“Because with every action, comment, conversation, we have the choice to invite Heaven or Hell to Earth.”
Rob Bell

Friday, 27 January 2012

Crazy!

It is highly unusual for me to post two blog articles in one day! I also don't really like copying and pasting things into the blog that aren't mine, but this is too good to hold back from you lot. Enjoy it + be inspired by it! Another lesson in simplicity..


"How to Explain God" was written by Danny Dutton, age 8, from Chula Vista, California, for his third grade homework assignment: "Explain God" The following piece was published in Christianity Today:

"One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the ones that die so there will be enough people to take care of things on earth. He doesn't make grown-ups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way He doesn't have to take up His valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that to mothers and fathers.
"God's second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at times besides bedtime. God doesn't have time to listen to the radio or TV because of this. Because He hears everything, there must be a terrible lot of noise in His ears, unless He has thought of a way to turn it off.
"God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere which keeps Him pretty busy. So you shouldn't go wasting His time by going over your mum and dad's head asking for something they said you couldn't have.
"Atheists are people who don't believe in God. I don't think there are any in Chula Vista. At least there aren't any who come to our church.
"Jesus is God's Son. He used to do all the hard work like walking on water and performing miracles and trying to teach the people who didn't want to learn about God. They finally got tired of Him preaching to them and they crucified Him. But He was good and kind, like His Father and He told His Father that they didn't know what they were doing and to forgive them and God said okay. His Dad (God) appreciated everything that He had done and all His hard work on earth so He told Him He didn't have to go out on the road anymore. He could stay in heaven. So He did. And now He helps His Dad out by listening to prayers and seeing things which are important for God to take care of and which ones He can take care of Himself without having to bother God. Like a secretary, only more important.
“You can pray anytime you want and they are sure to help you because they got it worked out so one of them is on duty all the time.
"You should always go to Church on Sunday because it makes God happy, and if there's anybody you want to make happy, it's God. Don't skip church to do something you think will be more fun like going to the beach. This is wrong. And besides the sun doesn't come out at the beach until noon anyway.
"If you don't believe in God, besides being an atheist, you will be very lonely, because your parents can't go everywhere with you, like to camp, but God can. It is good to know He's around you when you're scared in the dark or when you can't swim and you get thrown into real deep water by big kids. But you shouldn't just always think of what God can do for you. I figure God put me here and He can take me back anytime He pleases. And that's why I believe in God.”

Just like the wee kiddos.

So, after a brief break from Facebook I have (a little reluctantly) reactivated my account. What a terrible idea. I've just spent the past 2 hours trying to fix the stupid new timeline 'activity log' so that my privacy is the way I want it to be. Okay okay, I did spend a bit of time choosing a new 'cover picture' (a lovely close-up picture of daisies in my back garden, for those of you who are interested)...and yes, it does look kinda cool...

In the quest for the perfect cover picture, I looked through every single one of my photo albums and came across pictures from the prayer room in church last year. We had a wee kids corner set up with loads of paints and crayons and markers and fun foamy sticky things that they could use to create pretty pictures. When I cleared the prayer room out it was so sad to have to take their wee works of art down, and I couldn't bear to throw it all out...some of it was SO profound. These kids were tiny, and to be quite honest, I was astounded by the depth of the simplicity of the things they had written and painted and drawn.



So you can probably read the wee white thought bubble that says "Thank you Lord" in the bottom right hand corner. But on the green spiky sticky foam bubble at the top, it says "It has started". WOAH. Is that not just incredible?! How did that little brain come out with something like that?! 

"At that time the disciples came up and asked Jesus, Who then is [really] the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And He called a little child to Himself and put him in the midst of them, and said, Truly I say to you, unless you repent (change, turn about) and become like little children [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving], you can never enter the kingdom of heaven [at all].." - Matthew 18:1-3

I like the way the Amplified Bible describes little children: trusting, lowly, loving and forgiving. Us old people can learn so much from kids...their simplicity is just beautiful.

Tuesday, 24 January 2012

Simplicity

Studying theology over the past 2.5 years has been a challenging and eye-opening experience. My faith has not been watered down - but I have found myself becoming more mellow. I have always been quietly critical of how theology is done in churches and with individuals, but these days I'm realising the importance of getting back to basics. I think that people have a tendency to complicate Christianity with their theologies - I'm starting to realise that faith is much more simple than we ever could imagine, but probably the most difficult (and therefore rewarding) journey that we will ever embark on. I'm not saying that preachers and teachers should dumb things down - people aren't stupid. In fact, I think that people are ready and eager to know more. But fancy sounding spiritual language and new fangled theologies (in my opinion) only divide and exclude people. Theology is awesome and I absolutely love learning about different thinkers - both ancient and brand new - but in order to actually, properly, passionately live out this faith, I think we need to let go of some of the theological baggage we've accumulated and just walk with Christ. Theological babble won't change the world, and theology won't save your soul.