what to build on?

I have been wondering about my faith lately.

As mentioned in prior posts I am reading about the classic Arminian/Calvin debate. Each camp in this debate holds to views that they see as foundational to their Christian faith. The books I have been reading have a level of humility that is refreshing and yet the authors hold firmly to their views.

People who have strong convictions challenge me. They know what they believe and they defend it to their last. And yet those sorts of people sometimes scare me. Like the man who stands at the center of the university campus declaring that all gays will burn in Hell. That man has strong convictions and maintains them despite popular belief. He thinks he is helping people; somehow pointing others towards God. I think he is dangerously wrong.

The question that keeps rumbling in my mind is this, ‘what beliefs are we to hold to dogmatically?’ or ‘As a Christian, what is essential to my faith?’ What is important but not essential? And what is merely window dressing?

What does God really think about gay marriage? Evolution in the public schools. The sort of government our country has. Stem cell research. International trade agreements. What is on television each night. Forgiveness of foreign debt relief. And so on and so forth.

The easy thing is to say these questions don’t matter and to get on living as I think I should. And there does seem to be some wisdom to that. And yet our actions are built on our beliefs so I want to be building on what is truly important. Now back to reading that claims to be foundational. I pray for wisdom.

take 2

Okay I want to give this one more go to see if anyone that reads this has stories to share. This time I will be more specific in hopes that it will generate a little more feedback.

Many of us are passionate about helping those in need so please share what you do to help those who are without. Do you sponser a kid, send out missionaries, go yourself, buy random people lunch, serve at a food pantry, etc etc? The options are nearly endless and it would be awesome to hear what others do to make a difference in the world around them. Don’t think of this as bragging, since no one will likely know who you are, but instead as a chance to encourage and challenge those who read this (or maybe just me).

If this is a bad idea or just annoying I will give up soon if there is no response.

I want this to have only two guidelines for sharing stories:

1. All posts need to be anonymous. It is good to share what we are doing but we need not run the risk of this being a place of pride.

2. You can only share ideas for others if you have tried it yourself.

care to share?

I only have a few minutes before I need to leave for an afternoon full of meetings but here is something that has been on my mind the last day or so…

I love reading and thinking in ideals and this is where I spend much of my mental time. I want to see the world become a better place. I want the church to be the bride of Christ and not dirty herself so quickly. I want Jesus followers to help the poor, cure the sick, care for those who everyone else has given up on. I want societies, when they think of Christians, to think of the above things and not of all that is negative. I want to care for the environment, to celebrate the arts, to find Truth all around us…

But then my idealism runs hard into reality and I get a bloody nose. I hate how much I and in turn so many of my passionate generation can talk but how at least I feel the task is so big that there is little that I can do. I know that deep down it is about each of us doing the little things. Things like sending money where it is needed, going on short-term trips to have our eyes opened and start relationships, it is giving a dollar, an extra shirt, saying a kind word, inviting a friend to church, recycling. It is not merely being nice people but it is being the hands of feet of Christ and doing all the small things. Together as we do that we can and will make a difference.

Here is my suggestion and we will see if this will even get off the ground. I want to create a forum to share stories of how we are taking steps even small ones to make a difference to move towards the ideals it seems that we all have. I want to create a place, maybe this blog, to post stories and links of what we are involved with.

I want this to have only two guidelines for sharing stories:

1. All posts need to be anonymous. It is good to share what we are doing but we need not run the risk of this being a place of pride.

2. You can only share ideas for others if you have tried it yourself.

So with that said I would love to hear what you, specifically Christ followers, are all doing, small or big to be the body of Christ on earth. I would love for the stories to begin. (if the response is at all good I am thinking of starting a separate blog just for these sorts of stories but then again I am an idea person and maybe this is not a good one)

another one bites the dust

I have only a few minutes left of being 27 and I thought I would take a few minutes to reflect on this past year.

Instead of coming up with a boring list of my year in review let me share five highlights: (in no particular order)



1. The chance to speak at Fort Wilderness. There was something always about the camp speaker that seemed beyond reach. I never did normal camp but I did go to family camp (aka dork camp) but even there the camp speaker was cool. Having the chance to be the speaker was stressful and challenging and I love how much it pushed me to depend on God. I wish it were not true that I need new and hard things in my life to push me back towards God but it is a pattern that can be easily seen in my life. It was also fun because I was able to do only the things I like and skip all the stuff I don’t. I worked on talks and played with kids. Good times, oh yeah and I was able to do the famous mud run.



2. Running in Grandma’s marathon. This happened to be the day after camp and I am not sure what I was thinking but after some nervous moments and last minute car troubles where the mechanic told me, ‘If I were you I would not use your breaks’, I made it to Duluth and joined my friend Katie the night before the race as we talked excitedly about things like how much we would eat for breakfast and when the best time would be to go to the bathroom for the last time before the race. When I finished I did not feel like Hell, but good would not be a word I would use either and was then able to go back and have a deep fried turkey and drink Spotted Cow after a long bath. Thanks Shannon for that and for your parents inviting me to their church.



3. Madison Missions: We had a weeklong missions trip in our own city and over the course of a week were able to put in hundreds of community service hours. The most exciting part was seeing students get excited about serving and doing it together in community. Now I know that student events often end in highly emotional times and that I should not overvalue these times but it was so cool to see students from different friend groups hugging and crying for a couple hours at the end of a time of foot washing. It was one of those times where God feels tangibly in the room.

4. Dating Mary. We had been friends for several years and kept in touch on a regular but infrequent basis. I took a class this summer near Chicago and we were able to spend a lot of time together. At the end of that time, I was finally able to get the guts to ask her to date me and, in a moment of confusion, she said she would (I will ask her before I put anything more up on the blog).

5. Backpacking with the boys. After my class in August and before another year of ministry began, I was able to head north with Jared and Matt and hike through the Porcupine mountains. There are few things that refresh my soul like being with close friends and talking about everything from politics to religion to things I should not mention. I really have amazing friends and I am reminded of that each time I get to spend time with them.

So that is the year in review. Not as funny as the last post but at least I wrote it.

dear jon

on my last day of being 27, i am writing myself a letter. and lucky you, you know my blog address, so you get to read it, too. here goes nothing. zoop!

dear jon,

you are ridiculously good-looking. i am fond of you. you are very popular. so popular, in fact, that hardly anyone notices that you are losing your hair. but the fact that you can grow lots of facial hair says a lot about your ability to do other things well - like climb mountains. i mean, when was the last time you saw a guy climb a mountain who DID NOT have facial hair? yeah, you can climb a mountain. better yet, you can climb EVERY mountain.

jon, remember those nights in junior high when you played the "sound of music" soundtrack just to center yourself after a long, hard day in the cruel middle school world? you sang "climb every mountain" so well, i don't know why they would not let you audition for the part of maria in the school play sophomore year. you told them that sandy duncan played peter pan. they are so sexist. goodness.

but jon, the thing is, i do not want you to forget that you rock. so i want to dedicate this song to you for the next year of your life. it is outdoorsy and dreamy. just like you. may it guide, inspire and be always on your mind.

with all of my love,
jon

climb every mountain

climb every mountain, search high and low
follow every byway, every path you know.
climb every mountain, ford every stream,
follow every rainbow, till you find your dream!

a dream that will need
all the love you can give
every day of your life
for as long as you live

climb every mountain, ford every stream,
follow every rainbow, till you find your dream!

my brain hurts

This last week we started a discussion in my class that will last for the next month and a half. It is the Calvinist vs. Armenian debate or somewhat unfairly known as the free will verses predestination debate. This discussion reminds me of the golden age of college where my roommates and I would nightly debate issues ranging from the biblical role of para-church organizations to the aforementioned discussion. We would sit around our living room and while the other person spoke, conjure up responses that were sure to stop everyone else in the room in their tracks and reduce them to shock and awe. Sadly this never happened.

So now my theology class will be spending the next several weeks discussing and debating how we should best understand God’s sovereignty and how it relates to our free will. Did Jesus die for everyone? Does God choose those who will be saved or do we have the freedom to respond? Does our freedom include the ability to be saved at one time and later lose that salvation? If God chooses people why try and share the hope of Christ? If God chooses to send some people to Hell for his glory, is he a loving God? (see Melissa’s blog at http://pauserewinderase.blogspot.com/ for similar discussion) And there are thousands more questions along these lines.

The point of this blog is that as we have begun this debate I am coming to the clear understanding that my theology contains many a contradiction and I am not sure how much I care. I am quite sure that I hold to views, although I am not sure exactly what they are, that are not logically consistent together. And the reason that I am not sure if I care is that all examples within history that I know of that have attempted to come up with a fully logical and error free system has jumped wildly into either heretical beliefs or limited theology.

Now I still want to weed out of my life things that are illogical but I don’t want to spend my days focusing on that. I want to live a life that is fully obedient to scripture which I believe by faith is without contradiction when correctly understood. I do not want to be lazy but I also know that these debates can drown living out of our faith. I want to learn how to balance sincere glorification of God with my mind AND living according to what I now know. We shall see how that goes.