So this weekend during the church service, I sat behind a mentally challenged adult. He was about a foot shorter than me, sitting smack in the middle of a section close to the stage...and rockin' out to air guitar like I've never seen before. It probably made his day that the worship band played both an audioslave (I'm serious) and a Paramour song - perfect for air guitar. And it was...exhilarating. Almost laughable. I don't mean because it was embarrassing for him, or embarrassing to those around his flailing arms and jumping up and down, hands reaching to the heavens. I mean that maybe everyone else in the building should have been embarrassed.
Picture it: 2,000 people. lights dimmed. Drummer banging away on his set like there's no tomorrow, soloist wailing out the lyrics with an edge to her voice, lovingn the God we serve. a mound of people standing still, singing, yes, but sort of frozen in time. and this guy, jumping around like you couldn't hold him down if you tried. Nothing held him back. He sang louder than I've ever heard someone sing in church. He rocked better than any classic rock band from the 80s. He had more stage presence than anyone actually up on stage. In fact, though he would be labelled as mentally challenged....maybe, in this instance. he was more mentally present than anyone around him. Myself included.
Because as I stood there, in my skirt, heels, hair done, and, well, rather tame reflection of God in my life during a worship service, he was anything but tame.
He was exuberant.
He was celebrating with abandon.
He was undignified.
More than anyone else I've ever seen during a service, he was full of reckless love for his Savior.
Now I'm not saying that everyone around us wasn't worshipping. They were. you could hear the harmony, see people tapping their feet to the beat. But this guy was way over the edge. Multiple times during the service, I seriously considered climbing over the two rows of seats to rock out with him.
I hope that his exuberance is present in my life. I hope that I worship my God with abandon - maybe not as intensely during a worship service, but as intensely in my daily life. I hope that I remember that though my faith is more serious than anything else I'll ever encounter, it is the very joy that faith embraces that cannot help but well up and skyrocket out like a fountain. I hope that the importance of my message and my lifestyle is coupled with a reckless abandon of my love for my Father in Heaven and His spirit in me. I hope I rock at air guitar.
6.29.2009
6.23.2009
tattoos are....
not evil. Bet you couldn't see that coming. I was inspired to write this post by a co-worker who was designing her tattoo the other day (after deadline when there was no work left to do).
We were talking about our parent's reactions to our respective tattoos(yes I have a tattoo). Hers don't mind the actual act of getting a tattoo, but want her to be careful at this time of her life to a) not spend unecessary money and b)make sure she puts them in places that she won't regret later. Mine had more of a "why did you ruin your body" sort of reaction, though probably more graceful than mine would be if my just-barely-out-of-teenage-years-daughter got a tattoo. Different perspectives from both sides. I noted that my parents are both conservative because of their generation and because of their faith, two things I admire but on occassion disagree with.
She asked why their faith has anything to do with tattoos. I explained that in the Old Testament, its very clearly marked as something that followers of God did not do. This often mentioned along with braiding their hair, wearing gold jewlery, etc. Things that we don't really frown upon in today's culture (in most contexts, anyway).
Her immidiate question was "why?" which is a very good question that I figured she alerady knew.
So i then went on to quickly summarize that in that time, particularly with the incredibly numerous religions and gods/godesses to worship, followers of different icons would mark themselves with tattoos. Similar to how native americans often marked that tribe they belonged to. It was a basic symbol of their identity. Also going into some detail of ancient preistesses and acolites (sp?) often beign very, very decked out with too much makeup, jewlery, braided hair, etc. forerunners of our modern-day prostitutes.
And then it struck me. God didn't call us just to be different, you know, a heart tattoo instead of a lion, but He called us to be entirely other. He didn't say, hey, this is what these guys over there are doing, we'll do it kinda the same with just a few tricky little twists. Nope. He removed them entirely from the practices of the day. they didn't have idols in their homes and sacrifice humans, they went to one central place and sacrificed the best of their labors. They didn't have ceremonies for each god, they had a life dedicated to one God. they didn't have control, they had miracles.
So I have a tattoo. In today's society, its arguable what that means. But I'd like to strive to live for what God called his children to thousands of years ago: to be entirely other.
We were talking about our parent's reactions to our respective tattoos(yes I have a tattoo). Hers don't mind the actual act of getting a tattoo, but want her to be careful at this time of her life to a) not spend unecessary money and b)make sure she puts them in places that she won't regret later. Mine had more of a "why did you ruin your body" sort of reaction, though probably more graceful than mine would be if my just-barely-out-of-teenage-years-daughter got a tattoo. Different perspectives from both sides. I noted that my parents are both conservative because of their generation and because of their faith, two things I admire but on occassion disagree with.
She asked why their faith has anything to do with tattoos. I explained that in the Old Testament, its very clearly marked as something that followers of God did not do. This often mentioned along with braiding their hair, wearing gold jewlery, etc. Things that we don't really frown upon in today's culture (in most contexts, anyway).
Her immidiate question was "why?" which is a very good question that I figured she alerady knew.
So i then went on to quickly summarize that in that time, particularly with the incredibly numerous religions and gods/godesses to worship, followers of different icons would mark themselves with tattoos. Similar to how native americans often marked that tribe they belonged to. It was a basic symbol of their identity. Also going into some detail of ancient preistesses and acolites (sp?) often beign very, very decked out with too much makeup, jewlery, braided hair, etc. forerunners of our modern-day prostitutes.
And then it struck me. God didn't call us just to be different, you know, a heart tattoo instead of a lion, but He called us to be entirely other. He didn't say, hey, this is what these guys over there are doing, we'll do it kinda the same with just a few tricky little twists. Nope. He removed them entirely from the practices of the day. they didn't have idols in their homes and sacrifice humans, they went to one central place and sacrificed the best of their labors. They didn't have ceremonies for each god, they had a life dedicated to one God. they didn't have control, they had miracles.
So I have a tattoo. In today's society, its arguable what that means. But I'd like to strive to live for what God called his children to thousands of years ago: to be entirely other.
6.09.2009
“They don’t want disciples, they want either converts or dead bodies.”
All right, so that’s an extreme quote, applied to a very radical faith of the Muslim Shi’ite. It is often a true statement of those that hit the news and act in radical ways. My husband has been exploring the faith of radical Islam (not inflicting the more run-of-the-mill, less terrorist-centered Muslim faith in any way), and one of the things he has discovered in his rather thorough research is that one of the pillars of this radical viewpoint is that the subjects of Allah need to hasten His return. There are two main pillars, and that’s one of them. Now, sadly and often shockingly, the method to hasten God's coming is to rid the world of infidels (if they won't convert). Now, this in itself goes against the whole grain of God's grace and choice He offers us, along with Jesus' ministry of peace and healing.
But there's a grain of truth I think we need to glean from that. Radical Shi'ites live like they know God is coming back. Like the know. Like they KNOW. Like every action should speak for the future they are sure of.
Now. I'm not saying that our God is limited by time and by our actions, because He is not. What we do does not drive or even influence they day He picks to return and both save and condemn. BUT. Though we believe Jesus is coming back, though we say we KNOW He is....do we act like it?
You can tell by the actions of many Muslims that they Know their Allah is returning. Can you tell by my actions that my God is returning in Glory and Power and Grace? Can you tell by yours?
It's unnerving, to live like the Kingdom of God is in you. Is here and now, and He is coming again. It's a bit complex to think about. It requires a focus, a main thread that influences everything you and I do.
But it is the light, the shining, blinding, unextinguishable light that we are called to live by. We are called to make disciples. We are called to do so by living with Christ in us and Christ returns
All right, so that’s an extreme quote, applied to a very radical faith of the Muslim Shi’ite. It is often a true statement of those that hit the news and act in radical ways. My husband has been exploring the faith of radical Islam (not inflicting the more run-of-the-mill, less terrorist-centered Muslim faith in any way), and one of the things he has discovered in his rather thorough research is that one of the pillars of this radical viewpoint is that the subjects of Allah need to hasten His return. There are two main pillars, and that’s one of them. Now, sadly and often shockingly, the method to hasten God's coming is to rid the world of infidels (if they won't convert). Now, this in itself goes against the whole grain of God's grace and choice He offers us, along with Jesus' ministry of peace and healing.
But there's a grain of truth I think we need to glean from that. Radical Shi'ites live like they know God is coming back. Like the know. Like they KNOW. Like every action should speak for the future they are sure of.
Now. I'm not saying that our God is limited by time and by our actions, because He is not. What we do does not drive or even influence they day He picks to return and both save and condemn. BUT. Though we believe Jesus is coming back, though we say we KNOW He is....do we act like it?
You can tell by the actions of many Muslims that they Know their Allah is returning. Can you tell by my actions that my God is returning in Glory and Power and Grace? Can you tell by yours?
It's unnerving, to live like the Kingdom of God is in you. Is here and now, and He is coming again. It's a bit complex to think about. It requires a focus, a main thread that influences everything you and I do.
But it is the light, the shining, blinding, unextinguishable light that we are called to live by. We are called to make disciples. We are called to do so by living with Christ in us and Christ returns
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