Spread the word- Advent Conspiracy

Jesus was counter-cultural. I think we should be too. That doesn’t mean that if we clash with our culture on just any issue we’re following Jesus. We need to take a thoughtful look at our culture and pinpoint those cultural influences that are in opposition to Jesus’ teachings.

Modern-day Christmas seems like a good place to start.

This paragraph from the Advent Conspiracy website sums it up well.

“The story of Christ’s birth is a subversive story of an upside-down kingdom. It’s a story of promise, hope, and a revolutionary love that is still changing the world to this day. So, what happened? What was once a time to celebrate the birth of a savior has somehow turned into a season of stress, traffic jams, and shopping lists. And when it’s all over, many of us are left with presents to return, looming debt that will take months to pay off, and this empty feeling that we somehow missed its purpose.”

Advent Conspiracy is a movement among churches in America during the Advent Season.

Check out this video about the Advent Conspiracy to learn more about the movement, it’s really well made.

Tell everyone you know about it! Join the Conspiracy, and let’s celebrate a more joy-filled, Christ-centered, relationship-building Christmas season!

http://www.adventconspiracy.org/

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Prayer in Church

You know what bugs me? When a church uses the prayer time after a sermon to allow the music team to all set for some closing songs. Do they think we don’t notice all those people walking up towards the stage?

I know it’s trivial, but it bothered me today. Is the music team above praying with the rest of the church? Would it be too much to ask for them to sit and pray with everyone else?  I can sit and wait another 30 seconds after the prayer is over for them to get set up.

End rant.

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The Speedy Knight, Fighting Rabbits, and what it all has to do with Art

I had a conversation with a friend comparing recent books and movies we have seen/read. Our conversation centered around Speed Racer and The Dark Knight, with my friend making the absurd declaration that Speed Racer was a better movie. Crazy, I know. He clarified by saying that he just enjoyed Speed Racer more; he has more fond memories of that movie than the Dark Knight. Ok, I suppose that’s reasonable. I liked Speed Racer. It was much more entertaining than I thought it would be.

But I would much rather see The Dark Knight again. I can’t help but wonder if this is some personality thing. Why am I drawn to the incredibly depressing movie about a psychopath killer and a hero who tries to be God? I’ve seen it twice. Each time I walked away from the theater having trouble shaking it from my thoughts. The moral ambiguity fascinated me. I loved the insight into human nature, collective and individual. But still, it was incredibly dark. Shouldn’t I be drawn more to the happy go lucky movie with the plucky kid who takes down the big corporate powers by pursuing what he loves to do? (When Speed Racer is racing, my friend called it “art in it’s purest form”. I liked that.)

Maybe not. Maybe I’m reading a little too much into things. Maybe I’m more drawn to The Dark Knight because it was a far superior movie in terms of acting, plot, dialogue, cinematography, pacing, and basically every other cinematic element (although Speed Racer was much more colorful, I’ll give it that). But that’s just my opinion.

The conversation continued on about books. I talked about two recent books I’ve read, Watership Down and Fight Club. Two great books. Two very different books. To go all SAT on you, The Dark Knight is to Fight Club as Speed Racer is to Watership Down.

This time however, I’m much more drawn to Watership Down. It’s one of my all time favorite novels. And yes, it’s about rabbits. And you should read it.

It all made me confused. I thought I liked the dark stuff? Why do I like the adventurous story about traveling rabbits? What’s wrong with me? Nothing, of course! I’ve concluded that I like both (I’m a both/and kind of guy, if you know what I mean. If you don’t, well you’ve obviously never taken a class with Dr Nienhuis). I like to be uplifted, but I also liked to be shown the world as it is.

I think we need both types of art. We need art that reveals the mess that this world is. But we also need art that paints us the beautiful picture of what could be, and inspires us to work to make it that way. Deep thoughts I know. : )  What do you think?

Thanks for reading, someday I’ll try and write on a consistent basis.

(Photo Credit)

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Video: Handlebars by Flobots

 Check out this music video. It’s a song called “Handlebars” by the band Flobots. Look for the symbolism throughout the video. Once you see it, it’s pretty obvious, but I missed it the first time I watched it. Be warned, the video is pretty intense, especially at the end.

So what do you think?

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My Baccalaureate Speech

I recently had the great honor of speaking at my University’s Baccalaureate ceremony, here is what I said:

My last quarter here I have had the privilege of being an academic mentor for a Christian Formation class taught by Dr Nienhuis. Part of my role was attending most of the class sessions, which, trust me, was a very good thing. Experiencing the class for a second time, I realized that it has been a kind of “capstone” for much of what I have learned about my faith while at SPU. One of the main goals of the class is to emphasize the unity that exists within all the faith traditions of Christianity. I have become increasingly passionate about this issue, especially as I observe so much division within the Body of Christ.

I think it is a part of our fallen nature to divide into groups. We see it in the world everywhere. We divide based on economics, race, education, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, gender, culture and language, just to name a few.

In Christianity it is all of these issues and more. We add in interpretation of scripture, worship style, leadership structure, baptismal practices, doctrinal statements… the list goes on.

I’ve become more and more convinced that if we want to have any voice of witness in the world, we desperately need to seek to heal these divisions. And we can. But not by our own power. Sadly, when we try and do things by our own power, we often fall short, even when our intentions are good. I’ll give you an example.

A student places a sign up that reflects an opinion. Many feel that the opinion encourages exclusion. Some are very concerned about including others, of promoting unity. So how do we react? We insult this person. We yell things at them through the window. We send hate-filled emails. We do everything in our power to make this person feel… excluded.

Ironic? Sad? Discouraging?

“Have I not commanded you?

Be strong and courageous.

Do not be afraid;

do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Sometimes being courageous is speaking out clearly, speaking with conviction and compassion for those who have no voice, even when fear is choking your own.

Sometimes it takes strength to be silent in the heat of the moment when every human emotion, every natural desire is to cry out, to insult and demean.

Fellow graduates, I pray that we will look to God for the wisdom to discern when to speak and when to be silent. I want to thank the friends, professors and mentors who have given me tastes of this wisdom, and have taught me how to find it for myself.

So, can we heal these often overwhelming divisions?

I have faith, I believe we can. I am not afraid. I am not discouraged. Because I know that wherever we go in this world, the Lord our God will be with us.

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Does Marriage Complete You?

I attended a wedding last weekend, so naturally my mind contemplated the issue of marriage. I’m 22, graduating from a Christian college, and single, so yeah, it has been on my mind a little anyway. The wedding was enjoyable, but a couple of things the pastor said during the ceremony made me uncomfortable. He focused on the Genesis story, and how God saw that it was “not good” for Adam to be alone. I can’t remember if he said it outright, but the overall impression I was getting was that humans are incomplete without a spouse. I know he was trying to express how special and important marriage is, so it’s probably more of an issue with my interpretation of his words. Either way, it unsettled me a bit.

My independent spirit fought against this idea of being incomplete without a wife. Part of it is my own arrogance which makes me think that I don’t “need” anyone. Another side of me (probably the better side) was uncomfortable because I know that I can only find completeness in Christ. I think that is a dangerous slope that could lead someone towards viewing their significant other as their savior, the person who makes them whole.

I put this question of completeness to a mentor of mine, who is married. He used both/and language to describe his thoughts. He said, yes he feels like he is a “better” person because of his wife. Yet he was also uncomfortable with the idea that marriage completes someone, especially with many Christians who emphasize marriage so much. It kills him that in many churches, single parents and single people can feel left out because they are not married.

I will probably be married someday. But right now, I feel complete. Maybe the language of completeness comes from the idea that when two complete people come together they become one fully complete whole. So it’s not that marriage is what “completes” someone, but rather what allows two complete people to be completely “one”.

What are your thoughts?

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It’s nice to be appreciated

I work at the library at my school. It’s an easy job, a lot of times I can get some homework done during the time I work. It’s great.

Well, we just had a little appreciation party for those that are graduating and will be leaving the library. Everyone received an award. Mine was “Most Likely to Help Your Grandma Across the Street.” They said some nice things about everyone. It was unexpected, but was actually really cool just to have a little encouragement.

All that to say- why not encourage someone today? It never hurts to tell someone how much you appreciate them.

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To be young, to serve truth…

Reading a novel is one of my favorite things to do, and I’ve been able to enjoy some reading during my Spring Break. I’ve been reading The Brothers Karamazov for a few months (actually since the summer, but who’s counting?). I finally finished it. What a great book! There are some passages in that book that really moved me. It took a long time to read, but it was definitely worth it. Check it out from your local library if you want a good read.
I read this passage back in the summer, and it has stuck with me. Take a second to read it carefully, then I’ll explain why I find it significant.

…he was to a certain extent a young man of our own times, that is, honest by nature, demanding truth, seeking it, believing in it, demanding to serve it with all the strength of his soul, yearning for an immediate act of heroism and wishing to sacrifice everything, even life itself, for that act of heroism. Though, unhappily, these youths do not understand that the sacrifice of one’s life is in most cases perhaps the easiest of all sacrifices, and that to sacrifice, for instance, five or six years of their life, full of youthful fervor, to hard and difficult study, if only to increase tenfold their powers of serving truth so as to be able to carry out the great work they have set their hearts on carrying out - that such a sacrifice is very often almost beyond the strength of many of them.

The passage is the narrator describing a character named Alyosha, the hero of the story. Immediately when I read the passage I thought to myself, “That’s me! Or at least I want it to be.” I desperately wish to serve truth “with all the strength” of my soul. Sometimes when you’re memorizing the functions of Micro-tubules, or the structures of the 20 amino acids, it is difficult to feel like you are serving truth. In fact, at many times it feels pointless. I take comfort in this passage. Perhaps it is naive, but I truly believe I am sacrificing a few years of my life “to hard and difficult study” in order to better serve God later.

This is not to say that I cannot serve him now. This is not to say that I cannot serve truth now. But I need to recognize that God may be using this time in my life to prepare me for more difficult service at a later time.

Maybe God has you in a difficult place right now. Maybe you are frustrated with what you are doing. Maybe it seems pointless. Maybe you’re right. Or maybe, God has some big plans for you. Think about it.

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