Man of God

I wrote a song this morning for a 98 Episcopalian priest, whose birthday we are celebrating today. He is an incredible man, who has lived an incredible life. Someday I'll have to tell you about him.

If I ever dare, maybe I'll even sing it for you sometime ;^)
In the mean time, here are the lyrics to the song:

Man of God
Son of Love
You've travelled far
on paths unseen
on roads unknown
in this world that's not your home

But on this journey through a strange land
you found you were not alone
For every step through every foreign place
was guided by a Stranger
who somehow you'd always known...

Man of God
Son of Love
You've suffered loss
Like everyone
Like no one else
and you keep moving on

Yet through the sorrow and the sadness
you found you were not alone
For every tear you shed was not in vain
but collected by the Stranger who somehow you'd always known...

And now your Father is no Stranger
You've drawn nigh unto Him
And Has has drawn nigh unto you

Man of God
Son of Love
This world is not your home
Jesus Christ, Son of God
Has called you as His own

What? Me Afraid? Nev...

I'm not exactly the fearful type.

Ok, except for clowns. They freak me out.

But seriously, as a girl with a fair amount of, hmmm how shall we say - *issues*? - one thing I can honestly say does not plague me is a whole heck of a lot of phobias.
When I was single I had this married friend who would call me all panic stricken when her husband would be away for the night, like some kind f pathetic damsel in distress... "can you come stay over?" What? Are you serious? Of course I did go help her out, lest you think me completely heartless... but I'm just sayin, I never did get that "afraid to be alone" thing.

So yeah, I'm ok to be alone, not afraid of the dark, or heights, or public speaking, have never feared for my life (even when wisdom dictated that I probably should have, in my younger, foolish days...)

But here's the thing I have learned about fear:

It operates under virtually the same premise as faith.

We have to exercise it for it to have any power in our lives. And like faith, it comes by hearing. Whatever we hear the most of, is what we tend to believe. What we tend to act on. Oh yeah, and the more we practice it, the more of a defnining force it is in our lives.

Gosh, when I look at it that way, I guess fear isn't such a stranger after all.

Oh snap.

It is a stunning realization that in many ways, my life is more accurately defined by fear than by faith. Fear of stepping out, and taking a risk. Fear of failure. Fear that God does not hear me, or worse, that He's not particularly interested in me. Fear of rejection. Fear that my heart does not matter to Him.

It's stupid, I know, all these fears. I should know better. But somehow, I have given fear a better place at my table than I have given faith. It has subtley taken over.

I have this feeling that if I exercised faith more frequently, more readily, this stronghold of fear wouldn't be so, well, strong.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear.

1 John 4:18

I guess that's another parallel between fear and faith. Both have an object. Both require trusting something, or Someone. If the object of faith is my Savior, and trusting Him builds me up... what then, or who is the object of my fear? Who is tearing me down in exchange for my trust?

Must be me.

Yeah, that's not good. I should stop trusting in me... don't you think?

What the...

So Richard Dawkins is upset that "religious" people have a reputation for being generous. More generous than, say, non-religious people. It offends his sensibilities.

Okay...

So, to assuage his pain, he has launched a campaign, calling all atheists to donate to the Haitian relief effort.

I think that's great. And though you surely would not appreciate my saying so, God bless you, Richard Dawkins.

The Haitians are being helped. That's what matters. I seriously doubt that they care where it's coming from. For that matter, I seriously doubt whether ANY relief organizations are checking people's faith credentials at the door... except for maybe, his.

So wait, let me get this straight. Are you saying, Mr. Dawkins, that the faithful need NOT apply? For WHAT reason again? Oh yeah... you don't like that they are generous?

Okay...

Have to admit, I find that a little strange. Isn't the point right now to help, PERIOD? Is there ANY reason to be exploiting the tragedy in Haiti right now as some kind of weirded out competition between the sacred and the secular's altruistic tendencies?

Your call your website a clear thinking oasis. Hmmm... gotta admit, I'm having a hard time with that one.

can I suck back in a few words?

I thought about deleting the previous post altogether.

But once they're out there, you can't really suck the words back in, now can you?
I suppose you can pretend you never said them, but, well, that's not playing fair now, is it?

I spoke too harshly about Pat Robertson.

While I still maintain that his timing and delivery need some work, for me to make the accusation that he is a "charlatan" (oh wait, I DID delete that one... but at least I left "disingeneous", so um, there you have it)... can't say I don't feel a bit chastised about that one.
I am sorry, Holy Spirit. I think I am altogether like you, but I am not. Forgive me. I have been as judgmental against him as I claimed he was being.

I also neglected to mention all the good things Pat Robertson's organization has done, and continues to do. What have I done to reach out to the world? Not so very much.

I am sorry for being so quick to speak.

And now... a word on Pat Robertson...

Ok, first of all, let's establish that I'm not at all a fan of Pat Robertson... I find him disingenuous... pompous... not to mention really, really bad at bridging the communication gap of grace between himself and the sinners he is so good at denouncing.

Bottom line is, let's just say I am not, nor do I ever wish to be in the 700 Club Member database.

Now having said that, let's take a look at the facts.

The FACT is, a lot of the wildly unpopular things he has said aren't really untrue. They are just wildly unpopular. And very, very poorly timed, with even poorer delivery.

He has done this time and time again, but for the sake of brevity, let's focus on his most recent "outrageous" statement, about Haiti. http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=9554506

Outrageous, right? Yes. But... the fact is, that whole thing about the "deal with the devil"?

[sigh] Um... Hate to say it, but it's pretty much true.

Here's an excerpt taken from the Haitian Bicentennial page put up by the city of Miami (a government publication): A man named Boukman, another houngan, organized on August 14, 1791, a meeting with the slaves in the mountains of the North. This meeting took the form of a Voodoo ceremony in the Bois Caiman in the northern mountains of the island. It was raining and the sky was raging with clouds; the slaves then started confessing their resentment of their condition. A woman started dancing languorously in the crowd, taken by the spirits of the loas. With a knife in her hand, she cut the throat of a pig and distributed the blood to all the participants of the meeting who swore to kill all the whites on the island. On August 22, 1791, the blacks of the North entered into a rebellion, killing all the whites they met and setting the plantations of the colony on fire. However, the French quickly captured the leader of the slaves, Boukman, and beheaded him, bringing the rebellion under control. Just like Mackandal, Boukman had managed to instill in the blacks the idea that he was invincible. Thus, the French exposed his head on Cap’s square to convince the slaves that their leader was really dead.
However, the ideas of the revolution, the ideas of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, had already enflamed the mind of the slaves. The death of Boukman although it had temporarily stopped the rebellion of the North failed to restrain the rest of the blacks from revolting against their condition. The Revolution that would give birth to the Republic of Haiti was under way and nothing could stop it. http://www.ci.miami.fl.us/haiti2004/history.htm

Ok, but still, you say... why even mention it? The rationale, it would seem, is that the mere fact of bringing it up is somehow tantamount to saying that God is punishing hundreds of thousands of people, many whom are innocent, non "deal with devil-makers", for the sins of a few way back when. That's hateful, you say.

Well, now wait a minute. Who brought God into all of this? Call me crazy, but if I have my "deal with the devil" playbook down correctly, isn't the point of voudon (or voodoo, whichever you care to call it) to call on the the incarnation of a bunch of animistic spirits (NOT the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, btw) to assist and empower, in exchange for subjection? Is this not what they did? Did I miss something? Is voodoo NOT prevalent in Haiti? Has this country NOT been ravaged over the centuries?

Here is my point. Do ya THINK that maybe if the devil IS behind some or all of the poverty, desolation and tragedy that has decimated Haiti over the years... maybe... just maybe he doesn't really care HOW many innocent people get caught up in it? Do you think the enemy of the Living God might just be dancing in his little hell hole at the thought of it?

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour" 1 Peter 5:8

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy." John 10:10

THAT'S his JOB, my friends! Why are we surprised by this? Why are we mad at Pat Robertson for pointing it out? The fact is, whether we want to admit it or not, there is an actual (not metaphorical) enemy of all that is good, of all that reflects the glory of God, roaming about this earth, with one clear cut, laser-beam focused mission: DESTRUCTION & BONDAGE. Period. Do you think he cares whether or not he gets the credit? Don't you think it only emboldens his dastardly deeds to deflect the putricity of said dastardly deeds back on his Enemy, the Creator of the heavens and earth?

I for one am not falling for it. As a follower of Christ, I am called to pick up the second half of that John 10:10 verse, where Jesus says "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly". That means, first of all, recognizing the first half, that there is a real devil to resist. Secondly, and more importantly, I am called to let Jesus Christ, through the weak and foolish vessel that I am, show justice, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, and yes, SET CAPTIVES FREE! To let mercy and truth kiss one another. THIS is my clear cut, laser beam mission.

To those who cry out for judgment, I plead with you: Beware. We are ALL under judgment, of one kind or another. But, thanks be to God:

Mercy triumphs over judgment. James 2:13

The truth is, without the risen King of Kings, I am just as lost and hopeless in my nicety nice, safe and warm, shiny happy American life of priviledge, as any person, place or thing that has made a "pact with the devil".

I need a deliverer. His name is Jesus. May I never forget that.

I hate John Eldredge

... but not for the reasons you might think.

Yeah, yeah, I've heard all the "he's a New Age, heretical, movie addicted, eco-freak who takes way too many vacations" diatribe (ok, that last one was mine... but he DOES seem to be canoe-ing down the Yukon or hiking the Grand Tetons an awful lot. Who takes this many trips, seriously? Of course, I am just jealous, I'll admit... but I digress...).

No, the reason I hate him isn't because I think he's some kind of some charismatic cultish, swashbuckling He-Pollyana, making the Gospel seem better than it actually is (which he has been accused of doing). It's not because he equates virtually every aspect of life to some scene out of Lord of the Rings (which he pretty much does)... or even that he actually likes the movie Titanic (which is grounds for revilement in and of itself).

None of these things are legitimate reasons to hate John Eldredge. In fact, except for his obsession with Lord of the Rings, I think he is right on. In the Biblical sense, even. He understands, and is desparately trying to convey to anyone with ears to hear, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ really IS good news, and that there is more to the Christian life than perfecting the science of "sin management". He gets it. He refuses to live in the malaise that much of the church is content to languish in, and call that "holiness". He dares to believe that Jesus really meant it when he said that He came that we might have abundant life. He REALLY believes that.

He has pushed me out of my comfy little stupor... confirmed things to me that somewhere, way back in the recesses of my mind I always thought were so, but never heard anyone else articulate... challenged me to get out of my complacent little comfort zone. He has forced me to face myself... and know that, whether or not I ever do step out and take the risk to find this abundant life in Christ, I can never go back to the way things were. I will never be the same.

And that's why I hate him.

Darn that John Eldredge, anyway.