RSS
 

Posts Tagged ‘acceptance’

HONEST TO GOD #1 …a river without banks…

03 Oct

HONEST TO GOD
From time to time, I’d like to use my blog as a venue to share my own personal theological and political thoughts. If you’re not interested in these posts (and who would blame you!) please feel free to ignore those classified as “Honest to God.” And if you have questions or suggestions, please comment…discussion can be fun and enlightening.

HONEST TO GOD #1
…a river without banks…

A proverbial saying declares that “a river without banks is a swamp.” The image is quite vivid I suppose, for those who live near the Mississippi River and who have seen their farmland turned into a swamp by demolished levies.

Some might consider my progressively liberal theology to be a murky, muddy swamp-like spiritual pool. But I still have some banks alongside my theological river; but they’re further apart than they were in my younger years. My banks have been established by lifetime of struggles and conflicts…they are definitely not some sort of denominationally built canal.

I’ve listed here, a few of my banks. I invite you to read them, and to consider if they might be similar to yours. I also invite you to comment upon them. I’m not claiming to be “right,” so you just might make a comment that causes me to reconsider my stance.

Anyway…these things I believe:
• God loves all people, without exception.
• To follow God’s example we must forgiving and show mercy to others.
• Social justice and civil rights matter.
• God still speaks through the Bible, through other literary works, through people and through nature.
• War is not the solution to international conflicts.
• What we believe, is less important than how we treat others.

I don’t claim to be right…I’m just trying to be HONEST TO GOD.

 
2 Comments

Posted in New Life

 

If You Are Interested . . .

21 Aug

A few people have asked for a simple way to listen to the sermons I preach at New Song Church here in St. Louis. You can usually access them at our church’s website, www.newsongstl.org, but I will also post them here from time to time. This one is part of a current series about Paul in the New Testament. It is titled Paul & the Lost. 001_A_088_Aug 6_Sermon

 
No Comments

Posted in New Life

 

Remains #3

03 Aug

…to react or to respond…

Every difficult situation we encounter offers us a choice. We can either react or we can respond. And there’s a world of difference between those two replies. Unfortunately, it is our nature to react…which is a negative reply. It is far better to respond!

Imagine that you’re sick enough to visit the doctor, and the doctor prescribes a particular medication. If the new meds cause you to break out in a rash and spike a fever, you would be “having a reaction” to the medication. (In the medical world there’s no question…a reaction is bad!)

If however, after you begin taking the new meds you notice that your condition is improving, you would be “responding to the medication.” (In the medical world, responding is good!)

And so it is in life. Reacting to a situation is deadly…responding to a situation is life-giving.

When a child brings home a lousy report card, the parent has a choice. The parent can react by saying, “You’re as dumb as your father! You’re grounded for a week.” Or the parent can respond by saying, “It looks like you’re going to need to study better. Let’s set aside time each night when we can work on homework.”

Those of us struggling with addictions must learn to respond rather than to react. When faced with intense situations, our natural instinct to react leads us to drink, or drug, or eat. Yet when facing that same difficult situation, our ability to respond, allows us to consider all aspects of the situation…and to grasp whatever lesson lays waiting to be learned.

 
No Comments

Posted in attitude, New Life

 

…aren’t we all?

16 Oct

“I’m a very spiritual person.” If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times. Usually the comment is made in reference to the individual’s reason for not attending church, or for not being associated with any particular faith practice. Sometimes the comment is even prefaced with some sort of disclaimer like, “I may not be religious, but I’m a very spiritual person.” I usually smile and think to myself, “Aren’t we all?”

You see, I firmly believe that we are all spiritual persons…spiritual persons that are having a physical experience. Please understand that this is a different perspective than that held by most of us in western culture. Most in our society tend to believe that they are physical beings who occasionally have a spiritual experience.

I think it’s the other way around. We’re all spiritual beings…and we’re all having a physical experience. Granted, some are enjoying a much finer physical existence than most. Some are wealthy, attractive, and powerful…born with a silver spoon in their mouth. (I shouldn’t complain. I was born with a plastic spork in my grubby little paw. But I digress.)

This is, to me, an important distinction. Children born with chromosome disorders, faulty valves, epilepsy or Down syndrome are still spiritually perfect creations. They themselves are just as spiritually beautiful and valuable as if they too had been granted that illusive silver spoon.

We should never be so shallow as to think of those children as flawed or damaged goods…quite the contrary! They are perfectly created spiritual images of God, experiencing a physical life that I cannot possibly comprehend.

 
No Comments

Posted in New Life

 

…location, location, location…

17 Aug

There is today much concern over the future building of Cordova House and Mosque at New York’s Ground Zero. I myself have a gut-level reaction…a prejudice if you will…that the location of the proposed mosque and community center is somehow wrong.
It is at times such as these that I must not succumb to gut-level reactions. It is at times such as these that I must force my God-given brain to understand our Christ-given directives.

Jesus taught us to love our neighbors, and to “will for others, what we will for ourselves.” And I would not wish to have my own religious expressions squelched because of the radical actions of my extremist Christian brothers and sisters.

Granted, I am a Christian. But please do not place me in the same camp as the Christian extremists who have bombed abortion clinics and murdered medical doctors. Please, do not question my motives based upon the hatred expressed by the most radical members in my faith community. And please realize that all Muslims do not advocate hatred and violence against non-Muslims.

I know…I know…something about building Cordova House near Ground Zero doesn’t seem right. It seems odd that Muslims should become our neighbors at Ground Zero. Location…location…location. Didn’t Jesus direct us to love our neighbors?

Christ did not come into my life to make me feel right…He came into my life to help me live right.

 
1 Comment

Posted in New Life