Shmlog

I know this is not much of a blog anymore. I hope to return some day. As for now, you have access to old posts and pictures and hopefully I will be posting again shortly. Enjoy!

Where Else Shall We Go?

I've been thinking a lot lately about how the church is, well, messed up. We love Christ, we desire to grow in holiness, we seek to serve those who are far from the Father, we long for the Kingdom on Earth, yet we still hurt each other. We still say damaging words. We still do selfish things. We still have hearts in need of renewal. And that can make for a strange community.

This past semester a professor quoted "The church is a whore and she is my mother". It's attributed to Augustine, probably coming from one of his sermons (Possibly Sermon 213 from my brief research) in which he wrote, "Let us honor her, because she is the bride of so great a Lord. And what am I to say? Great and unheard of is the bridegroom's gracious generosity; he found her a whore, he made her a virgin. She mustn't deny that she was once a whore, or she may forget the kindness and mercy of her liberator."

A similar quote I discovered is from Dorothy Day when she was writing about the Vietnam war. She wrote, "As to the Church, where else shall we go, except to the Bride of Christ, one flesh with Christ? Though she is a harlot at times, she is our Mother. We should read the book of Hosea, which is a picture of God's steadfast love not only for the Jews, His chosen people, but for His Church, of which we are every one of us members or potential members. Since there is no time with God, we are all one, all one body, Chinese, Russians, Vietnamese, and He has commanded us to love another."

In times when I see the church as a whore, as a harlot, I also see my whorish ways. I see how I have been unfaithful to the Lord, how I have abandoned my brothers and sisters, how I have thought and said hurtful words. Then I repent and ask for a renewed heart, and the Lord is faithful in providing me with fresh eyes and a sincere heart. He never walks away from me and he never refuses to give me grace. There is a blessing in being able to stand with your family and to give them grace and to help bring them back to the Lord, that all may be transformed closer to Christ. It's quite beautiful.

But the beauty doesn't come easily. When we see the church as a whore, it's easy to walk away and no longer participate. In order to experience the beauty of giving grace to fellow sinners and receiving forgiveness for our own transgressions in the context of the body, we must wade through the difficult and dirty moments. We must be faithful to the unfaithful. And to be quite honest, a lot of us aren't making it. We're either dipping around those nasty moments or we're dipping out of the body completely. I no longer want to dip out at all. Where else shall I go? I want to experience the beauty of the bride of Christ, no matter how difficult and dirty it may get. And at the end of all of the conflict, I think God's glory is revealed much more and his power of transformation is seen so clearly that he receives even more praise and even more of our hearts than before.

Where else shall we go? Though our hearts are still wicked, we find redemption in the bride of Christ. Though our words can still damage others, we find forgiveness and grace in the bride of Christ. Though our selfish ambition can seep through to our actions, we find love and transforming power in the bride of Christ. And there's nowhere else I'd rather be.

Trendy Tune // Sinking Deep

I've been playing this song on repeat lately. Mainly because it's so good and also because I'm trying to learn the piano part! It's amazing to see how well my ear has developed, but it's difficult figuring these parts out. Anyway, enjoy this song. Hope it speaks to you in a fresh way.

Making a Joyful Noise

Benjamin and I have been playing a lot of music and serving on our worship team frequently. Our family got together and gave me this Novation MiniNova for my birthday, too. I've been having so much fun playing with the patches, settings, modulation, everything! Such a wonderful blessing!

Dachshund Delight

Jack the Dachshund has been busy napping, eating, sunbathing, 

and looking dapper with his new bow tie.