After centuries of handling and mishandling, most religious words have become so shopworn nobody’s much interested any more. Not so with grace, for some reason. Mysteriously, even derivatives like gracious and graceful still have some of the bloom left.

Grace is something you can never get but only be given. There’s no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks or bring about your own birth.

A good sleep is grace and so are good dreams. Most tears are grace. The smell of rain is grace. Somebody loving you is grace. Loving somebody is grace. Have you ever tried to love somebody?

A crucial eccentricity of the Christian faith is the assertion that people are saved by grace. There’s nothing you have to do. There’s nothing you have to do. There’s nothing you have to do.

The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It’s for you. I created the universe. I love you.

There’s only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can you be yours only if you’ll reach out and take it as a gift too.

–Frederick Buechner

“Most of my life I heard the message loud and clear that Christianity was all about coloring within the lines and coloring well. If I was a good Christian, if I loved Jesus and wanted to please Him, if I read the Bible, prayed, and went to church, then I would get better and better at coloring. And if I lived a long  and godly life, I would eventually be able to draw close to the perfect drawing.

Wherever that message came from, it was a lie. I am 55 years old, and my coloring still looks like Anna’s.

I believe God looks at my coloring and says, “Hmmmmm. You certainly like the color green! Lots of passion in this stroke. I like it.”

Even as I write those words, I can hear the “concern” of those who worry about others misunderstanding the gospel. “You’re not suggesting, are you, that nothing matters to God? Certainly God has standards!”

What I am suggesting is that God’s grace is so outside the lines of our understanding that we can only stand in awe and wonder. Christianity is not about learning how to live within the lines; Christianity is about the joy of coloring. The grace of God is preposterous enough to accept as beautiful a coloring that anyone else would reject as ugly. The grace of God seees beyond the scribbling to the heart of the scribbler–a scribbler who is similar to two thieves who hung on crosses on either side of Jesus. One of the two asked Jesus to please accept his scribbled and sloppy life into the kingdom of God…and He did. Preposterous. And very good news for the rest of us scribblers.”  –Mike Yaconelli in Dangerous Wonder

Jesus didn’t come to show us how to live correctly but rather He came to give us life in full.

I read this recently on Wayne Jacobsen’s blog.

The grandkids were over. We were in Sara’s garden. And Sara had gotten Amy a rake and she was raking up some of the wood chips that Sara has on the pathways in the garden. I said to her, “No, Honey, don’t do that.” And I began raking them back in the path. “They are not supposed to be in piles; they are supposed to be spread out.”

Amy gave me the look, as if to say, “Gee, that’s no fun, Grandpa.” I obviously ruined her fun by telling her the way things were supposed to be. I didn’t want to be that guy!

Later, after everyone was gone, Sara said to me, “You and Julie are funny in my garden.”

“What do you mean?” I asked

“You are always fussing about the kids. Don’t rake that, don’t pick that flower, or walk over there. I don’t really care. I want my grandchildren to really enjoy my garden and I want them to really enjoy being with me. I don’t care what they do in my garden as long as they are not going to hurt themselves or each other, or destroy something. I don’t care if they pick flowers, I don’t care if they rake the wood chips into piles. I can un-rake them easy enough.”

As I listened to her I thought, I don’t care if they are raked into piles either. I was just trying to protect Sara’s garden. I know she works hard to keep it looking nice. But why was I trying to defend something Sara wasn’t defending herself? For her it was about the joy of relationship. She wanted them to have fun in her garden so they would have fun with her.

When I heard her say that I immediately thought of how I often I’ve done that to other people in God’s garden. He’s inviting them into a relationship while I’m trying to make sure they don’t mess anything up. What if God doesn’t care what they mess up while they are growing in relationship with him?

The God Journey Podcast, July 30, 2010

But he can put them back easily enough when we’re done.

What a lesson! When you put the relationship first, keeping things neat and tidy no longer makes sense. Those things can be fixed easily enough. What God cares about is enjoying his kids long enough until they care about the things he cares about. In the meantime, that might mean some piles get raked up in places he doesn’t need them raked up.

It’s HOT! I took this photo this past week after my car had been sitting in a parking lot for only about an hour.  May 1st we hit 90 and it has been 90 or above every day since. We finally started getting a little rain later in the week this past week and that makes a huge difference.

This is the latest jigsaw puzzle available at your local Christian bookstore…Rocky Jesus. It’s hard to see in the picture but he is chewing on the latest flavor of Testamints.

I came across this most excellent writing by a Southern Baptist theologian that I highly encourage you to take the time to read. Russell Moore really throws down the gauntlet to the evangelicals. Here is an excerpt:

As I pass that sign on Highway 90 telling me I’m leaving Biloxi, I can look out behind the water’s horizon and know there’s a Pale Horse there. A massive rupture in the ocean’s floor is gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, with plumes of petroleum great enough to threaten to destroy the sea-life there for my lifetime, if not forever. Everything is endangered, from the seafood and tourism industries to the crabs and seagulls on the beach to the churches where I first heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.

and

For too long, we evangelical Christians have maintained an uneasy ecological conscience. I include myself in this indictment. We’ve had an inadequate view of human sin.

Because we believe in free markets, we’ve acted as though this means we should trust corporations to protect the natural resources and habitats. But a laissez-faire view of government regulation of corporations is akin to the youth minister who lets the teenage girl and boy sleep in the same sleeping bag at church camp because he “believes in young people.”

In our era, the abortion issue is the transcendent moral issue of the day (as segregation was in the last generation, and lynching and slavery before that). Too often, however, we’ve been willing not simply to vote for candidates who will protect unborn human life (as we ought to), but to also in the process adopt their worldviews on every other issue.

YES!!! This has been my biggest problem with the religious right. Here’s a little more:

What is being threatened in the Gulf states isn’t just seafood or tourism or beach views. What’s being threatened is a culture. As social conservatives, we understand…or we ought to understand…that human communities are formed by traditions and by mores, by the bond between the generations. Culture is, as Russell Kirk said, a compact reaching back to the dead and forward to the unborn…

really you need to read the whole thing.  He also says:

Finally, we’ve compromised our love.

A previous generation of evangelicals had to ask the question, “Is the fetus my neighbor?”

As I’ve seen the people I love, who led me to Christ, literally heaving in tears, I’ve wondered how many other communities have faced death like this, while I ignored even the chance to pray. The protection of the creation isn’t just about seagulls and turtles and dolphins. That would be enough to prompt us to action, since God’s glory is in seagulls and turtles and dolphins (Gen. 6-9; Isa. 65).

Pollution kills people. Pollution dislocates families. Pollution defiles the icon of God’s Trinitarian joy, the creation of his theater (Ps. 19; Rom. 1).

Will people believe us when we speak about the One who brings life and that abundantly, when they see that we don’t care about that which kills and destroys? Will they hear us when we quote John 3:16 to them when, in the face of the loss of their lives, we shrug our shoulders and say, “Who is my neighbor?”

When I read this post I was encouraged. A solid perspective and a solid challenge. In regards to this disaster and the ensuing fiasco the silence of the religious right has been deafening. They are seemingly stuck in a quandary as to whose side to take in this politically volatile situation.  To speak out against BP and this mess would be to admit the need for government regulations and that goes against their core politically conservative beliefs but to take the opposite side and say simply this was an accident and move on, well…that smells like political doom.

It’s refreshing to think Jesus doesn’t take sides in this or any situation but rather comes to us and asks do you want to be on my side?

I thought if someone sends me an email forward it was ok for me to respond back. I mean, all is well if I respond back with a hearty AMEN but if I ask questions that challenge either the validity of the forward or worse challenge the viewpoint of the sender why am I seen as the troublemaker?

Obviously I’m not talking about the jokes and such, heck I like a good joke as much as the next guy but I’m talking about the political/religious ones that are often narrow minded, slanderous, and false that are sent under the guise of christianity.

You know, Obama is the anti-christ or God is a capitalist…that sort of thing

I have no problem with someone sharing their political or religious viewpoint with me but if they do why am I deemed the critical one if I ask questions that simply challenge their beliefs? I’ve even had some sent to me that say at the bottom, “if you don’t agree, don’t respond just delete.” So if I don’t agree I’m just supposed to shut-up?! Isn’t that kind like bullying?

I’ve had responses to my responses that range from

silence,

how come you just like to push people’s buttons?

to my favorite, this is not the kind of thing we can talk about via email but will have to wait until we are face to face.

But you sent it via email, annnd I haven’t seen your face in 3 years?!

I for one happen to think email can be a solid way to have a discussion.

And I’m not talking about wanting to have a conversation where I am trying to prove that my view is right and yours is wrong but I am always open to having a discussion where we try to humbly seek truth in our equally limited vision. Isn’t that one of the ways in which we grow?

Is this really how anemic relationships have become in our society that they can’t even handle a response to an email forward?

Or does proper email etiquette state that one is to send email forwards that express ones thoughts but no actual dialogue is to take place?

If that’s the case then can someone tell me what the heck the reply button is for?

Today is Kim’s and my 20th wedding anniversary!!

Yep, that’s me with hair.

It seems like only yesterday and yet it seems like she has been a part of me forever.

Pretty cool that Mexico would declare today a national holiday. I hear it is one of their biggest.

I had lunch yesterday with an old friend. He was my mentor back when I was part of a denomination and so we met on a weekly basis for probably about a year or so…can’t really remember now…age I guess.

He would listen and speak with lots of wisdom that flowed from a heart filled with love and grace.

He never seems to have sought a place of prominence or notoriety within the community or denomination but has rather chosen to live in relative obscurity amongst the hurting.

Almost 8 years ago now our paths took different directions rather abruptly. Nothing happened between us but rather our situations, or more specifically mine, changed. I tried at times over the years to reconnect but for reasons unknown to me it just didn’t happen.

God’s plan?

our brokenness?

our brokenness within God’s plan?

Over the years my respect and admiration for him didn’t change. I never much talked about the situation to anyone.

I didn’t understand it.

It hurt but I was ok with it not being ok…I mean, I wasn’t angry.

Maybe Holy Spirit was comforting me until the time was right?

Who knows?

Who can figure out those sorts of things really?

Anyway, back then I probably would have train wrecked any chance at a real relationship. But somehow, I knew or hoped that the time would come when our paths would draw close again.

Our time together yesterday was good,

real good.

Something deep in my heart was being touched and set right. I honestly don’t understand and can’t explain it but I could feel it while we were talking and especially after.

I could feel Father’s finger touching something down deep and bringing light to a place that had become dark.

Awakening a part of me that had fallen asleep or

maybe was never awake. 

A place that I didn’t know was there but Jesus knew. 

I don’t know for sure but I think perhaps something similar was happening  for my friend as well.  At least I hope so.

I also hope that this has been a new beginning of an old friendship.

If the world is sane, then Jesus is mad as a hatter and the Last Supper is the Mad Tea Party.

The world says, Mind your own business, and Jesus says, Follow me and be crucified.

The world says, Drive carefully-the life you save may be your own- and Jesus says, Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

The world says, Law and order, and Jesus says, Love.

The world says, Get and Jesus says, Give.

In terms of the world’s sanity, Jesus is crazy as a coot, and anybody who thinks he can follow him without being a little crazy too is laboring less under a cross than under a delusion.

–Frederick Beuchner