So I was traveling for work around Chicago and I got to spend the night at my in-laws place. It was great to see them, and we had a great time catching up and enjoying each others company over some Italian food (my favorite). My mother in law, sister in law and I stayed up late having a conversation about faith and church. We shared bits and pieces from our own church experiences, and about what we were seeing happen in the world of faith around us.

My mother in law has been working as an international flight attendant for twenty years now. In a career where there is a pretty decent amount of turnover for employees, she has been exposed to a lot of different people. In all her time there she said that not until the last few years has she seen a sort of “spiritual seeking” going on amongst her co-workers. At first she thought it was some of the older women who were getting to a place in life where things are a little more settled and they are looking to the future and asking some of those hard life questions. But then she said she has noticed that it was not just her peers, but women (and men) of all ages that have began to engage in this spiritual questioning and conversing.

She made me think about a lot of things. One was why this may be true for her (and many other peoples experiences) that ten and twenty years ago no one would talk about faith or spirituality in many environments, and now it seems so prevalent (is this true for you?). I don’t think her experience is totally unique, she is on to something when she says we are in a time of “spiritual seeking.” People want to find something, something that is real and true to hold on to. Something that can aid them in providing a structure of how to live a life of meaning and purpose, a life that has impact.

I wonder what is different now from ten and twenty years ago… Anything? Nothing? Are we in a new era of spiritual seeking? And if so, where do people turn to fulfill this longing? Has anything satisfied? Anything?… It’s easy to see how this questioning leads into more questioning… There is a beauty to this pondering, my hope is that we as a people will not just stop at the questions, but that they would lead us somewhere tangible. Because we are open minded so that when we find truth we are able to accept it, right? May we be open seekers of truth and those things that are worthy of our lives, and may each question lead us on a ‘quest’ for something more, something that is real and eternal.

Have you noticed lately that the world isn’t perfect? Just watch the daily news sometime, its not a hard thing to be convinced of. In fact, there seems to be a whole mess of issues we are not remotely close to fixing. Think about it, disease, war, world huger, the list goes on and on. And the issues have been there for centuries, if not longer.

Isn’t it strange that the best human being who ever lived didn’t really solve that many problems? Even more than the best human being really, if we’re talking about Jesus, the God Man, the one who was and is and always has been. I don’t think it was because he didn’t care about all the problems of the world. I’m certain that he did care as a matter of fact. So why didn’t he fix all these global issues then right? I think it has something to do with his primary mission and focus for his time on earth. You see despite how important those things may seem, he spent his whole life for one goal, one that he would even die for.

There is something about Jesus that resonates with all of us, his compassion, his love, his peace or joy, something that every human being who has ever lived can identify with and long for. Yet few of us really seem to live life at the capacity he did. How is it that one man could have such impact and seemingly change so little in the world? Or maybe he did. Maybe his mission had more impact on the world than any other mission of mankind. After all, he is THE most sought after life of all time right? I mean, Gandhi and Buddha and every political and religious leader who ever lived had impact, but none like him. So is the world that much better off, is it that much different? I think it is. The unique thing about Jesus is that he didn’t come to fix all the worlds problems, he came to fix the primary problem and hope that we could take on the issues ourselves. It makes me think of that old saying, “give a man a fish, feed him for a day…teach a man to fish, and feed him for a lifetime.”

The way I see it is that Jesus could have radically ended world poverty and war and so many other issues as mankind knew it. But wouldn’t we would fall into the same sort of issues the moment he took off? Because there is something in us that is somehow broken. Something in the innate nature of mankind that needs some type of renovation. It is a heart and soul change that we require, and it is something that we cannot fix on our own. We have tried.

So maybe Jesus was not the Bono or Martin Luther King Jr. of the day, the social or cultural activist. Or maybe he was and we just didn’t recognize it by his language and his focus. Because he didn’t spend most of his time talking about mankind’s issues. Only one issue really, and only one solution. And somehow it is this paradoxical existence he talks about in this like now of the Kingdom of God that we can begin to live the lives we are intended to. That we can be the individuals, the families, the cities, and the countries that God had originally intended for us to be. And only through one thing, allowing Christ to inhabit our innermost being.

If Jesus is the greatest person who ever lived, then each person has the ability to tap into that very same life potential when Jesus Christ lives within them. The question is, do you have Jesus living in you? And if so, what is the trajectory of your life and what is the mission God has commissioned you to be so intently focused on?… Let me end with a quote from a man who’s heart and soul has been changed by Jesus,

“God did not solve ALL human problems, he solved the human problem. Jesus knew that if he could change us, he could change the world. If you could change us, it would end human suffering, and violence, and hunger, and poverty, disease. If you could just change us, it would change everything. So Jesus, thank you for doing the one thing only you could do. To come among us, to live a sinless and beautiful life. To allow yourself to be brutalized, beaten, tortured, mocked, crucified, to die on our behalf and then on the third day to be raised from the dead. So that through you, we might live, and live fully… May our lives fulfill our great destiny. That the world may never be the same again. Amen.” - Erwin McManus

So what did you plan to do differently this year? What types of habits did you hope to change? Lose some bad ones, pick up some new good ones… My wife and I were talked about what we hoped to do more and less of in 2008 on New Years day. We each shared a short list of seemingly attainable goals. Attainable that is, if we actually put a disciplined habit into practice. I have heard it said that it takes at least thirty days of doing something regularly to make it a continued habit (does that sound right?).

For some reason I find instating new habits in my life a pretty challenging task. Maybe it has more to do with something else though, like my discipline, or lack there of. So where does a guy who struggles to make things stick longterm begin? How do you instill discipline into oneself effectively? Part of my problem might be the fact I can force myself to do some things that I really don’t enjoy all that much. For example, have you ever tried doing a daily reading time, I can subject myself to this as well. I did in college for about a year. I would wake up twenty or thirty minutes earlier than I had to and I would simply read for half of the time and journal at least one page for the other half. But after a while, my heart was not in it, and I was simply doing it out of religiosity… And I’m not looking to add that to my world. Lets be honest, religion has done as much bad as it has good in our world it seems.

I’m really looking for an answer. One of the best I have come across is this idea of figuring out your life rhythms and learning to install things that flow with and into that. So for instance, do you do better at working out 20 minutes a day on a more regular basis, or pump out 2 1/2 hours at the gym in one random session every once and a while. By installing a little bit of structure into the rhythm you already know will help to create more of a habit. This should work for all things, not just working out, but every facet of life. Its something I have found liberating and actually effective.

Let’s remove more of our religious habits and instate truly desired ones. I want to be disciplined, but I want to be a man of passion, and somehow I think this is just the starting blocks for the combination of these desires.

http://revealnow.com/story.asp?storyid=48

Very interesting… what do you think about this? Would love some feedback!

Sometimes it is just easier to check out from things in this world. Just decide not to be affected by things. That in the midst of all that is going on to simply allow oneself to be uniquely distant to all of it. Have you ever been so run down and beaten up that you eventually give up? Not for ever, hopefully, but you just need to give up for a while. You can reengage later, but right now you are just too tired, too emotionally drained to deal with one more thing effectively. Where you can see with your eyes, but the rest of you is not connected to what your seeing. This way you can disengage your heart from being affected by anything, you no longer have to hurt or question or allow… you just are. And not the kind of “just being” that is a quite reawakening, no, I’m talking about a “just being” that is a somewhat negative disengagement, an apathetic carelessness, where you decide consciously to no longer try.

Why is it that Jesus never experienced this? I mean, this is a guy who lived a perfect life, right? He never judged, he never hated other people, he never cursed out someone he loved, he never got to the point of utter pessimism… I don’t get it. How could you be so incredibly humble, patient, kind hearted, devoted and passionate and not get totally discouraged by the world around you? How could he not some days just wake up and ask, “what the heck am I doing…what am I doing…is it worth it?…”

I mean, I get it. He is perfect and all… But that’s what I cannot grasp, that’s what I find utterly appealing and totally appalling all at the same time. Because I cannot relate if I’m honest. I haven’t lived too long, but long enough to know I am not anywhere near perfect. So its frustrating. And for someone who tends to be an extreme optimist, its damaging. But its damage that we inflict on ourselves I suppose. Because our hope is not supposed to be put in the world around us. Our hope is not supposed to even be put in us (far from). No our hope is to be placed in the one thing that is constant, the one thing that is sure, the one thing that I can always count on, that is always perfect. Our hope is to be put into this confusing and beautiful life of Jesus. And if some day I learn how to always, in every situation, learn how to live in that light, well then I may have achieved something of greatest value.

http://www.undertheiceberg.com/2007/12/08/how-to-kill-a-movement/                            Great stuff here.  

I was at a Christmas party the other day when a guy I kind of know came up to me and said, “Your a priest or something right?”  …[is this an opportunity or an awkward tension] …  

 “Haha,  yeah, I just left my collar at home tonight. Nah, I  not a priest, I’m involved with a church, but I have a wife and another job and… Ya’ know, stuff that priests don’t have or do.” I kind of said this laughing. You would probably laugh too if you knew what I was like as a CCD kid (I’m not even sure what CCD stands for, but its like the Catholic Sunday school).  

 “Huh… Interesting, I’m not religious.” He said.

 “Yeah? I don’t really think of myself as being religious either, but I do know I want to live like that guy Jesus, I’m still figuring it out.”

 “Yeah, I guess I just haven’t had very many good experiences. I grew up in a religious home, and it kind of turned me off I guess. I don’t really like Christians, no offense I mean.”

 “Sure, none taken. I don’t like a lot of them either.”   I wish I would have asked him something insightful here like, ‘what would a good experience spiritually look like?’ But I didn’t, I kind of nodded expecting him to say something else. 

 “I kind of gave up on the whole religion/faith thing a long time ago, just seems kind of crazy ya’ know? I mean, it is crazy, but then you start to think about what the other options are, and that doesn’t look so appealing either. So now I believe nothing happens after you die?… That kind of sucks.”  He was summoned by the people outside yelling for Jagermeister for the ice lough shot deal, so that was the end of the conversation.

 I had a great time at the party, my wife and I knew a few people, but got to meet a lot more, and we love that. Some of our friends there are just fun great people, and although we may not share the common bond of following Christ, we really value and enjoy those friendships, they are some of the closest we have. 

 Who knows what my buddy who asked me about being a priest will actually do with his thoughts and questions, chances are nothing. But it did get me thinking. What is ‘good news’ to a guy like that? I don’t just mean good news like winning a game show. No, I mean when Jesus said ‘good news,’ what does that look like for him?  Maybe good news for him is to know that when your body dies here, that’s not all there is. Maybe good news to him is to hear that there is more, there is purpose, meaning, and value in all things, and there is another way to live. I don’t know. I hope that he would experience a real encounter with Jesus. Because you can have bad experiences with religion and lump Christ in with that as much as you want, but in the end, that could be the biggest mistake we all make in life. 

 What is good news to your friends? What about to the poor? To the rich? To the broken? To the satisfied? What is good news to you?  

There is something mysteriously powerful about this… I don’t totally know why. What do you think?…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okLCurB1lJw

http://www.adventconspiracy.org/

I am learning. I may be slow, but I am moving somewhere, and the direction is towards a place of deep enrichment. Not just a bettering of myself, no, it is a place of blessed enrichment for all outside of me yet beginning inside me. Is that babble? Here is what I know to be true. I am in training. I am learning and growing in what it means to be a person of forgiveness. It is hard, I am not good at it I have found. I thought I was. I’m not. But I am learning, and I want to grow.

I took my wife Kim snowboarding for the first time a week ago. She was very excited to go…the excitement quickly turned into painful frustration. As my perfect example and teaching were in place, her ability at that point in time was not. Over and over she slammed to the hard, cold, wet ground. Now, maybe I needed to ask for forgiveness after our first day on the slopes this year, but that’s not my point in bringing it up. Because by the end of our first run (and only run I might add), nearly three hours had passed of miserable training, but she started to get it. Somehow the same is true with our deepest heart conditions. We do not simply have the ability to forgive and forget. But when we allow God to guide us in this wholly radical and counter cultural endeavour, we find that eventually we start to get it. It just happens at some point in time, after long hard times, painful times, miserable times, ones that you felt would never end in the midst of them. It just happens, and you realize something has changed. A milestone has been passed, and your abilities have changed. Is this the process of sanctification?

There is a reason I never tell anyone that following Jesus is easy. It is not easy. It is the most fulfilling, most radical, most passionate and incredible adventure I could ever imagine, but it is not easy. Neither is being a person of great forgiveness. But that is the way of the Kingdom, that is the way of Jesus, and that is the way I want to live. So I train. I train long and hard, I struggle, I fall, I fail, I fail some more, and then something happens, God intervenes, and I get it, something has changed, and my capacity to forgive along with it.

“May I bear fruits worthy of repentance.” - Matthew 3:8