openswitch

Messy Christian is experiencing something that I think many, if not all, Christians go through at one point or another. She writes that she is content being a pew warmer. Truthfully, I can’t blame her. In fact, I can personally relate. Especially when she says,

“For so many years being a Christian meant fighting myself – fighting who I am, fighting what I really wanted – so that I wouldn’t give in to the “devil’s ploy”. That meant smile when you don’t mean it, attend a prayer meeting when you don’t want to, and be part of a cell group you’re miserable in.

All this, I thought, was the manifestation of my sinful nature. My job was not to give in to it. But the fight became so hard I was convinced that I was really disguising my evil nature under piety or something.”

In college I went through a really tough period of my life when I did not want to be involved in ANY church. I hated church, I hated the mundaneness, the fakery, the “show must go on” mentality and finally I stopped going to church altogether. Frankly, I loved the sleeping in on Sundays ;). Keep in mind, I was at a Bible College and was studying to be a full-time minister. It was a time of turmoil, depression and despair for me. The only thing that kept me above water was praying, (semi-regularly) reading the Bible, and a vital friendship with one of my professors. I knew I believed in God, I knew I had a relationship with Him, but I didn’t like the churches I saw. I cried a lot that year.

It was during this time in my life that I decided to be an agent of change in the church. I would work to affect the community from within. For me, it took two semesters of rejecting church to realize that I was indeed called into the ministry. I didn’t like the way I saw other minister’s “doing church” so I decided to get in on the action and do something about it.

I was in a different position than Messy Christian is, however. I was young, and in the perfect place to redirect myself. This is why I really can’t blame her for what she’s feeling or dealing with. In fact, as far as her complaints with the church in general are concerned, I completely agree. I truly can understand why someone would want to have nothing to do with an organized church body; opting instead for a faith lived out amongst believing friends and family. Messy Christian, I’m praying with you.

One thing I think we all should keep in mind is that much of what the church in America purports as being “biblical truth or standards” such as smiling all the time, never admitting your weaknesses, etc, are not biblical ideals. True Christianity is about one thing and one thing alone, a relationship with Christ. That should be our chief focus in life, to know Him and glorify Him more.

[via Swap Blog]

Some of you may have thought I was joking, or perhaps only exaggerating when 6 days ago I wrote that traffic problems due to a ladder on the interstate was a regular occurrence down here in Atlanta. Well, just as proof that I was neither joking nor exaggerating, today as I was driving into work the traffic reporter again announced (very nonchalantly, I might add) that there were traffic delays on a major interstate due to yet another ladder in the road. That’s so bizarre.

The just a link section is working again. Praise the Lord. Not that He particularly cares about whether or not I have a link log displayed in the sidebar of my blog. It seems that the previous version of the plugin was trying to cache my del.icio.us links continuously which, those of you that use del.icio.us know, is not allowed. So periodically del.icio.us would send an error message instead of a link list, thus displaying a “1” in my sidebar where the links should have been. The plugin creator has corrected this problem, thankfully, because I love this plugin. Now it only requests and caches my link list from del.icio.us every 30 minutes. Let’s pray that this is the last bug to be worked out on Open Switch for a while. That is, until I decide to upgrade to WP 2.0 and then to K2 r127, both of which have not been released yet but will be around the start of the new year.

Today was pretty eventful. I held a children’s event at church, a birthday party for Jesus. Kinda corny, I know, but the kids eat that stuff up. We went all out with decorations, cake, ice cream and games. The cake said “Happy Birthday Jesus” and had seven candles on it, I think I was the only one who got a kick out of the fact that in the Bible the number seven is used many times as the “perfect” number. Though the cake may not have been perfect, it was delicious! Someone was disappointed that there weren’t 2,000 candles on the cake so I said that each candle stood for about 285 years. That seemed to satiate their desire for exactitude. The only part that was a little awkward was after lighting the candles and singing Happy Birthday to Jesus someone had to blow out the candles and it obviously wasn’t going to be the risen Lord. So I had to blow them out. It felt like I was praying. I didn’t expect it to feel that way.

In the pre-planning we tossed around several ideas for what games we could play at the party. We decided to go with a version of “pin the tail on the donkey” that we called “put baby Jesus in the manger.” At first we semi-seriously thought about making it a game of “put Jesus on the cross” but in the end we decided that it was a bit too morbid for a celebration of His birth. Also, I think there were some theological objections that were raised, such as the fact that in reality we already had put Jesus on the cross 2,000 years ago. The children liked “put Jesus in the manger” well enough. Note to self: next year remember to bring a blindfold. Children tend to peek at this game if they’re not wearing one.

After the food and games we went to the Fire Station to drop off the toys that each child brought with them. I invited each child to bring an unwrapped Christmas present to donate to the Salvation Army and each child brought one. They absolutely loved the idea that they could give a toy to another child this season. The fire fighters were nice enough to give us a tour of the fire station as well. The kids got to ring the bell on the fire truck and see where the fire fighters ride when they’re on their way to a fire. What friendly guys! My respect for them went up one full notch, if that’s even possible after 9/11.

All in all, a great event. I made sure to include a story of the first Christmas. I used a manger scene to illustrate. Yeah, all the kids had heard it before but does that really matter? I don’t think so. It’s part of our heritage, we should tell it every year (at least.)

I LOVE ministry. I can’t imagine doing anything else. The pay may stink, the hours may be insane, but the rewards are other-worldly. “Hark the herald angels sing, Glory to the new born King…”

We purchased for Thomas a winter coat. He loves wearing it and I think it looks really cute on him. The only thing is there’s so much insulation his arms stick out to the side when he’s resting them. Just like A Christmas Story.

Thomas found an old plastic easter egg in the garage. He took one half of it and used it as a hat.

Then, he took the other half and wanted me to wear it as a hat. After he saw how good I looked in it he took his half off and put it on my head. I was double-hatted. Or is that triple-hatted?

The Christmas /Kwanzaa /Hannukah /whatever season is upon us. Regardless of your cultural background, chances are you’re feeling a little stressed as the week comes to a close. For many people the stress builds as they keep it bottled up inside until we take it out on a family member or friend. Well, don’t let that happen this year! Vent that stress now!

Consider this an open thread, a place where you can vent all your frustrations. The only catch is you have to keep your vent to 25 words or less. After 25 words your comment will be mercilessly cut off by the administrator (as soon as I read it), your thought left dangling in the air. Have fun!

Why Do We Love Rounded Corners? Because we just do.

Russian climbing. Anyone up for a game of follow the leader?

How to Make a Chicago Hot Dog. This one is for all my Southern friends who put Mayo on their dogs.

I usually don’t read many of the Jolly Blogger‘s posts all the way through because I have a notoriously short attention span and JB has an affinity for long posts. But occasionally he’ll write something that speaks to me, as he has done with this post. It’s a topic that is getting beat into the ground within the blogosphere but I think JB has some good points to be made. I also appreciate his humility and honesty. Give it a read.