that's what i read on a bumper sticker the other day.
maybe it's plain old road-rage... but i have to admit that i find myself respecting people with bumper stickers less than other motorists.
i hate bumper stickers.
i view them as traveling billboards that add useless noise to the landscape.
but i also gotta admit... this one got me thinking...
...wondering what in the world was going on in that driver's grey matter!
was he mocking the "god loves me" b.s. crowd? or the "jesus loves me" bunch?
was he a sci-fi geek? or just a star wars fanatic obsessed with wookieepedia or maybe yoda-speak?
hmmmmm. never know, i will.
it's funny how the weirdest things stick in your mind... like a random ridiculous bumper sticker. but since seeing it, i've thought about how too many times american christianity hasn't seemed a whole lot different from a "yoda loves me" kind of faith... a drummed up ideology based on a wish that someone is out there who cares about them... a fortune cookie feeling that gets them through the day... a way of training their thoughts away from an empty existence they might be wading through... a hope based upon something they were taught as a child.
there have been times when i've been there too... more recently than i'd care to admit.
one of the reasons i sky-dived into ministry in the first place was because i wanted to help unstick the church from the yoda-ness i'd grown up under.
so... if there's one thing i've never wanted... it was a yoda-faith. but i'm realizing i'd become more of a yodish-pastor than i thought i was. so... in some way this ejection from professional ministry has the opportunity to be a spiritual healing of sorts.
at the same time... it's not something you just quit. i can't just behave my heart to some place it's not. but i don't think G*D expects me to either. he just tugs me to be the fullest me i know to be right now... not the me someone else expects me to be... or the me i expect myself to be. he just wants me to be alive to the "this moment" me.
sometimes faith is putting one foot in front of the other and hoping that somehow Jesus has got you pointed halfway in the right direction.
jenn & i started a college study in our home recently. i'm lovin' it because it allows me to hang with people who are honest & thinking... often with questions pumped fresh from their aortas. the post high school years are when most of us integrate Jesus into the core of our existence or... choose to keep him as a rabbit foot in our pocket or... trade him in for another belief system that seems more practical.
an important time for sure.
for many of them, the "come to Jesus" experience they once had has faded into little more than a code to follow to some imaginary world or system of social reform... yoda-ology. and that's too often what they've gotten from the church & various campus ministries. but they're looking for a christianity that is gritty and raw... able to handle their questions and dilemmas... one that feels fresh & alive. if following Jesus is simply about all the musts & mustn'ts of morality or social justice... they'd just as soon trade-in their baseball cards.
i want to give them an integrated perspective... some place between the behavior modification "training vs. trying" approach to spiritual formation and the mystical "follow the Spirit" approach. it's funny how most us tend to throw our weight to one side or the other. but since the "training" model seems to have saturated the church circles i exist in these days, i have to counter that "be like Jesus" emphasis with the "be with Jesus" emphasis... helping them capture & enjoy & interact with the movement of G*D.
i want them to see G*D active in their world... constantly moving in & around them. i want it for myself as well.
i can't train them to pretend G*D is real and expect them to end up with anything other than a yoda god. faith grows by being attentive to the evidence... the movement... then climbing upon it to stand, dance & stretch out our hands into the chaos, hoping that eventually our fingertips will skim across the hem of G*D's robe in the form of further evidence to scramble onto.
i see our faith journey as more of an interaction... a dance between certainty & confusion and intellect & emotion. not just a dance with a belief system, but a waltz with The Unique One... the intersection between heaven & earth.
there's a difference in the peace that comes from convincing ourselves that something is real & true... or from training ourselves to act like something is real & true... or from behaving as though something is real & true...
...and the peace which comes from having lunch with That Someone just now.
i guess i've just seen too many times how our suitcase tends to be packed with the wares of christianity... that is, disciplines, programs, systems of thinking & acting, etc... rather than with Jesus himself. we sell a beautifully wrapped gift that conceals a brown cardboard box of do's & don'ts and spiritual workout plans and tantalizing programs that all too often create growth-killing pressure & busyness.
of course we can't live totally on feelings & experiences. and i believe there are times when G*D will refine us to ensure our love is more for him than for the feelings that come from being with him.
but the kingdom of G*D wasn't meant to be a boot camp. it wasn't meant to be a paint by number picture.
it was meant to be a ball in the castle... a just before midnight dance with The King... a 3rd sudden-death in the stanley cup.
yes. for now, it may be a fogparty.
but it won't be for long.
I sense fear in you. Ha ha. See what I did there? Get it?
Posted by: JVo | July 15, 2008 at 02:34 AM
sounds like you need another vacation already, young padawan.
Posted by: randy | July 15, 2008 at 10:22 AM
The force is strong in this one... (Sorry- John started it.)
Great post as always Randy... Thinkin' about ya, man.
Posted by: Matt D. | July 16, 2008 at 02:21 PM
well said, "faith grows by being attentive to the evidence...". lately i've notice those moments of attentiveness are giving me a desire to unpack my suitcase. thanks for inviting us into the fog and taking the time to share, it helps me clarify some of the ... oh, i get it, fogparty... not always clear...
Posted by: Leta | July 18, 2008 at 12:15 PM
haha. 3rd sudden death... man, what a long game.
hardcore, truth-seeking followers like myself often have a hard time viewing the relational aspect of this relationship. :) loves us, he does. to show us how, he desires.
Posted by: James | July 18, 2008 at 10:45 PM
With you about bumper stickers - generally just a blight. But then some just beg to be enjoyed. I cannot forget the one your post reminded me of: "Come to the Dark-side - We have cookies!"
...but if they are such a blight, why is it I catch myself reading them often?
Posted by: Scott Hoel | July 20, 2008 at 11:01 PM