Stop & Use Your Senses

Why should smell get all the credit? Yes roses are nice, but lets be honest, when you wake up in the morning and are confronted with the thickest fog you have seen in ages, you take notice, there is no time for smelling...you act. Go get the camera and make a futile attempt to "capture" the moment, which cannot properly be done even when waiting 4 minutes for a car to stumble down the road for a headlights failing against the fog shot. The eerie weight of a morning fog calms your spirit, and slows your pace.

Later that same day, when you are driving home from work and witness both a sunset (Rebekah tells me Simon said, "Look Mom, the air is pink!") AND an easy spot to park...you pull over, get out and take it in for a moment (iPhone photos capture even less). I guarantee you will be humbled and inspired by what you see...I guarantee worries diminish.

Pre-sunset/post-fog that same day somebody puts on What's the Story Morning Glory, an album that you love but have not heard for a spell or two. And because your desk is far enough from others, you even sing along quietly...doing your best to overdo a snotty British accent. Sounds like this one bring back fond memories: riding in a friends car, the dorm room, certain moments and certain people.

The problem with your senses is that they are acute. They are constantly trying to communicate with you, and if left unprotected they will dull. Or, what is much more likely, you will offer them less credibility.

The second problem with your senses is that they constantly get press for their basic function and rarely get credit for their higher calling. Yes your eyes focus on a sunset, and connect with the part of your brain that makes sense of the image...and this is truly remarkable and interesting. But what is entirely more profound are the after shocks from any data that your senses take in. You see violence and you are repulsed, you see beauty and you are soothed or inspired. What does this tell us about the world we live in? Its purpose? How we should be within it? An enormous amount.

When we are sickened by ugliness it tells me we are built for something different and we inherently reject what was sensed as distorted, unnatural, unintended or even evil. When we are inspired or humbled by beauty it is because our deepest foundation of peace, wholeness and goodness are aroused. This gets Theological real quick, as there are implications here about who God is and what his creation (including us) are to be about. As Romans 1:20 states: God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that no man is without excuse.  

So...its the weekend now...stop and smell the roses, or touch the tree bark, or hear the music, or taste the strawberries, or see the sunset and get in line with what matters. You may not think anything or reach any conclusions as you observe a red reflection on a still lake...but whether you know it or not, each encounter like this should tune your soul toward joy, truth, justice and love...probably because that's the stuff these things, and we are made of...and the purpose these things, and we are made for.

Tap your foot...

I wish my ipod dock wouldn't have entered early retirement days before my 11 month Christmas music ban was lifted. Everyone likes music. Some people do it for a living, others manically follow musicians and trends, some dabble with an instrument or two, and others swear they could care less about it but rightly tear up when the symphony is in full swell at the climax of a good film. In any case, when you encounter good music you typically respond.
Perhaps you tap your foot, or hum, or relax, or use the steering wheel as a percussive instrument. Maybe it is so good that you immediately go purchase it (as I have done more then I would like to admit). Whether consciously or not, gifted or not, there is a desire, acted upon or not, to engage with excellent music. To fall into step with it.
It occurred to me that we all have an unstoppable ambition to join the grand, untouchable and immeasurable. It is certainly not our survivalist nature that dictates this behavior nor a hedonistic notion of "letting loose." those are both self serving and incomplete in their diagnosis. The truly remarkable and pure act of tapping the foot to When the Saints go Marching In (I happened to listen to Louis Armstrong's version today) is born out of a natural, easy alignment to the human condition: love, lament, triumph, failure, nostalgia, hope, confidence, regret, fear and joy are all things we know well...but our tapping foot also points to another untraceable yet unmistakable human experience, the transcendence of it.

Adam's Challenge...

The Biblical creation story has been rolling around in my mind lately, and seemingly everyone else's...seems to pop up all over the place. Our church has studied/referenced the story over the last three weeks or so, I watched a couple "Does God Exist" debates (My favorite was between Rabbi Wolpe and Atheist Sam Harris - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2329504685124044436#), listened to Dave Bazan's album "Curse Your Branches" and read the creation narrative myself several times. As one of the most widely known stories in the world, it is important for everyone to understand it to the best of their ability, even if you disagree with it. There are many discussions surrounding the story, and I thought to write more on questions like, "Why put the tree there at all?", "How is the Biblical account different from other creation narratives?", "How does science mesh with this story?" and so on.
This was the thought, however, that actually moved me enough to write something brief. In Genesis 2:19-20, Adam is given a task by God.
"Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field."
It struck me that we are still doing Adam's job...it is not nearly finished yet. Sure there was the fall, redemption and a few other things, but it occurred to me that this task, which predates the fall, is part of our created responsibility as the human race. To understand and name God's creation. Think of relatively recent discoveries: Hubble's Telescope and the vast rapidly expanding universe, black holes and super novas, the discovery of cells, DNA (Even germs were undiscovered as recently as the Civil War), research in nearly every scientific field is revealing new and deeper levels of understanding as to how the world around us functions...its astonishing. Each piece of it carries God's unmeasurable mark of both immense creativity and order. Just a thought...what part of God's creation are you naming? What are you discovering?

Gen. 1-11: Finish Strong

I have never been a good finisher...I like to start new things and get them going and then think of something else to start. At first glance it would be easy to talk about beginnings...after all we are reading Genesis...but I was struck as I read that in the first 11 chapters of Genesis it is painfully obvious that I am not the only one who has trouble finishing strong.

God sets the example early...get your work done and then rest. Adam and Eve get a lot done and then get distracted by the serpent...with some fairly large consequence. Noah is incredibly faithful but then, in retirement, chooses to make a vineyard and get drunk. And right at the end we read of Abram's father Terah who, on his way to Canaan, decides he will just stop in Haran for awhile/for the rest of his life...a decision that will cost Abram half of his inheritance.

I remember when I was in Middle School and this guy spoke about doing the most important things in the day first so that you can be a strong finisher every day. He had an empty jar (to represent your day) and poured a bunch of sand in while saying, "The sand represents the extras...video games, t.v., joking, surfing the web and general time wasters." After dumping all of the sand in the jar he started dropping in rocks, "These are the things you know you should be doing...brushing your teeth, reading your Bible, caring for your family, finishing chores, encouraging others, and anything else that shows good stewardship of your time." He was quickly out of room in the jar and did not get all of the rocks in. In his second attempt he put all of the rocks in the jar first, and then poured in the sand, miraculously (to a junior higher) everything fit this time!

Losing site of the end is always a problem, and for many of us time runs out before we do the things we know we ought to do. Why wait until tomorrow to challenge your spouse? Why wait for New Years to make life changes, why wait for disaster before realizing something is wrong? Live the life you hope for today, and persevere! As I am reading through the Bible from the start there are definitely passages that I look forward to getting to: men of great faith, women of incredible hope and God's amazing promise at the end! I know there will be some slower parts along the way, but I believe God will speak through all of it. Paul, after just reflecting on many of these stories says in Heb. 12:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

In the beginning it is critical to have the end in mind, so that you can make every effort to move that direction...my hope is to not lose focus like Adam and Eve, rest foolishly like Noah or retire early like Haran.

Gen. 1: So This is the New Year!!! da...da......da...da...and I don't feel any different...da...da

Yep, great Death Cab song.
So this year I am hoping to read through the Bible by reading a few chapters each day in a chronological order. I have never been very strong in any discipline, my bane really, but I truly do grow a lot, and receive critical perspective when I read God's word. In fact, that was always the intent of this blog, (that I never update...the bane) was to use it to share ideas that inevitably come from readings that I like to dig into. Like a dog, however pathetic, my digging often simply ends in a mess...but if there is anything that can come out, if even an old bone, my hope is that I can put it into words here.
So, as I read the greatest book from the beginning, about the beginning today I am reminded that God's creation of us in his image, means (among many things) that we are in fact to create ourselves...perhaps not out of nothing (ex-nihilo) as only God can do, but we can take the bits and pieces that we have and work/hope for them to become something amazing.
At the end of the day, I am not convinced that the goal of the New Year is to feel incredibly different. Certainly, there is nothing really in the substance of this day that can differentiate itself from any other really...after all every day God's Spirit is hovering, every day we have things that we must steward, we make choices that honor, encourage and bless others, and we make choices that cause us to be ashamed and hide. Every single day is a gift, and I am thankful that on this day people stop and remember a fraction of that great truth!
Genesis 1-3 today...and if you would like to read along please let me know and you could follow this link: http://www.ewordtoday.com/year/31/cjan01.htm

Theological Foundation

Well, it comes to pass that this blog must at some point turn to theology for me. I am continually fascinated by the way people think about who God is, and what effect that thinking has on the world. I have always had a defensive nature in this area, as I grew up being taught strong Christian values and faith in God. A loss in an intellectualy challenge equaled a crisis of faith...so challenges were avoided. After all, how can someone defend the amount of evil in the world, AND the goodness of God. And what about that little piece of not actually being able to prove God? These questons were dangerous for me, but I have taken a bit of a different angle of late.
This new angle, is liberating in its foundation. Whereas before it was up to me to defend and grasp all things, I now trust that issues of God are actually revealed to us from God. Therefore if God says he is good, it really does not reflect on me to repeat that information...in fact I would have to find a source equal to or greater then God to dispute it! I realize that there are many things that may challenge the way in which we hear from God, and which sources of God's revelation hold water...nonetheless, it is this foundation that has boiled down to making sense (while still often unclear) far and above other foundations. For instance: the premise of atheism is set firmly on the grounds that all thinking about God is contrived from humankinds need to make sense of things that do not make sense, and therefore supernatural beliefs are actually based in natural origins. This, of course, is why using the Bible in discussion with an Athiest is only useful (in the atheists eyes) in exampling to them where your source of thinking begins. It is truly two different languages and two different conversations occuring at the same time.
So how can I suggest that a foundation placed on the God's revelation through the Bible is a better way to go? I can only say that it is liberating. I am free to use the foundation of logic from the atheist, the foundation of exerience from the agnostic, the foundation of using spiritual senses from the animist and on and on. All of these foundations fit on the greater foundation of God's creation, his relationship with his creation and his desire for us to live life! We are in fact free to use all created senses, and thoughts and experiences because they are there for us to use. We can even question God...more on this later.