When did we start missing the point?

I don't blog too often on religion but I think this is a post that everyone, regardless of religious origin can relate to.

I am a Christian...I often cringe when I say that, not because that word relates me with Jesus, but because it relates me with other Christians. I love Jesus, I believe that His teachings and messages are revolutionary and life changing. Yet I can't help but wonder what has happened to Christianity? Why is it that when you read of Jesus in the bible and then you look at the church today they are almost unrecognizable? This is a generalization of course, I know many people who live lives that are amazing examples of the love and grace that Jesus showed people. However, I am sad to say, they are in the minority.

In High School I was a big fan of the grunge / rock band Nirvana. Their music sang my pain and the pain of a generation. When their lead singer, Kurt Cobain, committed suicide it was big news. However, he had a quote that has always stayed with me.

"I am tired of hearing about christianity, just once I wish I could have seen it"

Wow. Here is a guy who, at the time, was the most famous rock star in the world. A guy who's concerts drew thousands upon thousands of people, yet in his most vulnerable moments he expresses, what I believe to be, the sentiment of most people.

The issue isn't that people haven't heard about christianity, it's that they haven't seen it. How sad.

How sad that what people too often see about christianity is picketers outside of abortion clinics, the protesting of gay people, people trying to push through "christian" legislation, people condemning anyone who lives a life not up to "our" standards, people looking down on unwed teenage mothers and the list could go on and on and on.

Missions trips, church work days, volunteer projects and other activities are good, but they are not nearly enough. These type of activities should be what defines us, not what we do monthly or once in a while.

I often think that if Jesus was here today a church is the one place He would not be found, rather he would be with the people that we protest and picket.

Jesus was a rebel. His words and actions offended the religious people of his day. He was harsh to the religious and loving to the un-churched. He spoke out against pastors who spoke empty words and loved the "sinners" who flocked to Him. I think we forget this about Jesus. We have turned him into something He is not. If we are religious, we need to be on guard that we do not become like the religious that Jesus spoke out against.

How did this happen? How is it that Jesus said the most important thing is to Love God and Love Others, yet we show so little love to the "others" that Jesus talks about? Christians are very good at loving and supporting other christians, it the the rest of the people that we struggle with. How many gay people would say that they feel loved by christians? How many ACLU members would say that they feel loved by christians? How many single mothers struggling to make ends meet would say that they feel loved by christians? How many muslims would say that they feel loved by christians?

In 1874 Henry Drummond wrote the following statement in his book "The Greatest Thing in the World"

"For the withholding of love is the negation of the spirit of Christ, the proof that we never knew Him, that for us He lived in vain. It means that He suggested nothing in all our thoughts, that He inspired nothing in all our lives, that we were not once near enough to Him to be seized with the spell of His compassion for the world."

My hope is this: I hope that the christian church stops following christianity and starts following Jesus, because I believe that those two things are vastly different. I hope that we show people Jesus more than we tell them about Him. The Bible says that it is the Kindness of God that draws people to Him. Let us reflect that same kindness. Let us love the un-lovable as Jesus did. Let us stop trying to legislate people to change. Let us stop being so damn religious. Let us stop creating lists of "can do and can't do". Let us stop being legalistic.

The message of Jesus is freedom, it gives hope to the hopeless and grace to those who need it, let our lives be no different.

This is the journey that Sherri and I are on. This is what we are trying to become, more Jesus and less Christian.

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If this is a topic that interests you I would recommend the following resources:

"They Like Jesus but Not the Church" - author: Dan Kimball
"The Jesus of Suburbia" - author: Mike Erre (this could be the best book I have ever read)
"Jesus Wants to Save Christians" - author: Rob Bell (hands down my favorite Rob Bell book)
"Blue Like Jazz" - author: Donald Miller

Also, please feel free to post comments on this topic. Do you agree? do you disagree? Am I a heretic? Lets discuss...lovingly.

Weekend Recap

This was a GREAT weekend full of EVEN MORE sunshine!

On Friday night we went and saw Angels & Demons, we are both big Dan Brown fans so we have been looking forward to the movie for a long time. The move was really good but did stray from the book quite a bit. After the movie we went downtown to Subzero Micro Lounge for dinner and a few drinks with friends.

On Saturday we went to some garage sales, bought 3 hanging flower baskets for the house, went to church and then got together with about 15 friends for a BBQ at Jason and Jana's house! The BBQ was SO much fun! We had a ton of food (steaks, pork chops, kabobs, burgers and moose steaks) and played ladderjacks (one of our favorite summer games) and we ended up staying at Jason and Jana's till about 2:30am talking with friends.

On Sunday we slept in and then drove to Girdwood for lunch and then continued on to the Portage Valley for an afternoon hike. We ended up hiking the "Trail of Blue Ice" which is a hiking trail that goes along a creek at the base of mountains that are covered in glaciers. It was awesome to get outside and get a nice hike in on such a great day! We even crossed the river and found a great secluded sand bar where we had amazing views in such a peaceful setting! Once we got back home after the hike we planted some Alaskan Wildflower seeds around our house so hopefully we will have a great mix of wildflowers in a few weeks!!

Our streak of AMAZING weather is supposed to continue so I am sure we will be outside as much as possible this coming week.

Here are a few pictures from our hike today.

The creek we hiked next to. Yes, it was VERY cold.

The mountains from our trip

Us on the hike

10pm Sky

Here are a couple of photos showing the sky outside at 10PM with the sun still shining!
And we are still over a month away from the longest days of the year!


View off of our upstairs balcony looking east


View off of our upstairs balcony looking south over Campbell Lake

Sunshine, Flowers and Picnics

So our streak of amazing weather continues and we took full advantage of it today! We had a picnic at a park near a fountain, laid in the sun for about an hour and then went and got some flowers to plant outside. We planted Calla Lilies, Shasta Daisies and Geraniums.

Our high temps have been in the mid to upper 60's. Today's high has been 68, and we have had a few days in the low 70's, which for me is about perfect! The daylight is getting longer with 17 hours and 15 minutes of daylight today!!

Wahoo!

The view from the deck today.


Calla Lilies that we planted today! These were the flowers we had at our wedding!


Our first picnic lunch of the year! Sliced french bread, swiss cheese, lettuce, deli mustard, Sherri had sun dried tomato & herb turkey breast and I had turkey ham.


The fountain at the park where we had our picnic.

The Lion King

We had previously posted that it was announced that the Broadway musical, The Lion King was coming to Anchorage and that we planned on going. Well, tickets went on sale and we got ours!! We got 2nd row tickets for one of the Saturday night shows! We are going with some great friends and we plan on making a great evening out of it with dinner downtown before the show and probably drink afterwards!

One of the best things about Anchorage is that we have a very vibrant arts and culture scene. There are a ton of shows and galleries and performances that come here because of that. However, having The Lion King come here is probably the biggest arts event we have had. They are doing a 6 week run in Anchorage with a total of 53 shows! They are expecting over 80,000 people to see it while it is here, pretty amazing for a city that has about 300,000 people and a state that has under 700,000 people! Next year, apart from The Lion King, we are also getting the national Broadway tours of Chicago and The Wizard of Oz, so we will certainly go see those as well.

We can't wait to see The Lion King and, come September, when we see it, we will certainly post a review! However, I think I can say, it is going to be AMAZING!

Here is a link to the Anchorage Concert Associations webpage, they are the largest arts organization in the state and they bring up a lot of shows throughout the year (www.anchorageconcerts.org)

What a Spring!!!

Hi Everyone!!!

What a GREAT Spring this has been! We have enjoyed almost 2 weeks of non-stop sunshine with temps into the 70's on a couple days! I think we have already had more sunny days this year than we did in all of 2008!

We have been outside taking advantage of the sunshine as often as possible. We have been going on walks in the evenings, we have done a bunch of work in our back yard / garden / flower area, we spent Sunday at a local lake sitting by the water with our books and we have been grilling dinners outside as often as possible!! The grass is starting to green up and the trees are beginning to sprout new leaves and there is just a great feeling of "summer" everywhere!

We even have stuff growing in the garden! Our chives are probably 3 inches tall already and our irises are coming up!! We will probably plant the rest of our flowers and veggies in the next couple of weeks.

We are certainly noticing the longer summer days, today the sun rose at 5:40am and it will set tonight at 10:15pm, so with over 16 hours of daylight your body always wants to be outside doing stuff!!

Here is a picture of the lake we spent Sunday at