Wednesday, May 16, 2007

The Pop of Culture

I guess it is just part of my quirky personality or something, but something in me doesn't like the popular. I remember back in 7th grade I was listening to Rush (the rock group not the radio guy) and I loved it. None of my friends knew them, and then a few months later I saw the rush t-shirts showing up at school and just like that...I moved on. (I actually still listen to Rush now, but back then they were shelved). But I can think of several other things that this is not true in my life (I'm a huge u2 fan...with millions of other people...oh well)...back to the point.

I am tired of politics, global warming and the war in Iraq. They are all tied together, and they are all popular topics. I think the later is what I hate about them most. I really didn't like Clinton as a president. Not because of his views, or what he did or didn't do. It's because he put his finger in the air to see what way the wind was blowing, and then ran to get in front of the wind....this was his style of leadership. I still remember reading an article that he talked about how important it was to keep public opinion pollsters busy and employed in the white house. Is this the leader I want? Is Bush any different? After 911 we all wanted to see the government do something...to find the killers and anyone associated with them. So Bush jumped into Afghanistan and then Iraq. In his situation, how much can a president do? If you find out your children are beaten and bruised by someone in a house down the street, you go to the house and find the culprit. And I think he (like Clinton) thought he was doing what was best. I'm not a huge conspiracy person...so I will leave all that for someone else. But now pop. Democrats want out of the war. IS that because of "moral duty" or just the opportunity to show up Bush even more? The war already won them congress. Why not take it all the way to the white house?

My problem is that it doesn't really appear that anyone is asking the right questions. It is popular right now to say the war is bad. More republicans are joining that sentiment (they're not completely stupid to realize there is always an election coming). I just read to articles that quoted middle east experts (not from the US) that if the US gets out of iraq now, it will create larger problems in the future than we have now. The answer is not just to leave iraq. They can all blame bush for getting us into this mess, but just up and leaving the mess is not a solution. They voted to support Bush in the first place (I know...he duped them with WMDs...see other blogs for that discussion). They can't just say no, now.

It is similar to global warming. It is not that I do not believe the globe is in a warming trend. I just don't believe the same reasons as Al Gore. But it is so popular to follow his line of reason and calamity forecasts in the future, that even in writing that I do not believe his ideas, I am against the environment and am not green. I have watched Inconvenient truth and also the BBC documentary debunking Gore. I have read articles. I am also aware that when I was little (back when I was listening to RUSH) the world was going to freeze over unless we figured out a way to increase CO2. That was only 30 years ago. The temps dropped from 1940 to 1975. And now they are climbing.

So what is my point. The point is that the problem with following the popular, is that it does not take into account a larger few. It is myopic in nature. It is the here and now. The globe has been warming and cooling for thousands if not millions of years. Wars have been won and lost for just about as long. How can we judge Iraq after such a short period of time? How can leaders make decisions about what is popular at this moment. The popular gives us American Idols, Bud light, and McDonalds. Is these the same that we should look to to lead us? I want leaders that are not afraid to do what is unpopular, if it is the right thing to do. But then, there is the problem...what is the right thing to do?

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Where do I see God?

So I am at church right now. I am not kidding. I am actually leading the "service" as I write. See church meets at my house. Every week we share a meal and a bottle of wine together and then discuss a topic, depending on who is leading. Tonight is my turn to lead. So I asked everyone to spend the next 15 to 20 minutes writing a blog entry on where they see God in their life?

Why would I ask a question like that. It seems that too often we fail to use use that see the spiritual. Most people think to much about activity, or work, or the material world and too little about what exists in the spiritual world. I am not even sure it is a good idea to split them up and make them seperate worlds, but that is another subject and debate left to philosophers.

So where do I see God? That is difficult, even for the question asker. It seems that he is often in my conscious. He is the voice that says something is right or wrong. Or is that him or just some upbringing? I think I have often relegated God to ethics or morals. I need something bigger than that. I think I see God in the beauty and tragedy in the lives around me. I see him in art and along the side walk. I see him in desire and hope. I think it is cliche, but it is true. I think when I am longing for something I see him most. So I do my best not to attempt to placate the longing, or kill the longing. But let it lead me to see his face.

It is a good day to discuss the spirtual and material world. For the police are reuniting tonight at the grammy's. Maybe we are spirits in the material world. (Ok cheezy, but I couldn't pass it up.

Jack

Friday, January 19, 2007

Why is the past still here?

"We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us." from the film Magnolia (1999)

Recently a friend emailed me and a few others something that brought us to a place in our past. It has been over twenty years since we experienced these things. Some view what happened as good and helpful, while others feel it created great harm. It is funny how people can have completely different experiences from the same events. There is anger, humor, sadness, and sarcasm, and the fear that those who brought this to us are reading this right now and shaking their heads and feel sad for how far I have "fallen" off the path.

Recently I was talking with a friend that told me he, at one time, felt called to be a pastor. From the outside he is far from that endeavor. He told me he went to a Christian College and got kicked out because he looked different than most everyone there (long hair, etc...this was around 10 years ago). He got this look on his face..."I still hear that voice back there in the back of my mind." He has a haunting from his past that will not let him go.

We all have truly painful things that happened to us, some are more tragic than others. Some have a hard time facing the day because of an event that took place 30 years ago. Why will the past not just move on? Why will the past not just let go?

Why is the past not done with us?

Some would say to let go of the past. To not dwell on it and give power to it. Focus on the now, or the future. Maybe that would be helpful. But what if the past was trying to tell us something about now, or the future? What if it is the doorway to our desires and the things our heart cries out for? What does your past tell you? In the case of my friends, I think it says that we truly want to experience God, the God we came to believe in, without all the bullshit and dependence on myself to make that happen. That God is bigger than a daily quiet time, and scripture memory. That he enters into our story in a much larger way than through "discipline". That his spirit is active and dangerous and is moving in our lives. That it truly is supernatural.

I don't know about my "Called to be a pastor friend", he will have to answer that question himself. It may not be the answer for all of our pain from the past, but does it hurt to ask? When we feel contempt for the past, should we ask, "What is it about that event, that makes me so angry? Why?" What does it tell you about what was taken from you? What does it reveal about what your heart desires? Maybe we could walk down this path with some friends along. That is what the friends mentioned above and I have done for a number of years now. I think we are experiencing something greater. We are seeing desire revealed and embraced. Sure we still get angry or sad about those days, but those are just steps on the path to revealing more of our hearts.

I guess I'm not done with the past after all.

Jack

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

church like wine

I was sitting in this great little french restaurant with my wife in Oklahoma City of all places (Soliel...try it...it is very good). I was sipping a burgundy from france and just enjoying the flavors and complexity when I had a thought. There was a time that I did not like wine, especially red. I grew up catholic and on sundays I would take communion and I always hated the taste of the wine (or perhaps it was the taste of Jesus' blood...as it had transubstantiated by the time I tasted it). But over the last ten years I have come to really enjoy and even have a love for red wine. It is funny because as I sipped I remembered those sips as a child, and my thoughts turned to church.

I thought how the catholic church had been a round a long time and had very complex beliefs, history and ecclesiology (a fancy word for how they do church...I went to seminary can you tell??) I still go to with my mom to church on occasion. I think I can appreciate the catholic church more now than I did back then. So this whole idea got me thinking about church. It seems as I look around evangelicalism (the place I called home for many years) there is a lot of bud light being served and drank in churches these days. And you know there are times that a bud light hits the spot (although I have to admit I can't think of the last time I wanted one). But it seems that most churches around me, and actually evangelicals as a whole, have lightened everything so much, they are not endanger of getting drunk on the spirit any time soon. There is no mystery, no wonder. "We have the bible, it has all the answers...so sit right back and take a sip...we will explain it all to you." A bud light requires nothing of you.

So where does that leave me...as far as church goes I have no idea, but I do know there is a brewery in town that makes an ESB. It is carmel in color and starts of bready sweet but finishes with a hoppy bitter finish. It is my favorite right now. I guess the church I want is a microbrew. but don't be fooled...Blue Moon is a popular microbrew...brewed by coors. Soon we will see all the big churches serving, or at least trying to serve microbrews...maybe that's it...everything just got to big for me. I want a place to live out the simple life of malts, yeast, hops and water.

I'm heading to the pub...

Jack