Confessions

I re-read the words of Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo today and again was amazed at the beauty and truth of the passage below.

Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you!

You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things that you created. You were with me, but I was not with you.

Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you, they would not have been at all.

You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness.
You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me;

I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burn for your peace.

a blast from the past

I was walking down blog memory lane -- sad, but true -- and came across my first ever blog post. "I like that," I thought. So, here it is again:

Imagine.

Imagine what it would would happen if in your community there sprung up 2 or 3 or 6 or 10 or 15 groups of 8 to 15 people who are all committed to being apprentices together of Jesus; to learn what it means to be in accountable community, but saw thier roles as representatives of his Kingdom in whatever setting they spend most of their time.

Imagine if each of these missional communities in learning what it means to be an apprentice of Jesus, in community, adopted a neighbor -- a low income apartment building, or single mom, or family, and just blessed them with food, or time, or whatever.

Imagine if each one of these missional communities gave birth to another missional community that did the same.

Imagine if the people who were blessed by the mercy and grace poured out by these communities began to talk to each other about the strange thing they have experienced in having thier needs met by almost perfect strangers who want nothing in return, and find out that others in need have been blessed as well.

Imagine if the only common denominator between the blessors is not race, or color, or gender or age, but Jesus.

Imagine what it would look like if God's Kingdom were done here the way it were done in heaven.

Imagine what it would look like if people actually did go and make disciples of all the nations.

Imagine.

Transformed Lives For A Transformed World

Nowadays every church wants to be "missional." Some don't really know what that means, only that "missional church" is the way of the future and they need to "do that" to survive -- I do not judge. Others understand the precept that we as a Church have strayed and need to reconnect with our charge as a sent people, sent and sending. Yet they do not know how. How do we move from the idea of being a protective enclave, neither in the world or of the world to a gathered people being sent and finally to a sent people who gather to build up, share stories of the journey, encourage, rejoice and praise?

We have been in a period of prophecy and proclamation -- wise and Godly men and women shining a light on the church and challenging us to reclaim what has been lacking. In this time, there have been very few able to really say what that might look like, to discover the threads of commonality between truly missional expressions of the church and the processes to attain and sustain it. Maybe that is beginning to change. We have been experimenting with a processes of deep spiritual development and engagement with the poor -- taking people on the journey inward, the journey outward and the journey together are coming on the scene, and finding at the end, transformed lives for a transformed world.

We live on the precipice of unprecedented times for the Church. A good time. And exciting time. A time where we will see amazing things done for the Kingdom of God. I feel privileged that God chose me to be a part of all of this.

A Road To, Through and From

I was thinking the other day about the cross. I was thinking about suffering. I was thinking about how much I and you want to avoid suffering. I was thinking about the cross. I was thinking about life.

And began to think about life and the cross. My life, your life, Christ's cross, our cross. I have come to realize three realities of the cross and my life:

All life must must go to the cross. Jesus is both the author and sustainer of all life. We live in a world marked by brokenness and suffering and Jesus on the cross bought for us the ability to partner with God in his redemptive plan to be agents of his Kingdom restoring the brokenness of a messed up world. Our life -- a surrendered life -- must go to the cross.

All life must go through the cross. We cannot avoid the the suffering of this world, we must not avoid the suffering that flows naturally from a lifestyle that rejects the cultural captivity and that suffers loss as it both seeks to bless the world and reject the power systems in it. We share in the sufferings of Jesus at the cross and become more of humanity as he intended and become transformed into a redemptive force for good in the world. Everything worth living comes from dying.

All life must go from the cross. We don't stay there in whole. We go to the cross repeatedly, we go through the cross repeatedly and we go from the cross repeatedly as sent agents of incarnation, carrying with us the hope of going to the cross, the pain of going through the cross and the hope of living out a life as new creation, and for new creation; to live lives as a sign, a signpost and instruments of God's kingdom done on earth as it is done in heaven.

All of us to varying degrees and in various ways steer off this road to, through and from the cross. All seek at times to avoid the surrender, the suffering or the sentness that is the reality of who we are. But, there really are no detours. All who travel this road must accept, and then cheer, that the continual journey to, through and from the cross.

The Poor You Will Always Have With You

Someone asked me a while back what I thought about Jesus' statement when the people grumbled about the woman who "wasted" so much money on perfume for jesus head. Couldn't the money have a better use, couldn't it be used to care for the poor? We all remember Jesus' reply: "For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me." Amazingly Jesus words have even been used as an excuse to not care about the poor -- why bother, they will always be there. I have been asked about the verse before, and I'm sure I will be again. But, the other day I had a new thought about it's meaning.

What if Jesus was actually being consistent with himself when he said "whenever you care for the least and the hurting you have cared for me?" What if Jesus was saying, "you have me here now, perfume me up, bless me." "And when I am gone, continue to do so when you see me in my distressing disguise." What if it is all about worshiping God, then and now, that all we do and all we are is dependent upon seeking more of God? And, what if that is actually experienced with our hands and feet in service to the underdog.

Love God with all your heart and mind and soul.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

I think these commandments are in that order for a reason.

My little girl's art work

A dad never gets tired of seeing his baby's art -- even when she is all grown up.

What, you chicken?

Saw this today, from Song of the Bird by Tony de Mello

A man found an eagle's egg and put it in a nest of a barnyard hen. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them.

All his life the eagle did what the barnyard chicks did, thinking he was a barnyard chicken. He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He clucked and cackled. And he would trash his wings and fly a few feet into the air.

Years passed and the eagle grew very old. One day he saw a magnificent bird above him in the cloudless sky. It glided in graceful majesty among the powerful wind curents, with scarcely a beat of its' strong golden wings

The old eagle looked up in awe. "Who's that?" he asked.

"That's the eagle, the king of birds," said his neighbor. "He belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth -- we're chickens."

So the eagle lived and died a chicken, for that's what he though he was.

Is there a place in my life -- in your life -- where we are living as chickens when in reality God has made us eagles?