harbarger theory: faith is messy.  life is, too.

Among most of us, there is a indefatigable need to make our lives simpler and less complicated.  Much less complicated.  I suspect that is part of what makes us civilized ... at least as much as most of us are!  

However, as someone who has the amazing opportunity to "look under the hood" of other folks' lives, I am here to tell you that everybody's lives are messy.  To be honest, I think that's the way life is supposed to be.  Life is supposed to be messy and we are supposed to try to sorta tidy it up a bit.  I think that's what living the good life is about ... especially when we can ALSO enjoy the messy parts, as well!!

As I read books about Church Life (surprised you there, eh?  I really do read those books!), I find that most of the authors think that they can develop a system in their church/my church/your church where folks' faithlives will have order, purpose and follow Step 1 to Step 2 to Step 3 to Nirvana or Mt Olympus or Heaven or wherever.  Poppycock, I say!  Poppycock!

Just as soon as I get my faith going in a straight line and follow all the road signs, things go kablooey at home or with the kids or with a debt or whatever.  While I don't believe that "Nature prefers entropy (or disorder, as it used to be defined)," I also don't believe that Nature (or God) prefers things to be always neat and tidy.  I believe that God likes things to have some spontaneity and surprise and struggle and delight.

You see, struggle allows us to become stronger.  That's the way we get stronger.  We struggle to lift a heavy barbell or walk 10 miles or swim a mile.  When we do that enough, we get stronger.  Strength is a good thing.  We all need lots and lots of all kinds of strength!

Spontaneity and surprise are what makes us laugh and are what produce joy.  When we see that magnificent sunset (and I've heard sunrises are nice, as well!), we clap, we find delight in the riot of colors.  When we come across a field of wildflowers, we marvel at the glory of nature.  When we stumble upon an alpine lake and see the mountain across the way reflected in it, we are brought to silence.  These are the gifts of spontaneity and surprise.  

These the UNtidy and UNneat things in our lives that make us better and feed our souls.  Even the struggles feed us by making us better and stronger, don't they?  

So, as we develop systems for folks to grow in their faith, let us allow for the messiness of faith and life in them.  Let there be some elasticity in how we experience the presence of God and how we respond to the slings and arrows of life.  Sometimes, we get ticked off (didn't Moses?), sometimes we are cowardly (didn't Peter?), sometimes we rise to the occasion (didn't Shadrack, Meshack and Off-to-bed-we-go?).  But, in the end, even the wrong response is not necessarily a faithkiller.  Sometimes, even the wrong responses become touchstone events in our lives that allow us to make quantum leaps in our faith.

So, give yourself a break.  Allow yourself to have messy parts of your faith.  Allow yourself to have messy parts of your life.  Allow yourself to simply seek the presence of God on a consistent basis and you ... will ... get ... there.

And I promise to jump into the messiness with you.  As the inimitable Red Green is want to say, as he is tying a fishing fly, "We're all in this together!"

harbarger theory: faith is messy. life is, too!

This is gonna hurt!

harbarger theory: it's supposed to hurt!!

Somehow, folks have gotten it into their heads that life is supposed to be easy. They got it into their head that we aren't supposed to have any pain whatsoever, food is supposed to always be available whenever we want it, jobs aren't supposed to be hard, our partners in life are supposed to meet all of our needs and we're always supposed to get a raise.

That's a bunch of hooey! Pain is a part of life. Good food takes time and is worth waiting for. Hard work doesn't hurt us and makes us appreciate the rewards. Our partners will not and can never meet all of our needs. That's why we have friends and some of our needs just may not get met by someone else. Maybe we should earn our raises, instead of expecting them because we show up and breathe.

In short, I think we've become a bunch of whiny babies who want what we want when we want it however we want it. I say, "Grow up!" Life is SUPPOSED to be hard! Sometimes things hurt. So, toughen up and play through the pain. Scars are just tattoos with better stories!

Some preachers (electronic and otherwise) teach that God will provide the desires of your heart. That's only true when our hearts are in tune with the will of God! God's not the divine Fed-Ex guy. God is ... well, GOD and we should never forget that. So, when they teach this entitlement crock of poo, then just turn the channel and watch a sitcom. It's probably got more meaning, anyway.

We supposed to hurt, and we all feel it at various times. You're not the only one. We're all in this together. Everybody get hit by the shrapnel of life and some of us carry it around in our bodies for the rest of our lives. That's just the way it works.

So, band together. Share the pain. Bandage each other's wounds. But keep going. Play through it. Limp if you need to, but keep going.

We live in a wounded and painful world and we need to keep helping others to live through their pain. It's in the shared pain that we find REAL community and we grow up and become adult human beings. It's in the bandaging of other's wounds that we start to heal ourselves. Life is meant to be lived together.

That's where the joy is. It's in the journey ... together. All of limping down the road together. That where the joy is.

harbarger theory: it's supposed to hurt!

harbarger theory: faith is easier sung than done

harbarger theory: faith is easier sung than done



Some accuse praise music as being 7-11 songs. You know ... the same 7 words sung 11 times. And some are. Some find this vacuous and others find this to be a modern version of the chant that allows the singer to be transported into the presence of God. I can agree both ways. But some old hymns are just as vacuous and just as transporting, aren't they?



It's not about the music STYLE, as much as it is about the singer's perspective, the quality of the lyric, the ability of the music leader and the distractions or lack-thereof.



As for me, I like powerful modern worship music. As time goes on, I find I like the more modern stuff better than the 80's and early 90's stuff, but some of that has power as well.



However, I agree with Brian McLaren that we need less "I love Jesus" music and more "I serve the world" music. Not only should it transport me into the presence of God, but the music should also kick me out the door into serving the world.



All that being said, it's so much easier to sing about loving God and even about loving my neighbor (near, far and really, really far) than it is putting that into action in my everyday life. But, that's the rub, isn't it? I sing about it. I read the Word about it. I hear (and preach) sermons about it. And then ... I need to DO something about it.



Yep, that's my theory.

harbarger theory: faith is easier sung than done

BTW: this excellent cartoon is the wonderful work of Jon Birch, a Brit who creates a brilliant cartoon blog at The Further Adventures Of ASBO Jesus. Check it out!

harbarger theory: lent is not lint.

From my Appalachian heritage and speech patterns, I don't make a pronunciation distinction between "lent" and "lint." I don't say a difference. I don't hear a difference. If I somehow stumble into saying "lent" instead of "lint," then you can just know that it was unconscious and unnoticed.

But, in my heart, there is a tremendous ... world-changing ... difference between Lent ... this season of preparation where we forsake a beloved pasttime or add a new discipline to our lives to help us to get our heads around (in a very, very small way) of the sacrifice of Christ ... and lint ... this fluffy stuff that grows in our dryer filter or in our belly-buttons. Lint is stuff we can discard (or collect to start campfires with!) and Lent is a tool that helps us focus our hearts.

A good and wise friend (thank you Naomi!) e-mailed me this week suggesting that maybe ... just maybe ... we should NOT pick up those things that we lived without during Lent, since most of them are things like caffeine, chocolate, etc and then next year, getting rid of another destructive habit. A commendable idea, I might say!!

But, let me share with you why I don't do it that way. If you remember my post about Messy Foods then you'll know that I believe life is to be live OUT LOUD with fun and hilarity and stuff on my shirt. I believe that God gave us all kinds of wonderful things like mud and chocolate and coffee beans and that we are to use them and to revel in them.

John the Baptist came preaching austerity. Jesus came preaching abundance. Fasting is a good thing. But, I don't believe that we are to live "fasting lives." We are to live abundant lives biting into juicy peaches and letting the nectar run down our chins.

Therefore, when Lent is over, I'll be back to having the occasional "high-test," that is caffeinated latte. I urge you to fast when it's appropriate and to feast when it's appropriate.

Lent is powerful and important. Lint is trash. But, Lent is not life. Life is life.

harbarger theory: lent is not lint.

harbarger theory: better to have it and not need it

harbarger theory: it's always better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

I have to admit that my long history in the Boy Scouts drilled this into me, but I still live by this rule. Whether it's packing for a trip (I always bring my leatherman and a flashlight) or for an outdoor concert or whatever, I tend to prepare for the unexpected.

I recently had a great time at coffee with an old friend and former Superintendent and I wondered what he wanted to talk about. It turns out he just wanted to pick my meager brain (not much there anymore, I'm afraid!), but I ran through so many scenarios before we met. I wanted to be prepared.

But, isn't that a life lesson? If we are prepared for the unexpected ... then, don't they become the sorta expected? Aren't we then even MORE primed to deal with what we don't expect? I think so. We plan, we think ahead and then we dance to whatever music is playing. The more dance moves we have, the better we dance. (Not that I can dance, but I can sling a metaphor!)

Noah built the Ark in the desert. He planned ahead. He did what needed done to get the job done even when it looked silly. It doesn't have to be raining when you start preparing for the flood. That's what I say!!

We don't know what the future holds. The economy is still getting worse. Loved ones still get sick. War rages on and on. But, we can prepare ourselves to deal with it though loving God and loving our neighbors with all we have. Maybe loving is all we really can hang onto in the end, eh?

Anyway, I try to plan for rain and hope for sunshine.

harbarger theory: it's always better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

Messy Food

harbarger theory: messy food is great food. the messier the food, the better it is. never trust food that is too tidy.

Really good food is messy. Great burritos drip down your arm. Great peaches get all over your face. Great honeybell oranges have to be eaten while leaning over the sink so it doesn't get on your shirt. Great ice cream sundaes spill over the sundae dish and onto the saucer under it (or onto the table if it's not!).

Life is like that. Messy. Relationships are not tidy. Wonderful things happen. Mistakes happen. But, if we stick with it, then the relationships get stronger and deeper. Faith is messy. Our lifestyle gets in the way of our inner growth. But, if we keep trying to make our inner life and our outer behavior consistent, then our faith gets deeper and more life-giving. Work is messy. Some days are really great and we succeed. Some days are like running through quicksand ... slow going and dragging us down. But, if we are doing good things for good reasons, then the messiness becomes all worth it.

Life & faith, like great food, is messy. Sometimes it spills over the edge of the bowl. Sometimes it drips down your arm or gets it on your shirt. But, that's what makes it great!

harbarger theory: messy food is great food.