Berit

"But what God does in Christ is not essentially unlike what God was already doing in creation and in covenant- emptying himself, sharing His love, creating partnership."

What is covenant? By this quote it is the act of servanthood, love, and community. What else could it be? I see it as a promise, a commitment, and a responsibility as well. Throughout the Old Testament, God established covenants with great men who's stories are told in Sunday School every year. God made a promise, or a covenant, with Noah that he would never again use the waters to flood the earth and rid it of life. He symbolized this promise with a dove and an olive branch. He made a covenant with Abraham that he would be a father to many, and established that through the birth of his son, Isaac. The stories go on... all stories that we know. So what do we see in these stories?

I think the covenant that God establishes in these instances creates a back bone or a cornerstone to the whole story. The story that has captured us and is lived out in our lives every day. Needless to say, the idea of covenant is an important one.

The Hebrew word "berit" translates into a couple of things. Translated into English it means "covenant" (hence it's relevance to this topic). Even closer to the translation it means promise, or pledge. In the Hebrew culture, "berit" is a promise made by a lord to his servant that he will protect and provide for his servants. This is a promise that is not required, but voluntary. However, this type of covenant is one that must go both ways. The servant must reciprocate and uphold his end of the promise. God's "berit" doesn't require the participation of the servants. In Abraham's situation, he was simply selected.

We, like Abraham, are simply selected. But where do we go from there? Michael Lodahl, the author of the book "The Story of God" states, "To say that God is a covenantal God is to suggest a divine interest in our cooperation, a divine commitment to partnership, a divine power that is empowering and affirming of the other." The relationship we have with God must be one that involves us committing to Him. I think this applies to our relationships with others. We need commitment and partnership with those who's lives are a part of our own. In Samuel I, Jonathan and David made a covenant under God to each other in their friendship.
What can we do to establish "berit" in our relationship with our Father as well as our friends?

following the patience mustang

I’m at Caribou Coffee in Gahanna right now in an attempt to clear my head and get some work done. So far it has worked. It was really interesting because on the way here I was behind a Mustang Shelby, one of my absolute favorite cars. I looked down at the license plate and read, “PATENCE.” In my opinion it was missing the “i,” but whether that was intended or not, I read it as “patience.” (I just looked “patence” up on dictionary.com just to make sure, and it’s not a word). God sure has a good sense of humor. I’m thinking He wanted to remind me to have patience, that things will get better. That while things might be tough and my feet are gunna get tired and sore from all the rough roads ahead, it will be rewarding if I put my trust in Him and let him guide me. So I think I’m gunna follow that Mustang’s instructions. Patience.

Dribbling

What am I even doing? I feel like I have those blinders on…. The ones we used in basketball during the early years. I can see, but at the same time I can’t. I’m aimlessly wandering around, thinking I’m doing the right thing, that I’m dribbling the ball, but really I’m missing the ball and dribbling air.

Thoughts

So I just signed on to the whole Twitter phenomenon. First of all, I just don't get it. I can't figure it out. Anyways...

I follow John Mayer on Twitter (how weird is that?!), and I noticed one of his "tweets" from today. It read:

"Living by the power of other people's suggestion will slowly kill you. Genuine self esteem isn't a roller coaster. It comes from within."

So, to me, this takes a while to unpack. I get the first sentence... you have to make your decisions your own. Taking others' suggestions into consideration might help, but living by them will squelch your ability to make decisions for yourself.

It's the second half of the quote that gets me thinking. What do you think?

a new look on love

I'm reading the book "Blue Like Jazz," by reccomendation of many people.  At first I thought of it as a fad, as something that yes, had good insight, but something people read because it was the "cool Christian" thing to do.  I just finished the third to last chapter, and it finally hit me.  I agree with the masses, this book is great.

The chapter I just finished was about love.  Recently this has been something I've been struggling with, loving everyone I come in contact with.  Not just surface love, but genuine, God-breathed love.  Do you know how hard that is?  I've realized how easy it is to hold grudges (just a side note).  Anyways, the author began to talk about the idea of relationships through metaphors.  Some listed were that we "value" people, we "invest" in people, relationships have the possibility to be "bankrupt," and that people are "priceless."  Do you see any commonalities in those metaphors? How about economics?  From our viewpoints, we see relationships as being economically based without even knowing we do this.  In the words of Donald Miller, "With love, we withheld affirmation from the people who did not agree with us, but we lavishly financed the ones who did."  It is so incredibly wrong to treat people, relationships, and love as banks. Miller also says "When the church does not love its enemies, it fules their rage. It makes them hate us more." How true is that? The church today is hated, for the most part.  Ask anyone on the streets what they think of Christians and I can almost guarantee you that 8 times out of 10, you're going to hear a negative answer.  The book explains that when a person feels that you don't like him or her, they won't listen to you.  So what are we doing to show people that we love them, that we do like them?  

I'm not writing all of this claiming that this is where I'm coming from and that I've thought this all along... far from it.  It was such a revalation to me.  My eyes were opened to the way that I treat people, the fact that I am obvious with who I care about and who I don't.  And this needs to change.

When talking to someone, there are always two conversations going on.  There is the conversation on the surface, the one that highlights the words actually being spoken, the topic being discussed.  Then there is the deeper conversation, the one coming from the heart, addressing whether or not we like the person we are conversing with.  If both of these levels of conversation are not coming from God, they are not true.  In the Bible (and if anyone knows where this comes from pleases let me know), it says that if you're talking to someone with your mouth and your heart does not love them, that you are like a person standing there smashing two symbals together.

I will strive to not be a one man band, slamming cymbals and creating horrible noise.  I cannot promise anything but to do my best to have God work through me, and love each person come in contact with.  Maybe you could call me a modern-day hippie.

Thanks to Donald Miller for the thoughts presented in this blog.

Romans 12

The last week or so, I've really been trying to focus on Romans 12.  To me it's a section of the Bible that so clearly defines how we should live our lives.  I'm going to give a couple verses of the chapter that really stand out to me in both NIV and The Message...

Verse 2 (NIV)

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is- his ood, pleasing and perfect will.

(The Message)

Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.  Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out.  Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it.  Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Verses 9- 12(NIV)

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.  never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.  Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

(The Message)

Love from the center of who you are, don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil, hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply, practice playing second fiddle.  Don't burn out, keep yourselves fueled and aflame.  Be alert servants wof the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times, pray all the harder.

Broken

its been a while since i've written...

in my church at home, we have this place in the back of the sanctuary that we call the "wailing wall."  people are encouraged to write things that break their heart, as well as break God's heart, and post these on the wailing wall.  we've been doing this for a very long time, and over time this wall has gotten to be completely covered with pieces of paper, pictures, money, newspaper articles....

today in church we had sort of a relfection service where we took these things off of the wailing wall, read them to the congregation, and then placed these at the foot of the cross standing at the front of the room.  this was an extremely powerful service to me.  to hear these things spoken out loud was, well, unexplainable.  there was one in particlar that really struck me...the piece of paper urged people to pray for a young boy's family...this boy, 8 years old, in 3rd grade, took his own life.  

what?

it breaks my heart that this young boy, hardly even starting his life, found that he had no hope...

at an age where you have all the hope in the world.

it was so bad that he took his own life.

what?

i read a note that said to pray for those children who are abandoned and neglected, that they would find hope.  invisible children comes to mind....children who are affected by the sex trade comes to mind...

these things break my heart.

there was another note that stuck out to me..  it encouraged us to pray not only for those being abused, but those who were abusing.  i think this is something that we often forget to pray for.  we see those people suffering, those abused, neglected but we don't think to pray for those who are oppressing, abusing, neglecting, abandoning.  God loves these people just as much as he loves those who are hurt.  so should we.

my pastor used an illustration he heard from David Crowder...distinguishing justice from compassion..

picture you and some friends sitting by a river, enjoying a beautiful day and having a picnick.  all of a sudden you see people, floating downstream, drowning. you jump in and pull those people to safety.  after a while, you keep seeing more and more people floating down the river, drowning.  you continue to attempt to rescue these people but after a while you decide that you need to go up stream to figure out how so many people are drowning and to stop whoever is making this happen.  

this is the difference between justice and compassion. you have compassion on those who are drowning and you make those attempts to rescue them, but you also must act with justice and do something to stop the oppression.

i have such a hard time with this.  reason being, i feel as though i am so small, so unimportant...how can i stop children from being sold into the sex trade? how can i rescue the homeless, feed the hungry...i'm only one person.

i think this is something that many struggle with.  it's so intimidating.  

how can i make the difference? how can i be the difference?