At band practice last night, we were discussing what constitutes "good" worship. A couple of analogies were brought up that shed some light on what it means to be (or is that be being?) holy. One analogy is a child's crayon drawing. The parents out there know that even if you have no idea what the picture is, that puppy is going up on the fridge, and anybody who comes in the kitchen is getting a compulsory art tour. Our feeble holiness is like that to God. He knows us, that we are weak, and he puts our feeble holiness up on the fridge 'cause we're his kids. The other analogy was a dog whistle. You know the kind we can't hear, but gets all the dogs yipping. Our works here are like the dog whistle. We can't tell whether they are good or not good, but God knows. So is holiness more about relationship and direction than it is about arrival? I think so.

AND HE WHO DOES NOT TAKE HIS CROSS (that's death, not giving up latte or boba) AND FOLLOW (that's relationship and direction) ME (that's Jesus--the one with whom we have relationship and the one we follow) IS NOT WORTHY OF ME (again, Jesus). (Matthew 10:38 NASB, with notes added)

Ouch!

Water's Edge blog asks the question: What do most churches expect of the people in their communities? Here's an excerpt:

If we are to create true communities of apprentices to Jesus, we MUST be about more than agreeing, attending, politeness, and 'tithing'. I don't think those things are even compelling to people who we identify as 'lost.' We must be about something that is fundamentally different than that which has passed for the Christian life in America. We must take Jesus seriously when he talks about life in the kingdom of God. We must start placing our confidence in him--really--and begin to really do the things he taught and modeled. And it is almost embarrassing to have to say that it is more than what we have accepted for so long in the church.

Sounds like fodder for a ministry rethink...

Can I just say that the Starzz-Comets (WNBA--that's women's pro basketball, for the uninitiated) game last night was beyond words? Had me on the edge of the couch right up to the last few seconds of the game. And--I know this may be a mean thing to say--but how cool is it that the Starzz won?? Could it be that there is going to be a total changing of the guard? [Realize I say this as a Los Angeles Sparks fan--I'll be stoked if the Sparks win.]

Well, I did a baby-sized centering prayer this morning on the bus. "Baby-sized" is right. For something so simple, this is going go be a lot harder than it looks. [Note: just writing this shows how hard it is to aim at presence over performance:-)]

I've been reading Centering Prayer by M. Basil Pennington. Let me just say this is an awesome, challenging book. He challenges his readers to spend twenty minutes twice a day in contemplative prayer. As your basic, busy Californian, my first response to this is, "Yeah. Right." But then I have to ask myself if I really love God more than anything--heck even if I just like him a whole lot--is forty minutes a day too much to ask. If I can't spend forty minutes just being with my best friend, then I'm too busy. Now if I could only put feet to the words!