the beauty of complicated thought

sometimes i get a little tired to being a Christian.  not because i doubt that there is a God, or that He loves me, but because a religion that is built entirely on faith is tough.  faith implies mostly that you are going to encounter times when you just don’t understand why God would say this, or do that, or why Jesus was the way he was.  i have found that (and this may blow some of your minds) following Christ is full of complicated, frustrating thought.  so why do i put myself through the ringer?  especially when we live in a world where you return more store bought items than you keep, a decision usually based on consumer convenience.

in the same breathe, i also believe that you need to have a spiritual side to life in order to have a well rounded soul.  so that means that there are going to be times when what you learn or experience is complicated.  you will not just “get it” like a switch so easily turns on a light bulb when you enter a room.  there are going to be times when you wrestle with God for awhile, hoping that this will stretch your life in a positive way.

i think that we always have to remember that as we learn more about who we are as humans in relation to our creator, that there are going to be things about our faith that we may never understand.  there is a spiritual tension created by just being human trying to figure out an all powerful God.  we have to learn to become somewhat comfortable with living withing that tension.  we have to know that positive tension is good for the soul.  it keeps us balanced.  i don’t believe that humans could actually (i love Jack Nicholson) “handle the truth”.  our brains would not be able to know what to do with all that information.

so the next time you go to the book store to buy the book, “idiots guide to wisdom and faith in Christ” think about this,  “…A textbook is a reduction of subtle thought into a simple outline.  in the process of streamlining complicated thought, soul is lost.” Thomas Moore

Old Friends, sitting on the park bench like book ends…

I worked once upon a time for a general contractor.  He was a large, jovial fellow with a hearty laugh and dead broke.   But he would often buy me lunch and we would ride around in his broken down van and just talk about God, family and getting married.  We both liked the band Simon and Garfunkel.  And we would often sit in his van thrashing to the music of one of the greatest groups ever to write music.

One afternoon as we were driving down the road singing S&G my singing partner sang these words… “Old friends, sitting on there poppin shlock nook ends”.   At which I thought was so funny.  I asked to him to sing those words again and tell me what they mean.  As some of you may know the real words are, “Old friends, sitting on the park bench like book ends”.

This past weekend we had our second annual “Thursdays” progressive dinner on non motorized wheels.  And we had a great time.  But what I enjoyed most about the dinner was seeing some some old friends.  Seeing them was like a breathe of fresh air to my soul.  It was air that I didn’t even realize I was missing.  But it did my heart well to just spend time with people.  People that you have been with through thick and thin.  People that have been there for you and helped you sometimes more than you realize.

I often forget the importance of staying in touch, keeping ties connected.  In fact the pressure to disconnect from people in my life becomes very strong at times.  The urge to be able to adapt to life.  A life where people are going to come in to your world and then just disappear as fast as they appeared.

The other night was a great reminder to make “Old friends”.  To make connections with people that will last a lifetime.