Love God

I have been thinking lately about our mantra.
We have always (it seems that way now) said it as a goodbye on Sunday.
Benediction.
But now it has become more.
It's a way to remember, our Ebenezer, if you will.
It has become our shema.

Love God.
Embrace Beauty.
Live Life To The Fullest.

What does it mean?
Love God is so deliciously ambiguous.
It's an action.....but what do you do?
How can you love something you can't wrap your arms around?
Or, how can you love someone that seems to cause so much pain?
I don't know....let's see what the scripture says:

My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God.

Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God.

The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God,

because God is love -- so you can't know him if you don't love.

This is how God showed his love for us:

God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him.

This is the kind of love we are talking about --

not that we once upon a time loved God,

but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins

and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.

My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other.

No one has ever seen God, ever.

But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us,

and his love becomes complete in us -- perfect love!

1 John 4:7-12

So....what does it mean to Love God?

Love his people.

Love your family.

Dote on your wife.

Pamper your husband.

Kiss your kids.

Enjoy a glass of wine with friends.

Smile to a stranger.

Love one another.

Brokenness Part II

One of my earliest posts when I started this over a year ago was written after I lost a professor and mentor of mine to cancer. That loss, while difficult, was easier to deal with than this more recent tragedy of losing my pastor, and friend, Kyle Lake.

After re-reading that post on brokenness I feel obligated to follow it up with additional thoughts.......

Henri Nouwen goes on to say in his book Life of the Beloved that "when people come together they easily focus on their brokenness. The most celebrated musical composition, the most noted painting and sculpture, and the most read books are often direct expressions of the human awareness of brokenness. This awareness is never far beneath the surface of our existence..."

I would have to add one expression of brokenness to Henri's list.

Us.
The skin-on-bones, walk-around-numb, unsure/uncollected/unusually awkward Us.
We are the created art forms of God's expression of love and brokenness.
We are broken because we are human. Not because God made us that way.
We chose to be broken.
When we chose, scratch that, choose ourselves over God we uniformly throw away everything complete, whole and unbroken that we have available to us.
Adam and Eve is not a myth.
It happens every day.
We discard the truth and believe the lies and allow our broken, mangled ways navigate us through life and then, exasperated and annoyed, wonder where God is when we screw things up.
It's a vicious cycle.

refrain: We are the created art forms of God's expression of love and brokenness.

So.......How do we live in this tension of God's grace, love and mercy vs. our brokenness, selfishness and total lack of self-esteem?

I don't know.
Neither do you.
But we try.

Writing Again

I was going through some old papers the other day and came across a Moleskine journal my sister gave to me once, I think as a Birthday gift. They are the coolest little notebooks.....great for the writer on the go.
Anyway, I always cringe when I read some of my old stuff......most of the time I allow it to fall by the way side (procrastination) and when I attempt to pick it up again it has become dated and cheesy and, sometimes, just plain stooopid.

Not this time.
It actually seems appropriate.
Before I begin, let me just say that I don't remember exactly when I wrote this. After a visit to San Diego, obviously.
I actually seem to remember that I was prodded by a friend who had recently had his first book published to begin writing myself. Kyle was instrumental in many parts of my life without even knowing it.

Anyway.......here goes:

The Traveler

or

The Traveler's Guide

or

The Traveler's Guide to Navigating Life

(you choose, whichever one that sounds less pretentious)

Preface

As I write this I am on an airplane careening in a wide curve over the Pacific just west of San Diego. The flight pattern of the airplane is a microcosm of my life. Let me explain. The location of the airport in San Diego, because of its surrounding geography, requires an airplane to take off over the ocean. So even though my final destination is Austin, Texas, I must first go west before turning east. This pattern of going and coming back is a common refrain in this symphony of life.

There is something within the human soul that propels us away from safety.

It stirs our hearts in such a way that we start looking for something better than we have.

This wandering, whether it be from a specific location, job, or significant other, has long been considered a hallmark of restlessness and immaturity. Most people would say that the "wanderer" (read: slacker or bohemian in the 60's) has lost touch with his or her priorities and that they should "settle down."

I disagree.

We have been created to "go."

Matthew 28:19 says, "Therefore, GO (emphasis mine) and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." (NLT) With this in mind we see the difference between the Bohemian/Slacker mentality and a missional mindset. Do not misunderstand my meaning here. This is not a formula to place yourself in to find your purpose. There are other books for that. This is a way of life.

This is the realization that God is in the going and the coming back. Remember.....God was with the Israelites as they were wandering in the desert. There wasn't a place where God was not with them. The same holds true for us. Regardless of our location, vocation, relationship with our families, co-workers or friends....God remains the same.

So this is a rough guide to navigating life. A scribbling in the sand. It is not a map, nor is it meant to be anything more than the ramblings of a wanderer. This is merely hope to help you on your way.....with many happy returns.

A Part of Me

"I am a part of all that I have met." ~Lord Alfred Tennyson

I have been getting posts/notes/e-mails from folks that I haven't heard from in quite some time. It's nice to hear from old friends. Now only if I can become more determined/disciplined to keep up communication and be a better friend.

Sometimes I get too insulated in my own life.
I forget that the friendships that I have forged along the way leave lasting marks.
Not that I am that impressionable.
(That's my attempt at making a self-deprecating remark.....I am way too obnoxious to be forgotten)

Anyway.....if there is anything that I have learned in the last week and a half.....it's who my friends are.
They are the ones that I cried with on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (we did a lot of crying).
They are the ones that I partook of some billiards and beer with......at 3 O'Clock in the pm no less!!
They are the ones that I think to take lunch to when they're sick. (For I am normally not that thoughtful!)
They are the ones to tell me what I need to do when I don't know what to do.....Thanks.
They are the ones that pray for me when I don't pray for myself.

I thank all of you......you are all a part of me, and I you.
I love you all and can't wait to be Home........

A Tale of Two Cashes

I am the one on the left......if you were wondering.
This is my dog Cash, as in Johnny.
We anxiously await the new Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line

Check it out......we can't wait.

something new

In light of what has happened I have laid aside all of my foolish habits of laziness and procrastination. Well, we'll see if it sticks. I have to be honest with myself.

That's been the issue lately.
Honesty.

Like my friend Adam said on his blog....
I lost my friend, my pastor, my spiritual mentor, and my rabbi.
I should have been there last week.
Not because I could have done anything for him.....nothing would have changed.
But that Church, my Church, needed all the love and help and support they needed and I wasn't there. I got there as fast as I could, but I wasn't there.

I need to be honest with myself.
I have been running.
Not away from God, I don't think.
But in circles.
And when Kyle passed something snapped inside.
I can't remember a single excuse that I ever made to not be in the ministry.
Whether or not that ever becomes my vocation....God only knows(Beach Boys lyric, not my personal theology speaking)
I just know that there is only one place in the world where my wife and I want to be right now.....and that's Waco, TX.

Imagine that.