Mondays

I like Mondays. Sunday is over and a new week is beginning. There aren't too many pressures on Mondays (they come later on in the week).

I'm a person who likes to reflect a lot on life and Mondays are my day to do that. I usually take time to write in my journal while enjoying a cup of tea. Today it's more likely going to be over a cup of hot chocolate because I have a couple of free drinks coming to me at Starbucks and so I feel the need to get the most expensive drink I can!

My friend Chad gave me a jar of honey about a month ago. It was really good but now I'm sad because all the honey is gone. I wonder if this is the season for honey? I fear that not every season is a season for honey. But is that really true? What about the figs? What point was Jesus making when he became upset that there were no figs on the tree, despite it not being the season for figs? I think that there should be honey available year round!

And where do you go to get honey? Would it not be in the same isle as oil? Sure, you can get go and grab a jar of honey in most stores, but I don't just want any ol' honey! I want the really good stuff! (shun-dy) You can't just run around the corner and get the really good stuff.

I seem to go through phases. Sometimes I'm in a honey phase and there's nothing better than a good peanut butter and honey sandwich! You eat one and then you want another, but by the time you eat the second one, you kind of realize that your eyes might be bigger than your stomach. That's the problem with honey: it always leaves you wanting more. Discontentedly content!

But then I go through a phase where I'm not quite as into the honey as I was before. Never sure what causes the switch. However, all it takes is for me to have another PB&H and I remember all over again how good the honey really is!

Did you know that a colony of bees will eat between 100 and 120 pounds of honey in a single year? Looking at that from a weight ratio perspective, those bees are consuming several times their own weight in honey! They're really drinkin' in the honey!!

Anyway, it seems I'm out of honey. Chad says he'll get me some more. In the meantime I'll reflect a bit longer about where the honey has gone and what can be done about it. I know that honey needs to be cultivated. Maybe I should be a bee. Then I'd be swirlin' in the honey! (but then bees are dying off at a very alarming rate, so maybe being a bee wouldn't be the best thing right now! say that 5 times in a row!!)

Well, I'm off to Chapters for my drink. I'm not sure now if I'll end up having the hot chocolate or not. I might get my Earl Grey tea.... I always put a generous helping of honey in my tea!
:)

slow

Do you ever have a day where you're just moving slow?
Some days it's physical, some days it's not.
Today is one of those days...

Anyway, so I'm working on message for this coming Sunday about God and loneliness.

We actually entitled it 'God and being alone', but as I've come closer to the message I realize that was the wrong title. It's about loneliness and that's different than 'being along' It's a challenging topic. (okay, so the entire series is challenging!)

We're surrounded by people a lot of the time and yet so many people feel lonely. It's a longing for deeper relationships, in a facebook world that excels at shallow ones. It's like we've become so mistrusting of people and society in general, that it is becoming more and more difficult to actually have deep meaningful friendships.

Take blogs for instance (since you're reading one!):
Some people use them as public diaries, and simply spew unfiltered thoughts onto the world-wide web for anyone to see. On one level I understand the attraction. There is a desire to vent one's spleen on a regular basis. Many times I have wanted to blog but I simply have not had anything appropriate to blog about! (especially as a pastor, one has to be careful about what one writes in public forums) The problem with using blogs for deeply personal stuff is that there's no discretion being used in terms of who you are venting to. It's like you're trying to share your life with others but from a safe, often anonymous distance.

I've been doing some interesting reading about how people are exploring links between loneliness and issues like depression and addiction. One author wrote that we have bred a generation of isolation. We keep the people around us at a distance. "Never let them see you sweat", right? Remember that TV ad?

A friend of mine was commenting on how many people think that 'nobody understands me', and how in his mind, this is a load of crap. It may well be a load, but the point underlying it seems to be a longing people have to be understood.

There's little point in decrying the evils of technology that are facilitating our own isolation tendencies. We're social people, so we will inevitably be drawn into social settings. The problem is that we seem to be losing our abilities to socialize in meaningful ways. Increasingly people struggle to be truly vulnerable with any close friends, or even to have close friends.

The unfortunate part of human relationships is that it's inevitable that we're going to get hurt from time to time. Each time we do it often makes it more difficult for us in the future because we don't want to get hurt again.

The result in a loneliness that is pervasive in our society.

So that's about it for now.

Too Good

My friend Al shared a book with me called "This Beautiful Mess" by Rick McKinley who is the pastor of the immensely popular church Imago Dei, in Portland Oregon. It's a big church now but he writes about the humble beginnings in the following quote. It's set in a larger context, but for right now, I'll just include the story.

For obvious reasons, I think this is a fantastic quote and I laughed very hard when I read it.

I am a church planter, which simply means that I started my church. At Imago Dei Community, we started from nothing and have grown to a decent-sized little church. You know what makes a church planter depressed on a Monday morning? Low attendance or a low offering the day before. If the poor pastor happens to get hit by both, he may need to be put on suicide watch.

For the person attending a young church, the perspective is different. Let's say that person is you. This week you decided to go to church. But come Sunday, you decide not to. You have a birthday party to deal with. Or a relative to visit. A bunch of friends are going snowboarding. Real life stuff. Anyway, you think your church decision is yours to make, and no one else really cares.

But someone-the pastor- cares, and I am sad to admit it's not always about your spiritual well-being, though that concern is down there somewhere. Nickels and noses. Levels. That's what makes or breaks Sundays for most people starting a church.
I remember one Sunday when we were first starting out. We only had about thirty people. We met on Sunday evenings in a Baptist church that was kind enough to rend us space cheap. That particular Sunday also happened to be the seventh game of the NBA championship, and Portland was playing LA for the title. As you can guess, I was in for a kick in the groin.

We sat in a darkened room with candles lit. Seemed like an artistic, atmospheric thing to do. But when I stood up to preach to twelve young women who didn't care if Portland won or lost or that Portland even has an NBA team, it felt more like a funeral for a bunch of sorority sisters whose cat had been hit by a car.

That night we slid from thirty to twelve, and even though rationally I could tell you why our turnout was low, my heart was reeling. Here I was, trying to jump to the next attendance level, and our church had slid. A 60 percent drop in one week. Where was God? What did I do wrong? Why were we both failing?

I love the story, but I also love the title of the book, 'This Beautiful Mess'. The church is a mess. It's easy to write off local churches; there are a million and one different reasons... some reasonable, others not.

However, it's refreshing to hear someone like McKinley express the tension: the church is a mess, but it still is beautiful.

Talking Snakes

Today a new movie hits theaters called 'Religulous'. It's a 'documentary', or more correctly a 'mockumentary' on organized religion starring everyone's favorite sarcastic comedian Bill Maher. I have not seen this movie and have no real interest in seeing it, however as I read the review in the Edmonton Journal today, I was irritated enough to blog about it.

According to the review, Maher's main goal in the movie is to create doubt in people about the foundations of religion, obviously in context of sarcastic attempts at humor. One summary of the movie says "Religulous describes religious ideas, beliefs, or claims that are patently absurd, comical, or ridiculous"

One of his main issues focuses around the Genesis narrative of the garden of Eden and the presence of a talking snake, which seems to Maher to be a classic example of the ridiculous nature of religion.

While the movie is a 'comedy' of sorts, seeing a trailer for it was enough to get my undies in a bunch because it makes clear that the film does have more serious undertones. With that in mind, I offer some of my own thoughts on the 'talking snake' narrative:

1) The presence of a talking snake is not the central idea or purpose of the passage, and to focus on it is to miss the entire theological thought that is being developed.

2) What is being developed is the theological truth that God is the one who sets the terms in His relationship to humans. We don't get to set the terms. We may not like it, but that's simply the way it is. Deal with it.

3) Another major point is that of choice. While God sets the terms, he allows us choice in terms of how we respond.

4) The last major point I'll mention is that we humans don't get the change the consequences later on. Again, we may not like the terms, but God sets them and we don't get to change them. Period.

Why is this so significant? Quite simply because these same principles apply in the matter of salvation through Christ. God has set the terms for salvation: Jesus Christ alone. No other name. We don't get to set the terms. We do however get to choose how we respond to those terms. Free will. Finally, we don't get to change the consequences later on. People can be as angry about them as they like, but that doesn't change the fact: God sets the terms and we don't get to change them. Period.

Those are some really major theological premises and to trivialize the narrative of the garden by focusing on how 'ridiculous' we find the idea of a talking snake, simply reveals a complete ignorance of the purpose of the story.

Anyway, it feels better to get that off my chest; certainly my undies feel better! So that's my theological rambling for today. The end.

Time

Time is one of those subjects that I just can't get my mind around. Specifically time management.

I'm looking at the assortment of books that I have on my desk, the majority of which are ones that are there because I really want to read them. Or do I? Somehow they sit there and I keep allowing myself to do other things: some things are urgent and thus I'm caught up in the 'tyranny of the urgent'; other times I'm just getting caught up in other activities. Reading is something I have to make time for; it doesn't just naturally happen (much to the horror of my wife, who is a book-aholic).

Have you ever wondered what it means to honestly like something and want to do it, yet somehow it doesn't actually happen in your life? Some would argue that it means it's not a value in your life. One the one hand I understand that, but on the other, I know what it is to really want to do something, but not get around to it, so I'm hesitant to dogmatically say 'it's not a real value'.

I think everybody has areas like that in life. For some it's exercise, for others it's scrap-booking, for others it's going to church or praying, or like me, it's reading.

Last night I didn't sleep very well at all. I've often thought about how much time we spend sleeping, and how much more we could do and experience if we didn't need to sleep. Think of all the reading I could do if I didn't need to sleep.