Pretty* Jason Birthday Time

Why is that dog barking? It’s a peaceful November night in the suburbs, there is no reason for that dog to be barking the way it is. Someone should tell it that is being rude…oh..wait…what is that 13-year-old girl doing with that toilet paper? Are those her sisters? I don’t understand. I hope they aren’t doing anything destructive, that’s such a nice family in that house. Isn’t he a pastor? Yes, yes, I think that’s right. And they have three children, such nice children, what a lovely family they are. I hope these shenanigans are harmless. Are those balloons? Oh I give up. I’m going to bed.

_______________________

Every late November since I was thirteen or fourteen I would pile into the car with my sisters (or once, just my father) and do some sort of Jason-focused prank (which inevitably meant that it was pretty*). See, Jason Phillip Kircher’s birthday is on November 25^th and I have felt since I met him that it deserves to be celebrated in a special way. Good friends are like that, you know, you want to do something special for them sometimes…like fill their rooms with streamers and glitter and posters, or their front yard with photographs of them and toilet paper, or give them things in Jell-o.

This year though, sadly, I write from a distance.

This distance means that, for the first time since almost I met Jason Kircher, he did not wake up with a prank waiting on his doorstep. I cannot tell you how sad that makes me. So, as an alternative, I decided to write a little bit about him and what his friendship has been in my life in the last 10ish years.

At the risk of sounding like an obituary, here goes…

Jason is one of the most faithful friends that I have. No matter what time passes and what events occur, I can always seek him out when I need fellowship or Jesus. He was always present as a sounding board in high-school for ideas about theology and life. In fact, he still is. I told him once that he is a mix between David Crowder and Jim Halpert. He’s a friend. He is a good and hilarious friend who I can always count on to be as godly or as silly as I need him to be. I think my favorite thing about him is the fact that at any time ever I can text him and ask him to share the Gospel with me.

The Gospel is essential to life. Every day life, it isn’t just a one-time thing, and God used Jason to teach me that. I’ve told you aboutthis before, but here it is again. Each time Jason talks to me about the Gospel he tells it to me a little differently. He doesn’t change the point and purpose of the Gospel, which is Christ, rather he discusses differing aspects as to how the Gospel works in our everyday life, the ways that Christ moves within His Church and in His believers.

Just the other night (Thanksgiving), he told me about Thankfulness.

“The Gospel isn’t something you are told about. The Gospel is a holistic experience of God working in your life, day in and day out. On a day like today, the Gospel is the epitome of what we are thankful for. Thankfulness is best felt and seen when we say, like the tax collector in Luke 18, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!” We recognize the great lengths we have fallen, and beg God for grace. And because He loves us, He gives us Jesus. The incarnational, satisfying Son of God. He made the great exchange of our sin for His righteousness possible, and now we experience life. Be thankful – your day, your breath, your family, your all, is a gift from a good Father who gives good gifts to His children. And if He gave up His Son for us, how will He not give us all things? So let your heart not be troubled and keep your spirits lifted. Your God, YHWH, is for you, and loves you. Be thankful today, and ask for more grace.”

So, all that to say, thanks Jason for the friendship we have and the friend you have always been. You’re good. And always pretty*.  Happy birthday, old friend.

*This is reference to an age-old, non-flirtatious joke.

The Basic

I’ve had several talks lately about what exactly it means to be a Christian, to be a believer of the Gospel. Some focus entirely on grace, concluding that we have the right to sin because God will always forgive us. Others have told me they feel that they are not allowed to mess up because it would only serve to disappoint Him, stripping them of His favor. I’ve been in both of these positions, and frankly, I think they are both dead wrong.

I don’t plan to do any major exegesis here, but I’d like to establish some basics. Or rather, the basic.

What is the Gospel?
I have a friend, Jason, who tells the story of the Gospel so beautifully that I often ask him to tell me the story in his own words. I’m cheating a little now and, with his permission, sharing with you one of his explanations of the Gospel:

  “God created. And not just put stuff together, He caused it all to exist. He made space and time and light and life. And He also made people. Created to be objects that would reflect His very nature, imaging a perfect, holy, fantastical God. But they rebelled, and spat in the face of the One who gave them life to begin with. And [through] their first sin to the ones I commit myself daily, I constantly tell God He isn't worth what He says He is... And despite this weight, this sin that separates, this rebellion that deserves hatred and malice and judgment and condemnation and wrath, God chose grace instead. Grace that covers my every sin. Grace that is at work now and will continue to work until all is made right. Grace that empowers me to not sin like I used to. And above all, grace in the person of the Son of God himself, Jesus, who bore what I deserve and gave me cleansing, purity, holiness, righteousness, and a new Spirit. He gave me faith to believe and repent once, and He continues to do it now, even at this very moment. And He promises to give me more grace tomorrow, new mercies that will keep me in His hand forever. What could possibly separate me from the love of God if what I've done so far has just proven Him more faithful? He is God, He is good, despite my fears and frustrations and doubts.”

When Jason talks about Jesus bearing what we deserve, he makes reference to the death of Jesus on the cross. On that cross Jesus died in order to cover over all of our mistakes, mess-ups, bitterness, greed, pride, selfishness…you name it, He took care of it. Read about it here. Jesus did that, He took on what we deserve, so that we can have a hope in this world. The grace and forgiveness that Jason talks about. But then, further, we have a hope for more than this world. When we, or the world, ends, we have somewhere else to go. Everybody goes either to Heaven or Hell, dependant wholly on whether or not you choose to believe whether or not the Gospel is truth. And not just truth, but the only truth, and that you are included in those that can be saved. I’m not one to try to scare people out of Hell, but I would love to talk to you sometime about how great Heaven is (or my mom, she’s a bit of an expert.)

I digress…

So I don’t think it is about figuring out how much we can obey God, or how much we can get away with not listening to Him. I think it comes down to whether or not we actually believe it. Because, if we believe it, wouldn’t we live like it? Wouldn’t there be something different about us?  Like a subtle mark of someone who has seen great grief and great joy. If you believed that Someone was tortured and died for you (which He was), wouldn’t you live differently because of it? Sure, you’d stumble and struggle because life isn’t easy…but because you believed He had done this glorious and terrible thing for you, you’d be able to feel the hope and the grace that help you get back up again. Because Someone loved you so much, because God, the Creator of all things, loves you so much that He gave up everything so that you can have life, and have it to the fullest.

I’m not concerned with being good enough. I’ll never be good enough, I’ll never deserve for someone to die for me, let alone God. I just have felt God, I know Him, and I know that He adores me no matter what I do. So I’m going to try to live in a way that would please Him. He gave me guidelines through Scripture, and from what I can tell, none of the directions He gave me will ever lead me into something that will hurt me. They’re not always easy to follow, but they make sense.  So why not? Why not just live like I love Jesus?

God is Just All

For my Systematic Theology class I had an assignment where I read about the existence of God and about different ways of trying to prove He exists. This is what I wrote about it. It's all out of the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology and written like a paper, so it's a bit more formal than my usual posts. Enjoy!

It is a funny thing when we small humans decide that it is our purpose to argue for the existence of the God of the Universe. It is not our job nor our right to prove that He exists, neither is it necessary. For whether or not we think we have managed to prove Him, He is there. In the process of trying to prove that which is already certain, man has created three specific approaches thereto.

            The first is called the “A Priori” approach. This deals with the ultimate reality that God does exist, and that no matter what man does to try and prove otherwise, He will remain constant. Personally, I find this the most agreeable of the bunch. Anselm creates a foundation for this argument when he describes God as “infinite, perfect, and necessary.” He explains that God is a being that none can be greater than. Even the greatest fool knows to whom he is ultimately referring when saying “God.”

            “A Posteriori” is the next in the lineup of common beliefs about the existence of God. This is taken from the idea that God exists because the world says so, creations lends necessity to God. This has nothing to do with emotion or belief, rather everything relies on the physical to prove that He exists. Aquinas explained that each thing that moves must be moved by something. He reasons that God is the Unmoved Mover who sees over all creation and the motion thereof. Another philosopher who deals with this theory is Epicurus who says that God is obviously in existence because something never came from nothing (which is furthered by Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music); everything must have been created. This seemingly scientific point is made clearly moot by way of science itself in the category of Thermodynamics as it pertains to the earth as a whole. What is shown about the earth, according to Thermodynamics, is that the world is cooling off, that the energy that the earth has stored is slowly and surely being used up, and it cannot replenish it. In order for the heat to be dying down, it must have been at its pinnacle at some point in the past. In order for it to have had so much energy, that it is mind you, putting off and not taking in, it must have been set into motion at some point. The earth must have been created.

            I believe that each person has Eternity set in their hearts, that we all have a thirst for the Kingdom that can only be quenched by the blood of Christ.  The shame is that there are those who work endlessly to fill their void with something that is not of Christ, something that does not even remotely reflect God. In a poor effort to appease both sides of the argument over the existence of God, some have made a compromise saying that God designed the universe, but that He was more of an architect than an engineer. To say that God is anything less than the divine, omniscient, ubiquitous God that the Bible claims He is, is to say that He is nothing at all. God is all of those things and more; to remove any of those attributes would be to make Him less God, and God is all or nothing. Really, though, He is just all. 

Here's to Adventure

I went to Disney World the other day. I’m not sure why, but that place always makes me want to have adventures.  I walk around and see all sorts of people from all over the world and think to myself “why don’t I do that?” It happens a lot, that whole “why don’t I do that?” or “why didn’t I think of that?” thing.  Mostly it’s Disney World’s fault that I am stopping asking those questions and starting to answer them. I wasn’t even thinking about this before I went, after all. Somewhere between the Haunted Mansion and Norway I became determined to have more adventures. 

I’ve never read Little Women, but I have watched the movie time after time (I know, I’m sorry). Since my childhood I often flattered myself thinking that I was like Jo March because of her adventurous spirit, but in all actuality the only way I really and truly I resemble her in is her hatred for change (also her hair being her only glory). I’ve never been much good at change. In fact, every time it happens I find myself doing everything I can to ignore it completely. I’ll just phase it out and do my best to pretend it doesn’t exist. It’s not necessarily because I dislike the new things, rather that I love the old things that have faithfully proven themselves in the past. I carry the tendency to like things the way they were just fine. Holding true to this very idea, I don’t  foresee myself changing this weakness in the near future.

However, I do plan to make myself  switch things up a little (also known as Moving Beyond Mediocre). I’ve actually already begun. I changed my major last semester from Evangelism and Discipleship (with which I wanted to teach people how to love messy people, we talked about that) to Communications (with which I apparently want to do things media related.) I’ve moved to a new dorm building at my school, which is further out of my comfort zone than I care to examine. And I’ve, as previously mentioned, decided to have more adventures. I want to work at Disney World. Wouldn’t that be lovely? I’m sorry, I meant to say, “Wouldn’t that be magical?” I’ll answer for you, it would. It would be so magical that I imagine I’d find pixie dust in all of my socks for a year afterward.  I’d also like to try and spend some time in North Carolina; I here there’s some nice stuff out there.

I say all of this choosing to forget how homesick I know I will be in my adventures.

Here’s to whatever comes next.