by Greg

This May Be Telling…

One of the projects for today was to burn a couple boxes full of old receipts and other financial documents. Jen started it with the kids, but then Dad was called in to help get the fire going more. (And, once Dad was pulled in, well, he had to make sure the project was completed!)

After a good long while of burning stuff, I decided to sit down for a second in the chair that Jen had previously occupied.

When Jen came back outside, she had a funny smile on her face as she looked at me on her way to the swing set with Julia.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?” I queried. (Which means, asked…) 🙂

“I just never see you sit.” She said with a smile.

True enough.

And, within 10 seconds, I was back on my feet, tending to our little fire.

by Greg

Intake

For a long while now, I’ve been feeling a strong pull to read. Read anything, really. We have a lot of books in our house, so, when I see those I think, “Wow, I’d really like to just sit and read one of those right now!”

I’ve borrowed some books from the library lately, and read bits and pieces, but still haven’t made time to read. I have a book from a friend that he highly recommends, and it’s sitting here on my “to read now” pile… unread.

I have gotten to continue reading through Genesis again, mostly. That’s been nice. But just short bits mostly. Again, I really want to read more.

So what is holding me back? Life.

Not only are we busy with the five kids we currently care for, but we do enjoy visiting with friends as much as possible. There’s everyday stuff at home to take care of, as well as a busy season for my website design business … plus, it’s NHL Playoff time, so we’re frequently trying to catch those via the magic of Tivo… 🙂

There are just too many options. Way too many.

Add in all the electronic distractions… Madden games with the boys, other video games, using our Netflix subscription, other fun TV shows we like to watch on DVD or from iTunes… it seems to never end.

Soon it must stop. Maybe now.

Changes will be coming. This pull is very strong. I think it’s time for more/better intake.

I wrote a song this week. Haven’t done that in a while. I have lots of blog topics in the mental queue, but something else always comes up, and as I said, the pull to read and even just “disconnect” from electronic input is stronger.

Not sure exactly what it will look like, but … personal schedule changes are coming soon.

(Perhaps some of the results of more and better “intake” will be evident on the pages of GregsHead.net not much later?)

by Greg

The Timeline

This morning I happened to catch a glimpse of a cute photo of our daughter, Julia. It was taken when she was two years old (she’s standing next to a gigantic number 2). She’s now three, and just as cute. Maybe cuter.

For some reason, when I saw the photo, I thought how it would probably make the wedding rehearsal slideshow for her someday. (If we’re still doing those with two dimensional photos…) I quickly followed that thought with, “That day better be really far off!” And I was satisfied with knowing that it is. When our baby Julia is getting married, “That will be so crazy!”

(What? Don’t you carry on conversations with yourself in your head?)

It seems like when our fourth child is of an age to be married, then we will be really old. How could life move along so far? How could we ever get there?

But then I remembered other milestones I thought were so far in the future we’d “never” get there. I thought it would be officially crazy when we had an eight year old. Don’t know why really… just thought that meant our kids were past the point of tiny. Well… we are nearly to our second eight year old, and seems pretty normal from here.

I turned 26 in the year 2000. I remember thinking (many years ago!) that would be really crazy, both being 26 and the year 2000. We’re at 34 and 2009 now and, again, all seems normal from here.

What about turning 30? That milestone came and went. Now I suppose looking ahead… 40 and 50 are coming in the not too far off.

These markers along the timeline are interesting, and fun to track… but it is crazy how life moves just slowly enough that once you get there, all seems about the same. Just, normal. I’m guessing once we get to seeing our kids marrying and starting their own families, it will be much the same. Not that there won’t be moments of reflection, and a few, “Wow, I can’t believe we’re really here!” But I imagine overall – as it has been so far – it will just be the normal timeline of life. All of the events that will lead up to that will bring us there together, and it will seem just… “right”.

So that day will come. As did 2000, and 30, and 8 almost twice. I’ll enjoy those when I get there. For now, we’re going to enjoy our three-year-old Julia. 🙂

by Greg

The Dichotomy of Trust and Control

Life is full of options. There are choices everywhere. I think maybe in America we are overwhelmed by choices. We have such an abundance of material wealth (yes, even in “this economy”) that we have probably thousands of choices to make each day.

But even though there are so many choices, for we who follow Jesus, they often fall into one of two categories: trusting, or attempting to control. That may at first seem oversimplified, but I keep noticing that most choices (on some level) lean one way or the other.

It makes sense, too. Life with God seems to be all about getting to know him, and in that, learning to trust him. Jesus asked that we would have eternal life, and then he said, “And this is eternal life: to know you the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent.” (John 17:3, emphasis added) And from that knowing, that deeper relationship, grows a trust that allows us to follow his lead, his voice. Conversely, when we don’t know him, we can’t trust him. And so, we can’t live the life to the full that he has for us.

When we fully trust God, we don’t need to take or get for ourselves. Basically, that’s what sin is. Sin is when we take for ourselves something that God hasn’t given to us. That can be something tangible like stealing, or adultery, even murder. Or, it can be less obvious. It can be just trying to control our circumstances with a “little white lie” or gossip, or other forms of manipulation. But the heart that is content in relationship to our Father – completely trusting him in and for everything – I dare say, will not sin.

This dichotomy plays out through every facet of life as a believer. In your financial decisions, are you bearing the weight of providing for your family (or just worrying about how that will happen), or are you content, knowing God is the provider. In your schedule, do you have every moment of every day scheduled and planned even days, months, years out into the future, or do you wake up in the morning and say, “What do you have for me today, God?”

It also applies to life together as the church.

As a church, do we not attempt to control how God will speak to us, planning out lesson series and other structures that will ensure that everything that needs to be said, will be said? Even a whole year or more in advance? Don’t we attempt to implement structures that will ensure that everyone’s needs are met, spiritually and otherwise?

Also, do we not feel the need to keep people in line doctrinally, making sure that everyone is (as we see it) “right”?

Of course there is a balance in all things. There is nothing wrong with preferring to have a schedule versus not having a schedule. Life doesn’t always (or usually?) go the way you want it to, so flexibility is obviously important, but scheduling is not bad. Structuring your day so that everything can get done, including time with others and God, can be a good thing. It can become a bad thing though when structure becomes a substitute for the relationship(s) and even worse, when we begin to feel the need (in our own desire for structure) to begin structuring the lives of other people around us. (This is another example that can be readily seen in the “church”.)

I’ve been thinking about all of this a lot lately. I’m becoming more and more convinced that there are basically two ways to live … institutionally (implementing systems and structures attempting to control your surroundings, regulate your life, and the lives of others) and “organically” (though I don’t like that word much) meaning, I suppose, the opposite. Interacting with life as it happens, enjoying and living life in the moment, and allowing others to live their lives as God leads them – still alongside each other, but without the need to manipulate, intentionally or not.

I read an article (here) yesterday that sparked more thinking on this. Here’s a quote from the second paragraph of that article:

“It seems all of this stems from the fact that we really don’t trust that Jesus is capable of building his church—that he cannot give rise to the reality of his family if we don’t “start something”. It’s as if living loved and loving just won’t be enough to let him do all he wants to do.”

That’s another big piece of the dichotomy. Why would we not build systems and structures to accomplish worthy tasks unless we didn’t really think God was capable of it on his own… unless we didn’t trust him? And, conversely, why would we if we really did?

I posted a link to that article on Facebook, and a discussion ensued with a couple friends. I was going to pull out some pieces of it and then re-word it here, but I think I’ll just let you listen in if you’d like…

STEVE: Greg, I think you’re oversimplying things here. As I understand your position, there “ways to live” actually comes down to “enjoying and living life in the moment” and systems. This is too limiting. I would offer that there are many different degrees of ways to live, and our goal should be to strike a balance between the two extremes offered.

Structures are often lambasted and distrusted because they can be easily manipulated. Therefore, many Christians today are flocking towards a freer expression of faith. Yet purely organic expression can yield utter chaos and this is not part of God’s plan either.

Systems do not require that we constrict organic expression and growth. Here’s a not-well-developed metaphor off the top of my head: I can grow an organic garden and yet I need to be meticulous in my planning of the garden in order to get the most out of it.

ME: Hey Steve, totally agree on grey areas (life in between “extremes”) … but do you think that perhaps one could loosely say there are those two ways of doing life? One attempts to control/plan/structure it (to varying degrees) and the other attempts to not, instead following Jesus lead, and intentionally living free of structure and schedule and obligation, to be able to react to life as it happens?

This does not mean there aren’t plans… it means the plans are secondary. It also is not limited to schedule. One of the big differences in the way we are living now, and the way I think I may have been living before is, I’m not trying to get anyone to do anything. I was before. That’s what structures do. They attempt to control the flow of life – including “organic” relationship… rather than let it happen, and let Jesus be the head?

You’re right… it is a broad brush. But I was only speaking in generalities here. Boiling it down to the very basic foundational paradigms … I really think there’s a lot of room for the church to let Jesus lead.

An interesting quote I heard recently… some Bible college professor I believe, said, “Churches are always looking for where God ISN’T working, and then they try to “fill in the holes” there, instead of looking/watching for what he IS doing, and following him there.” And that’s so true! If there’s a group of people, or some “ministry” that is lacking or falling behind, church leadership will attempt to address that “need” … rather than (I think) let Jesus lead his church, and do the work HE wants to do…

What do you think?

STEVE: I think the distinguished “two ways” of this discussion is based upon the assumption that truly following Jesus means freedom from structure. Does the sound right? I think this is assumption is based on our observance of Jesus’ life as described in the Gospels. He seemed to live his life like Forrest Gump’s feather, floating off from town to town however he wished (dated reference?).

Ironically, he see in the book of Acts and the Epistles that structure of the church is essential to its survival. I’m currently teaching through 1 Corinthians and Paul’s major gripe of that church was that they were essentially living in chaos. His demand of them was to get some structure in their church before God took care of it for them (specifically see that latter part of chapter 14).

I hope this isn’t getting too far away from your contention, because I do see your perspective here . . . The church growth movement was too heavy on specific structures for growth. The book of Acts taught us that God grows the church as he sees fit. This is why in our church, I have reacted much as you have described. We are in no way seeker sensitive but are resigned to simply being the church and being available when God leads. That’s what I meant earlier— we are striving to be structurally organic.

The structure is to ensure biblical accountibility. The organic is so that we don’t blaze a trail where God never intended for one to be.

MARCIA: I’m taking a break & thought I’d check FB while drinking my tea. You two are giving me a headache 😉 and getting too engrossed in analyzing this. I like what Oswald Chambers said “My Goal is God himself, not. . .” I long ago had the “revelation” that I shouldn’t get stuck on the “dos” and “don’ts” and “how-tos” but I should listen and follow the Holy Spirit inside me–then I will do right. If that means staying with a structure-fine; if it means something freer, fine

ME: Steve, good thoughts. Sounds like you guys are enjoying a good measure of freedom together as a church, that is cool. I think what you said is accurate, life with Jesus is about freedom (from lots of things) and that can include structure.

Like, the structures of religious obligations, either self-imposed, or imposed by whatever group of people (church) we have aligned ourselves with. It seems to me that anytime we “commit” ourselves to anything beyond living with Jesus and loving the people around us… it can become less than free, to varying degrees of course.

As for the “where God is working” thing, of course that’s right. I may be not perfectly quoting him, also. But the gist was re: what I said earlier, how churches seem consumed with “providing” for places where there are “needs” … when, maybe that is either not a “need” or perhaps Jesus is meeting that need in other ways.

ME: Marcia! That’s it! Totally it. And the point that I was agreeing with in the article I posted a link to. (Did anyone read that yet??) 🙂 “To each his own” would apply well here… and the issue is that we, the church, get bogged down in the “dos” and “don’ts” – especially for others! – and we forget to just listen to what God is asking us to do. Certainly, since he is the head of a body that is joined together, that could mean that groups of us may do the “same” thing together, but the problem arises, I think, when we try to capture that and structure that and put systems in place to make that happen…. often eliminating the believer’s need to listen to and follow Jesus – the Shepherd’s – voice.

STEVE: I just have to say, Marcia, that this SHOULD be thoroughly analyzed, even more-so than this. The issue is critical since there are many who simplistically respond, “I’ll do what the Holy Spirit tells me” but confuse those messages with birthed from their own will.

I’ve heard many a person remark “well, this is what God told me,” when God would say no such thing. Hence, the importance of submitting to some sort of spiritual structure beyond ourselved and our biblical interpretations. Otherwise, we come perilously close to the sin of Eden (becoming our own gods).

MARCIA: I agree that this and many other things need to be questioned, discussed and analyzed. How can one know and grow in their faith without questioning, thinking? I’m a structure person & God knows that and, therefore, has kept me in the church I’m in (there have been temptations to leave in the past), BUT things can also be over-analyzed, over-structured, over-loose, etc., etc. I felt led to share my 2-cents worth, that’s all. Or I just wanted to butt it on an on-going conversation.

ME: This is exactly what I’m talking about! 🙂 Steve, I think you are saying that (totally my paraphrase), “People are going to get it wrong, and not really be hearing God when they think they are, or even just be deceptive about it, deceiving themselves and others, [implied here…] and God is not going to take care of that, SO we need to manage that with a system or structure to ensure that the good thing(s) happen.”

What I’m saying is, structures will never fix that. I think that Jesus cares about that. He wants each of us to live in Truth (which, I believe he said is… him) and the thing is, he is patient to ridiculous extremes. Way beyond us. So, he’s ok with people not getting it yet. But we aren’t. We want them to get it now, and not be self-deceived or otherwise. So, we create structures.

What we could do is, talk with the people God puts on our hearts. Share with them the life we know in him. Offer stuff for them to chew on – NOT stuff they “should” or “shouldn’t” do. Rather, we live in the freedom of just being loved by God (which includes him working in our lives to know him better) and loving other people whom he puts in our path, or even specifically asks us to do something for.

Structure can often eliminate God from the picture. It certainly does not always – as you said, “Is there anywhere God ISN’T working?” Of course not! But the issue I have been thinking on for a long time, and working out through Scripture and conversations with God and other folks is how do we live a life where we are so available to listen to the Head that whether it’s in the context of some structure we’ve made up, or completely separate from that, we ourselves have the freedom to act on it, and we also allow others the freedom to live and learn from the Master/Head/Shepherd himself, and his Holy Spirit, who “teaches us everything we need to know”

I think the issue is that, again, often, not always, structures end up becoming a substitute for that direct connection to the Vine, that each of us has, or needs to have. (This was mentioned in the article as well… structures becoming a substitute.)

One more thing I’d like to point out here. Structure, as I have said, is not the bad thing. When it is a substitute for what God has given us, it becomes a bad thing. There is structure to the body, the church. The fact that we’re referred to as Jesus’ body means that it is a unit, a container, with edges. It is not just an amorphous blob, but an actual entity. With Jesus as the head. That’s an important part that so many of the “churches” I have known are missing.

When we get into trouble is when we begin building our own structures and systems, and imposing those on either ourselves, or worse, on other people. Structures and systems are only meant to limit – even in a good way. Limits are not bad, either. Again, the problem for us is when these tools that we put in place become a substitute for our direct connection to our Father, through Jesus, the vine.

I’ll leave you with a few verses to chew on, penned by Jesus’ friend John… and I’m sure I’ll be revisiting this topic. (This seems more like a topic for a new book rather than just an article or two!)

1 John 2:27: But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.

John 10:4: After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice.

John 14:17: He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.

John 15:1-5: “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”

by Greg

The Boys Room

Tonight I took my daughters to the bathroom while we were out for dinner. On the way down the bathroom hall, our five year old said somewhat sheepishly, “Do we have to go in the boys room, Dad?”

I was a bit surprised by her sudden awareness that we would be using the “boys room”, she hadn’t cared before… but I replied, “Yes, Kirstie. We have to go in there ’cause I’m a boy!”

We went in and headed to the one stall – all three of us – and as she got ready to use it, she seemed really hesitant. I made sure all was properly cleaned and then she asked, “Dad, can you please cover it up?” She has this thing about automatically flushing toilets. It really, really bothers her. So, I knew what she was talking about once she asked and said, “Sure, no problem.”

I dutifully covered it up while she did her thing, when she revealed a bit to me about her earlier question. “That’s why I don’t like the boys room, Dad. They have the toilets that flush themselves!”

“Yeah, some places do,” I said. “But, those are in the girls room, too.” (I actually don’t know that, I suppose, but, just assumed.)

“No they aren’t!” She insisted. “They’re only in the boys rooms!!!” That made me chuckle a bit. 🙂

She was pretty serious about this though, so I believed her, and then was sad for the gender that I represent. I thought about it and realized that if it is true, it shows that guys can’t be trusted to remember to flush the toilet!!! (This does hold true in our own home… the boys (NOT ME) do often forget to pull the handle…) Do we really need the toilet to remember for us???

So after a funny little insight from my five year old daughter, I’d like to implore those of the male persuasion to think a tiny bit about the people coming after them, and just flush the toilet. (Unless of course, the facility you are using has already given up on you, and the toilet does its own flushing… then I guess you’re off the hook.

🙂

by Greg

Sad Things

There are a few things in life that seem to really get to me emotionally any time I hear of them. Divorce is one, especially involving people we know. It just breaks my heart, every time. Then any injustice involving kids… that’s another. (Don’t think that’s at all unique to me, think that’s built into nearly every human being, especially we who are parents.)

The other one though is suicide. I heard this story on the top-of-the-hour radio news, and just immediately felt sad. I’m really not sure what it is, but my heart instantly breaks for the person who felt that was the only remaining course of action. I’m not sure how you get there, but as I said, it just makes me overflow with compassion for them.

I’m not sure why these three things affect me so much, but they do. Perhaps I could be a helpful, listening ear to people facing such tragedies? Perhaps.

Whoever you are reading this right now, I hope they are far away from you.

by Greg

$100,000,000.00

$100M sure sounds like a lot of money. And as you can see in the title, it sure is a lot of zeros. However, this blog post by radio talkshow guy Glenn Beck, points out how ridiculously small it is both in comparison to the already large budget as well as the outlandish amount of “money” being spent in all of these “stimulus” packages. Interesting look at the numbers. How do these crazy politicians think we won’t realize this, and just go along with them saying, “Wow! They cut $100M from the budget!!”

by Greg

Cooperation

Yesterday the kids were all having trouble coexisting, and it was driving a very tired Mommy crazy! So, after they made peace with Mom, (and on a bit of a whim on my part) I gave them an assignment. All four of them were to work together to create a story – typed up on one of their computers – to present at dinner time. I gave them an outline of four things that they could decide that would help them craft the story, and I insisted that each of them had to have contributed a part to the story.

When it seemed they understood, I left them to their task (and that left Mom a couple hours by herself while the baby was sleeping!)

I stopped by a while later to see how it was going, and they were working beautifully together! They all had little chairs set up around one computer where the biggest brother was doing the typing. They all seemed engaged, and the best part was… it was working! They were each being considerate of the other, welcoming and accepting each other’s ideas. They were just being nice!

I actually couldn’t wait to hear the story they were producing, too! 🙂

Just before lunch time (probably a couple hours later), Ian came up and announced that they had finished, and asked if they could read it at lunch, instead of dinner. I smiled and agreed. Really, all that I had wanted to happen had already happened… the fun story was the “icing on the cake”. Still, I was quite interested to hear what they had come up with, all from their own little brains!

I think I’ll post it here, exactly as Ian typed it. The title is, “Picnic Mystery,” … enjoy.

Picnic Mystery

There once was a family who’s name was the Schroders. The kids names were : 1. Aaron age 17

2. Scott age 15 3. Victoria (Vicky for short) age 14 4. stephanie age 12 5. antonio age 10 (tony for short) and then there is Momma,Pop. Now lets start the story!

We begin in Idaho the Schroders (who lived on a farm)were going on a picnic. They were bringing balogna sandwiches,a ceaser salad,apples and bananas,and ice cold lemonade,and last but not least Momma had baked a blueberry pie. Aaron and Scott were helping Pop in the fields. Vicky and Steph were helping Momma pack the food and other things that you bring on a picnic. Antonio went to tell the other boys to come in and wash up.
They started off, they were going to the park that was about half a mile away. They had cleared a nice path that they liked to walk through every once in a while. When they got to the park they decided to play a game of softball and then they would eat after the softball game. Momma did not want to play so she was the ump. They chose Aaron and pop as the team captains. Tony and Vicky were on Pop’s team. Scott and Steph were on Aaron’s team. They started the game and the first team to bat was Aaron’s team and he was first to bat. He it a triple and Scott hit a homer and they both scored. Then they struck out. So it was Pop’s teams turn Pop hit a single then Vicky hit double and Tony hit a triple and then he tried to score but he got tagged. There was no more scoring so they called a tie and ate. When it was time to eat the pie was missing! They looked everywhere but they couldn’t find it and momma said she would make another so they started to go home when suddenly Antonio shoutd “Hey look up there the squirrels have our pie”. SPLAT!! The squirels droped the pie on Atonio. They went home and Antonio cleand up.And Momma made another pie and enjoyed withOUT any squirrels.

Made on a mac

Written by Ian,Alex,Kirsten and julia

by Greg

Kids Shows @ iTunes

I just spotted an ad on the iTunes store homepage today… something about $0.99 kids shows. Intrigued, I clicked through to find this page, full of not only current shows which are near and dear to the hearts of our kids (Fetch with Ruff Ruffman, Dora, Oswald, etc.) but also awesomely old shows like The Electric Company, Fraggle Rock, the Smurfs… nice!!!

Not sure how much money we can allot for such a thing at the moment, but… pretty fun that you can get that stuff at iTunes now, and at a discount, no less! Fun stuff from my childhood. May just have to introduce a new generation to them…

[Editor’s Note: When I first published this, I accidentally posted a link to this page at iTunes… and while that page (a list of all of our recorded music you can purchase from iTunes) is a fantastic page… it was not the one I intended to send you to. 🙂 Link above has been corrected…]

by Greg

Distorted View of God

Now, hear me out. I have a feeling my words here could be misunderstood. But I also think I may be seeing something from a slightly new angle (for me) that may also be helpful to you.

As I’ve been reading Genesis again, I’ve been watching for how God is interacting with us (people) in the stories. What seems to be his heart. Where is the person we see in Jesus in the gospels. I’ve commented here already on how much I can see that God is with us, and wants to be. Even though we have been a mess pretty much from the start. That’s amazingly cool.

Another line stood out to me.

When Seth [son of Adam and Eve, after Cain killed Abel] grew up, he had a son and named him Enosh. It was during his lifetime that people first began to worship the Lord.
Genesis 4:26

Wait. Say that again?

It was during his [Enosh, grandson of Adam] lifetime that people first began to worship the Lord.

Really? What about Adam? And Eve? And Cain and Abel… what about the offerings that they brought, the ones that were acceptable and unacceptable. Didn’t God establish some kind of worship rules and schedule for them to follow? He didn’t?

Huh.

Strangely, in this brief, overviewish jaunt through Genesis so far, one thing I have noticed is that God did not require worship. At least, I haven’t seen it. What I have noticed is a slow progression in the way we (people) feel towards him and interact with him.

In Genesis 2, Adam and Eve spent time literally in God’s presence. And he with them. When they had to fess up to eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, God was walking around in the garden. He was right there.

There is a line in this account that I remember just chuckling at as a kid. Remember it? “Now, although Adam and his wife were both naked, neither of them felt any shame.” Tee hee! They were naked! Isn’t that funny!?

Until this day, I don’t think I really understood the significance of that. The fact that there is no shame was revealing much more than the basis for a life of nudism.

Consider the role shame seems to play not only in the next chapter, but the next ten chapters of Genesis, as sin completely overwhelms the human race, and Genesis says, “all their thoughts were consistently and totally evil.” The first effect of shame was that they felt they had to cover up their bodies. God found them hiding from him, the account says, because they realized they were naked. But could it also have been that they realized they had chosen what God had told them not to?

Following that, notice that Cain and Abel both start bringing offerings to God. Already, they are separating God from themselves. Adam did not do that. Adam and Eve did not. But one generation later, that is what is happening. And God continued to be with them.

Then Seth was born, and as I wrote above, it was during his son Enosh’s lifetime that people first began worshipping the Lord. Another step towards removing ourselves from God, distancing ourselves from him.

By the time Noah and his family got on the ark, God told them to make provisions for sacrifices which they offered after the flood was over and they were all alone on the planet.

Now, did God command them to offer sacrifices? Didn’t he by saying bring enough animals for a sacrifice demand to be worshipped? I don’t think so. Jesus said that God allows for divorce because the people had hardened their hearts. God knew that even “righteous” Noah and his family felt the need to offer sacrifices – which seems to be another step further down the road of separating ourselves from God than Cain and Abel’s offerings. (Says nothing of a “sacrifice” in that instance.)

Do you see how important it was that we had no shame?

The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

We’re almost to Easter. Easter is often a time when we implore people to feel shame. Remember that it was our fault that Jesus went to the cross! He grudgingly took our guilt upon him, all the way to the cross, scorning its shame. Wait, what? It doesn’t say “grudgingly”? Oh? Right! It says this:

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
Ephesians 1:5

Great pleasure. From the beginning of time, all God has wanted is to have a relationship with us. Him… with us. He pursues us. I submit that we, out of understandable shame, are the ones who separate ourselves from him. Not that he is not deserving of reverence and awe and worship. He is. But I believe he made us to be his kids… not his subservient subjugated subjects.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2 (NIV)

Jesus defeated sin, death, and shame on the cross that day. “For the joy set before him.” We’ve read before that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” It’s so hard to see it, because we live with shame. We move God off to a distance because we know our shortcomings. He is holy, different, other. And he is. But I think what he wanted us to see in Jesus – the perfect representation of who he is – is that he’s not afraid to get a little dirty.

I think it’s great to sing to and worship God and even remind ourselves just how amazing and awesome he really is. But in the end, what he seems to want most of all, is for us to just be with him. To know him.

Jesus, and the cross, gives us the freedom to do that. The freedom to be ourselves – naked – with him.

That’s something worth celebrating.