large as this longing

I must take a minute and reflect on what I deem to be blog-worthy news. Yesterday, Brett Favre announced that he would be returning for another year with the Packers. For me, this is great news! I’ve grown up watching him–the good and the bad years. Ending after last years horrible season would have been sad.

Farve has taken a lot of heat from the media for holding out so long on his decision of whether to play or not. I’m thinkin, ‘give the guy a break.’ He is one of the most talented athletes to ever set foot on a football field. He has played with passion on every snap, and his commitment to his teammates and the Packers organization is unquestionable. He has certainly deserved the right to take his time and make a decision. The media, and other money-and-fame driven people simply do not understand that.

So, at kickoff on opening day this fall, Packer fans all over the great state of Wisconsin will be back to their familiar routine once again. Reclining in front of the T.V. with a Miller in hand, and watching number 4 do his thing. I can’t wait!

In today’s edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, there is an article about Rev. Dennis Dease, the President of St. Thomas University here in St. Paul. Recently some faculty at St. Thomas had been upset about the university’s policy of not allowing unmarried faculty who are romantically involved to share a hotel room when on college trips. Dease responded by pointing out that “St. Thomas, as a Catholic institution, could not turn a blind eye to blatant disregard for Catholic principles about sex outside of marriage—at least on school-sponsored trips with students.” Some 130 faculty and staff made known their disagreement with Dease by labeling his position as “discriminatory” and “intolerable.” Dease held his ground and refused to amend the policy.

The columnist of this article states, “These professors claim to act in the name of diversity. In fact, they aim to impose a secular vision that would make the sexual ethic at St. Thomas hard to distinguish from the permissive orthodoxy that reigns supreme on almost all college campuses…We can’t have this broader diversity if we insist that every campus conform to a narrow interpretation of ‘diversity,’ which reflects nothing more than the cultural trends of the day.”

So what do you all think? Is a Christian college who commits to living out its distinctively Christian mission an example of “broader diversity?”

the article: http://www.startribune.com/191/story/388386.html

Its 74 degrees outside right now. (For those of you who aren’t in the midwest, click on the weather link on the right and see for yourself and believe!) Just for kicks, when I got home today I went on weather.com and checked out the current temps on the national map. Minneapolis is warmer than both L.A. and Miami right now! After a winter in Minnesota (and over a foot of snow on the ground just a couple weeks ago) today’s weather is like taking hand cuffs off. Freedom!

I drove home today after being in class for 4 hours this afternoon. It felt kinda weird that all afternoon I was looking forward to my drive home. Traffic was stop and go during the rush hour commute, but today it was lovely. As much as being trapped on the exhaust filled freeway doesn’t compare to–say–the mountains of Colorado, there was no place else I’d rather have been. At the end of my 10 mph journey home–with windows down and music loud–I could honestly say, “I’ve enjoyed this drive.”

Okay, I try to make it a point to avoid long posts. This is largely because I don’t have that kind of time. But also a long post is harder to want to read. Much like the 286 pages my Old Testament prof assigned this week. I see it and I’m immediately disgusted. It’s like, “Why even try?” But this post is lengthy because most of it, as you will realize if you read on, is a quote from David Crowder.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the ‘fear of the Lord’ since my post on Friday (mostly thanks to my good friend Mike who posted comments that demanded further thought on my part…thanks Mike). Since then, I found this quote and would like to share it here. Don’t get me wrong, despite what some may say, I do not hold things that Crowder says to be as authoritative as Scripture…if it is authoritative at all. But it nonetheless presents some good ideas. So, as to not make this post any longer than it already is…the quote:

“God of Wrath

Have you ever walked into a gothic cathedral? I grew up protestant evangelical in east Texas. There weren’t many gothic cathedrals around, though there were pick up trucks. In truth, the first time I stepped foot into one it was 1998 in Paris France and I had no idea what sensory stimulation awaited me. We walked through these huge, ancient, wooden doors that looked older than time and then…

“Oh my.”
“How?”
“Who?”
“I didn’t know this was possible.”
“This is how old?”
“Was the hammer even around at that point?”

Here they built to resize you upon entrance. They forced your gaze upwards. They surrounded you with beauty that astonishes and creates the wonder of the impossible before your eyes. Here I am lost in massive stained glass windows reaching towards heaven and telling stories on their ascent…walls seeming to stretch up away from me arching to meet growing pillars forming a stone canopy far overhead…an amazingly ornate altar, unapproachable except for a few…a pulpit elevated above the congregants, even above the lectern for the reading of scripture to come from on high, from a place above humanity…Candles aglow with prayers rising from dancing flames, as saints and angles frozen in marble flight look on…I have one predominate feeling standing in the middle of this; He is big-I am small.

I think my generation has missed this. I believe we have a great concept of the immanent God…Jesus…Friend…Lover of my soul…My romancer. But this feeling of unattainable transcendence is something new. Back home in America the trend is to build churches to look more like office complexes. Accessible. Very un-intimidating. I don’t know if this is a terrible place to be found but is it the total picture of rescue? We surely are rescued from ourselves, from our sin but are we also not rescued from the justice of this Holy God. God is love, yes, but if he is also unchanging then He is still vengeful and His vengeance for justice must somehow be an extension of that love. I think if we could embrace this greater picture of ‘holiness come near’ Christ’s rescue would be sweeter and our surrender deeper. Grace, even, may become a bit unnerving. That he would rescue us and keep rescuing us demands a fuller response than what I find in myself too often.

I want to build cathedrals. I want to use words and notes rather than stone and mortar. I want to write songs that help us gain perspective and say corporately that this God we pursue and who pursues us is so massive that it sometimes makes our heads swim. We are sometimes uncomfortable approaching and surely are resized in our pursuit to do so.

God of Wrath was written trying to capture a full picture of our God whom we give our hearts and lives to. Do not His wrath and His love come from the same hand? Is He not unchanging? To surrender all we are to all He is; this is the place freedom and life is found. That is where the heart breaks into dancing and our lives beat full of joy. Salvation has truly come. Musically and lyrically trying to marry opposite emotions, with dark ominous verses and then a chorus that lifts into a spreading, embracing response to this fuller picture of who He is, reaching an ultimate confession of whole of life surrender “…blood through my veins is for You” until culminating in this joyous whirling dance caught up in the beauty of this tension. This God, beyond comprehension who holds night and day, earth and sky, death and life, has come down and embraced humanity and the only thing we have to offer is ourselves. And He gladly accepts.

Jeremiah 10:10-11
Psalm 7:11
Nahum 1:2-3
Hosea 11:9-10
Romans 3:5-6
Deuteronomy 3:24
Deuteronomy 32:3
1 Chronicles 29:11
Psalm 145:3
Psalm 150:2
Ezekiel 38:23″

-David Crowder

Your love , O Lord, reaches to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the skies.
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
your justice like the great deep.
O Lord, you preserve both man and beast.
How priceless is your unfailing love!

Psalm 36:5-7