Laughing with

I just heard Regina Spektor's song "Laughing With", which came out several months ago. I thought I'd post it here to get some thoughts. I first heard it on the radio, and - personally - it held more meaning in that form than watching the video. Anyhow, here are the lyrics as well:

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one's laughing at God when they're starving or freezing or so very poor

No one laughs at God when the doctor calls after some routine tests
No one's laughing at God when it's gotten real late and their kid's not back from that party yet

No one laughs at God when their airplane starts to uncontrollably shake
No one's laughing at God when they see the one they love hand in hand with someone else and they hope that they're mistaken
No one laughs at God when the cops knock on their door and they say "We've got some bad new, sir,"
No one's laughing at God when there's a famine, fire or flood

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke or
Or when the crazies say he hates us and they get so red in the head you think that they're about to choke

God can be funny
When told he'll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus

God can be so hilarious
Ha ha
Ha ha

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one's laughing at God when they've lost all they got and they don't know what for

No one laughs at God on the day they realize that the last sight they'll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes
No one's laughing at God when they're saying their goodbyes

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke or
Or when the crazies say he hates us and they get so red in the head you think that they're about to choke

God can be funny
When told he'll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus

God can be so hilarious

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war

No one's laughing at God in a hospital
No one's laughing at God in a war

No one's laughing at God when they're starving or freezing or so very poor

No one's laughing at God
No one's laughing at God
No one's laughing at God
We're all laughing with God

Loving the World

"To believe in God is to believe in the salvation of the world. The paradox of our time is that those who believe in God do not believe in the salvation of the world, and those who believe in the future of the world do not believe in God.

Christians believe in the “end of the world,” they expect the final catastrophe, the punishment of others.

Atheists in their turn invent doctrines of salvation, try to give a meaning to life, work, the future of humankind, and refuse to believe in God because Christians believe in him and take no interest in the world …

All ignore the true God: he who so loved the world! But which is the more culpable ignorance?

To love God is to love the world. To love God passionately is to love the world passionately. To hope in God is to hope for the salvation of the world.

I often say to myself that, in our religion, God must feel very much alone: for is there anyone besides God who believes in the salvation of the world? God seeks among us sons and daughters who resemble him enough, who love the world enough so that he could send them into the world to save it."

-Louis Evely, In the Christian Spirit

The People of God

Every once in a while I find myself talking with a stranger or catching up with an old friend. Such an occasion came this last weekend as I reunited with several old college buddies. And, as often happens at reunions, the conversation quickly turned to twenty questions: Am I married? Do I have kids? Where do I live?

Eventually, I had to tell my friends what I now do to feed myself and my family. And with some hesitancy, I told them that I now serve as a pastor.

Why the hesitancy? What could keep me from freely proclaiming myself as a servant of the Lord? Simply: I know what the follow up question is going to be. It is almost inevitable:

"So, how big is your church?"

It is amazing how often people ask me this.

And let me just say this: I hate this question. I think it is a horrible, God-awful question.

The people who ask the question aren't bad people. It's like my old college buddies. I have nothing against them; in fact, I appreciate and love them. But, as much as I love them, I really cannot stand that question.

And the reason that I hate this question is that it is oozing with misperceptions and false cultural values. For one, there is the assumption that it is my church, that somehow my talent or work or energy have created and sustained and built this community. That, of course, is complete bogus and most of the pastors I know who fall into actually believing this sentiment end up running on treadmill of do-it-all that is neither sustainable nor helpful.

But, there is more. There is also implicit assumption that a church can be designated or defined by a number, and while it is true that facts and figures do help us understand or comprehend things, it is also true that ours is a culture where human beings and communities are continuously devalued and are wrongly described by life-less numbers. We live in the world where McDonald's has now served billions and billions. Ours is the age where the local hardware store can't stand up to Walmart. Well, I want to stand in opposition to such forces. I believe in the value of specific individuals over the profit of major corporations. I believe in the worth of communities over individual gains.

So, when someone asks me how big my church is, I feel a deep urge to help them rethink their question with me. I want to help people see that the reason I love my work is that there is no way to quantify it. I want people to realize that good communal work done in the service of God is done in ways that require more than a fact or figure. It - thankfully - can never be summed up with one number. No, thankfully, pastoral work ... like being a part of a church ... is something that is intrinsically alive because of God's loving activity. It goes beyond stats and into the realm of flesh and blood. The Church is defined by Christ and by the individual members of the body.

And, this gets to my real feeling. When people ask me the "How big is your ..." question, what I really want to do is tell them about the people, the individual members of the community that I am a part of. I long to relate what a gift it is to live within that community. I want to tell them how much of a blessing it is to know and feel that my life is somehow very much bound up with the ups and downs of a wide community.

Because you cannot put a number on community. You cannot put a number on God's work and Kingdom. All you can do is work within it and experience the grace, the humility, the struggle, the loss, the gain, and the hope that exists within.

Which is why when people ask me how big my church is, I need to say, "I don't know. Why don't you come and join us and find out?"

Wes

Halloween

Vacation

A Little Favor From Our Friends @ Wall Envy

Several weeks ago, Jeremy Black came out to the farm and did us the huge favor of taking a ton of pictures of our family. Jeremy and his wife have been developing a great photography business called Wall Envy. Check out their site. And check out some of the pictures from the photoshoot out near Kendall farm.

Goodreads

Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is one of those historical books that reads with such fascinating personas that you cannot help but think, "This really happened." And the single brightest star in this Russian period...none other than the mysterious monk, Rasputin.

View all my reviews >>

Life and Constrictions

Once again, days have moved into the past and our correspondence through this blog has been missing. There are several reasons for the absence. Anna and I often blame the lack of internet in our home as one of the major reasons. That, in part, is true. With the inability to sit down and write an update conveniently or quickly, we have moved on to other forms of communicating with our friends and family. Anna - much to her own surprise - has begun using Facebook much more regularly. She also now uses her iPhone to check those select blogs and people that give her own life substance and invigoration.

I have tried to use Facebook, developing an on-again, off-again affair. But, it just hasn't taken yet for me.

And, I cannot blame the lack of internet for my absence. I am fortunate enough to have a laptop and internet access throughout Greencastle.

The major reason for my silence goes deeper than availability. It results from my life being radically different and from the result of what I would call a "birthing" process. For these past several months have largely been a process of pressure and exertion for me personally and for us as a family.

I know that I have been working harder at life and for life than I ever have. I'm not sure that is entirely a good thing, but - for better and for worse - I have been expending energy to get an old house into a decent place to live. For better and for worse, I have been extending myself to a congregation, seeking to aid them in their life as disciples and in their life as a community of believers. For better and for worse, I have been trying to find my place in Greencastle. And I am consequently left with little energy or time to write.

This concerns me, but I take solace knowing this may just be a season, which leads me back to the "birthing" image.

Recently, I read that God's movement in our lives is always like His activity with the Israelites in Exodus. First of all, God continuously brings us through places of "constriction." Like God's desire to pull his people out of Egypt, God's desire is to pull us out of the unbearable pressure of slavery. However, this delivery does not come easily. God's way of delivering us comes with great travail and hardship ... like passing between the mighty walls of water, being chased by hordes of opposition.

It is not easy, but God does deliver. And that leads to the second movement: God delivers us into a new, open space. God puts us out into a broad, open field.

The analogy to labor is undeniable: from confinement to constriction to deliverance and new life.

And within that analogy, I would say that I am still very much in the area of constriction. I am finding myself in the intense pressure that comes from being born anew, from having my world radically altered ... from going from an father to one child as an associate pastor living in the city to being the father of two kids as a solo pastor living out in the country.

In other words, the reasons are many why I don't blog as often nowadays. But, in due time, I hope that the way will open to write more frequently. But, I do not know. I am being born again, and I cannot yet see where God is delivering me ... to what place I am being born into.

Wes