Read the following two statements:
1. I don't want to waste my life. I want to do something big*.
2. I don't need to do something big in my life, but maybe I can. Yes, I will try to do something big.
Do you see the difference?
Person #1 doesn't yet know their value.
Person #2 already knows their value.
We all bear the image of God. Maybe we can do something big.
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*But, what is something that's big? That'll be in the next entry.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
God Talk and the Arts
***If you are not an Evangelical Christian, then this post might not make much sense. Even if you are one, then you still might not identify. However, there are those who totally identify with what I am saying and it is to you (and I) that I write. So, here goes...***
Evangelical Christians pray out loud in groups. It's sort of like you're talking to God, who is invisible, but other people are there. We take turns. Sometimes we read a little bit from the Bible, to give us some food for thought. Then we pray. We talk out loud to God and others "listen in" on our conversation with Him.
Needless to say, this is an awkward experience.
One of the things that has bothered me about praying out loud is that I have a "prayer" type of talk and I have "normal" talk in everyday conversations. In the past, I've always felt strange about this. Why would I have certain phrases, word patterns, and expressions in my "out loud" prayers to God that seem so contorted, so "not normal" talking.
The experience parallels what we call "teacher talk" in the ESL classroom which is more enunciated and formal to accomodate an ESL student, or maybe it might parallel "motherese" in which a mother talks with a higher pitched voice in repetitive patterns to a child. Barack Obama is another example which parallels "prayer talk". He has a different type of "talk" for addressing the nation than he does with his staff or with his wife and children than he does when he speaks. With God, we do the same thing. We have "God talk".
I guess what I'm getting to is that for Evangelical Christians (and other types of Christians who do this whole "praying out loud" thing in groups), some of us feel like we need to appologize for "praying out loud" in a way that is different from our "normal speech". We, or certainly I, have asked the questoin, "Why do I talk to God differently than I talk to these other sorts of people?" Am I trying to look eloquent or something? Am I trying to make sure my "speech" sounds nice and why am I so focused on that anyway? Shouldn't I just pray to Him like I would talk in "normal" speech, instead of treating Him like I'm talking to an audience or uploading a podcast or something? Yes, I understand that motives are part of how we speak and behave towards God and other people, but even though it is related to "God Talk", I believe that a person who theoretically had perfectly pure motives would still talk to God differently while praying out loud.
And here we finally get to my two points about why we don't need to get all uptight about how we pray to God. First, we never have "normal" speech. We talk in different ways to different people. We talk "teacher talk" or "motherese" or "friend to friend" talk or "father to son" talk or "son to father talk" for that matter. There is no type of speech that is independent from our relational dynamics, and there's no reason that we aren't going to have "God talk" either.
Second, I don't think we should preclude prayer from the category of the arts. What I mean by this is that we write music, poetry, stories, and create works of art, all of which we often dedicate as forms of worship to God. Think of a music worship service at church. We sing these completely "abnormal" types of things to God and they are absolutely NOT close to "normal speech" in our daily lives. However, it's not like I look at a Christian Singer-Song writer and say, "Wow. That guy is really weird, putting his prayer to music and then inviting us to sing our words to God." Well, maybe that does seem sort of weird if you think about it. However, we usually think of musical worship as a form of art that we create and present to God as a gift. It's almost as if I were Romeo reading poetry to Juliet. She is up on the second floor balcony and we are down below. The poetry is not normal speech. So, I think it's okay and not phony that the words, patterns, and vocabulary in our out-loud prayers to God are a little weird compared to normal speech. In singing a song or praying to God, we might as well paint a picture of a sunset, present it to Him, and tell Him that we enjoyed His sunset so much that we decided to paint a picture of it. That is a form of art that is worship, be it a song or prayer or a painting.
So, why not put prayer in a similar category as art and music or other forms of creativity? Why are we (primarily Evangelical Christians) so concerned with talking to God in a "normal way" when we pray out loud to Him in groups? Instead, why not treat our prayer "phrases" and "patterns" and "unusual vocabulary" as we might a song or poem or a piece of art that we are presenting to God as a beautiful way of reflecting Him in our creativity? Spontaneous and artistic.
___________________________________
For a related talk on prayer to God, check out another blog entry called Dropping the F-bomb. It is the other side of prayer, beautiful yet rough around the edges.
Evangelical Christians pray out loud in groups. It's sort of like you're talking to God, who is invisible, but other people are there. We take turns. Sometimes we read a little bit from the Bible, to give us some food for thought. Then we pray. We talk out loud to God and others "listen in" on our conversation with Him.
Needless to say, this is an awkward experience.
One of the things that has bothered me about praying out loud is that I have a "prayer" type of talk and I have "normal" talk in everyday conversations. In the past, I've always felt strange about this. Why would I have certain phrases, word patterns, and expressions in my "out loud" prayers to God that seem so contorted, so "not normal" talking.
The experience parallels what we call "teacher talk" in the ESL classroom which is more enunciated and formal to accomodate an ESL student, or maybe it might parallel "motherese" in which a mother talks with a higher pitched voice in repetitive patterns to a child. Barack Obama is another example which parallels "prayer talk". He has a different type of "talk" for addressing the nation than he does with his staff or with his wife and children than he does when he speaks. With God, we do the same thing. We have "God talk".
I guess what I'm getting to is that for Evangelical Christians (and other types of Christians who do this whole "praying out loud" thing in groups), some of us feel like we need to appologize for "praying out loud" in a way that is different from our "normal speech". We, or certainly I, have asked the questoin, "Why do I talk to God differently than I talk to these other sorts of people?" Am I trying to look eloquent or something? Am I trying to make sure my "speech" sounds nice and why am I so focused on that anyway? Shouldn't I just pray to Him like I would talk in "normal" speech, instead of treating Him like I'm talking to an audience or uploading a podcast or something? Yes, I understand that motives are part of how we speak and behave towards God and other people, but even though it is related to "God Talk", I believe that a person who theoretically had perfectly pure motives would still talk to God differently while praying out loud.
And here we finally get to my two points about why we don't need to get all uptight about how we pray to God. First, we never have "normal" speech. We talk in different ways to different people. We talk "teacher talk" or "motherese" or "friend to friend" talk or "father to son" talk or "son to father talk" for that matter. There is no type of speech that is independent from our relational dynamics, and there's no reason that we aren't going to have "God talk" either.
Second, I don't think we should preclude prayer from the category of the arts. What I mean by this is that we write music, poetry, stories, and create works of art, all of which we often dedicate as forms of worship to God. Think of a music worship service at church. We sing these completely "abnormal" types of things to God and they are absolutely NOT close to "normal speech" in our daily lives. However, it's not like I look at a Christian Singer-Song writer and say, "Wow. That guy is really weird, putting his prayer to music and then inviting us to sing our words to God." Well, maybe that does seem sort of weird if you think about it. However, we usually think of musical worship as a form of art that we create and present to God as a gift. It's almost as if I were Romeo reading poetry to Juliet. She is up on the second floor balcony and we are down below. The poetry is not normal speech. So, I think it's okay and not phony that the words, patterns, and vocabulary in our out-loud prayers to God are a little weird compared to normal speech. In singing a song or praying to God, we might as well paint a picture of a sunset, present it to Him, and tell Him that we enjoyed His sunset so much that we decided to paint a picture of it. That is a form of art that is worship, be it a song or prayer or a painting.
So, why not put prayer in a similar category as art and music or other forms of creativity? Why are we (primarily Evangelical Christians) so concerned with talking to God in a "normal way" when we pray out loud to Him in groups? Instead, why not treat our prayer "phrases" and "patterns" and "unusual vocabulary" as we might a song or poem or a piece of art that we are presenting to God as a beautiful way of reflecting Him in our creativity? Spontaneous and artistic.
___________________________________
For a related talk on prayer to God, check out another blog entry called Dropping the F-bomb. It is the other side of prayer, beautiful yet rough around the edges.
Monday, January 10, 2011
What if God just liked being sung to?
What if God, like a child, resonated with your voice, singing him to sleep? What if, like a young woman in a second floor window, he waited for a gentleman to sing sonnets from down below, telling of His beauty? What if, like a group of men at sea, He sang and laughed with them, arm-in-arm and drinking ale, as they sang tales about how He fought for them and was their hero in the wars of old?
What if God just liked being sung to? What if he simply liked your voice?
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Blog Bandwagon
I hate to get on the blog bandwagon, but there is a blog gaining a lot of popularity that is gaining a lot of popularity because it is worth gaining a lot of popularity. Does that make sense?
Follow the link below if you are interested:
Follow the link below if you are interested:
Read her December 22, 2010 entry called "Missionaries Probably Shouldn't be Jealous of Strippers. But Sometimes They Are." It is excellent.
Her husband writes a blog as well:
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Sorrow and Human Value (Short Version)
Asking God to help us enter sorrow and move away from resentment, bitterness, and anxiety is one of the ways in which we come to terms with the fact that God finds us and those around us valuable. When we do this, joy is possible.
Sorrow and Human Value
In Ephesians 3:20, God tells us that he is able to do more than we ask for.
In philosophy, a common question that is asked is, "Can we talk about things that are outside of our experiences?" In some ways, we can't. We always extrapolate our understandings of reality and place them on God or any kind of extra-reality we can conjure up in our minds. God is often a superhuman rather than holy, meaning apart, separate, or sacred*. (In this sense, God is the ultimate paradox because he is completely "other than us" and yet in Jesus he is "none other than us".)
Ephesians 3:20 is one of these places where God reminds us that he is holy. He is not like a human being. He is able to do more than we ask for. Think of this in two ways. First, he has the ability to do more than we ask for. We might ask for a house and he gives us a mansion. Second, and I believe more importantly, God is able to know what we haven't asked for and didn't even know what to ask for in the first place. So, not only is he able to give us a mansion when we asked for a house, but he is able to give us a winter coat ahead of time when we didn't even know it would snow. We didn't even know to ask the question. This is what I mean by Ephesians 3:20 demonstrating God's holiness.
The real difficulty is what to do with sorrow. We ask for comfort, ease, or at least not to be hurt too much. God is able to do more than we ask for. He leads us into sorrow. This is sometimes what we needed, but didn't know to ask.
I don't know what to do with this. I wish I had the answers. The closest answer I have is that when I let my heart go to sorrow, as opposed to thoughts of murder and revenge, I sense joy around the corner. Some of my most joyous occasions have followed periods of sorrow, so long as I'm willing to enter the sorrow instead of fighting with God over the injustice. For some reason, the problem of evil doesn't seem to have a grip on my heart during those occasions.
Jesus demonstrates this in John 16 when he tells his disciples that he will leave them and that they will be filled with sorrow, but that he will return and they will be filled with joy. This was a concrete instance where God allowed people to experience sorrow, knowing that they would be filled with joy later.
In our lives, we place our hope in the fact that we will meet God in our sorrow and us meeting Him there in that sorrow is often what we didn't know to ask for (Eph 3:20). When we meet Him there, joy is possible. If we opt for resentment, bitterness, and anxiety then we are unwilling to meet Him in sorrow and joy is not possible. Being made in the image of God, your heart is worth sorrow. Resentment, bitterness, and anxiety dishonor you by placing little value on your heart and dignity. Asking God to help us enter sorrow is one of the ways in which we come to terms with the fact that God finds us valuable and that we can do so too.
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*Blue Letter Bible. "Dictionary and Word Search for qodesh (Strong's 6944)". Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2011. 2 Jan 2011.
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