Category Archives: Ryan’s mind

Hell of a Week

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On Sunday at our worship gathering we we talked about how when the Spirit of God lives in you, you become aware of “the coming judgment” and therefore live your life with a sense of urgency. Before you get all worked up, however, I’d like to contextualize “judgment” for you. We defined hell as the absence of God’s presence. If God is good, if God is love, if the results of following God are qualities such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control then hell would be a place that is void of those qualities. So the worst judgment, then, that could befall us would be God allowing us to choose not him, letting us choose our own way away from him.* And if hell is the absence of God then heaven would be the continual presence of him. Heaven would be a place that is characterized by the qualities and nature of God: love, joy, peace…So as followers of Christ, aspeople filled with the Spirit of God we are walking around in constant communion with God, we are living in a piece of heaven now! That also means that some people are experiencing a piece of hell now too! I could tell you story after story of hell on earth, where people are living and experiencing things that are contrary and opposed to the love filled, good, and holy nature of God.

Those who were there on Sunday were commissioned to go out and allow the Spirit of God to bring you a greater awareness of the presence of hell in this world, the reality of judgment, of pain, suffering, fear, loneliness, greed, abuse, etc. Those who were there on Sunday were commissioned to go out and love people, bring people a slice of heaven that we carry around with us daily. Those who were there were commissioned to stop hanging out with Christians, stop ‘going to church’, stop praying, and start spending time loving people who need hope, heaven, love…Jesus. Jesus promised that the gates of hell won’t be able to stop us. The gates of hell may not stop us, but you know what will? Church activities! We can’t storm the gates of hell if we’re too busy talking about Jesus in our holy huddles.

So if you’re reading this, I challenge you to live differently. If you see your neighbor outside, go get your mail and talk to them! If you notice that your neighbors lawn isn’t mowed, then mow it! If you see someone who needs a meal, feed them! If you’ve got a coworker who is experiencing tragedy, buy them flowers! Stop telling people things and start asking lots of questions! If you don’t know about hell int eh world around you then you need to ask more questions! Let’s start caring, lets start listening, and lets start urgently loving hell right out the door.

* This must be balanced with the mystery that Jesus has been to hell and back, that Jesus dwells with those who experience and choose hell. While we may choose the absence of God, Jesus has chosen to find us there and wait for us to begin to choose better things. What a great God we serve!

Sweat Shops, Frugality, and my Conscience

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It is a constant battle within myself between conscience and frugality. Well first off, let me say that I am a firm believer that it is much cheaper than one often things to eat healthy and to live a healthy life (not that I live the most healthy life!) My family of four are able to eat primarily organic and local food, we eat very little canned food, frozen food, and processed food, and we eat gluten free (try paying $6 for a loaf of bread). Oh, and my son has to eat lactose free now! And yet, we’re able to do all of this on a budget that would look midgetized next to many. I can go into detail about how we do this if you’d like me to, but in reality it all comes down to my amazing and sacrificial wife. The point is that it really is possible to do make many healthy choices and still be relatively cheap at the same time.*

Nevertheless there are times when its just plain ol’ spendy to shop with my conscience first and my frugal nature second. I didn’t buy any new clothes last year. Period. We didn’t buy anything new last year (except for food, medicine, underwear, and a pair of shoes). It was a cool experiment, it was valuable. But I’m tired of buying used stuff. I want to buy some new crap! But I want to buy it cheap. The problem is that many of the cheap places to purchase things are places that hurt my conscience (or should hurt my conscience). Want to ruin your life? Try going to this website and doing some research about which companies are in active human rights violations in order to get you something cheap: http://www.greenamericatoday.org/

It’s easy to dismiss, and I often do, but do you really want to put on your sweater that you bought for $15.99 at Walmart (just as an example) knowing that some eight year old child worked in a factory 18 hours straight in conditions that are dehumanizing and illegal? Can you wear that sweater without your conscience crying out? The sad thing is that often I’ll choose to not do the research so that I won’t have that annoying conscience whispering in my ear! So there I lie, at war within myself to pursue truth and justice, or to live cheaply in ignorance and bliss.

I truly believe that being a follower of Christ dictates that I am in a constant pursuit of truth, beauty, and justice…following Jesus often requires much!

*     Though, I must say that it amazes me that often people say they can’t afford to eat healthy, because it seems to me that it should be one of the most important thing that you spend your money on. What you put into your body affects your health, your personality, politics, your community, your emotions, etc. If you’re going to spend money on anything, good quality healthy food would be a good place to start.

Christian and Torture

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If you’re a Christ follower then you’ve got to be seriously worried about the valid statement made by CNN in a recent report:

The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.More than half of people who attend services at least once a week — 54 percent — said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is “often” or “sometimes” justified. Only 42 percent of people who “seldom or never” go to services agreed, according to the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Something has gone wrong. We’ve somehow missed something crucial to the gospel message. Brian McClaren sites these statisitics:

Consider this question: Is it ever justifiable to intentionally target innocent civilians in order to achieve other political or military ends? 86, 81, and 80% of Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Iranian citizens say never. But only 46% of Americans say never! In contrast to the 6% of Americans who say civilian attacks are completely justified, only 2% of Iranians or Lebanese would agree, and only 4% of Saudis.

I sure am glad we’re a Christian nation! I feel like we should write one of those coffee table books that says “you know you’re not a Christian nation if…” and we could have the first page say “…54% of your citizens want to kill innocent people to acheive their ends.” The second page could say: “…a majority of the Christians in your Christian nation are cool with torture.”

This grieves me terribly. May Gods mercy lead us to repentance, renewal, and an uprising to practice the pressence of God in our world.

The Holy Land Experience

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I nearly forked over the $30 to go to the Holy Land Experience when I was in Florida. Seriously, who wouldn’t want to travel to Florida in order to spend a day at the Wilderness Tabernacle exhibit:

The wondrous and mysterious Wilderness Tabernacle was the heart of worship for the children of Israel as they wandered in the desert following their exodus from Egyptian captivity. Watch the High Priest and experience a live presentation that explains the intricate details of the tabernacle and its prescribed rituals.

Or how about the opportunity to allow your children to view the crucifixion and resurrection at a live presentation done every 30 minutes at the Calvary’s Garden Tomb Exhibit:

Follow the Via Dolorosa, the road on which Christ carried the cross, to Calvary’s Garden Tomb. Spend time resting, praying, or reflecting on the meaning and significance of the empty tomb. Atop the hill stand the crosses of Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified and died for the sins of the world.

Or, if you’re lucky you can take a picture with Moses and his famous stone tablets!

Ok, so here’s my real thoughts with all the sarcasm taken out. This whole Holy Land Experience theme park really disturbs me. I’m imagining the God who fashioned a whip to kick out those who looked to exploit the temple by turning it into a market place. I’m imagining the God who chose to leave heaven in order to live like a poor, enslaved, and eventually tortured human being. I’m imagining the God who was creative enough to make naked mole rats and giraffes. And, well, none of those things seem to fit with the Holy Land Experience. A market place, turning the crucifixion into an attraction, and creativity that is more like poor mimicry than anything else.

Something seems off. I think I’d take my kids to Disneyworld…even if Disney is The Man.

Now and Later

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We live in a tension. We’re supposed to I think. I think health comes when we live in a constant tension between the now and the later. No, I’m not talking about those candies that are way too hard to even eat. I’m talking about the fact that we are often in a position of balancing what we’re doing right this very moment: school, current job, looking for a job, getting married, having children, depressed…fill in your own blank…with what we’re looking toward on the horizon: starting a business, moving cross country, running a marathon, getting in shape, retiring…fill in your own blank…

Right now I find myself in the very center of this tension. I’m looking ahead toward planting a neighborhood church in downtown Vancouver in 2011, but I’m currently passionately committed to my work with Renovatus church. Now…later. East Vancouver…downtown Vancouver. Suburbia…neighborhood. I’m doing my best to value the tension and to find value in the tension.

Jesus preached that tension didn’t he? When he spoke about the kingdom he would say things like the kingdom of heaven can be seen in someone who gives his money to the poor while in the same breath saying that the kingdom of heaven is something that you’ll one day experience when your time on earth is done. He spoke very clearly about joining the kingdom today while at the same time saying that the kingdom will be experienced later. Now and not yet. Now and later. Tension. Jesus would say that the kingdom is at hand, which is translated usually as “near” or “here”. In other words, now and not now.

Some people are stuck in the now. All they can see is their current struggle, their current excitement, their current hill. Your job is your life. Your current struggle is all consuming, everything. You can’t see past today.

Others are stuck in the future. This is where Jess and I tend to land. You’re always looking toward the next big hurdle, the next hill to conquer. Your job right now is an afterthought to the job that you’ll one day have. Your kids are just babies, but once they’re toddlers they’ll be a lot fun. You tend to devalue today because you’re always looking toward tomorrow.

Neither is completely healthy. Health comes when balancing the tension between now and later. Proverbs warns against worrying about tomorrow because tomorrow has enough trouble of its own: all we have is today, so we’ve got to find the joy in it. But Jeremiah speaks of God knowing the plans he has for you, plans for great things: God’s taking you somewhere, somewhere beyond today.

Tension.

And that’s why life is all about Now and Laters.