Better is Bigger!

Not that I am speaking of being in need,

for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.
Philippians 4:11

"If you are praying 'Lord, make me bigger', you are probably miserable, although prayerful. Did you know you can be prayerful and still be miserable? Anytime you use prayer to change God, who is perfect, instead of using prayer to change yourself, you are miserable. Instead, try praying this: 'Lord, make me better.' I admit that better is harder to measure and not as noticeable to the eye. But better will overcome bigger every time"--another nugget from TD Jakes in his Hope for Every Moment devotional.

Sometimes it is difficult not to be bitter because we are not better. Then again, what can one-up being God's child?

Lord, needy though I am, help me not to be greedy--

especially for things that don't matter and last. Amen!

Catological!

You have failed, but you are not a failure.

You are a product of your past, but you don't have to be a prisoner to it.

These words jump out as me as I'm reading Destiny: Let God Use You Like He Made You by Tony Evans.

Evans opines that "Joseph delivered the Bible's greatest statement on destiny":

Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeow!

Tasty!

Wouldn't it be nice if the music was better? The sermons more relevant? The people friendlier?

I wonder if God ever wonders that. Or if he just non-critically accepts well-intentioned musical, sermonic, and people offerings, tasteless or baseless though they sometimes be.

Maybe the music, the sermons, and the people aren't ultimately about us. What we like or prefer. What we feel. Hmmm... Aren't such offerings all ultimately for him?

Let's taste less and thank more--that God receives our sometimes less-than-perfect offerings--so we will less critically refuse and abuse others' and others.

It's all good--with God, anyway!

Today's Special!

"The Church is a whore,
but she's my mother."

Dorothy Day?

This quote is most definitely my new response to those who complain about the Church. I love how it accentuates the Church's human side.

Warts and all, in one way or another the Church gave, and gives, us birth. (It's not just an institution, after all, but whoever and wherever are God's people!) It stood, and stands, by us no matter how far and where we wander and roam. Most of all, we all will one day fully return to it.

Wandering though we be, we are not lost!

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish,
and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

John 10:28

Lighten(ing) up!

If the world seems dark, might it be because the Church is not sharing God's light?

Adapted from something I just read, imagine my chagrin when I sat in my car at a traffic light behind a van with a bumper sticker that read "Those who plan to consider God at the eleventh hour die at 10:30".  A little Gospel, please!

I got it just a few minutes later--thank you, God!--passing an electric reader board in front of a business which bannered the Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6:24-26: "The LORD bless you and keep you..."! My next task is to write the company a thank-you note.

Yes, a little more Gospel/grace, please, Christians. Reminds of another bumper sticker: "Jesus, save us from your followers!" Well-intentioned Law-givers though we be, let's always ultimately accentuate the Gospel. As I also once read, give people whatever grace and mercy you're expecting for yourself.

Whatever, thankfully God has the last word. What may look like too late to us and for others isn't necessarily so, no? I feel lighter already!

Filled to the brim with him!

I have a friend who unashamedly admits that it is not necessary for her to attend worship, saying she daily communes with God and in his Word. However, she also confesses that she needs Holy Communion and so comes to worship every now and again to get it. I thought of her when reading the following from Henri Nouwen's Spiritual Formation: Following the Movements of the Spirit:

Jesus never said "Munch and sip" the bread and wine. He said "Eat me up, drink me empty, take it all in. Don't hold back. I want to become part of you. I want you to become part of me. I don't want to be separate anymore. I want to live within you so that when you eat and drink I disappear because I am within you. I want to make my home in you, and invite you to make your home in me." (See John 6:53-58)

My friend mentioned above is going through a fitful bout in and out of cancer, being pronounced in remission and then again not. So I've offered to take Communion to her. Whenever and wherever we next join together in same, it will be more divine and sublime than ever!

Why I love Jesus AND religion

Not that I haven't had a spiritual aha in awhile, but the following is too good not to share--from the pen of Franciscan writer Richard Rohr:

All the Christian churches are being forced to an inevitable, honest, and somewhat humiliating conclusion. The vast majority of Christian ministry has been concerned with ‘churching’ people into symbolic, restful, and usually ethnic belonging systems rather than any real spiritual transformation into the mystery of God. …Religious people are even harder to transform because they don’t think they need it. …I find much more openness and response at the county jail than among the typical group of churchgoers. The incarcerated know that the separate self has not served them well. (The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective, p. xv.)

It's trendy in spiritual(?) circles to ditch the church--per the graphic above. However, as Luther says, “…thank God, even a seven-year-old child knows what the church is, namely, holy believers and sheep who hear the voice of their Shepherd.” (Smalcald Articles)

God is in the church, imperfect though she be. True, we could all find better churches but, instead, I'm choosing to love the church I'm in. Time is too short to too much strive for perfection that can't be. Besides--and to agree with Rohr--there are plenty of open and responsive places also to frequent. Cheers!