Less Dreaming<More Living

This is going to go into more depth regarding my last blog. Ok so I am a musician and there is this idea that a friend shared with me that in order for inspiration to come to us we must be proactive in seeking out what it is that truly inspires us. The idea that this group of friends presented is the idea that there must be Less Dreaming and More Living. (Less Dreaming<More Living). This is an interesting thought. If I am a musician then I should surround myself and push myself to learn more and more creative chords, listen to more and more creative music, surround myself with creative people, etc. I must not sit back and wait for inspiration to come to me, while of course this can be the case, but I must push myself to new heights and create a sense of "no limits".

Now here's my point. In Christianity, we must do the same. We are not going to have this profound moment (of course God can reveal himself however he wants) but we must rather be actively seeking out Gods will for our lives. There must not be any sitting back, we must be urgent, and we must listen intently. We must be proactively and recklessly pursuing Gods promises and carrying out his vision. As a Church we are almost missing the point. We preach that everything is all fine and dandy, but we do not even preach that we must get our hands dirty, because let's face it Jesus did just that. I believe the Church needs to be resurrected and Awakened. There needs to be much More Living….and a ton Less Dreaming.

Change

I am almost obsessed with out topic of change. There is no way we can begin to change anything unless we begin to change ourselves. Exactly with the same idea of how Dr. Borders showed us his example with the bees. If he forced himself on the bees then they would react angrily. This applies to Christians. Who wants to be around a Christian who forces themselves on others? NOT ME. Honestly this is what I hate about being a Christian. There is such a negative connotation with the word. There has to be change if we want to BE THE CHANGE. We only have one life to live, only one mark to leave. This generation wants to see change and they are ready to be the change. As long as we are willing and saying here I am use me and send me,  God will use us. The only thing is, we need to put our money where our mouth is and actually begin to create change instead of sitting around wishing for it to happen. There must be Less Dreaming and More Living.

Purity in the Church

So Ive been dealing and wrestling with this idea of Purity. We hear all the time that Jesus hung out with tax collectors, prostitutes, drunks, etc. and people automatically say things like “If Jesus did it, then so can I”. But the real issue is that Jesus did not let these people influence him. He simply wanted to reach out to them. The church however has a certain type of Purity Code within it. We say that the doors are open to everyone, but then when a drunk comes in we scoff at them, or turn to our neighbor and say look at the drunk man. This is in no way welcoming. The church should be a place of true Love. Where people feel welcome. Instead many feel unwelcome. This bugs me so badly because in my own experiences, I have been the one judged simply because I had left the church for a period of time, during which I was participating in nothing wrong, yet I was judged because people assumed I was a drunkard. As a member of the church and a follower of Christ, I want to change the view on the church. The church is a place that is welcome to all, because lets face it, none of us are perfect. If a drunk man is not allowed in the church, then a man who lies should not be allowed. Jesus simply says “Come as You Are”. In all our dirtiness, hate, lust, lies. He still finds a way to love us the same. And so we should do the same to others.

Ordinary Radicals

One of my favorite authors, Shane Claiborne, has written a few books on what he calls being an “Ordinary Radical”. This is someone who is willing to radically follow Christ. I think of the church and how some people are focused on making the church a place of tradition and comfort. This is where I find discomfort though. I believe that following Christ is never about being comfortable. Jesus never did anything comfortable. He asked “ordinary” people to become “radical” and change the world. The disciples were asked to drop their nets and follow him. They did and if we read the Gospels we see that they were never comfortable. This might be a major turn off for some people, but I can say that I have done the most growing and maturing when I am not comfortable, yet I am allowing God to stretch me and use me. This is my favorite thing about following Jesus. Does anyone feel like it is not worth the headache of giving up what we know in order to be a tool in Gods kingdom? God uses “ordinary” people to do EXTRAORDINARY things!

A Couple Thoughts On Truth

There were a couple of things I found extremely interesting from Thursdays class.

First the fact there might or might not be one “Truth”. When we look at truth coming from a Christian background we say that the only truth is found in Jesus. When we think about how maybe there might be another truth out there, some might get offended. I have found in many of my classes that many of us have been taught things that we just don’t take into consideration, but rather we live by them and in our minds, they are the “truth”. We see that these ideas come from credible sources such as preachers and teachers, and we are sometimes taught that questioning things is wrong. Wasn’t that what God creating our intellectual minds for? To see the world around us and interpret it in our own ways? I feel like we need to question the things we are taught because this forms our own theology and what we believe. While we all might believe in a single “truth”, there are many forms of truth out there.