Just loving mercy:  This is the place where perhaps a lot of us come from.  We love the idea of God’s love.  We’re joyful and we love singing and praising.  God has saved us from our sins.  We find acceptance where there was rejection.  We find love where there was hate.  And that’s a good thing!  We need that.  If we manage humility in there, there can be some really good repentence!  But if we only see that, and we aren’t secure in the rest of scripture, we may start fearing other parts of God’s character.  This is exactly what happened in the 20th century with the Christian fundamentalist movement.  Seeing the modernists adopting social stances caused the Fundementalists to leave that world behind even though Christianity had a rich recent history of social reform.  The world could not be saved therefore we must withdraw, that was the attitude.  And thus Christianity for a good 50 years lacked the vital component of the renewal and redemption of the physical world.

This of course led to the emphasis on the soul and inner piety.  Nothing wrong with those, but as Micah 6.8 points out, it does not make us complete.  Inner piety and the mercy of God in our own life tied with American individualism creates a Christian life that is only focused on the self.  I think it ties into the damn American ideal of “you are special” and “you can do anything you want”.  God loves us just the way we are, but if we lack humility and the justice aspect that calls for life change, we simply see who we are and say “God loves me” (which he does!) but leave it at that.  We haven’t taken the next step.  Repentence lacks because we don’t have the humility to say that I’m screwed up and I want to change that.  Our lack of compassion for others (cause we’re focused on that touchy feely worshippy churchy feeling every sunday) causes not only to forget a vital part of the Christian life (ie activism, social justice, and compassion), but it makes us hate, fear, and/or question our brothers and sisters who are involved in those areas.  Oh, they’re not holy enough.  They don’t love church enough.  They aren’t joyful people.  They aren’t happy people.  And sometimes they’re not those things for the wrong reasons to be sure.  But each side, if not complete, lacks the other…  And forgiveness and reconciliation never come for either side.

Just walking humbly with God:  I’m honestly not sure what this looks like cause no one I know is ultimately that humble including myself.  But lacking mercy and justice just can’t be good.  I suppose if one does not accept God’s mercy and one does not do any good in one’s life (justly), than perhaps just having humility is really a lie that is that we have low self-esteem?  And I’ve been here.  So much so that I was proud that I was humble…. yeah…. you know where that leads…  And here, we can do one of two things.  Our false sense of humility causes us to despise anyone else who can never admit their faults.  We become bitter and resentful that no one is as good as us.  OR we are so “humble” that we never can accept God’s mercy… because we can never atone enough.  But the truth of the gospel is that God has atoned for us.  Yes, we still mess up and we have to be humble about that, but one is never beyond hope.  We need not think that God has forgotten about us (even when we can’t hear him or feel that He’s there).  Mercy ought to inspire us to move forward, rather than be stuck in our rut (slow process of course, but we can’t remain stagnant… if that’s the case, we are actually hard hearted and unwilling to let mercy into our lives…).  And justice is the perfect place to do good in the world and that honestly can give us a good feeling (well done good and faithful servant?).  Do what God loves, accept mercy, and give it, especially for oneself.

We must let God be God.  We too often just keep him in one of these boxes and how it affects our lives.  The Bible is clear that all of these parts are part of him and part of who we are called to be.  Have we limited God to one thing?  Have we limited ourselves to one thing.  The question that remains for us is which of these do I lack?  Do I have an untransformable and unrepentant and hard heart?  Do I think that I am above all other Christians (or… maybe even one or two)?  Do I strive to my own heart, but care little about others and their plights?  Maybe you lack two… or all 3?  Know that you are not beyond hope.  Know that God can transform us if we just open ourselves to him, to others, to forgiveness, to saying what we need to say, to apologizing, to making amends with others, to our own brokenness and hate…  I’ve got a lot of that boiling inside of me right now and it feels like crap…  today I just want to hide under my covers and go to sleep cause that’s where I can escape.  But I have to wake up sometime and follow Christ.  I need repentence in my own life from any one of these at any given time.  God have mercy.

some thoughts from Swaziland…

Day 6

Well, this is about the half way point.  Today was striking.  This is the first time I’ve really been to the poor.  Pastor Solomon’s place is poor by our standards, but he is not the poorest around.  Pastor Chomba and his neighborhood takes that distinction.  The filth and the dirt and the dust are choking.  There are smells I could not tolerate.  Solomon’s kids eat decently while the orphanage and the people with chomba are literally dirt poor.

What is charity and what is justice?  I want to help…. But what does that mean?  Could I ever understand this?  I feel so helpless.  I feel so lost yet driven.  But I do not know what action to take.  I can use my own wealth, but am I called to be amongst them?  If so why?  What would I do that others who already have the respect and knowledge have?  And if not, what can I still do or is it an excuse.  Is money just a way to satiate my guilt?  American burden?  These are fellow human beings but I am not sure what I am supposed to do…  After we donated the goods, which was good, we went out to eat and probably spent the same amount on one meal!

Day 10 (Wednesday)

The man in the blue shirt

Today, we were at a tourist stop.  Pastor Solomon and Chomba were talking with some people sharing the gospel.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw a man in a blue shirt.  He looked miserable.  He was alone sitting at a picnic table, drinking a 330 mL can of coke.  Again, he looked lonely and miserable.

I looked and I got one of those feelings of a divine appointment.  They’re the kind that Evan got on the Japan 2007 trip with the hotel clerk that most Christians fantasize about.  Where God prompts you to talk to a total stranger and you share the gospel and you save a soul.  Yeah, that feeling.  I looked at him and he glanced at me, surveying what was going on.  I wondered if I saw a longing in his eyes that someone…. Anyone would go talk to him.

I asked God for a sign.  Perhaps a lightning bolt or a shooting star in the middle of the day.  Maybe the man in the blue shirt could wave or would just touch his coke can.  He didn’t do any of those things.  But still that feeling was there.  But there was no sign.  No visible thing.  So I did nothing.

He watched us walk away.  We were in a hurry after all.  But as I got into the car, I started to think.  What would I need a sign?  Does not God call us to share the gospel to all?  Why would I need a divine appointment?  Is not everyday a divine appointment?  Someone else will do it, God doesn’t want me to share his love.  Is that what we think?  What the hell?  The sign from God was already given, the cross!  What more sign do we need?

Our fears control us, we romanticize it with these desires for signs.  A wicked generation asks for a sign!  But the only sign will be the sign of Jonah.  And that sign already came.

What is the gospel to a people who are living in the slums?  And not the American slums, but the world slums…

These conditions would have been normal perhaps in the 14^th century, but humanity pulled away in the west…. But some were left behind.

The only modern conveniences there are are television, radio and cell phones and those are fairly expensive.  Toys are bottles with wheels on them.  The houses are made of mud and rocks, like you learn about the Navajo Indians from the history books.  Their clothes are the second hand ones that we throw away.  The logos, the characters, the brands are cast aside by us, second class clothes that we deem unwearable for some reason.  So they take our trash.  There is no waste disposal so trash is everywhere.  There is the smell of feces and garbage and filth everywhere.  Some are lucky to own a car.  Wherever we drive, people stare at us, a group of eight Asians and a half Mexican/half white from America driving two vans that probablyt have more luxary and features than any of their homes would ever have.  Snacks and water are all over.  We probably have more food in this van than some have in a couple weeks.

We extol their virtues and their strength and mourn our own failings…. But I wonder if by playing victim and feeling sorry for ourselves we block out the feelings we have for them…. So we work on ourselves in our gyms and make ourselves healthier and not worry about the rest.  When did we leave the world behind?

In America we talk about God saving us from our sins and don’t get me wrong, I believe that.  And we want to bring that message to others and surely we must.  But it seems like sin is the last thing they would need to worry about.  I’m not one usually for eschatology, but to my modern, western eyes, it is the second coming and the wealth of the kingdom of God that may be the best hope.  In America we preach that tomorrow is a new day and God can change our lives now and again, that certainly is true.  But that message would mean nothing if you are just trying to survive the next day.  Perhaps it is not our responsibility and yet it might be.  If we are to love our neighbor, how do we respond when the world becomes smaller and the world is our neighbor.  The human condition of greed and self are evident as we come back to the city with its buildings and cars and signs.  Some have made it better and the rich will get richer and the poor will stay the same.  We are sometimes told not to feel guilty, yet it is almost impossible not to.  We make our distance and slam our doors.  We say we need to save sinners, but perhaps we are the biggest sinners of all.  For we do not care for our neighbors and God’s people and we live in our ivory towers and eat our lavish meals.

We say we should be more appreciative but that doesn’t help.  Be thankful, but then forget the rest?  Bless God and bless yourself, but never bless the other…

What do you say to them?  What do you do?  How do you change?  What is God calling us to do?

Super Smash Bros and Theology

Ok, so yesterday I got into a discussion with some of college group and my bro.  One of the common things with smash bros is tournament rules which in general means only sanctioned levels (notably Final Destination and Battlefield) and playing with no items.  Now I personally am not a fan of this.  I should say from the outset, I am nowhere near skilled enough to play in tournaments.  My bro will always hand my butt to me.  And so I am not advocating any sort of change to the rules or anything like that.  I would like to play with items and on stages that include distractions and that can damage you because I enjoy them.  I also think that evens out the playing field (not much) for new players or weaker players.

But one of the reason I like the idea of having items and harder stages is because I believe that’s more  a reflection of real life.  Part of the reason tourney rules and those that support them say no items and only basically flat or non-damaging levels is that it leaves room only for raw skill (or so the theory goes).  It is just the player and the other players.  Mano a mano, no extras, no distractions, just a fight to the finish.  And we like that kind of idea, perhaps its American?  But we like this idea that its just me, my own skill, my own technique, my own abilities.  Just me.  And I understand the appeal to that.  Then we can truly (?) say that “I” won that match.

But I guess that’s what somewhat bothers me.  Life isn’t like that.  Life does not exist in a vacumm.  It is rarely if ever just us and the raw skills we have.  Environment plays a huge part in life.  And maybe video games are the escape from real life so we like to make it how we want it, so we don’t have to deal with the real world, I can understand that, we all need a little escape, but I guess it gets me thinking about how we view the rest of the world.

I’ll throw out some thoughts.  And I don’t want to sound like I’m accusing anyone who prefers tourney rules of any of these, because let’s face it, super smash bros is still just a game.  And I’m not saying I don’t do these as well, as assuredly I do and I have.

When something bad that is beyond our control happens, do we get extremely upset about it.  Like in Smash, a bomb falls randomly out of the air and you attack right as it hits the ground and get exxploded off the screen.  And then we yell, “if that bomb hadn’t dropped out right then, I would have won!”  I’ve done that.  But then let’s say in real life, traffic or other people or last minute changes come out of no where and we yell and scream that “if that hadn’t happened, everything would have been better”.  Sure, I do that too.  Ask Kathy, last minute changes throw me off.

Or do we try to play God?  Do we alter the the environment around us so we can control it.  We like control, its in our nature to want to.  But that ultimately can be sin (not saying changing items and stuff is sin of course).  But by changing them, we create a world that we want.  And of course in smash that’s fine, whatever, if Nintendo didn’t want you to do it, they wouldn’t ahve added the option.  But the default is including items and having all stages.  Now that can get frustrating, but that’s how it was designed.  And the world… well… is designed as well.  God is in control and things happen.  I’m not going to debate about how much control God has or anything, that isn’t the point right now.  But the world has bad things that happen and good things that happen.  Life is never in a vacumm. If we try to make it how we want, and oh yes, we do all the time, are we trying to play God and replace him?

Part of real life is of course how we deal with our environment.  The Bible is clear that life happens.  Things happen all over our world that are fortuitous or disastrous.  But how we react to that and how we cope and deal is part of who we are.  Are we perhaps denying part of our humanity by wanting a vacumn?  We are partially defined by our deisions and reactions to differnt things that happen.  All other people are free bodies that can affect what happens in the world.  Our character grows by how we deal with those things.  And life is rarely just us and our abilities and skills.  We can cry “life is unfair!” and “if this had gone that way, I would have succeeded”.  But it didn’t.  Life happens.  And life is unfair.  that’s the truth.  And again, I’ve done that and I do do that, but its something I want to change about myself.

Can we still be joyous in the face of trouble?  Can we still trust God in the face of unfair circumstances?  Sure we can complain a bit, but at the end of the day, life happens and it doesn’t revolve around you (sorry america).  Can we learn to cope and deal with life as it happens?  Or do we simply long to exist in a vacumm where it is just us?  Again, keep playing SSB as you want, ultimately not an important thing in life (though I had a fun time playing with everyone yesterday).  But those are just my reflections on life in relation to what we were talking about

Chris Coghlan of the Florida Marlins on faith and sports

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100216&content_id=8079824&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Thought this was a good article on missional thinking and such.  It might not be labeled as such, but its the right idea

wow…. I am pissed….

wow, I suddenly just realized how pissed I am!

Oddly enough, it stems from a question my brother asked me earlier in the week.  We were talking about baseball and the Yankees whom everyone knows I despise… basically the entire season feels like a waste since they won.  I’m actually not sure if I love the Dodgers more than I hate the Yankees right now… (ok, that’s not very Christian…)

But anyways, we were talking about how Mark Texiera, the Yankees’ 1st baseman left a whole lot of other contracts for a huge one with New York.  And now I look at him and think “sell out”.  Since to me, its like selling your soul to a huge corporation so you can make mega bucks and hang out with ego-maniacs like A-Rod. (OK, Manny isn’t much better probably, but I’m not a big Manny fan).

But he asked me, “wouldn’t you have done the same?” “if someone offered you $12 million to pastor a church and you were making $5 at the one you were at, wouldn’t you have done the same?”

I’m not sure why I didn’t get to answer him, but a few days later, I realized I hadn’t.  But my answer would be an emphatic “NO!”  Well, at least not with the same value structures in place.  If the church I pastor at is all about being an empire and making and spending money, then I don’t want any part of it.  If the church I pastor at is all about booking the greatest guest speakers and buying out things, I don’t want any part of it.   If its all about creating the best programs and attracting people with flash and pomp and coolness, but lacks in any real substance I don’t want it.  I’m not in this to be paid, dangit!  No one who goes into ministry does it for the money!  As long as I can provide my family (love you kitty) with a decent home and few comforts and some savings for the future kiddies education, I’m good.  Anything extra goes into Kingdom work.  So if I did make 12 mil, fine… that sure is heck of lot for the kingdom, but chances are it wouldn’t be at the kind of church that I would enjoy serving at.

The only reason I’d ever want to serve at a big name big money church… is so that I could be on the Not My Job portion of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me as that’s pretty much the only way I’d ever become famous.  But beyond that, I’d rather serve at something down to Earth, with real people and real issues (not saying the others don’t have those, just I’d find it way to hard to serve them),  in a community, reaching out to the neighbors, not towering about in my church building.

It bothers me to hell that when people say about Walmart, “Pshh… who cares if they step on the mom and pops and don’t give their workers benefits.  Its the American Dream! the Triumph of the American Dream!”  Really?  Money and power huh…. (and okay Walmart seems to be one of those love/hate things with benefits and pitfalls, but the princple of what that statement is saying is my point).  If money and power is what drives the church then I don’t want any part of it.  The American dream ain’t God’s dream.  Progress is one things.  Living condition is all well and good.  Empire and might?  That’s taking it too far… that ain’t what God’s Kingdom is about… I’m a sack of garbage and it is a privelige and an honor that God might use me in some small way.  Its not a right, its not a title, and I’m no better than anyone else.  I’d rather be down in the trenches, spending time, building relationships, crying, laughing, celebrating, mourning… being… real… I don’t want to be in an ivory palace…

So yeah this is way more about ministry… just my bro’s question hit at something deeper than I had realized and the Yankee’s win catylized it to my brain…  but in conclusion… I still hate the Yankees