random-thoughts

“Raymond Rodriguez was changing a tire when an 18-inch chunk of ice plummeted from the sky with a piercing whistle, then a metallic crunch. The ice chunk crushed the roof of a nearby Ford Mustang on Sunday morning.”

[MSN]

Now, I know they’re blaming this on ice that fell off an airplane, but think about this… what does it take for God to get our attention? It always amazes me how far we run, but how much the Lord will do to pursue us. Think about how easily our days can pass without us even acknowledging Him. So let us remember that we should be more open to his presence during our days so he doesn’t have to go to such extreme measures to get our attention.

This is in response to a blog I wrote last week about living the Kingdom life. While that is all true, the analogy isn’t complete. So I’m here to add another story.

There is an idea that exists; a grand sweeping idea that lives, moves, and breathes. It has the power to give life and take it. It possesses the hope of something more. Then there is us. We are a people living without a home. We are strangers and aliens in a land foreign to us. Because we don’t belong, the world around us hates us. But we live with the idea buried deep within our hearts. The idea gives us a hope that we have a home somewhere. We know it exists, but only within our hearts. It has the power to change us and those around us; even those that hate us – especially those that hate us!

The idea that I speak of is Christ. He was much, much more than simply a man. He was also a divine being that loved us beyond anything we can comprehend. This idea, this love, is what is meant to fuel us as Christians. But something has been lost.

“The weakness of so many modern Christians is that they feel too much at home in the world. In their effort to achieve restful “adjustment” to unregenerate society they have lost their pilgrim character and become an essential part of the very moral order against which they are sent to protest. The world recognizes them and accepts them for what they are. And this is the saddest thing that can be said about them. They are not lonely, but neither are they saints.”

AW Tozer

We are apart of a Kingdom, yes, but we are pilgrims who are living far from our home. We must not lose our identity and become something we are not. But we are also not called to shrink away and hide. We are called to missional living.

“Jesus comes with saving love for the world. He creates the church as a missional community to join Him in His mission of saving the world. He invites me to be part of the community to experience His saving love and participate in it.”

Brian McLaren

We are meant to live open (Missional) and yet also closed existences (Kingdom). Just as Christ was both man and God, we must remember that we are called to be both Missional (man) and Kingdom (God) minded. At times they may seem to contradict each other, but it is that tension that keeps us in check.

Wikipedia [in describing Missional livng] puts it best, “All believers are missionaries who are sent to be a blessing to the culture around them through a lifestyle that mimics God’s kingdom here on earth.”

[NOTE: this post is best experienced if you listen to "From Yesterday" by 30 Seconds to Mars while reading]

A couple of days back one of my posts (or rants) brought forth the question:

“How do we change the Church? Or is it worth changing?”

(from youthminister66 )

And I’ll go ahead and accuse myself of being critical and often times offering no answers. SO let me embark upon these questions. It will bring us into territory that is bigger than me, so your input into the journey is paramount. I need all of you to take apart in this.

So let me answer the easiest part first: is the church worth saving?

The answer is a resounding YES. It must. The bride/church is meant to exists until He returns.

Then that leads us to the first question: how do we change the church?

Walk with me for a bit as I meander around the question. Christ cleared the church with a whip because the people had forgotten its intended purposed. So clear your mind about any church clutter you may have entertained thus far in the conversation. Step into the clearing with me.

Picture this. You are apart of a Kingdom. A mighty Kingdom. Now picture this Kingdom established deep within enemy territory. You serve a mighty King. To live you must obey what is governed by your King. To survive you must protect yourself from the enemy that surrounds you. You live in a walled city. Men stay watch over its walls at all times. As you leave those walls, you gird yourself with heavy armor; protection against what may come your way. You serve a cause greater than yourself. This Kingdom is your hope and life. You live to provide for your family and serve your King with honor. You would die for your King and your family.

Now apply this to your lives now. What if we as Christians lived like we had a King? Like we lived with a kingdom? Like we had an enemy outside the walls. If that was reality, how would it shape our lives today?

What if prayer, like the men in the watchtower, were necessary by someone within the body of the church at all times? If the post is left, the city is vulnerable.

If we began to take on this Kingdom view, how would it change our churches (little “c” churches, not THE CHURCH – His people)? We have forgotten that this battle we are in is LIFE and DEATH. Part spiritual, part physical. The events of 9/11 changed our views on safety and patriotism, but they quickly faded away. What if life was like 9/11 every day? How would you live differently?

We have an enemy (some flesh, some spirit) that seeks to “steal, kill, and destroy”. Do we act like it? I get angry because the church has turned into psychiatry and steps to good living. We have lost our edge, our drive to be apart of his Kingdom. We have left our city unguarded and taken up residence with the enemy. The dream has been forgotten and we’ve moved on with our lives.

What if we began to see the church as our lifeblood? Not the walls or steeple. But the people and community we have there. What if it wasn’t simply once a week? What if we sought out to live this Kingdom lifestyle?

This whole vision is all a dream you wake up from. It makes sense, at the time, but it doesn’t within the context of the world of your awakend state. You know it’s real, but can’t completely define it. We’re just waiting for it to take physical form. So wake up dreamers. Wipe the sleep from your eyes. Until now, we’ve lived alone and dreamless within the dark forest. We’ve scrimped and scratched by to live. Step out of the forest and into the clearing… your Kingdom awaits.

[tomorrow: a second side to add contradiction to the first]

I was recently reading an article on early Celtic Christians and found something interesting. Its stuck with me. It rattled me. And I keep coming back to it.

The Celts used to refer to the Lord as the Wild Goose. Their context for Wild Goose wasn’t the same as ours (i.e. a Wild Goose Chase). It was a title filled with reverence and affection. It described to them how the saw their Lord.

“To begin with, wild geese aren’t controllable. You can’t restrain a wild goose and bend it to your will. They’re raucous and loud. Unlike the sweet and calming cooing of a dove, a goose’s honk is strong, challenging, strident and unnerving – and just a bit scary.“ (http://www.thisischurch.com/)

Being Easter week, I started to think about how I saw the Lord. How He’s lead me, challenged me and how I’ve chased after Him.

I know my walk has been adventurous, passionate, demanding, unsettling and glorious all at once. But there are times when I forget about the adventure that I’m on. I turn Him into some monument. Something comfortable and sedentary. My pursuit grows cold, but it feels so comfortable. We love monuments. Monuments are controllable. They don’t move. We know where they are and can visit them when we please. They don’t ask much of us. They’re not challenging or dangerous.

So I’m reminded that I don’t serve a controllable and definable God. He’s wild and begs of me to chase after Him. There will be times I’ll lose Him. Lose my way. But I know I can’t stop the pursuit.

I’m still in pursuit. The chase carries on.

So as you reflect on the Cross and Easter and Christ. Who is Jesus to you? A statue or monument? Or is he something more… a wild, unpredictable and untamable Lord?

Oh my gosh. Could something so small and colorful wreak so much havoc on one’s body? This stinking cold virus that’s floating around is amazingly awful. I know a bunch of High Schoolers out with it. I’ve got it and so do the rest of my brood.

Curse you! You little bag of skittles or whatever you are!

Somewhere over the Rockies we fly over this turquoise oblong lake that lies amongst the mountains. The surface is smooth, calm and I imagine there’s no one around for hundreds of miles.

I will find that lake someday. It’s somewhere north of Provo, where Utah meets Idaho. I will find it and swim out to the center and say that I am nothing. Just a tiny speck amongst giants. But the one that created all of this, the peaks and the valleys, He knows this nothing. He knows where I am. And that creator is big, bigger than anything these eyes can see from horizon to horizon. He is big and yet he knows nothing. He knows nothing by name. He is my Father.

And as I swim out in the turquoise deep, I know he can hear me, past the myriad of mountains, past the vastness of this earth. He says I am with you.