#spirituality

The Upside Down World ~ The Blog

Mar 31, 2014
1 min

When You Can’t Agree

It is one thing to oppose what you think is messed up; it’s a whole other thing to be and live the alternative. ~ Jim Palmer At some point, you have made your best case and your opponent has made their best case. You still disagree and are certain your opponent fundamentally misunderstands reality. Any further discussion will quickly devolve into “unuh”, “uhhuh” levels of discourse. Repeating the same set of arguments over and over is a good sign that you’ve entered into this

Mar 31, 2014
1 min

It’s OK To Say . . .

It’s OK to say to God, “I don’t know how to do what you’re asking me to do. I don’t know how to be loving or kind or patient or forgiving. I don’t know how to want to do any of those things!” Christians who can’t admit this inability to perform the basic requirements of Christianity are like toddlers who won’t admit they need help carrying the milk into the house. And the results can be just as messy. Pass It On! Tweet Email More Print Share on Tumblr WhatsApp #prayer #chris

Mar 31, 2014
3 min

Exegesis and Why Noah Isn’t a Jewish Hero

So . . . heard any good exegesis lately? What’s an exegesis, you ask? (Or maybe you don’t ask. Too bad. I’m going to tell you anyways.) Exegesis is simply the practice of explaining a section of text from the bible. So, a lot of sermons include exegesis because they start with the text and then offer an explanation as to their meaning. A good exegesis is a thing to make the heart sing. My favorite are the ones that show you something in the text you never noticed or understoo

Mar 31, 2014
1 min

Hold All Things Lightly . . .

Happy Monday! Pass It On! Tweet Email More Print Share on Tumblr WhatsApp #christianity #christianspirituality #spirituality #memes #religion #inspiration

Mar 30, 2014
4 min

What Not Judging Is and Is Not

I wrote last week about not judging as a form of spiritual discipline. It occurs to me that part of our problem with not judging is that there’s a great deal of confusion regarding what is meant by not judging. So I thought I’d share a couple of thoughts regarding my understanding of it. Primarily, not judging means being open to correction. My parents used to always say to me, “you think you’re always right”. Which was true. If I thought I was wrong, I would change my mind.

Mar 28, 2014
1 min

The Kingdom of God = Love?

What if when we read the bible, we substitute the word “Love” for “the Kingdom”,”the Kingdom of God”? What if what Jesus was telling us is “Love is like this” and “Love acts like that”? Considered this way, all those parables Jesus told about “the Kingdom of God is like . . . ” take on a different hue. Pass It On! Tweet Email More Print Share on Tumblr WhatsApp #parables #biblestudy #christianspirituality #spirituality #thoughts #religion

Mar 28, 2014
5 min

Love and Balance

One of the habits of Christians which has always been baffling to me is the tendency to seek balance. So, they might try to find the balance between God’s love and his holiness. Or mercy and judgment. Forgiveness and wrath. Sin and freedom. This approach shares a good deal in common with the Eastern religious concept of yin and yang. The idea is that there are two opposing forces which when brought together in the right balance create a whole. However, the idea of balance is

Mar 28, 2014
1 min

Sins and Mistakes

Pass It On! Tweet Email More Print Share on Tumblr WhatsApp #christianity #inspirational #forgiveness #christianspirituality #spirituality #memes #life #religion #sin

Mar 27, 2014
4 min

The Hardest, Best Spiritual Practice I’ve Ever Tried

Learning how not to judge has been the most demanding, arduous and painful spiritual discipline I have ever undertaken. It’s also been the most fruitful. I could probably write books and books filled with stories and lessons I would never have encountered if I had not made a commitment to practicing this discipline. While most people probably don’t think of not judging as a spiritual discipline, this is exactly how I’ve practiced it. It’s something I do out of obedience and d

Mar 26, 2014
5 min

God and Laughing

God loves laughter. Humor makes us laugh because it triggers delighted surprise to hear that things we fear – being alone, being unloved, being ridiculed – aren’t as awful as it seems. And when it is awful, it isn’t as serious as we thought it was. When God gave us a sense of humor, He was telling us not to be so afraid. ~R. Trotter, The Upside Down World I have a real soft spot for humor. It is one of the great joys of life. I’d give up sex, wealth, tasty food and reading b

Mar 25, 2014
1 min

Job’s Wife

Well, it happened again. OK, it actually happens nearly every time someone decides to write about the book of Job. Inevitably they take a swipe at Job’s wife for telling Job to “curse God and die”. She’s unfaithful. She’s unhelpful. She’s a tool of the devil, tempting Job to blaspheme. Bad, bad Job’s wife. Actually, not bad, bad Job’s wife. Bad, bad us. Seriously. All those dead children? She had carried, birthed and fed them with her body. Job’s lost wealth? That was her wea

Mar 25, 2014
2 min

Your Goodness Isn’t Filthy Rags

If there’s one word which describes my experience of 2014 so far, it’s “inadequate”. I have felt utterly inadequate to the challenges of my life. Whatever good I can and have done has been wholly inadequate. In fact, this feeling has been so strong that I have frequently found myself battling a sense that anything I do or try to do is pointless. And into this jolly state of affairs, a few little church mice come whispering in my ear, “it’s all filthy rags. Whatever you do is

Mar 24, 2014
2 min

Men, Sex and Love

I would really, really like to quote the entirity of Micah Murray’s post on the idea that men give love to get sex and women give sex to get love. But doing that is frowned upon here on the internets, so I’m just going to quote a couple juicy bits. But these are no better than the rest of the post. It seemed reasonable enough. And it fit neatly with the gender stereotypes I’d heard all my life: Men think about sex every seven seconds. Women aren’t visual. Men are like microwa

Mar 24, 2014
3 min

Christians and Interracial Marriage

Guys, what is this world coming to? Aljezeera America recently used the parable of the talents to explain current events. Christianity Today, the flagship publication of conservative, Evangelical Christianity, is promoting interracial marriage. And discussing racism. And even relying on the voice of a black women to explain the theology of the whole thing. The world’s going all off kilter here. I know the rest of the world (and many of us) find it ridiculous that the church s

Mar 23, 2014
2 min

The Embodied God

Fairly often, I run across something that makes my soul say, “yes, yes, yes!” (No, not like Sally in the deli from When Harry Met Sally. Get your head out of the gutter. It’s not very much like that at all. Not really. . . Much. . .) Anyhow, I’ve been meaning to do a better job passing along such things to y’all. Cuz who couldn’t do with a little more “yes, yes, yes” in their soul? From Nadia Bolz-Weber: Instead of a religion revealed through philosophical constructs – easily

Mar 22, 2014
5 min

When Complaining Is Ministry

I’m one of those people who you should only bring your ideas, plans and dreams to if you’re looking for a solid critique of them. Otherwise I’ll probably give you a seemingly unenthusiastic word of support. Not that I won’t support you, just that I’ll be using all of my self-control biting my tongue because I know you need my support and not my advice. It’s hard to show how enthusiastic you are while biting your tongue. Strangely enough, this is a trait my husband doesn’t alw

Feb 7, 2014
5 min

Self-Justified vs Justified in Christ

Back in the olden days when I was involved in prison ministry, I learned something remarkable about human nature. We have a nearly infinite capacity for self-justification. Over and over again, I had kids tell me the story of some crime they committed in which they would explain how they had convinced themselves that their actions were justifiable. Some kids were far enough along their journey that they could see that the story they had told themselves was rubbish. Others wer

Feb 3, 2014
6 min

Will the New Covenant Kill the Church?

My 14 year old has a bad habit of trying to engage me in conversations which he really ought to be having with his peers rather than his parents. Because, really, only a teen wants to spend hours sitting around talking about their favorite bands, watching weird, nonsensical videos online and complaining about their teachers. Although I do appreciate that he insisted in introducing me to The Room. Because some sorts of genius idiot disasters do transcend generational lines. An

Jan 31, 2014
4 min

Breaking Rules, Following God

Once you’ve mastered the rules, if you have some talent for such things, you can create an ear-tickling tune with them. And then, but only then, will you have the know how and judgment required to take all those rules and break them. Someone who hasn’t mastered the rules of music can break all the rules and create an ear-splitting cacophony. Someone who has mastered the rules, on the other hand, can break all the rules and create a beautiful, engaging, challenging and enjoyab

Jan 27, 2014
5 min

We Are One

“As man advances in civilization, and small tribes are united into larger communities, the simplest reason would tell each individual that he ought to extend his social instincts and sympathies to all members of the same nation, though personally unknown to him. This point being once reached, there is only an artificial barrier to prevent his sympathies extending to the men of all nations and races.” ~ Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man “For just as we have many members in on