Apostles Creed: Part 2

Note:  I have decided to combine two parts of the Apostles Creed.  I have skipped over the “he descended into hell” part, but that is only temporary.  I’ll get there next. 

And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried…  On the third day He rose again from the dead.  

I am not usually this forward with what I believe.  I think if people get to know me they will see that I believe in Christ, so I don’t feel the need to profess that part of me very often.  Let me take this time to do that though.  I do, in fact believe in Jesus. 

That being said, I’m not 100% sure why Jesus’ virgin birth matters in the scheme of things.  I mean, would the work on the cross be undone if Jesus was actually Joseph’s biological son?  I don’t know.  I suppose it would make a difference.

I mean, we are all children of God (1 John 3:1), but we are also imperfect.  We are unholy*, and that leads to us being part of the dead.  (Ephesians 2:1)  So, here is my question; how can the dead bring back the dead?  They can’t.  This is why the virgin birth is important.  Because Jesus is God’s “biological” child, then he is part of the living not the dead. 

Now, if you have grown up in the church at all, the next part of the creed is very familiar.  Jesus was crucified on the Good Friday, and came back to life on Easter Sunday.  This sounds incredible and hard to believe when you think about it.  Short of instances in Hollywood, how often do you see someone come back from the dead?  Even with our advances in medicine, I have never heard of someone coming back to life after having been buried for three days. 

Well, that’s not entirely true.  There is Lazarus.  Lazarus died before Jesus made it to his house.  When Jesus accompanied Mary and Martha to the grave, Jesus asked for the stone to be rolled away from Lazarus’ grave.  Martha protested saying that Lazarus had been dead for four days and that the stench was going to be overwhelming.  In the end, Jesus called Lazarus back from the dead and Lazarus came back to life. 

The precedent of God bringing someone back from the dead is there in Lazarus.  The difference between Lazarus and Jesus is the same between the opening act and the main event.  Lazarus’ restoration was meant to show people who Jesus really was.  Jesus’ death and resurrection served the same purpose, but also to restore human kind as well.

Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  (John 10:10)  In his death and, more importantly resurrection, we are able to more than just survive; we can thrive. 

One of my biggest pet-peeves is the way Christians focus so much on the death of Christ.  Without the resurrection, his death would have meant nothing.  Jesus would have just been another Jew the Romans wrongfully crucified.  It is only in his resurrection that we know who he is. 

So there you have it.  I may not be very forthcoming with my believe using my words, I still have laid out part of what I believe.  I hope people can see my belief in the way that I live, but I feel it may be necessary to say it sometimes. 

  

*I really dislike the word sin, because of how often it is used in the Christian culture.  We use it to judge those we disagree with and rarely use it in a self-reflective way.

The Apostles' Creed

A couple months ago I tore apart the Lord’s Prayer. I was having problems saying the prayer because I wasn’t really sure I meant it. Well, I am kind of having a similar experience with the Apostles Creed. I don’t want to profess belief in something without really digesting what I am saying. So over the next couple weeks I’m going to deconstruct the Apostles Creed and see what it says and see if I actually agree with what it says.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

While this may seem like a no-brainer to me, I do actually believe in God and his creation. While, no, I am not one of those people who believes that God created everything in literally seven days. I’m not saying that He isn’t able to do it in seven literal days. I just think the simplest answer is usually right.

Many new earth creationists believe that God put the dinosaur bones in the earth where they are to test people’s faith. While that is possible, it doesn’t seem very likely to me. I think it is more likely that the earth evolved over time, but that’s not to say it was all random. There is no way God couldn’t have guided the evolution of mankind.

In Genesis, the only thing that God actually uses more than words to make is man. (Genesis 2:7) God formed man from the dust and breathed life into him. That is so much more intimate than just speaking humans into existence. It sounds like He took His time refining and reshaping man.

I have to say, is really cool to think that the God who created everything we see with a word took the time to craft and perfect each of us. When I think about that it brings so much more meaning to Jesus saying,

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you?

God takes care of those things He created out of word; won’t He take care of those He crafted in His own image?

Of course He will.

Ecclesiastes

I have been feeling really bad for myself recently. There have been a bunch of little things that have been piling up over the last few weeks. I could easily just go into the details of my pity party, but that is neither necessary nor helpful.

Tonight, the pity party culminated with me sitting at home watching Netflix and playing Angry Birds. I thought about calling people, but never bothered to do anything about it. I just sat on the couch with my headphones in, feeling sorry for myself. Then my friend sent me a text talking about how Ecclesiastes reminded her of how even when everything feels meaningless God will come through.

Wednesday was See You at the Pole, so I went to pray with the students from my high school. It was cool because some of the high schoolers are in the youth group that I hangout with. The thing started around 7am, which is crazy early for me, but was totally worth it. A couple of the students lead worship for like a half hour before breaking off into small groups to pray. While we were worshiping I was standing on the side of the circle that was facing the sun as it rose. It was incredible singing Canons by Phil Wickham as the sky burst into a beautiful sunrise over the school.

In that moment I realized that what I was missing wasn't just Springfield; I was missing the community I had in Springfield. There is something about knowing that the people around you have your back. I have that here, but the number of people here in Columbus is pretty small. The majority of my support system is still in Springfield. But that doesn't mean I am totally alone. Totally cliché, I know, but it's true this time. I just need to start looking outside of my comfort zone and what not.

Woman of God

Last week I had dinner with Mary.  It was wonderful catching up, cooking then watching Glee and Lost.  At one point during the night, the conversation took a turn toward what it means to be a woman of God.  During our conversation I realized that I have no idea what that means.  I have read Proverbs 31, and that seems to be an unattainable standard.  Other than that I read stories of Deborah who was a great leader, Easther who was the savior of her people, and Mary who literally gave birth to the son of God.  I don't really know how to be a woman after God's heart. 

This confusion is making me uncomfortable trying to lead women younger than myself.  How can I sit in front of one of my girls and be the roll model then need?  I know I will never have everything figured out, but I don't know that I should feel this unsure.  Then again, maybe it is a good thing being uncertain.  I don't know.

Any thoughts?

Death and Family

Death and family have been very prominent on my mind. My family went up for a funeral on Wednesday of last week and came home to sleep. I woke up Thursday morning (after getting Alex to school) to a phone call from my mom saying that Grandma Holt was dying and I needed to pack a bag and get ready to go to Mansfield. After picking Dad up from the Cleveland Clinic we stayed in Mansfield until Monday night. Luckily it was Labor Day weekend, so we had that extra day to spend with family.

The whole experience of watching my grandma die was totally surreal. Even now I am really not sure it happened. When we arrived at the nursing home she was at Mom and Dad wanted us to wait before going back to the hospice room. Mom came out and warned us (really, she was mainly warning Alex and I) that Grandma was not conscious and she had an oxygen mask on to keep her breathing. I didn't even make it to the back room before I started to cry.

When I walked into the room, two of my uncles and my grandpa (Poppie) were already there. One of my uncles gave me a hug as I cried and told me I needed to be strong, because grandma needed our strength. The other gave me a hug and told me we should be happy. I just nodded weakly and sat down at the table on the opposite side of the room from grandma.

That probably makes me sound horrible, but I can't stand hospitals or nursing homes. The amount of pain in those places is beyond overwhelming to me. It makes me totally freak out.

After a while, my cousins and aunt came up. There was drama, and crying and anger, but we don’t need to get into that. We all took turns staying over in the hospice room with Grandma. Even I stayed one night. Oh, another thing about my family; it is freaking huge. There would come a point pretty much every day where I would look around and all but three of my seven cousins (plus Sarah, Alex and me) where there. Not to mention my three uncles, four aunts (Mom’s sister came to support us over the weekend), and umpteen million other relatives were all crammed in the hospice room. Add to that the fact that the majority of my extended, extended family was raised in either rural Ohio or the Appalachian mountains in Kentucky, it was a bit of a culture shock. As an introvert, that nearly killed me. I never had a moment to myself, and everyone had an opinion that they felt needed to be heard.

One of the things that bothered me the most about the whole waiting for grandma to pass was the fact that everyone just kind of sat around watching. At one point I walked into the hospice room and some relatives were sitting in a semi-circle around grandma’s bed just watching her. It’s like everyone was just waiting for her to die, like it was a spectator sport. It made me feel sick. It made me so angry. I left the room and when mom came out to check on me I started to cry. Of course that was the exact moment that some of my cousins came. Jen told me she felt the same and that we should be spending our time remembering the way she was before she started to decline. We gathered all the cousins and began reminiscing about when we were kids and the way she took care of us. It made us feel a little better about saying goodbye.

The thing is, we are not created to deal with death. Death is a post-fall situation. We were created to live with God forever, not to decay and die. I think this is why it is so hard to cope with the death of a loved one. Deep down we still know it is wrong. It’s like way down beneath the filth and tarnish the original image of our eternal God is still alive within us. So far, the death of my grandma hadn’t set in, it all feels surreal.

Grey Areas

A friend of mine asked me the other day to explain what I meant when I said that 'you need to study religion to understand all of the grey areas.'  I don't have a perfect memory of saying this, since it was at a really long lunch when he and I talked about it, but I think I was mainly talking about how much overlap there is between the religions I have studied. All of them, Buddhism and Hinduism included. I think that religions are the way mankind tries to understand our infinite God. I think all religions have a glimpse of the God we love and want to glorify, and in that way it is hard to see them as 100% wrong. That is what I meant by grey areas. Growing up we were essentially told that Christianity is right and anything else is totally wrong and is (depending on who you listen to) evil. When you start to learn about those “wrong” religions, it is easy to see instances where they get it right. Look at the faithful prayer seen in Islam for example, or the importance of denying yourself in Buddhism.

While these are grey areas they are not necessarily proof that the religions are correct. Once you accept that every other religion could be wrong it is easy to see that we as humans may have distorted the real mission/passion/purpose of Christ. We tread in very dangerous water when we think that we have it all figured out. Our pride can get in the way of our ability to see where we have gone off track. When we as humans and religious people called “to be and make disciples” go off track, we can get in the way of what it is that God is trying to accomplish in and through us.

I know I probably sound like I am straying from God, but let me assure you that I am not. I have come to recognize that God moves in the grey areas in my life, and in the world. Take the world’s reaction to the Japan earthquake/tsunami for example; many countries rushed to the aid of Japan in that time of crisis. We all, as humans, seem to inherently feel compassion for those in situations that are worse than our own. I don’t think that is a coincidence. I think that is one of the ways we were made in God’s image. But God’s image is not as black and white as some Christians (read Muslim, Jews, Hindus, etc) would have you think.

God is bigger than any one religion or worldview. I believe that Christianity is the closest to the Truth in the lineup of all religions. That does not mean that I believe we have it all right. We have a lot that we, as American Christians (and I'm assuimg other Christians as well), do wrong and don’t understand. But we are only human. We are limited in our understanding and in our ability to see God’s master plan.
Sorry I got super preachy. Sometimes it happens and I can’t make it stop.

Time to Slow Down

This week has been really great. Last Friday I went to Springfield and got to spend so quality time with friends I have been missing recently.  It is hard seeing all of the statuses about going back to Witt, but I know I can always go visit.  On Saturday the family went up to Mansfield and visited Grandma and Poppie.  It was good to see them, but nursing homes make me super uncomfortable.  I spent the majority of my time reading The Help.  It is a really engaging book, and I enjoyed reading it.  Sunday was the Senior Send-off at the Gathering (our High School youth group).  Mom, Dad and Alex came to support Sarah since it was her last one.  I didn't do much on Monday or Tuesday.  Wednesday was the Impact (the Middle School youth group) and from that the Youth Team left for Marsha's Mom's lake house.  We spent like a solid 24 hours with each other both working and playing.  I am totally burnt and in quite a bit of pain from that right now, but it was totally worth it.  I am excited for what is in store for the youth groups in the coming year.  Today I took little brother to his piano lesson and went to hangout with Andrea M. at Kitamu Coffee.  Around 8 we were bored so we went to Lytham to see if it was open so we could cook in the kitchen.  It was, however when we got back from our epic trip to Giant Eagle it was no longer unlocked.  I called Doug and he let us use the Kitchen at Mill Run and gave us his key.  Andrea and I stopped at Michelle M's place and picked her up on the way to the church.  We "broke into" the church (as Andrea likes to say since it sounds badass) and made tacos.  Before we knew it it was 11pm.  So we cleaned up the kitchen and I drove Michelle home, dropped Doug's keys off and took Andrea back to Kitamu where she left her car.  It's crazy to me that we spent like seven and a half hours with each other.  It didn't feel like that long to me.  It was a wonderful way to spend my Friday night.

On the retreat I had a pretty strong realization that I need to slow down.  Somewhere along the lines I have become a "Martha" when I really desire to be a "Mary".  I feel like I need to do things and be places and be really scheduled to be doing what God wants, but in reality I just need to enjoy who God is.  It's like I am so busy with my life that I don't really notice what is going on around me and the way God is moving around me. 

Sometimes I fear our youth group is that way as well.  We are well intentioned, but sometimes it's like we are so scheduled and focused that we miss opportunities where we could see God moving.  I really don't want that for the students.  Some of the coolest times in my life have been those times when God's movement was practically tangible.  Those times where I could see God moving have shaped who I am, and I really want to students to have that as well.  It may be time for our youth group to slow down and take it one event at a time.  I don't really know how do-able that is, but I would be nice if we could. 

I think I'm going to start writing my prayers again.  That forces me to slow down and really focus on the words I'm saying.  I miss doing that, so I'm going to go back to it. 

Well, the sun will be up in about an hour, so I should really probably sleep before we go back up to Mansfield tomorrow.  Good night!