I am on a much needed vacation with my wife during my spring break, so we will pick up with the Brian McLaren review next week with 3-4 fresh posts. In the meantime enjoy and meditate upon this note that was written by a child and dropped in my church’s offering plate.

A child’s innocent, honest question silences the the prideful arrogance of adults.

May this be our prayer today.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Shift Happens:
Introduction
Cistern

A few weeks ago I began a series on the life of Joseph as representative of our own unexpected shifts.

We pick up the story with Joseph at the bottom of a cistern.

I can only imagine what Joseph was thinking: What has just happened? HOW did this happen? WHY is this happening

to me?

What about those dreams, the one’s God Himself gave me? What about his plans to make my life great?

How the hell does this fit in?

Remember that in many ways this was all set in motion because of the dreams God gave teenager Joseph In the ancient near east dreams were a common way of divine communication. Like his brothers (who were pretty ticked at those acts of divine communication, especially how Joseph bragged about those communiqués) Joseph would have understood its prophetic nature, that God was doing something in his life and saying something about him and his life.

So at the beginning of Joseph’s story you have God directing its events. These dreams are from God.

He not only gave literal dreams to Joseph, but also planted in his heart a seed of promise for his life. To this teenager these dreams would have meant 2 things: God has a plan for his life and those plans include some type of leadership.

So at an early age God give Joseph a vision for his life.

Maybe some of us have experienced that same kernel of life-vision. We have had some hopes and dreams for our lives, ones that we were certain were from God, and now our life has shifted.

Now we are sitting at the bottom of a cistern asking, “What is happening to me? What about God’s plans for my life? How will I survive?”

I know I was asking these questions after my shift in DC. I went to Washington with a vision of how God wanted to use me in American politics and culture. I was a bright-eyed, bushied-tailed, freshly graduated conservative Republican Christian who thought he was called to confront culture with Christ. but then

SHIFT!

And at the bottom of my own cistern I had a real hard time seeing how God would fulfill those dreams, let alone survive. Engulfed in the fallout from my unexpected shift, I remember walking outside the Capitol Building and sitting on some benches just outside the House Chambers. It was a nice DC summer evening and I just stared at the Capitol, not so much asking “Why?” but “What?” and “How?” I prayed, “God what have you done, what are you doing in my life? How does this fit in with your plans and how am I going to survive?”

But I did survive. And so did Joseph.

Why? Because “the Lord was with him” and “what was meant for evil, the Lord meant for good.”

Popularity: 5% [?]

You read that right: Shift Happens.

Sometimes our lives take unexpected “shifts.” Shifts happen to us.

On Monday June 9, 2003 my life hit an unexpected shift.

A year prior I moved to Washington, DC with visions of changing American culture danced through my head. I was a young ambitious conservative with a kick-ass haircut who wanted to leave his mark on the American political landscape for Christ, mainly through subversive legislation. God was good enough to provide a position with a Senator, thus launching my budding career on Capitol Hill.

Up until Monday June 9, 2003 I was trying to move into upper legislative positions to leave such a mark. There were a few opportunities that came and went, but nothing that stuck. In fact, the week prior to Monday June 9, 2003 I was approached about a position where I would have worked on some policy and had face-time with the Senator.

While it seemed like an obvious, no-brainer opportunity, I felt like God didn’t want me to pursue it, that it wasn’t a good fit. That friday before Monday June 9, 2003 I approached my boss who talked with me about the opportunity and turned it down. I said I didn’t think it was the right fit, all the while cursing inside! She understood and said that there might be another opportunity in the press office. She said that a person there was looking to leave and thought it might be a good move for me. I thanked her and said I’d think about it…

Now fast forward to Monday June 9, 2003.

Late in the afternoon that person in the press shop decided to come visit my coworker and me in our office. He came in to grab a Dum-Dum sucker and ended up chatting and watching FoxNews. In the course of the conversation I asked him about his move. It went something like this:

Me: Hey (we’ll call him) Bob, I heard you were looking to leave. What’s the deal?

Bob: Umm…what do you mean?

Me: Well, someone told me you were thinking of moving back to Chicago and was wondering what was up?

Bob: I don’t what you’re talking about. Who told you that?

PAUSE: Now for some reason I thought he thought it was a secret, so I thought telling him this persons name would let him no there was no need to worry. I thought, “Surely if this Asst. Chief of Staff told me about this it wasn’t a big deal!” UNPAUSE

Me: Well (let’s call her) Sherri told me.

Bob: I don’t know what Sherri is talking about. I’m not looking to leave.

AWK-ward

I didn’t know what to say…so I just said, “Sorry!”

He left and I turned to my co-worker, “Good, God what have I just done.”

A bit later my coworker left and returned to let me know Bob and Sherri were in the hallway talking.

Great!

A few minutes before my day ended, Sherri came into my office and asked to see me in the hallway. THAT conversation went something like this:

Sherri: Did you ask Bob if he was looking to leave?

Me: Yes

Sherri: Did you say I told you that?

Me: Yes

Sherri: Why did you say that?!?!?! I told you not to tell anyone (which I did NOT recall at all). He came to me in confidence to say he was looking to leave (which, btw, he did…and was planning to all along!). And I had to lie through my teeth to say I didn’t say anything to you.

And then the words that rocked my world…

Sherri: And you fucked up…and that’s why you’re not going anywhere in this organization.

She stormed off. I sat stunned…at the bottom of a cistern.

I’ve called that experience my Joseph Moment. Like Joseph, a massive shift occurred in my life. You probably remember much of Joseph’s story, especially the beginning that launched his own storied tale. At the beginning of his story, Joseph’s father sends him to the land of Shechem to check on his brothers who were supposed to be looking after the family’s sheep or something. When Joseph arrives they are not there, but there just happens to be someone there who knows where they’ve gone to. Joseph is sent to the land of Dothan, where they just happen to be.

Hi brothers see him coming and are burning with anger and jealousy over Joseph’s dreams (the one’s that predicted Joseph’s leadership position…over them!) and their father’s favoritism (like the “technicolor dream coat”). While most of them want to kill Joseph, another suggests they spare his life and throw him in a cistern that just happens to be nearby.

So they do. They throw Joseph in a cistern. And as Joseph careens into the dusty dirt of the dried-out cistern, Joseph’s life Shifts.

Shift happens.

How many of us here have had Joseph Moments in our own stories? Moments when things absolutely just…shifted unexplainably and you were catapulted into a completely different direction than you could have imagined.

Someone dies.

You lose a job.

An unexpected pregnancy.

A major health problem is diagnosed.

Someone close to you betrays you.

A child falls away from God.

A marriage collapses.

One minute life is fantastic and beautiful. You’re just minding your own business and then

WHAMMO as they say in the comics…an unexpected shift.

This is what happened to me. This is what has happened to all of us. This is what happened to our good friend Joseph, because

shift happens.

As we walk through his story we’ll not only see how he handled his own shifts. We’ll also realize the truth about our own stories.

that the God Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is with us through it all; what others, especially the Evil One, meant for evil, the Lord has meant for good.

Shift happens, but God is with us.

Popularity: 5% [?]

So this morning I woke up to a car with no heat and a puddle of green goo just chillin underneath.

Now, mind you, this was AFTER I spent $400 two days ago to replace the thermostat which caused both things to occur (in addition to having my battery replaced).

$770 is what it will take to replace the water pump and some gear that seems to have wreaked it.

That brings the grand total of car repairs for the week to around $1200.

$1200…*poof*

$1200 into a car that I plan on jettisoning in 6 months for another (and without any other recourse than to fork over the green backs until then). $1200 that ye ol’ seminary student really doesn’t have. $1200 that I’ll be paying on for the next several years.

When it rains it shits…

Can a brotha getta amen?!?

And the thing is: I hate money with a passion that burns bright and strong.

Now I know everyone and there mother has there share of money issues, especially because of that hunk of metal in our garages and driveways we just can’t live without. I hate it, though, because of the shame it’s brought me through reckless consumerism. Just paint a big scarlet (or is that green?) dollar sign on me and call me Hester Prynne! And just as I am almost finished paying off my credit card debt and seriously refining my spending habits, making my recompense to Mammon and taking back my soul

BLAMO!

I’m hit with a two-punch swing that’s left me doubled-over, deflated and stressed.

*sigh*

Jesus’ words flood the air right now with reassurance that if God takes care of the sparrows, how much more will my Daddy take care of me? If He cloths the fields of flowers with more splendor than that of the robes of Solomon, how much more will my Father not leave me naked and unclothed?

But, Abba, I feel like a sparrow that’s been given a handful of sand instead of birdseed. Feed me your Bread (of Life), oh Yahweh.

Daddy, I feel like a naked flower whose petals have been plucked down to my stem. Cloth me Lord, according to your promises; please don’t leave me to the elements of a Michigan January.

Father, who art hallowed and in heaven, yet also with me and never forsaking me, teach me to trust you for my daily water pumps, seminary books, and tuition bills. Teach me to let You be You and handle the circumstances of my life, come what may, so that I can focus my attention on the righteous Rhythm of Your Kingdom-Life and Movement. Lord, may I not run like a Pagan, but rather as a Good and Faithful Servant. And Daddy, may you provide what I need today and teach me not worry about tomorrow, for You will take care of me, my Rock and Salvation.

Selah

Popularity: 2% [?]

I am watching COPS (again!) after a wonderful retreat with Jesus (more on that later) and was reminded about a post on the show I wrote this summer. Have you ever sat down and really watched this show? The whole thing is one big commentary on the despair that oozes out of every crevice of society! And in the face of this oozing, I feel so helpless…

I just spent the last 2 hours watching COPS. Not something I normally do on a Saturday night (although I am bored after returning to Michigan from DC!), but I needed to do somethings on the Mac and thought I would have some background “noise”.

After watching this program, I realize how insulated I am in my nice home (well, my parents) in the white suburbs, far removed from drugs, poverty, violence, battery, rape, and any other form of human despair. I write this both in thanks and also lament. I am thankful for God’s protection and care over my life and circumstances, but lament both being so far removed from pockets of social decay and also the fact that social despair and hopelessness exists.

I really wonder sometimes how much of handle God really has on this thing called life and time and reality. You look throughout history and even the present and see such…despair. I am reading a chapter in a book called Christ Plays In Ten Thousand Places on how Christ plays and moves throughout history. And I finish this COPS marathon and think about my time in Romania with orphans and gypsies and about the news and really wonder sometimes where God is in all of this.

I know humans create much of this suffering. Our rage and arrogance and murderous hearts and greed and pride all move history in the direction of despair. And I know God does not cause suffering per se (although that is certainly ANOTHER blog post for another day), but like Dr. Cox from Scrubs sometimes I really want to scream: God, where are you?

This is just a short post on some reactive thoughts and I know most of them seem to be from no where, but I really struggle sometimes with God and history, and now thanks to COPS I have four more episodes worth of despair to add to my struggle…

-jeremy

…and after re-reading my post I wonder what is my role in this? As a follower of Jesus am I not called to deliberately follow Him into this despair? To take the Light of Christ into the heart of society’s centers of darkness that cultivate and perpetuate marginalization, inequity, crime and the hopelessness that undergirds all of it?

Instead this is what I do: I hide it under a fine bowl from Pottery Barn, setting upon my beautiful marble-top table from Crate and Barrel, nestled in a secure house (provided by ADT Security), behind a thick wooden door, guarded by a nice white-picket fence and all the plushness and security that comes from American Suburbia.

Maybe 2008 is the year to escape and light the darkness…

Popularity: 2% [?]