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lets do our job, not his
You may have noticed I’ve taken a bit of a blogging break. Vacation, then back to the post vacation catch up, finishing up a new manuscript, Mystically Wired. Other things to do, in other words. But I write these things fast. So being busy isn’t the reason for the pause in the action. I needed a pause. Maybe you needed a pause from me. At any rate, somethbing’s settled at least for a while. I’ve sworn off commentary, even mention of the E-word: Evan_el_cal, my tribe, my starting point on the Christian landscape. My brother-in-law Bill helped me to see it was time. So I had to give it a rest, like when you reboot your modem–let it rest for 30 seconds, let the juice run out of the thing, then re-start.
Every medium is its own massage. Blogging, I think, is part soap-box, part confessional. Maybe it’s a sign of the Judgment Day approaching: what is whispered in secret will be shouted from the rooftops. Sometimes you need to say something out loud. You need to make a note to self, so you don’t forget. And to hold yourself accountable to what you’ve heard or think you’ve heard.
I had trouble sleeping the last couple of nights. Sometimes God uses that to get a word in edgewise.
So I slept in the chair. Stumbled back up to bed early in the morning and had a dream. My father (dead 10 years) and my mother (dead 25 years) came walking through the door on a video that I was watching on a screen. I was next to my wife watching this video. In the dream. And I crumpled to the floor sobbing. Man, I miss my parents.
I noticed something lately: all judgment toward my father seems to be gone. Vanished. I can’t conjure a negative thought about my father. Narry a critical thought. I had one of those conflicted relationships. My dad probably suffered from something like PTSD. Certainly clinical depression. Nothing new. He lived through through very difficult times, much more difficult times than I’ve ever seen in my life. But what do you know when you’re a kid? You think the world is supposed to work when you’re a kid. And you judge it accordingly.
This morning, prayers later than usual. But words from the clear sky: let my people go. We–the church in our time–is in bondage. We are in bondage to judgment. Billy Graham said, “It is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict, God’s job to judge, and my job to love.
Our collective, communal bondage to judgment keeps us doing his job and prevents us doing ours. We’re meant to be slaves of love, not judgment, because we’ve been delivered by love from judgment.
Judgment runs through us like cancer cells gone wild. Judgment weakens us from within, takes the power of life, marvelous life that keeps regenerating itself within us, and aims it awry so that what multiplies within us destroys us.
Oh, it’s shot through us stem to stern.
I don’t trust my understanding of sin any further than I can throw the millstone ’round your neck.
Why did I eat that fruit from that forbidden tree?
I was free to eat from any tree in the garden, but no, I had to have that one.
I miss my parents.
August 7th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
“Blogging, I think, is part soap-box, part confessional. Maybe it’s a sign of the Judgment Day approaching: what is whispered in secret will be shouted from the rooftops. Sometimes you need to say something out loud. You need to make a note to self, so you don’t forget. And to hold yourself accountable to what you’ve heard or think you’ve heard.” ~ Ken.
Yes. Yes to all.
And this. The prophets blogged. Jeremiah blogged a message to the king. The king tore up and burned Jeremiah’s blog. God told Jeremiah to re-write the blog and make it bigger, better, stronger. He did.
So: blog, counter-blog, counter-counter blog.
God did not let Samuel’s blog-words drop to the ground. Nor, Jeremiah’s. Final Word says which blogs stand. Which fall.
Our words here are idle or powerful because of Outside Source (Ken, I love you; but, there’s no evading judgment; it’s an expression of love; yes, healthy-function versus dysfunction in judgment is God’s call; so what God is speaking in your words here about judgment is true; in part … I love you …)
Since we’re free momentarily from the “e-word” (“Who is there to deliver me from this body of ‘E-Death?’” – thanks be to Jesus Christ!), I thought I’d just yin your yang, up above.
On your other judgment notes … I’ll wait ‘till later.
Pacem in terris …
August 7th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
I sometimes wonder if judgement is connected to patience in some way? Like we can’t wait for God to work it out, so we judge everything and try to take control. I have a current situation where I want to control it, and sometimes feel it’s okay to try (as if I could). And then I get the impression that God is saying to me that he’s got it under control. And I actually feel peace about it, which doesn’t fit with what’s going on in my head!
Last Sunday before our 11:00 service I sensed the words “rush to judgement,” as in it’s not good. I didn’t get a chance to share it with anyone, but now find it interesting that you are blogging about it.
August 7th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
1 Corinthians 6.v1-6 If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church! I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? But instead, one brother goes to law against another—and this in front of unbelievers!
August 7th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Encouragement
Ken, please forgive my former post in which I got “clinical” in waxing wise (aka, “know it all”) about judgment.
I’m really sorry about that because you shared a very personal and intimate dream. Touching on the most intimate relationships in your life. A risky and tender thing to share. I’m sorry. I should have known better: I have a vivid, robust, and intimate dream life, and years’ worth of spiritual journals full of dreams – charismatic gifts from the Spirit. Intimate. I know how I feel when I share something from the raw-nerve-end of my heart from the Spirit’s dreams, and then, one of Job’s counselors goes clinical on me. Not good. My comments were out of line (if not, could have been). So, if you want to flush my post by deleting it, please do. A time for everything – since my know-it-all attitude sticks with me (despite my dreams! uh oh: I feel one coming on), these comments can come back again another, better time.
Peace.
August 7th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
I miss mine too! Thanks for sharing your heart Ken!
August 8th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Out at the end of us and the end of time, there is a gleaming. A brightness. This is what we see when we love one another. What love allows us to see. This brightness. This holiness. It isn’t us. It is the Other. It. Him. His presence in us. The Alien. The One. The Maker. The Ancient of Days. The Light of the World. Mr. Obvious. Mr. In Our Face. God.
August 8th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Humphreys,
Do you think there is a difference between the type of judgment Paul refers to in Corinthians and the judgment that Jesus declares in John 5 is reserved exclusively for Himself (even the Father defers to him)?
I see Ken as addressing the latter.
Bob
August 9th, 2009 at 8:14 am
Blood soaked, dirty, spit upon, naked, tortured, mocked, murdered, all evil consummated into one event. Father forgive them… Jesus in his humanity and divinity forgave this event. I don’t have to forgive that event, he already did, but I am called to forgive those along the path of my life. Forgiveness is not something Jesus does, it is an event that we participate in and we find him there. This is the only way for us to leave our judgmental attitudes. We need lots of discernment and very little judgment.
Ken, thanks for your heartfelt words.
August 10th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Pastor Ken,
Does this mean you’re going to stop putting down the Evangelicals? Yes, its been way over-due. Making your distain for fellow Christians public isn’t a good message.
August 12th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Jim1234, Ken continually labels himself as an evangelical, criticism is not necessarily a put down.