Three Carrots on a Brick Wall

Beware Bible Worship!

noreply@blogger.com (Three Carrots) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 02:26:00 +0000

I'll sing with the Sunday School kids, "I stand alone on the Word of God" but I cannot honestly join in the first line of that ditty: "The B-I-B-L-E, yes, that's the book for me." Just say NO to Bible idolatry!

Yes, I have learned about God in part through the testimony of ancient writers in the books of the Bible. But I am not in any way able to adopt the currently popular label Bible-believing Christian. To be honest, I don't even know what that's supposed to mean. It smacks of a need to stand in contrast to some imagined low class group of Bible not-believing Christians. All I know is at that I am a Christ-believing Christian. I am a Christ-worshipping Christian.

I stand alone on Jesus, the Word of God! "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."

I stand on the rock of Jesus Christ, the One who shows me the face of God!! The Bible, as inspired parts of it are, is NOT the Lord of Life. The Bible, as faithful a witness as it usually is, is NOT my Savior. The Bible, as faith-building as it is, is quite simply NOT GOD. Therefore it is not permitted my worship and praise.

When we remove the Bible from our worship we are able to more perfectly focus our hearts and minds on Christ the King. When we do not need the Bible to be God for us, we are able to forgive it is cultural limitations of ancient time and place. The Bible is not our Creator and therefore we do not have to turn back flips to rationalize the parts of it that are clearly beside the point (OT laws, Paul's demand that women cover their heads, and LOTS more).

Does this make a Christian reader nervous? It shouldn't. You should feel more nervous about the fact that by holding your current Bible idolatry mindset you are trying to LIMIT the boundless God of the Universe! You are trying to "Bible study" yourself into mastery of that which is eternally greater than you . Stop trying to find God's edges! Admit your powerlessness and just follow Christ!

Heavenly Creator God: Thank you for the great gift of Christ Jesus. I am thankful for the witness of Biblical writers who have left a record of godly wisdom and testimony. Help me to stay focused on You and Your kingdom rather than on the works of human beings. Bend my will daily to more and more refect your holy Goodness. Amen.

Love

noreply@blogger.com (Three Carrots) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:44:00 +0000

I was sitting in church holding my three week old child, starring into that tiny sweet face and feeling absolutely dotty and smitten. Here was this creature I simply ADORED in ways that I didn't know you could love. A being I had fallen madly in love with simply for her virtue of existing. And then holy lightening struck my mind with a dizzying flash. This is how God sees me. The realization devastated me. I started to cry, flooded with feelings of thanksgiving, awe, and humility. I have never recovered from that moment.

It took me a little more spiritual maturity to realize that this is also how God sees everyone else--including people I don't know, people I don' t like, and people who I don't understand.

Holy God of Love: I praise your limitless and eternal compassion. Thank you for the love that pours from you to give movement to the smallest atoms and the biggest stars. Thank you for patiently teaching me more and more about divine love. Please grow my heart into better and better alignment with yours. Please bust the edges of my tiny compassion. Mold me into a vehicle for your will in the world. Amen.

Divine Pardoxes

noreply@blogger.com (Three Carrots) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:19:00 +0000

"Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30)

What an invitation! This is the voice of the God of Incarnation. Jesus the Christ who knows first hand about human weariness and burden. His offer is rest. Ah! This is a practical Lord! But the offer is also for a relationship--to become a student, to become a worker in God's fields. The promise of this invitation is a paradox. That by taking up the role of servant to Jesus we will be given rest. That shouldn't work at all! It's absurd. But paradox and absurdity is the territory of the inconceivable God of the Universe.

When spirituality is too logical, it bears the imprint of humanity not divinity!

About the Three Carrots

noreply@blogger.com (Three Carrots) — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 22:01:00 +0000

I have been marveling at the three carrots on a brick wall for, saints preserve me, twenty years.

It was Spring and I was walking through the old neighborhoods that surrounded my undergraduate school, weaving aimlessly around quiet streets and thinking my young person's thoughts. I was very good at this. I worried and sighed. I felt in a hurry to know things and to experience life and to grow wise.

As I walked, my hand traced a thick brick wall that lined one yard. The bricks were old and worn, but sturdy. As I turned the corner, my fingers still on the bricks, an unexpected sight met me. There on the wall, a few feet ahead of me, sat three fat carrots. They looked home grown and freshly picked, the greens still attached and only a little wilted.

There was no sign of their purpose on that wall. No one was nearby working. There was no note to explain their placement ("Marge: here are those carrots I was telling you about.") They were too big to be left out for the squirrels, and too high up to be food for the rabbits. The carrots seemed pointless, and yet there were so deliberately placed.

For a reason I still can't explain, the sight of these three carrots sent my mind reeling. Why are they there? What is their puprose? Who has placed these carrots? I wanted to know all the answers immediately. I felt anxious--even panicky--about the my inability to make sense of the sight. My intellectual powerlessness frightened me.

And then a calmness floated in through the transom of my mind. It was the still small voice of perspective that I suddenly heard in my heart, and it told me to be still. I heard myself saying, "Someone knows why there are three carrots on a brick wall, but it is not me."

In a rush, I realized that three carrots on a brick wall were not my business to solve. I could see them, acknowledge my lack of knowledge, and keep walking. The carrots did not need my understanding to exist.

My little experiences do not give meaning to the world.

The peace I had at the moment of realization, when I finally understood my point of view in the big universe, was profound. So profound that I continue to mark it as the end of my child mind and the start of my wisdom...such as it is.

That is when I learned to allow things to be unclear to me without anxiety and without dispair. This is helpful in human interactions, relationships, but most especially in subjects of Faith.

Like the three carrots on a brick wall, there are thousands of things that I currently do not understand about how human's practice religion, about the meaning of our lives, about what happens when we die. But I do not despair at my lack of understanding. And I do not mark these points of confusion as shortcomings of the Creator.

Gracious God: I seek holy perspective on the world. Be near me when I become anxious about the limits of my knowledge. Give me Your patience and peace. Nourish my abilty to trust in You and not myself. Amen.