One of the Cold, Faithful Branches

Today I woke up to - 42 degree Celsius weather. 

Cold. Cold. Cold.

I just recently returned from the city of Vancouver. It was a great time in weather that rarely drops below 0. The city had so many people, with so many things to do, and so many places to eat, and such neat surroundings, and so many choices, and such diversity, and...

...and I found myself wishing I could be from a place like Vancouver. I started thinking about what life would be like if I was born of that city. What would life be like if I lived in that city? What things could I accomplish in that city?

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Vancouver, and was thoroughly excited for those of my friends and family who have the priviledge of never needing to plug in their cars, who have over 1000 dining out options, who have mountains and ocean right at their fingertips, and...

...and I was truly excited for them...

...and yet, I realized that there is a reason why I have this yearning in my heart for Regina. I had a longing in my heart that was truly hard to explain for a place that was flat, and simple, and cold. 

I do not know for how long or for how short, but I felt encouraged by my trip to Vancouver, that I am called for now to the freezing tundra of Saskatchewan. This all may change one day, but until then, I will be faithful in my calling here. Not only will I be faithful, but I will be joyful, and proud to live in a place where a minute or two of skin exposure could lead to loss of limbs, and where the biggest news in town is a new chilis. 

I will live proudly, and faithfully, and joyfully in the place I am... because nothing can change where I am right now. For me to go elsewhere right now would be betraying this desire in my heart. 

I have decided to stop playing the comparison game. I always lose.

Be encouraged no matter where you are. No matter what you are doing. Do not be afraid to be proud and joyful about where God has you. 

One of the Pridefully Humble Branches

I am sitting in the Regina airport... in all of it's splendor and glory. 

I am listening to two Regina residents beak Americans. 

They are telling stories of how naive, uninformed, and arrogant they are. They share how..."they don't even know where Saskatchewan is!"

But really...can you blame them?

I personally agree that sometimes Americans can be uninformed and know nothing about Canadian culture... and for this reason I am also one of the "case in point"s that I am writing about.

Canadians have been known for so long as those who are "everything America isn't". They like war, we like peace. They like bombs, we like flowers. They like prideful, we are humble. The list goes on and on and on...

We think we are humble, yet we gloat over our neighbors this idea that we are better than them.

We have this sense of Humble Pride... or Prideful Humility...

It works with our faith too... We think that because we are from a certain denomination, a certain church, with a certain pastor, in a certain set of beliefs... we think that because of these things we are better. 

Yet Jesus, came as a humble servant, not lording anything over those different, but loving those around us. He was truly Humble...WITHOUT PRIDE!

So as I sit in the Regina airport, I am reminded about how pridefully humble I am, and how I so desperately need and want to be HUMBLE, without this sense of pride.

Who cares if they know who I am

Who cares if they know where I am

All that matters is that they know Jesus.

One of the get outta here swedish jesus branches

I do not want your Jesus...

I do not want this Jesus who wants you to get rich...

I do not want this Jesus who shows up at weddings and parties and tells you how wrong you are for drinking, dancing and having fun...

I do not want this Jesus who only hangs out with the popular people with lots of money, power, big houses and cars...

I do not want this Jesus who requires me to show up at a building once a week for the rest of my life so I get to go sing for the rest of eternity...

I do not want this Jesus who is white, with perfectly white glowing robes, and perfectly long brown hair and tidy looking sandals, and makes racist jokes against others because they are different than him (but they aren't really racist, just jokes)...

I do not want this Jesus who sucks the life out of life itself...

I do not want your Jesus...

...

...

...

...I want a Jesus who believes in justice.

...I want a Jesus who loves people regardless if they are rich, poor, fat, skinny, brown, white, popular, loners, gay, straight, young or old.

...I want a Jesus who took a stand against religious leaders all in the name of love and bringing his father glory.

...I want a Jesus who is rough, and hangs out with those who have no friends, and judges not those different from him.

...I want a Jesus who loves me for who I am, and then calls me to love others and BE a change in the world.

...I want a Jesus who gives life, and celebrates life to the full, in a fun and contagious fashion.

...I want Jesus...

...raw, untamed, rebellious, loving...

...NOT the swedish looking Jesus on your wall with everything all together smiling on you for your lifestyle and popularity, but the Jesus I've read so much about who is different and involved and in relationship with people, who calls us to so much more.

...THIS IS MY JESUS.

One of the amazed branches

Recently a group of my friends and I sat down and discussed the idea of creation. There were various opinions around the circle... and although we did not all agree on everything, I saw that regardless of opinions on whether or not God created it all...

We are amazed at the universe....

We are so small in the grand scheme (whatever that scheme may be)...

It hurts our brains to think about...

There is no proof either way, just piles and piles of evidence...

Science means "the study of truth", and I cannot help but believe that science backs up this notion that there is a creator. This whole thing is a huge debate, and my intentions aren't to spark debate. However, I will speak my peace, because I am overwhelmed by the bigness of it all, the intricateness of it all and the beauty of it all. 

I don't know how God did it...

But I think God made the universe, and I am ok with not understanding everything, because if I could completely understand God, that means he has a brain and thought process like me...and thats not a good thing.

Here is a song I enjoy listening to lately, and although it involves science, I think it just shows how creation screams with evidence for a creator. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGK84Poeynk

Thoughts?

One of the polluted branches

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world"

James 1

Do we believe it?

If this is true, then why do we tend to associate orphans and widows as people who are polluted and end up treating them as pollution ourselves? Orphans aren't just cute little babies wrapped in sackcloth who can't tend to their own needs.

Orphans can be full grown people who have had a fatherless or motherless life and as a result have made bad choices or have lacked guidance. At least in my opinion. Widows in their distress can be men or women who have experienced such loss that they don't know how to deal with their loss and resort to means that we may not agree with. At least in my opinion.

The World in scripture covers a wide variety of things. In our culture, I think it tends to be things like greed, pride, and selfishness along with many other possibilities. Yet, our idea of the pollution of the world tends to be strictly alcohol, drugs, smoking, uncleanliness, and four letter words (#@$%). We want to be religious, so we run from these "pollutants".

What do you think constitutes pollutions that we need to keep ourselves from? And is it the pollutants or those who may be polluted that we avoid?

As a result of this, we are not pure, but tainted. We are not faultless, but at fault. We neglect the orphans and the widows unless of course it means giving money to some poor little aids orphan in Africa. Don't get me wrong, these are good causes too, but in our failed attempts, we create a terrible religion that screams of injustice and pain for orphans and widows.

Lets open our eyes to an old kind of religion that God sees as pure and faultless.

Lets open our eyes to who God views as the orphan and the widow.

Lets show compassion and justice to those who we think least deserve it.

One of the Surrendering Branches

Surrendering...

Do you ever feel like it is soooo hard to surrender? 

I don't mean giving up little bits and pieces of something. Not just handing over a portion of something. By surrender I mean giving up everything.

This week I have been dealing with possibly the hardest situation in my entire life. I have always felt before that I was pretty good at giving God my "full" trust. I felt like I was fully surrendered to God and that no matter what happened, that God would have control...

This week I have been stretched beyond belief. 

I am broken. I am beaten. I am destroyed.

I...have...nothing...left...to...give...

It is in this complete brokenness and desperation that I find myself seeing why God wants our full surrender, and also why it is so important to surrender fully to God. 

I am inadequate and have nothing left to give, and it is because of this that I can now rely on God's strength. It is because of this that I can now rely fully on God's wisdom. It is because of this that I can rely fully on God's love. 

I...have...nothing...left...to...give...

...I surrender...

One of the NOT SO conservative branches

Here is a doozy.

The other day I went out for lunch with two of my co-workers.

I was sitting and enjoying my burger and fries, like any normal person would, and listening to a co-worker tell about a previous job he had. He worked in the government, so alot of the lunch chat was about politics. This co-worker is not a "Christian", and does not regularly attend church. He knows who I am, and what I believe, and seems to have no problem with any of it, but doesn't have a claim to it himself. As the conversation was getting into the whole Conservative vs. Liberal debate (not political party names), as these type of things tend to head towards...

My co-worker made one of the most profound statements that I think alot of us Christians need to hear and think about thoroughly....

Here is pretty much what he said...

"What is up with you Christians being so conservative? I don't know much about this stuff, but the little I do know is that this Jesus was NOT conservative!"

...thoughts?...