MY Faith...

What if you could invent a religion?
Think about it…  What if you could start from scratch and create the perfect religion?  What would it look like?

Some things are obvious.  It would include love and respect for others.  It would strive to bring reconciliation in the midst of differences.  You would probably start off with some guiding principles.  Things like:

• We believe all people are of equal worth and value.
• We believe that diversity is strength, not weakness.
• We believe things can be better, and it is the responsibility of each person to do what they can to bring about that which is best.

There would probably have to be some sort of regular gathering.  It’s not a true religion if it’s just you in your basement writing feel-good principles.  In those gatherings “believers” would celebrate and share stories.  If it were my religion I think I would insist that we share a meal together each time.  And I don’t mean the ritual that we have made of what Christians call “The Lord’s Table” I mean meat ‘n potatoes, hot dinner rolls and warm apple pie for dessert.  There is a level of connectivity that cannot happen without sitting across from someone and sharing a meal (that’s why it’s such a key part of our mat… I mean, dating rituals).

In your gatherings, meal or not, you might find it interesting to hear how others came to “believe”.  There would be laughter and joy.  I’d wager that in short order you would see all sorts of artistic expressions emerge at these gatherings.  Maybe a photographer might share a recent photo with a few folks sitting nearby.  Perhaps someone with a lovely voice would sing a line of a song and be encouraged to “sing the rest of the song”.  Soon others would emerge.  Painters would paint, sculptors would sculpt, writers would write, poets, musicians, dancers, photographers, architects… you name it, their creativity would soon find expression in the context of their “faith”.

It was G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) who first got me thinking along these lines with his brilliant little book Orthodoxy (1908).  I won’t spoil it for you but it was this same Chesterton, who when asked to write an article on what was wrong in the world reportedly responded with the cryptic, “I am”.  Which so neatly presents the dilemma that will inevitably, eventually confront your new religion.

How does your religion propose to respond to stuff that’s wrong in the world?  How does your fledgling faith respond to the issues of hatred, bigotry, selfishness, greed, anger, pride, arrogance, violence, broken relationships… the junky stuff of life?

Education...?  Pretend everyone is ignorant (more ignorant than you) and try to educate them all out of their brokenness?

Medication...?  Call it an illness and develop a miracle drug to remedy the ailment?

...simply deny the problem exists?

2c

Prayer

I'm not sure where I acquired it, but I have in my collection some writings on Prayer by Mark Herringshaw & Jennifer Schuchmann...  The opinions expressed are theirs (it's a direct quote - which I will remove if they so request)  here it is:

Regardless of our competence or success at work, home, or school, and independent of our awards and accolades, we continue to experience situations where we feel out of control. Life brings an endless parade of intense moments of beauty, pain, injustice, confusion, and hopelessness, that takes us past the end of ourselves and leaves us searching for someone or something else.
   We never have enough.
   It’s never good enough.
   We continually come up short.
   Life is hard, and we often seem ill-equipped for the challenges.
   What if this is intentional?
   Could it be that we were set up to fail on our own?
   What if the Creator of the universe shaped a world that is complicated beyond the comprehension of the people who live there? So complicated that they can’t exist in it without crying out for help?
   What would that world look like?
   It would be a world filled with desperate and needy
people.
   And everyone would be praying. 

...just sayin' (those last two words are mine☻)

There's just no pleasin' some folks...

I once had someone get angry at me because I hadn’t come to visit them when they were sick.

            “I thought I could depend on you!” they complained.

I wasn’t sure how to respond since they were still clearly suffering – the problem was they hadn’t told me until that moment that they were in need.  I still don’t know how I was supposed to have figured it out without being told.

Perhaps you heard about the couple who left their church because no one came to visit them?  It wasn’t that people weren’t friendly… they had lots of friends but years earlier they had stopped inviting people over because they found it “too taxing to get the house ready for visitors.”  Oh, they still liked going to people’s houses… they just didn’t want anyone in theirs.  Folks thought they were being standoffish and stopped having them over. Anyway, eventually they got so upset they left that church… to go to one where nobody even knew their name.  

…it’s the principle of the matter.

I once had a gentleman come up to me in the middle of the service while I was doing sound, and complain that I had the volume on the drums up too loud… TOO LOUD!  I tried to explain:

a.    The drums did not have microphones so there was nothing I could do from the balcony…

b.    The drummer, was in fact, not even playing… at all… not even a little…

Then there was the guy who chased one of my sound techs out of the building and into the parking lot after a “worship service” he felt was too loud.  The sound tech fortunately made it to the safety of his car before things escalated further.

I could go on… my point is some people are beyond pleasing.

Thing is, Jesus didn’t try to please everyone either… in fact, the only person Jesus was committed to pleasing was the Father.

…of course, that got Him nailed to a cross…

There’s a parable in there somewhere…

…just sayin’

Prayer

Why should God answer that prayer?

I’m not trying to be facetious.  There is no hidden agenda in the question.  It’s not one of those questions that has another one embedded within.  It’s simple: That prayer request that you offered up to God this morning… why should He answer?  Why are you asking Him to do… to help… to rescue …to heal?

I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed this or not but many of the prayers in scripture include reasons.  That is, the people not only asked God to intervene in their lives they explained why they felt it was important that He do just that!

Psalms 79 and 80 give several examples.  They include the reasons that most of us would expect:

·         We will call on your name 80:18

·         For the glory of thy name 79.9

·         For Your name’s sake 79.10

·         To silence the nations 74.10 - 79.10

There is however an example, also in the Psalms, that love for it’s plain language:  Psalm 123:3-4.

God help us! …because… because …well because we’ve had enough!

There’s no need to act spiritual with God – He already knows your heart so you might as well come out with it.

Why not try …maybe just for one day… to include with every prayer request the reason you feel God should answer. 

Be warned – I tried it once and had to retract the prayer!

…OK maybe it was more than once…

…just sayin’

Verses Worth Memorizing

Jeremiah 33:3 (ESV)

³ Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.

It seems like a lifetime ago when I used to work for a transportation company in Toronto.  We had two-way radios but some of the runs were so far that we’d be out of dispatch range.  Those drivers who drove routes that went out of range were give mobile phones.  It was basically like taking the phone off the wall in your home and carrying it around… we would joke that one day phones would be so small that we’d be in danger of swallowing them in an accidental hiccup.

Maybe that was far-fetched but we were assuming that phones would only ever be used to… you know… make phone calls. 

These days it’s easy to get in touch with people.  Getting in touch with God? That’s still hard… or so it seems.  Read your Bible, watch You-Tube, check out the latest denominational or mission magazine and it seems like getting in touch with God is the easiest thing!

…for everyone else…

That’s why I love this verse.

I don’t know if you’re one of those people who love reading manuals.  (I still have manuals for items I no longer own!).  These days manufacturers often include a “Quick Start” Guide.  A simple, easy to read one or two pager that helps you get the product up and running quickly.

We could call Jeremiah 33:3 a “Quick Start Guide” for prayer.

 It’s the manual compressed into seven words.

Call Me and I will answer you!

… go ahead

            …try it!

…just sayin’