the wonderful Cross

I spend a lot of time thinking.  I like thinking.  I even listen to Catholic radio on my way into work because they usually have really thought provoking discussions about faith and modern society.  (It’s especially thought provoking when I don’t think I agree with the radio host)

I like to think about some of the craziest things and then, having thought about it, end up dismissing it as irrelevant to living a life of faith.  Questions like “In what order did the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit come into being?”  or “to what degree are the elements of the trinity the same and different and does it impact their unity of activity?”

Finding Simplicity

I remember once that I was talking with a young woman about tea.  She was very particular about her tea, it had to be a specific brand of black tea with a specific brand of honey.  To make it, she would pour boiling water over the tea bag into a mug and let it steep for exactly 4 minutes and 30 seconds at which point she would wring the bag out and add precisely 2 teaspoons of honey.  After watching her do this one day I say “clearly you are a woman who loves her comforts.”  She looked at me and my mug of plain green tea with nothing added and said “and clearly you are a very simple person.”

Now she didn’t mean it in any kind of demeaning way, only that I was not a difficult person to understand.

Knock Knock

You ever heard a knock at the door or the phone ring and then ignore it?  I have.  A number of times.  I’d say that the overwhelming majority of these cases occur when I know who it is on the other side and I am desperate to not deal with it.  By “it” I mean that person’s problems or the problems they represent.

You know the people.  The guy who is always trying to get one more favor out of you. The girl who just broke up with her latest boyfriend and is crushed.  The girl you’re trying to break up with and just don’t have the guts to actually do it.  A billing department reminding you that your last check bounced and they haven’t received the new one (that you haven’t sent in yet).  How about the call from Mom asking why you don’t call more often?

How about the guy you know you wronged and are afraid to face?

Brokenness, brokenness is what I long for

I want to share with you something that I’ve learned over the past couple of weeks.  For those of you who’ve been following me you may have noticed a slightly darker tone to a lot of my writing lately, and may have even noticed a few frenzied attempts to proclaim a healthier and brighter attitude over myself.  If you haven’t noticed it in my writing then let me tell you.

Recently I’ve been suffering from a not-so-fun roller coaster of emotions made even more interesting by a hard headed attitude that I’m supposed to be happy and cheery all the time.  I even had one person give me a little rebuke about my moods saying something along the lines of “Christians have no excuse to be depressed.”

Now as I said before, there is great joy in our redemption.

(Side note: this post is aimed towards Christians.  If you’re not a Christian this won’t make any sense and I can’t imagine how it will seem so please don’t read on.)

Forgiveness for a Box o Sin

I’ve been thinking about Forgiveness a lot lately – mainly in the context of forgiving others during a high stress time in my work place.  We are called to forgive others in the same way that we are forgiven.  We see this when Jesus says “Forgive your brother again and again and again and again and again, and when you’ve done that you forgive him again and again and again, and when you can’t count how many times you’ve forgiven him, you forgive him again and again and again.” (Matthew 18:22 Dramatically Embellished Version)

We also see it in the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6 “Forgive our moments of stupidity when we totally ticked you off Father and help us to do the same to those who do it to us.” (Matthew 6:12 DEV)

But what does forgiveness really boil down to?

Let’s back up a second and look at this from a different angle.  Why do we need forgiveness?  The short answer I’m sure you’re giving yourself right now is “because I’m a horrible sinful person.”  The long answer, the one that helps us to understand forgiveness, goes something like this.

“I’m unclean.  I have broken the Law of Moses and offended the Lord God with my actions, my lifestyle, and/or my attitude.  I’m a criminal in the sight of God and in need of trial.”

In other words, we seek forgiveness out of a deep seated desire to follow “the rules.”  Rules and regulations we can’t hope to live with and that have ways for us to become clean, to grant us forgiveness of our sins (like sacrificing the best lamb of our flock) but even that became too much.  What happens when I don’t have enough money or enough resources to buy and pay for a sin-offering against my transgression?

Jesus says that he came to fulfill the law and this is what he meant: that He would stand as the sin-offering for all of man kind for all of time.  All we need to do now is ask the Father in heaven “Does Jesus’ sacrifice cover (Insert sin)?  Am I forgiven for this by Jesus sacrifice?”

To which the Father replies “Yes.”

So do me a favor today.  Imagine a box.  It’s about the size of a shoe box.  And all your sins are contained within.  Now image a cross in front of you and standing in front of it is a man with a really long beard and really long hair.  You probably can’t make out his face clearly but that doesn’t matter because he’s holding out his hands, waiting for you to hand over your shoebox full of sin.  So give it to him, and be forgiven.