I watched Rob Bell's Everything is Spiritual video a couple of nights ago. It was helpful to me, so tonight I searched for more of his stuff, and just finished watching the nooma Rich video, here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1744463994542090095#
Here's some quotes
...that we're saved by the grace of God by faith in Christ in order to do good deeds... In this way, they lay up treasures for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age and in doing this they take hold of the life that is truly life.
It's about taking hold of the life that is truly life, it is about realizing that the kinds of people we are becoming matters.
Now if you're like me, you're looking for the pitch...this is about something much much bigger than giving to the latest cause...this is about how we view the world...this is about what you and I truly believe...that the way we are commanded to live is the best possible way to live
Putting others first, that isn't so easy. Jesus said he came to serve, and serving takes sacrifice. It costs. It's hard to ask difficult questions about how we spend our money and what we spend our money on.
What can you do to be more generous?
Who are you going to bless?
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Story
I wish I had watched this before today. I was working late at BuildaBridge, the organization I'm interning with that does arts education and intervention in transitional living facilities. I went to pick up dinner in a hurry - a philly cheesesteak. Right near the door a man asked me for change. I said I didn't have any - I was pretty sure it was true, although I just checked and I did have 45 cents. I went in and grabbed my dinner in a hurry and rushed back out. The man was still there. He had a dollar out and looked at me again, asking with his eyes. I just told him all I had with me was my plastic. I wasn't sure if I had change or not, but I was too busy to be bothered with checking. As I was walking away I wondered if he was hungry, if I could offer him half my sandwich. But again, too busy. That morning, I had thought about 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you,' and I had offered some of my orange to my supervisor. But I was too rushed that evening, I didn't offer her any. I just mostly inhaled it, although the last time we had shared it and it had been a nice time of talking.
I let time control me. I didn't live the best possible way to live. Granted, I was busy. And super hungry. But those are excuses.
What can you do to be more generous?
Who are you going to bless?
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When I finished watching the Everything is Spiritual video, I wasn't sure Rob Bell had actually done a good job making his major point. I thought a bit about the whole controversy around his book, Love Wins. But mostly I thought about what he said about rectangles and circles. In two dimensions, it's an either/or situation. But then he gave the example of the marker he was holding, in three dimensions. If you asked a person who could see in three dimensions, circle or rectangle, they'd just be like, "yep." God would be like that, as he looks at us in and out of time.
I thought about that. And I thought about Bell wanting us to focus more on being than doing. He made that point well, but it stuck with me more because I've been reading Henri Nouwen's In the Name of Christ again, after my supervisor lent it to me. That's kept me sane. Honestly. I don't feel capable at my internship a good bit of the time. I used to get so much of my self-worth from being capable. Now I don't.
The first day I started reading Nouwen was after last week, which was the first real hard week, and that book uplifted me so much, I went in to work at the restaurant singing. And one of the girls said I was spiritual. I didn't know what that meant, so I asked. She said I seemed so connected with both what's inside of me and what's going on around me. That's not something I've often been told. But I realized that because of Nouwen's book, I was more freely being myself, confidently and without any hesitation interacting with my co-workers without worrying how I appeared. I think that's what she saw.
But the being and doing go together. That's part of Bell's whole point of everything being spiritual, because there is no word for it in Hebrew to separate your "spiritual life" from your day-to-day, physical life at work and home. And I think it goes back to the rectangle/circle point, too. That's important, because who you are affects what you do, and what you do affects who you are. I think this "being spiritual" is just when you're well aware of each, and why it is so and how you are supposed to be and do. Which goes back to loving your neighbor - and your God. And taking hold of the life that is truly life.
Because even with spring coming, and lent almost over, it's too easy to feel dead.
And that's so lame. Because, well, you know. Easter. :)
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