Welcome to the bloggage! I’ve never done the blogging thing before so this will be a new and interesting experience for us both (me as the writer, and you the reader). Sometimes I’ll just be writing my thoughts as quickly as I can get them from my heart and my head into a .doc file and at other times I may wax poetic - I have no idea what that means, but I heard somebody say it once and it sounded cool….
When things start rolling around in my head I don’t know what else to do but write about them. Sometimes it’s in rhyme and verse, but other times things tumble out so quickly that there’s no hope (or really even point) to putting them into song form; plus it’s hard to rhyme words like “innumerable”. So here goes. I have a tendency to vent opinions that aren’t real popular, and have the spiritual gift of pissing off church people (see, you were offended that I said pissed, weren’t you?). :0) So, if you wear your faith feelings on your sleeve you might want to stay away - consider yourself forewarned.
I’m looking around at all of the things The Church has become and I can’t help but think, “This is no where near what Jesus had in mind.” We (The Church) have made proverbial mountains out of innumerable molehills. Now before you go and get pissed at me (there’s that word again) because you think I’m talking about your church, let me make it clear that I’ve been on paid staff at a handful of churches and have played music, led worship – whatever you want to call it – in literally hundreds of churches throughout the U.S. and some abroad. So when I say “The Church” I’m not talking about yours, of course, I’m talking about the guys down the street or, better yet, The Church as a whole and more specifically: the American Church.
There was a guy named Paul that wrote a bunch of letters a couple thousand years or so ago that ended up in a thing called The New Testament. One of his most famous (and oft quoted) passages is in a letter to the people at Corinth (not Corinth, TX. Corinth, Middle East). Paul says, “if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” I’ve met plenty of clanging cymbals in my day. And, to be fair, I’m sure there have been plenty of times I’ve been a resounding gong myself. So, in relation to the church (not yours, of course, but The Church or better yet, the American Church) let me borrow a phrase from the great poets The Blackeyed Peas and ask “where is the love”?!
Or maybe Paul’s words don’t carry enough weight for you – after all, he was a former Christian killer so why would a “righteous” and “just” God use someone like that to tell His people how they ought to live? So here’s something Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." Wait, a command?! As in “not an option”?! You mean, I have to love people the way You loved?! As in laying down my life?! I don’t know, that seems like a lot to ask….
I’m sure by now you’re either thoroughly pissed off (and have stopped reading, so why am I even bothering to address you right now?) or you’re wondering the same thing as me and the Peas (I asked Will if I could call them that and he said it was cool). By no means am I saying I have the whole laying-my-life-down-for-others thing worked out; but I think The Church (and this time I am talking about yours and mine) would be a good place to start working that out.
That’s all for now.
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