let it shine, let it shine, let it shine

Today at Tuesday UP worship, my brother in Christ was leading music and mentioned something really profound (in my opinion). As we sang for more of Jesus in our lives, he really convicted us with this word from the Lord.

"When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD."
-Exodus 34:29

Moses desired more of God, and God granted that wish; in other words, I feel like it is safe to say that Moses was blessed with the glory of God because he was in the presence of God. And it showed! When he came back down to the Israelites, his face was radiant; everybody knew there was something dramatically different. IN the next verse, it actually states that people were afraid to look at Moses' face, just as to see the face of God is overwhelmingly holy. As a result, Moses had to wear a veil which he only took off in the presence of God.

My brother challenged us with this message: if Moses' face glowed with radience when his encounter with God was merely external, how come we, who now have God INSIDE of us, do not glow even greater? Do we not crave it enough? Or are we ignoring the true power and truth to Emmanuel; God with us?

I think part of the reason why we do not shine as brightly as we should be is that we do not have the faith in the real impact of God in our hearts, minds, soul, and body. For one reason or another, we are scared to unleash the power of God in our lives; possibly being frightened at the idea that we can no longer be ourselves. When people see us, do we honestly want them to see God, or do we want them to see us? Maybe the first step is admitting that we need to be a whole lot better at seeing God active and profound in us.

I think I have always questioned what it means for people to notice a difference in myself as a Christian. I think through meditating on this truth from the Word, I am beginning to feel like God fully in us actually creates some sort of tangible aura that people just feel, see, hear, taste. I think it is more than just the words we speak, or the actions we take. Perhaps when we allow God to shine through us, and that when the idea of God presence in us really sinks in, we actually start to ooze the spirit, just as Moses' face glowed.

celebrating celebrities

Today I was watching Paris Hilton's British Best Friend. This is now my second time in the past 3 months watching this show, and both times have been both entertaining and brain numbing. Never has something been so entertaining because it was so incredibly stupid.

For those that do not know the premise of the show, it goes as follows. A reality competition follows a group of British girls (and one very content boy) who fight to become Paris Hilton's British best friend. Paris puts them through various competitions and tasks to "prove their love for her" and show how much they really want her friendship. I am assuming she had a show called Paris Hilton's Best Friend, and is now searching for something more exotic (but only slightly). I am assuming next season, she will acquire a Latino BF.

Maybe it is just the people I surround myself with or the media I chose to attend to, but I had this notion that most people hated Paris Hilton; or at the very least thought her as a concept (rich dumb girl that does nothing and becomes famous) to be embarrassing to humanity and its race. However, on this show, the contestants are in complete awe of her. Here are a few examples:

• In a truth or dare game, one contestant was asked "What is the most important thing to you, and if Paris asked for it, would you give it to her?". The contestant responded that her heart was most important to her, and if Paris asked for it, she would give it to her. Talk about disgusting.
• One of the contestant's friends was asked how the contestant spoke about Paris. He responded that if the contestant ever had a God, Paris would be it. The blasphemy does not even bother me; rather its the sheer pathetic nature of this.
  

And of course, the contestants cannot stop raving about how Paris possesses the characteristics of a natural goddess. In their eyes, Paris is the pure depiction of mercy, love, and sensitivity. Not to mention, she is the portrait of wisdom and class. I do not think I need to explain the absurdity of this statement.

Nonetheless, watching (and admittingly enjoying) this show got me thinking of why people are so mezmorized by celebrities. I am not talking about loving Sidney Crosby because he is a great hockey player or watching all Matt Damon movies because you think he is a talented actor. I am talking about those nuts that consistently follow John Mayer on Twitter, the people that run those TV Shows that seem far to interested in Kate Winslet's pregnancy, or individuals that tell themselves that the Olsen twins are their biggest life inspirations.

I guess it really is not my say to pass judgement on how one distributes his or her respect, but at the very least, I question the motives or mentality behind this adoration. What makes someone reach this level of obsession with someone they have only encountered on television? Perhaps it is a desire for living like someone or something they are not; the idea of living vicariously through someone who has it all?

What many of these people maybe need to do is wake up from their dreamland, or as Mr. Matthers would say "snap back to reality". Most of these people are not really running from their horrible lives, but their mundane, ordinary, and boring lives. Perhaps these people need to be reminded that their "ordinary" lives are not necessarily boring, but rather there are more subtle excitements and joys of life they have not yet explored in their own lives. I think we all tend to wish we were someone else; wish we were doing something better. I think having a drive to live life greater is important, but I think there is a danger when we decide our lives would be better if it were not its own, but rather that of someone "better" or more "glamorous".

talk is cheap

I wonder at what age do we start to let our ability to verbally communicate take over our ability to act? Have you ever been engaged in a conversation with a child where he or she just cannot explain him or herself? For example, they could be asking to do something, or go somewhere, but just cannot get the words out properly. But their bodies are itching to go; their feet are constantly shifting and their eyes keep wandering. They don't want to explain what they want to do, they just want to do it!

I think this is what Jesus means when He says we are to come to Him like a child. As adults we have lost the art of doing. Instead, we have gotten so caught up in elaborate, almost bourgeois, theology. We like to talk about what it means to be a Christian; and God forbid we should reach the conclusion of some simple answer like "to be a Christian is to love"...that's "devaluing" our faith. Further, in church, we are immersed in the teachings of the word, but more often than it should occur, we, as a church, do not turn to the word when we are looking for answers to the "real" life issues. What do we do with all these darn homeless people who keep wandering through our building? We lock the doors to make sure our walls stay white; our children stay safe from the "evil people of the world". God forbid we should find a homeless man sleeping on a pew bench on a cold winter night! That's not what the church is for. Pews are for worship, right?

As Christians we love the idea of praying for things. Don't get me wrong, there is power in prayer. As believers, we are called to pray for things; to lift things up to God because we know that He is the powerful one and he is the one that provides all good things. Prayer is important, don't get me wrong. But may I suggest that there is also mediocrity in just praying for everything?

If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed" but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead...But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds". Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

It is easy to tell someone we will pray for them; it is easy to pray for world peace. We "give it up to God" and let Him take care of it, because we are just mere humans right? I feel like often times when we pray for things, we are immediately given the answer to our questions, and that answer is us. If we pray for healing in the world, God tells us that we can heal the world. If we pray for friends, God tells us that we are to pour love on that friend by giving them our time. Sure, there are many things that we pray for because we acknowledge that we are more or less useless; in other words, we realize we need God to be God. But also know that God empowers human beings to do great things; to be representatives of his greatness and power. If we pray, we must be willing to accept that God might use us as the response.

Is it easier to fill out our "religious beliefs" on our Facebook page than actually let people judge if our actions are in line with that of Christ? The book of James seems to be telling us that our faith is legitimized by our actions: that our actions really define how strong and how big our faith is. It is like the kid that talks about how good he is at a sport until you actually play him and find out he sucks. He may know the perfect strategy and have the plays and moves figured out to a science, but he has no idea how to apply it to his own game. In the same way, a lot of times, us Christians talk cheap. We know everything we can know about the character of a righteous Christian, but that's all we know. We know what love is, but we do not know how to love; or perhaps we choose not to learn.

Who is hungry? Who is poor? Be careful if you pray for these people...God may just point to your fridge or wallet when he answers.

death and all his friends

Part of me is hesitant to write this post because it is just too cliche. But it is something I have had to remind myself of in the past few days, and I feel like it is something that has been trapped in my brain and needs to find its way to paper (or our 2009 technological equivalent). So here goes.

A couple days ago, my friend and I were talking about death. I mentioned how I try to remind myself that I could die at any time. He was a bit hesitant to agree, as he felt that a life that reminds itself of its death does not really have room to live. Where I somewhat agreed with him, I argued that it was a matter of perspective. If one reminds oneself of the frailty and spontaneity of life, there are two common responses: 1. they become so focused on death that, like my friend said, they refuse to live, seeing it as futile and meaningless. This, probably, leads to some sort of depressing or sad outlook on life and a dull and pointless existence. This, I believe, is more or less what my friend was trying to say. However, the other response, 2., is that you are constantly reminded that life is finite, but good. Instead of wasting each day, you acknowledge that at any given moment you could die, and therefore, should start figuring out what it means to live life to the fullest. Perhaps instead of waiting for "when you're older" or "when there is a better time" to fulfill all your dreams and aspirations, you begin to start taking advantage of the opportunities that are available to you a this very moment. Don't get me wrong, I am not encouraging a lifestyle of temporary, short term hedonism. Rather, I am suggesting that by acknowledging the frailty of life will we start realizing that it is a wonderful blessing and opportunity we have to partake in the task of living.

I guess it is like when you have a good meal. One of the best feelings is getting a huge and tasty meal placed right in front of you, knowing A) that is going to be good, and B) that this is just the beginning. As you get about halfway through the meal, you realize that at some point you are going to eventually finish this meal, or you will become too full to eat the rest of it. This is always a state of panic because you feel like you have wasted the first half of the meal not appreciating the mouthfuls you eagerly stuffed down your throat. So the big dilemma: half a steak, half a lump of mashed potatoes, half a cup of coffee. What do you do? Sometimes you just ignore the fact that your food is slowly decreasing in size. You reach the end, and maybe you enjoyed it, and maybe you didn't. It is a chance really. Another option is that you acknowledge that the food is going to be gone soon and spend the rest of the time moping while trying to stuff down piece by piece into your mouth. At the end, you were right: the meal is gone and, as you expected, it could have been better. The last option, however, is that you learn to appreciate the rest of the meal. You take smaller slices at a time, you chew a little slower. At the end, sure you may have some regrets and might wish that it did not end, but at least you know feel satisfied and content with the meal.

I am not sure if this analogy makes much sense or is particularity useful. What I am trying to get at is that at the end of your life do you think you will be satisfied and content? To live is a wonderful thing, possibly one of the greatest opportunities we will ever get. Question the things in your life that you want to do: is there a good reason why you are waiting to do them? There are legit reasons, I admit. For example, I want to travel the world, but I have no money. Hence when I obtain more money, somewhere in the future, I hope I will be able to travel. But right now, less money = legitimate reason not to travel. Think about your own life: maybe there are good reasons for some of the things you want in life to be put on hold, but maybe, just maybe, some of these dreams are being held back by poor reasons. Are you just waiting for a day that may or may not come? A job that pays a salary that may or may not suffice? What are you sacrificing right now to accommodate for a future that may never come? People in your life? Experiences that only come once?

If you found out that you only had one more day to live what would you do on that day? I had a discussion about this with two of my friends last week, and we all came up with interesting responses. I said a couple of things: I would hug people more, I would eat a lot with all my friends and everyone I cared about, and I would walk around downtown with my guitar or ukulele and just sing to random people. When I think about it, it is not necessarily the actions that I want to do, but the reasons behind them that I want to communicate to people before I die. I want to show people that I love them for no reason other than I love them. I want to experience my friends and family at the height of their joy (in my opinion, when they eat). And I want to give people an outlet to be vulnerable, laugh or sing in a rigid and silent society, because there is no possible way they could be more embarrassing or humiliating than the idiot with the guitar. I hope I can learn what it means to do this in my life as early as possible.

I am not saying do not set long term goals for yourself. Of course I think this is important. What I am saying is do not let your entire life depend on these goals to make you happy or to give you a sense of satisfaction, because you may never reach them. Instead, live life now: take that in whatever way it defines itself to you.

if only our love was more simple

A couple weeks ago I heard a song that had the line "If only our love was more simple". Since then it has got me asking myself the question "what is simple love?". Every time I have sat down and taken a good stab at the concept of love, I often give up in a state of confusion and "mental numbness" (yeah, that's right I made that up). My brain cant really grasp the whole thing; it does not really know what to do with love. But I know I like it, and for some reason that's all the information I feel I need.

That is the nice thing about love, no one really knows what it is, but its so incredibly simple that we kind of just have it innately wired into us. It's kind of like breathing...there is an incredibly complex procedure that is breathing (well at least it is complicated to a history student), but a little baby will figure out how to do it him or herself with absolutely no assistance. Breathing is not complicated for a child...it is just when that child grows up and takes biology in high school that he or she comes to understand the theory of breathing as a complicated idea. To me, its the same way with love...ask me what love is, and I won't be able to explain it to you. Sure I've heard songs, I've read books, and I've seen more than enough movies that tell me what love is (...perhaps it is like oxygen, or it lifts us up where we belong...). But ask me what love is and I will probably give you one of those answers that does make much sense: I'm full of those.

But I can show you what love is. I can also recall moments in my life where there was love. I have been in situations in the past where I was immersed in the presence of love. I can show you examples of what love is. You hear theologians argue on the pillars of love; some trace love back to more Greek and Latin words than you can handle. But most of the time, for myself at least, you sometimes just see love, and by itself, it suffices.

Love is a funny thing because the more complicated you make it, the less special it becomes; the more mundane it seems. If only we knew how to love more simply. Reflecting on the last year, I have come to really love the guys at my fellowship here at Queen's (Athletes in Action). Why? Because our love is simple. I feel like guys always get a bad rap for being too simple: we do not analyze things enough, we are too laid back, if something is too complicated for us, we just say screw it. But sometimes it's alright to be simple. It's funny how having a 4th year cook for a 1st year on a sunday where the caf doesn't serve food can teach more to that first year than any bible study they attend or any sermon they hear. It's strange how growing a beard with another guy can make you feel more at home than any welcome program. Its funny how sometimes you feel closer to God and more in-tune with the church through the communion of a little over 80 lbs of meat.

It is amazing how love manifest itself in the most simple and basic things. Hang around with kids, they keep it simple. And lets face it, being in a room full of kids can be the most stressful and beautiful portrait of love. I don't think they are actively concerned with trying to love other people. Rather, they just live simple (and often quite stupid...in the nicest way of course) lives, and out of that simplicity, love just naturally flows.

I believe that people are looking for simple love; yes sometimes that even means stupid love. Maybe that is why people are so drawn towards children...because they offer what the world has yet to taint: a love so simple, so basic, pure, and honest. From my perspective, a lot of times people are looking for love that comes from the gut and not from the head; love that is so instinctual and not prepared ahead of time that it is almost irrational and illogical. I am not saying this is the only type of love, but I am just saying that I feel we need to rediscover (or discover) this love. Learning to keep our love simple, keep our love pure, and keep our love honest. If we keep our love simple, it, in turn, becomes the most radical love we can give: it is just harder to put boundaries, restrictions, and guidelines to simple things, rather when things are simple, people just "get it". I encourage you to find out what this means in your own life.

If only our love was more simple...then what would happen?

...Is this simple love? It sure is stupid love...but with complete honesty I can say that it is just about the most profound sort of love I know how to give and know how to receive.

*pictures and videos from meatfest2009. for more information see www.meat-fest.ca.

the absence of pleasure

I have neglected vanilla as a yogurt flavour for too long.

My mom gave me a tub of vanilla yogurt to bring back up to Kingston, and to be honest, it was not really what I had in mind. Vanilla yogurt, to me, was just normal yogurt (and when I say normal, I mean with some sort of fruity flavour) without the extra. Vanilla yogurt, logically, seemed like yogurt minus one. Its funny how I never thought of vanilla as a yogurt flavour. I've had vanilla cake (good), vanilla cookies (good), vanilla coke (despite what others say, good), but when it came to yogurt, vanilla was just the norm. If you have ever felt this way before, I urge you to try it, as it really is more than a base for strawberries and peaches.

vanilla yogurt is good; the possibilities for my life are endless

the homeboy is holy

Today I decided to stray from my usual Sunday morning of going to Bethel Church (local Protestant church in Kingston), and instead went with two of my Catholic friends to Mass. Prior to today, I had never been, but had always been interested in knowing more about how our fellow brothers and sisters worship on Sunday mornings. Not only have I encountered Catholic history more than enough times in class, but I came to realize that growing up in a Protestant church, I am fairly ignorant about the Catholic faith. In short, I felt like it was time for me to stop living within my sheltering bubble and, at the very least, check out what was going on on the outside.

This morning at mass, I experienced a sense of refreshment that I had not experienced at a church service for quite some time. I'll admit, throughout the service I was at times quite confused and felt kind of dumb. Everyone knew when to stand, sit, kneel, sing the chorus, say the Lord's prayer, etc...while I attempted to keep up (with the help of my friend). Obviously, it was more traditional and ceremonial than I was used to (and for those that know me, they would know that my definition of church is the furthest thing from any sort of ceremony). Nonetheless, all these things did not seem to really matter to me as I sat in those pews, as God was speaking to me; or at the very least reminding me of a lesson he taught me long ago. It was the simple message that God was great. The service prided itself in the fact that God is great and it was simply an honour to be in His prescence. Obviously the building is not our focus of worship, but the gradeur and magnificantness of the cathedral gave me the image of God filling His temple. The lyrics of the songs had little to no room for words like "I" and "me" because they were too occupied by the splendor of who God is. Many times we would kneel and be completely submissive as the magnifance of God was proclaimed. God reminded me how great He was.

I am not saying that the worship service at Bethel, SCBC, or any other Protestant church for that matter, is bad. I think they are great. But this refreshing experience (hopefully one of many) taught me a few things.

As people, we like to know that in the end, things are relevant to us. If the weather is bad, it is mostly bad because we know that we will have to wear a coat outside or spend the whole day staring at a dark, cloudy sky. If we spill something on the floor, we usually get mad because we are the ones that have to clean it up. A mark on a test or exam indicates more than what we did, but is a indication of our value. Things, in many cases, are right to us when we somehow fit into the picture. What about Christians? Does the same idea apply? We sing songs that primarily focus on OUR relationship with God. A message in church is not complete without the points on how it affects or is relevant to OUR lives. As hard as we may or may not try, our prayers are often consumed by OUR own personal agendas. To me it seems God only works for us within the context of ourselves.

Now dont get me wrong, I do not think these things are bad. Some of those very songs have led me towards great encounters and revelations about God. The "take it home" part of messages are usually what I remember the most when I go back home on a Sunday afternoon. When I pray, I feel a sense of joy and thankfulness that I have a God that cares about my day; that God doesnt mind listening to me rant about how much my assignments suck. These things are great; they not only remind us that God loves us, but they also give us tangible ways for us to actively take part in our relationship with Him. However, the point I am trying to suggest is that maybe as we were swept in the whirlwind of our relationship with Him, we lost sight of how awesome God is. We have created an image of God that has been so humanized that He is now just as down to earth as Joe who sits next to you in economics class. Jesus is just like you and I. But the last time I checked, I dont really feel like worshiping someone like me. I suggest that maybe we have forgotten that yes God is our best friend, yes God is relevant in our lives, but there is something so great about God that makes us stand in awe of Him. He exceeds our mere reason and surpasses our largest conceptions. His mere name caused angels to cry "Holy, Holy, Holy". With or without our ability to define Him, He remains perfectly unchanging. He exist in the most real way possible regardless of our existance. Its funny how we can sometimes think that God really only works for us, and when we do not give Him his validity, He just sits on His throne and twiddles His thumbs all day. I'm not trying to bash anything about our faith, but I am encouraging us to expand our perceptions and perspectives of God, allowing adequate room for the spendor of the King.

I have never really had an opinion on those shirts that say "Jesus is my Homeboy". Its true, I guess He's my homeboy too...we're pretty tight and eventually I know we will have the sickest handshake in the world. My friend sort of has a problem with these t-shirts, and I used to just think that he was just being theologically anal. However, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense: "Jesus is my Homeboy...but the Homeboy is Holy".