Advent in France: Hope

For those who don't know we recently moved to France where we will working for the next two years.  It has already been an awesome adventure filled with fun, friends, and culture-shock.

It is also hard to believe we are already eight days into December.  As with each year it seems, Advent is whirling past too quickly.  Or I am too busy sorting out a new life, new ministry, new culture to take the necessary time to ruminate upon the themes of Advent.

I love Advent, I love this season of waiting, darkness, and solemn contemplation.  I love the first Sunday's title of "hope"; Advent begins with hope.  As I have previously discussed in Advents passed, we celebrate Advent not only as remembrance of Jesus's first Advent, but also looking forward to His awaited second Advent.  This is why I have hope, the story is not over.

With this year's Advent season the question I have been pondering is how to embody this hope?  As I am learning to engage with a new culture how do I live in a way that reflects this Advent truth?

The best example I have found to follow is John the Baptist.  Isaiah prophesies about John saying:

A voice cries out:
"In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.  Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken." (Isa 40:3-5)

We see John went before Jesus and prepared for His first Advent.  John's life was lived to make way for Jesus's coming into the world, and this is our great calling.  We too can live out and live in the Truth of Jesus's first Advent and His second Advent, and by doing so we have the opportunity to prepare the way for His coming.  I love how the Isaiah passage concludes, about the LORD's glory being revealed and all people, from all sorts of backgrounds and beliefs, seeing it together.  What a wonderful image.  We also see John's mission was not dependent upon his abilities, his tactics, but ultimately upon the LORD and His declaration.  The LORD has spoken His Truth and we have the privilege of walking out and embodying this.

So let us go out into this dark world carrying to hope of Advent, let us make a way in this desolate land, and let us live to see His glory revealed and everyone invited in.

A Going Away Party for Who?

 

Emily and I will be moving to Grenoble France on October 28th (6 days from now).  It's a crazy story that has led us to this point, and I know the truly thrilling part is just about to begin.  We will keep you posted, don't worry the internet works in France too.

Last Saturday evening we had a going away party with our Sacramento friends, and it was a really wonderful time to see dear people we have missed as we've been preparing.  Being an extrovert I did not want the evening to end.  As the night progressed I realized this party was not just for Emily and I.

During my seven years in Davis and the last three in Sacramento I have watched as many good friends have come and gone off to do wild and crazy things.  This is a wonderful reality, and I have always been happy for my friends, but the truth is it's hard to be the one remaining behind.  Those leaving have new adventures and new worlds to immerse themselves in, while those left have a world now diminished.

Having time to celebrate together is important; those leaving need it, but those left need it too.  Moving away without saying good bye can be easy for those moving because it avoids the dreaded task of having to say good bye to everyone.  Making time to say good bye and to celebrate friendships is a way to honor those relationships and provide those left behind with some mark of closure.

I have really appreciated every going away party in which I have been able to wish the adventurer the best, and I was glad to have the opportunity to provide others with this as well.

Friends and family, you make life wonderful.  We cherish the memories we have, and look forward to adventures to come.

Music theorist vs. Musician

In college I had two majors: music composition and microbiology.  Of these two degrees music was the more challenging of the two, because rather than simply studying and regurgitating information it required my synthesis of new musical scores and performances.

I thoroughly enjoyed my study of music, but I found my biggest handicap was my lack of musicianship.  To be honest I hate practicing (still do).  Most of my friends in the music department would ideally spend 4-6 hours at the piano or with their violins.  I get bored after 15 minutes, about when I am actually warmed up.  As I learned more as a composer, I realized music theory is no substitute for playing an instrument.  The theory is fascinating, but music is ultimately about performance. It is only when played by a musician, in real time, the countless notes I have written come alive.

Furthermore the validity of academic study of music theory is ultimately derived from the performance of music, both those creating music (musician) and those receiving music (audience/other musicians).  Music theory is proved when the average person can pick up an instrument and over time discover everything taught in the classroom.  Music is art, meaning it should express thoughts, ideas, and emotions which are understood by people, and music is subjective.  With these two qualities come certain risks for educational institutions focused on this subject.  If academia makes statements and preferences about music and music theory which the common person cannot understand or agree with, then the institution has lost its ability to properly engage with people and culture.

Jesus is a musician.  What I mean is Jesus did not come to teach us a new philosophy or to theorize about God’s Kingdom.  Instead Jesus came to Earth, embodied God's Kingdom, and lived a sinless life for us.  Now He welcomes us to join His orchestra and participate.

We have to be careful not to become only Jesus theorists.  It can be easy to convince ourselves because we know the proper theology, ecclesiology, or missiology this somehow qualifies as faith.  The problem is Jesus is not some theory and God's Kingdom is not mere ideas or ideals.  Following His example I have to actually live out my faith.  I enjoy studying theology and see great fruit from it, but only as I am able to apply it in my life.  Faith is not knowledge; a living faith requires action and an embodiment of God's Kingdom.  As scripture describes it, "faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead" (James 2:17).

As individuals we need to be careful not to settle for theory alone, and we as the Church need to guard against this as well.  Just as academia can lose its purpose by isolating itself from people, the Church too can become the haunt of theorists and those already members of the Church.  It is not enough to love the poor in theory.  Instead we need to focus upon engaging with people; reaching out, expressing our faith, and loving the others whom Jesus deeply loves.  We have been called to join God’s ministry of reconciliation, and our mission is to do just this.

If my writing, if our reading, praying, and listening to sermons only increases our Jesus theory and not our embodiment of God's Kingdom, we are wasting our time.

So let us go practice living like Jesus in His Kingdom here on Earth.  I don't know about you, but I feel I am just getting warmed up

Walking Faith

I recently learned I walk incorrectly.  Apparently it is not uncommon for us as adults to learn bad habits in walking, standing, and other common motions.  My poor form was brought to my attention by our good friend Kelsey (who is amazing), who has a newly earned doctorate of physical therapy degree (so she is amazing, smart, and hardworking. She also is very humble which why I like bragging about her).

From Dr. Kelsey I learned my walking stride is amiss; I plant a foot, rock back on it, and let my knee lock before taking the next step.  I'm told this is bad for knees (who needs those?).

To make things worse I am especially prone to this poor form when walking fast, and unfortunately I enjoy walking fast.  In my family we commonly refer to speed walking as "Disneyland mode" because on family vacations you want to be first in line for Space Mountain.

Now I'm trying to walk slower and with proper form, which takes more time.  No longer can I focus my attention solely on the speed of my walking and on reaching my destination, but now have to consider my form and the methods I use to reach it.  

I have found this mirrors other aspects of my life and faith.  One example is how I live within our time oriented society.  A strong symptom of living in a minute conscious culture is a drive for efficiency.  We are so focused on productivity, goal completion, and performance we neglect to consider what means we will employ to achieve this end.  I can pack my day full of tasks to do, maximize my accomplishments, down-size my "wasted" time, and burn myself out in the process.  These advantages and disadvantages are all within the realm of the short-term; the long-term effects only compound over time.

Incorporating this consideration of both method and objective, requires rethinking my schedule and how I schedule.  It prevents me from cramming as much into a work day.  Proper health in my daily work necessitates allowing time to walk slower with proper form: physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually.  By taking the time to contemplate means and ends, and then to choose the more holistic approach, I have the immediate loss of productivity, but I have the long-term benefit of not wearing out my knees and soul over time.  

So where are we rushing through life too busy and too focused on achievement to consider the affects of our chosen methods?  Because of our time oriented culture I find I have to repeatedly consider the balance between my form and goals.  I am also glad to have wise people and a loving God to help me and remind me how best to walk through life.

Thanks Dr. K and Jesus

Scripture Reading like Amino Acids

I love the Bible.  It's an interesting/difficult/confusing/challenging library of books.  There are numerous reasons and explanations of why we should read the Bible and the benefits of daily Bible reading.  Many explanations are well meant, but can be theologically unsound.  For example reading the Bible does not earn you Jesus points.  It just doesn't.  Our desire for control (qualifies as sin when over-prioritized) would love a formula such as the following:

[(X hours reading Bible + Y hours praying + W% tithe given)/168 hours per week] = Jesus Points.

Thankfully faith does not work like this.  Faith is relationship with God and therefore not something which can be quantitatively assessed.

Instead I think reading the Bible functions a lot more like amino acids.  Any introductory Biology course (or Wikipedia) informs us amino acids are the molecular building blocks our bodies and other organisms use to make proteins.  Proteins in turn make up basically everything in our bodies.  There are approximately 25,000 genes in our individual genomes which code for approximately 100,000 proteins that make up us.  We are composed of a lot of proteins built out of tons of amino acids.  But how is reading the Bible like amino acids?

I don't know how God speaks to you during your Bible reading, and it's fun to see how God speaks to people differently, but personally when God speaks through His word it is almost always not while I am reading the Bible.  Instead He usually brings up passages, stories, ideas, etc. from the Bible at other times (during worship, prayer, driving, eating, etc.).  For me reading the Bible is not a time to sit down and chat with God, it is a time to ingest raw materials and have those within me for future conversations.  I read the Bible to acquire building blocks God will later use to speak; each chapter, parable, psalm is like an amino acid which God will have available to bring to mind.

Some memorable examples God has said:
"Remember how I said I AM faithful? I have not changed."(2 Tim 2:13, Heb 10:23) or "An arrogant pharisee and a humble tax collector walk into the Temple (Lk 18:9-14)....which one of them is your religious spirit acting like right now?"

I am glad reading God's word is not a prerequisite for God to speak, but it does help facilitate our hearing Him.  I don't know about you, but I need a lot of help to quiet myself and listen for God's voice.  The Bible also provides a standard or baseline by which I can measure and calibrate my life.  More on calibration in future posts; for now let's go be people of the Word and acquire some more amino acid-like building blocks.