In What Do You Trust?

It seems everyone has the economy on their minds lately. It is completely understandable. Pensions are shrinking, and daily living in radically changing. Before this is said and done every aspect of life, and every person will be impacted by the events unfolding. As I have been watching and listening, the overwhelming thought coming to my mind is, who do you trust?

I do not have large sums of money tied to the stock market, but I do need to function day to day and take care of my family. I enjoy the privilege of being able to feed my family, give them a place to live, and do some special activities from time to time. I know that some of these regular activities are going to be impacted by our economy, but is there really cause for all the panic? The panic and fear sweeping across the airwaves and country seem to highlight a truth I have long held. Americans trust in their finances and stuff more than they trust in God. Don't miss the irony of our money saying in God we trust.

If our lives are defined by our checkbook and stock portfolio then these are times of great fear. If our lives are defined by a deep and abiding connection with God, then we can find peace and rest while others panic. I might one of the few who think the shattering of our economy could be a good thing. It might be just the thing to move us from self-reliance to reliance on God. I often feel so trapped by the finances of my life, and that is because I have spent time chasing the wrong dream and wrong values. There are plenty of times when those values and dreams resurface. Still, more often I am able to remember that God is the most important thing in my life.

The stock market can crash, and the money in my pocket can disappear or have no value. One thing will remain, I am a child of God, and my Father in heaven is watching over me, and will care for my needs. The question is not will I make it through, that was never in question. The question is will I abide in God through Jesus Christ?

A Less Filtered View

There is a strange challenge which exists in the mind of every person. When we approach a situation, challenge or even idea, we all bring our collective life experience to that moment. As much as we might try to disregard that, the task is impossible. Every aspect of our life will be informed and shaped by the previous experiences we have had.

Thus enters the challenge. What do we do when our life experiences eschew our perception to the point where we misinterpret what is right in front of us. When was the last time you reflected on the lenses through which you view the world? How do these lenses impact the way you understand who God is?

For some they have seen the ways people have used God to justify horrible tragedy, and decided God is not for them. Others have used their understanding of God to shape the ways they function in this world. Still others Have given up on God all together and see no reason to ask the question. The most dangerous group however are those who think they know God because they participate in religious activity, but in reality are missing the point all together. I realize that in this writing I am exposing the lenses through which I see the world and God. Yet one of my greatest fears is that I have a faulty lens.

Perhaps it is time to identify the lenses in our lives, and recognize the lens for reality. Maybe it is not God who allowed the tragedy, but the lens through which the tragedy was viewed. God might not be the problem, what people make God to be might be the problem. I wonder if it is possible to remove enough lenses to get a less filtered view?

Community First

It is good to be back in the saddle. I took a few days to visit one of the most beautiful places in all of creation, the Adirondack Park here in New York. It was a time of refreshing for my mind, soul and spirit. Now I am back to the ministry God has given to me here in this place.

This morning I re-engaged the book Amish Grace. The main point of the book is investigating forgiveness. In the midst of that discussion I am overwhelmed by the Amish understanding of community. Their dedication to place the community first over the individual flies in the face of all that is held dear by American society. As I read the pages, I am in a constant battle of admiring the Amish and dismissing them as being clueless to the way the world really works. At the heart of that is individualism.

So ingrained in our culture is the idea that the individual overrides the needs of the community. There is much discussion about personal rights, and the rights of the individual. It seems to me that the rights of the individual only carry any importance if placed in the context of a community. Therefore without a community the individual is truly lost.

I wonder what would happen in our culture if people, small pockets at first, began to live primarily as a community, and as an individual last?

Hands of God

Yesterday morning I enjoyed the sun's appearance above the eastern horizon at Casowasco Camp and Conference Center. I was sitting next to Owasco Lake reading my scriptures and talking with God. One of the members of my church Debbie said it best, it seems as though the connection with God is very strong early in the morning. I wonder if that is because we have not had much time to confuse the issue yet.

Anyway, as I sat there praying I began to place the concerns of my heart in the hands of God. This is nothing new and a regular practice of mine. In the midst of this process I had a realization. These things were already in God's hands. Every portion of my life and being is in the hands of God, even if I do not recognize it. I have often used the phrase of placing something in God's hands as an act of surrender, and it is. I wonder however, if there is a next step?

It is one thing to place our whole being in the hands of God, it is another thing all together to be prepared for what God will do with it. I have some ministry hopes and desires, which are not something I am making real public. The only way for me to reach these ministry opportunities is through the action of other people. I placed that in God's hands yesterday. I went one step further. I asked God to help me be prepared for whatever it is that God is going to do with my hope and my life.

When we place our life in God's hands, we must be ready to be and do who God shapes us to be. If it is truly and act of surrender, our only decision left is obedience.

Just Wondering

Before I get too far into this entry I need to let you know that communitarianism is not an original term. I did a Google search and found there to be an entire group of people from regular people like me to scholars and policymakers who have formed a actual organization around communitarianism. Who knew? Anyway I want to take some time today to wonder.

I wonder what would happen if the church in America began to focus on the things that really matter. I have recently spent a lot of time in discussions about the rapture and the millennial debate. I have decided these are pretty useless conversations. Why? Because they do not really matter, what really matters is that at some point Jesus will return, if that is today, tomorrow or whenever it is, I had better be living in a what that I am ready. So what does that mean for the church, in particular in America?

When I read the pages of my Bible I read about a Jesus who showed preferential treatment to the poor and the outcast. I read about a Jesus who challenged the established religious communities. I read about a God who calls us to tailor our lifestyles to like God and not tailor our God to fit our lifestyles. I am amazed by how often I make God in my image instead of realizing it was God who made me in His image. This whole lifestyle thing is not easy and in the Western world it is even more difficult because most of us, myself included, believe the lies of society.

I wonder what would happen if Christ Followers began to adapt their lifestyle to reflect the lifestyle God longs for us to have. One where we lived within our means. Where we lived lives of sustainability. What would happen in our world if Christ Followers lived debt free, serving the poor, caring for the widows and orphans, living together in radical Biblical community and put God before all else. What might happen to our world if we were to live in close connection with God?

Communitarianism

I love the fact that when you are the writer you can make up words from time to time. I introduced the word communitarianism in my last post, and I wanted to take some time to expand on the idea a little more.

As I stated last, communitarianism is a middle ground between the individualism which drives American society and the unattainable ideals of Communism. Not to mention the fact that Communism leaves little to no room for God. For the communitarian a life goal is to see the community take a place of importance over the importance of the individual. At the same time the uniqueness of the individual must not be lost. The reason the individual must no be lost has nothing to do with the rights and desires of the individual, rather with being created by God. God has made each and every person with intimate knowledge. Part of that creation is strengths and weaknesses. To deny our strengths, and overlook our weaknesses is to deny the work of God in our lives. Likewise to use our strengths for only personal gain, would be to miss the point of community.

At the center of this ideal is a simple math equation. The whole is always greater than the sum of the individual parts. We are not created by God to be alone, we are not created for personal glory. Our creation is to function as a part of a people called our by God. Meaning our primary identity lies with the community of Christ, not the individual. Further this means your uniqueness is intended and needed in the community for the community to be whole. Without you and your participation in the community, whole suffers.

I guess in the end the biggest part of Communitarinism is the fact that this life I have been given is not about me. It is about something so much greater than any one individual. At the same time individuals need to be who God made them to be for the sake of the Body of Christ.

Individualism

From the time I was very young I was raised to be independent. I embraced this encouragement with great gusto and fervor. I have always been kind of my own person, with minimal influence from other people. I defiantly have had difficulty conforming to what others would want me to think and do. Now this independence causes me to wrestle with the issue of individualism.

I will be the first to admit the challenge of talking about individualism. On the one hand we can lose sight of the fact that we are fearfully and wonderfully made to be ourselves. On the other hand it is easy to come off sounding like a proponent of Communism. I wonder if there is a middle ground we can call communitarianism (I made up the word to fit my purposes).

There is not much debate that we live in a me centered culture here in the United States, and we have begun to export this to other cultures and societies. In this me centered culture we have mistaken our independence for a license to do whatever it is that we want, or what feels best to us. Our primary determinate of right or wrong is an internal compass, which is determined by each individual. The end result is a society which the 'rights' and desires of the individual overrides the community. A further result is we fail to allow community standards influence our lives.

Here is an example. In new York State most of the major Interstate highways have a speed limit of 65mph. Have you ever driven just 65mph on one of these roads. Everyone is passing you, as if you were not even moving. Many, myself included, travel around 70-72mph. Others even faster. On the occasion someone is pulled over for speeding, is the response, well they caught me? No, most of the response is anger, or frustration, after all there were others going faster. Why were we singled out? Could it be we were breaking a community standard.

Now that is not a perfect example, but I think we can see how many of us do not like to submit to a community standard. Our personal agenda becomes the most important thing. I wonder if we can truly experience community with God if we are focused on ourselves above all else. Perhaps some the debates destroying the Body of Christ would simply go away if individualism decreased and communitarianism increased. What would happen if we were to truly follow the teaching of Christ which tells us to deny ourselves. What if the body of Christ became a community where following Jesus what the community standard, and the community was more important than the individual.