Rambling & Catharsis

(So, this post is mostly for me. I'm not sure if it will make any sense to you. I'm not even sure that you will enjoy reading it. This post, however, is something I need to do after a day like today. Everything feels a bit reflective and bittersweet right now.)

I spent the vast majority of my 9-to-5-day today in meetings, discussing "things" and "stuff" with "people." I talked about plastic wall hanging things, acoustic treatment of a gymnasium, the father of someone I know dying, the sister of someone I don't know dying, the future of my church (organizationally and spiritually), and a T-shirt design. I'm not sure how effective any of my conversations were. I'm not sure if anything I discussed today will actually end up making a difference in the universe. One thing I do know is that I poured myself, heart and soul, into all the conversations that I did have.

Before I left my office today, one of our church elders stopped by. He was having a few of us look over his will and sign a few things. He's been fighting cancer for several years now. He had been given a clean bill of health a few years ago, but now the cancer's back and more intrusive than ever. Now he's facing another risky surgery in an attempt for more knowledgeable and skilled surgeons to get the rest of the tumor that the first ones couldn't. As I listened to him talk, I was filled with a sense of respect, admiration, and, yes, even love. Many people, when faced with a similar situation, choose complaining and misery over optimism, joy and purpose. This man has chosen to face his cancer head on while making the most of however many days he has left on this earth.

When I came home from work, I was greeted by the most beautiful woman in the world who had worked to prepare a delicious meal for our family: some sort of garlic-red-sauce noodles, salad, garlic bread, with a glass of Cabernet already poured for me. My 5 and 3 year old girls hugged and kissed me, then proceeded to to tell me about their (mis)adventures at the zoo today. Delaney (3) not only peed her pants while at the zoo, but proceeded to do it once again when she got home. That girl just loves to pee wherever she is. I can't say that I really blame her. In the past, I've been harsh with her for her failing to control her bladder, but today it just didn't seem to matter...

After dinner, the 2 girls went outside to play in the sandbox with a little neighbor girl (who I'm not sure knows how to speak English...good thing my kids watch Dora), leaving Lynn and I alone with the 7-month-old. Earlier in the day, I had burned a few DVD's of our family movie from 2 years ago for the purpose of sending to family members on Mother's Day. (I KNOW we're behind...stop judging!) We plugged the movie into the player, mostly for the purpose of making sure the DVD burned correctly. Lynn and I then sat and watched pictures and video of "things" and "stuff" that happened in our lives 2 years ago: pony rides on Cinco de Mayo, our trip to Vegas for Lynn's Mrs. United States Pageant, a trip to the state fair with amazing friends, and the kids learning how to play in the snow.

* Side note...humanity has always longed to travel through time. I am utterly amazed that we have the ability, thanks to modern technology, to revisit these moments in the past via photos and video. Pretty freakin' remarkable time that we live in...

I do NOT have the same kind of drive as my wife does when it comes to capturing moments for posterity. She takes pictures and video all the time, writes down funny moments in the kids' baby books, and scrapbooks all the memories. I will probably never scrapbook a page in my life, but I am eternally grateful for the time and energy that my wife puts into it. (Also, my wife learned how to edit video on iMovie for the purpose of doing these family videos. That's pretty stinkin' sexy, if you ask me...). If my house was to catch fire, the number one thing I would grab, aside from my family members, would be these scrapbooks. When I look through their pages, I am reminded of what is most important in this life: relationship. And, as the old saying goes, relationship is spelled T-I-M-E.

I don't really care that much about the plastic wall hangers or the T shirt design; what I really care about, at the end of the day, are the relationships that I have invested in. I care about my relationship with my Heavenly Father, who gives blessings and mercy and love and grace and gifts that I have done literally nothing to earn. I care about my relationship with my wife, whom I love more than any other human being there is. I care about my relationships with my children, because God has entrusted them to me for a short little while. I care about my relationships with friends, coworkers, & church family, because I believe that relationship is the only thing that will last into the next age of New Creation.

I'm going to try an experiment tomorrow. Whenever I feel myself getting frustrated or mad, I'm going to remind myself of how I feel right now. I long to hold onto this perspective. May we all grow in our ability to see past the fluff and the distractions and the superfluous and see the heart of the matter.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. - Philippians 4:8

A Psalm of Jack Shephard

I love Lost. One of the main characters, Jack Shephard, has been identified with the number "23". Psalm 23 is called the "Shepherd's Psalm." This got me thinking...

Psalm 4, 8 , 15, 16, 23, 42

Jack is my Shephard, I shall not be in charge. He makes me lie down in green pastures to deliver my baby. He leads me to find clean drinking water. He can fix everything. He guides me on paths to the Black Rock for dynamite's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of the statue, I will fear no Smoke Monster, for Jack is with me. Your "Flame" and your "Swan", they comfort me. You prepare a table for me in the hatch of my enemies. You anoint my head with Dharma shampoo. My cup overflows with Dharma beer. Hurley, Kate, and Sawyer will follow me all the days of my life, and I will live forever on the island...or die alone.

(Lynn and Ruthie and Bowen all helped me with the preceding piece of heresy. Thanks!)

Book Review: Will The World End In 2012?

Doomsday. Armageddon. 2012. Fear. Chaos. I currently have R.E.M.'s "It's The End of the World As We Know It" running through my head.

Because...we are careening with breakneck speed towards the end of the world. No one may be able to guarantee when the earth will see her final days, but there is one thing that we can all agree on: we are closer now to the end than we've ever been.

The 2012 doomsday scenario is the most recent end-of-the-world phenomena to catch some semi-serious traction in our culture. I recently read the book "Will The World End In 2012?" by Raymond C. Hundley, subtitled "A Christian Guide To The Question Everyone's Asking." In this book, Hundley answers questions about the ten most popular predictions about how the world may end in 2012. The claims come from a much more diverse group of perspectives than I had previously thought, everything from the pseudo-religious (Nostradomus predictions, Mayan calendar) to the pseudo-scientific (Earth's alignment with the galactic plane) to very legitimate science (super volcanoes, NASA solar scientists predicting major solar activity in 2012). The chapter on the CERN experiments with sub-atomic particles was particularly eye-opening to me.

Overall, this book was mildly interesting at best. While the writer did a fairly good job of organizing the book into a memorable "top ten list" format, the material itself was as dry as a British soap opera. The fictionalized introductions to each chapter didn't help, either; they felt forced, out of place, and juvenile. While I appreciated the author's attempt to appeal to a secular audience, I think this book may be best suited to Christian high school students who want to have a more intelligent response to their overly dramatic peers. You know, the ones panicking about the world ending before they graduate...

I give this book 2 out of 5 stars. Thomas Nelson gave me a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

3 Common Church Phrases I Want To Change

I am not an English major. I am not a poet. I am not a scholar. I am, however, a bit of a word nerd. I believe that there is importance in the words that we use. There are messages, both explicit and implicit, in how we use our words. As a Christian, there are many phrases that are unique to our faith, that only make sense within the framework of Christianity and the Bible. Most of our peculiar phrases have some basis in the scripture, and, while being confusing or obscure to our increasingly secular culture, are generally good and helpful to us as followers of Jesus. There are, however, a few phrases that are commonly used in modern American Christianity that I have come to really dislike. I dislike these phrases because I find them to be a bit...watered down...or misguided. I also find them to be distracting from the reality that the Bible teaches. I am going to explore my current "top 3" phrases that I am having to consistently correct myself on. In this post, I will offer a phrase, some possible variations on the same theme, and possible replacements for the above.

Phrase I don't like: "Going to church"

- variant: "Stop by the church"

This is a phrase that has been around for quite some time, and most likely won't go away any time soon. The problem that I have with this phrase is that it either too closely identifies the "church" as either the building or as the meeting time. Biblically speaking, the church (the ekklesia or "called out ones") is the group of people who follow Jesus. The church is people, not a building or a meeting time.

Replacement phrase: "Church gathering"

- Replacement variant: "Stop by the church building"

Phrase I don't like: "Time to worship"

- variants: "worship pastor", "the worship was powerful today"

In the modern Evangelical church, the word "worship" has become synonymous with "singing." This is an incredibly narrow definition of what it means to worship God. Romans 12 teaches us that the way that we truly worship God is to continually submit our selfish desires to His perfect will. The act of worshipping God should never cease. We can worship God in the way we treat our spouse, how honest we are in our business practices, even in how we drive. While I LOVE, LOVE singing and music as a way to express my heart towards God and as a way to experience His presence, I am trying very much to do away with the term "worship" as an exclusive term to music.

Replacement phrase: "time to sing"

- variants: "music pastor", "the singing was powerful today"

Phrase I don't like: "When I get to heaven"

Oh, man! The complications of this...let me try to sum this up in a few short sentences. After we die, the Bible does teach that there is a positive afterlife of comfort, rest, and peace. This is referred to as "Abraham's bosom/side" or "paradise" in the New Testament. It is never referred to as "heaven." "Heaven", throughout the Bible refers to the place where God's presence is fully manifest. It also refers to the atmosphere, or to the sky/planets/stars, so it can get a little confusing. At the time of King Solomon, the Jewish people believed that all the dead went to Sheol, which means "the grave," and that it was mostly a place of silence. Only later did they begin to clarify that within Sheol was a "positive" afterlife (Abraham's bosom or paradise) and a "negative" one. In addition, we as Christians believe that at the end of this age, Christ will return and all who have ever lived will bodily resurrect. Throughout the eschatological literature of the Bible, there is a consistency of teaching that we don't float off into some cloudy, harp-playing, ethereal eternity, but that God restores the entirety of physical creation into a state of perfection. Jesus will literally join heaven and earth together for eternity. As Christians, we don't just believe in life-after-death, we believe in a physical resurrection and restoration and life-AFTER-life-after-death. Someday, heaven will crash into earth, resulting in...new creation.

Replacement phrase: "After the resurrection" or "In the New Creation"

I know that a post like this has the potential to ruffle some feathers. Please believe me when I say that the desire of my heart is to simply be more clear as to the meaning that can be lost or obscured by the cliche phrases we've come to adopt in English-speaking churches. My intention is not to deride anyone for using these phrases, but to challenge everyone to think more critically about the meanings behind the phrases we may take for granted. I desire to strive for clarity in my speech, so I can more accurately represent and communicate the ideas that are set forth in the scriptures.

What other phrases do we use that are:

a) Not truly Biblical?

b) Misunderstood or possibly misleading?

c) Cliche, and stripped of their effectiveness?

Some final, unexplored possibles..."ask Jesus in your heart"..."God helps those who help themselves"..."the safest place to be is in God's will"..."taking the Lord's name in vain"...

Thanks for reading this and and I hope that you would be challenged to be more intentional with your words. May this discussion lead to greater clarity and truth.

Man, The Writer of Hebrews Sure Was A Jerk

I've been reading the book of Hebrews for the last few days, and last night I came upon this tasty little nugget:

So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding. - Hebrews 6:1-3 (NLT)

Something you should know about me is this: I am ALL about numbered lists when it comes to learning and study. Anyone who has sat through one of my sermons will know that I almost always include some sort of list: "7 Thoughts on Eschatology," "4 Relationship Killers," "947 Way Chuck Norris Could Kill You...With A Gummy Worm." You get the idea. When I come across lists like this in the Bible, I reach a level of nerdy excitement that would make Star Trek action figure owners pity me.

What's so interesting to me about this passage is where it falls in the larger scope of the book of Hebrews. The first 5 chapters basically keep hammering on the point that Jesus is the perfect "high priest" for us, that He perfectly represents God to man and perfectly represents mankind to God. He is the ultimate ambassador, the perfect intermediary, the only accurate messenger and representative. The writer is chugging along nicely, explaining that Jesus is greater than angels, greater than Moses, greater than anything, when all of a sudden, he has a random thought about the state of the people he's writing to:

There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen. - Heb. 5:11 (NLT)

Ouch. I actually think it's kind of funny. You can almost hear the conversation going on in the writer's head: "Oh man, I have this killer point that I need to make about Jesus being a priest in the order of Melchizedek, but I can see that I'm going to lose them all. What I wouldn't give for some students who aren't such babies but are ready to move on to some meatier stuff. Maybe if I slap them unexpectedly here, they'll pay better attention to the next section."

The writer of Hebrews (the exact author is unknown) lays out, at the beginning of chapter 6, a list of six things that he considers to be the ABC's of the Christian faith and belief. He considers these to be so elementary that we have no business talking about other things until these teachings become second nature. We would be well to take notice of this (ahem) NUMBERED LIST! :)

1. Getting rid of evil deeds

2. Having faith and trust in God

3. Baptism

4. Laying on of hands

5. Resurrection of the dead

6. Eternal judgement

Does it seem to anyone else like we've missed something? Call me sheltered, but I'm not aware of too many Christians that have this list of 6 things at the top of their "to remember" list. We've majored on the other majors, like Jesus' primary commandment to love or the John 3:16 reason why Jesus came. I'm am always a fan of boiling things down to the fundamentals, to the "bottom-line" kind of truths. The word "fundamentalist" has become a nasty term, meaning "people who are really really angry about things that are not actually fundamental truths taught by scripture." That actually makes me kind of sad. I love the book "Mere Christianity" where C.S. Lewis makes philosophical and scriptural arguments for the basic tenets of the faith that all Christians can agree on. I want to be that kind of fundamentalist.

I guess the severity of the rebuke at the end of chapter 5 made me take a double glance at this list at the top of chapter 6. I also found it striking how the author just throws these thoughts out and doesn't even spare the time to explain them. He's just assuming that the readers know what he's talking about. It's like he's warning, "Caution: if you don't know what I just said, please stop reading this letter and figure it out first. At that time, you may come back and finish reading what I wrote." Let's explore these 6 teachings briefly:

1) Get rid of evil deeds

The way that different translations render this part of the verse is interesting. In the Greek, "evil deeds" is the two words nekros (meaning "dead" - it actually comes from the root word for corpse) and ergon (meaning "activities" or "business ventures"). Some translations put it like this: "works leading to death" while others have it this way: "dead works." Do you see the difference? The first translation would be a very simple instruction to repent and leave behind sinfulness. The second translation is a bit more nuanced, instructing us to understand that our works themselves are dead (I think the King James actually nailed it on the head in this instance). The writer of the Message paraphrase puts it this way "turn your back on 'salvation by self-help.'" Either way, the message is the same: we cannot be saved just by our actions, because they are either dead themselves, or because they just lead to death. We must repent of this activity and move on to the second part of this list.

2) Put faith in God

Outside of the Gospel, every system of thinking or belief boils down to the same basic message, namely, you have to figure out a way to make it work all by yourself. Religions teach that you have to jump through all sorts of hoops to make God happy. Darwinism teaches that you have to be "fittest" in order to survive. Even humanism, in it's best-looking form, says that you have to be a self-made person, and then do a bunch of charity to be a decent human being. The message of the Gospel is so contrary to what we see anywhere else. Simply put, we can't "make it" on our own, and God knows and is sympathetic to our plight and has intervened on our behalf. All that is required is to place our faith and trust in God. Once we have done that, we can move onto #3...

3) Be baptized

There have been all sorts of heated debates throughout the centuries about the nature and effects of baptism. I am not remotely qualified to sort all of these out. However, here's what virtually all Christians have always believed about baptism: it's about identification and identity. In baptism, we are identifying with Christ's death and resurrection, and we are publicly identifying ourselves with Him. Many times, baptism has been likened to a marriage ceremony in that it is a public declaration of something that has already happened inside of a person's heart. However, baptism doesn't just identify us with Christ, it also identifies us with Christ's people, a point that is further explained by #4.

4) Laying on of hands

Simply put, community. Throughout the entire Bible, God gives His people physical acts that we participate in to remind us of much deeper spiritual truths (singing, lifting hands in worship, Lord's supper, baptism). There's nothing magical about putting our hands on someone, like the Emperor from Return of the Jedi shooting lightning from his fingertips. God knows our fundamental human need to be lovingly, affectionately, and reassuringly touched. We place our hands on each other's shoulders, we give a warm hug, we even hold hands during prayer or worship to remember how deeply we need one another. Jesus did not come to put us all on our own individualistic faith journey, but consistently called us a "kingdom," or a "family." We were built for relationship and community.

5) Resurrection of the dead

Try something with me. I have worked hard to eliminate the phrase "going to heaven" from my vocabulary (including all potential variations) because, as Christians, we believe something much less Platonic, much less ethereal, much more real. The Bible consistently uses the terminology of "new creation" or "new heavens and new earth" for the final destination of God's people. In fact, the Bible describes God's realm (heaven) and our realm (earth) crashing into each other, and becoming one perfect, unified realm (sorry if that sounded too much like an episode of Fringe). We believe that at the end of this age, Christ will restore the entire universe to its intended state, place, and purpose. Everything that we know in this life having to do with pain, disappointment, hurt, or suffering will be eliminated forever and the whole of creation will be set right. This should give us amazing hope! HALLELUJAH, WE DON'T HAVE TO SIT ON A CLOUD AND PLAY HARP MUSIC FOR ALL ETERNITY!! But there is one last point to consider...

6) Eternal judgement

If there was one doctrine or teaching that I could eliminate from the Bible, it would be the doctrine of the eternality of Hell. In fact, more and more recent Bible teachers have moved towards universalism in their theology because the belief in eternal separation from God is such a hard pill to swallow. I believe that the medieval introduction of the Catholic doctrine of purgatory is actually an early attempt to soften the blow of eternal conscious torment in separation from God. As much as I would like to become a universalist (or even an annihilationist!), I just can't see how it jives with scripture. So, since I can't change what I believe to be "fundamental truth" of the Christian faith, what can I do? Easy. Live as on a mission. Don't take any moment for granted, but use every opportunity to do good to others, to share with them the love that God has lavished upon me.

So, if I've got this list right, I can sum up my foundational beliefs in these 6 words:

Repentance - Faith - Identity - Community - Hope - Mission

May these 6 words be as a bedrock to anything else I do or believe as a Christian. May these 6 words shape us all to be the type of Christians who could then move on to more "solid food." I don't know about you, but I could imagine these 6 foundational principals taking some time to digest. But I'm going to take the time needed, because I want to make sure that my life is built on something solid.

Also, because when I meet the writer of Hebrews in the new creation, I don't want him to yell at me and call me names.

I Know Nothing...

Fresh on the heels of my last blog about engaging the mind when it comes to our relationship with God, I am going to explore the opposite end of the spectrum: the disengagement of the mind.

Everybody has ideas. Everybody places value on those ideas. Everybody has emotion (key word) that is tied to the value they place on their ideas. We get these ideas from our upbringing, from our life experiences, from teachers and authority figures, and even from sacred writings. No matter who it is, everybody experiences some level of emotional response within themselves when one of their beliefs or ideas are challenged; I don't care how unattached they try to act. They care.

I am friends with quite a variety of people from a variety of viewpoints. Nowhere is this more evident than via my Facebook page. I am friends with Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox, agnostics, atheists, pantheists, polytheists, liberals, conservatives, soldiers, pacifists, rich, poor, South Americans, Europeans, US Americans, Canadians, AND even Texans! In my quest to encourage people to "engage their minds" when it comes to our relationship with God, I will often post...thought-provoking?...discussion-inducing?...possibly controversial?...statements, intended to at least give people the opportunity to wrestle with more difficult issues. I like to encourage people to not just sweep these difficult conversations under the proverbial rug. We may never really reach some dramatic conclusion, but I think that there is value even in the discussion.

What often happens is that people with a variety of viewpoints weigh in on these important topics. (People also weigh in on the unimportant ones, which is usually way more fun - "No way man, Delta Force 2 was WAY better than the first one..."). In my experience, I have found these conversations to be often difficult, often fruitful, often enlightening, often confusing...but virtually always emotional. Emotion is a good thing, not a bad thing. It can get out of balance, of course, but if we didn't have emotion, we would never be able to determine what was important or not to our lives.

* side note: lest you think that I am referring entirely to my Facebook conversations, let me reassure you: these kinds of discussions seem to follow me around. My last New Years Eve was spent in a 2 hour long theological discourse with 3 other guys from my church family, in the middle of a packed house party. Oh yeah, I'm a party animal..

Here's the trap that I often fall into. Do you ever fall into the same line of thinking as me? I often think that it will be possible to figure everything out. I would never say that out loud, but if I was truly honest, I think that there's a pretty substantial part of me that actually believes it. This part of me is probably a reaction to some people that seem to think that it's wrong to make any definitive statement at all. I know I'm generalizing, but this is how many people have come across to me. I have demonized emotion, and tried to approach everything from a no-emotion-purely-objective-purely-rational mindset.

THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE TO DO! (SEE WHAT LARGE LETTERS I AM...TYPING..TO YOU...WITH MY OWN...FINGERS! Sorry, St. Paul. It just seemed appropriate)

Every now and then, I run up against something that I cannot exhaustively explain (um, God?). My ideas are challenged. My presuppositions are not so secure. And, yes, my emotions get riled up. When I find myself in this place, my instinctual reaction is to fight back with a "yeah, but" of my own. Here's the challenge that I feel like God is asking of me: can I look myself in the mirror, say the words "I know nothing" and still be OK with myself?

Somewhere in between the "I know nothing" and the "I know everything" is reality. Since I tend towards the "everything" end of the spectrum, God has been challenging me to remember that there are many, many things that I don't know. As the Greek Orthodox theologian Kallistos Ware put it "With theology, we can set a fence around the mystery, but we can never exhaustively explain it." There are some things that I believe in, that I am fully convinced of, that I would die for. But even in these beliefs, I desire to have an attitude of grace and charity.

Like I have said in a previous post, if every single belief you hold is a "10" in terms of importance, you are probably a fundamentalist. Sometimes we have to just disengage our brains a little bit, and trust that God can still love us despite all our disagreements and differences in perspective.

I guess I am advocating some kind on "tension" in when it comes to faith. Maybe not advocating...maybe just coming to grips with the tension that is inherent in our lives as people.

Thank you to everybody who is walking along this path with me. I tend to be a pretty public person when it comes to my opinions, beliefs, and feelings. I know that I've stepped on more than a few toes. I know that I've come across as harsh and opinionated at times. That said, I have so many people in my life who speak good things to me and about me; I feel very undeserving sometimes of all the grace, support and respect that people have given to me. I am forever grateful for the love of Christ that has been revealed through so many terrific people in my life.

My Achey Breaky Heart...and Mind

Come now, let us reason together - Isaiah 1:18a

I have encountered something kind of odd in my Christian experience recently, something like an “anti-intellectual” approach to Christianity. What’s particularly odd about to me is that most of these sentiments have been expressed by people who I would deem to be very intelligent, thoughtful, and (mostly) well-informed. A little background...

My Own Personal Love For Learning

In 10th grade, my high school English teacher introduced me to the book Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. I had grown up reading the Chronicles of Narnia, but had never known about his other non-fiction works. After Mere Christianity, I devoured everything by Lewis I could get my hands on: Miracles, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, The Problem of Pain, among many others. I also loved the story of Lewis himself, an atheist who became a Christian due to the overwhelming evidence in support of the truth of the Christian story. Ever since 10th grade, I have basically camped in the “Christian non-fiction” section of the book store.

The last two years have seen a major uptick in my desire to study and learn. Thanks to iTunes U, in the last 18 months I’ve devoured literally hundreds of hours of seminary chapel services and classroom lectures. I have listened to various sermons by Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Presbyterians, Open-Theists, Baptists, and Reformed preachers, teachers and theologians. I have even spent some time watching classroom sessions on New Testament Greek. I have intentionally pursued books that force me to think and wrestle with my faith, from a wide-range of authors like John Piper, Rob Bell, Alister McGrath, St. Augustine, Wayne Grudem, Lee Strobel, Martin Luther, Martin Luther King Jr., G.K. Chesterton, and (a bunch of) N.T. Wright. The purpose was to not read or listen to a bunch of stuff that merely reinforces my own perspective, but to gain some understanding on the depth and width of the Christian tradition.

The Reaction

I have grown up primarily in a Charismatic/non-denominational/American/Evangelical church setting. There are some amazing things about the Charismatic tradition that I believe in with all my heart, such as the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit. Certain beliefs and practices of this church I will defend until my last breath. That said, I have encountered recently what seems to be an “anti-intellectual” strain within the Evangelical church. There has been an attitude communicated to me by a few people that study, information, and knowledge are inherently dangerous in and of themselves, as if I was to study too much I will have a prideful, dry, stale, anti-Holy Spirit, heartless and *religious Christianity. I know that this is painting with a broad brush, but this has been my experience.

Let me qualify where I am going with this. I do know that there are professors, academic types who could put most of us to shame with their knowledge of the Bible, but don’t actually have any belief or saving faith in what they espouse. There are people like that in our pews, in our theatre seating, even in our pulpits. Please know that I am in no way advocating that as a way to approach studying. That, to me, misses the entire point. Here’s what I am advocating (I work really well from bullet points, so please indulge me...)

1. As Christians, we have been called to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Each one of these aspects have their strengths and their weaknesses. My heart (emotions) can lie to me; have you ever laughed/cried/been scared because of a fictional movie or book? My mind can believe all sorts of things that aren’t true. My soul can believe lies about God and myself at the very core of my being. My strength is quite limited (I primarily think of “strength” in this context as perseverance). I think that Jesus’ intent was that we would follow Him with every aspect of our lives, which provides a tremendous balance and safeguard against burnout.

2. Some people tend more towards the “heart” or the “head”.

Neither one of these proclivities is wrong. I do think, however, that in general, our American society is heading way off into “heart-land” and abandoning the more intellectual pursuits. We watch movies, not books. We read Tweets, not news articles. We listen to 3 minute pop songs, not 45 minute symphonies. I know that this may be asking to have my cake and eat it too, but I believe we as humans are at our best when we have both our hearts and our minds engaged. Like I said, some will lean one direction or the other, but we should strive for balance in our communities as well as within ourselves.

3. Jesus himself demonstrated an amazing grasp of scripture, history, and theology.

As a young boy, the scriptures record Jesus being in the temple, conversing with the rabbis. It says that they were not just amazed by his questions, but by “his answers.” Whenever I get into these kinds of discussions about knowledge and intellect with people, it seems that they often pull the “Pharisee card.” Just because the Pharisees were well-studied (albeit misguided) doesn’t mean that we should “throw the baby out with the bath water.” I want to follow the example of Jesus, who listened to the voice of the Holy Spirit, loved people genuinely, and, yes, diligently studied the scripture and doctrine.

4. There will ALWAYS be an element of “Faith” involved.

Just because I love to study and learn does not mean that I think that I am going to completely figure out and understand God. As one Orthodox theologian put it, “With theology, we can set a fence around the mystery, but we will not be able to exhaustively explain it.” Paul said that we see through a glass darkly. This is where faith comes in: the evidence is pointing in a certain direction, so I am going to have faith to take that next step into the unknown. To me, faith is coming to grips that I am a fallible, broken, human being. If we weren’t fallen, we would have no need for faith. Until that day arrives, there are just some things I may never know. However...

5. I want to embrace mystery for itself, not merely as a cop-out for laziness.

As the noted physicist and atheist Richard Dawkins wrote, “one of the truly bad effects of religion is that it teaches us that it is a virtue to be satisfied with not understanding.” That sentence pains me greatly, because I believe it to be a misrepresentation of what God has asked of us. In a book I read by Dan Kimball, he describes people who belittle and look down upon the American church because, as non-Christians, they have a better understanding of the Christian faith, beliefs, and practices than all of the Christians that they know. May this not be true about me. There are so many evidences that support the faith that I hold. Again, there will always be elements of faith, mystery and paradox in my belief in God, but I don’t want to use those as a crutch for not at least investigating the issue.

6. Please don’t ever use the “I don’t want to know about God, I just want to know God!” line.

This to me is silly because the two are inseparable. What if I said this about my wife? Granted, if all I did was read books about her and never spend time talking with her and kissing her, that would be a lame relationship. Conversely, if all I ever did was make out with her, but didn’t know her likes, dislikes, eye color, or birthday, I am heading for certain disaster (in 13 years, I have not forgotten a birthday or an anniversary yet. Hallelujah!) I believe that the same is true of God. I want to spend time praying (2-way conversation, by the way) and singing and soaking in His presence. I also want to spend time learning who He is, what he likes and dislikes, how he operates.
* On a related note, I view the study of Church history like studying one’s family history, yet another thing we Americans are tragically disconnected from.

7. We need the Holy Spirit in both our heart and our mind.

Let me conclude with an analogy from preaching. I have watched pastors get up and use the “God told me to throw away this sermon” line as another cop-out for a lack of studying and preparation. I have also seen it used (and used it myself!) when there was a genuine calling from the Holy Spirit to move in a direction that was not planned or prepared for. That said, the Bible teaches that God is not a God of chaos, and I believe that the Holy Spirit absolutely can be present in the preparation of a teaching. In the same way, the Holy Spirit can be just as present in someone having an intellectual awakening as in someone having a physical miraculous healing.

Whether we lean more towards the “head” side of things or the “heart”, He must be in both, or else what we have will be empty anyways. I'm grateful that I can worship God with my mind, emotions, soul, and strength. I believe that God created me to be the kind of person who always advocates moving towards a place of balance.