Inside Out

Okay, so one more quick note before leaving this afternoon... Have you ever noticed how the insides of people are usually the most beautiful part of them, it's what makes them beautiful people? Oddly enough that's the part we most often hide when wanting to impress another. At least that's what I do, and I think I've seen others do it too. How then do we move past that? If we see it in others we should see it in ourselves. Yet the truth of the matter is it is scary to open up, maker yourself vulnerable, like that. Still I can't help but wonder how beautiful this place would be if we were able to show/share more of our insides.

And We're Off...

So here's the deal I'm leaving for Colorado Friday afternoon. I'll stay the night at the Wounded Head Hyatt in Gayeville (sp?), SD. Then off to Gypsum for the summer. So let the adventures begin. Okay, so I'm a little unclear where I'll be staying all summer, where I'll be employed, and what my contact information will be but I'm off for adventure. Sure it scares me to death not knowing this stuff, but I guess I've got no choice now. Here we go... Why does this not knowing drive me so insane? How do I get the job of God? If I'm all knowing maybe there will be more comfort... no wait, that will mean more responsibility and stuff to do and frankly I just want to win the lottery and retire. I guess some people are just never happy. So I must hit the road! The next time I post I will be either be in Colorado or dead, and frankly I'm pulling for the whole Colorado thing... Oh yeah, and Troy, if you read this don't forget to e-mail me that contact information I need... For those who are staying behind in Minnesota I will miss you. It might seem like it, and I may not say it in person, but I really will... except maybe those I've seen too much this past week and I think you know who you are. :-)

Prayer

I've found myself thinking a lot lately that I need to pray more. You know the Bible says we are to pray continually. So what does that mean? I knew of a guy in college who took that mean he was to set is alarm clock for every hour, wake up pray, and get up again the next hour to pray again. That doesn't seem right. It doesn't make sense that I could sit hands folded, eyes closed 24 hours a day either. I need to eat at some point. I need to sleep at some point.

What if prayer worked differently? What if prayer meant walking through an open field, sharing conversation with a friend over a cup of coffee, playing with your child, or preparing a meal for friends or family? It seems to me prayer would be a much different thing then, something I could actually do a little more often. While these words are a bit of a prayer in themselves, I think I'm going to go and pray some other ways now.

Weddings

I was talking with a couple of women earlier today who have weddings on their mind. It was interesting to note that neither of them were real regular church attenders, both wanted a church wedding and both grew up in the Catholic church with parents who wished they were a little more "Catholic" as we speak. So I asked them why it was important to have a church wedding. They started with things like tradition and parents would kill them if they didn't. However, where they came alive was when they talked about getting married as a spiritual act.

There was a great passion in their words and it got me to thinking some. Do we often sell short those who are not sitting in the pews on Sunday morning? Are we too quick to write them off as not as spiritual? We tell them things like, "You need to find God." Yet even those not in attendance probably realize that God is not lost.

It also got me to thinking about when I'll be leading weddings in the future (I've already got a couple scheduled for this fall). I think sometimes because there is such a focus on trying to make the event look like a bridal magazine, that I begin to fear they want the "God stuff" toned down a bit. When in fact, my impression after tonight was that is the exact opposite of what they want, what they need. Here is an opportunity to really proclaim the gospel to people who are not really sitting in the pews most Sunday mornings. And here is the killer part of it, that's exactly what they want and expect me to do as the pastor. What a beautiful deal.

Funny, I've spent four years sitting in classrooms at seminary, and yet I've learned more at times like tonight standing around a grill, drinking a beer, and chatting with friends who only sporadically attend church.

A Thought on Theology

I have no idea how to spell it but I've been thinking about that piece of Lutheran theology we call simul ustes epicater or perhaps more familiar, "Simultaneous saint and sinner." It's a beautiful piece that helps us view people both as amazing creations of God and totally f#@*ed up. We realize that at the same time we find ourselves in desperate need of God's saving grace and being created anew. It's all jumbled up all at the same time. It's pretty cool.

Yet here's the thing. It seems to me that all too often we dwell on the sinner, especially when it comes to ourselves. I know I far more often see the saint in others, but not in me. That sort of thing can get you in trouble as you begin seeing others as better than yourself. It's unfortunate because those other saints we see are also sinners ("For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"). Meanwhile I also need to remember that I am "saved by grace through faith." So we really all are on equal ground. ALL of us...now if we can just learn to see that.

Reality Television

Some friends of mine recently put me on to the show "Starting Over." It's a show, as I understand it, where a group of women who are facing some serious life problems are put together in a house to live together and work out their problems with the help of counselors, life coaches, etc. These women are getting a chance to start life over, so to speak. I tried watching it and just couldn't do it, but it did get me thinking some.

With this genre of reality television there seems to be a growing number of genres within the genre. "Starting Over" I would put in the self-improvement, or makeover, category. There are any number of these makeover shows from the home shows like "Design on a Dime" or "Trading Spaces". There are the personal makeover shows like "Extreme Makeover", "You Can't Wear That", or the amazing "Swan". When we watch these shows we are happy for those who find that improvement in their life. I think many of us watch and find hope that maybe we could make some of these improvements in our life as well.

Some of the other reality shows work on a similar level, although perhaps a bit differently. The extreme examples would be the shows like "Jerry Springer" where we watch these reality shows and we are grateful that we are not as pathetic as the people we see on the screen. We watch other people to try and feel better about ourselves.

Consequently it would seem that with this explosion of reality of television we are now faced with a population that desperately wants to improve itself, wants to feel better about itself. So what can we do then to help, to serve, our neighbor and make them feel better about themselves? How do we go about improving the general ethos (or is it pathos? I get them confused) of our culture? How should the church be responding to this cry for help?

I suspect one way the church can be helpful is through being a haven of community. We live in an increasingly suburban context, or least mentality, it would seem to me. With that comes an increasingly isolated community. We don't know our neighbors anymore. So we seek community through characters on television shows. We find particular comfort, it would seem, in those characters being real people on reality television. Consequently, since our community is being found through an inanimate object we are even more isolated, thus perpetuating the problem. Can the church once again be a gathering point in a community? Is that perhaps the gift that we have to offer to the world? Then through belonging people might meet Jesus and in so doing find faith, find life. It something worth considering I would think.

Zest (x2)

So I've had a couple of people express to me outside of this "blog" some concern about my posting entitled, "Sabotage." Let me just say it was not as negative as one could have read into it. You see it was more a matter of sharing too much all at once with a friend, quite early in the friendship I might add, as a part of my zest and excitement for the friendship. Too much too soon is not always a good thing. It can put too much on a relationship thus breaking the bond of trust that was being built. I know that, but I don't always follow that advice. I call it sabotage because I know that it is most likely going to put too much pressure on the relationship, that it's going to put too much on the other and could destroy it yet I can point the finger at the other...or at the very least some place other than me. I need to curb some of that activity, but for the particular situation I had in mind while writing the other day...I'm confident it's all going to work out.

Since I brought up the word zest earlier, I am also reminded of a recent observation. Not so long ago on a shopping spree I realized I needed to buy soap. In a quest to be cheap I ended up purchasing Zest soap. Not such a bad thing, except for the stupid marketing geniuses of a few years back. It turns out that I am currently incapable of taking a shower or washing my hands now without singing, "Zest-fully clean. Your not fully clean unless your Zest-fully clean!" Stupid commercials! I wonder what kind of effect we could have if we got a catching jingle like that as an act of evangelism? Might it have the same effect of drawing you in initially and eventually driving you away? Hmmm....