Archive of "Confessions" Category
“All is Grace”, Brennan Manning’s Memoir
“Vulgar Grace” is a phrase used by Brennan Manning from his new book “All Is Grace”. This phrase describes the journey of one man’s desire to be like by many, and yet loved by God. His upbringing formed part of his identity as a Catholic Child, raised by a struggling mother. He missed her funeral in a lowest point of his life, later to find himself loved by her in a vision near the end of this story. The journey written down for all to read is a true gift to the human soul. The desire of many to be loved by God, or their mother for that matter, just as they are, not as they ought to be… “It’s ok, not to be ok,” is a revelation gifted to Brennan from a Little Brother, on his journey of living a story of vulgar grace. During his time with the Little Brother’s he said, “one thing I learned from many of the burning theological issues in the church were neither burning nor theological,” Pg 101.
The ability for the Christian community to read this book and find themselves in the story provides a possibility of transformation not unlike the gospel. It is in the story we find hope, not in a perfect life lived. There is no great stage to attain or success to measure up to by the end of the book. These are idols in the mirror of a man broken by his own addiction and humanity. There is no idol greater than the ideal self projected onto others. This story allows the reader to find his/her own shadow and be visited by Christ great love. Christianity has the power to reconcile one to another, when one of the great hero’s tells a story that opens up broken spaces in our humanity. Providing room for the love of God to illuminate our own limited expectations and understandings of God.
As I read “All is Grace” I found myself crying, laughing and hoping again in the Christian identity to go beyond our constructs of truth, function and form. We are created beings, shaped in the image of God. Our great joy is the participation in the story of reconciliation. When this story becomes true we can live loud the good news in the midst of our brokenness and humanity. He answers the great questions of why fall back into addiction and brokenness after your encounters with “Abba’s love”? with his final statement, “these things happen”. This book is a journey not an answer. And like many great memoirs it captures the vary nature of the human story. It is with great anticipation I recommend this book for all those who want to encounter the love of Christ through the story of a broken and loved man.
09 is a good time to grow
I like the end of a year and the beginning of another.
I have some resolutions, but they never seem to matter, goals do…
The small steps toward wholeness, the completion of a task and the shaping of another.
Lately, I have been witness to hard times in relationships and I think that there is a depth to the human experience often forgotten.
Life does not get easier. Each day, each passing moment is a reminder of what’s to come…
Even the most fabulous lives in the world are not what they seem, we all create a reality outside of ourselves and look in on others to find who we really are. Even when we look at God or look for God, we can only understand that reality in part.
What is wild to me, is even after all the pain, and the pain to come, I still believe…
Because I want to, because there is something in my mind and in my experience that says God is love and he is best understood from my vantage point of Jesus.
I still like the church, in fact, I have been looking for a church for over a month now. What I am coming to believe is that I am all ready apart of a church and I am looking for validation of my identity in God/Christ/the church.
What I am finding is that I can not go back, I have come to far and scene to much to go back, but I can move forward, one small step at a time, into the great unknown.
When other people seem to have more fun
Lately I have been morning my inability of having fun.
Then I realized fun is a choice I am not making in my day to day decisions.
I have become obsessed by the work I long to complete that is un completable on a large scale.
There are things that are fun for me, i am now doing.
Cooking being one of them.
My goal is to find ways to eat more food that is a live than processed. I would like create meals based around that theme and see how my body reacts. How weird that this is fun for me.
Watching American Idol has been fun for me lately.
I love it when a singer gets it right, they pick the right song and connect with the harmonies and melodies of the moment. This is embaressing how fun this is for me.
I like walking my dog in the morninig. I try to run but I get to tired quickly. It would be fun to be in good shape again.
I like reading a chapter in a book and pondering the ideas presented. I have fun thinking about the possibility that God is involved in every little detail of living.
i would like to pay more attention to my body, my breathing my eating. I want to think of my self, more than my thoughts or my emotions. How is that possible and why do I long to be more than my thinking, and doing?
There is so much depth to living that I have only tasted in part and I want to swallow it whole.
Wanting the Best for People
I had a conversation with one of the people on our Sales Team.
This is an amazing person with a heart to serve others. He is caught in a place I have found myself in several times. A place where hard work is just not enough of a motivation to do everything in there power to succeed.
I know he wants to do what is right and I believe he will.
This is how I know I want what is best for people.
When I surrender the right to tell them, when i believe in more than my own instinct.
I would like to be like this more often…
How about you?
What is a Preacher
A preacher is one who communicates the gospel to people.
I have often found it hard to view the pastor as the soul preacher, even more now than before. Today we have all sorts of preaching but very little gospel revelation.
I have scene the gospel and I have experienced the Kingdom in the most unlikely of places. The parts of the Gospels that inspire me are the part where the impossible is realized or the wrong is made right. IE, sitting with sinners, healing the sick or talking to woman.
There are parts of the Gospels so human they often go un noticed by most evangelicals, parts that reveal the very nature of man and the very possibility of God.
Tomorrow night I will share the story of One Village Coffee to over 100 employees of a Whole Foods Market in my community. This is an opportunity I am grateful for. From the perspective of the listener, I am just another voice in the market of wholesaling goods through their venue. From my perspective I am a man apart of a emerging organization designed around organic principles of growth. Care for the customer and contribution to greater society, the enabling of the poor to sustain a society longing for growth and change.
I am a simple person full of dreams for more than I can create, the possibility that God is involved in Creation and wants all of us to be involved together. Tomorrow night will be a moment like that, and my only hope is that I will be aware enough to see the Gospel. The place were the Good News of God So loved the World… The space and time where The Creator steps in and Create His image, divulging the secret of the Universe…
There is a God and that God is love, and in Him there is no darkness at all…
Wont you pray with me…
