“Crumbs of Hearsay”
“I admit I once lived by rumors of you; now I have it all firsthand-from my own eyes and ears! I’m sorry-forgive me. I’ll never do that again, I promise! I’ll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor.” - Job 42:5-6
I wonder how many of us live on “crusts of hearsay and rumor” of who God is, what he is like, and what he expects and requires.
It’s not lost on me that Job’s revelation comes after much suffering, pain, and subsequent wrestling and even accusing God.
And so I wonder… Could it be that suffering is the only gateway to firsthand knowledge of our Creator? Could it be that failure is actually the only stepping stone to a deeper understanding?
I realize this is not a very American view of Christianity and certainly not a Pentecostal one. In a culture (even church culture) that idolizes success as the primary thing, suffering is to be avoided, spurned, rebuked, and cast off at all costs.
But, might we corporately and individually be living on “crumbs of hearsay” and missing out on true relationship with God and each other as we rush through moments and seasons of struggle that assault our sense of justice and what we think we’re owed?
In our attempt to “cast off sin” quickly, could it be we are not learning anything about ourselves as we abort the process of understanding the very brokenness that drives those appetites and lusts?
Like an anorexic model, we choose appearing pretty and “all together” while we settle for the malnutrition of mere “crumbs”.
With Job, may we echo a new prayer in church life that says…
“I’m sorry-forgive me. I’ll never do that again, I promise!” because our hunger to know God “firsthand-with our own eyes and ears” is greater than our desire to avoid all pain in order to project the image of put-togetherness and perfection.
reblog: I don’t want to do anything big for God…
Originally posted July 1, 2009
I know my blogging is sporadic at best and I still sometime wonder if it’s worth it or why even bother. But, here I am… unfiltered, uncensored and certainly unpolished.
The statement above (the title not the one about sporadic blogging) is so in contrast from the way I lived my life for years. Most of my life, I was told to “dream a big dream.” Dream a big dream of doing something great… something big… something awesome for God. And, make sure your dream is bigger than anything you can accomplish on your own or else it’s probably not God which is code for you are doing it all in the flesh and without faith and… you get the point. You’ve probably heard it too. Heck… I even preached a couple of these in my day.
And, like most things in life, I’m evaluating everything. It’s just where I am these days and at this point in my journey. So, I’ve been thinking about these statements and more importantly these concepts that we throw off on people in the Western church. And, I’ve been looking to the Word (there’s a novel idea) and comparing this line of thinking to the examples we find in there.
By and large, I don’t see this as the line of thinking in the examples the Holy Spirit, in His limitless wisdom, decided to hand down for all generation to benefit. Most of the men of faith had a measure of contentment rarely seen in church leaders in America. You don’t see the pressured “build it as big as you can, as fast as you can” stressed out, “why isn’t this working, so let’s try the next thing” frenzy that a lot of church leaders exist in.
I don’t see the “big dreams” beginning with man at all. It’s always been initiated by God.
- God comes and taps Noah on the shoulder and somehow this drunkard of a man saves the planet and repopulates the earth.
- God comes to Gideon and his response is, “Certainly, not me.”
- God comes and hits Moses up and Moses argues for three chapters why God got it wrong and he’s not the guy.
- God chooses mere fisherman who are content at working the family business to launch a global movement.
The only figure I can identify with a lot of ambition and “big dreams” to do “great things” for God is Saul… before God knocked him off his horse and he became Paul. He was killing Christians in the name of God and in the name of doing “great things” for God.
So, somewhere along the line, we have to stop the madness of it all and stop the frenzy of it all and just walk. Struggle if need be. And focus on what’s most important. And if somehow God taps us on the shoulder for something extraordinary then fine. And if not, that’s fine too.
We all have our part to do in raising our families. Doing the simple work of caring for others. Loving… truly loving our neighbors. Being generous and humble. Expressing devotion to God in simple service. And, I think in those things, God may just be more pleased than us getting all worked up about fulfilling the “big dreams” and building it as big as we can, as fast as we can.
Some may say, “that’s a cop out” but honestly I pity those that still live in that completely unbiblical, stressed out, fear-filled world of Amercian church leadership.
I for one, am living the dream and it may not be big to others but it is big to those closest to me. And I’ve never been more content.
Someone sent me this link in light of my post last week on church “growth”. Hilarious! Enjoy.
thx Carrie
“It’s all relative to the size of your steeple.”
Marilyn Manson said that. And lately, I tend to agree. For some reason unknown, a topic of conversation keeps reoccurring among a few friends concerning the issue of church growth. Please keep in mind that all of these friends are either presently involved in some sort of vocational “ministry” or have been in the past. And please keep in mind that all of us love the Church and have a deep (albeit it imperfect) relationship with Christ expressed differently and in various contexts.
I’ve been pretty vocal lately because my growing frustration is not just with the obsession of “church growth” as evidenced by the unending conferences, books, seminars, and podcasts on the issue. My frustration… eh, let me use a stronger word here… disgust. Well, that’s too strong. Somewhere in between, maybe. My frustration, is that no one seems to be questioning the very definition of “church growth” or at very least measuring it against New Testament priorities.
I usually shy away from tossing out “facts”. “Facts” are usually just our opinions that we can’t let go of. But, at the risk of becoming a giant target (not that I’m bothered by that because I’ve been a target before and the word “giant” here is laughable because a mere three people are reading this post), I’m going to throw down a fact. Here goes:
