The 12 friends?

God. Who always was one day decides to create the earth. He creates unimaginable beauty. It's amazing... perfect, well not quite. In all of his creation there is no one for him to love and no one to be loved by. Enter man. Man who is created in God's own image, who longs to be loved just like God does. Enter woman.

All of humanity is still created in God's image and designed deliberately with a need for relationships and a longing for love. Enter Jesus. God became flesh and dwelt among us. We understand that Jesus is fully God and fully man. It's not either or... it's both and. Somehow it seems that along the way we have so diefied Jesus that he has been dehumanized. We understand him to be so far away that we have a hard time connecting with him and introducing him to others in a way that they can relate to. It's in his humanity that we find solace. In his manhood that we relate to his Godliness. If he had never taken on the burden of humanity then how would we relate to him? If then Jesus was like God and we're like him then didn't he need friends too? Though you see Jesus many times pulling away from the crowds he was never there long except for a 40 day stretch in the desert. Most times we seem to see Jesus as some emotionless teacher with 12 ministry interns taking notes as he taught. Jesus lived life with these guys. He shared meal after meal, thought after thought, day after day with them. He knew them and they knew him. In short, they were friends. Remember Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane? He took Peter, James, and John not because he saw such promise for leadership in them that he gave them a special intern round table disscussion. They were his friends, his best friends. If you were walking through the most difficult time in your whole life would you want to do it alone or would you rather walk with your friends? He says to them watch and pray so you don't fall into temptation... good advice no doubt but he also said can't you even stay awake for one hour with me? I believe that the struggle within Jesus' humanity led him to not just teach his "interns" why they should pray but to ask them to stay close to him as his friends. Remember at the last supper when Jesus says that no one's love is greater than the one who is willing to lay his life down for his friends. You realize he wasn't referring to some other noble leader or father or friend that would appear on the world scene at some time in the future. He was talking about himself and calling his "interns", the disciples, his friends. I don't know about you but I don't just want to learn facts and truths about this God-man from a distance, I want to be his friend. What if we all started to realize that we were his friends? What if we were friends together. Maybe, then we would really know him and really walk with him. Sounds like the first and second commandments to me. May the friends of God hear his voice clearly and begin to befriend new disciples into friendship with God.

Community >>>

Community. You see it on billboards advertising banking opportunities as you drive down 480. You hear people in the business world throwing it around as well as people in religious circles ooohhing and aaahhing when it is spoken of. The word community has become a buzzword of sorts that seems like no matter where or how it is used draws the attention of almost everyone within earshot. What is it really though and what does it mean for us? Is it just another program destined for the same fate as so many other religiously oriented ideas? Why is it that it seems that culture is so primed for community?

I think there are a lot of reasons. I've heard it said that though the pendulum swings it always swings back. Through technology and other cultural shifts people have become more and more distant from their "neighbors". Globalization has in many ways had a direct impact on village thinking and living. There is a basic reality in human nature that causes people to want and actually need human interaction. Man is most often not satisfied with a solitary existence.

A couple weeks ago I was in my office working when I saw an instant messenger window pop up on my computer. It wasn't someone in another nation or even another part of the city, it was my wife on the laptop only 15 feet away from me. We laughed as we "chatted" for a couple minutes then realized how stupid it was that we weren't talking instead. I say this only to illustrate a point. How many people have placed themselves out of reach from others because of technology and chosen a computer screen and a keyboard as a best friend? Before you think I'm anti-technology remember that I'm sitting here on my laptop enjoying free wi-fi and getting ready to post a blog on the internet for perfect strangers to read. The point is that I believe our culture is in a way primed to receive truth via community. I know many people who may never darken the door of a church but who are very serious about having a spirituality that they can own. Is it possible that God is so focusing on relational issues in the body of Christ because he knows the profound impact that people can have on one another relationally both in "church" and in the streets?

Is God setting us up? I think so. I talk to people frequently about their desire for "true community" having seen the counterfeit at least a few other times. What if we the family of God were to build a structure who's only structure was relationship? What if that structure was sufficient to meet all of our needs and all of the needs of new believers? What if it could feed our souls and our stomachs? What if people who don't do "church" would do dinner? What if the church is really me and you and not a building or a program? The questions go on and on.

I believe we live in a time when God is giving a grace and a desire to people, many people, to be the church and to see the church grow and flourish the same way it did in the first century after Jesus' return to heaven, house to house and one meal at a time. This is a journey. A journey for old friends and new ones. Let's see what God will do in Cleveland with a few friends who are willing to love God and each other. It just may be that the dreams that God has put in our hearts can't be born within the four walls of a building. It just may be that the dreams in our hearts are waiting to be born in our living rooms and local restaraunts. The question is how will we ever know if we are to afraid to at least try? Let's be the family of God everywhere we go all the time and see what starts to change in us and around us.

Love... for real

What is true love? Everyone talks about it. Secretly everyone longs for it. A few think they have it... maybe they do... but what is it? How do you find it? If you're looking for the answers to all of those nagging unanswered questions in the universe you'll probably come away after reading this blog disappointed. What I know is that love can be a very illusive thing. I've heard people talk about love. I've even heard some pretty uncaring people even tell me how sensitive and loving they are. Love isn't words, after all we can say anything and not mean it. Love can't be actions alone because I could do things that look kind or "loving" without really being motivated by love. So what is love? I think love is a process. It's a processs that doesn't happen in a vacuum or with one person all alone in some solitary place. Love happens with people, face to face and hand to hand. Love isn't an event... it's a process. It happens among people and God, it's mysterious and tangible. It's invisible and visible. Love is patient and grows more patient. Love is kind and grows more kind. It's forgiving and grows more forgiving. Love lives between between people and between people and God. Love comes from God but somehow people have tried to lay claim to love as if it were theirs. Love so many times gets hijacked by well meaning people and takes a beating when people fail at loving, that's what people do, mess up. God on the other hand, the creator of love, shows love. Love, for real. His love has no short comings, no flaws, no failures. He is love. True love is real, oh yeah. It just doesn't happen because of me of me or you. It comes from somewhere else, from God. I've said to people how I've loved so well in certain situations and then fall flat on my face sometimes within minutes. We need love to come from somewhere other than us but to still live between us. How do I love the homeless guy on the street corner, by saying God bless you or by putting a hot meal in his hand? How do I love that guy at church who drives me crazy, come on you know that guy. How do I love the people that don't love me? We need love... not just the words, not just the actions... love....... for real.

commune... ism?

So I'm sitting in an old theater writing in my journal and compiling some thoughts about community. As I attempt to write the word "community" I involuntarily write the word communist. Communist? I thought that was strange and crossed out the word to rewrite "community". As I did it I heard the Lord say,"No, I said communist!". Now this is strange I thought. Communism has been such an evil and oppressive system surely God can't be calling me a communist... I DON'T WANT TO BE A COMMUNIST! So I look up the definition for communism... here it is:

Communism. A concept or belief that proposes an ideal of equality and shared resources in a given society.

This of course is the short version of what communism stands for. The reality is that as God spoke he began to show me that it was communism but actually commun.... ism. "Commun" is the root of many words that represent ideals that we are searching for.

*commun-ity
*commun-e
*commun-ion
*commun-ication

Isn't that what we want? Isn't it? A place to belong, a place to be loved, a place to share the deepest darkest fears of your heart in total safety. A place where life lives. Aren't you longing for a place where love flows so freely that needs are met by each other? A place where we find Jesus together? How does it happen? To be honest I don't know exactly how. We are asking all of these questions in order to find the truth and walk in it. I know this, two heads are better than one. Maybe through committed love motivated relationships we'll begin to see the thing that our hearts long for begin to be formed. Maybe commun-ism is for me after all, maybe you too.