Day 19—Simple Church

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of stuff on the Simple Church/ House Church movement... Christians gathering together in smaller groups in houses rather than in church buildings. The reason, they say, is because they want to connect more fully and deeply with God.

They yearn for a first-hand experience of their faith rather than a pre-digested, programmed experience of it. They don’t want to pay someone to care for the poor, they want to care for the poor, personally. They don’t want to pay someone to organize a committee to serve meals, they just want to cook it and go. They don’t want to hear a 20 minute presentation about how they should love their neighbors as themselves, they want to personally engage in dialogue about how to put this into practice, in real life, tomorrow morning when they go to work. They don’t want to submit a prayer request to a member of the church staff for attention, they want to pray for each others’ needs personally before the meeting even ends and they head back home.

At least, that’s my sense of it. I see similar dynamics at work in the House Church that I’m a part of—people engaged in ministry, first-hand, some for the first time. I’m hopeful that the Simple Church movement can help Christians be the church in more authentic ways, instead of just going to church.

Day 18—What’s In A Name?

I walked into a room crowded with people, all eager to advance the cooperative efforts of campus ministry on the University campus. The meeting was already in full swing when I joined them. I tried to slip in quietly but several shouted out my name.

It’s always nice to hear your name, isn’t it? I guess it validates you. Gives you a place. Ties you into a group. Confirms your identity in some basic, intangible way.

Anyway… the surprise today was that one of the guys who had just arrived before I got there was THE person that I was hoping to connect with next week, based on a referral from the day before from a friend who was totally unconnected to this meeting or its focus.

That was quick.

Day 17—The Chore and Fruit of Networking

Networking is hard. Especially as time stretches out. You keep meeting with people, knowing—hoping—anticipating—that the next contact may be THE ONE that leads to the right opportunity. But you don’t know for sure. So you keep moving through your list. One at a time. It’s like sales. You keep calling, keep networking, keep talking, keep exploring who’s around the next curve in the road where you haven’t been yet. Knowing that the further you go the more the odds improve in your favor to bring results.

Today I met two different friends, each of whom gave me additional contacts and places and people to explore. I’m thankful for these friends and contacts. They’re little surprises along the way.

Day 16—Brainwaves and Canyons

Apparently your brainwaves wash over and cut through your cerebral cortex much like melting snow washes over and cuts through the side of a mountain on its way down to the bottom, forming small ruts, then small streams, then gushing rivers, which eventually form deep canyons. That what the magazine article said anyway. The kind of repetitive thoughts we think, and our patterns of thinking—both positive and negative—carve deeper and broader pathways through our brain as we age. The danger, say neurologists, is that when you get locked into patterns of thinking that are negative, self-defeating or destructive, you allow your brainwaves to create pathways that are not positive, healthy, or life-giving. You get “stuck” in patterns of negativity.

Several years ago our physician was telling us the same thing when we were experiencing some tough months as a family. She gave us some ways to change the way we think, which in turn, over time, would carve new pathways in our brains that were healthier.

This is not a new idea. It’s just the scientific explanation for what the Bible has taught us for centuries.

• For example, the Apostle Paul writes in his Letter to the Romans, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

• He writes similarly in his Letter to the Ephesians, “throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.”

• And again in his Letter to the Colossians he writes, “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”
  

Now obviously Paul is not talking about brain waves and pathways in our brains. That’s a very recent scientific frame of reference that was not available to him. Paul’s frame of reference was theological. Spiritual. But I think Paul was onto the same idea.

Here's why. In each of these instances (and there are many others) Paul is focused on the outward behavior of a person who becomes a new person (“creation”) in Jesus Christ, not on their brainwave patterns. But underlying each of these admonitions for behavior change is a presumed change in attitude… a change in the way one thinks. We know from psychology that what we think and believe determines how we feel and behave. Easier said than done.

Changing our behavior begins with a change in what we believe and how we think, which Paul says is accomplished by nothing less than the power of God (the Holy Spirit) acting upon one’s life. Becoming this new person (which is a gift of grace from God) is a process, not a one-time event. In other words, it takes time to grow into this new identity. Which helps explain how the deeply rutted, carved-up mountainsides of our cerebral cortexes can possibly be remade into a different-looking landscape over time. What other power could completely transform the landscape of a canyon-carved mountainside?

Day 15—Ordinary Days (Thank God!)

Seems like forever since I’ve journaled. I’m way behind on my daily “Surprise Me, God” writings.

Here’s a confession—I don’t see a “surprise” everyday from God. That’s probably not a surprise to you because I’m thinking that you experience the same thing. Yeah... I see God working most every day. It’s not that. It’s just that some days are just ordinary days. Actually, most days are ordinary days. I think I’d get burned out if I didn’t have some ordinary days just to cruise. Like yesterday—I got exhausted just thinking of having to “look for God,” for any “surprises.” I just wanted to BE—not have some goal in mind when it comes to God. Maybe that’s partly what’s behind the verse, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). It’s a reminder to me that God doesn’t necessarily “show up” in out-of-the-ordinary ways.

Days 13 & 14—Painting

Went up to my mom’s this weekend to help paint three rooms and ceilings in her house. Toast (my puppy) came too. Probably not the best idea. She brought along her own surprises, which surprised us all, and after which none of us wanted any more surprises. In spite of the blizzard outside, unwelcomed surprises from the dog, long days on a ladder, paint-splattered lenses in my "good" glasses, half of the ceiling falling down in the middle of our project… life is good.

Day 12—Two Women and Two Dogs

Today’s Surprise: I keep running into the same two women and their dogs. One has a Great Dane and the other a yellow Lab. They live in the next neighborhood over and we walk our dogs on the same park path. Of course, everytime I walk my little 14-week-old Golden Retriever (“Toast”) past them the dogs HAVE to stop and play. Toast shrieks with delight, jumps up on the big dogs, tries to grab hold of their neck (like she did with her brothers and sisters a few weeks ago), and runs around them in circles. The big dogs are amused, I think. Sometimes slightly bothered. But they seem to get that she’s a puppy. And puppies behave that way. Sometimes abnoxiously. But they tolerate it. Unless the puppy gets too obnoxious. And then they’ll give a little growl or grunt to ward off Toast. And fortunately for Toast, she gets that.

The only thing for the humans to do is … to interact. We really want this anyway. But how do you just go out walking and stop people on the street to have a conversation? You don’t. You can’t. People might be polite the first time, but after that they would see you coming down the street and suddenly decide to take a left at the next corner before they get to you. So we get dogs. Dogs become our excuse to HAVE TO stop and talk with people.

We’re slowly getting to know each other, our names, our dog’s names, where we live, etc. It’s a little thing… but I’m eager to see what happens the more we keep running into each other.