Sputtering & Throwing Smoke
Since I bought a car a couple of months ago I haven't been reading as much. That is because I used to read while I was riding public transit. It is not as easy to read while driving. Not that I'm suggesting it.
If only I could be like Susan, or Melodee, and fly through the pages of multiple reads while conquering the world! (Okay, how about if I could just read as fast as them.)
I've been trying to get through my Currently Reading selection, Blue Like Jazz. Great book so far. And it came highly recommended. I'm just afraid I may need to buy a new bus pass to finish it!
But that doesn't mean that YOU have changed your mind - nor the people I have been confronted with on a seemingly daily basis who want more than they're getting on Sunday AM.
Did I just use the word nor? I did, didn't I. (Sigh.) And I probably used it improperly. But that's just the way it goes sometimes. We do things improperly. Quite often without realizing we have done so.
Maybe we are using God improperly. Or, at best, there is a better way to embrace who God is and what He wants us to do with Him. But how do we get there? How do we remove the coke bottle glasses we've been looking through to get a clearer vision of God? Maybe He isn't who we say He is. Perhaps He is WAY bigger than that. OR... maybe He wants to be SMALLER so He can dwell among us and reveal His glory.
Shoot. I think He already DID that. Maybe we missed it.
Or maybe I'm just sputtering & throwing smoke...
If only I could be like Susan, or Melodee, and fly through the pages of multiple reads while conquering the world! (Okay, how about if I could just read as fast as them.)
I've been trying to get through my Currently Reading selection, Blue Like Jazz. Great book so far. And it came highly recommended. I'm just afraid I may need to buy a new bus pass to finish it!
Everybody exaggerates when they are selling something. Everybody says their product works like magic. At the time I understood God's offer as a magical proposition, which it is. But most magical propositions are just tricks. The older you get, the harder it is to believe in magic. The older you get, the more you understand there is no Wizard of Oz, just a schmuck behind a curtain.A lot of people seem to be disillusioned by God these days. Or perhaps it is the way we "do" God that is leaving them unfulfilled. Donald Miller, the author of Blue Like Jazz, says that he used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But have no fear, his book is about changing his mind. About God, that is.p.29
But that doesn't mean that YOU have changed your mind - nor the people I have been confronted with on a seemingly daily basis who want more than they're getting on Sunday AM.
Did I just use the word nor? I did, didn't I. (Sigh.) And I probably used it improperly. But that's just the way it goes sometimes. We do things improperly. Quite often without realizing we have done so.
Maybe we are using God improperly. Or, at best, there is a better way to embrace who God is and what He wants us to do with Him. But how do we get there? How do we remove the coke bottle glasses we've been looking through to get a clearer vision of God? Maybe He isn't who we say He is. Perhaps He is WAY bigger than that. OR... maybe He wants to be SMALLER so He can dwell among us and reveal His glory.
Shoot. I think He already DID that. Maybe we missed it.
Or maybe I'm just sputtering & throwing smoke...
This entry was posted
on Friday, May 19, 2006 at 10:32 PM.
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2:08 AMWell, I haven't been reading as much, either. Something happened to my daughter's bedtime routine and now it doesn't involve me sitting with her for half an hour.
I vowed to go to bed earlier so I could read for a bit, but time flies so quickly at night!
(I did really enjoy "Blue Like Jazz" when I read it last year.)
12:37 PM
Angela and I were just talking about this very thing a couple days ago. We concluded that for some reason we "christians" seem to put everything all on God when in fact perhaps he doesn't want us to. We all have a role to play and maybe, like you said, God wants to take a smaller part so that we actually do some of the work - we are still undecided about all of this but you raised some good points to ponder!
2:37 PM
Nor was used properly ... I'm pretty sure ... :-)
LOL Sure sounds like you are sputtering and spitting smoke .... you sound quite frustrated ... care to explain?
I don't think Sunday morning worship is the problem...
Beth... you are totally right... we are the body and the head is supposed to be in control and the body is supposed to respond. But there is a rumbling and bleating among the sheep ... I guess I can best describe it the way it has been sung by Casting Crowns.
If we are the body
Why aren't his arms reaching?
Why aren't his hands healing?
Why aren't his words teaching?
Why aren't his feet going?
Why is his love not showing them there is a way?
...the other parts of this song are talking about the worldly hurts that the sheep and leaders are engaging in inside the doors of the church.
8:16 PM
What comes to my mind as I read this is that, while yes God is Almighty & a God of miracles, love & forgiveness, I believe that He really is calling us to "play a part" & exercise child-like faith.
He'll move the mountains, but it starts with us & where our faith is at. Our humility, our love, our forgiveness towards others, our praise & worship to Him in Spirit & in Truth.
He's already done His part in proving His love for us...now He wants us to prove our love for Him.
Some days I've found myself wondering where God is, & someone told me that He, being love, is in the smile a stranger gives you, in the quarter you found on the ground, He's the laughter in our kids.
Everything good comes from Him & I think that sometimes we tend to give up looking for Him & for answers (or even go to extremes to find Him), when He's been right there speaking to us all day.
He said: "Seek & you shall find. Knock & the door shall be opened to you."
Maybe to know Him & find out how He wants to use us just means spending more personal time away from the business & distractions that the enemy throws at us everyday. Thats my take, anyway...
9:25 PM
Wendy: not frustrated at all, actually. Quite the opposite. I feel inspired. Inspired to look around and find out what God is saying, doing, etc. And then to simply respond with "Yes, Lord."
10:29 PM
Well said anonymous... your kind and gentle words are much appreciated .... :-)
Sorry Paul, my mistake ...
Can you explain what you mean when you say this?
"the people I have been confronted with on a seemingly daily basis who want more than they're getting on Sunday AM." ???
10:49 PM
O.K. Maybe this is just me thinking out loud here but wouldn't it just be one heck of alot easier to just ask God what he wants you do with him (or what He wants you to do with him as the case may be) That seems to be the most direct way to get your answer so far as I can see.
1:00 AM
Wendy: I am referring to the many people that I have met who can't seem to find a church that meets their spiritual needs (or expectations). They seem to want more than they are getting via traditional church services.
And Kyle: yes, I think you're right. We simply need to ask God, but more importantly listen to and obey what He says.
1:12 AM
Hey Paul, have you thought about audio books? Though I think Blue Like Jazz won't be available (in Australia) on CD until April next year.
1:20 AM
Audio books!!!
There's the solution!!!
I can even BORROW those from the library!!!
Why didn't I think of that?
(Thanks Susan!)
;-)
2:22 PM
In the past, it was my tendency to depend on the Church for my relationship with God.
All too often I've heard people say "I'm not being fed here (@ church)." In my own experience, when I felt I wasn't being fed at church, it was because I had been neglecting my personal relationship with God.
It is absolutely necessary for us to do our part. Seek and you shall find, that's a promise!
12:26 PM
sorry i'm late. preach on, paul. preach on.
for me, one of the biggest helps was in realizing that church is not limited to the "services" that happen in a building according to routines and levels of comfortability.
church is happening always. i am here and so is god. let's get it on. let's go adventuring and see where he takes us and what he can accomplish through us when we give him complete control of our time and resources and will.
do it, lord. do it.
oh yeah. audio books didn't even cross my mind either.
jyoipxt
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