The Perplexingly Complicated Complexities of Over-Analyzing, Pt. 3

So here we arrive, our hands full of Part 1 and Part 2 as we approach the precipice of the final mile of our journey...Part 3. And yet, this entry is what I intended to outline from the very beginning. In case you haven't noticed, I get caught up in my daydreams pretty easily and branch off into many and varied worth-while tangents ;)

One thing I realized a few years ago is that I was over-analyzing my spiritual walk with God. "Am I praying the right way? Is there something I missed on my do-gooder checklist, and is it keeping me from God? Have I prayed enough or thought about God enough today to be considered a good Christian?" At the bottom of my good intentions, these questions oftentimes lay in wait, and they jump at the first chance to deceive me.

In the end, the questions at the bottom of my good intentions end up leading me to resent being a Christian in the first place. "It's too hard," I'll conclude. "I end up being more anxious than anything - the 'at-peace' feeling Christianity advertises is overshadowed by its extremely weighty expectations." Deep confessions of a long-time Christian. And you know what? After years of struggling with this, one thing this heart can't shake is the feeling that this can't be the way God intended true life to taste.

The good news is, it's not.

All the straining, all the wrestling to live up to expectations I assumed God had on me, and I realized my strivings were offset by one irony: God never publicized true life as something so illusive, so impossible, yet we as humans, with our finite minds, reduce God's intentions to something we can reason. "God must expect a lot of me because I don't feel like I'm living up to who I should be." Or, "there must be a recipe to full life in Christ, and I haven't gotten it right yet, but it'll hit me someday in a flash of divine revelation." Hmmm, what a quandary...and all the while, God is holding his hand outstretched with the very life we are blind to and stretching for elsewhere.

"What are you trying to get at, Shane? Hurry up, I've got a roast in the oven." Here's the skinny: the way to true life is simple...not complicated, not illusive, not over-bearing. It's extremely and ridiculously simple.

"Well if it's simple, Shane, wouldn't I have figured it out by now?" This kind of simple is one of the only simple's I've encountered that takes going through the complexities of life before reaching the truth. Usually we start with the simple things to get to the richer, deeper things: simple things like eggs, bread and milk can be made into so many yummy recipes, from something as sweet as french toast to something as delightful as bread pudding. A paintbrush and some paint can create the finest work of art, or it can decorate a room into a lavish living space. This is the way life goes in many cases; but the irony of spirituality is that it works in reverse - we boggle our brains and rip our hearts out to understand how to be Godly and why God would love us in the first place, and when the dust settles, we see that something as simple as grace was standing there the whole time.

Jesus addressed the moral strivings of those around him by summing it all up, wrapping the simple truth neatly in an unexpected delivery:

"At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, 'Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?'" 

Once again, the disciples are missing the point, like so many of us often do. They are focused on figuring out how to do this Christ-following thing right, trying to reason out their salvation. Jesus surprises them with his response...

"He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: 'Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.'"

Jesus totally flips everything on its head; he uses a child as an example of heart-posture. He goes against the grain of culture and uses the simplest, most innocent of things in this world - a child - to serve as a metaphor of what our faith should measure up to. Not complexities, not confusing spiritual jargon, not condemning man-made dogma, not temporary spiritual ecstasy...simple faith, like that of a child. Innocent, doe-eyed awe of God and His gifts. Excitement at the taste of His presence. Active obedience when God's fatherly voice beckons. Unadulterated joy, dancing in the shower of life God rains on us. You may be thinking, "Wow Shane, this all sounds pretty cliche and childish. What kind of maturity is in a spirituality like that?" Yeah, the Pharisees were worried about maturity too, about looking and acting the part...and in doing so, they weighed a lot of people down with false definitions of God's heart. With His next breath, Jesus went on to address those kind of people:

If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!" (Matthew 18:1-7)

I guess what Jesus was saying to the disciples and Pharisees alike, in a not-so-crass kinda way, was that age-old adage we so easily forget to live by: "Keep it simple, stupid." A child doesn't view their relationship with a good father burdensome or demanding. A child doesn't see their role in life as demanding and depressing. In fact, I doubt a child thinks about these things at all. What a child does focus on is having fun, living as close to their father's heart as possible, crawling onto his lap whenever possible to snuggle and be loved, and in-turn, love others with a love like the father's. (of course, I'm also speaking metaphorically about God the Father). Oh that we would keep it simple and not ruin spirituality with our penchant for complicating things.

Even the law-experts of Jesus' day knew what the simple truth was: "On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. 'Teacher,' he asked, 'what must I do to inherit eternal life?' 'What is written in the Law?' he replied. 'How do you read it?' He answered, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, love your neighbor as yourself.' 'You have answered correctly,' Jesus replied. 'Do this and you will live.' (Luke 10:25-28, emphasis added) Notice that the expert knew the answer, the fundamental purpose of humanity, and yet so many experts like himself chose to view God as a puzzle to solve. Maybe thinking, like so many of us do, "God expects a lot more than a child-like faith, how could the answer be so basic? Doesn't He want us to go 'deeper' in our knowledge of Him?" He does, but the depth of intimacy with Him comes from grasping the most basic, yet strong, roots of our faith - love God, love people. Child-like simplicity, empowered by the strength of an all-consuming God. Hand-in-glove.

So I ask you now, how do you read it? That was the question Jesus posed to the expert, and He's posing it to you this very second. Will you read God like He's unattainable, unreachable, exclusive to the ones who seem to have it all together. Or will you choose to read God like a child, one who enjoys God with your whole heart, loving Him with what you can give as you are now instead of thinking you need to be someone you assume He wants you to be before you can give anything. Stop over-complicating a God that's on your doorstep. Stop over-analyzing a Father who only wants to love on you. Come to the well. Drink fully. Enjoy the water like a child would.

The Perplexingly Complicated Complexities of Over-Analyzing, Pt. 2

If you're like me, there's a lot going on up in your brain's crawlspaces on any given day, especially when it comes to being more like Jesus. I think about God a lot during my days (can you tell? It's all I write about! haha). With all this soaking in God, sometimes it feels like I'm drowning in the shallow end, all the kids with their Finding Nemo floaties standing in the water around me, staring befuddledly at me. Ok, so I made up a word to get my point across, but I hope you caught the gist. A lot of times, I find myself wandering the rabbit trail of over-anyzation, making spirituality out to be more difficult than worth-it and making God out to be more complicated than He really is. Sound familiar?

Of course it does, you're not perfect either! The good news is, there's good news. Redundant, yeah, but seriously...the good news of the Gospel is that there is life and life abundantly! "How? What kind of spiritual Atkins diet do I need to go on to get that? What kind of Dr. Phil regiment do I need to buy into for that kind of life?" Well, that's part of the good news: there's no complex formula to figure God out. "Huh? Wait, you're telling me it's a free-for-all? Anything goes? I can find God however I want?" That's not how it works, no. I'm not saying there isn't a formula, I'm saying it's not complex. It's actually quite simple, a one-component formula to find sustaining life in God: Jesus Christ.

"Wait a minute, Shane...are you trying to pull a fast one? Aren't God and Jesus, like, the same thing or somethin'? You are being really redundant today, mister!" Ok, so here's what I'm saying - there is a source of life to all living things in creation, one source that is ready to provide real, lasting, sustaining life to our souls. That source is Jesus. Jesus said it Himself, and millions upon millions of Christians throughout the ages can attest: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6) If you believe Jesus was God robed in flesh and walked among us to be the connection between God and man, you've got to believe He's the only source of life. If you can't bring yourself to that conclusion, you haven't experienced water from the true well.

Here's why Jesus has a corner on the "true life" market: He is true life. The ingredients list on the true life box says, "Jesus Christ." Artificial sweeteners, preservatives, fillers and dyes are not part of the formula for true life. Just one ingredient is in that formula. Remember in my recent post "Desire" how I talked about the God-shaped hole in each of us? Only God can fill the hole we have inside of us, the need for substantive and sustained fullness in our souls. And that's exactly the formula I'm referring to. We try to fill that hole with pornography, drugs, sex, maybe even good things that can become distractions from God like social media, TV and even relationships. But it's kinda like drinking soda or chocolate milk on a hot day when your mouth is as arid as the Mojave Desert. They just don't cut it. Nothing satisfies the body like a drink of pure water. Likewise, nothing satisfies the soul like Jesus. (John 4:1-14)

Which leads us to where a lot of people get tripped up in their relationship with God. There are so many resources available to those seeking God - the Bible, inspirational books, podcasts, other Christians' wisdom, etc. And all these are great! But the rabbit trail we go down so often is this: we turn to a resource instead of the source. "Ok, string this guy up from the nearest rafter! Now he's hatin' on the Bible!" Far from it. I love God's word, and believe it to be such. It is the inerrant word of God, "useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the servant of God can be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17)  I use the Bible as a resource in my walk with God, and I know God has grown me through it; but if I perceive it as something more than what God intended it to be, it is literally an idol. Did you catch that? Them's fightin' words to some Christians - many Christians think the buck stops at the Bible and other resources, like the resource itself is the answer. Some Christians I know talk about the Bible, certain authors and their pastors like the sustenance is originating from those outlets - holding them almost as high, if not just as high, as God Himself. But in doing so, they've set their eyes on the resource instead of the source, missing the forest for the trees. Sounds familiar...hmmm...oh, I know why, check out what Jesus said to the Pharisees about this very issue:

“You have your heads in your Bibles constantly because you think you’ll find eternal life there. But you miss the forest for the trees. These Scriptures are all about me! And here I am, standing right before you, and you aren’t willing to receive from me the life you say you want." (John 5:39-40)

God never intended the Bible (or any life-sustaining resource) to be put on a pedestal as the go-to, end-all-be-all sustenance-giver...He is the Life-Giver! Yes, these resources bring life, but it's because God feeds us through them. Ultimately, He intended life and intimacy to be found through direct communion with Himself! Here's a dose of interpretation, I'll break down some sweet Biblical symbolism for ya - a freebie this time: when Jesus took His last breath on the cross, scripture says the veil of the temple was torn in half (catch up in Luke 23:44-49)  The meaning behind the veil being torn in half was that God, by Jesus' sacrifice, was opening the way to the Holy of Holies, an extremely sacred and exclusive place in the temple where God's presence rested. In doing so, God was making a statement: "no more separation between us, no more song-and-dance to approach me. Come freely to me and find life in my presence, for the way has been paved by The Way." What a radical notion! But it was God's plan all along, foretold by the prophets of old. The Messiah would serve as the final sacrifice, forgiveness and grace as the fulfillment of the law, yet not bound by the law.

So yes, of course, it's a given that the Bible is one way to receive sustenance from God. Inspirational books are one way to receive wisdom from God. Church is one way to receive guidance from God. But the important point I'm getting at is this: none of these are the exclusive way to God - they are solid means to an end. God uses these means to speak to us, to guide us, to direct us, but no resource is the sole component in the "Limitless Life" formula. There is only one way, one truth, one life, and He is Jesus. He's the end to the means. Please, don't misread me - I implore you to find life in the Bible, find encouragement in your friendship with others, find solace in your favorite worship album. They are all very vital components of your Christian walk. But if you turn to these things alone to give you life without turning to the source, you will be parched quickly. Find God through them, yes, but they are not God in and of themselves. These things are healthy means to grasp the foundational premise of salvation: direct communion with the Creator. The intimacy with God through your prayer life, your direct and personal conversations with the Life-Giver, your quiet time marinating in His presence is the well you ultimately need to draw from - straight from the source. Said resources are a way to soak in God's presence and lead us to intimacy with Him, but they are not the Person of Christ...they are the words of Christ, the wisdom of Christ, the guidance of our God, but considering them anything more is holding them too highly, therefore replacing God with something He intended to draw us closer to Him. Here's the best example I can think of:

Scenario 1: One day a young boy realizes he is curious about the life of his father. Sure, he's known his father to be close and supportive his whole life, but the boy is anxious to know more about his father, beyond the short time he's known him and into his younger years. He wants a glimpse of his father's heart, his wisdom, his character, the foundation on which he was built. So the first thing the boy does in ventures up into the attic to retrieve some of his father's earliest journals, way back from childhood and up through the early years of his marriage. The boy was amazed to see all kinds of photo albums and memoirs that pointed to certain events in his father's life. As the child poured over the words and pictures his father had stored in the attic, he found that he was still not quite satisfied. He wanted to know what dad was feeling in those pictures of he and mom's wedding day. He wanted the details of the hard times he and mom pushed through, and what kind of advice they would have for him should that time come in his life. He wanted to know his father's heart. He pondered these things for quite some time, wishing he had the answers he longed for. Finally he packed all his father's things away in their proper place, walked back downstairs to go outside and mull things over. On the way out the door, he passed his father, who knew he was in the attic rustling around the old storage bins full of memories. "Having fun, son?" The boy was so enthralled in deciphering his dad's life through the books and photos he had just soaked in, he didn't even hear his dad's question until the second time he asked. The child looked up and acknowledged his dad with a grin and a sheepish nod as he closed the outside door behind him to stroll and reflect on his dad's life a little more.

Scenario 2: One day a young boy realizes he is curious about the life of his father. Sure, he's known his father to be close and supportive his whole life, but the boy is anxious to know more about his father, beyond the short time he's known him and into his younger years. He wants a glimpse of his father's heart, his wisdom, his character, the foundation on which he was built. So the first thing the boy does in ventures up into the attic to retrieve some of his father's earliest journals, way back from childhood and up through the early years of his marriage. The boy was amazed to see all kinds of photo albums and memoirs that pointed to certain events in his father's life. As the child poured over the words and pictures his father had stored in the attic, he found that he was still not quite satisfied. He wanted to know what dad was feeling in those pictures of he and mom's wedding day. He wanted the details of the hard times he and mom pushed through, and what kind of advice they would have for him should that time come in his life. He wanted to know his father's heart. So he raced down the attic stairs, down the hall and into the living room where his father was reading. He jumped on the chair by his dad's side and spread all the dusty journals and pictures on the coffee table in front of them. He spent hours asking his father all about the memoirs and wedding-day pictures, and what it was like to live without a bunch of stuff, and what he should do when life gets tough in a few years. The dad was overjoyed that the son came and asked all those questions, shared all that joy and curiosity, took the time to sit down and desire to get closer to him. The two of them never forgot the time they shared together that day.

Now, let me ask you, which of the two approaches made the most sense: the boy learning about his father solely through the resources he had found, or the boy learning about his father through the resources, which lead him to go to the source itself. Herein lies the point I'm trying to make.

Here's an amazing song from one of my favorite artists talking about exactly what I've written today. As always, feel free to comment. I'd love to hear what you think! I hope this song stirs your soul toward the source...

The Perplexingly Complicated Complexities of Over-Analyzing, Pt. 1

Man, it's been a while since my last post - sheesh! Things have been busy, in a good way. Time with my wife, leading worship, gigs here and there - it's been a productive summer thus far. Nonetheless, my blog can't suffer the consequences! So here we go, let me share a recent daydream of mine with you...

One of the most visited daydream topics I have in my little noggin is this: the various ways I go about over-analyzing my relationship with God. Oh yeah, don't pretend to be so innocent, you've over-complicated God plenty-o-times, even if you're not a Christian...especially if you're not a Christian.

It seems the entire world, at one point or another, has gotten God all wrong. We stress and strain to understand how to please Him, what His will is, how to "be good." All with good intentions, mind you. We don't mean to make it complicated, but it does get pretty...hairy...doesn't it? Next thing you know, you're more anxious about God-stuff than you were when God was on the back-burner. Predicament? Yes. But is it meant to be?

...Nope.

You think God's plan in drawing you to Himself was to confuse the dickens out of you? To wear you down? To make you stressed about spirituality? What the heck kind of God are you imagining? I say imagining because that's not Jehovah God. He's not a gear-grinding, bait-and-switch kind of God, wringing His hands with sadistic delight as he cackles fiendishly in a dark alley somewhere. Alas, so many of us see Him as this villain, whether we realize it or not. Oh that He would open our eyes to the ways we undercut His character and sell Him short.

Contrary to popular opinion, He's a loving God - greater than all our fears and worries, He's biting at the bit to draw close to us, even when we over-analyze this roller coaster ride called life. We huff and puff and get all worked up on how we should live, what God "expects" of us, what we should and should not do, and all the while God is offering life...REAL LIFE. And all we have to do is draw close to Him (James 4:8). The Jews in the time of Jesus thought they had God all figured out - look up the Talmud. They added to Moses' book of the law God gave him, thinking they could attain righteousness by following all these crazy laws that no human could ever live up to. Really? How's that workin' for ya? All the moral strivings, all the wasted effort, all the spiritual hernias...they wouldn't accept the fact that Jesus came to fulfill the law, as He said, meaning that the law God gave to Moses on the mountain all those years ago was complete in Jesus (Mt. 5:17-18). It's a fragile concept, so let me delicately unpack it a bit:

Have you ever taken a good look at the law of the Old Testament? I'm not just talking about the 10 Commandments, I'm talking about Leviticus kind of stuff here, the ridiculous stuff! Check it out. And hey, many people have walked away from Christianity because they thought the law of Moses was something to live up to. Given, the basics of God's heart are obvious in the law - things like murder and stealing and such are not up for debate as going against God's grain. But the other, like, 76% of the law passed down to the Israelites in the wilderness sounded downright silly! I mean, all the offerings, the very specific preparations for the sacrifices, the ceremonies, the do's and don'ts...some are understandable and for the good of the people's spirits, but most just sound petty and demanding! Kinda has the same feel as when a band sends a rider to an upcoming venue's event coordinator, listing all these ridiculous demands (only green M&M's, cases of water at room temperature, etc.)  Was God trying to be a narcissistic rock star? Far from it.

A lot of the first 5 books of the Old Testament feels like God's giving the Israelites a rider, but in reality, God's main purposes were two-fold: 1) The Israelites were fresh out of slavery for over 400 years, so they were pretty unfamiliar with all that's involved in being a free nation, especially when it came to governing standards and spiritual standards. They were like a newborn in a big scary world, and God was Fathering them, so He laid down healthy parameters so they wouldn't wander any more than they needed (they did plenty of wandering as it were, trust me). Just as a good parent has disciplines for the family, God saw that His chosen nation needed a system of order to keep them from falling apart at the seems. 2) Here's where we come in: for both the Jews and the Gentiles (non-Jews), the law is ultimately one thing - a list of impossible demands. Ahem...what?! Shane, you're going to hell for that one. Nope, hear me out. That was God's plan all along. Sure, a good bit of those laws were for the people's spiritual formations, but He knew all those other silly rules and regulations were burdensome. That's the point: God's plan was to make the Israelites realize that after all those years of trying to live up to the law, straining to follow every detail of every last rule to gain God's approval, it cannot be humanly done. It's an impossible undertaking, and those who try end up killing their heart. Why would God put such a plate before them? To make them realize their need for a Savior, a divine substitute for all their sacrificing and striving and straining to grow close to God. That's where Jesus comes on the scene, and that was God's plan all along.

"Abruptly Jesus broke into prayer: 'Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. You’ve concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people. Yes, Father, that’s the way you like to work.' Jesus resumed talking to the people, but now tenderly...'Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.'"(Matthew 11:25-27a, 28-30)

Make sense? We can't make it on our own, and it gets so burdensome when we make Christianity about "living right" or "being good" or "being everything God commands us to be." Wow, how legalistic is all of that? Sounds like the law to me, and thank God He sent His son to represent and redeem what I could not live up to. Accepting Jesus is basically saying, "God, it's pretty obvious I can't live up to any standard of perfection...no one can...it's impossible. I need a solution. I need Your solution." Remember the Scripture I quoted a while back? "God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." He's the solution. He's come to bring life, and life to the full, remember? That's the gospel, the good news for all - we can't live good enough to appease a holy God, but Jesus' perfect life and sacrifice stood in the place of our frailty and made a way to God the Father. No more sacrifices, no more song-and-dance for God's approval. He's as close as the breath in your lungs right now, and He's waiting for you to give it up and come to Him. More on this soon to come in part 2...

Desire

Just the other day, I started reading one of the first books published by one of my favorite authors, John Eldridge. It's called "Desire," and it's been exactly what I expected - amazing. I'm only on chapter 3, but the insight has been jump-starting me already in ways that I've been looking for. God's good at that, trust me - which kinda leads me into my point.

Eldrige pointed out something about desire that I've never really caught in this way before, but totally supplements the view of God as the Good Father that I've been seeking and embracing the past couple years. He pointed out (in a much more profound and concise way, to be sure) that Jesus' encounters with people all through His time physically on earth hold one strange thing in common: Jesus asks people what they want all the time. The lame man by the pool at Bethesda, the blind men by the side of the road, the woman at the well, they all have one thing in common: Jesus addresses their obvious need with a direct question or tone that seems to have an obvious answer. It's not that Jesus, God in the flesh, doesn't know what's up. He wasn't ignorant to their needs..."Oh, you're blind and you want sight?! Oh my! Shocker!" Please. What Jesus was getting at by asking such obvious questions was the underlying desire, dormant in so many of us. Yes we're hurt. Yes we're in need of a miracle, in need of a personal touch from God in our lives, and God knows that...but are we aware of the desire that's feeding that need?

What Jesus was doing by asking "what do you want" is quite simple - He was trying to awaken their desires. They already knew their brokenness...more than familiar with that, thank you very much...but Jesus knew that they were unaware of true life, true healing, true hope. He was awakening them to the very real truth that their desires were rooted not only in the need to be healed (physically, spiritually, emotionally), but in the need for a healed view of God and the intimacy that ensues. This is the awakening, the fundamental joy of life, the obvious yet illusive truth that haunts humanity: He is life, He is healing, He is hope. "Oh that's nice, Shane, sounds great. A silly ideal, maybe, one I've heard in some form or another most of my life. Thanks for the sermon, here's a nickel for your trouble." Sure, brush it off, no biggie. But if you'd rather chew on it a while, let's dig into this concept for a minute.

Here it is, I'm going to make a daring proposition, one that may ruffle some feathers (not that I mind, a good feather-ruffling is healthy when it comes to the truth). I propose that humanity as a whole, every human being who ever existed, has one profound thing in common on the heart level, at our very core: we all yearn for completion, for purpose, for life to its fullest and most dazzling extent...we all desire wholeness. Here's where my proposition gets ruffly: whether you've realized this or not, whether you agree or not, God sent Himself in flesh (Jesus) to give us that wholeness. Everybody knows John 3:16, right? "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." Sunday school stuff, you know. But not many people know the next verse, John 3:17 - and in it lies the key to unlock many a heart with the freedom only God has for us. "For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." Many people don't realize the freedom in this verse...Jesus came to give life, to gift humanity with the wholeness its always wanted but never knew it needed, or at least never knew how to ask for it.

Jesus is always bringing it up, bringing up the obvious in our lives. But no matter how much we may hear how much we need Jesus, it seems to resonate in a different way when Jesus poses the proposition. You see, He doesn't wave picket signs of hateful, offensive words to get His point across. He doesn't thump you to death with a Bible. He doesn't make you feel like garbage to pressure you into His salvation. He's none of the above. And if you think He is, you better go back to the drawing board. He is life to the fullest, not condemnation. He didn't come to condemn the world, but to open its eyes...like a blind man seeing for the first time. And so He asks, even now, to you right where you're at - "what do you want?"

Blaise Pascal, a famous author from the 1600's, once wrote, "There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person, and it can never be filled by any created thing. It can only be filled by God, made known through Jesus Christ." There is a distinct hunger inside each of us, but so many have no idea what it truly is. Honestly, it's God, and the fullness of life He's made available through Jesus. All we need to do is believe that Jesus truly is that solution for the world, that He paid the ultimate price through His sacrifice and that He truly is God's Redeemer for this world. That's pretty much the gist of it. Can you take that step? Are you tired of wondering how to attain life? Go to Jesus...He already attained it for you, and it's waiting in His arms.

The Rain Train

I'm telling you, I've never seen so much rain in my life. It's been raining where we live every day for literally like three weeks. It's like a rain forest or something, or Seattle at least. Our place is on a bit of a slope, so the water from the neighbor's yard keeps draining into ours every day, which has turned our yard and driveway into a mud pit...and not the fun kind. Rainboots every time we go outside, several puppy baths, more than several harness washings. So, needless to say, Jodi and I are verrrrry tired of the world of wetness around us. In light of this, recently I've been trying to find the silver lining in the proverbial rain cloud and take this whole rain thing with a grain of salt. Frustrating as it is, there's gotta be a bright side. Then it dawned on me - a daydream! All this frustrating rain made me ponder the flip side of the coin and remember all my good memories that have come on rainy days:

1. When Jodi and I went to the Dominican Republic for our honeymoon, it was rainy season. It rained every day we were there, but the storms came and passed so quickly, not one long-lasting shower. Right outside our door was a beautiful view of the very nearby mountain, and I would watch as the huge rain clouds would migrate down from the colossal mountain, as if they were waking from their sleep inside the massive piece of earth. It was breath-taking. The everyday rain was romantic in a sense, keeping the cobblestones shiny and the air fresh, nothing like the so-called "mountain fresh" scent in laundry detergent. What a hoax. Yes, the rain from that week of paradise with my bride added that certain charm that no room service or all-inclusive access could ever replicate - and as a component of our first days together as one, it will always be a part of us.

2. I remember one of the closest I've even been to God was during a rainstorm. It was a college retreat sophomore year at some retreat center in the woods, and most of the retreat was not too far above average for me. The guys I was hanging with the whole trip were pretty apathetic to the functions going on as part of the retreat, so we spent a good bit of the time in our room goofing off. It was wet and muddy the entire trip, but after a couple days of mostly staying inside, card games got old pretty fast. I felt boxed in, and I had to break out somehow. That's when I felt God's Spirit calling me outside...don't get creeped out, it was beautiful. And no, I'm not crazy. It was absolutely pouring outside, and no one wanted any part of it. But I felt a strong urge to spend time with God, and everybody was inside, so I couldn't get alone. So I put two and two together and realized the only way I'd be able to get alone with God was if I went outside. The Spirit was tugging me. I had a strong pull, almost as if God were telling me straight up, "let's take a walk together." It was amazing. I took a walk with God through the wilderness, laughing with Him, crying with Him, asking Him real, hard questions...and you know what? I got some real, tangible answers. I got a lot of peace from that walk in the pouring rain, soaking wet but loving every step.

So that leads me to the end of my daydream, which was this: I wanted to ask you, what's your favorite rainy memory? Comment and tell me!

For Us

Just dropped in to share a thought, a daydream as it were...take it or leave it...seriously though, take it...it's like a carrot on a stick dangling right in front of your nose! Take it!:

I touched on this a little in Bone Thrower, but I've been really marinating on this for the past year or so: God is for us. Did you catch that? Hmm...I know, I know, let me guess, you've heard that one a thousand times before, and it doesn't ring a bell of profundity because you can't decide whether or not God is: 1) a big bully on the universal playground, never relenting in his unreasonable onslaughts, never giving you a break; 2) some immaterial-entity-blob-thing floating out in space, never really giving a darn about the goings-on of humanity; or 3) an egotistical, self-serving, self-absorbed dictator who demands praise to satiate his lust for power. 

I could keep going, but hopefully you catch my drift. Let me challenge you to marinate for a while on how God is actually for us...maybe even over the course of a year or so like me. I've noticed that God really marinates the truths in me that I need to grasp the most, the truths that really shape my view of God and the world in a healthy way. The more you get to know God personally, the better your understanding of His character becomes. He's not waiting with baited breath for you to mess up, then say "I told you so!" when you finally do; He's the one who mends your wounds when you fall, because you will fall, and He knows that. That's called grace, and it's one of the key components of God's character. In fact, Scripture goes so far as to describe God as the Perfect Father. You see? This whole truth of God being for us, it's definitely going to take some time to sink in because your whole life has been filled with reasons to doubt that.

People forming your opinions, experiences damaging your trust in God, even poison preached from the pulpit - hey, I understand. I've been there, done that. I've had to sit down and very intentionally think back over my life to recollect all the times people have swayed my heart from God, or all the times my experiences made me doubt His presence in my life, or all the times people of influence have either ignorantly or knowingly painted God in a light that doesn't reflect His true character. I've had to rehash all of that...and ask God to redeem it. God can, you know. I've gotten so much clarity from God about His character through quiet conversation with Him, time in His word, time listening to or reading trusted spiritual resources. "You're cra-cra, Shane." Whatever. Let me ask you this: when the crap hits the fan in your life, do you have Daddy issues?

My heavenly Father redeemed my opinions, convictions, rationality and intellect from all the poison people have tainted them with. Scripture is laced in its entirety with references to a kind God, a good King, a perfect Father, a God so in-love with you He's jealous of your affection. He's for you. My church's worship team, Elevation Worship, wrote a song called Open Up Our Eyes, and it references one of my favorite Scriptures. Nehemiah 4:20 says, "Our God will fight for us." How powerful is that? Who else would fight for you other than one who loves you madly, wildly, unrestrained? "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." ~ Jesus (John 15:13). God is willing to fight for us and alongside us, to lay down His life for us through the life of Jesus, who was God in the flesh. Pastor Furtick (Elevation again, haha) said something awesome a while back in one of his sermon series. He said God is both good and great. He can't be just good and not great, or else He wouldn't be powerful enough to fight for us, to heal us, to be our God; likewise, God can't be great and not good, or else He would be a dictator and anarchist with no penchant for kindness whatsoever. And it's so true. That's why God being for us is such a life-changing concept - He is that combination of good and great. 

If that's not doing it for ya, start with a more simplistic view: God is your ultimate cheerleader, your perfect support system. He's a positive, encouraging force in your life, someone who never drags you through the mud or wears you down. I take great comfort in seeing God through the view of this truth, because then I can hear God clearly everyday, speaking life to me, "You are my own (Exodus 6:7), you are my chosen (1 Peter 2:9), and I will never abandon you (Deuteronomy 4:30-31; Psalm 16:9-11)." Make sense? He's not a bully, a blob or a big-shot, the Giver of life (Job 33:4). If you know Jesus personally, don't get hung up on God's wrath and justice and all the other mud the world flings at Him. Picket-sign prophets on the street corners and Bible-thumping preachers hiding behind their pulpit have painted God in a false light for far too long. Yes, He is just and will exact vengeance...on our enemies, not us. If you know Jesus, you are God's child...why would He turn face and put a holy hit out on you? Do you think God is bipolar or something? When the "Day of Judgement" comes - you know, the one all the poisonous preachers hypes up by damning everyone, because deep down they need to feel secure in their standing with God - yeah, that day is for those who have turned from God. If you're one of those turners, you can still turn back to God! He's for you too, even though you turned from Him. Funny thing is, He doesn't want anyone to experience His vengeance! He'd rather not do that whole "fire-and-brimstone" thing. Read 2 Peter 3:9 for proof.

So what do you do with all this? Well, if you're far from God and would like to turn to Him, message me on Facebook (Shane Tracy) or comment on this blog and I'll share how you can do that! If you know Jesus already, chew on it for a good while, and let it seep into the pores of your everyday life, affecting the way you view the world and God Himself. He's a good God, He's great, and He is for you.

Jump: Part Dos

Fun fact for ya: I've searched the Bible many times for passages that speak to praising and worshipping God, and of all the times I've kneaded through the pages of Scripture, I've never once found a passage condoning an "arms-crossed" style of worship. Or an "eyes-glazed" style. The infamous "angry-eyebrow" stance, or the even-funnier classic, "The Bewildered Brow"? Never mentioned. Or how about one of my personal favorites, the "standing-dead-still-staring-contest-with-the-worship-leader" technique?...errr, nope, thank God. Never once in God's word is praise/worship cast in a lifeless, bland, colorless, boring or unemotional light. It's always described in vivacious, interactive, boisterous, poetic, and bold terms.

Like I said in my last posting, if you're one of those Christians who doesn't feel the need to physically interact with God, insisting that He knows your heart and expressing emotion in worship is irrelevant, I'm not against you. Heck, I might even stay friends with you! ;)  But I will say two things: 1) you're half-right, and 2) I feel bad for you.

1) You're half-right because, ultimately, God really is concerned with your heart. That half you've got right, but you're forgetting the other half: your heart is connected to the rest of your body. David, the Psalmist, writes on multiple occasions about praising God "with all of my heart." What does that mean? How does that connect with the rest of my body expressing praise? Let me put it this way: if you went on a date with your one true love - your amor, your fantasy on two legs - and this dreamboat tells you, "I am so desperately in-love with you," following that passionate statement by slowly sliding into the wettest, steamiest kiss your lips have ever tasted, would you step back, ponder the moment quietly, and solemn-faced, awkwardly say, "that was great, thank you so much" without so much as a twitch of excitement? NOOO!!! If you have a pulse, you're gonna lay a giant wet one on those lips in response! That's worship. It's that one word: response. Responses are an outpouring of emotion toward something/someone. Responses aren't dead or half-baked. They are surging with emotion, even if that emotion is apathy or, at the very least, "The Bewildered Brow." Once you grasp this, you can move from being half-right to right-on...which leads me to why I feel bad for you.

2) I feel bad for you because YOU'VE ALMOST GOT IT!!! If you know God knows your heart and choose to stuff your emotions because of it, you don't realize this but you're so close to actually worshipping unashamed! See, God knows all, right? He's all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful, all-present. In other words, He's the man...sort of. Anyway, you're time in worship with God is kinda like a marriage: you can have emotion toward your spouse over wearing that sexy lingerie, and your spouse knows that makes you all flustered inside, but it's an easier, healthier road to intimacy when you act on your feelings and express those pent-up emotions. If you didn't act on those, imagine how robotic that love scene would be? Definitely not romantic, that's for sure..."beep, boop...you look lovely dear, beep." "Beep bop, thank you honey, let's have marital relations, boop beep." "Sounds...boooop...nice. Here we go, beeeep." Personally, when I'm being intimate with God in worship, the last thing I want is to be robotic. I don't want my flesh, my natural tendency to stuff my emotions toward God, to get in the way of passionately pouring my oil on His feet and wiping them with my hair (if confused, see Luke 7:36-50 for a beautiful example of someone unashamedly worshipping Jesus).

So now what? Hopefully you're longing for the next step in your worship life. If so, let me fill you in on the secret formula to worshipping with all you've got: just...do...it. Yup, that's it! You're like, "what?! that's not advice, that's stupid!" Well, here's what I mean: you know that itch you get in worship to branch out a little? Yeah? Do it. You know that apprehension you get during worship, the one that keeps you standing and staring like a straight-faced statue? Yeah? Toss it. Whenever you feel the urge to raise a hand or move a limb or two, do it! Try it! Whenever you feel the wave of embarrassment or apprehension to move out of your comfort zone, that's exactly when you should be moving! I promise, you won't regret it. God already gave you freedom in so many ways - really, it's us who keep ourselves tied down, us who don't allow freedom to sink into our hearts and minds and subsequently flow out of our mouths, hands and feet. God gives freedom, but we stay enslaved in a lot of ways because we can't get past ourselves. If we are free, then we must embrace it, taste it, and celebrate it. Stop getting in the way of God's freedom taking over your life. Take the bold next step in your worship life. Jump...