Goodness Gracious

Good. how many times a day do I say that word or a derivative of it? "Good" is a staple word in our vocabulary diet and just as ambiguous as it is ubiquitous. As an adjective it can denote anything from high quality to correct behavior or moral "rightness". As a noun it can mean profit, advantage, merit, kindness...even possessions. So what do we mean when we say that God, as an all-powerful, loving creator, is "good"?

First, it is helpful to define what the goodness of God is not. It is not God's holiness (His perfection..."wholly otherness"). It is also not his righteousness (his purity). What it IS, is His nature displayed towards us. All of God's holiness, righteousness, love, grace, mercy and kindness outwardly manifested into our lives. But, although God's goodness is his nature displayed towards us...it is not ultimately for us. The purpose of God's goodness is not so that i am happy, and not ultimately just so that i am blessed, but so that i am blessed and therefore glorify God. God is good for His own glory, not your satisfaction. Our problem most of the time is that we automatically equate something God does that results in my benefit as being for me. In time this translates into a mindset that then expects and then demands these benefits as being my due. This is especially true when I spend my life working for Christ expecting a reward—or more accurately: working for Christ to then hold Him in my debt to bless me for my abundant good works. That is legalism at its core...and correct understanding of God's goodness can bring it into balance. (That, and reading Tim Keller's book "Prodigal God" the most excellent treatise on the subject I have come across.)

In the Psalms we always see God's goodness mentioned in conjunction with His love and our thanksgiving. Psalm 136 is a great picture of this.  "¹ Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,

    for his steadfast love endures forever.²Give thanks to the God of gods,for his steadfast love endures forever.³Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever..."

 The enduring quality of God's love is intrinsically tied to His goodness (and our subsequent response of thankfulness). 1 John tells us that God is love. it is the core of his nature. but without His goodness we would never see  it. It is His goodness that displays His nature of love towards us. It is through this that we can see that everything God does is good. All out workings of God in this world are good. (remember: beneficial for me...ultimately for His glory) Psalm 136 continues in verse 4-9 recounting the wonders of creation. this is no wonder, Genesis 1&2 repeatedly tell us as God creates that is is good. "⁴to him who alone does great wonders,for his steadfast love endures forever;⁵to him who by understanding made the heavens,   for his steadfast love endures forever;⁶to him who spread out the earth above the waters,   for his steadfast love endures forever;⁷to him who made the great lights,   for his steadfast love endures forever;⁸the sun to rule over the day,   for his steadfast love endures forever;⁹the moon and stars to rule over the night,   for his steadfast love endures forever..."

If we keep reading in Psalm 136 we see more evidences and effects of God's goodness.  The writer walks through God's faithfulness to Israel in history and ends with these words: "²³It is he who remembered us in our low estate,for his steadfast love endures forever;²⁴and rescued us from our foes,for his steadfast love endures forever; 25 he who gives food to all flesh,   for his steadfast love endures forever.²⁶Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever."

These are all evidences of God's grace. truly, all of God's goodness shown through blessings is indeed His grace. The psalmist says that God "remembered us" in our lowest times. This is not to say that God turned around one day and was like: "Roop! dude, I totally forgot you were in that slimy pit...here, take my hand..." What is being said is that God never forgot, even in the hardest of times, the darkest of hours, we were are in his thoughts. We are rescued and forgiven. 

That all sounds well and good...but the inevitable question is this: if God's goodness is his essence of love outwardly displayed towards me...then why does my life suck? Or, why does the world feel like its spiraling down the crapper with wars, famine, natural disasters, disease, corruption, and general evil? Where is this grand goodness?

Ages ago there was a man with a very unfortunate first name who had those same questions. Habakkuk cried out to God in his day:  ²O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save?³ Why do you make me see iniquity,and why do you idly look at wrong?Destruction and violence are before me;strife and contention arise.⁴ So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth.For the wicked surround the righteous;so justice goes forth perverted.

God's response to Habakkuk is beautiful. he doesn't defend himself, or His goodness, (he doesn't have to) he doesn't argue or seek to put Habakkuk in his place...he simply gives him perspective. he says "wait and see, i am doing something you would not believe even if i told you". what an amazing promise. God is reminding Habakkuk that his goodness may not always look like goodness to us because it is not for  us. God sees a completed picture that we see a tiny pixel of, he is weaving a tapestry of grand design, of which our experience is a mere thread. God is always good, even in the "bad" of life because he is working from, and for and to, eternity.  

The greatest evidence of this is the cross, the single most despicable, heinous, evil event in all of history. How many of the disciples would have seen that as "good", the death of all their hopes, the destruction of, what they saw as, their salvation and liberation, what they and all of Israel...heck, the whole world, had waited for, for forever. 

How many of them would have given anything just to change that moment when he was hoisted into the air impaled on the cross? 

....but would you?

That most evil event in all of time: the crucifixion of Christ, was also the most beautiful and glorious event that brought the most good. We can believe that everything God does is good because he is working from, for and to, eternity. 

But we are remiss if we simply stop at the point of being convinced of God's goodness. God's attribute of goodness is a communicable attribute, meaning: we can share in it, we can emulate it. As those who are beneficiaries of God's goodness, partakers of it and convinced of it, let us then allow His goodness to shine through us. Allow the qualities of Christ to be on display for the world through our lives. So often we complain that God's goodness isn't combatting the evil in the world...to us i think he would say: but my goodness should be moving through you into the world...what are you doing?

Are you convinced of God's goodness? Where in your life do you need to be more convinced? Respond like Habakkuk, he knew that if he couldn't understand the world with God in the picture, he sure couldn't understand it without God, so he runs to Him for answers. 

If you are convinced, how do you display and take part in the goodness of God? Are you His emissary of love, grace and kindness to a world in need?

This Post is Only Three Kinds of Awkward.

"Thats seven different kinds of awkward right there"
If you have been fortunate (or unfortunate...) enough to hang around me for any extended period of time, you have probably heard me utter this phrase a time or two. Now, to some it might seen to be a slightly chuckle-worthy statement, to others a dry, antiquated, tired old aphorism. But what most don't know is that there actually are seven different kinds of awkward. I know... because I created them.

In no real logical order, here they are:

1. The Clothing Faux Pas:
Also known as the "wardrobe malfunction". Something (usually the pant's crotch seam) rips at a very critical moment
   Sub-levels include:
    -mom-jeans
    -The denim jumper
    -"high water" jeans
    -Any Christmas sweater from gramma's closet
    -Dudes with Chihuahuas.
       -Bonus points if it has any article of clothing. More bonus points if that clothing item is pink.
    -The zipper down in public
    -The peeing (or pooping) of the pants in public (or even private)
    -Pit stains

2. The Bodily Noise
    -The fart in the elevator (or any enclosed space)
    -The "intestinal rumble" when you hold it in (YOU know what I'm talking about)
    -Passing gas in an empty store isle...only to have some random woman appear out of nowhere and start walking down the isle. She knows its you.
    -Coughing repeatedly on an airplane
    -Laughing and farting. everyone stops for just a second to look...but non one says anything.
   

3. Nakedness.
    -Any kind, any time, anywhere in public...and many private places too. It just deserves its own category.
    Sub-Level: The Baby Album
     -The naked bathtub pics

     -That picture with you're parent's best friend's child of the opposite gender whom they arranged your marriage to at age -7 months when they both found out they were pregnant, whom you never see anymore but there are many photos of you two dressed up together,  in the tub together or fake kissing...or whatever your sadistic, sick parents thought up. 

    -Some "clothing faux pas" can end up in this category as well. 

    - Dreams totally count 

4. Parents (needisaymore?)
    This level usually occurs in restaurants or at weddings.
This level can also include all incidents with family members and authority figures:  
    -Traffic stops
    -Arrests
    -Crazy bosses
    -Aunts, Uncles...grandparents
(the list is more specific the closer to Kentucky and West Virginia you are)
 
5. Children.
My poor parents. Seriously. I was the most awkward child ever.
This is really rather self-explanatory. Moving on...

6. Vocal Faux Pas:
   -eg.: "When is the baby due?" -"I'm not pregnant"
Sub level: The "Word Fuse"

   -eg.: "Bud" and "Dude" = "Bood"

         - My favorite: "frick" and "suck". do the math. 

   -Also Includes:
      -That awkward moment at the end of a voicemail where you have talked yourself out of things to say but haven't figured out how to sign off yet...yeah...     
      -Making fat jokes when a large person is standing behind you
      -Loud child screaming "MOM! WHY IS THAT LADY SO FAT?"
        -Extra awk points if its your child  (Awk points exist too. We can discuss them in later post)
      -"Oh, hey so how is (insert bf/gf name here)?" "We're not dating anymore"
      - Also the mention of some party or event where you find out they're not invited. Or worse: the other way around.

      -That moment you make fun of some art work, picture, poster, web design...etc, then the person next to you says "oh, i painted that"

"......dude...its awesome, i was just...you know...joking..." *exit stage left*

    Also includes:

      - Those ill-timed jokes where one kid is like...."....my dad died from that"

      - That moment you realize that the person you're talking about is standing right behind you.

7.  Innocently entering a room where mom and dad (or anyone else) are "wrestling"
No explanation necessary (or wanted). It deserves its own broad, unexplained category.


So, you see...it really is a true list system. So far I can pretty much locate all awkward situations somewhere on this list in some form or another. Granted, someone could come up with some crazy situation from outer Mongolia that involves a medicine man, a prop plane, several naked villagers and a cow pie...but that is a remote possibility.

But just think about how crazy something would have to be in order to be declared "all seven different kinds of awkward"....that would be like a guy wearing mom pants, running from his parent's room into an elevator while vomiting in revulsion, carrying a chiuahua wearing a pink christmas sweater, farting in the elevator, saying "sorry bood", dropping a picture of himself as a naked baby in the bathtub as he hurriedly exits into an art gallery where he mocks a painting of what he thinks is a pregnant women only to have the very un-pregnant artist standing right behind him inform him that it's a self-portrait, he then rips his pants as he attempts to make (another) quick getaway; the art patrons laugh at him, he whimpers, "your mom", a delicate lady in the corner begins to sob uncontrollably because her mother died after falling in an art gallery, he is then arrested for public indecency.

That would just be crazy.
...and really, really awkward
     

In Christ, Scott

I am always fascinated by certain little "Christianese" things that invade, and change, the little things we do in everyday life when we are interacting with other Christians. take, for instance, emails. In particular the way we sign off. To any other person it is "Sincerely", or "Thanks", or perhaps "Love". But when its another member of the body of Christ we come up with all manner of artful slogans to end our letters, a sort of modern day "Jesus fish" as the early Christians used as an identifier. 
phrases as simple as "God bless", or "In Christ", or "In His name", or "Shalom", or "because he lives", or "keeping that fire burning!".

Or they can get creative and intricate (usually in direct proportion to the number of years you spent in Bible School, or how many King James Bibles you own) like: "By the blood of our precious savior" (variations include: by the blood of the lamb, by His blood, washed in His blood...etc), or "May the peace of God that passeth all understanding be with you", or "In the name of God's one and only Son" or, "Bound together only by His grace".
Some can be downright doxological, like the writer fancies themselves some kind of modern day Paul: "Grace and peace be with you", "Through Him who is able to do all things", or "With eternal praises to the Father Son and Holy Ghost"...

I'm not hating on our Christian vocabulary, when writing official emails from my church desk i usually sign off with a good strong "in Christ" just to kick up the pastor vibe a bit, but i do think that sometimes its a bit overzealous, like we are compensating for something. It speaks to our insecurity amongst other Christians, we need to appear more holy, look more "christian", act more spiritual in front of them so they think we are "doing it right" or so they wont look at us sideways like the ugly red-headed step child of Christendom. I think a bit of positive peer pressure to be more like Christ is a good thing amongst those who love God (hello, accountability anyone?), but when its fake and contrived, like so much of our "christian" interaction has become, it just makes me cringe. At what point do we draw the line and take a deep look inside and realize that once we start feeling like we have to make up a persona in front of another believer that maybe, perhaps thats just not true, authentic Christianity.

My guess is that if we all dropped the act we would find out that everyone else has been in the play with us the whole time...and they are all just as relieved to take off the mask. The judgmental legalistic people are out there, I know a few. But the secret is that its more the fear of being judged than the actual pharisees that cause this breach in authentic Christian community.

So go ahead, I invite you: sign off that next email to the head of the small group ministry with a simple "sincerely", no hater's gonna hate. But, hey, if you truly do mean it when you sign off your emails with a healthy "Only through HIS grace!" and plop that extra obscure bible verse in the tag, then by all means, keep it up. my guess is that you are ahead of most of us. (And God probably loves you more)

and dont even get me started on that little box on facebook labeled "religious views"...

Picture Year in Review: August

(Oxford, England)

Picture Year in Review: July

The bombs bursting in air...

Picture Year in Review: June

You will go out with joy and be led forth in peace, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Isaiah 55:12

Picture Year in Review: May

I'm an Uncle!

Picture Year in Review: April

Ignite Jr High All-Nighter

Picture Year in Review: March

Everglades, FL

Picture Year in Review: February

Wipeout

Picture Year in Review: January

Began dating this beautiful woman January 4

Picture Year in Review: December

What Christmas is all about

Picture Year in Review: November

Let us drink a toast...

Picture Year in Review: October

Mr. Jake Lorenson at Fall Fest. 

A Year in Review

Last September I made one of the greatest purchases of my life (second to my MacBook), I got a digital SLR camera and proceeded to take what artistic and creative genes i possess (thanks, mom!) and use them for a different art medium. I decided, in honor of these past twelve months, to devote my next twelve posts to one picture a month that really captures what that month meant to me. Nothing super profound, just a fun exercise for me...and a painful one...its hard to pick JUST ONE from each month...

September 2010
Ignite Jr. High, the place to be on Sunday nights. teaching and leading Ignite was one of the highlights of my life, God did a great work in my heart as we laughed, played, sang and learned about Him.

Angry Pastors

I love Angry Birds. I just adore those hilarious, squawking, destructive, pig-hating, self-mutilating, masochistic, egg-laying, exploding balls of fun. I even love the cheesy musical background (OK, not really). So far i have played and beaten 635 levels. and yes, there are still more.  I have spent so much time throwing these valiant birds at those devilish pigs, calculating trajectory, designing elaborate ways to drop my bird in exactly the correct spot in exactly the right sequence, shouting in triumphant delight or furious agony (there is always that one tiny pig that you cant kill no matter what, he just sits there and grins....and then it becomes personal). Maybe its because I've invested so much time, energy, and yes, emotion, or maybe its just because I'm a Pastor, but I have felt the need to develop a theology of these Angry Birds. You may laugh (frankly, I don't blame you). Hurling awkward spheroid bird caricatures at similarly awkward swine does not seem, at first blush, to lend itself much to any kind of redemptive value. In truth, I tend to shy away from over-spiritualizing the things we take part in every day (sometimes a game can just be a game, right?), I wouldnt want to ruin mindless, bird-launching fun with corny Christian illusions and metaphors. I would hate to read too much into a cartoon bird on a singular mission throwing itself with utter abandon at the walls of opposition time and time again without any regard to its own safety or well-being. To trivialize the idea that all various kinds of birds are needed to overcome the obstacles and defeat the enemy; or to overemphasize how they sacrifice themselves with devastating consequences for the sake of another. Or to overstate how the plans of the enemy become more and more elaborate and difficult to overcome, yet even after 635 levels they sit in the slingshot ready to be used again, "trusting" in the hand of another to guide them. That reckless abandon is, to me, what makes this game terrifyingly addictive. (That, and the sheer malevolent complexity of the levels.  Rovio employs some seriously nefarious people)
Truthfully, the redemptive value of this game is probably simply just in its absorbing ability to help me kill time while growing my sanctification as I learn to not scream profanities at little grinning green balls of asinine swine. Maybe.  

Green Eggs and Ham

i know that as a man i am obligated by gender to at least moderately dislike poetry...or at the very least make a statement like, "yeah, i can never understand that stuff...why dont they write like normal people" if the topic ever comes up in a space dominated by males.
But aside from some of the perplexing qualities of poetry—and once i get past the vast pretentious and sometimes vacuous ramblings—i find that i am oddly attracted to it. before you pull my mancard, permanently, for this offense, let me explain.
I dont like the confusing rambling poetry that seems to be set on making writing into a game where the winner is one who invents the most new ambiguous phrases and causes the most people to jump off the Golden Gate in despair. i also don't like any verse that makes no attempt at being even slightly artistic in nature. writing: "The pear is here. the pear is not round" does not count to me as any type of artistic writing.
See, i appreciate poetry as it artfully weaves the cadence of life into verse. Stripped bare of filler words and focused on the essentials. poetry in its purest form, to me, is sort of the "Occam's Razor" of literature. Just the facts ma'am. It delightfully captures the beautiful, painful and mundane in life and illustrates it vividly for the imagination. With my mind as a canvass the words as ink and the pen as a brush, the words paint pictures that stir my soul and enrapture my mind. i can read it and marvel at humanities ability to lay on paper the magic of nature and of life.
so in short...i really just like reading Dr. Seuss.

Peace on Earth

So im sitting in Greg's room...on his computer...typing this. after we just got back from hardcore guy-shopping. ("guy shopping" means that we walked into various stores and wandered aimlessly and looked at crap that we wanted to get for ourselves before finally picking something remotely adequate for the person we were shopping for. its all perfectly normal)
obviously, this close to Christmas the mall was basically an exhibition of all things related to human depravity. each store seemed to be showcase of every base inclination of human nature, these milling masses of humanity on display there like so many creatures in a zoo. i stood outside (and inside some) and observed the behavior of these peculiar creatures all crammed into the same living space and competing for bits of metal and plastic (ironically paying for them with bits of metal and plastic). And through the whole thing all i could think was: "Oh how i love Christmas." Not odd for me really...i DO love Christmas and all things associated with it (including crowds...but NOT bad drivers), but it IS odd that when i sit down and think about it, i was just as intrigued by the act of watching people and analyzing their actions as i was by the act of buying my gifts. (and i LOVE buying gifts...i tend to go a bit overboard, its true) i guess that just says something about me. im not sure what, but i'm sure it does say something.

Panera and Postmodernism

Today i was driving to work (read: place i go that pays me to do something i love), and i was behind a truck belonging to a very well known bread and restaurant company. On the back of the truck was a picture of a very appealing looking loaf of bread, ostensibly right out of the oven, with the caption under it reading: "Unsliced Bread...the Best Thing Since Sliced Bread". i stopped and stared at it (well...i didn't have a choice...there was a red light...and i am a law abiding citizen), and i felt a slight sense of intrigue and maybe a bit of condescension...
Don't get me wrong, i love the occasional ironic turn of phrase. no one appreciates plays on the English idiom more than I. especially when they might prey upon standardized, socially acceptable norms. maybe I'm just a rebel at heart clothed in this disguise of a rule lover...whatever the reason, i do love all the nuances involved in turning a phrase on its head to do anything from getting a laugh to making a point...philosophical, sociological, metaphysical, theological, or otherwise.
But...this one got me thinking and musing. So much so that i whipped out my trusty iPhone and quickly snapped out a snarky little response in my "notes" section. (At the stop light)
I looked back on it today and from what i could discern through the hastily typed and oddly autocorrected words (darn you, iPhone!) was that, then, and now, i am fascinated by how much, to borrow the colloquialism, "The more things change the more they stay the same".
No, i am not finally bowing to a cliche to express myself. fear not, i fully intend to broaden the scope of my feelings here. but that is basically what i pounded out on my keypad to express my incredulous feelings. well...honestly not really "incredulous"...much of this culture's fascination with postmodernity and its subsequent infiltration in marketing has lost all surprise for me.
I guess what really struck me was how much we crave to be different. once something becomes the norm we must move on to the next thing lest we become "normal" (gasp!) and therefore, we are told, irrelevant. Remember when Northface was all the rage? phsst, that was SO Jr. High. It's why Mac's, which used to be the norm, then were old news and outdated, are once again so popular in the face of an industry saturated with all things Microsoft. (I admit, it may be trendy and thus regrettable later...but I LOVE all things Mac.)
Why does that statement on the back of a Panera truck strike so many chords? why does it really, honestly, hit home and actually convince people to buy bread there? is it the draw of a bakery that provides a bread buying experience that we associate with some nostalgic time in the past (that neither we, nor our parents, actually had any part of!) so it thus must be profoundly more appealing?
Or is it just the fact that since Panera says it, and it sounds funny and maybe slightly profound...in a rather cheeky way...we feel that its the way we ought to feel? Maybe...but i honestly think its more than that. its really the human heart and spirit to want new. to want better. to want the different. to crave change. In today's space and time we tend to revert back to history, to the old, to the times of yore; craving this eclectic collage of past and present that, broadly, constitutes the core of postmodern culture. And i would never argue that this is always bad. i just wonder WHY. And perhaps more importantly, i wonder how our lives would be different if these urges, embedded deep in our psyche and culture, did not drive our rabid consumerism.

Love Wins

We loved rightly

We gave love truly

We loved deeply

How can it be

That this kind of pain

Is the end

Of all that has been right?

I saw thunderclouds eclipse the sun

Stark against the early morning light

Bands of shadow hiding flame

God I pray for your name

Let not the roar of this storm

Eclipse your fame

We loved without reserve

We gave love without regret

We loved without fear

How can it be

That this kind of pain

Tells us we have done right?

But I understand

It might be a storm that brings you glory

And I delight to watch here

And be a part of this story

Because I know in the end

Love will heal the tears

Because after all,

Love wins.

For I am convinced of this: that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life; neither angels or demons, neither our fears for today or our fears for tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from the love of God. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all of creation will ever be able to separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus. We know how much God loved us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. (Romans 8:38-39; 1 John 4:16)

Dedicated to Ben Willey