Others can often point out your faults better than you can. Because of this, I’m trying something a little bit different this year. Instead of making up my own list of New Year’s resolutions like last year, I’m asking a bunch of friends to tell me what I should work on this year. What are some things I could work on to make me a better human being, more faithful to Jesus?
Category Archives: Personal Life
A Break, A Breakdown and A Station
It’s been informal for about a month now, but I’m officially taking a fairly long break from the blog. I haven’t posted anything constructive since the new year—merely odd links here and there to videos, blogs and upcoming books. What little creativity I have left at this point is devoted entirely to school. For that reason, this blog is under a moratorium—whether temporary or permanent is still a question.
On that note, it’s that time of year again. School is bearing down on me. (I have two 15-page papers due tomorrow, and another in a couple weeks.) I’m in the process of deciding between bombing my papers but staying mentally stable or burning myself out (yet again) but doing well in school. Academics is one of the few things I excel at, so the choice is a difficult one.
With the theme of break(ing) in the air, I feel I’ve reached somewhat of a stopping point in my “theological journeying.” This blog over the last couple years has been a more or less scrambled collection of my attempt to figure out what it means for us as Christians to follow Jesus this side of the millennium. It seems to me now that the answer lies somewhere in the nexus of the following. The Emerging Church as a popular level movement of postmodern Christianity; New Monasticism as its concrete form of practice and life together; and Radical Orthodoxy as the academic theology and critique of (post)modernity behind it.
In my theological journeying, then, I pause at this station, this waypoint.
2008
Yup, the new year is almost here. We’re all a year older, a year more experienced, and hopefully a year wiser and better for it as well. Looking back on my goals for 2007, I realize I shanked more than one of them. However, a new year is a new beginning. (Something like the resurrection!) Here are some things I need to work on in 2008:
Community: It may be surprising, but on the whole, I’m not a very happy person. Part of it is just my natural temperament, I think, but I also drive myself very hard, putting myself under a lot of (maybe not-so-necessary) pressure. Loneliness doesn’t help this, I’ve found, so I’m going to try to be around people more. I’ve been meeting with a couple great friends every other week the last little while, and this has been awesome! I’ll keep it up. Money: I’ve been terrible with money this last year, especially with my oh-so-shiny credit card. So here’s the plan: give some to Jesus, give some to the poor, and spend less on tantalizing books, food and coffee. Social Justice: It takes a lot of effort to place myself outside my comfortable Western bubble to see the needs of the majority of the world. My work with CrossCulture helps clear my vision and gives me an opportunity to help out with local need twice a year, but I need to look as well to the needs of those who suffer in the third world. Spiritual Growth: Plain and simple, I suck at praying. I take my own busy agenda far too seriously, and the necessity of a stable life of prayer not seriously enough. So, I’ll schedule in an hour of prayer a week and head off to Redeemer’s beautiful prayer room. As for the Bible, I’ve read it a few times and am pretty consistent about daily readings, so I want to improve how well I can recite Scripture. I’ve been told that’s important too. Learning: Over the last year, my interest—I guess that’s the right word—has broadened from theology into areas of philosophy. If I want to be some sort of witness to Christ in academics, I should probably know something about what the most influential people in our society are saying; ergo, philosophy.
Keeping Up With the Joneses
I’ve begun to realize more recently that part of “loving thy neighbour” is actually spending time with them. You know, face-to-face contact. Sharing coffee (or other beverage) and conversation–keeping up with them, in other words. One can’t really enter into, can’t really get to know another person until one meets them face-to-face. And I find it ironic–though I’m not the first person to notice this–that in urban environments, with such a high density of human presence, people are so tremendously lonely.We mediate our relationships through MSN, email, Facebook, Skype, myspace, cellphones, home phones, and … well, not so much written letters anymore. Regardless, though we possess a seemingly infinite connectivity with the rest of the world and though we can go farther, faster and for less, we are an increasingly disconnected society.
Now, I realize these comments aren’t original by any stretch of the imagination. This truth was simply made more real for me as I had a chance to catch up with five(ish) friends over the last few weeks. Those conversations (over coffee, it’s important to note) were some of the most precious times I’ve ever experienced. They were beautiful, God-mediating moments. And I’m saddened by the fact that my busyness-obsessed society won’t allow me more of them.
Because of the high population density of the urban environment in which I’ve grown up, I probably know about 400 to 500 people that I would call “friend”–maybe more. I have friends from school (and old schools), work (and old workplaces), church (and other churches) and a meager few from my own neighbourhood. But how many of them do I actually know that well? How many of those lives am I actually involved in? Maybe somewhere between 40 and 50–a tenth, at best.
I don’t know how to resolve this, but I know I can’t allow myself to continue to be socially stretched out and worn thin. And I can’t simply accept this model of society as healthy or cohesive, because it simply isn’t. Maybe I need to focus on those 40 to 50, and pour into and nurture those relationships. Maybe that’s how I can best “love my neighbour.” Go in peace.
2007
This year is almost over, unbelievably, and so it’s time for everyone to set some goals for the new year. Goal-setting is something I’m trying to be more intentional about, as I find myself just drifting through life in some areas. And so, inspired by Pernell‘s blog post on his goals for the coming year, I decided to blog about mine:
Education:
- Learn more about African theology.
- Learn more about the emerging church.
- Learn more about post-Vatican II Catholicism.
- Learn more about contemporary ecumenical efforts.
I’m a full-time student right now, so a significant part of my goals for the next year is taken up by what I want to learn. The four listed above are some significant movements within contemporary Christianity that I want to dive into and soak in a little bit. Some good side-reading.Generosity:
- Give away 30% of non-school-directed funds.
Last year especially I’ve been challenged about how I spend my money, and now that I’ve been introduced to the wonderful world of credit, I have to be even more intentional. This is the most specific of my goals, so I can be very straight-up about whether or not I’ve met it.
Communal Life:
- Explore the possibility of a house church / emerging church conversation.
- Be intentional about mentoring younger youth (one-on-one).
A fair number of friends at my megachurch-esque home church are becoming disillusioned with the whole model, so hopefully some of what I’ve been taking in from the emerging church conversation can be helpful there. Also, I want to be more intentional about mentoring the large number of younger youth in our group, where I’m an adult leader.
Social Concern:
- Participate in CrossCulture events.
- Explore the possibility of getting involved in some sort of inner city ministry.
Another significant area in which I’ve been challenged, especially since coming to Redeemer, is social concern / social justice issues. CrossCulture is a day-long worship / service project that helps out several inner city ministries, in which I’ll definitely be involved again. I want to become more involved, so I’m going to look into some sort of weekly commitment.
Spiritual Disciplines:
- Cement fixed-hour prayer.
- Expand Scripture reading.
This is probably the area that I’m happiest with, but there’s always room for improvement. I started using The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle (I, II, III) for personal prayer time and found it incredibly refreshing and helpful. I also hope to expand how much I read my Bible each day.
Relationships:
- Spend more time with family.
- Maintain regular coffee-and-conversation time with friends.
- Develop better relationships with friends outside church.
Last, but not least–actually most important–I’m learning more and more to be intentional about fostering rich relationships. As I’m staying at home now, I’ll spend more time with family. I’ll also maintain close relationship with friends outside Redeemer through some beautiful conversation over caffeinated beverage.
The One Touched By God
I’m dealing essentially with the issue that comes from the question, “OK, I believe in Jesus. Now what?” I’ve come to believe that Christianity isn’t so much about that initial moment of belief, but about a lifetime of being transformed by the God who loves us–the God who has touched all of us historically in the person of Jesus Christ and the God who continues to desire to transform us through His Spirit.
This whole discussion for me is linked to my growing appreciation for the Roman Catholic view of justification–which sucks because I’m part of a Protestant Church, a Protestant family and a Protestant university. (Why, God? Why?) It’s just so rich, dynamic and beautiful to me … like this phrase from the Catholic Catechism: “Grace is a participation in the life of God” (1967). Or this one: “Spiritual progress tends toward ever more intimate union with Christ. This union is called ‘mystical’ because it participates in the mystery of Christ through the sacraments–’the holy mysteries’–and, in him, in the mystery of the Holy Trinity” (2014).
Maybe, though, this is just a grossly underemphasized element of Protestant theology. I’ve found some cool stuff in Luther and C.S. Lewis that gives me hope that I can embrace this beautiful view of justification–sanctification?–and remain Protestant. Like this: “Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity).
I’ll see how it goes. Pray for me as I prepare. Go in peace.
My first semester at Redeemer is done and over with–I’m one-eighth of the way there!–so I’m on to prepping my sermon for January 12th at my youth group. I’m going to be speaking on (the plan is) what it is to be someone touched by God Himself. Pretty intense sounding, I’d say. (Even I’m intimidated.)
God the Teacher
The last couple weeks have been kind of a whirlwind for me, with a whole bunch of different things happening. I guess I’ll run through a few of them here, just to show you guys what’s going on.(1) A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren. Well, I finally bought and read through this one (in two days). I think the best way to describe it is “thought-provoking”. I think I’ll probably be wrestling with a lot of the issues it raised for the next few months, if not the next few years. McLaren sets out a compelling vision for what a postmodern expression of Christianity could be, with a theology that attempts to transcend the divisions of modernity’s various expressions. There’s quite a bit in there that rubbed me the wrong way, to be honest, but I get the sense from McLaren’s other books that that’s the whole point. Good stuff.
(2) There’s this phenomenal place in downtown Hamilton called The Freeway, which is (such a good combination) a coffeehouse and church. How great is that? They’re really involved in outreach to their community and social justice issues. (All their coffee is fair trade, and quite good. Try the Ethiopian brew “Freedom Fighter.”) I had an emergent church planter networking type meeting down there just today. (See here.) These guys just have a vibrancy about them that gives me hope for the Church in the west as we enter more thoroughly into postmodernism. Good times.
(3) I’ve started reading some early Church Fathers stuff–Clement of Alexandria, Theophilus of Antioch, and all those cool kids. There’s some really beautiful turns of phrase in there, despite the agedness of the English translations. Something that strikes me is just how Catholic these writers sound–especially on the issue of faith and works. Essentially, Jesus saves us from sin in order to do good works, through which we strive toward immortality. God’s grace enables us to do the works of God, and through them to reach out and take hold of eternal life. Apparently these guys didn’t read any Luther or Calvin. Hmm.
(4) The Christian group at my old highschool, Westmount, is taking off. We’re going through the wonderful Nooma series by Rob Bell, and having some great discussions surrounding some of the issues. It’s cool to see these guys really engaged and concerned about stuff like social justice (Rich), God’s belief in them (Dust), finding God in the midst of suffering (Rain), and evangelism (Bullhorn). Good times.
(5) My first semester at Redeemer is almost done–my last class is Thursday–which seems absolutely ridiculous, but kind of exciting as well. I’m definitely looking forward to the lack of homework over the Christmas break, but I’ll be missing the dormies as well. Good times.
(6) Last, but not least, I’ve really dug into this whole ancient tradition of fixed-hour prayer. I picked up The Divine Hours, which is a compilation of liturgical prayer, with four sets for each day: morning, midday, evening and just before bed. There’s a certain beautiful richness to the language and theology of the prayers which I’m coming to appreciate more and more. Also, and perhaps this is more important to me, I’m touched by the fact that I’m joining with other Christians around the world, praying in unity.
I guess that’s all I can think of, though I’m sure there’s other crazy cool stuff God’s teaching me about right now. Oh yeah–fair trade coffee, social justice, the Darfur crisis, loving your enemy–there’s a few. But this post is far, far too long anyways, so I’ll stop. Go in peace.
