Boil it down for me

Let me just start off by saying that I am a bad blogger. If bloging required a license mine surly would have been revoked long ago, or if it was a muscle it would have long since atrophied. But thankfully it is neither and instead merely requires the slight ability to orchestrate the English language and a passing ability to type. Given my profession I am intimately acquainted with the modern QWERTY keyboard and the infernal contraption called a computer. I also, thanks to my newly found interest in the written word, find that I also possess a much larger vocabulary and grasp of the written word than I had previously. So, and rather unfortunately, I’m free to blog only as often as inspiration crosses path with willingness and availability. A majority of the time this perfect storm happens at work, when I need a break from select * where… and need to take a different part of my brain out for some exercise. This week however I am on vacation and my son is being bathed by his mother, my wife, upstairs. And I find myself alone with some spare time, a full battery on the laptop, and an itch in the back of my brain that requires a scratch. So here goes.

(Gavin is crying upstairs, the bath is over and he hates getting out of the tub)

I’m a rather simple guy all things considered. I really prefer the simple answer to things than the complex. If I can save 12 steps latter by adding a step now I will tend to do it. I also have one of those types of brains that can see the 12 future steps to be saved. This can be a blessing, and a curse. I find it increasingly frustrating when I see someone making a task overly complicated or averting their eyes from the big picture in order to focus solely on what is currently in their narrow field of view. Efficiency is key for me.

Recently I found myself in the unenviable position of being one of only three people present to clean up 750 luminarias placed around our church. For those of you that are unindoctrinated in the ways of the southwest, a luminaria is basically a brown paper lunch sack with some sand at the bottom and a small candle inside. They are put out lining streets and walkways on Christmas Eve. I can’t tell you why exactly the tradition started, but they to make a very pretty glow and when an entire neighborhood undertakes the effort the results are truly breathtaking. For our effort, our church had placed several hundred of these sand bags around its property for the holiday. It had taken seven of us only a couple hours to put them out, then another 40 minutes later in the day to light them all. The day after Christmas they all had to be picked up and stored for the next year.

This is where I found myself. I’m sure most people would have set right to work, stacking them inside each other four deep in whatever way seemed best. Well, I actually arrived early, before what little reinforcements were coming, and I studied the problem. I devised a method where by my requirement of bending at the waist was minimized and the moving of the luminarias itself was kept to a minimum. I will spare you the boring details, as I’ve learned long ago that few people actually care, and just say that I was satisfied with my solution after putting it into practice several dozen times.

The reason I wasted your time with that little story was this, I approach everything in my life in a very similar manor, including my faith. I found myself really desiring for someone to boil the whole thing down for me, what is this all about, what are we doing here, what dose God want from us and what do we want from him. I was searching for the foundation to build from, a baseline if you will. Most importantly, something I could measure the rest of what I know against.

(Gavin is no longer crying, I’m guessing Daen has moved on to the baby massage. She got a book on it, I don’t ask questions, it’s easier)

I will admit straight out that I’m about as biblically illiterate as they come. I can’t pull a handy verse from the recesses of my mind to fit any situation. I find it hard to recollect, when necessary, what Paul said to any of the churches he wrote to. I know who Paul was at least, so that’s something. So, what I’m about to say to you isn’t based on some type of in-depth knowledge of the scriptures, or personal translations from the original Greek and Hebrew. It’s more of a gut thing I guess. So hear goes, my boiled down version of God, and what he wants.

(1) God wants to be in relationship with us, and (2) sin is the things, acts, and thoughts that get in the way of that relationship. (3) God loves us, and he desires the relationship with us because of that love, not for servitude or praise. (4) Our relationship with God can only be genuine if we have the opportunity to reject it. (5) And finally, we are only complete when we have that relationship with him.

That all may sound like third grade Sunday school, but their was a lot of power in it for me. This gave me a simple set of criteria to judge things against. In fact I think these basic truths are something we lose sight of to quickly. We are overcomplicating things in our lives, churches, and relationships. We have this strange delusion, as far as I can tell, that our society is so complex that simple truths don’t work. That we now, somehow, exist in this world that has so many facets and nuances that simple explanations of who God is and what our mutual roles are no longer apply. I would say that we may all very well be suffering form societal dilutions of grandeur.

(Daen and Gavin have returned to the living room, my window is closing quickly)

This is a topic I plan to explore in some detail has time goes on. I’ve made statements like that before to myself and others, so it is with no certainty that I promise to return to this subject again. But you never know.