New Year's Revolution

As we come into a new year, I like most, are thinking about my goals for the next year. However, I want to make goals that aren't so much 'new' as they are a return to doing things right that may have been overlooked in the past. Things like running. Concepts like reading more of the Bible, and letting the Bible read through me. Giving more. Things like that.
One of my goals is to continue to write. I was inspired by Mark Batterson in his latest prose, Primal, where he shares about "taking every thought captive" and what that means to him. He explains how it does capture the idea that historically we would hold: namely, that we are to take any sinful thought and put it in the pokey, and not dwell on it. But with a sense of revelation, Batterson also shares that for him, this verse has come to mean something in the realm of creativity. When a 'God-thought' comes, we must capture it.

"But whenever or however a God idea is conceived in your mind, you need to take it captive and make it obedient to Christ. God ideas are like melting snowflakes. They are delicate things of beauty, but they have short shelf lives." (Primal, pg. 119)

One God thought that I am capturing here in this blog is an idea that I hope takes hold in all of church culture. I want to coin a term for our culture: "Our Rugged American Anti-Individualism. " There. Now, you may have heard of the phrase "rugged American individualism", and this concept is in large part a foundational value of our country. It had value in breaking free from the tyranny of England, and their heavy handed rule. Perhaps this self-reliance has become the undoing of us now.
God lives, exists in community himself. Jesus lived with 12 men, and did not afford himself the luxury of a private room in the cities he visited. Jesus' prayer was that we would be one; one unit, not a group of a bunch of individual "ones". The early church as seen in Acts was very communal, very tied to one another. We must return to this understanding, and we must begin to apply ourselves to the truth contained in this. To do Christianity alone isn't optional, it's forbidden. God made us to depend on one another.
I realize that there may be some great hurts in our lives from being so dependent on others, and being so vulnerable to people, but this is the Jesus way. Even in the Garden, God sees that it isn't good for man to be alone. In the church, we must develop a deep sense of dependency on one another. It must become culture to us. It must become a strong, visible, tangible part of our faith, and it must be rugged, unable to be sifted out of the fabric of our lives. We must value our rugged American anit-individualism as a counter-cultural prophetic lifestyle.
So for my new year's resolution, I determine to capture God thoughts, to live them out, and to do so in the context of deep immersion in the community of God, the Church.

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Mark Batterson's new book, Primal, is outstanding.

As most college kids, I was very into music and found great meaning and solace in it. During one descriptive conversation with a fellow student regarding the power of music and why it held such sway on our young souls, I found myself in an epiphany regarding the source of such force: "Music has the ability to put words which are tangible entities, around a feeling, which is in-tangible. Music puts flesh on the soul of a thought or feeling, that otherwise can't be expressed". Then I ate my $.59 bean burritto from Taco Bell.
Primal has had the same effect on me. It has managed to gather some of the thoughts, feelings, musings, and prayers I have emoted toward the church and christianity at large and put them into a tangible, logical, inspiring format.

"When all of the rules and regulations, all of the traditions and institutions, all of the liturgies and methodologies are peeled back, what's left is the Great Commandment It is Christianity in its most primal form." (pg 5) Agreed.

One of the concerns that I see in friends, and in congregants, is the lack of a LOVE of God in their lives that translates to willing obedience. Many of them have a belief in God, and a reverence for him, but they have lost the soul of their faith: a primal love for the person of God. Primal addresses that in four sections. These four sections are straight from the response Jesus gives to the lawyer-Pharisee, who was trying to test Jesus, recorded in Matthew 22. Jesus tells him, and all of human history that the greatest commandment is to LOVE the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And thus, an outline for a book's take on that passage.

Batterson is easy to read, and has poignant stories, quotes and illustrations that are effectively concise. It's only 174 pages long, which show discipline, as Batterson could have elaborated in many places. He hits strong with a call back to the place of faith that is filled with wonderment: "In fact, it's our capacity for wonder that determines the size of our soul." (pg 57) He starts with the heart, and then moves to the soul, followed with how we can love God with all our mind, and ends with our strength. His call involves many well known biblical disciplines, but they find great life and freshness, if you will, when placed in the context of a love-passion relationship to Jesus, as is the point of this book. For instance, a whole chapter on giving and tithing? Chapter 3 no less? And you feel as though he is right, that you should give more, and consequently love Him more. Wonderful treatment of such primal, essential issues of our grand Faith in Christ.
If you received a Barnes & Noble or Amazon gift card for Christmas, this should be a first choice for you to read in 2010.

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