in as much as i just can't believe it's really ice cream!

Sometimes, I get scared.

Most of the time this happens because I'm not trusting in the promises of God. I often buy into the lie that God's best will never look appetizing, but will always take the form of broccoli, lettuce, and root canals; all good things, but nothing fun.

I'm a little intense sometimes. Most people who know me, know this. A side effect is the feeling that in order to live a successful Christian life, I have to do intense things, like go to some tribal island and get killed for the sake of Christ, or sell everything I own and give the money away.

This is sin. Two sins really. The first is the ingrown belief that I have to perform in order to be successful in the Christian life. The other is the belief that God's best for me will always mean a miserable, difficult experience. How prideful.

I repent. Maybe you need too also. Say these words with me, and mean it.

"Soul, sometimes God's best may look like chocolate ice cream in a sprinkled waffle-cone."

insofar as a microwave dinner blesses me

About a week and a half ago, I began thinking. It started when I was standing in the blandly-colored break-room at my workplace, staring at the oh-so-happy-I'm-satisfied-but-could-still-come-back-for-more faces on the back of the Healthy Choice TV dinner I was cooking. The advertisement for some reason seemed to be marketing Healthy Choice dinners in the same way that Fancy Feast might be marketing to cats. That's when it hit me.

The ubiquity of T.V. dinners amuses me.


Have you ever really stopped to think about that fact that whatever you were likely to have had for lunch today, somebody else, in a very similar situation, somewhere across the country, might be having the same thing? Have you ever thought it strange that you pull something out of a little white and orange, or green, or red cardboard box, throw it into a bigger metal box, wait between 2 1/2 and 3 minutes, stir, wait another 1 minute 15 seconds, then eat?

Have you ever once thought about the people that put the food together? Do you know any of them? Would you like to? What do you think you might say?

(Disclaimer: This post in no way indicates that David does not like T.V. dinners, the break room, or boxes, whether they be made of metal or cardboard. Please cut film to vent.)

(Thanks to Scott Christopher (http://justsupposeajuxtapose.blogspot.com/) who so gently reminded me to give him credit for this picture. Thanks for thinking of me and my microwave dinner ramblings before watching 4 episodes of Lost.)

be bothered

Is He bothering you?

Are you letting Him?

acceptions to the rule

So why do I call this page "Acceptions to the Rule"? It's pretty simple, really. I got to thinking the other day, after I offended a friend pretty badly, that I think I generally misunderstand what it means to be saved by the grace of God. How much grace is really a part of our daily experience, and how much of God's grace do we truly miss out on because we think ourselves a little too glorious for our own good. So here's where the idea came up. I think that in the American church, we often begin to think that we need God's grace because of those little exceptions to the rule that we commit called "sin". The idea being, that we're generally pretty good people, and then occasionally we commit sin, and it is precisely these sins that separate of from Christ. The simplistic answer to a child inquiring about Christ is that we need Christ because of the bad things that we have done in our lives. While this is good, I'm not sure that this is precisely true.

You see, the Bible says that we are actually not "good people". This is a hard teaching to accept. Could it be that we're misunderstanding what it means to have grace through Christ, in order to approach the Great I AM, the Creator of the universe, the one true, living, God, who will never change, even in His love for us, even for a moment, from ages past, before we can remember, through all of eternity, in which our souls were created to live in? Could it be that this great thing that we have the humbling privilege of experiencing may not in any way be even remotely our responsibility or of our own doing? Could it be that when we do anything good, no matter how small it is, we're actually creating an exception to the rule?

It may not be our sins that separate us from God. It may be our sin.

And how great is our sin.

And how great is the I AM, our God, who never changes.

Thank God our advocate never advocates for our innocence, for by our innocence, we are guilty. See the scars in his hands, and the wounded head of our Savior.

Salvation. It's who you know.