Sometimes i think

Sometimes i think, do people really need a spiritual centre in their lives? Because it seems like the bulk of life where people intersect on what's important and real is not really having a spiritual centre. But then the time when one will seek some sort of spiritual centre are through present crisis, mishaps, near death experience or stuff close to the description called 'bad thing happening to people'. It seems to me that the somber reality of coming to grips with thinking about God and spirituality is when we are sucked dry and looking at reality with enlightened eyes. But when all is well we forget the important stuff, when we have everything we feel invincible, when we are rich beyond measure we feel powerful. But all of these are just vain projections of what we think we need. They muffle out an important dimension to our life. Well it's just something i thought about. 

How Do we stretch ourselves to get more of God this year?

I heard this being said today, "How Do we stretch ourselves to get more of God this year?"

1. We stretch ourselves by adding time to our prayer life.
2. We stretch ourselves by making ourselves available doing church ministry.
3. We stretch ourselves by getting ourselves involved in a particular ministry.

Getting more of God is seen here as doing more, going the second mile. Sure there is some truth here but if you look at the points being presented, are they not confined in the vicinity of what Christians do in a context familiar to them?

Take prayer for example. Prayer is an integral and important part of the Christian life. There is no question about this. But is simply getting more of God done by stretching our prayer time?

Take doing or getting ourselves involved in church ministry for example. Ministry is integral, important even for the community context of practicing our faith. But should we confine doing ministry only in the vicinity of the Sunday service space or during a Christian program/function?

This is how some churches/leaders/pastors/teachers here understand how we stretch ourselves to get more of God. It is irritating to hear and this sort of teaching is constantly being repeated to people. It is simply a narrow understanding of a person being 'intoxicated' by God.

With this, how does someone then stretch himself/herself to get more of God in ones life? I think this question would be better answered in this manner:

To really stretch ourselves to get more of God in life this particular year, what we have to do is be more God conscious. Lets get something straight, since God is everywhere and we also believe that God in Jesus is the ruler of this world and not just our lives, it gives an implication that whatever we do matters to God. This simply beats having just a fixed prayer time where we understand that we are making time for God. Lets make our prayer life spill from the small confinement of solitude to a more wider field; life itself. Lets make our small time of being God conscious effect our walk outside.

As for ministry, lets not confine ministry to the four walls of the church building, to a certain day called Sunday, to certain christian function. Lets give ministry a more wider field. All of life for example. Are you not doing a certain/ specific ministry in the world outside where you work or study? To be honest christian ministry is not something that is confined, otherwise we might come out thinking that there is only one side to ministry and it is done in church, on Sunday, and also other Christian functions. This simply confines the possibility of influencing the world as a whole.

So lets widen our perspective. To get more of God we simply have to let God himself invade our lives. Let him have every corner, be it our inward walk, our secular walk, and our church community walk.

To get more of God we simply have to be God conscious.

My Own Prison,Death by Paper Cuts and Philemon

My Own Prison

A court is in session, a verdict is in
No appeal on the docket today
Just my own sin
The walls are cold and pale
The cage made of steel
Screams fill the room
Alone I drop and kneel
Silence now the sound
My breath the only motion around
Demons cluttering around
My face showing no emotion
Shackled by my sentence
Expecting no return
Here there is no penance
My skin begins to burn
So I held my head up high
Hiding hate that burns inside
Which only fuels their selfish pride
We're all held captive
Out from the sun
A sun that shines on only some
We the meek are all in one
I hear a thunder in the distance
See a vision of a cross
I feel the pain that was given
On that sad day of loss
A lion roars in the darkness
Only he holds the key
A light to free me from my burden
And grant me life eternally
Should have been dead
On a Sunday morning
Banging my head
No time for mourning
Ain't got no time
I cry out to God
Seeking only his decision
Gabriel stands and confirms
I've created my own prison

Creed's debut album "My Own Prison" made headlines somewhere in 1997 as a promising band and statistics aside they were one of the greatest bands around. There were alot of spiritual overtones generated from their lyrics which I could really relate with. Even at this time now, after the break up of the band I continue to listen to them (though I can't help thanking their break up for the birth of my fave band Alter Bridge). One song that's resonating now is "My Own Prison".

The lyrics of the song (if I still remember correctly) was written about their friend who had committed suicide.To me it talks about the realization that there is a point of escape but only on realizing the accusations are ours alone. The depiction of the person in the song is one that doesn't want to get up and take responsibility of their life and move on. A person that mirrors the past defining the future and never pulling him/herself through the ruckus. In a nutshell, to me, the song talks about taking responsibility.

I would like to convey what I'm going through literally but that would be revealing too much (I have taken much heat of writing too literally on my opinions and feelings in the past). I can only say that today marks the day when "my own prison" that was killing me by "paper cuts" is being challenged to the new possibility of "the reconciling love of God in Christ " (Philemon 1 and this post).

I Smoke

I smoke. Well I used to. And while I was at it (I mean when I was smoking) I liked it. The taste of burning tobacco running through my lungs. Mild curiosity purged me to the path of cigarettes. Of course my parents told me not to smoke, teachers tell you not to smoke, even the cigarette pack gave me warnings on the danger of smoking (sheesh). But you know what teenagers do; rebel.
Well it didn't look like an outburst of obvious rebellion but it was gradual. A process really.

I remember the first time I lit a cigarette in my mouth was when a friend asked me to try it out. Well, I thought, no harm in me trying it. So I did. I lit it and puffed away. I was good at it or so it seemed until my friend told me, "You're not doing it right. You're puffing the smoke." Well I always thought that this was the normal way of doing it. At least I can say that my observation of the whole thing was false. "So how do you really do it," I said with a dab of innocent curiosity. "You inhale the smoke, then you puff it away," he said. So I tried the 'Smoking 101' advise and made a fool of myself. His method sucked (or so I thought). It made me cough. He laughed, and that was my last time trying the stuff. I vowed never to touch another cigarette again, or so I thought. Like new year resolutions, we never can attain our idealistic hopes and make them reality.

I can't vividly remember specifically when but I know the year, it was 1999, that spawned this new habit. I didn't think as that time that it was some sort of habit. For me, smoking was a new identity I had embraced. I reasoned that smoking will be a part of my life. It will be the new me. Good philosophy don't you think?

Like any relationship endeavor, I had to find the perfect cigarette, one that complimented my personality. There were constant dates that I had with a certain brand but I finally made up my mind and decided a monogamous relationship with Dunhill, which stands for Style, Quality, Excellence. And like any relationship, there were up and down moments. I needed Dunhill every morning (in my case waking up in the morning stood for waking up in the afternoon). But at time Dunhill choked me, spending my money, making me have this nasty cough and smelly breath. I love Dunhill but there were issues.

But my break up with cigarettes happened in 2000, specifically on February 14 (no kidding). I was sitting on the hood of my dad's car, puffing away on the last remaining 5 stick that was left. I only managed to smoke two and finally decided that I was through with Dunhill and smoking and cigarettes. There we no emotional ties when it happened, I did not shed any tears. After the break up I said yes to Jesus.

OK, OK. I know you might be thinking that I am proposing that Jesus liberates and smoking is of the devil. But that's not my point, well in a way it is but read on.

Sometimes our explanation of being free or being liberated by Jesus denotes a sharp distinction as saying smoking is bad, or some folks tell us it is of the devil. But i fell this explanation of saying, before I was a smoker and my life sucked and now I am a believer I have peace. I am not a fan of this testimony explanation.

You see it is true that being in Jesus sorts of liberates us, gives us freedom. But it is not an automatic change. Like a relationship with someone or in this case a pattern of lifestyle, it is done overtime. We build on them. So this pattern lives on us, becomes part of us. It becomes sort of like our lifestyle. When change comes there is some sort of uneasiness. Change proposes a new way to live, a new kind of lifestyle.

Following Jesus is this kind of change. Changing the pattern of life we used to live. The promise that we are given is freedom and liberation; hope. But to realize this hope we have to embrace this change, this new pattern of life opposed to the old one.

My parents watch a heavy dose of 'the health channel'. Normally people who lived a pattern of life that embraced a faulty way of eating habits always find it hard to in the process of changing. Their fitness instructors tell them to ditch their former pattern of eating and embrace another pattern. It's as much a physical change as it is a mental change. The fitness/health instructors tell them that following this pattern of eating and exercise will free them of a flabby body and health issues among other things, and prolong their life. In the process this is not always realized. but as the process of embracing change prolongs the notion of the promise and hope explained by the fitness/health instructors becomes reality. It becomes something real after all.

And in life, embracing Jesus is that process of changing your old pattern of life and embracing a new pattern of living. Freedom/liberation will be fully understood in the process of continual living. Yes, Jesus is the one that liberates us from the corrupt life. Only it is a process in which we grow in being convinced by it.