What Color is God? [Sensates] - Experiencing God on a Whole New Level

Sensates:  Those who experience through the use of their senses. 

What color is God?

Not what race...but rather what color?  If I were to give you one of those big boxes of Crayons what color would you select to describe God?  Would you choose a bright color like a yellow, gold, or white?   Or maybe you would go for a more peaceful color like blue?

That is probably a weird question for most of you, however for the sensate, this question is no problem.  For me, a dominant sensate, I would probably say blue or purple. 

I remember sitting in my entry level psychology class back during my Freshman year at Lubbock Christian University and watching a video a brain anomalies that "messed up" peoples' sensory activities (called "Synesthesia").  There were people who could see sound, smell letters, touch smells (I may have just made that one up), and all sorts of other crazy stuff.  As a musician I always thought that being able to see sound would be super cool.  To watch a symphony as a rainbow of colors poured out from the musicians instruments seemed like a supernatural experience.

 

That's kind of how I imagine worship as a sensate.  In my worship experience, God is splashing me with color, sound, beauty, and wonder and I get to experience it all.

If you grew up like I did, it was actually the removal of the senses that people equated with reverent and true worship.  Our churches were white walled, wood pewed, neutral carpeted centers for worship.  There was no art, no color, no sensory stimulation.

In an effort to keep people focused and attentive churches tried to removed sensory stimulation from worship.  However, that has left many people wilting away in our pews.  In our churches we have artists, musicians, sculptors, designers, and architects who would all gladly use their art to enhance the worship experience because for many of them they experience God through their art.

As I have mentioned before, as a sensate I have recognized that the space I worship in is incredibly important.  I prefer low lit, comfortable, artistic spaces of worship.  Those types of spaces make it easier for me to enter into a worshipful mode, not because of how cool the room looks or feels, but rather because it awakens a part of me that often goes undernourished in terms of worship.

For those of us who are sensates, the use of color can remind us of who God is.  Music and poetry can help us capture theology and doctrine far better than any sermon every would.  Art can help us better imagine the things God is doing in His Church.  Taking communion physically reminds us of Jesus' death and resurrection as the taste of the bread and wine linger on our tongues.

We desire to experience God, not just believe in God.

http://worldufophotosandnews.org

Throughout Scripture we see examples of people experiencing God in sensuous ways.  Ezekiel experienced a show put on by God that would make Journey look like The Wiggles.  There was a spinning wheel, lighting, thunder, and winged creatures.  Moses experienced God through a bush that was on fire, but not burning up.  And John was allowed a backstage look in the Book of Revelation where he experienced the fullness of God's glory filled with vibrant colors, loud and glorious sounds, strange creatures, and brilliant architecture.

These, and many more in the Bible, truly experienced God....and when you have an experience like that how can you not believe? 
 
Dr. Leonard Sweet wrote a book a few years back called The Gospel According to Starbucks relating to the church what we can learn from the Starbucks "experience."  In this work, he speaks about how Starbucks has cashed in on the coffee drinking experience.  It's not just about the coffee for them, but rather its all the things that go along with drinking the coffee:  the atmosphere, the smells, the furniture, the art, the music.

The Gospel According to Starbucks on Amazon.com

Dr. Sweet then goes on to talk about how life in Christ (and worship) should be EPIC, that is experiential, participatory, image-rich, and connective.  Just as St. Arbucks (as Dr. Sweet refers to it) hits all of our senses, so should be our experience of Christ.  However, by anesthetizing our worship it could be said that we are missing out on the deeper experiences of knowing God richly.

I am thankful for movements like the Emergent Church who have reintroduced the protestant world to sensuous worship.  I know not everybody likes candles, or lights, or images on the screen, or low lit rooms, but for many of us those are places where we can feel God working.  It's hard to explain the chills I get when the church sings a certain lyric or harmony in a song.  I can't tell you how many times I have felt the warmth of the Spirit's fire as I have stood with others to take communion.  But I can tell that in all of those experiences there was no doubt in my mind that God was present.   

I am so glad our churches are allowing more and more experiences for our artists, musicians, and designers to participate freely in worship.  They have so much to offer us.  And honestly, we could all benefit from a experiencing God in this way.

So let's stretch out of those comfort zones and start paying attention to those sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and textures in worship.  It could be that God is just waiting for you to experience His presence in a whole new way. 

Resources: 
Emerging Worship - Dan Kimball
The Gospel According to Starbucks - Leonard Sweet
Church Reimagined - Doug Pagitt
The Work of the People - Visual Liturgy
CreationSwap  

"Ain't Nobody Got Time"

knowyourmeme.com

    "There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

    a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
    a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
    a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
    a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
    a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
    a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
    a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace."

 

"What is Time?" | Talk Nerdy to Me (Huffpost Science)

From 2010 to 2012, my day job was working in nursing care in a couple of different roles.  The majority of that time was spent in a dementia and Alzheimer's care center as an recreational activities assistant.  We played Bingo, did crafts, sang songs, gardened, and painted pictures.  It was like summer camp!  However one of the favorite activities of the residents I spent time with was the simple act of going out on our facility's patio and sitting in the specially built swing that would accommodate two people and one wheelchair.  On nice days, we would spend a couple of hours just swinging, sometimes sharing stories (sometimes the same stories, every 10 minutes).  For my residents who participated in this seemingly meaningless activity, it was a cherished time.  Due to the effects of Alzheimer's and dementia, our facility was usually locked, not to imprison our residents, but to protect them from wandering away, an activity which landed many of them to the facility in the first place.  So, the opportunity to go outside and just be was a wonderful experience for many of them.

As a child of the technological age, I was born with "generational A.D.D."  Most of my generation has this terrible disease....it's just that some of us are not diagnosed.  We want to constantly be doing something.  "Doing nothing" is not something we usually do.  We fill the empty spaces in our life with screens and noise.  Some of use have tried to cut back, but we still do it nonetheless.

Those hours out on the swing taught me something about time that I don't think I would have learned otherwise.  I learned that time is precious.  Most of the people I cared for in that facility had numbered days, and they knew it.  Alzheimer's and dementia are respecters of no person.  For most in that facility, just being present in that particular moment was enough, because in reality once that moment passes they may never be able to get it back.  In most cases, present memories were like a lit match, only lasting a few precious seconds.

I have a terrible memory.  It is near impossible for me to recollect memories at will.  I often struggle to recall details of certain aspects of my childhood.  This is probably credit to the massive amount of information my brain is taking in everyday from the TV, to the internet, to sports radio.  One of my favorite music artists, Robbie Seay, in his song "Rise" gave me a lyric that I have hung my heart on for a number of years.

Slow down, be still
Let go, we will
Be here, be now
Slow down, be still
Breathe in, refill
Be here, be now

 Be here. Be now.  

Be present in the moments that are given to you.  That means that my introverted spirit has to swallow its pride every now and again and look people in the eyes.  It means disconnecting and unplugging from the virtual world and giving my full attention to the flesh and blood that is two feet away from me.

In my absolute favorite book on my shelf, The Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, author Adele Calhoun introduced me to a practice called "slowing."  She describes the practice as a way "to overcome inner hurriedness and addiction to busyness. Through slowing, the sacrament of the present moment is tasted to the full." (Calhoun, 78)

The practices she suggests as a part of this discipline are things like driving in the slow lane (both physically and metaphorically), getting rest, looking people in the eyes, sitting longer at the table, and speaking more slowly.

I love her assessment that we are "addicted to busyness."  The truth in that cuts me to the core.

And that principle has changed me. (well...more truthfully "is changing"...God's not finished with me yet) 

"I know you're a busy person...."

"I don't want to interrupt you, because I know your time is valuable...."

As a minister, I hear people tell me that about twice a week.  It breaks my heart to think that people are under the assumption that I am so busy that I can't stop to talk with them for even just a few minutes.  Yes, I have tasks that I need to get done on a weekly basis.  Sometimes I add a ton more things to that list, and yes I have often felt overrun by the things that "I have to do."  But here's the reality....all of those things can wait in order to spend time with people. 

I went to a pastors' conference about a year ago where one of the popular senior pastors in our area gave a talk about time and how to spend it.  I was shocked at some of the practices he was advocating.  This dude was straight up crazy busy...He was multitasking to the max.  He basically spoke of the appearance of staying busy so that his parishioners would see that he is doing the work God called him to do.  He talked about staying up to all hours of the night writing sermons, playing at the park with his kids while thinking of that week's lesson illustrations, and taking a 15 minute power nap everyday in his office so he can maintain this pace.

Now...some of you may could maintain that...there is no way I could.  And I won't.  I refuse.

In their book, The Art of Neighboring, Dave Runyon and Jay Pathak talk about time and the barrier it creates between us and living our lives as good neighbors.  To set up their argument they say "Instead of having more free time, we've added more things into our already crammed lives [...] as a result we live at warp speed.  We've become champion multitaskers [...] It's a dangerous way to live." (44).  In response to this concept, they suggest that to take the Great Commandment ("love God, love others") seriously we are going to have to be inconvenienced from time to time.  And that's ok.  This is easier said than done, I know! But with practice, we can do it. 

This means going across the street to interact with your neighbor who's outside working, even though you were on your way to the store.  Maybe it's stopping the honey-do you were trying to finish up to help a neighbor move a heavy piece of furniture.  One of the hardest tasks they challenge the reader with is to be "interruptible."  By doing so, we are creating space for others in our lives.  And that is exactly what Jesus has called us to do.

Time - Hootie & the Blowfish

(just for fun)

My wife, Sarah, and I have tried to stop responding with the old cliche "We've been so busy." when others ask us how life is going.  Sometimes it's true.  Our weeknights are usually packed with dinner dates and church events, because we tend to do our ministry with others in the evenings.  Despite the lack of calendar space, we have tried to make it a point that the people in our lives are more important than any of the tasks we have to do.  And as a person who is an introvert, that is a hard task for me to do.  However, God is teaching me the importance of relationship.  And with that, he has given me a free lesson on time.  

So here's what I have to do.  It's time to slow down and stop looking like I'm busy.  It's time for me to look people in the eye and let them know that they have my full attention and presence when they speak to me.  It's time for me to make sure those people in my life know they are important and loved deeply by God.

It's going to take some....well.....time.  And it won't happen overnight.

In order to do it, I'm going to have intentionally slow down, breathe in, be here, be now.

Sit on the swing and just be.

Because my time is valuable, and I want to spend it in the best ways by being present in the moments I am given with the people God has gifted me.

Be patient with me...and know...I'm not too busy for you.   

Loving God Out of Doors [Naturalists] - Experience God on a Whole New Level

What is the one place on earth you feel closest to God? 

If you're answer is somewhere outside, there's a pretty good chance you have a naturalist tendency in your spiritual experience.

I should tell you that I scored a "9" (out of 30) under the Naturalist temperament on my Spiritual Temperament Assessment.  So I am by no means and expert.  In fact, I tend to be more like Spongebob Squarepants in his Ode to Life Indoors.   

Despite the Naturalist temperament being my lowest score in my assessment, I have had a number of "naturalist experiences."  I love the mountains.  Unfortunately I don't get the opportunity to go very often, but I have lots of memories there.  In my childhood, we would often take week long trips to camp in the mountains of Colorado.  My wife, Sarah, and I took our honeymoon to the Enchanted Circle of New Mexico visiting the bustling mountain town of Red River.  The next year we visited New Mexico's other ski center, Ruidoso.  There is nothing quite like sitting outside, peering through the tallest pine trees I've ever seen (hey...I'm from West Texas...trees are a special thing....), drinking coffee, wearing your comfiest sweatshirt, and getting invested in a good book.  Not to mention the rain in the mountains is other worldly.  The high elevation makes the thunder seem like you are right there in God's front yard.  It's thin space.  Heaven and Earth are a little closer...literally and figuratively. 

If you are a naturalists, there is probably some physical space you go to in hopes of experiencing God.  Maybe it's taking a walk around your local park.  Perhaps it's a vacation to the coast or the mountains.  Maybe it's having a cup of coffee out on your back porch watching the sun set.  Regardless of where it is, Naturalists have the innate ability to experience God through nature. 

Naturalists experience God in His cathedral of creation (Sacred Pathways, 36).  Naturalists can have a deeper experience of God digging in the garden than any church service could ever provide.  They would rather be out on the lake, taking a hike through the forest, sitting in the deer blind, or swimming in the foamy waters of the ocean.  For them, there is no place closer to God than being out-of-doors.

Naturalists in the Bible
You know the Bible is just chock-full of Naturalist examples.  And honestly, to me that makes a lot of sense.  Don't forget that the Bible was written thousands of years ago in the context of agriculturalist society.  There were no iThings to keep them indoors.  There were no emails to check, social media sites to peruse.  The people of the ancient world were outside...doing stuff.  It makes perfect sense then that God would use His creation to speak to His people.  

The Creation Story is one of the threads that connects the whole of the Bible.  The story of God begins in a garden and when God completes all things it is restored.  As you move through the Bible, God was revealed to Moses through the burning bush, and then later parted the Red Sea, made the nation of Israel wander in the desert, and then gave them a land flowing with "milk and honey."  Joshua would later experience a similar miracle as God would stop the flow of the Jordan River.  A fun task for a Naturalist would be to thumb through the pages of the Old Testament (heck...just go through Genesis) and count the number of times God is revealed in "the wilderness."

I believe that creation is important to God and speaks to His nature in very physical ways.

One of my favorite passages of Scripture comes from the final pages of the Bible in Revelation 21:1 ff.  In this passage is the grand finale of God's good work.  The Revelator says, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away."  In this vision, God has recreated the earth as He initially intended it to be.  And I believe that it will be an earth with all the physical wonders and majesty that it possesses even today, only times 1000000000!  For the Naturalist, I think that is good news. 

Thumb through the Psalms and you'll get a similar experience as the writers point to the wonders of creation as evidence of, and in comparison, to God's work in the world.  A few that come to mind are Psalm 23, 29, 84, and one of may personal favorites 95.

As we have mentioned, Jesus is the ultimate example of all of these temperaments because he was the most holistic person to have ever lived.  We see the naturalist temperament exhibited by Jesus in a number of ways.  Like his ancestors, Jesus lived in a agriculturalist society unhindered by technological distraction.  Jesus, being the ultimate teacher, often used things of the earth to as visual aides to his message such as sheep, seed, birds, and lilies.  He also used a mountain and a plain as his pulpit.

The imagery continues deeper into the New Testament with the use of water in the sacrament of baptism.  I have a number of friends that were baptized in the streams of a flowing river or just off the shore of the Pacific Ocean.  I think there is something incredibly powerful about the act of baptism being performed out in "the wild."

Dangers of the Naturalist Temperament
In our class time, we took note of a few of the potential pitfalls of the Naturalist temperament listed by Gary Thomas in his book Sacred Pathways.  One danger is individualism.  The Naturalist must always remember that Moses came back down the mountain!  Jesus spent time away in order to recharge for ministry among the people.  The danger for the Naturalist is that they disappear into nature and become a woodland hermit named "Plays with Squirrels" (a Boy Meets World reference for all my readers who were children of the 90's).  

 

[You're welcome, 90's child.]

The second potential pitfall we noted from Thomas' list was spiritual delusion.  Like a number of the more "mystical temperaments" there is an opportunity for the Deceiver to turn our experience away from God and make it something it's not.  Thomas suggests that every spiritual experience received in nature be tested by the truth of God.  Discernment provided by the Holy Spirit is our only true guide. 

Lastly, naturalists must protect themselves from the heresy of Pantheism.  Pantheism skews our view of God by saying that "The earth is God."  A contemporary example would be the James Cameron film Avatar.  With a discerning spirit, the Christian Naturalist can pull from a number of things in this movie like conservation and care of the earth that can deepen our understanding of God.  However, a diluted view might lead us to believe that earth, itself, is a god and we end up worshiping "Mother Nature" rather than "Father God."  The Bible tells us the "earth is the Lord's and all it contains." [Psalm 24:1]  Naturalists should always understand that creation is a vehicle by which we can experience God, it is not God in itself. 

Practices

While we will be looking at spiritual discipline in the second half of this class, I want to be able to give a few practices to you that might be helpful in your daily interactions with God as we move through each temperament.  So whether you're a dominant Naturalist, or one who desires to be more in tune with God through the work of creation, here are some suggestions:

1) Take your Bible outside and read it!  

2) Schedule daily/weekly walks or hikes.  Take the opportunity to pray (with your eyes open) and ask that God allow you to be more aware of His work through creation. 

3) Make time in your week to do things outside such as gardening, hiking, camping, or going to the park.  

4) Plan a vacation to a geographical region different than the one you live in.  Go visit the Grand Canyon, the ocean, or stand at the foot (or the summit) of a mountain and think about how majestic and wonderful God is. 

5) Visit your local zoo or aquarium and think about the intricacies of creation as you experience the animals God created.     

Sacred Pathways - Gary Thomas (A very brief review)

The main book that I will be citing in the study of "Experiencing God on a Whole New Level" is a wonderful work called Sacred Pathways by author Gary Thomas.  Some of you are probably familiar with his other books focusing on marriage and parenting.  I was lucky enough to pick Pathways up off the Mardel discount rack for under $5.  In this work, Thomas explores nine different spiritual temperaments which  "describe the way we relate to God, [and] how we draw near to Him." (Sacred Pathways, 21).

Photo Credit: www.garythomas.com

As I mentioned in my introductory post, this is going to be the focus and the scope of our Sunday morning discussions.  I highly value this work as a resource in this study because it has provided me with a discussion structure that I couldn't have designed otherwise.  I am deeply indebted to Thomas' work in this book for that reason.

Gary Thomas, above all, is a focused on spiritual formation.  Throughout this work, his desire is that individuals will find their niche in their experiences and interactions with God.  Through his research, Thomas outlines the nine different temperaments offering in depth overviews, Biblical examples, warnings and temptations, and solid examples of tested practice within each temperament.  Thomas describes the temperaments as follows:

Naturalist: Naturalists Draw near to God through nature.

Sensate: Sensates draw near to God through the senses.

Traditionalist: Traditionalists draw near to God through ritual and symbol.

Ascetics: Ascetics draw near to God through solitude and simplicity.

Activists: Activists draw near to God through bringing about social change.

 

Caregiver: Caregivers draw near to God through caring for and serving others.
 
Enthusiast: Enthusiasts draw near to God through celebration and mystery.
 
Contemplative: Contemplatives draw near to God through personal adoration and heartfelt devotion.
 
Intellectual: Intellectuals draw near to God through their minds.

In the following weeks we will be using Sacred Pathways as a guide for our discussions as we explore each temperament individually.  In case you missed it in the previous post, there is a great online assessment from this book where you can find our your dominant spiritual path.  

Be sure to check out Sacred Pathways at your local bookstore or your favorite online store.   Also you can find a number of great resources at Gary Thomas' website.

Experiencing God on a Whole New Level

At the first of the year I began teaching a Sunday morning Bible class I am calling "Experiencing God on a Whole New Level."  This class stemmed from a study of spiritual formation I did in college and desire to cultivate more intimate and meaningful connections with God.  I was first introduced to the idea of spiritual temperaments/modes by one of my professors and that study forever changed the way I view formation and worship (in fact I ended up taking the class twice because I was so drawn to the material being presented).  The idea behind spiritual modes is that we are all uniquely created, and just as we all have different "love languages" or "learning styles" we all have different spiritual temperaments, or ways that we interact and experience God.

How about a quote from a book I've never read...

"Every human being has a temperament, which means that certain practices will come more naturally for you than others." - John Ortberg The Me I Want to Be

This gist of this statement is that people, because we are uniquely created, will interact and experience God differently.  For instance, while incorporating times of prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours prayer book might nourish me spiritually, you may receive the most nourishment from serving sandwiches to those who live on the streets.  Now the reality is, that no matter our dominant spiritual temperament, the goal should be to live holistically.  To echo the words of Scripture we should love God with "ALL of our heart, ALL of our soul, ALL of our strength, and ALL of our mind."  However, for the most part, we in church leadership have not given you the proper tools to mine the depths of those holistic experiences and interactions.  For instance, as a worship leader, I often hear things like "I just didn't get that much out of worship today..." or maybe "I just feel dry and burned out spiritually..."

I came to a couple of conclusions once I dove head-first into this study.  First of all, as spiritual directors and ministers, we have done a poor job of tooling believers to connect with God on various levels that God has created within us.  When we hear statements like the ones listed above.  We tell you "Go to church...read your Bible...go to small group..." which are all incredibly important practices, but are by no means the comprehensive list of spiritual practices.  In doing so, it's like we are giving you a hammer, and only a hammer, and tell you to build a house.  Well, we all know that building a house with only a hammer is going to be really hard to do.  So I think there is a need for us, as ministers, to share new (and really old) and vibrant ways to experience God.

Secondly, I realized that, as a worship leader, my job should focus more on helping people connect and interact to God on a personal level.  In doing so, I firmly believe that our collective worship experiences will be more fulfilling and meaningful.  That is to say, before expecting "Joe" to get a lot of a contemplative reading of Scripture in our collective worship hour, I need to provide him the tools and experience of how to do so during his personal worship.

Third, I came to the conclusion that many of us are unaware of our dominant spiritual path and are being left "dry and empty" because we only assume there are a specific number of ways to interact with God.

So over the course of the next several weeks, I am going to try my best to put some of my thoughts here as a supplement to the things I am researching and discussing in our Sunday morning class.

You should know I have two goals for the class:

1) To be able to assess and affirm your spiritual language, dominances and weaknesses. 

2) To be able to gain valuable knowledge about your spiritual language/temperaments and to give you the proper tools that will help you grow closer to God on a spiritual level. 

3) To better understand how and why we do certain things in our collective worship services on Sundays.  

So just as we all have different learning styles and love languages, let's explore together what it means to have different spiritual temperaments and how we can use them to experience and interact with God on a whole new level.  Over the next several weeks I will be using Sacred Pathways by Gary Thomas as my guide in this class.  We will look at the nine temperaments he lays out in that book and assess how each reveals to us a deeper experience with God.  If you would like to join us in finding your personal spiritual path, you can take the online assessment here.  

Hope you'll join us in this journey! 

Resources for spiritual formation: 

Sacred Pathways - Gary Thomas

Rennovation of the Heart - Dallas Willard

Invitation to a Journey:  A Road Map for Spiritual Formation - Robert Mulholland

Preston's Top 10 Eclectic Christmas Music Rundown List

I know you were thinking "If Preston would just post a list of his top 10 favorite Christmas albums...especially the folky, hipster-y ones....I would just be complete." Wait no longer!

10.  Josh Wilson - Noel

Josh Wilson has more talent in his pinky toe than I do in my entire body, for a 1000 lifetimes.  Dude is a music machine....

9.  Phil Wickham - Songs for Christmas

Great musician, great instrumentalist with a voice like butter.  And we all know how good butter is.

8.  Sleeping at Last - Christmas Collection

Some great music from both the religious and secular genres of Christmas music.  Have a nice traditional feel with a great contemporary slant.  

7.  Folk Angel - Glad Tidings & Christmas Songs

Their name is "Folk Angel."  That's all it took to get my attention.  

6.  Hillsong - We Have a Savior & Born is the King

Great folk takes on some of our favorite Christmas Hymns with your typical Hillsong sound embedded.  

5.  The ZOE Group - Here With Us 

A cappella worship for Advent and Christmas.  Covers some of my favorite contemporary seasonal music.  Plus these are just good people and you should support them!  

4.  Chris Tomlin (& Friends) - Glory in the Highest

Easily the best song on this record is the a cappella rendition of "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus" led by Christy Nockels...wow. 

3.  Robbie Seay - December Vol. 2

An awesome little EP from the RSB.  Robbie Seay has such a cool voice and I love the folk rock feel of these songs.  Especially on Come O Come Emmauel where they just blast the banjo in the background.  

2.  Ordinary Time - In the Town of David

If you have never heard of Ordinary Time, then you have wasted your time on the internet!  This folk trio puts together liturgical bluegrass music that will transport you to another place and time.  It has everything you would want from a folk music album.  

1.  Bebo Norman - Christmas From the Realms of Glory

This album has been out for several years and is one of those that I listen to year round.  Bebo just finished up his final tour forever, so he gets extra points which vaulted him to this number 1 spot.  The first time I heard "Come and Worship" the hair on my neck stood straight up.  This is a great album all the way around.  Another great song on the album is "The Rebel Jesus," Norman's take on a classic by Jackson Brown. 

Well there you go.  If you are a Spotify user you can look me up and listen to these albums and many more on my Christmas Playlist, or you can just use the player below.

Exploring Deeper - Does Life Have Purpose?

The past several weeks my church as well as 370+ other churches in Greater Austin have been tackling some of most ask questions by those who are spiritually curious.  The movement, called "Explore God," is a spiritual-awareness campaign with the goal of getting people to have conversations about God naturally and frequently.  The campaign is anchored by an extremely well done website and a citywide marketing campaign.  In early September we began this discussion of the "7 Big Questions" and in an effort to write a bit more on the blog I thought I would back track and discuss each of these topics.  Hopefully I will catch up, but if I don't I think it's still good conversation.  

Usually when someone is asked "Tell me a little bit about yourself" our usual answer is what we do for a living.  We have defined ourselves by our work, I think, because our work is important to us.  Folks in my generation often hop from job to job looking for "meaningful work."

Or possibly we are hoping to one day find purpose.

Maybe in the pursuit of meaningful work we are looking for a deeper purpose in our own lives....How existential of us!!

All kidding aside, have you ever thought of your purpose in life?  When we were discussing this topic in preparation for our worship service that kicked off Explore God with this question we quickly realized that this is not a question often asked out loud in our churches.

We had some really interesting conversations at our discussion group.  One of the things that resonated with us was a statement in the video that serves as a conversation starter in our groups.  One of the commentators said something to the effect of "I think that purpose is often something we find out at the end of a journey and not at the beginning."

I think in many aspects that statement is true.  To be cliche, hindsight is always 20/20.  So maybe if we are frantically looking for purpose we should take a step back and take some time to reflect on if our purpose is already being fulfilled.

There was another in the video who was a professional artist who explained how he rarely goes to a canvas with a predetermined purpose for the piece.  Instead he let's the piece define itself as he works through it.  This resonated with me as a person who has considered himself a work in process in many respects.  There was a season of my life that I went through where I had no idea where I belonged or what my purpose in life was.  I had all but given up on the idea of one day being in professional ministry.  I was constantly looking potential career paths that would satisfy my longing for purpose.  However, it was only when I stepped back and accepted my role that I was in that God began to reveal to me a greater sense of belonging and purpose.  During that time, I was able to serve in a ministerial capacity I would have never thought I would be pursuing.  It's obvious now that in that time God was grooming me for the role in which I am no serving.

Sorry if you came here for answers....I'm not sure I have them...

But how about some questions to consider as we close out:

What do you think your purpose in life is?

Have you ever been in a season of life where you were able look back and see how God was using you in that time?  

What do you think gives us purpose in life?