Alright, today I’m making a big goal. My intent is to write each day. No every other day, or once in a while, but each and every day. I’ve wanted to do this for a while, but haven’t felt I was up to it. So here we go.
becoming
Posted January 31, 2008 by ChrisCategories: Creativity, Influence, Me
Many times we live our lives with a focus on the “present”. We live in the “now”. I think that it is important to have a balanced approach to the life we live. I also think that in turning out focus to the present we tend to lose sight of the future. I am most definitly a futurist. I like to poder and think about the things that are coming. I love to examine current culture and try to determine where trends are going. In this effort I have been successful, but have also missed some big things.
The point of today is simply to look ahead and have a plan. We need to decide what we want to “become” and then plan our “becoming”. If we live in a happenstance way, we risk missing some of the wonderful experiences of life. To have a plan, execute it and see the things that once only existed in your mind suddenly be the things you are seeing with your eyes is a great moment. The pleasure and confidence that are created when we plan, pursue and produce an idea can only be understood in the “doing”.
These are the experiences and feelings God desires us to entertain and feel. In the creation of a plan and its execution, we join with the Creator and can, in a small way, experience with him the joy of creativity. Don’t say you can’t do it, start today to make your tomorrows “become” and not just “happen”.
shift
Posted January 29, 2008 by ChrisCategories: Context, Cultural Ideas, Influence
I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that in every facet of life there is a shifting going on. Most obvious is the shift we see in the political arena. It is felt not simply because of the different issues being discussed, but with the way in which the dicussions are being held. I completely agree that it is a wonderful time to be alive. The global events that we are seeing are happening at a different rate and with different outcomes than would have occured even a few years ago.
Whether we agree on the issues like global warming, economy, and war, the one thing we can all admit is that there is a shift. A shift both in thinking and execution; in action and effect; in intent and purpose. Like never before we have a great opportunity to utilize our personal influence and create great change with small actions. When we live each day with purpose and passion we effect each day.
Good Lord
Posted January 25, 2008 by ChrisCategories: Context, Influence
There is more to God being in charge than just Jesus sitting on a throne. It is true that He is the Magnificent King, but what did it mean then – when it was written? To say “Lord”, was a political statement. One for a deity[Jesus] and against Caesar, the accepted deity of the time, who also happened to be king and supreme ruler. When the followers of Jesus proclaimed that he was “Lord”, they were tempting fate and their future as living people. To go against Caesar was to put your life in jeopardy.
An interesting side note is that Jesus says, that not all those who say “Lord, Lord” will enter into the Kingdom [there it is again]. In essence saying that those who put themselves at personal risk by aligning with Jesus aren’t guaranteed a free pass. This idea makes the concept of The Kingdom even a greater one that needs discovery. It in fact makes The Kingdom….greater.
Everything Is Beautiful !?!
Posted January 22, 2008 by ChrisCategories: Context, Influence
Have you ever had someone come up to you and you see that they are beaming with happiness and it ticks you off? They have met you in a moment where you were reveling in your own disgust with the world. You were happy being sad and frustrated, but they came anyway. A perfectly great opportunity to wallow in self-pity has been ruined.
Maybe it’s just me, but during those times of personal loathing of everything around me, the last thing I want to see is someone actually happy – and not just happy, really full of joy – beaming in the beauty of everything that is.
I thought I had it nailed down. I would quote the “everything has a season to mourn and cry…yada yada, yada…”, but I saw something that struck me as odd. Odd because we tend to have scriptures we quote almost out of habit. This time I found out I had been wrong.
Ecclesiasties 3:11 – “He has made everything beautiful, in its time.” How is it that I had missed that for soooo long? What are the real implications to this? Could it be that even those things that I don’t want to experience are beautiful at some point? I think so. When I look at my life, the moments that have become “beautiful” have been those that were, at the time, the most difficult to walk through. It was because of their hardness that they were able to etch out a part of me. Though excruciating at the time, the result was – I have to say it – Beautiful.
Isaiah 52 says, “How beautiful….are the feet of those who bring good news.” I wonder if the pain that sometimes comes from “bringing the good news” often result in beauty, but that beauty is left unseen. Today, look at those things that have brought pain, and view them with new eyes and instead of pain see the beauty.
C. S. Lewis
Posted January 20, 2008 by ChrisCategories: Books I'm Reading, Context, Cultural Ideas
Found this quote and thought it fit great with the previous post – it’s long but poignant
“In a narrow place between two rocks there came to meet me a great Lion. The speed of himwas like the ostrich, and his size was an elephant’s; his hair was like pure gold and the brightness of his eeyes, like gold that is liquid in the furnace….In beauty he surpassed all that is in the world, even as the rose in bloom surpasses the dust of the desert. Then I fell at his feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion (who is worthy of all honor) will know that I have served tash all my days and not him. Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than to be [king] of the world and live and not to have seen him. But the Glorious One bent down and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome. But i said, Alas, Lord, I am no son of Thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me. Then by reason of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, “Lord is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and tash are one?” The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done to him, for I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it it I who reward him. And if any man do cruelty in my name, then though he says the name Aslan, it is tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed accepted. Dost thou understand, Child? I said, Lord, thou knowest how much I understand. But I said also (for the truth constrained me), Yes I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and truly. For all find what they truly seek.”
from C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle pp. 164-165
What is the Kingdom?
Posted January 17, 2008 by ChrisCategories: Context, Cultural Ideas, Kingdom of God
No way am I going to try to completly answer this question. I just want to add some thoughts to it. When we discuss “the Kingdom”, what are we really talking about? Christians tend to talk about heaven and the after-life when the topic of the Kingdom is brought up. I’m not going to necessarily object to that, but I do thing there is more to it.
Again, pages and pages could be devoted to this issue alone, but there is a concern that I have. What if we have missed a central area and traded it for a fringe theory? I believe that the calling we have been asked for by Christ consumes much more than just the after-life. I think it is also more than just getting people ready to go to heaven.
Many of our modernistic approaches to Christianity cannot be found in Scripture. We give altar calls, but Jesus didn’t; we tell people they have to go to church, but Jesus didn’t; we tell people things they have to do and stop doing to be able to follow Jesus, but He didn’t.
I’m firm in my thought that there is much more to the Kingdom of God than we have allowed to “meet out eyes”.
Political Key
Posted January 14, 2008 by ChrisCategories: Cultural Ideas, Influence
With the primary season firing up, I thought it would be a good thing to remember that though we differ on a multitude of political issues, we can be united in agreeing that ultimately God is looking out for the best for our country and our world. We have a wonderful opportunity to watch, see and experience all that God will be doing in the days, weeks and months ahead.
All that being said however, vote your conscience. Let your vote be your vote and not because of outside influence. Will we pick different people? – certainly – Politics is an interesting thing to see, but with a right perspective we can move on together toward a better tomorrow.
Exponential Impact
Posted January 12, 2008 by ChrisCategories: Context, Creativity, Cultural Ideas, Influence
I’ve talked a lot about the difference between the singular and pluralistic feel some in the spiritual community have. Some are self oriented (singular) in their approach and practice of religion and spirituality. On the other hand, some are “others” focused (plural) in their view of life and its experience. My view is that we look at what happens to us as we live our lives.
When an event occurs in our life and we respond to it, our influence on others has an “addition” effect. We tell someone to our left or to our right or both. In that example now 2 or 3 people know of the event. This is how many view spirituality. “Go tell” is what we have been programed. We need to “add more people to the fold” kind of talk.
Realistically, the knowledge of the event travels additionally and exponentially. You tell a few, who tell a few, who tell a few, and before long everybody has heard some version of the original story.
We need to live with an exponential view of life. We should understand that our actions and words have the exponential effect of ripples in a pond. This is an enormous ability for the positive and the negative. Let us live our lives to exponentially increase the influence of the positive in our lives and others.
The Environmental Church
Posted January 9, 2008 by ChrisCategories: Context, Cultural Ideas, Influence
Much has been discussed about the environment and the environmental movement. As in any cultural discussion, the church must have a place in the dialogue – in fact the church should be directing the dialogue. So many times the church has been at the back end of scientific discussion. Whether it is because we have an affinity to hold on to outdated comfortable rhetoric or because we have an illusion of power and don’t want to escape that illusion, I do not know, but what I do know is that a conversation has begun and we need to respond.
In the modern era we walked sheepishly behind culture and added comment to it. As things became more and more defined we began to adjust and enjoy being able to disect God in a seminary and teach about Him in detail. As the time changes, this simplistic, cut-and-dry approach is failing to work on everything from light and time to our own perception of these events. Spirituality is no different. Today there is a movement toward a more organic and visceral approach to spirituality. Whether it is called Postmodern or Emerging, the change of direction is apparent.
The church of tomorrow will look and feel distinctly different to the one we have today. There will still be steepled churches that meet the demand of spiritual consumers, but there will also be a new place. I see an environment that embraces both spirituality and mission; a meeting of service and belief. There is no difinitive snapshot of this gathering, it is and will be as maleable as it’s context requires. The key element to expect is a decrease in the individual aspect of experience and a meshing of combined experience.
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