So this thing happened on Sunday. It was called Easter. It was pretty cool. And stuff.
No! I don't like that thing I just wrote. Why? Because it wasn't nearly excited enough!
Just be clear, Easter is a pretty fantastic occasion, on so many levels. The event which is celebrated on Easter has, sadly, become a cliche in our culture. I think we should be a bit more excited about the fact that hundreds of years of prophesy was fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus and in that fulfillment we were given the opportunity to have a relationship with God. How many times have I heard that over the course of my life? I don't think I could count, but I am overjoyed that now, 21 years in, I'm finally letting it mean something.
It would be silly for me to talk about Easter and not mention the historical aspect of it all. In celebrating the amazing event heretofore described, we're joining with people from over a thousand years of faith, all of us proclaiming what Jesus did for us, and the freedom which His victory over death brings us. My apologies for internet yelling, but HOW COOL IS THAT!?
As I think on these centuries of celebration, I can't help but ponder all the various different ways worship has presented itself over those years. We've had everything from gathering in houses and simply praising, to beautiful high liturgy in ornate cathedrals, all the way to what my church did this last Sunday. Brace yourselves.
We had a DJ in our worship band.
Some of you may be crying now because of how painfully contemporary that is. Honestly, I did chuckle a little when I walked into the sanctuary on Sunday and there this guy was, up on stage, scratchin' fo Jesus. In the end, I just enjoyed it. I think Easter should be a blow-out party, and the DJ helped make it just that.
For some of us, though, this issue of what is the proper way to worship God is one of the big questions of our faith. I've seen it tear apart individual relationships, even whole congregations. In particular, it seems as though there is this constant fear of new methods of worship, a fear that an introduction of something outside of normative practices of praising God will somehow distract us from the purpose of our gathering; celebrating what the Lord has done.
For me, this begs that ever important question. Why? Why are we so obsessed with protecting tradition at all costs? In particular, why are we so obsessed with protecting our understanding of what traditional is? Our traditional would have freaked people out just a few centuries ago. For example, the fact that we read a Bible printed in English was straight-up heretical when the word of God was first transcribed into that barbarian language in the 1380s. That to say, it's a bit arrogant of us to claim that our current understanding is what should define the pinnacle of "tradition".
The fact of the matter is this. Worshipping God is a good thing. I think it is a bit of a waste of our time if we actively critique the methods which other people use to worship the Lord just because they're not what we're used to. It would do us all a world of good for us to recognize that, when people are worshipping God through reading a common book of prayer, they're hopefully doing it with the exact same heart as a group which calls in a drum line in the middle of a song. Sure, different forms of worship might make us uncomfortable, but it's still worship. Let's come together, all of us, under the banner of praising the name of the one who gave so much that we might come to know Him.
With His love and grace,
Taylor
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
They're Weird, But They Can Still Teach us Plenty
The above title refers to babies.
Some of you may already know, but for those who don't, I basically have no idea how to interact with very small children, particularly infants. They seem extremely squishy, yet fragile. Apparently they have some spot on their head that actually doesn't have anything covering it? As in they don't have a complete skull? This seems odd. Let me clarify, it's not that I think I'm inherently above learning how to interact with small children, it's just I've never really had the opportunity. I'm an only child, so no baby siblings, and I haven't been there when my friends have had kids, something which kind of bums me out. All that to say, I find babies somewhat confusing.
In particular, the behavior of babies is just...odd. An example. During a meeting today, I noticed that Ramona Anderson (a staff member here at CCF) had her baby with her during an interview. One action of baby Faye in particular intrigued me. Everything Faye touched immediately went into here mouth. E–ver–y–thing. The object then underwent an extremely rapid interrogation, in which each item was determined to not be something that belonged in Faye's mouth. Her reaction? She through it on the ground. She completely and totally rejected it.
At first, I just wrote this behavior off as somewhat odd. Then God did one of those cool things where He reminds me that He can speak to me through just about anything. The question I'm asking now when I think on behavior like Faye's: Why don't I do that?
As adults, I feel like we go through a similar process as infants, we just aren't nearly as good at it. We take things, we examine them, but unlike Faye, when we find out something isn't beneficial for us, we don't get rid of it. Be it a bad relationship, a substance we know isn't good for us, an obsession with a lie this culture is telling us about who we should be, what have you, we hold onto it. We let it sit there in our mouth, as disgusting as it is, as wrong for us as we know it is, and we do absolutely nothing.
Why?
With His love and grace,
Taylor
Some of you may already know, but for those who don't, I basically have no idea how to interact with very small children, particularly infants. They seem extremely squishy, yet fragile. Apparently they have some spot on their head that actually doesn't have anything covering it? As in they don't have a complete skull? This seems odd. Let me clarify, it's not that I think I'm inherently above learning how to interact with small children, it's just I've never really had the opportunity. I'm an only child, so no baby siblings, and I haven't been there when my friends have had kids, something which kind of bums me out. All that to say, I find babies somewhat confusing.
In particular, the behavior of babies is just...odd. An example. During a meeting today, I noticed that Ramona Anderson (a staff member here at CCF) had her baby with her during an interview. One action of baby Faye in particular intrigued me. Everything Faye touched immediately went into here mouth. E–ver–y–thing. The object then underwent an extremely rapid interrogation, in which each item was determined to not be something that belonged in Faye's mouth. Her reaction? She through it on the ground. She completely and totally rejected it.
At first, I just wrote this behavior off as somewhat odd. Then God did one of those cool things where He reminds me that He can speak to me through just about anything. The question I'm asking now when I think on behavior like Faye's: Why don't I do that?
As adults, I feel like we go through a similar process as infants, we just aren't nearly as good at it. We take things, we examine them, but unlike Faye, when we find out something isn't beneficial for us, we don't get rid of it. Be it a bad relationship, a substance we know isn't good for us, an obsession with a lie this culture is telling us about who we should be, what have you, we hold onto it. We let it sit there in our mouth, as disgusting as it is, as wrong for us as we know it is, and we do absolutely nothing.
Why?
With His love and grace,
Taylor
Friday, April 15, 2011
A Knife in the Back Instead of a Hug
We like to be supported. When dramatic changes happen in our lives, we like it when we can have someone who will affirm what it is that we are going through, who we know has our back. We need this support more than ever in those moments when some monumental change occurs, when an event inspires us to change fundamentally. Change change change.
Too often, though, we don't receive this support. Too often, we receive the exact opposite. The very people who we come to, hoping to find their support and care, reject us. There aren't very many pains in the world which can equate to that feeling of utter betrayal.
Tragically, I've seen this happen more and more recently. On the trip I took this Spring break (take a look two blogs ago to see all the cool stuff God did, and interestingly enough the very same things that inspired the reactions which are the basis of this post), many of the people on my team got altered on a fundamental level. I saw them stepping out with boldness they had never known, bringing both emotional and physical healing into the lives of the people they interacted with. They saw themselves tapping into a new aspect of who God was that they had never known, and they were incredibly excited as a result.
Then they came home and their friends and family made them feel like idiots.
Much of the time, I think we are scared of the things which we don't understand. New experiences, new ideas, especially those which challenge our current conceptualization of something, can be terrifying. As a general rule, we tend to avoid things that fall into that category, which is an issue in and of itself. However, the thing I think we need to be more careful of is our all too common tendency to lash out at those who bring in those revolutionary ways of thinking. This lashing out takes a lot of different shapes. Sometimes, it's straight up rage, poured out on another person. At other moments, it's the snide comment, the seemingly joking remark that makes the person sharing about their experience feel like a fool. Sometimes, it's simply refusing to talk to someone who we know had a certain experience, just because we know what they're going to share and we don't want to hear it.
Why are we so afraid of new ideas? I'm honestly not sure. I want to say it's because we have an understanding (particularly in regards to God) that has taken time to develop, that we hope is correct, and we are legitimately concerned for those presenting new ideas. Sadly, I feel like by saying that I'm lying to myself most of the time. More often, we're just scared, and we respond in incredibly hurtful ways.
So what do we do about this? There's a scripture which keeps dancing around in my head (it's more plodding around drawing a lot of attention to itself now, but before it was dancing quite gracefully). Proverbs 3:5 tells us to "lean not on our own understanding." I think if we would be willing to take this attitude more often, one that recognizes that we do not have the fullest understanding available to us, an infinite amount of healing could occur. Those receiving new ideas could live with so much less fear, and the pain that is too often caused as a result of that fear would begin to wash away.
We can't control how people will react when we share new things with them. What we can do, though, is provide a model of peace and openness that is worth following. So for those of us who are having experiences which we love to share, but seem to freak people out, have patience, and when someone brings a legitimate critique, engage with it, don't run just because you're being challenged. And to those hearing about these experiences, please, trust the people in your life enough to truly listen to them. You don't have to agree, but please, listen.
With His love and grace,
Taylor
Too often, though, we don't receive this support. Too often, we receive the exact opposite. The very people who we come to, hoping to find their support and care, reject us. There aren't very many pains in the world which can equate to that feeling of utter betrayal.
Tragically, I've seen this happen more and more recently. On the trip I took this Spring break (take a look two blogs ago to see all the cool stuff God did, and interestingly enough the very same things that inspired the reactions which are the basis of this post), many of the people on my team got altered on a fundamental level. I saw them stepping out with boldness they had never known, bringing both emotional and physical healing into the lives of the people they interacted with. They saw themselves tapping into a new aspect of who God was that they had never known, and they were incredibly excited as a result.
Then they came home and their friends and family made them feel like idiots.
Much of the time, I think we are scared of the things which we don't understand. New experiences, new ideas, especially those which challenge our current conceptualization of something, can be terrifying. As a general rule, we tend to avoid things that fall into that category, which is an issue in and of itself. However, the thing I think we need to be more careful of is our all too common tendency to lash out at those who bring in those revolutionary ways of thinking. This lashing out takes a lot of different shapes. Sometimes, it's straight up rage, poured out on another person. At other moments, it's the snide comment, the seemingly joking remark that makes the person sharing about their experience feel like a fool. Sometimes, it's simply refusing to talk to someone who we know had a certain experience, just because we know what they're going to share and we don't want to hear it.
Why are we so afraid of new ideas? I'm honestly not sure. I want to say it's because we have an understanding (particularly in regards to God) that has taken time to develop, that we hope is correct, and we are legitimately concerned for those presenting new ideas. Sadly, I feel like by saying that I'm lying to myself most of the time. More often, we're just scared, and we respond in incredibly hurtful ways.
So what do we do about this? There's a scripture which keeps dancing around in my head (it's more plodding around drawing a lot of attention to itself now, but before it was dancing quite gracefully). Proverbs 3:5 tells us to "lean not on our own understanding." I think if we would be willing to take this attitude more often, one that recognizes that we do not have the fullest understanding available to us, an infinite amount of healing could occur. Those receiving new ideas could live with so much less fear, and the pain that is too often caused as a result of that fear would begin to wash away.
We can't control how people will react when we share new things with them. What we can do, though, is provide a model of peace and openness that is worth following. So for those of us who are having experiences which we love to share, but seem to freak people out, have patience, and when someone brings a legitimate critique, engage with it, don't run just because you're being challenged. And to those hearing about these experiences, please, trust the people in your life enough to truly listen to them. You don't have to agree, but please, listen.
With His love and grace,
Taylor
Sunday, April 10, 2011
I'm a Polytheist Until I Have my Coffee
We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to do things correctly. In any area of our life, I think it is a pretty general trend that we don't enjoy being wrong. Be it the pressure put on us from our culture, or the simple fact that we don't like to appear foolish, I know I (in the most limited of scopes) beat myself up quite a bit if I mess up in some way.
Your honor, I would like to present to the court the piece of evidence from here on referred to as exhibit A. At one of our recent early morning prayer times here at WWU, I was doing the thing which the name of the time establishes as normative for that meeting. At one point, I'm pretty sure that I prayed that the "Lord would reveal themselves to His people all the more."
Here's something close to what happened in my brain after saying that.
"Wait, what did I just say? That sounded wrong. God, I'm sorry if I said the wrong thing. Wait, crap that was polytheistic, blerg I hate it when I do that by mistake. Now I'm being heretical. Should I correct myself? No, that'll just make an even bigger deal out of it. I just won't say anything, maybe everyone will just forget. Sorry about that again Lord."
It's really pretty astounding how much my brain can do in a matter of about a second. In particular, I'm surprised how much I can beat myself up over one little slip up in such an amazingly short period of time. I'm sure, given a bit longer, I would have convinced myself that I was the grandest of all idiots, doomed to living a life of incomprehensible stupidity the likes of which the world has never seen.
The question that has been bouncing around in my head since then is a simple one, yet a profound response to all of my worrying. I'm quite certain it's one of those wonderfully calming thoughts that comes from God in those moments when I'm getting distracted by silly things.
"Do you not get that I don't care how eloquent you are? Stop trying to perform. Just love me."
Faith is an area in which it is just as easy for us to allow our paranoia of being wrong stop us, or at the very least distract us, from that which we are meant to have, that which is meant to enrich us. Honestly, I don't know why we worry about this so much. Any holistic examination of scripture I have ever taken has shown me that God isn't into smiting people because they prayed incorrectly, or because they were accidentally a polytheist for a second or two.
Simply put, I don't think there is a wrong way to explore more of who God is. We might be able to come to wrong conclusions about things, but when we honestly seek to get to know more of Him, I think He is incredibly excited about that. So join with me, those who would see this, in not worrying about those minute times when we get the lyrics wrong in worship, or say the wrong thing in prayer, or forget where something is in the Bible. Let's stop worrying about all of that, and instead just realize and embrace the fact that God is rejoicing when we spend time with Him.
With His love and grace,
Taylor
Your honor, I would like to present to the court the piece of evidence from here on referred to as exhibit A. At one of our recent early morning prayer times here at WWU, I was doing the thing which the name of the time establishes as normative for that meeting. At one point, I'm pretty sure that I prayed that the "Lord would reveal themselves to His people all the more."
Here's something close to what happened in my brain after saying that.
"Wait, what did I just say? That sounded wrong. God, I'm sorry if I said the wrong thing. Wait, crap that was polytheistic, blerg I hate it when I do that by mistake. Now I'm being heretical. Should I correct myself? No, that'll just make an even bigger deal out of it. I just won't say anything, maybe everyone will just forget. Sorry about that again Lord."
It's really pretty astounding how much my brain can do in a matter of about a second. In particular, I'm surprised how much I can beat myself up over one little slip up in such an amazingly short period of time. I'm sure, given a bit longer, I would have convinced myself that I was the grandest of all idiots, doomed to living a life of incomprehensible stupidity the likes of which the world has never seen.
The question that has been bouncing around in my head since then is a simple one, yet a profound response to all of my worrying. I'm quite certain it's one of those wonderfully calming thoughts that comes from God in those moments when I'm getting distracted by silly things.
"Do you not get that I don't care how eloquent you are? Stop trying to perform. Just love me."
Faith is an area in which it is just as easy for us to allow our paranoia of being wrong stop us, or at the very least distract us, from that which we are meant to have, that which is meant to enrich us. Honestly, I don't know why we worry about this so much. Any holistic examination of scripture I have ever taken has shown me that God isn't into smiting people because they prayed incorrectly, or because they were accidentally a polytheist for a second or two.
Simply put, I don't think there is a wrong way to explore more of who God is. We might be able to come to wrong conclusions about things, but when we honestly seek to get to know more of Him, I think He is incredibly excited about that. So join with me, those who would see this, in not worrying about those minute times when we get the lyrics wrong in worship, or say the wrong thing in prayer, or forget where something is in the Bible. Let's stop worrying about all of that, and instead just realize and embrace the fact that God is rejoicing when we spend time with Him.
With His love and grace,
Taylor
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