Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.
Mark 3:4
I’m good at not killing and not stealing and not committing adultery. I’m pretty good at not coveting and not lying. I respect my parents and respect God and try not to make something an idol in my life. But this whole Sabbath thing is tough. Keeping the Sabbath day holy is one of the Ten Commandments, but it’s very often overlooked. Is that alright? I really don’t know. This post isn’t going to answer that question.
Earlier this year I read The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs. I absolutely loved it! He’s a great author and a terrific story-teller! His year focused much more on following the Old Testament laws as literally as possible than on following Jesus’ instructions. And as difficult as those Jewish laws are, I’m sure following Jesus’ teachings would have been much more difficult.
One of my favorite stories (and don’t worry, this isn’t much of a spoiler or anything) was when he locked himself in his bathroom. If my memory serves me well, it was something about trying to fix the doorknob and then shutting himself in without the knob in the door so that he had no way of getting out. He was stuck. His cell phone didn’t work and the window wasn’t any help. I think he tried to get some work done with the toilet as his desk, but that didn’t work. So he just sat there. And it was a forced Sabbath. Sometimes I wish something like that happened to me.
It’s pretty easy to see that Jesus didn’t care much for the Sabbath laws that the Pharisees upheld. By holding to the letter of the law, the religious leaders completely missed the point of the law. The Sabbath law wasn’t for God, it was for humans. God rested after creation and likewise people should set aside time to rest. We don’t rest for God’s sake; we rest for our own sake. God created us and knows what’s best for us, so we should rest.
Our culture doesn’t tell us to rest. It tells us to produce. It tells us to go and never stop. It tells us not to waste time when we could be working. On the other hand, there’s a portion of our American culture that tells us we don’t have to do anything. It says that the ultimate goal in life is to relax and do nothing, even if you have to work like a slave for decades in order to get that point. (Alternatively, you could win the lottery or have a rich uncle.) Where’s the balance? Where’s the happy point with enough work and enough rest?
I think we should keep a Sabbath. I don’t think it has to be Sunday. For pastors it can’t be Sunday. I think Sunday is pretty arbitrary. Jews rest from Friday evening to Saturday evening. I think Christians claimed Sunday simply because Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday and we like to remember that. (And that’s certainly worth remembering!) Pick Sunday if you want to, or pick another day.
Actually, I don’t think it’s even important to pick a nice 24 hour chunk. We use “day” to talk about the Sabbath because Genesis 1 was translated as “day” and God rested on the 7th one. I’m a supporter of the idea that Genesis 1 is poetic and therefore isn’t talking about 24 hour days. There wasn’t even a sun to define days by for the first three “days.” These periods of time could have been a thousand years. (So let’s all pick 1000 years to set aside as our Sabbath! Maybe not.) Or perhaps God created things in a matter of minutes. I don’t think the length of the Sabbath has to be universally defined.
Let’s just put another layer to conscious thought into how much time we’re resting. Pick one evening a week and agree not to schedule anything. Then when the evening comes, pick something that’s not stressful to fill your time. Go for a walk. Call your mom. Bake cookies. Maybe you’ll find something that doesn’t stress you out that also helps someone else. (You love mowing lawns and find it relaxing? Maybe your neighbor hates it. I sense an opportunity!) Before you do anything, look at your time through this Jesus lens I’ve been talking about. And if seeing through that lens is difficult then maybe reading the gospels would be a good Sabbath activity.
I don’t think anything I’ve written here is revolutionary or anything. It’s just your friendly reminder to relax. Be still. The world won’t fall apart if you’re unproductive for a morning or afternoon or evening or Saturday or whatever.
I like taking mini-Sabbaths to play Minesweeper and listen to whatever my favorite music happens to be. Sometimes I just do that for hours. What does your Sabbath look like?
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Living Consciously: church
“Where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them.”
Matthew 18:20
What’s the most identifying characteristic of Christianity? I don’t know this for sure, but if people were asked to respond to that I bet the largest response would involve church. Generally speaking, a Christian can be identified as someone who attends church, usually on Sunday morning. It’s important to us. For some, it’s the only thing that really matters in their Christian life. Some people identify themselves as Christmas and Easter Christians and only attend church twice a year. It’s that church attendance that does it though. They go to church, therefore they identify as Christian.
Jesus didn’t talk much about church. Where ever he happened to be, people gathered around. There was teaching and preaching and sometimes dialogue, but never church as we see it today. Does this mean that church might not be as important as we make it out to be? I say yes. Church is certainly important and there are many reasons why Jesus didn’t talk about it, but I don’t think church should be the crucial identifying feature of Christianity.
All of this has nothing to do with living consciously though. I think everyone should be actively involved with a church. As our most visible representation of Jesus to the world, we should invest our time and energy to the work of our personal church and the larger church, but as we do so, we should be asking ourselves some questions. We should insert a Jesus lens to our view of church.
Jesus cared about people. (I think that’s a pretty safe statement.) He cared about children and, to his disciples’ amazement, said people should be like children if they want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 18:3). He cared about the injured and disabled, healing them many times in the gospel. He cared about the diseased, even the outcast lepers. When ten of them came to him in Luke 17 he didn’t send them away as most people would have. He spent time with sinners that the religious leaders all excluded. Yep, Jesus cared about people.
So next time you’re in church (tomorrow?), take a look around you. Who do you see? Are the welcomed, included, valued? How do most people view them? How do you view them? How would Jesus view them? Hopefully your view and Jesus’ view are pretty similar, but I bet they aren’t the same. What if you were to sit with the visitors in church once a month instead of with your family or friends? Would that destroy your relationship with your family and friends? Almost certainly not. And then after the service you can introduce the visitors to the group you usually sit with. That’s not a terrible idea.
I plan to be a church leader some day. That means I’ll have responsibility in church before, during, and after the services. I’m not a fan of that aspect of my calling. It means I have less freedom to be social on Sunday mornings, yet it’s important that I am able to meet and talk with a lot of people. Hold this thought. I’ll come back to it at the end.
Jesus cares about people a lot, and didn’t seem to care about time at all. We never hear in the gospels about Jesus racing to meet a deadline or making sure his preaching doesn’t go longer than fifteen minutes. Now, granted, most of that had to do with the culture of the 1st century and reading it from the 21st century taints our perception and maybe our interpretation as well. Still, I have a feeling a strict time schedule would be something in our culture that Jesus would question. (For those who know Myers-Briggs personality tests, I’m a P. Therefore I realize this is much easier for me to write and probably hard for a J to read. Stay with me though.)
I’m not going to say we should throw out the concept of time entirely, but at least in church can we have a little more flexibility? Do we really have to cut out three verses of the closing song because it’s already 1 minute after noon? I think a good sending is important and deserves time. (Hold this thought. We’ll come back to it.) And do we really need to cut sharing time short because we’re a little long? Giving people a chance to share takes time and it’s what helps the service belong to the congregation. (Hold this thought too.) And do sermons really have to stick to a specific allotted time? I realize people’s attention spans don’t last forever, but sometimes the Holy Spirit inspires a preacher with a message that takes longer to deliver.
So instead of getting anxious when the timing of a service is off, let’s sit back and think a little bit. This is when we insert a little conscious thinking. If we came to church, then we must think it’s important, therefore we can give it the time necessary to run its course. Maybe we need to free up a little extra time on Sundays so that time is less of an issue. I understand that there are other factors, like children, or house guests, or sports events. If, for a particular Sunday, something else is more important than the service, then maybe it’d be best for a few people to slip out quietly instead of rushing the service for everyone. I dare even suggest that some Sundays it might be best not to come to church. Again, church is not the most important part of the Christian faith. Just be careful not to take this too far.
Living consciously requires us to put more thought into our church service. As a participant we have to ask ourselves if we actually should be participating. How often do we sing a song without even thinking about the words? In my tradition is way easier to pay attention to the music and totally miss the meaning of the song. What if you don’t even agree with the words? It’s also easy to automatically join in with the “people” part of a reading without really meaning the words we say. Stop. I think it’s better to be silent in church than insincere. Paul challenges us to examine ourselves before participating in the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:28-29). How often do we simply eat and drink because the pastor invites us to without actually making it meaningful for ourselves? Choose not to take communion sometime. God won’t hate us.
Now for all of those thoughts we’re holding. The organization of a church and planning of a service usually could use a little more consciousness, a little more of the Jesus lens. It’s far too easy to do something simply because that’s the way it’s always been done. I don’t think that’s ever a good reason to do anything. That’s more of a convenient cop-out. I’ll never presume to know what’s best for other congregations, but I challenge us to start from scratch and re-imagine church starting with only what’s most important. If the church you build is the one you currently have, then good job! Don’t change anything. But if something seems out of balance, then let’s go through the tough work of balancing it.
You’re holding the thought about having responsibilities before, during, and after a church service. It’s true; there are lots of things to do to run a church, but no one person should feel over-burdened with it. We find it easy to toss all of that pressure on the paid staff, but the early followers of Jesus gave us a model of a church with everyone participating. Maybe not having a paid staff would make it easier for everyone else to step up.
You’re also holding thoughts about a good sending and sharing time during the service. These are just two elements of a service that I think are important. Teaching, praise, prayer, a gathering—these are also important elements. Church, with its non-essential status, is a break from a “24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year . . .” Christian life. We can pray and praise God any time. We can receive sound Biblical teaching just about any time too if we know where to look. Church is different because it’s a time for us to be together and share our journeys. I think space in the service for people to share formally with each other before God is essential and often overlooked. I also think a commissioning to send church-goers back into the world (aka benediction) is crucial and often rushed. Let’s put a little more conscious effort into these things—things that make church different from the rest of the Christian journey.
Woah! This post got really long! I could have broken it into 2 parts, but I couldn’t make you hold those thoughts for a whole day! Besides, if this is important enough to read then the time was well spent.
What are your thoughts on church? How could it be done more consciously or more Jesus-ly? Maybe you have a story of a church service that got it right.
Matthew 18:20
What’s the most identifying characteristic of Christianity? I don’t know this for sure, but if people were asked to respond to that I bet the largest response would involve church. Generally speaking, a Christian can be identified as someone who attends church, usually on Sunday morning. It’s important to us. For some, it’s the only thing that really matters in their Christian life. Some people identify themselves as Christmas and Easter Christians and only attend church twice a year. It’s that church attendance that does it though. They go to church, therefore they identify as Christian.
Jesus didn’t talk much about church. Where ever he happened to be, people gathered around. There was teaching and preaching and sometimes dialogue, but never church as we see it today. Does this mean that church might not be as important as we make it out to be? I say yes. Church is certainly important and there are many reasons why Jesus didn’t talk about it, but I don’t think church should be the crucial identifying feature of Christianity.
All of this has nothing to do with living consciously though. I think everyone should be actively involved with a church. As our most visible representation of Jesus to the world, we should invest our time and energy to the work of our personal church and the larger church, but as we do so, we should be asking ourselves some questions. We should insert a Jesus lens to our view of church.
Jesus cared about people. (I think that’s a pretty safe statement.) He cared about children and, to his disciples’ amazement, said people should be like children if they want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 18:3). He cared about the injured and disabled, healing them many times in the gospel. He cared about the diseased, even the outcast lepers. When ten of them came to him in Luke 17 he didn’t send them away as most people would have. He spent time with sinners that the religious leaders all excluded. Yep, Jesus cared about people.
So next time you’re in church (tomorrow?), take a look around you. Who do you see? Are the welcomed, included, valued? How do most people view them? How do you view them? How would Jesus view them? Hopefully your view and Jesus’ view are pretty similar, but I bet they aren’t the same. What if you were to sit with the visitors in church once a month instead of with your family or friends? Would that destroy your relationship with your family and friends? Almost certainly not. And then after the service you can introduce the visitors to the group you usually sit with. That’s not a terrible idea.
I plan to be a church leader some day. That means I’ll have responsibility in church before, during, and after the services. I’m not a fan of that aspect of my calling. It means I have less freedom to be social on Sunday mornings, yet it’s important that I am able to meet and talk with a lot of people. Hold this thought. I’ll come back to it at the end.
Jesus cares about people a lot, and didn’t seem to care about time at all. We never hear in the gospels about Jesus racing to meet a deadline or making sure his preaching doesn’t go longer than fifteen minutes. Now, granted, most of that had to do with the culture of the 1st century and reading it from the 21st century taints our perception and maybe our interpretation as well. Still, I have a feeling a strict time schedule would be something in our culture that Jesus would question. (For those who know Myers-Briggs personality tests, I’m a P. Therefore I realize this is much easier for me to write and probably hard for a J to read. Stay with me though.)
I’m not going to say we should throw out the concept of time entirely, but at least in church can we have a little more flexibility? Do we really have to cut out three verses of the closing song because it’s already 1 minute after noon? I think a good sending is important and deserves time. (Hold this thought. We’ll come back to it.) And do we really need to cut sharing time short because we’re a little long? Giving people a chance to share takes time and it’s what helps the service belong to the congregation. (Hold this thought too.) And do sermons really have to stick to a specific allotted time? I realize people’s attention spans don’t last forever, but sometimes the Holy Spirit inspires a preacher with a message that takes longer to deliver.
So instead of getting anxious when the timing of a service is off, let’s sit back and think a little bit. This is when we insert a little conscious thinking. If we came to church, then we must think it’s important, therefore we can give it the time necessary to run its course. Maybe we need to free up a little extra time on Sundays so that time is less of an issue. I understand that there are other factors, like children, or house guests, or sports events. If, for a particular Sunday, something else is more important than the service, then maybe it’d be best for a few people to slip out quietly instead of rushing the service for everyone. I dare even suggest that some Sundays it might be best not to come to church. Again, church is not the most important part of the Christian faith. Just be careful not to take this too far.
Living consciously requires us to put more thought into our church service. As a participant we have to ask ourselves if we actually should be participating. How often do we sing a song without even thinking about the words? In my tradition is way easier to pay attention to the music and totally miss the meaning of the song. What if you don’t even agree with the words? It’s also easy to automatically join in with the “people” part of a reading without really meaning the words we say. Stop. I think it’s better to be silent in church than insincere. Paul challenges us to examine ourselves before participating in the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:28-29). How often do we simply eat and drink because the pastor invites us to without actually making it meaningful for ourselves? Choose not to take communion sometime. God won’t hate us.
Now for all of those thoughts we’re holding. The organization of a church and planning of a service usually could use a little more consciousness, a little more of the Jesus lens. It’s far too easy to do something simply because that’s the way it’s always been done. I don’t think that’s ever a good reason to do anything. That’s more of a convenient cop-out. I’ll never presume to know what’s best for other congregations, but I challenge us to start from scratch and re-imagine church starting with only what’s most important. If the church you build is the one you currently have, then good job! Don’t change anything. But if something seems out of balance, then let’s go through the tough work of balancing it.
You’re holding the thought about having responsibilities before, during, and after a church service. It’s true; there are lots of things to do to run a church, but no one person should feel over-burdened with it. We find it easy to toss all of that pressure on the paid staff, but the early followers of Jesus gave us a model of a church with everyone participating. Maybe not having a paid staff would make it easier for everyone else to step up.
You’re also holding thoughts about a good sending and sharing time during the service. These are just two elements of a service that I think are important. Teaching, praise, prayer, a gathering—these are also important elements. Church, with its non-essential status, is a break from a “24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year . . .” Christian life. We can pray and praise God any time. We can receive sound Biblical teaching just about any time too if we know where to look. Church is different because it’s a time for us to be together and share our journeys. I think space in the service for people to share formally with each other before God is essential and often overlooked. I also think a commissioning to send church-goers back into the world (aka benediction) is crucial and often rushed. Let’s put a little more conscious effort into these things—things that make church different from the rest of the Christian journey.
Woah! This post got really long! I could have broken it into 2 parts, but I couldn’t make you hold those thoughts for a whole day! Besides, if this is important enough to read then the time was well spent.
What are your thoughts on church? How could it be done more consciously or more Jesus-ly? Maybe you have a story of a church service that got it right.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Living Consciously: food (part 2)
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink. . . Is not life more important than food?”
Matthew 6:25
Everyone can picture a mom telling little Johnny to finish all of his vegetables because there are starving children in Africa. And when we’re little we might actually believe that finishing our lima beans will help those poor, hungry African children. In reality though, we can’t feed kids in Africa, or somewhere else in the world, with our uneaten peas. When we grow up we all understand that the message is more about being grateful that we have food at all and not being picky about food we don’t like. That’s an important message, but what if there’s something more too. What if Jesus told us exactly what to do with those extra uneaten cooked carrots?
In Luke 14, starting with verse 15, Jesus told a bunch of people at a Pharisees’ house a little story. In that story a person prepared a great banquet. When it was time to eat, the host sent out servants to invite people to the feast. They all turned down the offer. Three prominent people, those the Pharisees would have liked to invite to dinner, made excuses and said they couldn’t come. The host was upset, but not completely discouraged because the servants were next told to invite anyone and everyone to come to the banquet. They kept inviting people until the house was full.
Now, this parable almost certainly has more to do with the Kingdom of God than our eating practices, but I like to think it has something to say about both. With our extra food we can’t feed children in Africa, but we can feed people down the street. There’s no need to have food that spoils or gets thrown away. Some people won’t need the extra food, but there will always be people who’d appreciate it (college students, volunteers, the elderly, etc . . .). It just might take a little work to find them.
It’s awesome when people provide meals for families that are going through hard times and can’t provide meals for themselves very well. I’m proud to know that my university donates their leftover food to a community center that provides free meals for those that need it. It makes me smile when I see people bringing their excess zucchini to church, giving it away to anyone who would eat it. I’m delighted when the family across the street from my parents’ house share some food from their bounteous gardens.
So let’s be grateful for the food we have and share generously from our abundance. It’s an example of how generosity extends far beyond our use of money. It takes a little extra thought, but I think it’s a more faithful way to live.
This is an idea I had a few months ago, but I haven’t been bold enough to implement: don’t eat at fast food restaurants. This is a little more radical than “don’t go to fast food restaurants.” What if we were to go to fast food restaurants, but not eat at them? Is that crazy?
Here are the thoughts behind it: Generally speaking, fast food restaurants promote what Michael Pollan advocates against (see previous post). They do alright providing actual food to eat, but when it comes to eating mostly plants and not eating too much, they fail. The commercial meat industry, which I resist supporting, keeps fast food restaurants in business. Perhaps the opposite is true too. Together they assure us that we can and should have loads of meat in each sandwich, which is neither good for us nor good for the planet. So maybe eating at these restaurants is something we should question.
I spend around $6-8 every time I eat at a fast food restaurant. I don’t go often, usually just when I’m travelling, which actually has been often recently. What if I were to enter the restaurant like normal and just not get in line. This wouldn’t be a protest, like a sit-in or anything; I’d just fast for a meal. It wouldn’t kill me. I could have healthier, more faithful snacks in the car waiting for me. In addition to not eating, I could set aside $6-8 to donate somewhere that’ll feed people. There are plenty of organizations set up to feed those starving kids in Africa. Or you could make a more local choice, like a mission for the homeless or a food bank. I think Jesus would support that. By doing this I’d consciously not support something that’s less than faithful and support something that is faithful. That’s a win-win!
This concludes my current thoughts on living consciously in regards to food. I’m sure there are a lot of other great ideas out there. Do you know of any? Are there problems with the thoughts and ideas I’ve suggested? Maybe something I said has undesirable, unfaithful consequences that I’ve overlooked. I’m far from perfect.
Matthew 6:25
Everyone can picture a mom telling little Johnny to finish all of his vegetables because there are starving children in Africa. And when we’re little we might actually believe that finishing our lima beans will help those poor, hungry African children. In reality though, we can’t feed kids in Africa, or somewhere else in the world, with our uneaten peas. When we grow up we all understand that the message is more about being grateful that we have food at all and not being picky about food we don’t like. That’s an important message, but what if there’s something more too. What if Jesus told us exactly what to do with those extra uneaten cooked carrots?
In Luke 14, starting with verse 15, Jesus told a bunch of people at a Pharisees’ house a little story. In that story a person prepared a great banquet. When it was time to eat, the host sent out servants to invite people to the feast. They all turned down the offer. Three prominent people, those the Pharisees would have liked to invite to dinner, made excuses and said they couldn’t come. The host was upset, but not completely discouraged because the servants were next told to invite anyone and everyone to come to the banquet. They kept inviting people until the house was full.
Now, this parable almost certainly has more to do with the Kingdom of God than our eating practices, but I like to think it has something to say about both. With our extra food we can’t feed children in Africa, but we can feed people down the street. There’s no need to have food that spoils or gets thrown away. Some people won’t need the extra food, but there will always be people who’d appreciate it (college students, volunteers, the elderly, etc . . .). It just might take a little work to find them.
It’s awesome when people provide meals for families that are going through hard times and can’t provide meals for themselves very well. I’m proud to know that my university donates their leftover food to a community center that provides free meals for those that need it. It makes me smile when I see people bringing their excess zucchini to church, giving it away to anyone who would eat it. I’m delighted when the family across the street from my parents’ house share some food from their bounteous gardens.
So let’s be grateful for the food we have and share generously from our abundance. It’s an example of how generosity extends far beyond our use of money. It takes a little extra thought, but I think it’s a more faithful way to live.
This is an idea I had a few months ago, but I haven’t been bold enough to implement: don’t eat at fast food restaurants. This is a little more radical than “don’t go to fast food restaurants.” What if we were to go to fast food restaurants, but not eat at them? Is that crazy?
Here are the thoughts behind it: Generally speaking, fast food restaurants promote what Michael Pollan advocates against (see previous post). They do alright providing actual food to eat, but when it comes to eating mostly plants and not eating too much, they fail. The commercial meat industry, which I resist supporting, keeps fast food restaurants in business. Perhaps the opposite is true too. Together they assure us that we can and should have loads of meat in each sandwich, which is neither good for us nor good for the planet. So maybe eating at these restaurants is something we should question.
I spend around $6-8 every time I eat at a fast food restaurant. I don’t go often, usually just when I’m travelling, which actually has been often recently. What if I were to enter the restaurant like normal and just not get in line. This wouldn’t be a protest, like a sit-in or anything; I’d just fast for a meal. It wouldn’t kill me. I could have healthier, more faithful snacks in the car waiting for me. In addition to not eating, I could set aside $6-8 to donate somewhere that’ll feed people. There are plenty of organizations set up to feed those starving kids in Africa. Or you could make a more local choice, like a mission for the homeless or a food bank. I think Jesus would support that. By doing this I’d consciously not support something that’s less than faithful and support something that is faithful. That’s a win-win!
This concludes my current thoughts on living consciously in regards to food. I’m sure there are a lot of other great ideas out there. Do you know of any? Are there problems with the thoughts and ideas I’ve suggested? Maybe something I said has undesirable, unfaithful consequences that I’ve overlooked. I’m far from perfect.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Living Consciously: food (part 1)
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘People do not live on bread alone.’”
Luke 4:4
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘People do not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Matthew 4:4
I’d be remiss if I didn’t attribute a lot of my ideas in this post to my wonderful girlfriend. Without her this post would not exist. Actually, without her I’m quite sure none of these posts would exist. She’s the epitome of a conscious liver. (ha! That’s a funny term! I just called my girlfriend a sentient organ.)
I became a vegetarian about a year ago. I loved the fact that it was a relatively accepted way to eat more consciously. For the first few months it was a little challenging. For lunch I’d start thinking about making a simple ham sandwich, and then I’d have to stop and think. I guess it’d be peanut butter and jelly instead.
My forced layer of thinking stretched far beyond not eating meat. I found myself putting more thought into the fruits and vegetables I ate. My snacking lessened and my desire for dessert decreased. I thought a lot more about everything I ate. I didn’t expect such diverse benefits to come from the choice to be vegetarian.
So, why do I think being a vegetarian is a faithful step toward viewing food through a Jesus lens? Well, let me tell you.
Generally speaking, I think God’s plan for humanity is good. And in God’s original plan for humanity Adam and Eve didn’t eat meat. This actually applied to animals too. There was no spilling of blood, so therefore everyone and everything ate fruits and vegetables (Genesis 1:29-30). It wasn’t until after Noah and the flood that God consented and gave people animals to eat. And even then, the blood was sacred (Genesis 9:3-4). That’s not why I’m a vegetarian, but that seems reason enough to give it more thought, doesn’t it?
Actually, I probably shouldn’t call myself a vegetarian. I eat meat. I guess “flexetarian” is a term that describes me. Also in the Garden of Eden, God gave people the instructions to care for the land. That’s the real reason I’m a vegetarian. Meat is convenient. Any fast food restaurant will prove that. But, (like I said in the last post,) convenience is usually a sign of something gone wrong. In this case it’s the mass-produced-meat industry, which, generally speaking, doesn’t care for God’s creation. It doesn’t treat the animals as God’s workmanship. It uses many pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat. (Interesting fact I found online: Plants yield 10 times more protein per acre than meat.) And it fills the air with greenhouse gases to transport its goods across the world.
I don’t think eating meat is unfaithful, but I do think some meat we eat is less than faithful. To live consciously we have to consider our meat more carefully. In Jesus’ day they didn’t worry so much about this. They didn’t have a commercial meat industry. Any meat they ate had to be either local and fresh or transported and spoiled. I happily eat local meat. Hunted meat is great and seafood is alright if I’m near the source of it. If someone I know is going to butcher a cow, then I’ll happily buy some of it.
There’s a downside here: local meat is more expensive. Yep, that’s true. But is money our top priority? Is money our god or is God our God? Just because it’s cheap (and cheapness is a form of convenience) does not necessarily make it a good choice.
I recently read Food Rules by Michael Pollan (author of The Omnivores Dilemma). (It was a gift from my sister. She demonstrated the generosity from my last post!) He summarized his suggestions for eating like this: “Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.” I concur. “Eat food” means you try not to eat “edible food-like substances.” These are the random things in ingredient lists that you’d never have in your pantry or cook with yourself. “Mostly plants” is pretty self-explanatory. I’d draw the line at my suggestions above. “Not too much” is a critique of our American culture. We eat way more than we need to and that may have been something Jesus would have questioned if he lived today.
Well, it looks like this post on food will have to be a two-parter! I still have 5 ideas left to write about. More to come tomorrow!
Did these random thoughts bring up any random thoughts in anyone else? I really appreciate it when people post comments even if they aren’t especially substantive. I also appreciate when people follow my blog. It’s nice to know who’s reading.
Luke 4:4
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘People do not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Matthew 4:4
I’d be remiss if I didn’t attribute a lot of my ideas in this post to my wonderful girlfriend. Without her this post would not exist. Actually, without her I’m quite sure none of these posts would exist. She’s the epitome of a conscious liver. (ha! That’s a funny term! I just called my girlfriend a sentient organ.)
I became a vegetarian about a year ago. I loved the fact that it was a relatively accepted way to eat more consciously. For the first few months it was a little challenging. For lunch I’d start thinking about making a simple ham sandwich, and then I’d have to stop and think. I guess it’d be peanut butter and jelly instead.
My forced layer of thinking stretched far beyond not eating meat. I found myself putting more thought into the fruits and vegetables I ate. My snacking lessened and my desire for dessert decreased. I thought a lot more about everything I ate. I didn’t expect such diverse benefits to come from the choice to be vegetarian.
So, why do I think being a vegetarian is a faithful step toward viewing food through a Jesus lens? Well, let me tell you.
Generally speaking, I think God’s plan for humanity is good. And in God’s original plan for humanity Adam and Eve didn’t eat meat. This actually applied to animals too. There was no spilling of blood, so therefore everyone and everything ate fruits and vegetables (Genesis 1:29-30). It wasn’t until after Noah and the flood that God consented and gave people animals to eat. And even then, the blood was sacred (Genesis 9:3-4). That’s not why I’m a vegetarian, but that seems reason enough to give it more thought, doesn’t it?
Actually, I probably shouldn’t call myself a vegetarian. I eat meat. I guess “flexetarian” is a term that describes me. Also in the Garden of Eden, God gave people the instructions to care for the land. That’s the real reason I’m a vegetarian. Meat is convenient. Any fast food restaurant will prove that. But, (like I said in the last post,) convenience is usually a sign of something gone wrong. In this case it’s the mass-produced-meat industry, which, generally speaking, doesn’t care for God’s creation. It doesn’t treat the animals as God’s workmanship. It uses many pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat. (Interesting fact I found online: Plants yield 10 times more protein per acre than meat.) And it fills the air with greenhouse gases to transport its goods across the world.
I don’t think eating meat is unfaithful, but I do think some meat we eat is less than faithful. To live consciously we have to consider our meat more carefully. In Jesus’ day they didn’t worry so much about this. They didn’t have a commercial meat industry. Any meat they ate had to be either local and fresh or transported and spoiled. I happily eat local meat. Hunted meat is great and seafood is alright if I’m near the source of it. If someone I know is going to butcher a cow, then I’ll happily buy some of it.
There’s a downside here: local meat is more expensive. Yep, that’s true. But is money our top priority? Is money our god or is God our God? Just because it’s cheap (and cheapness is a form of convenience) does not necessarily make it a good choice.
I recently read Food Rules by Michael Pollan (author of The Omnivores Dilemma). (It was a gift from my sister. She demonstrated the generosity from my last post!) He summarized his suggestions for eating like this: “Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.” I concur. “Eat food” means you try not to eat “edible food-like substances.” These are the random things in ingredient lists that you’d never have in your pantry or cook with yourself. “Mostly plants” is pretty self-explanatory. I’d draw the line at my suggestions above. “Not too much” is a critique of our American culture. We eat way more than we need to and that may have been something Jesus would have questioned if he lived today.
Well, it looks like this post on food will have to be a two-parter! I still have 5 ideas left to write about. More to come tomorrow!
Did these random thoughts bring up any random thoughts in anyone else? I really appreciate it when people post comments even if they aren’t especially substantive. I also appreciate when people follow my blog. It’s nice to know who’s reading.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Living Consciously: money
Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
Matthew 22:21
Money is really convenient. Having it makes life so much easier. Arguably, it’s essential to live (though I’m going to argue that it’s not). It’s certainly essential for a lot of things in American society. I’d have to say that it’s not as important as many people would like to believe though. Money isn’t entirely evil or anything like that, but it’s from human minds, not from God’s. Jesus wasn’t opposed to money, but if we live consciously we have to question our use and treatment of money.
(Though this is the first section I’ve written in this series, I’m sure we’ve encountered a major theme already: decisions made on the basis of “convenience” almost always deserve scrutiny. Our culture says convenience = good, but I don’t think Jesus would agree. Keep that in mind.)
Money isn’t necessary for church. Sure, church as a building with a budget and paid staff and identified ministries to support needs money to operate, but as I define church, all that stuff is extra. Church in its basic form doesn’t require money. It requires people. And it requires God. And fortunately people can’t be anywhere where God is not.
Money isn’t necessary for food. If you want to eat whatever you want whenever you want it, then yes, you’ll need money. I’m not bold enough to eat without spending money on food, but it is possible. You may quickly get tired of the seasonal vegetables a garden produces, but they’ll keep you alive.
Food will get its own post later in this series, but I want to share a Bible story that ties money and food together. In John 6 Jesus has a huge crowd following him, mostly because they’ve seen him miraculously heal the sick. Jesus then has a conversation with his disciples about how to feed such a vast crowd of people. Their conversation starts by talking about the tremendous amount of money necessary to feed 5000 men, plus women and children. Philip says it’d take a year’s wages for each person to have just a bite. Then Jesus goes on to show that money isn’t truly an obstacle. He creates more than enough food out of a few loaves and fish. In this story money was a false hope, a distracting lead, a red herring. If money is a god, then money just lost all credibility. If Jesus is God, then he just gained credibility.
Even though Jesus didn’t use money in that story, I think he showed us how you use our money. In decisions involving money, conscious living wonders if generosity should come into play. At Christmas time suddenly I’m faced with dozens of things I never knew I wanted before, but now I want them really, really badly! But, if I spend my money to buy those things for myself, then I have less money to spend generously for others. I have to insert another layer of thought and act more faithfully and less selfishly. Fortunately my family makes this less of an issue. I’ll selflessly spend my money on gifts for them and I’ll carefully drop a hint about that other thing I really need. I’ll rest assured knowing that someone else will practice their own generosity by purchasing it for me.
It’s easy to use money for security. I don’t think that’s where I want to be putting my trust though. I’d rather put my faith in God and, like I said earlier, money is humanly, not Godly. Currently I’m really low on money. I’ve been living in Baltimore as a volunteer for a year and paying off college loans. That’s not a recipe for riches. My security comes from the people of God who have been extremely generous to me throughout this year.
I’m quite sure that life works best when everyone is generous. Notice there I didn’t say that life works best when the rich people are generous. I may not be able to help someone out with a loan payment, but you better believe I’m willing to pay for you to go bowling with me. I won’t balance the church’s budget, but I’ll tithe my $50 monthly stipend. If someone else offers to pay the restaurant bill, then I’ll gratefully accept, but when the bill comes every time after that the other person better act quickly or I’ll be paying for them.
There’s a downside here. If I’m generous with my money, then next time I want to buy something I might not be able to. Yep, that’s true. If I have $20 and I spend it on someone else, then I can’t spend it on me. If it’s something I want, then I’ll have to do without and I won’t die. If it’s something I need, then I’ll turn to someone else and humbly ask for help. I think you’ll find that people are more generous with their money that you expected. (Relationships like this will also get a post later in the series.)
Generosity extends far beyond money, by the way. I haven’t mentioned that, but it’s true. We have much more to give each other than just money.
I wrote about this topic first because I thought it’d be one of the shorter ones. Either I was mistaken and this was one of the longer posts, or I was mistaken in assuming these posts would be short. I could write a ton more and tell a lot more stories, but I’m going to stop.
What do you have to share about the faithful use of money? Have you had any experiences when an extra layer of thought was used in your money decision-making?
Matthew 22:21
Money is really convenient. Having it makes life so much easier. Arguably, it’s essential to live (though I’m going to argue that it’s not). It’s certainly essential for a lot of things in American society. I’d have to say that it’s not as important as many people would like to believe though. Money isn’t entirely evil or anything like that, but it’s from human minds, not from God’s. Jesus wasn’t opposed to money, but if we live consciously we have to question our use and treatment of money.
(Though this is the first section I’ve written in this series, I’m sure we’ve encountered a major theme already: decisions made on the basis of “convenience” almost always deserve scrutiny. Our culture says convenience = good, but I don’t think Jesus would agree. Keep that in mind.)
Money isn’t necessary for church. Sure, church as a building with a budget and paid staff and identified ministries to support needs money to operate, but as I define church, all that stuff is extra. Church in its basic form doesn’t require money. It requires people. And it requires God. And fortunately people can’t be anywhere where God is not.
Money isn’t necessary for food. If you want to eat whatever you want whenever you want it, then yes, you’ll need money. I’m not bold enough to eat without spending money on food, but it is possible. You may quickly get tired of the seasonal vegetables a garden produces, but they’ll keep you alive.
Food will get its own post later in this series, but I want to share a Bible story that ties money and food together. In John 6 Jesus has a huge crowd following him, mostly because they’ve seen him miraculously heal the sick. Jesus then has a conversation with his disciples about how to feed such a vast crowd of people. Their conversation starts by talking about the tremendous amount of money necessary to feed 5000 men, plus women and children. Philip says it’d take a year’s wages for each person to have just a bite. Then Jesus goes on to show that money isn’t truly an obstacle. He creates more than enough food out of a few loaves and fish. In this story money was a false hope, a distracting lead, a red herring. If money is a god, then money just lost all credibility. If Jesus is God, then he just gained credibility.
Even though Jesus didn’t use money in that story, I think he showed us how you use our money. In decisions involving money, conscious living wonders if generosity should come into play. At Christmas time suddenly I’m faced with dozens of things I never knew I wanted before, but now I want them really, really badly! But, if I spend my money to buy those things for myself, then I have less money to spend generously for others. I have to insert another layer of thought and act more faithfully and less selfishly. Fortunately my family makes this less of an issue. I’ll selflessly spend my money on gifts for them and I’ll carefully drop a hint about that other thing I really need. I’ll rest assured knowing that someone else will practice their own generosity by purchasing it for me.
It’s easy to use money for security. I don’t think that’s where I want to be putting my trust though. I’d rather put my faith in God and, like I said earlier, money is humanly, not Godly. Currently I’m really low on money. I’ve been living in Baltimore as a volunteer for a year and paying off college loans. That’s not a recipe for riches. My security comes from the people of God who have been extremely generous to me throughout this year.
I’m quite sure that life works best when everyone is generous. Notice there I didn’t say that life works best when the rich people are generous. I may not be able to help someone out with a loan payment, but you better believe I’m willing to pay for you to go bowling with me. I won’t balance the church’s budget, but I’ll tithe my $50 monthly stipend. If someone else offers to pay the restaurant bill, then I’ll gratefully accept, but when the bill comes every time after that the other person better act quickly or I’ll be paying for them.
There’s a downside here. If I’m generous with my money, then next time I want to buy something I might not be able to. Yep, that’s true. If I have $20 and I spend it on someone else, then I can’t spend it on me. If it’s something I want, then I’ll have to do without and I won’t die. If it’s something I need, then I’ll turn to someone else and humbly ask for help. I think you’ll find that people are more generous with their money that you expected. (Relationships like this will also get a post later in the series.)
Generosity extends far beyond money, by the way. I haven’t mentioned that, but it’s true. We have much more to give each other than just money.
I wrote about this topic first because I thought it’d be one of the shorter ones. Either I was mistaken and this was one of the longer posts, or I was mistaken in assuming these posts would be short. I could write a ton more and tell a lot more stories, but I’m going to stop.
What do you have to share about the faithful use of money? Have you had any experiences when an extra layer of thought was used in your money decision-making?
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Living Consciously: an intro
Here’s the question: How do we, as Christians, live an authentic, faithful, Jesus-centered life?
And here’s my humble answer: We live more consciously. We add another layer to our decision-making. Before making decisions, we take the time to rethink the assumptions and patterns that we’ve lived before. This added layer is a Jesus lens. Without this lens we live how the world does, which, I’d argue, is far less than faithful. With this additional lens we have a chance to recreate a life that actually cares about what Jesus taught and modeled. In order to insert this lens in our lives we must accept the call to live more consciously.
At the onset of this series I want to make something clear. If I had to identify one thing that God has been teaching me in the past year or so, it’d be this: The grace of God is not dependent on my actions. I can never earn grace. In fact, trying to earn grace is a horrible mistake and a grievous waste of life. God loves me and Jesus died for me while I was a sinner. Even if I completely change my life and follow 714 rules for faithful living, I will remain a sinner. And as I remain a sinner, God will remain a lover. Living consciously, whatever that will come to mean, will never earn anything from God. It’s simply an idea for more authentic living. I am a Christian loved and redeemed by God and I want that fact to be more than simply truth. I want it to change my life. Therefore, I want to live consciously with a Jesus lens.
If ever I seem to be straying away from that last paragraph and it sounds like I’m working for God’s grace, then I kindly ask that someone point it out and redirect me. I’m in the learning process of this whole grace thing and I’m sure I’ll stumble along the way.
Back to Jesus. Jesus was a Jew in a Roman world. I’m a Christian in an American world. Though I’m under-educated on the implications of such a statement, I propose that the two realities (Jesus and mine) are quite parallel. Jesus had harsh words for the elite Jews of his time and rejected a lot of Roman culture and influence. As we add a Jesus lens to our life, we too much take an inquisitive look at the Christian system (maybe Christendom is the right term here?) we participate in and refuse to blindly follow the cultural influence of the United States of America. We may live in this country, but we belong to the Kingdom of God. As we live consciously, our loyalties must lie above our human religion (Christendom) and above our human government (the USA) and find their home in God’s will.
So there, my blog series has been introduced. For the next while I’ll be sharing random thoughts and practical ideas about how living consciously looks in my life. I hope people stick with me and add their own comments and examples and stories and insights and wisdom that I could never possess. Let’s learn together with Jesus as our guide.
And here’s my humble answer: We live more consciously. We add another layer to our decision-making. Before making decisions, we take the time to rethink the assumptions and patterns that we’ve lived before. This added layer is a Jesus lens. Without this lens we live how the world does, which, I’d argue, is far less than faithful. With this additional lens we have a chance to recreate a life that actually cares about what Jesus taught and modeled. In order to insert this lens in our lives we must accept the call to live more consciously.
At the onset of this series I want to make something clear. If I had to identify one thing that God has been teaching me in the past year or so, it’d be this: The grace of God is not dependent on my actions. I can never earn grace. In fact, trying to earn grace is a horrible mistake and a grievous waste of life. God loves me and Jesus died for me while I was a sinner. Even if I completely change my life and follow 714 rules for faithful living, I will remain a sinner. And as I remain a sinner, God will remain a lover. Living consciously, whatever that will come to mean, will never earn anything from God. It’s simply an idea for more authentic living. I am a Christian loved and redeemed by God and I want that fact to be more than simply truth. I want it to change my life. Therefore, I want to live consciously with a Jesus lens.
If ever I seem to be straying away from that last paragraph and it sounds like I’m working for God’s grace, then I kindly ask that someone point it out and redirect me. I’m in the learning process of this whole grace thing and I’m sure I’ll stumble along the way.
Back to Jesus. Jesus was a Jew in a Roman world. I’m a Christian in an American world. Though I’m under-educated on the implications of such a statement, I propose that the two realities (Jesus and mine) are quite parallel. Jesus had harsh words for the elite Jews of his time and rejected a lot of Roman culture and influence. As we add a Jesus lens to our life, we too much take an inquisitive look at the Christian system (maybe Christendom is the right term here?) we participate in and refuse to blindly follow the cultural influence of the United States of America. We may live in this country, but we belong to the Kingdom of God. As we live consciously, our loyalties must lie above our human religion (Christendom) and above our human government (the USA) and find their home in God’s will.
So there, my blog series has been introduced. For the next while I’ll be sharing random thoughts and practical ideas about how living consciously looks in my life. I hope people stick with me and add their own comments and examples and stories and insights and wisdom that I could never possess. Let’s learn together with Jesus as our guide.
Monday, July 25, 2011
blog series
I’ve been thinking a lot. That happens. This time though, a good chunk of the thoughts all revolve around trying to live a more faithful, Jesus-centered life. That’s always been a goal of mine, but recently it’s been really weighing on me. What are practical steps I can take in that direction? I doubt I’m alone in this type of question.
I’m approaching a serious transition in my life and that always feels like a good time to make changes in my behavior. It’s a “New Year’s Resolution” kind of thing, except instead of remembering the correct date I have to remember where I live and what I do during the day. I’m not a huge fan of change, but I’m not afraid of it. And I guess if my outward life is going to change, then I’d rather make it a dramatic inward change too.
So I’m about to start a nice little run of blog posts, a series, if you will (and I hope you will). I’m not good at creating solid arguments or compelling persuasive pieces. My mind isn’t often linear. It’s more convoluted than that. So, in advance, I apologize for the randomness of my posts. These will be a series of thoughts that may or may not connect with each other. Ideally I want to post one per day until I run out of thoughts to write, but realistically it’ll probably take me weeks to get stuff out.
Yep, here it goes. Lead on, God.
I’m approaching a serious transition in my life and that always feels like a good time to make changes in my behavior. It’s a “New Year’s Resolution” kind of thing, except instead of remembering the correct date I have to remember where I live and what I do during the day. I’m not a huge fan of change, but I’m not afraid of it. And I guess if my outward life is going to change, then I’d rather make it a dramatic inward change too.
So I’m about to start a nice little run of blog posts, a series, if you will (and I hope you will). I’m not good at creating solid arguments or compelling persuasive pieces. My mind isn’t often linear. It’s more convoluted than that. So, in advance, I apologize for the randomness of my posts. These will be a series of thoughts that may or may not connect with each other. Ideally I want to post one per day until I run out of thoughts to write, but realistically it’ll probably take me weeks to get stuff out.
Yep, here it goes. Lead on, God.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)