Have you turned water into wine lately?

I’ve been desperately desiring the Truth lately, but I haven’t been feeling like a sponge. More like a wall in which everything I learn bounces off. All these hours in a car for work has spurred me to continue digging in and I’ve been listening to sermons again. The past two days, I’ve listened to Rob Bell and his sermon, Wine and Heaven.

Rob has been my wild card in the midst of all the podcasts I listen to — primarily Matt Chandler from Highland Village’s The Village Church and Mark Driscoll from Seattle’s Mars Hill Church (not to be confused with Bell’s Mars Hill Bible Church in Michigan). There’s quite a few criticisms about him and how he tends to emphasize experience over Scriptures, but when I listen to him and read his books, his love for the Jewish culture and the Hebrew language makes it hard for me to believe all he says is junk. His teachings encourage me to learn more about culture during the times Scripture was written, to fully understand why the writers wrote the words they did.

Anyway, Wine and Heaven was a fairly long sermon for Bell and it was fairly scattered (although I was scattered making sure I didn’t get lost in Dallas during work). Towards the end, Bell hit a home run when it pointed out something in the Gospel of John… Read more »

Flocking.

My apologies if you were waiting on my recap of The Sounds concert or maybe if you were hoping to see more 365 posts. I’ve made my life a little busier, most likely on purpose, and not yet sure if it’s a good thing or not. I am in the process of creating a mini recording studio in my dining room which I’ll probably post about later. Since I haven’t gotten my mics in but bought my keyboard, I’ve been making mad beats. Well, maybe more like quasi-mad.

I’ve noticed I’m heavily influenced by who I’m around. Okay. So I’ve noticed that everyone is heavily influenced by who they are around. And right now, I’m not so sure that’s a good thing. I know it’s created to be a good thing, but at this point in my life, it kinda really isn’t. Bad people affecting not-so-bad people affecting semi-good people, etc. That’s how I kind of see the chain. And by bad people, I mean people with bad habits and lifestyles, you know?

So I was trying to figure out how I got between this rock and this hard place and I thought, “birds of a feather flock together.” And I thought, “But I don’t have some of these crazy feathers.” But a long time ago, I did have a lot more in common with these people than it feels like now. And I end up putting up a front, trying to fit into this new mold. Truth is, I can’t fit in this mold. I wasn’t made to fit in molds. I was made to be “set apart.” Then this Scripture popped into my head:

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” //John 15:18-19

Oh, there’s more and it’s good. Convictingly good.

I’ll admit it. At the moment, I’m very much in love with the world, but this relationship is extremely flawed. I will never be good enough for the world and it will never be good enough for me. We will never satisfy each other. So, of course, this relationship makes no sense, right? It makes no sense compared to the relationship I have had with God the Father, who created me. And to Him, I cannot be flawed since He is flawless, correct? White as snow, yeah? Where He can fulfill every single desire I have and I can fulfill His desires by simply loving Him. Sounds a bit easier. Oh, I’ll make it harder, no doubt, but why do I always shy away?

It’s my “need” to be “cool,” that’s what. I read an article by Tara Leigh Cobble (amazing songwriter, hilarious in concert) about her mad obsession with shoes. She packs an extra suitcase when she tours just for her shoes. She even bought a special pair because she knew this dude she liked was going to be at her show and she wanted that extra point of attraction. But then Tara came to the realization that shoes won’t make people love her. That’s what I’ve been doing. That’s what everyone has been doing. Trying to find the right pair of shoes to make certain people love them, if you will.

But in the grand scheme of things, shallow attractions will attract shallow relationships. And I don’t want to waste my time with those. Doesn’t mean I want to toss all of those relationships in the trash. Maybe it means I want a deeper relationship with people. And how do I dig deeper? By tossing the “shoes” and striving to just be me. To just accept who I am and also to accept the fact that I am God’s child and so is everyone else.

It’s late, but I’m sure I’ll keep on talking about this later.