SCREW THIS ... A PRAYER FOR ALL OF US

There are moments when I just want to say, “Screw it.” Honestly.

It’s not all the time. But every once in a while I feel discouraged, frustrated and tired. Days when it feels like I am trying to knock down a brick wall using only a tennis ball.

These are the days I wonder if what I am doing makes any difference. I ask myself questions about other things I could do – if only to escape for a moment the way I am feeling. More than this, I talk to God, often asking, “Why am I here?”

Perhaps you know exactly what I am talking about. It’s possible that you feel this way right here and right now. You may be in the midst of a long, deep struggle in a relationship with a friend, spouse or child. And you wonder if things will ever get better.

Maybe it’s your job that seems pointless. Every day as you fall asleep you wonder if you are making any difference in this world of ours. You wonder if your little corner of the universe will be any better because of your having lived in it. Or maybe it’s your general direction in life.

Nearly everyone I know struggles with these thoughts from time to time. We all ask, even cry out to God, “Why am I here?”

I recently read this prayer - it is an excerpt from Hebridean Altars: The Spirit of an Island Race from Alistair MacLean - in a book that I use to guide my time in prayer. I know I’ve read it before, but this time it screamed off the pages. The first part is a prayer that so many, myself included, have prayed. And the second part is the beautiful response of our loving, caring God.

“Seven times a day, as I work upon this hungry farm, I say to Thee, ‘Lord, why am I here? What is there here to stir my gifts to growth? What great thing can I do for others – I who am captive to this dreary toil?’

“And seven times a day Thou answerest, ‘I cannot do without thee. Once did My Son live thy life, and by His faithfulness did show My mind, My kindness, and My truth to men. But now He is come to My side, and thou must take His place.’”

May you, my sisters and brothers, find these words to be a great comfort and real challenge, and may they remind all of us that God has us right here, right now. Peace be with you.

MILLENNIALS, DON'T COME BACK TO THE CHURCH

I’m not so sure Millenials are leaving the Church. Wait, before you gather all your research or Google the statistics, hear me out. I believe something significant is happening with Millenials, but I do not think it’s fair to say they are leaving the church.

What I mean is this: Millenials are leaving what we have understood the Church in America to traditionally be. By this I mean they are leaving the institutions we have created, the Ecclesial Non-Profits that are designated as Tax-Exempt 501(c) 3 Organizations.

And this is not a bad thing either. I'm not sure they should come back. I think they can do better.

I believe that we are living in new times. I’m aware that every generation thinks they will do things differently than the one before them. But the times we are living in represent a shift happening across the globe. And, new times demand new thinking.

As I’ve engaged with and listened to Millenials what I hear from them is not an entire rejection of the Christian faith. What I hear is a desire to understand how they can live faithfully in the ways of Jesus in an rapidly changing world.

Their thinking has led many of them to believe that the Church, as it is currently constructed, will not continue to have the impact it has traditionally had in our world. As a result, many have left. Some in frustration. Some in search of something else. Some in hopes of defining a new way of thinking for the new times in which we find ourselves.

In the midst of all this I have hope. Let’s not forget that God has been a loving, faithful friend to humanity since the dawn of time. In fact, he is far more faithful and loving than any of us. No matter the day or age, he has always shown himself to people all over the earth, and he will do so in the days ahead.

Many have recognized the problems we face in our world today. The struggle is understanding solutions to those problems. My hope and belief is that the generations to come will create shape ways of thinking and communicating that will serve our ever-changing world well.

It’s easy to say what’s not working. But what about creating things that will work?

It’s easy to say why something is broken. But how can we find ways to repair what’s broken?

It’s easy to tear something apart. But what about building something?

You may be someone who has “left the Church.” There may be a long list of reasons for your having left. But whatever the reason, allow me offer up a challenge for you. No, I don’t intend to talk you into coming back. Rather, I want to encourage you to be the change you want to see.

Dream. Experiment. Create. Do something beautiful that will teach all of us how to think in these new times of ours. If we can commit ourselves to that we may see more people truly knowing the heart of Jesus – even if they never come back to Church.

THANK YOU TO MY CHURCH FAMILY

Recently, Rachel Held Evans wrote a blog titled, "11 Things I Wish More Pastors Would Say." It was an invitation to pastors to speak with greater humility and honesty for the benefit of their congregations. In response to her blog, a few pastors wrote what they wish people who are part of their church would say to them.One list in particular grabbed my attention. It was written by Eric Atcheson, titled "10 Things Pastors Need to Hear From Their Congregations." Among his top ten list were:How can I be praying for you?Enjoy your time away. Don't Stop Being yourself.(You can read the rest of the list by clicking here)As I read his list, I was struck by the fact that I frequently hear the things he listed from those who are part of the congregation here at Denver Community Church. I was again reminded how much care, love, support and encouragement I, and our leadership, receives from our brothers and sisters within our faith community. Even as I prepare to leave on vacation next week I have received several emails from those who wrote just to say things like, "Have a great vacation!" and "I'm excited for you and your family to to have time to rest and recharge." As Atcheson points out, those words are so good to hear.And so, I wanted to simply write a blog to my church family and say "Thank you." Your passion, humor, dedication to justice, pursuit of wholeness and love are a constant blessing and encouragement to me. Tuesday, July 2 will mark six years since the day I arrived in Denver. I am forever grateful for these six years, and am more excited for the years to come.

I JUST WANT TO BE FAMOUS

On his album Recovery, Eminem has a song called Almost Famous. The hook of that song ends with the words, “I just wanna be famous, But, be careful what you wish for.”

I’m not exactly sure what’s behind his warning, but the entire song is about reaching for the next rung in the ladder of success, and finally getting there. Which then brings up a haunting question, “Now what?”

This is important for us to consider. Research shows many more people in our world today not only want to be famous, but believe they will be famous one day. It’s safe to say, as Joel Stein points out in his article, “The New Greatest Generation” in TIME Magazine, we are "fame-obsessed."

And what happens in the event we do become famous? We are faced with the question, “Now what?” Because whatever it was that made you famous – wealth, looks, or talent – that is not the thing that will keep you famous.

Because people want more, new and different.

In our world, now more than ever, fame has a tremendously short shelf life. It’s not about what you’ve done, but what you're doing. And before you done doing what you’re doing, people want to know what you will do. We live in a world that is always on the lookout for the next big thing, the next hot story, the next best athlete and the next coolest band.

This can lead us to believe that no matter how great a success, or how well we did something before – we have to do better the next time. Over time, we set for ourselves a bar that is always getting higher, ignoring the reality that at some point it will be too high and we will never stand a chance of clearing it.

Perhaps the best antidote to this current trend in our world today are two simple, old-fashioned, down-to-earth attitudes: contentment and commitment.

I’ve noticed that I rarely hear people speak about being content anymore. It’s not often someone speaks of being thankful because they have enough. I don’t recall the last time I’ve heard someone speaking of wanting nothing more than they already possess.

We need to practice contentment, and allow ourselves to enjoy the place we currently inhabit. Not in a complacent way, of course, but in a way that gives us a moment to look around and give thanks for all that has been given to us. There’s a chance that if we do this more often, we may find ourselves needing (and even wanting) less.

And what about commitment? There is something compelling in those who choose to take a long walk in the same direction. In our world today we see the instant nature of everything, the convenience of things being disposable, technology that is 6 months old becoming obsolete and everything from houses, to jobs, to marriages being something we use and leave – commitment is peculiar in our world today.

And just like contentment, we need to practice commitment. It would do us good to arm ourselves with the resolve to wake up day after day, and continue on the same journey we were on the day before. Sure, at times, it can be boring. Really, really boring. But that’s normal. The fact is, our world has fed us the lie that life will and should always be exciting and new. Not true.

Much of life is mundane, routine and constant. It’s easy to find beauty in the midst of excitement or something new. It takes discipline to stop and see the goodness in the “everyday” of everyday life. Sometimes, it’s not about outdoing yourself again, but being faithful just to complete the task before you.

With all of the temptation toward fame these days, perhaps a little contentment and commitment, will cause us to stop and be careful what we wish for.

IS HEAVEN REALLY FOR REAL?

Heaven, it seems, is a hot topic these days. And not just in the Church. Many are interested and willing to speak of their experiences of dying, going to heaven and then being brought back to life. As great as this sounds, there are skeptics. And the skeptics are not just atheists.

One example of an after death experience that has grown popular, especially with conservative Christians, is the story of Colton Burpo. Burpo is the subject of the popular book tilted: Heaven is for Real. To date the book has sold more than 8 million copies.

Some of the biggest fans of this book are those who are committed to the Bible as the ultimate authority by which all knowledge should be judged. Even so, they see Burpo’s experience as evidence that confirms their belief in heaven that is rooted in their understanding of Scripture and theology.

This should come as no surprise. Often, whenever experiences or evidence confirm one’s beliefs, those experiences and evidence are clung to with great hope. For they prove what one believes to be true. Which raises a question: How much should experience or evidence inform, confirm and validate our understanding of Scripture and theology?

Before we answer that too quickly, let’s consider another angle on experiences and evidence. There are times when experiences or evidence is at odds with the Bible or one’s theology. Rather than confirm one’s beliefs, it challenges and undermines them. When this happens one often uses their understanding of the Bible or theology to explain away why the evidence is wrong, or why we should not trust the experience.

Which raises a second question: How should we respond when experiences or evidence contradicts our understanding of Scripture and theology?

And, before we answer too quickly, let’s consider one last thing.

If we are going to accept experiences that confirm our understanding of the Bible as good and true, then it stands to reason that we have to honestly grapple with experiences and evidence that disagree with the Bible. We cannot accept one and while simply dismissing the other. We must hold both honestly.

This is what was going through my mind when I read CNN Belief Blog’s article titled, “Proof of Heaven Popular, Except With the Church” by John Blake.

While many within the Church love to contemplate and consider heaven, and many love to hear stories about the afterlife – there is one thing that stood out to me. In his article, Blake points to the fact that there is much in common with these near-death experiences. People spoke of “traveling through a tunnel, greeting family and friends who had died, and meeting a luminous being that gave them a detailed review of their life and asked them whether they had spent their life loving others."

These experiences were not just reserved for Christians like Colton Burpo, whose father is an Evangelical pastor. These experiences of heaven and a luminous divine being were experienced by people around the world who had varying beliefs regarding God, religion, faith, death and the after life.

Which raises another question: If Christians are going to trust experiences like Burpo’s because they confirm our beliefs about heaven; then do we have to trust the experiences of others that were nearly the same as Burpo's – even if those people were non-Christians?

What do you think? Should we accept all experiences or only those that confirm our beliefs? What do we gain or lose by only accepting experiences with which we agree? What about evidences that stands against the Bible? Can we or should we explain that away, or can it sharpen how we see our world? Would love to hear your thoughts ...

QUESTIONING GOD

This is the fourth installment of responses to your questions. My hope is to have this be a piece of larger, ongoing conversations, and not to be the last word. Many responses are designed to do just this. My hope is to respond in a way that opens the questions wider, rather than narrow them.

Q: God brought my girlfriend and me together in college. We pursued Him in our dating relationship and engagement period – we felt it was all part of God’s plan.  We prayed often that our relationship would not be based on each other and the other person making us happy, but that our source of life would be in Christ. After years of dating and getting engaged, she called the things off. How, after years of clearly pursuing the Lord in our relationship, is our marriage no longer in God's plan?  I know I can't see the bigger picture. But that still doesn't take away my question of "Why?" But then again, who am I to ask God why?  I have to trust that He has a greater purpose.  Just like Job was doing, God said listen Job, can you cast stars into space?  And as Isaiah 45 says, "Does the clay say to the potter, what are you making?"

R: There are many times in life when we ask God, “Why?” And I don’t believe that’s wrong. Let’s not forget the brutal honesty we find in the Psalms. Some say as many as half of the Psalms are laments. People crying out to God; saying things like:

Why, LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? Ps 10.1

Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? Ps 22.1

Why should the nations say, “Where is their God? Ps 79.10

Why? Why? Why? If we translated the words in these Psalms in a modern, literal way, many of us may have a hard time ever saying them. These Psalmists are not engaging in a task of writing nice, cozy Christian poetry. These Psalms are from deep in the gut – filled with rage, anger, sorrow, doubt and pain. They are shouting out, “God, what’s wrong are you deaf?!

The downside is we rarely hear about these Psalms. Perhaps this is due to the fact that many of us live in denial with regard to pain. In her book titled, Trauma and Recovery, Judith Herman says, “The ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness.” And there are many ways to banish them.

We try to explain things that defy explanation. We try to find good believing there has to be some – even if it’s obvious there isn’t. We argue that this was all God’s will, and make him out to be a puppeteer controlling the world and us like marionettes. And then say things like, “Who am I to ask why?

It’s no wonder. We do not often look to these Psalms. Walter Brueggeman, in his book The Message of the Psalms, says:

It is a curious fact that the church has, by and large, continued to sing songs of orientation in a world increasingly experienced as disoriented … this action of the church is less an evangelical defiance guided by faith, and much more a frightened, numb denial and deception that does not want to acknowledge or experience the disorientation of life. The reason for such relentless affirmation of orientation seems to come, not from faith, but from the wishful optimism of our culture.

Perhaps it’s time for us to be more honest than ever – knowing all the while God can handle it. Let’s not forget, God knows firsthand what it means to feel pain. “He took up our pain and bore our suffering …” (Isaiah 53.4) He understands where we are, and that, at times when it really hurts we – in tired, exasperation cry out, “Why?” or “How could you let this happen?”

This kind of doubt, expressed honestly, may be our greatest display of faith. I say this because when we cry out; we cry out to God. We don’t cry out to our friends for an explanation, we don’t yell at family or ponder it alone.

Not at all.

We bring our grief and pain before God saying, “I don’t get it … but I believe you do. Help me out here!” This is why I believe that doubt is a good friend of faith. Frederick Buechner said,  "Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving." It’s possible that the more we silence our doubt – out of fear or doubting that we can doubt – it’s possible we do more harm to our faith than if we make it known to God.

Let’s not forget this is what we see time and time again in the Psalms is doubt shouted out to God. And we never see the person who doubted later apologize for having doubted, nor is there any notion of God rebuking them for doing so. Once again, Brueggeman sheds light on this. He says,

The use of these “psalms of darkness” may be judged by the world to be acts of unfaith and failure, but for the trusting community, their use is an act of bold faith, albeit a transformed faith. It is an act of bold faith on the one hand, because it insists that the world must be experienced as it really is and not in some pretended way. On the other hand, it is bold because it insists that all experiences of disorder are a proper subject for discourse with God. There is nothing out of bounds, nothing precluded or inappropriate.

Which brings me to a question about your question. What would happen if you shouted in desperation to God? What if you dug deep, grasped your pain, confusion, sadness and disbelief and threw all it at God? After all, these are the very things he bore on that horrible instrument of torture we call a cross. Perhaps, it's worth a try.

EULOGIZING DALLAS WILLARD

It may seem odd that I am writing a eulogy about a man I never had the pleasure of meeting. Perhaps if I explain why I am writing a eulogy it may make a little more sense.

Shortly after college graduation I was at a place in life that could easily have been described as confused or directionless. Not just with regard to life, but also with regard to God. He made little sense to me and the Church made even less. One afternoon, I explained all of this to a friend of mine – who happened to be a pastor. After telling him of my confusion,  he stood up, walked over to a bookshelf in the room, grabbed a book, handed it to me and said, “You need to read this.”

With that, he turned his chair around, faced his desk and stopped talking to me. Apparently he wanted me to read the book right then and there. So I did. Two hours later, still reading, I had learned more about the heart of Jesus than I did in all the years of my life up to that point.

The book? The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard.

Within the next few days I finished reading it, and had a profound sense that my life would forever be different. Willard’s book saved my faith, reoriented my life and sent me in an entirely new direction. For the first time I had heard good news that was actually good.

Up to that point, what most people called the gospel seemed more like a veiled threat. But that day in my friend's office, my understanding of God, Jesus, the good news and what it meant to be a Christian was radically reoriented. Through Willard’s words I was introduced, for the first time, to the idea of  what we can and should do with our lives. This gospel was not a threat – it was an invitation – and I accepted.

I learned that I could have a new, vibrant life right here – or as Willard called it, “The eternal kind of life now.” For the first time, being a Christian made sense. Since that time I have read The Divine Conspiracy more than five times (each time with a different colored highlighter). I have also read Renovation of the Heart, The Spirit of the Disciplines and The Great Omission.

Every word in his books, every idea presented and the heart with which he wrote has shaped me and proven to further my journey that has led me to the place I am today. It’s safe to say that our world is poorer because of Willard’s passing. However, we can also say, with full confidence, that our world is richer because of his having passed through it.

And so, I eulogize Dallas Willard, a man that I never met because his words and his life helped to shape this one.

A QUESTION OF MEDITATION

This is the third installment of responses to your questions. My hope is to have this be a piece of larger, ongoing conversations, and not to be the last word. Many responses are designed to do just this. My hope is to respond in a way that opens the questions wider, rather than narrow them.QuestionI have taken up meditation in the form of mindfulness based stress reduction.  I have been doing a program where we use Sanskrit mantras. I like the mantras in that they really do help me stay focused during meditation. Is it wrong to say mantras in Sanskrit? Is it wrong to meditate?ResponseThere has been so much written on meditation that I don’t believe I will add much to what’s already out there. With this in mind, below I have shared some resources and thoughts from others regarding meditation.In reply to the question “Is it wrong to meditate?” No. It’s been a part of the Christian tradition for centuries, and is once again gaining popularity, which is a wonderful thing. Meditation is simply opening up so that we can hear the voice of God. It is a filling, not an emptying.Richard Foster wrote in Celebration of Discipline the goal of Eastern Meditation is “to empty the mind” - to think about nothing. Christian mediation seeks to fill his or her mind with God. Tony Jones, in his book The Sacred Way, quotes Hans Urs von Balthasar who said, “Christian meditation can be nothing but loving, reflective, obedient contemplation of him who is God’s self-expression. He is the very explanation of God and his teaching to us.” Jones concludes that “the focus of all Christian meditation must be Jesus Christ.”This is an important distinction. In one sense, we do empty ourselves. We empty ourselves of our wanton lusts and undesirable thoughts. However, we do not stop there. We listen for the voice of God. We place our mind and hearts squarely in and with him, so that we can be filled with his words, his presence and his Spirit. Foster says mediation is ““the ability to hear God’s voice and obey his word.”It is one way we learn not only who God is, but who we are. Thomas à Kempis said meditation is the practice of creating a “familiar friendship with Jesus”. At one level, meditation is a mental discipline, but we cannot stop there. It is also a core spiritual discipline. It allows us to move beyond the noise, busyness and chaos that too often cloud our thoughts. In meditation we are able to give our mind, heart, body and soul to God alone.One way to do this is to do what the Psalmist spoke of: meditate on the word of God. Take a portion of Scripture and dwell on it. For example, Psalm 86:11 says,“Teach me your way, LordThat I may rely on your faithfulness.” (NIV)One can breathe in deeply while contemplating the words, “Teach me your way, Lord.” Then exhale fully while contemplating the words, “That I may rely on your faithfulness.”Let’s not forget these are the very words of God. As such, they are words that give us life. What language we say them in is neither here or there. However, if I have a choice between meditating on words from Scripture or an inspiring phrase or thought – I would choose Scripture every time as my mantra.Resources for learning more:The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas MertonCelebration of Discipline by Richard FosterThe Sacred Way by Tony JonesRenovaré