One of the running themes in my life has to do with this blog. Just when I stop blogging for a while, thinking that no one is reading or benefiting from it, several things happen that remind me that God is working even though I'm not aware of it. One of the reasons that I haven't blogged in a while has to do with reading. I have a ton of it and much of it is not very fun. As a matter of fact, I read three books last week and only one was half good. However, I did manage to stumble across one or two thought-provoking, er, eh, em, "thoughts"--I think that's the right word. (Can you have thought-provoking thoughts? If not what does thought-provoking provoke? Can someone just have thought-provoking?) Anyway, as you can see, all the reading has fried my mind. Clearly the provoking is of the thoughts...Right?
Anyway here you go...
From Michael Frost's and Alan Hirsch's The Shaping of Things to Come: "We believe the missional genius of the church can only be unleashed when there are foundational changes to the church's very DNA, and this means addressing core issues like ecclesiology, spirituality, and leadership. It means a complete shift away from Christendom thinking, which is attractional, dualistic, and hierarchical."
From Marjorie Thompson's Soul Feast: "Many of us have absorbed tacit or explicit taboos about what we are permitted to bring into prayer. We may have learned, for instance, that doubt, anger, hatred, or despair were inappropriate to express to God. Yet we know what happens to human relationships when negative feelings are suppressed. Communication becomes artificial or breaks down; the two parties become emotionally estranged; intimacy becomes impossible. Why should we imagine it is different with God? In prayer, we need to speak whatever truth is in us: pain and grief, fear and disappointment, yearning and desire, questions and doubt, hope and faith, failure and weakness, praise and thanks, despair and sorrow, anger and, yes, even hatred."
From Urban T. Holmes' A History of Christian Spirituality: "...thinking as Christ thinks is the same thing as repenting."
From Kenneth Boa's Conformed to His Image: "We honor God when we allow him to define us and tell us who we are regardless of our feelings or experiences to the contrary...when we know who we are, we have nothing to prove."
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On the topic of praying "real" prayers, a friend confided in me last week that he cursed during a prayer. It actually shocked him when he did it. He was lamenting his own tendency to sin when he prayed something like "damn" or "shit" or something similar. I respect his concern because he is a very reverant man. So I asked him, "Could you have been really honest with God without using that word?" If not, then it would have been wrong to conceal your heart and polish your words. I hope I can be as honest with God, too.
-Russ
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