Will my life have value, to whom would I matter at all?

When my yesterdays outnumber my tomorrows, and regret is setting in,

Who will be there to console me? Who will be there, to carry me through?

When my earthly titles all fall to into the faded abyss, and my friends have all

Gone home, what will my life have meant? Will it be measured in the gold that I owned?

Crowns and kingdoms and titles be damned. My bones are but as dust, and my life an empty shell.

The matters of life, and the rumors of death mean nothing in the end.

Live life to its fullest. Search out the maker of it all. Serve him always and serve him well

For in him we find our purpose and dreams.

RIP Debra Zelner

How shortsighted to refuse correction”

Proverbs 12:1 (Msg)

As I read through the Proverbs I find it very tempting to take some words and put them to action, and the ignore others. It is as if I want wisdom in the package with the bows and the frills, but I do not want that which truly makes it satisfying to my soul. Wisdom that is packaged correctly has the bow and the frill, but it has a few holes in it from the slinging arrows and the barbs that the enemy have thrown at it all the way.It makes it all the more satisfying when you finally get to open that package though.

Correction comes from many different areas in life. In prayer, from friends, from those in authority, our spouses, our employers etcetera. What accepting correction means is that we are constantly aware of those around us and listening for the voice of God in them. God uses them to provide the correction we need in order to have continual wisdom, and continual growth in it. I hate that in an awesome and God fearing kind of way.

What are you doing to listen for the voice of God in daily life? Do you practice spiritual disciplines? Do you have a discipline that you practice that might be a little bit different and you can share with us? I am curious. I challenge myself, and everyone reading this to listen to a greater degree to those around you and those in your life. I pray God will use them to speak to you intimately and to guide you unto greater and greater holiness.

~Selah~

I got there a bit early and was waiting for my friend to arrive. After a few minutes of hem-hawing by the car a greeter came out and introduced themselves to me and said “are you coming in or what?” It was great because he had to leave the church, come over and meet me. I do not know many churches, including my own, who go and greet and cajole people at their cars. I was in no way offended, and quite amused.

When it was time to greet people a woman turned around to greet me quite kindly, and they happened to be a transvestite. I guess I betrayed who I was just by being taken back a bit by it. It made them laugh and I apologized. She was quite kind and very understanding. We had a good laugh about it over coffee after service. I also sat through a service that was led by the board of directors and the head of the board calls herself  “a professional lesbian.” It lightened up the room and it was very easy going.

This meeting was about the general assembly that they just had and I was impressed to see just how much they have determined to work for social justice. One of the 7 guiding principles of this church is “Justice, equity and compassion in human relations”. I can tell those are not just words on a page, those words are taken seriously and discerned and utilized in navigating the increasingly tumultuous waters of relationships on the macro level, as well as within the community.

Two writers who have at times had an influence over me are Michael Dowd and Robert Fulghum. Both are very articulate, very smart and open people. Both have observations about life that are stunning and life affirming. If these men are a product of this kind of place I am going to be much more interested in Unitarian thought.

I keep asking myself the hard question this afternoon though; “Why is my church not like this? Why do homosexuals, transvestites, people of different religious backgrounds not feel at home inside the doors of my church, of most evangelical churches? Where have we gone wrong in sharing the love of a Christ who died for all, who taught all without bias, who encouraged all to live life and more abundantly? What are we missing?

I believe the answers to this question are varied and change with time. However, I believe that we need to step back to the basics of what we are called to do as a church. We are called to love our neighbors as ourselves and to share that love freely and with all people. I think when the neighbors get loud, the color of their skin changes, their sexual proclivities change the church has simply pulled up it’s tent stakes and moved into locations and buildings that look and talk just like them. Not many churches have stayed the course and been a stalwart for the community. They have not said “this is where God has planted us, thus this is where I grow.”

What impressed me as well is that this congregation has been in the same building that they build in the late 1800′s. It has always been a Unitarian church. Our church building is equally as old, however it has gone through many incarnations as different congregations, creeds and beliefs. That kind of community staying power says something, and I intend to listen.

~Selah~

Jayber Crow Page 195

“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;
love and faithfulness go before you.” Ps 89:14

It has been interesting over the last few weeks to see God at work in myself, and in some people that I know. God is always at work, but over the last weeks it has been easy to see because the work is right at the surface of their being and I get the honor of being a part of it.

One such individual I know has been hanging themselves up on the question of “love my neighbor as myself…but who really is my neighbor?” It is a sincere question, but if you flip it what you see they are asking is “who does God allow me to be angry with and not have to repent about it?” When you get to brass tacks the answer reveals itself as everyone is your neighbor and therefore you must be at peace with everyone as far be it within your powers to do so.

Part of living a life that is at peace is to remember that one of the clarion calls on our life as believers is to love justice and to be merciful. In Isaiah when God is making a promise to Israel he says;

“For I, the LORD, love justice;  I hate robbery and iniquity.
In my faithfulness I will reward them
and make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants will be known among the nations  and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge
that they are a people the LORD has blessed.” Isaiah 61:8-9 (emp mine)

When we seek the good of another, the shalom of that individual and the community you both are in people will acknowledge that we are blessed by the Lord. No other person, government, NGO or entity will get the credit. I believe that for God to be truly seen in our generation we must live like we love justice and mercy like we love the living water we so desire of God.

Being just and merciful means being willing to be wrong, being willing to put your neighbors interests ahead of your own, being willing to seek the good of others outside of your family. It is a large charge, and we will fail. Sometimes we will fail miserably. However, the same mercy that is available to our neighbors through us is available at the cross for us when we do fail.

~Shalom~

^“9And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, ¹⁰so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, ¹¹filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” Phillipians 1: 9-11

The word discern appears in the NIV version of Proverbs at least 13 times. Most often it has to do with wisdom and character formation. Paul in the above mentioned passage says that discernment is an outworking of love and that you abound more in love by getting knowledge and depth of insight. Discernment however can turn into an ugly problem, the problem of Judgment. I believe discernment when applied has a few key characteristics that set it apart.

1) Discernment is a spiritual activity. When we are regularly praying, seeking God and living a communal life with those around us (i.e. the church) discernment will be stronger and more focused.

2) Discernment works for the greater good of the community. Discernment, since it is an outworking of love will always be used for the good of others and ultimately for yourself.

3) Discernment needs to be worked out in community. We are communal people. All wisdom, knowledge and discernment rightly applied needs to be filtered through those who have wisdom. A community that is properly functioning will have those within its leadership who have the maturity and strength to pour themselves into the situation. Elders and leadership need to be free of their own agenda and willing and able to see the ideas and the underlying motives.

Discernment outside of community and the use of wisdom is dangerous. I have been in situations where God has given me a word or a feeling about an individual or situation and it is an odd place to be. I immediately snap to a decision and it then peppers my decision making for the rest of that interaction, or my relationship with that person. Often times my judgment of the situation is correct, but my response to it is wrong. Sometimes I am just a (insert your own colorful adjective here) and I am completely wrong about the situation.

What I am learning, again and again, is that we are communal people. Everything you and I do is in the context of community. Either a church, an employer, a neighborhood, we all operate in a community. God has instituted His church to bring Him glory and to give us a place to be encouraged, exhorted, taught and refined for living a life to the glory of God. Remember what Paul said in the above scripture, ultimately what we are doing is for the “glory and praise of God.” The community of believers called the church is to be that place where we work out or gifts and use them for the greater good of our community and to reflect the love God has for them.

No one wants to be a (insert adjective here) and the community of believers is the place to grow and learn in a safe and loving environment.

~Selah~

James Davison Hunter quoted in To Change the World Pg 266

Coming to work this morning I stopped at a popular coffee stop to read a little bit and to imbibe on expensive coffee and enjoy the tranquility of a beautiful morning staring at Pikes Peak. I was enjoying it immensely and feeling the love of my creator all the way into the core of who I am until I was interrupted by an “evangelist” who felt the call to look me in the eye and say “you are a sinner, and God is angry, repent” and he put his big Bible on the table.

Now, he is right. I am a sinner, I need to repent and I do so quite regularly. My thoughts are not near as holy as I would love people to think and I have to bring those to the throne regularly. However, entering into my sphere of existence by telling me I am a sinner only puts my perimeter fence up so high that not even the giants in Chronicles of Narnia will be able to penetrate them, and I am a Christian and I agree with him. I cannot imagine if I disagree with him how vitriolic I would feel towards him.

When I am speaking with a person I consider it an honor to do so. They have allowed me to cross paths with them and enter into their world for a time. As I converse with them and discuss things, not necessarily even spiritual things, a transaction occurs. We each leave an indelible mark on the other. We both walk away with a little of the spiritual D.N.A. of that person in our collective memory. Sure, some of the conversations, such as the one I had with the barista this morning are just polite and full of vagary and are quick. However, the longer the conversation and the more the depth of the conversation the more exposure we have to one another. The more D.N.A. I walk away with means the more I “know” you, and I am the better for it.

The gentleman who came into “evangelize” is not leaning into his relationship capital. In fact, I daresay he is scared of people. He leans into his 4 spiritual laws, he speaks with those in mind and goes home and adds a notch to his belt when he has “converted” someone. I did not see his belt, but I imagine that there were not too many notches in it. He is leaning into the worldly notion that you scare the poop out of people, show them the good news that they are a sinner in the hands of an angry God, and then the more people you do that to, the more you will do well in God’s kingdom. I admit I am speaking in a bit of a generality about him now at this point as well, but I know him because I have been him.

The way forward out of this kind of thinking is to remember that everything God did, and God does is in love. God does not hate the sinner, God does not hate the unbeliever, God does not hide himself from those seeking truth. God reveals himself to each and every one of us in ways that are intimate and creative and that speak directly to our heart’s disposition. He knows EXACTLY what to say and when, through whom, through what and where. God uses those three coordinates (whom, what and where) at his discretion and at the perfect time. What God calls his believers to do is make themselves available for conversations. We are to live a good life, model a good life to our friends and neighbors, speak in love and act in love and be motivated by… LOVE!

So I ask you, what are you going to do? Will you be motivated by love today? Will you enter into every conversation and situation you are in today motivated by love, or will you continue to lean into fear and trepidation in your day to day life? Today I choose love, as messy as it is, as unquantifiable as it can be and still, I want it. I want more of it. Do you?

~Selah~