Weekly E-votional

Each week our all church email (the e-pistle) includes an e-votional written by the pastors. We'll be adding it to the blog each week as well. This week the e-votional comes from Mike.

WORD 1 John 4:12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
THOUGHT Do you ever think about how much God relies on us? The Bible tells the ancient stories about God’s encounter with our ancestors. God needs us to tell the stories of divine encounters today. These stories can range from dynamic healings to just appreciating a glorious sunset. Regardless of the situation, God has chosen us to share the Good News for today.
PRAYER O God, allow me to be a visible living sign of your love. Give me opportunities to bring peace to a troubled world. Let me bring love to anyone who feels lonely. Encourage me to bring comfort to those who are lost.
Use me in such a way that I will make a difference in the lives of those around me. Let the world see you through the love I share.

Do People Think Like This?

Earlier this week I was shopping in the local Christian bookstore. They offer a large selection of a genre of writing called "Christian Fiction." As a youth I did read some Christian fiction. I especially enjoyed the Christy Miller series. This winter I read some new Christian "chick lit." It wasn't bad, one of the books was even good. I'm also currently reading The Shack, based on piles of recommendations from friends.
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When I'm reading this kind of fiction, I occasionally find myself wondering if people actually think like the people in these books. In one of the chick lit books one character would quote scripture to her friends. I don't know anyone who actually does this-- and the character did it on a daily basis. I have many friends, most of whom have a modicum if not abundance of faith, yet none of us quote scripture at each other.
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Sometimes reading these books makes me feel guilty that I don't think like the characters in these books. They seem so virtuous, so pure-- not real. It's the same problem that I had with the Mitford series, there's so much faith, and not nearly enough anxiety to be realistic. Then comes the guilt. Should I be this virtuous? Is my faith not strong enough? Is there something wrong with me?
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I don't think so. I think there are different ways to have faith, different ways to have relationships with God. As Rueben Job put it, “Such a disciplined life of prayer will be as diverse and as distinct as our fingerprints.”

Falling Asleep

At 4:30 am, I changed my Facebook update to "I understand why the disciples fell asleep in the garden."

Tonight is Holy Thursday, where we being into tell the story of the last supper, betrayals and arrest of Jesus. Tomorrow night we'll remember Jesus' death. I'm really emphasizing this year the importance of Holy Thursday and Good Friday to connect more fully with Easter. Seeing the valley allows you to appreciate the mountaintop-- so to speak.

Tonight one of the brief meditations I'll be offering is "We can hardly keep up." The disciples have to face an incredible amount of change and stress and fear in a couple of hours. Their Passover traditions have been reinterpreted, Jesus has talked about betrayal, they've been hanging out in secret, and now in the middle of the night, Jesus wants to pray. When they get a chance, their eyes grow heavy and slip closed. They shut down. Can we blame them? Can you think of a time when you were so overwhelmed you shut down?

Holy Week, when lived fully, adds many hours to a person's week-- and they aren't easy hours. We too feel the betrayal- question what we would do, and wonder what this all means for us. Physically, mentally, spiritually it can be draining.

But it's worth it.

May we come together on Easter to have our cups refilled!

Angry at God

Yesterday in one of our Lenten study groups we got into a discussion about being mad at God as part of staying in love with God. Most in the group agreed that you could be mad at someone, or even not like someone, and still love them. Some of us with spouses discussed this as a "seasoned" love. Taking this into consideration, many in the group felt you could be in love with God and mad at God at the same time.

This got me thiking about being mad at God. I can't think of a time I've been mad at God. I tried to make a list of reasons to be mad at God now, but each one seemed to be boiling down to other people or myself that I was really mad at.

I wondered if I was afriad to be mad at God, as if God couldn't handle it. But that didn't seem to be it. I know I'm generally not that great at handling anger, but that didn't seem to be it either.

I'm beginning to wonder if my theology has a place for me to be angry at God. Often when people are angry at God it's because they want God to do something and God doesn't, or they wonder why God did do something, or "let something happen." To me this supposed a God with more power than I understand God to have. I see God as choosing to limit God's power. There are some things God can't do. So if God can't do something, I can't really get mad at God for doing or not doing it.

What do yuo think? Do you get mad at God?