Posted by Chris on Sep 14, 2011 in
Church,
God,
Life This past Sunday at Vox Veniae, Gideon Tsang shared about where we get our name, Voice of Grace. He talked about how Grace means to receive something you don’t deserve.
Sunday afternoon I was handed a box containing a small electonic device that had been shipped to me. It was a gift, from a person or group of people I may not ever fully identify. I had jokingly asked for it on Twitter, and here it was. Immediately, I felt an immense weight on me, something had been given which I would never be able to repay.
The feeling is reminscent of guilt. You know something is wrong, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Unlike guilt, there is no shame. You don’t feel bad, but you could easily begin to weep about it. It’s like the beauty of an overwhelming sunset or watching a baby laugh. It is amazing, but very, very heavy.
It seems to me that Gideon’s point is that the church is to live with the weight of grace constantly on us. We didn’t ask for birth or breath. We didn’t ask to be affluent Americans. We didn’t ask for Jesus.
This, to me, is the great apolegetic. Religion and science can constantly strive to explain where we came from and how stuff works. But they don’t explain why any of it is here in in the first place.
Life is, at it’s core, undeniably undeserved.
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Tags: grace
Posted by Chris on Sep 7, 2011 in
Church,
Life I recently had the chance to publish some thoughts on Eugene Peterson’s Pastor. The book is a memoir of the a man who never aspired to be anything more than a faithful to loving the people around them and teaching them about Jesus. He has also probably been the most influential Christian writer since Lewis.
Enjoy.
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Tags: book review, books, Eugene Peterson, Pastor, Peterson
Posted by Chris on Aug 30, 2011 in
Church,
Life 
For a long time I thought being a “good Christian” meant two things:
1. Don’t do certain bad things.
2. Don’t hang out with people who do said bad things.
At some point two things occurred to me:
1. I will regularly do bad things.
2. If I’m going to be like Jesus, I will regularly spend time with people who do things I don’t.
In many ways, these revelations were freeing. It allowed me to relax a little, and embrace the forgiveness God promises. It also means that my circle of friends has increased from people who are just like me to include people from different races, political parties, churches and sexual orientations.
I’ve learned a lot from this more graceful stance, and rather than fill a book with what I’ve learned, I point you to the words of Henri Nouwen.
But to be totally honest, it’s a bit exhausting.
Giving grace to yourself requires that you are conscious of when you fail to live up to your standards. It also means that you regularly take time to ask God for forgiveness for your failures. Just taking time to recognize those is exhausting.
Giving grace to others requires constantly staring at and listening to things you might not like. It forces you to think outside the box and question why you do what you do. It gives you far less opportunities to argue for your way. Like anything that makes you stronger, it tears you up a bit first.
Although grace is exhausting, hope is enlivening. This has altered how I look at the time I spend gathered with my church community. Whether it’s liturgy or cooking dinner or going for a ride or hitting up happy hour we are brought together by a common hope. We rest in our hope that we are forgiven. We rest in the humility that it is God, not us who will sort out the good and the bad. We rest in our hope that history is headed somewhere.
We rest because we trust that no matter how exhausting grace is, it’s worth it.
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Tags: Church, Faith, grace
Posted by Chris on Aug 5, 2011 in
Church,
Culture,
God,
Life Faith is the navigation between experience and assertation. Experience is what your senses and your science tell you is true, like the fact that it’s 108º in Austin today or that the speed of light is 186,282 miles per second. Assertation is the statements that we use to explain our experience, like “all men are created equal” or “the longevity of the Rolling Stones proves that they are the best rock and roll band of all time.”
Faith is the path that we take to get from today to tomorrow, responding to our senses and living out our assertations. For a scientist, their chief assertation is that the universe has an order, and that order can be discovered. The scientist’s faith is in the scientific method. For the buddhist, the assertation is that this world is to be overcome, and faith is in meditation and other processes that separate one from the world. For the Christian, the assertation is that this world is unfinished, and faith is living in a way that respects how things are but trusts in how things should be.
Jesus taught of the Kingdom that is now but not yet. The reality is that the world is full of disease and heartbreak and earthquakes and amputees. The reality is that God is good. He is in charge and there is healing and wholeness and peace.
Both are true.
Now. But not yet.
This blog meanders from theology to science fiction to relationships to politics. But at the core it is a blog about faith. My assertion is that there is something eternal about everything. The “present” is something recently experienced, like a date or a bike ride or my love for the 2005 revival of Doctor Who. The eternity is the deep truth, the old magic, behind all of these things. Exploring present eternity just means having faith that there is something to all of this.
Thanks for reading, for commenting and exploring with me.
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Tags: Blogging, Faith, writing
Posted by Chris on Jul 29, 2011 in
Church 
“The New Testament communities never considered capitulation to the naive dreams of “all men becoming brothers” or of “millions being embraced.” In a very realistic manner they sought to achieve fraternal love within their own ranks and constantly make simultaneous effors to transcend their boundaries. In this fashion an ever increasing number of people was drawn into the fraternity of the church, and neighborly relationships became possible.” Lofink, Jesus and Community, 114
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