Mac N Cheese

I think it is time to at least start talking about Macaroni and Cheese. God help me.

My son and I were talking about religion over Chinese buffet the other day. It all came down to Mac N Cheese.

Here is how we got there. We were talking about how the teaching, or at least the talking, at a church we were attending years ago saw those who had doctrinal differences as wrong, and us as right. I can't say there was ridicule, but we did laugh at them. I mean, how could they be so wrong, and still be so convinced that we were wrong?

The analogy occurred to me. I have been telling my boy all these years that he eats his macaroni and cheese wrong. Why?, you ask. No black pepper. Can you imagine? But then, he also eschews any hint of hot sauce on his eggs. So, on two of the most important matters of life, he is clearly in need of enlightenment.

As we talked on, it occurred to me that there are lots of variations on the macncheese theme. Loose, tight, creamy, dry, simple cheese, exotic cheese, true mac, spongebob shapes, .........

Common to all? Macaroni, and Cheese. And so with the Gospel. Macaroni and Cheese. If you like goat cheese on there, good for you. I am just glad to know you, 'cause you have both founding components.

You have seen the pasta instructions some places. They offer the cook the opportunity to add some oil to the water to help avoid sticking. Well that place we were back then had to have oil. The more oil the better. Personally, I liked the oil. Still do. But there were folks there that were drinking the oil, running their cars on the oil, bathing in the oil and using the oil as an enhancement to their relationships, but they had never tasted the McNCheese.

Anyway, I am just getting started with this thing. Shoot. May end up being a book.

Father, help me understand the part of this that I need to for your glory. I just know I spoke poorly of folks who ate the good stuff, but did not eat it like me. And especially the ones who just stared at it and never ate it.

Holy

Resting under the Blood, Holy Blood of Jesus. There is so much religion. And then there is the Blood. The simple fact of finding cleansing and perfection under the shed Blood of a Holy God.

It calls for faith. But that is all. I plead the blood. I proclaim that the entire body of Christ Jesus is under the Blood. There is only one thing for it. Rest. In the rest, in stopping every struggle and moment of striving, the supernatural power resident on earth by the unexplainable Blood of God who made Himself man, is transformation from death to life. Transformation from darkness to light. Transformation from the religious struggle for redemption and perfection by human ritual to the simplicity of trusting God when He said, "It is finished."

Father, thank you for freedom from religion. Thank you for your gift of spiritual life instead.

Convinced

I am convinced that the Holy Spirit is involved in this trip report. This life of faith is supposed to look, sound, smell and feel different. The Holy Ghost stirs people up, makes them see themselves in the light of holiness. If it was a human thing, a part any human religion, nothing would get stirred. There would always be a human path to compromise.

Jesus never is about compromise. He is about uncompromising holiness making a way for uncompromising wickedness to be completely forgiven. That is stirring stuff up. That is open warfare against all that opposes the will of God.

So if Christianity makes people uncomfortable, it is because it is supposed to.

Father, thank you that you are not an ordinary god.

Religion

I get to spend an hour tomorrow with a man born in South Asia who wears a turban. I guess that means he is Sikh. Maybe not. I will find out.

Thinking about the new opportunity to learn, I got to speculating on his religion, what little I know of it, and what parts of life may be forbidden or allowed by his religion, contrasted with the religions of others born in South Asia.

Which raised the same question of me.

What is forbidden in my life of faith? Over the years the tenets of religious life have been fairly easy to define, and have resulted in the proscription of many things. But that is not my life of faith.

In my life of faith, now I know that there is only one thing which I may not do.

I may not fail to love. No options. If I am loveless, I am not of this faith.

Will there be times in which I will act without love? Yes. And in those times I will not be living in faith. Fortunately, in those times I will still be the beloved of the Lord.

And THAT is all the difference. Oh, Happy Day! Thank You, Father. You ran to me and are still holding me.

Hurts

Aching is part of the Wilderness experience. It is possible to be totally at rest leaning completely on Christ, and ache at the same time. But then I know that the ache is not from any lack I have. It is from seeing some else's hurting.

The rod of Aaron was a long-dead piece of almond wood. There were two things that transformed it into the permanent symbol of God's choice of the Levites and Aaron as their leader. First was the truth that God made a way for the Levites to draw near him and intercede. The second is that, just like the Levites themselves, the rod was very near to God, and transformed by His presence. The result was a rod in the ark to remind Israel of these things. Yet even with this, even chosen Israel chose to avoid drawing near. Chosen Israel chose to avoid the intimacy that will not tolerate sin. It is the same opportunity as always: Choose to be close to God, burned clean and transformed for His Glory, or choose familiarity, distance, and self shaping, self regard.

Come into the light. Chase away the darkness. Be transformed into a new thing, a living thing made alive from a dead thing. A thing transformed for a holy and glorious purpose, far bigger than you can imagine or manage. God, help us to be dissatisfied with religion and a dead life.

Fall Back

It is so easy to switch to "human doing" from "human being." It is the default response. I am refusing today.

See, I should be able to fix my world, right? Wrong. What I can effect is the small stuff. The significant stuff I can not touch. That is really frustrating if my default is doing in response to recognizing a need.

I stepped out of my world this morning and went to a new place, and met some new people. And recognized an ache too big for me to touch. And now I ache for them. Which is what I was made for.

Now I get to crawl back up on my Fathers lap and tell him about what I saw, heard and felt. I am so grateful for my Fathers lap. Otherwise I would just ache, and have no place to go, no one to tell about them.

Their situation is no different than anyone else's. They need to find their way home to Dad, and to the rest that being home provides.

It hurts so bad to know that there is not enough of me, that I am not able to humanly demonstrate to them that there is rest. Pride is screaming because there is a need that I was built to recognize and not be able to do anything about. If I could effect it, it would not be worth effecting. This is the place to get to in learning to pray. Where the only thing I can do is admit my powerlessness and trust my Higher Power. To say, "Daddy, they hurt so much for lacking Your Rest. They scrabble and howl and reach in the rut. Please have mercy on them. Continue to show them your loving kindness. Continue to send your light into their darkness."

It is going to be so cool to see the whole picture. Thanks for making me part of it.

Humans

When I read about human events, when I watch people live in public, when I look at what humanity produces and displays with pride, the only answer I find is love. Everywhere I look in the world, I see where law was proposed, without dependable love.

What I am wondering about is how much the law without love, and a long Western history of law without love and with lots of non-love trappings, is getting in the way of Love.

And then I think, My God, what can get in the way of Love. Maybe I have been making the excuse that all of that stuff is there. Nothing can resist Love.

Father, forgive me for the times I have withheld Love because I thought Love would not prevail against religion. Help me to receive Love and give Love away.