The importance of questioning.

    Today (May 31) on the Catholic calender is celebrated as the “Feast of Visitation.” Today Catholics worldwide are celebrating the meeting between the Virgin Mary and her cousin Elizabeth. While I am not a Catholic, have found great encouragement in following the Liturgical calender and seeking inspiration and growth in celebrating these sacred events.

    One of the things that has been a familiar part of my faith journey has been the ridiculous amount of questions that seem to accompany trying to live like Jesus.

    Over the years my questions have served as a form of discouragement for me. Each answer would come married to a series of deeper questions. Each bit of faith solidified within me would only serve to uproot other points of theology that would raise their own questions. And the cycle would continue. As I looked at the seemingly solid faith of Christians around me, my own questions and insecurities became an even greater area of discouragement.

    Enter Mary.

    Growing up a Protestant Christian in the South, the Virgin Mary served two purposes. She was the holy incubator and she gave Joseph something to look at during Christmas plays. That was it. Any belief outside of those two areas would get you kicked out of VBS. (That’s Vacation Bible School for all of my heathen friends)
    As I began to study the Catholic faith, however, I began to find hidden gems that connected with my heart. As I prayed through the Catholic Prayer book I felt my own spirit expressed through the prayers of the saints. As I prayed the Orthodox Prayer Rope, my heart joined with the thousands of others as we begged Jesus to “Have mercy on me a sinner.” I was also comforted by the life of Mary. This once taboo subject would become my greatest encouragement in dealing with all of my own questions.

    In looking at the life of Jesus, I found that his life was book ended with questions.
His conception was ushered in with a question: “How can this be for I am a virgin?”
And his earthly life was ended with a question: “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?”

    If Mary could have questions and still be used by God maybe there was hope for me. If the life of Jesus was filled with questions to God, and I was trying to live like Jesus, maybe my questions were not to be discouraged but to be celebrated.

This, for me, has been a liberation of enormous proportions. I have begun to embrace my questioning as a catalyst on my journey rather that a road block. With each question comes an opportunity for God to show me something new.

When the questioning stops, the journey ends.

So join with me and the many others as we celebrate the great visitation and begin our own journeys filled with questions.


May your questions always bring more questions and may your journey never end!

Next Blog: Whats the deal with the name "David the Philistine?" 

Is silence really golden?

    There are times when you know things are ordained by God.
As I was sitting down to write this blog, I clicked on the blog of one of the pastors of the church I’m on staff at.
  http://bigcloudmusic.blogspot.com/2011/05/solitude-of-running-alone.html 
He has written about the very thing that has been on my heart the past week.

Silence.

When is the last time you were really silent before God?
No background music or TV.
Not even praying.
Have you ever really just been silent before God and allowed Him to speak?

Mother Teresa said “If we really want to pray, we must first listen: for in the silence of the heart God speaks.”

    God spoke to Samuel in the middle of the night because this was the only time Samuel was silent. He, like many of us, had obligations and duties to attend to. Samuel worked in the church every day and when God spoke he didn't recognize His voice.

Would we know that voice?

    How easy it is to fill our lives with actions and noise to a point where we are uncomfortable with silence. I feel more comfortable (even more spiritual to be honest) if I have music in the background. 

There have been countless times that I have missed the voice of God because I have been being “Spiritual.” There have been times working at the church that I have been “to busy” to Pray. There have also been times when I have been too busy praying to listen to the voice of God. All of these things are really just an excuse for me not to face the things I am uncomfortable with. Sitting in silence waiting for God to speak to me doesn’t fit into the comfortable lifestyle I have created.
I must constantly be doing something. 

Even in my faith, I am quick to forget that God has called me to “Be still and know that He is God.” 

    Jesus warned against praying with many words. (Matt. 5:7)  I believe that prayer is about us aligning our hearts with the heart of God and taking time to hear from him. There is nothing we can say that he doesn’t already know.

Make it a point to set aside times of silence.  Next time you're in your car, turn off the radio and just listen. For many of us this will be awkward and uncomfortable but if we allow God to move and speak to us, we will find that we will begin to recognize His voice.

What do you think?
Join the conversation in the comment section.

Mourn with those who mourn.

Turn the other cheek.
Love your enemies.
Do good to those who hurt you.
Pray for those who mistreat you.

    These are the words of Christ. Not the words of Christianity or the words of religion. Christ. When Jesus said to love your enemies, who were the enemies that he was referring to?  When he said to pray for those who mistreat you, who was he referring to?
    In the days following the murder of Osama Bin Laden, I believe it is necessary to stop  and reflect on these words. What did the heart of God cry out at the moment of his death? Did he rejoice over the end of a tyrant or did his heart break over the death of his child?
    Did the unrighteous actions that Bin Laden committed cause the father to love him any less? If that is the case, than every unrighteous act I commit causes the father to love me less as well. Thank God for his unfailing grace that chases us down when we don’t deserve it.
    The Bible is clear that there is nothing we can do that will make God love us any more than he does right this second. The marvelous flip side of this is that there is nothing we can do that is so terrible that God will love us less than he does right this second. This grace doesn’t change as our actions get worse.
    In the book of Romans there is a line that says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.” In the wake of this instance let us rejoice with those who are rejoicing. Not over the death of the individual, but in the lessening of the oppression he created. I believe that the heart of God is rejoicing right along with us and that, in this fact, the Heavens are celebrating. However, in our rejoicing let us not forget to mourn with those who mourn. When the dust settles there will still be children without a father, wives without a husband and a community that is missing a leader. How we feel or whether we agree with them does not change the fact that we are called to mourn with them in their loss.
    Now is the time for us to put our faith into action. This, I believe, is the central message of Jesus. To love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We have neighbors who are mourning the death of a loved one. This is a time for us to put aside out political and personal difference. To pray for them and join them in their mourning.

Join the discussion.
Leave your thoughts in the comment section. 

Texting God

Let me ask you a question. How’s your prayer life? 

If you’re anything like me you just broke out into a nervous sweat. In the past, my prayer life consisted of a minute or two of actual prayer followed by 28 minutes of spiritual warfare between guilt over my inability to stay focused and wondering if the sun would look better in a summer dress or a tuxedo. Than I discovered the secret to prayer that has set me free.  

Get rid of your prayer life.

The very nature of the phrase “Prayer life” is something that I think breaks the heart of God. The phrase Implies I have my normal life and a separate “prayer life” with a designated time, place and agenda. Once I have completed my prayer time I am free to step back into my normal life. 

Imagine you have a spouse. In the morning you wake up early, sit on the porch and pour your heart out to them connecting like never before. You share your passions, your fears, your needs and lavish them with love. When your 30 minute timer goes off you get up, walk out the door and go about your day eager for your meeting tomorrow morning. 

Now, imagine you wake up next to the the same spouse. You say good morning, thank them for everything they have done and with an “I love you” and a kiss you head for work. As you are sitting in traffic you think of a joke that you quickly text to your spouse. Walking into the office you see something that reminds you of an experience you shared with them so you send them a picture of it with a short message “remember this lol”. As you prepare for a meeting you send a quick email telling them how nervous you are.  All day long this continues. Quick texts, picture messages and notes. Nothing lengthy, simply sharing your life with them. Staying connected. This is what I believe God desires from us. 

The bible tells us to “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thes. 5:17) but in the very next verse it tells us to give thanks in everything. This is not about praying continuously but about staying connected to our father in EVERYTHING that happens in our lives! 

Every time you look down at your phone and see those 5 bars, you know that if you ever have problem or want to share a joyful moment with someone all you have to do is dial the number. You are connected. Even in the moments between contact the knowledge that someone is only a text away keeps you connected to them. This is what God wanted from me but instead all I was offering was a designated “phone time” for God to get in touch with me.  When we change our mindset about prayer it frees us up to a greater dialog and truly connects us to Him.   

Question: What have you changed that has led to a greater relationship with God? 

What Would Jesus Drink? Throwback Pepsi!!

Last night I stopped at a gas station after class. As I stood in front of a wall of soda trying to decide between the hundreds of different drinks I noticed one drink that stood out from the crowd. Throwback Pepsi. For those who don't know what a Throwback Pepsi is, it is basically a Pepsi the way they made it back in the 80's. The bottle has the old outdated red, white and blue Pepsi globe and, in a sea of soda drinks, it sticks out like your ugly cousins tooth at the family reunion. Even next to the new modern Pepsi bottles it looks pale in comparison. But the true glory is whats inside. At some point Pepsi decided it would be cheaper to use high frutose corn syrup in their drinks instead of real sugar and so the downward spiral began.

What is great about the Throwback Pepsi is that it is made with real sugar the way nature intended for us to drink soda.  As i looked at the outdated logo and cheezy graphics of the bottle I realised something. While Pepsi had done a great job keeping their image and brand hip and relavent to todays generation they had lost something. The packageing and presentation were great but the product was no longer the same.

As I drank my delicious liquid time machine, I was struck with the realization that many in the church have done the very same thing, myself included. In our desire to present the message of Christ in a hip new relavent way we have changed the content of the product. What was once a powerful message has become, in many cases, an excellently packaged, watered down version of what it was intended to be.

The Church has a duty to continue to update the way we present Christ to the ever changing generation but we must never let the packaging get in the way of the product.

Be blessed - Matt