Roots

2009-05-27T22:09:00.002-05:00

(From 5/22/09)

My roots, my heritage, the essence of who I am today all reach deep into the soil of traditional Christianity, where things are cut-and-dry, black-and-white, and where theology and practice seems to be very much colored and progressed by people who know God and relate to Him factually—based on theology, principles, rules, and even formulas, all of which are okay in certain situations and contexts. The problem is that most—myself very much included—struggle to engage God relationally, which I am coming to see is his ultimate desire. Always has been, always will.

I'm picking up on a new dialect of Christianity, one that has all the externals of being relational in nature. It's all over the airwaves of life, and it's even being stamped on t-shirts and posted under the religion section of facebook—"it's a relationship, not a religion." It's like a new wave of thought, rethinking the point Christianity, which I am completely for (woo-hoo!). The problem, though, is that it's too easy to wear the t-shirt and never embrace and live in the reality of its stated slogan. It feels liberating to speak in this relational terminology, but do we have a clue what it means? I mean, what does a relationship with God really look like when it's lived out anyway? I feel like the question itself is fine, but if the answer becomes another means for living strictly within the confines of more principles or another model, I think we've lost the point, and are only brought back to where we started from. And this seems to be the trend—speaking of relationship with God, yet still living religiously towards him. And really, if I'm honest with myself too, underneath the veneer of a genuine desire to understand this relationship and live it out, deep down I'm crossing my fingers for something that's not so complicated, not so mysterious, not so risky. Maybe a simplified PowerPoint presentation that goes something like "Relationship With God: Five Steps to Living it Out," complete with bullet points and inspirational backgrounds. I'm just as guilty of trading personal relationship for static principles.

I think the struggle to relate to God on a relational level—or even the idea that God wants to be related to on this level at all—is multi-facetted. On one side, there's the fact that we live in a culture that's lost its way in relationships; they just don't seem important anymore. You can trace this back to the Industrial Revolution and perhaps even back to other events, but the point is the disintegration of personal, meaningful relationships, and today, relational deterrents run rampant. We live amidst a culture that simply doesn't know how to slow down. Individualism has chocked out the need for each other. Conversations seem pre-programmed and shallow. We can't live without noise, entertainment, and constant activity. Husbands and wives, children and parents, and in the majority of almost every other relationship possible, interaction is almost non-existent, mainly forced, and only rarely life-giving. Books on marriage, parenting, and even spirituality all reduce relationships to formulas and principles to apply to various situations.

Sometimes I wonder why I have such a hard time with relationships. Oftentimes I feel like I just don't know how to establish, nurture, and maintain healthy relationships. And why not? Partly because I haven't seen it lived much. So I don't get it—"What do healthy relationships look like?" I don't know. It's harder to do something like relating well to someone when you lack the understanding of how to actually do it. I know here, some people might say "Well, just follow Jesus," which is valid, but there's a huge difference between merely following Jesus' principles (do these things in these situations) and genuinely following Jesus the person. The rules, principles, formulas, etc. are a means, and may come in helpful sometimes, but they are not the end, and can easily become a distraction or a substitute for the actual relationship. Following Jesus' principles is merely mechanic; following Jesus himself is relational. One deals with actions without touching the heart; the other deals with the heart, which in turn affects the action.

On another side, I'm coming to a personal stance that much of tradition, "the way we've always done things", and the views of God that tradition has constructed may in fact be the very things that hinder us from knowing God in a relational way as well (possible correlation between the culture's struggle with relationship and the institutional church's struggle with the same? I think so...). I'm wrestling through all of this with the help of several outside of the box kind of people--Bruxy Cavey, Wayne Jacobsen, some friends, and some professors.

Hopefully over the next few weeks and months I'll be sharing where I'm heading in all of this. Before I close this entry down, I want to do a few things. First, if you've read this and are really struggling to understand and/or live relationally with God, I want to throw out a few resources at the bottom for you, things that I've come across, others that I am currently engaging, and still more that I want to go through in the future. Next, I want to invite you into the possibility of community. I'm hoping that you will go nuts with comments, ones where you connect with something I said, ones where you find yourself struggling through some of the same stuff, ones where you say that I'm falling off the deep end, ones where you share your own questions, and ones where you tell me I'm completely wrong in everything I'm thinking. Whatever. The whole point of me sharing this stuff is for you to know "Hey, I'm struggling with something and trying to work through it. You too? Sweet, well, want to journey through it together?" So comments, feedback, questions, insight, wisdom, and correction—all of the above are what I'm hoping for. Related to this idea of community, I want to invite you to come along in this journey of understanding what it means to live relationally with God specifically. My intent with this blog is to simply share where I'm going, and right now, relationship with God is a huge part of that. I'm trekking through some of Wayne Jacoben's stuff right now, especially his series called "Transitions: From Religion to Relationship," so if you have time, check it out. Don't feel obligated—go through it if you'd like, and at your own pace, and then through out what you feel like you're learning in it.

In my own journey, I do hope to post about other things that I'm wrestling with as well—things concerning getting married/marriage itself, ideas about church, holistic faith, what love is, community, etc. Hopefully we can walk through some stuff together. Adios for now.

Resources:

Bruxy Cavey: Though I I'm still wading through it all, he led me to a turning point in my life a few years ago—to a road less traveled in many ways—onto a journey from religion/rules/obligation/legalism to a relationship with God. He's got a church in Canada called "The Meeting House" and his messages as well as other things are posted online via themmeetinghouse.ca and on iTunes. The message series that started it all was "The Irreligious Christ," a study through the book of Galatians in the Bible. This made me realize that God isn't concerned about the things I was fretting over--whether I read my Bible every day or not, whether I made it to chapel Monday through Wednesday, and ultimately, whether or not I was checking off enough boxes or getting enough brownie points to make him happy. What he really wanted was me (still trying to understand this and live it out. The roots of tradition and legalism run deep...). He also has a book called "The End of Religion" and a podcast by the same name. From the little I've gotten into those two, they are amazing. Bruxy's messages especially are very conversational and engaging, and he does a great job of teaching the Bible/helping you understand how to live it out.

Wayne Jacobsen: Check out his site. I think it's lifestream.com, but if not, just google him. He's got a ton of other links there. I think he is one of the few that is really trying to get back to God's original desire for relationship and has a more personal understanding of what this actually means; everything from books to podcasts is geared towards this idea. I'm just now beginning to work through his stuff, but I really feel like his explanation of relationship with God/how he personally sees God and relates to Him is the closest thing to what God wanted in the first place. I may be completely wrong in this, I don't know. But I feel like as I keep asking myself the question "What does it mean to be in relationship with God?", he's come to closest to giving something that's actually tangible in terms of relationship, and not just a bunch of formulas and rules. It's cool because his roots and mine seem similar. I'd really like to know how he came to be where he is now...

Mike Erre: Has a book called "Jesus of Suburbia" as well as a few others and a website where you can find his messages from his church at Rock Harbor. Another one that's "unreligious."

Greg Johnson: has a website that has an article I read recently called "Freedom From Quiet Time Guilt." Really enjoyed it.

The Message Bible: I don't get into the Bible everyday or even close to it, but for really making the Bible come alive, Peterson's paraphrase is good stuff. Sometimes it's almost too modernized, but for the most part it really helps you get a grasp on what the Bible says/means and makes it come to life. Especially good for simply reading the Bible...

Others: Larry Crabb and Richard Dunn (especially the last chapter of his book "Shaping the Spiritual Life of Students")

My Journey

Roots