Community.

Background:

C.S. Lewis was a part of a famous group of friends, called the Inklings, which included JRR Tolkien and Charles Williams, who died unexpectedly after WWII.

In The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis writes:

"In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets. Now that Charles [Williams] is dead, I shall never again see Ronald's [Tolkien's] reaction to a specifically Charles joke. Far from having more of Ronald, having him "to myself" now that Charles is away, I have less of Ronald ... In this, Friendship exhibits a glorious 'nearness by resemblance' to heaven itself where the very multitude of the blessed (which no man can number) increases the fruition which each of us has of God. For every soul, seeing Him in her own way, doubtless communicates that unique vision to all the rest. That, says an old author, is why the Seraphim in Isaiah's vision are crying "Holy, Holy, Holy" to one another (Isaiah 6:3). The more we thus share the Heavenly Bread between us, the more we shall have."

To this, Keller writes:

"Lewis is saying that it took a community to know an individual. How much more would this be true of Christ? Christians commonly say they want a relationship with him, that they want to "get to know Jesus better." You will never be able to do that by yourself. You must be deeply involved in the church, in Christian community, with strong relationships of love and accountability. Only if you are part of a community of believers seeking to resemble, serve, and love Jesus will you ever get to know him and grow into his likeness."

My thoughts:

I LOVE this. Community initially drew me to Christ, helped me grow as a new Christian, and has kept me going through tough times. Even now, in the midst of raising support and dealing with all life throws at me, solid friendships centered and founded on Christ are my lifeline.

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. -Psalm 27:17

Top 20 Songs of the 80s

20. Jesse's Girl - 1981
19. Time After Time - 1981
18. Come on Eileen - 1982
17. Here I Go Again - 1982
16. Need You Tonight - 1987
15. Jump - 1984
14. Walk Like An Egyptian - 1986
13. With Or Without You - 1987 -> "greatest band to come out of the 80s"
12. How Will I Know - 1985
11. Don't Stop Believin' - 1981
10. You Shook Me All Night Long - 1980
9. Walk This Way - 1986
8. Like A Virgin - 1984
7. Sweet Child O' Mine - 1987
6. I Can't Go For That - 1981
5. When Doves Cry - 1984
4. Billie Jean - 1982
3. Hungry Like The Wolf - 1982
2. Pour Some Sugar On Me - 1987
1. Livin' On A Prayer - 1986


Now - can you name all the bands?...I got all but 3 :)

The Prodigal God - Chapter Seven

I have been reading Tim Keller's book 'The Prodigal God,' with my bible study group; it's a book I would recommend to anyone interested in learning more about the Parable of the lost Son in Luke 15. I'd like to blog about the whole book eventually, but at the moment I'll start at the end. In the last chapter he brings up the ''feast'' that we will experience in heaven, and four ways to experience how our lives can be shaped by the Gospel that parallel a feast:

1. Experiential
- Ever hear the verse "taste and see that the Lord is good?" Here's a good place to use it. God's love can become more real to you than the love of anyone else. Honestly, I didn't believe that for most of my first few years as a Christian. I understood that His love was supposed to be the best thing in my life, but I never thought that it truly would be. This happens in my life when experiencing His presence is more enjoyable than anything else. Jonathon Edwards said "the difference between believing that God is gracious and tasting that God is gracious is as different as having a rational belief that honey is sweet and having the actual sense of its sweetness."
Keller makes a distinction here that some are too eager to experience this and think every intuition/feeling is a strong word from the Lord. Others are more even-tempered and rational and are not eager enough for this experience. Whichever you are, it's possible for you to truly experience it.

2. Material
- Jesus wants people to come to him, but he also wants this world to be renewed. He doesn't want to see people suffer. ...I think there was a lot more I was going to write here but I can't remember (I can't lie...Gilmore Girls is on in the background right now and I zoned out for a bit).

3. Individual
- This was the biggest section in this chapter- maybe because it's the one we need most help on. In this section Keller talks about one of Martin Luther's key insights on this Christian life: "religion is the default mode of the human heart. Your computer operates automatically in a default mode unless you deliberately tell it to do something else. So Luther says that even after you're converted by the gospel, your heart will go back to operating on other principles unless you deliberately, repeatedly set it to gospel-mode. We habitually and instinctively look to other things besides God and his grace as our justification, hope, significance and security. We believe the gospel at one level, but at deeper levels we do not." If we're serious about this change, it begins to change everything about us- our uses of money, our marriage, our motives, to name a few. "All change comes from my understanding of salvation in Christ and living out of the changes that understanding creates in your heart...Behavioral compliance to rules without heart-change will be superficial and fleeting." Um, I need to hear that every day. And the whole reason I wanted to write out this was what Keller wrote next: "The gospel is therefore not just the ABC's of the Christian life, but the A-Z of the Christian life." I've heard that several times in recent months...but it's one of those statements I could think about all day and realize that I never fully get it.

4. Communal
- This point is proven at work. Food leads to social-ness in so many ways. And the Christian life is not meant to be lived alone. We need each other for encouragement, admonishment, to be part of something bigger than ourselves. Keller includes a quote from Lewis in this chapter that I want to blog about at a later date. Keller ends this section with this: "Only if you are part of a community of believers seeking to resemble, serve and love Jesus will you ever get to know him and grow into his likeness." Amen to that.

Things I Want To Do

1. Sing in a folk band.
2. Publish a book.
3. Run a long race.
(10k by end of summer...if Jules and I can get our act together)
4. Learn a foreign language - but really learn it.
5. Publish a book.
6. Climb a huge mountain.
7. Sell my photos/be a real photographer.
8. Own a medium-sized bookstore/coffee shop.
(Small enough that it feels homey but big enough that it's not claustrophobic)

theology.

The last few days I've really been missing a few people and things in my life- one being involvement in leading worship in a corporate setting. Leading worship is one time when I can always, always count on the presence of God in my life. Without fail, I always feel it, despite my nerves or my focus on the music.

I was getting ready for a social gathering tonight with a few friends when I started thinking about this, and Sunday morning worship at my church. As I combed my hair, I started praying for the Spirit to move through the congregation in a new way. I prayed that hearts would be surrendered before God, and those in attendance would be able to focus on Christ and not the feeling they may get from worship.

I don't usually pray days before I help lead a worship service, but for some reason I started to. I thanked God for worship, and other things in my life that I love. Then I started thinking about His mercy, and His grace, and I found myself thanking Him that I can't earn my way to Him. And I thought, I don't know that ever I've thanked Him for it that out of a theological understanding of it...if that makes any sense. A system in which I would have to earn God's love for me makes no sense- there isn't any way I could ever do enough for Him that would make me worthy of His love.

I've never been very "theological." I don't typically think the way others do, especially in talking about theological concepts. But lately I've thoroughly enjoyed digging into God's Word and truly understanding some tough concepts in Scripture. I love it when theology comes up in a conversation with God. And I love making it a bigger part of my life.

"forgive me."

Why is forgiveness so hard?

When someone apologizes to me, I almost always say, "It's ok, it's no big deal." But, it is usually a big deal to me- and sometimes it's an incredibly 'big deal.' By stating this, I say that what they did was ok, but I do not mean it. This is the problem. Forgiving someone does not mean what they did was ok. It means that I forgive the person. I don't hold what they did against them, and I don't expect them to do something for me to make it all better. [Sidenote: great parallel here between this and the issue of God and sin. God totally hates sin, and totally loves the sinner. God doesn't forgive and belittle sin, he wholeheartedly forgives the sinner.

This path leads me to the topic of revenge. So often, I want the person who wronged me to pay for what they did. Sorry, but it's how I feel. It's probably just human nature to want justice. But forgiveness means that I extend love and grace to the person, and that I don't expect or desire or create a situation that will wrong them the way they wronged me. God is the ultimate judge, I don't have to worry about it. He has better understanding of the situation, anyway- I can be pretty biased sometimes.

There is the potential here for a situation like this to be more costly for the forgiver than the one at fault. Taking on the cost of someone else's mistake is a radical behavior - and yet, it is only a glimpse of the mostly costly move of all- Christ's death on the cross, which is totally unrivaled in history.

Most of these thoughts have been drummed up in my head through discussion and meditation on the parable of the Prodigal Son. There's more to this story than what one might typically hear.

This one thing gets me every time: the Father takes the young son back, though he squandered his part of the inheritance. I always sided with the elder brother in thinking that it was unfair that the father took the younger son back without even hearing his story or hearing 'I'm sorry.' Ludicrous. This would not be the reaction in today's world. And this reaction was unheard of in that day. And this shows me just how lost I can be sometimes; it's not about justice, repayment, penance, what ever you call it.

participation.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” -Theodore Roosevelt

Do you ever feel like you're standing on the sidelines of life, waiting for your chance to prove yourself? Waiting for your chance to do something big, something great, something meaningful?

Your life does not become important when you figure out how to do that one, big, great, life-changing thing. The day-to-day decisions you make, things you decide to do, things you decide not to do, matters most. How do you spend your free time? What is your purpose in life? What do you like to work hard for? When was the last time you failed? What did you learn from this? What matters more to you than anything else in the world? Do you fight for that? Do your actions show that you care about it?