it wouldn’t be tempting if it was easy

Think about the last time you had a bad day.  Now think about how you responded to that day.  Did you count it pure joy and sing the Lord’s praises all day long?  Or are you like me and you grumbled and complained and felt generally nasty.  If you’re really like me then you spent the entire time trying not to yell at people who did nothing at all to deserve it.

If you’re anything like me then one bad thing you can handle, and two is bearable but it doesn’t take long before it becomes too much and I’m just sitting there stewing in this mess of stress and turmoil begging for an outlet.

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?”

it’s NEVER about judgement

Did you catch the emphasis on NEVER there? I don’t care if we’re talking about Sodom and Gomorrah or the separating of the sheep and the goats, Judgment is not the point.   Judgment happens, and punishment is handed out but judgment is never the goal or the reason, the goal or the center point behind it all.

I heard on the radio the other day that God came down to the tower of Babel just like with Sodom and Gomorrah to pronounce judgment over them.  It wasn’t that God needed to see the iniquities of man for himself, after all, he has the whole omnipresent/omniscience thing going on.  So why did he show up in person?  According to the radio it was because the Judge must be present to hand out judgment.  That God loves us enough to do it himself to our face, rather than send an intermediary.

living in grace

I’m reading Herman Melville’s great classic Moby Dick, or The Whale, (Don’t ask me WHY I’m reading it I haven’t the slightest idea) and I got through the first chapter before I had to stop.  I had to stop, put the book down and walk away for a few minutes while I let what was being said seep into my soul.  Not because Melville has written a great piece that can stand as an allegory for Christian living, but rather he has written a piece that has hidden within the very wordy and lengthy sentences, a masterpiece not unlike CS Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters.  Melville shows us, probably without even meaning to, the great horror that is American Christianity:

Living in the Law when we profess Grace.

#JesusRevolution – an idea

Every revolution, every instance in history that has been marked by massive social upheaval have been centered around a single powerful idea.  We could argue I suppose that it has been centered on a single charismatic leader (Fidel Castro, Vladimir Lenin, etc) but as we web oriented types like to say “content is king.”  There is nothing for people to hold onto and to fight for if the charismatic revolutionary leader doesn’t have something to revolt for.  So I ask, what’s the idea behind the Jesus Revolution?