Your god is too small [poem]

If your god is relegated to conscience that little voice in your head trained to    speak at the wave of your experience

your god is too small for me

If your god is only a projection of the distant father in your living room who abused and neglected you when a father was more important than food or shelter

your god is too small for me

If your god failed you by not doing what you thought he ought. If your god is designed for your convenience a prop for your comfort

your god is too small for me

If your god is a white-haired old man who is more old fashioned than old-age If your god is historically respected but defective in your current complexity

your god is too small for me

If your god is less meek and more mild piled with placid temperament un    inspired    un   moved   un    intentional

If your god’s emotional capacity for compassion is less than yours

your god is too small for me

If your god calls you to comfort safe for the whole family always “come unto me” but never “go out in my name”

your god is too small for me

If your god has never flushed your face and stolen your words with waves of open ocean or mountains that mouse your vocabulary

If your god does not leave you in awe of amazing grace so unbalanced you clamber to conceive it

your god is too small for me

If your god abides by your contracts a pact to protect your formulas a god who upholds your cold contingencies

If your god only works through the cogs of machinery you have manufactured for a factory of formulas to faith

your god is too small for me

If your god is white, middle-class, republican if your god is Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, or Catholic Pentecostal, Lutheran, or non-demonational

your god is too small for me

If your God created you in his image and you returned the favor

your god is too small for me

Whatever god it is you know so much about to comprehend or contain is too small for me

Because

My God

is too big for you

My God is not contained in bullet-points pressed on a page by those arrogant enough to think they could grasp Him.

My God is too big for you

If you are searching for a god small enough to see, tiny enough to taste or touch with trust displaced

If your soul is not sandbagged or beautifully nagged by a God who won’t      stop calling your name

my God is too big for you

If you do not praise your god for poetry, music, and art a baby’s smile or a full coffee-cart; for brazen horizons and seas a resounding storm or tender breeze

If your god does not leave you in love with beauty that makes your soul scream, “THIS is what life should be”

my God is too big for you

If you are searching for a god you can wrangle like a mustang with a rope made of frayed twine and managed reason

If you need a being who will obey your beckon to submit to your five senses and incomprehensive pretenses

then this poem is too big for you

my God is too big for you

3 dreams for 2011

Resolutions are not generally something I spend too much time casting. Goals are not a typical party of my vocabulary or reality. Vision casting is not an expertise I would project onto myself.

But I love to dream I cannot NOT create

The dreams I have for this year are to:

Poemize each sermon I write, make a spoken word EP (even if just for me), take more pictures of nothing particular, draw outside the lines of "3", self-publish a book about...something, shoot more video, share more video, join a poetry/writing group, join a rec volleyball league, start and finish P90X again, wear a fake mustache at least once, learn more ukulele, add to this list...

What are your dreams, resolutions, goals, hopes for 2011?

Sovereignty is sovereignty

I continue to hold that one of the most amazing theology books of our time regarding the sovereignty of God is Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss.

I love the perspective reminder. A God who is completely outside of, beyond, and other than our realm of perspective is always going to seem unreal.

I love the reminder that we are exponentially smaller than the God who holds us.

I love the reminder of a God who though his people are carried away by lesser things, he still cries out our names.

I love the reminder that the god people doubt is not big enough.

-------

What other unlikely books would you place on the greatest theology books...and why?

Family mustache night

Last week, Tonya, Bryleigh, and I had dinner out together. We went to Old Spaghetti Factory, a family favorite. While we were in line for a table, there was a family of 5 in front of us. Mom, Dad, 2 little boys, and a girl; all 4 of 5 had mustaches (only mom was not participating, but dad's was real, so the way I see it his real mustache makes up for mom's unwillingness). The kids just loved it. They were out to eat, which is already the best night ever for a kid, but that they all decided they were going to wear mustaches had to have made that particular night stick out to them, likely forever.

Those are the moments, as a kid, that you never forget.

"Remember that one night we all wore fake mustaches to dinner?"

It made me think about ways I can make nights like this. What ways am I going to make nights like that for my daughter, for my family? Those are the memories you never forget.

What strange unforgettable things have you done with your family?

Cannonball wound ointment and ministry tension

Brian Regan has a bit about going to the doctor and being given a small handout about how to get the ailment for which he was going to the doctor.

"I know how to get it!"

He exaggerates it as though he were going into the doctor with a cannonball wound and getting a pamphlet describing how to get cannonball wounds.

"I have a cannonball wound! Do you have a tube of cannonball wound ointment?"

Am I the only one who feels like they are not super-sure of what to do in an area or ministry they were once knew exactly what to do?

Ministry has me in a place right now where I am saturated with information about the culture I am reaching, but all the information is heavy on the problem and light to lacking on the solution.

My heart is a bit weighed down with a sense of confusion and burden. It is as though my mind is full of the statistics about this generation, this culture, this demographic. I have an ear to ground, and I hear far more than the local church hears, yes, but I feel like I am without  solutions to the ailments. I feel, in this, a lot of pressure built up in my heart as it fills with more and more insight to the problems and descriptions without the release of solutions and steps for change.

It would seem enough pressure builds without release explosion is impending. (and I'm not even sure I know what that would look like either)

I am in the doctor's office with a wounded heart for a generation reading pamphlet after pamphlet about the generation my heart hurts for.

Something has to change, and I am always willing and ready for change, but...

what do you do when you simply do not know what changes need to be made?

Wrecked Journal: coffee spill

I am currently on these two pages. I found myself with a predicament (not wanting to waste my delicious nectar). I lightly flung a bit at first, and then I started to doodle tiny pictures that the blotches inspired me with.

At one brave point, I was sitting in my office and decided, "I’m just gonna pour what little coffee I have left in this cup" (its okay! It was only workroom swill). So I just went for it.

The Gospel According to Jesus - A Review

In recent months, I have been saturating myself with reading focused on Jesus. When I was offered The Gospel According to Jesus in exchange for a review for Thomas Nelson and Booksneeze, I jumped at the possibility of extending my recent repertoire of the lost centrality of Jesus Christ in our gospel.

This book is not a 'Jesus book' in that it is not a break down of the person of Jesus. In an overly blunt description, this book is about righteousness.

It is not a historical breakdown of Jesus or his teaching, but this book is still necessarily soaked with Jesus Christ as it reminds us of the true understanding of righteousness and justification as only Jesus has defined for his followers.

This is the first reading of Chris Seay for me, and I was able to really follow his writing. At the end of each chapter, he documents a conversation with various Christian leaders including Don Miller, Alan Hirsch, and Mark Batterson. It was a refreshing icing at the end of each chapter to blow each conversation wide open.

A short section of artwork in the middle is a pleasant touch, but not necessary.

If you do not have a strong understanding of righteousness, as it is not a topic we spend an ordinate amount of time to study, this is a great book to pick up. It will walk you through the misunderstanding of righteousness most of us have or have had, and it reveals the true wholeness (shalom) which comes with an accurate understanding of the righteousness which is only gift from Jesus Christ.