Series.

In the book I’m reading right now [Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen] a reference is made at one point wherein Machen harkens to a time 75 years preceding his own where times were “better” and cultures more “Christian.” Growing up in Huntsville, we had a wonderful and devoted youth leader who decried the sin of our times and looked back to an era that looked more to Christ. Even now I hear people around me talking about how things in the past were not only different, but better and more spiritual.

I don’t think that the arguments are wrong. There may have been a time where our culture seemed to be more influenced by Christianity. What ends up happening so often is the scare that our lives, as we know it, will end. Endemic in the modern American church is the modern American mindset. It is not only western-centric, but also individualistic, consumer driven, and very often myopic in its scope of culture and society.

Instead of pointing the finger, I would like to open up my heart to you a bit [but no more than necessary]. When I look at myself, I am often western-centric, individualistic, consumer driven, and very often myopic in my scope of culture and society.

Over the next few blogs, I’d like to explore these four areas in a micro and macro sense. Fell free to voice your opinion or response. To let you know, I am choosing to span it out because if I put all the thought into one blog, I doubt anyone would read it [though, I sometimes doubt if anyone reads it as it is].

What had me thinking about it is the way I’ve been regarding a lot of the complaints I’ve been reading in other areas of the web. It makes me sick to think of how putrid some of the thoughts of the church are. It makes me sick to think about how putrid some of my own acts towards those who are in the church are. My aim then, instead of complaining, is critical analysis.

I don’t think this will be extremely entertaining, but I’ll try to make it engaging as best I can.

Vanity and the pride of life...

I’m listening to Automatic for the People by R.E.M.

I’ve started a new blog.
No worries [as if you have any], I intend to remain dedicated to both. The natures of the two are such that I do not believe they’ll intersect in content.

Our trip to Colorado was wonderful. You should be able to check out our pictures here. The Rockies are just a strange and beautiful place altogether. There are some there who have ancestral roots to miners who worked themselves to death for the hope of finding the “mother lode.” Then you have others whose wealth defines their existence – those who will shell out a few [or more] million bones for a winter home.

There’s so much that I learned about myself and my family – much of which won’t be shared here because I don’t think that it would be appropriate to share [that’s called discretion].

One of the conversations La and I had while driving alone through the mountains was about creation. We had a bit of an argument about it. What was borne through it was evidence of our sin [beyond the argument]. A question I posed that was brought back to me was whether or not I thought about God the creator when I look at his creation.

“No. No, I don’t think I do,” is how I responded.
“But I’m trying. I’m praying that He would help me to.”

This wasn’t the first time I had driven through Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. I’m sure that it wasn’t the first theological conversation I’ve had there. Hopefully, it won’t be the last.

So often, however, the gloss of creation sates my appetite for the magnificent.
So often I find myself praying, “I believe, but help my unbelief.”

It’s so easy not to think about Him – because when I do, there are hard questions that I feel like He has to answer. In fact, He’s probably answered them in some way or another, but I want to be the clay that tends to buck at the potter and in the economy of God, that doesn’t really work. I am so easily duped into believing that God likes me more when I act like an ass even though he hasn’t called me to be his work horse.

He’s called be to be His child.
He’s called me to be a good brother to others.
He’s called me to be a good husband – to have my relationship with my wife model His relationship to His people.
He hasn't called me to be his mule.

In my enjoyment of creation, He reminded me that I just don’t think about what He’s called me to enough. In my enjoyment, He reminded me that maybe I’m too easily amused.

re: Weddings

This may be a little known fact: I love weddings.

Another interesting fact is that I witnessed more people crying at my marriage to La than and other I’ve been too. There were literally people coming up to me afterwards who told me that they usually don’t cry at weddings, but that they did at ours.

It probably didn’t help that there was a six foot tall, one hundred ninety pound groom crying at the time [that would be me].

There are certain passages of scripture that imprint themselves onto the fabric of my soul. For the longest time [and even now] Christ’s sermon on the mount was one of those [particularly the section wherein He reminds me that whatever I do to the least of these, I do unto him]. Another is Paul’s letter to the Ephesians where he writes about the relationship of a husband and a wife as a reflection of Christ’s relationship to the Church.

I don’t care much for the fluff of weddings. My favorite are where Christ centered sermons are preached and wonderful hymns sung. My favorite part of the wedding is to see the rear doors of the sanctuary open, to see the bride in radiant white burst through, and to see her walking towards the man who has decided to die to on life so that his bride might live for a new one.

When La walked in, I thought of Christ who has pursued me. I remembered how I loved her before she cared for me – and how Christ did the same. I remembered how much more deep His love is [however] and that while I don’t deserve it, it is mine for the taking. I wept because I was reminded that one day Christ will come again to claim His bride – His bride that He has washed, and cultivated, and loved.

The difference is that He has never been the one to stand and wait for her to walk down an aisle. He’s the one who runs out of the Holy place to bring His bride out of the whore house that she’s decided to make her home. He’s the one who purchases her freedom from that life, who makes her clean and who promises that he will keep her forever.

For me, the wedding isn’t about all the pomp. It’s about the representation of Christ coming to His bride, of his whispering of redemption, and of His bold actions to break his bride from her captor.

Today, I’m sitting in Vail, CO. It’s the furthest I’ve ever traveled for a wedding.
In two hours, I will see a picture of the reality that my spirit longs for.

[***Of note: New header; expect them to change as often as the seasons as long as my wife continues to be as interested in the blog as I am. Soon to come: a blog on running - keep a lookout].