Entry 1

March 13, 2008, 4:00am

Thought process/Attempt at figuring out and organizing the crazy information floating around in my head:

Thy Kingdom Come: Hmmm…I think it has a lot to do with Namaste-Respecting the spirit dwelling in the temple of God (the person). Although this term is used a lot by Buddhists and other religions, it should be quite relevant to the Christian faith. In other words treating each person as the most precious being in the world (treating people as though they were Jesus) or seeing God’s image in each person we encounter.

Let me try to explain why I think "living namaste" has a lot to do with "thy kingdom come". We live in a world/society that has dehumanized people: we lust (ex. look at posters of people as if they’re objects), we kill, lie, cheat, steal, gossip, greed for more, and grumble to better ourselves usually being completely oblivious to who it impacts and what kind of impact our actions may have on society, the marginalized, and the world. In a world that tells us we can do whatever we want, in a world that tells us anything is achievable if we put our minds to it, in a world that essentially dehumanizes us (without us knowing), we find a Jesus who came to show us another way to live. He told us to open our eyes because the kingdom is near. The kingdom is in our midst, we just need to open our eyes to see God’s image in each person. What does this mean? Do we see how valuable each being is and treat them with worth just for the mere fact that they are God's creation? Jesus essentially comes to a dehumanized world that has made a hell out of God’s creation and tells us that this wasn’t how God intended us to live. We get mixed confusing messages, but essentially Jesus is telling us that it is hypocritical to spend hundreds of dollars on a church stained glass window while the hungry are starving to death. It is not just an issue of poverty and hunger, but the issue is the fact that we have become dehumanized enough to care less about God’s precious creation (human beings). Why do we love to watch movies? why do we love people’s stories? why do we love to have more than surface level conversations? It makes us human again…it touches the core of our being…we weren’t meant to be people who treat each other like animals or objects. So why am I so passionate about the homeless and the poor? Because in my world around me of consumerism, self-servism (made up word), and a lot of the times a day full of busyness with little of what’s real, talking with the homeless and poor humanizes me again. It’s weird because I used to think and people think that when I go and volunteer in the DTES, I am helping them, but selfish as it is, I am drawn to them because as I listen to these people with little else to lose vulnerably pour out their stories, I am touched again and I feel my heart being changed. And I begin to see Jesus in these intriguing people (who move hearts). They are the most precious beings in the world.. how can I selfishly ignore their cries and their hurts. And I want the world to see and hear their cries; I want the world to listen, to be touched, and to become human again.

Maybe that’s why people say they see God when they go on mission trips because when we're with the hurting and the poor we're humanized and touched by people’s stories and we see just how real and precious people are. When we realize that people are not just objects or to be treated like garbage, or criminals or "they deserve it" kind of attitude, but see that people are bearers of God’s image, we understand that it's not just about being a "good person" with a "special gift" or a "special heart" but we understand that God is just.

So the question isn't whether we believe in God or not, because whether you do or not, it doesn't change anything.. God is who he is. The question is, will you take part in Jesus' invitation to take part in his kingdom (an invitation to be a people set apart from a life of self-servism and dehumanization into a kingdom or lifestyle or way of seflessism and humanization).
Can we live this kingdom namaste without God? Essentially can these high morals stand alone apart from the Creator?
Time and time again we've seen leaders and religions with these morals...but why have they failed? why have they become corrupted? Many times people (christians included) start off with good intentions.. equality, selflessness, etc..but with human ability alone, we are prone to fail...due to our limited knowledge, our feelings, our nature when temptations creep in.... basically we're not God. That's why those good things (as attractive as they are) anytime it stands alone/apart from God... doesn't work. We need to know who our Creator is in order to know how to properly live a life intended by Him. The two need to go hand in hand because it is God who has unlimited knowledge, it is Jesus who loved perfectly (unconditionally).
I personally don't think that God's kingdom is a far away thing, I believe that we become a part of his kingdom when we join in on the work that God has begun.

God is Almighty..Yes.. and he does have the power to do whatever he wants, such as getting rid of hunger and disease and pain. Jesus and his followers have healed the sick and raised the dead…but eventually the people that have been healed by the miracles of Jesus will eventually get sick from something else and die from something else (can’t remember where I read this). It isn’t the miracles and power that makes God God. When the people asked Jesus to save himself, Jesus had the power to save himself. When Satan tempted Jesus to make stones into bread (probably a huge temptation to get rid of hunger in the world) Jesus had the power to do so, but Jesus knew that it wasn’t an issue of hunger but rather an issue of whether his people (anyone willing to follow him) were willing to give a shit about these people who’ve been forgotten and treated like nothing. When Satan tempted Jesus to jump off in the center of the Roman Empire and prove to the world and the religious powers that he is God, Jesus could have done so, and may have been very tempted to do so. But if at any time Jesus gave into the self-idolizing act and greed for power with the world, he would have failed to relay the point. It is not that Jesus healed the leper, it was that Jesus touched someone that nobody dared to go near. It was that Jesus accepted the prostitute that the religious folks had judged. It was that Jesus accepted the tax collector (the “bad” one). We remember the Jesus who loved the loweliest, the judged, the marginalized, the forgotten, the unloved, those yearning to be loved. Jesus was teaching his people (whoever is willing to follow) to stop dehumanizing God’s creation, stop violence, and stop treating people like shit. He calls his people (whoever is willing to follow) to truly live as we were intended to live set apart from the ways of the devil (power, pride, greed....etc)

The reason why we don’t find God at the top (the place with all the pride, the money, greed, usually success) or even on the road that leads to that path is because on that road people have ignored God’s intended way of living, loving, and sharing and have chosen to live lives apart from God and don’t want anything to do with him (usually these are the people who “have it altogether” and know it all) and in Romans 1:18-32 God reveals his wrath to them. The funny thing is..God’s wrath/condemnation isn’t what we think it is. God's wrath is by letting them go to live as they wish (if you don’t believe me..read it). He pretty much says, “If you don’t care, there’s nothing else I can do, I’m not going to force you to do anything (b/c that will only make you into robots), so fine go and live and do as you please” …resulting in a people making a hell of God’s creation by hoarding, lusting, sexually confused, hurting each other, and walking through a downward spiral of dehumanization and negatively impacting society’s marginalized, forgotten, and making the gap between the rich and poor greater and greater and then wondering how God could do such a thing to the poor and the suffering.

So Jesus calls us to live set apart from this kind of hell. He calls us to live as heaven on earth, to pray for his kingdom come (impacting people with love and inviting people to live as heaven on earth), to only take our daily bread (only what we need…so that we don’t walk down that road of greed, hoarding, gluttony).

A lot of times the reason why so many “Christians” are dry, empty, and in need of something to fill them up again and again is because we ourselves are confused with Jesus’ teachings and the world we live in. I guess the question to ask is, is it possible to follow Jesus (to show people a life that values humans) while holding on to stuff? I personally think that is why Jesus was poor. It just seems a little hypocritical to say we love God and cause someone to suffer because we value that new gadget over a person…a real person..yes real…maybe that’s what we don’t get. Maybe people aren’t real to us when we don’t see them or interact with them…maybe that’s why our hearts are changed when we encounter the suffering, the orphans, the widows, the poor….b/c we see that they are real.

We say we love God…but God says... how can you love the Creator if you treat His creation like nothing? We say we love Jesus, but Jesus tells us that whatever we do for the needy we have done for Jesus himself.

If religious people are merely gathering among themselves and creating their own “Christian culture” they are no followers of Jesus. It is on that ironic road that Jesus walked of selflessism and humanization (through sacrificial love), we find life, humans, God, a kingdom. This kingdom is already in the midst of us. Since the beginning of time, God has called his people over and over to live a life set apart, and Jesus comes to show us how to live that set apart life and invites us to join in this kingdom characterized by seeing the divine nature in each human and treating them as God’s precious creation.

I’m a little biased…so to compensate for it I’m gonna pretty much quote a huge section out of the new book I’m reading called Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne P.95. This section is talking about the Sermon on the Mount (read it first if you don’t know it).
“If the people of God were to transform the world through fascination, these amazing teachings had to work at the center of these peculiar people. Then we can look into the eyes of a centurion and see not a beast but a child of God, and then walk with that child a couple of miles. Look into the eyes of tax collectors as they sue you in court; see their poverty and give them your coat. Look into the eyes of the ones who are hardest for you to like, and see the One you love. For God loves good and bad people. Even God doesn’t grasp for the knowledge of good and evil but sends rain to water the fields of both the just and the unjust. That’s why enemy love is the only thing that Jesus says makes a person like God---perfect.” (side note: Yoder notes that the word perfect here doesn’t mean “without blemish” but means “unconditional” (Politics of Jesus, 117))








My Prayer:
God, I don’t know what to do with all this stuff around me right now. I want to follow you but because of the messed up and confused life that I have lived with mixed messages coming from all over I have gotten myself into a bit of a trap and I don’t know where to begin and what to do. My heart still aches as I look at this world and I am frustrated by my own selfishness and greed. Help me God to live a life set apart for you. If there is something that you want me to let go of, would you show me what it is, and then open another (your) door for me. If you want me to give away my jacket would you show me where to give it? If you want me to let go of my dresser, would you show me where you want me to give it to. Open these doors for me, I am willing to give You (for your kingdomàyour creation) anything. I just need to start somewhere. I will take time right now to pause and think of what you want me to let go of.

My books? Seriously? Interesting…not what I had imagined. book according to the person who needs it? with a message in the cover of each book, “…pass this book on to the next person needed”
Ummmm…okay if that’s the first step you want me to take….I’ll do it…..

I bought Shane Claiborne's new book "Jesus for President" !!
I'm so excited! I decided that I need to savour it... I shouldn't read it all at once... i m gonna read it a bit at a time. plus it's probably better to absorb that way... considering my memory.