Playing in My MP3 Player…
So lately God has been meeting me as I listen to Beautiful People by Jason Upton. I got it back on my birthday, but I didn’t really appreciate it until I heard someone at Godstock singing “In Your Presence” (Track 4). Ever since then, the CD has been helping me bask in the delight of God as a Father. If you haven’t heard this CD, you should really check it out. Tracks 4, 10, 12 & 13 are phenomenal.
So, whats playing in your MP3 player?
Just A Thought…
I was talking with a friend of mine about some struggles he has been having and as I was listening to him, something dawned on me that I never thought of before. It occurred to me that most of us believe that “religion” (defined as doing things because we’re supposed to and not really for Jesus) is something we struggle with because it has been inposed on us by others. It’s their fault. Religion is something someone else shoved on me.
But as I was listening I became aware of something in my heart that I believe may happen more than we realize: Religion isn’t something that is forced upon us. It’s something we choose. We take it as a taskmaster. Somewhere along the line someone defines Christian spirituality for us. Not every time they define it are they accurate…I know people who would say that spirituality means to dress a certain way or to celebrate or not celebrate certain days or to drink or eat or not drink or eat something specific. Obviously none of these things will bring you any closer to God (see here and here). But some times the definition we receive is actually accurate. It’s not something made up to make some people spiritual and some not. Where we cross the line into religion is when we decide to become that definition on our own strength, apart from God because we really want to be viewed as special and unique.
It;s at this point where we begin to strive for something apart from God that we cross over into religion, the worst kind of religion-self tyranny. We try to measure up to a standard and when we can’t we begin to judge ourselves worse than anyone else ever would. Because we don’t know we’re accepted by God and we think being accepted by spiritual people will help ease our pain, we do things that we were only designed to do by the enabling of God. The result is usually burn out and defeat. We swear we will never do that again…but honestly that depends on whether we really want to be accepted again badly enough.
I bring this all up to say that we need to stop pointing our fingers at others for bringing us into religion if we really wanted to go there ourselves in the first place. And those of us burned by religion need to admit to ourselves that the definition may not have been the problem as much our desire to go their on our own was the problem. In the end we (myself very much included) need to go back to the source of life (Jesus, the God-Man) and ask for His help to not remain where we are, but by His enabling and by His enabling only to journey after the deep things of God. Only then will we be truly satisfied.
Take what you want from that…they’re only thoughts…
Blogging: Osama Bin Laden Style
Well, I haven’t blogged in a while, mostly because of time constraints and trying to actually do more and talk and express myself less. I’m constantly wrestling with myself about whether I am more effective as a man who does what is important to the Kingdom or as a man who (yes, continues to try to embody the Kingdom, but) focuses on articulating Kingdom values and realities and calls others to walk them out. So for a while I will go silent while I try and walk out the Kingdom and then I will re-emerge with all of these thoughts about the Kingdom that I’m dying to release…and you’ll see a flury of blog postings or something.
Lately I’ve been thinking about my blogging style and I came to this conclusion: Most Christian bloggers I know could learn a thing or two from Osama Bin Laden. Here me out on this–I’m not suggesting any of us convert to Islam or begin terrorist attacks on some nation we don’t like. But Bin Laden has a communication style that fascinates me. Let me give you an example.
Most of the Christian blogs I see out there are talking about everything and anything that happens to them on a daily basis. I know for myself in particular, blogging makes it very difficult to have a secret life in God because when I’m really keeping up my content to draw in traffic, I have to talk about everything that God is doing in my life. There are no secrets.
Compare that with Bin Laden*. He has no homepage on the internet. He probably has no internet connection in whatever little cave he’s living in. All he has is a fierce commitment to the cause he’s serving and a connection with a spirit (definitely evil) that gives him instructions about how to move forward his cause. When he has enough content from this spirit to bring together a message, he gets some guy on his team to video tape him and when they’re finished, that guy rides a donkey to the nearest arabic news station on whatever continent they’re on. Every news station in the world is waiting for the next Bin Laden tape, because they know what they’re going to get. The five minute tape spreads all across the planet in a matter of hours. The result? Bin Laden is one of the most widely known thinkers on the planet influencing many people.
All of this is to say, I think we can learn something from Mr. Bin Laden. We have a message (of God’s Kingdom) that is more powerful than his message of terror. We have a Spirit (the Holy Spirit) that is more powerful than the demons Bin Laden is listening too. But substance will trump volume every single time. We must become people more content with substance than volume. This is the path to really changing the world.
So, if you don’t see me blog every day, don’t worry. I may be in my “cave” trying to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. But I will come out and share. And so should you.
________________
*I should note that I have done very little study about the methods and life of Osama Bin Laden or other terrorists. These generalities are ones gleamed from TV News programs and comments I’ve heard. Do your own research and check it out. This blurb is in the interest of self-disclosure, honesty, and the benefit of my fact checking friends.
Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 