Comments on: Getting Risky & Being Open

By: Grace Gambrell

Grace Gambrell — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 06:05:07 +0000

Matt, I agree. Sean this is so well-written; my soul agrees. That place of deep prayer, of brokenness for someone, of aching for his or her pain – this is communion w/ Jesus in His suffering. I often feel I have to have a way to explain this to someone. I also frequently feel I need to have some project to do something about it. While the Lord does often break our hearts to motivate us to act in a new way or in a way which is for the broken, I think He also wants us to simply feel His heart. And this place of prayer is His invitation to deep intimacy.

By: Matt Gambrell

Matt Gambrell — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 22:54:19 +0000

Sean,
That is beautiful. I am already at peace just thinking about this simple scripture with so few words but huge meaning. This bring a lot of clarity for me. I often worry and strive to let my ideas and thoughts be known…always yacking inwardly and outwardly. Again this is so beautiful…thanks for sharing this. It is very timely for me.

Matt

By: Sean

Sean — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:35:44 +0000

The Psalmist says “Be still and know that I am God.” (Ps. 46:10)
It is in the infinite silence that we can experience and find His infinite wisdom, infinite source of renewal, hope and goodness; but also we can tap into and feel the great sorrows and pains of God. In those moments when we transcend our finite notions rationale and intellect we tap into the ultimate source of goodness, Love, wisdom and our Original mind.
The silence is so profound, so penetrating that any demarcations or boundaries between you and another, me and God, me and the world fall away. You are directly touching the Original mind that is God, infinite, powerful and pervading everything. All notions of me and you disappear. Here in the silence we feel one with God, we sense His Love and we experience His suffering, His agony for all his children that He feels all the time. Even the worst of individuals have an Original mind connected to Him. Even the most hardened criminals are God’s children, who He loves infinitely and eternally.
Because of His love for us we can join in a moment of vastness, open horizons, infinite unity. Our hearts, by God’s love are able to feel the sorrow and suffering of the world. Because of this experience in prayer we fundamentally experience the unity of the world – that we are all God’s children. Our sense of the boundaries of our self are utterly changed – it is expanded to experience all of humanity and creation.
We can feel so deeply the pain of the mother who cradles that we actually become that mother. We also become the child dying in her arms. We are the fathers who kill other fathers in the name of righteousness. We are oppressed being sold into slavery and prostitution, we are the rich, the poor, the “free”, the oppressed; we are not separate from the world – we are part of humanity’s joys but unfortunately its ills as well.
Our heart becomes so vast in such moments of silence. We cannot even rationalize it during those moments of pure silence, but when we stir and emerge from that prayer our intellect is ignited and tries inadequately what has just been experienced. We try to describe the silence in terms of “this or that” but ultimately fall short of explaining its profundity. This being the case, however, we are changed.
We have experienced something utterly different from our normal mode of consciousness that we experience in our daily life. You know the one that says, “oh, he’s black, she’s white, he’s Spanish, he’s gay, she’s a liberal,” etc. But when we have a profound experience of prayer in the stillness and wisdom of profound silence all these labels stop, all these differentiations halt, we experience God’s heart that is within all.”

By: Lucas

Lucas — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 03:14:49 +0000

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Ok, I’m conservative (not-so-closeted), but I’ve seen more veiled pot-shots on this blog against conservatives than against liberals (which means that there are a lot of liberals that call Vineyard home). You go to church with a few people that are pro-life to the maximum, and on the other hand there are plenty of Obama08 stickers in the parking lot. You should be happy and amazed that this is the case. And, I consistently find blogs on the statesman that include staunchly non-partisan members of the Vineyard. I imagine there are churches where we can all have our political opinions echoed back to us. There is nothing wrong with experiencing people that are politically other than you. The point of the Vineyard stance on political speech is that Jesus is more important than politics. If people other than you come to this site and don’t like the politics, they may decide not to give Jesus that 30-day trial. All we are doing is taking one more excuse not to seek Jesus off the table. I disagree at times too, but on the other hand, I am willing to stop being a political junkie, when I enter that sanctuary.

By: katie

katie — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:25:38 +0000

mother theresa said :

“in this life we can do no great things, we can only do small things with great love.”

By: Marcus

Marcus — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 06:35:27 +0000

In some ways Christian life is frightening. Jesus tells us that “whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it”. We seek to “die” so that we may be born. The selfish self or ego that is always envious, greedy, selfish, hateful, calculating, grasping, jealous etc. perishes. It must die and our conscience and original mind within our hearts must become alive so that our true self that is one with God may be born.
But how in the world am I supposed to do this? It sounds great and I want to do it but how do I do it? It is impossible by my human effort alone. Even if I have absolute faith, align myself with God (as best as I know how) and ask Jesus to give me the strength to unite my mind and body to overcome my selfish ego and bring him into my life, my family and my community I still have to struggle my entire life, every day and even every moment.
Many people say we just have to ask Jesus into our lives; we are saved by faith alone. Yes by grace Jesus claims us as his adopted family. Yet James says “faith without works is dead” and I personally believe that I cannot ask Jesus to do everything for me; I don’t even want him to because I want to claim my own victory and find my own value. I feel I have to invest myself and make the determination to become a good man of integrity and transparency in the image of Christ, a Christ-like parent, spouse, brother and citizen not so that I can boast about how “realized” I am, but rather so that I can live for the sake of all people, and “be all things to all people”.
To do this I believe requires self evaluation and self honesty and that is hard for me. It is easy for me to hide behind arrogance and self deception. This “blog” conversation makes me brutally evaluate myself. Tri’s questions to us are making me consider my own sincerity – am I what I preach? How devoted am I to transcendent God rather than just myself and my own selfish heart? Am I treating others with respect and what am I doing to earn respect rather than demand it? Am I an agent of change, a solution to the problems or am I an obstruction, part of the problem with a selfish heart of complaint, resentment, fear, insecurity and lacking care or concern? Am I a comfort to Heavenly Father, consoling Him with my words and actions, wiping away His tears over this broken world or am I causing him more pain and grief?
This is very daunting and a constant, daily challenge. I find my self very lacking in many areas (and I have discovered a fear of exposing my heart on the internet) but I am a work in progress. I make mistakes but when I fall down I get up again. As Mother Teresa said (and I paraphrase) “We can’t all do great things, but we can all do small things well.”
To be an agent of change in the world I first have to fulfil my responsibility as a child of God to dominate my selfish desires, prejudices, resentments etc. with self control. The more I change the more I can become an agent of change. This is my determination.

By: katie.

katie. — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:30:00 +0000

I have no problem being transparent in my regular life; where I struggle being transparent these days is in church. When my heart is broken for things that do not line up with what “mainstream christianity” seems to value as moral issues. I know we are supposed to keep political conversation out of these blogs and even that is messing with my ability to relate inside my own church. Inside these walls, I am an overt christian, a covert democrat and a closeted liberal.

Is there room for me?

Somedays, talking with the right individuals I feel loved and accepted for who I am, for what I believe for the values of the Word that I hold dear – and other days, even with people I love deeply in this congregation, I feel as if I’m suddenly seen as “unsaved” when they find out about my leanings “politically”.

So, I think that talking about all of this stuff is great – but limiting the conversation to not be about politics, at all, is damaging – it continues to tell those of us that love the Lord with all our hearts, but disagree with certain political affiliations the American church has developed, that we are second-class citizens in the land of christianity.

By: Brenna

Brenna — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:38:56 +0000

Transparency has never been something that I have had problems with outside of the church – but inside those walls, or around those people, I clam up and try to keep conversations as superficial as possible.

Why? A part of it is because of my growing up in an extremely legalistic church, where sin was pretty hush-hush. It was especially hush-hush for pastors and their families. And guess what? I was a pastor’s kid. I was old enough to have that mentality of hush-hush sin branded into my head before we left, though thankfully that is the only thing that stuck.

I think another reason why it’s difficult for me to be transparent around church people is the secular world’s stereotype of a judgmental Christian. That is, I know there are some people who support that stereotype (or else it wouldn’t exist), and I’m always nervous of finding out that one of the church people I’ve been talking to is one of them.

Another factor is a chance conversation I had with someone when I was about 15. He had been talking to me about how great it was that my family is so involved in the church, and how awesome it is that my dad knows Greek and Hebrew and so on and so forth, and then he dropped the comment, “If you can’t be a good Christian, no one can.” I know he meant well, but that little bombshell has put a ton of pressure on me. If I am transparent about my faults and reveal that I’m not a ‘good’ Christian, how many people will lose hope? I know that’s right from Satan with the only purpose being to hinder me, but it still halts me in my tracks all the same.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:36:25 +0000

My level of transparency is often scaled to my level of trust I have for confidentiality with the ones I am attempting to be open and honest with. It has been said that trust must be earned, and so transparency does not come right away with new people for me. I am most transparent with those I know will keep my confidence. Working in the legal arena I liken this to the attorney client privilege. Too often I have seen people open up about deeply personal struggles in their Christian walk only to be ostracized through gossip and disapproval by the very ones they needed compassion from.
I often find it easier to be open and honest with those outside of the Church because they tend to be less judgmental and can more easily identify with individuals who struggle to overcome flaws in character or conduct.
I find my willingness to be open and vulnerable with non-Christians is my easiest way to gain the right to share with them my need for a Savior and Redeemer, and be able to help them see that God can and will meet them where they are at right now if they will be humble enough to ask Him to

By: Josh Mason

Josh Mason — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:22:03 +0000

Transparency is a very difficult concept for me to completely comprehend. I think of a transparent object and understand that I should be able to see through it to what lies on the other side. It seems simple, but I see the definition, or concept, of transparency in an authentic Christian’s life as the removal of all barriers in my life – first so I can see God’s will for my life and secondly so I can allow others to see past all the junk/baggage/sinful tendencies in me to the light that is Jesus. I am striving to get to that point but true transparency is not as easy as it sounds. Unearthing the skeletons that lie deep down for others to see is a threat to my ego and pride. I guess that is what I really have to let go to be an authentic, transparent Christian disciple. Help me Lord!!