FRAMES 2008

The first reality we must grapple with is this: that God will never fit into any frame we can construct for him.  That said, we all use pictures of God in order to articulate His reality in our lives, and to that end we can only expand what is really a construction, and ask him to graciously bear with our shortcomings.  Here are some questions I have been wondering lately, and asking God to work into my expanding frame:

- Where was God when a sixteen year old girl commited suicide last week? 

- When does God choose to intervene in people's lives?  Why does it seem like he appears to others more readily than to myself?

- Why is God's church so fractured, and where is the hope to be found in reconciliation?

- What's the real point of Sunday?  Is it enough?  What kind of service would Jesus put on?

I'm also working within a frame for myself that has undergone a variety of gradually mounting pressures as new things begin to work themselves into my self-portrait.  As a new pastor of less than a year, the responsibilities required of me have forced me to either sink or swim.  I've had to accept new things about myself that have both troubled me and brought me joy.  I have a more secure perception of my own worth.  Here are some of the questions that still keep me busy:

- At what point does my roll as a pastor and my identity as uniquely Chris converge?  Where does Pastor Chris end and Plain Old Chris begin?

- What is my roll on this planet?  Where have I allowed my gifts and talents to be squandered and my mission clouded because of fear?

- How do I embrace my self as a loved child of God and still accept myself as a sinner and well-intentioned failure?

- How do I avoid falling into the trap of believing that I have to be a Super Pastor in order to be worthy of love, acclaim, support, attention, etc?

- How do I create boundaries for myself so that I can manage other people's expectations, and to what extent is my inability to manage these a reflection of immaturity in myself?  How can I improve, or let go?

Finally, I want to expand my frame surrounding other people.  The other day my fiance Hannah said to me, "Is the reason you don't ask me questions anymore because you think you've got me all figured out?"  And while the answer to that question is complex, I was still forced to admit that I've placed a nice little frame around her, and those times when she busts our of her confines have led to my confusion or even my anger.  So:

- How to I love and embrace Hannah and keep the wonder of her personality real and tangible to me?

- Where do I take my relationships for granted?

- What are my expectations for my friendships and family members, and where have I been short-sighted or asked more of them than I am willing to give?

- How do i be a servant to people I have a difficult time loving?

THE BIG QUESTION: What are your frames?   Which questions are you wrestling with, are demanding your time, are calling for a larger frame for God?  What are some of the things you believe about these things now that never used to fit in your old frames?

May the truth always find you willing to embrace it.  -Chris 

Comments

[Chris C]

I just read through everything and man... I'm long winded! Also, I misspelled "vertical," and spelled it "vesticle," or something. So I've got some vocab work to do.

I just wanted to say great conversation tonight. Nate S you really got me thinking about some things, way to make our definitions clear. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts after tonight.

Peace! -C

[MC]

The legend said that at a specified time each day, the tip of the visiting angel's wing would slowly touch down and stir the waters of the pool of Bethesda. When the water stirred, that meant the the curative power of God was available for the first person the invade the newly disturbed pool.

Gathered around the stoned portal crammed a throng of people in desperate need. Some blind, some lame, some sick, some merely wanting a supernatural touch.

Yet they came. As the sun would slowly descend, their eyes would be focused upon the surface of the water. "As soon as the water ripples that is the sign that the angel is swirling the water, and I must pull myself towards the edge."

Day after day this nameless man who had no ability to move his legs found himself straining towards the pool, praying that today would be his day...that today would be the day God heard his prayer and somehow helped get to the water before his legged friends.

But everyday was like the one before. No matter how hard he tried, he was never able to get into the crowded pool, his disability precluded him from what was necessary to receive what he needed.

Then on one of those days, from behind him came a voice. It broke into his thoughts like an unwanted fruitcake. His gaze was fixed...his anger was rising as he could not muscle past the people when the water stirred...he didn't recognize the voice and he tried to dismiss it but he couldn't.

"Do you want to get well?" (John 5)

"I want to, but I have no one to help me get into the water. Every time I try to get in some one gets in ahead of me."

To me that is the deeper question...Do I really want to get well, do I really want to know the answer?

This gut was so focused on getting in the water he didn't realize that God in the flesh was standing right beside him.

If he answered in the affirmative, "Yes I want to get well." That revelation would forever change his life, his frame, his world.

Was he ready for the answer, could he handle God giving him what he asked for...we don't know how his life turned out, he just wanted to be whole...but I think that question is worthy to be asked as well...

God, do I want my frame changed? Do I want to get well...If I say yes, I will never be the same, life will be different in a God-centric way that is beyond my ability to control it....

Great questions Chris...

Monty

[MC]

sorry about the typos...it's late, you should really make me go to bed :-)

monty

[Susan]

God puts us through life experiences to teach us more about Him and help conform us to His image. Sometimes the events are sad like last week, while others can be enjoyable and/or completely out of our comfort zone. Are we willing to trust God in everything? Do we believe that "God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose"?
My two trips to Uganda have changed my frame about who God is. It's easy to change your view of God on a mission trip. Am I willing and able to do it back here in my everyday life?

[Arkknight]

Yeah Susan, it's tough isn't it, to try and keep your frame as big and expansive as it becomes in Uganda. I know I feel like I've already let mine shrink back down. I hope you are able to keep looking for God in surprising places and do better than I have... lately I've been so self-absorbed with my problems and responsibilities that my time with God has become a sliver of daylight.

[sheri]

i have found that doing precepts bible study has totally blown apart my frame i had on God. I have moments that i am in such awe i can hardly breathe or i cry just starting to get a glimpse of who He really is and how much He loves me. i have heard that so many times before but i am just starting to get it. instead of the bible being my duty to read, it has become alive and actually exciting to me. i am also learning to look into the frame i have put on myself and try and distinguish what is real, what is a lie and what is just fake. real honesty is hard

[Aaron H]

That is one thing I'm currently struggling with myself... I have reality all figured out right now... so if something goes poorly I get frustrated or passive aggressive.

And to be honest I don't "want" to get well right now... I know I need to in order to grow and have the strength to overcome it, but the fear of change is a very prominent force in my life.

This fear has more say over my life, right now, than God. And though it's embarrassing to admit it, I trust the fear more to protect me... I believe that God exists, don't get me wrong... I'm just not sure I trust him yet.

[Sarah]

Recently, God told me it was okay to be mad at Him. That I can tell Him how I feel, pour my heart out to Him, my doubts and fears. That He is a safe person to be mad at. I always felt that I couldn't be mad at Him. I would sometimes tell Him, but always would say to Him, that I know His truth and that those things aren't true. Which is true, BUT I was having a hard time believing it in my heart. And I was hurt and afraid about things going on.

He told me to just tell Him how I feel. I don't have to follow every thing I say to Him with a "I know the truth, so, I know...." It kinda is like invalidating what I am feeling. If it's right or wrong according to the truth or anything, it's how I was feeling. He said, He knows my heart, He knows I know all of that. Just be real with me and tell me how you feel.

I would not tell God how I felt, even though I know He knows. He wants me to tell Him. And He wants me to tell Him all things. He wants to know my desires and dreams. He knows anyway, BUT He wants to hear them from me.

I still struggle with just telling Him.

Questions/thoughts that came to my mind while writing the above:

I know God's truth, but don't feel them in my heart. I think and make choices, as if I don't know.

If I don't feel connected to God, how do I hold on to His truths?

I am afraid to fully give my heart to God.

Something I added to my frame recently, was that I can maintain life, even when things get hard. Which is huge for me. I have a past of many, many ups and downs in maintaing day to day life.

Questions/thoughts:

Things are still hard at times, what if I eventually end up falling again?

Why do I go hot/cold with God?

Why do I still try/think I need to be perfect, when I know I don't? Who am I trying to be pefect for?

Will I walk out God's plan for my life?

How do I enjoy being "me", where I am right now?

How do I let go of all the shoulds?

Why don't I feel good enough?

I hope all that made sense. It's all kinda random.

[College and Career Group 1-27-08]

Responses from Sunday:

"You mentioned the sixteen year old girl... I thought, sometimes when things like this happen to me or to someone I know, I suddenly am drawn close to god. Through the process, I think people find their way to God, or strengthen past relationships that had gone cold." - Charlie

"My question was also, what is God's plan after the suicide? I've been trying for the last month to figure it out: I know I get excited by the good things that have come from it, but I still haven't figured out how the good things justify the bad things." - Alisha

"It's been huge for me that our eternity is more important than our comfort." - Sheri

"Does our frame for justice look like a ledger balance, where the bad things have to be equaled out with good things in God's banker book?" - Chris

"I don't think God is willing and wanting these things to happen, but he gives us free will. He will use these things for good... but it doesn't have to be an answer to the question, 'why didn't god stop this disaster or this tragedy?'" - Kath

"What about someone who walks through tragedy and gets told that their sadness had to happen so God could do these good things? That doesn't make sense to me." - Sarah

When people need faith, or want to know about it, they are given a prescription: read these books and pray and call me in the morning. Why is faith an alone in the dark thing, rather than a community thing? Shouldn't it be?

People give me perspective: you realize who and what matters, and through that you see God's grace through other people. I felt like I was saved from a burning building last year--it was a miracle for me to have this group; it changed relationships with my parents and in my faith.

"It's so hard to experience God's grace by yourself. You need other people to show it to you."

"Sometimes I don't give myself as much grace as God gives me."

"If someone was struggling and saw Jesus face to face, he wouldn't tell them to go read scripture or to go home and pray! No, he would sit down and share a meal with them, show compassion, be a friend." - Charlie

[Britttany Weideman]

I know that God Created us to enjoy a personal relationship with God himself, and to bless the rest of God's creation. But what I would really like to know is why God created us. Not only our world but also the entire universe? Why did God create us? Sure he wants us to be happy and enjoy life, but was God bored of all the emptiness in his hands? Did God create us just to watch us in Misery? Did God create all of the natural disasters to see how many would survive? Or how it would change/effect the earth, along with his children in it? Or does he create the natural disasters as a sign of his anger? Or is it all a test? Does God want to see how we as human beings react, or if we would help one another, hand in hand.? If God truly loved us like he says, why would he watch his children, or put his children in so much pain, fear and misery? Sure sometimes good things happen after bad things have happened to people, but not always. And why would God take a persons life away, when THAT person has been following God, than taking a persons life who hasn't been following the lord? We are all under Gods control except for the things we put on our backs. I feel like we are all in a show. A show that the Lord watches us whenever our curtain rises up, when we awake. Are we all here for entertainment? Or just an experiment, that a disaster is waiting to happen? If God wants us all to join him in heaven, why didn't he just create us all in heaven where we would be worriedvfree, and be in a place where it's peaceful?

[Charlie]

I can assure you we aren't just characters in a vaudville act for God's Amusement.

I believe we were created for gods Companionship.
God created us so we could accompany him throughout eternity and sing his praise worthy of him.

first off, I believe it is important to question your faith, through it I personally grow stronger in mine. But I must say that I tend to think it's unreasonable for the Imperfect, impure, sinners that we are to question the perfect, pure, sinless creator of everything's motives.

I can also say that God does not rejoice or get amusement from our pain and suffering, it grieves
him. It is God's heart that all be saved and that all come to him, but many turn from him and outright reject him. We have to remember that God loves all of his creation and doesn't want to see us in pain.

As to why he lets us continue to exsist in sin? I honestly don't know. But I do know that there will be a day when the sun will rise and sin will be know more, and earth will be reclaimed by the trinitarian Lord and I will get to dance on the ruins of New York city in a speedo.

although some may call that a sin :P

hope that helps at all.

-Charlie

[MC]

hey brittney, great questions...in the book of revelation it says:

“You (God) have created all things, and for your pleasure they are and were created.” 4:11

One of the hardest concepts to wrap our cerebrum around is God's love for us.

One reason we struggle with God's love is because human love is so convoluted, and is most often engaged as a contractual relationship where I will love you if you love me, or I will honor and support you if you honor and support me...we tend to love only when loved.

God's heart of love is not contractual but is found in "covenant" a covenant is radically different than a human contract. Contracts have loop holes, but a covenant can only be broken by death.

God had an incredible plan for humanity to live, adventure and know Him on an intimate level. There was only one issue that was necessary for this type of dynamic relationship to happen between creator and created, and that has to do with the absolute necessity that we as humans have free will, the capacity to choose.

The only way a person can truly love is if that person can also truly hate. Free will was given to humanity so that a relationship was actually possible, but with our ability to choose, we so often choose poorly leading to a broken heart, broken community and broken world.

The beauty of God's love is that even when our free will kicked in and we treated God and others with less than love, honor and respect, when the first choice brought something into the creation that God did not create (sin, evil) because God loves us in a covenental way, He also put into place a plan to restore what was broken in humanity and in the universe...

The plan is incredible, God, would begin a restoration process in paradox. Where all man made religions of the world work on a belief system that says God is up there and I need to figure out how to get up there to be with Him, Christianity is the story of God coming down to us, because He knew there was no way for us to get up to Him.

God became human and walked the planet in Jesus. So God has experienced and felt every pain, struggle, darkness that we do, and ultimately gave His life so that we could reconnect to God. Free will bringing sin into the world created a chasm that only the death and resurrection of Jesus could span.

So, God created you because you make Him smile, and His love for you and all of creation is so great that He himself became the remedy to bring peace and beauty to a world wracked in pain because of humanity free will.

So the process is necessary to enjoy and experience the kid of life that you were made for...you are here for a reason, a purpose planned by God to grow you into the person you were created to be...when we tap into our purpose we begin to experience the abundant life..

mc

[MC]

sorry about the typo on your name brittany, i saw a couple others as well...I must need more ginko :-)

[Brittany]

I have slowly realized why we are here and what God wants us to do. But I also ask myself, why can I not accept it? Why am fighting against it? How can I let go of this. I know there is God out there. I felt like he has talked to me a couple of times, but it's so hard let go of everything and ask God to be part of my life. It feels like it would prove me wrong even though I know I am wrong. I'm not sure if any one gets what I'm saying, but that's what it feels like for me.

[Susan]

Monty’s first quote this morning impacted me the most of the whole message, “To follow the Rabbi, we need to realize that we have a theological frame that is inclusive or exclusive concerning what we believe God is like, or how He works. Jesus calls us to follow Him even when we don’t understand everything. When Light invades our world, it is always tempting to remain in the dark, because it is known.” My question is why did God make our brains so incapable of understanding all of who He is? I know it wouldn’t be good to know every single thing but why can’t we understand more than we are able?
Also, yesterday at Heart Touch, Stacy showed us GODISNOWHERE. What do you read when you read it? Depending on what you believe and how you view the world influences what you see in this run-on phrase.