Change, Lament, Friday

I was recently listening to a Lenten sermon on lament and what is means in change, whether good or bad change about lamenting the loss of things that you are inevitably going to lose as part of the change.  Change seems to be barreling at me at light speed. I am going to be moving, switching jobs, responsibilities, switching the people that I interact with daily. This causes a lot of anxiety for everyone.

I feel like I have experienced a lot of change in my life, I have moved a lot, switched family situations, as a young adult I have done the normal college and post-college transience. I have never held the same job for more than a year really. So I really feel for those who have not experienced the same kinds of changes. They seem to take the change a little bit harder. I need to remember to help them lament their losses and to lament my own losses a little more.

I tend to rush at the new changes by the time they’ve come around, feeling tired of my old situations and experiences and ready for new adventures. I do not, however, tend to lament the losses of relationships, the daily routines and the support structures.

Soon, I will be beginning that lament process, hopefully I have enough grace to be patient with others as they lament as well. I need to remember to cry out like this, and be kind as others cry out in this way.

God will be good, like God has been in the past, and will be forever.

This is Good Friday, a day where we mourn sin, think about God’s wrath, a sinless life, and a tortuous death. It is important to mourn this, to let out lament in our life, in the Reality of God’s interaction with this earth, in our friend’s and neighbor’s lives.

Only then can we try a fresh start.

Lamentations 5:15-22 (The Message)

Music from the young is heard no more.
All the joy is gone from our hearts.
Our dances have turned into dirges.
The crown of glory has toppled from our head.

Woe! Woe! Would that we’d never sinned!
Because of all this we’re heartsick;
we can’t see through the tears.
On Mount Zion, wrecked and ruined,
jackals pace and prowl.

And yet, God, you’re sovereign still,
your throne intact and eternal.
So why do you keep forgetting us?
Why dump us and leave us like this?

Bring us back to you, God—we’re ready to come back.
Give us a fresh start.
As it is, you’ve cruelly disowned us.
You’ve been so very angry with us.”

Cheeses

I have always loved that cheeses sounds like Jesus.

Some examples:

The Five Iron Frenzy Album: Cheeses…(of Nazareth)

The wallflower of the world.

Technology, the global economy and the population are moving much faster than we can really comprehend.  The question that comes to my mind whenever this discussion comes up is where does that put the gospel in all of this? Do we need to move out messages to internet devices? Do we need to move from stained glass and brick and mortar buildings?  Or are those things just what people need? I find myself undecided.

I do know that the church is not in anyway reflecting the technological and informational shifts that we are experiencing globally. I literally sat through an hour and half presentation about how forward thinking a church was because it displayed its announcements on power point on a projector AND incorporated 18th century organ music. Wow, we’re so forward thinking.

If the church continues to be a wallflower standing at the edge of the gym like a seventh grade boy waiting for the girls to come to him then it’s never going anywhere. The girls are too busy with their iPhones and their friends to notice the boy. If the boy comes up and asks one of the girls to dance, it’ll be the talk of the girls for weeks, their heads will turn when he walks by. What if the church started asking the girls to dance a little more?

Stop waiting around with brick and mortar and stained glass wondering why people don’t notice or seem to care. Start acting, start moving, start talking, then people won’t notice the windows, or the building they’ll notice the work of God.

OMidiG–the midi

The subject of today’s internet kitsch–the midi! You know you love the sweet sweet sound of some synthesized computer file that comes at you when you load the website. This is especially true if its Christian music.

My most found memory of the midi was my freshman year of college I took a logic class, as part of the assigments we had to complete logic exercises in a program (on a 3.5 floppy!) called Logicola (if you run windows you can find some of a brillance here, I hope it hasn’t changed much since 2001). This was a great program, essentially it has levels of logic problems and each level you had to attain a certain number of points to complete the level. In order to do this you had to get so many problems right in a row (because getting one wrong was always a bigger penalty than getting one right). This led to hours of almost punching my computer late at night. There were magical times when I would indeed finish a level and I would here the sweet sweet sound of a midi, some encouraging words and animated dancers would bounce around the screen.

This was my favorite midi in Logicola.

Now onto the Christian Midi. This is always a work of brillance. Inspiration in a small, synthesized digital format! It screams come to Jesus.

Some examples:

How Sweet the Sound

This is my story, this is my song!

Now in Strings!

It is all indeed in His hands.

OMGif

Today starts a series on what I like to call internet kitsch, those few things in our computing words that intrigue us but are ascetically not really that great. The first on the list the gif!

The gif has always been a point of either fascination or revile. I tend to love gifs. Nothing like taking a boring still picture and making it move a bit. They can be incredibly simple.

Like this one:

Or look crazy complex:

The religious ones are always my favorites, their theological implications are too numerous to name, like this one:

just who ARE you?

The term evangelical confuses even the sharpest anthropologists, sociologist, pollster, and even yes, the evangelicals themselves. A recent study put out with the aid of the fabulous religious researching mega-money the Lily Endowment shows that Americans are less religious overall and those that are religious are identifying themselves with non-denominational labels and evangelical labels more freely.

This makes many people nervous, on certain days it makes me nervous, on other days it makes me hopeful.  I think that the evangelical and non-denominational label does not necessarily mean the loss of some fantastic parts of mainline theology and practice as many of my peers are concerned about. I think that it does emphasize the fact that denominational structures are old and outdated and it is easier to identify ourselves another way. I makes me especially hopeful because it means that the grip of Liberal theology may be loosening, and I say good riddance to that tepid, loose, fluff. (for those of you our there unfamiliar with Liberal theology, I does not mean politically liberal or leftists, it means something else, check here.)

I personally think this is a good thing. I like that the term evangelical is still ultimately unknowable as this article notes.

I still use the term evangelical loosely when referring to myself, I also use post-denominational. I also like sociologists say of my generation “avoid labels.”

Brett McCracken’s study of Christian hipsters sounds interesting according to his labels I may in fact be one. I don’t like that he used such a transient, white, twenty something cultural term, because all it really shows is that I am a white, middle class, twenty something AND a Christian. It doesn’t really tell me much about how Christianity as a whole in the country is changing.

Ideas, Boredom, Imitation

I am in the doldrums of a long paper, not anything that can’t be overcome but just something that is just sitting I feel, without any real wind. I don’t really have passion for the project, I don’t believe I am doing an innovative research and I don’t think all this work is going to change anything.  My ship is just sitting here, it will sit here and never leave, I will get the degree but my ship didn’t make any exploration, it’ll never deliver anything nor will it even circumnavigate anything, it got caught waiting around for some wind it never found. For now, I’ll stay on the ship and finish the work, then I am boarding the first life boat out.

I have realized recently that I spend all of time talking about the same ideas. As I have gotten further into my education and a job related to my field of study I am merely recycling ideas and nuances of ideas. It is a little sad really because the stuff all the ideas are centered around is the most exciting thing in the world, the most creative, passionate, beautiful person and work there is.

This feeling might just come from normal human tiredness of study and daily living. It might come from some weariness but I also think it comes from the fact that in this education its is just mere rote imitation and repetition.  We move from one nuanced idea to another obscure nuanced idea.  There is not encouragement of new ideas, innovative application of ideas, or even variation in work.

It’s a bit like talking about the difference in 2G cell phone service and technology and 3G and the distinctions between CMDA and GSM. Now if you didn’t understand that last sentence, good, thats a bit like the academic work I do. Everything is encrypted with language about certain ideas and there are particular nuances that accompany each code word. So we talk about premillienalism in light of Dispensationalist theology as opposed to postmillienial views in some Reformed eschatology. I am writing a huge paper on financing church mission and researching things like the income of a missionary society from the early 19th century and Protestant attitudes in mission after the Puritans but during antebellum. I am doing it in the way that thousands have done it before me, reading and writing, copying, synthesizing a little here and there.

It’s no wonder I find myself fascinated with these kinds of things, at least they encourage innovation.

TED is an amazing website full of interesting ideas to interact with.

Incredibly creative social sciences. This guy is the guy to be in the world. Especially check out his videos.

Doodling and Spiritual Disciplines

I recently did a short exercise of spiritual practice. During the exercise I was supposed to pray, open myself to God and meditate on some passages. I found myself doing these things and taking apart my pen.  I am addicted to Uniball Vision Elite Micro pens, they only break down to three parts. I have always loved taking things apart and putting them back together.

I realized that I was taking this pen apart laying all the pieces out and putting it back together, like a soldier taking apart a gun and putting it back together repeatedly, all while in full concentration and prayer. I do this a lot. I have always been a doodler and fidgety. I used to fold the church bulletin into a couple boxes every week while listening to the sermons. Its hard not to doodle on my shoes during class or in meetings at times. I would not say I am ADD, in fact I know I’m not, but doing other things helps me listen better.

So much of what spiritual disciplines are is listening, is reflecting, is spending time not multi-tasking. We live I an a culture where multi-tasking is a part of our lives and we are now able to completely focus a couple activities at a time. Using your hands idly while listening or talking with God, or reflecting on some Scripture, or while resting your brain is not so bad.  In fact this article says it may in fact help us concentrate more!

This makes me want to write some curriculum for young adults/teens on practicing spiritual disciplines in light of the way our brains are changing in a media and multi-tasking world. Maybe coloring while praying? Taking apart a puzzle and putting it back together?  Maybe this is why I like listening to sermon podcasts while cleaning or driving. Its really not all that different than rosary beads or finger labyrinths.  We listen while we move all the time, how different is it to pray that way? Maybe we would be more receptive to God in our life if we get used to listening and praying while carrying about our lives, interacting with the sacred in every aspect of life.

Ash Wednesday!

Happy Ash Wednesday, er, wait, uh, somber Ash Wednesday? I like this day and the season of Lent. I live in a very Catholic town and this exemplifies the type of Lent observed here.

Take that McDonald’s Filet O’ Fish!!!  Oh Taco Bell, I will eat your meatless extravagance.  Nothing says Christian reflection like some lukewarm Cinnamon Twists.  Maybe I will eat a bean burrito everyday as my act of penance.

David vs. Goliath

I watched two documentaries this week. A feat for me really because I really love documentaries but never find anyone to watch with me and when I watch alone I fall asleep.

Both films discuss a man following his dreams. A man accomplishing something that is on the edge and bigger than themselves.

What Would Jesus Buy: Discusses one simple, small David, Rev. Billy, facing the giant of American capitalism and consumerism. During the film we begin not only to see Rev. Billy’s message, but his passion and his dismay.  He is a character and an actor placing himself on the stage to share a real message. His Goliath may fall yet.

Man On Wire: I had been eagerly waiting to watch this film since I first heard about it. I must say there was not one bit of disappointment, which is surprising considering how much I thought I would enjoy the film. The characters are so great, the feat is incredible, the story is told with elegance. You need to see it. Philippe is a juggling David who walks onto top of the world and slays Goliaths of doubt, drudgery and fear. I love this quote at the end of the film.

To me, it’s really so simple, that life should be lived on the edge. You have to exercise rebellion. To refuse to tape yourself to the rules, to refuse your own success, to refuse to repeat yourself, to see every day, every year, every idea as a true challenge. Then you will live your life on the tightrope. --Phillippe Petit

I love the big show. I love it, I love the Oscars. Thank you film industry, you spend too much money to tell great stories but I still love them, without your stories we would be losing our great stories.