It Seemed Simple Enough at The Start
God, if you are there, and if You can do better with my life than I can, then You can have me – I’m Yours.
That was my sinners prayer, standing under the arches at the Seattle Science Center after an evening of rehearsals with the All Northwest Band & Orchestra. The Album cover of our concert has the photo of the exact place I was standing when I give my life to God. It was not a “correct sinners prayer” but it was all that I, or God needed to start changing my life. Today, about four decades later, I’m so glad that I invited God into my life that way, rather then the traditional way. Not because there is anything wrong with the “right” way, but because the very beginning of my journey with God was birthed out of heart, not liturgy.
Liturgy is a pre-set method of doing something that comes from an experience or heart feelings that were once very real and valid. Once defined, it is then repeated and followed over and over for years – or even centuries by well intended people. It may always keep a close connection with those feelings and emotions, it may even bring them back to our hearts as it brings our actions and minds back to the same place again. But it can, more often than we might realize, replace the simple, spontaneous, un-prescribed heart level response of faith, gratefulness and love that is the true desire of our lives and of God’s will for us.
My path, from the beginning was one of “where is the heart” in the actions. It’s not suprising to me now, looking back, that this very instant of my beginning, echo’s through much of my thoughts, ministry and theology for the past 40 years.
It’s also at bit ironic that I gave my heart in what can only be described as a chapel to science, which sometimes is portended to be at odds with God and faith. In the sanctuary of godlessness, I found God. That’s so typical of how God works. Not that I am anti-science. I love science and all that is has revealed about the amazing creation around us. But to me, true science is not against God, it is the study of what and how God has wrought. Accurate and true science and theology would, once fully realized, be two views the the very same things: The mind of God and creation of that same Mind.
On this site, you’ll find a few of the things that have formed my life. My thinking about God, Love, Science and Life. I’ve used Caps because to me God is the Author of and in each of these things and more. He is Love. God is Science. Not that they are Him, but He dwells in and brings each alive.
My journey has not been one of trying to have been the best of all Christians. Or even to be the best Christian that I could be. It has been to be at least “good enough” of one to be recognizable by my Lord and perhaps a few others who know me.
It is much like when Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves Him:
“Peter, do you love (agape) me completely, unconditionally?” “Lord you know You are my like a brother to me (phileo),” he replies. Again, Jesus asks
“Peter, do you love (agape) me with all that you are?” “Lord, you know I really like a lot (phileo), you’re my best friend.” He replies. And a third time,
“Peter, do you even like (phileo) me?” Peter, almost as if in despair finally replies,
“Lord, you know everything, You know that I at least like (phileo) you!”
Some commentators think that Jesus asks Peter three times because He is refereeing to the three times that Peter denied Him. That is certainly possible, but it’s easy for us to find possible meaning in a passage and let it overshadow the plain, simple lesson that is right there slapping us in the face.
The big idea here is that Peter, after all the years of following and then finally believing that Jesus was actually the Christ, and Son of God and God on earth, found that when his faith, love, and even friendship was put to the test, he had failed miserably. This is the Rock that Jesus is going to build the Church on, and he is, by his own admission, barely even a friend of Christ!
Peter is confronted with his own shallowness of love and commitment to the one whom he claims to love, whom he truly and often desperately wants to love. He himself, when push comes to shove, that he doesn’t really love Jesus like he should, but that he does, at least, sort of “likes” Him! Jesus is asking if Peter loves him with agape love, with God’s unconditional, complete, un-wavering, love. Peter, in an intimate and raw moment of self evaluation and truth can only say “You are at least my friend… I think.”
You could say that Peter and I are alike, we are barely christian. I desire to love Christ with all that I am. I aspire, attempt, and set goals to be more like Him. I even might become a bit comfortable in my “Christian-ness” from time to time, but when push comes to shove, I often discover that, like Peter, I am just barely Christian. Perhaps you are too.
In the past 40-some years, I’ve learned that somethings just don’t matter that much (if at all!) and some things matter a lot. I don’t want to spend a lot of energy trying to succeed in my walk with Jesus in things that sound important but ring hollow. I want what little or great success I have to be in things that really count. So if you are interested in what those things are and are like minded in wanting your heart to be like Peters, willing but honest in our true state, then I invite you to join this journey.
I hope this will be a place where the Word of God is not a set of rules and laws that drive us and confine us, but are a window into our hearts and a way to escape the expected into freedom and real love for God, and those around us. I invite you to join me in trying to be close enough to the heart of God and His desire for us that we might at least be considered Barely Christian.
Serving Him with you,
Bruce S.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row top_margin=”0″ bottom_margin=”0″ css=”.vc_custom_1422893519029{margin-top: -40px !important;margin-bottom: 30px !important;}”][vc_column]