It’s fun being married - last night we had a “sleepover” where we stayed up super-late and watched a movie and snacked on anything we could get our hands on. But that also meant waking up around 10:30 this morning with not a little of that infamous “sleep” in our eyes (anyone have a better word for that stuff??).

As I was finally getting ready for the day, (it was about 11:30am), I got a call from my new friend Brad, whose friendship is another blog post altogether. For now, suffice it to say that just two weeks ago he committed his life to Christ through baptism and is pumped about sharing his faith with many of his lost friends. Brad asked, “What’cha doing this morning Mark?”

I responded with “Well, I just woke up about an hour ago, and I’ve just been enjoying the morning at home so far.”

“It’s Sunday morning! Why aren’t you at church you lazy bastard!” Brad cajoled.

It is the funniest thing, “going to church”. I didn’t really have an answer for him right then, so I just laughed along with him and we continued our conversation. Some reflections now as the day comes to a close on our little dialogue:

First, I LOVE the circles I’m running in these days. No longer am I with the “church-ified” Christians, who fear how they might look if they say what they are thinking. Brad’s response was authentically blunt, which is a refreshing joy for me, even though it still throws me off guard.

Second, while I didn’t technically “go anywhere” this morning that could be called a “church”, I am beginning to find the Church as much more of a liquid than a solid. Let me explain my free-flowing thoughts here…

This morning, we woke up together and took it easy. We both read from God’s Holy Word, then got ready as we talked about what we heard God saying to us through the pages, and where the “biblical canon” came from in the first place. Then we talked about how cool it would be to create a booklet or a website that gave seekers the chance to ask questions about the nature, function and origins of Christian Scripture.

After getting ready for the day, we continued our “church” by heading out to grab something to eat, where we bumped into a friend of mine who is doing work with victims of domestic violence and prisoners with drug problems. We scheduled a time for our families to meet up in July. His baby boy is getting so big.

As we were driving, I felt the Lord’s presence in a deep way as I listened to “Something Beautiful” by the Newsboys (audio sample here, lyrics here) and just started worhshipping and thanking God in whispered prayers for his image-rich Creation that points to a beautiful Kingdom that flows in and out of everything wonderful and beautiful and true in our lives here on earth. Inspiring…

A friend from out of town called and said he was passing through town and wanted to meet with us if possible. We invited him to join our cookout with our faith family. During the cookout, our neighbor popped his head out of his door, and we invited him over too. We shared laughs, stories, and watermelons. “Church was happening” all over the place.

“Church happens.”

Afterward, “church” flowed into a coffee shop where the conversation continued, and we met up with a friend Katrina is mentoring/coaching through some big decisions right now. They’ve been talking about everything from major life goals to boy troubles to new shoes. They’ve found their way back to our living room and the conversation is electric. I’m having a hard time staying out of it even now to write this blog post!

Church happens everywhere. It is not something you can GO to - it is the liquid movement of God’s people interacting with each other and with their world. Now when people ask “where do you go to church?” I say, “Where DON’T I go to Church!?!”

———-

What would happen if Christians found themselves living as the Church God created them to be? IN the world, but not of it?

What if instead of going to a spiritual goods and services distribution center to download God or encouragement, Christians learned how to hear from the Lord everywhere they went?

What would have to change about the Church if it looked less like a solid and more like a liquid, reaching into every nook and cranny of life and our culture? How would this change the world?

“When the time for silence comes, I ask you to take up your position for prayer (and sitting is usually best for most of us) and then, having asked the help of the Holy Spirit, to be content to wait patiently, expectantly, lovingly, longingly.  Try to realize that this is all you can do for yourself.  God must do the rest.  See yourself as the parched ground looking upwards waiting patiently for the rain to fall.  You can only wait.”

– Fr Roger Schultz of Taize

Vacare Deum    - “Be free for God.”

by Anne Sexton

There is joy

in all:

in the hair I brush each morning,

in the Cannon towel, newly washed,

that I rub my body withh each morning,

in the chapel of eggs I cook

each morning,

in the outcry from the kettle

that heats my coffee

each morning,

in the spoon and the chair,

that cry “hello there, Anne”

each morning,

in the godhead of the table

that I set my silver, plate, cup upon

each morning.

All this is God,

right here in my pea-green house

each morning

and I mean,

though often forget,

to give thanks,

to faint down by the kitchen table

in a prayer of rejoicing

as the holy birds at the kitchen window

peck into their marriage of seeds.

So while I think of it,

let me paint you a thank you on my palm

for this God, this laughter of the morning,

lest it go unspoken.

The Joy that isn’t shared, I’ve heard,

dies young.

I’ve officially gone insane. Abilene:the crazy little town I live in right now, the one that brought me here ONLY because of the education it provides me at a local institution of higher learning, is going to be my home voluntarily beyond what I could do if I finished this degree at break neck speed. You heard me correctly: I don’t plan on rushing through my degree at an insane pace and high-tailing it out of here before I have a chance to catch my breath. …I must be going crazy.

Over the past year, I’ve realized in my life the deep need for honest-to-goodness LIFE. Really, I don’t have an all-out crazy lifestyle: I’m not working 40 hours a week while trying to keep a full load of courses or anything; but I’m floundering. I’m barely able to stay above water, and I’m certainly not able to live into the residency I’m a part of as deeply and as completely as I’d like to. I’m looking for a life that graciously accepts each event, relationship and learning experience as a gift. I’m looking for LIFE.
I’ve heard that true learning is a stool that is propped up by three legs: content, praxis, and reflection. Right now I feel like I’m living full-on the edge of content, with a little relfection I’m able to do on this blog and in my personal journal. I’ve tasted the sane life this semester, meeting with professors and friends who are actually trying to spend a whole day in Sabbath (no matter how much work they may have to do that day) and truly letting that day bring LIFE to the rest of the week. If I’m going to live this life for Christ, I’m going to do it with all I have - TODAY. Forget the “sponge it all up to maybe use it someday” method of learning. Give me a daily mixture of learning new content, then walking away from it to find some immediate use for it, and then a chance to prayerfully reflect deeply on what I’ve experienced.

All this to say: I’m dropping down to part-time status in graduate school. I’m giving up the dream that says I can do it all. I’m stepping down from my 1,000MPH mentality of learning, and deciding instead to cultivate relationships and communities of learning. This means I’ll be in Abilene for about another year to finish my degree. This is a tough pill for me to swallow, since my dreams of Chicago still loom enticingly large in my mind. While I can’t wait to move on, I’m going to savor the bite God has given me to chew on. I’m going to live the LIFE that is truly a full LIFE, right here, right now.

I'm currently reading through a book for a class called "Getting Things Done" by David Allen.  I'm so very torn by this book.  If you look at the cover of the thing, it almost makes me want to gag!  If you know me personally, you'll find it hard to find me wearing anything other than a t-shirt and jeans.  That is not on accident; I don't necessarily WANT to dress up in a full suit, keep a cleanly shaved chin, and put my best toothy grin forward to sell more books.  I feel like by reading this book, I am succombing to a lifestyle; one that honestly makes me want to throw a few punches or something. 

At the same time, this book is all about handling the crazy lifestyle of the American workaday world in a sane way.  That to me is something worth writing about.  Statistically, Americans work more than any other country in the world, (and we are also less efficient at our work than other countries).  Somehow we are packing more and more "work weeks" into our lives, without having more than 52 to work with.  This book accepts that fact, and suggests strategies for living in such a crazy world where we can still get our project done, and keep the oil in our car changed.  

But isn't there a simpler solution?  I mean, if we really are the work-craziest country in the world, couldn't we turn it down a bit?  Is it our fear of losing our "We're no.1" spot on the planet that drives us to insanity?  Our divorce rate is the highest in the world.  We are 20% of the world's whole population, but we use 60% of the world's resources.  Time to cool our jets, find our place in the world, and return to our families.  

I'm sure I will use this book throughout life.  No doubt I will subconciously partake in this madness.  However, I'll take the strategies suggested by the Lord God, who rested on teh seventh day.  I'll take my to-do list with me for six days, then chuck it on the seventh.  What kind of crazy person would totally STOP for a whole day?  What about "Getting things done"?  From my experience with my friend's death yesterday, I'm reminded today of the need to enjoy life, not just do it.  Therein lies my frustration with this book.  That, and the guy has an ugly tie.