Being

To start things off, I want to remind my vast readership that I am a follower of Christ.  I also believe in God.  My aim in this post is to discover all the mysteries that surround God, dispelling all doubts once and for all…

And while I float back down to reality, I do want to work through some ideas of God that I’ve been reading about.  Now remember, I do believe in God but, I, along with perhaps only a few others, find our current definitions of God quite inadequate.  Here’s what I mean.  If we believe the Bible to be an authoritative text, there are some things we must consider.  For example, let’s look at the 10 commandments.  What is the first of those commandments?  ”You shall have no other God’s before me.”

Here’s what I, along with help from a few authors who are much further up the curve than I am, find striking.  In ancient Jewish culture, to name something meant that you had power over it.  To be able to describe something meant that it was something that was personally known to you and could be touched and handled.  The ancient Jews refused to name or describe God because that would then mean that they had power or authority over God.  Track with me here.  Consider our modern thinking and how we define God today.  I mean, think about the implications that we even have the audacity to define him at all.  We’ve got God all figured out, right?  He is a holy and just God.  He is jealous, yet kind, compassionate and loving.  He often acts in human ways and has human emotions.  He’s our protector, our provider.  He is our abba who comforts us when we are in distress.  He’s the great physician, a healer, our rescuer.

Are you seeing what I’m seeing?  We seem to be walking a pretty thin line of making our definitions of God, our own fabricated understandings of God, the god in themselves.  Is it possible that we worship the descriptions of God rather than God himself?  Do we really believe we’ve got God all figured out?  Can he really only exist in the box that we’ve placed him in?  Is it possible that human words and definitions are nowhere near enough to define “I AM?”

Now, I say all this not to argue any points or prove any positions, I simply want to explore the possibility that there is more, infinitely more, to God than we could ever hope to describe or understand.  So, maybe the life of a Christian is not one which is defined by rules and coming to understand what God wants us to do and how he wants us to do it, rather it is acting in ways that are etched into the very fiber of our being from our creator.  What if we act justly because we abhor  human suffering?  What if we embrace our humanity and speak for those who have no voice?  What if we live freely to ignite a passion for life and love as Christ did?  What if we exist not to debate and squabble over the specific things God wants us to do but to instead live as Jesus and Gandhi and mother Teresa did and cultivate kingdom life here and now?

I would argue that God is far greater than any definition we could ever lay on him and honestly, I don’t think it is up to me to boil God down into a set of rules and a tidy little box that I can carry around.  If I believe that God is over all, through all and in all, then I probably should take Rob Bell seriously when he claims that everything is spiritual.  No longer am I bogged down by constantly wondering if I’m doing enough good or if I’m following all the rules.  Jesus lived for the sake of humanity.  I believe his assertion that the Kingdom is near was and is baffling because it challenges us to a new life now.  If God is up in heaven counting down the days until he throws down his fiery wrath, I’m not really sure what I’m here for.  But, if he is a God who is the foundation of all being, who aches when we plunder the earth, suffers the pain of starvation and relishes the silence of the wilderness, our lives for him suddenly have much more meaning and purpose.

We don’t live to follow rules, but we live for the sake of living, because he lives.  We do good because he does good.  We ache and groan at the suffering and injustice of the world just as he does.  When I love recklessly and frivolously, I am loving God.  Now we start to realize that life is different, it’s exciting, it’s new with wonder and amazement.  We become people who are in tune with the world around us and long with everything in us to make this a better place because that’s why Jesus came.  He came to show us how to tap into the foundation of being, to live as conscious, intentional beings, full participants in the movement and construction of a better life here and now, the Kingdom of God.

Boycott…

There is a tradition, ancient or recent, I couldn’t say, that says: if you don’t like some-one or some-thing, you simply cut off all support.  If you disagree with something a certain person or group or corporation supports, you publicly and often times non-violently “take your business elsewhere.”

I must say, that as a follower of Jesus Christ, I strongly and passionately believe that non-violent acts of service and sometimes defiance is the only means by which real and lasting change will occur.  That said, those of us in the Christian tradition have often called for a boycott of certain groups and/or companies who either did or supported certain things that do not fit within the Christian law of life.  We have been known to boycott the purchase of certain stamps because they celebrated a Muslim holiday.  And since we’ve bought into the lie that ALL Muslim people are radical extremists who inflict terrorist acts on the US, we boycott without batting an eye… We have even singled out certain people, or groups of people and claimed that because we do not agree about some of the “hinge” issues of Christianity, we will prove our point by gathering our friends against those we disagree in a very public and humiliating way…

Now, please hear me say again, I think non-violence is the only way we will see real change.  With that being said, especially when it comes to a boycott, of sorts; as Christ followers, we’ve got to be extremely, EXTREMELY careful of our actions.  The first reason for our caution, I would argue, is because we are living in a post-Christian world.  The old argument, “the Bible says…” just doesn’t fly anymore.  The second reason we need to be careful is because too often we are not educated about what it is we are protesting and we make the cause of Christ out to even more ridiculous than it has already become.

He’s what I’m saying.  Let’s say a group of people calls for a boycott of a certain corporation because the executive officers of that company function outside of the “Christian thought.”  On the surface, that seems like a just cause since the underdog is standing up against the powers-that-be.  However, what this group of people who called for the protest didn’t do was educate themselves about some of the more inner workings of the company.  Though a difference in specific religious views may seem like a critical point of protest, there is something much larger happening under the surface.  This corporation, though they do not share the same religious ideals, is however participating in some much more important acts against injustice.  This corporation spends much of it’s excess resources fighting against the real suffering of real people in a real and tangible world.  Let’s use fair trade as an example.  The company buys many fair trade products which means that the people producing those products is getting paid a fair wage, enough to support his/her family.  Another definition of fair trade: we refuse to continue the cycle of slavery for my own comfort…

Do you see where I’m going here?  There are just things to boycott: Those companies who employ slave or child labor to produce products.  There are also ridiculous things to protest: People who think differently than we do.  When we choose to be ignorant, people spend their energy working to prove a point and convince people to “think” like they do.  When we take the time to educate ourselves we spend our energies working to alleviate suffering in the world.  Do you see the difference?

Let’s try fighting against injustice rather than fighting against people.  That may seem a bit vague, but continue to let the thoughts simmer and stew for a while because in the end, I feel it will bring a lasting and powerful change.

Think Gandhi…