So this morning, I can't get the Christmas song sleigh ride out of my head... I've been up since 5:45 because I worked at 6:30. During the wee hours of the morning, I was singing, "Giddy up giddy up giddy up let's go. Let's look at the snow. We're riding in a wonderland of snow." And I exclaimed after thinking about it, "you can't rhyme snow with snow!" My co-worker insisted you could... It just made no sense...
So later on, another co-worker said, "I think it's show, not snow." And I said, '"Let's look at the show?' What show? What is the song talking about?" None of my co-workers, nor I, really knew.
About 10 minutes later I realized, the snow is the show! The wonderland of snow is the show!
It was a proud moment for me and my co-workers laughed at how excited I was about this epiphany. Point of the story... there's not really one...
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Learning about community and our culture from Motion City Soundtrack
Last Saturday, I went to a rock show, suffered through a band called Metro Station, basked in the beautiful sounds of Anberlin, Mae, and was first exposed (I know, I know, I should've been exposed a long time ago) to Motion City Soundtrack.
And as people are screaming their lungs out all around me, with smiles on the faces to one of their favorite bands, I started asking, "What is it about rock that resonates so much with it's listeners."
I'm sure this is nothing new, but I think there's something we can learn from rock. I look at our culture today and I see this huge need for community, a need to belong to a cause, a desire to get rid of everything fake and insincere and be real, authentic. Look at rock. Why do people like it? Because it moves them, because it's about life when it sucks, life when it's awesome, love, hate, success, failure, heartbreak, spirituality, all these things. And at a show, you put a whole bunch of people in a room together to their favorite band and you have instant community, a group united because they identify with the songs - they see themselves and their experience in the music. An instant community of people is sharing this intimate moment together at the top of their lungs.
But I wonder if people realize the reason this rock n' roll experience is resonates with them is because they identify with the music, because they are experiencing this instant community for an hour and a half... because it is reflective of something going on deep within them ... a desire for community, a desire to belong.
I think this is reflective of our society. And as believers, there is a lot to be learned. As believers, we are called to take the Gospel to people, and to accompany the Gospel by meeting the needs of those we share it with - evangelism and action beautifully wed. And in our culture, to meet the needs of many is to meet that need of community and belonging everyone has tucked somewhere deep inside of them, whether they are unaware of that or not. People don't want masks, they don't want fake. They want real.
This is the reason the number one way people are coming to Jesus from our generation is through small group Bible study. People crave relationships, community, belonging. People need more than to be told the Gospel leads to life-transformation, they need to see it.
This is also the reason is so important to build relationships with those who don't yet believe and to share life with them. They need to see the Gospel in action.
So enough for now... I'm trying to blog a little bit several times a week to get my thoughts on paper and become a better write... it probably all sucks right now, but I'm hoping this discipline will help...
And as people are screaming their lungs out all around me, with smiles on the faces to one of their favorite bands, I started asking, "What is it about rock that resonates so much with it's listeners."
I'm sure this is nothing new, but I think there's something we can learn from rock. I look at our culture today and I see this huge need for community, a need to belong to a cause, a desire to get rid of everything fake and insincere and be real, authentic. Look at rock. Why do people like it? Because it moves them, because it's about life when it sucks, life when it's awesome, love, hate, success, failure, heartbreak, spirituality, all these things. And at a show, you put a whole bunch of people in a room together to their favorite band and you have instant community, a group united because they identify with the songs - they see themselves and their experience in the music. An instant community of people is sharing this intimate moment together at the top of their lungs.
But I wonder if people realize the reason this rock n' roll experience is resonates with them is because they identify with the music, because they are experiencing this instant community for an hour and a half... because it is reflective of something going on deep within them ... a desire for community, a desire to belong.
I think this is reflective of our society. And as believers, there is a lot to be learned. As believers, we are called to take the Gospel to people, and to accompany the Gospel by meeting the needs of those we share it with - evangelism and action beautifully wed. And in our culture, to meet the needs of many is to meet that need of community and belonging everyone has tucked somewhere deep inside of them, whether they are unaware of that or not. People don't want masks, they don't want fake. They want real.
This is the reason the number one way people are coming to Jesus from our generation is through small group Bible study. People crave relationships, community, belonging. People need more than to be told the Gospel leads to life-transformation, they need to see it.
This is also the reason is so important to build relationships with those who don't yet believe and to share life with them. They need to see the Gospel in action.
So enough for now... I'm trying to blog a little bit several times a week to get my thoughts on paper and become a better write... it probably all sucks right now, but I'm hoping this discipline will help...
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Fred Claus - Good Movie, Bad Theology
Thanksgiving was great for me. It was so nice to go home to Rochester and be with my family for a few days. On Friday we went to see Fred Claus, a new Christmas movie. It was a cute fun movie. Throw it in the category of all the Tim Allen Santa Claus movies and add Vince Vaughn and there you go, instant Christmas classic.
It was at this movie I found out everyone is a fundamentally good person. And I say, ya, this movie must be right. Jesus must have come to earth around Christmastime, not to save sinners, but to pat us all on the back and tell what good people we are all. The world doesn't really need a Savior, just a pat on the back to encourage us to do the good we're all capable of.
Well, as you and I both know, central to the Christian faith is the truth that humankind is not fundamentally good, but fundamentally flawed. This is the mess we find ourselves in. We have chosen not pursue the things of God, but instead to pursue our own selfish desires. And this is why the world is a mess - because we know no better. And while we may find in ourselves ambitions to do good things, we also find within ourselves ambitions to only look out for ourselves. And when we really think about it, we can remember some pretty bad things we have done, we have thought... since we have come into this world, we have been crying to our mamas and the world around us "feed me! look at me! take care of me!"... we do this because it is our nature.
God has a standard for people to be in communion with Him. That standard is perfection. God cannot look upon sin. And we are in sin, because we have chosen our way over His. This is the mess Jesus has come to save us from. This is why the world needs a Savior. Jesus came and took the punishment for our choosing our way over God's, and falling short of His standard of perfection. And this is why we celebrate Christmas. Because we are in a mess, and Jesus has saved us from ourselves. When we realize the mess we're in, that we deserve separation from God for choosing our way over His, but that Jesus came to save us from ourselves, taking the punishment we deserved, and then enabling us to live a life we could not live on our own... this is the reason we celebrate Christmas.
Fred Claus - funny good family film, bad theology. At the very end of the film, silent night is playing in the background. But the song replaced the lyric in the 2nd verse "Christ the Savior was born" with the last lyric in the 1st verse "sleep in heavenly peace." Because who needs a Savior when we are all fundamentally good people? ... you and I know different
It was at this movie I found out everyone is a fundamentally good person. And I say, ya, this movie must be right. Jesus must have come to earth around Christmastime, not to save sinners, but to pat us all on the back and tell what good people we are all. The world doesn't really need a Savior, just a pat on the back to encourage us to do the good we're all capable of.
Well, as you and I both know, central to the Christian faith is the truth that humankind is not fundamentally good, but fundamentally flawed. This is the mess we find ourselves in. We have chosen not pursue the things of God, but instead to pursue our own selfish desires. And this is why the world is a mess - because we know no better. And while we may find in ourselves ambitions to do good things, we also find within ourselves ambitions to only look out for ourselves. And when we really think about it, we can remember some pretty bad things we have done, we have thought... since we have come into this world, we have been crying to our mamas and the world around us "feed me! look at me! take care of me!"... we do this because it is our nature.
God has a standard for people to be in communion with Him. That standard is perfection. God cannot look upon sin. And we are in sin, because we have chosen our way over His. This is the mess Jesus has come to save us from. This is why the world needs a Savior. Jesus came and took the punishment for our choosing our way over God's, and falling short of His standard of perfection. And this is why we celebrate Christmas. Because we are in a mess, and Jesus has saved us from ourselves. When we realize the mess we're in, that we deserve separation from God for choosing our way over His, but that Jesus came to save us from ourselves, taking the punishment we deserved, and then enabling us to live a life we could not live on our own... this is the reason we celebrate Christmas.
Fred Claus - funny good family film, bad theology. At the very end of the film, silent night is playing in the background. But the song replaced the lyric in the 2nd verse "Christ the Savior was born" with the last lyric in the 1st verse "sleep in heavenly peace." Because who needs a Savior when we are all fundamentally good people? ... you and I know different
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Are we feeding our own self-righteousness?
So I recently picked up a copy of a Christian publication, and on the front page, I read
"Atheists are less likely to 'do good' survey concludes."
Immediately I wonder, what good does including this article in this publication do? What are Christ-followers to conclude from reading this? I can't help but conclude an article like this only serves to feed our self-righteousness... that feeling that says, "Ya, we're better than everyone else! We're right, you're wrong. Look! Look at this article! Take that atheists!"
Does this article help us reach those who need Jesus? Or does this only serve to pat us on the back because of our own righteousness, telling us what good Christians we are?
I'm reminded of the Ancient Hebrew scripture, the one Paul reminds us of in Romans when he quotes, "There is no one righteous, not even one." I'm reminded, atheist, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, the list goes on, yes, even Christ-follower... we are all a mess, all in need of a Savior named Jesus, who came to redeem us and set things right, whose reason for coming was not to pat us on the back and tell us how good we each were, but was to save us from this mess we find ourselves in.
Immediately I wonder, what good does including this article in this publication do? What are Christ-followers to conclude from reading this? I can't help but conclude an article like this only serves to feed our self-righteousness... that feeling that says, "Ya, we're better than everyone else! We're right, you're wrong. Look! Look at this article! Take that atheists!"
Does this article help us reach those who need Jesus? Or does this only serve to pat us on the back because of our own righteousness, telling us what good Christians we are?
I'm reminded of the Ancient Hebrew scripture, the one Paul reminds us of in Romans when he quotes, "There is no one righteous, not even one." I'm reminded, atheist, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, the list goes on, yes, even Christ-follower... we are all a mess, all in need of a Savior named Jesus, who came to redeem us and set things right, whose reason for coming was not to pat us on the back and tell us how good we each were, but was to save us from this mess we find ourselves in.
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