Monthly Archives: January 2007

Manly Man Movement

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My friend Wade passed this on to me a while back. Some of you may enjoy reading it… or slamming it. All responses welcome, in the form of wandering and wondering.

Here’s the opening bit…

Nashville — THE strobe lights pulse and the air vibrates to a killer rock beat. Giant screens show mayhem and gross-out pranks: a car wreck, a sucker punch, a flabby (and naked) rear end, sealed with duct tape.

Brad Stine runs onstage in ripped blue jeans, his shirt untucked, his long hair shaggy. He’s a stand-up comic by trade, but he’s here today as an evangelist, on a mission to build up a new Christian man — one profanity at a time. “It’s the wuss-ification of America that’s getting us!” screeches Stine, 46.

A moment later he adds a fervent: “Thank you, Lord, for our testosterone!”

It’s an apt anthem for a contrarian movement gaining momentum on the fringes of Christianity. In daybreak fraternity meetings and weekend paintball wars, in wilderness retreats and X-rated chats about lust, thousands of Christian men are reaching for more forceful, more rugged expressions of their faith.

If you want the whole thing, click and read: Manly Man Movement.

Boredom

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Another great quote, this time from Walker Percy…

He defined boredom as:

“the self stuffed with the self”.

Ouch!  Sorry if you’re reading this on a “boring day”.

But you know, when I think of some people I know who are “always bored”… I suspect Percy is on to something in a major way.

To leap-frog off of Percy’s idea…

A life stuffed with self is a small life, and a small life is a boring life. 

You can quote JayBan on that last line.  But I’m not telling you how I learned that little nugget.

Youthful Joy

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Here’s a fantastic quote by G.K. Chesterton on the topic of joy.  I mean, who wouldn’t want more of that?!

“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged.  They always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead.  For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony.  But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony.  It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon.  It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.  It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.“

Am I the only one that loves that thought?

In speaking of God, “ageless” usually means “so old you couldn’t count it”; “eternal” is thought to be “older than you could imagine, so don’t bother”.

And that’s right.  But…

What if “timeless” means “unaffected by time, outside of it”?  What if “infinite” translates into “as far removed from everything fallen as east is from west”?

That would play into Chesterton’s idea… a young God… in the sense that He is untouched by all processes of declining, fading, and deteriorating–a God who never gets tired, upon Whom could depend for strength even while youths were getting tired and looking for wings like eagles.  Man, that idea’s sounding scriptural, if I didn’t know better!

A God like that is easy to find some hope within and easy to cling to, wouldn’t you say?

Living… Another Way

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Reading today, I came to this passage in the Message.  There’s some strange words in there, no?
The point? A life possessed by Jesus can take on a radically different look quick.  Man!

Colossians 1:24-29

I want you to know how glad I am that it’s me sitting here in this jail and not you. There’s a lot of suffering to be entered into in this world—the kind of suffering Christ takes on. I welcome the chance to take my share in the church’s part of that suffering. When I became a servant in this church, I experienced this suffering as a sheer gift, God’s way of helping me serve you, laying out the whole truth.

This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it’s out in the open. God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message. We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less. That’s what I’m working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me.

Cryin’

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The “emergent church”… that’s a huge catch-phrase these days.  No, it’s more than a catch-phrase.  It’s a train-load of ideas, and I must claim to understand it insufficiently.  Brian McLaren has been deemed by many to be the voice (or at least one of them) of the movement.  To be honest, I’ve only read one of his books in its entirety; the rest has been clips and quotes and articles.  However, I know some of you are big fans.

Here is a link to a parody of an interview with “Cryin’ McLaren”.  While a touch thick on sarcasm, it might be thought-provoking to some… and angering to others.

Hey, it’s just a post from one who is wandering and wondering.

Comments?