I’m going to make a bold statement.
I believe there is an enemy among us who loves this election; who loves our backbiting and our bitterness and our division. He loves this election because it’s got us distracted. Whether we’re screaming at the opposing protesters across the street, or quietly speculating about the salvation of prominent Christian authors, there is an enemy between us and he’s smiling.
We’re fighting so hard to deify this election (albeit not as bad as 2000 or 2004) and we’re using our Christian spirituality to fund and further our political agenda. With swords drawn and theology ready, we’re calling for the might of God to push forward our personal, political agenda.
I think this excites an enemy who hates us; we can see his work in taking us down, firing bullets of disillusionment, resentment and resignation by way of self-superiority.
It’s not just the religious-right either. Each side of the coin finds itself abused by religion-isms.
We make for ourselves our own partisan Jesus, wearing a red or blue robe, bleeding glory and promise for the Religious-Right or the Liberal-Left. But I think when we assign Jesus to our own political party we steal him from God, we strip him of the same power we’re seeking.
And our enemy is excited because the tinder is finally sparking.
When a Christian institution tells me, in no uncertain terms, that we need to pray for the passing of a certain proposition, what they’re asking me to do is join them in calling God to rescue our agenda, to sponsor our Manifest Destiny paradigm through legislative might. How far is Caesar going to take us this time? How far is too far?
We’re fighting boldly, but we’re fighting the wrong war. We’re taking the wrong tools into the battle, and the collateral damage isn’t worth it. I think that while we’re fighting from within the political realm, we’re failing to use our greatest means of social change.
Love.
It’s all about Love isn’t it? But isn’t Love the enemy of power?
I will no longer pour my passions into the red-herring of political arguments and infighting (thus satisfying our enemy’s agenda of trusting in our own might) because I believe that real change is only possible if we walk down the capitol’s steps into the capitol’s streets. If we truly believe that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness…” (Eph. 6:12) then we must question WHY we are spending so much energy in that arena.
Jesus’ work was done socially; he lived and worked in community, he opposed the methods of religious rulers. His healing was never for political gain, most of the time it broke the law.
We’re so vehement about Proposition 8 because the gay community hasn’t seen Jesus in us. We’re condemning those who have abortions because we haven’t loved them enough.
I believe we’re intent on pushing our political agenda because fighting is so much easier than loving.
And we have an enemy who would love for us to keep fighting.
Mighty.
Valor.
Friend.
"Never, in peace or war, commit your virtue or your happiness to the future. Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment 'as to the Lord.' It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for. The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received."
"If Only"
Christie Brinkley was the Heidi Klum of the 1980s. She was one of the world's first supermodels, appearing on dozens of magazine covers and marrying musician Billy Joel at one point. Even two decades later she is a stunningly beautiful woman. But, she is unfortunately also a perfect example of the lie, "if only."
If only is something we Christians like to say when faced with a temptation. For me it usually looks like this:
"If only I could get a book deal, then I would be happy.""If only more people read my website, then I wouldn't be so insecure about my writing.""If only I had more money, then I would not worry so much."
If only is a phrase I use to medicate myself. Instead of turning to God in a time of need, I pretend the only thing that stands between me and perfect happiness is one "if only." But Christie Brinkley kind of ruined that for me. Or rather her husband did.
Her husband has recently been accused of having an affair with an 18-year old girl. He has been accused of having a $3,000 per month porn habit. He has been accused of spending $300,000 to cover up his tracks. What does that have to do with if only? Everything.
You see, in one single stroke, Brinkley's husband, Peter Cook, has effectively killed a bunch of "if only" statements:
1. "If only I could marry someone really attractive, then I wouldn't lust anymore."Cook married one of the top ten supermodels of all time. She was and is gorgeous. And yet he was addicted to Internet porn. Brinkley's beauty was not enough to fill the hole inside of Cook.
2. "If only I was rich, then I would be happy."Peter Cook is richer than I will ever be. He allegedly spent more on porn every year than some people earn in salaries. And yet, he wasn't happy. Happy people don't do things that require $300,000 in hush money.
3. "If only I was good looking, then people would love me."Peter Cook is good looking. He is tall and handsome and looks like the kind of guy that knows his ways around Beverly Hills. But he didn't feel loved. People that are content in the love they have don't desperately try to find it from 18 year olds. They don't trawl the Internet for attention.
I might be the only one with an "if only" in my life. Maybe you have never thought, "If only I could get married, then I would be happy," or "If only I had a different job, then I would be worry free." But if you have, if you are at all like me, I want to propose something. I think we need to retire the phrase "if only." Let's send it to an early grave. Let's strike it from our vocabularies and pull it from our hearts, because it's one of those lies that holds us back from seeing what is truly beautiful about our own lives. It takes our eyes of the good that already exists. It makes us blind.
What do you think? Want to retire, "if only?"
"Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. we are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. "
--- C.S. Lewis The Weight of Glory
We are not political. We are not businessmen. We are not black. We
are not white. We are no nationality. We simply want to breathe deeply the
breath of life. We understand that there is none more important than our
neighbor, and as long as our neighbor is suffering, we are suffering.
Life Is Epic was formed by a group of artists with a common cause: to
create apparel that means more than the fabric it's made of. We support the
relief effort for the increasingly serious Malaria epidemic by donating one
insecticide-treated net for every one shirt purchased.
We believe that a T-shirt can be more than clothing. We believe that living
can be mean more than being alive.
We are passionate.
And we believe that passionate people can change the world.
Life is Epic was born out of these convictions and we hope that it can
excite and inspire people to come alive and to follow their passions. To live
for something bigger than ourselves.
We believe that a world full of passion is a world full of love - full of
change - full of Life.
Come Alive. Life is Epic
"The deeper you inhale the stronger you can exhale" - Erwin McManus - Chasing Daylightand give me your thoughts
"Thy Kingdom comeWhy would Jesus tell his disciples to pray this way if it weren't true? Nowhere else in the bible does God have us repeat some mantra, in fact there are myriad verses describing that we're saved by faith, rather than works (Eph. 2:8 for example.)
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven."
"If the only prayer you ever said was, 'Thank you.' that would be enough."Meister Eckhart
As I sit here waiting for sleep to quell my usual Sunday night anxiety, my eyes wont close and my brain won't slow. My late Sunday nights, caused by staying up late and sleeping in through the weekend usually result in a mind racing with possibilities, doubts, vague hope and prolonged unrest.I have studied many times
The marble which was chiseled for me --
A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor.
In truth it pictures not my destination
But my life.
For love was offered me and I shrank from its disillusionment;
Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid;
Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.
Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life.
And now I know that we must lift the sail
And catch the winds of destiny
Wherever they drive the boat.
To put meaning in one's life may end in madness,
But life without meaning is the torture
Of restlessness and vague desire --
It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.
Edgar Lee Masters
"God knows, I could be wrong.
It strikes me as odd that we, each of us, can be mistaken about the weather, about which direction to turn to get to a spot across town, about how we play the stock market, about any number of things, but we can be dead certain about religion and about God.
Perhaps, as most evidence suggests, Jesus was not born on what we now know as Christmas day. Perhaps Jesus wouldn’t make heads or tails out of evangelical healers in two thousand dollar suits while Austrian-crystal chandeliers hang within the camera shot. Maybe God’s love includes gays and lesbians, the Buddhist down the street or the atheist over in the next cubicle. It’s possible what you believe is not as important as how you express that belief, how you buy food for the homeless or comfort a stranger who is flustered at the store because she has just come from the hospital where her father is dying or remember that person who just can’t stand you with love during a prayer.
Maybe God is not found in certainty, which serves to limit God to our own comfortable conceptions, but, rather, in uncertainty and a healthy agnosticism in places, letting God be God instead of a judge and jury schooled in our own prejudices and preoccupations and self-centeredness. Perhaps “God knows, I could be wrong” is an admission of faith, not of defeat. We may be mistaken — the arrival of God will not come in the form espoused by novels about the end times or in the image of a holy city being lowered down from the clouds on pulleys like it was some kind of cheap scenery change. The arrival of God or the second coming of Jesus may very well have taken place already and, in fact, continues to take place over and over again in the people and in opportunities around us, if only we had the eyes to see and the openness of the heart to feel.
God knows, I could be wrong, and in that, I think, I am necessarily right."
"There's over a billion people in this world without clean drinking water, and 46 million americans don't have health care. That means if they get sick, they don't have anywhere to go. Half of the world, 3 billion people, live on less than 2 dollars a day, so the world is an emergency. When followers of jesus can think of nothing better to do with their time than pick apart and shred to peices the work of other followers of Jesus who are trying to do something about the world, that's tragic and I don't owe those people anything."I love this answer. To me, the Church has become largely concerned with definition. We seem to want to define ourselves as one thing or another, Progressive or Fundamentalist, Liberal-Christian or Conservative, Evangelical-Free or Non-denominational. We're always looking to define ourselves by labels.
buildings/families/businesses/homes were destroyed, but honestly, what the hell kind of hurricane inflicts over THREE QUADRILLION DOLLARS IN DAMAGE?
