Paul talks in Corinthians how the Corinthians should be spoken to as if they were children. I think that he meant that as much in a harsh manner as he did for a learning moment. I am sure if the Corinthians were anything like me they to hear someone tell them to stop acting like a child: in a sense "Grow Up!" But I am sure he was on the graceful side of this as well: in a sense saying--"Stop reading so much into this relationship with God thing. It's so easy. Just love Him unconditionally as he does you." Children don't have the knowledge-base yet to read too much into what people tell them. If you say jump they jump. If you say any double meaning phrase--they won't understand. If you teach them with sarcasm: all they hear is the literal translation. Children are so simple.
Then Jesus said the kingdom of God was for children. And he went on to say that unless we become like these children we cannot enter the kingdom of God.
My point is that there is something to this "child" thing. I know that we have to become like children, but I also know there is so much to learn from a child. I think we all have stories of the simplicity of a child's wisdom cutting us to our core. All I really wanted to say in this tiny blog was that a child has taught me so much recently about God's love. Her name is Hope Abigail Gordon. She is Trisomy 18 baby (which means her life will more than likely end before her 1st birthday). Well against all odds and the prayers of the faithful, this sweet sweet baby is living strong. She is two days old and has already gone through a list of: "I didn't expect her to ________" She has very much been a piece of God's love in this world to me. I am just blown away. Obviously the miracle of her live and endurance under dire conditions is enough to catch a glimpse of God. But you can truly sense His presence just being near her. If you want you can follow our photo blog at www.oliveourmoments.com and keep up with her life. We (my wife and I) have committed to capturing her story every single day in precious stills for her wonderful family. I hope I have bitten off more than I can chew and will spend years seeing her everyday to snap a photo.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Loving Redemption or Loving Judgement
There is funny terminology that Paul uses in a couple of his passages about salvation and the love of Christ--that some receive it or try to use it out of vanity. This is a tad bit confusing to me. How could someone use the love of Christ in such a negative way?
But walk with me in my mediocre wanderings over life and spirituality for a moment. I want to take this little idea of loving people out of judgment or out of redemption.
In the love of judgment, love is somehow jaded to a task. We are loved, we are called to love, and therefore we HAVE to love. It's like the idea of having to do something or getting to do something. Love will often become a task for us. The pieces of life where we interject our definition of love, combined with the true objective nature of love defined in Christ, can become the check-list that we perform to fulfill the love box of living a Christ centered life. Okay. I know blah, blah, pretty words. So example: I over heard a conversation where a young lady (we'll call her Talker) said the phrase: "I am only telling you this because I love you," to another young lady (we'll call her Listener) But the terminology that Talker used to lambaste this other girl would be a far cry to be called love. Now, no doubt the truth is that Talker probably did love this girl because of the nature of concern in this conversation. But she did it in such a way that if I were Listener, I would have crawled under a rock and died rather than be embraced by Talker. The coarse nature of the conversation felt a lot more like Talker was passing her judgment on Listener rather than love. Her love was check-list-like. (I know the thing I HAVE to do as a Christian friend is confront the junk in Listener's life.) A more apt phrase would have been, "I am only telling you this because I judge you." I think about how often things are done in love to pass judgment? How a Christian might speak to a fellow Christian who struggles with homosexuality, how a Christian can oppose abortion yet support the death sentence, how a Christian could justify not giving to the poor because of what they might do with the money...
I need to pause and say that most of what I write on this blog is from my heart...which usually means that it is something that I struggle with. I judge out of love way more than I should. I think of how often, when I was in the student ministry, I would pick apart the way another ministry was run. I really was doing it out of love for wanting this other youth program to be stronger and better, but I did it in such a way that said: "I do it better." Or how about the way I ignore a particular neighbor of mine and justify it because they talk way to long and slow...and I just don't have the time. Or how, knowing my own past, I could ever even think negatively about the character of someone who has fallen from grace. So even though some of my writing may sound like a finger pointing: know that it is written more like four fingers pointed back at me laughing at me in my foolish attempt at life.
BUT what abut loving by way of redemption. Isn't just the sound of that wonderful! I cannot imagine living without redemption. Loving redemption says the difficult things to friends, but says them with the Spirit of love that lives inside of those who call Heaven home. I think about a particular time in my life where by no means was I in the right frame of mind, life, or spirituality. The last thing I wanted was for someone to call me out, but a friend grabbed me and said--"Dammit Randy, I love you too much, and God loves you too much, and has such an amazing plan for your life. I am going to walk in this with you. I am going to be your help mate to redemption." What followed were lots of tears and hard words. I felt like I had be grabbed by the ears and shook like a paint can. But not one judgmental word came out of his mouth. And honestly he taught me what it is to love in redemption. He taught me what it meant when Romans says that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. It taught me that my life always needs to fall in line of redemption. I don't have to agree with this world, but I have to love in it because I was loved in it. I don't have to be tolerant to disgrace, but I have to love in the same way that redemption loved me. I can be in this world but not of it. I can strive to love always with the understanding of my own redemption to life. I can live as an ambassador of the love of Christ. I want to walk like a living embrace rather than a rap sheet.
But walk with me in my mediocre wanderings over life and spirituality for a moment. I want to take this little idea of loving people out of judgment or out of redemption.
In the love of judgment, love is somehow jaded to a task. We are loved, we are called to love, and therefore we HAVE to love. It's like the idea of having to do something or getting to do something. Love will often become a task for us. The pieces of life where we interject our definition of love, combined with the true objective nature of love defined in Christ, can become the check-list that we perform to fulfill the love box of living a Christ centered life. Okay. I know blah, blah, pretty words. So example: I over heard a conversation where a young lady (we'll call her Talker) said the phrase: "I am only telling you this because I love you," to another young lady (we'll call her Listener) But the terminology that Talker used to lambaste this other girl would be a far cry to be called love. Now, no doubt the truth is that Talker probably did love this girl because of the nature of concern in this conversation. But she did it in such a way that if I were Listener, I would have crawled under a rock and died rather than be embraced by Talker. The coarse nature of the conversation felt a lot more like Talker was passing her judgment on Listener rather than love. Her love was check-list-like. (I know the thing I HAVE to do as a Christian friend is confront the junk in Listener's life.) A more apt phrase would have been, "I am only telling you this because I judge you." I think about how often things are done in love to pass judgment? How a Christian might speak to a fellow Christian who struggles with homosexuality, how a Christian can oppose abortion yet support the death sentence, how a Christian could justify not giving to the poor because of what they might do with the money...
I need to pause and say that most of what I write on this blog is from my heart...which usually means that it is something that I struggle with. I judge out of love way more than I should. I think of how often, when I was in the student ministry, I would pick apart the way another ministry was run. I really was doing it out of love for wanting this other youth program to be stronger and better, but I did it in such a way that said: "I do it better." Or how about the way I ignore a particular neighbor of mine and justify it because they talk way to long and slow...and I just don't have the time. Or how, knowing my own past, I could ever even think negatively about the character of someone who has fallen from grace. So even though some of my writing may sound like a finger pointing: know that it is written more like four fingers pointed back at me laughing at me in my foolish attempt at life.
BUT what abut loving by way of redemption. Isn't just the sound of that wonderful! I cannot imagine living without redemption. Loving redemption says the difficult things to friends, but says them with the Spirit of love that lives inside of those who call Heaven home. I think about a particular time in my life where by no means was I in the right frame of mind, life, or spirituality. The last thing I wanted was for someone to call me out, but a friend grabbed me and said--"Dammit Randy, I love you too much, and God loves you too much, and has such an amazing plan for your life. I am going to walk in this with you. I am going to be your help mate to redemption." What followed were lots of tears and hard words. I felt like I had be grabbed by the ears and shook like a paint can. But not one judgmental word came out of his mouth. And honestly he taught me what it is to love in redemption. He taught me what it meant when Romans says that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. It taught me that my life always needs to fall in line of redemption. I don't have to agree with this world, but I have to love in it because I was loved in it. I don't have to be tolerant to disgrace, but I have to love in the same way that redemption loved me. I can be in this world but not of it. I can strive to love always with the understanding of my own redemption to life. I can live as an ambassador of the love of Christ. I want to walk like a living embrace rather than a rap sheet.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Our Pawn Moments.
I actually like the double meaning that title can bring. Pawn moments: selling something of precious value for a fraction of it's cost for a vanishing cause or pleasure. Maybe I'll have to have an: Our Pawn Moments II tomorrow on just this subject, however today is about our metaphorical pawn moments--as in chess board.
Do you know that your knowledge of God is limited? I mean really. Do we get that? Do we know that He loves us? Even when his love is defined by war and death as much as it is pursuit and perfection? And this is where I dip into the realm of our pawn moments.
I know there are many people out there that use our relationship with God like that of a chess board. God is the chess master with a full understanding of the game and a completed view of the board. He knows strategy and understands sacrifice. And there are the pawns-us-who have limited sight and a true misunderstanding of the game. In the world of a pawn we feel as though we are the most important. We feel like we get the whole picture, when really our picture is incredibly limited.
Our pawn moments look a lot like blame, hurt, anger, or even grief towards God. We buck up, we get mad, and we get jaded in our relationship with him. Often, time heals those little pawn moments, but sometimes they can devastate us in such a way we turn our backs to God forever. The reason why I say pawn moment is that we just can't fully understand the why. We can't comprehend death over life. We can't figure out why God wouldn't spare us and our hurts. (Even though He didn't eve spare Himself.) But we are not God. We don't know the extent of what God is working on. We might not be able to see the glory in our hurt, but if we suffer in Christ's name, as a pawn, what a joy to be counted worthy. Is it easy? By no means. It wrenches us beyond belief. But is God good? Yes. Does He love us? Yes. We only know partial now, but then we will fully know.
Pawn moments are not bad, and they are not unnatural. Jesus promised us if we followed him that we would have troubles in this world. But we can never loose sight of the fact that in God--there is life.
I think one of the best glimpses of not getting lost in our pawn moments is birthed from the origin of the song "How He Loves" by John Mark McMillian:
How He Loves : A Song Story from john mark mcmillan on Vimeo.
In perspective of His love, I count my life worthy of whatever may come.
Do you know that your knowledge of God is limited? I mean really. Do we get that? Do we know that He loves us? Even when his love is defined by war and death as much as it is pursuit and perfection? And this is where I dip into the realm of our pawn moments.
I know there are many people out there that use our relationship with God like that of a chess board. God is the chess master with a full understanding of the game and a completed view of the board. He knows strategy and understands sacrifice. And there are the pawns-us-who have limited sight and a true misunderstanding of the game. In the world of a pawn we feel as though we are the most important. We feel like we get the whole picture, when really our picture is incredibly limited.
Our pawn moments look a lot like blame, hurt, anger, or even grief towards God. We buck up, we get mad, and we get jaded in our relationship with him. Often, time heals those little pawn moments, but sometimes they can devastate us in such a way we turn our backs to God forever. The reason why I say pawn moment is that we just can't fully understand the why. We can't comprehend death over life. We can't figure out why God wouldn't spare us and our hurts. (Even though He didn't eve spare Himself.) But we are not God. We don't know the extent of what God is working on. We might not be able to see the glory in our hurt, but if we suffer in Christ's name, as a pawn, what a joy to be counted worthy. Is it easy? By no means. It wrenches us beyond belief. But is God good? Yes. Does He love us? Yes. We only know partial now, but then we will fully know.
Pawn moments are not bad, and they are not unnatural. Jesus promised us if we followed him that we would have troubles in this world. But we can never loose sight of the fact that in God--there is life.
I think one of the best glimpses of not getting lost in our pawn moments is birthed from the origin of the song "How He Loves" by John Mark McMillian:
How He Loves : A Song Story from john mark mcmillan on Vimeo.
In perspective of His love, I count my life worthy of whatever may come.
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