So the deal with Santa Claus is that he can see you. He sees when you are sleeping and when you are awake, he knows when you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.
So Santa is watching all the time, taking notes on the good things and especially the bad things that you have done so he can decide whether or not to reward you with a present on Christmas. This is all fine and well if you are a parent trying anything you can to keep your young one in line. But what happens when we grow into adulthood and these ideas linger in the recesses of our minds?
Just this summer I overheard one of my teenagers here at the YMCA say, "religion is just something that people make up to scare you into acting right."
I have to admit, I've pondered the idea of an all knowing, all seeing God and walked away with uneasiness in my gut. Usually, because I know that I have plenty that I'd rather keep hidden than bring out into the light for anyone to see.
However I've recently come across a quote by A.W. Tozer that sheds light on how God's ever present eye works in our favor, not against us.
"How unutterably sweet is the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows us completely. No talebearer can inform on us; no enemy can make an accusation stick; no forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet to abash us and expose our past; no unsuspected weakness in our characters can come to light to turn God away from us, since He knew us utterably before we knew Him and called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us."
As the Bible states, There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. -1 John 4:18-19
More Messy Spirituality
part 2
"I want to lurch forward to Jesus, where the unwelcome receive welcome and the unqualified get qualified.I want to hear Jesus tell me I can dance when everyone else says I can't. I want to hear Jesus walk over and whisper to this handicapped, messy Christian, "Do you want to dance?" " - M. Yaconelli
Supporting Quotes:
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you." - Nelson Mandela
"No punishment anyone might inflict on them could possibly be worse than the punishment they inflict on themselves by conspiring in their own diminishment." -Parker Palmer Let Your Life Speak
"I want to lurch forward to Jesus, where the unwelcome receive welcome and the unqualified get qualified.I want to hear Jesus tell me I can dance when everyone else says I can't. I want to hear Jesus walk over and whisper to this handicapped, messy Christian, "Do you want to dance?" " - M. Yaconelli
Supporting Quotes:
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you." - Nelson Mandela
"No punishment anyone might inflict on them could possibly be worse than the punishment they inflict on themselves by conspiring in their own diminishment." -Parker Palmer Let Your Life Speak
Messy Spirituality by Michael Yaconelli
So Ive figured out what I am going to do with this thread. Instead of my own musings, I am going to pass off some of my favorite passages from the books that I'm reading. Ive been reading like crazy lately and I'm coming across some really good stuff. Currently I'm reading Messy Spirituality.
"What landed Jesus on the cross was the preposterous idea that common, ordinary, broken, screwed up people could be godly. What drove Jesus' enemies crazy were his criticisms of the "perfect" religious people and his acceptance of the imperfect nonreligious people. The shocking implication of Jesus' ministry is that anyone can be spiritual.
Scandalous? maybe.
Maybe truth is scandalous. Maybe the scandal is that all of us are in some condition of not-togetherness, even those of us who are trying to be godly. Maybe we're all a mess, not only sinful messy but inconsistent messy, up-and-down messy, in-and-out messy, now-I-believe-now-I-don't-believe messy, I-get-it-now-I-don't-get-it messy, I-understand-uh-now-I-don't-understand messy...
...Accepting the reality of our broken flawed lives is the beginning of spirituality not because the spiritual life will remove our flaws but because we let go of seeking perfection and, instead, seek God, the one who is present in the tangeldness of our lives. Spirituality is not about being fixed; it is about God's being present in the mess of our unfixedness."
"What landed Jesus on the cross was the preposterous idea that common, ordinary, broken, screwed up people could be godly. What drove Jesus' enemies crazy were his criticisms of the "perfect" religious people and his acceptance of the imperfect nonreligious people. The shocking implication of Jesus' ministry is that anyone can be spiritual.
Scandalous? maybe.
Maybe truth is scandalous. Maybe the scandal is that all of us are in some condition of not-togetherness, even those of us who are trying to be godly. Maybe we're all a mess, not only sinful messy but inconsistent messy, up-and-down messy, in-and-out messy, now-I-believe-now-I-don't-believe messy, I-get-it-now-I-don't-get-it messy, I-understand-uh-now-I-don't-understand messy...
...Accepting the reality of our broken flawed lives is the beginning of spirituality not because the spiritual life will remove our flaws but because we let go of seeking perfection and, instead, seek God, the one who is present in the tangeldness of our lives. Spirituality is not about being fixed; it is about God's being present in the mess of our unfixedness."
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