Posts Tagged: freedom

Freedom — No Comments
5
Jan 10

I don’t expect you to be a Christian

Unbelieving people seem to always have the same (or similar) viewpoint towards Christians and the “secret agenda” of all Christians: To make disciples of all people, everywhere. That viewpoint being one of disdain and total annoyance, because people don’t want to be Christians, so leave them alone.

And I understand that completely.

And I know that Jesus did tell us to make disciples of all people, but bear with me here:

I don’t expect you to be a Christian.

How could I? It’s a totally insane thing to suggest, really. That someone should feel pressured to pretend that there is some sort of perfect all loving all knowing all forgiving god inside and behind all of everything.

It is ridiculous, I know. I agree. We are on the same page here.

And why would anyone care if a guy named Mike forgave them for all the crap they’ve done? Why is it any different if the guy’s name is Jesus? Why would I care what any dead guy thinks about me? What difference does it make?

Oh, it will magically save me from hell? Well what if I don’t believe in hell? Why would I care if I am saved from it or not? It’s like telling someone they can be saved from the Easter bunny tearing them to shreds some night while they sleep. I’m really not worried about it.

Then the Christians might ask something like

Well, what if you are wrong?

Which is a completely stupid question. What if anyone is wrong about anything? What if I win the lottery? What if giant lobster falls out of the sky and lands on my roof? What if I married the wrong person?

It’s just a bunch of stupid speculative questions. It’s not philosophy, it is a kid saying “I know you are, but what am I?” It is pointless banter. It is the Monty Python “I’d Like To Buy An Argument” sketch. Waste of time.

The sad thing is, a lot of people out there have become, and will continue to become Christians, because of this nonsense.

So I say again: I do not expect you to be a Christian.

Why?

Not because of any of these stupid attempts at “evangelism”, because you and I are both smarter than that.

No, I don’t expect you to be a Christian because you’ve never had an experience with the Living God that, despite all your greatest efforts, you were embarrassingly unable to deny.

Most Christians don’t really believe God has any power at all. Most Christians hold way too tight to the obscure verse that says something about not testing God, like it is the 11th commandment.

Well I am not so easily convinced. I don’t believe anything until I’ve seen it for myself. And neither should you. If God doesn’t want to lift a finger to show himself to me, then I don’t have any interest in God.

This must be where I pissed him off, because the moment that concept really hit me, he jumped out of his nest in the clouds and rocketed towards the Earth, smashing into me at terminal velocity.

And now I can’t get rid of him.

You see, he won’t be denied.

But you have to open up the conversation. You have to put the money on the table. You have to brace for impact. Or don’t. It is going to hit you either way.

And my friends, my silly dimwitted friends who don’t jump into waters, who don’t taste new foods, who don’t run with their eyes closed, who don’t smile in the rain, you’ll never know what it’s like if you don’t shut your blabbering mouths and do it.

You don’t need a Bible, you don’t need a preacher, you don’t need a rosary. You need to have a raging bloody fist-fight with the Living God. And trust me, you’ll come out of it alive.

Busted, bruised, spent, and euphoric.

Freedom — 6 Comments
14
Dec 09

Get Clean

I take a shower every day.

Every day.

I am clean every morning. I feel clean. I smell clean. I look clean (mostly).

Some people look and smell clean, but they don’t feel clean.

What’s the point of looking and smelling clean if you do not feel clean? To me, getting clean is about feeling clean. Being clean is feeling clean.

Sometimes you can feel clean without actually being clean, which to me is just as good. I’d rather feel clean than be clean if I had to make the choice. Like when you are camping for several days and someone finds a thing of Stridex pads in the bottom of their backpack and everyone passes them around and wipes their face and the back of their neck, leaving the once white pad all black and gritty, and then throwing the spent disc into the fire, totally eradicating your filth with a flame and a pillar of smoke drifting up to heaven like a sacrifice of something that was once you.

It feels so good to be clean, especially when you had been dirty for so long.

I look my daughter in the eye and feel fine. I’ve got nothing to hide.

Do you realize what that’s worth? Do you know what it’s like to feel clean?

You know how difficult it is to keep up with the string of lies you’ve been telling people to cover your tracks. You think it makes things easier but it doesn’t.

Trust me. Trust me. There is NOTHING better than the freedom of knowing you’ve done nothing wrong. Nothing.

I am innocent.

So I say to you ~ get clean people.

Get clean before the holidays. Get clean so that the face you see in the mirror is the same one that everyone else sees. Nothing under the surface. Get clean my friends, before someone else forces it out of you in the police station while your friends and family stand around in the lobby waiting for you to be released and thinking that this is all just a big mistake.

Get clean before then.

Get clean before you screw something up.

Freedom — 3 Comments
22
Jul 09

Beloved, These Are Perilous Times

Listening to Derek Webb again lately, although I still do not have his newest tunes. I am rocking She Must And Shall Go Free like it was brand new.

He breaks me heart sometimes with his cutting voice. He just sounds like he is telling the truth, he is very open and readable.

Anyway, he (and Jesus) inspire me to do more, be better, live fuller, and change myself.

I have never read anything by John Piper, mostly because his writing is way inaccessible for me. I generally like Don Millers casual style more, but regardless, I know what Piper stands on and I agree with him (as far as I know). He is all about the thing called Christian Hedonism, which sounds bad, but I rather disagree. It’s the idea that we can best glorify God by being fully happy in our everyday lives and experiences. He is most happy when we are truly happy. It makes sense too, especially if you have kids.

So with that in mind I am happy to say that for the last several years I have organized my life in an effort to be extremely happy with where I am and what I am doing. I’ll not waste my time being discontented with this difficult world.

So what do I do?

I drive with the windows down

I sing, I jump, I laugh

I travel

I photograph

I love my wife

I love my kid

I wear Chacos

I sit on the porch

I do all these things on purpose. I don’t accidentally find myself traveling somewhere awesome and think “Hey, this is great, who would have thought?” I know it will be good, I know I will like it, so I do it.

So here are my two questions:

1. What do you want to do?

2. Why aren’t you doing it more?

The first question is very important, because you have to evaluate what you really want most, but the second question is the most crucial, because a lot of people probably know what they want to do, but most people never do any of it. I would bet that the answer to the second question, for most people, is money.

Well guess what.

You are never going to have enough money. No one ever has enough money, so just enjoy your life and forget about being on a tight budget. Have you ever gone hungry before? Ever died of starvation? No. You haven’t. And you’re not going to.