The Absence of God

My head is spinning.
When it comes to feeling as if God far away, I'm usually the one asking, "What did I do wrong?"
It's a similar kind of question as "Why is there suffering in the world when God is good?" But, I don't want to go there.
What is going on when you one day begin feeling as though the presence of God is gone? And that day turns into weeks? Or Months? What does that mean? Did you do something? Does that mean God is different than you thought? Do you even care enough to notice?
I'm going to process "out loud" some things I recently read by E. Peterson,

Many don't notice in the story of the Exodus (Isreal being saved out of slavery from Egypt) that prior to their freedom God is silent for over 400 years! What was He doing? There aren't many teachers of scholars talking about that fact. Peterson says, "That they haven't made much of it is unfortunate, for this seemingly unending stretch of the experience of the absence of God is reproduced in most of our lives, and most of us don't know wyat to make of it. We need this Exodus validation that a sense of the absence of God is part of the story, and that it is neither exceptional nor preventable nor a judgment on the way we are living out lives." WOW!

This doesn't usually fit into our mindset of Salvation. For those who have graduated from Salvation being 'what happens after I die' to 'living a new ressurection life today and forever' we struggle with God not being sensed in our lives today. It's not "normal".

"But it is normal" says Peterson.

See the prayerbooks, Psalms, or Church history and we'll see that, "Belief in God does not exempt us from feelings of abandonment by God. Praising God does not inoculate us from doubts about God. Meditating devoutly on God's word does not establish us securely in "the arms of Jesus." does not insulate us from all feelings of abandonment, darkness and aridity."

Psalm 22
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, from the words
of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
and by night, but find no rest."

Check this out!
"Jesus hanging on the cross used this same prayer at the very moment that he was completing the work of salvation! On Jesus' lips this prayer validates the experience of the absence of God as integral to our participation in salvation.

Why do you stand far off, O Lord?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? Ps 10

How long, Oh Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me? PS 13

Why have you forgotten me? Ps 42

Wake up God! Why do you sleep, O God?
Awake! Do not cast us off forever!
Why do you hid your face?
Why do you forget our affliction and oppression? Ps 44

You get the point....

One more quote by Peterson,

"These witnesses ot the experience of God's absence in the country of salvation are enormously important. They are rarely celebrated, whether in or out of church-this is not an area of life that most of us take kindly to-and not infrequently suppressed. But (here we go!) given our consumerist tendencies to shop for a god or goddess who will cater to our appetites for coziness and good feelings, they are necessary. Necessary to keep us alert and attentive to the mystery of God whose "ways are past finding out." Necessary to prevent us from reducing God Almighty to god-at-my-beck-and-call. Necessary to place disciplined constraints on our collective (especially North American) "spiritual sweet tooth." Necessary to enlarge our readiness for salvation beyond our carefully fenced in and devoutly tended backyard spirituality gardens.

Any understanding of God that does not take into account God's silence is a half truth-in effect, a cruel distortion-and leaves us vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation by leaders who are quite willing to fill in the biblical blanks with what the Holy Spirit never tells us."

For those who read it all, what are your thoughts? Its a bit freeing for me. That Jesus felt and was separated from the father and in that moment completed the work of salvation, tells me that not sensing God presence does not mean I'm out of His will or walking on a road other than the road of Salvation.

God's Joyous Being

A newborn baby. The sun setting over a body of water. The elderly dancing together on their 50th anniversary. Teems of Killer Whales jumping out of the ocean. The snow capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains. The loving tears shed by a bride and groom on their wedding day...

"All of the good and beautiful things from which we occasionally drink tiny droplets of soul-exhilarating joy, God continuously experiences in all their breadth and depth and richness."- D. Willard Divine Conspiracy

God is indeed joyous and indeed lives an interesting life!

Surrendering

I'm thinking about these words from Jesus today in Mark 8.

Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?"

God, let your will be done today. (white flag prayer :)

The eyes of the Lord search throughout the earth to strengthen those who's hearts are fully devoted to Him. -II Chronicles

Boasting About Tomorrow

"Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, send a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that..."

I've been reminded of this scripture from the book of James lately. Things just aren't going the way I planned them. And it's difficult for me to deal with at times. But in these times I'm thankful to remember that my life is but a mist, here today and gone tomorrow. I need to make today count. To do good today. To love God by following Jesus today and love my neighbors too.

So today, Jesus, let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven in my life and through my life.

Violence

Violence spawns more violence.

Except in those "Little Jesus People".

They absorb violence and in return, offer love.

Mtb Race Pic

Last week was the non-points race kick off to the DINO Series. It was muddy and there were not many people there compared to last year...but I was there! And another trusty teammate of mine. I won't even go into the details but ends up on my first lap of 3 I topple over my handlebars going down hill and crush my shoulder on the gravel trail. Ends up I separated my AC joint. But 4 guys pass me as I stand for about 90 seconds there and assess the damage. I could still move my arm though it hurt so I jump back on the bike and go. By the third lap I've caught up and passes three of the four guys and end up 4th in Sport (out of 11). I like to say I would've been first if I hadn't of wrecked but anyway. Here's a link to a picture that was taken of me on my first lap at the race. Enjoy. http://www.dinoseries.com/photos/tuneup/TU0460.jpg

fear-of-the-what? II

To continue the conversation a bit farther on the fear-of-the-lord Peterson notes that none of the available synonyms in the English language- awe, reverence, worshipful respect - seem quite adequate. They miss the punch delivered by "fear-of-the-lord" Ok, so what do we do from here? Well he gives us some ideas of how to cultivate the fear-of-the-lord. AND ISN'T THAT WHAT WE REALLY WANT MORE THAN BEING ABLE TO UNDERSTAND OR EXPLAIN IT?!!
"The primary way we cultivate it is in prayer and worship - personal prayer and corporate worship. We deliberately interrupt our preoccupation with ourselves and attend to God, place ourselves intentionally in sacred space, in sacred time, in the holy presence - and wait. We become silent and still in order to listen and respond to what is Other than us. Once we get the hang of this we find that this can occur any place and any time. But prayer and worship provide the base"
Peterson says, "Fear-of-the-lord" is the best term we have to point to this way of life we cultivate as Christians." Basically, A world has been opened up to us by revelation in which we find ourselves walking on holy ground and living in sacred time. The moment we realize this, we feel shy, cautious. We slow down, we look around, ears and eyes alert for what God is saying or doing. The moment we find ourselves unexpectedly in the presence of the sacred, our first response is to stop in silence. We do nothing. We say nothing. We fear to trespass inadvertently; we are afraid of saying something inappropriate. Plunged into mystery we become still, we fall silent, all our senses alert. This is the fear-of-the-Lord.

Or we don't...

More later.

Fear-of-the-what?

LORD! What's up with the Fear-of-the-Lord? Eugene Peterson says this "stock biblical phrase" is just what we need when we wonder how it is that we live responsively and appropriately before who God is, who he is a Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And isn't that what, we who have been redeemed by Jesus, want to do?
Well, it turns out that the meaning of this phrase/word is illusive and maybe that's a bit of a good thing. We can't simply file it away and box it up in our mental dictionary.
First let's clear the slate and understand that fear-of-the-lord is a "bound phrase". It's four words in English (two in Hebrew) that are bound together, making a single word. Here's the deal. The meaning of this new single word is not the sum of all its defined parts, fear+of+the+lord. Fear-of-the-lord is a word all its own. We don't look up "fear" then "God" in the dictionary. Doing that gets us way off track according to Peterson.
Just consider that for a couple days and I'll add more content later.

Ps. There are around 138 occurrences of this word mostly in Proverbs, Psalms, Isaiah, Chronicles and Duet' Duet' Deuteronomy! Take a look!

Wisdom from Mother Teresa

The fruit of silence is prayer.
The fruit of prayer is faith.
The fruit of faith is love.
The fruit of love is service.
The fruit of service is shalom.
- Mother Teresa

Guess The City

Love of Torah or Torah of Love?

We're all familiar with with the parable of the Good Samaritan, right? A religious man after asking how he could inherit eternal life hears Jesus respond with, "Love God and Love your neighbor". And in response the man asks, "Who is my neighbor?". What he was really asking is, "Who is pure?" which was really a question of, "Who is worthy of Love?". And so responding to this deeper issue Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan. What we miss is that in this story the Priest and Levite who pass by the beaten man weren't cold hearted toward the man as we usually think. They were passionate about follow the Torah which said NOT to touch dead people or they would breach their purity. The only corpes they could touch were close family all others would cuase impurity even if they got so close that their shadow touched it. So, they crossed to the other side of the road to follow their love for the Torah. What Jesus reveals is that out of their love for the Torah they have missed the point! This was a Torah OF love!

So here's the question: If we are to love God and love others, Jesus is asking his audience, what happens when love-of-God-as-obeying-Torah comes into conflict with love-of-God-as-following-Jesus That's a tough one, for all of us. But for Jesus the answer is clear: Loving God properly always means that we will tend to the needs of others.

Easter More than Eggs?

I feel I could write passionately from a couple angles this Easter morning. For instance the way the god of materialism has captured the minds of so many on wonderful days of remembrance such as today BUT even more passionately I am full of hope this morning.

Just looking on the nightly news, listening to the gossip at work, hearing of wars and genocide around the world, heck even paying attention to our own thoughts we can see clearly the effects of, the first man, Adam's choice to eat of the fruit in the garden. And it's not only effected humans but the way humans have cared for the rest of the world. I would bet we might struggle to recognize the world if it were not affected by our thousands of year of maltreatment. But consider this mind blowing statement by the Apostle Paul in Romans 5,
"For if, by the sin of the one man, death reigned through that one man, HOW MUCH MORE will those who received God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ."

HOW MUCH MORE?! What?! You see I believe the life, death and resurrection (Easter) of Jesus can exponentially effect our lives and our world for good compared to the evil that has entered through the effects of Adam. And its not just the cross that makes it so. For if it were just the cross we would be forgiven and that's it, Jesus would still be in the grave. But we needed power to conquer sin, to rise above it and so Jesus provides us with that as well by rising from the dead which is what I and Christians all around the world celebrate this morning.

The Politics of Jesus

You've got to pick up this book ASAP. It's as if my mind has been unlocked from a layer Imagination Shrink Wrap. Another world is possible because we don't have to live by the "rules" we have always thought told us what was actually feasible. We don't have to (or get the leisure to) leave the governing of the earth to the government but we partner with God in caring for the needs of the world as a set apart people under and among the rest of the world. No, there are no thoughts of an uprising that violently overthrows our government but in the Way of Jesus there is hope for change in acts of subversive enemy love and revolutionary subordination or how about Christian Imagination. Consider:

"Insanity is trying to get different results by doing the same things"- don't know

Are we trying to get "our man" in the white house in the hopes that things will really change? Has that ever really made much of a difference? Really?

"One thing that's clear in scripture is that the nations do not lead people to peace; rather, people lead the nations to peace." pg 306

HOLD ON TO YOUR SEATS:
Today's logic goes something like this: "Calling a ruler 'Son of God'(which is what the people called Ceasar)is out of style. No one really does that nowadays. We can support a president while also worshiping Jesus as the Son of God." But how is this possible? For one says that we must love our enemies, and the other says we must kill them; one promotes the economics of competition, while the other admonishes the forgiveness of debts. to which do we pledge allegiance? Surely, one of them must have the wrong idea of how to move history. Can a servant serve two masters?-pg 167

I could share so much more from the book but you'd do best to read it yourself and in the mean time go to www.jesusforpresident.org and click on the "book" link and read the appendix sections.

Brown Co. Cabin Vacation

Interesting

"As soon as the Gospels were written, speech without experience began to dabble with the new facts proposed by the existence of the Church...People tried to think the new life without being touched by it first in some form of call, listening, passion or change of heart."
- Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

Let's not be like that or settle for so little.

The Way is a rocky path

When one enlists in follow The Way, Jesus, one does not walk the side walks of Easy Street. One finds himself on the Rigorous Road of Suffering. But it's on this road that He finds out who he is and what he's made of. Who He is and Who made him. He finds out what is really worth suffering for and that he is in the midst of that great purpose. Following The Way strips away the comforts that keep one from the Comforter. It's a rocky path with amazing views of the horizon which is to come and it is this view that keeps one following The Way. Things are not as they should be or will be but knowing The Way is a road that leads to the way things were always meant to be is a road worth walking.

"The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, Blessed be the name of the Lord" -Job

The Jesus Creed

Orthodox Jews have a practice of reciting the Shema, which is Hebrew for "Hear", the first word of the text recited, twice a day. The text comes from Dueteronomy 6:4-9 and reads,

"Hear O Isreal, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind and with all your strength.
These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.
Impress them on your children. Talk about them (all the time, basically)...

What it's essentially is saying and what the Jews understand is this commandment, LOVE GOD BY FOLLOWING THE TORAH.

Then Jesus comes on the scene when this practice of reciting the Shema is in full force and is asked what the greatest commandment is. The questioner was surely fully prepared to hear Jesus recite the Shema but what he heard was this,

"Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.
Love the Lord your God with all you heart,
with all your soul
with all your mind and all your strength.
And the second is this, "Love your neighbor as yourself"
There is no greater commandment than these."

Jesus amends the Shema of Judaism by adding Love for others not just God. Ultimately what Jesus is saying is we were made to LOVE GOD BY FOLLOWING JESUS AND LOVE OTHERS.


These ideas come from a book called "the jesus creed" by Scot Mcknight

Mt. Bike Team

Well, After fund raising and team recruiting and jersey designing I get to rest from the team starting process. Here's a picture of our new jerseys that are in the process of being printed. Also, for those of you who don't know much about Mt. Bike racing it IS a spectator sport and pretty exciting. Some courses are better than others in that you get to see the riders more than once per lap. But all have good music playing, live commentary on the races all are in pretty scenic location (for Indiana) and you can bring your choice of beverages and a lawn chair or blanket and enjoy the racing at your leisure.
I've not had anyone come watch one of my races except Jen and my Mom (she always supportive) and brother Brad. Jen really likes watching, I even talked her into racing a race last year! She finished 3rd by the way! Even after face planting once and wrecking two more times! She's competitive. But if anyone wants to make an afternoon of it and come to a race here's the schedule for 2008:

Sat April 19 Avon IN
Washington Twp Park
Sat May 3 Warsaw IN
Winona Lake Trail
Sun Jun 1 Nashville IN
Brown County State Park ("Kentuckiana Championship")
Sat Jun 14 Portage IN
Imagination Glen
Sun Jul 6 North Vernon IN
Muscatatuck Park (AMBC)
Sun Jul 27 New Castle IN
Westwood Park
Sun Aug 17 Logansport IN
France Park
Sun Sep 14 Indianapolis IN
Town Run Trail Park


24 HOURS OF DINO

Sat-Sun Sep 27-28 Warsaw, IN
Winona Lake

Races start at Noon.