I heard someone say the other day how thankful we should be that we don’t serve a mean, vicious, spiteful, or angry God. We don’t serve a God of ancient Greek mythology who meddles in our lives for self-gratification or, worse, out of boredom.
No, we should be thankful because we serve a good God–a kind, generous, faithful God. I’ll admit, though, that I had never really contemplated the fact that our God could have been some other type of God. He could have been a mean, forgetful, neglectful God.
And what if He was? What if God treated us the way we treat Him? It’s not a perfect, apples-to-apples comparison, but play along anyway.
When I thought of Jesus, I used to think of a lover. He is the lover of our souls, after all. When we see images or interpretations of Jesus in Biblical times, He is always portrayed as gentle, kind, and loving. I always used to imagine Him almost whispering His parables, as if to say, “Hush, still your hearts, quiet yourselves before me, and listen to what I am saying…shhh.”
We have all seen the stereotypical Jesus painting: The Son of Man, in a white flowing robe, with children, sheep, or both, strewn around His feet.
Usually Fridays here on MR are called Favorite Things, where I list out some of the stuff I love from nerdiness to splurges, and even some of my guilty pleasures.
And after over a year of writing about my Favorite Things, it turns out that while I like a lot of things, I don’t like enough to blog about it for 14+ months. Sooooo, I’ve got a new bag of tricks for Fridays which I am calling (in case you didn’t read the title of this post for some reason) Friday Findings.
Now, I admit it sounds eerily similar to Favorite Things, but here’s the difference: Instead of any one topic (i.e. kids, road trips, etc) I will be sharing with you anything that caught my eye that week–whether it be a blog post, article, song, food item, pin, book, quote, or nonsensical item that I may presently be lusting. Anything is up for grabs. Now doesn’t that sound snazzy?
This also means that I need your help. Yes, you. If you happen to read a post, spot an article, or chow on some amazing grub (I like food okay? What can I say?) please send it my way. I’m always interested in discovering new things worth sharing and that’s exactly what Friday Findings will be all about. You will, of course, score the credit for your finding. Finders keepers, as they say.
Today’s guest post comes from my friend Destiny Alfonso, who is not only lovely herself, but has a stylish blog called A Place for Us. She blogs about home decor, entertaining, and all things beautiful (If you’re into decor like me, be sure to check her out). She also happens to love Jesus and so I invited her to share with us today.
…Or Jane. Average is a word that’s followed me most of my life. I’ve always thought of myself as an average girl. Not horribly bad,not angelically good. Just average.
Maybe it’s because I had two super smart siblings, one older and one younger, who were both labeled “gifted a”t an early age. Meanwhile, I had undiagnosed panic attacks during those gruesome second grade multiplication tests.
But then again it might be because while straight A’s put students on the honor roll, I brought home a mixture of A’s and B’s and the dreaded C. I was on the average roll.
Throughout high school I lived for sports. Volleyball was my passion.During the off season I ran on the track team. I certainly wasn’t the worst person on the team. Nor did I ever come in last place in a race. But the best? First place? Eh. Just average.
I also love music. I played the clarinet and used that knowledge to teach myself to play the piano. I remember recording myself on my pink and teal boom box singing Brandy and Monica “That Boy is Mine”… It was ok. Not GREAT. Actually, it was pretty funny. Yep… just average.
It wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized that I was labeling myself average. Every time I would try something new and have some success at it I would find myself saying, well, you’re not the best so maybe this isn’t for you.
In our high-tech, digital, on-line worlds we have begun to abbreviate everything. Our relationships are virtual. Our messages are edited. Our off line life rivals our on-line persona.
The generations coming up are completely enveloped in their on-line and technologically created worlds. A text message is the new 5-page letter. A “like” is the new customer review. A tweet is the new word of mouth endorsement.
And where does the Gospel fit into all of this? Have we begun to shorten the message of the risen King in order to cram it into 140 characters? Do we need to?Continue reading The Twitter Gospel
Today’s guest post is from Antwuan Malone, a truth-speaking, word-slinging writer and blogger. Antwuan has appeared on Modern Reject before (and rocked it, I might add) and I am excited to have him back. I hope you enjoy this post as much as me.
I received a rant from a fellow writer and friend of mine, about some of the more frustrating things going on in the church community. It was so great a list, it inspired me to create my own. So here it is. At the end, I hope you comment with some of your own suggestions too.
I don’t want this post to become a mindless bashing of Church culture. That’s not the point at all. The things on the list are things we feel stand in the way of true Christian community as God intends. In essence, it’s an iron sharpens iron kind of thing, not a “let’s look at all the things wrong and make fun of them” thing. In fact, you should be on the lookout for the next Seven Thingspost, “Things I Hope Never Change About the Church.” coming very soon (you can comment on that as well if you’d like to get a jump start.)
People usually fall into two different camps. There are those who long for the past–who drift in reminiscing and nostalgia and can never seem to escape yesterday. And then there are those who look optimistically to the future–daydreaming of the things to come, never looking backwards, but also never feeling settled in the present.
I guess I am more of a look-to-the-future-type-girl. My life has always been marked by daydreaming and wondering about the “what if’s” and the “somedays.”
Yet, here I sit typing a blog I had never intended on starting, having a third baby I wasn’t sure I wanted, spending my days as a stay home mom–a position, at one time, I wholeheartedly resisted.
You would think daydreaming about tomorrow would be my solace, my sanity, my refuge. But the more I try to conjure up visions of the future, the more right now seems less appealing and less satisfying.
God is the Alpha and the Omega. The Beginning and the End. But lately, He is wanting to impress upon me something more. There is another side to Him that I keep missing.Continue reading The God of Now
Today’s guest post comes from the ever-witty, insightful and Jesus-loving Moe of Beta Christian. I first came to meet Moe via Tumblr back in the day. His blog has since grown and become, I think, one of the smartest and most engaging Christian blogs around. I’m grateful to have him appearing on Modern Reject today. Enjoy.
Can you imagine a culture where you can just be yourself without being criticized or judged? A culture where you don’t have to spend so much time and energy trying to protect your reputation? Yeah, certainly not in this planet. And certainly not in the church.
People spend an insane amount of time building a reputation inside of the church. They don’t want to be on the outside part of it, so they work too hard trying to fit in. Just look around our gatherings and we can see people working very hard at it.
Spiritual Curriculum
Because of this pressure to be so spiritual, we make the mistake of concealing who we really are. We start identifying people based on what we see and we adapt our lives to fit in: Continue reading Unlocking the "Me" in Christianity
Today’s post is a guest post from one of my favorite bloggers, Rachel of The Lazy Christian . She writes with great wit, heart, honesty, and truth. She might be my blogging soul-mate. I am excited to introduce her to you. If you don’t already know her, you should! (Did you catch her cleverness in the title?)
Oh, no. I’m about to end a sentence with a preposition, which I hate to do, but it has to be done:
What are you afraid of?
Me, I seem to be afraid of a lot of things. Misplaced prepositions, for one. Kidding! I think the biggest problem with my fears is that I can’t tell if they are irrational or not. I have a fear of wrongful imprisonment, which is a little irrational. I just think I watched The Hurricane one too many times in college. I have a fear of someone breaking into my house. That’s probably not irrational. It’s something that happens fairly frequently, and it may have been borne out of my desire to protect my family. In that vein, I also fear things happening to my husband and son which is—rational?
See, I have a hard time making the distinction. Part of me thinks that the quantity of worrying associated with a particular fear directly relates to how rational it is. The more I worry, the less rational the fear becomes. Does the likelihood of a fear materializing increase its rationality?
Most Christians are really good at saying “Yes, all I have is His,” and what we are saying (or what we pretend to be saying) is that our “things” and our money ultimately belong to God.
We make grand gestures about it all belonging to Him. We talk about the fact that our earthly possessions are just that…earthly. We nod our head in conversation with other believers about our financial responsibilities. We use words like “tithe”, “give”, and “steward.”
But when do we really give? And how generous is this so-called giving? Does it make us uncomfortable when we fill out the check or do we not give it a second thought? Do we tithe our 10% consistently? Or forget that, do we tithe above and beyond that 10%? Do we tithe even when our rent or mortgage is late and our fridge is empty?
I heard someone say the other day how thankful we should be that we don’t serve a mean, vicious, spiteful, or angry God. We don’t serve a God of ancient Greek mythology who meddles in our lives for self-gratification or, worse, out of boredom.
