Blog Theft: Joy in the Journey

This blog entry is stolen from Kim's Blog about her family's endeavors with food:

I have little joy right now. One of the main reasons is because my boys have such little joy. Yesterday was a particularly hard morning. Tyler wouldn't talk to anyone (my dad and step-mom are here) and he was falling apart at everything. Grayson, too, was very fussy and melting at the drop of a hat. I made 5 new recipes yesterday and had a pretty bad stomach ache most of the afternoon.

The ironic thing is I started my morning out in God's Word with motivation to rely on God's strength and desire to "make it a good day." I read a devotional about finding joy in your relationship with God and I was struck by the opportunity I have to commune with him in the midst of this trial and struggle. But, I was impatient and crabby and moody and not pleasant to be around. Not exactly on the road to make it a good day.

But, then the afternoon came. My sweet dad came home with a precious little plaque as a surprise present for me. He could tell I needed something. And, my step-mom spent the rest of the afternoon/evening in the kitchen washing dishes as I dirtied them up. We put on music and danced and talked. Even if we were quiet, it was so wonderful just to have someone in the kitchen with me. I really found joy in the community of my family.

This morning I made the connection. I AM NOT ALONE. As I stand in the kitchen for hours, God is present. And, HE CARES. I often think this much life is so trivial that I can only commune with God on the big things. I read this from Oswald Chambers this morning:

"Wherever God has placed you and whatever your circumstances, you should pray, continually offering up prayers to Him. And He promises, "Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do . . ." (John 14:13 ). Yet we refuse to pray unless it thrills or excites us, which is the most intense form of spiritual selfishness. We must learn to work according to God’s direction, and He says to pray."

Pray. Commune with God. That is the end...not the means to the end. I get so focused on when we are going to all feel better, be healed. That is what I want to pray for...and I should pray for that but I can not let the healing be my love. Jesus is my love and it is possible to find joy in journeying with him.

-Kim Janous

House Group

This is originally to be found on Greta's Blog

At our church we have these things called housegroups. They are basically a small group of people that get together about once a week and do various things. Our group has shared our life stories and now we are watching a series about the bible that takes us through the actual places where biblical events take place, amazingly NOT boring and each time I watch one I am astounded at the depth of the bible and how much there is to learn from it. Anyway, tonight after we got home from housegroup which my kids by the way LOVE, I was thinking about how opposite it is from the way that the world tells us we should live.

Let me explain what I mean. I think the world tells us to be self-sufficient, strong, independent and self-made. What we do in housegroup is become vulnerable, ask for prayer and help, share burdens, become intimate, create bonds and become other centered, we also laugh tons. When I get sad or angry I tend to isolate, numb myself with television and books, become quiet. Here is the thing about doing that, it prolongs the pain I am going through and harms my relationships with the people I love and care about. Housegroup is a hard place to hide out in and I love that. I am not saying that housegroup is all peaches and roses, it can be difficult. Fitting together a dozen different personalities not to mention their offspring can be quite tricky, feelings get hurt, communication through email can become quite ridiculous, misunderstandings abound- you get the picture. However I truly believe that God likes it like that. He wants us to learn, work through problems, grow and be challenged to call upon him. Me, alone watching Law and Order does not help me grow. Me in a room full of people does. I like living differently than the world tells me I should and I love raising my children to learn about living with people not just next door to them.

-Greta Coalier

The Child-like Source of Jesus' Neighbor Love

Most of us have been loved with a mixture of the following kinds of categories:

1. Little room to grow. Mistakes are ultimate. Potential should be reached immediately.

2. Performance based acceptance. Do good and you are. Do bad and you are.

3. Left to ourselves to scrounge about with hit and miss regarding what is wise and what is foolish in the world.

4. Invitation to distance and superficiality instead of real intimacy

5. Unjustly punished or never rightly or lovingly corrected

We've experienced love in this way. This means we've been mentored to love in these ways. Our attempts at neighbor love are therefore saturated with these assumptions.

But in the mystery of the Trinity (one God, three persons), the Son experienced a very different kind love categories.

1. Though Jesus was the Messiah, He was given room to grow. He was allowed to be 2 before He was expected to be 12, 12 before He held the expectations of being 30. The Father did not rush the carpenter son. Timing mattered. (Luke 2:52)

2. The Father accepted the Son, spoke to the Son of His love and how pleasing the Son is to Him. Identity is based on intrinsic value and covenant. (Luke 3:21-22)

3. The Father taught the Son to discern the Father's voice. The Son was wisely prepared to recognize tempting voices when they came and to act accordingly. (Luke 4:1-13)

4. The Father heard the Son's heart. The Son poured out his Heart to the Father. (Luke 11:1ff; Hebrews 5:7)

5. The Father forsook the Son. (This is unique to Jesus. He bore what a rebellious child must bear when love finally says, "enough, you can have what you want even if it distances us and harms you). Jesus took what we warranted. His substitution (for those who deserve distance and punishment) and sympathy (for those undeservedly treated).

Perhaps Jesus loves his neighbors so well, because He himself in the fullness of his humanity was so loved.

His ways are not our ways.

Thanks be to God!

The TV "On Tap"

Do you think it is our fault that Jon and Kate broke up? The last person I asked said, "Probably."

In the movie Contact aliens send an encrypted message from the star system Vega that does a few things. 1. It shows us an image of Hitler speaking, 2. It shows us how to build a machine to send someone to communicate with the aliens (Jodie Foster in this case, sorry Tom Skerritt).

The Hitler aspect is simply a reference to the 1936 Olympics and the first television signal strong enough to get into space. It is a little unnerving to think that that is the first "signal" we sent!

Tonight we are going to try and have a conversation about television at "On Tap". Where and when and why and how... What do the shows we watch say about us? It should be a fun discussion, and I hope you're able to join us.

Wait just a second there Professor: What I love about Office Space

I often ask our blog authors to write about what it means to love the things they love and to be a Christian. I think it has been a helpful and difficult question for us. I remember the day I asked Jason, and I was struck by my own lack of answer as we talked about jazz. My wife and I watch Mad Men on Sunday Nights. I can go on and on about the acting, the conversations between Jon Hamm and John Slattery, etc. But, I had no idea what my affections with it have to do with faith in Jesus.

Fast Forward to this evening. I had a long day, and recently I have been piecing together one of my old favorite movies, Office Space, after everyone is in bed. The first time I watched Office Space I thought it was funny, but knew that I immediately wanted to watch it again and pay attention to things like body language and tone. I did; it was twice as funny. Please take three minutes to watch the Bobs and their faces (the corresponding scene with Bill Lumbergh is even funnier, "I'll handle this..."). I hope you laugh.

Tonight it dawned on me. As the hilarious scenes roll by, I realize I love watching because the actors in every scene are acknowledging the sheer absurdity of life. Someone owns it in every scene.

As a Christian I am daily struck by life as it is, life as it can get (bad), and life as I dream of it being/becoming. I feel powerless, but I am not. Some days I wish I were! In my conversations I wish I could be free like Peter Gibbons. But, his freedom is a kind of prison. The reason I know that is because I believe the Bible to be true, Jesus who he says he is, and the explanations of what it means to be human valuable, credible, and satisfying to my deepest being. And, because Peter and Michael forget to put the decimals in the right places.

Office Space is about many things - like most stories it is very much about character transformation. But, it is also an obnoxiously accurate commentary on many things about white middle class America. I don't want to think too much about that - I want to watch Office Space and laugh. But, I am aware that it reminds me of desires I have for myself, anxiety I have about the way the world and relationships work, and the incredible call of the Gospel to go into this world and affect reconciliation and peace. Some days I am like Peter - bumbling through my own character growth, some days like Tom Symkowski - "I had an idea once", and I'm sure some days I am like Michael Bolton, "Why should I change, he's the one who sucks".

Have a good Wednesday.

-Matt Blazer

Music Monday: On the Road

My family just completed a road trip to Michigan, a seven hour drive. This road trip was unlike any I have taken before in that entirely different sounds emanated from the car’s speakers. The speakers that once loudly unfurled a wave of brain awakening rock and roll now eked out one corny children’s song after another, after another, after another. Monday, October 12, 2009. The day the music died.

It didn’t die completely though. My daughter likes Grizzly Bear, Phoenix, she likes some Radiohead, she likes Arcade Fire and Feist…she just likes Dora the Explorer more. Significantly more - much to my chagrin. Life is about compromises though, and seven hour roadtrips with two year olds even more so. Thus, I was left with a choice. I could try to block out the noise, play the sounds and thoughts I like in my head and have some peace. Or I could enter the fray, let go of my inhibitions and sing “The Wheels on the Bus” with my family while trying to do the motions without suffering a fatal automobile crash.
Yesterday I chose the latter. I don’t always. I wish I did more often.

I take a little bit of pride in considering myself a music snob, but I shouldn’t. I am simply hard to please. It isn’t just music either. My point is that there are many areas in my life that pride prevents me from fully participating with my family, with my community, with my church, and with God. I think that if you are honest with yourself you will find the same thing. It is so easy to come to the conclusion that a particular area of service in your community or church is simply not your gifting when in reality you are perfectly capable of the task at hand. It is for me at least.

The platitude says “The heart is willing but the flesh is weak.” I think that more often my flesh is willing but my heart is weak. Singing children’s songs at the top of my lungs is a small step in the right direction for me in this area. Joining an area of service with great needs at Riverside has been a big one. What is something your pride has kept you from doing in your community?

- jason

"Why did you tell all these lies?"

If you haven't seen this interview with CNN Correspondent, Anderson Cooper, please do so when you get a moment (or read here). I was baffled by this story. Essentially, it is of a man who 'whips up' a protracted story about being a veteran of the US Armed Forces. The FBI caught on to him, and has charged him with a 'Stolen Valor' charge. I found myself asking the same question Mr. Cooper does, namely, "What in the world is going on here?"

Now, to be fair, I need to say/own a few things. Though he admits that he is not a 'pathological liar,' he does admit that there is an 'undiagnosed mental illness' present. And while I don't think that I would ever be able to concoct such a story (I'm just not that creative), I do think that I am capable of something like this. This gentleman and I really aren't all that different, when it comes down to what is at my core.

Yesterday, I spoke about how all of us--whether we claim to follow Jesus or not--have anchored deep within us a "question that won't go away." I mentioned how this question centers on wondering about our dignity, worth, and value. Moreover, how can we actually know that we do. Now, I'm not talking about a self-help model (à la Stuart Smalley) that aims at making us feel better in the moment, such that we don't weep when somebody tells us they don't like our powder-blue cardigan. I'm talking about the 'deep motivation' that makes us do everything we do; I'm talking about the stuff that makes us get up in the morning. So, like the psuedo-Marine in this story, I've posed in sundry ways to get attention, feel accepted, and so on. Here's the short list: I started playing music to feel cool in High School; I wore Croakies in college precisely and only because I thought girls liked dudes that did (I know: stud-ly, right ladies?). My point is this, I watched this story and my gut reaction, surprisingly, was "Yeah, I get it. I know why he'd fabricate a tale like this."

I'll cut it short. I mentioned how Christianity answers this "question that won't go away" by saying that in Christianity we find a dignity, worth, and value that comes from no other place. C.S. Lewis calls this "fame with God." And when this "question" is answered by Him, the "old ache [within]" begins to fade. What do you make of this...?