Spiritual Update 005

Books that Bite Back.

I love reading, and recently I've gotten on the end of some real winners. Please promise me you will read at least one of these before you die!

Here's a basic rundown for each

"The trouble with Paris" was the first of these and confronts the myths sold to us by the culture we live in that fame is the pinnacle of life and that we will be happy if we consume a bunch of things, people and experiences. Reading this book was much like discovering that having white skin is actually beautiful, like I did in India. Very, very revealing.

One part that has stuck with me has been 'choice anxiety' a term used to describe worrying if we have made the best, coolest and most fun choice. This happens when we are constantly looking for something or someone better, too afraid to commit. Past generations didn't have to deal with these issues but today we are bombarded with messages to upgrade everything we have. Happiness is just around the corner for those who upgrade!

Counter to that is my recent experiences in Alaska and now Springfield. I haven't really done anything 'spectacular' in either of these places. Most of my time was spent just hanging out with people and enjoying their company, and I have, I really have.

I know buffet's usually make me happy but I was just sitting down for lunch at Missouri State and was nearly exploding with joy thinking about so many blessings God has given me. Most of them were simple things available to everyone, like having deep friendships and a places to call 'home' no matter where I have been.

One quote from the book was.

"We should not make any major decisions in life without walking around a graveyard, for death is the ultimate lens with which to view our life projects".


The next book is called "Stuff Christians Like". The more time you have spent in church, the better this book gets. It is probably the funniest book I have ever read, but as well as that, it subtly points out some of the stupidity in my own life. Go and buy a copy, I already have 4!

The last book is called "The Irresistible Revolution" which just smashed me in every way imaginable. It is a wake up call to radical action and a return to what God says is important. I've been forced to look at my own life and consider how to go about acting on the massive challenges required to live out the gospel I am preaching. The following quote is a ripper and probably sums up the tone of the book nicely.

The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything else except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God. You will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place of Christian Scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church's prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament. -Soren Kierkgaard-

There also issues a challenge to engage with the poor, the broken the lonely and lost of this world rather than donating to them without ever really getting to know who "they" are. Here is a prayer from one of "them"

Dear God,

Please make all the poor people rich.
And all the rich people poor.
Then bring us all back to medium so we will take better care of each other.
Amen.

Ten-year-old boy, Philadelphia


Two more quotes I've come across elsewhere and really liked.

Past the beggar and the suffering walk he who asks, 'Why, oh God, do you not do something for these people?' To which God replied, 'I did do something, I made you.' --Old Sufi Saying

"I have nothing to say of my working life, only that a necktie is a noose, and inverted though it is, it will hang a man nonetheless if he’s not careful."
--Yann Martel, Life of Pi --

Stop stealing my credit

It's hard to say whether I have grown in this area (dependence on God) over the last month or so but I have spent some time memorizing Bible verses that have to do with peoples recognition that God is in control and everything we have comes not from our own awesomeness but from God.

I used to get weirded out when some of my friends would say 'Praise God' after receiving a compliment for something good they had done. I thought, 'God didn't do it, surely you deserve the credit'. I even remember telling Kev I wasn't comfortable with 'praising God' for my accomplishments and achieving good things. I didn't think it fair, that God gets praise for all the good things and then I have to take credit for all the bad ones. I'm still not sure where I sit with all that, but lately I've noticed a tiny shift in my own thinking.

Recently I've had people say "Gee you've taken some great photos" and the most natural response for me was to say, "God did all the hard work, I just pressed a button on the camera".

Now maybe some of you are thinking I'm a wacko! And maybe it is weird that I would respond like that. Clearly I had to focus the camera and frame the picture in such a way, etc, etc. But even those small things wouldn't be possible without God giving me life and breath and everything else...don't worry I'm not yet at the point where if you thanked me for getting you a glass of water I'd be 'praising God' for it.

But it is a much healthier mindset to realise that instead of taking credit that doesn't belong to me, which is usually what happens, I was able, in this case, to direct the credit to it's rightful owner instead of stealing it for myself.

So I guess I am coming to understand that these 'whacked out' people who "Praise God" saw things a lot more clearly than I did and at the end of the day all I'm doing is pointing a camera!

Just in case there weren't enough quotes, here is a prayer from Holden Village they send you out with. I really like it.

"O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN