08 April 2004

Seeing the grace of God in new places... (and a few film recommendations) When I discovered grace, the world looked different. It was as if I was looking at everything through different glasses, and I started to see evidence of the grace of God everywhere. In particular, I saw traces of the grace of God in films. I love films. I especially love films about vulnerable people who find grace, reconciliation and redemption. Let me recommend just a few movies of recent years that have stuck in my mind as wonderful parables of grace. As Good As It Gets (1997). Stars Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt and Greg Kinnear. A tale about three very different people who look at each other long enough to begin to see their common humanity. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). Stars Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson and Ben Stiller. Gene Hackman proves that grace can even come to an old schmuck like him. Wes Anderson also directed Rushmore (1998) in a similar vein. These movies, for me, just ooze forgiveness and grace. Moulin Rouge (2000). Stars Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman. I know a lot of Christians were offended by this, but the underworld of the Moulin Rouge strikes me as just the kind of world Jesus inhabited -- a world populated by sinners, down-and-outs, the rejects of society. Confronted with truth and love, they come to realize they don't have to be trampled on, and they take their destiny in their own hands, refusing to let fate simply run its course. Looks and sounds fantastic, too. I'll share some more from time to time. Dave 3:09:08 PM    comment [] When "secular" was a four-letter word Sometimes Christians are afraid to be human. We draw up an artificial divide, and call one side "secular," and the other side, "spiritual". Then we somehow get it into our heads that the more time we spend doing the "spiritual" things, the more acceptable we'll be. Going out for a drink, hanging out, watching a film -- they're all tolerable, but if we were really, truly spiritual, we'd be spending less time doing those things, and more time locked in our prayer closets or attending church meetings. So the perception goes. Frankly, that's a bunch of crock I used to feel so guilty if I got more of a kick out of something "secular" than out of the things I thought I should be enjoying. Really, I was supposed to enjoy getting out of bed at 6am to go hear the pastor moan ecstatically in tongues for ten minutes as a prelude to the early morning prayer meeting. That was "sacrificial," you see. (More like masochistic, but never mind.) One day the blinkers fell off. When all those traditions began to crumble, I suddenly started seeing all the things I enjoyed through the lens of grace. Watching a film was no longer a merely tolerable pastime that would better be replaced by an hour and a half of deep Bible study: It was appreciating someone else's creative effort, a creative effort that only ever came about because they were created in the glorious image of a creator-God. I stopped rolling my eyes at moms who skipped church to attend their children's hockey game, because they were doing something worthwhile for their kids and their community, and who the hell invented this eleventh commandment about having to be at church at 10:30am every Sunday, anyway? Did you ever think of it as an insult to God when you refuse to enjoy life? He's the one that made us sexual, emotional, creative, fun-loving. And yet for some oddball reason, those are the very sides of us we try and suppress because we've bought into this idea that we have to be religious all the time. Ironically, in our efforts to please God, we end up shutting him off from big parts of our lives. When I was a young Christian, "secular" was a dirty word. Perhaps both "secular" and "spiritual" are the dirty words, betraying a mindset that robs us of enjoying life, sending us soaring off on guilt trips because we aren't doing things Christians should be doing. I repeat: A bunch of crock. Paul says, "Whatever you do, whether in word or in deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Whatever you do. Dave 11:46:55 AM    comment [] To my fellow pilgrims Greetings, fellow pilgrims. A few years ago, I was a zealous born-again Christian, an uncompromising young seminarian on my way to becoming a Pentecostal preacher. I knew who was going to heaven, and who just wasn't going to make the grade. Then, for some reason or other, it all began to fall apart. The ice on my charismatic cake began to melt. Alarm bells were going off in my head, and I couldn't ignore them. I started asking questions, and getting answers that didn't quite fit in with the things my pastor had told me. Gradually I became suspicious of the world I had found myself in, a world where to progress I had to chase one spiritual experience after another. I became an associate pastor in a Pentecostal church, but the doubts kept coming. Pretty soon, it wasn't just the charismatic things I lost faith in. It was all the trappings of conservative Christianity. The Bible wasn't really as black-and-white as I'd been led to believe. Come to that, nor was life itself. I was beginning to feel like an outsider, an alien. Eventually, I found myself on the outside of evangelical Christianity altogether. One thing has remained constant, though. Throughout all this, I never lost faith in Jesus. Lots of things changed. The entire universe I inhabited seemed to change around me, but God remained faithful. I've been on a pilgrimage, one that has at times been scary and painful. Ultimately, it has been freeing, and here I am still journeying, and inviting you to come along on the journey with me. Come visit this site from time to time if you want some company on the road, or if you want to stop and have a rest in God's grace for a while. It's grace I've really discovered over these past couple of years. The Christian life was to me, for a long time, a matter of ascending to God, getting my "spiritual walk" right and moving on to higher heights, getting nearer and nearer God's glory -- all the while forgetting that God already came to me in Jesus. A lot of you have been on similar journeys. Perhaps you're only now embarking on the journey. Maybe you really don't know where you are on the road. The way I see it, there's only one place we ever were: Held tight in the bosom of the Father, reconciled to him in Jesus Christ. Or, if that sounds too theological for you, let me put it more simply: You are accepted. You're accepted. Dave 12:09:20 AM    comment []

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