recently i lamented to a friend that in the midst of all my busy-ness with ministry, all i wanted was to be able to go to a coffeeshop and hang out and maybe engage with people about faith and life and have it just be natural thing. i am sitting in capitola on a brilliant day, in mr toots coffeeshop looking out onto the busy beach streets, tourists all the over, people just buzzing around happy to be in the sun and to be free. i am working on a talk i am giving next week and have my bible open. no one else, save for the coffeeshop workers, are in here on such a gorgeous day. as i am spacing out listening to "the fray" and lost in thought about the great commandement and great commission and how our stories are part of God's larger story, a man approaches me and asks if i am studying the bible. And i pull out my headphones and say, yes I am. He asks me if he can ask a question about Matthew (which is exactly the book i am studying in right now!) and i say sure. He asks about praying in public vs praying in private and how it says in matthew to go into a closet and pray alone, but how people pray in public over meals and asks why that is. i answer that i think it has to do with your heart- if you are praying in public to gain attention or show how spiritual you are, thats one thing- but if it is truly to give God thanks, than i think thats ok. i also said i dont think its a rule in the bible that you have to pray a certain way at all time... sometime prayer is totally private and sometimes its healthy to pray in groups as a way of connecting. he thanked me and said he just wondered about that and then walked away.
and i just smiled. God does this to me sometimes, just winks at me- i know what you need, kristin.
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“The humans live in time, but our Enemy (God) destines them to eternity. He therefore, I believe, wants them to attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself and to the point of time which they call the Present. For the present is the point at which time touches eternity. Of the present moment, and of it only, humans have an experience analogous to the experience which our Enemy (God) has of reality as a whole; in it alone freedom and actuality are offered to them. He would therefore have them continually concerned either with eternity (which means being concerned with Him) or with the Present- either meditating on their eternal union with or separation from, Himself, or else obeying the present voice of conscience, bearing the present cross, receiving the present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure.” CS Lewis, "The Screwtape Letters"
“The humans live in time, but our Enemy (God) destines them to eternity. He therefore, I believe, wants them to attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself and to the point of time which they call the Present. For the present is the point at which time touches eternity. Of the present moment, and of it only, humans have an experience analogous to the experience which our Enemy (God) has of reality as a whole; in it alone freedom and actuality are offered to them. He would therefore have them continually concerned either with eternity (which means being concerned with Him) or with the Present- either meditating on their eternal union with or separation from, Himself, or else obeying the present voice of conscience, bearing the present cross, receiving the present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure.” CS Lewis, "The Screwtape Letters"
7 comments:
Hi! I found your blog on the VF website and I have a lot of questions about the emerging church and VF, etc. I live in SC so maybe we can get together some time and talk about faith and stuff (You mentioned you are busy with ministry, so no big deal if you are too bogged down). But let me know if you wanna talk about stuff. :)
hi kristen,
i'll try to make this long story short. i'm leading worship for you guys at vintage this sunday and i've been in contact with josh. he sent me an e-mail last night with all the details and your contact info and in a moment of sheer genius, i deleted it. is there anyway you can e-mail me so i can get you all those songs and anything else you need?
beliefbeyondwords@yahoo.com
408 781-5988 if you need to reach me by phone. hopefully i can get those to you by tomorrow. thanks.
jon
ah..nevermind. i just retrieved the e-mail from my trash. i'll send that e-mail right now. jon
Kristin,
I think you've hit the nail on the head about it being a matter of the heart. The particular problem in Matthew was with disposition, not "public displays of religion". It's funny what parts of the Bible people take to be time-bound and what parts they take to be eternal commandments. Everyone assimilates it slightly different ways.
dude, i love it. little moments like that are so cool.
Hey, I found your blog on the VF website as well. Just wanted to say hello. :)
During my career, I traveled and ate out a lot. I had rule. If someone bowed their head in the eating faclity, I tole the food server to give me their bill and I paid for it. They got a note letting them know why their mail was paid. I only had to pay about 10 times in 30 years.
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