Do you find that there are times where God has called you to serve, but you haven't embraced it?
Aren't they the same thing? Not entirely.
It's easy, in the moment, or over time to accept God's calling to serve in a specific area (such as with youth or children or homeless or fill in the blank), but to embrace it means to live it. To dive in fully, and to be completely engaged in it. To fully surrender to serving in that area and to following the lead and call of God, even if the area of service isn't one that you entirely want to do, but it's one God wants you to fulfill.
It's not the obvious places of service that need embraced: it's the ones that are placed in our lives that we resist committing to. Our churches emphasize service overseas or on the mission field or to our communities, but in our lives there are areas of service we overlook, we ignore, we resist – until one day we realize that our calling is right under our noses.
We need to learn to recognize the opportunities to serve in our families, our homes, or places of business, our schools. The places where we spend the most time and with the people who surround us every day.
If we don't embrace those opportunities, why will God entrust us with bigger ones? Perhaps these are the big ones, and every other opportunity we are hoping and praying for are deceptions or intended to blind us to what's been placed before us. We're so easily distracted by the allure of "purpose" and "calling," that as we look beyond our current circumstances to where we think God is calling us to, that we fail to hear His voice where we are.
Serve well where you live, and other opportunities will follow. To embrace is to love, to love is to serve.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Hello Christianity: Your message is losing relevance
Lacking any original ideas, popular culture Christian-themed media continues to render the message of the Bible irrelevant, unless it's in the context of other popular culture symbology and messaging.
For example: "The Light" shirt is a knockoff of the Twilight visual branding. Blatant and embarrassing knockoff.
So why aren't more Christian-themed media or art copied? It's not hard to figure out: we're slaves to the story. Somehow we can't get away from the idea that we have to get the whole gospel message in every time we speak or say or create something. In doing so, we lose focus, and in losing focus, others lose interest. And if this is the best believers can do, then there's nothing compelling to inspire anybody else.
We don't have to include any message in our creativity. Art needs no justification or reason to be.
Outside of the context of the movie, the shirt has little meaning. Little relevance. Because without context, there is even more explaining to do about what it means. Instead of starting a conversation, it just looks like a word that was misspelled. That means its bad design too.
C'mon believers! You can do better than this! Embrace the best.
For example: "The Light" shirt is a knockoff of the Twilight visual branding. Blatant and embarrassing knockoff.
We don't have to include any message in our creativity. Art needs no justification or reason to be.
Outside of the context of the movie, the shirt has little meaning. Little relevance. Because without context, there is even more explaining to do about what it means. Instead of starting a conversation, it just looks like a word that was misspelled. That means its bad design too.
C'mon believers! You can do better than this! Embrace the best.
Friday, April 23, 2010
The tension between the familiar and the new
I found a note, written during a worship seminar: "the tension between the familiar and the new."
It's a theme that is discussed frequently as we plan worship (for youth, the lovers of all things new), who actually tend to prefer the familiar, who avoid change.
On the other hand, the musicians want to do what's new, to try new songs, to do old songs new ways.
In our role of leading worship, I remind the worship team that those who in the role of worshipper (ie, not leading) will best connect with God on a personal level when the songs are familiar – when they can be sung from the heart, when the words are known, the tune recognized, the song is known. There is comfort and reassurance in that which we know. There is uncertainty in that which is new.
We cannot worship a stranger. God must be known to us as personally, as familiar as the songs we sing to praise Him. We must know Him in order to be deeply comforted and reassured. We must know Him in order to respond to Him.
The tension that's created between the familiar and the new is a healthy one. We will grow stale if we sing the same song. The psalmist declares in Psalm 40 "I will sing a new song."
Embrace the tension. Sing a new song!
It's a theme that is discussed frequently as we plan worship (for youth, the lovers of all things new), who actually tend to prefer the familiar, who avoid change.
On the other hand, the musicians want to do what's new, to try new songs, to do old songs new ways.
In our role of leading worship, I remind the worship team that those who in the role of worshipper (ie, not leading) will best connect with God on a personal level when the songs are familiar – when they can be sung from the heart, when the words are known, the tune recognized, the song is known. There is comfort and reassurance in that which we know. There is uncertainty in that which is new.
We cannot worship a stranger. God must be known to us as personally, as familiar as the songs we sing to praise Him. We must know Him in order to be deeply comforted and reassured. We must know Him in order to respond to Him.
The tension that's created between the familiar and the new is a healthy one. We will grow stale if we sing the same song. The psalmist declares in Psalm 40 "I will sing a new song."
Embrace the tension. Sing a new song!
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