Enjoying It

Recently, I wrote an article for our church bulletin. I liked it. I thought it was one of the more thought-provoking, interesting articles that I've written in a while. Well, I supose I was the only one since it was welcomed with thunderous silence. Usually, someone will say something about my articles, but this time nothing, except for someone asking me what kind of response I got from it. The theme of the bulletin was "Seeking the Face of God" and had a flattering picture of my daughter on the cover, so we were all writing about spiritual formation. Here's the track I took. Tell me what you think.
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Enjoying It

You might have noticed that I don’t talk about Heaven much. It’s not that I’m not interested in it or don’t want to go there; it’s just that—believe it or not—I’m not convinced that going there is the point of the spiritual life. I’m aware that that might sound sacrilegious to some people, but I don’t believe it is. As Dallas Willard helpfully points out, a gospel centered on getting individuals to heaven makes us “vampire Christians who want Jesus for His blood and little else.”

It seems that a great deal of contemporary Christian spirituality centers on how to get into heaven after you die. So the church talks a lot about sinner’s prayers, or baptisms—whatever “conversion” means for a group—and once you’ve done that your duty is to hang around the church enough to be considered a “good Christian,” contribute what you can financially and be nice to people. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with those things, but I have to ask: Is that it?

Surely, it can’t be!

Can you imagine what the ministry of Jesus might have looked like had getting back to heaven been the Savior’s endgame? Why spend time in solitude with God? Why minister to the disease-riddled and broken? Why commune with a band of twelve guys who couldn’t get much right? Why even bother with studying in the Temple, or preaching the Sermon on the Mount or Plain? Certainly Jesus could have angered the Pharisees enough to kill Him without all of these touchings and teaching in between.

What we see in the life of Jesus between the nativity scene and the empty tomb is spiritual formation. Time alone with God, moments spent with a small group of people struggling to understand the kingdom of God, ministry to the hurting and powerless, prayer—both in solitude and in community—dwelling on the word of God, the journey toward a destiny, struggling with the call of God, anguish, mourning, celebration, and others practices and experiences are the spiritual life. Jesus chooses to embrace each of these experiences and practices not because His goal is to get back to heaven, but rather because He knows what Heaven really is.

Let me put it this way: There is more to Heaven besides getting there, there is also enjoying it. One ancient spiritual master said that the goal of life is to love God and enjoy Him forever. And as a more modern thinker has said, “For some, the flames of Heaven will be hotter than the flames of hell.”

What these spiritual masters mean is that it is through engaging the disciplines of spiritual formation that one comes to more deeply love God, more intimately know His personality and character, and hear his voice. Without which, Heaven would be like listening to a group of old friends reminisce about the wonderful times they’ve shared and see the joy they experience while in each others company and feel as though you are on the outside looking in.

So when I talk with people about Christianity, Heaven is not usually on the agenda. For many of the spiritual masters, Heaven was about enjoying God, and through the various processes of spiritual formation—prayer, friendship, dwelling, solitude, silence, suffering, seeking the face of God, etc—we are given a taste of knowing and enjoying God right now.

So we don’t have to wait until we’re six-feet-under to experience Heaven. It is here, waiting for us.

World Cup

Okay, I have to admit, I've been watching the World Cup. Typically, I make fun of soccer, even though I played it as a kid and enjoyed it very much. Well, I enjoyed everything but the constant running. I guess that's why I was a goal-keeper and sweeper.

Anyway, the tournament has been fun to watch and interesting. I love seeing the fans! They are pumped and excited about what's going on. During England's loss, the camera kept cutting back to a pub in England. The fans stood the entire game and seemed to flip back and forth between life and death (metaphorically, of course) with every play. In addition, it is truly a world competition. Unlike the NBA or NFL, the winning team would have been in a tournament with truly the entire world.

As much as I have enjoyed the World Cup, I have some serious questions/problems with the game itself--particularly the rules.

Here are my questions and comments:

1. What's the deal with off-sides? That's a ridiculous rule. If an offensive player out runs the defensive player, then props to him. A team shouldn't be penalized because the other teams defenders are slower. Why should he have to wait til the ball is kicked? Why can't a player anticipate what the his teammate is going to do and where he's going to kick? In American football, the receiver is SUPPOSED to get BEHIND the defender. The off-sides rule has got to be one of the main reasons why I sat and watched 119 minutes of soccer yesterday before I saw a goal. Soccer People, get ride of off-sides, increase scoring, and you'll get more American fans.

2. What's up with "Stoppage Time?" Last I checked it was the year 2006. I think we're capable of stopping a running clock! Basketball does it. Football does it. Hey, my stop watch does it! In soccer, the game is over, but then it's not over because the refs have 3 or 5 more minutes for stoppage time. Wouldn't it be easier to let the players and fans know exactly where we are in the game and how much longer those poor guys are going to have to run?

3. Team Jerseys! For those of us without intimate knowledge of the sport, wouldn't it be better for teams to wear jerseys that somewhat resembled their nation's flag. If your flag is red, green and white, please don't wear a yellow jersey. If you're trying to gain fans, help us understand who is who. And while you're at it, put your goal-keeper in a jersey that somewhat looks like the rest of the team. I know their jerseys have to be somewhat different, but in the neighborhood would be nice.

4. Soccer player, stop faking injury. I must say that my most lasting and painful injuries have been from soccer, but if you're laying on the pitch, screaming in pain, having to be carried off by a stretcher, then you can't be back on the field 2 minutes later. If you're hurt, you're hurt--I get it. If not, rub some dirt on it and play. After all, you don't want anyone to have to stop the clock.

5 Yellow Card. I can't tell what's worth a yellow card and what's not. Refs give them for tripping one time and 5 minutes later a guy catches an elbow to the face and they don't call anything. Plus, soccer players are falling down all the time anyway. I can't tell what's worth it and what's not. Can you help me?

Don't get me wrong. I have LOVED watching the Cup, but I'm not sure that I fully "get it." If anyone can help, please do!

Who Over What!

Often I'm shamed by how infrequently I post on my blog. The truth is that I've been a little too busy for my own good--not to mention the good of my family. Since my last post (you know the one where I was speaking at a camp)I have traveled to speak to another church, been a participant in a church planting lab, and right now I'm preparing a presentation for a church in town, as well as getting ready for a trip to Portland, OR.

That's a little much when you place it next to the day-to-day responsibilities of ministering to a church and being a husband and father.

Speaking of ministering to a church, I'm teaching a class right now on the gospel of John. It has been a lot of fun. I'm using my friend, Chris Seay's re-telling of John. Chris is shepherding "The Voice" Bible project and has been gracious enough to let me use his text, even though some parts have not been published yet.

Tomorrow, our class will be looking at the religious leader's questioning of John the Baptist in John 1. It's an amazing text and Chris captures it beautifully. Here is a scene where the leaders are asking all these "what" questions--questions about John's baptism and his authority. Yet here is John dismissing the "what" questions and announcing and proclaiming the coming of Jesus. Did you catch that? They are worried about the what questions, when the heart of the story is centered in the "who" question.

Perhaps that's a good primer to view the entire gospel of John--or all of Christianity for that matter. Perhaps we should focus on the who not the what. When Jesus says later in John that He is the way, the truth and the life, perhaps He is articulating a way of being in the world; a way focused on living life in the way of Jesus--following a person, rather than a religious construct.

Try this out: Read through John's gospel this week and deliberately ask "who" questions. See what that might do for your week.

Freedom

I'm away speaking at a camp for high school students this week. The theme for the week is "Freedom." What a tough topic, huh? This is an interesting camp. Everyday we speak, pray, discuss, and praise about one topic. I supppose that by the end of the week the kids--and those of us charged with leading them--either discover something in the topic or are sick to death of it.

The problem with discussing Freedom is that as Americans we think we know what it is. The truth is that we don't. As a matter of fact, when you think of all the death, divorce, addiction, and psychological turmoil we experience, we are some of the most enslaved people in the history of the world.

The fact is we all serve a multitude of masters.

We think of Freedom in terms of the American Revolution or "Braveheart" (which is a favorite movie of mine), but those things are much more about autonomy and independence than true freedom.

The opposite can be true too, though. Some of us free where others might take the concept of Freedom, and like the Pharisees that Jesus fought, we construct a whole list of rules and regulations and other crap to hem people inside the walls where we want them to stay.

Neither of those is the freedom that Jesus died to give us.

If I had to try and define freedom I guess I would land somewhere near where Morpheus does when he meets Neo face-to-face in "The Matrix". Morpheus says, "I am offering you the truth."

That what freedom is to me--the truth. The truth about the meaning of life, the truth about where I came from and where I am going. And the truth that Jesus and Jesus alone is the truth.

Freedom is the ability to live fully in God's truth.Free from the false addiction of thinking you can do what you want when you want. And freedom from the false bondages of those few people inside religious institutions that want to shut down every thought and action but their own.

** I've got to run and take a picture now. Sorry of any misspellings our un-proofed work.