God

Yet Another Blog About Marriage from the Perpetually Single Guy

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I have to admit something. I’m a bit disturbed.

Maybe I shouldn’t be. Maybe a little envy is creeping in, but I get disturbed by the way people on facebook are describing the ones that they will very probably end up marrying.

The descriptions are things like “tall” or “hot” or some other physical attribute. I know attraction is important, but is it the most important thing?

This is the person you’re going to spend the rest of your life with and walk through all the seasons and storms of life with. It won’t matter if he’s got six-pack abs when you’re dealing with the loss of a family member. It won’t matter how “hot” he is when you’re struggling to make ends meet and wondering which bill will be left unpaid this month.

The most important thing, the first thing you should be able to say about your potential spouse, is what kind of character he or she has. Is he kind? Is she considerate? How does he treat strangers? How does she talk about her family and friends when they’re not around?

Again, I admit that I am probably making something out of nothing, but I have to get this out in the open so it won’t hang around in my brain and keep me from sleeping tonight.

Mostly, I see a generation that is obsessed with having the perfect weddings, but not nearly ready enough to have successful, impacting marriages. So much of what passes for dating these days is “pretending to be married and practicing for divorce,” as I heard it put once.

One last thing. There’s no prize for how fast you move from dating to being engaged to being married. Take your time and learn everything you can about the other person.

I may be eternally single and date-less, but I do know this: if you try to make a relationship fulfill what only God was meant to fulfill, it will fail miserably.

I have a lot to learn about this, as well as many other areas, but I do know that God is still good and He is still eternally patient with me.

The moral? Take all this with a grain of salt and read it with grace. But keep your eyes open and your mind intact. Love isn’t something you fall into; it’s something that you must choose again each day, something you must work at, something that may at times be very hard, but at all times will be worth it.

Random Favorites and Desert Island Picks

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This might seem like a filler blog (and it is, because I’m all out of profound ideas that I “borrowed” from other people). Hopefully, it will bring a bit of levity in your life after a hard week of work. FYI: TGIF!

If I were stranded on a desert island and could only have one kind of food, I think I’d go with the Chick-fil-A nuggets. Those just never get old for me. Plus, I’m taking it for granted that they come with all the usual dipping sauces.

If I had only one album I could take with me to the desert island (which just so happens to have electricity and a good sound system), I would take Miles Davis’ A Kind of Blue. It is rightfully considered one of the best jazz albums ever.

I don’t know if it’s still hip or trendy to admit celebrity crushes, but my all-time celebrity crush is still Audrey Hepburn. If we’re going with only living people, it’s Zooey Deschanel.

I miss that chantico drink from Starbucks that I probably spelled wrong. It was like a chocolate bar melted into a drink, or what I like to call a little foretaste of heaven. I also miss the Snapple drink, Ralph’s Cantalope Cocktail, that tasted just like real cantelopes.

I don’t know if you ever get the urge to watch a movie you’ve seen before, but lately I’ve been feeling the need to watch Juno again. Then after that, I’ll go buy some orange tic-tacs.

At the end of the day, regardless of how I think my day was a success or a total fiasco, I still need God. I need to know that He’s still got the whole world in His hands (to borrow from a great song by All Sons & Daughters).

That’s all for tonight. Told you it would be random.

Fearing God

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In the Bible, we’re told to fear God. Proverbs tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. But just what does that look like?

I heard a beautiful illustration on what fearing God looks like from John Piper. He says it’s like being caught in the middle of a powerful storm, but watching it from a safe and protected place. You can still see the majesty and power of the storm and respect it, but not be in danger from it.

For those of us who have trusted Christ and chosen to follow Him with our lives, fearing God looks a lot lie that. We know God is still all-powerful, but yet He is all-loving at the same time.

Tonight at Kairos Roots, I heard it put this way. Fearing God means being in awe and even somewhat afraid of the God of almighty power, yet still trusting His heart and believing what He has promised toward us.

It means that God is not one of your priorities. He is your only priority and everything else gets rearranged around Him. It means that He impacts and influences every decision you make, everything you do, and everywhere you go.

Those who believe in God in an academic way will have different priorites than someone who knows and fears and loves God. The one will turn to God only as a last resort when every other measure has failed, but the one will always have a teachable spirit, ready to change even if it means pain or loss of pride or reputation.

Once again, I admit that I don’t have this fully figured out. I learn so much every day and have to unlearn so much at the same time. I see different aspects of faith and what God looks like when I’m around different kinds of people, so my view of faith and God is always getting bigger and deeper.

I do know that I for one choose to fear God, to have proper awe and respect for the Author and Creator of Everything, because that leads to wisdom that leads to a life that has purpose and meaning. I don’t know about you, but these days, I need all the wisdom I can get.

 

My Confession Booth (Stolen from Blue Like Jazz)

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I love the fact that they kept the confession booth from the book entitled Blue Like Jazz for the movie of the same name. I also love the fact that it is a very non-religious Christian movie.

The idea behind the confession booth is not receiving confession, but in giving one. Sorta like this.

We confess that we’ve done a poor job of representing God and Who He is. We’ve made Him in our image and had Him hate all the same people we do, people whose sins we magnify and villify because those aren’t the sins we struggle with.

We confess that we’ve made our faith a means to a political platform and getting our man elected. We’ve made our faith a means to more effectively climbing the corporate ladder and making even more money.

We confess that while we look down our noses at unbelievers, we don’t look much different. Our vocabulary and our lifestyles are too much like theirs for them to take our message seriously.

We confess that we’ve replaced the holier-than-thous with hipper-and-trendier-than thous, and made faith an exclusive club that you have to dress the right way and know the right words and the right people to be able to join.

We confess that we’re so proud of knowing God and have forgotten that the only reason we know Him is because He first loved us and revealed Himself to us. We confess that without His revelation, we’d be completely in the dark, the blind leading the blind, banging our heads against the same stone walls.

We confess that for too long too many of us have been ashamed of this Jesus who saved us and wasn’t above being made a spectacle in front of the crowds so that we could have life better than we thought was possible.

We confess that we have tried to give bumper-sticker answers to complex questions and given people Bible band-aids for deep soul wounds.

We confess that we’re not perfect people. We’re not better than anyone else or more holy or more likeable. We confess that we are the worst of sinners who have found out what it means to be forgiven and free. We want you to know what that looks and feels like, too.

I confess that I need to re-read Blue Like Jazz sometime in the near future because the movie reminded me how much I didn’t remember from the book.

I confess that it is way past my bedtime and I will turn into a flesh-craving zombie if I don’t get to bed in five minutes, so GOOD NIGHT AND GOD BLESS!

20 Seconds

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“You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it.”

I love that line from the movie We Bought a Zoo. And how very true it is. 20 seconds of courage and bravery could very well change you life (and possibly someone else’s). It could start a chain reaction that could affect way more than just two lives.

Imagine you had 20 seconds of insane, embarrasing courage. What could you do? What could you say to someone? Maybe something like:

“Hey, do you ever think much about spiritual things? You do? Let me tell you about my own spiritual journey to finding peace.”

“I saw you sitting by yourself. Do you mind if I join you?’

“I’m sorry. I was completely in the wrong. Will you forgive me?”

“I know I haven’t had much time for you lately, but I want to make time. How about meeting up for coffee this week?”

“You may think no one sees what you do or cares, but I notice. I see. I believe God has His hand on you and is doing great things in and through you. Take heart.”

You can say these and so many other things in 20 seconds.

Who knows? It may work. It also may blow up in your face. But to me, failure is better than not trying and always wondering what would have happened if you did.

I know. I live with too many “what if”s already.

You may not do something crazy like buying a zoo (like the main character in the above movie did), but you can take one very small step of courage right now.

I really truly believe that if you do, something great will come of it.

 

Choices

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Recently, I was scrolling through the menu guide on DirecTV’s channels. I came across a program that was called (I kid you not) “Brazil Butt Lift– The Sequel.” Riveting and intellectually stimulating, I’m sure.

What was most disturbing to me was the fact that there are two of those programs floating around out there. Was one not enough? Did you not get enough butt lifts the first time around?

We have too many choices. And contrary to what you might think, having more choices isn’t always a good thing. It can lead to paralysis of decision-making.

At Kairos Roots tonight, I learned that if you want to know if you should pursue something that isn’t either prohibited or mandated by Scripture, you ask yourself two simple questions:

1). Ask, “Is it sinful or unwise?”

2) If it’s neither of these, go for it.

You won’t always get a sign from the heavens, especially about what color shirt to wear or where to eat for lunch. Sometimes, you use the passions and desires and mind that God gave you and choose.

When I was looking for the right college, I knew when I stepped foot on the campus of Union University that that’s where I was supposed to go. The same thing happened when I drove up on the campus of Fellowship Bible Church and knew that’s where I was going to attend church services.

I have never had that feeling about Taco Bell (or even Chuy’s). Even in the Bible, sometimes people chose based on “what seemed good to me.” You can’t always wait for the fleece to turn wet or for divine handwriting in the sky on every decision.

I do know that everyday I get to choose to serve the Lord or not. I get to choose to acknowledge Him before others or to deny Him. I choose by my actions to show how much or how little He means to me.

I know that there are days when like Peter, I deny Him by the choices I make and my attitude. I also know that the next day, I get to choose all over again. I can never undo what I did yesterday or the damage it cost, but I can make better choices today.

May you and I choose to love and follow Jesus every day.

Life Together: A Review of Sorts

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I just finished reading Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a short book on Christian community and fellowship. Basically, to sum the book up in one sentence:oh, oh, we need each other (borrowed from Sanctus Real).

I found this observation to be very interesting. We can’t truly be in community and fellowship unless we’re comfortable being alone. If we’re always needy and clingy when it comes to others, we hinder true communion. But if we come out of a healthy self-awareness, we add to the fellowship rather than drain it.

Also, we can’t truly be alone without being in community. Even when in solitutude, we carry our brothers and sisters with us in our hearts and their prayers carry us. The whole Lone Ranger/Marlboro Man/go-it-alone type Christian is a myth that is exposed in the first storm we face.

I thought this quote from Bonhoeffer perfectly describes the freedom from truly being in open and honest community with others:

“The most experienced psychologist or observer of human nature knows infinitely less of the human heart than the simplest Christian who lives beneath the Cross of Jesus. The greatest psychological insight, ability, and experience cannot grasp this one thing: what sin is. Worldly wisdom knows what distress and weakness and failure are, but it does not know the godlessness of man. And so it also does not know that man is destroyed only by his sin and can be healed only by forgiveness. Only the Christian knows this. In the presence of a psychiatrist I can only be a sick man; in the presence of a Christian brother I can dare to be a sinner. The psychiatrist must first search my heart and yet he never plumbs its ultimate depth. The Christian brother knows when I come to him: here is a sinner like myself, a godless man who wants to confess and yearns for God’s forgiveness. The psychiatrist views me as if there were no God. The brother views me as I am before the judging and merciful God in the Cross of Jesus Christ.”

My Big Honkin’ Bible

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The following was inspired by what I heard at Kairos tonight. In case you’re wondering, Kairos is a worship event and Bible study that meets every Tuesday at 7 pm at the Connection Center at Brentwood Baptist Church off I-65 exit 71 in Brentwood, Tennessee.

Do I have the Word of God on me or do I have it in me?

There’s a really big difference.

Do I carry around a big honkin’ Bible that looks impressive or do I live it out through my words and deeds?

Do I have God’s Word snugly under my arm or hidden in my heart?

Jesus didn’t overcome the devil’s temptations by braining him with a big Bible. He used the words, “It is written” and used the Scripture he had memorized and ingrained into His life. He used Deuteronomy, to be specific.

I have to be honest. I have a LOT of Bibles. Some are big and leather and good for knocking people upside the head (theologically, not literally). Some are small and portable. I have just about every major translation.

But what I don’t have is God’s Word in my heart. Sure, I have a few verses here and there memorized, but nowhere near enough to say that I KNOW God’s word.

Something that stuck with me was that sometimes you have to BE ready because you won’t have time to GET ready.

In other words, you don’t want to wait until you’re in the middle of a battle to get your sword out. You don’t want to wait until you’re in the midst of spiritual warfare and face with temptation to decide to start committing Scripture to memory.

Hopefully, this won’t be something else I blog about then forget about. I really want to hide God’s Word in my heart.

I remember something a pastor wrote in the first Bible I ever received. “This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.”

I have found that to be very true in the years since.

May you and I start a love affair with the Word of God that lasts both our lifetimes and where we are not conformed to our culture and the world around us, but transformed into people who can help change our culture and the world.

 

Dollhouse: The TV Show and My Thoughts From It

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Dollhouse was a fantastic show with a very unique concept that ended way too soon.

The concept was that people “volunteered” to have their own memories and personalities erased and became blank slates that could be fitted with other personality imprints to be lovers, assassins, companions, or whatever else the very, very rich and well-conntected clientele wanted.

The concept is technologically far-fetched, but in some ways it happens on a daily basis.

People spend so much time trying to be what other people want them to be, to fit the image that parents or spouses or significant others put on them, that they too often forget who they really are.

Maybe you became someone else to please a boyfriend or girlfriend and gave away something precious to you. Maybe you became someone you used to dislike to gain the approval of so-called “friends” who wouldn’t have liked you for you.

Maybe you have a whole collection of masks that you wear during the week: the pious one for Sunday, the ambitious one for Monday through Friday, the anything-goes one for Saturday night . . . . until you feel completely fragmented.

1 John 1:12 says regarding Jesus, ” But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves,       their child-of-God selves.”

The way to get rid of the masks and the role-playing is to let Jesus tell you who you really are. After all, He’s the one who saw you in your mother’s womb and knows you intimately, more than you know yourself.

In Him, you find your true identity as a child of God and find your true purpose and meaning in being a part of what He is doing in turning the upside-down world right side up again.

I’ve said it before, but no matter what names anyone else has called you or even what you’ve called yourself in anger and frustration, the only name that ultimately matters is the name God in Jesus has given you and calls you now– BELOVED.

May you and I live in that reality and show our world the way out of the dollhouse.

 

The Kingdom of God

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The Kingdom of God is like a grain of mustard, so very small in the hand, yet when planted, it becomes a tree that fills the heavens and where all the birds come to find rest amidst its branches.

The Kingdom of God is like a small pinch of leaven in a vast amount of dough that eventually penetrates every part as it causes the dough to rise.

The Kingdom of God is men and women leaving positions of importance and luxury to go live among the outcast as missionaries and bring hope to the once hopeless.

The Kingdom of God is those who leave father and mother and family and go to a strange land with only the promise of God to guide them.

The Kingdom of God is those who overcome because their testimony, the blood of the Lamb, and the fact that they were willing to give up everything, including their own lives, to gain a thousand times more in the Life to come.

The Kingdom of God is Jesus inviting all the Peters of the world, those ashamed of their betrayal and moral failures and wreckage their lives have become, and says to them, “I am entrusting My work in your hands  and giving you a new story to tell, the most  fantastic and the truest story you will ever hear.”

The Kingdom of God is the lame and the beggars and the outcasts and the nobodies of the world being chosen to the best party ever thrown, one that will never end and will only keep getting better.

The Kingdom of God is two or more, gathered in the name of Jesus, whether in a multi-million dollar church campus or in a tin hut with a dirt floor.

The Kingdom of God is here and it is advancing. No power in hell or on earth will ever be able to stop it, because nothing is more powerful than love. And Love has come and His name is Jesus.

The Kingdom of God is God ruling in the hearts of His people, taking broken lives and making them whole, taking stained souls and making them clean, taking shame and turning it to praise, taking mourning and turning it to dancing, taking ashes and turning them into beauty.

The Kingdom of God on its way and at the same time, the Kingdom of God is already here.

The Kingdom of God is NOW.