God brings the people of the world together. No question about it.
The Empty Egg
I know Easter was yesterday, but I wasn’t able to be near a computer. I heard this true story yesterday, on the KLOVE radio station, and I thought I’d share it…
There was an 8 year old boy with Down’s Syndrome in a Sunday school classroom made up of other children his age. He was new, and the teacher was concerned that the other kids might decide to alienate him based on his differences. So, the teacher worked very hard to make sure the boy was included and loved by his classmates.
One Easter, the teacher gave each child an empty egg-shaped container that had once been used to hold a pair of pantyhose. The children were instructed to go outside and find something that symbolized “new life” and put it in the egg. Once every child had returned to the room with their filled eggs, the teacher opened each one and the children discussed what they had found. One child had placed a flower in his egg, and everyone stared in wonder. The next child had put a butterfly in her egg, and everyone was in awe.
When the teacher came to the third egg, he opened it and it was empty. Immediately, the kids began saying things like “Someone did the assignment wrong!” and “There’s nothing in there!” But the boy with the Down’s Syndrome gently tugged on his teacher’s sleeve and said, “That’s my egg and I did it right. It’s empty just like the tomb.”
Invisible Children: Kony 2012. To Stop the War.
Nine years ago I took interest in an up and coming organization calling itself “Invisible Children” – a group that takes the plight of children enduring horrific abuses in Uganda that is often invisible to us in our busy lives and making that plight visible. This call to action is typical of Christian movements over the last 2000 years. The majority of hospitals, schools, and orphanages have been orchestrated by Believers who saw a problem, felt the pain, and decided to do something about it.
From abolishing slavery in countless countries to advancing the sciences and finding cures, Christians have often been on the forefront of healthy social action. Think Isaac Newton. Think William Wilberforce. Think Mother Theresa. From Luther attacking the church’s own growing corruption to Livingstone spreading the light on the Dark Continent, Corrie Ten Boom rescuing holocaust victims to Florence Nightingale with her army of nurses. Think Jesus.
Invisible Children has started a new movement this year. Kony 2012. Joseph Kony is the world’s #1 criminal concern, according to the International Criminal Court, and over the last quarter-century has abducted over 30,000 children and forced them to soldier in his child army, committing atrocities and abuses across the jungles of Uganda. This video will show you more – the history, the present, and what you can do.
Check out that orbit!
As many of you probably know, the orbits of our solar system’s planets are circular for the most part (sometimes Mercury gets a little weird). But did you also know that the orbits of OTHER planets in OTHER star systems are primarily ECCENTRIC (more of an elliptical orbit)? The point is this: a circular orbit is extremely RARE. God considers His creation so special that He even put us in a solar system with rarer planetary orbits.
Further, our circular orbit around the Sun regulates our atmosphere and temperature, making life possible. If our orbit was eccentric, we would be one crispy planet (or one frozen planet).
#scienceandfaithCANgotogether
I am Second
Jim Munroe: a Christian and an illusionist. At 29 he had a rare leukemia, his immune system attacking his own body. This remarkable testimony tells how he found faith, survived leukemia, and the stunning parallels he found in God rescuing him physically and God rescuing us spiritually. To defeat leukemia, he was emptied and then filled with another person’s blood and immune system. He lives because someone else lives in him. He shares how Christ has done the same for each of us, if we empty ourselves and welcome Christ to live in us.
This post does not break the rules.
I know. Rule 1. The blog encourages ALTERNATIVE expressions of worship. Ahem. Worthship. Sheesh. It’s like I can’t get anything right! We share ways people worship God outside of normal worship service music (be it hymns or choruses!). That said, here is a chorus. (Don’t kill me!) But it’s more than a chorus. What struck me gave me new insight into worship (which, after all, is the whole point!). Perhaps it will you too.
The scenery. It reminds me of favorite places and experiences I’ve had the good fortune to enjoy. It puts me in awe of creation, inspiring emotion inside me and bringing words to my lips of thanksgiving to the Creator. Heck. Who hasn’t enjoyed sunsets, walks on beaches, the array of night sky constellations, the view from a mountaintop, the water of a hot spring? The colors of fall, every unique snowflake, the renewal of life each spring and the abundance of life all summer remind us of how remarkable – how amazing – how Indescribable the world really is. How much more its Maker?!
So let the images put pictures to the words, and may your worship of God be moved to a new level every time you hear a similar song. Don’t sing with your mind closed. You may know the words, but knowing is one thing. Understanding them, well, that’s quite another.
God replaced my headlight for $25.
As I write this, I am unsure of the category this story will fit into best. As of now, it is “uncategorized,” and it will probably stay that way.
ANYWAY, for the past few months, my right headlight has been out, as well as 2 of my rear lights. My parents and I haven’t had enough extra cash to get this fixed, and it has been causing us all to worry (’cause you can get pulled over for that kind of stuff!).
My mother called me this morning and said, “Meet me at your uncle’s house! I have a light for you.” Of course, I obliged and drove over there. I expected her to be holding a few bulbs, but to my surprise, my mother was holding an ENTIRE headlight. While none of this may seem amazing and wonderful to you, the events that unfolded prior to my headlight being replaced really showed me how God is EVERYWHERE in our lives.
My mother works at a university and is good friends with the maintenance man that works in her building. She was talking to him about my broken headlight, and he mentioned that his father had purchased a junked-up version of my exact make and model. His father had intended to fix it up and sell it, but he had passed away before the work could be completed. So, the maintenance man and his brother had been selling the car for parts slowly. He originally wanted to sell my mom the headlight for $50 but suddenly said he would take $25 for it. My mother bought it.
Now, her original plan had been to take the headlight and my car to an auto repair place. The labor would have been at LEAST $100 (plus tax). My uncle volunteered to install the headlight and replace the rear bulbs for free. So what would have easily cost my mother almost $200 only cost $25.
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Why did this make me think of my Father? Lately, I have been feeling far away from God. I haven’t been listening so well, and I guess I’ve been feeling abandoned (though I know He has never done that). This headlight reminded me that God has my entire world in His hands. He even cares about my car. So if He cares about THAT, surely He must have every other aspect of my life under His watchful eye and guiding hands.
So there you have it. God is a DADDY. He is my Daddy, and He is YOUR Daddy. He can replace headlights, broken hearts, anything you can think of. I got a new headlight because He makes all things new. 
Fixing the Bible
I love this clip from the Joss Whedon TV series, “Firefly,” a sci-fi western weaving some of the most lovable and real-to-life characters together in an amazing journey. In the clip, Shepherd Book (a preacher) and River Tam (a mentally traumatized teenager) discuss the Bible.
Initially, River accuses the Bible as laden with mistakes: “Bible’s broken. Contradictions, false logistics – doesn’t make sense.” Shepherd explains you don’t fix the Bible: “You don’t fix faith, River. It fixes you. ” After considering, River returns to apologize: “I tore these out of your symbol and they turned into paper, but I wanna put them back.” Enjoy the clip and my thoughts below.
Book’s patience shows in the scenes, he’s a pretty rad preacher man. The stoic image of a Believer who feels bad for a lost kid who doesn’t quite “get it” yet, instead of feeling superior or offended.
Book says, “It’s not about making sense. It’s about believing in something, and letting that belief be real enough to change your life. It’s about faith.” This concept gave me trouble as a kid. Shouldn’t it all make sense? I was pretty naive.
Orson Scott Card once pointed out that if it all made sense, it would lose everything divine (Xenocide). If it all made sense, maybe man just made it up. Sometimes its the very strangeness, the oddity, that make it so real. The Bible is full of accounts a human would never make up, let alone die for – not just the passages that are miraculous or don’t make sense to modern ears 2000 years separated from the originals, but also passages calling us to sacrifice, suffer, embrace the unpopular, join the weak, let go of our desire for control, trust in something outside our physical senses.
Sometimes the faith doesn’t make sense. And if God wrote it, we wouldn’t expect it all to make sense in a human way. We’d expect some things will only make sense to Him. It’s the strangeness that makes the faith all the more divine, all the more real, all the more powerful. It isn’t merely human. When you believe in the sense of placing trust in it and living on its guidance and authority, your belief becomes real enough to change your life.
River realized that when she started tampering, tearing pages out of Shepherd Book’s “symbol,” they just became paper – they lost what made them important. When she tried to take the Bible on her own terms, it lost something. It’s only when she takes them whole that it becomes more than paper, more than ink, more than words and stories. It becomes a guide from God as to who He is and who we were meant to be – and how we can come back to the love relationship He made us for. You don’t fix faith. It fixes you.
(For further reading: check out how the leap of faith, those parts of Christianity we don’t always understand, can build our faith instead of tearing it down, in the book “No Argument for God: Going beyond reason in conversations about faith” (by John Wilkinson, $10 on Amazon!). He explains how he shares his faith with others by sharing why his beliefs are strengthened by the mysteries of God, faith and Scripture.)
Words of Love
I have a friend who is always joking, “Use your big kid words!” when someone is obviously floundering to express extreme emotion – makes me laugh every time. Sometimes, like kids, we feel so much inside us and just don’t know how to express ourselves. Remember temper tantrums? Remember screaming in your mind? Remember punching pillows? Think of times you felt emotions so potent you struggled to even express yourself – frustration, joy, rage, love, hate, the list goes on.
Sometimes all it takes to get that out of us is words – to put a name to something often makes it more manageable. Expressing ourselves with words communicates who we are, what we feel, and what we believe to the world around us. Sort of like using turn signals in traffic – the alert people to where we are at right now and where we are headed! Worship is an expression of love as well, and sometimes worship is as simple as… words.
I love you, God. I trust you, God. I need you. I want you. I am comforted by you. You make my day brighter, my thoughts clearer, my hope real. You bless me, protect me, and delight in me – and I want to delight in you! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love you, God! And I use my big kid words to express that! You are awesome, you are magnificent, you are precious, you are everything.
Let this clip by Christian dramatic artists “The Skit Guys” direct your thoughts to what words you might use to show appreciation to God and those you value most. Our deepest regrets are often the words that went unspoken – the things we should have said and never got around to. Change that intentionally today! Words are powerful. Yet another reason Jesus was called… the Word.
“Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth.” – V for Vendetta
Divine Inspiration: A Unique Perspective
No picture of divine inspiration exists more beautiful than the chalk drawing Prologue of M. Night Shyamalan’s “Lady in the Water.” Not everyone is an M. Night fan, but his insights into faith and the human condition run deep. This short clip shows the Prologue in its entirety – a storyline of God’s attempts to communicate and inspire us, and our tendency to stray. Like Isaiah 53:6 says, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray; each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
Once man and God were linked. He inspired us. We listened once – but the cares of this world have distracted us. Why doesn’t God speak today? Why don’t we see more of him at work in the world? I think a very convincing case can be made that God is alive and well, more active than ever and speaking to us regularly when we listen – and this is worship. Going to God, communing with him, striving to listen as he tries to help us. Never forget how to listen.
