identity pt.2

It seems that everyday we struggle with the issue of identity. It confronts us on the magazine racks, at work, in our relationships and in those quiet moments when we're alone. The thing about that makes this so interesting is that it is the same struggle that we have faced since the beginning of creation. God created us in His image and we have thoroughly failed to grasp that every step of the way. In the garden of eden Eve was told by the serpent that if she ate from the forbidden fruit she would become like God. But she already was. God created her and He created her in His image. She and Adam missed that point and it epitomizes our struggles today. We try so hard to reach, to become a certain person that we believe we should or could be. It becomes such a fruitless struggle. Yet when we reach a point of sudden realization, when we recognize the true identity that we have from God it is such a beautiful thing. Not only do we discover who we really are but we find the meaning that we have been looking for all along.

The crazy thing is that the struggle for identity isn't just limited to us as individuals. I can;t tell you how many books have been written about trying to reclaim the early church that we find in the book of Acts. The problem is that we have spent centuries saying that was then and this is now. We've forgotten that we are that same church. Its a problem rooted in lack of awareness of true identity. Too much has changed, too much time has passed, culture is different... It's all excuses to cover our struggle with identity. How beautiful it is to see when churches claim their true identity as the bride of Christ.

home sick

I tried to go to work this morning but I ended up home sick. Not the kind where I missed home, I mean I've slept most of today. I took nyquil last night and it seemed like I would never recover from that liquid coma. So of course I will take it again tonight.

On my way home this morning I drove pass Foss high school and there were cops everywhere. A student had shot and killed another student in a hallway before classes started. During my lucid moments I've watced the news story play out through out today. Its heartbreaking to see the horrible consequences of someone so young choosing to take another's life.

I think one of the biggest tragedies has gone unnoticed by the media. One child killed another child, and their families will never be the same. It impacted the lives of their parents, siblings, kids in the hall who witnessed it, the ones locked down in classrooms, the parents worried about their own children's safety. So many more than the 1700+ students were affected by this one event that took less than a minute to transpire. We live in a day and age where we tend to only care about things that we perceive to directly impact our own lives. And in our own decision making we think very small, i.e. "this won't hurt anyone else." The reality is that every choice we make reverberates through not just our own life but the lives of those around us and sometimes beyond. Being who I am here are a couple of examples from the Bible. Jonah chose to disobey God and we tend to focus on his time in the great fish. However there were more people on that boat in the storm who were also affected greatly by his decisions both against God and to admit his guilt. What would have happened to them if Jonah's pride had prevented him from admitting his own wrong decision? This isn't even considering the people of Ninevah to whom he eventually did go with God's message.

The story of David and Bathsheba is familiar to most. David stays home while his army is at war and spots the wife of one of his officers. They have an affair and she becomes pregnant. Davids attempts to cover up the situation fail so he decides to arrange Uriah's death in battle by having his generals change tactics midbattle. How many were really affected by that decision? Not just the unlucky love triangle. Two armies were impacted and that is a lot of lives being played with just to cover up one act of lust.

The convers of this is true too. Good decisions, things we do that have a positive impact can ripple out and impact untold numbers of lives even though they may seem inconsequential to us when we make the decision.

Its time to break this idea that we're in this simply for ourselves. Its time to recognize that one of us lives in a vacuum but that we each have an impact on those around us. So what kind of impact do you want to have? I know I make poor decisions at times, none of us is perfect. When everything is said and done I hope and pray that people will be better off for having known me however briefly.

mystery

We are facinated by mystery. It's all around us. A cursory look at the top television shows reveals a penchant for mystery. Be it a CSI, House, 24 or Lost it is mystery that attracts us. We want to be the first to figure it out, to be able to say "I knew it!", to guess the twist ending.

So why is it when the issue of faith arises too often we try to shy away from mystery. When a discussion of faith arises it all to quickly turns to questions of "how do you know its true?" Honestly, I think Christians are too often to blame for that. We've tried to replace faith with absolute proof. What we've forgotten is what the English missionary and professor Leslie Newbigin pointed - that everyone has faith in something. Fatih is not the exclusive right or territory of religion and spirituality. Even in science there is a great deal of faith practiced. This is simply because there is so much mystery in our world. No matter how much we learn, no matter how much we figure out new questions are raised. Which brings me back to my own faith in Jesus Christ. How can we ever claim to know all that there really is to know about God? Why to we try so hard to put it all into a neat little package complete with a bow and ribbon? Rob Bell says in his book Velvet Elvis, "It's not so much that the Christian faith has a lot of paradoxes. It's that it is a lot of paradoxes. And we cannot resolve a paradox. We have to let it be what it is. Being a Christian then is more about celebrating mystery than conquering it."

So I guess I am left with a question. Am i willing to embrace the mystery of Christ, of God? Or am I going to constantly climb a never ending mountain trying to erase the mystery from my faith? I choose to embrace it.

blankspace

I know I'm not the only one out there that does this, but it is fairly common for me to have some "brilliant" thought or something I want to comment on during the day. But if I don't write it down immediately I will find myself sitting in front of my computer at the end of the day completely blank, struggling to remember what it was that I wanted to say earlier. It really seems like its been a chronic issue the last couple of weeks. The worst comes in moments like yesterday morning when I thought to myself, "I should write this down now" and didn't and again found myself drawing a complete blank last night. Maybe someday I'll learn. I'll come home with a huge pile of post-its and finally collect my thoughts so to speak. Maybe.