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“You are going to feel like hell if you never write the stuff that is tugging on the sleeves of your heart — your stories, visions, memories, visions and songs. Your truth, your version of things, your own voice. That is really all you have to offer us. And that’s also why you were born.”
Anne Lamott

“You are going to feel like hell if you never write the stuff that is tugging on the sleeves of your heart — your stories, visions, memories, visions and songs. Your truth, your version of things, your own voice. That is really all you have to offer us. And that’s also why you were born.”
Anne Lamott

Who is God?

George

 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. 

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only [Son], who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only [Son], who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

… in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

The living God is like Jesus.

One person has observed that non-Christian people, when asked “Who is the most Christ-like person you know of”?  most often answered Gandhi. It is ironic, that for many, the image of Christ [God] is a Hindu.

A recent conversation centered on the difficulty of communicating the Gospel to deeply secular people. Perhaps, a starting point to address that delimma can be found in the assertion: It is time to stop saying that Jesus is like God and start saying that God is like Jesus.

Smack Down

George

Yesterday we had the opportunity to attend Ryan’s first official wrestling competition. This is his first year to wrestle and he is getting a good start. His last match he pinned his opponent. I suspect that now that he has gotten a tatse of victory it will make him a better wrestler. He has a great attitude and I could see improvement with each match yesterday.

Thanksgiving

George

We have had a great holiday in Atoka. There were 25 of us between Scott and Alison’s families for dinner yesterday, The weather was beautiful. The food was outstanding. Wednesday evening Scott and I drove to Olive Branch, Ms. to pickup some BBQ from a competition BBQ’er, 10 Bones BBQ. We enjoyed the ribs and Boston butt Friday and had smoked turkey yesterday. Excellent BBQ! We had a good visit with all.

Today, after a little browsing in Covington, we went to downtown Memphis and had lunch at Pearl’s Oyster House… oysters on the half-shell, Louisiana gumbo, fried calamari.

Our plan is to leave early tomorrow and hopefully get to see Ryan wrestle in Frankfort, KY. Clark is in Louisville and we will meet up with him sometime tomorrow.

Atoka

George

We arrived safely in Atoka yesterday evening. Scott and Alison doing well and excited about Thanksgiving at their place. The weather is very nice today. Sunny and a high in the 60’s. We are getting things ready for tomorrow.

We had a good visit with Linda and Jim Monday evening and Tuesday morning. I was saddened to learn that Prentice Meador had suddenly fallen seriously ill and died early yesterday morning. Although I had only met him casually, I admired him. He was a good friend of my friend Charles Trevathan. He had been working with Lipscomb University and had a lot of good things to offer in his later years. Once again I am reminded of my mortality and the importance of enjoying each moment of life that God has blessed me with.

Upside Down – Inside Out

George

As I continue to read Shaped By the Word, It becomes more and more apparent how misguided I have been in my efforts to make myself into the person that I perceive God would have me to be. Consider these two quotes:

Let me give you something to meditate on. Take it and work through it for the rest of your life! It is possible for us to will the will of God but not surrender our heart. I can will the will of God for my life, but I can will to do it at my convenience, when it suits me, how it suits me, in the context that suits me. I can honestly and sincerely will to do the will of God without surrendering my heart. This is why there is one more level of being beyond the soul, or will. There is the “me” that wills.

Here we come to the central point of spiritual formation. Our acculturation tends to move us into both perceptual and experiential modes of being that operate on the principle that all we need for wholeness is simply to bring something more to where we are, which will move us to where we want to be. If we acquire more information to process, more technique to function with, more “doing” to do, we will move ourselves into a higher level of wholeness. We tend to look for some piece of information, some technique or method of spiritual formation that will take us from where we are to where we want to be with a minimum of inconvenience, pain, or suffering. We have so emphasized the Life dimension of the New Testament that we have avoided coming to grips with its death dimension. We have avoided the fact that in the gospel, Life comes out of death, not out of life. Trying to bring Life out of life attempts to escape the necessity of dying to the old parameters of our existence, the necessity of relinquishing the brokenness of our being, the necessity of letting go of those things that warp and misshape and distort who we are. The emphasis upon informational, functional, “doing” is our attempt to bring Life out of life. But formational, relational “being” enables God to lead us to that death from which Life emerges.