What I don't believe

A few days ago at work a woman handed me a small tract entitled "You can rely on Me! - A message from Jesus"

It is published by The Family International. I accepted it and was going to throw it away when I realized that this was an opportunity to better understand those that also confess to be Christian. I read the small pamphlet and I would like to share my thoughts on it with you.

The pamphlet proposes a 'Christianity' that is a personal way to ensure your own safety. According to them, if you trust in Jesus and pray to Jesus than no harm will come to you. This ultimate, almighty, all powerful creator of the universe relies on us. If we only trust him and pray than we will be ensured safety. "I also need you to pray because that activates My ability to keep you and My power to heal and to save." The realm where this Jesus lives is the place where miracles are possible. If we simply believe in Jesus and pray to him we are going to be safe in this life and in the next to come.

Obviously, this is not the Christianity that I believe. The glaring contradiction is that this all powerful God who so loves the world that He sent His only Son, would then withhold that power while He waits for us to pray to Him. Can you imagine a Father who had a dinner prepared for his son watching his son go hungry while he waited for his son to say "Can I please have some dinner, father?" Is that the God that sent Jesus? I hope not. (In fact, this might be biblical) I cannot believe in a God that is so unloving as to wait for us to pray so that this all powerful power can be released.

If God is perfect and powerful than who are we to be needed by this God. If God truly loves us (even though we are not perfect) than why would God withhold any good thing from us, simply because we did not ask in the correct way. This can lead to self blame and ignorance of the miracle of life that is around us all the time. If we are always waiting to be perfect so that we can finally receive that miracle that God is holding out on us than we miss Life. We are not Living - we are simply waiting. When we make God into this powerful being that doles out gifts and favors in the form of miracles we are limiting both ourselves and God.

God is so much more than an almighty being that gives miracles to the righteous - God is the source of love and power and goodness in this world. God is the ability for the mother of a murdered son to forgive the murderer. God is the beauty of the sea ebbing and flowing continuously. God is when people choose peace over war. God is in the good things that people bring here on Earth. God is when two children share on the playground. These small every day instances are the face of God. This is the God that I can and do worship.

My 6 word autobiography

A good friend of mine challenged me to write a 6 word autobiography. This is an exercise he does with his English students in Japan. Here is the one I just came up with. I'm not sure if this is an autobiography of my life or just of this moment. But, this is my 6 word autobiography. What's yours?


living doubted faith moving toward action

TWLI

The Way Life Is. TWLI is the abbreviation they used in the Profound Journey Dialog as shorthand for the way life is. Life is a series of desires and limits. We desire good but are limited by evil. Polar opposites. We say light is the opposite of dark. Yet, these polarities, or opposites are not life. Instead life is the tension, or the buzz between the two. A good example is a magnet - the north and south poles are opposites, but the magnetic attraction comes from the energy flowing between the two. We can see the opposites in the Christmas story. There is a pregnant virgin. There is a king afraid of a baby. There are Angels singing on an otherwise silent night. A baby, born in a stable, to poor unwed parents is said to be the savior of the world. These opposites are there to remind us of the pull, of the buzz between these opposites where Life is. They are representative our struggle with our desires and with the very real limits of life. Life is not lived in black and white - instead Life is lived in the grey, but Life is defined and shaped by the black and white lines. When we forget those lines we forget the sacred in Life and everything and anything and nothing becomes meaningful; but when we say only those lines are sacred we lose the pulse and love and meaning in everyday life. Our job, as religious people, is to remind each other of the child that is born inside us that is that buzz and pull and tension of Life. We are to remind each other of The Way Life Is.

Disclaimer: Most of this post was inspired by, or direct examples from, a sermon I heard today at Church. I want to give full credit to Jim Rigby at St. Andrew's Presbyterian in Austin, TX.