Questions on Example

I've been reading a lot - not books, some magazines, lots of blogs. I'm realizing things too. I'm realizing that:

1. Everyone has struggles.
2. Some people have more to deal with.
3. Growing up is tough.
4. It's hard to be perfect.
5. No one is perfect.
6. Life is a series of choices, both wrong and right, both educational in one way or another.
7. If we love God, we should do it.
8. If we don't love God, we should not be afraid to admit it, but be responsible enough to let everyone else make up their own minds.
9. I'm often naive.
10. I'm often mis-informed.
11. I want people (for some reason, ESPECIALLY young people) to be passionately in love with Christ.
12. I haven't done much to show it.
13. My heart breaks when they don't.
14. I want to do more . . . I might be afraid.
15. We CAN be better.
16. We CAN be positive.
17. There is too much tolerance.
18. There is not enough tolerance.
19. Someone has got to say something.
20. It should be me.
21. God is real.
22. Death is real.
23. Hurt and healing are real.
24. I'm sick of us looking for the intimacy with God without the responsibility.

There's more that I know . . . I just wish I could tell you.

Grace.

Give me a kiss

Take these hands
Teach them what to carry
Take these hands
Don't make a fist
Take this mouth
So quick to criticise
Take this mouth
Give it a kiss

Why wouldn't we want God to give us a kiss?

"You kiss [your heavenly father] with that mouth?" Hmmmm.

Grace.

Long Writer's Block

Still got writer's block . . .but I'm watching a guy while his parents are away this week, so I haven't had much time to write or think.

BUT, C.S. Lewis says that life isn't a bunch of roads that lead to some center, but a single road that forks every few hundred feet. You either choose right or left. Where do I want to go today?

Writer's Block

I know I've not written for a while. Writer's block. Sucks.

Confusion

Today's quote: "We can easily praise, because we have so much to be thankful for."

I think we confuse PRAISE with THANKSGIVING . . . at the very least, I have heard many people confuse those to facts.

PRAISE has to happen whether we think we have things to be thankful for or not. The two ARE not the same. It's like loving your mother even when she tells you to go clean your room. Praise is loving God for WHO HE IS. It's not dependant on what HE's done, and ESPECIALLY not what he's done for us.

Grace.

How Do I Get to England from Here?

My wife is still in Atlanta . . . I'm still playing Tiger Woods 2004. It's not quite as entertaining. I'm trying to figure out why my blogs are all about stuff that would be better used if they were in a book and making me money.

In any case . . . I was reading C.S. Lewis again this morning before I came to work. And, yes, another GREAT analogy from Mere Christianity.

Clive was giving a talk to a bunch of Royal Air Force men . . . when one old, embittered man stood up and said, 'I've no use for all that stuff. But, mind you, I'm a religious man too. I've fel Him: out, alone in the desert at night: the tremendous mystery. And that's just why I don't believe all your neat little dogmas and formulas about Him. To anyone who's met the real thing they all seem so petty and pedantic and unreal."

This litter exerpt, I think, is becoming the basis for the most recent revision of my views on worship, specifically blended worship (which, btw, is a term I can't stand!): why old people and young people can't seem to agree on how to tell God that they both love Him.

It has to do with reality. The man from the RAF had a REAL encounter with God. He FELT God. He SENSED God's presence. He SURRENDERED to God. Then, when it came time to turn to the CHURCH, the written liturgy, the tradition, the ritual, all seemed so very bland and uninclusive to his soul. They seemed 'petty and pedantic (i.e. dull and incredibly hung-up on details) and unreal'. He turned to a body of believers that had something that seemed much less real.

In essence, a map. Should you go to the east coast of this pretty vast continent (or, in Newfoundland, outdoors anywhere), you'll see ocean . . . loads and loads of ocean. You'll see beaches, and smell salted air, hear birds and waves, feel the ocean breeze on your face, etc. You'll experience the Atlantic. If you look at a map, you won't see or feel or hear any of those things, but you'll see a lot of colored ink that is supposed to represent EVERYTHING that we know about the Atlantic Ocean. Not nearly as invigorating . . . but useful . . . especially if you're on your way to England.

Two points are made in the exerpt:

1. As dull as the map may seem, it represents the collective experience of hundreds of thousands of beach-goers and sailors that have come before us. "Masses of experience." is how Lewis puts it. Whereas my single experience is a snap-snot, the map is a collection of everybodies.
2. If you want to go anywhere, the map is vital. Walks on the beach are incredible, and your experiences are much more entertaining than looking at a silly piece of paper.

Now . . . with our someone-proclaimed 'praise and worship' movement, I fear not only that the older Christians among us think we're trying to rip apart the map they helped draft, but that they're also correct. I've got decreasing amounts of sympathy for those of us who say that they can't just worship to band music or electric guitar solos or stagnant liturgy. In all of the things that 'we just can't do' we're self-righteously robbing God of what he rightfully deserves (i.e. GLORY). I just can't help but think, as I'm involved in more and more discussions about life, that we're completely missing the boat . . . . me too.

In our ARMY, I agree that it might be nice if we could 'rouse the troops a little . . . we've got a real-world war to fight with soldiers that a pudgy and comfortable. PLEASE remember that the MAP of our history and collective experience is STILL very usefull and VITAL for our battles. Let's just work on forging a new path, finding a new passage from A to B, not blinding wandering on the beach.

Grace

This gets 34 Creativity Points

My wife, for a housewarming gift, bought me a subscription to my favorite magazine on the planet: Mental Floss. It's incredible. It's an all-things-trivial library of goodness. (Aside: my wife is spending the week at a conference in Atlanta . . . sorry if I sound depressed).

Anywho, interesting feature this month . . . the stories behind our favorite inventions (e.g. the Pez dispenser, Ex Lax, the Paper Clip, etc). Ok, remember that for a minute.

You'll probably know that I am quite sick of Christianity's counter-productive attempt to market itself; not that it NEEDS to be marketed, but the image portrayed to the world is not a picture-perfect image of Christ. When we do something 'big', it's generally so tacky and predictable that 'twas a failureth before it had ever begun.

SO, enter the Roller Coaster. The Roller Coaster was first invented by a minister on Coney Island who, appalled at the number of men frequenting the local pubs vs. those frequenting the local places of worship (though I guess a pub really is a place of worship, when you think about it), that he built a contraption that is now recognized as the official beginning of the Roller Coaster. I'll have to consult Mental Floss for the rest of the details, but he built it to lure the men back OUT of the pubs.

For God's sake, can we take a lesson in creativity and lay off the religio-political nonsense? More on religio-political nonsense later.

Grace.

Why Jesus is Like Windex

So, Kristy gave me a great book for Christmas: it's a devotional, collected from the writings of C.S. Lewis. Gotta love good ol' Clive Staples.

I'm reading tonight and it's talking about how in order for us to see God, it has to be HIM that intiates it. As much as we might WANT to see Him, if He doesn't show Himself, nothing that we can do will make Him. And though He has no favourites, He reveals Himself MORE to some than to others.

This is a little hard to deal with, because it WOULD seem that God has favourites. But Clive goes on.

Just as sunlight shining through a window reflects better from a mirror that is clean vs. a mirror that is dirty, so too "if a man's self is not kept clean and bright, his glimpse of God will be blurred."

Which makes me think a lot about how blurry God seems to me sometimes. And about how much dust I have.

Grace.

Opinions, Please

In my everlasting quest to be Miscellaneous Dept Director (though, I think I like Director of Miscellaneous Services better), I'm in the middle of designing a website for Camp Walter Johnson. It's literally a day old, however, please look at it and tell me what y'all think. Everything SHOULD work.

http://home.earthlink.net/~desmondsmith/cwj-trialwebsite/default.html

There's a lot NOT done yet, I know that all of the text will probably look like it was cut and pasted to fill space . . . good reason for that. Either way, it's only up there for a day or two.

Thanks.

Grace.

Blame it on Adam & Eve

Following an interesting conversation this afternoon about all the reasons why a certain church sucks, and following the sharing of this conversation with my wife, she helped me see the following conclusion. In church, as in life, we as a people are all about blame.

When something goes wrong, we do whatever we can to show how someone else is responsible and how we are at least somewhat innocent. Luckily, it's not our faults :-) Just blame it on Adam & Eve.

Here's what happened in the Garden after Jim and Gertie (I mean, Adam and Eve) ate of the tree (it's a paraphrase, hopefully funny, yet accurate; for the complete history, read Genesis 3).

God: Hey, Adam . . . hellooooo? Anybody here? It's the creator of the universe coming to walk with you in the cool of the even-ing.

Adam: I'm hiding.

God: What? Why under the firmament would you do that?

Adam: I couldn't find my pants.

God: Excuse me?

Adam: I couldn't find my pants, Lord. I didn't want you to see me naked as the day you made me out of dirt.

God: Well, who told you that you weren't wearing any pants? Did you eat the apple I specifically told you not to eat?

Adam: Ummmmm . . . kinda . . . I guess.

God: Adam? Be honest . . .

Adam: OK, OK, I ate the whole thing . . . right down to the corps. I even got that little hard feeling shell thing on the inside that keeps the seeds in place . . . and it got stuck in my teeth and you haven't invented toothpicks yet, and . . .

God: Adam . . . why did you eat the apple?

Adam: The woman made me do it . . . the WOMAN THAT YOU MADE FOR ME . . . so in a way . . .

God: Don't even say it . . . Eve? Come out here.

Eve: Hey God. Welcome back . . .

God: Thanks . . . so Adam tells me that you gave him an apple . . . have anything to say about that.

Eve: Uhhh, yeah . . . BUT IT WAS THE SERPENT. HE gave me the apple. You know? The serpent that YOU MADE.

God: Honest to me, I really wish you people understood me more.

The point is: neither Adam nor Eve took responsibility for their own actions. It was someone elses fault. IN fact, it was partially God's fault, according to their logic.

But we do the same thing. We don't like something happening in our church, or place of business, or whatever, we always place blame as far away from ourselves as possible. It's ALWAYS someone elses fault. The next time you're in a conversation with someone, with generally negative overtones, take a listen. See how many times one takes responsibility for oneself, compared to how many times one picks out the flaws and faults of another. It's pretty shocking.

God, PLEASE help us realize that we need to serve you. Nothing else matters. If we're going to church primarily expectinging to get something out of it, in the words of my wise wife, we should just stop being Christians.

I don't know how many times I can say, "It's not about us." When we place any of the purpose of our faith on ourselves, we rob God of His glory.

What would Jesus Do? He'd take the blame for all of us, leave the splendor of heaven and hang, nailed to a cross, until he died, covered in blood and spit . . . funny that.

Grace.

I Love You More

I've really been thinking more about this "I Love You" idea from my last post. I can't quite figure out where we complicated it. I don't have any one to blame, realistically; we're just continuing a 2000 year-old process. It just seems like whatever we do is tarnished with our own preferences and desires. We pray that all the glory would go to God, but only when something is happening that appeals to our tastes . . . that seems to rob God of the love that he deserves. It's like buying your wife a bowling ball so she'll go bowling with you more often . . . you can explain it away pretty easily by saying, "I just want to spend more time with you, honey." But the reality is that you want to spend the time on YOUR terms.

I'll spend time with you when it's at the bowling alley. Wouldn't that seem to lessen the love that your wife would feel. "C'mon honey . . . come on down to the bowlin' alley and let me show ya some luv."

I'll worship you when the praise band is playing. I'll pray when I'm not so tired. I'll go to church only when the band is on duty.

I love you, Lord.

Grace.

How do I love Thee?

I know this is long, so if you're NOT going to read the whole thing, you'll want to read the last two paragraphs.

I'm not old . . .I'm not as old as the young people that work with me think I am, and I'm probably not even as old as I think I am sometimes. I am old ENOUGH to be concious of some changes that have taken place over the past number of years. I DO find it a little weird that the kids I work with don't know what it's like to grow up without the internet or cell phones. Honestly, that blows my mind. Before long, most kids won't know what it's like not to have the internet on their cell phones . . .

Weird.

Today in our meetings we got talking about worship . . . it's been a recurring theme throughout the day, not IN our meetings AS SUCH, but in personal conversations, etc. I can't believe how far my feelings on all of this worship stuff has come in the past few years. I was saying earlier today that I truly believe we're missing the boat on the whole thing . . . most churches, most congregations, just completely missing out. I hate the term blended worship. I'm hating more and more the concepts of traditional and contemporary services. I think it's the same thing as hating 'buzz words' that once were cutting edge but are now only used by people who want to sound cutting edge but in reality they're far from the edge (e.g. out-of-the-box, generation x, etc).

Here's what I think . . . what we're tying to do is to make our current programs fit into a slighty diffent mode than they've been in for the past number of years . . . but the motivation seems to be somewhat competetive or I-Told-You-So-ish. Example: we want our bands to be recognized as worship leaders . . . but the logistics of leading what is our concept of worshp with a brass band are much more involved than with a guitar. The schemas that we're developing show that worship is led by a guitarist or keyboardist, which isn't necessarily correct, it's just what we've declared subconciously to be correct. We're also trying to make new programs work that don't always gel well with Army practice over the past number of years. That motivation seems very "there little value in the past"ish.

1. This whole situation serves to teach us a couple of things:
   there's a disconnect between what we have and what we recognize to be where we need to be
2. we want to be found in the will of God
3. we don't know how to get to that point; or at the very least we haven't found a common path to getting there
4. division is not healthy; pruning is healthy, fertilization is healthy, division is not.
5. we need to find a common, unfleeting motivation (one of my biggest issues with our current philosophies are how frequently they change . . . rebirth takes time, gestation is a long process only because there is a lot of stuff that needs to happen before a new child is ready to face the world.
   

I have to deal with the last one. Common ground will allow us to unite as the body of christ once again. The common ground is our purpose for life. The common ground is the only reason that were were placed on this planet in the first place. The common ground is worship. But, not worship as we seem to currently understand it; worship as God understands it.

It's not 'til we FULLY understand that worship isn't about what instrument we play, nor is it what we sing, nor whether is it the similarities to what we hear on the radio, NOR IS IT ABOUT US. Worship IS only and CAN BE only about God. When it is not, it ceases to be worship; it becomes something much less. If worship is expressing our feelings of love to our heavenly father, then it cannot be motivated by any selfish desires . . . it's not about Him then, it's about what we get out of it.

I have to think more about all this as what I really want to say is not REALLY coming through well . . . I have one more illustration.

It's funny that saying I love you hasn't changed over the past how ever many millenia that people have been able to communicate. When someone says to me, "I love you." I know EXACTLY what they mean; i don't expect them to come up with a new way of telling me, nor do I try to fit their way of telling me into any kind of constraints.

I recognize that our approach to worship is changing, were caught in the middle of a cross-generational gap that goes far beyond any one person's comprehension. What I find very intriguing is that after almost seven years of being with the woman that is now my wife I still tell her the same thing that I told her 7 years ago: "I love you". After 25 years of LIFE, how I tell my parents that I care about them deeply is to say: "I love you". Three spoken words that express the ultimate is human emotion is still the choice method for expressing the ULTIMATE in human emotion, after thousands of years of existence. New ways of expressing love don't have to be researched or devleoped. My wife understands and, from what she tells me, loves to hear me tell her those words. I don't have to find another way to say it. Anytime that I'm doing anything else, I'm wasting time that I could be expressing my love to her.

Perhaps if our main concern was telling God that we loved Him, we wouldn't get so drastically carried away with the methods we choose to use . . . we can argue all we want amongst ourselves about which is the better way, which is more effective, but the fact of the matter is that God just wants to hear it from us. Just tell Him.

Back in the US

I'm much enjoying wearing T-Shirts in January (73 degrees F . . . I'll take that). It's OK to be back, though I'm a little thrown off as I'm JUST getting back and I already have to spend a whole week away from my wife. That stinks.

Christmas was very good, although extrememly busy. Kristy's sister got married, and so we were pretty involved with preperations for that. I got to meet and hold Caleb William Reid (Harvey and Tracy Reid's little Baby in Newfoundland)

++++ It was HERE that I lost about 20 minutes of GREAT material . . . I REALLY don't like the way this blogger handles my entries, just for the record. I'm RE-Writing from here on ++++

So, I'm AWAY from my wife, which stinks. I JUST got back in the country and now have been whisked away to Atlanta where I'll sit through some meetings that may or may not have a drastic effect on humankind as we know it. The point is: I miss my wife. It may be the mushiness, but I'm going to write some more tonight about lessons from marriage. I actually think it's pretty good. Like I said, I miss my wife. It's a horrible feeling. I'm concerned. I'm lonely. (Yes, I'm pathetic too). All I want to do right now is to check out of my Atlanta hotel and drive all the way back to our apartment in Charlotte and just spend the rest of the week with her. It's not something I NEED to WORK at in order for it to be true. I haven't even got to be completely concious of the fact that she's not HERE . . . I'm just always aware of it.

Interestingly enough, I've been aware of a need to be closer to Christ for some time . . . but I haven't WANTED NOTHING MORE THAN to kneel and pray, or seek forgiveness, or tear my robes in anguish. I've often chosen other things over my maker . . . example, a few weeks ago I sat and watched the overtime of the Panthers vs. Falcons game . . . didn't phase me that I needed to spend time with Jesus.

I'm VERY aware of the time that I spend with Kristy. I feel gulity when I don't. I don't have that same motivation by guilt, it would seem, in my relationship with Jesus. Now, I SAY that I love both of them (Kristy AND Christ) but it seems as though, it may only be half true.

The only other thing that I can think to write is this . . . if I were to treat my marriage the same way that I treat my relationship with Christ . . . it would seem to be doomed to fail . . . go figure.

I don't know.

Grace.

A Newfie Christmas - Day 5

I'm glad I waited . . . originally the answer to the quiz was d) . . . now I'm not so sure. It's not quite cold and frozen tundra yet, but it's getting there. And my cars snow tires are agéd.

I'm SO happy to be home, to see my family (which is twice as big as it was last Christmas), to see people that I haven't seen in forever and ever. It's odd . . . it's probably one of the first times that I've missed home whilst I've been home. As I become more familiar with my home in the United States, I'm becoming increasingly aware of the differences between the two. Perhaps I'll blog about that someday, in more detail, but for now I think I'll just let it sit in my head. I don't really enjoy hearing Canadians who come to the US to work (like, camp, for example) and who bash the US the whole time they're there . . . the same way that I don't enjoy hearing people bad-mouth Canada because America is the "greatest country on the planet". It's all subjective . . . the point is I'm trying to appreciate both for their strengths and weaknesses and realize that no one is perfect.

Sorry, that's too deep . . . I'll try to lighten it up a little next time.

It's almost time for Hot Turkey Sandwiches . . . a wonderful boxing day treat with fries, dressing (dry, bread, stuffing . . . not salad dressing), and gravy. Just another reason why I believe turkey should be declared "Most Phenomenal Food in the Universe!". There' snothing that it can't do!

Grace!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone! I hope Santa Claus was good to everyone!

A Newfie Christmas - Day One

Well, we've been in Newfoundland for about 24 hours now. Twelve of that have been spent sleeping. That's the most sleep either of us have had in FOREVER. It was nice. And it's been great hanging out with the family and catching up on things that have been lagging behind.

In honor of our first day in Newfoundland, please complete the following test. It's one question long . . . shouldn't be that much of a strain.

In Newfoundland, it is currently:
a) a frozen tundra of ice, snow, and fauna suited for survivial in arctic condidtions.
b) very, very cold
c) a bowl of almonds
d) pretty much the same as when we left NC.

To heighten the anticipation, I'll leave the answer until tomorrow!

In summary, we're having fun and Tim Horton's is much more profitable than it was just a day ago.

Grace all.

Some Clarification

***Advisory: This, like all my posts, has been written in haste, and was not reviewed prior to posting . . . please forgive any misspelled words . . . and the sarcasm . . . the sarcasm is supposed to be there ;-)

Friends . . . a recent email and a not-so-recent comment has prompted me to file a statement of clarification (i.e. not a retraction). Both have to do with the hot topic of homosexuality and specifically my post earlier in December regarding the United Church of Christ and the Southern Baptist Convention. While y'all are not privy to the complete correspondence I've received on this post I will do my best to clarify some of the more controversial points.

In essence, many comments I've received have used the premise, "If we do it for one, we need to do it for all of them." Specifically, if we let homosexuals into our churches, then we, too, have to allow murderers, etc. Then, if said individuals are in church ANYWAY, why not allow them to have positions of leadership in our church, etc. God WILL turn sinners away from heaven. Those are the basic elements of the debates.

So, let me clarify. I am not condoning homosexuality. I believe the bible when it says that murderers, homosexuals, et al will not enter the kingdom of heaven. I believe the list continues to include gossipers, those who take the Lord's name in vain, alcoholics, pornographers and pornographees, voo-doo priests, un-believers, etc. I fall into at least some of the categories that are listed here in and in Scripture.

I also believe that God knows best for each of us, each of his perfect creations. Just as he called some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be teachers, he also designed us (perfectly, mind you) to be more susceptible to depression, to alcoholism, to schizophrenia, to cancer, to homosexuality, to lying, to cheating, to stealing, to murdering, to staying up late browsing for porn on the internet. He's given us all thorns that keep us humble, I believe, the effects of which are only alleviated when we go to Him for help, for salvation, for grace, and for mercy.

The last paragraph can be read simply, "God made us who we are, good and bad, and has a way for all of us to be saved."

If I had an addiction to alcohol, and you didn't, you could only reach me by first understanding, or attempting to at the very least, the scenario and life-history from which I am coming. If I'm an alcoholic wishing to conquer my sin and you've never been addicted and the best advice you can come up with is "Just stop it." and you don't love me . . . I'm going back to the bottle that never turns me away. If I'm a Christian addicted to pornography and you are not, and you say to me, "What you're doing is wrong!" and kick me out of band or praise team or corps cadets or whatever program, I'll say, "You think I don't know that what I'm doing is wrong? I'm not an idiot. But you know what? I can't stop. I need you're help, you're shoulder, your love, not your words."

If I'm a Christian that has only ever dated those of the same gender, what I don't need is your ridicule, nor do I need words, or hate, or coldness, what I need is to know that I'm welcome to enter into a friendship with you, that you're concerned about my life, my well-being, that you will allow me the freedom to come into your church and you will even allow me to speak to God while I'm there. I don't need your conviction. The Holy Spirit is quite talented enough to handle convicting those who need it. That's why I can say without hesitation that I don't agree with my homosexual friends marriage, as noted in the December 3 comment. But fortunately, it's NOT MY JOB to go to him and convict him of what I have known or interpreted to be true. I don't understand his position because I'm heterosexual. I don't know the ins and outs of his relationship with Christ. I tell him God loves Him. I show him that I love him too. I tell him to continue to seek God's will. To read the scriptures, to meditate on it day and night. I tell him to meet with his husband and pray about it, for hours, to seek the Holy Spirits leading. God handles dealing with their hearts, because I can only communicate with Him in the language of the heart . . . and maybe Kristy . . . but even then I usually need words.

All Christians need to do is preach the gospel. All over the world. Go tell people that God loved them so much that he's provided a way to get to heaven to spend eternity in BLISS and it's a free agreement for WHOMEVER so chooses to take advantage of it. Find a way to get the world to realize THAT.

Finally, I still support the UCC's message. Jesus didn't turn anyone away . . . neither do we. In EVERY church I've ever been a part of we've had people from all walks of life. I've been in congregations with lesbians, with convicted child molesters, with alcoholics. Let me take alcoholics as an example. I'm in the SALVATION ARMY. A huge part of what we do is to help, or attempt to help Alcoholics break their routines, their enslaving addiction and restore them to their families, to productive lives and eventually, hopefully, to reconciliation with Jesus. Now, we spend MILLIONS of dollars to do this. We bus them to our corps. We have many of our corps people that minister at our Adult Rehabilitation Centers. We spend lots of time and money to make this happen. What if THEY wanted to be a leader in the Army or in a church? Lets get the elders of the church together, pray for discernment, commit the matter to Christ in prayer and see what he comes up with. But make sure that we only get the priests, and elders, and deacons that have proven themselves worthy by having well-behaved respectable kids. If your kid is on Ritalin, your prayers don't count.

Church administrators have the responsibility of reviewing each persons "application" to lead a church in whatever capacity they wish to do so. Some people get turned away, for many different reasons. Why do I have a prophet teaching a Sunday school class? Can't we find a teacher to do that? Our praise band leader has no heart for ministry nor musical competence. But she wears a uniform. Having standards in place regarding ones spirituality seems a little odd to me anyway . . . who am I to say you're Christian enough? I masqueraded as "a perfect Christian" for many years. No one caught me. Looking back, doesn't make it right. I don't think I led anyone astray.

So, again, having standards in place makes sense. Not giving people the chance to commune with Christ because outside of the doors of the church they're "evil sinners" is completely ludicrous to me.

13 Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them.
14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” 15 When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.

I wonder what he meant by that? All I know is that someone Christ loved tried to get to Him and when the disciples tried to turn them away, Jesus got mad and said not to hinder them. He met with them and then He left.

Grace All.

A New Baby Boy

First of all . . . no. Kristy and I do not have a new baby boy, we are not pregnant, nor are we considering it at this point in time.

That disclaimer aside . . . CONGRATULATIONS to my best man Harvey and his wife Tracy on the birth of their new son (wow . . . that's weird: they have a son!) Caleb William Reid! He was born on December 17th, 2004 in St. John's, Newfoundland.

Yay! (Insert trumpet fanfare here).

Grace vs. Mercy

I drove to Camp Walter Johnson today to pick up some music for a Christmas gig coming up on Thursday morning. It's a little bit more than an hour-long drive X both directions. Altogether I had 3 hours to think (and to listen to NPR between thoughts - I have indeed become a closet National Public Radio junkie).

On the Dianne Rehm show (which I usually don't listen too as Mrs. Rehm sounds agéd and dessicated - old and dried out for those of you who wish to not find a dictionary right now), there was a member of a conservative Christian group (I forget which one) and a representative of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). So, basically, there was a forum between representatives from opposing poles of the political spectrum.

The topics ran the gamut from homosexual marriage, to abortion, to prayer in public schools, etc. The point of all this is that I got to do a lot of thinking about a bunch of different things.

I got thinking about the concepts of grace and mercy. The best explanation I ever heard of the two was as follows: "Mercy is how one DOES NOT get what we DESERVE (i.e. we DON'T get sentenced to hell, even though we deserve it; whereas Grace is how we GET what we DO NOT deserve (i.e. we get blessings upon blessings even though we have meritted them)."

We seem to spend all of our time stuck in grace mode. We're very aware of grace. We REALIZE the significance of grace. We're very thankful for Grace. We're all about grace. We seem to miss the boat on mercy.

I think this is reflected, too, in everyday life. There is A LOT of grace in this world . . . there's not a heck of a lot of mercy, that I can see. Perhaps I'm not looking in the right places.

I think it's probably best explained by thinking about what each involves. For HUMANS to replicate grace is self-serving in a way, and almost fun. Giving people stuff is good for both people. If you buy someone a gift, for example, it's win-win. They get a gift, you get the thanks for getting the gift, and maybe a little popularity. Anybody who buys me a gift is OK in my books. AND, you feel good about yourself too . . . that may be a little trivial . . . but the general idea is the same. The Salvation Army is GRACEFUL at Christmas. No one really DESERVES all of the gifts and assistance that the Army gives (need does not necessarily equal merit), but it gives it nonetheless . . . cause that's what Jesus would do.

Now, mercy on the other hand is more like self-degradation. For us to replicate it, something bad needs to be taken away from someone that deserves something bad to happen to them. Sometime supervisors will step in to "take the blame" for something that an employee did. But, that's the exception rather than the rule. "Let 'em get what's comin' to 'em." Someone would need to step in to take the death penalty suggested for Scott Peterson. That's somewhat more difficult to do. Mercy always involves an abasement of the merciful. It's a double whammy: degradation plus whatever penalty your taking.

Hopefully, I can start looking for ways to be merciful. Jesus took the nails in his hands, and his feet, took a spear to the side, that should have been headed for me. It's easy to be graceful, relatively speaking. Jesus didn't want the "cup taken away" from He was being Graceful. He wanted it taken away because he knew what the results would be if he were merciful.

Hopefully all this makes sense. It's been a "me thinking with my fingers session".

One last quick thought: it seems to me that we'd be a whole lot more in love (endebted to, appreciative, etc) of someone who was merciful (i.e. took away something bad) than someone who was graceful. If we were to fully appreciate God's mercy (i.e. that He gave up his life, when He should have TAKEN ours) how much more would we want to worship Him. How much less would we complain that our roast is at home burning in the oven on a Sunday morning? When given the choice between eating lunch on time or kneeling snotty-faced at the foot of the cross pouring out our love for the SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD, would we still choose lunch?

Grace AND Mercy.

So, I'm a Loser (Or 1992 Revisited)

For a moment . . . I want you to think back with me to the last time that you saw the "loser" sign (i.e. "her finger and thumb in the shape of an 'L' on her forehead" - not necessarily on the forehead . . . but at least the finger and thumb part).

So when was it? 1997? High-School? 90210 re-runs?

Mine was yesterday.

Kristy and I were heading home after church. There's a traffic light at the intersection of Marsh Road (where the church is) and South Boulevard, and immediately to the right is a small strip mall. So the light is Red and I'm getting pretty close to it. There's a grey Honda CRV coming across the parking lot of the mall looing to get out on Marsh Road. At this point I'm not thinking anything weird . . . my intentions are to go up to the stop line on the road and stop . . . because that's what you do at a stop light.

Now the chick in the CRV is obviously thinking something different. As I'm getting closer and closer to the light, she decides to start nosing out in front of me. Now I'm thinking, "What are you doing?" and "You can't go anywhere because the light is red."

And, of course, I hadn't anticipated her nose sticking out in the road so I didn't alter my speed to compensate. Long story short, I didn't let her out in front of me. Not that I was mean. She just didn't give me enough notice that she wanted to get out.

So as I pass she waves her arms in disgust at me, I notice from the corner of my eye. She pulls out behind me, and I look back just in time to see her give me the "L" . . . I mean THE "L".

The LOSER sign . . . what is that? Are you stuck in the 90s?

That's just incredible to me. I mean if you're ticked off that I didn't give you the privilege of getting to the red light before me, give me the finger or something . . . but the loser sign . . . what the . . . ? It just made me laugh. It made me WANT to not let people out to see what other signs I'd get.

Then I got thinking . . . how did all these hand gestures become offensive. People are weird, man. Like what is it, and WHY is it that brushing your chin, towards someone, is a bad thing. Or your middle finger . . . that's just hilarious to me.

A guy gets "flipped the bird" a hundred years ago . . . and says "WHAT . . . I WOULD'VE TAKEN ANY FINGER BUT NOT THAT MIDDLE ONE. YOU'RE INDEX FINGER? FINE. YOUR PINKY? I'M INDIFFERENT TO THAT PARTICULAR FINGER. BUT YOUR MIDDLE FINGER! THAT'S JUST . . . THAT'S . . . I'M BEATIN' YOU DOWN PUNK!"

How in the world did a simple finger become SO freakin' hilariously offensive . . . to the point that the FCC censors it out on television shows? It cracks me up. But I think about stuff like that a lot. Like a lot of the offensive words that we consider offensive . . . like why is saying 'crap' acceptable but not another word that means the same thing?

Anyway . . . as you can see sometimes my brain functions on a pretty shallow level!

Grace.