Help me out here...again

Ok, I'm trying to make sense of something.

Let's say you have a skill. (Why don't we use...oh, COOKING, as an example?)
Let's say you use that skill occasionally in a semi-professional manner. (Maybe like catering wedding receptions/rehearsal dinners/etc. And you're damned good at it.)
Let's say you volunteer to use that skill to serve others. (Cooking meals for about 50 people on a mission trip, maybe?)

So...what if the "powers that be" tell you that, simply because you don't meet the "requirements" (umm...not over age 60), you will not be allowed to utilize your skill and will, instead, be considered an "unskilled laborer" and will be assigned instead to a team of people who don't have any special skills?

And let's say you have a bit of a red-headed temper. ;-) Let's just say I'm still considering my options...

All kidding aside, this particular situation has really driven home to me a bigger truth.

We are SO quick, as "the church" to assign labels to someone...at what cost? We overlook the gifts/skills that God has given to individuals--lumping them, instead, into the "categories" that we want/need filled. We make our own list of requirements and try to force people to fit into our mold of what WE think parts of the body should look like/do.

Do we ever stop to think what that could potentially do to the person we're labelling? I mean, I'm a confident person and I'm pretty solid in my knowledge of my giftings and my skills...and in how they should be used. But what about a new believer? Or someone just beginning to understand that they have a unique gift that only they can offer the kingdom? What happens when we tell THEM that "oh, you should be a teacher" simply because there's an opening in the Sunday School department? Let's say they can sing like an angel, but you don't think you "need" another soprano in the choir. Does God gift so haphazardly that he wouldn't be aware of this person's gift?

I. Don't. Think. So.

We're an F'd up bunch.

Ok. Rant over. This isn't fleshed-out very well, because...well, it IS a rant. I'm still thinking about the deeper implications of this WRONG way of thinking.

My love/hate relationship with Derek Webb...

Right now I hate him. Because, deep-down, I know he's right. And I don't want him to be. Because, if he is, I have to change. (As if I didn't already know that...)

Like Shane says..."have we even BEGUN to take the words of Jesus seriously?" And my answer, if I'm really honest, unfortunately, is "no, I haven't."

Rich Young Ruler--Derek Webb

(vs. 1)
poverty is so hard to see
when it’s only on your tv and twenty miles across town
where we’re all living so good
that we moved out of Jesus’ neighborhood
where he’s hungry and not feeling so good
from going through our trash
he says, more than just your cash and coin
i want your time, i want your voice
i want the things you just can’t give me

(vs. 2)
so what must we do
here in the west we want to follow you
we speak the language and we keep all the rules
even a few we made up
come on and follow me
but sell your house, sell your suv
sell your stocks, sell your security
and give it to the poor
what is this, hey what’s the deal
i don’t sleep around and i don’t steal
i want the things you just can’t give me

(bridge)
because what you do to the least of these
my brothers, you have done it to me
because i want the things you just can’t give me

Is "NakedPastor" my alter-ego?

Sometimes I think so. And sometimes I think I need to start looking for the bugs that I know this pastor from Canada has managed to sneak into my house, so he can listen to my conversations and blog about them like they were his own thoughts!! It's almost eerie sometimes. I'm quoting some big chunks from his last blog entry, because HE has unknowingly (I think!) quoted me almost verbatim from a couple of conversations I've had this past week. I'm editing out a little of the personal stuff about his family, but...those of you who've talked to me recently--how familiar does this sound?

I just don’t know how to “do” church anymore. In fact, I don’t want to do church anymore! I’m done. I’m not done with my friends, the people I am among, the people who call me their pastor. But I’m done with doing church. You don’t do church. If you’re doing church, then you’re not doing church. And I’m not trying to be Zen. This isn’t a koan. It is fact. You can’t do church anymore than you can do family.

Can you imagine if I woke up Saturday morning and announced to Lisa and the kids, “Okay, we’re going to do family today!” They’d think I’d finally lost it. They’d groan and complain and hate us for forcing them to play a part in a play they have no interest in. But what if I got up Saturday morning, like we sometimes do, and we started the fresh ground coffee, started grilling the bacon and mixing the blueberry pancakes? What if we set it all on the table and just sat down to eat when it was ready? What if we then decided to go to the mall to spend some of the money they’d made that week on cds and clothes? Then we happened to notice that there was a movie playing at the theater, so we took it in. Then we went back home and everyone dispersed and went their own way to maybe reconnect if we’re lucky just before we go to bed? What if that happened? We weren’t doing family at all. Not even subversively!

This is how I see community. We get together and be what we already are without trying or pretending or even planning. Sometimes it is ideal. Sometimes it sucks so hard you die of boredom. I’ve seen this over and over again. I mean, if Lisa and I planned an ideal Saturday like I mentioned above, it just wouldn’t happen, mainly because the kids wouldn’t be the least bit interested in fulfilling our plans for them. If it happens, great! If not, whatever! Maybe another time. Maybe not. But we’re still a family. I just refuse to “do” it.

Just for fun...

...what I've been seeing lately.

Oh, how we suffer...

I had one of those "epiphanal" moments last night. In Starbucks. While waiting for my pumpkin spice latte. (Another reason I love autumn.)

There were 3 young men sitting at a table near the shelf of clearance items and I couldn't help but overhear their conversation while I was looking for some bargain Christmas gifts. Probably college students--really nice-looking guys...dressed in their Abercrombie and Aeropostale shirts and obviously not-cheap jeans, hair appropriately "un"-styled, funky glasses, fresh-faced, really sweet, innocent, unspoiled-by-the-world countenances. They truly looked just plain NICE and "boy-next-door-ish". They'd been having a bible study and were talking about what to study for next week.

The leader told them to read 1 Peter 4, because it talked about suffering for Christ and was "really cool"...and important to understand how, as believers, we have to suffer for the cause of Christ.

I realize that any of those young men might have some dark, painful things hidden behind those well-scrubbed fresh, innocent faces, but...it made me really stop and think about what "suffering" really is.

When I REALLY stop to think about genuine suffering, I think of the "night commuter"children in Darfur who've left their homes and families to avoid the genocide ravaging their country. I think of the people starving in the displacement camps in Northern Uganda. I think of the thousands of families still living in 20-foot FEMA trailers 2 years post-Katrina, wondering if they'll ever have a "normal" life again. I think of First Nations people living in absolute squalor and abject poverty on desolate reservations in the middle of the so-called "greatest country in the world". I think of a teenager who's been abused and abandoned by a mom incapable of loving even her own children.

I can't really equate "suffering" with sitting at Starbucks, venti latte in hand. Most of us only think we "suffer". Myself included.

1 Peter 4:12Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. 13But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 14If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 15If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. 16However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. 17For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18And, "If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" 19So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

NakedPastor on church finances...

This one hits pretty close to MY home and my heart! Gotta love David Hayward (NakedPastor) and his sense of humor.

Maybe he's seen our flashing neon-bright sign. ;-)

Me Worship

We may not say it quite this blatantly, but isn't this the underlying thought in most of what passes for "worship" in church? Or am I just bitter and jaded?

A sabbath of sorts...

I'm on holiday today. Not just a day off from work, but a day off from LIFE. Or the craziness, anyway, that's been my life for the past five or six weeks.

I looked at my calendar the other night and realized that, since AUGUST 30, I've not had one weeknight or Saturday at home. Even for me, that's a little too much. Not that I don't, for the most part, enjoy football games and volleyball games and board meetings and getting my hair cut and visiting with family and friends and...all that other stuff. I love my life and want to wring every bit of "living" out of it that I can, but I've been feeling, for the past few days, that living has wrung the life out of me.

So, today I've uploaded several hundred photos from my camera, finished a printing job I'd started 3 weeks ago, caught up on some emails, did some more research on intentional community and new monasticism, wrote a long-overdue letter to a friend in need of encouragement, decluttered the kitchen and living room, washed 3 loads of laundry...and I actually slept almost 8 hours last night, except for a few minor cat-dancing-on-my-head interruptions in the middle of the night. I still have the remainders of 4 weeks of laundry to fold and put away (it's going to be nice not living out of the laundry basket for awhile!) and a lot of dusting and vacuuming to do, but I've made some progress today. And I've done it at my own pace, without feeling there's an invisible stopwatch hanging over my head.

All of that may not seem either like a holiday OR a sabbath to anyone else, but it has been for me. There's something peaceful and holy about putting your house in order...and listening to your mind and body when they're screaming for a break from the daily insanity of life.

And, tonight, I get to hang out with a bunch of great friends who make me laugh...and I'll be mentally rested and ready to laugh again. Life is good.

Brokenness...

The great mystery of God's love is that we are not asked to live as if we are not hurting, as if we are not broken. In fact, we are invited to recognize our brokenness as a brokenness in which we can come in touch with the unique way that God loves us. The great invitation is to live your brokenness under the blessing. I cannot take people's brokenness away and people cannot take my brokenness away.

But how do you live in your brokenness? Do you live your brokenness under the blessing or under the curse? The great call of Jesus is to put your brokenness under the blessing.

Henri J.M. Nouwen

Purple pie...yum!!!

So, I've taken another little slice out of the purple pie and it's GOOD!! :-)

This isn't going to be as easy as I hoped it might...it's good to have the visual in front of me to keep reminding me to be vigilant. This is the time of year that I start doing my Christmas shopping and it's easy for me to go overboard and get a little extravagant in my gift-giving.

Watching the pie get smaller each month should help to keep me on track. I hope. And spur me on to be a little more creative and a little less "spendy" on gifts this year.