Blue jays on blue days
swoop in and steal.
Eagles, bald and regal
dive in and kill.
Humming birds flit into flowers
sweet sugar they suck.
And the masses find feeders
thanks to luck.
None of them sow
and none of them reap.
Each has plenty of food
and its own way to seek.
None of them sit
on a wooden bench,
expecting their food
in portions of pinch-
well except those chicks
who are stuck in the twiggy nest.
They can hope for vomit at best.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
I think we'd get to know him
The summer before sixth grade I started hanging out with a kid who was going into eighth grade. He was an amazing skateboarder and I looked up to him in many ways. We skated together most of the summer days and he was deeply invested in teaching me how to skate like he did. I was pretty touched and felt wanted. To me, we were best friends and I was cool because of it.
The catch comes with school hours. The first time I saw him at school I sprinted through a thick crowd of people, pushing and elbowing my way towards my idol. When I got to he and his friends and excitedly asked him what was up, he looked at me, turned to his friends and shrugged his shoulders saying, "I don't know who this kid is." They all smirked and walked away, leaving me crushed and alone in a violent sea of pre-pubescent drama. I was ready to quit everything.
This week I had the privilege of serving communion to and praying with a black-skinned, blue-eyed, mute, crippled, homeless man named Johnny. As our eyes met my heart broke because I was looking into the eyes of Jesus Christ. He was hungry, abandoned, and without the means to meet these needs. I was moved for obvious reasons but the one I want to discuss is related to the conviction I was graciously handed.
In that moment I realized that I had been singing songs to the same Jesus and praising him daily. I had been telling him that my will is less important to me than his. I had been telling him that what he needs me to do is what I want to do. But I had not been staring him face to face and meeting the needs I found there. I had not been taking seriously the invitation he gave at the end of Matthew 25. You see, Matthew 25 is not a list of requisites for salvation. It is a cheat sheet for those who are desperate to see and love Jesus.
He says, "So you want to know me? You want to serve me? This is where I'll be: Where there is hunger, where there is thirst, where there are those who don't fit in, where there is nakedness, where there is sickness, and where there is imprisonment or slavery. Meet me there!"
How beautiful would it be if I wanted to know Christ and the power of his love bad enough that I looked where he said to find it! Let us seek him in each other. Let's find him in our brokenness.
When we sing to and praise God in the building and then when we leave, look him in the eyes and tell our friends we don't know him, it must be confusing for him. We could talk about hypocrisy all day long, but there's no intimacy there. Why don't we just strive to achieve a consistency with our lives.
Let's say to him in song, "You are holy!" and then say to him in passing, "You are holy!"
Let's say to him in prayer, "Your will be done with my life." and then say to him in passing, "What do you need?"
I think we'll get to know him. I am.
The catch comes with school hours. The first time I saw him at school I sprinted through a thick crowd of people, pushing and elbowing my way towards my idol. When I got to he and his friends and excitedly asked him what was up, he looked at me, turned to his friends and shrugged his shoulders saying, "I don't know who this kid is." They all smirked and walked away, leaving me crushed and alone in a violent sea of pre-pubescent drama. I was ready to quit everything.
This week I had the privilege of serving communion to and praying with a black-skinned, blue-eyed, mute, crippled, homeless man named Johnny. As our eyes met my heart broke because I was looking into the eyes of Jesus Christ. He was hungry, abandoned, and without the means to meet these needs. I was moved for obvious reasons but the one I want to discuss is related to the conviction I was graciously handed.
In that moment I realized that I had been singing songs to the same Jesus and praising him daily. I had been telling him that my will is less important to me than his. I had been telling him that what he needs me to do is what I want to do. But I had not been staring him face to face and meeting the needs I found there. I had not been taking seriously the invitation he gave at the end of Matthew 25. You see, Matthew 25 is not a list of requisites for salvation. It is a cheat sheet for those who are desperate to see and love Jesus.
He says, "So you want to know me? You want to serve me? This is where I'll be: Where there is hunger, where there is thirst, where there are those who don't fit in, where there is nakedness, where there is sickness, and where there is imprisonment or slavery. Meet me there!"
How beautiful would it be if I wanted to know Christ and the power of his love bad enough that I looked where he said to find it! Let us seek him in each other. Let's find him in our brokenness.
When we sing to and praise God in the building and then when we leave, look him in the eyes and tell our friends we don't know him, it must be confusing for him. We could talk about hypocrisy all day long, but there's no intimacy there. Why don't we just strive to achieve a consistency with our lives.
Let's say to him in song, "You are holy!" and then say to him in passing, "You are holy!"
Let's say to him in prayer, "Your will be done with my life." and then say to him in passing, "What do you need?"
I think we'll get to know him. I am.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
We're buckets.
We are not made great by we know. We are made great by what we learn.
The struggle of life and reconciliation>the comfort of being right.
One requires trust in and submission to something greater, the other requires the pursuit of all things submitting to you. Let's allow our lives to be raw, with many tears and many more shoulders to cry on. If we are unwilling to experience the reality of the pain, we miss out on the reality of the joy. What I mean is that if we use a small bucket to scoop sand, it is the same bucket with which we scoop water. Let your bucket grow by becoming vulnerable to good and bad things, which is made possible through the realization that the Lord is sovereign and can be trusted. Vulnerability is not a part time job.
Let the pain Jesus scooped show you the size of his bucket. His capacity for holding water is sufficient for us all. The good news is that he doesn't hold it for long. He's in the business of pouring what he has over ALL peoples.
Stop knowing so much and start learning. What are you so afraid of?
The struggle of life and reconciliation>the comfort of being right.
One requires trust in and submission to something greater, the other requires the pursuit of all things submitting to you. Let's allow our lives to be raw, with many tears and many more shoulders to cry on. If we are unwilling to experience the reality of the pain, we miss out on the reality of the joy. What I mean is that if we use a small bucket to scoop sand, it is the same bucket with which we scoop water. Let your bucket grow by becoming vulnerable to good and bad things, which is made possible through the realization that the Lord is sovereign and can be trusted. Vulnerability is not a part time job.
Let the pain Jesus scooped show you the size of his bucket. His capacity for holding water is sufficient for us all. The good news is that he doesn't hold it for long. He's in the business of pouring what he has over ALL peoples.
Stop knowing so much and start learning. What are you so afraid of?
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
God is the giver.
It has become very clear to me that only God can reveal himself.
We can say all of the right things, do all of the right things, think all of the right things, own all of the right things, read the whole bible, read thick theological books, etcetera, but none of these will reveal God until God choses to reveal himself through them.
Everything is here so he can use it to reveal himself. We're like paints for a painter and notes for a musician. My recent revelations have been things I already knew. Things I've read, heard, thought of, and even taught. Nothing is here now that wasn't before, but veils are being removed, and nothing is the same. Nothing will ever be the same.
God never changes, but he changes us so we may better see him. This is freedom. There's no need to worry anymore. What I mean is that my role in your life and yours in mine is not about being God. It's about letting God be us. Let him do things in and through us- mysterious and invisible things that can only be seen by those who's eyes he opens in that moment. In other words, it's not my job to change you (unless, of course, you are an infant with a diaper full of nasty.) or yours to change me (I will have you know that I am a big boy now and can change my own diapers, thank you very much.) As many have said, embrace the blasphemy and let God be man.
I can teach you how to learn about who God is by exploring him myself and sharing with you what I've learned, but I can't teach you who God is or isn't. If how right or wrong I am will never change who he is, then why would you let it?
Ask him to teach you who he is. He will. Maybe He'll use me.
In the meantime, I guess I'll try and put what he teaches me into words. But as I've said, those are nothing but drops of paint and flat notes waiting to be painted and played. I've got nothing to offer you because he's the one who can give you things. I've got what he has given me to offer to him and he's taking it all with the smile of that weird creative guy who's up to something in the basement.
(Not George Clooney...Gross)
He's up to something and I think we should be excited about it. He sure seems to be.
We can say all of the right things, do all of the right things, think all of the right things, own all of the right things, read the whole bible, read thick theological books, etcetera, but none of these will reveal God until God choses to reveal himself through them.
Everything is here so he can use it to reveal himself. We're like paints for a painter and notes for a musician. My recent revelations have been things I already knew. Things I've read, heard, thought of, and even taught. Nothing is here now that wasn't before, but veils are being removed, and nothing is the same. Nothing will ever be the same.
God never changes, but he changes us so we may better see him. This is freedom. There's no need to worry anymore. What I mean is that my role in your life and yours in mine is not about being God. It's about letting God be us. Let him do things in and through us- mysterious and invisible things that can only be seen by those who's eyes he opens in that moment. In other words, it's not my job to change you (unless, of course, you are an infant with a diaper full of nasty.) or yours to change me (I will have you know that I am a big boy now and can change my own diapers, thank you very much.) As many have said, embrace the blasphemy and let God be man.
I can teach you how to learn about who God is by exploring him myself and sharing with you what I've learned, but I can't teach you who God is or isn't. If how right or wrong I am will never change who he is, then why would you let it?
Ask him to teach you who he is. He will. Maybe He'll use me.
In the meantime, I guess I'll try and put what he teaches me into words. But as I've said, those are nothing but drops of paint and flat notes waiting to be painted and played. I've got nothing to offer you because he's the one who can give you things. I've got what he has given me to offer to him and he's taking it all with the smile of that weird creative guy who's up to something in the basement.
(Not George Clooney...Gross)
He's up to something and I think we should be excited about it. He sure seems to be.
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