He Chose Us!

We are reading Brennan Manning's devotional "Reflections for Ragamuffins" at our church.  This blog is meant to create a sense of conversation for us, as we read this together.  This is a reflection based on today's (July 2) reading.


If there is any 'advantage' of being adopted -- I am told by my friends who have experienced it first hand -- is the sense that one was 'chosen'.  I saw you, and I chose you.  Of all the kids in the world, I chose you.  Set aside whatever conflicting motives that our consumerist culture might read into this for now.  Because love experienced at its deepest always involves this awareness that it is not something we have to do, but something we desire to do.

So today's reading was a simple one, whose title is also an apt summary:  "He chose us."  God chose us to be His, and even more so, His adopted children.  (Ephesians 1:3-4)  A rather gigantic statement.  God in His infinite freedom, chose us.  With no ability to offer God anything, with no guarantees of our affection, God chose us.  That's a pretty big deal.

Manning doesn't stop there though.  And then he dares to categorize us in the following groups:

1.  We don't know it.
2.  We know it but don't accept it.
3.  We accept it but are not in touch with it.
4.  We are in touch with it but don't surrender to it.

Which category describes you?  And what would it look like, if we did "surrender" to the truth that God chose us?

Reflections for Ragamuffins, first post...

Some of us at Cross have committed to doing a common daily devotional together.  We are reading Brennan Manning's Reflections for Ragamuffins in this first go-around, and I -- along with others -- will be doing some reflections on the Reflections.


Based on the reading for June 23, "Knowing Who We Really Are."


"Jesus' freedom from public opinion and nagging concern of what others might think enabled him to live with honesty and spontaneity.  There could be no facade, no mask, no pretense, no sham, no playing of roles.  For the Nazarene Carpenter, to have integrity meant to be genuine, to communicate authentically, to resonate with his feelings....  The injunction of Paul to "put on Christ" explicitly meant not to conform...but only to please [the] Father."


Okay, a little vulnerability here.

Ever since I turned 40 (which was a while ago), I have been fighting it.  Hard.  What is it?  Well, it is not looking like my image of what a "middle-aged" man looks like.  Someone who tucks in their t-shirts into their trousers.  Someone who wears the wrong kind of socks with the wrong kind of shoes.  While wearing shorts that are too short.  Someone who drives a sensible car, or a minivan, while wearing expensive sunglasses, because somehow that is supposed to offset the middle-agedness of the whole thing.

For all my fretting, I am afraid I have now become that other caricature of a middle-aged man -- the guy who is fighting looking like a middle aged guy.  The guy who tries to wear 'what the kids are wearing.'  The guy who tries really hard to keep up with the music and the lingo.

If only 'knowing who we really are' was as simple as Brennan makes it seem.  How many of us are not pretending, not fighting it?  Maybe you are not fighting your middle-age, but we are fighting something -- our past, our ghosts, our insecurities about our appearance, our insecurities about the level of competence and achievement, our families, etc., etc., etc..

The funny thing is, it is so obvious when others are doing it, but so hard to know when you are doing it.  And what is wrong with us that we form our relationships that so few of our 'friends' will ever tell us when we are being, as Brennan would say it "posers, fakes and wannabees"?

Peace.

Lent - What Are You Learning?

If you have any thing that you've learned or been thinking about during this Lenten season, please be an encouragement and add them to the comments.

We are observing Lent this year at our church, and for most of us, we are doing this as a bunch of novices, who grew up in very non-liturgical settings (a few exceptions noted).  We aren't following so much the traditional practices (ash on forehead, fasting on Fridays, etc.), but focusing on the the "inner" reflections that lead us to a deeper appreciation of the cross.

(Sidenote:  I hate to make that inner-outer distinction, but it is a legitimate shortcut to denote certain things.)

At least 32 people from our little community have committed to doing this journey together through daily readings and prayers.  If you have any thing that you've learned or been thinking about during this Lenten season, please be an encouragement to others and add them to the comments...

Blessings.

Seeing Possibilities... in People.

If you have 20 minutes to do anything good for yourself, watch this video.  Heck, just watch the first 5 minutes, and if you don't like it, you can stop, and I will buy you coffee for your troubles.


But if you do like it...  It is a talk given by Ben Zander at a previous TED conference.  I rather not explain it too much, but here is an excerpt.

"Now, I had an amazing experience. I was 45 years old, I'd been conducting for 20 years, and I suddenly had a realization. The conductor of an orchestra doesn't make a sound. My picture appears on the front of the CD -- (Laughter) -- but the conductor doesn't make a sound. He depends for his power on his ability to make other people powerful. And that changed everything for me. It was totally life-changing. People in my orchestra came up to me and said, "Ben, what happened?" That's what happened. I realized my job was to awaken possibility in other people. And of course, I wanted to know whether I was doing that. And you know how you find out? You look at their eyes. If their eyes are shining, you know you're doing it. You could light up a village with this guy's eyes. (Laughter) Right. So if the eyes are shining, you know you're doing it. If the eyes are not shining, you get to ask a question. And this is the question: Who am I being that my players' eyes are not shining? We can do that with our children too. Who am I being that my children's eyes are not shining? That's a totally different world."


Did you catch that? "The conductor doesn't make sound.  He depends for his power on his ability to make other people powerful." Implications abound for what we do as preachers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, artists, businessmen, etc..


Anyways, WATCH THE VIDEO!