So if you become a Christian and burn all of your CD's and stop cussing, drinking and smoking, but make no attempt to alleviate suffering or pain in life around you, do you think God cares? Isn't that tithing mint leaves? So you shove your righteousness in front of everyone within spitting distance, does God really care?
Pete Rollins, in his latest post places Fundamentalists in the same camp as Evolutionists, which should cause either group to roll their eyes. My undergraduate degree is in the realm of hard science and I have always sensed the similarities, but Rollins does a wonderful job of articulating the similarities.
Scientists will not dispute that they use the scientific method as their lens in which to see the world. Fundamentalists might. They both just have something to prove.
A well intentioned geriatric church member approached me and stated with some concern and urgency that, "I know of a young couple that has recently moved to town that is a hot prospect for our church. I have also heard they have already visited (insert name of rival baptist church) and they were really putting the heat on them."
I hate church growth. It brings out some of the stupidest comments from perfectly good Christians. People will doubt their worship, question their staff, disembowel their music and completely abandon all thoughts of God, in the name of getting warm butts in the pews (that is the right warm butts).
What happens? Pride. When you get turned down, it hurts. Why else do we worry when someone leaves for another church. Most often they do not even change denominationally. They have not become followers of Beelzebub or Jim Jones, they just tithe (or do not tithe) elsewhere.
After inviting a few couples over, with little planning, an evening unfolded out of the spontaneity of the time, the correct phase of the moon and the right mixture of fermented grapes and tomorrow's schedule. That evening would be remembered during repeated attempts to duplicate the spontaneous event. Only when after discarding attempts to repeat and striking out to create the new, would the new remembered evening present itself.
One more try. I am going to give blogging one more try. I think I have waited the correct amount of time to remove myself from the New Year's resolution crowd. I previously waited this long to wear my new Christmas jeans to school, hoping to avoid the question (Did you get those jeans for Christmas?). Oh well, here goes.
I spent the latter part of my Thanksgiving Day at the ER, tending to my son's newly broken arm. After filing the necessary paperwork, I found a cup of coffee and began to wait. Across from me sat a beaten woman, consoled by her mother. She stared into space, no tears. To my left, a family of four waited. A man in his 40's sat with a shoulder injury, everyone fussing around him. The woman seemed panicked and the kids just pissed they had to be there or probably anywhere. To my right, a single mom chatted on her cell phone. Her daughter had been unable to sleep last night and she was a her wits end. Various people wandered in and out between smoke breaks. A large poster stated that in 2006, the hospital campus will be smoke free. At least 50% of the cohort I observed left for a smoke. What in the hell will they do in 2006? Go smoke in their car? As upset as people get, having to wait while someone they love hurts, I prefer that they be able to satisfy their nicotine habit.
As we move through life we tend to narrow our sphere. It starts in middle school with different tracks. College bound in high school. Majors in college. Professional school. Your sphere shrinks, further condensing your contact with those outside your frame of reference. Reality becomes restricted to a finite scope of self comfort. Our thankfulness can than easily move through pride, lest we pray more like a Pharisee than a tax collector.
O Lord, I thank You for all that You have given to me. I have been blessed this year and once again, I thank You for all the stuff You have provided. I thank You for my family and the stuff with which You have blessed unto them. I feel so sorry for those that are here with me, bless them with stuff like I have been blessed. Also, help them to make the right decisions next time so they can change their life and become blessed like me.I was uncomfortable. The way to deal with that discomfort, is to distance their reality from mine. Heaven forbid I have no real control. God, I don't understand why I receive and others don't. I have no real control.
Vacation and a lack of thoughtful things to say have left my blog certainly neglect. With that said, I hope to move back towards a more consistent habit of posting. I say this as if the masses await with baited breath for my very next post. Which then brings the question; why do I blog? I secretly like to write. It is difficult and I have little confidence. But like singing in the shower, just the expression is fun.
