Simpler Phrases...

So there is this little thing that bothers me. I usually don’t mind convention or quaint cliché (btw Microsoft inserts the umlaut automatically, awesome) but the implications of ideas are usually more far reaching than people realize. It starts with a famous phrase that goes to the effect of:

“There’s a God shaped hole in our hearts that only God can fill.”

While I get the sentiment the idea is expressing it gives a false view of the reality of our situation. Some Christians are under the impression that people can’t do anything fulfilling or meaningful apart from Christ. This is simply untrue. Egyptians built the pyramids without Christ, (although they used a lot of other Jews strangely enough), scientists construct theories without Christ; today a mother will give birth to her daughter “without Christ”. People will find a multitude of things to fill up their hearts with and assuage the biting truth of mortality and many if not most will be comforted outside of the reality of Christian truth. The more pressing issue is our devotion to comfort and our devotion to truth. The truth is that though we may find solace and affirmation in the things we put in our hearts (i.e. work, family, charity, friendships, learning, religion, etc.) our purpose and value as individuals is not tied to those things (unless you are a Marxist). A more accurate picture that actually represents the Gospel more honestly is:

“There is a ‘you’ shaped hole in the heart of God that only you can fill”

Our innate value and purpose is tied to this. His love for us is attractional and without condition. He makes room in holiness, in perfection; in Himself (some could say that he has ‘carved us out’). He draws us in and those who see Him as this God of love and redemption are completely reliant on this perspective. The first sentiment is wishful thinking geared at trying to convince people that they need God, the second is a life-changing truth revealing that God wants us. The Christian or the Jew is not special, the individual is special, you, wherever you are, whatever you are doing, however you have come to ‘be’, YOU have a specific place in the heart of God, don’t let anyone tell you different.

-these and other truths brought to you by the Bible, now in Technicolor!

You. . .

This is dedicated to C.H. Banks, a poet.

Louder than my voice, You have spoken in me
Deeper than my longing, You have sprung eternal
Beyond my foresight, You are prophesying to me
After all my reason, You are unimaginable (and speaking unimaginable things)

Before my expectation, You've exceeded what is conceivable
In the most secret place, You consume me completely
And deep calls out to deep

Above a kingdom's reach, Your reign overcomes
Beneath the meaning of existence, Your laws dictate reality
At the moment of seeking, You have sought and found
Greater than my strength, You uphold the infinite (and I within it more carefully)

In the fulfillment of time, You are waiting
With the wisdom of the ages, Your ways are everlasting
And deep calls out to deep, whispering your fullness:

"If there is faith, You are believed."
"If there is hope, You are looked upon."
"If there is love, You are reflected."

The Old Way of Becoming New. . . "Discipline pt.1"

Spiritual Discipline—the thing that upholds a relationship with Almighty God

Many people want a reason, asking, "Why should I focus on this?  Isn't my relationship enough to carry out my faith for the rest of my life?  Are you saying I'm not Committed to God because I don't adhere to your standards of holiness and stupid rules?"

That's quite the litany of questions but nonetheless they represent the hostility and attitude of a generation that wants to see God but hasn't seen value placed on discipline and standards by the previous generations.  Their most notable examples are leaders and spokesmen failing to uphold spiritual discipline or, to the other extreme, enforcing standards that seem to only weigh down and restrict the excitement and hunger they have to see a "new thing". 

My answer to these questions:

Yes you may be committed to God, but are you committed to the power of God to save. [Have you learned to hide flesh behind Spirit and the sacrifice of the cross? to not allow yourself to shine through, but instead the living Christ?] Paul says two things are at the forefront of his relationship with the father and those are "to know Him and make Him known".  I would go as far as saying that these things are twofold much like faith and works. Proving one is purposeless and powerless without the other.  So if you are banking on knowing him without making him known then your faith is not only purposeless (although it might save you) but furthermore quite literally infinitely selfish. How can you claim to serve and love a loving God, merrily living your life in a cruise liner of blessing while watching the world drown in the tides?   


I don't think God hands out his best to be squandered on a faith like that. The opposite is also noticeable.  We have all been witness (or involved) in a marketing strategy to convert souls and get people into church by a seemingly scripted "oh looky here, isn't our pastor dynamic, or wasn't that worship intense" mentality of making Him known, but not going the extra mile to know Him.  This is what the world sees the most of, a way of capitalizing on the fear of death and unimportance to boost church attendance and Sunday morning offerings.  [I, by no means, am implying that you have this attitude but that's how they see it nonetheless].  But what if instead of seeing us as superspiritual leaders and evangelists they saw our drive and focus and wondered at our devotion, marveled at our willingness to give, or, heaven forbid, asked about our lifestyle?  That's the place where I want to be -   Making Him known because I know Him. 

Emergent Vs. Mainstream. . .

    The emergent church has caught a lot of flak lately from mainstream (and in some cases not-so-mainstream) Christianity.  A good friend and respected spiritual leader in my life recently called Emergent a cult. While i agree that some of the more outspoken and noticeable members of the emergent movement lean toward irrational and contradictory statements of faith, there is room for open and honest deconstruction (theoretical and symbolic not literal[that comes later]) of modern Christianity and more precisely the role of the Christian Church within a modern society.  i'm not about tearing down tradition, but Jesus is.  I don't hold to any creed over that of personal revelation through careful study and application of Biblical text and teaching.  however, having said that, i value well thought out theology, I desire to have a more concrete faith and the Emergent following is too free flowing for my taste.  I get where they are coming from and i believe the approach to be necessary for reform and ultimately solid direction in this present age. 

    The truth is, if we took off the emergent label, our values, systems, and even complaints are mostly shared.  I've been "saved" since i was 13 and the church's obsession with hierarchy and ineffectual efforts to be meaningful in the daily community life, not to mention the horrible job of public relations we have endured, are problems that laypeople, pastors, youth, regional, and national leaders have been struggling with for my entire spiritual journey.  The denial and need for answers along with Mainstream Christiany's (MC) inability to answer them is a clear interval for birthing this "movement".  It would be different if MC was making headway or if that "Old Time Religion" were still "good enough for me", but the fact remains that out of every 100 new converts only 30 (give or take, thanks Barna) will be lifelong followers of Christ and out of that 30 only 9 will find what we might consider the deeper faith.  Most will be tempted or goaded away by other pursuits only to come back to the faith later in life after the whims of youthful desire have died away. Some will be destroyed and broken by the church herself, and still others will simply be unimpressed and disillusioned by the lack of challenge and depth that the church has to offer.

    You can see where the problem lies even without a clear or feasible solution.  The church cannot attain the vibrant life it once enjoyed by following the patterns and trends of the last 40 years of spiritual practice or last 200 years of dogmatic arrogance.  At the same time pandering to social or generational relevance is not the way either, and although some have hijacked the bandwagon (so to speak) of the Emergent faith to look and act this way, the same can be said about mainstream Christianity.  There are crazies on every side of the Christian faith.  Every creed deals with this. Lashing out is not the answer, there was a time that Catholicism was the center and the fringe and reformers were harshly treated with persecution that started in name calling and ended in demonizing. MC is on rocky ground and needs to treat the center with more dignity and the fringe with more grace.  There are some things that we can learn from this new thing and some things that need to be condemned before infecting new converts with animosity or unfounded cinicism. It seems to me, after sharing in the faith with some of these communities that they understand this dynamic better than we do. The emergent leaders are especially careful and aware of the fact that todays fringe eventually becomes the center itself.  Personal Growth, Spiritual Hunger, And Relational Faith are end goals we can all agree on, lets do our best to ingrain those traits into our own congregations instead of overly concerning ourselves with who's evangelism is truer or whose methods are more Christ-centered. 


The truth is we are all seekers, let us seek.