I'm Convinced....

....that it is only in my willingness to go to Hell for other people that Heaven is really opened to me...

I'm Not a Believer

I should really say, I'm not JUST a believer.

To be honest, I'm tired of apologetics...tired of all the talk about what we believe. I sheepishly confess...I DO have a "Believers" file and a "Non-believers" file on my computer. If I know your name, you're in one of them (read sarcasm).

My brothers and I open the gym up every Thursday night for basketball. Many of the guys come from Meadville, but we get a sprinkling of players from all over the area, really. Those guys have deepened my Faith in amazing ways with their brash questions and our intense discussions about religion....just had another long discussion tonight. As I was praying afterwords a few thoughts came to me.

From the many convoluted discussions that I've had with these guys over the years, I have found defending religion to be VERY unhelpful and VERY frustrating. The answers to life are not found in being more religious...they are found in the LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST! Proving that the Mormons are going to hell is not meeting the needs!(Making my face red, popping veins, and speaking in a loud voice without breathing hasn't helped many of these guys)

And now I'm going to tell you what I've really come to abhor. One day I asked myself, "Why cant I prove once and for all the way of Jesus?" Then the convicting question, "Why do I ALWAYS direct the discussion toward what I believe?" In our discussions 90% of my sentences began with, "Well...what I BELIEVE...."

Hang what I believe...what these guys really need is to know Christ and the power of His resurrection. We need to quite talking so much about what "I BELIEVE" and start talking more about what "I LOVE." If all I can ever talk about is "what I believe," I'm really telling you that I love myself...that's not the gospel folks, and its certainly not "Good News!"

Now, "what I believe" matters...believing in God is part of loving Him. The Embarrassing part is that we have set up camp there in a very permanent way. We've been there for a blame long time, and there are very few signs that we would ever consider moving deeper into the forest. We really don't seem to care about maturing and growing deeper in Christ.

To be honest, I'm not much interested in marrying a young lady that firmly "believes" that I exist. If my married friends incessantly talked (with red faces) about the fact that they believe their wives are real people and can make shoe fly pie in 2 minutes rather than 2 days....I would be REALLY alarmed. When I see how much they love their wives....and listen to them talk about how much they love their wives, then I'm pretty much also convinced their wive exist and are beautiful people. After a while I might even want to meet these incredible people that they love so much....

I want to be very clear.

I have no energy to once and for all, prove my beliefs....I DO want you to know that I LOVE JESUS!

Maybe we should spend more time helping our children to love the right things. One of the most unfortunate things in our world is the fact that there are a lot of people that believe in God, yet love ungodly things. Remember, even Satan believes in God....

A Whale of a Season!

Its that time of year when the white whale will make another appearance rousing the peg legged captain in each of us. The gorgeous sight of the white whale is not enough...no, each sighting seems to lure Ahab farther and farther from home, wife, and son...filling his heart with an insatiable thirst to see more of his own harpoons sticking out of the white whales back....binding him ever tighter to the whale itself, till one day he too will plunge to the sea floor along with the white whale, hopelessly tangled in the mess of his own ropes.

Yes, the snowy, white "whale of a season," known in some parts of the world as Thanksgiving and Christmas really SHOULD cause us to turn to the Father's Son and inspire us to be more like Him, but I challenge you to go to your local ER and ask them how many choking throats they unplugged last Thanksgiving....their answer will give you a beautiful picture of the Father's Son gagging on a drumstick. You may also want to spend a day observing Wal-mart the week before Christmas. I really shouldn't mention it...but the white bearded character of the Christmas season looks like he may have been one of those people that needed his throat unplugged at Thanksgiving himself.

Please understand, I'm all in favor of entering the jolly and charitable spirit of the season, but why do we need to violate and rape the moment? Why do we always feel the need to lower the boats and sink harpoons into the whale's back. What's the rush? Why does the whale have to be MINE? A character analysis of Captain Ahab would probably help us understand ourselves better.

Why couldn't we just sit together by the big window for hours and watch it snow? Why couldn't we just lay in the autumn leaves and have a cup of coffee together. Why couldn't we just get out great grandmother's dominoes and play "chicken foot." Why couldn't we just lean on the fence and talk to the neighbor? Why can't we enjoy the moment? Why can't less be more?

Common...its a "whale of a season!" Drop your harpoons me lads, throw the blasted Ahab and his agenda overboard, drink to the "Maker of the Sea", and a toast to Moby Dick! Sheesh....its not every day that you get to feast your eyes on a white whale.....