The first time I heard the term "retail therapy" I knew we were in deep trouble. I say "we" because I have been, from time to time, as guilty of feeling the rush of buying the next ___ as the next person, only to get home and realize that I really didn't need or want said widget - no matter how good it looked in the store.
What I was after was the rush. It feels good to see something, desire it, and then have the power to claim it as my own, have it put in a bag and drive it home. It really doesn't matter what "it" is. The process of consuming makes us (me) feel powerful, and as North Americans in 2007, we have a lot of power...
Retail therapy is understandable, rampant, unavoidable, and yet also horribly destructive. It causes us to think (even for a moment) that we can solve our own problems, or satisfy our own deepest yearnings.
It's quite fitting that I began to see this more clearly by reading the writings of a Monk from the middle ages. Bernard of Clairvaux knew what it was to yearn for material things. And yet he wrote about such things with such wisdom and grace. I'll leave you with a few of his words from his beautiful work, On Loving God,
(We) want to traverse creation, trying all things one by one, rather than think of coming to Him who is Lord of all. And if our utmost longing were realized, so that we should have all the world for our own, yet without possessing Him who is the Author of all being, then the same law of our desires would make us condemn what we had and restlessly seek Him whom we still lacked, that is, God Himself. Rest is in Him alone. Man knows no peace in the world; but he has no disturbance when he is with God. And so the soul says with confidence, 'Whom have I in heaven but Thee; and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of Thee. God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. It is good for me to hold me fast by God, to put my trust in the Lord God'. Even by this way one would eventually come to God, if only he might have time to test all lesser goods in turn...
Amen.
www.lifesongchristiancommunities.org
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Sunday, August 26, 2007
What Does God Say About That? (and other ridiculously insightful yet simple things kids say at just the right time)
Slithering like a snake along the ground isn't so bad if you're 3. Unless the room in which you are slithering happens to be the bathroom...
"Nathan, get up", I barked unceremoniously.
"Why, Dad?"
"Because it's not good for you to crawl around on the bathroom floor and it might make you sick sometime"
"But I don't like it when you tell me no, Dad"
"But I have to tell you when things are right and wrong or good or bad so you'll grow up good"
"HMMM... WHAT DOES GOD SAY ABOUT THAT DAD???"
How do you answer a 3 year old slithery snake who is asking about the theological realities of passing on the faith from Father to Son and the moral and religious formation of a young life?
"God talks to us through the Bible, and the Bible says I need to keep you safe and help you to grow up good. So, you need to listen when I say no."
"Okay", he said.
I was in disbelief that I got away that easily... Then I became intrigued...
"What made you ask about what God thinks, Nate? Where did you learn that?"
"I don't know", he said, "God lives in my heart though." I almost fell over, so I sat down on the edge of the tub instead. I beckoned Nate to come closer, and I wrapped my arms around him and drew his head into my chest.
"That's right, Nate, God DOES live in your heart..."
www.lifesongchristiancommunities.org
"Nathan, get up", I barked unceremoniously.
"Why, Dad?"
"Because it's not good for you to crawl around on the bathroom floor and it might make you sick sometime"
"But I don't like it when you tell me no, Dad"
"But I have to tell you when things are right and wrong or good or bad so you'll grow up good"
"HMMM... WHAT DOES GOD SAY ABOUT THAT DAD???"
How do you answer a 3 year old slithery snake who is asking about the theological realities of passing on the faith from Father to Son and the moral and religious formation of a young life?
"God talks to us through the Bible, and the Bible says I need to keep you safe and help you to grow up good. So, you need to listen when I say no."
"Okay", he said.
I was in disbelief that I got away that easily... Then I became intrigued...
"What made you ask about what God thinks, Nate? Where did you learn that?"
"I don't know", he said, "God lives in my heart though." I almost fell over, so I sat down on the edge of the tub instead. I beckoned Nate to come closer, and I wrapped my arms around him and drew his head into my chest.
"That's right, Nate, God DOES live in your heart..."
www.lifesongchristiancommunities.org
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Change Has Changed...
The following post is a devotion I put up on our church's website: http://www.lifesongchristiancommunities.org/...
Change has changed. It used to be that every few decades a new technology or idea would come about that would change the way we lived or how we viewed the world. The telegraph eventually gave way to the telephone and radio. Radio set the stage for television and cell phones. Eight tracks and vinyl records eventually gave way to the CD. Then came the iPod and now the iPhone. The dizzying truth is that the gaps between the advent of these new technologies used to be centuries, then decades, and now just a few years. It seems as if these changes are so rapid that we can't even keep up on a day to day basis.
A few of us here at Lifesong have been reading Brian McLaren's The Church On The Other Side, and we've been openly talking about some of the ways our world has changed, and about how it is literally impossible to keep up anymore. McLaren actually says that change itself has changed, and that the rate of change has sped up to the point that it is actually impossible to think about and process all the information we are confronted with each day.
So the question for us is: What does this mean for the Church? How should we live as those claimed by Christ in order to save the world if we can't even comprehend what is going on in the world?
The first thing to do, as I see it, is acknowledge that we're ALL in the same boat. No one is comfortable with the rate of change in the world, and no one can keep up with it all. Change has leveled the playing field, and we are all trying to wrestle with how to live. I propose that the Church has two options:
1) Grasp the past tightly and try to weather the storm. It seems this is the turn that the Catholic Church has recently decided to take with its recent advocacy of returning to the Latin Mass. This is also the approach of many Evangelicals/Fundamentalists who long for the glory days of religious revival or the hey-day of the American empire. I sometimes watch the more-extreme voices for these folks on channel 17 and they're usually talking about how evil the rest of the world is and how great their brand of Christianity is. As one of my professors rightly said; "the way forward is not backward".
2) Pack lightly and move forward. Change happens, and when it does, the Church needs to change too. That means that we need to discover what is essential to our faith and be willing to re-invent everything else. There are, however, many ways to go wrong with this approach. We sometimes throw the baby out with the bath water when it comes to change and tradition, and some traditions speak throughout the ages. I suggest that maybe the best place to start as far as what is non-negotiable is this simple three word confession that dates back to the early church: Jesus is Lord.
If we live with this truth at the center of our lives, nothing else can claim us or distract us from our mission in the world. If Jesus is Lord, nothing else can be. We still, of course, have to figure out the practical implications of what it means to make Jesus' life the center of our lives, but at least we'll be asking all the right questions - even if the answers miss the mark (and they will)...
We're still trying to figure out how we should live in this world of rampant change, and I have to say that it's really refreshing just to stop for a minute and talk with trusted friends about some of the craziness (good and bad) in the world and take time to think about what it all means. Ultimately, we know that as His people, Jesus is present and in the center of these discussions, and we pray for the courage to continually re-invent our Church so that we might live with Jesus at the center of our lives - constantly reminding ourselves that if Jesus is Lord, nothing else can be...
"If you have a new world, you need a new church. You have a new world."
- Brian McLaren
- Brian McLaren
Change has changed. It used to be that every few decades a new technology or idea would come about that would change the way we lived or how we viewed the world. The telegraph eventually gave way to the telephone and radio. Radio set the stage for television and cell phones. Eight tracks and vinyl records eventually gave way to the CD. Then came the iPod and now the iPhone. The dizzying truth is that the gaps between the advent of these new technologies used to be centuries, then decades, and now just a few years. It seems as if these changes are so rapid that we can't even keep up on a day to day basis.
A few of us here at Lifesong have been reading Brian McLaren's The Church On The Other Side, and we've been openly talking about some of the ways our world has changed, and about how it is literally impossible to keep up anymore. McLaren actually says that change itself has changed, and that the rate of change has sped up to the point that it is actually impossible to think about and process all the information we are confronted with each day.
So the question for us is: What does this mean for the Church? How should we live as those claimed by Christ in order to save the world if we can't even comprehend what is going on in the world?
The first thing to do, as I see it, is acknowledge that we're ALL in the same boat. No one is comfortable with the rate of change in the world, and no one can keep up with it all. Change has leveled the playing field, and we are all trying to wrestle with how to live. I propose that the Church has two options:
1) Grasp the past tightly and try to weather the storm. It seems this is the turn that the Catholic Church has recently decided to take with its recent advocacy of returning to the Latin Mass. This is also the approach of many Evangelicals/Fundamentalists who long for the glory days of religious revival or the hey-day of the American empire. I sometimes watch the more-extreme voices for these folks on channel 17 and they're usually talking about how evil the rest of the world is and how great their brand of Christianity is. As one of my professors rightly said; "the way forward is not backward".
2) Pack lightly and move forward. Change happens, and when it does, the Church needs to change too. That means that we need to discover what is essential to our faith and be willing to re-invent everything else. There are, however, many ways to go wrong with this approach. We sometimes throw the baby out with the bath water when it comes to change and tradition, and some traditions speak throughout the ages. I suggest that maybe the best place to start as far as what is non-negotiable is this simple three word confession that dates back to the early church: Jesus is Lord.
If we live with this truth at the center of our lives, nothing else can claim us or distract us from our mission in the world. If Jesus is Lord, nothing else can be. We still, of course, have to figure out the practical implications of what it means to make Jesus' life the center of our lives, but at least we'll be asking all the right questions - even if the answers miss the mark (and they will)...
We're still trying to figure out how we should live in this world of rampant change, and I have to say that it's really refreshing just to stop for a minute and talk with trusted friends about some of the craziness (good and bad) in the world and take time to think about what it all means. Ultimately, we know that as His people, Jesus is present and in the center of these discussions, and we pray for the courage to continually re-invent our Church so that we might live with Jesus at the center of our lives - constantly reminding ourselves that if Jesus is Lord, nothing else can be...
Check out how our Church tries to follow Jesus through all this change at www.lifesongchristiancommunities.org
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Why Blog?
So here it is... I've finally made the leap into the 21st century with my first blog.
Every so often I dive into the "blogosphere" and read up on just about anything I want to learn about from some pretty entertaining and educated characters. So why, I find myself asking, am I adding to the blog noise with one more?
The answer for me is pretty simple: My church's website won't let people comment on my thoughts on daily life without a password... So here I am, posting to my own blog.
I hope that in a few years I can look back on this first post and say a few things:
1) People have learned how to live better lives from the things discussed here.
2) We will have made progress toward learning how to be more authentic Christians.
3) That this blog has been even a small part of a second major reformation of the "protestant" church.
I think that for too long those of us who call ourselves "Christians" have separated going to church from our everyday lives. We can no longer, and we never really could, GO to church. We ARE the church. It is our identity. God has claimed us, and we are no longer our own...
So how do we live differently in 2007 and beyond? That's what we've got to figure out, and I think that we're on the verge of something big. I think that we're about to be humbled in a big way. The institutional/denominational "church" is declining, and God is doing something new...
Let's talk about what this "new" thing is. And let's learn from Jesus how to live differently, as His people for the good of our neighbors in this new world...
God's Peace, Rich
www.lifesongchristiancommunities.org
Every so often I dive into the "blogosphere" and read up on just about anything I want to learn about from some pretty entertaining and educated characters. So why, I find myself asking, am I adding to the blog noise with one more?
The answer for me is pretty simple: My church's website won't let people comment on my thoughts on daily life without a password... So here I am, posting to my own blog.
I hope that in a few years I can look back on this first post and say a few things:
1) People have learned how to live better lives from the things discussed here.
2) We will have made progress toward learning how to be more authentic Christians.
3) That this blog has been even a small part of a second major reformation of the "protestant" church.
I think that for too long those of us who call ourselves "Christians" have separated going to church from our everyday lives. We can no longer, and we never really could, GO to church. We ARE the church. It is our identity. God has claimed us, and we are no longer our own...
So how do we live differently in 2007 and beyond? That's what we've got to figure out, and I think that we're on the verge of something big. I think that we're about to be humbled in a big way. The institutional/denominational "church" is declining, and God is doing something new...
Let's talk about what this "new" thing is. And let's learn from Jesus how to live differently, as His people for the good of our neighbors in this new world...
God's Peace, Rich
www.lifesongchristiancommunities.org
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