Christians In The Blogosphere

I am starting to get into this blogging thing more and more. I am probably more into reading other blogs than I am in contributing content to my own. Anyway, it has occurred to me that there has to be a load of Christian blogs out there. I mean we are just ordinary people (save for kooks like Rev. Phelps - maybe he will come picket me - God loves gays!). There has got to be a virtual ton of blogs out there that explore Christianity in a relevant and meaningful way. By relevant and meaningful I mean in a way that embraces that same type of progressive thinking Jesus was famous for. Yes I said it. PROGRESSIVE. What a loaded word. I digress. I am starting to become excited about Christianity for the first time in my life. Not because the American Church is heading in an exciting direction (it isn't - yet) but because for the first time I am starting to see what God really wanted the church (us) to be.

So, I am going to begin to seek out such blogs from such intrepid and adventursome souls who share in the struggle. I am bound, no doubt, to disagree with a lot of what I come accross, but the adventure of challenging new ideas is still an exciting prospect.

My goal is to begin posting snippets, links, and such from the blogs I discover. This ought to be good.

The Rythm of Waiting

Have you ever been at a place in your life when you felt suspended in slower than slow motion? Like you're waiting for something to happen before you can resume living life with enthusiasm and joy. You just feel kind of blah, worn out.
There is no shame in feeling this way. An article by Brian Orme in Relevant Magazine called "Waiting for Passion" reveals that Jesus went through the same thing. We can find a model for the rythm of waiting in the garden with Jesus just hours before his crucifiction. The key is seeking God while we wait instead of trying to soothe ourselves with distractions & temporary solutions. Even if we end up waiting for a number of years, its better to let God work than to try and do the work ourselves. Here are a few quotes from the article to ponder. . .

Waiting isn't glamorous; it makes us vulnerable, dependent and anxious.

True spiritual renewal arrives when we become boldly aware of our own weakness. The exposure is painful, but in these moments we are closer to God than we could know.

Finding the rythm and grace in this sacred effort of waiting teaches us to renew our hearts through devine resources instead of conjuring up some pseudo-strength of our own.

Waiting goes against our natural instincts. But when we stop and wait for God to renew us, we receive what only God can give.

If You Can't Beat 'em, Join 'em

I came accross this article in Relevant Magazine by one of my favorite contributers, John Fischer. The article discusses a topic of great interest to me. Culture. Here is a brief snippet.

A culture war is simply not an effective model for changing culture. A culture war is a negative potsturing toward the world that only creates further resistance. The people for whom Christ died end up aliented by the carriers of the very gospel that can save them. Christians are in this world to spread the good news of God's grace, not to create a culture that is more to our liking or safer for our children. Christians are here primarily to love God and to love our neighbors and to do that within the context of our place in the world, wherever that might be.

Over the last year, God has been teaching me how to be open to the culture I am in. I have spent so much of my life operating in the school of thought that teaches that we as Christians must separate ourselves from the culture around us. We have no part with secular culture...movies, music, social activities. We speak so much about how God "meets us where we are" and "takes us just as we are" yet we as Christians don't embrace this. I believe God wired us to relate to eachother through the common grounds and circumstances of our culture. How often do we fight culture. What is the point. Would our energy be best spent elsewhere?