God is Alive! Brag about it!

I decided to start this blog after noticing how often negative energies surround me even when I am physically in a place where they should not be. Recently, bitterness and sour attitudes seemed to be coming out of what I expected to be positive sources of hope: other people of faith. I was sitting in a worship service the other day, listening to the speaker talk about how we are supposed to focus on God's promises. My ears pirked up in expectation of a positive and holy experience. The core of this sermon , however, was actually a spoiled feast of brokenness.

The preacher encouraged listeners to remember all we had experienced in the yesterdays of our lives and included a not-so-subtle critique of ministers who do not act, think, or believe as he does. The sermon was a "two-for-the-price-of-one" journey into that familiar sewer of sanctimony that pollutes our communities and our churches. We go to church seeking assurance and receive reminders of our fragilities. We run to those "specialized" (read gay or alternative or progressive or whatever) ministries only to be met with the same rhetoric warmed over and using criticism to convince us that "the other ones" are wrong while they - the voices of oppression - have the answers. Now, I am not a fan of fundamentalism or homophobic preachers, but I tend to believe that each of us holds a piece of "the truth".

No one church or ministry or individual is all wrong or all right all of the time. Why do we continue to give power to hatred by our consistent defensive posturing? We are alive and beautiful in the world today. Period. Why do we persist in defining who we are based on who we are not?  Far too often I go to church to celebrate God's presence in the world only to be met with self-pitying orations about what some other churches or pastors or individuals are saying about some part of my essential self or did in the past to bruise his or her essential self. Who really cares what they t - whoever "they" are - think or say especially when we remember we are heirs to the wonder of God!! Let it go!!

I left the service struggling within myself to hold onto some semblance of the positive attitude I had before I came to church, saddened to have had to work so hard to skim his stuff from the surface of my mind and heart as I drove home. After all, worship is for building community and celebrating God's presence in the world, isn't it? It is an occasion of reminding ourselves of what's really going on with God, i.e., life and joy, grace and liberation.

This blog, then, is my way of staying in touch with and sharing God's presence in my life in spite of institutional efforts to convince me otherwise, in spite of pastors who use pulpits to work out their own personal issues, especially when psychiatrists are so available these days.. You see, when it gets right down to it, God is what's really going on!

In Psalm 34:2, the psalmist tell us "My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and be glad". Today, I want to brag about how good God is in the world.

When I begin many days, my dog, Baxter, pulls me into an "attitude of gratitude" with his instinctive celebration of life. His first act of the day is to smile and pant in great expectation of whatever the day will bring. He stands up. He stretches. He goes outside and empties the toxines of the night from his bladder and he moves into his day. From that moment on, the day - every day - is filled with wonder and adventure.

I think God calls us to awaken each day with joy and wonder and expectation much like Baxter. Further, I believe, God expects us to brag about it, to testify to ourselves and to one another about the goodness of God and about our unending accessibility to gifts of power and prosperity.

Seattle is an interesting place. I haven't totally adjusted to the ways in which a scratchy, gray blanket engulfs the city much of the time. I have, however, come to understand that, more often than not, something stretches the seams of that covering to let glimpses of the sun beam forth. Some days more; some days less.

That's how God's love works. There are so many things that, connected together, mute and threaten our joy and our peace. People we love suffer incurable and painful illnesses. People we trust betray us when they learn our secrets. Parents and children disappoint us. Lovers and friends leave us. Debts pile up and there is no money to pay them. Jobs are hard to find and at times even harder to keep. And, the challenges of life continue to churn the sludge of human existence.Our willingness to intentionally wallow in this mire, however, is voluntary.

When we lift up our sorrows, we are essentially bragging about our brokenness. Haven't you ever wondered how some people choose to talk about misery all the time? Now, everyone has a little slip into vocal morbidity, but all the time!!?? It's just too much! Bragging about brokennes is an attention getting, manipulative action that is highly ineffective and, in extreme cases, quite repulsive.

Join me in calling for a theology of possibilities rather than one of brokenness. Happiness is possible. Love is possible. Joy is possible. The end of sorrow, of loneliness, of isolation,  and of rejection -  all of that - is possible. The choice is ours. When we lift up our victories, we are loudly and unashamedly boasting of the powerful, life giving, prosperous-making love of God. The choice is ours. For me, "My soul makes boast in the Lord". Now that's what's REALLY going on today!