Getting to know you…
This is a recreation of a post I lost due to a database crash. So if you saw it previously and are wondering, “What the heck?” that’s what’s up.
Something occurred to me recently. I’ve blogged in some form since 2004(ish). I registered my domain in 2008, and have written at CulturalSavage ever since. In all that time I have never had the foggiest idea of who is actually reading my ramblings. I figure now is as good a time as any to change that.
So, here is your chance to tell me all about you. Do you blog? Do you like bacon? How much coffee do you drink? Do you have a family? What are your ideas on double predestination? Where are you from? What are your spiritual beliefs? How awesome are you? What is your name for crying out loud!?
I’ve said enough on this blog already. Now it’s your turn. Who the heck are you?
Saturday Rant
Angles and prophets carried a message of hope and God’s great deeds in ages past. Now, celebrity preachers write books, travel to conferences, and leave pulpits to further their ministry. Why do our methods of proclaiming the topsy-turvy kingdom of God now look so sleek,so familiar to our internet culture? Inverting the old ways just leads to something we are comfortable with, something like us, something devoid of prophetic life.
The value of a martyr is not that they are brave enough to die. The true glory of martyrdom is the life preceding the death, a life that by its very way of expression proclaims something so different, so other, so holy they powers that be deem it as a threat to their familiar, their safe, their way of wielding power.
So, why does a blessed christian life look so much like the American dream? Why do pastors we think successful look like CEO’s, motivational speakers, and entrepreneurs?
The danger of conforming to the world is not that we will end up looking like the unwashed masses. The real devastation comes when our life loses its prophetic voice because the home we point to looks exactly like the demon of success. Maybe we should sell everything we have, give the money to the poor, and follow Jesus… not because poverty is more spiritually pure, but rather because that kind of action is so unfamiliar to our beautiful, savvy culture that shops at Ikea.
If our Message is Jesus and his new kind of life, should we really be telling people Jesus will give them everything they have ever day dreamed of?
acting, feelings, and reasons
Sunday night, my friend Alece put this up on Twitter and the Facebook:
“You don’t feel your way into an action. You act your way into a feeling.” -@pwilson @crosspoint_tv
I understand that this was a quote from a sermon, and I don’t know the entire context this idea was presented in… however this statement (and this idea in general) gives me mixed feelings.
On the one hand, I understand that our feelings often are fed by our actions. The more of a certain behavior we practice, the more our feelings shape to fit said behavior. Example: the more I sit on the couch and eat bags of Cheetos, the more my feelings are going to be that I really, really want to do that. (Don’t judge me… they were organic cheeto-type poofs.) So yes, there is truth to the idea that feeling follows action.
But…
There is another, deeper part of me that feels that this idea is somehow dishonest, somehow cheating me out of a whole person experience and settling for a stoic life look. There is a part of me that feels this idea is neglectful to the needs our feelings truly speak to. We have feelings and emotions for a reason. Yes, they are effected by this sin sickness (just like our bodies and psyche are), but they are still a vital part of who we are. If I am to do right behavior in order to change my feelings, what happens when the feelings don’t change? What happens when I don’t love more, fear less, believe better, trust deeper, worship?
Acting my way into feeling feels like just that: acting. It feels like I am lying to my self (or at least to those around me) in order to convince my self of whatever. As I said, this idea strikes my as far to stoic. I can’t discount my feelings, even when they are wrong. Yes I want to see my heart changed and my emotions moved. But behavior isn’t the final solution. Modifying what I do may not ever truly touch the need, the reason for these emotions.
Maybe I’m off here. Maybe I’m just too sentimental, too undisciplined, feel too much for my own good. All I know is feelings matter. Acting to feel seems to deny this to me, even though I agree that behaviors feed feelings.
Father, Husband, Theological Dreamer, Web Designer, Photographer, Coffee Chugger... Jesus obsessed & dreaming of a better Christianity. It's kind of like listening to a cross between guerrilla radio and a street corner prophet with a bad case of tourettes.
