Taken

I'm not exactly sure why I decided to start doing this, but not infrequently I take my wedding band off at night and set it on my dresser. What I've found is that when I put it back on each morning it has more significance than just a piece of jewelry I always wear. Sort of like the framed piece of art you forget about in your house until somebody visits and comments. This ritual is a great reminder that I am a husband and have a wife that I need to love.

A few days ago, as I walked into my office, I realized I had forgotten my ring. I have an ingrained habit of spinning my ring by running my left thumb over it, and as I did it felt empty. Now in the short trek left to my assigned space a smile coming from my heart covered my face. The thought was this, "It's really nice to be taken." I'm spoken for. It still makes me smile.

This marriage thing is a pretty good gig if you can get it.

Wildcatting

I think wildcatting sounds really cool.
"Yeah, that's right, I'm a wildcatter."
If I was still single this would be my answer to, "So what do YOU do?"

Honestly though, I don't think I really want to be a wildcatter. Looks dirty and hot. But I would play this game were it available to me.

I am ok being a copycatter.

This Washington Post article was blogged on by my friend AP. It is phenomenal. It's a lengthy read but I highly recommend it. There is so much good stuff in here I am begging you to read it.

What AP says lines up with where I am right now so I won't take the time to re-write all of his thoughts. Good on ya AP.

Here is his quick description of the article:

There was a fantastic article in the Washington Post last Sunday about a brilliant experiment in which "one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made" stood performing in the metro station in Washington during the morning commute. The question that was asked was "In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?" Of course it wouldn't!!!!! Unbelievable beauty against the crushing deadline of that 7:45 water cooler gossip session?

the two sides

This is not from me. But I will pass it along to you because it's good. Essentially, the whole idea is in quotes.

In a religious context we're always trying to earn our place. The more righteous I can be, the more relationship with God I can have. Or, in the new covenant, the more relationship with God you have, the more righteous He'll make you to be.

If you love me you'll keep my commandments. - John 14
Religious: Do you prove the loving by the keeping?
Jesus: Or [and this sounds better], if you get the loving right, the keeping takes care of itself.

Replace the shame, sin, performance, guilt, need, approval in our lives with "He loves me at my most broken." Everything else related to performance/religion pushes us away.

I think Jesus is trying to say to me, "If you love me, yeah, the commandments will take care of themselves." Will I receive that? I'd like to say yes more confidently. I will say, the Lord is working that into me. And it reminds me again that the day of salvation is today.

It boils down to this.
"If you get the loving right, the keeping takes care of itself."

Here's the warning, don't get caught in the commandment (Matthew 22:36-38), but rather in His love (1 John 4:19).

I need to know, really deep down know, that He loves me. I need that today a hundred times.

pick-up ball

The. Monk

Not your normal Simpson

This is the kind of stuff I like these days. Not stuff that challenges (or even supports) the existence of God, or whether Jesus was who he said he was, or did he rise from the dead, but rather thoughts that challenge my paradigm of this Jesus Christ.

Today I read this.
And here is a bit more that is good for me to mull over and share.

Coming to the Bible with an a priori understanding of who God is and how God works that is the product of my cultural and personal influences, my spiritual and moral intuitions, my experiences and observations of the world around me, my deepest emotional and psychological needs, my religious community, and, hopefully, divine inspiration, I then underline, interpret, and even overlook various passages in accordance with that understanding, believing that God is pleased to guide me in that process as a form of divine communication.

We Christians have always done that, of course, whether or not we admit it. Those of us who once owned slaves confidently underlined one set of Bible passages, while those who worked to abolish slavery just as eagerly underlined another, very different, and each side interpreted away or ignored every Bible passage which contradicted their paradigm of God. For better and worse these divine paradigms, whether consciously or unconsciously adopted, have always determined the way we read the Bible on issues like capital punishment, war, the role of women, economic justice, divorce, and gay marriage, not to mention the essential character of Jesus.

Boy, sure would be great to read the whole of God's words and press into Him for what He would like me to hear. This is a very, very exciting thought for me. Have I heard the Father's voice on gay marriage, war, or the minor issue of who He is? Jesus' voice. Not the local Sunday morning speaker guy, not a book on the subject, not a friend, not the tv - so that I can make an informed, logical conclusion. And not that God doesn't speak in these places because He does. But, with these issues...

have I...heard Jesus...speak to me?

I have an easy answer (for me) on this one and it is certainly NO. For the most part I haven't even really asked the questions. Again, not that the Lord even needs me to ask to provide an answer, but I haven't sought Him on many issues. Strange for one who would call himself a Christ follower, but true.

If I felt inclined to strive, yesterday I was given a picture of what would be good to strive for. And the picture is in this question. What would it look like if someone in Africa found a Bible and had no preconceived notions of the Christianity we see on a daily basis? Then read the book and said, "This I believe." "I'd like to know this fella Jesus and I can because I believe he is alive." What would that look like? That sounds like a pretty great way to know Jesus.

I feel like I am being stripped of these add-ons that insulate me from the foundational relationship I desire with God. It's fantastic. Hopefully I'll find myself in Africa soon picking up the Bible for the first time. Wouldn't that be incredible.

high hopes

I have really high hopes. Especially around being a Dad.
Today, this trailer put some of my hopes on film.
This may be the first movie in quite a while to which I'll go to the theater.
I have really high hopes for this film.
I have really high hopes for being a Dad.