Friday, October 22, 2010
Happy Day
So last night I was in the basement of the library doing research on my paper on Messianic Judaism, and I came across this great sermon by John Piper on how Jesus reconciles Jews and Gentiles to each other and also to God through Himself. I was so in awe of God in His infinite wisdom and power and omniscience and my inability to fully understand him. I literally wanted to stand up and shout, in the silence of the library at 10 p.m. the week of midterms, and tell people about this incredible God that loves them and invites them into communion with Him. I look around and see boyfriend/girlfriend couples giggling over clean cut MacBook Pros and sipping their nonfat mochas. I hear the person next to me ask his friend what time he plans to go out and get crunk. I was so confused. How could these people possibly be satisfied with such empty, temporal lives? I mean, I guess I kind of get the dating thing. In the words of C.S. Lewis, being in love is a good thing, but not the best thing. But when you're dating someone, you can eventually understand most of him or her, right? Or at least, you have the ability to fully know at the minimum the facts of their life. And they could tell you their life stories. Not so with God. That's what makes being single so great. There's no creation to mistakenly worship instead of the Creator.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Balance
Tonight we had our girls Bible study. It's mostly freshman girls and we're going through the book of Malachi. I joined it because I figured I would meet some close Christian girlfriends, and I'm trying to study the Old Testament and understand it more. Sometimes it's frustrating because I feel like their faith is fairly new. Like the time they were offended when my friend Gabby denied their argument that there are multiple ways to God. I don't want to be comparing my "spirituality" to theirs because that's not why I'm there, but it's hard to respond when we're discussing the crippled and impure animal sacrifices that the Israelites are giving God, and the girls say, "Why would God want to kill a cute little lamb? I thought God was gentle and sweet." Or like when we read the verse "Jacob have I loved; Esau I have hated" they complain, "How could God hate anybody? God is kind and loving." How does one respond to that? But I know something that God has been teaching me lately is to stop comparing my religiousness to that of other people. It's just stupid and totally misses the entire point of Christianity. Paul's advice to "speak the truth in love" is so simple, so profound, and so difficult for me a lot of the time.
God uses the foolishness of this world to bring shame to the wise. There is a girl in Core that is always opening up her most private struggles and dreams to guys and it would bug me so much that she is so cavalier in guarding her heart. But she is also extremely kind to the most rejected people and is unashamed to be a true friend. While I, on the other hand, usually have a hard time doing that because I care too much about what people think of me. She says God gave her a vision about what He wants her to do with her life. And that God speaks audibly to her all the time. So I guess in my self-righteousness and judging I've missed God's voice. Why am I so proud?
God uses the foolishness of this world to bring shame to the wise. There is a girl in Core that is always opening up her most private struggles and dreams to guys and it would bug me so much that she is so cavalier in guarding her heart. But she is also extremely kind to the most rejected people and is unashamed to be a true friend. While I, on the other hand, usually have a hard time doing that because I care too much about what people think of me. She says God gave her a vision about what He wants her to do with her life. And that God speaks audibly to her all the time. So I guess in my self-righteousness and judging I've missed God's voice. Why am I so proud?
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Christian cults
Just throwing this out there— I really don't think God intended for us to have this Christian subculture. Because I've grown up in it, it's easy for me to forget about it and mistake this subculture for the Christian faith. But they are not the same. There are parts of it that are not biblical. And the very fact that we have insulated ourselves from the world in our happy little bubble of culture is not the life Christ intended for us.
Attending a Catholic university has opened my eyes to this. I've met people who are Catholics (who are Christians, by the way) and love Christ and seek to follow His commandments that don't come from my "culture." They have never been to Spirit West Coast. They don't sing about sloppy wet kisses in their liturgy (OK, I had to include that one). They haven't been to Hume. The girls don't wear cute knee-length dresses with a cross necklace and flats to match (not to say they dress immodestly— they just wear jeans or something like that). They're not big on the Great Christian Dating Debate. They don't read Dobson or Beth Moore.
Not to say that these things are inherently wrong. Kids have learned life-changing lessons and developed strong friendships at Hume. There is great wisdom to be gleaned from Bringing Up Boys. Yes, He does love us like a hurricane...well that one's open for debate. But my point is that being a part of the Christian culture does not make a Christian. It seems obvious, but it's shocking (or at least it was for me) to meet a follower of Christ that had never heard of Chris Tomlin. But she follows hard after God. In fact, she is more involved in community service and social justice programs that the majority of Christians I know. She loves God with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Our unity is in Christ and His cross. We are one body because 2,000 years ago a Man named Jesus lived a perfect life, died a criminal's death, and rose again to reconcile us back to God. Cultural, ethnic, political, or denominational differences should not divide us. We are to be one as Christ and the Father are one. That's some pretty close intimacy!
At Wildwood this summer, there was a guy who came with our church named Dillon. He grew up in "the hood" around gangs and violence. His dad was abusive and gone physically and relationally most of the time. Drugs and alcohol were common at home and at school. He also raps freestyle, which is awesome! Jesus saved him in his late teen years. Anyway, he came to camp and became close friends with one of the counselors, Josh Cofey, who grew up in the subculture I described. Now, without Christ, these two men would have absolutely no reason to be friends. They have nothing else in common: interests, neighborhood, music taste, nothing. Yet they both know Jesus, and they became like brothers. It was a beautiful picture of the unity we have in Christ's cross.
Attending a Catholic university has opened my eyes to this. I've met people who are Catholics (who are Christians, by the way) and love Christ and seek to follow His commandments that don't come from my "culture." They have never been to Spirit West Coast. They don't sing about sloppy wet kisses in their liturgy (OK, I had to include that one). They haven't been to Hume. The girls don't wear cute knee-length dresses with a cross necklace and flats to match (not to say they dress immodestly— they just wear jeans or something like that). They're not big on the Great Christian Dating Debate. They don't read Dobson or Beth Moore.
Not to say that these things are inherently wrong. Kids have learned life-changing lessons and developed strong friendships at Hume. There is great wisdom to be gleaned from Bringing Up Boys. Yes, He does love us like a hurricane...well that one's open for debate. But my point is that being a part of the Christian culture does not make a Christian. It seems obvious, but it's shocking (or at least it was for me) to meet a follower of Christ that had never heard of Chris Tomlin. But she follows hard after God. In fact, she is more involved in community service and social justice programs that the majority of Christians I know. She loves God with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Our unity is in Christ and His cross. We are one body because 2,000 years ago a Man named Jesus lived a perfect life, died a criminal's death, and rose again to reconcile us back to God. Cultural, ethnic, political, or denominational differences should not divide us. We are to be one as Christ and the Father are one. That's some pretty close intimacy!
At Wildwood this summer, there was a guy who came with our church named Dillon. He grew up in "the hood" around gangs and violence. His dad was abusive and gone physically and relationally most of the time. Drugs and alcohol were common at home and at school. He also raps freestyle, which is awesome! Jesus saved him in his late teen years. Anyway, he came to camp and became close friends with one of the counselors, Josh Cofey, who grew up in the subculture I described. Now, without Christ, these two men would have absolutely no reason to be friends. They have nothing else in common: interests, neighborhood, music taste, nothing. Yet they both know Jesus, and they became like brothers. It was a beautiful picture of the unity we have in Christ's cross.
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